I was originally going to call this chapter Two Claustrophobic Children Trapped in a Bubble, but, there wasn't enough room for it. So, I stuck with the original episode title. But just know that when I say Bubble Buddies, I really mean Two Claustrophobic children trapped in a bubble.

Guest: My answer to your question takes up about 1,650 words out of the in this chapter, and will continue on within the next few ones.

Disclaimer: I don't own Steven Universe.

"Whatwouldshethinkwhatwouldshethinkwhatwouldshe-"

Crack!

"... Forgot that was-"

"Whatwouldshesaywhatwouldshesaywhatwouldshesay-"

Crunch!

"Ugh! Stupid doughnut!"

"Whatwouldshedowhatwouldshedowhatwouldshedowhat-"

CRACK!

The disembodied voice and sounds of destruction were all lost on Pearl. She was floating on the floor of her room. Only the gem's face stuck out from the water as she stared at the ceiling above. The arteries that lead towards the heart of the temple seemed darker than usual. While she lay on the surface of the water, the pulse of the Crystal Heart could be heard throughout. It was a steady, omnipresent sound, never speeding up or slowing down. One day it would stop though. Whether the cause would be it's destruction or old age was debatable.

Everything came to an end. Gems were scratched and chipped until they no longer had the power to reform. Others simply stopped... Functioning, unable to work. They were dormant. Corruption may as well have been death. With no way to fix it, a gem lost everything they ever had. They forgot the life they lived, and weren't themselves. Corrupted gems were monsters, abominations.

Just like her. Just a simple, lesser pearl, who knew nothing about anything. It wasn't bad enough that she had defected to the other side of the war, but she had already been truly defective to begin with. At least the corrupted gems didn't know what they were doing. But she had been aware, and had never even realized what they were doing was wrong. It seemed like a simple choice. One person versus the planet that they'd vowed to protect, and their own teammate.

But Garnet's future vision had been wrong. They couldn't have realized that such a minor detail would effect everything! They had been doing the right thing until they discovered the complications! How could it not be? There was sound reason for their actions. Perhaps they could have been a little less harsh with their methods, but extra force was needed! Wasn't it? Even with it, they hadn't managed to get Steven though. Had they actually managed to do something useful?

It had been months since they'd gone on a mission to catch a corrupted gems that caused problems. The world had been surprisingly sound even with them doing nothing. Did that mean their work over the years was for nothing? They'd trapped dangerous monsters again and again. Yet, even with them doing nothing, the planet was fine! What use were the Crystal Gems if they couldn't make the slightest impact with their actions?

The Earth was known for always finding away around it's problems. It held a surreal balance, that even outside forces could not alter. The battlefields became actual fields again, the bases and labs had eventually succumbed to nature. Only the kindergarten remained untouched. There had been attempts to revive it again. By manipulating the plants, they could make the place useable again.

Before... Everything, Rose had worked on finding a way to heal the land. To make an organism strong enough to fix everything. Pearl only had limited knowledge of those plans though. Rose had never been comfortable talking about what was involved. She'd only ever brought up the acronym for something. Super-weapon. Home World was never subtle when it came to their names for things. They were never subtle with anything they did. This was why there were planets and portions of this one that were destroyed. Now there was no way to bring back those planets.

Perhaps if Steven were to experiment with his powers... Of course, he wasn't being a gem anymore. He'd decided to live out the rest of his time on Earth as a human. A part of Pearl felt concerned by this. If, when, Home World came to retrieve him, they would not be pleased. He'd be marked as a traitor, or simply killed on the spot. Either way, the outcome would not be pretty for him.

A wave of nausea washed of the gem at her next thought. Steven knew he'd be killed. Yet he still chose to take the route that he did. He could leave though, escape here unharmed and leave everyone else to die. He'd made his distaste of the planet well-known. Why would Steven chose to die away from home? He'd still be able to live a long life, high-up in gem society if he lied...

He was much more like Rose than she had ever truly realized.

The twisting sensation of sickness grew stronger. Pearl had accidentally floated from the middle of her room to one of the waterfalls. She was pulled down almost instantly. The gem held her breath the entire, dizzying ride down. She landed in a rather shallow pool of water. The impact was jarring, making her gasp in pain. Of course, this caused the gem to inhale a mouthful of salt water. She eventually recovered from the fall, and clumsily heaved herself out on to the rocks.

