Peridot's gem began to glow, signifying reformation.

Once the glare of light from her own gem receded, she found herself kneeling on metal flooring. She looked up to see a yellow wall ahead of her, crackling silently with electricity.

"Destabilization field..." she muttered in detest, noticing the transparent wall of energy.

Besides the wall, everything else looked metallic and contained many hard edges. This was obviously a ship's holding cell.

"But...Obsidian's ship should be out of comission..." Peridot muttered unbelievingly, thinking back to when she tipped their vessel over.

Making up her mind, she decided to look around from her cell and see if she could find out who actually captured her. Thinking back to just before she was poofed, she could have sworn to the stars that she saw her own face...but that couldn't be.

"Yeah, that'll be the day," Peridot muttered. "A Peridot sent to capture a Peridot," she chuckled, despite her nervousness. Really, the mere thought of it made her laugh. But she ceased that train of thought. She was captured after all. Humming shortly to herself in thought, she paced around the cell, looking for anything out of place. She noticed that her balance didn't seem compromised. It was safe to assume they hadn't taken off yet.

"That means there's still time to get out of here," Peridot observed.

Unfortunately, there were no indents of any sort that suggested an escape route. And she'd gotten destabilized before she could store away the disc.

She sighed, her situation beginning to sink in. What was going to happen to her? Did Yellow Diamond send a hidden agent to abduct her? Was she going to be shattered by her personally? Peridot shuddered at the thought and folded her arms closer to herself in an almost self hug.

Even after closer inspection from where she could see, there wasn't anything to even suggest what cut of gem it was that had even captured her. Logically, a Quartz of some sort or even Rubies would make sense, but the dashboards were situated much too high for a Ruby and too short for a Quartz unless they slouched.

Peridot grumbled to herself. She wished she would have still had te disc. Her first real mission with the Crystal Gems and she utterly failed, topped off by getting captured.

The Garnet must be thinking of thousands of reasons to discharge her from the team at this point.

Footsteps from her left down a hallway signalled someone was coming, cutting off her irrational conclusions.

"Hey, let me out of here!" she demanded, not yet able to see her captor. "You'll regret capturing the most genius," she began, making pulling motions at the walls adjacent to the yellow field "member of the Crystal Gems!" she grunted, before finally giving up on the walls, the side of her head resting on the vertical surface.

"Most genius member, huh?" came the unexpected reply.

Peridot started, realizing that she wasn't imagining her memory of getting poofed.

Glancing down at her from across the field was... well herself. If she were about 2 or so heads taller.

Gasping, stars in her eyes, she regarded her precursor, almost giddy and not realizing it. The Era 1 Peridot was about the height she herself would be while wearing Limb Enhancers. Other than the fact that her captors bangs framing the side of her face were the slightest bit more pronounced, the two were like mirror images of each other, right down to uniform and even gem placement.

Her captor was a little put off by her reaction, but shook it off.

"After all the trouble you've caused me, I finally found you!" she accused, pointing at her. "Once I report this in, I can finally get off this rock!" she said. Peridot found that she sounded so much like herself when she first came to Earth, it was almost bizzare.

Peridot regained her bearings, shrugging off the proclamation. "Now, hold on! I don't even know you!" she asserted, hand on her hip. She couldn't find an obvious way out of the cell, so she figured she'd humor -argue with- her captor.

Tall-Peridot scoffed, turning her nose up at her.

"Of course you wouldn't know me personally," she said evenly, as if educating a child. "I am Facet 2F5M Cut 3XG."

Well, that explains why her captor was even in the area. She was stationed very close to where Earth was. It only made sense for her to be sent here.

"But what's an Era 1 like yourself doing here. Why not a Quartz soldier?"

Older Peridot's expression darkened at her query. "What do you think?" she asked flippantly. "If you hadn't gone and insulted our Diamond, I wouldn't even be here," she continued, raising her wrist. A streamlined band was on it, and a hologram of what was probably a map of the surrounding area materialized.

"And to think one of my own associates would fuse with a... Quartz..."

Peridot slowly put the pieces together. If Obsidian was this Peridot's associate and they were sent to report on the cluster...

"You're the supervisor for the XG quadrant of the Star Maps, which includes Earth," Peridot more so stated than asked. Her precursor's smug grin only confirmed it.

"I can't go back to Homeworld, Yellow Diamond has it out for me!"

"Wow, I wonder why," 3XG bit back sarcastically. She cooled her expression, and refocused her attention to her. "Sit tight, you're going to be here for a while."

