The Wicked Don't Need It | Crystal Gems X Reader

Chapter 87: Requite

No Rest for the Weary is a Steven Universe Reader Insert and it's really good. It gets up to the end of season four, but was never finished.

Fine. I'll do it myself.

Read No Rest for the Weary before this.

You close your eyes and calm yourself. Rushing through a deep breath before putting a slight bend in your arms. The forest is calm and cold, the constant windy rustling of the leaves above muffle any other noise from the woodland. Your fist is gripped around a pistol's textured handle, you hold it against a tree for balance as you lean around the oak. You've been standing still for a few minutes without seeing anything, but the occasional snap of a branch in the distance proves that at least one of the gems must be searching for you nearby. It'd be funny if you were hiding from some hiker on a trail, but your gut never lies. Neither does that ethereal guiding tug on the back of your mind. That pull comes a lot less naturally than your gut, but you listen to it all the same. Using your new instincts had come easily, it was learning when to ignore them that you still struggled with.

The outcroppings of stone that this forest had grown on begin to grow tinted with rolling fog. The woods go almost silent, disrupted by antecdant twigs snapping in the distance and sudden gusts from wings above. The fluttering overhead comes from random directions that shift faster than you can twist your head to look, you try anyway. The crunch of a branch is heard much closer than the last. You snap your head forward. In a heartbeat you're aiming straight, eyes locked down your guns sight. Directly in front of you, the origin of the tension mounting sound is..

A tree?

The breeze flows through your hair as a moment of total silence passes. A quiet chill climbs the sleeves of your shirt. Your pointed gaze is interrupted by a branch falling from the same tree you hadn't dared to look away from. It slowly glides down, bouncing off of protruding branches and between new leaves sprouting out. Upon impact with the ground, it makes almost the same exact noise heard before. A strained expression on your face that you weren't aware you even had, relaxes. A little of your worry evaporates into the air, in its stead is confidence.

Am I really gonna lose them?

You let the intrusive positivity fester. Proposing the thought to yourself, a small smile growing on your face. You had pretended to speak spanish, then bolted straight past the tree line. The thought of that having actually worked as a getaway? It was pretty funny. After another glance around the forest, you consider moving back towards town. You psych yourself up and take a final scan of the area before leaving cover and taking the first quick step home.

Crunch!

Branches and leaves crumple only a few metres away. You jolt back into cover only a second before what must be 'Topaz' steps out. While you were sprinting into the forest earlier, you hadn't once turned and looked towards the big gem hunting you. The flight response does that. While that may have saved you from tripping somewhere and getting caught, all you know to expect is someone.. large.

You peak an eye out past the trunk, slowing your breathing to stay as quiet as possible. With an almost clear view the first reaction to Topaz you have, besides fear, is confusion. She's.. hunched over? She definitely doesn't look like a gem you've ever seen, though you haven't seen many. She has tall brown hair, tan skin and,

Is that.. the mailman? You squint confused.

"What?" You mutter.

The gem takes another heavy step, Your breath hitches in your throat.

No, it's not the mailman. She's huge, a few feet taller than Garnet. Built really wide and almost entirely yellow, except for the limp people stuck inside her.