Chapter Text
Pearl, Steven, and Amethyst sat on the cream sectional in the beach house’s living room. Pearl was sitting with Steven half in her lap, listening to the young boy read The Unfamiliar Familiar to her. She wasn’t particularly enjoying the story, but humored Steven anyway because it made him happy; besides, seeing the young boy smile gave Pearl a sense of joy.
Amethyst was lying upside down on the couch, her feet up in the air and her head hanging off the edge, reading a magazine that seemed to be mostly about food.
“Gems!” Garnet called as she emerged from the inner temple.
“What?” Amethyst asked lazily, looking up from her magazine and scratching her belly. The action caused her black tank top to ride up, exposing a swath of purple skin about two fingers wide. Pearl blushed deeply as she reached over and yanked the top back into place. Amethyst lifted her head to give Pearl a side-eyed glance, but Garnet interrupted the small gem before she could comment.
“We must go to the kindergarten immediately,” Garnet informed the three, stepping onto the warp pad.
“The kindergarten? Why?” Pearl asked, her brow creasing in worry.
“Two more gem fusion experiments have emerged. We must eliminate them,” Garnet explained, shifting her visor up her nose a bit. Amethyst rolled off the couch and joined her on the warp pad with a sigh.
“Can I come, too?” Steven asked excitedly, running up to Garnet with a bright smile. Pearl followed and stood on the warp pad next to Amethyst.
“Hmm…” Garnet debated for a minute before nodding, and Steven hopped up next to Pearl with stars in his eyes. The thin gem patted him on the head with a smile as they warped.
A bright flash and a minute later, the quartet arrived in the kindergarten. They looked around warily, finding the area depressing and ominous. The air felt still and heavy, silence pressing in on them from all sides. Wisps of fog drifted across the looming walls, curling into the holes left behind by emerging gems and swirling around their feet.
“This place gets worse and worse every time we come visit,” Pearl murmured, wincing slightly as her quiet voice amplified and echoed off the canyon walls. Garnet nodded, one hand on Steven’s shoulder, and even Amethyst made a small noise of agreement.
Garnet picked Steven up, and the gems jumped down to the bottom of the canyon. The fusion set Steven down as they began walking quietly, peering around them cautiously.
“The most I can say is that we’ll find both of them somewhere west of here,” Garnet explained softly a few moments later. “However, they will be split up.”
“This way, right?” Amethyst asked as she began to drift to the right.
“Actually, it’s this way,” Pearl corrected her with surprising gentleness, touching Amethyst’s shoulder and leading them to the left.
Pearl and Amethyst walked in the front, close enough for their arms to nearly brush against each other with every step. Garnet and Steven travelled just behind them. All three gems seemed tense, glancing around continuously, while Steven was his usual happy-go-lucky self.
The only sounds they could hear were their own footsteps echoing off the walls as they searched for the fusion experiments. Garnet manifested her gauntlets as they walked, Pearl and Amethyst drawing their own weapons shortly afterwards.
The eerie silence was suddenly broken by a strange, jumping growl, followed by heavy footsteps and what sounded like rocks tumbling down the canyon wall. The gems spun towards the sound quickly, advancing down an alleyway carved through the rock. Garnet took the lead, Pearl and Amethyst right on her heels, and Steven lagging a bit behind. Rounding a corner, the group came face to face with the first fusion experiment.
The experiment wasn’t very large, standing shorter than Garnet, and was comprised of what looked like four gem shards. The main body of it was made mostly of a reddish-maroon and a dark teal color, split down the middle; each color sported its own head, complete with gaping maws lined with menacing fangs. There were four legs and two and a half arms, some crimson, and the rest sickly yellow. Several more mouths were scattered about the torso of the beast, gnashing the air.
The fusion experiment stood still for a moment before emitting an ear-splitting screech and scuttling towards them. Immediately, Garnet grabbed Steven and hauled him to the side whilst Pearl launched her spear, piercing the beast through its thick torso. A black substance came from the wound, not spurting so much as oozing, as if it were honey.
“Amethyst, catch!” Garnet yelled, chucking a boulder into the air. Amethyst lassoed it with her whip, pulling it down onto the gem monster with a shout.
With a shriek and a puff of dust, the fusion experiment was no more. Garnet calmly walked over and bubbled the shards before allowing her gauntlets to fade with a sparkle of light.
“Is that all?” Steven asked, walking up to Garnet with Amethyst and Pearl. “That wasn’t so bad.”
