It was a still and quiet night, and the field littered with weapons and armor below was abandoned. On that floating stone two figures stood. One was Rose, much the same as she ever looked, the other was Steven's mother Pearl in a basic form fitting leotard. They spoke about the war, and how if they went forward neither would be able to go home. He could see the devotion in her eyes, the love, the feverish adoration. The dream was broken quickly however as strong hands took him by the shoulders and shook gently. His eyes opened slowly to find Rose leaning over him, but it wasn't the Rose he'd just seen in the memory

Her hair stuck out in places, a look of absolute fear twisting her usually smiling mouth, and one eye was all a solid pink. "sTEven, WakE Up" Her voice had an almost metallic echo to it, but when she saw his eyes come open full she fell back on her knees with a sigh of relief. His eyes immediately traveled down to the gem in the center of her stomach, already sure of what he would find. A deep crack extended from the top of her gem to nearly the center, which she quickly covered with one hand. "ThatS nOT iMPoRtanT NoOw. WE nEEd TO HaLP ThE OtheRs" Panic threatened set in as he went over the events of the last few minutes, jasper had been neutralized but Peridot had made it back to her ship with Garnet and Amethyst. He looked up and saw the ship still ascending, a barely visible dot in the sky. Rose tried to stand but one of her legs phased out of existence for a moment and sent her tumbling to the ground. Steven went to her side, hand moving to her gem.

"How did this happen I didn't see Jasper hit you that hard?" Feeling just how bad the damage was he winced visibly.

"WhEn THe SHip FIRed oN AmaZonItE MY GeM waS RiGHt iN thE LinE of FiRE" Steven ran fingers through his fine black hair as he looked down at the nearly ruined gemstone clutching desperately at his own scalp. He felt tears welling up with how helpless he felt.

"I wish I had your healing powers Rose, I shouldn't have waited so long to help." He felt her lay a hand on his shoulder and her voice drew his attention back to her face. For a moment though it seemed to cause her a great deal of effort Rose's voice was perfect again.

"You did so well Steven, I'm very proud of you." The tears renewed themselves hot and flowing at that, his mind casting in every desperate direction for something, but always it came back to Rose's healing tears. He remembered watching her heal the crack in Lapis' gem, it had been so easy. At that thought his gem began to glow, and the memory became as vivid as if it was happening in front of his eyes again, more than that, he could see the way the tears formed in Rose's eyes, their makeup, the intrinsic properties of them and what was needed to create them. Without thinking he shapeshifted, nothing visible but he felt something behind and below his own eyes changing, all the pieces falling into place. Then suddenly, one tear was different than that ones that had fallen before, and he looked down letting it drip into the crack in her gem.

The pink gem glowed with a pale pearl light as it knitted itself back together, when he looked back up Rose's eye was shrinking to it's normal and her hair fell back into it's usual perfect curls. The fear and worry that had been on her face moments before replaced with utter disbelief. For a moment all the secrets didn't matter, what he'd just done didn't matter, even the urgency of saving Garnet and Amethyst didn't matter. Rose was whole so Steven laughed and threw his arms around her neck, holding tightly. She smiled and held him tightly for a moment before setting him back on his feet.

"There's no time to figure out what just happened, we need to get to Garnet and Amethyst." Steven scrubbed his tears away and nodded, feeling his shapeshifted tear ducts returning to normal. Rose reclaimed her sword and leapt weightlessly back onto the deck to look through the telescope Steven had used earlier. By the time he had gotten up the top of the stairs she lifted her head. "She's still in orbit, there's still hope, come on Steven." Rose motioned for him to follow as she rushed back into the temple towards the warp pad.

"Does peridot's ship have a warp?" He asked in confusion, but Rose shook her head.

"I doubt it, but even if it does it's not connected to the earth's network. I have a way to get us up there though." Once he was on the pad she activated it, and they were almost immediately found themselves in the desert. Rose placed two fingers into her mouth and gave a sharp whistle, a moment later a pink light rotated into existence nearby and from it leapt a familiar pink lion. Steven between Rose and the lion, thinking it best not to give away he recognized the creature he said nothing.

"I'll explain later, right now we need to go before Peridot leaves orbit." The lion gave Steven a side long glance as she beckoned it to enter the warp with them, returning all three to the temple. They rushed back outside and Rose pointed to the green speck in the sky "You need to get us onto that ship." Steven was about to ask how, but realized she was talking to the lion. It grumbled low in it's throat towards her and she chuckled a little. "I know it's a long way, but I know you can do it, and I'll have a nice treat for you after, it's very important." The lion huffed but planted it's paws as if waiting for something. Rose climbed onto his back, and reaching down pulled Steven up behind her. "Hold on tight." Steven obeyed that order easily enough, flinging long arms around her as the lion gave an ear splitting roar, another of those odd pink portals appearing in front of them, then it leapt.

