3 months has passed since the Lillim Incident, as Snow helps the gems track Steven down. She also meets up with an old friend.

This is the beginning of the second Arc.

Humanity likes to dance over their flaws in their lives. The flaws of the beds they make themselves, the issues with the images they fabricate and the ways they handle truths and ideals they hold to their hearts until their death.

Rising over their problems like reversed rain, are the real heroes that ascend above all else. But it's important to watch for their elevation to ensure they can still be grounded, to where they once were. The last aspect you want is a desire to lose all sense of what makes you, you. Ego becomes our enemy. Pride becomes our cancer.

Don't let the people you love fall into that trap. Remind them. Give birth from old ideas to form new ones. Don't let the parasite consume them.

Or you.

Diga Arch-Fire

The mood was heavy by default. After they found nothing left they could use at Outpost Major, Snow took Connie. Greg and Peridot back to the surface, even when they couldn't find traces of Milky no matter how times she'd search the whole facility. It meant she had to be out there. Priorities had shifted to finding Steven and getting him back in the surprising turn of events that forced him to flee.
In the months that followed became difficult for them. They found the others safely in the Burning Room back at the Temple, which gave them some relief that Steven had the mercy to return them home. He hadn't gone completely at least.

They'd discussed the situation hundreds of times and made many missions in the attempt to find out where Steven had gone. Arguments and debates were had, but at the end of the day, they just wanted to see him again. Snow and Greg went with Connie to her house to explain what had happened to her, why she was like this and so forth. To say her parents were hysterical about their daughter suddenly getting magic powers would be an understatement. Greg assured them that she was physically okay. When the question of Steven came up, Connie opened her mouth up, presumably to explain, but Greg intervened and said he's busy doing his duties and being a responsible gem. Snow was surprised to hear Greg lie about that, but when she truly dwelt on it, what could they have said instead? These humans had accepted Connie's dalliance into their version of alien sorcery and Connie pledged herself to be as responsible with her new found powers and that she'd have the gems to guide her.

Snow was humbled by the love for their daughter, experiencing the familial sort from what Connie had told her previously. She could see Greg crack slightly under his smile, as Snow then felt guilty at his current dilemma in comparison. She wished she could do more to ease his pain, for now Snow offered her assistance to the Maheswarans if they needed anything from her in the future. It was the least she could do.

Connie would come over often, the only beacon of pure light in the wake of Steven's disappearance. Her presence was more than welcome in the Beach House and she found herself staying over a few times, as Pearl helped her train her new abilities to understand them better. Her Aura generated the feeling of Hope and Empowerment within others, which may have been the reason why the others depended on her staying around. Their love for Steven would often leave them in a state of melancholy and despair, generating and healing rifts between each of the gems without his presence.

Whether or not the gems would ever recover from the trauma inflicted, it wasn't healthy for them nor Connie to balance their emotions and encourage such a dependency based on her power. Greg's earlier advice of becoming a psychologist or some kind of therapist to help them came to mind. Peridot was the mostly stable one of them all...and maybe Amethyst. She wasn't stubborn just...she would be jovial in either reality or it was just a mask. Snow knew it to be the latter, but she would easily could lose more than she gain if she pushed too far. Garnet was reclusive and Pearl was obsessed in trying to find Steven's location as soon as possible, though through training Connie, Snow became concerned she was not only using her for her Aura, but she lived vicariously through her as a another Half-gem like Steven.

Another issue that popped out was located at Snow's post. She'd settled into one of the Outpost Minors that Milky once had when Snow had arrived. She noticed the inactive warp pad that was there and was given minimal prompting. Milky didn't like Warp Pads for what ever reason. This one wasn't that far out of Beach City and was located on top of a nearby Mountain. She only found it on the map she was given prior to her mission on Earth. It had several rooms for that Snow took advantage of and would think Milky wouldn't mind if she made it her home. When she had time, she made it a bit more cosy. Black marble floors and in the center was the sunken in lounge with the mauve carpet and semi circle shaped biege leather couches with a black glass table in the middle. Over the same month, she had more stuff put in, knowing that she would eventually have visitors (human, gem or otherwise) and wanted to make them feel more welcome. She transformed the room on the right into a kitchen and dining area, where she would make tea for new...friends.

