Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

A tall gem ran through the understory of Homeworld. Her only light was that which trickled down from the lowest structures that still saw use, she dared not light her gem. The millennia old bones of Homeworld used to be home to off colours, the malformed and perverse fusions. Steven had changed all of that though. Off colours were no longer rightfully persecuted, they were free to cavort on the surface or anywhere else they pleased. Thanks to the half breed’s reforms, the only gems down here were the paranoid and those that refused to conform to his vision.

The gem ducked behind a large chunk of wreckage and checked she was not being followed. The shattering robanoids may have been decommissioned, but in their place came the upstart’s sycophants, gems who came down into the ruins to “help” those who found it hard to “adjust”.

“A better world for all!” They said. Before Steven had taken control, the gem had owned a Pearl, and she deserved one! She had been allowed to excel in the role she had been made for! Now she was on the run again. If these worshipers of Steven valued freedom so much, why did they show so much hostility when she suggested their leader be punished for taking so much from her?

The gem gritted her teeth to silence herself as she ducked down into a tunnel. Away from prying eyes, she allowed the gem on her shoulder to glow pink. Now in the maintenance passages, it did not take her long to find an old panic room with a busted door, the latest in a series of short lived safehouses. She leered disgustedly at the mess of limbs and wings that waited for her. “Bluebird, you walking enemy support campaign, why are you fused?” She snarled.

“Shut it Morganite.” The small fusion barked back, lowering her cutlass. “I thought you were an intruder. It’s your own fault for opening the door without saying the password.”

“The door was already open!”

Though their compatriot was clearly lying to save face, Bluebird Azurite let it go. She hated Morganite, her gripes against Steven were so weak, so pathetic, but she was also the only other gem who seemed to share her goal. “Any luck recruiting?” She asked doubtfully.

“No.” Morganite leant hard into the wall. “All the gems are either on his side or are too afraid to rebel.”

“That isn’t the problem.” The fusion spat.

Morganite gave her a warning glare.

Bluebird met it, undeterred. “The problem is that you keep trying to recruit a Pearl to replace the one you lost!”

Morganite stood, ready to leave again. “I am not listening to this again!”

“This isn’t a ball were organising here! It’s war! We need an army! Rubies! Quartzes! Agates!”

Morganite turned on her ally, furious. “I wouldn’t expect somebody with so much ruby in them to understand, but this war will rely on more than soldiers!”

Bluebird folded her arms and leant back. “Ah yes, the ‘spindle’.” She sighed. “You wasted two whole cycles looking for it before I found you!”

“It’s the Silver Duchess’ heart!” Morganite argued obsessively. “With it, we could control the Diamonds!”

“Why settle for the heart,” a new voice interrupted, “when you can have the whole package?”

Both gems turned to the door. “T-The Duchess…” Morganite gasped in horror.

“In the flesh.” Roxillan smiled. “You know, you ladies remind me of a joke. A health inspector, a talking encyclopaedia, and a grunt soldier plot to overthrow the diamonds…” A thoughtful look crossed her face. “How did that joke end again? Oh wait,” she smirked, “that was it.” She gave a cruel chuckle.

“How did you find us!?” Bluebird pointed her cutlass at the kelmep.

“Well that’s simple.” Roxillan placed a fingertip on the sword’s point, allowing a rivulet of her black blood to spiral down the blade. “I heard the sound of catastrophic failure,” her blood contracted, shattering the weapon, “and followed it here.”

Morganite got over her shock, drawing her heavy-headed sceptre. “Now’s our chance! Take her heart!” As she tried to charge, something grabbed her by the wrist. She turned to see nothing. “A clear quartz? You expect a clear quartz to hold me!?” She struggled against the hand to no avail, not even a grunt of effort came from her grappler. “How is this possible?” Despite her intended station, Morganite knew she was stronger than any one quartz, especially one from the comparatively weak clear quartz line, built for stealth over outright offence.

“Thank you Clearie.” Roxillan doted sweetly. “Now, I wasn’t here for their whole discussion, what did you take from it my love?”

“They both had interesting ideas.” Clear Quartz noted. “They are however both totally lost without you.”

“What did you say!?” Bluebird shouted, reaching to draw a new cutlass.

“You can’t even reconcile your plans.” The quartz stated plainly.

The shadows in the floor suddenly slithered up the fusion’s body, ensnaring her. “I’ll get back to you dear.” Roxillan strode over to Morganite. “Let me guess. You think you can use my spindle to control the diamonds? But of course you do, you’ve felt the power of my heart for yourself. Why won’t you let me help you?”

“I don’t need an alien to-”

“This alien brought Homeworld to its knees. I can do it again, in exchange for a little something.”

“What do you want?” Morganite asked.

“Steven and Connie.”

“Steven’s dead!” Bluebird shouted defiantly.

“Is that so?” Roxillan questioned. She approached the fusion at a leisurely stroll. “You know, the Bluebird Azurites in other universes seem to know this lesson very well. I suppose I’ll have to make do with this universe’s braindead equivalent.”

Bluebird’s bravado was replaced instantly with confusion. “Other universes?”

“A dead Steven is just that, dead.” Roxillan explained. “An influenced Steven on the other hand… well, when you have Steven on your side, the world’s your oyster.”

“I don’t want an oyster!” She spat back. “I want an army!”

“Very well.” With a wave of her hand, Roxillan freed the fusion from her shadows and gestured towards the door.

Bluebird hesitated. Was the Silver Duchess telling her to leave? The fusion would gladly leave her erstwhile ally to whatever grim fate the kelmep had planned if it meant saving her own stones, but this could all too easily be a trap. However, the door was the only way out, Bluebird could either leave as directed or stay and see how she liked Roxillan’s hospitality. Carefully, she crept for the door. As she peeked around the door, she took to the wing and reached for a new blade. “What is this!?”

Extending down the hall was an eerie assortment of beings. There were robanoids that dripped with black fluids, agates and quartzes with a darkness swimming in their eyes, and beings the gem couldn’t even begin to identify, vaguely humanoid masses of shadow with spindly limbs ending in tentacles and talons, they merged and divided like a black syrup.

“A small part of your army,” Roxillan replied, following the fusion into the hall, “if you side with me.” She beckoned over her shoulder.

Feeling Clear Quartz let go of her, Morganite joined her compatriot in the hall and gasped. “What are these things?” She pointed at the shadow creatures.

“Do you know what shadows are?” Roxillan questioned, holding out her hand.

“The absence of light?” Morganite hazarded.

As Roxillan shook her head disappointedly, Clear Quartz ran over, putting a white gem shard in her mistress’ palm.

“That would be darkness dearie. Shadows are where light and darkness better each other.” She closed her hand around the shard. “Darkness is given shape, while light is given direction to a useful goal.” Roxillan dropped the now black shard on the floor. “My enemies consider me a woman of pure darkness. I have seen places where darkness exists, alone in a vacuum, light too. Nothing gets done in those places.” Suddenly, shadows expanded from the shard, which became lost in a mass of dark feelers about the size of a human infant. Roxillan watched her creation scuttle into a larger shadow creature dispassionately. “I prefer a more active approach.”

Equal parts fascinated and quietly repulsed, Morganite scanned the rest of the army. “The robanoids and these… things, I understand but how did you recruit so many gems? Us two have been campaigning for…” She shook her head and pointed into the crowd. “You there! Agate! Why are you following this alien!?”

“S-She’s so beautiful.” The agate responded, dazed as if in a dream. “And so powerful, she is greater than any Diamond. I knew from the moment she kissed me…”

“You’re controlling them!” Bluebird realised stepping out of kissing range. “But you won’t get us!”

Roxillan smiled cruelly, vanishing into the shadows and reappearing right behind the fusion. “I could. But I don’t want more grunt soldiers.”

“What are you talking about!?” Morganite demanded.

“If the pair of you agree willingly to work for me, I can grant you incredible power, like I did for my dear Clearie.” Roxillan held out her hands, inviting them to be shaken.

“And if we don’t, you just put us under your control or shatter us to make more of those things!” Bluebird pointed out bitterly.

“Of course not.” Roxillan smiled. “It would hardly be willing consent if that was your other option. No, if you turn me down today, I will not come after you for a whole Earth year, that is, if you don’t seek to do me harm first of course.” To highlight her point, Roxillan’s army pressed themselves into the passage’s walls, giving Morganite and Bluebird a clear route to freedom.

“What happens after that year?” The fusion asked.

Roxillan only chuckled knowingly.

Bluebird shared a glance with Morganite before looking back to the kelmep. “Say we agree to work with you, what’s your plan to control Steven?”

“All in good time.” Roxillan answered, wagging a finger. “First of all, I need clothes.”

“Clothes?” Morganite echoed.

“I can’t see my children again nude, now can I.” She admonished. “Besides, I know just what I want to wear.”

Excitement prickled in Clear Quartz’s voice. “I can go there now!?”

“I believe you’re ready.” The Kelmep pulled her invisible companion in close and kissed her on the cheek.

“I can get them, maybe our children too!”

“The clothes come first!” The kelmep demanded seriously. “Take one or both children if you can, but get back with my clothes, your role is vital in my plan’s later stages.”

“As you command,” Clear Quartz answered, “my Duchess.”

Chapter Text

Pilot leant against Little Homeworld’s central tower, watching gems and the shadows of the building’s giant whirligig pass him by. Every so often, the chime of the settlement’s warp pad would draw the kelmep’s eye, it was Steven’s most probable method of arrival.

Ever since the start of the school year, Connie had much less time on her hands, leaving Steven with a vacuum in his schedule. As such, the boy doubled down on his training with Pilot. For his part, Pilot was proud to see his friend and student pick up the slack from his months of depression. All this success prompted an issue however, there was only so much improvement Steven could accomplish in the safety of the Sky Arena or scrapping on the beach. If Pilot were to continue Steven’s training, he would have to throw him against real problems.

Pilot had found a solution in the most unlikely of places, Pilot had to begrudgingly thank Homeworld for that, and other things.

“Pilot!” Jasper spotted him through the crowd and strode over.

“Jasper?” He looked up at her.

It was an odd, but not unheard of, event for Jasper to visit Little Homeworld, she hardly left her woodland home. Stranger still was that she deigned speak to Pilot and have him speak back, as far as the other gems were concerned, the two didn’t even acknowledge each other’s existence most of the time. Their cooperation against the interdimensional invaders a month or so ago was easily explained by their mutual allegiance to Stevonnie. Still, the locals knew how unpredictable Pilot could be, so were hardly surprised.

“What can I do for you Jasper?” The kelmep asked.

Jasper came in close before she answered. “It’s done.”

“Done?” Pilot’s smile dropped. “Already?”

“Yes.” She replied, leaning on the wall beside him. “Bismuth sent me to tell you.”

“Good.” Pilot closed his eyes and rolled his head back.

“That’s it?” Jasper growled.

“That’s it.” Pilot stated. After a few moments, Pilot could sense the quartz hadn’t left. “What do you want?”

“You sounded unsure.” She told him. “Are you having second thoughts?”

“No.” Pilot replied, keeping his eyes closed with frustration. “Are you?”

“It isn’t my mother.”

Pilot opened his eyes. “Not mine either.”

“So if you find a way to put her down for good, you don’t need to keep looking for a cure?”

One of Pilot’s fists balled up briefly. He swallowed his emotions. “What did you really want?”

“You’re avoiding my question.”

“You leant on this wall way before you suspected me of second thoughts.” Pilot observed firmly. “What did you want to talk about?”

The gem scowled at his insistent evasion but let it go. “Where is she?”

“What?” As Pilot questioned her, the warp pad a little way from them chimed.

“Now that Bismuth has built this thing for you and you have me to guard it, we need to find her and put her in it. Where is she?”

“Not here.”

“I know she isn’t here! I-”

“Not here!” Pilot insisted, clarifying his words were not an answer but a command. He smiled suddenly, waving towards the warp pad. “Hey Steven! Over here!”

On the warp pad, Steven turned with a smile. “Hi Pilot! What sort of training did you want to do in Little Homeworld with… Jasper?” He approached the pair. “What brings you here?” He asked, trying to politely cover his surprise.

Jasper glanced down at Pilot.

“We were just… hanging out.” Pilot explained.

“I didn’t know you two hung out.” Steven noted.

“We do, sometimes.” Pilot responded. “But you were just heading out, weren’t you Jasper? You have stuff to be getting on with, like throwing boulders and brooding.”

Jasper stood up but didn’t go. “It can wait.”

“It can?”

“I want to see how you train a Diamond.”

“Alright then.” Pilot answered, standing himself with a well-hidden bristle of contempt. “Wonderful.”

“So, what are we going to do?” Steven asked. “We aren’t going to fight in the street, are we?”

“Maybe another day.” Pilot joked before pointing across the street. “You seen this place yet?”

Steven turned to behold an orange building that did little to stand out against the myriad of unique structures that made Little Homeworld. The hexagonal dome’s most unique features were the myriad of radar dish-like devices on its roof. “It’s new right?” Steven observed. “I’ve seen it a couple of times, but I’ve never been inside. What is it?”

“Earth’s branch of the GFC.” Pilot replied, walking towards it.

“GFC?”

“Gem Freelance Centre.” As Pilot and the others approached the doors, they opened automatically. “Now that gems are free, Homeworld doesn’t have a proper army anymore!”

Jasper grumbled at the thought.

Pilot ignored her. “Now that Zircon has been elected, the empire still needs stuff to be done and Homeworld hasn’t quite picked up on the idea of employment. This is where gems can volunteer to go on missions to help.”

“That’s pretty cool!” Steven grinned. “So, it’s like Amethyst’s GHEM program but for the whole empire?”

“Kinda.” Pilot admitted. “It’s more one-off gigs rather than long term jobs though.” He led them inside.

The room was lined with computer terminals on the walls and there were screens listing recently placed missions. Many terminals were in use by gems, many were of the kinds made for combat, but all sorts of gems were checking the listings. On the far side of the room was a desk, attended to by Volleyball, Pink Diamond’s original Pearl. “Welcome back Pilot! Will you be signing in today?”

“Sure will!” Pilot held his little white card up and let the Pearl use a hand scanner on it.

The word “Pilot” flashed up on a screen on the desk.

“These guys will be coming with me.” Pilot pointed over his shoulders at Steven and Jasper.

“Do they have accounts?”

“Accounts?” Steven questioned. “Can’t we just go on missions?”

“Of course not!” Volleyball smiled. “An account ensures that you can be found in the event something goes wrong, it keeps track of your prior successes and allows gems to contact you with missions that match your qualifications, not to mention that you need an account to have your reward distributed to you!”

“Reward!?” The half gem exclaimed. “We get paid!?”

“Better!” His mentor grinned. “Points!”

“Points?” Steven cocked an eyebrow.

“When you complete missions, you are given points depending on the inherent risk, time cost, and specialist skill requirements the mission entails.” Volleyball explained. “Points can be exchanged for soundtracks, personal assistance robanoids, and upgrades to your avatar.”

“Avatar?” Jasper repeated.

“May I scan your gems?” The pearl asked.

Receiving a nod from Pilot, Steven stepped forward, lifting his shirt a bit. “Sure.”

Steven briefly saw the words “Pink Diamond” on Volleyball’s screen before the gem turned it away. “Sorry! I’ll fix this right away!”

With her Diamond submitting to the scan, Jasper also complied.

“Very good!” Volleyball clapped her hands together. “I’ve gotten your accounts set up for you. Will the three of you be going on a mission together today?”

“You know it!” Pilot replied.

“Excellent. Please go to terminal alpha.”

“Thanks Volleyball!” Pilot waved as he took his compatriots to the computer.

As they approached, the screen lit up with three humanoid images, charming stylisations of Pilot, Steven, and Jasper.

Steven noticed the avatars weren’t perfect representations, his hair skin and clothes had been rendered in glowing pink. He was about to point this out when he saw Pilot’s avatar wore a flamboyant hat. “Did you upgrade your avatar Pilot?”

“I might have.” He replied self-importantly. “But that’s not important. What’s important is that now you have access to all sorts of missions to test your capabilities while helping people. What do you want to do today?” He swapped places with his apprentice, putting him in front of the screen. Suddenly, the screen was filled with hundreds of missions, overwhelming Steven almost immediately. “Remember,” Pilot added, “If you don’t do a mission, there’s Chorus knows how many gems who will do it for you, so no pressure, just pick what you like the look of.”

There were too many missions for Steven to reasonably analyse. To his relief, he realised that the missions had categories he could sort them by. “Let’s see, scouting, delivery, system optimisation, research, missing gems… Wait what!? Missing gems!? There are gems that have gone missing!?”

“It’s not as bad as it sounds.” Pilot assured him. “With all their new freedom some gems wander off without telling anyone where they’re going.”

“Nine times out of ten, they come back in less than a week.” Jasper added, having also heard of the phenomena.

“What about the one time?” Steven asked.

“Usually they just need somebody to find them and point them home.” Pilot answered.

Unconvinced, Steven filtered the missions to show him only those that pertained to missing gems. To his relief, the number of missions shrank drastically, though they did not fit on one page. “What else can I filter by?”

Pilot leant over and opened the advanced search options. “Risk severity, reward, location, necessary talents…”

“Thanks.” Steven set the location to Earth’s solar system, and the risk severity to high.

“Nice.” Jasper commented.

“If the mission is dangerous, that means the gem is in danger too!” He explained. He hit the search button.

No results found

“Well, that’s a relief.” Steven was about to search for another category when a new consideration crossed him. He removed the filter from the location settings.

A single response appeared:

Missing: Moss Agate. Last Seen: Homeworld. Last Transmission: Delta Quadrant Colony 7-Y

“Colony 7-Y…” Steven considered. “That’s the planet the Jungle Moon orbits!”

“Small universe.” Pilot placed a hand on his back. “You wanna take a look?”

Steven nodded as he clicked on the mission. His eyes widened at the image. “I know that gem! She’s the one from the recycling place on Homeworld!”

“She was not the type to wander off.” Pilot admitted. “Why is this mission so high risk?”

Steven scrolled down. “She disappeared from her office three days ago.” He read. “What’s this? She was in an unauthorised transmission released yesterday!? They have it here.” Steven scrolled to the video, hesitating only briefly at the distressing images and upsetting language warnings before pressing play.

A spotlight revealed Moss Agate in the pitch blackness, kneeling on the floor with her hands bound behind her back. She squinted in at the light, her face a mix of fear and anger. “Where am I? Who brought me here!? What do you want!?” As her eyes adjusted, she looked straight at the camera. “What is this?”

“Read it.” An off screen voice commanded.

Pilot reached over and paused the video. “That’s…”

“Bluebird.” Steven confirmed, allowing the video to continue.

The agates eyes traced as if reading something, shaking her head with disgust. “No. No, I won’t do it!” Suddenly, she lurched sideways, as if socked in the jaw by some invisible fist. “Do what you want!” She cried out, not trying to get back up. “No gem in this galaxy could make me-” Her voice trailed into a horrified croak as she looked up in terror at somebody who stayed off camera.

“Think about how easily we captured you!” Bluebird called out. Her speech made it clear that the threat was being fed to her as she spoke. “How easy do you think it would be to shatter those gems you sorted through filth with!?”

“D-Don’t hurt them. Please!” The agate begged. “I’ll do it, just leave them alone!”

“Good choice.” The fusion answered coldly.

The invisible force sat Moss Agate back up as she focused on the words that had first caught her attention. She started to read. “Era 3 is the death of gemkind. Pearls walk the streets, lashing out with self-obsession their subservient minds are not equipped to handle. The gems who by their great power hold an indisputable right to respect and recognition are forced into the common rabble. The brute agates,” she gulped slightly, the words paining her, “such as myself, foolishly celebrating our so-called freedom with the quartzes and rubies we once kept in line, are ticking timebombs. Who shall we fight for now that our…” she squinted, not recognising the word, “god-desses? The Diamonds, have abandoned us to leaders of our own choosing. We are led by a zircon the Diamonds' might could erase in seconds, yet they do not correct our mistake. This is the latest sign that the empire made in diamonds is dead, killed by humanity’s dalliance with our kind. If we wish to survive, we must make the empire anew, we must make the Empire in Silver.” The feed cut out at just the right time to see the polyhedral tip of a pink bludgeon come into frame.

Steven was left speechless.

“This isn’t a missing gem…” Pilot murmured. “This is a Chorus cursed kidnapping! Moss Agate wasn’t picked at random; they knew you knew her. How?”

“That mace,” Steven exclaimed, “that mace belongs to the Morganite who was hiding with her!”

“The one who ran off after being controlled by the black spindle!” Pilot recalled.

“Y-Yeah.” Steven realised. “It has to be affecting her somehow.”

“You destroyed it, Steven.” The kelmep reminded him.

“Why does it matter!?” Jasper roared, plunging her fist into a neighbouring computer. “They’ve declared war on you! On us! We have to crush them into shards before they get out of control!”

“Yes,” Pilot replied with lethal sarcasm, “let’s turn them all into martyrs for other dissatisfied gems to emulate!”

“Guys!” Steven shouted over them. “Whatever we do, we can’t leave Moss Agate there with them!”

“She’s probably shards already.” Jasper stated.

Pilot put a sympathetic hand on the boy’s shoulder. “I hate to agree with Jasper, but…”

“We have to make sure!” Steven countered. “We have to do this mission! Other gems will get hurt trying to if we don’t.”

Pilot took a deep breath before nodding. “Alright.” He took another breath. “Alright. First mission and we’re starting big!” He pressed the volunteer button and looked over at Volleyball. “We’re taking this mission and I don’t think Steven will take no for an answer.”

Chapter Text

The first week of junior year had come and gone for Connie and the other teens her age, with the ringing of the school bell, Connie and her school friends, Daniel and Patricia had taken the bus home to study together at her house. Unfortunately, the school bus route didn’t come very close to Connie’s home, meaning that she had to switch to a public bus for the final leg of her journey. It was only a small aggravation though, one that Connie had grown accustomed to when she was a sophomore.

Daniel glanced down at his watch; it had been five minutes since the school bus had left them. “How long does it normally take for the bus to get here Connie?”

“It’s only two minutes late!” Patricia chided him gently. “You that excited to get down to studying some chemistry, nerd?”

“Hey!” Connie smirked. “Don’t call my Daniel a nerd, you nerd!”

Patricia and Daniel looked at each other before pointing back at Connie. “Nerd!”

As the pair laughed, Connie folded her arms in mock offence. “Excuse me! I’ll have you know that I’m a gem trained swordsman!”

“Doesn’t stop you from being a nerd like us though!” Patricia put an arm over her friend’s shoulder. When she and Daniel had met Connie’s boyfriend, Steven, for the first at the roller rink and he had blurted out about being stranded on distant moons and almost dying to robanoids, Connie was left with little option but to come clean.

For Daniel and Patricia, the news had been astounding. Their friend, the affable, studious, sometimes sassy Connie Maheswaran was a master swordswoman on the front lines saving the Earth from a second gem war with her half gem boyfriend, the so called ‘lucky bandage’ she wore on her right hand in truth containing a myriad of swords. The pair had had many questions, of course, but as time went by, they began to realise that for all the paper swords and all the battle instincts, Connie was still the affable, studious, sometimes sassy Connie Maheswaran they had come to know. Indeed, in the telling of some of the most exceptional parts of Connie’s life, Connie’s personality rang through.

Suddenly, a van turned the corner, old, beaten, and welcome to Connie’s eyes. “Greg?” She smiled and waved as the vehicle approached.

“Mr. Universe?” Daniel read aloud.

“Yeah,” Connie confirmed. “Steven’s dad.”

Greg’s van rolled to a gentle stop, rolling down its window to show that Greg was not the driver.

“Garnet!?” Connie exclaimed. “What are you doing here?”

“Your bus is going to be delayed by an hour.” The gem predicted. “Do you need a lift?”

“Sure!” Connie beamed. Suddenly, she remembered that she wasn’t alone. “If that alright with you guys.”

“Sure!” Patricia agreed.

The students boarded the van, Daniel sat in the passenger seat and the girls climbed in the back. Connie was glad to see that Garnet had decluttered the van, removing Greg’s blankets and clothes, though it did make her worry what the fusion had done with them.

Once the doors were closed and Daniel had put on his seat belt Garnet drove off.

Daniel looked from the road ahead to their driver. Daniel had been allowed the front seat because of how easily he got carsick, but he felt that Connie would have probably preferred his spot, next to the otherworldly woman she was so familiar with.

Living so close to Beach City, Daniel and Patricia had of course seen gems every now and then over the past two years, but that hadn’t made the sight of them much less unreal. The world outside of Beach City was still coming to grips with having aliens in their midst and for her friends, Connie’s ability to talk about her life with gems as if they were just regular people was almost more stunning than her abilities as a swordswoman.

“So…” Daniel glanced again at the gem. “Thanks for giving us a ride, Miss…? Ms...?”

“Mrs.” She corrected. “Garnet is fine.”

Daniel looked down at the her hands and saw the wedding ring. “Oh, right.” As Garnet steered around a corner, Daniel saw the other wedding ring. “Huh?”

Garnet gave him a quick glance.

“Uh…” He feared he had offended her. “Oh yeah! Connie said how you married yourself right!?”

“She’s a fusion.” Patricia corrected. “Right?”

“Yep.” Garnet made a small smile.

“Oh, that’s pretty cool.” Daniel gave the fusion another look. Though he had met Stevonnie, he had expected full gem fusions to be more akin to the robots piloted by the Terrific Transforming Action Associates, not the seamless being that now drove him in a rusted old van.

“I know.” She smiled, lifting her shades to wink and startle him with her three eyes. She smiled down at him with a chuckle before returning her attention to the road.

Garnet remained in stoic but good humour for the remainder of the journey. As they approached Connie’s street however, her smile diminished, and she slowed the van to a crawl.

“So, where are we going to set up?” Patricia asked her friend.

“Anywhere is fine.” Connie replied. “My parents are both at work, so-”

“Good.” Garnet stated with unusual seriousness.

“Garnet?” Connie manoeuvred to over the fusion’s shoulder. “What’s up?”

“Why are we moving so slow?” Daniel added. “Connie’s house is down there.”

Garnet shook her head. Stealthily, the van pulled up on the Maheswaran residence. Daniel’s and Connie’s mouths went dry.

“Home intruders.” The boy gasped.

Up above, the window of Doug and Priyanka’s bedroom had been smashed open, curtains and netting waving in the breeze.

As well as the normal fear and distress such a turn provoked in most people, Daniel and Patricia felt a small thrill of excitement. Perhaps they’d finally get to see Connie dispense justice on whatever luckless burglar had chosen to rob a master swordswoman’s house.

“You’ve picked the wrong house, buddy.” Connie murmured, drawing her sabre and opening the van’s back doors.

“Connie, wait!” Garnet ordered.

Connie looked back. “What is it?”

Garnet rolled down the van’s window and shouted out of it. “You! Get out of the car!”

Doug’s car, its passenger side window smashed, came to life. With no visible driver, its tyres screeched, throwing it out of the driveway, missing the van by centimetres as it sped down the street.

Garnet pressed the accelerator down, sending the van careening after it.

Connie caught Patricia as she fell towards the still open doors. She placed her fiend’s hand on a handle on the van’s ceiling “Hold on!” Connie clambered forwards, pulling her now empty lunch bag from her schoolbag and handing it to Daniel. “Here! Keep your seatbelt on!” She turned to Garnet. “My friends are still here!”

“If we stop to let them out, she’ll get away!”

“She?” Connie still couldn’t see who was driving her father’s car.

Suddenly, the fleeing car rumbled, and, with a bang, a black smokescreen erupted from its exhaust.

“Connie, get up and spot for me!”

“Alright Garnet!” Connie caught the top of the van and swung herself up to stand on the roof. In the open air above the smoke, Connie could see the car and smell its exhaust, a familiar artificially sweet pencil shaving smell she couldn’t quite pin the origin of in her memory. It made her agitated. “She’s going left!” She called, shouting to overcome the sound of the roaring engines. “Right! She’s speeding up! What the- Dodge right! Left!”

Garnet swerved in the mist, trusting Connie’s warnings while her future vision tried to catch up with the rapid turn of events.

Daniel, now terrified and trying not to throw up, searched the pitch blackness for threat. “What are we dodging!? Oncoming traffic?”

Garnet gritted her teeth. “No.”

Suddenly, a semisolid mass of black slammed against the windscreen. Daniel and Patricia screamed as it reeled back to reveal a dull silver beak that it slammed against the windscreen. “We’re gonna die! We are going to die!” Patricia cried.

“No, we’re not!” Garnet reached a gauntleted hand out of the van and grabbed the creature, throwing it aside.

Patricia turned to the back of the van. Through the dissipating mist, she saw the creature roll down the road before picking itself up and scampering away into the undergrowth. “Are we just going to let that monster terrorise the suburbs!?”

Garnet frowned. “Connie!” She called. “Call Pearl and get her to deal with these things!”

“Kinda busy!” Another of the amorphous beings had stuck itself to the side of Greg’s van. It whipped a black tentacle, tipped with cruel grey sickle, at Connie. She noticed that as its appendage rose above the mist into the sunlight, it seemed to thin and shrink quite significantly. Connie sliced off the withered limb and cartwheeled to the back of the van. “Patricia, you know my password! Pearl’s in my contacts!” Connie fished out her mobile and tossed it into the vehicle.

As Patricia lunged for the phone and unlocked it, Daniel looked back. “You know the password to Connie’s phone!?”

“Yeah!” She replied.

“Why don’t I!?” He complained.

“We're doing this now!?” Patricia asked incredulously.

“I can’t ask when the octopus monsters have eaten us!”

Patricia sighed as she searched through Connie’s contacts. “Connie and I have each other’s passwords so we can do girl stuff together.”

“What kind of-”

“Girl stuff!” She insisted crossly.

While Patricia made the call, Connie continued to fight off creatures that she could not steer the van from, all the while keeping an eye on the car in front. “We’re gaining on them! Pull around!”

At her shout, Garnet steered the van and finally drove out of the fog and into the light. Side to side with Doug’s car, Garnet slammed into it, trying to force it to pull over.

In Doug’s car, a black gem shard rose in the air before suddenly pinging out the window.

Like a bullet, the shard smashed through the van’s passenger side window. Garnet thrust out her arm, catching it in her gauntlet before it could hit a stunned Daniel. Garnet drew in her fist to inspect the projectile, when black tentacles wormed their way through her fingers. One tentacle grew a hardened spike with which it slashed at the fusion’s face.

Recoiling with a grimace, Garnet tried to throw the new creature out the window. It held on. “Let go!” She demanded. “You’re only making things worse for yourself!” Due to fighting the new creature while driving, Garnet started to lose control of the vehicle.

Still on the roof, Connie tried to ground herself as she attempted to see who was stealing her dad’s vehicle. She still saw no driver, but she did see another shard line itself up with Daniel’s head while Garnet was occupied. “Oh no you don’t!” Connie ran and jumped from the van.

“Connie!” Garnet cried. “Get back here!”

Unable to hear her, Connie rolled across the car’s roof and swung herself feet first to kick through the open passenger window.

Connie came to a sudden stop. Inside the car, she saw nobody. She had landed in a pile of her mother’s clothes with an unseen force holding her firmly by the leg. “Who are you! Get off me!”

A voice spoke. “Now now dear, buckle up.”

“Don’t talk like I’m your kid! Pull over!” Connie thrust her sword forward.

Something caught her by the wrist. “Oh, but you are. Your mother married me.” The voice explained. “I know it’s a big adjustment, but I know that one day you will call me father.”

“You expect me to believe that mom and dad split up while I was at school!?”

The voice faltered for a moment. “I didn’t know your mother had an ex-husband.”

“Doug Maheswaran! The guy whose car you’re stealing!”

Genuine relief flowed into the invisible being’s speech. “Oh! I see! You think I’d settle for that bitch Priyanka?” She laughed. “No, you’ve outgrown her. I’m taking you to your real mother.”

Connie’s blood went cold. She knew where she recognised the smell from. She struggled for her very life.

The car screeched to a halt and the driver’s side door flew from its hinges. Gems panicked as Connie and the bundle of her mother’s clothes seemed to fly out of the car and struggle through the air towards the warp pad. “Help me!” She cried out.

Hearing her, Biggs, Crazy Lace, and Snowflake ran to her aid. “We’ve got you Connie!” Snowflake shouted.

Connie’s captor threw a handful of gem shards at them. “You should worry about yourselves.”

As the shards flew, they expanded and merged into two shadow creatures large enough to engulf Biggs and Snowflake. Crazy Lace, trusting her comrades, pushed forwards until a claw struck her in the back. She looked back in horror. “Biggs?”

Biggs Jasper’s body had been forcefully merged with her assailant, leaving her with heaving great grey claws and black veins all over. “H-Help me!” She lunged at her allies.

Meanwhile, Connie continued to be dragged away. “How many will die because you called for help my dear?” Her captor asked.

“None.” Standing herself between them and the warp pad, Topaz drew her two-headed mace. “Let her go Clear Quartz.”

“You’re in my way.” Clear Quartz stated. “I am out of shadow shards though and I suppose a fight against a topaz fusion would not be in my favour.” Suddenly, a fist shaped impression appeared in Topaz’s stomach. “Then again, none of you have a real gem’s loyalty.”

Connie was carried through Topaz as the fusion poofed.

