Lamp Entertainment presents…

Mayor Nanefua was standing just outside the town border of Beach City. She was watching the cars pass by and crossing names off a checklist. Counting the evacuees. Taking note of the missing people.

There were far too many missing swept up by whatever evils were invading their town. While she had no idea what this evil was or what it wanted, she could still feel it, like a bitter black wind howling in the distance.

She prayed and hoped that Steven and the Crystal Gems would be able to keep the promise he had made…

Chapter 18: Friends and Enemies, Act 2

Please don't bother trying to find her
She's not there

The Beach House…

Garnet had stayed silent during Pearl's and Joseph's history lesson. Instead, she kept an eye (or three) on their new guests. Studying their personalities, mannerisms, how they acted and behaved. She needed to know these things for her future vision to work properly.

Of course, her future vision hadn't worked properly for the last two days. And even before then… she found it hard to get any concrete visions. Only vague premonitions that might as well be a bad hunch. Lately, things were just so… chaotic. Chaotic and unpredictable. Bizarre, even.

She didn't know it yet, but things were about to get even more chaotic within short. Only a few minutes remained of the last calm before the final storm. In the meantime, she considered their guests, the four stand users.

Jotaro Kujo. Composed. Intelligent. Practical. He was focused on the goal at hand and how to best achieve it. While his younger companions were constantly making comments or asking questions during Pearl's exposition dump, he only asked questions on things that might be useful later. Strangely enough, Garnet felt like she understood him better than any of the other stand users, even though he was the hardest one to read.

Josuke Higashikata. Kind. Compassionate. Helpful. Despite its awful name, his stand was made for healing and repairing. And if a stand was a reflection of a person's soul like Joseph suggested, then it said a lot about what kind of person Josuke was.

Okuyasu Nijimura. Enthusiastic. Loyal. Not the brightest star in the galaxy perhaps, but he had a big heart, that much Garnet could tell. She got the sense that no matter how limited his abilities may be, he would still try to his fullest. He also had a good hand with cats. Garnet was kinda jealous. She wanted a cat too.

Koichi Hirose. Humble. Reliable. Despite being the smallest out of the four, he still had enough guts to pursue Santana into the air earlier during the chase. The other stand users seemed to value his opinion very highly and they trusted him greatly.

"Our biggest priority is to make sure that Santana does not get his hands on the Aja," Jotaro said. "Where is it currently?"

"Far away from here," Pearl said. "As soon as we thought there might be a pillar man in Beach City, we moved the Aja to another location. It's safe."

More specifically, the Aja was hidden in Rose's secret armory that only Lion could reach, locked inside a compartment that only Steven could open. It was about as safe of a place as they could possibly hope for.

"Good," Joseph said."That means the stone is safe from Santana. And we might be able to use the fact that he thinks the stone is still here to our adv-"

This is the part where everything got very chaotic very fast.

"Nyah!" Peridot yelped, interrupting Joseph. Something pushed her off the stool she was sitting on and she landed on the floor, face first.

The five stand users all sprang to their feet.

"Watch out!" Josuke yelled. "It's a stand!"

Garnet immediately tried to peek a few seconds into the future. And she saw… nothing. Not nothing as in the sense that she couldn't foresee any possible futures at all. No, nothing as in that in the most likely timeline, nothing more happened after Peridot was pushed to the floor. Whatever the enemy stand was, it didn't seem to be doing anything after it appeared.

Her prediction was accurate. The five stand users all carefully approached the invisible stand. No doubt with their own stands ready for whatever crazy abilities this one might unleash upon them. Still, nothing happened.

"Wait a minute…" Josuke mumbled. He moved a bit closer to the invisible stand to get a better look at it. "This is… this is that same stand from before! Look!" He pointed at what looked like empty air to Garnet.

"The box we found in the house must've been part of this stand," Jotaro said. He looked over his shoulder at the Crystal Gems. Pearl and Amethyst had reflexively summoned their weapons, for all the good they would do against a stand. Steven had his shield ready, and Connie was holding Rose's sword. Lion was also keeping his eyes locked on the general area where the stand was, ready to pounce. The two small cats were both hissing at the sudden commotion. "It looks like a map of beach City," he continued.

"Look! It's us!" Okuyasu exclaimed and pointed at somewhere on the stand map. He looked straight up at the ceiling as if expecting to find someone looking down on him from above.

"Maybe this map monitors everyone in the town?" Koichi suggested. "It looks pretty empty, so I guess they must've evacuated already…"

"There are still a few left though," Josuke said and gestured towards a few spots on the map. "Weird, who's going to the amusement park right now?"

A map that showed where everyone in Beach City was? No wonder Santana always seemed one step ahead of them. He could literally track their movements second by second. But… why on Earth had the map showed up here? For what possible reason did Santana have to show them this map like this?

"Then this must be… oh no!" Josuke suddenly said and his face became a little paler. "Words are appearing on the map!"

If Garnet could see stands, she would've seen how small portions of the stand map was disappearing, forming small letters in it. But as she couldn't see it, she had to make do with Jotaro reading it out loud.

"I am at the docks," he quoted. The ever-present frown on his face deepened. "You have ten minutes to bring me the Aja. Fail to do this, and I will kill every human in the city."

A cold wind seemed to blow through the room, turning everyone into ice sculptures.

