Twoie couldn't bring himself to look at the gems during the trip back to the house. He knew they should probably discuss the fight, but honestly, that was the last thing Twoie wanted to do. He didn't think he could bear the gems telling him how much he messed everything up. It was easier to just ignore it.
The gems had tried chatting a little with Steven, but only Amethyst seemed to get a response, although it was terse. Guess he was still mad as well. At least they were pretty close to the warp. Twoie offered a hand to Peridot, who took it without question, and the two brothers hopped back up to the warp. They didn't wait for the gems to catch up since the warp wouldn't fit everyone anyway.
Peridot immediately asked for a cardboard box the moment they arrived. Steven ran off to get one while Twoie waited for her to continue. Neither paid attention to the gems when they arrived. Instead, Peridot turned and asked him for a pointer and some drawing utensils. He nodded and collected both from his teaching supplies. The gems watched as Peridot and Steven set up a display for them. Twoie sat on the couch behind them so he could help if needed.
"As it seems I have no other options, I have conceded to reveal some important information to you Crystal Gems about the Cluster." Peridot turned from her finished drawing so she could give her presentation. Garnet and Pearl were doing their best to keep any negativity from showing while Amethyst looked on in amusement. She was already laughing in her mind at how serious Peridot was while Steven was walking around underneath a box.
Peridot snapped her fingers, and Steven edged closer. The first face of the box had a drawing of the earth. "This!" She smacked the tip of the stick against it. "Is the earth. At the very center of the planet's core lies the Cluster. Rotate." Steven turned in place so that a drawing of a rock formation in what looked like the inside of the earth was visible. "This is the Cluster." She pointed at the center of the drawing. "A massive artificial fusion composed of millions of gem shards." The gems exchanged a look with each other, already horrified at the idea.
"It has laid dormant for thousands of years within this planet's crust. When this gem activates and takes its form, the result will be catastrophic!" Steven turned back to the drawing of the earth. She smacked the box again with her pointer. "Now." Twoie chuckled as Steven made whirring noises, while constantly bending his knees so the box moved up and down. The subject matter was serious, but leave it to his little brother to enthusiastically play his role in the presentation.
"Bwaah!" A green monster sock puppet burst through the picture. The gems gasped in horror, but Peridot stared at the box in annoyance. "Bwah, bwah, bwah!" Steven continued as he moved the sock puppet around.
"What is that?!" Peridot stared aghast at the little green sock puppet.
"It's the Cluster." The puppet's mouth moved with his words. Peridot smacked her hand over its face. Twoie held in a snort of laughter at their antics.
"It does not look like that." She sighed as she turned back to her audience. "But it is real, and it can activate at any moment!"
Steven turned the puppet to face the audience. "Bwaaah…" Twoie snickered but froze when he got a glare from Pearl and Garnet. He looked away.
Garnet rose from her position and stood before the rest of the Crystal Gems. "That abomination must be stopped."
Pearl contemplated her words. "But how? We'll need to build some sort of machine to take us to the center of the earth. It'll have to be-" Pearl recoiled as the tip of the pointer appeared in front of her face.
"I wasn't finished!" Peridot growled. She cleared her throat. "What we need is some sort of machine to take us to the center of the earth. It'll need to withstand up to 360 gigapascals of pressure and temperatures of up to 9,800 degrees."
Pearl couldn't keep her annoyance from showing as Peridot essentially reiterated what she was going to say. "Well, we need to start finding parts for this machine immediately."
The green gem nodded in agreement. "Yes, obviously."
Twoie's eyes widened and he stood up. "We'll start by dismantling all devices inside the dwelling." The young man grabbed her by the waist before she could run into the kitchen. Steven had pulled the cardboard box off in worry but slumped in relief when he noticed Peridot in his brother's grasp."Hey! Put me down. It's a small sacrifice to pay to save the planet!" She struggled in his hold.
"I know where we can go to find parts without you destroying the house." Twoie set her down once he was sure she wouldn't destroy any of their appliances.
Amethyst chuckled. "Ah, good one, Twoie."
He smiled at the compliment and walked out the door. "Who's up for a trip to the barn?"
"Alright. What we have here in the barn should be adequate enough for us to get started." Pearl showed Peridot the cluttered inside of the barn. As they inspected the materials, Twoie felt a hand tap his arm.
He turned to see Amethyst awkwardly scuffing her foot on the ground. "Hey, Steven. Do you think we could talk for a second?" He startled at the use of his actual name. A quick scan showed that Pearl was busy with Peridot and Steven, and Garnet was sitting by the fence.
