Light In the Universe DX

Chapter 8: A Thousand Leagues Below

When they woke up the next morning, the air felt particularly dry.

Upon further investigation, the Gems looked outside to find that the ocean was completely gone.

"Now do you see why we left her in there?" ranted Pearl.

"Geez, you don't need to rub it in, I can take a hint!" Michael groaned, looking at the vast emptiness of where the sea used to be.

"You guys sure it wasn't the witches?" Amethyst asked.

"Was that sarcasm?" Robert replied.

Soon enough, Mayor Dewey showed up, begging the Gems to help, and to hopefully get them to explain what happened. Pearl showed a hologram of the gem from the night before, as Garnet explained who Lapis is, and where she took the water.

"Well, if we get going, we should be there by Tuesday" Pearl replied.

Robert grabbed a shovel from the side of the porch, seeing as it's the only thing that can be used as a weapon, as Greg pulled up with his van. "If we get going now, we'll be there by 4 pm." he said. Emerald climbed in with Steven, Robert, and Michael. "Like hell I'm walking for six days straight." Michael said. Amethyst, Garnet, and Pearl climbed in with them. Pearl grumbled something about the boys having no discipline, and how they'd rather just go the easy way.

The desert seemed to stretch for miles, odd structures being revealed by the lifting of the ocean. they didn't look gem-like, but not quite human either.

Robert sensed things in the structures, he wasn't sure what they were, all he knew was that they existed. "It's gonna be a while." Greg said. With that, the boys all fell asleep, with Amethyst and Emerald following suit.

Their sleep was short and dreamless, Emerald being the first to awake and see the tower of water. It was the stuff of legend, fish and sea life swimming freely in the giant column that grew towards the stars.

Emerald stepped out, keeping the kids behind her. "Stay here!" she said.

"You caused enough trouble as it is!" Pearl added, which only served to put Robert down, infuriate Michael, and confuse Steven. Greg stayed behind as well, not wanting another leg injury.

"Lapis!" Garnet shouted. "We need to speak with you!"

Immediately, her face appeared in the water stream. "GO AWAY!" she shouted "Before I make you"

The gems took this as their cue to fight, the water making perfect replicas of the gems.

Michael ran towards the water beings against Emerald's instructions, destroying the clone of Garnet, only for it to reform around his fist almost instantly. It grabbed the boy's arm and lifted him, throwing him into a rock without hesitation.

Emerald was struggling with her own clones, it mirroring her blocks perfectly. The two swordswomen stuck in a standstill.

Michael got off the rocks, spit out a tooth, and went back at the Garnet clone, destroying it once again before jumping to the Pearl clone. His plan (If you could call it that) was to waste Lapis's time reforming the clones while the Gems came up with an actual plan.

Robert interpreted this as a distraction as he took Steven around the van, asking Greg to slowly drive it around the fight, hoping there was a backdoor of some sort in the water.

Unfortunately for them, she noticed the three hiding, as a water clone of Steven drug the two out into the fray.

The water Steven encased the boy's heads in water, Steven kicking as he began to run out of air. As Robert felt himself lose consciousness, Greg ran the van through the water clone, making Lapis drop the boys. Michael had enough of this and picked up Steven, and with all his strength, hurled him up to the top of the water tower.

Knowing how impatient Michael is, Steven waited on the small-talk, licked his hand, and placed it on Lapis's gem. Almost immediately, she seemed to regain her vision, and looked down at the now dry Earth. She felt terrible, drying up the planet like this. It wasn't their fault she was on Earth, so why hurt those who never hurt her?

"Why did you take the ocean?" Steven asked, knowing she could see what happened.

"I...wanted to get back to Homeworld...I didn't realize this planet still had life on it." Steven could already tell what Michael would say if he were there, most likely something to anger her.

With that, Lapis made some water wings, turned back to say "Thanks..." she said.

"No prob, bob!" Steven replied.

"It's Lapis..." She said, flying off as Steven returned to the surface safe and sound.

Back on the surface, everyone frantically piled into the van as the water tower pushed the van back to the beach, filling the ocean back up with a force which somehow managed to send the van back to Beach City in a matter of minutes.

Emerald then noticed someone was missing. She pulled everyone out of the van, counting out everyone who left with them and noticed Robert was gone.

She began panicking. "Where's Robert!? Did anyone see him?" She asked frantically. She turned the van upside down, figuratively and literally, looking for her pseudo-son, but couldn't find him. The truth began to set in: He was lost at sea.

Emerald ran back, only to be grabbed by Pearl, as she told him to wait until morning.

"HE COULD BE DEAD!" Emerald shouted.

"All the more reason to wait until morning" Pearl replied.

"Just so you know, if I find out my brother is dead, I'm killing you AND Katara." threatened Michael. Pearl rolled her eyes, believing she could take him. If she was being honest, she had no idea if he was alive, and didn't want to ask Garnet, at least until they weren't being watched by Emerald or Michael.

Fortunately for everyone, he washed up on the shore, coughing up a storm. Emerald took the boy and began pushing on his chest, making him cough up the ocean water and get up.

"Thank God!" Michael said, helping his brother. "I really didn't feel like digging graves." 

"Wha?" Robert asked. 

"Forget about it." Michael replied. 

He hugged Emerald and Michael as they walked back to the house. It's been a long day. 

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