Steven Universe Stories

Cracks And Corruptions

Pama looked around the woods for corrupted gems. The snow covered ground of the forest made it nearly impossible for him to move let alone see where these gems would be.

“Help…” a voice called from the void of snow. Pama stopped. “H-Hello? Where are you?” he asked, squinting against the impenetrable snow wall. Something began to trudge toward him. He pulled out a mind control chip. He was ready for whatever or whoever was coming toward him.

The figure emerged from the snowy wall. It was Peridot. She went out to help the gems with a mission, and never returned. But something was… off about her. She looked really glitchy. Her eyes were emotionless disks of white. Pama looked at her gem. A huge crack spanned across it. Her gem was damaged, severely. She collapsed to the snowy floor.

Pama ran to her side, turning her onto her back. She squinted lightly. “Help…” she mumbled.

“P-Peri… what happened?” he asked her.

“Something attacked me… I-I tried to f-fight it off, but it… got to my gem first… before I could stop i-it…” she explained, blacking out quickly.

“P-Peri!!!” he shouted, lifting her up gently.

She gasped lightly. He looked into her lost and scared eyes. She was so cute and small in his arms, like a small green baby. But this peridot needed his help. He ran quickly, his boots digging into the soft fallen snow. He finally slid to a stop in front of the temple. He ran up the stairs, and used his hip to open the door suddenly.

The gems looked up at him in shock.

“Hello, Pama.” Garnet said.

“Oh my stars! Is that Peridot???” Pearl asked.

Pama nodded. Pearl stuck her hands out, and he gently placed the unconscious Peridot into her arms. The distraught Pearl ran to the warp pad, and warped to Rose’s fountain.

Steven covered his mouth in shock. He looked up at Garnet. “Garnet, is she going to be ok…?” he asked.

Garnet thought for a moment. “Hmm… I am unsure. My future vision shows many possibilities in this circumstance…” she told the now fearful Steven.

Steven got up from the couch, and ran to the warp pad, warping to Rose's fountain as well. Amethyst looked at Garnet, worried over how this was going to end. Garnet looked back at her, and nodded. She sighed in somewhat relief.

…

The warp pad activated after a few hours. Peridot stood there, normal as ever. She ran up to Garnet.

“He's outside on the beach…” Garnet told her.

Peridot smiled lightly. “Wow, thanks…” she said. She ran outside to the snow covered beach. There he was, sure enough. “Pama!” she exclaimed.

He breathed under his breath heavily. She became worried. “Pama?” she asked, lifting her hands up to his shoulders. She touched him lightly. He turned to face her. She gasped. Tears were rolling down his face, and his eyes were red with yellow pupils. “Pama???” she asked scaredly.

“HeLp Me, PeRiDoT…” he begged, his voice glitching in and out.

She gulped. She looked back at the temple. “GARNET, AMETHYST, PEARL!!!” she yelled. “Garnet? Amethyst??? P-Pearl?!” she asked.

Pearl looked out the window. Peridot waved her hands frantically, pointing down at Pama. Pearl squinted. Her eyes widened in horror when she figured out what was happening. She caught the attention of Garnet and Amethyst. They all ran to the two.

Garnet grabbed onto Pama’s shoulders, turning him over to face her.

“GaRnEt, It’S hApPeNiNg To Me AgAiN…” he told her as she touched his cheeks with her hands.

Garnet nodded, tears streaming down her face. Amethyst covered her eyes. It was unbearable to see Pama like this for her. Garnet sighed, and summoned her gauntlets.

“YoU kNoW wHaT tO dO, GaRnEt…” Pama mumbled.

Peridot attempted to stopped Garnet, but Pearl just grabbed her arm, and pulled her away from the scene.

“PEARL, LET ME GO! I NEED TO GO BACK TO HIM!!! HE NEEDS MY HELP!!!” Peridot yelled.

“We are helping him!!! You don't understand everything about him!” Pearl told the squirming Peridot.

“WHAT DON'T I UNDERSTAND??? Please… I just want to know… he helped me when I needed it… I just want to understand…” Peridot pleaded.

Pearl sighed, and placed Peridot onto the snowy ground. She sat down in front of her. “Peridot… Pama is… more than a crystal gem… he is what Homeworld  likes to call… an off-color.” she began. “He is unwanted by Homeworld for a specific reason. This reason being… his gem is made of overactive gem material in it… which means he… corrupts on his own. But this corruption is easily reversed, we figured out. All we need to do is make him revert back into his gemstone. And when he reforms, all is good again!” she said with a slight nervous chuckle.

“But… that's terrible!!! When he gets corrupted, you guys just smash him into a cloud??? That's ridiculous!!!” Peridot yelled out.

“But Peridot, its the only way we know how to fix him. If we don't ‘poof’ him, he will try to hurt us.” Pearl told her.

“B-But… that's tortuous… it's… unethical…” Peridot said whilst covering her eyes underneath her visors. Tears fell onto her hand. “He's all me and Lapis have left… we can't afford to lose him, Pearl…” she murmured.

Pearl touched her arm. “I understand…”  She said, pulling Peri into a tight hug. Peridot cried into Pearl’s shoulder.

For some reason, the crying felt, great...