Hey guys, and welcome back to Into Oblivion.

Before I begin, I'm REALLY sorry for missing the Thursday deadline... by several days. Ugh. Last week was finals week, and there was some other stuff, so I just wasn't able to put this together in time.

But now the good news: My school year is over. You may recall that being a common theme in my chapter delays in Don't Even Bother, so now there's nothing holding me back. Time to fly, lol.

(For the record, since I've now broken it, I'm ditching the every Thursday schedule and going back to updating whenever new chapters are finished. I thought I'd like a controlled schedule more, but to be honest, I really don't.)

Disclaimer: I don't own Steven Universe. Steven Universe is owned by Rebecca Sugar.

Present

"Thoughts"

Author's Note

"Steven? Are you... all right?"

Steven said nothing. He didn't even turn to face her.

Slowly but surely, the young child turned the two gems in his hand around, over and over again. Their surfaces shone brilliantly in the moonlight, casting off bright glints for his eyes to catch. Even so, Jasper's felt very rough in his palm; her gem had deep gashes running from end to end, and right down the middle. Lapis was fortunate in comparison; hers only had a small crack along the edge, far smaller than the last time. "Nothing mom's fountain can't heal..."

Steven's eyes fell shut. He gently sighed as he took Jasper's gem and carefully moved it to his left palm. He then lifted his hand and formed a pink bubble, encasing the cracked stone firmly inside. He held it up for the briefest moment, as if allowing Connie to sneak a look.

And then he squeezed his fingers, the bubble dissipating in an instant. Connie blinked in confusion.

"Uh... Steven? Why did you just put Jasper's—"

"I just bubbled her, Connie," he interrupted, "and now she's at the temple."

"The temple? But how? And what's the point of 'bubbling her?'"

Steven sighed and stood up from the water. His feet slowly paced to his friend, stomping in the sand and leaving gentle, soon to be washed away footprints. "Bubbling her means she can't regenerate. Not unless the bubble is popped." For comparison, Steven lifted his empty hand and summoned another pink sphere, holding it out for her to see. "And unless one of us wants it to, it's not going to pop. Ever."

Connie's face contorted into shock. Her lips went dry and her mouth hung open. "Wait... let me get this straight. You mean she's—" Steven cut her off by nodding his head. Her eyes grew wide as dinner plates, and her hands absentmindedly fiddled with the hem of her outfit.

"B-but why? This seems... I mean, don't you guys have something else you can do? This is a horrible punishment!"

"No it's not! She'll be fine inside her gem... even if it's cracked."

Now it was Connie's turn to shake her head, a small frown spreading across her lips. "Steven, I'm not a gem, and I'm not going to pretend like I understand what it means to be one. But from where I'm standing right now, I think what you're doing is wrong. I mean, even if it is 'fine' in her gem, you're trapping her in there forever!"

"Connie, it's..." Steven sighed again, this time in exasperation. "Look. If the Crystal Gems were here, they'd do the exact same thing. I guess I'll talk it over with them later, but bubbling her is the right thing to do for now. Besides, even having her gem around isn't a good idea right now."

"Why? What do you mean by that?"

"Watch."

Steven squatted low to the ground and gently set down Lapis' gem, on the soft patch of damp sand. He then took several steps back.

The gem rose from the ground and hovered in place, a few feet from the ground. The navy blue swapped to a far brighter palette as the stone began to light, its illumination increasing in intensity by the second. Even so, both children could faintly discern—through tight squints and cupped hands over their eyes—the formation of shapes; first a leg, then two, then arms and a head...

And then, just as soon as it began, the light broke away.

Steven's eyes lit up in anticipation as Lapis tumbled to the sand, landing flat on her stomach. Without wasting even a second, he ran forward and came skidding to a halt just next to her. He gently placed his hand on her back, careful to avoid her damaged gem.

"Lapis! Can you hear me?"

Lapis said nothing at first, her face pressed into her arms and obscured. And then, a few moments later, a light groan escaped her lips as she forced herself to sit up. Her hands and arms alike wobbled from strain and fatigue.

