The little green drone arrived unannounced and barged into the beach house without anyone's permission - and thus had much in common with its creator, Pearl noted to herself. And knowing Peridot, it was there to show off her latest advancement in understanding Human culture or technology. It found Steven and began playing audio, just as Pearl was reaching for the broom.

"Steven! Hello! Do you have a minute?" Peridot said through it, at far greater volume than was actually necessary.

After an incident earlier on the boardwalk, Steven was in the odd position of having to take responsibility by putting on 'future boy' make-up and a costume. "Um, maybe? I have something I need to go do in a little bit - what's up?"

"Me and Lapis found a new old Gem wreck to source parts from-"

"-we're desecrating a grave!-" Lapis cut in.

"-what? No, no, Steven. If anything, it's more like a Human mausoleum-"

"-we're grave robbing! Wanna come grave-rob with us, Steven?"

"Laaaaaaaapiiiis! If you say it like that he won't want to come."

"I thought we were stealing! I learned how to make a shovel out of water so we could go stealing! Aren't we going stealing?"

Pearl looked on in growing horror as Steven grew more and more delighted by the possibility of ...stealing gravy? Granola? As bad an influence as Amethyst could be, she thought, he had lines he knew not to cross.

To her relief, Steven's expression became one of disappointment. "Sorry, guys. I have to go pretend to be a robot from the future for money from the present because of something that happened in the recent past. Maybe later?"

The drone was silent for a moment, and then Peridot began producing sounds again. "...I think we might have misheard part of that! But the offer's still 'on the table', if you have some time later!"

"Yeah, sorry guys."

"We'll talk later!" The drone went silent again.

"Steven?" Pearl asked carefully, putting a dish on the drying rack. "You know better than to steal food, right?"

"Yeah?" Steven replied confusedly.

"Okay, just checking, just checking. You're still going to help on the boardwalk, right?"

"Yeah. I should be back by dinner? Can you take my messages, if Lapis and Peridot call back?" He thumbed at the drone, now reclining on the sofa like a cat.

"Of course! You just go and have fun with your job," Pearl said.

Steven smiled and nodded. His preparations complete, he hustled out of the beach house, leaving Pearl alone in a house with almost no chores left to do.

To pass the time, she began to examine Peridot's drone. As she'd guessed earlier it was a newer model, with external hardpoints and a more advanced compliment of audio (and optionally video) equipment. Judging by their location the hardpoints were intended to facilitate transportation through different types of terrain - which meant Peridot was beginning to take multi-functionality more seriously than perfection towards a single-function. She was learning, on Earth, how to be a better Earthling.

The morning passed into lunchtime, by which time Pearl had already re-done all of the cleaning chores and taken a bag lunch to Steven. The drone had reactivated twice, both times just to extend another invitation towards Steven, and by all appearances it was going to be a peaceful day.

And then Pearl noted to herself that, even after six thousand years, she was still falling for the lies of peace. The drone activated again, and this time the message was more serious.

"Steven? Steven, are you there? We, uhhhhhh, needyourhelp." Peridot was more flustered than earlier, through her usual screeching, and it was clear from her tone that something had gone wrong. "I can't get into the details right now but something went really wrong and we need backup! Can you come quick? We're at coordi-"

"-look out!" Lapis shouted, a little further away.

There was a loud rustling that sounded like Peridot had just dodged something dangerous. "-oh stars that was close. Coordinates follow! We're at the Kans-" With a burst of static the drone suddenly went silent, its connection severed.

As Pearl looked on, it was clear that the drone itself was still active and had received the coordinates, jumping up and motioning for her to follow.

With a sigh, she dashed off a quick note in case Steven came home early and then followed the drone to the warp pad. As she'd guessed, their destination was Kansas City. The warning tone played, and they were off...

Despite its appearance and reputation as a region historically safe from Gem-related battles, the American Midwest had been the site of a number of Gem War events. Specifically, the first few generations of colony ships had used it as the equivalent of a parking lot, taking advantage of the region's relative environmental predictability, and not all of them had been able to get off Earth in the end. The Crystal Gems had been instrumental in securing the region for Human repopulation, burying the relics deep underground to prevent future exploitation and accidents. (Pearl's own contribution was an agreement trading energy technology know-how in exchange for not mining fossil fuels in certain risky areas.)

Somehow, either Lapis Lazuli or Peridot had managed to figure out where a ship was, and then they'd dug their way down to it.

Pearl carefully scraped the rock-and-earth wall of the tunnel the drone had lead her through, just tall enough for someone her height, underneath the outskirts of Kansas City. It crumbled in a way that confirmed what she'd expected: Peridot had likely gotten Lapis to use her water powers to drill out the tunnel. "You both know better than this," she said to herself.

She caught up with the drone waiting for her at the solid end of the tunnel. It was, clearly, an access hatch in the hull of an Era 1 Gem ship - recently used. The drone was pointing at the hatch, imploring her to enter.

"What's wrong with this picture?" she asked herself. There was something off about the whole situation; it felt like a trap of some kind. It didn't feel like the sort of place either Peridot or Lapis would willingly enter on their own (to say nothing of Pearl herself) nor did it seem likely that they would ask Steven to come there.

Ah. That's what it was, Pearl realized. It all felt like a thing Peridot might have done back when they were enemies. Two Gems, aligned with Homeworld until very recently, were trying to get her to enter a wreck on their terms.

She shook off the thought. It really was only a little while ago that they'd both agreed to live peacefully on Earth, but they'd sworn to Steven. They'd earned his trust and, at the very least, weren't the type to betray a friend. If her mind consisted of a parliament of Pearls, each representing a single aspect of her, then it was time for Logical Pearl to tell Paranoid Pearl to take her seat.

Pearl sighed. The access record on the screenpad next to the door indicated that the arrogant cactus and the indifferent water bottle were the only recent guests to the ship. And, they'd only ever entered once, earlier that day. "Seems legit," she said, remembering a phrase Steven and Amethyst had been throwing around.