“I believe the next creature will be much more difficult to defeat,” Garnet informed the boy, sending the bubble away.
“How much more difficult can it be?” Amethyst shrugged, her usual laid-back self. “It’s not like we haven’t fought these guys before.”
“Well, yes, we’ve fought them before,” Pearl began anxiously, tenting her fingertips, “But only small ones.”
“Pearl’s right,” Garnet agreed, beginning to head out of the alley they were in and back to the main canyon. “While I don’t know the exact number of shards the next experiment will be comprised of, I am almost positive it is more than four.”
“Are we sure it’s safe for Steven to be here?” Pearl worried, momentarily reaching for Garnet’s arm before deciding against it.
“Steven is a Crystal Gem too,” Garnet responded simply, ruffling the boy’s hair and smiling down at him. Steven laughed at batted her hand away good-naturedly. Pearl made a small noise of distress, but otherwise kept quiet.
After a moment of walking, Amethyst bumped into Pearl, grinning up at the tall gem in a reassuring way.
“Don’t worry about it, Pierogi. Steven’ll be fine,” Amethyst assured her.
“I don’t know…” Pearl wrung her hands together; Amethyst reached for her arm and gently interlaced their fingers for a minute.
“It’ll be okay, P,” Amethyst smiled again, letting go of Pearl’s hand with a blush. Pearl remained quiet, teal creeping across her cheeks. Garnet chuckled, happy to see the two getting along so well. Secretly, she observed the similarities between Ruby and Sapphire and the other two Crystal Gems—Pearl and Amethyst really were just like the two halves of Garnet when they first met.
The group moved as quietly as they could through the kindergarten, listening intently for any sign of the second fusion experiment. Seconds slipped into minutes as they got more and more anxious about the location of the monster. Steven, sensing the others’ discomfort, silently slipped his hand into Garnet’s, looking for reassurance.
Garnet picked the boy up and sat him atop her afro without a sound, grinning up at him as she did. Steven giggled quietly, holding his hand in front of his mouth to muffle the sound. Pearl glanced back at the two and smiled slightly, happy to see Steven a little less afraid.
Pearl’s head whipped around as a faint sound reached her ears. Swiftly, she pulled her spear from her gem, tensing and searching futilely for the gem creature.
“Pearl?” Steven asked in a small voice; the tall gem turned to look at the boy.
“Yes, Steven?” Pearl asked as she returned to scanning the kindergarten.
“Did you hear something?”
Pearl was quiet for a moment as she strained to hear anything before sighing and letting her spear dissipate in a brief flash of teal light.
“No. I must have imagined it,” Pearl admitted, relaxing a bit.
The group continued for a few more steps before Garnet suddenly grabbed Steven off her head and launched to the side, screaming for Pearl and Amethyst to move.
Amethyst immediately pushed Pearl with enough force to send her sprawling twenty feet away, but wasn’t quite fast enough to roll out of the way as the second gem monster crashed down from the sky.
“Amethyst!” Pearl cried. The monster, who had apparently jumped from a ledge above them, had landed half on top of the purple gem.
“I’m fine!” Amethyst grunted, struggling to free herself from beneath the giant thing that had nearly crushed her.
Steven gasped in horror as he took in the behemoth in front of them. Garnet set the boy down as she rushed to distract the thing while Pearl helped Amethyst escape.
The fusion experiment was twice as tall as Garnet and easily as wide as Greg’s van, with around a dozen limbs, sticking out in random places along the oblong body. One of the arms was almost as long as Steven remembered Opal to be tall, ending in a wickedly clawed hand.
Garnet was dodging limbs and punching anything she could get her gauntlets on, her arms a whirlwind of muscle and pain as she utilized her speed and future vision as much as she could. Meanwhile, Pearl had gotten Amethyst over to Steven and was looking her over for injuries. The purple gem looked bruised and a bit dusty, but otherwise okay.
“I’m fine, P,” Amethyst told the pale gem, struggling to get to the fusion experiment again. “Come on, we gotta help Garnet!” Pearl set her lips in a thin line and nodded, drawing her spear from her gem and charging, slicing and stabbing wherever she could.
Amethyst pulled a whip from her chest, lashing the creature and leaving marks that oozed the same black goo at the first one did.
“I wanna help!” Steven cried, manifesting his shield and rushing forward.
“No, Steven!” Pearl cried, busy blocking attacks from a clawed hand.
