Note: Any references that this story makes aside from the universe that this takes place in belongs to their respective owners and should be as such.

(Author Disclaimer: This is the 2nd arc of the Steven Universe FF series. Go read the first arc: "Steven and the Floral Miasma" for a better understanding and context to certain events of the previous arc. That is unless you can catch on. Anyway, thank you for understanding, and enjoy this shizzle.)

Warning: Sexual Themes, Language, Violence

Ch.1: Nice Crash Landing

Short recap: Arc 1

2 years after Spinel's attempted Earth devastation Steven Universe and his girlfriend Connie wanted to take their relationship to the next level despite Pearl being a cockblocking prick about it (no disrespect). But on the night Steven and Connie connected to one another, body and soul a mysterious pink miasma appeared from the docks and covered the entire continent overnight.

Though the fog didn't affect humans Steven found that he was left to fend for himself against his own gem friends who were under the miasma's influential capability. The culprit? The masked manipulator Emerald and the miasma's source, the Demoness Angeline De Rosa. In the end, Steven was able to overcome the threats that appeared on Earth and saved Beach City while standing hand in hand with a new ally with no casualties...well all except one.

Anyways hi, this arc takes place 2 weeks after that event at the floating coliseum.

Today at 2:50 in the afternoon Steven, Connie, and the gems decided to have some alone quality time together at the floating coliseum. Well, the reasoning for that was also for training as well. Connie was the one who suggested it since she has a lot of free time on her hands and wanted to have a rematch with Pearl.

What Connie didn't realize was that she inevitably dragged herself into their training regiment. By suffering for the last 2 and a half hours she now understands Steven's struggle.

"Yeeeaaah in hindsight I should've told you to back out with more specific reasons not to."

Steven was sitting at the closest row to the bottom of the stone bleacher. The back of Connie's head was rested on his knees, unfortunately, her entire body was throbbing in pain.

"You think? Sssss fuck this hurts."

"My spit is still available as an option."

"I rrgh know, I just don't want you spitting on me...like at all."

"Pfft, c'mon it was just a joke. You know I would never do that to you...Now that you brought it up, about the whole you spitting on my di-"

"Hey yo, who's talking about spitting on dicks around here?"

Of course Amethyst would appear out of nowhere, it wouldn't be like her if she didn't come out of whatever place she was to respond to sexual innuendos. Raunchy ones are the best for her and thanks to Steven being all grown up she can now say whatever she wanted without Pearl being all up in her ass about it. Well, that doesn't mean Pearl will stop doing it.

"No one."

"Are you sure my dude? I could've sworn I hear-"

"Say my break is almost over so I'll meet up with you to spar."

"Meh, sure whatever my main man. I'm gonna break some shit over there, hope you join me later. Don't break Connie too badly."

Amethyst walked away whistling to herself. A moment went by until Steven raised a brow from her sentence.

"Hey wait a second? That's what I said earlier before you got battered by the traini-... Wow, am I really that slow? Amethyst just made a sexual innuendo before walking away."

"I kinda caught that already hahahaha oww."

"Oh, right I'll heal ya now."

Brushing away Connie's long dark hair Steven gave a quick peck to her lips, a pink wave of light spread throughout her body from top to bottom in mere seconds. The next couple of seconds that went by Connie felt like a million bucks. Of course from nearby the booming sound of exploding stones occurred.

"Wooo I feel better, thanks, babe."

"Whenever. So after all that crap you just endured with Pearl's regiment do you still want to be here?"

"Psssh of course I do. I actually have some personal business with Pearl. As a matter of fact, hey Pearl! Throw me a sword my way, we're having a rematch!"

As Connie was walking towards Pearl with a confident strut to her step Steven let out a tired sigh. No, it's not because of Connie that he was wiped out, not even from the training either (he still had a lot of gas in the tank) but something else that was on his mind. That was Garnet's cue to show up next to him.

"I can tell something is bothering you, Steven. Do you want to talk about it?"

Steven wasn't surprised since he knew that Garnet would appear when he was by his lonesome. She only went back to Beach City for a few moments. Looking up at the sky Steven stretched himself out and swung his leg over his knee.

