Cleaning up the empire was going by very quickly for the gems, especially with the return of Garnet, Amethyst and Pearl. Lapis was using her wings to pick up the larger pieces of debris with Jasper and Garnet while Pearl got help from her holograms, Amethyst transformed into a forklift and Peridot moved rocks out of the way with her tractor beam. She also used her robonoids to fix the cracks on the roads.
Though the crystal ponies were wary of them, it was easier having the Crystal Gems with them so the ponies would be slightly more comfortable with their heroes around.
"So Sombra's gone?" Garnet asked.
"It would appear so." Peridot replied with a smile; the reminder of that memory brightening her day and distracting her from the fact that she was on cleanup duty. Right now, she just wanted to use the Internet that Zinnia gave her all day. She also wanted to make that escape pod from the episode 'Joy Ride'. With it, she would be able to use it to walk anywhere, fly anywhere and even shoot lasers. In other words, she wanted to find more creative ways to do nothing. She had the blueprints hardwired into her brain; courtesy of the original Peridot.
Twilight had been left, despite wanting to stay with them and learn more about gems she had said something about a test, not to mention those two ponies who were now ruling the empire. It had taken all of Peridot’s effort not to burst out in laughter when she heard the stallion’s name was ‘Shining Armor’.
“How long has it been?” Pearl was the one who asked the question this time.
“About 1,000 years I think.” Lapis responded. "Maybe 1,200. I wasn't really counting."
“What have you guys been doing that whole time?”
“Mostly running, running and hiding. Celestia and Luna were pretty mad that you three got banished along with Sombra and the empire. They blamed us for it and tried to banish us then and there. Needless to say, we escaped before going into hiding. They sent search parties after us for quite a few decades… I think it was 6 or seven. Eventually, they just gave up and we all travelled together for a while before going our separate ways, though we would somehow always keep meeting back up. I guess we just had a connection.”
“We’d still be hiding if not for that damned pegasus.” Peridot grumbled.
“I’m just glad we didn’t get turned into statues or get sent to tartarus or something like that.” Jasper chuckled. “Celestia probably would’ve done one of those if she had the chance.”
“We nearly done with this cleaning? This is so boring.” Amethyst groaned.
“It may be going quicker than expected, but there’s still a lot more to do.” Pearl informed.
As they spoke, a low humming began to echo behind them, slowly rising in decibel. They turned to where the sound was coming from in time to see five points flickering in the air, extending out into a claw of some sort. It moved in a diagonal motion, leaving a glowing clawmark gashed into the air. In a final jerking motion it ripped downward, leaving a rift in the air. Out of it stepped a tall figure, being taller than even Jasper at a height of about nine feet, slowly becoming fully visible as the rift behind him sealed. He looked to be a mechanoid of some sort, having a metal costuming covered in a golden/green glowing growth of some sort, bonded to it. Over his body was costuming of some sort, making him resemble an anthropomorphic rabbit with a coloration of gold tinted with green and looking as if it were partially rotted off of him. He grinned with a set of jagged and sharpened teeth and waved at them, showing that he had two arms on his right side though he only had one on the other. He spoke in a rough, scratchy voice as he looked over them with a pair of cold blue eyes.
“Why hello there ladies! Name’s Springtrap nice ta meet ya!” The six gems, who were currently ready for battle, eased up slightly at the greeting.
“Uh, hi?” Amethyst slowly waved back with a confused look on her face.
“Are you another displaced?” Pearl questioned. “Did one of us summon you?”
He kept his grin and made a ‘so-so’ gesture with one of his hands. “You could say that. You could say a lot of other things too but that much works for now. And to answer the second part of that, nope! I don’t get by with the whole token thing, I’m like a housecat. I come and go as I please…”
“Uuh, sure.” Amethyst was still confused, as was everyone else.
“So… what brings you to our Equestria Springtrap?” Peridot stepped forward. “You kinda remind me of that one game I played once. Five Nights at Freddy’s, yeah that was it. Though I’m pretty sure Springtrap didn’t have three arms.”
“Mmhmm well I’m just… Travelling, let’s say. And as for the arms well… That’s just a little something-something I put together for myself. So, what’s the story behind the piles of rubble?”
