The next chapter is finished early. Coincidentally I've always liked the number 290...

Disclaimer: I don't own Steven Universe.


Amethyst and Steven were at the beach. Amethyst wasn't working at the moment, and had taken the time to hang out with Steven. Sometimes things were still a little awkward between them, but they were getting better. Amethyst wasn't sure if Steven completely forgave her for anything she had done yet, but she knew they were on the way to getting there. That was good enough for her. But right now, Amethyst was not too worried about that.

Steven had taken it upon himself to demonstrate his sand castle-making skills. He had been eager to show off before, but not as much once he started to build. Something seemed to be bothering him ever since they stepped foot on the beach. But Amethyst had no idea what the reason for that could be. It must of had to do with the gems returning to Earth. But he hadn't looked too worried from what she had seen of him. If anything, he was rather relaxed for someone who didn't want to go back to their home planet.

But she tried not to think too much on his reactions. It was probably nothing anyways. Amethyst was having fun stirring up dust-devils in the sand while she waited for him to call her over. She curled in to a ball and dashed to one end of the beach, then she sped over to the other, raising a cloud of sand as she went. There were zigzag tracks all across the sand from where she had traveled. It was fun to watch everyone's confused expressions when she went past them.

Causing trouble with the sand was not merely a fun pastime though. It was training. She was trying to build up her endurance, see how long she could hold the position before her back decided that it didn't want to bend at a strange angle any more. Also, Amethyst realized that it was a useful way for her to dig holes, should the need to ever arise. It seemed like she had been doing a lot of training recently. Figuring out battle strategies, practicing fusion, learning how to fight with more than just her own weapon. She had come to a somewhat mutual agreement with the other gems. They all knew that the longer they stuck together, the easier it would be to fight off any others that came their way.

Amethyst was aware she had no choice but to start training with them. Protecting Steven and the rest of the world was important enough for her to decide that working with the gems was worth it. They were dealing with an unknown amount of force, and had to be prepared for anything that threw itself in their direction. Whether that be a weapon, knew gem technology, or the threat of using someone against them.

That didn't mean she had to act nice around them though. It hurt Pearl, and it did for Garnet as well, even though she couldn't always see it. Still some of her hurt over how the way things ended up. She knew that Garnet and Pearl would act the way they did. She had to take her own direction because she wasn't like them. She hadn't been involved in the first war, or even known of any details beyond how they won. She knew that her teammate's hearts had been in the right place, even if they were a little misguided at the time, and didn't always make the best choices.

Shaking her head, Amethyst rid herself of her thoughts, and the sand she was coated with. It flew everywhere, yet she could feel the itchy little rocks still clinging to her hair and skin. A glance at Steven showed that he was still staring at the sand. A slight frown was beginning to crease his face, and he tried to wipe the sand off of his hands. The curiosity returned. What was bothering the little guy? Amethyst went over to him. She crouched down in the sand next to Steven and asked;

"How's your castle going?"

Steven picked up a handful of sand, and then let it pour between his fingers.

"Are there any smashed gems mixed in the sand here?"

And, just like that, the conversation took a turn for the darker. Amethyst looked around the beach, trying to find some kind of distraction, a way to change the subject, anything. Just something she could use to avoid responding to a question that she had no answer for. Then, she saw it, the perfect distraction within the water. The distraction was swimming towards them at an incredibly fast speed, all four arms wind-milling through the air and back into the water again. It dragged up a current behind them, and large waved crashed upon the beach.

"Hey look at that thing that has nothing to do with your question!" Amethyst said, pointing towards it.

Steven had already scurried away from the shore when the waves became too large for his liking. He was standing farther away from the shore. Amethyst joined him, and waited for Sardonyx to finish with her swimming. The fusion got out of the water, and daintily shook herself dry. Then, twisting around, she got rid of the water clinging to her hair. She finally spotted her and Steven on the beach, and practically strutted towards them.

"Why hello! I didn't see you there!"

Amethyst rolled her eyes, knowing full well that Sardonyx knew they were there the entire time. Steven stepped backwards, taking in the enormous fusion. She crouched over and offered Steven her hand. He hesitantly shook her pinky finger.

