Chapter 1

Lapis and Peridot were there to greet the Crystal Gems as they landed at the barn. The door to the Roaming Eye opened, and Steven immediately ran toward his favorite Homeworld Gems.

"Lapis! Peridot!" He yelled while running.

"Steven!" They both cried out, rushing over to embrace him. Lapis knelt down on her knees to better wrap her arms around Steven and Peridot in a three-way hug. Steven sighed briefly and closed his eyes, grinning as he did so. It was good to be home, he realized.

The rest of the Crystal Gems and Greg then walked off the ship. Pearl was practically humming with joy. She had been absolutely thrilled to get a chance to go back into space and appeared much more excited than either Garnet or Amethyst. Garnet simply walked out of the ship as nothing had happened while Amethyst had a nonchalant look on her face. It seemed as if both of them were too cool for space. Greg meanwhile was practically shaking from stress. Upon exiting the spacecraft he immediately collapsed face-first into a patch of flowers. He kissed the ground. "Never did I think I'd be so happy to see solid ground again." He muttered. Veggiehead, Peridot and Lapis's guard dog, took this exact moment to run up to Greg and start licking the side of his face. "Ugh, can't a guy sniff dirt in peace?"

Pearl rolled her eyes at Greg's antics while Amethyst laughed. Garnet simply chose to ignore it and instead turned to focus on the hugging trio.

"I trust everything went well while we were gone?" Garnet said, addressing Lapis and Peridot directly. Lapis returned to full height and Peridot flashed a thumbs up, smiling eagerly.

"I told you that you could count on us. Beach City is perfectly safe and sound. Ain't that right, Lapis?" Peridot commented proudly. Lapis simply shrugged.

"Did anything major happen while we were gone?" Pearl inquired.

"A couple corrupted Gem attacks but nothing major. We managed to bubble them and stop the onslaught before anyone was hurt." Lapis replied. "Steven's Lion also stopped by to play with Veggiehead."

"Where is Lion, anyway?" Steven asked, scratching his head. "Lion! Are you here, Lion?!" As if on cue, the magical pink beast appeared through a warp hole, stopping in front of Steven. He was clutching an object in his mouth. Steven looked closer to inspect the item he was holding. It was small and rectangular and seemed to be technological in nature. Steven's eyes widened with worry.

"Lion! That's my phone! Drop it. Now!" He commanded. Lion responded by letting the phone fall into Steven's hands. The phone was covered in slobber but otherwise seemed to be in working condition. Steven dried it off with his shirt and tapped the main button, lighting up the screen and checking the contents he had missed while away in space.

"What's next then, Garnet?" Pearl suddenly asked. Going into space had ignited something in Pearl. She was already ready to go on another mission.

"If Homeworld is coming back at some point, it would be in our best interest to go back out and locate the Rubies. It won't do us any advantages in having them be picked up by a Homeworld vessel." Garnet struck a thinking stance, probably contemplating the many ways things could go wrong if the Diamonds were able to get ahold of one of the Rubies.

"TWENTY unread voicemails! " Steven yelled in alarm. It dawned on him at once that he had basically left Connie an emotional wreck before they had started their journey to find his dad. "Connie must be worried sick. Lion! We need to go to Connie's right away." Lion didn't protest and instead lowered himself to the ground so Steven could get on his back.

"Steven, wait!" Garnet protested, now evidently distraught about something. "We may need your assistance in retrieving the Rubies from space. I know I said we had nothing to worry about earlier but now..." Steven wasn't listening.

"No time for that Garnet. Connie comes first. Let's go, Lion." Lion roared in affirmation, opening a portal as he did so. Steven and Lion warped away before another word could be said by Garnet.

Connie's place appeared unchanged as Steven and Lion arrived outside the townhome. Steven dropped down from Lion's back and immediately went over to knock on the front door. answered and looked surprised to see Steven and a lion greeting her on her doorstep.

"Um, hello, Steven. Is this your….pet?" She asked hesitantly. Lion's eyes narrowed slightly at being called a 'pet.'

"Sort of….do not worry, though, he's harmless. Is Connie home?" Steven inquired, anxious to see his friend again.

"She's in her room, but she's supposed to be finishing her homework so I'd appreciate it if you would….." She didn't get a chance to finish her sentence, as a gust of wind from some intense and definitely non-human speed knocked her backward. Steven rushed past Connie's mom and into the house. At the top of the stairs, Steven's voice could be heard speaking in a rush.

"Thank-you-Doctor-Maheswaran! I-won't-keep-her-long-I-promise!" The elder human was left stunned into silence, still processing exactly what had just happened. A moment or two passed before she frowned.

"Sure, make yourself at home." She commented sarcastically. Lion decided to act upon her invitation and entered the house. He then curled up into a ball in the middle of the living room floor, most likely to take a nap. Not quite sure what to make of the giant animal, she simply went back to the kitchen to continue cooking dinner.

"Connie? Connie! Are you here?" Steven was frantic.

"Steven?" Connie opened the door to her bedroom in alarm. "Steven!" She rushed over and hugged him, tears forming in her eyes. "You're back….I…I thought that I would never see you again!" Steven held onto her tightly, to scared to let her go.

"I'm sorry," Steven answered, his eyes beginning to water. "I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to scare you like that. I was just so emotionally caught up in trying to save my dad, that I didn't think about how I might be hurting you in the process."

"It's okay," Connie soothed, "You're back and safe. Nothing else matters."

"But it does matter!" Steven harshly broke away from Connie, the latter clearly confused by Steven's sudden outburst. A tense silence followed. "I hurt you Connie, and it wasn't because I didn't have a choice. I was actively choosing to leave you out of it!" Connie frowned. They had been down this path before.

