Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“Errgah!” I raise my arms in frustration, “I don’t know what anything is! Gagh!” I pound the console of the ancient gem colony ship, in a futile attempt to get the cameras back online. “Blast this old Gem tech! Where’d they go? Why isn’t anything working!? Aahhh!” I panic watching the screens remain showing nothing but static as I fiddle with the discolored and faded controls, entangled in vines and other natural flora that seemed to have a chokehold over this entire vessel. I hear an explosion and whip around to see the stoic faced perma-fusion stand with the rest of those Crystal Clods behind it.

“Surrender, Peridot!” It shouted at me, “You have nowhere to run!”

The ‘Steven’ interjects, throwing out its hands, pointing downward, “The Crystal Gems are gonna get you~” it says tauntingly.

I transform my arm into a plasma cannon and point it at my assailants, supporting it with my opposite hand. “You really think this is the end? This is only the beginning… of my escape! Nyeheheh,” I make a wide arc with my blaster and point it at an adjacent wall. Blowing a hole into it. I turn and run towards my escape route. Before I can get far, I’m interrupted when a spear stabs through my left hand, sending me into the floor. I attempted to get up, but the spear had dug into the floor, pinning me. After some mild deliberation, I disengaged the limb allowing me to get up. Stumbling to my feet, I look up just in time to see the diminutive Amethyst flicking her gem weapon, a whip, at me. I attempt to leap out of the way, but the cord ensnares me. I free one of my digits and send a current down the weapon. Before the electricity can reach her the warmachine's gauntlet's close around the whip and disperse the charge, then to my horror an it creates its own current back to me.

The electricity arcs through my body reaching towards the ground causing my body to arch in spasms racking my body with pain and making me fall over. I manage to stagger to my feet and glare at the disgraceful display before me. “And to think you’re only capable of that cloddy stunt because you’re two cowardly gems that can’t face anything alone."

Without showing any sign of hearing my comments, it yanked the whip back, pulling me towards it. It pulls back its fist before delivering a brutal punch to my ensnared midsection. The power of the punch caused the weapon to disperse, and free from the whip’s entrapment I was sent hurtling towards the wall above my escape route.

Slamming into the hard hull of the ship and falling to the ground below I begin to wonder if destroying the ceiling and flying out would have been a better plan. I manage to get up only to be met with a spear pointing directly at my gem.

I back pedal, stopping as I feel the open air under my gravity connector. My mind races in a panic trying to search for anything to get me out of this in one piece. “Wait! You need me in order to stop The Cluster!” I say, spilling confidential information.

The ‘Steven’ pushes its way forward, “What?” it asks with painfully little concern.

“You clods have been living on this planet for how long and still don’t know about its imminent destruction?!” Genuine confusion crossing my face. “The Cluster is a massive geo-weapon made from the shards of millions of deceased gems, and when it finally forms it will be a frightening display of power, and it’s germination will reduce this planet to nothing more than a pile of cosmic rubble, and us with it,” I finish, fear creeping into my voice with that final statement.

The Pearl doesn’t hesitate in stepping forward, her spear held with violent intentions. Apparently unwavered by my plea. The ‘Steven’ however pushes the Pearl back before starting to talk. “Guys, she sounds like she knows what she’s talking about…” I stop paying attention, noticing that my assailants were distracted by its blabbering. I take my chance, sending two of my prehensile digits crawling down to my boot, they activate a self destruct sequence.

“...We can't know if she’s lying, what if we’re all in serious danger!” The ‘Steven’ finishes its speech.

“The ‘Steven’,” I say the unfamiliar word with disdain, “Is right, all of you are in terrible danger.” Mock concern fills my voice, and a smirk crawls across my face. “You’re in danger… From me! Nyahahah,” I leap upwards, slamming the heels of my gravity connectors together. The self destruct system initiates, disengaging me from my limb enhancers and making them explode in a violent burst of green energy.

I hold up my last remaining arm, using the digits to transform into a propeller and begin carrying me off. “Have fun in pieces you lumpy clumpy clods!” I begin cackling, my ego flaring. As I’m flying away, I see a shadow cover my body. I abruptly stop my arrogant laughter and look up to see a massive plate of metal obscuring the sky above me.

"Eep," A single, feeble utterance escapes my lips before it collides with me.

Crack.

Poof .

Chapter Text

A searing pain flashes through me, overriding all of my senses. It felt like I was being burned by the fires of a star, while also frozen by the empty void space. It felt like I was being torn asunder, my mind being forced apart. I try to scream, but there’s no sound, only the ever intensifying agony.

