"Let me go, you cretin! I'll tear your organic limbs apart, I'll rip your face off, my anger has no bounds!"

"Calm down Aquamarine, I won't do anything to you."

"That's not my point! LET ME GO!"

Steven sighed. He knew getting her to agree on this would be hard, but she was especially resistant to his attempts to calm down.

"If I let you go, will you calm down?"

"Yes. Whatever it takes to get out of your grasp."

"But, on one occasion."

Aquamarine groaned. Steven was slowly becoming too much to handle. "Ugh, what is it?"

"Promise me you won't run away the second I release you."

"Fine. Just let me out."

With that being said, Steven released Aquamarine from his hug. The tiny Gem briefly contemplated escaping but brushed it off, as it would result in her being hunted down. She placed herself on his right shoulder.

"So what's next? You're going to put me in some kind of prison? Shatter me? Turn me into a servant for all of eternity?! Come out with it!"

"No no, that's not happening. I want to show you around Beach City. You know, get you to know the place."

"What? Why would you do such a trivial thing?"

"I just want you to see it. It's really nice if you give it a chance. Also, I think you have a bit of apologizing to do."

Now Aquamarine was really confused. "What is this 'apologizing' you speak of? And why should I do it?"

"Apologizing is when you say or feel sorry for doing something bad to someone. You tried to kidnap people for Homeworld."

"I don't feel bad about that. Besides, it's their fault for getting captured in the first place. Not mine."

With that, Steven got up and walked over to the barn. Aquamarine was still tense about going in there, as she had never seen a structure like that in all of her time on different planets and on Homeworld.

The two were immediately greeted by barking and the sound of quick feet on the ground. While Steven knew what it was and chuckled, Aquamarine didn't know what that barking came from. She flew down to investigate it.

Jut mere seconds later, a large, orange creative came face to face with Aquamarine.

Aquamarine was even more confused by this. She already was familiar with animals and the flora on Earth, but she had never seen a sentient plant.

"Uh, do you speak?" She was immediately licked by the creature and covered with saliva.

Aquamarine shrieked with terror and flew back onto Steven's shoulder. She was just about ready to lose it with this place already. Her lip was quivering as she said, "W-What is this?! Why is it s-so disgusting?! Are all Earth creatures this disgusting?"

Before Steven got a chance to respond, Lapis swooped down and picked up Pumpkin.

"Sorry about that Steven, Pumpkin's been a bit erratic these past few days."

Steven shook it off and chuckled. "Oh no, that wasn't me that was screaming."

"Then who was...," Lapis' voice trailed off as she noticed the small Gem on Steven's shoulder.

"Uh, who's that?"

"Oh! This is Aquamarine. I brought her here after she was bubbled yesterday."

"After you bubbled me, Steven," Aquamarine said, irked by what happened to her yesterday.

She turned her attention to the Lapis right in front of her.

"My, I never thought I'd be seeing a Lapis upfront. Especially a defective one."

"Excuse me? I'm apparently 'defective'? Lapis tensed up and got a little bit closer to Steven.

"Your very existence and choice of staying here is treason! How can you do such a thing? To defy your Diamond?"

"What about you? What's your reason?"

"I came here to finish a mission I was assigned. Do you think I'm here because I want to be here? I'm still here because I'm stuck here, you imbecile. Now I have to learn how to adapt to this dump of a planet until I get off," replied Aquamarine, her voice growing colder as she reached the end.

"I'm also stuck here too. Yet you don't see me complaining. I would stay here rather than go back to Homeworld."

"Excuse me?" Aquamarine was shocked by this. Any Gem who had the nerve to say this was brought to the Diamonds had short lives.

She flew right up to Lapis' face, inches away from actually touching her.

Steven reached out to Aquamarine, wishing that this didn't end up into a fight. Unfortunately for him, the little Gem noticed him and swatted his hand away.

"Don't meddle in this Steven. I can handle this idiotic Gem myself."

"Now I'm suddenly idiotic? I think you the idiotic one here!"

