I'm sorry. Let me just start off with that.I never meant to cause such a fuss with you guys, I was just going through a very rough patch, and what I said I was going to do, I meant it. I tried doing what I said I was gonna do, and came close to succeeding. But something saved me, something stopped me, and now here I am. I won't be doing all that stuff ever again, I'm in a better place right now, so...that's all I'm gonna say. I'm not looking for pity or attention, I just wanna move past it and never bring it up again. I hope you all understand.

And now, a statement from a fellow reader, and now a good friend of mine.

Hi, guys! So, when Lazuli uploaded that chapter, I, like most of you, got worried. Now, I have actually been communicating with Lazuli directly over the past year, at first PMs, and then, once we thought it'd be a fun idea to collab on a story together, we exchanged emails. So, when that chapter was uploaded, I emailed him, asking for an explanation and... I won't describe any details out of respect for Lazuli, but I will say my main priority was keeping him talking. To sum up a long story, the right people were called and crisis was averted. Lazuli was in a bad place, and even just through emails, I saw it. No one should have to get to that place. So, if you read this, be sure to spread kindness and a listening ear out into the world. Sometimes it's all people really need. Anyway, enjoy the chapter. Hopefully, this isn't the last you'll hear from me.

That was from a reader of my works I've been in contact with for a long time, and I'm proud to call him my friend now. Okay, that's enough of all that stuff, I've got a new chapter for you guys, hope you enjoy it.


The Kindergarten was just as desolate and gloomy as it the last time Garnet was here.

Despite this, the place still both equally frightened and tired her just as much as it did the first time she came to this wreched place. That was one of the worst things about having to come to the Kindergarten; that actually being here for any amount of time would be an absolutely agonizing affliction on even the happiest and most composed of all people. The Kindergarten, it seemed, could suck out the joy and very life out of anyone who dared venture into itself. Needless to say, Garnet very much hated to be here.

The stoic fusion, accompanied by Amethyst and Pearl, made her way through the barren wasteland that was the Prime Kindergarten with purposeful caution, both observing the environment around her for any signs of recent intrusion and activity, while also looking forward into the future in an attempt to forsee any possible clues or red flags about their current situation, but alas, her future vision had failed her again. She couldn't see anything past the present, just as the last few days had also left her effectively "blind". She was completely in the dark, and that only meant one thing.

Something was about to go down. Very, very soon, and she had no idea what it was.

And that terrified her.

"Hey Garnet?" Amethyst asked meekly, lagging slightly behind her, as was Pearl. "Um, what exactly are we looking for?"

"Anything that suggests that Homeworld has been here," Garnet answered, keeping herself composed and focused on the task at hand. She looked at one of the old drilling machines used to dig into the Earth, now destroyed and lying uselessly on it's side. She hoped that she wouldn't find anything like this, had Homeworld actually be on Earth. She couldn't stand the thought of this planet, her home, being subject to having the life literally sucked out of it to feed Homeworld's war machine. It could never be recovered it if came to that, and Garnet never wanted to see another Kindergarten anywhere else on her planet. Never again.

"But if they are indeed on Earth, why would they come here?" Pearl inquired. "None of the technology left behind here is operational, and it would be a tactical mistake to resume operations in the same place they were known to have been before. It's just irrational to even-"

"Unless we know what we're dealing with, nothing is irrational," Garnet interrupted sternly, her stride not faltering in the slightest. "Nothing is out of the question. We come here, and every other Homeworld structure on Earth until we decide what our next move is, and I'd appreciate it very much if you would stop questioning my methods. Is that clear, Pearl?"

Pearl was taken aback by Garnet's suddenly agitated state, but nevertheless she hummed in understanding and, unconsciously, slunk a little farther from the fusion in embarassment and a touch of fear.

After returning to an eerie silence and wanderind around the entirety of the Kindergarten, Garnet heard something. She stopped and held up a closed fist for Pearl and Amethyst to see, signing that they were to be as silent as possible and to stay alert. She could here the two gems behind her summon their respective weapons, and Garnet followed suit by summoning her gauntlets as well. Then all was quiet as Garnet strained to hear... whatever it was that she just heard. She couldn't really he sure, but it sounded like...voices. Ones she didn't recognize.

She didn't hear them again after a few minutes of waiting with baited breath, Garnet put two fingers to her eyes and flipped her hand in front of her three times in quick sessesion;

Eyes up and proceed with caution.

As the three gem companions trekked on into what now seemed like uncharted territory, Garnet once more tried to predict the outcomes of their mission. Once again she was left in the dark, unable to see anything past what was literally right in front her; a bend in the path through the Kindergarten, obscured by the cliff edges of the place. She rounded the corner, keeping her eyes up and alert...

And walked into an Amethyst soldier. Quite literally, their foreheads colliding hard, appearing almost comical in terms of how unexpected and how loud it was.

Both gems backed uo a few steps in shock and surprise, taking a minute to process what just happened, and then they both realized the gravity of the situation that just appeared before them. Pearl and Amethyst gasped in shock.

No one moved. No one spoke. All they did was stare at each other, watching, waiting for one to do something. Due to the silence and lack of anything happening, the Crystal Gems got a very good look at their enemy. The Amethyst soldier stood at least 7 feet tall, only a handful of inches shorter than Garnet, and had limbs as thick as the sturdiest tree branches in Beach City. She had thick white hair, identical to that of the Centipeedle's mane, that reached all the way down to her ankles, a deep blue, sleeveless tactical vest that tighly conformed to her body, and piercing lavender eyes that were currently filled with fear and curiosity. Her vest's neck plunged slightly down into the top of her chest cavity, and right beneath it, 3 diamonds arranged with 1 on top and 2 below them. The insignia of the Diamond Authority of Homeworld.

