Hello! I hope you all are doing well! This chapter took me a while to write. Kept finding moments that needed to be revised because the dialogue felt funny, or the transitions were odd. I hope I caught them all, but let me know if anything sounds funny. We have a little more perspective with Ven, Twoie, and Peridot. Not to mention, the plot is finally taking off.

I hope you guys enjoy the chapter!

Twoie felt numb. That was probably the only reason he was so calm right now. It wouldn't be the first time Twoie faked being okay, so he could be strong for his family. The young man looked around the car wash, silently checking on everyone. He was confident the only reason Steven wasn't still crying was that his little brother had run out of tears. He glanced at his dad. The older man was sitting at the car wash's control center. He was barely keeping it together as Twoie quietly explained the event that led to his death. The memory of his father's reaction when Twoie had been kidnapped by Jasper flashed through his mind. He hated seeing his father like this. Twoie looked away.

Peridot was curled up on a fold-up chair, eyes wide with horror as he finished describing the fight. Twoie wasn't sure what to make of her. He didn't expect her to trust them this quickly, and it threw him off to see her genuine concern towards him. Granted, she knew that he died defending her and had seen the aftermath. Honestly, he was so thankful she was there. Peridot had been one of his best friends in his time, and he hoped her curiosity for earth tech would cheer everyone up. That probably wasn't going to happen right away, though. Everyone sat quietly, letting the full weight of the situation sink in. Which brought him to their newest addition. The young man looked over at the pink gem. Ven… Twoie was surprised to find that he knew what Ven was feeling. It didn't matter that they weren't fused or that Ven was listening with a blank expression. Twoie could sense the anger rolling off of his gem half. He wanted to be angry too, but Twoie knew that it wouldn't help right now. Yes, the gems had… Twoie shuddered and quickly pushed the thought from his mind. There were more important things to address than the gems. "We should go to the barn."

Greg looked up at Twoie in surprise. "The barn?" Realization dawned on his eyes, and he nervously rubbed the back of his neck. "I don't know. The location is great, but there's no electricity, and it's filled with a lot of junk."

"Twoie, Peridot, and I will be able to set up electricity in the barn." Greg, Peridot, and Steven looked at Ven in surprise while Twoie nodded in agreement with his gem half. The gem continued, "Most of the junk inside the barn will be used when we build the drill. There is no downside to using the barn as our new home."

"Drill? What drill?" Greg stared at Ven in confusion.

Twoie sighed. He was hoping to bring that up after they had gotten situated, but it wasn't like they had a lot of time. Without the gems, the drill was going to take longer to build. "There is another reason why the barn is a good place for us to stay. There is a geo weapon underneath the earth that will become active soon." His dad made a pained noise, and Twoie winced. "Don't worry! We stopped it in my time, but that was also with the others. It will take us longer to build it without them, so it's best if we head over now and get to work."

Peridot raised her hand, waving it wildly in the air. "What do you mean by 'my time'?"

Twoie started formulating a response in his head but was interrupted by Ven speaking first. "We're from the future." The young man smacked himself on the face. He knew Peridot would freak out and wanted to ease her into the truth. Twoie looked up. Yep.

Peridot's eyes were wide, and she was frozen in shock. "Y-you. What? Future?" Ven looked between Twoie and Peridot several times. He could sense his gem half's confusion over Peridot's reaction. "FUTURE? WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU'RE FROM THE FUTURE?"

Steven quietly giggled, which morphed into laughter when Twoie shot him an exasperated smile. "Ha-ha! Yeah! Twoie is from the future. He came here by accident, and he's been helping us ever since."

Peridot looked between Steven and Twoie with an expression of betrayal. "So, you helped me because you already knew about the Cluster?"

Twoie vehemently shook his head before walking over to Peridot. "I helped you because you are one of my best friends in my time. I really missed you, and I'm sorry that you had to deal with all this." Peridot relaxed in relief, and Twoie used the opportunity to hug her.

The technician stiffened at the hug. "I-I mean, what else would I be? Of course, we are best friends." She looked over at Steven as she tried to figure out what was going on. "What's a best friend, and what are you doing?"

Steven smiled at her. "Best friends are people that you really care about."

