It had started out as a normal mission. They were hunting through the redwood forests in California. A lot of the locals thought they had seen a sasquatch, but the damage the beast had caused stated otherwise. Several trees had been uprooted and campers had been raided. To cover more ground, they decided to split up. This was a momentous occasion, because the first time the z fighters allowed Steven to go it alone.

The boy was practically skipping with excitement as he searched the forest. He was so excited, that he almost didn't notice the rustling bushes as he passed them. Steven stopped and turned to look at them. There was not a single sound until a figure stepped out of the brush carrying a bike wheel under their arm.

"Amethyst!" Steven exclaimed, a smile gracing his face.

The gem turned to look at him. "Hey runt," she said with a smile, "Whatcha doing all the way out here?"

"We're looking for a gem beast. It's been tearing up the area and stealing food. Do you know anything about that?" he asked.

"Tearing up the woods? No," she said, "Stealing food...that's probably me actually."

Steven's eyes widened. "What? Why are you doing that?" he questioned, "Don't you know that stealing is wrong?"

"Hey, it ain't my fault they leave their doors unlocked," she defended, "Besides, if I don't steal from them, a bear will, and honestly, you don't want to run into a hungry bear. Really, I'm doing them a favor."

"It's still wrong to steal…" Steven muttered, "Don't tell me you stole the bike wheel too!"

"Don't get all uppity," Amethyst brushed him off, "I got this thing from a junk yard. You guys throw away some pretty awesome stuff!"

"Well I guess that's ok…" Steven reasoned. "So what have you been up to besides stealing food?" he asked

Amethyst was about to answer, when suddenly, they heard a voice. "Hey Steven! We caught the monster!" Goku called.

"Uh-oh!" Steven whispered, "Amethyst, you need to get out of here!" He began pushing her away when the three warriors stepped out of the brush.

"Hey, who were you talking-" Goku started before laying eyes on Amethyst. The three warriors gave her blank stares. "It's the gem!" he announced before taking up a fighting stance. Vegeta and Piccolo followed suit.

Amethyst grinned while Steven looked panicked. "No guys, it's alright! She's not trying to hurt anyone!" Steven said, standing in front of her, "You don't need to-WAH!"

Amethyst suddenly grabbed Steven and picked him up. "YOU'LL NEVER TAKE ME ALIVE!" she shouted while grinning like a maniac before chucking the boy at them. The Z fighters were caught off guard by the sudden weaponized Steven and Goku stumbled back into the other two as he caught him. She then ran off laughing.

"After her!" Piccolo shouted. Goku, set Steven down as they charged after the purple gem.

"Guys! wait up!" Steven called as he chased after them. The Z fighters tracked her back to the warp pad.

"See ya, freaks!" Amethyst said, sticking her tongue out at them as she activated the warp pad. She disappeared in the beam of light as the warriors caught up to her. Thankfully, they were right on her tail and were able to hop in the stream along with her. Piccolo grabbed Steven as they did so. When they landed they found themselves in the kindergarten with the purple gem nowhere to be found.

"Damn it, we lost her!" Piccolo growled before sighing. "Well she couldn't have gone far. Let's split up and look for her," he said, "Goku, You come with me. Vegeta, you go with Steven. We'll check the walls while you can search the canyon floor." The two Saiyans nodded before they split up.

"Come on, boy," Vegeta said, grabbing Steven before flying down to the bottom of the ravine, "Let's find this purple annoyance so we can get back to our real problems."

"So you don't think Amethyst is a threat?" Steven asked, "Cause if she's not then we can just leave her be!"

"I never said that," Vegeta responded, "She's just not our biggest threat at the moment. I'm sure if we gave her time she could cause some trouble, though."

"But what if we give her time and she actually does some good things instead?" Steven said, "I mean she's not perfect, but neither are you."

"Yes, and your mother barely let me out of her sight until she was sure she could trust me," the Saiyan retorted, tail swishing in annoyance, "If she had just let me roam the Earth, things would have ended up very different."

Steven frowned. "Different how?" he asked, "What would have happened if mom hadn't looked after you?"

Vegeta suddenly stopped, shoulders becoming tense.

Steven looked at him with worry. "Vegeta?" he asked, "Are you ok?"

"Shh!" the Saiyan hissed as he crouched down to look at something on the ground. He motioned steve forward and the child approached him. "Steven," he whispered, "What do you see here?" The Saiyan pointed to the ground in front of him. There was a somewhat ovular imprint in the dirt.

"It looks like a footprint," Steven said, bending down to look at it.

"Good, and who do we know that makes a footprint like that?" he asked.

Steven wracked his brain for the answer before his eyes widened in realization. "Peridot!" he exclaimed. Vegeta promptly placed a hand over Steven's mouth before shushing him again.

"Shut up! This canyon has an echo effect. If she's still here, she might hear you!" he hissed.

"Sorry…" Steven mumbled.

Vegeta nodded before standing up. "Let's see if we can find more," he said.

Steven nodded and the two searched around the small area. They couldn't find anymore heading farther in the direction the foot had been going, however. "She must have left already…" Vegeta growled slamming his fist against a rock, "She must have flew off some how."

