A cold breeze swept through the Kindergarten, stirring up plumes of dry grey dust. The dust hung in the air, giving everything a dull ashen tone. In the distance, something wailed; a person? An animal? Or just the wind, whistling through the endless rows of holes punched into the canyon?

The warp pad glowed. Steven, Connie and Lion appeared in a ray of light.

"Oh jeez, this place is always bigger than I remember." Steven took Connie's hand and jumped off the side of the warp platform, floating them to the ground. "We're gonna have to do a lot of searching. Should we split up?"

Connie made a face. "I don't know. Maybe we should stick together."

"Okay!" He cupped his hands to his mouth. "Garnet! Amethyst! Pearl!"

His calls echoed back at him: Garnet! Amethyst! Pearl! Garnet, Amethyst, Pearl…

Steven grinned. "Echo!"

Echo! Echo, Echo…

"That's pretty cool." Connie took a deep breath. "Steven's the best!"

Steven's the best!

"Haha, no! Connie's the best!"

Connie's the best!

Behind them, Lion roared, drowning out all the echoes. Steven tried to stifle his giggles.

"You're right, Lion. We're on a mission. A mission!"

A mission! A mission… Grrrrrraaaaaaaaa!

Connie blinked. "Whoa. Did you hear that?"

"Yeah. What was that?"

They listened, and heard a scream echo through the canyon. Their smiles disappeared.

"Uh… where did that come from? Steven?"

"I think it came from this way! Come on!"

He took Connie's hand and took off running in the direction of the noise, Lion bounding alongside him. Another scream: louder, closer.

"We're going the right way! Hold on!"

They were coming up to a corner. Now they could hear more than screams; there were growls and whimpers, and the sound of people talking.

"Go away!" Said one very familiar voice. Peridot? "I don't know what you are, but this is a very important mission from the Diamonds! You five, do something!"

"We can't!"

"It's separated us!"

"We're doomed!"

"Oh, what strange situations we find ourselves in!"

"Wait…" Steven slowed as he reached the corner, and peeked around it. The first thing he noticed was something purple and white on the ground. It was hard to make out what exactly it was, but there was a thrashing tail and two claws pawing against the walls of the Kindergarten. It sorta looked like those Jasper monsters he'd seen in the snow, only smaller.

With a sinking feeling in his chest, Steven watched as it turned towards him, revealing the one clue that left him no doubt as to the monster's identity: A purple gemstone embedded in its fur.

"Amethyst. Oh, no."

She growled at him, and he saw the spots where her eyes used to be were taken by two pale purple horns.

"What is that? Over there!"

Steven looked up, and saw Peridot hiding in one of the holes. That was strange… but then he noticed her limb enhancers and her gem embedded in her shoulder. Then he saw the Rubies, each of them cowering in different holes not far off from the ground.

This was new. This was bad.

"It's Rose Quartz! What's she doing here?"

That was the Ruby with her gemstone in her eye. Steven grimaced.

"Oh, hey Eyeball. Nice to see you again?"

"Don't talk to me, Rose Quartz!" Eyeball stabbed a finger at her, which might have looked more impressive if she wasn't clinging to the Peridot's leg with her other arm. "I don't know how you got off Homeworld, but as soon as we drive off this creature, we'll put you right back where you belong!"

"Yeah! We've done it before, and we'll do it again!" Navy chimed in from another hole. Amethyst lunged for her, and she jumped back. "Eep!"

Connie drew her sword. "They're Homeworld Gems! What do we do?"

"They're stuck." Steven looked from Amethyst to the Roaming Eye ship parked not too far away. "I think we can win, but we've got to be careful about this."

"Who's Rose Quartz? Ugh, nevermind, we've got to focus on the mission!" The Peridot said, in a striking moment of déjà vu for Steven. "Fuse already and take them out, you clods!"

"We can't!" Leggy wailed. "I'm scared!"

Steven walked towards the ship, keeping a close eye on Amethyst. She tracked their movement, growling, but stayed where she was. "Do you need any help?"

"No!"

"We know your Crystal Gem tricks!" Doc crossed her arms. "You're just going to try and distract us with some stupid game! Well not this time! This time, we'll beat you!"

"Yeah!"

"And we're not on the Moon Base, so you can't throw us into space again!"

"Yeah! Gravity!"

The Peridot rolled her eyes. "I should have requested a Jasper escort."

Steven took another step, and that was one too close for Amethyst.

"Steven, watch out!" Connie pulled him out of the way as she charged at him, claws extended. Amethyst missed him by a hair's breadth, but her head snapped around to face him as she barreled past. She opened her mouth and extended her tongue – one long, purple-studded whip - which wrapped around Steven's shin and pulled him off his feet. She swung him once around and then released, sending him flying towards the wall.

"Whoa!" Steven activated his floating powers, just in time to stop himself from cracking his head against the canyon. "Wait! Amethyst, stop, we don't want to fight you!"

But Amethyst turned towards Connie and lashed out again with her whip. Connie slashed it off with the sword and she let out a squeal of pain. Then Lion roared, knocking her away.

"Amethyst!" Steven let himself fall to the ground, but when he picked himself up he spotted another problem: the Rubies had taken advantage of the fight to jump down and band together. He watched them fuse in a burst of red light as the Peridot ran towards the ship.

"There's no escape this time, Rose Quartz!" The Ruby fusion said, towering over him. "You're coming with us!"

