I was asleep for almost a full day when I was knocked out. Holy crap was a lot more tired than I honestly thought I was. My entire body ached so much, but it was a good ache from the moment your body is so used to being one place for so long. It also didn't help that I was sleeping in my day clothes but man was the sleep appreciated. After the nap, I found that my droids were all finished with their work and they left a massive cavern for me to use and plan the construction of my new base. However I'm gonna need a massive supply of very hardened materials in order to make up the walls, floors and hallways of the rooms underground. It has to be strong enough for the stuff to take a beating for explosions in case anything happens underground, and to make sure that no earthquake or outside force would destroy or compromise its structure. I want the place to be both a base for me to work on whatever it is I find interesting or pleasing to me, and a fallback shelter in case things get hairy in any fight we may come across.

For now though, I use the materials gathered from The Iron Kings vehicles and any material gathered from Gem involved locations to make the elevator to the place. From the top, the elevator will be able to be accessed from a wall in the basement, and a moveable wall in one of the empty rooms on the first floor. It's not going to be a single person elevator or one you would expect from a skyscraper of sorts. It's a small freight elevator that's open and should be able to handle a few dozen pounds of weight in case I want to bring down a bunch of gear, weapons and materials for me to use. I have some ideas for some of the more larger pieces of equipment I would work on, but that's for another time. Right now I need to work on making the place in the first place.

For now though while I programmed them to work on the elevator feature, I went ahead and got some more furniture for my place. Nothing too big, much, I obtained some tables, chairs, kitchenware, and a couple of couches for the living area. In addition to the living room area, I got a big flat plasma screen TV. Don't know how big or how many inches, but it is big and hanging on the wall in full view of everyone who can sit on the couches and chairs in the living room. I used the satellite from when I hacked into my droids in the very first place, strapped it to my roof, ran the wires through to the TV, and in the future to my base, and jacked my way into access to some prime high quality channels.

I don't know if I'm actually going to take advantage of some of the movie channel, but I like the option.

"There you go… perfect." I mutter to myself as I finish hanging the TV on the wall. I've always wanted a type of home like this, with all the furnishings I plan to get, and thanks to some of my… unique actions, it's going to be good.

I take a step back and admire my work.

*RRREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE*

*Crash*

I don't really acknowledge the loud screeching noise that's cutting through the air and lightly shakes the ground and building around me. Instead, I stare as my TV falls off the wall and crashes into the ground. The screen breaks in a million pieces, the frame cracks, the wires rip out and the inside wiring of the machine are sticking out of from the cracks and broken screen.

My eye twitches.

"YOU MOTHER—!"

"What the hell us going on?!" I yell as I step off of the Warp and stalk forward. I'm also forced to cover my ears with my hands because of the increased volume here in the beach house than at my home.

"What's happening?!" Steven yells at the same time as me except he comes in from the outside.

"It's the Wailing Stone!" I manage to hear Pearl answer. Both she, Amethyst and Garnet are in the same boat as Steven and I, forced to cover our ears because of the sound.

"Make it stop!" Amethyst cries out.

"It just activated on its own!" Pearl informs me as I walk up to her.

"Why?!" I ask but since I they aren't doing anything, I don't expect an answer.

"We don't know!" Okay maybe not an answer to solve this.

"It won't shut up!" Amethyst whines as Garnet walks up to the infernal stone. I'm curious as to what she's going to do it to get it to shut up. 'Maybe she's going to throw it into the sea, break it into a million pieces, I can probably melt it—'

*Think*

She slams her gauntlet down on top of it, hitting the button and shutting it down.

*….REEEEEEE*

Momentarily. The machine continues screeching after a few second of silence.

"Stand back!" Pearl says in an annoyed tone and walks up to the stone. With ease, she bubbles the thing, deafening the noise to near nothing. Although I don't like the throbbing the bubble is exhibiting. "Ha, it worked, now we can get back to..." She's interrupted as the bubble grows bigger and bigger until it pops, continuing the noise again.

