Pearl and Garnet were happy enough to sit in quiet discussion while the others ate. Amethyst sat next to Steven, while Greg and Connie sat across, neither one able to take their eyes off of him. To be fair, everyone took turns stealing glances his way as if to make sure his return wasn't some dream and they hadn't finally woken up. Steven barely noticed, busy as he was shoveling food into his mouth. The strawberries hadn't cut it, but this large dinner was more than filling.

Picking up Connie had been an experience. The Maheswaran's had been with Connie at Steven's funeral, so explaining everything to them was a trial in and of itself. After they had stopped screaming and Garnet had explained Steven's heretofore unknown ability to regenerate and they had screamed a tiny bit more, they had come to understand the situation.

Connie was naturally incredibly relieved to find Steven alive, to the point where her parents had to pointedly clear their throats before she released her hug. Not surprisingly, her relief had turned into wide-eyed destiny-child talk in seconds. She also wanted to talk about the funeral, but Steven was actively disinterested in the matter. She agreed it was probably super weird and let it go. The Maheswaran's had already prepared dinner but, given the circumstances, they had allowed Connie to go with the Gems to a restaurant to celebrate, declining Greg's offer to join. They expected her back in a couple or hours.

The Maheswaran's had also made it very clear: Connie was banned from whatever adventures the Gems were planning. Not only was whatever it was so dangerous that Steven had essentially died once already ("and who knows how many more times that will happen," Mr. Maheswaran had added as a bit of black humor), but Connie had been injured as well. Of course, Steven's blood had ended up sealing the cut, but her bloody and torn nightgown told the whole story.

Greg had also been all tears and hugs once his initial stupefaction wore off. Now, as they ate, he merely stared at his son. While he was all eyes on Steven, his ears stayed glued to Pearl and Garnet, their low discussion of Emerald and her minions preventing him from enjoying himself.

As the last of the plates were being cleared away by the server, Garnet cleared her throat to draw everyone's attention. "It's time to address the elephant in the room. We need to discuss Emerald."

Greg sighed. This was the moment he was dreading. He pulled out his card and handed it to the waiter. "All one check, please. We're not going to order anything else, but we're going to need this table for another hour. If you leave us alone, I'll throw three hundred bucks on the tip." The waiter's eyes went wide and he took the card without a word. Greg turned back to Garnet. "Go ahead."

"Thank you, Greg. This is going to be all business so you can take Connie home if you'd like."

"I'm gonna be needed to finish payment," he said. "Besides, I'm sure Connie wants to hear what's up even if she won't be helping." Connie nodded enthusiastic agreement.

"Very well." Garnet folded her hands and leaned forward. "So we know that Emerald is still on Earth," she began, eyes wandering between the other people at the table. "She wasn't aware that she had, momentarily at least, completed her intended objective, and thus has stayed long past her welcome."

"She'd overstayed the second she landed," said Amethyst, picking rib meat from her teeth.

"Fair. Be that as it may, she's been sticking around. We know we've done significant damage to her Onyxes, but we don't know what other forces she has behind her. They still have two fully-equipped ships somewhere on the planet. Our first job is to find those, ascertain what other weapons and soldiers she can bring to bear, then spring our own trap on her."

"Do you think she'll fall for anything we can come up with?" asked Pearl skeptically.

"No," said Garnet. "I hold no illusions that we can set any effective traps of our own." She smiled slightly. "We can, however, use her own traps against her."

Pearl and Amethyst exchanged looks. "What ya got, G-Sweets?"

"It's obvious Emerald's method of locating gems is superior to our own. The trap she set with the honeypot of clusters was both ingenious and simple. I'm fairly certain the large pack we encountered just days before that was set up by Emerald as well, whether used for tracking or just another trap she decided against springing at the last moment. Keep in mind we didn't have Steven with us on that mission."

Pearl and Amethyst both nodded understanding. "Emerald isn't likely to try getting us with the same trick again," commented Amethyst.

