How's it going, and welcome back to Into Oblivion.

Welp... as it turns out, gem bubbles Steven makes are pink. Always. I forgot this little detail (special thanks to tipoima for pointing that out in the reviews) when I wrote the last few chapters. Sorry about that... I gotta go watch Season 1 again, lol.

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

Present

"Thoughts"

Author's Note

Peridot wiped her forehead again. She then picked up her visor and brought it back to her face, and then looked over the back of her hand; it was drenched it sweat. Just like last time she had wiped her face. And the time before that.

She hadn't looked at a clock in quite some time, but she had a vague idea of how long it had been since Pearl and Garnet left. An hour, maybe? Two? Somewhere along those lines. In the end, it wasn't really important. Two hours or not, Amethyst still wasn't back yet. And that meant she was still completely alone, with nobody to interrupt her thoughts.

And being alone gave her plenty of time to think.

The truth was, even Peridot didn't know what was spurring her decision. She still wasn't convinced it was a good idea. There was no possible way of predicting what would happen next; too many variables were out of her hands. Too many things could go wrong.

But even so, she knew she had to do it. For her own sake.

There was no other choice.

When the intense light from the warp stream faded, Amethyst opened her eyes and looked around the living room. The sun was just starting to rise outside, and a few loose beams of light streamed through the windows. None of the lamps in the house were on, giving it a very deserted feel. But was it?

"Guys? Anyone home?"

"Hello, Amethyst."

Amethyst's head snapped to the kitchen counter. Peridot sat in one of the tall chairs, gently slouching against the back and staring up at the ceiling. Her hands were pressed flat against the counter.

"Um... hey, Peridot. Are you okay?"

"Hm? Oh, yeah. I'm fine." Peridot jumped down from the stool and walked to the warp pad. "Listen... Garnet and Pearl gave us a job to do."

"A job? Okay... what is it?"

"She said to, um... she said we have to start looking in our rooms."

"Our rooms?" asked Amethyst. "But why? What's the point?"

"So we can be absolutely certain he's not in any of them. Also to make sure he didn't leave behind any clues." At this, Peridot looked up from the ground and to her teammate at last. "Pearl and Garnet are already checking in theirs, and they said not to interrupt them."

"Really? Um... all right, then. I guess if that's what they think is best." Amethyst turned her back to Peridot and faced the temple door. Both the gem on her stomach and embedded in the door began to glow, and then it swung open. "Are you going to check yours? I know it's kind of new, but..." she trailed off.

"Yes, I will. And like Pearl and Garnet said, please don't interrupt. We'll meet back in the living room in a few hours."

Amethyst nodded. And with that, she stepped into her room and allowed the door to shut. Peridot gulped.

"Here we go..."

It took them a little while to find it.

With their two sets of eyes working as one, Garnet and Pearl combed the island for something, anything that could serve as a clue. As far as they knew, maybe they'd get lucky and find him right then and there. Or, if they were unlucky, maybe he'd already left, and with it the trail they had on him.

And that's when they looked at the beach.

"Hey... Garnet, look!" Pearl extended her arm to the beach, and Garnet's attention turned to match. "See those?"

"Yes... they almost look like—"

"Craters?"

"Exactly." Garnet looked up and down the long row, eyeing the beach for anything else unusual; several other craters indented the sand, and they were enormous. Whatever it was that made them, it couldn't have been natural.

And the strangest part was, they were shaped like hands.

Garnet lowered her neck and changed her angle of flight, bringing them low the ground. Just before she touched down, earl hopped off her back and planted her feet in the sand, and Garnet quickly did the same. She shapeshifted back to her normal form and rejoined her teammate.

"Pearl, take a look at these," said Garnet as she walked over to the crater in the sand. Pearl followed close behind. "Look at the shape of these craters. What do they look like to you?"

"Well..." Pearl put her hand to her chin, and she looked over the sand. "They look like handprints?"

"Just what I was thinking. Look, even the fingers are defined."

"Yes... you're right," nodded Pearl. "But why are these even here? Nothing that big could get by us, and we were just here a little while ago."

"I don't know. It might've been another corrupted gem, or—"

Garnet stopped cold. All three of her eyes snapped open wide behind her sunglasses, and every muscle in her body froze. She took a step away from the crater, and faced her back to her teammate.

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

"It was him..." Garnet's voice barely rippled above a whisper. But she knew Pearl heard her, loud and clear.

"'It was him?' What are you talking about?"

Garnet said nothing. She lifted her hand and brought it to her shades, before gently taking them off and lowering them to her side. Her eyes focused ahead with a thousand-yard stare, and then deflected to the enormous sand craters.

"Pearl... these handprints are Malachite's. It's near water, and there isn't another species on Earth that could make these. And since we have Jasper's bubbled gem..."

