54"…"
'…Sure.' I mutter in my head. Right now I am just trying to process the utter headache I am going to have as soon as Lapis holds up the bubbles. "… What… what's going on? Why?" I try to ask but it just comes out as an even neutral tired voice.
"The Rubies are back?!" Steven asks in surprise at seeing them, a very much more vocal reaction than mine.
"Back?" I ask in confusion. "They were her- Ooh." I think I vaguely remember them before… things happened. I nervously look at the others but everyone is focused on the uninvited guests.
"They showed up on their little ship acting very angry. So I put them in time-out."
"I love you so much." I waste no time in stepping next to Lapis and wrapping my arms around her neck and kissing her cheek.
"Hehehe, stop stop. You're going to break my concentration." She giggles and playfully shoves me off with her shoulder. I relent but am happy for her having captured the Rubies so easily.
"I thought we were done with these guys!" Steven questions as he walks up to the Rubies. "Why did you come back here?" He asks but the sealed bubbles prevent them from actually speaking to us.
"Let's release one and just ask what they're up to." Garnet proposes.
"Is that really a wise—?"
"Ooh, ooh! Can I pick?"
I sigh at Steven's enthusiasm before pinching the bridge of my nose. "Eh, whatever. I don't care." I'm too tired to argue or think too much.
"Go for it." With Garnets blessing, Steven walks closer and scans through the Rubies.
"Hmm… Oh! Let's talk to Leggy!
"Leggy?"
"Leggy?" Pearl and I ask in confusion at the same time.
"I named them based on the placement of their gems. There's Leggy, Army, Navy, Eyeball, and, uh… Doc. Leggy seems like the easiest to talk to." Steven explains his naming. I don't really remember them all that much, nor their personality's so I can't tell exactly who would be the best to talk to. Although based on some of the looks the different Rubies are giving us I can hazard a guess some of them are wary but at least angry.
"Leggy, come on down." Lapis says in a playful tone and brings the bubble of Leggy Ruby down and popping it.
"Hey! Hi, I'm Steven. What brings you back to Earth?" He asks her.
Leggy doesn't really show any outward aggressions, just confusion as she sits up. "Uh… I… don't… know?" She shrugs.
"Oh, uh, I understand. I used to forget why we go on missions all the time."
"Honestly I didn't even want to come back, not after that… thing." She suddenly shivers at the memory and takes a few steps away. I'm just going to stand over here." Since she apparently has no idea what to say about their mission, she just awkwardly walks over to stand by the fence nearby.
As soon as she does, everyone turns to the side and I do to but I don't see anything. "…Oh right." I awkwardly say as it takes me a second to realize the others were staring at me.
"Let's take a chance on Army."
"I don't like the look on—" I begin to voice my wariness on that Ruby with the glares she's giving but Lapis has already popped the bubble.
"Good afternoon—"
"RAAH! I'll tear you limb—"
*Smack*
Much to my suspicion, Army was not happy with the situation presented to her. Before she can even get close I shadowstep forward in an instant, appearing and reappearing in the blink of an eye, my fist having come down and slammed into the top of her head. She crumples in an instant and falls to the ground.
"Ughhhhhh…" She groans lowly at having been clocked so effortlessly. After a few seconds of just watching her twitch a little, making sure she doesn't try to get up and charge my brother again, I grab the back of her tunic and pick her up before unceremoniously dropping her right next to Leggy. She looks confused at the state of her partner before glancing up at me but I'm already walking away to stand next to the others.
"Alright, who's next?" I nonchalantly state after just decking a Gem.
"Ehh… Navy?" Steven's statement is more a question than an answer. Nonetheless, Lapis frees her and its nice to see that she doesn't immediately scream bloody murder and charge us
"If I remember correctly, we were on Earth—" She begins to say but then suddenly pauses and takes note of most of us staring at her, which causes her to blush and look away. "Uh… hah! This is so embarrassing! Oh-ho- Aah!" She covers her face with her hands and runs over to Leggy and cowers behind her.
"… Okay, that wasn't much help." I comment quietly under my breath. She was close to giving us information but it seems her nervousness at being the center of attention caused her to just fall flat on her explanation.
