Ch. 10 It's Raining Gems! Hallelujah!

Morning had finally arrived in Beach City, as Steven, having woken up much earlier than expected, ran to the kitchen to obtain some of the ingredients required for his Together Breakfast. After painstakingly stacking the waffles, putting the syrups, popcorns, whipped cream and strawberry in the exact order, Steven looked at his meal, proud of his creation, just in time for the Crystal Gems to come out from the Crystal Temple, having woken up from their slumbers. Topaz was the first to speak.

"Morning Stevie," he said before seeing what was for breakfast, "Have you considered learning how to make anything else?"

"I must admit, I have never seen such an unusual looking meal in my life," said Sapphire, as she stared at Steven's Together Breakfast.

Amethyst sniggered. "The kid had some strange taste when it comes to food-"

"Like you're one to talk, Amethyst," Pearl interjected.

"...But he can be pretty creative about them too," Amethyst finished informing the blue reptilian before the latter noticed Steven heading right towards her with his meal.

"So Sapphire, since you'll be staying here for a while, want to try it out for yourself?"

While Sapphire tried to considered her options, unbeknownst to her, or anyone for that matter, a rather large object in the sky was slowly plummeting its way towards the beach; the object in question didn't get noticed right away, at least until Topaz spotted it out the window as said object was starting to get close enough to be in viewing range.

"Guys! Something is heading right towards Beach City!" Topaz alerted everyone, prompting the whole group to stop what they were doing and look in Topaz's direction to see the large object with their own eyes.

"And here I thought today was going to be boring," Amethyst remarked, as she and her fellow Gems summoned their respective weapons, preparing to face the inevitable, just as the large object finally landed on the beach, creating a large tremor that no doubt shook the whole city to its core.

"W-What was that?" Steven frantically asked his friends.

"I don't know, but you have to stay inside," Pearl instructed the young boy. "We'll take care of the matter from here."

Reluctantly, Steven nodded his head, showing that he understood the Gem's instruction, much to Pearl's satisfaction, before she and the others head out to the beach to investigate what had landed in the beach.

As expected, whatever had landed on the beach certainly drew a large crowd of citizens, both curious and a bit frightened, as the five Crystal Gems slowly made their way closer to the small shallow crater to see it up close and in person, even though whatever was inside of it was shrouded in a cloud of dust. Eventually, the dust finally settled and dispersed, allowing everyone to see what they were looking at.

What they didn't expect to see, however, was another Crystal Gem. At least, as far as they could tell. He was quite large in stature, with grey skin, black hair and a black gem on his chest, as well as wearing a light black vest with gray stars on it, a pair of white wristbands, baggy pants and sandals. He appeared to be out cold.

While the crowd began to murmur loudly over this unexpected discovery, the five Gems looked at each other with uncertainty, before Garnet finally spoke to break the silence among themselves.

"Does anyone know who he is?"

"To be honest, I don't recall ever seeing him," Pearl admitted.

"Yeah, I think I would have recognized that guy right away..." Amethyst added.

"I memorized every known member of the Crystal Gems before we left to the Nihil, but he's the only one who doesn't stick out in my memory," Sapphire explained. Topaz felt a snicker coming on at that thought but let it go.

"Whoever he is, let's get some answers from the big guy when he wakes up," Topaz suggested.

As if on cue, the black Crystal Gem began to stir; grunting as he slowly got up onto his feet and stretched his arms out, before letting out a big yawn for all to hear him, acting like nothing had happened to him. The Gems, even Garnet, had to look up at the super tall and very strong looking Gem, which put all of them on guard as he could probably give them all a run for their money with his size alone.

"Holy crap, that guy is huge…" Topaz muttered, to which all the gems just nodded in agreement.

"Whew man, that was a good nap," he muttered under his breath, as he looked around in his environment, realizing that a large crowd was gathering around him, before he spotted five that stood out amongst the crowd, whose faces he doesn't recognize right away. Their attire, their statures, not to mention the various weapons they each carried...as well as the gems visible on most of their bodies.