Understanding herself with the bit of human feeling within, she had the left most set of rooms transformed as well and a set of stairs that lead to the bedrooms above. It contained a master bedroom and other guest rooms. Only appropriate for when Connie would come around to talk when she needed to. Without even an inch of realizing it, she'd already become a Therapist for the girl who would stay the night occasionally as well, especially when dealing with the other gems became a bit much.

Peridot would come around as well, especially with how she helped refurnish the house. She would tell Snow on how Lapis wanted to help find Steven too and felt powerless to do so. She'd gone and helped reconstruct the barn a few months back and now that Jasper had moved in, much to Lapis' dismay. Peridot kept telling Jasper to go see Snow for her Snow Quartzy wisdom. She had one session and that was it. Not that Snow expected that as much, but she was always welcome back in case anything else came up.

Now, the only actual issue was that from what Snow could recall, she had bubbled and warped both Black Pearl and Pyrope back to her own personal Burning Room or her secured study area. The secured aspect as damaged, as if someone broke in for that specific purpose. Dori tried tracking the scent, but came up with nothing. Nothing else around the place was touched...only the two gems. It worried Snow, until she saw the note on the nearby bench in childish hand-writing. 'They're safe with me.'

Snow didn't want to cause panic, feeling like that it was Steven who stole them. She never mentioned it to anyone else, lest they freak out.

Instead, she became focused with Peridots study of Apophyllite as they examined it in Snow's study. According to her discovery. the Blackbox GIS was a scanned three Gem Fusion. It was very odd and it was unheard of a fusion being scanned. Well, if due to the prior taboo of cross gem fusion, they might as well have been the first successful Fusion copied GIS. It became Peridots main purpose to find and cling onto any data that she might have popped out. Snow had the console prepared for her as per Peridots successful replication of the Outpost Majors Blackbox compatible terminals. They wanted to use Apophyllite to potentially track down Steven's location. Once the Box was installed, Apophyllite's hologram sphere emerged from it shortly after initial activation. Peridot became excited at the prospect of working together with Snow, unintentionally revealing that the tensions between the gems were getting to her as well.

"Unfortunately. Steven was the theoretical glue that held them together." Snow explained.

"Without that foundation, things quickly fall apart."

It was true, from what Snow had already observed.

"I noticed Connie's been with them a lot lately. She seems to be doing okay." Peridot noted.

She was but she wasn't.

"She misses him dearly like the others and has every right to believe that he'll come home. Whether it's on his terms or if we drag him back. Either way, she's being strong for herself...even if her closest friend has abandoned her, she won't let it hinder her like it has for everyone else." Said Snow. She said he'd done it before but this time was a little bit more complicated. Connie just needed some kind of contact to ease her mind.

"You're the same. I find that commendable."

Peridot blushed under Snow's compliment and tried to brush it off like it was something she did all the time. Which was kind of true.

"It helps in having a focus a specific mission. I am certain Apophyllite will be the key in helping us further. They're a trove of information just waiting to be discovered...and bam, we'll score!"

Such confidence emboldened Snow. She also believed that Apophyllite had to have some answers hidden away in their memory. Now that they know its a flash copied fusion, it became more interesting to pour into its hidden contents.

"I've also asked for special Debugger Chip. Installing those would allow us to blatantly get proper Root Access to find the hidden source codes. We need to dig deeper to find the original gems that they were copied from. It'll take about another week. I had to get Steven's pinkish pilot friend to get it from some old Peridot buddies on Homeworld."

Ah this...Lars she'd heard about. She had yet to meet him.

"Great. Let me know when it comes in. In the meantime I'll do a bit of tinkering of my own. See if I can't get them to talk." Snow told her.

