Chapter 109: Nearly Lost it All

Summary:

Trying to live

"Quickly, we're on a time limit!" Lapis carried Steven as Moon ran them all through the jungle. "The longer we take the less likely this will save him!"

"We're running as fast as possible!" Star shouted back. "Why can't we just use the scissors!"

"It's a secret location, we had it so scissors don't work!" Moon shouted as they came across the lake. "We don't have time to consult the guardian, Lapis, remove the water entirely!"

"Waaa-GAK!" She shoved the water along with some crocogator thing, as they all entered the small building.

"Way too much Glossaryck." Marco idly muttered. "Come on Steven, it's gonna be okay." He helped her carry the boy, placing him in the golden goo.

"So this stuff is what magic's made up of right?" Kelly watched from the sides, antsy and worried as she held herself in a hug, looking the most impatient and anxious aside from Moon or Star. "He'll get his mojo back and feel better instantly, right?"

"I don't know … the sanctuary has taken anywhere from days to years." Moon admitted with a tear. "I don't know how long we'll have to wait before-"

Steven's corpse jumped up, forming a pink shield. "Listen, just calm down or … I'll make …" The boy looked around. "How long was I concussed for?"

"STEVEN!" Everyone in the group, which meant all the crystal gems, herself, his friends, and everyone in the Butterfly family shouted in relief at the same time, and squished the boy almost back to death again.

"Guys, come on, I'm alright." The boy spoke casually. "At worst I'm just suffocating from the hug." He muttered.

"Steven, Meteroa sucked out your soul, you were DEAD!" Star shook the naive kid violently.

"... I was dead?" He asked, looking at his hands. "... hm…now that I think about it…I faintly recall talking to a cat and a girl with leaves in her hair about watching the multiverse or something…"

"Who cares about the weird death dreams you had when you had your soul stolen, you're back!" Kelly began squeezing the boy harder and harder.

"Right, don't worry Kelly, I'm fine." He patted the girl back. "Also I can feel my bones start to creek." She pulled back instantly. "So, what's the plan?"

"Plan?" Moon almost said with a laugh. "We let the commission handle it from here. All you kids, ESPECIALLY you Steven, stay out of it, for good." Moon looked at him, making it clear that there was no room for argument.

"Yes, we'll help the hunt, but you're staying out of it." Garnet added in with a serious gaze from under the glasses.

"But.." Steven tried to voice a counter.

"No butts except for yours on your bed as you recover, young man." River scowled, actually using discipline on any of his kids for the first time Lapis recalled. He was what Star described as the 'fun' parent.

"We've face a lot of-"

"Steven, no." Star spoke up, holding his face. "No more fighting, no more dimension jumping, no more crazy schemes, the rest of the month is us at the castle. Alright?" She spoke seriously.

"Wait, Star..you…don't want to fight?" Steven looked at his sister skeptically. "If this came at any other time, I would be ecstatic…"

"Steven, this isn't the time to joke around!" Star interrupted. "Neither of us can handle facing Meteora as we are. You're too nice, and I'm not strong enough to fight against her magic and monster strength! We got lucky with the sanctuary! What if that wasn't an option, what if Mom wasn't around, what Meteora found and smashed the place to bits!?"

Steven stayed quiet, an expressionless face as he looked at his sister cry and spoke seriously. "But…if anybody else goes and faces her…they probably won't hold back…they might fight to kill her.."

"And if that happens, then it happens." Eclipsa spoke solemnly while wiping a tear.

"But … she's your daughter."

"I know…for corn's sake Steven I know!" Eclipsa got on her knees. "But you're my grandchild…and I don't want to choose between family…not again." Eclipsa's eyes went red from irritation. "In all likelihood, if Rose didn't handle my mother as she did, then I wouldn't have been free to love my beloved…I had to choose between my husband and my mother, and I'm still haunted by my choices even if I don't regret them."

"Steven, it's one villain." Lapis said. "I know you're good at redeeming them, but one powerful person that killed you seems like a good line to draw."