Steven's friends really were inside the ship, then, and they really had requested assistance. Not from her specifically, but she was Pearl of the Rebellion! Vanguard of the Crystal Gems! The Terrifying Renegade! And the Eleventh Sanada Brave.

For her, backing down wasn't an option.

Pearl tapped a couple of buttons and opened the hatch. She took one last breath of safe, tunnel-flavored air, and entered the ship. The hatch closed behind her, leaving the drone alone outside.

"...Oh, you two." Once inside, it was obvious what had happened. Most Gem ships had some sort of internal defense system - rarely used during the war, given how easily the friend-or-foe identifier could be circumvented - but that was just to hold off intruders until the crew could capture them. Raiding one for parts shouldn't have been difficult for Peridot, who had once activated and suborned such a system against the Crystal Gems.

But they were inside a training ship; the high, decorated ceilings and sturdy halls, all of them built with neutral brown stone-like materials, were unmistakable. These didn't have internal defenses so much as training drones, whose combat capabilities could be scaled up to severely high levels, indistinguishable from actual battle. If Peridot or Lapis, not particularly strong fighters on their own, had managed to activate a training scenario...

There was a distant explosion, followed by a couple of smaller BOOMs that shuddered through the floor. Pearl groaned and produced two of her Bayonet Spiral spears, then prodded them into separate points on the wall and floor. After a moment there was a third smaller BOOM, the direction of which she was able to triangulate. A quick, incidental analysis indicated that it was, at the very least, not caused by Earth explosive materials - and so was probably Gem related. She retracted her spears and began running towards their source.

As Pearl approached one of the main training halls, the BOOMs became louder and more frequent. Then, she heard someone shout out.

"...Upon the Earth!"

BOOM

It was a voice Pearl didn't recognize at all, deep and rough in timbre for a Gem.

"-Beneath the Sea!"

B-BOOM

Two explosions, one after the other. Something dangerous was happening in that hall, something it wouldn't benefit Pearl to run blindly into. She slowed down and crept up to the entrance.

"-and in the Skies!"

B-B-B-B-BOOM

Pearl peaked into the hall. As she'd guessed, there was a Gem there, casually fighting its way through mid-level drones, whipping up enough dust in the process to make it hard to see her. From her silhouette, Pearl could tell that it was a type she'd never heard of nor met.

"-No matter where, I arrive to vanquish threats to this world!"

BOOOOOOOM

The explosions were continuous now, but Pearl couldn't see how the strangely theatrical mystery Gem was accomplishing this. Nor could she see why the lighting in the hall seemed to pulse in intensity. She withdrew a spear and snuck into the hall, needing a closer look under fire.

"Scoundrels! See me well, hear me well! The Aegis of the Heavens, Sapphirine stands before you!"

The dust cleared, and this Sapphirine became visible. She had a study humanoid form, standing an inch or two taller than Garnet, with a red chestplate over a black-and-silver body and enormous, opaque green eyes. She was striking a pose - one finger raised above her head, the other fist at her side - towards no one in particular, in keeping with her being the kind of Gem who had a large 'S' decorating her chest. A bolt of electricity, clearly both her form of attack and the source of the uneven lighting, struck her raised finger.

"...huh," Pearl said, unable to say much else.

"Steven. We're glad you-" Sapphirine began, turning towards Pearl. "PEARL?! Wh-!" And just like that, she began to defuse.

It hadn't been obvious before, but those enormous green eyes were actually large, masking glasses; they disappeared first, revealing two pairs of semi-familiar eyes and a very familiar green gem in her forehead. As her chestplate disappeared and her form turned into light, another gem, tear-shaped and blue, was obviously between her shoulder blades. Then, from the bright vaguely-humanoid mass of white, those two gems split away with some violence, her reagents crashing into the dusty floor before they could take form again.

In a moment, Lapis and Peridot were fully reformed where they'd landed, surrounded by triumphant piles of wrecked drones.

"Why are you here? Where's Steven?" Lapis demanded, having recovered first.

"He still had that prior engage-" Pearl began.

"-And? Why are you even here at all?" Something about the situation had enraged Lapis, more so than Pearl had ever seen her before (admittedly, not very many times).

Pearl took a breath to keep her own anger in check. "You sent a distress call. I answered it." She looked around at the wreckage decorating the hall. "Though it... doesn't look like you needed it?"

"...ooof," Peridot groaned, face-up on the ground. "I feel like a moose threw me out of its territory."

"Are you okay?" Lapis asked, her voice suddenly less fiery. She ran over to Peridot and slid onto her knees, and gently cradled her head.

"Yeah, yeah, just, ah, give me a minute. ...Wow, that was a rush."

Pearl, largely to keep the situation from boiling over further, dissipated her spear. "I'm relieved that you're both okay, and congratulations on fusing. Now, please explain to me what's going on here." She caught herself speaking through grated teeth and, again, took a breath. "Did you even need help?"

"Shut your squawking trap!" Lapis growled. "We don-mmmph?"

When it was clear that she'd gotten the hint, Peridot moved her hand from Lapis's mouth. "Close your eyes, imagine you're in the barn, count to one hundred," she said, and waited until she'd started counting (quickly, and through clenched teeth) to continue. "Pearl, I'm sorry about all of this. We, ah, needed help, and then the fusion worked."

"Oh! Well, it's good that worked out. But then why-"

Lapis had gotten to about thirty, when she appeared to have decided it was enough. "Nope! NopeNopeNope! I'm gonna go break stuff until I feel better - you explain it!" She dropped Peridot's head, produced her wings of water, and flew out of the hall.

After a moment, Peridot sat up. "So, as you may have guessed, Lapis is a little 'Lazuli-ed off' that you're here."

"...I noticed. Why?" Pearl offered a hand, and then pulled Peridot up onto her feet.

"That's kind of a, ah, story," Peridot said, a little embarrassed.

Pearl took a deep breath of stale, dust-clogged air, and let it out in a sigh. "So. You wanted to get Lapis Lazuli out of the barn for a little bit."

"Correct." They were just out of the training hall, looking for an access touchpad.