I suddenly see the world again, regenerating into almost the exact same form, with the only difference being me having hands and feet. I feel the pain from before, albeit significantly less, located solely in my gem. I reach up to touch it before freezing in shock. I feel thin, hairline fractures running through my gem, “No, no, no, no, no,” I begin to panic, “ This can’t be real, please no.” 

I stumble to my feet, clutching my gem like it will fall apart if I let go. I look around, my heart racing as I try to find something reflective. I train my eyes on a small body of water a handful of feet away and begin stumbling to it, tripping over the roots and undergrowth surrounding me. I eventually find myself at the edge of the water, I feel my eyes tear up as I stare at myself. My hand falling away to reveal my reflection, confirming what I had felt earlier. 

I’m going to die here, alone and a failure. This mission was supposed to be easy; In and out, For Diamonds sake’. I wasn’t even supposed to be here, but those insolent rebels kept ruining my robots. 

I’m actively crying into the water now, my cracked visor splotched with droplets of saline. I pivot and lay on the sand bank next to the water, staring at the trees above me. Their massive gnarled arms shielding me from the steadily increasing rain. I feel tears roll down the sides of my face as I lie there. No motivation, no will, what does it matter? I’m going to shatter soon enough, The cracks will widen and I’ll crumble away to nothing.

I suddenly bolt upwards as I hear the sound of footsteps approaching. Those cretins must have come back for me. They’ll either bubble me, or shatter me completely. I think to run away but fall back to the ground in a slump. They might as well shatter me, I mean it’s only a matter of time before it happens regardless.

“Huh? What are you?” I hear the voice of another Peridot and quickly prop myself up to look at her.

We both cover our mouths as we see each other. She looks almost exactly like me, down to the cracks in her gem, the only difference is that she’s holding a crumpled limb enhancer. Without thinking, I reach up and touch my gem, causing me to flinch as the pain surges through my body.

“Ow! What- how did you do that?!” She asks in surprise. 

“I do-don’t know,” I stutter, “And hey! That’s my limb enhancer!”

“What? No this is mine- Wait. what’s your cut?”

“I’m 5XG”

“Me too.” After she says this, we stare at each other in a confused silence for a moment. Somehow, someway there are now two of us.

“Well… this is quite… upsetting to say the least,” I say to my doppelganger. We sit staring at each other.

“Not entirely, I mean think about how much faster we can work if there’s two of us,”

I stare at her in shock, “Work? Work on what? We’re cracked, and probably going to completely shatter regardless of whether those clods come back or not?!”

“Yeah okay, and? My point is, we can get revenge on those insufferable clods because now our odds are much more favorable.”

“Our imminent death doesn’t bother you?!”

“Not really, I mean it’s unavoidable we may as well take those traitors out with us,”

“What about the Cluster?”

“Huh? Oh yeah, well we both know that we only got sent here to do that because we bumped into the Hessonite,” She retorts, “ All of Homeworld knows the emergence of the Cluster is inevitable. This mission was just meant as a way to punish us, and hey, if we go back to Yellow Diamond with the shards of the remnants of the rebellion maybe we’ll finally get the recognition we are owed.” welp, I always was good at rationalizing things.

“Well when you put it that way it makes sense,” I pause, “But this is for the Diamonds right?”

“Oh uh, yeah of course, so you’re going to help me right?”

“Uh yeah, yeah I will,” I stutter unsure.

“Good, in that case, let’s go see what we have to work with,”

We stand up and walk off towards the front of the ship. After a few minutes of walking we get to the doors. Finding that they have been busted open, meaning it’s probable at least one of those traitorous clods survived that explosion. I hear the other me audibly snarl, as she came to the same conclusion. We enter the ship and navigate through the webs of corridors, walking into the dimly lit rooms of this ancient machine. The dilapidated corridors overgrown with moss and vines, like wires of life traced onto a motherboard of alien technology. I’m surprised by the beauty of it all, when I had first come through here I was too preoccupied with devising a trap for the rebels to actually look around.

“Ugh, what are you doing, come on!” I look to see Peridot² standing at the end of the hallway. I rush through the remainder of the hall to catch up with her. When I do, I find we have made our way into the control room, the far side being a mess of burn marks and shrapnel.

“Let’s see if any of this junk is salvageable. The good news is that we’re up against gems of this same era, so really, we’re on an even playing field,” I hear her say, starting towards an undamaged terminal, “Well despite their numbers advantage, but hey who’s counting?” She snorts.

