So I got back to it, only took me about a month, but hey. Last semester of college, I'm working hard. I've never failed a class and I'm not gonna drop the ball now.

I've calmed down a bit now and I think I've got a handle on the plot… probably. I'm still making up most of it as I go along. Still recklessly adding anything I think fits.

Thank you to those three people who took the time to review. I really do appreciate it.

Warning: gratuitous ideas about how future vision works. Just roll with it.

Let's do this.

Chapter 13: A Monster Came Calling.

S&DS&DS&DS&D

Deep in the stream of time and potential, Garnet wandered.

She had tried many times to describe the experience to others. They had never understood, not even Rose. Try as they might, they could never truly understand what it was like to wade amongst the waters of all-that-might-be.

Or how dangerous it was.

She saw Rose and Steven, sitting together and laughing as Greg strummed his guitar between them.

She saw herself, sitting among her fellow Crystal Gems: Bismuth, Crazy-Legs, Snowflake, all of them, whole and uncorrupted.

She saw Steven, fully-grown and shining with a wondrous radiance, touching the bubbled gems one-by-one; bringing back even those shattered beyond repair in a cascade of beautiful light.

'It's not real.'

'I know.'

Garnet forced herself to look away.

It was so frighteningly easy to lose herself amidst the dreams of better worlds. It had happened before; just after the war; when the great light had flashed and everyone she knew had twisted, whatever Homeworld had done to them all…

It had been so simple to just close her eyes and drift away, pretend it wasn't real and everything was fine. To this day, Garnet wasn't completely sure if Rose had known just how lost Garnet had been when she had dragged the fusion out of the depths of the temple. If Rose hadn't… Garnet wasn't sure if she would have ever come out.

Garnet shook her head, now was not the time to gaze into the past, her focus needed to be on the future.

She zeroed in on Ruby's memories, fuzzy and broken though they were, Garnet was still able to extract an image of the corrupt gem, a vicious portrait of jagged claws and burning eyes. She focused on that image and searched the stream of time for it.

She could see them; echoes of so many potential realities.

She saw claws, ripping and slashing through the air, a scream, broken stone falling to the ground like a rain of pink tears.

She saw Jasper, leading an army of corrupt monsters against the Crystal Gems, roaring in triumph as they were crushed beneath her.

Garnet brushed the images aside; those visions were fuzzy and indistinct—merely unlikely futures that would never come to pass.

She would not allow them to.

Garnet turned her sight to other images, sharper than the others. These were what she was truly after: potential and immediate futures. All she had to do was find the clearest one, see the most likely action and then she would know what needed to be done.

She saw the creature, perched motionless atop a mountain. A subtle shift rippled through the vision and the saurian beast disappeared, only to be replaced by a bird of shining gold with lightning in its eyes… No.

She saw herself, fighting for her life as violet whips and ivory spears slashed at her from every angle… No.

She saw the ocean roiling as the water surged into the sky and thunder roared… No.

She saw a city; lightning dancing between the skyscrapers as the people dotted the ground like ants, gazing upwards in silent horror…wait… this was it!

Garnet's third eye closed and she saw no more, even as the afterimages echoed through her mind.

She shot to her feet, her chest full of fluttery wings of panic. That image had been more than just clear; it had been like looking through a window, seeing the event unfold.

That had not been a vision of something that might possibly be about to happen, it had been one of something happening right now!

She marched towards the entrance, forcefully pushing down her panic; panicking would accomplish nothing. What was needed now was action.

"Gems, to me!" She shouted, throwing open the door and stepping onto the warp.

Her entrance started the others, Pearl dropped the dishes she had been cleaning, causing them to shatter and cover the floor in jagged shards of porcelain. Amethyst tumbled off the countertop where she had been sitting, landing on top of Lion; who barely twitched as Amethyst fell into his mane and out of sight. Steven immediately ran over to help, only to be hoisted off his feet by Pearl as he passed her.

"Careful Steven! Don't step on any broken plates!" Pearl admonished, before glancing up. "Garnet? What seems to be the problem? Did you find the creature?"

"Yeah, Where's the fire?" Amethyst asked, her head popping out of Lion's mane.

"Empire City."

"That dump?" Amethyst echoed, settling herself down in Lion's mane. "Isn't it, like, always on fire?"

Garnet shook her head, "The creature, it's attacking the city. People are in danger!" and just like that, everyone was all business. Amethyst pulled herself out of Lion and Pearl joined Garnet on the warp pad immediately, setting Steven down beside her.

