After getting Amethyst once more, Amethyst, Spinel - who had finally calmed down from all of the tears, Steven - who still carried your bridal style - ran to the Beach City to investigate the injector that had reached its liquid above half, slowly made others concerned to when it had reached to its end.
You didn't want to make any ruckus no more and just sit tight while Steven carried you all the way to the Beach City; and of course, you kept insisting that you could walk but stopped once Steven had finally reached in the middle of the town.
Spinel's hand was still tightly held into yours as you weren't letting it go anytime soon, you just couldn't bear to see Spinel getting hurt or cry or scream in pain, you wanted to protect her at all cost, especially better than who had hurt her in the past.
While Steven was running, you could clearly see the beads of sweat on his forehead as it tripped down to his chin, his breath was cut short every here and then and his legs seemed to be shaken violently to how long he had been running and holding you at the same time; you couldn't help but felt guilty, if only you weren't that weak, you could possibly be running with him right now; you noted yourself that after all of this problem came to an end, you will practice twice as hard, triple even.
Slowly, the sight of crowds was seen, everyone had their terrified and worried face even though they had probably gotten worse than this.
Steven put on a halt as he reached beside Mayor Nanefua, panted heavily as he tried to take his breath that had lost earlier; Mayor Nanefua who stood beside Steven, also had her own worried face, it made you concerned as well.
"Steven, what is going on here?" Mayor Nanefua asked in concern, you could sense a tone of panic in her voice.
Steven didn't look at Mayor Nanefua who looked at him, and just kept on staring at the injector that still remained its liquid above half, gulped painfully as his throat was as dried as a desert; his arms shop violently to how long he had to hold you in his arms, almost got you to fall multiple of times.
"I'm not sure, but I'll find out. Let's open up the shelters; we might need to evacuate" Steven informed the mayor which Mayor Nanefua only nodded onto it before Steven ran off again to the injector to inspect it closer.
Amethyst and Spinel followed Steven, close behind him so that none of them will be lost; Steven gave all of his might to run all the way from Beach City till the green field that used to be yours and Steven's favourite place to hang out, panted heavily once he arrived there, seeing that Peridot, Lapis and Bismuth already there with some machines belonged to Peridot and her calculations.
When Steven ran up the hill, you noticed that the grass and the flowers slowly dying, they all seemed to be gloomed and slowly lost its colours; somehow, you wondered if you would lose your colours too, you had these concerns ever since Spinel arrived.
Steven, Amethyst, Spinel and you had finally reached behind the three best friends of yours, looked at the injector that got bigger insight, you gulped silently at the terrific sight of it.
"Lapis, Bismuth, Peridot!" Steven yelled out, tripped onto his legs, you and he crashed to the ground with Steven on top of you and you were in the bottom.
You looked at Steven in concern; Steven was coughing and gasping air at the same time, his eyes held a bit amount of tears, his body shook violently in tiredness and his nose kept of sniffing as his nose was running.
You cupped Steven's face gently, made him looked at you with those tired eyes of his, eyebags could be found under his eyes, circulating them with perfect purple semi-circles; your eyes teared up at the sight of him, he looked like he could pass out anytime soon and it was your fault for being weak, you couldn't always depend on him to protect you always.
You set Steven's forehead resting on top of yours as Steven was still gasping for air, sweats tricked down on both of your foreheads as a tear escaped your eye in guilt.
Your thumbs softly rubbed Steven's cheeks, calming him down somehow, the guilt and pain in your heart were unavoidable, you hated it, you despised the feeling.
"Steven... Take a break, please..." you begged, closed your eyes tightly as your thumbs craving his cheek continuously and softly.
Steven's breaths finally came to a calm state as his face softened at your concern, he let his forehead rested on yours for a bit before spoke.
"I'm sorry, we need to figure this thing out or all of us going to die" Steven whispered.
You stayed silent, tears had dried up slowly, thumbs stopped its circulations as your lips were quivering, your body shook violently in fear.
"What's the damage?" you heard Amethyst asked, slowly, Steven pulled you to stand up fully onto your feet, looking to your other three best friends who worked on the Little Homeworld.
Your bruise surprisingly stopped aching and hurting, though it's coloured were still looked pretty dull and disgusting, but you managed to tear your eyes away from the bad looking and gross bruise that you had grown fond of; with that being said, you followed Steven closely behind with Spinel following you after.
You turned and looked at Spinel who looked completely lost, made you smiled softly at her and signalled her to come closer to the group.
"Amethyst, get away from me," Peridot said, her hand waved at Amethyst, shooing Amethyst as her head looked to the side. "I can't stand to see you all vacant and bereft of personality"
"Yo, I'm back, you dip," Amethyst said in such a bored tone, her eyes glared at the dramatic Peridot.
Peridot flinched, her head straightened and looked back to Amethyst who looked completely normal into her eyes, internally sighed in relief, she nervously chuckled and did a nervous pose as sweat trickled on her head.
