Dragontitan: I'm glad you liked it.

It was another sunny day in Beach City, and Steven thought he would enjoy it by going on a nice bike ride around the boardwalk. He happily rode down the street when a flyer stapled to one of the telephone poles caught his eye. He stopped his bike and walked it over to the wooden pole to read it. The flyer was dark blue like the night sky, and had images of fireworks of all different colors of the rainbow going off. In bold, neon green letters, it read:

Beach City Fireworks Festival Tonight!

Time: 7:00-11:30 PM

Place: Funland Amusement Park

Free Admission for kids 12 and under

Bring Your Family And Friends!

"There's gonna be a fireworks festival at Funland tonight!" Steven cheered. "I'll bet the Gems are gonna love this!" Steven ripped the flyer off the pole and rode as fast as he could back to the Temple. He ran up the stairs and opened the door to his beach house as wide as it would go. He cupped a hand around his mouth and shouted: "Pearl! Amethyst! Sapphire! Ruby! You guys back yet?!"

No response. Steven just sat down on his couch and looked at the flyer in his hands. The fireworks festival starts at 7:00, and the Gems normally returned from missions at around the early afternoon, so Steven guessed that there would be plenty of time for everyone to get ready. Though he would have to ask if the Gems wanted to go, and if they didn't, then it was fine by him, but then they'd be missing out on a lot of fun.

His thoughts were interrupted by the sound of the Warp Pad being activated. Steven looked and saw Pearl standing on the Warp Pad holding some swords in her arms. "Pearl!" Steven ran up to her.

"Hello, Steven," Pearl greeted. "How are you this fine morning?"

"Great! Look what I've got!" Steven showed her the flyer he had. Pearl crouched down to look at the flyer at eye-level and put an index finger on her chin in thought.

"It looks like a flyer for some kind of fireworks display," she concluded.

"Not just any fireworks display. It's for Beach City's annual fireworks festival! It's being held at Funland at 7:00 o'clock tonight, and I was gonna ask if you and the rest of the Gems wanted to go."

"I'll think about it, Steven, but for right now, there's something I need to take care of in my room in the Temple. I found some new swords I wanted to add to my collection." And with that, Pearl walked off the Warp Pad to the Temple Door behind it. The Temple Door was white and had a light grey star on the front. At each point, there was a round stone that was the color of each of the Crystal Gems' gemstones, including his late mother's. Pearl's stone and the white stone on the Door both glowed, and the Door opened up to her room, which she promptly disappeared into, not noticing that she dropped one of her swords.

"Hey, Pearl, you-" But the Temple Door closed before Steven could finish his sentence. He walked over to it and lifted his shirt to expose his gemstone. "Temple Door, open!" he commanded. But the Door didn't react. Steven cleared his throat and tried again. "Temple Door, open!" Again, the Door didn't open. Steven gave a sigh of defeat, then gave a startled shout when he was hit from above by a water balloon. He looked up to see that his assailant was none other than Amethyst, who was laughing and sitting at the edge of Steven's loft, a pile of water balloons beside her.

"Boom! Headshot!"

"Amethyst!" Steven groaned. "You nearly got my flyer wet!"

"Sorry, dude." Amethyst jumped down to the floor. "What's that flyer for anyway?"

Steven showed her the flyer. "Beach City's annual fireworks festival is happening tonight at Funland! I was gonna ask you guys if you wanted to go. I already asked Pearl and she said she'd think about it and went in her room in the Temple," He picked up Pearl's sword off the floor. "but she dropped one of her swords and now I'm trying to get in to give it back to her. So, did you wanna go, and also could you help me get in there?"

"As long as there's food, and also sure I could. Anything for you, li'l man." Amethyst tousled Steven's dark, pink-tinted curls.

"Thanks, Amethyst."

"No problemo." Amethyst went up to the Temple Door and pulled down the neckline of her sweater. Both her gemstone and the purple stone on the Door glowed, the Door opening to her room. Amethyst gestured for Steven to come follow her, to which he obeyed.


Amethyst's room looked like a purple cave with glowing crystals growing from the walls acting as a light source. Everywhere he looked, there were rock formations and junk piles of various sizes.

"Here we are!" Amethyst said with her arms spread open. "Welcome to my room!"

"Wow. It's really messy in here," Steven observed.

"Thanks. I try. Especially since Pearl keeps coming in here to clean it all up, then I have to start all over." Amethyst kicked over a small pile of junk.

"Would you like some help?"

