Lost Gems

Chapter 1
“Hey!” Steven laughed as he ran into the pizza shop. “Is it true that you have a special pizza today?” Steven asked before jumping onto a chair and pumping himself up for a delicious pizza that was so special and so amazing that everyone has been talking about it for a couple of weeks. Steven had been incredibly busy with Connie and all the gem missions which normally involved him not actually going on the missions or really helping, but the Crystal gems were including him more often so he was going to do his part! Unfortunately this left him without the ability to try the super pizza before today. “Steven I just opened the shop, what’s the big idea? You been waiting outside or something?” Mr. Pizza asked as he put on his apron and started cleaning the large metal pans for the pizzas, but in the same breath he managed “I don’t even have regular slices you think pizzas just appear with magic DO I look like one of you magic gem people?”.

“Oh, sorry. I just haven’t been around lately so I thought I would try to get a slice before the gems come back from their mission. I’ve been pretty important lately, helping them save the world and stuff.” A thought crossed his mind prompting him to cross one leg over the other and raise an eyebrow “I think that if you showed me how to make a pizza I could make a super special magic pizza, how about we talk business.”

Mr. Pizza rolled his eyes “Steven.”

“Yes!?” With sparkling eyes and youthful ambition he leaned forward to hear Mr.Pizzas response.

“Never set foot inside of my kitchen.”

“Awww, well I guess I can just settle on getting some of the pizza. Can I come back later?”

“Yeah sure, come back later just don’t bring anything that can destroy my shop again, you’ve already done it enough times with all those things exploding all over the city.” Between the Red eye and other gem monster there have been plenty of destruction to spare on beach city, not to mention an entire war ship exploding on the beach with all its chunks taking Steven and the others weeks to clean up.

Steven jumped out of his chair and assured Mr. Pizza he would return, and went outside to find something to pass the time, maybe he could invite Connie he thought but remembered that Connie still had school and quickly gave up that pursuit, still he thought maybe he could get a slice to save for later. “Connie likes pizza right? Maybe Amethyst would like a slice too? Oh wait, Dad!?.” He was walking around when an unfamiliar sight caught his eye, a young man with a snow cone cart who was lazily leaning back in his chair by the boardwalk.

Unaware of his surroundings the young man sighed and talked to himself “Man today sure is hot, would be great if somebody bought something.” He sighed again and tilted his head back, his long hair pinned back into a ponytail slowly swayed with the ocean breeze. Despite saying it was hot he wore a white jacket with the words Tanz Snow Cones on the back, his blue skin skin and dark clothes under the jacket suggested he was new to a beach city and to most people he would stick out but Steven just saw a new opportunity to make a friend.

“Hey Mister, if your hot why do you have a jacket?’

Tanz who was lost in thought a couple of moments ago nearly jumped out of his skin at the surprise guest. “wha-what? How long have you been standing there?”

“Not long, are you new to beach city?” Steven asked as he climbed onto the front of the Snow cart.

“Yeah I’m new, I’ve been wandering around for a while though so I guess I just never thought to bring the cart to beach city before. But the fact that everybody has been asking me that is probably why my business can’t get off the ground since they just ask and poof they leave.” Tanz brought his arms up behind his head and leaned back again. “Also I’m sure something about a kid’s butt on my snow cones will send people packin.”

“Oh sorry” Steven hopped off the cart and with his shirt started wiping off the cart. Tanz’s eyes grew wide when seeing Steven’s gem poking from his belly. As soon as Steven stopped though he brought his shirt back down and gave Tanz a thumbs up. “All better!”

“Yeah sure kid whatever you say, you want a snow cone or what?” Whatever Tanza was thinking or feeling a moment ago quickly passed.

“I’m Steven, what’s your name?” The young boy asked.

“Tanz, Name’s Tanz. So, want to buy a snow cone or should I just hand you my coat and see if you sell any better?”

Tanz was of course being sarcastic, but sarcasm was lost on Steven which Tanza learned when Steven’s eyes sparkled “Can I?” He jumped down and held out his hand. “I’ll sell more snow cones then ever! Maybe even become a super magical snow cone seller! Able to leap over tall sales in a single bound and faster than the ice can melt in its paper cone!”

