"Okay... everybody get ready..." Garnet commanded.

The Gems and the Doctor had warped to the same pad they had used when the Gems had fought the Desert Glass and Steven met Lion. Then, they had walked a safe distance in the direction of the last known location of the Forged, to avoid damaging the warp pad in the upcoming battle.

"Should we maybe form Alexandrite before we begin?" Pearl asked. It seemed like a logical assumption that she would be needed.

"Not yet. Wait until we know what we're fighting." Garnet replied. "Steven, do the honors."

Steven took the helmet from the Doctor, who activated it with his sonic screwdriver, after Steven had put it on. The five of them braced themselves, standing in a circle, facing outwards. Almost simultaneously, five sets of weapons materialised, including the sword made by the Doctor's gauntlet. The team scanned the horizon in all directions, but the first corruption was able to sneak up on them, nonetheless.

One by one, the Gems and Timelord began to notice that the ground was beginning to tremble. Before any of them pointed it out, a long, brown tentacle thrust out of the sand and thrashed at the Doctor. The Time Lord leapt over the hostile appendage and swiftly severed it with a swing of his sword. The tentacle fell to the sand and exploded with a puff of smoke, but there wasn't a gem to be seen.

"Everyone watch out..." The Doctor warned, as the trembling grew more intense. "It's a big one!"

Immediately, three more tentacles erupted from the ground. Without delay, Steven, Garnet and Pearl engaged one each, but before any had been severed, the sand beneath the team began to shift, and swirl inwards, like a whirlpool. Steven dismembered the nearby tentacle by throwing one of his larger shields at it, but immediately stumbled, as he noticed the predicament they were in.

"Pearl, with me!" Garnet urgently ordered. "Steven, Amethyst, get the Doctor out of here!"

Amethyst lashed her whip around Steven's outstretched arm, pulling him towards her, and Garnet barely took the time to lift Pearl's hand and elegantly spin her around, before pulling her into an embrace. With two violent explosions of purple smoke, the mighty and dramatic Sardonyx stood confidently in the sinking sand, next to the far more humble Smokey Quartz, still wearing the Doctor's helmet.

Between the Gems and the increasing number of tentacles, a set of teeth began to reach out of the sand and slowly close around them. Smokey immediately drew a large, grey yo-yo from one of their gems, and lashed it around a tooth on the other side of the Doctor, and skipped along the sand, as the string receded, pulling them forwards. Once they snatched the surprised Time Lord in one of their three arms, Smokey yanked on the string, sending them summersaulting out of the monster's mouth, and onto the stable sand beyond.

The corruption seemed to be comprised mostly of its enormous, round head, the only orifice of which being its vast, circular mouth. With most of its body under the sand, it was unclear what, if anything, lay between the head and the network of tentacles rising from the sand.

"Sorry big guy... You're gonna have to skip to dessert." Smokey mocked, as they put the disorientated Doctor down.

Meanwhile, Sardonyx had flown high into the air, as the enormous corruption's mouth closed. With Garnet's gauntlets, she slammed her fists together, around Pearl's spear, forming the fusion's signature hammer, but with a sparkle of light, it morphed into a bright red drill.

Still airborne, she wagged her finger at the corruption, accusingly. "Keep eating at that rate, and you know what happens! Say 'ahhh'!"

Sardonyx plummeted downwards, head first, holding her drill in front of her. The drill met the monster's forehead, and it roared in distress, trying to burrow back into the ground, but Sardonyx persisted her attack, with sand closing in around them both.

"Heh... dentist joke." Smokey snorted, gently elbowing the Doctor's arm.

The Doctor didn't share Smokey's casual attitude. With eyes wide in panic, he shoved Smokey to one side, and lifted his gauntlet defensively, meeting the scythe-like appendage of the second corruption, which had darted across the sand, between the writhing tentacles of the first.

