"I must say, Universe: I'm impressed."

Placing a hand on her hip and tilting her head slightly, the gem with (E/c) eyes gave the shocked hybrid before her a smug grin before looking down to inspect her nails.

"Though, I will admit, your timing wasn't all that impressive. Do you realize how long me and the little duckling had to wait for you to find us?"

Steven blinked, his initial shock being replaced with that of confusion as he slowly turned to Amethyst, who flushed out of embarrassment beside him whilst glaring daggers at the taller gem across from her.

"Little duckling . . .?" Steven trailed off, tilting his head to the side.

Amethyst growled and looked away, clenching her fists. "Don't ask . . ." she grumbled, still obviously embarrassed by the whole ordeal.

Slowly, Steven nodded, and he turned his attention back over to the (H/c)ette before him, who had now folded her arms over her chest, her smug grin never leaving.

Steven frowned and his eyes couldn't help but narrow at her. "Okay, let's cut to the chase," the hybrid began, taking a step towards the gem. "What is it that you want?"

The gem batted her lashes, giving Steven a face that mocked surprise, before smirking and offering the hybrid teenager a small shrug of her shoulders.

"Nothing." Her voice was smooth; melodic, and Steven could listen to it for hours on end if it weren't for the fact that she was trying to kill him and everything and everyone he cared about. "I suppose you could say that I only came here to take my anger out on a bunch of strangers?"

Steven blinked; eyes wide as he nearly stumbled back, acting as if he had just escaped a trance. "W-what?" he stuttered, feeling shocked due to the answer the gem had given to his question.

The gem giggled, finding his reaction to her words amusing. "Why do you look so surprised, dove? Surely you've encountered other gems who have had worse reasons to cause others harm than me, no? Though, I'm sure you must have also run into gems that didn't even have a reason for the damage they caused, as well. You know, like the diamonds?"

Steven opened his mouth to retort, but nothing came out, and he couldn't help but go pale because . . . she was right and . . . and . . .

"The — the diamonds have changed their ways!" he yelled after a moment, and the gem seemed to perk up, her interest piqued.

"Oh, they have?" The gem tilted her head to the side and batted her lashes innocently. "Are you sure?"

Steven hesitated, breaking his gaze from hers for a second before giving a small nod. "Y-yes. I'm sure."

"Hm." Glancing to the side, the gem shifted her weight onto one of her feet and held her chin in thought. "Well, that's interesting. I never thought I'd see the day . . ."

Steven gulped and shared a glance with Amethyst, who nodded to him before tilting her head towards the (S/t) gem ahead of them. There were two of them now, so surely, if they played their cards right, they could possibly capture her and get her to tell them how to put a stop to her machine, right?

Steven nodded back to Amethyst, determination in his eyes, and he turned back over to the (H/c)ette, who appeared to be still lost in thought.

She's distracted. Steven took a slow step forward, and Amethyst quietly summoned her wip again. Good.

Slowly, yet surely, the duo began to grow closer and closer to the gem, who seemed oddly quiet now. Though, it's not like it mattered. After they trapped her, they'd get her to talk—

"You know what?" Just as soon as Amethyst's wip was about to wrap around her torso, the gem grinned confidently and grabbed ahold of it, catching both Amethyst and Steven off guard as she laughed.

"I'm feeling nice today, so I'll give you and your friends a little hint."

Tugging on the wip in her grasp, Amethyst was too late to let go of its handle and ended up getting thrown over the (H/c)ette's shoulder and into Spinel's arms. Steven cried out in surprise; holding his hand out to the purple gem, when a face suddenly appeared inches away from his own, making him gasp and nearly fall onto his back.

But luckily enough for the gem-hybrid, a pair of hands were quick to wrap around his waist and hold him up; not only keeping him from falling, but making it harder for him to turn away from the (E/c) orbs that stared down into his own.

"Wha—" Steven felt his face flush. What was with this gem and getting so . . . so close to him . . .? Did she not know what personal space was?!

Giggling at his reddened face, the unnamed gem smirked and leaned down next to Steven's ear, bringing him closer to her in the process as she said in a nearly silent whisper:

"Music."

Steven's eyes went wide when he felt the gem release her hold on him, and he instinctively wrapped his arms around her neck to prevent himself from falling. The gem was surprised by this, of course, but she luckily brought her wings out and managed to keep herself balanced as to not fall.

