(just breached 50K words last chapter. Never thought I would be a fanfiction writer. Feels nice.)
"This place is even more weaponry than I remember." Said Steven as he admired the vast array of ancient weapons.
Pearl turned back to him as she kept walking. "This was the site of an ancient gem battle. Each weapon was left here by a gem over 5,000 years ago. I personally don't want to tamper with it but Garnet says we can't leave it here."
Garnet then proceeds to pick up an axe over 3 times her size." Never know when you might need one of these." She said.
Will walked up and pulled out a claymore 8 feet long. He decided to go without his helmet for today since it was just clean up. "Why are these so huge. I'm certain that unless your over 20 feet tall these are impractical." He said as he put the sword in his gem.
Garnet then turned to him. "Even though Homeworld doesn't like fusion they still allow gems of the same type to use it only on the battlefield. These weapons are a result of that."
Will simply shrugged his arms. It was then that Quasar jumped off his armored back in his new UNSC robonoid body. The small Titanium marble and his 4 cylindrical armored legs walked up to a giant mace buried in the ground. His combination camera eye/ laser emitter scanned the metal.
"Impressive craftsmanship, these weapons are built with materials on par with Titanium battle plate. But their giant size still limits their practicality." He finished as his avatar appeared over his body.
Will walked up and better the several hundred pound mace over his shoulder plate. "Agreed, and it's weird I havent seen any firearms?" He said.
Pearl walked up to him. "Because human guns aren't nearly as powerful as gem weapons." She said as she lifted up a small sword and tested it.
To this Quasar simply charged up his emitter and will pulled out his SRS99 sniper rifle.
Quasar proceeded to put a large hole through a large clever. While the crack of the sniper soon accompanied the snapping in half of a large blade.
Pearl merely was shocked by the gun and laser shot looked at the damage. "Ah yes, I forgot about your weapons."
Quasar's Avatar simply looked at her. "That's what happens when you've been developing guns for over 11 centuries. And that's not even considering magnetic accelerators or plasma weapons. Although were heading the limits of gunpowder." Said the AI
Will then racked the bolt and the large brass casing fell out. "What's the point of getting in knife fight range when you can take someone out from several dozen feet to several miles away. You could even take them out from orbit or entire astronomical units away if you have a MAC gun." He then put the sniper away.
Amythest then pulled out her whip with a small look of disappointment on her face. God she wished she had a gem shotgun.
Somehow sensing what Amythest was thinking Garnet put a hand on her shoulder and simply said "no". Lapis also looked at the damage interestingly. She wondered what else they had.
Steven then smiled. "I could use one, sometimes a shield and a pistol aren't enough. Remember the pufferfish."
He then turned to lion. "Come on, help me look." He was then subsequently ignored and lion walked away.
"Aw come on, lion." He faked anger as he out his hands on his sides.
Will and Quasar then walked up to him. "Don't worry, we got something in the works that's more than a bit stronger than your Magnum." Said Will with a smile.
Pearl then walked up to Steven. "Firearms aside, you need to train that thing better." She said as she watched the lion.
"I have, we've got to the point where he looks at me when I call his name. Watch this."
He then turned to lion. "Hey lion!"
His yells then subsequently made lion do absolutely nothing and he continued to pick through a strawberry bush.
"Eh, sometimes."
Lion then dug up something and picked it up in his mouth.
"What's he got now." Said Pearl as she was quickly stunned as lion held a long pink object in his mouth.
"That's the sheath for Rose's sword." She quickly ran up and grabbed it. It took her a bit to grab it out of lions mouth.
"Mom fought here?" Asked Steven.
Pearl then held the sword close to her chest. "Yes, she fought magnificently."
"Cool, I wish I could have seen it." Said Amythest excitedly.
Garnet then turned to her. "No you don't, countless gems were broken here. It was a maelstrom of destruction and death." Said Garnet.
"Sounds like an angry Spartan." Said Quasar.
Amythest looked to their own resident Spartan. "Wait what, you gotta tell me more." She said excitedly.
Will turned to the little purple gem. "Yes, all but the bravest, strongest and fastest were afraid of the Spartans. We're basically one person armies, and when a Spartan squad shows up they will succeed. It took either a very lucky shot, an accident, an entire army, or an exceptionally strong enemy to kill one." He finished with a sad look on his face.