"Nice to meet you?"

"Oh, the pleasure's all mine!" She grinned. She grinned. "I've been wanting to talk to you for so long now!"

Steven whispered to Amethyst;

"Is that a good thing?"

Obviously, he didn't ask quietly enough. The fusion laughed loudly enough to make the ground shake, and pressed a hand to her chest.

"Why I dare say you're quite the comedian! That's a good trait for a gem to have you know!"

"Thank you-"

"Sardonyx." She answered. "That's S-A-R-D-O-N-Y-X with an extra stress on the r!"

Unable to help herself, Amethyst snorted, and crossed her arms.

"So you're a fusion." He said.

"Of course!"

"Why are you together?"

"So we can train!"

"You're training, together?"

The fusion made a point by stretching out her arms.

"Well I do have to get back into shape again! Garnet and Pearl have been out of it for the past few years!"

Steven still seemed to find this weird, but Amethyst figured that it had to do with his experiences from yesterday. Anyone would be put off from fusion after that.

"What can you do?"

Bending over, the gem held out her hand to Amethyst and asked;

"Amethyst?"

Nodding, the gem stepped on to her hand. Then, Sardonyx tossed her up into the air. Just like they had practiced, Amethyst curled into a ball. At the same time, Sardonyx summoned her own weapon, a giant hammer. Just as Amethyst started to fall, she struck, sending Amethyst sailing through the air. Amethyst crashed into one of the beach's cliff's, with enough force to make an Amethyst-shaped hole in the wall. It was oddly kindergarten-like, but not very deep. Amethyst fell backwards, landing in the sand. She shook herself off, and gave a thumbs up to Steven.

"I'm ok!"

Then, she picked up one of the boulders that lay near the bottom of the bluffs. Amethyst leaped to the top of the cliff, only to drop the boulder. Instead of using her weapon to throw it like Sardonyx had, she shape-shifted into a bat, and hit the boulder. There was a loud crack, and the boulder sailed towards them. Sardonyx ran to intercept the boulder before it could touch the sand. She rebounded it with her hammer, splitting the rock into halves as she did so. This time, Amethyst used her whip to catch one of the halves, while she kicked the other one back towards Sardonyx.

Eventually, they were juggling back smaller and smaller rocks to each other. When the first boulder became too small, Amethyst threw another one into the mix. Sardonyx grabbed a log that had washed up on the beach, and threw it towards Amethyst as if it were a javelin. Amethyst had to catch the log in-mid air so she could throw it back to the fusion. Steven watched the dizzying display of power with awe. Even when working against a fusion, Amethyst was still able to handle things much larger than herself. Instead of trying to out-muscle, she used the force of Sardonyx's throws to send the projectiles back at her. None of the gems seemed to be tired by this either.

"Hey! Let's add Steven into the mix!"

"Brilliant idea!"

Steven didn't realize what they had yelled at each other until it was too late. Sardonyx picked him up, and he was thrown towards Amethyst. He tumbled through the air, unable to control where he was going. Amethyst caught him instead of kicking him back, or worse. Once his flight stopped, Steven thought that it wasn't so bad. But before he could say anything, he was thrown back towards Sardonyx. She caught him with two of her hands, and returned a new boulder and log with the others. Just as she started to throw him back again, she suggested;

"Straighten out your posture! You'll soar through the air!"

As the battle of multi-tasking waged on, Steven realized that it was good advice. He had seen Apatite do the same thing when she took long jumps. He tried to remember what his friend looked like when she did, and then copied it to the best of his ability. It at least prevented him from somersaulting through the air, and he could see where he was going a little more. Being tossed through the air was surprisingly fun once he got the hang of it.

As Sardonyx caught him again, she said;

"Magnificent job! I couldn't do it better myself!"

Strangely enough, he found himself grinning at the praise. It didn't sound like anything that either Garnet or Pearl would say. Somehow hearing it from the fusion made him feel proud of himself. It seemed like being smaller finally had an advantage to it. He was so used to the strategy of "out-muscle your opponent" being repeated to him over and over again, that he never thought about other ways to defeat them.