Guess he couldn't put it off forever. "Okay, can we go where everyone else can't hear us? I'm guessing this is about yesterday." She nodded, and they walked over to the silo.
Once they were far enough away from the others, she took a deep breath. "I'm sorry." He blinked at her in surprise. "When Pearl first brought up her suspicions of you, I thought she was being ridiculous. I told her that to her face. But when Garnet agreed, I didn't really try to defend you." She brushed a hand through her hair.
"After that point, I didn't agree, but I didn't try to talk them out of it. Even when Steven was kidnapped, I didn't think you deserved the way they treated you, but then we found out that you accidentally hurt Steven." She ducked to hide the tears prickling at the corners of her eyes. "At that moment, I was really angry. I thought, 'Steven's hurt because you didn't want to believe that Pearl and Garnet were right about Twoie.' So, I took my anger out on you, and that was wrong. I'm sorry, Steven."
Twoie started chuckling. Tears welled in his eyes, causing Amethyst to wave her hands in front of him in a panic. "I'm okay, Amethyst. I'm just happy. I wouldn't have been mad if you blamed me for all of this, but I can tell that you really thought about everything that happened. It's really nice to know you put so much thought into this."
She laid down on the ground and patted the spot next to her. He joined her as he wiped tears from his face with his sleeve. "Hey, man. Hate to break it to you, but I'm the one who's supposed to be getting emotional." She smiled when she heard him laugh.
They stared at the clouds for a moment before Twoie spoke up again. "We're actually pretty close in the future." Her eyes widened in surprise as he elaborated. "I think you and Steven have always had a kinship in that Garnet and Pearl have high expectations of you but don't understand why their image of you is different from who you are. I want you guys to be at least as close as I am with my Amethyst because you've always been the Crystal Gem I go to when I need advice."
She turned her head to stare at him incredulously. "Seriously? Not Garnet or Pearl?"
He shook his head. "I've come to them for things in the past and they weren't always taken seriously or they fell apart from learning about the issue. The worst thing you've really done to me was turn into Rose."
She fiddled with her hair in embarrassment. "Yeah, that was a crappy thing to do. I'm sorry about that. I know I didn't want to admit it back then, but I should've. I'll apologize to Steven as well for that. And for my part in hurting you. That had to be awful to see." Twoie laughed and patted her shoulder.
"Look at you! Not only are you the first to apologize, but taking Steven's feelings into account? You're starting to become the most mature Crystal Gem."
She stared at him in astonishment before lightly facepalming and pouting. "Not cool, man. I have a reputation to uphold as the fun gem. I'll get to the maturity part later." He laughed as they stood up together. "We cool?" She held her hand out to him.
He grabbed it and pulled her into a quick one-armed hug. "We're cool. Come on, let's go see how the others are doing with their robot competition."
She paused, "I thought they were building a machine for the Cluster?" She tagged along with Twoie and chuckled when she saw Garnet and Steven watching Pearl and Peridot from the Barn's entrance.
"Twoie! Amethyst!" Steven waved as they joined the two at the door. His younger brother gave him a questioning look, which he answered with a nod and a smile. Amethyst took a deep breath before she stepped forward and hugged Steven. She muttered something to him that Twoie couldn't hear. The younger looked surprised, but the change in his facial expression told him all he needed to know. Steven hugged her tightly before pulling away with a smile. Amethyst was relieved that she had fixed everything between her and the brothers.
No longer feeling burdened by her role in the fiasco, she felt comfortable being herself again around them. "So, uh, what's going on here?"
Twoie watched as Pearl and Peridot rushed around the barn. "Robot competition?"
Steven's eyes shown with stars. "Robot competition."
He chuckled at the younger's excitement. "This'll be good." Loud whirring sounded over him as he spoke.
"What'd you say?!" Amethyst shouted as everyone covered their ears.
He waited for the ringing to stop. "I said-!" Pearl drove her robot gracefully into the yard with spin to finish her entrance.
"Giant robot!" Steven cheered as they others looked on in awe. Twoie forgot how well her robot operated. It was even more impressive now that he understood Pearl's original role in Homeworld.
"Hah! Pathetic." Peridot's bot stomped out of the barn. "Now, behold my vision of ultimate power!" "Nya-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!" She glanced up at Pearl's bot. "Hey!"
Pearl raised her bot's arm and smugly stated, "My bot's taller, I win."
Steven hummed as he looked at the two robots. "We need events and a way to keep score."
Twoie cracked his fingers and walked over to the chalkboard. "I'll keep score if you want to be the announcer and come up with the events."
Steven smiled and addressed everyone. "Alright! I have an idea!"