"Hermit Purple!" Joseph cried, extending his arm towards Steven's TV upstairs. Invisible vines wrapped themselves around it and the young old man tugged at them. The TV turned so that everyone downstairs could see the screen. It flickered to life and an indecipherable mess of pixels and static filled it. An image showed up for a second or two, showing a figure in tattered clothes standing by the docks. Next to him stood Jamie the postman.

The image flickered and shifted to another place and person. Sour Cream was balancing on top of the Ferris wheel at Funland. He looked like he might fall at any second. The next image showed a boat out at sea. Dad Onion and that boy Steven disliked were standing on it.

All of them had empty whites for eyes. Just like Steven described his dream the night before.

Garnet gritted her teeth. Santana must've set this up during the evacuation was still going on. That must've been when he grabbed Jamie, since he wasn't in Steven's dream.

One last image showed up on the TV screen. It was of the strange young man Ronaldo. His gaze wandered across the screen. Suddenly, small black signal towers sprouted out of the TV and the image became crystal clear. Ronaldo was at Greg's car wash. He was holding something sharp in his hand…

"Dad!" Steven yelled. Greg walked on screen and Ronaldo ran up to him with that sharp object in hand… and that's when the signal towers disappeared and the image was replaced by more static.

"Shit!" Joseph cursed. "I can't get any new images."

"My dad!" Steven yelled! "He's in danger! We have to go save him!" He turned to rush out the door.

"Wait!" Jotaro said and grabbed Steven's shoulder before he could run off. "It's a trap," he said. "This is exactly what Santana wan-"

"I don't care!" Steven yelled and pushed Jotaro's hand off of him.

The large man stumbled backward, nearly losing his balance. His scowl momentarily turned into shock and surprise at Steven's strength.

Steven too looked shocked with himself, but only for a second. His face and eyes were hardened by a steely determination.

"We don't have time to wait," he said. "People are in danger! They're in danger and we have to save them! I don't care what kind of trap I'm walking into! I'm not gonna let Santana hurt anyone else! I'll go by myself if I have to!"

"No way," Connie said quickly. "I'm coming too!"

"I'll go with you too," Josuke said. He smiled at Steven. it was probably meant to look reassuring but it ended up looking more uneasy. "You'll need a stand user on your side."

Steven nodded.

"Lion," he said. "Could you…" He interrupted himself before he could finish the sentence. Lion wasn't standing where he had been standing only a few moments ago. Instead, he was walking towards the door. "L-Lion?" Steven said again but the pink feline didn't even react.

Meanwhile, after she was knocked to the floor, Peridot had to crawl between the legs of the taller humans surrounding her. She was now sitting on the floor looking confused.

"Hey you!" she said to Lion as he was slowly approaching. "Steven is talking to you! What are you even doing? And why do your eyes-"

Lion walked past Peridot, his soft fur brushing against Peridot's arm.

A flash of silver and Peridot suddenly screamed in pain. Several fishing hooks had shot out of Lion's fur and dug themselves deep into Peridot's arm.

Lion still did not react. Not to Peridot's scream or her pained whimpers as she was dragged along, the hooks in her arm connected by thin strings to the lion.

"W-what the… This must be the work of an enemy stand!" Koichi yelled.

"It looks like he might be in some kind of trance," Jotaro said. "He's being pulled somewhere."

Garnet looked out in the distance, to where Lion was heading. Outside the door and out into the ocean… there was a small fishing boat.

"The boat," Garnet said. One blurry image of the future finally materialized before her through the mists of time. "This must be Dad Onion's stand pulling Lion towards him."

"N-no…" Steven whispered the determination that had filled his eyes fading away.

"D-don't worry Steven," Peridot said, trying to hide the pain she was in. She gestured with her free hand, summoning the gadget she had been working on to her with her magnetic powers. "I'll take care of this. You go save your dad."

Lion reached the door and pressed his nose against it to open it.

"B-but…" Steven said.

"Go! Quick!" Peridot hissed. "You said it yourself! you have to go save your dad before it's too late! I'll handle whatever stand user is responsible for Lion's weird behavior."

"She's right," Garnet said. "And you were right before, Steven. We don't have the time to hesitate." As much as seeing Steven's desperation had broken her heart, his determination had also filled her with resolve. "We'll split up, save everyone, and put an end to Santana once and for all! Lapis, you should go with Peridot."

"I'll go with them too," Koichi said quickly. He smiled nervously at Lapis. "You might need a stand user. I mean, not because I think you're weak or anything, but uh… you know, since I got some experience when it comes to dealing with stands and all."

"Sure…" Lapis mumbled. She grabbed ahold of Koichi's arms and summoned her water wings. She rather awkwardly started hovering above the slow-moving lion.

"Amethyst, Pearl, and Okuyasu," Garnet said. "You three head to Funland to save Brother Onion. Me, Jotaro, and Joseph will head to the docks to deal with Santana himself." She took off her visor and looked Steven in the eyes. In her peripheral view, she saw Jotaro raising his eyebrow when he saw her three eyes. "Steven…" Garnet said, hesitating for just a moment. Fragments of timelines where everything went wrong played before her third eye. She saw death, destruction, and loss. She ignored them. "Go save your dad," she said. "I know you can do it. After all, we're the Crystal Gems. We'll always save the day."

xxXXxx

A few minutes later…

The Roaming Eye lowered slowly towards the small beach house contained within the large state. Steady hands guided the ship with great technical skill. The landing was so smooth that none of the passengers aboard the ship even felt as much of a tremor when it set down. Once it left, there would only be the faintest indentation in the grass to indicate it was ever there.

