My Little Universe: Season 7

by EquestrianKirin

Team B

It had been a very long day, and now with nighttime finally coming around to Beach City, it's a time to finally sleep. Amethyst was more than willing to get her sleep on, as she went on back to the Temple through her Portal Key. Even with weeks since coming back to Earth, Amethyst still found it a little bit weird on seeing the entire Beach House no longer present anywhere. A mix of nostalgia to her early days of the Temple, but some dismay for Steven no longer being so close to her home. With her encounter with Tindalos, Amethyst was worn out. Amethyst only stopped to look up at the full moon above her head.

"G'night, Steven," Amethyst simply said. She could just hear him say the same thing in her head, as she went off to her room. Steven may not be too far away from her, but still farther than she was used to.
Amethyst went on to the back, and opened up the Temple door to what room she had left. It honestly wasn't much from before, but that didn't mean Amethyst didn't try to build it back to its former glory. That was years on years of collection Amethyst had managed to do, and now it didn't look touched at all. Sure, Amethyst had gotten a few things, but the largest thing in there now from her collection was nothing but a old couch. That was small compared to the dinosaur bones she used to have.

"Nothing to do now, but sleep," Amethyst yawned, throwing herself out onto the couch. It wasn't the most comfortable compared to the couches they used to have, but it'll have to work. Amethyst sighed, and began to drift off to sleep …

*BANG**BANG**BANG*

"AMETHYST! AMETHYST!"

So much for that.

"Oh, what now?" Amethyst groaned, bemused as ever. She got up off the couch with a very tired expression, and moved up to the door where the yelling and banging was coming from. Her magic opened the door, and there stood a more excited (and comparatively, more awake) Ronaldo Fryman. Odd with him coming to the Temple, but Amethyst was too tired to question it.

"You do know it's the middle of the night," Amethyst groaned.

"Amethyst, you have to come to the Lighthouse! I found something weird," Ronaldo stated, whispering on the final word.

"So what? You've found something weird everyday since you got that telescope," Amethyst questioned, rubbing her eye.

"I know, I'm amazing. But you won't believe my latest discovery. There's something at the moon!" Ronaldo stated, pointing to the full moon. Amethyst though could care less about it. She walked back and went to shut the door.

"HEY! Don't you wanna see?!" Ronaldo called.

"The moon's not going anywhere, man, go bother someone else," Amethyst replied, leaning on the door.

"There's no one else to bother, and I'm told you don't need any sleep so you can't possibly be tired at this hour!" Ronaldo insisted.

"Oh, you'd be surprised."

"But this is HUGE!"

"Can't you call Nanefua?"

"Not a fourth time!"

… fourth time? Really? They must really regret giving him that thing. Amethyst just groaned and opened the door again.

"If I say yes, then can you quit bugging me?"

"You have my word as an investigator!" Ronaldo said, hand to heart and the other raised in a solemn promise. Some reason Amethyst doubted that.

Next thing Amethyst knew, she was out of the Crystal Temple, and up at the Lighthouse. Ronaldo had his telescope aimed right on the moon to be sure Amethyst didn't miss anything from what Ronaldo had seen. Amethyst still wasn't at all too thrilled by any of this, but Ronaldo was excited to show someone something about this. The zoom lens on the telescope was actually very good, and gave Amethyst a surface perspective as if someone were flying a plane over the moon. All Amethyst saw though was the Moon Base.

"That's the Moon Base, it's always been there," Amethyst said tiredly, rubbing her eye again. This sure got Ronaldo freaked though.

"YOU HAVE A MOON BASE?! I have so many questions!"

"Of course you do," Amethyst groaned, rolling her eyes.

"One: Why didn't you tell me you had a moon base? Two: Take me to your moon base. Three: why does it look like an arm?"

"I didn't have to, NO, and it doesn't look like an - ..." Amethyst wasn't sleepy anymore, and she quickly took another look at the telescope. A Gem's experience told her that could only mean one thing, but she just had to find it. However, looking all over the surface, she didn't find much of anything outside of the Moon Base.

"I don't see one," Amethyst said, no longer as enthused, and walking away. Ronaldo quickly gave it a lookover himself, trying to re-find this arm he saw on the moon. Amethyst leaned against the wall, arms crossed, and it didn't take very long until Ronaldo found it again.

"There! There! I see it!"

"Yeah, yeah, the human who cried wolf. Let me know if there's any flying pigs too while you're at it," Amethyst groaned, starting to walk away.

"I'll tell you that, of course! But come and have a look at this. It's all … white."

WHITE?!

"What?! Let me see!" Amethyst insisted, moving Ronaldo aside to see it herself. The view wasn't on the moon anymore, or at least not on the surface anymore. Indeed, there appeared to be a spaceship flying through space, a Gem Warship to be exact. And just as the moon was, the Warship was as white as the winter frost, and possibly just as foreboding. Amethyst wasn't even close to falling asleep anymore. Seeing that kind of ship only meant one thing. And the color meant it was under only one Diamond.

"Oh no," she stated gravely.

…….

As the large white arm began to move closer towards Earth, all of the Crystal Gems were quick to get up once they got word of the threat. It was kinda hard for the giant arm in the sky to not be noticed by said Gems, but then again, it was surprisingly quiet as it approached towards the place. It was FAR too big to make any proper landing (like it had any landing gear anyway), so it simply had to keep itself properly floating.

"So, White's finally coming back," Jasper said.

"Arm the cannons," Garnet instructed through a walkie-talkie. This was a bit nostalgic for some, but the cannons weren't the same as they were before, and this time armed up with modifications courtesy of Peridot and Fulgurite. The four cannons lined up, aimed directly at the white arm ship. With the signature saying of prokchops and hotdogs spoken to the machines by Garnet, all four cannons began to spring to life. Several shots were launched directly at the arm ship. The shots went a lot faster than before, like a gun shot, but they all bounced off the reflective surface of the arm.

"Garnet, that's not gonna work, we need something bigger," Lapis insisted.

"We do. Fulgurite, Combine," Garnet instructed.

"Got it, G," Fulgurite answered, her hair stretching out and connected to all four cannons. She said the same saying again, and this time the shots were electrified by her to bring a combined beam. The town oughta be woken up by THAT sound, if not from the rapid fire. The warship was struck good and hard, actually stunning its movements. Electrical sparks shot off from the underbelly of the object, but then it started to become more active again, the hand aiming directly to them. They thought it was going to slam on them, or aim a laser beam or something, but the ship instead "flicked" what looked like an escape pod, about the size of a bus. It moved very quick, and landed off just by the shoreline, into the water. As if the ship was on autopilot after that, and flew off inland. All of the Gems turned to the escape pod, armed up and ready for the second that any of the Gems would come out at them.

"You! Reveal yourself!" Garnet ordered. The hatch opened up, everyone waiting for -

"WHOA WHOA, STOP! HOLD YOUR FIRE!"

Thank the stars someone actually said something before jumping out. The first person to jump out to see the group was the last person they would want to just jump at and attack, so it was good she came out of the hatch first. The moonlight helped reveal who came out of the hatch, and the moment they saw her, they began to calm down.

"Hey, Bismuth! You're back!" gasped Lapis, seeing the blacksmith Crystal Gem in her pride once everything calmed down, walking up to the beach.

"Told you they'd freak out," said another, less familiar voice, "This is what happens when you don't listen to me."

Aquamarine! She flew right out of the hatch, joined up by even more of the team: Star Quartz, Diopside, and Jade being brought out on Flint's shoulders.

"WOO! The team's back together!" Amethyst said, super psyched to see them return. Bismuth picked up Amethyst, and playfully gave her fellow Crystal Gem a fluff of the hair, Amethyst laughing.

"Welcome back," Garnet said.