"I wouldn't be so sure," said Pearl. "If she could only set one trap, it makes sense to set something completely new that we wouldn't see coming. However, if she has the resources for multiple traps, which she certainly does, then it wouldn't hurt to devote a few resources to another batch of honeypots. If she's as smart as Peridot thought she was, she will try to neither over- nor underestimate us. If we're idiots, we'll blunder right in again without thinking, but if we're smart, we'll avoid them. However, if we're too smart, or think we are, we'll assume she wouldn't try that trap again, thus walking right into another one."

Garnet nodded. "More or less my thinking."

Amethyst shook her head, looking confused. "I guess I'll leave the subterfuge to you two."

"So you're going to set off her traps on purpose," said Connie.

Garnet snapped her fingers. "Bingo."

"And then what?"

"And then whatever it takes to find her. I'll ride an Onyx back to her ship like a horse if I have to. Then we take Emerald."

"We'll have to be more specific than that," said Pearl.

"If you know what the middle step of the plan should be, I'm all ears, because I haven't got a clue."

They fell to discussion in earnest. A dozen plans were suggested, discussed, and discarded. Some held promise but were beyond their means to execute, and some were ludicrous fantasy or wild assumptions. After nearly an hour of exchanging ideas, Garnet riding an Onyx to Emerald's ship was still surprisingly the strongest solution they had. In other words, they had no good ideas.

"It seems we still don't have any plans for the time being," said Garnet, standing. "Don't give up hope. We'll think of something eventually. We have to use the resources we have available. Let's head back to the hotel for now."

They paid and left, dropped Connie off, and headed back to base. In the hotel lobby, Greg asked for a change of rooms ("Lots of bad memories in that room, kiddo.") As they shuffled into their new digs and sat on the various chairs and couches scattered about the large room, they were still thinking of some potential solution to their problem, namely how to utilize what little they had to locate Emerald.

Eventually, Steven and Greg grew tired, said goodnight, and went to their room. When they woke up again in the early morning, the Gems were still in quiet discussion.

"Maybe you need more brains to pick, so to speak," suggested Greg. "Aren't Lapis and Peridot still held up in the temple?"

"Yes," said Pearl, "but it's something of a chore to get them to cooperate."

"Hey, you saved their lives. They owe you one."

"Something tells me they won't see it that way."

"Yeah," said Amethyst, "they'll probably blame us for getting them poofed and losing the barn."

"To be fair," said Garnet, "that was our fault."

"Peridot's smart," said Steven. "Maybe she can come up with something that we wouldn't. We might as well give it a try; we're not making any progress here. Plus, I think they've been cooped up in those bubbles for long enough."

Garnet smiled. "Alright, Steven. We'll go after you've eaten."

"You got us poofed," said Peridot.

"And it's your fault we can't go home to the barn," said Lapis.

"That's fair," said Sapphire, giving Amethyst a sidelong look. "Still, we appreciate what you did to protect Steven."

Lapis blushed slightly. "Of course. Anytime."

Pearl, Amethyst, Sapphire, Lapis, Peridot, and Steven sat in a circle on the floor of the Bubble Room. Ruby was back in the hotel with Greg, having stayed behind to send the others off in their bubbles.

Peridot summed it up. "So you get us destabilized, lose our dwelling, leave us locked up for two weeks, and now you want our assistance in fighting Emerald, the gem you couldn't defeat with your combined power?"

"We were separated at the time—" began Pearl.

"Yes," Sapphire interrupted. "You care for Steven's safety as well and Emerald will not leave until she has destroyed Steven's gem. This is happening one way or another, so the least you can do it help us gain the advantage."

Peridot crossed her arms and grumbled in irritation, but she also looked Steven's way with obvious concern in her features. "So what do you need?" she asked.

"Ideas," said Sapphire.

"Having Lapis smash things up wouldn't hurt either," said Amethyst.

"If you want to 'smash things up,'" said Lapis coolly, "then you can use Sugilite."

"Plus I doubt the Emeralds would leave their ships anywhere near water after Lazuli's previous display," Peridot added. She smiled self-satisfactorily. "However, if you have need of my vast and superior cognitive faculties, I suppose I could lend them to you for a time. Start from the beginning and tell me everything that's happened and I'll see what patterns emerge."