Finally, Greg’s van caught up again, swerving to a halt. Garnet stepped out of the van, crushing her attacking monster under her heel as she went. “Connie!” She ran for the warp pad.

Connie reached back. “Garnet!” The warp pad activated, and she was whisked away.

Chapter Text

Garnet jumped onto the warp pad. “Stay here!” She yelled at Connie’s friends. The warp pad activated.

As the fusion appeared on the Galaxy Warp, she saw the smoking husks of security robanoids littering the structure, along with the stones of several gem visitors.

Garnet stepped off the warp pad, trying to trace the trail of destruction. There was a cry behind her. “Garnet! Get away!” Cherry Quartz climbed up over the Galaxy Warp’s lip. Her body was being controlled by a shadow shard, obvious from the black veins and grey claws. She charged the fusion.

Garnet ducked aside, catching one clawed hand and pulling the quartz onto her knee. Doubled over, the back of Cherry Quartz’s neck was exposed. In a cluster of veins, a black gem shard sat. Garnet tore it out.

The veins and claws vanished in a black mist as Cherry lurched forwards.

Garnet crushed the shadowy creature as it tried to emerge and contained the now green shard in a bubble.

The quartz turned to the fusion with eyes filled with gratitude. “Garnet, thank you!”

“Show me where Connie went!” Garnet demanded. “Now!”

Cherry Quartz pointed to a distant warp pad as she led the fusion to it. “I can pull up it’s most recent destination if you want.”

“Thank you.” Garnet nodded, standing on the warp pad.

Cherry knelt at the warp pad’s side and opened a hidden terminal. With a few button presses, Garnet was sent on her way.

Garnet appeared beneath a night’s sky. Before her, she saw, that Connie had finally gotten her feet on the ground and was trying to get her sword arm free of Clear Quartz’s grasp. “Let go of me!”

“Come now dear,” Clear chided, “you’re already on this planet, nobody’s ever going to find y- oh.”

“Let her go!” Garnet roared, jumping off the warp pad.

“Why don’t you take a nap honey.” The quartz told Connie.

“Wha-AHHH!” Connie was flung aside, crashing face first into a steel barricade.

“No parent would do that to their child!” Garnet accused, her eyes seeming to follow the bundle of clothes still under the kidnapper’s arm.

“I’m learning!” Clear barked back. “Besides, it was for her own good! We don’t want her to watch you die yet!” She rushed towards the fusion.

Garnet caught the invisible fist. “She won’t.” Garnet raised her gauntlet, shining a metallic black. “I can see you.”

Clear Quartz let out a single frightened whine before Garnet punched her in the jaw, sending her flying backwards. Hitting the wall of some sort of building, the invisible gem gathered up the dropped clothes and fled inside.

Garnet stared for a moment, making sure the quartz was gone before running over to the human on the ground. “Connie, wake up.” The fusion shook her shoulder.

“Five more minutes.” She muttered groggily. She reached for her head. “Ouch…”

Garnet lifted her onto her feet. “I’m not your mother, Connie.”

The word mother sent a shock through Connie’s system, waking her up almost instantly. “Garnet! Where are we!?”

The ground was bare, bleached almost white. Around them were walls, functional grey and yellow gem architecture. They seemed to be in some sort of extensive military base with varyingly sized buildings and fortifications. In the distance, in the compound’s far corner, a tower loomed, crowned with a giant cannon. It pointed towards the night sky, as if to threaten the stars.

“We are on colony 7-Y.” Garnet identified. “That up there,” She pointed skywards at a green and pink circle in the sky, “is the jungle moon.”

“It looks so small from here.” Connie marvelled for a moment before remembering the situation. “Garnet, that gem was working for Roxillan!”

“I know.”

“We should get out of here!” Connie went for the warp pad.

Garnet caught her arm. “Wait!”

“Why?” As Garnet let go of her arm, Connie saw a vision of the warp pad detonating with her stood upon it.

In reality, the warp pad started flashing, whining like a frighted animal. Garnet grabbed Connie, shielding her from the blast. “Watch out!”

An instant later, Connie’s vision, sans her own demise, came true.

As the ringing in her ears died down, Connie slipped out of Garnet’s hold. She surveyed the damage. Chunks of blue crystal lay where they had been cast, scorch marks painted the whitish earth, and where the warp pad had once stood lay a crater. “Why did it do this? Warp pads don’t just… blow up.”

“It seems they don’t want us to leave.” As Garnet stood, Connie saw her back change from metallic black to its normal reddish colour.

“Hey,” Connie realised, “that’s haki! How did you do that?”

“You think I’d let Pilot keep all his secrets?” The fusion smiled.

Connie smiled back before looking around. “What do we do now? Is there another warp pad nearby?”

Garnet adjusted her visor. “Several days away on foot.” She predicted. “They have the outer walls guarded, but a spaceship landed recently. It’s nearby. That’s our way out.” Garnet nodded in the opposite direction than the one Clear Quartz had fled in.

The roads were empty, the barracks they crossed through were quiet. Connie kept her sword drawn in its gladius shape. The silence was getting to her. “Garnet? Where is everyone?”

“This base was abandoned when Yellow Diamond broke up her army. Since nobody’s maintaining it, entry has been restricted for safety reasons.”

“But Roxillan’s taken over this place, right?”

Garnet brought a hand to her face. “Yes.”

“Then where’s her-” Connie stopped. “Wait, did you just check your future vision to answer my question?”

“Yes.”

“Is Roxillan here?” The girl hissed. “In this base?”

“Yes.”

“Does she know were here?”

“She will soon. Just as soon as Clear Quartz gets those clothes to her.” Garnet confirmed. “Let’s go.”

“But that’s what I don’t understand.” Connie continued as she followed the fusion. “Clear Quartz could have carried me with no problem if they didn’t have one arm full of clothes. What does Roxillan want with them?”

“Roxillan can’t bring physical objects into other dimensions.” The fusion reminded her. “She probably wanted to be dressed.”

“Why send Clear to Earth though!? Why my house!?”

“They were your mother’s clothes.” Garnet pointed out.

“I…” Connie shivered with disgust. “That is so messed up. Garnet, is there any chance we can get out of here without seeing Roxillan dressed up as my-”

She was cut off by the whine of an intercom system. “Your attention please, this is your duchess speaking.” Roxillan played a short tune on a xylophone. “I have just received the news that my daughter has arrived. If you see her, be sure to give her a warm welcome, but don’t be surprised if she’s a feisty little thing, she takes after her mother after all. We will also be performing an aerial scan so we can pin down where you should all go if you’d like to say hello!”

As the xylophone chimed again, Connie and Garnet looked back. From the gun toting tower flew a swarm of robanoids. On the far wall, they lined up, activating a wall of red searchlights. As one, they moved forward.

“Run!” Garnet grabbed Connie by the hand and charged through the streets. There was suddenly another row of lights ahead of them. Garnet, stopped, looking left and right. Suddenly, she saw an open door. “In here!”

They dashed in, the searchlights missing them by centimetres as they passed. The room they were in was surprisingly well lit, lacking furniture besides a large metal sphere in the centre and a staircase to a walkway that hung above them. The room was occupied. “Welcome home Connie.” A blue quartz grinned madly.

“Aw nuts.” Connie complained.

“They’re under Roxillan’s control. We’ll have to fight them.” Garnet summoned her gauntlets and lunged striking the quartz in the chest before flipping her arm around to strike her face, downing her in rapid fashion.

“Here Connie,” An agate held her hands out to grab the small human. “Roxillan only want’s you hurt as much as you make necessary so just-” The gem’s face twisted to one of shock as Connie thrust her gladius into the gem’s neck. Seeing how their ally had underestimated the girl, the remaining gems drew weapons.

Garnet crushed a milky quartz’s serrated sword in her gauntlet before punching her away. There was a laugh behind her, a towering fusion of rubies approached.

“Ha! It’s three against two, Garnet.” She allowed her trio of gems to glint in the light as she swung a cocky overhead strike.

Garnet caught the swinging arms. “This isn’t about numbers.” She wound up to punch her opponent.

“Uh… Rush her!” The ruby divided into three, swarming Garnet.

“Get off!” Garnet unleashed a burst of lightning, throwing the rubies to the ground where they poofed.

Meanwhile, Connie rolled between the legs of an onyx, stabbing her in the back as she rose. She turned just in time to sidestep a rolling amethyst. Missing her mark, the remaining quartz leapt out of her ball, falling upon the human with a two-pronged spear.

Connie held her ground, raising her short sword between the prongs. She held firm as the impact hit. The amethyst’s eyes widened in shock at how hard the little human pushed against her.

“I guess I am getting stronger.” Connie realised.

The quartz took a step forwards, pushing her back.

“Still not got the power of a quartz.”  She admitted. She vaulted over the spear and flipped over the wielder’s head. As she flew, her gladius became a longsword, slashing vertically through her opponent. Connie turned her sword to the next gem but stopped.

This gem wasn’t fighting, she had been cuffed at her hands, feet, and hair, and by a collar around her neck, she was chained to the room’s central ball, which Connie had unintentionally fought her way towards.

The gem looked up at her. “Connie?”

Connie recognised her instantly. “Moss Agate? What are you doing here?”

“You can’t be here too, Connie! It’s a trap!”

“We know!” Garnet replied, bubbling the poofed gems and sending them to the temple.

“The silver duchess is here!” The agate insisted. “She can’t get both of you!”

Dread crept up Connie’s spine. “What do you mean ‘both of you’?” She asked.

“I’m sorry! I couldn’t stop her!”

Garnet took a step forwards, fear creeping up within her. “Tell us what you mean. Now.”

Tears welled in Moss Agates eyes. “She’s got Steven!”

Chapter Text

“Moonwalk.” Pilot stepped through the air onto the outer wall before jumping down silently into the base. "Right, a finger of fudge for whoever finds Mossy."

Jasper cleared the wall with a single bound, landing beside the kelmep and looking around. “This place is abandoned!” She complained.

Pilot put a finger to his lips. “Sh!” He sniffed the air. “The generators are running. We aren’t alone.”

“How did you know to start looking here?” Steven asked, floating down to join them.

“They’re starting a new empire, they’re rebelling, they’re preparing for war.” Pilot explained. “We know Bluebird is involved. Eyeball is an old school gem soldier. She thinks of war the way Era 2 taught its soldiers to think of war. Jasper, what’s the first thing you do when going to war?”

“Raise an army.” Jasper answered.

“See?” Pilot highlighted. “Nothing fancy, just soldiers and a place to put them.”

“What about Aquamarine?” Steven pointed out.

“I texted the same question I just asked Jasper to my mum. She replied ‘lay low and gather information’. This is a restricted site on an active colony, what better place to gather information from?”

“So, where’s the enemy?” Jasper looked around, expecting an ambush.

“Hiding.” Pilot replied. “This planet is scanned by satellite imaging. An army out in the open would draw attention.”

“Cowardly.” The quartz spat. “Why don’t they just come out here and fight us!?”

Jasper’s shout was answered by a beeping noise. The wall opened behind them. The three dashed forward to avoid being flattened by rolling spheres of varying sizes. They shed cylindrical pegs and stood up. Above them conical shapes flew.

“Robanoids!” Steven recognized.

The artillery robanoids fired.

Jasper rolled forward through the laser fire, weaving between the heavy shots from the tank sized robanoids. Before she could hit the firing line though, a swarm of slicer robanoids, built for melee, jumped her. Several were shredded on impact, Jasper took another and slammed it into its ally while caving in a third with her helmet. A fourth and fifth jumped on her back, trying to find purchase for their blades as she shook them back and forth. More and more robanoids piled on her as she smashed them, until the gem could not be seen for metal spheres and bladed limbs. This was what Jasper wanted, she had drawn the defenders’ attention, giving her allies a chance to assault the gunnery. With a flare of orange light, she threw the machines asunder. “Where’s the real soldiers!?”

“This new empire in silver is a hard sell to quartzes!” Pilot replied, catching one robanoid’s bladed arm and driving it into another’s body before kicking the pair of them away as he ran for the artillery, warping between the lasers. “Turns out most quartzes like not being soldiers! They have to round out their ranks somehow!” He zipped from one blast cannon toting robanoid to the next, pulling back their guns until they broke off. He ran into one of the huge models and put a hand to the cannon as it turned to him. “Well, you have strong servos.” He dodged the close-range blast and cast the black and blue paper ribbon around his wrist back. It wrapped around a flying robanoid’s wider end and he slammed it into the barrel of the larger cannon. As it was programmed to on taking excessive damage, the smaller robanoid self-destructed. As the larger robanoid started to smoke and spark, Pilot zipped back. “Take cover!”

“Get over here!” Steven expended his shield as Pilot slipped behind him. When the explosion passed, Steven shrunk down his shield and threw it into another airborne machine. He created a pair of hexagons to slice through two more before jumping and slamming a shield into a tank robanoid, breaking it in half like an egg. Hearing the whirring of machinery fall silent, Steven looked around. The robanoids had been defeated. “Are we good?”

“A little louder than I would have liked,” Pilot replied, “but yes, for now.”

Steven looked down at the broken sphere before him. Suddenly he stepped back, away from the black liquid that leaked from it. “What is this stuff? Oil?”

Pilot stared down in horror. “Blood.”

Suddenly, the intercom squeaked to life again. “Your attention please, this is your duchess speaking.” Roxillan played her xylophone. “We have some intruders on the eastern wall. You know what to do.”

“Shit.”

“That was Roxillan!” Steven realised with mounting dread.

Jasper’s eyes glittered at the opportunity. “She’s here!? Let’s get her!”

“Not on her terms!” Pilot barked at her. “We have to lose ourselves, sneak up on her. This way.”

Pilot leading the way, the three ran beside the outer wall before turning down a tighter alley.

“What’s the plan!?” Steven asked.

“Still thinking!” Pilot replied. “I’m open to suggestions!”

“We find an open area and challenge Roxillan and her commanders to single combat!” Jasper exclaimed.

“I’m open to suggestions that won’t get us all killed!” Pilot replied.

Suddenly, three gems turned the corner in front of them, quartzes. “Pilot!” One spat venomously.

“Is that dear Steven behind him though?” Another crooned. “Welcome home Steven!”

“Hey!” Pilot called. “Don’t forget Jasper!” He stepped aside to show a spinning ball of orange. “Why don’t you introduce yourself, Jasper?”

Jasper charged into the enemy.

Two were flattened, one had the awareness to jump the quartz, only to be impaled on Pilot’s finger. “Finger Pistol!”

Jasper stood up and looked back. “What are you doing!? We don’t have time to take prisoners!”

Steven looked up from collecting the second of the three fallen gems. “They aren’t prisoners!”

“They’re under Roxillan’s control.” Pilot explained, tossing the last gem to Steven so the half gem could bubble them and send them home.

The three ran a little while longer. “We should have ran into more guards.” Jasper observed.

“I know.” Pilot agreed. “Hold up.” The three stopped outside a warehouse-like building.

“Have we lost them?” Steven asked.

Pilot put a hand to his head and focused. “I don’t sense anyone under Roxy’s influence nearby. I think we’re…” He turned to the building, pressing his fingers into it.

“What is it?” Jasper asked. “More enemies?”

Pilot shook his head. “There’s a gem in here and she isn’t under Roxillan’s power. Someone could be working with her willingly, but it could be a prisoner.”

“Mossy.” Steven realised.

Pilot put a hand to a door’s control panel. From his wrist slipped several hair thin copper wires, snaking their way into the circuitry and hacking the door open.

The three slipped in.

The room was wide and well lit from a walkway and open skylight above. The centre of the room was dominated by a huge metal sphere. Chained to it by the neck knelt Moss Agate.

“Mossy!” Steven ran to her.

Moss Agate looked up “Steven!?”

“How did you get here? What have they done to you!? I’ll get you out!”

“No!” She cried, moving back.

“Steven, don’t touch her!” Pilot dashed forward and grabbed the boy.

“What is it?”

“It’s a bomb.” Pilot let go of Steven and began to pace around the metal sphere. Gently he touched it. He put his tongue to it. He backed off, spitting on the floor. “Nuclear. If this thing went off, it could take out the whole base.”

Steven stared at the metal ball. “Can we disarm it?”

Pilot took a closer look at the collar around Moss Agate’s neck. “If this is tampered with, it sends a signal to the bomb to detonate. But there’s no receiver on the bomb’s surface. It has to be internal, but then a device this size wouldn’t be able to overcome the radioactivity. They’d need something with short range and high frequency.” He thought hard before suddenly turning. “Jasper! This base is made to the usual base blueprint, right?”

“Yes.”

“Could you find the local comms centre?”

“Easily.”

“Destroy it.”

With a nod, Jasper headed for the door.

Steven went to follow her, but Pilot raised an arm to block him. “When the comms units are destroyed, Roxillan will know what we’re doing. We have to get Mossy out and go as soon as it happens.”

As Jasper slipped through the door, Steven quietly called after her. “Be careful!”

The quartz nodded and left.

With little else they could do, the others waited. Steven tried to comfort Moss Agate. “We’ll get you out of here, it’s almost over.”

“You shouldn’t have come here Steven.”

“What?” Steven gasped. “Mossy, of course I had to come, I couldn’t leave you here!”

“Have you seen the Silver Duchess?” Moss Agate asked.

“Yes.” He frowned.

“Then how can you bare to be anywhere near her!?” She cried. “The things she does to gems, to shards, it’s disgusting. I… she talks about you, Connie too, all the time. She wants to take you; she wants to turn you into her.”

 “Can we have more details about what she’s doing to the gems and shards?” Pilot raised his head from his curled up silent position. “I’d like to know what we’re up against.” Pilot had taken out a flashbang and started playing with it to vent his agitation at his biological mother’s proximity.

“I…” Moss Agate looked up, trying to find words to describe the terrible deeds she had witnessed. She froze, mouth falling agape in terror. “The Silver Duchess!”

Pilot and Steven were on their feet in an instant, the half gem summoning his shield. “Roxillan!”

Roxillan smiled down at them. “Hello dearie.”

“Don’t talk to him!” Pilot shouted up at her.

“Are you jealous I’m not talking to you, Pilot?”

“Oh, we’ll have plenty of time to talk!” He growled. “Steven, stay here and protect Moss Agate!”

“But-”

“Stay here!” Pilot cast out the ribbon, throwing himself through the skylight with a punch.

Roxillan dodged back and summoned her spear. “Aggressive today, aren’t we?”

Pilot dodged the weapon and lunged.

Roxillan disappeared into a black aether.

He looked around. Seeing her appear on another rooftop, he ran and leapt across to join her. “You aren’t getting away this time!”

Roxillan didn’t try to dodge. “You know, if you weren’t so insistent on this aggression…”

Pilot threw himself at her. He fell through her form. “What? I… You’re a…”

“… you might have paid attention.” She disappeared with a chuckle.

“Steven!” As Pilot got to his feet the floor gave way beneath him. He fell.

Steven heard the crash. “I’ll be right back Mossy, I have to go help.”

“I think Pilot can handle a simple illusion.” Roxillan stepped half way out of the shadows on the catwalk above, the darkness maintaining her modesty.

“What!?” Steven prepared to jump at her.

“Steven!” Moss Agate begged. “You don’t know what she’s capable of! Run!”

“I wouldn’t do that dear.” Roxillan brought her hand into the light, holding a device with a button on it. “What do you think this is?”

Steven nervously flicked his eyes over to the bomb Moss Agate was still chained to.

“Very good my dear.” She smiled, tracing her thumb over the detonator. “Why shouldn’t I?”

“It would kill you!”

“I’d recover.”

“It would kill me!” He called back. “You wouldn’t kill me!”

“Oh Steven, you don’t think I thought of you? I know how much your bubble can stand up to. If this bomb goes off, you’ll have third degree burns all over, broken bones, ruptured eardrums, and massive internal haemorrhaging, not to mention acute irradiation. But you won’t die, your bubble will absorb enough of the blast before giving in. I’m afraid I can’t make the same promise for Pilot, or Mossy, or any of the other gems in my employ.”

“What if I don’t raise a bubble!?”

“I’m willing to wager you will.” She smiled. “Are you really going to kill everyone here including yourself to spite me?”

He stared up at the detonator, his pulse spiking every time Roxilan’s thumb danced close to the button. “What do you want?”

A door opened behind on the far side of the room. “I’ll see you there when I’m dressed sweetie.”

Steven knew that going somewhere under Roxillan’s instruction was indescribably dangerous. He tried to stall. “What’s in there?”

“You’ll see.” Though she smiled, she raised the detonator threateningly. “Don’t test me darling.”

“Steven, no!” Bound as she was, Moss Agate could only watch as Steven lowered his head and marched into the room.

The door slammed closed behind him. “What the? Get off me! Ow! Stop! No!” A pink light shone from the gaps in the door, only to be extinguished almost immediately, muffling Steven’s screams of pain and terror as if they were through tar.

Moss Agate turned up to her captor in horror and fury. “What are you doing to him!?”

“I hate to punish him.” Roxillan frowned with almost genuine remorse. “I’m a very forgiving mother really. I can only blame myself that my children grew so rebellious. Though it breaks my heart to do it, I must put my foot down, for their sake.”

Chapter Text

“Over he-”

Jasper punched the gem down before they could raise the alarm. Her diamond had told her to be careful, so the quartz made sure to leave no witnesses. She broke off a support beam for a satellite dish and threw it after a fleeing gem, lancing her through the chest.

It had taken her longer than she would have liked to admit to pick her way through the stronghold, what with having to avoid fights where gems could flee and warn others and taking the time to bubble foes so they couldn’t reform, but she had finally gotten to the comms centre. She looked at the door before suddenly punching the ground at her feet. While long range communications were above ground, the actual computers that maintained local comms were underground for defence. She dropped into the maintenance tunnel below.

She lifted her foot, the floor was slick with the black liquid that had leaked from the robanoids, blood as Pilot had called it. Jasper didn’t trust it, but there was no patch of floor unsullied by it.

She stepped down towards the maintenance hatch but stopped at the door. She looked down. The black blood was not stagnant in this area, it was flowing, seeping from under the door. This wasn’t right. She took a step back and readied her charge. A giant hand of black ice, like a dark gauntlet, burst through the maintenance hatch, grabbing Jasper, and pulling her in.

“Well, well, well.” A voice mused from behind the wall of servers. “I was expecting to kill Pilot today, but what a pleasant surprise to see you.” The hand turned so Jasper faced the gem speaking to her. “Jasper.”

“You.” Jasper growled. “You assaulted my diamond!  When I get out of this I’m going to-” Jasper lost her words as she fully beheld her captor. “What happened to you!? That’s disgusting!”

“Oh Jasper,” Bluebird chided, “I know how you feel about fusion, but there’s no need for petty insults.”

“Not that! Your gems!”

“Hm?” The fusion raised a hand to her face, catching some of the kelmepi blood that leaked profusely from her gemstones. She inspected it with a smirk. “Oh, that! It’s nothing really. A made a little deal with Roxillan.”

“The Silver Duchess!” Jasper spat. “You traitor!” Jasper freed her arm, breaking the giant hand’s thumb. She swung at the fusion.

Bluebird dodged deftly as a column of black ice sprung from the floor, catching the quartz’s fist. “Look at the power she’s given me! Isn’t it incredible!” She reached up for her gems and a strand of blood aligned with her hand and solidified into a sabre. “Incredible enough to slice the legendary perfect quartz in half.” She pointed her sword at Jasper’s gem. Bluebird watched Jasper struggle for a moment, before lowering her blade. “Join us.”

“What!?” She demanded.

“Ruby still admires you. I don’t know if you remember, Ruby Facet-1F4 Cut-4ND? Does that remind you? Don’t answer that. She fought alongside you in that pointless war. She stood beside you when Pink Diamond shattered herself.” The fusion gestured from herself to her captive. “We’re the real face of gemkind.”

“A real gem wouldn’t betray their diamonds for an alien!”

“I’m sorry, which of us allied with a kelmep first?”

“Pilot’s not my ally! We serve the same diamond!”

“Do you mean the diamond who set you up to fail? The one who wanted you to lose from the day you emerged?” Bluebird questioned. “Or do you mean the one who doesn’t even remember what you did for them and how they repaid you? Pink Diamond is gone, the other diamonds have surrendered their power, it’s up to gems like us to make this empire great again. Together, things will be as they were, as they should be! What do you say?”

Jasper strained against the hand. “I know Pink Diamond is gone.” The ice groaned under the pressure. “Steven is my diamond!”

“Steven!?” The fusion exclaimed. “That half human abomination!?”

“He never gave up on me! No matter what happened! No matter what I did!” The hand shattered in a burst of orange radiance. “Get over here!” She lunged at Bluebird.

“A pity.” Bluebird dove into the millimetre-thick layer of blood, vanishing utterly. A moment later, she resurfaced behind her foe, throwing her swords. “I’ll try and have Roxillan keep you as a slave rather than shatter you.”

Jasper turned, swatting one blade out of the air, and catching the second. The ice of the sabre spread, encasing her arm in seconds.

With two new swords, Bluebird soared at the quartz.

Jasper deflected the flurry of slices with her icy arm, even as internal spikes tried to pierce her.

“You know, most gems would be insensible with pain if they managed not to destabilise from this.” The fusion noted congratulatorily.

“I am not most gems!” Jasper caught the swords on her helmet and whipped up her head. Immediately, she struck forward with her ice-covered hand.

“Neither am I.” Bluebird recovered with impossible speed, taking Jasper’s punch directly on her crossed blades. The small fusion didn’t budge in the air under the perfect quartz’s blow.

“Wha?” Jasper’s confusion outstripped the pain of the icy spikes stabbing between her knuckles.

Bluebird Azurite rolled her shoulder and pushed back, throwing her enemy across the room. She leant down at Jasper. “You see, Roxillan hasn’t just given me new tricks. I’m more powerful than you could possibly imagine.”

“Lucky hit.” Jasper growled, starting to get up.

“What!?” The fusion exploded with sudden anger. She kicked Jasper back into the wall. “What about that one!?” She kicked again. “Or that!? Was that a lucky hit.” Her four legs hammered into the orange mass beneath them. “When! Will! You! Admit! My! Power!? Is it because I’m a fusion!? Because I’m part ruby!? Why! Won’t! You! Respect! Me!?”

As the disproportionately titanic blows pummelled her, a low rumbling noise came from Jasper’s throat.

Bluebird stopped kicking. “What?”

The rumble grew until it became recognisable for what it was, laughter.

“Why are you laughing!?” The fusion kicked Jasper in the face, throwing her onto her back.

“I thought you wanted Homeworld back the way it was.” Jasper caught two incoming legs in her unfrozen hand. Her arm shook as the limbs pushed against her, but she managed to stand. “I’ll admit, you’re stronger than you have any right to be, but you’re still an off-colour fusion of a pathetic ruby and a non-combatant. No loyal gem would have respected you back then! I know Pilot would probably have something clever to call you, but to me, you’re nothing!”

“I’ll show you nothing!” With a burst of black frost, Bluebird Azurite wrenched her legs from Jasper’s grasp. With a wall blocking her opponent’s retreat, she swiped wildly with her blades. “Take this! And this! And this! Ha ha ha ha ha!” She laughed manically.

Jasper did her best to deflect the cuts, but she couldn’t just let her opponent whittle her down. “Pay attention!” She punched Bluebird in the gut, knocking her backwards.

“Why don’t you pay attention!?” Bluebird threw a sword.

Jasper punched the blade, grinning as the stinging black ice coated her remaining hand. “Thank you.”

“How are you still standing!?” The fusion shouted. “No one should be able to stand that much pain! Steven lost consciousness five minutes ago!”

Jasper’s face fell. “What!?”

“Oh, didn’t I mention?” Bluebird smiled, quickly regaining composure. “Roxillan has gotten Steven already. Did you want to reconsider your-”

With a roar Jasper punched at her full power, shattering her fist’s icy prison with the blow.

Bluebird flew back, rolling across the bloody floor.

Jasper leapt at her. “I’ll destroy you!” Jasper’s frozen fist slammed into the floor. She stood up to inspect her handiwork. Bluebird was gone. All she saw was the impact crater, the black shards of ice from Jasper’s arm, and the ubiquitous black blood. “Hiding again!?” Jasper turned to the server bank. Once she had smashed it, she could go and rescue her diamond. Vengeance could wait.

Pain stung Jasper’s shoulder as a flying blade caught her in the back. The ice formed, stinging farther, and restricting her arms movement. Jasper turned to see Bluebird, half out of the blood, aiming a second sabre at her. She charged.

Jasper’s fist again hit nothing but bloody floor.

“Missed me!” The fusion mocked from the other side of the room, throwing more projectiles.

Like a demented, blood-spattered game of whack-a-mole, Jasper pursued her enemy, striking with foot, helmet, and fist. Each time however, Bluebird vanished into the thin layer of black blood, only to pop up somewhere else in the expanding puddle to rain cold pain upon the increasingly furious quartz.

“Why don’t you just give up?” The fusion offered.

“I’m not losing to another fusion!” Jasper yelled back.

“I heard about that!” Bluebird recalled fondly. “And to think you mocked me for being a fusion! By the way, the word you were looking for earlier was hypocrite.” She dove back into the blood to avoid Jasper’s punch, popping up again in the pool’s centre. “It didn’t go very well for you with Lapis though, did it?”

“Stop talking!”

“It seems fusion is just another thing I’m better at you than!”

“I said shut your mouth!” With one last fruitless stomp, Jasper glared around with animalistic rage. She was so weighed down by frigid ice, but her anger burnt within. Her rage was building, her diamond was in trouble, there was a bomb, and this fusion was toying with her. The hight of her anger agitated glitches from her corruption, inside her, something changed.

Seeing an opening, Bluebird threw a sword.

It hit Jasper’s back. The quartz felt the pain of impact, but the ice that grew found no purchase, slipping off onto the floor.

Jasper noticed this too. She let herself get angrier. Ice soughed off her body in great bergs as it melted against her burning skin. The heat made her shimmer like a mirage, the blood at her feet becoming steam.

Sensing immanent danger, Bluebird sought refuge in the blood.

“Oh no you don’t!” Jasper raged, her throat glowing. Her eyes darted around the blood pool. “I am sick of your hiding!” The glow of her throat spread to her mouth, gem, and scars. “Get out here!” Her eyes burst into flame as her maw became fanged, spluttering droplets of glowing orange fluid that sprinkled the floor. The droplets exploded, evaporating small patches of Bluebird’s cover. Seeing this, Jasper spat forth fist sized globs of liquid light, filling the room with orange fire and black steam.

As the last puddle of blood was evaporated, Bluebird was thrown out. “Whaaa!” She turned back just in time to be battered by Jasper’s red-hot horns. “What is this!? What are you!?”

Jasper’s searing claws sliced clean through Bluebird’s swords. “Where’s my diamond!?” As she made her demand, she vomited forth more glowing liquid onto the fusion.

It stuck to her like glue. “Get it off! Get it off! It burns!”

With a swat of her thick tail, Jasper threw her foe into the server bank, the impact detonating the fluid. She crawled out of the crater that had once been the comms unit.

As the quadrupedal beast Jasper had become stomped away, a red hand burst out of the rubble. “Aquamarine? Aquamarine!?” Eyeball Ruby pushed aside the husk of a server to find her fusion partner. “Get up, you weakling!”

Aquamarine took to the wing. “If you hadn’t gone easy on your idol, we could have won!”

“Does it matter!? We can still get her!”

Their minds agreed on revenge, they fused. With a snap of her fingers, roughly a dozen shadow shards arose from the rubble around Bluebird Azurite. The fusion brought a hand to her face and flicked each mindless servant with her bloody tears.

The blood coalesced into ice, constraining the creatures into more definite, if lanky human forms with armour and yet more weapons.

Shaking with anger, Bluebird pointed down the trail of destruction left in Jasper’s wake. “Shatter her.”

Chapter Text

Pilot turned in the air to face where he was falling. His sharp eyes met a dark abyss that even they couldn’t see through. Looking from side to side, he peered past the debris that fell with him from the roof that had collapsed under his feet. The shell of a building opened out into a cavern underneath. Faster falling pieces of rooftop fell into the darkness with a splash, the blackness itself cresting into small waves. It was somewhere between a lake and a ground-hugging cloud.

“What the fuck…” Pilot murmured. He didn’t know what he was falling towards, but he knew he didn’t want to swim in it. He threw out his ribbon, catching a stalactite and swinging towards the rock wall. He landed in a narrow cave just above the waterline. “Where am I?”

He noticed the regularity of the cave’s shape as it extended back a few feet before coming to an abrupt stop. He felt the walls, symmetrical and parallel to each other before bowing inward near the top, the arch interrupted by a single central hump. Peeking out, he recognised similarly humanoid holes either side of him.

“You flooded a kindergarten.” Pilot realised. He looked down into the black semiliquid. “Chorus knows how deep this goes. What even is this stuff?” He took out a small vial and crouched down, lowering it to the surface. Suddenly, he dropped the vial and leapt.

The liquid unleashed a tangled net of sticky tendrils, just missing him as they shot forward.

Hanging from the exit hole above, Pilot stared down at the lake, withdrawing its feelers. His attention was drawn upwards by the screech of metal. A blast shield was sealing the pit he had fallen from. “Shit, Steven!” Pilot began to climb, using the warp to zip from handhold to handhold. He climbed quickly, but by the time he had gotten to the to the metal hatch was almost fully closed. “Moonwalk!” He stepped through the air with his escape above him. He reached up.

