章 20: "Family"
In a spacious and warm dining room, a small and tamed Peridot was being fed by a woman with sharp eyes.
This Peridot was unique among its kind.
Without any aversion to human hands, it just accepted its food like a soulless doll.
This Peridot was a little peculiar.
It wouldn't produce a single sound or proudly show her intellect like others of its kind.
Its eyes seemed empty for outsiders, but what no one knew was...
Her soul was even more empty and desolated.
'Connie...'
She thought while a spoon approached her mouth.
'Priyanka...'
The food entered her mouth, and with slow movements of her tongue, she swallowed.
'Doug...'
The food was digested by an organic system extremely similar to that of the woman in front of her.
'Connie's mother was a doctor and her father was a security guard...'
A handkerchief wiped her mouth, getting rid of any dirt around it.
'Priyanka's daughter is called Connie.'
Skilled arms held her body setting her in a wheelchair.
'Doug is a security guard. Priyanka is a doctor.'
Tap. Tap.
Both stop in front of a mirror with some toothbrushes and toothpaste.
Priyanka held the toothbrush and added a small quantity of toothpaste.
'This means...'
Asha opened her mouth revealing white perfectly ordered teeth.
Brush- Brush-
A toothbrush diligently cleaned her mouth.
'Priyanka is Connie's mother.'
A dangerous light began to appear in her gem.
'She is directly related to the original'
Her hands and feet started to tremble.
'And now she is my adoptive mother.'
The hands cleaning her mouth suddenly stopped.
Pat~ Pat~
A hand carefully touched her head.
The light suddenly stopped.
Spit~
Asha spat out the toothpaste.
Seconds later a cup of water touched her mouth.
Gurgle~
Water with toothpaste fell into the sink.
Priyanka's fingers opened her lips checking the condition of her teeth.
She nodded in satisfaction.
'...'
She walked with the girl to the living room.
A big TV was there.
Priyanka held the remote and turned on the TV. She selected the application TubeTube and a generic screen with videos appeared.
The woman stared fixedly at the TV and then opened the search bar.
[Children's cartoons]
Several videos appeared.
She analyzed each thumbnail. She avoided all the music videos and filtered out only the educational and entertaining ones.
Some minutes were spent this way. Asha hadn't reacted to even one of them.
Her face frowned at the sight, she seemed to be thinking deeply about something.
Move...
Suddenly, the girl's hands moved. It made Priyanka's eyes shine with surprise.
[Super Drill Adventures - Season 1 (English CC)]
It was a cartoon about drills. Priyanka's looked at the TV with doubtful eyes.
'Was it what kids like watching these days?'
Priyanka moved the catalog.
The girl's hand stopped moving.
She came back again.
The girl's hand began to shake.
Without hesitation, Priyanka selected the strange cartoon.
[Super Drill - Episode 1]
"Super Drill, we need your help!!" said two humanoid screws.
Bam!
Suddenly, a drill fell from the sky.
It had perfect proportions, an elegant shape, and a minimalist style...
"Darn! It's the super drill! Run!"
Without fear, Super Drill defeated the enemies face-to-face.
Drill~!!
A powerful sound came from its body.
"Ah~!"
The screws were thrown into the sky.
"It's okay." said the Super Drill in an unbeatable posture.
"Because..."
Shine covered all of its body, it seemed majestical, pure.
"I'm here."
Asha's eyes seemed to brighten again.
All hope and innocence seemed to shine in her eyes.
'super-drill-x23...'
Her most precious drill. The one responsible for providing a free pass to Earth.
It seemed like her drill was telling her: "It's okay, you can rely on everything to me".
She felt like she could fall into tears at any moment.
She was there desperate about a future that had not even arrived.
What about the sacrifice of Super Drill to allow her to go to Earth?
What about all her other babies sacrificed just to generate a perfect drill?
Were their sacrifices in vain?
'No.'
Were her efforts meaningless?
'No!'
What would Super Drill do if it was in her situation?
'Confront. Face to face.'
Asha's mind calmed down.
It wasn't time to fall into despair.
'I need a plan.'
Asha began to organize all the information she had about Connie.
Connie was a supporting character directly related to Steven.
In the future, she would become Steven's romantic pair.
After defining her character Asha tried to organize all the main events related to her.
'It's confusing...'
Asha felt the memories of her past life as a human were terrible compared to her time as a gem.
As a gem she could deal with a huge amount of data and her memories were as clear as a 4K video.
However, her human memories seemed like a corrupted disk with image quality lower than 240p.
The contrast was even more clear thanks to her gem's memories.
She was able to remember just some key events.
In the early stages, Connie met Steven on the beach and they fought against a maritime monster.
Connie developed a close relationship with Lion. There was an episode where she fought a robot while riding Lion...
She almost got killed by Lapis Lazuli after trying to steal all the water of the planet.
And she crossed the space as Stevonie and faced the Diamonds while Steven almost died.
'Is it already fucked? Why are there so many death flags?!'