"Okay, Eyeball?" Steven states/questions again.
"I'm not tellin' y'all nothin' about nothin'!" Ignoring the confusing double… triple?... whatever standards, she lets out a soft growl and huffs with crossed arms as she sits down. "Not even if you sick your beast on us again!" She adds one final time before turning away again. While I could try to… persuade her to give us the information, we do have one last person to interrogate.
"The only one left now is, uh… Doc." With that, Lapis releases Doc.
"Where's Jasper?" I'm on edge the second she asks that name. "Last time we came, you tricked us into playing that stuuupid game!" She points at us. "Then, you said: "She's on Neptune", so after we woke up, we looked, and she wasn't there. She wasn't on Neptune! Or any other planet in this whole dang solar system!"
"They searched all the planets?" I question quietly to Lapis.
"It doesn't take as long as you would think." Lapis replies back in a soft tone. I look at her confused until I remember that she might have passed by the other planets on the way back to Homeworld.
"Tell us where she is right now. No games, no tricks, no terrifying monsters and no slick disguises." Doc threatens us, although I look away at the second to last request. Like a switch flipped, the Rubies all gather together and get ready to fuse together.
"Ughhh…" Except Army who is still on the ground. So their the Rubies are in some half-finished stand for themselves with their last member laying on the ground in front of them. We stare awkwardly at the prone Gem before we all look at each other.
"HEY!" Before anyone can try to do anything, a loud voice calls out for our attention. We all turn around, since its behind us I get ready to attack in case anyone tried to sneak up on us, except I see a very weird sight that momentarily makes me angry but quickly dissolves to confusion. "I'm right here." Indeed, a very purple looking Jasper is right there. If we hadn't JUST fought not even an hour ago and promptly kicked her ass and bubbled her, I would have harshly questioned Amethyst on what is she doing.
Us Crystal Gems all look at what is obviously Amethyst is doing right now. "Isn't that Amethyst?" Lapis asks for clarification quietly. I nod as Pearl, Steven and Garnet walk closer to us.
Pearl looks skeptically at our shapeshifted friend. "Is she serious? There's no way this is gonna—"
"Jasper!" Army manages to look up and is suddenly forgotten all about the hit to her head and jumps up as soon as she sees the somewhat familiar Gem, calling out Jaspers name as she doesn't. We all deadpan look at all the cheering Rubies as she found the Gem they were looking for.
"I guess this does work." I comment to Pearl, who looks very disappointed as she shakes her head.
Eyeball quickly makes her way forward to talk to 'Jasper'. "Jasper! I'm Ruby 1F4 Cut 4ND. I fought in the war for Earth." She quickly tells her as she does the Diamonds salute.
"Uh… At ease." Amethyst awkwardly states.
"I was on the ground in Facet 6 when I heard the tale of the Facet 9 Kindergarten Quartz that could. They said you popped out of the ground with your helmet on, and took out 80 Crystal Gems before the sun went down. When I found out this mission was to look for you, I nearly dissipated my form! It is… an honor to finally meet you." She very emotionally tells Amethyst. As much as a pain in the ass that Jasper was, I'm not confident in the story that she recalled.
"Yep! That's me! Always huge, never small, all the- all the time since I was made!" I cringe a little at her words, as well as the nervous smile she is sporting.
"Wait a minute! You look different than I thought you would." And just like that all the bravado Amethyst was trying to give off comes crashing down as Eyeball gives the purple gem ad critical look.
"Oh, here it is." Pearl comments, knowing full-well the jig is up.
"Oh, you must mean my tan! You know, from the sun!" I cringe hard at the excuse she gives.
"Is she serious? Is that going to—"
"Stupid Earth sun!" I deadpan look as Eyeball, after a moment of staring suspiciously, smiles and kicks the a small cloud of dirt. "I hate this planet!"
"I need to stop talking." I groan under my breath and shake my head.
Lapis pats my back comfortingly. "Rubies aren't made for their intelligence, or their keen eyes. They're just dumb grunt foot soldiers."
"Hey." Garnet annoyingly says. "I take half offense to that."
