My eyes glide over the screen again and again as my fingers continuously depress the keys rapidly. The coding that glides across the screen from my work should make sure to turn into the toughest security parameters I have ever made. A combination of the security measures used by modern day Homeworld tech, and with a bit of human ingenuity mixed in.

It's been a few days since the disaster that was the reformed communication hub. It was stupid of me to not tell the others about the fusion but I didn't think of it much at the time. Pearl wasn't exactly the best either in situation considering she basically exploited the situation to get more fusion time out of Garnet. While Garnet and I don't approve of her actions, at least I'm not outright ignoring and giving her the cold shoulder. Garnet isn't exactly paying any attention to me either and it sucks. It's hard for us to try and be a team like usual when half of us are either ignoring or hate the others.

I lightly chuckle and shake my head. 'And to think Peridot, your simple message did so much more damage than you could have possibly realized.'

"What's so funny?"

"Hm?" I look away from my computer and look at my brother sitting next to me with a curious look on his face. "Oh, nothing. Just… something." I mumble, not really comfortable with telling Steven my dark sense of humor.

"Oh… ooooohhhhkaaaaayy. So how did it feel fusing with—"

"Ehhhh." I let out a groan as Steven continues with his barrage of questions at me. Ever since he learned of Serpentine, he hasn't let up with the questions to both me and Pearl on how the experience was. Since he fused with Connie, he has some idea of fusion but the idea of fusing with the gems is somewhat different and he does not want to be left out of the loop. More so he's been badgering me about it. While he drones on and on question after question, I kind of zone out and focus on my security measure. It's surprisingly easy when he's been doing this for almost a couple hours straight. Normally I'd be in my house working on this stuff in peace and quiet, but after my… tantrum my house is in need of some repairs. Repairs my droids are working on right now and will be for awhile. 'I gotta make another entrance soon to my base.'

The sound of the warp pad activating gets both of our attention from what we are doing. Looking at the person who activated it, Steven and I see it's Pearl. "Pearl!" Stevens outburst and run to her makes her flinch at the sudden action but calms down at seeing Steven. "Where have you been?" He asks her.

"Uh, looking for Peridot! For a few days straight..." She begins to say sadly before staring at Steven. "Steven, I know I might have... disappointed... all of you. I know Garnet is very upset with me, but I'm going to prove to her that she can trust me again!" Once she finishes talking, she finally notices me and walks over before sitting next to me. "And Marcus I am sooooo sorry for putting you on the spot like that. I had no intention to mention our fusion and it just slipped out I—" She frantically starts apologizing to me but with a simple raise of my hand, I stop her.

For a second, all is silent around us until we start to hear footsteps on the wood planks outside. My hand goes back to my laptop before I talk again. "I'm not the one you should be apologizing to."

To accentuate who I mean, Garnet walks in through the front door. Seeing the fusion, Pearl perks up and bounds for her. "Oh! Garnet! I was just looking for Peridot! She's bound to be somewhere, right? Any new ideas?" She practically pleads to the tall gem. Garnet says nothing to her and simply walks past her. Seeing how easily she's been brushed off, Pearl looks to the floor in sadness. "I'm sorry."

That small apology Pearl just uttered stops Garnet from walking any further. Silence is evident again until she breathes in deeply before letting it out. "Have you found anything else out?" She asks out loud to the same direction she's facing, not looking at anyone. Steven and Pearl are confused by her undirected question but I know she's talking to me.

"Nothing's come up. I'll keep looking." I keep my response short and just like Garnet, I don't look at her either, just focusing on my work. She cranes her head downwards but a new voice gets our attention.

"Who wants to go on a road trip?!" Greg suddenly bursts through the door with some paper in hand. His happy loud question completely contrasts with the unhappy expressions we all wear as we look at him. "Umm… Is this a bad time?"

"Well…"

"No. Please continue." Garnet interrupts me and walks over to our guest.

"Well I gotta drive over to the next state, Keystone."

"You mean the Keystone state?" Pearl asks to clarify.

'Keystone… quaint. I hunted a few monsters there when I was alone and before I met the gems.' I think pleasantly. Not so much pleasant the experience but more so on how my eventual meet up with gems came to be. When I answered that alert for here, I thought it was going to be just another monster and that's it. Things may be tense now but I have no regrets in meeting this awesome team.

"Right, the state named Keystone. I met a guy on an internet message board who's selling car wash brushes for real cheap! I just gotta meet him in Keystone and pick em' up." Greg explains to us why he's going.