We begin gutting the place, taking anything of use. Even without my screens I can tell that we had worked for somewhere in the vicinity of 16 Earth hours, the sky having long since grown dark. We had piled everything of use that we could find in front of the crumpled doors, in the entryway of the now skeletonized ship. We managed to scrape together a number of weapons, including one of the ship's forward mounted cannons, which we found still worked after inadvertently activating it. We had a supply of functioning servos, actuators, gears and the like. And had managed to find enough stored energy amongst the numerous batteries across the ship to power anything we could feasibly build. 

“Ha! look at all this,” I say looking over to my other self, “This pile of garbage has a surprising number of usable components!” 

“I know! This looks like enough stuff to build me new limb enhancers!” I look at her confused.

“Wait, why do you get to have them?”

“Well, because I’m obviously the superior Peridot, so that means I sho-”

“What? How?”

“When I found you, you were laying on the ground sobbing. Assuming we reformed at roughly the same time, that means instead of doing anything useful, you immediately ran off to feel bad for yourself.” Peridot² spat at me

I start shaking at her comments. I open my mouth to retort, but before I do I see a glistening form in the darkness from the door behind her.

“Hang on, what’s that?”

“Ugh, we both know that won’t work, we’re not dumb enough to fall for that- Woah!” She’s cut off when a pair of jaws snaps around her.

“Peridot!” I shout.

I can see a creature in the dim lighting of the ship. A large multi-legged entity, with no apparent eyes and a massive head of hair. It stands reared on the back half of it’s arthropod-like body, towering over me. It angles its large mandibles down at me, spitting out an unconscious Peridot². Her body is marred by burns. I stare down its maw now revealing it’s huge spherical…

“What kind of gem is this?!” I cry out in fear “Why is every gem on this planet so flawed!” I shout at the monstrosity

It begins inching towards me, I rush over to myself and try moving her away from the abomination. I look up to see the monster begin regurgitating acidic bile at us. Watching one of the globules land dangerously close to our scavenged materials I start to panic. I have to get rid of this… thing, before it expedites our expiration dates.

I run away from my injured counterpart and begin jumping trying to get the monster’s attention. It expectedly follows my movements and suddenly begins rushing at me. I try to think of a plan, but the panic is choking out my thoughts. The disgusting aberration is bearing down on me now, rearing back its head. I fall to the ground unable to scream as I’m choked with fear. My breath accelerates. I close my eyes and bring my hand out in front of me in one last futile effort to protect myself. As its head begins to strike at me.

Then nothing.

Wait actually nothing. Nothing happened. No bite. No scalding acid, not even a quick sting before the inevitable. I tentatively open my eyes and lower my arms. I see the creature frozen, inches away from my arms, with its mouth wide open ready to bite me. Stopped only by a jagged piece of metal stabbing through its jaw… and gem. It poofs in a cloud of light orange dust, and a number of shards fall and clatter to the floor.

My breaths are shallow as I begin to calm down. I collapse, only to jut back up, hearing my other self shout.

“Wow! That was amazing, how did you do that?” She exclaims.

“When did you wake up?”

“I woke up when I heard that thing screech,” I blink in confusion, as I never heard it screech, but it was probably because of adrenaline.

“I’m not sure how I did it. I think we might have metal powers?”

“Oh, you just guessed that?” She retorted sarcastically.

“Okay well, um… here,” I say as my eyes focus on one of the crumpled blast doors by the entrance. I begin concentrating on it and try to move it. After a few seconds of haphazardly flailing my arms it was floating in the air.

“Oh my Diamond, that is unprecedented!” She stares in awe, “Well, that settles it!”

“What do you mean?” I ask, confused.

“I mean that I get the limb enhancers, I’m the weaker one, and therefore require technological enhancements in order to be as useful as you are,” she says in a matter-of-fact way.

“But you were saying the exact opposite earlier!?” I snap back at her

She shrugs at me, before turning around, “Alright now that we’ve decided that, Let’s get to work!”

Chapter Text

“Graahhhhh! This crummy junk is impossible to work with,” Peridot² yells, slamming the half-built arm in her hand to the ground.

We’re both sitting along the metallic floor in the entryway of the ship, which we had made into our makeshift base and workshop. We have been working on making weapons and Peridot²’s limb enhancers.

I shrug “Maybe you should calm down, I mean, I’ve finished most of this rig in the time it's taken you to barely make one limb,” I reply, forcing the metal to bend into the right shape for me to finish off the left leg.

