"LET HIM GO RIGHT NOW!"

"Grab them with your tractor beam."

"Steven!"

"LET GO OF US!"

"Please! Take us, leave him alone!"

"What is she doing?"

"He's unconscious, put him down—!"

"Oh, that's rich. Acting all weak and hurt so I'll leave you alone—"

"PUT HIM DOWN, YA MEATHEAD!"

"Throw them into third-level cells. Blue Diamond can decide what happens to the Sapphire. And I'm sure someone is going to want the Ruby."

"Fine. What are you going to do with the Steven?"

"The what?"

"The one you're holding—"

"I'll just toss her into a first-level. It's where traitors like her belong."

"Whatever. Do what you want."

"Steven…!"

"Take the Lapis, too."

"Hey—!"

"Put her wherever. I don't care."

"Steven!"

"Steven!"

"Steven!"

"STEVEN!"

Steven jolted awake.

He was lying on his side on a cold, hard floor. His limbs were splayed out like a ragdoll. The room he was in was small, square, and absolutely unfamiliar to him. The walls, floor, and ceiling were all made of the same shiny green material. It smelled oddly metallic and clean, like a hospital.

He moved to sit up, but the throbbing in his forehead made him stop and hiss. It stung bitterly all down his temple. When he blinked, his eye burned. Something near the corner of his eye was dry and crusty. He didn't realize why at first.

But then he remembered.

They lost.

Jasper and Peridot won.

He hadn't even lasted ten minutes.

And now he and Ruby and Sapphire and—

Opal.

Opal had been poofed.

It was his fault.

But it did not explain where he was now. They had been on the beach, right in front of the Temple. So why was he in this little green room now?

He could not see a door, but then he turned around. The room was actually a little cell. He could see two other cells identical to his across the hallway. But in place of a door, he found himself looking through a bright yellow screen like the fourth wall. There was no switch or lever to bring it up. Electricity was humming somewhere.

Wherever he was, he guessed he had Jasper and Peridot to blame.

So that meant Ruby and Sapphire and Opal were here too, right? Or perhaps not. Maybe they were still fighting, or maybe he'd been kidnapped from them, or maybe they'd been shatter—

He had to find them, quickly. They needed to find each other. Especially Opal—if she hadn't reformed already, then they needed to find her Gems.

Lapis, too. Lapis Lazuli had been with Peridot and Jasper, but Steven knew that she wasn't with them. Lapis wouldn't have sent them a warning, or stood up for him on the beach. They must have blackmailed her to ratting them out. That was the only explanation. And even though she didn't like the Crystal Gems or the Earth very much, something told him that an invitation this time around would be accepted.

His first instinct was to reach out and touch the screen, but distant footsteps stopped him cold.

Steven flipped back over and set himself in the same position he was in before. He didn't know what else to do; his only hope was that whoever was coming, Jasper or Peridot or whatever other Gems were in this place, would leave him alone if they thought he was still asleep.

Thinking on it, he wondered if there were other Homeworld Gems here. For a battleship that had to have the whole town evacuated, he'd only seen Jasper and Peridot. Either the rest hadn't been seen yet…or Jasper and Peridot were all that were needed. He didn't know which would bother him more.

The closer the footsteps got, the more he heard a voice, grunting and hissing like the person was fighting against something. But he couldn't tell who it was yet—Ruby or Sapphire or whoever else.

The voice yelped, there was a hard thump, and then a quick, electric ZAP.

The person growled, but with another sharp ZAP, let out a cry. It definitely wasn't Ruby, Sapphire, or Opal. Their voice was kind of scratchy, a bit lower than Ruby's voice. Feminine, from what Steven could tell.

Another voice spoke then, much more familiar, but not in the way Steven wanted.

"Are you done yet?" Jasper asked in the most bored tone possible.

The stranger's voice was filled with enough fury to ring in Steven's ears. "Stop hiding behind this thing and fight me, you giant orange!"

Jasper barked a laugh. "What, you think you can take me?"

"I KNOW I CAN!"

"That's hilarious. Come on, Peridot. I don't have time for this."

There were one or two footsteps, but then the person cried, "Get back here, you coward!"

There was a pause, another footstep, and Steven just assumed that Jasper had stepped closer to whoever was speaking. Her voice was remarkably calm, but still intense, as she spoke.

"If it was up to me, an overcooked runt like you would have already been shattered under my boot. But it's not my choice, disappointingly."

It was not the person who replied this time. It was Peridot, sounding halfway between annoyed and meek.

"What do I do with this one?" she asked.

"Take her to the interrogation chamber. Pearls break easily."

As Peridot's hard, clunking footsteps faded away, the person in the chamber cried out. Any fury in her voice was gone. Now she just sounded utterly distressed.

"No! Wait! Don't take her—Please!"

Jasper sighed. "Defectives calling out for defectives. How pathetic."

The person continued to scream and screech pleads, eventually insults, as Jasper came closer and closer to Steven's cell. He didn't move a muscle. He could only hope that she couldn't tell his eyes were open.

He saw her shadow on the wall. She was quiet. Unmoving. She didn't step forward or back. She just stared down at him. Steven held his breath.

Then she left. All was quiet.

Steven once again stood to his feet and looked to screen. It was the one and only thing keeping him from the hallway. He didn't have a choice.

"Here goes nothing."

He stuck a finger into the screen.

The feeling surprised him, and he pulled back at first, but then tried again. He wasn't sure how to describe it—it was kind of like when Onion tricked him with the electric bubblegum, the way it zipped up his fingers, but he didn't have to pull back. So he pushed his whole hand through the screen. The buzzing moved through his fingers and up his arms. His veins were glowing yellow through his skin.

"…Cool!"

He pushed forward. One arm in, one foot. It was not at all pleasant, especially as it moved across his face and into his scalp. It made his teeth shatter and his skin tingle.

But then he was on the other side, and the yellow in his veins faded away. The hallway was made of the same shiny green material as everything else. There were tubes on the ceiling, bright yellow, and something moved through them. It kind of reminded him of the veins back in the Temple. Probably the same Gem-stuff, he guessed.

"Okay, I'm out. But where to go…?"

Besides just finding the others, he had to be careful not to cross paths with Jasper or Lapis. Peridot, he wasn't sure, but Jasper would probably do a little worse than a headbutt if she found him out of the cell. Heck, even if she saw the empty cell, not him, she'd lose it.

"Silent like the night, Steven. Silent like the night."

So he took a step, and flinched. No use. The light little touchdown made a metallic, hollow sound still.

A shout made him jump and spin around. Down the hallway, just as it turned a corner, another yellow screen flashed bright and let out the ZAP he'd heard before.

He crept closer to the cell, hoping his footsteps weren't as loud as they seemed to him. Hopefully, whoever was in the cell wasn't going to rat him out if she saw him. She didn't like Jasper, obviously, so maybe not.

He came closer and closer, and when he was finally a step away, yellow flashed in his face. He jumped back from the pop of electricity, almost falling on his behind.

But the popping did not go away. Something round and white was pressing against the screen, and in response, the screen was humming louder and louder. Sparks began to fly. Steven couldn't tell what the thing was; just that it was moving fast enough to make the air whistle.

Then there was a burst, a cry, and the thing flew back and hit the far wall.

The stranger grunted when their back thumped hard, and grunted again when they collapsed face-first onto the floor. They pushed themselves up, pulling hair out of their face as they winced. Yeah, Steven definitely didn't know this person.

The screen made everything on her yellow, not unlike how everything had been green from the Hand-ship. She was kind on the chubby side, with a round face and round lips. Her eyes were round, too, though Steven wouldn't have seen the left one if she hadn't pushed her hair away from it. Yellow screen or not, Steven could tell that her hair was white. It was messy and long, very long, down to her shins. Her boots were white, too. She was dressed pretty casually, in just a loose tank top and leggings.

Before Steven could say anything, she had turned to the yellow screen again with her eyes full of fire. With remarkable speed, her form curled in like a hedgehog, the thing that Steven had seen before. It darted forward to take another shot…

…but before it touched, she unfolded, rolling over once and landing upright on her feet. She was no longer focused on the screen. She was staring through it—staring at Steven with a face of utter shock.

Her mouth opened and closed like a fish for a moment. Steven stared back, glancing down the halls, wondering if he should go ahead and bolt.

She finally managed to stutter out, "You escaped!"

Something on her chest glinted, and Steven looked down at what he hadn't noticed before: a Gem, round with a hexagonal facet, peeking out of her top's neckline.

Were Jasper and Peridot rounding up other Gems from other places, too, and the Earth was just a stop on their way? That might have been reassuring. Maybe Homeworld just saw the Crystal Gems as a nuisance instead of war-potential, which for them, would be absolutely fantastic. If they got out of this situation, that is.

The Gem was waiting for Steven to answer, but jolted from his thoughts, all he could manage was, "Yes." He paused. "Who are you?"

Her lips puckered. "Uh. I'm—Wait. No." Her fingers dug into her hair, and her eyes blinked. She was buffering, for whatever reason. "Not supposed—I—"

Finally, she just groaned and threw her arms into the air. "It doesn't matter right now!" She stepped closer to the screen between them, close enough for her nose to almost touch it. "Have you seen anyone else?"

"Jasper walked by a minute ago—"

"I don't care about her. Or Peri-snot. Who else?"

"That's it. But my friends are probably here somewhere. I need to go find them before they get hurt!"

"Right! I know, so…How did you get out?"

"Oh. Uh…The thingy doesn't really work on me? It just kind of…"

He stuck his hand through the screen. She started at first, but then just watched as his veins glowed yellow and his fingers vibrated. Then he pulled his hand back, and she jumped forward as if he was about to run off.

"Listen, dude! You have to let me out of here! We'll find our friends together."

"You're looking for someone, too?"

"Less talk, more action!"

"Right, right! Time to friend-hunt!"

So he had an ally, at least, in the same position that he was in. Given, he didn't know her name, but she definitely wasn't Jasper's buddy, and that was good enough for him. The more, the merrier.

