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Steven tried to dodge the first blow, but he failed to avoid the next one, which slammed directly against his helmet. He felt the vibration rattle his skull, and in an instant, he coughed up a huge amount of blood as he went flying completely out of control.
He thought this whole situation was absolute bullshit, though he didn't have time to process any of it before he ended up crashing face-first into the water. He blurted out a curse before submerging, and as the freezing liquid enveloped him, he opened his eyes only to find a blurry silhouette that filled him with panic. A colossal figure was moving beneath the surface, warped by refraction, yet looking completely menacing.
He didn't care how ridiculous it was; the moment he could react, he swam using his floating power to boost himself. Although he wanted to get out of the sea, that monstrous fusion pursued him like a dog chasing cats. The grotesque shape seemed almost thrilled to hunt him down.
Thinking fast, he needed to get his feet on solid ground, even if it was the seabed. He braced himself as best as he could, digging his heels into the sand, and channeled every ounce of strength into his legs. He immediately sprinted toward the fusion, whose eyes widened in surprise at such sheer madness. However, instead of preparing to take a punch to the jaw, she opened her mouth as if she were waiting for something.
Steven couldn't have cared less about what she was trying to do. He summoned his shield just a second before impact, and in that critical moment, he expanded a spike-covered bubble shield all around him. The collision generated a painful explosion against the fusion, who let out a gut-wrenching groan. Amid the blood and cracks, Steven saw clearly how her face distorted between two distinct expressions: Peridot and Jasper. It was obvious that Peridot wanted no part of this union anymore.
He didn't have a chance to overthink because he had to dodge an immediate follow-up attack. He launched himself upward, landing right on the creature's massive hand, and began sprinting up her enormous arm as if it were a living highway. Looking up, he noticed how that crazy fusion was trying to crush him with a headbutt using her helmet.
He summoned his shield again, added spikes to it, and hurled it straight at her eye. The creature reflexively whipped her head back, barely deflecting the attack, but she still managed to hit him hard enough to make his world spin all over again.
Steven let out a muffled groan, his body trembling with pure rage. Jasper cursed Rose Quartz with a choked scream just as, out of nowhere, countless rocks began to levitate around them. He thought about how absurd the scene was right before yelling a profanity, because those very rocks, heavily loaded with iron, rained down on him like a lethal storm.
The impact kicked up a dust cloud so thick that even the fusion stopped, taken aback. This was no ordinary attack; the stones were vibrating, gravitating, seemingly obeying a hidden force. The fusion cackled at the sight, delighted by the show, and with an almost childish enthusiasm, she claimed how incredible her own power was while continuing to pelt him with more and more rocks.
She laughed, jeering that Peridot wasn't as useless as she had originally thought, and that mockery only made Steven grit his teeth in fury. From below, Steven resisted the bombardment, tanking it as best as he could, feeling his skin tear and blood begin to stream down his face and chest. This was a pain worse than fighting Sugilite, maybe worse than any blow he had ever taken before.
He thought, almost desperately, that if he only had someone to fuse with, the violence would ease up, but he immediately shot the thought down. He didn't want to rely on anyone. Not right now. He needed strength, powerâsomething born from within himself. His gem began to glow with a roaring light, so intense it seemed to rip through the storm of stones. It was anger. It was desperation. It was the crushing weight of carrying an entire planet on his shoulders.
Every hidden emotion, every breakdown, every tear bottled up over time now coalesced into a roar inside him. He screamed that he wouldn't dieâthat his body could shatter until it was reduced to dust, but if his gem survived, even if it was a tiny fragment, he would keep fighting. He swore to safeguard everything he could; he swore to protect this stupid planet he had ended up calling home.
The fusion, lost in her madness, didn't hear a word. Steven's gem flashed brighter, and his hands became coated in a pink hue that he didn't even notice because he was so consumed by rage he forgot about himself. Without realizing it, that power suppressed for so long was finally breaking free. His entire body turned pink, and with a brutal surge of energy, the rocks still hovering in midair exploded into fine powder.
