How long had it been? Hours? Days? The emotions in Ruby's head had no idea. All they knew was, it was much too long.

"Gah!" Anger yelled. "When are we going to be able to reform?"

"Could you quit whining?" Disgust snapped. "This isn't like when Garnet was hit with that destabilizer; this was a direct blast from a Diamond! We could be out of commission for quite a while. And even after that, it's likely that her gems were put in bubbles anyway."

"I hope Sapphire's all right," Sadness said.

"Hey, we're all right, aren't we?" said Joy. "Well, relatively speaking. But if Ruby's all right, she's all right."

"Except that we're presumably trapped in a bubble," said Fear. "With no way of escape. Not knowing if Steven will be able to rescue us. Meaning we might be there for eternity!"

Sadness started bawling.

"Now look what you've done!" Anger yelled. "It's bad enough just being in here without you having to make everyone feel worse!"

"And you're helping?" said Disgust snidely.

Joy hurried to comfort Sadness. "It's okay," she said. "Everyone's just under a lot of stress. We just have to-"

Suddenly, the control room expanded and Ruby's emotions discovered they were no longer alone.

"Joy!" Joy R exclaimed, rushing over to embrace her counterpart. "You're back! But… how? And who are they?" she said, pointing to a third set of emotions who were in the control room.

"No time to explain!" shouted the new Fear, rushing to take his – his? – place at the controls. "White's about to stomp on us!"

"Er, okay!" said Fear S, preparing the body they were controlling to react to this sudden and unexpected threat. She watched as, on the screen, the giant foot of Pink's ship was caught and repelled by a pair of buff orange arms. They were not Garnet's, nor Ruby's or Sapphire's, but the emotions instinctively knew who they belonged to.

"We're Sunstone!" Joy S said with a gasp. She turned to the newcomers. "You're Steven!"

"Well, I'm his Joy," Joy Steven said. "But yeah, he managed to fuse with Ruby and Sapphire's gems."

"Wait, he can do that?" Fear R said. "I don't know if that's a Pink Diamond power, a hybrid power, or just something we never thought to try."

"And it's kind of weird to do anyway, since their gems couldn't exactly give permission to fuse," Disgust R added. "But I suppose it was an emergency, so there's no real harm done."

"Of course," said Disgust S, "in the future, it'd be best not to fuse with a poofed gem unless they've given you permission beforehand."

"Just so you all know," Sadness S said, addressing Ruby's emotions, "If Garnet's ever poofed, and Ruby manages to reform before Sapphire, she's allowed to fuse with her gem."

"And the same goes for Sapphire," Joy R said, giving a thumbs up.

Sadness Steven let out a sigh of relief. "It's a good thing no one got too upset about that," he said. "Not you, or Amethyst, or Pearl..."

"Steven fused with them as well?" said Fear S.

"Yeah. I mean, their gems were falling, so..."

"You mean we missed Rainbow Quartz?" said Anger R.

Sadness R sighed. "I was really looking forward to that."

"I'm sure you'll have a chance to meet him eventually," Joy Steven said. "In the meantime, let's just enjoy being Sunstone!"

"Though you might want to take this opportunities to browse Steven's memories of what happened while you were out of commission," Disgust Steven said, pulling up the relevant files. "I still can't believe some of it."

Garnet's emotions quickly got up to speed on the situation while Sunstone hung with the Crystal Gems. "Chillax, my dudes," she said. "Your rockin' pal Sunstone is holding it down."

"Sunstone, what are we gonna do?" asked Connie. "White Diamond's never going to listen, and she's never going to let us leave."

"Then we'll make her listen," Anger Steven said. "We just have to get into her head."

"Yeah!" Anger R said. "Let's take that bully down!"

"Wait!" said Fear Steven. "This is your Future Vision, right? It says something about… a legal department? And imitable actions?"

"Don't worry about that," Fear S said. "the Future Vision always acts wonky whenever Sapphire's in a fusion with more Gems than just Ruby."

"Oh. But still, shouldn't we add a disclaimer, just in case? So the children watching know how to properly deal with a bully?"

"What children?" asked Disgust R. "You mean Connie?"

"No, I mean… well, I don't know what I mean. But better safe than sorry, right?"

"It would be admirable to include some positive life lessons during our battle," said Sadness Steven. "For the children."

With Pearl and Amethyst clinging to their back, Sunstone began climbing up the mecha, periodically shouting advice and encouragement to a hypothetical audience.

"Woo!" Joy Steven shouted. "White, here we come!"

"With the rate we're ascending," Joy S said, "we should reach her head in no time."

"Er, guys?" Fear R said, indicating on the screen where Yellow's hand ship was fast approaching.

It was too late; the Gems were swatted back to the ground. Sunstone split apart, leaving Steven and Garnet separated once again.

"Well, that didn't work," Disgust R remarked.

"We have to be bigger," said Anger R.

"Then let's fuse," Steven said. "All four of us. It's the only way we're gonna get up to her head."

"I'm in," said Amethyst.

"I'm in too," said Pearl.

Joy R let out a high-pitched squeal. "We're gonna form Obsidian!"

"Yeah," said Joy S. "It's been, what, over fifteen years? Hang on, let me pull up the memory of the last time that happened."

"We can reminisce later," Disgust S said. "Right now, we need to get ready to dance."

Garnet, Steven, Amethyst, and Pearl stood in a circle, each dancing in their own style. They moved towards each other before finally leaping into a stack and fusing. Now five sets of emotions occupied the same control room.

"All right!" Joy Steven exclaimed. "We did it!"

"Okay, steady, everyone," Sadness S said. "Obsidian's powerful, but they're also very fragile. To keep in sync, we have to stay calm and focused, so no intense emotions. Got it?"