The second corruption was tiny, by comparison. It was bright green, and just over five feet tall. It hunched over and stared at the Doctor through purple, segmented eyes, like those of a house fly's, and had a pair of matching wings lying flat on its back. In place of arms, it had a pair of menacing scythes, each with a fearsome cutting edge. In the centre of its face, a small, red gem sat, where a mammal might possess a nose.

The corruption cackled madly and swung at the Doctor, which he quickly parried with his sword. The Doctor kicked the fusion in the chest, and used his slight window to slash at it, offensively. Still cackling, the corruption ducked underneath the sword and rammed its head into the Doctor's stomach, sending him sliding back across the sand, but impressively, staying on his feet.

Smokey was about to intervene, when they realised they had no shortage of corruptions of their own. Thundering across the sand towards them, were a pair of muscular quadrupeds. Similar in shape to the monster Jasper had recruited, and ultimately fused with, except they had no horns, and their manes flayed outwards, like those of a lion, except one was mint green, and the other light blue.

"Time to walk the dogs..." Smokey said dramatically, summoning a second yo-yo in another hand. "I mean... they're more like big cats, so I guess..." They resignedly shook their head. "Nah it's fine... it still works..."

Smokey shot into the air and began spinning head over heels, loosening the string of their yo-yos as they did. The weaponized toys spun further and further from Smokey, until they shot downwards, sending each crashing into the small of a monster's back, slamming them both into the sand, and destroying their bodies, instantly.

"Ha ha! Two zilch to Smokey Quartz!" They cheered, sealing a pair of gems in grey bubbles, and sending them to the temple.

Meanwhile, a mound of sand rose from beneath the ground, and slowly slipped away, revealing Sardonyx, heaving her monstrous adversary from the sand. Sure enough, the monster's body was comprised only of its spherical head, being held up in all four of Sardonyx's shaking arms, and dozens of streaming tentacles, several of which were now flailing dangerously, like fish out of water.

As Sardonyx struggled, the Doctor continued his stalemate with the agile, cackling insect. Each of them swung at each other, but the other was always fast enough to parry or avoid. The Doctor thrust his sword forwards, and the corruption gracefully shot into the air, slowly backflipping, and landing between two of the larger corruption's flailing tentacles. Aiming the palm of the gauntlet at his opponent, the Doctor unleashed pulse after pulse of blue light, which the small corruption effortlessly dodged, by darting back and forth.

The two of them raced between the enormous, flailing appendages. While the corrupted Gem was able to leap through the air, and dart between the tentacles like a pinball, the Doctor could only pursue it with the speed and agility of an above-average human, taking the opportunity, when it arrived, to continue firing upon his quarry.

With a heave, Sardonyx sent the monster in her arms crashing into the sand in front of her, and its tentacles flailing overhead, and down to earth behind it. The helpless, bug-like corruption, who had been using the tentacles for cover, was flung forcefully into the air, with a panicked screech. After soaring for several seconds, it slowed to a halt and began to descend. If its wings had ever worked, they certainly didn't now, as it flailed its limbs frantically, as it saw the Doctor sprinting in its direction. Clenching his fist, the Doctor's sword rematerialised, allowing him to hurl it upwards, like a javelin. As calculated by the Doctor, the sword shot through the monster's body, as it fell, and it exploded in a cloud of white smoke, leaving its small, red gem to fall into the sand. Breathing heavily, the Doctor walked over to the gem and picked it up in his free hand, which, with the help of the wrist band he was wearing, he used to seal it in a pitch black bubble, and send it to the temple.

As the largest corruption snapped repeatedly at Sardonyx, she repeatedly discouraged it by slamming her hammer into the side of its face. She cringed, as each blow seemed to bring it no closer to poofing.

"Times like this almost make one wish for a wrecking ball..." She cringed.

As the monster made another attempt to swallow the articulate fusion, Sardonyx held her hammer behind her back and swung it forwards and upwards, thrashing the monsters chin and sending its face pointing to the sky.

"Almost!" She victoriously emphasised.

