Hey, everyone, Milo and I were able to do a pretty cool chapter! I hope you enjoy.

Please don't compare this story to Future unless absolutely necessary.

Anyway, please leave some reviews in the future, pun intended. I love to hear what you all think. Please enjoy!

Chapter 15: Countdown

Red Diamond looked out of her ship's main viewport at the Human Zoo, smirking despite all the setbacks she faced. Even Blue Diamond's taunting could not get her mood down. Why should she feel bad when her intellect could still win the day?

A few moments later, her faithful Pearl entered behind her. Without looking, the matriarch addressed her. "Back so soon?"

"Yes, My Diamond, but I am happy to report that it was because of Steven fusing with his Pearl to form an impressive new fusion."

"Ah yes, he never ceases to amaze me! All the more reason to prioritize him over all the others."

She then turned and looked down on her Pearl. "Since he is shown to be far more powerful than he appeared, we will have to corner him not with force but with the one thing he can't resist; heroism. Prime the detonators, Pearl."

"At once," saluted the servant as she set off to do her master's bidding. The Diamond gazed out at the space station once again, eager to finally have her hands on Steven Universe.

Meanwhile, the Gems in the habitat were shocked.

"Destroy this place!?" Jasper asked, "Are you insane?"

"Um, that's a given," snarked Peridot, "But more to the point, why?! You'd kill all these people for nothing?!"

"Oh, not for nothing," answered a Spinel, "For Steven. He's still our master's biggest target."

"All the humans and Gems on board might have been nice, but Steven is irreplaceable," added another one, entirely unconcerned that she might die today.

This fact alone unnerved everyone, especially Jasper. Not only was she creeped out by what they were saying, but also dumbfounded at this sadistic sense of loyalty these Spinels had to Red Diamond.

The Crystal Gems had much more to worry about, though, when the door to the habitat was blown down. When they saw who it was, though, their fears were assuaged.

"Guys, about time you showed up!" joked Amethyst.

"And you brought Rainbow Quartz!" smiled Garnet.

"Well now, it seems like you were having a great deal of fun without us,"

"Well…" Rainbow said playfully, "I'm not entirely sure about fun, but…" They said that with a childlike smirk that enticed a chuckle from Amethyst.

Jasper, on the other hand, was quietly tense at seeing another successful fusion she hasn't seen before…

"This changes nothing!" insisted one of the Spinels, "One wrong move and these humans will be endangered!"

"Or Red Diamond might just destroy this whole base!"

"Oh, great," moaned Lapis, "Something else to worry about."

"Oh, you haven't the faintest idea!" spoke a voice from inside the room that none of them recognized.

The Crystal Gems wheeled around and saw the source of the voice. One of the Spinels was projecting a screen with Red Diamond's visage looking down at them.

"I have many goals in mind! Unlike the other Diamonds, I am not limited by a one-track mind. I could always use more test subjects from the guards stationed here, but I also desire the last Rose Quartz gems in existence! Even beyond that, I could capture these humans in order to further my research! Above all, however, I hoped that it would bring you here. Given your past with your mother and how hopelessly sentimental Blue Diamond is, it was the perfect bait!"

"That's despicable!" shouted Peridot.

"Says the Gem who was once sent to monitor a Gem Cluster that was originally meant to destroy the entire planet it slumbered in…" said the Diamond.

"So, this is your ultimatum," said Garnet, "You're going to blow up this whole station unless Steven hands himself over to you."

"Well, it seems your future vision is effective. I must look into adding that to my troops."

Amethyst interrupted her. "If you think we're just gonna hand over Steven, then you've got another thing coming, you cracked creep!"

"Well then, the only other option is demolishing this whole place with all of you inside."

"Um, wouldn't that kill Steven too?!" yelled Bismuth.

"Considering that bubble of his survived planetary re-entry and let him breathe in the vacuum of space, he should be able to withstand one little explosion."

"Okay," interrupted Rainbow, "If I may ask, how exactly do you know all of this about Steven?!"

"I have my ways. Now then, you have one hour to reconsider." And with that, the transmission ended. The Gems were once again looking at the Spinel soldiers around them.

