Things just keep getting interesting anytime it involves Steven doesn't it. Sometime after dealing with the fusion gem monsters, we decided to go about doing some more thorough searches for Malachite, AKA, Jasper and Lapis's fusion. For the majority of one of the days all of us spent it on an inflatable raft we had in storage and just went sailing around without much care. Of course as night started to fall, Steven started to get really tired and sleepy, even almost walking off the boat entirely if Garnet hadn't grabbed his foot. After he pretty much passed out from exhaustion and fatigue starting to wane on me as well, we called it a night and headed home to turn in.

Well, almost all of us turned in. As it stands, Gems don't necessarily need sleep so after Steven heard about that tidbit of information, he started to go off on trying to get Amethyst and Pearl to fall asleep as well while Garnet continued searching. It was a little weird finding out that full blown Gems project their dreams when they sleep from their gems… then it was painful when Pearl slugged me in surprise when she woke up from a, to her, nightmare. Something involving Greg of all people but that wasn't my concern. My concern was kind of realizing that although her skills and attributes focus on grace, dodging and precision, she still has a mean right hook and how it almost displaced my jaw.

However my main concern was sort of on the new ability of Stevens called Astral Projection. Basically what it means is that while he's dreaming or in his mind he has the ability to communicate with others over long distances. The fact that he was able to talk to Lapis and Jasper was a relief, disappointment and anger.

Relief that we have a direct line of communication to Lapis and she can tell us where she is so we can help her.

Disappointment that she completely ignored Steven's advice for help and decided she didn't want to involve us whatsoever in her struggle to chain Jasper.

Anger… that I can't help and how Steven told us how she was having trouble keeping things under control.

It may seem like things are slightly better knowing how things are, but I still feel like hell since I now know what she's going through.

But she's tough. She went through a lot of crap before she met me and Steven, and after. She only has to hold out till we can find her.


Since we found out about the fusion monsters, more time was spent analyzing the wreckage pieces of Peridot's ship. First and foremost I cracked open some locked containers and rooms salvaged from the ship and was very happy with what I found.

I now have access to those bipedal robonoids that I fought back when the ship was in flight. Dubbing mine I hack into Droids Mk II, I have my own security force so to say.

In some of the smaller locked areas, I found a badly damaged armory. It contained what look like some parts for the Mk II's weaponry, some pieces for what I assume is Peridot's gauntlets, but most of all I found a small stockpile of Gem Destabilizers. Just seeing them kind of flared some emotions up for me and how they were used on my friends, Garnet especially. A little while after, I managed to calm myself down and focused on the benefits of what I can do with them: I can gut and rework them to suit my needs. With that thought in mind, I got a giddy look on my face as ideas started popping up on what I can do.

Dealing with my Mk II's, I haven't exactly activated them and had them mill about like I do with my droids in my base until I come up with some countermeasures in case they go rogue or are taken over by Peridot. They were her bots in the first place so I need to take extra precautions to make sure nothing is turned against me. It's a cautionary point on my side but it's not a major issue so I'm alright with doing this.


Things have been quiet lately as evident by the fact that I am sitting on my couch flipping channels in my home. The search for Malachite is slow going so since we are pretty much stuck in trying to find any sort lead as to where she is, we decided to focus our attention on Peridot and make sure she doesn't do anything else that screws with us or anyone else in general. The search for more of those fusion monsters can be a bit tedious and unexpected.

Still, she's in the dark as well so we are stuck on her too.

*Zzzzzzzzzztt*

"Aw c'mon!" I shout in frustration as my TV just burst into static. "Seriously?! I triple checked my dish several times now! What the hell's going—" Before I can finish my rant, the TV starts vibrating for some odd reason. "Oooooookay. Whaaaaat's going on?" I question out loud as I slowly stand up. The world around isn't vibrating so I know its not an earthquake but some sort of signal is screwing with my TV. "Whoa!" I yelp as I quickly dash forward just as my TV falls off the stand its on and almost hits the ground. I catch just before it makes contact. The cords are still connected so the static is still going as well as the vibration. "What is—"

Before I can finish, an image starts to form on the static and to my ire, I catch glimpses of it being Peridot herself. It's a bit garbled and you can't hear what she's saying at first but it comes in clear soon after. "This is Peridot, transmitting on all frequencies from abandoned crystal system colony planet Earth, to Yellow Diamond. My mission has been compromised, my escort and informant are gone and I am now stranded! Please send help! This is Peridot transmitting on all frequencies from..."

"Great." I groan and lay my TV on the ground before standing up. "She's sending a message back home. That can't be good." I mutter and walk over to my laptop. After turning it on and booting it up, I start up a program to use the satellite dish on my roof to look for the source of the interference and send a message to my phone of the location. "Alright, as long as she keeps transmitting I'll find it." I say as I lean back in my chair, arms crossed as the screen places points all over the planet and rapidly starts shrinking them down to the source. My front door opens and I see Garnet enter.

"Marcus—"

"Already on it." I cut her off as I follow her out.


"This is Peridot, transmitting on all frequencies…"

"It still hasn't let up." I comment as we all sit in front of Steven's TV and watch the message play back again. The whole thing is just her and a white screen so I can't exactly use her surroundings to find where she might be.

"Okay, thanks." Steven says as he hangs up his phone. "Connie says it's on her TV too."

"Great." I mutter.

"But where could Peridot be broadcasting a signal that strong?" Pearl asks curiously.