"Curse this planet!" We refocus on the spectacle in front of us as Amethyst tries to blend in by kicking up more dirt and striking a pose.
The Homeworld Rubies follow her example and run in cheering, kicking up chunks of dirt as well. All the Crystal Gems continue to star in perplexity at the ruse as Pearl facepalms in disbelief.
"Well, it's a good thing we finally found you." Doc begins to say, "Yellow Diamond is awaiting your return. We'll take you back to Homeworld right away." This gets most of us tense at this news but none more so than Amethyst.
"No!" Amethyst's voice comes through for a second before she quickly goes back to user her Jasper voice. "I-I mean- I, Jasper, have decided to stay on Earth."
"What?"
"Why?" Leggy asks.
"Yeah, why, Jasper?" Navy asks as well.
"Because… I gotta stay here! With these guys!" I don't know what she's planning but she walks over to us. "Yup, gotta keep 'em prisoner. For the Diamonds." I share Lapis's sentiment as she rolls her eyes.
I fully expect them to see through it…
"Jasper…"
"Such devotion." I am just ready to give up entirely at this point and shut my brain down as they catch it hook line and sinker… again. Eyeball proceeds to clap solemnly while Navy wipes away a tear, with the other Homeworld Rubies join in clapping and weeping as well.
Doc manages to wipe away her tears and walks up to Amethyst. "Well, Yellow will definitely wanna know about this. You'll have to file a report at the nearest Diamond base." After saying that, the Rubies get together and begin conversing.
"Hey." I gently nudge Pearl. "Does anyone know where the nearest Diamond base?"
Pearl gets a thoughtful look as she tries to recall. "Well, its been awhile but theirs no active bases anywhere here in our solar system. The closest I'd wager would have to be several light years away, roughly the equivalent of some several dozen years away, give or take depending on the movement of stars in the several thousand years we've been here." Pearl quietly tells me, not making happy at the answer.
"Great." I groan.
"About several months journey to be exact." Lapis speaks up. We look at her for clarification. "I passed by one on my way to Homeworld when I left earth."
"She's right." Peridot chimes in, typing away on a screen on her gauntlet. "I had to do a checkup on nearby bases and installations when I was sent to check the teleporters for here on earth. While technically the nearest inhabited base isn't nearby, the closest accessible one is—"
"—There!" We all look at the loud voice, to see Eyeball pointing towards the moon.
"… there." Peridot deadpans and lowers her arm.
"I gotta hold this all the way to the moon?!" Amethyst cries out in her normal voice before she quickly goes back to her mask voice. "Uh… Hold this… hold these… prisoners!" She yells as she points at us. "I gotta bring these rebel prisoners if we're going to the moon! Can't leave them here unsupervised."
"Is she proposing what I think she's doing?" I whisper to the others.
"Very well, to the ship!"
"She is." Garnet mutters.
The Homeworld Rubies begin marching into their ship while all the Crystal Gems have a few words for our fake Jasper.
"This is getting complicated." I mutter as I pinch the bride of my nose.
"What are you doing? This isn't going to work!" Pearl chastises the purple gem.
"You can't hold that form forever." Garnet adds.
"I can do this!" Amethyst is fully confident in her shapeshifting ability. "We'll go to the moon, come back, and they'll leave us alone. Just play along." She says as she lightly shoves the others forward, and they walk towards the ship too. Amethyst then turns to Peridot, Lapis and I.
"C'mon." She whispers.
I sigh at the absurdity of it all but shrug my shoulders. "Yeah yeah give me a second." I turn to Peridot and Lapis. "You two better stay here. No sense in all of us going."
"Okay." She leans forward and kisses me on the cheek. "Becareful. I know you can take them but still."
"I'll hold down the fort for the Crystal Kings till you get back." Peridot salutes me.
"Thanks."
"Prisoner! Get over here before I make you get over here!" Suddenly I feel a migraine from the fake Jasper voice calling me.
"Oh I'd like to see you try." I grumble under my breath as it turn around and stalk up to them. Peridot and Lapis heard and suppress some laughter as a result.