Being stronger than someone wasn't a strategy. You couldn't predict how strong your enemy would be. Finding a way to use their power against them was way better. Even Amethyst, who looked so tiny even when compared to Pearl, could hold her own against the enormous fusion. He had to remind himself that it was between three gems, and not two. Most of the time when he saw the gems, he didn't think of Garnet as a fusion. She was Garnet. That's all there was to it.

"Keep it up Ste-Man!" Amethyst said, punching a boulder. "You're doing great!"

It was eventually Sardonyx that could no longer keep up. Amethyst threw everything she had at the fusion, and that included Steven. However, that also meant that Sardonyx had to run in four different directions to catch everything, which she obviously couldn't do. Even with four arms, the feat was impossible for her. She ran towards Steven, and managed to catch him before he could land in the ocean. Sardonyx however, tripped and fell with him still in her outstretched hands. Wincing in pain and laughing at the same time, she coughed;

"Good s-show."

There was a loud whoosh of air, and Sardonyx vanished, leaving Garnet and Pearl in her place. Both gems were laying on the ground, their limbs rather tangled in each other. Steven was standing on the hands of Garnet and Pearl. Blushing, he stepped away from them. Garnet rubbed the hand that he had stepped on, checking over her gem. Pearl did the same, rubbing her wrist in the process.

"S-sorry!"

"S'ok." Garnet choked. "We got a little carried away."

Amethyst slid down the cliff and ran towards them. She was panting by the time that she reached them. All the gems had slightly giddy grins on their faces.

"You guys alright?" She asked.

Everyone nodded.

"You guys are really strong!" Steven blurted.

Pearl up and dusted the sand off of her front.

"Yes well, practice makes perfect."

"Alright, who's next?" Amethyst asked.

The gems started to discuss amongst themselves who they would practice with next. Steven tuned them out, not really interested in who they were going to fuse into next. He started at the temple instead, wondering how it was they remained so in control with their fusion. Maybe it was a practice thing, a skill that had to be learned over time. He certainly knew that Stevonnie didn't want to leave.

She didn't really seem to take what he and Connie thought into consideration. She slowly became her own person, and didn't want to listen at all. That was bad. But the gems didn't seem to be having that sort of problem. Even Garnet, who stayed fused all the time seemed willing to split when necessary. She seemed in control, much more balanced.

As he stared at the gem's base, Steven started to notice something about it. Most of the structure was buried in the sand, so he'd never gotten the chance to pay attention to it. But now he realized that there were hands sticking out of the hill. They extended out towards the beach, and two of them had gems in their palms. But not only that, there was a face, slightly hidden in the rock. He'd never really seen any of this before. He'd tried to avoid the temple. And when he left, he never looked back. But now that he was looking back, he realized that it was more than just a pretty statue. Seeing Sardonyx made him realize that there were similarities between this statue and the fusion. In fact, it almost looked like an even larger fusion.

"Can you fuse into her?" He asked, pointing to the temple.

The gems looked to where he was staring. Immediately, all of their grins faded. Pearl started to blink a little more than normal, as if she was trying not to cry. She tightly clasped her hands together, and shook her head. Garnet took the position of explaining.

"No. She'll never be able to form again."

"What? Why not?"

"We're one gem short."

"Amethyst?"

The gem shook her head.

"Then, who-?"

Steven realized that all of the gems were staring at him. His stomach did a slight flop when he realized what they were implying.

"I just thought because of the hair..."

"Nah, my hair's messier than that."

"Well, I suppose we could form Alexandrite." Pearl said.

"Cool! Pearl and I will form Opal, and then from there we can-"

"OH MY GOSH STEVEN ARE YOU ALRIGHT?!"

Their conversation was interrupted by Greg, who ran up to the Crystal Gems. His normally pink face was even more red than usual. Greg had clearly run a long way to catch up to them.

"I'm fine." Steven assured.

"Then why is the whole town insisting that I let my son perform dangerous stunts with magical ladies?!"

"Son?" Pearl asked.

