The light had turned out to be a tunnel leading out of the pointlessly large gemcrete chamber. It was longer than the groove, it seemed, and made of gemcrete - but glowed white, somehow providing its own light without needing separate fixtures to cast it.

"Do you know what to expect?" Steven asked. They had only been walking for a few minutes and already he couldn't see the chamber behind them. As ghostly as the lighting was making things, he knew it was still back there; the tunnel's lighting was just making it impossible to see into the darkness beyond, in either direction.

Amethyst shook her head. "No idea. Stay close and..." She looked back at him with a friendly smirk. "Be ready to throw down the Smoke Bomb."

"Mm!" Steven nodded. He balled his fists and took in a deep breath to gird himself.

Then the lighting faded away, as though someone had slowly activated a dimmer switch. Amethyst turned up her gemlight in response - reacting so quickly that at first Steven thought the color had just changed. "Guess we're close," she said. "Look."

A pinpoint of white light in the distance contrasted against the relative darkness of the tunnel. It was the same unnatural white light, and as they got closer it became clear that it was from the same source.

The tunnel ended, and they found themselves in a round chamber. It was smaller than the square chamber in all directions, maybe a third as wide with a height of about three stories. The perfect roundness of the gray gemcrete walls was again without seams, except for edges where it joined the floor and ceiling.

The only difference now was the air. "Do you smell that?" Steven asked.

Amethyst took a quiet sniff. "Yeah. Weird. Smells like gar... bage?" Her brow jumped up in recognition. "It smells like a Rafflesia. I can take it, but it might make you hurl like a can of whipped cream." She snapped her fingers and a purple clothespin appeared on her nose, pinching it, then produced a wooden one for Steven.

He shook his head, refusing the clothespin. "Rafflesia? The flower?" He remembered the name - and not much else - from that time he'd helped Ronaldo study flowers to impress his girlfriend. "Why would one be here?"

"Good question." Suddenly, Amethyst began shouting. "Hey! We're here now! How 'bout you entertain us, like a good host!"

The room was quiet again for a moment, as they looked around for someone or something to show themselves. Then, as before, the air itself boomed.

[STEP BACK TO THE EDGE.]

They hadn't really gone into the room at all, and only had to take a couple of steps backwards to touch the wall. It was something they would have done anyway, since the floor began to silently open up from the center.

The gemcrete had displayed some unusual properties earlier, but now it was dilating away from the hole in an organic movement far more like an eye than a camera lens. At no point did any part of it stop glowing, nor did the luminosity of the room as a whole change; the hole in the center simply appeared to be a two-dimensional space of nothingness.

Then, just as suddenly as it had started, the hole stopped growing, leaving a ten foot wide rim next to the wall.

"Well? We're still waiting!" Amethyst said.

This time, the reply came not as booming air but as a voice - a clear, monotone tenor - that was almost certainly female, yet seemed to lack vitality. "MY GREATEST APOLOGIES, CRYSTAL GEMS. YOUR ARRIVAL WAS A SURPRISE, LEAVING ME UNPREPARED TO MEET YOU AT FIRST. BUT NOW I AM READY."

From the darkness arose a large array of five pale-red 'petals' ringing a circle of darkness, identifiable after a moment as a Rafflesia - or an approximation of one, as it was neither organic nor accurate. It was being lifted upwards on a gemcrete platform the same size as the hole in the floor, though it was unclear if that was the original floor reformed at a lower level or an altogether different one taking its place.

Underneath the petals was a thick light-brown stem that, once the platform had seamlessly fixed itself to the floor, was clearly growing up from the gemcrete.

No, it itself was gemcrete.

The flower, its petals and maybe even the dark hole within, was gemcrete.

The same material that Steven and Amethyst had been surrounded by since they'd first left the groove.

The walls seemed to be grinning now, with mouths they didn't have. Faceless mouths formed on the stem - hundreds of them - and began speaking in a cacophonous union: "WELCOME, CRYSTAL GEMS. I WAS ONCE MANY, AND NOW I AM AMMOLITE."

The round chamber began to shake, and with it they felt a rising sensation.

"COME, CRYSTAL GEMS. ASCEND WITH ME TO THE HEAVENS."

"We don't want to!" Amethyst turned her position ever so slightly, finding a better stance to fight from. "And if you try to make us-!"

"YOU RESIST, WARRIOR?" The gemcrete walls grew sharp, spear-like points, that then bent themselves towards their position. "YOU ARE BUT ONE, AGAINST MY MANY!"

"Waitwaitwait!" Steven stepped in front of Amethyst, deliberately bare-handed. To his relief, the spears stayed still; he smiled nervously, trying to show diplomatic calm. "We don't know who you are, or what's going on. What are you trying to do, Ammolite?"

To their discomfort, Ammolite began to laugh. It was a chuckle, really - not inherently disturbing - but by being repeated and amplified through hundreds of mouths it became a mocking cacophony. And as sudden as a rain, it ceased. "I WISH TO RULE, ENVOY."

