Includes Part of "The Return".

Garnet stood on the store. Next to her, Opal was firing arrows of energy up at the green, hand-shaped Homeworld ship that was looming overhead. But these attacks were blocked easily, and no damage seemed to happen.

Inside Garnet's mind control room, the emotions sat and watched in apprehension. "There's no stopping them," Fear R said. "They're going to land, and then they'll either destroy our gems or use another corruption bomb. We'll be goners either way."

"Yeah," Sadness S sighed. "We're doomed."

"Hey," Joy R said, trying to interject a little optimism among the group. "At least Steven's safe."

"Hey, guys!" Steven shouted, running up to them. The Crystal Gems were shocked; Opal defused into Pearl and Amethyst.

"He was supposed to be out of town," Fear R said. "Why'd he come back?"

"Why doesn't he ever do as he's told?" Anger R grouched.

"This isn't the time, R!" Disgust S said.

"He has to go back, before the ship arrives!" Fear S said.

"It's too late!" Fear R cried. "We'll just have to protect him."

The ship landed, and its occupants emerged. There was Peridot, the technician who they had made their presence known to; Lapis Lazuli, who had warned the Crystal Gems of the Homeworld's arrival, and had apparently been taken as a captive; and a new, unknown Gem, orange and brawny, called, like the others, by her gem's namesake: Jasper.

"Looks like another waste of my time," Jasper said.

"So what are we going to do?" Fear R asked, looking to the others. "Fight her?"

Fear S shook her head. "Not immediately. Not with an opponent whose strategy we know nothing about, and not when Steven could be so easily caught in the fray…"

"True," said Disgust R. "But counterpoint: we must remain firm and stand up to her."

"Precisely what I was thinking," Anger S said.

"You need to leave immediately!" Garnet shouted.

"There is no way she's going to actually listen to us," Sadness S said.

"Probably not," Anger S said, "but there's no way we're going to just let Homeworld reclaim this planet."

But Sadness S was right, and Jasper paid them no attention, instead remarking how she had been looking forward to fighting Rose Quartz.

"But this is all that's left of her army?" she said. "Some lost, defective Pearl, a puny overcooked runt, and this shameless display?" This last comment was in regards to Garnet and her permafusion status.

"Shameless?" Disgust S said. "No one insults Garnet like that!"

"She definitely needs to leave," Anger R added.

"Settle down, everyone," Fear S said. "Remember, we shouldn't engage her physically unless it's necessary…"

"What is that?" Jasper asked, noticing Steven.

"Like now, for instance?" Anger R said.

"Well, we should be prepared to protect Steven at the very least," Fear S replied.

Fortunately, Jasper took no notice in the human-looking hybrid; unfortunately, she decided just to blast the entire group with the ship.

"We have to make Steven go away!" Fear R said. "We can't let him risk his life!"

"But this is my home!" Steven shouted. "And you're all my family! I'm a Crystal Gem too!"

"Oh, Steven," Sadness S said. "You sweet, wonderful, lovable moron."

Steven jumped in front of the others, blocking the blast with the shield he had just summoned.

"He did it," Joy R said, staring awestruck at the screen. "He saved us!"

"And also drew attention to himself," Fear S noted.

Jasper had Peridot fire another, smaller beam, designed to separate Steven from his guardians. Garnet grabbed him and tried to leap out of the way, but lost hold of him; he landed in front of the Homeworld posse.

"Rose, why do you look like that? Why are you so weak?" Jasper said. "Yellow Diamond needs to see this… thing."

"Not if we can help it!" Anger R shouted.

Garnet lunged at Jasper, who summoned her weapon—a helmet—and repelled her. She then pulled out a device and, when Garnet came at her again, thrust it into her chest.

A bolt of energy shot through the control room, making it unstable; her emotions tried to hold onto each other, but they couldn't keep their grasps. Eventually, their connection was broken and the lights went out. When the emergency lights turned on, the big screen displayed a progress bar for a reboot, and Ruby's five emotions found themselves alone.

