Chapter Text
Everyone had been on edge since the incident with Lars, and rightly so. However, instead of quivering in corners and jumping at shadows, the humans (and Steven) did what they always did - they picked up the pieces and made sure they were better prepared next time, although they all hoped there wouldn’t be a next time.
The presence of LiOn had become indispensable to their preparations, and they all took turns training and testing the full range of its functions. Being able to get somewhere faster than the speed of light without having to dig up and jury rig a massive starship would definitely come in handy.
It was Steven’s turn to train LiOn. He’d been spending most of his day at his mom’s place, but grew bored of sorting junk in the scrapyard. With the parents’ permission, he took LiOn out for a spin. At first, he commanded it to take him to various locations in Facet 9, jumping from block to block, and then from one end of the district to the other.
It was a lot of fun, but it didn’t feel quite right. He wasn’t having that much fun lately without Peridot around. It’d been a long while since he’d seen her in person since the Lars incident, and he was beginning to wonder if she’d ever stop by again.
“Oh, LiOn, what am I going to do?” He lamented, falling to lean onto the mechanical creature’s back.
Then, he had an idea.
“Thats it!” he proclaimed, punching a fist into his other hand, “if Peridot can’t come to me, I’ll go to her! ”
He climbed onto the beast's back, thrust a pointed finger forth, then ordered, “LiOn, take me to Facet 2!”
By the time he could begin to wonder if LiOn even knew where Facet 2 was, they’d already arrived at what he assumed must have been their destination. The huge signpost reading ‘Facet 2’ flanked by two glimmering Yellow Diamond symbols might have given it away.
“Woah!” Steven craned his neck around, trying to take in the massive and bustling city surrounding them. The streets were pristine, and for every well-kept, fancy looking building there was an ornate statue or wall carving to go with it. Countless green and yellow gems, all emblazoned with their diamond’s insignia rushed around going about their business, and their chatter filled the air, along with the sounds of a work site nearby.
“Oh man…” He muttered, realising that he’d greatly underestimated how big this place was.
Facet 2 was, as far as he could tell, a very large District, and Peridot was very small. Finding her wasn't going to be easy. Especially as it dawned on him that he didn’t know exactly where in Facet 2 she lived.
He looked around for her, and he found many Peridots, most of whom were of high conformity to type: tall, graceful, chattering amongst themselves in their melodic voices as they gestured about and adjusted the structure of a Wailing Tower with their metallokinesis.
Among them were several Peridots who were a lot shorter and thinner than they ought to be, and he glanced around at them, to see if one of them could be his Peridot, though he quickly found there was not a forehead gem placement in sight.
Steven found it odd to see so many gems of the same type who came out with the same defects, especially in a Yellow District. From what he knew of this sort of thing, it might have been a Kindergartening error, meaning there was a good chance this was the batch his Peridot came from, so he might be able to ask one of them where she was.
That said, it was a little rude to assume that all Peridots knew each other, let alone defective ones, but he’d come all that way to see Peridot, and he was going to see her. Taking a deep breath, he approached one of them, one with hair formed into a cube reminiscent of a Ruby’s.
“Hey, uh, does a Peridot Facet-2F5L, Cut-5XG live here? In Facet 2?”
That Peridot, whom he deemed ‘Squaridot’, turned to face him as she answered, “her? She’s off at the 2F5-Lambda Kindergarten, prospecting to see if it’s a suitable time to plant another batch of Rubies.” Her voice was high and nasal, much like 5XG’s.
She snickered, “knowing her level of competence, she’ll be a while .”
“Well that’s not how I know her,” Steven uttered, turning to leave. It was then that he realised LiOn had wandered off. So much for the idea of trying to use it to locate the Kindergarten. Of course, that’d rely on LiOn knowing where that was, too, but it was still better than having to walk.
At least he knew places like active Kindergartens tended to be signposted, and mercifully, Yellow districts were known to be very easy to navigate. If he followed enough giant yellow-lettered signs, he’d be sure to find it. Before he had a chance to try, Squaridot had more to say. “Don’t bother looking for her there, the guards won’t let an unauthorised Quartz on the premises.”
He didn’t like the way she said that. He knew what that tone meant. It meant he wasn’t going to get anywhere with his plan to see Peridot. Defeated, he began to walk off since his ride had vanished. He groaned, clenching his fists, trying his damnedest not to demonstrate exactly why an unauthorised Quartz wouldn’t be allowed on a Kindergarten when he was snapped out of his rage by Squaridot speaking to him again.
“We could use a Quartz or two around here though,” she gestured at the work site behind them. “You know, to lift heavy things that aren’t made of metal.”
It was a better option than just standing around being mad, and although LiOn had wandered off, he wasn't stranded there as there were trains he could catch, so he nodded. “Sure. What do you all need lifted?”
“Things that aren’t made of metal,” repeated Squaridot, as if that helped to narrow it down for him at all.
He was hesitant at first, badly wanting to go find Peridot instead, rules be damned, but after a few moments of mulling it over, he gave in. Besides, there was a little part of him that couldn't help but want to help.
