Eyeball Ruby climbs out of the crashed ship and begins looking around with a slight growl under her breath.

Army Ruby jumps out and starts yelling out kung-fu noises as she does fighting poses. Soon she picks up a flower and kicks it. "Hi-ya!" She shouts and proceeds to cartwheel away.

"Ohhh! What a lovely planet!" Navy Ruby pops out of the ship next with a bit more happiness and excitement than the others so far. She begins walking around in a happy demeanor.

"Wait! So we just... get up and walk around?" Leggy Ruby pokes the top of her head out nervously as she hesitates in getting out. "Whoa!" She yelps as she's pushed out and falls to the ground in a heap.

Doc Ruby pops out next, having been the one to push Leggy out as she stands on the ship. Army nearby kicks a twig. "Now, where's the Gem the scanners locked on to?" Doc asks as she looks around. "Let's fan out and search the area!" She orders the rest of the Ruby's to immediately do.

Meanwhile, "Whoa, look at 'em all!" Steven moans in awe as he stares out the bottom of the barn door on the ground towards the Ruby squad. The rest of the Crystal Gems immediately took off inside the barn with Garnet carrying Steven so they won't be spotted and possibly be attacked.

"I knew it." Peridot leans out as well to look, laying on top of Steven as she plants her hands atop the boy's head. "They're after me! This is the end of the line!" She deems very scared as she pulls herself back inside the barn.

"You really weren't kidding." Lapis says in disbelief. The idea of Peridot becoming public enemy #1 wasn't something that she thought was actually and figured the green gem was exaggerating. Apparently not.

"I disobeyed a direct order from Yellow Diamond, and I called her a clod… to her face." Peridot explains in disdain.

"Oh, honestly, you call everyone a clod." Pearl points out and for quite awhile that bit of information has been true. It's hard to keep track and count of how many times she's called everyone clod but she doesn't look that bad about that.

"Yes, but not everyone has command over all the armies of Homeworld waiting for the word to shatter me!" Peridot scampers over scared and proceeds to hide under a cardboard box.

"Peridot, we won't let them get you." Steven reassures her as he goes and picks up the box to reveal Peridot curled up in it.

"But haven't I caused you enough trouble?" She asks sadly without uncurling herself.

"Don't worry, Peridot. It's our sworn duty to protect anything that calls this planet home." Garnet comes over and states with certainty to the distraught green gem. She perks up a little at the renewed info of her protection. "And that includes clods like you."

"That's my word…"

Garnet then proceeds to turn to the others with a plan in mind. "Listen up, everyone. I have a plan. Or should I say… We have a plan?" She says as she holds her hands up. To accentuate what she's getting at, with a giggle on her part, she glows brightly until…

"Hello everyone." Sapphire greets everyone as she and Ruby appear from the unfusing while holding hands.

"Ruby! Sapphire!" Pearl and Amethyst both ask in happy surprise at the appearance of their friends.

"HUUUUGS!" Steven happily runs up and embraces the both of them.

"Hello, Steven!" Sapphire greets the enthusiastic kid back.

With the greetings out of the way, Amethyst asks, "So, what's the plan?"

"You got this." Sapphire doesn't address the purple gems question and instead directs her words to her love. "Just act casual." As an incentive, she kisses the red gems cheek.

"Yeah. Casual." Pumped, Ruby palms her fist attack before walking out to the other Ruby's, albeit very stiffly and… awkwardly.

"Haaaa… I love that Gem." Sapphire comments with a dreamy look.

"We know." Amethyst and Pearl say at the same time with smiles, knowing very well how much they know about their relationship. After all, they have known the duo for about a few thousand years.

"Oh hey Sapphire, now that you're here, I wanted to ask you about something." Steven says to her.

"You wanted to ask me when Marcus is going to wake up, correct?" She's already one step ahead of him.