"... Steven?"

"You ready?"

"Just give me a second."

Garnet squatted on one knee and held her arm straight out, her fingers pointing as far as she could manage. The gem on her hand then proceeded to glow a brilliant red, followed by the formation of her star gauntlet. She still didn't bother to move, though; all three eyes scrunched in concentration as she held steady. "Wait for the cue..." she thought.

"... Okay, go."

The gauntlet shot off her arm like a rocket. The projectile whistled through the air with an angry ring as it flew straight to the wall of the bubble room. It exploded to pieces as it collided with the hard stone of the chamber, sending a thick, billowing cloud of dust up to the roof. Garnet smiled and stood up straight.

"Well, how was that?" she asked as she turned to her guest. The other occupant quickly glanced over her data, before pressing a combination of buttons on a dust-sodden screen.

"1.4 seconds. That's your best time yet."

Garnet's smile stayed frozen at this news. "Excellent. I've been wanting to get under 1.5 for a while now." She lazily cocked her gaze to the wall she had shot her gauntlet; there wasn't so much as a scratch anywhere. "I think we can call it a night. Thank you, Peridot."

"You're most welcome." Peridot powered down the cell phone and hopped off the little stool, near the corner. She briskly made her way to Garnet, a gentle cough escaping her throat from the dust of so many training shots. "I'm perfectly willing to help, even if I have to use Steven's primitive Earth technology."

"Hey, you know we tried to find your limb enhancers," chuckled Garnet. She smacked Peridot on the back as gently as she could, yet still earning a small wheeze of pain as her reward. "We just didn't find them."

"It's fine," gasped Peridot. She took a deep breath and collected herself. "I don't really need them. Earth technology is surprisingly adaptable, like this little portable timer. It's very handy."

"Yes, yes it is..." Garnet's eyes trickled to the fire pit in the center of the room. A few loose ashes leaped out every now and then, with a lazy trail of smoke rising above the boiling magma. "Steven often helps me by filming my training on his phone, so I can look it over later and find out what I'm doing wrong. Though there was that one time I had to burn it."

"Burn it? Why?"

"Well, I had a gem artifact. A document, and one that we had to destroy; it was too dangerous to even so much as stash away. But then he went and took a picture of it with his phone. I didn't know you could delete a picture at the time, so I took it from him..." Garnet had to stifle a bout of laughter, a feeling magnified when she saw her friend had to do the same. "I convinced Greg to buy him a new phone later."

"Greg? Why not you?"

"Does it look like we use money?"

Peridot rolled her eyes and shook her head, her smile still fixed firmly in place. "I guess I should've realized that by now. My mistake."

Garnet said nothing as her eyes traced up the sea of gem bubbles above; her gaze jumped from gem to gem, one after the other. "But in all seriousness, thank you for your help tonight, Peridot. I know it's on such short notice after a mission, but I felt the need to-"

Garnet's voice tapered off. And it wasn't because of Peridot.

Up near the very top of the mass of gems, a single pink bubble popped in out of nowhere. It wasted no time in blending, floating over near the middle of the sea of bubbles and quickly settling in. If she hadn't been looking up when it first happened, Garnet might have missed it entirely.

"... Um, Garnet? Are you okay?"

"Peridot, did you see that?" The green gem squinted her eyes and held her hands above her visor, straining to catch a glimpse at where she assumed Garnet was doing the same.

"See what? Something with the bubbles?"

"Yes... a new one just came in. It stopped somewhere in the middle, and I didn't get a good look at it."

"A new bubble? Odd..." Peridot scratched the back of her head as she spoke. She put her other hand to her chin and glanced up at the ceiling again. "Could it be Pearl, on a solo mission? Or maybe even Amethyst?"

"No, they would tell me if they were going somewhere... let me grab it."

