The entire fandom was freaking out over the accidental nuke. So many characters introduced, Blue D finally got a voice AND new gem type! Ah, to have episodes…
Last chapter, Amethyst and Steven sorta hung-out. Steven found out Amethyst likes to eat things and shapeshift, and now they're a little closer.
Enjoy!

Jasper grunted as she brushed her shoulders off as they stepped onto the warp pad. The mission had involved fighting a monster in a mud pit, and Lapis ended up taking flight when wallowing in mud proved tricky. Jasper did not have the luxury of wings, so she had to take down the monster while being completely covered in mud.

"Steven?" Lapis called as the light of the warp pad faded away. "We're back!" She turned to see a strange sight.

Amethyst was shapeshifted into a wolf. Steven sat on the floor in front of her, laughing and clapping. "Do more!" He urged her on.

As she watched, Amethyst turned into a seal, then a bird, then a mimic of Steven.

"What is going on?" Lapis muttered to Jasper. The orange gem shrugged. "I don't know, but I don't like the idea of Amethyst being close to Steven." She seemed calm enough, but having spent the last 5000 years with the gem taught Lapis that Jasper was a boiling mass of emotions inside.

Without warning, Jasper jumped between the two. She plastered a fake smile on her face. "Hey Steven!" He looked up at the orange gem. "Hey, you're back! Did you bring me anything?" He asked excitedly.

Jasper handed him a shard of rock that had come from a hole when she was thrown into a cliff wall. "Cool, a rock!" Steven said. As he looked at it, he didn't notice Jasper lean threateningly over Amethyst.

"I don't know what you're up to," Jasper hissed at the purple gem, "but I am putting an end to it right here and now." Jasper grabbed at the cord tied around the wooden beam and it seemed to melt away in her hand as it unlatched itself from the wood.

"But-" Amethyst's words died in her throat when she saw the look on the bigger quartz's face. She sighed and let herself be dragged over to the Temple door.

Finally, Steven took notice. "Hey, where are you going? Jasper?" The gem said nothing as bright orange cracks spread from the top-left part of the door down to the right corner, and the two halves slid aside.

Steven stared after the two gems, even after the door had closed. He jumped when Lapis put a hand on his shoulder. "It's for your own-" The gem began, but Steven whipped around.

"But why?" He asked, his anger raising his voice. Before Lapis could say anything, the Temple door opened again.

Steven was hoping that it was Jasper, maybe he could've gotten more information out of her as well. Peridot stood there instead. "Is this a bad time…?" She asked nervously. Steven shook his head. "No, this is good. Get over here. I need you to answer some questions." At that, Peridot turned around and attempted to re-enter the Temple.

Lapis stood up and water flowed out of the sink. It dragged Peridot over to them. "You are not bailing on this." She stated as she dumped Peridot on the floor beside them. The green gem grumbled but stayed put.

Steven stared at the two of them. "Why are you acting so badly? She's a gem too. Isn't Amethyst like us?"

Lapis sighed and looked at Peridot. This one is on you, Peridot's eyes said. "Steven… there's a lot you don't know about gems." Lapis started.

Steven cut in. "But why are you so mean to her? Gems shouldn't fight other gems." Lapis looked at Peridot again, then at the floor.

"We're… always fighting other gems. Those corrupted monsters we fight? They used to be regular gems, like us. But their minds have been torn, they're dangerous and wild. They don't know any better. So we keep them safe in bubbles, where they can't harm anyone. At least until we find a better solution."

Steven took in this information slowly. "But… what happened to them?" Lapis glanced over at Peridot. "You're better at explaining that sort of stuff." She hissed to the gem. "Help me out here!"

Peridot gulped as Steven turned his gaze to her. She shuffled her feet, then said "I think it would be easier if we showed you."

The two gems and the hybrid looked around them as the warp light dissipated.

An overgrown field of strawberries stretched out before them, and massive weapons that no normal gem or human could lift dotted the landscape.