"Oh! Well, you're just in time for the end of the world!" Peridot joked. Your eyes widened at the joke, hands covered your mouth in fear. Steven took a notice of your action and took your hand into his, giving it a reassuring squeeze. Peridot only received a silence when she told her joke, slowly, she got serious and turned to her machine, tapped some buttons on it. "This is no ordinary Injector. Whatever it's leaking into the ground is toxic. Let's get a scan going and see what we're dealing with"
Your eyes darted to the injector, saw that a lot of round looking robots we're scanning on the injector, flashed the information into the advanced microwave; you stopped staring at the horrifying injector and darted your eyes to Bismuth who had shovelled some soil sample and gave it to Peridot which she bubbled them and put it inside on the microwave, started to pushed some buttons as calculations began.
The results came out of the side of the microwave with some beeping sounds, Peridot instantly ripped the paper off the microwave and began to read intensively.
"Just as I thought," Peridot said seriously, looked up to the glowing injector. Peridot used her power and lift up her tablet, took a picture of it, it revealed a calculation of the injector and the insides of it. "Bio-poison, pure and uncut. 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, hmm... 41 hours until the destruction of all organic life on Earth"
"All organic life?" Steven repeated, terrifyingly looked up to the injector.
"Yeah, like all the animals, the plants, the insects. You know... People" Peridot answered, shrugged in no concern.
Your eyes went further, even more, you could feel your blood head stopped running in your head and made your heart jumped in fear, your hand grasped your gem, terrified of what the injector could do to you.
You looked at Steven, tears welled up on your eyes, lips quivering in pure shock and scared.
"S-S-Steven..." you stuttered.
Steven looked at you, caught your scared face made him grew concerned about you; his eyes then darted to your clutched hand that was on your chest, reminding Steven the small injector was still in your Gem, Steven instantly got the message and his face quickly turned pale.
"Oh no... This is what Spinel meant: 'your human half won't stand a chance against my Injector'. She... She brought this thing here to kill me, and now... now it's gonna kill everything else on Earth, too?" Steven panicked, his hands formed two fists, tight. Steven looked at you in regret and fear, his lips made a huge frown. "And now (Y/N)'s dying! I-I will be regretting this my entire life! I've gotta do something!"
Steven quickly rushed to the injector of fear of losing you; Bismuth, Lapis, Amethyst, Peridot and you looked the scene unfold in worry.
"No, Steven, wait!" Bismuth yelled, clenched her fists.
"Steven! Stop!" Peridot joined, warned Steven.
Steven ignored the calls of his friends, huffed angrily, he finally arrived at the giant injector; Steven rubbed both of his hands together and gripped the drills, his chest puffed out and his teeth gritted tightly.
"Super Steven strength!!" Steven shouted.
Steven started pulled the drills upwards, revealed the injector slowly got dragged out of the ground, only to be saving the dirt for a quiet moment; Steven's muscles ached irritatedly, his teeth sink deeply together, his veins could be seen clearly on his forehead and neck, and his knuckles slowly turned bright white as he was holding the injector tightly in his hands.
You watched Steven in terror, hands clamped your wide gaped mouth shut, your eyes teared up at Steven's cares upon you as you thought he has only cared for you a bit.
"Steven!" Bismuth called out again, fists clenched further in concern.
"Careful!" Amethyst joined Bismuth's side, her eyebrows furrowed deeply.
"What is that clod thinking?" Peridot angrily shouted, gets herself frustrated.
"Steven..." you whispered under your breath, still couldn't believe how Steven was still fighting for his home and for you too.
"Yeah! Lift with your legs!" Spinel informed Steven, cupped her cheek as her eyes shut happily.
Steven slowly grew struggle to lift up the huge injector, his gem flickered in a fading glow, his muscles had finally given up on him, made him lost grip on the injector and accidentally let go of it, the injector then had dug deeper than before as the ground began to crack; the others and you lost your balance, made all of you stumbled on the cracked ground.
Steven plopped onto the ground harshly, groaned in pain, he looked to the ground that had started to splashed out some of its poisons; as he saw a poison liquid neared him, he closed his eyes tightly for the impact to attack him.
But it never came.
He fluttered opened his eyes, he saw you were above him while you blocked the incoming pink liquid to be attacking; he saw that your eyes were shut tightly in pain, lips were also shut as whimpers could be heard, your cheeks puffed up as if you were both blocking your air out or wanted to puke out again.
Steven was about to call you out but suddenly the ground shook again and cracked further, made both of you and Steven slipped into one of its cracked but Steven managed to grabbed your waists and held you tight in his embrace, not wanting to let you got dump down inside of the crack that was full with the pink glowing liquid, his legs managed to hold the weight of both him and you, his eyes squinted at the sight below him.
As he was letting down his guard, Steven felt the collar of his jacket was being lifted up and himself was being dragged away from the horrible even, made Steven sighed in relief.
Steven was almost harshly set down on the ground but he could bother that less.
"Well, look at what I reeled in!" Spinel joked, both of her eyes giddily looked at the both of you and Steven.
Steven gasped.
