Dragontitan: Ask and ye shall receive. ;)

Steven was hanging for dear life onto Sapphire's skirts as she hung onto the edge of one of the glowing tiles. When he looked down, he saw one of his pinkish-red flip flops fall into the magma below.

"Steven, what have I told you?" Sapphire spoke sternly, yet still had that trademark coolness to her voice that Steven always knew.

"I'm so sorry!" Steven cried with tears running down his face. "I knew this mission would be too intense for me, but I insisted I come along anyway! Maybe I'm not cut out for this sort of stuff after all..."


-Earlier-

"Get ready, kiddo," Ruby said. "This mission is gonna be intense."

"I'm ready for anything!"

"Are you sure?" Pearl asked as the Warp Pad brought the Crystal Gems to a field of wild strawberries littered with discarded weapons and pieces of armor. Steven managed to land on his feet this time. "You barely managed to get through the last mission we brought you on, and the Solar Spire was nowhere near as intense as this."

They walked off the Warp Pad to their destination.

"But I'm the one who got us inside the Solar Spire in the first place. If it weren't for my cheeseburger backpack, the whole place would've sunk to the bottom of the ocean!"

Amethyst chuckled in response as she ruffled Steven's hair. "Yeah, that was pretty awesome how you helped us out back there."

"Sure was," Steven agreed. "That's why I brought more important stuff this time around." Sapphire had helped him pack his backpack so that it contained more useful items, such as a first-aid kit. Steven reached into his backpack and took out his ukulele. "Like my ukulele!"

"Steven, why would you think that could ever be important?" Pearl asked him in mild annoyance.

"I dunno, in case I need to make up a new song?" He tuned his ukulele and began playing it.

"Oh, here we go on another mission,

La la la, something that rhymes with mission,

Here we go on another quest,

We're sure to make it through 'cause were the best!"

Steven tripped and fell into one of the strawberry bushes, his hands and knees breaking his fall.

"Steven!" Pearl ran over to help him up. "Are you alright? Are you hurt anywhere?"

"I'm fine," Steven assured her. "My hands are just a bit sticky is all." He licked some strawberry juice off his hands.

"I'm starting to have second thoughts about letting you come on this one," Pearl sighed. "Maybe we should take you home."

"No, it's fine!" Steven took a pack of wet wipes out of his backpack and wiped his hands clean. "I can take it, really. I'm a Crystal Gem just like you guys."

"That may be," Sapphire spoke coolly. "But you still have much to learn and experience. Come, we're almost there." The Crystal Gems continued onward.

"Where are we going anyway?" Steven asked as he carefully put his ukulele back in his backpack.

"We're going to retrieve the Wailing Stone from the labyrinth it's being held in," Sapphire answered. "But there are many booby traps and other dangerous obstacles waiting for us within, which will make traversing the labyrinth extra difficult."

"Well, that's not gonna be a problem for the Crystal Gems, is it?" Steven asked, flexing his biceps.

"Probably not," Amethyst said with a chuckle. "But you should still be careful not to trigger any traps with that gun show of yours."

"Right. Best keep these bad boys put away for now." And Steven put his hands in his pockets.


The group made it to a stone wall with a large, rectangular hole cut into it, which Steven could only assume was the entranceway to the labyrinth.

"This is it," Sapphire said.

"So, any ideas on how we'll go about this?" Ruby asked her.

Sapphire hummed in thought. "The labyrinth has four paths that are likely to lead to the Wailing Stone. Each of us should take a different path to see which one is the right one."

"And what if the path the three of us are on is wrong?" Pearl asked.

"It's most likely a simple dead end," Sapphire answered.

"Right, then who's going to look after Steven? We can't exactly trust him on his own while we're all on a mission like this."

"Hey, I'm 12 years old," Steven retorted. "I can handle myself just fine, thank you."

"Steven will go with me," Sapphire said. "I'll be able to foresee any harm that might befall him quicker than any of you, thus, it will be easier for me to protect him. No offense."

"None taken," Amethyst said.

"It's fine," Pearl said.

"When you're right, you're right," Ruby said.

"Come on, everybody!" Steven ran towards the labyrinth's entrance. "Let's go find the Screaming Rock!"

