Today, Onyx was going to practice her jumping. She stood outside the house on the beach and jumped up as high as she could, but she only made it a little above the house itself.

She came back down with a loud thud. "Come on Onyx, you can get higher than that."

She put more effort into her jump this time and went even higher; making it up to the chest area of the statue that adorned the front of the temple.

This time she came back down with even more force. "Alright! Let's see if I can reach the face."

Onyx crouched down, built tension in her legs, and made a massive leap that made a small boom sound of air displacing around her. She sailed higher and higher and made it to the chin of the statue before coming back down. As she fell she could see the gems starting to walk out of the house.

"Hi guys!" She screamed.

They looked up and saw her falling; they were worried for a second but then they realized she would be fine.

When Onyx came down she pounded the ground and created a shockwave that dispersed the force of her fall and most of the sand where she landed.

"Are we headed somewhere?" She asked.

"We need to check on something, do you want to come along?" Pearl asked.

Onyx nodded. "Sure."

The team went off into the more natural section of Beach City, it was on some kind of mountainous region. The gems soon reached their destination: Dead Man's Mouth, some kind of swamp like crater in the ground with vegetation growing in the center.

"This doesn't look good at all." Pearl said.

"I don't see what's so bad about it." Onyx admitted.

Curious, Steven jumped down to try and investigate the moss. But the gems seemed very adamant of him doing that, so much so in fact that when Steven got down there Garnet threw a massive rock in his direction; thankfully it didn't hurt him but rather acted like a huge counterbalance that propelled him upward.

"Steven's here." He said

"You need to be more careful Steven." Pearl said.

"Why?" He asked.

He didn't have to wait for an answer though as the moss started moving around and began to devour anything that was inside its little hole.

"What is that stuff?"

"It's the moss Rose Quartz raised on the hill." Garnet answered.

"My mom raised this stuff?" Steven asked.

"Yes." Pearl created a projection with her gem showing Rose up on the hill. "Rose used to climb that hill every year and tend to the moss. But without her… here, the moss is on the move."

"It's lost." Steven said sympathetically.

"It's not lost, it's gross." Amethyst said.

Onyx just shrugged. "I wouldn't exactly call it pretty, but I wouldn't exactly call it ugly either."

"Rose loved the moss regardless; she saw the beauty in everything no matter how gross. Either way, I know exactly what to do in this situation."

Pearl struck a pose and began to make noises… Onyx honestly didn't know what to call it. It wasn't screaming, it wasn't shouting, it wasn't excited or angry, but it was annoying. Then after some overly indulgent movements she summoned… a roll of tape from her gem.

"Well that was anti-climactic." Onyx said disappointingly.

"Is that police tape?" Steven asked.

Pearl nodded. "This way we can keep the humans away from the moss without having to use magic."

"But what's stopping the moss from moving on its own?" Onyx asked herself internally. She was trying to be better about questioning every decision Pearl made but it wasn't easy.

The gang went to work tying things up; Garnet and Amethyst covered a wide area with the tape, Steven wrapped it around one rock multiple times, Onyx tried to cover up the sides so no one could get around the barrier, and Pearl created a big bow near the entrance which served as a pleasant image and a big barrier.

"There. Now the moss won't disturb anyone while we come up with a plan to move it safely to the hill." Pearl said.

So she didn't have a plan after all.

"Well, now that that's over, who wants to get some lunch?" Steven asked.

The gems looked mostly uninterested, but Onyx was still curious about most of the food that Earth had to offer so she was willing to try some.

She raised her hand slowly and Steven took her opinion into account.

"Anyone else?"

The rest of the gems were silent.

"Just us then…nice. Okay, let's go."

Steven started walking off and Onyx followed behind him.

"Make sure he stays out of trouble." Pearl asked her.

Onyx nodded. "Of course."

Onyx followed Steven back into Beach City and soon the two were walking down the board walk.

"So what are we going to get?" Onyx asked.

"I'm thinking pizza."

"What are the components of pizza?"