"Good to be back. Hope you enjoyed your "time off"," Flint said, going out of the water as Onyx and Topaz came out as well and joined them at the beach.

"Oh yeah, we got a lot of catching up to do. So, how was your trip?" Lapis asked, eager to hear them.

"Eh, not to be a poor sport, but can we wait until morning? We just got back, and we've been through a lot in our flight," Flint suggested.

"That's just fine. Steven and the others would want to hear you out anyway," Garnet figured. It was good to hear, but there was one small detail that they were quick to catch up on, at least for those who were looking to the hatch.

"Where's Pearl?" Amethyst asked. The other group looked back to the hatch for a moment or two, and it was Diopside who went back to get her. Or, her gemstone rather. Well, it was better than finding her shards behind, though they'll have to wait still for Pearl herself to come back around.

"She's been through more than we have. It'll take some time before she'll come back around, though it's probably for the best we don't rush things," Diopside explained.

"Agreed. We'll pick this up -"

"The beach house!" gasped Jade. They all looked over to the Temple in question, Jade as shocked as she could be. Aquamarine flew over herself, unimpressed.

"This is the Crystal Temple? Hardly anything worth talking about," Aquamarine said.

"White Diamond took quite a bit from it. It's all we got," Lapis Lazuli said.

"... Fair enough."

