The sun was setting into the horizon and a few stars could be seen in the darkening sky. Twoie suppressed a yawn as he sorted through another pile of scrap metal, his movements slow and half-hearted. It was getting late, but there was still work that needed to be done.

Twoie stared at a warped plate of metal he was holding trying to decide whether it was salvageable or not. After sorting through hundreds of similar pieces it was becoming difficult to tell. In the end, he shrugged and tossed it into the salvageable pile. He grabbed another piece from the large pile and began to inspect it.

"You're still working?"

He jumped, dropping the scrap metal. It clattered onto the ground. He turned and was met with the sight of Amethyst. She was leaned against a large pile of broken furniture, a small frown on her face.

"Amethyst," he greeted while moving to pick up the fallen piece of scrap metal. "I was just finishing up."

She plucked the material out of his hands and carelessly threw it onto one of the many large piles that littered the barn. "Dude, you've been at this for hours," she said. "Even Peridot is taking a break."

She gestured to the less cluttered side of the barn with a small tilt of her head. There, seated next to Peridot was Garnet of all gems. Even more surprising was the half-smile on Peridot's face. She snapped her fingers and began to widely gesture with her hands as if she just made a grand discovery. Twoie smiled at the sight, glad to see that some of Peridot's cold exterior was slowly being chipped away.

"It is getting late," he agreed, sparing a glance at the darkening sky. He stretched out his limbs and let out a yawn.

Amethyst nodded. "You should try and get some sleep."

"I'll take a break," he said. "I need to take Steven back home anyway." he scanned the grassy field where Steven had been last, frowning when he failed to find him. "Have you seen him?"

She pointed to an empty spot on the field. "He's right outside…." she scanned the field again, eyebrows squishing together as she came to the same realization he had. Steven was missing. "Weird. He was there a second ago."

Twoie's gaze darted around the barn in search of a poof of black hair or a splash of red, but found nothing. Peridot and Garnet were seated on the table near the chalkboard deep in a discussion, Pearl was immersed in a book and sat close to them, Spinel had roped Jasper into some sort of staring contest, and a faint outline of Lapis was visible resting on top of a silo not far from the barn. The only other person missing was…

Twoie's heart sank like a stone. "Where's Bismuth?"

Amethyst's head whipped around to every corner of the barn, eyes widening when she failed to find her. "She's not here," she said. "You don't think…"

"We need to find Steven," Twoie said. "Check the barn again. I'll go look outside." he didn't wait for an answer and took off to go search the fields.

He circled the area outside the barn, widening his search when he failed to find Steven. Still, he found nothing but long empty stretches of grass and flower patches.

"Steven!" he called, pausing for a second as he waited for a response.

The inside of the barn was now a flurry of activity as everybody joined the search for Steven. There was still no sign of Bismuth.

"Steven!"

Growing desperate, Twoie threw himself up in the air and scanned the vast fields below. Far away from the barn Twoie could make out a small blob slowly making its way toward them. He brought himself down from the sky, taking off in the direction of the figure as soon as his feet touched the ground.

It was far too short to be Bismuth meaning it had to be Steven, but something was wrong. He was walking far too slowly. Twoie pumped his legs to their limit, ignoring the burning sensation as he propelled himself toward Steven.

He halted to a stop, nearly falling over in shock as Steven came into view. His face was littered with small scratches and splotches of dirt. He was limping, leaning most of his weight onto his right foot. His lips were turned downward in a deep frown, eyes shiny with unshed tears as he stared at the bubble cradled in his hands.

No, no, no. His stomach twisted itself into knots as he stared at the multi-colored gemstone floating harmlessly in the pink sphere—It was Bismuth. Guilt pierced through him like a knife as he recalled his earlier conversation with Amethyst. He should have done more, watched Steven more closely, but it was too late. He had failed.

Steven finally took notice of him, sadness and shame flashing across his eyes as he pulled the bubble closer to him in a poor attempt at hiding what had happened. The gestures and emotions were familiar to Twoie. Hadn't he done the same thing in his time?

He still remembered the trip home from the forge—how his foot stung from the sizzling of the heated floor, how his heart hammered against his chest as he scooped Bismuth's gemstone off the ground, how devastated the gems had been when he told them of what Bismuth had tried to do. It was an awful experience he'd hoped Steven would never have to deal with.

"Twoie…" his voice cracked with emotion. His gaze darted between the bubbled gemstone and the ground. "I didn't want to… she wouldn't listen…"

Twoie gently took the pink bubble away from Steven and engulfed him in a fierce hug, pressing a gentle kiss to his forehead to heal most of his visible injuries.

"It's not your fault," he said.

"She thought I was mom," Steven muttered into his shoulder. "Because I had her shield and her ge—"

"You're not her," he said. A memory of a pink version of himself flashed in his mind. "You're Steven."