Once he got into the task at hand, he began to feel a little brighter, chatting with the Peridots as he went about his work. They all seemed pretty friendly, and he found himself wondering how his Peridot fit into this group. Did they like her? He’d be terribly disappointed if they didn't.
He was so focused on trying to hauling a round thing that was unusually heavy for its size across the site that he didn't notice 5XG had shown up until she called out to him.
“HEY!”
“Wha- WOAH!” Steven slipped on a pebble and dropped the thing, narrowly missing his foot. He winced.
“Steven? What are you doing here?!” She asked.
Steven replied, “I came to visit you! But then I realised I don’t know exactly where you live.”
“...But how did you know I’d be here?”
“I didn’t!”
Over a speaker, a voice - presumably one of the tall Peridots - announced, “all Peridots designated Facet-2F5L are excused from the Facet 2 West End Wailing Hub.”
The shorter Peridots scattered, as taller ones took their places. Steven wasn’t sure for a moment whether it was his cue to leave as well, but figured it was as Peridot grabbed his wrist and pulled him away from the hub with her.
With a guide to show him around, Steven finally was finally able to appreciate just how fantastic Facet 2 was. It was much classier than Facet 9. However, he couldn't help the feeling in the back of his mind that there was something missing from the place, some kind of charm, bolted under all that glittering green and gold plating.
“Oh! Hey, Steven, look!” Peridot grabbed his arm and tugged him towards a large building with an ornate sign affixed to the top, reading “The Evening Emerald” up in lights, beneath it a marquee of titles.
“The pictures?” Steven asked, starry-eyed.
Peridot nodded, grinning. “Yeah! I know a really good one, too! Some of the other Peridots from my cloister have already seen it.”
Inside the building, the lighting was dim and Steven’s eyes had to adjust. It wasn’t too dim, of course, as gems couldn't be in total darkness for all that long. In the lobby was a long, maze-like fence of rope to hold the queue and it was unclear where it began and ended. Within its railings were gems whispering and giggling with each other as they shuffled down the line to the counter.
Peridot never bothered figuring out where to join the queue, instead getting on all fours and scampering under the fence. Steven followed, commando-crawling to the front of the line, much to the chagrin of the gems behind them. He felt a little bad, and mouthed “sorry” to the gems, who continued to give him the stink-eye.
“Two tickets for ‘Kinder-goners’, please!” Chirped Peridot, guilt-free as she scrounged around for some carats as the Pearl behind the counter, also unfazed by the line-cutting, printed out the tickets.
“Ah-ha!” Peridot dropped a few carats on the counter, and then handed Steven his ticket, before they dipped under the queue fence in the direction of the showrooms.
“So,” Steven asked as they shuffled into their seats, “what’s this picture about?”
Unable to contain her excitement, Peridot whispered back, “it’s about aliens !”
A realisation sunk in for her, and she gasped, then grabbed Steven's arm and shook it. She didn't whisper this time. “Oh. My. STARS! I’m about to watch a picture about aliens with an alien!”
A gem behind them shushed them, and the two shared a sheepish look and sunk lower into their seats than their short heights already put them.
Moments later, the room went dark and the projector at the back of the room flickered to life. For a split second, the thought crossed Steven’s mind that someone might be in that projector. He grimaced.
It wasn’t done much in Facet 9, but lately the practice of placing criminals and undesirables into devices or objects had become widespread. This was credited for the recent industrial boom, though Steven deeply questioned whether it was worth it. A chill ran down his spine as he recalled,
'YOU THREE KNEW I WAS IN THERE!'
Peridot caught him peering over his chair to the back of the room. “Hey, what’s up? You’ll miss the start of the picture.”
“Huh? Oh, right!”
The picture opened to a group of kindergarteners finishing up their shift for the night, and the earth beneath them began to shift The camera shook wildly as a prop that was very obviously not a cliff face was torn from the face of the planet, and all the gems incubating in it were whisked away by some mysterious force before the eyes of all the helpless Peridots.
“Psst,” Peridot nudged Steven with cheeky grin, “Hey, can aliens really do stuff like that?”
Steven blushed, which wasn’t visible in that dim light, and shrugged. “Uh, I’ve heard a lot of crazy stuff about The Dominion, but not really anything like that…. I hope?”
“SHHH!” Another gem from behind them hissed. Steven and Peridot winced, then went back to watching the picture more quietly.
He found the plot a little unnerving, and he wasn't sure if it was some kind of alien guilt he was feeling, or if it was just good writing despite the terrible special effects.
The idea of a whole batch of gems emerging on an alien planet, then being put into a zoo or some sort of servitude was creeping him out a little, but Peridot was very clearly enjoying herself, and he did appreciate the picture’s protagonist.
She was a fierce, spirited Quartz and couldn't be held down by these aliens’ rules. With a band of misfit gems, she broke free and set upon a quest to free the rest of her sisters. There was clearly setup for a sequel, and after all that excitement and action, it was as if that pall of discomfort never existed.
Steven and Peridot left the theatre excitedly chattering away about the film, and he tried to answer as many of her questions as he could as he walked her home.
