So I'll be honest, I'm underwhelmed about this chapter, and I have no idea how I could make it better, so you just gotta take it as it is I guess unfortunately. That being said, let's read what I would say has to be my second worst chapter in the story...at least it has notable plot.

-=Beach House=-

-=Steven/Spinel/The Crystal Gems=-

-=Next Day=-

"Steven- I know you feel like you just have to go back to Homeworld, but it's obviously not safe there, you should just let the Diamonds deal with things for now" Pearl offered to the teen who just gave her a small laugh.

"It's ok, Pearl," He dismissed with a wave of his hand. "I'll be here for week or two anyway, just enough to regather myself enough to come back with a stable and relaxed mind, ya know?" He said with a smile as he grabbed his clothes for the day while Spinel was sitting on the foot of his bed playing on his new 'GameStation' that he got on his last birthday, she found it difficult at first and got frustrated for a bit, but when he told her it was just a game, something seemed to just click and now she was just instantly a pro at just about everything she played strangely enough.

(In the movie, it is shown that he upgraded from game cube to a PlayStation or at least a parody of it, weather it's a parody of ps2 or ps3 I can't remember, so I won't say what she's playing specifically)

"Steven, have you already forgotten what Spinel said just two days ago about how you have to stop going in blindly and recklessly like that?" She said with her arms crossed, really hoping to convince him to stay here until this whole rebellion situation was taken care of, Spinel looking over once her name was mentioned.

"I'm not going in blindly or recklessly to anything, why do you think I'm taking a small break right now?" He sighed after getting his clothes together. "I've already talked to the other Diamonds and they agreed to take over for a bit and they also agreed to ask me if they want to change something big, so I'm taking this small break to not only let myself have some downtime but to test out how well they do on their own." He explained. "But it's not like I can be gone for long, they'll start undoing things and- ugh, just know that I have to go back, it's not a matter of how smart that decision is."

Spinel paused her game as she stood up. "Well, I'm worried too, but no one really knows about the Diamond house other than you guys and myself, as well as the Pearls I guess, but when he's here, not only do they know where he is, but the place also has no security." She spoke, offering her offered her opinion on the matter. "Oh yeah! Talking about security, do you think you can train me?"

"Wait, what? What do you mean train you?" Steven questioned, raising a brow at her. "What would you need her to train you to do?" He continued, knowing the likely answer to the question, though he was hoping that it wouldn't be what he thought.

"Well, train me to fight of course." Spinel said like it was obvious, though in hindsight it really was.

"Why would you have to learn to fight? I couldn't just let you go out to fight other gems like that, it's super dangerous!" He declared, trying to sway her from deciding to do this out of nowhere.

The pink gem went to argue of course but Pearl was the first to speak up. "Now Steven, that's not very fair of you. You let Connie train to fight by your side, and she was just a human girl, how is Spinel any more fragile than her?"

"It's different now Pearl, I've seen first hand how strong gems really can be, I wouldn't have put Connie in that spot if I had known about gems like Jasper." He argued. "Spinel is important to me too, I can't just let her go and risk her life to fight in something that she had nothing to do with, I mean at that point I'm no better than-..." He stopped as he realized who he was talking to. He gave a sigh as he looked away. "Listen, this is about me specifically, not my mom, not any of you, and not the Diamonds, this is my war to fight and I refuse to drag more people that I care about into it than I already have..."

Spinel glanced between them before moving over to him, grabbing his hands. "Steven, it's not like that, you're nothing like her, and I'm not being forced into this situation. I want to fight with you, and I want to fight for you, just as I know you would for me." She insisted with a smile. "I don't want to just stand helplessly by as my best friend goes out and risks his life to make Homeworld a safe place; not without me at least."

Pearl set her hand on his shoulder. "Even if you don't want her fighting, it's up to her anyway, but wouldn't you want her to at least be able to protect herself if she were to end up in a dangerous situation? I'm more than willing to help her train, but I think it would be better for you to train with her so you two can get used to fighting together, right?"

He sighed, knowing that he couldn't deny that logic. "Alright, but I'd like to skip over that whole 'you live for him' thing you did with Connie, this time, me and her start as equals on the battlefield, ok?"

"I promise, you two will being fighting for each other, not just one for the other." Pearl nodded. "Now, I think we should maybe do some warm ups to get her ready to fall into the training that Connie comes over for, she'll need to be at least a little caught up for when she comes over next week."

"W-Wait, Connie is coming to train too?" Spinel asked, suddenly feeling a lot less confident about her decision. Steven didn't want to start anything between the gems and Connie, and Spinel was ok not telling everyone just as long as Steven knew she was innocent throughout the situation, so in the end, no one knew about yesterday other than her and Steven.

"Yes, is there a problem with that?" Pearl asked, confused on why that would matter. "Despite how your first encounter with her, she's not a bad person, I'm sure the two of you will become good friends once you get to know each other."