Pearl pondered this information for a moment. And then, like she was on cue, she softly gasped, barely audible to Garnet. She brought her hand to her heart and tightly clutched her shirt.

"It was Steven..."

"We're here. Everybody off."

Wasting no time in heeding his own command, Steven hopped off of Lion's back and stretched his arms to the sky. He felt a small crack in his back not long after, forcing him to wring a grin out into the open. "Okay, let's get this done..." he thought as he turned to the two.

Connie's eyes darted around the canyon, her eyelids squinted to shield from the glare of the rising sun. She had to confess, it was a little different from what she expected; from what Steven had told her earlier, she had expected a lush garden even more magnificent than the island, not a canyon. "Steven? Where's the fountain?" she asked.

"The fountain's up ahead. Come on," he replied. He waved his arm and took the lead of the others, and began to march through the canyon. Lapis, however, quickly caught up to him and tapped his shoulder, earning his attention.

"Steven, are you sure this is going to work?"

"Positive. We used it to heal Amethyst's gem once, and it should do the same thing to yours."

Lapis nodded and turned her eyes back to the front. "Thank you..."

Steven nodded. But his face fell into a frown at the same time; a thought crossed his mind, and one he needed to get off his chest. And preferably before he healed her gem.

"Hey... Lapis?"

"Hm?"

"Listen, I've been thinking..." Steven looked down and touched the tips of his index fingers. His feet anxiously shuffled against the rocky canyon floor, scuffing up the bottom of his sandals. "What are you going to do once your gem's healed? Are you going to go back to Homeworld again?"

Lapis sighed and closed her eyes. "Honestly, Steven, I don't know... but I'm not going back. Not again."

Steven's face lit up.

"R-really? But... why not? I thought you'd really want to again, since it's your home..."

"The last time I went to Homeworld, they took me prisoner and forced me to back to Earth against my will. And then the hand ship crashed, and I'm probably seen as one of the instigators. Assuming it's been reported." Lapis' voice trailed off and she paused for a moment, as if she was allowing him to absorb all this. "If I go back, they'll brand me a traitor and, well... I'll have bigger problems than a cracked gem to worry about. I can't go back."

Even though Lapis was deathly serious, (and probably right, too), Steven couldn't help but allow himself to smile, ear-to-ear. "Well... if that's the way it has to be, then I guess you have no other choice but to stay. With us."

"Yes... I guess you're right. I kind of liked that island we were on, and it's near the ocean. Maybe I'll stay there."

Steven blinked and pursed his lips. It seemed the point of his message flew right over her head. "No, what I mean is—hang on a second. We're here."

Lapis broke off her thoughts and turned her attention forward. She couldn't help but gasp at the sight; the fountain was enormous. Its basin, while dry, went several feet deep, and ran from canyon wall to canyon wall. A few stray rose petals fluttered gently in the breeze to complete the scenery, around both her and...

The statue. The gigantic, stone statue in the middle, featuring a tall gem with her gem embedded in the middle of a star.

A monument of a gem. And one she knew.

"Yes, it makes sense. Steven's gem bubbles are pink, I don't know how I forgot that..."

Pearl said nothing to Garnet, the words dying on the tip of her tongue. Instead, she ran a hand through her messy, wind-whipped hair and surveyed the beach again. The ocean water had overtaken most of the smaller footprints, but the giant craters of sand remained mostly untouched, with every detail preserved. The fingers especially.

Malachite's fingers.

"... We need to find him."

Garnet had to chuckle. "Yes, Pearl, we do. And I'll have quite a few questions to—"

"Of course we'll have questions to ask! How did he even know where Malachite was? We've been looking for her for months, and then he—in the middle of the night—finds her, splits her apart, and bubbles Jasper?!"

"I don't know how he did it, either." Garnet's top eye closed behind the cover of her silver shades. "Not even my future vision predicted this... it's a mystery. But we'll have plenty of time to worry about that later."

Pearl sheepishly nodded and slouched her shoulders. She let loose a sigh of exasperation and started a slow, consistent walk up the beach. Garnet quickly matched her pace. "Well, one thing's for certain: we still don't know where he is," said Pearl to her teammate. "We know he's been to this beach recently, but it still doesn't give us a clue. The trail's gone cold."

"We'll just have to put our heads together. I'll try my future vision again."

Pearl glumly nodded in acknowledgement; now that they had no lead, it was time to go back to the drawing board. She then craned her neck to look around the beach once again, and the first thing she noticed was a large, flat surfaced rock along the row of jungle trees, just up beyond the beach. She tapped Garnet on the shoulder and gestured her thumb to it, earning a nod from her teammate.

They both walked to the rock and sat down.