Steven decided to back off from the two, as he knew that trying to stop them at this point would be futile. As much as he disliked not having anything to help with, he knew when not to get involved with stuff.

The argument between Aquamarine and Lapis took a turn for the worse as it grew louder. It soon turned into a contest to see who could shout the most insults at the other.

It ended in a couple of moments prior to the increase in volume. Lapis, now with a neutral expression, looked at Aquamarine for a few seconds, as if thinking what to do with her and whether or not to kill her.

There was a quaking vibration to Steven only; Lapis was unaffected to it and Aquamarine was still floating up in the air and let only an "Eh?" when she heard the rumbling of something.

Mere moments later and a huge current of water was splashing on a large pink shield. After the tension had cooled down, the boy had his shield fade back.

The two Gems stared at him before Steven grabbed the shorter one's leg and dashed out of the barn.

"Sorry about that meet you later!" was all Steven could shout as he ran out the front door.

"Stupid annoying Gem. Wonder how Steven even finds these things." Lapis picked up Pumpkin and went back to the armchair, picking up a book and trying to forget what happened in the past fifteen minutes.

After the fiasco with Lapis, Steven ran back to the warp pad, with him holding Aquamarine's leg in the process. As the two were traveling through the warp stream, Aquamarine started a conversation between Steven.

"What was that for? Grabbing my leg and then running off?" She jabbed a finger at Steven's chest, clearly upset at the fact that she couldn't finish the argument.

"Well, Lapis tried to attack you with water and you didn't seem to stop so... I got you out of there."

"Pfft. I would've won that trivial conversation if you didn't interrupt it."

The pair arrived back at the beach house. Steven remembered that Peridot and Topaz were supposed to be here and looked around for them.

Aquamarine simply groaned. This day had already gone from stupid to even stupider in a short amount of time.

The Gem once again decided to go back to Steven's shoulder. She tugged on his right ear to get his attention. "Mind telling me what're you looking for?"

"Peridot and Topaz. They came here to see the Crystal Gems."

Aquamarine looked around the area. Yet there was no sign of the aforementioned Gems.

"I don't see them. Try looking up there." She pointed up to Steven's bedroom.

"No no, I don't see them up there. And I don't hear anything either."

"Who cares about them? If they're not here, they're not here."

"I guess you're right about that."

After some time had passed about the situation, Steven shrugged it off and went to the kitchen. There, he grabbed the ingredients for a sandwich.

"I'm assuming this is the 'breakfast' you humans have at this time of the day?"

"Yup! You want a bite once I'm done?"

"You know very well that this thing is much bigger than I am, Steven. Besides, I'm not interested in human food."

Steven chuckled. "Oh alright."

After finishing the sandwich and gobbling it down, the boy reached for a pocket and pulled out a wad of dollars. "Let's see here... yup enough for a donut."

Steven rushed out of the door, not hearing Aquamarine's questions about what a donut was.

He arrived at the Big Donut shortly after. As he approached the shop's entrance he told Aquamarine to get off him.

"Could you please stay by the tables here while I get a donut?"

"Why?" Even though she hated being told to do something, the Gem obeyed and went to a table.

"Well... I don't think Lars and Sadie would be very happy to see you. Because you know after you tried to kidnap them yesterday."

Aquamarine was starting to get Earth logic now, albeit slowly.

Steven went in and bought a donut. When he arrived back at Aquamarine, he showed the dessert to her.

"Is that what a so-called donut looks like?"

Steven nodded, as his mouth was already full of it. He offered a bit of it to the Gem, and once again, she dismissed it.

As Steven finished his donut, he gestured for Aquamarine to come back. This time, she went to go to Steven's head.

"Mind if I go on your head?"

"No problem with that."

As Steven departed from the Big Donut, the little Gem remembered a crucial part of her arrival on this planet. She landed her ship on top of a structure, one with thick, hard four-legged creatures for humans to sit on and around the top. She also recalled a child call it something around 'Beach City Land'.