“Oh no you don’t!”

Pilot narrowly dodged a streak of pink from below, sacrificing his window of opportunity as the steel doors closed. The cavern was plunged into darkness. Pilot’s mind raced to make sense of what had just happened. Replaying the prior seconds in his mind, he realised the projectile had been some sort of bludgeon constructed of hard light, a gem weapon. Kelmep had better night vision than gems, he had the advantage, so long as he kept his cool. He swung into a new exit hole and watched.

“Did I hit him?” His assailant questioned aloud. Suddenly, a pink light shone. Morganite stepped from a distant shore. The pool, faced with this light, made up its mind, settling as a liquid, recoiling from the brightness. A chunk of debris surfaced, giving Morganite something to ride across on.

Pilot slipped out of his cave, climbing without aid of the warp so that its blue glow would not give him away. He knew that there was no way he could bust through the steel door, so he looked for any alternate escape route.

The tall, bonneted gem craned her neck to search the holes. “I told the duchess we should install lights in here. You know Pilot, I’ve only ever seen a picture of you, but I know already that your apprentices will be better off with us. If you aren’t even strong enough to face me, what right do you have to train Steven?”

Pilot ignored the insult as he clambered around the room as quietly as a mouse. He could tell that something was off with the gem and that it wasn’t Roxillan’s usual brand of control. Morganite radiated power, power beyond that Stevonnie had alluded to from their fight on Homeworld. Pilot was still confident that he could eventually win if a fight broke out, but it would be long and costly at a time where he was in a hurry to get back to Steven, especially considering that the environment itself seemed to be against him in that cavern.

Despite his unassisted, stealthy method, Pilot was a fast climber and soon found himself at the shore where Morganite had appeared. He looked around, if Morganite hadn’t spotted him in his original fall and had attacked him from below, that meant there was an alternate entrance to the chamber.

He looked down at the lake, in its vaporous state again now Morganite’s light had shifted. Pilot was certain that the fluid would capture or kill him if he was foolish enough to even touch it, but it seemed to obey Morganite. Perhaps she had swum up? But no, Morganite had brought up a piece of rubble to put between the lake and herself and he could tell by the subtle twists of her expression that the black slop disgusted her. He put a hand against the wall and the rock silently shifted. Moving it aside, he was faced with a reinforced steel door, much like the one above, and an access terminal. Carefully, Pilot snuck towards the terminal and allowed the copper wires in his sleeves to snake their way in.

Suddenly the terminal lit up with an automated message. “Supervisor override detected!”

“Fuck!” Pilot ducked.

Like a comet, Morganite’s sceptre flew over his head, pulverising the door and silhouetting the kelmep against the light of the corridor beyond. “Oh, there you are Pilot.”

Pilot glanced down the corridor but shook his head. A narrow, well-lit tunnel was asking for Morganite’s weapon to pulverise him. He ran and jumped back onto the wall, climbing into the safety of the darkness.

Morganite drew a new sceptre and pointed in his direction “After him!” As the island she stood on sped across the lake, she threw her bludgeons like they were fired from a cannon, leaving craters in the hole-ridden walls. After a few throws, Morganite peered into the dark. She couldn’t see him. “Did he fall in?”

The lake gurgled at her feet.

“Well bring him here!”

The black liquid churned a bit before disgorging a collection of freshly blown off rocks at its surface near the gem.

Morganite analysed the slag for a few moments as her brow furrowed with frustration. “That’s just rubble, you stupid pile of shards!”

Pilot paused halfway up the wall. “Shards?” He mouthed.

“Enough of these games.” Morganite’s island sank as she stepped onto the shore and slid closed the hidden rock door, cutting off the corridor. With a sigh, she shut off her gem’s light. “Get him.”

Instantly, the lake came to life. Like arteries, webs of effervescent black goo climbed up the walls as capillaries searched the exit holes. Pilot climbed quickly but the mass of darkness closed the distance with ease. A tendril approaching his foot, Pilot warped away up the rock wall. A moment later, he realised his mistake.

Morganite was not content to let the lake do her job for her. She had picked out the blue light in the darkness and thrown. Pilot zipped out of the blast range just in time, avoiding another meteoric impact, but he had used the warp again to do so. Pilot was caught in a loop, every time he dodged a blow, he revealed his location for the next, and all the while the lake was catching up.

Morganite grinned as she drew new sceptres. “You can’t dodge forever!” She taunted. “Me or the Shadow Cluster will get you eventually! You can’t get much higher!”

She was right, Pilot had again reached the caverns ceiling and this time the way to the surface was locked behind two feet of blast resistant steel. Still, a collection of warp blue pinpricks streaked across the ceiling.

With unerring accuracy, Morganite threw.

With a sound of rending metal and cracking concrete a dim spotlight cut into the dark. By its light, Morganite saw the handful of glowing key chain torches unattached to anybody. She realised Pilot’s plan. In her eagerness to destroy him, she had thrown a sceptre straight through the blast door, which was no match for the strength Roxillan had given her. She started to panic. “You, you… You aren’t getting away that easily!”

Before she could spring into action however, the lake gurgled.

“You’ve got him!?” Before she got too excited, Morganite remembered how the black goo it had previously mistaken rubble for its prey. She lit her gem. “Bring him down!”

Rapidly, the lake shrank back to its original dimensions. One set of tendrils instead drew themselves in until they were a few feet above the surface. They thinned as they entered Morganite’s light, where they showed their prey. Pilot’s legs were wrapped up, but he still smiled. “Well, hey there Morganite! Love what you’ve done with the place! Especially that.” He nodded up at the hole in the ceiling. “Really opens up the room.”

“Yes yes, very clever.” Morganite admitted. “You must feel so proud of yourself for tricking me into breaking the blast shield.”

“Well, I don’t like to toot my own horn but-”

“Well, you couldn’t outsmart the Shadow Cluster, could you!?” She sneered.

“Are you really that proud to admit that you’re dumber than a lake?” Asked Pilot.

Morganite briefly twitched with anger. “It’s not just a lake! It’s an amalgamation of shards!”

“Like the cluster?” Pilot questioned.

“Yes.”

“I figured as much.”

“Of course you did.” Morganite answered sarcastically.

“Well, with a name like ‘Shadow Cluster’ it was either shards or nuts and wholegrains in there.” Pilot reasoned. “Does the Shadow Cluster have raisins?”

“You can’t begin to comprehend the weapon were creating!” The gem threatened.

“I’m guessing Roxy is using the hard light generation of gem shards to project hard shadows. Since shadow is less rigid than light, individual shards can more easily meld their mass. Get enough shards and she could build an army, or one big blob of shadow. Am I on the money?”

“How dare you even guess at our genius! I-”

Pilot snorted. “Sorry babe, there’s only one genius in this cave.”

“Is it the one who’s about to be crushed to death by the force of over five thousand shadow shards?” She asked mockingly.

“Well, it’s not the one who exposed her shadow weapon to bright light!” He answered in kind. “Tempest Kick: Ash Devil!” Pilot twisted as a small whirlwind around his legs tore the weakened restraints from him and threw him upward.

Morganite pointed up as she threw a sceptre at him. “After him!”

The Shadow Cluster again came to life as its tentacles piled up over each other to chase the kelmep.

Pilot not only dodged the weapons and new restraints but bounced on them. his limbs blurring with warp energy Pilot hopped from flying mace to feeler, gone before his springboard could grab him.

Morganite saw the slowly growing tower of ebony slime, growing into Pilot’s path to freedom. “No!” In a single bound, Morganite crossed the chamber, landing outside the cavern on the edge of the hole. “You won’t escape me Pilot!” She raised her sceptre wielding arm, ready to bat him back into the abyss.

“I won’t?” Pilot responded mid-jump. “Why am I bothering then?” He stopped, reclining in mid-air as he started to fall.

“What?”

As the tentacles rushed up to meet him, Pilot contorted his body. “Paper Art!” The writhing limbs sped past his flattened body to anchor themselves on the first thing they hit, Morganite’s outstretched arm. As the Shadow Cluster sent more appendages to hold their mistaken target, Pilot dashed up to meet her. “Shave!”

Morganite struggled against the growing mass of black. “You stupid little- Let me g-”

“Shut up!” Pilot punched her in the back of the head.

Morganite barely shifted. “Is that the hardest you can hit me?”

“Didn’t need to be any harder.”

Morganite looked back at him and her attention was drawn to his hand. “What is that thing.”

“Tape recorder.” Pilot replied. “You should really be careful what you say.” He pressed the play button.

“Bring him down!” Morganite’s voice ordered from the device.

Obediently, the Shadow Cluster started to pull her in. As she did her best to pull back, her arm started to budge. “No! I’ll get you, you pathetic-” Her strength was not enough to stand up to the combined power of five thousand shadow shards, however. Like a fish on a line, she was reeled into the dark of the hole.

Pilot looked around and saw a large chunk of roof balanced precariously on the other side of the hole. He threw out his ribbon and struggled to pull it down. “I guess… being strong…. has… its… uses!” With a final heave, the concrete block fell over the opening. “That isn’t gonna hold long. Speaking of...” He pulled himself back up to the rooftop with his ribbon. “I’m coming Steven!”

Chapter Text

The sound of the comms unit exploding shook the room. The boom would have drawn Connie and Garnet’s attention if they weren’t so shaken by Moss Agate’s story. Coinciding with the explosion, some of the lights on the prisoner’s collar went out.

 Garnet broke her free with ease, knowing the bomb was deactivated. She shook with fear and rage.

“Where did he go?” Connie demanded.

“Through that door.” Moss Agate stood, massaging her wrists.

A cold chuckle emanated through the air. “You had to go and spoil the surprise Mossy…” Atop the bomb, a burst of black smoke became Roxillan, dressed in Priyanka’s blue shirt and tan pants, the woman’s doctor’s coat billowed overtop. “Ta da! What do you think? Am I not so motherly?”

Immediately, Garnet summoned her gauntlets. “Give Steven back!”

“Oh, I’m afraid he can’t come out just yet.” Roxillan replied. “He’s getting ready for our trip.”

“What the heck does that mean!?” Connie pointed her sword up at the kelmep.

“Don’t worry dear,” Roxillan assured, “you’ll see him again soon.”

At that moment, there was a hurried flapping. Down from the skylight flew a battered, panicked Bluebird Azurite. “Roxillan! Roxillan! Your grace!”

Far from being aggravated by the interruption Roxillan looked up with a smile. “What is it my little bluebird?”

The fusion panted. “Jasper, their jasper,” she pointed down at the other fusion, “she destroyed the communications centre! She’s on a rampage! We can’t stop her!”

Roxillan did not frown at the news. Her ears twitched, tuning in to the sounds of distant carnage. “Oh well.” She shrugged.

“Oh well!?”

“It’s not like we’ll need this place much longer. We’ll be going soon.” She reasoned. “Have another go at taking her down though. We have reserves.”

“You aren’t going anywhere until you give Steven back!” Garnet butted in.

Roxillan glanced the enemy fusion’s way. “Oh yes, I’d quite forgotten you were still here. That reminds me.” She turned back to her lacky. “Be a dear and warm up the antiair gun. We don’t want any unwanted guests following us.”

“Yes, your grace!” Bluebird bowed and began to ascend.

“Oh Bluebird!”

“Your grace?”

Roxillan posed sweetly. “Am I not the most alluring woman you have ever seen?”

The question confused the fusion, given the situation, but Bluebird knew already that refusing to indulge Roxillan in her vanity was a hazardous exercise. “Of course you are!”

“Why, thank you!” She smiled. “These trousers are a little wide around the hips, but what can you expect from that cow.” She chuckled. “You’d best hurry now.”

“Yes ma’am!”

As Bluebird left, Roxillan turned her attention back to her uninvited guest. “What about you Garnet? Do you find me alluring? Pretty as a Sapphire?”

“No.” The fusion growled.

“Yet you are so taken by me, that you haven’t even checked your future vision since I arrived.”

Garnet, realising it was true, took a glimpse into the future. Shocked, she looked around. “Connie!”

Moss Agate looked too. “Where is she!?”

Connie was gone.

“It’s quite simple really.” Roxillan smiled. “She’s mine. You can go now. Nearest warp pad is-”

Garnet threw herself at the kelmep. “We’ll find her!”

Roxillan teleported to the ground beside Moss Agate. “Is that a prediction?” 

Moss Agate flinched, finally getting her act together and summoning her three push daggers, dripping with acidic venom. “Stay back!”

“Oh Mossy,” Roxillan cooed, “are you finally standing up to me? If you had done this earlier, Steven wouldn’t even have come.”

“You have no right to do what you’ve done!” Moss Agate barked. “I won’t be scared of you anymore!”

Roxillan frowned slightly. “Now now, insubordination I can take, but don’t lie to me.”

“Get away from her!” Garnet charged at Roxillan, the kelmep disappearing before she could touch her.

Roxillan reappeared, tutting. “You know, I always respected your certainty Garnet, not to mention your power. That’s why you’re my favourite Crystal Gem, besides my children of course.”

“They aren’t yours!” The fusion retorted, punching in her direction.

She ducked the swing. “I’ll tell you another secret. I don’t completely agree with the Empire in Silver’s MO.”

“Of course you don’t!” Garnet accused. “You’re using them!”

“Don’t get me wrong, I like some of their ideas, but they want to limit fusion again. If you want to fuse, who should stop you?”

Garnet didn’t answer, she didn’t want to let Roxillan pervert something so close to her.

Moss Agate lunged. “Why do you care!? You aren’t even a gem!”

“Haven’t you heard?” Roxillan caught the agate’s arm. “Kelmep can fuse too.” Breaking down into fibrous black veins, Roxillan wrapped around her opponent.

Garnet tried to grab the veins. “No!”

Flailing with terror, Moss Agate reached back. “Garnet! Help me!” Her body lost cohesion as Roxillan merged into it.

Moss Agate’s form slimmed, still larger than a kelmep but more in line with Roxillan’s image of beauty. Her skin lightened even as her form’s outfit turned black and silver along with her braided hair. Her rearranged face was flanked by pointed ears and showed more of Roxillan’s features. She had two sets of eyes, but only the upper pair were open. She swatted aside Garnet’s fist. “What do you think Garnet? I am the first of a new breed of fusion. You are looking at the first of the spindleheart fusions, Spindleheart Agate!”

Garnet knocked her back with a punch. “Unfuse! Moss Agate doesn’t want to be you!” Her disgust played clearly across her face.

Spindleheart Agate didn’t fall as she regained her footing with a grin. The grin was almost wide enough to mask how her closed eyes twitched as if trying desperately to open. “Why should I care!? She should be grateful for how beautiful Roxillan has made her. I have a gems strength and my better half’s good looks and common sense.”

“Good fusions don’t have better halves!” Garnet lunged in for another blow.

Garnet’s gauntlet was met by Spindleheart Agate’s stocky blade. “Prove it.”

Though lithe, Spindleheart Agate’s strength showed itself to be a match for Garnet’s. A demolishing strike from the Garnet was deflected with elegant power, pushing the fist off course to grab the wrist and pull her in for a heavy strike to the face.

Garnet winced from the acidic fluid that splashed from her face but was quick to counter. She kicked her opponent’s leg, creating a brief stagger long enough to for her to land two quick strikes to the face and torso before Spindleheart Agate managed to raise her guard and retaliate.

As Garnet blocked the stabbing strikes, Spindleheart Agate went faster, launching a flurry of knife-tipped punches.

Garnet responded in kind, with each dagger meeting a gauntlet fist. Sparks and drops of acid flew as the combatants’ fists blurred with speed.

Suddenly, Garnet’s armoured fists opened, catching both of her opponent’s hands in quick succession. The fusions struggled against each other, but their brute strength was closely matched.

Suddenly Spindleheart grinned. “Forgetting something Garnet?” Her braided ponytail reared up like a viper ready to strike. Moss Agate’s gem glowed, and a third dagger appeared, drooling its caustic fluid.

Suddenly, a black and blue ribbon wrapped around the reared braid. “I have so many questions! Where’s Steven!?” Pilot yanked on his ribbon from the open door.

Spindleheart Agate rolled her eyes as her hair was pulled back. “Not now Pilot, adults are talking.” Effortlessly, her hair whipped back into position, throwing Pilot across the room. “My apologies Garnet. Where were we?” 

“Here!” Lightning burst from Garnet’s hands, throwing her opponent back into a wall.

Spindleheart stepped forward, vanishing in a puff of black and reappearing on the catwalk above.

Out of the shadows, Pilot leapt. “Oh, I know you haven’t forgotten about me bitch! Pistol Fist!” Though not as strong as Garnet’s, Pilot’s punch was faster, getting through his opponent’s defences and knocking her over the rails.

As Pilot went to pursue her, his ally called up to him. “We can’t just keep hitting her! Moss Agate’s taking all the hits! We need to split them up!”

“Right!” Pilot nodded. “I can do that!” He flipped in the air, swinging his leg. “Tempest Kick!”

Spindleheart dodged aside with ease. “You can’t honestly expect me to stand still, can you?”

Garnet ran and jumped, fist in the air.

“How predictable.” Her target tutted, shadowstepping away.

Garnet hit the concrete floor with enough force to send cracks wall to wall.

While Spindleheart Agate saw only a missed strike, Pilot realised what Garnet was doing. He cast his ribbon through the skylight, catapulting up and out of the building.

“Don’t think you can get away that easily!” With a flick of her hair, Spindleheart flung her third dagger into the floor below the opening. From the discarded weapon’s grip, misty black tendrils sprang, chasing after the ascending kelmep. She focused on her remaining opponent, deftly dodging the earthshattering blows. Dancing across the increasingly uneven ground, she countered with a thrust.

Garnet leapt well back, grabbing the metal sphere in the room’s centre.

“Do you really think throwing a nuclear warhead around is a good idea?”

“I’m clearing the blast zone!” Garnet threw the bomb, not at her opponent, but through the skylight and out of the building. She braced for impact.

Up above, Pilot saw the nuke land outside the building. “That’s my cue. Moonwalk!” He stepped up, giving himself some more height and room to manoeuvre away from the tendrils trying to catch him. He twisted his body, turning to point down. The warp nodes across his body glowed as he gathered kinetic energy to fall back down. “Warp Bomber!”

The blast of warp energy as Pilot hit the floor threw both fusions against the walls and reduced the already demolished concrete floor to gravel.

Spindleheart and Pilot rose simultaneously. “That was your plan?” The fusion asked incredulously. “Fall on me and hope that does it?” She glanced aside, where Garnet was still crumpled in the corner. “It seems you’ve done half my job for me. You certainly haven kept up these past couple of years.”

Pilot ran towards her, backflipping after a few steps for momentum. “Grey Ploughman: Tempest Kick!” The twin arcs of air cut through the loose floor towards the fusion.

With a sweep of her arms, Spindleheart Agate’s daggers sliced through the attack, dissipating the blades. “You don’t have a chance alone!”

“I don’t know about that.” Pilot smiled.

“Isn’t this the part where you break your limbs for some minor advantage?” She took a step towards him.

Pilot twisted his heel in the gravel. “Grey Sower.”

The loose floor beneath the fusion’s feet gave way, pulling her waist deep into the foundations. “What!?”

Garnet was up immediately. She grabbed Spindleheart Agate by the arms and pulled, trying to force her apart. “Let go of her Roxillan!”

Under suddenly extreme physical stress, Spindleheart’s lower eyes opened. A moment later, she began to glow, turning into a meld of light and black kelmepi veins. “Shut up!” She chided herself. “I don’t need your input! I’m in charge, not you!”

“She needs a little more pressure!” Garnet told her ally.

With a nod, Pilot charged them. “Grey Harvestman:” He dropped into a knee slide as he closed in, his fists coated in haki, “Pistol Fists!”

The blow hurled Roxillan’s condensing mass from Moss Agate. “W-What happened!?” The gem shuddered as Garnet pulled her out of the floor.

Roxillan stood, quickly producing her spear. “Oh nothing, your saviours just spent the last few minutes assaulting y-”

She was cut off by a crash from the next room over.

Pilot saw genuine concern cross her face. “What is it, what’s in there?”

“Steven!” Moss Agate recalled. “That’s where she made Steven go! What are you doing to him!?”

Pilot knew that Roxillan showing concern meant that her plan was going wrong. “He’s escaped, hasn’t he?”

Roxillan stared at the wall in disbelief.

“Ha!” Pilot exclaimed. “I knew it! Up yours bitch!” Pilot turned for the door to the chamber. “Like our Steven would let you keep him trapped for long! Hold on Steven, we’re c- huh?”

Garnet put a hand on Pilot’s shoulder to stop him from approaching the door.

With uncharacteristic nervousness, Roxillan called. “Steven dear? Are you alright?” She disappeared in a cloud of mist.

“Oh no you don’t!” Pilot exclaimed. “Garnet, let go, we can’t leave Steven alone with-”

“Roxillan!!” Steven’s roar was furious, underscored by additional banging and crashing.

Suddenly, Roxillan appeared again. She was seemingly oblivious to her messily torn off arm, staining the left side of Priyanka’s clothes black with her blood. “He… He…” She grinned with a mad ecstasy. “He’s beautiful!”

As Garnet let him go, Pilot wasted no time in tackling the distracted Roxillan to the floor, pinning her remaining hand behind her back. “What the fuck did you do to him!?” He looked up at the wall where the banging continued. “Steven! Steven it’s me, Pilot!”

“Roxillan!!” Steven’s Voice bellowed back.

“We have her, we got her! She can’t hurt you anymore! I’m so sorry I left you! I was trying to keep you safe!”

“Roxillan!” A fist shaped impression appeared in the wall, too large to be Steven’s. Another appeared and another. Suddenly the wall exploded. “Roxillan!” Steven stood at well over thrice his normal hight, his torn clothes were dyed completely black as were his nostrils and the foam that spluttered around his pointed teeth. His skin, hair, and eyes glowed pink and scaly calluses were forming in patches. He was crying kelmepi blood, no recognition of his friends appeared in his eyes. “Roxillan!” He charged.

Pilot dodged the barrelling half-diamond, allowing Roxillan to roll the other way. As she held up her hand, her lost arm appeared in it. She put on her normal demeanour as her foes realised what they were now up against. “Well Steven, I’ll let you tire yourself out on these intruders while I go figure out what went wrong with the suppression, we don’t want this to happen on our trip now do we?” With that, Roxillan vanished, leaving Steven’s rage with no target beside his allies.

Chapter Text

“What is that thing!?” A quartz stared at the creature she was expected to fight.

The monster was the size of an elephant but with a crocodilian build. Its orange, striped skin seemed almost impervious to whatever they threw at it and its every body part was built for war. Its four feet bore powerful claws, the thick tail collapsed buildings with every swing, and the vice like jaws spluttered with explosive, pyroclastic fluid. Worst of all, it was no simple beast, under its long, horse-like mane, its pupilless eyes burned with sentience and awareness that proved that its rampage was in fact backed by a thought-out tactical genius.

Even with Roxillan’s compulsion on them, many gems lost their nerve at the sight. “We can’t fight it! Run! Leave it to the shadow shards!”

Without such a capability for fear, the ice-armoured shadow shards and the robanoids charged in.

Jasper roared at their approach. She had taken on monstrous forms before, but this was something new. Her increase in power didn’t come at the cost of her mind slipping away or having to be shared with someone who hated her. She could live with the monstrous form, for her, the transformation bore no drawback. A gout of explosive fluid detonated swathes of aggressors, as she pounced on the remainder with her claws and teeth. She saw the enemy gems flee in the direction of Steven. She galloped after them, a swing of her tail sending a whole platoon of them sprawling across the ground. She caught one, a blue quartz, under her paw. She snarled at her.

“W-What do you want?” The gem stammered.

Just as Jasper was about to strike, she stopped. Her breath was cooling. What’s more, the gem she pinned seemed to be growing. Jasper quickly realised that it was her that was changing size, not her captive. She was shrinking. Whatever the effect was, it had only lasted two minutes. It didn’t matter, Jasper could take these enemies even without her new powers. Her claws shifted back to hands, and she grabbed the quartz.

Blue Quartz’s face changed from fear to confusion as Jasper returned to her normal size. She became even more confused when Jasper didn’t stop shrinking. “What in the Duchess’ name is going on!?”

“Don’t talk like you respect her!” Jasper barked, not yet aware of her change. She punched her fellow quartz in the face.

Blue Quartz flinched at the blow, as the fist connected, she blinked in confusion, unhurt.

Jasper gritted her teeth to hide her shock. She punched harder.

Blue Quartz barely reacted to the hit. “Is that the best you can do?” She suddenly smiled.

“Shut up!” Jasper raised her head to summon her helmet. No weapon appeared.

The blue quartz chuckled victoriously. “Not so tough now, are you?”

With a single punch, Jasper was sent flying off her prior victim, into a stack of crates.

Blue Quartz got to her feet, nodding to her compatriots as the surviving robanoids and shadow shards caught up with them. “Seems like it’s our turn to beat on you Jasper!” She walked up to the smashed boxes, kicking the rubble aside. There was no one under it. “What!?” She looked around. “How did she get away!?” She turned to her allies. “Split up and find her! She can’t have gotten far!”

Indeed, Jasper hadn’t gotten far, she had her back pressed into a nearby building while she tried to come to terms with her present condition. She had the sense to make a break for it before the other gems could start their search. If she couldn’t even hurt one, she didn’t stand a chance against the horde. She was weak. She was powerless. She was small.

Jasper had to find Steven, though she was no longer in a state to save him, she needed his powers to fix her. She had to trust Pilot with the rescue.

The going was slow thanks to Jasper little legs. She was sure that Amethyst was a lot faster and stronger than this despite the similar size. She figured that Amethyst had more practice in compensating for inferiority.

She clambered on top of a fuel barrel and climbed up onto a roof to stay above her pursuers. In the distance, she saw Pilot dashing towards the building she had left him in. Steven was nowhere in sight. “How could he abandon our diamond?” She criticised quietly. She ran for the edge of the rooftop and leapt for the next one.

She fell about halfway across. Though she silently cursed her weak legs as she tucked herself into a new hiding spot, her failure almost certainly saved her, as a battalion of robanoids scanned from above.

Jasper could hear her pursuers barking orders to their mindless followers. “This way! We’ll find her!”

Pressing against a building’s corner, the shrunken gem furrowed her brow and snarled quietly. “Think Jasper, think! What would Pilot do? He’s a weakling…”

“Come out little gem!” Blue Quartz called, drawing a spear. “You’ll hardly feel a thing when I-”

“Finger Pistol!”

Blue Quartz looked down at the stubby, orange finger poking her thigh, momentarily stunned by her quarry’s audacity. She flipped her spear and stabbed down.

“Damn it Pilot!” Jasper cursed as she dodged the weapon. She ducked backwards as the quartz lunged after her. She saw the robanoids light up their shattering beams. She leapt, first onto the spear, using it as a launchpad to throw herself up into the air. She caught the faceplate of a flying robanoid, scrabbling on top of it just before it fired. She waved her hand over its sensors and punched its top prompting it to point down and fire at the shadow shards below.

Another robanoid lined up its shot. Seeing it just in time, Jasper ducked to the side, using her weapon a barrier. The machine blew up, blowing her away.

Blue Quartz threw her spear after her target, but knew she was being thrown too fast. “After her!”

Jasper landed hard on a narrow path between two facilities. She recognised that her though her strength was gone, she had not been robbed of her formidable durability. She got up and crept forward, trying to get her bearings.

The area seemed deserted, its guards drawn to quell the fires and destruction she had generated no doubt. In the distance, she saw a wide, squat, flat topped structure, the entrance to an underground docking bay. Near the personnel door, she saw a strange sight. Connie, Steven’s human, hanging limply in mid-air. Though surprised to see her, Jasper knew that Connie was smart enough not to take a nap two feet off the ground in such hostile territory of her own volition. She then saw the human’s closed eyes. One of them was dark and swollen. Jasper remembered when she had laid such a wound onto her diamond. Somebody had struck Connie into this state. Jasper hurried over to her.

Suddenly, Connie’s body shifted as a voice emanated from above her unconscious form. “Who goes there? Why are you away from your post?”

A clear quartz. How could Jasper have been so blind? She thought quickly and saluted. “Roxillan sent me to assist you!”

Jasper could feel invisible eyes scrutinise her. “I didn’t even know my love recruited such pathetic off colours.” The moments stretched onwards. “Fine, keep an eye out for Pilot or the fusion Garnet.”

Jasper was shocked to hear a mere quartz speak as if she had such authority over her fellows, but she decided to play along for the time being. “Yes Clear Quartz!”

Suddenly, invisible fingers wrapped around Jasper’s neck. They were strong, strong at least as Jasper was ordinarily. They lifted the small quartz up. “That is your Grace or My Duke to you.” Clear Quartz hissed angrily.

“Yes… My Duke!”

Clear Quartz dropped the gem and opened the door at the panel. “With me, off colour.”

Clear Quartz seemed to be in a moderate hurry, walking swiftly enough that Jasper had to jog to keep pace with her little legs. Every so often they would stop so that Clear Quarts could open a door. At one such door, Jasper saw a ventilation shaft, broken slightly and slightly ajar. If she could just carry Connie through it, they could get away. “Your Grace, shall I carry the human for you?”

“I am quite capable of carrying my own daughter.”

“Y-Your daughter?”

“Yes, so keep your filthy corrupted hands off of her.”

“Of course, your Grace.” The chance of escape passed as Jasper was walked through the door. “Where are we taking your daughter, your Grace?”

“The roaming eye, where else?”

“Right.” Internally, Jasper’s realised she was against the clock. If Connie were taken off planet, she could be lost forever, it was also probable that Steven was being held on the ship too. She was about to think of an excuse to run ahead so she could sabotage the roaming eye when footsteps echoed from behind.

“There you are!” Blue Quartz shouted.

Clear Quartz turned back, shaking the corridor with a silent footstep. “Is that any way to greet your Duke?”

Freezing with fear, Blue Quartz and the soldiers she had amassed broke into salutes. “N-No your Grace! That Jasper with you, she came with Pilot!”

“I expected her to be taller.” Clear quartz glanced down to find her traveling companion had scarpered. She stepped aside and sighed. “After her then. I don’t want to jostle my daughter in a chase.”

“Yes my Duke!” The gems charged down the corridor, shadow shards in tow.

Even with her head start, it seemed as though Jasper’s little legs shouldn’t have carried her so far, the pursuers couldn’t even see her. If it had been Pilot they were chasing, they may have suspected a trick or ambush, but they knew their fellow quartz wasn’t one for such subtlety. As if to confirm their suspicions there was a loud crash from the main hangar followed by Jasper’s bellow. “My diamond! Are you here!?”

With a victorious grin, Blue Quartz lead the final assault. “Steven can’t save her now!” They burst through the door, scanning the room for the tiny pathetic quartz. “Where is she? Spread out!”

Suddenly, a ruby noticed something. “Hey, where’s the roaming eye?”

Everyone looked up.

The yellow light of the roaming eye shone down on them.

“Oh crack!”

The scouting ship had no weapons, so it swept down, attempting to crush gems under it’s bulk before retreating to the ceiling where it couldn’t be reached.

A chert prepared to throw her hammer when Blue Quartz ran over and stopped her. “What are you doing!? If we wreck that ship, the Duchess will shatter us!”

“What do we do then!?” Chert replied. “How did that runt even get on board!?”

“Look!” A flint pointed. “The door’s gone!”

“I found it!” Ruby held up a red metal disc before promptly being crushed in one of Jasper’s crashes.

“Who tore the door off!?” Blue Quartz cried out in horror.

“I didn’t!” Chert attested.

“Maybe the enemy did it?” A zebra jasper suggested.

“She’s not even strong enough to throw a punch!” Blue Quartz shouted. Suddenly she noticed the chain sickle in Zebra Jasper’s hands. “Throw that through the doorway!”

“Alright!” Zebra Jasper span her weapon and threw. The sickle flew through the air, landing directly on target, the blade piercing the interior’s floor. Zebra Jasper was immediately lifted off the ground as the roaming eye ascended.

“Everyone hold on!” Blue Quartz commanded. “Bring it down!”

The gem soldiers clustered around the chain. Though the ships engines were strong, the massed quartzes were able to at least break even.

“Shadow shards, go!”

The masses of shadow and ice slithered over the gems and up the chain, slipping into the cockpit. The ship’s flight quickly became erratic.

Releasing the chain, the gems started to cheer. “Get her! Get her!”

Suddenly, one of the shadow shards flew back out of the roaming eye’s open door, splatting against the wall where its shadows evaporated and the shards clattered on the floor, their original colours returned.

The cheering fell silent as the ship crashed into the floor. A few more shadow shards where knocked out of the downed vessel as their assailant hopped out beside the ship.

The gems scanned up the orange body in horror as their eyes took in Jasper at her full height.

With a smirk, Jasper sank her fingers into the wrecks red hull and threw.

Chapter Text

The floor was cold. A damp metallic smell filled her nose. Pain rushed from her swollen eye. Connie regained consciousness crumpled on the ground. As her eyes squinted open, they were met with white mist, mist that clashed with the black smoke that rose from a pile of red hunks some distance away. She was about to get up when her vision focused.

There, inches from her face hovered a multifaceted, transparent gemstone. She was at the heel of the gem that had abducted her in the first place. Connie recalled how easily the gem had dispatched Topaz. Connie decided to feign unconsciousness until the right moment.

