Peridot felt the last lingering pressure of atmosphere disappear as they gently moved away from Homeworld. A slight spark of excitement started to grow somewhere inside as the engines throttled up at a flex of a mental muscle. This was the first time Peridot had travelled off planet, in person that is, they had taken a thousand voyages to far flung outposts through virtual presence but this was different. The fingers of the ship clenched slightly as the gem pushed that feeling down, focusing instead on setting their heading for Earth.

At the rear of the ship Jasper and Lapis Lazuli stood staring out the viewing portal at the rapidly diminishing planet behind them.
Jasper stood in a stiff salute, a disparaging look on their face as they glanced at Lapis Lazuli, the smaller gem was pressed up against the window staring out desperately. A small squeak escaped Lapis Lazulis lips, their fingers scratching slightly at the window as the planet disappeared completely.

Jasper laughed loudly, moving to stand at ease "What's wrong? Afraid you won't be able to fly home this time?" Lapis' fingers clenched into fists as they slid to their knees "you wouldn't understand" their voice caught sharply "I keep losing -" "That's right" Jasper interrupted "I wouldn't". Jasper leaned down to whisper in Lapis' ear "Because I'm not weak".

Jaspers laughs trailed off as they marched away, leaving Lapis slumped in defeat, whispering softly to themselves "I am weak. I'm sorry Steven, I tried not to tell them but… I'm just weak"

Peridot was suddenly jerked out of resonance with the ship, spasms rushing through their form as their senses collapsed back into their corporeal state. There appeared to be something bright in front of them, had they crashed into a sun? No, that was impossible, wait… that was sound, Peridot shook their head to try and rearrange their senses. Slowly becoming aware of a heavy hand on their shoulder and a loud voice in their ear "Your problem? Hey, Peridot, I'm talking to you!".
"OK! Just stop shaking me!" Peridot reached out to steady themselves on something, only managing to swipe through the interface panel, overwriting their senses again with the ships input, resulting in even more disorientation.
"You're sitting down you idiot". Peridot flopped backwards over the chair, staring up at the fuzzy figure of jasper standing over them "Please don't do that… disconnecting from ship controls without ejecting safely can..." Peridot dry retched slightly "urgh… damage the system. Plus it really sucks"

"Whatever." Jasper tapped their foot impatiently "How long is this trip going to take"
Peridot frowned "Seriously? I told you before we left, about 720 hours"
Jasper grumbled crankily "Are you sure you couldn't fix the transport pads on Earth?"
"Yes! That's the entire reason you are here, because Rose Quartz and her minions kept destroying my Robonoids" Peridot stood up, looking back to the interface panel quickly, busying themselves with setting the autopilot before they really did crash into a sun.
"Yes" jasper moved forwards, gripping the back of Peridots chair, cracking it slightly "I am looking forwards to that… Yellow Diamond will be most pleased when I bring back the shards of her gem"
Peridot wasn't listening, Jaspers chest was pressing up behind them and they were too busy biting their lip and trying to subtly lean back into the large gems warm muscles more.

Jasper turned away and began walking swiftly out of the room, leaving Peridot to windmill wildly, attempting to avoid falling out the now slightly pulverised chair "Alert me when we are getting close, don't disturb me until them".
Peridot regained their balance, now blushing heavily in embarrassment 'Diamond damn it, our first time alone together and I stuff it up'. They glared at the majesty of space sailing past in front of them 'hurmph… did they say something before they left? Oh well'.

Peridot stretched their fingers out into their screen and swiped a few commands to restore the chair. They wouldn't need to pilot the ship again until they reached Earth and there wasn't much else to do on-board so they had about 719 hours to work on things with Jasper. Peridot grinned evilly raising their fist and cackling out loud "No one can last that long against the charms of the Lord of Dating sims!" Peridot spun around, crossing their arms dramatically "It's a shame, this will almost be too easy… Hohohoooo…" they trailed off, eyes wide in horror. "Ummmm… hello" Laps said, standing in the doorway, a concerned expression on their face.