Garnet was suddenly hit squarely in the stomach, flying through the air and crashing into the canyon wall, falling with a harsh grunt. She stayed down for a minute, the pain too much to move.
“Garnet!” Pearl screamed, trying to glance at the fusion over her shoulder as she sliced through an arm.
“’m fine,” Garnet croaked, climbing to her feet and cracking her neck. She went to rush back into battle, only to falter and gasp in horror. Pearl and Amethyst turned to see Steven block a couple attacks successfully before his shield broke along with his concentration.
“Steven, move!” Garnet cried, desperately trying to get to the boy; she was too far away, and none of her future possibilities showed her reaching him in time, and the shard monster’s fist was crashing down much too fast. Garnet watched as if in slow motion as the beast’s huge hand came plummeting down towards the boy she loved as much as if he were her own son. Pearl’s agonizing scream pierced the air as she, too, tried to get to Steven.
And then Amethyst’s whip was cracking through the heavy air of the kindergarten, wrapping around the fusion experiment’s wrist and yanking it back towards her. A stray foot cuffed Steven across the face as the monster was hurtled away, and the boy spun with the force of the blow as he fell, crying out.
“Steven!” Pearl exclaimed, reaching his side a moment later. Carefully, the slender gem turned the young boy over, nearly crying with relief as Steven opened his eyes and blinked up at her. “Let me see it…”
Pearl examined the tender welt on Steven’s cheek, dizzy with gratitude that it was only going to leave a bruise.
Amethyst’s shout brought their attention back to the fusion experiment they were fighting. Pearl turned to Amethyst, drawing out her spear, only to draw in a sharp breath at what she saw.
The small purple gem was struggling to kick the monster as it held her aloft by the neck. Although gems didn’t need air, no species found being strangled to be an enjoyable experience, and Amethyst choked and sputtered, desperately trying to break free.
Garnet and Pearl charged the experiment to save their friend. As Garnet swerved and dodged the extra limbs to get in close and punch the bulk of the thing, Pearl threw spear after spear at the limb holding Amethyst.
Finally, finally, Amethyst dropped to the ground, where she rolled away and shakily stood to catch her strength. Garnet continued to wail on the fusion experiment as the beast grabbed and swung at her, knocking her visor off and leaving bruises over her smooth russet skin. The fusion grunted in pain, her face screwing up, and punched the beast as hard as she could, sending it flying.
“Steven, stay there!” Amethyst yelled as she and Pearl ran off after the fusion experiment. The thing was getting to its feet, down one limb from the beginning but still a formidable opponent. Amethyst pelted the beast with punishing lashes as Pearl darted in close, pirouetting and leaping around and over limbs to stab at the experiment’s soft belly.
Pearl suddenly cried out as the fusion experiment managed to grab her around the middle and lift her into the air, digging its claws into her gemflesh. Trickles of teal blood ran down her body, drawing rivulets down her slender legs, and tears sprang to her eyes.
“Pearl!” Amethyst screamed, wrapping her whip around the limb that held the slender gem. She yanked, hard, and the arm popped off at the joint, bringing both it and Pearl crashing into the purple gem.
The pair tumbled to the ground, and Amethyst was quick to get to her feet, rushing back to fight once more. Garnet was behind them, making sure Steven was okay, when she suddenly spun to watch the fight, gasping.
The fusion experiment was making a beeline for Pearl, sensing she was injured. Amethyst tried to stop the beast, but her whips were barely slowing it down. The thing reached for Pearl with its longest arm, claws grasping, and Amethyst screamed in horror, running and throwing herself in front of the slender gem.
The purple gem grunted in pain as the beast’s claws snapped shut around her midsection, but remained calm. Drawing a whip from her gem, Amethyst lassoed a rock that was sticking out of the canyon wall directly above the fusion experiment.
“I love you, P,” Amethyst murmured, casting one last glance at the pale gem. Pearl was on her feet again, trying to fight, desperation in her wide blue eyes as she followed the whip up to the rock it was attached to. Pearl gasped as understanding and pain flooded her features, her gaze snapping back to Amethyst’s face. Their eyes locked.
“Amethyst, no!” Garnet yelled, trying to reach them in time. But Amethyst merely smiled at Pearl sadly before pulling down with all her might.
Boulders tumbled down like speeding cars, landing on the gem beast and burying it in two tons of rock. It thrashed under the burden for a minute before finally poofing, leaving Amethyst intact, but lying face down, covered in the strange black goo the experiment had been bleeding.
She wasn’t moving.