After about a decade, Lapis returns to Earth, only to find it destroyed. Things don't get much better from there.
Marooned Together is written by E350tb
and can be found here. Canon divergent post-"Can't Go Back."
Tropes present in Marooned Together include
- Brainwashed and Crazy: Chrysalis!Sadie.
- Day of the Jackboot: Commander Lewis and the Human Resistance attempt this. It doesn't work.
- Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: Lapis manages to poof Yellow Diamond herself.
- The End of the World as We Know It: Part of the initial premise of the story is that Earth was destroyed due to the Diamonds forcing the Cluster to emerge.
- Fantastic Racism: Most gems save those on New Earth tend to just not give a damn about organic life forms. And on New Earth, the Human Resistance is still upset about Earth's destruction, and blames all gems, even those on New Earth, for it.
- General Failure: Captain Franks.
- Good Cannot Comprehend Evil: The "Steven" part of Stevonnie just can't understand that the Diamond Authority, despite being sympathetic, might simply be past the point of redemption."Why would anyone do this, Lapis? I mean, everyone says Homeworld is evil, but... it can't just be that! They have to think they're doing the right thing, they can't just... Just things. How do you get to that point, Lapis? Where you don't... you just don't care?"
- Heel–Face Turn: Blue Zircon has turned against Homeworld; so have Jasper and Leggy.
- Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain: The Human Resistance is this, despite technically being on the side of the heroes.
- I See Dead People: Vidalia sees what appears to be Yellowtail's spirit/soul right before she passes on.
- Killed Off for Real: Much of the Beach City cast, including Greg, the Maheswarans, Ronaldo and Mr. Fryman were killed when the Earth was destroyed. Nanefua died at some point in the decade after.
- Eventually, Vidalia and Captain Franks die of natural causes.
- Minimalist Cast: Until Chapter 10, the story focuses almost entirely on Stevonnie and Lapis.
- Moral Event Horizon: Discussed In-Universe by Lapis and Stevonnie in chapter 38.Stevonnie: "Sometimes I just wish I could just teach the Diamonds how to... feel, I guess. Like, the Steven part of me thinks I can, but the Connie part of me thinks I can't. It's sorta confusing. Can I change the Diamonds? If I could, should I? Do I even want to? Do they deserve it?"Lapis: "Well, on one hand, maybe they've gone too far. On the other hand, maybe you can change them... like you changed me, I guess."
- Official Couple: Steven and Connie as permafused Stevonnie, Amethyst and Peridot, Peedee and Jeff, Ruby and Sapphire, and later on Lapis and Stevonnie.
- Put on a Bus: Pearl is conspicuously absent throughout the story, and many characters assume that she's been shattered...Though there's also hints that she might simply be in hiding somewhere.
- Space Pirates: Amethyst, Peridot and Blue Zircon have formed a pirate crew aboard the Crystal Avenger. Lars appears later on, along with his new crewmate, Jasper.
- Tranquil Fury: After Amethyst discovers what the Drone Project is doing.It's murder, Amethyst thought. She struggled to come up with a reply, tempted to shatter this Peridot, this unfeeling parody of a gem, where she stood, the sickness within her drowned by a quiet rage.
- Unwilling Robotization: The ultimate aim of Project Chrysalis.