Suddenly, Pearl remembered that she and Amethyst had an argument over whether or not Steven was related to Greg. It had occurred forever ago now that she thought about it. Even when things felt like a complicated mess then, it was all extraordinarily simple compared to what they were going through now.

Of course, the idea of their relation was completely preposterous. Just because they had similar facial features, builds, interests, talents, and expressions, it didn't mean they were related! There were several billion humans out there, he could easily be related to any one else! Additionally, she didn't want to be proven wrong by Amethyst of all people. That would just be humiliating.

"Well, not really." Greg admitted. "The whole town just thinks he is."

Grinning, Amethyst nudged Pearl in the ribs.

"Maybe they really are related."

"They are not." Pearl snapped. "A simple comparison of their genes will prove you wrong."

Greg backed away from the gems. He still wasn't too crazy about the whole giving his DNA to aliens thing. Not after what had happened the last time. He had a permanent bald spot thanks to them!

"Maybe we should go to a certified doctor." Greg suggested. "I'm sure it would be much... Safer."

"I'd only need to take a few ounces of blood." Pearl said. "And your human blood cells will replace what you've lost anyways."

"I already know a doctor!" Greg insisted. "I'm sure she could help me with that kind of stuff!"

"Well, if you insist."

Getting over his fear of having blood stolen by magical gem-ladies, Greg tried to appear strict again. He cleared his throat and put his hands on his hips.

"So why is Steven doing dangerous stunts again?"

"Aw, lighten up Greg!" Amethyst said, punching his arm. "Steven's a gem! He'll be fine!"

"I'm just not sure if I'm comfortable with that." He said, rubbing the spot where he had been punched.

"I've been through worse." Steven added. "The training on Home World is a lot more dangerous than this!"

From behind him, Garnet and Pearl shared guilty looks. If training was worse than being on the run, then he had been through a lot.

"Well, alright." Greg said. "But only because you're fine with it."

Steven and Amethyst waved to Greg, who started to walk back to the boardwalk. He gave them a small wave and the largest smile he could manage. Which was weak at best. Greg ignored the people who were pointing at him and whispering things behind his back. About his "parenting" skills no doubt.

Something about passively taking all of this caused the man to snap. On the inside at least. He was growing sick of being the town weirdo, just because he had been kidnapped by aliens. There were aliens living right next door to the town! Why would it be so hard to believe that he was taken by different ones?! He and Steven would get that paternity test! Just to make all the people in Beach City to shut up for once!


When told that she was going on a vitally important mission, this was not what Jasper had in mind. The trip had started out well enough. She was assigned by Yellow Diamond herself to be the escort for a detainment crew. Being picked for the job was an honor, especially given the confidentiality of this one. When she arrived at the port, things seemed to be going better than she could have possibly imagined. They had a warship and permission to use excessive force. What was not to like about that? When told force was allowed, Jasper figured that she would be commanding a medium-sized amount of troops at the very least. They must have been going off to fight some small battle with one of their various enemies, or perhaps they were working on the beginnings of guerrilla warfare.

It was a nasty shock when she discovered that the only gems actually on the ship included a prisoner, and the technician that would be running the entire thing. Clearly they weren't going off to fight a war of any sorts. When she was filled in on the details of what they would be doing, Jasper realized that quite literally, she would be an escort, a wall of muscle for some wimpy technician. That had seemed awful until she realized where their destination was, and who they were rescuing off the planet. The ever-changing mix of frustration and excitement was building up inside of the gem. She couldn't wait to arrive, but she was not sure if she was excited to get things over with, or if she was ready to tear apart every Crystal Gem within her sights. Either way, the wait was absolutely killing her.

The overly large ship could only keep her entertained for so long. There was not much to see beyond the barracks and rows of prison cells. The barracks were useless when only she would have any reason to use one. Peridot was constantly monitoring the ship. The prison cells were equally useless. She wasn't taking any prisoners, should the situation arrive. Only one was currently in use. Jasper hadn't bothered to pay any attention to the other gem once she realized that she wasn't going to talk. Or react. Or do anything for that matter. It was just so boring!

