Hello everyone. This is my first fanfic in a while. (More like 8 years, actually.) But don't let that stop you from being honest with me. Your opinions are greatly appreciated. Enjoy!

The temple was even more quiet than usual. The wind could be indirectly heard through its many influences on both the natural and artificial denizens in the immediate surroundings: the waves crashing on the sand, the chimes tingling at different tones and the curtains flapping in long winding sways. It seemed that nature and man had come together to create a sound more soothing than the sum of their parts. Everything was at peace.

At least for a while...

*CRASH*

"Amethyst, what did I tell you about playing ball in the house!?" Pearl was desperately trying to restore order after a chaotic afternoon. She had just finished arranging all the furniture and decorations by size, colour and shape. Even those with irregular shapes eventually found their place. She was proud of her hard work. Seconds after closing her eyes to meditate, she had heard the thing that annoyed her the most: the sound of something breaking.

"Oh come one, Pearl. You should try it sometime. Besides, we don't ever have to worry about losing the ball."

"That's because you ARE the ball!" Amethyst had morphed into a little purple golf ball. She figured that this technically wasn't "playing ball", but was more like a game of tag. She landed right the middle of the coffee table, the one surrounded by a coach embedded in the wall.

"FORE!" Steven had propped himself onto the table, ready to continue their game of indoor golf. He was even dressed for the part:blue collared shirt tucked into his khaki shorts with a Scottish tartan cap.

"WAIT!" Pearl was not ready to clean a bigger mess than the one that was just created. A vase that was once located on the kitchen counter had broken into pieces on impacting the floorboards and some of the pieces were falling between them to the beach below. It would never be restored to its original form. Steven stopped his swing at its height, his torso already turned to give the club some momentum.

"Steven, what on Earth made you think this was a good idea?" Pearl was desperately trying to figure out what was going through Steven's head.

"I'm sorry, Pearl. Amethyst said she would turn into a rubber ball. That way, the damage to the house would be minimum to none." Steve grinned with such pride, that he failed to see the shortcomings of his brilliant idea. Pearl could not help but sigh and smile at that. Even if he still had some growing up to do, Steven brought a little something to the temple that the gems lacked: a sense of normality.

Though any of them were far from being "normal", including Steven, they were slowly starting to become more...human.

Pearl regularly went to watch the plays put on by Steven and Jamie, at first only to support Steven. But she also started admiring Jamie's love for acting and passion for his hobbie/career that she found herself rooting for him too. His acting as the gems in "Beach City or Bust: The Tale of William Dewey" was not bad, especially since he had to play them all at the same time. Pearl found herself laughing when Jamie imitated Garnet perfectly and over the fact that Amethyst was played by a mop.

Pearl occasionally spoke with Mayor Dewey now as well. They weren't exactly chummy per se, yet she was starting to see him as a friend, though this was still a work-in-progress. He doesn't bother her as much as before and is a little flattered by his compliments, even if she found them tedious at times.

Amethyst got involved in Vidalia's art projects whenever her friend needed some inspiration. To repay her, Vidalia started teaching Amethyst how to express herself through her own art. Her style was...unique. And that's exactly how everyone liked it. Whenever their art was featured at the local gallery, people would comment on how the inspirations for the paintings were similar, yet perceived and conveyed in two totally different ways. Amethyst even managed to sell her first painting and gave the money to Vidalia, seeing as she herself didn't have much need for it. Vidalia spent some of it by treating Amethyst to an all-you-can-eat buffet.

Amethyst would occasionally don her alter ego, Purple Puma, in order to release some steam. It was also the perfect time to teach Steven some close-quarters combat in case he ever needed it. Tiger Millionaire had become a lot nicer since he entered the wrestling scene, but this didn't stop his partner from putting the hurt on everyone. The other gems would get involved too as "The Notorious Order of Wrestling Haters." The rivalry made for some quality entertainment and brought a much wider audience to the arena than before, which was a-ok with Mr. Smiley.

Garnet would still keep to herself most of the time, but when she was feeling bored she'd distract herself by taking walks on the beach, all the while reminding herself that Malachite was still somewhere in the deepest reaches of the vast ocean. She was more headstrong than ever when it came to finding her and Peridot in order to keep the planet safe, especially after what they found in the Kindergarten. One day, someone caught Garnet's attention. By himself, was the only person in the city who was quieter than she was: Onion.

As usual, he was sitting on the boardwalk waiting for his dad to come home. She could relate to Onion's habit: when Ruby and Sapphire were separated from each other during the Homeworld gems' invasion, every second apart felt like an eternity. Nothing made them happier than the moment they would reunite. Garnet sat next to Onion on the boardwalk, at the very least to keep him company. Not a word was exchanged between them, only the smallest of nods. They'd spend hours on end staring at the horizon until Onion's dad would come home. It was unnecessary, seeing as Garnet was never really alone, but she tried doing this as often as possible.

As the vase was discarded properly, with gloves and hand sanitizer, Garnet returned from one of her expeditions to the bottom of the ocean. She was the only one of the gems who could easily sink in water, while Pearl, Amethyst and Steven would take turns searching the surface. Though they kept up the search regularly, the ocean was a massive body of water. Even if they had the proper numbers, they might never find Malachite.