"Ahh…!" We all cry out at the sudden noise again.

Before I can think of any sort of solution, Steven runs up to the stone and sticks his arm through the hole. After first, its silent but then he opens his mouth.

*Bwwaaaaaaaaaaaa!*

'Oh god this is even worse!' I squeeze my hands against my ears even more as somehow the stone transfers the noise through Steven's vocal cords, making him sound like a loud goat in distress.

I run up to the kid and pull him off the stone while Garnet walks up to it and stuffs one of the couch cushions into the hole, significantly muffling the noise. She grabs the rest of the cushions from the couch and places them all around the Wailing Stone, quieting the stone to almost complete silence. For some reason, she also grabs Steven from my arms and places him on top of the stone. "I don't understand, that thing has laid dormant since we found it." Garnet says.

"I haven't heard a Wailing Stone activate since we used them for the rebellion, and I've never heard it sound like that!" Pearl informs us.

"They're used to communicate, right?" I ask and she nods.

"Someone is trying to send us a message." Garnet confirms what I've been thinking of.

"But to us specifically? Or is it a wide range signal, meant for anyone to pick up?" I ask to no one in particular. There have been cases where someone won't send a message to a specific person but will instead send it on open channels in the hopes of getting any sort of response.

"Who knows how or who it is?" Pearl says worriedly. "We've rounded up all the Wailing Stones on Earth, and we're not sending this message to ourselves. Unless..." She looks down with an annoyed look at the purple gem. "Amethyst?! Is this a prank?!" She says irked at the idea. 'Oh please let this be a prank so we can end this right now.'

"No way!" Amethyst cries. 'Damn.' "I want it to stop! I don't like it!" She angrily says as she grips her head tightly.

"If it's not coming from Earth, then a Gem must be sending this message from space." Garnet says.

"From space?" I question to under my breath. 'So far, I only know of Homeworld from space… but they have conquered other planets before… someone else?'

"Is that what some Gems sound like?" Steven asks as he walks up to me.

"No, no, we should be hearing a voice. Maybe this signal is too advanced for the Wailing Stone to process. That would explain the distorted audio." Pearl tries to reason for the messed up noise.

"Advanced?"I question while placing a hand to my chin. "Compared to the rebellion, technology has advanced considerably, as evident from my droids and the Kindergartens tech specs. You may be on to something Pearl." I give my best reasoning for it.

"Audio…" I look at Steven as he says the word. "My daddy-o knows audio!" He says happily with a smile.

"Uh… you mean Greg." Amethyst asks uneasily.

"Yeah!"

"I don't know…" Pearl is unsure about the idea as well.

I decide to voice my opinion on the idea. "Well, Greg is the musician of our group. If anyone of us has to deal with music, audio, acoustics in general for anything really, it would be him. He may not be a gem, but he can probably still help. Beside, you got a better idea?" I ask with a shrug.

"Uhhh—"

"Don't whine, let's try it." Garnet interrupts Amethyst before she can whine.

"I can't believe it! You need help with sound stuff?" Greg happily says as he sifts through his van looking for something while the rest of us sit on cushions in the sand. "You've come to the right guy! Ah ha! The Lubitz Cardioid Condenser 680!" He pulls out some sort of giant foamy microphone things. "It's got warm tone without too much top end."

"Uh, plus it's got a big honking sponge thing." Amethyst points out.

"I know, isn't it awesome!" He comments with a smile before going over to the stone. I quickly cover my ears just as he pulls out the cushion in the stone, allowing the noise to spew forth once again. It doesn't hit me as hard because of my quick thinking but the others are nearly thrown on their backs. Greg quickly plugs in his Condenser foam thingy and the noise deafens almost completely. 'Damn, that's some quality… stuff.' He goes over to his soundboard and starts moving some sliders and knobs around. "Now I'm going to add some reverb and some low octave effects, I'm also adding some fuzz 'cause who couldn't use more fuzz? Now if I directly input the Wailing Stone and put it through a flanger we might get what you're looking for."

