Man, this show really likes making this difficult for me doesn't it? Not that I'm saying the new episodes were bad, I thoroughly enjoyed them. What I mean however, is that if you haven't seen them yet, they were made in a way that will without a doubt make my job here of incorporating the story I've built into them a bit difficult. I cannot stress this enough for the people who have seen them when they dropped early on the app, PLEASE support the show by watching them when they actually air on TV. As an added treat, Lapis is apparently going to be getting a half hour episode after this, so I guess she's coming back. If you haven't seen the episodes on the app yet SPOILER ALERT! *POKEMON AND STEVEN UNIVERSE ARE NOT OWNED BY ME*
"Gary." Ash said gently nudging his former bully turned friend with his foot as he slept in his kitchen floor sleeping bag. "Gary get your ass up." He repeated, this time kicking him harder.
"Ah geez Ash, what's wrong with you?"
"Get up and get changed. It's time we got you out of the house. I set you up with an interview with Mr. Smiley this morning at his place."
"Who?"
"Guy who runs Funland, like the name implies, he's a fun guy. Anyway, you're gonna interview for Misty's old job."
"What?" they heard Steven ask disappointedly from his bed as he got up. "I thought you were coming with me and Garnet to see Lars today?"
"Oh that's right, I forgot we were doing that today. Tell you what bud, why don't you get ready while I walk Gary to Mr. Smiley's house. When I get back, then we'll go."
"Sounds like a plan then!" Garnet happily exclaimed entering the kitchen from her room.
"Garnet?" Gary asked surprised, "how did you know? Oh right, I forgot, future vision."
"How do you forget something like that?" Ash teased him walking out the door together. "I mean, you had that power not too long ago."
"Thanks. Thanks for reminding me of that painful memory." he sarcastically retorted.
Ash couldn't help but sigh in regret and remorse. "Oh, I'm sorry man."
"Nah it's no problem. Fortunately, whatever Clemont did to get that Sapphire out of my face not only took away my "gift", but also wiped a lot of those painful memories. Homeworld did a number on me, I'm glad I can't remember it." He confessed as they walked.
Just as they stopped in front of Mr. Smiley's house, Ash did the only thing he could think to do to support his friend. He grabbed him and pulled him into a hug. "We're in this together Gary. You're a Crystal Gem as much as I am, even if I have a gem and you don't." he then joked to him. "Alright, I have an appointment in space with Steven, Garnet and my favorite merry band of space pirates."
Gary laughed "And I have an appointment with some guy named "Smiley".
"He told me to just let yourself in." he called as he turned back and began marching the way he came. "I'll see you later!"
After Ash was out of view, Gary opened the unlocked door. "Hello?" he called out to no answer. Seeing no one in the living room, Gary walked over towards the wall and saw a number of photos of the large, bald, black man with a mustache and wacky shirt, almost always with a goofy smile.
"There's a lot of men on this wall." he thought to himself as he continued his examination.
All of a sudden, he found himself not standing at all in Mr. Smiley's living room. Instead, he was standing in front of a woman he had never seen before in his entire life. She had a deep blue mullet, and matching blue skin.
"What the? Who are you?" he asked.
The blue girl just ignored him and continued to stare off into the distance. Following her gaze, he saw the area they were both standing in the crumbled and burning ruins of a town.
"What are you looking at?" he asked her turning back around to face her. Seeing her now, he was shocked by how much she had changed in appearance in the literal two seconds he took his eyes off her. Now she was nearly two months pregnant, and when he saw she was crying, he knew that what he was seeing wasn't some sort of "glitch in the matrix" type scenario. This was him reliving a memory he had buried of something he saw with his future vision. This was in fact the last thing he saw before Clemont took away his Sapphire.
"I've seen your tears Ash." he repeated to himself, "and they are crying."
As soon as he said this, the sound of a floorboard creaking behind him snapped him out of his repressed memory.
"YOU PICKED THE WRONG HOUSE FOOL!" Mr. Smiley screamed as he swung a large crowbar in Gary's direction.
"WOAH! WOAH! MR. SMILEY WAIT! I'M ASH'S FRIEND! HE TOLD YOU I WAS COMING OVER AND TO LET MYSELF IN!" he screamed as he ducked to escape the crowbar's wrath.