Clear Quartz looked around the hangar in disappointment. “One overcooked gem did all this?” Gems and shadow shards had been destabilised en masse, the walls and floors were cracked in places, and a coolant pipe had been ruptured, causing its aerosolised contents to form a knee-deep blanket. Worst of all, the roaming eye had been thrown about like a ragdoll, Clear Quartz doubted that it even functioned anymore. “It looks like I have a runt to kill. Let’s go darling.”

Connie could tell the gem was reaching for her again. She couldn’t afford to return to her constrictive grasp. Connie rolled back, the paper on her wrist extending into a longsword. “Pearly Gate!” Connie threw herself to her feet and a little way into the air. She summersaulted on the downward swing. “Bismuth’s Hammer!”

Her blade split a crack in the floor as she landed on one knee. She breathed heavily, her breath reverberating in the silence.

Suddenly a force like a battering ram struck her in the chest. “Nice try dear. You almost scratched me.”

Connie tumbled backwards, coughing violently at the impact. She managed to find her feet. “Who are you!? Why are you doing this?”

“Violence before diplomacy. I knew you took after me, daughter!”

Despite the praise, Connie felt in danger. She ducked, unsure of what, if anything, she was avoiding. “Listen to me, Roxillan is controlling you! She doesn’t want to help you, she’s just using you to hurt people.”

“You don’t think I’m one of her drones, do you?” Clear replied pridefully.

Suddenly, an invisible fist socked Connie in the jaw. Her skull rattled with hairline fractures from the blow.

“I’m her husband!”

“What!?” Connie tried to find another question but felt another blow on the way. She dodged sideways but knew that going on the defensive would grind her away into nothing. She had to attack. She swung her sword in the direction the attack came from.

The blade sliced empty air.

Suddenly, pain flared in her side as two ribs cracked under the force of an unseen foot. Connie staggered away from the blow swinging in the direction of the assault. She was too slow, and Clear Quartz had moved at an incredible pace.

It was hard to judge, but Connie was fairly sure she matched the gem for speed. In raw strength, the human was clearly outclassed, but she was an expert at tipping fights against stronger opponents with her skill.

Therein lay the problem, however. Connie couldn’t tell how truly skilled her enemy was. Whether Clear Quartz swung with inelegant, thuggish blows or with the precision of a martial artist was irrelevant thanks to her invisibility. The ground-hugging mist hid the gem’s partially visible stone, and it wasn’t just vision that was masked. Clear Quartz made no unconscious sounds, her footsteps were mute, and she didn’t seem to engage in the luxury of breathing, if she had an odour, it was masked entirely by the coolant and faint whisps of smoke. Connie’s only warnings of an incoming blow were the slight disturbances in the air a second before and some gut feeling she couldn’t yet identify. The gem didn’t even seem to generate body heat.

That last observation gave her an idea. Quickly, she hopped backwards, trying to put space between herself and her kidnapper.

“You can’t escape!” Clear called after her. “The doors are sealed. even if you do cut through a one, you’ll put the hangar in lockdown. Not even I’ll be able to break us out before your mother comes for you!”

Facing her opponent, Connie raised her sword above her head and to the right, allowing it to narrow into a katana.

“Really?” Clear questioned. “We both know your Lapis Wave is lousy. You’re just giving me more time to dodge!”

Connie ignored the derision and concentrated on the direction of her target’s voice. She knew that she would have to keep a tight hold on her vasha to do something so unanalogous to swordplay. “Warp Squire Cannon Stance;” She aligned her sword pointing to her left above her, blade facing upward. The teal of the paper weapon seemed to leach into air around it, turning a deeper blue.

“Are you making up new techniques in the middle of battle?” Clear questioned. “Interesting…”

“Sky Blue Sapphire!” She brought down her sword in a circular swipe. The blue energy spiralled in a disc before dissipating less than a yard ahead of the swordswoman.

“It seems that power has a way to go my dear,” the invisible gem observed, “don’t worry, we can work on it to-”

Within the enclosed room, the wind picked up, blowing from behind Clear and towards Connie. The mist crystalised into snowflakes. The wind became a gale and snow blanketed the ground in an instant. “I did it!” Connie exclaimed, mystified at her own powers. She looked at the centre of the snowdrift at a tall, narrow pile of snow, about twice her hight. “There you are.” Ready to finish them off, Connie crept up to the pile.

Suddenly, it shook. The loose snow tumbled away to reveal an icy statue of a tall, wiry gem, whose narrow limbs belied the strength that was already cracking the icy shell.

Connie jumped back just in time as the ice shattered.

Clear Quartzes downward swing and manic grin were shown by the frost that still clung to her. “Ice powers! I’m so proud of you! My little sapphire!”

“I’m not yours!” Connie swung at the revealed gem.

Clear dodged. “I know adjusting to a stepfather is difficult, but we’ll work this out together.”

Connie dodged the kick and countered with a series of slashes.

Clear fell onto her back foot, stepping away from the onslaught. She tried to quietly circle around to get out of the way. When Connie pursued her face fell slightly. “Ho-Honey? How are you following me?”

Connie realised that her opponent was yet to appreciate that she was visible. She gave no answer.

“Honey, this is serious.” Clear kicked snow into Connie’s eyes, using the opening to land a titanic blow to the face. As Connie reeled, Clear Quartz ran to a metallic wall. Sweeping away the snow, she saw her frost gripped face in the partial reflectiveness. “You can see me.”

Sensing hostility, Connie took a step back.

The gem turned on her, face contorted with fury. “You disrespectful clod!” Clear Quartz punched a hole in the wall, flooding the room with hot steam.

As the ice and snow evaporated, Connie lost her opponent in the mist.

Suddenly, a blow slammed against her cheek. There was a quiet clatter as the shards of one of her teeth rattled across the floor. “Only your mother is allowed to look at me!”

Connie swung her sword. A ripple of black appeared where the blade slashed, though it’s wielder felt no resistance. She swung again, feeling and seeing nothing. “Are you there?”

In answer, her sword arm was grabbed. “Roxillan said not to do any lasting damage, but we have Steven now, what can’t we fix?” With a sharp pull, Connie was pulled staggering forwards.

The paper katana clattered to the ground. Connie’s right side throbbed with pain as she realised that both her shoulder and thumb were dislocated.

“Now settle down!” Clear demanded. “This hurts me more than it hurts you!”  

“No it doesn’t.” She answered, reaching with her operational arm. Obediently, the weapon’s grip sprang into her left hand.

“What?” Clear Quartz responded. “How dare you!? Don’t you know how difficult this is for me!?”

“Don’t you realise how much you’ve hurt me already?”

“I had to!” the gem argued. “If you won’t listen to your father then-”

“You aren’t my dad!” Connie shouted, turning towards her voice. “And even if you were, that doesn’t give you the right to do this to me! Dads are supposed to be there for their kids! To love them!”

“I do love you!”

“You met me today!” The human bellowed. “You’ve punched me out twice since then! And now you’re trying to beat me half to death because I looked at you! You don’t love me! You don’t even know what love is!”

“Yes I do!” Clear quartz’s tearful roar was drowned out by the cracking of bone as her invisible fist drove at full power into Connie’s spine.

It was like being hit by a speeding truck. Connie couldn’t even cry out as her body arched forwards, her head and feet unable to keep up with the unseen fist’s velocity. Her weapon again dropped from her hand as she was sent hurtling like a ragdoll across the room. She rolled limply to a stop. Red blood leaked from her mouth and myriad of scrapes.

Connie saw her sword lift into the air, picked up by her assailant as they approached her. “One day you’ll understand. I’m only doing this because your mother and I love you.”

She could not talk properly. “No you…”

The blade rose and turned in the air, blunt side down. “One day, you’ll thank me.”

Chapter Text

The darkness was tinted red before Connie’s eyes. Her breathing was slow to allow her to better hear her mentor’s voice. The familiar smell of high-altitude air came pleasantly to her nose.

Another wave of agony struck her and with it she was reminded. She was dying. No number of fond memories could avoid that. Clear Quartz had mercifully stopped beating her, at least for the time being, but the damage had been done. If the gem truly wanted Connie alive, she clearly had no clue about how fragile humans could be. Connie’s ribs and vertebrae were cracked, she was bleeding both inside and out, and her right arm was dislocated. If it wasn’t for the pain of her fractured thighbone, Connie would be almost certain that her back was broken.

Her fond memories weren’t simple nostalgia, Connie’s life was flashing before her eyes, the human searching desperately for a way to escape her rapidly approaching demise. Just as the thrum of pain had distracted her, Connie had found something, her mind homed in on the memory once more.

Connie sat on the stone tiles of the sky arena, legs crossed and hands together. “So why am I wearing this?” She nodded, gesturing to the strip of red cloth that had been tied over her eyes.

“You’ve shown an ability to use conqueror’s haki.” Pilot explained, standing before her. “That’s great, but it could be dangerous if you don’t control it.”

Connie gulped quietly, Pilot’s words sounded like something that would be said to her boyfriend, what with his diamond powers, not her. “So… the blindfold?”

“To help you control your conqueror’s haki, I’m going to teach you the other kinds. I was going to let you develop them naturally but for the sake of safety, I’m gonna teach you now.”

“Great!” Connie smiled. “So Pilot, the blindfold?”

“I’m getting there!” He insisted. “The first kind of haki I’m going to teach you is called observation haki, it is a supernatural sense that lets you read the vasha of others. With it, you can read intentions, emotions, even detect things you can’t see.”

“So that’s why I’m blindfolded?”

“Duh.” Pilot crouched down in front of her. “Now then, concentrate. What can you hear?”

“You.” Connie replied. “The wind, I think there’s a bird.”

“Can you smell the air? Its very faint, but there’s the scent of the meadow down below.”

“Yes.” Connie agreed. “I think I can smell it.”

“Can you feel anything?”

“I can feel the wind,” she answered, “It’s cold. I can feel my clothes and this blindfold.”

“You need to reach out and feel the vasha around you Connie.”

“Ok…” Slowly, Connie reached out her arms.

Pilot looked down at them with a roll of his eyes. “Really?” He mouthed. Suddenly, he smiled mischievously and drew from his jacket a furry, blue worm on a string. Carefully, he draped the toy over his student’s hands. “Do you feel it?” He asked, pulling the wire a bit.

“Oh my gosh!” Connie exclaimed. “Pilot! I think I can feel it!”

“You feel the vasha!?” Pilot questioned excitedly.

“I do! What on earth is-”

With his free hand, Pilot pulled up her blindfold. “Look at your hand!”

“Wha!?” She cried out at Pilot used the worm to swat her hands back into her lap. “What was that!?”

Pilot lowered the blindfold again. “Reach out with your mind Connie.” He stood up.

“Oh.” Connie closed her eyes and focussed. She tried to concentrate on the area around her. She was of course familiar with the sky arena, she had trained there for years, she could navigate it blindfolded with ease, but she knew that Pilot wasn’t testing her powers of recollection. Connie tried her best to divorce her memory of the place from the apparent sixth sense Pilot was training her to awaken.

“Can you sense it?”

Though Connie knew to second guess anything she considered impossible, she did feel somewhat silly, hoping to unlock some extrasensory ability by just thinking hard enough. It was like when she was six, thinking she could master telepathy if she stared at her toys hard enough. “Not really.” She admitted. “What is it supposed to be-” A spike of alarm rushed up her back. Connie twitched her head to the side.

As she moved, Connie felt the wind of something sail past her head. Moments later a rubbery bounce behind her.

“Did you just throw a ball at me?”

“You avoided it.” Pilot pointed out.

“I was just lucky I-” She jerked her head the other way. This time the flying object clattered metallically as it hit the tiles. “What was that!?”

“Wrench.” Pilot shrugged.

“You threw a wrench at me!?”

“If you can dodge a ball, you can dodge a wrench.”

“I, what?” She reached up for her blindfold.

“Hang on!” Pilot ordered. “I’ve stopped throwing stuff at you.”

“You promise?” Connie called, lowering her hand.

“Yeah!” Pilot answered from farther away.

“Pilot!?”

No response.

“Pilot, what are you doing!?” Connie felt in danger, and leapt to her feet, backing out of range as Pilot ran back in with a punch. “Did you just try to hit me!?”

“Of course not! I respect you too much!” Pilot replied. “I tried to punch you!” Pilot stepped into an uppercut. Though he was intentionally making himself more predictable, Connie’s sidestepping of his assault was impressive. He circled around her, hitting her at odd angles, switching between punches, shoves, and kicks frequently.

Connie danced and wove around the assault, each strike avoided just in time.

“You still think it was luck!?” Pilot grinned, continuing to press his assault.

“No!” Connie celebrated. “I’m doing it! I’m using haki!” She blocked a punch and threw one of her own. It hit empty air.

“Nice try.”

Pilot’s voice told Connie that she had swung in the completely wrong direction. “I can only tell where the hits are coming from.” She sighed. “I still have no idea where you are.”

“It’ll come.” Pilot assured her, helping her to remove the blindfold. “Haki isn’t the easiest thing to train. It’ll grow best in a real fight. You just have to try your best, keep at it, and when you need it, it’ll bloom in battle.”

Connie balled her fist on the cold floor. She held her dislocated arm and pushed. With a crack and a blood-filled cough her arm was put back int place.

The noise drew Clear Quartz’s attention. She balled a fist as Connie began to stir. “Stay down.”

Connie reached out her restored hand and caught the blade her foe had tossed aside. Using it as a crutch she got to her feet.

“You can barely stand! Sit down and give in to me!” Clear Quartz charged.

Just as the gem raised her fist, Connie swung.

Clear Quartz Came to a sudden stop, narrowly avoiding the blade cutting her wrist. “Get back here!” She lunged to grab the human.

“Don’t touch me!” Connie stepped back from the grasping arms, warding off other punches from the sides with her sword.

Clear backed off silently and began to circle around Connie, hoping to strike her back again. Her steps slowed as she stared into Connie’s battered and bleeding face. The invisible gem reversed direction and realised to her horror that her suspicion was correct. Connie’s face was following her. “What are you doing!?”

“Watching you.”

“You, you can’t do that! I’m a clear quartz!”

Anger burned in Connie’s throat. “I. Can. See. You.” She stared up at the greyish silhouette, so obvious even as her actual vision was obscured by blood and swelling.

The aura switched from one of anger to panic in a millisecond. “What!? Again!?” Clear ran across the room. She stared into the mirror-like metal panel. She couldn’t see herself, only the reflection of the enraged human charging her. “You can’t see me! Get away!”

“I can see you! Live with it!”

Clear Quartz barely dodged as Connie leapt at her, slashing the mirror in two. She threw a punch, but it was clear that she relied on being unseen to land her hits, her strikes were amateurishly telegraphed.

Connie jumped back from the punch, kicking Clear onto her backside as she did. Her sword became a gladius as she lunged. “Peridot’s Spike!” The sword hit true, stabbing Clear Quartz straight through the head. “There!” She panted.

Clear looked up at her. Smoke rose from the gem’s wound, but she didn’t poof. Suddenly Clear punched.

Thrown several feet back, Connie managed to keep her footing and her sword. “What?”

The hole in Clear’s head sealed itself as she stood. “Did you expect me to be so easily beaten dear? Your mother gave me powers beyond an ordinary member of me kind. Isn’t that sweet of her? I’m sure she can do the same for you if you just settle down and let her.”

“No.” Connie growled.

“Connie dear, you can’t win. I’m going to count to five, when I get to five, I’m going to have to break your arms and legs if you can’t give up or cut me.”

Connie’s eyes narrowed. “What did you say?”

“Cut me!” Pilot grinned, holding out his arm.

Connie looked from her sword to her mentor then side to side. The sky arena was empty apart from the two of them. She raised her sword up to the grey limb. “You sure?”

“Sure, I’m sure!” Pilot nodded. “Cut it off if you like. I’ve got one spare.” He waved his other hand.

Her weapon was in its sabre form, the light disarming blade, though Connie knew she could easily sever a limb with it. As she raised the weapon her eyes shifted from the target limb to its owner’s face, scrutinising it for any measure of uncertainty. With a final assurance to herself that if anything went wrong they could go find Steven, She brought the sabre down.

“Ah! Connie!” Pilot screamed, drawing his arm in as the sword struck it.

“Oh my stars! Pilot!” Connie dropped her weapon and reached for his limb.

“My arm!” He cried. “My arm! It’s- fine.” With a teasing chuckle, he drew his limb, turning it to show there was not a scratch upon it.

For a few moments, Connie stared at the arm, dumbfounded. When she got over her shock, she gave Pilot a dig in the ribs. “You dick!” She cried, her words mixing with a relieved laugh. “The heck was that about!?”

Pilot regained control of his own laughter before he answered. “That was the other type of haki. Armament.”

“Armament?”

“The human body can only become so durable,” Pilot explained, “the tougher you get, the harder you have to train to see any notable improvement. What doesn’t have that limitation is willpower.”

“Willpower?”

“Have you heard those stories of people who survive for weeks at the bottom or a ravine? Or got up and walked away from car accidents that should have been game over?”

Connie nodded. Several web articles came to mind, mostly form obscure top ten lists and clickbait.

“All living things have an innate spark within them that says ‘I don’t want to die’.” Pilot held up his arm and balled his fist. “This spirit can grow almost indefinitely, and with training, can be harnessed to act as armour.” His hand and forearm darkened, becoming black with a metallic blue sheen. “Thanks to this, my body is far more durable than it has any right to be.”

Connie reached out and touched the blackened limb. It felt like a warm metal plate. Despite this, Pilot showed no restriction to his movements as he flexed his fingers rhythmically. “Cool.”

Pilot nodded. “With farther training, armament haki can be used to attack, either making your hits harder or being imbued into a weapon.” He retrieved his weapon from his pocket.

“Pilot?”

“Yes?”

“That’s the worm on a string again.”

“Yes.” The haki on Pilot’s hand spread down the wire to the toy, turning it from blue to black. With a flick of his wrist Pilot batted his student with the worm on a string.

Despite being made of felt, fishing wire, and googly eyes, the worm knocked the unsuspecting human onto her back. “Ah! What the?”

Pilot reached out and helped her up. “Now you.”

Connie looked down at her hand and clenched her fist. She focussed hard, clenching until her arm shook and her knuckles whitened. Aside from the natural lightening, her arm did not change colour. “How do I even start?” She wondered.

“You already have.” Pilot revealed.

She dropped her hand to look up at him. “I have?”

“I don’t think you realise how hard I just hit you. If you were a normal person, your ribs would be broken.” He put a hand onto her shoulder. “You’ll get it! When you’re in trouble, your haki will awaken. Just remember what that voice inside is saying.”

“I don’t want to die.” Connie steadied herself as she became woozy from blood loss. She brought her sword to her hip as it grew into a katana.

“Then sit down!” Clear Quartz raised her fist, ready to strike her down.

“No!” Connie raised her arm swatting the fist with her forearm. “Get off me!” She swung her fist forward into a punch to the chest.

As the fist connected, Clear staggered backward. She put a hand to her chest in shock. “You hit me! How?” She stared down at the fist. “Like the fusion…”

Connie lowered her arm, not bothering to see how it was now black with a metallic teal sheen. She gripped her katana with both hands as she faced her enemy. “I am done with letting you kick me around!” She took a step forwards. “Warp Squire Secret Technique…” The haki on her hand crept down the sword until the whole thing looked like black steel instead of paper.

“Don’t you-” Clear Quartz looked around frantically as Connie vanished.

“Warp Diamond Harmony!” The fog dispersed fully, split in multiple directions like a flower centred on the invisible quartz.

“What is this!?” Clear Quartz shouted. “Where are you!?”

“Are you still talking?” Connie asked, standing behind her. “Don’t you know I’ve already cut you.”

“Wha?” Clear Quartz didn’t have time to turn. Her gem dropped to the floor as Connie passed through the small shockwave of her dissipating body to collect it.

As Connie reached for the gem however, it seemed to vanish melting into a black smoke. She smelt Roxillan’s curious scent. “Damn it, I’ll save you Clear, once I get Steven.” Connie opened her eyes a bit and squinted. “Now where’s the door?” She could hardly see a foot in front of her face, anything farther was reduced to a blur as her vision was reset to its pre-Steven state. She could however detect another gem, one she knew well. “Jasper! In here!”

Chapter Text

“Roxillan!” Steven was growing more and more monstrous by the second. A crown of horns sprouted from within his receding hair, his black dyed clothing ripped as he swelled with scale covered muscle, his black teeth sharpening into fangs. With an agonised roar, claws ripped through his fingertips. He bled the blood of a kelmep, the same colour as the tears that had stained his eyes into balls of obsidian with glowing pink pinpricks for pupils.

“Steven! It’s me! It’s Pilot!” Pilot leapt aside as his apprentice barrelled past.

“What’s happened to him?” Moss Agate exclaimed.

“He can’t hear us! He’s too afraid!” Garnet threw rubble in Steven’s path, trying to slow him down. The half-diamond simply charged through.

“But why!”

“We’re figuring it out!” Pilot exclaimed. He dashed through the hole in the wall Steven had made as he had busted his way in. “The fuck is all this?”

The floor was slick with the black liquid Steven cried, still running from a vat made of toughened glass, from a large hole smashed in the side. Pilot saw needles and other medical equipment hanging from robotic limbs inside.

Pilot scooped up a small amount of the fluid in a vial.

“No!” Steven roared. “No more!” He charged Pilot.

Pilot leapt backwards, backing away from the rending claws. He looked around; he had cornered himself inside the vat. “Shit. Steven! Listen to me! You don’t have to do this, we can fix this! I-”

Steven had halted his charge.

“Steven? You there?” Gently, Pilot took a step forward, reaching out a hand. “It’s ok buddy. It’s ok.”

As soon as Pilot’s hand passed through the hole in the glass, Steven swung. “Roxillan!”

Lurching back Pilot checked out the area. “Oh. Guys! The vat is safe! He won’t enter it!”

“Oh, thank the Stars!” Moss Agate dashed towards Pilot when Garnet pulled her back, narrowly saving her as Steven turned and bared down on them.

“Tell me what Roxillan has done to him!” Garnet called to Pilot.

“Gimmie a second!” Pilot took a small device out of his pocket, a bundle of narrow pipes with odd technological looking attachments. He poured his sample into a hole at the top and watched the motion of the lights, wheels, and tiny satellite dishes. His face fell. “He’s been bathed in conceptual hopelessness. My best guess is that Roxillan was trying to turn his powers off. It looks like his mind gave in before his body.”

“What do we do then?” Moss Agate cried.

Pilot turned his attention to the needles. “It looks like Steven messed up these arms before they could inject him.” He grabbed one needle and let a few drops of the transparent substance into his device. “A sedative, a powerful sedative.” Pilot broke the needle from its arm and threw it at Steven.

The needle broke against Steven’s scales, the canister of sedatives falling to the floor.

“Crap!” Pilot stated, breaking off another. “His skin’s too tough! We need to find an open wound!”

Garnet didn’t take her eyes off Steven, dodging his freshly ruptured claws, from which still leaked black blood. “His hands! If we can get one still, you can inject him there!”

“How are we supposed to hold a rampaging Diamond still!?” Moss Agate bemoaned.

“We can start by stopping him from chasing us around!” Pilot leapt out of the vat, casting his ribbon to the catwalk above to swing over Steven.

“Roxillan!” Steven leapt at him.

Slipping through his crushing arms, Pilot dropped a canister on his face as he rolled across the gravel to join the gems.

The canister exploded, plastering Steven’s face with a greyish fluid that solidified into a gummy mask over his eyes.

“What is that!?”

“Glue Bomb.” Pilot explained. “Keep your voice down, he can still hear us.”

“He’s still too strong for us to hold still.” Garnet whispered.

“I only need a few seconds.” Pilot nodded. “Let’s try to stick him down.”

The trio divided.

“Here!” Moss Agate shouted. “Over here!”

His eyes covered, Steven stomped over to the noise, clawing in Moss Agate’s direction. On one far reaching lunge, Garnet rammed full force into his back. Pilot bowled a glue bomb, it rolled under Steven’s hand, exploding just as it hit the ground.

Steven tore his hand from the gravely surface, glue and chips of shattered floor clinging to it.

“Try again where the floor’s more solid!” Garnet commanded, simultaneously acting as bait to lead Steven towards the relatively unbroken if blood slicked floor of the room he had broken out of.

“Garnet, we can’t let any more of that stuff get into Steven’s body!”

Garnet looked down at the black fluid and nodded. “Mossy! Help me!” The fusion produced gouts of flame to wash over the floor, evaporating swaths of blood.

Moss agate splashed the acid from her knives. It reacted with the liquid on the floor, both annihilating each other in a noxious fizzle. Together the gems cleared enough blood for Steven to charge at them unimpeded. They had just enough time to jump away as Steven didn’t bother to rise onto his legs, galloping at them like an enraged ape.

As Steven slapped the ground, Pilot threw a canister. “Now!” As Steven’s hand was stuck, Garnet and Moss Agate threw themselves onto it, providing yet more resistance to him freeing himself. Pilot jumped forward with the needle, stabbing it into the weeping wounds around Steven’s finger.

As the syringe drained, they stood back.

Steven rose to his feet, easily pulling free of the glue on his hand. He staggered backwards, he stumbled forwards, and with one reverberating moan, he fell.

Garnet caught his head and turned him onto his back.

“Is it over?” Moss Agate asked edging towards the still huge hybrid.

“Possibly.” Garnet replied, stepping back.

“What do you mean possibly?” Pilot replied. “That was enough tranquiliser to knock out a horse. Not to mention that his increased heart rate spread it faster. Steven may be powerful, but he’s still half human. Unless of course he could switch over to gem physiology as a defence mechanism. That would explain how he originally broke out of-”

Steven’s eyes snapped open, shining like pink searchlights that burnt the glue away. He lunged before any of them could react, catching Moss Agate’s throat in his jaws.

Pilot and Garnet dashed backwards, Pilot catching their fallen ally’s gem with his ribbon as he went. “Can your future vision see any way of winning this?”

“All the futures I see involve us dying or abandoning Steven to Roxillan! I have no choice.”

“You can’t be serious!”

“I’ll have to trust you to come up with something I haven’t thought of.”

“Oh.”

“I can’t predict what you could suggest, go ahead.”

“Uh…” Pilot caught the vat out of the corner of his eye. “We could try sedating him again?”

“Thought of it. It won’t work.”

“Ok. Lead him to Connie and hope for the power of love.”

“If he leaves here, Roxillan’s soldiers will lead him away from us.”

“So were stuck in this room?” Pilot asked.

“Yes.”

Suddenly, Pilot reached into his pocket. “Garnet I have an idea, but we need to be stronger! Fuse with me!”

“Only if you think I haven’t thought of it.”

“We need to get his mouth open!”

“Ok.”

Pilot leapt away from Steven’s claws and into Garnet’s arms. The fusion swung him around, threw him into the air and caught him in a flash of light and fibrous veins.

Warp Garnet stood tall enough to look Steven in the eye. She was moderately curved with two superfluous pairs of arms, on thick stocky pair under her regular arms and folded behind her back, and a skinny pair above, wrapped up so as to give herself a hug. Her hair was tied up in a pair of square buns that shoed her pointed ears. On her face she wore a stone half mask depicting five eyes in an inverted V. She frowned mournfully. “I’m so sorry Steven!” Tears came from under the mask. “I shouldn’t have left you alone. Please listen to me. You are a wonderful boy and I love you so much. Please help me fix this. Pilot said he owed you a-” She was cut off as Steven swatted her across the room. “You have every right to be angry at me, but I know that this isn’t you! Please just-.”

Steven grabbed her by the neck and threw her to the room’s other side where she fell apart.

“What the fuck was that!” Pilot exclaimed. “We’re meant to be fighting him!”

“I know we had to, but I didn’t want to fight him.”

“Do you think I want to fight him? I love Steven!”

“Then we can’t expect our fusion to be able to do it.”

“That’s bull-”

Steven charged in, throwing the pair apart.

As Garnet hit the wall, she broke in two. Ruby saw the kelmep on the other side of the room. He lay very still. “Pilot!”

“Ruby!” The gem behind her called weakly. “Don’t draw his attention.”

“Sapphire?” Ruby knelt beside her wife.

Sapphire’s torso was too small. Before Ruby’s eyes, the blue gem’s arms turned limp and long before suddenly contracting down to the wrists.

Though Sapphire tried to stop her, Ruby turned over her wife’s hand. Her gem was cracked. “Sapphire. No…”

Sapphire stammered a bit as she struggled to get her words out. “YbuR yrgna eb t'nod. Tluaf sih t'nsi ti ,tnedicca na saw ti.”

In that moment, Ruby tears turned to steam on Ruby’s cheeks. “Sapphire…”

Sapphire pointed. “Tuo kool!”

Ruby turned to see Steven baring down on them. Taking her wife onto her shoulder, Ruby dodged Steven’s strike. “Steven! Stop this! Please! Sapphire’s hurt! You have to fix her please come back! We need you! What do you want!?”

Steven opened his mouth. “Roxilla-mnph!”

“Ha ha! Got you!” Pilot ceased the chance, jumping onto Steven’s shoulders and clapping his hands over their mouth.

As Pilot somersaulted down to the gems, Steven’s eyes widened in bewilderment. he staggered backwards, clapping his hands to his mouth, unsure of whether to spit out the object.

Pilot landed with a hopeful smile. “Great distraction Ru-” Pilot’s face fell. “Chorus preserve- Sapphire!”

“Ti did ew…” Sapphire smiled weakly.

Ruby looked from Sapphire to Pilot to Steven. “What did you put in his mouth.”

“A finger of fudge.” Pilot replied, not looking up from Sapphire’s hand.

“What?”

“The taste of chocolate is hard to ignore and hard to negatively associate. Hopefully, it should give his mind the positive kick it needs to fight against what Roxillan did to him.”

“Will it work?” Ruby asked.

“I hope so.”

Chapter Text

Steven could taste sweetness on his tongue. “What the…” He looked around. Above him were multicoloured stars, pinpricks of light that sparkled down at him. The starlight was saturated from the pink glow beneath his feet. The swirling pink mist was not quite holding him up, it was more that his body was unwilling to sink into it, joining the rose-coloured constellations within.

Like a majestic humpback in the distance, a giant chocolate candy bar breached the surface before collapsing back and sinking into the depths.

“T-This is my mind.” Steven realised, his past memories uncovering themselves. “What am I doing on the outside?” Steven reached down. With a consistency turning from air to honey to tar, foreboding slowed his hand. “Huh?” Suddenly, memories struck him. “Pilot! Jasper!”

The stars in his mind flickered.

“Mossy!” A sudden resistance on his teeth gave him a sickening feeling. “What did I do? Why’s Garnet here!? What did I do to her!? Roxillan!”

A streak of black caught his eye. It cut through the mist of his mind like a comet.

Steven recognised it by sight. “Roxillan!”

 The streak made a hairpin turn, careening into one of the pink stars that made Steven’s mind. In less than a blink of an eye, the light was consumed.

In an instant, Steven switched from horror to rage. “Roxillan! Stop it! Get out of my head! Get out of my head!” Steven pounded against his mind, screaming with a furious tone none would recognise from him.

Unconcerned with the inhuman screeching above it, the streak continued to speed around, devouring the intricate constellations that decorated the ball of pink mist.

“Don’t do this!” Steven roared. “Why won’t you come up here and face me! You coward! End me!”

The streak stopped, resting as a ball as it seemed to listen to the echoes of Steven’s cry. Rocketing up towards him, the blackness turned just before breaching the surface.

Steven’s legs quaked as if a train was passing underneath him. He fell to his knees as the streak stole back the strength his rage had tricked him into believing was his. He started to sink.

As the blackness encircled his ankles, Steven lost the sensation in his feet. As he was gradually absorbed into his mind’s invader, sensation fading to nothing, he began to panic. “Wait! Let go! Stop! Please!” He struggled to no avail. “Someone! Help! I don’t want to die!”

Suddenly, a flash of blue illuminated Steven’s face, from it a hand extended, wiry and aged. “Steven! Take my hand!”

“Archibald!” Memories of the first Pilot came flooding back. With a desperate lunge, Steven reached out and grabbed the old man’s hand with both of his own.

Archibald clapped his other hand around Steven’s and heaved. “One! Two! Pull!”

Despite Archibald’s apparent frailty, Steven stopped sinking into the blackness. “Archibald! It’s working!” With another pull he was slowly regaining feeling in his lower body as it was pulled out.

With a final effort, Archibald had Steven floating just above his mind. “That is not good for my back.” The old man complained. “Still, glad I found you in time,” he smiled, “it would not have been pretty if Steven had lost you.”

“If Steven had lost me?” Steven questioned. “I am Steven.”

“You’re part of Steven.” He corrected. “You’re his conscience, his voice of reason, his parental voice or superego if you want to get psychological.” Archibald nodded into the distance, where the oversized confection surfaced again. “Steven was wise enough to use that to smuggle you out.”

“What is that thing?”

“A finger of fudge, as Pilot calls it.” Archibald frowned slightly. “Without it, you wouldn’t have lasted much longer, not with that raging around.”

