Peridot's day was going great until Steven locked them in a truck and stole the communication device.

"Don't waste time trying to escape!" Steven snapped as he slammed the door and a weird black knobby thing sunk into the car door frame. Peridot stared first in shock, then in a growing horror as the boy declared, "I put on the child safety lock!"

Peridot gasped, backing away from the door. "What? No! No no no no!" They then leaned forwards and slapped their hands flat against the glass of the window. "Why are you doing this?"

"I saw you steal this when we were on the moon base!" Steven declared, revealing the diamond communication device. Peridot looked at their empty hands, then glared at the human. "Tell me what it is!"

"It's not anything." The Gem bluffed. "I don't care what happens to it."

The mask of disinterest Peridot tried to pull off dissolved as soon as Steven picked up a rhythmatic pulveriser. "Huh. Then you won't mind if I shatter it?"

"Wait!" They pleaded. "Look, I'll be honest if you listen to me... it's a communicator. Used to contact the Diamonds."

Steven's expression was alien to Peridot, but it made her feel uneasy. "You're still trying to get a message to them?"

"Yes!" The green gem affirmed, and then launched into a brief explanation. When they were done, the boy's expression was even stranger; their eyebrows were knitted together and their lips turned down severely at the edges.

Peridot had never seen Steven like this. She had, however, seen the other Gems wear this expression. Like Garnet, when they lifted Peridot up in the air after the Earth discussion on the Moon base and told them they were talking about things they didn't understand.

So this was an emotional expression, a very bad one. Before the Gem could attempt to reason with Steven, he spoke up.

"But the Diamonds don't care about the Earth!" Steven backed away. "They made the Cluster!"

"Yes, that's the entire point!"

The boy growled. "Argh... Why do I keep sticking up for you when you'll never change?" He began to run away, shouting for the Crystal Gems.

Peridot panicked, rushing to the back of the vehicle to shout through the glass. "Steven, no! They won't understand! You don't understand!"

The barn door slammed shut, leaving Peridot in near darkness. They simply sat there for a second, their plan in ruins.

The Earth would be doomed after all. They'd failed completely, and on top of it all, the Crystal Gems would never trust them again.

This was... strangely hurtful to the small green Gem. They'd come to appreciate the ragtag group of misfits, despite their obvious flaws and general incompetence. Amethyst, the entertaining Quartz Gem who seemed much different from the warriors back at Homeword, both in personality and stature. The pearl, who was surprisingly an expert technician and quite welcoming once one stopped ordering them around. Steven, the strage hybrid abomination who had been kind to them from the beginning.

And the permafusion Garnet, who was... special. A good friend? Peridot's limited knowledge of the emotional side of language fell short when describing what Garnet meant to them.

Just when Peridot curled up in the back, feeling small, defeated, something caught their eye from one side of the car. It was green, faintly illuminated by the sun which was in a medial stage Earthlings called 'afternoon'.

The robot Peridot had built for the competition! It was sitting there, ready to be activated at a moment's notice. This gave the Gem an idea. A very radical, very good idea, if only they could reach it.

Peridot first began by attempting to open the door, but this of course didn't work. They punched the glass, but they were too weak to even crack it; it was times like these when the Gem fondly remembered their limb enhancers.

They then crawled to the front and began pressing buttons, hoping it would do something. Not much happened, but they did discover pushing the centre of the steering wheel produced a loud beeping sound. Seeing that was the only thing that actually worked, they pressed it several times, looking around the car trap in frustration.

That was when their eyes landed on the car door. More specifically, the weird knobs that had clicked down when the child safety lock was applied.

Using basic reasoning, one could conclude that if pushing down the knobs locked the car, pulling them back up would free them.

Peridot gripped the knob, and after a few tries managed to bring it back up to its original position. They pulled the handle, and the car door swung open.

"Heh, heh, heh!" The Gem cackled to themselves as they hopped down to the ground. "That primitive system is no match for a Gem of my intellect!"

Without further ado, they hurried into the robot and activated it. With a gleeful grin, they stomped over to the side of the barn and barrelled right through it, immediately locating the Crystal Gems standing on a hill not that far away.

Peridot cheered, revelling in the power of their robot as Steven and the clods stood stunned. "I'm free!"

"How did she get out?" Steven demanded, which caused a rather crazy grin to light up Peridot's eyes. He was a good friend, sure, but no match for their cunning!