A strange little group emerged from the ship. Moonstone led the group like she usually did. Close behind her walked Titanium. After her walked Hayato, as well as the two humans Santana referred to as Barb and Vidalia. Their stands didn't have much use in direct combat, so they got to tag along. Peridot and Ruby walked after them. Finally, Santana stalked slowly after everyone else, hanging back by about two meters or so.

Moonstone was feeling practically giddy. The plan she had put together actually seemed to be working so far. The Crystal Gems had acted exactly as she predicted. With a little luck, the stand users and portraits they left behind might even be enough to defeat the Crystal Gems and the stand users. At the very least, it would keep them distracted for a while.

The entrance to the Crystal Gems' temple and headquarters was camouflaged with a small human residence. How cute. Of course, like with everything else the Crystal Gems attempted, it was sloppy and badly done. The human building failed completely to hide the statue of… whatever gem it was supposed to depict. Some kind of fusion, most likely.

Moonstone tapped the door handle a few times. When this failed to open it, Titanium simply kicked it in, tearing it off the hinges and shattering it to pieces. Unbeknownst to both her and Moonstone, the door actually was unlocked. Although even if they did know that, Titanium might've kicked it down anyways.

They stepped into the empty house. Moonstone was no expert on human dwellings, but she didn't spot much out of place, aside from the arp pad and door in the back of the house. The only other thing of note was the open window up the little staircase. It was very irresponsible to leave that open. Those small flying earthlings that made the annoying screeching sound could get in and steal all the foods.

She marched up to the door in the back. It was a solid piece with no handles, buttons, or displays. Only a large five-pointed star, the Crystal Gems' symbol. In each tip of the star sat a gem. A white one for the renegade Pearl, a purple for that off-color Amethyst runt, as well as a red and blue one. Those were for the fusion that called itself a Garnet. Moonstone had heard quite a lot about that one during the war.

Lastly, at the very top of the star sat a pink gem for the leader of the Crystal Gems, Rose Quartz herself.

Rose Quartz. The Traitor. The Diamond Shatterer. The gem that Moonstone hated above all others in the universe. The reason she was here on Earth. To get revenge for the travesty she had visited upon all of gemkind so many years ago.

Of course, what better revenge than to undo all the harm she had caused?

"Peridot!" Moonstone commanded. The technician stepped up to the door. "Do your thing."

Peridot did her thing. She scanned the door with her limb enhancers, poking around in various menus on the holographic screens. She hummed and nodded, the complex diagrams and numbers on her screen apparently making sense to her. She waved a little at Ruby to call her over.

"Ruby, I need your help to open this door," she said.

"My help?" Ruby asked.

"Yes," Peridot said and squatted next to her. She pointed at the door through one of her holographic screens. "You see, this door leads to an old type of pocket dimension. A really old one, from way back when 'magic' was a legitimate answer to scientific inquiries. The lock is really simple too, all we have to do to open it…"

Moonstone watched the two of them, though she did her best to hide it. It was actually pretty cute. Peridot describing various technical details that Ruby had no hope of understanding… yet Ruby listened closely to her every word.

To think that the two of them could make such a deadly fusion together… Moonstone had been in the audience for the battle where they accidentally fused. Well, "battle" is hardly the right word to describe the public events Emerald threw together every now and then. It was more about setting an example of what might happen to those that disobeyed her. Regardless, Moonstone had seen just what that fusion was capable of. It was no wonder that the whispers and rumors around the colony had described it as a monster, an unnatural union of lightning and fire made up of two depraved and dangerous off-colors…

Moonstone shook those thoughts from her mind. She let her gaze wander around the little human house to distract herself. She came to regret it pretty quickly as she found a certain portrait hanging over the door they entered through. It was a portrait of Rose Quartz. And it was beautiful.

It was Moonstone's experience that every gem had at least one golden rectangle hidden in the proportions of their body. Rose Quartz seemed to be made out of golden rectangles. Her proportions, at least as depicted on that portrait were as perfect as those of a Diamond.

She considered using the painting as target practice, but her attention was pulled elsewhere before she had time to summon a weapon.

The door leading into the temple gave off a soft chime. The bottom of the door seemed to catch on fire, which rose from the bottom all the way to the top. Once the entire door was engulfed in the fire, it lit up even brighter, before disappearing completely.

"Brilliant," Moonstone said and nodded towards Peridot.

"Oh, not really," Peridot mumbled while absentmindedly patting Ruby on the head. She didn't even seem to realize she was doing it, almost like her fingers had a mind of their own. "The sensors were very simple. I hesitate to even call it a security system. One of them scanned for Rubies, so I just had to adjust the wavelengths a bit…"

"I still think it's brilliant," Moonstone said. She flashed a quick smile. "I knew I made the right choice to bring you along for this mission." You wouldn't believe how far a little positive reinforcement goes in ensuring loyalty.

Out of the corner of her eye, Moonstone spotted Titanium shooting her a dark look. What in the…?

No matter. She could inquire about that later. For now, they had a temple to explore.

The inside of the room was pretty simple and minimalistic. Primitive, yet sturdy stone floor, walls, and ceiling. There were several openings in the floor with open flames burning hot and bright. Along the walls were several shiny blue eye patterns. In the center of the room, on the floor, was an image of the Crystal Gem fusion Garnet divided into two halves. One was colored deep blue, the other deep red. Other than that, the room was completely empty. Unused.