"You really did intend to scrounge for materials, and it was convenient to have her along. But you needed a better reason than that to convince her." The first few touchpads had become inactive in the centuries since the Gem War, and so they had to keep looking.

"That's right."

"And then you came up with the idea of inviting Steven, to show off how much you two had improved."

"And, and: Sapphirine."

"You didn't know this was a training ship, but you activated what you thought were the defenses. Then you figured out it was a training ship, and your planned fake distress call - don't ever think of doing that again, by the way - turned into a real one." It was beginning to look like there were far more inactive touchpads than working ones.

"Sorry about that. I promise I won't do it again."

"Good. ...and then, you fused into Sapphirine by accident. She-"

"-He," Peridot clarified quickly.

"Oh? Okay." Pearl blinked a couple times. "...Then he took over and eliminated the training drones early."

"Too early. He made it so we couldn't, ah, show off. Right." Peridot kicked the wall under a touchpad. "Slaggin' ancient junk. The one I tried to trap you in worked fine...!"

Pearl tried the touchpad one last time, leaving to find another one when it continued to not work. "And then I arrived instead of Steven, and I wasn't who Lapis Lazuli wanted to see."

"And here we are, all caught up!" Peridot announced.

The next touchpad was, amazingly, still active. Pearl began manipulating it. "This ship was one of the earliest to land on Earth."

"It's an artifact. We should move it to a museum."

"Mm. Not a terrible idea- oh?" The touchpad suddenly flashed red, and ceased responding.

"What does that mean?"

Pearl poked and prodded at it, before giving up in frustration. "We're locked out. Lapis did something."

"ATTENTION ALL PARTICIPANTS. ATTENTION ALL PARTICIPANTS," a mechanical voice blared throughout the hallway.

"That can't be good," Peridot mumbled.

"TRIAL MODE EIGHT WILL COMMENCE SHORTLY. PREPARE YOURSELVES."

"Rrrgh!" Pearl punched the wall under the touchpad with unexpected force, bending in the access panel enough to tear it away from the wall. She reached in and began fiddling with the relay systems inside. "Mode eight is the second-hardest mode, and all the locks are engaged!"

"So...?"

"We're trapped inside until we beat everything it throws at us, or until we stop movi- ow!" There was a visible electrical arc from inside the wall.

"...oh. No chance of, ah, hotwiring the control network?"

Pearl pulled her hands out, with a small scorch mark where she'd been shocked. "None! ...what did that blue troublemaker do?" she added to herself.

"Not much? This is Era 1 tech," Peridot said, stomping on the ground to emphasize the point. "We had to dig and drill just to get down here, and it's still working like the day it was buried."

"Drill? Oh-for-the-" Pearl slapped her hand into her forehead and slid it down, her expression stretching cartoonishly. "...She's using her water powers."

"And she shorted something out. That does sound like her." Peridot sighed. "Plan A's not gonna work, so is there a Pearly-plan B?"

"No. The only thing we can do now is shut down the generator."

"Oh! Well that doesn't sound so bad?"

Pearl suddenly swiveled towards Peridot, shadows cast ominously across her face. "Remember the ship you three came to Earth in?"

"Y-yeah?"

"Garnet threw Jasper - fully charged, fully loaded, spicy - into that generator, and all it did was shock Jasper." She began waving her arms around wildly, as though pointing in every direction at once. "This is an Era 1 ship! Yellow Diamond herself could punch the generator for an hour, and all that'd happen is sore knuckles and an awful lot of whining!"

"Oh stars you're right." Then, something occurred to her. "Wait - you've met Yellow Diamond?"

"Of course I'm- ehhhhh, nonono, I never said that."

"...Okay?"

She hadn't been paying attention until now, but Lapis found herself on the polar opposite end of the training ship from the others. "I don't need them, I don't need anyone," she mumbled to herself, as she shoved an enormous drill made of water through a group of drones. They were bigger than the ones earlier, and maybe a little stronger; in a way, they reminded her of Jasper.

And that was just like Pearl, she thought: crank up the difficulty level and then sic the one Gem she hated more after her! Her nerves, or their Gem equivalent, tensed up at the thought. Her drill ceased to be a drill as such, and became a ring of water swirling a short distance around her, still spinning so fast that it cut through drones and even parts of the wall.

"Why! Why are they all like this!" The water stopped swirling and splashed onto the floor. Every Gem she'd met since setting foot on Earth that first time, so many thousands of years ago, had only made things worse for her. Every time she met a Gem, something-

...Steven. Peridot.

That voice in her head, what that one graphic novel she read called a 'conscience circuit', kicked in. It always did, ever since Steven had healed her. It had told her to forgive the planet, and forgive Peridot after she demonstrated contriteness - but stayed silent on the matter of the Crystal Gems. And why not? They'd never apologized for how they treated her!

Especially Pearl. Homeworld was responsible for trapping her in a mirror, but Pearl! Pearl! Pearl was her prison for who knew how many thousands of years.

If not for Pearl! ...maybe she wouldn't have to constantly feel a tug-of-war in her mind, a tide between crushing loneliness and draining anger. With all her mental fortitude, she had tried to stabilize herself - and the result? Failure. That, and the sense that her existence itself was the problem, not her inability to attain true calmness.

Lapis closed her eyes. She could hear the drones pushing past their comrades' wreckage, and stepping over still puddles of water, to get to her. She could just let them...

She had recently begun to ask herself why she continued to stay on Earth - the Crystal Gems' home territory. For Steven and Peridot? For their sake?

...Yes.

She opened her eyes, and the puddles on the floor suddenly burst up, tearing through the unfortunate drones that happened to be above them. The protective ring of water began to spin again, closer to Lapis this time, slicing through anything unfortunate enough to exist near her.

She took a deep breath. "No. Not yet," she whispered. She had to find Peridot and get her back to Beach City, so they could introduce Sapphirine to Steven. She had to keep going, at least until then.

And, this time, she had some control over her situation.