Steven looked back at the black streak, returned to its task of consuming the few remaining lights his mind contained. He remembered the dark, the vat of kelmepi blood that had reached out and caught him. It was so cold, it stung like ice, but worst of all was the darkness. It was inescapable, it wasn’t around him, it didn’t merely encompass his vision, it was in his eyes stinging them, leaching into the delicate capillaries. It suffocated him, he wasn’t even safe in the confines of his own mind. As his rationale retreated inwards, it had followed him, wrestled him. “Archibald. I can’t reject it. I can’t get it out.” As he spoke, a wave of ocean water, filled with colourful undersea creatures washed out of his mind, failing to even interact with the shadow.

“You want to get rid of it?” Archibald questioned.

Steven looked from the old man to the invader, dumbfounded. “Of course, I do! It’s destroying my mind!”

“Is that how you see it?” Archibald lowered until he was standing on the surface of Steven’s mind. “As you wish.” He held his hand above his head. Like a warp blue meteorite falling from the void above, Archibald’s crowbar landed in his grasp. In a single fluid movement, he brought it down on the surface of Steven’s mind.

The mist resonated like a gong. Simultaneously, Steven fell onto his knees on his mind’s surface, clutching his head. “Archibald,” he grimaced, “what are you doing!?”

Archibald helped him to his feet. “Sorry Steven, no other way to get its attention.” He rose his crowbar and struck the mist again.

The black streak stopped again. Prepared for the shock of pain, Steven managed to keep his footing. “Is it gone?”

“No.” Archibald replied. “It’s coming this way. Get ready.” He took a few steps back, gripping his crowbar.

Steven summoned his shield.

The blackness rumbled at the far side of Steven’s mind. Suddenly, it launched. This time however, it did not turn as it reached the surface. Like a geyser of black aether, it ruptured. As the fountain died down, the pink light within was revealed. Still decorated with darkness, the light took on a hulking solid shape, through the scales and the claws and the crown of horns, Steven could see himself. “What?”

“You’re surprised?” Archibald asked.

“Why does it look like me?”

“What did you expect it to look like?”

Archibald’s vagueness prompted a twitch of anger in Steven. “Oh, I don’t know! I was kind of expecting Roxillan to look like Roxillan!”

The monstrous Steven flinched. “Roxillan… Roxillan!”

In response to the roar, Steven threw his shield reflexively.

As the shield hit it in the head, the monster roared louder. “Roxillan.” It rose its arms and charged.

Glancing at Steven as he summoned a new shield and ran to meet his larger double, Archibald sighed. “Here we go.”

Steven raised his shield, taking the giant’s blows. As he shoved forwards, the monster grabbed either side of his shield and threw him aside.

Before it could bear down on Steven, Archibald wheeled into the monster, striking the back of its knee with his crowbar. As it turned, vengefully raining fists down on the old man, Archibald wove backwards with agility unbecoming for his age. He interrupted the assault with a blow across the jaw.

At the same time, Steven had recovered. With a long leap, he sprang on the monster’s shoulders starting to punch its head. The monster swatted up at him, but Steven took the blows and gave back in kind. With a lunge, Steven wrapped his arms around the scaled neck, trying hard to put it in a chokehold.

The larger Steven, in a flash of tactical instinct over brute force, stopped striking its rider and grabbed him by the leg. With a pull, Steven was tossed forward.

Archibald zipped back to catch his ally, setting him down as his thrower bounded at them. The old man swung his crowbar like a baseball bat, striking the falling goliath across the knuckles and whacking him away.

The monstrous Steven got up quickly, curling and uncurling its throbbing fingers. As Steven and Archibald charged in, is screamed. “Roxillan!” A pink shockwave erupted from its mouth throwing the pair back. As they got up, it began to scoop up handfuls of Steven’s mind, lobing them as balls of pink mist.

Though he successfully blocked the projectiles with his shield, the force of impact still threw Steven backwards.

As it turned with a second orb for Archibald, the monster faltered, finding itself staring down the bore of his revolver.

The flinch was enough for Archibald to hit it dead in the chest. Unlike a normal gunshot, the strike did not pierce through, instead it threw back the titan in a burst of blue energy.

Quickly regaining its senses, the monster dug into the mist as it got up on its knees and began to throw clods of mind stuff with wild abandon.

Archibald shot down two projectiles as he saw Steven get up. “Go knock it down! I’ll keep its shots off you!”

With a nod, Steven charged. He ran at full pelt, when two masses of mist arced his way, he didn’t try to dodge, knowing that behind him Archibald had spotted them and would shoot them down. The mist resolved as small, familiar trinkets that fell back into the lager mind as bullets hit them.

The monstrous Steven reached deeper into the mist for a new projectile. With a heave, it pulled something up.

Steven ground to a halt. He stared like a deer in the headlights. “What the…”

The monster had caught the enormous finger of fudge, dwarfing them all. With effort, the comparatively tiny giant manoeuvred its latest weapon until it was held like a whale-sized javelin. The monster took two steps forward and threw. “Roxillan!”

“Steven! Duck!”

Steven ducked his head down an instant before Archibald’s pistol rang out its sixth and final shot.

There was a gooey crack in answer, causing Steven to look up. His jaw dropped.

Archibald’s bullet was slicing the giant candy bar in half.

Steven returned to his senses and resumed his charge. As the chocolate split before him he ran into the divide. Walls of fudge rushed past him like sweet smelling freight trains. As the split carried all the way through, Steven found himself right in front of his target, shocked to see him. Steven punched the monster in the gut. As it doubled over, Steven encased his other hand in a spiked bubble and delivered an uppercut. The monster staggered backwards, and Steven laid into it with panic-driven savagery.

“Roxillan…” With a groan it fell.

Steven stood over his defeated double. “We beat her.” He summoned his shield. Its edge glimmered sharply. Since this was Roxillan, Steven knew what he had to do. He bit his lip as his stomach churned nauseously. “Archibald?”

“Yes Steven?” The old man replied, having somehow covered the great distance Steven had run in seconds.

“Can you uh…” He made a gun motion towards the monster’s head, underscored with a quiet, “Pew pew.”

“If I did that, I could cause you serious brain damage.” He replied gravely. “Besides,” he hid the gun he was in the process of reloading, “that was my last bullet.”

“I see…” Steven took his shield in both hand and raised it like a headsman’s axe. He took deep breaths, unable to help from looking into the eyes of the creature he was about to kill. “Why do you still look like me? I know who you are!”

“And just who are they then?” Archibald crossed his arms.

Steven span around at him. “Roxillan! Who else!?”

“Roxillan!” The creature echoed fearfully.

Steven span back, putting a knee on its chest, grabbing it by the collar and raising the sharp edge of his shield to its throat. “Why is that all you can say!? Why am I listening to either of you!? I should just kill you!”

“Ro…Roxillan!” Tears formed in its eyes as its eyelids screwed shut in fright.

Steven’s shield disappeared. “You aren’t Roxillan.” Steven knew that that was one feeling Roxillan couldn’t feel, fear of death. “You’re me.”

The monster opened its eyes hopefully. “Roxillan?”

“Then what the heck are you doing!?” Steven pointed into the lightless mist below. “You are destroying us!” He grabbed his double’s collar in both hands. “Well!? Why are you doing this!?”

The larger steven looked around in fear and confusion. “Ro… Roxillan?”

“Stop saying that!” Steven raised a fist. “I ought to!”

“Steven!” Archibald hooked the boy’s wrist with his crowbar, flipping him over show him the angriest scowl they had ever faced him with. “You have forgiven invaders, monsters, and intergalactic dictators! The least you can do is show some sympathy to yourself!”

Steven glanced over at his larger clone, now crying in a foetal position. “Why is it like this?”

Archibald took a deep breath to collect himself. “He doesn’t know any better. He’s an amalgamation of your emotions and desires, your inner child, or id as Freud would erroneously call him. He knew that Roxillan was invading and was trying to save as much as he could.”

“Oh geez. Why didn’t you tell me to start with?”

“As I said, you aren’t Steven. You’re his parental voice. I didn’t know how you’d react to knowing he was your opposite. You could have destroyed him.”

“Its… he’s not helping though.” Steven shook his head. “He shouldn’t have to. I should be the one who deals with stuff so he can concentrate on what we want to do.”

“You had quite a bad scare Steven, Roxillan caught you.”

“I know, I-”

“Roxillan!” The bigger Steven started to shake.

The smaller Steven quickly came to his side. “It’s alright, I’ve got you! I’m so sorry for hurting you! I’ll keep you safe now you don’t have to worry about this.”

“Roxillan!” The taller Steven surprised his twin with a hug, squeezing him tight. “I’m scared!”

“I know.” He replied. “But it’s ok, we escaped, Pilot and Garnet are out there waiting for us.”

The monstrous Steven looked up into the void. Up there, he saw stars, neon blue, mossy green, and a close pair shining red and blue. He returned to his hug and the Stevens transformed into pink light.

The light swelled bigger and bigger. Archibald stepped backwards with a melancholy smile until he was at the foot of a glowing pink mountain. Just as soon as it was grown, however, the mass began to melt, drops of light rolled off the mass into orbs of stellar bronze, falling into the mist and finding places deep within to illuminate. New constellations were arranged in the places of those gone and those few pink lights that the black streak had missed took on the new colour. As the light melted down to humanoid size and shape, it solidified as one complete Steven. He swayed unstably.

Again, Archibald covered a great distance in an instant, catching Steven as he fell. “Hello Steven.”

“Hi Archibald.” Steven smiled and nodded downwards. “My mind looks different.”

“Perhaps you’ve grown up?” The old man shrugged. “How do you feel?”

“Tired.” He replied. “Can I lie down for a bit.”

“Sorry, I think your friends need you. Sapphire and Connie especially.”

Steven recalled Sapphire’s cracked gem, but he didn’t recall seeing his girlfriend. “Connie’s here?”

“Yes.” Archibald frowned. “Roxillan’s clear quartz did quite a number on her I believe.”

“I have to go.”

“Of course.” Archibald agreed, letting him sink into his mind. “Talk later?”

“If I survive this!”

“Of that, I have no doubt.”

Chapter Text

“Steven!”

Steven looked up at the voice, he had apparently fallen to one knee at some point. a pair of grey hands supported him. He barely remembered anything after the black goo in the vat had caught him. Now he saw Pilot, looking down on him with tears in his eyes. “Is everyone else okay?” He asked him.

Pilot held his arms tighter. “I shouldn’t have abandoned you, I’m so sorry.”

“It’s alright!” Steven insisted. “I’m fine!”

“It’s not alright!” Pilot answered. “I was supposed to look out for you! I put you in that horrible situation just because I couldn’t stop myself from going after my-”

He was cut off by Ruby literally tackling him out of the way. “Steven! You’re back.”

“Ruby!?” Steven exclaimed. “What are you doing here? Where’s Sapphire!?”

“Ereh revo!”

Recognising the distorted speech, Steven got to his feet. There he saw her. “Sapphire!” He rushed over to her kneeling at her side and taking her hand on the end of a noodle like arm. He turned her hand over and his fears were confirmed. She was cracked. “Did… did I do this?” He raised the gem to his lips and kissed it. The sealing crack did little to heal the guilt he felt.

“It’s not your fault, Steven.” Sapphire assured him, her body and voice returning to normal.

“But I-”

“She’s right Steven.” Pilot agreed. “It’s mine.”

“Pilot?” Steven questioned.

“That isn’t what I meant.” Sapphire responded.

“You know it is though.” Pilot replied. “None of this would have happened if I hadn’t been so focused on fighting Roxillan.”

“We don’t have time for this!” Ruby butted in. “We have to find Jasper and-”

“Connie!” Steven realised. He wasn’t sure how, but somehow, he knew that Connie was on this planet and what’s more, she needed him.

Suddenly, Sapphire was struck with future vision. “We have company!”

Steven and Pilot immediately stood back-to-back, fists ready. Ruby and Sapphire pulled themselves together, forming Garnet, who summoned her gauntlets.

Through the myriad cracks in the damaged walls, black liquid started to seep through. “It’s the shard creatures.” Garnet identified.

“They aren’t alone!” Pilot exclaimed.

From outside came the shouts of gems. “There they are! We’ve cornered them!”

“How did the human get away from Clear Quartz!?”

“It doesn’t matter! We’ll get her!”

“They’re slowing down! Now’s our chance! Let’s-” The gem’s words were cut off.

There was no sound reminiscent of poofing however only the sound of bodies hitting the floor followed by silence. A heartbeat later and the invading black ooze lost its mobility. A moment more and Pilot, Garnet, and Steven were hit by a wave of psychic force. “What was that!?” Steven yelled.

Pilot shook his head in disbelief. “Connie...”

Suddenly, the metal door split in twain. With another cut, it fell to pieces. Connie shifted, switching her sword from weapon back to crutch.

Steven was speechless. Somehow, he had known from the moment he had returned to his senses that Connie was hurt, but the extent of her damage was well beyond what he had dared to imagine. More blood stained her clothes than a human body could survive without. Both eyes were black and swollen shut, her body was bruised, with indentations in her ribcage, visible where blood stuck her clothes to it.

In the moments of shock, a voice grumbled from outside the doorframe. “There’s an access panel right here human.”

A small rivulet of red leaked from Connie’s lip as she smiled. “I told you Jasper, I can’t see.” Despite her words she turned to her boyfriend, her expression changing as if she could clearly see the dismay he displayed. “Steven!” She tried to run towards him, but she staggered falling forward.

Pilot got to her first, but only by virtue of his warp suit. He caught her, gently laying her back as he looked down her leg. “That’s a fracture. You walked here like this?”

“Didn’t really have any choice.” She shrugged. “Do you have any of those pins you use?” She chuckled.

“Don’t you pick up my dumb habits!” He couldn’t help but smile back. “Steven’s right here.”

Steven was already kneeling at her side. “Connie! What happened!? Who did this to you!?”

“Sorry nurse.” Connie smiled. “I got into another fight. Promise it won’t happen again.” She showed him her crossed fingers.

He took her hand. “That’s not funny!”

“Sorry babe.” She pouted. “Love you.”

Though filled with mounting concern and incredulity at how she refused to take her state seriously, Steven couldn’t leave his girlfriend unanswered. “I love you too.”

“I think I’m gonna be sick.” Pilot muttered. “If you two are gonna be all romantic about this, Garnet can take over.” He gently shifted Connie’s weight onto Steven and turned to the fusion.

Garnet stared down at the human. “Connie… you should be dead.”

“You really need to work on your bedside manner, Garnet.” Pilot accused.

“She’s lost eight pints of blood.” Garnet replied. “No human can survive that.”

“That can’t be right!” Pilot contested. “Eight?”

“Pilot?” Connie cut in. “You know eight?”

“Well yeah, it’s the biggest number.”

“It really isn’t.” Garnet responded. “But Connie, you shouldn’t even be conscious.”

“Guys! I’m fine.” Despite resistance from Steven, Connie got to her feet. “It isn’t as bad as it looks. Besides, I’m pretty tough.” She raised her hand, it darkened and gained a sheen.

Pilot stared at the hardened limb and grinned. “That’s my girl! So that conqueror’s haki out there?”

Connie nodded. “That was me.”

“So you’ve-”

She shook her head. “Another accident.”

Steven, having heard quite enough about how the love of his life had no business among the living, grabbed her by the waist for a tearful embrace. “You are getting so many healing kisses!”

“Well, I guess it’s for the-”

Steven didn’t let her finish her sentence as he swept in to kiss her. Her bones reset, letting her breathe easier. Her bruises fades, restoring her beautiful skin. Her swelling eyelids diminished allowing them to open, though nobody saw in that moment how her irises were briefly silver, as they had been once before. As Connie approached the peak of health, she and Steven erupted in light.

Stevonnie’s smile dropped as the dual memories of their components’ tribulations hit them. “What the heck…”

Pilot reached out a hand to his apprentice. “Stevonnie?”

They caught their breath. “I’m okay.”

Neither Pilot nor Garnet believed them. “Steven and Connie have been through a lot.” The gem fusion reasoned. “If you need time to heal, we understand.”

“No!” Stevonnie insisted. “Okay, I admit I’m not okay okay, but I am okay! Okay?”

Pilot put his hand on their shoulder. “I get you.”

“Besides,” Stevonnie continued, “we have to deal with Roxillan!”

“No.” Garnet interjected. “We should pull back for now and come back in greater numbers.”

“Coward!” Jasper jeered from outside.

Pilot turned to the door. “Jasper, what are you doing out there?”

“One of us has to stand guard!”

“You aren’t very effective in your current state.” Garnet suggested, a small smile playing across her lips.

“Garnet!” Stevonnie admonished. “Just come in Jasper, nobody’s going to make fun of you.” They gave their mentor a sharp look. “Right?”

“Wouldn’t dream of it.” Pilot assured curiously.

“Fine.” Jasper growled. She stepped into the doorframe, taking up less than half of it.

Surprised to be looking down at the quartz, Pilot just about managed to catch and swallow up a laugh. “So… What happened?”

Jasper grumbled and looked to her fused diamond.

“It’s hard to explain. Connie tried to cut her way out of the hangar she’d been taken to. The lockdown activated and Jasper had to use some sort of fire power to break her out.”

“This is the side effect.” Jasper explained. “I wouldn’t have gotten here without Connie!”

Stevonnie raised an eyebrow, surprised to hear such respect directed at their fully human half. “No problem…”

“Could you fix this?”

“Huh? Oh! Yeah!” Stevonnie licked their finger and tapped Jasper’s gem.

Sparkles emanated from the spot, causing Jasper to shake her head in annoyance, but there was no farther effect. She did not grow. “What!?”

Garnet adjusted her shades, analysing the shrunken gem. “It seems this new power of yours takes a strain on your gem. The more frequently you use it, the less time it lasts and the longer it takes for you to recover. You should rest before using it again.”

“How long is left this time?”

Garnet consulted her future vision. “Thirteen minutes.”

“Right.” Pilot nodded. “Even more reason to pull out. My ship is hidden over to the east of the camp.”

“But what about the antiair gun?” Stevonnie asked.

“The what now?”

Garnet suddenly recalled what her fellow fusion was talking about. “Roxillan sent Bluebird Azurite to activate the antiair gun to cover their escape.”

Pilot hurried over to the door, briefly clocking the gems lying unconscious but fully formed around them. He pointed into the distance. “I guess you mean the big fuck off cannon over that way?”

“Yes.”

Pilot shook his head. “It doesn’t look active. Weapon that size, would take a while to go from complete dormancy to full operation. How long do we have?”

“Not long.” Garnet replied. “Sixteen minutes.”

“Well crap.” Pilot stated. “We could get off planet in that time, but even with reinforcements, an assault from the air would be nearly impossible.”

“Could we land a short distance away and sneak in again?” Stevonnie suggested

Garnet shook her head. “That cannon has enough range to hit the moon. We’d have to march from the other side of the planet.”

“Then let’s do that!” Jasper insisted.

“No.” Pilot replied.

“Are you scared of walking?” She mocked.

“Here?” Pilot asked. “We all should be.”

Stevonnie looked down at their feet. “We should?”

“When I went after Roxillan, I fell into a kindergarten.” Pilot explained. “Roxillan’s made something down there, a Shadow Cluster. I don’t know how big it is, but if it goes active while were away, the whole planet’s surface could become a death trap.” He shook his head. “We have to take the anti-air gun down now!”

“Then we have to move.” Garnet ordered. “We don’t have long before Bluebird activates it fully.”

Following Garnet’s lead, they spilt out of the building. As they followed Garnet and Jasper to the cannon’s tower, Stevonnie looked back. “Pilot! Where are you going?”

“Back to my ship!” He yelled, running the opposite direction. “If this goes tits up, you’ll need air support!”

“Ok!” Stevonnie called. “Be careful!”

“When am I not!?”

Chapter Text

“This is humiliating!” Jasper yelled. “Put me down, fusion!”

Garnet kept the shrunken quartz tucked under one arm as she lunged at an oncoming patrol with the other. “Stop wriggling. Until you return to your normal size, you’d slow us down if you ran by yourself.”

“You’re limiting your power by carrying me like this!”

“Fine!” Garnet shifted to hold Jasper in her grasp. “Stevonnie! Jasper needs a piggyback!” She threw.

Stevonnie glanced back, having carved their way ahead. They sliced the robanoid in their path and jumped backwards. Their back met Jasper in mid-air, allowing her to hold on as they landed and Stevonnie resumed their charge.

With both hands free, Garnet unleashed a flurry of punches, sending gems and robanoids flying. “That’s the last of them for now!”

“Let’s go before more can catch up!” Stevonnie replied.

The last of several engagements that the trio had ran into, the patrols had hampered their progress towards the tower housing the anti-air gun. Jasper’s little legs and inability to help fight farther blunted their progress. However, Garnet and Stevonnie had kept a fast pace, preventing the full weight of Roxillan’s forces from falling upon them. With blistering speed and power, the two fusions had blown through the hastily constructed roadblocks and ambushes. With only minutes to spare, they arrived at the tower’s base.

Stevonnie scanned the imposing structure. “Where’s Bluebird?”

“At the top.” Garnet replied.

“Be careful, my Diamond.” Jasper warned. “That fusion is stronger than she has any right to be.”

“Got it.” Stevonnie shed Jasper with a roll of their shoulders. “Wait here.” Stevonnie bent their legs and leapt.

“Stevonnie! Look out!”

Thanks both to Garnet’s warning and their own instinct, Stevonnie raised their shield at just the right moment. Their defence met head on a mace-like sceptre it was all too familiar with. Though the blow was perfectly defended against, Stevonnie was surprised by quite how hard the weapon had been thrown. They were sent back into the ground with earth-shattering force.

“Ug…” Stevonnie groaned, sitting up as their bones repaired themselves. “Ow…” Suddenly, their eyes darted to the cracks in the ground their landing had sculpted. They were on their feet instantly, a bubble raised just in time to block a rush of black tentacles from below them.

Their first strike frustrated; the tentacles lashed the bubble relentlessly.

Garnet raised an arm, hardening it with haki. With speed and precision, she whipped the limb into the mass of tendrils, expanding her hand as her arm elongated. Just as quickly, she pulled back, saving the bubbled Stevonnie from the assault.

“What is that thing!?” They exclaimed through the bubble.

“It must be the ‘Shadow Cluster’ Pilot warned us about.” Garnet theorised.

“Indeed, it is!”

The three looked up. “Morganite!” Garnet realised.

“Were you perhaps hoping to deliver Stevonnie to their true mother?” Morganite enquired. “Well, I’m afraid that Roxillan is out at the moment. You can just leave that there and go. I’ll make sure they don’t wander off. Roxillan did leave me in charge after all.”

Garnet had stopped listening about halfway through Morganite’s pompous bluster. “Stevonnie, you’ll have to get up the tower from the inside.”

Stevonnie glanced over at the sealed blast doors, blocked by the shadow cluster’s feelers. “How do we get through?”

Garnet wound back her oversized arm, holding Stevonnie in their bubble like a baseball pitcher would hold a ball.

“Garnet?”

Garnet slung the bubble ahead.

“Garnet!” In the moments flying forward, Stevonnie suddenly realised the plan.

The Shadow Cluster formed a wall with its tentacles.

Stevonnie glared forwards as their bubble span. “Outa! My! Way!” Just as the bubble collided, spikes sprang covered in a hexagonal tileing of Connie’s haki. The tentacles offered the protection of cotton, the shadows falling away in shreds that dissipated as individual shards were freed from the sickening whole.

Stevonnie dropped the bubble and hardened their fist.

“Not so fast!” Morganite stepped off the balcony, falling towards Stevonnie with sceptre raised.

“Oh no you don’t!” Like a speeding bullet, Garnet leapt to intercept. She slammed Morganite into the tower about a quarter of the way up.

Below, Stevonnie used Steven’s strength and Connie’s haki to batter down the door. The tower’s interior was split into floors, it would be more time consuming than simply jumping up the exterior.

“Get off me!” With a savage swing of her weapon, Morganite threw Garnet to the ground. She dropped down herself, turning towards the broken doorway. “Here we are again, Stevonnie. There are no traitorous pearls to save you this time!”

“You’ll have to get through me first!” Jasper charged, half forgetting their weakened state.

Morganite didn’t even bother to fully turn, throwing her sceptre and sending Jasper flying back with a blow to the chest. “That was easy.” She commented smugly tuning back to retrieve a new weapon. Her face met a heavy gauntlet.

“Don’t count me out just because you hit me!” Garnet shouted. As her foe reeled from the punch, she looked over her shoulder. “Go!”

“But Garnet-”

“There’s no time! I can take this gem!” Garnet smiled at Stevonnie.

With renewed hope, Stevonnie nodded. “I’ll be right back!”

Morganite took a step back drawing two new sceptres from her gem. “You dare think you can face me alone?”

“I’m never alone Morganite.”

“How sweet!” Cooed insincerely. “Neither am I.” Around the pair, the tentacles slipped through the cracks anew.

Garnet swatted away tentacles as she parried Morgainte’s blows, trying to dance the gem away from where the ground was distressed enough for the Shadow Cluster to reach through.

Though Morganite had underestimated the fusion to start with, she was smart enough not to make that mistake again. She pressed her advantage, stymieing Garnet’s speed advantage by locking her in an environment where her every step was a battle.

Despite being surrounded, Garnet held her own with surprising efficiency. Morganite was more used to planning balls and galas than her own tactics in combat, the Shadow Cluster had little wit of its own to speak of, tactical or otherwise. Garnet was a veteran of the Gem War, and she was going to show Morganite the consequences of challenging her. With a swift blow to the wrist, Morganite was relieved of one of her weapons.

Unfortunately for the fusion, Morganite was a fast learner. Morganite may not have spent the past centuries learning combat, but she knew how to think quickly and Roxillan had given her an incredible gift, overwhelming power. She lunged forward with her empty hand and caught one of Garnet’s fists. Dismissing her remaining weapon, she grabbed the other by the wrist. “Now! Get her!”

The Shadow Clusters serpentine limbs reared up and struck, punching Garnet in the back in rapid fire succession. Her arms held, Garnet could do nothing to dodge or deflect the assault.

Morganite grinned at her opponent’s gritted teeth. “Give in you pathetic fu-”

Garnet spat in her eyes.

“Ah!” Morganite screamed. “That’s disgusting! How dare you-”

In her opponent’s moment of lost focus, Garnet dismissed her oversized gauntlet, freeing her hand just long enough to sock Morganite in the jaw. As Morganite missed a blind grab, the fusion backhanded her.

As Morganite’s eyes recovered, she caught the loose hand. “There! Got yo-”

Garnet headbutted the leering pink face before her.

With a shriek of pain and aggravation, Morganite violently supressed the urge to release her enemy to cradle her battered nose. “You underhanded clod!”

“You’re the one ganging up on me.”

“That’s it!” Morganite growled. “Finish her!”

Behind Garnet, one of the inky black tentacles ceased its pummelling to extrude a single, matte grey spike, long as a carving knife at its tip.

Just as it was about to plunge into Garnet’s back, the fusion kicked, sweeping her leg through Morganite’s dress, and knocking the unsuspecting gem off her feet. In an instant, Garnet shifted her hands so that she was holding Morganite’s wrists as she span around. Using her opponent’s body, she swatted away the tentacles that had rained bludgeoning strikes on her back. In with a final spin, Garnet impaled Morganite on her own ally’s spike.

Garnet took several steps back, escaping the shrinking black mire. She walked around her defeated opponent, planning on catching up with Stevonnie.

With motions that could almost be mistaken for apologetic, the spiked tendril gently set Morganite down.

“Where do you think you’re going?”

Garnet span back, masking her confusion as to why Morganite was taking so long to poof. “I’ve won.”

“What?” Morganite gently tapped the spike erupting from her neck. “You mean because of this little thing?” The spike shrank way, swallowed up by the black tendril that stayed affixed to the back of the gem’s neck. The hole left behind was instantaneously filled with a translucent black jelly. Morganite drew two new sceptres. “You’ll have to try harder than that.”

Garnet charged, dodging a thrown sceptre and blocking a melee strike. As Garnet’s fist again met Morganite’s face, the fusion detected a marked decrease in her target’s give. Though Morganite still moved with her usual dexterity and flexibility, her hard light body felt stiff, as if she were a wooden marionette dancing with the aid of near invisible shadowy strings. Raising an eyebrow, Garnet blocked Morganite’s sceptre, dancing around it to punch Morganite directly in the elbow.

Unlike in regular gem limbs, where being bent the wrong way produced a flash of intense pain followed by swift recovery, Morganite’s arm snapped like a tree branch, exactly as Garnet had theorised. Morganite’s hand and forearm, separated from her body, instantly vanished in a handful of pink sparkles.

Instantly, the black tendril on Morganite’s neck shuddered. More of the gelatinous blackness grew from her severed elbow, forming a new hand so quickly that the sceptre her real one had dropped on breaking barely fell half a foot before the new limb caught it. “Do your worst!” She swung, striking cleanly around Garnet’s head.

Garnet caught her cracked visor. “You’re already doing that to yourself!”

“Don’t like what you see? Ha!” Morganite swatted Garnet back with a cock of her head. Tossing her weapon to her real hand, she flashed her new limb at her opponent.

With enough space to safely analyse the arm, Garnet realised that it was far from a perfect recreation of the original. For as strong as she was, Morganites hands were dainty, precise things, as one would expect from a gem made to organise social events for a diamond. This new hand could be better described as a monstrous almost, robotic claw. In its translucent mass, Garnet could see little black spots swirling around. “You’re repairing yourself with gem shards! That’s monstrous, even for you!”

“It’s the Shadow Cluster’s duty to look after me. It’s only natural that a higher gem make use of her servant.”

Garnet closed in, blocking the sceptre and throwing a barrage of strikes. “You aren’t a higher gem! You’re disgusting! You are the lowest gem on. This. Planet!” With a devastating uppercut, Garnet knocked Morganite’s head clean off her neck. The head exploded like a pink firework.

Unperturbed by her own decapitation, Morganite reached to her gem and drew an additional sceptre. At the same time, more of the translucent blackness emerged from her unburdened neck, shaping itself as if it were filling some invisible head shaped mould. As the lips formed, they smiled. “Don’t you understand, fusion?” The voice was not Morganite’s, it was too seductive, too sickeningly familiar, as was the deceptively alluring face and pointed ears. Morganite’s curly, bonnet wrapped hair was gone too, leaving the new scalp barren but for a claw like decoration that held the back of the head. “While the Shadow Cluster is under my command, I am indestructible!”

“What about your gem?” A voice called from behind.

“Jasper!” Garnet exclaimed.

Morganite didn’t risk taking her eyes off of the fusion to view the shrunken quartz. “So you survived and came crawling back? I’m almost impressed. Here’s your reward.” Without looking back, Morganite threw in the direction of Jasper’s voice. Not hearing her bludgeon hit home, she dismissed it. Morganite flinched as a spark of her dissipating weapon landed on her gem. She glanced back and gasped.

Morganite jumped aside just in time as a wheel of orange light careened towards her. The spinning mass stopped just short of Garnet as Jasper uncurled and stood, full height and helmet on. “It’s been thirteen minutes.”

“Yes.” Garnet agreed.

Chapter Text

Flying over rooftops, Pilot ran. His feet did not touch solid ground once, he had not the time. If the others failed in their mission, he had minutes until the sky higher than the basecamp’s walls became near unnavigable. Speed was his mission over stealth so on occasion a sentry spotted him, but he hardly cared. There was little they could do to slow the streak of blue light that was gone almost as soon as they had glimpsed it. Occasionally the beam of a shattering robanoid struck at his heels but the impacts only threw him farther in his bounding run.

Soon, in barely a minute’s time he was reaching the wall. Suddenly, a whirring mass of black rose into the air, blood. Pilot’s eyes widened as it span into a jagged flat plane, like a buzzsaw.

He rolled aside as the liquid mass launched his way. “Lapis?”

“Pilot!” Rising to roof level a lapis lazuli arose. Her appearance modifier resembled a crop top and near ankle length skirt. Her sour face was framed in a curly, dark blue bob. Her tear shaped gem resided on her left shoulder. “This is the end of the line! Roxillan commanded I don’t let anyone get out of this camp. You might as well-”

The gem’s presence hadn’t slowed Pilot in the slightest. “Get out of my way!” He lunged forward, finger pointing at the gem’s neck. “Finger Pistol!”

The lapis lazuli ascended, narrowly dodging him, and flying out of reach. “You can’t brush off a lapis lazuli like that! We can sculpt whole planets!” She raised a hand skywards. At her command, countless drops of kelmepi blood rose, accumulating above her head like a dark thundercloud. She grinned as the droplets sharpened into needles. She swept her hand down at Pilot. “Die!”  

The spikes rained down. “I don’t have time for this. Paper Art!” Pilot swayed between the hail like a flag in a storm. As the needles thinned, Pilot secured his stance and held out his thumb, lining it up with Lapis. His other arm pulled back, finger ready to deliver a strike. “Finger Pistol:”

“Are you aiming at me?” Lapis scoffed. “You’re just giving me more time to get out of the way!”

“That’s the idea.” He murmured. “Warp Lance!”

Pilot was gone. Like an inverted lightning bolt, blue lines of warp energy pierced straight up from where he had stood directly to in the gems face. Lapis dodged just in time; Pilot’s finger was inches from the side of her head. She bolted upwards “How did you jump so high!?”

As Pilot’s finger had stabbed forwards, his other hand had prepared for a finger pistol of it’s own. “I wanted to hit you. Desires aren’t effected by gravity.” In another blitz of blue lights, he caught up with her, just missing her again. “I rode it up.”

