Today, Beach City was just as beautiful and peaceful as ever.

No longer were there corrupted gems that threatened the lives of innocents, and no longer did Steven, nor the rest of the gems, have to worry about any threat looming over their heads; waiting to strike at any moment. It was a nice feeling, to say the least, and Steven wouldn't change it for the world.

"I want everything to stay exactly like this, and never change," Steven said, voicing his thoughts out loud for the rest of the gems to hear as they all lay comfortably in the grass.

"Agreed," Pearl said, swinging her legs back and forth whilst she laid on her belly.

"Hear, hear!" Amethyst added, resting her hands behind her head.

Smiling happily, Steven turned his head to one of the taller Crystal Gems. "How's the future look, Garnet?" the hybrid asked, chuckling at the end of his question. "Do we all stay just like this forever?"

Smirking, Garnet looked up towards the beautiful sky and readjusted her visors; taking a quick look into the future.

Her smirk was gone as soon as it had come.

"No!"

Steven blinked, surprised. "Huh?"

That's when the breeze suddenly picked up, causing the yellow flower that sat carefully in the teenager's hand to slip out of his grasp and fly off with the growing winds.

Everyone instantly sat up from their resting position on the floor, eyes wide as a large shadow slowly began to cast itself over them, making them all quickly look up to see the once white, fluffy clouds that went peacefully about the blue skies were now a dark, menacing gray; swirling and twisting around before breaking apart to reveal a machine of metal and glass slowly descending towards the Earth.

The machine — with a pink liquid flowing and splashing about inside of it — soon came to an eventual stop; hovering above the Crystal Gems threateningly as it slowly tilted to the side.

And then, the silhouette of something — someone — appeared, standing on the top of the mysterious machine.

"I assume you're Steven Universe?" Their voice held a polite yet aggressive tone to it, and it sounded feminine.

Steven gulped, sweat trekking down his face as he looked down and held his hands behind his back. "Um," Steven hesitated, nervous, "Yes?"

From atop the machine, the silhouette smirked. "Perfect."

Suddenly, a source of light emitted from behind the silhouette, and as it did, Steven swore he caught a glimpse of a pair of (E/c) eyes before they were once again hidden away by the shadows provided by the clouds above.

The Crystal Gems all narrowed their eyes, wondering what object the figure now held in their grasp. Their questions were answered quickly, however, when the sound of a beautiful melody provided by a violin played about the dark skies.

Though as threatening as this stranger may come off to be, Steven still couldn't help but smile slightly at their playing. It reminded him of the past, so to say: when him and Connie were both innocent kids, singing and playing together in the temple as Jam Buds.

But unfortunately, Steven couldn't admire the beautiful melody that filled his ears for long, because it was soon proven to him that the term, "My bark is worse than my bite," applied to this new character when the bottom of their machine suddenly shifted into that of a drill.

Steven's eyes widened, and he suddenly felt as if he couldn't breathe anymore.

(What was that about 'Happily Ever After', again?)

"Move!"

At the sound of Garnet's voice, Steven was quickly brought back to reality, and he turned to run away — just when a set of robotic legs expanded from the machine and clamped themselves around the mountain the Crystal Gems were currently on. Once they did so, the robotic legs slowly pulled the drill down into the Earth's crust; pushing dirt and grass up as they did so.

Steven, as well as the rest of the gems, could only watch it all happen in terror.

"Hey!" Amethyst finally spoke up, her eyes narrowed into an annoyed glare as she stepped forward. "Nice park job, dingus!"

In response to Amethyst's words, another, shorter melody was heard from up top, and the pink liquid that was inside of the machine was pumped into the ground.

Steven tensed, sweating even more than before as he watched . . . whatever this liquid was enter the Earth's grounds with a grimace.

(Hopefully, the Cluster would be okay after all of this.)

