Summary:
Rescue as fast as possible!
Garnet watched as Peridot trained Pearl on how to operate the spacecraft. The good news, according to the former homeworlder, Greg was not going to be dissected. The bad news was that he was going to be locked away in a space facility surrounded by hundreds of gem soldiers.
"A zoo!?" Steven shouted hysterically. "They're putting my dad in a zoo?!"
"It was built during Pink Diamond's invasion five hundred years before the war started." Peridot stated offhandedly. "To preserve the memory of the place before they drained it for resources." She turned back to Pearl. "Now, whatever you do, don't press the maximum speed button, or all organic matter will be compressed into a small ball, and the organics will be the only ones left to drive as their internal organs are completely smashed."
"Avoid that switch, understood." Pearl nodded. "Honestly I'm surprised the zoo's still functioning, that was over six thousand years ago."
"Blue Diamond has been…sentimental since Pink Diamond's passing." Peridot explained. Sentimental was not a word Garnet would ever use to describe a Diamond.
"Yeah … it felt overwhelming." Steven rubbed himself, before turning to her. "Speaking of, why didn't you tell us she was there!?" He shouted at her.
Garnet turned to Steven, removing her shades with a bit of a glare. "Steven, if I said Blue Diamond was there, you would have tried to talk to her after feeling guilty about being unable to reason with Meteora, which would have caused a crime scene worse than anything in the Neverzone after she realized you're Rose's son." She then turned to Star. "Or Star would have snuck off to execute her when no one was looking to nip a problem in the bud when nobody before it escalated, where she would get captured and interrogated until she finally let it slip Mewni was in another dimension, at which point they would have invaded Mewni and rendered it uninhabitable." She turned back to Steven. "The only future where you didn't do anything was never knowing the palaquien existed to begin with. Greg being taken is the second best outcome, because the other option was Marco."
"Very happy to avoid that future." Said boy announced with relief in his tone.
"What about the future where you actually explained all the bad that could happen BEFORE we went instead of after right now?" Star asked with a narrow look in her eye.
"You called my future vision bullshit and said you'd beat fate before you took Eclipsa, where they got the wand and then took over Mewni with a magic arsenal." Garnet rubbed her eyes. "You have to understand that there are certain events that become unavoidable when a path opens up. I don't like it anymore than you do, but there is a reason why Glosseryck is as vague as he is, though that doesn't excuse the asshole behavior."
Steven just looked frustrated, kicking a rock. "Dang you future … how do we sto-"
"You don't." Garnet stated clearly. "The Diamond's are on another level of danger. Nothing we've ever had has so much as scratched them. The amount of effort that went into taking down Pink scarred Pearl so much she can't even speak of the event without freezing up."
"Yes…that's the reason." Pearl shook hesitantly. "The only option we have is to sneak into the Zoo and grab Greg out of there."
"Which is why I'm working on disguise." A tall Amethyst laughed before wincing. "Ow ow ow … two hours is my record … going for three …"
"Okay, I'll begin working on my break out plan like usu-." Marco stated, before getting interrupted by Star.
"No, no, no. You're not going to come on this one Marco." Star explained. "We need to keep this team small this time around."
He looked like a kicked puppy. "But I'm the jail break guy …"
"I know, so write some tips down or something. It's just going to be Pearl, Amethyst, Garnet, Steven, and me." Star nodded. "And we'll need someone to keep things on Earth and Mewni safe while we're gone."
"You do realize on the off chance you of all people are caught, Mewni is doomed." She told Star.
"And you do realize that gems can barely recognize a human when they see them, let alone a Mewman?" Star countered right back. "As long as I tone it down on the Magic use, I'm sure we'll be fine."
"I know, just warning you beforehand to not let it slip." She nodded. "Speaking of, if we're playing roles it won't be as Garnet … but as Ruby and Sapphire." I'm sorry we'll be apart. Don't worry, as long as we're next to each other, anything is possible.
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"Wow." Star looked at the stars moving past them really fast. "We're blazing through the cosmos."