After a few minutes of tension-filled silence and shot nerves, the Amethyst spoke up.

Nervously, she started with, "You're them, aren't you?"

Garnet was puzzled. She wasn't expecting that question, or really any question at all, and Pearl replied before she could get any words out.

"We're who? What do you mean?" she asked, taking a defensive stance, spear in hand with the tip positioned towards the Amethyst.

She didn't answer, instead she quickly turned and tried to run, but she didn't get far.

"Amethyst!" Garnet said, referring to her Crystal Gem companion.

She didn't have to say anything further, Amethyst understood. She lashed out with her whip, coiling around the fleeing gem's ankles, stopping her dead in her tracks and bringing her to the ground with a hard THUD! She turned around with fear in her eyes as she looked up at the trio, who now, especially Garnet, seemed to tower over her. Garnet saw her quiver in pure terror, and she decided not to poof her. Not yet. They needed information about Homeworld's business on Earth. Then she'd poof her.

"You aren't going anywhere anytime soon," Garnet said. "So don't bother trying to escape, or myself or one of my friends here with not hesitate to shatter you where you sit. Understand?"

The Amethyst couldn't say anything, her voice suddenly seem to fail her. She desperately tried to speak, but only a chorus of stutters and gibberish escaped her lips.

"I-I wo-, what? Pl-please don't-"

Garnet punched her gauntlets together loudly, causing the gem to visibly recoil from the scary sound and gesture.

"Understand?" she firmly repeated.

"I-I..." the gem gulped and took a nervous breath. "Yes, I do, loud and clear."

"Good." Garnet eased up a litle bit. It was clear that this gem was a rookie and had probably never seen a rogue gem, or maybe any hostile being at all. The Ruby in Garnet knew exactly what that felt like, and so she was going to be as patient and as empathetic as possible while interrogating her.

"Now, my first question," Garnet began. "How many soldiers are here in the Kindergarten?"

The Amethyst gulped. "An entire battalion's worth of soldiers and about a hundred Ruby laborers. You won't ever be able to take them on your own, it's suicide."

Don't underestimate us," Pearl said confidently. "We're the Crystal Gems, we've faced countless of your finest warriors and have come out victorious every time."

To this the terrified Amethyst actually let out a chuckle. "Maybe thousands of years ago, but this time it's different. Our technology, our weaponry, is so much more advanced than what you fought against. Did you really think we wouldn't grow and further improve and invent new tech? You must be duller than a pebble. And you haven't even met the Commander yet."

"Not true," Pearl continued, her calm and empowered demeanor never wavering. "Agates, Aquamarines, Nephrites, we've faced all kinds of commanders and lieutenants, so yours won't be anything special. If you've met one, you've met them all."

"Not this one, he's different. There's something wrong with him; his genetic makeup isn't natural. He isn't a gem, he's also something else. A hybrid, a mixed organism-"

"You mean a fusion?" Amethyst - the good one - asked, her first time speaking up during the duration of the conversation.

The Amethyst shook her head. "Not like you think. He's a combination of two different species', but no one really knows what he is or where he comes from. And his powers? They're horrifying, unlike anything Homeworld has ever created before. If you go attack the base and try to stop what we're doing here, you're going to die. Even if you somehow get past the hundreds of Quartz soldiers, you won't stand a chance against the Commander. Want some free advice? Just walk the other way and never come back."

"That's enough." Garnet stood over her and clenched her fist.

The Amethyst, who this entire time was scared witless, relaxed and grinned knowingly, her fearful and timid behavior being replaced with ease and doubtfulness. "You'll never win."

Garnet replied, "Heard that one before." And with one hard punch to her body, exploded the Amethyst's physical form and sent her to her gem, the stone in question now lying on the cold, lifeless ground.

Garnet knelt over the purple gem, reaching her hands over it. Pearl immediately spoke to her in caution.

"Garnet... just wait a minute. We don't wanna shatter anyone just yet. We're not at war just yet, and we don't wanna be the ones to start something like that until we know what we're up against."

"Pearl, she's an enemy soldier, another threat to Earth we have to take care of. We can't just-" she stopped once she saw Amethyst's face. She was looking in the distance, her face slightly turned away from her, but Garnet saw it; Amethyst was on the verge of tears.

Of course. Amethyst hadn't fought in the Gem War, she'd never seen her friends poof or shatter another gem. And it was an Amethyst that Garnet just poofed, which didn't help matters at all, and Garnet was about to just end her life like it was nothing. It was too much for her to bear, and Garnet hadn't even taken her feelings into consideration.

Amethyst," Garnet said to her friend. No response. Garnet dismissed her gauntlets and put a hand on her shoulder.

"Hey, look at me." She tried coaxing Amethyst out of her defensive shell she would go into when she was emotional.

After a few more shakes and a little more talking, Amethyst finally met her gaze. It tore Garnet up inside to see her like this, all broken and scared like this, it really wasn't like her to be this way. That's how Garnet knew Amethyst really needed a little support right now.

"Amethyst," she started calmly. "Listen to me. That Amethyst soldier was a threat. If we let her go, she would've alerted any of the other gem soldiers here, and then we would've gotten caught." In an out-of-character act of compassion, Garnet took the purple gem's hand into her own, taking Amethyst by surprise.

"Please, hear me now," she almost pleaded. "This is uncharted territory for you, and I completely understand, but I really need you to stay focused on the mission and don't let your emotions get the best of you. The three of us have no idea what we're up against, but we do know that whatever comes our way, we'll face it together. Can we rely on you to be here with us?"

Amethyst still seemed choked up, but she took a deep breath to steel herself and somehow managed to speak.

