As the Crystal Gems surrounded this mysterious figure, it was Garnet who instantly picked up how dangerous the individual was. The four gems stood in a square around the figure with their weapons drawn and ready to strike, with the exception of Rose who simply stood and faced the Slayer. Despite the height difference, Rose saw how the figure defeated the group of powerful gem soldiers, granted they were caught off guard by the figure's arrival, but even then they couldn't do much before they could take out half their forces.

Rose looked to her allies with a stern look and gestured for them to drop their weapons. Garnet did so instantly, not wanting to agitate the individual. Pearl did so hesitantly as she clearly didn't trust this person. Bismuth was the last to do so, but with a sigh relented and reformed her normal hands.

Rose nodded to her group before she repeated herself "Who are you?" The figure stood still, almost as if they didn't hear the question. Before she could ask the question again a barely audible voice came from the individual. Crackling static of a transmission trying to establish a connection filled the air before it settled enough for the voice to be clear. "Hello, I am Vega, the figure before you is known as The Doom Slayer. I am his associate and assistant, and I will be the one to answer any questions you may have."

The gems were all confused to a degree, but Rose quickly continued the conversation. "Hello Vega, are you saying this figure before us is named 'The Doom Slayer'?" VEGA responded without hesitation "Correct, it is the most common name he goes by." Rose's interest peaked, the figure also went by a masculine pronoun, which likely meant he wasn't a gem. "What is he?" Rose asked Vega "The Slayers identity is currently unknown, it is possible he is a Sentinel from Argent D'nur but that is pure speculation on my part."

The Slayer had grown impatient with the conversation, this gem hadn't given any important information and the two were talking about a topic he couldn't care less about. The armored man turned his back and walked back to the Warp Pad that had brought him here, he had a lot of work to do and had no interest in frivolous conversation.

Rose was dumbfounded for a moment as she saw the man turn his back and walk away from her like that. Rose took a step and reached out for the figure "Now, hang on a sec-" before she could touch the man her hand was stopped and held back by Garnet. Rose turned toward her ally confused, but then softened as soon as she saw her face. Garnet was scared, she shook her head and spoke. "Rose, do not touch that… thing!" Garnet stared at the figure's back as it kept its stride without having looked back at the commotion. "He's the reason my future vision won't work… when he stood next to us… I saw… it was like a never ending fractal pattern, I saw so much at once and none of it made sense, the only thing I could make out was that same moment from before."

Garnet slowly let go of Rose after she finished speaking, she tried to put on a neutral expression afterwards, but it was clear some worry still lingered on her face. Rose turned back to see the stranger disappear behind the stone walls and the warp pad teleport him away. Rose balled her fists, she felt… slighted. Like she didn't get what she wanted from this man, this person just appeared from space and ruined her plans without so much as a care in the world or the decency to speak with her. She put her hands to her sides and took a deep breath before she spoke "Let's bubble the enemies' gems and recover our allies while we still can."

==Peridot's Ship==

Background Music: Mick Gordon - Advanced Research

The Slayer walked off the warp pad and made his way to his recently acquired captive, the sounds of his heavy boots echoed through the hallways of the nearly empty ship. However, it wasn't silent by any means, the ship was filled with the distant and muffled yelling from the Peridot on board. "You have a lot of nerve locking me up like this! When I get out of here I'll give you a piece of my mind!" The high pitched whines were still audible toward the other end of the ship, albeit barely.

"I assume you wish to interrogate the Peridot on the location of the Human Zoo, correct?" Vega spoke through The Slayer's speakers. The armored man simply nodded as he continued his path to the prison area. The moment The Doom Slayer made it to the prisoner's room Vega lowered the shield. In that moment Peridot attempted to jump out the room, but The Slayer effortlessly grabbed her face and pushed her back into her prison cell and stepped inside. Peridot landed on the floor of her cell on her back as Vega sealed the room once again.

"I recommend you comply to avoid grievous injury." Vega said through The Slayer's speakers as the figure cracked his knuckles. "Ugh… you're a real piece of work, you know that!" Peridot said with a scowl and as she sat up with her arms crossed. "Where is the location of the Human Zoo you spoke of from before?" Vega asked with his calm and robotic voice. Peridot rolls her eyes before answering "A few light-years away in star system 0111-2, orbiting the only ringed planet. Not like you'll be able to get them back to earth in their lifespan." Peridot said with venom in her voice.

Vega paused for a moment, before he responded "based on my calculations it would normally take 70 years to get to said station and another 70 to get back… however I have hypothesized a way to create mobile portals using the Warp Way as a basis." The Slayer nodded to Vega's statement as he turned to exit the room. Peridot didn't bother to get up as the doors opened long enough to let The Slayer out and then close behind him, and just as his heavy footsteps faded from ear shot Peridot mumbled a single word "Clod."