For one thing, it wasn't her first time on a training ship: all colony engineering specialists like her had been required to train in destination-planet conditions before they could begin work, to compensate for Era 1's relative lack of defensive escorts. (The Gem War on Earth had apparently caused significant changes in protocol, one of which was that colonies in Era 2 were only ever constructed under the protection of a full military garrison.) She couldn't find the ship underground on her own, no - but she knew where everything was aboard it.

She knew where the controls were and how the panels worked, the relative strengths of the drones and the materials used in the ship. Peridot was the engineer, but she was the guide.

And if the controls had locked her out? All she had to do was find the main generator and break it. Backup power would keep critical functions operating, but the drones would all be forced to shut down.

The only problem, really, was that she couldn't just fly straight there. She only had enough water on her to do one thing at a time with it, and right now it was all spinning around her.

So she had to walk.

Lapis groaned in annoyance and began heading in the right direction. "Generator Ho!" she announced to no one in particular.

The original plan had been for Peridot and Pearl to quickly make their way to the training ship's main generator, somewhere deep inside an endless maze of hallways and combat simulation drones.

The new plan was... not that.

"...and, by combining Lapis's water powers with my magnet powers, Sapphirine is able to produce massive quantities of electricity," Peridot said, trying to stay calm.

"So that means he's a walking hydroelectric power plant. Interestin- oop, mind the debris." Pearl sliced through a drone with one spear and sliced through it again - at a perpendicular angle to the first - with her other. The drone seemed to hang in the air for a moment, its four pieces separated by cross-shaped daylight, before it exploded.

Four more drones formed ranks where its compatriot had been, further blocking the way forward. Their arms, formerly humanoid, began spinning so quickly it was impossible to tell if they'd changed shape or not in the deadly blur.

"I, ah, don't think this is working," Peridot said. She was swaddled around Pearl's back with the ribbon-like sash she wore. Until the moment she'd taken it off, Peridot had been under the impression it was physically attached to the rest of her appearance modifiers.

(Technically, under the latest Homeworld guidelines, this meant Pearl's sash would be classified as an external tool/weapon. The thought of anyone, Gem or Human, fighting with a sash as their weapon amused Peridot. And yet when she said as much, Pearl had reacted - chuckled, in fact - as though she knew someone with that sort of undefeatable mastery.)

"I admit, it's certainly not a perfect solution." Even facing four enormous Jasper-class drones, Pearl was able to hold them off with parries alone. "I might have some trouble down the line, if they keep improving. Do you have any suggestions?"

Peridot couldn't easily see what Pearl was fighting, but she could see the path they'd made through them. More specifically, she could see the wreckage of many, many drones. She recalled their robot competition from a while back, and how she'd narrowly won; now, she was certain she'd only won because Pearl hadn't been fighting on foot. She'd improved herself since then, as an engineer and as a fighter and as a Gem; even if she still couldn't imagine ever beating Pearl in a straight duel, she could still fight. "Pearl? How many spears can you sustain at once?"

"Sixty-five thousand five hundred thirty six total. Two hundred fifty six of those have ranged capabilities; the rest have to be inert spears. I can sustain them to an effective range of two hundred meters. Why?"

The gap between them suddenly felt impassable. "Ah, well, I've been working on something that might help."

"Really? Good for you." Pearl swiped wide with both spears, and the four drones ahead of her were suddenly without their arms. "But this really isn't the time for a demonstration."

"No, I've practiced it, and it's ready for live combat! Could you produce two spears for me, please?"

"Hmm." If her hands had been free, Pearl would have touched her chin thoughtfully to think about it. As it was, she merely pinned the four unarmed drones to the walls, two with each spear. "Okay! Looks like we have a moment, so show me what you gooooooot."

Peridot began trying to undo the sash, as Pearl flourished gracefully into a neutral position. "...is that a reference to something? Amethyst says it that way too."

"I think so? Here-" Pearl undid the sash, allowing Peridot to fall down onto her butt with little dignity. Then she produced two more spears and stuck them into the floor. "Something about it being appropriate to me..."

Peridot hopped up and declared "Well! Let's put a pin in that so you can watch and be amazed at my magnificence!" From her gem, she produced a series of cans and held them in the air with her magnet powers. With a flick of her wrist they split off and flew towards the spears, winding themselves onto the handles. "And here's the kicker!" With a flourish, the spears began to float; with another gesture, they spun in place, then stopped and rotated defensively around the two Gems.

"That's actually really impressive, Peridot! Will it work with anything?"

The spears stopped rotating and floated over to Peridot. "There's a weight limit - force and mass in a gravity well and all - but the shape doesn't seem to matter. It has an effective range of fifty meters? And I can't access your spear's blaster functions."

"No, I doubt you could. But, Steven - and Amethyst too, come to think of it - told me about what happened to Jasper..."

"Yeah!" Peridot puffed up in pride. "I can do that reliably now! And look!" She made a motion with her hands, whereupon one floating spear touched the floor and scratched something into it. When it was done, cursive English characters announced that Peridot had in fact been in that location at that specific time, and the two Peri-spears were hovering around her in stand-by positions.

Pearl leaned over for a better look. "That's very beautiful penmanship. You've really come a long way."

"Well..." She turned away, trying to hide her blushing. "I had lots of time to practice."

(In truth she'd been working almost non-stop on improving her magnet powers in her free time. The effort had paid off, to the point that she felt confident in breaking into a training ship of the old school. There had been too many times where she had to hold back and not participate in some battle or another for her second home planet, and enough was enough. But, while she had the toughness, she lacked the strength for melee-range combat. So instead she'd trained with Lapis and developed a short- to medium-range style.)

A jostling noise from somewhere ahead of them drew her out of her thoughts.

"A single drone - probably a scout for a large group." Pearl produced two more spears, but held them low without expectation of immediate action. "It's as good an opportunity as any. Why don't you take this one?"

"Really?" she asked with maximum pride, then tamped it down with a 'game face' grin. With a flick of her finger, the Peri-spears pointed forward in active mode, ready to fight any and all approaching foes.

