Steven led the Watermelon villagers down the cliff as the battle raged on. He watched Alexandrite get tossed into the ocean by Malachite. The other watermelon Stevens were close behind as they breached the cover of trees. Shell raised in the air, Steven blew into the end, signaling for the others to attack. Malachite turned around as arrows assaulted her from behind. She laughed, looking around at all of the watermelons that fought against her. Steven was undeterred by her mocking them. Another sound of the horn signaled the catapults and the air raid. Several watermelon Stevens' landed on the turquoise fusion's face and punched her in the eye. She stumbled back and tripped over a rope trap held taut by more living watermelons.
Malachite recovered quickly from their assault. As Alexandrite freed herself from her ice prison in the ocean, Malachite swatted watermelons away with her hands. Steven gazed around in horror as more and more watermelons were battered and smashed apart. Before Malachite could smash the watermelon that Steven was possessing, Alexandrite used her gauntlet whip to pull Malachite towards her. The magenta fusion punched her in the gut and then hit her into the air with her hammer.
"You two should spend some time apart." Alexandrite summoned her bow and charged an energy arrow. It spliced through Malachite, defusing Lapis and Jasper from each other. Alexandrite gently caught the unconscious forms of Lapis and Jasper, setting them down on the beach before unfusing as well. Steven ran up to the exhausted Crystal Gems with a smile on his face. The gems won! They defeated Malachite and saved Lapis! He hugged Pearl while Garnet helped Amethyst up.
"Steven! Is that you in there?" At Steven's nod, Pearl let out a sigh of relief. "At least you're safe. Did you happen to see Twoie?" Steven froze at her question. He shook his head rapidly and turned to Garnet, frantically rambling questions. Although they couldn't understand what Steven was saying, Garnet knew the gist of it.
"During our fight, Malachite managed to stun us long enough to attack Twoie. We didn't see exactly where he went, and we couldn't go after him. We were hoping that he was staying out of the way or that you had seen him." Garnet scoured the beach with her eyes. "The fact that he isn't here is troubling." She turned to the group of Watermelon Stevens and bowed. "Thank you, all of you. We couldn't have done this without your help. I'm sorry to ask more of you, but have you seen a human? His name is Twoie, and we got separated during the battle."
The watermelons conversed amongst each other, but no one had seen him. Suddenly, the ground shook beneath them. Everyone tried to keep their balance as the earth cracked beneath their feet, and the island bobbed in the ocean. Steven clung to Garnet's leg as the section of the island they were standing on tilted over. Lapis and Jasper started sliding down, but Amethyst grabbed Lapis in time. Jasper slid down into the crack in the earth and disappeared.
"It must be the Cluster! We need to start drilling, but we still don't know where Twoie is!" Garnet looked down at Steven. "It's up to you! We need to find Twoie, so we won't make it to the barn in time to join you." Steven shook his head. He needed to know that Twoie was okay. What if something terrible had happened to him? Steven wouldn't be able to astral-project again if they were drilling. Garnet bent down and held his face in her hands. "We'll find Twoie and bring him home. Remember what he told you. The earth needs you right now. You have to stop the Cluster." Steven looked at each of the gems with teary eyes. They all gave him encouraging smiles. The kid felt sick to his stomach with worry, but he nodded. They were right. He needed to stop the Cluster. Steven closed his eyes, and the watermelon Steven he was inhabiting fell into Garnet's arms.
The Crystal Gems jumped across the growing chasm with Lapis and the now unconscious Watermelon Steven. The other villagers took their friend while Amethyst held onto Lapis. "I wish we were able to start looking for him before the earthquake," Amethyst commented as she looked around at all the cracks in the ground. "Probably would've made it easier to look for him."
Garnet looked around. Their battle caused a lot of destruction to the surrounding forest. It could take them a while to find Twoie. She felt fear grip her heart as she noticed a section of forest with broken tree trunks at an odd angle. "Come on, I think I found something." Pearl and Amethyst nodded. Some watermelon Stevens went back to the village, hoping to tend to the damaged or see their family again. The remaining went with the gems to look for Twoie.