Pearl who was simply fanticizing started talking again. "But we won, your mother led us to glorious victory. Our backs were against the wall, our hearts were uncertain. But we chose to fight alongside Rose, and here we made a stand against our Homeworld."
Will simply sighed at her fanaticism. He put his helmet back on and turned up some punk rock. He didn't want to hear her talk about war stories any longer.
Because while they might have an overview of the human covenant war, they will never know what it was truly like to have your back to the wall, broken, bleeding and plasma raining down on you. To be the only thing that gave soldiers hope in a battle. And to be the only one that was able to slow down the oncoming storm.
Quasar was the only one to see the same look adorning Lapis's face. For besides the UNSC members and Garnet she was the only other one who understood how arrogance and rash behavior was often one's undoing
______
The warp pad chimed as the gems got back. Will, Garnet, Lapis and Amythest holding a large amount of weapons.
"Sweet, my rooms been needing more of these." Said Amythest.
"It actually needs a little less of everything. I mean where did you even get an F1 rocket engine!" Shouted the Spartan as he entered Amythest's room.
Pearl was simply fantasizing and holding the sword on the pad. "It's been ages."
She then looked down to see Steven staring at her. "What is it Steven?"
"What was mom like?"
"She was coragous...and brilliant... and beautiful."
She then looked over at Steven who was staring at the portrait on the wall. "Sometimes...you look so much like her."
Steven then took this time to look back with a goofy look. "Really?"
Quasar just stood there on the counter watching them.
The commotion of Garnet and Amythest trying to fit the axe in the temple drew her attention. Will then proceeded to grab the axe, twist it in the right direction and drag it through.
She then turned back to Steven.
"Hey, why don't you hold onto this." She said as she gave him the sheath.
Steven took it and held it out." Don't worry Pearl, if anything tries to attack I'll bop them with this." He said as he made a chilling motion with it.
"Oh Steven, that's just the Scabbard. The sword has been lost for a longtime. Nothing else could fit so perfectly inside. All this time it has been...incomplete." she said with a sorrowful look.
Quasar suddenly stopped some calculations he was doing and looked at her. 'was that a sex reference?' he thought to himself.
"Well then let's complete it." Said Steven.
Pearl then looked around and bent down to his eye level. "Can I show something, this is a secret form even Garnet, Amythest and Will."
Steven gasped. "Uh, a secret!" He said. Pearl quickly shushed him.
By this time Quasar completely stopped what he was doing and prepared to follow them.
"Rose had a place she kept hidden from all but me. But you have her gem, that place is yours now....and I can show it to you.
_____
They warped to the middle of a canyon, Quasar descretely following behind them.
"It's just a 3 your hike that, followed by a vertical climb at 90 degrees." Steven slowly became less and less excited as she explained.
"Think you can handle it.
____
Steven was tied to Pearls back as she climbed a vertical cliff.
"Your mother told me all. I was her confidant, the one she told all her secrets to. The stuff she kept from everyone, everyone that is except me." She said with a giddy grin.
Steven looked at her. "Why did she keep so many secrets?"
"She had to, it's the mark of a great leader to keep things secret to everyone. Everyone that is but me." She said.
Quasar who was climbing the cliff behind them heard this. 'I severely doubt that, sure some classified things are secret. But a bunch of secrets only leads to deceit and ends up causing more pain in the end.' he had seen what ONI had done, whenever he could get the chance he copied files from the Naval intelligence office.
Of course if ONI found out about this he'd be shut down immediately. Those manipulative lying bastards were despicable. The Spartan program wasn't even close to the only shady thing they've done. That was simply the most well know one they were involved with. And even then that wasn't much.
One of his stubby arms came lose from the rock face. Panicking in microseconds. He quickly attatched it back to a different part of the cliff.
"If ONI or the Covenant doesn't get me first then this woman is going to be the death of me." He grumbled as he kept on climbing.
He was definitely talking to Will about having him be able to fly.
_____
Pearl and Steven stepped inside the cave.
"Welcome, to Rose's secret armory." Said Pearl in a grandiose gesture.
"Wow, I've been here before."
This immediately made Pearl's smile deflate.
"God damn it!" Said Quasar. Both Pearl and Steven turned around.
