Summary: Just processing how close to death we were
Angie was coming back with everyone else from the evacuation site, the green sky once more its normal color. The road was filled with an awkward worry, knowing that Marco and Star, who were not with them, probably got involved themselves.
Fortunately, Greg Universe was kind enough to lend them a ride in his van, equally worried about his own son, and he seemed somewhat more reassured than she felt at the moment. "Don't worry, I've known the gems for quite a while. I haven't seen anything lay a scratch on them yet."
"So our children will be well protected?" Rafael asked with concern.
"Yeah, trust me, they'll be … fine …" Mr Universe trailed off as they slowed down, watching as a group of dazed looking kids were led out of the wreckage of what looked like the giant hand in the sky. "STEVEN!"
"Dad!" Star's brother ran out to greet the man, and the two met each other with a hug.
"What happened, you look so hurt!?" He glared at the Crystal Gems. "You said you'd protect him!"
"Yeah, we sort of, kind of…ditched our parents and came running back to help everyone." Star admitted sheepishly.
"..." Greg looked back and forth between everyone. "Steven!! When I said you're free to do what you want, I didn't mean running into giant warships that the Gems said they may not have been able to handle!"
"It's because they couldn't handle it that we had to come back!" The boy defended. "And yeah, we got knocked unconscious and taken to space, but Marco and I busted everyone out afterwards!"
"You were all on that thing!?" Rafeal pointed to the massive pile of burning green metal.
"You were knocked unconscious!?" Angie ran to Marco. "Oh my baby, how could we let this happen!?"
"It's not your fault, it was the jerks that came because they think Steven is his mom and they really want to find Mewni for some reason." Kelly rolled her eyes at that. "Ignorant pricks."
"Yeah, about that." Star looked at Garnet. "They called it a second moon or something."
"You should probably wait on the explanation … your mom is rushing here."
"Star!!!! Quartz!!!" Queen butterfly's voice rang in the air as she appeared on top of Lion from a portal, with a sword in one hand and a flail knife in the other . "Where are my children!?!"
"…That might be the coolest Mom's ever looked." Steven muttered. "We're in so much trouble."
"Yes, yes you are." Greg said plainly. "I was fine with a lot of stuff, but this!" He pointed at the damaged state the boy was in. "This is too much."
"I've taken much harder punches to the face before, we all have!" It looks like Mr. Universe was getting his first dose of teenage rebellion from his own kid. It was bound to happen sooner or later.
=======================================================================
River watched as the doctor finished examining their children. "By all accounts it's incredible." The doctor turned to them. "Are you sure your son isn't a monster? Maybe a Serpantis?"
"What was that, doctor?" Moon-pie raised a fist filled with blue magic.
"Nothing, my Queen." The doctor spoke, afraid for his life. "It's just …. According to these exams the front of his skull has markings indicating it recently healed from a full on break … which should have taken months, maybe years to heal."
"He cracked his skull!?" River, not unfamiliar with similar injuries, was flabbergasted. That should only happen when he reached sixteen at the youngest.
"According to the reports of what your son and daughter went through, by all accounts it should be the equivalent of hitting an egg on the side of a bowl." They flipped through papers. "But he appears perfectly healthy, and your daughter, luckily, only has bruises across her body."
"Yeah…lucky me." Star grumbled, struggling to sit in her damaged state.
"Thank you for your time, doctor. Now leave us be." Moon ordered the man, and now it was just them and their two children. "What the bloody hell were the two of you thinking!?! I warned you that this was too much for either of you to handle, and you both got kidnapped, and barely escaped by the skin of your teeth!"
"I'm sorry …" Quartz muttered. "I thought we could have made a difference but … it didn't do much in the end." He held himself tight. "Garnet was the only one that could fight Jasper, Peridot got away, and Lapis is suffering at the bottom of the ocean …"
"You were right...mom." Star hugged her knees and kept herself in a ball. "About hiding the truth, everyone wants to kill my brother just because he exists, and I can't use this stupid wand to protect him!!" She threw said object across the room. "They stomped on everything we could throw at them, they destroyed my spells like nothing, and they threaten to torture Marco!" Star's eyes let out a whole river of tears. "I was useless the entire time…I'm the worst princess ever."
