Lars was holding in his nose. As a pink revenant, he didn't need to constantly breathe – his oxygen consumption was drastically decreased, just like his heartbeat. Though, his brain was still hard-wired to continuously breathe in and breathe out. And zombie or not, the waste disposal room of the Circuit Breaker base had a stink.

"What could fulmini possibly need to dispose of that stinks so much?" – Lars thought.

Finally, he saw the shadowy blob of Ghostfreak come through the wall, and in a green flash, turn into the teenage dude with whom Lars had wound up in this predicament.

"Dude, do you know how long I had to wait for you in this stinking room?" – Lars whined as soon as he saw him.

"Never mind that." – Ben said, completely ignoring Lars' complaint. His tone was serious, his face – determined, with a frowning mouth and furrowed eyebrows. "I found a secret room in here. They're keeping hundreds of gems bubbled up."

"What?!" – Lars exclaimed. "But… what does that even mean? I mean, why would they keep gems in there?"

"And why would they keep it from us?" – Ben continued. "I suspected they might've been hiding something, but I was hoping I was wrong."

"GODAMMIT!" - Lars groaned in frustration. "I was hoping we finally had this thing figured out. What do we do now, then? Go back to High Override? Or pretend to go along with Conduit's plan?" – Lars was spitballing ideas.

"No. I think we should confront them about it. Head on. Make them explain who those gems are, and why they're there. See how bad it really is." - Ben decided. "I mean, I really don't see it happening, but they might have a perfectly reasonable explanation for all this."

"Are you crazy? What if they go all, "if you're not with us, you're against us", and do us like they did those gems. Or worse." – Lars asked him.

"They'll have to deal with this…" – Ben raised his left arm and tapped the Omnitrix with two fingers – "and this." – he pointed the same two fingers at Lars, and grabbed his arm with his other hand, emulating a gun in reference to Lars' laser weapons.

"Okay." – Lars confidently nodded, and felt his laser rifles in his inner trenchcoat to make sure they were in place. "Now let's get out of this dump."

The two of them left the room, determined, and ready in case things went south. They wanted to find Conduit, but fortunately for them, her and Flint were already waiting outside.

"Wow, you humans sure take a lot of time to expel waste." – Conduit commented. "And it takes two of you. That's, uh… that's weird."

"Not as weird as leaving some important information out from what it is that you're doing down here?" – Lars sarcastically remarked, about to drop the bomb.

"We know about the bubbled gems. Explain it." – Ben bluntly said, not bothering with Lars' sarcastic approach.

"Oh." Conduit's face dropped as her easy-going expression faded away. "You haven't even been here for 20 minutes and you already know?"

"What is it that you hid from us?" – Ben demanded.

Conduit sighed. "Well… the Circuit Breakers didn't really have a great history with gems. Before the gem occupation was dismantled, our predecessors were targeted towards… Driving them away." – she admitted.

"Go on." – Ben testily told her.

"It was like this for a long time. "Fulmas for fulmini" was a common chant. So, High Override's label of "terrorists" isn't entirely inaccurate. The Circuit Breakers would attack gem operations, hoping to drive them away. The gems you are talking about were prisoners of war. Some of them we took outright, some we took in sneak raids. This was even before my time as leader, but when I was named as Major Circuit, I didn't do anything against it, either. I saw the gems as nothing more than invaders, occupants, colonizers, and our mission was justified. We would kidnap the enemy gems and poof and bubble them to deliver a message to Gemworld to leave our planet alone. Though, all we succeeded in doing was making them build a Kindergarten…"

"Did you start shattering them, then?" - Ben asked in a demanding tone.

Counduit hesitated.

"Well?" – Lars insisted as well.

"It was an attempt at a revolution. There were casualties on both sides." - she then answered. "And it wasn't out of malice to gems. But to Homeworld. There were gems that understood that."

"Like Flint here." – Ben said. Flint had been standing there, listening to Conduit unravel their history in silent shame. "I bet she was the one that you got making those bubbles."

Flint nodded slowly.

"Free them." – Ben demanded. "They don't deserve to be holed up in here for hundreds of years."

"Respectfully, I can't do that." – Conduit answered. "They still think this is a gem-controlled planet. Any error and there'll be chaos under here. Just one of them could pop the entire room, and we'll have an army of Homeworld-loyal gems on our hands. And they're fine staying that way. In case you didn't know, they don't even feel the passage of time in there. It's like one long power nap for them."

"Those were innocent gem workers, doing what they were told because it was the only thing they knew. The only ones actually loyal to Homeworld are the high-ranking ones that probably went back to Homeworld by now." – Lars said. "They deserve to live their lives. I've known gems that were stuck like that for centuries while the universe passed them by. It's not nice."