“My sales are at Zero, so I think that’ll be easy” Tanz leaned forward onto the box part of his cart, if he could he probably would have visibly melted against the cart. After noticing that Steven was being serious and had no intention of leaving, he removed his coat and put it on Steven. “There ya go.” The coat was easily too big for Steven, but that didn’t matter to him, he put his arms on his hips and stood triumphantly. Tanzanite just motioned for him to leave. “Just go do whatever, Steven was it? Yeah go do whatever you want and I’m just going to sit right here and stick my head in the freezer.” Tanz yawned interrupting his sentence. “Yeah just give it a shot.” He told Steven before opening the cart and sticking his head inside.

Steven ran off “Super snow cone Steven awaayyy!” After some running around, and lots of sound effects from Steven a few customers had actually come and supported Steven’s new job on their way to their own jobs. Tanzanite counted the dollars and stuck them into his sleeveless coats pocket and yawned.

“Okay Super Steven whatsit. You managed to get a few customers so how about you keep the coat and the cart and I’ll just take a nap?”

“Then I can make Snow cones?”

Tanz meekly made an X with his arms. “No, No just do the hard part, I’ll keep the ice going.”

“Hmm you drive a hard bargain” Steven calculated the fun of selling without having to get supplies, but wasn’t that fun too he wondered.

“What else you got to do?” Tanz asked followed by another dramatic yawn

“Well, I’m a full time superhero, and I wanted some special pizza, but maybe this can be my side job. We can call it Tanz and Steven’s Snow cones!”

“Hey that’s where I draw the line, how about this I’ll give you a free snow cone every now and again and you help me when you’re not being a super whatsit, Deal?”

“Free snow cones? Okay I’m in.” Steven hesitated “Do I get to keep the coat?”

“I’ll work on getting one in your size”

“Awesome!” Steven traded the coat for the snow cone Tanz offered then sat down next to the cart and leaned back onto it.

“By the way what’s with the super hero gig? You have special powers?” Tanz asked after putting his coat on with a measure of caution lingering in his voice. He wanted to know the answer, but he had to be careful not to be asked questions in return.

“Yeah! I’m a crystal gem!” Steven jumped up and waved his snow cone around as he continued “We are a super cool group who saves the world, no biggie. You probably heard of us, oh I mean unless you are new, but then again we save the world so you must have heard of us!”

“Nope, although now that you mention it, didn’t you have a leader with a well, pink hair and stuff?

“Oh you must mean my mom, she gave up her physical form to make me.”

“Really? So Rose Quartz is gone?”

“You knew my mom?” Steven’s curiosity was alerted instantly but quickly faded at the sight of a familiar face. “Amethyst!” He called out “Hey Amethyst!” He waved his snow cone at her until she got close enough. “Hey Amethyst, you should have seen it I was a super snow cone Steven!”

“Yeah? Sounds cool.” Steven laughed in response before Amethyst continued “So who’s your friend?” Amethyst felt icy chill went down her spine and she couldn’t place it but right off the bat she knew something bothered her about him, which was saying a lot because nothing normally bothered her. Tanz appeared to visibly tense up as well but after a few short seconds he seemed to calm down and smiled at Amethyst. His felt a kindred spirit in Amethyst and quickly knew what he was going to say, Amethyst on the other hand sensed something she thought she would never feel, another gem. She was trying to figure out what to do when Steven asked.

“Do you know Tanz? He makes Snow cones.” He told her.

“No, never met him before.”

“I am always interested in giving a snow cone to a pretty face with a gem that sparkles like your eyes.” Amethysts tensed up and blushed, not because of his response but because he acknowledged her gem in a way that no normal human would. “I’ll give you a special cone but first, Steven how about you leave me and Amethyst alone for a bit I don’t want to give away how I make my super special snow cones, and they are for the ladies only.” Tanz winked at Amethyst who could only respond to that with an anger that swelled inside of her.

“Oh my gosh! The pizza! Amethyst I’ll try to get you a slice of special pizza, if you can get me one of those snow cones!”

Amethyst plainly told him “Kay”

“Deal!” Steven then ran off toward the pizza shop.

Tanz winked at her “So, why’d ya stay? Do you really want a snow cone? Or are you devastated by my charms?”

