Abandoned Crystal System Colony Planet Earth - Wednesday, Fandom Time
There was a light. A bright one, and out of it grew something that, if briefly, resembled a doll growing out of a green, triangular gemstone.
Peridot's feet planted squarely on the floor, her arm raised, her hand in a fist.
"--the Cluster, you insufferable half-formed traitor mega-clods!!"
Wait.
Something wasn't right. Peridot gave her fingers a wiggle and stared at them. They were entirely too close to her face. And were completely devoid of the blaster attachment that she had been waving around just a moment ago. It... had been a moment ago, hadn't it?
"Oooh my gosh," the Steven gasped. "You're so cuuuuute!"
"My limb enhancers!" Peridot looked around frantically, as if maybe... maybe they had just been misplaced. "Where are my limb enhancers?"
"Awwww!" The Steven walked a circle around her. She was in a strange place, she'd just been completely disarmed, and he was talking in an insufferable high pitched tone. Couldn't he see she was trying to panic in peace over here? "You're like an angry little slice of pie!"
"Stop talking," she snapped back, trying desperately to gain some modicum of control over the situation. "I demand to know what this place is, and where I--"
She looked up. Suspended over her head were hundreds, possibly thousands of bubbles, each one containing... containing a gem. No body, the bubbles were keeping them from being able to re-form. It was just that. Just gems.
"Oh my stars... "Her eyes widened in sheer horror. She'd known the Crystal Gems were brutal, but this was the stuff of waking nightmares. A thousand minds all held in stasis, unable to continue living, unable to move. Just... trapped. "You're going to harvest me?!"
"No," the Steven protested. Which would have been enough, if he hadn't added, "I mean..."
Peridot didn't even think, she just lashed out with one hand to slap him as hard as she could across the face. If she was going down, if she was going to have her body torn away so that they could do who knows what with her gem, she was going down kicking and screaming.
"Ow," the Steven protested, putting a hand to his cheek. "That hurt!"
"... It did?"
Peridot looked at her bare hand. And then at the Steven again. He seemed to be rubbing his cheek, in some state of discomfort. Good. Good.
"Yeah, a lot-- Ow!"
"Yes," Peridot crowed, reaching out with both arms to lash out at him over and over again. "Feel my unbridled rage!"
"Hey," the Steven protested, reaching to grab her hands to protect himself from Peridot's vicious assault. She paused long enough for him to point a finger at her torso. "Hey, hey! What's that on your shirt?"
"What shirt?" She looked down, which earned her a flick to the face. "Ow! That's it!"
And then she was tackling him, wrestling him to the floor and slapping him again and again.
"Why are you acting like this?"
"You smashed me into a limbless cloud," Peridot yelled, chasing him down as he retreated. "You trapped me in your bubble dungeon! And, you called me..." She pulled back a hand, balled into a fist. "cute."
She swung, and the Steven dodged, leaving her stumbling forward and falling onto her face on the floor.
"I didn't poof you," he protested, waving his arms in the air, as she pulled her legs up and hugged her knees. "I freed you!."
"... Why would you make such a miscalculation?"
"Back at the Warp Pad," the Steven hedged, "what were you trying to say? Why do we need you? What do you know?"
"What do I know? Everything there is to know about the Cluster, you pebble."
"Cluster?" The Steven paused. "Wait. Pebble?"
"My mission," Peridot growled. "The reason I'm on this sad rock in the first place! I was to check progress on the Cluster! Just in and out, before it hatches. I wasn't supposed to get stuck here! But now it's going to emerge and nothing can stop it, and we'll all be shattered!"
"Okay, okay, wait," the Steven said, holding his hands up in a gesture of surrender. "Slow down." He took a seat in front of her. "Now, from the top. Emerging, hatching... Clusters?"
Peridot squinted at him.
"You wanna know?"
"Yes."
"You really wanna know?"
"Yes?"
Peridot pointed a finger at the Steven's chest.
"What's your shirt?"