The inside was warm, though not enough to bother any of the gems. Hayato on the other hand grimaced and his face glistened with sweat. The other two humans, Barb and Vidalia, also looked uncomfortable, though they didn't say anything.

"What's the matter?" Titanium grunted. "What's wrong with you now?"

"Humans don't like high temperatures," Santana said. "Nor do they like cold temperatures for that matter."

Titanium looked thoroughly unimpressed.

"You seem fine though," she commented.

"I'm not human," Santana said simply.

They continued further into the temple. The "Ruby Room" as Moonstone dubbed it in her head had a small doorway leading into a narrow corridor. At the end of the corridor, they found a larger room. According to Peridot's scans, it was located directly underneath the temple's main power source.

The room was large and roughly circular, with veins running around the walls and the roof. There was a small pool of bubbling lava was sitting in the center. Floating all around the room were several hundreds of bubbled gems.

"Whoa…" Ruby whispered. "What is this place?"

"Looks like a prison," Moonstone said, examining some of the bubbles. Most gems seemed to be entirely intact. Although she spotted a few that looked like various gem shards stuck together…

Santana was looking around the bubble room as well, no doubt searching for the Aja. Moonstone let him.

"Prisoners of war?" Titanium asked. "Captured Homeworld gems?"

"Most likely," Moonstone said. She smiled a little. Now, this was good. If these were gems captured during the war, then they had just stumbled across a small army still loyal to Homeworld. "Titanium," Moonstone commanded and pointed towards a bubble close to the roof. She thought she recognized that particular Topaz gem. "Bring me that bubble."

Titanium rolled her eye but did as she was told. She jumped into the air, carefully grabbed the bubble, and brought it down with her. She popped the bubble and the gem inside immediately lifted into the air and started glowing. A mass of light spread out from it, forming the outline of the Topaz' body… And that's when something went wrong.

The construct glitched and sparked. Instead of or forming a Topaz it formed… something else.

It was big, bigger than any single gem Moonstone had ever seen, save for the Diamonds themselves. Its body was round, swollen, and hunched over. Large sharp spikes ran down its back Its legs were short and stubby while its arms were long and dragged on the floor when it walked. Sharp claws on its fingers left marks and made a horrible sound on the sturdy stone floor. Its face was nothing but a pair of black wells for eyes and a mouth filled with large square teeth that looked like they could grind gems to dust.

Moonstone heard Titanium curse violently, Ruby whimper, and Peridot desperately trying to calm Ruby down. But their sounds were quickly drowned out by the monster roaring. It was a shrill shriek, almost like a cry of pain. It echoed through the chambers, seeming to shake the entire room.

It lifted its giant hand and swiped at Moonstone, who only barely managed to jump out of the way.

Her feet caught in her cape and she fell over, hitting her face on the unforgiving floor. She cursed and fumbled with her gemstone, trying to summon a weapon. But she wasn't fast enough. The monster raised its hand into the air once more. One hit from those claws, and it'd be all over for her. She'd be poofed and shattered.

The monster brought its mighty claws down… and narrowly missed Moonstone. The claws dug deep into the rock floor, cracking it.

Moonstone rolled away and glanced towards somewhere behind the monster. Titanium had kicked the monster hard enough to throw off its aim. The shock on her face was replaced with a warrior's grim determination. She reached towards her gem to summon a sword. Moonstone herself finally managed to conjure up a crystal ball.

The monster roared once again and turned its attention towards Titanium. It swiped at her with its claws, but Titanium dodged easily. Suddenly, several spiked on the monsters' back shot out towards Titanium and she was forced to jump out of the way. Her eye lit up and her future vision let her dodge the spikes easily.

Moonstone looked at the monstrous gem, trying to find a golden rectangle somewhere on its body for her to concentrate her spin on. But… there was none. Without a golden ratio to focus on, the crystal ball in her hand remained limp and unmoving. She scanned the room, the walls, and the bubbles around her to try and find some other golden rectangle she could use.

The large monster turned to Ruby and Peridot. Peridot stood frozen in place. Ruby dove in front of her. She opened her mouth and blew a large jet of flames at the monster. It screamed in pain and stumbled.

Titanium lunged forward and drove a sword deep into the monster's chest. It roared for one last time before finally poofing away. Titanium caught the gem in the air and bubbled it. She looked over at Moonstone, clearly shaken.

"Wha-what was that?" she asked.

"I… I…" Moonstone hesitated. She quickly looked around to see if any other bubbles had been popped. Miraculously, no other bubbles had been broken in the fight. Hayato was curled up and hiding between a large vein and a wall. Santana and the other two humans he brought along were standing on the other side of the room, observing what was going on.

"During the war… after the last battle," Moonstone spoke slowly, taking a few moments to gather the thoughts running around her mind. "When we left Earth… the Diamonds launched one final attack against the Crystal Gems… this must be the result."

"The… Diamonds did this?" Titanium asked.

"It must have been…" Moonstone said. "I thought the attack was supposed to just wipe them out, but… well, what else could've possibly caused this?" Yes, she was certain of it. This must be the end result of the Diamonds' last attack on the Earth. Something must've gone wrong with the attack, so instead of simply being shattered these gems were… corrupted. Turned into these monsters.

Now, wasn't that a fate worse than being shattered…

"I have an idea," Moonstone said, feeling a small smile creep onto her face. Titanium groaned and looked positively distressed. "Help me grab some of these bubbles."