As the rest of the team were trying to rekindle their relationship with the Crystal Temple, Team A was more curious over just how much had happened. They heard little to nothing of their adventure off back at the station. Well, they're sure they'll get their answer in the morning. And hopefully, Pearl too.

~~~~~~

The next morning can't come soon enough. Just an hour after the sun had risen, news of the team's return hit everyone else faster than Fulgurite could ever do (even if she was the one who told them all about it), and they were more than awake to check in on them all. It may have been just weeks, but it was far too long since the whole team had finally been together.
The entirety of the Crystal Gems, Team A and B, went off right to the Barn House to present themselves properly to all of the group. This gave the Gems, ponies, and humans enough room for a full presentation, as if readying themselves for a movie. Fluorite, laying comfortably on her side, was a bit of a seating arrangement for quite a bit of the group (Jade, Padparadscha, Emerald, Connie, and Fluttershy particularly). As they were involved too, Sadie, Jamie, and Lars also came by to see what they had missed, and the pets of the team were off nearby: Blue listening in attention as Lion was curled up sleeping, little Nora sleeping on top of his mane. Guess they were getting along well. The last to arrive was Steven himself, and he was more than happy to see them.

"Steven!" Diopside said, being the first to met up with him as they met for a hug with eachother.

"Diopside! You're all okay," Steven beamed, so happy to see them all back.

"Good to see you too, buddy. I was worried something happened to you without the Beach House at the temple."

"No, everything's cool. My dad's letting me live with him until the house is rebuilt. Or until we find a new place, whichever comes first," Steven explained.

"Well I hope the house is built first. I like it when you're right next door," Diopside said, fluffing his hair a bit, Steven chuckling a bit before he was set down. Steven went over to the others.

"So what's your story? How was it back at the White Diamond Space Station," asked Amethyst in anticipation.

"Was White there too?" added in the Rutile Twins.

"Not while we were there. If you ask me, I don't have a clue why White Diamond would get back onto the Space Station the way we found it," Flint said.

"What do you mean?" asked Twilight.

"You're kidding. That place is crawling with corrupted Gems, experiments, and stars knows what else! It's a madhouse right now," Bismuth answered.

"Don't tell me you tried fighting those things," Rhodonite said, shivering a little bit, but Diopside shook her head.

"No, of course not. We tried keeping out of their way as best we could," Diopside stated. With this stuff explained, Pinkie started to become a bit more hyped up.

"I feel a LOOONG story coming on!"

"Oh, well, guess it's story time. Sit back, and get comfy," Bismuth said. Next thing they knew though, Steven actually had a pillow with him, courtesy of Pinkie Pie (Pinkie logic strikes again). "Not that comfy."

"Story time!" beamed Pinkie. Well, they might as well get through the full story for them all, if they truly wanted it. Bismuth had the honors of starting off this big story. The tale of the Crystal Gems, and their return to the Diamond planet.

---(Start Flashback)---

Since the big escape had occurred, the White Diamond Space Station had been awfully quiet. A shell of metal simply floating around the vastness of the cosmos with no exact sense of direction. This did make it difficult for one to keep track of where it was going, but even so, one ship did manage to retrace its steps back to the station, flying around to find a docking station to enter. With much of the Crystal Gems and Mane Six now dropped off onto Earth, the station was now the main objective for Team B. With no falters, nor any patrols this time, the spaceship found a similar docking station, and settled down easy. It didn't look as familiar though since lights weren't as evident this time around.
The doors opened up, and out stepped Team B: Flint, Jade, Star Quartz, Bismuth, Topaz, Diopside, and Onyx.

"You sure this is the right station, Onyx?" asked Diopside, as they were looking around.

"Of course," Onyx replied, "If you're looking for the Human Zoo, this is the closest you're gonna get."
It was probably good, for it hadn't even been a minute since they've arrived, and yet they were already hearing growls coming from the upper halls.

"Well, it's the best we got. K, here's what we're doing: find Pearl, find Aquamarine, find the Zoomans, and get outa here. Got it?"

"Got it," replied the others. It was a simple goal, and there was no need to get side-tracked. Flint didn't waste anytime in arming himself up with his pistols. The others basically did the same thing, and they started to head on in.

…….

From the docking station, the group started to march right on into the inner halls of the Space Station's sanctum. Many of these halls, at least in much of their latest experiences in the place, were foreboding on their own. But with the power on low throughout the entire place, it was an even more disturbing sight for many of them, keeping together and keeping a sharp eye out for any dangers that could be roaming around the place.

"I hope the others are okay. Who knows what Pearl, Aquamarine, and the other Zoomans are going through right now," Diopside said.

"Aquamarine might be alright," stated Star, considering Aquamarine had a wand that can basically halt everything. Probably not that far from the truth.

"I hope so," Topaz said.

"Everything will be alright, let's just try to find that Human Zoo first. Onyx, where do we go from here?" asked Flint. Onyx tried to look around a bit, but with the dimmer light, it was a bit harder to figure out where they exactly were. This part in particular was only illuminated by some small lines of neon light on the corners of the hallway. No, it didn't exactly help in the location all too well.

"I think … um … that way? No, uh, that way I think."

"Didn't you work here?" asked Bismuth.

"Yeah, but it's kinda hard to tell in the dark," Onyx replied.

*hisss*

"Get back," Flint quickly ordered, grabbing Onyx and pulling her back into the shadows as they all began to hear something coming their way. Everyone else quickly got to the wall, and before any of them could realize it, they soon saw a large beast suddenly show up. By appearance, it was similar to a typical corrupted Quartz, but it was still a troubling slight. They all stayed quiet as the animal took a moment to sniff around, before slowly staggering off down the other hall. They were about to go out, only to tense up and stay still as another corrupted quartz suddenly raced by to join the first one.

"Well, Onyx, the longer we stay in here, the more time given for one of those corruptions to find us. Just pick a way to go!"

"Alright, alright. That way," Onyx said, pointing off to the other hallway AWAY from the two quartzes. The group started to do so, but Diopside paused and looked down the other hall for a brief moment. The quartzes weren't in normal view, but Diopside could see them easily, and they both were on their guard as much as they were. Who knows what could be lurking in these halls? Diopside eventually went off to catch up with the others. Good timing too, as the lights were becoming very dull here. The whole group paused for a moment.

"Can any of you see?" Onyx asked.

"Looks like we're heading to a four-way crossing up ahead," Diopside said, though the group could barely even tell that as they kept moving. Diopside kept in front, and stopped right by the center of the four way.

"K, so, what do you got now?" Flint asked. Diopside actually covered her normal eye, allowing her Gem eye to fully adjust and take in what they got. With it all quiet though, the four-way section gave Diopside a bit more than anticipated, the distant sounds of various creatures echoing in her head as she tried to figure out where to go. She may have found the zoo before, but that didn't make going through this place any easier for her.

"Um … Ok, to the right is uh … another hallway. To the left is … a hall curving left. And in front is … a T-split," Diopside informed. It really was little to go on, and Onyx tried to think about it. This was something she should know, and it was on the tip of her tongue.

"Hold on. Hold on … Got it! Ok, follow me," Onyx instructed, starting to go off ahead, passed Diopside. This was a bad time for the group to be split up, so they had to move quick to keep up with Onyx. Onyx just needed a bit of barring to actually figure out where the heck to even go, but this Gem was a bit overly-eager, and didn't exactly slow down for the others to keep up with her. Star Quartz was probably the only one who didn't have any issue with keeping with Onyx, but the others were not as fast as her.

"Onyx, get back here!" Flint called.

"We're gonna be fine, just keep up and we'll find them -" While Onyx wasn't looking, suddenly she ended up slamming into what felt like a wall, making Onyx tumble back into the others.
A bad time to be off your feet, especially when they discovered what exactly they ran on into. The object rumbled and groaned slightly, as if it just woke up from a nap or something. It seemed to turn around, and it turned out to be one of the many corrupted Gems around the station. It appeared as a grey mole with a green shell on its head to covered her eyes, its gemstone on its forehead. The strike Onyx accidentally did on it startled the beast, as it turned to "see" what it had for company. The mole roared at them, arms raised, but before it could even do anything, Bismuth quickly jumped in the way, hand already a hammer. With a hit of her own, she knocked the Gem Mole off its feet with a good uppercut, but rather than continuing the fight, the corrupted Gem quickly bolted away for it, digging under the floors with its claws before they could get to it. Well, that was that, though a bit forceful.

"Teach you to try an attack the Crystal Gems," Bismuth said smugly, her hammer turning back into a hand.

"That was quick," Star simply noted. Diopside nodded, though felt humbled as to how quick Bismuth was willing to just attack like that. but, Bismuth was Bismuth, and Diopside knew they had more worrying things to get to.

"Yes, we don't have time to fight everything in here. Onyx, you were guiding?"

"Oh right, this way," Onyx said, starting off again. The group began to go, but Diopside paused to look down the hole the Gem Mole had done.

"Sorry." she simply said, before she took one extra look, and moved on to rejoin the others. If this was gonna keep happening, than they were in for a rough time.

…….

Much of the run through the station was rather similar to this, with Onyx guiding the way and Diopside being the main eyes for the group, just to be sure that there was no repeat incident of what just happened. It was still troubling to go through the Space Station with distant growls, roars, and lord knows what else echoing in the distance. But lucky for them, and probably any other corrupted monster going through, they began to reach what some of them considered familiar territory, and a similar door began to present itself: the door to the Zoo's main chamber.
