So here she was. She told herself that the only reason she was on the moon was that the barn was too massive to be carried any further, even though deep inside she knew that wasn't the case. The area around her was desolate and so empty compared to the countryside she was used to. She didn't dare to go inside the barn, and now she just sat on the rooftops, mulling over what had just transpired over the last few days. Why had Peridot lied to her? Was she afraid of her?

She had thought that they had made a lot of progress in their friendship, but apparently, she was wrong. She had trusted Peridot and felt that she was reacting to her naturally, when in fact she had been walking on eggshells around her this whole time, and Lapis had been too selfish to notice. Peridot had said that ''she believed in her'', and that had almost made her stay, but Lapis wasn't naive. She knew she was powerful, but she was a mere weakling when compared to the diamonds. Peridot didn't know what the diamonds were capable of, or how far they would go to achieve their goal.

Lapis was scared. She was tired of running away all the time, but what choice did she have? Stay on Earth, and risk the possibility of seeing everyone she cared about be destroyed? No, she couldn't cope with even the thought of that. She liked to project a facade of being emotionless, of being unbreakable, but Peridot had a habit of bringing out the worst in her. She remembered that she had shouted at Peridot to ''stop being emotional'', and then she saw the hurtful look on Peridot's face and needed to look away.

Lapis wondered how she hadn't seen it before and was curious as to how many times Peridot had bit her tongue to avoid Lapis' outbursts. Everything in the barn reminded Lapis of Peridot in some way, which was why she didn't feel the need to go inside. Their camp pining heart DVDs, the meep morps they had made together and that damned broken tape recorder all made her think of the green gem, but it wasn't a good feeling. It felt similar to sadness, but what was it? This feeling was unrecognisable to her, it felt as if a gaping hole was in her chest, and she could do nothing else but stare at the slow-moving earth and think.

It had been some time since Lapis had left, and Peridot thought she was doing well. She still listened to that human 'country' music that Steven had lent her, and she still felt immense pain in her chest whenever she thought of the blue gem, but she had joined the so-called 'improv' group that took place every week. When she wasn't preparing for that, she usually hung out with either Steven or Amethyst, although Amethyst always managed to include an activity that revolved around eating, and Peridot just sat there watching her gobble up whatever monstrosity she had managed to create.

She still tended to the farm, but admittedly it was a bit harder without Lapis around to water the plants with the use of her powers. Peridot occasionally worked on improving her ferrokinesis, which was growing stronger every day, and she had even managed to lift a medium sized boat, much to the awe of Steven. Currently, she was sitting in the bathtub and playing with veggie-head, but her thoughts couldn't help but drift away to the events that had led her to move to Steven's bathroom in the first place.

She had been shocked that Lapis had left, along with their barn, and after that shock passed, came the anger, because she hadn't expected Lapis to leave Earth without her, after basically pouring her heart out! Had what she said meant nothing to her? This wasn't how things were supposed to go. Logically, Lapis should have stayed and then applauded her for her emotional outpour. It was always how it worked out in those human shows that Steven had shown her anyway, so what exactly had she done wrong? Lapis had accused her of lying, but Peridot had had only the best intentions, but by the look of betrayal on the other gem's face, these intentions were the wrong ones.

She knew how Lapis still hadn't healed sufficiently, first from being stuck inside a mirror for a few thousand years and then being trapped to a brute under the ocean, so she had just tried to keep things peaceful, because she didn't want to make Lapis upset. Seeing Lapis upset, for some unknown reason, made her feel upset. Peridot blamed herself for not understanding emotions correctly. Peridots were made to think logically, and so they lacked in that department, but she had tried her best and failed to make Lapis stay. Now she was trying to flush away any thoughts of the blue gem, and to try and move on with her life, in whichever way she could.

Steven frowned when he saw Peridot looking glum inside the bathroom because it reminded him of when the Crystal Gems had kept Peridot prisoner in the bathroom all those months ago. It seemed like a century ago now, and he marvelled at how far Peridot had come, but now it looked as if she was back to square one. He needed to find a way to bring Peridot out of her depressed bubble, but how?

"Steven, are you ready for the mission?" Garnet's voice snapped him out of his thought process, and he almost jumped, but then he got an idea.

"Garnet, can Peridot come with us?" Steven asked, looking up at Garnet with a hopeful expression.

"Steven, I don't know if Peridot is ready to come on a mission yet, especially with all that's happened lately." Pearl piped up, who had been trying to dislodge something from the couch that Amethyst had stuck.

"Pearl is right, I'm afraid. Peridot is in a fragile state right now, and her powers are still unpredictable."

"But Peridot is a crystal gem now too! And she managed to lift a ship and keep it in mid-air for 20 seconds! Shouldn't she get an opportunity to prove herself like I did?" Steven cried, hoping against hope that they would accept.

"Steven is right, and she did lift a ship last week that must have weighed about a 100 tonnes or something." Amethyst stopped demolishing a sizeable pepperoni pizza to wink at Steven, which wasn't subtle in the least.

"Well...all right then, she can come, but tell her to be careful with her powers. As I said, they're still unpredictable." Garnet complied, as she could never refuse Steven anything.

"Yes!" Steven muttered under his breath.

Peridot couldn't believe that she had agreed to go on a mission with the crystal gems. Well, it beat sitting in the bathroom. So far, they hadn't seen the corrupted gem that they were trying to capture in this leafy jungle, but then again Peridot could hardly see anything. Not only was there a significant canopy of greenery preventing any light from entering through the leaves, but the Crystal Gems made sure to stay in front of her.

