I felt immensely better after the whole thing with Rose's sword was resolved. When we got back, we told the others that everything was good and all was right again. We didn't go too much into detail about what happened but Garnet and Amethyst were happy nothing else was going to happen. Pearl also apologized to the two of them about her actions and they forgave her for it.

When that was done, I got back to work on my stuff and the others remained vigilant for anymore tricks that Homeworld might have in store for us. With that said, that means I need to start working on my base to start working with all the supplies and gear I stole from The Iron Kings, and any gem tech I have.

And that means to get started on my underground complex and in order to do that, I'm gonna need a drill.


"Keep looking guys."

"What do you plan to do with these anyways?" Pearl asks me.

"I need a speedy way to tear through the earth carefully without causing so much vibration to make the cliff unstable." I explain before I spot another injector ahead. "There." I point to the one standing up that looks intact. "That's perfect." I look to Garnet and Amethyst. "Let's go you two."

"Roger."

"Whatever."

Amethyst assumes the position of jumping to the top of the closest flat cliff surface nearby and uses her whip to wrap the top of the injector while Garnet stands where the thing is going to fall. Steven carries his cheeseburger backpack filled with the other small injector drills I salvaged while pulling the red wagon carrying my tools to a safe distance while Pearl and I get ready to lift. The drills on the injectors seem useful but the problem with them is that they are too massive for me to use on the Plug Robonoid properly. Plus the massive size of the main ones would probably cause too much noise, too much vibration and possibly raise suspicions to people nearby in town when I get to digging. The smaller ones around the big drill should be more manageable for me to work with than the big ones. To add to that, I don't want the outer or inner structure of the cliff to be compromised because of the massive vibrations from the big drills. I need to control it to smaller areas. "Everyone ready?!" I ask them.

"Check!" Amethyst confirms.

"Ready!" Garnet does as well.

"I'm ready!" Then Steven.

"Let's do this." Pearl says and grabs one of the legs of the machine. "This is the last one right?" She asks.

"Should be. Provided the drills aren't cracked or the circuitry is corroded, I should have enough with this set." I grab the same leg as her and get ready. "Alright, on three!"

Amethyst grips her whip tightly. "One…!"

Garnet starts increasing the size of her gauntlet. "Two…!"

Pearl and I grip the metal leg tightly. "Three!" I yell loudly and the both of us heave. With as much strength as we can muster, we start tipping the massive machine until it starts to tip over. The thing weighs over a ton but once it starts to tip without our help, that's when Amethyst comes into play. She pulls her whip as hard as she can in the opposite direction of it falling to lessen its force and speed towards the ground. As the machine falls toward Garnet, she uses her now massive to catch the thing from a much higher altitude than if they were regular size.

"Mm." She grunts a little as the weight of the machine lands on her but she doesn't buckle. Next what she does is begin to lessen the mass of her gauntlets, making the machine lower itself to the ground as well. Amethyst continues to hold back while Pearl and I run to help out Garnet.

"Alright… easy… easy…" I warily say as the thing ever so carefully moves closer to the ground.

"Almost there…" Pearl says as she I grab one side and Garnet goes to the other.

*Thud*

Before we know it, the thing is laid safely on the ground for me to dissect. "Perfect." I say with a smile and start walking over to the drill portion. "Thanks guys. I appreciate the help."

"No problem." Garnet says as she and everyone else follow me.

"Is this the last of it?" Amethyst asks as she drops down next to us.

"Provided these work properly…" I trail off as I examine the smaller drills on it. I smile when I don't find anything abnormal about them. "And they look to be in good shape, so yeah this is the last one." I take a step back and visualize how I'm going to go about this. "My tools, please."

"Here you are sir." Steven pulls up the wagon next to me.

"Thank you." I start picking the items I need to start my salvage operation. "You guys can go. This is the last I need and I'll be here awhile getting these. Steven you know where to place those parts."

"I'm on it!" The kid salutes me and takes off towards the Warp.

"Wait, Steven!" Pearl calls out to him but he's already far gone, so she chases after him.

With that, I put on a welders mask and I'm about to start but I notice Amethyst and Garnet here. "You guys can go too."

"Not a chance." Amethyst says firmly with crossed arms.