"Well?" one of the Spinels asked, "We're waiting!"

The humans who were there, however, were terrified. The only barely understood what was happening around them, but they could tell that it was not good...

Suddenly before anyone could say another word, a portal appeared just above them!

"What the-!?" The same Spinel began in shock, only to be tacked a split-second later. It was one of the Famethysts!

Indeed, the Famethysts were popping out of the portal with Lion alongside them! With the surprise appearance of over a dozen friendly Gems on their side, the Crystal Gems suddenly felt much more confident.

"Ha!" goaded an elated Amethyst, "Now we're gonna kick all your crazy butts!"

Unfortunately, they were not the only surprise as dozens upon dozens of Red Diamond's troops poured into the habitat from the broken down door. It was far more than just the group pursuing Rainbow Quartz's gang as it seems they went off to gather any Gem who could help.

"You were saying?"

The groups stared at each other. The only noise in the room was the humans, still surrounded by the Spinels, shivering in anticipation of an obvious brawl until suddenly both sides were off.

Rainbow Quartz was quickly dogpiled, being seen as the biggest threat, but a bubble shield around them fixed that. In a flash the fusion was off, wielding their parasol with unbelievable skill. When they were not dancing around every blow sent at them, Rainbow quickly slashed any Gem down to size in an instant. No soldier was even able to touch them, but Red's forces had plenty of other opponents. The Famethysts couldn't help but cheer Rainbow on, as they've never seen a Gem quite like them before, let alone a Fusion. Their cheering stopped, however, when they turned around and saw one of their own petrified into a golden statue.

"What the?! How did that happen?!" yelled one of the Jaspers of the group before getting her answer as something seemed to race up behind her one moment before she was similarly turned into gold.

The group was on high alert as the shape started dashing for Rainbow Quartz until someone else rushed in and punched the attacker across the room.

"Garnet!" Rainbow said cheerfully, "Aren't you just a sight for sore eyes!"

Garnet smiled at them for a second. "I've got this one. Try to get those humans free."

As Rainbow raced off, the new Gem quickly tried to ambush her. Unfortunately for her, she picked to surprise the one Crystal Gem who could see the future and was kicked in the head for her troubles. Now that she managed to get her foe to slow down, she saw that this new Gem seemed to resemble a realistic statue made out of molten gold from head to toe. In fact she seemed to have no discernable facial features at first because of this. She wore a uniform similar to what a Topaz would wear, but with the addition of a skirt and elbow, length fingerless gloves. Her Gemstone, shaped like a coin, was on her forehead.

"What the?" Jasper said, seeing this new foe "Who are you supposed to be!?"

The new gem looked at her, emotionless, save for a slight frown. She spoke only one word in response to Jasper's question with a slow calm voice, "Aurum."

"And I don't care!"

Jasper charged at Aurum with her crash helmet out, but the golden Gem dodged to the side. She almost laid her paralyzing grip on the bruiser before Jasper landed a blow of her own. Aurum did not have much to time follow-up, though, as Garnet was behind her and quickly started overpowering her. While her speed and stealth were very impressive, it seemed Aurum had little experience with direct combat. After enough of a beating from both Gems, Aurum was poofed and reduced to a harmless gold coin.

While that battle went well, others were not so fortunate. Bismuth and the sole Carnelian of the Famethysts were contending with two Spinels along with seemed to be a blue-colored Topaz who had the ability to shoot lasers from her eyes. Including the ones on the palms of her hands.

"Do you have any secrets about this place that would help?" asked Bismuth as she was grappling with a Spinel, "Because I need to get this stretchy freak off of me!"

"Nope, I never came in here," responded the shorter Gem, trying to dodge lasers while talking, "Holly Blue would have my gem if I snuck in here, the clod."

"I heard that!" cried the Agate.

"Good!"

"Focus!" shouted Bismuth as she managed to grapple the Spinel by the throat and toss her into the air. Once she was free, the blacksmith ran over to the mutant Topaz and quickly dealt with her. Even after taking a laser blast to the arm, she plowed on through and used a hand-turned-axe to decapitate the Gem and poof her.

