The Crystal Gems were gathered in the beach house, where Pearl had rigged up Peridot's escape pod to the warp pad. "Now every time a warp is used," Pearl said, "we'll receive a notification of which one it is. Since Peridot's the only Gem on Earth who routinely uses warps besides us, it'll let us track her movements."

The emotions in Garnet's mind watched this on the screen.

"This seems like a promising method to locate Peridot," Fear S remarked.

"Yes," said Fear R. "But I'm wary that Pearl's doing this to try to make up for what she did."

"Of course that's why she's doing this," Anger R said. "She just doesn't get it! It's not that she wasted time on a fool's errand! It's that she wasted time on a fool's errand so she could fuse with Garnet!"

It had been three weeks since the Sardonyx incident. Pearl and Garnet still hadn't reconciled, and it was starting to take its toll on the team.

"Well," said Joy R, "maybe once we capture Peridot, she'll realize the true root of the problem. Then we can truly begin the healing process."

"I certainly hope so," Sadness S said.

The escape pod activated. Pearl inserted her hand and projected an image of the globe from her gem. "Looks like she's at the Galaxy Warp."

"The Galaxy Warp?" Fear S said. "She must be trying to get off-world… she may attempt to repair those warps."

"Well, we won't let her!" Anger S said. "We'll catch her, and poof her, and bubble her! Let's go!"

The Crystal Gems warped, and indeed, Peridot was where the escape pod had indicated.

"Look!" said Pearl giddily. "I was right! My plan worked perfectly!"

"Good morning!" Steven said cheerfully.

Disgust R groaned. "I don't think we should be greeting our enemies so casually," she said.

"And Pearl shouldn't be so cocky," Disgust S added.

Sadness S sighed. "She really wants to impress Garnet," she said. "But this isn't the way to do it."

"What!?" a shocked Peridot exclaimed. "How did you know I was here?"

"We found a secret way to track you, and we'll never tell you how, even if you ask nicely," Steven said, taunting her.

"And I don't think we should be telling our enemies that we have a secret way of tracking them, even if we don't reveal the exact method," Disgust R said.

"Well, it won't matter," Joy R said. "Cause we're going to capture right here and now!"

"Peridot!" Garnet shouted. "We're here to—"

"And you'll never get away with this!" Pearl interrupted.

"Come on!" Anger R shouted. "She interrupted our one-liner!"

"She seems to be a bit too… eager," Sadness R noted.

"She also seems a bit too annoying," Disgust S groused.

"Prepare to be annoyed!" Pearl said, this time interrupting Amethyst.

"I don't have time for this!" Peridot shouted. She charged up an energy blast and fired, hitting a column behind the group. Rubble came hurdling down towards them, but Steven managed to defend them with his shield.

"That's it!" Pearl shouted, rushing towards their adversary. "I'm taking her out!"

"Oh no!" Fear S cried. "She shouldn't be so brash! We've learned before that Peridot has a lot of tricks up her sleeve…"

But it was too late; Peridot had sent out some sort of beam that immobilized Pearl, allowing her to be swung around and sent flying back into her friends. They quickly recovered, however, and a series of maneuvers sent Peridot soaring through the air, Garnet poised to catch her.

"Alright!" Joy R cried, already celebrating their victory. "We've got her!"

"Steady now," said Fear R. "Steady…"

But Pearl, who was also attempting to catch Peridot, crashed into her, sending both of them to the ground and allowing Peridot to helicopter safely over to a functional warp.

"Wow," said Peridot, mockingly. "This is just sad. I almost feel sorry for you." And she warped away.

"Have a great weekend!" Steven yelled. Seeing the others' expressions, he amended it to: "I hope her weekend is notso great."

"She can't even hear him!" Disgust S complained.

"And then there was Pearl!" Anger R said. "We almost had Peridot, but then she went and got in the way, and so…" She trailed off into a series of frustrated grumbles.

In the seat next to her, Anger S similarly seethed. "She just doesn't get it."

Fortunately, the Gems were able to obtain another warp signal before too long. This time, it came from South America, near the ruins of a Homeworld ship left behind from the war.

"What's she doing here now?" Fear R wondered. "Trying to repair this to get off-planet?"

"She must really be getting desperate," Disgust S said.

As they entered, however, a hologram activated, projecting the visage of Peridot above them.

"Gah! Peridot!" Fear S shouted. "Be on your guard! Oh, no, wait… it's just a projection. Still, it'd be wise to be on your guard nonetheless."

The image of Peridot laughed. "You Gems really are as dull as dirt!"

"You're the dull one if you think you can fly this wreck!" Pearl returned.

However, since the ship's communications had grown over with moss, Peridot was unable to hear the quip, so Steven had to clear off a microphone and repeat it.

"Wow," said Sadness S. "Her first decent one-liner all day and it got undercut by circumstance."

"Serves her right," Anger R said.

Peridot laughed again. "Fly? I'm not using this vessel to fly! I'm using it to trap you!"

The ship's door slammed shut behind them.

"Okay," said Fear S. "Now it's really time to be on our guard!"

"Prepare yourselves for annihilation!" Peridot yelled. She pressed a button.