With the crowbar taking out a lamp instead of Gary, Mr. Smiley halted his attack and went from furious with intent to kill to extraordinary happy.
"You're Gary? Well shoot! Nice to meet yah!" He exclaimed throwing the crowbar away and taking out another one of his lamps in the process. "Sorry about that, thought you were some kind of psycho. Pulse I've been a little over the edge cuz of all the work I've had to do since Misty got alien abducted. I haven't had a wink of sleep for the past eight days!" He screamed into Gary's face.
"Man, sorry." The trainer uncomfortably said.
"Don't be sorry Larry."
"Gary."
"Don't be sorry. I'm used to going extremely long times without sleep. Why one time I-" But he failed to finish his sentence before he lost consciousnesses still standing up.
"Mr, Mr. Smiley?" Gary asked concerned. Thankfully, after a few snaps of his fingers in front of his face, Mr. Smiley jolted back to reality.
"WHAT THE? WHO ARE YOU! WHAT ARE YOU DOING IN MY HOUSE!?" He started to scream reaching for the crowbar again.
"MR. SMILEY!" Gary screamed in fear.
Seeing his face again, Mr. Smiley was quickly reminded of what was happening. "Oh right, you're Ash's friend Carrie."
"Gary."
He cleared his throat. "Right. Ok, let's get this interview started." He said putting a serious demeanor on. "First things first. Are you a registered sex offender?"
"No."
"Perfect! You're hired!" He happily exclaimed grabbing him and pulling into the tightest hug Gary had ever gotten in his life. "Now we celebrate! Let's go get some bagels!"
Ash felt the burning in his lungs as he ran from Mr. Smiley's house back to the Temple as fast as he could. Finally reaching the house, he burst through the door loudly. "Sorry I took so long." he called out as Pikachu leapt onto his shoulders from the couch. "I'm ready when you guys are."
"And where are you going?" Peridot asked exiting the bathroom.
"To space with Steven and Garnet." he answered taking note of the toolbox in the little, green Gem's hands. "What are you doing with that?"
"I figured that since we are rebuilding the barn, I might as well turn it into my greatest meep morp yet!" he excitement left suddenly and she regressed back into the depressed state as she finished her sentence. "You know, like a gift in case she does come back."
He put his arm on Peridot's shoulder to show his support. "Hey Peri, you heard what Cilan told us. She's fighting to get back. And when she does, I assure you it'll be permanent."
"Peri come on!" James shouted from outside.
"You and James huh?" Ash further inquired.
"It's his home too." she answered leaving him all alone in the living room.
"Steven?" he called out trying to find the young gem shortly after Peridot and James left. A mechanical hum came from the door as it burst open, causing him and Pikachu to jump in fright as Deoxys flew through the door and then circled the entire living room all while still chirping.
"Sorry Ash!" Steven answered as he and Garnet entered carrying a party style submarine sandwich nearly as big as he was. "Decided it would be nice to bring something for the off colors. Then Deoxys here kind of developed a mind of their own and thought it'd be fun to play."
"Uh, no sweat bud. You guys ready?"
"And how!" Garnet excitedly answered. "Let's go!"
Now that everyone was ready, the three entered Lion's mane. Because they didn't want to intimidate the others with Garnet's sudden presence, it was decided Ash and Steven went first. Approaching the oak tree that designated the pink dimension as the way to Lars, Steven went first. After a few seconds, Ash followed, landing on the floor of the sun incinerator with a thud.
"Ash!?" May and Dawn asked surprised by their sudden appearance.
"Hey." He answered them, still a little bitter about their last interaction.
"Who wants a party sub!?" Steven excitedly asked waving the sandwich around.
"What exactly are we celebrating?" Rhodonite asked very confused.
"You guys beat Emerald! You saved us from the jungle moon! And you have this super fast ship, so you'll be back on Earth in no time!"
Lars groaned in anger, "It only works super fast when it works!" he shouted, snatching the sandwich out from Steven's hands.
Flourite's massive build appeared from the lower deck. "Captain Lars." she slowly said, "I've. Finished. Rerouting.-"
"Power from the gravity engine to the nova thrusters?" the pink hued teen finished her sentence with a newfound hope. "Great! Twins, floor it on the thrusters!"