"There is only one place she could transmit it from… but didn't you salvage the place?" Garnet directs the question to me.

I'm confused to what she means at first because I don't know exactly what she means, but a beep from my phone leads me to my answer. Looking at the alert, my scan finished and was able to triangulate where the signal is coming from, which leads to me being even more confused. I raise an eyebrow in confusion as I see the spot on the map. "I did." I say without looking towards my friends.


A portal opens up with all three Gems riding on Lion's back, flying through the air before sliding along the sand and coming to a stop. Lion lands in a huff on the sand. His mane starts glowing and out pops both Steven and I. The both of us take in deep breaths due to the limited oxygen in Lion's pocket world or whatever it is. I let my brother go and he rubs Lion's head. "Lion, are you okay?" He asks in concern for the animal. He gives off a low groan as he lays in the sand and looks like he's going to take nap.

"He's fine." I say with a slight grunt and stand up. Pulling out my G3 into my hand, I look around and my eyes stop. "We, however, have a problem." I say as my eyes travel up and up and up.

"It's as I feared." Garnet says warily. Right in front of us is a massive haphazardly constructed tower. The place gives off a large glow to it and a clear beam of energy shoots into the sky.

"It looks like Peridot somehow repaired the Communication Hub. Well, at least some of it." Pearl comments and I nod.

"I'll give her credit though, I stripped this place of as much technological pieces I can muster." Quickly I take a look around and to my amazement I don't really see any terminals or controls that look like they control this thing. "She even managed to make this thing work without any wires. Amazing."

"So... we just gotta wreck it up again, right?" Steven asks. I nod and he looks over to Amethyst. "You guys should form Sugilite!"

My eyes widen and I tighten my grip on my rifle. This is why trigger discipline is very important people. If I had my finger on the trigger and not on the side of the rifle, I would have fired. But I didn't so all I did was just deathly grip my gun. Using only one hand on the handle of my gun, I also grab my sword and thumb the handle at the memory of fighting Sugilite. 'She was a crazy massive fusion to deal with and just thinking about the crap we all went through was something I do not want to deal with whatsoever again.' I've been in my thought so much I didn't notice the others were talking.

"Last time was disaster. Last time we fused, Sugilite went berserk. It's because of her that we can't even warp here anymore." She indicates to the Warp pad was before. "Not to mention some of us still have some issues concerning her."

"What? Who?" Amethyst asks. Garnet looks away from the purple gem and right at me. The others follow her view and realization gets on their faces. "Oh."

"What?"

"You've been thumbing your sword since Steven said her name." Garnet answers. Looking down, I notice that my fidgeting of the blade caused it to push out of the scabbard, revealing the blade. Embarrassed, I look away as I close it back up. "I can be brash, you can be reckless." Garnet tells Amethyst as she takes off her visor. "And we can both get carried away. So, for the time being," She puts her visor back on. "Sugilite is benched." Amethyst looks sad at the news. "What we need now is to be careful." Garnet says with a smile and looks at Pearl. Steven lets out a gasp, figuring out what it is that Garnet is proposing. I slightly smile at the idea too. "It's you and me, Pearl. Let's fuse." She tells her. Pearl doesn't respond, instead she looks astonished at the idea. So astonished that she begins to tear up. "Don't cry, Pearl." Pearl fails to not cry and quivers as she strongly breathes in through her nose. 'Fusing with Garnet must really be big if what I remember how… happy Amethyst was when Garnet proposed fusing that first time.' "Come on, let's do this."

"… I'm right behind you." Pearl answers as she sniffles a little.

"Woo-hoo! Fusion! Fusion! Fusion! Fusion!" Steven yells out happily and ecstatically, running around the two of them a couple times before running past me and sitting down to the left of Lion. Amethyst and I walk over next to him as well.

Garnet and Pearl get at a fair distance away from each other before taking their stances. As Garnet's stands ready, her gemstones glow. "Ready." She states.

"Hang on, uh." Pearl grunts as she begins stretching. "It's been such a long time."

At that comment I can't help but smirk. Feels like it's been a long time since that event Pearl and I went through in the Kindergarten. When the Iron Kings ambushed me in that gloomy place, I thought I was done for… but then Pearl comes in and saves my life just before I get a new hole in my head. After we get reacquainted, more of them got the jump on us and nearly blew us up with RPG's. If I hadn't tackled Pearl to the ground and the possible hopelessness of the situation presented… well, we both might not be here now and not have fused into the fusion Serpentine. After we separated and moped up, we decided not to tell the others about our fusion, deciding to just go ahead and keep it for ourselves. Evidently, I guess fusion is a lot bigger deal than I first thought with Pearl considering how much she was tearing up when Garnet mentions fusing with her. Just before she gets into position I see her glance at me from the corner of her eye. She winks at me and gets into her position. 'Huh, guess she remembers.' I think as I sling my rifle on my back and wait with Steven and Amethyst. Like the fusion dances I've seen before, it starts off graceful and somewhat simple but as usual, it starts to come off as slightly more… lewd in some sense. "Hey!" Which prompts me to cover Steven's eye and he's a little annoyed.