"Is everyone prepared?" Garnet asked; getting several nods, she triggered the warp and everything disappeared.

They materialized onto a grassy hill overlooking a main highway that led off into the distance. Empire city itself was nothing more a bunch of square silhouettes on the horizon.

"Well," Pearl declared. "The city doesn't appear to be on fire. That's good news at least. What's the plan Garnet?" She looked to the fusion in askance.

"We go in, we find the creature, and we stop it." Garnet replied, they didn't have time for anything fancier. Every moment they delayed was another moment that this creature had to rampage unchecked.

"So you're saying we have no plan?" Pearl clarified, sounding completely dissatisfied by that fact.

"Nah, that's totes a plan." Amethyst interjected, grinning. "We're gonna go and kick some monster butt, like we always do." The quartz cracked her knuckles, "I've been itching to take another whack at this thing, got me some redeemin' to do."

"Let's move," Garnet sprinted onto the empty road and making a beeline for the city. They needed to hurry, a corrupt gem like this one could do a great deal of damage if left unchecked, any attempt by the humans to drive it off would likely only serve to anger it.

"Garnet," Pearl's voice cut into her thoughts as the slender gem caught up and kept pace with the fusion. "Are there any other details you can provide before we get arrive?"

"Yeah, is the gem hurting people?" Steven's voice was worried; Garnet glanced over and saw that he was clinging to the mane of a purple horse. Amethyst nodded to her.

"It isn't," Garnet answered. "Not yet," the fact that it was only a matter of time went unspkoen. If the monster started tearing buildings apart then people would definitely start getting hurt.

That could not be allowed to happen.

"So how should we approach this Garnet?" Pearl asked again, "I truly don't think we should approach this without a plan. This creature has caused us enough trouble without us getting careless."

"Let's just corner the thing and beat it up." Amethyst neighed.

"That… might be tricky." Garnet replied.

"Why?" Steven asked.

"It can fly."

"What?" Pearl blinked, "When did that happen?"

"I did say it had grown stronger."

"That seems like a detail we you really should have mentioned sooner." Pearl huffed. "Is there anything else we should know?" Garnet cast her thoughts back to her visions, more specifically, the ones of whips and spears.

"Keep focused, and don't let it in to your heads."

"Okay… do you have anything a little more helpful?" Pearl replied.

"Do you think my bubble might be able to help?" Steven asked, bouncing up and down to the rhythm of Amethyst's galloping.

"I- Hmmm…" Pearl rubbed her chin thoughtfully. "Actually yes, I have never known any nonphysical force to penetrate your mother's bubble. It is not unlikely it would be able to keep any kind of mental influence at bay."

"Its power can be resisted," said Garnet. "I've seen it. But Steven, if we start to succumb, we'll be depending on you to save us."

"I…" Steven swallowed hard. "You can count on me!"

"Hey guys? Not to interrupt all our planning powwow, but is anyone else getting a little bit creeped out?" Amethyst's question made Garnet blink. She looked to see that they had made been making good time, they had already entered the city outskirts, only a few more minutes and they'd be in the city proper.

"Uh… Amethyst?" Steven asked. "I don't see anything."

"Well yeah, Stee-man, you wouldn't. We've never brought you to a city when there's a big monster running around."

"So, uh, what am I missing?"

"Where are all the people?"

Garnet blinked, glancing around in puzzlement. She slowed herself down to a stop, holding up a hand to signal her companions to do the same.

Amethyst was right. Where were all the people? They'd been running down a major highway for miles, and they had yet to see a single car or person traveling in either direction.

That… couldn't be right.

Cities were supposed to be full of people, that was kind of their whole purpose; coming and going in a constant stream of travel for reasons only they themselves knew, and yet, there was nobody to be seen.

Garnet's eyes narrowed, she'd seen what happened when a corrupt gem rampaged through a human city; it wasn't pretty. Humans tended to work themselves up into a panic, flooding the streets with a sea of people, running, shouting, screaming, and climbing over each other in a desperate attempt to get away from the danger. It had always been a bit of a chore for the crystal gems to even get through the crowd and take care of the threat.

But in her vision… she'd seen the monster attacking the city. It hadn't been wrong, she knew they would find it somewhere amongst the towering buildings. It was hardly difficult to spot, there was no way the humans wouldn't notice it.

