Day Seven (Flight): Fight or Flight

Hey everybody thanks for joining me once again on a Lapidot week centric adventure. There were some weird gaps in between making chapter for this week's premises and there are a lot of reasons for that but one of the biggest was how constricted the week's premises are when try to keep with multiple stories worth of continuities. So it pleases me to say the next chapter of this saga will be stepping away from that framework of writing and be entirely freehanded. That will allow for more creative freedom and give more consistent work because TIOH was not as good as its predecessor in some part *coughcough day six and day five part 2* and I am sorry for that. Good news, more creative freedom and quality. Bad news the next story will be just as inconsistently updated because of the life stuff and plotting it out proper. In the meantime, enjoy the final chapter of this story and I will see you later party people!

~A few days later~

A few days had passed since Connie first started spending time at the barn. She had been telling her parents that she was staying with Steven because she knew they would never double-check that and she knew she didn't have to explain to them about Steven getting kidnapped.

At least now ALL the details.

Connie was now sitting up in her hammock bed, staring at her phone wondering what to do. Lapis, feeling a little bit better after everything was said and done approached the teen girl in question.

"What are you looking at, Connie?" Lapis asked, a simple curiosity in her gaze.

Connie turned her attention away from her blank screen to answer Lapis' question with a very helpful 'I don't know' couple with a furrowed brow and an overall stressed out face.

"Why don't you know?"

"I just don't, Lapis! I really, really want to talk to Steven and I want to send him a message saying I don't want to talk to you right now, but I don't know!"

"I even tried stopping by his house yesterday but there was a sign that said 'Gon' Vacationing'"

Lapis puts a helpful hand on the child's shoulder.

"Why would you tell him you don't want to talk to him right now? Isn't that talking to him?"

The genuine amount of question in Lapis' voice made Connie double take between her phone and Lapis. A small 'o' formed with her lips and she hit her forehead with a small thump with her open palm.

"That makes so much sense. Why text him anything if I don't want to talk to him right now."

Lapis gives a small smile, but with one of her eyebrows crooked a little higher than the other.

"Okay. Sounds good."

Lapis suddenly has arms wrapped around her. A momentary moment of Panic seizes her, but her fast thoughts are put the rest just seeing Connie embrace her.

She's a little quicker than Lapis remembers.

"I want to thank you guys for doing this. For letting me stay here."

Connie finished hugging Lapis and looks at her with tear-stained eyes.

"It's good to know that no matter what I and Steven and really all of the crystal gems can depend on you guys."

Lapis gives off a weak laugh.

"We are earthlings now, I guess. That's what earthlings do."

"Is Peridot okay?"

Connie question was about to be answered by Lapis but a shrill voice rang throughout the barn.

"Peridot is doing the most okay and she thanks you for taking the time to recognize her."

Peridot is now standing at the edge of the loft overlooking Lapis and Connie. An awkward angle considering how close the hammock is to what is considered the edge of the loft.

"Peridot, I need you to come down. I'm getting ready to leave!"

With barely a second to make the decision, Peridot starts climbing over the edge of the loft.

"Catch me, Lapis!"

Peridot's form now completely over the edge and in a small freefall to the floor of the barn. A blue light illuminates from Lapis and she quickly beats her water wings and rises up to meet Peridot.

"You need to be more careful."

"You catch me every time, though." Peridot's loving eyes staring up at the blue gem who is carrying her bridal style.

They hear barking coming from up in the loft. Everyone looks up to see Pumpkin wagging her vine tail happily doing her best to climb over the loft like her green momma. Through sheer Pumpkin-based determination she makes it over the top and jumps off. Everyone was seized with panic for a moment but Pumpkin's jump landed her right into Peridot's arms. She licks her green momma who is stunned by what just happen.

Everyone is quiet for a moment, but that moment quickly passes.

They share a laugh. A rare circumstance for the past week or so, but it was a welcome sensation that felt like meeting an old friend again after not seeing them for years.

Lapis lands and puts Peridot down. Connie pipes up.

"Thank you, Peridot, for letting me stay here. I thanked Lapis earlier but it would feel wrong not to thank you as well."

"It is no issue, Connie! It's good to get visitors out here."

Connie pulls the blue and gem gems into a group hug which both gems reciprocate. They form a perfect triangle around Pumpkin who makes happy Pumpkin dog noises in response. Connie lets go and she goes outside calling for Lion. The familiar noise of a portal opening rings out and it followed up by a small roar/growl. Connie gets onto Lion and shouts.