When on her own, Snow couldn't help but think about the circumstances that brought them here. She had half a mind to contact White Diamond about the situation, knowing full well that she'd find a way to solve this, given it did involve one of their own. On the other hand she was against it. It hadn't gotten to the point where they needed to get that far, so she went through her list of contacts she'd come to know over the years. She'd eventually tracked down one of her old gem associates. A Black Opal, an Archivist nicknamed Ridge. They dealt with Black Opals over the years to deliver information to them, only for the purposes of storing them. Black Opals were mostly down to earth gems who would get really excited in writing down not just gem lore, but any kind of lore they'd come across. History, religion...not that they were high up on the Empire's listings, only square above Pearls mostly given their purpose was for data storage alongside Beryls; who were more the database creators, programmers and entry specialists. Unfortunately they didn't get a lot of respect for their fields.

She'd tracked down Ridge in another human settled continent. Luckily enough there was a Warp Pad closer to her location. Once there, the land she saw was flat as can be. Tall eucalyptus trees were spread sporadically as they grew out of the red tinted earth, with the odd patch of grass. The temperature was mild to warm as Snow looked up to see the the sun in the clear blue sky. Nearby was a rusted tin shed next to a slow paced metal fan constructed windmill and the sounds of birds chirping alongside the crickets.

She walked to the shed itself and knocked on the rickety door. She did eventually hear a voice.

"Just a min'!"

Snow smiled. It'd been ages since she heard that tune.

She heard footsteps, then the creaking of the door as it spread wide open. In front of her was a tallish dark blue gem, with long, wild navy hair with red streaks with a single ponytail that sat on the left side of her cheeks. Her eyes were a beaming light green that sat on her subtle chubby face, which had a light blue streak against her face akin to a blind fold. She had a small, dark green cloak of an odd design, that sat above her mixture of light and dark blue clothes and skin. Her round, black gem was situated on the top of her right foot.

"Oh Snowflake, haven't seen you in donks! How are ya mate? Heya Dori! Come in, come in!"

Black Opals were independent like Snow Quartzes, often living in the moment but absolutely love talking about the past. Her home was quaint and looked live in, but had books and paper work everywhere as Dori began to sniff some of the contents, but often didn't like what she smelled.

"Soz about the mess, just got back from chroniclin' some documents from some folks in the west. Every tribe has their own unique set of tales. Their purpose is similar to mine. Preservation of stories that are brought to every new generation. These humans are somethin' else. Nicest people you'd ever meet."

They went into the living room as Snow sat on an old worn red couch, while Ridge sat down on adjacent folded chair. Black Opals were never the cleanest of gems, if anything else. The place was riddled with dust and dirt, as Dori sat up next to Snow and gave her an expression of concern.

"So what brings a prim and proper Quartz such as yourself to the Southern Hemisphere?"

Snow was hesitant, but if anyone could help her with anything it'd be her.

"I'd thought we'd catch up, Ridge. As you said, it's been hundreds, maybe thousands of years since we last spoke."

Ridge grinned, then looked at Dori and scratched underneath her chin.

"Aren't you the sweetest chook? I'd be much obliged to hear whats been going on in the outer world...haven't had much of a chance since this place is absolutely massive. Not to mention the locals got me hooked on going to the pub every so often. It's a...it's a place where you have a fun time with ya mates, if you're wonderin'."

Ridge never failed to make her laugh. There was some knowledge of human culture that Snow could grasp, but Ridge appeared to have adopted this place as her home. If she recalled correctly, Ridge originally was made for Pink Diamonds colony as this region was supposed to grow a decent amount of Kindergartens here. Snow had come here with Milky once before to map this place out, having a lot of potential Quartz soldiers. It, obviously, never happened. Ridge had escaped the planet during the evacuation and was meant to be reassigned to Blue Diamonds Court and ended up coming back to Earth on the terms of being able to preserve the data she'd collect there. She'd been back here ever since.

Snow explained the whole Pink Diamond drama to her and the current situation thus far. To say Ridge was shocked was an understatement.

"Good grief, that's a mouthful." Ridge commented, hooked on the edge of her seat.