And yet, Garnet couldn't see or hear anything. She glanced up into the sky, while it was full of smog, it wasn't more than the usual amount found above a human city, and certainly no towering pillar of black smoke that would signal burning buildings. In fact, everything was quiet… wait.

Cities were lots of things, being quiet wasn't one of them.

What was going on?

"-rnet? Garnet!" Pearl's voice cut through her musings like a screechy knife.

"What?"

"What do you think we should do?"

Good question, but a simple one. Retreat wasn't an option, not when people were in danger. Standing their ground and hemming and hawing about what was going on would accomplish nothing. The only path of action worth following was to move forward.

"We keep going, but carefully. Steven, I want you to summon a bubble around us. We'll keep moving forward in it."

"Good idea," Pearl agreed. "That way nothing will be able to get the jump on us."

"One bubble, coming right up!" Steven hopped off Amethyst's back as she shifted back to her normal form. A pink glow lit up Steven's stomach and the world turned pink.

"Nice one Steven," Amethyst applauded, "nice and roomy." It really was; Garnet had more than enough room to stand up straight.

Without another word, they set off, pushing the bubble down the street and into the city. It was tricky at first, the curved footing beneath them made it awkward to stand and move. But perhaps it was a good thing; focusing on not tripping served as an excellent distraction from how eerily empty the surrounding streets were, and the darker implications of that fact. Until they rolled around a corner onto one of the main streets.

"Oh man." Amethyst's voice was quiet.

They'd found the people.

The citizens of Empire City were standing all around them; silent as statues and just as still, except for their eyes. Garnet felt as though something dry and scratchy was trying to climb up her throat as she watched hundreds of human eyes rolling in their sockets, staring in every direction but seeing nothing. Their expressions were twisted visages of slack-jawed bafflement, as though the person they trusted most in the world had just told them that everything they knew was a lie.

"What's wrong with them?" Steven's voice was trembling, and Garnet could see the pink bubble around them begin to tremble as well.

"Steven, focus." Garnet's hand clamped onto the boys shoulder and she gave it a comforting squeeze.

Steven flinched in her grip and he swallowed, the sound unnaturally loud within their shelter. He took a deep breath, and the bubble stabilized.

"What's wrong with them?" he asked again, his voice quiet.

"Well," Pearl's answered, her voice just as quiet. "Blaire told us that the Diamond's were afraid that the monster could influence minds on a massive scale… It would appear their concerns were justified."

"Can… can we help them?" Steven looked up at her, his eyes brimming with a fear that Garnet had never wanted those eyes to ever have to hold.

She was going to make sure someone paid dearly for that.

"If we can take down the monster, then I believe the effects should dissipate." If Garnet's reply sounded more like a wishful thinking than a declaration of fact, nobody felt the need to point it out.

"This might actually be a good thing," Garnet said. Feeling everyone's disbelieving gaze on her, she shrugged. "If it's controlling their minds, then I doubt it's going to try to physically hurt them. It'll also keep people from running around and hurting themselves in a panic. Perhaps, if we defeat it quickly, they'll all just think this was a bad dream.

"Gee, how convenient," Amethyst snorted, her eyes locked on a little girl in a pink coat standing practically within arm's reach of the bubble.

"I didn't say I liked it." Garnet shrugged, pointedly ignoring two women clutching each other as their eyes writhed in their heads.

"Why is it doing this?" Pearl asked, keeping her eyes locked on the ground.

"It doesn't matter why." Garnet replied, clenching her fists and forming her gauntlets. "What matters is how we are going to stop it."

"And how are we going to do that?" Pearl's voice took on a slight hint of panic. "Assuming the only thing keeping us rational and preventing us from up exactly like these people is Steven's bubble, then how are we even supposed to find the monster? We can't just roll this bubble down the street! We'd crush people!"

Which was a very good point. They couldn't just weave the bubble between every single person; they'd never get anything done. Garnet was fairly certain that stepping out of the bubble wouldn't immediately result in them turning into these mindless statues. But she would rather not abandon the protection until they actually found the creature. The quicker they took it down, the less likely any of them were to be paralyzed.

They needed to approach this from another angle, one that didn't have all these buildings blocking their view.

"Steven," the boy blinked, looking up at her with nervous eyes.

"Y-yeah."

"How good is your control over your floating?"

"Um… pretty good. It's, uh, actually one of my easier powers to control."

"When you jump, could you lift the bubble with you?"

"Probably."