"...Hmm I was debating if I should or not but maybe it'll help."

"Is it about Green Pearl? You have been worrying about her for a bit since that hectic day two weeks ago."

"No it's not tha- is she doing okay? No one's messing with her right? I'll kick whoever's ass it is who does."

"I can tell you she's perfectly fine. Green Pearl has been seeing me for emotional help at times of distress for her. Hmhm she would ask me about you sometimes. It's as if you two are star-crossed lovers from across the two houses or something."

In response to that remark, Steven forwards his brow.

"...Garnet that wasn't funny."

"For that, we agree, I didn't think that was funny either. I was trying to insert a Shakespearean joke...it fell flat.

"Maybe Green would've found that funny, who knows."

"Agreed, so continue."

"Thanks...the morning after we beat Emerald I had a dream."

"Specifically?"

"Getting to that. I'm definitely not going to go into the full details of the dream but all I can say was that I thought I was awake and Connie who was with me wasn't her at all."

Thinking back to the dream those words "The Nexus are coming for you." have stuck with him ever since. Who or what is the Nexus anyway.

"Well, dreams are your active subconscious when you sleep so that would make sense tha-"

"That's not what I'm talking about. I mean the Connie in my dream felt so real...as if there was another person. Also, they gave me a message."

"A message?"

"Yeah, they said 'The Nexus are coming for you, just you wait...my Diamond.' do you know who or what the Nexus are Garnet? Is it some kind of group, a superweapon, space AIDS?"

Okay, Garnet didn't know where the last part came from but without thinking about it she put her hand under her chin, deep in thought about the question. Unfortunately, it was blank...although the name Nexus sounded familiar for some reason.

"Sorry Steven. I wish I knew who the Nexus is. Maybe Pearl would know."

"Know what?"

Amethyst seemingly popped up right behind Steven without anyone noticing.

"I thought you were 'blowing shit up.'"

"I got bored quickly. Anyway, anything juicy Garnet, did Steven spill his favorite sex position yet?"

"Jeez, what's with you and your obsession with sex jokes and my sex life?! You've been really uncomfortably pushy about it these days."

"Well duh, asshole. You never told me at all about your graduation night with Connie before the crap we went through. Besides I could've given you great intimate tips like how to suck dick like a pro."

"...Connie's a girl."

"Oh...right...well forget that part then."

"Actually Amethyst I'm glad you came by. Do you know anything about the Nexus?"

"Nope never heard of them. Maybe Pearl knows something. Knowing her she knows all sorts of shit better than us."

An expected quick response and both Garnet and Amethyst suggested Pearl. Then again she's the brains of the trio so hopefully, she does know something. Taking the suggestion Steven hopped off his seat and stretched out his arms when his feet touched the ground.

"I figured Pearl might be the one to know about it. Hell, she's been around White for God knows how long so she would probably know something about that."

Speaking of Pearl, right now she and Connie were in the middle of a deadlocked sword fight. Connie was struggling to overpower her old teacher but to no avail.

"Rrgh you've grown even stronger Pearl."

Even when Connie swung her sword from below with both hands Pearl had her left arm behind her back, blocking the strike and holding it with ease with her right sword hand. Tiny sparks were flying from the two blades. But the thing is with Connie's statement is that there seems to be some confusion.

"Actually Connie the strength that you interpret from us gems is experience. The training we do with Steven is to make him stronger in all aspects and for us to polish and refine our skills. Although now that you say that, the statement can also refer to the amount of energy our gem bodies produce so we can use our abilities and maintain our physical forms."

Connie couldn't help but smirk, Pearl did as well as a response.

"Heh trying to sneak in a personal lesson for me ever since I left?"

"Why not? I still cherish you as my precious student."

"(!)"

Pearl gracefully twirled her body off to the side that caused Connie to be pulled forward off-balance. Shooting out a powerful rising kick Connie just barely evaded it just by a graze of her chin by using her sword as a spring, flinging her body backward. It seems that Pearl was not fooling around, she has been taking training a whole lot more seriously than before...not that she wasn't serious already.

