#reckon if i bite hard enough it’ll leave a dent

[alexiss-fic-archive]

This universe of yours Chapter 3: A Gem’s glow Part 3

After a few months of not posting, inspiration came to me and I wrote this in 2 days, I hope you like it

Summary: Steven plans to help the gems on their battle against the mother of the centipeetle.

You can also read it on the Ao3

The sun was setting over the horizon as Steven and Connie left the Beach House, small tremors crept along the ground as they ran through the beach.

A moment earlier, they had discovered that Steven could summon a shield from his gemstone, and even though how he did it was unclear, he decided to help the Crystal Gems on their newest quest: Protect Beach City from its newest menace.

As they ran around the corner of the cliff, the kids finally saw the creature that disturbed their evening.

A black and green arthropod of the size of a small train with a huge white mane on its head, which had a pair of jet black pincers that had a stick stuck close to their junction.  Its long body writhed in pain as it released an earsplitting shriek that stopped the children on their tracks.

Next to the creature there were two smaller figures that remained unfazed by its loud call. They were Garnet and Pearl, who had already summoned their weapons and were regrouping to face the humongous enemy before them.

However, the absence of Amethyst  along them worried Connie.

"Where's Amethyst?" Connie asked Steven as they ran into a small hole in the cliff.

"I don't know." Steven said as they reached a safe hideout. "I couldn't see her near the others."

"I hope she's okay..." Connie said as she heard a crackling noise coming next to her.

She turned away from the opening of the small cave to see at the origin of the noise only to find Steven struggling to open the plastic bag of one of the Cookie Cats he brought with himself.

"Steven... What are you doing?" A Sceptical Connie asked him.

"I'm opening a Cookie Cat." The hybrid stated as the bag finally opened. "I'm gonna go and help the Gems!"

"Steven..." Connie said before Steven Spoke again.

"I know what you're thinking, Connie. The Cookie Cat may or not be the source of my power," He said. "And even if it isn't, I still want to do what I can to help them."

"But Steven.... That thing could kill you!" She said.

"If that thing defeats the Gems, it'll kill us anyways." He said. "I must try, Connie, even if I can just distract it for a moment."

"Steven..." Connie said one last time before he stepped out of the hideout.

Once he left her alone, Connie let out a sigh and told to herself: "Why are like this, Steven...." Before stepping outside of the small cave to follow him.

★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★

Althought they were a rare creature to encounter, Corrupted nephrites (or Centipeetles, as the Crystal Gems began to call them based on their appearance) were always a force to be reckoned with in Pearl's opinion; Their giant body and hard exoskeleton, junctioned with their unnatural strength, their power to replicate themselves and their ability to release showers of acid as a desperation move, made them formidable foes that could turn a lenghty battle into a calvary.

Within any other circumstances a fusion such as Rainbow Quartz or Sardonyx could quickly deal with the corruption. However, since the holder of one of the halves of Rainbow's gems couldn't even summon his weapon and let alone fuse with another gem, and that all the knowledge about fusion was being withheld from Steven until he could formally join the Crystal Gems OR when his 14th birthday came to be, The Crystal Gems had to fight the Centipeetle the old way.

And If they were being honest, They were not having a nice time.

The creature not only took them by surprise, but was quick to dispose of Amethyst by launching her into the overcast clouds.  It was continuously slamming Garnet into the cliff while Pearl tried to avoid getting pinned down by its legs or mauled by its pincers.

So they were pretty much against the ropes as their opponent toyed around with them.

"I don't remember having so much trouble with a Centipeetle before!" Pearl said before attempting to cut one of the creature's legs, resulting only in her spear getting small dents and chips on its blade. "Crud!"

"Pearl, your spears aren't as hard as Rose's Sword or Rainbow Axe!" Garnet grunted as she grabbed insect's jaws after it failed to catch her between them, keeping them away from her body. "Use them on its soft spots!"

"THIS THING DOESN'T HAVE A SOFT SPOT!" Pearl yelled as she tried to stab one of the legs' joints with the body, resulting in the spear's spiral shattering against the harder surface.

"I'M SEEING ONE RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME!" Garnet shouted at her partner as the creature tried to bite her before slamming her into the cliff.