"Good. I want you to lift us up onto one of these buildings. Can you do that?"

"Yeah, just give me a second." Steven took a deep breath, bent down into a crouch and jumped.

Their surroundings disappeared in a blur of grey as they shot into the air. The bubble came to a sudden stop high above the ground; Pearl and Amethyst let out yelps as the abrupt deceleration slammed them into the top of the bubble then dropped them back to the bottom. Garnet experienced the same, but she ignored it, her hair doing an excellent job at cushioning the blow and allowing her to land on her feet.

"Sorry guys." Steven winced, looking down in worry at the two gems lying beneath him. The boy himself was suspended in the middle of the bubble.

"s'all good." Amethyst groaned, giving him a thumbs up.

"Is this high enough Garnet?"

"Yes, Steven, thank you." Garnet looked downwards, Steven had overshot the roof a little, but they were slowly drifting towards it. Garnet took a moment to look around; from the higher vantage point she could clearly see the nearby network of streets, and the countless other unmoving figures filling them.

However, there was no sign of the monster, but it had to be nearby, she had seen it.

Garnet closed her eyes for a moment; she didn't want to delve too deeply into the river of future vision. But if she was quick and knew what to look for, she should be able to get a quick glimpse of where to go. While the creature could be hiding anywhere in the city, there would only be one place it actually was. Now that she knew what it was doing and the general area, it shouldn't take long to…

There.

Garnet opened her eyes. While she had been searching, they'd landed on the rooftop. The others were looking at her in askance.

"I know where to go." Garnet pointed to the left. "It's In the middle of a plaza three blocks in that direction."

"I think I can get us there." Steven replied.

"Alright. Get ready gems, this is it." Amethyst and Pearl nodded resolutely, their weapons materializing and bracing themselves against the bubble. She gave Steven a nod, and he jumped, arcing them through the air. Steven slowed them down as they began to descend.

And they saw it.

The monster's back was to them; its attention completely invested in chewing its way through an electrical power box, sending flickers of electricity surging through it. It was bigger than Ruby's fractured memory suggested, easily dwarfing the cars around it. Garnet couldn't help but stare: the claws, the spikey pink mane, the jagged black streaks running across its yellow limbs—there was just… something about how it looked that bothered Garnet, more than any gem monster she'd ever met, she just couldn't put her finger on what.

She put the thought out of her head—they had more important concerns, such as the fact that the plaza they were about to land in was filled with more of the frozen people. Garnet grit her teeth as she considered them, taking down this monster was going to be hard enough without having to worry about humans getting caught in the crossfire.

The bubble set down on the ground with the slightest clink.

The monster stilled.

It's head turned and a single eye locked onto them. Slowly, deliberately, it placed its forelimb on the ground and turned itself to face them, its mane standing up on end. As it stared at them, Garnet stared right back, its eyes… they were different from the corrupt gems she was used to—these eyes were focused and burned with a savage light of understanding.

It knew exactly why they were here.

The monster's maw opened, and a single bolt of lightning shot forth, racing through the air towards them. It struck against the pink barrier and dissipated harmlessly into the air.

"Is that all ya got?" Amethyst laughed.

The creature cocked its head; fiercely intelligent eyes narrowed and began to spark with energy.

The eyes of the frozen humans around them stopped rolling in their heads, instead staring at the gems in with an angry single-mindedness.

As one, the humans stepped forward to the sound of crackling lightning.

"Peridot, if we die here, I'm going to kill you," Lapis muttered, eyeing the wide chamber they'd stepped into.

"First of all, that statement was illogical; you can't kill me if we are already dead." Peridot scoffed. "Second of all, nothing has tried to kill us yet. And thirdly, you didn't have to come with me." In truth, Peridot had been surprised at how easily Lapis had agreed to accompany her; she'd hardly had to beg at all! Not that Peridot would have lowered herself to such a level, of course! It was merely that Lapis' extreme offensive capability would be an asset that Peridot would be a fool to forgo.

Peridot glanced around the chamber. Until now, the pair had been traveling through an immaculately pristine tunnel; smooth walls, tiled floors, and no signs of damage at all! Truly a testament to gem engineering. But it had been too good to last, and now they had stepped into an open chamber were things had gotten a little bit… messier.

The chamber was filled with a faint green glow, originating from what appeared to be some kind of earthly plant. The organisms in question were enormous; pale white trunks towered over the gems and were topped with some sort of giant, umbrella-shaped caps that seemed to be releasing a constant stream of fine dust into the air.