"(Ouch that's hot.)"

Connie tapped a finger on her grazed chin, it was pretty hot.

"Can you still go on? Pushing you until your bones creak again will only make me feel guilty for the aftermath."

"Are you kidding? I just warmed up, no pun intended."

"Then-"

In Connie's direction, Pearl pointed the tip of her sword towards her.

"-show me what you're made of."

Tightening her grip on her own weapon Connie steadied her breath and made a dash circling around Pearl. She knew that her own teacher was confident in her abilities since she didn't bother to follow Connie's movements.

Attempting to strike from the side Connie swung her blade horizontally but Pearl pointed her weapon downward, successfully blocking her attack again. Damn, Connie was sure she had Pearl that time.

Well, no use complaining about it now, all Connie can do is go on with the offensive. And she did just that. Connie swiped and thrust at Pearl only to miss every strike when she dodged over and over with the grace of a white swan. Eventually, once again their blades connected except this time Connie managed to disarm Pearl by accurately hooking the tip through the hole of the rapier handle and swiping it away.

Pearl couldn't lie, she was impressed by the technique and quick thinking. Although she did know that she was getting a little cocky, that won't happen again. Who knows when the next powerful enemy arrives on Earth with some sick, twisted desire to screw with the peaceful inhabitants and the gem race. The next Emerald might still be out there somewhere.

"Haah I got you this time!"

"Hmhmhm you may have disarmed me, but you haven't beaten me yet."

"Well, I'm not the one without a weapon being pointed at my throat. Without one you're pretty much beat."

"*Sigh* Still have so much to learn."

"Huh? Woah shit!"

Pearl was able to slip under Connie's sword arm and threw her over her shoulder. Landing smacked against the stone ground on her back Connie's vision became blurry. By the time her vision came back, Pearl already kicked aside the weapon that was loosened from Connie's grip.

"Sorry, need a hand?"

"...Uggghhh sure, thanks. I forgot this was technically a serious fight."

"Don't forget that the enemy won't just give you mercy just because they lost their weapon."

"True."

Recovering from the loopy spell Connie took her former teacher's hand, helping her get up to her feet. Maybe Connie did have some more learning to do. Some clapping got Connie's attention and it wasn't by Pearl.

"That was awesome ladies."

"Oh, Steven"

"Glad you could join us, Steven. Connie and I were just having a little sparring match."

"I can see that. Gotta say Connie your fighting skills are getting better. Don't take my word for it, Pearl's the teacher right now and I don't have to interfere this time."

While Steven was talking Pearl collected the weapons that were used for the match and put them inside her gem as refractors of light.

"Steven's right you know. Though you did seem to have dwindled a bit that is not a problem. Hopefully, the pain in your arms will help you develop more muscle."

"Oh wait, I remembered why I approached you? Pearl? I have a question that hopefully, you can answer."

"Sure, ask away."

"Do you know something called the Nexus?"

"..."

"And you're making the same face that Garnet and Amethyst did."

Pearl knew that she heard the word "Nexus" somewhere, she just couldn't pinpoint where she heard it from. Hmm, but she did remember White Diamond saying that multiple times back when she was her gem...Nope, nothing but memories of hell.

"I know I heard that word before, Nexus. Mmmmmmmm where did I hear it from?"

"Uh, Pearl...are you okay?"

"Of course I am. Why?"

Steven pointed down towards Pearl's shaking hand. By the look of her face, she didn't even notice it seems.

"Your left hand is shaking."

Looking at her left hand Steven was right, it was shaking. How peculiar, her hand was doing this itself without her knowing it was happening.

"Odd, that hasn't happened in a very long time. It only happened once without my knowledge...anyway sorry that I couldn't answer your question as you wanted."

"Nah it's cool. I'll probably ask the Diamonds later about i- no wait they have a shit ton of work to do so that won't be possible."

"By the way Steven, we're ending training early today."

"No kidding? What's the occasion?"

"Did you forget Steven? Tomorrow is the New Homeworld school graduation. Don't tell me you did?"