"Yes, that's what a gravity drive engine does." Pearl nodded with a smile. "It's incredible how far we've come. Originally it would have taken seventy years to get to Greg."
"My dad's not healthy enough to make it seventy years! He doesn't have gem powers to fall back on!" Steven freaked out.
"Hey, she said originally." Amethyst waved it off. "What's the new time?"
"At the rate we're going … we should be there in a week."
"A week!? Seriously!?" Star groaned. "Is there any way to make it go faster?"
"We're already destroying the laws of physics to cut it down by decades, it doesn't go much faster than that." Pearl retorted. "I'm just lucky Peridot explained how to change the internal settings, I would rather not spend a week Ruby sized."
"Also, you two blacked out the moment we turned on the gravity engine." Garnet pointed out. "Even if we could go faster, your bodies probably wouldn't handle it."
"Fine, I would've packed a lunch or something if I knew this would last for more than a day." Star sighed as she slumped on one of the chairs.
"I'm always packing." Amethyst pulled a burrito out of her hair. "Who wants a bite?"
"Thanks, but I prefer my food to be less hairy." Star commented before focusing on her hands. "Normal cupcake blast." And a rainbow flavored cupcake poofed into her arms. "Hooray! Magic food!" She took a big bite out of it. "Ever since I gave the wand to Eclipsa, it feels like my magic's actually gotten stronger."
"Maybe that's what Glossaryck means about getting the chunks." Steven commented. "Either that or I'm giving you a boost just by existing near you."
"Yeah, just like how Blue Diamond drained me…what is the deal with that?" Star turned to the gems.
"Diamond's have a weird effect on magic." Garnet explained as she looked to the stars. "Never got too many details, but I know that any time we found a magic well on a new colony, it seemed to be drawn to Blue Diamond."
"Eclipsa did explain to you about the Empathy aspect of your powers, right Steven?" Pearl turned to her brother.
"Yeah, why?"
"Well, from the best I can gather, the way magic affects gems is dependent on the diamonds, who in turn affect it due to their relationship with the emotional spectrum." The pale gem clarified. "Sympathy for Blue Diamond, Antipathy for Yellow Diamond, and Apathy for White Diamond."
"Sympathy …" Steven muttered with a confused look on himself. "How does pity make you a magic absorber?"
"Sympathy means to relate to the feelings of others without truly knowing what they've gone through. Blue Diamond's power mainly focuses on the emotional state of other gems. She can make them feel her sadness without them actually knowing the why of it." Pearl continued. "In turn, Blue Diamond can take the 'warmth' of those around her without having to give anything back."
"So that's what you meant by not being able to fight her." Star noted.
"I'm also pretty sure the gem destabilizers are based off of Yellow Diamond, who messes with the form and can destroy almost anything." Garnet added on. "It was probably for the best if you never got close."
"I'm guessing that Pink Diamond would be empathy, and if she made Rose, that's why Steven can do what he can with me?" Star asked, having gotten super invested with this story.
"Any magic used on Pink directly overcharged and exploded …" Pearl laughed. "At the time it was horrifying, but in hindsight seeing a laser jump around like that was a bit funny."
"So Empathy, Sympathy, Antipathy … what about Apathy, what about White?" At Steven's question the room suddenly became deadly quiet.
"White is … too much." Pearl looked like she was dazed, hugging herself. "We'd rather not talk about her, please?"
"Fine, but that just means this'll be something we'll have to talk about another day, just so you know." Steven rolled his eyes, leaning back on his own chair. "So what now?"
"I got card games." Garnet shrugged. "Go fish?"
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Marco gave his condolences to Peridot's sanity, which went missing the first five minutes in the neverzone. "LOGIC MAKES NO SENSE! ALL THAT IS TRUE IS WHAT MOVES AND WHAT DOESN'T!!"
"So what made you bring along the newbies?" Heckapoo asked as she slashed through a feral looking goblin trying to get the jump on them.