Twoie laughed as he felt Peridot relax. "And this is called a hug. It's a way to show affection."

Peridot hesitantly wrapped her arms around Twoie's back. "Like this?"

Steven nodded. "Yeah! Like that!"

"Oh… It's… really nice." Peridot liked this action of 'hugging.' It made her feel warm.

Twoie gently pulled back from the hug with a smile. He was sure she'd ask him more questions about his time-traveling later, but for now, he needed to steer the conversation back to the barn. "It's gonna be a lot of work, but the barn is the best place for us to stay in right now. Are you okay with that, Dad?"

Greg nodded as he grabbed his phone and started writing things down in his notes. "That's fine with me! Might as well do something useful with it, and it's definitely big enough for you all to stay in. If you guys are gonna be living in the barn now, then I need to go shopping." The older man focused on Twoie and Ven. "How long do you boys think it will take to set up the electricity?"

Twoie hummed in thought. "I'll have to see what we need, but I'd say we could get it done by tomorrow morning." He pulled his wallet out and counted the money inside. Thank stars, his dad always made sure he had a wad of cash on him. Twoie noted he had several hundred dollar bills, easily enough money to cover all expenses for furnishing the barn. "Dad, let's drop the other's off at the barn, and then we can head to the store while Peridot and Ven get to work." His dad shakily smiled before heading over to the car. Steven grabbed Peridot by the hand and led her over to the van, quietly explaining what a car is and how it works. Twoie started to walk towards the van when he felt someone grab his wrist. He looked back in surprise to see Ven looking at him with an air of concern.

Ven tightened his grip on Twoie's wrist. "Do you feel sick? Do you need to refuse?"

Twoie still felt a little numb, but he pushed the feeling away. That wasn't what Ven meant. "When we were… separated back with…" Memories of white, piercing nails invaded his vision, and he shook his head. "I was dying. My human half needed to be fused with you to survive." And that was going to take some getting used to. He wasn't really… human now, was he? Then again, it wasn't like he was fully human, to begin with. "Things are different now."

Ven frowned, then looked away. "What should… I do then?"

What? Twoie's eyes widened in surprise. "What do you mean?"

"What do I do if I'm not fused with you?" Ven's eyes became shadowed as he looked down. A hand grasped at his other arm, a clear sign of discomfort.

Twoie had never seen his gem half this expressive before, and it hurt to see him so sad. "You live as Ven." Ven whipped his head up in shock. "Before, I couldn't survive without being fused to you. I always felt a little guilty about it, but I know you wouldn't have wanted to see me sick like that again anyway." Twoie smiled sadly at Ven as he stepped forward. "I didn't want to die. We're lucky that Steven was able to bring me back." The gem blinked in surprise as his human half grabbed his hands. "What happened was awful, but there's one good thing that came out of this. We don't have to be fused all of the time now. If you want to explore or be your own gem, you can. And if you want to fuse, we can." Twoie's smile became more genuine. "I want you to explore who you are first, though. I know who Steven Universe is. I know who Twoie Universe is. I want to get to know Ven Universe."

Ven wasn't sure what to think. He wasn't used to being unfused; it left an empty feeling in his gem. But… He looked down at their intertwined hands. He knew that Garnet liked to unfuse from time to time. That Sapphire and Ruby still did their own things. Maybe he should explore this a little? His human half wanted him to, and Ven liked making his human half happy. "Okay. I will be Ven for now." Warmth filled his gem at the bright smile on Twoie's face. Ven had never had anyone but Twoie. And Twoie would always be first on his list of people he cared for, but maybe Ven can have more than just Twoie on it. He looked over to the van. The engine was already running, and it was obvious that the others were waiting for them. "We should go now. Steven will not be able to deal with Peridot's barrage of questions for much longer." Twoie snorted as he led the way to the car, not letting go of his hand until they were climbing inside. Ven watched as Steven looked at them in relief. Peridot didn't hesitate to shift her attention to Twoie and began asking for clarification on Steven's answers. Ven smiled, already mentally adding names to his list.

