Steven, Connie, and the Gems were all sitting on the beach as he was talking about the events of his island vacation with Lars and Sadie. "So then we had to fight back and break them into pieces to get them to stop fighting us."

"Wow!" Connie exclaimed. "Sounds like you had a pretty eventful vacation."

"Rose Diamond had the ability to grow sentient plants that would protect her in battle," Pearl told them.

"But Rose's plants would stop what they were doing when she told them to," Amethyst said. "It doesn't sound like your melon guys listened to you all that well."

"I think they learned their lesson either way," Steven said. "I think we should go back there so you guys can meet them."

"Maybe some other time," Sapphire said. "But right now, we should head back to the Galaxy Warp to make sure it's still inactive."

Steven stood to his feet. "Right, let's go do that then! See you later, Connie."

"Okay."

Steven and the Gems went inside to warp to their current destination.

The Galaxy Warp was a big, circular stone platform rising out of the ocean, its surface dotted with Warp Pads and patterns of twinkling blue lights. It was like standing on a solid nebula.

"Why did we have to come here again?" Amethyst asked. "We already checked this place to make sure no other Gems could come here."

"We should still be certain," Pearl said. "We don't really know if all of the Warp Pads here were deactivated."

"And I marked the ones that were deactivated with stickers!" Steven piped up as he pulled out a roll of Crying Breakfast Friends stickers.

"Yes, you did, Steven," Sapphire said. "That was very helpful of you."

Ruby then raised her fist and summoned her gauntlet. "And now, we're gonna make sure they can never be re-activated." And she smashed the nearest one, making Steven flinch.

"Ruby, I know you like punching stuff, but don't you think that's a bit excessive?" Steven asked.

"We need to make sure that no enemy Gems can use this place to warp to Earth."

"I'm sure they couldn't be all bad. Maybe some of them just wanna come visit Earth to see what it's like."

"Steven," Pearl started. "Do you remember when we told you about the Great Gem War, and how there were Gems who wanted to turn this planet into a colony?"

Steven nodded.

"Well, they wanted to make the Earth a colony because they wanted to harvest resources for their own needs, and they didn't care about how it would effect the native life. We wouldn't stand for it, so we decided to fight against it."

"To this day, we still have to deal with enemy Gems who refuse to take no for an answer," Sapphire added. "so we will do what we can to minimize Gemworld's contact with the planet."

"Like this!" And Amethyst promptly curled into a ball and jumped high into the air to crash into another one of the Warp Pads, its glassy surface splintering. The purple Gem climbed out from the wreckage and dusted herself off, chuckling. "I love that part."

"I think that's enough for right now," Sapphire said. "I can't see any instances of Gems from Gemworld using the Galaxy Warp to come here."

"I trust your judgement, Sapph," Ruby said as she pecked her lover on the cheek. "Okay, Gems, let's wrap this up. We're going home."

And the Gems stepped on the Warp Pad they used to warp to the Galaxy Warp to warp home, but as the cyan light enveloped them and their bodies began to lift off the ground, Steven briefly saw one of the other Warp Pads activating. "Hey, I think I just saw someone else warp-"

"Don't be ridiculous, Steven," Pearl interrupted as she placed a hand on his curls. "The Galaxy Warp hasn't been in use for hundreds of years."

"But-"

"Steven, I'm confident that there isn't anything out there that can use the Warp Pads besides us," Sapphire said. "You trust my word, don't you?"

They arrived back at the beach house. "Yeah, but I swear I saw something!"

"Sure you did, kiddo," Ruby said dismissively.

"But I did!"

"Honestly, Steven," Pearl chided. "Don't you think you're getting a little worked up about this? Listen, why don't we just forget about this little incident for now?"

Steven sighed. There was no reason to keep arguing. "You're right, Pearl. It's probably not that important anyway."


Later that night, Steven lay in bed, staring at the ceiling as he wasn't able to sleep. He knew he saw something warping at the Galaxy Warp. If only he could just convince the Gems. He turned his head and looked at the Warp Pad in front of the Temple Door, half expecting whoever or whatever it was who warped earlier to warp right into the living room. Then the Temple Door opened, startling him into almost falling out of bed. Amethyst came out and walked to the fridge to grab some food.

"Amethyst?"

"Hey, Steven! Just grabbin' a midnight snack. You want something?"