"Y-yeah... I'm with you G," she answered. "It's just..." She looked down at the gemstone that lay on the ground at their feet. "It feels wrong to just shatter her like this. Like, she didn't even try to fight us, and now we're gonna just..end her? This seems different from fighting a war. She should at least have a chance..."

"Amethyst, it's either her or us," Pearl said firmly. "We can't save or spare every gem we come across. This is war, and in war you have to... take lives for the greater good. We have to shatter her, it would jeopardize the mission, and who knows what would become of us.

Garnet could see what she was getting at, and she actually agreed, they couldn't risk the soldier reforming and having her raise the alarm. But shattering her like this was wrong, especially given the circumstances. So Garnet compromised. She knelt down, held her hands over the stone, and a salmon-colored bubble formed around it. Then after Garnet lightly tapped the top of said bubble, it vanished into thin air, sent back to the Burning Room at the temple.

"There," she said while returning to her feet. "No risk of being caught while being merciful at the same time. Any objections?"

Her two companions shared a brief glance at each other before answering.

"I like it, it works," said Amethyst. "Thank you, Garnet."

Although Garnet deeply appreciated Amethyst's sentiment, as Amethyst was never one to show much, she simply nodded, turned and asked, "Pearl?"

Pearl stayed in deep thought for a few moments, weighing options and variables in her head that only she understood.

"It works. Now we have a prisoner to get information out of, and-"

"Um, no way Pearl!" Amethyst objected. "We ain't gonna just torture some gem who hasn't even done anything wrong, it's not fair!"

Pearl took a cautious step back from her agitated friend. "Amethyst...this isn't a battle with a corrupted gem mutant. This is Homeworld we're dealing with, so the rules of engagement are quite different and-"

Garnet interjected. "We can talk about this another time, right now we have a mission to complete. " Garnet continued on deeper into the enemy camp, not bothering to wait for an answer. Amethyst and Pearl wordlessly followed suit.

While they were walking, the Gems suddenly heard voices. Without a word, the three of them stuck to the cavern walls of the Kindergarten when they came up to the corner. Garnet peeked over and saw two more Quartz Soldiers huddled together talking about something. She took cover back behind the corner of the wall, and listened in to their conversation. Garnet had constantly scolded Steven and her gem companions for the deed, but this was the only way she could gather some kind of intel on the enemy.

"So remind me what exactly we're doing here on Earth?" One quartz asked, her face holding a large scar over her left eye.

"I'm not a hundred percent sure really," the other said. She herself had no distinguishing features but her voice seemed naturally a few pitches higher than most Quartzes. "Something about monitoring Earth to see if it could be of any use to Homeworld."

Garnet's worst fears were confirmed. Homeworld was making plans to invade the Earth. She knew there was no way the Crystal Gems would be able to defeat an army of Homeworld's elite.

"Well have you heard anything from the Commander?" Scarface inquired.

"Nothing helpful," Pitchy admitted. "He mentioned something about a "high probability of local enemies attempting to interfere with our duties," and to "engage on site if said threats make themselves present." Basically just a fancy way of saying to guard the place and attack anything that comes up to us."

He? In all of Garnet's years, before Ruby and Sapphire met and since then, never had she heard of a gem reffered to with the "he" pronoun. Something strange was going on here.

Scarface laughed. "Yeah, why does he talk like that? He acts as if he were a diamond himself, using all those big words just to look smarter."

"Well rumor has it, he's not an actual gem." Pitchy cautiously looked around, making sure they were alone before she dropped her voice to a low whisper, one that Garnet could barely make out.

"I heard that he's an experimental new breed of gem that mixes the DNA of a gem and...well, some unknown other species. He's a hybrid, the first of his kind. And guess who's experiment he is."

"Who's, Yellow's?"

"Nah. Holly Blue's."

Scarface gasped. "Oh my stars, really? But.. what interest does Holly Blue have with hybrids?"

"Beats me." Pitchy shrugged. "I just know he isn't like other officers we've had. And he's supposedly got these super powered abilities no one's ever seen before. The dude's a geo-weapon in his own right."

"Well I'd hate to be on his bad side then," Scarface said. A distant alarm sounding caught the ears of the two soldiers, as well as their secret audience nearby.

"What's that?" asked Pitchy.

Scarface shrugged. "Could be anything. There could be a debriefing, there could be an accident, something like that. Hell, there could even be intruders here. We have one alarm for literally everything. It makes ya wonder how Homeworld is such a powerful empire without having different alarms for different occasions."

Pitchy laughed. "Right? It's the little things like how we have one alarm for everything that makes no sense."

"Amen to that. Let's go see what it is."

The two soldiers ventured deeper into the caverns of the Kindergarten, moving in the opposite direction of the Crystal Gems. Soon they were out of sight and Garnet emerged from her hiding spot.

"This is bad," Pearl remarked as herself and Amethyst also left their little corner within the cliff walls.

"You were right Garnet, this is the worst thing that could be happening right now. Who knows what'll happen if-"

"Just stop for a second, I need to think." As important as what Pearl was saying, Garnet's mind was more focused on the "commander" the qwartzes had spoken of. Holly Blue experimenting with different species? A gem hybrid? This was big. This was huge. As far as the greater universe knew, a gem being combined with another species was unheard of. Well, with the exception of Steven, but even he was a complete mystery, but at least he was on their side. Plus he got all his powers from his mother, Rose. This commander though, he could have any kind of powers conceivable, as Homeworld's gem forces had very diverse abilities and attributes and they were constantly making new advances in their technology. The threat of Homeworld invading is very real and catastrophic, but it was a known threat at least. This gem hybrid however...they knew nothing about, Garnet included.