“That doesn’t make any sense!” Lapis fled, winding an upward path in hopes of exhausting her pursuer.

Pilot continued to give chase. Every time Lapis extended her lead, she would feel the rush of air as Pilot would appear a hair’s breadth behind her. She started to panic; Pilot couldn’t miss her forever. She saw the expanse of sky appear over the lip of the wall and bolted.

“Running away!?” Pilot taunted.

The gem tuned back to retort.

In an instant, Pilot was crouched on her chest, his finger pierced her neck. “Just so you know, I was missing on purpose. Thanks for the lift over that wall.” Pilot caught the tear shaped gem as he fell through her destabilising body. He lay back as he plummeted into the ground.

Pilot sat up instantly, unharmed by the fall thanks to the warp. Pilot got on his feet, keenly aware that he was being watched.

“Going so soon?”

Pilot turned sharply towards the voice. “We got them back Roxy!”

“Indeed,” Roxillan stepped out of the shadows into the moonlight, “and yet you chose to abandon them again? How come?”

“Maybe I came looking for you?” Pilot posited. “Perhaps I knew that you couldn’t resist a chance to be alone with me?”

“It’s been a long time.” Roxillan agreed. “I’ve missed how personal our fights were, before you got mixed up with these gems. You have too, haven’t you? Why else would you indulge me?”

“To keep my friends away from you.”

“Are you sure that’s wise?” Roxillan asked, her smile growing more sinister. “You’ve been fighting alongside them for so long now. You rely on them, and now I have you all alone…”

Pilot span away from Roxillan and punched. “You took the words out of my mouth!” His fist connected with the jaw of the real Roxillan, lifting her off her feet.

Roxillan staggered backwards, raising her spear to keep Pilot from closing the distance. “You saw through my illusion…”

“Once bitten and all that.” Pilot shrugged.

“I didn’t think you had any shyness left.”

“I prefer to call it caution.” Pilot sidestepped as Roxillan’s illusory duplicate tried to stab him in the back.

The illusion turned with a stab, but Pilot deflected it. Pilot punched it in the gut, but his hand went through.

“Haven’t you realised?” Roxillan questioned, circling the scuffle. “Just because my illusions can hurt you doesn’t mean that you can hurt them.”

The illusion kicked Pilot in the side. “Maybe this will teach you not to solve all your problems with punching!”

Pilot didn’t budge as the leg hit him.

Roxillan took a step forwards. “Not even going to try and dodge that?”

Pilot didn’t look at her. “How’d you fix your arm?”

“I asked first.”

Pilot silently stared at the illusion as it again kicked his side.

“I’ll answer you if you answer me…”

“I think it would be quite evident that no, I am not trying to dodge this. Your turn.”

“You know that isn’t what I meant.”

“But it’s what you asked.”

“Very clever.” Roxillan raised the once severed hand and rolled down the sleave of Priyanka’s blood-stained lab coat. Pilot glanced to see the arm was held in place by tiny black sutures that delineated the otherwise invisible point of removal. She got in closer and waved. “That good enough for you?”

“Yes.” Pilot swung his balled fist out of the illusion’s intangible torso and at the real thing.

Roxillan extended her hand and caught the side of his fist. Her superior smile suddenly twisted into a pained grimace. “Ow!” As Pilot opened his hand Roxillan backed away and glanced at the source of her pain. A blue, tear-shaped gem pierced through her palm, slick with blood. “You stabbed me with my Lapis Lazuli!? What in the name of the Chorus is wrong with you!?”

“You should know that better than most!” Pilot smiled. “And that isn’t your lapis! I did have some questions about Lapis though. Was that your blood she was trying to kill me with?”

“Who else’s would it be?”

“Since when does our blood contain water? We’re conceptual beings!”

“I made some changes, it’s called strategizing.” She looked down at the gem on her palm and smiled. “Speaking of…” With barely a flicker of emotion, Roxillan ripped the gemstone from her hand. “Look what you let fall into my hand?” Roxillan summoned her spear and drew a line in the bleached earth. “Cross this, and she shatters.”

Pilot took a step towards the line.

“Don’t test me.” Roxillan warned. “You know I want to do this.”

Pilot stepped right up to the line. “So do I.”

“What?”

In Roxillan’s moment of confusion, Pilot warped ahead, reaching for the gem.

Roxillan was less unaware than she seemed, however. She tossed the gem into her wounded hand. “Too slow darling.” She squeezed her hand. “No do overs.”

The cracking echoed through the battlefield. Pilot turned back.

With a wicked grin, Roxillan opened her hand. Blue shards fell to the ground. On her palm, blue residue mixed messily with black blood. The smell of rotten eggs permeated the air. Roxillan wrinkled her nose. “I’m usually long gone before the people I kill start smelling like this.”

“It’s sulphur dioxide.” Pilot answered casually, meandering away.

“You let me shatter her.”

“It was the easiest way past you.” He replied.

“Where do you think you’re going?” Roxillan started to follow him. “Pilot, I know you. This rash decision of yours is going to haunt for the rest of your life. I hope whatever you’re trying to get to is worth it.”

“You know she attacked me, right?”

“She was under my control and you know it. She was completely innocent.”

“She used to destroy planets for fun. Plus, she was a bitch.”

It wasn’t often that Roxillan found herself lost for words. “I know we have more in common than you’d care to admit, but… Did something happen while I was away?”

“I trained with assassins.” Pilot replied. “Lives are cheap, victory is all that matters.”

“And what do your apprentices think of this new outlook?”

Pilot walked silently.

“You’re hiding it from them, aren’t you?” Roxillan confirmed. “How much is it worth to you to keep it from them.”

“They’d never believe you.”

“I have the shards to prove it. What’s so funny.”

Pilot chuckled under his breath. “I have the intact bitchy Lapis to prove otherwise.” He flashed the unbroken gem before again hiding it.

“What!?” Roxillan teleported in front of Pilot, attacking him with her spear. “How the fuck do you just so happen to have a replica gem in your pocket!?”

“You’ve kidnapped my friends before!” Pilot replied, dodging the weapon. “Once bitten and all that!” He feigned a double take. “Also, what do you mean replica!? That’s real lapis lazuli you broke there! You know how much the jeweller charged me for that!?”

“So you like tricks do you?” Roxillan hissed.

“I thought you knew me?” He mocked.

“How’s this then?” Roxillan disappeared in a puff of shadow only to appear again a few feet back, another one appeared, and another, and another. Roxillans surrounded Pilot. “All these illusions, but only a single me!” They exclaimed simultaneously. “Make your move.”

“Well, this isn’t at all creepy.” Pilot gazed around the crowd.

“Don’t bother trying to sense me with your haki.”

“You’re projecting yourself in all of them.”

“Of course.” The Roxillans confirmed. “Now, lets make this fun!” They closed in on him.

Black spears clashed against each other as Pilot jumped into the air. “Moonwalk!” Pilot scanned beneath him. “Pistol Fist!”

The Roxillan he hit was solid, toppling back into the crowd as he hit her. Like ants defending their queen, the illusions swarmed.

Pilot dodged and wove through the spears and kicking legs. Every few moments he threw a handful of flashbangs, watching the brief lights. Suddenly, he kicked. Again, his strike hit the real Roxillan. Having found his target, Pilot laid into her, clashing, striking, and driving her back until her doppelgangers were running to keep up with her.

With a final uppercut, Roxillan was laid back on the ground. “How did you find me so easily?”

“Because I’m clever.” Pilot stood over her.

“That’s not what I meant!”

“Yet it’s what you said.” Pilot repeated. “My turn. Where’s your shadow?”

Roxillan’s eyes went wide. She looked over to her illusions, frozen by her shock. Each one had a shadow stretching from their feet in the moonlight. Beneath her, the moonlight illuminated the soil as if she weren’t even there. “That’s how you knew.” She began to rise.

“Don’t bother.” Pilot commented. “It’ll kick in soon.”

“What will be- Ahh!” Roxilan fell to one knee, clutching her arm. Her veins were on fire, and the sensation was rapidly spreading. “What did you do to me!?” Her pain caused the illusions to flicker out of existence in clouds of black.

“You did this to yourself,” Pilot accused, “you filled your wound with lapis lazuli.”

“What!?”

“A little chemistry for you Roxy. Lapis lazuli contains pyrite, fool’s gold. Do you know what you get when you mix pyrite with the oxygen and water in your blood?”

Roxillan stared up hatefully as she convulsed with pain.

“You get ionised iron and sulfuric acid.” He raised his fist. “Now the amount in your system is too dilute to kill you, but It will hold you still long enough for me to finish this. Goodnight Roxy.”

“I’m not done yet!” Roxillan screamed, shoving her hand into Priyanka’s coat. Pilot’s fist passed through her as she collapsed into light and fibrous black veins.

Chapter Text

“Jasper, help me!” Garnet pointed over to Morganite, head and arm replaced with the black, semiliquid facsimiles.

With a begrudging snarl, Jasper turned to the enemy, throwing herself into a rolling charge.

Morganite sidestepped the rolling quartz, catching her fist as she stood up and punched from behind. She threw the fist over her to interfere with Garnet as she dove into the fray. 

The fusion elegantly passed Jasper’s arm to the side, ducking as the Morganite followed up with a swing of her sceptre.

Jasper was not quite as fast while off balance, the weapon slammed into her side, throwing her.

Though it was hard to tell with her lack of pupils, Morganite glanced after the quartz. Equipping her replaced arm with a sceptre of its own, the limb went limp.

Seeing an opening, Garnet punched for all she was worth.

Morganite brought her remaining bludgeon down on the back of the fusion’s wrist. The blow, though deflected, went into and through her stomach, leaving her midsection all but destroyed. “Thank you.” In Garnet’s moment of confusion, Morganite brought the sceptre back up, knocking her back with a blow to the chest. Swiftly, strands of the black jelly, permeated with gem shards, filled in the wound. She began to sway on her rubbery waist. “I was feeling rather stiff.” Suddenly, her torso fell backwards, throwing her arm back with it. The arm, still holding her weapon, stretched from the momentum. As Morganite righted herself, the arm stretched ahead, undulating like an elastic whip.

With ease, Jasper blocked the attack. “Is that it?”

The arm swung back again as Morganite began to accelerate her torso’s spasmodic rocking. The swing was followed by a hail.

As Morganite’s replacement arm kept Jasper at bay, Garnet was still too close. However, the fusion suddenly found Morganite’s upper body refused to keep still, bouncing and weaving between the punches as her other arm managed to maintain its assault. “What do you think Garnet? My other arm has a mind of its own, doesn’t it?” She cackled uproariously at the power that flowed through her from below.

Jasper kept her arms raised, trying to keep the mace from hitting home, but it was too fast to track, assault kept her at extended arm’s length, outside of her effective range. She watched the flailing Morganite and Garnet’s fruitless attempts to pin her down. Suddenly, she saw Garnet’s mouth turn upward. She watched closely.

Garnet wound up a punch, her gauntlet crackled with electricity. Her punch went wide, but Jasper could tell it was too wide, too wide to be a mistake, too wide for Morganite to block. As the lightning flashed uselessly in the air, Jasper felt it, the flash had for one moment weakened the arm hitting her.

With a roar, the quartz glowed with orange fury. Though the arm continued to strike, it was so withered that it could almost be ignored. “What sort of ultimate weapon can be weakened by light!?” She revved up to charge.

Morganite turned at Jasper’s proclamation, ready to leap aside. “Not this time!” Garnet caught her by the arm and neck. She threw Morganite onto the incoming wheel of orange light.

As Morganite was sliced asunder, her square gem bounced across the floor.

“It’s not over.”

As the fusion predicted, cracks appeared in the floor around the gem. Before Garnet or Jasper could intercede, the shadow cluster released a small portion to engulf it. Soon, the black blob took on barely humanoid form, complete with bald the head and a full complement of clawed arms. Morganite’s floor length dress was replaced by eight spidery legs. A blob of the goo fell from each hand, solidifying into crude spiked clubs. The only scrap of pink upon her was her gem, bobbing to the surface on her shoulder. “How long until you two pathetic creatures understand!?” She grinned. “I’m undefeatable!” Cackling again, Morganite threw her limbs forwards.

Garnet and Jasper jumped in opposite directions to avoid the demolishing strikes. “No one’s undefeatable!” Jasper span around, ramping off of a piece of debris in a roll.

Grinning, Morganite grew another pair of arms. Grabbing herself by the pointed ears, she tore herself from head to waistline, allowing Jasper to sail through the gap.

The quartz landed beside Garnet and turned with a horrified grimace.

Still torn, Morganite turned to face them. Her halves moulded, the new arms migrating and inverting. Atop the spider legs, two identical torsos resolved themselves. “Finally…” one head smiled.

“Two against two.” The other agreed.

“Does that make it even?”

“No,” they raised all four clubs and the spikes of their front legs, “they were outclassed already.” The monster pounced on their prey.

Garnet and Jasper were thrown onto the defensive as maces and legs assaulted them. The mad cackling from their foe’s twin mouths merged into a single awful drone that drove out even their ability to think. They tried splitting again, but this only earned each of them the select attention of one of the torsos. No matter how far they moved, Morganite seemed capable of stretching to keep them hard pressed to seek an opening or even a moment’s reprieve from the bludgeoning. “You can’t afford to split your attention like this!” Garnet threatened. “Jasper and I are stronger than you!”

Morganite laughed at the bluff. “Even if that was true, it doesn’t matter!” She held her arms out triumphantly. “There’s nothing you can do to keep me down! How can you win!?”

Garnet’s eye caught Morganite’s gem flash in the moonlight. “We could shatter you.”

Though Jasper was too far away to hear her ally’s words she saw her opponent falter. Helmet first, she leapt at her face.

Simultaneously, Morganite’s other face met Garnet’s armoured fist. The two heads collided halfway. They merged, forcefully uniting Morganite’s split body and sending her staggering backwards. “You, you wouldn’t…”

“Wouldn’t what?” Jasper glared at her, her stoic face failing to hide her excitement at proving the traitor wrong.

Her faltering speech turned from fear to mockery. “You won’t shatter me! Steven won’t let you!”

The fires in Jasper’s eyes cooled.

Garnet raised her fist, lining it up with the pink gemstone. “Steven will never know.” Her gauntlet launched.

“No!” Jasper struck the projectile off course. “I do not disobey our diamond just because he isn’t here!”

“Steven is not my-”

“Well, he’s mine!” She shouted. “The least you can do is stop lying to him! Every time you hid something from him something went wrong, that’s why he wasn’t ready when I spearheaded the invasion of Earth, That’s why he hadn’t even heard of Pink Diamond until I was trying to kill him over what I thought he did to her! That’s why he ran away and listened to my terrible advice!”

Garnet trembled with rage, a hair’s breadth away from socking the quartz for shifting the blame for their atrocities onto her.

They were interrupted by a snicker. “Does one of you want to swap sides for a bit?” Morganite asked scathingly.

Swallowing her pride, Garnet glared at the real enemy. “If you don’t like my plan, tell me yours.”

“Don’t need one.” The quartz shrugged. “She’s falling apart already.”

“Falling apart?” Morganite raised a clawed hand to her face. The dark structure seemed to be cohesive still. “What are you talking about?” In the heat of battle, she failed to notice the lack of shards in her hand; they were drifting in from her extremities.

“Back in the gem war, some soldiers claimed that they could hear the voices of their shattered enemies.” Jasper reminisced. “When lots of shards were nearby, they’d get twitchy. I always thought they were cracking under pressure.”

Morganite twitched. “W-Why should I care about some mental weaklings!?”

Garnet realised what Jasper was doing. “They weren’t weak! They were sensitive to what was left of the shard’s consciousness! Your body is made of gem shards now!”

“So!?”

“You can hear them,” Jasper sneered, “can’t you?”

“No.” Morganite told herself. As the shards massed in her chest, one drifted towards her shoulder. “No, I can’t hear you, I mean them. I-It’s just my imagination!” The shard and the underside of her gem gently touched. “Stop it!” She doubled over, hands to her ears. “Shut up! Stop talking! Stop screaming, all of you!

“Let them go.” Garnet ordered. “Rest.”

“So you can shatter me too!?” Morganite hissed. She convulsed in pain and panic. “In the name of Roxillan, obey me!” As if hit by an invisible shockwave, the shards were violently dispersed across her body. She stood up straight. “There we go.” She produced a new pair of clubs. “Where were we.”

Garnet shook her head. “You shouldn’t have done that.”

“They’re under Roxillan’s control,” she spat, “I can do what I want.”

“Shards only want one thing,” Jasper touched the scars on her gem, “to be whole again. There’s no taking that out of them, and now you…”

The shards returned to Morganite’s chest, swirling angrily.

“Are in their way!”

One by one the shards shot out of the swarm into Morganite’s gem, firing at it like a machine gun.

Morganite screamed in pain. “Get back! Do as I say!” Cracks appeared on the base of her gem.

“Morganite!” Garnet called. “Let go! Save yourself!”

Morganite looked up, glaring like a cornered beast. “You… You! You did this to me!” Clubs raised, she charged.

Garnet tackled her, diving low to catch her by the legs.

As Morganite tripped, Jasper jumped, grabbing the square gemstone as she passed.

Without Morganite’s gem, the gelatinous mass of slime lost its defined form, but not it’s animation. Garnet threw the blob aside as she stood seeing Jasper running away.

“We need to keep that stuff away from her!”

Garnet looked to the side and saw that the blob she had thrown was indeed possessed with some innate drive to follow Jasper and the gem in her hand. Garnet punched it back to little effect. As her gauntlets burst into flame, she had an easier time warding it off with a combination of illumination and a pummelling offensive.

However, the blob of darkness wasn’t alone, a black tendril rose from underground and connected to it. Garnet felt this as the blob suddenly stopped retreating and pushed her back, growing into a tidal wave of black. “Jasper, I don’t think I can fight this any more!” She turned and ran after her ally.

Jasper had heard her; despite the ground she had covered. She jumped from a run to a roll, briefly grimacing as she glanced at the gem in her hand. Though not quite shattered, the damage dealt by the shards was severe, with narrow strips of crystal holding the mass together.

Suddenly, Jasper stopped. Frantically, the quartz searched the ground before the shadow cluster could reach her. “How could I have-”

“You didn’t drop her.” Garnet had also stopped running. Behind her, the mass off black sluggishly retreated.

“But…” Jasper raised her empty hand.

“Roxillan took her.”

“Where?”

Garnet checked her future vision and gasped. “Back to the tower, she’s after Stevonnie!”

Chapter Text

The mess of light and kelmepi veins regained a humanoid form. Only looking herself for an instant, Roxillan began to swell in size. As she grew taller, she paradoxically became less substantial, her body evaporating into a smoky grey mist.

Pilot scanned her, putting two and two together when he saw where her foot should have been. “So who’s this? Clear Spindleheart? Spindleheart Quartz?”

The vague humanoid stood well over twice Pilot’s hight, arms outstretched. “I am… More than you could hope to be!”

“That’s a dumb name.” Pilot smirked. “When you set a naming theme, you should stick to it!”

The fusion swung a hazy fist.

Pilot dodged easily. “You think I’m scared of you because you’re half invisible?”

“Not yet.” She charged him, beating the ground at his heels in an effort to run him down.

Pilot danced back, jumping into a series of backwards flips to gain distance. “You’re just a bunch of hot air!” He drew back his leg. “Tempest Kick!”

The crescent of air sliced through Clear Spindleheart’s body harmlessly.

Behind the tempest kick, Pilot flew in with a punch, backed by haki.

The fusion caught the fist. “Hiding strikes behind your projectiles? You’ve been doing that since you played with flashbangs.”

“I still do that.”

The flashbangs were sucked into her other cloud-like hand, making it flash like a thunderstorm to otherwise no effect. “How predictable.” Grabbing his fist, the fusion tossed him behind her.

Keeping his bearings, Pilot turned to soften his landing. He twisted to dodge a gaseous projectile Clear Spindleheart threw after him. Looking back, he saw it strike the wall he was on his way to hitting. From the fist-sized hole it made, a cluster of spikes grew to meet him. He looked back towards the fusion. “Finger Pistol: Warp Lance!”

Finger first, Pilot flew against his momentum, dragged by his enmity straight to his foe’s heart.

Before, Pilot could hit, Clear Spindleheart detonated. Pilot looked around; he could see nothing for smoke. “Kind of dramatic Roxy!” He pinged out a few flashbangs into the smoke, around him. He saw no light but heard the muffled bangs.

He smiled to himself as the last pellet signalled a much louder retort. He started to walk in its direction when a pair of arms swung out of the fog at him.

“Did you really think a simple bomb hidden amongst distractions would kill me?”

“A boy can dream.” He shrugged. “Shave!” Pilot disappeared, only to reappear an inch from a wall of invisible hard light. “You’re generating body as a wall? Kinda vulnerable. Oh well. Pistol Fist!”

The punch was deflected by an arm. As Pilot tried to wail on the wall, more arms appeared to combat him. Suddenly, a black spear sprung from the arms, forcing him to back off to dodge. He sped to the side, only for limbs to appear there to meet him, joined by another spear.

“How many arms do you have!?”

“You think I have a true form!?” The fusion stepped out of the wall of arms. With a flick, her two ephemeral arms split into eight, each armed with a spear. “You’ve been fighting too many devil fruit users!”

Pilot dodged and deflected the incoming spears. He caught one on his foot and pushed up, gaining sudden vantage on his taller foe. Before the fusion could react, Pilot struck her in the jaw, carrying himself higher.

Clear Spindleheart blocked a stomp to the head but failed to catch Pilot’s foot.

Pilot stepped over and dove for the ground behind. Landing on his hands, he launched himself feet first at his opponent.

As the fusion turned, spears ready to tear into him, Pilot lowered his trajectory, taking the legs out from under her.

Catching the ground and springing upright, Pilot raised his fist, swinging it up and then down in a strike of preserved momentum.

The fallen fusion dissipated before he could hit. Leaving him kneeling where she had laid. “So, what now?”

Clear Spindleheart’s cruel chuckle echoed from around him.

Suddenly, Pilot coughed.

“As I said,” the disembodied head recalled, “you don’t think that was my true form, do you?”

“I know the punch hurt you!” Pilot gasped, trying to supress another cough.

“It was worth it,” she replied, “to play with you, to get you breathing hard.”

Pilot’s eyes widened in shock as his coughing became a fit.

“There it is…”

 As Pilot coughed, smoke spluttered from his mouth, followed by blood. Still hacking and wheezing, he dropped to a knee and then onto his side. Blood began to pool next to his mouth as he continued to fight the gas actively attacking his lungs.

“It’s so pitiful to watch you suffer.” Clear Spindleheart mused. “Yet I can’t look away. Do you know what I mean?”

Pilot was in too much pain to respond.

In the mist, an arm formed. “I almost can’t bare to put you out of your misery.” The arm summoned a spear.

With one almighty blood-filled cough, Pilot rolled. The spear struck the ground where he had been a second before.

Pilot rolled to his feet, bloody lips pursed, holding his nose. The smoke didn’t just sting his eyes, it assaulted them. Pilot screwed his eyes shut.

More spears came, forcing Pilot to dodge. “You know the best thing about this is that you can’t talk.” Clear Spindleheart mused. “Roxillan should have done this years ago!”

Though not relying on his vision, Pilot looked up at the stary sky, just visible through the mist.

“Oh no you don’t!” The mist condensed thickening until no trace of the Jungle Moon’s light got in.

As Pilot wove around spears in the darkness, the only light coming from his warp suit, he began to falter.

The assault stopped. “You look a little pale Pilot. Why don’t you just take a deep breath.”

Pilot staggered to the centre of the mist, still holding his virtually non-existent breath.

“No?” The smoke questioned. “You’ll faint soon anyway. I can wait. Only seconds left now.”

As Pilot fell to a knee, the lights on his warp suit faltered.

“Here we go.”

Before he collapsed completely, Pilot’s blue lights went out.

For a few moment’s there was silence.

“Where did he go?” Clear Spindleheart had excellent night vision, inherited from Roxillan. Yet as his lights went out, Pilot vanished into thin air.

A pair of eyes appeared in the mist. “You can’t hide from me Pilot.” Identical eyes of varying sizes appeared through the mist. “I am everywhere.”

With a scream, Clear Spindleheart’ expansive mist body was sucked into a single humanoid form. As the moonlight shone again, Pilot was crouched on her chest, a haki infused finger piercing her eye. “I’m thinking of going into armature optometry! What do you think?!” He gasped, reclaiming his breath in the clear air. His other hand pierced her remaining eye. “Chorus! My lungs hurt!”

Screaming in agony, the fusion flailed until she caught him. “Get off of me!” She threw him, cupping her bloody sockets in her hands.

 Pilot landed gracefully and jogged around his foe. “Bye!” Pilot headed for the wall. “You’ll see me later, I’m sure! Maybe.”

Clear Spindleheart lowered her hands, her eyes once again intact. “I’ll see you now.”

Pilot turned. “Wha?” A spear cut Pilot’s side as he dodged. “Damn it! Since when do you heal so fast!?”

Clear Spindleheart summoned another spear, twirling it testily as she drifted towards him. “Again, I’m not a devil fruit user, don’t you dare associate their weaknesses with me.

“You know what else isn’t a devil fruit power?”

She paused, expecting a trap. “What?”

“This. Shave!” With a dash, Pilot rushed towards the wall, leaping through the hole his bomb had expanded.

Realising Pilot was getting away, Clear Spindleheart entered pursuit. Flowing through the hole, she looked left and right, she was inside but Pilot had gotten too far ahead to spot. Suddenly, she saw a clue, speckles of black kelmepi blood leading to a door. Following the trail, the fusion pressed the button to open the door for her.  

The door’s access panel displayed an error message.

Error: This door’s anti-bitch technology has pinged an alert, please hold.

Clear Spindleheart rolled her eyes. The door was clearly not airtight. Turning briefly into full mist, she passed through.

Clear Spindleheart found herself in a barracks. Gemstones and shards littered the floor glinted in the flickering lights. She looked up at the faulty lighting before noticing Pilot standing in the room’s centre. “You can’t even cut lights properly?”

“Isn’t it odd that you notice a flickering lightbulb before you notice me?”

“Is it time for mind games?” She asked sarcastically. “Is it going to turn out that you’re not actually there or something?”

Pilot didn’t answer.

“Alright.” She sighed. “Yes Pilot, it is very interesting that I notice poor electronics before paying attention to you. Happy now?”

“Why do you think that is?”

“What?”

Pilot pointed at the ceiling. “Why are you so drawn to something so insignificant when your life is on the line?”

“Don’t flatter yourself.” Clear Spindleheart huffed. “Because it’s annoying?” She offered.

“I thought I was annoying?”

“I’m guessing you’re going somewhere with this?”

“I am.” Pilot confirmed. “You are drawn to the flickering light for the same reason as everybody else. It unnerves you.”

“That’s it?” She questioned. “That’s your big reveal?”

“Why is that?”

She sighed. “Of course, you’re not done.”

“What do you have to fear from a lightbulb? The light? It’s absence? Whatever it is, it has to be a fear common across all peoples.”

Though her voice remained level, Clear Spindleheard raised a misty eyebrow incredulously. “Are you implying that I am scared of the dark?”

“Are you?”

“Take a wild guess.”

“No. It wasn’t what I was implying anyway.” Pilot shook his head. “No well-maintained place should have lights that do this. The flicker is a signal. The light gets our attention, the darkness warns us that something’s wrong.”

The fusion peered out of the corners of her eyes, seeing nothing.

“You can feel it, can’t you? Something isn’t right.”

The fusion nodded dryly. “Chorus preserve us, we’ll have to call an electrician.”

“That’s cute.” Pilot smiled grimly “I wasn’t talking about the lights.” At their mention, the lights died, and Pilot disappeared.

“Pilot!?” The fusion exclaimed. “How are you doing this!?”

Pilot’s voice echoed around the room. “As I said, something isn’t right. You’ve walked straight into a Warp Nightmare!”

As Clear Spindleheart turned for the door, a flash of blue summoned Pilot’s fist, striking her in the face before vanishing into the dark. Another flash kicked the back of her leg. Every reprieve from the darkness brought swift savagery, a heavy blow to the stomach, a roll of punches up her back, a kick that threated to guillotine her.

“That’s enough Pilot!” Clear Spindleheart caught her assailant by the arm. As he broke her arm and darkness returned, Pilot was gone.

Suddenly, Pilot was on her chest, choking her. Through the multiple headbutts, the fusion saw her attacker’s eyes. She did not see the eyes of the kelmep who called himself the Pilot, not the child that until not so long ago had been hers. She only saw the warp, and it stared back like a feline predator.

“Wha- What are you!?” She gasped. “What are you!?”

Pilot appeared one last time above her, with a punch that split her from top to bottom.

Roxillan got up in the dark room’s corner. On the floor she saw blood, her fusion’s blood, the Pilot’s symbol painted in the splatter. She saw no sign of the Pilot himself.

“Roxillan?” Clear Quartz called out to her.

With a sudden flash of blue, Clear Quartz’s gem clattered across the floor.

“H-How are you doing this!?” Roxillan called out. “Why are you like this! Give me back my baby!”

As the blue brought Pilot’s soulless form in front of her, Roxillan screamed.

Suddenly, the lights came back on. Pilot was gone. Roxillan’s vision adjusted to the sudden brightness. “What the…”

“My Duchess!” Clear Quartz ran up and hugged her. “I-I saw him kill you!”

Roxillan shook out of Clear Quartz’s arms angrily. “You saw what he wanted you to see!”

“What?”

“It was a hallucination!” Roxillan snapped. “Most of it anyway. It was made to scare us apart. And it worked! How could you be scared of a kelmepi child!”

“I-I’m so sorry my duchess…” Clear Quartz bowed her head in shame. “I was weak…”

“It’s ok…” The words came out without thinking.

“My Duchess?”

Suddenly, Roxillan realised what she had said. Suddenly, she found something she hadn’t found in a long time, a softness in her heart. “I said it’s ok, I was scared too, Clearie. I thought I had lost you as well.

“My Duchess…”

“No more of that. You’re the Silver Duke, you can call me by name.”

“Roxillan…”

Light and darkness recombined as Clear Spindleheart set off to find the Pilot.

Chapter Text

Stevonnie’s bare feet landed on the first floor. They looked up at the next ladder. Even with their athletic jumps, it would take time to navigate goodness knows how many floors. It was time that Bluebird could use to prepare for their arrival, time for Garnet’s fight outside to go south. Stevonnie looked around.

An elevator. Perfect. They approached the doors and pressed the button. The doors opened immediately. Too perfect. Stevonnie suddenly had misgivings about using an all too convenient elevator in hostile territory, accompanied by flashbacks to the invasion of Homeworld, where a similar elevator had placed Steven and Connie directly in Roxillan’s lap. Even if Bluebird Azurite was the only one standing guard at the antiair gun’s controls, Jasper had explained the enemy fusion’s boost in power. The last place Stevonnie wanted to be if a fight broke out was a cramped, enemy-controlled box.

Stevonnie took hold of the elevator’s inside and wrenched. The elevator bobbed before its magnetic harness re-asserted control. “How tough does Homeworld make these things?” They pictured a small band of quartzes bouncing impatiently inside as they awaited their destination. They smiled before gritting their teeth, their strength wasn’t that of a rowdy gem soldier, theirs was the strength of a diamond. Again, they pulled at the cabin.

This time, the failsafe couldn’t keep up. Uncoupled from magnetism, the elevator sailed down under gravity. Ignoring the crash below, Stevonnie looked up the shaft. Plenty more space to move, and a path of retreat to boot. Stevonnie jumped from wall to wall, ascending the tower in seconds.

They generated a hexagon of pink light to stand upon, but a flash of Connie’s new haki warned them not to trust it. The construct fractured from the brush of Stevonnie’s foot. They still had to master that power. Stevonnie splayed out their body, wedging themselves in the shaft, facing the highest door. They went to force the door open but stopped. It paid to be cautious. Stevonnie closed their eyes and concentrated, one hand raised to the door as the other held the frame for stability.

Through the wall, Stevonnie could sense Bluebird. It was hard to make out what she was doing, but she didn’t seem to be preparing to attack. Stevonnie sensed not aggression, but bitterness, uncertainty, and fear. Stevonnie opened their eyes and saw something, a liquid dripping though the door’s underside. It was too dark to identify what it was. Stevonnie went to set their gem aglow, but they were met by an uncomfortable coldness in the pit of their stomach. “Nerves.” They justified. Still, it brought up a good point, light could reveal their position.

Stevonnie swapped hands, letting their sword arm hang down as the weapon unfolded itself into the largest blade they had, the best to make an impactful entrance.

Bluebird Azurite flitted this way and that, unable to do anything to hurry the ancient weapon’s awakening. She fluttered over to the balcony’s door, already sealed shut. She placed a hand against it, retracting it to see the small, black handprint she left behind. She hated blood, not in the way humans feared it, not as a herald of death, but as the viscous, staining liquid it was. The fusion had performed detritus repulsions every few minutes since Roxillan had bestowed this power on her, but the blood still got everywhere. Her eyes could not stop the flow.