"But why, Steven?!" She asked. "We've gone over this already. I want to be a part of your life, no matter how dangerous it gets!"

"That's the problem!" Steven screamed, throwing his hands up in the air in the process.

"The danger?" Connie asked hesitantly.

"No!" Steven paused, wiping his tears on his sleeve. Pausing to give a heartfelt look at Connie, his tone of voice went immediately from contentious to downright somber when their eyes met.

"I couldn't bear to lose both you and dad on the same day, Connie! Next to my dad, you are the most important person in my life. At least here on Earth, you wouldn't be facing any immediate threat."

"But what about you?!" She countered.

"What about me!?" Steven practically screamed. Winded and out of breath, Steven gave Connie a questioning stare. Rather than give an immediate reply, Connie took Steven's hands in her own.

"You matter to me, Steven, just as much as I matter to you," Connie responded sincerely, her gaze heartfelt. Connie clenched her fists around his hands and looked away as she tried to find the correct words to explain what she wanted to say next. "As you said, you hurt me either way. Personally, I'd rather be put at risk at your side rather than not know what's happening to you. At least then I can know I've tried everything to protect you rather than spend an eternity asking 'what if.'" Although Steven was beginning to see things from Connie's point of view, he was still unconvinced.

"How do you know that?" He challenged. "How do you know that simply knowing I'm okay with the risk of death is better than not knowing at all?!" He gripped Connie's hands back with equal force, knowing no other way to communicate his frustration. Connie sighed.

"As you already know, I was pretty mentally distressed about you and the Gems going into space. My mom had to pull me out of school for a day because I was so messed up. I spent the day at her work instead. Turns out one of her co-workers could relate to what I was going through pretty well."

"What did she say?" Steven, now more curious than anything, had calmed down a bit.

"She told me the story of how her partner died after he went away to war. Originally she was planning on joining the service with him, but he told her it was too dangerous. 'To protect her,' he reasoned. Now, every day she regrets her decision to stay behind."

Steven struggled to speak after hearing Connie's story. Apparently, she had a better grip on this situation than he did. "I had no idea," he admitted, at a loss for words.

"We are a team. I'm the sword and you're the shield," Connie continued. "I know you're scared, and I am too, but that is just a risk we both need to be willing to take." She slowly reached for Steven's hands one last time. "I need you to promise me, Steven, that you won't let your emotions justify you running away from me anymore."

Steven looked down at their conjoined hands, deep in thought. This entire conversation had made him realize that unlike Connie, he had a lot of work to do in keeping a level head. This was the second time he had put Connie's safety above her own wishes. If he truly was meant to be a team player and possibly leader one day, he would need to take other people's choices into consideration and not just his own.

"Okay," Steven decided. "I promise."

Little did they know that Connie's mother was listening to every word of the exchange at the bottom of the stairs. She had originally gone to tell her daughter and Steven that dinner was ready. She had not intended to eavesdrop, but Steven and Connie had not been exactly quiet with them yelling every word of their conversation. Backing away from the staircase slowly, she hadn't expected to back up into Lion. She turned around quickly and glared at the animal. It was giving her a look that seemed to imply the pet knew more than she did about Steven's relationship with Connie.

An animal having any semblance of intelligence similar to a human did not settle well with Priyanka. Then again, Connie had explained that Steven was subjected to having magical things happen around him all the time. The lion was pink, she reasoned. Who was to say it didn't have above average intelligence?

She pointed her spatula at the creature and narrowed her eyes. "If you give them any reason to suspect me of overhearing their conversation, I can assure you the sushi coming from my kitchen will cease and you won't have the luxury of eating it any longer."

Lion simply growled and followed the human mother back into her kitchen.

As Peridot 2F5L Cut 5XH traveled closer to the Diamond outpost, two things stuck out to her. These two things were a giant yellow hand and a giant blue hand orbiting around the station like a ring. She had given many reports to Yellow Diamond in the past, but none of them had been given in person. Peridot 2F5L Cut 5XH began to register that her first personal interaction with Yellow Diamond would be delivering essentially really bad news and in front of Blue Diamond no less. She gulped. Luckily she had a scapegoat, she decided.

In her hands, she held the bubbled form of a Gem, a Ruby, which she had run into upon entering hyperspace. The Ruby was currently bubbled mainly so Peridot 2F5L Cut 5XH could keep her sanity. Rubies loved to talk about nothing and everything. They could easily drive anyone nuts. Knowing she had been dispatched to Earth because the previous Ruby squadron had failed to find out what had happened to Jasper, she had felt the need to stop and pick her up along the way. The information she had supplemented did prove useful and would serve her well in this situation.

The image of the outpost was now within reach, and Peridot 2F5L Cut 5XH prepared to land. Opening the doors to the docking bay, she and her ship entered what was once know as Pink Diamond's insidious human zoo. The closer she got to her debriefing, the more nauseous Peridot 2F5L Cut 5XH felt. Not only was she going to have to explain the disappearance of Jasper and the Rubies, but also the continuing existence of Rose Quartz and the Crystal Gems. To make matters worse, if the readings from Earth's lack of tectonic activity were correct, then Peridot 2F5L Cut 5XH had reason to believe that the Cluster had been incapacitated somehow.

Today was lining up to be a horrible day, she decided.

And just like that we are onto Chapter 1! YOU GUYS ARE SO AMAZING! I did not expect such a strong reaction to this story right off the bat. I hope this chapter has lived up to your expectations. Please let me know if you notice any errors or have suggestions for future chapters. Thanks again!