"It's squishy." Lapis commented, poking her finger into one of the plant's stalks.

"Lapis what are you doing!" Peridot shrieked, "don't touch the weird earth plants! We don't know if they are dangerous or not! What if these things are the Homeworld experiments?"

"I doubt it, they really don't look like something Homeworld would make. They're too… squishy to be some kind of Homeworld super weapon." Lapis poked it again, her finger sinking in almost all the way.

"That just means that they're actually some kind earth thing, which isn't any better!" Peridot seethed. Everything on earth had always been out to get her; the fact that she was on the earth's side now had not seemed to change this fact—talk about ingratitude! "Stop trying to goad something into attacking us."

"Something's going to do it eventually," Lapis shrugged. "Why not get on with it?"

"Lapis, that is not a healthy attitude and as the leader of this expedition, I'm ordering you not to poke anything that might try to eat us."

Lapis glanced back her with one of the most unimpressed looks Peridot had ever seen.

"I am not joking." Peridot put her hands on her hips and stared right back.

"As you command, oh great leader." Lapis shrugged, stepping away from the plant. Peridot blinked at the sudden display of obedience. Perhaps Lapis simply didn't think some earth plant worth fighting over?

"Thank you." Peridot muttered, mollified. She cast her eyes around the cavern again. Despite her distressing lack of self-preservation instinct, Lapis did have a point. The giant plants didn't look like something Homeworld would have engineered. Peridot reached into her carrying-capacity optimizer and pulled out her energy detector. She waved the device in front of the plant things… hmm, odd, the organisms were, in fact, fused with gem energy. Perhaps these were merely ordinary earth organisms that had assimilated gem technology to produce some sort of hybrid abomination.

Yes, that theory stood up to scrutiny rather nicely, if Peridot said so herself. Why, that would make them practically a plant version of Steven: maddeningly disconcerting, but ultimately harmless.

But if that was the case, then these things were of no consequence, merely an interesting side note. Peridot stepped past the plant and moved deeper into the cavern. As she heard Lapis falling into step behind her, Peridot slid the detector back into its pocket and pulled out another device. Pressing a well-worn button, she began to speak.

"Leader's log: Entry 1-2; having determined that the glowing plants are of no interest to my mission, I have decided to forge deeper into the Gem facility."

"You have got to be kidding me." Lapis groaned. "Are you seriously doing that now?"

"Proper records are important, Lazuli." Peridot sent a pitying look back towards her companion; Lapis did not look particularly impressed. "I'm quite serious, Lapis. I do not wish to finish this mission and find out I have forgotten any important detail. Therefore, It is imperative that I catalogue our thoughts and experiences. It is not like either of us possess the ability to holographically display our memories." Such abilities only tended to be programed into messenger gems, such as high-quality Pearls, and even then; such gems were rarely produced anymore, having been rendered obsolete by newer gem technology.

A pity really, there were many times when Peridot could have used such a skill; the ability to perfectly visualize past designs and engineering would have saved her countless hours of slogging through endless data files trying to find a single piece of information.

A faint mutter drew Peridot out of her musing and she glanced back at Lapis once more. The blue gem had crossed her arms and was looking off to the side.

"What was that, Lazuli?" Peridot asked, raising a brow.

"I can do that."

"Do what?"

"Display my memories."

"Wait, you can?" Peridot blinked.

"Yes, I have…experience… showing others my memories." Lapis refused to meet Peridot's eyes. Peridot's brow furrowed, it had come to her attention that she was not the best at reading between the lines of what others were saying—why would she be? Machines didn't do subtext or hidden meanings—but nonetheless, she got the feeling that there was a story here. Peridot filed that little tidbit away for future examination and focused on the immediate implications.

"I see…" Peridot muttered. She had not been aware of Lapis ability, although now that she thought about it, she should not have been surprised. Lapis was, to use an earth colloquialism, an old-school gem. Such gems tended to have far more energy and power than their modern day equivalents. Nowadays, Homeworld didn't have the resources to spare on non-quartz gems. "Would you be willing to use that ability for me once we are done here?"

"Only if you promise not to use the recorder."

"Deal."

"Excellent. Captain's log: I have made a deal with Lapis and will no longer need to make further recor- Hey wait! Lapis, give it back! I was just joking!"

Lapis stared down at her, holding the tape recorder just out of reach.