Peridot sighed and put a hand on Steven's shoulder. "This was once the battlefield of the Gem War. It was here that your mother decided that she would defend Earth with everything she had, and it was here that the Rebellion won the war against Homeworld."

Steven nodded, then asked "What's Homeworld?" He noticed the two gems look uncomfortably at each other. "Look, don't try to pretend you don't know. Sometimes you don't realize it, but I've listened to the kind of conversations you've had before. And I know this 'Homeworld', whatever it is, it's the center of all that talk about monsters and fighting. I'm a Crystal Gem too. Can't you atleast try to be honest with me?"

Lapis nodded, closed her eyes, and steeled herself for what she was going to say next. "Homeworld is basically the gem empire. It's the home planet for thousands of other gems." She opened her eyes a crack and saw Steven's eyes get bigger.

"Yes, Steven, there are thousands of thousands of other gems," She barreled on before he said anything. "But Homeworld… they aren't like us. They don't care about the life of a planet, or the creatures that inhabit it. Steven, gems are a species made to conquer other planets. And when gems colonize a planet, the planet dies."

Unwanted flashbacks flew through her mind, and she clenched her fist. A hand gently tugged at her hand, and she opened her eyes. Steven looked ashamed, but he asked the question anyway.

"And you think Amethyst and the others… that they're Homeworld gems?" She nodded and felt more flashbacks bombard her. Lapis suddenly felt the need to get away from the battlefield. "Let's just… let's just go back home." She said and put a hand to her head.

Steven flopped onto his bed. He couldn't sleep. For the rest of the day, he thought about all the information the gems told him, and the thought couldn't stop nagging at him- was Amethyst really a bad gem?

She didn't seem all that bad. After Lapis had gone into her room, Steven pulled Peridot aside and asked a few more questions. The last he had checked, Amethyst didn't have the diamond symbols on her outfit that Peridot told him all Homeworld gems had.

He tossed and turned, his thoughts still swirling. His instincts still told him that Amethyst was a good gem. Surely she wouldn't do anything to harm him. Right?

Steven didn't know what to think anymore. With all this new information, his views on gems were turned upside down. He didn't know if he could trust Amethyst, and it tore him up inside because he had already bonded with her. Not to mention he promised to…

Steven rubbed his eyes and tried to clear his head. He should go to sleep. It wasn't that he wasn't tired, he was both physically and mentally exhausted. After ten minutes of tossing and turning, he finally fell into an uneasy sleep.

He opened his eyes, but he wasn't in his room. He wasn't really anywhere. There was just empty space around him.

Steven looked around, even though there wasn't anything to look at. "It's a dream." He said, stating the obvious.

He suddenly felt himself falling. Looking down, he saw something that looked stormy and dark. "Wait, no! I don't want to go there!" Steven called out, hoping he could control his dream. If anything, he fell faster.

Steven flinched as he fell through the stormy clouds and emerged into a chaotic scene. Taking in the sight before him, Steven hardly noticed that he was no longer falling, but was floating above the battlefield.

A massive amount of gems were swarming over each other, each with some kind of weapon. As Steven watched, he saw them clash brutally, and some of them even fused. Smoke and screams filled the air.

Is this… is this the Gem War? But then Steven realized something. Even though fire ravaged the field, he couldn't see any of the hills that circled the current battlefield, and the land itself was different.

Steven yelped when a sudden force pulled him out of the vision. He awoke in his own bed, his heart pounding.

He put a hand to his forehead and looked down at the glistening sweat.

"What was that?"

More cliffhangers! YAY. I feel like I'm addicted to them. Easiest way to end a chapter, not very satisfactory though. The next chapter will hopefully remedy that.
Sorry about the coding problem for those of you who got the alerts quick, I don't know what happened. But thank you for telling me about it, because I actually don't read my own stories much beyond the drafts.
Don't forget to Read, Rate n' Review!