Peridot was still putting her tractor beam wand to good use as, while not skilled at hand-to-hand combat, she was a specialist in technology. Whenever a stray from another battle tried picking her off, they were quickly grabbed and tossed around like ragdolls.

Lapis was taking advantage of the environment, namely the giant lake in the habitat, to wreak havoc on any of Red's droogs that tried to attack her. While she did find the occasional Gem who could either fly or tried leaping to her height, a hand of water appeared and smacked them out of the air like flies.

Meanwhile, Rainbow continued to make short work of their opponents, that umbrella katana came in super handy. One of the Spinels from earlier tried latching onto them, but all that got was being flung overhead before being poofed.

Rainbow then said, "Well now, this is getting a bit stale…"

"Agreed," Garnet said.

"Are you mocking us?!" shouted one of the Spinels. Despite the chaos of the area, all ten of them were still maintaining their position around the humans.

"Now now, I wouldn't go that far… It's simply that your group underestimated the spectacular abilities of the Crystal Gems, an easy but costly mistake."

Now all ten of them were peeved and, much to Rainbow's surprise, all of their gems began glowing.

"You're not the only ones with fusion!" they spoke in unison before their bodies melted into liquid. Their bodies all gathered at one point before the blob exploded in size to being on par with Yellow and Blue Diamond in height. Three different heads appeared on the colossus' massive shoulders with four arms appearing on each side. Then, just to make the vision even more threatening, a magenta tentacle appeared out of her back and wrapped itself around all the humans like an enormous tail! The people quickly started crying and panicking, but the gargantuan Spinel ignored it all and then absorbed them all into her body.

The entire battlefield went dead-silent at the arrival of this monstrosity. While Red's forces were all smirking, the Crystal Gems and their allies were freaking out.

"Oh, terrific."

"SWEET SPIRAL GALAXIES, WHAT IS THAT?!"

"Okay, that's just insane!"

"Should've seen that coming…"

"It's Spinelzilla!"

Amethyst's name actually seemed to amuse the giant as she gave a devilish grin before taking one massive step, shaking the entire room underfoot. Even Rainbow Quartz's usual bravado was briefly gone.

"Now this… Might be just slightly difficult…"

Meanwhile, Blue Diamond was making her way down the giant-sized corridors designed specifically for her. She wished she could reunite with Steven and ensure his safety, but she did not have the faintest idea where he was. Her best guess would be the habitat, but how to get there? Even in all her trips here, she often just made her way to the bubble room and then left.

She was distracted from her thoughts by a ringing sound coming from her gemstone. She quickly summoned her personal communicator and found the call was from her Pearl.

"My Diamond," greeted the morose servant, "I have just intercepted a recent transmission from Red Diamond. I assumed you would be interested."

"Show me."

Her demented sister's entire spiel played out, though missing some context since it was half of the conversation. Even still, now Blue knew everything.

"That… Little…" she growled, "She'd actually shatter all these Gems… I'm going to-"

"Pardon the interruption, My Diamond," spoke her Pearl, "But I have also taken the liberty of having a cursory scan of the base done by your technical staff. They have found that the explosives in question have been planted in the infiltration points her pods used to enter the base."

"Show me." Blue was then presented with a holo-screen showing the locations for each of the bombs.

"From what they could gather, the bombs have already been primed and the countdown has begun. They would have to be physically removed from the base in order to avoid premature detonation."

The matriarch thought for a moment, wondering what kind of equipment she had that could work, before looking at her own two hands.

"Thank you, Pearl, I have an idea in mind. That will be all."

One brief salute later and the communicator was off while Blue was making her way back to the entrance she crashed into. Thanks to the massive hole she made in the main door, a massive sliding wall had been put up to keep the border between the vacuum of space. With no time to head to the controls, Blue once again burst the wall down and let herself be sucked into the void once again. Another airlock was thankfully deployed behind her, but she did not have time for that.

Now that she was in the vacuum, Blue propelled herself with a jump up towards the top spire of the zoo where she found a red sphere waiting for her. She gently laid her hands on it and with one tug she managed to pry it off without having it explode. The usually calm Diamond gave a smirk very much like her yellow counterpart and thought to herself.

