"Lapis Lazuli, stop!" Jasper yelled, having spotted the blue gem wading through the ankle-deep stream that Jasper had been following. Lapis continued without acknowledging her, passing behind a tree and fading from view. Jasper ran through the stream before turning as it meandered left around the tree—Lapis was nowhere to be seen.
"What do you want from me?" She roared, her muscles rippling in frustration.
"Don't take me back to Earth!" Lapis' voice rang out inside Jasper's mind.
"You're already ON EARTH." She gripped the sides of her head, stomping onward through the shallow water, her heavy footfalls splashing it everywhere. How was the Gem doing this? Had their fusion as Malachite left them with some connection? Lapis Lazuli had kept her chained at the bottom of the ocean for months and now she was tormenting her again... in whatever this was. "You want me back, is that it?"
"I'm the only one who could handle your power, and you want me back!"
"Don't look for me, I don't want your help!" Jasper looked forward for the source of the pained voice, running through a small gap in the trees ahead of her before sliding to a sudden stop. The forest had ended, and so had the ground. Mere feet separated her from a sheer drop into an endless expanse of pink clouds, the stream at her feet running off of the precipice into the void. Laying far ahead was a massive outcropping of rock jutting up out of the pink mist, upon which sat a gleaming multitude of crystal structures. Jasper immediately recognized the architecture as that of Homeworld's world-spanning metropolis.
She flexed her back muscles—Malachite could have flown clear across that vast space. She sighed and dropped onto the ground with a thud, the cool stream trickling under and around her. "I can show you where they are." Jasper cocked her head to the side. Lapis Lazuli stood next to her, arm extended and her face a blank stare. Jasper gasped, her words catching in her throat. "You..."
She sighed and let out a deep chuckle. "You're not real, are you?" The blue Gem stood motionless. "What do you want me to do? Where do you want me to go?" She yelled, pushing herself to her feet.
The stoic Lapis looked out towards the shining city, hand still extended towards Jasper. "We're Malachite now."
"Pay up!" Pearl smiled smugly and thrust her hand out at Amethyst, who turned her head to the side with a dismissive click of her tongue.
Up in the nearby loft, Steven put down the game controller he had just picked up, turning to the pair in the kitchen. "Huh?"
"You said they were still getting along, right?" Pearl asked.
"Yeah..."
"Well Amethyst here bet that Lapis Lazuli would tear Peridot's head off in under a week's time." She turned back to Amethyst. "Steven has confirmed that they've lived together for a week now, which means I win the bet." Pearl wiggled her extended fingers at Amethyst, who rolled her eyes and dropped a crumpled wad of cash into Pearl's open palm.
"Yeah, yeah. You win." Amethyst muttered as she opened the fridge and stuck her head inside.
Steven wrinkled his brow. "Now I feel kinda bad about telling you guys how they're doing."
"That's nothing. Back when you were real little we bet on when you'd stop wetting the b-" Amethyst was interrupted by Pearl wheeling around and slamming the refrigerator door on the purple Gem's head, who groaned and stumbled backwards.
Steven winced. "What did she say?"
"Oh, nothing Steven! Amethyst is just delirious because she's gone half an hour without eating."
He looked at the cash in Pearl's hand. "Do you even use money?"
She gazed up thoughtfully as she straightened out the bills. "Well... not really. We mostly just use it for bets. I nearly always win, of course."
"Yeah she's super smart, Steven." Amethyst had recovered and was rubbing her head. "Hey Pearl, can I borrow twenty bucks for food?"
"Of course you can, Amethyst!" Pearl handed the money to her, still beaming proudly at the blatant flattery. Amethyst snatched it and ran out of the house, cackling madly as the screen door slammed behind her.
Steven and Pearl turned to the nearby warp pad as it lit up, signalling Garnet's return.
"Garnet! You're ba- eh?" As the glow faded Steven saw that in Garnet's hands was a crinkled heap of something—paper? No, snake skin. Dried scales ran all over the tangled mass. Garnet smashed her fists together and ground it up into a fine dust which fell to the floor in front of her.
Pearl glanced quizically at her. "Were you able to capture the Wind Serpent?"
Garnet's eye twitched. "No, I was not. Not yet."
"Oh?" Pearl's eyes followed Garnet as she stepped off the warp pad and walked past Pearl.