Aquamarine grabbed the boys' hair to get his attention once more. "Listen up. I need you to go somewhere.

This time, it was Steven who was confused. "Uh, where?"

"I need you to go to a place with creatures that have four legs that humans can sit on."

He scratched his head, trying to see what place Aquamarine was referring to. "Sorry, but I don't know what you're talking about. Could you say something else about it?"

"It's called Beach City Land or something around that."

"Oh! It's called Beach City Funland. And the thing you described was the merry go round. It's not far, about a couple of minutes from here. Did you leave something there?"

"Yes! If you take me there right now, I won't say another word. I'll do whatever you will."

Steven nodded and ran off to Funland. Whatever it was must have been something Aquamarine treasured.

He reached Funland after a few minutes. As the boy was babbling on about the place and how fun it was, Aquamarine kept a close watch for the ship.

After what seemed like an eternity, the two arrived at the merry go round, and there it was, the ship in all its glory.

Aquamarine let out a small squeal of delight and formed her wings. Steven had noticed this and asked if something happened.

"There! Up there!" She pointed up to the top of the merry go round.

As Steven was about to respond, Aquamarine grabbed him by his shirt and flew up to it.

But, something was off about it. She didn't notice this at first, but the sides were riddled with holes. The most prominent one was double that of Steven.

Aquamarine zoomed into the ship, not bothering herself about Steven's well-being. She had to check if the ship had been damaged on the inside.

Steven safely floated down, carefully navigating through the ship to avoid debris. Along with that, he noticed that the smell of smoke was present and that the top seemed to be shattered, slowly but gradually.

He called out for Aquamarine. As he expected, no response. He called out her name again and was met with the same results.

Steven decided to look for the Gem at this point. It wasn't long before he stumbled across her, frozen in spot.

"Hey Aquamarine, is something wrong?"

"M-My seat! T-The screen! Everything! EVERYTHING'S DESTROYED!"

It was true; everything was a mess. Alongside the crumbling walls, pieces of what could've been glass and the putrid smoke, the seat had been turned into nothing more than a pile of cyan-colored rubble, and the screen was shattered into a thousand pieces. There was near to nothing of it left.

Just as hope seemed lost for the Gem, another memory came rushing back to her. There was an escape pod on the lower level of the ship. This was her last chance. If it was destroyed as well, Aquamarine was going to be stranded on Earth.

She regained her composure and flew towards and down the descending staircase. Anything that Steven was saying or asking fell on deaf ears. Steven followed suit shortly after.

The second level of the ship was as equally destroyed as the first level, only messier. The engine was smashed to bits and the escape pod was lodged into it. Blue fragments and shards of Gem material were stuck inside it. The walls were also smashed up, cracks both little and big littering them.

Aquamarine looked at the place with pure horror and hopelessness. She slowly sank down to her knees and began to weep.

"N-No... why?... why does this have to happen? To me?"

Her cries gradually rose in volume as time went on. Despite Aquamarine's intentions and arrogant personality, Steven pitied her. He went over to her to comfort the Gem.

"There there Aquamarine, it's not that bad. Even if you can't go back to Homeworld, you're welcome here on Earth and with the Crystal Gems."

"I don't need your pity, Steven. Just leave me here to wallow in my failure and misery."

Only after Steven had said that and while he was attempting to help her did she notice he used the term 'Crystal Gems'.

"Wait. Did you say 'Crystal Gems'?"

"Uh, yes. Why?"

"Are they related to you? Associates maybe?"

"Well, they're kinda my family and take care of me."

"'Family'?"

"You know... people you live with."

"Whatever. That's not important. What is important is that what you know what they did after I was defeated and bubbled."

"Well... they went to look for your... oh." Steven backed off from the Gem. As soon as he said that, Aquamarine went from full of despair and hopelessness to full of unbridled rage and anger.

"WHAT?! YOU KNEW THAT THEY WENT AFTER MY SHIP?!" Aquamarine was now tugging at the scruff and shaking Steven by it.