"WHY DIDN'T YOU TOLD ME THAT EARLIER!?"  Pearl exclaimed as she created another spear and rushed to help her friend.

"'CAUSE I'M BUSY TRYING TO NOT GET EATEN BY THIS THING!" Garnet said as she fought the creature's jaws in an attempt to not get trapped inside the insect's caustic maw.

Fortunately for her, Pearl showed next to her and quickly shoved down her weapon into the soft tissue of the creature's sclera, as far as possible from the gemstone that acted as its eye. The open wound released a small Spray of caustic blood in front of the lancer, who covered her eyes  and gem in time to avoid getting blinded by it.

The insect released a horrifying screech as it freed Garnet from its grasp, squirming in pain as its blood dripped down from the pole of Pearl's spear.

The thin gem created another spear as the droplets of acid blood ate away her projected flesh before fading away from existence. She was thankful that she got hit by its blood and not by its spit, as the caustic properties were stronger in the monster's saliva than in other bodily fluids.

"You okay?" Garnet asked.

"You know I've been worse." Pearl replied smugly.

"We'll be in a worser situation if we don't come up with a plan to defeat it." Garnet stated.

"We can't target its eye again, and its exoskeleton is too hard for my Spears...." Pearl said.

"What about its underside?" The fusion asked. "It's soft enough for them to hit."

"But it won't work...." The lancer said. "That thing is too long, its vitals can be anywhere in there."

"How about I damage its entire body from within?" Garnet suggested.

"Fried bug, huh?" Pearl said with a raised eyebrow. "We haven't done that since the eighties."

"We still need Amethyst here for it to work, though." The bigger gem stated as their enemy began to recover, curling around itself and trying to pull out the shaft of the weapon lodged in its eye with the pincer of its tail, squealing in pain as its acid blood dripped down from the metal pole as it was removed. After that, The Centipeetle's mane of white hair began to rustle, as smaller copies of the monster were released into the Beach next to it.

"So, We buy time, wait for Amethyst, connect it, shock it, and then, you finish it up?" Pearl summarized before looking at Garnet to check if they were in the same page. After receiving an approving nod from her partner, The lithe gem mirrored her before they both changed to a battle stance, Unbeknownst to them that there was someone else listening at them.

★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★

While the Crystal Gems were discussing their strategy, Steven managed to sneak behind them and find cover behind one of the many broken pieces of the temple's statue that littered the beach's sand.

He listened at their plan with hope that he could jump out at the last second, shield in hand to help them out.

He took a bite of the ice cream he opened earlier abd waited for the shining light of his gemstone to materialize.

But nothing happened.

He took another bite and the pink gemstone remained as inert as always.

He took another, desperate bite from the melting treat as tears began to sprout from his eyes, his left hand clutched at the unresponsive, pink gemstone underneath his shirt.

"C'mon..." He pleaded to his Gem. "Please... let me do something..."

He slumped into the sand as the gemstone remained unresponsive. Apparently, Connie was right, and Ice cream had nothing to do with his powers at all.

"Darn it..." He said as the ground rumbled again as the battle between the gems and the monster and its minions ensued. "Why did I even though this would be an good plan..."

Tears began to flow freely from his eyes as Steven realized that he was a complete liability for the gems, What was the point of having a weapon if it didn't appeared when you needed it the most?

He felt small and useless, so much that he literally felt like he shrunk down to the size he had when he was eight.

He hugged his legs close to his chest, forsaking the now almost extinct ice cream sandwich to the beach's sand as he heard Pearl's voice as she was slammed against the wall of the cliff and Garnet's cries of concern for her teammate.

He sat there, hoping that the creatures or the gems couldn't listen to his whimpers and soft sniffles.

A moment later, He heard a loud boom accompanied by a burst of wind and sand that made him raise his head from his knees. He peeked from behind the hand he was hiding into the source of the sound, finding a small cloud of sand that quickly settled down, Inside of it was an injured Amethyst, who had crash-landed into the beach after having been thrown so high into the sky by the Centipeetle that she was airborne for at least five minutes.