River went over to his daughter, holding her close. "There there … there were plenty of worse princesses. Eclipsa, Dirhhennia, it's a tough place to beat." The look Moon-pie sent him clearly stated he wasn't helping. "I've lost plenty of fight in my day, and do you know what I did after?"
"Hide away so you can shield yourself from shame?" He couldn't tell if his daughter was making a joke.
"I got back up, licked my wounds, trained the absolute best I could, then beat them later."
"Beat them later.." Star looked at her hands, concentrated, and summoned…Quartz's bubble? "There's a way to fight them…we can learn how to fight back." She turned to him. "Thanks dad."
"I swear I'm so close to the Saint Olga's solution, I swear to corn." Moon sighted.
"Ah…no one told you?" Quartz asked. "Ms Heinous was brainwashing the princesses with shock therapy, so we helped overthrow it."
"..." She sighed. "I swear the commission gives me more headaches every day."
"Wait, the commission!?"
"Hekapoo has to check on any dimensional jamming locations, she would well be aware of what happens inside of the institution, so the Commission either approved it, or they don't care either way what happens inside."
"I'm starting to feel less good about Rhombulus and less guilty about lion messing with Heckapoo." River sighed at his son's admission. Life was just getting more and more complicated by the day.
========================================================================
Sadie watched Marco walk into the Big Donut … alone. That alone was a major red flag, yet a hope spot for Sadie. Maybe he was trying to make amends with Lars, finally.
"Hey, Marco, alone today?" She started off a bit awkwardly.
"Yeah yeah, I um … came to talk to Lars actually." He said with a daze. "The last crazy thing got a bit more … intense then usual, kinda got introspective about my life."
"Yeah…Lars unfortunately took the whole alien hand thing as an excuse to take a day off, something the manager didn't fight against." She sheepishly explained.
"Great, the one day I feel like apologizing and he's not here for it." The boy grunted.
"Hey there'll be other times…hopefully." The fact he was here at all was a step in the right direction. "I'm still here, if you still need someone to talk to."
"Sure, I'll … have a chocolate donut, please." She smiled as she gave him his order. "So, you've been near the beach a lot, right? You've seen the gems and the stuff they do?"
"Mainly Amethyst dumpster diving, but yeah." Sadi shrugged. "That's what the hand thing was, wasn't it?"
"Invasion of super tough gem aliens coming to beat us up and take Steven and Star prisoner." That was certainly a sentence that was said. "I'm used to fighting people by this, but this barely counted as a scuffle, it was so one sided."
"You're still doing more than what most kids our age can do." Marco was probably the most athletic person at school from all the magic stuff he's been doing. "And you made it out alive, that has to count for something."
"I guess … it's like, I just kinda accept we almost die every second, our lives are crazy like that, but this time felt a bit more … serious, I guess. Like we really got out of it with just the skin of our teeth."
This was definitely a bit of a pickle. Sadie only had one real experience with this kind of stuff during the island trip, unless getting chased by a pink dinosaur also counted. Both times Marco actually helped her out. "Heh, you've always seemed pretty reliable and resourceful to me, the fact the danger is only hitting you now kinda shows how brave and put together you are."
"Well I was one of the only two people to break out of a jail cell …" Marco blinked before smirking. "A SPACE jail cell!"
"Yeah, that's right, own it." She smirked right back. "Lars can barely find his way through the storage closet half the time. You escaped getting webbed and or eaten by a giant bug and lizard, you jump through those weird portals and travel to who knows where! You've done twice as much more than most people around here do in a lifetime."
"Heck yeah, even if I die I can't say it wasn't l well lived." Marco smiled, taking a bite. "I'm eating something other than plain for the first time, my life is in the danger zone."
"Watch out world, the safe kid just became a daredevil." She said sarcastically, laughing and just glad he was in a better mood now. He was a really impressive guy, why the heck was he still single?
"Yeah, yeah, thanks, I needed that." Marco returned the laughter. "Say, my friends are going to try and forget about everything that happened at this place called the Bounce Lounge, would you like to come along?"
"Sure, why not." Maybe a lounge hang out was just what she needed.