Feeling a lump in his throat and sweat leaking from his brow Steven quickly turned away from Pearl and took out his phone. Scrolling until he tapped on messages he saw that Pearl indeed texted him that 2 days ago. Err just to make sure Steven also checked the calendar. He had to be quick though, Pearl was staring daggers at him.

Luckily for him Steven did mark that on the calendar...wait, why did he just remember this now? He would've been talking about it with Pearl most of the time for the past 2 days...weird.

"Oh yeah, the graduation! Of course, I wouldn't forget Pearl heheheheheheheh!"

"Uh-huh, sure you didn't. I'm going to gather up Amethyst and Garnet now."

Pearl walked away from Steven. He should be able to breathe a sigh of relief but he felt like she was still giving that icy stare. Connie just shook her head in disappointment from Steven's attempt.

"(Sigh you're not very good at lying Steven. Then again this is Pearl we're talking about, hiding a secret is a literal impossibility.) I think we should go back to Earth, my back is killing me."

"Good idea Connie. Say do you want me to do the quick dose or the heavenly massage you like so much?"

"We'll talk about it on our way back."

And with that Steven, Connie, and three of the main members of the Crystal Gems gathered around the warp pad and warped back to Earth.

A couple of seconds later the warp pad stationed inside of the beach house activated and our group re-particalized. Steven then set Connie's rear onto the couch so she could rest for a bit, she really needed it after the hard work she had to endure today.

"After we eat I'll begin the healing proce- goddamnit we're out of sliced bread."

Today drained both Steven and Connie. The last thing they needed was no fricken lunch after Steven searched the cabinets. Too bad Garnet was upstairs to continue her reading, Amethyst already left not too long ago through the back, and Pearl was doing laundry. So the only one that can be relied on right now was Steven.

Letting out a frustrated sigh Steven decided that he would be the one to go grab some, it's not like he has anything else to do in the meantime.

"Shit, sorry Connie I'll be right back. Why don't you just chill here in the meantime."

All Connie did was shrug her shoulders.

"I don't have anything else to do, might as well."

"Cool, be back in a few."

Before Steven opened the front screen door and walk through it he just remembered something. This something was very important in the meantime.

"Oh, right. By the way Connie we just got Netflix. That way we can just...cuddle and all that good jazz."

"C'mon Steven I know you wanted an excuse to fool around with the Netflix and chill excuse. Just say we can fondle each other under the sheets while 'watching' something."

"I plead the 5th."

"Pffft yeah yeah get going."

"Love you, babe."

"Love you too."

Closing the screen door behind him Steven hopped on top of the wood railing and let himself fall off. While whistling a tune he landed with ease due to the gravity power that he can use at will. Funny how he didn't get to walk 20 steps away from the house before he sees something of important interest along the shoreline.

"Oh, you got to be shitting me, Pearl!"

Steven yelled out from below. In about a few seconds Pearl poked her head out from the front door and leaned over the railing.

"Yes? Did something happen?"

"Some dick crashed their pod on the beach, looks like this was an hour or two ago."

"Pod?"

Pearl did the same jumping over the rail thing Steven did earlier except her landing was more smooth and graceful. They both walked over to the crash-landed pod to see what was up. Mind you this wasn't the first time they had seen crash-landed ships on their sandy property before. In fact, a lot of the individuals that crash-landed either ran out of fuel or got hit along the way.

I would say this was a frequent thing but it only happened 4 times. Aside from that derailing, Pearl knelt at the circular transport contraption and began examining it.

"Hmm...from the looks of the insignia on this I'd say this was an escape pod."

"For an obvious escape plan right? We're no strangers to that."

"We usually get lucky. Anyway, this pod definitely looks familiar. I just can't put my finger on...(!)"

Pearl's eye grew wide as if she had realized something about the pod. There was without a doubt that she has seen this many times before, Homeworld's insignia instantly struck. Now Pearl remembered, it just took her time to remember it clearly.

"The Penitentiary? No way, I thought they were all destroyed."

"Uh Pearl, mind filling me in over here?"

