"Peridot!" Andrew said, suddenly, and quickly.

Peridot screeched and leapt into action, like a wild animal that had been startled. She lifted her weaponised arm-enhancer.

"Peridot, Facet..." Andrew screwed up his face in concentration and snapped his fingers a couple of times. "2F... 5L Cut... erm... something... XG!"

Peridot lowered her hand just slightly, and looked at Andrew in cautious curiosity. "How do you know that...?"

"Because I'm your friend, Peridot..." Andrew said, desperate for Peridot to understand.

Peridot took a step back, cautiously. "I don't have any friends! I have colleagues... and none of them are muddy, organic earth clods!"

In his head, Andrew raced through possible angles from which to approach Peridot, to explain their relationship. He could tell Peridot the entire truth, that he was from another universe where they were already friends, or water down the truth, and convince her that he knew of her, by revealing some personal information, or simply not say anything too unbelievable, and attempt to build Peridot's trust from the ground up. The third option seemed the most likely to succeed.

"Peridot, you can trust me!" Andrew insisted. "I know why you're here! Yellow Diamond sent you to restart the Kindergarten, but that's not..."

Peridot immediately refocused her hand on Andrew. "Wrong!"

The fingers on Peridot's right hand assumed their firing formation, with one trained forwards, and the others pointing inwards, and, without warning, she unleashed a bombardment of laser fire at Andrew. Without a trace of concern, Andrew swayed left and right, barely moving his feet to avoid Peridot's attacks. Eventually, Andrew ducked under one of Peridot's laser blasts, and, summoning his gauntlet on his right hand, grabbed hold of Peridot's offending digit. Peridot attempted to fire again, but with Andrew blocking her line of fire, her weapon backfired violently, and Peridot was consumed by a cloud of smoke.

The startled, green Gem staggered backwards, readjusting her eyes and ears, after the shock of the explosion. When the smoke cleared, Peridot lifted her arm again, and gasped in distress, when she noticed sparks leaping from the casing, and her fingers drifting back and forth, aimlessly. Immediately after Peridot noticed the damage, her limb enhancer slid off her hand and clattered, lifelessly to the floor.

"Nooo!" Peridot cried, looking at her real hand. "I need that!"

Peridot looked up at Steven and Andrew just briefly, before turning around and running.

Andrew immediately gave pursuit. "Steven, grab that!" He ordered, over his shoulder, pointing at Peridot's limb enhancer, as he ran past it, before calling after Peridot. "Peridot we know each other! Your favourite colour is maroon! Your manager is a Morganite, and you call her a loud-mouthed pebble behind her back! You once intercepted an episode of Doctor Who, and it took you three years to figure out it wasn't a documentary!"

Peridot continued running away, somewhat off-balanced by her mismatched arms. If the things Andrew was saying were true, she gave no sign of being surprised, or yielding. She approached the vertical wall of the Kindergarten, and ran up its surface, as though she was running up a gentle hill. Andrew came to a stop at the wall, as Peridot ascended, laughing triumphantly as she got further away.

Steven caught up with Andrew, holding Peridot's severed arm, and slightly out of breath. "What do we do now?"

"We follow her." Andrew said, decisively. "Don't get too close, and don't overtake her. We'll confront her when she gets to the top of the canyon."

Before Steven could tell Andrew that he lacked his mother's aerial abilities, Andrew leapt upwards like a superhero. Rapidly closing the gap between himself and Peridot, Andrew used the spider-like injectors, embedded in the cliff face, as footholds, leaping between them with little regard for gravity. Half-way up the wall, Peridot looked over her shoulder and cried out in alarm, in reaction to the pursuing hybrid.

"Ugh... why can't you leave me alone, you abomination against science!?"

With her remaining hand, Peridot began launching a barrage of laser fire at the injectors ahead of her. One by one, they were blasted from the canyon wall, and began raining down. Andrew increased his speed, racing between the falling injectors, while also predicting which ones he could jump to, without being crushed. Meanwhile, at the bottom of the canyon, Steven, who had been watching the chase develop, ran fearfully through the Kindergarten, as the injectors fell.

Andrew landed on top of the highest remaining injector, below Peridot. He crouched down, closed his eyes and summoned all of his strength. He could almost feel the energy flowing from the palms of his hands, through to his legs and feet. Andrew looked up, locked his eyes on the fleeing Peridot, and jumped. The glass surface of the injector beneath him, shattered violently, as he flew upwards. Andrew's heart raced as he began to slow, and the distance between him and Peridot closed.

Seconds before Andrew succumbed to gravity, he managed to grab onto Peridot's newly disarmed hand. Peridot stumbled backwards, and almost fell off the canyon wall, before pointing her other hand upwards, and having her fingers spin rapidly, like a propeller.

"Let go of me, you rock-headed clod!" Peridot demanded. "I can't hold both of our weights!"

Sure enough, Peridot ran in place, on the canyon wall, as her feet struggled to stay connected. Andrew quickly pulled himself upwards, placed his feet on the canyon wall, wrapped his arm around Peridot's torso and jumped. With the startled, green Gem wailing in alarm, Andrew flew over the width of the canyon, high into the air, and landed on the stable ground, atop the other side. Andrew and Peridot rolled upon landing, and lay still, both breathing loudly in relief, despite one of them not actually needing to.

