Connie and Doug were sitting on the beach outside of Doug's car. Doug played his guitar and Connie grinned. "You're so good!"

"Thank you. I'm thinking of calling it "Whip Goddess" Doug smiled. They had pulled out all of Doug's old equipment after Connie had heard about his rockstar days.

"And check this out, sweetheart. I can add some vocal distortion too." Doug put a microphone to his mouth, adjusting the sound to sound like a robot. "Connie, your father's a robot now. And now that I'm a robot, things will be better!
Please forgive me for being an amazing machine."

"I can't stay mad if my dad's a robot." Connie sighed. "Where's all this awesome energy coming from? You never talked much about music before…"

"Well, I was inspired to make some new songs after the ocean got dried up by purple fire a while back. I even drew up some album artwork."

He showed Connie the cover. It was of a small purple girl with white hair. She had her whips out and eyes closed, a wasteland behind her.

"It looks like…" Connie put her finger on the art, remembering someone. "Amethyst."

"Easy with the tender touches, don't want it to get all smudged. Here, I'll plug this up and help your father work out this tune." Doug took the drawing away.

"Okay!" Connie grinned, picking up her viollin.

Doug attempted to strum the gutair but it made no sound.

"Huh?" Connie asked, tilting her head.

Doug looked around and then relized the plug was plugged into the T.V. "Oh! It's plugged into the T.V. See, I plugged into the video jack but I'm making audio here. Don't you know video killed the audio star?"

Connie looked confused. "What?"

"That's okay, you leave the details to me." Doug grinned. "When you were a one-man band you had to know how to do it all, lyrics, graphic design, forum moderation, but for me it was all about the audio."

Connie smiled.

"Ok, we need a catchy hook! Something like-" Doug started to sing, "Well, she's a wrestling queen and she's, super mean."

"Woah, hold the phone," Connie said. "now give the phone to me…" She held up her violin. "Amethyst was not mean, she was just trying to get home, to her friends. How about this instead?" She played a calm tune on her
violin. "She was trapped in a mirror, and it couldn't be clearer, she wanted to leave this place, and get herself back in space. And, Dad, you might think,she's a criminal, but her friendship comes through, subliminal. Amethyst… seeing your home
was all that you wished… Oh, whoa, Amethyst, please know that to me, you will be, missed…"

Suddenly, a loud rumble filled the beach, shaking Connie to the bone. "W-what is that?!"

Doug frowned. "It must be some kind of weird feedback!" He ran up and unsuccessfully tried to turn the sound off. "It's not us, it must be coming from the temple!"

"Really?! Come on!" Connie cried. She grabbed her father's hand, trying to pull him.

"You go on ahead, pumpkin. This is a gem thing and I don't want to get in the way. Plus I get to eat the rest of this pizza." Doug said, motioning to the pizza that they had got for dinner.

"If you really want to… I'll be back."

The sound got louder when Connie got in the house. "What's happening?!"

"It's the wailing stone!" Peridot screeched.

Lapis gave a moan, barely able to focus on flying over to the wailing stone. She gave a cry and fell to the ground in front of it. "Make this torture stop!"

"It started on its own and it's driving me insane!" Peridot cried, pulling on her star shaped hair.

"Ugh! I can't… get it to stop!" Lapis grunted, trying to put her body weight on it. Jasper walked up, shoving her aside. The gem slammed her hand on the button. The noise stopped and they all sighed in relief. "Nailed it."
Jasper smirked.

The button came back up and the noise continued.

"UH!" They all groaned. Peridot ran up and made a bubble around the thing, muffling it. "I win, Wailing Stone!" The bubble grew large and popped.

They gave a scream in pain, covering their ears.

Connie put her arm through it, even though it was too thin. Her body vibrated and forced her mouth open. The sound emitted through her. Jasper ran up and pulled her away. She stuffed a pillow into the hole and placed the rest around the stone.
She placed Connie on top and turned to the other Temps.

"I don't get it, that thing has been quiet this whole time!" Jasper groaned.

"I haven't heard a Wailing Stone activate since we used them for the rebellion, and I've never heard it sound like that!" Peridot cried.