"That sounds like a bad idea," Santana interjected. "Whatever it was that happened to these gems, it clearly made them violent and uncontrollable. They would make for poor soldiers." He had gone back to examining bubbles in his search for the Aja. At least that's what Moonstone assumed he was going. It was a bit hard to tell exactly what he was looking at while his eyes were hidden behind those dark visors he was wearing.

"Ah, but we're not going to use them as soldiers," Moonstone said. "We can use them as a distraction if need be. It'd be rather hard to ignore a couple of them making trouble, now would it? We can place them somewhere in the town with a device to pop them from a distance. You can make something like that, right Peridot?"

Peridot nodded nervously.

"We already have the boy to bargain with," Santana said. "And Lonely Heart will bring us more hostages. We don't need these gems."

"But you can never have too many contingencies," Moonstone said. Her words, though simple enough, carried a slightly deeper meaning, one she suspected Santana would understand.

The real reason she wanted to bring a few of these monstrous gems with her was in case Santana would decide that he no longer benefitted from the alliance between them. If he were to withdraw his stand users, Moonstone's group would be severely outnumbered. In that case, she could make use of any extra muscle she could get her hands on. Even if that muscle was uncontrollable.

And there was the crux, wasn't it? Santana didn't want to make use of the monstrous gems because he couldn't control them. Once they were set free from their bubbles, they were beyond his will.

Moonstone on the other hand was a tactician brought up during war. She knew that there was always going to be an element of unpredictability to every fight. An element of chaos beyond all control. And the thing that separated good tacticians from great ones was the ability to make use of the chaos to gain an advantage.

Santana stood silent for a few moments.

"Do whatever you want," he said with a shrug. "Just be careful not to unleash any more beasts in here."

"Great," Moonstone said. "Are you going to help us carry the bubbles?"

"No," Santana said coldly. "I will continue searching for the Aja." He looked around the room one last time. "It doesn't appear to be here. It must be hidden in one of the other rooms."

"I doubt it, but feel free to continue looking," Moonstone said casually. "Let me know if you find anything interesting." She looked around to see if there were any low-hanging bubbles she might be able to reach. Unlike Titanium and Ruby, she couldn't jump that well. Nor did she have limb enhancers with tractor beams like Peridot. So she was earthbound and unable to reach any of the bubbles herself. Which was a bit humiliating. She briefly considered using a spinning ball to create a draft that could blow some of the bubbles towards her… though that thought pattern was interrupted when she noticed Santana staring at her.

"What did you say?" he asked.

"Hm? Oh, I was saying that the Aja is hardly hidden in the temple," Moonstone clarified. "The Crystal Gems know who you are and what you're after, right? So they'd hardly hide the Aja here in this temple, now would they? It's most likely far away from here by now."

"What!?" Santana said through clenched teeth.

Moonstone shrugged.

"That's what I would do," she said. "Move the Aja to another location with the warp pad. Hide it somewhere I thought you wouldn't be able to find it. Bury it underground or underwater. Maybe set a trap or something. And that's just at the top of my head."

"You're wrong," Santana said, his words hard and sharp. "The Aja must be here! I can feel it! JoJo is here! This town is where I will fulfill my destiny!"

"You don't have to take my word for it," Moonstone said. She did her best to not let Santana's mad ramblings affect her. It seemed like he might've been a bit more unstable than she initially thought. This was not good. She had to try and calm him down. "Peridot!" she said and snapped her fingers. "Can you scan the temple or something? See if there are any other bubbled gems hidden somewhere?"

"Uh… sure?" Peridot said. She brought up her holographic screens again and started poking around on them while biting her lip. "I think so… yeah wait, I can… there…"

She lifted her free arm, or rather, the arm stump, and started pointing it around the room. A faint green light emanated from it. On her screens, a three-dimensional recreation of the room showed up. Except all of the bubbles only showed up as black voids.

"These bubbles absorb certain wavelengths of light," she explained quickly as she continued pointing her arm around. Slowly, a full map of the temple's many rooms started showing up on her screens. Several rooms appeared, including one that seemed to be filled with nothing by endless piles of trash. But not a single bubble appeared outside of the main bubble room.

"See?" Moonstone said. "The Aja isn't here."

Santana was practically fuming at this point. He stormed over to Moonstone with large, quick steps. Moonstone did her best not to flinch. She carefully moved her hands, hidden under her cape, to her gemstone and summoned two small crystal balls in her hands. Even under all of those clothes, she could still spot a golden rectangle hidden in Santana's proportions.

"Did you know?" he asked. "Did you know this entire time that the Aja wasn't here?"

"Well, no, I didn't know," Moonstone said sincerely. "But I strongly suspected it." She swallowed a comment about how surprised she was that he didn't consider the possibility himself. Even if he really should have. No need to make him any angrier.

Unfortunately, it was a bit too late for that.

Before she could react, Santana grabbed her arm and hoisted her into the air. Her feet dangled a few decimeters above the floor. She dropped one of her balls before she had time to apply any spin to it. She quickly made the ball in her other hand start spinning, though she didn't release it just yet. She kept it hidden in her cape. Behind her, she heard Titanium move. Throughout this whole exchange, Titanium had slowly been moving closer and closer to Moonstone and now she sprung into action.

Moonstone couldn't see it, but she felt the cold draft behind her as Titanium activated her future vision. A cold blade extended over her shoulder, stopping just before stabbing into Santana's chest. If Santana was at all bothered by having a sword mere centimeters away from penetrating his skin, it didn't show at all.