"We're not leaving you alone." Garnet may sound neutral but she's just as serious.

I fold up the mask and look at them, "And why is that?" I ask.

"Last time you were left alone here you almost destroyed this place." Garnet simply tells me. I blanch a little as I remember the fight that happened here, both times.

"It was an accident?" I sheepishly say. I mean to say it as a sentence but it came out more as a question.

"Accident?! You almost blew up my favorite rock!" Amethyst yells at me, pointing to the giant rock a few feet away that is peppered with bullets and half of it is cracked and chipped from an explosion.

"… I'm sorry?" Again, it comes out more as a question.

"Ugh, whatever." She grunts out and casually walks to the Warp with her hands behind her head. "I'm going home."

"Hey, I thought you said I didn't want to leave me alone?!" I call out to her.

"I don't want you to be LEFT alone here! Garnets staying because I am NOT waiting for you for a few hours!" By that last note, she walks out of earshot and leaves me and Garnet together. After a few seconds of silence, we look at each other.

"Uhhhh…"

"Get to work." She taps my mask to close over my face. "I'm gonna take a look around."

"Right." I grab my welding tools and get to work.


The materials used in the construction of the injectors are made of a much harder material than what most earth machines are made of so it does take awhile to cut through it to get what I need. Thankfully no one came around to interrupt me this time so everything went smoothly. With that last set of drills I've got, that brings my number of them up to ten with a majority of the wires attached still working or able to be soldered to what I got. With these things in my possession, I get to work on placing them in the Plug Robonoid for its drill use. I turned off the giant machine and removed the front of the machine so I can get to the inner workings of it and set everything up. Since the machine floats on top of its legs when walking, that means it can drill in almost any number of directions when working without having to reorient its entire self. It just turns the sphere part of itself. The drill pattern I want is kind of a pentagon shape to it with a final drill in the middle of it, which means I'll be using seven drills for it.

"Alright, you go to that… you connect to that one…" I sort out the wires that are to be properly connected to the drills as well as to the inner components of the Plug Robonoid itself.

"You sure you don't need help Marcus?"

"Thanks but no thanks Connie. It's not a matter of complicated intelligence at this point. It's mostly labor. I got this handled." I tell her without looking back. "Thanks anyway."

"Your welcome." She says before returning her attention back to Steven as he finishes his book. "So… what did you think of the ending?" She asks him excitedly.

At this point, I tune them out as they start to get really into a discussion involving this books series that they've been reading. I've already got an idea for the design of the drill in general. It's going to be placed on a circular steel plate that'll turn in one direction, while all the drills will individually turn in the opposite direction of the plate. Hopefully that type of way of drilling will allow it to be localized to its specific area and prevent too much shaking from occurring. The gems were kind enough to head out and get the plate I need while I set up all the necessary connections. "Bye Marcus!" I hear two sets of voice say bye to me.

"See you guys." I idly say as I'm stripping a wire of its protective sheathe. Curiously, I get a confused look on my face as I hear the sound of a magical item being used. As I look out, my eyes widen as I spot the temple door closing with Rose's gem glowing before it becomes inert.

"Oh man." I groan out. It would seem that Steven activated his mom's room again and dragged Connie in with him for whatever reason. After the story he told us when he came back to the real world about what happened, it seems like something that he wouldn't want to mess around with. Then again, he has someone real with him this time so maybe he was feeling more confident now than befo—

"We're back!"

"Crap." I groan under my breath as I hear the joyful sound of Pearl's declaration that their back. Turning back to the door, I see all three of the gems are back with the plate, that Garnet is holding easily. "Heeey guys. Great to see you. Thank you soooo much for getting this for me." I begin to say but I am really uneasy about the whole thing. "Now I'll just take that and—" I go to grab it but Garnet pulls it out of my grasp.

"What's wrong?" She simply asks. Pearl and Amethyst look between us about what's happening.

"What makes you think something's wrong?" I ask with a smile but the way I say it screams I'm lying. It is confirmed that she doesn't believe me when all she does is raise a questioning eyebrow. It breaks me pretty easily. "Oh alright." I groan out and take a deep breath as I look to the temple door and back to them. "We… may have a problem."