The others look at me for some sort of clarification as to what he's saying. "I have… no idea what that is." I answer. 'You can give questions about guns, swords, melee weapons, armor, technological whatever… but you kind of got me in a box when it comes to music. I like it as much as the next guy, but I really don't know the techno babble when making it.'

"Flangers aside do you really think a signal like this is compatible with your analog devices?" Pearl questions him.

"Don't worry dad. It'll work!" Steven uses some microphone device to distort his voice, most likely for comedic effect. Which it works because I smile.

"Advanced technology aside, music and sound are all a form of noise. No matter how advanced the equipment, you can't really change the base composition of sound in general." I try to give some faith in Greg. "You got this man?" I ask him.

"Sure do. Now let me just…" He trails off as he finishes his tuning. "Well, here goes nothing."

*RRRREEEEEEEEEEEEEE*

The sound comes back again only this time it's even worse and louder than before.

"This is even worse!" Amethyst yells out over the deafening noise.

"I'm sorry!" Greg apologizes. I quickly take the initiative and launch myself on the amplifier that's connected. Being so close to it makes my ears throb heavily but I manage to grab the volume and bring it down to a manageable level.

"Uh." Amethyst sighs in relief at the lowered sound. I breathe a little heavy a my head throbs.

"Nice one Marcus." Greg says.

I look at him, "What?" I ask because it's a little hard to hear him.

"Nice one!" He says a little louder, making sure I hear him this time and I do.

"Thanks." I reply and bring the volume up a bit more, enough that it's still loud so we can figure out any background noise but not to the point of its loudness like before. "You got this?"

"Yeah, sure do."

"You can do it dad, you're the audio daddy-o." Steven encourages his father, making him smile.

"You got that right Steven." Greg replies, now more determined than before. He starts fiddling with some of his instruments, making the noise fluctuate in different tones.

"It sounds like music." Steven says. When I close my eyes and focus on listening, I can hear it. 'He's right… sort of. It's very faint and I can barely make it out.'

"Yeah, that's really nice." Greg mutters and the noise takes a more musical tone to it. "Yes, yes. Woo hoo!" He cheers. Only a music enthusiast like Greg would be that hyped for music he discovered right now.

"But, it's not supposed to be music. It's supposed to be a message!"

"Oh, Okay hold on, I got this." Pearl manages to get him back on track. He starts fiddling with the noise again, making it fluctuate again. "It's changing!"

"It almost sounds like a voice." Again, Steven is on the money. Very faintly I can hear some sort of voice but its too distorted to make heads or tails.

"Almost got it!" The noise gets a bit clearer and clearer until— "Oh great." Greg groans as everything goes silent.

"What's happening, where's the signal?" Pearl asks, curious about why everything stopped.

I notice a small plume of smoke rising from the front of his van. "Greg, did the power…?"

"Yep, looks like the vans battery couldn't handle all this." He says disappointingly.

"Damn, so close too." I mutter.

"I had a feeling this wouldn't work," Pearl says as she stands up and stalks around a bit, frustrated at the failed attempt. "There's just no way that Greg's equipment can interface with our ancient Gem technology." She criticizes his stuff.

"Ah… come on Pearl, you can't be ready to give up yet." Steven says to her but she's having none of it.

"Look, we just got to keep trying. Sure we don't have the latest and greatest Gem tech here, but—" Greg starts to say but is interrupted by Garnet. She remove Greg's condenser device, making the noise start for a second before she puts back the couch cushions and noise stops altogether.

"It's okay Greg, you tried." Garnet tries to sympathize with him by placing her hand on his shoulder but it feels like a lie. She turns to the rest of us. "Back to the temple." She announces before looking to me specifically. "C'mon Marcus, you're our expert on gem tech at this point. Maybe we can brainstorm and figure something else out." With that, she jumps off toward the temple.

