The next day the Crystal Gems—including Steven—had a mission to do, but the day after that he and Amethyst made way into the Temple, and, after surveying and getting the go ahead for lack of Garnets, snuck again into the Red Room—the Bubble Chamber—Topaz's Tomb. Amethyst's enthusiasm this time was evanescent, but she helped Steven up onto the sarcophagus and sat behind him. She pressed on the sternum.

The diamond façade slid back—and there was Topaz, behind baleful bars, asleep. Well, "asleep" may not have been the best term to describe what they saw—maybe "a-seizuring" was better. She was tense and moving like a dog.

"Wake up," said Amethyst, to which Steven grabbed her wrist. Topaz started and rolled her head to the other side, and looked like she had to force her eyes to open. They did gradually, and she aimed one of them at Steven and Amethyst, processed what must've happened and who caused it, and remembered everything. Weight seemed to tumble into both her brow and eyelids, and she gave an almost imperceptible grunt of distaste. "Go. Away," she said, her throat sounding dry.

"Hi, Topaz," greeted Steven, a little awkwardly, "Sorry for waking you."

"You will be sorry," she said bluntly, in the same sleepy voice.

"Hey, you're in no position to threaten us," interjected Amethyst.

Steven looked at Amethyst pleadingly, then back at Topaz who tilted her head back, eyes still shut, stretched the muscles in her neck, and inhaled petulantly, "Leave. Me. Alone."

Steven just looked over Topaz, following her neck down to her gem. He thought about how wild she was when he and the Crystal Gems first encountered her. He remembered how her gem felt in his hands after he unintentionally cut her in two with his bubble shield—it felt warm and weighted. Now, Steven wondered what she must think about cooped up in this coffin day and night, and what she is thinking about now. He wondered what she dreamt about. Steven looked at Amethyst, who looked back at him disconcertingly. He faced Topaz again, who hadn't moved—nor breathed—one bit.

"So, Topaz," Steven began, playing nonchalance, "can you tell me about yourself?"

At this, Topaz lost a good tonnage in her brow and, with her head still tilted back, looked up at him, over her big, curled nose. "What?" she said flatly.

"You know, like, what you do, your interests and hobbies, your favorite flavor of ice cream, stuff like that." Steven was quite genuine.

It took Topaz a moment to respond. "Why?"

"Well, like I said, I want to help you—"

"Let me out—"

"Nope, not doin' it."

"Ooh, shot down by the Ste-Man," mocked Amethyst.

"Here, I'll start," said Steven, clearing his throat, "My occupation consists of, but isn't limited to: protecting the Earth and all humanity, maintaining balance throughout the world and within the Crystal Gems team, along with developing myself as a person and looking incredibly heroic and handsome doing it all! My hobbies and interests include magical destiny stuff and donuts, Dogcopter, Crying Breakfast Friends, and The Spirit Morph Saga! And my favorite flavor of ice cream is—pfft!—all of them!"

"Way to humble yourself," snarked Amethyst, attacking Steven in his sides—he was very ticklish. He couldn't keep himself from laughing, begging for Amethyst to stop. She laughed at his pain. Then Amethyst stopped not at Steven's urging, but as Topaz started to chuckle to herself. This excited Steven for a brief moment—until he realized she wasn't laughing out of joy, but laughed sarcastically, like she'd caught on to some bad joke.

"Okay, then," she started, lowering her chin, "You really want to know something about me?"

"Of course!"

She juxtaposed his hopeful gaze with her steely eyes. She didn't blink once as she responded. "My occupation consists of, but isn't limited to: emancipating entire systems through conquest in the name of Progeny, willingly volunteering for whole espionage insertion efforts to carry out such seizure, and instilling fear in the hearts and minds of those who should dare oppose those efforts, and reveling every moment of it. My interests include: long walks by wildfire, making others cry and dashing out the senses of my enemies." Steven was horrified to say the least! How could anyone say such things, much less, enjoy them? "And as for my favorite flavor of… 'ice cream?'—the flavor of freedom sounds pretty tasty."

"How 'bout knuckle sandwich flavor, huh? How does that sound?" said Amethyst baring her fist.

"…I also like digging," Topaz said genially.

Steven remarked warily, "Digging?"

"Graves," she said, looking at Amethyst, "Lots, and lots of graves…"

Amethyst deeply narrowed her gaze and pouted—electricity linked her and Topaz's pupils. "Don't make me come in there…"

"Okay!" declared Steven, interrupting the flow of electricity, "I think that's enough for now! Let's talk about something else!" He shifted his posture, not only because the tension in the Room was mounting—especially with the possibility that Garnet could walk in at any moment—but also because the sculpted hands of the diamond sarcophagus were hurting his butt. "What about Homeworld?"