========================================================================
So..the entire thing with Jasper and the warship was a huge shit show, Kelly couldn't deny that. What was worse was that even though the entire group was feeling worthless, she knew for a fact she was the biggest piece of dead weight among everyone.
She was just … in a cell. No Tad, no Steven, no anyone. Just her and her thoughts of self deprecation running through her mind on loop until she was rescued by the others. Kelly just needed comfort at the moment, any kind.
Her first thought was Tad, but he was still unconscious from getting attacked, so that was a no go there. The only other option that she could think of that could possibly begin to make her feel better beyond anything alcoholic was Steven, and she wasn't sure if he was even in the mood.
He wasn't answering his mirror and Star said he took off on Lion a while ago, to who knows where was anybody's guess. Not to mention Star having to explain how she got her hands on Dimensional Scissors … so that was another whole thing there. So she remembered all the early adventures, and thought of any place that he would go for thought gathering …
She slapped her head the moment she realized where he was. With a quick snip of her own scissors, Kelly immediately went to Roy's Goblin dog truck, and sure enough, Steven was there, laying against the pink pet with an uneaten goblin dog in his hands.
"Everybody told me Gem stuff's dangerous.
I guess I didn't believe it until now,
Dad always seemed apprehensive.
And now he's really freaking out.
What do I do?
I don't want that for you…"
She watched from the side as Steven just looked at his phone, occasionally people from the food truck line throwing coins at him like he was putting on a show, which he kind of was.
"Everybody tells me life is precious,
Whether on Mewni or on Earth
And I have to protect you.
What if somehow you all get hurt?
What do I do?
I don't want that for you…"
She almost forgot that Steven had quite the pair of vocal chops on him. Tad never bothered with that kind of thing to begin with. Everything Steven could be feeling right now was perfectly conveyed with this song he could only be making up on the top of his head.
"Ooh.
Ooh.
Ooh.
Ooh.
What am I going to tell you?
You're better off not knowing
the trouble I'm in.
I don't want you to worry,
About what I've just seen,
About where I've just been.
You don't have to be a part of this,
I don't think I want you to be.
You don't need this.
You don't need me…"
"I highly disagree with that last part very much." Kelly stopped him before he could go on any further in his sad lament. "The others might have a problem with the lyrics too, but other than that, I give it a solid eight out of ten."
"Oh, Kelly, how did you-"
"We both know Roy never talks or listens to his customers unless it's to pass his test or asking for an order." She replied, sitting down next to him.
"Yeah…it was the only place I could think of to clear my head." Steven looked at his untouched hotdog. "Except I don't want to eat this alone, but being alone is the only thing I can process right now." He sighed. "Remember when it was just you helping me when a bunch of woolets were trying to pound me into paste?"
"The good old days." She said, "Where all we had to do was kick Ludo's but and work out mundane daily problems in our lives."
"We didn't even need magic when it was just me and Star. She could handle herself even without my bubble." He looked at his hands. "Now that's not even enough with her wand. And now..now my sister is on Homeworld's radar just because I'm her brother. Should…should I have even stayed on Mewni when Dad found me?."
"Well if you didn't you wouldn't have met me." Kelly shrugged. "Or Lion." She pointed at the lazy cat. "I call that a win in my books."
"Yeah..those are pretty good arguments." Steven squeezed his food. "You asked me before about not regretting choices…do you really not regret meeting me?"
"Of course not, you're the most fun I have." She gave the boy a hug, leaning into him. "And if you really want to be alone and not focus on these negative thoughts … we could always leave it to Kurtz." She suggested.
Steven began pulling away. "Kelly, we can't fuse … we were bad last time … we hurt Pearl." He argued. "It was almost like a … a chain. I promised Amethyst we wouldn't do it again."
"It'll be different this time, I promise." She scooted closer. "There's nobody we need to fight. Fusion's just supposed to be an experience…so let's just be an experience."
"Kelly...I." The boy stammered, with a blush on his face.
"You feel like being alone, and I get that. You feel like what you have, what you are isn't enough. Well, I feel like that a lot of the time too." Kelly moved her hand and placed it on Steven's. "I can tell you from experience that it's better when you're alone together with someone who understands, and I want to understand you, Steven Quartz Universe Butterfly."