“Just the snow cone.” She said although she was ready to use her whip as soon as Steven was a safe distance away.

“Well then sorry to disappoint but maybe later, how about we go on a trip for now?”

“A trip where?” Amethyst asked as she slowly reached up to her gem.

“Yep, at least I think it’s a fun place.” Tanz stepped away from his cart and just started walking off.

“If you’re going to leave the cart might as well just gimme a snow cone before you go?”

“Nothing in there, I can make more when we get to the fun place”

“Where?”

“Kindergarten.”

Chapter 2
Steven waited outside the back of the pizza place, eager to meet the man who was making such amazing pizza. As far as he knew he was friends with everyone in town. This would be the second person today he never met before.

“There you are Steven” a familiar calm voice asked him

“Garnet? What are you doing here?” Steven asked, but after a gasp “Is it possible you’re after the secret of the incredible pizza!?”

Garnet stared into his eyes for just a moment before saying “no” in a calm voice.

“Oh, well did you find me with your future vision? Is something going to happen?”

Garnet paused before saying “No” in a plain blunt fashion

“Have you seen Amethyst?”

“Can’t you just Future vision her?” He asked, and normally he would be right, but the moment Garnet set foot on earth she has had a constant headache and her third eye has been hurting. She couldn’t explain it to Pearl so she went with the course of action she felt was right, she was going to have to find it and fight it on her own. She did however wonder if Amethyst was okay, whatever was affecting her might be affecting Amethyst in some way as well and she could only hope that Amethyst wasn’t in any danger. Although, Amethyst is known for handling things on her own or even more likely making it infinitely worst.

Meanwhile, Tanz stood on top of an elevated rock, Amethyst stood a distance behind him, the wind blowing through the devastated landscape. Machines that have long since ceased working littered the barren caverns along with holes shaped like people. Tanz stood there with his ponytail blowing in the wind, he had decided to toss aside his snow cone coat for a sleeveless black trench coat that was slightly worn and torn. Amethyst folded her arms and said “So? What do you want? Why are we here?”

“It’s where we started isn’t it? Just wanted to know if my feeling was right, I figured you were an Earth gem, but I couldn’t figure out what was bothering me about you.”

“I’m a Crystal Gem now.”

“Really? So what happens now? Are you going to report me to the higher ups? Going to have me executed like the others? I guess you cut a deal then, save your life and let them kill the others?”

“WHAT!?” Amethyst immediately summoned her whip and lashed it out to Tanz, however her whip wrapped around an ice pillar. Amethyst was surprised but she immediately looked around for him but Tanz had landed on the ground a few feet behind her and her reaction was to back up closer to the wall behind her.

“By the way my name, my entire name is Tanzanite.” Tanzanite moved his coat off his shoulder to reveal a glistening blue gem. “There’s no reason to fight, we are the same you know.” Amethyst growled and pulled on her whip sending the ice pillar hurtling toward Tanzanite. Tanzanite jumped off the ground and rolled in the air to avoid the pillar landing to the left of where he was. Tanzanite touched his gem and a chill in the air formed little snow path that followed his fingers as he brought his hands down. With a burst of energy from him gem out launched two polygonal wolves made of ice, they both touched ground and charged toward Amethyst but she wrapped one with her whip and slammed it into the other.

“Hey! Why are you so mad!? I don’t blame you for any decisions you made to save yourself” Tanzanite yelled as he dodged a boulder Amethyst had then hurled at him. “Heck, I frankly don’t care!” he yelled.

“Shut up! You don’t know anything!” As Amethyst raised her whip Tanzanite launched ice bursts at the whip freezing it to the wall behind her. Amethyst began to pull on her whip filled with frustration when she felt a cold presence behind her. Tanzanite stood there, his eyes half closed staring into hers.

“You don’t have to do what they say, they don’t have anything over you. Rose is gone isn’t she?”

Amethyst was visibly shocked but inside her rage quickly took over and her reaction was to shapeshift into a tall hulking wrestler and savagely punch Tanzanite in the face. As he startled back Amethyst changed back and wrapped her whip around him.

“WHY WON’T YOU SHUT UP!?” She spun around and forced Tanzanite to whip around before he was slammed into the Cliffside.