"Hello," he greeted everyone with a deep baritone voice.

The moment he acknowledged them, the crowd began talking to one another once more, both confused and intrigued by what they were hearing and seeing, just as the five Gems approached the black Crystal Gem in the midst of their conversation.

"...Sup?" Topaz finally asked, unsure of what to say. The guy fell out of the sky and was no worse for wear.

"Hello...whoever you are. I'm sure you're wondering what's going on, but whatever it is that you have in mind, let's discuss this somewhere else where it's more private...with fewer civilians around," Pearl suggested to him.

"Considering that I don't have a single clue as to what's going on, I don't see why not. By the way, call me Obsidian," the black Crystal Gem agreed jovially, stepping to follow the five back to the ocean-side house, ignoring the curious stares from the crowd.

Steven sat on the couch glumly as he watched the TV in an effort to entertain himself, while his friends were left to confront whatever had landed in the beach. But the thought of the Crystal Gems heading off to some sort of crazy adventure without him is becoming quite unbearable for Steven to even think.

'No fair! I should be out there with them instead of being stuck in here all day!' Steven complained in his thoughts.

Just then, the young boy heard the front door opening, prompting him to stop his self-pity and turn around to see that his friends had returned...so soon? But what really amazed Steven was that he saw another Crystal Gem with them. One who happened to be a guy, just like Topaz. A freakishly huge guy.

"Steven," Topaz spoke to the boy, "Meet Obsidian. Obsidian; Steven Universe," Topaz introduced the two before going towards the couch and just falling face first onto it.

"...That's so COOL!" Steven exclaimed in excitement, as he continued to stare at Obsidian with wide eyes. "It's so nice to meet you! Where did you come from? What weapon can you summon? Have you ever been on any adventures before? When did you-"

"Calm down, Steven," Garnet suddenly spoke, cutting the young boy off. "Let our guest get settled in."

"It's cool, ma'am. I've never met anyone with such energy," Obsidian remarked, before he turned his attention to Steven. "I didn't understand most of those questions, but I did hear one of them. So if it answers your question, I can do this."

Before they knew what happened next, Obsidian bang his hand loudly on his chest. Soon, a bright light emitted from the jet black gem, followed by the giant Crystal Gem pulling out a large war hammer befitting his size.

"So what do you think?" Obsidian asked Steven with a smile.

"Wow! That's pretty neat!" Steven happily replied, before a thought occurred to him. "Where exactly did you come from?"

"You know, that's a pretty interesting question," Obsidian replied. "It's been a pretty long time since I came back to Earth."

The moment the black Crystal Gem gave his answer, he left the gathered Crystal Gems gasping in surprise, including Topaz, whose head shot straight up after hearing this; Steven, on the other hand, was just confused by his friends' responses. It was then that Obsidian noticed their reactions, as he chuckled nervously a bit before offering them his explanation.

"You see...I left the Crystal Gems a long time ago. I decided to just travel all over the universe for a while, before I dropped by here, figurative speaking."

"Oh, that makes a lot of sense then," Steven happily accepted Obsidian's answer.

"Not to us it doesn't," Pearl was the first to spoke, as she stared at the black Crystal Gem suspiciously. "If what you say it's true, then how come we don't remember you ever being here? The temple door doesn't even have a black gem on it!"

Curious by Pearl's answer, Obsidian took a closer look at the temple door, then at the surrounding temple as a whole, staring at it all for a few seconds, before he turned his attentions to the others with a look of amusement on his face.

"Never thought the Crystal Gems would have their own place. In fact, we didn't even get along with each other very well for a long time, as we stayed in separate houses, unless we had to fight a common foe, that is. Ah, memories..."

Obsidian's explanation left the Gems in complete shock upon hearing his answer. It was not something they would expect to hear from him at all.