"We needed numbers, and Star and Steven are busy." Marco made an offhand comment as he kicked away an evil tree. "Also Steven made a comment about never coming back, he doesn't need another birthday mess up."
"Aww, I'm gonna feel insulted about my home at this rate." Heckapoo smirked as he punched through a tree creature. "How'd you convince Lapis to come with you? Last I checked, she hated your guts."
"Eh, I was bored. Tossing away the angry mob around the monster temple get's boring after a while." Lapis shrugged, submerging a few wild tiger-like creatures in a large watery fist. "What about you? Can't imagine you're too popular either after everything got spilled to the public."
"I control all of the interdimensional travel within my sector of the multiverse, it doesn't matter if people like me or not." She shrugged. "Besides, it's my dimension, people love me here regardless."
"Damn you Hekapoo-" She kicked an eagle man into a few trees.
"See, you can feel the love everywhere." The pale woman laughed. "So, I heard you got a little sister. Congrats. Planning on teaching her how to ride a dragon-cycle?"
"Absolutely not." Marco retorted as he pulled out a flamethrower. "I'm actually planning on taking some time out of our hang outs to make sure she's okay … I'd really prefer her to not have my lifestyle."
"WHY DOES THE LIGHTING KEEP TARGETING ME!?!" Peridot screeched as she ran through the forest, with a blazing trail of lighting right on her tail.
"Lightning here loves to eat metal! Ditch your weapons or switch to a rubber insulator!" Marco shouted off handedly. "As I was saying, not sure how much longer I'll go with this knight business. I mainly came for my friends, but now that the throne belongs to Eclipsa, I'm not sure if she'll even stay on Mewni for much longer." He axe-kicked a sludge monster in half.
"Oh she's staying on Mewni …" Hekapoo stared off. "We have a bit of a suspicion there …"
"Let me guess, it has something to do with her monster husband?" Marco guessed. "We got the breakdown from Glossaryck, because apparently he was faking the dumbness the entire time.
"Sounds like something the bastard would do." She grumbled, punching another monster in the face. "The good news is the only spell that could have freed Globgor was burned with the old spell book. Meaning the only person that could do it is Rhombulus, and he's on thin ice as it is."
"What did he do again?" Lapis asked.
There was evil laughter, an ear wielding a chainsaw jumped from the bushes. "Hekapoo, I have come from the body empire, under lord nipple, to take your head!"
"He caused this mess." The flaming woman grumbled. "Alright, I'll take him, you guys focus on the others."
"Will do." It may have not been as exciting as a jailbreak, but it was pretty close.
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This was the make or break move for Pearl, one card left. "Do you … have any … threes?" She asked Steven, staring into his soul.
The boy smirked. "Go fi-" The consol beeped, as everyone turned to it. "You got lucky."
"Finally! I think my brain would've melted if I had to hear 'go fish' for the millionth time." Star groaned as she picked herself up from the ground she was lazily lying down on. "Alright, what are we dealing with?"
"Well if Blue is the one in control, we'll be dealing with many Amethyst guards, at least two Topaz guards, and a Holly Blue Agate." Garnet told the group. "The latter is the most serious threat, Agates act as advisors to Quartz Soldiers, like managers."
"So I have to act big and beefy, no sweat." Amethyst shifted into the normal Quartz height. "This is going to be painful."
"Not as painful as it will be for us." Garnet sighed, before defusing, becoming Ruby and Sapphire. "Just so we have our stories straight…" Sapphire spoke up. "I am a Sapphire, with a Ruby guard, being assisted by my Pearl, offering two humans for the Zoo because I foresaw Blue Diamond wanting more inhabitants, being guided by an Amethyst soldier."
"I'll make sure to play the perfect servant." It would be a bit of a strain, but not that hard to go back to old habits.
"Is this really going to work out?" Steven asked hopefully to Sapphire.
"No."
"What kind of assurance is that!?" Star yelled at the blue gem.
