Several days had passed, and Spinel had slowly but surely recovered from the incident on Homeworld. She felt more comforted being surrounded by Steven, Pearl, Garnet, Amethyst, Lapis, Peridot, and even Jasper.
During one of those days, she was able to make one visit and told Jasper everything that happened, which shocked the orange Gem immensely and got her worried about what the Diamonds could do. Spinel explained that they had no idea where they were since they disappeared.
This seemed to ease Jasper's concern... a bit.
To Spinel, all that mattered was that she was safe with her baby, her partner, and her friends, Gem or human alike. She had told her friends the news of her and Pearl becoming a couple, much to Garnet, Amethyst, Lapis, and Peridot's delight. Even Jasper didn't mock the fact that she was dating a Pearl. She was happy for that.
"Spinel?" Steven had said while she was thinking of all this.
The pink Gem sat up, "Y-Yes, dear?"
"U-Um... do you think… you and I could have some... 'Us time'?"
"Of course! What do you have in mind?"
Steven held up a DVD with a picture of a tabby kitten with five different dogs standing behind it, "We could watch Ollie and Crew!"
Spinel smiled, "Sure, I'd love to watch that with you again!"
When it turned night and the Gems were away, Steven sat in Spinel's lap, the Gem wrapping a blanket around them to keep him warm while they watched the movie. Spinel didn't feel tired, but could feel Steven snuggling close to her towards the middle part of the movie.
"You getting tired, sleepyhead?" Spinel whispered.
Steven jolted up a bit, "N-No! I'm awake!" He sat up and they watched the rest of the movie, the boy yawning from time to time. When the last song of the movie ended, Spinel lifted Steven in her arms, stretching her arm over to turn off the TV and placed Steven down for bed.
"Oh Steven..." Spinel kept her arms coiled around him, "You mean the whole world to me..."
Steven hummed a reply that sounded like he agreed, and he nuzzled under her chin.
She kissed his forehead, "Can't wait for Connie to stop by for more training tomorrow. So wake up early, love."
"I will..."
"Hm... No mail again," Steven muttered as he shut the mailbox lid, confused as to why Jamie hadn't shown up yet. And not even Connie had shown up either, even though she had promised to visit early for their training.
Spinel and Pearl walked over to him, the latter asking, "Still no sign of her?"
"Nooooooo..."
The two Gems glanced at each-other in concerned confusion. "Here," said Pearl, "I'll try to reach out to Connie's mother and see if she's ill or something."
"That sounds like a good plan," Spinel agreed, patting the boy's back, "Don't worry, bud. We won't skip another day of training."
Steven sighed.
Steven walked down the boardwalk, appearing stressed out. He had talked with Sour Cream, finding out Onion had disappeared a day ago. Along with Barbara, Sadie's mom, had no clue to where her daughter's whereabouts were. He even talked with Lars' parents, but no luck.
"Maybe... they're on vacation?" Steven said to himself, "No, they wouldn't. They'd tell me. And Connie? She seemed fine yesterday. Did she change her mind?"
He walked over to the vending machine in the arcade, buying a bag of Chaaaaps and left the place, "Well, Sour Cream was right. Onion wasn't in the vending machine. And neither was anybody else." He ate a chip.
"Are you my dad?"
To his shock, a tiny blue Gem with a teardrop-shaped gemstone on her cheek stared up at him.
"AH!" Steven yelped, "A Gem!"
"Are you my dad?" The blue Gem repeated her question, "I need to find my dad."
"U-Um no, no I'm not..."
The Gem frowned, groaning as she summoned her water butterfly wings and flew off. Steven tried to follow after her, but she was already gone when he turned the corner.
"And the gem was under her eye," Steven told the Gems, "My right, her left. And wings, yeah…"
The Gems showed their illustrations, none of them coming close to what she looked like, especially since Garnet only drew herself.
Annoyed and seeing Spinel's obvious stress, Pearl crumpled up her drawing, "This is a waste of time! We should be preparing for a fight. Whoever this is, she's from Homeworld. She's gotta be here for us!"
