Hello guys, sorry for the hiatus, I really am going to make a conscious effort to make more stories. ANY WHO, this is a new story I have been thinking about making for quite a while, and today I finally decided to make it. You will figure out why it's called Second Chance soon. :3 Hue hue heu!

DISCLAIMER: I don't own any of the characters, they belong to Rebecca Sugar/ Crewniverse/ Cartoon Network.

It was a usual evening for Steven and Connie. They had decided to go inside the Universe's humble abode as they were entertaining themselves laughing out loud at the most ridiculous things they could find on Ronaldo's KEEP BEACH CITY WIERD blog. Connie's Mum had to leave to get to hospital again, so on the way she dropped of Connie at Steven's house for a sleep-over. Not without choking on that last word. It was Connie's first time EVER at a sleep-over as her parents were always wary that she would get up to all sorts of mischief whilst there.

"So what do we do, Steven? Aren't you the sleep-over expert?" She joked.

"Weeeell," Began Steven, "I usually had sleep-overs with either the gems when I was a baby, or that ONE time with onion. I will never get over those beady eyes watching me all night. Couldn't sleep!" Steven nervously laughed. "He wouldn't stop..."

"There's definitely something up with that kid." Connie replied, trying to change the topic, His intense eyes sent shivers up her spine. After quite a decently long silence, Connie spoke,

"Steven, do you like having me. Around?" She asked.

Steven was quite taken aback by this because she sounded very serious and asked so suddenly. Never before had she ever been so direct with him, it was scary for him.

"Of course I do Connie, you're my best friend. I don't know what I would do without you here." He leaned over to her and held her hand, looked her in the eyes and said: "I should be asking you that. You're always so cool and laid back, I look up to you Connie."

"Steven I-"She tried to answer back but was cut off by a large BOOM.

"What was that?!" Steven exclaimed, startled. They both ran to the door of the house and peered eagerly onto the beach, scanning for what possibly the source could have been.

"THERE" Connie answered, just at the edge of the beach broad walk there was a billowing cloud of smoke dispersing into the air, followed by screams of the citizens.

They looked at each other in the eyes and they both knew that they must prepare for battle. They nodded in unison, understanding each others' thoughts and they both knew what to do. Connie grabbed the pink sword, eager to protect herself, Steven and Beach City

"LIOOOOOON!" Steven called, only for him to appear behind them a second later, nuzzling into his back. In one swift motion, Lion flung both friends into the air to land on his back. He turned his head around to growl at Steven. He was asking where to go. He knew that something was up, even being a lion, he could sense that danger was upon them.

"To the broad walk Lion, FAST!" Connie asked desperately. Lion turned around and darted towards the temple door only to roar and summon a pink, diamond-shaped portal and leap through it, his front paws pointing forward like a spear.

Moments later they burst onto the main path of beach city, just outside of the arcade. Lion skidded to a halt before resting his head down to let them off. They both patted Lion as thanks as they ran forward hastily to assess the problem. What they saw shocked them. The gems, including both Peridot and Lapis were circling the object, unsure what to do in such a situation.

It was a vessel, no bigger than a van, opal shaped with neon green veins scattered around the outer shell. It was plain white, blank with a few scratches on the covering, slightly tarnished and burnt from the impact and the atmosphere. It had impacted relatively hard with the ground to say the least, making a crater wider than it, shattering the windows of the Big Donut and cracking the walls, crumbling like the pastries they made. The vessel was steaming, yet motionless. The infamous diamond insignia was imprinted on its' head.

Before they could react, a circular pad opened, pouring out some gems. There were 5 purple ones shaped like Amethyst's, 3 Aquamarines, 1 gem that resembled Jasper's gem and a glassy, red type of gem that was triangular in shape and very shiny. In a quick flash of light the gems started to take their form.

The 5 violet gems all turned into 5, Jasper-sized Amethysts with the diamond insignia on their collar bones. They eyed all of the gems around viciously. The 3 Aquamarines turned into...Well, Aquamarines. They all smiled in unison, smirking at the rebels. The only way to tell the apart was that one was shorter and fatter, the middle one had spiky hair and the other one was just as normal.

Finally the last one started to take form. It had a red hue all over its body. The arms were long and slender with concave knuckles that stuck out gracefully. The legs were average length but had some muscle to them. They ended at a boot with a metallic, studded end for extra kicking power. The face was fairly opal with menacing, sharp teeth that looked sharpened. It wore a black jumpsuit, similar to the others but with more padding and a blue diamond insignia.

"Garnet," Pearl whispered, "These are gem elites. They have a Rubellite!" She held her spear as Garnet summoned her gauntlets and stood with her teeth gritted, Amethyst cracked her whip from her gem, setting it alight for more damage. Lapis raised her hands, ready to summon water fist from the sea, Peridot just oogled at the elites and Steven and Connie both drew their weapons, they were all ready for war.

Even at this very tense moment everyone stood deadly still as they eyed each other from both sides. It was the elites who made the first move. Rubellite spoke first with a butch, serious tone.

"I thought that Peridot 5XG was bluffing when she said that the army, who shattered a diamond were so incompetent that they could barely tell a facet from a kindergarten. Although, she seemed to be telling the truth." She mocked, the other elites chuckled under their breaths at this remark also. The gems just all looked at Peridot who blushed deeply.

"Don't blame me! Hit them!" She cried trying to get out of it. At any other time the gems would have got her but now was too important for jokes and gags.

" ." Garnet warned

"Oooooo," the spiky Aquamarine remarked "She's brave. For a Fusion" Garnet just growled in reply.

Both sides knew that either side could come out victorious and that the fate of the earth hung in the balance. They were all prepared for all out battle. The elites grabbed their de-stableizers and the gems grabbed their weapons, Garnet leapt.