Chapter 1: Steven's Birthday
The sun arose above the beloved Beach City, Sadie and Lars opened up the Big Donut, ready to face the day head-on. Greg sleeps peacefully in his van, a honk is heard which soon wakes him up, he opens the doors to see 2 cars have pulled up to the car wash. Greg, filled with joy and excitement, runs out of the van and opens up the car wash. Steven Quartz Universe lays in his bed, fast asleep, the Crystal Gems are sitting around waiting for him to wake up, they have a big surprise for him. Lapis Lazuli and Peridot arrive at the temple via Warp Pad. "Is Steven awake yet? I'm excited to celebrate!" Lapis said as she and Peridot arrived. "I know! I can show him my one gem band! Now fully practiced." Peridot replied. Garnet and Amethyst greeted the guests as Pearl pulled a cake out of the oven. All 5 Gems began to decorate the cake, written on the cake was "Happy 15th Birthday Steven!" Steven slowly began to wake up, the Gems soon surrounded him. His eyes fully opened and he screamed in fear not knowing all 5 of the Gems would be there watching him. "Lapis! Peridot! What are you guys doing here?" "The Crystal Gems invited us here to celebrate your human ritual of birthday's" Lapis said. "The others wanted me here because I finally perfected my one gem metal band!" Peridot said in excitement. Pearl looked at her and shrugged, "Steven, go get freshened up! We have a surprise for you!" Pearl said.
Steven took a shower, and brushed his teeth, he looked in the mirror and smiled. "Today is gonna be the best day ever!" Garnet looked out the window, up towards the sky, she was being more silent than usual. As Lapis, Peridot, and Amethyst sat around talking amongst themselves, Pearl walked over to Garnet. "Garnet, you've been quieter than you normally are, is everything alright?" Garnet looked at Pearl and nodded, "Yes, I am alright, I'm just overwhelmed that Steven is 15 now, he's not a child that needs protecting anymore. He has mastered bubbling, his Shield, his protective bubble, his floating abilities, and fusion too!" Garnet said as a tear rolled down her cheek. Pearl hugged Garnet, "I know, he has come a long way and I'm so proud of him, and Rose would be too if she were here" They both looked up to the portrait of Rose they had in the house, and another tear rolled down Garnet's face. She wiped it away as Steven came out of the bathroom. Peridot had all her instruments at the ready, Lapis took the tambourine and they all sang happy birthday.
After Steven ate a slice of cake, and Amethyst ate the rest of the cake, they all headed to Funland. To Steven's surprise Connie and Greg were there waiting for them to arrive. Connie ran up to Steven giving him a big hug. "Happy Birthday Steven!" Steven laughed and hugged her. Greg pushed her out of the way, "Just like last year, he was my best friend first Connie." Steven looked at Greg. "Dad, you didn't bring any of the stuff?" "Nah, you're 15 now, you don't need that childish stuff anymore," Steven hugged his dad, "What do you think it would be like if mom was here?" "Well, your mother would've probably been babying you, even today, she was really fascinated by babies and you're hers. She probably would be crying too." The 2 chuckled and walked down to the Big Donut with Connie, the Gems stayed in Funland. Amethyst and Lapis went on the Thunderbird rollercoaster as Peridot watched them in jealousy. Pearl chuckled at Peridot's jealousy. Garnet continued staring at the sky like at the temple. Pearl turned to look at Garnet and chose to say nothing. "I'm going for a walk, I'll be back in 5 minutes" Garnet said. "Oh okay Garnet" Pearl said with a tone of concern.
Garnet began walking along the beach, she wandered to the location they were at when The Red Eye arrived on Earth, she smiled and continued on. She headed towards the temple and stood on the beach, some of the damage from Jasper and Peridot's ship remained, but nothing major, Garnet looked towards the ocean. Suddenly she had a flashback of Jasper charging her and poofing her with the Gem Destabilizer. Garnet fell over in fear, the flashback was over, she was okay. Garnet sighed, "What are we going to do?" She said to herself. "There's nothing we can do" "We can't just stand around and let nothing happen! They're coming!" "We'll be fine, we shouldn't stress the others out with this" "We have to protect them all! They're going to hurt us all!" suddenly Garnet unfused! Ruby and Sapphire sat there in tears. "I have to protect you and everyone else" Ruby said. "I know you want to, but there isn't much you can do Ruby." "The least we can do is tell Pearl! She has to know" Ruby said. Sapphire nodded and the 2 fused back into Garnet. Garnet fixed her visor and headed back to Funland, upon arrival Pearl walked up to Garnet, Steven and the others were off playing the boardwalk games. "Garnet, you're back! You seem a bit uneasy, are you alright?" "Pearl, there's something we must tell you, and you can't tell the others" "What is it Garnet?" Garnet leaned over to Pearl and whispered into her ear. "What!? No, this can't be" "I'm afraid it's happening, so you and I must go back to the temple and prepare." Pearl nodded and the 2 headed off to the temple.
They arrived at the temple and headed into the Bubble Room. They grabbed a certain bubble and headed out, they exited the temple and house to pop the bubble. They put it down, "You ready Pearl?" "You know I am." The 2 popped the bubble and stood back, weapons at the ready. The gem sat there for a bit, but then it finally began to form, the gem landed on the ground doing the superhero landing. She took a deep breath, "Garnet? Pearl? What's going on? What happened?" The two gems looked at her, "Bismuth, we need your help" Garnet said. "You can forget it, that gem Steven wouldn't let me help you all, I wanted to bring the war to homeworld, I wanted to free us!" Bismuth ranted. Pearl and Garnet began explaining the situation. Bismuth's look went from casual to very shocked in an instant. "How do you know?" she asked, Garnet looked at her. "I don't, but it's one of the options I see with my future vision, and it's the most viable one" Garnet said, Pearl looked at Bismuth, "After you were poofed by Steven many things happened, the Ruby squad returned looking for Jasper, but Jasper became corrupted, long story short, the Ruby squad is now floating around in the solar system." "Man, the Crystal Gems are seriously one tough crew! We can't be beat! But surely they'll be looking for the Rubies" Bismuth said. "At most they'd sent a Quartz platoon to search for them, Jaspers, Amethysts, and other types of Quartz soldiers" Pearl replied. The 3 looked up to the sky, "Will we need weapons?" Bismuth asked, Garnet chuckled a bit "Probably."