It was the middle of the night when Greg approached Peridot. They were standing on the beach, looking as if they were digging something.

"Peridot?" The green Gem jumped. The handful of sand they had in their hands quickly slipped through their fingers.

"Nyah, you clod! That was important!"

"Oh, I'm really sorry!" The man blushed. "Do you want me to-"

Peridot silenced them with a hand wave. "Whatever, it's done now. What did you want again?"

"I think me and Steven found a world map... though if you already have one-"

"No, that is perfect." Peridot walked past Greg, back to the living room where Steven was sitting. "Did you say you found a map of Earth?"

There was a large, decorated book laid out on the counter, with Steven nowhere to be found. Peridot stopped.

"That's not a map!"

"It's an atlas." Greg opened it. "It's like a book, but with maps. Do you guys still use books?"

Peridot struggled up onto the counter. "What? I'd never heard of these organic record keeping methods until I got stuck on Earth. It's simply archaic... but strangely aesthetically pleasing. Yes, this will be adequate."

"Great! Now, I've gotta go find Steven." Greg backed out of the house, leaving Peridot alone. They continued flipping through the pages, fiddling with this strange tassel hanging out of the bottom they couldn't quite figure out a use for.

Judging by the wasteful (yet pretty) illustrations and the 'strange ruins' mark on all Gem structure placements, this was a human-written book. Peridot grew increasingly frustrated as they only came across partial maps of Earth; they eventually threw the book up in the air.

"Why are you Earthlings so confusing! Why would you have a world map yet not show the entire-" The book they had upturned landed on the floor, opened to the page with the entire world map. Peridot blushed and looked around before snatching it back. "World. I hope nobody saw that."

After a second it became apparent nobody was watching, so the Gem shrugged and continued their work. They brought out a pen and began marking down locations of warp pads, talking to themselves in the process.

"So, I'm looking for a hidden warp pad to Mars. If I was Homeworld, where would I put it? There are known warp pads in every continent... except this one."

They circled the country in the most bottom right of the map. It was split in uneven halves, the smaller part of the landmass containing a 'strange ruins' mark in the centre.

"They call this place Astroalia." Peridot frowned, remembering a certain story about a Homeworld fortress with a Galaxy Warp as they drew a darker circle around it. "Hmmm, this seems worth investigating immediately. Steven- Whoa!"

Neither Steven nor Greg were present. Instead Lion was standing in the middle of the room, regarding them passively.

Peridot got up where they fell off the counter. "It's just you. Nyeah, I should install some sort of alarm device so you stop sneaking up on me like that!"

Lion padded up to the green Gem, and pushed their nose into their side.

"Wait, I know what you want." Peridot looked over to the atlas and picked it up. "You can't teleport to Mars, but you can teleport to any place on the Earth. Lion, go here!"

They pointed out the location on the map, and Lion's eyes began to glow. Peridot carefully placed the atlas back on the table, then scrambled up onto their back with the closest they had ever gotten to ease around the animal. The green Gem gave Lion a light pat on the side to signal readiness to depart then held on tight to Lion's mane as the two teleported to the other side of the world.

The two came out the other side in broad daylight, which was startling to say the least. Peridot squinted and covered their eyes as the panting Lion slowed and came to a rest. Then they hopped off, and looked around.

They had landed in a rather sandy area at the foot of a large hill, on top of which was undeniably the Gem structure they were looking for. It was a tall, imposing fortress with shocking yellow walls.

This did not faze Peridot, having seen much worse ways of keeping people out back on Homeworld. "Nyah, I hate walking! Why didn't you teleport us right up to this strange place so we can get this over with?"

Lion moaned and stood up, Peridot following as they made their way up the hill. After a short time they made it to an open archway leading into a very dimly lit interior.

Peridot raised an eyebrow, activating their gemstone light and venturing in after Lion. They found themselves in a room that tapered off into darkness in all directions, seemingly endless except for the exit. There was, however, a fairly short roof with strange uniform holes.

They began walking along the wall, noting the simple pattern of repeating white, blue, yellow and pink diamonds stretching along the surface.

At first the inside was deadly silent, as if it was holding its breath. The green Gem found themselves getting very impatient going in one direction without any foreseeable corner, so they struck out towards the middle.

For a moment nothing happened, and then:

"You're not unique." A strangely familiar voice spoke up from the void. Peridot jumped and turned.

"Who's there?" They saw nothing but darkness, with the dim pinprick of the exit far in the distance. "I demand you show yourselves!"

Nothing happened so they continued walking, wondering if they should have stuck to the wall.

"Crystal Gems, attack!"

Peridot whirled around in sudden terror, looking for this strange new voice. They saw it... in the form of Lapis dashing towards them, arms outstretched. The green Gem blinked as the figure stopped a few feet away from them.

"You're not unique." They spoke in a completely different voice. Peridot frowned suspiciously as they saw the Gem's body flicker on the edges.

They approached Lapis cautiously, reached out, and touched her shoulder – it passed through! Immediately the figure fizzled out.

"You're some sort of holographic image!" Peridot grinned as they realised the truth. "This room must have some sort of sensors that project them... Ingenious, but completely broken!"

"Your loyalty is to Homeworld!" Aventurine stepped out of the shadows. Peridot waved it away and continued walking.

An unknown blue Gem stepped across their path. "The Crystal Gems are gone forever!"

There was the sound of a resonating smash, like somebody punching a wall.

"Oh, please." Peridot felt this song and dance was beginning to get old. "You clods can't trick me now that I've figured out you're all just holograms!"

A loud, pained roar sounded directly in front of them. What appeared to be Lion struggled forwards on their two front paws towards Peridot, moaning in desperation, before a large black hand grabbed them from behind and pulled them out of sight, their last echoes fading into silence.

Peridot took note of the rather impressive visual effects (for their time, of course) and moved on. Eventually they came across what appeared to be a ladder up to the next story.

"Finally!"Peridot skipped over. "Whatever this is, it's got to be more interesting than this room!"

They put their hand on the ladder, but as they did so they felt something fluffy. This sensation was so out of place it caused them to briefly freeze, before grabbing the fluff and examining it.

It was a tuft of pink hair, soft as a cat's fur. In fact, it reminded Peridot of one cat in particular, called-

"Lion." The green Gem felt their metaphorical heart drop to their feet in sudden horror. They leapt away from the ladder just in time to see a large black hand drop down on where they were just standing. It crushed the floor below it; this was no illusion.

"You're not unique." Peridot scrambled to their feet and pushed aside a foreboding Lapis as they began a desperate dash to the exit.