Garnet ran over to the wall where she had practiced shooting her gauntlets. Without missing a beat, she leaped up and landed both feet on an extruding pipe, before taking another jump into the air. With extra care to avoid touching any of the other bubbles, her hands lightly grasped the new one as she flew across it. She then landed on the other side of the room with the gem tucked safely under her arm.

Peridot shook her head in amazement.

Garnet walked over to her friend. She hadn't even bothered to have looked at the bubble. "Let's end this mystery once and for all."

Garnet took the bubble and held it up. She could just barely make out the shape against the orange magma stream on the floor.

Steven's bright, starry eyes shone as brightly as ever. His mouth fell into a smile. "Hi, Lapis..."

Both gems eyes stayed firmly locked on each other, as if waiting for one to make a move. And then, like he was taking a cue, Steven stepped forward and wrapped his arms around Lapis' neck, resting his head on her shoulder as he pulled his friend into a hug. He closed his eyes and tightened his grip on her, as if she would disappear if he let go. And after what happened last time... well, he wasn't about to assume anything.

Lapis sat still for a moment, her arms glued to her sides. And then, with a gentle sigh, she lifted her hands and gently returned the embrace. "Hello, Steven..." she whispered into his ear.

Finally, after what felt like (to Steven, at least) an eternity, Lapis straightened her arms and gently pushed him away. Steven took a step back and held out his arm, despite being significantly shorter, to help her to her feet. She accepted his offer.

"... Thank you, Steven."

Steven brightly beamed. "No prob, Bo-sorry. Lapis."

Steven burst out into laughter at his own joke. Lapis allowed a small smile to crack across her face, but she didn't laugh with him. It wasn't nearly as amusing.

Finally, after a few moments, Steven took a deep breath and re-composed himself. He anxiously scratched the back of his head and made eye contact with Lapis once more; she still stared down at him with that same blank expression. He could tell she wasn't about to start a conversation by herself.

"So... Lapis, are you okay? After all that—"

"I'm fine, Steven." She spoke above a whisper for the first time, and her voice was rather hoarse. Steven chalked it up to her damaged gem. "You don't need to worry about me."

"Oh yes I do," smiled Steven. "I mean, with your gem being cracked..."

Lapis' eyes shot open wide. Without another word to Steven, she held her arms out to her sides and closed her eyes. Her gem glowed for a brief moment, the faintest outline of her water wings sprouting from the surface.

It didn't last long. Almost as soon as it began, the process collapsed as the light from her gem died out, and with it her wings. Lapis grunted through clenched teeth and tumbled to her knees, burying her hands in the sand and forming tight fists. Steven ran to her side and put his hand on her back.

"Lapis, stop! Don't hurt yourself!"

"Steven, I... I told you, I'm fine! Don't worry about it!"

"But your gem is cracked!" Steven looked over her gem once again. Much to his horror, the crack had grown slightly since when he held it, most definitely from her failed wing summoning. "We need to get you healed up."

"Then use your healing powers, like the last time." Lapis turned her back to him and gestured to her gem with her thumb. "Steven?"

"I can't..." Steven's voice barely rippled above a mumble. He stepped away and shook his head.

"You... you can't?" Lapis asked. "Why not?"

Steven held up his palms and glanced down, dodging eye contact. "I don't know what happened, but I just... my healing powers don't work anymore. They haven't for a while now. I've been trying to get them back, but—"

"So I can't be healed." Lapis' voice was dead serious, her expression perfectly stoic to match. Steven had to suppress a shiver.

"No, no! You can, don't worry! There's another place we can go to, and it does the same thing I did. We can still heal you."

Lapis breathed a sigh of relief. She turned her gaze to the ocean waters ahead, and watched the waves dance along the shoreline for a brief moment. "... All right. Thanks, I guess."

"Yeah yeah..."

Sensing the increasing awkwardness of their conversation, Steven turned his back to Lapis and waved his arm, signaling to Connie down the beach. She took the initiative and jumped to her feet, before jogging to the two. "What? What do you need?" she asked.

"We're going to my mom's fountain to heal Lapis. You ready to go?"

"Yeah. But what's your mom's fountain?"

