"Huh?" Stevonnie murmured, completely bewildered. She hadn't even realized how she had ended up there, standing in the middle of a dense, humid jungle. Steven's reflexes kicked in instantly, and without a second thought, he summoned his shield. Connie's side, on the other hand, was left slack-jawed, completely fascinated by the sensation.
So this is what it feels like... to summon your shield. It's so cool, isn't it?
Yeah, it's pretty wild, she replied, keeping her eyes locked onto the glowing shield for a few more seconds until her expression turned serious. Well, they didn't give us any objectives, they didn't tell us where we were going, and we didn't even get basic fusion training. Just... straight into the meat grinder.
Her determination mixed with a hint of dark humor. Looks like we'll have to use a technique I haven't used since the Heian era.
The Heian era? she repeated to herself, raising an eyebrow.
It's an expression. Just a way of saying it's been a really long time.
"Ugh... I feel like a lunatic talking to myself," she blurted out dryly.
That's exactly how Steven feels when he talks to himself.
"Yeah..." she replied, her tone dry once again.
Are we going to move, or do you want to keep talking about my life story?
Stevonnie scanned her surroundings, taking a deep breath. The air was suffocating, thick with bugs and jungle noises, but there seemed to be a path cutting through the undergrowth. With a firm stride and a serious voice, she proclaimed, "Universe Luck, ultimate technique!"
She began to march forward without hesitation, and ironically, she headed exactly in the right direction. Look at you, Stevonnie, so smart, she thought with a mix of pride and irony.
They gave us a name... does it bother you?
I don't really care. It blends well anyway.
A faint blush crept onto the fusion's face—she was blushing at herself. The scene was as bizarre as it was hilarious: a single body arguing with two distinct consciousnesses.
As she kept walking, Stevonnie looked down at her own body, inspecting it closely. Her eyes went wide as she caught details she hadn't noticed before. It was a mature-looking body, with long hair cascading down to her hips while keeping Steven's messy style. Her fair, slightly tanned skin glowed under the light filtering through the canopy.
The hips... they looked like those of an eighteen-year-old woman. Wait... a woman.
Stevonnie stopped dead in her tracks, casting a gloomy look at the ground. "I'm a woman," she whispered, her voice laced with shock.
Huh? Yeah, I guess so? she answered herself.
"Fabricio..." Stevonnie muttered, casting a fleeting glance down at her crotch.
But now is not the time to mourn, she concluded firmly, picking up the pace into a fast run while an involuntary blush—clearly coming from Connie—took over her face.
They quickly sprinted in one direction. After a few minutes of tearing through the brush, they reached a clearing where another pyramid stood, cold and mysterious.
If I find another worm, I swear to God I'm going to give Lion a bath in the ocean and leave a piece of fish miles away from him just so he realizes what he's missing out on, the more impulsive voice growled with bottled-up rage. Lion was left entirely in the dark, having no clue how to even respond to that.
"A bit extreme," Stevonnie commented, a drop of sweat running down her forehead.
Not at all, the other voice shot back with total conviction. I'm probably going to find three more worms this week. Well, at least I'll show you that I'm not exaggerating.
With that mix of determination and dark humor, they pushed open the temple's heavy door and stepped inside.
Author's Note: Do you guys like this type of internal dialogue within the fusion? If not, I can change it so only the fusion speaks out loud without showing the inner thoughts. For now, I'll leave it like this due to Connie's human side and her non-stop urge to learn.
So this is what you do on your missions, Steven?
Yup, he replied.
Stevonnie kept talking to herself, though she gradually calmed down her divided thoughts. Alright, let's stop talking like this. Let's just talk normally, like a single person.
Stevonnie nodded serenely, feeling her mind stabilize. Now that she was grounded, she focused on her surroundings. She walked for a few minutes without a clear direction until the heavy silence began to bug her. "Bo-ring," she muttered between sighs.
Her eyes darted from side to side, taking in the ruins around her. The figures carved into the stone seemed to represent ancient Gems, though none looked familiar. It wasn't like the sand temple where she had found Lion. Speaking of him... she hadn't seen him since they arrived. Still, something deep inside told her he was around somewhere, watching.
Suddenly, a sharp crack shattered the silence. Stevonnie tensed up, summoning her shield with automatic reflexes. The pink glow illuminated the dim temple, and she locked into a firm stance.
"Come out... or do you want me to come get you?" she called out, a mix of confidence and nerves in her voice.