"Yes Captain!" Right Rutile responded.
"Right away Captain!" Left Rutile followed as the shared body pressed the button on the consul. The entire ship lurched forward, but immediately halted when the entire ship lost power.
"Captain Lars!" Padparadscha exclaimed. "Don't use the thrusters. We're going to lose power!"
"Thanks Padparadscha." he solomley answered her "prediction."
"Looks like we're stuck drifting until we can get the power back on." Dawn informed the captain.
"Hey, if we're gonna be drifting awhile," Steven spoke up. "There's someone we'd like you all to meet."
Lars looked over to Steven nervously. "Uh, are they bigger than that sandwich?"
"Maybe a few pickles bigger." Ash answered.
Lars groaned in annoyance. "Bigger than you and Ash?"
"I mean, they don't have to be." Steven answered.
"Fine." Lars reluctantly gave in. "Bring em' over."
With Lars giving his approval, Steven leapt back into the teen's hair to fetch Garnet.
"How's Sadie?" he then asked Ash as they waited.
"Great. The band is going places, and now she and the others are beginning their combat training to help fight Homeworld with us soon."
"Ash." May then addressed him. "Could we talk in private?"
As Lars waited for Steven to return, Ash followed May and Dawn towards the rear of the ship. "The last time we talked, things didn't work out so well between the three of us. And after Steven informed us about how hard Lapis is fighting to get back to you, we just wanted to say we were wrong about what we said. And for that, we're sorry."
He smiled and pulled them both into a hug. "Thanks you two. And I know you're both just looking out for my well being. Oh by the way May, did you eventually go through with that thing we talked about?" he asked trying to be subtle.
"What thing?" Dawn asked, answering his question as May blushed in embarrassment.
Before he could pester the coordinators any further, Lars's hair began to glow and Steven and Garnet shapeshifted into a copy of Steven leapt out.
"Twins!" he happily exclaimed posing with Garnet-Steven.
"Another Steven?" Fluorite asked amazed.
"There's more of you!?" Lars asked shocked.
Garnet-Steven glowed as she shifted back to her normal form. During the process, her signature glasses fell off her face exposing her trio of eyes.
"Her eyes." Right Rutile said.
"A fusion!" the Left Rutile retorted her partner.
"He's going to bring back another Steven!" Padparadscha declared.
"This is Garnet. She leads the Crystal Gems back on Earth."
Garnet looked at the off color crew as if she were a kid on christmas morning. "Just look at you all!" she exclaimed with a large smile. "You must be Rhodonite!" she said putting her in a hug. "A Ruby and a Pearl? That must have been a story. Want all the details." she said as she put her arm around her and lowered her glasses with a wink, almost as if they were gossiping.
All the star crossed fusion could do was laugh uncomfortably, as she had never been in this situation.
"And you must be the Rutile Twins!" Garnet said turning her attention to and putting her arms around the conjoined gems. "I've never seen anyone like you before!"
"We were…"
"...Made like this." they both answered her, sounding a little hurt.
Garnet then looked up to fusion of six. "Fluorite, woah, You're just beautiful."
Fluorite blushed in embarrassment.
Going from up to down, she finished with Padparadscha. "And here's Padparadscha, an orange Sapphire. How rare."
"I predict, you're going to make everyone uncomfortable."
Garnet looked around to see her good intentions were not interpreted the intended way. All the gems were looking around awkwardly and uncomfortable.
"It's not nice to make fun of us like that." Rhodonite told her.
"Haven't you guys heard a compliment before?" Steven asked.
"A what?" Right asked.
"What's that?" Left then asked.
"You know, it's when someone says something nice about you." Ash informed them.
"Who would say nice things about Gems like us?" Rhodonite asked. "We're completely inappropriate. And so are you! We should all be ashamed."
Garnet sighed. "Aw boys. These Gems feel just like I did before I met Rose Quartz."
"ROSE QUARTZ!?" the Gems all exclaimed.
"You met Rose Quartz!?" Left asked.
"And you survived?" Right asked as well.
"You guys know about Rose?" Steven asked.
"She was the Anti-Gem!" Rhodonite said in fear. "An organic beast that burst out of Earth's crust and vowed to destroy all Gems!"
"No, no." Right argued her. "She was made made from a vein of hyper-defective Quartz."