"Even so, we'll be doing separate training anyway; Connie fights with a sword, I fight with...a few things actually, so now we just gotta figure out what you're comfortable using." Steven said, trying to reassure her that it would mostly be the two of them.

"What I'm comfortable using...how would we figure that out?" She asked, still determined to learn to fight by his side and protect him.

"You guys figure that out I guess, imma go get some proper cloths on if we're really training." He said, traded in his T-shirt for a red and yellow tank top and heading downstairs.

"Oh, a very good idea, Steven." Pearl nodded with a smile as she turned to Spinel, her gem glowing lightly as the younger gem just looks to her with confusion.

The young half Diamond entered the bathroom still a bit tired from the pervious night. He did his normal routine of brushing his teeth and putting deodorant on before finally getting dressed for their little training session.

The teen tossed his dirty clothes into the laundry basket as he opened the door, the first thing he immediately saw being Spinel in a new outfit.

His friend now wore a black sports bra and knee length yoga pants, her hair tied up in a single ponytail. Steven was needless to say flustered, though he did his best to hide it. "What do you think? Pearl says I needed less restrictive clothing if I'm going to train and fight, though this is only until I think of something I would like by myself."

"It looks good." He said, trying not to stare for too long. "But how did you even get those? Are you shape shifting?"

"No, I just happened to have some cloths in my gem from...well actually I can't seem to remember why I had those, but I do know that human females tend to wear this attire when they work out, so I let Spinel put them in her gem and now she can phase them on and then back to her old outfit until she finds something suitable to use in a fight, as her normal attire is too...poofy to wear in a fight." Pearl explained as she walked over to the warp pad. "To the arena then...or what's left of it at least." She said, looking over to Steven, reminding the boy of when he and Amethyst had their little fight.

The hybrid nodded as he made his way over to the warp pad, Spinel at his side. Once all three of them were ready to go, Pearl sent them off.

-=The Arena=-

-=Spinel/Steven/Pearl=-

The three of them entered the damaged area that Steven and Connie would train it, nowadays the two of them fighting their own separate styles with their separate teachers. Steven had found out that he could create his bubbles around anything, so when Bismuth found out as well, she offered to teach him how to fight with his fists, and now that him and Garnet were on speaking terms once more, she could teach him so much more since gauntlets were her weapons to begin with.

Spinel on the other hand had never had any experience with anything other than playing games, so she wasn't exactly the most confident in her abilities, but the passionate fire she had earlier about fighting by Steven's side had yet to even begin to die out. "Alright then, how are we going to go about this?"

"Well, do you have any suggestions? It's best to see if anything comes to mind when you think of yourself fighting. So, any ideas on what you think would be the most comfortable?" Pearl questioned with a hopeful smile, happy to begin training another who wasn't meant for fighting, spreading the notion that you can always be more than what you're told to be.

"I dunno, the first thing that comes to mind when I think of a weapon is a sword I guess." She shrugged, looking to Pearl in hopes that she would have a better idea.

"Well then, let's start from there and make our way through the other weapons, sound good?" She suggested, pulling a sword from her gem and handing it to the shorter gem.

She looked it over, the object feeling less balanced in weight than she would've liked but decided to try it out nevertheless. Pearl created seven Holo-Pearls who all stood behind her with their swords ready.

"Now, I want you to fight six of these so you can get back into the swing of things while I help Spinel find her weapon, ok?" Pearl said, turning to the teen as he summoned spiked bubbles around his hands. "Alright." He responded as he readied himself as well.

Pearl ordered six of them to fight at maximum capacity before taking the last one over to Spinel. "Um, will he be ok fighting all of those things? I mean they kind of have swords." She worried as she looked over to Steven who pulled his shield out to block an attack before swinging back with his lethal boxing glove of a bubble.

"Trust me, Steven will be fine, he's fought more than that on his own before." Pearl chuckled as she stopped in front of her. "Now, I want you to watch me closely, every move I make matters."

Pearl went on to try and teach Spinel about parrying attacks and how to keep her body stance just right, but she couldn't find a good flow for herself, the whole thing just felt uncomfortable and she ended up moving on to the next weapon. She tried a mace which was more a weapon against her than anything, gauntlets that worked surprisingly well for a little bit until she had trouble with learning anything other than the swinging part, and then she moved on to a whip, a knife, daggers, and even nunchucks.

Nothing was working and they had all been trying for the entire day at this point. "I'm really sorry guys, I guess I'm just not really a natural at this kind of stuff." She apologized with a slight chuckle, but her disappointment was clear on her face.

"Cheer up, you're doing your best here, I'm sure you'll find something eventually." Steven reassured her as he flipped a Holo-Pearl onto her back hard enough to deactivate her.

"Steven is right, just don't worry about it, I felt the same way when Rose first taught me how to use my spear, but I grew into it eventually. If we can't find anything comfortable for you to use, then we'll just have to pick the next best weapon and teach you that nonstop." Pearl informed her as she reached into her gem. "Now next, you will be trying a bo staff, from there we'll move onto other similar weapons."

