Hey everyone, here's a new chapter for my SU fanfic. If you haven't already go read my other Fanfic "Separate Ways" because this story is a prequel for that one. Anyways enjoy the chapter and I'll see you later.

Steven had awoken to the sound of a loud crashing noise. He immediately opened his eyes and sat up in bed, startled by the sudden noise. He got out of bed and ran down to the kitchen where the sound had come from and found that there were a bunch of shattered plates all over the floor. Amethyst was there and she was standing there balancing some more plates on top of her head. It seemed that she couldn't balance all of the plates and some fell to the ground.

"Amethyst?" Steven said sleepily. "What are you doing?"

"Nothing really," she replied with, trying to keep herself steady. "Just trying to pass the time. You were asleep and the others went out to go to the kindergarten. I really wasn't in the mood to go down memory lane any time soon."

"Well could you stop destroying our plates? We don't have an endless amount of those."

"Whatever you say champ." Amethyst took the plates off of her head and returned them to the cabinet they belonged in. Knowing she wouldn't do it, Steven grabbed a nearby broom and began sweeping up the broken glass. Pearl would have a fit if she saw the mess.

"So let me ask you something," Said Amethyst, sitting down on the counter. "Why were you hanging out with Lapis last night?"

Steven froze and his face felt hot. "You were spying on me?"

"What?! No of course not. I was just quietly observing you two without either of you knowing," she said with a devilish grin. "So what did ya talk about?"

"Just gem stuff," he replied while pouring the dustpan of glass into the garbage can. "I told her more about our showdown with Jasper at the beta Kindergarten."

"And how'd it go?"

"She was actually pretty excited for me. She knows about Stevonnie, but Smoky Quartz was my first gem fusion, but she was surprisingly happy for me. Then..."

"What next?" Amethyst asked.

"Well actually, the rest of that conversation is private," he said."i don't think she'd like for me to reveal what we talked about."

"Aww, crud!" Amethyst complained, lying down on the counter top and letting out a loud sigh of disappointment.

"So why did Pearl and Garnet go to the kindergarten?" Steven asked after he returned the broom to its place.

"Dunno, they wouldn't tell me."

"They didn't tell you why?" He said in shock. "That's kind of suspicious. Do you think we should be worried?"

"Nah, they're probably just looking for more gem monsters or whatever."

"Maybe." Steven walked over to the fridge and opened to look for something to eat while he talked. "But I don't like that they never told you why they were going."

"Well I did tell them I didn't want to go, maybe that's why," Amethyst concluded.

"Yeah, there's that too." Steven decided to get an apple from the fridge before closing the door. "It's probably nothing," he said before taking a bite of the red fruit. "Did they say when they'd be back?"

"Nope."

"Huh."

Amethyst sat up from the countertop. "Got any plans?"

"Given that I just woke up no, but I might make some plans for later," he said in between chewing. "You?"

"None so far," she replied.

There was a break in the conversation as Steven finished his Apple and discarded the core into the garbage bin.

"I'm gonna go take a shower now, get ready for the day," he said before returning to his room.

"Go ahead, I'll be taking a nap," she said before walking over and plopping down on the couch.

Steven gathered his clothes from his closet and took them over to the bathroom door, where he entered the room and closed the door behind him. Just to ensure Amethyst wouldn't walk in on him like she had countless times before he locked the door as well. He then grabbed a towel from the cabinet under the seat, set it on the sink's counter and went over to the shower. He turned the water on and held his hand under the shower head and adjusted the knobs until the water was at an ideal temperature for him. When he was satisfied with the water Steven disrobed and stepped into the shower before closing the shower curtain.

While the warm water cascaded over his body Steven began to think about all the things he could do today. He could go down to the boardwalk and pay Peedee a visit while he was working. Or maybe he could go down to the Big Donut and hang out with Lars and Sadie while he ate some donuts. He could also see if Connie was able to come over today and they could both go to Funland and spend the day there. She'd like that, yeah, that's what Steven's plans were going to be. If he wanted to hang out with Connie it would have to be soon because it was midway through August and he was already seeing commercial after commercial about back to school shopping for new clothes and supplies. The weather was also slowly but surely showing signs of the upcoming fall, as the warm summer weather had been gradually getting cooler and the leaves on some trees were already starting to change colors, and some of them had even started falling off the trees. Yes indeed fall was coming, which meant that soon he wouldn't be able to see his friends as much when school started. Sometimes Steven hated the fact that he was homeschooled by his father and the gems all his life, if he was in school he would have so many friends he wouldn't know what to do with himself. But then again, he may have never met Connie.

