Quartet Of Misery {A Steven Universe reader insert}

You rose up from the ground you had been laying upon, scared, sad and seemingly ill. You didn't know exactly how long you had been there, but after the things you had seen, you didn't care anymore. You just wanted to go home. You all did. And with that, you slowly stood up, and walked out of the empty throne room. As you wandered into the hall you came from, you wondered how this all happened. And when you stumbled into the the room with the other hallways, you were happy you could get out of this place, yet Azurite stopped you.

The last hall. We have not seen the contents of the last hall.

You tried to tell her you'd come back later, that you were to tired, and many other reasons not to do so, yet she was persistent. Not having any power left on your own, you let her take control, and you felt your body walk into the last hall. It became pretty easy to see what was in it, when you saw the bars on both sides of the long hallway, each of them either broken or containing a horribly mangled human corpse. You were about to ask Tourmaline and Jade to convince Azurite to leave, until you finally found someone. Or rather, some gem.

A single ruby from the Peridot's squad was sitting in one of the smallest cells, hiding her head in her knees. She wasn't weeping, yet she looked like she had abandoned all hope. She slowly looked up, eyes empty and devoid of any emotion, as she just stared for what seemed to be an eternity, before she finally opened her mouth and spoke, her voice sounding dry and broken.

"Are you here to kill me?.......could you.....make it quick? I don't....want to feel the crush. I'm a bit scared."

You immediately felt sorry for the little gem, and you opened the door for her. She walked out, head hung low before kneeling at your feet and holding out her hands, exposing her gem.

"Please....please make it quick."

You knew you weren't the best at this stuff, (who is, really?) Yet you knew one thing. This gem needed a hug, and you gave her one. After the surprise and wonder why you were touching her like that, she concluded it was nice, and with a small flicker of hope, you could see small traces of emotions return to the Ruby as she accepted the hug gratefully, and didn't let go for about a minute or two. After that, it was quite obvious she was feeling better, though you could see the confusion on her face.

Hey, don't worry! We're here to save you! We're the good guys! Well....the earths good guys at least.

Oh, get on with it!

After halting them to prevent a future headache, you sat down, before giving a very short explanation on who you were and why you were there while the Ruby listened carefully, before sitting down as well.

So now you got ours, what's your story?!

Tourmaline, that's rude!

Come on, we all wanna know it! You guys know you do...

The Ruby sat up, before nodding to you respectfully.

"I don't mind. I shall tell you the tale of what happened here. After our first mission with our commander, our sensors detected something strange. It seemed to be a sort of primitive information bank, wich we quickly gave trough to our commander, who started studying it immediately, thinking she might find a better way to dispose of earth. To give her the time to do so, we landed in a small northern area filled with what earthlings call "snow". Yet somehow, the data...it slowly made our commander go insane. She found these recorded messages of human bonding, called "romance". It seemed like an innocent thing to help pass the time at first, yet then....it slowly started to take over her life. Every second of every earth cycle she watched and watched, and made pointless red shapes, and diagrams of you, wich she would stare at for cycles at a time. We of course were worried, and tried to contact homeworld. We failed in our mission however, as she stopped us with force. Two of our squad tried to protect the others, yet...." the Ruby gained a small look of horror on her face,remebering the horrid things done to them, before going on.

"After that, she started speaking to herself. Things about how her magnum opus couldn't deny her if she gave them the world. And with that, and me and three others, she left for this town. When she came here, she made me and my three comrades dig this place out in secret, after wich she lured in any lone humans she found. She took shards from monsters we found in the "snow" place, and placed them into them, using them to kill the others. Kill any human that had a companion and bring the lone ones here. "Only she could know love" she said. Yet after a while, gem supplies got short. And then she took them....took my friends....and now i am alone....alone....alone..."

Her head slumped back down as she repeated those words as if it were a mantra, not even reacting when you got closer. It seemed the trauma of losing her life-long comrades had finally sunk in. You couldn't just let her stay there, however. So you slowly and softly picked her up and placed her on your back, keeping her from falling off as you finally left the cave. It was finally time to go home. Your mouth curved slightly up as you imagined Garnets reaction to the Ruby, as you left the underground lair, going back into the ruined, dead city.

Heya pals, Ghostly here! Now, ehm, i got some bad news. Namely, i'll be leaving on a week-long vacation, and i don't know if i will have internet or not. So, if nothing appears for a while, iiiiit's probably that. Apart from that, thank you for the support as per usual, and i hope to see you next time!