Hey again, and welcome back to Into Oblivion.

Well... I broke down and watched the spoilers. I admit it. No regrets, lol. On with the story.

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

Present

"Thoughts"

Author's Note

Pearl stepped out of the temple door and onto the warp pad. Her footsteps echoed loudly across the crystalline surface, before she came to a halt and planted herself on the spot.

"Steven? It's time to wake up, it's important."

She received no reply, and heard no rustling of his bed or movement in his room. Figuring he was still asleep, Pearl continued into the foyer of the house, and to the foot of his stairs. "Steven?" she called again, louder this time. "Steven, wake up. We have a mission to do."

Again, nothing but an eerie silence.

With a gentle sigh, Pearl made her way up his stairs and into his room. As the top of his bed came into view, the first thing she noticed was a Steven-sized bump in the covers, his tuft of black hair jutting out from the top. "Still as heavy a sleeper as always..." she thought, suppressing a chuckle. Nevertheless, she stepped over to his bedside and pulled his covers away. "Steven, it's—"

The words died on arrival. Her eyes shot open wide, and her grip on his blankets tightened tenfold. Every limb in her body froze with fear.

"GARNET! GARNET!"

The gem in question's attention snapped to the temple door, as did those of Amethyst and Peridot; Pearl stood leaned against the door frame, her hand tightly clutching it for support as she gasped for breath. Her other arm reached up and wiped away beads of sweat.

"Pearl?" Garnet walked to her teammate and put a hand on her shoulder. "Pearl, get a hold of yourself. What happened?"

"I-it's Steven. H-he's..."

"What?"

Pearl gulped. She closed her eyes. "He's gone..."

Almost at once, a deathly quiet breezed through the room, as if they all disappeared. Amethyst and Peridot quickly swapped glances; their eyes spelled the same feeling of terror, with both pairs open wide to the point of throbbing. Garnet said nothing as her hand fell back to her side.

"Pearl..." she mumbled at last. It felt to her like an eternity. "Please elaborate."

"I... I went to wake him up, like I said I would. But when I went up to his room, he had this bundle of pillows under his blanket, along with a wig... I don't know where he is."

"Bundle of pillows? And a wig?" piped in Amethyst. She made her way from the fire pit to the others, Peridot following close behind. "Sounds like he set this whole thing up. You know, so we wouldn't notice."

"Well, we did," said Peridot, "and now we need to find him. Pearl, do you have any idea where he's gone to?"

"No... I didn't see any clues."

"Then I think we should all take a look. Come on." Garnet walked to the temple door and held up her hand; the star outline in the middle glowed for a brief moment before the slab swung open. She stepped out of the temple and into the living room, the other gems fast on her heels. "We'll have to check the house for clues. Search everywhere, and take inventory of things you believe are missing. What we need to be asking ourselves is 'what did he take with him?'"

All three gems nodded in unison. They split up to search various parts of the house; Peridot took the bathroom and around the warp pad area, Amethyst the kitchen, and Pearl the living room. Garnet walked over to his stairs and quickly climbed up, to most assuredly tear his room apart piece by piece.

For the next few minutes, all the gems fell quiet; none could find it in them to make conversation, not during such a tense situation. Steven came first and foremost, and they weren't about to let themselves be distracted.

And their hard work paid off.

After a few minutes of searching, Pearl plopped down on the couch and reached over to the side, yanking open the cabinet connected to the wall. Her eyes jumped from shelf to shelf, searching for something, anything different from what she remembered. Then she saw it.

"... Hey, come here! Look at this!"

Amethyst, Peridot, and Garnet dropped what they were doing (in Garnet's case, dropping the motor of his smashed television to the floor) and converged to Pearl. She pointed her finger to the low lying shelf and patiently waited for them to draw conclusions.

"Pearl, isn't that where we usually keep maps? Granted, we don't use them too often, but—"

"Yes, Peridot, you're correct. We've collected a lot of them over the years."

Garnet adjusted her shades and gazed deeply at the spot. "It stands to reason he took them, then... I'm not sure why he would need so many."