"I need you to come with me, Pearl."
Pearl spun around and followed Garnet out the door. "Where are we going?"
"To buy a net. A very big net."
Steven picked the game controller back up as the two Gems descended the temple stairs outside, and turned to his T.V.
"Hey Steven!"
He jumped in his seat and fumbled the controller in his hands, turning to his left once he'd gotten a handle on it. Lapis was perched on the window sill next to him, her wings extended and moving gently up and down.
"Lapis! I'm never going to get used to that." He exhaled as he clutched his chest with his free hand.
She smiled as she clambered into the room, her wings retracting into the gem on her back. "Sorry. What are you doing?"
"Just playing a game, but we can do something else now that you're here."
She looked around the house and saw that it was empty. "You're not busy with Crystal Gem stuff?"
Steven thumbed the controller in his hands absent-mindedly. "No, Garnet went on a mission but she didn't want me coming along—she said it was too dangerous. Her and Pearl are out buying a net or something now."
"You sound dissapointed."
"Yeah, kinda. I thought they were treating me like a full member of the team, but then sometimes they go back to treating me like a little kid."
She sat down next to him on the edge of the bed. "Don't worry, I know you're strong. You rescued me from that mirror, right? If it weren't for you, the Crystal Gems would still have me trapped in there." She shuddered and gripped her arms.
Steven blushed. "Yeah, I guess I did." They sat in silence for a few moments. "You always come by when they're not here... are you still mad at them?"
"Of course I'm mad at them," she spat, her words dripping with venom. "They're the reason Homeworld stuck me in that mirror in the first place. Then they left me there for thousands of years, and they're why Peridot dragged me back to Earth."
"Well, yeah... but you don't have to be mad at them anymore! They care about you too, they're the ones who saved you from Jasper-"
Lapis slammed her fist down on the wooden floor beside her, her wings springing forth from her gem. "DON'T say her name!"
Steven dropped the controller from his hands and reeled back in shock. Lapis face turned from rage to regret in an instant as she turned to him, grabbing his shoulders with her hands. "Sorry! I didn't mean to yell. I just don't like talking about her... and she's so close by," she said as she eyed the door behind the temple warp pad.
He put his hands on Lapis' wrists in reassurance as she dropped her head. "I-it's alright, don't worry about it."
Her head shot back up and she faced Steven, eyes glowing with renewed energy. "Hey, I have an idea!" She grabbed him by the hand and pulled him off of the bed before leading him down the loft stairs.
"What is it?"
"You want to show the Gems you're strong, right?"
"Yeah..."
"Let's finish that mission before they get back!"
Steven sputtered as she led him onto the warppad. "But Garnet told me to stay here!"
"If you listened to everything the Crystal Gems told you to do, I'd still be trapped in that mirror, Steven."
He looked around sheepishly. "Well, yeah..."
"And if I get in trouble, you'll save me again, right?"
He smiled and nodded confidently. "Mmm." Steven centered himself on the warp pad, still holding Lapis' hand in his own. With a flash of light the pad activated, and they were gone.
Pearl stared down the sights of the harpoon gun as the sporting goods clerk eyed her nervously from behind the counter. "This is entirely impractical as a weapon," she muttered disapprovingly. "I will never understand Humans' obsession with projectiles, Garnet. Garnet?"
At the other end of the store, Garnet had torn open a cardboard box and was tossing around the weighted netting it had held. The clerk looked on worryingly, but quickly decided that he wasn't paid well enough to intervene. Garnet circled around the splayed-out net, thoughtfully examining its size before nodding approvingly and turning to Pearl. "Pearl, pay the man."
Pearl carefully placed the gun back on its rack and strode over to the clerk. "We will take one of your nets," she announced, reaching into the pearl on her forehead and pulling out a piece of paper before handing it to the clerk. He took it and eyed it suspiciously; at the top of the yellowed bill read "Continental Currency," the year 1652 written in faded ink below that. "I can't accept this, ma'am."
"Well why not?" Pearl squawked at him, the man cowering behind the counter as Garnet approached with the mangled net box in her hands.
"This isn't legal currency," he pleaded. "I need US Dollars. You know, the green ones with the pyramid on them."
Pearl sighed and turned to Garnet. "I need to go find Amethyst."