"Plus, we could use their help." – Ben mentioned. All this time we've been looking for reinforcements against the incurseans, and you guys have a whole army in here? This could turn the tide. Make Fulmas actually stay independent."

"Our people will never be free as long as High Override is in charge." – Conduit objected. "And we're not compromising our hideout by unleashing Gemworld-loyal soldiers down there."

"Not even against the incurseans?" – Ben said. "We're done here."

With a slam of the wrist, a green light enveloped the cavern, and Lars, who had drawn his weapon, anxious about the fight they were about to get into, suddenly got swept off his feet by a blue blur. He realized that he had been carried away by a fuzzy blue and black alien.

"I thought we were gonna fight 'em!" – Lars objected.

"No point in taking on all of the Circuit Breakers all at once." – Fasttrack shook his head. "What we need to do is get out of here and to the surface."

Ben was following the route that Flint had showed him just moments before when they raided a gem mining operation. From there, they could find an exit.

"What then? To High Override?" – Lars asked.

"No. Even if the Circuit Breakers are wrong, Override is much worse. I'll do things my own way. The Ben way. I guess, Ben and Lars way."

"Okay, but did you have to pick me up like a baby? This is a very weird position!" – Lars complained about Ben holding him in his arms like a cradled newborn.

"Sorry. There's really no dignified way to do this. We could do piggyback or over my shoulder if you want-"

"Okay, it's fine like this." – Lars gave in.

Quickly, Fasttrack ran up the cave wall and into the middle levels of the mine, found the elevator shaft and instead of waiting for the lift to arrive, ran up it himself. Soon, they were on the surface, and Ben detransformed while he was still holding Lars. Overwhelmed by him in a sudden flux in strength, they both fell down.

"So what's the Ben and Lars way, then?" – Lars asked him.

"Simple." – Ben said as he tapped the communicator button on the Omnitrix's side. "Grandpa! Grandpa, come in!"

"That was your big plan that you were hyping up?"

"If it works, don't fix it." – Ben assured him.

"Hey, Ben? What is it?" – Max came into the comm.

"Grandpa, listen. Crazy things have been going on Fulmas. The High Override threw Steven into jail, there's a guerilla revolutionary group that wants to overthrow the current government that has hundreds of gems bubbled up in the mines, and the incurseans are probably planning to retaliate against the planet…" – Ben went on, but Max interrupted him.

"Hold on. Who threw Steven into jail?"

"High Override. That's the leader of the entire planet!" – Lars explained.

"I'm on my way. You can fill me in on the rest of the details in person. Sounds like a big conflict ready to explode, and what they did to Steven is enough of an excuse for the Plumbers to intervene." – Max said and the transmission ended.

Just then, Ben and Lars heard an explosion. They turned around, only to see a landscape of chaos painting itself right in front of them.

The Circuit Breakers had made their move. They were out of the mines, out in the open, and attacking the gem colony. Or, specifically, the fulmini guards of the gem colony.

"Looks like they went through the plan with or without us." – Ben commented.

"Should we… help?" – Lars hesitantly asked.

"Yeah? Which side?"

"The Circuit Breakers, obviously! Look, they're not even attacking the gems right now. Going straight for the guards."

"No, what we should be doing is stopping this madness. This isn't the time to go into a civil war." – Ben firmly said.

"And how are we supposed to do that?"

"Watch me." – Ben answered as he hit the Omnitrix again. This time, he transformed into another alien capable of achieving high speeds, but with the added bonus of verticality, able to fly to all levels of the open mine, the kindergarten, and the Earth Spire.

Jet ray flew into the battle, dodging all the laser blasts that were scattered into the air as he pried the enemies' energy maces, clubs, swords, spears and guns out of their hands and threw them far, far away, regardless of if it was Circuit Breaker or Override's fulmini. The gems were mostly staying out of the battle, completely disoriented by what was going on, as nothing like this had ever happened before. And a couple Bismuths did actually join in the fight, even without realizing which side was which, just to scratch that itch for battle.

Though, Ben noticed that more and more fulmini were coming into the battle, and not just from the mines. With a glance over the battlefield, he noticed the gem warp pads activating, bringing in more of Override's soldiers to sort out this mess. That could potentially turn the battle bloody, and that was what they had to stop.

Jet Ray landed back at where he left Lars and detransformed into Ben. "We have to get to High Override and convince him to stop this madness!" – he yelled at Lars to be heard over the mess.