"Someone is trying to send us a message, I guess." Jasper shrugged.

"But who? We rounded up all the Wailing Stones on Earth years ago, and we're not sending this message to ourselves. Unless…" Lapis glanced at Peridot. "Peri, are you experimenting again?"

"I would never! How could you say that about me, the great Peridot?" Peridot huffed.

"If it's not coming from Earth, then a Gem must be sending this message from space…" Jasper muttered.

"Is that what some Gems sound like?" Connie asked, hopping down from the pillows.

"What? No. We should be hearing a voice, that we can understand. Maybe this signal is too advanced for the Wailing Stone to process. That would explain the distorted audio and the wa-"

"My Dad's great at audio!" Connie cried suddenly.

"He is?" Lapis asked. Connie nodded.

"Doug… good at something…" Peridot whispered. "Nope! Not possible."

"Oh hush." Jasper groaned.

"I can't believe it! You need help with sound stuff! And I'm… good at it!" Doug said, very happy that the Temps had come to him. "Oh, here it is. The Lubitz Cardioid Condenser 680! It's got warm tone without too much top end."
He thrust out a microphone that seemed to shine.

"And it has a sponge ontop." Lapis commented.

"So it does." Doug whispered, mistified. He removed the cushions, causing the Temps to cover their ears. He put the microphone in and the sound subsided. "Now I'm going to add some reverb and some low octave effects, I'm also adding
some fuzz. Now if I directly input the Wailing Stone and put it through a flanger we might get what you're looking for…."

"Flangers aside, do you really think a signal like this is compatible with your analog devices?" Peridot asked smugly.

"Don't worry, Dad!" Connie creid. She picked up the other mic that made the robot voice, "It'll work!"

Doug gave a tiny smile. "Here goes nothing." He pressed play and the sound vibrated the beach, even more ear-wrenching than before.

Lapis gave a cry. "This is worse! Turn it off! Turn it off!"

"Sorry!" Doug called over the noise.

Connie held her own ears but shouted, "It's okay! You're great at audio!"

"Yeah!" Doug cried, adjusting the sound.

Lapis gave a sigh of relief. Connie cocked her head, for the sound was now sort of a song. "It sounds like… music.

"Yeah… It's nice!" Doug grinned.

"But, it's not supposed to be music. It's supposed to be a message!" Peridot growled, making him flinch.

"Okay, hold on, I got this." Doug whispered. He started to adjust the settings and cried, "It's changing!"

"It almost sounds like a voice." Connie said, getting excited.

"Almost got it!" Doug yelled. The engine suddenly shorted out. The sound stopped.

"Oh great." Doug sighed.

"W-What did you do?!" Peridot gasped. The Temps stood.

"Nothing! The car battery apparently couldn't handle all this."

"I had a feeling this wouldn't work, there's just no way that a human like Doug's equipment can interface with our ancient Gem technology."

"Come on Peri, you can't be ready to give up yet!" Connie cried.

Doug sighed. "Look, we just got to keep trying, gang. Sure we don't have the latest and greatest Gem tech, but-"

Jasper removed the microphone and the sound resumed. She muffled it and then walked up to Doug. "At least you tried, right? Okay guys, back to the temple. We'll figure something else out." She leapt away.

"What a waste of time." Peridot scoffed, leaping away.

"Sorry it didn't work." Lapis sighed. "I gotta go." She flew back to the temple. Connie yelled after them, "Guys! Come back!" She ran and attempted to leap after them but she failed.

"I really blew it, huh?" Doug sighed.

Connie stood up, brushing sand of her. "Oh, Dad…" She whispered.

Doug picked up his guitar and started to strum, playing his daughter's tune, "I could have tamed you, I could have shown. That I could depose you from your loud throne… But in the end, I wasn't, good enough. I just showed the Gems that I don't
got the stuff. Oh-oh, Wailing Stone! I tried so hard to fly, but I was thrown. Oh-oh, Wailing Stone!
I gotta tell the Gems 'cause they should know…" He strummed faster. "Have a little, have a little, have a little faith in me! I just wanted to help. You know, I, have a little, have a little, have a little expertise! I know it's not much. But
if it could come in handy, I'd wanna be there. I think so highly of you, it just isn't fair… That you have so little faith…" He sighed at the end, whispering, "Eh, it's a B side."