They continued down the street until they approached a tall, wide building, its walls and rooftops plated green with corroded copper, polished to shine as to show that corrosion was planned, just like everything was in a Yellow District. The front door was flanked by two large statues of gems recognisable as Peridots, and once they reached it, Peridot knocked.
An Emerald with her gem in the place of her right eye answered. Peridot stood to attention, bowing her head forth. Taking into account the time, she stated, “allow me to explain-”
Emerald held up a hand to signal to her to stop. “No need, 5XH told me you were out with your Quartz friend.” Emerald looked around, then wrinkled her nose. “Some Rose Quartz she is, she didn’t walk you home. Where are her manners?”
Steven stammered, “uh… I’m the Quartz friend.”
Emerald looked down at Steven and raised her eyebrow.
“...Where were you grown, and what batch are you from?”
Steven recalled what Rose told him to tell gems who asked him such questions. “I was grown in Facet-9-Beta, 13 years ago.”
Emerald narrowed her eye at him, holding her gaze for a good few seconds before sighing, “I don’t know who is overseeing the Peridots there, or why she insists on having them use that site. Nobody from there comes out right.”
Tutting, she moved aside to let Steven and Peridot into the cloisters. “Well it’s getting dark so you might as well come in. Nobody functions well in low light conditions.”
Steven squinted, holding a hand over his forehead as his eyes adjusted to the bright lights in the halls of the cloisters. The walls appeared freshly painted in a pastel green, and the floor, paved in dark green tiles, was spotless.
He barely paid attention to the conversation Peridot started having with Emerald beside him as they walked down the hall. He heard his name a few times, and judging by Peridot's tone, in good contexts.
She described their adventures in Facet 9, from his daring - albeit unnecessary - rescue of her from her falling attempt at a spacecraft, to their hijinks at Bismuth’s Fun Palace. She spoke highly of him as a brave, valiant Quartz who made sure she was safe as she visited his home district.
“...Except for that one time I was thrown against a cliff face by a foreign assailant - but in his defence, I did leave my post prior.” Peridot finished speaking, and, judging by the look on her face, Emerald had finished listening.
“Peridot 5XG,” Emerald began, “Facet 9 is no place for a gem like you.” Her stern gaze narrowed. “You are never to return there again.”
Steven clenched his fists. He’d tell Emerald she couldn’t just order Peridot around like that, tell her where she could and couldn’t go - had she not been Peridot’s manager and therefore perfectly within her rights to tell Peridot what to do. Still, he was hungry, tired, and indignant on her behalf.
He blurted out, “yeah she is!” Realising his insubordination, and Peridot’s cringing face, he gave Emerald a hasty salute. “...with all due respect.”
Peridot smacked her forehead.
Steven gave a nervous chuckle. “...You don’t have to worry about her. That was only one time, right? I can still protect her!”
Emerald shifted her narrowed gaze from Peridot to Steven, looking him up and down, inspecting him like the Peridots she managed would to newly-emerged gems. “From all those other, fully functional, considerably more aggressive Quartzes?” She scoffed, clearly unimpressed, “and not to mention this ‘foreign assailant’, honestly i’ve heard some stories about Facet 9, but what in the world is going on in that dump?”
Steven wasn’t too impressed either with her attitude, “Hey! It’s not a dump, it’s my home!”
“Not any more.” Emerald said. “You’re not going back there either.”
Incredulous, Steven cried out, gesturing wildly, “hey! You can’t do that! I’m not even in Yellow Court!”
Emerald folded her arms, staring him down. “I don’t see an insignia anywhere on your form.”
Steven was about to correct her, reaching up to pull the clip from his hair that bore Blue Diamond’s insignia, only to find it wasn’t there. The only thing he was wearing that bore any resemblance to an insignia was the star on his shirt. The yellow star on his shirt.
Without an insignia, he was marked as a loose gem, and could be assigned anywhere by a gem whose type outranks his. The unemployment crisis was serious, and Yellow Court were particularly fastidious about it.
Steven turned to Peridot in the hopes that she might be able to say something in his favour, but she only looked back at him with an apologetic grimace. Being outranked and defective herself, it wasn't likely she'd have any luck.
"Well, that settles it," Emerald continued, pulling a personal planner out of a pocket her outfit didn't look like it had.
"In these times, a good helping of brute force is always in high demand. If I can trust that 5XG hasn’t been exaggerating, I will grant that you don't seem to be entirely useless as a Rose Quartz.”
She scribbled something down in her planner, checking a few things off and then slammed it shut. "Under a more nurturing environment you might be able to discover your full potential. I'll keep you here until I can find you a more suitable post.”
"What?!” Balked Steven, “but I don't WANT another assignment! I just want to go back to Facet 9!”
Somewhat emboldened, Peridot tried to help. "He doesn't just work there, he lives there! That's like telling me to go work in another district!”
Emerald placed a hand on her hip and wagged a finger at them. You insult the integrity of every other district in the world by comparing them to Facet 9! That unsightly scuff on the otherwise shining surface of Blue Diamond’s court is an embarrassment."