Pearl frowned as she walked past damaged branches and knocked over trees. "The angle of damage certainly looks like something crashed through here. I'm really worried about him. Damage to this extent means he's most likely injured." As she looked further down the line of broken trees, something stuck out to her. Up ahead was a dip in the ground, a very circular divet. "Garnet, this way!"
The group ran over to the weird mark on the ground. Amethyst squatted and brushed a hand through the mark. It was very smooth. "I think you're right, P. This definitely looks like something Twoie's bubble could make." She stood back up. "We need to hurry!" Now certain they were following the right path, they ran through the forest. After passing by a couple more of the compact bubble marks in the ground, one of the Watermelon Stevens called out from up ahead.
The Crystal Gems burst out from some bushes and gasped. A hand was sticking out from underneath the leaves of a broken tree. The sleeve of a pink varsity jacket left no doubt in the gem's mind about who was underneath. "Twoie!" Pearl shrieked as she ran over. She started pulling at branches and cried in relief when she found that the tree was toppled over in a way that it was covering Twoie instead of crushing him. Before they could do anything else, another tremor shook the earth. Pearl protectively curled herself around Twoie while Garnet and Amethyst kept an eye on the surrounding foliage. If anything fell over, they could knock it out of the way. As quick as it came, the tremor passed, and the gems could work on freeing Twoie.
Amethyst watched as Garnet lifted the tree at the top while Pearl dragged him out from underneath. Twoie was covered in scratches, probably from the tree branches, but the most worrying injures were Twoie's head and his arms. It looked like both arms were broken, and the young man had a gash that was sluggishly bleeding on the back of his head.
Garnet lifted him in a princess carry and turned to the Watermelon Stevens. "Thank you for helping us find him. It is of utmost importance that we get to the warp immediately." Pearl and Amethyst hovered anxiously as the living plants conversed amongst themselves before nodding and running in a specific direction.
Pearl couldn't help but continuously check on Twoie as they ran. She silently vowed to be more watchful of him after he was healed. It was their inattention as Alexandrite that led to his current state. Amethyst was also thinking along the same lines. She decided she would try hanging out with Twoie more. See if she could get him to relax a little with how much stress the guy had been going through. No doubt, he was going to be stuck on bed rest again after this.
Garnet was berating herself internally. As the leader of the Crystal Gems, she was responsible for all of her teammates' well-being. And she had failed. She had failed to notice that Malachite was going after Twoie until she had already attacked him. She was going to be a lot more cautious about her decisions. She would not let this happen again.
When the group finally reached the clearing where the warp was, the gems sighed in relief. They thanked their allies and warped away. Another tremor started up as they arrived at Rose's fountain. Garnet clutched Twoie close while they waited for it to pass. Once it ended, they walked over to the fountain. Pearl huffed, "I hope Steven and Peridot are alright. I hate that we had to let them go on their own."
Garnet was about to reply when she felt Twoie shift in her arms. "Twoie?" Pearl and Amethyst quickly turned to stare at him. Twoie's eyes fluttered open, and he clenched them shut as the bright sun blinded him. "Augh, where… What happened?" Garnet walked into the fountain, making sure to keep Twoie's head above the water as the magic fountain healed him.
"You were hurt pretty badly when Malachite attacked you. We're at Rose's Fountain right now." Twoie looked at her, stunned. He wildly looked around and realized that Amethyst was carrying Lapis on her shoulder, and Steven was nowhere to be found.
"Where's Steven? Is Lapis okay? How long was I out?" He gently pushed himself out of Garnet's hold and swam to the edge. Pearl held out her hand, helping him step out.
"It's been about a half-hour since the fight. Steven was able to recruit the other Watermelon Stevens to help us fight Malachite. After the battle, we realized that you weren't around. That's when the tremors started." Pearl summoned a towel from her gem, handing it to Twoie. He gave her a weak smile and began drying himself off. "We were able to save Lapis, but Jasper fell into a crack caused by the shift in the earth. We told Steven to use the drill without us since we needed to search for you."
Twoie froze. If it wasn't for him getting hurt, Steven would've had the gems and himself to support him when he spoke to the Cluster. It was a terrifying experience, all those voices in his head. Yelling, panicking, crying, about their suffering, and the fact they just wanted to be whole again. Now, Steven would go through that alone, all because Twoie was too weak to protect himself. He gritted his teeth together and handed the towel back to Pearl.