Seeing it now though, with no one to exactly take care of it, there was signs that this door had been through better times before. One moment it was durable and strong, but now they could see marks left on the door of what it had to endure.

"Here goes nothing," Flint said, taking lead and getting the door open. Typically the door would be sealed tight, but with no power to have it do so, the door only needed some forceful strength in order to actually open.
Once they all got inside, they saw … well, what could they see? Not even the so-called sky held much light for them to see anything. The skies for the Human Zoo would normally be lit up with the sun, or at least show stars and moon, but now the skies were empty with a blank rooftop. There wasn't even any blue to the sky above, and it would seem that the stars had been shot down, and the moon turned off. The trees and vegetation still looked pretty good, though they too were showing some signs of neglect, and didn't look as lively as they were.

If the Zoomans were anywhere, it would be in here. Unfortunately. Without a word, Flint signaled them all to come in and began to venture around within this seemingly empty dome, the door slamming shut behind them. The door slamming echoed throughout the dome a long way. And the echoes themselves stretched for a good ten seconds. The only sign anything was in here at all were footprints along the ground, about the same size as the Gems' feet.

"HEY! ANY ZOOMANS IN HERE?!" call Diopside. Her voice carried on in the air for a bit, at first not really being met with much, if anything.

"Geesh, can you scream any louder?" Onyx said, her ears ringing.

"But they have to be in here. They're bound to hear that!"

"AND whatever else is in here. Besides, what makes you think they'll come out from screams?" Flint questioned.

*rustle*

Suddenly, the answer came up from the bushes, jumping right at Flint like a pouncing cat! Flint was caught off guard, and tumbled to the ground, but he used his momentum to grab whatever got him and swinging it over his head, and landing on the ground! Everyone else armed up, but then they actually saw what it was.

"Haha! Cannon ball!"

"What the - Zooman!"

Well, they found one of them in here, and this one Diopside actually recognized from the last trip down here: J10. Despite being thrown head over heels, J10 wasn't too ticked off about it. In fact, she didn't look very fazed about the blackout at all. J10 got up from the fall, a little battered but fine, and soon they began to hear more rustling not too far away.

"J10! Did you tag one?" called a voice, turning out to be Y6.

"Y6. Look! I've found some new friends to join us," J10 said, presenting the others of the Gem group. Y6 and J10 didn't look like anything different happened at all, even with the stars, sun, and moon gone from the sky.

"Greetings!" they both said.

"Uh. Hi. … Uh, you two the only ones here?" asked Flint. He may be aware of the Zoomans to extent, Onyx too, but with what the state was, they might as well ask anyway.

"Nope. All of us are still here," said Y6, before leaning in and whispering "They're hiding."

"Hiding?" quizzed Bismuth.

"The ritual of hide-and-seek! What's your names?" Y6 said.

"I'm Diopside. This is Flint, Jade, Star, Bismuth, Onyx, and Topaz."

"It's such a pleasure to meet you all. I am J10, and this is Y6. Have you come here to play our activity with us?" J10 introduced.

"Thanks, but no thanks. Listen, we gotta go," Flint said.

"But why? We're still playing our activity for the day," retorted J10.

"How can you even tell? There's no sun, moon, or stars above you," Star asked, looking at the empty space above their heads.

"Oh, the voices in our heads told us that the sun, the moon, and the stars are tired now, and they are sleeping. They told us they will wake back up soon, and until they do, the voices will tell us when day and night occur."

"... What?" Jade asked, dumbfounded. Admittedly, yes, some of the humans hadn't been the most clever, but were these two for real? Onyx nudged her.

"They're Zooman, they're not like those on Earth. They don't even know what "Earth" is," Onyx reminded quietly.

"You never mentioned that they were like this though," quietly stated Bismuth.

"Stars, Suns and Moons don't fall asleep. Those are things, not creatures … unless this is Celestia and Luna you're talking about," Star said.

"Who?" asked the zoomans. Well that confirmed it.

"Oh, nevermind that. Listen, we have to -" before Flint could finish his sentence, they all then began to see the earrings on them start to glow. None of the Gems could hear any instructions, but Y6 and J10 heard the voices in their heads speak up again. The earrings stayed glowing for a bit, both smiling and eyes closed, and when the glowing stopped, they both looked very happy.

"Everyone, the choosening will start soon!" J10 said in glee.

"Come with us, it's finally time!" added Y6.

"What? Come on, can't it wait?" Flint insisted.

"Why would you want to wait for something so wonderful?" J10 asked innocently.

"We'll meet with you in a minute," Topaz suddenly said. Y6 and J10 were very happy for that answer, and they actually started to move some of the group along. Guess "in a minute" was not apart of the event, whatever it was.
They really weren't too sure what they were talking about too much, but eventually they got their in short time, with the rest of the Zoomans present, just as happy and oblivious of the situation as Y6 and J10. They all were surrounding some sort of double ring on the ground, everyone on the outer ring, side-by-side.

"Topaz, the heck are you doing? We don't have time for this," Flint said.

"But look at them. They're so … happy. I don't wanna upset them," Topaz said humbly.

"They won't be happy at all if -"

"Fa-lint! Please join us in the ring," J10 suddenly cut in, holding Flint's hand gently and giving him a sweet smile. This was such an innocent face. It was actually enough to make him fluster a bit, as he actually followed her to the circle.

"Jay-ade, please wait here until the ritual is complete," said Y6. Some of the other Zoomans were happily getting the others into the ring too, and the only ones that remained were Jade, Star Quartz, and Onyx. Bismuth, Flint, Topaz, and Diopside.

"Ok, what're we doing?" Bismuth asked.

"The choosening is a very special event for us," said J10.

"We're glad to have you with us at such a wonderful time," added Y6.
Soon, the earrings glowed again, and all the Zooman grew excited and awaited whatever instructions their "little voices" had in store for them. It was much like waiting to win a prize for a contest, and the anticipation that came with it was just as enjoyable. Of course, the Gems had little idea how to exactly do this, except for Onyx perhaps and she wasn't even involved in the "ritual" herself.

"What're they doing?" Jade asked.

"You'll figure it out in a minute," Onyx simply replied, arms crossed and waiting for it to continue. Jade and Star glanced to eachother, unsure what'll really happen next in this "choosening" thing, but the Zoomans clearly knew, and soon one of the Zoomans actually stepped out towards the inner circle. Shortly afterwards, then stepped out another Zooman, and joining the first Zooman at the center of the circle. This didn't look too bad, but then the two Zoomans gently held hands, and then kissed.

"W-Wait. Is this some match-making thing?" Diopside asked, worried.

"Dio-side. Whoever is choosened for you, will be very lucky," said J10. The heck was she talking about?! Then her own earrings began to glow, and J10 then went out to step into the inner circle. Guess it was her turn, but the Gems didn't come here to get married!

"Oh boy. Guys, help me," Diopside meekly said, looking back to those not taking part.

"Just roll with it, it doesn't last too long. Besides, the odds you'll be chosen is zero to none," Onyx informed. Unless someone messed with the coding on how this is supposed to work, there was no way, no how, that any of the Gems will be ending up "choosened", as the Zoomans put it.

"Well, this better end soon, we don't have time for this," Flint said. It was then that the earrings glowed again, and they all waited for whoever was choosened to go to the inner ring. However, this time, no one stepped forward, and instead they all were looking over to … Flint.

"... Uh … Can I help you?"

"Fa-lint, you've been choosened! You're so lucky to be choosened on the first day," said Y6.

"W-WHAT?! No way, there has to be a mistake!" Flint said in shock. What were the odds he would be picked again? Zero to none? How the stars was this even happening?! The other Zooman cheered in joy for him, but Flint was freaking out on the inside, the only outer clue being him shivering. J10 smiled sweetly, waiting for him to come forward but Flint was kinda frozen, trying to find and work out some explanation on how this was even possible.

"Topaz, I blame you for this," Flint managed to say.

"Eh, sorry," Topaz replied. She didn't really mean for any of them to get hooked up, or even expected them to admittedly.

"Go on, Fa-lint. J10's waiting for you," Y6 insisted.

"Eh, yeah, no."

"Huh? OH, I get it. You're just being shy! Do not worry about it," Y6 said, only infuriating and frustrating Flint even further, as Y6 actually pushed him over to the center circle.

"Oh no, this could be bad," Jade said. She knew Flint better than anyone else here, and seeing him in THIS situation was not anything worth continuing. Jade began to actually go in, just as Flint and J10 were in front of eachother. This was a bit too far for them to go on with.

"Uh, excuse me?" Jade said, actually getting in the way between J10 and Flint. She sounded friendly, but the physical actions were more stern.

"What're you doing? the choosening picked Fa-lint."

"I know it did, but … maybe this isn't such a good idea," Jade said, trying to keep herself together as much as Flint was. J10 looked very perplexed, though Flint was thanking his lucky stars SOMEONE said something.

"Why not? Don't you want to be choosened?" Y6 asked. Jade took a breath before speaking.

"J10, we're from somewhere where choosening is, well, by us. Not by some little voice. You can't just be told to be with someone, you have to … you know. Get to know them," Jade explained.

"Y-you're not making any sense. …"

"It's hard to explain. But the point is: if you want be "choosened", then it's you who'll have to do it, not someone else. People are choosened where we're from because they want to choose eachother."

"Thank you," Flint silently stated, his nerves calming down. At least they could -

"If that's how it works … Then I choose Jay-ade!" Y6 suddenly said, taking one of her hands.

"And I choose Jay-ade!" added in J10, taking her other hand.

"Alright, THAT'S IT!" Flint snapped, finally having enough. He wasn't gonna watch his Jade become wives to two different Zoomans, and he even shoved them away. This was his breaking point.

"Ok, I've had enough of this, look! Forget what that "little voice" is telling you, we gotta get out of here, and we gotta go, NOW!" Flint ordered fiercely.

"What's the matter, Fa-lint? The sun, moon, and stars will come on eventually," Y6 asked, assuming that was the main thing worrying him.

"You know what, I'm not gonna sugarcoat it: YOU'RE ALL GONNA DIE IF YOU STAY HERE! There's monsters roaming around all over this place, and as far as I'm concerned, they're finding their way in here! So unless you WANT to get eaten, then get out of this place, and come with us to the ship! UNDERSTAND?" Flint's voice was really giving Y6 and J10 quiet a scare, along with the other Zoomans. This was NOT how the choosening was supposed to go, not at all, and they weren't sure if any of this was even true at all.