"I don't know either," sighed Pearl, "and to be honest, I'm not really sure what we can take from this. We still don't have a clue where he is."

"Then let's think about it for a second," said Peridot. "If he's bringing so many maps, then he probably doesn't have a good sense of where he's going. That's what a map is for, after all."

"Hey... wait a second, what about his phone?" Amethyst scratched the top of her head and sat down next to Pearl on the couch. "Those things can pretty much do anything, and it's a lot less to carry. Why wouldn't he just bring that instead?"

Peridot thought for a moment. And then she snapped her fingers.

"... He's too smart to not try that first. If he's not bringing his phone, then I almost want to believe it's because he couldn't find where he's going on it. Like it's somewhere human databases don't have logged."

"Because he couldn't find where he's going? What do you mean?" asked Pearl.

"Think about it. I know what I'm about to say is probably going to be ridiculous, but... what if it's like, I don't know, a desert or something? There probably wouldn't be very much about it on his phone, but he might have a little better luck with an older, more detailed map. I know, it's stupid, but..."

"Peridot, you bring up a good point," said Garnet, "but if he really left to go somewhere like this, then where?"

"Like I said earlier, it's probably somewhere far. But I have no idea..."

"... Where am I?"

Jasper slowly forced herself into sitting up, her hands digging into the dirt to support herself. She wasn't quite sure why, where, or even how long she had been on the ground, but that's where she was. And how long had her eyes been closed, too?

Jasper groaned. As her neck and limbs sputtered into function, her eyes danced all around her; for miles and miles, the only thing she saw was an endless field; the lush green grass and bright, cloudy blue sky above painted the scene with a perfect compliment. What was strange, however, was just how big it was-no structures, no imperfections in the ground, changes in the landscape-and how endless it seemed. Did this land run forever?

She had to know.

Jasper's arms and legs wobbled as she staggered to her feet. In the back of her head, a faint tingling muddled her efforts, but she pushed it away. She grabbed her knees to support herself and stood hunched over, gasping for a few deep breaths.

Her body caught up to her mind at last, and she stood up and surveyed the area; even with an increased field of vision, there was nothing on the horizon. "We'll see about that," she thought as she took her first step forward. Her foot seemed to hover in the air for the briefest moment, as if she had to force it down.

And she quickly learned why.

When Jasper tried to put any weight on her leg, to her horror, she instead completely lost her balance. She held her arms out in front of her as she fell, but it was too late to stop her fall. She tumbled to the ground with a dull thud.

"Agh! What the... why?!"

Jasper dug her fingers into the ground. Her arms trembled with resistance as she desperately heaved herself up from the ground. "Come on, come on! Keep going! Keep—"

Jasper couldn't keep going. And with a great failure of both arm and leg muscles, she fell once more.

For the next few minutes, the gem lay on her back in the same spot, panting and wheezing for every breath she could muster. Her arms were spread out side-to-side, while her feet were pressed flat against the ground, and her knees pointing to the sky. She couldn't even dream of sitting upright, no matter how badly she wanted to.

"I... I don't understand..." she thought. Her mind was clouded by sheer exhaustion. "Why can't I do anything? Is it my gem?"

No sooner had the thought crossed her mind than her eyes grew wide. With a slow jerk of her shoulder, her right arm slowly came back to her side, and then up to her face. She tightly closed her eyes and prepared herself; if her gem really was damaged, it was going to hurt. A lot.

Jasper's index finger grazed the surface of her gem. It wasn't smooth, like it should've been.

And then it set in.

"AAAAAAHHHHHH!"

Peridot stared down from Steven's room to the house below. None of the lamps were on, and the living room was almost completely dark. She sighed and gently shook her head.

Though she didn't want to admit it, she knew the search around the house was about to get a lot more lonely. Pearl, Garnet, and Amethyst decided to split up and use the warp pad to jump from place to place and search, and they weren't about to give up until they were certain he hadn't used one to get somewhere. And she knew how stubborn they could be.

