Lincoln's feelings of hollowness persisted when he woke up the next morning. He drifted through that day with a flat, vacant expression and a nondescript frown. At lunch, when Ronnie Anne asked him about his previous session, his answers were terse and lifeless.

"So how'd it go?"

"Okay."

"What'd you and Connie do?"

"We built a birdhouse."

"Well... was it fun?"

"I guess."

Ronnie Anne knit her brow, unsure of what to make of his new disposition. Lincoln was, generally, a pretty happy boy, and it was rare for her to see him this... dour.

"Everything all right, Lame-O?" she asked, leaning into the table. "Anything you want to talk about?"

"Nah, I'll be fine," he muttered, as he put the goggles on the table and shoved them across the table towards her. "It's your turn. Have fun."

She felt a sharp tinge of guilt as she prepared to put the goggles away in her backpack. She was almost inclined to give them back and let him have another turn, but she knew that he would never accept that offer. She also wanted to press the issue further, but lunch period was almost over. More importantly, the painful truth was that she couldn't help him when he wasn't in the mood to be helped. Sighing, she bade him goodbye, and received a half-hearted wave in response.

Well, if he won't open up to me, maybe he'll do it for one of his sisters, she thought on the way back home. Later that afternoon, right before she strapped on the goggles, she sent a text to Lori asking her if Lincoln was okay. Once that was done, she put him out of her mind (for now), strapped on the goggles, and got ready for another adventure in Beach City.


12:30 p.m.

August 13

Beach City

Ronnie Anne had intended to spend her afternoon as she typically did - a walk down the boardwalk for a quick lunch, after which she'd meet Steven on the beach to hang out. This time, however, the boardwalk shops - from the pizza parlor to the fry vendor to the arcade - were eerily deserted. Even the store's employees had abandoned their post. Curious (and hungry), she walked toward the beach, wondering if Steven had any idea as to what was going on. Once she turned her attention towards the beach, she saw a huge crowd of people congregating on the dunes, all of them shouting over each other and raising a fuss.

Well, that explains why all the stores are empty, she thought. But what are they freaking out abou-

A moment later, she got her answer. Just beyond the crowd, she saw a vast, unending expanse of sand where the ocean should be.

The ocean was gone.

Ronnie Anne blinked and rattled her head, struggling to process what was in front of her. In her life, there were a few things she took for granted. The sun rises every morning and sets every evening. The world gets hot in the summer, and cold in the spring. And giant bodies of water don't disappear overnight. If she couldn't even count on that, then what could she?

She dashed onto the beach, hoping that Steven and the Gems had some sort of explanation for this. She reasoned that if anyone knew what was going on, it would be them - and from the looks of it, the rest of the town came to the same conclusion. By the time she stepped onto the sand, she saw that the town mayor was accosting Garnet, yelling into her face with a megahorn, demanding an explanation for the catastrophe. Garnet, in typical form, swatted his megahorn away and gave him a curt response.

"It was Lapis Lazuli."

Ronnie Anne took precious little comfort in the fact that the Gems at least seemed to know what was going on. But who - or what - was Lapis Lazuli?

Fortunately, she wouldn't have to wonder about that for long, since Pearl gave her the answer a moment later.

"She's the gem you released from the mirror," she said to Steven. The gem on her forehead then flashed and lit up, producing a hologram of a petite, blue-skinned girl, wearing a midriff-baring vest and a long, flowing vest. Her eyes were blank, hollow voids, without any pupils to speak of.

This was Lapis Lazuli? This demure-looking girl made the ocean disappear? Ronnie Anne could hardly wrap her head around that.

"I-I don't understand," said Steven. "She's a gem like us. Why would she do this?"

"There's a lot you don't know about gems," said Garnet.

Ronnie Anne's blood ran cold at the implications of what she just heard. Just when she was beginning to grasp this fantastic world, she learned that a) there were other gems besides the Crystal Gems, b) not all of them were good, and c) some of them were powerful enough to take the ocean away. She knew that the Crystal Gems were strong, but not cataclysmically strong. How were they even going to fight such a monster?