"Yeah, when vulpimancers fly." – Lars doubtfully said. Nevertheless, he followed Ben to the warp pad. After another squad of fulmini got beamed through it by a Peridot, Ben and Lars ran onto it.

"Warp whistle, warp whistle, where's my warp whistle?" – Lars was desperately checking his trenchcoat. "I might have left it on the Sun Incinerator!"

"I'll do it." – Ben said as he transformed into Hardlight once again, just for the ability to transport them through the warp pads.

"Anytime now." – Lars said, as nothing was happening.

"I don't know how these things work! I've never used a warp pad before!" – Hardlight reasoned.

Though, before they got the chance to warp back, something changed the direction of the battle once again. All of them – not just Ben and Lars, but the fighting factions, too, heard a spaceship flying over their heads.

"It's your grandpa!" – Lars exclaimed to Ben. Though, as they looked up…

"CITIZENS OF FULMAS, YOU HAVE ONCE CHANCE TO SURRENDER AND ALL PAST GRIEVANCES YOU MAY HAVE COMMITED AGAINST THE EMPIRE WILL BE FORGOTTEN!" – Attea's voice boomed through the valley from her ship. "Uhh… Raff? Are we on the right planet? They've got an army out but it seems they're all fighting each other." – her confused voice continued over the speakers.

"Okay, not grandpa, not grandpa!" – Lars yelled in panic.

"This is exactly what I was trying to stop, but none of these fulmini will listen to us!" – Ben pointed out.

The incurseans were finally back. This time, Attea arrived in person. And she brought an armada of ships with her.

"Aw, come on, what are the Plumbers doing here? I thought this zone was out of their jurisdiction!" – Attea's whine could be heard once more. Apparently, she had forgotten to turn off the ship's PA system.

At the mention of the Plumbers, Ben and Lars turned their heads, and sure enough – Max's ship was hovering on the opposite side. Though, even if you took Max's ship and all the united fulmini and gem forces, it still wouldn't add up to even a fraction of Attea's forces.

"Stand down, Attea." – this time, Max's voice boomed through the valley. "We can talk this out."

That… seemed like a stretch to Lars. From what he knew and what he had heard about Empress Attea, she wouldn't simply stand down and talk to the people she was about to conquer. She'd just run them over like a streamroller, anyway. But, to his surprise, that was exactly what happened.

"So…" – Attea said. "Let's hear it."

Behind her was Raff, her "trusty" advisor that she only kept to have someone to ignore. And around the table were High Override, Ben, Lars, Max and Magister Patelliday.

"There are some who disagree with my rule, and rebel against it-" – High Override started, but got cut off by Attea.

"No, not that. I couldn't care less about your crummy civil war. What I wanna know is how exactly your "peace offering" is going to offer me a better deal than what I'll get if I simply take whatever I want. Actually, scratch that. Let's start with what are the red spots doing on this planet in the first place. This is supposed to be between me and that pile of rocks." – she demeaningly pointed at High Override as she asked Ben and Max.

"We're here to sort out an issue with a highly sensitive person with a close working relationship with the Plumbers that is on the planet." – Max dodged the question.

"And might that "highly sensitive person" be Steven Universe, a.k.a. Pink Diamond?" – Attea said with a smirk.

Max was surprised at how she knew about that. Lars almost chuckled nervously.

"Where is he, anyway?" – she asked. "He's the one I wanted to see in the first place."

All eyes fell on High Override.

"Okay, yes, release him and bring him here." – he gave up. A fulmini soldier went to retrieve him.

"Just for the record, I could have broken him out anytime." – Ben said matter-of-factly towards Override. "Heck, he could probably have broken himself out if he wanted to." – he added.

"Hey, everyone." – Steven said as he finally entered the conference room. "Mr. Tennyson." – he greeted Max with respect. Max simply nodded his head towards Attea, indicating she was the one Steven was supposed to be paying attention towards.

"So much for manners. Talking to that peon while there's an Empress in the room." – Attea said with dissatisfaction.

"Sorry! Sorry…" – Steven quickly apologized, wondering if he already screwed everything up having barely entered the room.

"So, this is the famous Pink Diamond, then." – Attea said as she walked up to him, and sized him up. Both physically, and his character. Physically, Steven was bigger, and even if you ignored that, the Diamonds as individuals were extremely powerful, not someone you'd want in a one-on-one fight. Fortunately, What Attea specialized in was not one-on-one fights. It was usually a thousand to one. And character-wise, this Steven seemed soft.

Meanwhile, Steven was doing the same evaluation on Attea. From her expression, from what Ben told him about her, and how she had just referred to Max, possibly one of the greatest people Steven had ever known, as a "peon", he knew exactly what kind of person he would be dealing with. Unfortunately for him, this time he'd have to step around the toes of the entitled brat.