"Take me home, Lion!"

And Lion quickly reciprocates her demand blasting away another portal ripping through space-time to do something as simple as take this teen girl home to her parents.

Peridot is the first to speak up after Connie leaves.

"So do you want to continue re-watching 'Camp Pining Hearts' or-"

"Connie was going to text Steven."

Peridot pauses to think for a milli-moment.

"Okay?"

"So maybe he didn't lose his phone on Homeworld like I was worried about!"

Peridot continues staring at her Blue wife just letting her continue her train of thought. The green gem couldn't stop her blue counterpart right now if she tried.

"We should try Calling Steven, Peridot! He'll probably answer."

Lapis sounds a little panicked and Peridot doesn't like it when Lapis sounds panicked.

"Of course! Let me go get my tablet."

Peridot climbs the stairs back up to the loft and walks over to the couch area. She left her tablet leaning up against the piece of sitting-furniture. Peridot picks it up and goes ahead to unlock it. The background on Peridot's tablet is a picture of Lapis and Peridot after their wedding. Lapis in her wedding dressed and Peridot in her suit. Lapis had a small contented smile, the kind Lapis is prone to but only when she's really, genuinely happy. Peridot looked far less photogenic. She was tugging at the neck of her collar as the suit was starting to feel uncomfortable and you could see it on her face. Lapis loves this picture; she won't ever give the reason. Volunteering to say. 'If I tell you why it's special then it won't be as special anymore.'

Peridot didn't fully get it but at the same time she did. Earth was confusing and it made people do and say confusing things. Those things aren't so bad though, not in Peridot's experience so far.

Peridot takes the tablet back down the loft stairs.

"Alright Lapis, get ready we're going to video chat!"

Peridot presses all the necessary buttons on the screen then Steven's icon appears in a small circle with a series of smaller dots lining the bottom showing the video buffering. The call rings for a while before eventually the screen goes black and then displays an image of Steven outside of his house on the beach.

"Hey, guys."

Steven says this simply, a note of disappointment all over his face.

The conversation goes on as one normally would for a few moments. Lapis after a bit interjected with a question that was sure to change everything.

"How was space?"

Her intrigue genuine, hints of anxiety lining the back of her mind. Every fiber of her being hoping for him to say 'good' or that he got away before REALLY getting onto Homeworld.

"Yes, tell us everything!"

Lapis' green wife added on.

Steven laughed. He told the whole story. Surrendering himself, getting to Homeworld standing in front of Blue diamond and-

"You were in front of BLUE diamond?"

"And Yellow. Then I was able to run away-"

"YOU RAN?! From BLUE and YELLOW diamond?"

Lapis turns back around to the green gem.

"Peridot. We need to leave Earth. Now.

:"Wait, wha-" Was the last Steven would have heard before Lapis hung up the tablet and lightly tossed it onto the ground. She ran back to the barn and her breathing had picked up significantly. Peridot looked down at her tablet lying on the grass then back to her panicking wife. She opted to ignore the tablet for now and to calm Lapis down.

A familiar but faint noise of a warp pad activating is heard in the distance.

"Lapis, what do you mean 'leave Earth'?" We live here!"

"I meant what I meant Peridot. We need to leave Earth now, we can't waste time discussing this right now."

"But what about all of our crops?"

Peridot's voice wavered a bit. The suddenness of this decision was taking a toll on her.

"Forget the plants-" Steven appears out of the corn stalks. "Oh good, Steven. You're here. Let's go."

"What? Lapis what are you talking about?"

Lapis stamps her foot down and says she is getting caught up in another war and that her and Peridot are leaving Earth forever. Peridot protests in multiple different ways but each time the green gem's wife has an answer right up her sleeve leading right up to her literally lifting the whole barn out of the ground using the water from the smaller than average lake. In what seems like Peridot's final moments on Earth she notices that Pumpkin has gone missing prompting Lapis, Peridot and Steven all to look for Pumpkin together. Lapis takes to the sky and flies off in one direction while Steven and Peridot scour the land by foot.

Lapis heads off into the direction that is more plains and crops while Peridot and Steven went towards the nearby forest. Lapis attempts to get a bird's eye view on pumpkin but to no avail. She eventually comes by a pumpkin patch, and immediately starts flying towards it. Hovering just above the patch she starts calling out to her pumpkin dog.

"PUMPKIN!"