"'From the beginning' as in Ten arriving on Earth?" asked Steven.

"Unless it starts even earlier than that."

The Gems exchanged looks. That would take a while. They began with Ten's crash-landing on Earth, Steven and Pearl finding her, her past, her slow integration into the Gems, their visit to Peridot when Emerald's ship was first spotted, their scuffles with the clusters and corrupted gems, and their loss of the temple and barn. Pearl and Amethyst tried to hold back tears at the part where Amethyst stabbed Steven and he expended his last ounce of energy to repair Pearl's gem, but they both failed.

Each of the gems brought up bits of story the others had missed or had not been party to, and relatively soon everyone had a complete picture of everything that had happened.

"…and that's when I regenerated," Steven was saying.

"Hold on," said Peridot, who was now standing and pacing. "Go back a bit. This may be a tangentially related subject, but I'm curious about your regeneration. Was it significantly different from the normal gem regeneration process?"

"I wouldn't know. I don't know how you regenerate."

"Just describe your experience and we'll compare. We've all had to do it at least once."

"Okay. Well, I started with no body so I couldn't see or move around. I could kind of move my mind around, if that makes sense." Peridot nodded understanding, as did the others. "Okay, so that's normal, I guess. Anyway, I was really patient and calm in there, so I waited for a long time, but then I started exploring a bit. And then I felt someone really far away." At that, he saw a raised eyebrow from Peridot and similar reactions from the others. "Is that weird?"

"Perhaps," said Peridot. "Continue."

"I flew my mind over there and there was all this emotion and anger and, well, long story short, it was Jasper."

"Jasper?!" said Lapis.

"Yeah. She was in her gem, regenerating. You poofed her when you punched her off dad's boat."

"Good."

Peridot tapped her cheek thoughtfully. "So you could talk to a recovering gem while you were likewise recovering? Interesting."

Steven finished the story of his regeneration, leaving any detail of his crystallized mother out. From there, he talked about how he appeared in his mother's armory, went to the strawberry field, and was found by Ruby and Sapphire. The story passed to Sapphire as she talked about the Onyxes that came through the warp and how she escaped them, but it quickly wound to a close. When they were done, they fell silent to let Peridot mull over the information.

"I have a few ideas," she said at length, "but I don't think you are going to like any of them."

"That is what we were expecting," said Sapphire.

"First," Peridot held up a finger, "judging by the fact that Steven was able to communicate with Jasper while they were both regenerating, yet he didn't sense any of the other recovering gems, suggests both gems need to remain unbubbled. He could attempt to interrogate one of the captured gems we have to discern Emerald's ship's location."

"You mean one of those slathering, animalistic Onyxes?" Pearl clarified.

"Unless you captured anything more sane or articulate."

"And the Onyx would have to be free from its bubble, meaning it could regenerate at any time, nigh instantaneously?"

"Yes."

"And Steven would have to be in his gem as well, meaning his body would have to die again?"

"I told you you weren't going to like it."

"We'll pass on that one," said Sapphire. "What are your other ideas?"

"Fine. Number two might work as well. Steven's tale of his attempts to cure the corrupted, uh, whatever you called it—"

"Centipeetle," Steven supplied.

"Right, that thing. Take what you've learned from that and try to cure an Onyx. See if you can get any information out of it."

"I dislike that this idea still requires releasing an Onyx inside the temple," said Sapphire.

"Especially without Ten, Garnet, or any water for Lapis," said Amethyst. "That leaves just me and Pearl to handle everything while Steven's trying to kiss it."

"Actually," said Peridot, "you should probably try it with a mixture of spit and blood, as was the case with Pearl's repair. That might be the most potent method. And you said something about a waterway exit, so Lazuli actually can help with your Onyx."

"We're not letting that thing anywhere near the exit," said Sapphire.

"Oh, come on. It's not like it's going to find it."

"No. If we are going to put anyone at risk, it will be only ourselves."

Peridot huffed. "Fine. Have it your way. Let's pick an Onyx and get this experiment going."