Everyone present, including Lapis, perk up and focus their attention on the future seeing seer and what she knows. "Yeah, that's right! So can you tell us something?" Steven, happy at the idea of knowing possibly when his brother will finally wake up, asks with a wide grin.

"It's hard to tell." Sapphire answers, making everyone become depressed. "I see many different paths his awakening will bring. When, it varies, but when he does wake up… sadness, anger, happiness, regret… or worse."

"W-worse?" Steven worriedly asks. True when it comes to a lot of Sapphires, or Garnets, predictions, she sees options and paths, not the direct future events.

"How worse?" Lapis comes up and asks, tense with a bit of anger weaved in. She's been worried for a long time, even though it's only been days since she awoke and found out but still, on the condition of her friend and now being told by a Sapphire that something worse will happen is not reassuring at all.

Sapphire looks down as she recalls what she sees. "It… won't be pretty. Not—"

"They want to search the barn!"

Everyone jumps as their Ruby comes back and tells them what happened with the other Ruby's. "Really?" Steven asks. They were all so focused on Sapphire they didn't hear or see what was going on outside. She nods in confirmation.

"That complicates things." Pearl grimly states.

"We can't let them in here. Not with…" Lapis doesn't finish speak as she looks up, toward the second floor. The others follow her eyes and get exactly what she's getting at.

"Well, I can't be seen either! I'm so scared!" Peridot fearfully exclaims as she curls up again a little. Above all, she can't be seen by her pursuers, but that's not to say they want their enemy's getting within arm's reach of their friends comatose body.

"Let's ambush them!" Amethyst proposes as she holds a baseball bat up threateningly. "

Yes! Perfect!" Peridot perks up with a happy if yet slightly creepy grin on her face. "I'll get my ammunition! You get the long distance ranged firearm!" Peridot says as she points to Pearl and scampers off elsewhere.

The white gem in question looks perplexed. "The what?" Pearl asks in confusion.

"Wait, found it!"

"Oof!" Pearl grunts as Peridot tosses her the Barrett sniper rifle into her arms. She looks down confused at the weapon as Peridot walks up loading the speedloader containing all six shots into her revolver.

"Okay, I'm ready." She states once she flicks the cylinder closed.

"No." Sapphire quickly shuts down that idea as she pushes the gun down. "No one needs to get hurt. Let's be sensible." She proposes they do but some look skeptic.

"What do I do?" Ruby meanwhile freaks out on what she's supposed to tell the other Ruby's while she bites her fingers.

"Just go out there and tell them this is a place where humans live." Sapphire suggests what she should do.

Ruby looks at her love before she sighs and rubs her arm. "I don't wanna go alone…" She states shyly.

"Oh! I'll come." Steven proposes. "I'll be your backup." He states with a macho-esque pose.

"And here's some backup for your backup." As a precaution, Amethyst hands him her baseball bat.

"I… don't think I need—"

"No time!"

"Woah!" Before Steven can reject the bat after taking it, Ruby picks him up and takes him outside. Everyone cautiously peaks out to see them going back to the Ruby squad.

" You think it's going to work?" Peridot asks worriedly.

"Hard to say." Sapphire answers. "Still many different ways this could play out."


Baseball?!" Everyone asks in surprised confusion while Lapis tends to their unconscious friend.

"Huh. I… saw that this was a possibility, though I am surprised that this is the path we're taking." Sapphire comments with a bit of surprise herself while Ruby face palms at the absurdity of what they're going to do.

*BREEEEEE*

Without much argument as to what they're going to do, Steven blows a whistle to get everyones attention and begins explaining what they need to do while holding the bat. "Alright. My human baseball knowledge will lead us to victory. Let's just go out there and pretend to be humans. Except Peridot. You stay here in the barn and hide." He points to the green gem.

"O... kay." She agrees reluctantly.

"Everybody in?" He asks and gets nods from everyone except one. "Lapis?" He calls out above.

"Huh? Oh, coming." She replies and jumps down from above, landing gracefully next to him. "What'd you say?"

