The Soul Gem

Reunion

"Stevonnie!" Alexandrite said in glee, happy to see Steven and Connie again.

"Reunion later. What's going on?" Stevonnie asked.

"New gem. Tiny cluster. Turned into that I guess," Amethyst said from Alexandrite's second mouth.

"Ok then. So we can't rule out corruption yet," Stevonnie said as Ermac staggered back to get back on balance.

"His gem's in the back of his mouth!" Peridot yelled to Stevonnie.

"Ok. So we just need to get in there, rip his gem out and then Steven can purify him and we can go from there," Stevonnie planned.

"We need to watch out for his blast wave attacks. His powers let him do a form of telekinetic push if he covers you with the green energy he produces," Alexandrite added. Then as if right on cue, the hum began once more and Ermac's armor plates started glowing green again.

"Come on Ermac! I can't keep holding your blast waves back like this!" Lapis said as she tried to make another water bubble around him. Before she could though, Ermac let out another roar and the blast wave unleashed from him. Stevonnie wasn't expecting the energy wave, so they got hit with it too. All gems fighting were coated in the energy, except instead of being pushed away from him. Everyone felt a sudden pull, and Lapis noticed the ocean water started gravitating towards Ermac and she know what was going on.

"Uh oh," Lapis said as all at once, Peridot, Jasper, Alexandrite and Stevonnie were sudden launched towards Ermac. The Connie part of Stevonnie recognized how they could use this to their advantage, as they adjusted in midair. Using their sword and curling up to spin as a buzzsaw that was aimed directly towards one of Ermac's unarmored parts. Stevonnie felt the sword make contact, and then they were suddenly behind Ermac as the arm fell into the ocean completely severed from the gigantic body.

"Cool that actually worked!" The Steven part of Stevonnie said, recognizing the work they did. They saw Jasper smash through Ermac's left leg with her helmet, Lapis filling the gaps in the armor and leg with water and making the water expand until the leg was now also severed entirely as that leg now fell back into the ocean. Alexandrite turned Sardonyx's hammer into a drill, and jammed it into Ermac's right leg. The drill made the armor plate give way, and the drill punched through the other side. Then Alexandrite used Sugilite's flail, made a wide swing and wrapped the chain around the hole in the leg.

"Have a nice trip!" Amethyst joked from Alexandrite, yanking the flair back as it tore Ermac's knee out and severed his right leg from his gigantic body. Ermac tried to use his other arm to catch himself, as his gigantic body crashed into the ocean. Peridot used her powers to lift carry Bismuth over to Ermac's remaining arm. Bismuth turned her hands into axe blades, slicing into the unarmored piece of his arm. Alexandrite leapt up, using Opal's bow to fire an arrow into the gap Bismuth made. The arrow blasted up and outwards, which exasperated the gap and tore the arm asunder from the body.

Ermac fell forward, the body trying to either reattach the limbs it was missing or trying to regrow the limbs outright. Stevonnie used their slow descent to get back to the other gems. Ermac was flailing with his now severely limited mobility, as if a cornered animal that was trying to figure out how to get out of this situation. Then the humming pulse began again, the parts of Ermac that were missing having green sparks of energy instead of the glowing plates.

"Wait...what happens if he tries to do his blast waves without arms and legs?" Amethyst asked as Alexandrite defused into the Crystal Gems. The gems noticed Ermac's jaw open, the armor plating around his cheeks snapping and flipping backwards into his mouth. The inside of his mouth now starting to glow with that same green electrical energy.

"It's a laser! It's a laser!" Amethyst said in a panic, as she summoned her whips. She jumped up and lashed the whips around Ermac's head, landing on top and trying to pull and leverage the mouth closed. Pearl and Garnet joined Amethyst in trying to force the jaw closed.

"The plating is keeping his mouth open! We need to break those pieces of armor!" Jasper realized, before summoning her helmet and bull charging towards one of the armor plates. She made contact, Lapis joining in and trying to use water to pull the armor plating out. Bismuth was using her hammer hands to try and smash out the other piece of armor. Peridot was trying to use her ferrokinesis to try and dislodge Ermac's gem, prying from the metallic housing to try and rip it out of its rooted place.

"We aren't going to close his mouth before the laser comes! Peridot, keep prying! I have a plan!" Stevonnie instructed before running directly into Ermac's mouth. They summoned a wall of hexagonal barriers inside of Ermac's throat, hoping it would block the laser long enough to try and remove the gem. Stevonnie stood on the hexagonal platform they made, grabbing their sword and trying to basically carve the gem out of its place. As they sliced up the back of his mouth, it kept trying to heal. Stevonnie carving up the inside of Ermac's mouth, combined with Peridot prying at the gem with her powers lead go the gem being torn out of its place. Peridot brought the gem to her hands and put it into a green bubble.

"Got it!" Peridot yelled in confirmation. Once the gem got ripped out, Ermac's form seemed to lose power. His eyes lost their glow, revealing that the form had no eyes in the first place. They were just empty sockets that got filled with light. The glowing armor plating gradually faded back to its prismatic sheen. The form itself went limp and collapsed like a puppet severed from its strings. Garnet briefly used her future vision, and grabbed the other gems before leaping off of Ermac's head.

"Stevonnie! Jasper! Bismuth! Get out of there!" Garnet warned. The group was confused as to why, before Ermac's giant form starting shimmering and steaming. Stevonnie quickly formed a bubble barrier around all of them as Ermac's giant form suddenly exploded in a rainbow colored smoke cloud.

"Yikes. That's a reeeeaaal big poof," Amethyst said with an afraid look on her face as the form was gone when the smoke cleared. Stevonnie protected everyone and dropped the bubble barrier once the smoke cleared. After that, Steven and Connie unfused. Connie and Steven hugged, then Steven walked over to Peridot.

"Alright. Let's just try to fix this guy to rule out corruption right off the gate," Steven said as he took the Peridot bubbled gem and started carrying it back to the temple.