Traveling through the lion's portal wasn't entirely dis-similar from traveling via warp, and a moment later the three of them came sliding out into one of the all green hallways of the gem hand ship. Lion panted and Steven and Rose dismounted, she pet his mane and smiled down at him. "You rest here, we'll go and find out friends. The Lion pressed it's head against her hand before slumping to the floor to close his eyes. As she rose to her full height the sound of singing came reverberating off the walls. Rose and Steven looked at each other for a moment and nodded before rushing off in the direction of the singing.

Sapphire stood, hands clasped together singing out a wall of yellow energy between them as Steven and rose. Rose reached out, only for the energy to crackle and begin running up her arm when she touched it. Her hand snapped back as if she was burned.

"It's good to see you." Sapphire smiled as Steven focused on the barrier, the light from his gem projecting out over it.

"I think it's the same kind of energy as the destabilizer, though I didn't get a good look at it before you know." He made a chopping motion with his hand.

"Yellow" Rose muttered while shaking her arm.

"Yeah the same yellow energy" Steven said only half listening as he continued to analyze. "I think I could open it, but I'd have to connect to the whole ship, I don't know how long it would take, but. . ." He trailed off as he extended his own hand into the energy beam. "It's designed to stop gems, not organic matter." The energy coursed along him as the light in his gem winked out, shuddering he held his hands up to provide Sapphire an escape route.

"Thank you Steven." She said softly making her way out of her cell.

"Alright Sapphire, use your future vision to find the others, you and Steven can go and free them while I deal with Peridot." Sapphire nodded and focused inward. After a long moment she began pointing. "You'll find Peridot in the control room that way, Ruby and amethyst are in cells in that direction." Steven was about to add something when Sapphire turned to him. "We'll find Lapis on the way to the others." Steven smiled gratefully at her and nodded.

"Alright crystal gems, you have your mission." Rose's voice light with hope for the first time since this had all begun. Sapphire took him by the hand and went racing down the corridor at tremendous speed as Rose set off towards the control room. Lapis' cell was first and Sapphire stood outside it silently letting Steven approach.

"I'm sorry Steven." Lapis said, curling up hands clasped around her head. "You fought to get me home and I betrayed you and the others. Peridot already knew about you, I didn't tell her I swear, I figured they'd just take Rose Quartz and leave." Steven stepped through the barrier and wrapped long arms around the blue gem.

"It's okay Lapis, I'm not mad, you were scared, there's nothing you could have done, but we need to get out right now." Lapis sniffed.

"We can't fight them Steven they're too strong." Steven spun Lapis around to face.

"We already beat Jasper, and Rose is taking care of Peridot right now, if we stick together we're going to be okay, but I need you to trust me now, and come with us." Lapis stared at him, seeing her own eyes, her own healed eyes reflected in his, and she knew she not only could, but had to trust him. She nodded and he let go, moving to make a path through the energy for her as well. "Let's go save our friends." Steven nodded and followed her out, the three of them going to release Ruby and Amethyst.

Rose arrived in the cockpit to find Peridot tapping away at controls. "Why is no one answering me, I have a priority 1 message for Yellow diamond!" Hearing the door open she spun in her chair to find herself face to face with Rose Quartz her sword leveled.

"You're not going to be telling yellow anything." With one hand Peridot reached for a destabilizer, as Rose rushed her, her other hand flew up connecting with a beam of zero point energy freezing the larger gem with her sword a hair away from connecting with her.

"Oh stars." Peridot gulped, but when Rose provided unable to move her lips curled into a cat like smile. "Nyehehehe once again technology proves itself superior to raw brute force." Even as she said that Rose began to shift within the energy field trying to break free. "Oh no you don't, you may have been able to resist a glancing blow, but let's see how you handle prolonged exposure." Peridot swung the destabilizer into the field pressing it to Rose's form and holding it here.

Ruby swung herself into Sapphire's arms, their forms becoming pure light as they fused together. Lapis rolled her eyes as Steven freed Amethyst, who drew him into a tight hug once she was out of her cell.

"You were so freaking cool down there dude, I knew you'd be back to save our bacon." Garnet ruffled his hair and smiled down at him.

"I never doubted you. Come on, we should check on Rose." Steven nodded following her towards the control room.

"I'm sure she's fine, she took down Jasper with a cracked gem, no way Peridot could stop her." The gems all stopped short Garnet focusing back on him.

"Rose's gem wasn't cracked when you found Sapphire." Steven nodded, and with a blush creeping onto his face he said.

"Somehow I copied her healing power and was able to fix her before we got up here." Amethyst laughed and dug an elbow into his side.

"You're gonna put us all out of work." Garnet grinned and shook her head.

