Centipeetle Mother

* Corrupted
* Small
* Semi-Corrupted
* Uncorrupted

Crystal Gems (Ally)

The **Centipeetle Mother**, also known as the **Centipeetle** or just **Centi**, is a Corrupted Gem that debuted in "Gem Glow". Before her Corruption, she was the captain of a squadron that was sent to Earth 5,750 years ago in a ship to colonize Earth, and later was trapped on Earth during The Rebellion. She has been uncorrupted in "Change your Mind".

**BlueWhiteLight** has created a uncorrupted version of her called Nephrite

## Appearance

### Corrupted

The Centipeetle Mother's Corrupted form is that of a giant centipede-like creature. She is composed of roughly thirteen (visible) dark-green segments (excluding the head and the rear) that each bear one pair of similarly colored legs. The final segment bears no legs, but what appears to be a pair of mandibles. Each of these segments is covered on the top side with a hard crystal covering. Her head is composed primarily of a gigantic pair of jaws/mandibles with a gem in the back of the "mouth". This gem is circular in shape and colored light green with dark-green contour lines surrounding the circumference of the gem, connecting to a circular shape. Her gem seems to act as her iris, being in the middle of what would rationally be a sclera. It also features a green crystal protuberance on the base of the head that forms a broken horn-like structure. She has a flowing, light-cream colored mane immediately behind her head.

### Monster Buddies

After being released from the bubble in "Monster Buddies" and regenerating, she appears in an all-around reduced form. Her body is reduced to only two segments, and her mane, head, and secondary mandibles have been reduced in size as well probably indicating that she has to grow over time. This can be seen as the Centipeetle Mother grows throughout the episode. Her gem now comprises the entirety of her whole eyeball instead of just the iris, and the gem on her head is now gone.

### Semi-Corrupted

While her mind is still damaged by the Diamonds, her form takes on a more humanoid appearance thanks to Steven's healing. Her body appears more humanoid, and her head is slightly different than her fully corrupted form, her eye is no longer inside of her mouth. She also has what appears to be a sort of pincer on her rear. She wore torn-up light gray clothing, and what appears to be a bodysuit similar to Pearl's in "Space Race".

### Uncorrupted

With the combined efforts of Yellow Diamond, Blue Diamond, and Steven, Nephrite was uncorrupted temporarily. The bodysuit she wears is almost identical to the one she wears in her semi-corrupted form, now with a Pink Diamond insignia on the center of her chest. Much like her semi-corrupted form, her face is green, and she has plump lips similar to Amethyst's. Additionally, her white hair is significantly reduced, now a flipped out bob cut – tufting both inwards and outwards. Her black-and-green bodysuit now has a light green coat tail, two white tufts of fur on her shoulders and she now wears a black skull cap over her hair. Her boots and gloves are dark brown.

## History

Centipeetle and her squadron were ordered to travel to Earth on an Ancient Gem Colony Ship with the plans of colonizing the planet. Once the Rebellion had begun, Centipeetle and her crew fought in the war, but Centipeetle eventually got split up and was on her own. Centipeetle's commander ordered all the Gems to retreat either through the ships or warp pads, but she had been left behind, unable to escape. She was then corrupted, along with nearly every other Gem that remained on Earth, by a weapon activated by the Diamonds.

### Corruption

In "Gem Glow", Centipeetle attacks the Crystal Temple along with a bunch of little Centipeetles that she summons. Once the infestation appears to be over, Centipeetle returns, and Steven, in order to prove himself worthy, and to protect his loved ones, throws his Cookie Cat refrigerator at Centipeetle, electrocuting her, and Centipeetle is poofed and bubbled.

In "Monster Buddies", Steven accidentally pops Centipeetle's bubble and she transforms into a smaller, less menacing version of herself. When the other Gems come to protect Steven from the apparent threat, Steven defends Centipeetle, and the Gems let him try to train her. Steven eats Chaaaaps, which attracts the Centipeetle, and Centipeetle displays enjoyment for Chaaaaps. When a seagull comes to try and take the chips away, Centipeetle comes to Steven's rescue and attacks it. Later, Garnet explains that Centipeetle could be used on a mission to retrieve the Shooting Star. Traveling through the ice caves, Centipeetle easily uses her corrosive liquid to erode the cave walls and get to the Shooting Star. When the cave is about to collapse, Centipeetle pushes Steven out of the way of a falling icicle and sacrifices herself. She is bubbled once more.

In "Monster Reunion", Steven's healing spit is back and he convinces the Gems to let him try and heal Centipeetle with his power. He does so, but Centipeetle transforms into a semi-corrupt form, gaining humanoid arms and legs but the inability to speak properly. Steven convinces the Gems to let Centipeetle stay, and later, Centipeetle and Steven communicate through art. Centipeetle tells Steven her backstory, and then begins to revert into her corrupted form. Steven tries to heal her again, but to no avail. Centipeetle tries to use the warp pad but cannot, so she reveals to Steven that she wants to go to her ship. Steven takes her there, and on the way, Centipeetle reverts back to her corrupted form completely. Inside the ship are other Centipeetle that look exactly like herself, and it is revealed through Centipeetle's writing (which is in the Gem language) that it was her crew members that were waiting for her to return home. Centipeetle is currently living inside of the ship with her crew.

### Post-Corruption

In "Change Your Mind," Nephrite is one of the first gems Steven and the Diamonds uncorrupt permanently. In her Centipeetle form, she dives after some Chaaaaps that Amethyst throws into Rose's fountain and emerges healed, where she and Steven gleefully greet each other.

## Abilities

The Centipeetle Mother is capable of eating with her mouth despite her eye being located in her jaw and blocking her throat, thus making it so that there is no visible means of having the ingested food reach any sort of stomach.

