Author's Note: Hey again! Welcome back to another chapter. I know you want to see the whole gang get together, but there needs to be some build up. I promise the payoff will be worth it! Enjoy the chapter, and if you're liking the story, a Fav or Follow is always appreciated! Thanks for reading!

Chapter Five - The Gem Forge

As they emerged on the other side of the portal, Jake noticed two things. First, he was struggling to breathe; the air had grown thin. Second, he was cold. He glanced around the area, seeing stones and snow, and beyond that open sky. They were on the side of a mountain.

"Ayo, what the heck? Where are we?" Jake said, rubbing his arms to keep warm as he peered over the side and down to the plummeting depths of the earth below. .

"W-where ever we are," Steven said, his teeth chattering as he turned back to give Jake a brave look. "It's a little c-c-cold."

Jake noticed then, that Steven was wearing flip-flops and a t-shirt. No wonder he was so cold. Not to mention, the inner flame of the dragon kept Jake running hotter than most. He was about to say something on the subject when there was a roar from behind him. The pink lion then emerged through the portal, and it sealed shut behind him.

"Lion, wait- Noooo!" Steven said, diving towards the portal and then landing in the snow as it vanished. The lion blinked down at him, with a puzzled expression on its face. Then, it licked its paw. Steven stood, brushing snow off of himself. His whole body was shivering now. "Well… Looks like we b-better start looking for a warp pad."

"What? Why don't you just have him bring us back," Jake asked. Then, he sized the two of them up. A sniffling kid and a half-ton lion. It was then that he began to understand the relationship the two shared. "He doesn't listen to you, does he?"

"Not really," Steven said, looking a little defeated. A gust of wind blew past and caused him to shiver further.

"Here," Jake said.

The young teen walked over to a lump of snow near Steven, using his sleeve to brush away the white powder. As he had suspected, there was a dead bush there. It took some work, but Jake managed to uncover most of it. It would have to do. Steven watched him, sniffling occasionally, as he worked. Then, Jake took a couple steps back, and framed the bush in his fingers, squinting one eye.

"What are you doing?" Steven finally asked.

"Move like a foot to the left," Jake said. Confused, Steven complied. Jake grinned. "Alright, check this out. Head of the Dragon!"

There was a burst of light, and a precious moment where Steven felt heat against his face. Then, when the light faded, Jake's head had been replaced with the oversized, intimidating visage of the red dragon. Steven marveled as Jake reared back and let loose a gob of flame from his mouth. The little fireball pelted its way towards the bush, and when it connected, the dead plant was set aflame. Steven quickly squatted next to the blaze, rubbing his hands together.

"Oh, sweet warmth. Thanks, Jake!" he said.

"No problem," Jake said. He has one hand in his pocket, and was looking out across the mountainside with his newly formed draconic eyes. The dragon's eyes were far better than his usual, and he quickly spotted something higher up the side of the peak. "Hey, what's that?"

"Hm?" Steven asked. Jake pointed it out to him, and Steven had to squint to see it, however surely enough it was there. Some kind of structure, or at least a large, carved gateway to one. It was, in some ways, reminiscent of the ruins he and the gems had explored before. Steven's heart soared. "Woah, hey, a Gem Ruin!"

"Is that what it is?" Jake asked.

"Uh-huh!" Steven confirmed. "I knew lion would take us somewhere cool… But, uh, how are we gonna get up there?"

"I guess you forgot," Jake said smugly, striding forward. "Or did you not see me on the way in? Dragon Up!"

There was another burst of flame, and Jake's body transformed. His legs and arms grew thick and strong, with heavy claws. A long tail shot out of the base of his spine. Huge, leathery wings peeled their way from his shoulder blades, and spines sprouted up along his back and down the length of his tail. He was now 9 feet of glorious lizard. He had become the dragon.

"Oh, yeah!" Steven remembered ecstatically. "You're a dragon!"

"Climb on," Jake said, leaning low to give Steven access to his back. As the other boy climbed aboard, Jake turned back to look at the pink lion, who was only slightly surprised by his transformation. "Will he be OK?"

"Who, lion?" Steven said, turning to look at him. Then, he grinned. "He'll keep up."

"Word," Jake said. "OK, buckle up! You're riding Am-Drag Airlines, and we don't use breaks!"

"What's an Am-DraAAAAG!" Steven started to ask before Jake was suddenly blasting through the air.

One pound of his enormous wings and a heavy kick from his legs sent them rocketing into the sky, and Steven's skin peeling back on his face. To his pleasant surprise, Steven found that Jake's scales were warm, and kept him from feeling hypothermic in the whipping mountain wind. They made breakneck pace towards the gem ruin, Jake swerving in between peaks, leaning here and there to swipe at some piled up snow with his claw. They both cheered as Jake did a loop-de-loop through a circular rock formation, and came shooting out the other side. Then, finally, with both of them windswept and their hearts racing, they landed at their destination. An outcropping of carved stone, jutting out jaggedly against the mountainside. Jake leaned into haphazard landing, causing Steven's teeth to clack together. Once they had landed, there was a distant, echoing roar, and both boys turned to see the pink lion, bounding from peak to peak, leaving glowing pink discs where its paws touched.