Ever since Pink Diamond had been taken out of the picture, there were plenty of opinions being thrown around about the districts of hers that had been redistributed amongst the other courts. The main consensus was that Pink districts were terribly organised and poorly built. This was often exaggerated by gems living in higher society who thought that the gems who lived in places like Facet 9 were slag.
Emerald shifted her tone, extending her hands towards Steven in a display of whatever passed for warmth from a gem like her, "Take this opportunity for what it is! I'm saving you from a life below your station!"
She turned to a passing Peridot. "You there, take 5XG and her Rose Quartz companion to her quarters.” Turning back to Steven, she smiled, "we'll work on finding you a position in the morning"
As the doors closed on Peridot's personal quarters Steven jumped a little, having never seen an automatic door in a residential building before.
"Are we locked in here?" He asked, ready to assume the worst, considering everything that just happened.
Peridot gave him a quizzical look. "What, haven't you seen an automatic door before?"
"Well, yeah, but not inside someone’s house!”
With a sigh, he slumped down into a squishy green chair. "Oh, Peridot, what are we gonna do?"
Peridot hiked herself up onto another chair, then stroked her chin. “You can travel by rail back to Facet-9 at dawn, Emerald wouldn’t know, and she’s not likely to look for you. Sure, the trains haven’t been running on time lately, but that should suffice.”
Steven crossed his arms in a huff. “Why would she keep me here if she wasn’t even gonna look for me afterwards?”
He was reminded of Holly Blue Agate back in Facet 9, who oversaw the cloisters where most of other Quartzes there lived. She was a real stickler for the letter of the law, but she let things slide whenever it personally suited her. This seemed to be a pattern among gems of such stations, although an Emerald greatly outranked a mere Agate.
Peridot shrugged. “Sense of control, I guess. Gems of that station tend to do that around here. She’ll take stricter measures to ensure I don’t enter Facet-9, though, so if we are to continue seeing each other in person, we’ll have to meet in another District entirely.”
Steven nodded, about to say something before being cut off by the slap of Peridot’s hand against her desk as she sat up straight in her chair and put her face right up in front of his.
“...Or we can steal away in the middle of the night and reside permanently in another District, hereby increasing the efficiency and frequency with which we’ll see each other!”
“That’s a great idea!” He squealed, then paused to think. “Wait! No! I still need to eat! And mom and Kofi and Bill and Vidalia and everybody else would get really worried, and I’ll miss them.”
“Hmm…” Peridot slumped back down into her chair and tapped her fingers on her desk. “Or I can just relocate to Facet-9 and we’ll hide in the ugly Pearl you live with when Emerald inevitably sends someone there to look for me.”
“Peridot, Sour Cream is a human and he can’t do that.” Admittedly, Steven thought Sour Cream did look a little bit like an ugly Pearl. When he thought about it, though, he didn’t think he recalled ever seeing an ugly Pearl, but Sour Cream looked like what he’d imagine an ugly Pearl would look like.
“We can hide under some furniture, then - we’re both small.” Mused Peridot, who didn’t bother apologising for her slander.
The parents were worried. It was very late at night and Steven still hadn’t come home. He’d told them that morning that he was going to Facet 2 to see his friend Peridot. While his tracker showed that he was there, it hadn't moved at all in hours.
Kofi was the most worried, pacing around and gesticulating wildly. “What if he’s dead?!”
Vidalia, the least worried, had her feet up on the side of the couch Kofi was sitting on before he got restless. “Or maybe he's just taking a nap. It is late.”
Kofi raised his already loud voice. “A nap? Out there?!”
“Well he wouldn't have run off to the White Spires to try and make it big in showbiz.” Vidalia shrugged, her glibness about the situation shocking Kofi into speechlessness.
“He could have sat down and ended up in a very engrossing conversation with a gem there.” Bill stroked his chin, and pondered his own ‘engrossing’ conversations he’d had with gems in the past, that one very interesting Pearl who sometimes stopped by at Rose’s place notwithstanding. “...No, he’s definitely in trouble.”
Rose, who was right there, looked over the humans’ heads at the control room screen. “Oh! Thank the stars above. Looks like he’s in a Peridot cloister.” In response to their quizzical faces, she added, “all Yellow Districts have the same layout.”
“Well he better come home soon, or the Peridots there are going to prospect him and find out he's different to other gems. And as we know, gems don't take kindly to difference.” Kofi said, in front of Rose Quartz, a gem.
“Peridots aren't violent,” quipped Bill, again, in front of Rose, who had lived among gems of all sorts for thousands of years longer than anyone else in the room had been alive. “The most they’ll do is make fun of him a little.”
Vidalia continued with her glibness. “That might be just as bad. Kid’s really sensitive. I mean, just this morning, he was crying about snakes.”
“They don't have any arms!” Cried Rose, with whom Steven had been reading the Children’s Encyclopaedia of the Reptiles of Earth that morning. She then sighed, “I wish the Wailing Network wasn't down. I’d call those cloisters.”