Steven yawned, boredom getting the best of him, waiting in the alley was starting to really bring him down. “We’ve been waiting here for hours!” he groaned

“It’s been Seven minutes Steven” Garnet said matter-of-factly.

“It couldn’t have been, look I even got taller since we started waiting, maybe you can speed up time with your awesome powers or something? You can do that right?”

“Yes” Garnet stated.

He gasped with sparkles in his eyes. “Really!?” “Yes, how about we go find Amethyst and come back, that should speed things up.”

Steven looked down defeated, but he climbed down from the trash can and said “okay, let’s go.”

Just as he climbed down a man entered the alley wearing a pizza shop apron and windbreaker. The man looked up at them but chose to ignore them and knock on the back door. Steven ran up to him and couldn’t control his curiosity “Are you the guy who makes special pizza!?”

“Yeah, but you should go through the front door if you want a slice.” He said pointing to the end of the alley facing the boardwalk.

“My name is Steven, I heard a lot about your pizza! Maybe you show me how you make pizza and we can be Super Pizza buddies!”

“Look kid I’m just a normal guy and I’d like to get to work.” He looked over at Garnet and then clutched his arm instinctively. “Never mind” he muttered under his breath. The man put his hands in his coat pockets and started walking off.

“HEY! HEY!” Mr. Pizza ran out of the back door that was already opening. “Where is he going!? I already put up the promotional posters!”

“We’ll get him!” Steven started running after him but he turned back to realize garnet hadn’t moved. “Is everything okay Garnet?” his question fell on deaf ears though, Garnet was frozen in place. “Garnet! Hey are you okay?” he asked once again.

“I don’t care about your gem friend! Get my chef!” Mr. Pizza yelled

“Uhh umm okay!” Steven ran after the man but at that moment Garnet came back to life.

“No Steven Wait!” She reached out for him but he had already run ahead.

Chapter 3
Garnet couldn’t stop the splitting headache she was getting, surging through her mind and blurring her vision as visions of the future kept pouring in and overwhelming her thoughts. There was one vision that she was able to focus on though, the man in the coat standing above Steven. A menacing figure with light blocking out everything but his silhouette. Steven laid on the ground in front of the figure, his eyes closed. Garnet also saw another vision this time it was Amethyst Fighting Tanzanite, and finally another vision a young man wearing a lab coat standing on a beach, pointing a blade at Pearl.

“Why is everything coming in at once, what’s happening?” Garnet’s head was spinning, she instantly summoned her Gauntlets and slammed her fist into the ground. The ground easily gave way under her fist, the visions immediately faded, chased away by Garnet’s resolve. She stood up and noticed that time had passed since she blacked out, she slowly rose up trying not to remember the pain. She was starting to get used it by now, but what she couldn’t figure out was what did all this mean. “Are these three people gems? Are we under attack?” She could feel fear seeping into the back of her mind, something she was not familiar with happening. Normally she would fight through it without a problem but this fear felt different to her it felt alive, like it had sentience. After looking up at the sun she could tell she had been out for about an hour or two so she ran after Steven, all she remembered from the vision was that they must be on a beach and unfortunately the beach is long but she has to find him before the vision came true.

At the ravine known as Kindergarten, Amethyst was panting heavily, her whip and Tanzanite were lost into a cloud of dust that erupted from the impact and her only thoughts were she finally shut him up, but just as she finished that thought her whip began freezing over. She quickly pulled on it to bring Tanzanite out of the dust cloud, but when she did her whip appeared empty from the cloud.

“What?” Amethyst said in a low voice after inspecting the whip. She looked around to see a cold fog surrounding her.

“So did you want that free snow cone or are you going to keep throwing me around and punching me in the face?” Tanzanite called out from the fog.

“Why don’t you come here and find out?” Amethyst yelled.

“No thanks, once is enough.”

Amethyst heard the growling of the wolves again, she lashed her whip out into the fog to grab one but as soon as she did the second wolf bit the whip saving its partner.

“Sorry, that trick will only work once on me.” The wolves charged at Amethyst, she rolls the whip up around her as she jumps turning into a spinning ball. “That’s new” Tanzanite said just before the spinning ball charged past the two wolves and slammed right into him.

