Chapter Text
Steven was glad he was able to get Lapis to stay, but he still didn't know what was going on. The giant hand still loomed over the beach, the eerie silence filling the night. Before he could turn to Lapis to ask what happened, he glanced down at the gems he was cradling in his arms. A sharp glint in the corner of his eye froze him in place as he stared at the gems. They were broken. Steven's breathing started to speed up, his heartbeat drumming loudly in his ears.
"Steven, what's going on?" As quickly as he had frozen, he jolted upright, almost forgetting Lapis hadn't left this time. Her face was rippling with concern and worry, and she asked again, softer, "Why are you crying?" Steven blinked, realizing that tears were trickling down his face, hot as they rolled down his face in the cool night air. He looked down at the gems again, hoping that his tears would be able to heal them, even if he knew they wouldn't.
"The g-gems... they-" Steven gasped, the trickle of tears starting to pour as he spoke. "They're cracked." Lapis raised an eyebrow at his statement. Puzzled, he frowns at Lapis' lack of empathy for them. Even though he knew she had some distaste for them, they were still his family.
Before he could doubt Lapis for long, she voiced her own confusion, "Can't you heal them? You were able to do that for me when I was cracked." Steven eyes shot open at her remark, forgetting his own power. But as quickly as hope had shot across his face, guilt and grief gripped his stomach. He couldn't heal anymore, not after his dad...
Steven shook his head. He should be able to heal, it was just a fluke. "I can try," Steven finally stated. "There was an, uh, accident, and I wasn't able to heal anything. But I think I can do it." Steven sniffled, trying to stop his tears as he licked the palm of his hand. His hand fluttered just above Amethyst's gem, wondering if it would even work. He pushed the fluttering butterflies away as he gently placed his hand upon Amethyst. Lapis let out the breath she was holding as she watched the gem glow and repair the small cracks, though she would never admit that she didn't believe in Steven.
"See, I knew you could do it!" Lapis smiled at Steven, the small praise nestling within Steven as he smiled through tear-stained cheeks. He quickly got to work, gently placing his hand on Pearl, then Garnet's two gems. A thought passed by his head, wondering why Garnet was the only one with two gems, but it was quickly squashed down when he realized he had failed them. Guilt seeped back into him as he stared at the glittering gems. If he was just a few minutes earlier, would this have happened? He never should have listened to them, he should have stayed, he didn't want to be the only Crystal Gem left-
Lapis gently tapped his shoulder, trying to get him out of his own head. "Hey, uh, you know what we should do?" Lapis asked. She didn't really know what to do, but she didn't like seeing Steven so... sad. When she had hung out with him in the mirror, she had only seen him smile the whole day, his laugh infectious as she giggled even within her prison. She felt so guilty to be the one to cause him to stop smiling when she ran away from him and the Crystal Gems, and then taking his ocean and forcing him to fight her. Lapis didn't want Steven to feel sad anymore, especially since at this point, they couldn't do anything more for the gems. She had no idea what the blast had done to them and she didn't really want to figure out. Lapis looked to find Steven looking up at her with big eyes. She had to had to find something for them to do and fast if she truly wanted to get Steven out of his funk.
As she glanced around, she found herself staring at the giant ship. She had almost forgotten about its looming presence, the slight glow of the unfamiliar gem tech spreading across the beach. She looked back at Steven, smiling as she pointed at the hand ship, "We got to get this ship out of here for one. Got any plans for that?" She watched Steven as his mind was finally off of the gems within his arms, his eyes squinting at the ship as he pondered what to do next. When he had left the other townsfolk behind, it was with the promise that there would be now other gem threats. While the attacking gems themselves were bubbled away, (there could be more, he has to ask Lapis later), he was pretty sure the townsfolk would not believe him if he told them the ship was totally fine and would not hurt them. Steven had never realized it before, but gem stuff was terrifying and scary, and he didn't want the people to worry even more.
Steven slowly nodded his head, finally speaking up. "We definitely have to move it. Yeah, we can move it away from Beach City!" He grinned, looking at Lapis before he hesitated again. "There aren't any other gems on the ship, right?" he questioned, his feet fidgeting with the sand as he glanced at the moving particles shuffling away from his feet.
Lapis shook her head, humming a bit as she responded. "No, it was only the other two gems with me. The um, really tall gem was able to shoot them with her bow before they poofed." Steven furrowed his brow as he tried to think about who Lapis was talking about.
But no one had a bow, except- "Wait, you saw Opal?!" Steven exclaimed. Lapis watched him bounce, the small clinking of the gems sounding as he looked at her with stars in his eyes. She stifled a giggle at his reaction, glad that he was feeling better.
"Yeah!" she exclaimed back. "They were super tall, and has really good aim. I was expecting her to hit me with how big her arrows were, but she was able to get them to fly right past me." Although she may not have liked the Crystal Gems much, she appreciated how much attention to detail they had, and had not tried to harm her even though she thought they would have due to their last meeting. Perhaps Steven had talked to them about her? She wasn't sure, but Lapis was very glad that Steven hadn't come back to the scene with the beach littered with gems, including hers.
Steven drank in all the information about Opal, so excited that they had fused again. He wondered why they hadn't formed Alexandrite, as Steven knew that the large fusion was super powerful. But he remembered Garnet had future vision, so she probably saw something he hadn't. Suddenly, he spoke his thoughts aloud, "Uh, how are we going to move the ship?" He stared at the giant ship, knowing that he did not know how to drive the vehicles on Earth, let alone a gem ship. "Do you know how to drive it?" Steven asked, hoping that Lapis would know.