Steven still looked like he was going to fight them on it, but Kelly covered his mouth with her own hand. "It's a lot to ask you to juggle this moral crap, especially when we're all just kids getting in over our heads…but when you died…I felt it…I felt a cold emptiness leave me instantly."

"I felt the same." Star placed a hand on her brother's shoulder. "In fact, until you came back, I felt like someone james a sword into my chest and locked me inside a meat locker." Stat looked at her brother intensely. "You dying…it was the most excruciating experience of my life, magic bond or not, and I will drag you to the depths of hell if it means you'll stay safe from Meteora."

He shook, before sighing. "Fine, I'll stay put …"

"Thank you…" Moon sighed, before pulling him into a hug of her own. "The commission and Lapis will be the first to confront her. If that fails, Garnet and I will personally see to it ourselves." She's drown the bitch for what she did to Steven

"Alright." Marco nodded. "Come on guys, we better head back to the castle."

Star tripped, falling into the golden goo before getting back up. "Agh, why does this stuff always get in my mouth!?" It was almost like some sort of running gag by this point.

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"Can you believe him!?" Marco watched as Star shouted. "The nerve of that guy, running off after nearly getting killed." The princess grumbled about her brother, as Steven almost immediately took off on Lion with Kelly the moment they headed home.

"Gee … how disastrous." He spoke in monotone.

"Where does he get the gall to just…jump into something dangerous so easily!?" Star continued on her rant."

"Yeah, pretty terrifying."

"And he acts like he can handle it, like he doesn this sort of thing everything day and expects us to think its normal to experience life threatening experiences!"

"Oh, the Mewmanity."

"And no matter how much someone tells him otherwise, he still wants to go through with it! Even me! His own sister! He's just…ignoring my concern and love for him as he goes off to risk his life in some inane idea of keeping everyone safe!"

"Alright, don't you think you're being … hypocritical?"

"How so?" Star asked with absolutely no self awareness in her voice.

"Happy go lucky kid, excited about life in general, greets danger with a smile, usually doesn't care how dangerous things get when he's really determined to help people?" He didn't know how he could make it more obvious.

"Yeah, that's describing Steven." She nodded.

"That's Steven describing you when you first came to earth." Marco retorted.

"What!? No, I am not like that at all!"

"You're pretty eager and excited to fight…"

"I've learned restraint…"

"You can be pretty naive when you face new situations…"

"I learn to take them on with pride and observation …"

"And when you face something dangerous, you use all the determination you have inside of you to face it head on, especially if it means helping someone."

"Yeah but…that's different….I.." Star tried to argue and raised her voice, but she couldn't think of a single argument.

"Face it, ever since Starry Quartz you guys have effectively swapped roles." Marco explained. "He's learned to fight more and you've learned to slow down."

"Yeah…the first time we fused, we basically got a look at what it was like to be in the other's shoes….oh corn, does that mean I'm a bad influence if he's taking after me?" Star said with slight horror in her tone.

"No, no, not at all. It just means you two have learned from each other. You're better people by gaining more experience." He went on. "Now come on, we gotta pose for the photo."

"Ah..the bounce lounge Photo booth…we've had such good memories here." Star looked at the contraption as they headed inside. "So nice of Pony to lend it to us…to bad about her horn. We should do something nice for her when we get the chance."

"We can drop by afterwards. Now pose." They gave a smile as the camera flashed. "Alright, it should be good." Marco pushed on the opening … and it didn't budge. "What the?"

"Let me try." Star went to the door and kicked it with all her might, and it did nothing. "Huh, that's weird, that always works with every door that I've ever tried.

"That's because it's a magic door!" A voice shouted from outside the door, and out of the window, he and Star were greeted by a goblin that didn't look too dissimilar to Roy. "Name's Ben Photino! I'm the Booth Goblin living in the Photo booth!"

"Hey Ben." Marco waved. "You mind opening the door?"