"I suppose this experiment will be quick, at least," said Sapphire. "I'll grab one." She leapt up and took a bubble in her hands, floating gently down with it. "Everyone get in position and be ready to act when I release it." Pearl and Amethyst pulled out their weapons, and Steven his shield. "Steven, please be quick. Ready?"

"Wait, wait," said Steven. "I need to be bleeding. Is there something sharp around here?" He looked around the room, but with the sole exception of the edges of the steps, the room was all smooth walls and tubes. "Oh!" he cried, pointing to Pearl's spear. "There we go! Pearl, give me a little cut on my hand."

"Wha?" she said. "Me?"

"Yeah, just a little one, right here." He lifted his hand, palm upward.

"Uh…" Pearl was obviously flustered. "Isn't there some other way? Don't human noses bleed if they pick them?"

"Come on, Pearl. It's just a little cut. I'll be okay, I promise."

Pearl looked between the others, visibly sweating. Sapphire urged her on with a pushing motion. "I suppose if I must." She tilted her spear and place the blade on Steven's hand, letting it sit there. She stood there for a moment, doing nothing.

"Uh, Pearl? You have to, you know, cut me?"

Pearl's hand shook, her breathing heavy. "Yes, I'm doing it. I just need a second," she said. She gritted her teeth, closing her eyes and turning away, the spear rattling against his hand. She pulled back suddenly with an explosive grunt. "I can't do it! I can't hurt Steven!"

"That's okay," said Steven, holding up his hand. "I cut myself on it when you weren't looking." A thin line of crimson shone on his palm, a small trickle of blood seeping down. Pearl stared at it a moment, then promptly fainted into Amethyst's arms.

"Get a hold of yourself, man," said Amethyst in disgust. "We got an Onyx to take care of."

Pearl took a shaky breath and righted herself. Her knees wobbled, but she raised her spear. "Right. Okay, I'm ready."

Steven licked his cut, mixing the spit and blood, and the wound sealed. "I'm ready, too."

"Very well," said Sapphire. "Then here we go." She squeezed and the bubble popped, spilling the Onyx gem to the floor. She swiftly ran over to Peridot and Lapis, who stood across the room.

"If this goes badly, I'm going right to the waterway exit," said Lapis.

"Hush," said Sapphire.

The other three waited around the gem. It didn't take long before it began to glow, rise into the air, and manifest.

"Don't forget the gem is on the forehead," said Pearl as the body starting taking shape.

"I remember," said Steven.

"A little preemptive strike," said Amethyst, lashing her whip around the still-forming creature's mouth to hold it shut. As the Onyx took the proper shape, she said, "Go for it, dude."

"Okay. I hope this works." He ran forward, slapping his hand onto the gem. The creature, little more than a silhouette at this point, opened its mouth, a piercing, high-pitched noise emitting from it. Then it's body burst, the gem tinkling to the ground.

"W-What?" said Steven, looking at his hand, then over to Pearl. "What happened?"

"That was… odd," said Pearl. "Even if it didn't work, I certainly didn't expect that to happen." She bent down and picked up the gem. As she lifted it, she frowned, turning it over in her fingers. She gave a meaningful look to Sapphire, then turned to Steven. "Well, it was worth a try. Go find some water and wash your hand."

"Uh, okay," he said, still confused. "Your room is through there, right Amethyst?"

"Yeah, it's a pretty straight shot. You know the way."

As Steven wandered out of sight, Pearl walked over to Sapphire and the others, waving for Amethyst to follow her. "What do you sense in this thing?" she whispered as they gathered together.

Sapphire and Peridot both touched the gem, then exchanged surprised looks. "Nothing," they said.

"What? Like, the Onyx is gone from the gem?" said Amethyst. She lowered her voice. "You don't think Steven destroyed it, do you?"

"Potentially," said Peridot. "You may recall that one of my theories about the Onyxes is that they are intrinsically corrupted. If I was correct in my assumption and Steven disrupted said corruption, even a little bit, it might have destroyed this gem."

The Gems exchanged worried looks. "Never tell Steven?" suggested Amethyst.

"My lips are sealed," said Sapphire. "If Peridot's theory is correct, this gem was beyond all help. On the bright side, he may be closer than ever to curing the corruption."