"A malformed Quartz gone haywire!"
"Don't. Be. Silly." Fluorite provided her own theory. "Rose. Quartz. Isn't. Real."
"You have it all wrong!" Garnet finally spoke up.
"Why didn't you two explain it to them?" Ash asked May and Dawn.
"Hey don't look at us. We were told the exact same kind of stuff by Homeworld."
"ROSE QUARTZ!?" Padparadscha said.
"Of course that's how they tell it on Homeworld." Garnet explained. "Come on everyone. Let me tell you all the story of the real Rose Quartz."
"Ring a ding ding!" Mr. Smiley exclaimed barging into the Big Donut with Gary right behind him. "Serena! We'll need your finest bagels!"
Serena looked at him concerned. "Mr. Smiley are you sure you're alright? You were in here not even an hour ago asking for bagels and we told you three times that we don't sell bagels."
"What!?" he screamed. "But the bagel on the roof-"
"Mr. Smiley, we're the Big Donut. Are you sure you're alright?"
"Oh I'm fine." he said sounding out of breath. "I think I just need a moment."
As Mr. Smiley sat down at a table, Gary looked over towards Serena. "Can we talk about something in private?"
After she made sure there were no other customers, she lead him into the back where Clemont was working on baking. The back area of the store was a kitchen and prep room.
"Uh, what's that?" Gary asked nervously pointing towards the back wall. Covered in soot and ash, was the imprint of a person looking panicked.
"Sadie called that: "The Accident"." Serena explained. "That's all she and Lars told me before it was just myself and Clemont. What do you need to talk about?"
"How well did you guys know Lapis?"
"I only met her once." Clemont told him.
"She and I had a, complicated relationship to say the least."
"How so?"
Serena sighed. "When I first arrived here, I was still in love with Ash. Heck, I'm still not sure if I'm over him or not."
"Hold on," Clemont interrupted her. "I thought you and Jamie were a thing now after Deoxys attacked?"
"We talked about that after. The attraction is there, but we've mutually decided to take things slow for now. Just until we both fully get everything under control. Anyway, Lapis and I have a rivalry going on I guess. Things just got even crazier after-" but she quickly stopped herself with a gasp and covered her mouth with her hands. The secret she'd been keeping from everyone had finally come out by accident.
"After what?"
She knew there was no hiding it now. With a deep breath, she confessed to Clemont and Gary. "Please don't tell Ash, but the night Lapis left she was acting very strangely before she abandoned him. Me and Misty investigated, and." she had to pause. "We think Lapis might be pregnant with Ash's child."
Both men looked at her then at each other in shock.
"If you think this, why haven't you told him?" Clemont asked.
Serena began to tear up. "How could I tell him? How can you tell someone that their soulmate is going to die and leave a child all alone?"
"There's more that we need to be concerned about." Gary spoke up. "Tell me, what does Lapis look like?"
"She's Ash's height. Blue skin, and a matching blue mullet. Blue dress too."
Gary's worst fears were confirmed. "Memories of what I saw as a Sapphire are coming back during my, uh, bagel run."
"Oh Arceus, what did you see?"
"I saw Lapis standing in a burning town. I didn't see much, but I saw her crying. She was also pregnant."
Serena broke down crying her eyes out now at the news.
"Hey, hey. Calm down Serena." Clemont tried to consult her.
But Gary wasn't taking the news well either. "I could feel it guys. I felt her fear, her anger, her sorrow. But there was something else I felt overall. I felt death."
"But. What do you mean you felt death?" Serena cried into Clemont's arms.
"I-I don't know. But all I do know, when whatever, or whenever, I saw happens to her, and death follows in her wake. I'm just not sure who."
The construction crew that Greg had hired to rebuild the burned down barn had finished their work for the week and had left the shell of the nearly finished building. All that was missing was the front wall.
James and Peridot had recruited Amethyst to help them pull the final wall up so the construction would go faster. Using her whip, Amethyst had created a pulley system and now all three were standing ready to put the wall into place.
"Ready?" James asked.
Both smaller Gems nodded.
"Alrighty then. On the count of three, we pull. Ready? One. Two. Three!"
Because of Amethyst's brute strength, the actual process was the easiest thing James had ever done. Within seconds, the wall was firmly in place and the trio began celebrating with cheers and high fives.
