Peridot squirmed and seethed. Her mission for Yellow Diamond, the most perfectly formed of the Diamond Authority, was going to be put on hold for the moment in order to regain her bearings. Those infuriating Crystal Gems. Of course she got put on the Earth mission to check up on the Cluster and everything since Homeworld gems loved pulling stuff like this. It was her purpose to check up on Kindergartens and gem experiments but as an Era 2 Peridot, she worried about her skills.

At least her limb enhancers and technology was still here to keep her company. Aiming her ship towards the Earth was a little difficult because of fighting against natural gravitational forces and the solar winds that buffeted this blue and green pile of corruption and annoyance.

"I'm going to ask for the largest possible rest week ever when I get back to Homeworld."

Piloting a escape pod was not entirely in the Peridot knowledge reserves, but if Rubies could be frontline soldiers for Diamond Authority, any gem could figure out the simple ideas of controls. Besides the easiest rule was to never ever press a red button because that would be very bad.

She saw the handship burn up and slough off chunks of its green plating as it entered the atmosphere. That Steven thing would probably say that it was 'pretty' or something but no the ship was hurtling those Crystal Clods to their ends and here she was documenting their ends.

"Nyehehe that's rich."

She let go of the controls for a little bit to watch the flaming ship enter the Earth's atmosphere and relax. If the mission was going to take a while, why not take a breather? It was nice to get away from Jasper's rather annoying self and look at data and have some kind of fun.

Breaking out of her daydream, Peridot glanced over at the ship and drew in a deep breath. The ship had broke off multiple fingers from the heat that was melting the ship and they were hurdling towards her. Taking evasive maneuvers, she hit every possible button as the alarm bells rang warning that a hit was imminent. Bracing for impact and hamming her hand protectors in the control mechanisms, she grazed one of the fingers and noticed that her calm and cool descent had shifted from checking out the Kindergarten to a small town.

She could see the place and vaguely recognized it from what the Steven told her about Steven culture as where he and his clod gems lived. She closed her eyes and tried scrunching up into smaller surface area- while Peridots were naturally really hard to poof and all, falling from orbit in a crash landing was a thing that Peridot wasn't wanting to chance.

The Crystal Gems breathed heavily, the ship had crashed right next to the temple and at some point would be cleaned up. But first they would have to deal with a thing they weren't expecting.

Jasper holding Lapis hostage.

The quartz soldier grinned- thinking of the possibilities of beating the crystal gems and winning for her Diamond finally.

"Fuse with me Lapis. They held you hostage for years in that mirror you told me about. Wouldn't you like getting back at them and winning for once. Wouldn't it feel good to do something that would be good for you?"

Lapis faltered. She remembered the torture that Homeworld had put her through and she shivered. But Jasper was right. She wanted to do something. She'd been trapped in the mirror for so long that lashing out at something made her feel good. She had the power too- taking all the water on this blue ball to attempt an escape showed that. And it had been a while since she had really used her powers ever since that Bismuth had poofed her during the war. She didn't know - maybe she wanted to feel powerful again. It felt like a bad idea. But fusing? Maybe.

Jasper's eyes glinted as the chance for being even bigger and stronger than on her own presented herself a hand and she grabbed onto Lapis forcefully and controlled the dance.

Steven could only watch as Lapis and Jasper formed Malachite. The fusion stalked towards the gems, stretching its limbs and testing out its water powers.

Something would have happened if a hurtling mass of gem technology rammed into the fusion forcefully separating her into the fusion parts. Jasper was lucky enough- or strong enough to not be poofed. But Lapis, who had been interrogated for weeks was not as lucky. Her gem lay on the beach, its blue color calling for the waves that crashed onto the shore.

Jasper could only watch as Peridot stumbled out of the ship and fell straight on her face. Gathering her resolve, Jasper silently vowed even more revenge on Rose Quartz and slunk into the ocean.

"Oh my head. But look at that I'm not hurt at all. Peridot powers are yet again the best thing ever hehehehe-" Peridot looked up from the burned husk of her starship and groaned. "Drat." Then she slumped over, the adrenaline of surviving an orbital crash catching up to Peridot.

"Well that wasn't a future I was expecting." Garnet sighed.

Steven picked up Lapis' gem as Pearl picked up Peridot. While it was unexpected, they could at least get to know the reason why Homeworld sent more troops since it had been thousands of years when they last did that.

The waves broke against the shore, quietly clearing the sand of broken weapons and cooled the fires that had broken out from the crash. Silence reigned as normalcy came back to the town of Beach City- with two new inhabitants.