So Steven stepped halfway through the screen and held up his arm. Past it, the screen stopped like he was parting the flow of a waterfall. The Gem ducked through without a word, and once she was on the other side, she grabbed Steven's hand in hers and took off running.

Steven stumbled after her, glancing over his shoulder, then back at her. He could see her colors clearly now. Her tank-top was black, her leggings dark gray. Her skin was a bright lilac color, the same as her Gem. Her wild white hair whipped up behind her, almost tickling Steven's arm.

With each cell that passed, the Gem glanced inside and kept running with Steven in tow. She was murmuring something under her breath, like "interrogation room, interrogation room…"

After a minute of it, Steven finally spoke up, "So, why are you here?"

The Gem did not respond at first. "I'll explain it later."

"Where are you from?"

"Later."

"What's going on?"

"Later."

"You do realize there may not be a later, right?"

"La. Ter."

"Well, can you at least tell me your name?"

She saw something ahead, and stopped cold. Her hand slipped from Steven's fingers. One step forward, another. Then she was running to it, and Steven followed.

A window, he saw, and—

Oh stars.

They definitely weren't on the beach anymore.

No, they were probably hundreds of miles above it.

The Earth in front of them looked so small, like he'd seen when Lapis took off for Homeworld. They were close enough for it to take up most of the window's view, but far away enough for Steven to see the horizon curved ahead. He could see the blue of the oceans, the swirls of the clouds, the ice caps on the poles. Then there were the stars, hundreds of them, twinkling with the most crystalline clarity Steven had ever seen. The way something so larger-than-life was now little more than a painting to him made Steven's mind hurt.

At the least, the Hand-Ship was not moving, it seemed. They were 'docked' for the time being, but Steven could only hope that 'the time being' would last long enough to at least give them a chance to escape.

Beside him, the Gem mumbled, "We. Are. Janked."

Somewhere nearby, more footsteps sounded. The Gem and Steven both stilled, holding their breaths. Wherever they were, the footsteps' owner seemed to pass them, fading in and out of hearing.

Once it was silent again, the Gem whispered, "I'm pretty sure it's just Peridot and Jasper on the ship."

Steven frowned. "That's it? I thought it was going to be, like, five hundred of them and a bunch of giant battle-robots or something."

"Hey, I ain't complaining. But we still have to be careful. I'm pretty sure we can handle Peri-snot, but Carrot-Nose is a couple crayons short of a box, so…"

"You mean she's a couple cards short of a deck?"

"Yeah. Like, a couple hammers short of a toolbox."

"A couple paints short of a palette—"

"Okay, this conversation is enlightening, and I want to continue with this later, but right now we need to get our friends." She gritted her teeth, clenched her fingers. "We need to find the interrogation chamber. Have to find Pearl before they hurt her."

"'Pearl'? Is that your friend's name?"

"Wh—Oh, uh…Yeah." The Gem swallowed. "She's alone."

"Then we'll change that."

She sent him a thankful smile, but it quickly dropped off her face.

Steven hardly had a second to react. The Gem suddenly grabbed him by the front of his shirt and pulled them behind a corner leading into another hallway. Steven hit the floor shoulder-first. The impact made his head smart again, and he almost asked the Gem what the big deal was. Instead, seeing how she was crouched down and peeking beyond the corner, the words stopped in his throat. He leaned over her until his chin was almost on her head to get a better look.

Jasper was walking in their direction, although by her bored expression, it seemed that she hadn't noticed them yet. Her skin, Steven saw, was the same bright orange hue as her Gem, but with apricot stripes, like a tiger. Her left arm from the elbow down was darker, her right bicep had two bands wrapped around it—her face had a slash from one cheek to the opposite temple, with a little half-stripe on her left cheek. Her wild hair was still white.

Steven also noted with interest that her suit, which he had thought was almost exactly like Peridot's, was actually blue. The chest and boots cobalt, her legs and the cape still tied around her shoulders navy. The diamond-shaped insignia at her chest was a light blue color instead of Peridot's yellow.

Her heavy boots thump-thump-thumped towards them. The Gem next to Steven tensed and reached in his direction. Steven had half the mind to start running already.

Jasper's eyes turned to the great window, and she paused. Something about her soured. She turned toward it with her lip curled and her yellow eyes narrowed. The sight of the great blue planet seemed to disgust her.

She raised her hand, and Steven noticed a little bracelet around her wrist too small to notice before. Jasper pressed a little diamond button on it, and a red light began to blink. Jasper held it up to her lips.

"Currently docked approximately two miles above the Earth's highest atmospheric level," she said. Her voice was monotonous, robotic. "I'm giving the heart-drive time to charge full-power before we make our way back to Homeworld. The Peridot is taking the Pearl into interrogation to see if we can get something out of her. All other prisoners, including Rose Quartz, are in their cells."

Jasper paused, and her other hand twitched as if to turn the recorder off, but she continued.

"After the war, I had hoped that I wouldn't have to see this pathetic speck of a planet ever again. The one saving grace of this mission was supposed to be finding Rose Quartz so I could shatter her, once and for all. Then I discover she's disguising herself as a fleshy little human called a 'Steven' for sympathy—disappointing and disgusting, as I admittedly admired her tactics before. At the same time, I wouldn't put it beyond her. Ironic how she starts a whole war to protect her precious humans, then uses their helplessness for her own protection. Expect scum from scum."

Jasper's eyes narrowed down at the Earth. She seemed to particularly focus on a little spot in the northwest.

"To think I was actually made here. Here, of all places." Disgust hissed through her teeth. "I'm better than this place. That's not going to change, Cluster or not. Then this can just be a big mistake to put behind me. I'll at least take some satisfaction in it, I suppose, though I'll be a bit disappointed Rose Quartz won't be around. Maybe I can suggest some kind of recording to be shown to her before they do whatever they do. I could ask that they keep her alive long enough to see it, then shatter her right after. It would be absolutely euphoric just to see the look on her face when—"

"Jasper."

Peridot's voice made Jasper jump higher than Steven would have expected for a stone-cold mom-hunter to. Peridot faltered in her steps as she came closer to the orange Gem, and Jasper turned the recorder off without a dismissal. She sent Peridot a lazy but unamused glower.

"How long have you been standing here?"

"I haven't. I just got here."

"You're supposed to be taking care of the Pearl."

"Yeah…Here's the thing. I tried throwing her into the pressure chamber, but she reformed before I got there."

"And?"

"And she broke my tractor beam."

Peridot held up her right hand's palm out to Jasper. There was a little green glass circle in the middle for her tractor beam to shine out of, but now it was shattered. Little green sparks were jumping off of it.

Jasper's lips curled at the sight. "You let a Pearl get the best of you?"

Peridot sputtered out an affronted "No!" With her voice high enough to ring off the walls, she added, "I may not be a Quartz, but I'm better than a measly Pearl."

The Gem in front of Steven tightened her grip on the wall. Her teeth gritted together.

Jasper just rolled her eyes. "Whatever you say."

She began to walk past Peridot, but the smaller Gem spun around to her, crying, "Well, what am I supposed to do?"

"What did you do?"

"I just locked her in."

"Well, just leave her there. Dealing with defective little nothings wasn't part of the job description."

"Fine. But I'm going back down to at least fix my tractor beam."

"Couldn't care less. Just don't take too long. We need to set a course for Homeworld as soon as the heart-drive is charged."

With that, Jasper sauntered away and out of sight. The purple Gem twitched, and Steven set a hand on her shoulder for fear of her running after Jasper. But she stayed, although Steven could feel her trembling with fury. She was breathing hard enough for Steven to give her a light shush.

Then Peridot was walking in their direction, and they shrunk back. Steven realized that they were kind of trapped. They could run down the hall, but their footsteps would be heard loud and clear. Steven couldn't see her anymore, but he could hear and feel Peridot's footsteps coming closer and closer to them.

The stranger pulled away until her back was against the wall and held an arm over Steven's chest, and didn't drop it even after he pressed back, too. Her other hand went to her Gem. It glowed white, and the shapeless form of a weapon's handle appeared in her fingers.

Steven looked down at his belly. He'd summoned his weapon for the third time in his life, the biggest shield he'd ever managed, but could he do it again? He wondered if it would always have to be triggered out of him instead of willingly summoned.

Peridot's footsteps came closer and closer and then

she passed them.

Steven let out a stale breath as the tall Gem's green form came and went in less than a second. The stranger let her Gem go dull once more, and they both leaned over to watch Peridot walk away.

Then the stranger tugged on Steven's shirt. "Let's go."

She followed Peridot with the smoothest, quietest footsteps she could manage. Steven took a second to step out of his sandals and pick them up, but followed after her without complaint. The floor was very cold against the soles of his feet.

They tailed Peridot like shadows. When Peridot stopped, they stopped. When she turned around, they ducked behind a wall for cover. When she disappeared from sight, the purple Gem would hold Steven back for a second before following.

Through several more halls, they passed more and more empty cells, and Steven was becoming more and more convinced that it might have just been him, this stranger, and 'Pearl' as captives. The thought made his chest hurt. He didn't want to be needy, but being in outer space, hundreds of miles away from his family, who would have no chance to get to him…a fire of panic started to kindle in him.

But just as Peridot turned a corner, and the stranger held him back, Steven saw the yellow screen of an occupied cell. Hope got the best of him, and when he jumped forward to get a better look, the stranger's hands scrambled on him.

It was Lapis. All alone, her back against the wall, knees to her chest, arms hugging her legs. Her eyes lingered where Peridot passed, and Steven did not miss the dark sparkle of fury in her eyes, but then she just tucked her face into her knees. Her bare toes twitched together.

He pulled on the purple Gem's tank top. "That's my friend! Let's help her!"

"Wait, wait!"

The Gem pointed down the hall beside them, where Peridot's form was shrinking away and away. Steven's mind split in two, one going to Lapis, the other going to Peridot.