“Well this empire was recently resurrected and the tyrant who ruled here was overthrown and probably dead.” Lapis wasn’t really sure how the Crystal Heart worked. “The guy controlled manipulated us 1,000 years ago when he sealed the empire away, give or take a couple hundred. There was a huge fight against him, we won but he destroyed a bunch of buildings so we volunteered to help with cleanup. Anything we can get you?”
“Hmm I’m alright. I might take a little peek around though…”
“Well there’s not much to really see aside from more rubble.” Jasper grunted.
“I wasn’t aware that a displaced could travel without a token.” Garnet admitted.
Springtrap chuckled, looking at her. “Most of you Displaced can’t. Of course I don’t exactly follow the rules…”
“You mean ‘of us’?” Peridot cocked her head.
He chuckled, nodding. “Yes yes, my bad. Still, might as well have a look. Never seen this place so I might as well have a gander...”
With that he started strolling away, leaving them all with an odd feeling.
“Well he was… weird.” Amethyst stared at the animatronic.
“I agree.” Garnet folded her arms.
“Should we go with him?” Lapis asked. “He might get himself into trouble, plus the crystal ponies are still probably quite tense after Sombra returned.”
“Well we might want to make it quick.” Amethyst pointed at the spot where he used to be.
“Okay, Lapis, Peridot and I will try to find him before he gets into any trouble.” Garnet began walking with the two aforementioned gems following her.
They walked down the street looking for the green bunny. He seemed to have disappeared completely, without any clue of even what street he went down. Even Garnet’s future vision couldn’t seem to find him, only showing a painful static.
“Where do you think he went?” Lapis looked around.
“No idea.” Peridot shrugged. “We haven’t heard any screaming or anything though, so that’s a good sign.”
“Maybe…” Garnet began. “We’d have better luck finding him if we split up.”
“Because that always works out so well.” Peridot mumbled.
“Well how would you suggest finding him Peridot?”
“... Shut up.”
“Then it’s settled, we’ll split up.” Garnet smiled, as they went in separate directions. The green gem grumbled to herself as she walked through the empty street.She looked around for any sign of Springtrap, but got absolutely none. All she could hear was her footsteps making noise on the ground. She turned her head slightly to the left and saw a rabbit’s shadow walking into another street. “Huh.” She thought. “I found him, now I just have to get him back to the gems before he causes a scene.” She followed him onto another street she saw his back turned to her. She approached him slowly, seeing him standing stock-still.
“Springtrap?” She tapped his shoulder. “Maybe we should get back with the others.”
No sooner than as she had finished speaking, his form flickered briefly, dissolving into light. A hand lashed out from behind her, covering her mouth and pulling her back, and a ripping pain exploded from her abdomen as something tore through her back. She glanced down to see the tip of a blade of some sort, and heard Springtrap speak slowly as she realized he was the one attacking her.
“Oh boy… You hero types are so easily fooled. Now, you gems are an unknown factor in the scheme of things, so I’m just gonna get a bit of...data, and I’ll be on my way. Okay?”
He didn’t wait for an answer before ramming a claw onto her gem, sending out a wave of pain…
Garnet looked around, she couldn’t find any trace of Springtrap. Somehow, her future vision was useless, which didn’t make it any easier and only left her with more questions surrounding this mysterious robot who was apparently able to hop from universe to universe. It all seemed very odd, she just hoped that someone would find him quickly.
She was cut off from her ponderings by a sound just like the one Springtrap’s arrival had made. She walked forward and found the source, seeing something tear an ‘X’ into the air which grew into a portal of its own. Out of the portal dashed out a new figure, one standing at a height of about ten feet. His appearance was obscured by a ragged cloak drawn over him, and only a gauntlet-covered hand holding a sword of black metal was visible. The being turned to look at her and she saw a pair of glowing, completely yellow eyes staring at her. He seemed to be inspecting her, figuring her out. A voice called out behind him, drawing Garnet’s attention.
“Jack? Oh fuck Jack stop running so fast!”
Out of the portal behind ‘Jack’ came another odd sight. A massive timberwolf, one as large as even Princess Celestia and seeming to be made of different patterns of wood, dashed out, carrying on its back a woman in odd armor. She seemed to be injured, judging by the bandages scattered across her form, and was most likely riding the wolf because of that. Her helmet’s light seemed to shift to green as she saw Garnet. She pointed at her and seemed to become excited.