"What happened?" Fear R asked. "Where's Sapphire's emotions?"

"We must have been forced back into our own gems," Sadness R said. "We defused in the process."

"We have to reform!" Anger R said.

"You know we have to wait a bit for that," Fear R replied. "If we do it too quickly, Ruby's physical form would be too wonky; that wouldn't help anyone."

"Unfortunately, she's right," Sadness R said. "But still, we should do it as soon as we can."

So a few minutes later, Ruby's physical body emerged from her gem; she found herself in a cell on the Homeworld ship, a yellow field between her and her captor.

"I see you've reformed," Jasper said.

Anger R snarled. "Garnet's gonna make you reform!" she shouted. "Or Ruby will! Whatever!"

She slammed on her controls, sending a wave of emotion to their host that made Ruby make as if to charge at the Quartz soldier.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you," Jasper warned. "This field acts as a milder version of the destabilizer I used on you before. If you make contact, you'll be zapped with a wave of energy that can scramble parts of your physical form. Linger too long, and you'll be forced back into your gem. So you can't escape; and no one can get in to rescue you, either."

"Where's Sapphire?" Ruby demanded.

"In another cell, far away from this one," Jasper smugly explained. "Wouldn't want you to do anything indecent. All your friends are in cells like this, in fact. Even Rose. So don't get your hopes up for being rescued."

So she walked away, leaving Ruby alone in her cell.

In her mind's control room, her emotions were debating over which ones should use the controls.

"Well, obviously, this is a highly dangerous situation," Fear R said. "So Ruby should be constantly on edge about her surroundings."

"But it's also so… so frustrating being defused!" Anger R said. "That's the way she should feel!"

"I vote for despair," Sadness R suggested.

"Come on, guys," Joy R said. "

"But Jasper said not to get our hopes up," Sadness R said.

"Well, yeah, but… if we were still fused with Sapphire, what would her emotions do?"

"If we were still fused with Sapphire," Disgust R said, "we wouldn't have to wonder what they would do."

"That's not what I… oh, whatever," Joy sighed, slumping down in her seat. "Do what you want. I'll just wait until there's a reason for me to actually do something."

And so Ruby sat in her cell as the ship took off, sobbing, until a few minutes later…

"Um, hello?" said a voice.

"Gah!" Fear R exclaimed, startled. "Who's that? Another soldier?"

"No, it's just Steven," Disgust R said. "Which means he's seen us solo, without Sapphire."

"Oh, great!" Anger R shouted. "This is just perfect! On top of everything else, the surprise we had for Steven's birthday is ruined!"

"Uh, do you need any help?" Steven asked.

"No we don't!" Anger R said. "Well, we do, but he can't help, and he's ruined his own birthday anyway, so…"

"Calm down, Anger," Sadness R said. "He was just offering to help. And he didn't know that we had planned something for his birthday…"

"Hey, wait," said Fear R. "How'd he get past the field?"

"Oh yeah!" Joy R said. "

"Oh," said Steven. "I just kind of…" He reached his hand towards it.

"What? No!" Fear R cried. "We can't let him get hurt!"

But Steven's arm passed through easily, and, beyond a few of his veins glowing, seemed unaffected by it.

"Wait," Fear R said. "It's… okay?"

"Do you think it'll be safe for Ruby as well?" Joy R asked.

"I don't know; we should test it out."

But when Ruby tried it, it worked just how Jasper said.

"You idiot!" Anger R shouted at Fear. "Your job is to prevent harm to Ruby, not cause it with 'tests'!"

"Sorry!" Fear R responded. "It's just that I usually have a second opinion and a catalogue of possibilities to help me!"

"I suppose this is one time where Steven's half-human biology is an asset rather than a hindrance," Disgust R remarked.

"Quiet, quiet!" Sadness R said. The sounds of singing had reached Ruby's ears. "Sapphire."