"You in?" He asks again to her, wiggling the baseball bat to accentuate what he's asking.

She stares at him for a few seconds, the idea of playing the human game 'baseball' to trick the Ruby's into leaving without a fight seems… odd. Crossing her arms, she chuckles. "This plan sucks… but I guess we don't have a choice." She concedes, much to his delight. She then turns to Peridot. "Keep him safe… okay?"

Surprised a little at the question, Peridot nods firmly and salutes her, making her smile as everyone prepares to get ready for the fight… in a way.


"We're the humans!" Steven announces to the Ruby team what their team is basically, everyone adorning their own baseball uniforms to go along with the game and equipped with the right gear. "Steven!" He announces his name.

"Earl!" Pearl gives a letter less version of her name.

"Amy!" Amethyst gives her best human name.

"Bob." Lapis 'introduces' herself unenthusiastically in a monotone voice.

"And Sophie." Sapphire gives her human name with a blush while the Crystal Gem Ruby is also blushing and sweating.

With the human team having introduced themselves, its time for their opponents to do so now. "Understood. Our team is the Rubies! Consisting of… Ruby!" Doc introduces herself.

"Ruby!"

"Ruby!"

"Ruby!"

"Ruby."

"And Ruby!" And the rest of the Ruby team, starting from the Crystal Gem Ruby to Army Ruby, they introduce themselves… sort of.

"Here's the rules of the game. We take turns throwing the ball at each other. The batter tries to hit the ball with the bat, and then they run around the bases. Whoever gets the most runs wins." Steven explains the rules to everyone and without further ado after, they get the game started.

"Striiiike one!" Amethyst, the umpire, calls out as CG Ruby, the batter, purposely missed the ball that Steven threw, who was pitching.

"What?!" Army is not happy.

Another ball throw, "Striiiike two!" And another miss. Steven throws the ball one last time, "Strike three!" And she calls her out.

"Oh, darn! Guess I'm out." Ruby acts sad that she failed. Her eyes glance over to Sapphire at first base, who waves at her, making the red gem blush.

"You swung too slow!" Army, angered at the out, punches Ruby in the back, breaking her from her blushing state before she picks up the bat. "Do it like this." She states and readies herself. With the new batter up and ready, Steven tosses the ball.

*SMACK*

And it's sent flying out the field, never to be seen again as Army just basically scored a home run. "And that's called a homerun." He mutters as he watches the ball disappears.

The rest of the game goes as expected. The Crystal Gems guarding the bases and slaughtering the Ruby team, with Steven accidentally getting Eyeball angry and switching their sides. Amethyst when she bats makes a homerun hit and decides to not be so subtle and proceeds to spin dash all around the bases and hits home plate with a slide. Steven scolds her since she's supposed to be acting like a human and NOT a gem. Thankfully the Ruby's are none the wiser and Sapphire is next to bat.

"Heeeeeey Ruby." Sapphire flirts with umpire Ruby with a giggle. Unfortunately, her focus on her significant other makes her miss the ball as Doc throws it.

"Strike ONE!" She calls it.

"Haven't I see you somewhere before?" Ruby proceeds to flirt with the batter.

"I don't know. I don't get off planet much." Sapphire replies, sending the both of them to start laughing.

"Strike TWO!" And missing… again.

"What's going on? What are they doing?" Steven asks with Pearl and Amethystas he looks confused at why Sapphire isn't batting.

"Flirting." Lapis calls it as she sees it as she comes up next to them in her monotone voice.

"Uh-oh." Having known quite well for a long time, Pearl has an idea of how detrimental this may be right now for them as she says worriedly.

"Strike THREE!" And the third missed ball makes Sapphire out. Hearing the calls, the both of them are shaken from their flirtatious barrage with each other to see the others staring at them.

"Uhhh…" They both moan in embarrassment at their little screw up. Lapis gives them a thumbs up, whether because of their flirting with each other or what have you, no one knows.