On the base of the monster's neck, four gems were arranged in a perfect diamond shape. Calculating her force output, to avoid cracking them, Sardonyx delivered a graceful kick, ensuring the sole of her foot slammed against all four gems. Instantly, the monster roared in distress and pushed its face into the sand, attempting to burrow away again, but before it could, Sardonyx leapt forwards, spinning like a blur on her side, with her hammer held in front of her, and brought it crashing down on the same spot where her drill had met the corruption earlier, sending a shockwave of sand in all directions. With one last, feeble roar, the corruption exploded in a blast of white smoke, and Sardonyx was left with four gems to transition to the temple.

The Doctor stumbled through the sand, he was already feeling fatigued from his fight with the insect, when the sandstorm kicked up by Sardonyx and her foe disorientated him further. He didn't even notice the hulking, three-legged figure stomping through the sand behind him, but luckily, he wasn't alone. Smokey shot across the sand like a cannonball, ramming the new corruption aside with their shoulder, just as it rose one of its meaty fists, in preparation to attack the Doctor.

"Yo Sardonyx! Smokey called. "Batter up!"

As the corruption stumbled to the sand, Smokey drew three yo-yos from their gems and began spinning them around like turbines. The wind kicked up around the corruption, instantly, sending it flying towards Sardonyx. Without missing a beat, Sardonyx jokingly struck a batter's pose, and swung her hammer into the corruption forcefully, destroying its body instantly, and sending its gem shooting back at Smokey like a bullet. The smaller fusion caught the Gem in all three hands, while the force sent them sliding backwards on their feet.

"Can I just say, it is a treat to see you in action, Smokey!" Sardonyx gleefully said, winking with two of her eyes.

Smokey awkwardly rubbed the back of their head. "Heh... well it sure beats last time."

Sardonyx rolled her eyes in agreement. "Ugh, what was I thinking? Field documentaries are immensely more revealing than chat shows!" She held two hands out, with her fingers at right angles, imagining she was capturing Smokey on a screen.

As the fusions talked, the Doctor was engaging the final corruption. His new opponent was shaped roughly like a narwhal, and swam through the air, jabbing at the Doctor with a sharp horn, jutting out of its forehead. It wasn't nearly as fast or agile as his former adversary, but whenever the Doctor attempted to strike back, the corruption's body would become translucent, like water, revealing the spherical, blue gem at its core, and the Doctor's sword would pass harmlessly through it.

As he fought, the Doctor kept thinking of the conversation he had had with Steven on the crashed ship. Apparently Rose Quartz, one of the universe's greatest humanitarians, would have told the Doctor that he could be whatever he wanted. He did want to be a doctor, it was all he had ever wanted, but how could he call himself that now? Even if he could forgive himself for what he had done, this new version of him was hardly any better. In the few, short hours since he regenerated, he had done nothing but fight. Ruby, the Forged, and now these corruptions. The Doctor had no idea what they would even do when the Forged arrived. Even if they were able to defeat it, it was able to move without a physical form, so no bubble would hold it...

Between his distraction, and his dwindling strength, the Doctor made a fatal mistake. He lunged at the corruption, passing harmlessly through it, and before he could turn around, the monster's horn came bursting through his chest, below his right shoulder.

"DOCTOR!" Smokey and Sardonyx cried in alarm.

Smokey Quartz immediately flickered, and shrank down to Steven's size and shape, while the glowing light that was Amethyst reformed next to him. The young half-Gem ran over to his injured friend, while the towering Sardonyx ran past him urgently. She grasped at the incorporeal corruption, grumbling some panicked complaints as it passed through her hands, before resignedly sealing it, body and all, in a large, purple bubble. She shrank the bubble down to a normal size, and the corruption's body became a formless, blue mist, around its gem.

"Doctor! Are you okay!?" Steven cried.

The Doctor had collapsed to his knees and clutched the hole in his upper body. Rather than blood, a golden light radiated from his injury. Without waiting for approval this time, Steven licked the palm of his hand and slapped it onto the Doctor's, covering his injury. Steven waited, but it seemed like there was no effect. Amethyst and Sardonyx watched anxiously.