"We have to go get her," he told the stranger. "She has to know she's not alone."

"She knows, man, just—"

"She has to know we're here!"

The Gem's eyes were narrowed, but they were also pleading, and her harsh whisper was too desperate for Steven. "She's fine! Pearl isn't. Please."

And though Steven wanted so badly to run to that cell and let Lapis go and hug her and tell her everything was going to be okay, he knew that the stranger was right. Being alone in a cell was infinitely better than being alone in an interrogation chamber. Especially since neither Jasper nor Peridot seemed to have much care for Lapis at all.

So when he turned away from Lapis, and he and the stranger quickly pitter-patted after Peridot, she turned over her shoulder and told Steven, "We'll come back for her, I promise."

He looked back one last time and wondered if he saw Lapis looking after him or if he was mistaken.

They followed Peridot down one last curved hall before they finally got to some deviation: a staircase. The yellow steps disappeared into the floor, and Steven was held back from seeing any closer. Peridot's form dipped down and out of sight. The stranger kept Steven back just a moment longer before pursuing her.

Once the stairs came to the lower floor—Steven felt the temperature pick up as they stepped down—there was a left turn. Steven and the Gem once again took cover behind a wall to observe.

Steven didn't really know what to call the place they were in. It was wide-open, with a floor clear of anything. It would have been dim if it weren't for the…thing against the northern wall. It was a great, ovular ball of what looked to Steven like pure, hot yellow energy. The walls around the thing were sprouted in green veins like a ribcage. Something told Steven that it was the "heart-drive", though he wasn't sure.

There were all of three other things in the place: a great triangular door on the far wall, sealed tight, a wall of various gizmos and gadgets, and a long platform against the darkest side of the room. There wasn't anything on the platform besides a bunch of flat circles on the surface. Steven had no earthly idea what it could have been.

While Peridot went over to the wall of gizmos and gadgets, she paid no mind to the loud banging coming from the sealed door. It was like a heartbeat, a consistent thump-thump-thump with no pause. The stranger did mind it, though. Her eyes flickered from Peridot to the door with great urgency.

The only place to hide was the stairs, and Peridot was too close to the wall of whatever for them to risk a surprise attack. So they waited.

Peridot walked past the great array of objects, and Steven took a second to look at them. He recognized a few of the 'destabilizers' that Jasper had poofed Opal with, and the sight made him anxious, like seeing the tools at the dentist. The other things Steven did not recognize—discs, tubes, caps, wands, things that could have been tools but did not look like any tube Steven recognized. They were all packed tight, too, without an inch of space between them.

Peridot pressed a little square beside the array, and a small work table glided out of the wall for her. The only thing she grabbed from the wall was a tool that was almost a screwdriver…without the actual screwdriving part on it. It just had a little bulb at the end.

She laid her tractor-beam hand onto the table and held the tool with the other, and never gave mind to the consistent banging in the background. The bulb lit up, and when Peridot brought it to her damaged tractor-beam-whatever, it glowed as well. Peridot pulled it back, and with it, a few chips and shards of the broken glass. She had to repeat the process several times, and shook her hand out for good measure once she was done. A little dusting of green shards was spread over the table.

Then Peridot set the tool down and went back to the wall. Her eyes were trained on something near the top—more tractor-beam glasses, Steven saw when he followed her gaze. They looked like little cone-shaped crystals. There was a little strip of six of them.

Peridot set her feet apart, and like a car jack, her calves began to lift up from her ankles. Little rods attacked them and cranked and cranked, lifting Peridot higher and higher. She was very unamused by the process.

Steven and the stranger looked to the far door. The banging had not stopped its rhythm, but it was harder now, sharper. Peridot seemed to notice but did nothing, just reaching up for another glass—

BOOM.

Peridot jumped high at the great sound that exploded from the door. She almost fell off her elevated legs. Steven watched her eyes narrow and her lips curl, and without even getting a new tractor-beam glass, she turned away from the tool board and crossed the floor. Her legs shrunk smaller with each step, and she was at her normal height when she got to the door.

Once there, she glared at it like it was the person sealed inside and cried, "Would you stop?!"

The response she got was another great BOOM, and she was close enough to be swayed by it.

Peridot straightened up and bristled like a bomb ready to drop. And she did, shaking her arms and trembling and spit flying from her mouth. It reminded Steven very much of a child having a temper tantrum, and honestly, the ferocity of it made him worry for Peridot.

"I am above you!" she shrilled. "And you are beneath me! You. Are. Worthless! You will do as I say as a Pearl and nothing more! Go against me one more time, I dare you to!"

She glared with the fury of a thousand fires at the door, still shaking.

It was silent.

Peridot visibly calmed. She straightened up. Her shoulders stopped heaving with her breaths. Her lips sealed over her teeth once again. She stared at the door for a few seconds more, surprise written on her face, then smug satisfaction.

She turned away with a chuckle. "Can't wait to tell how I put a Pearl in her pla—"

BOOM.

Peridot stopped cold in her tracks. A sort of still, tranquil fury seemed to overtake her, because she didn't move or even really blink. She just stared, half-lidded, straight ahead of her. Her breaths came out normal, yet Steven felt an indescribable fear inside him. Like waiting for a firework to shoot.

She didn't. Instead, she just walked, very calmly, to the little panel on the wall beside the door. She raised her hand to it. Her fingers begin to twiddle and press and swipe, and Steven and the stranger couldn't see a thing she was doing.

Steven felt a hand on his shoulder. "You need to take care of the door."

"What?"

"I'll take away the giant booger. You just need to get Pearl out of there."

"Um—"

"Ready?"

"No."

"Good."

She ran out of their hiding spot without any other warning.

Instead of going to Peridot, however, she went to the tool board. She skidded to a stop in front of it, and with little effort, managed to jump a good eight feet into the air. At the peak of her height, she swiped all the tractor-beam glasses from the board and hugged them to her chest.

She came back down on her feet, and with a bit of a crazed smile, turned around and cried, "HEY, NERD!"

If Gems could be killed from surprise, Peridot would have dropped dead at that moment. Instead, she shrieked, jumping and spinning around in one fluid movement.

The purple Gem picked up one of the glasses and waved it around like a stolen toy. "Can't wait to use these on Jasper~!"

Peridot stared for another few good seconds. It was taking her a long time to process what was happening, it seemed.

But then she jumped again, and she was running, flailing her arms at the stranger in a way that was far more sporadic than intimidating. It took Steven a second to realize, but Peridot did not seem angry at the purple Gem. He saw fear in her eyes. Perhaps she was scared of the stranger, or the thought of Jasper being confronted, or the thought of Jasper confronting her about being confronted.

"Put those back," she cried out. "Get back here!"

The purple Gem blew a loud raspberry at her, and then she was running to and past Steven and up the stairs. Steven threw himself back against the wall on instinct. Peridot came to him, and though he saw a flash of panic in her eyes, she seemed to shrink back from him as she pursued the stranger.

Then, Steven was alone.

"I'm still not ready…"

First he wondered why they couldn't just approach Peridot and try to convince her while she was away from the tractor-beam glasses or any other weapons. Then he wondered why Peridot didn't grab a destabilizer before she pursued the purple Gem. Then he wondered what the plan was supposed to be after he got Pearl out of the chamber—

Pearl was still in the chamber.

His body was moving before his mind, it seemed. He stumbled and ran across the floor, his bare feet slapping down with each step.

Peridot had done something on the panel, but when Steven came up to it, it had nothing more than two circles and a rectangle. One circle was red, the other green and a little larger. He wasn't sure, but something told him that the green one was 'on', so he touched the red one instead.

Something hummed down like a computer calming from function. When nothing else happened, Steven touched the rectangle like it was a 'back' button, and it seemed to be. Another screen appeared, and this time, Steven truly did not know what to do. There were so many options and buttons, and it was an interrogation room, so Steven really didn't want to tinker around with them.

But he had to open the door somehow. So he took a step back and took a breath.

"Even though she's not here, I will now channel Ruby's wisdom."

He punched the panel.

Steven knew he was stronger than a boy his age usually was, so he was surprised, but not absolutely, when the panel shattered beneath his fist. Sparks flew and chips fell to his feet. The impact bit at his flesh, and he pulled back.

At the very least, it seemed to work well enough. The door lifted up a foot and some inches from the floor. Some kind of opaque mustard-yellow gas gusted out onto the floor like cold steam from a fridge. It tickled warm against Steven's bare feet.

He took a second to just go ahead and pull his sandals back on. Then he held the door in his hands and lifted up, hard, as if pulling up a window.

More gas poured outside, and finally came to Steven's face. It was foul. Steven sputtered and coughed, but not because it really smelled foul, it just made him feel like it. It made his head spin and his limbs wobble like jelly. It was a big whiff of chlorine, it felt like. Still, he had enough control to flail and windmill his arms until the fumes ghosted away.

When he opened his eyes again, the gas was low on the floor and slowly dispersing. Behind the door, he could see the "interrogation chamber", which didn't have as much in it as he thought. It was actually kind of small, with nothing in it but a little platform with another panel. He took it as the "pressure chamber" mentioned before.

There was something else in the room, a round white thing that Steven could not see clearly. It was held in the shapeless form of…something. It was caught in colors and flashes, like a living glitch. Steven's first idea was that it was some kind of weapon, and that he should run.

But then he realized that it was the way it was because of the gas. The fumes were scattering its form the way gas scatters light.

So Steven stepped closer to the thing and started waving and wafting the gas away. With each movement, its form pieced together a little more, until it would just flicker and flash every other moment. The nausea slowly went away from Steven, too, and soon it was just a few wisps on the floor to bother them.

The thing finally took its form, and Steven realized he was looking at Pearl.

When she came to, she was on her side in a fetal position, with her legs to her chest. Her limbs were long and slender, her physique that of a ballerina. Her clothes, too. Most of them were simple, a high-necked teal tunic, short amber leggings, and pink socks up to her calves. But there was also a silky blue sash around her waist, and it tied into a great big bow in the back, the ribbons strewn on the floor. Her shoes were blue ballet flats.

