What If You Lost?

"DON'T TOUCH THAT! YOU CLODS DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU'RE DOING!" Peridot screamed with the whip tightly wrapped around her.

"You got this, Pearl." Said Amethyst, ignoring their new prisoner except by tightening the whip further.

"Alright ship." Pearl said, spinning around on the chair. "Turn us around." Then she dipped her fingers into the...stuff only to have her eyes go fuzzy. "Oooooooooooooooooh." She moaned, shaking. That was when Steven looked down at the camera feed and his eyes filled with shock and his smile dropped.

"Garnet." He said.

"What is it?" He heard Amethyst ask, struggling to fully restrain the squirming green worm under her.

"She's loosing." He breathed, turning around and running out the cockpit room and back to where the two were fighting.

"No, Steven!" Amethyst shouted, reaching for him, but missing and ending up falling off Peridot and landing flat on the floor which she frantically picked herself up from.

"Go after him!" Pearl shouted. Allowing him to get a black eye was bad, but getting himself killed under her supervision was far worse. She couldn't turn to look herself as she was currently occupied, but was close to turning the ship around. Amethyst looked down at Peridot to see her staring back up at her, furious, before running after him. She was only just able to keep up with him as he scampered through the hallways, past the cells-including Lapis's who wasn't thrilled when she was unnoticed by the two-and until he eventually reached the green crystalline room, skidding to a sudden halt.

Yes, she was losing badly to Jasper. She could barely stand with her wobbling legs that struggled to hold her weight and her body was littered with battle scars including a cracked visor. She allowed herself to be distracted by Steven and stared at him alarmingly instead of keeping her fists up. This allowed Jasper to deliver a heavy blow to the head causing her to falter and then tumble onto the ground.

"GARNET!" He screamed at her and rushing to her and throwing his shield only to have Amethyst's whip wrap itself around him and jerk him back. He tried desperately to free himself as Garnet desperately tried to get up with shaking arms. The shield had struck Jasper's back, but had been ineffective.

"STEVEN, STOP!" Amethyst screamed at him when he was near her. He looked at her. She knew there was nothing he could do and that they should get back to Pearl, back to Earth, home instead of dawdle about here any longer.

"No, we have to help her!" He said, motioning his hands to her. Amethyst didn't realise that Garnet and Jasper were there at first, but when she looked she wished she hadn't. She'd never seen Garnet bleed before, or in pain, but now she had as Jasper dented her head in-literally-with a heavy and loud echoing thud followed by cracking of her skull. Their tough cookie friend suddenly jolted with a last rush of adrenaline before sprawling out on the floor...then went limp. One of her arms was directed at them as if reaching for help, but she'd received none. Jasper looked behind her to see the two who stopped staring at their friend and towards the executioner. Such rage behind the glass of her helmet and those clenched teeth. They were speechless, but shaking. It was only when she slowly walked towards the two that Amethyst grabbed Steven's arm and ran back through the halls towards the cockpit. They passed Lapis once more.

"Steven?" She asked coming up to her cell and planting her hands on the barrier only to see them run past and turn down the hallway. "Wha...where are you going?" She weakly asked to herself. Then her cell dropped and she was free. She alarmingly turned to the panel that controlled her cell to be greeted by a familiar orange form looking down at her in disgust.

Eventually the two got back to the control room and Amethyst slammed the door shut behind her, her hair flailing as she suddenly turned around to do the action. Both were panting heavily, but that was the least of their problems right now as with every breath they drew the bottle of emotions set closer and closer to bursting.

"Done!" Said Pearl victoriously, freeing her hands from the panel and turning around to face the two. She saw Steven curled up in a ball against the wall crying and Amethyst leaning on the panel that controlled the door. And Peridot was still on the floor. "Guys?" She asked.

"Look at the screen, Pearl." Amethyst solemnly said with a single tear dropping from her face and landing on the floor as she too started to cry into her forearms. Pearl did so in looking at the screen, a part of her not wanting to.

"Oh Christ." She meeped, putting a hand up to her mouth. She turned away from the sight and dropped to the floor. "Oh God." She whined, putting her face in her hands. Garnet's body had yet to retreat into it's gem form for regeneration as her body was too far damaged. That meant only one thing: she was dead. Actually dead.

"GUYS?" A voice screamed to distract their grief. All four of them looked towards the door at the sound of Lapis's voice. "OPEN THE DOOR!" She shouted, pounding her hands against it. Steven got up to do so, but Amethyst stopped him. She put a hand to his mouth and quickly shook her head. Under her miserable face, it was clear that she didn't want to leave her out there either, but Jasper could get in and if Garnet couldn't beat her then none of them could even together. It'd only be a matter of who'd die first. And Lapis was going to be second as she started screaming in agony. They couldn't see what was going on, but could hear everything. "NO! PLEASE!" She begged as the sound of something hardly hitting her echoed through the door. Amethyst backed herself and Steven away from the door to regroup in the small space that had become their tomb.