"Well… it's bread, cheese, sauce, and whatever you want for toppings. It's pretty much the best food ever."

"It certainly sounds interesting."

As they walked along Steven began humming to himself about Pizza. Onyx figured that if he kept talking about it then it must at least be decent. But when they got close to the pizza place Onyx noticed something peculiar

"Hey… is that Lars?"

When she pointed it out Steven looked and realized that it was indeed Lars.

"Lars!" He called out to him.

From a distance Lars did not seem happy to see them, at least that's what Onyx thought she saw, and when Steven tried to high five Lars he rejected it. Onyx didn't know much about human customs, but she had been taught that when someone offers you a high five you take it, and don't leave them hanging.

"So why aren't you at the Big Donut?" Onyx asked.

Lars scoffed. "I don't spend my whole life at work you know, I do… other things."

"Like being lazy and obnoxious to people?" Onyx replied sarcastically.

"Or standing against this wall?" Steven added, missing the purpose of her comment.

"What does it look like I'm doing?" Lars asked, exasperated.

"…nothing."

"And that's the plan Steven, just playing it cool today."

"We are so much alike."

Lars seemed confused by that statement. "Excuse me?"

"I get it, you want to get a fresh pizza right out of the over but you're too afraid to ask. Well there's nothing to be afraid of, just go over there and ask them."

But Lars seemed like he didn't want Steven to go in there. "No Steven! Don't go in there!"

Steven didn't go in, but he did notice something interesting. He peered through the window and saw three teenagers sitting together and talking of things that Onyx had no idea about.

"Isn't that Kiki's sister and her friends?" Steven asked.

"Who are they?" Onyx asked.

Steven clarified. "Well Kiki works in this pizza place and so does her sister, but… I can't remember her name…"

"Jenny, Buck Dewey, and Sour Cream." Lars finished.

"Oh, you know them?" Steven asked.

"Not quite, but I'm sure we'll hang out at some point." Lars said nervously.

Onyx nodded a bit and understood what was going on.

"I see… it's just like happened with you and Connie, Steven."

Both Steven and Lars looked up at Onyx confused. "What?"

"Steven, you never talked to Connie because you were nervous to. Lars must also be nervous about talking to these kids."

Lars scoffed and tried to play that off. "No, that's not it at all."

"Then why don't you go talk to them?" Steven asked.

"Because that's not how these things work! I have to keep it cool and wait for them to come to me."

The door to the pizza parlor opened.

"Well here they come."

"Ah! Steven quick, turn around and look natural."

Onyx didn't see why Lars was so nervous about these humans; they looked average (at least by her standard for humans) so what was it about them that caused him to be like this? Perhaps the problem was not with the kids but with Lars.

"I don't think they saw you."

Lars grunted. "Well that's because you were blocking me with your… big hair."

"But Steven's shorter than you." Onyx added.

"Sorry. I'll go tell them to look over here."

Steven walked off to talk to the other kids and Onyx followed to make sure that he wouldn't get into any trouble. Steven, being the un-bashful person that he was, walked straight up to the group and raised his hand in the air for a high five.

"Hi! My name's Steven."

The kids looked curious why he was talking to them but they each granted him his high five request.

"Buck Dewey."

"They call me Sour cream."

"I'm Jenny."

Steven seemed excited to meet them.

"So I get that you're Steven…" Jenny said, then pointed to Onyx. "But who are you?"

Onyx realized she had yet to introduce herself. "Oh! My name's Onyx, I'm a crystal gem and I fight monsters."

"Whoa, really?" Sour Scream asked.

Both Steven and Onyx nodded their heads.

Buck smiled. "That's pretty cool."

"So, what are you doing here Steven?" Jenny asked.

"Well I have this friend over there…" he pointed back to the pizza shop,. "His name is Lars. Lars! Hey Lars, over here!" He turned back around. "He's shy."

"What does he want?" Sour cream asked.

"Well he thinks you guys are cool and he wants to hang out, but he doesn't know how to ask you."