"Hm…" Ben knocked on the door, before looking at the camera. "Nope, it's magically stuck. The booth searches inside of your soul and can tell when you're not being authentic to the pictures you want to have!"

"What are you talking about? We're just trying to relax and have some down time after a pretty crappy day." Marco responded.

"Huh, he does have a fair point though." Star looked at the photo they just took. "There doesn't seem to be the same energy in my eyes like the first photo we ever took in here."

"This is the first time we've been in the booth, right?" Marco asked.

"Marco, this is why the booth trapped us in here! You've forgotten!" Star pointed at him. "This is the same photo booth Ponyhead took us in during her first trip to earth! A foundational memory of our friendship!"

"The photo booth Pony … oh yeah, when she threatened my life!" Good times.

"And if you forgot, then that means we need to make new and better memories inside of here if we're ever going to get out!" Star concluded as she searched his hoodie. "Come on, I know you're in here."

"Star, I'm not made of money!"

"Yes you are…aha!" Star laughed as she held up a stack of cash. "Six hundred fifty bucks like usual."

"Aww, I've been trying to save."

"Well now it's going to save us from being trapped in this photo booth for the rest of our lives." Star inserted the five bucks required for photos…man taking pictures was not cheap. "Now come on, let's go for a sassy diva pose for the first one."

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"How did you survive being this sad girl?" Ponyhead asked Kelly as she munched on some stale popcorn.

"Tom gave me relationship advice and mom kicked me out of herself." The bushy haired girl explained as she and Q-fly looked at her in slight pity. Not that she minded, she craved the attention. 

"He's surprisingly one of the most mature friends we have." Q-fly commented.

"Oh hey, Q-fly. Glad you're not dead." Ponyhead weakly cheered as she took a sip of her soda, drinking it empty as she kept her eyes glued to her laptop. "Come to join me in feeling useless and drowning your sorrow in junk food?"

"Nah, I already tried that. Kelly said no and Amethyst said she'd throw my bed out of a window if I went through with it."

"Ah, you got a good thing going here, you know that? Supportive girlfriend, even if she was a bit of a parasite before, and supportive family." Ponyhead groaned. "Pretty much everything I don't have…heck, with my horn gone now, I lost any chance of having either."

"Pony, losing your horn isn't that big of a deal." Q-fly tried to comfort her. "I've seen plenty of pony heads that don't even have any, quite a few of them are your sisters even."

"Yeah, but having a horn is everything." She whined. "It gave you cool laser beams, super speed, longer life."

"Wait, are you gonna die?"

"Nah, I'll just croak at two hundred instead of three hundred."

"But…you can still fly, right?" Kelly asked.

"More like a float." She admitted. "Like, ten feet instead of high in the sky."

"Have you actually tried to fly higher than that, or did you just lay back down the moment you got tired?" Q-fly asked her with a raised eyebrow.

"I don't know…maybe. It's been a long time since I've tried to fly without it. Not since I was a baby." She grabbed a mouthful of sprinkle flavored jelly beans. "Who has time to care about that, though? My efforts to educate Lapis and P-dot in shipping has led me to anime."

"Ponyhead, you can't just stay here and watch anime all day." She absolutely could. The one about pirates apparently could fill up her entire year if she wanted. "… Well there is the crazy option." Kelly muttered.

"Crazy option?" Ponyhead looked at the girl, not trusting what this girl had in that deranged head of hers.

"Is the crazy option going to get anyone hurt?" Q-fly questioned his probably loony girlfriend.

"Only her, and only if she refuses to do anything to make herself better." Kelly explained. "It's simple, we force her into a situation where she has to actually put in effort and get off her lazy butt. Mom did the same for me when she kicked me out of her fur, and that led to us getting back together."

"Hmm … I guess we can do something small then." Q-fly muttered.

"Alright, crazy option." Kelly grabbed Ponyhead. "Let's get that adrenaline pumping!" And tossed her out the window. "Fly or die Pony!"