"Tough luck, eh?" The Doctor gasped. "I wasn't sure about this body anyway..."

"But you can get a new one, right? Like you did on the beach?" Steven begged, tears welling in his eyes.

The Doctor shook his head. "Doesn't work like that."

Sardonyx and Amethyst had their attention pulled from the Doctor, by a familiar thumping sound, as the enormous, black gem of the Forged came crashing down onto the sand. As it rose into the air, and its physical form expanded, Sardonyx turned to the smaller Gem.

"Amethyst dear, I think I might require your famous lack of restraint for this."

With a firm nod of confirmation from Amethyst, Sardonyx reached down and held her in her fist. The fusion glowed brightly, and began to expand, as Amethyst's gem took its place in the middle of the fusion's chest. With a glaring flash, Alexandrite appeared, her turquoise hair flaming behind her, and all six fists clenched, threateningly.

"Take care of the Doctor..." She snarled at Steven. "I'll handle this..."

The Forged had come back stronger, too. Its new body was twice the size of the tentacled form it had taken, on the beach, forcing even Alexandrite to crane her neck slightly, and rather than a cephalopod, it now had the shape of some monstrous bear or wolf, with no head, and its gem sitting protectively at its core. Finally, the Forged now had a dense, opaque skin, like thick glass, clearly much more protective than before.

Without waiting for the Forged to make the first move, Alexandrite flew into the air, above the monster. Her face lifted upwards, revealing the snarling mouth which ran along her chin, in which she conjured a ball of purple flames. Furiously, she unleashed an inferno upon the ground beneath her, like some terrible meteor shower, encompassing the Forged, and shrouding it in black smoke. She landed on the sand behind it, hoping to lure it away from Steven and the Doctor.

Alexandrite's plan worked all too well, as the smoke parted and a solid beam of white energy shot at her like a train. The titanic fusion crossed all of her arms defensively, meeting the blast. She flew off her feet and backwards along the sand, but was ultimately unharmed. A second blast of light came, aimed lower, and sending tidal waves of sand in both directions, but Alexandrite was ready. She rolled backwards onto her feet and leapt forwards, over the beam, and summoned Sugilite's mighty wrecking ball behind her. Twisting her body, Alexandrite sent it careening through the smoke, and crashing it into the Forged, sending it slamming into the ground, and dispersing the smoke, instantly.

Meanwhile, the Doctor was elaborating on his condition, for Steven.

"I only get one chance at each regeneration... And it's looking like I blew it."

"Because your shoulder got hurt!?" Steven practically shouted. "Pearl said Time Lords were the stuff of legends! A human could survive that!"

"It's not just this..." The Doctor nodded to his shoulder. It was still glowing, but the circular hole the corruption had left showed no sign of receding. "This body was never going to work out... All I was ever supposed to be is a Doctor, and I'm just not..."

The conversation was interrupted as the ground shook violently. The Forged had forced Alexandrite to the ground, where she was desperately trying to keep it from crushing her, by holding the head of her hammer against its belly, and jamming the base of the handle into the sand. Opening her second mouth, she unleashed a second blast of purple flames at its belly. The Forged groaned ominously, but didn't relent.

Alexandrite placed her feet against her hammer and pushed, sending her sliding from underneath the monster, before her hammer was destroyed, and she was crushed. She flipped back into her feet and conjured Opal's elegant bow. Moving two of her arms like a blur, she unleashed a maelstrom of white light, which bombarded the Forged, finally forcing it to retreat backwards, albeit only a few steps.

"Stop it!" Steven angrily shouted at the Doctor, over the chaos. "Stop pretending this is out of your control! No one made you stop being the Doctor and no one is keeping you from being one again!" Tears ran down his face. "If you want to lay there in the sand and die, you don't get to blame the universe for putting you there. It's your choice!"