"What a waste of time." Pearl grumbles before jumping off as well.

"See you later… Gregory." Amethyst says and jumps off too.

Feeling a little awkward about being left alone with them, I look at Greg while walking backwards. "Something'll come up. Whether us or you, it will!" I say those last words before sprinting off to the beach house. It doesn't take me long to make it to the place and make it up to the stairs before spotting the others inside sitting on the couch near the door and window. I walk in and immediately gain their attention. "Alright, so what's the plan?" I ask as I sit on the couch too.

"We were hoping you would have an idea." Garnet tells me. Looking at the others, they nod in agreement.

With a sigh, I think for a second as I stare at the Wailing Stone in front of me. I can barely even hear its screaming at this point so at least I can concentrate without having my eardrums being blown out. "Hmm," I moan before leaning back and crossing my arms. "You said you gather all the Wailing Stones right?" I ask.

"That's right." Pearl confirms it. "The rest are in the temple."

"Alright then. Maybe you guys can bring me another one of them. Chances are if they're on the same open frequency as this one, they'll be screaming like this one here. What I want to do is deactivate it, crack it open, and see if I can find the right frequency or wavelength it's using. With that, I maaay be able to make something to catch the signal and translate it into something that we can interpret." I explain my best plan to them. I don't know how full-proof this idea is but on top of this thing being annoying as hell to have screaming all the time, this could be a message we can make use of. "However, this is all speculation and it'll be some time before I can make heads or tails of this."

"How long?" Garnet asks in her usual stern neutral tone.

I give another sigh as I rub my forehead, "Days… weeks… months…" I guess the amount of time needed.

"We don't have days or weeks or months!" Amethyst cries out.

"I know we don't have that kind of time." I say in a frustrated tone before calming down. "But until I crack open one of these Wailing Stones and find out how they catch signals and whatnot, I can only guess right now."

They groan at the news but nod nonetheless. I don't like that type of situation for us to be in but while I'm pretty well-versed in Gem tech at this point in my life, I'm winging it and learning as I go. It sucks but this is the best I got at this point. "Alright, if that's the case then we better get started right away. Pearl, why don't you—"

*Slam*

"I just want to help, have some faith in—" Greg busts in with Steven right behind him, interrupting Garnet before noticing he's not looking at us.

"Eh-hem."

"We're over here." Amethyst and I get his attention.

"I know my audio equipment seems like a pile of Earth junk to y'all but—" He begins to plead his case before Garnet interrupts him.

"Greg, it's okay." She calmly tells him. While she says it's okay, he doesn't think so. Not at all, considering the look of annoyed anger he has about him.

"No it's not, you guys don't give up on anything, except for me. Come on... it's not like I can make it any worse!" He firmly tells us.

The gems looks at each other in silent contemplation before looking to me on my input. "Audio is his expertise, regardless of who makes it. He didn't get the chance to decode it because his vans battery shorted out. We fix that problem," I look to Greg, "I think he has a better shot of figuring this out than I can. Quicker too." I back up Greg on this. They look at each other before nodding, agreeing to the plan.

'Video… damn how could I have not thought of that as an option… Then again, I don't really know Homeworld to be the kind to watch TV in the first place. Computer screens yes but TV… nope, drawing a blank.' Shaking my head of the thought, I make sure the jumper cables are ready and the battery monitor I have attached are working properly. "Everything's connected." I tell Pearl once everythings attached to the battery properly.

"Good." She replies before looking to the other ends of the cables. "Okay, go for it Garnet." Order given, she emits an electrical discharge through the cables, supercharging the vans battery in an instant. 'At least now I know who to go to when I need a jump.' The monitor I have attached to said battery skyrockets on the amount of juice it's given, making me smile.

"We're good here."

"Alright Amethyst, try it now." Pearl next signals for Amethyst to start the van.

"I've never started a car with a key before." I hear her say, which gets my attention.