Jasper looked up to the sky. It was the only thing she could do, flat on her back.

She still didn't know where she was or how she got there, but one thing was for certain: her gem was cracked. Badly. Her energy supply was all but cut off from her physical form, making even the simplest of tasks unbearable. And there was no relief coming from anyone, or anything. It was like she was the only one on the planet, in this endless, lush field.

But she knew that wasn't true. And if Lapis, or those other gems, or even Rose were to come along...

Jasper's face scrunched up into a scowl. She pressed her palms flat against the ground, and, with every bit of strength she could muster, desperately pushed up to the sky. Her arms wobbled with tremendous resistance, and fast-forming drops of sweat streamed down her face and stung her eyes. She screamed at the feeling enveloping her body, as if millions of pins and needles poked everywhere.

Her left arm gave way. She tumbled back to the ground with a thud.

Again.

"Hey, Connie! Keep Lapis company, I have to get the fountain running."

Before Connie even had the opportunity to reply, Steven ran along the edge of the water basin, behind the stone statue, and ducked behind the stone barrier with the star outline, completely out of sight. The young girl sighed and turned around.

"You know, I think the last time I tried to talk to her was when... she tried to drown me. Hm."

Connie decided to keep a little distance. Personal space never hurt anyone.

"Uh... hi, Lapis."

The blue gem didn't move. Connie nervously tapped her toes in her shoes against the ground.

"... Lapis? Are you okay?"

"Not you..."

Goosebumps spread along Connie's arm like a plague. Her eyes darted around the canyon. It didn't take her long, however, before she came to look at the statue; was that what Lapis was referring to? And why?

"Lapis, are you okay? Is it the statue?"

That got her attention.

Without a word spoken, Lapis turned to face Connie. The young girl felt a shiver run down her spine at the sight: her wide, threatening orbs gave her a feeling of unease, like she was piercing her soul. her soul. Her pupils, already small to begin with, were dilated, and almost invisible. Her face was contorted into a permanent frown, her eyebrows creased and her mouth slightly agape.

Lapis took a deep breath. She didn't speak, but instead swiveled back to face the statue. Connie did the same.

"Come on, where's that stupid drain? It's gotta be here somewhere..."

His head ducked low and his palms scuffed from crawling around, Steven fidgeted under a large, elevated stone slab as he desperately reached his arm as far as it could go. He wasn't exactly sure why, but he had a feeling that, for sure, this one would be the drain to get the fountain started.

His hand brushed against a crystalline stone, shaped like a rounded doorknob. "Righty tighty, lefty loosy..."

Steven repeatedly turned his wrist to the left, over and over again. And then, just when he was sure the knob was about to come out, a low rumbling rippled throughout the canyon. The distinct sound of rushing water followed just a moment later.

"HA HA! YES!"

Steven climbed out from under the elevated slab and collapsed to his back, his arms raised in victory. He then jumped to his feet and ran up the back stairs, and through the gigantic stone star in the barrier behind the statue. He waved to Connie and Lapis.

"Guys, I got it working! Lapis, just dive in and your gem'll be healed!"

Steven continued to wave his arms, his eyes focused solely on Lapis. She didn't wear an expression of joy or relief like he thought she would, however; rather it was almost one of... anger. And she hadn't budged even an inch towards the fountain.

And then, without a reason why, she turned around and began to walk away.

Steven's face fell crestfallen. He jumped down from the star and ran along the edge of the basin and past Connie, before skidding his tear-soaked shoes around a corner.

Lapis had already walked down the way they arrived, and she kept her back turned to him as she stormed past Lion and the warp pad. Her balled fists hung from her sides like they were made of iron.

"Lapis! Where are you going?"

"LEAVE ME ALONE, STEVEN!"

The hairs on Steven's neck stood up straight. Still, with disregard for her wish, his feet lumbered forward and caught up with his friend. "Lapis, you need to heal your gem! Just go and get in the fountain, it'll be really quick!"

"I'm not going anywhere near... that."

Steven creased his eyebrows in confusion. "Huh? Why not?"

Lapis brought her walk to a slow halt. And then, with a sigh, she leaned her back against the canyon wall, closed her eyes, and sat down on the spot. Steven quickly mirrored the reaction, his eyes fixed to her in concern.

"Lapis... please, tell me."

Lapis stayed quiet, and for the most part, unresponsive. And then, as her hand ran across the stone floor of the canyon, she angled herself to face the fountain once again. The brilliant pink tears cascaded down from the statue's eyes in twin waterfalls, converging to a magnificent pool below. And in the sky just above, bright pink rose petals fluttered down from somewhere, and filled the pink sky like confetti.

The sight was lovely to her. And the truth was, she wanted nothing more than to dive into the pool, and let the healing tears overflow her.