“Holy shit a Garnet Displaced!”
Jack turned to Garnet and pulled back the hood with an eyeroll. His skin was black, looking like ink, as was the mess of hair running down to his shoulders.
“Hey there. I’m Jack, that’s Elizabeth, and the wolf is my dog Fefnir. And you are?”
“I’m Garnet.” She said simply. “Though if you want my former names you’ll have to ask Ruby and Sapphire. Why are you two here?”
Jack answered quickly, wasting no time. “I’m looking around the multiverse for my family, and Elizabeth’s chosen to come with me for now, rather than staying in her own Equestria.
“As if I’m gonna stay in that shithole!”
Jack rolled his eyes again and continued.
“And as I said already , Fefnir’s my dog so he’s coming with me. First of all though, you are a Displaced correct?”
“Yes.”
“Okay. Can you tell me if you’ve met a Displaced Golden Freddy, Jenny XJ9 Wakeman, or Vanitas Remnant?”
“I’m afraid not.”
Jack nodded, as if expecting her to give that answer.
“Okay, more important question, have you ran into someone by the name of Springtrap? Possibly hopping worlds similarly to how I arrived?”
“... Yes.” Garnet replied carefully. “Why do you ask?”
“He knows something about where my family members are, and is hunting for them, not to mention that he’s looking for possible ways to strengthen himself. Elizabeth there was attacked by him a short while ago and I’m looking to stop him before he harms anyone else, and to find out how much he knows about where my family is.”
“... How dangerous is he?”
“Unknown. I’ve only seen him a few times, and he’s not exactly forthcoming with straight answers. But I do know that he’s got some powerful materials on him from my world and many others. Not to mention the fact that from what I’ve seen his body is built to be near unbreakable. Why, have you seen him?”
“My friends are searching for him. He arrived not too long ago then disappeared. We have to find them!”
Jack nodded, waving Garnet to follow as he dashed into the city, a holographic display opening in front of him to show a scanner of some sort. The two found themselves arriving to the opening of an alleyway in time to see Peridot burst apart into dust in Springtrap’s grip. One of his claws extended to grab her gem from the air, calling up a glowing bubble went over the gem, as if scanning it. Jack roared as he leaped into action, his cloak opening to show the fact that he had four arms, all four of which were now armed with blasters of some sort which he locked onto Springtrap.
“Drop the gem scrapheap!”
Springtrap turned to face them, raising an eyebrow.
“You again? Don’t you have a ditch to get back to being dead in?”
Jack glared, his aim unwavering. “I said drop it!”
Elizabeth called out behind them. “Jack get the gem! If that’s what I think it is, then that sucker contains everything Peridot is and ever has been!”
Garnet activated her gauntlets before shooting forward to try and hit Springtrap, only to find her fists caught by Springtrap’s free claws.
“Nope! No dice bitc-”
He was cut off by Jack ramming an armored heel into his jaw from above Garnet. Jack landed next to her and stowed his blasters, dropping into a hand-to-hand combat stance. He surged forward and rammed into Springtrap, sending both of them to the ground. Springtrap rolled away and flipped to his feet, summoning a black blade covered in green markings to one of his claws and charging green lightning along it. He held the tip of it to Peridot’s gem with a grin.
“Ah-ah-aahhh! Nobody moves or the gem gets turned to dust!”
Jack stood up slowly with a grin, his arms reverting to their original form.
“What gem?”
Springtrap glanced to his hand to find it holding a normal rock, and glared as he saw Jack holding Peridot’s gem as he moved back towards Garnet, holding it out to her.
“Get your friend out of here and group up with whoever else is here with you.”
Jack cracked his neck, magic sparking around his gauntlets as he began to charge for magic of some sort. Meanwhile, Garnet went to regroup while Springtrap and Jack faced off, before the sound of wings flapping was heard. Lapis landed on the ground between them holding each back with her water wings.
“Hey there, I was just flying around, looking for Springtrap when I find said animatronic fighting with this mystery guy and his friends while Garnet is running away. Yeah… what’s going on?”
Springtrap grabbed her by the shoulders, gaining a panicked and terrified look as he turned her to face him.