The game continues regardless as the 'Human' team are up to bat some more. During Lapis's batting moment, she holds her bat over the plate, bunting the ball so she can walk without putting much effort. She walks to first base as the Rubies rush toward the home plate and dive on top of the ball but before they could even hope to tag her, she's already safe. At one point Sapphire is at the Ruby's bench chatting with her Ruby before Steven proceeds to drag her away. All the Gems continue playing while Ruby and Sapphire continue to flirt with each other at everyone opportunity. One of the Ruby's hits the ball a bit harder than intended and shatters the bat into a million pieces, forcing Steven to go to the barn to get a replacement. Who knew Greg and his family had such a massive collection of sports equipment.

"Hey, how's it going? Are we winning?" Peridot asks as she leans out the barn door a little to Steven as he grabs the bat.

"Ummm…" Steven hesitates in saying as he watches Ruby give Sapphire instructions on how to hit the ball but in reality its more so she could get her hands on the blue gem, literally. "Well, haha…" He nervously chuckles at the scene. "We're doing just fine. Everything's gonna be A-Okay." He says and walks back to the field nervously.

"You're lying to me!" Peridot angrily yet quietly shouts.

"To make you feel better!"

"Thank you!" She replies in the same tone. However as she's so focused on the game, she doesn't see the unconscious hybrid's hand twitch.


The game progresses well enough but not in favor of the 'Humans,' as much as they originally thought how things were going to go, the score being 7 to 6 with the Ruby's leading.

"Alright, it's the bottom of the ninth. We've got Lapis on second, but one more out and the game's over for us. We need to hit a home run." Steven explains to the others what's going but he gets even more worried as he sees Sapphire at bat. "Wait! I call a timeout!" He yells and goes right up to in-between them. "Listen you two, I know it's hard being separated, but we have to keep them out of the barn or they're gonna find Peridot and Marcus. Remember?!" He reminds them sternly of their original objective and why they are doing this in the first place. "Ruby, stop being cute, and Sapphire, keep your EYE on the ball!" He accentuates it by closing one of his own eyes.

"Pun… intended?"

"What did I just say?" Steven scolds Ruby with a finger snap and pointing at her for the question as he walks away.

With the game back in full swing, Doc is the pitcher and not letting up, she throws the ball at Sapphire. "Strike one!" Who misses.

All the Crystal Gems sport looks of worry at the first strike but Ruby stays confident for her love.

"Come on, I know you can do it." Ruby tries to raise Sapphire's hopes and determination on her next shots. She nods at the words before taking a better hold of her bat.

Doc throws the ball again. "Strike two!" Sapphire misses again.

"Just look at the ball." Ruby advises to her love.

"I'm trying, but all I want to look at is you." She replies.

"Don't worry, you can look at me when you're running for home." Hearing that alternative, Sapphire is nonetheless happy at the idea and concentrates on the goal at hand: hitting that ball.

Doc narrows her eyes in preparation for the throw that will determine the fate of the match and who wins. Something that the Ruby's can't afford to lose on. Getting ready to throw, she lights the ball on fire, making everyone on the opposing team nervous on the additive, and with a wide wind up, she chucks it as hard as she can. Sapphire, true to what she was told to do, focuses on the ball and with a cry of effort, she swings. "URRR, UGHHHHH!" She yells loudly as her bat makes contact and strains with the hit. For a moment, it looks like the bat is going to snap like the previous one did under the strain of the massive charring force added by the flaming spinning ball but as she strains to hold it, her natural ice powers activate and immediately coats the bat in her hands in crystallized ice. With the added armor so to say on the wooden object, there is no fear anymore for the object to break. With a final strain of effort, she pushes back. The ball is completely turned around and all eyes watch as it's sent clear into the skies away from the game.

A home run. "YEAH!" Steven cheers loudly as he and his team cheer at the victory they scored against the Ruby's. Sapphire starts running along the bases while Lapis casually walks back to home plate. When she gets there, Ruby raises her hand for a high five to the blue gem, who returns it lazily before walking off so she doesn't get tackled by the excited Sapphire running towards them.