"YOU'RE THE ABSOLUTE WOOOOOORRRRRSSSSSST!" Pony cried out as she felt the wind rushing in her face.

"Don't worry, Pony, I got you!" Q-fly shouted back at her, and jumped out the window too, reaching her in no time. "Sorry! I had no idea she would do something as crazy as this!"

"Q-fly! I'm glad you're happy dating this crazy chick, but you might wanna consider her sanity just a little bit!"

"If I did that, than I'd have to do it for all my friends, and then myself, and that's a rabbit hole I don't want to go down!" Q-fly said as he grabbed her. "Don't worry, I'll float and we'll safely land on the…!"

SMACK

Q-fly's face suddenly collided with a bird, which knocked him unconscious in a matter of moments. "Wow, really thought you had more durability than that." She noted, noticing that the ground was getting just a little too close for her liking. "Okay, enough playing, Q-fly, make us float now!" She nudged the boy, only for no response to come out.

Seriously, this kid has taken punches from giant monsters and super powered warriors, how did a bird knock him out!? "Alright, maybe I can push us through a window." There were none close enough. "Okay, maybe I can wait for Kelly to call our friends…no, she probably still thinks this is just a test….maybe my sisters…oh who am I kidding, they'd love to see me go splat."

The ground was way too close now, they were going to die. "I don't want to die, I don't want to die..!" She looked at Q-fly. "And you already died, and I don't want to see that again!" She got under the boy and started to push herself up. "Come on, magic pony flying, push up, push up, push up!" There was only a little force being added. "COME ON! I defy nature just by existing, don't give me this bullshit now! NOW FLY!"

She continued pushing up and up. This was it, the ground was too close, they were gonna die … why haven't they hit the ground yet? She looked down, seeing the two of them gently float down. "I … did it …" She actually passed the limit and flew…."I'M AMAZING!" 

Q-fly suddenly awoke from them and awkwardly tumbled to the ground. "Ah! Don't trust the Koala!" He shouted as he shook his head. "What did I miss?"

"You got unconscious because of a bird and I had to save your butt." She snarked. "You can pay me back with lavishing praise later. Seriously, how was it that a bird of all things knocks you out?"

"I've been getting hit in the head a lot lately…I think I need to see a doctor about having a softer skull, all the fractures might be having a toll on my brain." He looked at the sky, then at the ground they stood on. "Great job though, Ponyhead. You really pushed yourself. Keep it up, and you'll be flying like your old self in no time."

"That's right, nothing's going to stop my awesomeness from growing!" She looked to the sky, and saw her house floating on the cloud in the distance. "And I'm going to start next by flying back to my room and beating the stuffing out of your girlfriend for the shit she just pulled!"

"... Yeah that's fair." The boy nodded, resting on the ground. "I'm just gonna lay here and think about life for a bit."

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Star banged her head against the wall. "Six hundred photos … and nothing!?" She was considering creating a new spell all together in order to rewrite time so she was never stuck in this mess! "What the heck are we missing here? I thought we were having a fun time! Just take some silly photos to distract ourselves from the horrible world outside the castle."

"Yeah, what's the difference between back then and right now?" Marco wondered as he slumped on his seat. "Well, If I had to start, that was back when it was just us. Things got crazy when it was just me showing you around earth."

"It was. I needed those two months." Star sighed with a light fondness. "Back when the only serious enemy I had aside from Ludo was Brittney and her bratty attitude."

"Yep … you know she got together with that Kevin guy?" Marco asked.

"On the bright side, Justin is a free man. That dude clearly deserves better." She laughed a little. "I really miss school. Sure, I wasn't the best at it, but I was always surrounded by nice people. It was like a giant safe space for me looking back on it."

"School was great back then." Marco leaned back. "Then life got in the way … maybe everyone was right." He thought aloud. "We're kids, we should have enjoyed being kids while we had the chance. Now you have too much responsibility and I'm sixteen years older than everyone else mentally."