“I’m so sorry Lapis, I didn’t think he’d be able to follow me but but h- He nearly fucking killed Peridot! I managed to give Garnet her gem to get her to safety right before you showed up, and now I’m finally gonna put this bastard’s streak of destruction to an END!”
He turned back to face Jack, gaining a grin the second Lapis couldn’t see his face. He readied his glaive and surged forward before he could get a word in, forcing him to focus on the fight.
“Wait, that guy poofed Peridot?” She looked at the taller guy with the ragged cloak as well as the timberwolf and the woman in the armour. “Ugh, we just dealt with Sombra, you three got me at a bad time!” Her water wings turned into fists. The left fist shot towards Jack, hitting him in the side while the next one grabbed him by the cloak. Jack twisted in the air, drawing a sword from within his cloak and bringing it to bear, blasting the wing apart in a torrent of wind. He dropped to the ground, moving into a defensive stance.
“Look I’m n-”
He was cut off by Springtrap blasting him with a wave of lightning. He rolled to his feet, cracking his neck. Lapis gathered water from the surrounding area and Jack saw a water variant of himself standing in front of him bearing a sword made out of ice. Jack drew another sword, this one an almost serrated blade made of dragon fangs and an unknown metal. Between the two blades he held the copy as well as Springtrap back, finally bringing the swords across the copy, splitting it four ways. As the copy regenerated into four entire copies of him, Jack rolled his shoulders, sheathing both of his swords. He undid the cloak and dropped it to the side, cracking his knuckles. Jack dodged back and forth as the four copies lunged for him, slowly seeming to collect magic in his hands. Jack struck out at them each with pulses of purple magic, seeming to disrupt them from maintaining their forms. Jack brought a fist through them and they finally fell to the ground as they dissolved. Jack drew a set of blasters and took aim, firing on Springtrap and yelling at Lapis.
“He’s got you played for a fool, ask Garn-”
He was cut off by Springtrap’s glaive ramming into him, sending him back. The glaive flashed back into Springtrap’s grip, and he planted it into the ground, sending a surge of electricity through the remains of the copies. Lapis gathered rest of the water and immediately froze it, turning it into small but durable blocks of ice. She launched them at Jack who jumped in the air to dodge when Lapis flew up and gave him a kick, colliding against his gauntlets as he blocked but forcing him back to the ground. He landed on his feet, putting him back in front of his friends.
“Lapis?” Jasper jumped down from one of the buildings, followed by Pearl, Amethyst and Garnet. “What’re you doing?”
“I’m fighting this guy... whoever he is. He poofed Peridot!”
“Garnet told us Springtrap was the bad guy.” She gestured to the fusion behind her.
“What?” She turned round to the green rabbit who was now laughing behind her. he turned to flash a grin at her. Before she could react a wave of green lightning rammed into her, throwing her against a wall.
“Like I said to the green space dorito, you heroes are such gullible little shitheads! It never gets old! Anyway…”
He brought his glaive around in a lazy twirl as he looked across all of them. He offered a toothy grin to all of them as they all got ready for his next move. However, the gems played theirs first. Jasper saw Pearl and Garnet getting ready and shot towards the rabbit with a spin dash, which he easily blocked and knocked her to the side next to Lapis. Unfortunately, he didn’t see the hammer swing at him from the side, but unlike Jasper and Lapis he stopped himself midair from going into the wall. He glanced up at the new figure that wielded the hammer.
“Hmm… Who’re you then?”
“Well I’m glad you asked, hun.” Her hair was similar to Peridot’s. except it was a bright orange. The tails of her suit flapped in the wind as she stood above Springtrap, resting her hammer on her shoulders. “Who I am is the lovely Sardonyx who’s about to disassemble the green- skinned monster. How’re you doing on this fine day?” She grinned as she lifted the hammer from her shoulders with her two upper arms. Springtrap simply kept his grin.
“Fairly well, as I’m the guy that’s about to kick you back down a notch.”
His glaive glowed and hovered in front of him along with an orange lightsaber. He held up a claw to the others.
“Ah-ah now, 1v1 y’all. How’s about I give you some entertainment in the mean time?”
His third claw erupted into light and brought up a crude chunk of crystal from one of the ruined buildings.