Bill clasped his hands in a way that always reminded Rose of the way Blue Diamond would clasp hers when giving a speech, although Bill was likely doing it to avoid smacking himself in the forehead. “Alright, everyone, show of arms - I mean, hands. Who says we go and pick him up?” He then did smack his forehead. “Oh, what the hell am I saying? We’ve got to pick him up!”
“We’ve REALLY got to pick him up - after we find him!” Bill, Rose and Vidalia looked over to Kofi, who was pointing at the bottom of the holo-screen, at some text next to a line that connected to the dot that indicated Steven’s location. The text read, “last known location - 21:28”. It was well past 23:00 by then. Bill and Vidalia looked at each other and cringed at themselves for failing to notice. Right away, the four of them ran outside to pile into the van.
Steven tossed and turned on the pile of cushions he'd thrown onto the floor of Peridot's room. Normally, sleep came easily to him, even in places much more uncomfortable than this, but it didn't that night. The lights were too bright, Peridot was in there, and while she was as quiet as she could be as she went about her night, he wanted to talk to her because they were best friends and she always had a lot of interesting things to say. Then there was the fact he hadn't told anyone at home that he'd be sleeping over in another District.
With his face buried in a squishy, triangular green cushion that reminded him a little of her gemstone, he tried to ease himself to sleep with some daydreaming. Given the time, it was technically night-dreaming, and he was trying to turn it into some actual dreaming. Concerns about his family back home kept creeping into his mind, but he reassured himself that his tracker would keep them informed of where he was.
Concerns crept even into his daydreaming. What began as a pleasant recollection of his and Peridot’s fun day at the pictures turned into a visions of being stuck in Facet 2. Peridot had mentioned that the trains weren’t running on time lately, and his sleep deprived mind was going to the worst places. Of hunting Stonebreakers for food, cracking them open with his shield and having to insult a Ruby to spark a fire to cook them.
He didn’t know how to hunt. Gems didn’t do that, as they didn’t eat anything but light, and light didn’t have that pesky habit of running away, nor did it need to be cooked. That meant gems probably would be terrible hunters, unless they were trained in pest control, and while he’d been on a few missions, he’d never chased anything down alone before, so he didn’t think he’d be able to catch those Stonebreakers. He was going to fail to catch his food and some Facet 2 Quartzes, probably Citrines, were going to gather around and laugh at him.
More importantly, he’d have to drink, and potable water wasn’t a priority among gems. He’d have to bribe a passing Lapis Lazuli to allow him to have a go at her wings. As they didn't eat or drink, gems didn't use toilets, so he’d have to pee outside, which would inevitably be seen by some Citrines, who would gather around and laugh at him. Citrines, who were yellow and in Yellow Court.
One of the most important parts of being a Quartz was to establish camaraderie and to be a team player with other Quartzes. A Rose Quartz among Citrines was already going to have a hard time, and a small, fleshy, defective little thing such as himself was going to have a harder time. Those Citrines were going to make fun of him for being tiny, fleshy, and most of all, weird. Outside of historically Pink districts such as Facet 9, being weird was a social death sentence for a gem. Especially in the more respectable districts under the jurisdiction of Yellow Diamond, with all the gossipy, catty gems who lived there-
“Hey! We Yellow Court gems aren’t all like that!”
Steven opened his eyes and rolled over to see Peridot standing over him, her arms crossed with a sour look on her face.
“Oh no! Was I daydreaming out loud?”
She nodded, squinting as he gave her a quick, sheepish “sorry.”
She met his sheepish look with a quizzical one. “And aren’t you technically night dreaming, since it’s night? Anyway. I thought we already had this all planned out - you’re going to take the train back to Facet 9 in the morning, and we will meet in another District whenever we want to see each other. Now get back to lying down on my cushions and doing nothing.” She waved a hand, probably not intending for it to come off as if she were dismissing a Pearl, but it looked that way. He knew her well enough to know she was just a bit short sometimes, and not only in a literal sense.
Steven laid his head back down on a cushion, and closed his eyes. Just as he was trying to coax himself to sleep, he heard a scuttling noise. He rolled over, putting a cushion over his head to block it out, hoping it’ll pass. He heard it again. After the third or fourth time, he sat back up. He turned to Peridot, who wasn’t doing anything that could be making such a noise. She looked back at him, her eyes wide. “Did you hear that too?”
Steven nodded, rubbing his eyes. The scuttling grew louder. It sounded like it was coming from outside. The two gems looked at each other, then ran to the window to investigate. Steven opened the window to look around, as Peridot peered out from behind him. Neither of them saw anything they thought could plausibly make that noise they heard, but when they looked down, they did see LiOn, rolling around on the ground and kicking its legs back.
“LiOn!” Steven called out, putting his hands on his jutted-out hips in an exaggerated, playful manner, though LiOn wouldn’t be able to see him from that angle. “Where have you been?”
Peridot squeezed past him to get a clearer view of LiOn. She gasped, starry-eyed at the sight of a new mechanical marvel. “Wow, what’s that?!”
“This is LiOn! LiOn can take us places!”