Garnet was more worried than anyone else. Her future vision had limits on its uses; she could only see possible futures brought about by choices creating forks in the timeline. Nothing was set in stone. What terrified her was that none of the roads led to Malachite. Garnet became powerless. Lapis Lazuli could only keep control of Malachite for a limited time, maybe even less now that her fusion with Jasper was an unstable one.

"Garnet! How did it go?" Steven was always the most excited one to see Garnet.

"Nothing yet. But we'll keep looking. She can't hide forever." Garnet was putting up a front at this point, but she didn't want Steven to worry. Even though he was a gem, he was also a human boy. He had his own life to live without the lingering thoughts of a madwomen running through his mind.

Pearl needed to update Garnet on her mission as well. "No progress on Peridot either. It's like the pod can't track her anymore. I don't know what's wrong. She could have found some other way to get around that doesn't involve the Warp Pads. Or she found a way to block her signal to the pod. She's a "new generation" gem after all. Her technology far surpasses our own, and she has more technical expertise than any of us."

"Yeah, and that didn't help much either." Steven was pointing to the foot the gems managed to snag from Peridot during their last encounter. It didn't offer any assistance in tracking down the rest of Peridot, so it was currently being used as a pot for a growing plant.

After Garnet had forgiven Pearl for the Sardonyx stunt she pulled, the gems were once again focussed on their enemies. Though the gems kept searching hard, the exertion eventually tired them out. Normally, gems didn't require sleep or food and only retreated to their gems whenever their physical forms were damaged. Surprisingly, Pearl found herself devouring a hotdog that was left over in the microwave one time, much to her disgust when she realised what she was doing.

One thing was definitely clear: the gems needed a new plan. Their chances of success were slim at the rate they were going. All this hopelessness made Amethyst anxious. "Let me at them! I'll find them and teach 'em not to mess with us! They'll go right on back to the Homeworld and be like 'Oh no, you don't wanna go to Earth. Those Crystal gems will mess you up, BIG TIME!'"

Garnet held up her palm to calm her down. "We've done what we can for today. What we need now is some well-deserved rest. We'll discuss what to do next in the morning."

Steven's watch suddenly beeped. "OMG, the Dogcopter marathon is starting! Quick, get the snacks and meet me in my room in no more than 5 minutes. This is what we've been practising for, people."

With that, everyone went to handle their responsibilities. Steven went to turn on the television and set it to the right channel. Garnet was in charge of popping the popcorn for 2 minutes 50 seconds, the time that allowed for the prefect popcorn. Amethyst was tasked with gathering all the pillows from the coach and moving them to Steven's room in order to create a little pillow fort. This would ensure that they'd be as comfortable as possible for the movie. Meanwhile, Pearl was busy pouring everyone's favourite drinks: fruit juice for Steven, grape soda for Amethyst, chamomile tea for Garnet and still water for herself (it was the only thing she could ingest without feeling sick).

The team had practised this drill many times before. It started with burnt popcorn, spilled milk (even though no one drinks it with popcorn) and the physical removal of the entire couch from its conjoined wall. When the movie started, they were all ready for the marathon. Steven had been looking forward to this for a while. He thought it would help the gems get their minds off all the crazy stuff that's been happening to them. He always thought of the gems as family and wanted to repay them for all their kindness.

The gems also treated Steven as one of their own, even if they were over-protective at times. Each of them saw Steven as their little ray of sunshine on the cloudiest of days. During the time Steven was too young to go out on missions with them and he was being raised by Greg, the gems would mostly keep things on a professional level. They don't even remember much from that time, other than the times when they would go visit Steven and Greg. Other than that, it was just mission after mission for the most part.

When Steven came to live at the temple, there was an unforeseen change in the atmosphere surrounding the gems' home. The gems would take turns teaching Steven how to activate his powers, but he seemed to be a late bloomer. The only focus back then was to make Steven into one of them. That's how it started anyway. Gradually, Steven became less of a student and more of a son. They were grateful for Steven and the happiness he brought into their lives.

All of them would laugh more than usual and their lives didn't seem so monotonous anymore. They'll never forget the time they taught Steven how to use the Warp Pad. He was so excited; Garnet had to tap him on the head to stop him from jumping so much. Thanks to their cooperation in raising Steven, the gems would communicate better when fighting other creatures derived from corrupted gems. They had fun while doing it too. Slowly, the team started to become a family again. This was a bigger gift than they realised, especially since the last person to do that was...gone.

The gems had gathered all their "supplies" for the grand adventure. Steven was impressed by their efficiency. "Nicely done, guys. 3 minutes 36 seconds. A new record." The intro sequence for the movie began airing and you couldn't see a spot on the screen where there wasn't an explosion. "Shh, it's starting!" The group was ready to watch "Dogcopter 4: Who Let the Dogcopters Out?"

? : It's not here either. Where the hell is it? I've been searching this planet for almost a year now. Why'd I have to get stuck with this stupid job? What's the point? It won't help us anyway. Maybe it'd be better if I we just gave up on this plan. It's too dangerous to attempt, not to mention the gems will be grow suspicious if they catch wind of our activities. Whatever, might as well call it a day. Not like I haven't tried to look.

In the background, most of the landscape had become charred and barren after the energy beam created by the wayfaring stranger desolated the once lush forest. They didn't mind though. They'd done this countless times before. What do they care what happens to Earth's inhabitants. After all, it's just another planet.