The Steven smiled and looked down, the fool.
"These are my banana pajamas- Ow!" Really, he had the flick to the face coming. And Peridot was seizing her opportunity to escape. "Wait, don't run away!"
That wasn't about to stop Peridot. She scurried toward the temple gate. Freedom was almost in sight! Through the door, and--
"FREEDOM IS MINE!"
... Wait. This wasn't outside. She turned around slowly, and right behind her, Garnet, Amethyst, and Pearl were all sitting at a table in what appeared to be a human kitchen. She... she was going to die here today. With an air of manic desperation, she threw an arm in the air and pointed.
"Look! Over there! Another planet to betray!"
For some reason, that wasn't well-received. The fusion summoned those deadly gauntlets. The Amethyst ate a pizza box all in one mouthful.
"Retreat!"
Peridot ran to the front door, but the Pearl and the fusion stepped into her path. She spun and made a break for the stairs, but the Amethyst was waiting with her whip. The three Gems converged and tried to tackle her, but a desperate scurry across the floor had Peridot dodging into one of the side rooms in the human home, slamming the door shut and locking it behind her.
"You may have won the war, but the battle isn't over, Crystal Clods!"
From the other side of the door, the Pearl said in muffled tones, "Should we tell her that's the bathroom?"
"Eh," said the Amethyst, dismissively.
*****
While the Gems outside the door talked amongst themselves, Peridot looked around the room.
"It seems I discovered some sort of archaic think chamber," she muttered to herself. "Roomy." She opened the lid on some sort of water-filled disposal device. "With a fresh hint of Earth citrus. A perfect crossroads for my escape."
A few moments later, the Amethyst's voice carried through the door.
"If you're trying to flush yourself down the toilet, it won't work. Trust me, I've tried."
"If we can't fight her, then fine," the fusion said, still through the door. "We'll talk, Peridot. No more fighting. Let's just have a civil conversation."
"As if I'd negotiate with you," Peridot growled, slipping off the sink to land on her behind on the floor. She was still holding a grudge for the whole being crushed until she exploded thing. "You filthy war machine!"
"Okay," the Garnet growled, "let's kick her butt."
"Yeah!" Peridot was now hanging upside-down from a rod over the larger of the porcelain water basins. She was waving a large suction-cup on a stick around in the air, violently. "Destroy me again, and have fun trying to talk to me while I'm in a bubble!"
Wait. Wait, that was a bad thing to say. She slipped from the rod and slapped a hand over her mouth, trying to hold back another wave of panic.
She stayed there in the bathroom listening to the Gems discussing what to do with her all night and on into the morning. And she only burned herself on the running water from the sink the once.
*****
There came a tentative knock on the bathroom door.
"Peridot?" It was the Steven. Somehow, Peridot wasn't surprised. "Can I come in? I need to get ready for the day."
"No."
"I have something for you."
... That was... almost intriguing. Okay. It was intriguing. Enough that Peridot cracked the door open slightly and peered outside to see the Steven standing there holding her foot. The one that they stole from her back on the colony ship. She snatched it from the hand and slammed the door again.
...
And then, slowly, she opened the door again and settled back down to cling to her foot.
"What a great souvenir of that other time you assaulted me," she murmured as he stepped into the room, closing the door behind himself.
"Oh, right, sorry," he said, frowning a little. "I can take it back."
"No!" She clutched to it more fiercely. "It's too late! You... wouldn't happen to have the rest?"
"Uh, sorry. We lost them." The Steven paused. "Well, we kinda threw 'em away." He pointed to one of the objects that she'd dropped onto the floor when she'd fallen from the sink. "Can you pass me that?"
Peridot squinted, but reached for the short rectangular object with the bristles on one end.
"Is this a weapon?"
"Only for cavities."
"Hmm." Peridot tossed the toothbrush to the Steven, and then looked around at the other objects that were strewn about. "Is that a weapon?"
"No," he replied. "That's a comb I never use."
