Hey. I'm back with chapter two. I know this story ain't all that great but I'm having fun writing it so . . . yeah.

Cheers to all of y'all who followed and a shoutout to Xenoprime1337 for their help with developing my plans for the story.

In any case, read on!


When the Pilot reformed, he was confused. Hadn't he been on the ship not three seconds ago? Where was he now? He looked around, slightly on edge, yet he was soon marvelling at the sights around him.

The ship lay in fiery pieces on the beach around, contrasting beautifully with the yellowish hues of the clouds lit up by the rising sun over the serenely sparkling sea stretching out over the horizon like a canvas blanket, cocooning the land in a protective layer of warm wetness as it woke up for a new day, reaching out into oblivion with a groggy smile and a sleepy yawn as though it were a young, innocent, impossibly naïve little child.

Too bad it would die soon.

Wait.

How was he supposed to get off the planet while the ship was in ruins at his feet? There was no way! He was stuck! And the cluster would wake up soon!

He felt his breath quicken as he franticly searched his mind for any possible way off the soon-to-be wasteland of a planet he was stood upon but to his horror he couldn't think of anything.

'This is is,' he thought, 'This is the end for me. Any minute now, the cluster will wake up and destroy me alongside everyone else on this miserable little mudball and there's nothing I can do about it!'

It was just as the Pilot was falling into this despair, this inky hole that he knew he'd never climb be able to climb out of whether he wanted to or not, and hot pinpricks of tears began to form in his eyes when a young male inhabitant of the aforementioned 'mudball' ran down to the burning wreck of the ship that lay in pieces on the beach, grinning with excitement.


Ronaldo was in his element. A space-ship! Here in Beach City! He'd known that there were other gems - heck, he'd even showed other people his evidence, not that they ever believed him, the fools. Well now who had egg on their faces? Not him, that's who.

But who cared about the others? He had a space-ship just sitting before him! He'd have been lying if he said it didn't make him feel like he was on cloud nine. The possibilities now were enormous! What if the other gems were still in the area? What if they were watching him right now?! Holy shit! This was his chance to become a part of something bigger!

He let out a laughed and let out a woop of joy, fully intent on exploiting this opportunity for all it was worth. There may have been the possibility that the other gems were dead, that crash had been quite spectacular after all, but that didn't matter. The point was that he had been right! And he had irrefutable proof!

Mentally making a note to come back later with a duffel bag to acquire a piece of the ship for proper inspection back at home, he began to look around for any sign that the other gems were still alive or, at the very least, their shattered gems. Even if the others didn't believe him about the ship belonging to other gems (he still couldn't quite believe that he was right) if he maybe found the remains of the gems then they wouldn't have any comeback for that, now would they?

No.

No they would not.

Ronaldo did a small twirl of happiness, basking in the glory of the ruined ship around him, before he noticed something. Was someone . . . crying? It sure sounded like it. It sounded like the weeping of someone who was in immense sadness. It couldn't have been the other gems, they wouldn't cry. At least, Ronaldo had never seen a gem cry at all. Would it even be possible for them? Would their biology allow it? These were thoughts for another time. There was someone crying and it was Ronaldo's job to find out who it was and cheer them up.

After a brief sweep of the beach, Ronaldo stumbled upon a jade green gem who appeared to be the source of the crying. Diving behind a nearby chunk of the ship, Ronaldo took a quick glance at the gem, cementing this moment in his mind as the first moment of a greater existence.

She was jade green, for one, with halves of a spherical, just as green gem sticking out from either side of her waist which was odd. With what appeared to be some sort of uniform with a yellow diamond on her chest and darker green leggings extending over her lower body, legs and feet, Ronaldo could tell that she was a part of some organisation or another (a gem organisation! Yet more gems!). Her hair was in a rather fluffy, grown out layers, making it obvious that this gem cared at least a little bit about her looks. There was not much complexity to her yet Ronaldo could tell that this wasn't a normal gem - again, she was crying - and Ronaldo had to school his emotions for a moment before he could walk over to her.

"Come on, Ronaldo. his is your big chance!" he mumbled to himself before taking a deep breath and walking out from behind the crashed ship and over to the crying gem.


"Uh . . . hey." came a voice, startling the Pilot from his sobbing. He gave a small start and quickly stood up, sniffing and rubbing the tears from his eyes. There was a human standing in front of him. It had curly yellow hair, glasses and a very odd taste in fashion, wearing what appeared to be cooking overalls.

"What?" he asked, his voice trembling like a resilient flower in the storm of his emotions, "I am a very busy gem. You are distracting me from my work. Leave."

"But . . . weren't you just crying?"

"No. That was . . . communication with Homeworld. There was no crying involved. Any gem stupid enough to get caught crying would be shattered . . . so no. I was not crying. You have not left yet. I would advise you to do so I can continue to . . . communicate." If the human bought that then the Pilot was a Pearl.

"Wait. Homeworld? There's a planet of gems?!" cried the human who suddenly looked very excited for some reason that the Pilot couldn't quite understand.

"Well . . . Homeworld is more of a military than a planet but . . . yes, we have planets . . . " responded the Pilot. Why wasn't this common knowledge here? Wasn't this the planet the Crystal Gems had tried to defend? Wouldn't they have told everyone about Homeworld?

"Oh man, this is amazing!" breathed the human, laughing, "How many of you are there? What are they like? Where do you all come from? How do gems . . . can gems even have...-"

"Sexual reproduction? No. Gems have more of an agricultural outlook upon reproduction. I'm probably not the right gem to ask though, so . . . you should leave."

"What?! No way! You're proving all of my theories about gems just by standing here!" Goodness, this human was persistent. The Pilot sighed.

"Alright. I didn't want to have to do this but . . . you leave me no choice."

Placing a hand on one of his gems, he materialised a pistol and aimed it at the annoying human who immediately jumped back and threw up his hands in panicked surrender,

"Whoa! Put the gun away! We can talk this out like rational people can't we?!"

"What does it matter? If you die now, you'll avoid being killed by the Cluster. This is much better for you, trust me."

"What? The Cluster? What's that?" the odd human asked, lowering his hands a bit before the Pilot pushed his gun in his direction again and put his hands back up.

"I don't know exactly. Above my level to even know of its existence, really. Again, this doesn't really matter. I'm going to shoot you in a second and your going to die."

"But . . . if you were going to shoot me . . . why haven't you already?"

The Pilot was silent. He had no clue why he hadn't pulled the trigger yet. This wouldn't be the first time he had killed someone. So why was it hard now?

"Maybe we can . . . take this to the Crystal Gems and they can handle it? Then you wouldn't have to . . . y'know . . . shoot me?"

This human. First, it had the audacity to walk up to him while he was crying, then it had tried to bombard him with questions and now it was trying to give him orders? It was almost as bad as Homeworld! Although . . . he was stuck on this dumb planet. And his best hope for survival was probably to get the Crystal Gems to take out the Cluster. Heck, maybe they'd destroy each other and he'd never have to even deal with them outside of a few words about the damnable weapon.

"Fine," begrudged the Pilot, de-materialising his pistol, "Take me to them."

"A 'please' wouldn't go amiss." mumbled the human as it turned to the south and began to walk, the Pilot following from an safe distance, clearing his face from any remnants of the tears with the back of his fist.


And that's a wrap for now!

Remember, reviews, much like criticisms, are not entirely necessary but they're always welcome and treasured.

Ta!