The kids thought about this for a moment and then all nodded.

"Okay."

"Really?" Onyx asked.

"Yeah. We're going out for a drive. You guys should come with us, it'd be really cool."

Steven nodded. "Cool, I'll go over there and tell him."

Steven walked back over to Lars. "Hey Lars!"

"Yo." He replied forcefully.

"We got invited along for a ride!"

Lars seemed flabbergasted. 'What? But…you… and I…Steven, you got lucky. So don't mess this up with one of your lame acts?"

"You got it."

Steve walked towards their new friends but when Lars tried to walk there he was held back by Onyx.

"Lars, could you also do me a favor?" She asked somewhat sweetly.

He seemed a bit unnerved by her tone. "Um…sure?"

"Please try and be nicer to Steven…" Her eyes glared at him and her voice became deeper. "Or you may find yourself in a great deal of pain."

Her voice returned back to normal. "Do we understand each other?"

"Yeah! Completely!" He said nervously.

The second she let Lars go he ran off towards the car.

"Hop on in guys." Jenny invited.

The group tried to all climb in the car; Jenny was driving, Sour Cream was riding shotgun, and Buck Steven and Onyx were sitting in the back.

"Hey Onyx, where did you get that wicked top?" He asked.

She looked down at her sleeveless body suit.

"I have no idea. I just… had it."

Buck nodded. "Yeah, living free, I can respect that."

When Lars came to the car he tried to squeeze himself in but it was very tight.

"Will you guys move?" He asked.

"I don't think there's any more room." Steven said.

"Well then make some room."

Onyx groaned, knowing that it would be much easier to just get out of the car and let Lars take her place.

When she got out Lars shut the door behind him and gave her a smirk.

"Aw too bad, guess you can't come with us." Lars said in a snarky attitude.

He may have thought he had her beat but Onyx just smirked. "It's alright, I'll just ride next to you guys."

All the kids up front looked at her confusingly. "Umm… this car can go like 60 miles per hour. You think you can keep up?"

Onyx smirked and then nodded. Her whole body was bathed in light as she transformed in front of the car, the kids were in awe as her body shrunk and grew four legs as she turned into a cheetah.

"This is a cheetah; it can run at around 75 miles per hour. Do you think you will be able to keep up?"

Jenny and Sour Cream were still surprised at her magical abilities.

"Whoa…" jenny said.

"Nice cat." Sour Cream added.

"Alright then, let's hit it!"

Jenny started up the car and as it drove off Onyx ran beside it.

The group didn't seem to have any particular destination and instead just drove around town looking at various things. While they were driving they had a couple of short conversations and from what Onyx had gathered… these kids were alright. Lars kept trying to act 'cool' for them, but if these kids really are cool then Lars' definition of cool is completely wrong.

Onyx had to admit… she liked this bunch. They were honest and open and not jerks (a far cry from Lars)

While they were driving they came across someone in particular.

"Hey Buck, isn't that your dad?' jenny pointed out.

They saw him giving some kind of press conference about him being a mayor.

"Your dad's the mayor?" Onyx asked.

"Yeah. It's pretty lame." Buck added.

"Well he does seem to be in the spotlight a lot. If you were brought into that same spotlight I can see how that would be 'lame'." Onyx hoped she was using that term correctly.

Buck chuckled a bit. "Yeah. Glad to see you get it."

"Oh my gosh you guys! We should check out Dead Man's Mouth." Jenny suggested.

"What's that?" Steven asked.

"It's a lake where some dude died… or maybe it looks like a mouth? I forget the details, but it's definitely cool."

And so they changed course and drove out to Dead man's mouth. It was quite a bit out of the way of the city and it stretched into rural areas.

"Wait… I think I've been here before." Onyx thought to herself.

Everyone got out of the car and Onyx transformed back into her humanoid form. As they walked closer to Dead Man's Mouth Steven and Onyx saw something very familiar… the police tape.

"Onyx… that's the tape we set up this morning." Steven whispered to her.