She doesn't get a response or see any kind of stirring about. The pumpkin patch in question is actually quite large. Pumpkin could very well be pretending to be one of these pumpkins as some form of playing.

"Pumpkin! We don't have time to be playing around. If you're here you better come out right this second or you're in trouble!"

Still, nobody came.

"Fine. I guess I'm going to have to come find you.

~Some time later~

Lapis had to have overturned every single pumpkin in this pumpkin patch to no success. All of these plants were just that. They were plants. Lapis looked at the sun and noticed it was getting lower and darker on the Horizon. Her mind started to race.

"We need to get off this planet. They could come any moment. They could come at any moment and we could get stuck on this planet and stuck in a war."

"I could get stuck in a war" Lapis emphasized.

Lapis sprouts her water wings and is off in an instant.

Flying back to the barn, Lapis' thoughts have not stopped. They just kept spiraling and spiraling deeper and deeper down.

"I just. Could I convince Peridot to leave without Pumpkin? Could I live with myself if I were even able to do that? Maybe Steven can make us a new Pumpkin? Would that even be the same? It wouldn't be the same. We lost Pumpkin, and now we're going to lose Earth to another war."

Lapis tries to calm down, to no avail. Her heartbeat is wild and her breathing even more so.

"But we're not going to lose our home. I'm going to take our home with us. I'm going to no matter what. I don't know what to do about Pumpkin but I know that as long as we have our home and I have Peridot then everything is going to be A-okay.

The barn began getting nearer and near in sight. Lapis prepared herself to have an uncomfortable conversation with Peridot. It was for their own good though and surely Peridot had to see that, what, with her logical brain. Lapis could see two figures near some of the corn stalks. Presumably they were Steven and Peridot. A little bit closer and Lapis noticed someone else-

It was Pumpkin!

"Oh good, you guys found her!" Lapis lands next to them. "Alright Peridot, let's go."

Lapis raises her hands and quicker than quick the barn in its entirety is suspended in the air, encased in a giant water bubble, once again. Steven looked nervously to Peridot and Peridot looked nervously back to Steven. Peridot finally speaks up.

"Lapis, Pumpkin doesn't want to go."

Lapis side glances Peridot holding Pumpkin.

"Pumpkin doesn't know better. We do."

"Actually, I don't want to go either."

Lapis' concentration immediately snaps and the barn crashed back down into place with a loud 'boom'.

Hurt swathed all over Lapis' face. "Peridot, what are you saying."

"I don't want to be somewhere else floating through space if something happens on Earth, I want to be here for it!"

"No. Nonononononononono! Why are saying this now?"

Peridot wavers slightly, but resolves and stays strong.

"because is the last moment I have TO say something."

"But doesn't that make this the worst time to say it?"

Peridot Panicked. Her expression widened. She couldn't think of anything to really say.

"Yes." Was all that came out.

Lapis crossed her arms defensively. She looked back sadly at her little green gem.

"Why didn't you tell me sooner?"

Peridot pulls her hands to together, and nervously begins to speak, pulling the words together as she is saying them.

"There are many things that might upset you to hear, so I do my best to not say those things even when I probably should."

Lapis' expression hardened.

"Peridot, that's just lying!"

"I know, but you see, the truth is-"

Peridot steps closer to Lapis

"I think when the time comes, if- if the diamonds do try and come to Earth to wipe from the galaxy, that we shouldn't just uproot everything and leave. We should fight for this life we've built no matter what."

Peridot holds her small green hands to her chest.

"I think we can win."

Peridot meet Lapis' gaze straight-on but with a loving softness.

"I think YOU can win."

Lapis looks down at Peridot and see the green gem extend one of her hands towards her. She looks her wife back in the eyes to hear her say:

"Earth is our home now. Isn't it worth fighting for?"

In an instant, Lapis tore through the entire emotional spectrum. She didn't know what she was feeling. Everything in her body was telling her to run. Everything about her experience was telling her to take flight, but everything in front of her was telling her to stay. She looked down at Peridot's extended hand, then she looked at her smiling face and that face told her everything she needed to know. Peridot wasn't just saying they could win- that Lapis could win – just to get her to stay. Every bit of Peridot's light believed in Lapis. The green gem had so much faith in Lapis and all of this emotion is conveyed in those loving eyes and tiny smile.

Lapis knew it was going to be hard for the long haul, but she knew that this was the best course of action.

The blue gem turned around with a shadow covering her eyes.

"I'm not getting caught up in another war."