He turned back, then held out his hand to Peridot, who took it. He hoisted her up into his arms, then climbed out of the window, from which he floated down onto the ground in front of LiOn.
LiOn crouched down to allow the two gems onto its back, and they climbed on, Steven in front and Peridot behind him.
“To Facet 9!” Steven announced, pointing forward. He wasn’t sure if Facet 9 actually was in that direction, as Quartzes didn’t have the ability to sense direction in the way a Lapis Lazuli or a Nephrite could, but it got the point across.
LiOn revved up, spat a portal and jumped through it. To a place that definitely wasn’t Facet-9.
Steven squinted, taking in his surroundings. Debris recognisable to Steven as Dominion junk littered the area, which was a big round flat place with what he also recognised as the remains of Warp Gates. None of them looked as if they could possibly be in working condition.
“Heey, this isn’t my house. It’s not even Facet 9!” He bent his neck down over to look LiOn in its plated metal face. “LiOn, where are we?” He asked, as if LiOn could answer. Predictably, it didn’t. He sighed. “Sorry, Peridot, LiOn still needs practice taking us places.” He patted the robot’s neck, then pointed forth again. “It’s ok, LiOn, we can try again. To Facet 9!”
LiOn didn’t budge.
They heard that scuttling sound again. The one from outside the window before they’d left the cloisters. Peridot tugged on Steven’s shirt, then pointed towards the source of the sound.
It was some kind of robot, clearly of Dominion origin. Small, with a cube-like central body reminiscent of the trunk of LiOn, carried on legs that vaguely resembled that of an aristocrat’s palanquin. It scuttled towards the gates, and more of them followed. Then more, until they swarmed the central, largest gate. Some of the machines whirred and spun, pointing what appeared to be cameras in all directions, as others anchored themselves into the gaps left by time and wear on the rim of the gate.
Steven and Peridot ducked behind a pillar to hide themselves from their cameras that were scanning around the area. LiOn took longer to hide itself, and was threatening to blow their cover with its mechanical whimpering noises. Steven made a hushing gesture, as if it could understand him, and this time it appeared to do so, following them behind the pillar and crouching. He reached back to hold Peridot’s hand, his Rose Quartz protective instincts having kicked in, as he kept watch with his other hand at the ready to summon his shield.
The probes scuttled across the wreckage, climbing onto and into the gate’s structure, some probes disassembling others to incorporate their parts into rebuilding the gate. Once they were done - remarkably quickly - the intact probes crawled off onto the ground, assembling themselves into two neat rows, as the middle of the gate began to glow with the familiar swirling blue wormhole Steven recognised as the portal of an active Warp Gate.
Through the portal came a figure resembling a fully-extended mech, albeit bulkier than the ones Steven and the humans he knew had used. Still, it looked enough like a mech, had come through a Dominion Warp Gate, and acted sapient enough that he could assume there was a human in there. He and Peridot watched the figure, then hid behind a broken-down wall as the stranger activated a scanner on their wrist, and began to survey the area.
Seemingly satisfied with whatever they’d gathered, they summoned a holographic screen from the bracer on the other wrist, and tapped on a projected keyboard. Through their helmet came a high-pitched, distorted voice.
“Operative: Maheswaran. Log number: 1. Date: February 22, 2012. Location: Demeter colony, New Delmarva.”
“Ma-hay-shuwar-an. Their name is Maheswaran.” Steven whispered to Peridot, who wasn’t quite as excited to meet this new alien as she might have been before the Lars incident.
“Could it be hostile?” Whispered Peridot, grabbing harder onto Steven’s hand.
He squeezed her hand in reassurance. “Even if they are, I’m here for you, ok?”
Although still hesitant, Peridot smiled back, then the two of them refocused their attention on Maheswaran.
Maheswaran continued to speak. “Atmosphere remains… breathable. Theoretically? I’m still not taking any chances, in case of plague remnants.” They tapped a foot, and the intact probes surrounded them.
Maheswaran scrolled across the screen, bringing up images on it of various locations, some of which Steven and Peridot recognised. One of which was clearly recognisable to Peridot as the window of her quarters. Yellow Districts all looked the same, and the Peridot cloisters in them were all built to the same specifications save for the precise number of rooms, but she could recognise her quarters anywhere. What especially helped in that recognition, was that she and Steven were both clearly visible in that image.
Steven, sensing Peridot’s discomfort, and feeling quite uncomfortable himself, pulled her closer to him as they continued to watch Maheswaran sort through images on their screen, presumably taken by the probes.
Maheswaran spoke again, this time while pacing slowly around the gate hub, followed closely by the probes. “Images will be filed and sorted at home base, 25th of February, 2012 at the latest...” They stopped, and they groaned, then shook their head. “February 25 at the latest…. Deadline: February 25. I’ll edit that out when I get home.” They made a shooing gesture, and the probes scattered to survey the area, as did Maheswaran, while still looking at their screen - and not at the ground in front of them, which was uneven, over which they tripped. “Agh! Good thing nobody was around to, um, take advantage of that and… and attack me.”