"Rule?! Over what!" Amethyst stepped to Steven's side.

"EARTH! THE STARS! HOMEWORLD! ALL OF SPACE AND TIME!" She paused, and just as it seemed like she would start laughing again, she continued. "CAN YOU NOT SEE IT? I SEE THE END OF A UNIVERSE, THE DEATH OF A CENTURY. AFTER WAR COMES NOT PEACE, BUT ME! THE NEW AND THE OLD, THE UNENDING CYCLE - THE COMING OF AMMOLITE IS THE ONLY EVENTUALITY."

"What the..." Steven whispered to himself.

"THE ONLY TRUE BEAUTY IS THE STILLNESS OF LIFE, CRYSTAL GEMS. AND WITH MY ARRIVAL, STILL AND SILENT WILL BE THE LAW! ALL LIFE! ALL MATTER! ALL WILL BOW TO MY WILL, AND REMAIN UNTO ETERNITY! AND YOU, MY GUESTS, WILL WITNESS FIRSTHAND THIS BEAUTY-"

"We're not getting lectured about beauty by a corpse flower!" Amethyst dropped her whips and assumed a pose. "Steven!"

"Right!" He assumed his own pose. And in a quick movement, they bumped their fists together and disappeared together into a single flash of light.

"...Smokyyyyyyy Quartz!" they announced. "Whoo, that's a smell!"

"FUSION?! YOU CHOOSE TO DEFY ME?"

"Duuhh!" Smoky Quartz produced their yo-yos and hunched a little into a fighting stance. "That's not beauty yer talkin' about - that's decay. Who'd want that?"

"ALL MUST! ALL WILL! ...SPEARS!"

In the blink of an eye the gray gemcrete spears thrust forward, turning and extending towards Smoky Quartz in two-dimensional angles. They ran into the spinning yo-yos from all angles, chopped apart as though grass to a mower, succeeding only at forcing a stalemate situation. "Like kale in a blender, Ammolite! I need a couple'a bananas, 'cause I'm having my green smoothie early today!"

"INSOLENT! IMMATURE-!"

"-Indomitable! Inimitable!"

More spears appeared and thrust towards Smoky Quartz. "I AM IMMUTABLE!"

"And I'm inconsistent!" While continuing to tear apart the spears with the yo-yos in their hands, they created and launched a single yo-yo from their belly gem. It spun forward, stopping and changing direction every so often, until it smashed into Ammolite's stalk and stuck there like a throwing axe. "See? Like that! Now BOOOM!"

A spark appeared from their belly gem and burned through the extended string, until it reached the yo-yo - which exploded on the stalk.

BOOOMMM

The dust cleared quickly from the breeze their spinning yo-yos were making - and for a moment, the attack appeared to have worked. The spears stopped in mid air and hung there for a few seconds, then retracted back into the walls. The large gash that one yo-yo left formed itself into a pair of lips, and then a new, smiling mouth full of teeth.

"YOU ARE POWERLESS TO STOP ME, CRYSTAL GEM. IN YOUR HELPLESSNESS, WITNESS NOT MY BEAUTY, BUT MY TRIUMPH! BEAR WITNESS TO MY CORONATION UNDER GOLDEN RAYS!"

The light in the ceiling began flowing away from the center, followed by the gemcrete melting back into the walls. White light gave way to gray gemcrete which gave way to a hole - black at first, then blue, as the mid-afternoon sky intruded into Ammolite's world.

"The sky? We're outside?" Smoky Quartz said. "Did- did you lift us up through a mountain?"

"I CAN DO WHAT YOU CANNOT. I GO WHERE YOU CANNOT. BY MY OWN WILL, I AM UNBOUND BY NATURAL LAW! NOW WATCH, CRYSTAL GEM, AS I EVOLVE!"

The floor shook again as the walls too melted away, rendering it a disc rotating freely around an enormous flower stalk. It was clear now that they were outside, floating several thousand feet above the evergreens and mountains of the Pacific Northwest State Forest Park.

In spite of it all, it was a nice view. "Huh. Guess that solves one problem?" Smoky Quartz said to themselves, while dissipating their yo-yos.

Ammolite wasn't done, however. Two gray gemcrete arms grew from the brown stalk, while a face formed around that large mouth Smoky Quartz had accidentally helped make. "GAZE UPON MY FORM, CRYSTAL GEM. WITNESS THE SHAPE I TAKE TO BEQUEATH TRUE LIBERTY, TRUE JUSTICE, TRUE DESTINY!"

"Give me a break!" Smoky Quartz shot back. "None of those things mean anything without a life to live!"

"I WILL MEND SUCH UNBREAKABLE LAWS WHEN IT PLEASES ME." She spread her arms out, as though preparing to embrace the sun and the sky around it. "I WILL CONSUME WHAT BEGINS THE CYCLE ON THIS PLANET, AND WITH MY DARKNESS RIGHTFULLY TAKE ITS PLACE AS THE GOAL FOR EXISTENCE!"