"Please don't crush it, that's my only one. I promise I won't do it again." Peridot made an effort to make her eyes big and watery—like she'd seen Steven do when he wanted something—Lapis' expression told her that she was not able to perfectly replicate Steven's efforts.

Peridot attempt to add a little sniffle to her Baby Canine technique, Lapis rolled her eyes and dropped the recorder into Peridot's outstretched hand. Peridot quickly slid it into the backpack before Lapis had the chance to change her mind.

"Now that that's all squared away," Said Peridot. "Shall we get back to the matter of hand?"

"Yeah, sure." Lapis hiked up her dress and stepped over some smaller versions of the weird plants "What are we doing now?"

"Well, building off the assumption that these aren't Homeworld creations, I believe they are likely an accident. Some earth organism that grew near a gem power source and incorporated some of that energy into its form. But based on that theory, I have already concluded that they aren't important, what is important is that their presence tells us that we are close to a gem power source. Logic tells us that where there is a power source, there is a device that needs to be powered, which would also be nearby."

"So… we're getting close."

"Yes, that's what I said."

Lapis shot her a look,

"Oh whatever, you understood my meaning, so I don't see the problem," Peridot huffed. "Anyway, I wouldn't be surprised if some of the answers we are looking for are hidden in this room. Therefore, let us search."

Lapis stared at her for a moment, before shrugging. "What exactly are we supposed to be looking for?"

"A secret door, computer terminals, plans for world domination." Peridot waved her hand dismissively. "You know, anything that raises a red flag. Don't go too far, and give a holler if you find something."

"Sure, let's split up. That's not a bad idea at all." She drawled, but still began moving off through the plant stalks.

Peridot busied herself with poking her energy detector through the various cracks and crevices running through the floor, while her mind ran through various theories on what this place was for. It was strange, up until this chamber the facility had been pristine, undamaged by the wear and tear of the earth's natural processes. So why was this chamber full of all this weird growth? What had such a wide space even been used for? This place had been a secret laboratory; you'd think it would have been kept rather compact. The last two facilities she'd visited certainly had been.

What's more, it was clear this room wasn't even the main section where lab work had been done. Otherwise, where was all the machinery? There was nothing here save for the plants and rocks. If the area had been used for research, there would have to be at least some kind of equipment lying around.

As she ran her device over one of the spongy trunks, it let out a high-pitched series of clicks. Ah, there seemed to be a concentrated core of gem energy buried within the plant.

Peridot bit her lip in consideration. On the one hand, She had told Lapis that there was to be no poking at the unknown organisms. On the other hand, sitting around not touching anything wouldn't help either.

She supposed, if it was in the spirit of investigation, a little disturbance couldn't hurt.

She pulled a leverage optimizer out of the lettuce pouch and started scraping away a layer of the trunk. It came away easily, falling off in great big gooey chunks until her tool tapped against something hard. Peridot wiped away a few more globs of plant matter and stared into the hole she had made.

"Lapis! Get back here!" She yelled. "I found something!" Peridot ignored the grumbling as her companion came back to join her.

"What is it?"

"Just look." Peridot pointed to the hole she had dug. Lapis thankfully ignored the potential hypocrisy of the situation and crouched down to examine what she had found.

"Peridot." Lapis' voice was quiet. "Why is there a gem in one of these things?"

"I have no idea." Peridot shifted uncomfortably, "Lapis, that gem is still alive." It wouldn't have produced nearly as high a reading if had been broken into shards or otherwise rendered inert.

"I'm letting it out." Lapis reached towards the hole.

"Whoa, wait a second, Lazuli!" Peridot yelped, grabbing the blue gem's arm. "I'm not so certain that's a good idea. We don't know what will happ-"

"Peridot." Lapis looked Peridot in the eye. The green gem was taken aback by the look on her companion's face. Lapis looked almost… vulnerable. Which was, of course, absurd; Lapis had always been a fortress of ice and disdain. The only moods Peridot had ever really seen from her were either anger, disdain, or, provided Steven was around, happiness. Peridot had never seen Lapis looking so… sad.

The look didn't suit her.

"Y-yeah?"

"I'm letting it out." Lapis' voice brooked no room for argument.

Of course, that wasn't enough to stop Peridot from protesting, "But what if it's corrupted Lazuli?" a very real possibility, besides the Crystal Gems and Lapis, every single gem from earth was. "It might attack us."

"So what if it does? I'll just poof it and you can bubble it. If there's a chance it might still be conscious. I'm not leaving it trapped here."