Steven sat on the rock on the beach, across the camp fire from the man who was supposed to make amazing pizza. His legs happily kicking away at the sand beneath his sandals. “What’s your name anyway?

“Damien, that’s name I’ve been going with.

“What do you mean?” After a gasp sparkles shined in his eyes “Are you some sort of secret agent!?”

Damien looked up from the campfire to look into Stevens eyes, he was about to ask if he was serious, but the pure admiration coming from Steven both disarmed him and confirmed what he was thinking.

“Yeah kid, I’m a Secret Agent, I’ve been sent from far away to gather intelligence. But I fell in love with…”

“A beautiful girl?”

“Nah, nothing like that, I guess I just fell in love with the people in general.” He looked at Stevens eyes, and as much as he wanted to stop, one look at Steven forced a sigh from his lips. “How about this kid, I’ll tell you a story.”

“Is it about a secret agent? Is he a super hero who fights evil and gets the help of his best friend who he loves but is afraid to get to close because of his power?” Steven rambled playing out some movie he watched before he was grounded. “Because I don’t agree with the second part, if you love her you should tell her because maybe she can help you out when you need it.”

“No, it’s about a knight. A knight who swore to protect all from the forces of evil.” Damien finally managed to say amongst Steven’s ramblings.

“Like the Crystal gems?” Steven stood on top of the rock and raised his fist into the air. “Is he a magical being who fights to protect all with his family!?”

“Who are the Crystal Gems exactly? You sound like you watched that show far too much.” Damien asked

“I’m a Crystal Gem, along with Garnet, Pearl and Amethyst. We protect the Earth from magical monsters and stuff.”

“Wait you mean THOSE crystal gems? Hey Steven you should-” but as he was about to continue he instinctively jumped at Steven grabbing hold of him as he rolled to a safe distance. Garnet had launched herself fist first onto where Damien was sitting, causing sand to cascade around the previously normal sitting area created by logs. When the sand settled Garnet removed her hand from the sand and clenched her fists, she was visibly angry but the attack was clearly meant to hurt Damien but only knock Steven off his log worst case scenario. The impact left quite a sizeable crater in the beach though.

“Let Steven go now!” Garnet ordered raising her fist toward Damien. “I know what you are, you monster.”

Damien gently put Steven down. “Ouch, look I’ve done nothing wrong, go in peace.” He told Garnet as he put his arms to his sides, but still he couldn’t help but reflexively clench his fists when he realized Garnet had no intention of backing down. “You have no reason to attack me, I’m just a simple human who wanted to go to work, and just felt sick.” She responded by summoning her gauntlets. “I was just having a conversation with Steven, if you don’t mind I’d like to rebuild my sitting area.” Damien began walking toward the area he had designated a sitting area after unclenching his fists. “There is no reason to fight, I’m no different than any other human.”

“Garnet why are you so mad?” Steven ran forward in-between the two, stopping Damien in his tracks. “He’s a nice guy, he was telling me a story and stuff about some Secret Agent knight guy who protected people and stuff.”

“Just a normal guy.” Damien told her while putting his hands in the air in a surrender pose.

“A normal guy who had enough battle experience to sense my attack?” Garnet hissed, but Damien stayed quiet, which prompted Steven to look between the two with complete confusion, but Damien was first to move. He shrugged and began walking away, but Garnet jumped and charged in fist first, just as her fist was about to land a direct punch, everything went blurry as a flash of light eclipsed Steven’s and Garnet’s vision. When it ended Damien stood there with one arm out, Garnet on the ground as if she had been swatted away.

“Garnet!” Steven ran toward her but Garnet put her gauntlet out to stop him. Looking up at Damien, a thin armored gauntlet unlike Garnet’s peeked out from under Damien’s coat. “You, you’re.” Steven started, but before he got anymore words out Damien removed and tossed his coat aside, revealing a t-shirt a hexagonal diamond gem embedded in his bicep.

“My name is Diamond! I do not want to fight, but I will defend myself!” Damien flexed and Armor covered his body.

“It’s my turn now, the last Lost Gem.” Aventurine said as he closed off the holographic screen in front of him, and left the lighthouse