She reached towards him with one massive hand, and Steven… stood there.

Frozen. Terrified.

What was he going to do? How was he going to get out of this? He had to move, he knew this, but his muscles didn't so much as twitch.

"Steven, watch out!"

Steven turned. "Connie-"

A flash of purple, and something slammed into him. He felt himself getting carried along, and when he opened his eyes, he saw the front of his shirt was being held in Amethyst's jaws. Just below him was the ground, flying past him to the steady beat of her paws.

"Amethyst? You-" The monster started at his voice and dropped him, letting him tumble to a stop – ouch, that was sure to add to his growing pile of bruises. He sat up and smiled at her. "You saved me."

She cocked her head, whining. He reached a hand towards her.

"Do you remember me? It's okay if you don't. I'm-"

"Rose Quartz! There you are!" The Ruby fusion caught up to them, and Amethyst yelped and ran off. "I don't know how you managed to escape us again, but this time I'm sure we'll get you." She paused. "Yeah, I'm sure. What are you talking about? No, we're not getting thrown into space again. Wha- no, guys, focus! Wait, where'd she go?"

"Connie!"

"Steven!"

They linked arms, and turned around to look at the fusion. "Are you ready?"

"Let's do this!"

A bright pink light enveloped them, and they fused into Stevonnie.

"Whoa." The Ruby fusion shook her head as they summoned their shield. "No more tricks! Let's fight!"

"I'm ready when you are!"

She charged at Stevonnie, footsteps thundering through the canyon. They jumped up as she swung a punch and landed on her knuckles, running up her arm and drawing back their sword arm for the finishing blow-

A bright light in Stevonnie's peripheral vision caught their eye, and they turned their shield towards it. Not a moment too soon: a beam bounced off the pink surface and right into an injector perched on the side of the canyon. It exploded, knocking them back and sending them to the ground with their ears ringing.

Stevonnie groaned, letting the ringing sound fade. Then they shook their head, grabbed their sword and got back up.

"Nyeh heh heh!" The Homeworld ship floated around the Ruby fusion's head, Peridot's voice cackling out of its speakers. "You're clearly outnumbered!" She dodged a thrown shield. "And outmatched! This is just pathetic. Give up already, you clods!"

Lion came bounding over to them, but Stevonnie could see this wasn't enough. They weren't enough, not with both the Roaming Eye and the five-Gem fusion towering over them… maybe if they made an injector fall on them? No, the Ruby fusion was just too big. They needed another approach.

No, wait, they could make it! They had to keep fighting!

With a flash of light, Stevonnie split apart. "Steven, no!"

Steven raised his hands. "Wait!"

"No more waiting, Rose Quartz!" She raised her foot. "You're just trying to trick us again!"

"No tricks! I think I know what your mission is: you want to check on the status of the Cluster." Steven sighed. "Look, if that's all you came here to do… I won't fight you. I'll let you do it. Just leave us alone, please."

"What?" The ship floated closer. "How did you know-? I mean, ahem, I will not confirm or deny whether that is our mission, but if that was… how in the stars did you manage to get your little Earth hands on such classified information? Have you been spying on us?"

"No, no-"

The Ruby fusion rolled her eyes. "Who cares? Let's just take her back to Homeworld and then do the mission."

"And why exactly would I be taking orders from you? I'm the mission commander, and I say the actual mission takes priority!"

"But she's tricking you! Arghh!"

"It's not a trick!" Steven couldn't quite meet Connie's eyes. "We just… don't want to fight anymore. I saw you were in the Kindergarten, so I thought you might be here to check on the status of the Cluster. If that's all you're here to do – you're not going to abduct anybody, or reactivate it, or anything else – then… fine. Do it. Just leave us alone."

They watched the ship slowly float to the ground. The door opened, and the Peridot stepped out. She cleared her throat.

"As mission commander, I find these terms of surrender acceptable. Now leave us, and don't come back."

Steven bit back a protest at the word 'surrender', opting to back away from the ship. He finally caught Connie's eye; there were so many emotions, so many thoughts swirling in them, but she glanced back at the Homeworld Gems and decided this was a conversation to be had later.

The Ruby fusion, on the other hand, had no such restraint.

"You can't just let them go! They're traitors! That's Rose Quartz! You know, the leader of the Crystal Gems?"

"I don't know who she is, and I don't care. She's not relevant to our mission."

"She shattered Pink Diamond! She tossed us into space! She didn't tell us where Jasper was!" The Ruby fusion stabbed a finger at Steven as he retreated. "This isn't over, Rose Quartz! You're coming back to Homeworld with us!"

"Hey!" The Peridot stabbed a finger at her. "You five. Defuse."

The Ruby fusion clenched her fists, but did what she was told. Five figures appeared in the dirt; three of them up and ready to fight, two curled up next to each other.

"That's better. I swear, all you Rubies ever want to do is pick fights." The Peridot stopped in front of Leggy, who had latched onto Navy's arm. "Bunch of dumb soldiers. Get up! We've got work to do. And what are you looking at?"

Steven jumped. "Um…"

"Leave us! Go, go, go!"

Steven, Connie and Lion obeyed, letting the Homeworld Gems disappear into the fog behind them. Connie sheathed her sword with a sigh.

"I guess we're going home now."

"Almost. We've still got to find Amethyst."

"Amethyst? I saw her run away, but I don't know where she went."

Steven headed towards a small hole level with the ground. "I think I do."