"Is that a weapon?" She pointed to some sort of fabric... thing. The Steven had it in his hand, and was wiping his face with it.
"Hmm? Oh, well, I guess if you get it wet and roll it up." He rolled up the thing, which was already wet after touching it to his face. Peridot flinched and shrank away, whimpering in fear. His voice gentled a little. "Look, I know you're scared, but I'm not going to hurt you. And whatever's going on, whatever the Cluster is, I wanna help."
Peridot was silent for a long time.
"I doubt you can help me," she said, finally, "but I... appreciate the offer."
The Steven looked satisfied, and then pointed at the seat that she was now curled up on top of. The one that the Amethyst had called a 'toilet.'
"Now, do you mind moving? I have to use that."
"For what?"
*****
Peridot stayed in that bathroom until the Gems got fed up with her. She stayed in that bathroom until they took off to try to find out about the Cluster themselves. And she stayed in there even while the Steven tried to coax her out with affirmations that they had left.
When thunder rolled outside, she burst through the bathroom door so fast that she slid across the hallway, bounced off the wall, and froze in terror in the hallway.
"It's happening!"
"What?"
She ran over to the Steven, who was stirring something in a pot on the stove.
"The Cluster!"
Somebody hadn't heard a thunderstorm before. That somebody was ducking behind the Steven and clinging to his arm, making little whimpering sounds and trembling terribly.
"Really?"
"What else could be making that horrible--" She flinched at another loud noise. "It's pounding on the Earth from the inside! This is it, this is THE END OF THE WORLD!"
"Oh! That's just thunder!"
"... What?"
And that was how Peridot learned about Earth and its tendency to make loud sounds while water rained down from the sky. The Steven was actually patient with her as he explained, and it set her to thinking. She thanked him for explaining. Paced around for a moment. And then made up her mind. She was going to tell him about the Cluster.
"I've decided to share some... information with you!"
"Aww," the Steven smiled at her. "I know you use my toothbrush."
"N-no..." Peridot blushed sheepishly. "Well... yes. But it's about the Cluster."
"You cracked!"
"I haven't cracked!"
"Wait!" Steven looked concerned for a moment. "You have to tell the Crystal Gems, they need to know this."
Peridot shook her head fiercely.
"No! I don't want to talk to them! You're the only one I need! I can show you now, but I have nothing! My arm attachments, my fingers, my screen, my log, it's all gone! But all of my logs up to date 6 5 2 still exist, backed up in Facet Five of the prime Kindergarten!"
The Steven agreed to go.
On the grounds that Peridot had to hold his hand the entire time.
*****
The trip to the prime Kindergarten was... eventful. The Steven explained that he hadn't come out of the ground, even though he was some sort of Quartz. Peridot was baffled at how in the world a Gem-Human hybrid came to exist. In turn, he was... appropriately horrified that Homeworld had planted forced-fusion experiments in the Earth as a last effort to make some use of the planet after their retreat.
"We were growing them here at this very site," she explained, pressing a button on a panel in the control room. "But these were just prototypes for the final product."
The screen before them projected a globe, with a marker displayed on it.
"A singular, giant, artificial fusion," she continued, "comprised of millions of Gem shards. The Cluster."
The Steven continued to look horrified.
"Peridot," he breathed. "You're saying there's a giant mutant Gem the size of the Earth under us right now?"
She closed her eyes and waved a hand, no.
"Oh, no. When it forms, it'll be much, much bigger than the Earth. Right now it lies dormant, incubating in the Earth's core, but when it emerges and takes its physical form it will destroy the planet." On the screen, the Earth expanded, and then exploded. "The prototypes are already emerging. The Cluster is next. If we can't get off this planet, we've got to stop the Cluster."
There. There it was. Peridot's mind was made up.
They were going to save the Earth.
[THE CANONING CONTINUES. This time pulling from Steven Universe episodes 'Catch and Release' and 'When it Rains.' Those familiar with canon can probably tell when my hand started to feel like it was burning, but eh, whaddaya do. NFI for distance!]