"I don't like those brushes, they feel weird on your fur." Steven mentions off-handedly, making me look at him confused.

"Weren't you an out of control cat-monster when you went through the wash?" I ask, remembering that incident, especially since it was the first time I met his dad.

"Yeah. What's your point?" He asks looking at me. I don't have an immediate response to his question. My mouth simply opens and closes multiple times like a fish as I fail to say something. I opt to close my mouth and purse my lips.

"Well, that aside, do you like motels?" Greg asks his son.

"Probably!"

'No. Too many roaches and squeaky bed-springs.' My body shivers at the recollection of bugs.

"Think you'd like to stay at a motel with your favorite dad?" He asks him with a smirk.

"I don't know if you're my favorite... " Steven playfully tells him.

"What? Huh... oh, you kidder! Come here!" He's confused at first but gets his sons joke. In their playfulness, Steven runs and jumps into his dads arms.

"I can't wait to get room service!" Steven happily declares. I can't help but chuckle.

"You're thinking of a hotel, we're going to a motel." Greg accentuates where it is their going. "It'll have a pool, and free ice, and it's right next to the best diner in the world!" He hypes the place up as best he can. I doubt the diner part is true but at this point, I think he just wants his son to join him.

"I'm coming too." And apparently Garnet too.

"What?" Pearl ask confused.

"Huh?" I do as well.

"Even better!" Steven however is ecstatic about it.

"Hey, Garnet, I know I'm talking this place up, but... it ain't exactly the Ritz." Greg tries to whisper to Garnet so Steven doesn't hear. Amazingly it works despite Steven literally being right next to him in his arms.

"I'll be the judge of that." Garnet remains unperturbed by it and still wants to go. Pearl and I look at the fusion in slight surprise. It's definitely surprising considering this is the first time I've seen her smile since all this… stuff happened with all of us.

"Well in that case… road trip!"

"ROAD TRIP!"

"Road trip." All three of them give their own enthusiasm of the trip, Steven's being the loudest.

"Wonderful! We'll make sure Amethyst knows that you guys won't be around for awhile." Pearl informs them.

"Actually, I think I'm gonna need your help Marcus."

My typing comes to a stop and I look up at Greg in confusion. "Me?"

"Yeah. You think you can bring your truck with us? I'm not sure how many brushes I'm gonna buy and I might need your truck for transport. What'd you say?" He asks. Steven immediately gives me a pleading look from behind his dad. Garnet's face remains neutral about the idea so I can't gouge what she wants to do about it.

With a sigh, I close my laptop and give him a smile. "Alright, I'll go."

"Yaaaay!" Steven cheers.

"Great!"

"But you gotta give me some time to fix the back of my truck. The remains of my turret stand is still on it and it could get in the way of anything going in the back." I explain to him what I need to do. After the fight with Homeworld, the MG's I had on my makeshift technical were almost entirely destroyed when Jasper threw that boulder at it. So now's their a tall hunk of metal sticking out of the back of my truck without a purpose. If car wash brushes are going in the back, I'm gonna need to remove it.

"Oh. How long will that take?"

"I'd say about a couple hours." Both he and Steven look a little sad at the delayed road trip but I give them a reassuring smile. "But I can do that myself. Why don't you all go on ahead and I can follow soon after once I finish?" I propose to them.

"Yeah! That'd be great! Can we dad?" Steven asks his dad.


"Uhhhh, well… Garnet?" He calls the gems name in unsurness and looks over at her. Since Steven is cool with the idea, he just needs to ask their other guest to make sure everything is cool. Garnet's face still remains stoic as ever but ever so slowly she nods her head yes. "Okay then. Sounds like a plan. We'll go on ahead then." He finishes saying and heads over to the door.

"Great! I'll stay here and—" Before Pearl can finish talking, Garnet walks past her and goes out the door before she can finish talking. "Fine!" Pearl gives a strained smile at the brush off she just received. "Well… goodbye!"

"This is going to be fun! Right, Dad?" Steven asks his dad but Greg gives a weird look in return.

"Uhhh, yeah it is. Fun." He replies unsure and uncomfortable about the whole thing but moves to the door regardless with his son. Just before he steps out, he turns back to me. "Don't take too long now. We're still going to that diner for some mad eats." He tells me with happy enthusiasm and I can't help but chuckle.

"Don't worry, I'll work quick." I tell him as I shut my laptop off and stand up. "See you guys in a bit."