Despite that, we the 'prisoners' begrudgingly walk up the ramp of the ship till we make it into ship and working on the control panels. The inside of the ship is a lot roomier than I first thought, expecting the large majority of how big the ship is to be mostly relegated to internal components but the fact the place is was much bigger on the inside just shows how advanced the ship can be. Not sure I like the yellow atmosphere it has but whatever.
It also takes me a second to realize this is the FIRST modern Homeworld Gem ship I've been in. 'You know, if we can take this ship for ourselves…' Already my head begins to fill with ideas.
"Woah, it's huge in here! I thought it'd be super cramped."
"Hey! This ain't no pleasure cruise!" I was so engrossed in my thoughts of stealing this ship I didn't realize Steven was making his own verbal comments about the place. For obvious reasons the Rubies don't like it.
"Yeah! Show some respect, you… Crystal Germs!"
"Really?" I deadpan ask Amethyst at the crude horrible insult. She keeps her face the same fake anger but I can see it in her eyes she feels different.
"Yeah, you tell 'em Jasper."
"I bet they got those germs from Earth!" And just like that the Rubies are eating up like hotcakes… if they were to eat that is.
"Aw, curses! I can't believe we've been caught, and by none other than Jasper! So cross over it." They don't really say anything but the others are very willing to go along with this charade. Garnet says so as she sits down against the ships wall.
"Uh huh, that sure is Jasper! The one that caught us. Harumph." Steven fakes pouts as he sits down next to Garnet.
"Of all the indignities! Do what you want! I'll never talk!"
"Pearl…" I groan hardcore at the 'acting' she is exhibiting as she prances around and points at Amethyst before twirling to the others.
"Heh. I wish." Once Amethyst says this, she looks at me, which subsequently makes all the others Rubies look at me too.
"…" I stare at them for a few seconds before sighing. "Oh no… you got us. Whatever shall we do." I give a very droll speech of surrender and hopelessness. "No way we can possibly escape from your clutches."
"Yeah that's right!" Eyeball states with a smile, and of course the smiles of all the other Rubies who fall for it.
"I'll go ahead and join the others in our captive— OW!" Before I can continue give my performance, I am suddenly kicked hard in my shin. I stumble a little before I grab my shin in pain before glaring angrily at the person who did it. Of course, it has to be Army who had to get her shot in.
"Ha! That was for hitting me earlier." She gives a triumphant smile and pose to go along with it.
I grit my teeth and glare down at her as I take a step—
"Hey!" Amethyst's loud voice cuts off everyone, making both Army and me to look at her. "Don't rough up the prisoners too much. I don't want to have to carry them to the Diamonds ourselves if they can't walk." She gives a short quick explanation before giving her best glare at me. "Sit down, prisoner."
"… Tch." Her glare doesn't work on me but I still turn away with a return murder glare at the Ruby who hit and sit down next to Steven.
As this is going on, Navy walks up to Leggy. "Wow. Jasper's so funny, intimidating and strong!" She gushes.
"I was just thinking that!" Leggy is equally impressed.
"You okay?" Steven asks me.
"Oh I'm just peachy." I sarcastically say. "Just contemplating restarting some old tendencies before I joined up with you all." By old tendency's I mean my first methods I resorted to in order to 'contain' the corrupted monsters, and after the days that's been going on, plus now, it's a serious temptation right now.
"Ah! I'm Jasper!" Before the others can ask more Amethyst suddenly cries out, making her the focus again.
"Please feel free to take my seat right up front. The captain's seat." Doc offers as she points towards the seat right up on the front. "It would be an honor."
"Yeah. Yes. Sure thing." Amethyst nervously says as she walks over and sits in the captain's seat.
"I hope it's to your liking." Doc adds.
"It's alright." Amethyst nonchalantly replies.
"You can go ahead and head towards the moon base whenever you're ready."
"Uhhh… Of course! Heh." Amethyst may look like the person of authority but she sure as hell does not know how to be one. She looks at the controls in confusion, never having flown an actual Gem ship before, and it's a hell of a lot different on how to fly a Gem ship than the control sticks used in my RC cars and the remote controlled Hind we used. She turns to glance at us. I give her a shrug while Steven groans nervously.