"N-No..." Spinel began to panic, "N-Not again, I... I thought we were done with them..."
"But she said she was only looking for her dad!" Steven explained before he could see Spinel break down.
The Gems stared at him with confusion, "What?"
"Her dad?" Pearl asked.
Steven became more worried, "There are all these people missing. Maybe her Dad's gone missing too."
"But... Gems don't reproduce like humans," said Spinel, trying to slow her panic, "They don't have parents."
"Man..." Amethyst groaned, "This isn't making any sense."
Garnet stood up, "We've got to get to the bottom of this. We should split up, and investigate. I'll go alone, Pearl with Amethyst, and Spinel and Steven."
Spinel nodded and walked over to Steven lifting him up, but then remembered something, "Pearl? Did you call Ms. Maheswaran?"
"I-I did," The pale Gem rubbed her arm uncomfortably, "But she said she thought Connie had gone out to visit us, but when I told her she wasn't here, she said nothing and hung up."
Steven gasped, "Spinel! We gotta find Connie! And the others!"
"Don't worry, sweetheart," Spinel assured him, "We will find them. I promise."
The pink Gem and her boy had wandered for a few hours, finding no trace of Connie, Lars, Sadie, Jamie, or anyone else. Steven had wondered if the blue Gem was taken in by a man who became her father figure, but Spinel didn't agree.
In the forest, the two traversed into it. Steven stayed as close as he could to his guardian, afraid if he was going to get taken away as well. When they found Onion's hiding place, they found no sign of Onion.
"Oh no..." Steven murmured, "What are we gonna tell Sour Cream? Or his parents? Lars and Sadie's parents? They're all worried about them, but we've found nothing!"
"Hey hey hey..." Spinel whispered, her tone loving and calming, "It's okay, Steven. We're not the only ones out on this search. Pearl, Amethyst, and Garnet are out too. I promise, we'll find them, get rid of this Gem, and everything will go back to normal."
"... P-Promise?"
"Promise."
Kissing his forehead again, Spinel and Steven searched around the clearing. But truly, Spinel could feel... something in her gemstone. It was not like the feeling before Steven learned to manifest his shield.
No. This was a dreadful feeling, as if she knew, deep down, everything was going to go wrong. Very wrong.
"Hello?"
Spinel froze and looked up, seeing the Gem staring down at her from a branch, "W-Wha?! An Aquamarine?!"
"Are you my dad?" Aquamarine asked.
"Spinel?" She heard Steven's voice behind her, "Who are you talking to?"
The tiny blue Gem's eyes widened, "Spinel? Are you the Spinel?"
Confused, Spinel answered, "Ye-Yes?"
Aquamarine flew up, grinning, "Topaz! We found her! Just as Blue Diamond requested!"
The dread stabbed through her being as she backed away, instinctively holding Steven behind her as another Gem showed up. This time, it was a Topaz, a fusion in fact. But the more terrifying part was the sight of Lars, Sadie, Onion, Jamie and Connie trapped in the Gem's body.
Connie saw them and screamed, "RUN!"
But they remained frozen in fear, Spinel whispering, "S-She... she's got them..."
"S-Spinel..." Steven began to cry, "I-I'm scared..."
"I know... Just stay behind me, love."
"Now now, Spinel," Aquamarine perched herself on Topaz's head, "You are coming with us, regardless how you feel about it."
Spinel snarled, "Go back to that disgusting place to get coddled by those monsters? Never…"
Neither are you taking my baby away from me...
Aquamarine was unfazed and humphed, "'Easy to catch' Blue Diamond said, 'She has no power whatsoever' Blue Diamond said. Tsk, looks like-"
A fist slammed itself into Aquamarine's face before she could pull out her wand. Topaz was a bit surprised to see the rage in Spinel's eyes as she grabbed Steven.
"We need to run! Now!" And with her boy over her shoulder, she dashed off, far away from the Topaz, before Aquamarine could get up.
"NOOOO!" Steven screamed until the Homeworld Gems were out of their sight, "CONNIE!"
SHIT GON' GET REAL Y'ALL
