Note: Takes place the second afternoon after "Steven Floats"

Pearl was beside herself.

And considering what she's seen and lived through during her long existence, that was no small wonder.

Ever since they saw the morning news about a small 'freak electrical storm' a few miles off Interstate 95 that lasted from mid-afternoon to late evening yesterday, its end around the same time as Steven's 'Welcome Home' slumber party with Connie and the younger of the Fryman children, the Crystal Gems had been investigating.

Not that this wasn't the first time the CGs noticed such bizarre 'acts of nature'...

Nevertheless, the fact that whatever happened apparently took place at the Kindergarten did not ease the lean gem's concern. Steven and Connie, the latter eager to get into the field after weeks of self-practice, asked if they could come along after Pearl explained her reason for cutting this morning's lesson short.

Pearl half-considered turning down the request, not because she doubted the kids' fighting capabilities but rather felt uncomfortable leaving Beach City vulnerable in the event that the cause of this recent 'storm' attracted something worse near the humans. So per Garnet's suggestion, Steven and Connie were instead patrolling the town's perimeters atop Lion, close enough to alert their teammates at the temple in case some fighting would have to occur.

Hopefully that possibility would not come to pass.

Anyway, back to the present.

Before Pearl laid what she could only describe as the aftermath of a cross between a tussle amongst wildlife and a lightning storm meeting the earth up close and personal.

Giant scratch marks up and down the walls (some single, others in threes), sizable chunks of wall and floor strewn all over amongst burn marks of various sizes, smoke revealing the freshness of the incident responsible. Equally massive paw and claw prints strewn this way and that. Most suspicious of all: no sign of broken gemstones anywhere, a typical casualty of such fights if the evidence fit.

In her hands she held what she recognized (with no small amount of survivor's guilt) as a purple variant of her own Gem type, the stone sealed under a thick skin of hardened yellow resin. She found this one under the shelter of a nearby outcropping of rocks, a spot safe from the sight of any curious animals that might have wandered through here.

Not that many animals (or organics for that matter) ever dared to venture into this desolate place.

"Yo, Pierogi!"

So lost in her thoughts, Pearl started at the call of her shorter teammate, who she found standing a good distance away. Garnet passed a comment about 'someone walking away from there' just before everyone split up; sounds like Amethyst found the evidence. After bubbling the object (the resin broke away from the inside out) and whisking it away to the Burning Room, Pearl hurried over with dainty steps.

"What did you find?"

The purple gem thumbed behind herself at a trail of huge paw prints that, upon closer inspection, perfectly matched the tri-numbered claw marks. Pearl crossed her arms and tapped her chin in suspicion once she realized the last set appeared to shrink before...stopping?

Ice-blue eyes narrowing at them as well as the lack of roasted dirt in this spot, Pearl tapped her chin. "That's odd. No gem creature could have disappeared so smoothly in mid-run."

Amethyst flipped a white bang out of her visible eye. "Looks like this one did. Ya think it was...?"

Could this have been—Pearl shook her head in disbelief. After so long, the answer seemed unreal yet what alternative could there be to all this?

"Okay," the former servant finally stated with hands akimbo, "let's say this was a corrupted Gem. It leaves its opponent neatly disposed for us to collect it afterward, has its prints swerve into the canyon as though it were herding the other into a trap, and those bolts were more than noticeable."

Amethyst nodded, fully agreeing.

This scene was way too planned out. And the most concerning part?

In sync, Pearl and Amethyst trailed their vision in the direction the prints pointed: straight towards Beach City.

The two Crystals shared a look—worried on Pearl's end; interested on Amethyst's—and nodded before hurrying back to the warp pad.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"What do you mean everything is fine?!"

"Everything is fine," Garnet affirmed in her usual monotone to her slimmer teammate's exclamation.

"Yeah!" Steven chirped while Connie nodded behind him, still dressed in her training outfit, Rose's giant carnation sword sheathed on her back. "Whoever Garnet saw coming this way, maybe they changed their mind and decided to go somewhere else."