"Take me to the warp pad," he hissed. "You will help me find the Aja."

"Let me go," Moonstone said, tugging at his arm to no avail. He seemed to be almost as strong as a quartz soldier. "No need to get physical."

"Moonstone?" Titanium said. She was asking for orders. Moonstone closed her free hand. Not yet.

Santana glared at Titanium from behind his dark glasses. He leaned in, bringing his masked face uncomfortable close to Moonstone's. Even though she couldn't see them, she could still feel his eyes drilling into her own. She met his stare with her own.

"I endured sixty years locked in a metal box waiting for the day I would finally get my hands on that stone," he said. "My patience is running very thin."

"And I endured five thousand years stuck at the edge of the galaxy before I got my chance to finally get revenge on the Crystal Gems," Moonstone snapped back. "I was left to rot in that miserable, accursed prison. So was Titanium. Ruby and Peridot were made broke, without any hope. We have all waited for an eternity to get what we want and now it is finally within reach. Your opportunity will come." She paused for a moment, considering her next words very carefully.

"There are several hundred warp pads on this planet," she said. She tried to make her voice sound as soft as she could. The key to getting out of this situation without resorting to violence was to calm Santana down. Give him a good reason to continue playing along. "Perhaps a thousand. And we have no idea where the Crystal Gems could have hidden the Aja. It could be anywhere. And it's not like they would leave the bubble right next to the warp pad either. They would hide it. Even if we were to go now and look at every possible sight, the Crystal Gems might figure out what we're doing and set an ambush. But if you want an Aja, I can get you an Aja. The one here on Earth wasn't the only one created. There are more and I know where to find them. But at the moment, I don't feel like handing you anything. Perhaps if you let me go and continue to help me with my mission for a little while longer, I'll change my mind about that."

A few seconds passed where no one moved. Then Santana suddenly let Moonstone go. She landed on her feet, staggering a bit before she regained her balance.

"For your own sake, this better not be a trick," Santana said slowly. It sounded almost like a growl. "Because if it is… if you do not give me the Aja… I'll crush you."

"Don't worry," Moonstone said. She quickly dismissed the spinning ball in her hand before Santana could spot the weapon. "You can trust me. I try to make it a habit not to make promises I can't keep."

Santana glared at her from behind his dark glasses one last time. He then turned around and stared up at some of the bubbles. Two of them were pushed down towards him, carried by unseen hands. Convenient.

Moonstone looked at Titanium and noticed that her future vision was still activated. She was looking at Santana with a frown.

"Right…" Moonstone said. "Titanium, could fetch me some bubbles?"

Titanium interrupted her studies of Santana. The light faded from her eye and the cold coming from her body faded away slowly.

"Sure," she muttered and jumped into the air, grabbing some bubbles. She handed one over for Moonstone to carry. Only one. While Titanium herself carried three. Moonstone was actually kinda impressed. She didn't know Titanium had it in her to be so subtle with her insults.

She glanced behind her to make sure Santana was far away enough so he couldn't hear them.

"Did you see it?" she whispered.

"I think so," Titanium whispered back. "It was… weird. Stands are weird."

"Indeed. Do you think you could take him?"

"Maybe. Can't tell for sure."

"Hopefully it won't come to that. But keep an eye on him."

"…was that a joke?" Titanium said, a little louder now.

"No, I'm serious," Moonstone said, pretending not to realize that she accidentally made a pun. "Ruby, Peridot!" she called out. "You as well, Hayato!" The little human peeked out from behind one of the veins he was hiding behind. "Come along!" Her subordinates hurried up to her, carrying some bubbles. They were very careful not to pop them, lest they unleash another monster. Hayato hesitated for a moment but followed along as well.

They exited the temple the same way they came. Moonstone very briefly entertained the idea of locking Santana inside the temple. It would be pretty funny. Though it was probably a bad idea. Whatever the method was, he could control the humans under his command from a distance. Which meant he could withdraw them or turn them against her.

After that little… incident, some people might've been bothered or upset that their partner was so willing to turn on them. Not Moonstone. She trusted Santana, just like he trusted her. They both trusted the other to stab them in the back the second it would benefit them.

When they got back to the ship, Moonstone ordered Ruby and Peridot to stay there. Peridot could start working on something to pop the bubbles and Ruby could guard Hayato so he wouldn't try to escape, or worse, unleash some of the monstrous gems from their bubbles.

They headed back into the temple to get more bubbles. On their way to the bubble room, they met Santana and his two humans carrying a few bubbles. When they were out of earshot, Titanium spoke up.

"So… are you really going to give him Aja?"

"If he keeps his end of our little deal… maybe," Moonstone said. "After all, he said he only needs it for a short time and wouldn't harm the gem…" She felt a pair of eyes drilling holes in her from behind.

"Something tells me Aja wouldn't like that," Titanium said flatly.

"I think you're right," Moonstone said and shivered. She'd prefer not to make that gem her enemy. "Of course, it'd be with her permission… But in the end, this is all for our Diamond's sake. Even if the chances are slim, next to none that this will actually work… There is a chance. So we have to ask ourselves what we're willing to sacrifice to bring her back."

They reached the bubble room. Titanium retrieved some more bubbles for them to carry back to the ship.

"Right," she said. "Sacrifices. You'd know about those, right?"

"Hm?" Moonstone hummed, confused. "I'm not sure I understand what you mean?"