In that moment Lapis felt her heartbreak. The blue gem couldn't turn around to see what affect her words had on her green wife. She elected instead to use her power to once again lift the whole barn out of the ground, and finally she sprouted her wings and was no longer landlocked. Lapis stopped for a moment. Something inside of Lapis possessed her to turn around and get one last look at Peridot, even though she knew what she would find. She looked back and she knew what she would see, but just not the depth of it.

Peridot's face was blank. Not the kind of blank like when you don't know the answer to a question, but the kind of blank when can almost feel your spirit leaving your body. Her eyes were big and shocked, and her mouth slightly agape as she couldn't do anything and couldn't say anything is the light of Lapis leaving and taking their home with her.

Lapis clenched her eyes shut. A momentary amount of indecision crept through her mind, but she fought it off and resolved herself, flying deeper into space.

She and the Barn became nothing but a blip in the distance.

Peridot, practically turned to stone by all of this is just standing there in front of the crater that once held her barn.

The place her and Lapis lived in.

The place her and Lapis met and became friends.

The place she and Lapis fell in love in.

The place she and Lapis were building their new life at.

All gone.

Steven walks up slowly to Peridot, Pumpkin following closely behind.

"C'mon Peridot. Let's go."

Peridot did say anything didn't move. Her body wouldn't allow her too.

Pumpkin barked up at Peridot and that shook Peridot out of her trance, but only into the shocking pit of realization. Peridot feels a hand on her shoulder. Peridot jumps back violently, leaving a confused Steven in the wake.

"Peridot, c'mon. Let me take you back to the temple. It'll be better than stay here."

Stone-cold and stoic, the green gem shot back.

"By a purely objective standpoint, I suppose that makes some sense."

Steven nervously laughed.

Peridot did not.

Peridot walks away from Steven, with only Pumpkin in tow. Steven elects to not ask where the green gem is going. He finds out soon enough however when Peridot walks over and picks her tablet off the ground, one of her only possessions not in the barn at the time. Peridot then makes a direct B-line towards the direction of the warp pad- not even bothering to call back to Steven. Steven takes notice and catches up to her. The pair walked side by side but no one said anything and thanks to Lapis ripping an entire chuck out of the ground, dropping it and lifting it back up again, most of the wildlife had fled and this made the countryside extra eerie and quiet.

The duo makes it to the war pad eventually. Steven looks to Peridot. Her gaze is soulless and devoid of any light. He looks down at Pumpkin and she is staring sadly up to Peridot.

Steven sighs then activates the warp pad.

Moments later they are all in the middle of Steven's house.

"C'mon, P. I know where you can stay."

Steven tries to crack a small smile towards her, but with no effect.

Steven goes up to his room and grabs some spare comforters and blankets and quickly makes his way to his bathroom. Steven opens the door and flicks on the light switch. He sets the comforters inside of the tub, making it a shade more comfortable.

"Alright, you're all set up."

Peridot trudges over to the jury-rigged bedding and weakly climbs in

"Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh"

Peridot groans out.

Steven takes a spot sitting right in front of the tub and pumpkin rests right next to him. Peridot manages to turn herself around.

"So what do we do now?"

Steven is shocked. The inflection in Peridot's voice wasn't the stoic one from before but instead the sadness oozed from every word, and Steven felt every bit of it. Steven himself couldn't help but feel responsible for what happening.

If he hadn't of given himself up Connie wouldn't be mad at him.

If he hadn't of given himself up he might have been able to avoid going to Homeworld entirely.

If he hadn't given himself up then Lapis might still be here and Peridot would be a destroyed shell of her former self.

Steven couldn't get these thoughts out of his mind, and that made it really hard for Steven to talk with Peridot right now because he is directly responsible for this.

And Peridot has to be thinking that as well.

But Steven had to say something.

"We wait."

Peridot, unsatisfied with this answer rolled back over, groaning the whole way there. Steven could hold it in anymore and he started to cry. Knees to his chest and face in his knees crying.

Peridot didn't say or do anything hearing this. She continued to lay in her makeshift bed and just tried processing everything that happened.

Eventually Steven left after the rest of the crystal gems heard crying coming from the bathroom and knocked on the door to check what was going on.

Steven's words were muffled and quiet to Peridot, but you didn't need to be brilliant to decipher what he was saying to them.

