Chapter One - Storm Warning

To say it had been an eventful day was something of an understatement, Peridot reflected as she and Lapis watched Steven and the Crystal Gems head for the nearby warp pad. She'd tried (and initially failed) to befriend Lapis. She'd left the barn. She'd returned to the barn with a Roaming Eye full of Rubies on her tail. Rubies, it turned out, who'd been looking for Jasper, not her. She really would've liked to spend the evening recording logs on her tape recorder in order to untangle the jumbled mess of thoughts running through her mind, but unfortunately, her tape recorder was still in a crumpled heap on the floor of the barn.

The distant figure of Steven waved a tiny arm in their direction, and the two gems waved back before the rest of their team vanished into the warp stream.

"So." Peridot said after a moment of silence. "I guess it's you and me then, Lazuli."

Lapis shrugged and continued to gaze at the distant warp pad, idly twirling a baseball bat in her hands.

Peridot waited for her to speak, but when the silence continued, she spoke again. "I just wanted to thank you. For helping against the Rubies," she added as Lapis glanced down at her. "That hand-thing you did with the water was very impressive."

"It was nothing," Lapis muttered.

Silence fell again, tense and awkward, which Peridot found vaguely unsettling because they were supposed to be friends now, right?

"I'm just going to…" She gestured vaguely in the direction of the barn. "Um, so I guess I'll see you later?"

Lapis shrugged again. "Sure, whatever."

As soon as she was inside, Peridot made straight for her broken tape recorder. She hadn't had a chance to examine it yet, and she was hoping that the damage was only superficial. She knelt down and poked it carefully.

"Can you fix it?"

The voice made Peridot jump and she turned to see Lapis stood behind her, baseball bat hanging loosely from her fingertips. "I think so," she said, turning back to take another look at the device. "The casing's just cracked, but the tape seems-"

Before she could finish, the end of the baseball bat suddenly whizzed past her nose and she flinched as it struck the poor tape recorder, shattering both the recorder and the tape completely. She gaped up at Lapis in shock and horror as the other gem looked innocently back down at her. "How about now?"

Peridot swallowed. "I… I don't…" She trailed off and looked back at the recorder. Shattered plastic, broken components, torn tape. She couldn't fix that. "I thought…"

Lapis snorted derisively. "What, you thought we were friends now? That your attempt at a heroic sacrifice made up for everything you ever did to me?" She tossed the baseball bat in a nearby box and crossed her arms. "The Crystal Gems may have accepted you, but that doesn't mean I have to."

Peridot bit her lip and gathered up the bits and pieces of debris. "Do you want me to leave again?" she asked quietly. She didn't really want to leave the safety of the barn; for one thing, the situation with the Rubies had reminded her of just how vulnerable she was. And secondly, all her Camp Pining Hearts DVDs were inside. Even if Lapis let her grab them, it could be ages before she found a television.

Lapis looked thoughtful for a moment. Did she want Peridot to leave? Yes. Absolutely yes. She wanted Peridot gone from her sight, so she wouldn't have to look at her and be constantly reminded of how her triumphant return home had gone so horribly wrong.

She loathed Peridot.

But… Steven and the Crystal Gems didn't. If Peridot left, they'd notice and ask questions. And while she didn't particularly care what the Crystal Gems thought about her, she knew Steven would be disappointed if she didn't let Peridot stay.

"No," she said finally. "You should stay. Steven wants you to stay."

"Oooookay," Peridot said cautiously. "But… do you want me to stay?"

Lapis gritted her teeth. "I… just give me a little space. I'll get used to it." And with that, she stepped back outside and flew up onto the roof of the barn to brood.

She had no intention of making friends with Peridot, she knew that immediately. The only reason she'd even bothered lifting a watery finger to help her was because she'd thought maybe if Homeworld had come for Peridot, they might be there for her too, and she wanted that even less than she wanted Peridot's friendship.

She'd flown back home, expecting to be given a hero's welcome. Sure, it had been more than 5000 years, but she was gem royalty, she was important. She had survived civil war and escaped from Homeworld's bitter enemies. But instead of Blue Diamond weeping tears of joy over her return and declaring the day to be a national holiday, she'd been captured before she'd even landed and handed over to Jasper and Peridot. Peridot, who'd suggested bringing her straight back to Earth again, all so she could point out the location of the Crystal Gems. And she was supposed to just forgive her?

But the thing that really grated on Lapis was that she hadn't resisted - because she'd been scared of them. Jasper was large and intimidating at the best of times, and after catching Lapis trying to send a message to Steven, she'd gotten even scarier, spending most of the journey to Earth outside Lapis's cell with a scowl on her face.

And then there was Peridot. Somehow, she'd found Peridot even more frightening than Jasper. She had at least seen Quartz warriors before, on the battlefields of Earth, but Peridot was unknown to her. And with her metal limbs and floating fingers that could form weapons, tools and screens of information, she was the living personification of this new Homeworld that had changed so much in her absence. The discovery that Peridot was not a new kind of terrifying mechanical warrior, but a small and harmless drone was just… humiliating.

Lapis Lazuli had God-like powers. Peridot could barely run three feet without falling on her face. But Lapis had cowered before the other gem and let Peridot order her around. It was like finding out she'd been scared of a Pearl, although perhaps that wasn't the best example, she belatedly realised. There was, after all, at least one Pearl that even the Diamonds had been afraid of. But it was probably safe to say that no Diamond was scared of Peridot.

She hated Peridot and Jasper for making her feel that way. Jasper had at least been punished for that; it would be a long time before she underestimated Lapis again. But Peridot…

She had assumed that while she was holding Jasper prisoner, the Crystal Gems would have hunted Peridot down and bubbled her for her crimes. Instead, the little pest had managed to worm her way into their affections to the point where Steven was willing to throw himself in front of an invading spaceship to protect her. Garnet had actually unfused for her.

Well, fine. She'd rather punish Peridot herself anyway. And if there was one thing she'd learned from her experience with Malachite, it was that it was so much easier to hurt people when they thought you were on their side.

xXx

AN: Don't get me wrong, I like Lapis very much, but she's def. got a mean, vindictive streak - I mean, I'm pretty sure she's actually kept Jasper a prisoner far longer than Jasper kept her prisoner - and I wanted to explore that character trait and how bad it could get.

Also the thing about Lapis being gem royalty may or may not be true - there's a gem with a very similar silhouette in The Answer, and we know she did visit Earth during the rebellion, so it's highly possible it was her. For now though, I'm going with 'Lapis is basically a gem princess.'