Pearl stabbed upwards, catching an Onyx in the throat as it sailed by. It exploded into powdery mist before it hit the ground, its gem bouncing along the sidewalk. She swept with her spear, lifting the gem with the flat of her blade, and tossed it into the air, then brought the blade down in a side-splitting strike in the same motion, catching another Onyx as it slinked around her. She lifted a finger and tapped the gem as it fell back down, bubbling it, then slid under the bubble and swung, taking the leg off a third Onyx that was harrying Garnet from the side, then spun and cut a fourth across the face, which jumped back with a yelp. Standing briskly, she tapped the bubble and sent it off to the temple.

"Just how many of these wretched things does Emerald have?" Pearl called out in aggravation. "I feel like we've eliminated a good forty or fifty since she's landed."

"She might have hundreds," said Garnet. She looked over at Pearl, who looked slightly dinged up but otherwise fine. She was getting quite skilled at handling Onyxes, but Garnet held her compliments to herself, knowing how Pearl tended to get distracted and full of herself. Instead, Garnet uppercut an Onyx and, as it reared upwards on two legs from the strike, brought her fists together on its sternum in a crushing blow.

What had once been eight Onyxes was now down to five, and most of those were wounded. Once Pearl and Garnet had gotten past the viciousness of these creatures and their love of shattering gems, it was easy to bait them into foolish attacks and punish them accordingly. While powerful, fast, and dangerous to the touch, their main strength seemed to be that very few gems survived long enough to learn the patterns. These Onyxes were some of the most simple-minded foes they had ever faced, barring the cluster mutants and other corrupted gems, and even those were up for debate. Now that they had a fair idea of how to handle these things, they were hardly in real danger anymore.

The only time their wits had to be at their sharpest was when a large group of Onyxes had one of those opportunistic ones among their number. It seemed about one in six Onyxes would refuse to attack on their own, preferring to wait until a foe was distracted, then darting in and taking advantage of that fact. The Gems didn't know if they were trained that way, or were just especially clever or cowardly, but they were the real danger among the Onyxes. The problem was that they all looked the same so it was hard to tell which ones were going to leap in unexpectedly. Fortunately, among these eight, none were that type of Onyx, meaning that a back-to-back fight made the Gems as safe as possible. Had one been, they might have risked the fight while exercising extreme caution. If there were two, they would have retreated instead, hoping to separate them.

Instead, Garnet struck another down, and Pearl another two in quick succession. They were more than ready to take the last two as well, but they were crushed by Steven's shield and Lapis's water as the two sailed down from above.

"Where's dad?" Steven asked, clearly worried.

"We put him on a bus out of town," said Garnet. "He should be well away from the carnage by now." She looked at Peridot and saw her self-satisfied smile. "Good news?"

"Great news," said Peridot. "I've located the ship."

"Are you sure it's the ship and not just a command center or some such?"

"I'm sure. Emerald was fool enough to contact me while I was scanning the console. The data streaming from the machine and the geo-data from her video feed had matching coordinates. Since her video feed was clearly captured on the bridge of a large gem vessel, we can safely assume the location I've isolated is where her ship currently sits. QED."

"We'll take your word for it." Garnet smiled. "Good job, Peridot. We owe you for this."

"Just get my barn back and get this fractured Emerald off of Earth."

"Peridot's already put the coordinates into my phone's GPS," said Steven. He showed it to Garnet, who nodded.

"It's a few thousand miles away, but there are a few warp pads close enough to be useful."

"We're certainly not going to the closest one," said Pearl. "She'll be defending that one. I wouldn't be surprised if a small army was surrounding it." She and Garnet examined the GPS. They both pointed to the same spot at the exact same time.

"Looks like we have a winner," said Steven.

"It's nearly sixty miles away from her ship," explained Pearl, "but it is in a complex of underwater caves. We know every warp pad on this planet, but chances are she doesn't know this one exists, and even should she see us moving through the warp stream and send Onyxes after us, the brutes will have no idea where they are or how to escape the maze of underwater tunnels. We should lose them easily enough. If the Onyxes are being tracked by some sort of device, the water and thick rock should be enough to completely obscure the signal. From there it will be a bit of a trek, but we should get the drop on her."

