Chapter X: Ferruginous Quartz

After Steven and Phantom fused into Ferruginous Quartz, they exited Steven's mindscape and returned to the real world.

"Man, is it GREAT TO BE BACk!" she cried out while stretching.

"STEVEN!?" Pearl was looking for Steven all over the Galaxy Warp, as well as Garnet, Amethyst and Greg. Pearl heard Ferruginous Quartz, turned her head around to see her, and saw the iconic yellow star on her outer bra.

"STAY AWAY FROM MY BABY, YOU DAMN PERVERT!" Pearl was absolutely furious at seeing Steven fused with a stranger.

"Wait, wait, Pearl, relax! It's Phantom Quartz I'm with!" Ferruginous replied.

Pearl looked at her questionably, and Ferruginous was sweating slightly. She didn't want - well, Steven didn't want - Pearl to freak out anymore than she already was.

Pearl suddenly stopped. She dropped her spear that she was gonna use in order to attack Ferruginous.

"Ph-ph-ph-Phantom? Is it really you?"

"Uh, well, kind of..."

"Hey, Ferry!" Amethyst called her from the base of the Homeworld Warp. "Why do you have such a large bust? I wish mine was that big!" Ferruginous blushed for a second, then regained her train of thought.

"Guys, this is not the time to talk about my breasts! We fused so that we could take down Crystal Quartz and her army!"

"Army?" Pearl wondered.

Just then, the Homeworld Warp pad activated, and coming out of the blue light was Crystal Quartz and about a hundred Jaspers, armed and ready for combat.

"Hey, Ferruginous Quartz!" She bellowed.

"You know her?" Pearl asked Ferry.

"Yeah, sort of. I think I tried to fight her off and shatter her a couple thousand years ago.

"Back when Rose was still around," Amethyst commented.

"We need more backup. Garnet, take Greg back to Beach City. Amethyst, fuse with me!" Pearl said to the Gems (and human) that she had stated.

Lapis warped to the Galaxy Warp as soon as the words left Pearl's lustrous lips, sensing that Steven hadn't come back in a while. She wanted to make sure that he was okay.

"Steven, were are you-" She stopped abruptly, staring at both Crystal and Ferry.

"Steven? PHANTOM!?" Lapis ran to Ferry and kept on hugging and kissing her.

"Phantom! I missed you!"

"Uh, I...missed you too, Lapis."

Lapis stared up into Ferry's eyes.

"Sorry, it's just that...Steven doesn't know, but Phantom knows, so..."

"Oh yeah, you're not really Phantom. But still, I missed you!" Lapis finally broke away from the loving frenzy and finally noticed Crystal's army making landfall to Earth.

"Lapis," a strange yet also familiar voice called out to her.

Opal had arrived, along with Garnet, who came back from bringing Greg back home.

Crystal was slow-clapping and had stepped down from the Galaxy Warp. "Wow, what a reunion. Why do you think that fusions will be able to stop me? They can't!" She stopped clapping. "And I'm just a weak type of Jasper. Like your pathetic Pearl over there, fused with a pathetic runt. Our Opals on Homeworld aren't twice as stupid as you. Oh right, we don't have any!"

Opal was furious now. "You just take that back RIGHT NOW!" she roared at Crystal.

"Hahaha. Make me!"

She formed her famous bow-and-arrow, using Amethyst's whip as the string and Pearl's spear as the string holder. She lined up a magical arrow, aimed right at Crystal's gem, and fired with a booming FWOOSH!

And with that, the second Gem War for Earth had officially begun.