"B-B-But t-that would mean…you'd have to be over a thousand years old!" Amethyst blurted out in disbelief.

"Indeed. I'll take your surprise as a compliment," Obsidian simply said with a smile. "It's at least good to know that everyone is getting along now."

"Wait a second… how old… are you guys?" Steven asked, looking around at the other Gems.

"...Older than dirt. But we can discuss that at a later date," Topaz said, trying to keep the conversation on track.

"That aside, let me get right to the point…" Pearl began, as he took a deep breath before finally speaking up. "Do you know anything about the Nihilians?"

"...Nihil-what now? I've never heard of them before," Obsidian replied, unaware of what was about to happened, as the Gems were completely dumbfounded and shocked by this. How could someone like Obsidian not be aware of their sworn enemies?

"Wait, how long have you been out of the loop?" Topaz asked.

"Very long, as far as I can tell. I never was very good at keeping track of time," Obsidian answered like it was nothing.

"Well since you've been gone for a long time, why don't I show you around in Beach City?" Steven interjected himself to the conversation, hoping to change the subject right away. "I'm sure you're curious what had changed since you left."

"You know, I'd like that. Things have no doubt changed quite a bit around here since I've been gone..."

"WAIT!" Pearl shouted loud enough for Steven to hear her and hurt the ears of those standing right next to her, before quickly composing herself. "I...don't think that's such a good idea."

"How come?" asked a confused Steven.

"'Cause Obsidian just fell out of the sky and wrecked the beach even worse then when Topaz did," Amethyst reminded Steven, while irking Topaz at the same time.

"Not to mention that he's drawing a lot of attention," Sapphire added.

"But guys-" was all Steven could say, before Garnet raised her arm, cutting him off.

"We just want to make sure we can trust him, that's all."

"I can't really blame any of you for being so suspicious of me..." Obsidian began. "But I assure you, I'm one of the good guys. If it helps, I'll cooperate with you regarding my position."

Obsidian's answer was enough to satisfy the Gems, as Garnet used her gemstones to open the crystal door and lead everyone inside to discuss the matter, with Steven quickly following them, before the door closed.

The moment he stepped foot inside the Crystal Temple, Obsidian couldn't believe his eyes; he knew that it was going to be different compared to what he was used to from the past, but he didn't expect the place to be much larger than he'd imagined. He had to admit, this was certainly something he would have to get used to.

"Why exactly is he staying in my room?" Topaz asked. "We have other rooms he can stay in."

"Because then he'd be lonely," Steven answered. Topaz would have countered with the fact that Obsidian's supposedly been by himself for centuries, but he thought it wasn't worth it and just went with it. "So, what do you think of this place?" Steven asked Obsidian.

"...I'll admit, it certainly is much roomier than I expected," Obsidian answered, once the shock eventually off, as he turned his attention to Pearl. "So, what do you and the others have in store for me?"

"We're just going to ask you a few questions about you and see whether or not we can trust you," Pearl explained to Obsidian.

"Fair enough," Obsidian accepted Pearl's response, nodding his head to show her he understood, before Garnet started to talk.

"First question: where did you come from?"

"Why, I was born here! Though it was quite different back then compared to what I'm looking at now. Much more wooden huts and men running around killing each other with spears back then..." Obsidian answered.

"If you are old as you claimed yet never heard of you before, then that'll put your age somewhere between really old and older than fossilized triceratops turds," Topaz remarked, causing Obsidian to chuckle.

"I guess that makes sense, though not quite that old, I think. Again, I was never good with tracking time," Obsidian sheepishly admitted.

"Alright, next question. How did you managed to get back here?" asked Amethyst.

"Honestly, I'm not very clear on that. The last thing I can recall is that I was resting peacefully on a rock before I met you guys at the beach," Obsidian answered once more before laughing boisterously. "I must have taken a nap on a teleporter that I hadn't noticed!"

"...That's the first time I ever heard something like that happening before," Sapphire commented.