Peridot, who along with Steven, was around, took advantage of the situation to have a giggle, and both of them struggled to keep quiet.
Their struggle was for naught, as the operative turned towards the sound of their laughter, and the flimsy, thin pillar they were hiding behind failed to hide Steven’s wild curls. Or the rest of him. Or Peridot, for that matter, who had moved into a more comfortable position than being squashed up with Steven behind a pillar, and had completely misjudged Maheswaran’s line of sight.
“Wildlife spotted! May be hostile! Retreat!”
Maheswaran pressed a button on their bracer, then dashed through the gate. A few seconds later, an electromagnetic pulse swept through the area, deactivating the probes, and disrupting the light that interlocked with Steven’s flesh enough to make him slightly nauseous. Peridot fared worse, having to be held up by him as she struggled to keep her balance.
“Peridot, are you ok?” Steven asked, although the answer was clear from Peridot’s inability to give him a coherent response. “...Peridot?” He asked again, to which she responded with a giggle, and a “No!” He took her word for that, if not the tone in which she said it. Steven held her steady, and stood guard as she recovered from her delirium.
The first place the humans and Rose looked for Steven was, of course, the Facet 2 Peridot cloisters, where they were faced with Emerald, who was about to shut the door on them for being out-of-towners whom she didn’t believe had any business being there at that time of night - after she told them off for good measure.
“You have no business here at these hours - and we have a very important task to attend to.” She said, backed up by the many Peridots rushing between rooms in the halls behind her.
Rose put her hand in the door frame, to prevent it from closing as Emerald stepped back. “Please, Emerald, hear us out.”
Annoyed, but curious as to what the group of strange-looking individuals and their out-of-place high-conformity Rose Quartz wanted, Emerald let Rose describe the situation, which she did.
“...and he said he’d be here, to see his friend, Peridot 5XG.” Rose finished, her eyes downcast and facing to the side, signalling deference to the higher ranking gem.
Emerald raised her eyebrow. She’d raise both if she had two. “Yes, she has been here, and they are both missing.” She took a wide step back and gestured behind her. “My other Peridots have been searching all night for them in these cloisters, and they are nowhere to be seen!”
“Maybe they’re not in the cloisters?” Said one of those other Peridots, shutting the door of a storage closet.
“Perhaps. We should look elsewhere,” said Emerald, as if that was her idea. As the Peridots behind her began to form a line, she waved them off. “By ‘we’, I mean myself, and these…” She trailed off, clearly trying to find a nice way to describe what looked to her like some very ugly off-colours and a jarringly better-looking Rose Quartz who dressed like a Sapphire “... our guests.”
The humans, and Rose, looked at each other, and deciding they didn’t want any conflict with Emerald, agreed to take her with them on their search. “Of course, come along.” Bill said, then led the others to the van.
Emerald had never seen a vehicle like that before - it had wheels, which seemed to be coated in a tough, plasticky substance that reminded her of that time the local safety-minded Bismuths got a little experimental with the flooring in the town hall, which was changed back to marble after many complaints about the look of the place. When she got into the front passenger seat, she saw there was a wheel reminiscent of a boat’s, and a dizzying array of buttons and screens on the dashboard which lit up when Bill pressed his thumb to a panel beside the wheel to turn on the engine. She knew better than to touch anything, and she didn’t, surmising this must have been one of those new multi-function palanquins she’d heard some Morganites discussing the other day. She didn’t recall them mentioning those palanquins having wheels, though, which seemed deeply inefficient for crossing varied terrain.
They drove slowly around Facet 2, keeping their eyes out for any sign of Steven and Peridot. Vidalia also kept her arm stuck out of the window with her tracker console in her hand, looking towards it every few seconds to check if Steven’s dot had moved. Annoyed, Kofi asked, “does that actually help?”
“No,” Vidalia sheepishly admitted, “but it feels like I’m doing something.” Her arm, tiring of holding the console, twitched, and her hand tilted. The console beeped, and the humans all sat up straight. Vidalia checked the console. Steven’s location had been updated. “The dot moved!” She exclaimed, as if the other humans didn’t know what that beep meant. She turned the tracker around a few times, tapped its screen to get a good view of where they were in relation to the map, then stuck her arm out the window again to point. “That way!”
Luckily, Facet 2 did not have an active nightlife, with few gems out at this hour in the relative darkness, so they were able to drive faster until they hit a point of wide open street marked by big yellow signs. Rose was about to warn the humans, but was interrupted before she could tell them the signs read:
“‘Restricted Area?!’” Cried Bill.
“Not for me,” Emerald said. “Just go through there. If any authorities see this, I’ll tell them I gave you the order.”
The van passed through the restricted area, and several side-streets under the direction of Emerald, who as a Yellow Court native knew her way around, and the dot on the tracker grew closer. It didn’t take them long to reach their destination, which wasn’t terribly far away from Facet 2, but was out of the way, and hence Emerald had never seen the place before. In the distance, Kofi spotted the familiar round, chubby little figure of Steven, and the pointy head of Peridot. “There they are!”