'Oh sure… I can keep a secret about how a paramilitary-armed gang group is stalking them… but I can't keep a secret about how a 13-year-old boy and his girlfriend are transported into a semi-infinite dimension. Wow.' After I told them about Steven and Connie's adventure into Rose's, they were surprisingly calm about it. Since the first time didn't result in any injuries for the kid, they aren't as scared or worried for his well-being now. Even more so their still cool with it considering that Connie went with him and I can see that. She may not be a gem, but she's a bright smart kid that's hung out with us enough times that she's isn't surprised, mostly, about all the freaky almost supernatural stuff we do on a regular basis. If anyone can keep a level head for our Steven, it would be her.

Garnet went ahead and gave me the plate so I could get started on all the rotation mechanisms to add to it and the drills. It didn't take long after I was doing the fitting that the two of them finally emerged from Rose's room. We asked if they were alright and they were. There were some complications apparently, something about differences of opinion on the ending, but it was resolved in the end. With enough excitement for one day, Connie took her leave and the next few days were spent calm as usual.

"Alright, let's do this." I press the button on my laptop and the drill starts spinning up.

Some people have a different definition of calm. My droids added a new entrance to the back of my house that was to lead me to a basement that I'm making. From there, I'll place some miscellaneous items around in it to act as a simple storage area before I get to the real fun of the place. The ground starts breaking and flinging all over the place but there isn't as much vibration and the drilling is pretty focused on one area so I'm happy with my idea working. My droids get to work on breaking down the smaller rocks and dirt all over the place since that's a lot easier to work with than the compacted earth in the first place. "Nice work Marcus." Garnet compliments me.

"Thank you." I thank her as I turn back to everyone else sitting about with some lawn chairs they brought. "Just give it a few minutes and he should be done with my basement." I explain as I plop down on a vacant chair.

"That's pretty cool man." Greg says as he hands me a cold soda.

"I know." I open the beverage and take a swig of it before letting out a satisfying 'Ahhh'. "I aim to impress."

"Are you sure the structural integrity of your home can handle a basement?" Pearl asks.

I wave her off. "My droids made this place to withstand some abuse, plus the way how the foundation is they made it to be should allow it to take the hollow ground underneath without collapsing." After I explain my home a bit, I input some commands before relaxing again. "But… as a precaution, I've set my workers to place structural supports where need to prevent any form of collapse from happening." I take a swig of my drink before continuing. "I'm definitely going to need that when I get to the deeper parts of my home."

"So your still planning to hollow out this entire Cliffside?!" Greg asks incredulously, waving his hands around in emphasis.

"Not all of it." I say and reach down to grab a handful of popcorn from the bowl that Steven and Connie are eating from as they watch with rapped attention on the construction going on. "But yeah a good chunk of it."

"Isn't that dangerous? I don't want this place collapsing on my son you know." He tells me, slightly irked at my apparent carelessness.

"So is fighting monsters several times his size but you let him do that too." I retort. He goes to say something… but can't think of anything else to call me out on after I just checkmate him. He leans back in a 'hmph' while I eat some popcorn, supervising the construction.


All in all, it went great. The drilling went smoothly and with the supports my droids added, my house is firmly set in place. The place now looks like your typical concrete basement with a slightly darker tint to it. How it is like that is because my droids used the rocks that were scattered all over the place from the drilling and compacted them together so tightly to make the walls and flooring and give it the look of poured concrete. With that set up, it was time to get started on my next setup for my home: The Complex.

For that reason, I enlisted Connie and Pearl's help for the next several days to plan the layout of the place and to make sure that I didn't get any sort of measurements wrong.

"Hmmm, you're gonna want separate rooms designated for specific purposes."

"Rooms you'd want for the purpose of say, research and development, crafting, outfitting, testing, storage, maybe a place to relax…"

"And I want a massive open area I could use to test any new weapons, items, gear, or upgrades for my vehicles safely without exposing them to the public, but enough space so I can have a better idea of getting it to work."