But there was a catch.

"Steven... this fountain belongs to Rose Quartz."

"... Yeah, my mom. So?"

"... What about the fountain?"

Garnet glanced at Pearl, out of the corner of her eyes; it was the first time either of them had spoken in upwards of half an hour. Despite her wish to 'put their heads together,' they had largely kept to themselves in their thoughts. Still, any idea was very much welcomed.

"The fountain? Why there?"

"I've been thinking... remember Jasper's gem? It was cracked."

"Well, yes, but why—" Garnet cut herself off. She lightly nodded her head as it dawned on her. "He would go there for Lapis, wouldn't he?"

"If Jasper's gem was cracked in some sort of battle, then it's likely hers was, too," nodded Pearl. "And he knows the only place to go to heal a cracked gem is Rose's fountain."

"I see... that's a very good idea. Better than what I had," chuckled Garnet. She pressed her hands flat against the rock and leaned back, her neck angling up to give her a glimpse of the early morning sky. "But even so... my future vision is having a hard time discerning anything concrete. It's a gamble."

"And one we have to take. Let's get back to the warp pad," said Pearl. She stood up from the rock and crossed her arms, expecting her teammate to do the same. To her disappointment, she instead brought herself forward and locked her hands together.

"Pearl, slow down. We have to think about this."

"What's there to think about? It's at least worth a shot!"

"I know, but rushing in blindly won't help anyone." Garnet stood up and shifted her gaze to the beach. She started to walk down the bright sands in the same direction as the warp pad, with Pearl by her side. "Let's review the facts: Steven apparently knew where Malachite was, yet he didn't tell us."

"Well... yes, but what does that have to do with the fountain?"

"Nothing, not yet. But if he went to go save Lapis, and he didn't tell us about it... then he's avoiding us. Hiding his cell phone proves it all the more."

"So he's trying to keep this a secret, and we don't know why. That's what we have to find out."

"Exactly."

"I must be in my gem..."

Jasper was sure of it. There was no other explanation.

The last thing she remembered, she was a part of Malachite, on the beach of some deserted island. The next thing she knew, an open field with a badly cracked gem and, most importantly, no Lapis? Or even Rose?

Nope. It was her gem.

"And I've never been in my gem before... I wouldn't know."

Jasper rolled over to her side and dug her fingers into the cool, soft earth, basking in the feeling against her fingers. It was very different from the cold, dark water she had grown so accustomed to.

She wasn't exactly happy, trapped inside her gem. But as far as prisons went, there were worse ones to be in.

Her anxiety turning to energy, Jasper planted her hands against the ground once more and tried to sit up. Through practice, she found, if she moved carefully, that she could force herself upright; it was exhausting to stay that way, for sure, but at least she could get there, for even just a little.

The process worked. It took well over a minute, too long for her liking, but at last her stomach muscles loosened, and she was up. And then, using her newfound height to the fullest, she took the opportunity to look around the field: nothing was different from the last time. Nobody in the distance, nothing in the sky, just the same old green grass and bright yellow sun.

Jasper sighed. Her tour of surveillance finished, she spread her arms out side-to-side and fell to her back.

Even though she was badly wounded, Jasper had to confess her new scenery was... boring. Uneventful. She was a Quartz gem, one built for combat, and being isolated in a happy place was not her definition of enjoyment. In a way, she almost missed the battle for Malachite's mind, and all the thrills it brought her. Comparatively speaking, her gem just didn't measure up.

And the worst part was, she didn't even know when to regenerate. Would it just happen, when the time was right?

The temple door swung open. The heat from the burning room jumped out of the frame, and rushed into the house like steam. She silently hoped it wouldn't linger for long, in case someone came back.

She stepped inside the room and let her gem glow disappear. The door behind her slammed shut, and with it any contact to the outside world. She was completely alone. And that was just what she needed.

She walked over to the fire pit in the center of the room, and reached as high as she could. It had been left low-hanging by Garnet, under the assumption it wouldn't be bothered. She hoped her teammate would never find out how wrong she was.

For a brief moment, she quietly rolled it over in her hands, time and time again. The brilliant pink surface, the reflection of all the other bubbles above... it looked elegant. Truly a marvel to admire. But not for much longer.

She stopped fidgeting her hands. Instead, she held the bubble perfectly still. She just had to... do it. And she knew it.

The small, green hands continued to hold the bubble in place. And then, without another sound, she began to press. Harder. "Any second now..." she thought.

And then Jasper's bubble burst. With heightened reflexes, Peridot caught the exposed gem in mid-air, as gently as she could; she didn't want to aggravate the damage. She closed her eyes and sighed.

"Jasper..."

Well now, what do we have here?

Have a nice day.