“Welcome back to The Reef, Steven Universe. How may I assist you,” the facility AI system, Shell, asked as Steven appeared.
“Shell, I need this uncooperative Pearl reprogramed to something more obedient,” Steven demanded as he unbubbled Pearl’s gem and placed it on the pad in the center of the room.
“Affirmative, you can select the features you wish for your Pearl on the command console to the left of you,” Shell advised as it scanned Pearl’s gem. Steven looked through all the options that were available in the console and made his selections. Steven uploaded the names and faces of everyone she had known, he wanted it to sting when she said their name, but she didn’t see them as her friends. He also wanted to keep her sword fighting knowledge but he had selected to enhance her knowledge and abilities to make her more formidable, why should he have to waste his valuable time with small threats when she could take care of them for him. When he had finished making his selections, he hit the start button and a giant clam incased Pearl’s gem. A screen allowed Steven to watch as a beam zapped Pearl’s gem, rewriting the programing for her personality and appearance. After a few minutes the beam ceased its operation and the clam began to retract. As the clam retracted, Pearl’s gem began to float as she reformed.
“Please identify yourself,” came a voice from Pearl’s gem. Steven thought for a minute, he no longer wished to go by that wretched human name Steven Universe, after all he was a Diamond. But he felt like he would be a hypocrite if he called himself Pink Diamond, since he despised the other Diamonds so much. After a few minutes of thinking he came up with the perfect name.
“Lord Paragon,” Steven said.
“Greetings Lord Paragon. Preferred customization options have been pre-installed. Please stand by,” the voice advised as Pearl’s gem began to glow. A few seconds later the rejuvenated Pearl appeared before him. She was still the same height and skin tone as before but everything else about her appearance had changed. Her hair was now just a bit longer than shoulder length, it was straight on the side with a ponytail in the back and colored white and her eyes were orange in color. Her clothes had changed as well, she now had on black buckle boots, black leather pants, a Victorian Era white buckle blouse, dark leather gloves and a dark hooded short-sleeved leather coat. All of the new clothing had a rose hem.
“Hello Lord Paragon, I’m your ne,” Pearl started before Paragon raised his hand and stopped her.
“Yes, yes, yes I know who you are. Now let’s go, we have more important matters to attend to on Homeworld before we return to Earth,” Paragon said as he handed her a pair of cutlasses, that he had Shell create for her. Paragon then placed his hand on Pearl’s shoulder and teleported both of them to Homeworld.
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Back on Earth, Connie refused to stay put and wait for Steven to return, so he could kill her, like he did with Amethyst and Garnet. She needed to take action and find a way to revert Steven back to his old self or put a stop to Steven’s destruction. Before she left the house, she quickly gathered the shards of Amethyst, Ruby and Sapphire. She didn’t know how long it would be before Steven returned, so she wasted no time as she ran out of the house, were she was greeted by Lion running back on to the beach.
“Lion, thank the stars you’re okay,” Connie said as she nuzzled his head.
“But now is not the time to celebrate your well-being, we need to come up with a plan to stop Steven,” Connie said as she hopped on Lion, “We need to go to Little Homeworld and get help.” Once Connie was on, Lion took off running and roared open a portal to Little Homeworld.
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Over at Little Homeworld Bismuth, Lapis and Peridot were standing on top of the windmill, looking over towards the direction of the Beach House, having heard the explosion from Steven’s transformation and seeing the Lighthouse and ship get blown up. They were getting ready to head towards the Beach after seeing everything, when Lion’s portal opened up behind them.
“CONNIE,” the trio cried out as Connie and Lion exited the portal.
“What the hell is going on? What was that loud explosion? Who blew up the Lighthouse and that ship,” Lapis asked, as the trio ran over to Connie.
“It was Steven, he has gone completely insane. His appearance changed after that loud explosion. He was wearing something like his Mom’s old outfit, his skin turned pink and he looks more like Jasper,” Connie said talking really fast.
“Woah, slow down Connie, you’re going about a mile a minute, it’s hard to keep up,” Lapis said. Connie took a deep breath as she began to explain everything that had happened, from the marriage proposal to him bubbling Pearl.
“I can’t believe Steven, shattered Ruby and Sapphire,” Bismuth cried as she dropped to her knees.
“No, no, no, Amethyst can’t be shattered,” Lapis cried as she angerly punched the wall.
“If Steven, was taking Pearl to be rejuvenated, he was more than likely taking her to The Reef,” Peridot stated.
“Now that you mention it, he did say he was going to The Reef right before he disappeared,” Connie said, wiping the tears away from her eyes.
“What’s The Reef,” Bismuth and Lapis asked in unison.
“You two are Era One gems and have never heard of The Reef,” Peridot asked in confusion.
“Well, neither of us ever had a Pearl,” stated Lapis.
“And Rose and Pearl never mentioned anything about it,” Bismuth said.
“Okay, so, The Reef is where all Pearls are made and reprogrammed if they stepped out of line and if he was taking her there this could be bad. With The Reef he could reprogram Pearl to be anything he wanted, from the most loyalist of servant to the most perfect assassin ever,” Peridot explained. Bismuth, Connie, and Lapis all had a very concerned look on their faces as Peridot explained The Reef.
“But with a rejuvenation from The Reef, it’s a total memory wipe unlike with the scythe that Spinel used, there won’t be any chance of getting her memories back. The Pearl we loved and knew is now gone forever,” Peridot said as she started to tear up.
“I know were all sad and upset over the death of Amethyst, Ruby and Sapphire and the loss of Pearl as we knew her. I know were pissed off at Steven for what he has done, but we need to focus on stopping him,” Connie said as she tried to return their focus on the task at hand.
“Connie is right, we need to focus on stopping Steven. After that we can mourn the loss of the others,” Bismuth said as she got back on her feet.
“But if Steven is as strong as Connie says he is then what chance do we stand against him,” Peridot asked.
“We don’t, but that doesn’t mean we can’t try,” Connie said trying her best to assure Peridot, “I need you all to rally the rest of the gems, I’m going to have Mayor Nanefua evacuate the city and call in the military, we will need all the help we can get,” Connie said as she hopped back on Lion. Lion then let out a roar opening a portal, then ran into it as Bismuth headed to her forge to build weapons, as Lapis and Peridot headed off to rally the Gems on Earth.

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