Malley didn't know what drove her to go against Garnet like that but she did and now she was in the warp stream just trying to figure out how to get to Lapis.

'I have to do this.' Malley thought. She had somewhat of an idea of what to do. Find Lapis and ask her if there was anything good about being a malachite. She may be able to help once Malley just explains herself as a friend of Steven's. 'We'll talk things over and hopefully Garnet won't be too mad at me.' She smiled at the thought. "But first things first, gotta find Lapis." She said aloud.

Malley felt the gravity come back again and she floated downward. When the light vanished, she found herself... back on the temple hand outside Steven's house.

"No... no no no." Malley said as she became confused verging on annoyance. "I wanted to go to Lapis, not back to this STUPID HAND!"

Malley summoned her wings and flew past the beach house, to the rocks close to the shore again. She sat on top of the taller ones and brooded. She was just imagining how mad Garnet was going to be for disobeying her... but then something caught her eye. There, where the waves broke on the shore, was one of Steven's shirts, soaking wet and bundled. It was then that Malley remembered how she took one and never gave it back, her cheeks grew a little darker at the thought. She slid off the large rock, picked up the shirt and tried to straighten it out. When she saw the front, she was surprised to find claw marks across the star.

'How did these get here?' Malley thought as she examined the shirt in her hands.

"Hello..." came a feminine voice. "Who's there?"

Malley had never heard this voice before, she slowly walked out of hiding from the rocks, turned her head in the direction of the beach house, and saw a blue woman wearing a flowing skirt approach. Malley was frozen in place as Lapis came closer, she didn't know what to do. A part of Malley's mind told her to go back among the rocks and hide or fly away but she couldn't move and when her eyes met Lapis', Malley grew even more nervous.

Lapis finally noticed the turquoise–colored gem on the beach and her eyes widen in recognition. When she saw the water wings, she thought it was going to be just another hydrokinetic gem, like an Aquamarine or maybe even another Lapis... but instead, she was seeing a ghost from her past...

Malley was about to try to break the tension but before she could speak, she was suddenly grabbed by a giant water hand from the ocean and was brought closer to an angry looking Lapis.

"Who are you? How are you here?!" Lapis questioned, she also noticed the shirt in Malley's hand and her anger grew. "ANSWER ME!"

Malley just stared at the blue gem for a moment, too surprised to speak but soon she found her voice again, a bit shaky.

"I–... I'm Malley Kite." She answered.

In her furry, Lapis just heard 'Malachite' and that was enough confirmation for her. Lapis than slammed Malley against one of the tall rocks with the water hand and then she released her, only to raise the hand higher to slam down on the malachite gem.

Malley slid to the ground when the hand released her and while lying in pain, she watched as the water hand was raised, getting ready to ram her. When it came to her, Malley drops the shirt on the sand and raised her own hands in defense with her fingers clenching... but then...

Lapis eyes widen in surprise when she felt the force of her powers stop before touching the malachite gem. Was her power... faulting? That's never happened before.

Malley saw this and then she had an idea. She jumped to her feet and clenched her hands tighter. Suddenly, the water hand quickly turned into ice and broke into pieces.

Lapis sprouted her wings, summoned more water from the sea to spin around herself and then she sent tendrils of water to Malley.

Malley used her spin dash to dodge and narrowly escaped each strike. Then another giant water hand swallowed Malley up from behind but she quickly spun herself out and the hand dissipated.

Malley flew into the air with her own water wings and cried out, "I don't want to fight you, I just want to talk!"

"I don't want to listen to anything you have to say!" Lapis yelled, bitterly. "I DON'T WANT ANYTHING TO DO WITH YOU!"

Malley was taken back by this and was momentarily stunned, which gave Lapis the optimal chance to strike. Water tendrils came from the ocean grabbed Malley midair and quickly pulled her down into the ocean.

For Malley, this was like reliving her nightmares and as she struggled something again stirred within her until it snapped. Once again, her eyes turned from light green to yellow. Malley gathered all her remaining strength of will and the force of the tendrils was gone, replaced with bubbles. Malley shot out of the water like a bullet, did a midair spin dash, and rammed Lapis.

Lapis was struck from the sky to the ground by the force and now she was sprawled over the sandy shore with a battle driven Malley standing over of her.

"What's the matter brat? Not happy to see me again?" Malley taunted.

"I–I... I thought I was... d–done with you forever." Lapis answered. She slowly getting back up. "H–How are you even here and why did you have one of his shirts? Where is he?"

Malley moved away to put some distance between herself and Lapis. Her hand reached back for her now glowing gem. "Pfft. I don't have to answer to you, you can't control us anymore... and who cares about him. It's just us now and since I am here, there's too many water gems around." She pulled out her kusarigama and she swung the blade around and around. "SO... obviously, one of us... has to GO!" she threw the blade towards Lapis.

Lapis just barely missed the blade, sprouted her wings and flew past Malley for the ocean. But she didn't get that far, as something cold and hard was now wrapped around her ankle and she was forced to the ground.

Having secured Lapis by the ankle with the chain, Malley stated. "Don't fly off so soon. We're not finished yet!" She then threw Lapis overhead and she crashed into the sand. "It's time you paid for what you put us through." Malley started closing in on the blue gem with the sickle.

"Malley, stop!" came a young male voice.

Malley stopped in place and turned her head to see Steven and Connie close by.

"Don't do it, Malley, don't hurt her!" Steven cried out.

"Hurt her...? SHE hurt us, Steven!" Malley yelled, grimacing. "She attacked us... she imprisoned us... SHE IGNORED US! AND SHE HAS TO PAY!"

