Chapter Text
Author's Note: Hey again! Welcome to the final chapter of Danger Watch! I'm getting a little emotional as I type that sentence. It's been a long road, but we finally made it to the capstone event of Phase 1! I hope you enjoy the chapter, and be sure to stick around! As always, we'll have an Epilogue and some Post-Credits scenes right around the corner!
Chapter Nineteen - Let's Do It Together
As the drill burrowed deeper and deeper into the Earth, and further and further from the clamor of the battle above, the cockpit grew quiet. Steven and Peridot sat in somber silence, their faces illuminated only by the idle lights of the dashboard.
Peridot, while laser focused on the task at hand, glanced sideways towards Steven. He had been reluctant to leave his friends behind, and hadn't said a word since he got into the drill with her. She pursed her lips.
"Steven," she said.
The half-gem winced, and gripped the bridge of his nose with two fingers.
"Not so loud," he said. "I'm right here."
Peridot raised an eyebrow.
"Are you… OK? I was fairly certain I spoke at a reasonable volume."
Steven winced again. His head was suddenly racked with pain, as if something was burrowing its way through the front of his skull. He grabbed at his face with both hands.
"Steven?!" Peridot said frantically. "Is it Vilgax? Is he in your head?"
Steven shook his head. That wasn't it. He had felt Vilgax's psionic power before. His was like a snaking tendril, skulking at the edges of your thoughts until you let your guard down. This pain was like nothing Steven had felt. It was like a thousand voices were reaching at his subconscious and trying to scream in his ear.
"I… Can't…" He groaned. Then, the boy passed out, his head lolling back against his seat.
"Steven!" Peridot exclaimed. "Your fleshy body stopped moving! Please tell me you aren't dead!"
Steven groaned slightly and rolled over in his sleep, mumbling something unintelligible. Peridot blinked.
"I'm gonna hope that means yes."
As he dropped out of the air and landed behind a large stalagmite, Jake took a precious second to catch his breath. The moment didn't last, however, as the young dragon heard a sound that had grown all too familiar in the last minute. A humming sound, like a powerful electrical current. That sound sent chills up Jake's spine, and he knew he had to move. Without thinking, he bounded out from behind the rock on all fours. Just as the tip of his lengthy tail left his cover, the stalagmite exploded. One moment it was there, a 10 foot pillar of stone, and the next, smoldering rubble had taken its place. To avoid a similar fate, Jake took to the air with a barrel role, and from that vantage point it was easier for him to keep tabs on the source of the explosions.
Vilgax, in his huge new form, was now on the move. Like a tentacled blimp, the floating alien was hovering after the team. Jake, Jenny, Ben, and Bismuth, meanwhile, were trying not to get flattened. It had became something of a mad chase, with the fearsome foursome running from cover to cover, zigging and zagging and trying to avoid Vilgax's new form. He lashed out with monstrous tentacles and fired blast after blast of red energy from his face.
The entire time, his gaze was dead set on Ben. The boy had transformed into Heatblast, the pyronite that he had become when he had first encountered the Omnitrix. Using small blasts of heat and flame from his hands, he was gliding and hopping around in the cavern, trying to keep out of reach. Whenever he got a chance, and Vilgax was distracted by one of his other companions, Ben would stop on a ledge and hurl fireballs at him. The globs of flaming magma seemed to do little more than singe and annoy Vilgax, but at least they weren't doing nothing.
"So, who's got a plan?" Ben shouted out, as Bismuth was hurled past him. She collided with the cave wall, leaving a craterous imprint. "No plan?"
A streak of white light rocketed past him, heading straight towards Vilgax. Jenny snaked and weaved her way through the forest of writhing tentacles that shot up to deflect her path. With impossible acute flying, she managed to just squeeze through the interlocking appendages, and came flying out the other side. The pummeled her chrome-white fists into the creature's face as hard as she could, as fast as she could.
While at first he flinched, eventually, Vilgax's enormous face split into a grin, as he realized that, even with all of her significant might, the XJ-9's attacks could barely harm him.
Silly machine.
Jenny snarled as the words jabbed at her like psychic knives. As she hovered directly in front of his face, continuing her assault, Vilgax hummed thoughtfully. Like he had sensed something strange. The horror had remembered something from a previous battle that had given him pause.