Once Bill parked the van, they all got out, and approached the two young gems who were out a lot later than Steven’s bedtime.
Kofi glowered over the small gems with his hands on his hips, “and what are you doing out HERE?!” Emerald shouted, “and what are your intentions with my Peridot?!” Steven struggled to get a word in as the questions kept coming, until Peridot’s “wait!” cut through the commotion.
“Allow me to explain,” Peridot pushed in front of Steven to face Emerald. “It was my idea.”
Peridot continued, “I used my influence as a gem of relatively higher conformity, and of a court, over a loose gem, to manipulate the situation.” She looked back at Steven with a nod, then took a deep, unnecessary breath before facing Emerald again. “I asked to be taken away somewhere, and I was, and here we are.” Peridot bowed her head, awaiting whatever scolding or punishment would come her way.
Instead, Emerald seemed distracted, squinting, then pointing at something off to the side. “...What is that?” It was LiOn, crouching forth in a play-bow.
Peridot froze. Emerald wasn’t going to believe her if she told her LiOn was a piece of alien technology, and she wasn’t a good enough liar to come up with any other explanation for it.
Steven stepped in front of LiOn, and waved his arms about, as if he could possibly hide that massive robot behind his squat body. “It’s… Your imagination!”
Kofi sighed, rubbing his temples. “It’s ours. Don’t worry about it.”
Rose tackled Steven in a big, strong Quartz hug, then reached over to Peridot to pull her into it too as she didn’t want her feeling left out. “I’m so glad you two are safe!” She cried. Literally, cried. Her eyes were teary, and soon, so were Steven’s. Peridot was getting uncomfortable, as was Emerald, what with a strange Quartz squeezing the light out of one of her Peridots. She tapped a foot, and caught Rose’s eyes with a squint. Rose got the message, and unhanded Peridot, while keeping a hand on Steven’s shoulder.
Emerald’s expression softened ever so slightly. “As your… cohabitants,” she squinted at Steven, “have collected you, you are released from my custody and free to return.” Rose gave her a funny look, which Emerald didn’t return, her eye flicking towards Peridot. “You are also, again, free to go to Facet 9.” Emerald finally did look at Rose, and gave her a respectful nod, “since there are gems of decent character and conformity present there.”
Rose grit her teeth and smiled, returning the nod with a small bow. She wanted to ask Emerald what she meant by what she just said, but Rose already knew the answer, and she also knew a Beryl wouldn’t want to hear backtalk from a Quartz.
Bill escorted Emerald and Peridot into the van to be driven back to Facet 2. With the coast clear, Kofi and Vidalia investigated the gate hub.
“Hmm,” Vidalia stroked her chin, then pointed it to the central gate. “Hey, Rose! Smash this thing, will ya?”
Rose summoned her shield and with it bashed the sides of the warp gate repeatedly. She finished off its weakened foundations with a punch. She turned back to call out to Vidalia, “Is this smashed enough?!”
Vidalia peered over to Rose and the gate, then called back, “do it again just to make sure!” and Rose threw one more punch, turning the barely-standing remains of the gate to rubble. Vidalia flinched, startled by the force Rose exerted on that gate, then gave her a thumbs up as she tucked a deactivated probe under her arm to examine later. Having known the humans as long as she had, Rose got the message, and returned the gesture with a smile.
Bill returned in the van, and everyone filed into it, including LiOn, who curled up in the back as the humans took their seats.
Vidalia peeked back at LiOn, quipping, “man, if you told us LiOn was here, I would have tracked it . You know, you really need to learn how to use that thing.”
“Only Greg knows how to use that thing,” Kofi added, to which Vidalia chuckled. “You’re such a cat person!”
As the group drove back to Facet 9, they discussed what had happened that night and the implications of the clear Dominion activity they had witnessed. The Galactic Gateway being repaired by probes and a Dominion operative coming through was a bad sign. While Rose did destroy the gate, the fact it had been repaired in the first place meant there was no guarantee Maheswaran or another operative wouldn’t return.
Kofi shifted in his seat, crossing his arms and furrowing his brow in thought. “You said Maheswaran’s voice was distorted, mechanical-sounding. That they had screens coming out of their wrists. That sounds like a cyborg.” After all the Dominion cybernetics experiments he’d seen in his time, and their recent encounter with Lars, Kofi shuddered to think of what could have become of humanity these days. “What if they all are now?”
“Or they could have been wearing a mech,” Vidalia chimed in, though the timbre of her voice implied she caught the mental image Kofi was projecting.
“Not that there’s anything wrong with being a cyborg. Besides, wearing a mech is pretty much the same thing, it’s just less of a commitment,” Bill added, “but cyborg or not, a Dominion operative isn’t a good sign.”
The silence following that statement was deafening as they processed the implications of all that. Vidalia felt the need to change the subject. “So Bill, since when did you read Gem?”
Bill shot her a quizzical look, then quickly refocused onto his driving. “Since when did you not ? It’s important, you know, we live here.”
Kofi and Vidalia squirmed in their seats, giving each other uncomfortable looks. “I could teach you,” said Rose, before another awkward silence set in.