Steven nodded into his shoulder and said nothing.

The majority of the trip back was spent in silence. Twoie cradled the bubble containing Bismuth with one hand and held Steven's hand with another. Steven's leg was healed, but he still walked at a snail's pace, slowing down even more as they approached their destination. Even though the barn must have been thrown into chaos with Steven's disappearance, Twoie did not rush him, giving him time to process the situation before he had to face the gems.

Steven stopped a few feet away from the entrance of the barn. The sounds of frantic searching and clattering metal filled the cool night air. No one had seen them yet.

"In your time," Steven began, pausing as he collected his thoughts. "Did Bismuth…"

"It didn't happen exactly the same way, but… yeah."

Steven turned his gaze to the pink sphere. "Is she going to be okay?" he asked, his features scrunching up in worry. "We're not going to keep her trapped forever, are we? What she did was wrong, but I don't want her t—"

"She just needs some time to cool off and think," he said, giving Steven's hand a small squeeze. "Don't worry. I consider her a good friend in the future."

Steven's shoulders sagged in relief.

Pearl rushed out of the barn when she caught sight of them. "There you are!" she cried, pulling Steven into an embrace. She frowned at the caked dirt still present on Steven's face. "What happened to you?" she asked as she inspected him for any injuries.

Twoie did most of the explaining, not wanting to burden Steven by forcing him to relive the event. Steven did briefly chime in to explain how he managed to poof Bismuth without any weapons. Apparently, he had learned to summon spiked bubbled all by himself, an impressive feat that took Twoie by surprise. He didn't learn how to do that until he was much older.

The gems who were aware of Bismuth's similar past actions were not that surprised at the news of what she had tried to do. Jasper was the only one who took real issue with Bismuth's actions, going as far to suggest they shatter her—an idea that was quickly shut down by everybody else.

In the end it was decided that Bismuth would remain bubbled so she could have time to think about her actions while everybody else processed the situation. Steven and Twoie were both sent home to rest while the others continued to work on the drill through the dark hours of the night.

After many fitful hours of twisting, turning, and staring up at the ceiling Twoie leapt out of bed and got dressed. It was still night, but memories of past traumatic events kept him from sleeping and he was becoming restless.

The incident with Bismuth at the barn had been an unpleasant reality check and forced him to reevaluate his plans. If comparatively small events like Bismuth's attack on Steven were resistant to change then the bigger events like the Diamonds were most likely impossible to avoid. In order to make meaningful changes to the timeline, Twoie would have to make risky moves.

It was with this in mind that he grabbed a small multi-colored object, shoved it deep into his pocket and tiptoed out of the temple, taking care not to wake Steven who lay peacefully asleep in the safety of his bed. He decided to ride Lion to the barn seeing as it was much more discreet than taking the warp pad.

One roar and a portal hop later, Twoie was back on the outskirts of the barn.

"Thanks buddy," he told Lion as he gave him an affectionate pat on the head. Lion yawned in response, curled up into a ball on a particularly soft patch of grass and promptly fell asleep.

Like a shadow, Twoie clung to the walls of the barn and used the darkness of night as cover. Garnet, Amethyst, and Pearl didn't know he was here and he intended to keep it that way. If they knew what he had planned they would never let him go through with it, but Twoie was determined to change the future for the better, no matter the cost.

His heart pounded against his chest as he got closer to the table where Peridot was diligently working away. The schematics for the drill were pushed to the side while she focused her attention onto the timepiece that had brought him to the past in the first place. He moved to approach her only to freeze at the arrival of Pearl. He pressed himself closer to the wall and into the shadows, not even daring to breathe in fear of being discovered.

Pearl made some minor adjustments to a formula written in big neat letters on the chalkboard, had a brief exchange with Peridot, and finally sauntered back off to the other side of the barn. Twoie let out a sigh of relief and allowed himself to breath again.

A hand firmly grasped his shoulder. "Gotcha." His pulse raced and his muscles stiffed. He was spun around, a million excuses already on the tip of his tongue only to be greeted by the friendly face of Spinel. "As much as I love hide-and-seek, you should be sleeping mister," Spinel said, lightly jabbing him in the chest with her finger. "I'm pretty sure humans need to sleep or else they'll die."

Twoie made a shushing motion with his finger, head whipping around the barn searching for signs that anyone had heard. "Lower your voice," he whispered.

Unfortunately, Spinel did exactly the opposite. She tilted her head in confusion and made a big show of cupping her hand against her head. "What?" she said, voice loud but not quite shouting. "Speak up, I can't hear you."

