Lars and the Off Colors were trekking through the dark, dank tunnel that would lead them away from the Gem soldiers' impending onslaught. Rhodonite and Padparadscha were walking through the tunnel without a single hint of fear; the Twins of Rutile were right behind them looking around the area curiously; Lars, on the other hand, was lagging behind the Gems,

"U-Um, hey, guys?" Lars asked. "Could we pick up the pace a little bit?"

"You can never be too careful when in these tunnels, Lars—especially if you're an Off Color, for obvious reasons," the twins said.

"You never know what's lurking down in the pits of this massive Kindergarten," Rhodonite said. "I've went through this very tunnel thousands of times—literally, mind you—and I'm still nervous as to what's awaiting us at the end of it."

"You're nervous about everything, though," Lars retorted, snickering under his breath.

Rhodonite stopped in her tracks. Still holding Padparadscha by her tiny gloved hand, the fusion turned around, pushed through the Rutile twins, and looked the pink-skinned human straight in the eye.

"If you had to spend every day for the past five-thousand years cowering in fear, I guarantee you'd be nervous about everything, too," Rhodonite said.

She immediately covered her mouth in shock at what she just said to the little human. The twins looked away and didn't utter a single word. Padparadscha, as usual, was completely unaware and staring into space. And Lars backed away from Rhodonite, and started rubbing his forearm and muttering under his breath.

"I-I'm… I'm sorry," Rhodonite said. "Let's… Let's just keep going."

"Everyone!" Padparadscha blurted out. "I've just had a—"

Rhodonite put her hand over the little Gem's mouth.

"Whatever it is, we know," she said.

The fusion and the little Gem passed by the twins, and continued down the tunnel like nothing happened. The twins turned to Lars and simultaneously gave him a look of disgust.

"Watch your mouth," they said in unison.

And they continued down the tunnel, as well. Lars rubbed his forearm a little bit more, then decided feeling sorry for himself wouldn't solve anything, and gave out a sigh and continued walking through the tunnel.

For the Off Colors, the trek was like a walk through the park—even though they had no idea what parks even are—but for Lars, the trek felt like eons. His companions were quite confident in their sense of direction, so they didn't bother using their Gems to illuminate the way. Thus, Lars spent the entire trip through the tunnel in darkness. Even though he could see his friends in front of him just fine, there was still this feeling of dread and despair buried deep within the human's heart. The only thing was keeping that dread at bay with the thin veil of confidence and courage he mustered up after the ordeal with the Robonoids. That horribly flimsy veil was the only thing keeping Lars from freaking out about the ordeal he got himself caught up in, too.

No matter which way he looked at it, he was a human being trapped on a planet he didn't know a single thing about. What did it matter if he were pink and had a pocket dimension in his head? He didn't know what to do with it or if he even had any powers to begin with. The various outcomes of the ordeal he was in started to spiral and swirl in his head without any hint of stopping…but Lars snapped out of it when the twins of Rutile went up to him and said in unison…

"We're here."

Lars looked ahead and saw the exit to the tunnel, and as the twins jumped out of it without a hint of fear, Lars carefully climbed down the wall and jumped off from a safe level. As he dusted himself off from the grime and dirt that filled the dark tunnel, Lars took a look at his surroundings.

"It looks exactly the same as the place we just left," Lars said.

"Well, we're at the bottom of a Kindergarten—what did you expect?" the twins said. "It doesn't get any better for us down here than this—we've no choice but to work with what we've got."

"Which is?"

The twins gave each other a little smile and said…

"Each other."

But the twins' gentle moment ended abruptly when Rhodonite sprinted towards them and grabbed them by their conjoined waist. The four-armed fusion ran up to Lars and scooped him up as well, then ran towards Padparadscha and picked her up with little effort. Rhodonite then jumped on top of a large rock that was situated in the corner of the area, and dumped her four companions behind it. Rhodonite jumped down behind the rock with them, then peeked around the side of it, trembling all the while.

"W-What the heck what that about!?" Lars asked, the twins helping him get up from the floor.

"You'll get used to it—Rhodonite has a tendency to freak out like this whenever she senses danger," the twins said.

"Everybody!" Padparadscha blurted out, not bothering to get up on the floor. "I think Rhodonite's freaking out again!"

"And with good reason!" Rhodonite whispered, grabbing Padparadscha and covering her mouth with all four of her hands. "I think I heard someone…"

"What?—You think we were followed?"

"I-I never saw anybody behind me."

"Just because we weren't followed through the tunnel doesn't mean we weren't followed at all, Lars!"

"Well…maybe it was that big caterpillar thing? What was her name? Fluoride?"

"Fluorite—and no, that wasn't her. The sounds a Gem her size can make would've echoed all throughout the tunnels."

"Come to think of it…we never heard any sounds echoing while we were going through there, did we?—It was awfully quiet, considering the booms Fluorite would always make up above."

"Do you think anything happened to her?"

"She's a six-Gem fusion… I'd be surprised if they didn't choose her as their first target."

Rhodonite took another peek from the side of the rock to see if anybody was there. And that's when she saw what she initially heard. From a wall that was far in the back of the cavern they were in, Rhodonite saw a tiny shadow against the wall.

"G-Guys," Rhodonite said, "it looks like I was right… S-Someone's coming!"

"Let me see," Lars said, going up to the side of the rock to take a peek himself.

The pink-skinned human saw the tiny shadow that was being cast by the mysterious creature against the wall in the far-off side of the cavern. The more Lars squinted, the more the shadow became oddly…familiar to him. He could've sworn he saw the entity whom the shadow belonged to before, but he couldn't pinpoint why or how this could be possible. But his question was answered when the entity appeared in person, and the human's eyes widened when he realized who it was…

A tiny blue gem flying about with wings made of water.

"Aquamarine," Lars said, gritting his teeth.

"H-Huh?" Rhodonite asked. "H-How do you know what type of Gem she is?"

Lars vaulted himself over the massive rock and said…

"Because she's the reason I'm down here!"