You are mechanical… but, you are affected by my psychic power? How can that be...
Jenny stopped mid-punch, confused. Vilgax, ever the schemer, snapped his gaze on her. That momentary lapse in her guard was all that it took for the XJ-9 to become hopelessly entangled in green tentacles.
"We gotta get in there!" Bismuth shouted, as she and Ben observed the interaction from a stone outcropping above. Then, she charged off of the side of the ledge, and as she jumped off she shouted. "Yo! Am-Drag Airlines!"
She had hardly finished the sentence as Jake swooped in below her. With his mighty 12 foot wingspan, he was able to bear her aloft with his red bat's wings. However, he was not nearly as agile as he was with no passenger.
"Dang," Jake grunted. "What's your carry-on? A suitcase full of rocks?"
"I'm a Bismuth, D-Train," the grey gem said, using another one of Jake's self-appointed nicknames. "We're built dense! Now shut up. You see that down there?"
Jake tore his gaze reluctantly away from the imprisoned XJ-9 and to the floor of the cavern. He scanned the ground, searching for anything. Then, he saw it. With his keen draconic eyes, he picked up a spiders web of fractures on the cave floor. At several points across the web, there were crater-like impacts. Jake blinked incredulously.
"The floor-" he started to say. He glanced back at Bismuth, who was wiping her nose with pride. "You mean, that every time you got blasted back you were-?"
"Yup!" Bismuth blustered. "Absolutely intentional, every one! Now, I've got an eye for integrity, and that thing looks like its gonna give way. I slammed into the ground enough times to know that tis hollow down there. Hot too."
It dawned on Jake.
"Got it," he said simply.
Meanwhile, Vilgax had once again locked onto Ben. Just as Bismuth dove off of the ledge, Ben turned to see that the blood red eyes of the floating monster were locked onto him. As their gazes met, Ben gulped. Then, Vilgax's pupils began to glow like crimson floodlights.
"Oh, shhhhocksquatch," Ben almost swore, bolting to the edge of the ledge and gliding off just as a red laser beam exploded the area into rubble. He nearly got squashed by falling rocks. He dodged a few boulders, but then another, larger piece of the cave ceiling came flying down on top of him. Reacting on the instincts of the alien, Ben's hands thrust forward, and a torrent of molten lava came blasting out of his palms, melting a circular hole in the debris, leaving Ben unharmed as he slipped through.
As Ben hit the ground, he stumbled into a roll and then a knee. The looming Vilgax began to glide across the cave, closer to him. Then, there was a fwoosh as Jake and Bismuth dropped beside him.
"Hey," Jake said. "We got a plan."
"Oh, now we have a plan," Heatblast-Ben snarked.
Jake rolled his reptilian eyes. Then, he and Bismuth caught him up on their idea. While Ben thought it sounded risky, ultimately he agreed that it would work.
"OK." he said. "Yeah. I mean, we're all immune to fire, right?"
"For now," Jake said, crossing his arms and looking seriously at the green hourglass in Ben's chest. "We have to move fast. We're on borrowed time."
They all turned to Vilgax, who was charging up another laser blast. In that moment, they all found themselves missing Steven's shield.
Steven was floating in darkness. As he blinked his eyes open, he realized, subconsciously, that he was using his mother's dreaming power again. He was alone, in darkness. However, the hair-raising sensation on the back of his neck told him that he wasn't really alone. As soon as Steven acknowledged the tension, the silence snapped. All at once, a thousand voices spoke in near unison. The sound was deafening, and the sheer force of volume made Steven nauseous. The darkness was suddenly showered in a twinkling, blinding light. The voices weren't saying anything in English, but Steven somehow knew that they had all chanted one thing.
FREEDOM.
Then, as soon as the voices arrived, they faded back into silence, and the lights into darkness, leaving Steven's head ringing and seeing dots when he blinked. The air was once again filled with quiet tension, and Steven floated, mortified.
"Wh-what?" He stammered.
FREEDOM!
"Ah!" Steven flinched, throwing up his arms to shield himself from the onslaught of light and sound. "Freedom? Who are you? Where are you?"