“Come on, the only reason you’ve managed to make so much of the exo-suit is because of your cloddy metal powers,” she retorts irritably.

“Have you even attempted to activate your own metal powers?”

“Yes!” she shouts at me, before thrusting her arms at a nearby pile of scrap. Peridot2 visibly strains trying to move the metal as sweat forms on her brow. She gives out, body folding like I had folded the components to her left leg enhancement.

I go to comfort her but before I can get up, she regains composure and turns towards me. “Listen, I don’t need metal powers. I need to crush those disgraceful pebbles,” She stomps her foot into the ground causing me to recoil involuntarily.

I pick up the discarded limb. “Do you want me to finish this?” I ask.

“Ugh, fine” she responds, exasperated, walking over to the almost completed exo-suit. “So, what can this thing do exactly?”

“If you had actually helped you would know” I reply dryly.

“Oh, can it clod” she snaps at me.

I flinch, “A- anyways, the body piece will serve as armor, while this,” I motion towards some mechanical components on the back, “Will increase your strength, roughly giving you the physical prowess of a Topaz. Your left hand can be launched out and has a winch with enough power to pull your body upwards vertically, functioning as a grappling hook. You have two shoulder mounted cannons, which can be fired via a trigger in your right arm. Finally, your feet have thrusters which give off enough thrust to slow your descent or increase your jump height. But I’d recommend practicing using them before engaging in combat,” I finish, walking towards the body suit with the right arm, taking care to not injure myself on its claws.

As soon as I finish putting the power armor together, Peridot² shoves me aside harshly. She eagerly starts putting it on. After a few minutes of attaching it to her body she stumbles a bit before flexing her sharp claw-like fingers and cackling “Wow, this thing is great, we really did a great job.”

“What do you mean we-” She cuts me off.

“I mean, I’m sure I could take a few of those pebbles on my own now Nyeheheheh!”

Almost on cue, a flash of light from outside and we hear the telltale chimes of the warp pad. We look to each other in panic and quickly hid. Peridot² presses her exo-suit against the wall adjacent to the door, and I in one of the shadowy corners of the overgrown room, opposite of my clone.

A nasally voice flitters in through the entryway. “-if she did survive the fall, why would she stay here? I mean she probably got herself melted by one of those corrupted Nephrites-” The Pearl suddenly fell silent. A few seconds later, I saw the apostate rearing back its massive gauntlets to punch the wall that my other self was hiding against.

Before thinking of the possible consequences, I shout out to Peridot², “Move!!”

Her head snaps to look at me, before diving forward just as a fist made a second entry way into our abode.

“You know the door was right there,” Peridot² snorts at her assailants.

“You’re alive?!” The Pearl looks awestruck.

“Yeah, and you should’ve brought a bigger army,” Peridot² says, pointing out the absence of the ‘Steven’ and the defective Amethyst.

The fusion slams its fists together and bellows, “I’m all we’re going to need!” before rushing my smug-faced clone who in response swung her hefty leg around her body, activating the thrusters to further increase the force of a devastating roundhouse kick. The warmachine takes the kick in the face, being sent into the opposing wall. Its body then falls to the ground near my hiding spot.

Briefly distracted by the dangerous gem fusion (who was now far too close for comfort) I scamper on my limbs like a small feral fauna. I watch the disgraceful abomination get up. After a few seconds it turns to me, and I feel its intense gaze as it stares me down. It looks at its servant and barks out at her, “Pearl! There are two of them!”

The Pearl, busy fighting Peridot², turns her head facing us before shouting back, “Two!? How is that-” She’s cut off by taking a fist to the face

The perma-fusion turns back to me, glowering and marching closer. I begin to panic. It raises its fists to crush me, and I suddenly snap back to competency, using my ferrokinesis to pull a panel from the wall and throwing it into the perma-fusion approaching me. The metal knocks it prone long enough to allow me enough time to call out to my stronger counterpart for assistance.

“Hey other me! I require some assistance!” Panic coursing through my voice.

Almost as soon as I said it, I see a clawed metal hand clasp around the shoulder of the warmachine. It had just managed to throw off the plate of metal and was shocked by the sudden grappling and was pulled towards Peridot² who was peppering it with energy blasts all the way, screaming, “Eat my condensed energy blasts you lumpy clumpy clods!! Nyeheheh!”