She was very pretty, in a delicate kind of way, like Lapis and Sapphire. Her nose was pointed, her lips were thin but plush, and her strawberry-blonde hair was swept up from her head in a way that reminded Steven of pixies in fairytale books. Her skin was lily-white.

Her hands were over her forehead, and she was shaking, and Steven thought that she was trying to say something. He went to her side and hovered his hands over her form while it worked out its glitches. Then he realized she wasn't trying to talk, she was humming, a five-note tune that sounded familiar, but Steven couldn't place his finger on it. She did not seem to notice him at all.

"Hey, hey, hey. Are you okay?"

'Pearl' went still, and she peeled her hands away from her head to look up at Steven. She had big, blue eyes, and something about them made Steven pause. Perhaps because she looked so surprised to see him.

The white, round thing from before was actually her Gem. It was in her forehead, above her eyes, and framed by her hair.

She didn't reply to what Steven said, so he tried again.

"Are you okay?"

Suddenly, Pearl sat up pin-straight, and though Steven pulled back from her, her hands went to his elbows.

"Are you okay?" she demanded. She had a nice voice, even though it was pitchy with panic.

She didn't wait for Steven to reply. Instead, her hands went all over him, touching his hands and his knees and his elbows like a mother after her child fell of their bike. She didn't waste long on much else, though, as her focus was mainly on his face. Steven still didn't know how badly Jasper had hurt him. He just hoped it wasn't as bad as it felt, though the way Pearl frowned and groaned as her fingertips dusted over the tender skin, he guessed it was.

"Ooh, ooh…" she fussed. "Was it Jasper?"

And though Steven could not for the life of him—even if it was really appreciated and heartwarming—understand why this stranger seemed so distressed with him being hurt, he nodded and replied, "Yeah. But I'm fine."

"Good."

Then her face twisted, lips curling back, blue eyes narrowing at nothing, and she seethed, "She won't be when I get my hands on her."

Steven held out his hands to her, and helped her to her feet. As she stood straight, Steven realized how tall she was. His head came up to her chest.

"How long have you been down here?" he asked.

She groaned. "I have no idea. I hate it, but I always take so long to reform, and when I finally did, she tried to force me into the pressure chamber, and I managed to break her tractor beam, but then she just locked me in and then she came back and started squabbling about how she was above me and I was below her and—"

She took a deep breath. She smiled at Steven, and though it was comforting, it was also cold. "I'm fine now."

"Okay. Well, listen, let me explain everything."

She waited, wide-eyed, but Steven didn't speak for a long time.

"Too much to explain. Let me sum up. Me and my friends are on this ship, too, and me and your friend broke out already."

Her wide-eyes went wider. "Amethyst?"

"Gesundheit."

"No, my friend, Amethyst. She's already out?"

"Oh, yeah! I guess. She didn't really tell me her name. She had to distract Peridot so I could get you out but—"

Pearl clenched her fists with newfound determination. Eyes full of fire, she declared, "Then we have to find her!"

She held the pose a second longer. Then she held a hand out to Steven. "Hold Pearl's hand."

Steven obeyed and slid his hand into hers. Then they were both running side-by-side, hand-in-hand to the stairs—

Pearl skidded to a stop, and she let go of Steven's hand to go to the wall of gizmos. The only thing she grabbed was one of the destabilizers, and she fiddled with it until the power shocked through its prongs. She gave herself an affirmative nod.

But when she went to take Steven's hand again, he didn't allow it and instead asked, "I don't think we need one of those."

Pearl's face softened somberly. She leaned down to Steven, keeping the destabilizer far away from him even though she'd already turned it off.

"Steven," she sighed, "I know this is a very scary situation, but you need to understand—"

"Get two."

"I—Do-wha?"

The baffled look on her face would have made him laugh, but instead Steven just shook his head.

"Look," he sighed, "I don't like that we're here…but we're here. And I really, really wished that Peridot or whoever else came with her would see the Earth and say 'it's not so bad' and leave us alone and maybe we would all chill and play video games and eat popcorn or whatever, but it didn't happen. And everyone knew it wasn't going to happen…except me. They were all preparing for the worst while I wanted to pretend for the best."

He swallowed the lump in his throat. Pearl stared.

"I think if we talked to them, Peridot and Jasper could let us go. Maybe we could convince them that the Earth is good, and we're good, and they don't have to do this…because everyone deserves second chances. But we can't talk to them. Not right now. So we have to do what we have to do."

He didn't say anything else than that.

Pearl grabbed a second destabilizer.

While they ran through the maze-like halls of the ship, keeping their ears and eyes open, Steven wondered if Jasper had any idea what was going on. Three prisoners had escaped, and one was practically torturing the Peridot Jasper had been sent with, yet Steven had yet to hear an alarm or see some kind of flashing red light anywhere. If she did notice, Steven could only hope that she hadn't gone to Lapis to get information she didn't have.

When they found themselves in the first two-way split, Pearl stopped. She brought a hand to her chin, and Steven saw gears turning in her head. She had the two destabilizers in one hand.

"We're at the heart of the ship right now," she mumbled to herself. "If I have the layout correct, then going left will take us to the first-level and the cockpit. Going right will take us to the third level. That's where they keep high-up Gems and prisoners-of-interest. Stars know where Amethyst has taken Peridot, or where Jasper could be in this moment."

"So…" Steven thought aloud, "We could either go left and try to take control of the ship, or go right and get everyone else. Or we could split up—"

"No."

"Okay."

"I say left," said Pearl. "If they already set a course for Homeworld, we'll want to stop it before it leaps."

"But if we do that, then Jasper's going to figure out what's going on and come for us."

"A fair point." Pearl continued to mumble, "Although if I can calculate the time accordingly, if I manage to put redirecting to Earth on a timer, then we could keep it going while we go get the others, though such a process would take at least three minutes, even if we ran. I can only hope I can understand how the system works, whether it's audio-mechanical or not, if the codes will be in a different binary than what I'm used to, assuming the large percentage of failure that would have—"

From the left, Jasper's voice boomed down the hall, "WHERE IS SHE?!"

Then they were running again, with just a quick "Right-Tighty!" from Pearl.

After several minutes of blind jogging, jumping at every sound, looking down every hall, rounding past every corner, Pearl squeezed Steven's hand in hers and asked, "Can you run faster?" In a gentler voice, she said, "You're doing perfect, but can you run faster?"

A nearby yell made them freeze.

A second later, Peridot appeared before them, running so fast that she skidded three feet around a corner. But instead of pursuing, she was now the pursued, it seemed. She almost did not see them, because her eyes were trained behind her.

"Just leave me alone," she cried out.

Then she saw Pearl and Steven.

For a long time, they all just stared at each other.

Pearl held up a destabilizer in either hand, glaring.

So Peridot was once again fleeing, and her one-note cry of terror faded out of hearing.

Somewhere, a familiar voice cried out, "Hello?"

Steven at first considered reminding Pearl that they still had Jasper to worry about, but he didn't have time to stop her before she responded with a call of "Amethyst?"

And that call was met with "Pearl?", and Steven had to stumble to keep up with the white Gem.

Something about Amethyst must have called Pearl like a honing device, because she was suddenly speeding through the halls like she had the whole place memorized. She almost seemed to forget that Steven was behind her, and he only knew otherwise because when he stumbled again, she paused, then kept running.

Somehow, they ended up in another wide-open room, and it looked so similar to the one they were in before that Steven guessed that they were actually above it. It was much brighter here, and the floor held a symbol of three diamonds Steven recognized but couldn't figure out how he did. The whole ceiling was clear glass, and he could see the many stars beyond it. A shooting star streaked silver and disappeared.

For a second, Pearl waited, and stepped back when nothing came. But just as she turned her shoulder to run elsewhere, a purple Gem slipped in from the other side of the room.

Eyes locked with eyes. Two destabilizers and six tractor-beam glasses hit the floor.

Steven blinked, and Pearl and Amethyst were together. Pearl, several feet taller than Amethyst, fell on her knees and into Amethyst's arms at the same time. Pearl's arms went around Amethyst's neck gently, as if to comfort a scared child, her face buried into soft white hair. Amethyst squeezed so tight around Pearl's slim waist. And they just held each other, eyes squeezed shut.

Steven didn't know Amethyst or Pearl, but he couldn't help but smile at them.

After a long time, they pulled back, Amethyst wiping tears away before they even fell. She sniffed hard, enough for her nose to kind of burble, and it made Pearl give a sad chuckle.

Amethyst smiled even though her eyes still watered. "You good?"

"'M good," Pearl replied. "You?"

"No." Amethyst's smile turned into a bitter frown like the flick of a switch. The hands now around Pearl's arms tightened. "I tried to get you, but they threw me into a cell and they took you away while you were still in your Gem—"

"I know. It's not—"

"—and I tried to go after you, but the yellow do-bee-bobber-thingy kept me back, and the giant cheese-puff kept screaming at me—"

"—Ame, look—"

"—and she kept yelling about how I was a worthless runt, and I was defective, and how nothings like me were—"

"You are not nothing."

Pearl's words were comforting but her voice was stern, and Amethyst shut her wobbling lips. She swiped at a stray tear on her cheek and let out a shaky breath. Pearl put a hand on her shoulder.

"Yeah, well…" She shrugged. "You're not worthless."

A harsh laugh bubbled out of Pearl's throat. She reached up and ran her fingers through her soft hair, even though there wasn't a strand out of place.

"I'm serious," Amethyst told her.

Pearl nodded.

Then Amethyst grinned. "Alright, come here."

"Wha—Hey!"

While Pearl was still kneeling, Amethyst swept her off her feet like it was nothing. Pearl squawked, and her arms flailed for a moment, but Amethyst just guffawed. Pearl tried and failed to pout. They were both laughing, and it made Pearl shake in Amethyst's arms, and Steven didn't say anything, but he still smiled because he couldn't help it.

