This is a story about my favourite ship and most wanted fusion. I wanted to use the idea for an Adventure Time crossover, but I liked it so much, I gave it its own story. Hope you enjoy it, and constructive critisism is appreciated!

Peridot knelt in the soil in front of the barn, surrounded by the neighboring corn field, intently working on what looked like a model rocket, barely any taller than she was. She had her head inside an open compartment, while also squeezing her hand in, so she could make adjustments with a screwdriver. Between the quiet sound of her work, and the complaints she was muttering under her breath, Peridot didn't hear Steven, when he dropped out of the sky and landed gently next to her, with a small, plastic vivarium in his hands.

"Hey Peridot." He greeted her, gently.

Peridot yelped in surprise and banged her head on the inside of her machine, she withdrew herself and rubbed her head irritably, and turned to the source of the noise that had disturbed her. Upon discovering that it was Steven, her irritation seemed to dissipate slightly.

"Oh, Steven." She realised. "Nice of you to drop in..."

Steven grinned and pointed at her. "I see what you did there..."

Peridot evidently didn't. "What...?"

"Oh right, you didn't see, well I was just... eh, it's not important, what are you working on?"

Peridot grinned excitedly. "I'm glad you asked! Yesterday I asked myself- 'Is a meep morp still a meep morp if no one ever sees it?'" She waved her hands mysteriously, to emphasise the end of her sentence.

Steven was confused. "I can see it..."

Perdiot frowned irritably at Steven's lack of understanding. "Yes, but unlike my other work, which will presumably end up in a gallery of some sort one day, no one except you and me..."

While Peridot talked, Lapis Lazuli came strolling out of the corn field, "Oh, hi Steven!" She called.

Peridot sighed. "No one except you, me and Lapis..." Peridot and Lapis' animate pumpkin came running after Lapis and over to Peridot at her machine, barking happily as it went. "… and Veggie Head, will ever lay eyes on this one... And only I will witness its triumphant launch into space, from the Beta Kindergarten! If I've synthesised the rocket fuel correctly, the vapour trail will shine in all the colours of the rainbow!" She finished, excitedly.

"Aww, I wanna see it!" Steven whined, longingly.

"Well you can't." Peridot snapped, folding her arms. "That's the point of this piece."

"Maybe it's not art, if no one sees it?" Steven suggested, in answer to Peridot's question.

Peridot sighed again. "I'm so unappreciated in my time..."

"Probably because you won't let anyone see your morp." Lapis pointed out, with a smirk.

"LET'S TALK ABOUT STEVEN'S THING!" Peridot snapped, her irritation showing. "He seems to be holding a plastic containment vessel of some kind."

"Oh, right." Steven remembered. "These are the Geode Beetles of Heaven and Earth." He held out the vivarium, for the two gems to inspect. Inside, as well as some sand, rocks and a plastic plant, were two small beetles, one dull grey, the other bright yellow, and both with a mint green gem on their back. "They're tiny little corrupted gems. They used to live in the temple, but they've been restless recently, so Garnet said I could take them out and show them around Beach City."

Sure enough, the beetles were running back and forth in the vivarium, gently colliding into each end, without purpose. Lapis leant close to the container.

"They're kinda cute for corrupted gems..." She noted.

"Yeah, I've never seen any others this small. I don't even know why we went through so much trouble to find them." Steven replied. He stuck his tongue in his cheek thoughtfully, as he recalled the adventure, then his eyes twinkled excitedly. "Hey, that was when I first learnt about fusion!"

"F... fusion?" Lapis asked.

Not noticing the tremor in Lapis' voice, Steven continued. "Yeah, I got eaten by a giant bird, so Pearl and Amethyst fused into a giant woman, pulled me straight out of its gut, and blew it up with their awesome bow and arrow!"

Before Steven had finished his recap, Lapis wordlessly walked towards the barn, with Veggie Head excitedly running after her.

"Erm... is she okay?" Steven asked Peridot, somewhat taken aback.

Peridot rubbed the back of her head, awkwardly. "Fusion's still a bit of a touchy subject with her... I've brought it up on occasion, but... this is how she reacts..."

"Oh..." Steven frowned, remorsefully. "Do you think I should...?"

"You'd best leave her alone." Peridot advised.

Steven sat down at the start of the decline which led down towards the bay between them and Beach City. "I can't imagine what she went through..." He sighed. "I mean... I saw Malachite, but how that must have felt? Whenever I fuse, it's like the new fusion is my relationship with the person I fuse with... but Lapis hated Jasper..."

Peridot joined Steven on the grass. "How do you think I feel? I live with Lapis, and I can't relate with her at all. I have no idea how I can make her feel better."

"Oooh that's right, you've never fused." Steven remembered.

Peridot blushed a slightly darker shade of green. "I... I've never had a reason to. Peridots are made for their intellect, not combat, and one can just as easily brainstorm with others, without fusing with them."

"There are reasons to fuse besides getting stronger and smarter." Steven smiled. "Like when Ruby and Sapphire fuse, or me and Connie!"

Peridot processed Steven's words for a moment, then shook her head. "It's a moot point. Even if I wanted to fuse, there are no other Peridots on earth for me to fuse with..."

Steven shot her a puzzled look.

"Oh don't look at me like that!" She spat, defensively. "I may have some measure of respect for Garnet and the others, but I'm not some fancy, modern earth gem, who'll just fuse with anyone!" She calmed slightly. "On Homeworld, gems only fuse with other gems of the same type... for two different types of gem to fuse is just... wrong! That's what everyone says, anyway."

