CHAPTER SEVEN

Amethyst turned in a slow circle, examining the area carefully. The site was a fair distance from the settlement, on a cliff overlooking the fissure that split the island in two. "Hmm..." She scuffed the edge of the cliff with her foot and watched a few pieces of dirt break free and tumble into the water. "Hmm."

"Is that a good 'hmm' or a bad 'hmm'?" Steven carefully laid the warp pad down and took a moment to stretch his arms. "Ooh, or an indifferent 'hmm'?"

Amethyst ignored him and turned to the Watermelon Steven beside him. "What's the rate of erosion like up here?" she asked in businesslike tone. "It's no good setting the warp pad here if the whole cliff falls down in the next storm."

"Mamamama mamam mamama," the melon said solemnly and waved at the cliff.

"Hmm." Amethyst nodded thoughtfully and then looked at Steven. "Nope, not a clue. What did he say?"

"He said the only thing that's ever caused any damage to the island is the earthquake that caused that," Steven translated, nodding at the cliff. "'Course, they have only been living here about five years though."

"Yeah, still, that's good enough for me." Amethyst grinned and skipped over to the warp pad. "This island's a gem structure, after all, it'd take something pretty epic to put a dent in it. Come on, give me a hand with this thing. There's a nice, flat spot just over here."

Steven obediently came to her assistance and they placed the warp pad on the spot Amethyst had chosen. She walked around it a few times, gave it a kick, then stood on top of it and jumped up and down. "Feels good," she decided.

"Want me to try it out?" Steven offered. "I could pop home and grab us a couple of ice cream sandwiches out of the freezer."

"Nah, I'll go," Amethyst said decisively. "If you get shredded down to atoms, Pearl and Peridot will kill me, so I might as well be the one to risk it anyway."

"Shredded- what? Wait!" he cried out in alarm, but Amethyst has already vanished. His first instinct was to jump on the warp pad at once and follow her, but the word shredded echoed ominously in his mind and instead, he found himself dithering helplessly at the edge. After all, if something had gone wrong and she had been shredded, what good would it do if he followed her? But then, how long was he supposed to wait here? The Watermelon Stevens had not, in fact, figured out electricity and built a cell tower, so he couldn't call her, and the only other way off the island was the boat-

His gaze fell upon the Watermelon Steven standing patiently beside him and he paused. Could he perhaps bubble them and send them over to the house to check on Amethyst? Although... there was, again, no way for the melon to contact him, so he'd have to use his powers to possess it and have a look around himself. But what if she'd gone somewhere else? He was pretty sure the melons couldn't use the warp pads, so he'd have to come back and send out more until he found her-

Thankfully, before he was forced to start sending melons across the globe, the warp pad suddenly lit up and Amethyst reappeared. "Celebratory ice cream sandwiches!" she cheered, and tossed him a package which bounced off his chest and fell to the floor before he could move. "It's all good!"

"Yeah?" he asked cautiously, bending down to pick up his ice cream. "No risk of any shredding?"

"What? Nah, I was joking." She tossed the entire ice cream into her mouth and swallowed. "Warp pads either work or don't work. And this one works." She screwed up the wrapper and then ate that as well. "So we're good to go."

"Wha- seriously!?" he complained and gestured at the Watermelon Steven stood next to him. "I was about to send these guys out looking for you!"

The melon blinked and recoiled slightly. "Mahamahmah mah mah!?"

"Hah! I don't need you to translate that!" Amethyst laughed. "Come on, let's head over to the Kindergarten and see how they're all getting on without us."

"What about the boat?" he reminded her.

"Oh yeah." She glanced at the warp pad, but then a better idea struck. "Oooh! Bubble it and send it home. You were wanting to practice that anyway, right? And I'll warp back and check and see if it arrives and meet you back- what's wrong?" she asked in surprise and he smacked a hand across his face.

"I just thought," he groaned. "I could've just bubbled you and the warp pad and sent you both here hours ago."

"Oh yeeeaaaaaah." She cast a doleful look towards the warp pad and sighed. "Welp, too late now. Unless you've got another time travel hourglass stashed somewhere."

Of course, he didn't have another time-travel hourglass, so they parted ways and he headed back to the shore and bubbled the boat. Picturing the sandy shore outside the house, he tapped the glossy pink bubble and watched it disappear, then, feeling reasonably confident that it had reached the correct destination, he turned around and walked back to the warp pad where Amethyst was waiting.

"It worked!" she shouted as soon as he came into view. "I put it under the house for Pearl to put away when she gets home. Now bubble me," she demanded. "And send me to the Kindergarten!"

Steven raised his hands and then paused as her words registered in his brain. "Send- what?"

"Me!" She bounced up and down enthusiastically. "Everything you've been bubbling so far has been like strawberries and rocks and junk, right? So it's time to up the stakes, send a live gem. 'Cause if you don't feel like you can send little ol' me, maybe we ought to hold off on you sending the Cluster anywhere."