"But even if he DID use the warp pad, why'd he bring maps? Humans wouldn't map gem locations, they don't know where they are. Something just doesn't add up..."

Peridot stood up from Steven's bed and walked to his nightstand. She absentmindedly pulled his drawer open and peeked inside; nothing of note, at a quick glance. She slammed it shut and groaned.

"... Wait a second."

Peridot ripped the drawer open again. She stuck her hand inside and rooted through the contents, silently hoping she saw correctly the first time.

Her hand grazed the surface of what she had hoped for, buried under a few pairs of socks. She gently grabbed it and lifted her hand out of the drawer.

"Steven's cell phone..."

"His phone? Why did he even leave it here? I guess he didn't need it for a map, like we thought... and that's a good thing."

Peridot pressed the power button. The screen flickered on for a brief moment, and then a small loading bar appearing in the center as the device booted up. Peridot tensed with anticipation.

After a couple more seconds, the loading bar filled to the end, and gave way to his lock screen. Peridot swiped her finger to the right and opened his apps page; she knew from experience he didn't keep a passcode. She had grown very fond of a few of the little games he had on the device, and he was very generous with sharing. But there was no time for that now.

Peridot's eyes shot to the top corner of the first page; the Messaging program beckoned, and a little red bubble next to the picture showed at least forty five unread. And while she wasn't particularly proud of snooping on his privacy, she pressed the button and opened the app anyway. She had to be thorough in her search for information.

The app booted up, and redirected to the main page. Almost all of the unread messages were from Connie.

"Connie? Why would she need to send so many messages to him? They usually train or hang out almost every day. And it says the most recent one was... five and a half hours ago?" Peridot glanced at the clock at the top of his screen: it was only a few minutes past 6 AM. "She needs to sleep, just like Steven. Why would she be awake so early?"

Peridot opened the message. Rather than being just one, it was a long, cumbersome string, like she had been chatting with herself. Judging from the timestamp at the top, all had been sent within twenty five minutes.

Peridot slowly scrolled down the page, fervently reading each one: they mostly consisted of simple messages like 'where are you?' and 'get here soon.' From what she could see, Steven hadn't replied to any of them.

At least, until she reached the bottom.

Should I bring anything warm, like a winter jacket? - Connie, 1:22 AM

No. We're going to an island in the ocean. It's going to be really hot. - Steven, 1:23 AM

Peridot grinned. She had caught her lucky break.

Steven squinted at Lapis in confusion. He brought his hands together and fidgeted his fingers, dodging eye contact with her. "Alive? Well, yeah... but she's in her gem. I sent her back to the temple."

"The temple? What, you mean your base?" Steven nodded in acknowledgement, only for his face to fall as a frown spread across her own.

For a brief moment, the beach fell deathly quiet, the sound of the ocean wind whistling through the jungle's trees the only respite. Both children waited anxiously.

They didn't have to for long. With a strange, almost guttural growl, Lapis stormed up to the two and knelt at eye level, before grabbing both of Steven's shoulders. She shook him like a rag doll.

"STEVEN! WHAT WERE YOU THINKING?!"

"AH, STOP! LAPIS, LET GO OF ME!"

Lapis stared deep into his eyes for a moment, tracing over every detail of his face; his eyes were wide and his mouth agape, and she could tell it was in fear. She sighed and lowered her arms. "Steven, bring her back. Now."

"I can't!" Steven rubbed his hand on his shoulder, lightly grimacing at the contact. "It's at the temple, and I can't get it unless we go there."

"But... aren't the others there? The Crystal Gems?" asked Lapis.

"Yes. Right now, she's in the temple. There's nothing I can do from here."

"Steven, the whole point of what I did was to shatter her gem! Why would you give her the chance to get away like that?!"

Steven's eyes blinked in surprise, and he quickly shook his head. "Shatter her? Why? We don't need to do that!"

"Yes we do! Or she'll regenerate and—"

"No, she won't. Right now, Jasper's in a gem bubble," interrupted Steven. "What that means is she's stuck in her gem, and she can't regenerate unless we want her to. She's trapped."