"Oh absolutely not," Lapis snorted. "I never went on ships before, as I could just fly everywhere." She pulled out her water wings to prove her point. "It's super fast just to fly, so I never needed to learn to pilot anything but myself." She was always proud of her wings, never needing anything but her gem to get places unlike the other gems. But now, she wished she knew a little bit about Homeworld's ships, even the old ones. Although she was outdated and did not understand anything about the new Homeworld, having background knowledge on piloting would have given her something to try instead of being just as helpless as Steven in this department.
Steven nodded, smiling at her wings that he remembered healing. He looked back at the ship, trying to figure out what the could do. They stood together in silence, watching the waves hit the sides of the ship as time continued to pass. The surface was smooth in comparison to the grainy beach, out of place and alien as it hovered menacingly. But the Earth continued to move on, the waves crashing against it despite the strange nature of the ship. As Steven watched the water trickle out of the giant palm back into the ocean, his eyes snapped open.
"LAPIS!" he yelled. Lapis flinched at Steven's exclamation after such a long silence.
"Steven, you don't need to yell, I'm right here," she groaned, but a small smile tugged at her lips as she saw Steven's excitement.
He pointed at the ship and the crashing waves, almost dropping the gems with his sudden actions. He quickly snatched the gems before they fell, cradling them once again in his arms. He frowned slightly, saying, "I really need something better to hold them..." Steven shook his head to clear his thoughts, a grin back on his face. "Lapis! You can use your cool water powers to move the ship!"
To say Lapis was a bit surprised was an understatement. That would definitely work, and she didn't need any piloting experience for it. She felt a grin spread across her face, looking down at Steven. "Well, what are we waiting for? Let's go bust this thing into next week!"
Steven laughed at her statement, but tugged at her dress before she could fly to the top of the ship. "Wait wait wait! We should just move it, not explode it!" he said, his words stumbling over his giggles.
"Aw, are you sure? I thought it would be fun," Lapis teased. She knew mischief was a great way to cheer Steven up, and she would love to tear apart the ship that had trapped her again and hurt Steven's friends.
"Well," Steven started, his arms trying to cross over each other while holding the gems (and failing). "What if we need it?" he questioned with a smirk.
"... alright," Lapis sighed dramatically, putting on a fake pout. "I can definitely move it, but it won't be as interesting."
Although she got a few more giggles out of Steven, Lapis watched as he looked back down at the gems. Steven felt guilt gripping his sides again, feeling bad for laughing when they weren't able to be here. "Hey Lapis," Steven said softly. "Is it ok if I grab something really quick in my house?" Lapis knew she wouldn't be able to stop him, so she just gave him a small nod and watch him scuttle over to his house, almost tripping with how fast he tried to climb up the sandy hill. Although there was not a lot of destruction, the crater left by the hand ship's blast remained, scorching the sand around it black, with even some shards of glass formed from the impact. The house Steven was running towards was also not in the best shape, with some of the stairs missing and the shingles from the roof missing.
Thankfully, it seemed that most of the destruction was on the outside, and when Steven entered his room, he found it to be mostly intact. A lot of stuff had fallen from the selves, but it was nothing that he couldn't clean up himself. He set the gems down on the couch as he began his search, rummaging through his closet for anything to hold the gems in. Sadly, the only think he was able to find was the picnic basket he and Connie had used last time they were on the hill. He picked up the basket, placing a small cloth in it before scooping up the gems in the basket. Temporarily satisfied with his set up, he lifted the basket and went back outside again.
What he did not expect to see was Lapis leaning against his porch banister, her eyes trained on the hand ship. As she heard him open the door, she smiled at him, immediately looking down to see him carrying the basket. Lapis looked at him quizzically. "What is that?"
"Oh! It's a picnic basket," Steven explained. "Usually, you put food and snacks in it, so it's easier to move it around, but..." he trailed off, deciding to just open it to prove his point. The four gems laid upon the blanket Steven had placed, the cloth wrapping around them slightly to keep them safe. "I just, didn't want to leave them behind, you know?" Steven rubbed his arm as he spoke, his eyes staring at the ground. "I don't want them to wake up alone."
Lapis just nodded, knowing that she had greatly appreciated it when Steven was there when she had reformed. She also didn't doubt that he wanted to see exactly when they would reform. She had hoped he would leave them behind at the house, but he seemed obsessed with keeping them under his watch. Lapis hoped that he didn't feel as if he was responsible for their forced reformation. "Is it ok if I fly us over to the ship?" she asked, wanting to make sure he was all ready before they left.
"Yeah, that'll be great! Is flying cool? Wait, I'm going to flying anyways, I can just find out myself-" Steven spewed out the words that they started to become jumbled. Lapis chuckled, scoping the small boy up in her arms as she pulled out her wings. In the corner of her eye, she found Steven's eyes sparkling.
She shot a quick grin at him. She gave him a quick warning, "Hold on!" She launched them in the air, flapping her wings as they flew over to the ship. Steven's laugh ruffled through the wind, pulling out a few giddy giggles from Lapis. She hovered over the ship, not really wanting to land on the unnatural surface. "I'm going to fly over ship as we move it, ok?" With a quick nod of approval from Steven, she worked on holding Steven with one arm (which didn't work as well as she had hoped), using the other to control the restless waves. As the water was coaxed out of its regular tide, the ship was pushed further away from the shore, tugging it away from the city and flying further into the ocean, looking for a place to hide away a giant, green alien ship.