"There was a flying maximum security ship centuries ago that was used during the First Diamond Rebellion."

"So when you and mo-"

"No Steven...this event took place even before Rose ever thought about gaining a colony. A small group of non-important gems attempted to rebel but were defeated within mere minutes."

"Well, that was not shocking at all."

"Afterward the rebelling gems were either shattered or forcibly reprogrammed by the prison itself. Normally shattering would be the easiest punishment but at the time the Diamonds were pretty scarce of resources and gems so that's why."

"Damn."

"Damn indeed. C'mon, help me open this thing, rrrgh it's actually tighter than I thought."

"Hold on Pearl. Move aside a bit."

Grabbing his own wrist while clenching his fist the entirety of Steven's hand was layered along the surface with the Dia-harden crystal. It wrapped smoothly as if it became a glove.

With it fully prepared Steven used two fingers to grab the hatch and ripped it off its hinges with relative ease. After a few seconds, the encased crystal hand started to produce steam, changing his hand back to normal.

"You know you could've just used your own strength to open it."

"True Pearl buuut I was on a roll as of late on maintaining my Dia-harden for more than 5 seconds. I just thought of what you said about the repetitive uses of my new powers."

"That being said, how long can you hold it for?"

"Hmmmm 5 minutes...maybe 15 depending."

Pearl couldn't help herself from smiling with pride over Steven really changing for the better. Heck, she didn't have to drag him this time just to train.

"(I can now say for certain that Steven is truly improving. Now let's see what's in this pod.)"

Looking inside the pod a glint of light instantly caught Pearl's eye. While being careful not to fall in Pearl lowered herself even further inside and extended her arm, trying to grab the glinting object. Jeez, it's dark but Pearl was able to get it until she felt her body sliding forward without her control.

Crap, Pearl was going to fall in. That is until she felt two manly hands grab a hold of her slender, well-toned hips. The only one that could be obviously Steven since he was behind her.

"Woah shiz! Don't worry Pearl, I got you. Did you find anything in there?"

Pearl could feel her cheeks (not those cheeks) turning a darker shade of blue. She didn't understand why she was feeling hot when those thumbs were unintentionally stroking a small part of her ass. Most likely Steven was unaware of it himself.

"Uh-h-h yes I got it."

"Alright then, I'll pull you out"

"Wait Steven I don't think that's a-"

Unfortunately for Pearl, she was a little late on her protest of Steven's plan as he planted his feet and started to tug back. Suddenly when Steven stepped back with his right foot he stepped on something slippery, causing him to lose his balance while he still had a hold of Pearl.

"...Well shit."

Falling back, Steven and Pearl slammed against the sandy ground. Luckily for them of course, the sand never hurt anyone except for when some dickhead kicks it into someone else's eye. Pearl found herself slightly disoriented but recovered quickly, only to find herself sitting upward.

Though Pearl did retrieve the object in question she found her ass planted on top of Steven's center leg. Turning beet red from the embarrassment Pearl's eyes widened. A crap ton of misunderstandings would occur if someone saw them like this so she quickly got off.

"That was a close one huh? So you got the thing or whatever?"

Steven didn't notice, good for Pearl's sake. Now that he mentions it what did she grab?

"Uh-h-h-h yes I did."

Opening up her hand to see the object up close it shone slightly in Pearl's hand from the sunlight. It was a green and triangular cut gem. To Pearl, the gem was familiar to her.

"This is a...Peridot gem. What was one doing in an escape pod like this?"

"I may not be much of a detective Pearl but-"

Steven pointed his index finger out towards the ocean. What he was pointing to was a large slowly sinking spaceship.

"-I got a weird feeling that spaceship is the reason why."

From where Steven was he spotted the same insignia on the ship from far away. That gave Steven the slight connection.

"Call me crazy but that spaceship bears the same insignia as the pod right here."

"Ah! The Penitentiary, that's impossible!"

"Woah, so that ship is the real deal."

Between the Peridot gem, the escape pod, and the Penitentiary ship miles away from them Steven and Pearl were about to find out the hard way of the connections.

End of Ch.1