"Let's see if you're as smart as you think you are, Red."

Spinelzilla roared at their faces, shaking the entire room as she dared any of her opponents to attack her. All of the Crystal Gems, even the likes of Garnet, had looks that ranged from nervous to horrified.

Holly Blue herself took one look at the thing… and promptly fainted. This earned the dutiful leader a round of facepalms from the Famethyst.

Rainbow may have hidden their fear well, but it was obvious even they were tense.

Then, all at once, the tension broke as the massive Spinel sent her eight colossal arms hurtling towards Rainbow. The fusion nimbly dodged, weaving and leaping through the air as limb after limb flew past them. Just as two more arms came at them, Rainbow changed strategies and held the fists apart as the Gem tried to crush them.

"Jeez, how strong are they?!" exclaimed one of the Famethysts as Rainbow actually succeeded in pushing the hands apart!

The other Crystal Gems were just as surprised save for Garnet who was beaming with pride. As dangerous as the situation was, she could not hide her happiness at just how far both Steven and Pearl had come.

Spinelzilla, though, was less than happy and finally stopped trying to squash Rainbow. In fact, she actually made all of her arms regress back into her body. The much smaller fusion was not sure what to think until their gargantuan enemy liquified her entire body and came at Rainbow like a living tidal wave!

"Goodness!" they exclaimed before summoning their parasol and rocketing away. The other Gems could hardly believe what they were looking at; a four-eyed pink samurai flying on a rainbow-spewing flying umbrella fleeing from a sentient magenta wave of liquid Gems.

"Heh," mocked Jasper under her breath, "Some fusion…"

"Just wait for it…" said Garnet. And sure enough, Rainbow suddenly turned around and flew straight at the magenta wave. Right before they touched it, Spinel's body reformed into solid mass and swallowed Rainbow.

"Hahahaha!" laughed Spinelzilla, "I've got you now, you-"

She was stopped when she suddenly felt a sharp pain in her gut, forcing her to double over. The others watched in awe as they saw a lump form on the giant's chest until Rainbow stabbed their way through with the katana!

"That'll teach you to get greedy with your food, young lady!" jested Rainbow as they floated to the ground with their umbrella whole again, resembling a certain practically perfect nanny.

Seeing her foe still not defeated, Spinelzilla roared in anger and formed two colossal arms. Her arms then morphed into ten-foot long blades and swung her left one at Rainbow. The fusion summoned a bubble to stop the blow. It managed to just barely do the trick with the makeshift weapons colliding with the bubble with a resounding thud! She went to swing again, only to find Rainbow was flying once again. This time the smaller fusion was soaring in circles around Spinelzilla before suddenly leaping off with their katana out again. They went for one of the many gems scattered on the titan's body, but before they could reach it, a human popped out over it.

"Someone help!" she cried, her body being curved over the stone like a literal meat shield. Rainbow immediately changed course and kicked off of the Spinel's body before her massive sword tried to slice them.

"Oh, really?!" cried Peridot, "You're actually going to use them as fodder?!"

"This just got profoundly more difficult," grumbled Rainbow, grateful they could pull back at the last minute. As they were lost in thought, though, Spinelzilla was still on point and managed to slam into Rainbow with the flat of one of her arms, sending the fusion flying into one of the habitat's walls hard enough to punch clean through.

"Ooooohhh…" winced the various Famethyst, all of them now staring at the hole they would have to patch up later.

Spinelzilla, however, was laughing her head off. "Ha, now I've learned how to beat you! I'll just keep using these humans and you won't be able to touch me!"

Lapis herself was mortified at this sight, seeing the humans trapped in this monstrosity. Amethyst was angry as well. "You're using hostages as like your toys? How low can you get!?"

And so, for several minutes, a pattern emerged with Rainbow mounting an offense in various ways only to have one of the captive zoo-people be shoved out right where they were going to strike. This meant having to rebound over and over again until finally even their energy began to slip and the thought of having to come apart become more and more tempting until Rainbow looked over at the other Gems in the room and had an idea.

Rainbow soon flew in for another round, looking to repeat the process. Spinelzilla grinned, thinking the next move was a foregone conclusion, but was surprised when a giant watery sledgehammer bashed her on the head.