"Wait, you've started a car without a key before?" I ask curiously. 'Does that mean she's hotwired a vehicle?'

She ignores me however and simply turns the key, starting the engine. "Ha, that's way easier!"

"The battery is ready to go." Pearl announces to the others in the back.

"Let's get this show on the road." I add as we make our way to our sound experts.

"The Wailing Stone is ready." Steven says once the condenser is inside the stone.

"Ready with the video cord, Steven?" Greg asks his son while he's ready with his equipment.

"Ready." Steven then plugs in the cord to the TV in the back of Greg's van, activating it and bringing up the usual black and white fuzz screen with the noise to go along with it.

"Is that it?" Pearl asks.

"No, it's just static when something is having trouble trying to connect to the TV. We need a clearer picture. Greg?" I call the man's name.

"Just a second. I got this." He replies and starts fiddling with his controls. Unlike before with just the music and audio, the sound was hard to make out but this time with the screen, the noise is more manageable, sounds slightly better and the screen fluctuates as it tries to right the image.

"I hear something." Steven says. When I focus on my hearing again, he's right. The noise is still garbled but I can make out some words here and there.

"Come on!" Greg groans as he desperately tries to find the right frequency for us to see. We lean in a little closer after everything starts to make sense until—

"Marcus! Steven!" My breath hitches and my eyes widen as I see her. 'Lapis…'

"Lapis!" Steven I hear Steven say in awe at seeing her again after so long. It's hard for me to form words at this point after I remember her leaving all that time ago.

"I did it!" Greg announces ecstatically at his accomplishment.

"I can't believe my flipping eyes!" Pearl exclaims in surprise at the success. I grip my fists tightly at the drabble going on around me.

"Everyone—"

"SHUT UP!" I yell, interrupting Garnet and getting everyone to quiet down so I can listen to her.

"I hope you're able to hear this. There's a Gem looking for you two, she even knew your names. I don't know how! I didn't tell her, I swear! She's on her way to Earth, and she's not alone." 'She looks… scared.' "Steven, Marcus, Homeworld is not the way it used to be. Everything here is so advanced! I can't even understand it. There's no way anything on Earth can stand up to it. Please, don't put up a fight, It'll only lead to devastation." She says so… scared. She really does sound terrified. The video cuts off and we're left on the static screen again.

"It's Peridot," I hear Pearl say somberly. "She must be talking about Peridot."

"She's coming for us!" Amethyst yelps as she grabs her head in fear.

"Lapis, she sounds so unhappy…" I hear Steven say.

"She does…" I say tiredly, making him look at me. I sigh and rub my eyes, "She really does."

Pearl and Amethyst start freaking out about the situation and start talking amongst themselves, wondering what we're going to do or how screwed we are. This whole time, I've been getting vague information about Homeworld, how they are, how much they've advanced and so on… but this is the first hand point of view I have of the place from a friend. A… a good friend who's really… really scared.

"Woo." Garnet pipes up.

"Huh?" The others say in confusion, but she simply gets my attention.

"We did it." She says.

"What?" Pearl asks confused.

"We got the message." Garnet clarifies.

"But—"

"It's got!" Garnet says sternly, interrupting Amethyst from saying anything or focusing on the message itself. It takes me a few seconds but I smile nonetheless at her actions. 'Clever.' She walks up and extends her hand to Greg. He looks on in awe at the significance of her gesture. He takes it but instead of shaking, she claps her other hand on-top of his. "Thank you Greg, we would not have received this message without your help." She tells him sincerely.

"You… you're welcome." He tells her, stuttering his words slightly and almost tearing up at the compliment. Considering what he is and who he was involved with, that's about as much praise they've given him since they've known him.

"My dad is… the best!" Steven gets all of our attention by using that auto tuning voice box to change his voice.

"Oh my gosh, Steven's a robot! Help, I can't relate to my robot son!" Greg cry's out good heartedly about his sons actions.