"Right," Anger A said. "Nothing but grit and determination."

"Right, right," said Joy Steven. "Serious Steven's emotions."

The colossal fusion began its ascent. Lapis and Peridot, carrying Bismuth and Connie, flew around, serving as distractions to White.

"All right," said Joy A. "This is more like it."

"Guys! Guys!" Fear Steven yelled.

"Settle down," Disgust P said. "No intense emotions, remember?"

"But Connie's falling!"

"Oh!" said Fear S. "Yes, that's definitely something we need to take care of!"

Obsidian extended their arm and caught Connie.

"See?" Joy S said. "Nothing to worry about."

"But now White's trying to swat us off again!" Fear R said.

"Then we'll just summon Obsidian's weapon and take care of it," Joy P said.

"What is Obsidian's weapon, anyway?" Disgust Steven asked. "I mean, it would be a combination of all of theirs, so… a suction cup bow and arrow? A hammer on a string?"

"No, it's basically just a big sword," Disgust A said.

"A really cool big sword!" said Joy A.

Joy Steven gasped. "We're a giant woman with a giant sword?"

Disgust P sighed. "Yes, but remember, we won't be if we don't keep our composure."

"It is pretty cool, though," said Joy S.

After using the sword to slice the arms off from the rest of the ship, Obsidian jammed it into the chest and used the new footing to launch up and cling onto the face.

"Ha!" Joy R exclaimed. "Now we've got the upper hand!"

"Especially since we sliced hers off," Sadness Steven remarked.

"Perhaps," Fear P said, "Except for the fact that she's heading right for that column!"

Indeed, the robot slammed its head against said column, trapping Obsidian between the two and resulting in Garnet's mind once again containing only two sets of emotions.

"Ah!" Fear S screamed. "We've fallen apart!"

"Calm down, would you?" Anger S snapped. "Everybody's fine still. And besides, we'd likely have had to unfuse to get inside White's head anyway."

"And frankly, I like how we're able to actually express emotions again," Anger R said. "I hated having to restrain myself."

Leaving the others to catch up, Garnet, Amethyst, Pearl, and Steven climbed up to the eye and through the pupil, dropping down into the inner sanctum. There, towering in the center of the chamber, was White Diamond. Beside her, in the same pose, stood the two other Diamonds, both as colorless as she was.

"Oh, Starlight, what are you doing crawling in here?" White said. The possessed Gems moved their mouths in sync with hers. "You want your legs back? You want your planet back?"

Fear S shivered. "Steven's memories didn't really do justice to how creepy this all is."

White continued, describing how the Diamonds' impurities caused them to absorb certain colors, but she herself was every color of the light. "But you're a part of me," said said, addressing Steven as Pink. "The part I always have to repress."

"Dude, what is she even talking about?" Amethyst whispered. "This is nonsense."

"I agree with Amethyst," Disgust S. "Pure nonsense."

"Well… let's hope it's nonsense at least," Fear R said.

"Oh. Hello there," White said, acknowledging the others' presence for the first time. "Your new friends are so funny. Is that what they're supposed to be? Funny?"

A beam of light shot from her eyes, striking Amethyst and slowly turning her gray.

"Oh, no!" Sadness S shouted. "Amethyst!"

"We have to do something!" shouted Fear S.

"Then stop bawling and do something!" Anger R said, pounding down on her controls.

"Wait, no," Fear R said. "We can't-"

But Garnet had already shouted at White Diamond, who focused her attention on her and shot a beam in her direction. White veins spread across her mind's control room.

"Oops," said Anger R.

"Ick!" said Disgust R. "What are those things?"

"I don't know, except they're really, really bad!" Fear R said.

The two Sadnesses clutched each other and started crying.

"Okay, everyone," Joy S said, "stay calm. Just stay-"

Everything went white.

Everything was back to normal.

"Wait, hold on," said a disoriented Fear R. "What's going on?"

"Well, I thought Garnet's body was being taken over by White Diamond," Disgust R said with a shudder, "but..."

"But look!" Joy S said, pointing at the screen. "Steven and Connie are smiling! And not in that creepy possessed-by-White way!"

"I hope they're okay," Sadness R commented.

"If they're okay?" said Disgust S. "What about Garnet? Being completely taken over by someone else seems to have exhausted her."

"Doesn't seem that much worse than being expelled from a fusion, actually," Joy R said. "And besides, shouldn't we be celebrating how, despite the odds, Steven somehow got White to release everyone?"

"Can we at least hold off on celebrating until I can fully process what just happened?" Fear R asked. "It should only take a few weeks."

Lapis, Peridot, and Bismuth dropped into the room.

"Oh, wow, they've arrived," said Anger R. "They couldn't have come earlier?"

"If they had, they'd have likely just gotten possessed as well," said Sadness S.

"Yeah, but then they'd have gotten depossessed along with everybody else," said Anger R. "Garnet, Pearl, Amethyst, Yellow and Blue, White Pearl- wait, is she pink now?"

"Well, that explains- well, it doesn't explain a lot," said Disgust S, "but I suppose it makes sense."

"How about that?" Disgust R asked, pointing to how White Diamond was also now slightly pink.

"Yeah, I don't know," said Disgust S. "That seems pretty inexplicable."

"And even after everything she put him through," Sadness R said, watching Steven approach the fallen tyrant, "Steven's still able to emphasize with her."

"Well, that, at least, is perfectly normal."

"Even with all my future vision," Fear S said, "I'd never have expected Steven to actually be able to change the Diamonds' minds."

"Yeah," Joy S said, leaning back. "He's pretty great, isn't he?"