Peridot disappeared, and Steven, Amethyst, and Pearl were left gawking at the vacant warp pad.
They looked at each other.
"Was that...?"
"Was she...?"
"Is she?-"
"And her?-"
"...Oh, no..."
Steven stepped forward. "I-it couldn't be, right? It could've just been an accident. I mean, you guys sometimes forget where you're warping to, or-or get mixed up with which warp you're warping to, right?... Right?"
No one answered him.
"So, what do we do about this?" said Amethyst, her forehead wrinkled.
"Are we to do anything about it?" replied Pearl.
"Well, yeah, I mean... I mean..." Even her hands didn't know what to say.
"It was just an accident, right, guys?" said Steven.
"Should we confront her about this?" Pearl began. "If she's being secretive about this, then something may be amiss."
"You mean something bad for us, for Earth," acceded Amethyst.
"But, guys!" Steven interjected.
"It wouldn't be unheard of. They could be conspiring," said Pearl. She touched her lips after every question, moving her hand away to speak.
"Guys!"
"You think she warped someplace far from us?" said Amethyst. "How would we catch her?"
"Amethyst!"
"Speaking of," said Pearl, "why didn't Topaz simply do the same? Go someplace else, rather than roost here?"
"Pearl!"
"She must be hiding something from us here," said Amethyst.
"Hide what, though?" said Pearl. "If they're plotting something against us, it would be foolish to stay here, in a location we know."
"What should we do about it?"
"Oh, I wish Garnet were here."
"You GUYS!" Steven sweated. He had the floor now. "...Let's not get too ahead of ourselves, ok? Peridot may have just been... I dunno, testing out the warp pads around the world, or-or taking a stroll..." Steven felt how dumb that sounded. "I'm sure that whatever this is, it's just a BIG misunderstanding."
But, Amethyst and Pearl had sowed the seeds of doubt in Steven. Steven wondered, and wondered far back, and it made him queasy.
Pearl ended up warping back home to check if Peridot had gone to the barn. She returned with a jacket, shoes, and some water, and snacks for Steven. She had left a note for Garnet.
"I asked Lapis if she had seen Peridot recently, but she hadn't. Curiously, she was wearing a dirty, old valance. She seemed bothered that I was looking for Peridot in the first place, whatever that was about. She called me a punk. I swear..."
The plan thereafter was to wait. Peridot would come back. Even Steven, deep down, knew that and consented to wait. Pearl and Steven sat by a big rock in perfect sight of the warp pad. It also faced the general direction of the second warp across the Kindergarten. (If anyone used that one, they had an instantaneous mode of travel to get over there.) Amethyst staked out on the other side of the warp pad.
They waited. Steven eventually resorted to playing on his phone. He had no signal. Most of his games required internet connection, so he chose a simple endless puzzle game he hadn't touched since he first installed it. He kept the volume off.
Darkness and coldness fell over the desert. Steven put on his jacket and shoes. The wind came on in and didn't ask for quarter. Steven's phone was dead.
"Do you really think Peridot would betray us?"
"We can't leave it out of the question," said Pearl. "Love can make people do anything. Believe me."
Steven dwelled on things, and he dwelled far back.
Light though, bursting down from the sky like a lightning strike, shoved Steven onto his hands. Pearl had already sprung away from their rock, and she and Amethyst ambushed the warp from either side. But, all they managed to do was grab Topaz by her fat legs and trip her.
They evaded just before Topaz would've stabbed them.
Topaz yelled. She slashed her sword at them.
Steven ran out from behind the rock, screaming, "Wait! Topaz! Topaz!"
Amethyst lassoed Topaz's sword arm. She sent a wave of energy down its length, but the whip was cut before it connected with Topaz, and the explosion went up, coloring everything briefly in purple. Through the smoke, Topaz rushed Amethyst and drop kicked her off the cliff's edge.
"We didn't come here to fight," exclaimed Pearl, retreating and pirouetting.
"This was an accident," howled Steven. "A misunderstanding!"
Topaz swept Pearl's feet from under her and pounced on her. They wrestled and Topaz pinned Pearl's spear to the ground, then stabbed her sword into the earth next to Pearl's face. "I'll live as I see it! You won't have it? Then fight me! Kill me! OR LEAVE ME ALONE!"
