♡Worth The Wait♡ Spinel x Gem reader (Gender Neutral!!)

part 11: shattered mind

"(Name)?? Spinel?? You here??"

You both snap your heads up with a gasp as you both sit up, dusting off dirt and dead grass from your bodies. Upon hearing the disturbance, Steven runs blindly through the dead garden, until he catches your gaze from the over grown grass. "(Name)! Thank goodness!" He breaths in relief, running closers to your location. "Did you find spinel?"

You both quickly rose to your feet, dusting yourselves off a bit more, before facing the boy. "Yep. And I'm sure she's more than willing to help." You responded, nudging Spinel with your hip, eliciting a giggle from the gem, prompting her to nudge back with her elbow.

"Let's go!"

----------
back at the house, spinel is hugging your arm, silently gazing up at you, smiling contently. in front of you, Steven kept glancing back at you, each time giving you a grateful smile. once you reached the staircase he motions spinel to wait as he walks down to address the awaiting inhabitants. "guys! guess who's back?" he then motions for spinel to come down. she blinks nervously, and looks into your eyes, looking for reassurance. "go on. it'll be fine." you reply giving a soft nod. she still looked weary, her eyes darting back and forth, but she relents, allowing you to lead her to the platform steven was standing on. "ta-da!"

as expected, the gems immediately take defense, summoning their weapons, with the exception of the amnesiac garnet who innocently asks; "spinel! did you change your hair?" in a reflexive manner, you put an arm in front of her defensively. pearl's eyes dart to you, and her face becomes bewildered at your action. "what are you-" Steven broke in, hands up in defense. "whoa, whoa, whoa! spinel got her memories back, but she's not gonna hurt us. everything's chill." suddenly connie bursts in with the pink lion, unsheathing her sword, up and ready. "I'm here! where's the-" her eyes flick to you, and she suddenly looked curiously confused. "Who's that?" Steven stood in front of you and spinel. "everything's chill!" after a moment's tension the air settles. with a huff of relief, he turns to spinel. however, he flicks his eyes to you, expectantly. you nod, rubbing her shoulder. "so spinel. what are we going to do?" you ask, tail wagging slightly. she chuckles offering a soft squeeze and nods.