That only increased the astronomical level of fear that had been growing inside of her since this whole thing started. It was a feeling she wasn't ever used to because of her future vision, which she always used to be in full control of every situation that arose and her vision had never failed her. Until now. Now was really the very first time, apart from Sapphire meeting Ruby, that she had absolutely no idea what was to happen next with everything. She could not act with any certainty on anything without the possibility of jeopardizing the mission or putting the team in harm's way, or-

"Garnet?" Amethyst tore her from her thoughts and brought her back to the crisis at hand.

"What, Amethyst?"

"I don't know what all this means, but I do know this. The situation's pretty jacked up, we all know that, but here's the thing; you've led us out of some pickles that we would never have made it out without you. I can't count how many times I thought we would lose a fight or fail a mission or even die, and you brought us out without so much as a scratch."

"What I'm saying is," Amethyst continued. "Whatever happens, I'm with you and I trust you one hundred percent." She gripped her whip with a determined grin.

Garnet was taken aback by her words, it wasn't in Amethyst's character to be as inspired or honest as she was then. Internally Garnet was a whirlwind of emotions and questions (which is how she had felt for the last week or so, it was already becoming a familiar feeling to her), but she nodded in acknowledgement and decided that was a good enough response to the words that surprisingly comforted her in this dire hour.

Meanwhile Pearl, who wanted to say something similar but couldn't find the words at the time, simply sighed. "I just hope we'll be able to handle whatever comes our way."

Garnet turned away from the two of them and looked around at the Kindergarten, at the decayed and hue-less land and cliff walls that had once had been another piece of nature more beautiful than anything that existed today that had had the life cruelly robbed from its possession. Garnet took a deep breath.

"That makes two of us."


Under any other normal circumstances, going on a mission with her best friend would make Connie feel valued and restless with excitement. These were not normal circumstances, and Connie was not very excited at the task lain before them.

She was actually feeling the exact opposite of what she knew she should be feeling; fearful, anxious (in the overwhelming, hopeless and impossible way), inadequate and like she was in way over her head with all this. She was usually determined and willing to do anything it took to complete a mission, but this wasn't some mission to impress Steven and the gems. This time the stakes were so much higher than ever before, and she wasn't sure her and Steven could win. Not against Homeworld. Not against an enemy who's smarter and stronger and has far superior technology than Earth could ever hope to achieve on their own. If she were being honest with herself, Connie would've believed that her and Steven alone stood no chance against anything Homeworld could throw at them. But right now she wasn't being honest, and like a good friend would, kept her negative (yet perfectly warranted and understandable) thoughts to herself and put on a brave face for Steven. She would go through with the "surveillance" they were on, but the minute things went south, she'd be gone. Hopefully with Steven, but not necessarily.

It didn't take long for Steven and Connie to reached their destination. Per Steven's request, he asked Lion to use his teleporting roar to get there as fast as possible. Lion, who clearly understood the kids' mission, had the foresight to teleport them a good quarter mile from the mouth of the cavern entrance of the Kindergarten, as to make sure no one at the Kindergarten would detect them, thus giving them the element of surprise. The three of them made their way over the extra distance and silently made it to the lifeless, rocky and soul-wrenching tomb that was the Prime Kindergarten.

For Steven the place needed no introduction, as he had been here several times already. Connie on the other hand, had never seen this place before, and it wasn't a good first impression. The land devoid of all life and hue, the high canyon walls with countless holes appearing as large humanoid shapes and deep enough to make her feel nauseous and claustrophobic from even looking at them, all of it was overwhelming and gave her a new sense of horror that would continue to affect her in the dreadful years to come.

"This...is the place you told me about," Connie said. "The Prime Kindergarten."

"Yeah..." was all Steven could say about the manner. The place itself was not something he enjoyed talking about or being around for long. "This is where Homeworld grew its quartz soldiers. This is where Amethyst came from."

Despite herself, Connie let out a small chuckle at that comment. She decided to explain when Steven gave her a look of confusion. "It's just crazy to think that someone as lively and humorous as Amethyst came from a place like..." She waved a hand in front of them. "Like this."

Steven smiled and nodded in agreement. "Totally crazy. But I like how Amethyst turned out, it would be hard for a place like the Kindergarten to produce something good like her. Luck, I guess."

He gave Lion couple pats to usher him forward and they rode deeper into the old gem catacombs. Along the way Connie took note of the numerous holes that used to house strong quartz soldiers, servants of Homeworld, and in a strange and timid curiosity, observed the various partly-disassembled gem drills and their weird characteristics. The giant alien tool was essentially just...a giant drill, with long metallic legs for stability and grappling, but it also featured a glass core container filled with some kind of maroon and burgandy liquid resembling blood. She had no idea what it was or why it was being harvested, but the technology itself was interesting emough, and remarkably similiar to the engineering of construction vehicles and tool on Earth. Connie would have to come back later with Pearl or Peridot maybe, and dismantle it completely to better understand its purpose and construction. There was some definite use they could get from all this alien technology lying around.

"So," Connie asked," What is it we're looking for exactly?"

"Anything that looks new or out of the ordinary," Steven answered, clearly not thinking through his answer.

"Um, I've never been here," Connie said knowingly. "Everything for me is new and out of the ordinary."

Steven face palmed himself for not remembering that critical piece of information. "Right. Duh." He straightened up again and scanned the layout of their location. "For now just...look for any signs of people being here recently. All these drills are from the Gem war, so don't worry about them. Look for newer-looking thingies and keep an eye out for any signs of life."

And then they heard it. A high-pitched, whining drone loudly blaring not too far away in the distance, echoing off the rocky layers of the quartz harvesting area. The both of them didn't have to take a guest at what it was; it was the unmistakable sound of a siren ringing, alerting all within the vicinity of the area that someone or something had been found out. Like maybe a pair of children and their lion who had tried sneaking into an old abandoned gem breeding ground that apparently wasn't as abandonded as they thought it was.