"... O-Ok, but … what's a monster?"

Flint's eye twitched. How dense were these zoomans?!

"Someone PLEASE talk some sense into them before I blast them," Flint growled, trembling and itching to just slap some sense into them. For some countermeasure, Bismuth actually picked him up and carried him away, though she understood his frustration.

"W-We're really sorry. He's just a little on edge right now," Jade said humbly, seeing them all a little humbled themselves. The group of Gems moved away from the Zoomans, and only then did Flint end up placed down. He'd been frustrated, but this was just painful.

"I swear to the cosmos, how dense are these people? Yeah, they've been spoon-fed, but they couldn't be THIS naïve to everything," Flint groaned, trying to keep from just going off completely.

"Why're you so surprised? I thought it was you who introduced us to the Zoo," Star Quartz pointed out.

"YES, but at least the other animals in other zoos on Earth have instinct to work with. Shouldn't these humans have some bit of it too?" Flint retorted.

"Sorry to tumble your rocks," Bismuth said, "But they've been in here their whole lives. Things like pain, monsters, or zoos isn't something that they're programed with, unlike those on Earth. How would you feel if everything was told to you your entire life, and you didn't have to think for yourself?"

"... Ironic, but true that," Flint sighed. But this meant things were going to have to be played a little differently. The typical warnings and concepts were not going to work on these people, and eventually, Topaz got an idea.

"Maybe I can talk to them?" Topaz suggested. She didn't want anyone else scaring them any further.

"Whatever works," sighed Flint. With the greenlight, Topaz and Diopside joined up and began to head back to the startled Zoomans. If they were going to cooperate, then they had to at least get them on a more comfortable state of mind beforehand.

"Is Fa-lint okay?" asked Y6.

"He's fine, but we do have to get going soon," Diopside said.

"But why?"
Topaz and Diopside glanced to eachother, trying to think of something they could understand properly. Eventually, they took a glance up to the sky again.

"Uh, because … Oh! The Sun, Moon, and Stars! Anyone of you notice that there's none of them up in the sky?" Topaz asked.

"Yes. They'll wake up soon," said a Zoomare.

"No, not true. A mean force has taken them all away, and moved it all somewhere else."

"W-what?! but where'd they go?" asked J10, startled. Looked like this was the lure they had to work with, so both Gems went on with it.

"Don't worry, we and the others over there know where they are. If you come with us, we'll take you right to -"

"What're you doing?" Star asked, suddenly standing right behind them. Her sudden voice made them both jump.

"Just play along," Diopside quietly said, giving her a wink.

"We don't have time to play though, do we? And did something get in your eye?" Star questioned. This clearly wasn't helping them out at all. This whole situation was just troubling to say the least: they had Pearl and Aquamarine to look for still, and the more time they spend here the more trouble they'll be stuck in. And things were about to get even worse for the groups …

*GRRROOOWWWLLL*

"O-Oh my gosh, what was that?!" shuttered J10.

And then they began to see it. Flint's warning had come to life, as a monstrous figure began to walk out from the forest, its eyes glowing red. It shambled a bit to balance itself until it fully got out into view of them all, the light of the circle of choosening showing them all the monstrosity that has come to their presence. It had the body of a human, but the torso upwards looked almost cartoony, extremely huge and more fitting that of a crocodile! A set of large jaws gave the upper half the appearance of a giant alligator gar, and it looked just as scary. How it was even able to balance was anyone's guess, as its head looked fitting an animal ten times bigger. A true demon of White Diamond's experimentations.
All the Zoomans had never seen such a creature before, and were absolutely terrified. The creature opened its jaws, lined with teeth resembling archery arrows, and gave another loud guttural grow.

"Everyone. Back away, slowly. Follow me," instructed Diopside, quietly as to not set off the monster. This time none of the Zoomans retorted, and slowly began to move away, terrified. The monster watched them all move in a slow motion, staring them all down. As they were going though, one of the Zoomans couldn't move, paralyzed in her own fear as she stared at the beast. Something the monster was noting, as it began moving over towards her. Each step the monster made was like a balancing act, and all the Zooman did was back up a little bit, as the beast opened its mouth, leaning forward.

"Look out!" shouted Bismuth, tackling her aside before the monster could eat her. All it got was a chunk of ground, which it tore apart and shook like crazy, tearing it to pieces. That there could've easily been one of the Zoomans or Gems right there. some stray bit of the "grass" landed nearby them. Now the Zoomans were all a panic.

"I-Is that a monster? SAVE US, PLEASE! I don't wanna be apart of this event anymore!" cried J10, clinging onto Bismuth like a scared child would. The monster heard them loud and clear, and gave a spine-chilling roar that sounded almost robotic.

"I'll hold it off, get to the door!" Bismuth instructed.

"What's a door?" Y6 asked nervously.

"Here, I'll show you!" Bismuth said. Her hands came together, and became what looked like a huge concave shield. Rather than using it to block off the monster, she used it to push the Zooman along towards the door, Diopside ahead of them and opening it fast. Bismuth got the Zoomans through in no time at all, if not a bit roughly, as the rest of the Gems rushed through. Diopside however was the last one to try and get through, and the monster grabbed her by the leg, yanking her back hard, and throwing her back into the enclosure! Diopside stumbled and ended up flung so far, she landed in the water of the place, the beast somehow catching up to her before she could even shake off the hit. For some an Illy-proportioned beast, it still was able to move around well enough, even if it flopped right into the water. Diopside managed to get up, just in time to see the animal almost on top of her.
Now, in the place they were standing, the weight tolerance wasn't really so good. A human at a time, or a group of humans or ponies wasn't much of a problem, but this monstrosity was a LOT heavier than the average human. Snarling, and going right onto Diopside, the green Gem started to hear something that shook her to her core. The sound of straining, hollow metal.

*RRRAAAOO -* *CRASH*

…

"DIOPSIDE! YOU OKAY?!"

Well, this surely was something that happened. Diopside was completely soaked in the purified freshwater, every drop of it poured out of the enclosure and into … well, wherever she fell into. The monster that fell with her was reduced to a single gemstone, uncracked and laying on the ground next to her. However, the stone was not any similar gemstone she would know: the lines edging the surface were too thin and "rooty" for a normal pattern, and didn't match the greenish color of the gemstone at all. Diopside picked it up, and began to check her surroundings, finding herself in what looked like some sort of mechanical room, the typical pipe leading up to the Human Zoo now reduced to rubble, as liquid seeped from it as well onto the dark room.

"DIOPSIDE! CAN YOU HEAR ME?! SAY SOMETHING!"

"I'm okay! No clue where I am though!" Diopside called, looking up to the prospectively tiny hole she and the monster had fell through. It was easily a seventy foot drop.

"OK, DON'T! MOVE! WE'LL TRY TO GET YOU! TRY AND KEEP YOURSELF IN ONE PIECE IN THE MEANTIME!"

"Will do!"
Easier said than done. Diopside had little to no light at all here, everything pitch black. It was a good thing she had her own brand of night vision to help her out with that, as she took a moment to figure out what was even going on in there. While it would seem like Diopside fell into nowhere, she found that this room actually had a route out already, through a small door. Probably a place for maintenance or to keep track of humans going in and only in. Well, at least Diopside wasn't with anyone else in this place, though with the gemstone in hand, she took the time to actually study up on it.

"What kind of Gem are you? … You're not a Star Quartz. did any quartz have this kind of pattern?" Diopside's eye adjusted again to better examine it. Was this another hybrid Gem? As she held it, the stone felt oddly warm, as if something inside it was heating it up unlike a real gemstone, and what else … something felt more alive about it. As if even when poofed, the monster was still active somehow.

"What did White Diamond do to you?" Diopside wondered. If only she did have an answer for it. Well, as the Crystal Gems would do (as much as it did bother Diopside), she had the Gem creature bubbled and, while hesitant at first, sent it off on its way. What else could she do? Flint and Jade wouldn't agree to try and heal the corruption, if that was what this even was. She'll just have to stomach it, and try to get the main issue addressed. And that was to find Pearl and Aquamarine (the team wouldn't ditch the Zoomans, not after the attack). But there was still the matter on where to even go. Should she wait there as told, or be part of rebellion the group was known for and strike out to find the rest? Honestly, it was hard to get a grip on it.

"Okay. On one hand, the others will be worried sick. On the other, Pearl and Aquamarine could be getting tortured in here. What would Flint do?"

*peck**peck*

Diopside stopped her train of thought on the odd sound. It wasn't exactly a noise from any animal, but more of a creature tapping at the metal walls. Now, it would normally take some time to find something like this, but Diopside's gem eye made short work of that, and quickly found it off just outside of said door. There was a opening on it, kinda like that on a ship's door, and Diopside could see a sort of familiar face peering in. … Well, it looked familiar, but Diopside, even with her Gem eye vision, had a hard time making it out entirely.
And then the door opened.
Diopside's hope was swiftly dashed. Coming into the room to investigate the noise, was a tall yet thin-bodied animal. Though, "animal" may not exactly be the correct word, as it appeared a lot more human than one would like. Its entire body, from the strands of its short hair to the tips of its fingers and feet, were wrapped in a thick color of black. The exception to this rule was the bright white eyes, and outline of cyan blue, like a aura around its body. Its head appeared bird-like, with a jagged beak, protrusions along it closely resembling teeth. It stood fairly tall in comparison to the green Gem, but it wasn't the foreboding size or spooky appearance that startled Diopside to her core. It was the object at the center of the animal's forehead …