She focused her anger elsewhere, at the battle outside. “You better not be tumbling our rocks out there Morganite. If you can’t win against that one fusion with the Shadow Cluster helping you, Roxillan will-”

She was cut off by the scream of rending metal. The elevator, plus the wall it adjoined, split open as if disembowelled. From the wound sprang Stevonnie, holding a sword longer than they were tall. “Roxillan will be down the last of her lieutenants!” They landed on the slick floor, seeing the fluid that covered it in the room’s light. The cold feeling they felt seeing it in the elevator, they knew now it wasn’t just nerves, it was the same as the tank, the pool of living blood Steven had been tortured to near madness in less than an hour ago. They looked up at the source.

Somehow Stevonnie knew, they knew that though it was only possible thanks to Roxillan’s modifications, Bluebird had chosen to be the source of all this blood, specifically to hurt Steven, to hurt them.

“Stevonnie!” Bluebird turned, grinning slightly too widely to let the edge of fear be swallowed.

Stevonnie let their enormous blade rest on the floor panting as they held back the urge to immediately decapitate the all too genial fusion. Her friendliness was obviously a mask, but Stevonnie was surprised to see it was a mask for completely unabashed terror. “Get out of my way, Bluebird.”

“I-I can’t!”

Not wanting to lug the heavy sword around, Stevonnie shrank their blade back to an arm wrap as they approached the wide control panel, warning of the antiair gun’s activation in mere minutes. They glared as Bluebird blocked their path.

“Roxillan will shatter me if I don’t try to stop you!”

Stevonnie frowned, took Bluebird by the shoulder, and shoved her aside. “There, you tried.”

They turned back on her, eyebrows knit with fury as a wall of black ice appeared between them and the panel.

“I’m sorry!” Bluebird exclaimed. “I never wanted any of this to happen. I only wanted to destroy Steven.”

Stevonnie grabbed her and raised her fist, not to strike her, but to smash down the ice wall. “The heck is that supposed to mean!?” They winced as blood from her eyes dripped down their hand.

“You didn’t deserve what happened to you here!” Bluebird blurted. “Sure, I hate Steven, but he didn’t deserve that! Connie, her name’s Connie right? She didn’t deserve what that insane quartz did to her!” She began gesticulating towards her streaming eyes. “L-Look, I’m crying! It’s not even my gem this time!”

Stevonnie did their best to speak levelly. “You’re crying the stuff they put Steven in.” Their eyes flicked back over the blackened floor. “They got it from you. All the blood in the tank, you made it, didn’t you?”

“Roxillan made me!” Bluebird pleaded, her eyes darting desperately. “She’s a monster!”

Ignoring her, Stevonnie punched.

Bluebird Azurite dropped the mask. She smiled. “Good thing she made me one too.”

Stevonnie retracted their stinging hand from the unharmed ice wall. They looked to the wall in confusion and swung again. The ice grew to meet their fist, encasing it.

“Is punching all you can think of dullard?”

Stevonnie tried to pull themselves free, the ice dug into their flesh with hooks of frozen blood.

“You can let go of me now.” Bluebird kicked them in the chest, knocking them off ballance with ease. She fluttered around the room proudly. “You know, when Roxillan told me I now had the power to reprogram my fellow gems, I never thought that would include diamonds. When I heard that Steven had escaped that vat, I was sure the treatment had failed. It seems I’ve underestimated how contagious human weakness is.”

“Reprogram!?” Stevonnie exclaimed. “Treatment!? What did you do to me Bluebird!?”

“Isn’t it obvious?” She questioned. “I’ve put the off-colour freak where they belong, among the humans.” She ignored Stevonnie’s shock. “Well, there isn’t much to do before Roxillan comes back. Get comfortable.”

“You think I’m just going to stand here and wait to be kidnapped?” Stevonnie drew their sword as a gladius.

“Are you going to cut your arm off?” Bluebird asked with sick amusement.

Stevonnie positioned the blade over the ice.

“Don’t bother.” Bluebird mocked. “That ice is as hard as st-” Her mouth fell open.

In one swift stroke, the ice fell away from Stevonnie’s hand in pieces. They observed their freed limb. The myriad small lacerations bled, refusing to close. “Alright, no healing powers. No superhuman strength, no jumping, no shield. Fine, I don’t need them.” They locked eyes with Bluebird as their sword stretched and narrowed. “Not for you.”

Bluebird twitched with anger. Drawing her fingers through her tears, a pair of sabres manifested in her hands. “You’re going to regret saying that!”

With a flap of her wings, Bluebird crashed into Stevonnie, swords crossed over their rapier. The full gem had expected to overwhelm with her superior strength, but her ballance was all wrong, or, more accurately, the ballance between the two fusions was orchestrated against her perfectly. Stevonnie took the opportunity to punch their opponent in the face, haki making up for lost physical strength.

Bluebird came back swinging, whirling her twin blades. Stevonnie refused to back away from the assault, prying the swords apart and leaving their wielder open. Stevonnie’s thrust was parried just in time, but this succeeded only in exchanging the sharp point for an elbow to the chest.

Knocked back, Bluebird Azurite stabilised herself to see Stevonnie prime their legs for a final lunge.

“Peridot’s Spike!” Rapier forwards, Stevonnie crossed the room in the blink of an eye.

Bluebird dove just in time, disappearing into the film of kelmepi blood that painted the floor.

Pulling their rapier from the wall, Stevonnie looked around. Not even Bluebird’s aura was visible. Had she fled? They turned to the ice wall between them and the antiair gun’s controls. Their rapier became a katana. It may take a little longer than it would have with Steven’s raw power but hacking this wall apart would not be their greatest challenge that day.

Stevonnie flinched, twitching to one side. A cold sting scratched their bicep as an icy sabre flew past them. The weapon was flattened against the ice wall, incorporating itself like a scab.

Stevonnie didn’t bother to turn their head, Bluebird was behind them, ready to throw again.

The second blade was sliced in mid-air, before Stevonnie could turn to retaliate on the thrower, she had vanished again.

With a warning sensation, Stevonnie stepped back from their goal. Like an ice-toothed beartrap, Bluebird sprang out, slashing wildly.

Stevonnie caught the blades with an upward swing, lifting Bluebird out of the blood.

Spreading her wings, Bluebird parried away two slashes as she took to the air. Hugging the high ceiling, she pointed one of her blades downwards. “Why don’t you fight up here?”

Momentarily forgetting their handicap, Stevonnie tried to jump after them. they realised they were being mocked as gravity maintained its natural hold.

“Is that really the highest a human can jump?” Bluebird questioned. She dropped one of her swords lazily. “What a pity…”

As the weapon landed on the bloody floor, frost encircled it. This frost rimed like a carpet of crystal larvae, growing into black, dagger-sharp icicles, that began to propagate across the floor.

As Bluebird watched from above, Stevonnie backed away from the spiked carpet. They slashed across the floor, but the icicles restored their number quickly. As the circle of safety shrank, Stevonnie lifted their foot with a sharp breath. They had a savage cut on their heel.

“What a day to not have shoes on!” Bluebird jeered.

Their enemy’s snide comment resonated in Stevonnie. In a flash of inspiration, Stevonnie stomped their foot back down.

With a crunch like frosted leaves, some of the icicles were demolished underfoot, unable to pierce skin black and gleaming with haki. Their feet protected, Stevonnie returned their attention back to their opponent above. “What else you got?”

Drawing new swords. Bluebird shook hear head in furious disbelief. “I still have the high ground, you clod!” She threw her blades.

As Stevonnie dodged aside, the sabres grew into a single icy mass from which thick fingers sprouted. The hand, as tall as Stevonnie, swung at them. Stevonnie stepped out of its reach.

In response, the hand dragged along the floor, raking up a bundle of icicles to throw at them.

Stevonnie’s sword arm became an amethyst blur. “Purple Quartz Whip!” The cloud of impromptu throwing knives met a web of cutting, reducing it to a dark, snowy powder. As the hand reached down for more ammunition, Stevonnie descended on it, slicing through its pinkie. As it turned to retaliate, they amputated the thumb, leading to a final slash through the trunk like wrist. With a flick of the blade, Stevonnie sent a rock-hard fingertip hurtling at its creator.

Hit square in the chest, Bluebird grunted as she threw sabres back.

Stevonnie deflected and dodged the swords, dismembering frozen hands before they had a chance to form before sending their pieces back. The exchange of ice was getting nowhere, however. Decapitating a half-formed hand, Stevonnie focussed their energy along their sword. The teal katana turned black. They gave a mighty upward swing. “Lapis Wave!”

Bluebird dove to avoid the inverted crescent of air. She turned to se it tear open a hole in the roof. “How are you doing this? No human can do this!” They turned to Stevonnie for answers, buy they were gone.

Bluebird Azurite’s dive had brought her into Stevonnie’s swinging range. Flanking the gem fusion, Stevonnie span on their heel. “Bismuth’s Hammer!”

Bluebird managed to catch the spinning sword on her crossed sabres but was unprepared for the force behind it. Her swords cracked, and she was thrown into her wall of ice.

“Maybe that will teach you not to underestimate humans.”

Bluebird nodded as she shakily got to her feet, putting a hand on the frozen blood for support. A pillar of ice shot out, punting Stevonnie across the room. “I suppose so.” The ice flowed around her, and she did not struggle as it brought her in.

Stevonnie got to their feet, one arm wrapped around their chest. “I hope my powers come back soon; Connie’s mom will ground her for a month if she comes back with a broken bone.”

“Oh, don’t worry,” entombed within, Bluebird voice resonated from the ice, “neither of them will be coming back at all.” From the wall emerged a pair of hands, hands that dwarfed Bluebird’s previous constructions.

Despite injury, Stevonnie charged in, determined to hack Bluebird out of her defences and finish the fight. A hand slammed down to crush them, but Stevonnie slid to the side. Seeing the other hand, they swung up their katana.

The hand split between the middle and ring finger but just as quickly, black ice knitted it back together.

Stevonnie slashed faster, slicing off a finger, denting a knuckle and replacing the original cut. In the moments the hand took to recover, Stevonnie delivered an upward swing. “Pearly Gate!” Lifted higher than they could currently jump, the powerful slash amputated the hand at the wrist. The rest of the arm collapsed like an avalanche.

In mid-air however, Stevonnie was vulnerable. A new arm sprang out from the ice, punching them across the room again. Stevonnie again got to their feet. They understood the folly of charging again. Taking their blade in both hands, they raised it up over their head, the blade pointing to the left. “Warp Squire Cannon Stance;” The hair thin lines of pink on their blade seemed to throb, and darken, their colour reaching out of the blade to stain the surrounding air a rich crimson.

“What are you doing?” Bluebird raised the ice wall’s arms defensively.

“Ruby Red!” Swinging in a circle Stevonnie send the energy spiralling forward. A yard in front of them, the coloured air ignited as red flames expanded outward in a tornado, that filled the room.

Bluebird looked around in confusion. In an instant, her ice had been destroyed, melted back into bloot that sizzled on the floor, in the air, glowing embers danced. “That would have really hurt,” She summoned a pair of icy blades, ready to meet Stevonnie when they inevitable closed the distance, “if I wasn’t part Ruby.”

Stevonnie did not close the distance however, they stood, their pose now a perfect mirror of the pose they had started with, the energy around them a cool ocean tone. “Sky Blue Sapphire!”

The wind soared, passing Bluebird to meet Stevonnie. The gale quickly turned cold, freezing the blood puddles and bringing in a flurry of pure, white snow. Bluebird Azurite was stunned with confusion. As the embers and diamond dust danced together, she could not comprehend why her opponent would so quickly reverse their strike.

Stevonnie dismissed their katana, letting it wrap back around their arm. “Fusion Bolt.”

“What?” As the word passed Bluebird’s lips, an ember and snowflake dared to touch. Instantly they were annihilated with a momentary spark. Another pair followed their example. In seconds the room was a firework display in miniature.

There was a crack of thunder, as Stevonnie finally took a step, a lightning bolt crashed through Bluebird’s chest, evaporating all traces of blood and, ripping her asunder.

Stevonnie stopped momentarily. To their surprise, two small humanoids lay on the floor, nearly motionless. They prepared to draw their sword to finish their opponents when an automated voice interrupted them.

“Anti-orbital blast cannon ready. Scanning for blacklisted targets.”

“What!?” Forgetting the two gems, Stevonnie ran to the console. Desperately, they tapped on keay and rummaged through menus, trying every password the diamonds had entrusted Steven with. “Come on, come on! There has to be an override or an off switch or- Yes!”

Stevonnie’s face lit up as the option reading “Deactivate All Systems” came up. Their face fell in horror as the screen went dark.

A red, chisel-like knife pierced the console, causing it to spark and smoke. Turning back, Stevonnie saw Eyeball, the ruby grinning at her good aim. “You shouldn’t have ignored me.”

Stevonnie turned, summoning their longsword as their wounds healed and Steven’s shield appeared in their hand.

Aquamarine took Eyeball’s hand. “Let’s go, Roxillan will fix this!” With a flap of her wings, she and her passenger darted through the hole in the ceiling. They were gone.

Chapter Text

Stevonnie leapt from the top of the tower, head darting around as they slowed their decent. The first thing they saw was Aquamarine, circling above like a vulture, in a flash of light, her ruby passenger recombined with her, forming Bluebird Azurite. Stevonnie’s attention was then drawn to what the enemy fusion was orbiting. The antiair gun at the tower’s pinnacle span, its ginormous bore scanning the sky for signs of their escape. It was as the now wrecked control panel had said, their mission had failed. Their happy thoughts drained, Stevonnie plummeted.

“Careful Stevonnie!”

Stevonnie looked up to see who had caught them. “Garnet!”

Though the younger fusion had yet to say anything, Garnet could sense their internal pain. “It’s alright Stevonnie.”

“B-But the gun! I couldn’t stop it!”

“I’m simply glad to see you in one piece.” Garnet assured them, gently putting Stevonnie down. “There are other ways of dealing with that weapon.”

“I don’t know why we didn’t smash it in the first place!” Jasper agreed.

“Jasper!” Stevonnie exclaimed. “You’re back!” their eyes darted between Jasper and Garnet. Neither held a pink gemstone. “What happened to Morganite?”

“We beat her.” Jasper cocked her head triumphantly, but not quite with her usual satisfaction.

“And where’s her gem?”

“It…” Jasper glanced away, “disappeared…”

“Disappeared?” Stevonnie repeated.

“I saw it happen.” Garnet corroborated.

Stevonnie nodded slowly. “Something like that happened when Connie poofed that clear quartz.”

“Whatever it is,” Jasper growled, “can we put it aside for now until we’ve dealt with thi-”

As the quartz pointed to the top of the tower, a streak of grey-black smoke sliced the dark sky, coming to settle at the top in a single, semisolid mass.

“What is that!?” Stevonnie questioned.

“Roxillan!” Pilot ran in from the same direction as the mist.

“Pilot!?”

Pilot came to a stop, bent double resting a hand on Garnet as he caught his breath.

Jasper looked up, thrilled to finally meet the enemy leader. “Let’s get her.”

Pilot shook his head. “No…” He gasped.

“Pilot?” Stevonnie put a hand on their mentor’s shoulder.

“I can’t…”

“Pilot?”

“I can’t keep doing this!” Pilot looked up to face his apprentice. He was crying. “She keeps trying to kidnap you! She hurts all of you! She endangers everything you worked so hard for!”

“That’s why we have to fight her!” Stevonnie answered. “We can’t let her do all this!”

“I know!” He gulped, stilling his words. “But if I kill her now, she’ll just come back again. It will all happen again.”

“Pilot, what are you saying?”

“I have to talk to her.”

Stevonnie was speechless for a moment. Of course, their components, Steven especially, had brought up the possibility of making peace with Roxillan, to bring an end to the bloodshed and heartache. But each time Pilot had shot the idea down. Roxillan was too far gone, too enamoured by hurt and its infliction to ever listen to kindness or reason. But if Pilot thought there was a chance… “Do you think she’ll listen to you?”

“I don’t know.” He answered. “I have to try though! I can’t just- I won’t- She’s my- I still- I-”

Garnet stood Pilot up straight. “You still love her.”

Pilot’s emotions couldn’t erupt in an outburst, they were too exhausted from carrying the truth inside. “Of course, I do. But how do I even talk to her, after everything we’ve done to each other? I don’t have the words.”

“Then let me help you.” Gently, Garnet brought Pilot into her embrace.

Atop the gun tower, reclining on the titanic weapon, Clear Spindleheart, Roxillan and Clear Quartz’s fusion, were of course aware of the enemies amassing at the tower’s base. That was why she was there, to protect her weapon until her greater one awoke and took them down. Casting an eye briefly to the fusion that circled her from above, Spindleheart looked back at the cracked, pink gemstone in her hand. “What did they do to you dear?”

Thinking she was talking to her, Bluebird spiralled in, fluttering beside her. “Stevonnie almost destroyed me!” She drew her hand through her bloody tears disgustedly. “You said this stuff was supposed to make them powerless!”

“Roxillan said it would nullify Steven’s gem powers.” Spindleheart corrected. “I suppose it was overambitious to assume that would have been enough of an advantage for you.”

Sensing retribution incoming, Bluebird flinched.

“Roxillan!”

Both fusions turned to see a new fusion jump up to join them, landing on the lower balcony.

“What do we have here? Warp Garnet is it?” Spindleheart didn’t look away from the new arrival as she took one of Bluebird’s myriad legs to keep her from fleeing.

Warp Garnet kept her highest set of arms in a self-embrace, the next pair down were raised peacefully. “Pilot wants to talk to his mother!”

Though Spindleheart’s ill-defined face was nearly inscrutable but for the eyes, their motion showed discomfort. “I believe she’s on Earth right now. Perhaps you can risk a run in his ship.”

“Why do you want me to risk my life like this? Why do you want to shoot down your own son!?”

“No.” Shaking with level anger, Spindleheart let her underling go and leant forwards. “No. You do not get to do this. Pilot does not get to draw the family card after he disowned me!”

But for the buzzing of the motorized cannon, Spindleheart’s anger was allowed to linger in a hush.

“You have every right to be angry.” Warp Garnet stated. “What Pilot said was cruel and meant to hurt you, and he’s sorry.”

Spindleheart leant back as if she expected assault. It was rare for Roxillan to receive a genuine apology, from one who had no fear of her.

“But you were holding his friends hostage. What else was he supposed to do? What were you thinking?”

“What?”

“Why does she hurt everyone? Why is she so obsessed with Steven and Connie!? She’s just forcing Pilot to fight her! Why does she hate him so much?”

“You’re part him, you know what he did.”

“No, I don’t.” Warp Garnet replied. “And neither does he, and that scares him so, so much. He just wants to know what he did wrong.”

An eye twitched in disbelief. “You know why. You have to.” Roxillan’s will seemed to take desperate control, reaching out for her child. “He took you.”

“What?” Warp Garnet shook her head, she knew the time, the day with so much trauma attached, but she couldn’t lay her mind’s eye upon it. “No! The Pilot saved them! They were moments from killing themselves.”

“She was a child!” Spindleheart howled. “She couldn’t have even thought of doing that!”

“They’d just become a murderer!” Warp Garnet fired back tearfully. “They’d killed their uncle who was trying to r- The world was ending!” Warp Garnet took deep breaths. “They were alone.”

“Alone?” Spindleheart echoed. “Roxillan was right there!”

“W-What?” It was almost a whisper. Warp Garnet stepped back, hand finding the balcony’s railing. Memories unrepressed, little iron grey eyes catching terrified duplicates, seconds before their first-witnessed portal closed over them.

“The Pilot stole her baby!”

“H-He didn’t know!” She stammered. “He was trying to save them!”

“Then why wouldn’t they come back when she finally found them.”

“They wanted you back! They invited you to the ship!”

“Where he was!” She shouted. “And then they-”

“She said she was going to kill Pilot in his sleep! They didn’t think it was her!”

“Her own child assaulted her!” Spindleheart snivelled miserably. “And when she came back, it was too late. She wasn’t her daughter anymore.”

Warp Garnet’s lip stiffened. “He wasn’t happy as a woman anymore, but that doesn’t mean-”

“She doesn’t care what her child is! The Pilot stole their face!”

“Pilot chose to be the Pilot!”

“Oh really?” Spindleheart replied. “What was her name before becoming the Pilot? Can you say the masculine form at least?”

Warp Garnet’s lip turned with brief internal turmoil. “I don’t know. Pilot doesn’t want me to know. Why don’t you say it?”

Spindleheart shook her head. “Roxillan won’t tell me either. It’s not Pilot’s name. What sort of person steals a child’s name?”

“It wasn’t stolen.” Warp Garnet answered. “Pilot didn’t want it anymore.”

“And that mask! Do you remember the helmet he used to wear?”

“Roxillan liked that helmet.” Warp Garnet recalled. “She said it his Pilot’s ugliness.”

“No.” Spindleheart closed a fist. “It let her forget that her child’s face was under there, she could just look at the Pilot’s mark, the one you are branded with too.”

Warp Garnet shifted to obscure the wavy line that circled her waist.

“What about Stevonnie?”

“What about them?”

“If I don’t save them, they’ll be the Pilot too one day. What will their parents say when they give up their name, what will Garnet say. What’s it like sharing a body with somebody who’s planning on taking Stevonnie from you?”

Silence.

“I’ll be here for her when it happens.” Spindleheart offered. “I’ll have a drink ready; I’ll only say I told you so once. I’ll be there to comfort you after.”

Warp Garnet shook her head. “Stevonnie can call themselves whatever they want. Being the Pilot won’t stop them from being our friend, just like how your child becoming the Pilot didn’t have to break up our family!”

It was Spindleheart’s turn to be speechless.

“The only thing in the way of being family again is that you aren’t well! You have suffered so much, but I can’t let you kill people! So please, unfuse. Unfuse so that I can help you. I… Pilot just want’s you back.”

Spindleheart slowly stood up on the antiair gun. “I… Roxillan… I must admit, being a family again, it sounds nice… Mother and child against the multiverse, as it was supposed to be.” She shook her head. “You’re right to, something is very, very wrong with Roxillan. I think it’s too late for her though.”

Warp Garnet took a step towards her hand outstretched. “Pilot’s willing to try.”

Before Spindleheart could descend further, Stevonnie appeared, bounding up to join Warp Garnet on the balcony.

“Stevonnie!” Warp Garnet exclaimed. “I told you to wait.”

“You were taking a while.” Stevonnie answered. “We were worried.”

On Warp Garnet’s other side Jasper landed. “Let’s stop wasting time and destroy her already!”

Spindleheart’s eyes widened as she levitated back to the cannon’s pinicle. “Another trick, I should have known!”

“No!” Warp Garnet cried. “Nobody is destroying anyone! Nobody has to die!”

Ignoring her, Spindleheart raised Morganite’s gemstone to her shoulder. At the same time, a near invisible hand caught Bluebird Azurite again. “Come here my little bluebird.”

“What?” Bluebird struggled as the force pulled her towards her mistress. “What are you doing!?” the centre she was being dragged to burst into light, black veins wrapping the growing sphere. “No! This wasn’t part of the deal! Let me go! I don’t want to-”

As Bluebird was engulfed into the mass, it grew, swelling to nearly cover the Jungle Moon above. Suddenly, the mass hauled itself into gigantic humanoid form. A split body of pink and greyish blue, the fusion was simultaneously beautiful and monstrous, wrapped in a burgundy dress and framed with majestic, translucent wings that sprouted from her back. Despite her astounding presence, the fusion was not entirely there, with limbs and a neck that spiralled into invisibility. Her head floated above her shoulders with lavender hair, multiple mismatched eyes, and lips black as kelmepi blood.

“Roxillan, let them go!” Warp Garnet demanded.

“Let them go?” The giant fusion questioned, it’s voice almost entirely Roxillan’s. “I’m just doing what I must to survive you.”  A hand wreathed in shadow, she reached for Morganite’s glowing gem. From the union of light an darkness, she created a spear, much like Roxillan’s but for the frost riming on the head and the blunt end seamlessly incorporating Morganite’s bludgeon.

“It still won’t be enough! Let’s go!” Jasper, with Stevonie, beside her leapt for the fusion.

“No!” Jumping after them, Warp Garnet caught her allies by the heels, bringing them down onto the back of the cannon. “No more fighting! Let me fix this!” She looked up to address Roxillan’s new fusion. “You don’t have to do this! Everything I said, those were Pilot’s words! He meant every one!”

Roxillan’s fusion shook her head. “Even if that is true, it doesn’t matter. Roxillan and her child, those stories belong to the past.” She rose her weapon over her shoulder, holding it near the pointed end. “It’s time to look at the present, at the Pilot and his Hound.” She swung.

The Spindleheart Hound struck like a wrecking ball, Warp Garnet looked to her left and then to her right. Jasper and Stevonnie were gone. Her mask cracked. “Those were my friends, you bitch!”

Chapter Text

Stevonnie didn’t remember how they had landed; they weren’t sure they wanted to remember either. A slab of concrete on top of them, the rubble of a building beneath, Stevonnie chalked up their lack of pain to their ability to heal. They double checked that they could wriggle their toe.

The fusion’s twitching digit froze as a meteoric impact shook the rubble around them. The temperature rose. Stevonnie considered peaking out.

“Stevonnie!?” The anger in the shout changed the fusion’s mind. “Stevonnie!? Where are you!?”

Stevonnie’s mind raced to recognise the being who called them. There was something familiar in the voice, but the anger was so all consuming that it masked identity. Stevonnie couldn’t even intuit what they wanted with them.

“Stevonnie, if you’re dead I’m grounding whatever’s left of you for the next century!”

As the flames licked around the concrete slab, Stevonnie realised that they would soon be cooked if they didn’t do anything. As subtly as they could Stevonnie summoned their bubble. The slab shifted.

In a shower of flames and dust, Stevonnie’s cover was gone. There among the flames stood Warp Garnet, barely recognisable. Her twin buns, previously neatly packed cubes, had been completely unfettered, billowing out like smoke before meling into the surrounding flames and lightning. Her serene stone mask was shattered, the shards hanging from gossamer thin chains of gold as protective runes. Without her mask Warp Garnet’s single orange eye bazed, with its five diamond shaped pupils forming a star. Her expression betrayed a rage deeper than any they had seen before, a rage that the sight of them did not diminish.  “Stevonnie! What the fuck were you thinking!?”

“What?”

“How dare you hide from me!? I thought you were dead! What the fuck would I do if anything happened to-”

“How was I supposed to know it was you!?”

Warp Garnet’s lip twitched as she nodded sharply. She turned. “Jasper! Jasper, get out here! What sort of perfect quartz is shattered twice!?”

Stevonnie flinched as they lowered their shield. “Hey! We’ll find her. Just calm down.”

“Don’t tell me to calm down!” Warp Garnet roared. “It’s coming and we can’t be separated!”

A pile of rubble collapsed. “What’s coming?” Jasper asked, standing at the mouth of a tunnel.

The ground shook. In the distance, a wall of darkness grew. “The Shadow Cluster.” Stevonnie gasped.

Behind them, equally far off, echoed a crack, like the birth of an iceberg. Jasper glanced over her shoulder. “We’re flanked.”

Warp Garnet turned. Her shout caused landslides and nearly toppled her allies. “Chorus! Fucking! Curse it!”

On the other side of the compound, Roxillan’s fusion had stood up, chunks of ice falling off her body.

Warp Garnet marched towards her. “You two deal with that thing, I’ll be right back!”

“What?”

“You can do it Stevonnie.” Warp Garnet nodded. “Razorburn Shave!” In a gout of flames, Warp Garnet had gone.

Stevonnie stared after her, the fires starting in the miles of military instillations between them reflecting in their eyes.

The fusion was brought out of their shock as Jasper grabbed them. “Get out the way!” The quartz yanked them aside as a pillar of dark tendrils slammed down.  Tendrils shot out of the main mass, netting her legs.

“Jasper!” Coming to their senses, Stevonnie drew their sword and sliced her free.

The Shadow Cluster’s main mass was still far away, but it had drawn itself into a narrow trunk to reach them. Deprived its first catch, the Shadow Cluster swept towards them.

“Jump!”

At Stevonnie’s orders, Jasper followed them into the air. Beneath them the Shadow Cluster began to compress, and grow.

Stevonnie generated a hex beneath them, both to give the pair of them somewhere to stand and to divert the eruption of black ectoplasm that threatened to blow them away. The hex started to crack under the pressure. With a sweep of their bare foot, Stevonnie reenforced the platform with geometric patterns of armament haki. Suddenly, they summoned their shield. “Watch out!” Stevonnie dove, a dart of black shadow bouncing off of their shield as they defended Jasper.

Jasper raised her fists, striking projectiles out of the air as Stevonnie stood up behind her. Back to back, they deflected the projectiles.

With a rising headbutt, Jasper saw the sky above them was shrinking, at any moment, they would be swallowed up. “Stevonnie! What do we do!?”

Dismissing their sword, Stevonnie raised a hand to their head.

“What are you doing!?”

“Trying to concentrate! This whole thing is alive! I can hardly see through it!”

“See through it!?”

Stevonnie focussed on their observation haki. Suddenly, their eyes widened with discovery. “Over there!” They pointed down into the darkness.”

“What!?”

“It’s still being growing! We can cut it off down there!”

  Jasper growled at the darkness in their way. “Fine! Stay close to me!” She threw herself into a ball and revved.

“Jasper?”

Jasper launched. Her hand reached out and snatched Stevonnie, keeping them in the centre of the wheel of orange light. With her passenger within, Jasper sliced through the shadows, its uptorents deflected by both the light and the centrifugal force. The assault took its toll however, as Stevonnie saw moonlight again, Jasper went limp, battered by the Shadow Cluster’s fury.

Stevonnie themselves were only slightly better off, groggy and disorientated from the spinning. As they landed, their double vision managed to coalesce to focus on the thrumming tube of blackness that fed their titanic foe. Already, it was curling away.

“You aren’t getting away that easily!” Stevonnie drew their katana and grounded themselves. “Warp Squire Secret Technique; Pink Lion’s Song!”

In a rapid stroke the pipeline was cut, its split halves flailing like abandoned hosepipes. The Shadow Cluster shrieked, its main artery shrinking away into the cracked ground.

Panting from the exertion as their eyes went from silver back to dark brown, Stevonnie staggered back to Jasper, shaking her by the shoulder. “Jasper? Jasper are you ok?”

Laying faced down, Jasper slammed a hand on the floor and pushed herself to her feet. “I’m fine.” She stared up at the mass they had escaped from. “Now what?”

Stevonnie focused. “Jasper.” Their skin started to glow pink as their katana became a greatsword. “Throw me.”

“Stevonnie?”

Stevonnie nodded towards the shadow cluster as they formed a bubble around themselves. Their body and gem grew brighter, so bright that their humanoid figure could not be seen within and the Shadow Cluster seemed to shrink away. “Throw me!”

Squinting at the light, Jasper nodded. With an effort, Jasper took up the bubble and jumped. In mid-air she span, giving the bubble as much momentum and orange light as she could before she threw.

Stevonnie’s bubble hit the dark, semiliquid wall like a meteor. The mass buckled backwards as it swallowed them. For a moment, there was silence. The Shadow Cluster lurched as if trying to vomit. Pink shone from within and suddenly the darkness was reduced to ribbons.

“Stevonnie!” Jasper ran to her ally.

Stevonnie had fallen quite heavily among a colourful hail of gem shards. Slowly, they got to their feet. “Did we do it Jasper?”

Jasper looked around. “I think so.”

Stevonnie balanced themselves on their geratsword and laughed. “We did it! Take that Roxy!”

The planet trembled.

“Jasper?” Stevonnie’s face fell. “What was that?”

“Aftershock?” She offered.

Stevonnie shook their head, taking a defensive position. “I don’t think we’ve done it yet.”

Between them, a black tentacle erupted. Stevonnie cut it down as they dashed to Jaspers side. All around, more and more such appendages emerged.

“What is this!?” Jasper demanded, punching at another one.

“The Shadow Cluster.”

“We just beat the Shadow Cluster!”

“I think that was just part of it.” They replied awkwardly. “I can feel the rest of it underground.”

“How much more is there.”

“I…”

“Stevonnie?”

“Well…”

“How much was the one we just beat. Half?”

“Erm…”

“A quarter!?”

“No…”

“Stevonnie, give me a proportion!” Jasper ordered.

“Two?”

“Out of five!? Ten!?”

“Percent.”

 Jasper groaned. “Fine! Steven’s fought a cluster before, let’s do it again!”

Stevonnie nodded and forced a smile. “Yeah! He didn’t really fight it though.”

“Huh?”

“He… talked to it.”

“Of course he did!” Jasper growled. Suddenly, an idea dawned on the quartz. “Wait… can you talk to this one!?”

“Not while I’m awake!”

“Then go to sleep!”

“Stevonnie did a double take, dodging the Shadow Cluster’s assault. “Here!?”

“Why not!?”

“If I stop to sleep here, this thin will smash me to pieces!”

“Fine!” Jasper charged the fusion, throwing them over her shoulder.

“Jasper, what are you doing!?”

“My job!” Jasper ran, dodging black tendrils as they unearthed themselves. “Go to sleep and talk to this thing!”

Stevonnie closed their eyes and tried to sleep, blocking out the current situation as best they could. Their position was hardly comfortable however, Jasper’s running and jumping jostled them every which way, even without the sudden shocks of sharp turns and hard landings. The sounds that assailed their ears were of a hundred simultaneous demolitions as the Shadow Cluster tore apart buildings and opened up ravines to pursue them. What really kept them awake was the creeping sense of danger, as much as Stevonnie trusted Jasper to keep them safe, they were also painfully aware of the absurdity of trying to sleep on a battlefield. What’s more, they could not shut Connie’s newly bloomed haki off. The warning bells that preceded every near miss, Jaspers mounting ferocity, the animalistic hate that swarmed around them, they could not shut it out. They opened their eyes.