I don't say anything as Amethyst and I continue to watch the two of them move around in their fusion dance. At the end, Garnet tosses Pearl into the air, who twirls into the air and goes into a spread eagle form. As she comes back down, Garnet catches her and the two of them combine in a large ball of light, their fusion beginning. I bring one of my hands up to shield my eyes from the bright light that emanates from their fusing. 'Whoa, that's a bit… brighter than the ones from before.' My thoughts are answered as a tall pillar of light stops. "Gooooood evening, everybody!" Suddenly a very happy and loud voice calls out from within the light. The light begins to lessen and come off as transparent before it looks like a curtain. A few hands part the curtain and reveals to us a very tall woman with multiple arms. She begins strutting over to us and does a twirl. "This is the lovely Sardonyx! Coming to you live from the soon-to-be-former Communication Hub! How are y'all doin' tonight?"

"Great…" I hear Amethyst say sarcastically while Steven and I gape at the fusion.

"Woah." I mutter.

Steven runs forward and lets out a gasp. "Giant Woman!" He yells. Man what is it with this guy and giant women?

"Oh my stars!" Sardonyx cries out in what I think is vague surprise as she lays her eyes on Steven. She crouches down and brings two of hands down in front of the kid. They easily dwarf his small form as he climbs onto the hands. "If it isn't Steven Universe! We finally meet. So, what do you think?" She asks him as somehow she spins her torso a full 360 degrees while her other pair of hands touch her hair. "Was I worth the wait?" She asks him. Right now I'm just a tiny bit freaked on the idea that she somehow managed to twist specific parts of her body. "What am I saying?" She asks confused before it turns to an ecstatic look. "Of course I was! Hahahaha!" She laughs as Steven manages to stand up on her hands.

"Wow." I comment quietly, then lean closer to Amethyst. "She sure is… eccentric, isn't she?"

"Ugh, you have no idea." She comments in disdain. I look curiously at her and see the slightly annoyed and frustrated look she has on her. 'What's got to her?'

"Wow, you're so articulated!" Steven comments on the fusion, bringing me from my thought.

"Well, aren't you the sweetest little charmer!" She tells him as she brings her other pair of arms on him, squishing him playfully. I could literally squish you right now! It would not be hard. 'If anyone else said that to my brother, I may do some bodily injury to them.'

"Ha-ha, no… ha-ha!" He laughs from the feel of being squished, further alleviating any worries I would have of him getting hurt.

Sardonyx soon stops and brings Steven close to her face. "Sorry, I'm just so excited to be here. You see, I haven't exactly been myself lately." After she says that, she starts laughing and brings Steven away from her.

I'm confused by what she's implying but Steven laughs along with her before looking towards Amethyst and I. "Fusion joke!"

"Fusion Jo- Oh! Oh." I suddenly get what the joke is but I groan and place my hand on my face.

"Ugh." Amethyst groans as well as she pushes her head into her crossed arms.

"Ehhhh, listen Sardonyx!" I call out loudly. She looks down at me curiously. "We are thrilled to have you here," I say with a slight bit of sarcasm, not enough for it to be noticeable of course, "But we kind of need this thing taken out stat!" I point with my thumb behind me at the makeshift communication tower.

"Ahhh and Marcus! Our ever serious, paranoid and always prepared human-gem. How are you?" She say to me with a wide smile and with one of her free hands, she clenches it into a fist towards me.

Taking it as I think, I smirk and give her a fist bump. Easily her hand dwarfs mine but I put enough power into that it doesn't matter. She seems to smile even more at that. "I'm good. Feel better with that gone." I nod my head to the tower.

"Yes we all would." She then places Steven back down next to Amethyst and I. "And don't worry, jokes aren't the only thing I got." She tells me and with ease, she pulls out Pearl's spear. "Hm? Oh!" She tosses the spear up into the air and as it comes back down, she summons Garnet's gauntlets and just before it passes her, she punches the spear from both sides, stopping it from falling and making the two of them form together Sardonyx's weapon. She readies herself her new war hammer over her shoulder with a smile. I give an appreciative nod at the weapon of choice.

"Are you gonna smash stuff with your war hammer?" Steven asks her.

She thinks for a second on his question. "Hm... 'smash' is the word that one would use to describe what... someone else might do." At Amethyst's scowling nature, I can hazard a guess that she means Sugilite. While I feel for Amethyst and the fact that one of her fusions is benched, Sardonyx is right on the fact of how… brutish she can be. "Now..." She then jumps up high into the air and readies a hit. "The proper words used to describe yours truly are..." She hits a column piece of the Communication Hub and it slides through and lands on the other side of it. "Specific!" Swinging again, she hits more columns with each word punctuated. "Intelligent! Accurate! Faultless!" After jumping much higher into the air, which pushes her past the moon from our position on the ground, she continues. "Elegant." More pieces are knocked away as she continues listing again and again. Controlled! Surgical! Graceful!" With one final follow up, she jumps up and brings her hammer overhead and prepares a final hit at top of the tower. Aaandd... Powerful!" She shouts and brings it down. I prepare myself for the impact of the hammer on the central piece column but she stops just before hitting for some reason. "But yes, occasionally, I am known... to smash."

I roll my eyes at her action and with barely any effort, she lightly taps the top of tower with her hammer. I don't know how but the column is flung straight down towards the ground with the same force as if she would have struck it before she stopped. As soon as it lands on the ground, the glow coming from the hub dissipates. Just to be sure, I pull out my phone and check to make sure the signal really is down. Pulling up the necessary app, I smile as the signal disappears. "Nice."

A thump brings me from my phone to see Sardonyx has come down from the tower. She tosses her hammer away but before it can hit the ground, it disappears and breaks apart into a flurry of glowing light dragonflies. They flow around us and Lion almost jumps onto me as he tries to chomp on the dragonflies. "Now, just remember everybody." Sardonyx begins to say, "If you ever have need of the lovely Sardonyx, let Pearl and Garnet know, I'll be there in a flash." She tells us with a smile, then squats down in front of us. "Literally." She says with a cheeky smile.