"What? Who could that be? What tripped the alarm?" Connie wondered with a bit of concern in her voice, wrapping her arms tightly around Steven's waist in comfort. The sudden and unexpected reaction that she had made her internally blush, but she was focused on more pressing manners at the moment.

Steven replied, "I don't know, but I don't want to find out. Lion, let's-"

Lion let out a sharp growl and Connie felt his entire body tense up at the sound of the alarm. He started jumping up and down with his front leg in an ornery fit of aggression, and the children were having a hard time staying on his back.

"Whoa! What's he doing?!" An alarmed Connie asked.

"I-oof! I don't know!" Steven cried back. "He's never done this before! Lion! What's wro-" and with one last hard shake the kids went tumbling off the feline's back onto the cold dead ground. They sat there and had coughing fits from all the dust that had risen from their scuffle. Connie felt a painful stinging on her left and and she was already sure that it was scraped, but she wasn't sure just how bad it was just yet, the confusion of what had just happened and that blaring alien alarm were still fresh on her mind.

Steven stopped coughing, looked up at the strange-acting feline and spoke with an angered tone. "What the heck, Lion? What'd you do that for?"

As if he were actually responding, he let out a series of lower growls and what sounded like fearful whimpers, indicating that he was just really spooked by their whole ordeal. Then without warning, he roared to summon one of his portals and leapt straight threw before it closed behind him, leaving the kids completely alone.

"Where'd he go?" Connie asked as she rose to her feet, dusting the loose sediments off her clothes.

"I don't know," Steven answered as he repeated her process of rising and collecting himself before retrieving the camera he brought with them and inspecting it for damage. "But one thing's for certain. He really did not want to stick around to see what that alarm meant."

It was only a few seconds later did they get an idea on what the alarm would bring. Somewhere nearby in the Kindergarten, they heard the quiet but distinct sound of footfalls of a group of people in the distance heading towards them.

"Wait, be quiet! Do you hear that?" asked Connie, looking around to figure out what direction the footsteps where coming from.

"I do, and I don't plan on sticking around to figure out who they are." Steven pointed to the numerous holes from the gems that came from them , namely one that was closer to the top of cliff wall and easier to hide. "I can use my floating power to get us up there, we can hide there."

"No!" Connie rebuked. "We should run back the way we came and-"

"There's no time!" Without waiting for debate, Steven grabbed connie in his arms bridal style and leapt into the air. He willed his body toto casually float up to the hole he was referring to. He gently set connie down into the empty hole and ushered her inside, then took the camera wrapped around his neck and tossed it in with her.

"Are you good in here?" he asked.

"I'm fine, now it's your turn." She took him by the wrists and started pulling him inside with surprising difficulty.

The footsteps grew nearer. Whoever was coming would be on top of them in seconds.

"Hurry!" Steven frantically cried, trying to contort his body to fit inside the cramped space.

With a few more tugs and another grunt, Connie finally managed to pull him inside. Evidently just in the nick of time too, as Steven slipped the rest of his body in, the group making the footsteps rounded the corner and came into view.

Steven and Connie got a good look at the greeting party. They were gems, Homeworld gems indefinitely, as the diamond insignia on the front of their uniforms proved, but they weren't gems Connie was familiar with. They were about average height for humans, with dixie cut white hair, deep blue-green skin with varying blotches of dark imperial purple thrown in, and their eyes seemed to shine a startling piercing lime glow. That was the first thing Connie noticed, but that wasn't what gave her a sense of unease in the pit of her stomach. It was how just how many of them, and how quiet they were as they marched past. What sounded like a group of individuals a good ways away was actually an entire platoon of gem soldiers right on top of them dutifully marching in columns towards their destination. Compared to what Connie previously envisioned, they produced hardly a sound to match their numbers. If Homeworld went to war against Earth and they were able to mask their numbers like that, they could never fight back.

They could hide anywhere and move without any detection whatsoever, she thought. How do you fight an enemy when you can't even hear them coming?

Another thing she took note of what their weapon. She knew Steven and the Crystal Gems could summon their own personal weapons from within their gems if they needed to defend themselves, but these gems were different. Each of them wielded some strange futuristic-looking rifles pulsating with energy, and they looked extremely light and simple in design. And dangerous. Connie had no idea what damage they were capable of, and she wanted to keep it that way.

After a few agonizing seconds, the platoon passed them by without so much as a glance in their elevated hideaway and their footsteps seemed to completely cease after they rounded the corner and disappeared from sight.

They waited an extra few seconds before talking. There could be more soldiers nearby.

"Steven..." Connie turned to him, and his expression of fear confirmed what they were both thinking.

"There were so many of them," he noted. "And they were so quiet, it was a miracle we heard them over the alarm."

"Exactly. And there could be more of them lurking around the whole place." She took a shaky breath before continuing.

"Steven...I think we should go back. We don't know what we're up against, and I don't think we can fight them if we get cornered."

"What!? No!" Steven exclaimed, failing to mask his discontent. "We need to follow them and find out why Homeworld is here at the Kindergarten and tell the gems! They need to know what's going on so they don't get hurt going in blind. Why do you think we came here, Connie?"

"Steven this isn't a game we're playing! This is life and death, and I'm not comfortable with continuing some wannabe stealth mission just because we were told to stay out of this by the gems I don't even have my sword with me, and we're in a place surrounded by enemies we know nothing about. Use your head, Steven, what are we doing here?"