"Hey," shouted Lapis, "Did you forget about me?"

"Or me, clod?!" boasted Peridot from the ground. At first it looked to be a hollow claim, only to be surprised when managed to pull down one of the tiles making up the ceiling of the habitat, much to the monster's shock. She immediately blocked with both her sword arms in order to avoid being sliced in half herself while the crowd was equally impressed.

"How?!" shouted Amethyst, her jaw nearly hitting the floor.

"Turns out the composition of Homeworld's building materials contains metal! Nothing is safe from me!" she had a look of manic joy in her face as she said that last sentence. Several of the Crystal Gems looked more terrified by that thought than the fifty-foot tall monster in front of them.

Eventually, the massive Spinel managed to push the enormous tile off of her and was now roaring mad. She started sprouting tendrils from her body to start attacking her many foes only to find Garnet flying straight at her. Spinelzilla pulled the same strategy and threw out one of her captives to throw her off.

"Nice try," smirked the much smaller fusion as she simply grabbed the man's hand and yanked him to safety.

"Huh?!"

"Future vision for the win!" yelled Amethyst as she took her turn along with several of the Famethyst by her side. Five purple Gems leapt in unison and all nailed her straight in the gut, forcing the massive fusion to topple over.

"Not so high and mighty now, are ya?!" declared Bismuth as she and Jasper both ran towards the fusion's legs with the clear intent to topple her. The towering Spinel tried the same trick by pushing two more captives out where they were poised to strike, only to find both of them being pulled out safely.

"Thank you!" said the woman Jasper just rescued. Rather than react, Jasper just dropped her like a rock once she was safe in the more overgrown part of the habitat and ran back into the action.

Realizing her old strategy was now failing her, Spinelzilla had to think of a new plan. Before she could very far, however, she saw Rainbow lounging on their umbrella and trying to grab her attention.

"Yoohoo! Up here! I'm still raring to go, unless you'd rather keep playing with my friends. I don't judge, if that's the case!"

That got under the titan's skin. It was one thing to be losing, but having someone treat it like a game? That finally did it for her as she opened her mouth and started literally firing the rest of humans she held prisoners like cannonballs one after the other.

Rather than panic like the Spinel was hoping, Rainbow summoned the biggest shield they could make and turned it in reverse so that it would catch everyone. The plan worked and soon Rainbow lowered the large makeshift platform to the floor bringing every human back to relative safety.

Needless to say, the Spinel monster was shocked at this outcome, and was starting to sweat a bit.

Rainbow then stood before it, a neutral look on their face, and spoke to the monstrosity before the group, "Alright, you have one final chance, leave. Retreat before this gets even worse for yourself."

There was a brief pause… then it was clear that the Spinel monster declined. She roared in anger as she grew two extra heads. Just when it could not get any weirder, she actually breathed a type of searing hot crimson and tried to roast the androgynous fusion alive.

Rainbow, with a serious look in their eyes, opened their umbrella and used it as a shield. And it proved to be QUITE the barrier as the energy simply bounced off while Rainbow ran straight for the fusion monster! Then, out of nowhere, they struck like lightning leaping all over the colossus until they suddenly landed in front of the group. At first, nothing seemed to happen and the Spinel prepared to attack again…

...Until a hairline fracture appeared on her left arm. Then another one on her right leg. A whole bunch of them appeared on her torso and soon all three of her heads rolled off her massive shoulders. The mighty titan literally fell to pieces as dozens of sword slashes appeared all at once all over her body. There was no sound in the room save for the massive fusion bursting into nothing but ten magenta stones that clattered to the ground.

Rainbow then landed gently on their feet. They held out their sword, twirled it slightly then placed in back into their umbrella.

Everyone had an internal reaction to what they just saw. Well, save for Holly Blue who just woke up. The Crystal Gems and Famethysts were all ecstatic with even Jasper looking satisfied to see the titanic monster fall. Red's other forces, however, realized just how bad of a position they were in. With their only getaway gone in order to plant the explosives and not set to come back until the one hour time limit was up, they realized they were now stuck in this space station with Rainbow Quartz and at least three dozen other enemies. They then took the smart route and ran headlong out of the room as fast as possible, gunning straight for the main entrance and choosing to throw themselves into space rather than contend with this kind of enemy.