On the way to the temple, Steven told her everything that had happened the previous day. Pearl gave him a magic, gem-powered mirror - one with the power to capture and play back anything it witnesses - in the hopes that it would help him learn about gem history. Instead, the mirror began to talk to him, as if it had a mind of its own. When he told the Gems, they panicked and ordered him to give the mirror back, prompting the mirror to cry out in fear. He couldn't bring himself to hand it over, so he disobeyed them and ran off with it.

Before the Gems could catch up to him, the mirror instructed him to pull off the gem attached to its back - which he did. In doing so, he found that the mirror wasn't magical at all; it was housing a gem who had been trapped inside it for thousands of years. That gem was Lapis Lazuli - the girl they saw in the hologram - and she apparently repaid his kindness by taking the ocean away. And then, to cap the night off, the Gems grounded him.

"What'd she steal the ocean for, anyway?" she asked.

"I don't know!" cried Steven. "But we're the Crystal Gems. I know we're gonna make things right - somehow."

Ronnie Anne expected him to receive some kind of reassurance from the Gems. However, a quick look around revealed that neither Garnet nor Amethyst nor Pearl so much as glanced in his direction as they marched back towards the temple. In a display that made Ronnie Anne's heart ache, Steven just whimpered and let his head slump forward. She had seen him display negative emotion before, but until then she had never seen him so... deflated. She edged closer to him, wrapped her arm around his chubby shoulder and gave it a couple of gentle squeezes.

"It'll be okay, Steven," she said, even though she wasn't the least bit sure of that. That said, the gesture was at least enough to elicit a faint smile from him.

The five of them arrived at the temple to find two others waiting for them: Lion, who was curled up on the carpet, and a chubby, bearded man she'd never seen before, who was dawdling in the kitchen. The man's appearance wasn't exactly what you'd call dignified; he was bald up top, but the hair sprouting from the back of his head was long enough to reach his waist. His outfit, consisting of a wifebeater, cargo shorts and sandals, certainly didn't help.

"Oh, hi there!" he said upon meeting Ronnie Anne's eyes. "You must be that Ronnie Anne girl I've heard so much about. I'm Steven's dad."

Ah, so this is him. Steven had told her about his dad a few times before, and in retrospect, it was hard to imagine him looking any different, given the way he described him.

"I've heard a lot about you, too," she said, reaching out to shake his calloused, sunburnt hand. "Nice to meet you, Mister... um..."

It just occurred to her that over the past couple months, she never thought to ask what Steven's last name was.

"Universe," he said. "Mr. Universe."

Ronnie Anne chuckled, taken a bit off-guard by his answer. "Very funny, sir. But seriously, what should I call you?"

"Mr. Universe!" he repeated.

She blinked at him, taking a second to process the fact that he wasn't joking.

"Your... your family name is Universe?"

"Well, not really," he said, scratching the back of his head. "I just changed it to Universe when I became a rock star, and-"

Just then, Steven barrelled past them and towards the front door, hefting a fully loaded cheeseburger-shaped backpack on his back.

"Whoa, there, Shtuball!" cried Mr. Universe. "Where do you think you're going?"

Steven glanced back at his father, wearing a determined frown, and clenched his fist.

"I'm leaving to fix what I did to our home," he said. "It's my fault the ocean's gone. Now I'm gonna get it back or get really thirsty trying."

Mr. Universe, matching his determination, stood up and marched towards the front door. "I'm coming with you."

"As are we," said Pearl, as she, Lion and the other Gems converged on him.

"You're un-grounded, by the way," added Garnet.

But as they were on their way out the door, it dawned on Ronnie Anne that a golden opportunity lied in front of her. In front of the Crystal Gems was a challenge unlike anything they'd faced before - to her knowledge, at least. It was the ultimate chance for her to put Garnet's training to good use and prove definitively that she deserved to be a part of the team.

"I'm coming too!" she declared, running towards Steven's side. "There's no way I'm gonna miss out on this action."

Steven smiled and held out his hand, which she high-fived with all her might.

"WOO-HOO! ROAD TRIP!" hollered Amethyst.

And so, the seven of them set out towards the beach, in search of the elusive, powerful Lapis Lazuli. Despite her bluster, Ronnie Anne's confidence was offset by the swarm of questions buzzing around her head. Who was this girl? Why did she take the ocean away? And if she was strong enough to do that, how were the Crystal Gems even going to fight her?