"How about a size of…"

This is how the conversation has been going for some time between the three of us. We have a basic blueprint map laid out on the island table at the house. While I'm a little iffy on the idea of Connie's parent working her so hard to be a prodigy and becoming so smart and successful at such a young age, I will not deny the result of that path and how mature she is. I think that's a reason or helped attribute to how she was so accepting of the lifestyle Steven lives and the existence of us and the gems. While we are planning everything out, Amethyst and Garnet are chilling out around the living area and Steven is off hanging with Buck I think. He showed us a flyer earlier he made by hand about his dad and guitar lessons or whatever. In any case, nothing massive is happening right now or hasn't been the last week so we are able to get some good work done for my place.

"Do you think I can check out your place? I want to get an accurate depiction of the elevator you plan to make and how all this is going to be connected." Connie asks me.

I nod my head, "Go on ahead. If you can get an idea of how to best make this work, don't let me stop you."

"Thanks." She drops off the stool, grabs her backpack and heads off to the front door. "I'll probably be leaving soon anyway. So I'll give you my notes next chance I come over okay?" She tell us as she grabs the handle on the door.

Again, I nod, "That's fine. I need to sort through all the materials I have to make sure that I have everything I need or plan to need when I start setting everything up." I explain. I know from The Iron Kings, I stole some disassembled parts that I should be able to make into some forges or workbenches I can use to make different things.

"Great!" She happily says and opens the door before heading out. "See you later!"

"Bye Connie!" Pearl says her farewell to the kid.

"See you!" I call out as well before moving to the fridge. 'I'm parched.' I take a bottle of water before taking a swig of it. "I think we're making good progress." I comment.

"Yes, we are." Pearl agrees. "I will say Marcus, you do continue to impress me with what you manage to come up with." She tells me with a smile.

"Well, I—"

"GARNET! PEARL! AMETHYST! MARCUS!" Steven slams open the door and yells all of our names. We all jump onto our feet in surprise about what's got the kid so panicked.

"Steven." Garnet says calmly, acknowledging him.

"What is it?!" Pearl asks.

"Are we under attack?!" I ask as well, moving my hands over my gems in preparation to pull them out in case.

"Whoa, where's the fire?!" Amethyst asks.

"It's an emergency!" He tells us frantically. "You have to help me get rid of all the shirts and stop Buck from making more!"

"Have the shirts come to life and possessed the bodies of their wearers?!" Pearl proposes.

"No! They Just—"

"Are people catching on fire when they put on the magic shirts?" Amethyst asks as well.

"No, no, they just—"

"Are we dealing with another gem fragment possessing clothes type deal?" I ask annoyed at the idea. "I do NOT want a repeat of Frybo!" I interrupt the kid. Dealing with Frybo in the first place was total crap and if we have any other type of situation where we have to deal with something like that, no thank you.

"What? No! They're—"

"Are the shirts destroying the wearer's will to continue on in this mortal coil, thereby shutting down Beach City?!" Pearl almost screams out in panic.

"Wait, what?" I ask in confusion at the way how she said her idea.

"No!" Steven yells loudly, halting us from guessing anymore. "They're..." He sighs before getting his bearings. "They're just... using my art in a way I don't agree with."

"…" We all give him this look that says 'really.'

"Oh." Pearl casually says and the others sit down. After taking a look around and see that me and Steven are the only ones standing, I shrug and sit back down on the island, idly look over the blueprint again.

"Eh, we'll pass." Garnet says as she adjusts her visor.

"What? But... but I really need your help." He almost begs of us.

"Steven, this sounds like a very abstract problem." Pearl tells him.

"It's not something we can punch." Amethyst points out as she punches her own palm.

"You MUST learn to help yourself. That's how you become stronger." Garnet proposes to him as her visor sparkles. 'How does she do that?'

"Good point, good point." Amethyst agrees with her with a few head nods.

"Absolutely." Pearl too.

"But—!"

"Look, Steven," I interrupt him. "This is a matter of your own opinion at this point, how you interpret your artwork should be displayed as. It's your work being used here, try to come up with a solution that best suits you." I tell him. It's probably for the best, otherwise if he comes to us with every little problem and we jump on it, then he'll want us to help with EVERY problem he would have that he would be more than capable of dealing with on his own.

"Yes! Why not dust off those conflict resolution skills?" Pearl says to him in hopes that he'll take my advice.

"Let your problem be known. Then you can work towards an understanding." I imagine Garnet means that he probably wants him to resolve this with whoever's screwing with him.