The Slayer made his way to the ship's makeshift warp pad. Vega spoke in the background as The Slayer started to take apart the device. "Although much of the data I had at my disposal was not transferred to my backup, I was able to retain the blueprints and the scientific research for creating Slipgates. However it will be limited to areas near the warp webways the Gems have created. Luckily based on the information I have, although the zoo lacks a Warp Pad, they do fall near a branching path the warp lanes pass by. This will allow me to open a slipgate for you to get inside and send the prisoners here. However we will need to completely 'jailbreak' this system and build a main gate that connects to the interstellar warp way." The Slayer nodded his head in approval as he continued his technician work.

==Larimar: Canada, 34th Century BC==

She didn't know where she was going to end up when she left. "Far away from them!" She screamed in her mind at the time. Now she found herself in a frozen Tundra. She didn't feel the cold obviously, but the sight of nearly pure white left her astonished for a moment.

The little gem stood there for a time, she watched the calm sea of white powder settle. It looked as if someone carved the grooves of the landscape into satisfying waves. A feeling that hadn't been known to the blue gem, began to rise to the surface… inspiration. A minute or two passed as she admired the landscape when she heard the crunching of snow behind her.

It took a moment for Larimar to really process the sound. In a split second she suddenly dived to one side when a hard thud and a faint crack could be heard. The gem quickly pulled herself up to see the source. A large polar bear had tried to slash at the gem, but upon missing its attack, it damaged the warp pad she had stood on. Larimar let out a gentle sob when she glanced at the broken Warp Pad, she then turned tail and ran. The bear attempted to give chase after the gem, but her gem physiology gave her the edge in speed… but perhaps a bit too much in this case.

As the bear disappeared from view, the terrified Larimar continued to sprint, she did so with all her might, but she failed to watch where she was walking and as expected a disaster struck. A loud crack rang out and the ground shifted underneath her, she looked around to see she had reached a ledge and her weight caused it to fall apart. Her body was frozen as she looked over the cliff and at the large fall below. The height of the cliff was considerable, even for a gem. Just as she was able to slowly back away, the familiar sound of shuffling snow quickly caught up.

Larimar turned to see the bear charge toward her, and as it placed one of its paws on the cliff's fractured edge, the added weight broke the barely stable ice. The bear was able to pull away before being pulled down by gravity, but the small gem fell with the ice. A loud thud could be heard as the gem's head smashed into a rock buried in the snow, and her vision began to fade… the last things she could remember was the sound of sniffing, and a wet lick across her face.

==The Forge - A Week After the Ambush==

Rose was still a bit scatterbrained even after she went through the injured gems and healed any cracks or damage done to their gemstones. Her facial expression didn't catch the attention of the average recruit, but Pearl and Garnet could see she was deep in thought during her task as a medic. 'How could a human get so strong?', 'Where did he come from?', and 'What were his motives?' were some of many questions she thought to herself. Other thoughts popped up about what the vision Garnet saw really meant. "Rose." Garnet said as she made her way toward her leader. "Yes Garnet?" Rose replied as she shook off her wandering thoughts. "You may want to look at this." Garnet said as she pointed toward the outside of the Forge.

Rose wasn't sure what she expected, but a large crowd of new gem recruits wasn't one of them. This was more than just a few or a dozen. This was genuinely at least a couple dozen gems, with a decent amount of quartz gems as well. Rose was in awe as Garnet walked to her side. "According to them they heard that we were the ones that defeated Prasiolite, and caused the general mayhem, so they decided they wanted to join us." Garnet informed Rose. Rose gave a smile to the fusion before she responded "I told you that would work." Garnet tried to look unphased but couldn't help but let out a chuckle.

Rose walked to the group of new recruits. As she made her way to a place where she would be visible, she pulled out her blade and spoke to the crowd "My name is Rose Quartz, I am a Crystal Gem and I fight for this planet and everything that lives on it! I fight against the Crystal Empire to preserve its beauty and purity! If you wish to follow our path, raise your fists and shout your name!" Rose's powerful voice rang out, audible to the whole crowd. With only a second of delay, Rose heard the roar from the crowd. "Then you too are Crystal Gems! Together, we shall overthrow the Diamond's dominion over this world!" Rose yelled out as the crowd also called out in enthusiasm. Rose couldn't help but smile when she saw the group of gems look up to her with inspired expressions on their faces.