"See ya."

"Bye Marcus!" Steven calls out to me just as the door closes.

With a nod, I head over to the warp pad and mentally start going over what I need to get rid of the piece on my truck. Just before I go, I catch Pearl's expression before I teleport. I give her a reassuring smile before I go.

"Nnnnnnn… almost… there!" I shout in triumph once the bar of metal falls off the stand. I shut off the welding tool I have in hand and pull the mask off me. Grabbing the piece of metal, I chuck it out of the back and take my equipment before closing it. Once the back is clear and I push the door up to close it, the warp pad activates. Turning back, I see that it's Pearl. "Oh, hey Pearl." I greet her as I lug my gear and place it inside my house before closing the door. As she walks up to me, I can't help but take note of how she looks really uncomfortable about something what with her head cast downwards and rubbing her left arm with her right hand. "Something up?" I ask her.

For a second, she doesn't say anything but eventually she does. "I… I'm still… not on good terms with her… am I?" She asks sadly and she doesn't have to tell me who she's talking about. Mirroring her emotion, I nod sadly. She sighs in response. "Since you'll meet her… almost alone, I was hoping maybe you can… I don't know, talk to her if you can? You've always been the logical one of all of us and I was hoping maybe you can try to smooth things over between us." She asks of me to do. From the way how things have been between the two of them, it is pretty bad to be truthful. Pearl's nearly killing herself with her constant lone wolf tactics of hunting for Peridot and Garnet's silent demeanor isn't helping morale either. My relationship with both of them could be better as well. Pearl still feels bad dragging me into their argument during the tower and feels the need to 'make it up' to me and Garnet doesn't look at me as much. She talks to me… occasionally but it's not an ideal way of doing things.

"I can try but to be honest, she's not really looking forward to any conversations between the two of us. Compared to our relationship and yours with her, mine is just barely better." I tell the reality of it all. She looks down again in sadness at my chances of convincing her are pretty slim. Looking to reassure her, I place a hand on her shoulder, making her look up at me. I smile, "But I'll do what I can."

Her worried and sad demeanor turns to relief and happiness as she breaks out into a wide grin and tears threaten to break through her eyes. In response, she hugs me tightly and sniffles. Smiling as well, I return the hug. "Thank you. That's all I can ask."

"No problem, it's what I do." We hug for a few more seconds before breaking it and taking a step back. "Alright, I better get going before it gets too dark." I say as I look up at the dusk setting around us.

"That's probably for the best." She agrees and walks back over to the warp pad as I get inside my truck and turn it on. "Have a safe trip!" She waves me off. I smile and return the wave with one of my own.

"Thanks! See you soon!" I reply and shift into reverse just as the warp pad activates.

From there, it's just a matter of going out of town, onto the interstate and plugging in the route to where I need to go.

Before long, hours pass in blissful silence and night has already painted the landscape around me. As I drive down the dark roadway, I can't help but yawn as the long continuous road time is tiring me out. "Geez, this is boring." I can't help but groan. With being along and all, the road time is just one long boring journey. A few more minutes pass and I come upon a T-intersection with the turn going to my left and the straight is ahead of me. As I slow my truck to a halt at the red light, I take note of just how dark everything is around me, especially the dense woody forest area to my right. Now that I have a reprieve on my journey to Keystone, my thoughts start to delve back into our team and how bad things seem. 'This is so bad. What Pearl did was selfish and stupid on different levels and Garnet was hit the most by it. Because of her unintentional mention of me, I am also on Garnet's list of people she hates. Granted I'm not as much being ignored as Pearl is but it's still not ideal. While I did promise Pearl I'd talk to Garnet and hopefully try to smooth things over, I honestly have no idea exactly how I am going to go about it. Yes I can go about the logical route and explain to her why she can't stay made forever… but that isn't an ideal plan. She's not a robot, even though she sometimes acts like one, and if she agrees to what I say, her emotions can be left uncheck. Resulting in some… bad outbursts.' Moments from when Garnet freaked out are still somewhat fresh in my mind, if my rubbing my throat is anything to go by. "I'm gonna need a better plan." I grumble and let out another sigh. "Hopefully things will work out."

The light turns green and I hit the gas. As my truck slowly rolls forward, I look to the left and my eyes widen.


"Hm?" Sapphire places a hand on the side of her head. After hers and Ruby's… debate, on what Pearl did, the two decided to separate and try to calm down. While Ruby is outside fuming and evaporating the pool, Sapphire has no means to think or stew in her own thoughts while in the hotel room.

