Lars didn't notice the gems had snuck up behind him until it was too late. Rhodonite grabbed him and hugged him, huge smile on her face. Uncomfortable at first, he soon relaxed and just went with it and laughed as Padparadscha joined in.

Fluorite sighed. "We shouldn't be celebrating. That was too lucky."

"They thought you were a gem!" Rhodonite exclaimed, smiling. "Which makes sense, since you're pink now."

She placed him back on his own two gravity connectors, stepped back to look at him, and quickly frowned.

"Strange appearance modifiers for a gem to have, though. Even an Off Color."

"My.. clothes? What's wrong with my threads?" He asked. "They're only slightly ripped. The one on my knee was actually intentional. It looks badass."

Rhodonite stared. "..Bad-ass? Lars, since you turned pink, you could easily look more like a gem, but not in these - rags? You're going to have to shapeshift a different outfit. It will make things much easier."

"Not a gem. Can't shapeshift," came Lars' deadpan reply. Rhodonite narrowed her four eyes, trying to think. "Now that we're on the surface, can't we hit up a.. an 'appearance modifier' store?" he suggested.

"Well, there may be a way," said Fluorite. "Homeworld imports organic materials from distant colonies all the time to craft into furnishings for important gems."

"We could find a nearby fabrication facility and at least try.." mused Rhodonite, attempting to game it out in her head.

Lars folded his arms. "Well, if you guys think it's important, I'm down for a side quest."

"I think we should try," said Fluorite.

"Either way, we should try to look the part," reasoned a Twin. The other continued, "Well, those of us who can anyway."

Fluorite took the hint. "I can't stay unfused for long. Should the Twins and I wait here while-"

Lars was wide-eyed, brow furrowed, incapable of thinking how to solve that issue. "No no no, we can't split up! That's the worst thing to do. I don't know how, but we need to stick together."

In a flash of light, Rhodonite unfused.

"Rhodonite?!" Lars, wholly unaccustomed to seeing gems unfuse, was having trouble figuring out what he was seeing.

Pearl curtsied. "Hello Lars."

"Lars! It's us, don't worry." Smiled Ruby and she reached up to hold Pearl's hand. "We're still Rhodonite! But I'm Ruby and she's Pearl!" She jumped excitedly. "A lot of fusions don't fit into normal gem society, so.. we're unfused now! To hide!"

"Yes, and Padparadscha, being a sapphire, is still technically a high-ranking gem, so she should be okay, however.." here, Pearl turned to the remaining gems. "Fluorite, Twins, we need to stay small and inconspicuous. So I thought, I can smuggle you both through the upper levels of Homeworld. If you want me to."

"Huh?" ventured Lars, helpfully.

"Yeah," said Ruby. "It's risky, but it's the only way we can stay together. But don't eat Lars' 'food', okay? She'll need it later."

The corner of Lars' mouth twitched uncomfortably at the odd choice of pronoun, but the Rutiles agreed to the terms before he could say anything and then the moment was lost.

"Okay, pull us out when it's safe," "or if there's trouble!"

"Good luck!"

Suddenly, Pearl's pearl glowed, and Fluorite and The Twins disappeared into it in a flash of light.

"I will try to be helpful in the event that we may become cornered," Padparadscha contributed.

Lars couldn't help but stare at the two new gems. "I- so, you, uh, you're..?"

"We're the two halves of Rhodonite," explained Pearl. "And Rhodonite is us, fused together."

"And.. you could have had everyone hanging out in your pearl this whole time?" Asked Lars, deeply confused.

Pearl smiled nervously. "Well, like Ruby said, it's.. risky. If-"

Ruby jumped in excitedly. "If we're poofed, or worse, -shattered- with gems inside our pearl, who knows what will happen to them!"

Pearl nodded gravely. "Yes. Having everyone out while we were down there always gave everyone their best chance at survival. Things.. things on the surface should be different if we can pass as.. normal gems for a while."

Ruby laughed anxiously. "Maybe!"

Lars nodded slowly, vaguely understanding. "Sh-should I go in there too, then?"

