As Steven stepped out of the temple room, he left Pearl behind, who silently made her way down the tube connecting the different sections of the place. He didn't follow her with his gaze. Instead, his eyes drifted toward the main living area, where Lapis had Peridot pinned rigidly to the couch. Peridot sat completely frozen under Lapis's unblinking, intense stare.
Steven frowned, thoroughly confused by the display.
He asked what exactly she was doing, making no effort to hide the sheer strangeness in his voice.
Lapis replied with total calm that she was just keeping an eye on her so they wouldn't screw up again, all while taking a bit of water and letting it drop slowly down the back of Peridot's neck. The green Gem reacted with a high-pitched shriek, sounding like a bird getting mauled by cats, as she began to thrash around dramatically.
Steven stared in silence for a few seconds.
He didn't care. He simply asked Lapis not to kill her before turning on his heel and walking to his bedroom. He didn't add anything else. Closing the door behind him, he collapsed onto his bed and fell asleep almost instantly.
...
The next day.
Connie's voice rang out from the communicator in her usual tone, though there was a slight edge of worry to it.
She asked how everything was going.
Steven replied that things were fine, that he'd just been doing a few missions here and there—nothing out of the ordinary—and that they already had several Gems bubbled. He said it casually, acting as though everything was perfectly fine.
Connie didn't buy it.
She squinted at him through the screen, her eyes narrowed in deep suspicion.
She asked which Gems, exactly.
Steven hesitated for a second. The silence turned awkward. He could practically feel three massive anime sweatdrops rolling down his forehead as he scrambled to think of something believable to say.
Then, out of nowhere, he faked some static interference.
He blurted out something about the call breaking up.
Before he could even finish the sentence, Connie's voice exploded on the other side of the line, warning him that he better not dare hang up on her.
Steven stared at the phone as messages began flooding in one after another, non-stop. He let out a sigh. Looking up at the window, he slowly shook his head.
He decided his best option was to train.
He got up and hurried out, but right before leaving, his eyes lingered for a brief moment on Lion's mane. He stared at it intently, focused, as if something in his head wasn't quite adding up.
He brushed it off.
Or at least, for now.
Three days passed while I trained my power. The pink power was incredibly tricky to manage; I could tap into it, but the emotions that came with it were the worst part. It made me feel stupid, foolish, like an idiot, and a whole mess of other awful things. For brief moments, I even felt like a monster.
"Need to train harder," I noted down in a ledger I always keep in my temple room. My holographic mother was currently watering some imaginary plants. Honestly, I don't know what I was thinking when I gave her that much free will inside the room, but I made sure to stay on guard anyway.
"I'm heading out, holographic Mom. This isn't affecting my mental state at all," I said.
The hologram just looked back at me with a massive sweatdrop on the back of her neck.
"Goodbye, my very real, flesh-and-blood son whose sanity is completely intact..."
I definitely need to revoking some of your privileges, I thought as I walked out, catching the sheer look of panic on the hologram's face.
Leaving the room, I walked straight into the living area without another word.
"Huh?" Peridot gasped, snapping out of her misery. "Is something wrong, Steven?"
I stared her down, and she visibly shrank back.
"We're going to go work on the Cluster. You look way too relaxed."
"Huh?" she panicked, scrambling to her feet instantly. "Let's go!"
Lapis, who had been aggressively keeping an eye on Peridot while farming levels in Geometry Dash, flew over to my side and watched as Peridot stepped toward the warp pad.
When Peridot stepped onto the pad, she couldn't feel the usual sensation of being enveloped by the warp stream. She looked up at Steven, her eyes wide.
"I can't use it?"
I looked at her, raising an eyebrow.
"I'm guessing it's because of the corruption," Lapis said, resting her elbow on my shoulder to farm some aura, though she immediately miscalculated, slipped, and fell to the floor in a spectacularly un-epic way.
"Ow," Lapis said blankly from the floor, completely deadpan.
"Well, I guess I didn't perform as many miracles as I should have," I sighed.
I'd probably need the other three Diamonds' essences to completely cure a Gem's core, I thought, looking down at Peridot with a raised eyebrow.
Under my gaze, the green Gem began to tremble violently.
"You aren't going to harvest me, are you?!" Peridot panicked.
"Huh?" Lapis and I blurted out in unison, completely baffled.
"Shatter my gemstone?" Peridot clarified, raising an eyebrow while shaking like a dog covered in bleach.
"Not at all?" I said tentatively, glancing over at Lapis, who just shrugged as she stepped onto the warp pad to check if the pad itself was the thing that was busted.
"Whew," Peridot sighed, wiping away some imaginary sweat.
I just shook my head, grabbed a piece of paper, and taped it to the usual spot where Pearl checks to see if I've done anything. The note read:
"Hey, just letting you know we went to the barn to work. Show up if you want; honestly doesn't matter to me. Just one thing: I don't want any fistfights breaking out in my presence. Signed, the fat asshole."
"Let's move," I said, activating the warp pad to take us to the closest node near the barn.
"Follow my lead, good guys," I announced, hovering off the ground and scooping up Peridot like a plush toy as I flew toward the barn. Lapis followed behind without a word.
When we arrived, I dropped Peridot.
"Ow!" she yelled, landing flat on her butt.
"Start your analysis with all the scrap metal I've gathered," I said, throwing the barn doors open. A massive mountain of random objects I'd been hoarding over time spilled out onto the grass.
"What is this garbage?" Peridot asked.
Lapis smacked her across the back of the head.
"Work with what you've got and stop complaining," she added.
Peridot just stared at the ground and walked toward the pile like a malfunctioning robot.
"Let's see," she muttered, inspecting every little thing with hyper-fixated attention. "Hmm... yes... no... possibly... what even is this thing?" she asked, lifting up a dumbbell.
"An exercise weight. Feel free to use it. Doesn't do much for me anymore anyway," I replied, sitting down cross-legged.
"I'm not exactly great at math, but if you need a third-person perspective on things, I'll be right here. Or if you need something heavy lifted..." I pointed toward a very noticeable body of water nearby.
"Why don't you ask Lapis to help you?" I suggested.
"Me?" Lapis asked, caught off guard.
"Yeah, you. Put some hours in, slacker!" I said with a hint of annoyance, doing my best to keep the pink form under control.
Lapis nodded without pushing back. She had a decent grasp on how my personality shifted; she'd experienced my mood swings firsthand, which—in my own words—were worse than Connie on her period... though Lapis still had no clue what a period actually was.
Before long, I could feel Peridot locking into her work. Lapis helped her out here and there, using some drills I'd brought along and parts from a Homeworld ship that I felt were absolutely essential—like a random car radio. I mean, it made zero sense, but I knew I'd be the one diving down with her eventually. That was a 100% certainty, since I needed to connect with the Cluster to form a bubble around it. Man, that was going to hurt, so I was already mentally preparing myself for the impact.
I looked up at the sky, which had already turned dark, and muttered softly to myself:
"I really hope this goes well."
End of Chapter 54.