The drone was big. Really big, compared to her. Bigger than Jasper, and maybe what would happen if her twin had fused with her.

Lapis punched at it once, and her water fist traced the motion.

The drone's head went flying - and taking advantage of the opening that created, she chopped downwards with her other hand, with the other water hand cutting through the drone vertically.

The two halves sparked a couple of times at the join, and then gravity pulled them down to the floor.

She'd lost count of how many she'd destroyed since splitting up from the others. Many, certainly. Enough to brag about to Steven, when she next saw him.

But not enough to improve her mood.

There was a sizable distance between loneliness and anger within her, and her mood could be charted somewhere between those two points at any give time. So far, only a few things had proven enough to break out of that binary; heavy and complicated use of her water powers was one of them. It didn't have to be combat necessarily, but there were few other opportunities for her to really let loose, burn off some stress.

If all she wanted was satisfaction to pass the time with, that was what her life would be: no joy, no love, no rest, no peace, nothing but combat followed by a search for more combat. The techniques Ruby and Sapphire had trained into her were intended to help her deal with her stress; instead, she'd taken them to their logical conclusion and built off of them, creating her own martial style with Peridot's help.

(Maybe it was because they didn't wear the star, or maybe because their rapport reminded her of Steven, but for some reason Ruby and Sapphire didn't trigger her automatic distrust. She couldn't work out why. It made for an awkward situation, where she had to ask Steven or Peridot to ask Garnet to ask Ruby and Sapphire if they could come work with her.)

Which was why she felt so... empty, she figured. She'd psyched herself up for a day of fighting alongside one friend, followed by showing off what she could do for another. And that was the other thing that really allowed her to escape her usual mood: hanging out with friends.

She mentally kicked herself. The only reason she was alone at the moment, being an utter legend where no one could see her, was out of pique. Her own fault, partially - and the rest of it? Pearl's.

Always Pearl. Lapis could die and go to some afterlife, and she knew the guardian at those gates (good or bad) would take Pearl's form just to test her, possibly repeatedly. She could go on one of those spirit quests and all she'd meet would be some slippery amphibian with Pearl's voice and characteristics, guiding her to a path she'd refuse out of hand. And if she'd become a hermit, spending her days and nights meditating in search of Enlightenment (not the band) like Ruby had taught her, she was more likely to build up tremendous Aura Power (with which her life force would burn golden) than find a greater truth - because that image of Pearl would block her.

It was hard to forget the place that had served as her prison. And that place had, unfortunately, overridden the core at the center of her sense of self. Lapis knew all of this, but didn't know what to do with it.

/...No, that's not true. You know./

That conscience circuit again. It was right, though - she knew what she could try.

But for now, she just imagined Pearl's face on the increasingly difficult opponents the training ship was throwing at her.

So many Pearls.

Lapis's mood was tipping towards anger again. It was a low burn, low enough in intensity that it felt like calm.

A short-term fix.

The drones were still falling to single punches, if she aimed her enormous watery fists correctly. They were the world, for now. Nothing else mattered.

So many Pearls...

Peridot's attacks with her Peri-spears had been Oh-Haytch-Kays. Pearl had been impressed, and had given her some pointers (glancing blows to joints were often more effective than full-force strikes to armored areas, for example). The path to the ship's main generator seemed wide open and inevitable...

Past tense. Past Perfect, in fact.

Peridot was, once again, forced to be swaddled up on Pearl's back for her own safety. This time, rather than just an easy means of transport, it was for her own safety. The drones had individually gotten weaker but were far more numerous to compensate - and seemed to be an endless horde.

And in the middle were two Gems, holding their own despite not having been made for it.

"Two in the corner!" Pearl said, as she smashed a spear into a nearby drone and fired through it, hitting a group behind it and causing them to flinch.

"I see them!" One of Peridot's Peri-spears flew over a crowd of drones and slashed through two that had been preparing to open fire, from outside of Pearl's melee range. A single drone apparently saw an opening, and leapt up to take advantage of it. "One in the air!"

"Roger!" Pearl whipped around, her free spear cutting indiscriminately through unprepared drones and her drone-tipped spear acting as a battlemace until she pointed it upwards and fired. The drone that had been trying to get in a leaping attack caught a spear-blast to the face and, its balance lost, ended up impaled on Pearl's other spear instead.

To the two Gems, that looked like an opportunity. "How about now? Are there enough-" Peridot began.

Pearl nodded quickly. "Yes! Let's do it!"

Peridot tensed up and called her Peri-spears back in preparation for what was coming, while Pearl combined her drone'd spears at the hilts to form a lance. Once the Peri-spears were attached to Pearl's sides, she spun her lance (really a two-headed greathammer, with the drones at the ends) above her head while she herself pirouetted. The combined force of both the lance and its holder spiraling in an enclosed space was enough to generate first an updraft then a cyclone, one powerful enough to tear apart nearby drones and wall ornaments.

When it was all over, with drone bits still crumbling back down to the ground, Peridot let herself down again. "...so, ah, what should we call that maneuver?" she asked, her heavily-beaten Peri-spears returning to orbit around her.

Pearl separated her lance into spears again, registering concern for a moment when they collapsed into dust in her hands. She dissipated them, and pulled two more from her gem while the remains were still sparkling. "We might not survive long enough for it to matter."

"Hey. Hey - Pearl? Look at me."

Pearl sighed. "What is it?"

"I'll get us through this. We. Are. Going. To. Make. It." With each word Peridot's tone became more serious and determined, ending on something approaching up-to-eleven parody.

"Liar," Pearl chuckled.

"Worth a shot." She shrugged, smiling. "I can handle a couple more rounds like this one, though. Got plenty of gas in the tank!"

"Me too. But my spears can't." She dissipated the spears in Peridot's Peri-spears, leaving behind two empty ferromagnetic metal tubes in the empty air. Then, she handed over the two she was holding, watching as they quickly became the next two Peri-spears. "This is a new situation for me; these training ships are no joke. I'm even a little out of breath here."