"Uh, listen. I'm Jasper, and I'm too worn out from catching rebels to fly, so I'll just sit here like this and you work the thing to get us to the moon. Got it?" Somehow, Amethyst manages to worm her way out of botching her first flight and just makes Doc do it as she lifts her up and sits her on her lap.
"Yes. Of course."
While this is going on, we can see Eyeball nearby and seems to barely contain her anger with tears threatening to break from her eyes… envy maybe? Whatever.
"To the moon, then?" Doc asks.
"To the moon, then!"
"To the moon, then!" Amethyst declares first followed by the enthusiasm of the rest of the Rubies. With the confirmation given, lift off is given and we feel just a slight shift in the ship itself as the scene outside the window screen changes. Instead of the land in front of us, we now see space coming towards us. All the while I notice we don't really need to shift around in order to compensate for the ship moving around.
"Wow, nice." I compliment at the functions of the ship.
"We'll be arriving shortly." Doc informs the ship. She's right as we see the moon directly in the center of the window, and its slowly getting bigger.
"Hey, keep my seat warm. While I check on our uh… prisoners." Amethyst says while sweating.
"Yes, Jasper. Good idea." Amethyst gets off the seat, sits Doc in it, and walks towards us.
"NOOOOOO! Stay away from us, you brute-! Ow." Pearl after making a massive scene of a dramatic performance, I elbow her, making her look at me annoyed as she rubs her arm.
"Cool it. We don't need you screaming to the heavens and getting more attention on us."
"He's right. Tone it down, Pearl." Pearl hrumphs as she turns away. "That one Ruby wants to throw you out into space." We glance at the Ruby she's talking about, specifically Army, who is looking at Pearl menacingly and punching her palm, although I think she's drifting between the two of us. "Actually, pretty sure she'd like to toss you out too Marcus."
"I wonder why." I drone out, mentally smirking at the knockout punch I did.
"Sorry. Got a bit carried away." Pearl apologizes. Despite this, we can tell that Amethyst is straining hard with this charade she's been doing.
"Uh, you okay, Amethyst? You've been holding that form forever now." Steven asks her in concern and I don't blame him. We had just finished dealing with Jasper and her impromptu army out in the desert before we stumbled onto this crap. We didn't even have a chance to rest before these Rubies started trouble.
"I've got it under control." Amethyst tells us in her normal voice. "Hey, my seat better still be warm when I get over there!" She goes right back to her 'Jasper' voice and walks back to the captain's seat.
Once she's moved away from us, I look to the others. "So, what exactly are we going to do when we get to the Moon base? We know theirs not going to be a communication device there because we took the last one and kind of blew it up. And the only console there was kind of… busted." I mutter the last part as I look away to the side, remembering that close… near breakout I had, which would have been the worst possible place to do it in a sealed base like that surrounded by airless, vacuum less space. The place wouldn't have survived the battle intact.
"Well, since all means communication are destroyed, and Amethyst established herself as our 'warden' and needs to stay on Earth—"
"And how easily persuadable these Rubies are." Steven comments, interrupting Pearls explanation.
"I think… they will drop us off back on Earth, and have to make their way back to Homeworld and give them their report." Pearl finishes whisper explaining.
"If all goes well, they'll think things are okay." Garnet adds.
"If?" I question to her.
"… Amongst some possibilities." Garnet smirks.
"There she goes being cryptic again." I jest, causing some of us to chuckle.
"Hey! Quiet down over there!" Army yells at us. We quiet down but we have small smiles on our faces still.
We don't have long to continue planning as the moon has already come up. The surface comes in but it's the moon base that everyone is waiting for. Before we had only gotten to the moon base via Lion and we didn't really have a good opportunity in order to see the outside of the place. Of course the only time I had a close look at the outside of the place was when Amethyst opened the door and I got sucked out for a brief moment. I do not want a repeat of that moment.
Thankfully we don't as the ship slowly eases its way in into the base with the large doors closing behind. All the Homeworld Rubies make their way to the door where Doc uses her gem to shine light like a flashlight out the door.