==Larimar: Canada, The Day After Falling==

Larimar felt something odd when she finally regained awareness of herself. It felt like she was buried under warm hairy bodies. The Larimar pushed off the creature with haste, she quickly backed away from the beast, believing it was the creature that attacked her before. Instead she saw that she had pushed off about three small furry creatures who had now been awoken by her. Larimar quickly curled into a ball and tried to protect herself from the mini creatures, perhaps the large creature captured her to feed her to their horrid young.

After a few moments of inaction, the gem opened her eyes to see what had happened. "Wh-what the?" Larimar was confused at the sight that had fallen before her. The creatures ran to and fro and seemed to play-fight with each other, while the smallest creature walked onto her lap and licked her face. High-pitched yelps and barks filled the environment. The small creature in Larimar's lap simply laid down into her lap and closed its eyes. The gem was utterly confused, she had expected to be poofed, if not shattered and eaten. She had always thought organic life was horrifying and dangerous… and in a way she was right, that large beast chased her and clearly wanted to do her harm. But now she's in, what looked like a cave, surrounded by small organics that almost paid her no mind at all.

Larimar was deep in thought, had these small creatures dragged her here? Did they try to help her, or was this for some other horrible reason? Larimar was completely engrossed in her thoughts and analysis of the situation at hand, but the sound of whines brought her back into the moment. The small furry creature looked up to the gem, its sounds seemed to imply it wanted something from her. "Wh-what do you want? I don't have anything to give you." the small gem said to the runt while she shrugged. The organic creature simply stared at her hands for a moment, and Larimar saw this. She looked at her hand for a moment before placing her hand over the creature's head. The beast's whines halted, but still looked up to her pleadingly. Larimar was unsure what else to do, but decided to make a massaging motion on the creature's head. The small organic creature's tail wagged as it let out a content bark, which inadvertently gave Larimar a faint smile.

The creatures slowed and laid near the gem, it seemed their playing had tired them out. Larimar was weirdly content to sit in the cave with the small creatures. There was some unseen charm they had over her that she refused to admit, in only thirty minutes did she grow attached to some random small organics in a cold wasteland on a doomed planet. The gem couldn't help but pet the furry beasts as she stared at the other side of the cave. The calm atmosphere of the cave was interrupted by the sounds of steps in the snow. Larimar froze up as she stared at the entrance of the cave, she readied herself to run away the moment she saw something. What revealed itself was a larger version of the small beasts, its eyes stared into Larimar's, it nearly drove her into a panic. It slowly made its way to her, though it was completely calm as it did so. The gem didn't know why she couldn't get her body to move, but just stared at the beast as it made its way to her left shoulder.

Just as it seemed to enter the perfect lunging distance, it laid down next to the gem as the small furry creatures ran to it and started sucking upon her. Larimar seemed to have been shaken from her trance at the sight and just stared at the organic life. It was their parent, and seemed to feed them. The larger creature simply stared at the gem for a moment before licking her face. What was this gesture? Was it a friendly one? That's when a realization had dawned on her. The lick she felt from the large creature was the same one she felt when she had fallen from the cliff. This beast dragged her to safety, it saved her from further harm and had taken her to her children. It showed compassion… compassion for her.

==Peridot's Ship - A Week After the Ambush==

The Slayer was hard at work, he had torn apart any device the ship didn't need and could get his hands on, he needed as many parts as possible to finish the slipgate entrance. Luckily with Vega's downloaded knowledge of gem technology and the blueprints for the slipgates, the task was completed when The Slayer established a connection with the Galactic Warp Pad. "The Human Zoo is a structure created by Pink Diamond and is being protected and run by many Quartz soldiers, most of them being Amethysts. The leader is a Holly Blue Agate." Vega informed The Slayer as the armored man readied his weapons for the battle ahead.

The Slayer walked to the slipgate generator with his Super Shotgun in hand. "Opening the Portal now." A blue portal attempted to manifest for a few seconds, but it was clear it wasn't perfect as it seemed to bend and stretch, but it eventually stabilized. "It seems the portals have trouble remaining stable. I suspect even the smallest disturbance can throw off the intended destination." The Slayer looked up as if to question Vega. "This portal will lead you to the Human Zoo, I can assure you that it is stable at the moment." The armored man simply rolled his neck and walked through the portal. Ready for a fight.

Author's Note: I am truly sorry for how long it took to finish this chapter. Starting up a new fanfiction really ate up time and I had to put a lot of thought into how I wanted specific characters to react and go through. The Slayer is easy to understand and write, it's the other characters that I need to think through.

I won't be able to answer your review questions in this chapter… there's just too many. Hopefully I'll be able to get to any new ones in the next chapter.