S2-20
Keeping it together

After sending Jasper into the storms of Saturn, William decided to try and focus on searching for Peridot.
Since then, the Crystal Gems have found an escape pod from the Homeworld warship, then they encountered some reality-distorting FREAK, causing William to go on 'vacation' for an entire week just to recollect his sanity... ON FREAKING PLUTO! According to the Freedom Shield, William had been incoherently blabbing gibberish nonstop in the original Emerald language the whole time he was there.

He returned just yesterday, having regained his composure.
"With the Freedom Shield and Path-forger searching for Peridot, we can worry less about what she'll do, and with her pod, we know where she'll go. She came to Earth with a job to do, and she's undoubtedly gonna try to accomplish it, which is why I've gathered you here." Garnet stated. "Oh. So it's not so you could help me fold all this laundry?" Steven asked as he added another folded shirt to a nearby stack, then taking a new one out of the pile in the middle of the floor in the living room area. "Well, that too. Also, the chore wheel idea you had fell apart real fast." Garnet replied. "This one ain't on me." Amethyst defended.
There was a paper chore wheel on the fridge, and Pearl's name was on every segment, with all other names crossed out.
"I just really enjoy doing all of those." Oh, Pearl's the one responsible for that. "It's better to do them together." Garnet added.

Amethyst put the book she was reading down and grabbed one of the dozens of red shirts with yellow stars on them. "What if humans just stopped wearing clothes? That'd be a lot funnier." She then witnessed William immediately turn to face her, with two Holo-Williams at his left and right, wearing the same scowl.
Just as fast as it occurred, the event ended, as if it never happened, leaving a shaken Amethyst to fall as if she were a domino.

"I'm a civilized part-human, thank you very much, Amethyst. Clothing is a must-have. Hmm... This sure is a lot, but I bet this folding would go faster if Ruby and Sapphire were here!" "I'm sure they'd be glad to see you, Steven, but I'm not unfusing for laundry." Garnet replied with a smirk.
In response, William formed a large group of his holograms, each grabbing a shirt, folding it, and placing it in a stack before beginning the cycle again.
In a matter of seconds, the pile of shirts were folded into stacks. "William, those holograms of yours are really helpful." Steven commented. "Many thanks."

"Garnet, do you think Peridot would come looking for us?" Pearl asked. "We weren't her priority since she was sent here to do something in the Kindergarten." "Do you think she's still going to try to reactivate it? Ever since William destroyed its power source, I believe the Kindergarten is pretty much inoperable." "We'll stop her. Crystal Gems, let's move." Garnet got up, then walked to the Warp Pad.
"Coming!" "As long as we don't have to fold anything." Pearl and Amethyst said respectively.
"Time to get my search on!" Vilo stated, jumping from her sitting position next to the stacked clothing and onto the Pad.
Blith got up, popped her back, and headed onto the Warp Pad. "I'm thinking about making some armor for you guys. I'm still working on a few designs, and I need to know what you all think." "Armor sounds useful." Morlax stated. "We'll still need to be able to summon our weapons at a moment's notice." William added.
"I'll head over to the Freedom Shield and see if I can do anything from there." Lapis said, heading out the door.
"Steven, c'mon!" Garnet called, making Steven go all starry-eyed. He rushed to the Warp Pad, standing ready. Garnet ruffled his hair. "You're a civilized part-gem too after all."
"Garnet, do you think it's a good idea to bring Steven? This could be dangerous." Pearl asked cautiously. "Peridot's got nothing on us." The Warp Pad activated, sending the Crystal Gems to the Kindergarten.

After a while of examining the area, Pearl broke the silence. "No sign of Peridot so far. I don't think anything's budged since the last time we were here." "Just because Peridot hasn't been here yet, it doesn't mean she won't come." Morlax had a point.
"Right. Let's do a thorough check of the perimeter so we can monitor any future entry." "Sounds good to me!" Steven stated in response, marching off in a goofy fashion.

While William was scouting the area, he heard a weird yet familiar voice in the form of a shriek. He looked toward the source of the sound, seeing... "Peridot...!" William went back to get the others.
With the Crystal Gems together, they went in to engage the green Homeworld Gem.
"Target sighted! Engaged at will!" The Emerald ordered, firing off a few low power bursts from his Plasma Buster.

She turned and ran, scaling a wall as if gravity had turned at a 90° angle. "Pearl, use your spear to dislodge that injector ahead of her path!" William ordered. Pearl threw her spear, yet missed Peridot. "Ha! Missed!"
Fortunately, Pearl had aimed for the injector in Peridot's path, causing the rusted machine to fall on the green gem, crashing down to the ground.

"Well, she's just been grounded!" Morlax joked.
Without warning, Peridot burst out from the rubble. Amethyst tethered Peridot with her whip. The green Gem simply sent an electric surge through the weapon, causing Amethyst to let go before it could electrocute her.

"Go ahead, you Crystal Clods! Wreck this place! See if I care! I already got what I care for!" Peridot yelled as she ran away.
The majority of the group ran after her, consisting of Pearl, Amethyst, Morlax, Vilo, and Blith. "Get back here!" Vilo yelled, firing her crossbow.
Suddenly, Peridot started flying away, one of her 'hands' having turned into makeshift helicopter blades. As she escaped, the green Gem started cackling like a maniac.

