It was a normal day in Beach City. The sun was shining, the birds were singing, the waves were tossing around violently...
Wait, what?
Garnet, Amethyst, and Pearl were gathered on the beach watching the waves with growing concern. They had only returned to the temple a day ago after finally destroying the cluster, and now they feared that another threat was on the rise.
Inside the temple Steven was busily working in the kitchen, oblivious to the possible danger. He vigorously stirred a bowl of cookie batter while stealing a glance at Peridot, a few feet away.
The green gem had her face pressed against the window and was making sounds of annoyance. "What are they doing out there? What's so important about the ocean?!"
Steven pulled out a cookie sheet. "I dunno, but Garnet seemed pretty worried this morning." He looked thoughtful as he carefully plopped the dough onto his tray. A look of clarity passed over his face quite suddenly. "Oh! I know! I bet it's Mal-"
Steven was cut off by Amethyst roughly slamming the door open. "Amethyst!" Pearl scolded, earning a chuckle from the purple gem who otherwise ignored her.
"STEVEN!" Amethyst ran over to the short boy. "We're going on a mission to stop Malachite!" Pearl shot her a glare, thinking the news could have been delivered a bit more gently.
"That's right. And we need to hurry. It seems that she's reached an extremely dangerous level of instability." Garnet sounded calm considering the nature of her statement.
"We'll need all of us for this. Even though i'd rather Steven stay here were it's safe." Pearl cast a worried glance in Steven's direction.
"What's going on?" Peridot had left her spot by the window and now stood with the other gems. Her hands were on her hips and she looked at each of them with suspicion.
"We're going to fight this huuuuge sea monster named MALACHITE!" Amethyst lunged towards Peri in an attempt to scare her. It seemed to work if the squeak the green gem emitted was any indication.
"Oh, Peridot." Garnet looked down at her as if only now noticing her presence. "It would be best if you stayed here. You still don't know how to summon your weapon and without it this could be far to dangerous."
"WhAT?! You want me to just sit here and do nothing while you're out on an important mission?!" Peri flailed her arms in protest.
"Yeah. Pretty much." Garnet crossed her arms.
"AUGHRHAH! Why?! Didn't you say that i'm a Crystal Clo- Gem now too?"
Garnet knelt down to her level. "Of course. You're one of us now. We want you be safe. That's why it's best if you stay here until you can better defend yourself." She spoke gently with one hand resting on the smaller gem's shoulder.
"Besides!" Steven chimed in. "Someone has to keep an eye on my cookies." He slid the tray into the oven as he spoke.
"...Cookies?" Peridot said the word like it was foreign, which to her it was, and scrunched up her nose.
"Yeah! All you have to do is wait for this timer to go off and take the cookies out. Just don't forget to use the oven mitts so you don't burn yourself. Oh! And remember to turn off the oven afterwards."
The next thing Peridot knew, Steven and the others were standing on the warp pad and she had an oversized pair of oven mitts on.
"BYYEE!" Amethyst waved.
"Good luck." Garnet smiled.
"Don't eat all the cookies!" Steven teased, also waving.
"Try not to burn down the temlpe." Pearl gave her a worried look.
The next minute they were gone. Peridot was alone. Wearing oven mitts.
"...What now?"