"Ta think, I'm thousands of kilometers away from all of this happenin' why wasn't I gettin' all this down? So much unwritten lore! Humans, gems, human-gems. That's nuts."

She'd quickly tried to shuffle through her files to find some spare paper to begin writing it all down. Where was her personal terminal though? Snow then noticed something drawn on one of the sheets of paper. A red coloured circle with a blue scribble around it and crudely drawn stars and a red creature underneath it. She was curious.

"What's this?" Snow questioned.

Ridge was knee deep in scraps that she looked up to see what Snow was checking out. She got up and had a closer inspection.

"Oh that? Locals I met up with about a month back chalked up a weird tale about a Blood Moon and some crazy event." She revealed.

"Nothin' much to it, but they get this tale from their Dreamtime or their Dreaming...records of the oldest tales. This one was important I found because it dates back to during the war, so there is truth within its words. I'll need to chronicle your tales first Snowflake..."

Snow did help out with the rest of the details incredulous to Ridge's position. As disorganized as she was, she did eventually note down everything Snow could explain to her. It took them a few hours, not to mention Snow assisted in cleaning the place up so she could be a little more

"Bah...I wish I had a Pearl not just for company but to help me be a little bit more...lesse..."

Snow gave a cheeky grin.

"Cleaner? Less messy?" She put forth.

Ridge chuckled.

"Yeah that...someone who's file savvy ya know. I knew Pink's Pearl from waaaaay back. Well, not really. We only met once when it came to Pink Diamond being introduced to a lot of the gems that would be under her command for the initial colonization. Who'd think that this Diamond could have done all of this...it boggles tha mind."

They worked into the night, when Ridge invited her out the back and lit up a bonfire with the pleasant sounds of cracking wood. Snow enjoyed the embers that curled their way upwards; bright as the thousands of stars in the night sky. A place as flat as this allowed them to see the stars like the ocean on a clear, still night. The crickets were a little louder now that the avian life had fell into the slumber just after sunset. Snow sat with her legs crossed, while Dori sat next to her, as Ridge came around and threw Snow a bottle of a cold amber liquid. Snow examined it as water droplets fell down it. She looked at Ridge with furrowed brows.

"Local delicacy." Ridge said as she clinked her own bottle with hers and sat down next to her in the same position.

'Might taste funny at first, but after a hard day, ya crack open one of these and ya'd be glad to have the chilled bitterness on ya tongue. Makes all the difference."

Snow knew this was beer. She'd never drunk it before. Gems don't need to eat or drink conventionally and she knew Amethyst was one to devour all to end all. But beer of all things?

"Also helps with the imagination with the story I'm about to tell...it was five thousand years ago..."

Among the chaos that was brought the world over, there was scarcely any time to breath for the Rose-Mother. She had come to the watering hole of all the creatures, until she met up with an ancient and wise creature, known as the Moth-Maiden.

The Rose-Mother had never seen such a creature, who knew the Rose-Mothers role in the chaos. With her was the Ever-Snake, the Star-Galar, the Enchanting Echidna and the Wandering Wallaby. The Moth-Maiden told the Rose-Mother she had visited the Sacred Shrine of the Dream Gods and they had watched her as the leader of the wars. The Time-Snake knew the beginning and the ending, the Star-Galar was oddly silent but etched out the map of the universe before her eyes in the dirt. the Moth-Maiden explained that this could not end well, while the Rose-Mothers enemy, the Flower-Queen was on the planet.

"A life would end in the death within the love of birth." Said the Ever-Snake.

"Beyond the demise, we see the seeds that would grow into not one, but two beautiful flowers. New leaders arise. Flower of Love. Flower of Hope." Said the Enchanting Echidna.

"We will sow those seeds, but with out the seed bearer, we cannot plant them." Said the Wandering Wallaby.

Rose-Mother was at odds on how to help with that.

"What we also see is the Flower of Despair grow from the Flower of Love." Said the Moth-Maiden.

"It can only be purified by the Flower of Hope...it must be done before the Blood Moon arises."

The Rose-Mother was a curious flower, meant to be looking for herbs to heal her ailing allies.