"I know."

"What are we going to do?"

"I…don't know."

The group looked at the barrier and saw that it was police tape.

"Let's hope that they know they shouldn't cross a police barrier." Onyx thought to herself.

Then the boys pushed the barrier aside and walked through anyway.

"Okay… so they know it, but they don't care. This might make things bad."

"Who wants to go for a swim?" Jenny suggested.

"And now it's way worse."

Before they could get in the water Onyx stepped in front of them and tried to stop them.

"Please, don't go in that water, it's dangerous." She asked

Jenny didn't look convinced. "What? You trying to scare us?"

"It builds an atmosphere… I appreciate that."

They ignored her and jumped into the water anyway.

Onyx didn't know what to do. If she pulled the kids out or yelled at them they would just ignore her or worse turn against her, she needed a way to convince them to get out of that water.

But it was too late, once they were in the water the moss began to surround them an once it attached itself to their bodies it dragged them under the water.

"Kids!"

Onyx jumped in and tried to pull them all out before the moss swallowed them up, she slung one of the kids over her shoulder but she had to fight to pull the other two out; this moss really didn't want to give up its victims. But her strength proved enough and once she ripped them out of its grasp she tossed them onto the shore.

They were a bit deprived of breath but all seemed fine… until the moss that was on them started to grow at a rapid pace and eventually swallowed them up.

"Ah!" The rest of them cried out.

Onyx looked at herself and noticed she had gotten some on her hand to, it started crawling up her arm and tried to cover her body.

"Oh no you don't!"

She concentrated and gem shards began growing out of her arms, it displaced the moss for a moment but then it just made its way around the spikes. Ally she mashed her arm against the ground to get all the moss off her at once and then she encased the moss on the ground in a crystal dome so it wouldn't get out.

She was safe... but the other three kids weren't. They tried to pull the moss off of them but it multiplied too fast and it just kept growing. It seemed like a pointless effort.

"It's no good, the moss just keeps growing back!" Onyx said exasperated.

Steven seemed glum about the situation but then he had an idea.

"Lars, I know what we need to-"

"No! This is all your fault! He said accusingly. "I knew if something went wrong today it was going to be because of you. Now I'll never get to know these guys and it's all because of you and your…weird mom!"

That struck a chord with Onyx, she was about to step forward and confront him about it but Steven beat her to the punch a put a finger on his chest.

"What do you know about my mom… I didn't even get to know my mom!"

Onyx could feel the emotion coming from these comments; it was unlike what she had seen in Steven before.

"But I do know that she saw beauty in everything, even in stuff like this… and even in jerks like you."

Onyx stepped forward. "We need to hurry. These kids can't survive long if they're unable to breathe."

"We'll take them to the hill. Help me put them in the car." Steven asked.

They dragged all of the mossy bodies and put them in the back of the car. As they did this, Onyx realized something.

"Steven… some of it got on your leg."

He looked down and saw that she was right.

"We need to hurry. Lars, take us to the top of the hill."

"But… I don't know how to drive a stick shift."

"Then I'll work the stick and you just keep up on the road.

"Right. Ignition!"

"Stick power!"

The trio drove the car towards the hill as fast as they could, but their technique was sloppy and chaotic and they tried to stay in the car without flying out.

As they drove the moss began to cover their car more and more and it had almost completely overtaken the back half, Onyx tried to fight it off but it was relentless.

They made it to the hill, the trio dragged the moss covered teens up the hill and to the top, where the moss became so heavy that they collapsed. When they stopped moving the moss swallowed them all up and all they could see was darkness.

They stayed in that silence for a full minute before they felt something happen, the moss began to loosen, slowly disintegrating and flying off their bodies. When they got up they could see the moss turning into some kind of flower buds.

"The moss…was just trying to bloom."

Flower petals flew all through the air and Onyx grabbed one and examined it. Beautiful pink flowers with a crystal bud in the center, the flowers certainly matched the planter.