"Always so full of surprises." Then Amethyst tapped her chin in thought.

"How did you guys get up here anyway." Steven grinned scratching at the back of his head.

"Apparently Rose has a magical pink portal creating lion, and we rode him up here." Garnet and Amethyst exchanged confused looks.

"We are definitely going to have to talk with her about that. For now let's keep moving." Lapis who had been leaning against the corridor wall with her arms crossed sighed as they began moving again.

When they arrived at the control room Rose was standing over Peridot sword in hand, but she was. . .different. What had been a flowing gown was now a much shorter ruffle free dress, it came up onto to her mid thighs, her legs still bare. The star around her gem remained but the strap of the dress came up only over one shoulder. Peridot was on her knees, floating fingers slipped under her visor clasping her face as she wept.

"I'm sorry, I'm so so sorry Pi-" And was cut off quite literally as Rose's sword cut her right through her midsection reducing her to just her gem, her limb enhancers spilling in every direction. She bubbled it but didn't send it off to the temple, instead she held onto it. Amethyst was the first to speak up.

"Rose, your dress. . .did you." Rose turned, eyes hard as diamonds for a moment. Amethyst recoiled and she softened.

"She managed to get the drop on me, and used one of those terrible destabilizers, luckily she didn't count on how quickly I could reform." Before anyone else could voice a question she turned to Steven. "Do you think you can get control of this ship? I'd rather not have to have us all pile up onto lion." Steven shook himself and nodded going to one of the chairs in front of the holographic controls. He pressed his hands in and immediately felt his aura mingle with that of the ship's. With no one contesting him he could feel every part of the vessel in his mind, or maybe in his gem? Still through some trial and error he was able to disable the communication Peridot was trying to send and begin the descent back towards earth. The other gems breathed a sigh of relief, even lapis relaxed slightly. Though even distracted as he was he noticed Rose making her way out of the control room.

With just a little mental flexing he was able to see through the ship's internal cameras watching Rose as she made her way through the corridors back to where her lion still rested. She smiled and moved to pat his mane, or a least that's what he thought she was doing, instead her hand passed right through the pink hair and vanished. Her other hand then head followed, half her body disappeared into the lion's mane for a few seconds, and when she emerged the bubble with Peridot's gem was nowhere to be seen. She did pet the lion then, and sigh to herself, returning to the control room just as beach city was coming into view below them.

"So what are we gonna do with this thing anyway? My room is big, but not big enough to put this piece of junk." Amethyst asked as they landed.

"I have a place in the desert we could hide it fairly easily." Rose offered but Steven turned in his chair disconnecting from the ship, leaving him with an oddly empty feeling.

"I'm pretty sure I can get it to hover in place, we could park it right next to the sky arena, even less likely anyone but us could get to it there, plus I could study it, this ship would come in real handy if any more homeworld gems show up." Rose looked like she might object but saw the way Amethyst and Garnet were nodding along.

"Alright, that sounds like a fine idea Steven, but be careful, this ship is a lot more dangerous than a few toy robots." Steven nodded, and looking at the three of them he lowered his eyes.

"I'm sorry I broke my promise, but I was worried you guys would need me, I was going to stay in the temple unless things got real bad and. . ." Amethyst stepped up, both hands going to his shoulders.

"Dude you saved our butts, you don't have to be sorry." Garnet nodded.

"Amethyst is right, if you hadn't stepped in Jasper would have taken all of us, and rose would still be cracked or worse. We should be apologizing or forcing you to make that promise in the first place." Rose couldn't help but smile and nod along, joining in when they gathered him into a group hug. Steven laughed and over their shoulders motioned for Lapis to join them. She hesitated, but let a smile creep onto her face before extending her wings around the whole group.

When the hug finally broke he turned back in his chair.

"Okay, so I'll put you guys down here and take this thing to the sky arena, then take the warp there back home." The gems nodded and gathered themselves together as he instructed. Taking control of the ship again he encased them in a marble pod and delivered them back onto the beach in front of the temple. Then he took off, easily finding the arena and parking the ship beside it. A million questions buzzed in his head, what secrets could he take from this ship? Would more gems come looking for them? What did Rose do with that lion's mane? As if the question in his head had summoned him Steven felt hot breath at his side and spun to find that pink lion face to face with him. He felt his heart begin to race before that massive head leaned in, snuggling up to him and he laughed.

"Well at least I know you're friendly." He patted the lion's mane, half expecting his own hand to pass through, but it remained solid. "I guess it only works for her huh? Come on, I'll warp you back to Rose. The lion leaned down, motioning for him to get on his back once again which he did. The lion formed a portal which brought them the short distance to the Arena's warp pad. Steven slid down, hand resting on lion's back he activated the warp and brought them home.