"Glad you made it, boy," Steven said, rubbing the lion's mane affectionately as it arrived. Then, they all turned to the ruin.

As Steven had suspected, the ruin was a pair of enormous doors, carved in the same stone-tech fusion that most ancient gem locations did. As the unusually trio of lion, dragon, and half-alien approached the door, they found no visible handle or access of any kind, save for a strange keyhole. It was small and square, dwarfed by the two doors it sealed together. It had a strange, geometric spiral pattern on the inside, which was caked with ice and snow. Something about the shape of the hole was familiar to Steven. He's seen it before… But where?

"So, what do you think? Jake asked. "Is it an ancient alien crash site."

"Something like that," Steven humored him, still pondering the keyhole.

"How do we get it open?"

"I'm working on that..." Steven said.

Jake raised an eyebrow at Steven's creased forehead, and, leaving the other boy to his thoughts, decided that he would exhaust their obvious options first. He strode up to the door on his hind lands, and slid his powerful claws into the sliver where the doors were separate. Then, with a grunt of preparation, he heaved with both arms in opposite directions, trying to pry the door open himself. To no surprise, he found that they were incredibly heavy, and after a few more substantial tries, the young dragon gave up, panting thick steam into the frosty mountain air.

"Forcing it's a no-go. I don't know if its's frozen or sealed tight or what," Jake said, turning back to Steven. "Do you think… What the-?"

Jake blinked in surprise as he watched Steven's flip-flopped feet vanished into the mane of the lion, who didn't seem perturbed in the slightest. Jake rubbed his draconic eyes, unsure of what he had seen, and the lion side-eyed him as if he were the one acting strange. As Jake was about to approach the lion and try to see what it had done with Steven, the other boy suddenly resurfaced. There was dull, pink glow, and suddenly Steven's curly head was gasping for air as it protruded from the back of the lion's head. The beast only flicked an ear in response as the rest of Steven came tumbling out and into the snow.

"Found it!" Steven said.

"Wait, found what? Dude, where did you go?" Jake asked incredulously. Steven stood, brushing off snow, as he proudly brandished a strange, multi-chromatic stone, shaped like a squared-off pyramid.

"The key!" Steven said. "It was bubbled inside lion's mane. Kinda weird."

Jake blinked.

"Just like… In there?"

"Yeah!" Steven said, reaching a hand into the glowing pink mass of fur for demonstration. "There's all kinds of cool stuff in there. I might even start storing some of my stuff there, too."

"So not only can your lion teleport and walk on air," Jake said, reaching forward to try to touch the beasts mane. It promptly snapped its jaws at his draconic fingers, and he retracted the hand. "But it can store stuff too? Dude, where do I get one?"

"He showed up when I was captured on an alien spaceship," Steven said.

"Oh, well, naturally. Where else do you get a lion of this caliber?"

"And we think he might be connected to my mom," Steven continued, walking towards the door with the supposed key in hand.

"Which one? The bird lady with the annoying voice? Oh, or the one with the cool sunglasses."

Steven paused sadly as he inspected the strange keystone in his hands, turning it over and over as he was overcome with a sudden, strange anxiety.

"No, not… Not Garnet, Amethyst or Pearl. My real mom. She, uh, died, I guess. When I was born."

The wind blew through the silence that fell, then. Jake looked at Steven's back sympathetically, and in a faint puff of fire that was quickly consumed by mountain wind, he was in his human form once more. The young dragon put his hand on Steven's shoulder.

"Hey, man, I'm really sorry. I know what it's like… My real dad was never around either. Mom doesn't like to talk about it, but I know she's still hurting."

"My dad, too," Steven said, still absently stroking the odd, rainbow stone. Jake noticed a tear had welled up in Steven's eye, and watched as the boy quickly wiped it away. "Sorry, I don't mean to-"

"It's cool, dawg," Jake said with a shrug. "You gotta talk about it… My friend Trixie says that boys can be stupid because we don't like to let our feelings out. We just bottle 'em up until they explode."

"It's not just boys," Steven said, thinking back on Pearl and her frequent emotional outbursts and shutdowns. Jake nodded as if what Steven had said was some sage wisdom.

"True that," he said. Then he jutted his chin towards the door. "Now come on, open it up already. Even I'm starting to feel numb."

"OK." Steven said, wiping his tears once more and bracing himself. "Let's try this out."

The boy pushed the keystone into the hole. At first, it didn't fit, but Steven rotated it a couple of times until the grooves on the inside of the keyhole lined up with the grooves on the outside of the rainbow colored rock. There was a satisfying snap as the stone was locked into place. Less than a second later, the dull lights that seemed chiseled into the stone doors burst to live. A light show began as energy seemed to run up and down the ruin's entrance, until, with a heavy hiss and a wave of steam, the doors crunched open.