Peridot's feet planted squarely on the floor, her arm raised, her hand in a fist.
"--the Cluster, you insufferable half-formed traitor mega-clods!!"
Wait.
Something wasn't right. Peridot gave her fingers a wiggle and stared at them. They were entirely too close to her face. And were completely devoid of the blaster attachment that she had been waving around just a moment ago. It... had been a moment ago, hadn't it?
"Oooh my gosh," the Steven gasped. "You're so cuuuuute!"
"My limb enhancers!" Peridot looked around frantically, as if maybe... maybe they had just been misplaced. "Where are my limb enhancers?"
"Awwww!" The Steven walked a circle around her. She was in a strange place, she'd just been completely disarmed, and he was talking in an insufferable high pitched tone. Couldn't he see she was trying to panic in peace over here? "You're like an angry little slice of pie!"
"Stop talking," she snapped back, trying desperately to gain some modicum of control over the situation. "I demand to know what this place is, and where I--"
She looked up. Suspended over her head were hundreds, possibly thousands of bubbles, each one containing... containing a gem. No body, the bubbles were keeping them from being able to re-form. It was just that. Just gems.
"Oh my stars... "Her eyes widened in sheer horror. She'd known the Crystal Gems were brutal, but this was the stuff of waking nightmares. A thousand minds all held in stasis, unable to continue living, unable to move. Just... trapped. "You're going to harvest me?!"
"No," the Steven protested. Which would have been enough, if he hadn't added, "I mean..."
Peridot didn't even think, she just lashed out with one hand to slap him as hard as she could across the face. If she was going down, if she was going to have her body torn away so that they could do who knows what with her gem, she was going down kicking and screaming.
"Ow," the Steven protested, putting a hand to his cheek. "That hurt!"
"... It did?"
Peridot looked at her bare hand. And then at the Steven again. He seemed to be rubbing his cheek, in some state of discomfort. Good. Good.
"Yeah, a lot-- Ow!"
"Yes," Peridot crowed, reaching out with both arms to lash out at him over and over again. "Feel my unbridled rage!"
"Hey," the Steven protested, reaching to grab her hands to protect himself from Peridot's vicious assault. She paused long enough for him to point a finger at her torso. "Hey, hey! What's that on your shirt?"
"What shirt?" She looked down, which earned her a flick to the face. "Ow! That's it!"
And then she was tackling him, wrestling him to the floor and slapping him again and again.
"Why are you acting like this?"
"You smashed me into a limbless cloud," Peridot yelled, chasing him down as he retreated. "You trapped me in your bubble dungeon! And, you called me..." She pulled back a hand, balled into a fist. "cute."
She swung, and the Steven dodged, leaving her stumbling forward and falling onto her face on the floor.
"I didn't poof you," he protested, waving his arms in the air, as she pulled her legs up and hugged her knees. "I freed you!."
"... Why would you make such a miscalculation?"
"Back at the Warp Pad," the Steven hedged, "what were you trying to say? Why do we need you? What do you know?"
"What do I know? Everything there is to know about the Cluster, you pebble."
"Cluster?" The Steven paused. "Wait. Pebble?"
"My mission," Peridot growled. "The reason I'm on this sad rock in the first place! I was to check progress on the Cluster! Just in and out, before it hatches. I wasn't supposed to get stuck here! But now it's going to emerge and nothing can stop it, and we'll all be shattered!"
"Okay, okay, wait," the Steven said, holding his hands up in a gesture of surrender. "Slow down." He took a seat in front of her. "Now, from the top. Emerging, hatching... Clusters?"
Peridot squinted at him.
"You wanna know?"
"Yes."
"You really wanna know?"
"Yes?"
Peridot pointed a finger at the Steven's chest.
"What's your shirt?"
The Steven smiled and looked down, the fool.