Alexandrite faced dilemmas of her own. Although Opal's bow was proving the most effective, none of her weapons packed enough punch to pierce the skin of the Forged. Between Pearl and Sapphire's considerable intellect, they came up with a new plan. Focusing all her energy on Opal's bow, Alexandrite released one last flurry of white light, before dispersing the weapon. Pursing her lips, the mighty fusion unleashed a linear burst of flames, not at the Forged, but the sand in front of them. In the time it took the Forged to recover from its stunned state, Alexandrite had completed her task. She heaved from the sand at her feet, a colossal javelin of superheated glass.

Just as the Forged looked ready to attack again, Alexandrite heaved her glassen weapon, throwing it spinning into the sky. Moving so fast, she could have been mistaken for teleporting, Alexandrite flew upwards, after her weapon, as a fresh blast of energy from the Forged threatened to shatter her. Stopping in mid-air, above the monster, Alexandrite lifted her foot, gently stopping her spinning blade in its path, and leaving it pointing downwards, before summoning Sardonyx's war hammer, and ramming it like a chisel, sending it hurtling towards the monster so fast, it visibly disrupted the air around it.

With another explosion of sand, the Forged was skewered, as the glass spear shot straight through it and into the sand, missing the gigantic gem by inches. Just as Sardonyx had earlier, Alexandrite targetted her drill downwards and plummeted, aiming the drill head at the point where the spear had impaled the monster, hoping to exacerbate the injury, and reach the gem, but moments before impact, Alexandrite's heart sank. The Forged simply walked aside, with the spear flowing through its body as though the latter was made of water.

Alexandrite collapsed to the sand and her knees buckled, having been prepared to land on the monster's back. Before she could correct herself, the Forged unleased another blast of energy, which engulfed her head and shoulders. When the light faded, Alexandrite's head was gone, and Pearl's gem fell lifelessly to the sand, behind her. Alexandrite glowed brightly, and her form changed. Two of her arms vanished, and the remaining four grew more muscular.

"Big mistake pal..." A deep, rumbling voice snarled. The light faded, and the menacing Sugilite appeared. She cracked two sets of knuckles, while summoning her gigantic flail with her other two hands. "You just wiped out my self control!"

Sugilite swung her wrecking ball back and forth, each time slamming it into the Forged. Its gem glowed several times, preparing to attack, but Sugilite's continued bombardment seemed to keep it at bay. After swinging the weapon overhead and slamming the Forged into the sand, Sugilite furiously thrust her two right hands into the monster's body and grabbed its gem, while pushing against its skin with her left hands to keep her from being swallowed.

Sugilite's one visible eye, above her sunglasses, squinted in distress and she grunted angrily as she heaved, attempting to drag the gem right out of the monster's body. Before Sugilite triumphed, the Forged unleashed an explosion of energy from its gem, sending its attacker flying backwards onto the sand.

Pushing herself upwards, Sugilite was startled to realise that her two right hands were gone, and Sapphire's gem fell to the sand in front of her.

"You're gonna pay for that..." She snarled, before shrinking down and reforming once more.

Ruby and Amethyst's fusion was taller and slightly more plump than garnet, she wore a blood-red shirt, torn at the waist and sleeves, and, rather than hair, a blazing fire burnt from her scalp.

"NOBODY... HUIRTS... SAPPHIRE!" The new fusion shrieked. The flames that made up her hair engulfed her, and the resulting fireball shot at the looming monster furiously.

Uncharacteristically, Steven barely reacted to the new fusion, and kept his attention on the Doctor, as the Crystal Gem's losing battle began to draw to a close.

"Once all this is over, if I don't think you're a doctor, it won't be because of what you did before! I don't care what you did! What's important is that the earth needs you right now, and you're just giving up!"

"This thing is beyond my help..." The Doctor snarled, but a hesitation in his voice betrayed the fact that he knew Steven was right. "No one can fix what the Diamonds did to those miserable Gems..."

"Well fine..." Steven said, wiping the tears from his eyes and frowning angrily. "Stay here then. But I'm not giving up on my friends, or the Forged!"