His small legs pushed him through the water on the cave floor. "All this, just for somewhere he's already been to."
Pearl looked upset. "What are you doing here?!"
Quasar simply looked back as his eye flickered red a bit with the start of a laser before it shut down. "Because I was following you, you made Rose out to be larger than life. The greatest hero in the Galaxy. She saved one planet!"
This appeared to piss Pearl off. "She was magnificent, she led us to glorious victory against Homeworld."
Quasar walked up to her and extended the distance of his legs to his body to get closer to pearls face. "I've met her, she may have been kind and brave, even very intelligent. But she wasn't a god. She wasn't the best in the Galaxy as you think she was. She was just like the rest of us. Ones like her have existed throughout human history. She's just the next in a long line!"
Pearl onger her finger at his optic. "How dare you compare her to some human. She was the best, she was the bravest, she was the most brilliant leader in history!"
Quasar grabbed one of his legs and looked her in the chest. "Everyone thinks of the one that's saved their life like that. No what your doing is idolizing her, treating her like a deity. It's not healthy Pearl. You need to stop. And don't for a second don't think I don't know what this is really about. It's not her leadership, or strength you admire. Even I can see that you were just in-" he was interrupted by Steven.
"Stop fighting! This isn't going to get us anywhere. So just stay away from each other and cool off." He said.
They both walked away from each other. Pearl sat on the steps of the platform, while Quasar went over to the center of the platform to interact with it. His eye still glowing a bright red but the slow whine of a Spartan Laser building up was winding down.
Steven sighed and walked over to Quasar. He could hear the AI grumbling something as his front arm was manipulating the central hand. Little white dots appearing every time he tapped it.
Just then all the compartments on the platform opened up.
Quasar was momentarily brought out of his anger from the sheer assortment of weapons and armor.
He scanned over all of them as Steven passed over them with both a look of remeberence and amazement.
"I guess you have been here. I just...wanted to show you. But you already knew of this place."
She walked up and took a look at the armor, weapons and laser light cannons.
"Wait, there's something else here." Said Quasar. He tapped the pedestal and it lowered back into the ground. A larger cylindrical cutout appeared out of the floor. It held a suit of armor, but unlike the others that were in there.
"Ah yes, the Armor of the ancients." Pearl said with a somewhat renewed vigor.
Steven went up to admire it. Quasar did the same.
It was odd to say the least. The undersuit was a mixture of silver, black and grey. It looked highly advanced. The armor plates,while scratched were thick and attached with an excellent quality. The plates seemed to flow so seamlessly together. He tried to do a diagnostic on it but the metal simply made his scanners bounce off it.
"It's highly damaged but I never knew where it came from? We simply found it during the war. It was in pieces." Said pearl.
What she said was right. The plates were corroded and broken.
"It almost reminds me of Will's armor." Said Steven.
Pearl looked at it more closely. Something seemed to click. "That can't be possible, the similarities are uncanny. The humanoid shape, the strong bodyglove with metal plates over top. I can't even begin to guess what it does and how it works. Even the helmet gives the same cold feeling of his visor."
Now that Quasar thought about it, it did. He took a closer look at the helmet. It was a complex look of metal. The wearer most likely saw out of the 2 almost claw like slits on each side of the helmet. He'd have to do a deeper scan.
"Oh yeah, what were we looking for again." Said Steven as he broke the silent thinking of the gem and AI.
"Your mother's sword." She said as a projection appeared from her gem. "It's a straight bladed saber thats pink,with a red handle. There are Vines etched in the guard connected to a rose shaped pommel."
Steven put his hand to his chin. "Oooohh, I know where that is."
Pearl paused for a moment. She couldn't take much more of this. "Huh."
_____
All the gems were back at the beach house.
Steven did a drumroll as he reached into lions main and pulled out the long awaited saber.
"It really is her sword." Said Garnet surprised.
"How could it have gotten there?" Pearl said.
"I don't know, but there's a lot of cool stuff in here." Said Steven as he jumped into lions main. The gems got worried after 30 seconds but Steven came out moments later in his spacesuit. "Ta-da." He said.
"But...how?" Pearl then tried to reach into lions mane. This just pushed lion and he turned and growled at her.
"Does lion have something to do with Rose?" said Pearl.