"…Hi" Peridot continued to stare blankly. "I'm Lapis, Lapis Lazuli"
"Oh, of course, that old gem. From Earth yes?"
Lapis' eye twitched slightly but her smile held "Yes. This is the first time I've been on a ship like this and I was wondering if you could show me how it works?"
Peridot assumed a haughty expression, looking down their nose at Lapis "heh, I'm afraid it would be a bit complicated for an old Gem like you. I mean it's hard enough to teach most old timers how to access the Singing Screen network, let alone explain the intricacies involved with fusing your consciousness with one of the most advanced pieces of technology the Empire has to offer!"
"Please?" Lapis smiled warmly "maybe you could just explain the basics? There isn't really much else to do here… Unless you wanted to fill me in on Gem history up to this point, I know a lot of ancient history but nothing really recent"
"eeeeeurgh… yeah, okay, well this is the main control room the majority of the ships functions are controlled from here" Peridot spun around to disguise their crestfallen face. If what it took to get rid of this scrawny old gem then they supposed it was better than talking HISTORY! Diamond, what did they look like? Some musty old Amber?
"Basically the system works by fusing your senses with the input from the ship, the resonant impulses from your gem are interrupted and received by the computer, translating them into commands"

"Resonant Impulses?" Lapis was looking rather lost "So, you think at it and it does stuff?"
Peridot sighed heavily "look, you know how when you fuse with someone you make movements, mentally, and then those movements are performed depending on the joint input of your partner and the form of your fusion?"
"Oh... I've never actually fused with anyone before..." Lapis looked at the ground, blushing slightly
"Wow, talk about a thousand year old virgin" Peridot snickered "What were you doing on Earth all that time?"
A sudden shriek of deforming metal filled the cabin "Not… Much…" Lapis' smile was much shakier now, almost a snarl. The small gems body was shaking slightly and a pair of watery wings began to unfurl behind her
"Ah… I mean" Peridot stammered slightly.
Lapis relaxed, their shoulders slumped and their hands fell to their sides, their face returning to a forced smiles "I apologise, just… nothing". They turned and walked away quickly, hugging their arms tight to their chest.

Peridot walked up to the doorway and glanced through to check that Lapis really was gone before examining the place where they had been leaning, the imprint of a clenched fist was embossed into the lintel, the thick metal crushed like aluminium foil.
Peridot spun their fingers into a fan and held it up to their face, gulping audibly
"Well…. I guess they are a bit stronger than they look"
With their other hand they called up their screen and began putting in the maintenance commands "hmmm, with this many angry Gems with this little regard for the ships integrity maybe I should've brought extra spare parts… Oh well, we can just strip mine Earth when we get there"
Peridot shrugged and walked off, happily whistling the theme to Love Love Revolution. Time to go see what Jasper was up to.

Jasper was standing in the centre of the training room when Peridot found them, arms folded above their head.
They were grinning through gritted teeth as a hologram Jasper wearing heavy gauntlets punched continuously at their stomach.
Peridot hung back at the doorway, peering around into the room. They were trying to formulate a way to announce their presence as smoothly and coolly as possible but Jaspers bare chest was glistening in a most distracting manner and the occasional grunts they let out as the jackhammer blows slammed into their body was making it most difficult to concentrate.
An audible crack echoed through the chamber as cracks began to spread across the gauntlets
"heh, nearly there" Jasper grunted through their teeth "Nothings stronger than me, not even me!"

Peridot snorted loudly, covering their mouth quickly but not before Jasper turned their head in surprise
"WHAT?! I told y-"
An even louder crack echoed through the chamber as the hologram slammed their first wrist deep into Jaspers unprepared stomach. In one swift motion Jasper grabbed the holograms shoulder and, summoning their weapon, headbutted the holograms head through its shoulders, making it disappear in an orange flash. Then, rather less gracefully they fell to their knees and vomited blue slime everywhere. "PERIDOT!"