"Oh yeah, I guess you haven't been there with me before..." said Steven. He put a hand to his chin and racked his memory. "My mom's fountain is this big garden, and the fountain part flows with her tears. They work the same way my spit used to."

"Ah. Are we going to take Lion again?"

"You bet. We can't just leave him here, you know," chuckled Steven, earning a few giggles from Connie as well. Lapis said nothing. "But I think we have to walk back to where we left him... he was sleeping last time we saw him. He won't hear me whistle."

Connie's laughter died on the spot.

Pearl leaped high into the air. With an elegant twirl, she maneuvered her way from one water spout to the next, landing on her feet a little ways away with perfect precision. Not even bothering to wait for her toes to land on the ground, however, she then took to jabbing her spear at an imaginary target, over and over again. Her attention was so completely focused, she utterly failed to hear the sound of the door.

"PEARL!"

"AGH!"

Pearl's spear flew out of her hand in a surprise reaction, landing at the feet of Garnet. The fused gem picked it up, and it dissipated a moment later. "Pearl," she repeated, "I'm sorry to interrupt your training, but come with me. It's important."

"Important?" she asked as she jumped down from the water spout, again landing without a hitch. "What's going on?"

"I'll explain when we have the team assembled. Peridot's getting Amethyst now."

Pearl nodded her head. Garnet turned around and focused on the temple door, her two gems glowing in anticipation; the door cracked wide open, revealing the interior of the Burning Room. "They should be here any second," she said as the two walked into the room, the door slamming shut behind them.

"What about Steven? Shouldn't someone wake him up?" asked Pearl.

"No! At least, not yet. We should get everything straightened out ourselves before we have him involved."

Pearl sighed and slowly nodded her head; though she may not have necessarily agreed with the decision, it wasn't hers to make. Deciding to kill the time, she quickly glanced around the bubbles floating near the ceiling above; if what they were going to discuss had something to do with this room, nothing seemed outwardly, at a glance. What was the purpose of having the meeting here?

Pearl's thoughts were interrupted by the sound of the temple door swinging open again. She craned her neck to catch a glimpse, revealing Peridot and a sleepy looking Amethyst walking in. She was about to find out.

Garnet waited for the three to stand in a group, near the fire pit. Once she was satisfied with their organization, she then walked to the side of the room and held up her hand. A single gem bubble floated down and gently landed in her grip, which she then carefully grabbed with the other arm. She purposefully obscured it in her arms as she walked back to the group, hiding its contents.

"Pearl, Amethyst... take a look at this."

Garnet came to a halt and held up the bubble. Pearl and Amethyst squinted in the orange light of the room, straining to get a good look. But they didn't have to for long.

Amethyst gulped. A lump formed in Pearl's throat.

"Garnet... is that—"

"It is. Jasper."

All four gems fell silent. Garnet stood still as a statue, waiting for the others to make their move; Pearl and Amethyst made no attempt to ease her anticipation. Peridot nervously fidgeted with her fingers, dodging eye contact with the others. Garnet noticed her stress behind the cover of her silver shades, but decided not to say anything about it.

"Before I go on," she said, ending the silence at last, "I want you two to realize it wasn't me who did this. Peridot can confirm, can't you?"

"Wha?! Oh... yeah." Peridot took a deep breath and collected her thoughts. The gaze of all three gems fell to her anyways, however; her previous stumble did not go unnoticed. "It floated in the room while we were training. It definitely wasn't us."

"But if it wasn't either of you that did it, then who?" asked Amethyst. "Pearl?"

"No, it wasn't me. I was training in my room, by myself."

"And you guys know I never go on solo missions, so it definitely wasn't me." Amethyst put her hands in her pocket and focused her attention to the ground.

"But who else is capable of making gem bubbles? And sending them to the temple?" asked Pearl. She placed her hand on her chin and collected her own thoughts. "... What about Steven?"

"Pearl, please be serious," said Garnet. "Steven's asleep right now."