The fusion, who had been laughing maniacally just moments before, now stared at him with wide, bewildered eyes. She demanded to know what that was, though the answer stood right in front of her. It was Steven, but not entirely. The pink hue, the gem itself, manifesting in a pure pink glow. And within his eyes, shifting shapes reflected: a square, a triangle, a diamond, all of them fragmenting until they settled into a round shapeâfirm, imperfect, and real.
Steven spat blood, smeared spit over his visible wounds to seal them as best as he could, and stared at his own pink-tinted body. He asked if he had finally hit the mark, though he didn't say it to anyone in particular. He seemed to have awakened before it was time, and he didn't look scared. He felt the presence of that form rushing through him, nurturing him, wrapping him in a new power that had been inaccessible before. It was a force so strange it felt impossible to contain.
The fusion glared at him with pure wrath. He smiled with a controlled insanity, barely held together by sheer concentration. He thanked Jasper with an ironic smirk, admitting he never thought he'd reach this point so soon. He materialized a pink energy platform beneath his feet and ascended into the air. There they stood, eye to eye.
A desperate voice sliced through from inside the fusion. It was begging for help. It was Peridot, crying, pleading, unable to pull herself apart. Steven's eyes widened in shock, but before he could intervene, Jasper forced her back into alignment. The voice died out as if it had been brutally suffocated.
Steven whispered that he would lock her in a bubble for the next few millennia. His fury was cold, indignant, horrified by how Jasper used fusion as a weapon. Without further hesitation, he lunged at her, summoning two shields.
The fusion charged too, sporting a psychotic grin. Their fists collided. One, two, four, five, eight, ten, fifteen, ninety, a hundred blows. A downpour of impossible punches. Both were taking damage, both were sinking into madness, but Steven was adapting. Every strike taught him something new about his strengthâan absurd, overwhelming power.
The fusion sent him flying with a brutal impact and launched herself after him like a human meteor. Steven created a shield beneath his feet, using it as a floating platform, and watched her approach with an even more unhinged smile. He swept both hands forward and created another platform, hurling it like a projectile. The fusion dodged it, missing the vital detail: Steven hadn't thrown it to hit her, but to launch himself.
He seized that exact split second. He flew straight toward her, his hands encased in a bubble of pink thorns that vibrated like a buzzsaw, ready to tear through any obstacle.
The fusion unleashed a savage punch that landed square on Steven's face. The impact rattled his entire skeleton and sent him reeling, but before the fusion could even celebrate, Steven's arm snapped forward like a pink whip, stretching far beyond its normal length and returning the favor with a punch so brutal the fusion's face vibrated from the impact, spraying spit violently.
Both stumbled backâone spitting blood, the other panting with a trembling jaw. The fusion smirked as if she had found something exquisite in all this chaos. Her words came out ragged, dripping with exhaustion, but loaded with a boiling hatred.
She seemed to have figured something out. She claimed she finally understood how he had shattered her Diamondâor rather, their Diamond. Pure malice coated every word, like venom that had been festering for years.
Steven didn't reply. He stood motionless, listening to the hum of power coursing inside him like a pink electric current. He wanted to feel every fiber of that energy, every bubble of unknown strength. He wanted to master it, train it, mold it. His eyes slowly closed, breathing calmly, intending to absorb all of it before losing control.
But at that exact moment, the fusion raised a hand as if issuing a silent command. Floating around her, the Topazes Steven had seen earlier appeared, still trapped inside bubbles. Two Gems he barely remembered, barely recognized. His eyes narrowed, confused.
He didn't even have time to form a question. The bubbles suddenly detonated, releasing the Gems with a violence that unleashed flashes of light into the air. The fusion snatched them in a grip that didn't look physical, but suffocating, and in a blink, an even more intense light engulfed the entire fusion.
Steven couldn't help but yell a curse as he unleashed a rain of pink spikes toward the light, but it was useless. The light grew, and grew, and grew further, turning titanic, so bright that Steven had to shield his eyes with his forearm. A jolt of terror pierced his chest when he heard that laugh. A completely unhinged laugh.
HA... HAHA... HAHAHAHAHAHA!
The voice echoed with monstrous pride. She joyfully declared that she was powerful, as if the mere thought thrilled her. The light dissolved, and there she stood: a four-Gem fusion, deformed, colossal, saturated with corruption spots that spread across her arms, legs, and face like a disease devouring her sanity.