Peridot stepped out from behind the door "H-hey…"
"You worthless… hurk" Jasper retched again, struggling to stand before slipping on the slime and falling back down again.
"Do you need a hand, I'm so sorry" Peridot rushed forwards to help them, stopping suddenly as, the second they got close enough Jaspers arm snapped out and grabbed their shoulder.
"I. Do not need… your help" Jasper grunted, leaning heavily on Peridot as they hauled themselves to their feet "And what did I tell you before?"
Peridot squeaked quietly, her knees threatening to buckle under Jaspers weight "That's right. I said don't… Disturb me" Jasper breathed heavily, straightening up to reveal the deep cracks spreading out from their stomach.

Once they regained their footing Jasper let go of Peridots neck, leaving the smaller gem to totter backwards, wincing heavily and cheeks flushed "I'm really sorry" they whispered hoarsely "Is there anything I can do? My Robonoids can-"
"Shut it, I don't need any help from you or your stupid machines. I can heal this in no time. Just don't you dare disturb me again or I will snap your legs off and stick you in that chair for the rest of this mission!" Jasper threw one last glare at Peridot before grabbing a cape from the rack by the door and swirling it around them dramatically as they stormed out.

"Well. That could have gone better..." Peridot massaged some feeling back into their shoulder "and what even is that stuff" Peridot regarded the blue slime distastefully, quickly calling up their screen to order a Robonoid to start cleaning it up.

'This seemed like more than enough failed social interactions for now' Peridot thought bitterly, beginning to walk to their quarters. 'Maybe I'm being to proactive?' they pondered this thought for a while before their hair lit up brightly 'Of course! With a strong, dominant character like Jasper you have to wait for their flags to come up, you can't just force things'.
Peridot flopped down on their meditation couch happily 'I just need to wait for the right 'event'… and in the meantime' they called up their screen, locking the door before booting up DANCEmatical Murder.

A few hours later Peridot was engrossed with trying to decide which of the broody and muscular ex-criminals to fuse with for the final dance off when they became aware of a loud banging coming from somewhere. 'Hmmmmmm' they thought absently 'maybe a meteor shower?' The banging stopped and Peridot was about to return to the game when suddenly a large orange fist punched through their door. The hand felt around for a few seconds before withdrawing to grab the edge of the new hole and tear the door off its hinges.

'Ok' thought Peridot, this was defiantly an event but was Jasper coming to kill them "That's not really what I had in mind"
"WHAT ARE YOU MUMBLING ABOUT!" Jasper roared, storming into the room. Their chest was wrapped tight with sealant tape and in one hand she held the limp form of Lapis Lazuli, dangling from Jaspers tight grasp around their arm.
"Whoa! Wait, what are you doing?" Peridot jumped up, raising their hands
Jasper stared at Peridot incredulously "What have you been doing, look at that!" They pointed to the communication screen on Peridots wall, currently muted. There was Lapis, obviously saying something.
"THAT IS BROADCASTING ON ALL FREQUENCIES DIRECTLY AT EARTH!" Jasper bellowed as Peridot scrabbled to unmute the screen

"-Steven, Homeworld, it's not the way it used to be, I can't even understand it-"
"wait, but why?" Peridot looked to Jasper in confusion
"It doesn't matter why! It's looping, you need to shut it off now!" Jasper was gesticulating wildly, sending Lapis flailing around like a doll.
Peridot nodded, ducking under the swinging lapis and dashing for the cockpit, a second later their feet left the floor as Jasper yanked them off their feet from behind "too slow" said Jasper, tucking Peridot under their free arm and sprinting off at a speed that made Peridot feel like their fingers were in danger of getting left behind.

A few seconds later they entered the command room, Jasper hurled Peridot with expert accuracy, landing them perfectly, if extremely disoriented in the chair.
Peridot wasted no time in slipping into the ships matrix. It was instantly clear what Lapis had done, their programming was exceedingly crude, if you could even call it that, it looked like they had just set up the command prompts through sheer force of will, no small achievement honestly. Peridot cut short their begrudging admiration remembering that Jasper was behind them and that they should probably hurry up before the exceedingly agitated gem began pulverising something that wasn't the chair. The signal was quickly shut down, due to the transmission delay it would still be looping for a while to anyone on Earth but only for maybe a dozen hours or so.