Peridot was small by design, and created with very few extra features - except her innate toughness - that were otherwise considered standard to all Peridots regardless of era. This counter-intuitively made her an excellent choice for an extended fight or mission, since limited features meant a limited drain on her energy. Not needing to rest and recharge had made her an irritating foe to the Crystal Gems, and a valuable ally in a situation like this. "I can carry you, if you need me to."

"Don't take this the wrong way, but I'd shatter myself before I let you carry me."

Peridot thought about it for a second, and understood. "See, when you keep saying things like that, where we have to think about it for a second, that's why Lapis is never gonna forgive you-"

"I never asked to be-"

"-and you should! This planet isn't big enough for us to all hate each other." She motioned between them. "We got that far, didn't we?"

Pearl sighed again. "We are engineers. I don't have anything in common with her."

"That's not tr-"

There was a low rumbling throughout the area they were walking through. Drone debris rattled on the floor like sand on a drum, in time with the footsteps of something big.

Pearl shoved two extended spears into the floor, and seemed to listen for a moment. "We're going to have company," she said flatly.

"Because why not, at this point!" Peridot grumbled.

"It's big. Bigger than Jasper."

"A-a Diamond?"

"No, not quite. Although, I think I'd rather fight one of them instead."

"Worse than a Diamond? Can the ship even do that?"

"...Oh, that's right; you've never met her."

"Never...? No, not Malachite?"

Pearl didn't respond. Instead, she pointed towards the other end of the hall they were in, at the floor-to-ceiling height exit.

The drone was almost as tall as the hall itself - and more worryingly, about as wide as it was tall. So wide, in fact, that it had to turn a little and side-step through the hall opening in order to get through. Whereas all the other drones so far had been humanoid in shape and form, and were in tones of brown and tan, this one had four enormous arms swinging out to its sides and was purple. It also carried a weapon rather than have it built-in - or rather, dragged it behind it: an enormous mace.

"Sugilite," Pearl said. She sounded resigned to the situation, though minute twitching in her fingertips suggested another possibility.

"Wh-?!" Peridot gasped. Reason caught up with her a moment later. "That's not possible! She- she was formed for the first time after the end of the Gem War."

"The ship scanned me when I first boarded, or maybe it had an active link to the communication hub she destroyed." The words had barely left Pearl's mouth when the hall exits slammed shut. "And it doesn't matter - we're only getting out through her."

"Th-through it," Peridot clarified. Her Peri-spears orbited in an attack position. "That's not our friends. That's not Amethyst and Garnet."

"...right." Pearl gripped her spears and held them with more confidence. "It's a drone. A big one, but it's still a drone."

"But you beat it before, right?"

The purple drone assumed an aggressive stance - which, given that its mere existence was aggressive, merely meant that it that it roared and pulled its mace closer.

Pearl laughed without smiling. "Do you see a cliff around here? -Look out!" She suddenly kicked Peridot to the side and jumped away herself - just in time to avoid that purple mace slamming into their position.

In Peridot's case, an excess of energy didn't translate into much of anything without some external devices to take advantage of it. As a special favor (a 'birthday' present, whatever that was) Lapis had tracked down and fished up her limb enhancers from the ocean floor, and they would have come in handy. Any kind of ranged weapon would do, really, even one of those heavy blasters they'd recovered from that Ruby Squad's ship.

Pearl had long limbs, spears that doubled as blasters, and millennia of combat experience; Peridot had a couple of floating sticks. But they were both S-class Gems, too small and too weak to do any serious damage to a drone successfully mimicking a 2L-class Gem Fusion.

And yet, Peridot knew Pearl had poofed the real Sugilite. Granted, when she told the story, she'd made it clear luck was on her side that day - but manipulating that luck was, itself, a valuable skill when it came to undoing catastrophies.

It only came into play when luck was in play, however. The terrain, such as it was, only favored the drone: a wide, open arena of a hall, with no obstacles for the smaller Gems to take cover behind and no loose materials to subvert. The training ship's intent was clear here, that it be a straightforward brawl to the bitter end.

Naturally, the two Gems refused to play by the rules they were given.

"Taaaaaaake this! MOSQUITO STAR!" At Peridot's command, her Peri-spears shot out at the purple drone's head-mounted visual sensors. But before they could make contact, she flicked her fingers, suddenly altering their trajectories while still keeping them near the drone's head. The drone, having already recoiled slightly to avoid the initially expected attack, was forced to keep moving slightly to avoid getting hit. "Pearl!"

Pearl nodded and began to move. Taking advantage of the drone's distraction, she ran in close through its legs, slashing at one knee from behind and then firing at the other. In that same rapid movement, she picked up Peridot and repeatedly, suddenly, juked in unusual directions to avoid the drone's inevitable counterattacks.

As effective as Peridot's attack was as a distraction, she couldn't move fast enough to make the drone lose track of her position: all it had to do was strike near where she had been standing, and that was close enough for the mace impact to affect her. Pearl had begun carrying and dropping her after the first couple of attacks to get around this.

So far so good, Peridot thought. All they had to do was keep this up until the drone was rendered immobile enough for them to figure out a way to escape the hall. And by her calculations... "Pearl - good job! We only need to do that about one hundred seventy-three more times before it's stuck!" she shouted out.

"ARE YOU SERIOUS?!" Pearl responded. She jumped suddenly, hard enough for Peridot's internal cavities to feel the acceleration forces; the drone's mace smashed into the spot they'd been a moment ago. "It's been getting more accurate! And it's reading our moves! We'll be lucky to survive ten more!"

A second mace smashed the space Pearl had occcupied at the end of that last exclamation.

Pearl's conclusion was incorrect, Peridot knew. Only because the drone had produced that second mace and was throwing them around one after the other, forcing her to move ever faster - and under the circumstances, it was probably best to not correct her. She put their odds at surviving for another couple of smashes at most.

The first mace smashed so close to Pearl that she had to parry it with her spear. "...I'm sorry," she said, apropos of nothing.

"Huh?" Peridot asked.