"Now is hardly the time to be experimenting," said Peridot, "though perhaps after Emerald is taken care of, you can try to cure one of these gems again. Let me know how that goes. Hopefully Steven doesn't explode another one."

Pearl frowned at the comment. "Be sensitive."

As Steven returned, hand freshly washed, Pearl loudly said, "So that's two down. What other methods do you have for finding Emerald?"

Peridot grimaced. "Just one, though personally it is my least favorite."

"Not like we have a lot of choices, Peri," said Amethyst.

"True. Since worse has come to worst, we'll have to 'fall' into one of Emerald's traps."

"We were thinking much the same before," said Sapphire. "However, our ideas were less than fruitful. What do you have in mind?"

Peridot got straight to the point. "We need to access one of those command consoles they use to hypnotize the clusters."

"You can do that?" asked Amethyst.

"Of course I can. But that's the problem: I can. Which means you need to take me with you as we blindly walk into one of these obvious traps, if they even exist."

"My hunch is that they do," said Sapphire.

"Hunches are dandy; get me some facts. Anyway, these consoles will be tied to the ship somehow, either receiving a signal or sending information, whether data streams or surveillance. If I can get close and gain access to that signal, I might be able to locate at least one of the Emerald ships. Chances are, that ship will have an Emerald on it, fused or not."

"That shouldn't be too difficult," said Pearl.

"You didn't let me finish. To access that information, I will need a gem data transfer unit of the latest standard, of which we have none. I had one that I took from the remnants of my ship some time ago, but I was using it in—you guessed it—my atmospheric breach surveillance advance warning system. The one that Ten broke and that Garnet has been threatening me to fix."

"She wasn't threatening you," said Sapphire. "She asked nicely."

"I seem to recall a hand around my throat."

"It was on your shoulder."

"Be that as it may, the system is not only broken, but currently resides in the barn, which we have no access to at the moment."

"So we need to bust in and get it?" said Amethyst.

"Yes. It will be guarded, probably not too heavily considering the casualties her forces have suffered, but it will definitely be under watchful eyes and you can expect more soldiers to get there in short order. If I can get inside and detach five connections points, the unit should break into three easy-to-carry pieces. Well, easier, anyway."

"Can't you just take the data unit thing?"

"I need the data transfer unit to get the data out of Emerald's console, but once I have it, I still need my surveillance console to read, decode, and interpret the data. We could potentially use the Kindergarten's computer, but it runs on ancient software and I'm not sure I can update it to sufficiently translate the data. Plus, I would need to craft an adapter for the data transfer unit and I am frankly not that well versed in five-thousand-year-old technology, so it would take some time. No, my advance warning console is the most reasonable choice."

"And once you have the console, you still need parts."

"And time to fix it, yes. That will give you guys time to locate one of those honeypots to throw ourselves at like senseless clods."

"So we have to storm the barn," said Steven, "get the surveillance thingamajig, get the data doodad, find a honey deal-y, and steal all the stuff in it."

"I wouldn't have used any of those words, but you are more or less correct." Peridot clenched a fist. "If everything goes according to plan and Emerald doesn't get wind of it or shut us down, then we have a very real chance of launching an assault of our own and taking her down for good."

Pearl shrugged. "It sounds like a longshot, but what other choice do we have?"

Sapphire put a hand on Peridot's shoulder. "Thank you. You're going to be taking some serious risks for us," she said.

Peridot blushed. "Unfortunately, with Emerald's goal being Steven's shattering, I can't sit back and watch anymore."

"Selfish," said Sapphire, "but appreciated." She turned to Lapis. "And you?"

Lapis shrugged. "Same, I guess. I can help out at the barn at least, plus I'll fly where you need me to fly, but if Peridot's right and there's no water near the ship, I won't be much use there."

"That's fine," said Sapphire. "We appreciate your help, both of you." She looked at the others. "If we're all set here, we'd best start heading back to base. We need to put this plan into motion."

Steven hustled around the hotel room, grabbing food he would need during their trip to the barn. As he was jamming a bag of Chaaaaps into his backpack, Greg walked into the room behind him.