Connie walked up. "Dad, I hate seeing you like this, there's gotta be something else we can try!"

"Eh, I don't know, pumpkin. I mean, sound and stuff like this, this stuff's my whole world, and if I can't figure this out then I don't know, maybe it isn't even sound…." Doug whispered.

"Dad, if it isn't sound then what else could it be?" Connie looked back at the beach and saw the tv… the microphone… her violin…. wait…. The tv!

"Ah! Oh! Dad! Dad! Dad! Dad!" Connie was practically jumping.

"Are you okay?"

"What if it's…" Connie panted.

"Some other thing I'm not good at?"

She was too excited to speak so merely pointed to her eyes.

Doug frowned, struggling. "Magic... eyeballs…" He suddenly got it. "Oh my word, it's video!"

"We have to tell the Temps! It's video!" She Gave a squeal in excitement and started to run to the house. Doug closely followed. "Hey, slow down!"

The two burst into the room, Doug panting out, "I just want to help, have some faith in-"

"Um, we're over here." He turned to see the Temps reading on the window seat.

"I know my audio equipment seems like a pile of Earth junk to you but-"

"Bud, it's ok, don't beat yourself up-"

"No it's not, you guys don't give up on anything, except for me. Come on... it's not like I can make it any worse!" Doug cried. The Temps glanced at each other.
The Temps, Connie and Doug were on the beach.

"Okay, go for it Jasper." Peridot said, nodding to the hulking gem. She held the jump cables and electricity came out of her gem destabilizatior.

"Okay Lazuli, try it now." Peridot demanded. Lapis held a key sitting in the car and smirked. "I've never started a car with a key before." She turned it and the car went to life. "Ha, that's way easier!"

"The battery is ready to go." Peridot smiled.

"The Wailing Stone is ready." Connie said, adjusting the microphone.

"Ready with the video cord, Connie?" Doug asked. Connie held to cord and grinned. "Ready."

The girl plugged into the tv and a sound started up. The video was fuzzy, purple and white.

"That's it?!" Peridot cried.

"Just a second." Doug whispered, changing and moving buttons.

"I hear something." Connie said, tilting her head.

"Come on!" Doug cried. Suddenly, the video became clear, revealing a familiar gem.

"Connie!" Amethyst cried

"Amethyst!" Connie gasped, wondering if her summer friend was okay, she sounded so desperate.

"I did it!" Doug cried.

"I can't believe my flipping eyes!" Peridot said dryly.

"Shut it!" Jasper hissed.

Amethyst sighed. "I hope you're able to hear this... Pearl's looking for you, she even knew your name. She's on her way to Earth, and she's not alone. Connie, Homeworld is not the way it used to be. Everything here is so advanced, I can't
get it anymore. There's no way anything on Earth can stand up to it." The Temps including Connie were shocked. "Listen, don't put up a fight, us for, we're not something to be messed with!" Amethyst cried. It cut to static.

"Us three? What does she mean?" Peridot whispered.

"Oh no!" Lapis moaned. "They won't spare any of us! We all betrayed Homeworld in some manner!"

"Amethyst, she sounded so scared.. she's never scared." Connie sighed.

Lapis was panicking along with Peridot. "What are we going to do?!"

They were stopped by the loud cracking of knuckles. They turned to Jasper who said, "Welp, we did it."

"What?" Peridot whispered.

"We got the message, and that's just great!" Jasper cut off sharply. Her hands balled into fists but Lapis grabbed her before she could punch the tv. After a few seconds of panting, Jasper coughed and looked at Doug. "Well,
thanks Doug, couldn't have got that without ya."

"Y-you're welcome." Doug whispered with a tear in his eye.

Connie was still seated in the sand, staring at the static. She couldn't goof around right now… What was going to happen to Amethyst? To her father? Steven? The Temps? What was going to happen to Earth when these gems arrived?