DISCLAIMER: I MAY own Steven Universe in an alternate dimension, but not in this one. (I don't own Steven Universe. Lawyers plz don't sue.)

~~~OOO~~~ -Daniel-

'So how do we know she won't just eat him he moment we wake her up?' You've been arguing with the voice almost the entire trip over to the pier over whether or not it was safe for Steven to visit the fusion.

"I already explained to you, I can see the future. There's a 12.7% chance at worst that she'll attempt to ingest Steven."

'Very funny'

"Noted. Don't worry. She won't harm him at all. She absolutely ADORES Steven. Well… Half of her at least."

'And the other half?'

"She's indifferent. Mostly. Apparently she had no idea that Steven was even a human. She thought that he was Rose Quartz disguising herself as a human. I promise she won't harm him."

Fine. You guess you'll trust White Quartz on this.

"Thank you for trusting me. Just remember, I would NEVER do anything to hurt you or Steven."

'Yeah, I do hope you have a plan if things go south though. I'm not really fit to be fighting right now. I'm missing an arm, remember?'

You arrive at the pier and turn to Steven. "Hey Steven, you know I'd never do anything to hurt you, right?"

"Of course. We're best buddies after all!" He looks around. "So where's your friend?"

"Okay Steven, I need you trust me, whatever happens next." You steel yourself, then you both walk under the pier.

You're greeted by a strange sight. A two-story woman green and blue woman was sleeping halfway out of the water. Was this the fusion? You don't remember them being that big, though your only point of reference was Garnet.

"Yes. Be polite. Her name is Malachite." Steven grabs your sleeve. He pulls you back towards him and whispers in your ear.

"Your friend is Malachite?!" You nod. "Why didn't you tell me?! This is bad! Malachite hates my guts!" You turn and whisper back at him.

"She won't hurt you, I promise. I'll keep you safe if anythin—" You're interrupted by a deep yawn. You turn and see Malachite coming out of he water and stretching. (Not what you were expecting her lower body to look like AT ALL) She hasn't seen you yet. Steven pulls you back towards him.

"I—If you're sure she won't hurt me, then I'll— I'll trust you." You ruffle his hair and smile at him.

"I'll keep you safe little bro." You turn to Malachite. "Uh… Excuse me! You're Malachite, right?"

~~~OOO~~~ -Malachite-

'You know they're there, so why don't we turn around?' 'I don't want to scare Steven by jumping at him.' 'The little runt could use some fear. It builds character.' 'You know you don't mean that.' '...Whatever.'

Dear god they won't stop arguing. You almost want to force yourself to unfuse just so you don't have to listen to this anymore, but you couldn't do that to them. You've only became self aware just recently, and it's already felt like an eternity with these clowns. You're tired of waiting for them to decide on a course of action, so when you hear Daniel call your name, you take matters into your own hands. You slowly turn around, completely ignoring Daniel, (as well as Lapis and Jasper) and crawl up to Steven with a malicious look on your face.

"Hello, Runt… remember me?" You almost crack a smile at the way his face pales. "What, not gonna run?" He shakes his head.

"Daniel told me not to be afraid and to trust him, and I'm gonna trust him." You lean in closer to Steven.

"Now why would you take that advice? You're so small I could eat you without a second thought." You touch your forehead to his. "After all… You're nothing to Jasper." He looks like he wants to cry, but then he looks towards Daniel and his face hardens.

"A— and what am I t— to you?" He asks, looking you straight in the eye. Just the question you were waiting for.

"Well, considering that your friend Lapis Lazuli is inside me…" You can't hold it in anymore, and a huge smile splits your face. "Would you be willing to call me your beach summer fun buddy too?" You take your head off of his head and wait for his answer. You don't have to wait long.

"So… Lapis is in control right now, not Jasper?" Your smile slightly fades at that question.

"Nope. It's all Malachite, runt. Lapis and Jasper are now..." Oh geez, how do you say this to a kid… "much better friends than they were when they first fused. Since they're so chummy now, I popped into existence."

'Oh yeah, were MUCH better friends now, aren't we baby?'

'…'

'…What?'

'You… are SO lucky Steven couldn't hear you say that.'

You smile slightly at the conversation going on inside your head. You turn back to Steven. "So whaddya say, runt? Beach summer fun buddies?" Steven looks at you with a serious face.

This can't be good.

"Are you KIDDING me?! You think that just because Lapis is inside you that I'm gonna forgive what Jasper did to me and my family?! What she did to beach city?! That's NOT the way it works! I wont forgive Jasper just because Lapis asks me to!" Oh damn. You can feel all three of your hearts breaking at that. He walks up to you with a look of pure fire in his eyes, but as he gets within arms length he says something unexpected. "I'd forgive Jasper either way." He wraps his arms as much as he can around your lower chest.