It looks like he's contemplating our words and thinks a bit. I smile as I believe he's going to find a solution on his own. "Oh I'll make them understand." At least until he opens his mouth and says in a tone that kind of screams evil to me. He turns around and walks outside but not before saying, "I'll make them ALL understand!"

To say we are surprised at the change of mood he kind of went through right now would be an understatement. "You guys created a monster." I point out.

"Us?!" Amethyst says in surprise.

"What about you?" Garnet asks.

"Well, I would help but I'm over here drawing up plans for my home. Not all of us have an interdimensional room we can go into inside the temple." I lazily wave my hand to the temple door. "So while I'm over here doing this, what are you all doing? Just sitting around doing nothing."

"Hey!"

"Except you Pearl. You're helping me with the planning."

"Thank you."


The situation resolved itself pretty well for Steven. He decided to give Buck a taste of his own medicine by taking his own drawing, plastering it on a shirt and shooting them all over the boardwalk during the Mayor's speech and see how he likes having people criticize his own work. In the end, he apologized and took some lessons from Steven's dad, AKA, Guitar Dad.

I got to admit, I may have jumped the gun a bit on calling him a monster but you can't blame me at the way how he was saying his planning and all. With that mess cleaned up, Connie came by the next day and gave me the measurements I would need to use in order to implement the amount of rooms and what kind they are to be for my base. With that set up, now all I need to do is get the elevator set up to take me down.

"Now… put this here… add that… you'll need to do that there… Perfect." I say with a smile as I set all the parameters for the Plug Robonoid and my droids to work with and not to exceed a set distance. That distance is just several feet away from any point of breaking through to the outside world or the temple. The gems made sure to clarify to me that the temples rooms are all part of a dimension, not actually part of the cliff mountain itself so as long as we don't tear apart the door, it's all good. With the last of the distance plugged in, their orders for what specific tasks they need to do, I press enter and let all but two of them to get to work. The Plug Robonoid starts drilling through one of the walls before going in a downward direction. "Great." With work underway, I let my two companions climb onto my shoulders before going upstairs to the front door.

"Oh! Marcus." Pearl says in surprise, her hand inches from where she was going to knock but now I'm standing in front of her. "Hello." She greets me with a smile.

"Hey Pearl." I greet back and step outside before closing the door behind me. "You need something?"

"Uhhh, no nothing I need. I thought if there was something else you need help with." She offers some help but I shake my head.

"Nah, not really. My robots are working right now. It was just a matter of adding all the data and commands and once that was done, it's just a matter of waiting at this point." I explain to her the best I can.

"That's good, that way maybe you can rest up a bit. You've kind of been working yourself ragged lately and while gems don't require rest, I know humans do." She tells me.

Now that she points it out, I have been working almost non-stop for the last couple of weeks and my body feels a little achy at this point, but nothing that makes me want to drop dead. "Yeah, I do feel a bit winded," I say as I stretch a bit, "But I'm still kicking so I'm going to at least get as much work done as I can before I even consider dropping on the couch to sleep." With that statement, I turn back to my house and grimace. "You know, in hindsight, I probably should have bought some furniture for me to fill this place. Maybe then I could actually sleep on a bed without being injured or incapacitated." I grumble to myself.

"That may have been the best course." I nod with her statement.

There is a momentary lapse of awkward quiet between us since the current topic ended.

"Oh! Right! I almost forgot." I remember what it is I was going to go do. My remembrance being from the droids on my shoulders. "Pearl?"

"Yes?"

"Do you remember that small island that Steven and I first saw Sugilite, the one that had the communication hub that we needed to destroy?"

"Hmmmm…" She places a hand to her chin in thought. "Ahhh, yes. I remember."

"Do you remember which direction it's in?"

"Yyyyeesss, I believe I do. Why do you ask?"

"I want to go and scavenge what I can from there since I got nothing else to do right now." I give her my reason.

"That sounds like a good idea." She agrees with the idea as she fold her arms over her chest. "Do you need some help?" She offers.

While it's a tempting idea, I'm afraid what I got planned is more of a surprise. I glance towards the ocean before looking towards her again. "Nah. I got this."