"Going back out already, huh?"

Steven could tell by his tone that his father wasn't thrilled with the idea. "I have to, dad. Emerald is here because of me. I can't just let the Gems do all the fighting. They might need me."

"I know, it's just…" he sighed and sat on bed, "when I thought you were dead, those were some dark times for me, Shtoo-ball. You've only been back for a day and you're already heading out again. I need some time. I want to spend some time with my son. I don't want to think about you being in danger again, maybe never coming back for real this time."

Steven stopped packing and looked at his father. He looked terribly old and tired, even after having cleaned himself up. There was still a malaise about him, as if the fact that Steven was alive still hadn't sunk in yet and a piece of him was stuck in the past where Steven wasn't here. Greg didn't enjoy Steven's scrutiny, picking up his guitar and strumming on it absently to divert his attention.

"I know you're worried, dad," said Steven, "but I'm worried too. That's why I'm doing this. Emerald wants to hurt me. She wants to hurt Pearl and Amethyst and Garnet, Peridot and Lapis." Solemnly, he added, "And Ten as well, if she's still in one piece. It's not just for me; it's for them, too."

"Look, they mean a lot to me, too," Greg said, "but you mean a lot more to me. Heck, you mean the world to me."

He strummed his guitar, playing a pleasant and simple tune.

"You mean the world to me,"

"Aw, come on, dad," said Steven, embarrassed.

"You mean the world to me."

"I mean it, kiddo."

"Without you what would my life be?

You mean the world to me."

"I really need to pack," said Steven, blushing at the attention and honesty.

"You're not getting off that easy," said Greg, a big, doofy grin on his face.

"Born eight pounds and fourteen ounces

Now your whole existence trounces

Everything I'll do

And

Everything I'll see

'Cause

You mean the world to me,

You mean the world to me."

Greg stood, strutting around the room as Steven tried hard not to smile while he packed, but he found it impossible.

"If your adventure causes you to fear

I just want you to know that I'll always be here

'Cause

You mean the world to me."

"You mean the world to me,"

Steven and Greg turned, seeing an embarrassed Amethyst standing in the door way.

"Not you too, Amethyst," said Steven, though he looked very happy with that fact.

"I know sometimes I could do more to show it

But I'm telling you now so I know that you know it:

You mean the world to me,"

"Yes, you do," chimed in Greg.

"You mean the world to me."

Pearl spun into the room, dancing around Steven, while Garnet leaned against the door jamb.

"In

One

Hand we have the Earth;"

Pearl swept Steven up and spun him around.

"In

The

Other is your Birth;"

She handed Steven to Garnet, moving her hands like a scale balancing itself out.

"I

Can't

Choose between their worth."

Garnet spun Steven around so he faced her.

"Please know that we always think of you

And we want you to know: we love you"

Greg and the Gems sang together.

"You mean the world to me,

You mean the world to me."

Greg played the song to a close. Steven sniffed, trying to keep himself busy with his backpack so they wouldn't see him crying, even though he knew they could tell he was.

"Nice job, guys," said Greg. "I think you really nailed the theme." He let his worry show a bit as he added, "Make sure you bring him back in one piece, okay?"

"That's what we want, too," said Garnet.

Lapis poked her head in through the doorway, Peridot behind her. "What were you guys doing?"

Greg said, "Just singing a song to let Steven know how we feel about him."

"Huh." Lapis looked at Steven. "Shim Sham, Shuh-blops, you're just the tops." She vanished back through the doorway.

"Uh, she's still new at the whole 'music' thing," said Peridot. "Anyway, if you're done fooling around, the sooner we retrieve my console, the better."

"Right," said Garnet. She and the other Gems left the room. Steven picked up his backpack and began to follow, but his father put an arm in his way. Reaching down, he pulled Steven into a big hug.

"Be safe, little buddy," he said.

"I will, dad."

"I love you."

"Love you, too."

Greg let Steven down. Steven walked from the room, waving goodbye to his dad. Greg waved back until Steven was out of the hotel.

"Be safe," he said to the empty room.