"So much for sacrificing themselves," snarked Rainbow Quartz before receiving a round of applause from the other Gems and the humans who were awestruck by the fusion's achievement.

"Well, it's been a pleasure to entertain and serve you all, but I believe it's time I take my leave. Hopefully next time Red's droogs will be more reasonable and we can discuss our differences over a game of Academic Achievement!"

And with that, the fusion lit up before splitting into Steven and Pearl. While both of them were panting from the strain of being together for so long, they were both equally satisfied that the fighting was over.

"That. Was. Awesome!" Amethyst said, "You guys were like some, super samurai or something!"

Steven had a smile of modesty upon that praise, "Well… yeah."

"Who knew all those Lonely Blade movies would actually seem plausible by comparison?" said Pearl, wondering if she should give those films a second chance.

"Wait," Lapis said, "Aren't we… aren't we forgetting something?"

Peridot immediately chimed in, "Yeah! What about the detonators!? This place is still poised to explode!"

"What…?"

Peridot's outburst earned a few unintentional reactions of fear from the humans. "O-Oh… Oops."

"Yes, that does indeed seem to be the case!" spoke Red Diamond from her holo-screen. "I must admit I'm impressed with the abilities of that Rainbow Quartz. All the more reason to study you up close, Steven."

The boy, however, was not intimidated. "Yeah, yeah, mad scientist stuff. Can you just go already? It's been a long day and these people have been through enough. I'm pretty sure it's flower-sniffing time."

"Haha, we'll aren't you quite the… defensive child…" Red said, "Are you really certain you'll risk everyone's lives on a whim?"

"How many times do we have to go through this?!" yelled Jasper, "He's not going! Beat it already!"

"And besides that," added Pearl, "I've got quite the workload at home that I must get to. Gutters don't clean themselves on Earth."

"Yeah, I'm just done with all this," agreed Lapis.

Red Diamond did not appreciate their flippancy. "A-Are you all cracked?! After all of this, after each ploy I've pulled and the danger you've been through, you're all treating this like some drawn-out game?!"

"That's how you've been treating it this whole time," retorted Garnet calmly, "Might as well play along."

One of Red's eyes visibly twitched. However, she was suddenly calm, "Very well… I suppose I have no choice. I can override the countdown on the detonators and set them off immediately instead." She then has a sinister smirk on her face.

Steven looked nervous at this threat, visibly worried. "Ah," Red continued, "Now you are frightened." She then gave a sinister chuckle and seemed to reach for a button off-screen. "Feeling a bit more cooperative with me seconds away from destroying your friends?"

Before Steven could reply, Garnet walked up to him and whispered something in his ear. The boy then suddenly seemed far calmer as he crossed his arms and stared at her. "Do it."

"Wait, what?!" exclaimed everyone else in the room. Holly Blue almost fainted again.

"Can't I get a say in this?!" she shrieked.

"Yeah, we're with her!" yelled Carnelian, "We need to vote on this or something!"

"Steven, I've come to appreciate your confidence and superior emotional intelligence," admitted Peridot, "But perhaps this might be the time we use logic?!"

Steven did not answer, trying to keep his composure as he continued staring at the devilish smirk Red Diamond was giving. The humans on board, oblivious as they were, were also one step away from full-blown panic attacks.

"Steven!" said Pearl as she put herself in between the two, "What did Garnet say?! Tell me!"

"Oh dear," Red moaned, obviously enjoying the spectacle, "It seems you aren't the leader Pink Diamond was made out to be. I suppose you'll have to live with that grief once I hit this!"

Red pressed the button, causing everyone, even Jasper, to scream in terror. Steven even summoned a bubble on the incredibly slim off-chance that he was actually going to die…

...But nothing happened. Red's face went from evil glee to immensely confused in a second. One by one the people in the zoo opened their eyes and saw that they were perfectly fine. Steven lowered his bubble and let out a sigh of relief while flashing a thumbs-up to Garnet for the warning.

