#collapsedverse

Anyway, I made this. This is the fusion of Steven and Oaks, also known as Stoaks.

That was actually a pretty hard question for the Red Gem, mainly because she didn't choose to know herself all that well. She was always with Saphire as Garnet, their Alter Ego. She was usually focused on being a part of Garnet, so she couldn't have been focusing on anything else.

Ruby refocused, this time without a physical trigger.

"I honestly can't tell you much. I haven't been myself in a long while. Uh..." Ruby thought back for a second, and winced when she pulled up the memory "...nearly four thousand years, I think, that was the last time".

Mrs. Maheswaren just nodded, meaning that she had probably been told about how Gems age (or rather, how they don't) by Pearl or Connie.

"I see. So, Amethyst mentioned you were a component Gem to Garnet? Can I ask what that means? All Amethyst said was that she wasn't the right person to explain it" Connie's mother said.

It took Ruby a second to get what was being talked about, but then got it.

"Oh! Right, sorry, not used to it being phrased so technically. Um, so the physical form of a Gem, that being everything except for the Gemstone itself..." Ruby held up her left hand, showing the Gemstone set in her palm "...is made out of light. It allows us to interact with the world, but is expendable if an accident occurs or we get attacked. So long as the Gemstone itself isn't hurt, we'll be fine. Which is pretty great" Ruby said, before flapping her fands to realign herself.

Once refocused, Ruby continued.

"So, because we are mostly made of light, we can share that light with other Gems. Uh, I don't really know how to explain that-"

"So it's like distributed computing? Where you link a bunch of systems together so that they can be used as one unit?

Ruby and Priyanka turned in shock. The speaker had been Connie. She still had her legs pulled up against her torso, with her arms crossed on top of them, but her head was no longer pointed down, hidden by her arms. Plus, she spoke.

Ruby had to refocus, shaking herself back to her point.

"Um, yeah actually. The two Gems start working as if they were one Gem. Things that are similar or complimentary between the two are brought out more, and things that aee different or clashing are repressed"

Ruby paused, taking a deep breath. She didn't need to breathe, but the physical action helped keep her on task.

"We tend to think of it like how a relationship works. Where people can connect is where it's strongest points are, where they can't connect is where things can fall apart"

Mrs. Maheswaren nodded along.

"So, you and Saphire have been... Connected? For a long while?"

Ruby nodded.

"Yeah, the term we use is "fused", but yeah. We've been together for over five thousand seven hundred years".

Priyanka seemed to have understood the mechanism, but raised her eyebrow at Ruby's last sentence.

"Why is that?"

"Why is what?"

"Why would you stay fused for so long?"

That, that phrasing in particular, made Ruby's non-existent heart pound. She knew that Connie's mom didn't mean anything by it, but it was still hurt.

"Um, are you okay? Did I say something wrong?" Priyanka said, sounding worried.

Ruby began trying to calm herself down. It was harder for a Gem than for a human, but deep breaths still tended to work.

"Uh, yeah. I mean, I know you didn't mean anything by it, but yeah" Ruby refocused again, this time by flapping her hands, and then continued. "To answer your question, we stay together because we want to. Garnet is our way of showing who we are"

Priyanka nodded.

"Sorry for the insult, I didn't meant to hurt you." said Priyanka.

"It's okay".

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Priyanka left the tea with them, having finished hers. She was tired, but trusted Connie with Ruby. The red Gem seemed nice and polite, if a bit easily distracted.

Thinking about it, that day might have been worse than this one.

Shaking her head to get that thought out, she looked to Connie.

"So... uh... Sorry that we had to meet?" Ruby said, before immediately regretting.

Who in the world apologized for having met someone? There are very few things that could have been more insulting to say.

"Uhg! Sorry! I'm not thinking right today."

Shaking her head once again in order to put her focus back on the task at hand. She then stuck her hand out to Connie.

"Um, I'm Ruby. Nice to meet you"

Connie eyed Ruby's hand, and then grabbed it. It was a bit of an awkward hand shake, mainly because Connie was rolled into a ball, her knees against her chest.

Connie mumbled something, but then began to seem scared, pressing her face into her knees.

Ruby panicked and went up next to her, giving her a hug. Connie didn't stop her, but didn't seem to be comforted by it. Not visibly.

Ruby stopped hugging her and just sat nearby.

Then Priyanka came back into the room, holding a tea kettle and some cups.

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(Shout out to Dakota over at @nightmerghost! They pretty much single handedly saved this AU yesterday.

Steven also noticed while he pet Cypress that their fur had become softer, though that might have had to do with the fact that Steven actually washed Cypress instead of abandoning them in a desert like some people.

It also might be a good time to mention that Cypress had chosen to take a nap on Steven's lap, in turn completely immobilizing the Orange Gem.

Soon, the door to the house opened, showing a happy Pearl, Garnet, and Amethyst.

"Hey guys, how are you doing?" Said Steven.

"Fine" Said Garnet.

