Lapis come back, crashing into the side of the barn without her usual grace. When Lapis did occasionally crash into the barn it was because she wanted to scare Peridot, but today it felt different. She collided with the barn, and she fell to the ground. She crashed hard enough to make Peridot worried, and shake the entire barn. There was a moment of silence that was only filled with the sound of splintering wood. Peridot was quick to respond and she was outside, looking for Lapis.
She wasn't all that worried. Until she realized that she couldn't find Lapis at all.
"Lapis! Lapis! This isn't funny anymore! C'mon!" Peridot spun around, looking for any sign of Lapis. There was none. "Lapis, this isn't funny anymore! Did I do something wrong! Are you okay?"
She looked around again, only to see anything but Lapis. She walked around the barn twice, looking for her, anything that could be her, or anything could tell her that Lapis was there, even for a moment. There was none.
"This isn't funny, Lapis!" Peridot's shout echoed. She felt small. Alone. "Are you hurt?"
Now this received an answer. It was a sob. Peridot froze, wanting to run towards the sound to help Lapis, but at the same time she was petrified to see what happened to Lapis. The sound pulled her back for a moment, but only just a moment.
Anything else on earth could have been better. Peridot ran towards the sound, through the cornfield, pushing away tall stalks until she saw the unsettling shade of blue in the field of yellows of the cornfield. She froze. This wasn't Lapis.
Lapis, or at least something that looked like her, was covered in blotches of strange blue and ocean blue-green, and spikes were randomly jutting out of her skin in a way that looked painful. There were no understandable words coming out of her mouth anymore. She sobbed, screamed, and cried. But nothing that was Lapis.
It felt like an eternity that Peridot was waiting, expecting Lapis to reveal that it was all just a joke. This wasn't Lapis. This must be another gem, another Lapis. This wasn't her Lapis. Not her. This wasn't possible, it didn't feel possible.
Peridot had to pause to find the words to speak anything at all. And when she did it was perhaps one of the few times when she found herself speaking elementarily.
"Lapis? It's okay. We'll be fine." Peridot crept closer, afraid that sudden movements might set something off in her and make her attack. She had seen Jasper corrupted, and if Jasper's words were true about Lapis's strength, she was far from happy to see her as a corrupted.
Lapis looked up at Peridot, making her freeze for a moment. Her eyes were glazed over and grey and lifeless, but Peridot felt like they were looking right into her past. Her life. Life before she was a Crystal Gem. Back when they were enemies.
Peridot closed her eyes and thought that it was truly going to be the end for her, with the wild look in Lapis's grey eyes and the way that she was twitching.
"Help." she whispered, her voice barely heard and raspy, like she was clawing at her throat. Peridot opened her eyes to see that Lapis now had claws, and they were digging into the soft warm dirt. They left deep groove, and Peridot shuddered at the thought of what type of damage Lapis could do if she were afraid. To her. To her gem.
"How?" she knelt down next to Lapis, her hands reaching out to touch her, but always pulling back at the last moment, like something was pulling her back. She was afraid of Lapis. She didn't know hot to fix this. She didn't know how to help.
With a groan, Lapis lifted her head and gasped for air. She locked eyes with Peridot.
"I know what's....going to happen. Stop it."
"How?"
There was no reply, but Peridot had the horrible feeling that Lapis wanted her to stop this. Lapis knew that Peridot didn't have healing powers and didn't know how to stop this.
"I can't." The thought was impossible. But at the same time reaching out to touch her friend to comfort her was just as impossible. Everything at that moment felt wrong and off, like when she was poofed and bubbled, everything felt like time was moving without her. She was trapped in this moment, in this choice that Peridot couldn't ever make.
There was no reply. Again, Lapis couldn't form proper words, just sounds that were between groans and screams, suppressed.
"I'm not going to." Peridot thought that if she had a hero moment, like in the movies, perhaps something might help Lapis. Bravery.
Lapis started to growl, and Peridot took a deep breath in and out, but she didn't hold it. She wasn't able to stop Lapis. But this way, maybe she would stop. After all their time together, all their memories, certainly Lapis wouldn't hurt her?
There was a blinding pain as Peridot was flung to the side, which abruptly stopped when her gem was shattered.
YOU ARE READING
Steven Universe Oneshots
أدب الهواةHello and welcome to a book consisting of Steven Universe! The chapters range from headcanons, to short stories, and mostly angst. And ships. Have fun reading! (half of this is angst i lied, lapis is my son, garnet should be ruby x sapphire's ship...