“Now, normally I wouldn’t experiment with new intel so very soon after collecting it but this is interesting enough to make an exception. Now let’s see what I can do with this…”
The chunk erupted into light, shaping into a crude humanoid skull but lacking a jaw. Light poured out of it, slowly shaping itself into the shape of a human about Jasper’s height, but looking as if it were halfway between flesh and stone in a gray color. It bore male features, but was lacking in facial details other than a pair of glowing eyes. In terms of outfitting it simply wore a crude plated armor of some sort. ‘He’ stared at them unknowingly, but after a wave of energy sent into it by Springtrap it turned into a glare.
“Folks meet Synthesized Gem Number One, Granite!” Everyone’s eyes widened as Granite stepped forward slowly in a zombie- like fashion, at first struggling to not fall over and stumbling quite a few times but unfortunately for them was learning quickly. “Keep them busy while I deal with the big one.”
The false gem nodded slowly, eyes shifting between Lapis and Amethyst where the stood in front of him. Jack rolled his shoulders as he moved to place himself next to them, and the sight of him alone seemed to enrage Granite.
While they engaged the false gem, Springtrap and Sardonyx dashed at each other. Sardonyx swung her hammer, only for Springtrap to duck and and counter with a strike from his glaive. Sardonyx twisted to avoid the attack, bringing up a hand to strike but finding it blocked by Springtrap’s claw. The fusion attempted to remove her hand but found herself shocked by lightning from the glaive. The sudden shock stunned her for a moment despite that she rotated her lower arms and nailed him with her war hammer, not doing as much as it had before but enough to stop him from shocking her. She charged forward as her hammer began spinning, turning into a drill aimed at Springtrap. He mirrored the motion with his glaive, driving it to spin in the reverse of her warhammer. The two clashed, waves of energy tearing away from the point at which the two met. Both combatants stood firm for a moment as energy collected, until finally it erupted and both were blasted apart. Springtrap surged forward, bringing down his glaive against the staff of her hammer. Both weapons ground against each other as their eyes met, Springtrap’s manic grin never falling for a second.
Sparks could be seen dancing and crackling off of the two weapons as they both fought over power. Just as Sardonyx began to move her hammer forwards, more lightning coursed through her body. She fell to the ground with the animatronic advancing on her with his glaive raised, but she jumped up at him with her hammer, which he blocked before readying his lightsaber, but didn’t count on a second hammer striking, but while he was able to also block that as well, giving the two some distance. They both began running down the broken streets, with the rabbit dodging a swing from both hammers and slashing at her chest with his claw, she same claw which he then used to grab her leg and throw her into the air. He shot up to try and finish the job but was met with another hammer blow before he could land. Springtrap rolled to his feet and prepared to make another move, only to halt, his eyes falling shut.
“Hmm. It seems your friends have already beaten that little entertainment I set up for them, and my boss wants me to get a move on so here’s the deal…”
Sardonyx saw his eyes flash open for a split-second before being sent back by a wave of raw force, her hammer shattering apart in her hands. She slammed into a wall and looked up to see Springtrap standing over her.
“I win.”
He twirled and in a single move cut a rift with his glaive and passed through, sticking his head back through.
“Bye-bye!”
He waved at her with his claw, which held an odd golden glow as the rift shut, the last thing of him seen being the pinpricks of blue light in his eyes…
Granite blocked another spin dash from Amethyst with a raised arm, turning to face a blast of ice from Lapis. While he was distracted Jack dove in and brought his swords around into multiple strikes. He attempted to dodge most of them, but found cuts gouged into his sides after the assault was finished. He turned, only to find himself facing Jasper as she formed her helmet and charged at him, ramming into his forehead. He slid back a few feet, cracks spiderwebbed across his head but not fazing him. He blinked at her for a moment, seeming to be fixated on her helmet. As he stared his eye erupted with light, a helmet of his own appearing around his head, resembling a dragon’s skull with the teeth to go with, the jaws of it going where a normal mouth would’ve gone on his face.He surged forward in a clumsy mirror of Jasper, holding all of the brute force but none of the actual skill. Jasper watched him and sidestepped with ease, sending him crashing through a wall. Jack signaled to Jasper and the other gems.
“You guys think you can handle the goliath there? I’m gonna go make sure that ‘Sardonyx’ is alright.”
