As Tiger's Eye and Amethyst took turns excavating material to fill up the cave, Greg was trying to get something to do.

He trailed behind Rose as she cleared out the other Quartzes' rubble. "There's got to be something!" he shouted. And he hoped it wasn't keeping watch.

Rose turned back to him with a patronizing smile. "You don't need to do anything, Greg. We're already dealing with it."

They passed Peridot, who was carefully chiselling away those crystals that hung on the ceiling. She was giggling in sheer euphoria. "I can't believe this!" she said, her visor glowing with her gem's light.

"This is perfect!" She squeaked as a crystal dropped. She dipped down and barely caught it.

Greg blinked, but turned back to Rose. "I'm a part of this too," he said. He felt his arm hairs raise at the sound of that. "I could…"

"Aha!" Rose smiled. "Inform the humans!"

"Yes!" Greg said, throwing his fist in the air. Wait. "What?" he asked, stopping right before he jumped. He certainly didn't expect Rose to answer with that.

"Inform the humans," she said casually. She turned back and grabbed an armful of rubble. She ran back and tossed it into the pool, splashing Peridot. "We're going to have to rescue them sometime."

Greg felt ice creep under his skin. "Is this just because you want me gone?" he asked on impulse. He winced as Rose turned so fast that he could hear the whistling of her ringlets as they moved.

"No." She looked up the cliff. "But they won't understand what's going on when a bunch of Gems break in and tell them they're free."

She had a point. If everyone knew they were going to be freed, then it'd actually happen. He shuddered to think that they just wouldn't go. "Got it," he said quietly.

"Good." She took another trip to grab another armful of rocks and dirt. She threw it hard, splashing water high enough to get Greg in the face. He wiped the cold liquid off, flicking it away from his eyes.

"So," Greg said, clasping his hands together. "How do I do it?" He couldn't just go out and spy on the humans. First off, he had no idea how to drive one of those hovers, and next off he'd get caught.

Rose threw another load of rocks into the puddle, This time, it was finally full. The displaced water rose up and poured out the lip of the cave. Greg sidestepped but Rose hopped up and let herself float.

Greg waited to see if it was just him, but sure enough she was doing it. She sighed and let herself touch the sand once the water had sunk into the sand.

"You're a smart human." Her eyes were trained on Peridot. She was hissing as dropped crystals flowed out onto the sand. "I think you can do it."

Greg stuck his feet out to catch whatever crystals he could grab. He picked them up and ran towards Peridot. "Where do you want these?"

Peridot dropped to the ground, turning so her arms could hit the ground first. She let the rest of her body fall and stood up. "Just put them over there." She pointed to the wall closest to where Peridot had been, where several other slabs of the strange crystals stood.

Greg glanced back at Rose to see an amused smile curling her lips. His shoulders sagged as she waved him away. "See, you've found yourself a job," she said, getting back to her job. "And don't worry. I won't hit you!"

Peridot turned to him, smirking. He couldn't see her eyes because of her gem-light. "Well, guess you're with me. Be my catcher." She hopped up. Her fingers on one arm became a hook. She quickly snagged herself on the ceiling and let her other hand become some sort of chisel and hammer. "And this way, I won't have to be so careful!" Greg watched as she smashed her four other hammer-fingers into her chisel. The crystals blasted away.

Greg had to run to catch him and when he did nearly crashed into a wall.

"Careful with those!"

He pursed his lips, acknowledging her. He walked across the cavern, placing the crystals on that shelf.

This went on for a fairly long time. Greg got grazed on or two times with a rock, but didn't want to tell Rose about it. Soon enough, rocks covered the shelf, some spilling out as soon as Greg put another on.

"How much do you need?" he finally asked, a huge slab of this crystal in his hands. These things all had some sort of lining on it and it was rubbing off on Greg. It was like some sort of rainbow-glimmer on his arms.

"Enough to make a door," Peridot said nonchalantly.

"What?"

"Oh!" She turned down, a grin on her face. "Well, I have a theory that Peridium, as I'm going to name it — It didn't have a name on its bio — can actually work if it has a large enough quantity. And don't rub those crystals too much. That's probably its active ingredient."

Greg faked a smile like he understood. Active ingredient? What was its purpose even? He saw her grin widely.

"So? What do you think? You musta seen these all over. Any ideas?"

Greg took a deep breath, finding a new shelf to put his slab of 'Peridium' on. It tipped precariously, but stayed put a second later. "I have no idea what you're talking about, actually. What's its purpose?"

"Well, the gems who discovered it didn't name it, but figured that it could make some sort of spaceless room."

The explanation wasn't helping, and Peridot must have seen that. "Stars, you humans don't understand anything. Well, what I mean is that Peridium could create a sort of safe space that nobody can get in."

So they could build a base that was completely safe? Greg chuckled. "Really?"