"This!" Joy R said. "This is a reason for joy! Steven can help us escape, then we can find her and be reunited…"

"But we're not reunited yet," Sadness R pointed out. "And in the meantime, she's just as alone as Ruby is…"

"Excellent point, Sadness," Fear R said. "So we have to get to her… quickly!"

Steven made a path so Ruby could safely enter through, and she sped past, barely giving him enough time to keep up.

"This ship's too large," Sadness R said. "How will we ever be able to find her?"

"We could check our future vision to see what we'd encounter if we went down various hallways," Joy R suggested.

"Except that power comes from Sapphire's gem," Disgust R said. "We don't have it on our own."

Ruby listened closely, trying to find where the singing was coming from. "This way!" she said, leading Steven down one of the hallways.

"How many more Gems are trapped here?" Steven asked.

"How would we know that?" Disgust R said. "And why would we care?"

"Well, if there are any prisoners from Homeworld," Sadness R said, "it would be nice to rescue them. They might even become allies, helping us protect Earth…"

"We'd be able to do that better as Garnet," Anger R said. "And freeing Sapphire should be our first priority anyway."

"I don't think they'd have too many prisoners on this ship anyway," Fear R added. He paused, listening. "…the singing stopped. Why has the singing stopped?"

"This is why finding her had to be our highest priority!" Anger shouted.

Ruby and Steven continued down the corridors until they came to another cell that held a Gem.

"Look!" Joy R said. "Could it be?"

It was Lapis Lazuli.

"Oh," said Disgust R. "It's just her."

"So, she's not here," Fear R said. "But then where is she?"

"Maybe Lapis would know?" Sadness R suggested. "Though I don't know if she'd tell us… she seems to think that it'd be best to just wait compliantly in our cells…"

"We don't have time for this!" Anger R cried. "We have to find Sapphire!"

So Ruby ran off, leaving Steven behind.

In her own cell, Sapphire sang. She could not pass through the destabilizing barrier; there had never been a need to hone her ice powers for practical use, so those were out, and they would have likely proved ineffective anyway; and she knew from experience that in such an unfamiliar situation like this, the future was truly unpredictable, and that nothing she could do on her own would affect it in any way. So all she could do was send a signal to her love, her other half, her Ruby. All she could do was sing.

"Stop singing!" Jasper demanded.

"I don't like her," Anger S grumbled.

"But why are we singing?" Sadness S asked. "Even if the others can hear us, they're all trapped in their own cells. How could they possibly rescue us?"

"I don't know, but that's not the point," Joy S said. "We have to keep singing anyway; we mustn't give up hope."

"Plus, our singing's annoying Jasper, and that's a good enough reason for me," Disgust S said.

So Sapphire kept singing.

"Hey, I liked your song."

Peering into the cell was Steven.

"Steven?" Fear S asked in surprise. "How did he escape?"

Steven stuck his hand into the barrier, blocking out a hole that Sapphire could exit through.

"Of course," said Disgust S. "He's half-human… this technology only accounts for Gems' physiologies."

Sapphire went through, and thanked Steven. And then, she heard someone calling her name.

"Oh no!" Sadness S cried. "It's Ruby!"

"You mean, oh yes!" Joy S said. "We're going to be united again!"

"Well, yes, but she might be hurt, or scared, or…"

"Then let's get going so we can help her!" Anger S snapped. "Grab the kid, fire up the future vision, and let's go!"

And Sapphire did, zooming through the corridors of the ship until she located her other half. They ran to each other and embraced.

"Did they hurt her?" Fear R asked aloud in Ruby's mind.

"No, I'm okay," Sapphire said, replying to Ruby's question. "Did they hurt you?"

"Who cares?" Joy R said, laughing.

"I do!"

They kissed, and hugged, and spun around—and once again, they were of one mind and body. Garnet.

The emotions greeted their counterparts, excited for their reunion. Outside, Steven was also excited, but for a different reason.

"Garnet! You're a fusion?"

"Oh right, he didn't know," Disgust S said.

