Chapter Text
Peridot knew she could make it right. She could make everything right.
If she figured out how to do this, everyone would forgive her. She could truly be a part of the team.
The opportunity had presented itself almost a year after the incident. Steven had been morose and Peridot had learned why. If she hadn't done what she did, Connie would have celebrated her sixteenth birthday. Instead, Peridot robbed her of that and thus robbed Steven of more time with the human he loved. It was after the day that would have been Connie's birthday when a Roaming Eye landed looking for Jasper. Peridot realized that this was her chance and quickly told Amethyst of her plan to go to a base she had heard of but never been to, saying she would need her help getting there. Amethyst would need to impersonate the lost Quartz soldier.
No one else was made aware of the plan, Peridot and Amethyst having left with the rubies before the rest of the gems could say anything. No one knew when they would return.
It had been less than a week when the ground started to rumble and a long-forgotten enemy resurfaced.
Malachite had returned and in an instant Garnet realized what was happening.
The future that had been once been so set in stone was now changing once again.
Malachite was back, on schedule since the time that Connie was killed, but now Peridot was not here to be shattered. If Garnet could fuse with Pearl and Steven, they could survive this battle and almost all of the team would be in tact. It would almost be as if the original future she had seen when Steven first met Connie on the beach was coming true.
If Peridot was successful in whatever she had planned, the rest of the future would change forever.
She was not sure if it would be for the better.
~
“So, what are we grabbing again?” Amethyst asked as the ship landed inside of Pink Diamond’s base, the Rubies leaving to get ready for their next mission.
“I need to grab a device that will work alongside holographic cloud projections from Rose’s Room as well as someone who will allow for an easier transition when the projection attempts to reintegrate with society.”
“English, nerd,” Amethyst sighed.
“I’m going to grab something that will bring a projection from Rose’s Room to life,” Peridot stated.
“What? Oh no. You aren’t trying to bring back Connie, are you? Steven is finally getting better! This will seriously mess up all of his progress!” Amethyst argued.
“Look. This is the only way I can make things right. I’ve gone through all of the calculations and all of the variables and this is the only way I can make Steven truly forgive me!” Peridot cried. “I can’t stand him resenting me!”
“He doesn’t resent you, dude! He knows it was an accident! He said he forgave you!”
“It doesn’t feel like it!” Peridot shrieked. “Every time he looks at me, I can see it in his eyes! He’ll never forgive me unless I make it right!”
“Peridot, you can’t un-ring a bell and you can’t un-kill Connie.”
Peridot sighed.
“I’m sorry, Amethyst.”
“What?”
Amethyst didn’t have time to react a Peridot punched her in the gut as hard as she could before reaching up and twisting the quartz’s neck. Amethyst retreated into her gem and Peridot stood up, holding Amethyst’s inert gem. She sighed and bubbled the quartz.p.
“I had to do it. I can’t let anyone stop me. It’s for the good of the team,” Peridot sighed. “I’ll see you when I get home.”
Peridot stepped out of the ship, catching the attention of the Ruby with a gem for an eye.
“Where’s Jasper?”
“She needed a moment,” Peridot started. “It was too painful for her to join us in her former Diamond’s base after all. I will be making the report for her instead.”
The Ruby simply nodded and Peridot continued towards the door. She would need to be quick.
She hoped that she would be able to take what she needed. She just needed to play her role.
~
The Druzy Quartz that stood on the beach had not existed in a long time. They felt different. Something had changed.
Of course. Steven was here now, not Rose.
They looked out at the ocean to see Malachite rising from the sea. It seemed almost impossible that it had taken so long for the angry fusion to finally reach Beach City. They still weren’t sure how Malachite had been held together for so long.
Perhaps Lapis and Jasper didn’t exist anymore.
The thought troubled the fusion, but they had to hold together and be strong.
They needed to protect Beach City.
As they grappled with the rage-filled fusion, they could feel deep sadness from the part of them that Steven occupied.
If things had been different, we wouldn’t have to do this …
“Hold together, “ Druzy Quartz whispered to themselves. “We need to be strong …”
When Malachite lashed out and twisted the arm that Druzy knew held one of Garnet’s gems, they felt a rage boil up from the Rose Quartz component.
No one hurt Steven’s family.
~
The mobile emitter was easy enough to obtain. No one had used it in centuries, but Peridot was certain that she would be able to make it work.
The Spinel would be much more difficult to obtain.
She dug through the base’s records, looking for any records of a Spinel that she could use. One that wouldn’t be missed.
It wasn’t until she came across the logs for the Human Zoo that it struck her.
The Spinels had been repurposed.
She knew now what needed to be done. She would need to convince one of the Era One Peridots to relinquish a set of the trackers that were now being used on the humans.
Surely they wouldn’t miss just one set.
As she made her way through the base, she rehearsed what she would need to say to the Peridots. She needed to make it convincing. She needed them to hand over the Spinels.
She needed them to look past her inadequacies.
She passed several Amethyst guards and it suddenly struck her that this was what had happened to the Amethysts that had been created on Earth. They were stuck here at a rarely used base. When she passed a tiny Carnelian and a thin Jasper, she felt a twinge of guilt.
Amethyst would have loved meeting them. Perhaps she would have finally felt the way that Peridot had always thought of her as. She would have felt like a proper, Earth Amethyst, even with her short stature.
She would have to make it up to her someday.
When she finally arrived in the human receiving office, she was horrified to find that the system was now completely automated.
No. Not completely.
A lone Peridot gem was embedded in the control panel.
As Peridot searched for the Spinels, she made a mental note to remember to come back and free her sister some day.
It wasn’t fair that an Era One Peridot would be treated this way.
She would need to make it right eventually.
When she finally arrived back at the Roaming Eye, she bid the Rubies farewell. She didn’t even remember the excuse she gave them for why they couldn’t say goodbye to Jasper. It didn’t matter anyway.
Rubies were generally not bright enough to realize they had been tricked.
She sat at the command console and cradled the Spinel earrings in her hands.
She needed to free them.
They had a job to do now.