Ah, Connie. His best friend, his all time favorite person of all time. Connie was probably the greatest person in Steven's life. He felt bad for hiding all of his recent troubles since she always told him whatever was bothering her. He felt like it was a one-sided friendship sometimes, with him never being able to be as great a friend as she was to him. Great, now whenever he thought of her he'd feel like garbage for treating her so poorly.

While he was thinking Steven opened his bottle of shampoo, poured some in his palms and began scrubbing the sweet smelling stuff Into his thick, curly hair. He used his fingernails to scrub the shampoo deeply into his scalp, making sure he got every inch of his hair shampooed up. As he was doing this he realized that he realized that the combination of both the warm water and the shampoo was sending a burning sensation throughout various places on his body. He looked down and realized that the mixed combination was irritating all of his wounds and cuts that were still healing. It was similar to the feeling of getting salt in a cut, except more powerful and in patches all over his torso. It was bearable enough for him though and he hoped that the Gems wouldn't discover his current state. With a sigh he rinsed the shampoo out of his hair and ignored the pain from his body as he then used the soap bottle to bathe the rest of himself. Then after ten more minutes of daydreaming and washing up he turned the water off and dried himself off with his towel before getting ready for the day.

A half hour later Steven was wearing clean clothes and lying in bed, scrolling through the contacts list on his cell phone. When he found the one he was looking for he clicked on it and put the phone to his ear as the phone ringed. After a few rings a voice on the other end spoke. "Hello?"

"Hi Connie!" Steven said happily.

"Oh hi Steven!" Connie said with just as much happiness as Steven did. "What's up?"

"Oh nothing much really," Steven said. "Listen I've been thinking. You're about to start school up in a few weeks and we won't be able to hang out as much when that happens, so I was hoping we could hang out for the day and have some fun together."

"Yeah of course, I'd love that!" She responded eagerly. "Oh wait, I have to ask my parents to see if that's okay. Could you hold on for a second?"

"Sure, go ahead."

The line went silent for a minute, then in the background Steven could hear Connie talking to her parents but he couldn't make out what they were saying. By the sounds of it Connie and her parents were having a full on discussion, and Steven was starting to fear that she wouldn't be able to hang out. When Connie's voice returned he had feared the worst.

"What are your plans for the next week?" She asked plainly.

Steven was confused. "Um, I don't have any. Why?"

Connie's cheerful demeanor returned. "Because my parents said I could spend the entire week with you!"

"Really!? Oh my gosh, that's amazing, Connie! We can have a sleepover every night!"

"And roast marshmallows," Connie added.

"And go to Funland."

And watch the season 2 premiere of Under the Knife."

"And eat Pizza!"

"Yeah!"

"So when do you leave?" Steven asked, calming himself down a bit.

"Mom and dad said that I can leave right after I pack!" Connie said excitedly. "I gotta go get my things together, I'll be there in 45 minutes."

"Alright I'll see you then," Steven said. "Bye."

"Bye."

Steven hung up the phone and ran down the stairs into the living room whether Amethyst was still awake on the couch. "Amethyst! Amethyst!"

"What!?" She screamed, immediately sitting up and reaching for her gem, ready to summon her whip. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing's wrong, Connie's going to come over for the week!" He exclaimed with stars in his eyes.

"Oh, oh..." Amethyst said, breathing a sigh of relief as she slumped back into the couch. "You scared be bud. That's great news Steven, when will she get here?"

"She said 45 minutes because she needs time to pack."

"Sweet," Amethyst said with a smile. "Now it won't be so boring around here."

"You don't think Garnet and Pearl will mind, do you?" He asked, completely forgetting about the two gems.

"Nah I doubt it, they love having Connie over. Especially Garnet because Connie was your first fusion."

"Awesome. This is going to be the best week-long sleepover ever!" Be declared. "I have to get ready."

Steven ran off up to his room again and started gathering up all of his blankets and sheets together into a big pile. Then he got to work spreading some of them on the floor until the floor was covered with a soft and pillow-like surface, comfortable enough to lay on. Then Steven used the rest of the blankets and used them to make roofs on the dresser and the bed frame that covered the floor and made it seem more cozy. By the time Amethyst went to see what he was doing a few minutes later Steven had already converted his entire room into a huge pillow fort, big enough to fit two people, Steven's TV, and a basket full of all sorts of sugary sweets and refreshing juice boxes.

"Whoa Steven!" Amethyst exclaimed, observing the beautifully made fort. "This is awesome, dude. And I see that you're both sleeping on the floor together. You gonna wrap your arm around her and hold her tight?" She nudged him with her shoulder.

"What, no Amethyst!" He replied, feeling embarrassed by her question.

"Oookay then," she said, walking away from her room before stopping to add "I guess she'll be the one to make the first move."

"Amethyst!" He whined as she walked away in a fit of laughter.