Steven threw his arms up. "I didn't know they would mess it up! I just thought they would investigate it!"

"SO WHY DID YOU NOT TELL ME THIS EARLIER? WHY DID YOU TELL ME THIS JUST NOW?!"

"As I said, I had no idea the Gems would leave your ship this bad. I don't even think you'd care about this that much!"

There was silence for a brief moment. Then, Aquamarine picked up Steven by his shirt and flew back up to the first level. This time by the back of it.

"We're going back."

"Maybe you should calm down a little-"

"SHUT UP! YOU HAVE NO IDEA HOW SAD AND ANGRY I AM!"

The flight back to the beach house was swift and short, taking only a couple of minutes. Not that it mattered to Steven and Aquamarine, as the former was still worried about what would happen at the house and the latter was much too angry to care about anything else.

After Aquamarine had stopped by the entrance of the beach house and afore towards the door, Steven stopped her and gave one last attempt at getting her to cool down.

"Please listen to me, Aquamarine. I don't want you to go in there like this. If you go inside all angry like this you won't leave a good impression on the Gems."

"You won't leave a good impression on me if you don't come in with me," Aquamarine retorted. Steven gave up on the thought of helping her and went in with her.

What they saw shocked both of them. Garnet, Pearl, Amethyst, Peridot, and Topaz were all sitting on the couch, with Pearl seemingly explaining something to Topaz, Amethyst and Peridot chitchatting and Garnet staying on guard as usual. No tension between them.

It wasn't until a few seconds had passed that everyone acknowledged Steven and Aquamarine's presence. They greeted Steven, ignoring Aquamarine.

"Hey, guys, what's with all this? With Topaz?"

"You mean this hunk of yellow bricks? Peri and she just came into here to introduce her to the C-Squad!" Amethyst was more friendly than Steven had anticipated, giving a friendly punch on the shoulder to Topaz.

"Why yes, she's been quite cooperative. As for you though..." Pearl's voice had trailed off as she directed her gaze towards Aquamarine.

"I don't need news on how well my partners been doing. I want an answer to something else."

"Oh? Ask away then."

"Did you have anything to do with my ship? Big, cone-shaped, was maroon-colored."

"Oh yeah! We totally destroyed it!" Amethyst had jumped up and made slammed her fist into her palm, making a crushing motion. "We smashed up everything that had a weird gizmo on it or had a button on it!" Garnet gave a supporting nod.

"Amethyst." Pearl has shot a cold glance towards the other. "But we did disable it to make sure you didn't get away with anyone else."

Aquamarine looked like she was about to burst again but just sighed. "That settles it. Now I know to avoid you, miscreants, at all costs."

"Is there anywhere else I can go, Steven?" Aquamarine hissed his name like it was the most putrid word to exist.

"Well, you have two options. You can stay here with me or the Gems, or the barn. You know, the big red building with Peridot and Lapis."

"I'm going to this so-called barn. I can't stand you or you little Gem dullards."

She went to the warp pad, turning away from Steven and his friends. When she arrived at the barn, she made her way there.

After she arrived, she came across Lapis, who was upon the top of the truck watching Camp Pinning Hearts. As expected, she was surprised to see her again.

"Well well well, look who came back again."

"Look, Lapis Lazuli, I am not in the mood for you or whatever you have on store for me. Can... I stay here for the time being?" Aquamarine was embarrassed at saying this and turned her head away from the other Gem.

"Meh, sure thing. Just don't break anything." Lapis went back to watching TV.

"Oh, and just what you might be doing now?"

"Watching TV. Wanna try it?"

"I don't have anything better to do, so fine." Aquamarine flew up to the truck and sat in front of it.

"And I already don't know what to do. Do I just stay up here and do nothing?"

"Pretty much. You'll get the gist of it soon enough."

As the humans started making long speeches about love and sorts, Aquamarine decided that although this was boring, it was much better than staying with Steven and her former friend.

She would see what the days would have in store for her. Maybe then it would get interesting.