After a long journey and an even longer battle, Earth is safe. The Diamonds have turned over a new leaf, all of the Corrupted Gems have been healed, and the future is looking brighter than ever.
Under the light of the stars, next to the roar of the campfire, Steven's music echoing through the beach, Peridot finds herself nodding off to sleep...
Only to be woken up by Yellow Diamond's Pearl, on Homeworld, four thousand and five hundred years from where she just was.
The Peridot Effect
by Peridawesome is a Steven Universe Peggy Sue fanfic where the events of the series are all a vision of Peridot's. She shortly decides after a period of shock that she can't just sit and let things happen as they did when she has the potential to change it and sets off for Earth.
Was shortly followed by a sequel work, A Whole New Universe, an adaption of Steven Universe itself with the changes Peridot made to the timeline.
Note: due to the nature of the fic, all spoilers for Steven Universe and certain spoilers for Steven Universe: The Movie are unmarked. You have been warned.
This fanfic provides examples of:
- Adaptational Angst Upgrade: Inverted; one of Peridot's main goals is preventing or diluting a good chunk of the trauma the characters go through before and during the series.
- Peridot frees Lapis from the mirror the moment she finds her, then takes her to get her gem healed. As a result, Lapis only spends a few hundred years in the mirror instead of a few thousand, significantly decreasing her issues regarding it and giving her much more time to heal. In addition, getting pulled out upon being found means Pearl never finds the mirror and stows it away, so Lapis has little resentment towards the Crystal Gems beyond indirectly putting her in there and is much more willing to join them from the get-go.
- Peridot convinces Rose to unbubble Bismuth, and after some slight emotional trouble, she and Rose are able to sort of reconcile.
- After pressing Rose Quartz regarding any other mistakes she's made, she gets her to save Spinel and avoid having her be abandoned for too much longer.
- Dead Man Writing: Rose leaves a videotape behind for the Crystal Gems to watch after she gives up her psychical form, revealing herself as Pink Diamond and giving each of them a final apology and/or piece of advice:
- For Garnet, she reaffirms that while she certainly encouraged Ruby and Sapphire's relationship, staying fused as Garnet was and has always been their decision, not hers.
- For Amethyst,
- For Pearl,
- For Bismuth,
- For Lapis,
- For Spinel,
- For Peridot,
- Fix Fic:
- In Spite of a Nail: The Crystal Temple is still created in Obsidian's image, though here it's because because Bismuth is so inspired by her fighting the Corrupted Kraken and saving William Dewey that she personally builds it to symbolize them as a whole.
- Peggy Sue: The fic's premise is that Peridot is sent into the past after the events of "Change Your Mind". Played With in that the time Peridot left was great, and she didn't want to leave in the first place, but takes the opportunity to mess with things now that she's here anyway.
- Pet the Dog: Despite being smug to the Gems below her and initially chastising Peridot for sleeping on the job, Yellow Pearl seems genuinely concerned when Peridot randomly (from her perspective) starts crying.
- Relationship Upgrade:
- Secret-Keeper: Peridot becomes a retroactive keeper for Rose being Pink Diamond due to already learning about it in her timeline.
- Sequel Hook: The final chapter fast-forwards through Nora's childhood and teases a look into her life during the events of the show.
- Starting a New Life:
- Time-Compression Montage: The final chapter shows the progression of Nora's life from a baby to a twelve year old, highlighting certain events like her trying to say the Gems' names and the parade where she sees Connie for the first time.
- Video Wills: Rose leaves a video tape behind for the Gems to watch after she gives up her psychical form, revealing herself as Pink Diamond and giving each of them a final apology and/or piece of advice.
- Written by the Winners: As they were the only ones not around, Spinel and Amethyst get their accounts of the war from the Crystal Gems, who heavily skew it to portray Pink Diamond as an evil, merciless tyrant who had to be shattered to keep the Earth safe. Spinel isn't sure how to feel about it since she knows Pink can be kind, but she did also intentionally leave her in their garden for a thousand years.