"... P … P … P-Pearl … Oh, Pearl …" Diopside just stood there, staring at this creature for a moment as a tear began to show from her normal eye. The animal didn't seem to understand her pain, simply staring at her. At least "Pearl" didn't act as violent as the other ones they met so far. Diopside gathered herself, trying not to just scream at the sight of this thing.

"Ok, ok. Calm yourself … Find your center." Diopside took a deep, calming breath, before she grew better enough to deal with the problem at hand. Nothing was gonna be gained by crying … well, not this time, anyway.

"Alright, Pearl, we can fix this. Uh, ok, how do we fix it … um … C'mon Dio, think - wait. Wait. Nephrite!" Why didn't she think of her earlier? Still, despite things, the corrupted Pearl was still a little bit confused on what she was talking about. All the same, Diopside didn't feel as worried anymore. In fact, she actually grabbed the Corrupted Gem by the hand, much to the animal's curiosity, which itself was not dissimilar to a chimp.

"Don't worry, Pearl, we'll get you back to the others and they'll reform you in no time! Just stay close to me, I'll get us back safely," Diopside promised, walking ahead while holding the creature's hand. The Corrupted Gem was still confused, but still followed anyway.

Well, that was one Gem down, but apparently that was half the battle ahead.

…….

After getting out of the room (something the others told her NOT to do), Diopside began to move about the area with Pearl behind her the whole way. Diopside may not be familiar with the place as much as Onyx, but that didn't mean she felt completely lost either with her night vision. They both heard plenty of sounds echoing throughout the place, and it was more prominent throughout this selection of halls, making danger a bit more prominent. Diopside kept a level head though, especially when her friend was right behind her.

"Don't you worry about a thing, Pearl. Nephrite has been known to actually heal corruption, so soon as we get to Jade and Flint to see you, hopefully they can try to fix you," Diopside said. The only response she had got, and what she had been getting for the last twenty minutes in her conversations were some groans and the occasional "chirping" sound. This time it was a confused chirp.

"I know they'll try to. They managed to help me when I came back. I know they'll do the same for you," Dio said. If it wasn't for Nephrite, Diopside would probably still be trapped inside that Gem bubble as a corrupted centipeedle. … And, in the events of this story of theirs, end up in the Space Station like every other catch. Kinda funny how some things would end up the same way when one thought about it.
Suddenly, the Corrupted Gem stopped altogether, Diopside not realizing it until after she was slightly pulled back. She wasn't seeing anything in front of them that would make this Gem stop.

"Pearl, what's wrong?" Diopside asked. Pearl had its attention somewhere else though, down another hallway away from where Diopside was trying to get her moving to. It took a little bit before the corrupted Gem started to move again, Diopside trying to get her to the right direction.

"No no no, hold on, this way," Diopside insisted, but Pearl wouldn't listen, and in the end, Diopside was simply dragged behind the corruption, her feet skidding along the smooth surface. Whatever this corruption had in mind, it wasn't a straight line back to the group. The halls the corruption was going down grew dark, and no light was visible at all. It was all just a green-light night cam view for Diopside by this point, but seemingly Pearl knew where it was going, and as they went down at least two to three hallways, the Gem got Diopside over to one of the O so many rooms of the White Diamond Space Station.

"Pearl, come on we gotta - … join … the others …"
It was quite a sight when she got there, enough to leave her a bit quiet. The room in question was probably the largest of the rooms in the station, the main lobby as it were. And while it would normally be the main place for the workers of White Diamond to congregate and go through, now it was infested with all sorts of differentiating Gems, Corrupted Gems and Clustered Gems being the most common.

"Oh my stars," Diopside said in a hushed gasp. She knew the Crystal Gems had gathered quite a collection of Corrupted Gems over the years, but this was sure a lot shown here, each Gem distinctive and different in its own way. Some were flying around, some crawled on the walls, some clambered on the floor and others mixed the three options up depending on what they can do. The Clustered Gems and Corrupted Gems seemingly kept a bit of distance between eachother however, as they would threaten one another if one side got too close to the other, much like how different animals would react to eachother within the same pen.
And then Diopside accidentally released her grip of Pearl, the corrupted Gems taking the moment to turn the tables, and grab Diopside's arm instead, and gripping hard. Diopside could only yelp before the Corrupted Gem threw her down into the slaughterhouse! Some of the gems scattered when she landed. While the Corrupted did hesitate in this, the Clustered Gems had no such problem, and immediately found their next target. Diopside got up just in time to confront the group of clustered projects now surrounding her, the experiments stopping themselves and taking note of her.

"All of you. You're all … forced together," Diopside noted. This sight would be enough to even make Garnet shiver in both fear and disgust, though more on the idea someone out there (guess who?) took the time to force shards together to make this work. She looked on passed them, and to the Corrupted Gems too, including the Corrupted Pearl. Corrupted, Clustered, but they were all Gems either way.

"Now, hold on a minute! I get it, you're all confused. Scared. I don't blame any of you for thinking that, really -" Diopside was cut short by a roar from one of the clustered Gems, making her jump back. Despite getting a jumpscare, Dio regathered herself.

"We're not here to hurt any of you. In fact, I want to help all of you … I just wish Nephrite can do all of the miracle work," Diopside said. Nephrite was a good shot, but she knew the chances just as well if it didn't work. And they weren't going to get a 100% in this huge crowd. Besides, what would that do for clustered gems? Diopside looked to the Corrupted Pearl again, seeing the Gem take a perch down over by some other corrupted Gems.

"I know you all have your original selves somewhere in these uh … forms. We're just here to find our friends, we don't want to hurt any of you. Had any of you seen an Aquamarine flying around here? Or some stray Humans maybe? Anything?" For the other Corrupted Gems, this sure was a first: a normal Gem chatting with them like they're nothing different to her. Still, like any animal, there's a few complications to worry about and there was only a few main rules to follow. One of which - kill or be killed. And as far as they were mainly concerned, she was a threat. Some of them began to snarl at her again.

"No, no, I swear, I won't hurt any of you - wait, WAIT, I-I'M NOT A DANGER!"

*RAAAHHH*
No good: the clustered Gems charged her. Diopside was in no mood to fight them, and she quickly made a bolt to the side to avoid the first charge. Apparently it didn't matter at all, these creatures were out to get her. The Corrupted Gems kept to a safer distance, but the clustered Gems were just charging in abandon like zombies (which they might as well be when you think about it). Diopside only dodged and blocked whenever she needed to, but she couldn't bring herself to just rush in and attack back. She only did that before because her friends were in danger, but none of them were here. Too bad the others didn't see it that way.
So first, Diopside was doing alright: she jumped out of reach from the clustered and corrupted Gems time and time again, jumping here and there. However, one sly cluster Gem jumped in from behind, and got her mid air, bringing her down to the ground. Diopside was spun around so her gemstone was for the clustered Gem to see, two others coming at her. Diopside had little time to actually think anymore.

Harsh on the cluster Gems. Suddenly, her Gem eye was grabbed, but Diopside ended up releasing a huge amount of acid right on the three! The blast was quick, and forceful, and each one of them screeched as the acid basically was making them melt until they poofed altogether ...

*crack*

shattered. Just like that. All three of the clustered Gems ended up split up into tiny pieces, each one of the pieces apart of a shard on each clustered gemstone. The sound of this shattering echoed throughout the room, and Diopside could barely grasp what even happened, staying frozen still on that horrid noise.

"DIOPSIDE!"

The corrupted and clustered Gems all began to freak out and scattered, both from seeing a Gem basically get killed in front of them, and the fact even more of them were coming their way. Diopside didn't even realize the others were coming back around, her eyes fixated at the crime she had just committed. The other Gems soon found her just sitting there in the room.

"Diopside, there you are. I thought I told you to -" Flint stopped himself when he saw what had happened, the shards scattered around.

"W-What happened?" asked Topaz, gulping nervously.

"... Gem clusters … They … I …" Diopside's gaze was locked onto the gems on the ground, not exactly thinking straight. Flint went over to her though, hand on her shoulder.

"Diopside, come on, get up. It'll be fine. You did what you had to."

"B-But Flint. T-They were suffering."

"Exactly," Flint said, charging up his pistol again, "And now their troubles are over. Now come on, Pearl and Aquamarine have to be somewhere."
It was a rather cold thing to state, but Flint always had some way to make his points across. Diopside looked to the clustered shards again, thinking over what he just said. Clustered Gems never had a good time in their life, but Diopside still felt as torn as the gemstones before her.

"Hey, maybe you should try being more tactful, huh? She's your friend," Bismuth stated firmly. Flint turned back.

"Look, I know she is, but we got a lot more to worry about than just -"

"Quit it!" Bismuth suddenly snapped, getting right up to him. Flint thought Bismuth was gonna hit him, but instead Bismuth brought his attention more closely to Diopside. Flint didn't need to be told much further, and he simply sighed, going back to Diopside again.

"Hey. You wanna continue, or do you wanna wait back for us?" Flint then asked. Diopside was too torn up to think properly, but she didn't want this to happen a second time.

"... C-Can I wait?"

"Yeah. Yeah, you can. I'm sorry," Flint said.

"Ok then," Bismuth said, taking charge for a moment. "Whoever wants to wait for us can go to the docking Station with the other humans. Whoever doesn't can come with me."

…….

Well, decisions didn't take much time to figure out. Soon some of the Gems went back to the same docking station where they came from as the rest went on and continued searching for Aquamarine and Pearl. Diopside obviously went back to the Docking Station, alongside Topaz and Jade. It was a bit packed inside the docking station with the Zooman tribe and all, them talking amongst eachother. Since they left the docking station, their "voices" had been oddly quiet, and it didn't really tell them what would be happening next, what could happen next, or for that matter … well, how the heck they got here. They were still perplexed by the concept of "doors", not to mention everything else. Even with this though, it wasn't just Diopside that was feeling down. In fact, much of the Zoomans were worried and sad at the sudden change in their lives, J10 the most. Her chances of actually being "choosened" for someone else had been brutally cut short, and as far as she could understand, that meant she didn't get picked for a partner. Topaz kept her company, allowing her to weep in her lap.