"It's called the Wailing Stone," Pearl corrected as he picked him up by the back of his shirt. "And it's not wise to just run into strange labyrinths all willy-nilly!" Her attention turned to Sapphire. "Are you sure bringing him along was a good idea?"

"Ruby and I figured it would be a good way to help him grow into his role as a protector of humanity."

Ruby nodded in agreement. "After all, what better way to learn than from experience?"

"That is a valid point." Pearl put Steven back down and turned him over to look him in the eyes. "But, Steven, you need to be careful. This mission is more dangerous than any of the others we've brought you on in the past. This labyrinth is filled with all sorts of dangerous traps. Can you handle it?"

"Aye-aye, captain!" Steven saluted her.

Sapphire took Steven by the hand and led him to the labyrinth's entrance. "Let's all meet back outside the entrance when one of us has found the Wailing Stone." And the Crystal Gems all walked through the entranceway, Pearl, Ruby, and Amethyst each taking a different path.


"This isn't so bad," Steven mused as he looked around. He didn't see anything that looked like a trap; no trip wires, no nets covered in leaves, no anything. "I think this'll be easier than you guys said it would-"

"Wait," Sapphire held out her arm in front of him to stop him from taking another step. Suddenly, a long bed of spikes shot up from the ground, then sunk back in after a few seconds, then shot back up, then sunk back down, up, down, up, down. "It's our first obstacle. Hold onto my hand."

Steven did as he was told. "Okay, what are we gonna- Whooooaaa!" Suddenly, Steven was being dragged behind Sapphire like a person-shaped banner as she ran across the spikes while they were down. When they stopped, Steven was holding his head, dizzy from the sudden rush.

"Do you feel alright?" Sapphire asked him, gently brushing her hand against his face.

"Yeah, just kinda dizzy."

"Let's keep moving forward," Steven and Sapphire continued onward. "Surely, one of us is bound to find it before everyone else."

"Who wants to bet we're the ones who find it first?"

"I suppose we might have a slightly higher chance of finding it first," Sapphire replied, allowing a knowing smirk to form on her normally stoic face.

Steven didn't know what exactly she meant by that, but he didn't think to ask her. Right now, he was focused on completing the mission. "Right, 'cause nothing can stop the S Squad!"

"The S Squad?"

"Yeah. That's our team name. S for Steven, and S for Sapphire. We're the S Squad."

"Hm. Clever."

They kept walking when Steven tripped on a wire, though Sapphire caught him before he could fall. Hundreds of small, round holes opened up in the walls of the labyrinth, and hundreds of darts shot out from left to right. Steven clung to Sapphire in fear when a large, transparent pink bubble suddenly appeared around them. Steven opened his eyes, not having realized that he closed them. He looked around in confusion as he saw a bunch of broken darts lying on the ground around them. "What happened?" Steven put a hand to the bubble's glassy interior. "What's this?"

"It appears to be a protective bubble of some sort," Sapphire mused. "Rose Diamond could also summon one, though it wasn't as quite strong as her shield."

"So, I guess it sorta just popped out of nowhere, huh? Get it? 'Cause bubbles pop?"

"I get it."

The bubble vanished as quickly as it appeared, and Steven and Sapphire made a left turn closer to the intended destination. Steven wondered about his Gem powers as he lifted up his shirt to look at his gem. He wondered if he could summon the bubble a second time, then getting through this labyrinth would practically be a breeze. Those couple of times he used his Gem powers almost felt like instinct, like when you touch something hot and you can't help but reel your hand away so you don't get burned. Steven was lost in his thoughts as he bumped into Sapphire, who was standing in front of a path of tiles, some of them glowing a pale white light as the rest were a stoney black.

"To get through this, we must only step on the glowing tiles," Sapphire told him. "We can't risk stepping on the black ones."

"So, like hopscotch, but if we lose, we die?"

"Yes."