The benefit to seeing the future means that she 'knows' everything will be alright. All she has to do is wait and let things run their course and everything will be fine.

Unfortunately, occasional flashes of new future visions will plague her mind and while some of them don't amount to much, there have been some instances where they will prove to be correct, throwing her off guard. While she's fused with Ruby to make Garnet, her future vision powers are somewhat diminished in comparison to being alone, not that should would prefer to be alone and away from Ruby, even now. Now that her and Ruby are… not on speaking terms her future visions are coming back full force with additional results. This vision was a mix match of images that seemed both good and bad. There was… a person collapsing, crying, hurt, screaming and… red. Lots of red.

Before she can make much more sense of the vision, the door to the hotel room opens. "Uhhh, who makes square pizz- Holy moly!" Before Steven can finish his rant about the infamous square pizzas, the full effect of the rooms slowly frozen ice crystallizing structure hits him. He clutches both his arms on his shoulders in an effort to heat himself up from the sudden rush of cold. "I forgot how cold it was." Steven says out loud, examining the room around him for a second until he sees Sapphire on the bed. Even though she heard the door open, she doesn't really regard Steven all that much and the hand that's clutching her head clenches her hair tightly and begins to shake. "Uhh, Sapphire? Are you okay?" He asks worriedly.

"Hm? Huh?" Sapphire, snapped out of her thoughts, looks at Steven.

"I asked if your okay. You were sort of… shaking, a little." He tells her hesitantly.

"Oh sorry. Just thinking about something."

"Oh." He looks around a bit before looking back at her. "Doooeees it involve the futu—"

"Maybe you should go back to your dad and finish that pizza. It looks weird but its good." She interrupts him and gives him a smile. "Trust me."

"Oh, alright. If you're sure your alright,"

"I am."

"Then I'll go ahead and go." He walks back to the door and begins to close it on his way out. "Good night." He quickly pokes his head back in and tell her before going outside to finish off the pizza.

Sapphire stares at the door for a few more seconds until her frown disappears and she tries to make sense of her the vision. "What… is…?" She moans.


"Wow. Sapphire was right. This does taste alright. I can't tell the difference between triangle pizza and square pizza." Steven happily continues munching on the piece of pizza while they sit in the back of Greg's van.

"See I told you." His dad says and takes a bite. "So, is everything all… messed up between those two still?" Greg says while looking at the rapidly boiling pool of water nearby, along with the muttered rants of a certain Ruby.

Steven looks at the pool, then the hotel door before looking down. "Yeah, kind of."

Seeing his son sad, Greg looks down as well before he straightens back up and pats his son the back. "Ahhh, don't worry about it son. For now it's getting late so why don't we finish up this pizza, turn in and when we get some of that awesome breakfast, we'll figure out what's wrong, okay?"

"Okay!" Steven happily agrees and takes a large a bite out of his slice. Greg chuckles and joins his son in finishing the pizza.

Half an hour later, only a couple slices remain before they have to turn into bed. In the van that is because apparently after seeing ice form under the door of their hotel room, neither of them are in the mood to sleep on ice beds. The van will work out enough for them.

"Huh, I wonder where's Marcus?" Steven asks out of the blue.

Pausing from taking another bite, Greg looks down the road from which they came from. "I don't know. I was hoping he would have gotten here by now." He says and eats some more.

"I'll try calling him." Steven proposes and pulls out his phone. Hitting Marcus's number he has on speed dial, he puts it on speaker so they can both talk.

The phone rings a couple times before a voice is heard. "The number you have dialed cannot be reached at this time. Please call again later." An automated message is their only response.

Both father and son look at each other confused. "That's weird. He always answers." Steven muses as he puts his phone away.

"Maybe he couldn't answer on the road. You know those laws about driving and using a phone at the same time. Besides, he might have just gone into a blind spot. Parts of the road tend to disconnect people. I wouldn't be too worried about it." Greg tries to reassure his son and continues eating his pizza.

Steven just stares at the slice in his hands for a few more seconds, thinking. 'He's… not wrong. He's good but he's also careful. I'm sure he's just being careful at night. He's always careful.' Remembering how often his brother has been so paranoid and careful at nearly every opportunity, he shrugs his shoulders and finish off the slice before grabbing the last. "I'm sure he's fine.

He bites.