I see the Pearl rushing up behind Peridot² with her spear in hand. The other me was still distracted by dealing with the apostate, who were both now engaged in a weaving dance of limbs and energy blasts. I hurriedly bend a piece of metal around my arm, resulting in a metal lance. I rush towards the fray, watching as my clone catches the Pearl’s spear in her claw, before launching a side kick into her midsection, making the Pearl fall over.. Seeing this, I take my chance to strike. Hurling my improvised lance, with a combination of physical prowess and ferrokinesis, at my target. Time seems to slow. The metal hurls through the air, spiraling as it travels. I watch the perma-fusion try to leap to stop it, only for Peridot² to grab it midair and throw it to the hard floor. The Pearl sits up dazed for a moment, and sees her fellow crystal clod shouting at her. She turns her head just in time to stare down the spike, now inches from her sternum. Pearl stares down its length. She stares at me, her face contorted with fear, before changing to acceptance as it pierces the Pearl’s chest.

“Pearl!” The larger gem shouts, thrusting her combatant out of the way. It runs over, as the gem clatters to the floor. It grabs the lifeless gem before scowling at us and running off to the warp pad.

I stand frozen, as the scene of the Pearl poofing replayed in my mind over and over. She would regenerate, she would be fine. Wait. Why do I care? She tried to kill me. I should hope she never reforms. Then why do I keep seeing her death stricken face? I’m shaken from my thoughts when Peridot² shakes me with her clawed hands.

“Wow, me, you managed to poof her and scare off that brute,” The more imposing Peridot says, patting my back with her massive hands. I stumble forward before regaining my composure.

“Uh y-yeah” I flash a grin that resembles more of a grimace.

If my doppelganger noticed she didn't let it show, walking away and continuing her rambling, “And here I thought that I got all the important traits, while you were left with the…”  Peridot² paused for a moment, considering her words, “...Less desirable traits,”

I try to interject, “Wait how is ferrokin-”

“Regardless we are still outmatched by those Crystal Clods,” She continued on, either ignoring or not hearing me. “We need more field presence, more firepower. Not to mention a new base of operations.” She stopped before turning to face me, “Wait, what am I thinking. We’re Kindergarteners!” She exclaims with glee

“Wait- wh- what does that have to do with anything?” I stutter.

“Wow you really did get the short end of the intellectual stick between us,” She snorted maliciously. “What it means is that we can make an army. I’m sure we can scrounge together enough stuff at the Prime and Beta Kindergartens. They were shut down in the middle of production, so I’m sure they still have some fluid left. Honestly, we’re doing the right thing. I mean this planet is so rich in useable resources, its practically wasted if we don’t do anything with it before the cluster,” She finished, looking at me expectedly.

“Uh- yeah, we can definitely restart that old junk,” I reply, still shook up from earlier.

“Nyeheheh, those dirty pebbles won’t know what hit them!” Peridot² cackled, her hands raised accentuating her manic appearance. Her cackling was interrupted when a number of components sizzled and popped, causing her suit to go limp, collapsing on its squishy pilot. She strained to get the thing to move, before realizing she was trapped in the suit. It was obvious the battle had taken its toll on the cobbled together suit.

“Ngyeh! Get me out of here and fix this thing!” She spat at me.

The light subsided followed by the musical chime of the warp pad as we appeared in the Prime Kindergarten. I levitate a pile of scrap and other potentially useful parts down to the base of the hill where the warp pad resided sweat beading on my forehead. As soon as the pile was close to the ground, I gasp as a newly repaired claw grabs me around the waist. We’re suddenly sliding down the mild slope of the plateau holding the warp pad. 

“Huh, and I thought that old colony ship was a wreck,” Peridot² remarked, dropping me as we landed on the canyon floor.

“Hey! We’re still cracked, remember?!” I shout with indignation.

She shrugged dismissively before marching off “We’ll need to find one of the control rooms and redistribute the Diamond extract mixture to the injectors we can get working…” I stop paying attention, staring wistfully at the edge of the Kindergarten. Rolling fields of green extended out past the blackened and dead border. It was a demilitarized zone between the unrelenting stalwart might of nature and the dead apathy of an everlasting scar that refused to fade. I sighed as I turned from it enraptured by nature’s force.

“What are you doing?” My doppelgänger asks, lines of confusion etched across her face

“Er- uh nothing,” I lie.

She shrugs, “No matter, we should make our way to the control room.”