"Actually, Topaz has done that before," Garnet mentioned nonchalantly, causing Topaz to chuckle.

"Oh yeah," he muttered, remembering the teleporter that had dropped him in the middle of the Amazon.

"When did this happen?" asked Steven.

"Maybe save that story for another time, Steven," Pearl replied, before turning her attention to Obsidian.

"But why did it send you crashing into the beach?" Amethyst asked.

"It must have not been recalibrated," Garnet hypothesized. "There are still a few teleporter pads that could send you just about anywhere."

"Like eight thousand feet in the sky for instance," Topaz finished.

"Any other questions?" Obsidian asked, causing Pearl to speak up.

"Why hasn't anyone mentioned anything about you? Did you know Rose?"

"Rose Quartz? Yes, I knew her," Obsidian answered as if it didn't matter to him, "Though we rarely spoke to one another. I never found out why. I guess she was just busy."

"You knew my mom, then?" Steven asked, prompting the black Crystal Gem to look at the young boy with a look of astonishment on his face.

"...Rose Quartz is your mom?" Obsidian finally asked, baffled by what he'd just heard.

"You heard it loud and clear, Obsidian. Steven here is Rose's kid," said Amethyst.

"Rose is no longer with us, of course… Right now, we're just helping him learn how to summon his weapon properly with the gem he inherited from his mother before he can officially join the Crystal Gems," Pearl explained as Steven raised his shirt to show his gem, proving he's one of them..

"Which is going to take a pretty long time, at the rate it's going," Topaz jokingly added, somewhat irking Pearl and Steven in the process.

Obsidian, for his part, continued to be surprised by what he'd heard so far. He never expected Rose to have kid, let alone passing her crystal gem on to her own son.

'Things certainly have changed while I was away,' Obsidian thought, before quickly shaking his head. "Well, it's good to know that this kid has you guys around to watch over him. But enough about that for now; what's your final verdict regarding my presence?"

"That's right, we almost forgot about that," Sapphire realized, as she, her fellow Gems and Steven huddled around with each other for discussion about their new guest. "So, any thoughts regarding Obsidian?"

"I still say he's one of the good guys. I bet he wouldn't harm a fly," Steven replied.

"I don't know Steven…" Topaz began. "The timing of his arrival seems a bit...too perfect. Sure, we can use all the help we could get, but a huge guy coming out of the blue, that's another story."

"But Topaz...you fell from the sky too," Amethyst pointed out.

"Yeah but my reasons make sense and add up," Topaz countered, "His reason is that he fell asleep on a teleporter."

"For all we know, he could have been lying to us from the start," Garnet added.

"What are you implying, Garnet?" asked Pearl.

"There's a possibility he might working for the Nihilians," the stoic Gem replied.

"Obsidian? Working for the Nihilians? That's crazy!" Steven objected.

"Plus, he claims he's never even heard of them before," Sapphire reminded everyone, "Kinda hard to believe he's that old and never once heard of a Nihilian."

"Maybe we're just being a bit paranoid with someone we've never even heard of before," Pearl said to the others. "Look, the least thing we can do is give Obsidian the benefit of a doubt and see where it goes from here."

"Sounds reasonable enough," said Garnet, with the others agreeing with her, before all six turned to face Obsidian, as the black Crystal Gem waited patiently for their answer.

"Obsidian, we'll give you a chance to prove yourself," Pearl explained to him. "But if you cross the line, you'll be facing severe punishment from us."

"I can accept that for now," said Obsidian, feeling somewhat relieved that he wasn't in any sort of trouble for the moment. Steven seemed happy by this turn of events, glad to hear that his friends were willing to give Obsidian a chance.

"Great!" Steven said happily, "Now that we've got that all settled, it's time to show you around town, Obsidian!"

"Lead the way, little man," said Obsidian as he followed Steven to the temple door, both of them leaving the room, no doubt heading outside, until a thought occurred to Amethyst.

