/AN: This used to be two chapters, but I've now decided to combine chapters to make them longer, and help the reading speed. I'm so happy that a lot of you like this story! Over 100 followers! I hope you all continue to enjoy my writing!/

" Go to earth, they said, it'll be EASY, they said."

Peridot grumbled as she walked away from the crash site of her escape pod. The green gem kicked a rock out of her path as she thought about everything that had been happening recently. She couldn't get off world, her communications were down, and she had a pain in her head that wouldn't go away.

" Must have been those gems, or the crash." Of course she could have beaten those stupid Crystal Gems, no problem at all, but she hadn't wanted to damage her ship.

" Not that it matters now…" she thought. She had seen the explosion from a distance and knew her beautiful ship was no more. Peridot kept walking on her path, complaining under her breath the whole time, occasionally lashing out at a piece of garbage or small animal. The gem continued in this fashion until she reached a small roadside stop labeled " Gas station".

" Maybe these primitive creatures have something to stop this headache." She thought, though she highly doubted it. Such archaic technology. It was a wonder they had managed to survive this long. She was about to approach the building until she caught her reflection in one of the vehicles out back. And that was when she saw it. A long, jagged crack, running down her gem. Peridot stared at her reflection in shock for a few seconds.

"What!? My gem!? But...how?!" she exclaimed, half scared, half furious. At least it explained her headache.

" I knew those stupid gems did something horrible to me!"she thought, leaning closer to examine the crack, purposely ignoring the memory of slamming her head on the ships floor to summon her escape pod. She sighed. The crack also explained why most of her tech wasn't working. It didn't look like a very large crack, but it could still get worse if she wasn't careful, so it ruled out trying to work some of her more complex technology. Peridot stalked off, resuming her stream of complaints, leaving a very confused human wondering who had been yelling at their window.

Soon, a small beeping noise alerted her to something working, amazingly enough. A small compass appeared on her visors screen. A tracking signal. It was a start, even if it was small, and she started moving in the direction it was going.

After a few hours of walking, Peridot saw the sign for Beach City, where her tracking device was pointing her.

" I guess it was worth it to put that thing on the prisoner. " she thought. The signal was leading her straight to Lapis Lazuli, and Peridot knew that Jasper wouldn't let the traitor gem out of her sight, if they had both survived the crash. Peridot slowed down a little. She hadn't thought of that before. She had been planning around the assumption that the other Homeworld gems had survived the crash. If they hadn't, then... well, she preferred not to think about that.

Peridot soon reached the edges of the town. It was still early morning, but she wasn't going to risk being seen, and stayed in the shadows. Humans were soon walking around, moving to and from various buildings, none of which really interested her. There was an odd one that had some sort of large food item on top of it, but she looked away quickly, reminding herself that her only concern was finding the others and finishing her mission. She soon left the area of the buildings and found herself walking on sand. Suddenly, the tracking device let out a high pitched whine. Peridot winced, wondering if she was ever going to get rid of her headache, and checked the device. The signal was still there, but was very distorted, causing Peridots visor to glitch.

" Stupid broken piece of junk.." she thought. Getting angry wasn't going to help, but it felt good to be able to blame her problems on something that wasn't herself. However, it soon became apparent that it wasn't just the visor that was glitching, but Peridots own vision. The horizon started to fade, the ocean changing color every split second, with flashes of black interrupting it all.

" What's happening to me!?" she thought frantically. The glitches were soon joined by distorted voices and static.

" No...don't.. please..remember..no...please...NO!

Peridot flinched. The noises and interference had stopped quickly enough, but it was still enough to worry her. She shook her head and tried to focus on her mission, continuing on the beach, not noticing the crack on her gem growing a little wider. The tracking signal was at its strongest. Peridot looked up to find herself facing the ocean. She scanned the area, searching for the others, but to no avail.

" Well, this is just my lucky day, isn't it!? " she exclaimed loudly, temporarily forgetting about stealth. " First I crash on this stupid planet, then I can't contact Homeworld, and to top it all off, my gem is broken!"

This alone may have given her location away, but it paled in comparison to what happened next, like a breeze next to a hurricane. There was something in the ocean, and it was moving towards the shore, fast. Peridot realized she should probably move, but the tracker signal was the loudest she had ever heard it, and so she stood in shock at the approaching wave.

" That can't be..." she thought, but didn't get any farther before a massive thing emerged from the ocean. It let out a huge roar, flexing its limbs, opening its four large eyes to stare at its surroundings. Peridot looked up at the enormous fusion, standing in shock, wondering if this was another glitch from her visor. But it was real. She had only heard about this fusion before, listened to prisoners tales about its power, not wanting to believe it. It was a Malachite.

She had heard of these fusions before. Lapis Lazulis and Jaspers made extremely powerful fusions. However, the fusion was often unstable because of the physical differences, even if the personalities matched up. And this Malachite looked no different. The massive creature in front of her had finally noticed she was standing in front of it. Malachite leaned towards the smaller gem.

" What are you waiting for?! Get me out of here! No! Don't! Please! She - SILENCE traitor! " Malachite seemed to be arguing with herself. Peridot could still tell the voices apart, even if they were fused together, and sighed.

" What did Jasper do now?" she thought as Malachite continued to argue. This day was not going her way.

" Just my luck.." she muttered, thinking of a way to free her employer.