"Mom wasn't too much older than me when she had to take up the throne and deal with this kind of thing….I've really been too hard on her." Star sighed as she hugged her legs. "When everything starts falling apart all at once, of course you make decisions not everyone's going to like. The pressure is suffocating." Star looked to her best friend. "Are you okay, being here and dealing with my family's crap?"

"Of course I am. I'm your squire after all." Marco laughed. "When you left earth, I thought it was the adventure I was missing at first…but it was really you guys…you especially." He blushed. "You've changed my life for the better and I love you….." He covered his mouth.

"Oh …" Suddenly the room got more awkward. "I um … used to have a crush on you too…in case you forgot." She reminded him. "Then there was Jackie … and Toffee … now I'm with Tom." She had a stable relationship for once with a guy that willingly changed for her …

"Yeah, it's been a little weird for me." Marco told her. "I spent so much time wanting to be closer to Jackie, but I found myself growing in ways apart from her. Then there's the whole teasing thing I have with Heckapoo…"

"Yeah, definitely weird seeing my best friend flirt with what's essentially a family 'friend'." Star deadpanned.

"..And then I have this casual thing with Sadie now." Marco went on. "We've both had bad luck on the dating front, so we just try to hang out for fun."

"Wait, wasn't the bad dating before you?" She asked. "Is she rebounding into the guy that caused her to rebound to begin with?"

"Nah, she also has sort of a thing for Lars, but he hasn't made a move yet, and then she got a crush on me, so yeah…it's a jumbled mess."

Star hummed. "Romance is stupid." The irony was not lost on her. 

"Yet it's something we all come back to because it's what most of us want." Marco hummed with her. "We could go full Peridot, but that just means filling the void with a lot of tv."

"That is tempting." Star chuckled as she scooted closer to Marco, their hands brushing up against each other. "Just sitting on a couch with blankets and ice cream as we laugh at how dumb the people act all the time?"

"Focus on fake people's problems rather than our own. That is weirdly comforting." Marco scooted closer as well, their faces getting close to where they felt each other's breaths. "I could even make nachos for old times sake."

"Oh I do love your nachos." She giggled as they got even closer. "Just the two of us…alone together…" Her eyes closed, her lips slightly pucked, and an indescribable feeling of warmth and fireworks overtook her body. She opened them…and found herself kissing Marco…who was kissing her back….

"Aggggh!" They both shouted at the same time, scooting away from each other.

"You kissed me!" She pointed at him.

"You kissed me too!"

"We're supposed to be best friends!"

"I thought I moved on!"

"I HAVE A BOYFRIEND!"

"Tom just became my friend too!"

There was a dispensing noise, both of them seeing a photo being shot out from the wall of them kissing. The door opened wide open. "Good job you two!" Ben shouted. "You showed genuine emotion!"

"Wait, the booth was waiting for us to kiss!?" Star shouted. "It knew we had feelings for each other?!"

"Oh that, no, that was just a normal booth." Ben waved off. "I could sense the vibe that you two had some unresolved conflict, so I locked the two of you in there so that you would be forced to confront those bottled up feelings!"

Star glared at the little guy, raising her wand menacingly. "Marco, you choose how long of a head start he gets before I wipe him out from existence."

"Ten seconds." Marco put on his gloves and set them to the fire setting. "You blast him, I turn the booth to scrap." It was good to have such a good friend .

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Rhombulus groaned. "How much longer do we have to walk through the forest? It's the dry season and my snakes are in agony." One of them was currently coughing.

"As long as it takes." Hekapoo answered. "Although it would have been easier if we had future vision, but Garnet is on 'back up' or some shit."

"Like any of you have the right to complain about anything after what went down at the trial." The only gem in the group, Lapis Lazuli, groaned as she flew overhead.

"Hey, that trial was bad for all of us!" Rhombulus complained. "Ain't that right … Omnitraxus Beta?"