Sapphire has the biggest grin on her face with Ruby just as happy with tears brimming as her love is on the final stretch. "Come to ME!" Ruby calls in happiness as with every step they get closer and closer together.

At the last few feet, Sapphire jumps through the air with Ruby ready to catch her without any hesitation. The both of them fall back and roll on the ground from the force of the tackle but their cries of happiness and joy fill the air… along with a glow. "Hahaha… Ha…" Garnet laughs before realizing that she's here and Ruby and Sapphire or not. "Whoops…" She mutters.

"They're Gems!" Doc makes the deduction right quick.

"We've been tricked!" Army is angry.

"What a turn of events." Navy is surprised.

"Grrrr!" Eyeball growls angrily at being tricked.

"Huh? W-what?" Leggy is just confused in general about the whole thing.

Now that the jig is up, the rest of the Crystal Gems move in next to Garnet with their weapons brandished. "Sorry, guys. Game's over." She tells them as the Ruby's get ready to fight.

"THAT'S IT! RUBY'S… COMBINE!" She orders and the rest of her entourage jump onto and climb on each other. In a glow of light that's familiar to the Crystal Gems, the five Ruby's fuse and what comes forth is a giant angry Ruby fusion. "RAAAAAH!" The fusion roars as everyone tenses up and gets ready to fight.

"Wait!" Everyone freezes at the new voice and look towards the barn. "ooh, wait! Stop! Don't hurt them!" Peridot runs out, closing the doors to the barn and tries to run but she soon falls onto her face, then falls again, before she runs on all fours to them, panting excessively as she runs in front of the Crystal Gems. "Wait. Oh, please, please! It's me you're after right? I'm not gonna stand by and let my friends fight my battles!" She demands to the large fusion.

"Awww, Peri loves us!" Steven coos at the love that Peridot shows to her friends, but that still leaves another problem they have.

"Are you the Peridot assigned to the failed Earth mission?" The giant quintuple fusion baring down on them all whose voice booms.

"Not sure if 'failed' would be the right word to-" She tries to reason with the enemy but is interrupted.

"Where is Jasper?"

"You're looking for… Jasper?" She asks confused at the question.

"Correct."

"Wait, but I'm the one who betrayed the mission, who called Yellow Diamond a clod, the new leader of the Crystal Gems?"

"What?" Pearl asks confused at the green gems claims.

"Tell us where Jasper is NOW!" The Ruby fusion demands angrily.

Peridot looks nervous at the demand, seeing as how the last time they all Jasper was when she fell into a large crack in the earth to either be melted by the heat, or crushed by the shifting ground. "Jasper-umm," She glances to Pearl for clarification but gets a subtle head shake of 'no' from the spear wielding gem. "We know where Jasper is." She lies.

"Well?!" The Ruby fusion is impatient at the somewhat stall of information she's getting.

"Uhhhh…"

"Neptune!" And in a fashion that Steven is somewhat known for, he saves the nervous groaning Peridot by his apparent answer. "She's on the planet Neptune!" He claims as he points to some random spot in the sky.

No one says anything at the answer Steven gave. The Crystal Gems sweat drop while the Ruby fusion stares intently at the kid. "Well, why didn't you say so?" She says in a not so demanding or angry tone, much to the Gems relief.

The Ruby's unfuse and head back to the ship. "We all here?" Doc asks her team and does a quick headcount. "One, two, three, four, and… ha! Five." This time though she manages to count herself instead of forgetting to like the last time. With their team assembled, they get ready to go. "To the planet-!"

*CRASH*

A loud sound against wood can be heard that makes everyone freeze. Everyone turns around to the barn to see the doors still closed.

*Crash*

The same sound accompanies the doors being pushed out slightly and violently. More crashes against the door can be heard and puts everyone on edge as the sounds become more and more violent. The Ruby's all get ready in case of attack but the Crystal Gems are confused and tense considering who's in the barn… alone.