As everyone was recovering from their frightening event Onyx looked at Lars with a sense of disapproval, he picked up quickly on it and began to look nervous.

"Lars, it's clear Steven is not your friend…" she began. "… but it appears that you are Steven's friend, and for the moment that's good enough for me."

Lars sighed with relief and rubbed sweat off his face. "Thanks."

Just keep in mind…" She put a hand on his shoulder. "… how easy it would be for me to shove you off this cliff."

He gulped. "Duly noted."

And that's the end of that chapter.

This chapter kind of took longer to write because… well I found it to be a bit boring. But I also had to stop working on this project for a while because… I had a dream.

I saw Onyx in my dreams and I watched events play out in my mind of what the future holds. At first it was good, but then things got…bad.

Onyx felt like she was slapped as she woke up from her uncomfortable slumber, her eyes had little time to adjust to the blinding light around her and the ungodly amount of green that painted the walls and ceilings. When her eyes decided not to hurt anymore and began to focus she could see Peridot and Jasper standing in front of her.

She immediately got angry again. "You two…"

She tried to get up and attack them but she found herself bound by metal bands around her legs and arms. Now that she realized it, she was on some kind of table being suspended upwards.

Jasper chuckled at her. "That's right, us." Jasper began walking around her. "Look I'll be honest: you're little stand against us was really cute. But now you're beaten and you've got nothing left to lose, so please answer this question for me…" She put her hand on Onyx's face and looked at her maliciously. "Who the hell are you?"

Onyx growled. "If you let me out of these cuffs I'm gonna be the gem who FUCKING MURDERS YOU!"

Jasper stepped back, clearly dissatisfied with her answer. She motioned to Peridot. "Hit her."

Onyx readied herself for some kind of blow, but it never came. Instead Peridot used her finger terminal and suddenly her bed buzzed with energy… and then there was pain. Pain beyond imagining, electricity that shocked her to her very core, and made every molecule in her body burn.

"AAAAGH!" She screamed. It was all she could do; this was a pain that could not be suffered quietly.

It ended, not soon enough for her liking, and she could see visible lines of smoke coming from her body.

Jasper only stood there with a shit eating grin on her face. "You like that? Peridot here managed to recreate the deconstruction process of the separator's by a very large percentage. It means the process takes longer and is…very painful."

Onyx breathed heavily, still trying to recover from the previous shocking.

"You don't have anything left, you're little dirt ball will be gone soon enough so why don't you just tell me what I want to know?"

Onyx pulled at her bonds trying to break free. "GO TO HELL! I won't sell out my home, not to you and especially not to the Yellow Diamond's!"

Jasper merely crossed her arms. "Wrong answer."

Peridot turned on the machine again and the pain was so great that Onyx didn't know how she was still holding on. She wanted to quit, she wanted to make this pain go away more than anything in the universe…

Once the pain had stopped Onyx was breathing heavily again, she had to stick together, she had to.

Jasper smiled at her. "I'm impressed; any other gem probably would have retreated into their stone by now."

Peridot looked down at her panel again, Onyx was afraid she was going to shock her again but she moved her fingers away from it. "I think I liked you better when you were unconscious. You're lucky that I'm above brutish things like torture."

Peridot walked away from the scene, leaving the room. Once she was gone Jasper walked forward and Onyx as hard as she could in the chest.

"I'm not."

By itself that would hurt a lot, but combined with the cellular deconstruction she was subjected to before it felt about a million times worse.

"When we get back to Homeworld I bet the higher ups there are just gonna love you." She heard Jasper say.

Soon enough consciousness seemed too hard to sustain and Onyx's eyes dropped.

That excerpt was based on a nightmare I had, I could literally feels the shocks in my body. Turns out that it was just the pajamas I was wearing rubbing up against my blanket creating a static charge, but the pain felt… vivid. I wrote down pretty much everything I could remember about it and then filled in the rest later that day.

Naturally that freaked me out a little bit so I backed away from writing for a little while, but I'm back on track now and I've got a very wicked surprise in store for you all.