As Steven left the Doctor, the tyrannical geoweapon slammed Amethyst and Ruby's fusion into the sand with its fist, leaving the last traces of Alexandrite, helpless in the dust. Steven stood before the monster, his shield on his arm, unflinching.

"I'm sorry this happened to you." Steven shouted up at the Forged, as it stomped towards him. The monster lowered itself slowly, and its gem floated through its body towards Steven, as though it were staring at him. "I'm sorry for the Diamonds, what they did, and for everything that happened to you since. But this has to stop, before someone gets hurt!"

The massive gem began to glow, and Steven gasped in alarm. His shield expanded, to cover him entirely, but he wasn't sure it would be enough. Even Alexandrite had been unable to stand up to such fierce attacks. The gem glowed with more intensity, the attack seconds away, and Steven squeezed his eyes shut and tensed up, fearfully. With Steven's words ringing in his ears, the Doctor shot to his feet. The gold light in his shoulder was glaring brighter too. He sprinted forwards as the Forged attacked, diving at Steven in an attempt to push him out of harm's way.

As the Doctor and Steven made contact, the golden glow of regeneration energy consumed them, blotting them from sight. Slowly, the light faded from gold, to pink, to white, and then faded away, and Steven and the Doctor were gone. In their place, was someone new. He was tall and thin, with gleaming, white skin and golden eyes. The pink gem of a Rose Quartz shone proudly from his navel.

The Forged wasn't discouraged in the slightest, and the most ferocious blast of energy yet shot from its gem. With a pulse of light from his eyes, the newcomer lifted the palm of his hand, as though commanding the beam of energy to stop... which it did. The light froze, like water turned to ice. With a gesture from the glowing person, the light receded, like a video being rewinded, back into the gem.

"We... FUSED!?" The interspecies fusion shouted, with an enormous grin. "This is unbelievable! It's unheard of! It's... way too much power any one person should have..."

The fusion's voice was an amalgamation of Steven and the Doctor's accents, just like Garnet's, but at the same time, it quietly echoed, like he was standing in a vast cave.

"I mean... The power of a Time Lord, channeled through a gem? What do you even call that?"

If the Forged was stunned or awed by the development, it didn't show it. Accepting that its energy pulses were ineffective, it reared up and sent its foot hurtling at Steven and the Doctor. With perfect reflexes, the fusion shot at the Forged, flying through its body like it was made of smoke.

"A white..." The fusion began to answer his own question. "Point..." He punched the enormous gem sending it flying from the monster's body, which promptly vanished. The fusion vanished and reappeared above the gem. "STAR!"

White Point Star punctuated the last word by sending the gigantic gem hurtling back towards the sand, with a swing of his fists. The gem collided with an explosion of sand, and the fusion quickly joined it. Having come to rest for mere seconds, the geoweapon's body began to slowly expand once more.

"Whoa there, not so fast, sonny!"

From White Point Star's hands, an enormous bubble of sparkling pink and gold light encompassed the gem, lifting it from the sand and hovering in the air.

"Hope there's room for this in the temple..." He said, but then, the golden light of his eyes narrowed, thoughtfully. "Although just this once... What if we could do better?"

The fusion's eyes closed, and they pointed the palms of their hands at the bubble. From the perspective of White Point Star and the Forged, the sky slowly turned dark, then illuminated again. Back and forth, the day and night went, getting steadily faster, with the sun and moon flying overhead, until eventually, all they could see was a hazy, blue blur as White Point Star undid time itself, around the tormented geoweapon.

After almost ten minutes, the enormous, black gem began to change, within its bubble. Starting at the top, it began to dissolve into sand, until the bubble contained a shapeless, black cloud. Then, one by one, tiny, spherical gems began to form from the dust. The bubble expanded, and slowly faded away as the air began to fill with hundreds of bead-like gems, of all colours. The changing sky began to slow, as the last gems were reconstructed, and eventually stopped, with the sun shining down above them.

White Point Star collapsed to his knees in exhaustion. Looking up at the gems, filling the air above him, a grin spread across his face, and he laughed triumphantly. "Fantastic!"