To Steven's surprise, there was only silence. Neither question was answered. The tension was so thick you could cut it with a knife. Steven could tell that whatever these thousand voices were, they weren't sure how to answer.
"I wanna help, just-" Steven said, scared to tip off the fragile chorus. "We gotta calm down, OK?"
There was silence, and then-
FREEDOM!
Steven was blasted awake by the chorus, now chanting at an even more frenzied pitch. He gasped and blinked, much to Peridot's surprise. The green gem glanced over from the viewport to look at Steven, sweating and panting in the passenger seat.
"Woah! Steven, what happened?" She asked.
The half-gem frowned. He wasn't entirely sure what had happened himself. However, something about the encounter weighed heavy in his gut. Whoever those thousand voices were, they were trapped somewhere, and sounded like they were in pain. Steven wanted to help. But, where could it be? What could it be?
The answer hit Steven like a truck.
"The Cluster?!" Steven exclaimed in disbelief. "I was… talking to the Cluster?"
The red beam narrowly missed Jake, and he felt an electrical tingling run down his scales. He dodged, and the blast collided with the roof of the cavern above him. The stones rumbled and stalactites came crashing down. Jake grit his teeth in determination. His was a tricky task, drawing Vilgax's fire, but he was up for it. To keep the monster's attention, Jake spat a globule of flame his direction, which was swatted down easily. Then, the dragon stuck his tongue out and blew a raspberry.
Juvenile!
Another blast, much to Jake's satisfaction, shook the cave roof, weakening its integrity. There was a bright light on the other end of the cave, then, as Ben shot a beam of magma at Vilgax's underside. He and Bismuth stood on the ground, shooting and swinging at any dangling tentacles they could reach.
Vilgax was growing frustrated.
Your tactics are cowardly, and irritating.
A wave of tentacles shot up to the ceiling, and snatched Jake out of the air. The dragon yelped as he was entangled. The earth rumbled. The stones of the cave, now shaken loose by the heated battle, began to rattle around like the beans in a beanbag. More tentacles grabbed Bismuth, and yanked her up and away.
Did you think you would survive? Children?
Ben watched in horror as Vilgax loomed over him, clutching his allies in his tentacles, his glowing red eyes boring down on the transformed boy. Stones fell around the floating alien octopus, creating a horrific painting of Ben's demise. He looked from Jake, to Bismuth, to Jenny. They were all trying their hardest to break free of Vilgax's grip, but the monster's power was impossible.
Give me the Omnitrix!
The voice pounded in Ben's skull. He grit his teeth in pain. He looked up at the ceiling; the stones there were nearly giving way. Then, he glanced down at the floor, which he could feel was crumbling beneath his feet. Ben was getting tired. The pyronite in him knew that he was running on fumes. However, he could also feel the heat on his soles. Something about it electrified his senses. He was drawn to it.
GIVE IT TO ME!
Viglax's psionic pulse brought Ben to a kneel. The titanic alien was now looming only a dozen feet above him, leering down with his parade-balloon-sized eyes. Ben panted, fighting against the growing intensity of Vilgax's gaze.
"No way," Ben said, looking up defiantly. "Eat my shorts, you overgrown cephalopod!"
Vilgax sneered.
Then perish.
sssssSHZHEEEER!
A powerful red beam came streaming out of Vilgax's face, slamming into Ben and the stone he was kneeling on. In a burst of red light, Ben vanished, smashed clean through the floor, through layers of stone. He simply disappeared.
"Ben! No!" Jenny shouted.
Vilgax's laugh echoed in each of their heads, causing fear and dismay to course through them. However, as Jenny looked frantically to her companions, she locked onto Jake's determined yellow eyes. He was still staring at the steaming hole that Ben had just dropped through. It was giving off a warm orange glow. Jake looked like he was waiting for something.
Stupid terran child… I suppose I don't need the Omnitrix after all. Clearly, this world is ripe for the taking. Your power is nothing, NOTHING, compared to the almighty strength of Vilga-
Viglax's villain speech was interrupted when the floor erupted like a volcano.
One moment, the cavern was rumbling, growing in intensity. Then, a glowing red center appeared in the floor, and then finally, the entire bottom of the cave exploded. Magma came streaming up in a cylindrical geyser, blasting directly upwards, and hitting Vilgax's exposed underside. The alien monster shrieked, showing true pain for the first time. His grip instantly loosened, and Jake and Jenny flew free. Jake also went over to free Bismuth.