"You clods!" Peridot gloated. "Your primitive trapping technologies are no match for me!"

The Crystal Gems began running towards Peridot, and one could easily see Pearl holding the communication device. It hadn't been destroyed; they still had a chance!

Peridot grabbed the truck with one robot arm. Effortlessly, the robot hurled the truck at the three Gems, causing them to split up. Then they charged forwards in the robot and plucked the communicator effortlessly out of Pearl and Amethyst's hands.

This was so easy, it was a miracle Earth wasn't overtaken by Homeworld already. If they couldn't protect earth, it was up to Peridot.

"See? There's no way you can protect Earth if I can beat you so easily!" Peridot sneered before charging away at full speed.

Now, if the green Gem could just get a reasonable distance away, the Crystal Gems would be unable to interfere with contacting Yellow Diamond, and the Earth would be saved. They'd thank Peridot later for the ingenious plan, but right now they were in too much of an emotional state to properly examine the situation.

Peridot attempted to turn the communicator in their robot hands, but this was hindered by the swinging gait and clumsy pincers of the suit. If only they had attached these wheels, it might have been-

"Hey, you!" The green Gem looked up in surprise to see Amethyst, shapeshifted into a helicopter, flying alongside the robot. Inside were Garnet, Pearl and Steven.

Peridot screamed and attempted to manoeuvre away, but Garnet's gauntlets flew off their hands and struck the robot. There was little they could do as the robot was blasted off the road and into a power line, falling down and smashing into the ground. The communicator landed just in front of them, but before they could make a dash for it Pearl's spear landed into the ground between.

Amethyst roared a battle cry, and Peridot hissed as they saw their already totalled robot being battered into pieces. However, they were clearly distracted by beating up the metal, so the small Gem took a chance and burrowed through the arm tubes, popping out just by the communicator.

With a childish giggle, Peridot picked up the communicator. This ecstasy was short lived, however, as something tackled them from behind. At first the green Gem feared it was the warrior Quartz Amethyst, but a flash of pale skin spoke otherwise.

"You're not contacting Homeworld!" Steven declared as the two struggled for the communicator. "I thought you were on our side! I thought you finally came round to us!"

Peridot tried to shove the boy away. "You don't understand! You're too emotional! I will be the one to save-"

A purple hand reached from behind then and plucked the communicator out of Peridot's hand.

"Huh?" Peridot looked over in time to see Amethyst crush the communicator in their hand. Their face was a picture of rage. "What! No! Why did you do that?!"

Amethyst shook off the shards of the communicator and stabbed a finger at them. "No, Peridot. Why did you do that?"

"You've doomed us! You don't understand!" Peridot crawled away as Pearl and Garnet flanked the purple Quartz. Their weapons were all out, and their expressions were terrifying.

"Doomed us?" Amethyst growled. "Nah. I think I just saved the Earth from a snotty little traitor. You were going to sell us out to Yellow Diamond!"

"I wasn't-"

"And to think we trusted you!" Pearl stabbed their spear at the green Gem, causing them to jump back.

"But-"

Garnet pushed past the other two Gems, staring Peridot down with that eerie visor. "I thought you were more than this."

Peridot shook like a leaf as everything that had happened in the past few weeks – both their bond with the Gems and the great plan – shattered into a million pieces before their blurry eyes.

"After everything we've done... I saw us working together to defeat the Cluster. I really thought that was our future, but I've been wrong before."

Peridot looked over and saw Steven standing off to the side. "Steven, help! This is a miscommunication... my intention was never to harm the Earth!"

Steven turned their back.

"Steven, please!"

Steven put their hands over their ears.

"Steven!" Peridot crawled towards them. "Please, you have to believe me!"

"Believe you?" Amethyst rolled their eyes off to the side. "That's your funniest joke yet."

Pearl stepped between them, brandishing their spear. "Get away from Steven!"

"No!" Peridot lashed out and grabbed just before the tip. "You clods aren't listening to me! I was going to save this dirt ball of a planet, but you've doomed us all! You're all too emotional, too defective, to even see that-"

In the midst of their tantrum, Peridot failed to notice Pearl had drawn another spear from their Gem. That was why they were still shouting passionately when the Gem ran them cleanly through the abdomen.

And poof.