"Yeah!" she said. "All I need is a —" Peridot paused as she crunched closer to the wall. Greg saw heard the stones clacking on each other. He hopped out of the way as try ones rolled after him.

"Sorry!" Rose called. "Got a plan?"

Greg shook his head. How could he think of one? He wasn't able to drive and what good was a human spying on the others. And he had to do it somehow.

The only way if this was going to work was… Greg tried to push away the thought.

"Kapowie!" Peridot shouted and another slab of Peridium fell. Greg scrambled to catch it.

He didn't want to do it. More so, simply couldn't go back.

Greg put the slab next to the previous.

"So anyways," Peridot said after Rose left. "I think that if I had a sufficient amount of Peridium, the door would work. And bam!" She let her hammer-fingers drop. "Us here 'rebels' would have a safe base." Another chunk cracked from its perch. "And we'd all do whatever we want! Golly, I must be the smartest…" she trailed off, acting like Greg wasn't even there. She went on a small spiel about how smart or cool she was. Greg just grabbed shards of Peridium and put them on the shelf.

His hands trailed on jagged stone as he thought. He couldn't go back to the complex. He'd never been treated so kindly in his life. Sure, he was a bit hungry, but Greg hadn't really needed that much anyways.

But wasn't it selfish just to leave the rest of the humans in the complex? But then there were hundreds of other complexes. Would he have to go into each one? He couldn't!

A cloud of dust blew into the air as rocks clacked against each other. Greg coughed, instinctively covering his eyes.

"Are you alright?" Peridot asked. Greg looked to see that Rose, who had obviously thrown the rocks, was gone. "Your… whatever… isn't cracked, is it?"

His whatever? Greg shook his head. "No," he said. He had to find it amusing that Peridot would think he had some source of power like them. "It's just the dust," he said through a burning in the back of his throat. And the anxiety, I guess.

Greg squared his shoulders. "But yeah, I'm okay."

"Great!" Peridot said. "Because I think after this stalactite — and I'm going to pop this entire one off — we'll have enough to build that base. Ready?"

Greg didn't answer, because there were a few loud smacks of her fingers hitting each other, and then an entire mass of the crystal fell.

He caught it, the weight almost making him fall with it.

"Yes!" she said. Her hammer-fingers turned into a fist, which she used to punch the air below her. "And if this much doesn't work, then we've got like…"

Greg followed Peridot's gaze to look at at least twenty other stalactites at the end of the cave. Most were so large that they connected to the bottom of the cave. "Plenty to retry!"

Greg still felt queasy at what he had to do. "Yeah. Guess so!" he shouted half-heartedly at her, his mind now pretty much consumed by his own thoughts.

"Hey," Peridot said, detaching from her place on the ceiling. She landed on the floor hands first. "Can you go tell Pink Diamond that we're done? Also, I want to show her my theory." She stopped. "Sorry, Rose Quartz. I want to tell Rose Quartz."

Greg wasn't the type to correct her, but put the slab on a shelf with a nod. "Sure." He left the cave, careful not to trip on any rocks that were layered over the cave floor.

Halfway to where Amethyst and Tiger's Eye were tunnelling out rocks Greg ran into Rose. He almost collided with her. He stopped only by digging his toes into the sand. It caused a fine spray over the bottom of Rose's dress, but she didn't seem to notice.

"Back so soon?" she asked, an arm full of stones.

"Yeah," Greg said. "I don't think we need any more, though. And Peridot says we're done mining the crystals. Oh, and she wants to see you."

"Good, good…" Rose rubbed her hand on her cheek. "So what about your plan?" She started walking, a smug grin on her face.

Greg breathed in deeply. "I think I got one." And I hate every bit of it. He didn't say that aloud, though.

"And?" Her dress trailed behind her, making swirls in the sand.

"And…" Greg noticed the glint in her eyes. Had she already come to that conclusion? His blood boiled for a moment before ehe forced himself to cool down. "I'm going to have to go back to the complex."

"Mm-hm," Rose said emotionlessly. "That's definitely the most logical way."

Greg felt his shoulders rise. "You know — You know you could have just told me to go back, right?" He grimaced at Rose, whose eyes flickered down to him and then back onto the cliff.

"Sure, but your understanding of the plan wouldn't be so thorough, would it?"

"No, but —" Greg was interrupted as Rose stopped at the cave where Peridot was standing.

He hadn't even noticed they were there already. He decided just to shut up, his cheeks feeling warm. He didn't know whether it was out of embarrassment or anger or both.

"I've got to show you something!" Peridot cried.

Rose leaned down next to Greg. Just above his head, she whispered, "Do what you want. If you're going through with this, Pearl'll be at the hover at sundown. She'll take you to the complex. After that, be on the lookout. Okay?"

Greg didn't even have time to answer as Peridot grabbed Rose by the arm and tugged her into the cave. He brushed his hair through with his fingers.

So. A ride with pearl and nobody else tonight? Wonderful.