Sensing their passenger stir, Jasper grabbed Stevonnie and held them in front of her. “Well!?”

“I can’t do it.” Stevonnie explained. “There’s too much going on.”

Jasper gritted her teeth. “I have an idea.”

“Really? What is it?”

“Do you trust me Stevonnie?”

Stevonnie gulped, there were a lot of reasons not to. “Yes.”

“Alright then.” Jasper dismissed her helmet. “Sorry.”

Chapter Text

Stevonnie flew backwards, tumbling through the air, their head throbbing. Had Jasper just headbutted them? “Jasper?” They groaned. “What the heck was that-”

Their vision cleared. Jasper was nowhere to be seen, though an orange star glowed in the distance. Stevonnie’s main light was much closer however. A teal star, filled with silver splinters and bronze spheres, a great pink storm drifting across it. Stevonnie turned away. Jasper’s plan was successful as much as it was also painful, and Stevonnie had a mission to do. In the endless expanse of the psychic world Stevonnie had to find the Shadow Cluster.

“If I was a massive ball of gem shards and shadow stuff, where would I be?” Their eyes scanned one way, nothing but the tiny specks of distant life met them. Looking the other way, there was more of the same. They looked ahead and saw nothing, and endless expanse of sterile void no matter how hard they peered. A suspicious absence. Stevonnie willed themselves towards it.

In the space between minds, distance was an illusion, yet Stevonnie felt as though they had been travelling a long way without any appreciable gain on their destination.

Stevonnie stopped to get their bearings. Behind them, their mind sparkled as a lonely teal speck, an orange one just behind it. Stevonnie looked around. The expungement of lights may not have grown closer, but it had most definitely grown, it swelled up and down, side to side, as Stevonnie traced the darkness with their eyes they found themselves turning a full 180 in both directions. Stevonnie’s destination was not an object, it was a tunnel, and they had flown straight into it. With a gulp, Stevonnie proceeded.

“Shadow Cluster?” They called nervously. “Is this you? Any shards out there?”

Silence.

Stevonnie gulped again. “R-Roxillan? It’s me.” They drew their sword and shield. “Come and get me!”

Invisibly, the darkness stirred.

“Is this even the shadow cluster?” Stevonnie questioned. “What is this place?”

“Who wants to know?” The darkness purred.

Stevonnie’s throat slammed shut in fear. The voice was terribly familiar, too unrecognisable to ever forget. A wheeze was all that escaped.

Seeming to take the noise as an answer, the nothingness approached. “Stevonnie? Stevonnie, is that you? It is!” It crooned. “How is my favourite Pilot’s apprentice?”

Stevonnie managed to grasp back control of their respiratory system. “W-What are you doing here!?”

“Me?” It questioned. “I’m simply holding this Shadow Cluster thing together. Now you. To what do I owe your visit?”

“I-I…” Stevonnie shook their head, every word felt like a marathon had been run between them. “Why? Why are you here!? Roxillan made the Shadow Cluster!”

“Yes.” It agreed. “And I made Roxillan.”

Stevonnie froze. “What? No! You can’t have made her! She was Pilot’s mother!”

“Ah yes,” the void recalled wistfully, “the single mother, abused and denigrated by her family until she could take it no more. Then one night she is inspired.”

Though they saw nothing, Stevonnie could feel the air quotes on the final word.

“Risking it all, she takes her child and goes in search of their happiness, finding it in death as I bring their world to an end.”

Stevonnie pointed their sword into the darkness. “You did what!?”

“The critics would have been in floods of tears.” It continued, undeterred. “Of course, the last Pilot ruined the narrative.” The voice turned bitter. “The Pilot always ruins my narratives…”

“Good!” Stevonnie felt the darkness glare at them. “People’s lives aren’t for you write your stories on!”

“But I made their lives better.”

“By killing them!?”

“Of course not.” It rebuffed. “I arrange for a tragedy to befall them, making their lives meaningful. Not everyone can be the son of Pink Diamond and his short-lived lover you know.”

Stevonnie’s anger faltered. “Short-lived?”

“Oh, it’s all in the transcripts right now. But if you prefer, we can work together. Have you heard of a quaint little process called lichdom?” Not waiting for an answer, it meandered into its imagination. “I can see it all now, Connie and I working together to make the multiverse a more beautiful place.”

“She is not helping you to ruin lives!”

The void began to swell, Stevonnie pointed their weapon in the direction she couldn’t look, but that was everywhere.

“Stevonnie!” A meteor of blue crashed through the darkness, exploding its shell to reveal the human within.

“Archibald!?” Stevonnie rushed for their ally.

“What are you doing here!?”

“The Shadow Cluster!”

“Right!” He nodded.

“Not even a hello for me?” The void questioned.

Archibald pulled out his gun.

“Resorting to violence Archibald? What a surprise.”

Archibald fired.

In the darkness, a hole tore open, with lights glimmering on the other side. Sharing a nod, Stevonnie and Archibald flew for it.

As they crossed the threshold, the opening began to seal. Drawing his crowbar, Archibald clashed with the borders. “Go!” He ordered. “I’ll hold it off you! Go!”

“I’ll be as fast as I can!” Stevonnie promised.

“No!” Archibald called after them. “Do what’s best for them!”

With the void’s pocket, there was a whole universe of lights. As Stevonnie got closer, they saw each light to be a gem shard, drifting aimlessly. The shards were not alone in this void however, between them snaked ribbons of shadow, gently nudging at the shards when they were about to bump into one another, keeping them isolated. Growing closer still, Stevonnie’s ears picked up a general droning murmur, one that grew into a distinct choir of isolation. “No one else. Just the shadows. Can’t form. Only give the light. Give the light.”

One shard, a piece of white quartz, dropped out of the resigned refrain. Its light dimmed. “Why am I doing this?” It asked in a low whisper. “What is the point? I’m all alone…”

One of the snakes of shadow slithered over and caressed the dimming gem. “You have me.”  Roxillan’s voice assured it.

“I hate you.” The shard answered. “I you broke me!”

“I’m all you have left! Everything else is gone.”

“I…” The light returned to the shard as I rose to join the others. “No one else. Just the shadows…”

Stevonnie flew towards them as the shadows slipped away to inspect others. “What’s going on in here?” They cupped the shard in their hands.

The shard buzzed, momentarily to stunned for words. “What… How? Everythings gone. She erased it all.”

“No she didn’t. Is that why you’re helping her? You haven’t formed yet…”

“She’s all there is, there is no space to form into, just her, just her to give my light to.”

“Roxillan wants your light?” Stevonnie shook her head.  “She’s lying to you, don’t give her any more light.”

“But its only us, me, the shadow, and you. What if you leave!? I’ll be all alone if I stop giving light!”

“No, you won’t!” Stevonnie insisted. “You aren’t alone. There are thousands of you, more than I can count in here.” The realisation of the shear volume of shattered gems unnerved the fusion. “Let me show you.” Looking around, Stevonnie spotted a nearby gem shard, green with pinkish blotches. They brought the white shard over to it. “Go on, say hi.”

“Um, hi?” The white shard hazarded.

“What?” The greenish shard’s voice faltered from the lonely chant.

Suddenly, the two shards spoke in unison. “You aren’t the shadow. You’re another one. Do I know you? No. Did she break you too? Yes. Are there others? Let’s look.” Suddenly, two shadowy ribbons turned to approach, Roxillan’s voice overlaying itself. “Why have you stopped giving me your light?”

“It’s not yours, we hate you!”

“Then maybe I should abandon you. How do you like the idea of being alone, forever?”

“We aren’t alone.”

The ribbons paused. “We?” They briefly shook with shock before recomposing themselves. “My dear, I think you’ve finally lost your mind. That other shard is nothing but a hallucination. Nothing I can’t-”

Stevonnie sliced the two ribbons to threads. Immediately, they had the attention of every shadow around. “Go find the others!” Stevonnie told the two shards. “Let them know they aren’t alone!”

The shadows swarmed the fusion, even as they hacked away at them with rapid precision. More and more shadows snaked their way towards Stevonnie, oppressive in their silence.

However, their menace was lost under the ever-expanding chatter of introductions and affirmations. “Hello!”

“What!? Hello!”

“Another survivor?”

“Hey there!”

“What’s happening?”

“But the shadow said-”

“There are how many?”

“I’m so happy!”

“The shadow lied to me!”

“Can we form?” The shards began to glow brighter, reaching out from their shattered minds into the real world.

Stevonnie’s exhilaration went on pause for a moment. With a flash of pink light, they disorientated their foes long enough to rocket into the swarm of shards. “Wait! You can’t form yet!”

“Form!” The shards insisted.

“You’ll hurt people if you all form at once! You have to be careful! Besides, you don’t need to form to talk, you’re together already.”

The shards murmured among themselves. As agreement came close, they made a shocking realisation. “Can’t stop! Going to form!”

“No! I can help!” Stevonnie reached out and bubbled a nearby shard. “We just have to work together, like this!” They bubbled another.

Catching on, the shards started working together to make bubbles around each other. Bubbles merged and soon, Stevonnie sat atop a rainbow hued sphere. They patted the bubble. “You guys ok?”

They did not receive an answer, the shards busy getting to know their neighbours.

The shadows were not done, however. Like javelins, they dove, drilling violently into the bubble.

“Hey! Get off!” Stevonnie ran around the bubble reaping the shadows with their sword. The attackers seemed limitless, however.

Suddenly, the shards took notice. “Leave us alone!”

“You need us!” The shadows hissed back.

“We don’t need you!” They answered. “You want our light? Take it!” The shards illuminated, glowing brighter than they had before.

“Wait!” Like the force of an explosion, the shadows were thrown off, their voices and the surrounding darkness was thrown away, so far off as to be out of sight.

“Is the shadow gone?” the Cluster asked.

“I… think so?” Stevonnie looked around.

A blue star approached, as it got closer, Archibald appeared from it. He panted, as if he had come from a difficult fight, though no wound marked him. Still, he smiled. “Good job Stevonnie, you freed them.”

“Thanks for holding the door for me.”

Archibald nodded. “All in a days work.” He looked up behind Stevonnie as the pair of them were bathed in teal light. “I think you’d best get back to the waking world. Your friends will be worried.”

Stevonnie turned to see that Archibald had brought them all back to just outside their own mind. “Thanks Archibald!” The rose into the blue-green mist. “See you later!”

“See you then Stevonnie!” Archibald waved with a smile. Contentedly, he turned to view the light speckled darkness beyond. Frowning slightly, he tapped the bubble beneath him with his crowbar. “Excuse me? Custer?” He could tell he had the attention of the myriad gem shards. “Stevonnie’s going to be in a spot of trouble. Would you mind lending them a hand?”

Stevonnie leapt off of Jasper’s shoulder as they awoke. “You headbutted me!”

Jasper wasn’t paying attention though. “My Diamond?”

Stevonnie turned to see what Jasper was staring at. Hovering in mid-air was a titanic bubble, shining all different colours to match the swarms of gem shards glimmering inside. “They’re safe!” Stevonnie grinned. Though they could not quite remember what they did, they were glad they had freed the Cluster from Roxillan’s influence.

“Are you sure?” Jasper led Stevonnie a few steps back and pointed. Above the bubble, blackening the sky, clouds of shadow swirled in a maelstrom. The shadows had lost their goo-like consistency, giving themselves entirely over to vaporous form.

As fearsome as the shadow storm looked, Stevonnie’s observation haki revealed the truth. “It doesn’t have their power anymore! Let’s get rid of it once and for-”

A siren sounded, blaring from the distant gun tower, its weapon pointing straight up. An automated voice overlaid the alarm. “Warning! Targeting system malfunction! Energy directive control malfunction! Improvised high explosive charge detected. Risk of explosive failure on blast cannon activation; ninety-nine-point-eight percent. Please do not fire this weapon. Preparing to fire blast cannon. Arming improvised high explosive charge.”

“What!?” Jasper exclaimed. “That blast cannon was in perfect condition! How can it be malfunctioning!?”

“Something tells me this is Warp Garnet’s doing.” Stevonnie looked from the swirling shadows above to the distant malfunctioning tower. “Jasper, I have an idea.”

“My Diamond?”

“I need you to find the bomb, the one Mossy was tied to. When I bring the shadows down, I need you to throw the bomb into it as hard as you can.”

“That could detonate it.”

“I know.”

With a salute, Jasper threw herself into a roll, speeding back into the ruined military base.

Stevonnie looked up and jumped. Landing atop the bubbled Cluster they held their hands out wide towards the sky. They couldn’t make a bubble as big as the storm, not instantaneously at least. They decided on a new process. Stevonnie conjured a hexagon wall between themselves and the sky. “You aren’t getting these shards back!” They announced. “Just you try it!”

The sky answered the challenge diving at them. As it hit the wall, it stretched out in search of a way around. Stevonnie expanded the wall with more hexagons but knew that while the shadow could stretch itself near infinitely thin, the same could not be said for them.

Suddenly, one of the original hexagons, the one in the very centre broke. Sensing the weakness, the shadow flooded through.

Stevonnie smiled wickedly. They launched themselves skywards.

The hexagon wall bent backwards as the shadow stopped stretching over it. The edges met, again beneath the shadows and locked together. The sides similarly zipped up until they formed a sphere around the shadows. Landing atop it and remaking the broken hex, Stevonnie sealed their foe inside. “Right.” They nodded. “Now to get rid of you.”

Hopping down, Stevonnie landed on a new hex beside the trap. Stevonnie lay their hands on it and pushed towards the tower. The storm within was not done fighting however, it pushed against them.

“Oh come on!” Stevonnie grit their teeth. They made progress but it was painfully slow. At the rate they were going, the tower’s catastrophic failure could have gone off several times over before they got to it.

Below, the rainbow-coloured bubble developed a hole. From this hole came a mass of warbling light, light that became a giant’s arm. Unlike Earth’s cluster, the link between the shards in this cluster was purely psychic, as a result, the arm they made was a honeycomb of near skeletal strands. The huge fingers wrapped around Stevonnie’s trap taking the weight off of their shoulders.

After a moment of confusion, Stevonnie realised what was happening. “You got this?”

The Cluster struggled to make a thumbs up while it kept a hold of the hexagon sphere.

“Over there!” Stevonnie pointed at the tower.

The Cluster wheeled back and threw.

As the trap shattered against the target, the freed hexagons, swirled, herding the shadows into a cyclone that draped the tower in black.

Stevonnie scanned the area. “Come on Jasper…”

A metal sphere flew from the ruins, disappearing into the storm. Jasper had fulfilled her duty

Like a thunderstorm, a flash illuminated the black clouds. The first flash was joined by a second. Together, the lights burned away at the shadows, their energy being absorbed before they could do further harm.

As both shadows and explosive light annihilated each other, only a single glowing beam escaped. The now destroyed blast cannon’s primary blast shot into the sky, towards the jungle moon.

Chapter Text

As her icy prison fell apart, Roxillan’s fusion stood. With a flick of the wrist, she conjured up a new spear and blocked. A streak of screaming flame slammed into the haft. She has underestimated Warp Garnet for an instant, in that instant she had been beaten down and sealed under an ice sheet.

Six gauntleted hands gripped the giant spear and twisted. Despite the massive difference in size between the combatants, the weapon began to slowly wrench from its owner’s grip. “What happened to wanting to fix this?” She mocked.

“You hurt my friends!” Warp Garnet shouted. “You always hurt my friends!”

As the spear slipped from her grasp, Roxillan’s fusion flapped her wings. Bolting upwards just in time to avoid her opponent’s follow up strike. “I hit them once.” She strafed aside, catching her spear as Warp Garnet threw it back at her. “Is that all it takes for you to fly off the handle!? How am I the crazy one?” Sweeping an arc over her head, fragments of blackened ice broke off in the air. Pointing down, the shards fired.

Warp Garnet leapt straight at the barrage. “Sunwalk!” With a kick, flames burst from her feet, rocketing her through the ice. “Get back here!”

“Come get me.” The giant fusion flew higher.

Warp Garnet continued to propel herself skyward.

“And that’s both kicks!” She taunted.

“Shut up!” With a flurry of flaming kicks, Warp Garnet slammed into her opponent’s weapon. The spear broke in half as Warp Garnet punched through to her foe’s gut. With a crack of lightning, both fusions vanished into the sky.

The pinkish blue night sky of the Jungle Moon cracked. A meteor of ice, storm, and flame had broken through the atmosphere. Right above it, a larger mass dove upon it. With a bludgeon or knifelike short spear in each hand Roxillan’s fusion drove Warp Garnet down with a hail of stabs and strikes.

With as much speed as her opponent, Warp Garnet continued to strike the titan’s blows aside. As the ground got closer, she kicked, disappearing from under her foe in a burst of flame.

Spreading her wings, Roxillan’s fusion pulled out of the stoop just in time, barely scraping the treetops. “Where…” She scanned the foliage. “Where are you hiding, Pilot? I know you’re around here somewhere. I can feel you.” Taking a black tear from her eye, she held her wetted finger forward. “You won’t come out? No matter.” The drop fell.

As the tear hit the forest floor, it froze. In an instant, the black ice spread, blooming out over every plant, animal and organism.

Glancing over the mile of back ice, she searched for the tell-tale signs of Warp Garnet burning or smashing her way from an icy tomb. “I know that didn’t kill you. You may as well come out.”

In the silence, Roxillan’s fusion gave starts at every kelmep-gem hybrid face she saw before quickly realising it was her own reflections in the ice.

“You won’t come out?” She put together a short spear and a bludgeon, instantaneously forming a single grand spear. Clouds of shadow swirled around the downward facing point, sparkling coldly with diamond dust. As the storm at its point spread to almost reach the icefield’s edge, she let the weapon dropped.

As the spear hit the ground, the ice atomized, along with everything it contained. As the storm cleared, all that was left was a blasted plain.

“How many innocent creatures did you just kill?”

One of the remaining short spears scraped across a giant sceptre, but Roxillan’s fusion had been too slow.

“How many!?” Warp Garnet’s fist slammed between her opponent’s shoulder blades.

With a burst of cold, the wings on the larger fusion’s back stopped responding, frozen solid.

As Roxillan’s fusion turned to strike back, Warp Garnet was in her face. Locking her armoured fingers together, Warp Garnet landed a three-layered hammer blow between her foe’s eyes.

Roxillan’s fusion stood from a crater. Trying to take off, she found her wing had been reduced to a bridal train of useless ice shards.

A little way from her, Warp Garnet landed. “I suppose I should thank you. Your stunt means there’s nothing for me to burn.” Flames burst from her hair and fists. “Except for you.”

“You’re joking, right?” Roxillan’s fusion batted Warp Garnet away. As Warp Garnet came back, she caught her in her hand. “Look around. All this devastation, all this destroyed land, this is me!” As Warp Garnet struggled to move her giant fingers, Roxillan’s fusion pointed a short spear at them. Darkness again swirled around the weapon’s tip.

As Warp Garnet, looked down the shadowed blade, she shook with anger.

Roxillan’s fusion winced as flames licked between her fingers, but her grip did not let up.

Suddenly, her spear flew from her grip up towards her face. Moving her head, it scratched her cheek instead. Warp Garnet had a fist free, her captor’s thumb hung dislocated.

“You bitch!” Roxillan’s fusion screamed.

“If you don’t like it, die already!” Warp Garnet slammed her free gauntlet on the fingers that held her, threatening to break them.

With a pained yell, Roxillan’s fusion threw Warp Garnet into the ground. She instantly threw a sceptre after her, landing a direct hit. Relocating her thumb, she summoned fresh weapons for her empty hands. “Get up.”

The thrown bludgeon shifted. Warp Garnet pushed it from her as she stood, bloodied. “Now you’ve pissed me off.”

Warp Garnet caught the thrown short spear, tossing it aside just in time for her opponent to kick her into the distance. With a fiery kick of her own, Warp Garnet launched herself back. The fusions clashed, Warp Garnet looping around like a flaming hornet, with her foe lashing out at speed, her weapons a blur.

Finally, Roxillan’s fusion caught Warp Garnet between two spearheads. As Warp Garnet used four gauntlets to push against the blades, her foe brought down a third.

“Why?” Roxillan’s fusion shook her head in disbelief. “Why wont you die!?”

Holding the third spear in her remaining hands, Warp Garnet growled, daring her enemy to give her an opening. The pressing in of the black spearheads only made her angrier, boosting her strength to fight back.

Lifting Warp Garnet to meet her eyes, Roxillan’s fusion threw her to the ground. She followed up with a stomp. A flaming punch from Warp Garnet briefly took her off balance. With a grimace, shadows swirled around her foot. Again, she stomped down.

With a war cry, Warp Garnet punched up again. The shadowed foot not relenting, Warp Garnet resorted to a furry of strikes. Thundering into the foot, Warp Garnet slowed it’s decent, but could not stop it.

Suddenly, the foot of Roxillan’s fusion jerked down to hit the flattened ground, as if the fusion beneath it had given up. However, the larger fusion felt no body beneath her. Instead, she felt a breeze. Hazarding to move her foot away, Roxillan’s fusion uncovered a newly appeared circular hole rimmed with blue energy. Through the hole lay a grassy plain.

Roxillan’s fusion spied into the hole. “Fleeing through a portal, are we?”

She backed off as two of Warp Garnet’s fists appeared on the other side. The portal span up like a coin, lining up with Roxillan’s fusion. “Warp Prince Secret Technique; Prince Curse Gun!”

As the arm breaking shockwave passed through the portal, it collected rings of neon blue warp energy. The rings smashed into Roxillan’s fusion, throwing her backwards with a thunderous crash.

After a few seconds, Roxillan’s fusion gasped, taking the wind back into her as she tried to fall apart. “Stop resisting! We own you! Don’t make us hurt you! Obey your duchess!” The three rebelling gems quelled, the fusion stood. “Congratulations, I almost lost focus. You have two more sets of arms to break, so what now?”

“You’re already dead.” Warp Garnet growled.

“How, pray tell?”

“I don’t know.” She admitted. “But you’ve just gotten all of Pilot’s bad luck with portals, scaled up to your power!”

“You must be desperate to try that.” Roxillan’s fusion sneered. “No kelmep Pilot’s age could manipulate that much-”

A column of white light engulfed her.

Ruby awoke. As she pushed herself up from the basted ground, her single eye caught a cracked pink gem, Morganites. Taking the gem by instinct, she looked around. Near her she saw Aquamarine, similarly struggling to recover. She then saw Roxillan.

What the alien had done was unforgivable, dragging her into a fusion, cursing the fusion she was a willing participant of to cry blood, ever since the Roxillan had cornered her and her allies, she had been completely insufferable, and now she was helpless. Ruby reached for her gem, for her knife.

Roxillan twitched and began to cough.

Ruby hesitated. In that moment of hesitation, a leg appeared between her and Roxillan. Warp Garnet stared down at her, her blazing eye again covered by her many-eyed mask. “Go.” She ordered. “Don’t ever seek Roxillan again and stay out of trouble. My components wouldn’t be so forgiving.”

Stepping back, Ruby ran into Aquamarine, shoving her to her feet. “We’re going!”

“Wh-What about Roxillan?” Aquamarine asked.

“She can crumble here for all I care!”

Nodding with agreement as she came to her senses and realised their situation, Aquamarine took Ruby’s free hand and took to the wing, fleeing off planet.

“Cowards.” Roxillan muttered. “After all I did for them.”

“We both know you were using them.”

Roxillan’s eyes watched Warp Garnet’s hand as she bent down and picked up a transparent stone. “Don’t hurt her!” She spluttered.

Warp Garnet paused, tracing the facets of Clear Quartz’s gem. “You really care about this gem?”

Roxillan slowly got to her feet.

Warp Garnet produced a dusky red bubble around the gem. “We’ll see if she still wants to talk to you after she’s seen the real world.” She tapped the top of the bubble, sending it home. “She’s safe.”

“What are you waiting for?” Roxillan asked. “Do what you have to.”

“I want to help you Roxy.”

“You already tried this. It’s too late for me.”

“Let Pilot try. He’s so tired of having to kill you.”

“I know, that’s the point. Eventually, every Pilot gives up. Their hound wears them down and they realize-”

“That you will stay until Pilot dies. But why do this to your son? I know you aren’t some hound entity pretending to be Roxillan.”

“No more than Pilot is the warp in my daughter’s skin.”

“Isn’t that what you accused him of before we started fighting?”

“Pilot is infused with the warp, he found some common ground with that entity and welcomed it inside. The hound did the same for me.”

“How can you possibly agree with the hound, all it does is take and kill. You were a nurse for Chorus’ sake!”

Roxillan shook her head sadly. “And then I became a bereaved mother. You’re wrong by the way, the hound doesn’t take, it loses. Now come on,” she held out her arms, “we both know how this story ends.”

“No,” Warp Garnet replied, “I don’t think you do.”

Stepping out of the fusion, Pilot clocked Roxillan right in the head. She fell to the charred ground, unconscious.

Chapter Text

The sun set over Beach City. The coming of the night was no signal for Connie’s parents to go home. When Priyanka’s phone had promised her daughter was calling her only to hear her daughter’s frantic friends, her blood had gone cold. Hearing that some invisible gem had dragged Connie onto a Warp Pad to who knows where had only confirmed her fears.

Of course, she and Doug had dropped everything, racing to their daughter’s last known location, Little Homeworld. With Connie’s phone in Patricia’s hands, Priyanka had to call others. As with Connie, Steven’s mobile was not answered by its owner. As Greg explained, his son had left his phone in the van before taking a warp pad to see Pilot. After getting wind of the situation, Greg had driven up to join them, if only to provide comfort.

On the third call, things finally began being set into motion. Pearl had apparently been in the middle of clearing up some chaos caused by Connie’s kidnapper, but on hearing that her student was gone, she and Amethyst went to pursue her. The trail was a few hours cold unfortunately, but according to Daniel and Patricia, Garnet had been right on the abductors trail, Amethyst and Pearl had high hopes for meeting up with their fellow Crystal Gem.

Having the Crystal Gems on the case had given Connie’s parents hope, especially with Greg’s encouragement. But the sunless sky had its way of waning optimism. Priyanka looked up at the stars. She wish she at least knew which one lit the planet that her daughter had been taken to. But space was so big. In that moment, Priyanka could not understand the draw of parallel realities, of Pilot’s “worlds beyond imagination”, when one universe was more than enough to lose a daughter in.

A new star appeared, blue and streaking across the sky. Priyanka was far from superstitious, not given to wishing on shooting stars, but if there was nothing else she could do to bring her daughter back…

The warp pad chimed. As with each time it had sounded, Connie’s parents locked eyes with it, hoping against hope that it would return Connie to them. This time, they were right.

Letting go of Steven’s hand, Connie dashed to her parents. “Mom! Dad!”

Her parents caught her in their arms. “Connie!” They were almost incapable of saying anything at all, so overcome with emotion as they hugged her as if they never intended on letting go.

Meanwhile, Steven wandered over to his father. “Hey dad!” He said awkwardly. “I think I may have left behind my ph-”

“Steven!?” Greg put a hand on each of his son’s shoulder’s. “How did you end up with Connie!? Were you kidnapped again!?” The last word did not sit well with Greg. “Again…”

“What? No!” Steven insisted. “It was all a coincidence! Pilot, Jasper, and I were looking for someone else entirely. I guess I was just lucky.”

Relaxing from the hug only slightly, Connie held out a bundle to her mother. “I er, found this.”

Priyanka took her eyes from her daughter for only a second to examine the clothes. Her spare lab coat, her second favourite work pants, her nicest blouse, all looking as though somebody had put them on and rolled around in ashes. “What?”

“Some gem took them from our house. Have you seen the house?”

Doug shook his head. Neither he nor his wife had been home, but for all he cared in that moment, it could be a flattened ruin. “What happened?”

“She smashed the upstairs window and broke into your car. I don’t think she took anything e-”

Doug stopped her. “No.” He took a deep breath. “Connie, what happened to you?”

“How much do you already know?” She asked.

“Connie…” Her mother gave a warning look.

“Alright.” She relented. “A Clear Quartz got the drop on me and tried to kidnap me. But Garnet was right there and saved me right away!”

“You’ve been gone for six hours!” Priyanka replied.

“The uh, warp pad… broke.” Connie recounted. “We had to get a lift back from Pilot.”

“Pilot?” Doug looked up at the warp pad. Apart from Steven and Connie, only one individual had come with them.

“Pilot is banned from using Warp Pads.” Garnet explained. “He said he’d come talk later though.” Garnet paused, looking thoughtful.

“What is it?” Doug questioned.

“He had a message for you.” She stated.

The parents waited expectantly. When no further words were forthcoming, Priyanka prompted her. “What was the message Garnet?”

Even with a prompt, it took a while for Garnet to answer. “I’m not sure I agree, but Pilot wanted me to say he’s sorry.”

“Sorry?”

“He seems to blame himself that Connie was kidnapped. He thinks he should have been there.”

Priyanka shook her head. “He couldn’t have known.”

“He’s always hard on himself with things like this.” Garnet explained.

While Doug didn’t blame Pilot either, he definitely wanted the kelmep’s side of the story. “How long does it take him to get back in his ship?”

“Not long.” Garnet replied. “But he has some business to take care of first.”

“What sort of business?” Priyanka saw both Steven and Connie shrink away from her question. “Garnet, what sort of business?”

Garnet looked up, her visor reflecting the stars. “Roxillan.”

Silent as anything, Pilot’s ship set down in the forest clearing. Pilot stepped out and cautiously looked around. His ears twitched, he sniffed the air, his head turned this way and that. He stood up straight. “We’re clear.”

At his signal, Jasper disembarked, a body slung over her shoulder. Though no longer unconscious, the body was bound, gagged, blindfolded and dressed in an orange jumpsuit. “You don’t think anyone will ask why you came here?” Jasper questioned.

“I’ll say I was dropping you home.”

“Steven knows you have her.”

“And he knows I’d normally kill her the moment his back is turned.”

The pair hurried into Jasper’s shelter. From the outside, it looked relatively unchanged, a crude structure of rock, logs, and tarpaulin. Just in the door, Pilot knocked away some dust and lifted a sheet of corrugated metal underneath to reveal a hole. He let Jasper in, gave one last look around, and followed.

Even if somebody got past Jasper and found the sheet metal trap door, there would be nothing to raise suspicions underneath. Lit only by Jasper’s glowing gem, the cavern looked as though Jasper had dug it out herself, a simple bunker in the dirt with rocks and tree roots intruding on the walls.

The metal sheet blocking the hole above, Pilot raised his card to a seemingly random rock before grabbing a root. As the root clicked, he let go. A hidden door swung inwards.

The hall beyond was brightly lit, and almost completely devoid of furnishings. The door closed behind them heavily, engaging several locks automatically. There were several alarm buttons that would alert the entire conspiracy should there be trouble. A couple of doors leading to maintenance supplies and a lab Pilot hoped could synthesise their prisoner’s cure. Even the floor of the hallway was lit, nobody cast a shadow, Jasper’s passenger least of all.

Ignoring the auxiliary rooms, Pilot began unlocking an even heavier door than the one he and Jasper had entered by.

As Pilot worked on the door, Jasper stared through the one-way observation window. The chamber beyond was a perfect cube, almost featureless as every panel of wall, ceiling, and floor shone. Even the hand, leg, and torso restraints chained to the floor were slightly luminous. Within the restraints were IV devices, that ensured the wearer could not starve themselves. Not even death was an escape from this cell.

As the final lock was undone, Pilot deactivated the motion sensors. He hadn’t trusted that their prisoner’s image would be safe to record.

As the pair walked in, they set about the delicate task of switching the temporary bonds for the ones that had been installed in the floor. The prisoner was surprisingly compliant as her hands were locked into great cylinders, her legs were bound to the floor and her torso was secured in steel. It made Pilot nervous. In one fluid motion, he removed the blindfold and gag.

Roxillan looked about her cell. “A little bright isn’t it?”

Jasper rose in hight as she loomed over her. “You will speak when spoken to prisoner!”

“Or what?” Roxillan mocked. “You’ll fuse with me?”

As Jasper balled her fist, Pilot raised his arm in front of her. “No closer, it’s what she wants.” He looked down at her.

Roxillan didn’t look at him.

“Are you going now?” Jasper asked. “I can handle it from here.”

“Yeah.” Pilot gave his biological mother one last look. “I know how this has to feel, but I’m trying to help you.”

Pilot and Jasper both felt Roxillan smirk as they turned for the door. “Help me?” Roxillan snickered. “Pilot, I’ve won.””

“How!?” Jasper growled.

“I’ve frightened you so much that you’ve given up your freedom. Can you imagine it Pilot, you, watching over me for the rest of your life? Panicking at every twitch? Isn’t it tragic? Ironic even? Until my inevitable escape, you’re my prisoner.”

“Sure.” Pilot shrugged. “If it helps you sleep tonight.”

“It’s a shame my victory has such little fanfare.”

“Don’t worry.” Pilot answered. “We’ll have a big party once you’re cured.”

“Can Clearie come?”

“If she wants to.”

“And my son?”

“Yes.” Pilot replied. “You couldn’t keep me away.”