“Go ahead.” Jasper grinned. “This is pretty easy.” She slammed her helmet into Granite while Amethyst grabbed onto him with her whip and threw him into the ground. He got up however, ready for another round as he charged for Jasper, only for her to move and backhand him without breaking eye contact with Jack.
“Yeah you three should probably go.” Amethyst sighed. “Just beat that Springy guy or whatever.”
Jack nodded and turned to Elizabeth and Fefnir, speaking to the wolf. “Fef, keep Elizabeth back here.”
“Say what!? You’re just leaving me?!”
“Your leg is busted. From what I’ve seen, Springtrap wouldn’t hesitate to try and make a hostage of you and you’re in no condition to fight him.”
Elizabeth seemed to look for a response, only to sigh and nod. Jack turned and dashed towards where Sardonyx and Springtrap had went.
As he ran off, Granite picked himself up, looking at Amethyst with a narrowed glare. He moved a hand over his forehead and then to his side, lashing out as a whip extended from his palm. The whip in his hand matched Amethyst’s own, but with blunt stone rather than gems along it, making it seem like a shoddier version of it. He lashed out with it, shattering a stone a few feet from Amethyst. He jumped up and cracked the whip at the group to release a grey energy from it. They all jumped away, Fefnir bounding away from the attack and keeping Elizabeth a good distance from Granite. Jasper spin dashed him, but she was thrown up into the air by the whip. She summoned her helmet and let gravity do the rest. Granite jumped away, avoiding most but not all of the attack. He slammed into a wall from the attack, standing up with visible, glowing cracks across one of his shoulders. He locked eyes onto Jasper, summoning another whip into his free hand. He lashed out to either side with each whip, snaring a boulder in each of them. Granite crouched slightly before entering a spindash himself, drawing in the boulders as he rocketed towards Jasper. She dodged out of the way easily, only to be caught off guard as he stopped his dash and used the momentum to launch both stones directly into her. Jasper was hit by one but was able to raise her arms and block the other. She charged at him, hitting him head- on and slammed him into a wall. His whips disappeared and all that remained was the helmet made of stone on his head. He pushed her away with his legs and rammed into her stomach He looked at Lapis and then with a flash wings appeared on his back as he clumsily flew up and away.He held himself in the air for a moment, summoning whips back into his hands. He let out a grunt of pain as he did so, and all the gems noticed glowing cracks appearing around his eyes as he summoned more copies of their weapons, growing larger for every new one called. Regardless, he kept going and tried to jump Lapis, but was hit in the face by one of her fist- turned wings. Granite ensnared Lapis with his whip, but was hit by a spin dash from Amethyst. He jumped up and threw her to the ground with his whip. Jasper then shot at him, but he defended with his own helm. Their helmets clashed, Granite’s holding against Jaspers for a moment before they both bounced away. Granite landed in a tumble and looked up at Jasper as she landed on her feet, skidding to a stop. He rolled to his feet a stood, cracks erupting across his helmet as it fell apart. He seemed to focus and attempt to call a new helmet, only to flinch as the cracks around his eyes grew a bit from the effort of reconstructing it. Granite glared at her, only to freeze, his eyes going completely dark. His arms went limp at his sides as he held a blank expression. The wings on his back and the whips in his hands glowed briefly before dissolving. He blinked and his eyes began to glow in a teal color as he looked around in confusion.
He could feel it. His creator was gone, left without him. His thoughts were none. He was surrounded, but he knew not what to do. His one command had been to attack, and he no longer had that command. The only thing he knew to do was sit there and stare at his attackers. His left arm twitched slightly as it lay on the ground along with the rest of him. He saw that they all had their weapons pointed at him. He got up and looked across them, attempting to determine his actions. He did not know what he was, he was like they were but... different. He felt pain run through him right down to his...gem. That was the word. His skull was a...gem. He felt pain in it as he attempted to force his thoughts to align themselves. The pain only continued and increased, but he did not relent until it grew to a peak. The gems around him simply stared as the cracks around his eyes erupted across his face as he looked at them. He spoke in a low, quiet voice as the cracks began to spread across his form.
“I… Am… Granite.”