"Why are you fighting me on this?" Steven was clearly hurt by her strong disagreement, but at this point she didn't care. This was crazy, sneaking into a place she's never been in with hostile enemies crawling around the place with no backup or even a plan to follow, she was done. Steven would just have to cope.

"I'm not doing this anymore, I'm done with this mission and I'm done fighting you on this. Get me out of this hole, we're going home."

Steven stared at her in disbelief for a few moments before looking away, silently pondering the situation by himself, and Connie maintained her gaze on him, fighting an internal battle within herself. Her and Steven literally never fought with one another before, nor have they ever had such a strong disagreement , much less one over something this serious. Within a single hour - less than that, really - they had been in two arguments, this one and the one they had earlier about deciding to tell the gems of Steven's newfound ability to heal corrupted gem, and they were both pretty nasty. As angry as she was with Steven, she understood that this wasn't them. It was all the pressure, and above all, fear, over the threat of Homeworld looking them right in the eye. Despite all the training she had undergone, she truly believed she wouldn't be much help against an enemy with technology or training as advanced as someone from Homeworld.

But they defeated Jasper. Steven and Connie fused, and Stevonnie was able to fend off both Jasper and her giant gem mutants with relative ease. That was something alright, but she was practically alone, it seemed Homeworld had an army of battle ready gem soldiers. Connie had faith in herself and Steven, the Crystal Gems too. But this would be something entirely different than what her and Steven had faced before. The stakes were high, she could see that already before the fighting even began. Fusion wouldn't be enough this time, they would need the Crystal Gems, they would need Lapis and Peridot, anyone. Everyone. Otherwise the battle was already lost.

"Fine," Steven said finally.

Connie was thrown by what he said. "What?"

"I won't make you do this if you don't want to," he explained, his anger visibly subsiding. "I know how crazy this is, how crazy everything is about Homeworld and Earth, and you're scared you're gonna get hurt. I get it, I'd be scared too. I am scared." He took a deep breath. "But I can't just sit at home while I know that my home is in danger, that my family is in danger, when I can do something about it. My mother sacrificed everything to protect Earth from the Diamonds. I owe it to her, to the gems..." He looked away from her. "To you...to do everything to make sure everyone and everything I love is safe."

Connie was awestruck by the sincerity and reverence of his words. This kid was fourteen years old, why was he so brave? So dedicated? So eager to carry the weight of the world on his shoulders, even if it could bring him harm? She asked herself how can someone be so...good? She didn't know it then, nor did Steven, but that hero complex and his unflinching loyalty to his people and his planet would bring them to do the unthinkable, survive the unbearable, and to ultimately save them later on from their greatest enemy.

Themselves.

"If you don't want to do this, I understand." His tone was sad but his resolve was clear. "But this is something I have to do."

Connie didn't know what to say. She felt ashamed for trying to run away when he needed her the most, she promised she would never do that to him ever since he awkwardly introduced himself to her on the beach so long ago. And honestly, when had they ever run from a fight?

"Then I'll go with you," she said with a smile.

"No, Connie, I'm not going to force you to-"

"You're not forcing me to go anywhere," she interjected. "You were right, we can't just let this happen, whatever exactly's going on here. If this is as serious as it seems, us and the Gems might be the only ones who can do anything about it." She awkwardly reached over in their hole and took the camera from Steven's neck, putting it over her own.

"I won't let you do this alone," she said with her own level of resolve. "We're going to do what we came here to do." She held up her hand for a high-five.

"Together," she added with a smile on her face and determination burning in her eyes.

Steven returned a smile and went to accept her gesture, but he stopped himself and hesitated, a look of deep concern swallowing up his smile and bravery. Connie got worried and was about to ask what was wrong when he suddenly pulled her into one of his signature hugs, warm and firm, his head perched on her shoulder, and the concern in her grew a smidge.

"I don't know what's gonna happen when we go back out there. I can't guarantee that we'll be okay." Drips of something wet and warm fell on her shoulder and down her back. Steven was crying.

"I have absolutely no idea what's gonna happen, Connie." His voice was breaking. "We don't have the Gems here to tell us what to do, we're completely on our own. I don't want anything to happen to..." and he began to sob.

"Oh, Steven." She returned the embrace and wrapped her arms around her bestie as he quietly broke down. She felt his fear, his uncertainty, in her own heart as he felt it in his, and she knew it was valid for the two of them. She also realized just how much she meant to him, and even though she always knew what he was to her, it came back to her like never before, like being struck by lightning. Connie held the most important person in her entire world in her arms, and she could lose him in this hellish place. That was almost too much to bear, but she wasn't going anywhere, not when Steven needed her, not when Earth needed her. In fact, Steven was her top priority now. She'd put aside all her fears and uncertainty for him for now, until everything was over. This was just too important.

"I'm sorry." Steven suddenly pulled away from her and furiously wiped away his tears. "I shouldn't be doing this. I need to pull myself together and putting aside ny emotions and whatnot, I-"

"Don't say that," she stopped him. "Don't you ever apologize for showing your feelings, especially to me. Get it, Universe?" She grinned to show the humour in her words

Steven couldn't help but chuckle from that, something Connie was happy for giving him, and rotated his body to get a peek outside to see if the coast was clear. It was at this point she noticed that at some point during their conversation, the alarm had been cut off, filling the Kindergarten with its usual voice of silence. This gave Connie a small, nagging sense of unease, but Steven seemed unaffected by the lack of the blaring siren. She couldn't tell from her position deeper in the hole, but Connie assumed that they were good from going off his report.

"Looks like no one's around," he noted. "Let's go."

Steven cooted to the mouth of the hole and swung his legs over the edge. Then right before he could've jumped out, Connie suddenly got an idea and grabbed him by the shoulders to keep him inside.