"Should one of us...you know, follow them? Just in case?"

"Considering how tall Obsidian is, he's going to draw a lot of attention," Sapphire stated.

"Fine, I'll go make sure that they don't cause a ten car pile-up on the street. I'm curious to learn more about him myself," Topaz said as he made his way out of the room.

"Is he going to be fine by himself?" Sapphire asked Pearl.

"I'm sure everything will turn out alright," Pearl assured the blue reptilian, before pausing. "Hopefully."

Topaz walked outside of the beach house before looking around to see that Steven and Obsidian were already long gone. "Lucky for me, those two aren't very hard to find in broad daylight. Just look for the eight foot tall man with a small child in tow…that sounds so creepy when I think about it," Topaz remarked, as he shape shifted into an eagle and did an overhead flyby of the town, searching for the two. After about five minutes of looking he suddenly heard what sounded like a distant screaming. "Well, that sure didn't take long." Topaz immediately took off in the direction of the screaming before becoming bemused by the location: the Big Donut. "Why am I not surprised? Didn't this kid eat like a half hour ago?" Topaz quickly transformed into a much less conspicuous fly and headed inside through the large Obsidian-sized hole in the doorway. 'Well at least he tried the door,' Topaz thought as he inspected the hole.

As soon as he made his way into the convenient store, Topaz had a full view of the scene: due to his height, Obsidian, not surprisingly, managed to frighten both Lars and Sadie, as they both stared at him with a look of shock and disbelief, while Steven himself was doing his best to calm the two down as best as he could.

"Guys! There's no need to get spooked! Obsidian is actually a cool guy once you get to know him," Steven frantically insisted. "He didn't mean to destroy the door!"

Both Lars and Sadie, however, were too scared to say anything back to Steven, while Obsidian himself looked around the convenience store, before turning his attention to the frightened cashiers.

"I am really sorry about the door…"

"Don't worry about it! Just take whatever you want, it's all in the house!" a panicked Lars quickly answered.

"Well, if you say so," Obsidian accepted the cashier's answer, before shrugging his shoulders and immediately helping himself to different foods throughout the store, while Steven laughed nervously in response, embarrassed by all of this.

'It's gonna be a looooong day,' Topaz thought with a sigh.

While Topaz was out trying to keep a close eye on Steven and Obsidian, back at the Crystal Temple, Garnet, Amethyst, Pearl and Sapphire were locked in a conversation, mainly of a certain black Crystal Gem that showed up in Beach City not so long ago.

"I still don't fully trust Obsidian," Pearl admitted. "He might portray himself as dense and jovial, but it could be an act."

"But Pearl, we don't have any evidence that proves otherwise," Sapphire reminded her. "It's best if we take our chances with him for now."

"Besides, we did promise him we'll give him a chance," Garnet added.

"Sooo...not to be rude, but maybe we should talk something else," Amethyst suddenly spoke, wanting to change the subject, before she turned her attention to Sapphire. "Sapphire, do you know what happened to the other seven survivors when they managed to escape from the Nihil? Where are they?"

"...I haven't communicated with them since we managed to escape. I don't know what they're all up to right now," Sapphire admitted after a moment of hesitation. "I assume that they were all sent back to their home planets, like me and Topaz were. Thought...that would mean...hmm…" Sapphire cupped her chin in one of her hands and appeared to be thinking. The other three Gems found this curious.

"Sapphire?" Garnet inquired simply.

"...no, it's nothing." Sapphire shook her head slightly and returned her gaze to them. "I think they might have trouble communicating with each other, similar to my own situation. I'm just waiting till one of my friends back home comes to get me to show that the teleporters between our worlds are fully fixed."

The Gems were somewhat disappointed to hear Sapphire's answer, but at the same time, they were relieved to know that the others were safe and sound at the moment.

"Sorry about that back there," Steven apologized as he and Obsidian exited out of the Big Donut, the latter holding a big bag of food, not realizing that Topaz, as a fly, was right behind them.

