Steven had returned from Homeworld, having finally finished advising the Diamonds on how to transition gem civilization from an oppressive dictatorship to a more free society. All the major conflicts the Crystal Gems had dealt with seemed to be solved: the corrupted gems had been healed, the cluster was safely contained, and Lars and the off-colors had safely arrived on Earth. There was nothing to fear, no one to fight, and so Steven, Pearl, Amethyst, and Garnet were relaxing on a hillside, just enjoying the day.

"I want everything to stay exactly like this and never change," Steven said.

Inside the control room of Garnet's mind, Joy S gave a sigh of contentment. "Yeah, everything's been really great lately. Almost all of Garnet's memories from the past few months have been yellow, and those incidents where they haven't been were minor."

"Yeah, it's almost making me jealous how you're hogging the controls," Disgust R said, "but, eh, as long as Garnet's happy, I'm content."

"How's the future look, Garnet?" Steven asked. "Do we all stay just like this forever?"

"Probably not," Sadness S said. "I mean, the gems might, but all the humans, even Steven, are going to grow old and die."

"Well, except for Lars," Sadness R added, "but he's already dead, technically."

"Oh, don't be such pessimists, you two," Joy R said.

"That's our job."

"I'm sure that," Joy R continued, paying the comment no mind, "if not literally forever, this'll last at least for the next couple years."

"Um, about that," Fear S said. She gestured to the screen, where the future vision was showing a scene of a gem ship arriving, an event that was mere moments from actualizing.

In the present, Garnet and the others watched a strange pink gem emerge from the ship. After confirming that the people she was found were, in fact, Steven Universe and his friends, she turned her hand into a horn and blew, which caused a drill to emerge from the end of the ship and insert itself into the side of the hill, slowly injecting some type of pink liquid.

"Ick," Disgust S said. "Whatever that stuff is, it can't be good for the environment."

"Oh, come on!" Anger S said. "Are we really going to have to fight another evil Homeworld gem bent on destroying the Earth?"

"Everything was going so well!" Sadness R wailed.

"That's the problem!" Fear R said. "We got complacent and stopped considering that there will always be threats!"

"When I said the Joys were hogging the controls, I didn't actually want bad things to happen," Disgust R said.

"And when I said we wouldn't stay like this forever," said Sadness S, "I only meant due to the natural passage of time!"

"Calm down, everybody!" Joy S said. "It's not a guarantee that we'll have to fight. We might be able to settle this diplomatically."

Steven seemed to be of a similar mindset. "This has gotta be a misunderstanding," he said. "In case you haven't heard, I've established peace across the-"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, I've heard!" the unknown gem interrupted. "I've had your little message to the universe on loop!" With that, she stretched her foot down to kick Steven squarely in the face.

"Steven!" Fear R exclaimed. "Is he okay?"

"Of course he's okay; he's Steven," Anger R said. "But you know who won't be okay? Whoever this is!"

"Fears, prepare the future vision to predict her moves in battle," Anger S commanded.

"Aye aye," Fear S said. "Preparing to predict… her… oh."

On screen, it showed a possible scenario for how the gem would attack. Then it showed another, and then another, then another; each time, her approach was different than before. When the fight finally began, the gem's actions were in none of the scenarios shown. The emotions could only watch helplessly as the gem dodged Garnet's punches, flicked Pearl's nose, flipped Amethyst's hair, and toyed with them in various other ways that had not been predicted.

"What's going on? What's wrong with the future vision?" Anger S demanded.

"It's not the future vision; it's her!" Fear S explained. "We're supposed to be able to foresee the outcomes of events based on what we know, but she's acting too randomly to do so! How are we supposed to get a baseline for her behavior? We don't know who this is! We don't even know what type of gem she is!"

"But how don't we know what type of gem she is?" Fear R said. She was flipping through a manual that was meant to contain all the innate knowledge that Rubies and Sapphires needed to have when they first emerged.

"Maybe she's from Era 2," Sadness S suggested. "We still don't really know everything the Diamonds got up to in the thousands of years since the rebellion."

"Ooh! Maybe she's a brand new Era 3 Gem!" Joy S said. "Could you imagine? That'd be really exciting. You know, if she wasn't attacking us right now."

"And winning handily, I might add," said Anger R.

The Crystal Gems groaned as they struggled to their feet.

"It really is her," Pearl said, almost to herself, "but she can't be serious."

"You know her, Pearl?" Steven asked. "Can you tell us who she is?"

The unknown gem scowled. "Who am I? Who am I?" she repeated crossly.

"Okay, so we don't know who this is, but she clearly expects us to," Disgust R said.

"Well, there goes my Era 2 theory," Sadness S said. "And your Era 3 theory, Joy. I'm sorry."

"No worries; it was just wild conjecture based on limited information," Joy S said.

"Which is still limited," Fear R said. "Seriously, who is she? What is she?"

"Well, Pearl knows her, apparently," Disgust S added. "Maybe she was a member of Pink Diamond's Court or something."

"Look, we can find out who she is later," Anger S said. "Right now, we've got more pressing things to worry about!"

The unknown gem pulled a device out. It wasn't an inherent gem weapon like Garnet's gauntlets, Pearl's spear, or Amethyst's whip; it was a separate object, like a replicator wand or a destabilizer was. She hit a button and a blade made of energy emerged.

"Look out!" Fear S yelled. "She's got a scythe!"

"So what?" Disgust R rebutted. "She's a bit more dangerous, but not dangerous enough for us to stop fighting. A scythe can't shatter gems, after all; if it hits Garnet, she'll just poof for a bit."

"And then we'll be separated," Sadness S said, clutching the hand of her Ruby counterpart.

"Do you want us to be separated?" Anger R accused.

"Of course not," Disgust R said. "I'm just saying that there's no need to be so scared of her. It's Garnet's duty to protect the Earth from gems like her, and we can't let the threat of being temporarily split up cow us into stopping."

"Maybe," said Disgust S, "but you should be more considerate of others' feelings before saying stuff like that."

"Hey, I'm just saying-"

"She's right, anyway," Anger S interrupted. "We have to give it our all and prevent whoever this is from doing whatever she's trying to do! For Garnet! For our friends! And for the Earth! Now, let's get out there and beat her!"

She had no sooner said this when the unknown gem swing her scythe through Garnet's midsection. Before they could even react, Sapphire's emotions found themselves by themselves, inside a gem that no longer had a physical body.

"Oh, come on!" Anger said after they all had processed what had just happened.

Sadness burst into tears.

"Hey, it's okay," Joy said, rushing to comfort her. "We're only temporarily split up. Isn't that right, Disgust?"

"What? No, that was Ruby's Disgust who made that point," Sapphire's Disgust said. "I mean, it's true, but..."

"Uh, guys?" Fear said. "There's something wrong..."

The emotions looked at the screen. A countdown was ticking down, set to reach zero in less than ten seconds. Above it, in ominous red letters, were the words "PERSONALITY REBOOT INITIATING".

Disgust grimaced. "That can't be good."