She was grotesque. She was overwhelming. And three of those Gems were being forced to be a part of that mass.
Steven stared, his eyes wide as saucers, utterly unable to comprehend what was in front of him. And then that thing spoke. The voice belonged to Jasper; it was obvious she was the only one in control. The others were trapped, drowning inside the monstrosity they now formed.
The fusion proclaimed that Steven should look at her, that he should witness the power of her perfection. Around her, massive boulders began to float upward as if the air had acquired inverted gravity. It was a terrifying spectacle.
Steven managed to let out a "holy shit," but the insult died in his throat as a barrage of rocks rained down on him like miniature meteors. He ran to dodge them in pure panicârebounding, dodging, smashing them to pieces when he had no other choice. Each boulder traveled at a speed even more brutal than before; each impact against his shield vibrated straight to his bones.
As he shattered rocks with his newly acquired strength, his mind wandered through the chaos. He thought about the message he had sent earlier. He thought about Lapis. He thought about his dad. He thought about everything he was leaving unanswered while his life hung in the balance in an ocean crawling with lunatics and fused monsters.
And still, he kept fighting.
The perspective shifted to Lapis, who woke up calmly, as if nothing in the world could disrupt her morning peace. She looked beside her, expecting to see Steven curled into a ball or stretched out completely like a comfortable corpse. But the bed was empty. She snorted, not particularly surprised, though a bit annoyed, and got up as if her dreams were still weighing her down.
She walked to the bathroom and stared at herself in the mirror with ridiculous gravity, as if analyzing her reflection for existential answers. She tried to remember what Steven usually did at this hour. Her gaze dropped to the boy's toothbrush. She picked it up, staring at it as if it were a sacred artifact containing the secret to universal knowledge.
After three seconds, her brain arrived at its most profound conclusion.
"I don't know what the fuck I'm doing," she muttered, placing the toothbrush exactly back where it was.
She left the bathroom and went back upstairs to the bedroom, still half-asleep. Her phone buzzed. All the randomness of the universe converged in that moment: Steven was practically the only person who had her number, or so he had repeated to her fifteen times. He had said it made no sense to give it to anyone else because nobody else mattered that much to him. And now she had a message.
She picked up the phone blankly... until she read it.
The Zetas are here! If you can, come to this location.
The screen displayed an insane set of coordinates, lost in the middle of the ocean right near Super Watermelon Island. Lapis blinked exactly once.
"Dammit," she said immediately.
She bolted through the house, dashing up and down the stairs for no reason. She banged on doors urgently.
"PEARL! AMETHYST! GARNET! STEVEN IS IN DANGER!"
Silence. Not a sound. Not a movement. Not a cough. Nothing.
Panic raced down her spine. Gearing up to rip doors off their hinges if necessary, she looked at the floor to see if she could peek through the crack when she noticed a note perfectly taped down as if to mock her.
We left on a mission. Stay safe. - Pearl.
...
...
...
"Dammit," she repeated with suppressed fury.
She ran to the warp pad, trying to use it to teleport to the location, mashing buttons she didn't even understand.
...
Nothing happened.
"It's broken, isn't it?" she asked the empty air, her voice perfectly flat, with no one around to confirm it.
Fed up, she blasted out of the house. She checked her phone, looked out at the sea, and wasting no time, slammed her hands into the water, feeling the ocean as if it were an extension of her own body. She closed her eyes, focusing. The second she locked onto the correct direction, her expression hardened into absolute determination.
She summoned massive wings of water that blasted backward with immense force, kicking up seafoam. And without another thought, she took off at full speed, as if velocity itself depended entirely on how badly she wanted to save Steven.
"I'm coming, Steven," she muttered through her teeth, accelerating even more.
Minutes later, in the distance, she saw what could only be described as a natural disaster with a kaiju complex. A titanic figure was moving amidst shattered earth and rockâdistorted, grotesque. And something pink was weaving through the stones, moving like a restless bolt of lightning.
"Where is Steven?" she asked, frowning as she desperately scanned for him.
She would find out a second later. And her heart would sink.
"My name is Steven, you garbage fusion!" the pink voice screamed into the air as a rain of spikes materialized around his body, firing off against the monstrous fusion in front of him.