Her eyes scanned the area closely. A shaky smile formed on her face. "Ha..."
Steven's side remained calm, trying to analyze the situation. Connie, however, was clearly on edge, her breathing a bit rushed. Both emotions mirrored onto Stevonnie's body, creating a strange but fascinating duality: the perfect balance between calm and tension, between courage and fear.
Right then, some rocks began to move slowly, vibrating as if the temple itself were waking up from a long slumber. "Huh?" Stevonnie murmured, caught off guard.
The ground began to shake beneath her feet. Everything around her trembled, and suddenly, the texture of the floor shifted, turning sticky and slimy, almost like goo. Stevonnie jumped instinctively, tapping into the extra strength the fusion provided. Mid-air, she realized her body felt incredibly light, packed with a power that allowed her to leap twice, maybe three times higher than normal. She landed on top of a pillar, dropping into a steady stance, her eyes flashing with a mix of nerves and anticipation.
Could it be a Gem? Or maybe a completely new monster, she thought, her eyes sparkling with curiosity. But she quickly shook her head, taking a deep breath. Focus, Stevonnie. This is serious.
In front of her, an elongated shape began to materialize amidst the tremors and the glowing liquid on the floor. First a shapeless mass, then a winding, slithering figure. Stevonnie stared in utter disbelief.
"...Are you serious?" she muttered.
"Are you for real?!"
The shout echoed through the temple—a blend of anger and frustration that rattled the walls. Looming before her was a corrupted Gem slug, a massive creature made of blue slime with earthy veins running through its body. Right in the center, visible through the translucent mass, sat a circular gemstone of an intense blue hue, heavily stained in some areas—a dead giveaway of its corruption.
Steven's fury boiled inside the fusion, while Connie's side wavered between pure terror and fascination.
Whatever, let's just do this, she thought with determination.
With a swift motion, she summoned her shield, gripped it tight, and chucked it with the full force of the fusion. The shield flew straight at the creature, but upon impact, there was no satisfying metallic clang. Instead, the shield was instantly swallowed by the slime body, sinking in without leaving a trace.
"Well, at least it's not acid," Stevonnie muttered with relief, though her brow remained furrowed. "I'm guessing its weak spot is the gemstone... I'll have to pull it out, since I can't hit it directly."
In that exact moment, the true potential of the fusion shined through. Connie's strategic mind paired with Steven's combat experience made for a flawless combo: a total battlefield genius. Within seconds, Stevonnie had analyzed her opponent and found its flaw.
The air around her hummed. The fight was about to kick off.
Granted, you didn't need to be a genius to know that the weak spot of a slug whose only solid part was on the inside was that exact gemstone, but Stevonnie couldn't help but think out loud.
"Where do these weird thoughts even come from?" she muttered.
Connie had no clue that, inside his head, Steven basically hosted a whole committee of inner voices, all shouting advice at the same time. A state of ultimate enlightenment... or a hilarious form of magical schizophrenia, depending on how he looked at it.
"Well, at least it doesn't look hostile—"
She couldn't even finish her sentence before the creature launched itself at her with a wet, grotesque roar.
"Me and my big mouth," she sighed, a drop of sweat rolling down her forehead.
She took off sprinting, dodging chunks of the temple that were raining down from the tremors. The Gem slug slithered right behind her, leaving a blueish trail that crackled with a faint light. As she pushed forward, Stevonnie noticed a flight of stairs leading down to a wider, more open area. If it weren't for this beast, she thought, this place would be perfect for training.
She dashed toward the stairs and, at the absolute last second, feeling the monster's damp breath right on her back, she leaped. Mid-air, she popped a protective bubble, suspending herself inside it, and hurled it with full force into the creature. Inside the slime's body were rocks, dust, and debris from the temple; Stevonnie used that environment to her advantage, slamming the bubble forward until it made direct impact with the gemstone.
The creature didn't even realize what was happening until it was too late. Stevonnie expanded the bubble to its limit, and a massive explosion rattled the cavern. The gemstone went flying while the monster's body burst into a thousand shards of liquid rock.
The only problem was that Stevonnie hadn't accounted for the blowback of her own momentum. The bubble popped, and several loose stones ricocheted at high speed, hitting her right in the arms and chest.
A few minutes passed. Stevonnie was sitting on the floor, sighing as she looked down at her clothes.
"This was my favorite shirt..." she lamented, staring at the ripped, dust-covered black tee with the star in the center.
