Steven stared at Pearl, allowing those words to sink in. He didn't hear it when Pearl continued to speak, wondering to Amethyst how such a thing could have happened to Garnet and why Rose Quartz never told them.

"Pearl, you need to relax," Amethyst tried to remind her gently. "Rose broke a few boundaries on what type of gems she had join her team, if you remember correctly..."

"Amethyst! Gems that are declared 'corrupted' by the Homeworld means that their gemstone was either cracked and chosen to be used or that they became monsters that they couldn't control! What was Rose thinking?!"

"Pearl, has she ever been a monster?"

"No! But why is she exiled?!"

Steven winced as he heard them bickering back in forth. While it was obvious that Pearl was panicking, he noticed a more ambiguous undertone to Amethyst's voice whenever the smaller gem spoke.

"But what if she's dangerous...!"

"PEARL!"

"STOP!" Steven yelled, waving his arms. Tears welled up in his eyes. "I don't understand any of this...How could Garnet be dangerous? She leads all our missions. She protects us..."

Pearl stopped speaking, sitting down on the couch. She began hyperventilating and shaking, her eyes wide as saucers as she thought about the new development with Garnet.

"You're...right," she said finally, her voice shaking. "It's just...the Homeworld...We can't deal with them right now...And with everything with Peridot, now their trying to get into contact with Garnet..."

Amethyst shook her head. "One thing after another lately," she muttered a bit angrily.

Steven peered down at his feet, his hands unconsciously coming together and his fingers twiddling.

All remained silent for awhile as each gem considered the situation, and then-

"But why would they suddenly declare her exile over?"

Both Amethyst and Pearl looked up at Steven, jaws slightly open.

"That...is strange," Pearl somehow managed to agree calmly. The little gem shivered. "I've never heard of this happening before..."

Amethyst glared. "Do you think the Homeworld really has something innocent in mind?"

"That's also a good point," Pearl agreed. "We need to talk to Garnet."

"I'm going to go outside first," Steven declared. "Stevie needs air."

He turned away from both of his friends, deciding that it would be best to take time to think.

Garnet shuttered and gasped, getting back to her feet. Her third eye closed, and she noticed that during her vision, she had fallen into a cold sweat. While used to the fact that there were many visions she received that led to her being in serious pain, it was sobering to see a vision in which her life was ended.

Garnet thought back to the sequence of events that she saw a few moments ago. As she began to consider the possibilities, her vision blurred and her two gems began to pulse separately. Wincing, but managing to become more adjusted to the intense pain, she looked over at the door.

"It's about to happen," she murmured to herself. Her gems began to pulse even more furiously at the realization. Garnet ran out of her room near the heart of the crystal temple, ignoring the fact that she had knocked some of the present artifacts in the room aside.

Steven stepped outside onto the deck attached to room, looking out at the beach. He could hear the sound of waves crashing against the shore only a short distance away, and the sand was bathed in light from a full moon. Sagging against the railing, Steven sighed.

"I don't understand," he said, looking despondent. "Garnet's not dangerous...not to us, anyway. How could they even think..."

"I could tell you how."

Steven shot up from where he had been sliding onto the wooden floor of the deck, his head clipping the railing.

"Ow..." he mutter, rubbing his forehead with one hand. "Um...What?"

The young gem took a step back and looked up for the source of the voice that had split the night.

"I said I could tell you how."

Finally managing to pinpoint the voice's location, Steven turned to see a tall figure glancing down at him from on top of roof of his room.

"What...?" Steven managed to say, taking another step away.

The figure leapt off of the roof and landing only a few feet away from him. It was another gem, with fire-like orange skin and white hair that stood up as if it were made of flames. At his full height, he was only a little bit shorter than the fusion gem, Opal.

"...A gem?" Steven asked.

"Obviously," the tall gem answered. "So..." the gem took a moment to glance Steven up and down. "...You have the Rose Quartz gem...You're not even completely a gem..."

"How did you know that?" Steven asked, looking slightly amazed.

"A special ability that exists to one of my...counterparts," the gem said. A gem on the tip of his nose glowed once as he spoke, as if in recognition.

Steven noticed that as the gem flexed his arms that a white gemstone was embedded in his skin, just above his elbow.

"Ohh..." Steven said with a smile. "You're like my friend Garnet! She has two gemstones...So, why is she called 'corrupted'?"

"STEVEN!" Garnet yelled, bursting through the screen door of the house. Amethyst and Pearl stared after her in confusion until they noticed another gem standing by Steven. "Fire Opal, you leave him out of this!"

Fire Opal stared at Garnet for a moment as the gem made an attempt to summon her gauntlets. Garnet winced when her gemstones began to glow, and one gauntlet suddenly appeared on one hand.

Fire Opal smiled and formed a spiked club out of the gemstone on his hand.

"You know, I never would have thought that there were more gems here, but I guess they were right," Fire Opal muttered. "Drop your gauntlet. I didn't come here to fight. You got the note on the back of the picture, didn't you?"

Garnet kept her fist raised, and Steven had ended up in her other arm. Fire Opal lowered his club.

Sighing, he turned and walked through the door of the temple, walking past Amethyst and Pearl, who were frozen with shock.

"Wait."

Amethyst took a moment to step in front of Fire Opal before he reached the warp pad.

"How did you find us here?"

Fire Opal cocked his head to one side, looking Amethyst up and down.

"A Kindergarten gem..." he said slowly. "Interesting."

Drawing his club, Fire Opal swatted Amethyst aside with a flick of his hand. The littler gem flew into the opposite wall with a loud bang before falling onto the ground and not moving.

Stepping onto the warp pad, Fire Opal disappeared with an abrupt flash of light.

For many of the moments after Fire Opal left, a stony silence hung over the temple. Nobody said anything, but took a moment to reflect on what had just happened. A gem besides Peridot and Lapis had managed to come to Earth.

"Garnet...Who was that?" Pearl finally managed to ask.

Garnet sank into the couch beside Steven, shaking her head as her gauntlet finally disappeared.

"Fire Opal," she stated.

"...Why was he here?" Amethyst asked.

"He left the photo. And we can't let him come back toward the temple. He's dangerous."

"But Garnet..." Steven spoke up for the first time in awhile. "Who is he?"

Garnet remained silent for a long time, and finally spoke.

"He is a tracker for the Homeworld. His ability to discern attributes of strength in certain gems makes him an excellent executioner. He also managed to get to Earth with the galaxy warp down."

"Alright, one more question..." Pearl began. "Why did were you branded as 'corrupted' to begin with?"

Garnet drew in a deep breath, and slowly removed her glasses. Steven looked at the third eye on her forehead before realizing that all three of Garnet's eyes were a different color.

"Because I destroyed a gem child when I lived on the Homeworld."

Oi... Before the season is over, I'm pretty sure we are going to be learning a lot about Garnet, so while the major premise of the fic isn't going to change, a couple details will. I don't think any horribly gigantic details will really be affected, because I doubt that CN is going to tell us much about Garnet's past until the next season, but clearly I'm trying to keep this as present as I can with this timeline. This may be a fic I have to write quickly if I want it to work.

Either way, if I suddenly stop posting for awhile, it's because I'm poised for damage control =)

Time to go update Rose Petals =)

R&R bitte! Danke Schoen! =)