"Oh, like I'm going to take that crap from you of all people, time out guy." The boneheaded jerk of the group snapped back.

"It's better to be annoying than lying killer." Heckapoo scoffed. "Cover ups are one thing, we all agreed on that, but you're lucky we haven't faced an interdimensional war over the shit you pulled. All those princesses, all those kingdoms probably gunning for the heads of those responsible."

"Don't you guys kill monsters all the time?" Lapis asked.

"Technically i've never killed anything." Rhombulus answered. "Crystalize for eternity, sure, but never kill."

"I mostly just kick their asses until they can't walk anymore." Heckapoo added. "We leave the killing to the Queens and the knights most of the time."

"In fact, the one thing Glossaryck told us without being vague is that we literally can't kill anything directly." Omni answered. "Lekmet had to at one point, then he lost his immortality."

"Sheesh, and I thought the Diamonds could be cruel." The blue gem groaned. "You do your job, break a planet apart, and the first thing you're greeted by is a massive aura of depression anytime Blue Diamond feels weepy."

"Yeesh, and I thought the tales about Pink Diamond were bad." Hekapoo grumbled. "So can you actually see anything up there or are you just too lazy to walk?"

"Yes." They didn't elaborate. "So just so we're clear, you're all okay with me drowning the bitch? Because I can't see myself doing anything else in this fight."

"She's a half monster that's been killing for over three hundred years because a moron let her free, go for it." Rhombulus told the gem.

"She was REALLY good at her job! And I didn't have to keep wasting the budget on repairing the robots."

"You know Omni, do you know what I hate the most about this?" Heckapoo's head flame started glowing brighter. "It's that you proved Rose right in the end! We might as well call ourselves monsters when all this crap is said and done!" The fire went high in the sky. "Do you know how painful it is to admit that the pink bastard was right!?"

"Hey, watch where you're aiming!" Lapis shouted. "You could have-" She was cut off as a green laser enveloped her body.

"Ooooh yes…" A rather large purple body said in almost ecstasy. " I'm not fond of sweets, but that was absolutely divine." A blue light enters into the woman, before Lapii's body disappears, and her blackened gem fell to the ground.

"You're not getting away this time!" He blasted the woman, who was immediately crystalized from head to toe. ".... Wow, that was surprisingly ea-" And then her body began to glow a familiar shade of pink. "Why do I say the things I say?"

The ground around them shook violently before a wave of pink blasted from the crystal, crumbling it to pieces. "There's no sealing away what you've done this time! You can't hide me from the world again!" Meteroa shouted as she smashed up the ground, making everyone scatter all over the place.

"We don't plan on hiding anything! We'll be more than happy to tell everyone of your destruction!" Omni charged forward, facing the hybrid Mewman hand to hand.

"Oh like you can destroy me!" She laughed, twisting her arms around as she grappled Omni, before spinning him like a drill as she slammed him into the ground. "I've been drinking my protein, I've got the power now you punks!"

"It's not doing you any favors beauty wise, trust me." Hekapoo snakerd as she created clone after clone to strike at the monster's leg. "You could stand to lose a few hundred souls, it's all going to your hips."

"I don't know, all the morsels you've provided me feel pretty nutritious." The monster shook the clones off and blasted them as well, getting bigger as she absorbed them easily.

"Hekapoo stop fueling the flames!" Omnitraxus shouted. 

"Was that a pun you-" One of the blasts hit Omni before she could finish. "Damn it, this is Toffee all over again! Just being here is making her stronger!"

"Yeah, we're totally screwed right now." Rhombulous forced himself to admit as he grabbed Lapis's gem and tossed it to Heckapoo. "Take her and get out of here!"

"Rhombulous, what are you-!?"

"I was created for one thing!" He shouted, turning to the hybrid as he created crystal blades. "Warfare. I'm not running away now!" With a battle cry, he charged. "Tell Steven I'm sorry for being an idiot!" Hopefully this would begin to make it up to his gem buddy.