"Unless it's another trap," said Amethyst.

"Always a possibility," said Garnet, "but at least this way we are avoiding as many pitfalls as possible. We need to act quickly. For all we know, Emerald relocates her ship periodically to avoid discovery. We may have days or even hours before our opportunity is lost. How fast can we cover sixty miles?"

"Three hours, four on the outside, though taking into account the swimming and mountain climbing on the way and having Steven along, I'd put it closer to six."

Steven sighed in relief. "So you are letting me come along!"

"No choice, really," said Garnet. "If we fail here, there's nothing stopping Emerald from coming after you. At least this way we have your healing powers and shield. And since she can't seem to completely control you, you can at least distract her from Amethyst. Are you okay with the pain?"

"If it keeps Emerald from controlling anyone else, then sure, whatever it takes."

"Attaboy," said Amethyst. She turned to Peridot and Lapis. "You two?"

"What am I going to do?" Peridot asked rhetorically. "If anything, I'll make that trip eight hours and not much else. Besides, I've done my fair share already."

"And I think I've fought enough," said Lapis. "You guys can take care of yourselves. I don't think I'll add anything to the party."

"Are you kidding?" asked Amethyst. "You're like a one-gem wrecking crew. You can do some serious damage."

Lapis was not flattered by the comment. If anything, she looked annoyed. "Then how about this: I'll sweep this city of Onyxes, and you guys get going now before I change my mind?"

Amethyst looked at Pearl and shrugged. "I suppose we'll accept your offer," said Pearl. "We don't have time to dawdle. The nearest warp pad is at the temple so we'd better get moving."

"Good," said Lapis. She spread her wings and took a hold of Peridot. "And good luck." With that, they flew off, leaving the Crystal Gems behind.

Amethyst sighed. "I don't think she gets how strong she is."

"She doesn't," Garnet confirmed. "We'll make do. We have for thousands of years." She gestured to her left, towards Beach City. "Let's get a move on."

"Are you sure this will work?" said Steven, looking up at Amethyst.

"Definitely, dude," she said, shifting around Garnet to look down at him. "Just float us right through the hole in the roof. They'll never see us coming."

Steven looked down from the lighthouse cliff, past the giant statue, and at the beach house below. The hole Ten had punched in the roof was still there and that was his target, but it looked so small and distant, barely a pinprick to his eyes. "And if I miss?"

"Then we'll land on the roof or beach. Good enough, right?"

"You won't miss, Steven," assured Garnet. "Just breathe and take a step off. You are more than capable."

"Okay. Everyone hold on tight." Pearl and Amethyst latched on to Garnet, and Steven held tight to Garnet's ankles as she balanced on his shoulders. He took three steps and leapt from the cliff, falling rapidly toward the house. He let himself fall for several seconds until they were more than halfway down, then willed himself to slow. Gradually, their speed decreased until they were drifting downward like a feather.

Steven was nervous about their trajectory, but Garnet was right: he didn't miss. They approached the house, passing through the hole in the roof with ease, finding a pack of four Onyxes lying in wait around the warp pad. They didn't notice the Gems until Steven released his grip and the others leapt down. They had to get past these four fast before the twelve on the beach heard the commotion and came running.

The four in the house stood and snarled, one howling loudly, either to alert those outside or simply from some base, animalistic instinct. The Gems watched a moment, then Garnet pointed to one staying back. "We got a dodger," she said.

"I'm on it," said Amethyst. Though the other three Onyxes moved to circle the Gems, Amethyst ignored them and lashed her whip toward the one hiding in back. It leapt sideways to avoid the lash, but Amethyst's second whip caught it while it was unable to dodge in midair. The whip wrapped around its belly and she yanked, causing it to jerk sideways. One of the other Onyxes turned and bit down on her whip. Amethyst pulled hard, sending the one into the other, causing them to collide with a tinkling of shards as their gem protrusions grated against and chipped one another. Pearl took the opportunity to thrust and skewer both of them before they could untangle themselves, destabilizing their bodies in one shot.

