"Hurry Garnet!" Garnet held Steven back as he tried to chase after Pearl & Amethyst, who had taken off in pursuit of the homeworld gem known as Peridot.

"If Peridot's mission was to reactivate the kindergarten, the injectors would be on. Look, they're not."

"Oh." Steven said as Garnet finally set him down on the ground.

"Let's see what she was actually doing." Said Garnet as she walked over to lift one of the injectors off the ground. "Down here!" She motioned for Steven to come closer as a large hole in the ground was revealed beneath the injector.

"Oooh! You're brains and brawn, the whole package." Steven said impressed and gave Garnet a high-five.

"Thank you." Garnet said with a smile.

"Is it because you're a fusion?"

"I have to keep some of my secrets."

Steven huffed in annoyance. "Aww please? I wanna know!" Garnet just chuckled as they made their way down the secret tunnel.

*After the incident with the gem fusion experiments*

It had taken almost an entire hour, but they had finally managed to bubble every single one of the experiments and made their way back out to the kindergarten. Steven sighed as he noticed that Garnet still refused to speak after her encounter with the fusion experiment and was about to follow them back to the warp pad when something shiny caught his eye.

"Huh?"

After turning to make sure that the gems weren't too far away, he decided to check it out for himself. He walked over to the hole that the glow was coming from and was surprised to find a giant block of ice taking up most of the hole and spreading its way out.

"Hey guys! Come check this out!" He called out to the crystal gems and they came running over.

"What is it Steve- oh my!" Pearl gasped as she saw the jagged ice formation.

"Whoa! That's weird... why is there ice here but nowhere else?"

Garnet hummed in agreement as Amethyst walked over to check it out.

"Amethyst! Be careful!" Pearl scolded as Amethyst placed her hand on a sharp icicle that was sticking off the main formation.

"Hey, I think there's something in there!"

Garnet walked over to inspect what it was that Amethyst was seeing before getting a strange look on her face.

"Move!"

Amethyst quickly moved out of the way as Garnet began to smash through the ice, breaking off large icicles and tossing them over her shoulder before reaching in to grab & pull a huge chunk of ice away from the wall. Pearl gasped when she realized there were gems frozen in the block of ice.

"Let's take these back with us and find out who they are." Everybody followed after Garnet as she made her way to the warp pad that would take them home, putting the terrifying incident with the fusion experiments out of her mind for the time being as the possibility of new allies formed in her mind.

Perhaps something good could come out of this mess.

Steven sat in the sand and watched as the (now smaller) block of ice slowly continued to melt, he was excited at the idea of making new friends and patiently waited to meet the new gems.

From what he could see, there were two gems frozen in the block of ice; one blue, and one yellow. He briefly wondered who they could be and what they would be like, would they be evil like Peridot? Would they be nice and possibly join the crystal gems? Or maybe they were corrupted and would need to be bubbled.

Only one way to find out.

He watched as the last of the ice melted away, leaving the two gems to lay in the sand.

"Guys! Get out here!" They came running as Steven bounced in excitement, waiting for the new gems to reform.

"Be ready for anything, just in case!" Garnet said as her gauntlets appeared on her arms, everyone nodded in agreement before drawing their weapons just in case they needed to defend themselves. They watched in excited anticipation as the gems began to glow, their silhouettes begin to take shape and there was a brief moment of relief when they were revealed to be uncorrupted.

The first to take form was the blue gem; She was only a little bit taller than Pearl and her skin was a light-blue color, her hair was long and had a dark navy tone to it with dark-green highlights all throughout, Steven briefly noticed that her gem was on her chest as she collapsed in the sand.

The yellow gem finished taking form not long after the blue gem collapsed, she was also the same height as Pearl & her skin was a pale-yellow color, Steven noticed that she had the same hairstyle as Opal, but her hair was a dark-orange with bright-yellow highlights all throughout. He also noticed that her gem was at the base of her throat, and she seemed to be in better shape than the other gem because she managed to only fall to her knees without passing out.

"H-huh?" She groaned before looking around in bewilderment, her eyes - which they noticed were a bright-orange color - finally landed on the small group before she suddenly stood up and they watched in amazement as her eyes lit up & electricity began to pulse around her body.

"Wh-who are you?! Where am I?!"

The other gem began to stir before anyone could answer and the yellow gem gasped before rushing over to her friend.

"Aqua, Aqua! Are you ok?!" The blue gem, Aqua, groaned before slowly opening her eyes and attempting to sit up, she wobbled a bit before placing a hand to her forehead.

"Wh-wha? Topaz? What happened?"

Topaz placed a gentle hand on Aqua's shoulder to steady her & turned to face the crystal gems.

"I don't know, but I think these guys thawed us out."

Steven retracted his shield and slowly stepped forward while putting his hands up in a placative gesture.

"That's right, I found you in the kindergarten and we brought you here. I'm Steven, it's nice to meet you!"

Topaz helped Aqua to her feet before addressing him. "I'm Topaz, This is Aquamarine." Aqua waved to them before looking around in confusion.

"Where are we?"

"You're in Beach City." Garnet answered before finally relaxing and making her gauntlets disappear, Topaz looked at her like she had just grown second head.

"You look familiar... Who are you?"

"Hey... I remember you! You're the fusion that worked with Rose Quartz! Garnet, right?"

She tensed before giving her a pointed look. "Why?"

"We heard of your exploits during the gem war, but we never had the pleasure of meeting you in person. You see, we were considered defective by our diamonds because we had problems with authority and we ran away before they could shatter us for it. We tried looking for Rose Quartz, but could never find her."

Topaz spat the word diamonds as if it were acid in her mouth, Garnet seemed to mull this over for a moment before nodding.

"I see, how did you end up in that block of ice?"

"That would be my doing, it was the only way I could think of to protect me and Topaz from the corruption wave."

Pearl and Garnet hung their heads while Amethyst and Steven looked at them in confusion.

"Corruption wave? What's that?"

"It's what turned all those gems into monsters Steven." Steven made an 'oh' face before nodding in understanding.

"Hey... where is Rose Quartz?"

"Right here." Steven lifted up his shirt to reveal the gem on his stomach before anyone could stop him and Aqua looked at him in confusion.

"How?..."

"It's a long story."

"Oh...well, we'd still like to join you, if you'll have us."

Everyone looked at Garnet and she thought it over before smiling.

"Well then, welcome to the club."