With a flash of golden light, Steven and the Doctor were propelled away from each other. Although his shirt and coat were still damaged, the hole in the Doctor's shoulder was gone, and he rose to his feet, as though he had just woken from a refreshing nap, without a hint of regeneration trauma.

One by one, the gems, still floating in the air above them, began to take their forms for the first time ever. Each one's size was relative to their gems, the largest barely reaching a foot in height. They resembled fairies in shape, with their dress-like forms, and delicate wings, but they were translucent, like water. Shortly after reforming, they began to fly away, in different directions.

"Oh my gosh..." Steven breathed. "WE DID IT!" He cheered excitedly, jumping up and down and waving his arms. "That was amazing! We changed the fabric of reality just to save those Gems!" He looked up, with tears of joy, welling in his eyes, watching the Gems flying back and forth. "What will they do now?"

"Up to them." The Doctor replied. "All they were ever meant to be is a weapon. Now they can choose for themselves."

"Just like you!" Steven smiled, suggestively.

"Yeah..." The Doctor agreed. "Like me... I think I'm ready to be the Doctor again."

"Well... I can think of a few hundred Gems who'd say you're a pretty darn good one!" Steven laughed.

Suddenly, there was a sound. The same groaning, wheezing sound Steven had heard on the beach, before the Doctor appeared, coming from his coat. The Doctor reached into his pocket and pulled out the TARDIS' key. It was glowing brightly.

"What does that mean?" Steven asked.

The Doctor smiled. "It means my ship agrees..."

-x-x-x-

"This place is amazing!"

The TARDIS had reconstructed itself, just like the Doctor. The control room was filled with a golden glow, from circular lights, lining the walls, around a glowing, green control console, with a central column reaching upwards. Coral-like structures reached upwards to the ceiling, from just beyond the console.

Steven and the Doctor had returned to the beach, with a reformed Amethyst and Ruby, holding Pearl and Sapphire's gems, respectively. They had said their goodbyes to the Doctor at the house, and left Steven to join him at his ship, to do the same.

"It's just like the Roaming Eye!"

The Doctor entered the control room, having rid himself of his torn and sand-covered clothes. Instead, he was wearing a green jumper and a black leather jacket.

"Roaming Eye? I'm offended!" The Doctor said, jokingly. "Roaming Eyes compress space. This place?" He waved a finger around at the ceiling. "Whole other dimension."

"Is it... like the temple?" Steven asked.

"… Yeah, sort of." The Doctor admitted.

"So what are you gonna do now?"

The Doctor pulled a monitor on the console around to face him. It displayed a map of the earth, zoomed in on the United Kingdom. "The Forged came to earth because it was hiding from the Time War, and it wasn't alone. Aliens and monsters like it are gonna be coming from all over for a while, and it's my job to make sure they don't hurt anyone."

The Doctor read the stream of data, next to the image of the UK. The TARDIS was picking up the biometric signature of the Nestene Consciousness, unless he was mistaken.

"Well... It was great to meet you..." Steven smiled.

The Doctor smiled back. "And you. You know, I always sort of wanted to meet Rose Quartz... Something tells me this was even better."

Steven laughed gently. "Pearl says we're a lot alike."

After they concluded their goodbyes, Steven left the TARDIS, and backed away, after closing the doors, curious to see how it moved. He was expecting the box to zip away into the distance, like a Gem ship, so was surprised when, with another wheezing sound, and a few flashes of the box's light bulb, The Doctor's ship simply faded out of sight.

Steven laughed again, and wondered what Pearl would have thought of the Doctor's ship. She had said Time Lords were legendary creatures of great power and wisdom. That sounded about right.

Hey guys, so thanks for all the great feedback. I will be caving into demand and writing a sequel to this story, starring the 10th Doctor and the Crystal Gems, but it'll be separate to this one. So either follow my updates, or keep an eye on the Doctor Who/SU crossover pages, if you wanna read it. Hope you look forward to it!