"It's a shame he had to find out like this," Sadness R added.

"Did I make a good first impression?" Steven asked.

"Ah, that's sweet," Joy R said.

"Though there was no need for him to worry," Joy S said, glancing behind to the window that looked over the Islands of Personality; one of the newest was Steven Island, the replacement for Rose Island, and a monument to their relationship with the child. "We already love him."

These tender moments, however, were interrupted when they heard Jasper approaching; so Garnet gave Steven a kiss of future vision and instructions to find Pearl and Amethyst, then get to the bridge to take control of the ship, while she stayed behind to fight.

"Are you gonna be able to beat her on your own?" Steven asked.

Inside her mind, the two factions of emotions smiled at each other.

"It's okay, Steven," Garnet said. "I'm never alone."

So Steven fled, and Jasper arrived.

"Oh great, you're both out?" the Quartz soldier said. "And you're fused again? Why? Fusion is just a cheap tactic to make weak Gems stronger. Quit embarrassing yourselves!"

"Embarrassing ourselves?" Disgust R said. "I don't feel embarrassed. Do you, Sapphy?"

"Nope," Disgust S said.

"She's just trying to make us mad," Anger S said. "But the joke's on her; I'm always mad!"

"And if we work as a team," Sadness R said, "we won't let any emotions overwhelm Garnet. She'll be able to win easily."

Joy R cracked her knuckles. "Let's do this."

The fusion of Ruby and Sapphire was an even match against Jasper. Yes, Garnet got knocked around a bit, but it didn't matter; she was herself, and she was happy. And, in the end, the two fought their way to the engine room, where Garnet tossed Jasper into the ship's power supply, making the craft begin to fall.

"Booyah!" Joy S exclaimed. "High-fives all around!"

"How about later?" Fear R said. "We've got to get the others off this ship first."

"Exactly," Fear S added. She looked at the future vision screen. "Steven's freed Pearl and Amethyst, and they've subdued Peridot and set a course back to the surface; we should be able to survive if we act quickly and wisely."

"What about Lapis?" Sadness R asked. "She's still in her cell… should we try and rescue her?"

Sadness S looked at the future vision and shook her head. "Sorry, but there's no time. Only Steven can breach her energy field, and by the time we reach the bridge and get back there…"

Indeed, when Garnet rejoined the others, less than a minute passed before the ship crashed into the side of the temple and exploded. They were saved from any harm, however, by Steven's bubble.

"Wow. This is like, the third time he's saved us in less than two hours?" Joy R said.

"I'm so proud," Joy S said, wiping away tears of happiness.

"Oh my gosh," said Steven to Garnet. "I can't believe you're a fusion all the time!"

"I'm still peeved that his birthday surprise got spoiled," Anger R grumbled.

"Well, it's annoying," Anger S said, "but I wouldn't say it's something to get too worked up about."

The bonding moment between Garnet and Steven was once again interrupted by Jasper, who emerged from the rubble and staggered towards them.

"Well, that's something to get worked up about!" Fear R said.

"Whatever," Joy R said. "We too her on once, we can do it again."

"Maybe," Sadness S said, "but Garnet's body's still a bit tired from the fight, and though Steven's proven himself immensely, he's still untrained in combat situations…"

"Don't think you've won," Jasper growled. "You only beat me 'cause you're a fusion! If I had someone to fuse with I'd—"

She stopped as Lapis came out from beneath the wreckage; she tried to escape, but Jasper grabbed her and, as the others watched in horror, made her fuse. A giant, green, four-eyed monstrosity was formed, laughing menacingly. A column of water rose out of the ocean; but instead of attacking the Crystal Gems, it wrapped around her own arm and began dragging her into the water.

"What are you doing?" the fusion screamed; and it answered her own question: "I'm done being everyone's prisoner. Now you're my prisoner! And I'm never letting you go!"

And they disappeared beneath the waves.

"Yikes," said Disgust S. "Those two are really bad for each other."