Amethyst tossed Pearl up into the air, and it succeeded in another squeal, but she was smiling this time. Steven's grin grew wider as Pearl came back down—

—and jumped when she and Amethyst turned into light.

It was so bright; he almost could not keep his eyes on them. Their Gems were caught in one single shape, and it had no form, but it was spinning like a top, and it was like it was scattering glittering light all around it. They were laughing still, but their laughs turned into echoes, and then blended together into one surreal melody. Then it really did get too bright for Steven to keep staring and he shielded his eyes with his hands.

They burst like a firework.

And then Opal was laughing.

And she was laughing and spinning and hugging herself with her arms. She still had tears running down her cheeks but she didn't bother to wipe them away. She was so much brighter, too—her colors were vivid and her hair, snow white before, glimmered silver when it caught the light. She was so full of life it danced off of her and she didn't stop laughing even when she was stumbling in her dizziness.

She finally stopped and wiped away her tears even though she didn't stop smiling. Her eyes fluttered open, now with a gleam of purple in them, and they finally fell on Steven. The smile slipped off in her surprise, but unlike on the beach, when her surprise had come at the cost of poofing, she was soon smiling once again, and she went down on her knees with her arms held wide.

"Steven!"

Steven's brain had shut down in his shock, but then he was running into Opal's arms and throwing his arms around her shoulders and squeezing tight while she squeezed him.

"Opal," he cried, "You're a fusion!"

He felt more than heard her chuckle. "Yes." She paused. "I always thought it was kind of obvious."

He pulled back from her, and then he couldn't stop the questions from spilling from his lips.

"You've been a fusion this whole time? Every single day? You're two people all the time? So, like, every moment we've had together was also with Pearl and Amethyst? How long have you been like this? Do Ruby and Sapphire know who Pearl and Amethyst are? Wait, even if you're Pearl and Amethyst, you're also Opal, so I've never really met Pearl and Amethyst even if they're you so did I make a good first impression or did I screw something up because if Pearl and Amethyst are listening, I swear I'm not this annoying, I was just scared and—"

"Steven?"

"Yeah?"

"You can't make bad first impressions on people who already love you."

"Oh. Cool."

Opal chuckled and pressed a kiss to his forehead.

"Oh!" Steven pulled away. "We still have to—"

Opal didn't let him finish. With one fluid movement, she swept him behind her and stood up. Steven—his height was closer to her thigh now, so he thought that maybe she had shrunken a bit—looked past her leg to see what was wrong.

Jasper stood in the doorway farthest from them. Her face was flat but full of fire.

Steven tensed up behind Opal, but she didn't react. She just clenched her jaw and glared Jasper down.

Jasper stepped closer. A sigh hissed through her teeth. "I guess I should thank you. Now your imminent deaths will be all the more satisfying to me."

Opal simply clicked her tongue and looked down at Steven. Patting his curly hair gently, she told him, "Go back to the split and head left. When you get to the cockpit—"

Jasper cut her off with a gruff, "I'm talking to you, fusion! You—"

"Shush."

Jasper's lips clamped shut, not so much out of fear, but more of annoyance. She fixed the taller Gem with a flat but icy glare, which Opal ignored in favor of turning back to Steven. She was remarkably calm, he noted.

"When you get to the cockpit—" She leaned down a little more and whispered so that Jasper could not hear. "—see what you can do about the cell system."

Steven nodded, but asked, "Are you sure you'll be okay?"

She smiled a little, and chuckled under her breath.

"Trust me, Steven. She's outnumbered."

That was all he needed. He sent Opal one last smile of reassurance, and took off running.

Once he was gone, Opal turned back to Jasper. Her great hands were clenched into fists, her glare only intensifying when Opal met her eyes. Opal was largely unimpressed. Even without moving, she could see the fire bubbling inside Jasper, could see her composure crumbling like snow. Losing control over the situation was digging deeper under her skin than she was letting show.

"I don't know why she's so weak," said Jasper, "but the Peridot can take care of her."

"Not when the Peridot's been taken care of."

Jasper paused, staring at Opal expressionlessly for a long time. Taking a deep breath, her yellow eyes rolled up to the stars above them, clearly annoyed but not surprised. Her head shook side-to-side.

"Anyway." Opal rolled her shoulders back. "Thanks for being patient."

Jasper raised a brow. "Don't. I just didn't want to get you while you were distracted again. I came here to take care of some traitors—which I did—but I wanted something interesting, not two blubbering idiots and another two bubbling idiots fused together. Give me a good fight this time."

"Usually, I really don't like taking orders from Homeworld cronies like you. This time, however, I will say 'Gladly.'"

Jasper—after looking maybe a little impressed for a moment—clicked her tongue and crossed her arms over her chest. They peeked out from her long cape, showing the dark stripes on her right bicep. "I can see why two defectives would try and pretend to be something they're not, but your dedication is appalling. I already know what you are. If either of you have any dignity, you'd own up to it."

"How eloquent. Maybe I'd listen, if I cared. At all." Opal sighed. "Look, we're kind of on a time crunch here. Let's just fight so I can beat you and then we'll see what happens next."

Jasper barked a laugh, great enough to show off her rows of white teeth. Even with her smile, her eyes were burning with both zeal and anger. "That's a bold statement! You really think you're gonna beat—!"

"Did I stutter?"

The smile slipped from Jasper's face. With a calm but near-predatory slowness, she reached into the back beneath her cape and withdrew the same destabilizer that had bested Opal just hours earlier. With a flick of her wrist, it activated, hot yellow power buzzing through the spines. She awaited Opal to draw her bow, but she didn't.

Instead, Opal smiled and stretched her arms out. "And by the way, you have no idea what I am.

This is Opal,
Back together.
And we're never going down at the hands of the likes of you
Because we're so much better.
And every part of me is saying,
'Let's get her!'"

Jasper stepped forward, and Opal did the same, walking to the three-triangle insignia in the middle of the room. Though a bit shorter after regeneration, Opal still stood taller than the orange Gem. Not that it mattered—with her sheer mass and bright eyes, Jasper seemed just as big as her, two giants standing a few mere feet apart. Jasper was glaring. Opal was still smiling.

"The two of us aren't gonna listen to your rules.
Try and stop me without any of your fancy tools."

Opal looked at the destabilizer, and Jasper held it up as a warning. Sparks flickered sharp between the spines. Opal finally reached up to Pearl's Gem, and another garish grin came to Jasper's face, and Opal knew why—what fool would use a long-distance weapon in a hand-to-hand fight?

"Let's go, just you and me."

But Opal wasn't a fool, which is why instead of her bow, a long white spear with a curled but sharp blade appeared in her hand. Jasper's grip on the destabilizer tightened.

"Let's go, while it's just us three."

They clashed.

The prongs of the destabilizer and the blade of the spear met in quick, sharp collisions. Opal was elegant, kept her back straight and her chin high, moving the spear almost like a ribbon, or a sword. Jasper was fierce and threw everything she had into every swing. Opal knew that Jasper was breaking, and Jasper knew that she knew, breaking her further. Jasper was trying to keep ahead, to prove that the fusion wasn't worth everything that a soldier like her had—but at the same time, she was fighting down the temptation to let loose.

Jasper forced Opal back, and Opal did the same, toes and boots stomping and dancing across the floor. All through it, they kept their eyes on each other, calm blue on hot yellow.

"Go ahead and try to beat us if you're able
I think it's about time we turn the tables
I can see you hate the way we are together,"

Opal darted to the side, catching Jasper off-guard. Her next swing met nothing, her feet stumbling forward. Opal had just thrown a log into the fire, and she knew it, because when Jasper turned to her with a snarl, she just raised the spear and smiled wider.

"But I think you're just mad 'cause we're better."

"You're not gonna stop what we are together.
We are gonna stay like this forever."

Jasper went to stab the destabilizer into Opal's waist, but with a quick swipe of the spear, it instead went up into the air. Opal caught it with two free hands, another still holding the spear, the other simply resting on her hip. For a second, she dangled the destabilizer teasingly where Jasper could not reach it, and then snapped the thing in half with almost no effort. Jasper's face twisted as the useless pieces clattered to the floor.

"You can break us apart, but we'll come back stronger."

Jasper's crash helmet appeared on her head, and she stanced herself, legs apart, eyes trained on the spear. It was almost what Opal wanted—almost. Jasper was cracking, the instinct-like prowess of a Quartz soldier rising, but she was still trying to best her. She was trying to analyze Opal like any other obstacle. So to get where she wanted, Opal could not be easy to read.

Which is why she threw her spear aside and let it burst against the wall. From Amethyst's Gem she withdrew a long whip that split into gemstone-tipped cattails.

"'Cause you can't keep us pinned down any longer."

Jasper lunged forward, and Opal did the same.

"I am made
O-o-o-o-of
Lo-o-o-o-ove!
O-o-o-o-oh!"

Finding the cockpit was easier than Steven thought. It had a hexagon-shaped door, and many of the glassy yellow veins ran through its walls. Much like the cockpit of a plane, it had many clear windows, although these showed a great display of stars beyond the glass. There was a curved control panel with a hovering green chair, and Steven ran forward to it.

He immediately knew that there was no way he could figure this out. He didn't understand the symbols and the buttons and the whatever-else that was spread before him. He thought Pearl's cell was hard to open—this was impossible. How was he supposed to do anything, like Opal asked?

The right side of the panel—the only one physical, like a tablet back on Earth, while the others were holograms—caught his attention then. The screen, even if he couldn't read it, was set up like a list of buttons, and each button had a small video feed of the cells on the ship. Many of the buttons were unlit and showed empty cells with no yellow fields. Two of them did have the fields activated, but showed no one within the cells.

Only two video feeds on the screen showed any prisoners. He could see the red and blue shapes of Ruby and Sapphire, Ruby curled into a ball in the corner, Sapphire pacing around her cell in circles.