"Oh, of course. That's why he's pink." Said Amythest.
"It was a little obvious." Said Garnet.
Will and Quasar looked at them. "You didn't know that?" Asked Will.
"But rose didn't have a lion." Said Pearl.
Steven then took off his helmet and put it in lions mane. "It seems like her stuff in there." Said Steven.
Pearl looked angry again. "No, Rose didn't have a lion. Because if she did I would know about it!"
"Rose kept many things secret, even from us." Said Garnet calmly.
"But not from me! I was the one she told everything!" Pearl said.
Amythest got angry. "Yo, your not the only one that misses her."
Pearl pointed her finger at Garnet and Amythest. "You, can't understand how I feel. None of you, had what we had.
Will stepped forward. "And what would that be Pearl." He said. His eyes starting to glow green, his gaze becoming dark.
Steven tried to diffuse the situation. "She was probably just trying to protect us."
Pearls mind was clouded. "What would you know. You never even met her!" She yelled at him as she slammed her fist into the wall. The vibrations causing the portrait to came off the wall and fall. In the blink of an eye Garnet caught it before it hit the ground.
Pearls mind came back to her, she immediately took off to the warp pad.
"Go, go cry about it!" Yelled Amythest as the warp pad activated.
Pearl took off. "Ugh, I hate it when she gets like this." Amythest said angrily.
Garnet then slid the picture back on the wall.
"Where'd she go?" Asked Steven.
"Who cares." Growled Amythest as she went to her room.
Steven turned back to the red gem. "Garnet, is she okay?" Asked Steven. The tall gem didn't say anything. "Well I'm gonna go find her." Steven went over to lion. "I'm assuming you know where she is." Lion growled. "I'm gonna take that as a yes."
Steven quickly got on lion and they kept through the pink portal lion made.
Will summoned his armor." I'm gonna crack her." He said. Garnet grabbed onto his shoulder plate. Her gaze traveling up to his visor. "They need to sort this out themselves." She said.
It was at this moment that Lapis jumped down from the ceiling. She made her way to the warp pad. A dark look in her eyes. "You can if there's anything left of her when I'm done." She said in a low tone.
The warp pad activated and the ocean gem dissapeared.
Will was confused when Garnet didn't follow her. 'fucking future vision' he thought to himself. He took off to his room to go get his anger out. His armored footsteps leaving scorch marks as he went across the wood.
Garnet simply sighed. She had already seen the most likely outcome of the situation. Of course there was a small chance lapis would come back with pearls cracked gem in her hand. And one where she came back sobbing with Stevens broken body. She shuddered at that one path. She wanted to follow so badly, to make sure Steven was alright. But she knew that her getting involved as well would only make things worse. She simply sighed and hoped that the situation would end with no one physically hurt.
____
By the time Lapis got off the warp pad she could see that both Pearl, Steven and lion were already far ahead of her. She quickly activated her wings and sped toward them.
Pearl quickly jumped up the floating rocks. She was yelling something, but form this distance she couldn't tell what. She honestly didn't care, cause she was gonna regret what she did.
She saw Steven get off lion and start to jump after her.
"Why are you doing that!" She yelled. But no one could hear her.
She saw as Steven was about to make the jump to the final and largest rock. But halfway through he started to fall. She watched in horror as he desperately tried to claw at the Vines and have them slip past him.
Her view of the world almost seemed to slow down as her eyes widened. She watched as his body started to fall to the land far below. She quickly flew to her maximum speed. She went over the cliff and raced to him. Her arms and wings folded back to increase her speed even further.
The ground below them started to get uncomfortably close. But with a few hundred feet left she grabbed onto him and slowed his fall.
She clutched onto him tightly as they slowed to a stop a few feet above the ground.
"Please, don't ever do that again." She said with tears in her eyes. Steven still in a bit of shock just clutched to her chest tighter.
This hug lasted for a few moments before lapis pulled her head up and flew back up. It only took a minute to reach the top. She let Steven go and wiped the tears from her eye.
"Thank you, for saving me Lapis." Steven said
Lapis had a light blush as she looked at him. She remembered the way he clung to her. "You were falling, I couldn't sit around and see you hit the ground. I don't know how I would live with myself if you died and I could've done something to save you."