"Of course we're beach summer fun buddies." You can feel so much joy coming from Lapis that your vision goes fuzzy, and… something coming from Jasper. "That was just payback for scaring me earlier."

'Hey, can I take over and ask a question real quick?' 'Sure, If Malachite's okay with it.' You step back and let Jasper take the reins for a second.

"Hey runt, it's me, Jasper." Steven pulls away from the hug and backs up.

"Jasper? What's wrong? You're not mad I hugged you, are you?"

"No, no, It's fine. I have… a question I need you to answer. It's an important one, so I need an honest answer, okay?" Steven nods. "Why… are you so nice to me? After everything I've done to you… To your friends, your family… How do you not see me as a monster? How could you just forgive me?" If you still had control of your eyebrows, you would have raised them. Where was all this coming from?

"Jasper, I forgave you a long time ago. I forgave you because I thought, one day, you'd want to be friends. I thought that there was more to you than what you showed us back on the ship. I knew that there was good in you."

"Wow run— kid. I never knew you thought of me that way. I guess I'm not used to people thinking of me in such a positive way... Look kid, for what it's worth, I'm… sorry. For everything. I need to go... clear my head now. Do me a favor and tell the fusion that if I ever see her again, on better terms, there's some stuff I need to talk to her about." After asking Lapis if she had anything to say to Steven, and getting no response, You take control again, and direct your attention back to Steven.

"I can't really leave the pier without drawing unwanted attention, so would you two like to just… relax down here with me?"

~~~OOO~~~ -Steven-

It's times like this when you're amazed at your own life. You're laying down on the sand next to your brot— next to Daniel, with Malachite curled around both of you like a cat. She had just finished telling you some stories of her experiences under the sea, and now you were all dozing off watching the waves. You're about to fall asleep when Daniel taps on your shoulder.

"Hey Steven, are you angry at me for tricking you into meeting Malachite? If you are, I'm sorry bro. White Quartz told me it was a good plan, and I just wanted you guys to meet up so she wouldn't have to stay under the sea." You have to think about this for a moment.

"Nah, It's fine. If you had told me it was Malachite in the first place, I probably would have ran and gotten the gems." Malachite shifts so that her head is facing you.

"And what a shame that would have been. I rather enjoy relaxing with you." You laugh at that, then turn to malachite.

"So, why are you so laid back? Aren't fusions supposed to be the combinations of their gems' personalities?"

"Uhh… I don't really know. I just love laying around and watching the sun go by. My best guess is that Jasper and Lapis' personalities were so different at the beginning, that my personality just formed on it's own. Not that I'm complaining or anything. Being lazy is a blast!" Malachite stretches her arms above her head and pops her upper back, then goes back to resting around you. "So… think the Crystal Gems would be okay with me living on the beach? I'm kinda tired of sleeping in a cave in a trench." Now there's a thought.

"I don't think they'd mind, if you made up with them, But if you wanted you could probably live in the temple instead. You'd just have to unfuse first." Malachite scrunched up her face at that. Apparently not.

"Yeah, the thing is buddy, None of us actually want to unfuse. We're happy as is."

"Well, If you change your shape you can probably fit in the temple as is… I think." Truthfully, you weren't too sure that they'd fit either way. "I mean, if it's not too much trouble to change how you look."

"No dice runt, they'd need to unfuse to change how I look and, like I said, we're all happy with our current situation. Even Jasper is way happier this way than she's ever been before." Malachite leans in close. "Turns out… she WAS just mad because she was single. We're fine." Malachite turns and looks towards the sun. She starts frowning.

"Well, I think my time here's up." I need to head back to the trench to get my charge's limb enhancers ready before you guys come knocking later tonight."

"Your charge? Are you talking about Peridot?"

"Yep. You remember how I inherited Lapis' status as your beach summer fun buddy? I also inherited some of Jasper's titles. Escort was one of those titles. Peridot is still my responsibility to protect." She gets up and you actually feel sad when her warmth behind you is gone.

She crawls into the water and turns her head around. "See you around… runt." And with that, she dives under the water and is gone. You turn to Daniel.

"Huh, she was nice. I'm glad you and me visited her." You were about to say more, but just beyond Daniel's head you could see a very familiar purple shape walking towards you...

And it did NOT look happy.

~~~OOO~~~ -Daniel-

"Hey Stee-man! Didn't think I'd see you here!" You turn around. Great.

'Are we boned?'

"No." Suddenly you feel yourself being lifted by the back of your collar. "You're boned."

You're turned around and met with a very irritated looking Garnet. "Look, I know this looks bad, but I can expl—" Garnet releases you and you fall on your ass. She squats down in front of you so that you're both at eye level.