With that, she poofs into another cloud of light dragonflies, leaving behind the two gems who fused to make her in the first place in their dance position. For a second they remain held together with their eyes closed but as soon as they open their eyes, they burst out laughing and start spinning each other around. "Wooo!" Steven runs over and starts laughing and cheering with the two of them and hugs them. "You guys were amazing!"

"We were? Oh, well that's good!" Pearl says with a blush and smile once they stop spinning.

"We were awesome." Garnet agrees as well. Before I can think to go over and congratulate, Amethyst next to me crouches down and looks down in what I feel is disappointment. I look at her worried. 'Why is she sad? We got the place out of commission.'

"Why don't we do that more often?" I hear Pearl say. Looking at the three of them happy and feeling good about the fusion, then to Amethyst, and it clicks. 'Oh.'

While the others start to get ready to go home, I crouch down next to Amethyst and place a hand on her back. She looks up at me with a confused expression while I give her a smile. "She was a bit flashy for my tastes."

That earns me a smile.


Back home feels good now after worrying about the idea of a reinforcement message being sent to Homeworld. Still, hopefully with our actions at the hub should quell any sort of repeat actions by Peridot.

*Zzzzzzztt*

"Son of a—" I growl as my TV starts freaking out again. With a lazy move, I grab one of the cushions on my couch and toss it under my TV just as it falls off its holder on the wall again. It lands harmlessly on the cushion but the static continues to appear on the screen. "Is she that desperate and stupid that she needed to go back to okay she is that stupid." I opened up my computer and because of the previous search, the same spot was highlighted again. "Ughhhh." I groan.

My phone begins ringing so I answer it. "Marcus! It's—"

"I know Steven." I groan out and walk over to the coat rack I have next to the door. Pulling away a bunch of coats I'm never going to use out of the way, I grab the KIVAARI sniper rifle I have hidden and am out the door. "I'll be there soon."


"Huh, I was kind of hoping I was wrong." I comment as we all stare up at the glowing somewhat reconstructed tower.

"You're not that lucky." Garnet comments with a tap on my shoulder and gets into position with Pearl. "I hope you're ready."

"You know I am." She replies with a raised arm.

Like the plan from last time, Garnet and Pearl are going to fuse into Sardonyx in order to dismantle the tower again. I have my reservations about this form of destruction on the hub considering all Sardonyx does is dismantle and take I apart. The fact that we are here shows that Peridot was able to reconstruct the communication hub 'after' we dealt with it the first time. If Sardonyx dismantles this place again, what's to stop Peridot from coming back and fixing it up again.

Then again, I'm not too keen on bringing out Sugilite any time soon so for now, I'll follow the rule of three and see if she comes back again. Pearl and Garnet finish up their dance quickly this time and the fusion comes out. "What's this? An encore performance?" She asks to no one in particular. She proceeds to lean down towards Amethyst, Steven and I. "Just couldn't get enough of me, could you?" She says somewhat cheekily before letting out a small laugh. "What are we waiting for? Let the show begin!" Waiting no further, she jumps into the air towards the tower. My eyes follow her for a bit until I notice something weird. Amethyst begins walking away in a similar sad way like the last time we were here. Steven and I look at each other before staring back at the gem and she starts… singing.

"Maybe you're better off with her
I think she's better for you
I forgot how great it felt to be us
Guess I got carried away"

She sings with an air of sadness Looking back to the tower, we see Sardonyx continue to dismantle the tower before focusing back on the sad gem.

"I had to use you to make me feel strong
But I don't care about that now
I see a tower built out of my mistakes
And it all comes crashing down

"Is there something I can doo-oo
Is there something I can doo-oo-oo
Is there something I can doo-oo
Can I make it up to you?"

With a sad demeanor, she finishes her song and crouches down in a heap once Sardonyx finishes her attack. Steven and I both stare at her, unsure of how to best comfort the gem in her depressed state. 'She regrets having lost control being Suguilite. The blame could have been as much Garnet as well… but she blames herself.' I think. She definitely seems bummed out on the whole thing about not fusing anymore. I really don't know how to—

A small tug on my shirt makes me look down. Steven I next to me and motions me to lean down. Crouching to his level, he talks in a low voice. "I think I have an idea on how we can help." He tells me with a hopeful look. I stare at him for a bit until I look to where Sardonyx is unfusing back to Pearl and Garnet. My attention shifts to Amethyst who's still sad and looking down before giving Steven a firm look.

"Whatcha' got?"


I have to admit, his strategy wasn't all that bad. Which is why both I, Amethyst and Steven appear back at the communications hub with Lion. "Peridot's been back here twice. So the odds are good she'll come back again, right? Bam!" Steven begins to say and accentuates the bam by slamming his fist into his palm. "That's when we'll get her!" He says excitedly.

"I can get behind that." I say as I get off of Lion and pull out my KIVAARI rifle.

"Yeah, bam!" Amethyst is just as enthusiastic by Steven and repeats the same motion.

"Garnet will be so impressed!"

"And then she'll think I'm cool again!"