"All clear!"
"Right this way, Jasper." Eyeball leads Amethyst out followed by us.
"Oh, Jasper, won't you ever let us go?" Pearl continues to be dramatic. As soon as me and Steven step out of the ship, already the weightless feeling hits us, Steven more so as he floats around in excitement. Garnet quickly grabs him and holds him to prevent him from flying off. I have just a little bit more weight than him so I'm not bouncing around as much however I take careful steps and move near Garnet so I can grab her or she can grab me in case I do go drifting away.
Just like the first time we came here, the place's air is stuffy as hell and there is an earie silence from the place besides our own noises being made. Nothing really has changed since the last we were here.
"Look at this place, frozen in time. An Era-1 base. Her Era-1 base." Eyeball with her gem shining the light says. She soon shines her light at a mural of an unknown Diamond on the wall. "It was a tragedy, what happened to her." She says solemnly.
"Who is that anyway?" Leggy asks.
"Were you made yesterday?!" Eyeball angrily asks her fellow. "That, is Pink Diamond." She reveals to us. "Jasper, maybe it's best if you explain."
"What, me? No- No, you do it." Amethyst briefly reverts to her regular voice but soon is back to the fake voice. "I'm, like, too messed up about it?"
"I understand. She was your original Diamond." Eyeball falls for it yet again as she leads us up the stairs, talking as she does. "Earth was Pink Diamond's colony. Everything was going smoothly at first. Kindergartens were incubating their first soldiers. Big, warm pieces of Quartz, like this mountain over here were being created from its rich minerals with great success." She mentions the last part as she gestures to Amethyst with a smile. That soon turns to an angry grimace as she continues. "Then BAM! One of Pink Diamond's very own Quartz soldiers started a rebellion and took it too far. Where were you when it happened?" She demands of Amethyst.
"Oh, you know, around?" Amethyst tries to play it off but Eyeball isn't as nonchalant, as evident by her swinging around and glaring at us.
"I was there. I saw it with my own eye." She grimly states. "I watched the leader of the Crystal Gems, Rose Quartz, shatter Pink Diamond!" She drops the bomb on us. We stare at her stunned by this fact, as well as the fact of this benevolent figure Rose Quartz was the one that shattered someone.
I look at Steven, seeing as its his mom who did it. Steven turns and glares in disbelief at Garnet and Pearl, who is shivering violently and covering her mouth.
"No! Rose Quartz would never do that!" Steven angrily rebuffs the accusation of his mom. "A-And, sure, she had to fight but- but she would never shatter someone!"
'This… this goes against what she said… what… Bismuth…' My mind goes back to the fight Steven and I had with her in the forge. She said Rose was very adamant at shattering Gems, even though it would have helped the Crystal Gems immensely by permanently destroying their enemies, so they can't eventually recuperate. Her shattering Pink Diamond… 'Was it… no choice?' I try to think of a reason besides just her being the leader of the Diamond forces, but since so far the only person who has TOLD us is a Homeworld soldier, we need more.
"Shows what you know." Eyeball glowers at Steven before she turns away. "And to think her gift was nowhere to be found."
This gets most of confused as she mutters the last part.
"Gift?" I can't help but ask, almost wishing I hadn't.
"White Diamonds gift!" She suddenly turns around and shouts, much to all our surprise. "A special new generation Gem soldier. The future of our frontline fighters! Able to take on scores of enemies in the blink of an eye." She showers the individual in praise. "The personal Gem solider to White Diamond, given to Pink as a reward for her first successful colony…" Her praise soon turns to gloomy downtrodden state. "And she was nowhere to be found when Rose Quartz attacked." She turns to Amethyst. "To think you idolized her, to be the type of soldier she was, to be as good as her." She looks down and away. "And to think that green Gem disappeared after she failed Blue Diamond too."
"Hey! We got a problem." Doc calls out from the top of the stairs. We all look up before Eyeball grimaces and stalks up. "Guess she wasn't as good of a soldier as she was made to be."
She speaks the last part quietly, but we hear it.
The eyes of my friends turn to me. It doesn't take a genius to know who she was talking about.