"Give me a break! It's been six thousand years since I've had to act like this. Amethyst is new and the rest of us are rusty!" Sapphire said with an uncharacteristic amount of stress in her tone before slapping herself. "We've changed the future before, so I'm counting on us doing it again."
"Don't worry Sapphy, we can do anything." Ruby assured her. "If you get too stressed, just signal and I'll help give you some breathing room."
Sapphire breathed and nodded. "Alright, let's get into positions." After shifting around, they walked out. Steven being held by Ruby and Star by Amethyst, as they walked out of the ship.
"You'll never break my spirit, you hear me!" Steven shouted, following 'tip number one, make it seem like you don't want to be there' from Marco's notes.
"I'm not an animal! You can't cage me! I have rights!" Star was laying it on a little too thick.
They walked up, the Amethysts staring down. "State your purpose." One told them, voice sounding like a gruffer Amethyst. Pearl could see Amethyst shake a bit out of the corner of her eye.
"I'm here to make a delivery to the human zoo." Sapphire said with a calm and cold demeanor, her face displaying a perfect calmness to it.
One of the guards smirked. "Sorry, Zoo's closed." She leaned down in front of Steven's face. "Looks like we'll have to toss them out into space."
"If you think you're going to touch him, you chunk of dirty space rocks, then you have another thing coming!" Star shouted, almost breaking her cover as she almost broke out of their Amethyst's grip.
The Amethyst blinked, before laughing. "Wow, I was just wanting to see his scared face, but you caught yourself a human with the heart of a Quartz." She laughed, patting their Amethyst on the shoulder. "Man, it must have been a fun ride. I can see you shake with laughter from a joke."
"Oh great, they're as scary as Jasper, except with Amethyst's humor." Steven muttered.
"And what do you think you're doing out of line?" The two guards had their eyes widen at the voice, before moving back and saluting with a diamond shape.
"Nothing, Holly Blue Agate." The right one said with a bit of a sweat.
The Agate turned to the group, eyes widening. "Why didn't you tell me we had guests? And a Sapphire no less!" She kicked one so hard in the leg it almost looked like she broke something. "What have you been saying to them?"
"Nothing, Holly Blu-" the one on the right was met with a punch to the arm. "What was that for!?"
"For not apologizing for your bumbling!" The Agate scowled before giving the diamond salute to Sapphire. "Apologies, my clarity. They're from earth. Not an inch of discipline to be found in them."
She could see some of the others staring with a bit of surprise, but Sapphire brought their minds back to the mission at hand. "I foresaw two more humans for the zoo."
"Oh my, two more humans. That makes four this year! Such production." Wait, four? "These definitely seem like an improvement over the last one, all that thrashing around and incoherent babble."
"Dad!" Steven cried out.
"Exactly! Such silly and mindless garble. Who knows what will come out of their mouths next?" Pearl was pretty sure Star was close to snapping at this point. "I'm certain that Blue Diamond would love to thank you personally. In fact, she'll be here in one lunar cycle."
"She will!?" Ruby shouted, all of them tensing.
Holly blinked, staring down. "Did your Ruby just speak without being spoken to?" Damn it.
"Forgive me. I allow them privileges when alone out of sympathy for their expendability." Sapphire spoke, clutching their hand. "We don't … quite have the resources we once had in this Era after all."
"Ah, my apologies. They are your gems to own after, they are to use as you please." Now Ruby was seconds away from snapping. "Let me provide you with a tour of the facility before our Diamond arrives as we let the Amethyst's proceed with handling the humans."
"If you think it best." Sapphire nodded.
Pearl sent Steven and Star a look, but was met with resolute faces as they were taken away.
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Steven checked out the new wardrobe. "Wow … that was invasive." He commented. "I'm glad they didn't grab the note." He pulled out the piece of paper from under his tounge.
"They could've at least put us in separate tubes or something." Star grumbled as she messed with her new earings. "I'd prefer not to see my brother naked, thank you very much!" She shouted to whatever force that would listen.