"I'll never choosen again," J10 said, heartbroken.

"Sure you will," Topaz said, trying her best to be a bit supportive and comforting. It wasn't easy though all things considered, topaz not having much experience with humans of any kind, let alone Zoomans.

"But what if this happens again?" J10 asked, tears freely flowing from her eyes.

"It won't, it won't. We'll get you all a nice new home, and everything will be alright again," Topaz reassured.

"You really think so?" J10 said with a sniff.

"We'll get that going the minute the others come back … Jade, you know how long they'll be?" Topaz then asked, looking to Jade who was trying to handle some of the zoomans herself. It wasn't easy, but they were getting some progress with it. Jade took a bit to speak up.

"Well … if I know Flint, he would be focused on getting the task handled, so … it might be a while," Jade said, though to be honest who truly knows. The White Diamond Space Station was a big place, and two tiny specs Gems are compared to it, it could take upwards of months to do that alone. She then heard some of the zoomans start to lose more hope on this ending well.

"B-But I know they won't give up!" Jade quickly added, "W-We promised we'll help you, and we'll do that."

As they were trying to handle them, Diopside was simply laying nearby, quiet and alone, with only the small shards for what company she got on hand. She didn't had enough motivation to get them bubbled and sent off like the first one, and even if she did, it wouldn't really cover up what exactly happened. In fact, it might make the others back at home a bit more scared if they saw a bunch of shards suddenly appear. Jade and Topaz of course could see Diopside's troubles.

"Do you wanna talk to her?"

"I think I'd better." And with that simple decision, Jade began to go over to Diopside. The Gem didn't really react too much, but she knew who was coming anyway.

"What is it, Jade?" Diopside sighed.

"Dio, listen. I know you didn't mean to go through that … incident. But, no one's going to blame you for trying to defend yourself."
Diopside glared back to Jade, but she didn't have anything to say. she didn't need any words: all she did was turn around, on her knees, brought out her hand, and dropped the shards for Jade to see.

"These were Gems just like us, Jade. I can't just say that it wasn't bad to KILL THEM."

"I never said it was a good thing, but nobody's going to blame you for -"

"Why not?!" Diopside cut in. Jade was silenced by just how rough Diopside felt about it, as they both looked down to the shards amongst the ground.

"And I just said I wanted to help them, too …" Diopside sighed. Some help she was.

… But then both Diopside and Jade got a better look at those shards. Or at least, Jade did. She may have not seen the Clustered Gems first hand like Diopside did, but when looking to what remained down on the floor she began to notice something. It wasn't the size of the gem shards, they all were kinda small in their own way. It wasn't the shape, since they were kinda in pieces. No, there was something with them that Jade was putting together that did strike as … intriguing.

"Diopside? How many did you say attacked you?"

"Not that it matters, but, three," Diopside replied, wiping away a tear or two. Then Jade got to her knees.

"And you said they were clustered Gems, right?"

"Yeah, what're you getting at?"
It was Jade's turn for a "show, don't tell" deal, and she actually started to examine each one of the pieces on the ground a bit more closely. Diopside didn't get what Jade was trying to do, but bit by bit, as Jade started to work with the pieces, Diopside was actually starting to work out what was going on.
Little by little, both Diopside and Jade actually started to move about the remaining shards and pieces in these particular gemstones off into separated piles. It was the color of these shards that was a bit interesting to note: some were pitch black, some were red, and some were orange. None of them seemed to go on further than that, and once more, as they were getting all the pieces, they seemed … closer. Like pieces to a puzzle. They seemed disjointed and crazy, but as Diopside finally got round to fully examining them, the cuts where they split apart look more connected than she realized. Jade began to see this too, and in fact she was already trying to work with her set of pieces to place them together. Some of the Zoomans and Topaz eventually took more note of their actions, watching them from afar in curiosity to what they were trying to do. Eventually, Diopside and Jade both finished up their tiny project, and got their product in front of them.

Three different gemstones. All the pieces put back together again. One of the gemstones was perfectly circular, and colored a mixture of yellow and a strong vibrant orange. The second one is hexagonal in pattern, and orange-red in coloration. The third one was a bit more complicated, seemingly a stone split in three to resemble a rex's foot, and colored a deep black. Not exactly too weird, but in the end they all appeared normal all the same, lines cracked of course since they had to be mish-mashed with eachother. The top one was a bit of an oddball in comparison, but Diopside can confirm that it was how it was supposed to be to be whole.

To be whole. Like what the cluster Gems would've wanted. … Well, almost.

"They had all the pieces the whole time. … So, now what?" Topaz asked.

"We uh … wait, I guess?" Diopside said, though this bit of false hope was really all they had left here. Exactly what else could they do for these three, if they were still alive in their respected pieces. If they were normal Gems, than that was impossible, but clustered Gems were a bit more … complicated.

"Hold on. You're not thinking of …"

"Well," said Diopside, "It's a long shot. But Cluster Gems aren't the same as regular Gems - all their components are of multiple Gems. So, with them together, maybe -"

*grrrrrrr*

Another reminder of how dangerous this place was from the depths of this Station cut them short, and made the Zoomans a bit nervous again. If the first one was any indication, they didn't want to know what else could be roaming about this place if they could help it. Topaz stood up and armed herself, despite the nerves they all have from the ominous noises.
And then came the trouble again. Coming in from the entrance to the docking station was yet another danger in the form of a corrupted Gem, this time the creature looking a bit more alien. A slug-like monster with a set of large arms pulling it along. Each arm ended in huge claws, each one the size of a sabre sword, and twice as thick. The head ended in what looked like a curved, crescent beak. The bulk of the Gem itself was twice the size of Topaz, and it had some difficulty dragging itself through the opening to get into the docking station, much to the horror of the others.

"I-It's coming in through the walls!" gasped one of the Zoomans. Technically not true, but they still didn't have full concept of the doors yet. Not that it was the most important thing to worry about anyway, and soon the dagger-clawed Gem monster dragged itself inside completely. This gave the others some worry, and while Topaz armed up immediately, Diopside got in between the group first before they could just jump at them.

"It's alright. Everything's alright," Diopside shivered. Not only were there Zoomans to watch out for, but also the delicate gemstones right by her feet. The Corrupted Gem moved in closer to them, its forearms dragging it closer to them, as it eyed for an opening in this wall it found them in. Topaz readied to rush in, but Diopside got in the way.

"W-Wait, don't hurt her!"

"Huh? Why?" Topaz asked. The corrupted Gem began to move in closer, face-to-face with Diopside before they could explain anything. Even in sight of the beast, Diopside knew what it was like being corrupted more than anyone. She can't just attack her on the spot, could she? There was a bit of a pause, the Corrupted Gem simply looking into the eye of Diopside, both her normal and Gem eye.

"Careful, Diopside," Jade quietly said, not trying to set off the beast either. The Gem beast sniffed a little bit, despite not having a visible nose or snout on her face. Diopside was quiet.

"I-It's okay. We're not going to hurt you. I promise," Diopside said, gently bringing out her hand. The Gem beast backed up a little bit, but eventually Diopside's hand was gently placed onto her face. Topaz and Jade waited for some sort of reaction, but the Gem beast didn't. The only thing that came up a contented moan, almost like that of a cow. It was probably the first time in a long time this Gem Beast had been treated like this, but then her eyes began to look around a bit at what else was there. A bunch of humans, three Gems, one of which had … a weapon.
The Gem Beast suddenly bellowed, backing up on sight of it. Guess being captured by the Crystal Gems had some lasting effects on her memory. Oh, wasn't that familiar?

"Topaz, put that away! You're scaring her," Diopside quickly said frantically.

"What?" Topaz said, but then she looked to her weapon, and a bit worried herself quickly removed it from sight. "There, there look see? nothing dangerous here!"
But even if corrupted, the Gem was not stupid: they were armed, they attacked her before, and as far as she knew, they were gonna come after her again. The creature then raised one of her clawed arms right at Diopside. Jade acted quick, and pushed Diopside aside before she could end up cut into pieces, the claws landing dangerously near the gemstones on the ground. The Gem beast gave a threatening posture, both arms raised to show her large claws in case any of them tried getting close. They'd keep themselves back, but the gemstones were right by the Corrupted Gems' claws! One step though, and the corrupted Gem rushed forward again, rushing over the gemstones, and almost crushing them underfoot. The Zoomans though suddenly began to panic, and scattered, freaking out the corrupted Gem even further.

"No, no, stop! stay together - oof!" One human accidentally ran into Diopside, falling to ground level right by the corrupted monsters' feet. This made the beast rear back and jump over them (as well as a legless monster could), before finding itself right by the ship they arrived in. One look at its reflection and …

*RRAAAAWWW!*

The beast went berserk: she started slashing and tearing into the ship like crazy. Everyone kept far distance away, seeing the Corrupted Gem lose it on her own reflection, soon bringing the ship to nothing but ruin. no way they were going to fly out of here in that thing. Once she was done with that, she turned attention back to her adversaries, beginning to move closer again. However, as she moved in, a strong light right in front of the animal made her panic again, and run off out of there.

But where did the light come from?