"Calm down you two." I mutter loud enough for them to hear. Their incredibly happy and giddy demeanors lessen and they look at me. "Let's make sure we get her first. And she'll spot us a mile out if we stand here out in the open like this. We need to find a hiding place." I tell them. Because of how flat this place is and massive it all is, then unless we lay on our stomachs we'll be exposed. Even worse considering Lion's size. I continue to scan the area around for any sort of cover until Steven tugs on my shirt again. He points to behind where we came from and I can't help but smile. "Perfect."

Thanks to Steven, we now have a decent place to cover and hide ourselves from anyone coming towards us. I keep my eye trained on my scope and look around for any sort of movement on the horizon. I don't have a vector as to where Peridot will be coming from so I have to keep my spinning around for any sort of movement by her. For awhile it's just me doing the recon until Steven pulls out a telescope and pushes it into the hole in the rock and does some looking on his own. "Nothing, more nothing…" He grumbles from the opposite direction he's looking in from me. 'I know Steven. There's been nothing the last—' "Ah! There she is!"

Without wasting a beat, I twist myself around and slam myself against the rock next to Steven and zoom in on our target. With a satisfying click, I load in a round as I see what Steven sees. My finger is about to depress the trigger until I stop and relax my very tense body. "Steven."

"Yeah?"

"That's a cactus."

He puts down the telescope for a second before looking through it again and this time zooms in. "Oh." He moans embarrassed.

"Don't beat yourself up over it. It IS a very weird cactus. I was almost fooled by it too." I tell him with a smirk. Out of the corner of my eye, that seems to make him feel better as he goes back down to Amethyst while I take out the loaded bullet. I wasn't kidding about the cactus being weird though. That thing has an almost identical shaped head and body like Peridot's with its 'arms' up. From a distance, it's an almost uncanny resemblance to the person of our interest but up close, it's just a unique kind of cactus. "Weird." I mutter myself with a head shake and continue my recon around us. About an hour or so passes and while I am doing this, Amethyst, Lion and Steven are on the sand just lazing about. Steven is doing something with his fingers but I have no idea what it is. I tune out the conversation they strike up in favor of focusing on our target. 'Nothing… Mmm, where is she now?' I grumble in my head as I try to make sense of all this crap. Again, nothing happens and we are all sitting here with our thumbs up our—!

"Woah!"

"What?!" Amethyst and I cry out simultaneously at Steven's gasp.

"I think I saw something!" He quickly explains and looks through his telescope again. Bringing my rifle up to bear, I look where he's looking and hope that it's the real deal now. For a second I don't see anything but that is proven wrong as a mass starts moving towards us. More specifically, the tower.

"Perfect." I mutter and graze my finger over the trigger.

"It's Peridot's escape pod!"

'Wait, what?' I think in confusion as take my eye off the scope before looking again and zooming in. True to what he said, a familiar looking green ball floats along the plain. "You… your right." I mutter in confusion.

"Did she fix it somehow?" Steven asks but I shake my head. 'That's not right.'

"But I thought we had it!" Amethyst states firmly and I agree with her.

"We do… but more specifically, I do." We stare at the floating ball for a bit before looking at each other. "I-It should locked away in my base! Ready for me to salvage it." I mutter.

"Could she have stolen it?" Steven asks but I shake my head no.

"No. I would have gotten an alarm from my droids on any intruders. The only ones I have specifically designated as friendly is us, Pearl, Garnet, your dad, Connie and all of my droids are in my base! The countermeasures I have in place should have kept her out!" I state firmly and crossly before my features turn to disbelief. "At least, I think they should."

"Shh, look." Steven stops us from talking and points to the tower. The escape pod uses some sort of tractor beam like device and grabs the fallen pieces of the tower we tore off the tower and begins placing them back in their places. "Woah, she's lifting the pillar guys, and she's fixing the hub." He tells us while still looking through his telescope. I load in one of the rounds into the chamber and aim at the target. Like it was with my AK the first time, I don't think I can pierce its hull as easy, even though I have a different caliber. 'Hopefully she gets off soon.' I follow her as she moves along the tower until she stops at the very top of it. "What's she doing up there? Enhance!" I give Steven a weird look at him thinking that will actually make the telescope zoom in. Looking back up, she gets out of the pod, giving me a clear and perfect line of sight to her.

"Nice. Now adjust for distance, elevation, no wind… aaaannnnndd…" I draw out the word, getting ready to fire… but stop at the weird but somewhat familiar body shape. "That's… not Peridot." I state.

"Your right." Steven agrees with me. "For some reason, Peridot kinda looks like…" Keeping my scope on the gem, my breath, and my heart, hitches as the gem turns around giving us a clear and unobstructed view of who it exactly is. Who it is that's been repairing the communication hub. "Pearl?" Steven questions out loud but its more of an answer to me.

"What? Lemme see!" Amethyst asks in confusion and takes Steven's telescope. I just let my rifle fall to my side in tired confusion. "Oh no." She says in a low voice, like she can't believe what she's seeing.

I can't either. "I… I don't… know what…" I stammer, unsure of what to say or make of all this.

"We should go." Amethyst proposes and Steven and I nod in agreement.


"Why would Pearl rebuild the hub? Maybe she's trying to study how it works?" Steven tries to make up an excuse for Pearl but Amethyst and I don't agree. After we caught Pearl in the act of repairing the communication hub, we immediately went home and just… waited. After we fell asleep, it's the next day and we are sitting in front of Steven's TV, trying to contemplate what it is we saw.

"No, I don't think that's it. That's your department isn't it?" Amethyst asks me and I nod.