"You remember what Pearl said, they don't have a concept of gender, much less clothes given Peridot refers to them as 'appearance modifiers'." He said, looking the list over. "Let's see … we did number one, number two was hiding the note. Number three is 'find the source of information behind the bars'." He blinked. "Gonna be a bit hard to do, considering we don't even know where the others are."
"I think we've been relying too much on Marco's experience with this stuff." Star huffed. "You know, I always thought going to space would be awesome, but this is my fourth trip into it, and it gets worse every time."
"How did Ben and Gwen make it sound so cool?" He asked with a sigh.
"Well they are a family of space cops. Maybe we should've got them as backup."
"Nah … according to their grandpa Max it's taking everything they have just to keep the Gems out of other galaxies, much less the solar system they think is empty." It was nice to get more info on that stuff at least. "Remember what Anne said about her trip to space? She blew up an entire moon."
"Super fun stuff, absolutely annoying." She groaned. "So where are the other humans, do you think they're hidi-AAAGGGGHH!!" She screamed as the floor dropped from under them. "DAMN YOU GEM TECH!!"
"Brace for impact!" They held onto each other as they both fell into a large body of water. It took about a second for them to swim up to the surface. "Okay, what horrifying and torturous prison do they have in store for us?"
"Probably something inmewmane and horrifyingly torturously degrading, like … a forest with a sunny sky?" Star trailed off in confusion, as they looked at the completely normal looking place. "Hmm … you know, as far as Zoos go, top three so far, no matter how messed up the concept itself is."
"Yeah, it seems nice considering gems don't really like humans." It was confusing to say the least. "But we have to be careful though, who knows what mentally happens to humans when they've been encaptivated for so-"
The bushes rumbled, someone coming out and looking at them, a tall blond woman, who smiled. "New friends!" She shouted out … alright, Steven never thought to question this before, but how does every alien species he ever met know how to speak english? "So many new friends have come lately. All different shapes and sizes."
More and more humans came out of the bushes, tall, short, asian, indian, full of hair … "Dad!" He shouted out, running up to the man.
"Steven, you're here!" His dad shouted as he quickly scooped Steven up in a hug. "Star, you're here too? Don't tell me you got abducted as well."
"Nope, we snuck in with the gems." Star smirked. "We're here to bust you out of this … surprisingly lovely prison." She looked at everyone. "Seriously, happy faces that look natural, healthy bodies, it seems too good to be true."
"A little bit. Everyone here's lived in the zoo for their entire lives, they don't know a thing about earth or anything." His dad explained.
"Why would you name a place after the dirt, it makes no sense." A man commented with a laugh.
"Yeesh, I thought I was clueless about earth before." Star commented.
"Oh, manners." The man nodded. "I am Wy Six, what are your names?"
"Oh, I'm Steven, and this is Star." Steven introduced.
The man laughed. "That is funny! Hey, this is Ste-van and Sta-ar."
"Wow, we have two Sta-ars." A woman nodded with a smile. "I never knew two people could have the same name."
"Wait, someone here is also named Star?" His sister asked skeptically.
"Oh yes. Hey Sta-ar! We have another Sta-ar for you to meet!" Y-6 yelled to a figure with blue hair..very familiar looking pale blue hair.
"Oh goodie, we share the same name!" A woman … a very familiar woman laughed, her hair flowing. "That means we're best friends!"
"Mom, you're okay!" She shouted, running up and hugging the woman. Steven was kinda too overwhelmed to move.
The woman laughed. "No, I'm not popcorn. My name is Star Butterfly." … What? "Hey wait a minute … your name is Smal-ler right?" Huh?
"Oh no, Nonono!" Star shrieked. "She was in the magic dimension longer than me, it must still be screwing up her head!"
"Well that explains how she didn't recognize me at all." Dad noted. "She was here when I arrived, apparently she came … thirty or so sun shines ago?" He counted his fingers. "Sorry, time here is weird." Great … yet another problem to stockpile. Why was it never easy?