Steven laughed. "But it's not! Just because everyone says something, doesn't make it true."

Peridot poked her foot at the grass, mulling over Steven's words, without replying. She looked over to the vivarium, on the other side of Steven, in response to the tapping of the beetles increasing in volume and frequency.

"Your bugs are getting more agitated." She pointed out, changing the subject.

Steven picked up the vivarium and looked through the side. The geode beetles were running around in a frenzy, in total disregard for the walls of their habitat, or each other.

"Hey, what's up, little guys?" Steven asked, worriedly.

Steven immediately got his answer, but it didn't come from the beetles. A mighty screech echoed across the barn. It sounded far away, but Steven and Peridot could tell it was very loud. Steven could have sworn he'd heard it somewhere before, and he quickly remembered where.

On the horizon, over the ocean, a mighty bird, with no eyes and a pincer-like mouth flew towards the barn. In place of feathers, it had course, dirt-like skin, which periodically gave way to bursts of fire, like miniature volcanoes, all over the monster's body. Texture aside, it was identical to the very bird Steven had recently spoken of.

"There's another one!" Steven cried in disbelief.

Despite the corrupted fowl's distance, Steven and Peridot had limited time to react, as it drew rapidly closer with each flap of its monstrous wings.

"D... deploying attack drones!" Peridot cried, leaping towards her rocket and tapping on her tablet, which lay on the ground next to it.

Five small, green machines flew out of the corn field and darted towards the approaching creature. The dogfight that ensued was short and brutal. Peridot's drones orbited the monster, unleashing a barrage of laser fire which had little to no effect. Gritting its beak slightly, the bird unleashed an inferno from the volcanoes over its body, which quickly encompassed it and expanded, incinerating the drones in seconds.

Peridot quietly groaned in despair. "Okay, new plan. We hold it off while Lapis collects the others."

"They're not there! They took Lion on a mission to the surface of the moon!" Steven cried.

"Then what do we...?" Peridot desperately began.

While the two had been preoccupied with each other, the corruption had put on a burst of speed, and reached the barn unnoticed, where, before Steven had a chance to react, she had rammed her open beak into the soil around him, and swallowed him, and the geode beetles, whole.

"STEVEN!" Peridot shrieked.

Peridot backed away defensively, refusing to simply run from the creature her friend was trapped inside, albeit unsure of what she could possibly do to help him. The bird screech angrily at Peridot and, with another mighty flap of its wings, took back to the sky. Peridot was thrown backwards by the wind, but before she fell to the ground, she found her shoulders supported by Lapis.

"Peridot, I saw Steven get eaten!" She cried in distress. "What do we do!?"

Peridot thought fast. "Okay, get ready for the Diamond of all Peri-plans!" She foreshadowed. "You fly around the creature and goad it into using its defensive shield of fire again. Then, in the brief window in which it'll be unable to repeat its attack, I'll use my metal powers to guide my new morp towards the monster like a missile!"

"But what about you and Steven!?" Lapis anxiously reminded her.

"I'll jump off the morp before it collides, and Steven, I'm sure is in his protective bubble, to prevent the insides of the bird from burning or digesting him..."

Lapis frowned, it seemed like an implausible plan, but it was the only one they had. The bird had flown away from the sea and over the countryside, headed towards Empire City. With a tensing of her shoulders, Lapis conjured a pair of water wings and launched into the air, after the bird.

Peridot leapt onto her rocket and mentally envisioned Lapis taunting the bird and evading its attack. Once she felt the right amount of time had passed, she kicked a bright red lever, and the machine immediately launched skywards. Between her concern and concentration, Peridot didn't look back to see if her hard work on the rocket fuel had paid off, instead, she focused on keeping the rocket aimed at the bird. She had never manipulated anything she was on top of before, and she could feel the rocket attempting to break free and spiral to the ground, since Peridot hadn't yet installed flight stabilisers.

Lapis reached the bird and began darting around it in a circle, waving her arms, dramatically. "Hey you!" She shouted, over the wind. "Spit out my friend!"

Although it didn't have eyes, the bird looked in the blue gem's direction and bore its serrated beak menacingly. Lapis braced herself and got ready to shoot backwards, but it turned out that Peridot and Lapis' presumptions about the creatures' abilities would be their downfall.

The bird's beak opened and a sphere of fire appeared within it, rapidly increasing in intensity. Lapis didn't realise what was about to happen, until it was too late. A stream of white flames seared from the corruption's beak and flew at Lapis Lazuli like a runaway train. She was engulfed immediately.

"LAPIS!" Peridot screamed, inaudibly, over her rocket's roar.

The flames subsided. Lapis was scorched, but her gem was undamaged. Her immediate concern, though, was that her wings had evaporated, and she was falling towards perfectly dry countryside and roads.

The creature had just attacked, and Peridot had her chance to strike, but she didn't think twice about neglecting it. With a heave of her ferrokinetic ability, the rocket spun around and shot downwards, after Lapis. Peridot could just about read the words 'Get Steven!' on the other gem's lips, but Peridot had made her choice. Before long, the falling gem gave up on frantically pointing at the bird, and extended a hand towards Peridot's, as the gap between them closed.

With the ground shooting menacingly towards them, and seconds until impact, the rocket spluttered and shook, shaking free from Peridot's control. It threw her like a wild horse and accelerated towards the ground, colliding with an explosion of rainbow-coloured smoke. As they continued to fall, Lapis grabbed the distracted Peridot's hand and pulled her into a tight embrace, before they too hit the ground.