"Yeah, it is. I scoured that thing as much as I can and the rest was just junk or served no use to me." I calmly explain to them. Letting out a frustrated sigh, I rub the bridge of my nose with two fingers. "No use to me… but a use to others. It also explains how she was able to get the escape pod so easy without raising any alarms."

"Maybe she's trying to get us more channels?" Steven proposes another idea as he turns on the TV but as usual theirs static. My hand on my face falls and slaps my knee and I give him a deadpan look.

"Steven, I could do that for you in five minutes if you let me."

"And I told you—"

"Oh, this is no good." A new voice pipes up. Much to our awkward and slightly nervous selves, Pearl, the root of what we are talking about, walks up while we were talking and gives a vague and somewhat fake gasp of surprise.

"What's wrong?" Steven says with nervousness and awkwardness just oozing from his voice, which makes me and Amethyst nervous as well that he'll blow it.

"It's Peridot." She doesn't buy it and continues with her bad acting. "She must've fixed the Communication Hub again!" At this point, Garnet walks up as the three of us that know the truth exchange worried glances. "Garnet, it's the hub again."

"She's evading my future vision. No matter how many times I try, I can't see us finding Peridot. Come on, team." Once she finishes ordering us, Garnet walks away and Pearl follows giddily. The rest of us however glance at each other before following. "Now, where's Lion?" Garnet asks out loud as she steps out onto the balcony.

"I think he's back at my place. Steven and I will get him. Let's go." Without much argument, or input from my brother, I quickly grab him and take him the warp pad.

"Whoa! Wha!" He cries out at my sudden movement before we stop ontop of it.

"Back in a sec!" I call back to the others before activating it. After the usual warp stream trip, we land back in front of my house and Lion is seen lying down in front of my house. He perks up upon seeing us and give a yawn.

"Lion!" Steven calls out the animals name happily and after wiggling out of my grasp, he jogs over to him and hugs his massive mane. "Good to see you. Sorry boy but we have another trip to make." He give the animal a sheepish and apologetic look, which the giant animal lets out a groan of annoyance before lowly getting up.

"Hold on a sec, bro. We need something else too." I pipe up to make sure he doesn't go galloping off too soon. I go in my front door and quickly spot the three duffel bags I packed this morning.

"What do we need?" Steven asks from outside.

"This!" I shout and toss one of them through the doorway.

"Oof!" Steven grunts as the massive bag of gear I packed slams into him, making him stumble back a little before clutching it tightly. "What is it?"

"That…!" I say as I hoist my other two bags over my shoulders. "And these, are hopefully going to stop these broadcast's once and for all."


After telling him that last bit, we went ahead and got the others before heading back to the others. I didn't tell anyone about what I packed because I wanted to play out how this is going to go but one thing for sure is that I am going to make sure that tower will not be repaired anytime soon, by anyone.

"I can't believe Peridot is giving us so much trouble!" My arms cross and I give a low groan at Pearl's actions. "But it hardly matters, right Garnet? We can disable this tower as many times as we need to, together! Okay? Okay. I'm ready. Are you ready?" She awkwardly says before getting into position for a fusion.

"I know what she's doing."

"Hm?

"You do?"

Steven and I question what Amethyst says but the second Pearl and Garnet are about to fuse, she shouts. "Stop!"

The two gems freeze and Pearl looks uneasily at Amethyst. "I-Is something the matter, Amethyst?"

"You-you shouldn't…"

"Pearl… we saw you." Steven hesitantly tells her.

"What?" Pearl asks confused and sweat drops. Her eyes glance over to me but as soon as our eyes meet, I close mine and give a sad head shake.

"You need to tell Garnet it was you!" Steven demands of the pale gem.

"I don't understand." Garnet says and looks to Pearl for answers.

Pearl meanwhile looks at the gem uneasily and sadly. "I'm sorry... I-It's just... so much fun being Sardonyx with you." She finally tells her the reason for the constant fusing they've had to do.

In a fit of surprise, Garnet drops Pearl onto the ground. "That's why I couldn't see us finding Peridot."

"Wait! Let me explain!" Pearl begins to say and plead but Garnet has none of it.

"You've been fixing the hub!" Garnet outright declares and begins to stalk upon Pearl, who the later begins to crawl and back away in fear. I begin to walk forward to hopefully make sure nothing bad happens but a hand grab from Amethyst stops me.

"It really was Peridot! T-The first time…" She hesitantly tells the fusion but it doesn't dissuade her anger in the least bit.

"You tricked me!"

"No! No, no, no, no! We just needed a reason to fuse! I just wanted to share a few more victories with you!"

"Those weren't victories!"

Before anymore could be said, "Wait, Garnet! You know, we're so much weaker than you! Fusing with you is like our one chance to feel... stronger!" Amethyst steps past me and voices her view on the matter but Garnet is still stone-faced about the betrayal Pearl enacted.

"Don't defend her! Peridot is out there somewhere and Pearl's been distracting us with... nothing!"

"Distacting us from what?!" I question out loud too. Their eyes are now focused on me. "I have been monitoring every possible signal I could find and keeping up to date on any suspicious activity and after the first hub broadcast, we've got nothing." I calmly explain to them what I know. While what Pearl did was wrong, I don't want Garnet to lead on with blind anger to the pale gem when it comes to fusion. 'I still remember what she did to me back at the control room of the Kindergarten.' "What she did was wrong but she didn't cause any harm."

"Stay out of this!" She yells at me with gritted teeth. I had a feeling she was going to snap so I don't flinch as much.