After one of his gleeful neigh of a laugh, James turned back towards the other two. "Alright. I'm just gonna go and get the paint so we can get a head start on the-" but he stopped dead in his tracks when he suddenly bumped into the wall, as there was no door. "Peri? Amethyst?" he asked turning back towards the others.
"Yeah?" Amethyst asked, seemingly ignorant to the situation.
"Where's the door hole?"
Peridot scoffed at him. "It's right there James. See? Amethyst and I drew it on with a marker." she explained pointing towards the wall. Sure enough, there was a crude drawing of the outline of the door to the barn done in a black marker.
James gave a "I can't believe this" look towards them. "You were both supposed to cut the door out with the power saw!"
"Dude," Amethyst interrupted him. "We're gonna."
"Oh really?"
"Yes."
James's look turned from annoyed at the unbelievable situation, to furry. "So go get the power saw." he said gesturing for either of them to go out through the "door".
"Ok fine!" Peridot exclaimed going towards the door. After she bumped right into the wall, the reality of the situation finally struck her. "I see the problem."
"OH DO YOU!?"
"Dude, calm down." Amethyst said "I'll just break through the wall."
"NO!" Peridot sternley protested. "If you do, the whole barn will collapse! Then we'll be back at square one. We're this close to getting our home back!" tears began falling down her face now. "I-I don't want to lose my home again."
Seeing how much this place meant to Peridot, Amethyst backed down. "Alright Peri. Well, looks like we're stuck here until the construction crew comes in the morning."
"No, the crew doesn't work on the weekend." James told her.
"But today's Friday! You mean we're stuck here for the entire weekend?"
"Not if Peri uses her tablet to call Greg or Steven."
"Yes!" Peridot said, her demeanor changing from depressed to enthusiastic. But as soon as she began reaching for her device, her face turned to panic. "It's not here!"
"What!?" Amethyst screamed grabbing her shoulders and shaking her. "You always have that thing! Where'd do put it!?"
"I-I think I left it on the toolbox outside."
James shrieked in worry. "That's just great! Now we're stuck here indefinitely!"
"It was Era 1. The Diamonds, unique in their flawlessness, sought to expand their perfection across the galaxy. And it was for this purpose that Pink Diamond chose her first colony, the planet Earth." Garnet explained.
"On Earth, every Gem was made to serve Pink Diamond, each with a role to play in her world's perfect empire. In comparison to their creator, their existence was ordinary. They were life-forms only meant to fit their mold, and no one had ever dared to think otherwise. Until there was Rose Quartz."
Ash looked at Steven and saw him tense up a bit at the mention of his mother's name. All he could do was put his arm on Steven's shoulder to show his support as Garnet continued.
"In stature, she was no different than any other Quartz, and for a time, she did her best to carry out her Diamond's bidding. However, she began to take notice of her strange colony and the life that existed there. Curiosity turned to appreciation. Appreciation turned to fondness. And fondness, turned to love. Soon she was unable to keep her findings a secret, and she began asking her fellow Gems if they knew of the life on Earth and what they made of it. She continued to pry her fellow kindergartners with questions so odd that word eventually made its way to Pink Diamond. Rose Quartz was summoned at once."
"Quartz" she then said in her impression of Pink Diamond.
"Began Pink Diamond." she then said in her normal voice.
"What have you been saying down there?" she continued with her impression of the slain Diamond.
"Why, Diamond." she then said in her impression of Rose.
"Rose pleaded,"
"It has come to my attention that your colony, Earth, bears life." The Rose impression continued. "While I know these organic life-forms serve no purpose, I ask that we leave this planet and spare their lives."
"Pink Diamond thought for a moment." Garnet returned to her normal speaking voice. "And then laughed, a wicked empty sound."
Putting back on her Pink Diamond impression "You wish to save these life-forms at the expense of our own? Ha! Don't be absurd. Return to your post, and I will forget your insolence."
"And with that, Rose Quartz was dragged back to her kindergarten for duty. Only Rose could no longer stand to continue aiding the destruction of Earth. She had no choice. She had to fight."
"Is this what you want? To inject? To build? I've seen the life that exists for itself, and it lives here!" she boomed in the speech Rose gave years ago. "Will you destroy it? Or will you join in it?"