"I, um… okay." Peridot finished lamely, taking her hand off Lapis' arm. It's not like she could have actually stop Lapis from doing whatever she wanted. Peridot just hoped this wouldn't end terribly.

Lapis pushed her fingers into the trunk and wrapped them around the stone. She pulled and with a soft pop, the gem came out.

"What kind of gem is it?" Peridot asked.

"It's green," Lapis commented. "An emerald?"

"Oh please," Peridot rolled her eyes, "not all emerald's are green. Give it here" she made a grabbing motion and Lapis passed it over and Peridot held it up to her visor, examining it with the eye of a licensed kindergartener. "No streak, can't be an emerald." She muttered, turning it this way and that. "Has distinct cleavage, can't be a tourmaline." Peridot narrowed her eyes; she'd seen this kind of gem before, where…Oh.

Now she remembered.

"It's an olivine." She swallowed, suddenly very much less okay than she had already been with the situation.

"You okay?" Lapis asked, raising a brow.

"What? Oh. Yeah, of course I am!" The fact that olivines were just low quality peridots had nothing to do with anything. "I'm certainly not holding something that's basically me- GAH!"

Peridot dropped the gem as it began to shine with a pale green light.

"It's reforming!" Peridot screamed, promptly positioning herself behind Lapis as the both backed up.

"Calm down," Lapis replied, water beginning to trickle out of her gem and wrap around her arms.

The gem began to float and a form grew from it, shifting through several shapes stopping on a bipedal one. It seemed to hesitate for a moment, the edges of the form rippling before settling down and filling out with color.

The gem finished reforming and collapsed like a sack of flour. Peridot examined it, or rather her, closely; two legs, two arms, a normal-shaped body. Interesting, there didn't see to be any of the grotesque deformations she'd come to expect in the gems on earth.

A groaning, followed by sluggish movement, signified the gem's return to consciousness. She pushed herself, ever so slowly, up onto her hands and knees. She raised her head and locked eyes with Peridot.

For a moment everything paused.

"AHHHHHH!" the gem screamed, throwing herself away from them and scrambling backwards. Her back touched against one of the plant stalks and she stopped, staring back at them with wild eyes.

Peridot didn't notice the look in the gem's eyes. She didn't notice how panicked the gem looked, or the stammered warnings to stay away. No, Peridot's eyes were locked onto something much more interesting.

The olivine's chest, more specifically, Peridots gaze was locked on the star stamped across her clothing.

S&DS&DS&DS&D

As I said, I've a good handle on the plot now. I'm definitely not still making up things as I go or introducing more a characters than I can handle.

That last sentence was pretty much a lie. Guess who didn't learn their lesson about properly planning things out? (Hint: It's me)

But enough about what just happened, let's talk about the start of the chapter.

Future vision… ugh. It's about time I addressed this doozy of a plot device. Prepare yourselves for that gratuitous head-canon I mentioned:

It's stated that Garnet can see multiple possible futures, that's really pretty vague. Especially when you take into account the fact that the laws of probability state that just about anything is possible.

I believe that she can sort through all the potential futures into only the most likely ones—otherwise the power would be effectively useless— however, I think this takes time and concentration for her to do, meaning she can't use it on the fly or in a fight. If she could then she would never have been caught off guard by Jasper's zappity-zap-zap stick way back at the end of season one.

That's why Garnet didn't know exactly what was going on in this chapter, she saw the creature (I really need to get around to giving it a name) attacking people and realized it was happening right there and then. The Crystal Gem's job is to protect people, so Garnet didn't have time search through all the nitty-gritty details, she had people to save.

Also, I decided when she's sifting through all the potential futures she can see potential realities as well, like Rose and Steven sitting together, which should be impossible as far as we know. This doesn't serve any real purpose plot-wise, I just did it for funsies and artseyness. So yeah.

Onto Peridot and Lapis's bit, you know, I bet I could generate so much more interest in this story if I added a Lapidot tag. People do really go gaga for ships… not that I don't appreciate a nice quality ship. But I'm not trying to write a romance fic, (With the exception of Garnet—who is literally the walking embodiment of a romantic relationship). But I will resist the temptation to sell out to cheap romance. You know, writer's integrity and all that waffle.

FriendSHIP is the BEST ship.

But yeah, Lapis and Peridot are sharing an adventure in a dangerous attempt by yours truly to juggle multiple plotlines at once.