"Hurry, Garnet!" Steven started running to catch up with the others, but Garnet was holding him off the ground.
"We still don't know what Peridot was doing here. If her mission was to reactivate the Kindergarten, the injectors would be on, but they aren't." "Observant as always." William remarked with respect.
"Let's see what she was up to. Down here." The Fusion lifted up the fallen injector, revealing the passageway to the Kindergarten control room. "Brains and brawn! You're the whole package!" "Thank you." They high-fived. "It's because you're a Fusion, isn't it?" Steven asked. "There are some secrets I have to keep." "Please? I wanna know!" Garnet chuckled at this.
"Let's see what's 'behind the scenes', shall we?" William stated as he slid down the passage.

On the way down, he could hear Steven ask another question. "I'm guessing the strong part of you is Ruby and the wise part of you is Sapphire?" "All of both. When two Gems combine, it creates something greater than the sum of their parts, which is why I'm so great."
The three reached the bottom, seeing some dirt pillars having been forced out of the floor and ceiling. "So, what's it like staying fused all the- Whoa... I don't know how but... this place is even creepier than the last time we were here." "You're right. There's something going on here." "What was Peridot doing?" Steven wondered.
Garnet looked up, seeing a few pillars jutting from the ceiling. "It looks like she pulled these out of the walls, but why...?"

"I'm sensing... something. I don't know what it is, but I'm sensing... I think I'm sensing other Gems nearby, but... something's not right. Their auras are... fragmented? What's going on?" William formed his Plasma Buster, ready for anything.

A faint sound could be heard from one of the pillars, causing Garnet to investigate.
The pillar then began to shake. Something was about to happen. "Is there... something in there?" Steven asked cautiously.

Without warning, something fell on the ground behind them. It appeared to be a blue hand attached to a red foot.
As Garnet picked up the thing, more of them fell from the pillars overhead. "What are they?" The hand-foot thing lunged and grabbed at his face. William pulled the thing off, then destroyed the physical form, revealing two shards of different colors merged as one. "Gems shards? Stuck together?"

William stored the merged fragments in his gemstone pocket dimension. "Might as well get some answers."
Garnet was increasingly disturbed at the creatures.

A loud cracking sound was heard behind them. "What was that noise?" Steven worriedly asked.
Just then, the dirt pillar exploded, leaving a cluster of four Gem shards to levitate into the air, surrounded in a bright white energy that formed into various glowing silhouettes that appeared to be trying to separate from each other, only to be forced back together and form what looked like a large hand. The very sight of it left Garnet unresponsive and in shock.

Taking action, William discarded his physical mass, occupied the same space as the creature, and restored his physicality, causing the thing to just burst.
Witnessing the Emerald's unexpected course of action, Garnet snapped back to reality, staring at the merged Gem shards as William bubbled them.
She spoke, but it wasn't her speaking, it was Ruby and Sapphire conversing with each other. "THIS is what Homeworld thinks of Fusion?! How could we have known they would do this? All the Gems we couldn't find! They've been here all along! There's no way Rose could've have known. No doubt that this is punishment for the rebellion! It isn't our fault!"

Just then, a voice was heard. "I think they went down here." It was Morlax!
The rest of the Crystal Gems rejoined the other three.
Pearl approached Garnet to tell her what happened up on the surface. "Garnet, William, we lost Peridot. She was too fast for us."

It was then that one of the cluster creatures, resembling a green and purple hand merged together at the wrist, crawled up to Blith's face as if it were a spider. She was... alarmingly disturbed at the experience. Vilo flicked it off her face, uncovering the same facial expression William had before he... left for Pluto.
"Blith, you OK there?" William asked, concerned. "Keep that thing off me..." Wheezed Blith.
William then picked up the clusterspawn, destroyed its physical form, and stored the merged Gem shards.

Later at Beach City, Blith was busy at her forge, making specialized armor for each of the Gems, except for Steven.
Each set also came with a retractable covering for gemstone protection and unrestricted weapon summoning, except for the armor Lapis was given, which appeared to have vent-like openings at the shoulder blades, a portable water container attached to the back, and tiny pipes that lined the arms and legs.

Back at the Freedom Shield, William was working to figure out a way to separate the clustered Gem shards, when the AI of the starship came to a conclusion. "Emerald William, leave the Gems in my analysis chamber. I will see what I can do." "It's hard to imagine what Garnet's thinking right now. She seemed to be devastated by the sight of these Gem shards."

Well, that one's done.

In case you're wondering what their sets of armor look like, do any of you remember when Tony Stark built a suit made of stone in an episode of Avengers Assemble? The armors look like that, but more made of a strong metallic alloy, shaped for each of the Gems, and they have no helmets, with the exception of Pearl's armor, which looks as if it has a sort of visor, but that's it.

See you next time, Crystal Gems.
Yeah, Uncle Grandpa disturbs me too. My head literally aches whenever I see any of his wacky adventures.