"Wait! We're going to be taking pictures of anything we see, right?"She asked rhetorically, then pointed upwards to the rocky "ceiling" of their hole.

Connie suggested, "Instead of creeping around on the ground with the risk of getting caught by an enemy-gem patrol, why don't we climb up to the top of the cliff so we can take pictures without getting caught."

"That's actually a great idea!" Steven agreed gleefully before adding dramatically, "Then we'll see everything, they'll have nowhere to hide from...the Jam Bud Private Investigators!"Connie burst out in a fit of laughter as Steven proceeded to use his fingers to form an imaginary pistol and clicked his tongue to imitate a gun cocking.

"You're too much sometimes, Steven!" Connie said between laughs, wiping tears from the corners of her eyes. "That was hilarious!"

"Haha, I try sometimes," Steven replied, flashing that beautiful signature smile of his. "Okay, let's go. Let me go first, and then I'll pull you up."

Steven went to the edge of the hole and stood up, using his hands to grip the top ledge from the hole's outline. He then crouched and sprang up to the ground above the hole, getting the high ground that would help them greatly if they were to evade detection and effective spy on the enemy. He then spun around, got on his knees and reached out with his hand to his friend below him.

"Take my hand, m'lady," he said all fancy like how a medieval knight would.

Connie snickered as she did just that, reaching out and taking his hand in her own.

"Okay, pull me up on three," she instructed.

He nodded. "One."

"Two."

"Three!" Simultaneously Connie jumped up while Steven pulled and she was able to make it up onto the ground next to him.

"Thanks," Connie said. "Wait, you called me m'lady. I'm your knight, remember? When Pearl started to give me fencing lessons?"

"Oh that's right," Steven replied sheepishly, rubbing the back of his neck. "Um...how about we ditch the labels for now?"

"Works for me. Let's go.


They didn't have to go very far before they found something of interest. After a few minutes of walking through the Kindergarten, which wasn't very big to begin with, and keeping an eye out for any more patrols, they found exactly what they wanted to find. Or rather, what they didn't want them to find.

As they walked along the flat land of top of the cliff, they stumbled upon a clearing in the lower valley of the Kindergarten and both shared a collective gasp at what they found.

Connie looked down and saw, as far as she could see, an insanely huge staging area of gem soldiers and their technology. There were dozens of soldiers and workers of all sizes and colors who were either bustling about with moving equipment and carrying weapons around or standing in small huddles holding and pointing at some kind of strange electronic clipboards to one another and talking. She also saw that there were tons more of those soldiers they almost ran into earlier marching and patrolling still, armed with the same alien rifles, and a few had different ones that didn't look familiar, but that looked just as advanced and just as lethal. Aside from those specific soldiers, Connie didn't recognize any of the other kinds of gems in the sizable alien menagerie. Another feature to the camp were several large rectangular tents, mahogany brown in color, scattered throughout the valley streching from end to end of the Kindergarten. On the opposite side of where Steven and Connie were, on the flat cliff side, double-barrelled cannons the size of cars were placed every twenty paces or so, positioned at all the visible entrances to the Kindergarden and, Connie was sure of it, at all the ones that weren't visible from where the kids were standing. At the camp's center, a large square sat literally in the ground, where some sort of basic elevator was transporting gems freely between the surface and whatever they stored down there within the Earth.

"This is huge!" Connie exclaimed. "How many of those gemsdo you think there are?"

Steven replied, "I'd say..." He took a second to try to count them out, but quickly gave upand settled for, 'Too many to count."

"Wait until Garnet, Amethyst and Pearl see this!" Connie took the camera from around her neck, aimed and waited until a large portion of the camp was within the camera's viewfinder, and clicked the trigger button, forever capturing the image of what lied before then. "They'll thank us for disobeying them!"

"Take as many pictures as you can," Steven said, but Connie was already focused on her task, taking pictures of everything she saw, from the cannons to the gems marching and moving equipment to the gems studying their weird clipboards as well as the strange underground elevator they had going on.

"What's that?" She inquired, pointing at the giant shape in the ground.

"Um, probably the old abandonded Homeworld base underneath the surface

"What!?" Connie turned to him and said with pure disbelief.

"Well, I think it was a base," he added. "It was the first place I met Peridot. She was trying to restart the Kindergarten, so it seemed important to me."

Then the elevator-pad of the elevator came up from inside the crust into view, and what it brought up was an odd sight for Connie.

On the pad, there was a very large metal and glass disc that kind of glowed in certain spots, but not all around it, and it was covered with holes of different sizes, making it seem incomplete but close to completion as well.

Then Connie saw him. A male gem, standing on the disc, wearing what Connie could only see as a officer's uniform of a sort, and surrounded by a few green gems with some kind of metals arms and legs. The gems were a point of concern to her by themselves, since she couldn't identity what type of gem they were or their skills, but the male officer was the real mystery. All the gems Connie knew (which wasn't much) were females, the sole exception being Steven. Yet this gem was a male, no denying it. He had shoulder length dirty blonde hair, olive skin and seemed pretty strong and sturdy at somewhere around six feet tall. She could see that a pistol was strapped onto a belt around his waist, and he was conversing with the green robot-gems, all of whom had walked off together to tend to whatever they were trying to accomplish.

"Whoa, that's different," Steven said appropriately. "Didn't know gems could be guys, too."

"Really? You've never seen a gem like him before either?" Connie inquired. "I thought you'd know about something like him." She took a series of pictures of the gem and his council of robot-gems before turning back to the disc and elevator.

"And what do you think he's doing down there in that base?" CLICK, CLICK, another two pictures.