Don't even get me started, this dress was my absolute favorite... Connie's inner voice added, looking at the pink dress layered over the shirt.
With a resigned sigh, Stevonnie pushed herself up, walked over to the gemstone, and carefully sealed it inside a bubble, letting it float gently by her side.
"Eh, not my house," she muttered with a grin, looking at the total disaster the fight had left behind.
She strolled out casually, and as she reached the temple entrance, there was Garnet, waiting for her with a massive smile stretching from ear to ear.
Stevonnie, her body still tense and her face a mask of pure disgust, reached out and handed the gem over to Garnet. Steven's side was clearly miserable.
"Next time, find a target that doesn't look like a slug," she muttered, her voice dripping with frustration. "I'd much rather fight something that at least looks human."
Her body shuddered with disgust, remembering the gelatinous texture of the monster.
"Huh?" Garnet responded, completely thrown off. Out of all the possible futures she had mapped out, she had never envisioned this scenario. She had figured Stevonnie would return happy, proud of her first mission, and hyped about the experience. Instead, the fusion was visibly checked out, her shoulders rigid, looking like someone who just wanted to wipe the day from her memory.
Garnet looked down at the gem in her hands, then simply tapped it, sending it floating back inside the temple toward her room.
"How did it feel?" she finally asked, her tone turning softer, almost maternal.
"It wasn't too bad," Stevonnie replied, looking down at her hands with a thoughtful expression. "In a way, I feel like Steven wanted me to experience this... I mean, it's one thing to hear about it, but it's totally different to actually live it, you know?"
She smiled faintly, looking up at Garnet.
Garnet watched her in silence for a few seconds, and then, with an almost imperceptible smile, replied, "And this is only the beginning for you two."
Stevonnie swallowed hard, a bit freaked out by the almost prophetic tone of her words. Oh boy, joy, she thought, a drop of sweat sliding down her temple.
Then, she pulled the phone out of her right pocket—Connie's pocket—and the moment she saw the time, along with an endless list of missed calls, her face went deathly pale.
"Garnet..." she said slowly.
"Yes?" the Gem replied, curious.
"How do I teleport back to my house in five minutes?"
"..."
Garnet's expression instantly hardened.
"Holy shit!" she barked, grabbing Stevonnie by the arm.
In a matter of seconds, both fusions bolted at breakneck speed—one running in sheer panic and the other with a repressed smirk, heading straight toward an imminent showdown with a furious mother.
"We actually lived through all of that..." Connie said with a smile, sitting in Steven's room.
Steven watched her in silence, a cold shiver running down his spine as he remembered how Connie's mom had given him the most intense reaming of his life. Garnet, meanwhile, was standing still as a statue in the corner of the room; even Steven had noticed she looked slightly rattled. The power of a mother... he thought in resignation.
Connie turned to him with an upbeat expression. "Steven, we should form Stevonnie more often. I know I'm not that strong and all of this is terrifying, but as Stevonnie, I wouldn't be in as much danger."
Steven looked at her without saying a word. His silence dragged on for a few seconds that felt like an eternity, until Connie started getting anxious, worried she might have said the wrong thing.
"Connie..." Steven finally said, his tone quiet but firm. "I know you enjoyed it, and I'd gladly form Stevonnie with you again, but let's not make a habit out of it. Fusion isn't really my thing. I'd do it for you... but not all the time, okay?"
He paused for a few seconds and looked down. "Last time, we didn't go on that mission because we wanted to. They took us without even asking our opinion. You know that. And even if you didn't say it out loud, you were terrified. You can't lie to me—we were connected. I felt everything you felt."
Connie looked down, feeling a sharp pang of guilt. "You're right..." she whispered, her voice sounding incredibly small.
Steven smiled tenderly and gently ruffled her hair, as if comforting a little kid.
"Hey!" Connie protested through nervous laughter, trying and failing to swat his hand away.
"Come on, let's play a game," Steven said with a mischievous grin. "I want to unwind before another slug shows up."
Both of them tensed up at the memory of the slimy creature. Connie shot him an accusing look. "You're still grossed out by it, aren't you?"
"And you aren't?" Steven fired back with a playful smirk.
Laughter filled the room, light and genuine. The lingering tension melted away, leaving only the warmth of their friendship.
And just like that, without them even realizing it, the accident that had led them to fuse turned into something way deeper than a simple mission. It was the start of a profound connection—a trust that grew with every word and every glance.
And who knows... sometimes, friendship is just the first step toward something much greater.
End of Chapter 14.