"I can't keep you safe." She spoke quietly, just barely audible above the whoosh of air around them, and the squeaks of contact between her shoes and the floor. "I'm sorry."

"No, you're doing gre-"

Pearl came to a sudden halt and nodded up at the curved wall they were cornered in. "Look."

"This whole time?" Peridot finally understood. "The drone was forcing us into a corner."

"The next best thing." Pearl turned around to face the drone approaching them, pulling its maces in close for a finishing blow. "It can hit us no matter what we do. Checkmate."

"It can't- Pearl?" Peridot asked, hoping for a punchline to a sad joke. "We can still-"

Pearl shook her head gently and lowered Peridot to the floor. "Well, grin and bear it. You're a Crystal Gem and you did your best. Take pride in the ship throwing Sugilite at you."

"...no." Peridot recalled her surviving Peri-spear and gripped it tightly. "I want to go down fighting." Her own lack of hesitation caught her by surprise.

"Ha!" Pearl laughed, and continued to smile. She held out her free hand to Peridot. "Want to go out together?"

Peridot took it, and held it. "Sure!"

The drone loomed over them, and swung a mace at their position.

Peridot's last thought was one of regret, at not being able to show Steven her bravery. There was a flash as the mace hit, light blasting out in every direction. She thought it was an oddly faint, oddly green light.

"Wake up," a voice commanded.

Pearl put up her hand, to try and block the incoming mace just a little bit. It was taking its sweet time to hit, she thought.

"I know, right?" she heard Peridot think.

"Eh?" Pearl thought. She looked up at the mace again, and saw that it wasn't her hand, but someone else's, trying to stop it. And then she saw that the mace wasn't moving; it was floating in midair, stuck on the top of a pyramid.

No: four spears, joined together at a single point, but spread out as through they were forming a pyramid from its base. Her spears couldn't do that, and they weren't Peri-spears either.

Somewhere nearby, Peridot had come to a similar conclusion.

"You're both awake; good," that voice said. "I'm taking control now, but I'll still need your help." Pearl and Peridot's body began to move on its own, and also manipulated those spears to toss the mace back towards the drone.

"...what?"

"Did we...?"

Information flowed into the Gems. They stood three meters tall and were roughly humanoid, taking more after Pearl's proportions than Peridot's. Their limbs were a pale white and their torso was a charcoal black - all armored as though in leather, but only as heavily as an archer. In their forehead, a triangular green gem was above an ovaloid one, which was only slightly above the line of their narrow green eyes. Within them, they didn't feel powerful so much as reactive, able to deal with any situation at any scale just by being there. Most importantly, it wasn't just the two of them.

"This is Hiddenite; ready to engage" the voice said calmly, not to Peridot or Pearl but the drone - and not as a statement but as a promise of future violence. The spears, their spears, their 'Pin Stingers', returned to their body and attached themselves to their shoulder blades in the general formation of wings, six to a side.

Then they began to float, that faint green light from before glowing around their legs as though it was a mist. That was their new Gem Power: flotation. More specifically, they could apply force to any part of their mass, pushing against the pull of gravity - or against the resistance of another mass.

This time, Hiddenite spoke quickly to the two Gems within her: "Pearl? Calculate the false Sugilite's upcoming actions and send those conclusions to us. Peridot? Manipulate the Pin Stingers; use Pearl's forecasting and focus on reducing its activity. I'll control our physical form."

"What? I don't have Future Vi-" Pearl began. Information revealed itself to her: past actions, future possibilities, thousands of eventualities branching off from thousands of choices - all of which she could suddenly, accurately, analyze. "-no. No, I do! I can see our enemy!"

"Pin Stingers?" Peridot asked. One detached and flitted around with three-dimensional movements. It was immediately apparent they could follow her will far more accurately than her Peri-spears ever could. "They're... almost too sensitive. But they're not just for show!"

Hiddenite smiled. Her misty green light spread, gently enveloping her form and her Pin Stingers. "Good. Then, let's go!"

"Go! Pin Stingers!" At Hiddenite's command five pin-shaped remote modules detatched themselves from her shoulders and, along with the one that had already been flitting around, flew out towards the False Sugilite drone, each one picking out its own route and leaving a trail of delicate green mist.

The False Sugilite recognized them as weapons and began to lash out, swinging at first one then another and another with its maces. Then suddenly one mace flew off at a tangent, with the drone registering surprise as it sailed into the floor on the other side of the hall.

[That worked?!] a green voice inside Hiddenite exclaimed.

[Amazing! It's just as I foresaw!] a pale voice whispered excitedly.

The False Sugilite turned and then saw it: a single Pin Stinger well outside of melee range, that had just fired a pinkish beam clean through that mace's chain. Its entire body recoiled slightly in evident surprise.

"Did you two see that?" Hiddenite said to herself. "This one has a personality. Let's use it."

[Factoring it into consideration! Ready when you are.] the pale voice replied.

Hiddenite nodded. "False Sugilite!" she announced.

The purple drone turned towards Hiddenite as though paying attention, its surprise forgotten.

"Drop your weapons and deactivate! If you don't, we'll be forced to destroy you." With that, Hiddenite landed and pulled two pole-like weapons from her gems. Handgrips folded out from them, which she used to carry one over her shoulder, and the other in her arm. The Pin Stingers returned to her and floated in formation around her. The green misty light faded a little, affected by her willingness to leave the hall without fighting.

There was a moment of pure stillness. "GGGGGGGGRRRRRRRRRrrr..." the False Sugilite hissed, deep and loud enough that it seemed to shake the whole room. Off in the distance, the errant mace sprouted skinny legs too thin to lift itself, then used them anyway to scritter quickly, back towards its empty chain, reattaching itself. The False Sugilite then yanked the mace back to its hand - and crouched, ready to attack.

"So of course that's your decision. Fine then." The green misty light reappeared around Hiddenite, levitating her and providing obvious intent in her weapons. "If you can think and still want to fight! Then we really do need to stop you."

In response, the False Sugilite threw a mace at Hiddenite.