From up above, the figure suddenly seemed to grow a pair of butterfly-shaped wings that illuminated a brilliant shade of (2F/c), and they gave them a powerful flap before flying down and landing on a lower part of the machine, which radiated a bright enough glow to finally reveal just enough of the stranger's features to the Crystal Gems at last.

As they had all guessed, the stranger was indeed female, with long locks of (H/c) hair; some strands of it pulled back behind her head into a braided bun with a flower pin in the middle of it. Her skin was (S/t), and freckles seemed to decorate her shoulders, which were visible thanks to the off-shoulder, white gypsy shirt she wore under a black corset. To add to her look, she also wore a long, (F/c), double bustle skirt, with the front of it pinned up to reveal the front of her legs, which were shown to have a pair of white stockings on them, along with a pair of heeled boots. A pair of long gloves stopped at her elbows.

And finally, to complete her look, the stranger wore a small (F/c) hat with a veil on the side of her head.

Needless to say, whoever this person was obviously had a sense of style, and a classy one at that.

✿*:･ﾟﾟ･:*✿

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FywOkODbbzk

ﾟ･:*✿°✿*:･ﾟ

"Well, well, well, well, well!" At long last, the stranger lifted her head up, and Steven was quick to notice the freckles that dotted her face and the captivating (E/c) irises that stared down at him and the other gems with bitterness in them.

"Allow me to get a look at the menagerie here, would you~?"

Moving her hand behind her back, Steven recognized the same glow that he and the gems saw ealier when this stranger had pulled their violin out, and his shoulders tensed once he saw the stranger bring their hand back around, revealing a pair of opera glasses to be sitting in it this time.

That's when it dawned on them, finally.

This stranger — she wasn't a normal person (obviously) . . . She was a gem.

A gem that none of them had seen before, to be exact.

"You must be Amethyst," the mystery gem spoke, earning a glare in return from the purple gem, who clenched her fists at her sides.

The gem could only chuckle as she turned her eyes to stare down at the tallest one of the bunch.

"You must be Garnet," she nodded, mostly towards herself than to the other as she turned away to identify the next gem.

"And . . ."

She paused all of a sudden, her smirk faltering for a moment as she took in Pearl's nervous form.

Then, the gem grinned. Widely.

"Pearl?" The pale gem winced, taking a step back as the new character laughed.

"My, my~" The gem's tone of voice was dramatic, mocking. "It certainly has been a while, hasn't it? Though . . ."

With her lips curling back to form a snarl, the gem brought the opera glasses away from her eyes and let a low growl escape her lips.

"I suppose that's what happens when a certain someone leaves you both behind to rot."

Pearl gulped, eyes slowly widening as a few memories of two certain gems came flooding back to her.

"But . . ." Pearl took another step back, "it can't be . . ." she muttered in disbelief.

And just like that, the gem's snarl was gone and was instead replaced with an almost polite smile as she giggled.

"Oh, but it can be!" the gem told, "And it is!" She sounded ecstatic. "I've got a new style~" The gem flipped some hair over her shoulder, "And a few new toys that are gonna put an end to your, 'Happily Ever After' once and for all!" Her sentence grew to be a ferocious growl at the end, and Steven shuddered.

"Whoa, whoa!" Deciding to cut in in hopes of avoiding any sort of conflict, Steven chuckled nervously when the new gem's attention was finally directed towards him, and he offered her a strained smile.

"Listen, this has gotta be a misunderstanding," he tried to reason. "In case you haven't heard, I've established peace across the galaxy—"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah." The gem rolled her eyes and placed a hand on her hip sassily, an unimpressed look on her face as she waved her other hand at Steven dismissively.

"I've heard. After all, I've had that little message to the universe of yours . . . on loop!"

Stomping her foot on the metallic floor beneath her, the gem sent a sharp glare pointed to the hybrid teenager beneath her, and he gulped.

She . . . really wasn't in the negotiating mood right now, it seemed.

Smirking at the obvious look of fear in Steven's eyes, the gem directed her attention to the rest of the so-called 'Crystal Gems', and her smirk seemed to grow even more once she saw that they all had their weapons out and ready for combat.