With this the cracks finally connected and his form shuddered for a moment before falling apart and disintegrating into smoke as he finally poofed, leaving behind only the carved gem of his skull. They all slowly walked up to it as Lapis picked it up, but didn’t know what to do as she had never bubbled anything before. Since she was unable to do so she improvised. She gathered more water and imprisoned Granite in a large cube of ice, doing her best not to be unnerved by the flickerings of light in the eyes of the skull...
Jack ran quickly towards where Sardonyx and Springtrap had been facing off, hopping and dodging around rubble in his path until he found the two. She was lying on the ground while the green rabbit was taking his leave into a rift. Jack roared and lunged for the rift, only for it to close before he could grab him. Jack yelled in anger and rammed his right fists into his left palms before letting out a breath and turning to Sardonyx. His form shuddered and twisted, reshaping until he stood at a height equal to Sardonyx, though looking less human. His joints seemed twisted and his hands were more like claws, and his armor had shifted to resemble an Ursa Major’s coat as he changed. He held out a claw to help her up, which she took after a moment of hesitation. He spoke in a deeper, rougher sounding voice as she stood.
“You alright?”
“Umm… yes, quite.” She nodded, unnerved by the sudden change of his form and voice. “I must admit, he was rather strong, stronger than yours truly even. A simple ‘smash’ was not enough to defeat him.”
Jack nodded, looking over the area. “Yeah. I still don’t know how much he’s capable of, but either way I’m gonna put a stop to it, no matter how long it takes.”
“If part of me remembers the games correctly, he should not even be capable of that much.” The gem fusion tapped her chin. “Not to mention his mention of an employer, there is one possibly stronger than he?”
“Yeah. I don’t think he’s a Displaced. He’s something else entirely… Either way though, I’m gonna keep pursuing him until he’s taken down. And along the way I can take care of my actual reason for crossing universes.”
“Hm? Ah yes, finding your friends and family. I may not know much about this universe, but I can infer that the chances of finding anyone you knew from your time as a human are incredibly scarce.” She looked up into the sky. Jack nodded, a resolute expression on his face.
“From what I know, my blade works on a level similar to a token. The rifts it produces should take me to the worlds of different Displaced, though I can head to my own universe if I need/want to. And it doesn’t matter how long it takes. I’m biologically immortal, so unless I get myself killed then I have all the time in the world, or multiverse rather.”
“Well then, Jack.” Sardonyx’s physical form began to shine brightly. “You now have six new friends to call upon if you are ever in need.” The light fully took her over and soon Pearl and Garnet were standing where she was. The gem in Garnet’s gem in her left hand started to shine and soon her token appeared. A small white palm- sized star with gems on all points except the top one.
“The Homeworld Gems should give your friends their token as well.” Pearl informed him. Jack nodded and after a moment his form returned to normal, and he reached out for the token, pocketing it and drawing one of his own. He handed it to Garnet, who inspected it for a moment. It was a disc made of a dark red metal, with a symbol to two spires curved around each other with a sword breaking them both.
“There’s my token. Call me if you need backup or some such. Well, let’s head back to see how the others have done against that thing Springtrap made.”
“He was able to make a gem.” Garnet frowned. “I hope Peridot is doing alright. Who knows how long it’ll take her to reform.”
“Yeah. Hope she turns out alright. And the fact that with a short scan he was able to figure out enough about your kind to produce such an advanced copy out of scraps is worrisome. Makes me dread what he has planned for the Marker fragments he grabbed from my world…”
“I doubt it’ll be anything small, as much as we’d like to believe it is.”
Jack simply nodded.
“So… ummm…” Pearl began. “Why did you… change forms? It’s quite interesting that you can do that in the first place.”
“‘Wasn’t sure how long you two were gonna be fused, so I figured I’d help you up. It was the polite thing to do and all. And as to how I can do that, I’m technically a Necromorph. I have full control of my form down to the smallest biological function, and so I can reconstruct myself as needed.” Pearl accepted this answer and the three ran back to see their friends. They got to the slightly wrecked area and when they arrived they saw the three gems as well as Jack’s friends waiting for them with Granite’s gem frozen in a block of ice held by Lapis.
“Please tell me you guys got him.” Amethyst questioned, with a combination of hope and annoyance in her voice. However, Garnet looked down.
“He was able to escape.” She said plainly, while Jack clenched his fists.
“The bastard managed to get through a rift before I could grab him.”