"Be my guest."

Steven kicked the big junk pile behind him, causing it to topple over, though he got out of the way just in time.

"Nice work, Steven," Amethyst said, marveling the new mess in her room. "This place is looking better already."

"Glad I could be of service! But I really gotta get to Pearl's room so I can give this back to her." Steven held up Pearl's sword.

"Right. Don't worry, I know the way. Follow me." Steven followed Amethyst to a waterfall that flowed into a small pool in the floor. "That waterfall leads from Pearl's room to mine. Her stuff falls down here occasionally and she always thinks I took it. I don't know why she always has it out for me."

"I'm sorry." Steven changed the subject back to his current objective, looking up at where the waterfall started. "How do I get up there?"

"Let me take care of that for ya," Amethyst said as he picked up Steven over her head. She then tossed him over the waterfall and he landed in a body of water. He flailed around before regaining his composure and taking in his surroundings. He was waist-deep in a pool of crystalline water, and all around him, there were pillar-like structures of various heights that appeared to be made of water, most likely kept together with some kind of Gem magic. He could see Pearl on top of one of the water pillars, surrounded by a circle of floating swords which she was carefully adjusting so that their blades were all pointing downwards.

"Hi, Pearl!" Steven called out to her, waving her dropped sword, which he held by the sheath.

"Steven!" Pearl cried, startled by Steven's presence. "What are you doing here?!"

"Amethyst let me in her room and threw me up to your room," Steven answered. "I came here because you dropped one of the new swords for your collection, and I thought I'd give it back to you."

Pearl groaned as she clutched her stone in frustration. "Of course Amethyst let you in the Temple. Steven, don't move. I'll come down and grab it."

"It's okay! I can doggy-paddle it over to you!" Steven swam through the water to the pillar Pearl was standing on.

"Steven, no! You need to stay right where you are! The inside of the Temple is far too dangerous for someone like you! One false move and you could end up hurt or worse!"

"It's fine!" Steven insisted. "I got this! I'm almost-" The current suddenly shifted, and Steven was headed down another waterfall. "-theeeeere!"

"Steven!"

Steven frantically tried to swim up the waterfall, but he just kept falling down.


He eventually fell into another room in the Temple. This room was a blend of reds and blues, and the room's main light source was a bright light seeping through the large cracks in the violet floor. There were tall, dimly-glowing crystal structures all around, with some even jutting out of the ceiling. The red ones felt hot to the touch, while the blue ones felt ice cold.

Steven could hear a familiar voice giggling nearby. His curiosity got the better of him, and he ran to find the source. Soon enough, he came across a tall, basket-like structure with fuschia curtains concealing the entranceway. Steven concluded that this was the source of the giggling and drew the curtains to find Ruby and Sapphire, who were sitting on a large, indigo cushion and enjoying each other's company. Ruby had her arms around Sapphire's waist as she kissed her on the neck, eliciting a ticklish giggle from the blue Gem, something which was rather unusual for her, as she usually kept her emotions hidden from others.

Steven blushed at the sight. "Um... Hi."

The two Gems looked over to see the half-Gem boy, their faces now painted with shock.

"Hello, Steven," Sapphire simply said.

"What the- What are you doing in our room?!" Ruby shouted in a mix of anger and embarrassment. "How the slag did you even get in the Temple?!"

Sapphire put a hand on Ruby's shoulder. "Language, Ruby."

Steven drew in a deep breath and began to speak quickly. "Amethyst brought me into her room and threw me over a waterfall to Pearl's room so I could give her back her new sword she dropped but then I fell down another waterfall while I was swimming it over to her and now here I am." He then exhaled and said, "I'm sorry, I'll leave you to whatever you were doing earlier."

"Hold on," Sapphire said. "I get the sense that you wanted to ask us something."

"Actually, yeah. There is something I wanted to ask you. I don't have the flyer with me, but Beach City's annual fireworks festival is happening at Funland tonight. l already asked Pearl if she wanted to go and she said that she would think about it, and I asked Amethyst and she said she'd go as long as there was food. So, did you guys wanna go? And if not, that's okay. I'm not gonna force you."

Ruby and Sapphire looked at each other for a moment.

"Sure," Ruby said. "Sounds fun."

"I suppose we could attend the festivities for a while," Sapphire said.

"Great. It starts at 7:00. Now, how do I get out of here?" Steven began looking for an exit.

