Pink Pearl shut her eyes tight, waiting for her Diamond's rage to shatter her, but she only heard the temple around them crumbling. Her Diamond grunted from right above her, and she finally dared to open her eyes when everything became eerily silent again. She saw her Diamond crouching over her, the weight of the temple resting on top of him.

"Are you alright?" He asked through gritted teeth.

"No, my Diamond. Is it heavy?"

"Sort of, the more immediate problem is I'm about to panic and do something stupid, but if I do, you'll get hurt." He took a breath he didn't need, trying to calm himself, before shifting the weight on his back. The Temple groaned as he got an arm free, a noise that caused Pink Pearl to look around in panic.

"I got you into this, and you don't deserve to be in danger because of me. I'm sending you to the Spire." Steven tapped her on the head and she flinched as a bubble surrounded her.

"The Jaspers should let you out."

"Wait!" She yelled, but he had already sent her away.

"And now I'm alone again, at least I can't suffocate this time around." He closed his eyes before pushing the rubble up, causing it to collapse, leaving him encased in the broken stone.


"My Diamond!" The Jaspers yelled, throwing rock after rock behind them. They jumped back as the Temple collapsed again.

They glanced at each other, clasping hands and fusing into a giant Jasper. They quickly moved their attention back to the pile.

"My Diamond, we're coming for you!" They called down, starting to move the larger rocks, revealing a hand and part of a face. The temple started to rise, a pink hand breaking through and sending rubble flying everywhere. Steven's hand found theirs, pulling himself out while looking half mad, as he spun around looking for something.

"COME OUT!" He screamed, his shield forming on his hand with a triangular, razor sharp point.

"My Diamond, there's no enemy."

"NO... enemy." His shield disappeared and he closed his eyes again, suddenly tired.

"Go get Pearl at the Spire." Steven said, voice tight.

"Steven?" They ask hesitantly, reaching out for him. He slapped their hand away, pink sparks passing between them.

"I need a moment alone, go rescue Pearl."

"Yes, my Diamond." They agreed, turning and walking over to the ship. They threw one last look over their shoulder to see their Diamond kneeling in the rubble of his home.


Steven heard the ship leaving as he stared down at the Temple, the base of the Crystal Gems, his family, and home to a large number of bubbled corrupted gems.

"STEVEN!" He heard a voice yell out. The teen turned to see Kiki looking at him with wide eyes.

"HOLY SHIT, YOU'RE HUGE!" He stood and walked over to her from across the rubble.

"What are you doing here?"

"I heard an explosion and saw the cliff collapse. I was worried about you," Kiki admitted.

"Well, you don't need to be. That explosion was my temper getting out of hand and ruining another one of my homes."

"Your temper did this?!"

"It's explosive, but it won't happen again. I'll have to leave Beach City now." Steven said, looking at the Temple with a stoic face.

"Fine, but give me your number Steven. You don't get to just disappear."

"Why not? Before you, no one spoke to me outside of complaints or transactions for years! I'm an 18- foot tall pink emperor from an alien planet, raised by a rockstar and four war criminals. I don't fit in with humans or gems."

"No one fits in, but we like you. The Cool Kids love hanging out with you!"

"I'll end up hurting you, I lost control today and it might happen again."

"You're not scaring us off, Steven, we're your friends." He hummed and looked down.

"I'm going to have to leave town, but before that we'll need to excavate the Temple, there are a lot of corrupted gems down there. Hopefully I didn't release mindless monsters into Beach City during my tantrum."

She looked down. "You keep monsters in your house?"

"Where else would I put them, the Temple's heart is filled with them."

"You're wild Steven, we're having a conversation and then suddenly you just bring up something that totally blows my mind."

"That was my entire childhood."

He looked up to see the orange ship returning, a massive purple hand behind it. Steven became amused when he noticed that it was missing a thumb.

"Wow, I love hanging out with you."

"That would be the Quartzes, you can hang around for a while if you want to, but it's mostly going to be digging out the Burn Room from here."

"Okay, Daddy's gonna be mad I ran out anyways. Catch you later, Steven!" She exclaimed, snapping a picture of him before walking off.


The ships landed and the Jaspers rushed out, holding a pink bubble, a worried looking Pearl inside. He groaned, holding his nose in his hand.

"Why wouldn't you let her out?"

"We couldn't break the bubble." They admitted sheepishly. He walked over, and he saw Pearl flinch as he took the bubble into his hand. The bubble disappeared and Pearl landed on her feet gracefully.

"Are you okay?"

"Yes, my Diamond, I took no damage from the blast, nor the subsequent collapse."

"That's good," he sighed, looking to the famethyst. "Amethysts, we need to move these rocks. There were hundreds of corrupted gems in the Burning Room and their bubbles need to be loaded into the hand, don't touch anything else."

They nodded before starting to move rocks. Steven looked to his Jasper guard.

"I'll be moving to the Fountain, it's one of the few Crystal Gem locations I haven't ruined. We need to move the rubel and try to find the burning room, it's filled with bubbled, corrupted gems."

"Yes, my Diamond." The deep voiced fusion said, standing half a foot shorter than Steven. Steven looked her over, seeing her two torn Universe shirts.

"You'll need new shirts." He pointed out, causing them to look down, their eyes widening before glowing and being thrown apart.

"This is your fault!" The Jaspers yelled, glaring at each other.

"It's fine, they're pieces of cloth, I have more."

"Thank you, my Diamond."

"Now, we need to get these gems out and get this place sealed off, send for Peridot."

"Yes, my Diamond." They saluted before moving to the ship. Steven moved to the rubble pile with the quartzes and got to work.