"It's alright. It's my own fault for destroying the door and unintentionally scaring those two back there," said Obsidian. "So where to next?"

"Let me see…" Steven began to ponder for a few minutes, before he finally found his answer. "I could take you to the carwash and introduce you to my dad. Would that be okay?"

"Yeah I don't mind," Obsidian said kindly, before he quickly realized something. "Wouldn't your old man get scared the moment he sees me?"

"Don't worry about it. My dad is used to these kinds of things," Steven replied like it was nothing.

"AAH!" Greg screamed the moment he got a good look at Obsidian, as he fell back on the pavement and clutching his chest, as if he was going to suffer from a heart attack.

"We should probably get a doctor," Obsidian said as Steven ran to his father's side.

"Good idea," Steven agreed, as he took his father inside the car wash for him to calm down and get to the nearest phone to call the hospital.

Topaz, meanwhile, who continued to spy on them, was really starting to consider just pulling the two home before someone ended up dead.

'For Greg's sake, maybe it's best that he doesn't meet Sapphire in person. If meeting Obsidian almost gave him a heart attack, than just her presence alone would be the final nail to his coffin.'

Meanwhile...

"Sapphire, can you tell us what happened back in the Nihil?" asked Pearl.

"...Why would you want to ask about that?" Sapphire asked, despite being a bit shocked from Pearl's question.

"We already heard Topaz's side of the story. We just wanted to hear your side of the story for more insight, that's all," Amethyst insisted.

"Alright, if you say so then," Sapphire agreed, as she took a deep breath before telling them everything she knew. "When we traveled to the Nihil, we tried to maintain a low profile, so we could reach our targets: the leaders of the Nihilians. Topaz was also one of the reasons why I'm still standing, protecting me from the most dangerous areas of the Nihil. Since then, I've looked up to him like a sort of brother I never had."

"Wait a minute, why did Topaz became protective of you?" asked a confused Pearl.

"I was one of the few Gems who didn't treat him like dirt and was also one of the few to talk to him when I had the chance," Sapphire explained. "Anyway, as I was saying, when we finally arrived at our destination, most of us were surprised by how large the population of the Nihilians was. But despite that and the twelve year trek we took just to find their base of operations, Emerald still went through with his plan and took one of their leaders down."

"Let me guess, the results weren't what any of you expected," Garnet deduced.

"Unfortunately, that's what happened…" Sapphire began. "Instead of causing low morale amongst the Nihilians, they became outraged by Emerald's action, so they and the remaining leaders began to attack and slaughter any Gems that were unfortunate enough to cross their paths."

"And...?" asked Amethyst.

"The rest was just a blur...it all happened so fast...," Sapphire sadly replied. "The last thing I can recall is me and the remaining survivors heading back to our own worlds."

As soon as Sapphire finished, the Gems were a bit taken aback at how similar her story was to the one Topaz gave to them. But for Pearl, she remained disappointed, as it still didn't offer anything regarding her brother's fate.

"Sorry for scaring your dad back there," Obsidian apologized, as he and Steven walked away from the carwash.

"It's fine, but it's mostly my fault for not giving him the heads up about you," Steven insisted, before deciding to change the subject. "So, have you ever been to a carnival?"

"A carnival? What's that?" Obsidian asked, leaving Steven gasping in surprise.

"I can't believe you haven't been to one! Don't worry; I'll change all of that! Follow my lead!" Steven exclaimed.

"Alright then," said Obsidian, as he followed the young boy's lead, while Topaz, who continued to spy, could only watched on in disbelief.

"This isn't going to end up well," Topaz muttered, before he flew off in hot pursuit of the two.

Fifty seconds later…

The entire crowd ran and screamed as they all proceeded to head out to the nearest exit; just moments ago, Steven and Obsidian had arrived at their destination, but the moment everyone got a good look at the latter, they immediately screamed at the top of their lungs before fleeing for their lives.