"Garnet…"

"That's enough!" Garnet yells one more time at Pearl while pointing an accusatory finger at her. She takes a moment to compose herself before giving both Amethyst and Pearl a cross look. "If you wanted to feel so powerful, why didn't you two just fuse into Opal more often? I'm sure you'll be plenty powerful with her!" Her voice begins to gain volume as she speaks.

"It's not the same."

"Why not?!"

"Because you are so much stronger than us by any means! The power we feel when 'we' fuse is not as strong as when fused with you. The only other time is with M—!" Pearl's ranting explanation dies off as she comes very close to revealing something.

Something between both her and I from what seems so long ago.

Garnet's face still retains its anger but there's a hint of curiosity from the small slip up of Pearl's words. "With… who?" She asks leaning in.

Pearl looks down at the ground, tears threatening to break from her eyelids… until she opens them and glance at me. All eyes are soon on me as I close mine and let out a low breathe of air. 'No… not now… why now?' I think hopelessly in my head. I'm still not worried about the fact that the two of us fused… what I am worried about is the absolute wrong time this could have come up in any conversation.

"You?" Amethyst's voice starts off confused but begins to take a turn of surprise. "You two fused?!"

"When?!" Now Steven is curious but more excited than everyone else.

Letting out another breath of air, I might as well explain. "At the Kindergarten."

"The Kindergarten?"

"The first time Steven and I saw it, when he and Amethyst…" I let the sentence trail, letting them get what happened that day. Amethyst looks down in slight sadness as she remembers the fight she and Pearl had. "After they left and the Iron Kings ambushed me, Pearl came back to help and save my life. Unfortunately, we were… ambushed and it just… happened." I finish giving the short explanation of how it was Pearl and I fused. She continues to look down but Garnet still seems confused by the whole thing.

"Wait, wait… you mean to tell me that the two of you fused, and you didn't bother telling us?!" Garnet's voice begins increasing in pitch until she's back to her angered self but this time its back on Pearl.

"Hey! Don't you DARE blame her for keeping this a secret!" I outright yell, focusing the attention off the already distraught gem. "I was the one that told her to not bother in telling you guys because we had bigger things to worry about!"

"You don't know how important it is that fusing is to us!" Garnet gestures to her and the others gems. "We were all so proud and ecstatic when Steven first fused… but you didn't bother to mention your first time because you didn't think it was important?!" She asks loudly and incredulously to me as she steps closer to me until our faces are right in front of each other.

"Well I'm sorry that's how you feel but I wanted to focus on the human gang organization sent to kill us!"

"Sent to kill YOU!"

"All of us!"

"STOP IT!" Amethyst pops up in between the two of us and pushes us away from each other. "This isn't getting us anywhere and we still have to deal with that!" Amethyst explains to us all as she points to the makeshift hub still glowing and standing.

With one last glare to me, Garnet growls and turns away. "Fine! Let's just get this over with and get out of here." She sneers and looks at the tower before back to Amethyst. "Amethyst, fuse with me."

"What?!" Now I ask incredulously and with surprise. 'She said Sugilite was benched! Is she do angry she's going to bring her out now?!'

"But—!" Amethyst begins to say but is stopped as we can clearly hear Garnet's fists clench.

"Let's just get this over with." She grumbles and walks away from us.

Amethyst looks taken back by the request, still saddened by the whole thing of how Sugilite went berserk and even now, while she has the opportunity to fuse again, it's for the wrong reason. She looks up at me and I can't tell just from her appearance that she's uneasy about the whole thing. With a sigh, she begins trudging forward to meet with Garnet. "No."

Amethyst and Garnet freeze at my firm voice. After all the tension we just went through right now, it seems kind of stupid to start up another argument right now after things seemed to have somewhat calmed down but Sugilite is still a now for me. Garnet whirls around to me. "And why… should we not?" She asks with clenched fists.

With a smirk, I walk back to Lion and signal for Steven to follow with me. Getting the silent cues I give him, he opens up Lion's portal, reaches in and pulls out the bags I packed. Him grabbing one and I grab the other two, we walk over to Amethyst. "Because I have a better idea." I say out loud and place the bags down. Unzipping them, I smile at finally getting the chance to use my remote controlled IED's I developed the first time I was with gems. Grabbing a few remotes, I hand them to Steven and Amethyst, the later forming a giddy and happy look on his face and the former just a small smile. Placing all my RC cars and helicopters down with their respective remotes, I signal for the two of them to place each car and helicopter at points on the tower. Without letting me finish explaining, Steven immediately sends one of the more off-roady looking trucks barreling through the sand to the bottom of one of the legs. Amethyst and I begin using helicopters and placing them all at various levels of the structure.

The next few minutes are spent with the three of us taking different remotes and controlling different RC's to any point on the tower. Steven controls the ground ones, Amethyst the air, and I use whatever I grab. While they place them at whatever point they feel like, I make sure to place mine at specific strategic points I know can do the most damage and topple this thing the best. All the while I feel Garnet boring her eyes into the back of my head as we work but I just keep a calm demeanor and work on this. Soon, everything is in place and the structure is firmly littered with all my explosives. Once Steven and Amethyst grab the remotes and bags, we all move back enough until we are far enough away from the impending explosion.

Pulling out my phone and after making sure all the bombs are connected, I start the countdown. "Alright… fire in the hole in 3... 2… 1!"

*Beep*

With a touch on the screen, a beep follows, and the explosives go off.