Pearl let go of her spear and punched Topaz in the face. Topaz let go of her sword and palmed Pearl's fist and pulled it across her chest, further pinning her.
Amethyst rushed back in to tackle Topaz, but Topaz, using the blunt end of Pearl's spear, slugged her upside the head, knocking her away. Pearl scrambled to grab Topaz's sword, but Topaz discarded her spear into the canyon and unsheathed her sword from the ground before Pearl could. She raised it above her head.
"NO!" screamed Steven, shoving his shield into Topaz's face. "Peridot! We were waiting for Peridot!"
As Steven collided with Topaz, Pearl kicked Topaz off of her. Topaz used that momentum to roll to her feet. Her sword was not posed for attack, but she remained steady. The Gems grouped with Steven, also ready, Amethyst rubbing her head and Pearl summoning a new spear. The question hung on Topaz's face.
"We were waiting for Peridot," explained Steven. "We came here to leave you that stuff over there, as a way to say sorry for yesterday. Before we were gonna go, we saw Peridot warp here. But, she got scared when she saw us and warped away. We were just waiting for her, thinking she'd come back, because we were concerned."
"Concerned for what?"
Steven, knowing his answer should be careful, sputtered. "A-about... why she was scared of us, really..."
"You suspect betrayal."
"No! I would never think that!"
"Then you're insisting you're trying to catch her for another reason. Have you harmed her?"
Pearl said, "Did you know Peridot was coming?"
"Stop," spat Topaz. "Stop. I'm asking the questions. You do not get to talk over me, you Pearl."
Amethyst howled, "I'll come over there and hogtie your mouth shut, you won't be saying anything-"
"OK!" called Steven. "Alright! That's enough! Please! Everyone..." He centered himself between Amethyst and Pearl. Even though it was cold, he wiped sweat from his brow. "Topaz," he began. "We would never hurt Peridot, you have my word."
"Now that," Topaz shook her head, "is a lie. I watched as you destroyed her physical form and held her captive, and still have her captive till now, for what I know."
"Peridot's with us because she wants to be!"
"You've done the same to me. Twice. And you've come back again and again to beat me and take from me."
Steven, with all his heart, said, "I'm sorry."
Topaz's face wrinkled. "You've quashed any small trust I had for any of you a long time ago. I can't believe anything you say." Her sword vanished, and she walked away.
Steven swallowed, not knowing what to say next.
"Funny how you can't trust people who saved your stupid life," Amethyst said. "But, was that a mistake? Why let us go? Why not fight us to the death like ya want?!"
Topaz halted. She made a fist, crushing the life out of her fingers, then let them loose again. She started marching back, and Pearl and Amethyst raised their weapons.
Steven's toes clenched tighter in his shoes with every step Topaz made to him. As she was almost upon them, finally, his heart gave in. He caged himself and his family in a bubble-shield.
"Steven?!" Pearl gasped.
"Open up!" said Amethyst.
He said he wouldn't, that there's not to be any more fighting, that they weren't enemies.
Topaz, outside, leaned up against the bubble-shield, peering in at the three of them. She looked down at Steven, forcing him to be small.
She pushed on the bubble, making everyone inside trip over each other and fall.
When Steven got up, Topaz was still looking at him. Then, she turned her attention to the boxes of bed things Steven, Pearl, and Amethyst had spent the morning getting for her. She sauntered over to her gifts. Topaz looked over her shoulder. She put her boot against her apology and shoved it all into the canyon.
Pearl scoffed, and Amethyst said she knew that getting Topaz anything was a dumb idea. Steven wanted to cry.
Tilting his burning nose downward, he noticed how close he and the Gems were to falling into the canyon as well. He popped his bubble-shield. "Why would you-"
"If you want to even begin earning any trust from me," Topaz declared, "then let me be alone. Never come back. If any of you do, I don't care who or how many, or for whatever reason, I. Will. Not. Hesitate. To run my sword through you, and crush your Gem under my foot. The only way to stop me is to kill me."
Pearl jeered, "You think you can just... impart your own mandates on a planet that isn't-"
"Those are the conditions, and that is what it is going to take. No more games..."
Steven shut his eyes and hung his head. He wondered why couldn't everyone just sing and be happy.
"And Peridot can come and go as she pleases."
And that was it. Steven, Pearl, and Amethyst, begrudgingly, sullenly, left Topaz at the Kindergarten and warped back home.
...