“Well… at least we caught this guy.” Amethyst chuckled as she gestured to the ice holding the synthesized gem.
“Yeah.” Lapis smiled. “At least there’s that.” She let out a small chuckle of her own before directing her gaze to the ground.
Jack let out a small nod, then turned to look over their surroundings.
“I didn’t get a chance to ask earlier, but what exactly happened here before Elizabeth and I arrived? Something about Sombra?”
“Oh you have no idea.” Jasper grunted.
“Yeah, Sombra got sealed away after we unknowingly helped him enforce his tyrannical regime, and we ran from the princesses once he gave the empire its curse. 1,000 years later they found us and we freed the Empire from Sombra and the Crystal Gems under his control. We also met two other displaced called Ace and Zinnia. They helped us defeat an evil Sugilite.” Lapis explained.
Jack nodded slowly, considering all this. “Sealed away huh? I suppose that explains why this place looks the way it did a thousand years ago. And it’s good to hear that Sombra got put down here as well.”
“What did he do in your world?” Pearl asked curiously.
“In my world the bastard seized control of the Old Crystal Empire, and had full control of all those living there. He was a zealot for the Church of Unitology, and with their help he constructed an artifact known as the Black Heart from the Crystal Heart’s designs. It had the power to kill anything its magic struck, though it was destroyed before it could be determined what else it was capable of. In the battle that night we lost half of the forces we brought to bear…” Jack’s eyes lost focus for a moment, but he shook his head and looked back at them. “Regardless, the bastard had it coming and I have no doubts that most versions of him do as well.”
“Geez.” Amethyst grimaced. “I hope he didn’t do anything like that here.”
“He mostly kept to himself, he probably had the odd secret room. I wouldn’t rule a Black Heart out.” Lapis shrugged. “Who knows whether our Sombra did anything like that here. Even when he wasn’t on his own, he’d be forcing the Crystal Ponies to dig holes. I don’t know, maybe he was mining for more of those crystals he loved so much.”
Jack shook his head. “I doubt there’s a black Marker here. If there was, he most likely would’ve put it to use against you or worse yet Celestia and Luna. With luck, mine will be one of the few worlds to have to deal with the Church… Gods help you if they’re here, though if they show up then you’ll have me and my own forces here to back you up.”
“Our Sombra was an expert in mind control, though maybe that’s because of our gems.” Pearl pondered. “If he was digging for crystals then maybe he was but… It doesn’t matter. He’s gone. I’m pretty sure he died or something, right? Was that canon? It’s hard to remember.”
“...Canon?”
Elizabeth spoke up behind Jack. “I think I get what she means. I’ll explain later.”
Jack glanced at her before turning back to the gems. “Alright then… Well I’m afraid I don’t know then.”
“I guess there’s no telling what’ll happen.” Pearl sighed.
Ugh, that make things so much easier.” Amethyst groaned as she stooda behind her friend.
Jack nodded uncertainly. “I’m afraid so. Your world seems to heavily differ from my own so I can’t help with that. Still, if you’d like I could help you with a bit of clean up before I head out again with Fefnir and Elizabeth.”
“Really?” Amethyst beamed. “We’ve been doing so much work!”
“No, we’ve been doing work.” Garnet gestured to the other gems. “You’ve been running off.”
“Well it’s not my fault work is dumb.” Amethyst groaned.
“We’re just lucky that this area is wrecked and blocked from the crystal ponies or someone might’ve gotten hurt.” Garnet replied. “I suppose we can thank Sugilite for that.”
Jack looked between them and shrugged. “So, you guys want help or not?”
“Yeah of course we do.” The purple gem grinned. Garnet simply nodded.
“Only if you have the time.” She said. Jack shrugged again.
“I’m travelling between universes. Time doesn’t really function that well as a constant, so I’ve got as long as I prefer.”
“Alright then.” Garnet nodded once again, and they all set to work on repairing the damaged city. jack took notes on the differences between worlds as he worked, as well as gaining a scan of Garnet in case Springtrap had used the data from Peridot for anything dangerous when they next clashed. When most of the debris was cleared and the actual repairs began, Jack took his leave along with his companions, bading goodbye to the gems and wishing them luck in the future as he opened a rift of his own, leaving with his friends while the gems wished him good luck in beating Springtrap. He’d need it and so would the gems.