The way Malley just talked to him, her voice sounded so different, no longer unified but deeper and groveled. She sounded more like the original Malachite but with less Lapis and more Jasper and Steven noticed her eyes were also yellow like Jasper's.

Though fearful, Steven wondered, "Us...? What do you mean 'Us'?"

When Lapis sat up, she saw Steven and Malley facing each other.

"Steven!" Lapis shouted. "Get away from her!"

Malley turned her attention back to Lapis and when the blue gem tried to get up, Malley used the chains of her kusarigama to wrap tightly around Lapis' waist and arms. Back to her previous objective, Malley ignored Steven's pleads and dashed towards Lapis with the sickle in one hand and chain in the other. As quick as any gem... Malley thrust her kusarigama sickle into Lapis' chest and drove it down across her stomach.

The two children watched in horror as Malley and Lapis fell to the ground during the attack.

As she sat up, Malley gasped loudly, her eyes returned to light–green and she noticed too late what had just happened. The pain was incredible for Lapis, she gave one last look of grimace to the malachite gem before her body went poof into a blue cloud. Malley was frozen in place, save for shaking hands, as she stared at the teardrop–shaped gem on the sand.

"Malley!" came a deep, familiar voice.

Malley spun her head around and saw Garnet and the other crystal gems running towards her along with the look of fear on Steven's face. Confused and afraid, Malley sprouted her wings and quickly took flight across the ocean.

"MALLEY!" Steven cried out.

But it was too late, Malley's image disappeared in the distance.


Steven has been sitting on his living room couch for a few hours now, watching Lapis' gem curled up on a towel in a shoebox. Connie was picked up by her mother a while ago, so it was Peridot who sat next to him because she was worried about her roommate. Meanwhile, Garnet, Amethyst, and Pearl were pacing and or standing around, contemplating the situation.

"I knew it! I knew she would be trouble." Pearl stated. "Course, it's a little surprising that she would attack Lapis instead, of Steven. Not that I would want that of course but still..."

"I saw that this was a possibility but I wanted to prevent it," Garnet said with a hint of dismay in her usual stern tone.

"Ugh... does this mean we have to look for another Malachite again?" Amethyst groaned.

"Of course it does Amethyst, except this one will be even harder to find since she is not bound to the ocean. For all we know, she could have gone orbit." Pearl answered.

As the others talked, Steven thought about the events of the fight and how Malley acted. When she fought at the sky arena, it was minor at best but still pretty cool but on the beach, it was with such ferocity that it scared him and watching her attack Lapis... It was like when Jasper attacked and poofed Amethyst.

Then there was all that 'US' talk. What did she mean? Was she talking about Jasper...? Malachite? Both? It was all very confusing because Steven thought for sure that Malley wouldn't have any connection with them. But then again... HE was still connected to his mother by his gem so maybe Malley still has a bit of her mothers' influence within hers, even if it does look different.

"Steven...Steven... STEVEN!" Peridot called out.

Steven nearly jumped off the couch when he finally heard the green gem.

"Steven, I've been asking you if I can take Lapis back to the barn now."

"Are you sure you want to go back by yourself?"

"Steven, please, I am perfectly capable of looking after myself and Lapis' gem at the barn until she reforms. Besides I'd like to hurry up and get started on my research on malachite gems, which I can do with my equipment. Hopefully, the world wide web will have some useful information."

"Well... alright, but call me as soon as Lapis comes back, okay."

"You have my word."

Peridot then takes the shoebox with Lapis inside and proceeds to the warp. No one seemed to object and in a flash from the warp pad, Peridot was gone. Steven went back to thinking about Malley when Garnet and the others joined him on the couch.

"Steven, tell us exactly what you saw out there," Garnet said.

"Some–... something was wrong Garnet. She wasn't acting like herself." Steven said. "The Malley I saw fighting Lapis was different."

"Elaborate"

"Connie and I didn't see how it started but when we came to the house we heard some kind of commotion outside. We ran out and saw Malley and Lapis yelling at each other and then Malley started attacking Lapis with her kus–erig–anha..."

"Kusarigama" Pearl corrected.

"Yeah but when I talked to Malley, she didn't sound like herself, she sounded more like Malachite. I... I think something's controlling Malley and makes her fight."

"I think you might be right about that." Garnet started. "But we can't be certain until we find Malley. Gems, we are searching for Malley effective immediately."

Amethyst and Pearl nodded in agreement.

"Wait. You're not going to hunt her down and poof her, are you?" Steven asked carefully in a worried voice.

"Steven... if she gets aggressive, we may not have a choice," Pearl stated.

This did nothing to help Steven's worry.

"We will just have to see for ourselves," Garnet said. "I need some time to see our best course of action." She then makes her way to the temple door, probably heading back to the boiler room to think.

"I'm gonna get ready for bed," Steven said as he got to his feet and heads to the bathroom.

A little bit later, the gems were in the boiler room, planning, while Steven crawled into bed.

'I hope you're safe Malley.' He thought to himself before falling asleep. 'Where ever you are.'

The next morning was mostly quiet until Garnet walked out of her room and met with Steven at the kitchen counter.

"Good morning Garnet."

"Morning"

"Any ideas on finding Malley?"

"Right now, there are too many possibilities but I'm going to start narrowing them down myself starting today. I won't be home for a while, so you'll have to keep the harmony for me, okay."

"Okay," Steven said, trying to sound positive in spite of the situation. Garnet walked to the warp pad before Steven suddenly spoke up. "Do you think she's okay?"

Garnet stopped before she stepped on the warp but she didn't say anything at first.

"I... don't know." Garnet finally answered. Then she turned to face Steven. "But I'll do my best to find her and bring her back."

"Unbubbled?"

Again, Garnet hesitated before answering. "We'll have to wait and see." After that, she disappeared in a flash.