I let out a sigh and rub my eyes. "… God…" I groan frustratingly, taking one last look at the murals, my head hurting a little as a result, before I step up the stairs. "This day can't get any worse."
The others follow me as we make it to the top of the steps, finding all the Homeworld Rubies standing around what was once a Gem computer panel.
"The panel is broken. The communicator is gone! There's no way to contact Yellow Diamond from this hub." Doc informs everyone. As we see, we also take note of the fact that Amethyst seems to be sweating, no doubt from having to hold a new shapeshifted form for so long.
"Crystal Geeems!" Eyeball curses our group angrily with the others Rubies joining in.
"Unbelievable!"
"Rude!"
"No respect!"
While they are focusing on the destroyed panel, Amethyst reverts back briefly. I flinch hard at this before quickly stepping in front of her, shielding her just a little as she takes a breather.
"See? They'll stoop to anything!"
When they start turning back, Amethyst quickly changes back to her disguise.
"We'll have to take you to Homeworld to file a report in person." Doc inform her, and making us all really nervous.
"I can't! I can't go!"
"Huh?"
"I don't understand."
"What do you mean?"
"What's going on?" As Eyeball rushes up to Amethyst in the midst of her quick declaration of not going, the other Homeworld Rubies voice their confusion on the matter.
"You know what?" Amethyst tries to act cool, despite the visible strain she's under, as she pats Eyeball's head. "You know me. Do me a favor and go back home and file the report for me. I'm trusting you, soldier." She lays on the charm, which isn't hard with these Rubies.
"Wow. Of course!" Eyeball bashfully agrees.
"That settles it. All right, Rubies, back to the ship!" As Doc declares their mission done, I spot Amethyst giving Pearl a smug look. Pearl then facepalms in exasperation.
We all make our way back down to the hanger room with the ship still there. The Rubies pile on in with Eyeball being the last one. She gives Amethyst a wave before heading in and closing the door, with the ship whirring up as the engine starts up. Almost immediately, Amethyst finally shapeshifts back to her default form and runs over to us.
"All right, Amethyst!" Steven loudly cheers.
"You really held it together." Garnet says with a smile.
"You did it! I told you you could." I give Pearl a deadpan stare from the side at the blatant lie.
"Aww." Amethyst gushes as she high-fives Pearl and Steven chuckles. He gets a somber look on his face though as he looks to the side. I watch as he walks over and looks over at the large mural of the Pink Diamond portrait. I grimace as I look up for White Diamond. My head hurts as a result, making me shake my head to dissipate the headache before I turn back to the others.
"Yes that's great." I drone out before giving Amethyst a critical look. "Now change back and keep up the disguise until—"
"Hey, you need a ride back to Earth? I could sit on your lap if you want—" My eye twitches at Doc's voice. "What?!"
I let out a deep anger fueled sigh. "…Until they actually leave." I mutter in a monotone voice.
"I'm still Jasper!" Amethyst fails miserably at trying to convince her, without even shapeshifting back into Jasper.
"We've been tricked? Again?!" Doc cries out in anger.
"No way!" The other Rubies are just as surprised.
"Rubies, assemble!" Doc calls out.
"Oh crap." I mutter and go to materialize my swords.
"Hup, hup, hup, hup, hup, hup, hup! Yeah!" In sync, all the Rubies make a pyramid out of themselves, followed by them all fusing together into one giant Ruby.
"Yeah! We won't let you trick us again!" She threatens us as she leers down at me and the others Gems, with Pearl, Garnet and Amethyst right next to me readying their weapons.
"Hey, Rubies!" We all stop and look to the side as Steven yells, seeing him standing next to the Moon Base door "If you're gonna fight, take it outside!"
"Wait what? Steven what are you—?!" I frantically try to ask him what he's doing… right before he opens the doors.
The pressure hits us hard as we are almost immediately sucked out of the base. The Crystal Gems brace themselves but the giant Ruby and I are taken off our feet and headed for the door. However half way to the door I slam my swords into the ground, creating deep gouges in it as I slide for a few feet before stopping, holding onto my swords for dear life so I don't go flying out like the Ruby does. I chance a look back to see the Giant Ruby barely holding onto the edges of the door to keep herself from flying out.