"Maybe they're even hiding somewhere nearby," Connie added in a measured tone.

Pearl's face contorted at the children disbelievingly. "Amongst the humans? Even if it—um they do have some degree of intelligence, blending in with the people here would require an unprecedented amount of cunning and deception. None of the gem creatures we've encountered are capable of that."

At a pointed look from Steven and a warning growl from Lion who sat lounging on the Quartz child's bed, Pearl hastily cleared her throat with a blush. "Well, aside from obvious exceptions."

Connie furrowed her eyebrows in a passionate way, even while the volume of her voice remained even. "Well, what if the gem creature does have that degree of intelligence? Maybe they just wanted to help out."

Garnet adjusted her glasses, lips pursed decisively, then turned to Amethyst and Pearl. "You said you saw signs of a struggle there. Were there burn marks as well?"

Amethyst finished picking her ear and affirmatively bobbed her head. "Yep, just like last time."

Pearl noticed the wondering gaze on Steven and Connie's faces. "Similar incidents started millennia ago, a few decades after Homeworld fled Earth and a while before we found Amethyst. The first and only time we saw the creature with our own eyes, she was fighting another corrupted gem."

"And she won...barely," Garnet continued. "Rose captured her afterwards, except we never saw the bubble. She never said, and we never thought much of it. At least until centuries later, when we noticed a lightning storm near Beach City. Rose insisted we stay behind."

A heavy sigh passed Pearl's lips. "We followed her naturally. We were worried."

Amethyst crossed her arms and leaned against the wall. "By the time we caught up, we found her in the Strawberry Fields with a bubbled Gem," she looked away for a moment, face softened with an odd air of solemnity, "all quiet and sad. Without a scratch, too." Her dark eyes shifted up to the kids. "By then Garnet and Pearl figured out why she was there."

Pearl set her hands akimbo as her gem projected an electric-blue hologram of one of the islands that surrounded the field.

"Beyond the Strawberry Field is one of many computer terminals originally used for historical records, including past military campaigns," then the image shifted into a slim yet tall-looking hexagonal prism set on its back with smaller triangular prisms extending from the lower sides.

"We pilfered them during the Rebellion before our enemy could delete the data so we could be a step ahead. However, while any Gem could access these terminals, only certain types could directly interact with the data, let alone modify it."

Steven cocked his head. "Like who?"

Garnet, as expected, gave a succinct answer. "An Amber, for example."

"And the Gem she had in her hands," Pearl added, "was not one. That's when we finally saw her again, after all this time...but the moment we did, she disappeared in a flash of light."

Connie suddenly adopted a worried look, childhood memories and facts from her gemology book—resin, yellow, electricity, solar plexus—mixing with the evidence to coalesce into a single picture in her mind's eye.

"Um," she fiddled with the end of her braid, "and where do you think this Gem she let go is now?"

Amethyst rolled her eyes with a playful, though not unkind, smirk. "Uh, besides the flower shop that popped up while we were at the barn?" She caught the incoming question in Connie's eyes. "You and Greg mentioned 'em at Stevo's birthday party, remember?"

Oh right. Our Indian swordfighter blushed at forgetting that part.

"Rose had some history with the people there, so if anyone is bound to be harboring a Gem," Pearl added, finger pointed upward in a matter of fact manner, "they're as good a start as any."

Connie was afraid of that.

"And what's the plan for if she is there?" Steven could not help asking slowly, somewhat nervous at hearing the answer now that he caught onto his Jam Bud's train of thought.

He never forgot his guardians' distrust of Centipeetle, and while he only met the Flores family (sans this 'Sparky' who had been absent at the time) in passing yesterday on his way to invite Peedee to the 'Welcome-Back-to Beach City' slumber party, he could already tell they were great fun-loving people, and though he knew the Crystal Gems would do nothing to hurt them, landing the family into the middle of a possible interrogation did not sound fair at all.