"W-we're alive!" cheered Amethyst, "Holy smokes, we're still alive!"

"Told you…" smirked Garnet.

Their joy only got better as the flustered Red Diamond pushed the button again and still nothing. Soon she started mashing the trigger hoping in vain that it was just a delayed reaction, but still nothing. Seeing the fearsome madwoman who tried holding them all hostage be reduced to this was too much for the group and soon they all fell on the floor laughing their heads off. Even the humans were in hysterics, just enjoying how positive the mood became, and the Famethyst were doubly amused seeing Holly Blue rolling on the ground with tears going down her face.

Once she finally stopped holding down the button, Red Diamond went from confused to enraged.

"WHAT DID YOU DO?! WHICHEVER ONE OF YOU DID THIS, I WILL PERSONALLY-"

"You know," spoke a tranquil voice from on-high, "I really must thank you for that talk earlier…"

A panel of the roof opened revealing Blue Diamond overlooking the entire scene. "If it weren't for that motivating me, I never would have thought to go outside and remove the bombs myself."

"Blue! You saved us!" shouted Steven as he leaped the entire distance from the ground to her viewing platform and hugged her face.

"No way!" said one of the Famethyst, "She did all that?!"

"Our Diamond is awesome!"

"I desperately need to be restationed…" grumbled Holly Blue, trying to nurse a headache.

"So," resumed Blue, "I must ask, Red, how did you get so distracted? I was outside the whole station the whole time, but you never spotted me once? What was Steven doing in here that kept your attention?"

"I'll explain later," assured the boy as he laughed at Red's expression. It was obvious she was trying to hold back a meltdown as she clenched her eyes and mouth shut. A second later, the feed showing her face was shut off. They then heard something in the distance.

"My Diamond," Blue's Pearl said in the zoo intercom, "The sensors are currently showing multiple ships leaving the area, Red Diamond's forces are retreating!"

All of the humans and gems, even Holly Blue, began to cheer at this news. The Crystal Gems, especially, were happy that they finally got one up on Red Diamond and saw her thoroughly defeated. Up above them, though, Blue and Steven were discussing something.

"Hey Blue, I know you really care about this place, but…"

"Hm? Is there something wrong with it? Does it need a new color?"

"No, that's fine, but I was just thinking. All those Rose Quartzes stuck in bubbles, even though they didn't do anything wrong."

"Are you suggesting I… let them go?"

"Yeah. I understand you want to remember Pink with them, but they're still alive. One of them got loose during the fight and she was super scared. She probably doesn't even know why she was just thrown away."

Blue looked at Steven for a moment, and then was in deep thought. In a few seconds, she spoke, "Yes… I believe you are right to suggest such a thing… They will be released. And since they are technically your Gems, it's only right you decide where they should go."

Stevven's eyes widened when he was told of that responsibility. He then remembered that he was technically a Diamond now too.

Later…

The one thing Steven didn't realize about the Zoo unil Pearl told him was that it wasn't just some simple space station, but a fully operational SPACESHIP! It didn't even take them that long to make it back to Earth!

Within the hour, They were already back on the planet, the Zoo overlooking the temple! This came as a shock to Greg, who was near the temple himself.

However, the first thing he saw was Steven, with an awkward look on his face. "Hey there, sport! Had a fun time in outer space?"

"Well, yeah, it was fine, but…"

"Hi!" greeted a very eager Rose Quartz that was following behind Steven. Greg immediately looked ready to have a heart attack.

"Yeah… Turns out I own every other Rose Quartz gem in existence." Steven explained, laughing nervously for a second, "All… 2,382 of them."

The Rose look-alike was happily staring at the sand and crashing waves like a small child at the beach for the first time. The men appreciated her being distracted since Steven was clearly uncomfortable with the thought of "owning" anyone else and Greg's mind was reeling from the thought of thousands of copies of his late lover being around him all at once, each one only slightly different from one another. Some were even picture perfect copies of the woman he loved...

"I'm not sure what to tell the other Gems, though… I think some of them should go back to Homeworld and help there, but how many? Any ideas?"

"Uhhhhhhh…"

"Are you okay?" chirped the Rose Quartz, "Is something wrong with your face?"