"We just successfully isolated Rose's Moss" Said Pearl excitedly.

"The one that has a higher human casualty count than all the Corrupted Gems combined?" Steven asked. It was true, mainly because Corrupted Gems did not attack humans very often and Steven's own task forces are pretty good at keeping people away from them. Still, twenty seven people is still high, especially sense the Moss has existed for less than one hundred years.

"Yep!" Said Pearl, a note of confidence in her voice that sparked suspicion in Steven.

He'd have to check it out later, after Cypress woke up. It shouldn't be too bad, it isn't like the thing was going to kill anyone before the end of the day.

Right?

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(Yes, Steven does have a Human Task force that deals with Corrupted Gems. They don't actually solve the problem, they just keep people away from the thing and sometimes drive the thing off, then alert the Crystal Gems. Human weaponry is pretty bad at dealing with Corruptions).

"Yeah Stevo" Said Greg, looking up from the car he was working on washing.

"I... I was trying to do something, but then I couldn't. Then I kept trying to do it, and then I couldn't. Then I didn't eat for several days, and giving up hurt, and now I need help" Steven said, getting progressively more panicked and less coherent as he continued forward.

Greg had to get him to repeat things a few times, making sure to say what he thought Steven was saying, before they finally decided that Greg understood enough.

"Steven, I don't know, but this doesn't sound like human stuff. At least, I don't know of anything human it could be. Why don't you go talk to Rose, and if she doesn't know what it is either, we'll look into other solutions" Greg said nervously, trying not to sound like... someone, Steven couldn't tell who.

"I- I-... okay" Steven stuttered, before starting the trexk back home.

"Steven" Greg called out, heading up to him.

"Um, what?"

Greg handed him 10 dollars.

"Go get yourself a snack, it will make you feel better" he said.

Steven smiled as he looked at Greg.

"Thanks" he said, actually starting to feel a little better.

Not much, but a little.

Then Steven worked out who it was.

"Hey Amethyst"

Amethyst didn't respond, she just hugged him tighter like she was trying to warm up. Well, he did feel cold, but Steven didn't think that a Gem could really warm up a person.

Steven was willing to just hug back. What ever had happened had made him feel pretty awful.

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The hug had lasted a good 5 minutes, at which point Steven was getting kind of sick of it.

"Um, Amethyst?"

"Yeah Steven?"

"What happened? The last thing I remember is pressing my hand against Nora orb-thingy" he asked.

Amethyst explained what she knew, and that Nora and her friend was safe.

Steven looked around.

"Shouldn't... Shouldn't we get out of here? I remember you saying it was kind of dangerous" Steven said.

Amethyst nodded, and they began walking to the door.

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(Next time on the son of Black Diamond AU: Steven gets dragged into a mission).

So far though, it seemed like he was good. Even Kiddo didn't look at him, but that might just be because he's so focused.

Twoie needed to just let events play out. This needed to happen, or Peridot might not give up. If she thinks she has a chance to stop the cluster herself, or to escape the planet on her own, then all may be lost.

So far so good, events were lining up exactly as they had before. Stumbling across Peridot, the resulting conflict, her subsequent escape, and Pearl and Amethyst leaving to go find her while he stayed behind with Garnet.

"... If Peridot's mission was to reactivate the Kindergarten, the injectors would be on. But they are not" Said Garnet to his younger self.

"Oh, oh" said Kiddo.

Garnet picked up the collapsed injector, revealing a hole.

"Let's go see what she was actually doing"

Garnet, Kiddo, and Twoie went down into the Kindergarten's prime control room.

But only Twoie knew what horrors would await them.

The nervous look on the young girl's face barely registered to Amethyst. She was used to humans acting weirdly around her. She simply wasn't like the other Crystal Gems. Garnet could pass for human so long as she wore her glasses, and Rose and Pearl had to actively convince people they weren't human. Amethyst, wasn't like that. She had bright purple skin that marked her as different.

"So, would you two explain to me what happened?" Amethyst asked.

Nora began to talk very quickly, going over things in a disorganized and out of order fashion, even periodically repeating the same topics. It seemed kind of scary. For one thing, Pearl was going to freak out that Nora's bubble was so different from Rose's.

She had enough trouble hiding from Pearl that Nora's shield was the mirror image of Rose's shield, rather than being the same thing.

Suddenly, Connie piped up once more.

"I'm surprised, you managed to fit a room this large under the lighthouse"

"It's actually an interdimensional space. Don't ask how that works, Rose built it, not me. There are actually a few other rooms..." Amethyst began, before cutting herself off.

"You know, neither of you are technically supposed to be here. Um..."

Amethyst glowed and changed shape, becoming a helicopter. Then looked at the dumbfounded Connie and Nora.

"Well, hop on!"

It took them only a few minutes to get to the temple door, which Amethyst opened back into the beach house.

"I'll talk to you when Steven wakes up!" Amethyst yelled out, before closing the door behind them.

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