They were met with a rush of warm, stale air as the they were exposed to the interior of the gem ruin. It was a towering stone room, the size of a hangar. Dust clung to the frozen air and shadows stretched long over the rooms contents; hundreds of weapons and sets of armor. Everywhere the two boys looked they saw more regalia. Their curious eyes led to wandering feet, and soon they were walking into the ruin, mouths agape, scanning the various incredible works. Jake approached a strange looking item: it was like some kind of spike, mounted on an oversized gauntlet. As he was inspecting the item, Steven's voice interrupted his thoughts.

"Maybe this is where Lion got the sword… Phew, it's like an oven in here," Steven said. He was starting to boast a small glister of sweat on his forehead. Jake, who actually felt quite comfortable, raised an eyebrow.

"Oh, you think it's hot, now?" He said, setting down the gauntlet. Steven blinked.

"Yeah," he said. "Like- Like an oven."

"What do you think this place is?" Jake said, moving he conversation forward impatiently.

"I don't know…" Steven said. As they walked towards the far end of the room they saw what appeared to be a massive, stone pit. It was empty, and there were various bellows and vents seemingly connected to a set of instruments and machines above the pit. He squinted at them, and something tickled the back of his mind. Something from a trivia flashcard. "Uh, hang on… Pearl taught me something about this. It goes like: 'The bellows of the gem forge… Steamed late into the night…' Dang, how does the rest go?"

Jake raised an eyebrow, watching as Steven racked his brain for the remainder of the gem proverb. Then, he noticed something glint in the corner of his eye. He turned casually, and saw, reflecting in a shiny, square shield, that something near the entrance of the ruin was glowing white. He looked to Steven, who seemed really focused, and shrugged.

"You keep at it," he said, "I'm gonna go check somethin' out."

"OK," Steven said distractedly, tapping his chin. "Was it 'bellows' or 'bowels'? … Bellows right?"

Jake walked back towards the open doors, expecting to find another mystery portal, or else some other secret trick that Steven's lion boasted. However, as he made it to the doorway, Jake found that the lion was not in fact the source of the light. In fact, the pink beast was standing a few meters back from the glowing door, its hackles raised, its eyes silently locked onto the true source. Jake followed the lion's gaze to the keyhole of the door. It was glowing a brilliant white color.

"Uh, yo, Steven?" He said.

"I almost got it!" Steven called back.

The keystone began to wiggle and change shape, becoming and amorphous blob of white light that morphed its way out of the slot and onto the ground. Then, it began to pulse and grow larger. The lion growled deep within its chest.

"Nah, bro, like now!" Jake shouted. "Dragon Up!"

A burst of light later, and Jake was the Dragon once more. He winced, though, as he felt a splint in his side. He was pushing it. He really needed a snack. A quinoa bowl sounded like heaven right about then. Steven came running, and Jake and the lion squared off with the new potential threat. Just as Steven broke the doorway, there was a quiet chime, and the light took form. First, a strong, grey frame, with some deep, dark tattoos. Then, a light-cloth smock and boots, and finally a magnificent mane of dreadlocks, each one a different, vibrant color of the rainbow. To his shock, Steven saw that, in the center of her chest, was the keystone he had used to open the door. It had been her gemstone.

This was a gem.

As she took form, the tall alien was off-balance and confused. She blinked rapidly, swayed dangerously to one side, and suddenly locked onto Jake. She furrowed her brow, her eyes overcast, and one meaty hand suddenly shapeshifted into a weighted, gray hammer-head. Jake shifted a foot back into a defensive combat stance, before, simultaneously, Steven and the lion jumped in the middle of the confrontation.

"Wait a second!" Steven shouted. The lion snarled its agreement. The large gem was now even more shaken, but the darkness left her eyes, and she took a step back, her hand returning to normal.

"A… human?" She said, shaking her head slowly. "What, I-?

Jake, sensing that she was not as hostile as she might have first appeared, let the Dragon's form drop with another flash. No sense in wasting his energy. He was unsure if he would have to fly Steven, himself, and potentially even this bulky newcomer back to Beach City. His absent wings ached just thinking about it. The gem's eyes widened as he transformed, and then she turned to Steven, who seemed to be commanding the situation.

"Hey, excuse me, listen…" She sad tentatively. "I… There's been some kind of mistake. We're the only one's here, so, how's about we don't get off to the wrong foot… Can you help me out? Where are we?"

Steven's stance softened, and he dropped his clenched fists.

"We're at the gem forge," he said. "We came here on accident."

"The forge…?" The gem said. She turned around, and looked upon the ancient ruin. Her eyes were lost and distant for a long while, the mountain wind gently tossing her hair as she took it in. A single tear dripped out of her right eye. "Its… Not going."

"Probably not for many centuries…" Steven said gently. The gem looked down at him suddenly, shocked at his answer.

"That long…? What about the war?"" She choked up. Steven tried to get a little closer. His eyes were full of sympathy.

"Listen… What's your name?" He said. "The world's changed a lot since the Gem War. I want to help."

The gem looked at him with wide, lost eyes, and for a moment, she felt a familiar sense of reassurance there. She felt an odd pang of nostalgia. She nodded to him.

"My name is-"

"BISMUTH?" Came a sudden voice from behind them