On a guess, Steven pressed on Ruby's button, and he watched the power field fall. Ruby, alarmed, sprung to her feet, but did not move. He pressed Sapphire's button next, and though she paused, she near-immediately darted out into the hall and out of sight. Steven knew that her future vision would lead her straight to Ruby, so he turned back to the holograms and swallowed.

The whip lashed at Jasper faster than she could react. Even without blood or flesh, it cut at her skin, snapping at her face and arms. Each cut made her growl louder, until the cattails wrapped around her broad waist.

Opal pulled Jasper forward to her and struck her cheek with her foot. She did the same with the other, swapping her footing in one graceful turn, but Jasper finally caught her. Her fingers clamped down on Opal's calf, and as she had done earlier on the beach, she swung the fusion up over her head and brought her down, hard. The impact was great enough to make the floor cave and crack.

Before Opal could recover, Jasper reared above her and brought her crash helmet down onto her belly. Opal was pushed further into the floor, like a second shockwave, bending in on herself with a grunt. But while Jasper was still bent over her, she grabbed hold of her shoulders and used her as leverage to pull herself up and out.

She flipped over Jasper and back on her toes, albeit a bit more scuffed and scratched than before. But she just pulled out a second whip and beckoned Jasper closer.

The second the door opened, Sapphire zipped into the cockpit, Ruby trailing behind her with a great cry of "VIVE LA RÉVOLUCION!"

Sapphire gave Steven the quickest hug possible, hardly a second of wrapping her arms around him, before she went to the controls. Her fingers went into the holograms, and Steven saw her body stiffen, saw some kind of electricity buzz through her arms.

Ruby, after doing a quick pick-up-and-spin embrace with Steven, went to Sapphire's side and looked on with her. Sapphire's fingers weren't really maneuvering so much as twitching directionless through the buttons and switches.

"What do we have to do?" asked Ruby.

"Just gotta use m' future vision to see," Sapphire replied, but her words were slurred and rose up and down. She almost seemed intoxicated, especially when she began to sway side-to-side. "Just got to press this button and boop this'n and beep-dee-bop another here…gotta ship this steer back to Earth and uh…heh…the lights are purty…"

"Alright, alright, alright." Ruby pulled Sapphire back from the holograms. The second her gloved fingers were free, Sapphire was shaking her head clear, groaning as if she had a bad headache. "Future vision and electro-babble don't work at the same time. Just give me instructions."

She cracked her fingers straight, rolled her shoulders back, and thrust her fingers into the hologram. Her composure broke instantly. Her irises vanished, her eyes turning into green static in their sockets, all while she cried out, "THE LIGHTS ARE NOT PURTY."

While Sapphire tried to instruct her with 'press-this-then-that', Steven looked around to the other controls. He felt like he was forgetting something, but what was it? He'd come to the cockpit, set Ruby and Sapphire out, so they were all together…

Steven's eyes went to the screen with the video feeds and the buttons. Stepping over, he swiped his finger across it like his phone, and the buttons scrolled up. Three swipes, and he found the final lit button, with its little image of a blue Gem sitting with her head in her hands.

He deactivated the field of the cell. Without letting Sapphire or Ruby respond, Steven ran out of the room and called over his shoulder, "I'll be back in just a second!"

There was an uncountable time of clashing between Opal and Jasper. The whip cracked, the helmet collided, fists pounded into flesh, bodies ducked and darted. Loose cloth and white hair were flying everywhere. For every blow, there was retaliation—Jasper clocked Opal across the face, she kicked her legs out from beneath her. Opal lashed the whip across Jasper's chest; Jasper crashed her helmet into hers.

Then there was a break—Opal managing to wrap both of her whips tight across Jasper's limbs. It was like trying to contain a beast, the way Jasper pulled and twisted, all while Opal pulled the whip tighter. Jasper's growls grew louder, her teeth and eyes flashing with each spin of her head, and Opal took a breath.

Giving the whips just a bit of slack, she raised them both over her head and swung down hard. Neon purple power surged through the whips' lengths, almost like electricity through a powerline, and went right to Jasper.

Jasper let out something like a roar as the power sparked and snapped and bit at her, crackling in the air and the whips tight around her limbs. Opal felt her pull weaken, and loosened her grip in preparation for a final strike.

Opal was no perfect fighter herself, though, and did not catch on that Jasper was putting on an act. Once the fusion had lightened her hold, Jasper, much like how Amethyst had done in her cell, curled her body into a ball. But unlike Amethyst, when Jasper spun, some kind of sparking white blaze revved with her. The whips and their charge were swallowed in with Jasper.

Opal hardly had time to duck before the sparking fireball that was Jasper came zipping for her. Jasper tore across the floor and up the walls, not stopping until she spun up to the glass ceiling. Even then, it was only so she could bounce off of it and strike down on Opal from above.

The collision was great and confusing. Dust and debris, combustion like lightning, consumed the air. The floor was pierced through like simple paper by Jasper and Opal both. Opal, and probably Jasper, did not fully comprehend the impact, instead letting it pass in a haze, the one lull they would take on together.

Once it was over, and the falling stopped, Opal breathed. She was cut and tattered, covered in dust, her skin covered in bloodless scratches that would heal later. Her hair was ratty and tangled. She was thankful that she had not been destroyed yet again, that she was not separated, but it took a minute to gain control of all her limbs together. Things came to her one by one: she was on her back, missing her whips, in a place that would only have yellow light if it weren't for the hole in the ceiling above—the lower level, where Pearl had been prisoner, where the heart-drive of the ship rested.

She finally managed to pull herself up to her toes, swaying a bit, shaking her head. Jasper was still standing, in no better shape than Opal—cut, tattered, dusty, the glass of her helmet cracked. She was shaking, either from the lasting effect of power surge or the buzz of the fight. Opal could feel it, too, a buzz—some kind of determination in her very Gems not to lose and keep fighting.

"Opal is who we are.
Opal is who I am.
You might as well get used to it,
'cause you won't take me down again."

She withdrew another spear, and another whip, and watched Jasper smile once more. It was the most garish she'd ever seen, showing her teeth and her gums, twisting up her cheeks and eyes.

"We're tired of bowing down to you
It's about time to meet your end."

The smile told Opal that Jasper thought she had already won—that she'd already broken Opal, had finally proven that Opal was exactly the insignificant nothing Jasper had claimed she was.

But it also told Opal that she'd won, too, not the fight, but her plan. Jasper was completely unhinged. She didn't care about her mission or the war or Homeworld or Earth. It was just the two of them and the need to win to Jasper. But that was the exact opposite of Opal, who cared about far too many things to let Jasper take her down again.

"You're not going to hurt my planet.
You're not going to hurt my friends."

Jasper's helmet met the spear, her hand caught the whip, she dodged the stabs while Opal ducked from the charges. The sharp clacks rang in the air, over the quick thumps of feet on the floor. They were fighting raw and graceless. Neither of them were reading the other anymore and lived in the moment and the moment only.

"Go ahead and try to beat me if you're able.
I think it's time we turn the tables."

Jasper once again clocked Opal across the face, and she returned the favor, hard enough to shatter the visor of Jasper's helmet. The next time Opal swung forward, she caught the way Jasper dodged back, when before she had ducked from side-to-side. So Opal stabbed the spear forward, and Jasper pulled back, and she lashed the whip, and Jasper pulled herself away.

"You think that you have what it takes to beat me?
I'm something much more that you can't see."

This time, it was Opal's turn to smile, as she watched Jasper slowly cower further and further away from her. Jasper was waiting to strike a finishing blow, but she couldn't do that without an opening that Opal would not give. The room seemed not to matter, even as they backed further and further into the darkness, feet stumbling and toes gliding.

"I am so much more than the two of them
Everything that they care about is what I am.
I am their fear.
I am their courage."

With one final kick to the chest, Jasper was almost pushed to falling down. But by the time she regained her footing, she was not looking at Opal—she was looking at the bright white bow aimed directly at her chest.

"I am a syncopation."

Opal let the bowstring go.

It was like lighting a match, the way glittering dust and a shockwave of force went through the air. It was enough to lift her hair and the drape of her top, but she smiled nonetheless. With the one arrow, she knew that she had won, and cared for Jasper no longer.

For a minute.

Jasper was completely thrown back, flying through the air, only stopping when she hit the far wall. It was a hard collision, almost as hard as the arrow strike itself, and she landed hard on the platform against the wall.

She was already down, but while Opal was thinking about what to do—should she poof her, leave her, talk her down?—the floor beneath her lit up bright green.

Neither of them had time to react.

Jasper was swallowed up in a great, glassy orb and disappeared just as quickly.

Escape pod, Opal realized.

By the time Lapis Lazuli finally realized that the field to her cell had been lifted, Steven had already arrived.

The two of them stared at each other for a long time, though Steven wasn't sure why. Maybe it was shock, or just a calm. Relief, maybe? It didn't last long.

He held a hand out to her, but she took a step back. Her fingers twitched and curled.

"Come on," Steven begged.

Lapis stumbled for words at first. Clambering up to her feet, she stuttered, "Th-The others will find us, Jasper and—"

"No, Lapis. We won. Everything's okay."

She did not seem convinced, so he turned his hand palm-up.

"Everything's okay now, I promise."

Lapis was speechless, and stared at the hand extended to her.

Back in the cockpit, Ruby still had her fingers in the holograms; Sapphire was still murmuring instructions to her. Peridot, Jasper, and/or Opal had yet to appear, and too busy trying to turn the ship back on path to Earth to see if they would, Sapphire was speaking at a mile a minute.

"Turn off the one on the right," she told Ruby. "Then the green button."

"They are all green, Sapphire, for the last time!"

"The round one. Th-The one with the little triangle on it!"

"Okay, okay, and…"

Ruby finally pulled her hands free, and with her eyes clear once more, she gave a jubilant cry of "We did it!"

