Steven was extremely bored. He had wanted to hang out with Connie today, but she was trapped within something called school. When Connie had first described it to her, there was a bit of a misunderstanding, and Steven nearly tried to help her escape it before she explained what was actually going on.

"It's not like an actual prison or anything, it's just where people go to learn stuff. Didn't you ever go to school?" Connie asked. "Whenever I need to learn something, the gems always tell me about it." Steven said, "Hm..maybe I can do that today."

"If you want, but it'll probably be boring." Connie warned. "I'm bored already." Steven reminded her, "Worst case scenario I'm just bored in a different location. Talk to you later." He said, heading to talk to the gems.

He found Sapphire first, telling her about Connie's school and how he wanted to try learning some things as well. Sapphire gracefully sidestepped the question of why they'd never taken Steven to any kind of school, and instead of answering that question, simply sat him down and asked him what he'd liked to know about.

Steven thought for a moment, "Well...I guess I'd really just like to learn more about gem stuff. You guys usually only tell me about gem stuff when it's happening, I'd kinda like to know about stuff before it's trying to kill us."

Sapphire chuckled, "Well, I suppose it is only fair that you have some method of learning more about your culture. Wait here." Sapphire said, heading off into the temple and returning some time later with what looked like a hand mirror, but with a more metallic surface.

"This is a gem powered artifact, it can record and display again anything it's seen throughout all of gem history." Sapphire said, handing Steven the mirror, "There hasn't been much need for us to use it, we already know about gems. I'm sure it'll…" Sapphire paused, the way she always did when she was getting a sense that something was wrong.

"What is it? Did you just see the future?" Steven asked curiously. Sapphire shook her head, "Never mind it, far too unlikely," Sapphire said, as she'd been trying to get better at not overreacting to her future vision, "Right now, you just need to focus on seeing the past. Ask the mirror any question you've got about gems and it'll answer."

Sapphire left the room, wanting to discuss her new, rather unsettling vision with Opal and Ruby so they could plan just in case it did come true. Steven looked at the reflective mirror surface, "Hm...can you show me when gems came to earth?" He asked.

The mirror face changed, no longer reflecting Steven's face, and instead showing a ship in space. No, tons of ships, and entire fleet, and how they landed on earth. Steven didn't recognize where they were landing, but he figured it was somewhere from a long, long time ago.

"Cool, can you show me a really strong looking gem monster?" The image shifted again, reflecting a silhouette of Opal. "No, a gem monster, not just a super strong gem." Steven chuckled, but the mirror remained on the image of Opal.

"Maybe it's busted..I should probably go tell Sapphire about it.." "No." The mirror replied, reflecting Steven saying it from seconds before. Steven blinked, confused by this. "What?" He asked, "No. No-show-earth-gems."

"Are you...talking to me?" Steven questioned. "Right." The mirror parotid Sapphire's words. "And you don't want to talk to the gems?" "Right." "Why not?" Steven asked. "Never mind it-can show-you-any." The mirror replied.

"Woah.. you're like a person." Steven said. "Right." The mirror replied.


Connie got out of school and joined Steven in talking to the mirror some time later. It didn't seem to have any problem talking to her, but whenever Steven suggested they go talk to the gems, the mirror seemed to freak out.

"No, no, no!" The mirror repeated, though by this point Steven and Connie were set on showing them, and took the mirror to the temple, where Opal, Ruby, and Sapphire were talking. Well, more that Sapphire was talking and Ruby was trying not to jump out of a nearby window because of it.

"Hey guys, what are you up to?" Ruby asked, hoping to stop Sapphire's future vision rambling if only for a little bit. "We've been talking to the mirror you gave Steven." Connie said. "It's really fun, you didn't tell me it was like a person."

Steven did not expect the reaction he got from the gems. All three of them looked horrified the moment he said this. They looked to one another nervously, then back to Steven and Connie, "What...do you mean by that?" Opal questioned.

"Like, it can stitch together different things it saw to talk to people. Its really nice and funny, but I guess it's never seen a corrupted gem before, and it doesn't seem to know very much about you guys." He said.

"It shouldn't be able to do that, it should just be following whatever orders it's given." Sapphire said. "I don't like this." Opal said, standing up, "That thing could be dangerous, let's bubble it for now and look into it later."

"What? Why?" Connie questioned. "No!" The mirror shouted. "See? You're scaring it." Steven said, "It doesn't want to be bubbled." Opal came closer to them, "It's just a mirror, a tool, it can't want anything, now give it here." She said, reaching out to take it.

In a panic, Steven slapped Opal's hand away. Sapphire and Ruby gasped, and Steven and Connie frantically fled the temple, hurrying down the stairs and hiding near the fence with the mirror.

"What's their problem with this mirror?" Connie questioned. "I don't know," Steven said, turning to the mirror, "Please, they want to bubble you away, how can we help you?"

"Gem powered-not a-tool. Lllet, meeee, ouuuuut." The mirror displayed an image of itself, then showed it turning, and zoomed in on the cracked, green, triangular gem lodged in the back of it. It showed a silhouette of Steven and Connie pulling it out, then a flash of light.

"Steven!" The shouts of the gems could be heard, they were getting closer. Steven and Connie nodded to each other, turning the mirror around and trying to pull it free. It was really wedged into the mirror, and took several seconds of trying to pry the thing free.

When it was out, the mirror shattered, and the gem rose from their hands, a body forming around it like when Sapphire had reformed. She was short, just below Steven's height, with a green uniform and a yellow diamond shaped insignia in the middle. She had yellow-green hair that seemed to form a triangle. Her cracked gem was on her forehead, and when she opened her eyes, Steven and Connie found that they were reflective like mirrors.

"Thank you.." She said, stumbling slightly, as though it had been a long time since she'd last used her feet, and didn't quite remember how to use them. "You..you actually helped me..you freed me.."

Steven and Connie caught her before she fell on her face, "It's Steven..right? And Connie?" She asked, Steven and Connie nodding, "My name is Peridot. Are you..are you really a Crystal Gem?" She asked.

"Yep!" Steven said proudly, though this seemed to confuse Peridot, "But then..why are you being nice?" "What do you mean?" Connie questioned, but before Peridot could answer, the other reached them.

Opal already had her bow out, Ruby had her gauntlets and Sapphire's hands glowed with her ice powers. "Wait stop!" Steven shouted, trying to calm them down.

"You…" Peridot glared, "You three knew I was in there, and you didn't do anything!" The fence behind them rose from its post, twisting until it a large pillar of metal, "Did you even wonder who I used to be!?"

The pillar slammed down onto the gems, who just barely managed to hold it up and stop it from crushing them with all three of them working lifting together. "I'm Peridot! And you aren't going to keep me prisoner here anymore!"

Peridot turned to Steven and Connie, who looked afraid and confused, "They aren't going to let us leave." "Leave?" Steven questioned, "Where else is there for us to go?" "Home." Peridot answered.

Steven and Connie looked at each other, unsure of what to do. Peridot frowned, realizing they weren't coming with her. "Don't trust them Steven. Goodbye."

The gems managed to throw the metal pillar off, only for a movement of Peridot's hands to make the metal spin around them like a hurricane made of little metal chips. When it subsided, Peridot was gone.

"Was that...was that another gem?" Steven questioned. Sapphire sighed, "Yes, it was." "You two are grounded." Opal said.