Lapis angrily shook her head, her frown spreading all the more across her face. "Steven, we shouldn't take any chances. If I were you, I'd shatter her and be done with it. She's too dangerous."

"Even if I wanted to, I told you, it's out of my hands! That choice is for the Crystal Gems to make, and they aren't here right now... just like you wanted."

Lapis stayed silent, her breathing slow and heavy through her tightly closed mouth. And then, without another word, she stood up and stormed away from the two.

Pearl and Garnet stepped off the warp pad. They both wiped their sweat-soaked foreheads, and Garnet dissipated her gauntlets and took a deep breath. "No, he's definitely not in the desert again," she said.

"We have to try everywhere. Let's go to—"

"WAIT, STOP!"

Pearl and Garnet stopped cold. They both turned away from each other and to the living room, to be met by Peridot running up to them from the couch.

"Peridot?" asked Pearl. She knelt down and came eye-to-eye with the gem, as she in turn came to a halt. "What happened? Are you all right?"

"I'm fine. Look at this."

Peridot held up Steven's phone, the screen illuminated as brightly as possible. Pearl squinted at the small text, and she could vaguely sense Garnet doing the same. "All of these are from Connie. Peridot, why are you showing us these? And why do you even have his phone?"

"He tried to hide it in his nightstand. But forget about Connie, look at Steven's message!" She pointed to the only white bubble on the screen, surrounded by a sea of blue.

"'We're going to an island in the ocean. It's going to be really hot'..." read Garnet. Pearl turned around to face her.

"An island in the ocean? But... he couldn't possibly hope to reach an island if it doesn't have a warp pad. And the only place I can think of—"

"Mask Island."

Pearl nodded in agreement. With her mind already made up, she stood up and stepped on the warp pad, before looking at Peridot once more. "Peridot, Amethyst will be back soon. You two stay here, in case he returns for something."

Now it was Peridot's turn to nod. And with that, the warp pad's stream brightly lit up the room as it activated, its bright white beam shooting to the sky. The shadows of her teammates rose with it, higher and higher, until they were out of sight.

And then, just as soon as it began, the beam disappeared. Peridot's gaze shifted from the warp pad to the temple door.

She started to sweat.

"Lion! Come here!"

Lion, under the shade of a rather large palm tree, perked his ears up. One eye lazily opened, and honed in to the voice; Steven, Connie, and Lapis were walking to him from the beach. He closed it again.

"Lion, it's time to go!" yelled Steven. "Come on!"

Lion yawned. Nevertheless, he got to his feet and stretched his back, and then lowered it so the three could hop on. They all did so.

Steven glanced behind him at Lapis. Her attention was fixed straight ahead, away from him. He sighed, turned back around, and gave Lion a pat on the neck. "Okay Lion, we need to go to mom's fountain. Can you do that?"

Lion lurched forward and started to sprint. And just like how he did it in Connie's neighborhood, after a moment, he opened his mouth, fired the portal to the fountain, and hopped right through. The ring quickly faded in his wake.

Pearl and Garnet stepped out onto the beach and glanced around the island. From the moment they stepped off the warp pad, their faces were pelted by the humid ocean air, and the beach had a very sticky feel to it. Pearl tugged at the collar of her shirt.

"Okay, here we are. How are we going to do this?"

"This island's too big to search section by section," replied Garnet. "We're going to have to look from the sky."

Garnet's two gems began to glow. A bright light encompassed her complete form as she rose to the sky, her body growing larger by the second. Pearl's eyes stayed fixed to her teammate.

A few seconds later, the light faded away, and in its place was a shapeshifted Garnet: she had taken the form of a bird, her size big enough for several people to ride on her back. Pearl walked over and wrapped her arms around her neck.

Garnet flapped her wings, the gusts of wind spreading far and wide. And then, after hovering in place, she twirled and and took to the sky.

Bird mom, amirite? Wait a second...

Well, there's lots of fun stuff coming up soon, as always. Be sure to stay tuned... or pay attention to your inbox. Same thing, lol.

Have a nice day.