We begin walking off through the canyon. I look upwards at the claustrophobia inducing cliff faces, their dark coloration reflecting the overcast sky. We soon find ourselves above a square hole that slanted downwards into the darkness. My mechanically enhanced clone slides down into it, with me not close behind. We come to a stop at the end of the incline, my counterpart walking slowly through the dark of the control room

Peridot² observes the room, gem illuminated, making a flickering light. She advances towards the corner, pauseing over a panel “Alright get the power up and running, so we can get started.”

“What? why me?”

“Do I look like I can fit in there?” She replies gesturing limply towards the small opening.

“...Fine…” I grumble at her before walking over and scrambling into the small access hatch. I fiddle with a number of wires before hearing the sound of power flooding into the control room and the hum of the lights. I pull myself from the crawlspace, landing unceremoniously on my face. I look up to see Peridot² interacting with the central computer, the left arm of her exo-suit hanging limp as her arm is pressed to the central console. I walk over and stare up the holographic images swirling through the air, as Peridot² changes settings, inputs commands, redirects power, all before finally pulling her hand away from the console.

Above us I hear the screeching of metal as numerous injectors sprung to life, the whirr of their motors filling me with nostalgia. We leave the control room, climbing the entry shaft. Reaching the surface we see a myriad of injectors all standing, rank and file the formation only ruined by the number of missing injectors laying about, missing legs or power and simply sitting in disrepair. My doppelganger and I began climbing the mechanical behemoths and checking the various meters within their polyhedral heads. After descending the final one and having taken note of the number of gems that each one was able to produce (enough Amethysts, Citrines, and Agates to lead a full-scale recapturing of this planet) we began investigating the fallen injectors, removing the vials of yellow, blue, and pink essence and bringing them to their still functioning counterparts. Halfway through this procedure I felt what was once apathetic, drone-like, obedience drain away to reluctant acceptance of my work. I didn’t want to do this, I knew what this would do to this planet. Our victory comes at the cost of the planet itself. Steeling my resolve I drop the vials of pink essence in my arms and march towards my stronger counterpart with determination. Rounding the corner and seeing her standing over a discarded injector I rush over and open my mouth to speak.

“Hey! Me! I don’t think I-” I stop realizing she’s lost in thought.

She stands over the broken glass viewport that normally protects the Crystal Heart that powers all Era 1 Gem technology. The heart itself was still beating, hopelessly trying to follow its orders, the joints that would connect to the sharp spear-like legs, articulating to no avail. Peridot² stares at it, face contorted with disgust and anger. “I refuse to tolerate weakness,” She says coldly before swiftly kicking the heart, shattering it instantly.

Chapter Text

“You were saying,” Peridot² turns to face me, her face emotionless. Unfeeling to the horrendous act just performed.

“I- uh I was saying, that I don’t think we will have enough Diamond essence to make more than two strike teams of Citrines.” I lie, fearful of what she might do if she knew what I was really going to say.

“That is unfortunate, but we will have to make do,” She replies, still betraying no emotions.

I back pedal a little before turning around, hoping my nervousness wasn’t as obvious as it felt. I walk back towards the injectors standing at attention like the very quartzes they made millennia ago. Peridot²'s gaze feels like it's burning a hole through the back of my head until I round the corner.

This planet’s moon was high in the sky when we started injectors. The two of us stood in the control room listening to their movement overhead, the spider-like movement being heard even this far below ground. We monitored the active group of injectors via various holographic projections. Each one displayed various meters with labels denoting their function. Peridot² had her arm outside of her exo-suit, so that her hand could be placed on the console, in order to survey the injectors for any malfunctions. We sat there for the night, watching the numerous screens in a heavy silence. As I saw the mild light from an overcast dawn creeping into the entry shaft, one of the holograms began flashing red, then another. After a brief delay a third display began blinking in alarm as well.

“Gaahhh! Cloddy Era 1 junk!” Peridot² shouts, grabbing fistfuls of her hair, forgetting one of her hands was a massive metal claw made of jagged metal. She grumbles various obscenities pulling the claws out of her ragged hair while I stifle back laughter. “This isn’t funny you clod!” She turns at me, finally pulling it free. “You stay here and continue monitoring the injectors while I go fix this garbage.”