Steven's eyes let out a small leak before he wiped his face. "You promise there won't be any fighting? It's just going to be Kurtz having fun like when Quana first formed?"
"Steven, Ponyhead invited us to the Bounce Lounge. We're just going to be partying with people much weirder and freakier than we are." Kelly smiled. "That sound fun?"
"It actually does. Maybe with my bad dancing and your great dancing will make them somewhat good." That cute smile returned to his face. "Won't Tad get the wrong idea though?"
"He's recovering, he won't be able to make it." And she would kick him out of her hair if he made a big stink of it.
"Oh … okay then." Steven held out his hand. "If you … really want to do this." She did, more than anything. To get back that warmth and comfort. It was something they both needed in the end.
========================================================================
Ponyhead pov-getting her friend out of their funk at the bounce lounge, the group noticing Kurtz, dancing the entire time, has been formed for quite a while without break
"Welcome Donut Gal, to the one and only Bounce Lounge! The greatest party in all of anywhere and everywhere!" Ponyhead introduced the new girl to the music as they waited on Kelly, since Q-fly was unavailable wherever he was.
Ever since the big hand thing everyone's been in a funk. So Ponyhead, in all her friendship glory, used Star's scissors, since the girl's hands were mittined as punishment, and brought everyone together for one big party sesh!
"So this is what it's like to be in another dimension?" Donut girl looked around at the great sight before her, trying to shield her eyes. "Marco, why didn't you warn me to grab sunglasses? This light is blinding me."
"It fades into the background after like, three to seven minutes." Earth turd replied.
"The eyes are weak, but the spirit is strong. That's the motto any professional partner will tell yah." Pony laughed. "Though I might need to suggest a few things to add around here, Saint O's party train hasn't stopped since we ran that old hag out of the school."
"Yep, the party is forever." B-fly laughed with half her normal strength. "The power of having peace and fun … ya know?"
"Girl, I get that rocks from space were trying to probe you or something, but you can leave that junk to be dealt with in the morning." She nudged the girl in the back. "Tonight, just forget about all worries and problems that'll just drag you down more."
"Exactly." Earth turd smiled. "Let me show you a dance move I call, 'the robot'." He just began to move in place stiffly.
"... Wow, I didn't think you could top the boring name of Lion or Beach Creek, but here we are." Ponyhead deadpanned.
"I'll have you know me and Steven came up with that name after two days of intense thinking and planning."
"You had two days and you thought of Lion?" Donut girl asked.
"Hah, shoes on the other foot!" Earth turd laughed.
"I don't know, I think it fits." They all turn to … a figure that would make anyone bicurious. Long flowing curly green hair that had bits of brown in it, making it resemble mint ice cream. Perfectly tanned skin with eyes that just seemed to sparkle. "Hope I didn't miss the action."
"Not at all my fellow partier." She got in close, putting on her best pose. "Can I get the name of someone as hunky as you?"
"Aw what's wrong Pony, can't recognize half of Q-fly?" They smirked.
"What the-?" Pony gave the stranger another look over, their exposed midriff showing of a familiar looking rock in their belly button area. "Quartz!?" She backed off.
"Kurtz in this state … but may change it, been feeling a lot better about myself and a name change could boot from that." They shrugged. "So, I take it I look great for a party?"
"Qua..bro…you..you look less freaked out than this morning." Star got out of that half hearted funk and looked relieved somewhat.
"Steven's drifting in and out, mainly trying to have fun at the moment with Kelly instead of focusing on negativity." The apparent fusion answered. "Now come on, my favorite and only sister, let's get on the dance floor, I've got four-" Their hair stood straight. "Six limbs that need to flex and move around."
"Kurtz, give me-aha!" Star wasn't given a choice as she was dragged out, all signs of moodiness being replaced with excitement.
"That's my girl and bro figure! Sorta of." Pony watched them dance. "So … that's the Kelly fusion?" She asked Earth turd and a flustered Donut girl. "They look good together."
"Yeah..really good." Donut girl said with an almost non existent voice.
"Come on, let's have fun before we start asking ourselves even more confusing questions." Earth turd grabbed the donut girl's hand.
"The only one I want to ask is if Kelly finally dumped that Tad chump if she's this chummy with Q-fly." The thing she said last time … it still gave her some worries.