Steven went back to completing the finishing touches on the fort when he heard the warp pad activate, announcing Garnet and Pearl's presence. He stopped what he was doing and dashed to the warp pad where the two gems stood.

"Pearl! Garnet!" He proclaimed happily, trapping them both in his arms when he went in for a group hug.

"Well good morning Steven!" Pearl said.

"Hello there," Garnet also said.

"Hey guys! Now that you're here I can tell you the good news."

"What good news?" Pearl asked.

"I bet it has something to do with Connie," Garnet suggested, nudging Steven with her elbow.

"It does," Steven confirmed. "I asked if we could hang out today since school's starting up soon, and her parents said she could spend the whole week here with us! Can you believe that?"

Pearl and Garnet's cheerful expressions quickly diminished, being replaced with some other face that Steven couldn't put his finger on. Pearl looked over at Garnet, who said nothing in response but seemed to be thinking about something.

"Is...is something wrong?" Steven asked, taken off guard by their sudden change in demeanor. "Do I have to tell her she can't come?"

"Actually Steven," Pearl started. "You should probably cancel-"

"No," Garnet interrupted. "She can still come over and stay with us, that shouldn't be a problem."

"Are you sure?" Steven questioned further, expressing his concern.

"Of course. You won't be able to see each other as much during the school year, so you kids enjoy the time you have left."

"Okay we will, thanks Garnet!" Steven said, a smile returning to his face.

"You're welcome Steven," Garnet said. "Run along now, go get ready for Connie's arrival."

"Alrighty, see you later." He ran off back to his room and left the gem alone. Unbeknownst to Steven, there was trouble arising on Earth, trouble that Pearl and Garnet were already aware of.

"Garnet, are you sure having Connie over is a good idea right now?" Pearl asked Garnet. "Maybe we should cancel the sleepover and tell Steven that-"

"Let them have their fun," Garnet said, cutting off Pearl. "If what we think is happening is actually happening, then they should spend all the time they have left together. School will be the least of their problems soon."

"Should we tell anyone about our current situation?"

"For now, we should just tell Greg and Amethyst," Garnet answered. "But leave the kids out of this. No need to scare them if we're wrong. I hope we're wrong."

"So do I just pretend that nothing's wrong? I always do that!" Pearl hissed angrily.

"Then you should have no problem hiding this as well." Garnet took off her shades so she could talk to Pearl eye to eye. All three of her eyes were filled with fear and uncertainty, which surprised Pearl and made her even more scared than she already was. "If we're right about this, then there's much to be done in so little time. If this is really happening...you may want to make peace with yourself." Tears began to form I'm Garnet's eyes. "And say goodbye if we have to."

"Do you really think it'll come to that?" Pearl was also starting to cry.

Garnet wiped away her tears and put her shades back on. "I hope it doesn't. But it just might."

Just like she promised Connie had been dropped off at Steven's house 45 minutes after their phone call, holding a black duffel bag in her hand as she walked over to the beach house and walked up the stairs. She was about to knock on the door when Steven sprung the screen door open, nearly ripping it off the hinges in the process, and attacked Connie with one of the super tight bear hugs he was known for. Connie helped out in surprise before returning the gesture to him and cheerfully saying "Hello to you too Steven!"

"I'm so happy to see you!" The happy-go-lucky boy cheered. "Are you ready to have the greatest week of your life?"

"Yeah!" She declared, throwing a fist in the air.

"Alright then, come in come in!" Steven said, gesturing for her to come in. As Connie stepped inside he took the heavy bag from her and carried it over and up to his room.

"Thanks, that was actually really heavy," Connie said as he walked away.

"No kidding," he replied as he plopped the heavy bag onto his bedroom floor next to the fort. "Did you bring your entire room with you?"

"No but aside from my clothes I brought some books and my sword with me, that's probably why it's so heavy."

"Ah, okay. So how do you want to kick off this amazing week?" He asked.

"Oh, umm..." Connie trailed off, thinking over all the things they could do while they were together. "I don't know actually. Do you have any ideas?"

"Well..." Steven began, a huge smile creeping across his face. "Since the fall season premiere of Under the Knife will be starting in a few weeks, I thought we should celebrate the special occasion." He walked up to his room and came back down with something in his hands. He showed Connie what it was and she gasped in disbelief.

"The Entire first season of Under the Knife with all 52 episodes!?" She read the DVD cover. "Steven, that's amazing!"

"Glad you thought so," he said with a smile. "I saw this at the store last week and I thought of you, so I bought it. Now we can binge watch every episode so we'll be all caught up once the new season premieres."

"Steven, you sir are an amazing human being," Connie said with joy.