"What — what do you mean?" Steven asked, his brows furrowed in confusion.

The gem grinned, slowly lifting her hands up and placing them overtop Steven's.

"This game would be rather boring if I told you the answer, wouldn't it?"

Steven's mouth went agape, and before he knew it, he was falling and landing against the dirt floor; grunting once his back made contact with it.

And from above him, the gem snickered and took a few steps back.

"The timer's gonna run out eventually, dove~" she cooed. "So I suggest you keep your eyes on the prize and get to work~!"

The gem laughed one last time, opened her wings, and then flew off into the peach-colored sky, leaving an astonished Steven in her wake.

"What . . ." Recalling all of the events that had just happened literally seconds ago, Steven's face suddenly went red, and his hands flew up to his hair in distress.

"What just happened?!"

•| ⊱✿⊰ |•

"Lapis, Bismuth, Peridot!" Stopping in front of the said trio, Steven leaned over and placed his hands on his knees; panting heavily with bags barely visible under his eyes as sweat trekked down the side of his face.

From beside the hybrid boy, Amethyst cast a worried glance his way and patted his back comfortingly before fixing her gaze to be a stern one and looking up to Peridot.

"What's the damage?" the purple gem asked.

With wide eyes, Peridot gasped, taking in the purple gem before her. "Amethyst!" The green gem looked away from her dramatically. "Get away from me. I can't stand to see you all vacant and berupt of personality."

Amethyst deadpanned. "Yo, I'm back, you dip."

"Oh!" Peridot blinked a couple of times, surprise evident on her features, but the short gem then smiled and nodded; grinning nervously.

"Well, you're just in time for the end of the world!" Peridot cheered with fake enthusiasm, making Amethyst and Steven go wide-eyed as the green gem went on to explain.

"This—" Peridot gestured up towards the injector that loomed before them "—is no ordinary injector. Whatever it's leaking into the ground is toxic."

Walking up to Peridot with her hand shifted into a shovel, Bismuth held out a sample of soil from the dead ground created by the injector, and Peridot quickly bubbled it. "Let's get a scan going and see what we're dealing with."

Placing the sample into a microwave, Peridot pressed the button that read 'Popcorn', and an analysis paper soon printed out on the side of the machine. After it was done, Peridot reached over to it and ripped it out; reading over it quickly before frowning deeply and looking up to the injector with distaste in her eyes.

"Just as I thought."

Setting the paper aside, Peridot brought her tablet out and held it up to take a photo of the injector. Once she did so, the image of the machine quickly turned into a schematic of the injector and its mechanics.

"Bio-poison. Pure and uncut." Peridot walked over to her computer and transported the injector's schematics to its monitor. "As of this moment, the ampule has drained 15.4% of its contents, meaning the poison is releasing at a destruction rate of 5 cubic meters per hour. Giving us," Peridot paused to think for a moment, ". . . 41 hours until all destruction of organic life on Earth."

Steven felt his shoulders go stiff. "'All organic life'?" he repeated.

"Yeah," Peridot nodded, "like the animals, the plants, the insects. You know . . ." the gem looked down at her tablet again for a moment before adding with a casual shrug:

"People."

Steven's breath got caught in his throat. "Oh no . . ." the hybrid trailed off, his eyes going wide with horror. "This . . . this is what she meant: 'Your human half won't stand a chance against my injector.' She—" Steven paused, taking a deep breath "—she brought this thing here to . . . to kill me, and now — now it's gonna kill everything else on Earth, too?!"

Inhaling deeply, Steven took a shaky breath before rolling his hands into fists, his eyes set ablaze with determination.

"I've gotta do something!" he yelled, running straight over to the injector and ignoring the cries that followed after him; his friends shouting for him to stop before he got hurt.

Grabbing ahold of the drill to the injector, Steven sucked in a deep breath in an attempt to calm his nerves before beginning to slowly pull the injector up from the ground; his legs shaking, threatening to give out beneath him.

"Steven!" Bismuth yelled out the boy's name in worry. "Careful!" Amethyst added, her brows knitted together with concern. "What is that clod THINKING?!" Peridot exclaimed, watching Steven with nervous eyes.

From behind them, Spinel poked her head out and smiled widely. "Yeah! Lift with your legs!" the pink gem encouraged, earning a look from the other three.

