Peridot was sitting sullenly on the breakfast table, staring into their untouched bowl of mushy cereal when they were suddenly tackled to the ground.

"Everybody, look out!" Steven pinned the squirming Gem to the floor. "Peridot got out of the Temple somehow!"

"Nya, get your touch stumps off of me!" A pink sword appeared from behind them, and they looked to see a rather angry-looking young girl holding it. "And you, get that thing away from me! What are you two doing?"

"What are you doing here?" Steven demanded, their frowning expression deeply contrasted by their banana pyjamas. "How did you get unbubbled! Tell me, please!"

Dr Maheswaran stood above Steven, and grabbed them by the back of their pyjamas. "Excuse me, that is no way to treat a guest in my house. Connie, put away that sword now."

"Wha-?" Steven looked at Dr Maheswaran in bewilderment.

Peridot got up and brushed themselves off, glaring over at Greg. "I thought you told Steven."

"Told me what?"

"Yeah." Connie put their hands on their hips. "Told him what?"

"Ah, I'm sorry guys." Greg made a face. "I was going to tell Steven last night about what happened, but it was so late, and you were sleeping so peacefully!"

"Tell me what?" Connie's mother put down Steven, and they immediately ran over to Peridot. "Why is she here? She betrayed us, don't you remember?"

"You think I betrayed you?"

Greg stood up and walked over to their son. "Look, bud. I don't know how Peridot got out, but she's willing to help us with Malachite. I know you miss Garnet, Amethyst and Pearl, don't you?"

"Yeah." Steven mumbled, causing Peridot to arch a sceptical eyebrow. Then they looked over to the green Gem. "What's that thing in your hands?"

They held up the communicator. "This? This is my communicator that I built to replace the one you shattered."

The room turned dead silent. Steven stared pointedly at their father, who looked stricken.

"What?" They demanded. "I know you Crystal clods are disillusioned, but Yellow Diamond will stop the Cluster as soon as she gets word about how worthy this planet is! Much easier than drilling halfway to the centre of the Earth."

The round of silent stares were not an encouraging audience.

"And it, eh, doesn't work yet anyway, which is why I'm helping you. I still need a Homeworld chip from my limb enhancers. They're in the middle of the ocean, which is also the location of your Malachite. If we work together, I can get my chip and you can get your Crystal Gems! It's perfect!"

After a hesitation, Steven took a step forwards. "You weren't ever trying to betray us to Yellow Diamond?"

"Of course not." Peridot frowned. "What function would that serve? I took the communicator to notify my Diamond that this planet was worth much more than the Cluster, and to mention the Crystal Gems would be a miscalculation."

Connie walked over and whispered in Steven's ear. Greg looked nervously between Peridot and their son, scratching the back of their head. Peridot's fingers gripped the communicator tightly as they prayed Steven would see reason.

Dr Maheswaran crossed their arms. "Everyone's breakfast is getting cold. You kids can wrap this up fast and come sit down, or discuss it later."

Peridot stretched their lips into a nervous smile, and stuck a hand out to Steven in the human fashion they had learned. "Do... do we have an agreement?"

Steven grinned back and grabbed their hand. "Of course! I was so wrong about you, but now-"

"Nya!" The green Gem pulled away. "What are you doing to my touch stumps?"

"Oh, this? I'm just shaking your hand. It's just what you do when you make an agreement."

"You told me you just stick your 'hand' out. You mentioned nothing about this shaking motion!"

"Oh, sorry." Steven cheered up again. "But hey, it's time for breakfast! You can sit between me and Connie, and then afterwards we can tell you all about what we've been doing to stop Malachite..."

~Line Break~

"The living room." Peridot started speaking as they struggled up onto a couch. "Used by humans to conduct various time wasting activities. Why did you bring me here, rather than this 'secret HQ' you were telling me about?"

"Because, this is the secret HQ! Isn't it cool?" Steven grinned widely at the green Gem, who merely crossed their arms and leaned back, staring suspiciously at the boy.

"I see several flaws with this 'secret' HQ of yours." They transferred their glare to the open windows.

Connie picked up on this, and ran over. "Oh, right! It can't be secret if everybody can see in!" They pressed a button, and the blinds began coming down. The room got quite dark, so they turned on a couple lights. "Steven, have you got that video going yet?"

Steven jumped up next to Peridot, fiddling with an Ipad. "Yeah, I think so."

The green Gem looked over at the device. "NO-RAD tracks Malachite... what is this?"

"It's the North American Aerospace Defence Command." Connie explained as they sat next to Peridot. "They're a military organisation that provides air defence for America, but everyone knows them as the people who track Santa."

"Santa?"

Steven sat up. "You haven't heard of Santa? Oh, man! He's this big jolly guy dressed in red who flies around in a magical sled pulled by reindeer to deliver presents to every kid each Christmas! He goes down people's chimneys, and eats their cookies if you leave 'em out!"

Peridot didn't entirely know what to say about this new information.

"But we can explain Santa later." Connie gently interrupted. "Steven, can I have the Ipad?"

"Here you go!"

"Thanks." They zoomed out on the map. "So you can see all of the Malachite sightings with red dots. Notice anything about their locations?"

The green Gem frowned. "They are all around this central ocean terrain."

"That's the Atlantic ocean. And yes, you're right: all of Malachite's attacks have been on a coastal town touching the Atlantic, so it seems she has to be somewhere in the middle."

"Ohhh." Peridot nodded. "Yes, that is an accurate assumption. But how does that help?"

Steven reached over. "Sorry for reaching, Dot. Can I have it please?"

"It's all yours."

The boy opened a sort of painting app. "Okay! So we're here, and including ours there are fourteen warp pads across the world. Eight of them are in the ocean or near a beach. Those are the one near Cuba, two in Norway, the sea spire one up in Russia, ours in Beach city and the Galaxy Warp, the time device thingy and another one that goes to a deserted beach island in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean."

"So?"

"So, we might not be able to beat Malachite in one fight. But," Steven held up a finger. "That doesn't mean we can't have multiple different fights!"

Peridot raised an eyebrow. "You mean, we can warp to different locations whenever this Malachite is about to beat us?"

"Exactly!"

"Huh. That plan is... not as terrible as I first thought it would be." They jumped off the couch. "What equipment do we need?"

"We need a big shooty thing." Steven spoke in a perfectly serious manner. "Something that shoots things at Malachite until they poof."

"What kind of 'shooty thing'?"

Connie spoke up. "Well, Greg has a harpoon."

"A harpoon? Is that some sort of 'shooty thing'?"

"Kinda. It was used for hunting these big animals called whales, so maybe it'll be useful for Malachite. Onion's dad gave Steven's dad his; he wanted him to sell it after his shitp was destroyed." Connie crossed their arms. "I don't know how we'll move it, though."

"We could attach it to my escape pod. It was severed in half when I found it, but I welded the two halves together."

"That's a great idea!" Steven beamed. "One of us could drive it around, and the other could sit on top and shoot with it! Pew, pew pew!"

"I can operate it. You can sit on top of it with the harpoon."

"Sounds great, Dot!"

Peridot rolled their eyes and grumbled something about the survival instinct of Earthlings.

Connie stood up. "Okay, so we have some sort of plan. We can work out the details later, but for now I need to work out what I'm going to tell my mother so that she might still let me go."

"Alright!" Steven began to follow. "Peri, you can come if you want. But aww man, I can't wait to see Garnet, Amythest and Pearl again! I've been missing them so much!"

As they disappeared, Peridot arched an eyebrow. Softly, in a voice only they could hear, they said, "Your behaviour suggests otherwise."