The ride was a bit bumpy to get to the place but it was somewhat smoothing sailing towards it. As I slowly drift toward the place, I recall the events just before I shipped off.

"Make sure to take some supplies in case you get hungry or thirsty." Pearl advises me but I wave it off.

"I won't be gone for a day Pearl. I'm just gonna go, grab some things and come right back. Easy." I tell her as I pull off the rope from the dock.

"But it took at least a day for Sigilite to get back. What about you?" She asks me as she follows me from the dock.

"Because," I place my droids down and strap them and anything loose down. "Sugilite is huge and slow, this boat is probably three times faster than her." I point out to her. I rented a speed boat to get me to that place fast and easy without much chance for me to dillydally. I have an idea of what I want to get so I won't need a lot of space for it, but hopefully I can grab some small things that I can work with as well while I'm there.

"Oh fine." She grumbles in an annoyed tone before taking a step back as I sit in the driver seat. "Just be safe."

"Yes, mom." I reply before turning the vehicle on. Once it roars to life in the water, I wave back to her. "See ya!"

"Bye!" We say our temporary goodbyes and I set this thing to full speed ahead. The water sprays back across the dock, dousing Pearl, much to her annoyance, and I go zooming forward. The water's a little choppy but it works for its smoothing sailing for me toward some prime scavenging material for me to take.

When my boat is beached at my location, I disembark with my droids following me close behind. Almost immediately, I find the destroyed remains of my target and start placing them on the boat. While I'm doing this, I instruct my droids to go into the main place and start breaking down whatever it is they can find.

As I grab a nice chunk of the first piece, I smile. "Yeah, you'll do just nice."


"Where is he?" Amethyst groans out.

"Amethyst, it's only been five minutes." Pearl says annoyed at her friends whining. "At least be a little patient."

"Well he said he had a surprise for us and I'm tired of waiting for it." Amethyst says from her laying position on the island counter.

"Patience." Garnet speaks up from her position on the couch. "I'm sure he'll be along shortly."

The Warp activates, getting everyone's attention. As they look to why it's active, they are confused to see Marcus standing there. "Hey."

"See." Garnet points to him.

"What the surprise?" Steven asks his friend excitedly as he runs up to him.

"Yeah, we want to know!" Amethyst joins up with him as well.

"Come with me and find out." Marcus waves at them to join him on the Warp. Steven and Amethyst are excited nonetheless but Garnet and Pearl are confused as to where this surprise is. Especially if it requires Warp transportation.


The Warp deactivates and everyone appears on a hill.

"Heeeeyyy! What gives? That's just the town." Amethyst points out in an annoyed tone at the familiar looking town they've been living near for a few dozen years now.

"Yes… but…" Pearl begins to protest but begins to realize that she doesn't remember any location of a Warp that had this type of view. "I don't remember a Warp being around here."

"Guy, turn around." Marcus commands of them to do. As soon as they turn around, even more questions linger in their minds as they immediately spot the lighthouse some ways away from them, and that they are right next to Marcus's brand new home. "Welcome." He says with a smile.

"But… but…" Pearl begins to say in disbelief as she shifts her view from the Warp under her feet, and the house a couple feet from them.

"Hoooow?" Garnet draws out the word as a question, just as curious as well.

"Wow!" Steven says with excitement as he rubs his hands over the Warp he's never seen before. "You can make new Warp pads?" he asks.

"Well, not really." He says, much to some of their confusions. "You guys remember the communication hub? Sugilite?" He asks them about the two. Pearl immediately remembers since he asked her before about the place but it takes the others a few seconds to remember. They nod once they remember. "After one, or two of you, got carried away…" he glances at Amethyst and Garnet, which the two of them nervously scratch their arms and heads at their fusion that almost ran amok. "You destroyed the Warp that was there. It wasn't that hard. All I had to do was gather up all the pieces of the thing, place them here and boom!" He says the last part with a smile and steps back towards his home before spreading his arms wide, gesturing to his home. "Instant access to my home and anywhere else that has a Warp." He proudly proclaims.

"Wooooaaaahhh!" Steven says in awe at the news.

"Very smart. A good way of repurposing a Warp for a now defunct location for us." Pearl compliments him.

"Nice job." Garnet gives him a thumbs up, which he smiles at.