Peridot slipped back out of the matrix, properly this time, after checking that Lapis hadn't interfered with the autopilot.
"All done" Peridot spun the chair around to smile smugly at Jasper "and don't worry, I've seen the state of their technology, it's unlikely anyone on Earth would be able to pick up this signal let alone decode it properly" they trailed off slightly, Jasper was grinding their teeth and the grainy chunks of a fist sized lump of broken chain were falling from their free hand. Peridot was a bit worried about the state of Lapis wrist, but more to the point Jasper looked legitimately worried.

"Everything's okay, it was just a message and like I said-"
"You don't understand' Jasper snapped, staring Peridot directly in the eyes "If Rose Quartz gets this message then they'll have time to prepare for us, gather her armies… They were all supposed to be wiped out!" there was a touch of fear in their eyes and a mania that started to scare Peridot themselves "I was there, I was part of the last survey corps… it was a beautiful war, nothing has compared since but the higher-ups made the decision before I could meet Roses main forces. They used the final solution… Nothing should have survived that, if they did it means they are capable of far more than we thought." Jasper turned away from Peridot, letting Lapis slip from their grasp and fall to the ground with a thump. "This mission relied on stealth, the element of surprise. I can't fight an army alone… not without Chalcedony"

"You aren't alone" Peridot stood, walking over to Jasper and placing a hand on their elbow (mentally cursing they couldn't reach their shoulder) "You've got me. And in case you haven't noticed, I'm packing some serious firepower in this here hand of mine" Peridot grinned in what they hoped was a cool way, doing their best to not flinch as Jasper turned to look at them, a slightly bemused look on their face.
Jasper was silent for a few seconds before breaking into a sharklike grin of their own "well said young one, well said… I don't mean to insult your pride as a warrior but I don't think you should be taking the front lines" They took Peridots hand in their own, surprisingly gently "These hands weren't made for war"
'FUCKFUCKFUCKFUCK' Peridot was screaming internally, the slight sparkles in their eyes belying the wave off anxiety that was flooding through them 'Say something! Say anything! Don't fall over!'
"Ummm… I meant the ship, you know… because it's a hand… my hand…" 'Moment ruined'

Jasper stared blankly at Peridot for a few seconds before breaking out in raucous laughter, slapping Peridot on the back and knocking them flat on the floor "hahahahahah, your hand! Hahaha, very nice very nice" Jasper stopped, breathing heavily, to wipe a tear from their eye "ahhh… wordplay"
"Now" they turned to look at lapis unconscious form, face becoming serious "What do we do with the traitor"
Peridot felt a twinge of empathy for the crumpled gem but quickly stamped it out "We still need them alive correct?" Jasper waited perhaps a little too long before replying "Yes."
"I'll prepare a holding cell then. We can find out why they were trying to contact these 'Stevens' later…" Peridot quietly added on an order to have a Robonoid look Lapis over later. They might be a traitor but the sight of their body, just, lying there, all crumpled made Peridot feel sick.

The next few hours passed without incident. Peridot remained in the command room, keeping an eye on Lapis in their cell. The Robonoid had reported that they had received major physical trauma but their gem was undamaged and their physical harmonies were stable. It made Peridot shudder slightly, that Jasper was capable of such violence against another gem.
Peridot knew that Jasper was a warrior, and that they had fought in wars, some of them against gems but to actually see it, up close like that and to someone they had just been talking to.
Peridot wasn't quite sure if it was a turn on or if it scared them. Maybe a little of both.

A few more hours passed. Peridot tried to waste some more time on DANCEmatical Murder but their gem wasn't really in it. Instead they alternated between checking on Lapis and trying to figure out how long they should wait before going to see Jasper to not appear needy.
They were just starting to consider steering into an asteroid belt to try and make something interesting happen when the ping of the computer alerted her that Lapis was moving around.
Turning back to the screens Peridot saw that Lapis had moved to a sitting position at the back of the cell. Perfect. Peridot reached out to connect to the ship and send a message to Jasper but hesitated.
It would probably go better without Jaspers presence.
Comfortable with this conclusion Peridot reset the autopilot and hurried off towards the holding cells.