Nothing happened.

Disgust R groaned. "How have we not caught her yet?"

Peridot pressed a different button, though, and a laser defense system activated, sending pellets of energy raining down.

"I think it's time to switch from being on guard to actually… you know… getting out of here," Fear R remarked.

Under the cover of Steven's shield, Garnet and the other Gems fled further into the ship, and continued fleeing as a series of spikes emerged from the hallway. At the end of it stood Peridot—or at least, what looked like her.

"Peridot!" Pearl shouted, summoning her spear.

"What? No!" Fear S cried. "She can't just go at her like that! Doesn't she remember what happened last time?"

But it was too late; Pearl charged at the hologram and continually tried to stab it.

"Oh, come on!" Anger R shouted. "I'm really getting fed up with her behavior!"

"Well, all of us would like to finally get Peridot," Sadness R commented.

"Yeah, but swinging at nothing won't help us do that!" Anger R replied. "And it's not capturing Peridot that she's concerned about—she wants to be the one to do it! Because she thinks that will make Garnet forgive her!"

"She just doesn't get it!" both Angers said at the same time.

"I can't believe I walked us into Peridot's trap," Pearl lamented.

"Okay, that's not her fault," Anger S said. "Even I can give her leeway in that."

"Right," Sadness S said. "The plan was decent enough, and we all went along with it. She shouldn't blame herself for—"

Suddenly, the room began to quake. The floor opened up and all of them dropped through; Amethyst was able to save Steven and herself with her whips, but Garnet and Pearl fell all the way down, into a pit that slammed shut, closing them in. They hit the sides with their weapons, but they did no visible damage.

"Garnet… I'm sorry!" Pearl said. "Things weren't supposed to turn out this way."

"Still blaming herself," Sadness S noted. "But even we couldn't have foreseen these traps. Okay, maybe we could have, but we didn't…"

"And besides," Joy R said, "we're sure to get out of this mess one way or another!"

"That's not what I mean," Pearl said. "I really wanted to catch Peridot to make up for what I did... I wanted to prove to you that... that everything could go back to normal..."

"Does she really need it spelled out for her?" Disgust R grumbled. "The issue isn't Peridot! The issue is that she lied to Garnet! I know, I know," she said, turning to the Angers. "She just doesn't get it!"

"Catching Peridot won't make things go back to normal," Garnet said. "This isn't about Peridot."

"Please! Tell me! How can I make you forgive me?"

"You can't! You lied to me! You need to learn that there are consequences to your actions!"

"I'm sorry!" Pearl cried. "I couldn't help myself!"

"Okay, that's just not true and she knows it!" Anger S shouted. "It's not like she was under mind control or anything! She chose to repair the Communications Hub, and she chose to deceive Garnet!"

"But it's true!" Pearl said. "No matter how hard I try to be strong like you... I'm just a Pearl. I'm useless on my own. I need someone to tell me what to do. When we fuse, I can feel what it's like to be you. Confident and secure, and complete. You're perfect. You're the perfect relationship, you're always together, I just... I wanted to be a part of that."

"Oh… I get it now," Sadness S said. "She thinks she's weak… but that Garnet's strong."

"But she's wrong!" Sadness R said. "We have our weaknesses too. We try to stay strong, so the others aren't afraid, but sometimes we're unable to… like a few weeks ago, when Ruby and Sapphire split up over this. Pearl should know that Garnet's not always as strong as she thinks."

"And she should know that she can be strong on her own too," said Joy S. "In her own way."

"You are your own gem," Garnet said. "You control your destiny. Not me, not Rose, not Steven. But you must choose to be strong, so we can move forward. So I can trust you again."

"...I understand," said Pearl. "I can't give up anymore!"

"Good!" said Garnet. The room suddenly started closing in again, threatening to crush them. "Pearl, there's only one way out of this!"

"Only if you're okay with it."

Anger R grinned. "She finally gets it."

The tight confines provided no room to dance, but they were close enough to fuse anyway.

"Okay," Fear P said, sitting down. "Let's get out of here before it's too late."

"Exactly," said Fear S.

Sardonyx, using her hammer as a drill, burst up through the ceiling, landing where Amethyst and Steven were waiting.

The emotions glanced around at each other, smiling over a job well done.

"Well, see you later," Sadness P said.

Joy S nodded. "See you later."

And they unfused.

The group made their way to where Peridot was hiding out, who tried to escape through a hole she made in the roof. But before she could fly away, Steven managed to grab onto her foot, with the others anchoring him down. Peridot detached her foot and flew off anyway.

"Okay… that was just weird," Disgust S said.

"How was she able to do that?" Fear R wondered. "Like, did she shapeshift? Were her feet some sort of equipment?"

"Whatever it was, it let her get away again," Sadness R said.

"Well," said Joy S, "this was a pretty successful mission despite that."

"Successful?" Anger S asked. "We just lost Peridot! Again!"

"True, but we also regained a friend," Joy S said.

"Plus, we got her foot. And that's a good step forward," Joy R added.

Disgust S groaned. "Can we unfuse for that pun?" she asked.

"Hey, I didn't like it either," Disgust R said.