It was Steven who stumbled upon the next clues of Pearl's location, and completely by accident to. He'd been at home watching television when the TV began to go to static. It had been happening for a few days now, so he didn't think much of it, maybe the Communication Hub had begun letting off a signal again. He realized that he was more correct that he'd assumed when the static cut to an image of Pearl, a recorded message she was sending out to Homeworld.
"This is Pearl, facet 2, recording on all earth frequencies, transmitting from the newly repaired communication hub. My mission has been compromised and I have been stranded on this planet without a ship or assistance from other gems. I will attempt to hold out until a receive word of what to do from the higher ups of Homeworld, but please, send help before it's too late!"
The message repeated itself right after ending, and apparently was playing on every television, radio, and computer on the continent. "We've got to shut that signal down before Homeworld picks up on it." Peridot said, the others agreeing and heading to Lion so they could warp to the island where the communication hub's wreckage had been left behind. They appeared at the communication hub and found that it had in fact been repaired and was transmitting. "How on earth did a Pearl repair the hub?" Peridot wondered aloud.
"What do you mean?" Steven asked. "It's just.. certain gems have certain abilities, and I've never known a Pearl to be skilled enough to repair the damage that was done here." Peridot said. "I've never known two Homeworld gems of a different kind to fuse together, but Garnet's still out there somewhere. Homeworld's been changing since we've been gone, and I'd rather not see what kinds of weapons they've built." Jasper said.
"Speaking of fusion," Steven said with a grin, "Are you gonna form Malachite to wreck the place up again?" "I guess it's up to Jasper really," Lapis said with a small smile, "What do you say, we gonna mash it up~?" Jasper shook her head, "No." "But last time you said we needed to be huge." Lapis said, disappointed. "Last time was a disaster. Malachite went berserk, she's the reason we can't warp here anymore." Jasper pointed to the shattered warp pad, "I can be too aggressive, and you can get careless, and we can both get lost in the moment. It's too dangerous, so for the time being, Malachite is benched. What we need right now, is to be careful."
Jasper turned to Peridot, Steven's jaw dropping in excitement as Lapis's frown grew. "Peridot, lets fuse." Jasper said with a smile, Peridot nearly stumbling to the ground as she removed her limb enhancers, "S-sorry, been such a long time." She said, sounding practically giddy. Steven moved back and watched excitedly as Lapis just sat next to him, chin on her hand as she watched the two dance, merging together.
The resulting fusion was smaller than Malachite, if only by about ten feet. She stood on two feet, with two arms, each separating at the elbow into four arms. She had four eyes behind Peridot's screen, which had taken on an orange tint. The color of her body was a faded orange with a darker screen in streaks across her body, and a mane of spiked hair flowing behind her, "It has been far too long!" the fusion said, stretching out her limbs.
"Giant woman!" Steven ran over excitedly, "And what have we got here?" The fusion reached down, picking Steven up, "A pleasure to meet you. Name's Moldavite, number one combat engineer of the Crystal Gems. If you've got tech that needs fixing, or tech that needs wrecking," She smiled, the screen shifting to form Jasper's helmet, "I'm who you call."
"Woah, cool!" Steven said, enthralled by the fusion, "And it only gets better." Moldavite snapped her fingers, calling over strips of metal that wrapped around Steven and lowered him harmlessly to the ground. The fusion snapped again and the helmet began to stretch out, the meta crawling over Moldavite's body until it had formed mechanical armor. "Awesome! Are you gonna smash it up with your armor?" Steven asked.
"Smashing is what a.. less tactful fusion might do," Moldavite said, Steven not noticing as Lapis's head dropped unhappily, "No, I'm going to dismantle." Moldavite said, turning to the hub and aiming a strike at one of the inner pillars. The strength of it focused on the metal covered fists caused the pillar to shatter, bringing down a few dozen others in the process. In only three more strikes, the hub was in pieces with no damage to the surrounding area.
"That was great!" Steven cheered, "I do what I can," Moldavite said with a smile, "If you ever need something big brought down or built up, don't hesitate to let Peridot and Jasper know." And in a flash, the fusion returned to her two component gems. Peridot and Jasper smiled, "We were great." Jasper said, Peridot sitting on her shoulder with a well earned smug look on her face. She didn't even seem bothered to not be in her limb enhancers, which was always a rare occasion. The gems returned to the temple in victory, Steven now starting to notice Lapis's lack of enthusiasm.
It quickly became apparent that Pearl was getting desperate though. The next morning, the signal was back up and running. It was choppy, but it was there, and when they returned to the hub, it had been put back together; if only slightly. Jasper and Peridot didn't hesitate to fuse again and brought the place down, seeming to enjoy the act of fusing even more than the actual victory.
The hub was back up again on the third day as well, and though Jasper was starting to get agitated by it, she calmed down after Moldavite had brought the place down again. Lapis had only been getting more frustrated. Steven could tell she was upset at feeling so useless, and so suggested that they stay by the hub overnight and try to catch Pearl when she came to repair it again.
Lapis was eager to help out, and with the hub so close to water, the plan seemed fool proof. That is, until they found that it wasn't the rogue Homeworld Gem repairing the communication hub. As they staked the place out, they saw Peridot go to the rubble, using a combination of her limb enhancer's tracker beam and her metal powers to slowly lift the pillars back into place and repair them.
They were confused and uneasy, or at least Steven was. Lapis was well aware of what she was doing, and called her out on it when they came to the hub the next day. "We saw you putting it back together," Steven said, "Why?" Peridot's eyes widened, and she turned to Jasper. "I-I.." Jasper dropped her, "What are they talking about?" She questioned.
"I-I.. it really was Pearl the first time, I-I just wanted to share a few more victories with you.." Peridot stammered. "Those weren't victories." Jasper said, her helmet appearing, as though she intended to poof Peridot right there. "Jasper, stop," Lapis said, "We're both so much weaker than you, when we fuse with you, it's our one chance to feel strong!"
"Do not defend her." Jasper said, "Come on, we're forming Malachite." "Are you sure?" Lapis asked nervously, "Let's just get this over with." Lapis took Jasper's hand, and they fused together. Malachite glared, smashing her horned helmet into the hub and bringing the whole thing down, then calling in a massive wave to carry the pieces out to sea so it couldn't be rebuilt.