Finally, she grew impatient enough to do something about it. Exiting the barracks, she marched down the endless, green, halls. Jasper knew from muscle memory where everything on the warship would be, even if she had likely never flown in this one before. They were all built to the same, standard regulations. There was nothing new to find on any of them. Taking a sharp turn to the left, she leaped up a flight of stairs, and continued down yet another hallway. She kept her eyes facing forwards, not bothering with the view of empty space outside. There was nothing to see other than stars and the occasional planet. She reached the control room, where Peridot was clearly immersed in her work. Well, not for long. Pinching the back of the gem's neck, Jasper lifted Peridot away from her work. The gem's eyes immediately returned to their normal colour, and she began to show expression once again. In this case, annoyance.

"What do you want?" She sighed, crossing her arms.

"How long until we reach Earth?"

The gem's already whiny voice became more high-pitched.

"Jasper, for the last time, we won't be there for another day!"

"Can't you speed things up?" Jasper asked, reaching for the control panel.

"Don't touch anything!"

The gem rolled her eyes, but followed the order. The last thing she needed to do was cause their trip to slow down even more than it already had.

"How about we liven things up then?" Jasper asked. "Let's go through an asteroid field! There's one on that planet over there!"

Jasper pointed the pale, yellow-white planet that they were passing by. There was a ring of asteroids slowly rotating around it.

"We can't go off the chartered course." Peridot sighed, rolling her eyes.

"Then can we at least go faster?"

"It would break the regulations."

Placing the gem back on the ground, Jasper batted a hand.

"We're in the middle of nowhere Peridot, the law doesn't apply here."

Realizing that her escort was right, Peridot started to sputter. Jasper slapped the gem on the back before she could choke herself into reformation. This only caused her to stumble forwards on clearly unpracticed legs. Stupid limb enhancers. You actually had to do some walking before you got used to them. Clearly this gem didn't do a lot of anything beyond work. Pathetic really. Especially since she had seen the need to get the enhancers, even though she had no use for them. What a sad world it was when a technician actually felt that it could be of any use in actual combat.

"But if they found out, it would look bad!"

"It won't look bad when I crush those remaining gems into powder." Jasper pointed out.

"Well I told those gems that we would arrive within four of their Earth days."

"Which you shouldn't have done to begin with."

"They probably needed time to find the Steven." Peridot argued. "It was better to inform them."

"So say we were talking about Home World days!" Jasper huffed.

"Days on Home World are longer than days on Earth." Perdiot said. "You'd think a veteran of their wars would actually know something like that."

Jasper had been itching for a fight since she stepped foot on the warship. She picked up the scrawny gem by her pathetic excuse for fingers, and shoved a fist underneath her chin. Peridot squeaked in surprise, and tried to get away from her.

"Wanna' repeat that you brat?"

Peridot quickly shook her head. Jasper drop-kicked the gem. Peridot gasped in pain once again, clutching at her torso. It seemed like that was the only real part of her body, thus the only one that she could feel physical pain in. Jasper gave her an extra kick in the chest for extra measure, and then rested her foot on top of her. The gem tried to stand, but knew it was hopeless. The only thing more pathetic than her limbs was how easily she gave up.

"I've fought in wars that were longer than your poor excuse for a life!" She snarled. "I've smashed gem species into extinction! Do you think I care about trivia on some deserted ball of mud?"

Gasping in pain, the gem shook her head repeatedly. Jasper eventually let Peridot get to her feet once again. The gem hobbled over to the computer, and sat down. She reached to feel her torso, but stopped when she remembered that she had a job to be doing, and that pain was not supposed to stop her from functioning. After that, the last thing Peridot wanted was to go through that entire situation again. She'd really rather worry about any damage done to her body later.

"I-I suppose we could speed up our proceedings."

"Good enough."

"Should we warn them of this change?"

The gem broke out into a malicious, toothy grin.

"No. We'll let it be a surprise."

Suddenly, the soreness in her chest seemed a lot less painful. At least, when she compared it to the pain that the gems of Earth would soon be subjected to.

With less than a day to prepare, the Crystal Gems would be in for a lot of trouble.