### Fusions

* When fused with Turquoise, they form Aurichalcite.

### Skillset

* **Piloting**: It was revealed in Monster Reunion that she was a space captain. She shares the ability to pilot Homeworld ships with Peridot, Pearl and Ruby (Doc).

### Unique Abilities

* **Hybrid Arthropod Physiology**: Due to having the appearance of two arthropods, specifically a centipede and a beetle, the Centipeetle Mother has the innate abilities of both organisms.
	+ **Chilopodan Physiology**: Like a centipede, the Mother uses her jaws to attack enemies or prey. Both employ deadly substances in their attacks. The centipede uses venom while the Mother uses a corrosive liquid.
	+ **Coleopteran Physiology**: Like a beetle, the Mother's defenses are increased due to the hard gem-like covering each segment possesses.
	+ **Climbing Skills**: She is able to climb vertical walls and sheer cliff faces.
* **Creature Creation**: The Centipeetle Mother has the ability to produce and command Centipeetles that aid her in battle.
* **Corrosive Liquid Generation**: She can produce an extremely corrosive substance that can easily erode various materials, ranging from wood to stone to ice. She can use this corrosive substance as a projectile to attack from afar or assault enemies with a constant torrent of the substance to easily break down their defenses.
	+ **Rotative Spitting**: In "Monster Buddies", the small Centipeetle Mother is seen to be able to rotate her head many times. She utilized this in that she spun her head rapidly and sprayed her corrosive substance, showering the immediate area in a manner extremely similar to that of a sprinkler.

## Relationships

### Steven Universe

The Centipeetle Mother's only known relationship is being a friend with Steven Universe. As being for the enemy/target of the Crystal Gems, she has been provoked by their attacks. As for Steven, she is fond of him, such as when he gives her Chaaaaps and having fun with him, which has no sort of danger inflicted. When she first reforms as her corrupted, giant form, she frightens Steven. However, seeing this, she changes to her smaller form. Other than that, she seems to be benevolent as a true friend, being that she will protect him by sacrificing herself or spitting acid on threats, like the Seagulls. Though the only real damage and fight was when she forgot about the fun Steven had with her, being that she sprayed acid on him and causing fear and anger that was done on her, in the situation with the lair of the Shooting Star, where her hair was pulled by him, causing this sort of defensive mechanism.

After being healed by Steven, the Centipeetle Mother, at first, does not appear to remember him. However, after Steven opens a bag of Chaaaaps, her memories begin to return and she starts remembering him, and her memories of before she was corrupted. The Centipeetle Mother appears to have been very friendly towards Steven, even after reverting to her fully corrupted form.

Upon being fully healed in Change Your Mind Steven happily greets Nephrite who appears to recognize and remember him upon seeing him again. Later on, she and Steven were conversing with the now-Uncorrupted Watermelon Tourmaline, Snow Monster, and Biggs Jasper when Jasper finally emerged from the healing waters. Some time later, Nephrite and Steven are still talking with one-another as most all of the Corrupted Gems are now cured.

## Trivia

* When the Centipeetle Mother was reforming herself after she escaped from the bubble, she briefly took a humanoid form before taking her latest form.
	+ It was revealed in "Ocean Gem" that the Centipeetle Mother, along with most of the monsters previously fought, used to be humanoid Gems. Unfortunately, the Gems became corrupted, turning them into the monsters they are now.
	+ The Centipeetle Mother is the first corrupted Gem to be shown and the first that Steven defeats. She is also the first to be released from her bubble, be (temporarily) healed and to display some level of higher intelligence.
* Her gemstone bears resemblance to a PokéBall from the popular game series developed by game freak; Exclusively for Nintendo's handheld systems, *Pokémon*.
* Her name is a portmanteau of the words *centipede* and *beetle*.
* When semi-corrupted, her gemstone's design slightly differs than when she is corrupted.
* The Centipeetle Mother serves as the antagonist of the iOS game, Crystal Gem Smash.
* The Centipeetle is the only Corrupted Gem so far to ever reform onscreen.
* As shown in "Monster Reunion", Centipeetle is fluent in the Gem language.
* The Centipeetle's semi-corrupted form bares resemblance to the villain "Zorak" from the Space Ghost metaseries.
* The Centipeetle, although unable to communicate properly through speech, was able to legibly state where her crew was in Gem.

## Gemology

Gemstone Information

Jade is one of the oldest and most important gemstones, with a history dating over 7,000 years. It is especially prized throughout Chinese and Latin American cultures, often holding more value than gold. The term 'jade' was derived from 'Piedra de Ijada', a Spanish phrase meaning 'stone for the pain in the side' because Spanish explorers saw natives of Central America holding pieces of jade to their sides, believing that it could cure ills. The name 'nephrite' was derived from the Greek word for 'kidney', which refers to its supposed ability to cure kidney disease. Nephrite is one of two distinct mineral forms classified as jade (the other is jadeite) and up until 1863, nephrite was believed to be one and the same as jadeite.

Nephrite is a fibrous aggregate variety of tremolite-actinolite, a basic calcium magnesium iron silicate, whereas jadeite is a pyroxene mineral. Nephrite is more common than jadeite and although it is slightly softer than jadeite, it is considered tougher due to its denser structure. Traditional Chinese jade typically refers to nephrite since there are no actual jadeite deposits located in China. Today, green nephrite is considered to be the most valuable nephrite, but translucent, white nephrite was considered the most valuable up until the introduction of fine Burmese 'imperial' jadeite jade during the 18th century.

## References

1. ↑ https://ididthisturquoise.tumblr.com/post/174657674111/curious-what-these-two-would-make-aurichalcite