"Don't play dumb," Titanium said coldly. She had her back turned to Moonstone. "You know exactly what I'm talking about."

"This time, I'm not sure that I do," Moonstone said. She was getting fed up with Titanium. "But I do know that you have been acting strange for the entire duration of this mission. Even before we got involved in this whole mess of stand users and humans. So what's going on?"

Titaniums swiveled around and Moonstone flinched. She was glaring at her, her eye full of wrath directed right towards her commander.

"Why'd you bring them?" she snapped.

"W-who?" Moonstone tripped over her own words. She cursed herself for allowing that pathetic sign of weakness to escape her mouth.

"I told you not to play dumb," Titanium spat. "Ruby and Peridot! Why'd you bring them for this mission?"

"I thought they might be useful," Moonstone said, playing dumb. "I was only allowed to pick a few gems from Emerald's collection, so my options wer-"

"I know about your little arrangement with Emerald," Titanium said. "But there were other gems you could've picked. Other fighters. But you chose them. Why?"

Moonstone stayed silent. She didn't need to say anything.

"I've heard the rumors of what happened, you know," Titaniums said after a few painfully long moments. "You want them to do it again, don't you? You want them to fuse!"

"Of course you heard the rumors," Moonstone said. She couldn't stop a small smile. "So did everyone on the entire colony. It was all anyone was talking about for weeks, much to Emerald's delightful irritation, I might add. And you know… I was there when it happened. I saw it with my own two eyes. And trust me, if you had been there too, you'd understand why I couldn't resist such power."

"You can't!" Titanium exclaimed. Her words were sharp like knives.

"Why not?" Moonstone snapped back.

"They'll be shattered!" Titanium said, nearly yelling at this point. "They're lucky to be alive as is! But if anyone finds out they fused again-"

"If," Moonstone interrupted Titanium. "No one has to find out."

"You're going to lie?" Titanium asked, taken aback.

"I wouldn't call it a lie," Moonstone said, her gaze involuntarily wandering away from Titanium's eye. "More like… an omission of irrelevant information."

"That's still a lie!"

"Heh…" Moonstone chuckled a little. "Listen to yourself, Titanium. Getting worked up over some off-colors."

"I…I…" Titaniums stammered. "I just…"

"No, it's fine, I get it," Moonstone said quickly. "Listen… I've got a plan. Once we bring in the Crystal Gems, we're going to get some reward, right?"

"You mean Emerald is going to get a reward," Titanium muttered. "This is technically her mission after all."

"As if I'd ever let her get any credit!" Moonstone spat. "No, I'll make sure that we get the credit we deserve… and perhaps even inform the higher authorities of some of the more… questionable activities Emerald's involved in. And, well… if Emerald gets demoted, her colony will need a new leader to run it…"

"Who, you?" Titanium scoffed.

"Perhaps," Moonstone. "At the very least, I should be able to find some way to keep them safe. And if we do succeed in reviving Pink Diamond…she was understanding and merciful. You would know that better than anyone else."

Titanium didn't say anything but she nodded in silence. Of course she knew how forgiving and merciful Pink Diamond was of her gems' failures. After all, Titanium was a failed experiment, yet the great Pink Diamond had allowed her to continue existing, rather than wiping the embarrassment out of existence.

"I'm sure she'd let me keep them if I asked it of her," Moonstone said.

"And what if the Crystal Gems rat us out?" Titanium asked. "What's stopping them from telling anyone about… it?"

"Themselves," Moonstone said simply. She smiled when she saw Titanium's puzzled look. "The Crystals Gems won't let any harm come to any fusion or off-color as long as it is within their power to stop it… or even if it isn't," she explained. "They won't let them get shattered."

Titanium stood silent for a few moments.

"I still don't like it," she said finally.

"Me neither," Moonstone said. And she was being honest, something she wasn't used to. "Don't think I'm thrilled about any of this. But… this is what we have to work with. We've been given this opportunity. It's small and imperfect and we might fail… and we might have to do things we don't want to… but we have to try. We have to do our best and make what we can out of this. For our Diamond."

"For our Diamond," Titanium said. She looked towards the corridor. Faint footsteps were approaching. "We should get going," she said and grabbed a few bubbles. She handed two for Moonstone to carry.

Before they left, Moonstone felt an invisible hand on her shoulder squeezing tight.

"I know," she whispered to the invisible presence. "We'll talk about it later."

xxXXxx

Meanwhile, in the Roaming Eye…

Peridot was working on the bubble popping device Moonstone wanted. Which should be a really easy thing to do, just a sonic blast or something, nothing too weird or complicated there. That was if you were working in an actual workshop or laboratory with access to proper tools and supplies.

As it were, Peridot was in a scouting ship with only her limb enhancers, a couple of gem destabilizers, and whatever parts she dared rip out of the ship itself to work with. And her working area was a computer console full of buttons and screens that beeped every time she moved anything.

Needless to say, this job wasn't getting done without some cursing. Not out loud though. She didn't want to teach Ruby any bad words.

Ruby was keeping an eye on the little human Hayato to make sure he didn't cause any trouble. Not that he'd ever done anything to cause any trouble on the ship. Mostly he just sat on the floor, watching them.

At some point, he and Ruby started talking about something. Peridot only really heard small snippets of what they were talking about. Still, hearing Ruby's happy voice made her smile. Who else but her could possibly get into a friendly conversation with their hostage?

"I saw you breathe fire at that big monster. You're almost like a tiny dragon or something."