"I told you. I don't know anything," shoveled Topaz.

"That's not what I meant," said Steven, "Can you tell me about your home? What's it like? Is it anything like Earth?" Topaz simply turned away and shut her eyes again, resuming her listless, breathless, mummy-like posture. But, this time—maybe because she wasn't asleep—she felt like she had about her a sensation of reverie—such secretive reverie. The wonderment of what she must be thinking about recurred to Steven, but he pushed that aside and started talking about his home, about Earth. He told Topaz about how alive his planet is, how there are even living things inside living things and how beautiful they were, big or small. He told her about the people and how funny and caring they can be. Then he told her about the people in his life: his dad, Connie and the Crystal Gems. He talked of them warmly, with a smile on his face, not forgetting silly things about them that makes him laugh. Through all of it, Topaz said not a single word, and Steven hoped that, because of this and with her eyes almost shut, she was actually imagining everything he told her.

"Sounds nice," admitted Topaz, still staring, hooded, at the innards of the sarcophagus. "I'd like to see your home. Maybe you could show me around sometime."

Steven, inspired, couldn't believe her words! "Yeah! That'd be great!"

Amethyst interposed, "Steven, she's just trying to trick you. Don't forget why she's here."

"Oh. Right," said Steven.

"If you let me out," said Topaz, coolly, "I might just be inclined to share a few secrets with you."

"Yeah, that's not happenin'," said Amethyst.

Steven shifted again. "So," he said, "you wanna tell me something about your home?"

Topaz grabbed the bridge of her big nose. "Shut up."

Amethyst told Topaz the same thing. Topaz told Amethyst she could go die.

Steven was getting stifled! He wanted to do something for her, but she was giving him impossibly little to work with, and if he pushed again by saying he wanted to help her, he knew the response he'd get. He had to go about this from a different angle. He thought about trying to sneak information out of her, like the great sleuths do in the movies. But, he wasn't that great at lying or disinforming. Then, he thought about trying good cop-bad cop for real this time, but thought that'd be silly, no matter how game Amethyst might be. He could tell her jokes to get her in a good mood, but then that was sillier, and, if anything, would probably just irritate her. Then he thought what matters most to a person. He soon concluded that is was other people, and so he had reason to hope Gems weren't that different. "How do you know Peridot?"

"Go away."

"Is she your friend?"

"Go. Away."

"What kind of hobbies does someone like her have?"

Topaz wriggled like a stick of dynamite went off inside her, and leered at Steven. She shot one of her fingers at him as if it were a gun with a hair-trigger, blowing away his smile. "Listen, you little mother—!"

"Hey!" exclaimed Amethyst, "Don't you talk to Steven like that!—"

"No one's talking to you!" Topaz trained her gun on Amethyst. "Shut up, you purple pile of—!"

"Where do you get off, huh?! Did you forget you're the one stuck in a box?!—"

"Just wait till I get out of here!—"

"Then, I guess I'll be waiting forever, seeing as your never getting out!" Amethyst hopped down from the sarcophagus, while Topaz kept shouting nasty things (some words in particular Steven was virgin to). "C'mon, Steven!"

"But, Amethyst," he said.

"Let's go!" With Topaz yelling at him and Amethyst—more like exorcizing them—to leave, Steven conceded and hopped down, a little less reluctant than he wanted himself to be. "Have fun rotting in there!" said Amethyst, pounding the sarcophagus' sternal button, shutting out Topaz, though, to Amethyst's distaste, not her voice.

Amethyst leapt, with Steven in hand, up to the roots, and just before she pushed him up through the puddle to her room, he heard Topaz exclaim, "I'm going to rip your Gem out of your disgusting little belly and shove it up your—" Splash!—The water hit him, and he didn't hear her finish her sentence—and he was pretty sure he didn't want to. He had never in his life been so berated by anyone, much less seen hate spill out of anyone's mouth, and eyes, and nose, and finger; it made him sick to his stomach. What in the name of everything causes someone to be so terrible to someone else? Steven certainly wanted to know.

Amethyst emerged with color in her cheeks. She grunted and kicked some sand. She said, "Steven, we're not going back in there. Not ever!"

"But I just—"

"I said no!" She tromped toward the Temple door, and Steven, unsettled, followed her.