"Hmm," considered Pearl. "No, no. We'll need you out here in case we have any sensors to deal with."

"Yeah," came Ruby's enthusiastic agreement. "It's been so long since we were out in the open, we have no idea what it's going to be like!"

"We'll have Padparadscha. No one really questions the movements of mysterious sapphires, so maybe.. you'll be.. safe?" Pearl smiled awkwardly, shrugging.

Lars looked pretty nervous. "Right, well, we can't stay here, hah. So, where are we going?"

Pearl held her Ruby's hand tightly. "We need to get up to street level and figure out exactly where we are. We should be able to find a fabrication facility from there. Luckily the local area is the main administrative center for this Sector. We should have all the necessities for running an empire here within walking distance."

"Cool, so, how do we do that?" Asked Lars, attempting to scan the distance but having to squint. It was the first time he'd seen something resembling sunlight in what he supposed were days. "When me and Steven first fell down here, it was a real long drop."

"Hey," said Ruby. "That looks like.."

She ran ahead, dragging Pearl with her, up to the base of a building. "It is! I used to guard this spire - This will get us up high! Grab on, everyone!"

"Are you sure?" Pearl was hesitant. "There are other ways.."

"Trust me! I know this spire, I used to climb it all the time because guarding stuff is boring. We'll go straight up. It should put us out onto a place where we can see stuff!"

Ruby started to climb as Pearl grabbed around her waist and Pearl motioned for Lars to grab on too. He awkwardly put his arms around her shoulders, and allowed Padparadscha to grab onto his waist. He was extremely surprised the moment they left the ground.

"What even are gems," he muttered to himself.

After what he guessed were a couple of hundred meters, they arrived at a platform and climbed up onto it. Suddenly, in the full light of Homeworld's day star, Lars had to blink to focus his eyes. The bleak, dreary surface of Homeworld was a stark contrast to this world above - a beautiful, colourful architectural peculiarity with a skyline the likes of which he'd never seen on Earth, or even on TV. He was spellbound for a moment. The last time he'd been up here, he was terrified. But now in this empty thing resembling a street suspended high off the ground, as his vision slowly readjusted to full daylight, he unexpectedly found that he could appreciate the beauty of it all.

Meanwhile, Ruby and Pearl, being gems, were already adjusted to the light and attempting to make plans of the navigational variety as Padparadscha looked around seemingly as spellbound as he was. When she brushed her hair away from her face for a better look, he had to double-take.

"EYE.. h-haven't seen anything like this before." He quickly covered his startled faux-pas, mentally kicking himself.

She merely smiled back at him and said, "Neither. I never get to come to the street level. I have a vision that it's nice."

"I have it," Pearl decided. "The fabrication facility is with the setting star, and left."

"I still feel like it's to the right of the palace from here," Ruby pointed. Lars saw the gigantic, glimmering white bust of a woman absolutely dwarfing everything around it far off in the distance. He remembered it, from another angle, from the fall.

"No," retorted Pearl, "That's completely wrong."

"What's that?" He pointed.

"That's White Diamond's ship, it's been docked on top of the palace's imperial spaceport for the last few millennia, and she's always in there. She never leaves." replied Pearl, laughing anxiously. "Let's stay away from there! Well away. Let's not even acknowledge it - just keep moving."

"Yeah," said Ruby. "To the right of the thing we can't speak about."

Pearl rolled her eyes. "Ruby, let's just do my thing. Okay?"

Sulking hard, Ruby folded her arms. "Fine!"

Footsteps, and suddenly a small battalion of gems were advancing towards them.

"Stay calm, everyone - I'm having a premoni-"

"Ahem!" said Pearl, quickly pushing Padparadscha in front of them. Taking the cue, she started walking along calmly, followed by her escort. Lars followed along dumbly, crowding Pearl subtly in order to conceal himself - the only part of this he understood was the apparently universal unwritten rule that if you acted in confidence, no one will question you.