"No, that's not going to work anymore." Using the forecasts the pale voice was providing, Hiddenite could have flown away, suddenly increasing her momentum and converting it into blinding vertical speed. But instead she sidestepped the mace, allowing it to miss her (and any nearby Pin Stingers) by a coin's width, and canceling out the gusty vortex in its wake with her own floating powers.

[-Now!] the green voice said. In that moment, the six floating Pin Stingers all changed position slightly and fired their pink beams. They sliced through the mace's chain in six places, causing it to once again fly off on its own to crash-land.

"GggggGGGGGRRRRRRR!"

"Go! Pin Stingers!" At Hiddenite's command five pin-shaped remote modules detached themselves from her shoulders and, along with the one that had already been flitting around, flew out towards the False Sugilite drone, each one picking out its own route and leaving a trail of delicate green mist.

The False Sugilite recognized them as weapons and began to lash out, swinging at first one then another and another with its maces. Then suddenly one mace flew off at a tangent, with the drone registering surprise as it sailed into the floor on the other side of the hall.

[That worked?!] a green voice inside Hiddenite exclaimed.

[Amazing! It's just as I foresaw!] a pale voice whispered excitedly.

The False Sugilite turned and then saw it: a single Pin Stinger well outside of melee range, that had just fired a pinkish beam clean through that mace's chain. Its entire body recoiled slightly in evident surprise.

"Did you two see that?" Hiddenite said to herself. "This one has a personality."

[Factoring it into consideration! Ready when you are.] the pale voice replied.

Hiddenite nodded. "False Sugilite!" she announced.

The purple drone turned towards Hiddenite as though paying attention, its surprise forgotten.

"Drop your weapons and deactivate! If you don't, we'll be forced to destroy you." With that, Hiddenite landed and pulled two pole-like blasters from her gems. Handgrips folded out from them, which she used to carry one over her shoulder, and the other in her arm. The Pin Stingers returned to her and floated in formation around her. The green misty light faded a little, affected by her willingness to leave the hall without fighting.

There was a moment of pure stillness. "GGGGGGGGRRRRRRRRRrrr..." the False Sugilite hissed, deep and loud enough that it seemed to shake the whole room. Off in the distance, the errant mace sprouted skinny legs too thin to lift itself, then used them anyway to scritter quickly, back towards its empty chain, reattaching itself. The False Sugilite then yanked the mace back to its hand - and crouched, ready to attack.

"So of course that's your decision. Fine then." The green misty light reappeared around Hiddenite, levitating her and providing obvious intent in her weapons. "If you can think and still want to fight! Then we really do need to stop you."

In response, the False Sugilite threw a mace at Hiddenite.

"No, that's not going to work anymore." Using the forecasts the pale voice was providing, Hiddenite could have flown away, suddenly increasing her momentum and converting it into blinding vertical speed. But instead she sidestepped the mace, allowing it to miss her (and any nearby Pin Stingers) by just a coin's width, and canceling out the gusty vortex in its wake with her own floating powers.

[-Now!] the green voice said. In that moment, the six floating Pin Stingers all changed position slightly and fired their pink beams. They sliced through the mace's chain in six places, causing it to once again fly off on its own to crash-land.

"GggggGGGGGRRRRRRR!" The False Sugilite spun its other mace, creating a whirlwind in the hall in moments - which quickly failed to have any effect on Hiddenite or her weapons.

"That won't help you up close!" Before the False Sugilite could react, Hiddenite had flown in and was hovering in front of its face. "And neither will this!" The blaster on her shoulder fired large, slow energy balls while the one in her hand fied quick, piercing shots - and she was firing both, at near-zero range. This was so close that, while it saved her the need to aim, bits and pieces of the drone's head unit were hitting her as they got blown off.

She continued firing until the resulting dust cloud had gotten too thick to see through or blow away, and the blaster shots sounded like they were hitting the wall/floor behind the drone.

[Did that do it?] the green voice asked.

"It's never that easy," Hiddenite said. A bit of the dust cloud shifted beneath her, ever so delicately, and she dodged to the right then flew away. She didn't need to see it to know it had been a fist, larger than herself, coming up in an uppercut. With access to both Pearl's millennia of combat experience and Peridot's computational prowess, she could move like that on instinct.

But, since fighting through instinct alone was unwise, she flew out of the dust cloud to get a better look.

The drones so far had been relatively simple, devoting whole body sections to single purposes (mobility, attack, defense, target acquisition, etc.). This probably made them easier to produce and replace, an important factor towards their use as training devices - but was also not a fixed requirement.

"This one is based on an existing Gem Fusion, a Crystal Gem, an enemy of the Diamond Authority and Homeworld. It's meant to challenge its foes, to prepare them for the worst," Hiddenite said calmly.

[At some point, the training ship learned how to be creative. It had to, studying us, because it couldn't beat us with its existing tactics. We taught it how to be creative.] the pale voice said.

[E-each body section has its own sub-sensors. It's too big and heavy to even move safely relying on just its main sensors. So it has to have, ah, 'eyes' looking at the ground at all times, and at its weapons, to rebalance itself accordingly, with each step and movement.] the green voice worried.

"It has all those sub-systems to compensate for a six thousand year gap in technology, and redundancies to make it a challenge."

[Can we beat it?] the green voice asked timidly

"Yes." Hiddenite gripped her weapons tighter. The drone was moving more purposefully and loudly, no longer attempting to avoid revealing its position.

The dust cleared to reveal a headless False Sugilite, turning itself to face Hiddenite's position in the air, numerous small lights flashing on its body - its sub-sensors activating and taking the place of its missing main sensors. More concerning was the new armor plating over the gap where its head had been, a hasty job to keep an obvious weakness from being exploited.

"And, we have to. It's standing between us and Lapis Lazuli." Without their saying anything, she could feel the two minds within her steeling themselves. The Pin Stingers returned to their standby positions around her, ready for anything.

The False Sugilite, its preparations complete, suddenly moved forward; at nearly the same moment, Hiddentite reacted.

The battle continued.