"I'll help you. Come on," Ruby said as she exited their chamber and put her boots on. (She had them off while she and Sapphire were enjoying their private time.) She took Steven by the arm and led him to one of the walls of their room. Steven stepped on one of the cracks in the floor, which gave out underneath his weight, and he fell through with a scream.

He heard Ruby and Sapphire calling out his name as he kept falling and landed on a cylindrical, glassy surface, which he slid down to the stone floor below. He looked around to see where he was now. There was a large, round pit of lava in the center of the floor. All along the walls, there was a series of long glass tubes connected to a huge, round glass formation on the ceiling. The formation began painting the entire room with a red glow, and the lava started bubbling.

Steven had no idea where he was or what was happening, just that he was somewhere in the Temple. Suddenly, a giant hand made of lava rose out of the pit and tried to grab at Steven. He ran from it as quickly as he could, trying in vain to evade its deadly grasp.

Ruby jumped down from the newly-made hole in the ceiling, followed by Sapphire, who rather hovered gently down to the floor. Pearl and Amethyst also dropped in to see what was going on. "Steven!" Ruby said. "What happened?!"

"I don't know!" Steven cried. "I just fell into this other room in the Temple and now this giant hand made of lava is chasing me!"

"This is the Burning Room!" Pearl said. "This room holds the Heart of the Crystal Temple! Did you touch any part of it?"

"I think I maybe fell on one of its veins, if that thing up on the ceiling is supposed to be the Temple's Heart?"

"Steven, the Heart of the Crystal Temple is never to be tampered with while it's running! Now the Temple has sensed you as a threat and it won't calm down until you're neutralized!"

"What's that mean?!"

"It means now it wants to kill you, dude!" Amethyst exclaimed.

"This wouldn't have happened if you hadn't let Steven come into the Temple in the first place!" Pearl told her.

"Oh, sure! Blame everything on me!" Amethyst retorted while throwing her arms in the air.

"That's enough, you two!" Ruby cut in, pushing the two of them away from each other. "We need to save Steven before he becomes charred Diamond!"

"Ruby's right," Sapphire said. She then turned to Pearl. "Pearl, go and shut down the Heart."

"Right." Pearl ran to do just that.

"Amethyst, you keep Steven safe while Ruby tries to wrestle the lava hand into submission."

"You got it!" Amethyst jumped up into the hole in the ceiling.

Meanwhile, poor Steven was still being chased around by the molten hand, screaming for mercy with tears in his eyes. "I'm sorry! I never should've come in the Temple! I just wanted to do something nice for one of my friends!" Suddenly, Ruby jumped in between him and the hand and pushed it back, her gauntlet appearing on her left hand. "Ruby?"

"I've got it under control," she said through gritted teeth. "Run!"

Steven did as he was told, and suddenly, he was caught by Amethyst's whip and pulled up to Ruby and Sapphire's room. "You okay, dude?" she asked as she unsummoned her whip. Steven silently nodded.

Pearl ran over to the switch for the Crystal Temple's Heart, and placed her hand on it to shut it down. The Heart's glow died down, and the lava hand slid back into the pit, disappearing into a pool of lava.

Amethyst and Steven looked down from their perch. "Looks like it's safe to drop in now." She grabbed Steven and jumped down to the Burning Room floor. Pearl put her hand back on the switch, and the Temple's Heart came back to life, retaining its reddish glow. Steven gasped as he hid behind Ruby.

Sapphire put a hand on his shoulder. "It's okay, Steven."


The Crystal Gems all turned to the Temple Door, which opened to let everyone back into Steven's beach house. Steven just looked down at the floor, not saying anything.

Amethyst unzipped her fanny pack and took out the flyer Steven dropped. "So, uh, did you still wanna go to that fireworks thing?"

"Actually, I think I've had enough excitement for one day," Steven said. "I mean, there's always next year, right?"

"Well, why don't we have a movie night right here in the beach house instead?" Pearl suggested.

"Sure," Ruby said.

"That sounds nice," Sapphire said.

"I'm down," Amethyst said.

"As long as there are no giant lava hands in it," Steven said.

"Wonderful! I'll get the DVR set up!" Pearl headed up the stairs to Steven's loft.

"I'll make the popcorn!" Amethyst headed to the kitchen.

"I'll set up the blanket fort!" Steven headed upstairs after Pearl.

"We'll help!" Ruby and Sapphire headed to the couch to grab the cushions.

And so Steven and the Gems enjoyed their night in. (The movie was completely free of any giant lava hands, of course.)