Steven pursed his lips, but she had a point, so he shrugged, stepped forward and bubbled her. "I'll meet you there," he said, and tapped the top and watched her disappear. Then he said a quick farewell to the watermelon before stepping onto the warp pad to follow her. Moments later, the glow of the warp faded and the barren walls of the Kindergarten loomed up around him, the ominous atmosphere ever-so-slightly spoiled by the sight of Amethyst floating a few short meters away, waving merrily. "That was awesome!" she cheered. "Do it again!"

"We're supposed to be meeting the others," Steven reminded her.

"So send me there then, duh."

"I'm beginning to think you're doing this just to avoid having to walk anywhere," he scolded, but once again, he obligingly tapped the top of the bubble before making his own way towards the drill site. This time there was no sign of the drone, but when he approached, he could hear raised voices and when he turned the corner, Amethyst was sat on the ground, complaining loudly and looking rather disheveled. "What happened?" he asked in alarm. "Did something go wrong with the bubble?"

"No, you did fine," Amethyst waved away his concerns at once. "Everything was fine until your jerk girlfriend sicced her stupid drones on me!"

"You appeared in the middle of our building site with no warning," Peridot said dismissively. "There was no time to stop and assess the situation."

"Yeah there was, you just chose not to." Amethyst climbed to her feet and furiously dusted herself off.

"It's automated!" Peridot threw up her hands in exasperation. "You were there when we set it up! You all assured me that humans don't have any sort of teleportation technology, so anything that could bypass our security and materialize here would have to be treated as a threat!"

"That's true," Pearl admitted. "We all assumed anything that could get here without being intercepted on the way must be a deliberate attack."

"Yeah- but she..." Amethyst waved her arms impotently in Peridot direction. "She- ARGH!"

"How did your mission go?" Garnet asked as Amethyst fell into a sulky silence. "Are the Watermelons well?"

"Yeah, they're good," he said, perking up. "They got rid of that weird sacrificial statue of me and replaced it with one of Alexandrite."

"Somehow that's not very comforting," Pearl murmured.

"-And they've agreed to keep the Cluster safe on the island and guard it," he finished.

"That's good to hear," Garnet said approvingly. "Especially as we have news of our own." She nodded over at Peridot, who grinned widely and bounced up and down in anticipation. "Why don't you tell him?"

"We've finished!" she blurted out at once.

"Seriously!?" A chill ran down his spine as he looked at the smiling faces in front of him. "I thought- you mean-" He gulped. "W-we could do this like, tomorrow?"

"There's no rush," Pearl quickly assured him.

"Yes, this isn't as time sensitive as the first run," Garnet added. "If you want to wait a day or two, that's perfectly fine."

"No, no, I'm fine," he said at once as the shock was replaced by a rush of adrenaline. "I just didn't expect it for another day at least, but I'm ready. Although..." He glanced over at Amethyst. "Do you guys mind if I do a little more bubble practice while you wrap things up here?"

"Go ahead," Garnet said. "Peridot wants to test the drill first anyway so we're gonna be here a while longer anyway."

"Why bother?" Amethyst asked dismissively. "It worked just fine the first time round."

"Two of the drill heads shattered," Peridot reminded her. "True, we won't be attempting to destroy the Cluster this time, but it won't do any harm to attempt a trial run."

"Well in that case..." Amethyst clapped her hands together. "Come on, Steven, do your thing. Send me..." She thought hard. "Send me to the Geode and I'll warp back to the house afterwards and let you know if it worked."

"OK, I'll see you there." He reached out and bubbled her yet again, and then turned to the other gems. "I'll see you guys there later too."

"Bye Steven," Garnet said impassively, and gave him a thumbs up.

"Good luck!" Pearl added brightly.

"We love you!" Peridot finished and smiled widely. "But I love you the most!"

Steven laughed and blew her a kiss before walking away, leaving the words "it's not a competition, Peridot!" in his wake.

When he arrived at the beach house, Amethyst was waiting impatiently for him. "Jeez, you took your time," she complained.

"Sorry. I haven't quite figured out how to bubble myself," he joked.

"Whatever." Amethyst quickly waved away his apology. "I was thinking next, you should send me to the Sea Shrine."

"The Sea Shrine?" He frowned. "But... it's underwater."

"I know!" She waved her arms wildly. "It'll be like a harder test of your bubble-sending skills!"

Steven shook his head. "No, I mean, I'm pretty sure I can send you there just fine, but how are you gonna get back? If you warp back from there, you're gonna bring half the ocean with you and flood the house."

"I could warp back to the Temple Statue hand," she suggested, then shook her head before he could reply. "Nah, you're right, that'd wreck the washer. Oh, I got it!" She snapped her fingers. "I'll warp to the Galaxy Warp. That's right in the ocean anyway, so all the water will fall back in again."

Steven couldn't think of any objections to that, so he sent her to the Sea Shrine and poured himself a glass of juice while he waited for her to return, which she did, three minutes later. "Here, I grabbed one of those janky hourglasses as proof," she said proudly, and tossed him a small hourglass, which he caught and immediately bubbled. "What did you do that for?"

"It could be dangerous," he said sternly.