The blue and white gem glumly nodded at what she already knew to be the truth; it was a wild, fantastic idea, but one she knew to be untrue. The other three gems then fell quiet, giving Garnet another opportunity to take charge of the meeting.

"Gems, I think we should worry about who it was that bubbled Jasper and sent her to us later. For now, we need to focus on the immediate problem."

"Immediate problem?" asked Amethyst. "What problem? I mean... think about this for a second. If Jasper's bubbled, then doesn't that mean Malachite's gone?" Her eyes grew wider and wider the further along her thought ran. "We don't have to look for her any more! Isn't this a good thing?"

"You're mostly correct, Amethyst," nodded Garnet, "but you seem to be forgetting: Malachite was a fusion. Fusions consist of two gems, not one. And we only received one bubble."

The three gems hastily glanced at each other, while Garnet grimly lowered her head and took off her sunglasses. Pearl coughed.

"You're talking about Lapis, aren't you."

"... Yes. I am." Garnet turned her attention from the floor and back to the three, her exposed eyes darting from gem to gem. "And that's why I told you not to wake Steven. We need to discuss what we're going to do about her."

Amethyst cleared her throat and raised her hand, as if their meeting was a lesson in a classroom. Garnet nodded in her direction.

"If she's able to, won't she just go back to Homeworld like last time? Who's to say she's even still here?"

"That's a possibility, but I don't think that's what she's going to do," replied Garnet. "The last time she went home, she was forced to come back here, and she definitely wasn't happy about it. If she had a do-over, I don't think she'd be quite as enthusiastic to go back."

"Then what do we do about her?"

Garnet stood perfectly still for a brief moment; the other three gems could tell she was deep in thought. The others didn't dare interject with their own opinions, at least not yet. The leader went first.

"... I think we should bubble her. She's too unpredictable."

Amethyst curtly nodded. Pearl as well.

Peridot remained still.

"... I agree," said Pearl at last, breaking the silence. "I wish it didn't have to come to this, but we just don't know what she's planning next. It'd be best for all of us just to get her out of the way... again."

Now it was Garnet's turn to nod. "Indeed... but we're going to have to break this to Steven very carefully. He won't be too happy about this."

"Well, I guess there's no time to do it like the present. I'll go wake him up."

"Steven, how much longer?"

"I don't know, to be honest... twenty minutes, maybe?"

Connie rolled her eyes and heartily groaned, for what felt to her like the millionth time since their walk began. She then took the back of her hand and wiped her forehead, feeling it drench with a combination of humid moisture and sweat. "Hand me the towel again."

Steven reached over to his left and heeded his friend's request. He then turned his gaze to his other side and shifted his attention to Lapis. "How are you holding up?" he asked her.

"Fine."

Steven sighed. He stuck his hand in his pockets and allowed his feet to drag, and he shook his head no when Connie offered him the towel back. "Still as stubborn as always..." he thought.

"Hey, Steven?"

"Hm?"

"Listen, I've been thinking... whatever we're going to do to heal Lapis at the fountain, shouldn't you guys eventually do it to Jasper, too? It seems kind of... unethical to just leave her gem cracked like that."

"Yeah, that's a good point... it'll be tricky to do it without having her regenerate, but we can probably find a way. I'll bring it up to the others later."

Lapis stopped walking.

Steven and Connie went a few steps further, both unaware their blue friend was no longer with them until he glanced to his right again. When he did, his feet tapered to a crawl, and he slowly turned around. "Uh... Lapis?"

Lapis stared ahead at him, a blank expression worn plain. He only just heard her voice, barely creaking above the wind and waves:

"Steven... Jasper's still alive?"

Welp.

I guess now's a good time to say I haven't seen any of the advanced spoilers, aside from the ones from several months ago. I'll try to make my story as canon-compliant as possible, but it might get harder as new episodes are shown. For example, I had this big thing planned for Lapis' backstory, but now I have to scrap the entire thing so it better follows what we saw in the show. It kinda makes me mad, lol.

Have a nice day.