She rushes out of the control room, thrusters propelling her from the hole rapidly. Watching her depart I turn to the consoles staring at their various statistics. I stare at the monitors, watching little bars representing progress slowly fill up. My mind is filled with pictures of the edge of the kindergarten slowly creeping out more and more, consuming more life, killing more life. I stop my train of thought, it’s not like I could stop it. Peridot² would most certainly bubble me, if not worse. The Cluster would destroy all of this regardless, so what’s the point? A deluded thought interrupted my spiral of hopelessness. I could stop the Cluster. But that would be treason against the Diamonds. And? It’s not like I’ll ever get back to Homeworld, I’m just a Peridot, sending anyone to get me would most definitely be more trouble than I’m worth. I stand up, pushing my thoughts aside. I had seen the beauty of this planet and I won't let my other self or the Cluster destroy it. But where would I go? I wouldn’t be able to do it by myself. Wait, the ‘Steven’! It would be able to help me!

With newfound determination I reached out with my powers, feeling the conduits that fed power to this place and twisted them, rendering them useless. Immediately the room went dark, and soon after, the sound of injectors falling to the ground filled the air. Glass shattered and metal screeched. Knowing that Peridot² would quickly return to see what had happened I raced out of the hole, climbing up it on all fours like a feral creature. As I emerge at ground level I hear the distant sounds of fighting. I rush over to the sound of it, hiding behind a nearby corner and peaking past it. I saw the warp pad and below it was the Fusion and Peridot² fighting each other. Seeing the pair was distracted, I snuck as best as I could to the warp pad, hiding behind the collapsed corpses of now lifeless injectors.

I scamper up the plateau that the warp is situated on, hoping to the Diamonds that the two— er three, technically— didn’t see me. I pull myself over the ledge and scoot onto the warp. I stand up and stare at the skirmish below. My counterpart turns to see me, her eyes widening in confusion and contorted by anger, before a punch to the gut sends her reeling.

I hold out my arms and envision the ‘Steven’ in my mind, hoping that would be enough to bring me to him. Almost immediately I’m swallowed by a bright white light.

After what feels like an eternity, I feel the cold stone of a warp pad beneath my feet and the light leaves me. I’m in a dark building facing some kind of foreign lounge. A jarring noise pulls me from my thoughts, and I look around wildly to try and find its source. My eyes train on a rhythmically moving lump on a loft in the right corner of the room. I quietly rush over to a set of stairs leading up to it, and crawl up them. As I reach the top, the floor creaks and The ‘Steven’ bolts up. It blinks slowly, looking around, mumbling to itself. Its eyes pass over me, and I breathe a sigh of relief, only for its eyes to snap back to me.

“Peridot-!” Its exclamation is manually interrupted by my hand.

“Err, listen um, you ‘Steven’, it seems circumstances have aligned themselves to benefit a union of forces,” I say awkwardly.

It looks at me quizzically.

“Urgh, do you promise not to alert the others?”

The ‘Steven’ shrugs in complacency.

Removing my hand from its mouth, it immediately begins speaking. “Well they’re all gone anyhow. Especially Pearl,” It says with a twinge of indignation.

“I- I apologize, I have come to regret my actions as of late,”

It doesn’t meet my eyes, instead staring distantly at the floor. “You said something about unionizing forces?”

“Union of forces,” I correct it, “What I mean was, it is now in my best interest, for us to work together in an effort to stop the Cluster.”

It stares at me for a moment “How do I know you’re not lying?”

“Why would I lie about this, I snuck into your base where I am at a serious disadvantage and then instigate conflict-” I’m cut off by the chime of the warp pad. I whip my head and look to see the light fading away, leaving behind a small purple gem and tall crimson fusion. I dive behind the bed peaking my head up to watch.

“-en I got there the lights were off and it looked like it was already shut off…” I hear the Amethyst explaining as her voice fades away, the pair entering a door that went further into their base.

The ‘Steven’ turns so he’s staring down at me. I avert my eyes out of shame. “Listen I can prove it, can you get to the moon?”

I stare up at the pink quadruped in front of me, the ‘Steven’ mounts its back. It holds out a pudgy hand to me. “Here, I’ll help you up!”

I take the hand and it pulls me onto the spine of the creature with surprising strength. “You ‘Steven’, are you sure this is safe- Agh!” I’m cut off by the large feline lurching forward, hurtling across the sediment bordering the ocean.

The small humanoid giggles before turning its head to speak to me, “It’s just Steven,” He says still chuckling, “And of course it is why wouldn’t it be.”

We keep accelerating, the creature rapidly approaching the ocean running towards it with ever increasing speed. I squeeze my eyes shut in fear of getting dragged beneath the waves as we approach the water. Only to open them and find that we are traveling across it, the beast’s powerful steps leaving only slight ripples in the water behind us. Facing forward I see beams of sunlight pierce through the sky foretelling the rising of the sun. Steven’s pet lets out a roar that sends ripples of awe through me. Shockwaves from the bellow coalesce into a pink and white circle which we charge straight into finding ourselves in a place not unlike the warp stream. As we fly through the air the beast lets out another roar, and another, and another, sending us faster through its pocket dimension. A final roar sends us skidding across a smooth patterned floor.