"What's a dragon?"

"A dragon is like… well, it's a made-up creature so it doesn't really exist… but in the stories, a dragon is a creature that can breathe fire."

"Oh, I guess I am like a dragon then!"

Peridot continued working on the device, ignoring the distractions. She didn't want to risk the device accidentally going off with all the bubbles inside the ship. She had seen one of those monsters and frankly, one was more than enough. If she went the rest of her life without meeting another one of them, she'd be a little bit happier.

Three people entered the ship, their footsteps moving in almost complete sync. Ruby and Hayato quieted down and Peridot had to resist the urge to turn around. Three people. Santana and the two humans he controlled. He was almost as scary as that monstrous gem. Every time he got near her, Peridot felt the cold fear rising in her chest. The same fear that paralyzed her when she stood before the monster. The same fear that grabbed her and froze her in place during that fateful fight back on the colony…

Peridot pushed those thoughts away and forced herself to concentrate fully on the device she was working on. She was not going to think about the fear or Santana or the monsters. She wasn't going to think about them because thinking about them made her long for the power of the fusion…

"…stay here?"

Those words suddenly snapped her attention back to the moment. She turned around in her seat to look at Hayato who had spoken up. He was sitting at the other end of the ship, in his usual spot. He was looking at her intently. The intensity of his stare surprised Peridot. He always seemed like such a meek little human. Ruby was sitting in the middle of the ship, her gaze wandering between Peridot and Hayato.

"Sorry, what did you say?" Peridot asked.

"Why don't you stay here?" Hayato asked. "Here on Earth, I mean."

"Wha-what?" Peridot stammered, unable to form any coherent thoughts, much less a complete sentence. Did he just say what she thought he did?

"You two," Hayato said. He nervously glanced towards the open hatch. There was no one outside. "You two are different, aren't you?" he said. "I can tell. You're not like Monotone or Titanium."

"No we're not," Ruby said. "We're, uh… we're… wrong," she said clumsily. "Off-color. Broken."

"Well, I don't think there's anything wrong with you," Hayato said. "So why don't you stay here on Earth? You could start a new life here where no one would think you were wrong or broken. Wouldn't that be better than going back to… where you came from?"

"That does sound nice…" Ruby said.

"We can't!" Peridot blurted out.

"Why not?" Ruby asked. "Maybe we can ask Moonstone if we can stay here once we have, um… done everything we should? I- I don't wanna go back to Emerald's colony…"

"Me neither," Peridot said. "But we can't stay on Earth, okay? We just.. can't. We have to go back with Moonstone. Trust me."

Ruby frowned and thought about it for a little while.

"Okay," she said finally. "If you say so."

"But why though?" Hayato insisted. "If Moonstone won't let you stay… well, what's stopping you right now? She's not here… and there's one of those… 'warp pads?' There's one of those in the house. You could escape right now if you wanted to."

"N-no, that's not it," Peridot said, biting her lip. The thought crossed her mind for the first time. Would Moonstone let them stay on Earth after the mission? After all… she didn't ever seem as disgusted or filled with disdain whenever she talked to them. And Moonstone too was a lost gem, abandoned by a system that didn't want her… So was Titanium, the last remnant of a failed experiment. Maybe… but no. They couldn't. "It's… complicated," Peridot said after a few long seconds. "I don't think you'd understand."

"If Peridot says we can't, we can't," Ruby said with a nod. "And she's super good at explaining stuff, so it must be very super complicated if even she can't explain it."

"Yes, it is," Peridot said. She quickly turned around in her seat, back towards the device she was supposed to be working on. How annoying. Some dust particle must have gotten into her eye, irritating it and causing it to leak lacrimal fluid.

It really wasn't that complicated. Peridot just didn't want to tell Ruby about it. She briefly considered telling Hayato about it but decided against it. It would just make him suffer more. Because even if he got out of this whole mess alive and well… there was no stopping it.

The Cluster.

Moonstone had told her about it, about the geoweapon incubating deep within the Earth. Before soon, it would emerge and tear the planet apart.

It was a great tragedy, wasn't it? It really didn't matter who won or lost in the end. Moonstone might win. She might be able to bring Pink Diamond back. She might not. She might capture the Crystal Gems, or she might not. Regardless of the outcome, the planet Earth was still doomed.

Just like Ruby and Peridot themselves. There was no happy ending for them. Peridot knew that. Every rational part of her mind told her that. Why would Moonstone care for them, some broken off-colors?

And yet… there was still a part of Peridot that held out some hope. No matter how much she tried to suppress it, not let herself think things might get better… it persisted. There was a part of her that so desperately wanted to believe, to have hope.

Could things really get better?

To Be Continued…


AUTHOR'S NOTES

Titanium: "What's up with all these bubbled gems?"

Moonstone: "It's a surprise tool that will help us later."

Hey y'all. I hope 2021 is treating you well so far. I'm doing good enough I suppose.

Along with setting up the plot for the next few chapters, I decided to take the chance to add some additional character development for the Homeworld Crusaders. Mainly because this is kinda the last opportunity to do so. It's more or less all action from here on out.

Speaking of action, the next chapter, Stand Together, will have lots of it! It's another six-parter with A LOT of fights, so uh… I better get to work. If everything goes well, the first act will be out on March 5th. Hopefully, we'll be able to get back to a more regular and frequent update schedule after that.

But until then, take care of the planet Earth and remember that anything can happen in space!