"Soooo no surprise for us?"

*Smack*

"Ow!" Amethyst yelps after getting hit by Pearl on the back of her head.

"Well, with that surprise you've given us, I think its time we give him a surprise of our own." Pearl proposes to the others. They nod in agreement, except Amethyst who grumbles after getting hit, and except Marcus because he has no idea what for.

"What surprise?" He asks confused as they proceed to lead him into his own home. He's even more confused at where they are taking him.

"While you left to the destroyed communication hub, we went out shopping for you since you've been so busy." Pearl tells him as they walk up the stairs.

"We used your money."

"AMETHYST!" Pearl yells at the purple gem for being so blunt.

"What'd you get me?" He asks them.

"Since you've been working yourself ragged lately…" Pearl begins to say.

"And how annoying it must be sleeping on my couch." Steven adds. Since he's the one that's been sleeping a few feet away from his fellow hybrid friend, he knows how he looks whenever he wakes up from sleeping on the couch; and if the amount of bones popping, stretching, and groans is anything to go by, it's not the perfect way to sleep.

"Right, that too. So to help you relax," they open the door and Pearl gestures inside with a grand pose. "We got you this."

As he walks in, Marcus is surprised to see a bed in one of the empty bedrooms. A queen size to be exact with a mix of red and white covers and blankets, and blue pillows. "Wooooaaaahh." He says in awe at his first piece of furniture, and a bed no less. He walks over to bed and walks around it, examining it from all angles and running his hand over the soft smoothness of the bed. "Dang… thanks guys." He voices his thanks to his friends, not at all perturbed at their use of his own money without his knowledge.

"Your welcome. You deserve it after all the help you you've given us." Garnet replies with a smile.

"Let me try this out." Marcus says as he lies back on the bed, the mattress reforming to accommodate him. "Ohhhhhh, yeeeaaaahhhh. This was a good purchase." He relaxes with closed eyes, reveling in the feeling of a bed that's not when he's injured.

"Now this isn't one of those ordinary beds." Pearl begins to say as she pushes down on the mattress with her hands. "It's one of those special—"

"Pearl?"

"Yes, Garnet?" She looks to the tall gem who called her name, who points at the bed. She looks to see that Marcus has been completely knocked, a light snore emanating from his still form. "Oh."

"Hehe," Garnet lightly chuckles. "C'mon. Let's go and let him get some rest."

"Roger." Amethyst agrees to the action and promptly leaves the room with Steven and Garnet following close behind.

Pearl begins to leave the room as well but stops as she glances back to her sleeping friend. She gives him a smile before quietly closing the door to let him slumber.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to everyone! I hope things are going well for you all. Instead of the usual stuff of working with the entirety of an episode, I give you a chapter of my own. As you may have guessed, it spans the next several episodes "Open Book", "Shirt Club" and "Story for Steven." Although that last one might not really be evident because since it's just a flashback type thing for Steven I wasn't going to devote an entire chapter to it or really mention it in the next chapter after that.

Again, I hope this was good for you all and offered some clarity to his home. He's got the base of it down but still needs to work on some more things before he can really call it a base. Don't worry, you guys know what's coming up so he's got some time before things really kick up.

I feel as though I may have rushed this, but I'm not sure. Hopefully you guys can understand the multiple scene and time transitions. Since this chapter spans multiple episodes, of course there's going to be a lot of time and day skipping. Sorry if it's confusing but I hope this was still a nice present for you all nonetheless. It also didn't help that my relatives came to visit so I wasn't able to focus as much as I wanted on this. Still they'll be leaving in a few days to head back to their perspective homes so I'll continue uninterrupted.

I'm gonna try to get another chapter out before this year is up so if this isn't satisfactory, I want to get something else out too.

Oh, I also want to add that I'm super excited for the end of January. Why? That's when the next Steven bomb is gonna be dropped on us. More specifically, January 30 is when the next set of Steven Universe episodes are supposed to be aired one day after another. Some say their finally going to space and you know what, I'm really excited at the idea of them finally going to Homeworld. You guys have seen what Marcus is capable at this point, imagine in space.

With that little tidbit of information, I want to thank you all for reading, happy holidays and as always, have fun reading.