"Well would you look at that," Topaz joked to himself, as he spied on Steven and Obsidian heading to the nearest stand.

"Alright Obsidian, here's what you have to do…" Steven instructed his friend. "Just aim the ball very carefully at those piles of bottle, throw the ball as hard as you can and you'll get a prize."

"Sound simple enough," Obsidian simply said, as he picked up the ball and took aim at the stack of bottles.

"Oh this is gonna be good," Topaz said as he prepared for the worst.

After taking aim at the stack of bottles for a few seconds, Obsidian pulled his arm back, before quickly throwing the ball at his intended target. Unfortunately, the throw proved to be too powerful and as a result, not only did it destroy the bottles; it destroyed the entire stand once it touched the wall, with the proprietor in it.

"Oh my gosh! I think you might have killed him!" Steven shouted with horror.

"...OOWW!" the proprietor painfully uttered as he crawled out from under the pile of wooden debris, much to Steven's relief.

"Phew...thank goodness," he simply said. "Uh, let's go do something else before we get thrown out!"

With that, the two quickly left the scene as fast as they could and headed to the other part of the carnival, before the situation could get any worse.

"I guess you can say that game was balls to the walls," Topaz thought in his head as he followed the two game destroyers.

After what felt like a long silence in the Crystal Temple upon hearing Sapphire's side of the story moments ago, Amethyst decided to speak up, if only to break the perpetual quiet within the room.

"Let's change the subject. I'm starting to feel depressed with all of this."

"It might be for the best," Garnet agreed.

"We could talk about something else for a change," Pearl added, with Sapphire nodding her head in agreement.

"So it's settled then," said Amethyst before turning her attention to Sapphire. "So, what did you do when you got to your home world?"

Sapphire pondered for a moment, thinking of how to respond to the purple Gem's question. Eventually, she turned to face Amethyst, ready to give her the answer.

"When I got back from the Nihil, the portal that I went through suddenly went haywire before disappearing. I made my way home on foot and was greeted with hugs and smiles that I was still alive, but...I found out that the teleporters were acting strange. While my other friends back home were busy assessing and repairing the damages, I took the time to reflect what happened in the Nihil, how we had everything planned out up to the point where it ended in failure. I'll admit, I was afraid of heading back to that place after seeing so many lives lost. I still am. But if I have to go back there again...the least thing I can do is confront my fear head on."

"Don't worry Sapphire, you're not alone," said Garnet.

"Garnet's right, Sapphire. We're right here with you whenever you need it," Amethyst added.

"No matter how long it takes, we'll help out any way we can," Pearl assured the blue reptilian, as Sapphire happily smiled in response.

A few hours later…

Steven and Obsidian were heading back to the ocean-side house, the latter grinning while carrying an assortment of prizes with him, while the former was rubbing his head sheepishly as he looked back at the carnival, now in complete ruins due to the black Crystal Gem's inhuman strength.

'I need to be careful where I take him from now on,' Steven thought.

"Steven, what's wrong?" Obsidian asked, noticing the look of disappointment on his face.

"Nothing's wrong, Obsidian!" Steven replied, quickly putting a smile on his face for a few seconds before frowning again. "Sorry that the tour came off a bit...odd for you."

"I still had a good time regardless, even if I did accidentally spook a few people along the way," Obsidian insisted.

"Oh, don't worry about that! In Beach City, anything that's weird is practically normal. I'm sure you'll fit right in just fine, you just need to give it some time," Steven assured his friend.

In the midst of their conversation, the two had finally arrived back at the ocean-side house, as Topaz quickly flew right back inside before they opened the door and changed back into his humanoid form, just in time to greet the two.

"Hey guys, how was your day?" Topaz asked with a straight face.

"Um, everything turned out great and nothing weird or bad happened along the way. Yep, that sounds about right," Steven answered.

"I'm sure... So let's not keep me in suspense. I want to hear about it all," Topaz said with a smirk, knowing well it wasn't true, as he allowed the two back in the house.