"My mind is the internet, I know every continuity mistake ever made on television." Steven says again in that loud robot voice. I give a smirk to their actions but… it's sort of fake at this point. Not with other things on my mind.

They don't see it but I do. The gems look at each other with some form of uncertainty amongst them as Steven and his dad kid around. This is bigger than they think. The Gems start heading back to the temple, letting the father-son duo have their fun.

"Hey Garnet." I call out the gems name. She turns back to me. "Nice job back there."

"I don't know what your—"

"You forget who I am?" I say with a smirk.

She stares at me for a few silent seconds, before she reciprocates the smile and nods. "No, I guess I didn't."

I extend a hand to shake hers and she takes it. We give one firm shake before we let go. I turn back to the TV and my smile disappears before turning back to her. "I should get started… shouldn't I?"

She nods, "You should." I nod back, in agreement with the unspoken question between us. "Could you get the wailing stone?"

"Sure." I turn back and start heading to said item. "I'll see you back at the temple."

"See ya." She replies before walking off towards the beach house with the others. I have to admit, I sometimes forget how crafty she can be. A lot of times, she can be really blunt when it comes to some sensitive subjects here and there but now… she doesn't want Steven or his father to worry about the potential consequences of this message to have on us. Smart.

"Hey Marcus." Greg calls out to me as he and his son walk up. "My son and I are going to go get a bite to eat before turning in. Wanna come?" He offers.

"Thanks, but no thanks. I think I'll clean up here and turn in." I refuse as I go to start unplugging things.

"Oh, let us help." Steven offers but I wave him down.

"Nah nah nah nah. You've done enough, especially you Greg." He smiles at that. "I've haven't done nearly enough to help as I would prefer and you know what, it's the least I can do."

"You sure?" He asks and I nod.

"Positive. Get going. Still need to take the Wailing Stone back to the temple anyway." I add.

"Well, alright then." Greg finally agrees to it and taps his sons shoulder. "Come on, let's go get some fry bits you love so much."

"Yay! Fry bits!" Steven cries out happily with his arms thrown into the air and running to the boardwalk.

"Hey! Wait for me!" Greg calls out to his son and chases after the enthusiastic kid.

I chuckle at the kids enthusiasm. Once their far enough away, I grab the condenser and pull it out of the Wailing Stone.

*REEEE—*

The sound immediately goes off again once I pulled it out, surprising me enough to plug it back in. 'The hell?… but we got the message! Why is it still going?'

"Marcus…" I'm thrown out of my thoughts at my name being called. My attention is brought back to the TV, with Lapis still there but this time she looks worried. "Please, becareful. You didn't give up when you were helping me and I don't want you to get hurt. At all." She looks away before looking back at the screen. "I… don't want to lose you. I can't lose you! Not after you and Steven helped me when I was so vulnerable. Please…" She's almost begging. "Don't fight. Please… I just…" She begins to say but she stops. The video cuts off again and I'm left with the white noise of the TV.

I stare at the screen for I don't know how long. That last message was meant for me… and she really is scared about this. '…What did you find… Lapis?'

With a sigh, I pull out the condenser.

"…"

Nothing else comes forth.

Surprised by how short this was… but nonetheless I'm satisfied with the result. As to be expected, things are starting to heat up for our earthly protectors and I don't know about you but I'm getting excited about getting to Homeworld's arrival. It's getting good here and I thank you all for your support.

Like no joke, all of you who have been here since the beginning and the recent arrivals, thank you. Seriously. Here's the thing everyone, I would normally save this for after 'Jail Break' since that would be a more appropriate time, but it's the end of the year so I want to give this to you guys as a New Years gift.

I never thought my story would get this popular and it's all thanks to those of you giving me a chance. As I write this, the view counter for this story has already hit over 30,000 views. I may be the one that writes the content but its all of you who took the interest and read through it.

Thank you everyone, I hope to continue to impress you all in the future, and as always,

Have fun reading, and a Happy New Year.