"So this is the famous Pink Diamond Universe." – Attea said to herself. Though, nothing she ever said out loud was only to herself. She always intended to make her words known to everyone in the room. Unless what she was thinking was something no one, neither her enemies nor her friends, who really only were her enemies in disguise, should hear, she wouldn't even utter a whisper. She kept it all in her head.

"Um… please. My name is just Steven. Pink Diamond was… my mom. And I'd rather not be confused with her." – Steven corrected her. He wasn't sure if even that was a good idea while talking to Attea. Would she get angry at him for contradicting her?

"Yeah, I know what parents are like." – Attea related to him. "Always all "how will you ever be Empress when you can't even conquer a pathetic little solar system?" Well, I showed you, daddy, didn't I?" – she quoted her father, Emperor Milleous.

Steven found that that was absolutely not what parents were like, but again, he was picking his dialogue options carefully, so he didn't comment on that.

"What I'm wondering is why exactly did you involve yourself into my planet for. As far as I'm aware, the Diamonds are supposed to have given up on their colonies." – Attea continued.

"They are. I mean, they have." – Steven answered. "But that doesn't mean that I… we… are just gonna abandon it to whoever comes for the picking. Even if there wasn't a gem population down here, we'd be responsible for the state Fulmas is in, and this is why we're still supporting it." – he set his foot down.

"Unless the translator's bugging out, that's a nice use of the royal "we"." – Attea commented.

As she said that, Raff walked up to her and whispered something into her ear.

"Yes, I know that!" – Attea scornfully rebutted. Raff kept whispering something else. "I- be quiet, and stand over there!" – she demanded. Raff hung his head low and complied.

"Well, Steven Universe, I respect your dedication to the Diamond colonies. Even as they are ex-colonies. You may keep crumby old Fulmas." – she withdrew.

"What, just like that?" – both Steven and Ben asked, surprised.

"I really don't want to have to deal with whatever civil war is raging on this planet, and plus, people are always going to come and try to take the colony away from me, and I really don't think it's worth to maintain. Fulmas is yours." – she said and winked while leaving the room.

"Well, boys…" – Magister Patelliday piped up. "I sure hope this has taught y'all a lesson." – he told Ben, Steven and Lars. "It's better to avoid getting yourself into interplanetary politics. It's more trouble than it's worth, trust me."

"Respectfully, sir…" – Steven answered. "I disagree. This is exactly why we need to get ourselves into these cases. I mean, if not for us, the planet would still be ran by the incurseans, and by him." – Steven pointed at High Override.

"What do we do about him, anyway?" – Ben posed the question. High Override narrowed his eyes in contempt.

"We, as in Plumbers, can't do anything." – Max explained. "But the Benevolent Alliance will be coming down to investigate the ongoings here, and we'll turn over the proof of you inciting interplanetary war." – he said, specifically towards Override.

"What's gonna happen to Fulmas, then? Are the Circuit Breakers taking over?"

"No. As far as I understand it, the people choose a new High Override themselves through an election process." – Max explained to them. "Though, they don't serve terms. It's for life. Pretty different from ours, I know. What's gonna happen to the Circuit Breakers and all the gems down there will be up to whoever gets elected."

"I thought High Override was like, his name." – Lars bluntly commented. The others chuckled.

"Hey, do I know you from somewhere, son?" – Max then asked, looking close at his pink skin.

"Um…" – Lars almost choked, only now remembering he was still technically wanted by the Plumbers. Ben and Steven tensed up, too.

"That's right! You made those perfect croissants back on Earth!" – Max recalled Lars' Spacetries shop with a pleasant look on his face.

"Ooh, I gotta try me some of those, then." – Patelliday commented.

"Oh…" – all three of the boys sighed in relief.

"You boys can get back on your trip. We'll take it from here." – Max assured them. "I'd tell you not to get yourselves into trouble, but you're not gonna listen to that. So I'll tell you this, instead. Make sure you know exactly what kind of trouble you are getting into. That goes to all three of you." – he told the boys who were leaving the room. "And Lars? Try to pick a low-profile target next time." – Max added with a smile. So, he did know. Lars practically ran through that door.

"So, where to next?" – Ben asked Steven.

"You guys gonna head back to Earth?" – Lars asked them.

"Nah. It'll do Steven some good to see other, non-gem corners of space for once." – Ben said. "Right?" – he turned his head to Steven.

"Sure." – Steven nodded.

"Well, in that case, I might just have something for the two of you." – Lars confidently said as he led them back to the Sun Incinerator.