"Garnet, Amethyst, Pearl!" Steven darted across the beach, running until they were knee deep in icy salt water. "No!"

"Steven, what are we gonna do?" Peridot looked around as they followed the boy. "Aventurine mentioned Mars, but how are we going to get there? Why are they going there? Steven?"

The boy had their face in their hands, sobbing their heart out.

"Steven, snap out of it!" The green Gem frowned. "I'm supposed to be the one who freaks out, not you! You're supposed to be the leader!"

Judging by Steven's stricken expression, this was not a good choice of words.

"Uh, yeah. Steven, you should stop standing in that dihydrogen monoxide; I read that it's dangerous."

"I can't even see them anymore." Steven was saying when Peridot took their hand and dragged them off. "Peridot, I'm scared."

"Great, just great." Steven's phone began ringing. "What is that?"

The boy fished it out of their pocket. "It's Dad! What are we going to tell him?"

Peridot snatched it. "Perhaps this Dad can help if we give them a full disclosure. Dad?"

"Steven? You sound different... is everything all right?"

"No, everything is not all right!" The green Gem growled. "This entire mission has failed. The Crystal Gems have been captured, Homeworld has gained detailed information from Aventurine-"

"Peridot..."

"And this Steven won't calm down! I don't know what I'm doing to upset him! Dad?"

There was heavy breathing on the other side. "Just... whoo, just give me a second..."

"Stop hyperventilating!" Peridot demanded, outraged. "Nyaaah, what am I going to do with you two clods?! Just... meet me by the Temple when you are ready to be useful."

They hung up. "Who is Dad anyway?"

"Peridot," Steven sniffed.

"What is it? Do you have an idea?"

"Do you think this Peridot would ever join the Crystal Gems like you?"

Peridot rolled their eyes. "Come on. I need to do some repairs."

~Line Break~

"Wow, Peridot." Greg looked around Steven's house before sitting down on a chair. "This place was a wreck, how'd you fix it up in just a couple of hours?"

Steven sat on the floor by Greg.

The green Gem was wheeling a blackboard up so it faced the kitchen. "Please, I am a certified Ho- I am a certified technician. Only minimal help from Steven was required to repair the roof and flooring to tolerable condition."

"So... now what?"

Peridot fished out a piece of chalk and began drawing on the board. "Now, this is the Earth. This is Mars. The minimum distance between the two planets is 55.8 million kilometres."

"Kilo-whatta?"

"Shut up! The maximum velocity my old Homeworld ship could reach is 700,000 kilometres per hour – as this new ship is pretty much exactly the same as mine except for the colour, I'm going to assume they travel at the same velocity. Now, calculate the... that number goes, there... and... aha! We have approximately 79.7 hours to build some sort of thing to rescue the Crystal Gems!"

"Three days?" Steven's eyes widened.

"That's what I said."

Greg raised their hand up a little. "Uh, yeah. Three days, whoo..."

"No questions until the end! Jasper told me there was a secret deactivated base on Mars during the war, but evidently it has been reactivated. To help with fast travel from Homeworld to Earth, there must have been a warp pad installed on Earth. If we can only find it, we won't have to construct any complicated teleportation devices. How does that sound, Steven?"

Steven looked up.

"Well? You're the leader, what do you think?"

"Why am I the leader?" The boy frowned.

"Well, I'm not the leader! You know the Gems aren't going to come back if you sit there and look sad all day!"

The boy looked down, and Greg placed a hand on their back.

"Hey, Peridot, do you think you could be a little gentler? Steven's had a rough day."

The green Gem blushed. "Oh, right. A little gentler. I'm... going to go find a map of Earth."

Peridot quickly walked away, audio log in hand.