"Rose's message began to resonate, to Pink Diamond's dismay. Her colony was falling apart. So, like a coward, she called for her Diamond allies, Yellow and Blue, to help. But Rose also found herself with allies, other Gems that were cast out for being wrong. A Pearl who belonged to no one. A Bismuth who built weapons for rebels instead of towers for tyrants. An entirely new fusion not for power, but for love. And countless other, all inspired by Rose to live for ourselves on Earth. She was our leader. And Earth was our precious home. And those who fought to save it became known as the Crystal Gems!"
Garnet's story resonated with everyone and light a fire under all of them. With a new sense of what Rose Quartz was, the off colors all stared in wonder.
"Unbelievable." Rhodonite softly said.
"There were Gems like us?" Right Rutile asked rhetorically.
"Fighting." Padparadscha said surprisingly in tune with everyone else.
"For. Their. Freedom?" Fluorite slowly asked.
"Yes, and we were fearless. It was an impossible fight, but we fought anyway. And the more Gems who saw us, the more who joined. But Pink Diamond's forces proved far too strong. Rose feared that soon she would have nothing left to protect. So Rose Quartz drew her rebel blade, and shattered Pink Diamond, saving the Earth for all time from her reign of terror."
"Your mom did all that!?" Lars asked Steven enthusiastically. "That's awesome!"
"Wait, what about the rest?" Rhodonite asked worryingly, "What happened after that?"
Ash, Steven, Pikachu and Garnet all looked at each other, knowing now Garnet was about to have to tell the most tragic part of Rose's story.
"The other Diamonds were furious. In a last ditch attempt to wipe out the rebellion, the Diamonds launched a direct attack against the Earth, and in their fury, they used their powers to end the fighting once and for all."
Ash remembered something Steven had said the last time he saw Centipeetle. "Damage from the Diamonds."
"I predict this story won't have a happy ending." Padparadscha "predicted".
"We were all told different stories." Left Rutile said.
"But they all ended the same way." Right Rutile followed.
"With. Rose Quartz. Being. Defeated." Fluorite finished, bringing the depressing mood back.
"This new version of the story is even worse!" Rhodonite wailed. "So, she was great, and they beat her? What are we supposed to get out of this? That we can never win?"
"We haven't yet, but we can." Garnet answered her removing her glasses to express her emotions, a rarity for the leader. "And we will! They said they annihilated Rose's rebellion, but here we are. They said they annihilated all of you on Homeworld, but here you are. They think they have us on the run, but they're the ones that are running from the truth. And the truth is, we are everywhere!"
"But how many of us can there be?" Rhodonite pessimistically asked.
"Way more than you think!" Steven decreed. "I was only on Homeworld for two days before I ran into you guys. There must be off colors all over the place!"
"And I wasn't even conscious before I met my friends working undercover on Homeworld." Ash said referring to Blue Zircon, Topaz and the Lapis squad.
"Rose used to say there was something about Earth. Something that set Gems free. But it's not just Earth. Look at you. Love, freedom, it's universal. You all prove it every moment you live as yourselves. You can show everyone." Garnet continued.
"We can do that?" Dawn asked.
"Not while we're floating around out here like sitting ducks!" Lars announced "Fluorite, let's take another look at that engine."
After Lars and his crew went down to the engine room to figure out the problem, Ash and Steven both sat down with Garnet as they waited.
"Hey, uh, Garnet?" Steven asked her. "When Connie, Ash, May and I were stranded on the jungle moon, I, we, saw something, a vision of Pink Diamond."
"What?" Ash asked surprised. "So did I."
"When Blue Diamond came to Earth, I had dreams where I saw through her eyes, and both Ash and I were crying her tears. If I'm having the same dreams about Pink Diamond, what if that means she's still out there?"
Garnet thought about it for a moment. "She's gone boys. Your mother made sure of that."
"But, we're both feeling such a strong connection." Ash continued.
Garnet wrapped herself around her boys. "Steven, you have empathetic powers that other Gems don't have. And Ash, your aurora has power that nobody can fully understand. You're both unusual, like them and like me. It's not something to fear. It's something to celebrate."
After her motivation, the lights came back on as the power returned. "Yes!" Lars announced "We did it!"