"What would happen if the Blood Moon appears?" She asked.

The Moth-Maiden cradled the stars of sorrow in her hands as the Star-Galar used a stick to draw out a tree on the moon.

"The Flower of Despair grows into the Tree of Hatred. Passion rides in its dreams and nurtures it with darkness where it needed the light. For every river stream that runs by it, they could not nourish the trees roots, as there were trees larger than it that took all the moisture. The passion will rot the tree and it will slowly wither and die and it will remain hollow. Hollow until someone brings in the rains and winds from Ai, the lake of love, hope and understanding, to reinvigorate it to see the stones of reality once again."

The drawing underneath demonstrated a dark cat like creature underneath it, with a blue figure and another beast that fought alongside it.

"The magicks of the Dragonstone shall heed the calls of the Lake to cleanse the Red-Cat."

There was a lot to absorb from that story alone. No wonder Ridge found it fascinating as Snow Quartz just realized she'd finished the bottle of beer.

"I'd already deciphered some of the texts." Ridge explained as she summoned an esky from her gem. She opened it, revealing more bottles sitting on ice. She chucked another to Snow who subconsciously opened as she was too busy trying to understand it all.

"Your explanation of recent events is a lil' too close to the stories prediction. The native peoples of this land have a tonne of them, but the ones I visited only related it to me since I reminded them of the tales original context of mistaking our gems as flower buds. For all they knew, Gems were simply magical flowers yet to bloom to revive the world. Just as plausible as a koala comin' down for a cuppa."

The Rose-Mother was the easiest to work out. As for the Moth-Maiden and her associates?

"If we were to say that the Flower-Queen and the Rose-Mother were same being in this instance and that the Flower of Love was this...Steven you say? You're up crud creek without a paddle in this instance."

The story did mention this Lake of Ai, however.

"Did you manage to figure out where this lake was?" Snow questioned, before taking another sip.

Ridge groaned.

"Ahh bugger all really. I've been researchin' corresponding lore and came up with completely unrelated content from other countries on this planet. I've asked other Opals to gone an' find out for me but they're like you're the one who was allocated Earth you find out and I'm like I'm busy in the oceania region and they're like you've been there for like the last few thousand years move on already. Bunch of pr-"

A gust of wind interrupted a discussion as the air tinged with a reddened hue. The pair looked at the stars, then at the moon which turned to bright shades of coral. Dust rose up and twirled down in the shifting flow, like a whisper of a warning. Dori growled, not liking it one bit.

"Is it me or does coincidence seem to be the order of the day when you're around?" Ridge commented.

Snow never really thought about it that much, in all honesty. She felt the aura and the bewitching essence come off it.

"Nah I'm jokin'. Seriously though, it's been doing that nearly every' night. You're situated on the Northern' Hemisphere right? You guys don't see that?"

Not that anyone noticed no. No one has said or done anything.

"No, but I get why you told me the story." Snow noted.

Ridge nodded.

"Yeah, got the humans arkin' up a storm. Their news channels keep sayin' there's somethin' harsh goin' on. Scientists can't explain it and the believers keep sayin' its the end of the world. So many theories, not enough evidence. I'm just thinkin' something's going on at the ol' Moon Base. Still kickin'," She replied.

The Moon Base. Of course. Snow put her thumb to her lip and tried to suss out the possibilities. Ridge did say coincidence was to be had any time she was present, after all. The Prophecy itself continued on from what Black Star had envisioned originally and that it wasn't just her. The humans had carved out the niche from a story from what could have been from this Ever-Snake. Or it's closest equivalent. Even with some of her old memories returning, post-infection Snow hardly had any idea where Black Star visited on this planet.

"Did you ever get to see any Sapphires in you travels?" Snow queried.

Ridge shrugged.

"Nah. None that I ever saw. Pink Sapphires maybe? But a lot of them were kicked back to Homeworld after the War. Never had the chance to have a chat with 'em. Blue Diamond was in the heaviest of moods, so a lot of us feared speakin' to one another." She said.