She had to sit there, still in a daze as she recovered from her fall. But eventually, a rustling sound caught her attention. Could it be the slinker?! Pearl knew for a fact that the annoying pest was still... Slinking around the temple! No one knew what it was doing or what it was, but the slinker was most likely some kind of evil gem entity. And it probably did something evil to the temple! They couldn't really be sure. Although, they had gone all these years with nothing bad ever happening. Perhaps hunting the slinker would get them nowhere. It sure seemed like it did. She would leave the monster be for now. So long as it didn't attack her first. Amethyst had been poofed by it several times, as it liked her room the best.

Amethyst...

Getting to her feet, the gem grabbed her spear, and prepared to make her way out of the room. There was a long set of stairs with her name on it, waiting for her to climb up them. Pearl walked around the piles of things in Amethyst's room, and did her best not to think about her missing teammate. That would become a great deal more difficult for her. When she walked around another pile of things, her spear hit the largest, most obnoxiously coloured doughnut she had ever seen. Complete with Amethyst's face in the middle.

Pearl stared at the doughnut incredulously, wondering if she was really seeing what she was. The gem had to rub her eyes. All too many times she had been tricked by dreams. It was one of the few downsides to sleeping. The mismatched puzzle of fantasies seemed all too real.

But she'd finally begun to understand why Amethyst had enjoyed sleeping so much. Resting was oddly relaxing, and she felt like she could escape the problems they now seemed to be surrounded by. This had to be a dream though. There was no reason for Amethyst to be wearing a large, pink-frosted doughnut. Pearl was too startled to stop herself from blurting out;

"What are you wearing?"

"It's called a uniform." Amethyst replied. "It's what you wear when you get a job."

"But, you don't need a job!"

"Well you need a job to make money, so yeah, I do." She said. "I wave a sign outside the Big Doughnut and everything starting today."

"Money?"

"Money. It's how you buy things like food, and pay off expensive medical bills to fix dislocated legs."

Steven... Of course. He couldn't use his healing powers anymore. Amethyst's eating habits could get quite expensive as well. It only made sense that they would need money to pay for their new lifestyle. Pearl summoned the human currency she kept within her gem's pocket dimension. She held it out to Amethyst, but she refused to take it.

"Why are you back here?" Pearl asked. "I thought-?"

Amethyst wriggled her shoulders, drawing attention to the box of things that she was holding. It was stuffed to the top and then some with various objects that she had hoarded away over the millennia. Pearl actually recognized some of the things and their specified piles. The globe went with the round objects pile, and those knives were supposed to go with the sharp objects on the other side of the room! It was even more of a disorganized mess than it usually was!

"I gotta' eat somehow. Vidalia can't afford to feed me and Steven at the same time, so I'm helpin' out with money and junk." She explained. "I don't have enough room in the storage locker for everything, so, some of it's got to go."

"You're selling your stuff?"

She blew the bangs out of her face.

"Not all of it."

Pearl was now certain this was a dream. Amethyst willingly selling off her precious things could not be right. The conversation was somehow too normal, to relaxed to be anything but fake. This was all fake! It was just a dream! She would wake up back in her room and Amethyst would be gone again! This wasn't happening because Amethyst didn't do stuff like this! It was all wrong and she knew it!

"Well, uh. I'm leaving now."

Both gems awkwardly looked away from each other, as they remembered the circumstances. Pearl rubbed the back of her neck, and shifted in her spot.

"Bye."

"Later."

Amethyst waddled off in her obscenely massive costume, neon sparkles and all. Pearl stood there, still waiting to wake up, for the entire dream to be over. It didn't seem to end. She just stared at the empty space where Amethyst had once been. The fake Amethyst. The real one was still mad at her. She would have lashed out, trying to fight her. This was all just a dream and she would wake up soon.

"Pearl?"

She received a light shake on the shoulder. Pearl looked up at Garnet, who was now staring at her.

"Were you sleepwalking again?"

Pearl looked back at the spot where the fake Amethyst had been, and then at the outstretched handful of cash in her grasp. Slowly, she nodded.

"Yes. It was just a dream..."

When Steven got up the next morning, he was surprised to discover that his door was closed. Had Vidalia realized that he had watched her talk to Amethyst? He was certain that she heard him come down the stairs. Well, he was in trouble for it. She probably wouldn't let him out for a while now. Steven just hoped that it wouldn't be for too long. He really wanted to get something to eat.

While he waited to see when he would be released, the boy got dressed. Humans apparently had this thing about not wearing the same clothes two days in a row. He'd received a lot of the clothes that were now too small for Sour Cream, but still to large for Onion. Most of them fit rather well. And he admittedly did like getting to choose between different clothes, without having to be injured in the process.