This was immediately followed by all the screens turning pure yellow as a robotic voice droned, "ENERGY OVERDRIVE. HEART-DRIVE INOPERABLE. COMPLETE FAILURE OF ALL SYSTEMS IN APPROXIMATELY ONE MINUTE."

This was followed by a low but loud siren, like a fire alarm. The holograms flickered away.

Ruby still had her arms in the air, and slowly lowered them as she processed what was happening. She turned to Sapphire and gave her a flat glare, saying nothing, while Sapphire twiddled her fingers and fidgeted in place.

"It messed up more with my future vision than I realized," she said meekly.

Then the ship began to tremble, slightly at first, then rumbling like an earthquake. Ruby and Sapphire stumbled on their feet. The siren grew louder. Outside the windows, the view of the stars began to pull back. The matter flowing through the veins on the walls stuttered to a stop.

In the below-level room, the eerie yellow light began to flicker, and Opal turned away from the launchpad to look at the heart-drive. It was swelling bigger and bigger, shocks of energy lashing out from the core. It was humming louder and louder, a bomb waiting to blow. The siren was wailing above her.

Casting one last look back at the launchpad, Opal leapt up into the air, through the hole in the ceiling just as the humming reached a peak.

As she was halfway to the cockpit, the heart-drive blew.

Everyone on the ship cried out as it gave a great lurch. Outside, a great blaze of smoke and neon fire burst out of the ship's palm. Debris blasted out into space. The fingers splayed as if the ship itself was in pain. Already falling back to Earth, the speed only increased.

The view of the cockpit was pulling back further and further, stars shrinking one by one. The quaking intensified as it tore through the atmosphere.

Opal stumbled into the cockpit. Ruby and Sapphire greeted her with unison cry of "Opal!"

"Where's Steven?" she demanded.

Just a second later, he appeared, he and Lapis connected by their hands. It was a very short moment, but tenseness crept into the cockpit. The Crystal Gems and Lapis looked at one another warily. Steven knew, but couldn't help, that they wouldn't really be happy to see one another. Lapis had not forgotten the long time she was trapped prisoner in a mirror, how the Crystal Gems had tried to lock her away instead of freeing her. The Crystal Gems had not forgotten the near-fatal encounter in the ocean. Neither side forgot that Lapis had essentially ratted them out, necessary or otherwise.

Their one shared link was Steven, and he pulled Lapis further into the room, stumbling as the ship lurched and swayed. The stars had all but washed out now, replaced by the dark fuzziness of atmosphere, and then clouds. The siren was still wailing, but they were ignoring it by that time. They all knew that ship was going down, but it was the collision on Earth that worried them.

"Everybody pile in," Opal barked to them.

Ruby hopped off the chair, grabbed Sapphire by the hand, and pulled her over to Opal. Steven did the same to Lapis, although she stumbled at first. The four Gems pushed Steven between them, and they all squeezed together, arms wrapping around arms, as close as they could manage.

"Bubble," Ruby cried.

With thankful speed, pink light erupted from Steven's Gem, blossoming up and around them. They were all pushed closer as the Bubble sealed together. Steven held his breath. He was still holding Lapis's hand, and he squeezed it tighter.

The crash was sudden and bone-shaking.

The Bubble and the Gems inside were tossed into the air. Outside, Steven heard the shrieking and groaning of twisting metal. The light faded away slowly, and there was darkness. Something was gurgling and bubbling. Things floated up and bumped against the Bubble.

Water. They had fallen into the ocean.

Lapis seemed to realize this as well, because she let go of Steven's hand to holds hers palm-up. Quickly but gently, the Bubble surged upwards. The darkness lightened bit-by-bit. The air in the Bubble began to stale, not helped by Steven's quick breaths.

Then it burst, and they hit the water.

For a moment, Steven floundered, salt water in his mouth and his eyes. He lost contact with the Gems, and his limbs moved uselessly.

He finally found his balance and kicked in place, spitting out water and wiping it from his eyes. He wiped away the drips falling down his forehead. Though it brought on some stinging tears, he looked up and around them.

The night sky was back to its original velvety blue color, and the stars reflected off the sloshing ocean waves. Smoke hung in the air. All around him, like buoys, debris bobbed and sunk into the depths. Much of it were small pieces, but the fingers were peeking up over the surface. Steven could see straight through an intact hallway to the other side. Somewhere, yellow light flickered and died.

Not too far away, about as big as his hand, he could see the Temple. Moon and starlight cast shadows across her stone features. He had left a light on within his Room—he could see the little orange squares of the windows. At the very least, they were home.

He heard splashing near him, and then arms were thrown around his shoulders. He floundered, then laughed, as Sapphire hugged him tight. She was smiling with pure, utter jubilee, even with the water heavy in her hair. Her bangs were pulled slick from her face, so Steven could see her blue eye twinkling.

Ruby splashed over to them, and once between them, she once again cried, "VIVE LA RÉVOLUCION!"

Steven and Sapphire echoed, "VIVE LA RÉVOLUCION!"

Opal's voice was the last to say it. She appeared almost instantly behind Steven, making him jump. She just laughed and ruffled his dripping-wet hair, did the same to Sapphire, then Ruby.

But Steven's smile hesitated. Turning left and right, he called out, "Lapis!"

"I'm over here!"

She glided over to them on a swell of water, standing on two feet. She still was not smiling, but she raised a hand to them. They, too, were lifted up into the air on a sturdy surge. Even though the water bubbled and frothed at his feet, Steven felt as if he was standing on solid ground.

Lapis joined them…at a distance. She and the Crystal Gems hesitated to make eye contact.

Steven was the first to break the silence.

"Well. We did it."

There were nods and smiles, but no replies.

"So, uh…" Steven cleared his throat. "Opal! You're a fusion!"

Ruby, wringing water out of her headband, sputtered. Rounding on Steven, she cried, "You met Pearl and Amethyst?!"

"Urgh…" Sapphire quietly groaned, pressing a palm to her forehead. "After years and years of dodging every possibility...I'm sorry, Opal."

Confused, Steven looked up at her, but Opal just smiled.

"It was supposed to be a birthday surprise," she said, sheepishly.

"Really?" Lapis's voice brought the Gems' attention to her. She, too, was smiling, small and a bit hesitant. "I thought it was obvious."

Opal laughed, quick and quiet, and Steven pouted. Lapis smiled a bit wider.

"It wasn't that obvious!" Steven threw his arms into the air. "You could shapeshift into a—a giant lobster, if you wanted! I didn't think four arms were weird!"

"Two Gems?"

"You didn't want me to know, why are you teasing me about it?"

The five of them all chuckled together.

Looking at the sinking ship and the Temple not too far away, Steven felt a relieving sense of finality wash over him. It was over. They'd won. For now, everything was okay, and they were safe. Lapis wasn't in danger anymore. By tomorrow, everyone could be back in Beach City, Greg would know that he was okay, and he could tell Connie all about this adventure. It was kind of weird, to think that tomorrow he'd be watching television or reading a book or doing something absolutely mundane compared to what he'd just endured.

Not that he was complaining.

"Well," he said. "I guess we just have to head back home now, huh?"

Then the green light returned.

But the green light was sharp and cold, seized up his limbs and turned his bones stuff. He could barely move his own lips and eyes. He pushed and pulled—at least tried to curl his fingers—but he was frozen like ice. He heard the Gems gasp around him. The water holding them up sloshed into the ocean, but they remained in the air.

"Ha!"

Of course.

Of course they'd forgotten something.

Peridot was on a fingernail that had crashed standing straight up from the depths. She had repaired her tractor glass—the one that now held the Crystal Gems and Lapis Lazuli in a beam. How she had managed to get out of the collision with only a few drops of water and a scuff or two, Steven had no idea. But there she was, and there they were, completely powerless to stop her.

Peridot was grinning like a kid that just won a game of tag. The tractor beam lifted the Gems higher into the air. Her laughter was high and giggly, and went on for quite a long time. Steven could hear Lapis grunting and the water below them gurgling. If she couldn't even lift her hand, Lapis couldn't save them.

"I got you!" Peridot burst into another fit of giggles. She was starting to dance on her feet. "Now you can't break any more of my things or ruin any more of my missions! How does it feels, you—you Crystal Clods?! How about I break one of you right now? Show you what it feels like?"

Ruby barked back, "I'd like to see you try!"

"What are you going to do?" demanded Opal. She was glaring daggers at the aptly-named 'Perisnot.' "The second you let us go, it's all of us against you."

"I'll take you on one-on-one!"

"With what? The second we break that toy again, you're useless!"

Peridot glared at the five of them for a long time. Her lips were once again puckered into a sour 'M'. But then she was smiling again, a mischievous smile and a chuckle that made them all pause.

Still holding her tractor-beam hand upwards, Peridot lifted the other. Her index digit pulled further from the rest, and from its tips emerged a tiny, blinking button. Steven watched it warily—Peridot wasn't going to bomb them all, was she?

"See this?" Peridot snorted. "All it takes is one second—not even that!—and Homeworld will know. They'll know what something happened to me and Jasper and the ship, and they'll know it was you. And that's not even a threat. That's what I'm promising you, right now."

The button pulled further out, and Steven was just about to scream "NO!" when—

"Wait!"

The button stopped. If Steven could, he would look at Lapis.

Peridot's eyes narrowed behind her visor. "For what?"

Steven could hear Lapis swallow. "Hear me out."

"Why should I? You were just getting warm and cuddly with these clods!"

"Only because they were winning! You always pick the winning side."

Although the Crystal Gems said nothing, Steven could feel the hot and cold air wafting to him from Ruby and Sapphire. Lapis had attacked them, condemned them, joined them, and now she was betraying them. Except…Steven wasn't convinced. Something told him that Lapis was bluffing, and he just waited with caught breath for her to continue.

Peridot raised a brow, saying nothing, and Lapis continued.

"You think I care about these traitors? They kept me locked in a tool for hundreds of years, and the second I got out, they tried to put me back in—"

Opal's interjected, "Um, no."