"Amethyst?" Steven said as he checked her from his hideout, She had her right arm twisted in an unnatural way, as well as some bruises, scrapes and cuts result from the crash against the abrasive sand; Interestingly, The purple gemstone in her chest didn't had a single scratch or crack, probably because Amethyst cushioned the fall with her small body.

"AMETHYST!!" The other Gems shouted in concern as the creature lost interest in them, leaving them to its spawns as it moved towards the weakened gem.

"GET OUT OF THERE!" Pearl said as Amethyst struggled to stand on her feet, as her right leg was also displaced from its natural position.

The beast loomed above the helpless gem as  it prepared to lunged at her.

Steven couldn't tear his teary eyes away from the scene that was about to happen.

The Insect prepared to lower its acid-coated jaws at her, However, it was interrupted by a stream of the corrosive poison that its descendants spew on its back.

It squealed in pain as it own acid ate away the protective armor, leaving that particular spot weakened and vulnerable.

It turned around to see the origin of this new attack while The gems and Steven did the same, And no one could've prepared them to the sight they were beholding.

Connie was standing in the middle of the beach, Tears running down her cheeks as she frowned angrily at the monster in front of her. In her arms there was a smaller Centipeetle  that had acid still dripping from its jaws.

"CONNIE!?" The pair of gems said worryingly as they focused on killing the remaining offspring of the creature.

"Stay. Away. from. Her." She said to the creature who now had shown interest in her.

"LEAVE HER ALONE!!" The girl yelled before squishing the insect in her arms, forcing it to regurgitate the acid concoction towards its creator.

The stream made contact with some of the legs of the monster, making it shriek in pain as it cut them off away from the main body.

Enraged by the new attacker, The monster chose to retaliate with the same fire.

It quickly crawled against the girl with murderous intent, closing its maw to store the acid it was about to spew.

Noticing what was about to happen, Steven suddenly felt bigger, and left the hideout as fast as his feet allowed him, Rushing to protect the girl from the deathly insect before her.

Sensing the immediate danger, The creature in the girl's arms manage to escape from her grasp, while she covered herself with her arms to protect herself from the spray of lethal acid.

She closed her eyes as she awaited for the Centipeetle to unleash its attack on her.

However, Instead of feeling a burning pain all over her body, Connie felt nothing. She was completely fine.

She opened up her eyes to see the reason she was still alive and found that Steven was standing in front of her, along with a enlarged version of His pink shield; It had blocked the deadly acid from the monster

He stood in front of her before he suddenly collapsed into the sand, His shield dissipating as well.

"Steven!" The girl said as she walked over to him. Worried about his sudden fainting, She kneeled down next to him and was about to check his pulse, when an angry screech interrupted her. The beast was still there.

It was about to lunge at them when a purple whip encrusted with purple crystals wrapped  itself around it's neck; Amethyst had recovered.

Her arm and leg were still made a mess and her face had a black eye and had some bleeding cuts around the left side of her visage, but still, she was determined enough to overcome her injury in order to protect her children.

"HEY, BUGFACE!" She shouted as she restrained the insect  with only one arm. "WE'RE THE ONES YOU SHOULD BE WORRYING ABOUT!"

After finishing the sentence, her other two teammates showed up besides her. They also had some scratches and bite marks from the offspring they fought, but they were in better shape than Amethyst.

The white gem threw the spear she was holding towards the weakened portion of the armor that Connie made with her stunt, creating an opening to Garnet to finish the job.

The bigger gem in the trio gathered lightning in her fists before leaping into the spear that protuded from its body.

With a grunt, She pushed the spear deeper into the monster's insides along with her thunder with a mighty punch, electrocuting the corruption with thousand of volts, effectively damaging its vitals.

With a final screech, The green gemstone that functioned as an eye lost its glow, before the creature's entire body vanished in an explosion of smoke that cleared up the overcast sky.

Garnet got close to the beast's remains, It's gemstone, before she sealed it inside a stasis bubble and sent it to the temple.

Meanwhile, An awed Connie looked at her saviors as Steven began to move again.

"Connie?" He said. "Are you alright?"

"Yes, Steven." She said with a smile. "Thanks to you."

The boy returned the smile before Garnet walked towards them.

"You two were of many help." The large gem said proudly. "Let's go inside."