Lapis had given no definite timeline as to when Peridot and however many other gems, would be arriving, so they set to preparing themselves. Rose produced four laser light cannons to be set up on the beach. Despite concerns from the gems Steven managed to construct a device he was confident would shut down any robonoids Peridot might shoot their way, after his prototype temporarily blacked out the whole town, which turned out to be beneficial as it provided him the opportunity to spend some time with the mayor, and work out an evacuation plan. Rose and Garnet were adamant that he keep his promise to leave with his father when the time came, but he, amethyst and Connie still sparred every day. They trained more than just than their sword arms devising tactics to work with each other in tandem either apart or fused. Steven mastered the production of holo-Stevens convincing enough to fool the others and deadly enough to be a threat. By the end of the week forming Opal or Stevonnie was second nature to them, and they could tell what the others were going to do by the shifting of their footing or the motion of their arm. Even with all that there was a pit in Steven's stomach that told him it wasn't going to be enough.

It was just before dark one evening when it finally happened, Steven was where he had been every night, out on the deck, scanning the sky for some kind of sign of Peridot's arrival. It was little surprise then that he was the first to spot the tiny point of green light steadily growing larger in the sky. He pressed his eye to the telescope he'd set up for just this moment, and felt himself go pale when his fears were confirmed. He moved swiftly sending the text he'd had drafted for days to the mayor telling him to begin evactuating the towns people, and called into the temple.

"You guys need to get out here." Recognizing the urgency in his voice the three gems joined Steven out on the deck, following his pointing finger with their eyes. Rose, looking less like the fun loving free spirit that had helped raise him than ever stared at the growing spot of green, nodded and turned her attention back to Steven.

"It's time for you to go." As if on cue Greg's van came into view from around the corner of the temple. "You promised when the time came you would leave." She knelt, eyes on a level with his. "We don't know what's going to happen, and we won't be able to fight at our best if we don't know that you're safe. So please, keep your promise?" Steven felt the bile rising in the back of his throat as he bit back some sharp rebuke about her ordering his compliance. Instead he took a deep breath and nodded.

"Fine, I'll go and get my stuff." Scrubbing at unformed tears he made his way inside, returning a few moments later with his hot dog shaped dufflebag. When he hugged each of the gems only Amethyst spoke to him.

"I'm sorry dude, you deserve to be here." He nodded but sighed again and turned, hoisting the bag over one shoulder and meeting with his dad by the van.

"It's all gonna be okay Kiddo, the gems will handle all this mess and we'll be back before you know it." He slumped into the passenger seat with a disheartened

"I guess" The van rolled away, struggling slightly over the sand before disappearing onto the road. Amethyst stared down at the ground as they left until Garnet knelt, putting a hand on her shoulder.

"It's for the best, we couldn't risk him." Amethyst gave a half-hearted nod before turning to look back at the approaching ship. With a motion from Rose the laser light cannons came online and targeted the hand. When they fired the energy swirled to take the form of an elegant woman, arm outstretched as it connected. The hand halted for only a moment before resuming it's decent undamaged. The Gems exchanged worried glances

The Van soon joined up with the long line of steadily moving traffic out of beach city. Steven stared out the window, eyes unfocused though Greg could see the hard set of his jaw.

"Hey look Steven we're going to be passing right by that waffle place you liked, maybe once this is all over we can get some on the way back." Steven sighed again and didn't bother turning to look at him.

"Sure dad." Greg focused on the road, driving in silence as they left town, not wanting to press the issue. Steven already knew what was at stake, the last war, the damage Gems had done to the planet so there was nothing else to say. He contented himself with the knowledge that his son was safe.

Back on the beach the three gems dances. Amethyst threw her hips side to side running fingers through her moving to an unheard beat, Garnet stepped forward in time her upper body moving seemingly independent of the rest of her. Rose spun on one foot as she closed the gap, until their hands came together and their bodies became pure light, surging together growing tall into a new form.

Amazonite stood nearly as tall as the temple, with pillowy salmon colored hair that extended down to the back of her three ankles. Her four eyes were covered by a visor not unlike garnets that rested on a wide almost stubby nose above thick lips. She wore what looked much like a purple ancient Greek Stolla, leaving her limbs mostly exposed. When she reared back on her third leg to scream a defiant roar at the approaching ship her face split down the middle to reveal a second vertically opening mouth with rows of sharp teeth. Four arms moved quickly to form her weapons, Garnet's gauntlets formed the pommel, Rose's shield the guard, and Amethyst's whips the long thin blades of a pair of thin fencing swords.

The ship had nearly landed by now, so was close enough for her to lash out, the blades of her swords segmenting into long metallic whips that each wrapped around the ship trapping it. She could feel it's powerful engines pulling against her, but as she planted herself firmly she felt it begin to give against the strength of all four arms that had come to grip the blades. Just when it seemed she would be able to bring the ship crashing down it twisted in the coils of her blades, the fingers of the hand folding in save for the pointer, which took aim at her. Realization came too late, the two lower arms attempted to let go and form another shield but before they could a column of green energy fired, taking Amazonite full in the stomach. She fell back, releasing her swords and crashing weightily to the beach below, holding her form for a long moment before finally separating back into a groaning Rose Amethyst, and Garnet.

The ship landed moments later just as the crystal gems were beginning to rally and right themselves in the sand. A marble shaped pod emerged from the palm and rolled down the index finger which lowered to the sand, it opened to reveal three gems. Peridot looked over the three gems with a smug grin, and a raised eyebrow.