Steven and Amethyst were the only ones walking side by side with her, and out of the corner of her eyes, she could see the worry in their features, especially since that debacle in the prime kindergarten. She had acted very unlike herself, and she realised that, so that must have been why they were still hung up about it, but that didn't stop the small kernel of annoyance which sprang up within her.

Before she could say anything, she noticed that Garnet and Pearl had ceased walking and now stood before a vast rocky temple embedded in some cliff. The main door was made of obsidian, and there were gem markings engraved on it, which Peridot could hardly decipher, but then again the temple was so old that most of them had been worn out. The trouble was, the door would not budge, even as Amethyst tried to roll into it several times, and Garnet tried beating it with her enormous gauntlets.

Pearl sighed, already walking away. "It's of no use. We have no way of knowing that it's even in there."

"No, I'm sure there's a way in, we just haven't found it yet." Garnet insisted, placing a hand on the door.

Peridot inched closer to the door, just out of curiosity, but she could barely read any of the markings. However, her eyes caught a seemingly innocent indentation in the rock just near the door, and as she gingerly touched it, she realised that it was a button, and a click was heard. The door heaved, before slowly descending and revealing a dark passageway.

"Wow, good find P-Dot!" Amethyst clapped Peridot on the back, before scurrying into the passageway. "Well, that was easy," Pearl muttered, feeling stupid that she hadn't seen the button. Garnet merely smirked at her and marched inside the passageway, leaving Peridot to hurry after her. The hall was multicoloured thanks to the different lights being projected from the gems, but it was still relatively dark, and everyone stuck close together.

They soon split up into three groups to explore different chambers; Pearl with Amethyst, Peridot with Steven, and Garnet with Garnet. Unfortunately, Steven still had that same worrying look stuck to his face, and it was beginning to get on Peridot's nerves.

"Why are you looking at me like that?" Peridot finally blurted out.

"Like what?"

"Don't act like you don't know what I'm talking about, Steven. You've been staring at me li- like you pity me!" Peridot stopped walking to face Steven, and he looked at her with widened eyes.

"I don't pity you Peridot. I'm worried about you, that's all. You are always in the bathroom listening to country music, and I keep thinking about what happened at the kind-"

"I know. I want to forget about that whole debacle. I'm not a delicate earth flower, and I can handle myself. As I said before, Peridots are tougher than you think. It doesn't help to see you and Amethyst look at me like you do." She cradled her hands close to her chest and closed her eyes. "None of it matters because I've forgotten about everything already."

"Well, alright, but always know that I'm always here to talk, whenever you want to." Steven hesitated, putting his hand on Peridot's shoulder.

"Don't get sentimental on me, you clod." She playfully punched him in the shoulder which caused him to groan painfully as if he was struck, and then they both laughed.

After a few minutes of walking, they found themselves in the main chamber, which was decorated with silver encased walls, and a giant blob in the centre of the room. They noticed that this mysterious blob was moving suspiciously closer to them, and immediately Steven produced Rose's shield. Peridot looked around to see if any metal was available, and luckily there were some pieces of rusted metal in the corner.

She slowly levitated them to her, then pointed them at the mysterious blob, and sent them towards it at an exhilarating speed. A deafening shriek echoed in the room, as the strange blob came into view, and Peridot's shuddered. She could see the shards of metal protruding from its glistening, red skin. It had colossal silver fangs, and an elongated tongue with saliva dripping down its many chins. It stood on five 'legs', at an enormous height, making Peridot feel woozy, but Steven let out a mighty battle cry and lunged at it, fearlessly.

Shaken out of her stupor, Peridot quickly sent more shards of sharp metal towards the corrupted gem, taking this opportunity while Steven distracted it, and luckily one found its gem, and it poofed, but not before letting out one mighty roar. Peridot felt as if she was levitating at that moment. Was this what it felt like to be strong?

She hadn't expected to defeat the corrupted gem that easily, considering the trouble it had taken her to capture her first one and she felt as if she had dreamed this whole thing up, even though she had never actually slept before. She was so surprised that she didn't even notice that Steven was talking at her face.

"I'm sorry, what are you saying Steven?"

"I said, would you like to bubble the gem?"

She was about to say yes, but then she remembered where the bubble would end up.

"You should be the one to bubble it. After all, if you hadn't distracted it, I wouldn't have gotten a good shot." Peridot insisted, feeling like this was the logical answer.

"Okay!" Steven said excitedly, before he bubbled it up, encasing the gem in pink.

"Steven! Are you alright? Where is it?" Peridot grimaced as Pearl's squawking bombarded her left ear.

"We heard shouting," Garnet stated, unbothered by the apparent chaos that had just taken place.

"Peridot poofed the gem!" Steven ran up to the gems, showing them the bubbled up gem.

"Well, it wasn't all m-"

"Peridot, it seems that we have deeply underestimated your abilities. I was proven wrong." Garnet noted as she ruffled Steven's hair.

Peridot blushed a light green, which she hoped wouldn't show "It wasn't that big of a deal, but I thank you."

"Alright, Peridactyl!" Peridot was suddenly bombarded by Amethyst hugging her, and it's a miracle she didn't tip and fall on her face.

"Time to celebrate." Garnet smiled.

They had bought some 'doughnuts' which were rings made of some soft cushiony substance and then gathered at the beach near the temple, where Greg, Steven's father, had his van.

The sunset never ceased to amaze Peridot, and it suddenly reminded her of the times that she and Lapis would sit and stargaze with Pumpkin on their laps. She shook her head to clear her traitorous thoughts, and a faint strumming of a Ukulele started invading the silence, and as she turned her head, she could see Steven playing his instrument and humming a hidden tune under his breath.

The scene laid before her was like one of those 'paintings' in the human museum, everything was still, even the ocean. She realised that for the first time in a long time, she felt like she belonged.