--

Ducking instinctively after a rather explosive collision between the two fusions, huge chunks of rock sailed over the half gem's head. Smaller debris managed to pepper him and he coughed at the dustcloud that formed.

"Are you okay?" Garnet's question was straightforward, but knowing her, he could guess that her brows were furrowed in worry.

"I'm fine," he replies honestly. He was a bit shaken from the sudden explosion but otherwise unharmed.

"Is Opal going to be okay?" he asked instead. The white haired fusion seemed to be having a harder time than before. During the course of the fight, Apatite summoned not one, but six broadswords from the gem on her chest. Her second gem began to glow after she pulled out the second sword. That's when Steven and Garnet realized what she was doing.

Currently, Opal was struggling to stay midrange, but Apatite kept closing in, attempting to zone her into her two extra swords, which were floating in their own, surrounded by a thin black aura. Garnet could sense that the pressure around the floating weapons was the same as what Obsidian used on herself. She turned her veiled gaze to Steven.

"Opal might not be able to beat her," she responded after hesitation. Steven deserved an honest answer.

"Then, what should we do?" Steven asked her.

Garnet looked back at the fight, attempting to gauge a proper action to take.

"Have your shield ready on my call, okay?"

Steven nodded with a grunt, expression serious.

--

Opal gracefully leaped backwards, sliding as if on her toes. She scoffed at her situation. She was skilled at thinking on her feet, but not so much at planning far ahead. She couldn't have known to expect Apatite's flying swords, so she could only evade for the time being, using her lithe and compact form to strafe in different directions, hoping to catch the larger fusion off guard. Apatite had caught on early to her preference for ranged combat. Although she was a master with both whip and spear, Apatite's zoning forced her out of her comfort zone. Falling back on one of her component's training, she parried with her whip, blocking the attack pattern of the telekenetically controlled blades, and countering the swords actually being held in Apatite's four hands.

Opal pivoted on her foot with a ballerina's grace, while simultaneously swinging her whip in a horizontal arc with almost reckless abandon. She loomed like a raging tornado, the sheer speed of the whip's trajectory enough to block four of the held blades, but not enough to stop the floating ones, which managed to keep distance when necessary.

Her attack was only enough to afford her a moment's breath. Apatite's mouth filled with air, and she opened wide, flames blasting from her maw.

"Crap!" Opal sputtered, blindsided by the wide arc of fire. It forced her backwards bodily, splitting her back into two gems as she crashed to the ground with a grunt.

Amethyst was the first to get up. Luckily, their fusion was only destabilized and they didn't get poofed in the process. Amethyst groaned, nursing the back of her head.

"Crud, flame breath? Man..."

Pearl slowly pulled herself up, having landed face down. "How are we supposed to beat her?" she balled her fist. "She's too strong for Opal and too fast for Alexandrite."

"If you're finally finished..?" Apatite asked mockingly, raising her sword with one of her arms. As large as she was compared to the now unfused duo, the sword had enough reach to flatten them simultaneously. She never got to swing the sword down though, being inerrupted by a pink shield colliding with her face. What threw Amethyst and Pearl for a loop was the fact that the shield was as large as Apatite's head. On instinct, the two looked back to Steven, who was on his knees, visibly drained.

A blur then flew past, straight for where Apatite was struck. Garnet reared back her fist and threw her whole body weight forward. Her punch connected with Apatite, stunning her momentarily.

Garnet swore under her breath. She'd put all of her strength into that. Plan B it was.

"Amethyst!" Garnet called. "Fuse with me!"

Amethyst and Pearl, who'd been helping Steven to stand, started at the order.

"Garnet, a-are you sure?" Pearl asked. She looked at Steven, noticing the perspiration on his forehead. "Garnet, this is a horrible idea," she amended. "She is not the best option right now."

Amethyst glanced between the two, wishing she were anywhere but there. This would have been exciting before, but Sugilite's done nothing but serve to make her uncomfortable now. Although Pearl and Garnet put their problems behind them a loong while back, there still seemed to be a awkward tenseness when it came to fusion. Or Sugilite in particular.

Garnet kept a careful eye on Apatite, who was still recovering from Garnet's sucker punch. "Pearl, it might not be the best, but it's our only option." Pearl looked down. Garnet was right. But that didn't mean she had to like it. Pearl sighed in defeat.

Garnet held out her hand to Amethyst. The purple gem took a deep breath and began the dance.