To both children's relief, the older Gems responded with rather sheepish stares—Pearl and Amethyst anyway. Garnet merely tilted her head down with a faint hum.

"Well," Pearl finally began, tapping her pointer fingers together, "we're hoping that we can establish our presence to her peacefully. Having no actual Gem to talk to besides Rose must have been lonesome for her, especially since your mother's, um, 'passing'."

Garnet nodded, half-smiling at how Steven eased up at Pearl's reply. "Meeting back with us might do her some good."

"And besides," Pearl continued in a more confident tone, "if she has been associating with humans all this time, then we can safely assume she won't pose any threat—that is, of course, as long as no one provokes her."

Steven smiled in immeasurable relief before a thought occurred to him. While Connie had her back to them, hands seemingly busy with something, he shot his fellow Gems a curious stare. "Wait. What about Lapis and Peridot? Shouldn't they come, too?"

"Best it's only us," Pearl gestured a hand out, palm up, "The smaller the group, the better. But don't worry. We'll leave a note for in case they come by while we're—"

"It's going to end up a full party," Garnet calmly interjected.

Pearl turned to the fusion with eyes scrunched in confusion yet before she could ask why, a blue light illuminated the room, bringing everyone's attention to the Warp Pad. Steven adeptly dashed towards it with a welcoming smile, only for said smile to wane at the irritated green Gem standing on the pad, hands posed behind her back.

"Peridot? I thought you were at the barn with Lapis."

"Lazuli has finally expressed an interest in Camp Pining Hearts. However," her emerald eyes narrowed on the half-gem, "a source of mine, contrary to the discarded VHS casing I stumbled across, misinformed me on the program's airing length, and since I could not locate my quarry in the barn, I decided to take my search elsewhere, starting here."

Steven rightfully cringed. He had a feeling the technician would eventually catch onto his little white lie from weeks ago, but between the insanity of Malachite and the Cluster and everything else, the inevitability must have slipped the boy's mind.

"Oh right, sorry." Rubbing his nape, he offered a helping hand. "Uh, I can—"

Amethyst strolled right up, her easygoing grin bringing the technician's attention to her and saving the kid some slack. "Oh yeah, that show. Ste-man handed the videos over ta me so we wouldn't be short on nerd-power for the drill. Watched a few, by the way." She waved a hand in a so-so manner. "Not exactly Lil' Butler but I can kinda see why yer into it."

Peridot blushed at the purple Gem's compliment, angry façade effectively ruined. "Ah," she coughed to save face, "then I surmise you know their location."

"Yep!" Pivoting on her heel, the Quartz gestured Peridot to follow. "C'mon, let's get your gooshy drama spiels back."

Phew, nice save! Steven tossed his fellow Crystal a grateful grin as Peridot passed by. However, he impeded his teammates with a concerned tone two seconds later. "Wait, Amethyst! We'll meet back up so you can meet Amber, right?"

Amethyst paused and ran a hand through her long white hair with a thoughtful frown. Hmm, she didn't want to leave Peridot hanging, but at the same time the violet whip-slinger really did wanna meet this corrupted Gem Rose used to help.

Garnet gave her younger friend a faint yet comforting smile. "It's alright, Amethyst. Take your time helping Peridot. A Gem from the war would only remember me and Pearl. Rose, too." She spared a look at Steven, mindful. "Though that part will need some explaining."

"Since that's the plan," Connie interjected with a smile, putting away the phone she'd been dialing in the meantime, "it's a good thing Uma knows beforehand. She doesn't take well to surprise guests." A finger tapping her shoulder made the girl pause and turn around, discovering Peridot's inquisitive stare on her.

"Is this Amber a Crystal Gem, because if she is how was I not notified of her? Second, what manner of human designation is...," her face contorted like a hamster fed a sour piece of candy, "'Uma'?"