"There's an escape latch!" Peridot shouted over Lapis's sounds of agony. The other three looked to her. "On the control panel, it opens a hole in the floor!" She added. Pearl stood up and spawned her glave. She slashed the rope around her. Peridot instantly plunged for the chair and plugged into the liquid. With a few hand movements, as she said, she caused a hole to open up in the floor just as Lapis stopped screaming and dead silence followed. They looked to the door. Then a dent popped out as Jasper tried to force her way in. "Go." They heard her say.

"She'll kill you!" Said Steven. He didn't know why he suddenly cared for her, after everything she'd done, but this was not how it was supposed to end. The other two had the same concerns.

"Just go." She said. After hesitation, they jumped down into the hole which sealed up behind them just as the door was ripped off. Peridot removed her hands and turned around to face her confidently. She was scared, clearly, but Jasper had gone too far.

Steven led the way through the lower levels (not too different from the level above) having no idea where he was going, his mind running wild, when a loud crashing noise came from behind them. They turned to see Peridot's body had been thrown through the ceiling. They would approach her, but when Jasper jumped down after they kept running. They kept running, faster, until a wall shot down like a shutter. Jasper had a portable panel from Peridot in her hand, but thankfully they made it through unscathed. Well...two did.

"PEARL!" Shouted Steven, pounding on the wall for it to do nothing in damaging it.

"I'm fine." She said from the other side. "Just keep going. I'll go round." She lied. She didn't need them to worry.

"Are you sure?" Asked Amethyst. She couldn't lose her too, but if she said she was okay and really meant it.

"Yes!" She answered. So Steven and Amethyst kept going, starting slow, but turning into full blown sprint. When their footsteps could no longer be heard, Pearl rested her palms on the wall. "I love you." She said to herself, silently crying. She felt the back of her head get grabbed by gorilla like hands and smashed into the wall. She didn't scream. That was the last thing they needed to hear and because that single blow ended her by crushing the gem in her head.

The two however heard the thud and the sound of the wall being blown to bits. They looked back to where it came from to see a yellow ball turn the curb and then begun speeding down the hall. Followed by a second wall shooting down...separating the two.

"NO! NONONONONONO!" Steven shouted before hitting the thing repeatably either with his fists or shield. It was doing nothing, but it had to.

"Steven." He heard her say. He didn't stop. "Steven!" She said. He hit the wall one last time hoping he'd free her, but he just collapsed down in front of it on his knees. The sound of an object approaching at high velocity got closer and closer. "It's okay." He heard her voice say reassuringly, but he could hear how scared she was. Then there was a thud as Jasper collided with her, crushing her body into the wall. Then the door shot up. He didn't even look up at her to see her bring both of her fists down on his head.

-

"AND THEN SHE CRUSHES YOU! AND IT'S ALL LIKE PLEWGAUOHCHHHHHHHSHAAAAA! Blood everywhere and then-"

"Thank you, Amethyst!" Pearl interrupts, putting a hand up. "That's enough." She adds. The five sat in a circle on the floor on beanbags of their home. They were at peace until they started telling eachother stories.

"Yeah, okay." She was sweating for some reason. "Yeah, so that's what would've happened if...y'know...you lost." She adds, looking towards Garnet.

Steve ended up hugging Garnet tightly. "Don't ever die on me." He mutters to her. He did not want to go through all that.

"Don't you think you're exaggerating a bit?" Connie asked Amethyst.

"What?! No! That's a perfect representation of what would happen." She answers.

"No it is not." Comments Garnet.

"Why?" She asks.

"I'd never lose, Steven would not be that stupid, Jasper would never let Lapis out-who should have no idea where we were, but she would probably die like that, Peridot would never help us, the lower levels of the ship are cave like, there is no manual way to control shutter doors on the ship-if it has any-and Peridot wouldn't carry it with her, Pearl would not die like that, you would not die like that and, finally, Steven's shield is indestructible and can probably cut through the doors and-which are, for some reason, stronger than the one in the cockpit. And Steven would not die like that. Did I miss anything? No? Good."

The others just stared at her.

"Okay." Pearl said, clasping her hands together. "So, does anyone have a more lighthearted story?" She then asks as all of them so far had been sad, depressing and gruesome.

"I do." Connie answers, raising her hand up, eager.

"Go ahead, Connie." Pearl said, smiling. She opened her mouth to start.