"Thank you Connie, I always try to be my best when I'm with you," he said, causing both of the young kids to blush. "Shall we?"

They went up to Steven's room and Steven took the DVD out of the case and put it in his DVD player. While he was setting up the show Connie observed the huge blanket fort in awe. "Wow Steven, did you make this? This is incredible."

"I'm happy you like it, I made it right after you hang up to pack," said Steven, sitting down on the blanket covered floor after he started the show. He patted the blanket space next to him and Connie gladly took the offer by sitting down next to him. As the opening theme montage of Under the Knife began Steven reached over to the wicker basket of snacks, grabbed a bag of chips and held it out to Connie.

"Thanks," she said before accepting the bag and opening it up. As she munched on her chips Steven grabbed himself a bag of chips and two cans of sodas, one of which he also gave to Connie, which resulted in another "thank you" from her. The two of them continued to watch the show after its opening had ended, and so began their first day of their week together. They watched 12 of the episodes when Connie asked him something.

"Have you been watching the news lately?"

Steven looked over at her with a confused look. "No, why?"

"Well," she started. "A couple weeks ago a signal from deep space was received by some of Earth's satellites."

"Wait, we just randomly picked up a signal from space?" Asked Steven.

Connie nodded. "It's just noise though, not like a radio signal or anything, so we just dismissed it as nothing." She took out her phone from her pocket and pulled up a picture from the internet. After a few seconds of scrolling and clicking on things she reached over and showed Steven the picture. It was a satellite image from space that was taken.

And it showed a huge spaceship, one that definitely wasn't human.

The craft was the lenght of 17 football stadiums and the height of one of Empire City's skyscraper. It was shaped like a large "U" with a huge sphere located in the center of the curve. (Think of the Trade Federation Battleship from Star Wars.)

"Whoa, what is it?" He asked, still in awe at the image before him.

"Nothing's been confirmed yet, but it appears to be an extraterrestrial spacecraft," Connie answered with excitement. "Governments all over the world have been trying to make contact with this craft to no avail, and most people are trying to determine whether these alleged aliens are peaceful or hostile as well. Some people are even saying that this whole thing is just a very elaborate hoax."

"Don't governments usually try to cover up things like this from the public?" Steven questioned, thinking how unusual this whole thing was.

"Yes but not this time," she continued. "All the world governments have decided to release everything they know and will know about this thing. It's a matter of international security, so I guess this is an exception to what they released to the public."

"Has the ship done anything yet?"

"Not yet. It hasn't done anything in fact. It's actually kind of scaring people that it has done anything yet, myself included."

"Well that's actually pretty cool Connie," Steven said. "Thanks for telling me."

"No problem Steven," Connie replied, putting her phone back in her pocket. "It seemed like the kind of thing you'd be interested in, what with you living with a group of intergalactic guardians of Earth and that you're one of them."

"Should we tell the gems? This seems like something that would worry them."

"No, it's probably nothing they'd care about. They'd think it's a hoax."

And that was the end of that conversation. Steven and Connie went back to watching their show and that was that.

Meanwhile the gems were in the kitchen quietly talking amongst themselves so the children wouldn't hear them. Garnet and Pearl were explaining the arising situation to Amethyst, who was intently listening to what they were saying, a look of seriousness and concern.

"Whoa whoa wait," Amethyst said after a few minutes. "You mean to tell me that you think someone's been activating the communication hub and trying to restart the Kindergarten?"

"Yes," Garnet answered. "We believe there has been someone interfering with some of the gem technology abandoned after the Rebellion. Neither of us have been doing it, so let me ask you this. Have you been messing with anything like that?"

"Of course not, G" Amethyst replied with a hint of annoyance in her tone. "I haven't been screwing with any of that buiz, that's your department."

"We was hoping you wouldn't say that," Pearl said disappointingly.

"And why is that?"

Garnet sighed. "Because if it was none of us then it means someone was doing it behind our backs. Peridot and Lapis would have no use of the little bit of gem technology left behind, and Jasper is bubbled, so...it could only mean one thing."

"It means," Pearl said. "That a Homeworld gem has made it to Earth and they plan to take back this planet."

Amethyst's face turned to one of utter fear and terror. "You don't mean..."

"Yes we mean it," Garnet continued. "We believe an invasion from Homeworld is eminent."

Uh-oh, looks like Earth is in trouble once again with Homeworld. What will happen next? Anyway, sorry for taking so long to update, I've been real busy and whatnot, and for the longest time I was stuck on how to make this chapter. I don't plan on taking this long to make new chapters in the future, but ultimately it depends on what happens. Please follow, favorite and review this story, PM me or whatever. Give me your input! Let me know how I'm doing and how to make this story better. Until next time, Lazuli out!