"My Clarity," greeted the apparent leader of the passing gems, accompanying her statement with an odd salute. The whole affair seeming to Lars to be a formality in passing. Padparadscha nodded respectfully and continued leading her entourage. The closer to their destination they got, the more the streets began to throng with groups of gems heading to their destinations; The more they received passing glances that turned into double-takes. It soon dawned on Pearl that they were starting to be noticed, and she soon found it necessary to direct Padparadscha into what appeared to be a quiet side street, and they were essentially alone again. They continued walking, until suddenly Padparadscha squealed. Her form momentarily glitched as she fell backwards, landing hard on her hands and butt. Ruby ran up to help her while Pearl gasped and Lars once again had no idea what he was looking at.

"Padparadscha! Are you okay?" cried Ruby.

"Ah! A forcefield!" She remarked after a couple of moments as she allowed Ruby to help her up. She touched her touchstumps to her face pensively. "Be careful, I just had a very painful vision."

Pearl walked over and lightly touched a touchstump to the shimmering patch of light that appeared to be blocking the rest of the sidestreet. "Ouch, my touchstump!"

"What, so we go back to the main street or whatever?" asked Lars.

Pearl explained. "Most of those gems back there are focused on their tasks, enough to not notice us too closely. But-"

Ruby spread her arms wide. "But the citrines! The agates? Those that enforce the order of the Great Diamond Authority?! They will notice us for sure! Argh! How did we ever think this would work!?" She hugged Pearl, sobbing a little. "A defective orange sapphire! A scruffy pink human in ruined fabric? And all I wanna do is be Rhodonite again! I can't stand it! What are we going to do, Pearl?"

"We have to try, don't we?" piped Lars. "We were only waiting to be shatter-killed back in that cave. We've come all this way, we evaded those robonoids, all those gems.. and we were doing okay until the street got crowded.."

"I-it's not that simple," said Pearl, quietly, as she dutifully comforted her crying Ruby. "Our place of hiding was invaded, we were safe there. And we let you inspire us, and we.. we allowed you take on great personal risks for us. But.. none of us belong up here. Or on Earth. We're just as trapped out here as we ever were in that kindergarten."

Lars felt the familiar panic attempt to seize his mind. But it was up to him to keep this going.

"-I- belong on Earth, and I want all you guys to be there with me. Rhodo-I mean, Pearl, Ruby - you deserve to be free from this horrible place. We all do. Homeworld -sucks-! You two together, yes, you have flaws, who doesn't? I sure do. But you, you're also a strategic genius! You got us out of there, and we've only made it this far now because of you."

He stomped around and pointed down the street, forcing himself to feel the conviction he was trying to muster.

"We are so close to completing this stupid side quest! If we need to get over there, we'll hecking do it. We'll get to Earth too, eventually! But there's no way any of us can do it alone. We need to do this together!" Suddenly, he faltered. "W-why.. are you all staring at me like that?"

"The barrier-" breathed Ruby, standing up and blinking away her tears.

Lars turned to find he'd unintentionally stuck half his arm straight through it, with no ill effects. The light crackled slightly as it stopped dead against the bare pink skin of his arm. He burst into relieved laughter as he waved it through, feeling only a negligible resistance as the forcefield otherwise allowed him to do whatever he wanted. He stepped through it with no trouble.

"Guys! I'm immune to this big ol' stupid piece of gem tech too," he called out from beyond the barrier. "We can definitely use this."

He stuck both his arms into the forcefield and found that he could manipulate the current to some extent. It seemed to be emanating top-down, and he quickly found that he could create a non-field that Ruby and Padparadscha could walk under (and Pearl duck under) with ease.

"You actually won't believe my latest vision," exclaimed Padparadscha as she walked through the breach in the field.

"I'm sure we won't, Padparadscha," Pearl chuckled, and then turned to Lars and Padparadscha. "Look, I'm sorry for how we acted-"

"Me especially!" Said Ruby. "That was very unprofessional of me. Sorry Lars, sorry Padparadscha."

"Oh, I predict I'll soon receive an unnecessary apology. Don't put yourself through the trouble."

Lars smiled wholesomely at his friends. "Nah, save it for when we're on Earth. C'mon guys."

"Oh! Two unnecessary apologies."

Morale renewed, they moved off towards the goal of their side quest.