Grunting, Steven glanced down to see his gem's pulsing beginning to dim; a sign of his powers faltering. The hybrid cursed (not actual curse words, of course) under his breath, feeling his grip on the injector's drill loosening little by little until it finally slipped from his grasp and dropped straight back into the ground, creating a tremor from the impact and causing everyone to nearly lose their balance and fall to the floor. Steven, however, was not so lucky, and he ended up getting knocked back onto the floor as some of the injector's poison splashed out; a drop of it spilling right onto Steven's arm. The boy groaned in pain, feeling it burn through his skin until blood was finally drawn.

And then, a rumbling noise is heard, and suddenly, the ground beneath Steven split open; revealing a stream of poison inside. Steven gasped, eyes widening with a mixture of fear and horror as he nearly fell in. But luckily enough for the hybrid, a certain pink gem was quick to catch him, and she brought him safely back onto the surface by using the arm she had stretched out to grab him like a fishing rod to reel him in.

"Well," Spinel whistled, "look what I reeled in!"

The hyperactive gem gently placed the hybrid boy back onto the ground, and Steven took a deep breath before falling backwards onto his back; eyes still wide as he held his injured arm in his hand.

The other gems — Amethyst, Bismuth, and Peridot — were quick to run up to Steven, voicing all of their concerns.

"Steven!"

"Are you okay?"

The teenager merely groaned; pushing himself up and looking down at his bleeding arm. His eyes then widened once again, and he gasped dramatically before crying out:

"My organic jacket!"

(From beyond the cosmos, the author begins to make Steven a schedule for self care classes.)

Lifting his shirt up to take another look at his gem, Steven sighed in disappointment once he saw just how much its light was blinking. "I can't do anything with my powers like this . . ." he muttered, lifting his head up to look at Bismuth and Peridot.

"Bismuth, can't you and Lapis life that thing? Peridot, what about your metal powers?"

"You think we haven't tried that yet, Steven?" Lapis asked, flying down and landing in front of the gem-hybrid, her brows furrowed with concern for his wellbeing.

"Disturbing the injector accelerates the poison's rate of release. Also, it might explode. We have to find a way to move it, without touching it, before it's too late," Peridot explained, holding up her tablet.

Steven pursed his lips and looked down, sweat trailing down his face. Seeing as how Spinel didn't seem to have any part in what the other gem was planning, he assumed that she wouldn't know what to do, and he knew that there was no chance of him finding the gem that had caused all of this in the first place. Plus, he highly doubted that she'd ever listen to him if he actually did get the chance to ask her. She seemed like the stubborn type.

Steven sighed, burying his face behind his hands. Think, Steven, think! the hybrid thought.

Maybe there's a way to somehow convince her to take the injector out? Steven shook his head, instantly pushing the idea aside.

No, I barely know her, and I highly doubt she'd want to listen to anything I have to say. Ugh. If only there was some way to find out more about her so I can try figuring out why she's doing this in the first place. But how could I—

Suddenly, Steven's thoughts came to a stop, and he physically shot up, his eyes widening.

"Pearl!" he realized, standing back to his feet as the gems all jumped in surprise at his sudden outburst.

"Pearl knew her!"

•| ⊱✿⊰ |•

"He really doesn't know how to listen, huh?"

Flying above the clouds as she watched Steven run off to go find Pearl, Amethyst and Spinel in tow, the mariposa gem sighed with disappointment and rested her cheek in the palm of her hand.

"Oh well, at least I tried to make this a little easier for him. It's his own fault for not listening to me~" the gem chuckled.

Humming a small tune to herself, the mariposa held her hands behind her back and stopped flapping her wings, allowing herself to descend towards the ocean before quickly opening her wings out again and gliding over the sea; pushing up waves as she did so with an almost guilty smile.

"It's a shame, you know . . ." she muttered, turning over to have her back facing the sea as she flew to stare up at the night sky with empty eyes.

"That I'm making you suffer for the mistakes of someone who doesn't even exist anymore . . ."

A moment of silence hung in the air for a while, leaving the gem to feel alone in the vast ocean.

But then, she shrugged, and a content smile tugged at the corners of her lips.

"Oh, such sweet, sweet sorrow indeed."

She gave a harsh flap of her wings, and all that was left behind to prove she was even there was a large splash.

* * * * *

NOTES !

man steven can be a real idiot sometimes huh.