"You can't get rid of us that easy!" She boasts as she tries to pull herself back in. Just before I let go to punch her out, someone else gets the idea too as the telltale sounds of fusing happens again. Looking forward, I smile as I see Sardonyx with Amethyst on her shoulder.
"I bet she can." Steven boasts. I let go of one of my swords, letting myself hang out to one side and giving her a clear path to our enemy. With her hammer out, she slams it into the giant Ruby. The red gem lets out a grunt as she unfuses back into the Rubies and are sucked out the door into space. I smile as I watch them go… all except one. As Eyeball is sucked out the door, my eyes widen as she grabs Steven and pulls him out with her.
"STEEEVEEEN!" Amethyst and I cry out as we watch him fly out. My hand slackens as the door closes.
The day got worse.
Okay, another chapter down. Sorry for how long this one took when I had promised I was going to work harder and faster on my writing but unfortunately a small family emergency had cropped up a month ago. I'm not going to go into exactly what happened but needless to say my drive for writing had taken a massive hit because of it. I and my family are okay now, everything's good, but I'm still not feeling up to par as I said I was before. Give me some time and I'll get back into how I said I was going to be but until then, just bear with it.
Also a weird thing that happened was for some reason my notifications here on Fanfiction were out for a while. Like I wasn't receiving anything from this site like I typically do. On occasion my PM notifications wouldn't work but I'd still be able to find the new messages on the site itself but I wasn't getting the emails for it. Eventually it would fix itself but this time was much worse. Essentially, between Oct. 20 and Nov. 9, I wasn't getting anything. No emails about PM's, favorites, follows, reviews, nothing. I wasn't even getting any emails when my favorite stories were getting updated. I was freaking out for a time until I was able to fix it. I didn't want to do it this way but at this point I didn't care. I had to change my email. Don't know why it happened like so but everything is back in order for it. Still, just wanna let you all know that if you had reviewed, favorited, and followed me or any of my stories, then I didn't get any notifications that you did. So if anyone reading this had made any reviews on any of my stories within the timeframe I mention above, just know I may have missed them. When I make another chapter for my different stories I'll try to compare and see which ones might be new and which ones aren't so I can answer them like I usually do here. Just to let you all know just in case.
Speaking of reviews:
Admiral809: Its good to be writing again.
Marbled Gold: I'm glad. I was trying to capture the shock factor and all and I'm happy I was able to do it. And yes the revelation was good. Thank you for noticing.
Light Seeker 001: Quite a conundrum that be. The new Crystal Kings are going to have to step up their production and development in order to make sure they are prepared for a variety of enemies.
Monster Hunter: Well, most of it will be revealed later on in the story but essentially, when Gems fuse they become a new Gem but remember that if they aren't completely in-sync then the form can and will eventually break apart. Remember in the show when Garnet, the one fusion Gem who pretty much stays fused almost 24/7/365, has had moments where her Gems are at an impasse, emotionally distraught for one reason or another, and could, and has, unfused in certain situations. By creating a forced locked fusion Gem, you get a powerful one-minded Gem with no means of being unfused.
Wolfking0811: White Diamond seems to have that kind of one-track mind. She was fully vested in the idea of Steven being Pink Diamond, then she'll most likely be set on the idea that one of her personal Gem soldiers is still there, just stuck in another body.
On a more surprising note, I was honestly surprised when the rumors for Halo Infinites multiplayer coming out on Nov. 15 were true. More excited for the campaign to be honest but playing the multiplayer till then will be a nice way to keep me occupied. Loving the multiplayer so far, needs some work among a few things but the gameplay is amazing at least.
With all that done, I thank those of you understanding my situation and will continue to thank you all as you continue to support me. Things have been hectic as of late that's for sure but I am hoping things will cool down soon. Thank you all for your support, go ahead and fave, follow, review, whatever you wish. Have fun reading, have a great day, and I wish all a belated Happy Thanksgiving, Merry Christmas in the next month, and a Happy New Year soon after. Take care.