GH-AHH!
The lava torrent continued to erupt upwards, burning and melting and singing. As they observed, the other members of the team saw the source of the magma. A small, glowing center at the bottom of the geyser. The silhouette of an alien made of fire.
Ben.
Beneath the cavern was a massive deposit of magma, a bubbling pool of natural lava, a result of being so deep in the Earth's crust. Bismuth, with her uncanny sense for the stuff, had known. She had told them her plan. Vilgax had clearly shown a vulnerability to heat, and flame. If they could get him into the lava pit, they might be able to take him out. The main problem, they had figured, was the fact that the monster could float.
That didn't prove to be an issue.
Ben had fallen through the floor, and landed in a pool of liquid fire. To his surprise, instead of hurting, it felt… Good. Right. It energized him, revitalized him, newfound strength surging through his molten veins. The heat of the Earth, the burning, smoldering power of true magma. It gave Ben a sudden boost of power. An explosive, if temporary, boost. So, he had come roaring back up, his flaming hands like jet boosters, before using all of his might to send a gigantic stream of liquid flame up at Vilgax.
If that hadn't been enough, what happened next surely did the trick.
As he recoiled from the burning assault, Vilgax tried to float upwards, but soon realized that he had nowhere to go. The ground was still trembling violently, and as Vilgax looked upwards, seeking some kind of salvation, instead, he came face to face with his demise. First, a massive stalactite collided with one of his eyes, puncturing it and causing him to shriek once more. Then, the entire load gave way, the stones and earth he had loosened with his own attacks now collapsing down on top of him. Gravity took hold, and the avalanche brought Vilgax down with it. Down, down, into the glowing pit of lava.
As he went, Vilgax let out one final, angered cry.
TENNYSOOOOOOON!
Then, the rubble collapsed, filling up the hole, and crushing Vilgax out of sight. For just a moment, the teens and Bismuth breathed a sigh of relief. The terrifying psychic aura that Vilgax exuded diminished, and then seemed to fade altogether. He was defeated. This time, it seemed, for real.
However, they weren't out of the fire yet. The tremor hadn't stopped, and after such commotion, the entire cavern was in danger of caving in on itself, and crushing the remaining heroes inside of it. Jake knew this instantly, as did Bismuth.
"We can't stay!" Jake said, as a boulder shattered beside them. "We have to go back up the tunnel!"
"What about Steven?" Ben asked. Then, there was a low droning noise, and his chest began to blink red. "Uh oh."
"We're just going to have to trust him. We can't do anything for him if we're dead!" Bismuth said.
Bismuth's words sobered them up, and without further discussion, they all made a break for the tunnel that the drill had dug out. The tunnel that led to the surface. As they went, it was clear that they were too slow, so Jenny and Jake picked up Bismuth and Ben respectively, and the quartet swiftly flew their way back up the tunnel, rocketing through the entrance just as the cavern collapsed behind them.
The quake's intensity subsided as they reached its epicenter. Peridot brought the drill to a halt. They had found the Cluster.
Steven and Peridot were now sitting in the cabin of the drill, looking down in sheer awe at the size of the thing. It made football fields look like front lawns. An indescribably huge cluster (for it could be nothing else) of gem shards. Peridot looked like she could vomit. Eventually, she couldn't take it any more.
"What are you gonna do?" She asked.
Steven swallowed hard. Peridot groaned.
"You aren't going to try to talk to it like you did with me, are you?"
Steven looked guilty.
"Maybe."
"That won't work!" Peridot said.
"I know, I know," Steven said. He glanced down again at the Cluster. He could feel an aura radiating from it. He could sense the thousands of broken minds, tangled and confused. They wanted only one thing.
Dust fell from the roof of this strangely serene cavern. The only indication that a massive earthquake was occurring above. At the same time, the faint glow that the Cluster was fiving off intensified for a moment, and the ball of gem shards lurched as if it were swelling up with an air pocket. Then, the moment passed, and the Cluster quelled. That had been too close.
They were running out of time.
"If I were a Diamond," Steven said, and as Peridot's face became wary, he interjected: "and I know I'm not, but if I were. What would I have to do to stop the Cluster?"