The gem frowned in concern at the angry look Twoie had but decided against asking him about it. Not when she spotted some odd discoloration on her white towel. There were pale brown smears on several sections of the towel. She touched it with her finger, staring at the marking on her finger that was a couple of shades tanner than her own skin. Pearl narrowed her eyes and turned to look at Twoie. The young man was being scolded by Amethyst about not being careful. She wasn't paying attention to what the purple gem was saying, though. She was more concerned about the tiny purplish-pink mark that was now slightly visible on Twoie's neck and hand.
Amethyst looked at Pearl in surprise when she interrupted her to stare closely at Twoie. "Uh, P? Whatcha doing?" Pearl didn't say anything as she grabbed Twoie's right hand and pulled the sleeve up. There on his wrist was the same bruise mark from last week. Amethyst and Garnet gasped at her revelation. Twoie yanked his hand out of Pearl's hands.
"I can't believe you! You never healed from those bruises, did you? You just covered it up, so we would think you did!" Pearl was pissed. She glared at Twoie as she lunged forward and wiped at his neck with her hand. More of the tan paint smeared onto her skin as she uncovered another one of Twoie's bruises. Twoie backed up from the angry gem, only to flinch when he backed into Garnet.
He looked up to see that she was glaring at him as well. "This is serious, Twoie. You weren't well enough to go on this mission. We still don't understand where these bruises are coming from, and now you got yourself hurt. I am benching you again until we know for sure what these markings are." Garnet picked him up and tucked him under her arm. Everyone was quiet as the gems walked back to the warp pad. Twoie struggled to break himself out of her hold, but he went limp when he saw that even Amethyst was angry.
"This is why I didn't say anything!" Twoie growled as he crossed his arms. They warped back to the barn so that they would be there when Steven and Peridot returned. Garnet set Twoie down, and the gems herded him back to the blanket that was still sitting out.
Amethyst pursed her lips in annoyance as the other started checking Twoie all over. She set Lapis down inside the barn and walked back over to him. "Why? You didn't want us worrying about you?" Twoie whipped around to glare at her.
"I didn't want you guys treating me like a kid!" He huffed as he stepped back a couple of steps to get Garnet and Pearl to stop. "So I don't know what the markings are. I feel fine, though. Whatever is going on hasn't messed with my powers, and I don't feel sick anymore. Yet you guys keep treating me like I'm fragile! I'm fine!"
Garnet held her hand out just as Pearl was about to argue back. "You may feel fine, Twoie, but that does not mean you are fine. I am not rescinding my order. You will remain benched on all gem missions until we know for sure what is going on with you. We're worried about you, Twoie."
The time traveler glowered at the ground. They weren't going to listen to him no matter what he said. He nodded his head and sat down. It didn't make sense, but Twoie suddenly felt drained. He was tired, his mouth was starting to ache a little, and his head still felt sore. He sat down on the blanket and pulled his bag over to himself. If he was going to be stuck here, then he could at least be productive.
The gems left him alone when they accepted that he didn't want to talk. They formed a little group over by the chalkboard and were chatting amongst themselves. That was fine with him. Twoie didn't want to hear more about how weak he was. He was upset that missions were always brought up when he wasn't feeling well. They brought it up when he was sick, when they saw the bruises the first time around, and now when he was injured and bruised again. It was all missions, missions, missions.
Twoie sighed as the ache in his head got a little stronger. It was bothering him. He brushed his hands through his hair. His hands hit something hard. "Huh?" Twoie pulled his hands back, and his eyes widened in surprise as a little blood came back with them. He quickly wiped it away on his black shirt, hoping the dark color would hide the red color. As inconspicuously as possible, Twoie brought his hands back up to his head and felt for the hard things again. The hard nubs were on both sides of his head, pointed at the top, and broader at the base. They felt like… horns? Twoie wiped more blood off on his shirt and pressed a healing kiss to his hand. The ache faded away, but Twoie was hyper-aware of the fact he could still feel the 'horns.' What was happening to him?