The top of the canyon, surrounding the Kindergarten, looked much like its depths. The ground was course and barren, and there wasn't a plant to be seen. The only features of the desolate landscape, were the occasional, inactive injector.

"Peridot... please listen to me..." Andrew pleaded, breathlessly, as the two of them climbed to their feet. "Whatever you're doing here, your ship is destroyed, and you're stuck."

"Destroyed by you Crystal abominations!" Peridot angrily reminded him.

Andrew shook his head. "No, we're not the Crystal Gems." Andrew said, partially telling the truth. "Whatever problem you have with them, isn't with us! You've no reason to think I don't want to help you, so please let me..."

Peridot frowned at Andrew suspiciously, but notably, didn't attempt to flee again. "Who are you...?"

Andrew sighed. Peridot was trusting him enough to hear him out, it seemed he owed her the truth. "I'm a Gem human hybrid, born on this planet." He explained, showing Peridot his gems. "I'm not affiliated with the Crystal Gems or the Diamonds, but I know you, and I know you're a good Gem!"

Peridot looked at Andrew's gems, then looked him up and down. Clearly, she was curious to know how Andrew knew her and why he was so keen on helping her, but that wasn't what she eventually asked. "This planet is your home?"

"Yeah?"

"Then you don't want to help me..." Peridot stated, factually.

Still eyeing Andrew cautiously, lest he pursue her again, Peridot lifted her hand above her head, and allowed her spinning fingers to carry her into the air. Andrew stood motionlessly as Peridot flew away, her words ringing in his ears. Why was Peridot so sure that Andrew would be opposed to what she was doing? If she had attempted to restart the Kindergarten, as she had in Andrew's world, that would certainly be bad, but it seemed that here, she had come to do something else. Potentially something worse, based on Peridot's confidence, in her claim.

Andrew was uncomfortably in the dark. Just as Rose had taught him, he needed to gather intelligence, before he proceeded, and he would start with finding out what Peridot was doing on earth, and he knew just where to start looking.

-x-x-x-

"You had her and you let her go!?" Pearl shrieked in disbelief.

Back at the house, Penny was making intricate repairs to Peridot's severed arm, on the breakfast counter, with the use of tiny, needle-like tools, with small, red gems on the tips. Lying next to it, were four of Peridot's cylindrical fingers, in a square, occasionally, very briefly manifesting a screen between them.

"I spoke to her, and tried to earn her trust. She's defensive and proud, just like in our world." Andrew said, without a trace of regret in his voice.

Garnet walked over to the counter and looked directly at Andrew. Even with half of her face concealed by her visor, her expression was immediately recognised by Steven and Amethyst, who had both been on the receiving end of it, multiple times. It was a look of disappointment. "Andrew, our objective is to capture these Homeworld Gems." She stated. "By letting her go, you've endangered this world."

Penny hadn't looked up since beginning her repairs, but she worriedly looked up at Andrew, after hearing Garnet's words. Sure enough, Andrew's annoyance at Garnet's assertiveness was clear on his face.

"Garnet, with all due respect..." Andrew began, in a disrespectful tone of voice. "I didn't ask for your guidance or leadership, and I don't need it. I've been spearheading missions, alongside Rose Quartz and our own Peridot, since I was sixteen, and since neither of them are here, that makes me a leader of my own team, not a new member of yours!"

Amelia and Steven looked worriedly between the two of them. Pearl bit her fingertips nervously and Amethyst grinned like a child, watching a playground brawl commence.

"Hey, it's okay!" Steven said, in a desperate attempt to defuse the situation. "Once Penny's repaired Peridot's arm, she'll be able to..."

Garnet interrupted Steven, never taking her eyes off Andrew. "You are in a world you're not familiar with, facing an enemy you don't understand. This is not the Peridot you befriended. Without knowing what her intentions are, you are putting this world at unnecessary risk, by setting her loose!"

"Andrew, Garnet might be right..." Penny said, sympathetically. "I mean, my dad is really different from..."

Andrew was no more tempted than Garnet, to be persuaded to stand down. "Setting her loose!? I know that was my friend I spoke to, not a wild animal! I'll stop her if I have to, but I will not let her be sealed away in a bubble for the rest of her life!"

Garnet and Andrew both leaned over the counter, their foreheads inches away from each other. Penny quickly scooped Peridot's arm and fingers towards her, lest one of them break them.

"What you'll allow to happen is no concern of this team!" Garnet snapped. "We are united in a mission to protect the earth, and if you can't commit to that cause, then you can't be on this team!"

"That's what I'm saying!" Andrew retorted, irritably. "I'm not a member of your team! You're not my leader, and if you'll pardon the unbelievable cliché, you're not my mum, either!"

Garnet ground her teeth in frustration and lightly but decisively slammed her fist on the counter. Over the course of a few seconds, Garnet's form glowed a bright white, and she shrank and forcefully separated into the smaller forms of Ruby and Sapphire.

"You are such a brat!" Ruby angrily shouted at Andrew.

Andrew stormed around the counter and began walking backwards, towards the door, boastfully brandishing his gems at Ruby. "Well you're unstable."

With that, Andrew swept from the beach house, and slammed the door behind him.


I put some thought into whether Andrew would say "mum" or "mom". In my head, all of my OCs have English accents, because that's how I talk, but if I had to establish a canon, I'd say Andrew does, in fact, have an English accent. I like to think that's something he'd inherit from Garnet, despite being raised by Rose.