"Does this mean you guys can get back to Earth now?" Ash excitedly asked.
"Not yet Ash." May answered him. "The nova thrusters still need repairs."
"We can hit up the nearest colony for parts!" Lars decreed sitting back down in his captain's chair. "Rhodonite, tell me there's one nearby."
"Well, we aren't far from one of Yellow Diamond's asteroid mines. But that place will be crawling with Agates, Captain. It's incredibly dangerous!"
Lars laughed "so are we. Oh man this'll totally get under Emerald's skin more than we've ever have. Let's go!"
Mr. Smiley and Gary's quest for bagels had taken them to the outskirts of Beach City towards Ocean Town's Bagel Empire. Now they were sitting in the parking lot with a dozen bagels, but Mr. Smiley noticed the worried look on Gary's face.
"What's going on? You've gotta eat to keep your strength up Brandon."
"I'm Gary!" he screamed at him. "And in case you didn't notice Mr. Smiley, I'm going through a lot right now because I'm seeing someone's fate!"
For the first time the entire day, Mr. Smiley looked at him seriously. "Seeing fate? You mean like how Steven's big, red mom can?"
"Exactly."
"What, you see something crazy, like oh I don't know, a pregnant lady die?"
Gary nodded.
The smile faded from Mr. Smiley's face. "Oh damn, for real? Well, good thing it's only a POSSIBLE future you saw, and wasn't set in stone."
Gary looked at his employer oddly. "How do you know so much about future vision?"
Mr. Smiley laughed as he started up the car and began pulling out of the parking lot. "Believe it or not, Gary, but about a couple months ago Steven used it to help me out. See, a long time ago I had a falling out with a…." he paused for a moment, "...an old friend. Through circumstances Steven got that future vision thing. And at that same time, he came back to try and bury the hatchet. The problem with Mr. Frowney was-"
"Hold up." Gary interrupted, "Mr. Frowney? Like his actual name was Frowney?"
"Quentin Frowney thank you very much." Mr. Smiley said as he turned the car onto the highway turnpike. "Anyway, the problem was, that Frowney and I had conflicting personalities. And everytime I tried to make him feel better, his depression caused him to interpret it badly. And no matter what I would do or say, Steven only saw the situation ending badly. But you know what I did?"
"What?"
"I just ignored what he said, and talked to him anyway. And you know what? Steven was wrong. And because I just ignored what I saw, I got my partner back. And although he went back to London, we still make time to talk every single day."
Gary looked at him in disbelief. "So what you're saying is, even though your foreseen future was nothing but doom and gloom, you just ignored it and everything wound up alright?"
"Uh pretty much, yeah."
Gary leaned back in his seat in disbelief. "You know what? After all the crap I've gone through with the secrets and lying I've had to do about this, ignoring it is ironically the best advice I've gotten."
"EXACTLY!" Mr. Smiley screamed looking over towards Gary, taking his eyes off the road in the process.
"MR. SMILEY WATCH THE ROAD!" Gary screamed in fear as the car swerved into the next lane. Thankfully, he was just barely able to steer the car back into the proper lane before they could crash into the car next to them.
"Watch where you're driving yah moot!" the guy in the car they nearly hit screamed at them, throwing his shoe at them in the process.
The rest of the drive back to Beach City was in complete silence following their near death experience. After a few hours, Mr. Smiley pulled up towards the boardwalk just outside the Temple.
"Uh, thanks for the job, bagels and advice Mr. Smiley." he said getting out of the car.
"No problem, just be at Funland first thing in the morning. And keep in mind, fate isn't set in stone kid. And sometimes, things are a lot better than they appear to be. I'll bet your pregnant friend will be alright."
As soon as Gary stepped inside the Temple, Lion's mane glowed as Ash, Steven, Pikachu and Garnet returned.
"Well," Pearl said from the sofa, a book in her lap. "So much for my alone time."
"What do you mean alone time?" Ash asked.
"Amethyst, Peridot and James have been missing all day." she answered.
"I'm sure they're just working on the barn still." Ash answered. "Gary what's up? You look like you've got a lot on your mind."
"Huh? Oh, it's just…" Gary halted debating telling Ash his newfound discovery. Then he remembered what Serena had told him. "Nothing, just had an interesting day. Now, who wants a bagel?"