Steven noticed the same thing. "Hey, Dad? You feeling okay? You… look like your losing it..."

Rather than reply, Greg ran into van and burned rubber as he drove down the beach. If he listened carefully, Steven could swear he heard him yelling at the top of his lungs, his mind torn halfway between being ecstatic and terrified.

A few minutes later…

Pearl, Garnet, and Amethyst were all frozen in shock, as a LOT of Roses Quartz Gems were in the temple-house while the rest were playing outside, curious and happy.

"We're gonna have to talk about this…" thought Garnet.

"Man, I hope I can get some of these gals into wrestling! Purple Puma and her posse of Pink Panthers! That'd be sick!" thought Amethyst.

"They're not Rose. They're not Rose. They're not the Rose you know, Pearl. Get those thoughts out of your head! As much as you want to, it'd be so many descriptions of wrong!" thought Pearl as she brought out a paper bag of her gem and tried to control her breathing.

Bismuth was a bit uncomfortable at the sight, considering what she tried to do to Rose herself. She decided the best thing to do was head to her forge, bang out a few battle axes and keep her head cool until this all blew over. She may have been unsure about all the new faces, but she did have faith that Steven could fix it.

Jasper, on the other hand, was internally enraged. There were just way too many of… HER in the same room. While all of them had their differences, there were a few identical to Steven's mother and one look at them made her grind her teeth. It took all of her willpower not to go into a rage and attack any of them so instead she hopped onto a warp pad to go somewhere, anywhere, far away from all this and punch rocks to kill the time.

The only two who were not that shocked or angry were Peridot and Lapis Lazuli, as neither of them knew Steven's mom well enough for this to be weird. They merely watched from the cliff overlooking the house.

"This is going to be complicated," muttered Lapis.

"Yeah and there's no amount of meep-morps that's going to fix this," thought Peridot, "What all these Gems need is somewhere to direct their attention…"

"You mean besides at Pearl?"

Peridot blushed at that line. "Not like that! I mean an actual function. A place for them to truly be useful."

"Well, considering they're all soldiers, not sure what they can do."

"Hm… I'm not sure… they seem to be almost too playful to be soldiers…"

"Then why don't they just hang out with Black Diamond and his Pearl all day? They've got nothing better to do…"

"Guys!" spoke Steven as he ran up the hill behind them, "I'm really not sure what to do with all these Rose Quartzes! Pearl looks ready to explode, I think Jasper's disappeared, and I don't think I wanna know what my dad's doing! I'll take any ideas on what to do with all these extra Gems!"

Black Diamond looked at the scene before him and blinked. It was not every day someone literally brought over a thousand Gems to you out of nowhere.

"So… Let me get this straight," he started, feeling rather awkward despite literally standing over everyone, "You essentially inherited all of the Rose Quartz gems left in that Zoo."

"Yes." said Steven, rubbing his arm nervously.

"But since you're situation at your temple is complicated, you thought I could use them all?"

"Exactly! You said you only had your Pearl so it seemed fair!"

"Well… I won't deny that I've missed having more subjects- I mean, associates. But are you certain the others won't mind? The last thing I want is White on my back badgering me about protocol."

"Yeah, I thought that too. I was going to talk to her and see if she's willing to split them 50-50. That way she had more Gems helping on Homeworld and you have some friends for yourself!"

The patriarch rolled the idea over for a moment before smiling. "It sounds to me like you have impressive diplomacy skills."

"Yeeeah, that kinda comes with the territory."

"Wait, really?!" yelped Black Pearl, overhearing the entire conversation, "You mean I'm going to have almost 1,200 new friends?!"

Rather than be annoyed, the Diamond just laughed. "I suppose so, Pearl. Now you'll have someone to help you find that Nebraska place you've been searching for."

Steven stifled a laugh at Black Pearl's antics. He then proceeded, "Yeah, besides. It kinda doesn't feel right to just say that I 'own' these gems. They're their own people, able to choose what they want to do, what they want to be! I just wanna give that to them."

Black smiled warmly at this, "Spoken like a good friend. I expected nothing less from the young man who reformed the Diamond Authority.