After Steven and Obsidian told him what had occurred (even though he already knew), Topaz headed back to the temple to explain to the Gems of what had transpired. Needless to say, they were a bit stunned to hear what happened during the last few hours, though Amethyst did her best to keep her laughter to herself.

"Oh man! I wish I was there to see the look on Greg's face!" Amethyst blurted out.

"Amethyst, that's terrible!" Pearl scolded her friend.

"Ah, cool it. I'm doing my best not to bust a gut here," Amethyst insisted, as she calmed down long enough to face Topaz. "So can we trust Obsidian?"

"Not exactly," Topaz answered. "I don't know him that well, but he looks like he's on our side."

Topaz's answer was enough for the Gems to put their suspicion aside, satisfied with what they had for now.

"Looks like we can start building our trust with Obsidian," Pearl suggested, to which everyone nodded their heads in agreement.

"But for now, let's call it for the day. I'm beat from spying on Steven and Obsidian all day," said Topaz.

"Yeah, I think we could all use a night off… or three," said Amethyst.

With everyone in agreement, the Gems, as well as Steven, retired to their respective beds, as Steven headed to his own bedroom, while Garnet went to her room to do… whatever she does at night, with Pearl going to her room along with Sapphire and Amethyst going back to sleep on her pile of junk. Topaz, on the other hand, was meditating in his room as Obsidian slept on a bed they brought in for him earlier. He'd decided not to sleep due to his traumas still haunting his mind. But even though he was awake, it didn't help as much as he had hoped. Even now, he could hear a few voices echoing within his mind.

"Watch out!"

"How is that possible?!"

"I can't believe it was all for nothing."

"...should've figured it would end like this…"

Topaz cringed each time he had to hear those voices in his head. As he prepared to shout in frustration, he stopped himself at the last moment, realizing that Obsidian was sleeping in his room and instead, took a deep breath and exhaling them out.

'This is going to be a long night,' Topaz thought to himself.

Elsewhere…

In a forest that was not far from Beach City, a blue ball of magical energy formed out of nowhere, destroying all nearby trees in the process, until it suddenly dispersed as quickly as it appeared. Standing where the orb of energy used to be was an individual clad in green and black clothes, his attire torn in pieces and heavily ripped up, barely holding together. He was breathing heavily, barely standing under his own power.

"I… made it," the man gasped as he looked to his right to see bright lights, signaling civilization. He then began to limp toward the lights in the distance that were Beach City.

A/N Oh snap! Guess whose back? Back again!

Okay so this probably should be said but I kept forgetting to mention it up to now: This story is actually a collaboration between two people (chapters 1-9) and a new partner as well (chapter 10, onward) These two helpers are my friends NeoNimbus (Who is my co-writer since the beginning of this story) and SCI-FIWIZARDMAN (who is the new beta-reader and also a co. writer)

No guest reviews from the last chapter so there's really nothing to talk about there.

My thoughts on this chapter. It was pretty funny to me and my partners as we were coming up with a few jokes for the points with Obsidian and Steven while also answering some key problems that I hadn't addressed before.

Like where in the Steven Universe episodes does this take place? Well the answer to that is it takes place after Bubble Buddies but before Serious Steven as Steven can still go to the carnival.

How many Gems are out there in actuality? I've got a formula for you of what I think should explain better than I did in earlier chapters:

(3 X A) + 10 + 1

3 = Maximum number of Gems defending their respective home planets.

A = Number of planets the gems in habit.

10 = Number of survivors from the Nihil.

1 = Obsidian

Sorry that I had to bring math into this but I needed to make the point clearer. Now I'm only counting FULL blooded Crystal Gems so Steven doesn't count in this equation. Now I did mention this in the first chapter but it's glossed over and not gone in depth because I didn't think it was necessary but just for those who were wondering, here you go.

So I believe that's all the points covered. Till next time, Sal out!