Spinel gave it a weird look. "A bo staff? This just looks like a long baton." She said with a raised brow as she spun it around in her hand.

"I guess if you want to look at it like that, it kind of is." Pearl shrugged. "Those are usually used for fun, I assume you've used batons to entertain Rose back...er, you know..."

"It's fine, don't worry. But yes, this was one of her top three favorite pastimes, she could sit there for hours on end watching me twirl my batons." The pink gem smiled as she thought back on those days for a little big but shook it off as she felt the bad parts returning. She closed her eyes as began twirling it in her hand once more, seemingly falling into a dance of sorts.

She danced around with it, the staff seemingly becoming apart of her after a bit, making even Pearl impressed with her elegance. Once she seemed to be done, the white gem clapped for her, Steven standing on the sidelines in awe. "Very good, Spinel, I think we have found your weapon type."

"Really? Do you really think I could use this thing as a weapon?" She asked, looking it over with a look of doubt.

"Well, the staff was just to see if you had potential with other similar weapons, and I think I know just the thing that you can twirl around to your hearts content while also wielding a deadly blade." Pearl took the staff back and slid it back into her gem, pulling out, you guessed it, a scythe.

The blade was sharp on both sides, sharp enough to cut steel in fact. The younger gem took it into her hands slowly, looking it over carefully. The balance of weight wasn't as even as she would've wanted it to be yet again, but this time she felt like she could control that weight with the momentum that came from spinning it around.

"This isn't really like a baton, it has a blade so I don't know how good I'll be at it." She said, nervously eyeing the sharp piece of curved metal.

"It will be an easy adaptation, I promise." Pearl smiled as she turned to her Holo-Pearl. "While I'm not personally skilled with the kind of dance that you have to be able to do so you can use a scythe properly, I definitely won't have any trouble telling you how to adapt to it. Anyway, go ahead and do what you were doing just a minute ago, but swing more towards this Holo-Pearl, let's see what you can do."

Pear turned the copy of herself on a medium setting. "Now all you have to do is act faster and watch out for your enemy's weapon."

Spinel found it to be slightly difficult to focus on not only working faster, but also focusing on this hologram's weapon. "Your enemy will try to block your attacks, alter your movements to work with their openings, do you think you can handle that?"

She was feeling slightly overwhelmed but she thought back to the state Steven was in when he came back home, how she thought she was going to loose him. No, she couldn't allow herself to fail just because she wasn't able to keep up with this many things at once right now; she was going to fight by his side to make sure no one ever hurts him again, to make sure that she never looses him.

She stopped and waited for an opportunity to attack, finally getting her chance when it swung for the head. She ducked low as she twirled her scythe, scraping it along the ground as she rushed toward the hologram and swung right up its middle, slicing it cleanly in half.

Pearl and Steven gave her a stand applause, Spinel blushed slightly, embarrassed by the praise that the two were giving her. "Woo, good one Spinel, you really know what you're doing with that thing." Steven called to her with a smile.

"Well, I guess it's a good start to my training, right Pearl?" She asked, looking to her new teacher in hopes that she really was good at this and that wasn't just because of luck.

"Yes, you did very good for your first time using the weapon, you should be proud of yourself." She responded, proud that her newest student is already a natural at the weapon. "Now, we just have to practice every day until the group training day, that way I can just pack you two together and teach you how to use the best of both of your abilities to beat anyone while also having time for Connie. I believe that you can get much better in such a short time as long as you try really hard."

Spinel was cheering inside, overjoyed that she finally found what she was good at, now all the needed to do was get even better until there were no more threats to Steven's life, she knew from this moment forward that she would live for him, she would never let him be in the state he was just a few days ago ever again. "Alright then, I won't disappoint."

Pearl just gave a kind nod as she began walking back towards the exit. "Now, I want you to think over what you learned today and engrave it into your memory so that when we go to train tomorrow morning, you'll be ready."

"Alright, will do." Spinel agreed, struggling to find an angle that the weapon would go into her gem, eventually just deciding to carry it as she changed back to her normal outfit. "Hey, Steven, did you see me? I was able to beat the Holo-Pearl, I'm getting stronger." She said, obviously excited.

"Yes, I see that." He chuckled. "Just make sure that you don't over do it, ok?"

"Alright, I'll make sure I keep it reasonable." Spinel agreed happily as the two of them walked side by side back to the warp pad, continuing their conversation.

-=End of Chapter=-

Looks like Spinel is creating her own unhealthy obsession centered on his safety, I guess we'll just have see how that works out in the end I guess.

Now I know you guys probably think I'm intentionally trying to put Spinel in those clothes for laughs and whatnot, but in the end that's what people wear when they work out and you just gotta be mature about it I guess.

That being said, I'm all up for ideas on a uniform Spinel would use in a fight, just nothing unnecessarily skimpy, she's turning into a respectable warrior, not eye candy.-,

Anyway, as always-

Good morning, goodnight, or good afternoon, I'll see you all again soon!