"Marcus?" Steven mutters his brothers name. The only answer he gets is a fist going through the barn doors.

A clawed fist.

Everyone jumps as they see the action but confusion and caution are in the air. Slowly the claw reaches to the side and slowly pulls the door open before it retracts. Next, two clawed hands reach forward and pull the door open in one final push to both sides.

The Crystal Gems all take a step back as they see the monster that slowly lumbers forward out the door, hunched forward a little but no less terrifying, especially to the two that have seen it before.

"Nooo…" Lapis breathes in horror as she and Peridot take a few more steps back as they stare at the menacing beast that nearly ended the both of them on the beach. The monster slowly moves its head about, sniffing the air as it tries to get its bearing on where it is.

"ENEMY!" The monster and Crystal Gems snap their heads to the Ruby Doc as she calls out. "Ruby's again…" She orders and the rest of her team without hesitation jump on each other like last time. "COMBINE!" She orders and just like before, all five of their bodies glow and they form together to recreate the large quintuple Ruby fusion. "RAAAAAAH!" She yells out and glares at the monster.

"…" It stares at her, tilting its head to the side with curiosity at action. Without anymore provocation, the Ruby fusion starts stomping and charging towards the newly seen monster. The Crystal Gems make no attempt to stop her as it doesn't make any effort at all to brace itself as the much large opponent continues to bare down it. It's only when the fusion gets close enough does she reel her right fist back, ignite it on fire, and attacks.

"HAAAAAAA!"

*SMACK!*

Everyone can hear the sound of the attack impact something, but as they take a closer their eyes widen in surprise.

Even the Ruby fusion is surprised as she sees her flaming fist punch completely stop cold in its tracks. The monster holds its left arm up, its clawed hand having caught and stopped the attack from hitting it directly. The fire burns against its fur and flesh slowly, drawing smoke and a slightly sizzling noise but the curious look on its face doesn't disappear. Instead of being surprised for too long, the Ruby fusion brings her other arm back. "Grrrr! Hraaa—"

*Shink*

"Gaaah!" Her attack is interrupted as when she pulls back her left arm to attack, something thrusts forward and into her stomach. Stunned, she slowly and shakingly looks down. Her eye widens as she sees the monsters free right claw stuck into her stomach. The attack makes her others fall to the side as she stares up at the face.

The monsters curious face disappears, replaced by a sadistic teeth baring grin. Now that its arm isn't focused on holding her arm back, it reels back and thrusts its other arm right next to its already stabbed arm. The fusion lets out a strangled grunt from the second hit but her eyes don't leave the grinning face. It leans in close to her face. "… Weak…" It folds its arms and in one move, tears the fusion apart.\

*Poomfp*

A large cloud of smoke appears all around it as the fusion is destroyed. All the Ruby's go flying in every direction, still in their forms but completely knocked out and unconscious. The Crystal Gems stare at the scattered Ruby's all over before they look back at the rapidly dissipating smoke cloud. The form of the monster can be seen through the smoke but in one swipe of its claws, the smoke is gone and it stands to its full height. It doesn't take long before its eyes fall on the Crystal Gems and it grins again. "Time… for a challenge." It's demonic voice says to them, and readies its claws.

The Gems bare their weapons, ready as well.

"That…" Garnet begins to say, " Is the worst… option."


As much as I wanted to do another 'Lapis point of view focused' chapter, in her mind the Ruby's aren't labeled or have their nicknames as such yet so it wouldn't make sense for her to refer them as such ahead of time. So I stuck with it being third person the majority of the time so I can name them properly as such. You all tell me how much of a pain the ass it would have been to refer to the Ruby's at time based solely on their description. Maybe I'm thinking too much on it but still. Sorry that most of this was a rehashing of the episode but I guess I kind of wanted to throw you all off for the ending there. Don't know if it was worth it but I guess I'll see. I wanted to get this chapter out quickly because after my rant at the end of the last chapter, I kind of didn't want to leave it on that for too long so I worked on this one.