Steven didn't wait as long as yesterday before trying to open the door. Surprisingly, it opened. When he walked down the hall, no one was there to stop him. He carefully entered the kitchen. Vidalia was already sitting at the table. She had an untouched bowl of cereal in front of her. One hand was holding a spoon, and the other held a newspaper that she was squinting at. There were lines under her eyes, probably because of how late she had stayed up with Amethyst.

"Mornin' Ste-" Vidalia paused to yawn. "Steven. Have any trouble sleeping?"

She knew. She definitely knew that he had heard their conversation. Yet, he hadn't gotten in any trouble for it. Did that mean she was testing him, waiting to see if he would tell the truth? It was best to be honest anyways. There would be a long talk about what had happened, even if she didn't get mad at him for lying.

"I had trouble sleeping."

Vidalia glanced over the paper, and gave a slight nod. She knew that he knew that she knew that he... That was just confusing. Steven just knew that there was now an understanding between them, and she was not mad that he'd been eavesdropping. That was a good thing. The boy did not hesitate to take a seat across from her. He reached for a clementine and started to peel it.

"Is there something I can do to help it at all?"

Help? How could someone help him to stop thinking about his time on Earth? It was hard not to, when he was surrounded by reminders the entire time. It was a blue and green planet. Just like the two friends he had made and lost. There was no possible way he could ever forget. Not when it was so easy to remember it all.

"Please don't close the door." He finally said. "It makes me feel trapped."

"Sure thing. I'll make sure to tell Onion and Sour Cream as well."

Steven noticed that neither of her sons were present.

"Where are they now?"

"Today's a Tuesday, so Sour Cream's got summer school. Onion's probably off to wait for Yellow Tail. He'll be back for a few nights."

Vidalia finally started to eat her cereal. She lay the newspaper flat, and marked her page. Steven ate a few slices of the clementine, curiously trying to make sense of the words on the page. It all seemed like one solid block of weird, black squiggly lines in his eyes. Yet they were somehow supposed to form words? Did each shape mean something? Why were some of them larger than others?

"You wanna' read the comics?" She asked, pushing the paper towards him.

Steven shook his head.

"I can't read."

"I thought gems could instantly translate things."

"I can speak. I just can't read and write like a real gem."

"We'll have to get you caught up on that then."

"Today?"

"We can't start today! You're meeting Connie, remember?"

Well, he had been trying not to remember. But that hadn't lasted long. Somehow, he'd been hooked into spending more time with this, Connie. He just didn't understand why though. What were they supposed to do together? This, play date was an entirely foreign concept to Steven. What did the dates and times have to do with playing? What were they playing? Instruments? But wouldn't the sand get in the way?

"Are you sure this is a good idea?"

"Of course it is! You need to get to know people your own age!"

"But I don't get human things! It'll be embarrassing!"

"The only way you'll learn is through experience." She said. "You can't learn everything from a teacher. Some things have to be figured out on your own."

"Will there be a test?"

"What? No! We'll just go to the beach so you can hang out with her!"

"I thought this was a play date!"

"It is!"

"Then how do I hang out?! What is a hang out?"

Vidalia chuckled slightly, but tried to stop herself. Steven didn't see what was so funny though. He was being set up on some kind of test of embarrassing proportions! First the girl would want him to hand something over, then she'd expect him to say his name and they would have to talk to each other about weird personal things. He didn't get why telling her his favourite colour was so vital to the human experience!

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't be laughing." Vidalia said, smothering another laugh. "You just remind me of Yellow Tail when he first started to date. He got all nervous and had no idea what to do either. It's cute though."

"Cute?"

"That's a good thing." She assured. "Learning people things will be awkward at first, but you'll get the hang of it in a snap."

Steven tried to repeat that to himself as he walked along the beach. Vidalia had already set up a chair and umbrella. When Steven looked back at her, the woman gave him a thumbs up and a large grin. Steven weakly returned it, and continued his slow shuffle to the bluffs. He could see Connie sitting in the shade, focused on a book she was holding. Steven mentally prepared himself for what was the come, and then stuck out his hand.

"Hi! My name is Steven!"

Connie looked up from her book, seemingly surprised by his sight.

"Y-you actually came!"

What did he say back to this?! Why hadn't she shaken his hand? Connie stood up, closing her book as she did so. What did he say? What was he supposed to do?! Steven looked at the emergency list of sayings Vidalia had written down on his hands. He tried to find one that would fit, but came up blank. Steven then remembered that he couldn't read the human language.