"(Y/N)!" Steven called, let go of the embrace.
You took it as an advantage and moved your body to the side, puking your throat out, the burn sensation was again felt but it became more painful every time it happened as if the liquid had peeled the inside part of your throat; while puking, you were crying intensive, hoping the puke could stop anytime soon.
Steven jumped in concern, he went to your side and patted your back softly, his eyes held guilt and tear, he couldn't bear to lose you, he just couldn't.
"(Y/N)! Steven!" Peridot called, ran after the both of the hybrids.
Amethyst soon joined her side.
"Is she okay?" Amethyst asked.
Steven looked up to Amethyst before shook his head slowly, hand still patted the back of yours, he couldn't hold back his horrible guilt inside of his aching heart.
Everyone left you to finish up vomiting, the sound of your cries and puking mixed up and it doesn't sound good to the others' ears and they didn't like it even a bit.
Spinel sat beside you, held your hand tenderly, her happy aura earlier instantly disappeared and was replaced by concern, she felt as if she was the one who started this but she couldn't figure out if she really did it or not, so she just held tight in your hand and just wanted to be by your side afterwards.
After several seconds, you had finally finished your puking, coughed violently, made your sore throat began to feel aching and hurt as if blood started to prickled inside of your throat.
"(Y/N), oh stars. Are you okay?" Steven asked in concern, held your other and into his tightly as his thumb rubbed on your knuckles for comfort.
You didn't answer and weakly looked at Steven with your half-lidded and tired eyes, mouth separated a bit while you still tried to gather back all of the oxygen you left, sweats covered your body which made you very uncomfortable and needed bath immediately.
Steven got the answer, lifted his sleeve and rubbed off the remaining pink liquid vomit you had left on your blue looking lips, softly rubbed it off, he was being super careful about not wanting to make you winced.
Steven glanced behind your back, clearly that your organic shirt was creating a huge hole in the middle and your skin was burnt red due to the toxic hit, Steven gulped.
Why couldn't he use his powers now? Seeing you hurt and in pain was the last thing he wanted to see.
"Her organic shirt..." Steven whispered by loud enough for the others took a notice of it. Steven softly grazed his fingers on your burnt, made you lowly whimpered in pain and tiredly closed your eyes. Steven stopped. He then looked at his friends with a very sad face. "I can't do anything with my powers like this. Bismuth, Lapis, can't you lift that thing? Peridot, what about your metal powers?"
The three gems looked at Steven with a complete offended and obvious faces, their faces winced and crumpled to his oblivious question.
"You think we didn't try that?" Lapis asked in confusion, started the obvious to him.
Peridot cleared her throat, caught everyone's attention to her, including yours and Spinel's.
Peridot used her metallic power and floated the tablet into the air, watched carefully so that everyone could see what's happening on the screen, she then began to speak.
"Disturbing the injector accelerates the poison's rate of release" Peridot stated to everyone, especially Steven. Peridot then winced and scrunched her nose, brought back the tablet to her once again. "Also, it might explode" Peridot informed, made your whole face has gone it's the circulation of blood. It will not explode in you, would it? "We have to find a way to move it, without touching it, before it's too late" Peridot finished.
Steven cursed under his breath, held your hand tighter in his, slowly regretting his idiotic actions of lifting the injector and shorten your probably life-span.
His head then suddenly jolted upwards.
"Spinel! She activated it, so she must be able to deactivate it" Steven paused, turned his head to look at Spinel who stupidly waved her hands while blinking at not at the same pace. "But, she doesn't even remember what it is, let alone how to control it..." Steven sighed.
"Then you gotta change her back," Bismuth said casually, shrugged her shoulders.
"No way! She's cute and harmless now, but if we bring her back, she'll kill us all!" Steven panicked, held your hands tighter.
Peridot rolled her eyes in annoyance, scoffed.
"You're going to die anyway, if you don't get her to deactivate that thing" Peridot informed, waved her hands in prominent.
"She's right, Steven. You got me back. Whatever you did for me, just do it for her" Amethyst answered, pointed to herself before pointed to Spinel who still dumbly looked around to her surroundings.
"That's different; I know you. I don't know anything about Spinel. None of us had even heard of her before!" Steven stated, bit his nail in frustration. "How are we supposed to do this?"
"H..." Steven heard you said.
Steven leaned to you, hands still gripping on and in each other but weakly, Steven's eyes travelled your tired looking body, gulped in regression.
"What is it?" Steven asked softly, rubbed behind your back and tried as hard to not rubbed your burns.
You looked at him, eyes are now fully going back to normal, lips curled in a very weak smile but nevertheless, Steven noticed the smile and smiled back softly.
"How about... Pearl?" you asked, head leaning on Steven's shoulder.
With that being said, Steven's eyes and smile went wide with a bright new idea had formed in his head, thanks to you of course.
I am so sorry for the late publish! I've been writing this before but never finish them hehe...
For a payback, let's do a QnA, to anyone who wanted!
Thank you guys so much for reading up till now and gave me so much of supports! I love y'all.