"You're as nutty as a hazelnut sandwich, Ammolite." The words were barely out of their mouth when they jumped up from the disc. In the blink of an eye they created a house-sized rose-brown floating bubble-shield, and harnessed themselves to its underside with purplish-brown ropes. "Smoky Quartz, Flying Forrrrrrrmation!" they announced, looking very much like a hot air balloon and basket.

Ammolite's arm appeared to move slowly through the sky, whipping against air resistance as she tried to swat the fusion down. "HOW DARE YOU CHEAT ME OF A CLEAN HIT!" she roared, missing again and again.

"Dude: git gud. That's all I can tell you now."

"I AM THE END OF ALL THINGS! I AM THE END OF YOU!" One of her arms became thinner, until it looked uncomfortable like a blade the length of a mountain. "I REJECT YOUR EXISTENCE!" she said, bringing that blade down onto Smoky Quartz with greater velocity than before.

They couldn't move out of the way in time, and so took a direct hit to the 'balloon' from above. They had time to gasp, and then...

The blade shattered against the 'balloon'.

"WHAT?!"

"-the heck?"

The smaller shards simply evaporated into ash and dust, while the larger ones cracked and broke apart first. Ammolite's blade-arm looked less impressive now, though what was still directly connected to her showed no sign of decay. She was suddenly distracted with a self-inspection, something Smoky Quartz didn't miss.

"Hey, Amethyst - what gives?" Smoky Quartz said to themselves. "...wait, really? Even though we're literally beings of light- well, sure, okay, there is that. So, uh, should I rub it in?"

"THIS CANNOT BE! THIS IS IMPOSSIBLE!"

"Really goin' for the cliche, huh? Alright, let's end this." They took a breath. "Hey Ammolite! Wanna know a fun word? 'Photodegradation'!"

"...WHAT?" For the first time, Ammolite sounded worried.

"You shoulda stayed a creepy shut-in!" They began gaining altitude, quickly getting above Ammolite. Above her petals, and the dark hole they surrounded. "Now you're right where I want you!"

"CRYSTAL GEEEEEEEEEMMMMMMMMM!" Ammolite swung her other hand up, open and intending to crush Smoky Quartz.

"And you're not so scary when I can see you coming!" Their gems sparkled, as they grasped three yo-yos and spun them out to follow two others. The five yo-yos each hit the base of a different petal, embedding themselves just outside of the hole. "Now let's see whatcha hidin' inside! BOOOM!"

Five sparks raced down five strings and, when they terminated in the yo-yos, exploded.

B-B-B-B-BOOOMMM

Amethyst had guessed correctly. No matter how much Ammolite herself was unaffected by exposure to the sun, she hadn't properly prepared her gemcrete for the possibility of photodegradation. She'd been underground for too long, and had forgotten the cardinal, unspoken rule of living on the surface - one that Amethyst knew all too well.

The petals, now unexpectedly brittle, split apart one by one from the stem. In the sun and wind, against the green of the forest, they broke apart into smaller and smaller pieces as they fell, losing their red color to the gray of ash, until there was nothing left to hit the ground.

They left behind a crumbling gemcrete cylinder, formerly so shaded by them that it seemed to eat light, but was now completely exposed. And in the center, there was a pedestal of sorts, atop of which was a small, shimmering fragment of hypocrisy.

"There! That's Ammolite's gem! Let's end this..." Smoky Quartz yanked their 'balloon' towards themselves and kicked off of it right as they dissipated the harness. They flew down towards the gem and, with Ammolite screaming indiscriminately, kicked through the pedestal...

...and the stalk.

The screaming ended suddenly, as her physical form became a mere mineral formation the moment it lost the force animating it.

Smoky Quartz didn't look back. Not as they approached the ground, and not as they landed, with Ammolite's gem in hand. They didn't have to - they could hear that unearthly pillar of gemcrete collapsing and disappearing into dust behind them.

They stood up from the slight hunched stoop they'd taken as they landed. "...aww dangit! I forgot to call out the attack name. So embarrassing. 'Least it smells better now," they said, as their form reverted to light, and then two forms.

"So, what was all that?" Steven asked, as he looked at the shell-like gem in his hand. The ash had all disappeared into the wind, and when they'd gone back to check on the groove it now ended in a small, natural cave.

"A Gem Monster. Musta gone crazy by herself - so crazy she regained her mind. Pro'lly needed someone to see her, and that's why she waited..." Amethyst started to think about how she'd met the other Crystal Gems - then cut it short by focusing on her growling stomach. "...Anyway!"

"Y-yeah?" He sent the bubbled gem home.

"We just cheated death. Howsabout we let the others know you passed your test, and celebrate with a weenie roast?" She smiled as though nothing unusual had happened.

Steven began laughing. Nothing unusual had happened. With his life, a quiet weekend camping trip survival test was the most unusual thing he was going to get to do all month. And now he had time to enjoy the rest of his test.

Later that evening, they ate a small feast of campfire food in Ammolite's honor over a ukulele jam and watched the stars shimmer.