"Hi! My name is Steven!" He repeated, a little less enthusiastically than before.

"I know that."

"Hi. I my name is Steven."

The girl's smile started to waver. Steven started to feel more nervous. Why couldn't he speak?! Why wasn't he able to think of something to say? What was a normal human thing to say?! This should have been so easy! Yet for some reason, he was just too scared to do anything!

"Is that all you're going to say?"

"Hi! My name is-"

Connie sat back down on the sand, opening her book once again.

"I should've known this was just a joke." She sighed.

"Hi... My name is..."

"Just go, please."

Steven gave a sad nod and turned to leave. He had failed the test. Everything had gone wrong! Horribly, horribly wrong. Steven was only a few steps into his long journey back to Vidalia when the ground started to rumble. He and Connie looked around in confusion, trying to find the source of the quake. It was too late for Connie to realize part of the ledge above had dislodged, but it wasn't for Steven.

Turning back to Connie, he ran towards her, and made a bubble around them.

"HI! MY NAME IS STEVEN!"

The rocks bounced harmlessly off the bubble, and the earth quake stopped. Steven however, was still catching his breath after the sudden burst of adrenaline wore off. Connie was simply amazed by the fact that a large, pink sphere had suddenly grown around the both of them.

"What just happened?"

"The rocks were about to fall on you!" He explained.

"But, how did this happen?" She asked, gesturing to the bubble.

Steven hung his head.

"I'm half-gem."

He waited for an angry reaction, but got none.

"So, you're magic?" She eagerly asked.

"I guess so." He slowly said. "But I don't want to be!"

"But, you just saved my life!" Connie exclaimed. "If you weren't magic I would've died!"

"You're right." He admitted. "But it's still awful. That's why I'm learning how to be human!"

"Wait, so that was why you were acting so weird?"

Finally, it had been put into words! Steven nodded, glad that there was a way to explain what he was thinking. He'd also got the same-old questions about who and what he was out of the way. Humans really didn't seem to care that he was part gem. In fact, most of them had no idea what a gem was. It was strange and reliving to know that humans didn't have a problem with him existing.

"Yeah! I just didn't know how to say the thing that you said with the words and... Yeah!"

"I thought you were just joking."

"But that's not even funny!"

"Some people think it is."

"Well some people are jerks." Steven declared.

Connie laughed a little.

"So, are you going to get rid of this bubble?"

Steven remembered they were still trapped.

"Oh, of course!"

He dramatically swept his arms around, and clapped his hands. But nothing happened. Steven tried again, and then for a third time. When it didn't pop, Steven tried to laugh it off. But within seconds he was clapping as quickly as he possibly could, trying to make it go away. But the thing stubbornly remained in place.

"Ah ha. Ha... That's magic for you." He nervously said.

"We're trapped aren't we?"

"Yes."

Both children took long inhales, trying to stay as calm as possible. Neither of them were able to realize how frightened the other was over their own social and space-related fears.

"We should find a trust-worthy adult." Connie said. "They'll know what to do."

"Right. We can ask Vidalia!"

Together, the pushed against one side of the bubble, and started to walk. It was difficult to move the bubble from it's place in the sand, but once they got it out, things became easier. By the time they reached Vidalia, they had built up so much momentum that they continued to roll past her, even when they stopped. Vidalia saw this, and instantly jumped up from her chair. The woman did a funny dance when her bare feet hit the sizzling-hot sand. She remembered to slip on her shoes, and then headed towards them.

"Steven! What happened?"

"Magic stuff." He sighed. "I can't get rid of it."

"Do you know what to do?" Connie asked.

The woman tapped her foot and pressed a finger to her lips. She stared at them for a second, and then returned to where her beach chair and umbrella were. The woman grabbed a large, mesh bag that was full of art supplies. She sorted through it until she found what she needed.

Vidalia then returned. Without a warning, she revealed that she was holding a large exacto knife. With a running jump, she brought the knife down upon the top of the bubble. There was a dull "thunk," and Vidalia landed backwards in the sand. Stunned, she looked at the newly broken knife in her hands.

After she got over her shock, Vidalia stood up again.

"New plan kiddos." She said, brushing the sand off her jeans. "We'll get Amethyst to handle this."

"Sorry, Amethyst's still on her break."

"Alright, new plan! My husband's a sailor, so I know a thing or two about harpooning things." We'll go to the docks and break his sucker!"