"let's go!"
~~~~~~~~~~

back at the injector sight, it has reached critical condition. the dreaded pink poison has now began to overflow from the grown and everything around it was dead and grey. spinel approached the injector, you walk beside her, holding her hand. she looked up at you for a moment, prompting a nod from you. looking back up and the mechanism, she coils her pinkie into the shape of a cone and with a deep breath, blew into her fist, forming that same foghorn like noise from earlier that morning. you watched in awe as the object dislodges itself from the earth and raise into the air and close up, becoming dormant once. "Fantastic! you did it!" you exclaimed, picking her up and twirling her, giving her a brief peck on the cheek, before setting her down. she giggles, blushing lightly. "thanks, spinel." Steven breaths, shaking her hand. "aw gee... heh.. what are friends for?" he then quickly returns his attention to the other two situations at hand. "now all we need are garnet's memories and my powers back and we can regain our happily ever after." you blinked. gotta admire that dedication. Jumping right back into it, no questions asked... "what could work for garnet? something about fusion.. something about love..."

"what about me?"

you glance at spinel, who looked quite hurt. Eh? "is that all you needed me for? to turn off my injector?" Steven looked startled. "no... well... sorta... but-" spinel broke into his sentence, now sounding slightly unnerved. "well, now what? I-I-I did what you wanted. that's it?" Upon seeing her start to tremble, A sudden sense of dread began to rise up on you. "well. yeah we can just... forget this whole thing ever happened." You looked at the boy, your face equivalent to a facepalm. You are not good at choosing words, champ... spinel looked betrayed. "how are you gonna forget with me around? I'm the source of all your problems." she said, sanity slowly unraveling. "what's your plan for me, huh? you gonna put me somewhere? gonna leave me somewhere? YOU GONNA LEAVE ME ALONE!?" You gaped at her, almost terrified, but sympathetic all the same. "Spinel!?" you exclaimed, absentmindedly, Steven tries to approach, reaching a consoling hand to her, only be smacked back, and have the dreaded pink scythe come into view, in which the amnesiac garnet promptly activates. Spinel looked bewildered and wide eyed. "why do you.. have that..?" steven, now realizing her mind breakage staggered for a reason for its presence. "I-I was just carrying it! I didn't have anywhere else to put it!"

Spinel stood there for a moment. "we can just forget this ever happened..." she started, a chilling edge in her voice. "you mean... I can forget this ever happened!" you stared at her, as she started cackling maniacally, a wave of terror washing over you. "wow! WHAT A PLAN! I turn off the injector, and then the moment my back is turned, BAM! PRESTO! CHANGE-O! PROBLEM SOLVED! well think again!" you watched her with terror as her pinkie reformed into a cone "you're not getting rid of me that easy!" you jumped. "SPINEL, NO--!" that dreaded foghorn sounded yet again, and just like that, the massive injectior reinserted itself into the planet's crust. you stared in horror as it resumed injecting it's contents into the earth's crust. "I'm not letting you get one over on me steven universe."

"SPINEL! HAVE YOU GONE MAD!!?" you exclaimed, a surge of angry fear bursting through you. she whips around at you, eyes wild and angered, causing you to flinch back. "ME? GONE MAD!?" she repeats loudly. "DON'T YOU SEE!? HE WANTED TO WIPE ME OF MY MEMORIES, TO PUT ME SOMEPLACE! TO LEAVE ME SOMEWHERE! AND YOU SAY I'VE GONE MAD!!?" you growl in your throat, suddenly feeling threatened, but saddened. "that's because you're not listening! YOU'RE JUMPING TO CONCLUSIONS! IF YOU'D LISTEN, YOU WOULD KNOW WHAT WOULD HAPPEN!!" Spinel looked thunderstruck, stuttering syllables from your sentence, unintelligibly. "listening!? conclusions!? What are you... YOU'RE SIDING WITH HIM! AREN'T YOU!? YOU'VE ALWAYS BEEN ON HIS SIDE, HAVEN'T YOU!?" you step back a few paces, startled. "WHAT!? no! you're just not-" she scowls in a way that actually scares you, stepping towards you threateningly. "oh yeah, just not listening to the oh so high and mighty steven universe! Your savior! Your hero! YOUR SALVATION!!" She growled, as she neared you, prompting you to back up, with your tail between your legs. "to let him reset me back to my old innocent, loving STUPID self! You'd want that, wouldn't you? You want me to be as VULNERABLE as you are. JUST ADMIT IT." she pokes you in the navel at 'vulnerable', causing a painful glitch as she backs you up into a wall of risen earth, and you feel yourself trembling. "you... you were lying all this time.. weren't you? YOU WERE NEVER ON MY SIDE IN THE FIRST PLACE! WERE YOU!? YOU ONLY COZIED UP TO ME TO LOWER MY GUARD, DIDN'T YOU!?" You shrank under her glare. "n-no! that's not the truth! I never-"

she grabs you harshly by the collar and pulls you into her face. "THE TRUTH, HUH!? HOW CAN I TRUST YOU'RE TELLING THE TRUTH ANYMORE!?" she hisses, nose to nose with you, her pupils small in wild anger. A hurt expression then crosses her face. "After everything... everything we've done... it was.. all.. just a game.." you felt hot tears prick your eyes at her words, hurt she'd think of it this way. "Spinel-" she slams a fist into your navel, causing a painful jolt to run through you. The crack widened ever so slightly, causing your other eye to be in the same state as the other and having your color over all darken. "Spinel, don't!" Steven calls, stepping forward, reaching for you, as you struggled to keep in form. Spinel looks over to steven, a suddenly sadistic smirk stretching her lips. "Oh what's the matter, steven universe? Don't want anything bad to happen to your sweet little lackey, hm?" She coiled an arm tightly around you, making sure he sees on how helpless you are. Steven then pointed the active rejuvenator toward spinel. "Let (name) go, spinel!" He growls threateningly. Spinel lets out a bitter cackle. "I gotta say, universe! You've played a fair game! Using a dashing cutie like (name) to butter me up..." she snarls bitterly at you, causing a whimper if hurt from you. "But now... I think it's MY turn to play with your little toy." She squeezed you, eliciting a wheeze from you. "However... I'm done playing NICE."

With that, she catapults herself to the rim of the injectior, with you still in her grip. "Well then, darling," she sneers at you. "We can watch the fall of your sweet little nation together. THEN.. I'll decide what to do with you next." With that, she bounces her way to the top of the injector, flinging you into the ground, harshly.