"These are my banana pajamas- Ow!" Really, he had the flick to the face coming. And Peridot was seizing her opportunity to escape. "Wait, don't run away!"
That wasn't about to stop Peridot. She scurried toward the temple gate. Freedom was almost in sight! Through the door, and--
"FREEDOM IS MINE!"
... Wait. This wasn't outside. She turned around slowly, and right behind her, Garnet, Amethyst, and Pearl were all sitting at a table in what appeared to be a human kitchen. She... she was going to die here today. With an air of manic desperation, she threw an arm in the air and pointed.
"Look! Over there! Another planet to betray!"
For some reason, that wasn't well-received. The fusion summoned those deadly gauntlets. The Amethyst ate a pizza box all in one mouthful.
"Retreat!"
Peridot ran to the front door, but the Pearl and the fusion stepped into her path. She spun and made a break for the stairs, but the Amethyst was waiting with her whip. The three Gems converged and tried to tackle her, but a desperate scurry across the floor had Peridot dodging into one of the side rooms in the human home, slamming the door shut and locking it behind her.
"You may have won the war, but the battle isn't over, Crystal Clods!"
From the other side of the door, the Pearl said in muffled tones, "Should we tell her that's the bathroom?"
"Eh," said the Amethyst, dismissively.
*****
While the Gems outside the door talked amongst themselves, Peridot looked around the room.
"It seems I discovered some sort of archaic think chamber," she muttered to herself. "Roomy." She opened the lid on some sort of water-filled disposal device. "With a fresh hint of Earth citrus. A perfect crossroads for my escape."
A few moments later, the Amethyst's voice carried through the door.
"If you're trying to flush yourself down the toilet, it won't work. Trust me, I've tried."
"If we can't fight her, then fine," the fusion said, still through the door. "We'll talk, Peridot. No more fighting. Let's just have a civil conversation."
"As if I'd negotiate with you," Peridot growled, slipping off the sink to land on her behind on the floor. She was still holding a grudge for the whole being crushed until she exploded thing. "You filthy war machine!"
"Okay," the Garnet growled, "let's kick her butt."
"Yeah!" Peridot was now hanging upside-down from a rod over the larger of the porcelain water basins. She was waving a large suction-cup on a stick around in the air, violently. "Destroy me again, and have fun trying to talk to me while I'm in a bubble!"
Wait. Wait, that was a bad thing to say. She slipped from the rod and slapped a hand over her mouth, trying to hold back another wave of panic.
She stayed there in the bathroom listening to the Gems discussing what to do with her all night and on into the morning. And she only burned herself on the running water from the sink the once.
*****
There came a tentative knock on the bathroom door.
"Peridot?" It was the Steven. Somehow, Peridot wasn't surprised. "Can I come in? I need to get ready for the day."
"No."
"I have something for you."
... That was... almost intriguing. Okay. It was intriguing. Enough that Peridot cracked the door open slightly and peered outside to see the Steven standing there holding her foot. The one that they stole from her back on the colony ship. She snatched it from the hand and slammed the door again.
...
And then, slowly, she opened the door again and settled back down to cling to her foot.
"What a great souvenir of that other time you assaulted me," she murmured as he stepped into the room, closing the door behind himself.
"Oh, right, sorry," he said, frowning a little. "I can take it back."
"No!" She clutched to it more fiercely. "It's too late! You... wouldn't happen to have the rest?"
"Uh, sorry. We lost them." The Steven paused. "Well, we kinda threw 'em away." He pointed to one of the objects that she'd dropped onto the floor when she'd fallen from the sink. "Can you pass me that?"
Peridot squinted, but reached for the short rectangular object with the bristles on one end.
"Is this a weapon?"
"Only for cavities."
"Hmm." Peridot tossed the toothbrush to the Steven, and then looked around at the other objects that were strewn about. "Is that a weapon?"
"No," he replied. "That's a comb I never use."
"Is that a weapon?" She pointed to some sort of fabric... thing. The Steven had it in his hand, and was wiping his face with it.