"New plan! We take the bubble back to my place and try shooting it!"

"Er, new plan. We run away from here before the cops find out! And we'll see if Amethyst's off her break now!"

"Uh... New plan! If we take this to Fun World, there should be some way we could make this bubble break!"

New plan, new plan, new plan! Connie was getting sick of hearing the phrase after the second time she heard it. Now they were on what felt like the millionth attempt to break them out of this crazy, magical bubble! A whole afternoon had gone by, and still, nothing could break them out of this pink prison.

Bullets didn't work, knives didn't work. Not even a harpoon had been able to destroy the thing! Everything had backfired! The knife broke, the bullets broke a window, and an entire trawler had been sunken when they tried to use the harpoon gun! How was a roller coaster going to solve their problems any better than this?!

Fun Land admittedly looked like a fun place to be though. There were countless rides set up, filled with people laughing and screaming. There were groups of friends eagerly waiting in line, a young couple holding hands and wearing goofy, love-struck grins. Another couple was carrying an enormous stuffed rabbit that they'd won from a game. The place was crowed with people enjoying themselves. They had to push their way into one of the lines to where the most dangerous-looking roller coaster was. The sun was sinking in the sky, but the amusement park was only starting to grow brighter.

A rainbow-coloured haze of lights flickered against the orange-tinted sky. Even through the bubble she was trapped in, Connie could smell all of the fair food. A lot of it looked great. The ruby-red candy apples, the giant, buttery-yellow bags of freshly cooked popcorn, and even the soft pink and blue candy floss looked tasty. The colour of the cotton candy reminded her of Steven's hair. But it also made her wonder what having sugary foods was like. The only sweets she ever got were free of nearly everything but colour.

"So, what is this, Fun Land?" Steven asked.

"It's an amusement park." Connie explained. "People go here to have fun."

"Oh. So this is the human idea of fun?"

Connie looked around at the things she would never get the chance to experience.

"I guess."

They watched in silence as a car filled with people passed the track in front of them.

"How to they choose who gets tortured?"

"Wait, what?"

Steven gestured to the twisted pathway of tracks before them.

"The people who are screaming." He said. "Are they criminals? Did they betray the planet?"

"The ride is the fun part!" She giggled.

"But the screaming-"

"Everyone's just having fun." She said.

"They're not being tortured?"

"No."

"Humans don't find it, fun to watch people being tortured?"

The words rang alarm bells in Connie's mind. Without trying to seem obvious, she looked at Steven from the side of her glasses. His face was blank and impassive, leaving no indication was to what he thought. Connie didn't like the sensation she felt now, and tried not to think about what Steven had just said.

"Do you think it's fun?" She asked.

"I pretend to." He admitted. "Gems aren't supposed to be afraid or disgusted by it."

Connie tried not to think about the implication that he had seen others being tortured before. She did her best to keep calm, and focus on how he said that he didn't like it. That was good at least. Steven was just a little different. But so was she. He was trying to understand what normal people were like, so he wouldn't know the difference between what was right and wrong in their culture. Gems were from space, weren't they?

The lined shifted forwards, and the two rolled with it. Vidalia stood off to the side, and was reading something on her phone. She had one hand on the bubble, but was doing her best to give Steven and Connie their space at the same time. Soon, they reached the end of the line. Seeing how high above the ground they were made both Steven and Connie have second doubts when it came to Vidalia's latest plan. Neither one was given the chance to say otherwise, as she pushed them on to the track.

They started to roll down the hill, right to where another car was waiting. Steven and Connie were sent tumbling over each other as they were pushed. Connie felt her glasses fall off. The world morphed into a large, dizzying blur of pink. The roller coaster came to an abrupt stop, but the bubble was sent flying off the tracks. There was a loud splash, and then a popping sound. Connie inhaled a mouthful of cold, salty water.

Coughing, the girl it out, and started to tread water. She saw Steven resurface not far away from her, glasses in hand. He coughed up some water as well. He doggy-paddled over to her, and handed Connie her glasses. The girl wiped the water off of them, and let her vision clear again.

She could see the lean figure of Vidalia waving at them from the pier.

"The plan worked!" She shouted.

A laugh slipped past her. Connie didn't know what came over her, but she broke into a fit of giggles, and was unable to stop. Steven joined in as well. They laughed until their sides hurt and they started to swallow the water once again. Fighting for breath, while trying to swim at the same time. They only stopped their inexplicable laughter when something stirred underneath their feet, something solid.

"Did you feel that?" Connie asked.