In a veritable train of explosions, the bottom ones went off first, then just as quickly the shockwave activates the rest higher up as more of them continue to go off. The drab light and white colored structure immediately turns red as it is engulfed in flames, the force of the rapid explosions throwing sand and smoke all over the place, forcing Amethyst, Steven and Pearl to bring their arms up to protect their eyes from the debris but Garnet stare impassively at the explosion, a neutral expression on our faces. After almost half a minute passes before the fire surrounding the tower dissipates. Once it clear we see the devastation my explosives did to the structure. All the pieces that could have been pulled off it were thrown off away from it and scattered around the place. The firm columns that are stuck in the ground and fused together have been cracked, broken and splintered heavily, therefore requiring some work in order to get this thing working again.

With the tower fallen and the pieces scattered all over from the explosions, I walk over to one particular piece that fell close to us. Not wanting it to be used anymore, I walk right up to it and concentrate, focusing my power into both my fists. A small visible whirl of air and wind begins to spin around both my hands softly and barely visible at first but gets stronger and stronger. My fists clench tightly and I grit my teeth as more and more power collects into my hands. At their peak, I clench both my hands together into one giant fist and bring it over my head. "Raaaah!" I yell as I bring my hands down roughly. Once my fists impact the stone-like structure, a large cloud of dust and sand kicks up all around me as my hit breaks the entire column in half and splinters pieces off the rest of it. A small amount of silence follows leaving the only thing I and everyone else can hear is the settling sand and my heavy breathing. Very slowly, I stand straight up and untangle my hands from each other before turning around. I walk out of the dust cloud towards my friends. My face remains impassive as Steven and Amethyst look at the destruction in awe. Garnet has a small scowl on her and Pearl still looks heartbroken about everything.

When I walk towards them, I continue walking until I pass Garnet. "You finished?"

I stop at her voice. We stay silent for a few seconds before I continue walking towards Lion. "You forget me Garnet." I call back. Turning around, I see that everyone is looking at me as I give a smirk. I start to walk backwards with my arms outstretched to my sides. "I am a fusion." Without stopping I lift my sleeves to reveal my two gems. "A forced fusion."


The next day rolls around, albeit slow for some, fast for others. Steven and Amethyst sit in front of his TV and watch another episode of Crying Breakfast Friends but the mood remains sour for them.

"Please, forgive me!" Crying Pear on the TV says to his friend Sad Spoon.

"Of course I forgive you!" Sad Spoon tells Crying Pear and the two of them hug to comfort each other but continue to cry.

As Marcus sits below them on the couch, cleaning one of his rifles, Pearl walks into the Beach house and not a second later, Garnet warps in as well. The two of them walk by each other without making eye contact. Pearl's head remains aimed at the floor while Garnet brushes her off. As Garnet walks outside, Pearl is left visibly hurt by everything. She glances over at Marcus but the hybrid doesn't take his eyes off his work. With a sigh, she proceeds to the temple and walks into her room. Once the door closes, Marcus stops his cleaning of his weapon and looks forward in front of him. Without a word, he stands up, rag in one hand, the gripping the barrel of his gun in the other and walks over to the warp pad. The whirring sound of the warp activating signals his departure from the Beach house.

"Man, it sure would be nice if things worked out the way they do in cartoons." Amethyst says sadly.

"Yeah. It would." Steven agrees with her on that. He picks up the TV remote, and turns off his television.


I trudge into my house and slam my door closed, cracking the wood frame. Very carefully, I put back my KIVAARI on the rack and toss the rag on my counter. For a few seconds I stand in the middle of my house not doing anything. Slowly, I turn my head until I stare at the TV hanging in the living room noticing its askew. Calmly I grab its sides and nudge it back till its straight again. Taking a step back, I stare at the black blank screen again.

Almost a minute passes in complete silence.

I grab the TV, tear it out of the wall, bring it over my head and with a cry of anger I toss it against the window.

I am so sorry everyone and am grateful for all of you and your patience. I stretched out on the time of this way too much and I'm sure I could have done better and gotten this out sooner but I didn't.

Good news is, my research essays for my classes are done and in only a few weeks I just have to work on some tests and that's about it. I'm not sure if I'll be taking classes in the summer and even if I do, chances are it'll just be one class.

I've also spent a ton of time playing Mass Effect: Andromeda and despite some of the issues it has, I'm enjoying it. Well, enjoyed it. I already beat the game on the normal difficulty and after some time spent away from the game, I'm gonna play it again on the top hardest difficulty there is. For now though I've taken to playing Fallout 4 on the survival difficulty. Already I'm at level 47, still need to find Virgil at the glowing sea, and I am no longer hyperventilating when I go into combat because at the beginning just one or two shots from a hunting rifle would kill me. Now I can tank a fair amount of hits before I start to get worried about health. This means I no longer half to keep looking around for enemies that might sneak up on me. Still an interesting, rewarding, and challenging experience that should make me feel accomplished once I finish it. I just need to know 'who' I am going to finish this story with. I'm not sure which faction I want to end it on right now but hopefully soon I come to a decision.

Interesting note I found, the Gatling Laser is considered Radiation weapon. So perks like the Nuclear Physicist should be able to work on the gun.

Alright that seems like enough ranting. Sorry again everyone for the delay and hopefully I won't take as long on the next chapter. Especially since the next couple ones are going to be quite interesting to say the least.

As always everyone, have a great day, take care, and have fun reading.