The other two leapt forward, but Garnet was more than ready for them. She reached out with both hands, catching each Onyx by the neck, and whirled them about. The other Gems dived to the sides as Garnet released the Onyxes, sending them hurtling out of the shattered front wall.

"They'll be coming back shortly."

"With friends."

"Get to the warp pad!"

They bundled together on the plinth, taking the opportunity to look at their beach house: the front wall was completely ruined from the raid; the door to the bathroom had been torn from its hinges, as had all the cabinets in the kitchen and the fridge door; the floorboards were chewed up and uneven, many sticking out at odd angles. The place had been ravaged. Once they were finished with Emerald—if they succeeded—their house would need a lot of work.

The scrambling, scurrying sounds outside the shattered wall told them the Onyxes were coming. "Bubble up, Steven," said Garnet. With one last rueful glance at their broken home, they activated the warp pad and vanished.

Passing through the warp stream was no longer a pleasant experience for Steven, knowing as he did that wherever Emerald was, she had eyes on them right now. They were at least safe in the knowledge that she couldn't touch them until they arrived at their destination, but that didn't reduce the bleakness of the thought.

"Lights," said Garnet as they approached their destination. Amethyst, Pearl, and Garnet's gems flared to life, emitting beams of colored light, just as they reached the warp stream exit.

Immediately, all light save for that coming from their gems was snuffed out, accompanied by an extreme sound-dampening effect. Steven didn't doubt they were indeed deep in an underwater cavern. The gems moved away, their lights a clear beacon for Steven to follow, rolling after them along the cave floor. The cavern quickly changed into narrow passages that turned every which way, but the gems moved purposely through, knowing exactly where they were going, and soon they were far enough away from where they arrived that even should an Onyx warp through behind them, they would never see nor hear it.

They walked this way for nearly twenty minutes, nothing for Steven to see but the beams of his companions, until he realized he could just barely make out the roof of the cave ahead without aid from their lights. After another minute of rolling along, it was bright enough to make out all three of the Gems as they stopped.

Amethyst pressed her face against his bubble. "You'll have to shrink this thing down," she said. "It's gonna be tight."

Steven did so. Garnet went first, jumping down into a crevice that Steven now realized was spilling light upward. Amethyst went next. Pearl beckoned Steven forward, allowing him to go before her. He rolled his bubble into the gap in the floor and fell downward a short distance, the light growing a bit brighter as he went. He hit the ground and squeezed under an overhanging ledge, and suddenly he was out of the caves, the light of day filtering down from the surface above. He looked back at the cave entrance, completely unable to locate it until Pearl's legs came into view. There was a passage leading up through an overhanging shelf that was impossible to see without going under said shelf and looking up into it.

Pearl came up to him and pointed, then started heading that way. Steven followed close behind, finding the seafloor rose quickly. Soon, he could no longer roll forward as the ground was too steep and the sand gave way under his bubble. He decided he was close enough to the surface. He took a deep breath, closed his eyes, plugged his ears and nose, and released his bubble. Water rushed in all around him, nearly knocking him from his feet, but he pushed off the seafloor and kicked upwards, the light against his eyes quickly growing brighter. In seconds, he broke the surface. He treaded water and looked around.

Steven was surprised to find that he surfaced a few hundred feet from a heavily populated beach. He was expecting to come up in the middle of nowhere, much like his mother's armory. He looked down into the water, seeing the wavering shapes of Pearl and the others walking along the ocean floor and heading toward the beach, so he swam after them.

They all came up onto the beach, attracting a significant amount of attention from the other beachgoers. Steven looked up and saw a billboard near the beach covered in squiggly writing from a language he didn't recognize. "Where are we?"