Steven nodded, and got a mouthful of water in the process.

"It felt like another one of those earth quakes."

The water began to grow choppy, nearly rising above their heads. Connie and Steven started to swim back to the shore, using the sudden waves to help them. They felt the thing underneath their feet. Whatever was following them made Connie try to swim a little faster, as she started to feel slightly worried.

"Uh, Connie?"

Steven pointed to a spot in the water. Something was clearly swimming towards the from the shore. But neither could she was it was. The thing's head poked slightly above the water, and it gradually paddled their way closer to them. Connie didn't know what to do about the thing, and neither did Steven. Could it be a shark? She knew that sharks lived in the ocean, and they were out far enough for it to be a shark that was after them! What if it tried to attack them? Did they look like seals? Was there any blood in the water that might make it attack?! What were they going to do?! How were thry going to fight back against a shark?! Even her parent's reaction to her day would be better than this!

"What do we do?!"

"I don't know!"

They grabbed each other, screaming in fear and fighting to stay above the water. The monster continued on it's path towards them

"'Sup?"

"Amethyst?"

The thing turned out to be a dog. A large, violet-haired Newfoundlander. Or rather, Amethyst had shape-shifted into one. She doggy-paddled circles around them, and barked a few times for effect.

"Your dog can talk?!" Connie asked.

"I'm not a dog, I'm a gem." Amethyst said.

"Magic stuff." Steven quickly translated. "What are you doing here?"

"You guys kinda' looked like you needed saving." She said.

"From what?"

"Oh, just that giant worm that eats bright pink stuff."

Instantly, Connie looked at Steven's bright, pink hair. Suddenly the thing that she had felt swimming underneath them now seemed to make a lot more sense.

"Grab on yo'!" She said.

Connie grabbed on to the gem-dog's thick fur. Steven did as well. With large, powerful strides, she started to pull them back to shore, a great deal faster than they ever could have swum. Once or twice, she felt something swim near her. Connie tried not to look down into the deep water below, not wanting to think about how far from shore they still were. But they made it there in no time with the help of Amethyst.

A crowd had amassed on the beach, all waiting to see what their fate would be. Connie and Steven made it to shore safely, and let go of the dog. Amethyst was instantly swamped with happy citizens, all trying to celebrate the heroic "dog." Mayor Dewy had driven up in his election van, and was already trying to connect the dots between the fact that the "dog's" rescue had all happened thanks to him. (And because of that, they should vote him for mayor.) Amethyst however, wanted no part of the festivities. The worm was still following after them.

It wriggled up on to the shore of the beach. The large, slimy-looking monster seemed to have spotted Steven. It squealed, and started to chase after him and Connie. Amethyst shape-shifted back, and got through the stunned crowd of people. She caught up to the two kids, and pulled his friend away from the path of the worm, taking her place running next to the boy.

"Sorry!"

Amethyst picked up Steven, holding him over her head. She ran towards the boardwalk. From behind her, she could hear the corrupted gem's screams. Why did they have to sound so much like Apatite's? Gritting her teeth, she focused on what was important. Keeping Steven safe. She ran through the support beams, taking sudden twists and sharp turns at every chance that she could.

This made quick work of the worm. It became tangled around itself, unable to move. It struggled, but that only made the knot it was in tighter. The worm caused the support beams beneath the boardwalk to snap. The walk above fell on the worm. It gave one final death screech before going limp. The corrupted gem retreated, sending up a billowing cloud of sand.

Putting down Steven and catching the gem, Amethyst quickly bubbled it. She looked away from the ruined board walk, silently hoping that wouldn't have to come out of her pay. Amethyst was about to ask if Steven and his friend were alright, but he was gone. He was standing next to his new friend. She could see Vidalia and Greg were with them and had wrapped towels around Connie and Steven.

Connie was excitedly talking to the adults, waving her hands, and pointing towards her. Steven however, was staring at her. He was frowning, and looked like he was trying to hide behind Greg's leg. Right. Vidalia and her had both seen that he was out of bed the night before. But neither of them had actually talked yet. That seemed like a bit of an important thing to do.

Just as she was about to walk towards them, Amethyst sensed the presence of someone behind her. Within a split second, she realized that Steven was not staring at her. He was looking at what, or rather, who was behind her. Pearl and Garnet were standing just off to the side of the wrecked boardwalk. And they were looking at her. She stared right back at them, and sent the gem back to the temple. With no reason to talk to her, they left the scene.

Amethyst sighed.

This was going to take a lot of getting used to.