Eventually the muffled noises stopped, or at least went further way and now Peridot was totally and truly alone, except for Pumpkin. Everything in the room was quiet but Peridot's mind hasn't stopped screaming since Lapis left. Peridot still didn't even really know where she was or who she was. Everything that happened was real but she felt so detached from reality that it seemed like it was happening to someone else but every grueling second passed like an hour and was a reminder that this was happening to her. Time couldn't seem to move forward and for a gem this feeling was even more dreadful because the idea that this emptiness could last forever was a real possibility for her. Peridot used her powers and weakly grabbed her tablet that she left on the sink. She began typing things into it

When a wife leaves a wife what's it called

The tablet told her that this was called divorce. It's apparently very common for humans to do this and she couldn't believe people were okay doing this to one another.

What do you do when you're the saddest you've ever been and don't know what to do

Peridot got a myriad of answer back with this one. Ranging from being more active, to taking medications, or drinking excessive amounts of alcohol.

Would medications even really affect her? Or alcohol? Peridot thought about it for a moment. She remembers a story about Amethyst told about getting food poisoning, and she remembers her own bruised face after Pearl punched her.

For non-organic beings gems sure had a lot of organic tendencies.

Peridot decided against any of the aforementioned solutions to her sadness. She was too unmotivated to be active or attempt trying medication and discerned that alcohol may not be the best solution.

Peridot clicked off of her browser and she was brought right back to her background photo, the wedding photo.

And for some reason everything started to hit her right then and there.

Mountains and mountains of memories all flooding forth through Peridot's mind.

Forcing Lapis to come back to Earth.

Re-meeting back at the barn.

Trying to break the ice and be friends.

The dreams Peridot had of her.

The dreams Lapis had of Peridot.

The wedding.

Their first kiss in the rain after chasing her through a torrential storm.

Getting Pumpkin.

Andy giving them the barn.

The fights.

The Meep Morps.

'Camp Pining Hearts'.

Making Lapis feel better after her encounter with Jasper.

Growing their crops.

Talking about Homeworld

Talking about Earth.

Thinking about their future.

Peridot couldn't hold it in anymore. Her cold, calculated façade faded and she could no longer keep her composure. Peridot started bawling. Her crying completely bypassed any kind of build-up and went straight into the full-on, ugly, loud bawling. The tears were hot falling from Peridot's face, staining the comforters Peridot was lying on. Peridot tried multiple times to get herself to stop because she didn't want anyone to hear her or anyone to check on her, but every time she would try to take a deep breathe it would get stopped short by her sobbing forcing her to breathe out. She took off her visor a chucked it to the other side of the tub allowing her to wipe away the tears more effectively.

Pumpkin stands there, looking sadly up at her green momma. Pumpkin decides to jump into the tub to be closer to Peridot. In an attempt to comfort her Pumpkin begins licking on of Peridot's arms, as any dog would do to try and get their owners attention. Peridot looks down at her pumpkin dog and scoops her up in her arms, and continues to cry.

Things continue like this for an unknown amount of time. Peridot eventually settled down and her crying ceased. Her eyes were dry and her face was soaked with tear stains. Pumpkin asleep on Peridot's lap

"You know, Pumpkin, I thought things couldn't get much worse when I lost the purpose Homeworld gave me after I called Yellow Diamond a clod. I wasn't doing well. But then I created a new purpose for myself. I made my own life her on Earth and I began living. I began doing things because I WANTED to do them and not because I had to or was designed to."

Peridot squeezes Pumpkin a little tighter.

"And Lapis was a big part of that. The biggest part, even. Sure I had my time with Steven and the gems beforehand learning about Earth and becoming a new person but for almost everything Lapis and I were learning it together. We learned so much together and learned to love so much stuff about this planet together. She made it easy to not miss homeworld."

Peridot starts to weakly sob again

"But now-" *sniff* "But now she's gone. Lapis is gone and I'm still here. Lapis is gone and she might not ever come back. We shared everything and I don't know what I am going to do now that she-she isn't here because anything I do I am always going to be thinking about her and thinking about how she isn't here."

Peridot falls back, now lying flat on the comforters. Pumpkin still fast sleep on her lap.

"And probably isn't ever coming back."

Peridot reached over to her tablet once more. Taking a deep breathe to keep herself together enough to get past the background photo. Peridot selects the TubeTube app and types Sad music into the search bar. Peridot indiscriminantly picks the first option which turns out to be sad country music.

Peridot lets the music play for a few seconds before announcing to no one,

"This music is a perfect summation of my mood."

Peridot leans over the side of the tub, letting body hang lazily over as sad cowboy music fills the air.