"Maybe some warm milk. I'm having trouble falling asleep."

"Why? You afraid of whatever you saw at the Galaxy Warp warping into the house and attacking you?!"

Steven felt some sweat collecting on his brow. "Uh... no?"

"Oh, good! Well, g'night. And don't let any enemy Gems getcha." And she laughed as she walked back into her room, the Temple Door closing behind her.

Steven let out a sigh of resignation. It didn't look like he was sleeping tonight. He got out of bed to grab a weapon.

Suddenly, something crashed through the ceiling, causing the boy to turn around with a start and run down the stairs to check it out. It looked like a metallic, cyan sphere. It whirred quietly as four cylinders emerged from its form, taking on the role of legs as it lifted itself from the crater it made in Steven's floor and crawled towards the Warp Pad.

"You're the thing I saw warping at the Galaxy Warp, aren't you?" he asked it. He looked up at the new hole in his ceiling. "Did you come from space?"

The spherical robot moved around Steven and continued to crawl to the Warp Pad before Steven grabbed it. "Oh, no you don't! You're not going anywhere. I'm gonna keep you right here so the Gems can see that I was right."

Then a square hatch opened on the robot to reveal a small nozzle which sprayed a cyan liquid in his face which was not dissimilar to Gem Essence. The robot ran away as Steven wiped the liquid off his face. "Hey! Get back here!" Steven pounced on it and held it tight in his arms, and started calling out for the Gems. "Ruby! Sapphire! Amethyst! Pearl! Come out here! I was right! I did see something!"

The Temple Door opened to reveal all four of the Gems.

"Steven, what is it?" Pearl asked. "It's too late for you to be- Um, what is that?"

"Don't you guys know?"

"No."

"It's a space robot of some kind. It crashed through the roof."

"So it looks like you were right after all," Ruby mused.

"We should have listened to you," Sapphire said. "After all, you're a Crystal Gem too, Steven."

Steven smiled before the robot escaped his grasp and ran towards the Warp Pad, prompting him to shout, "Follow that droid!" and pounce on it again before it warped away, the half-Gem hanging onto its legs.

The rest of the Gems wasted no time jumping into the warp stream to follow after them.

"Where are you warping to?" Steven asked the robot. Then several more spherical robots appeared in the warp stream to gather around him. "There's more of you? Are you coming from all over?" Then they all worked together to shove him out of the stream, managing to push his head out.

Outside the warp stream was cold, unbearably so, and there was very little oxygen for Steven to breathe. He saw a dark void full of lightning and silver clouds. There were also many more warp streams which Steven assumed were all leading to the same place. He then felt a hand grab him by the ankle and pull him back in.

"Are you alright, Steven?" a worried Pearl asked him. "Take deep breaths."

Steven did as he was told, and said, "Guys, I think all those robots are warping to the same place!"

"But where are they going?" Amethyst asked.

"We'll find out soon enough," Sapphire replied.

And soon enough, the Crystal Gems found themselves at the Galaxy Warp. All of the robots crawled over to the various broken Warp Pads and began spraying them with cyan liquid, instantly fixing the cracks so that it appeared that the Warp Pads weren't damaged in the first place. Standing on one of the Warp Pads was a green, triangular-haired Gem dressed in a skin-tight jumpsuit and clunky braces on her arms and legs, from who the Gems decided to hide from by ducking behind the Warp Pad they arrived on. She appeared to be looking at a holographic screen as one of the robots crawled up onto her shoulder. "Log date 626," she said in a nasally voice. "This is Peridot 5XG, performing maintenance check on Earth's Galaxy Warp. Repairs have been successful. All 73 Flask Robonoids are present and accounted for. More Gems will soon be able to have access to Earth once again."

The Gems all gasped at this.

"No way," Ruby hissed. "They're coming back here? This is bad!"

"Oh, man!" Amethyst peeped. "We are so dead!"

"Who's coming back here?" Steven asked. "Anyone you might know?"

Nobody answered him, but Pearl whispered, "Oh no, I can't do this! Not again!" while holding her head.

"Maybe we should ask that Gem what she's up to."

Ruby quickly grabbed him by the back of his shirt. "What're you doing, kid?! You want us to possibly get obliterated by some Gem we don't know?"