Peridot looked at him, like she wasn't sure if she was supposed to play along or tell him the truth. She decided on the latter.
"If you were a Diamond," she said, pulling her knees up to her chin, "you would just know. Face it, Steven… We're out of time. I'm going to die a traitor."
Steven clutched a fist, and swiped at the tears forming in his eyes.
"N-no way!" He said. "I gotta do something… I gotta try! We've come so far!"
Peridot shook her head.
"It's hopeless… Your determination is admirable, but ultimately we're doomed to shatter here. It's the will of the Diamonds."
"Forget the will of the Diamonds!"
Peridot looked to Steven in surprise. There was a fire burning in the half-gem's eyes. He was radiating an aura of defiance, a vaguely pink flame that must have been a trick of the light, refracting off of the glistening cluster and through the viewport. Something in the way Steven looked sent chills up Peridot's spine, filling her with a strange mix of hope and fear.
"I'm gonna talk to the Cluster."
Steven opened the door of the drill, and Peridot made no swift move to stop him. In one movement, he was outside of the cab, and using his gravitational powers to float gingerly towards the colossal mass of gem shards. There was a ringing in Steven's ears, and as he got closer it started to feel more like a roaring. He recognized the noise as the wordless cries of the prototypes that were part of the Cluster. He couldn't hold back the tears anymore.
"Cluster…" Steven said. "All of you, I- I know you're hurting. I'm sorry… I'm sorry the Diamonds did this to you. I'm sorry you're scared, and confused."
Steven felt the faint hum beneath him swell up, and for a split second the cavern around him was replaced with images of thousands of floating balls of light, screaming and trembling. Steven clutched his head.
"I know you want to get out!" Steven said. "But… that's going to hurt a lot of people, kill a lot of people… I can't let you do that."
There was some kind of authority that seeped into Steven's voice with the final sentence. Peridot felt that same shiver again. She watched as Steven looked down at his hands.
"I don't have the power to heal, and my other powers are only just awakening," the half-gem said. "I'm not strong enough, or smart enough, to help you now."
The Cluster began to glow brightly again, and Steven wobbled as it became amorphous beneath him. It was trying once again to form. Steven nearly stumbled, but held his ground, a firm determination having stirred inside of him.
"I'm sorry… but you know it. I can sense it within you… Even if you form, and climb to freedom… You'll only be in pain."
The glowing glob's movements became even more erratic, and Steven had to take to the air, hovering just above the Cluster while he continued his desperate plea to reason.
"There's only one thing I can do for you, right now. It's the best I've got… and I'm going to need your help! Please… If you help me, then I promise, I won't stop until I learn what it takes to bring you back. All of you!"
The cave was now cascading with dust, and Steven could clearly hear the individual wails of each shard in the Cluster. The white, shifting form of the enormous super-weapon nearly permeated the walls of the chamber now. Tears were streaming down his cheeks, and fire was raging in his eyes. He held out his hands towards the Cluster, and shouted out in fear, pain, and hope.
"I'm gonna help you! I just need your help first! Please… Let's do it together!"
SHHHHHHHHHEEEERONG!
Suddenly, there was a sound like sealing air, and then, the cavern fell silent. Steven, at the last second, had shielded his eyes, as the Cluster grew too bright to withstand. Now, he blinked, his eyesight adjusting to the now much dimmer cavern. The area was now lit with a faint, pearlescent glow. The glow, which Steven and Peridot gasped upon realizing, was coming from a massive, pinkish orb in the center of the cavern. Gentle sparkles drifted off of tis surface, and beneath it could be seen hundreds of broken gem shards.
The Cluster was in a bubble.
The two aliens stared in awe for a few long moments of silence. Then, Peridot quickly glanced down at the dashboard of the drill. On her seismic readout, she saw that the quakes had subsided. In utter disbelief, she swung her door open, leaning out and shouting down to Steven.
"Hey! Steven, how'd you DO that?"
To her surprise, when Steven turned around, his face was contorted into a rather ugly laugh-cry. He sniffled back snot and wiped at gooey tears. Peridot wrinkled her nose. Steven laughed and sobbed.
"It wasn't me," was all that he said.
"It wasn't me."