"Well that was dramatic. I don't see the one who was compromising my machines, where is the pearl hybrid?" Before anyone could answer Jasper stepped forward, eyes wide as they fell on Rose.

"So Lapis was right, you are still alive." She lept from the ship a few feet in front of Rose. "I fought against you in the war Rose, I respected your tactics, it's sad to see you reduced to this. Some over cooked runt, and this shameless example." Motioning towards Amethyst and Garnet. "Still it'll be my pleasure to take you in." She looked back at Peridot. "Get rid of these two will ya?" Peridot tapped something out and made a swiping motion with her screen. The ship rose back and just as Garnet and Amethyst lept out of the way it sent a streak of energy where they had just been which erupted into several smaller explosions.

While the sand was still rising Rose lunged forward to attack. She had reclaimed her sword at some point and thrust at jasper who stepped to side and jammed her destabilizer into her chest.

"Lets see how you like this." Crackling yellow energy flowed throughout Rose's light form sending her screaming back clutching her gem as she fell to the beach. Confused she looked down at the device as if it was broken, nearly distracted enough to not notice Garnet's attack. She tried again, and this time the destabilizer worked properly, easy disrupting her body reducing her to a pair of gems in the sand. She laughed. "Guess you are made of stronger stuff rose, let's see how your pet Amethyst fairs." Turning a cruel eye towards a nervous Amethyst, who none the less stood with her whip ready in hand.

"Yeah?! Bring it." Jasper smirked again and moved to strike another blow.

Back in the van they had nearly reached the meeting point in Ocean town the evacuation plan had laid out. Steven sat up suddenly and for the first time in the drive turned to his father, sadness in his eyes.

"I'm sorry dad." Greg turned a confused eye and gave a nervous laugh.

"Sorry about what Stuball? You haven't done anything wrong." Steven shook his head.

"I'm sorry I lied." The Holo-steven suddenly dissolving, returning it's energy back to it's owner. Greg stopped short, but it didn't take him long to figure out what had happened, turning one his rearview mirrors back towards beach city.

"Go get'em kiddo."

The opalescent blade of Steven's sword stuck home before anyone knew he was on the battlefield. Jasper's destabilizer split in half and fell uselessly to the ground. Steven landed, long hair pulled back into a ponytail, flip flops exchanged for a pair of comfortable shoes. He stood between Amethyst and her would be attacker, long curved blade raised defensively.

"You came back." Amethyst's eyes full of unshed tears as she looked up at him. He smiled back at her.

"I never left." Then turning his gaze back to jasper, eyes hard, smile fading. "This planet is still protected, we are the crystal gems, and you are not welcome here!" Jasper stared down for a moment, smiled growing wider.

"Well at least one of you has some fight in them." Peridot gestured wildly behind her.

"That's her, that's the Pearl hybrid who keeps corrupting my machines." Lapis moved for the first time since their arrival, taking a step forward and reaching out.

"Leave him alone, he's not important." Jasper shot an angry glance back at her and Lapis folded, moving back to where she'd been.

"It's holding a weapon to my throat, I'd say that's worth at least some attention." Jasper snickered. "So little pearl, do you actually know how to use that thing? Let's see what you got." He nodded, but rather than striking out at her a dozen robonoids emerged from the ground, swarming the beefy gem. As they did Steven made a mad dash for Ruby and Sapphire's gems. Seeing this Peridot beat him to it, firing her tractor beam at the two gems and towing them to herself before aiming another blast from the ship in his direction. He managed to leap back in time, but by then jasper had managed to smash most of the robonoids and engage with Amethyst. Without the destabilizer the battle took longer than it would have, but it was still over before Steven could recover from the ship blast and get to her. Jasper slammed her helmet down, poofing Amethyst, and taking hold her tossed her back to Peridot. "Take those three and Lapis back into the ship, I'll deal with Rose and her pearl myself."

As Peridot nodded and reformed the marble like pod to return to the ship Steven struck out at Jasper. He did everything he could to control the anger he felt seeing his friends being dispatched and tossed around, but his swing was sloppy and the skilled warrior gem was easily able to side step it.

"Oh no did I strike a nerve?" He knee slammed into his solar plexus with a sickening thud that sent him flying back. It took every ounce of will he could muster to keep his sword from vanishing as he pushed himself to his feet, once again taking a fighting stance against her. His gem glowed brightly and four more Steven's appeared, indistinguishable from himself, all five rushed Jasper, and for a few precious moments she was on the defensive, taking cuts from the illusory and real sword, forced to take several steps back. Eventually though she picked up on the pattern, quickly striking out and eliminating the false Stevens in rapid succession before finally the two were face to face again.

"You've got a lot of talent for a Pearl, it's gonna be a shame when they shatter you on homeworld." Steven felt himself shake and his legs wanted to give out, but he held himself up, knuckles white on the hilt of his sword. Before Jasper could strike out a streak of pink lanced through her chest, the blade of Rose's sword slicing downward to split her nearly in half. Her form faltered and then poofed, leaving only the single orange gem resting on the cool sand. Rose still clutching her middle reached out and bubbled it, sending it off to the temple. Peridot must have been watching, because as soon as Jasper fell the ship began to rise again. Steven turned trying to rush towards it, but the wound in his stomach finally overcame him and as his sword vanished he felt himself falling to to the sand himself.