Steven smiled. "I'm fine now, thank you." Steven then was brought out of the moment when lion walked up to him.
"Oh yeah, I forgot about Pearl."
Lapis immediately went from glad and happy to bitter. "What about her." She said as she looked to the side.
Steven sighed. "I know you don't like her. But I have to help her. She's my family as well."
Lapis then watched him get on lions back and teleport up to Pearl. She wanted to follow him, but she just couldn't. After what she did to Steven, to everybody. It was gonna be possibly another millennia before she even gets close to trusting her again.
_____
Lapis waited against the side of a large sword for possibly a half hour before she saw one of lions portal's open. Out of it came Steven and Pearl on lions back. But the one thing that caught her by surprise was there was no sword.
"You okay Steven?" Lapis asked. And narrowed her eyes at Pearl. The thin gem just accepted the glare.
"We're good now Lapis." He answered with a smile.
She was glad to see him in a more upbeat mood. But she then let her smile vanish as she looked to Pearl. The gem both looked like she had a weight lifted off her shoulder and had her heart ripped out and stitched back up at the same time.
Lapis stayed far away from her as they walked back to the warp pad. But she reluctantly had to be near her when they used said warp pad.
Garnet, Amythest, Will and Quasar were waiting in the house when they got back.
Garnet walked up to them. "Is anyone hurt?" She asked.
Steven looked at her confused. "No."
Garnet then put her hand on his head. "Time to get ready for bud little man. I need to have a chat with these two outside.
"Aw, I don't want to go to bed now." His wants were betrayed by his body when he yawned.
Lion went to lay on the loft while the rest of the gems went down to the beach.
Steven watched the rest of the gems walk outside and down to the beach. He sighed and got his stuff and went to the bathroom.
_____
But with the gems things were tense.
"What happened." Will asked impatiently. Small flames licking off his armor to show his repressed anger.
"Pearl almost let Steven die." Lapis said with malice toward the thin Gem.
Garnet looked over to Pearl. "Why pearl." She asked simply. Pearl almost seemed to shrink in on herself. Somehow the stoic Gem's calm demeanor was even scarier than her being angry.
Pearl sighed. "There's no excuse for what I did."
"If you were in the UNSC you would be shot for consciously letting someone die." Said Quasar.
"Pearl, if you ever sit back and watch as Steven almost dies. I'm going to put a magnum round straight through your gem." Said Will.
The rest of the gems looked at him. Lapis and Quasar both agreed while Garnet and Amythest didn't.
"Nobody is killing anyone!" Garnet demanded as she summoned her gauntlets.
"I don't know, I think it's a pretty good idea." Said lapis as she summoned her wings.
"Put the weapons down guys." Will said as he summoned his helmet and shotgun.
"Then you put down yours first." Said Amythest as she brought out her whip.
Quasar charged his laser emitter and walked back.
A loud burst of gunfire filled the air. Everyone looked to Pearl who had her smg in the air. She put it back in her gem and glared at everyone.
"I know what I did was wrong. And that I never want it to happen again. And I'll take whatever punishment you deem fit. But you are all at each other's throats over my mistake! So put the weapons Down!"
Everyone glanced around and reluctantly put their weapons away.
Garnet walked up to her. "Your cleaning up after lion for the next decade and your picking up the battlefield by yourself." Garnet said as she walked past her.
Lapis glared at her as she walked past. The ocean gem laying on the couch.
"Why'd you let her off easy. She almost let Steven die!" Amythest asked.
"She deserves something more severe." Lapis said.
Garnet simply watched Pearl from the window. "Because, she's letting go of that which caused her to be like this." Said their leader as Lapis, Amythest and Will walked over to the window.
They watched as Pearl brought out Rose's sword and Scabbard. She appeared to look at the sword for a few moments, gazing at it's details. She then turned to look out toward the ocean.
Pearl then brought the sword back and threw it with all her strength. The blade soaring for well over a thousand feet. The pink saber sunk into the depths of the ocean.
Will thought it seemed symbolic. But it seemed to please the gems somewhat.
All but lapis resigned to their rooms.
Lapis stared at Pearl through the window as she plopped down on the sand.
"If you ever do something like that again. I will shatter you Pearl." Said the ocean gem to herself as she went to lay on the couch.