The trip to the barn was filled with chatter. Peridot wanted to know everything there was about the earth. This was her new home, after all. The thought no longer held any bitterness. The technician grinned as she ran about the barn, pulling out item after item and asking her new human friends about them. For a primitive species, they were pretty smart. Peridot pulled out a green board on wheels. "What's this, Steven?"

Steven ran over in excitement. "You found a chalkboard! Is there any chalk around? You can write on it with chalk,"

Peridot held out a small box. There were little white sticks inside. "This says chalk. So, I can use these chalk sticks to write on the board?" At Steven's nod, she quickly pulled the chalk out and drew a line on the board. "Fascinating! What do you do with the board when it has been filled?"

Steven ran over to where she had pulled the chalkboard from and looked around. Moments later, he returned and held out a black and grey block. "This is called a chalkboard eraser. You can use this to wipe the chalk off and write new things down." Peridot took it from him and erased the line. She contemplated the board for another moment before her eyes went starry as she dashed off to the front of the barn. Steven watched as she dragged a small box over to the board. "This is perfect for planning things out!" She began drawing out the barn's layout and how she would set up the electricity. "There are some appliances here that could be recycled, but most of this stuff will only suffice as scrap materials." She turned to face Twoie and Greg. "I trust you two to figure out what we will need. Ven, Steven, and I can get started here." Peridot didn't want to waste any time. The barn was going to be their new base of operations. It needed to be in tip-top shape before they could start work on the drill.

She barely noted Steven mention something about texting his brother what they already had. If she directed the wires this way… then she could put lights throughout the top and bottom sectors of the barn. And if they cleared this space here… Peridot stepped back to look at her blueprints. She'd be able to supply lights to the barn, create a small kitchen space, and turn the area under the loft into a living room. The green gem turned so she could see where her designs would go and came face-to-face with Ven. "Gyahh!" She jumped in surprise, falling off the box. Peridot blinked up at the pink figure that loomed over herm hand extended to help her up. "Sorry, Ven. I wasn't expecting to see you there."

Ven shrugged as he pulled her back to her feet. Peridot noted that the van was gone. "Would you like me to pull out the heavier items while Steven explains what they are?"

The gem was still a little too deadpan for her, but Peridot was beginning to get used to it. "That would be great. I need to salvage what I can from these materials. I'm hoping that we will be able to get started once Twoie comes back."

Ven nodded and walked over to the junk pile. "Are you ready, Steven?" Steven smiled and replied happily. Peridot hummed in suspicion as Ven floated to the top of the pile and started bringing things down. She was glad to see Steven was feeling better, but something about it bothered her. Maybe it was the technician in her, used to finding patterns and analyzing how things work. Sure she didn't know Steven well, but the kid was a bit of an open book. He was a crier, loved his family, was happy to help, and was one of the kindest beings she'd ever met. Which was why something about his behavior felt wrong. 'Note to self. Talk to Twoie in private about Steven later.'

"Peridot?" The technician was startled out of her thoughts at the sound of her name. She turned to see Steven looking at her curiously. "You spaced out. Are you okay?"

"I'm fine. Sorry, Steven. I was just thinking of what materials I should be looking for." Steven brightened up as he gestured to the steadily growing pile of junk from the items Ven was bringing over.

Peridot hummed and picked up a coffee pot. "Do you think this still functions?"

Steven looked it over. "Probably. Twoie is going to want this, so let's set it aside." The kid placed the pot out of the way, then pointed at the next item. "This pipe is fine as scrap, and the microwave next to it is broken, so you can use those." Peridot nodded and pulled the items aside. She grabbed the parts she needed and tossed the rest outside.

The group continued working, even after Twoie and Greg returned from the store. There was enough space cleared out inside for the washer, oven, and fridge, as well as a large box filled with lightbulbs. Twoie carried everything inside without complaint. By nightfall, Peridot was smiling as she directed Twoie and Ven where she wanted them to place the wires and lights. Steven and Greg were already asleep on the couch in the loft, so they decided to set up those lights in the morning. Peridot stepped back into the barn, just finished with the electrical box she had set up outside. Twoie and Ven were working together to build the kitchen, and they were quietly chatting. There was a smile on both of their faces. Peridot couldn't help smiling as well as she joined them. Things were beginning to look up.