An 18-wheeler truck stays parked in the middle of the road. The massive machine blocking all three roads as it stays stopped but still running, a large massive slightly dented bull bar grill and it's lights shining right in front of a destroyed metal barrier. The trailers back slowly creaks open before both doors slam open and bodies start jumping out clutching assault rifles and shotguns. Half a dozen guys dressed in matching dark clothing and masks, run to the front of the truck and stare down the broken barrier piece. Their silhouettes from the trucks headlights cast shadows on the trees and the newly created path in front of them. One-by-one they all jump off the raised road and start clambering down the beaten and broken path. Some run straight down a small jagged path of rocks and dirt while others jump, vault and duck over broken trees to get to their destination.

Not even a minute of ducking and weaving before they come across the crash site. What lies before them is an upturned badly beaten and almost completely destroyed truck with one of its doors and three tires missing. Four guys move around and immediately train their sights on the driver side door while the other two get to work. One pulls out a crowbar and with ease, he snaps the broken door open for him and his partner. Their target is in his seat, limp, cut, bruised and hanging by the seatbelt he wears. With a quick two finger press to his neck, they confirm he's still alive but unconscious. Grabbing a knife, they cut his belt and he hits the roof with a thud. While the four continue to keep their weapons on the unconscious target, the other two drag him out and lay him a good distance away from the wreckage.

"We got him." One of the two says as he looks at the others. "We should get out of here before some happens to come on by—"

"He's waking up."

A plethora of guns cocking follow the interrupted statement as they watch the slightly twitching body. Very slowly, he tries to lift his head and open his eyes.

*SMACK*

He goes limp again as the first guy talking delivers a punch straight to his face, knocking him out. "Not anymore." He says firmly and stands up. "Alright. Contain him and clean the area. Let's move people!" He orders them all. With professional-like movement, two guys holster their guns and start zip-tying his arms and legs before taking him back to the semi-trailer.

The rest get to work on the scene. One of them grabs a large bowie knife and stabs it through the gas tank under the truck before cutting a large swatch through it, opening it up and leaving the gasoline content free to the environment. Another starts pouring more car gasoline all over the place, leading a short distance from where the truck was crashing through earlier to around it and finally at the newly opened gas tank. Once the areas been properly soaked, everyone gets back to the truck until the leader stands in front of the trail of accelerant with a single match in hand. Flicking his thumb on the head, the match ignites in a small blaze but that's nothing compared to what it ignites. Dropping it, the leader starts walking back as the trail starts igniting, rapidly burning trail towards the truck.

Making it back to the truck, he hits the driver side door of the truck before sprinting to the back and grabbing onto the outstretched hand as the truck starts moving. Once he's pulled into the back, he and his helper pull the doors closed before locking them tightly.

The 18-wheeler travels off into the night with its cargo.

*BOOOOM!*

A large fireball lights up the night sky behind them but the truck continues unimpeded.

Watching the fireball for a second, the leader looks back and with a nod to his men, they start pulling out chains, shackles and a medical bag filled with sedatives to keep their 'guest' stuck and asleep for their journey.

For him, his week long journey.

Well, it seems things aren't going to go well for Marcus now are they… again. In any case people, I have some good news and bad news for you all. Good news is, with classes being over within the next few weeks, I don't think we should expect anymore month long delays between chapters for this story so that's going to be a relief. Chances are the next few chapters may not be going to be around 8,000 words so they can possibly be out sooner than an actual 8k worded chapter but we'll see as I write them.

The bad news, more for you all watching this story than my others, is I'm going to focus my efforts on my other stories since I feel I sort of neglected them. This story will still be worked on, never forget that, but it'll be a little slow going compared to before. Or now. I don't know. I apologize for my sparse chapter uploads this beginning year alone. Kind of sucks for you all considering I just dropped this chapter on you all with the plot and all but, guess we'll see how things go.

Alright with the updates for my stories out of the way, now onto my life. I bought the DLC's Automatron and Far Harbor for Fallout 4 and they have been insurmountable in helping me progress through the survival difficulty I have set up. The robots, especially Ada, are awesome and make sure that I or they don't die as easily. The weapons for Far Harbor are awesome as well, especially the Radium rifle. It helps because I got the nuclear physicist perk to the max, so all radiation weapons do double damage and since it also does ballistic damage, I'm not longer stuck with using the Gamma gun on specific enemies. With that said, things are alright for the moment all in all.

As always everyone, have a good day and have fun reading.