"Hey, don't feel too bad!" Steven assured, "We can still figure out what she was doing here by…" He then gestured to a set of footprints leading up to the one they had found. "...Retracing her steps!" Steven said.

Vegeta grinned slightly and walked over to him. "If that wasn't such a terrible pun, I might just be proud of you right now," he said, walking passed Steven to follow the trail.

"Aw come on," Steven said following him, "That one was...punderful!"

"If I hear another pun out of you today, you're grounded."

….

The two followed the trail back to the spot where the robonoid had lead them the last time they were here. "Great…not this place again…" Vegeta muttered.

"Oh no! Was she trying to start up the kindergarten again?" Steven asked.

"I don't think so," he said, "Look around you. See those machines? Don't you think they would be up and running if that were the case?"

"So what was she doing down there?" Steven asked.

"Good question," Vegeta said, before punching the elevator panel and sending it careening down the shaft. He then picked up Steven. "Let's find out," he stated before flying down.

….

Once they reached the bottom of the shaft, they found the room where they had first fought Peridot. It was dimly lit and looked decrepit. Stone cylinders sat against the wall. "Is it just me or is this place creepier than it was before?" Steven said looking around. Vegeta didn't respond as created a ball of ki in his hand, illuminating the room better.

He walked over to the cylinders and started examining them. "So what were you actually doing down here…" he muttered.

Steven couldn't shake an ominous feeling he was getting as he looked around the room. "Maybe we should leave…" he said.

"Quit whining," Vegeta responded as he examined the stone pillar, "We can leave when we actually learn something."

"Ok…" the boy responded. It was then that Steven felt something drop onto his back. "WAH!" he cried, leaping into the air before stumbling into Vegeta, "Something just touched my back!"

"Get off!" the Saiyan growled, pulling Steven off of him. "Now what are you on about?" he asked, a little more calmly.

Steven pointed to the spot where he had been standing previously. There was something lying on the ground. Vegeta's eyes widened before he shone a light on it. What they saw was a disembodied hand attached to a foot. "The hell…" Vegeta mumbled as he walked over to it and picked it up by a finger. The hand-foot squirmed and emitted some kind of noise as he brought it to eye level. He promptly dropped in surprise. "It's alive?!" he hissed as he stepped back from it.

They heard more noise and looked up to see more disembodied body parts crawling along the ceiling. They began to drop down and the two began to back up as they crawled towards them.

"What are these things?!" Steven cried, "Where are they coming from?" Vegeta didn't respond. He was paralyzed with disgust. Usually he had no problem seeing disembodied limbs, but the noises those things made, they way they moved…it was just wrong!

He snapped out of it when one touched his foot and he blasted it. It disappeared in a puff of smoke leaving behind a strangely shaped gem. "It's two gem shards…" Steven observed, "stuck together!"

Before either of them could say anything else, a rumbling came from the stone pillar behind them. They turned and saw it crack as light began to pour out of it. A gem and a figure crawled out. The white light separates into several figures for a moment. The light image glitched out and screaming could be heard until the forms dissipated into one large form. It was a giant, black, hand-like shape. Eyes covered its surface, and each finger hand another hand on the end. The two looked on at it in fear. Vegeta's tail stood rigid and his shoulders tensed as he stared into his many eyes. "Vegeta!" Steven shouted as it reached out and grabbed the Saiyan.

He struggled against its grip. "Get off me…" he growled a glowing ball of ki grew in his hand, "GET OFF!" He fired at the gem mutant's center, causing a large explosion. The creature disappear in a puff of smoke, leaving only an amalgamation of gem shards behind.

Vegeta panted, calming himself down. "Vegeta, are you alright?" Steven asked, running up to him.

"I've seen a lot of horrible things...even participated in a few…" he muttered under his breath, "But to do something like this to one's own kind is worse than anything I could have imagined…" The amalgamation of gem shards began to glow again. Vegeta immediately blasted it with as much power as he could muster. When the smoke cleared, there was nothing left besides a pile of ash.

Steven looked at him in shock. "Wh-why did you do that?!" he cried, "We could have helped it!"

"I am helping them," he said darkly, calm and collected once again, "There's no way to fix them, so I'm putting them out of their misery."

"B-but killing is wrong," he argued weakly.

"These gems were shattered. They're as good as dead already," he stated bluntly as he destroyed another one.

Suddenly, Goku and Piccolo flew down the shaft and landed in front of them. "We couldn't find Amethyst, but we heard an explosion. What happened," Piccolo asked as he surveyed the situation.

"Gross!" Goku said, moving away from one of the body parts, "What the heck are these things?"

"They're gem shards stuck together," Vegeta replied grimly, "The gems have been using this place as a way to make these Frankenstein's monsters."

The two other Z fighters gave disturbed looks. "Why?" Piccolo asked.

"I don't know," Vegeta said, "But whatever it is, it can't be good."

Hey everyone. so I finally got this done. Sorry if Vegeta's a bit OOC. I though that because he has a fear of worms, it might translate as well in to other things that squirm like that, and honestly, in real life the fusion experiments would be down right horrifying. Still I hope you enjoyed this chapter. The next one will be pretty short. Let me know what you think!