"If you EVER do something as reckless as that again with Steven," She pulls off her glasses. "I will rip you out of his eye socket and shatter you myself." Oh, she was talking to White Quartz. "And if YOU ever listen to one of her plans again, I'll throw you out of the warp stream. Understood?" That one was definitely addressed to you. You nod, and are about to open your mouth to respond, when your mouth starts talking without you. In a voice that's not yours.

"First off, Do NOT call me reckless. You know just as well as I do that my 'future vision' as you like to call it, is magnitudes more precise than yours. Besides, I would RATHER be shattered than put these boys in danger, and you know that. I can also protect them BETTER than you can, and that's something considering I'm STUCK IN MY GEM!"

You can feel your eye heating up, and you start to get worried, but White Quartz must really be mad now because the heat's not letting up. "Second. If you EVER threaten my child again, I will defuse you. Permanently."

"Third, And both of you gems need to SHUT THE HELL UP and listen when I say this! We severely need more allies on our side, or at the very least less enemies. I talked to this ocean fusion. She's willing to put aside her differences with you for Steven's sake." Your voice cracks, and you can feel the heat in your eye ebbing away. "I'm just... trying to prepare us. I can see something happening soon. More gems are coming to earth but… I can't see how many. Something's affecting my sight and I'm scared. I'm scared that we could be looking at another war, and I don't want to see everything my sister worked so hard for, especially Steven, get destroyed. I'm trying my hardest to keep Steven safe, and... I'm so sorry I didn't tell you any of this before."

You turn to Steven. White Quartz starts speaking through you again. "Soon both you and Daniel will be confronted with our pasts. I've seen it. It's inevitable. You will both learn who you truly are, and who we truly were. I only hope you can forgive us for what we did." White Quartz releases your voice. Your vision goes dark, and you're left alone with her inside your head.

"I'm so sorry for doing that. I promise I'll never use you like that again."

'It's fine. I'm more worried about you. Are you okay? Why did you snap at them?'

"I've been getting... glimpses of the future, and I can see that more gems are coming to earth. I've been trying to prepare us for war, if it happens, but these gems insist on holding ridiculous grudges. I've also been trying to keep myself calm around you, and the stress of everything finally caught up with me."

'You don't have to keep things from me. I understand that you were worried, but you can't hurt yourself just because you think it'll keep me happy. We're two people living in one body, and I care about my roommate.'

"I care too. I was under a lot of stress, but I was just as angry at them for threatening you. It's pretty amazing actually. I've been alive for millennia, Daniel, and somehow, in just a few days of knowing you, you've wormed yourself into my gem. In just a few days, I've begun to think of you as my child. You are just as important to me as Steven is." She pauses for a second. "Controlling you against your will was really taxing on my energy. I need to go rest now if I want to be fit for tonight."

'Hey, This is your body too. If you ever feel the need to speak up, about anything, just let me know. I don't mind. Rest up. I'll see you soon.'

"Goodnight, my child."

You feel the familiar presence in your head fade away, until you're sure that you're alone in your head. Your vision returns, and you find that you're being helped up off the sand by Steven and Garnet. Great. You passed out again. You look at Garnet.

"So are we still up for meeting Malachite tonight? I think Steven wants to come with."

~~~OOO~~~

Here's some crap I had planned out for the chapter, before I changed it all up. I was going to have Lapis and Jasper still hating each other, and Malachite was going to ask for help because they couldn't unfuse or something. I decided to just fill the chapter with more feelings and yelling instead. Enjoy. (Lazy Malachite is best Malachite.)

"You have to think of it this way, she is a jasper. They are naturally resilient to all forms of damage, and their forms are twice as big as any other gem, with the exception of maybe 7 other gem types. What would you use a gem with those qualities for?"

You can see where she's trying to go with this. 'You'd use them for war.'

"And if they think they aren't suited for war? If they don't like harming others?"

'Then they don't fight. They find another job.'

"Our culture is different from humanity in that we can't choose to be anything we're not. If you are created a jasper, you can't simply become a medic. You will be expected to charge into the front lines without a second thought. Any gem who refuses to do what is expected from them is deemed 'defective' and either reprogrammed into what is expected of them, or shattered on the spot."

'So you're saying…'

"I've seen the inside of her mind. She's been reprogrammed so much, It's amazing she has any emotion left at all besides hatred… but she does. She's too far gone to fully revert back to her old identity, but with some effort, she can shape her new identity into something she can actually be proud of."

'You seem… invested in this gem.'

"I can't afford not to be. She's a direct product from two of the technologies I developed for homeworld."

'You developed the way to reprogram gems?'

"Yes."

'What other technology is she a direct product of?'

And cut. That's all I can show because I might use some stuff from here in the future. Toodles.