"About sixty miles from the ship," said Garnet. That wasn't what Steven meant, but he let it slide. Garnet produced a sealed plastic bag with Steven's phone inside. She looked at it, then looked around. "This way," she indicated, and they began running up the beach.

Pearl's estimate had been right. The group ran at a marathon pace for at least an hour to get through the city and surrounding suburbs on the beach, then came to an inlet that separated them from the next island. Steven swam across while the others walked along the bottom. Despite his gem strength and speed, he was a slow swimmer and he reached the far side of the inlet much later than the other Gems.

From there, the land rose sharply into a small mountain. Steven had no doubt this was at one time, or perhaps still was, a volcano. The place where they had to cross was relatively high, perhaps a third as high as the peak, but not high enough for the atmosphere to thin or the temperature to dive too dramatically. Steven was still chilled, mainly due to being wet from his recent swim, but the climbing itself warmed him up enough where it wasn't a problem. The mountain was quite steep, but he could walk up it for the most part, only resorting to using his hands for climbing on a few occasions.

Once they were over and down, the air became much drier and there was little water to be seen. Steven began consuming his water at an alarming pace, draining nearly an entire bottle before the hour was over. They had at least another hour or two to go. He reluctantly placed his last bottle in his backpack and kept pace with the others.

While there were roads and signs on this side of the mountain, they soon began to disappear, leaving the Gems nothing to walk on but grass, and soon even that gave way to sand.

"Peridot was right," said Amethyst, the first thing anyone had said in hours, "Emerald definitely planted her ship as far from water as possible. This looks like a desert."

"This is a desert," said Pearl. "Thankfully her ship should be relatively close to the edge."

The Gems climbed a high ridge of sand, revealing an even higher one ahead. They climbed that one as well and suddenly had a wide view of the area around them.

Far in the distance was a massive ship, easily several times larger than Peridot's hand-ship. It was brown and white, vaguely disk-like, and squat, resting on several spidery legs. It was also in the middle of a large, flat plain, miles of nothing in every direction, save for beyond the ship where there was a steep and sudden drop. It was impossible to approach without being seen. The Gems looked at one another. There was nothing else for it. They started moving towards the ship.

Steven took out his water again, taking a large gulp. He would definitely need to be hydrated for the fight ahead. He also had a quick bite to eat, some high-protein jerky that was supposedly good for hikers. As he chewed, he spied figured moving about the outside of the ship. They appeared to be in no hurry, but they were aligning themselves in clear defensive formations. Steven couldn't count them, but he could guess they were probably just shy of a hundred strong. He wiped his mouth and put everything away. He didn't have the nerves to eat any more.

The soldiers, still dots in the distance, organized themselves into four groups in rectangle formations, two on each side of the ship's main door. A ramp was sticking out from under the door to allow soldiers in and out, though mostly they were coming out.

"No Onyxes," said Amethyst, clearly relieved despite the overwhelming numbers. "It'll be good to be able to do some real damage again."

"And we won't have to run to bubble every gem," added Pearl.

"Don't get too relaxed," Garnet warned. She summoned her gauntlets as she moved forward and the other three followed suit, whip, spear, and shield. They approached the ship, but the soldiers remained at a distance, ready to engage whenever they were ordered.

The Gems closed the distance, soon only a few hundred feet from the ship. The door to the ship slid open. The Gems stopped and took defensive stances.

They were expecting Emerald to come out. Instead, they felt both profound relief and impending doom as Ten stomped down the ramp.

"She hasn't been shattered," said Pearl, nearly weeping she was so happy.

"That's good," said Amethyst, "but also really, really bad."

Steven took a step to put himself in front of the group. "Ten!" he shouted in exhilaration, waving both hands over his head. "You're alive!"

Ten reached over her shoulder, unstrapping Rose's blade, and grasped it with both hands. She brought it before her, blade pointed towards the Crystal Gems, ready to strike. Her eyes revealed no familiarity, her mouth no smile. Steven could only stare in mute disbelief as Ten began walking towards them, her eyes shining with hatred and murder, a hundred soldiers marching at her back.

"Ten?"