Twoie bit his lip. This was bad any second now the gems would gather to see what all the commotion was abo—

"That's it," he said as a lightbulb went off in his head. He grabbed Spinel by the shoulder's. "Do you think you can go inside and keep everyone distracted?"

Her eyes lit up. "Distraction is my middle name," she proudly proclaimed. Without another word, she raced back into the barn. "Who wants to see how many chainsaws I can juggle?"

The sound of many chainsaws simultaneously being turned on was followed by frantic footsteps and the familiar worried squawking of Pearl. "Where on earth did you get five chainsaws?"

"Woah, go Spinel!" Amethyst encouraged. "More chainsaws! More chainsaws!"

"Amethyst!"

With the gems distracted Twoie approached Peridot who was so engrossed in her work that she failed to notice the chaos unfolding around her.

"Peridot," he called, his gaze darting back to Spinel and the others. She had summoned two more chainsaws and Garnet had finally decided to involve herself in the situation.

"I'm busy," she said, not even bothering to look up from the timepiece she was tinkering with.

"I need you to come with me."

Peridot sighed, gently placing the timepiece on the table. "What now?"

"I'll explain later," he said. "Just follow me."

Peridot sent him an irritated look but did as she was told. Together, they slipped out of the barn undetected. Now all they needed to do was find Jasp—

Twoie stumbled and nearly crashed into someone.

"My Dia—my Twoie?" Jasper quickly corrected herself. She was patrolling the outside of the barn.

Twoie place a finger over his lips and motioned for her to follow which she did without any hesitation. The sounds of buzzing metal and chaos faded into the background as the small group walked farther and farther away from the barn.

It was only until they were a good enough distance did Twoie allow himself to relax. The small object in his pocket now seemed to way a ton, reminding him that the next part of his plan would be much harder to execute. Twoie abruptly stopped walking and turned to face the two gems who were looking at him expectantly.

"Peridot, tell me what are the odds that you will actually be able to fix the timepiece?"

"One hundred percent," she answered without hesitation. "Given enough time I wi—"

"How much time do I have before I'm erased from existence?" he bluntly asked, ignoring the way Jasper's eyes widened ever so slightly.

"That is… unknown," she slowly answered. "There are a multitude of factors tha—"

"Give me an estimation."

Peridot avoided his gaze. "I… not much time."

"Be honest with me," he continued. "Even if you do manage to repair the timepiece before I disappear, what will happen when I go back to the future? I've changed enough events that my timeline might not even exist anymore."

Peridot remained silent.

Twoie let out a deep sigh. "I'm going to die no matter what happens, aren't I?

"I… don't know," Peridot admitted. "That appears to be the most likely scenario, but time travel is complicated. There is no telling what will happen."

"That's what I thought," he said and turned his gaze onto Jasper. "You were both sent to earth on Yellow Diamond's orders, right?"

Jasper nodded. "My orders were to eliminate anyone interfering with the cluster."

"And I was supposed to send status reports on the progress of the cluster," Peridot said.

Twoie reached into his pocket and showed them the small diamond shaped communicator that was originally from his time. It was divided into four colors: pink, yellow, blue, and an almost blinding white. He handed the small device over to Peridot who carefully began to inspect it.

"Do you think we can use that to contact the Diamonds?" he asked.

"I've never seen a communicator this advanced before," Peridot said, marvelling at the revolutionary piece of technology. The Peridot of his time had spent weeks perfecting the technology, making it as compact and efficient as possible while still maintaining its ridiculous communication range. "You shouldn't have any problems contacting the Diamonds with this."

"Good," he said. "Because I need you two to get me an audience with Yellow Diamond."

Peridot's brows scrunched together in confusion and even Jasper struggled to hide the surprise on her face.

"I don't understand," Peridot said. "You want to contact the Diamonds now? After you made me disable all communication capabilities on the handship?"

"I thought I had more time back then, but things have changed." he rubbed at his temple in an attempt to soothe his ever present headache. "I need you to call Yellow Diamond."

"And tell her what?" Peridot asked, her voice rising. "That we've both horribly failed our respective missions. Are you trying to get us shattered?"

"Tell her that your missions are proceeding as planned," he said.

Peridot frowned. "But they're n—"

"Don't tell her we're working on stopping the cluster and don't tell her about Steven or any of the Crystal Gems. Just let her know that you found Pink Diamond."

Peridot looked like she wanted to protest further, but Jasper snatched the communicator out of her hand before she could. In one swift motion, she pressed the yellow side of the communicator and stood back as it came to life and began to float in the air. It glowed pink, blue, and white before finally settling on a bright yellow. A large diamond screen appeared in front of them. Twoie moved so that he was out of sight and waited.

Jasper stood still and Peridot shifted in place as Yellow Pearl's irritated face appeared on the screen. "This is the Yellow Diamond Control Room."