When she stared at Connie, she seemed like an introverted and shy girl.
Her mind was betrayed by her appearance.
The quiet ones are always the most suspicious!
Was she really Priyanka's child? How could such a troublesome child share the same blood as her friend?
'I should avoid her as much as possible.'
In Asha's mind, Connie was no better than a delinquent.
She was directly related to danger.
'What about Doug?'
She remembered Doug had only a few appearances.
There was one episode he was in, which Asha had skipped because it seemed like another boring filler.
"Steven Universe" was filled with fillers, after all.
So Doug wasn't a bad guy, even if he was connected to the original.
'Doug, he was such a good guy. Sorry for being scared of you.'
Asha's opinion of Doug was elevated after comparing him to Connie.
'And Priyanka...'
In the future, Priyanka would analyze Steven and diligently address his mental and physical problems.
As expected of her friend, she was always serious about everything.
Asha felt proud of how her friend was portrayed in the series.
Priyanka also appeared at the beginning in a family reunion with the Crystal Gems.
In that episode, Connie and Steven had tried to run away, causing trouble for her.
'Steven, another troublesome kid.'
The image of Steven couldn't be worse in her mind.
Steven and Connie were the perfect pair of delinquents.
The only episode involving some risk to Priyanka was about a strange patient—a corrupted and fragmented gem.
Steven and Connie had saved Priyanka...
'Tsk.'
Wherever they went, trouble followed.
What the hell was the hospital thinking? Are they dumb?
Entrusting an extremely aggressive patient, with arms all over its body, to a fragile doctor like Priyanka?
'As I thought, this world is stupid and reckless.'
Asha needed to become stronger to protect not only herself but also Priyanka.
That way, she wouldn't need Steven or Connie to protect her.
She could do it herself.
'I need to be stronger.'
Asha didn't plan to fight monsters, but she should be able to protect Priyanka.
If any other threat appeared, she needed to be able to retaliate.
The problem was...
Asha tightened her fists and hit the sofa cushion next to her.
Mug~
'I'm weak.'
With hands and arms like hers, how could she protect Priyanka?
The image of Peridot wearing futuristic gadgets appeared in her mind.
'I want that too...'
Peridot felt jealous of her.
Why didn't she have prosthetics with a thousand utilities as well?
When she was born, she had just a small and stupid body like this.
Not even a single muscle graced her flabby abdomen.
Asha felt insecure about her body for the first time.
At first, she thought she was as cute as her perfect daughter.
But now she was just a bag of bones.
She couldn't even walk on her own.
'Who needs muscles!?'
Asha decided to change her perspective. What century was she in?
Which muscular man could survive an atomic bomb?
Asha had plenty of other virtues.
Connie and Steven relied on punches, shields, and swords.
Because they were dumb.
But she wasn't dumb anymore. She was a Peridot.
She had Appraisal and Transmutation.
Asha imagined a scene where Priyanka would be attacked again.
"Ah~ a monster!"
A monster, covered in arms with strange saliva oozing from its mouth, appeared.
"I will kill you!"
"Oh~ no~!"
Before the monster could touch Priyanka, a figure appeared.
"It's okay."
Bang!
A bullet hit the monster's chest, blood splattering.
"Ah~! I'm dying."
Sitting in a wheelchair was Asha, wearing sunglasses and holding an AK-47.
"Because..."
She pointed her gun at the monster's head and, with her little fingers, fired.
Bang!
The monster fell to the ground pitifully.
Priyanka, sitting on the floor, was now staring at her with eyes full of admiration.
A mysterious window opened in the ceiling, lighting up the corridor.
"I'm here."
Asha said in a calm, badass tone, smoke curling from the barrel of her gun.
"Asha...!"
Priyanka, trembling with fear, hugged her.
Asha just accepted her embrace without saying anything.
"Forget about those children. You can leave the dangerous work to me."
'He... Heheheh.' she laughed, mesmerized by her own thoughts.
Now she had a plan.
She would avoid Connie.
Then, she would regain her senses.
After that, she would become stronger.
And finally, she would defeat the monster that could harm Priyanka.
'It's a hasty plan... but not bad.'
Asha was satisfied with her thoughts.
The idea of running and leaving Priyanka behind never crossed her mind.
'I need more references.'
There were many variables in her plan. What if the monster touched Priyanka first? What if she hesitated to shoot?
Asha focused on the TV in front of her.
Watching just one episode of "Super Drill" had turned her from a coward into a brave person.
'There are 24 more episodes and two other seasons...'
The perfect references were right in front of her.
Author note
I laughed a lot while writing it. My humor sense is so bad lol.
The next chapter is on day 18, sorry for the late release. I'm finishing another demand at the college, hopefully, my small vacation is coming! My other fic was being remade and giving me less stress now. The future is bright...! At least more than now.
Rate, review, and comment <3. Special thank you to Vitor Ribeiro and cryzsalix who reviewed it today. I read your reviews more than five times with a stupid smile heheheh. I love reading long reviews and I received two on the same day!
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