Steven gulped, and Sapphire gracefully made her way across the tiled path, taking great care to not step on any of the black tiles. Steven went after her, mimicking her movements as he hopped on the glowing tiles. He lost his balance and inadvertently stepped on a black tile, and suddenly, each of the tiles sunk into a deep pit full of white-hot magma. Steven was now hanging for dear life onto Sapphire's skirts as she hung onto the edge of one of the glowing tiles. When he looked down, he saw one of his pinkish-red flip flops fall into the magma below.

"Steven, what have I told you?" Sapphire spoke sternly, yet still had that trademark coolness to her voice that Steven always knew.

"I'm so sorry!" Steven cried with tears running down his face. "I knew this mission would be too intense for me, but I insisted I come along anyway! Maybe I'm not cut out for this sort of stuff after all..."

"Steven, it's alright. It was an accident. You couldn't have foreseen what would happen."

"But I still stepped on one of the black tiles! And now we're both gonna die because of me!"

"Not if I can help it." Sapphire pulled Steven up and held him in the crook of her arm, then lurched the two of them up into the air, and gently floated back down to the ground. She put Steven on his feet and wiped his tears from his eyes. "It's okay. Everything's okay now."

"Thanks, Sapphire."

Steven and Sapphire kept walking, not saying another word to each other for a good few seconds until Steven decided to break the silence. "So, I was thinking about my Gem powers."

"Hm?"

"You know that bubble I accidentally summoned earlier?"

"Yes."

"I was wondering how I could summon it when we really need it. You know, on purpose. I was wondering how I could summon my shield on purpose too. This kinda stuff is supposed to be easy for a Gem, right?"

"Steven, I've told you in the past that you'll figure everything out in time. It's no different for any young person, be they human or Gem."

"But I thought Gems were born already knowing everything they need to know."

"While that may be the case for some Gems, such as myself, others are taught about their roles in life from a mentor figure, like you are."

Steven thought about what Sapphire said for a few seconds before he bumped into a wall. He looked around, expecting another booby trap. "So, what happened, is this another trap, or...?"

"I believe we just reached a dead end," Sapphire replied. "I suppose when you're right 99.9 percent of the time, you're bound to be wrong sooner or later. In any case, we should head out and see if one of the other Crystal Gems have had any luck." She took hold of Steven's hand, and with the simple command of "Hold on tight," she sped out of the labyrinth, flying over the magma pit that had replaced the tiled path, zooming past the hundreds of holes in the walls, and zipping over the bed of spikes.


Steven giggled as they stopped outside the labyrinth's entrance. Pearl and Ruby were standing there expectantly, but there was no sign of Amethyst.

"Hey," Ruby greeted. "We've been waiting for you two."

"Now if only Amethyst could hurry up and get here," Pearl said, crossing her arms impatiently.

They all heard an exhausted groan coming from behind them. They looked to see Amethyst standing near the entrance of the labyrinth, one hand against the wall. She looked absolutely ragged; her hair was a mess (more of a mess than usual anyway), her skin and clothes were charred, and she had what looked like a bear trap clamped onto her ankle. She fell over face-first onto the ground.

"Did any of you find the Wailing Stone?" Sapphire asked.

Pearl's gemstone glowed, and she took out a medium-sized, cylindrical, gold-patterned stone structure with a hole in it. "I've got it right here! With this, we'll be able to receive transmissions from all over the galaxy!"

"Wonderful," Sapphire said. "Let's all go home and rest for awhile."

Ruby stretched her arms over her head as she said, "Took the words right out of my mouth, Sapphy."

"And mine," was Amethyst's muffled reply. She got up to pull the bear trap off her leg. "I did not get off easy. Like, at all."

"Well, while we weren't able to find the Wailing Stone, we're all still alive, and that's all that matters," Steven said.

"But I found it," Pearl said. "I'm holding it in my hands right now as we speak."

"Yeah, I can see that," Steven said. "You know what this calls for?"

"No."

"A celebration song!" Steven took out his ukulele and began playing.

"Oh, that's the end of another mission,

La la la, something that rhymes with mission,

That's the end of another quest,

We made it through 'cause we're the best!"

The Gems all chuckled and applauded him as the group began walking back to the Warp Pad. "Steven, you're alright," Amethyst said as they got on. "Now let's go home so I can sleep off all this pain."

The Crystal Gems warped back home.