There is also one other matter that I kind of want to address that makes me worried. For some time now I've been reading up and hearing a lot of news about Net Neutrality. The times before we've had attacks on Net Neutrality but they failed. This time though… it was me worried. The amount of information that's been streamlining and constantly reminding me over and over again about the seriousness of the whole thing has me really worried that this time we can lose the freedom we have on the internet. I don't want to get too political, or I don't know, about the whole thing but I've heard lots of things like how if Net Neutrality ends and the internet is regulated by big businesses and corporations, then some of the most mundane things we would have to paid in order to use them. Pretty sure I saw mention of having to pay to use Tumblr, Facebook and Google. I hope it's just a scare tactic by people wanting to keep things free but if it does prove true, Net Neutrality ends and Fanfiction, this site, is hit, then I'm done.

What I mean by that is my family doesn't make enough money to support 'paying' for the access to certain sites on the internet and if becomes one of those sites that must be 'pay to enter and use' then I can't keep working on my stories. That's what's got me so freaked out about all this because I really don't want to lose my ability to write and upload my stories after I've been having so much fun to write them and hearing how much you all like them. Let alone if some of you would have to pay in order to enter the site! At the very least, I wouldn't be able to upload near as quick as I usually do, so that would suck majorly. I really hope I'm throwing this out of proportion and it's my paranoia enhancing on the whole thing but I guess I just want to say my mind on the whole matter. On Dec. 14th I believe is the date when they're going to vote on it all and will determine if I can relax and take my time on my next chapter, or I'll have to go hard in getting one lost chapter out, just in case.

That's all I wanted to say, now onto the reviews.

ChimaTigon: It's quite possible at this stage. Although I wish the show would go ahead and elaborate more on Jasper and the Ruby's but I guess we'll see.

seruis: Yes, soon. Quite soon. Thank you.

M. 6: I'm liking the changes I've got going on with Lapis. Nice to see the changes are alright. Soon you'll see just what I have in store for the new arrivals.

Girlbook: And soon it will be.

caincuchulainn: Thanks for the compliments. I am proud with how Marcus is turning out and the slight differences I've got going on with the already present characters. Hopefully future installments will still be good.

TheStoryWever: Yes, I am back. And still awesome to continue to be back. As much as your advice makes sense, you know put school work ahead as its more important in some aspects, that's not something I'm willing to do. See, long ago I was writing then and I put a story on its shelf so to say… and I never went back. Don't know why but the feeling of just not writing stuck with me for far longer than I would have liked and I refuse to do anything like that ever again. Even if it's just between a few words to several hundred words, I refuse to lose any sort of momentum with my writing for even a day.

Pyrowolf21: It was a suckish and horrible feeling of ALMOST losing everything and I'm glad I still have all my documents. As you know Fanfiction only holds chapters for 90 days before they self-delete and having my stuff already on my computer, or in this case a USB, saves me a lot of time should I ever need to go back and make updates… which if you remember some moments in the past, I really do need to go back and change some things.

Patriota1993: I am glad for everything too. Hopefully soon I can really get to them talking properly and maybe establish just how things are going. For now, simply patience.

Cf96: Thank you.

XxSpades231xX: It was a hectic Thanksgiving week but I'm glad I was able to continue working regardless. I'm liking the changes I made to the episode as well, plus for what I have planned for future ones. Pretty much as much as Marcus see the benefit of talking to Steven like that, right now that seems like a human matter and Gem matters seem more so the top priority on his list of things to do.

Thank you all for everything. I really hope things work out for this month for everyone. As you can tell from what happened here in this chapter, the next one is going to be a dozy and my own. As much as I want to get this one out as soon as possible, I still have to work more on my other projects so the very least, get ready for my Christmas present to you all. Thank you, have a great day and as always, have fun reading.