"Hmm? Oh, well, I guess if you get it wet and roll it up." He rolled up the thing, which was already wet after touching it to his face. Peridot flinched and shrank away, whimpering in fear. His voice gentled a little. "Look, I know you're scared, but I'm not going to hurt you. And whatever's going on, whatever the Cluster is, I wanna help."
Peridot was silent for a long time.
"I doubt you can help me," she said, finally, "but I... appreciate the offer."
The Steven looked satisfied, and then pointed at the seat that she was now curled up on top of. The one that the Amethyst had called a 'toilet.'
"Now, do you mind moving? I have to use that."
"For what?"
*****
Peridot stayed in that bathroom until the Gems got fed up with her. She stayed in that bathroom until they took off to try to find out about the Cluster themselves. And she stayed in there even while the Steven tried to coax her out with affirmations that they had left.
When thunder rolled outside, she burst through the bathroom door so fast that she slid across the hallway, bounced off the wall, and froze in terror in the hallway.
"It's happening!"
"What?"
She ran over to the Steven, who was stirring something in a pot on the stove.
"The Cluster!"
Somebody hadn't heard a thunderstorm before. That somebody was ducking behind the Steven and clinging to his arm, making little whimpering sounds and trembling terribly.
"Really?"
"What else could be making that horrible--" She flinched at another loud noise. "It's pounding on the Earth from the inside! This is it, this is THE END OF THE WORLD!"
"Oh! That's just thunder!"
"... What?"
And that was how Peridot learned about Earth and its tendency to make loud sounds while water rained down from the sky. The Steven was actually patient with her as he explained, and it set her to thinking. She thanked him for explaining. Paced around for a moment. And then made up her mind. She was going to tell him about the Cluster.
"I've decided to share some... information with you!"
"Aww," the Steven smiled at her. "I know you use my toothbrush."
"N-no..." Peridot blushed sheepishly. "Well... yes. But it's about the Cluster."
"You cracked!"
"I haven't cracked!"
"Wait!" Steven looked concerned for a moment. "You have to tell the Crystal Gems, they need to know this."
Peridot shook her head fiercely.
"No! I don't want to talk to them! You're the only one I need! I can show you now, but I have nothing! My arm attachments, my fingers, my screen, my log, it's all gone! But all of my logs up to date 6 5 2 still exist, backed up in Facet Five of the prime Kindergarten!"
The Steven agreed to go.
On the grounds that Peridot had to hold his hand the entire time.
*****
The trip to the prime Kindergarten was... eventful. The Steven explained that he hadn't come out of the ground, even though he was some sort of Quartz. Peridot was baffled at how in the world a Gem-Human hybrid came to exist. In turn, he was... appropriately horrified that Homeworld had planted forced-fusion experiments in the Earth as a last effort to make some use of the planet after their retreat.
"We were growing them here at this very site," she explained, pressing a button on a panel in the control room. "But these were just prototypes for the final product."
The screen before them projected a globe, with a marker displayed on it.
"A singular, giant, artificial fusion," she continued, "comprised of millions of Gem shards. The Cluster."
The Steven continued to look horrified.
"Peridot," he breathed. "You're saying there's a giant mutant Gem the size of the Earth under us right now?"
She closed her eyes and waved a hand, no.
"Oh, no. When it forms, it'll be much, much bigger than the Earth. Right now it lies dormant, incubating in the Earth's core, but when it emerges and takes its physical form it will destroy the planet." On the screen, the Earth expanded, and then exploded. "The prototypes are already emerging. The Cluster is next. If we can't get off this planet, we've got to stop the Cluster."
There. There it was. Peridot's mind was made up.
They were going to save the Earth.
[THE CANONING CONTINUES. This time pulling from Steven Universe episodes 'Catch and Release' and 'When it Rains.' Those familiar with canon can probably tell when my hand started to feel like it was burning, but eh, whaddaya do. NFI for distance!]