Figures. Ever-Snake could have been Black Star...or the Enchanting Echidna. Or anything. Snow finished her second drink and was onto her third before she knew it, feeling a bit funny after it. The conversation evolved into a deep chat about the Diamonds themselves and how they had the tendency to change things in a moments notice. Fourth bottle in, Ridge said when she spoke about the drink, she actually said it was a homebrew recipe she made up, since normal alcohol didn't affect gems, her brew was one of the strongest. Distilled Distortion she called it. Rattled the gem to give it the drunk effect that she'd seen humans fall into.

In a way, Snow didn't seem to mind. She'd fallen onto her back as she looked up at the stars with Ridge. The Blood Moon eventually faded, with sky cast with its deep blue canvas and the speckles of shining brilliance like dotted eyes. She told Ridge how she was half Snow Quartz and half Medusa Quartz...and a bit of human essence. Ridge said that'd be impossible, but it was true.

"Heard of the Homo Magia?" Snow asked as she tilted her head to look at her fellow wasted gem who had her hands behind her head.

"Kinda? Legends of the Magical People do come across from time to time. Mostly word of mouth from other Opals. Now that you mention it, your current form. Your face...has this ethereal, almost exquisite human detail to it."

Snow blushed, not really paying attention to how she looked. To be told she had that type of charm was more disturbing than she'd let on.

"Oh gosh, I mean, uh don't take it the wrong way! I think it's nice." Ridge stammered.

"Humans can trust a face like that. Took the blokes I met a while to get used to me. They just call me the most fair dinkum shaz around now. Just don't expect that kind of reception in their cities. Unless you visit the city down south. They'd call ya a hipster and you'd fit right in."

Under any circumstance, Snow was not going to visit the heavily dense areas. She wasn't keen to see a lot of people in one place if she tried. Made her uncomfortable to no end. She explained further to Ridge about a certain Homo Magia known as Diga who helped maintain her form as it, as the human aspect was meant to enforce her form.

"Don't be surprised if you look like her a lil' then." Ridge stated.

"Humans that create more humans tend to have traits of either parent. Some take after the one parent more than the other too."

Not too dissimilar from Gem production. Another bottle down and another bottle up.

"I'll have to ask the Peridot I'm working with about it. She never pointed that out to me." Snow said.

Ridge laughed at the ridiculousness of it.

"A Peridot? Bah. They have no clue about organics. What about the young sheila you're working with...one you said was half-Diamond?"

"Connie? Snow replied.

Ridge winked. "Yeah that one. Talk to her. She'll sell ya."

Poor, poor Connie. The two of them were meant to solve this problem and they ruined it big time.

"I'm still waitin' for ya Snowsong too. Weren't you like the only Snow Quartz in activation without one?"

She hadn't yet the time or the mindset to write one. Nothing as of late was worthy of singing to. Ridge, for what ever reason, loved collecting Snowsongs. They only came about with Milky's insistence, especially during the Lillim Wars. Snow got most of them from her sisters and gave them to Ridge for Archiving.

"I'm sorry Ridge..." Snow said with sorrow as she sat up.

"Don't gimme that bulldust that ya half Medusa Quartz. Ya were grown a Snow Quartz first. You carry legacies most of gem kind would be envious of havin'. A Snowsong is ya contribution to the Edda and yours would be like hitting gold. Right next ta Milky's."

So much had happened between her arrival and now that a Snowsong wasn't really her priority. She'd already been shattered and bounced about and manipulated. Her concerns were with those of Beach City and need to set things right again. She stood up, albeit dizzy but able to be on her own two feet, not to mention Dori helping out too by being next to her.

"White Diamond duzzint care about Snowsongs anyway." Snow balked, unaware of how drunk she was. "A Snow Quartz under her must be HUMBLE and STRONG and ELEGANT and GRACEFUL."

Ridge burst out into laughter, almost spilling her drink everywhere.

"Really mate? Sounds like you're all tip and no iceberg haha!"

That was the last straw. Snow curled a fist.

"You're on Opal!"

To say the rest of the night was a blur was an understatement.