"For all we know, she might have laser vision or acid breath or something!" Amethyst added, earning some looks from the rest of the Gems. "What?"

"It couldn't hurt to ask a few questions." Steven pulled his shirt Ruby's grasp and came out of their hiding spot to approach the green Gem. He cleared his throat and said, "Um, hi. Peridot, right? I'm Steven."

Peridot turned around. Getting a better look at her, Steven could see that her arm bracers each had five small, light green cylinders floating around them which functioned as her fingers, and four of them were currently functioning as the screen she was looking at. She also wore a visor covering her eyes and the triangular gem on her forehead. She turned back to her screen. "The Galaxy Warp seems to be infested with Stevens."

"Nope. It's just me. I'm here to ask you a few questions."

Peridot raised an eyebrow. "And what do you want to know?"

"Oh, just why are you here on Earth in the first place?"

"I was sent here from my superiors to report on the condition of the Galaxy Warp and do some repairs." She crouched down to peel off the Wailing Waffle sticker that Steven stuck on the Warp Pad she was standing on. "Judging by this bizarre icon, it appears this site may be compromised."

"Oh, I put that there to mark the Warp Pad as deactivated."

"I see. So, tell me, have Stevens replaced humans as the dominant life form on this planet?"

"No, there's tons of humans." Steven began counting off his fingers. "There's my dad, Connie, Lars and Sadie, the mailman, the Cool Kids, Onion... I think. And those are just some of the ones I know."

"Alright. Now, for you to get out of my way so I can continue my work." Peridot reached out her right arm in Steven's direction, and encompassed him in a tractor beam of light green energy. It felt like electricity was coursing through every inch of his system. Steven tried to move an arm, or a leg, or some other body part, but he couldn't. He couldn't even scream for the Gems to come help him.

But then he heard Pearl call from behind them, "You put Steven down this instant!"

This apparently startled Peridot so much that she deactivated her tractor beam, setting Steven free and causing him to fall on his back. "There are Gems here?! But that's not possible! The Red Eye that was sent to this planet said that the only Gems left on Earth were a few Rough specimens!"

"Well, I guess your 'Red Eye' was wrong." Amethyst remarked. Steven got up and saw that she, along with Pearl and Ruby, had summoned their weapons.

"Steven, get back behind the Warp Pad," Pearl said, and Steven was quick to do as he was told. "We are the Crystal Gems!"

Peridot tilted her head. "The... 'Crystal Gems?'"

"That's right! We're the guardians and protectors of this planet, and we will not let you bring any harm to it or its creatures."

Peridot raised her arm and arranged her fingers into a a shape vaguely resembling a tower. "Are you threatening me? How dare you?! I'm just trying to do my job!" And she shot a green laser at them, which they dodged before Amethyst used her whip to tie her up and incapacitate her, and the rest of the Gems went to attack Peridot's Robonoids and damage the Warp Pads that had been fixed.

Ruby smashed the Warp Pads with her gauntlet, while Pearl jabbed and slashed at some of the Robonoids and Sapphire froze some of them herself.

"No! Stop! Stop destroying my work at once!" Peridot cried. "I will report on you once I get back to Gemworld!"

"As long as I got your butt tied up, yer not going anywhere," Amethyst said.

Peridot glared at the purple Gem, then one of her fingers slid out from underneath the dark, crystal-encrusted rope, and electrified it with it's touch, the green electricity trailing to the whip's handle and shocking Amethyst so that she would let go and let her whip unravel. She then promptly warped away, the Warp Pad's cyan light carrying her away from the planet.

"So, what do we do now?" Amethyst asked.

The Gems just looked at each other silently for about a minute before Sapphire said, "I suppose we should just wait to see what happens next."

"Anyway, I know what I'm gonna do." Ruby marched up to the Warp Pad Peridot used to warp back to Gemworld, raised her gauntlet in the air, "That Gem is not coming back!" and swung it down as hard as she could, the surface of the Warp Pad splintering like wood.

Steven played with his fingers guiltily. "I'm sorry, guys. I know I probably went too far this time."

"Well, it wasn't a complete mistake on your part, Steven," Pearl assured him.

"It wasn't?"

"Thanks to you, we were able to get some valuable information from your decision." Sapphire smiled at him, and he smiled back. Then the blue Gem's smile disappeared. "But, yes. It was a pretty bad move."

"Aww..."