We stand up from the collapsed creature, its breathing heavy. “Will your transport remain stable?” I ask Steven.

“Yeah, he should be ok,” He responds standing from the beast, whilst giving it an affectionate rub, to which it begins to purr. “So what is this place?” He asks, staring upwards through the darkened spire.

“This was Pink Diamond’s Moon Base. Where Her Brilliance would watch over the construction of the colony below,” I crawl along a segmented ring on the edge of the room, feeling each panel. My face lights up both figuratively and metaphorically as my hand presses on an activation panel causing the rest of the panels to brighten and fly upwards, forming a staircase. I look over to see Steven jumping around higher than what should be allowed and laughing. His creature looking on lazily.

“How are you doing that?” my voice reverberating along the walls of the staggeringly tall structure

“I’m a moon boy!” He exclaims, chuckling all the while.

“Shouldn’t your body acclimate to the lack of gravity?”

“Huh?”

“I mean, your gem it should automatically adjust the density of your hard light body, nullifying the low gravity,” exasperation twinges my voice.

“Oh, that sounds like a gem thing, I’m part human so I don’t think I do that,” He landed and bounded over to me.

“You’re some sort of organic/gem hybrid?” I ask, perplexed, as we begin ascending the stairs

“I guess so, I got my gem from my mom.”

“What about that?” I ask, pointing to the creature, “Is that also a gem hybrid?”

“Oh no that’s Lion, he’s just a magic Lion that was my mom’s,”

“I see, so, all humans ride a ‘Lion’?”

“Um no, most lions aren’t magic and also not pink. And also, only live in Africa, except in zoos, and sometimes circuses.”

I stare at him, my face blank with confusion. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“They don’t have zoos on Homeworld?”

“No.” I reply plainly.

At this, Steven launched into a tangential lecture about zoos, circuses, and eventually human entertainment in general. I take careful note of his words trying to wrap my head around the idea before having an epiphany.

“Steven, is there some form of this ‘entertainment’ involving the cultivation and sustaining of your planet's flora?”

“What?”

“You know, like the growing of plant life?” I try to make my language more plain.

“Oh you mean gardening, yeah a lot of people do it. There's also farming, which isn’t really for fun, but you grow plants for food and stuff.”

“I see, I might like to try this ‘Gardening’. After we deal with The Cluster of course.” I find that we have finished ascending the tower, “Ah speaking of.” Steven stares in awe at the wide open room. He seemed exceptionally interested in the black void beyond the glass, his jaw becoming slack. I took his hand and guided the awestruck boy to the single large chair and computer console that stood in the center of the room. I place my hand on the activation panel, causing a large holographic screen to appear.

“Wow, this place is so cool!” Steven remarked.

“This is where Pink Diamond would manage the colonization of Earth,” I reply, sifting through files, extracting the colonization plans. A map of earth flared onto the screen dotted with pins showing various gem structures. The Sea Spire, the Communications Hub, the Kindergartens. I pause before shaking my head free from thoughts of Peridot²’s plans. I locate the file on The Cluster, and navigate to a map showing its approximate location. I pause for a moment realizing I have no knowledge of the relative locations of anything on this planet.

“Er- Steven, do you know where this is?” I gesture vaguely at the large circle denoting the womb of the Cluster.

“Oh yeah! I think my dad has a barn there, me and Pearl made… a- a spaceship there.” His voice becomes subdued as he mentions the Pearl that I had poofed.

“I-I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to I just-,”

“I forgive you, you’re ok” He cuts me off “I know that she’ll reform, it’s just scary knowing that she could have died, like really died,”

Neither of us say anything for a few moments. Suddenly the palm of his hand slaps himself in the forehead “The gems! They’re probably worried sick, we need to hurry back.” He begins trying to move as fast as he can, but is inhibited by the lack of gravity. “Um, can you help? This is like moving through maple syrup.”

I grab his hand and start running down the stairs, dragging his body through the air. As I pull him along he laughs in enjoyment. As we race down the spiral I turn back to face him. 

"What's maple syru-AAGH," my foot misses a step and I go tumbling from the stairs, Steven flying from my hand.

I scream as I hurtle to the ground, slamming into it with a resounding-

Crack.