"Well yeah, why d'ya think I grabbed it?"

"No time-travel," he said flatly, and sent it back to the Sea Shrine again. "Didn't you ever read Cursed Child?"

"Happily, no." She sighed and shook her head. "Fine. All right. The point is, it worked, so let's do another one. Send me... ah!" Her eyes lit up. "Can you send me to the moon!?"

"Yes!" He moved forward, then the sensible side of his brain hit the alarm. "Wait, no! How would you even get back!?"

"Oh yeah." Her face fell. "I guess in that case, just send me to like, the battlefield or something."

So he sent her to the battlefield, and she returned four minutes later clutching a large, bejeweled battleaxe. Then he sent her to the Flower Meadow. Then the Sky Arena. Then he sent her to the Beta Kindergarten.

Fifteen minutes later, he warped into the Beta Kindergarten to look for her. "Amethyst?" he shouted. "Are you here?" He turned in a slow circle, looking around at the tall, sandstone cliffs. "Amethyst!"

"Oh, hey Steven!" Amethyst's face popped up from behind a nearby rock. "What are you doing here?"

"You didn't come back! I was beginning to think I'd actually sent you to the moon by mistake!"

"Oh, sorry." She laughed sheepishly. "I just... I went to have a look at Jasper's exit hole again. 'Cause we were talking about Malachite earlier, y'know? Guess I lost track of time."

"Oh." He bit his lip and tried to think of something helpful to say. "Um."

"Do you really think we can get her on our side?" she asked quietly.

"Uh, I really don't know," he admitted. "But we'll have more of a shot changing her mind if we can cure her and actually communicate with her, right?"

"Yeah." Amethyst cast another thoughtful look around the kindergarten and then shook her head to clear it. "Right! Moving on. Wanna send me to the desert now?"

"Sure. Ah!" He clicked his fingers, inspired, and pulled his phone out of his pocket. "We probably should've done this earlier, but take this, then if there's a problem or something, you can just call me and let me know."

"Gotcha." She took one last look around as he bubbled her and then vanished. Steven gazed at the spot she'd been for a few more seconds, and then walked back to the warp pad.

As soon as he warped back into the house, he heard the sound of the phone ringing and his stomach dropped. It seemed pretty unlikely to be a coincidence. Although, he told himself as he crossed the room, she could just be calling to check the phone worked. "Hello?" he answered, crossing his fingers. "Amethyst?"

"Dude, where am I!?" her voice crackled down the line.

"Um... the desert?" he said hopefully. "Earth, at least. I don't think my phone can get signal on the moon."

"Yeah, all right, you know what I mean," she huffed. "It's the desert all right, but I thought you'd send me to the warp pad and I can't see it anywhere. There's just a door in between these two-" She paused. "OK, maybe it's just me, but it looks like knees and a door-vagina and I'm seriously weirded out."

"Oh!" He started to laugh. "Amethyst, that's just Mom's secret pile of trash. It's where I found the Nora video, remember?"

"Oh yeah!" He could hear the smile in her voice now. "You mind if I take a look around?"

"Go for it, I don't mind. I don't remember if I bothered locking the door, but whatever building was there's all ruined, you can just walk right round into it."

"Cool," she said happily. "I mean, I still think it looks weird, but I'm a little less creeped out knowing it's Rose's and not Homeworld's- oh, I bet I know what it is, it's gotta be one of those handships, buried in the sand, right? With a couple of bent knuckles sticking out."

"Uh, yeah, I guess?" He shrugged. "I just thought it was pyramids."

"Heh. So anyway, why'd you send me here? Just zone out or something?"

"No, I mean, I don't think so..." He thought hard. "I guess there's not really any major landmarks out there and we didn't pick an exact location, so maybe I just subconsciously sent you there because it was, y'know, a proper place rather than just dumping you in miles of sand."

"Well you need to work on that before tom- ooh, sword! Ah, no, it's broken. What was I saying?"

"That I need to work on where I send things before tomorrow," Steven reminded her.

"Yeah. The watermelons won't be pleased if you park the Cluster on top of their nice, new shiny statue." She fell silent, and Steven was about to say goodbye and hang up when she spoke again. "So just how far away is the warp pad? It's gotta be a way, I never saw this place before and I've been in the desert more than a few times."

"Yeah, it's a couple of hours," he said, remembering the long, boring, hot trek across the desert with Lion. There was a reason he'd never gone back again.

"Dammit. Why did Rose have to hide all her dumb secret hidey stashes so far away from everything?" Amethyst grumbled under her breath.

"Because that's how secret hidey stashes work?" Steven suggested with a grin.

"Shut up, smart-ass," she laughed. "I bet she hid this one to keep Pearl from nagging about the state of her room. That's why it's empty, all her trash is out here. Right!" she said with an air of finality. "So now what? Are you going to come and find me?"

"Er..."

"Or are you planning to just abandon me out here in the middle of nowhere?" she continued mercilessly. "With no idea of even which direction to go, all alone under the burning sun, just me and my lonely thoughts-"

"I'll go and find Lion."