"Beats me," Steven said with a shrug. "And I wonder what that thing is on the elevator. Last time I rode it down there, that wasn't-" He stopped and stared at the disc for a moment, and Connie could practically see the gears spinning in his head as he thought. Then, as if he had seen something of great concern, he gasped and fear manifested itself on his face.

Connie grew uneasy by her friend's expression. "Steven? What is-"

"I know what it is," he said in terror, taking a step back. "And it's not good. Oh stars, this is bad, so very bad."

"What is it? What's so bad about that disc?" Connie was feeling the fear now, too.

"It's a Galaxy Warp," he answered with an uneven voice, his voice shaky like a leaf.

"What does that mean?"

"You know those really bright things, the Warp Pads, that the gems and I use to teleport to different places on Earth? Well, a Galaxy Warp teleports you across theentire galaxy in seconds. If I'm right and that's what they're building-"

"It would make them be able to teleport an entire army here in the blink of an eye to invade Earth," Connie finished, now terrified of the prospect of total annihilation by Homeworld even more real. "Oh, God. Oh, God...

"This is bad, we can't stay here," Steven said frantically, grabbing Connie by the hand and turning to run the opposite direction. "We need to get-" Steven gasped, and Connie let out a startled scream.

"Get what?" the pair of Amethyst guards that were behind them asked in unison, brandishing battle axes and holding them in an attack stance.

"You didn't plan on leaving, did you?" Scarface asked with a menacing smile on her face.

"Yeah, why don't you two go down there and join the party?" Pitchy added, a similar expression of that of her counterpart had.

Without waiting for a reply, Pitchy forcibly grabbed Connie by the front of her shirt. Connie let out another scream and she struggled to be released to no avail.

"Steven! Run!" Connie yelled at him fearfully.

"Hey!" Steven said. "Put her down right-" Scarface jabbed him in his eye with the tip of her axe's handle, making him instantly collapse and roll down the cliff into the valley.

"STEVEN!" Connie screamed out, reaching out to him as he fell.

"Don't worry," Pitchy chuckled. "You can join him too!" And with that declaration, she dropped Connie down the side of the cliff and sent her tumbling down to be with her friend. The world began to spin and roll with her movements, and with every roll was a sharp pain on her side or her gut that made her cry out in and see everything turn white from the searing pain she felt as she rolled, all before coming to a stop and slamming her head against the ground as she finally came to a halt on the valleh floor.

Connie was nearly unconscious, her surroundings nothing but a shaky blur, all of her senses dulled and nearly gone altogether. She managed to look around and see how just about every gem solider it there were right above her, guns trained on her and the fleshy blob in her vison next to her.

"Steven..." she weakly called out.

"Connie..." she heard in response.

"Well what do we have here?" a masculine voice asked. Connie somehow managed to look up and track the speaker.

"I thought something like this would happen," the male gem said, keeping eye contact with them. "In fact, I willed it so. Nothing gets past me, ever." He turned to his soldiers. "Put them with the others. We'll see what they'll have to say to me, if they decide not to beg for their lives."

Connie felt someone grab her arms and she saw someone do the same to Steven and they were both dragged into one of the camp tents nearby. The gems who moved them then practically threw them inside and left them like that.

"Connie are you okay?" Steven asked, crawling over to her, who was in a worse state than him.

Connie started coughing, and through the pain, managed to sit up with Steven's help.

"I-ah! I'll be fine." It was a feeble lie, she knew, but he really needed to hear that.

He didn't get a chance to say anything else, as right then, a different voice spoke.

"Steven? Connie?"

The kids looked in the tent with them and were greeted with the battered up faces of Garnet, Amethyst and Pearl, all who were chained together and sitting on the ground next to them.

"Oh my God, children!" an overwhelmed Pearl cried out. "What on Earth are you doing here!?"

"We were out looking for you," Steven said, rubbing his eye where he had been struck. "And...sneaking around."

Pearl was just too dumbfounded to form a proper reply, and Amethyst was just silently crying to herself, but Garnet could still talk, and she was livid

"Steven Quartz Universe!" Garnet yelled furiously, despite being badly beaten and an emotional wreck. "This is unacceptable! When we get out of this, you're grounded for-"

All conversation immediately ceased when the door flap was opened and in came the male officer.

"Hello there! Seems like a perfectly calculated rendezvous, doesn't it!" he said gleefully, clapping his hands together.

"Who are you!? What do you want with rhe Earth!?" Garnet asked, temporarily forgetting about Steven.

"Wow, right to the point, eh? I respect that in a gem, I like that in a gem," he replied, then gave Garnet a good slap across the face.

"No!" Steven cried, reaching out but staying put when his movement hurt Connie, the pain in her body flaring up once more.

Garnet grunted, teech clenched, sweat running down her face.

"That felt good, didn't it?" The officer said with a cruel smile. "But I'll answer your question, in case you don't live long enough to hear it again." He stood and formed the diamond salute with his hands.

"My name is Commander Soren Spessartine, and what I want with your planet is simple; I want to conquer it. I want to destroy all life on this disgusting rock, and all because..." He slapped her one more time.

"...I can."


Wow. A lot going on in this chapter, huh? Got the gems dealing with this super important stealth mission, Amethyst being confronted with the idea of shattering another gem for the first time, Connie and Steven sneaking off for their own little mission, and we discover the threat of Homeworld invading even easier than expected, and the gang meeting good ol' Soren Spessartine for the first time. Things are finally heating up again, we'll just have to see how it goes. I'm starting a new updating schedule, this time I'll be updateing at least once a month, and this time I'm gonna commit. As for the other stuff, I'm doing much better now, and I'm not going anywhere anytime soon, especially with plans for more stories in this series, so keep a look out for updates, okay?Alright, I'm out y'all, and I'm see you in the next one. Peace.