How fun.

"You know," the (H/c)ette finally began, clasping her hands together and twirling around with a sweet smile appearing on her face.

"I just looove the part of the story where you find out that Pink Diamond had spent the rest of her days on this . . . this nowhere planet! With a bunch—" she grinned "—of little—" a series of giggles began to escape her lips, though they didn't sound as if they belonged to any sane person "—NOBODIES!"

(Game number two: Tag.)

Summoning her wings once again, the gem opened them up to reveal the beautiful designs that decorated them for a split second, before giving them a hard flap and flying down towards the Crystal Gems, who immediately took a defensive stance.

"That's right I've heard the story over and over again!"

Steven gasped when a hand suddenly took ahold of his own, and before he knew it, he was being twirled around by none other than the threatening gem herself, who laughed loudly at the look of confusion that stumbled across his features.

"Gee, it's swell to finally meet her other friends~"

Noticing the sound of footsteps rushing at her, the gem looked around Steven and quickly saw Garnet heading straight towards them. She smirked at this, and wrapped an arm around Steven's waist before dipping him; narrowly avoiding the punch Garnet had attempted to get a hit on her with.

"That's right I've heard the story, don't really like how it ends!" The gem dropped Steven back to the ground and began to step back, dodging every hit Garnet was throwing at her with a teasing smile on her face with ease.

"Gee—" Twirling around Garnet and making the fusion stumble to the ground in confusion, the gem laughed before grabbing the spear that had been thrusted toward her face and snapping her attention to Pearl, who flinched back in surprise "—it's swell to finally meet her other friends~!"

Going in for another attack, Pearl attempted to swipe her spear through the familiar gem's head, but the (H/c)ette was quick and dodged the attack before grabbing Pearl by her wrist, twirling her around until her back was against her chest and then scooping the pale gem into her arms and throwing her up into the air.

"What did she say about us, what did she say?"

Batting her lashes innocently as she watched Pearl fall back towards the Earth, the gem giggled as if she were playing a simple prank on a friend before taking a step to the side; allowing Pearl to land on her back against the ground next to her.

"HEY—"

Lifting her wrist up, the gem allowed Amethyst to wrap her wip around it before giving it a rough pull, effectively pulling the shorter gem towards her until she was in her arms.

Amethyst let out a grunt and looked around, confused, until she suddenly found herself wrapped up in her own wip and being bounced up and down like a yo-yo from the mischievous gem above.

"What did you do without us, what did you do?"

Dropping Amethyst to the ground next to Pearl, the (E/c)-eyed gem grinned wickedly and turned around to face Garnet, who felt a bead of sweat trail down her face due to just how unhinged she looked.

The (H/c)ette's eyes went dark, and Garnet let out a surprise cry when a heeled boot flew past her; barely grazing the side of her face.

The (S/t) gem only smirked.

"Did you play games without us, what did you play?"

Swerving her foot to the side, the gem successfully managed to kick Garnet across the face and threw her to the side to join the rest of her friends; blowing a strand of hair out of her face right after before snapping her head over to stare at the star of the show.

"Tell me, did you think, after all this time, I wouldn't have found about you~?!"

Steven's face contorted into a mixture of shock, fear, horror, and confusion, and the (E/c)-eyed beauty didn't do anything other than grin at him before opening her wings back up and flying into the air.

"Ooooh~" Summoning a wip, the gem wrapped it around the group of four and brought them all together, earning various grunts from them all as their backs collided.

"That's right I've heard the story over and over again!"

Letting the handle of her wip go and leaving the group all tied up together, the gem flipped through the air before landing roughly atop the lighthouse, a distasteful glare now taking over her eyes.

"Gee, it's swell to get to finally meet her other . . . friends . . ."

Groaning and holding his head in pain, Steven managed to pry the wip holding him and his friends together off, and he nearly fell face-first into the ground, grunting.