"—and they followed me for miles and miles just so I wouldn't be able to escape. The only decent one of them is the fleshy one, and I only defended him because he's too weak to put up any kind of fight."

"So what? You're swearing loyalty to Homeworld now?"

"Yes."

"Even after being held prisoner?"

"I'd rather be a prisoner with you than a friend to them."

Below, the water was still.

Peridot huffed. Green eyes flickering from her to the Crystal Gems, a long sigh came from her lips.

"Fine. I'll tell them to spare you when they get here."

The tractor beam split in two, separating Lapis from the others in her own personal hold. But as she was pulled away, further from Steven, Lapis's voice once again called, "I'm not done!"

Peridot probably meant to sound menacing, but her voice instead came out as a whine. "Whaaaat?"

"Pull me closer, would ya?"

Peridot did as she was told, albeit with a roll of her eyes. Steven could only see Lapis when she was suspended in front of Peridot. Her legs and arms were held awkwardly half-bent. Although probably just as tall, if not shorter, than the green Gem, she seemed smaller.

"Listen," Lapis muttered. "You want to bring Homeworld reinforcements here now? Fine. Do it. But you know what that means? You'll have to explain everything. You're going to have to tell them how prisoners escaped on your watch, how you ran away from a butchered Quartz, how you lost control of the ship. You're going to have to tell them how your negligence managed to lose the best Quartz soldier they had."

Peridot's glare softened, though only to narrow in thought. Lapis's words were digging into her, Steven could tell. Peridot had been so angry to lose connection to the Kindergarten, to have so many of the Robonoids broken—Steven could only imagine her under fire for losing an entire ship and a Gem.

"So…" Peridot clicked her tongue. "What do you suppose I do?"

"Well, you can't really lie your way out of it, can you? So you have to make up for it."

"Okay?"

"So poof them. All four of them—take away their physical forms, tear the fusion apart. And tell them you did it all by yourself."

Peridot moved Lapis a bit to the side to look at the Crystal Gems once more. Sapphire was trying to look at Steven, who was staring unblinkingly at Lapis. Ruby was heating up the air with each attempt she made to break free of the tractor beam's hold. Opal was the only one who met Peridot's gaze, and it was with a dark scowl that clearly said 'Try it, I dare you.'

"How do you propose I do that?" she inquired of Lapis.

Lapis probably would have shrugged, if she could. "Don't think you can. They've got a point—your gizmos are the only thing you have. You'd be shattered if you tried."

"So you'll do it."

"I would."

"You will."

"I would. Look, the Ruby, the Sapphire, and the fusion? I could take 'em easily. One by one."

"Okay, so do it."

"It's not them I'm worried about. It's the Steven."

Peridot looked right at him. Steven gulped.

"What about it?" Peridot asked. She paused, then added, "And I thought Jasper said that was a Rose—"

"He's not like the others. He's…solid. His form won't go as easily—it might not go at all. I might have to rip the Gem from it, and that's just a guess. I need time with him. You can try to do them one-by-one, but then what? Take care of one, go to the next, and the first will regenerate. I can't Bubble Gems, and I doubt you can, either."

Peridot nodded. Something that wasn't really fear, but more like hesitance, appeared on her face. Lapis was her only hope at the moment, and she realized it. The Crystal Gems realized it, too, which is why they either glared at Lapis or watched her warily.

"So what do you propose?" she asked, and she finally released Lapis to stand beside her on the nail.

Lapis's eyes went unnoticed to the button still on Peridot's other hand. Less than a second, she had promised. Even right beside her, it was too great of a risk.

She turned up to the Crystal Gems. She locked eyes with Steven.

He waited.

"You have to take them all out at once," she told Peridot.

"How?" Peridot replied.

Lapis turned away from Steven to the green Gem, but Peridot was turned from her.

"Let's fuse."

The Crystal Gems dropped about a foot in the air before the tractor beam caught them again with their limbs splayed. Peridot held her arm straight once more, but the face she gave Lapis was much less than composed. Her eyes were wide, her nose was wrinkled. She was baffled, confused, and disgusted all at once.

"What?!" she shrieked, loud enough to pierce Steven's ears.

"Fusion makes Gems stronger—especially when they're different. If you fuse with me, we could poof them all together, in one blow. We could shatter them, even, if we weren't supposed to take them back to Homeworld."

"Fusion is—is useless! Unnecessary for Gems like you and I. How would they react when they found out I fused with—"

"They won't know. What, you think they're going to believe these clods? It's not like you have anything left to lose."

It was hard to describe the feeling that hung in the air. Unease, tension, fear, finality—it was stuffy and hot, and Steven did not know whether to cry or scream or stay quiet. Lapis wouldn't meet his eyes anymore. Not like this, he thought, not like this…

"Fine," Peridot spat. "But we tell no one."

"Lapis!" It tore out of Steven's throat before he could stop it. "Lapis, don't! Please!"

Peridot ignored him. "How do we do it?"

"Lapis, please!"

Lapis held her hand palm-up to Peridot, who looked at it warily. "Just think about what you want and move with me. It'll only take a minute."

The tractor beam dropped.

Steven gave a short yelp before he splashed into the icy-cold water once again. Somewhere nearby, the other Crystal Gems did the same. In a second, he had bobbed back up, swiping wet curls from his eyes and spitting from his mouth.

Lapis and Peridot were holding each other's hands, the cylinders between the ends of Lapis's fingers. Their movement was continuous, but awkward, a bit too robotic and stiff. They pushed and pulled their arms together, connected elbows and turned in a circle. In their last move, they grabbed each other's elbows, tilted their heads back, and swung them forward.

Their forms erupted into light just as their foreheads collided.

Steven almost really did start crying then, as his friend meshed with his enemy into a formless mass that swelled and swelled. Peridot's fingers and legs and arms did not melt, though, instead clattering on the finger and splashing into the water like useless garbage. Not that Steven particularly cared—he couldn't look away.

One of the Gems pulled him back by the arm, but there was nowhere to go, not as the light grew brighter and the form thicker. They were sitting ducks, Steven realized. They were trapped.

The legs were the first to materialize, then the arms. The head grew from the torso, hair spilling out. The fluid shape of clothing came next, and with a final, sharp burst of light, the fusion towered above them.

She was the tallest two-Gem fusion Steven had yet to see—about two and a half times Opal's height, slender in build. Her skin was a pastel-teal kind of color, the hair as blue as robin eggs. The hair's shape was awkward. It was as fluffy and soft as Lapis's, but stuck out in many directions, almost like a clover, in a way. She still had a clear visor, but clean-cut across her face. The eyes behind them were dark and round. Her nose was pointed and her lips were thin.

She had four arms, but only two came from her shoulders. The other two came from the back of her neck, long and heavy-ended and fluid like ribbons. She was wearing a teal leotard and a frontless blue skirt lined in yellow stripes, same as her thigh-high leggings. No shoes, though. She still had the diamond insignias at her chest, one within the other. Steven could only see Peridot's Gem. It was a bluish-green color and uncovered by the visor.

For a long time, the new fusion stood still, blinking slowly, fingers twitching with unfamiliarity. Her fluid arms lifted, fell, lifted again.

Her eyes fell down to the Crystal Gems, bobbing defenselessly in the water.

She smiled.

She began to giggle.

Small and breathy at first, then higher and louder. Steven couldn't tell if it sounded like Peridot or Lapis. Whoever it was, her fusion was absolutely cackling.

Opal was quick to summon her bow into her hands, but the fusion was quicker.

Spouts of saltwater shot up into the air. In hardly even a second, they had become spears of frost and ice, their razor-sharp ends pointing straight at the Crystal Gems. Steven instantly felt his blood run cold in his veins. The others would be poofed at once—he would be stabbed dozens of times over like a pincushion. The Crystal Gems knew this and waded close to him, as if it would help. Opal dismissed her bow in a quiet surrender, but the spears only inched closer.

The fusion's grin was not sinister of malicious. It held pure, childlike joy and nothing more…which was someone worse.

She took a deep, singing breath. "Goodbye, Crystal Gems."

But then the spears rounded.

The fusion stopped smiling when each and every point was turned on her instead. The Crystal Gems were left to watch, wide-eyed, as they all inched closer and closer, and Steven only then noticed that the arms stretching from her neck were trembling. The thin, flat fingers were curled almost into fists.

The fusion began to sweat…no, not sweat, melt. She didn't puddle, but her skin and hair and clothes dripped and ran without losing her form. She was breathing rapidly now. The arms once held out were now curling towards her chest as the spears drew closer.

Then they all surged forward, and Steven almost cried out, only to see the spears instead melt and refreeze in two short instants. They became one shape—a bondage, a Chinese finger-trap, wrapped all around the fusion's torso and down to her legs. Her normal arms were pinned to her sides. The ribbon ones flailed and shook.

She could have been crying, or it could have just been her eyes running like the rest of her.

"What?" she cried out. "What is this?"

It was Peridot's voice, for sure.

"What are you doing?"

Then it was Lapis's.

"I will not be anyone's prisoner any longer. I am not Homeworld's, and I am not the Earth's. I am Lapis Lazuli."

The water behind the fusion rippled and churned. Two great hands, like claws, reached up from the depths and seized a hold of the trapped fusion. She was raised into the air, not unlike how Peridot had trapped them before, but she was still kicking and flailing with all the strength that she had. She was melting more, but more grotesquely, spilling and pulling back into place like a push toy. One side trying to split from the other.

"But if being trapped is all I'm good for, then so be it."

The claws squeezed tight.

But there was a pause.

The fusion's eyes found Steven's.

"Goodbye, Steven."

And then she was gone.

…

At some point in the stretch of silence, Lion came padding across the water to them. His almost-shaped eyes looked around at the sinking mess of a ship, then fell on Steven. He licked the boy's hair. Steven did not respond. Lion nudged him with his nose. Steven did not respond.

He heard Ruby whisper, "Dang."