Where Loyalties Stray

Chapter Fifteen

"Steven!" yelled Pearl as she ran over by Steven and Connie.

Steven groaned.

"Steven, are you okay?" Pearl asked, holding his face in her hands.

"So...tired. Verdelite destroyed us," Steven muttered.

"Well..." Pearl started, thinking of an idea. "What if the two of us fused?"

Steven stayed still on the ground before answering. "Sure."

Pearl helped Steven stand up and face her. Connie woke up and sat up. Both Connie and Verdelite watched, intrigued by what was about to happen.

Pearl started to dance gracefully. At first, Steven stumbled around, but he eventually matched Pearl's dancing. Steven spun Pearl (on his tip-toes because of the height difference between them) and they glowed a peach color.

A new gem appeared. She had Pearl's hairdo, but with brown hair and longer than her usual hair. She had tan skin like Steven's skin color. She had four arms and was a little shorter than Opal. She was wearing Steven's red shirt with a star on it, but the shirt was a light pink instead of red. She was wearing darker pink leggings with a ribbon like Pearl's around her waist. On her feet were tan flats.

"I'm a giant woman," whispered the gem, looking down at her hands.

"Moonstone!" she replied to herself, putting her hands on her hip and looking up at Verdelite.

"Well, well, Moonstone," said Verdelite, her voice echoing across the beach. "Are you finally ready to fight, or are you just going to keep fusing?" Verdelite laughed at her own joke, and a few gems not busy fighting laughed along with her. "You cannot fuse forever, Steven."

"Maybe we can!" yelled Moonstone.

She ran forward and summoned her weapon: a shield with a spear tucked inside. Moonstone removed the spear and charged Verdelite. Verdelite swung one of her fighting fans, blasting a gust of wind at Moonstone. Moonstone flew backwards, but landed on her feet. She ran forward again, and ducked under the fan. She sliced at Verdelite's ankle, and continually stabbed her as she kept running around Verdelite.

Verdelite tried to swat at Moonstone with her hands and fans, but Moonstone kept stabbing. Moonstone stabbed the back of Verdelite's knees, and she fell forward onto her knees. Moonstone summoned clouds around her, hiding where she was, as she ran to stab different parts of Verdilite's body. There was a loud yell and pop. The clouds faded away, and Yellow Diamond and Peridot were sitting separately on the ground.

"You Crystal clods!" shouted Peridot, brushing sand off of her as she stood up.

Yellow Diamond sighed and stood up. "You two are such pests." She summoned one of her fans and flipped it out, to show the harsh patterns on it. "Well, not for long."

Yellow Diamond threw a fan at Moonstone. Moonstone gasped, trying to summon her shield on time. Connie was standing next to her and jumped in front of Moonstone.