"She's running circles around us!" Garnet said, sounding aggravated.

"I'm rusty. Give me a break!" Amethyst responded, pushing herself up off of the ground as she gave Garnet a look.

"It — it really is her! But . . . but she can't be serious!" Pearl muttered, her brows knitting together as she slowly brought her hand up to her chin in thought.

"And if she's here . . . where is—"

"You know her, Pearl?" Steven asked, cutting the said gem's train of thought off and making her turn to him. "Can you tell us who she is?"

Suddenly, the gem froze; her eyes going wide with shock and her mouth opening slightly in disbelief.

But then, slowly, her expression shifted into that of an enraged one, and a shadow casted itself over her eyes as she rolled her hands into fists.

"We came from the garden alone,

She told us that we were here own,

She walked with us, talked with us, made us feel like we were at home!

But thousands of years, they go by . . .

Just happy to stay and play nice . . ."

The gem let a low growl escape them, and they began to tremble from where they stood, making the Crystal Gems all take a step back, almost like they were waiting for a ticking time bomb to burst.

And, it did.

"ALLEGIANCE TO HER WE HAD SWORN,

BUT THIS DIAMOND TURNED TO A ROSE FULL OF THORNS!"

Letting out an enraged cry, the gem looked back up to reveal the black tears that had begun to leak from her eyes, and she flared her wings angrily as she made her way down to the edge of the lighthouse's roof.

"Who am I? WHO AM I?!" Another raged cry left her, and Steven winced. "WHAT ARE YOU EVEN SAYING?!" The gem released a laugh, even more tears escaping from her eyes.

"We're the losers of the game you didn't even know you were playing~!"

Lifting up her skirt a bit to reveal a holster around her thigh, Steven felt himself flush out of embarrassment at the sight, but that feeling was quickly washed away once he saw the gem pull something out of the holster — something small, but still surely no good.

"Let's play another game~" The gem threw the object she was holding up into the air before catching it and holding it up right, like it was supposed to be a weapon. "This time we get to win! Lives on the line—"

Steven and the others gasped when a longer handle extended from the object.

"—winner takes all—"

From the object's handle, the blade of a scythe appeared, seemingly made out of an electricity of the sorts with pink sparks flying everywhere around it.

"—ready or not, let's begin!"

Flapping her wings, the gem swirled through the clouds before landing in the center of the Crystal Gems, who were all quick to jump away from her the moment she began to twirl the scythe around her wrist.

"Ooooh, that's right I've heard the story over and over again!"

Twirling around to face Steven, the gem placed her foot against his chest before roughly kicking him away, much to Garnet, Amethyst, and Pearl's dismay.

"Gee, it's swell to finally beat her other friends!"

Lifting herself off of the ground once again, the gem flew around the trio of other gems; confusing them and making them all bump into one another due to the dirt that the (H/c)ette had stirred up because of her actions.

"Ooooh, that's right I've heard the story, don't really like how it ends!"

Flying higher up into the sky, the gem steadied herself and twirled the scythe in her grasp around once more, a wild look in her eyes.

"Gee, it's swell to finally beat her other . . ."

Getting back up, the gems all readied their weapons and began to charge towards the (E/c)-eyed gem, whose grin widened as she watched them get closer — just like she had expected them to.

". . . other . . ."

From where he sat, Steven's eyes widened, and he reached out towards his friends, opening his mouth to cry out for them to stop.

". . . other . . ."

With one harsh flap of her wings, the gem went flying towards Garnet, Amethyst, and Pearl. As she grew closer to the trio, she readied her scythe, her grin still as wide as ever, and—

". . . Friends~"

One at a time, before Steven's very eyes, four gems poofed and fell to the ground with a clink.

* * * * *

NOTES !

me, when writing the description for the reader's outfit: oh, i'm about to make so many girls realize they're gay 😏

me, when writing out the fight scene for this chapter: oh, i'm about to make so many people realize that fight scenes really aren't my strong suit 😭