Steven? Lapis asked herself, completely bewildered. He was pink, he was screaming like he was a completely different person, and he had said something bizarre to the fusion. Why was he calling her that?
"Rose Quartz, I will destroy you!!"
That tone, that hatred, that way of spitting the name left absolutely no room for doubt. Lapis narrowed her eyes and looked closer. It was Jasper, it was Peridot, and also two Gems she didn't recognize. All forcefully jammed together.
She had to help Steven. There was no time to think about anything else.
She raised the sea with a sudden sweep of her hands and hurled massive liquid chains that wrapped tightly around the fusion, who roared in surprise. That sudden restraint caught her off guard, forcing her to look around frantically until her eyes landed on Lapis.
"You... rebel scum!"
Jasper spat the insult with fury as the fusion struggled. Lapis merely grunted and tightened the water bindings even further. The creature was massive and strong, but she wasn't going to let go.
Steven saw he wasn't alone and let out a sigh before launching himself in a pink streak toward the fusion. Jasper reacted with a bellow that made the very air vibrate; her size surged instantly, and a storm of rocks was unleashed directly at Lapis. This forced her to drop the chains to dodge, losing her grip on the restraint.
The fusion broke free, obliterating the hardened sea water like it was nothing. Steven managed to land a blow, but the kick he received in return was titanic. Furthermore, the strength was multiplied by the six legs the creature possessed now. Steven was sent flying like a projectile straight toward Lapis, who, though thrown off by his new form but still intensely focused, managed to catch him right before they both slammed into the sea.
Before touching the water, Steven generated a bubble shield that protected them as they plunged under. Above, the fusion regained full control of herself while Peridot and the Topazes tried to unfuse. Jasper wouldn't allow it. She roared with an almost animalistic fury, forcing the three to remain under her dominion.
Inside the bubble floating underwater, Steven pushed himself up on top of Lapis, still panting. Both looked up toward the surface where the fusion was having a full-blown delusional episode, screaming nonsensically as if arguing with herself. The creature was trembling, thrashing, laughing, and growling, trapped between her own minds and Jasper's iron grip.
Lapis didn't know what was worse: Steven transformed and screaming like Rose, or a giant fusion arguing with herself in multiple voices. She only knew one thing with absolute clarity.
This fight was nowhere near over.
"What?" Lapis finally registered Steven's appearance. She examined him more closely and noticed his body was coated in a pink glow. His clothes were completely shredded; only his pants remained, and you could barely recognize the shirt he once wore.
"What's happening?" Lapis asked urgently.
"Jasper," Steven spoke with restrained fury. "She forced Peridot and two other Gems to fuse. The last two were corrupted." He said this while staring intently at Lapis, who held his gaze without blinking.
"We have to stop them. They could become completely corrupted. Plus, we need information on the Cluster," Steven spoke as he watched the fusion on the surfaceâa colossal creature throwing rocks in all directions, with darker stains spreading across its skin.
Lapis remained silent. Her face didn't change, but something in her eyes turned resolute. Without a word, she extended her hand toward Steven.
He looked at her, understanding perfectly what she wanted to do.
"Are you sure?" Steven took her hand cautiously, though he already knew the answer.
"I don't want to see anyone else suffer like that." Lapis's voice sounded firm, without a single doubt.
The two began to dance. Their movements were swift, elegant, and charged with an intense emotional force. The combination of rage, empathy, and resolve made the energy between them swell like a flooding river. As they hit the final step, an explosion of light enveloped them.
Above on the island, Jasper didn't have time to react. A titanic fist made entirely of water smacked her dead in the jaw, sending her flying a massive distance. The monstrous fusion shrieked in rage before regaining her balance.
"What the hell?!" she growled, confused, looking down.
A feminine figure floated there with wings of water. Her body was pink, just like Steven before fusing, but with the aquatic elegance of Lapis and a presence that seemed to command the storm.
The fusion was at her maximum potential. Nothing was holding her back. Her power seemed to shatter its own limits.
"Rose Quartz!" Jasper roared with visceral hatred, charging straight toward her.
The fusion of Steven and Lapis simply smiled. The name didn't matter to her. Neither did the roar. Nor the fear.
She was just Estela.
End of Chapter 48.