~~~~~~

"PEARL! PEARL, AQUAMARINE! WHERE'RE YOU?!" called Bismuth.
Deeper inside the station, the others of the group kept up their search for their missing Gems. With Diopside waiting off behind though, this made searching around a little bit more difficult, especially since none of them had a natural night vision. But while Flint wanted to avoid this, he did have a light from his gemstone to help them see (what else would attract attention other than a beaming light?).

"This is getting nowhere, where would they go?" Onyx asked.

"I don't know, you tell me. They wouldn't be out in the open, surely," Flint replied. As they continued along, the others were still hearing the distant noises, Bismuth left on edge.

"Oh, I can't wait to get out of here. If we ever come back again, it'll be WAY too soon," Bismuth sighed. The only who wasn't on edge by the noises was Star Quartz. In fact, she was pretty content with their walk around the place.

"What's there to be scared about?" Star then asked.

"You did not just ask that," Onyx said, looking back, "There's monsters crawling all over the place."

"But they're Gems too, aren't they?" Star questioned.

"No. Well, technically yes, but they're all corrupted, clustered, and who knows what else," Flint said, glancing back to them. This made Star a little confused admittedly, tilting her head as she went up to Flint's side.

"But Diopside said she was corrupted, but she looks just fine," retorted Star.

"That's because Nephrite cured of her corruption, that's all," Flint stated, continuing on ahead as Star Quartz paused on the idea. The others stopped as Star simply stood there, thinking. Diopside did mention a vague idea on Nephrite; a fusion of Flint and Jade, though Star Quartz didn't have any exact details on how they could. However, Star began to get an idea.

"Maybe we can help them."

"What? Star, no."

"But Nephrite can cure corruption … right?"

Flint just groaned, and then explained "Well, yes, but first off, Nephrite's success rate in curing corruption is very low, and she can't try again if it doesn't work the first time. Secondly, we got more than enough trouble - Pearl and Aquamarine are in here, we don't have time to deal with that now. Now come on." with that explanation, Flint started to go off again.

"... Is that what you tell yourself?"

Flint then stopped altogether.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"It doesn't sound like you even want to try," Star pointed out. For flint, this was not the time to be going into questioning anyone, especially with danger around every corner.

"Star, just quit it. Look, let's just find where Pearl and Aquamarine are before they end up crumbled into dust," Flint reminded. That was their main goal right now, they didn't have any time for any extra corruption work to handle. Though, this did seem a bit of food for though Star Quartz. They could cure the corrupted Gems, so why weren't they doing it?
It was at this point that the group found another room off further down the halls, lucky to not have run into any more of the corrupted Gem monsters. The room in question, upon getting the door open, looked like one part of the Space Station's science chamber. With so little light though, everything ironically didn't look as scary as it would be when in full operation, with many of the cages free of any experiments and testers. Honestly, they weren't too surprised that the odds would bring them right in this part of the station.
The group started to head on into the Science chamber's inner sanctum, eyes and ears open for any sort of danger that could still be in this place. Though, there were some doubts about that, as the further they went in, the quieter the distant animals were. Seemed even the corrupted and clustered had their limits and enough of sanity to know where not to go.

"This place never looked better," said Onyx.

"Not a fan of it either, huh?" Bismuth asked.

"NO WAY. Pearlis calls it "progress", I call it creepy, you're NOT gonna convince me otherwise," Onyx answered.

"A-Anyone there?"

FINALLY some progress in this game. The voice was very faint, but it was just loud enough for the four to actually hear. However, despite the beaming light, they didn't really seem to see anyone or anything that could talk to them in this room.

*SCREEEE*

Sneak attack! Bismuth got tackled down to the ground fast by a seemingly unknown assailant, and they were in presence of another Corrupted Gem. The appearance of this one though was what made them all shutter, and forbade Bismuth from shattering her on the spot. This was the Corrupted PEARL! After another screech, the pearl was forced off by one of Flint's shots, hitting her square in the head. Bismuth was alright, but seeing Pearl corrupted rocked her to her very core (no pun intended).

"Oh lord no. Pearl!" Bismuth gasped. The corrupted Pearl got up to her feet, only for Flint and Onyx to jump in the way so the corruption wouldn't attack her again. Star Quartz than moved over to Flint.

"Can you try now?"

"Is now REALLY the best time?" Flint snapped, keeping his pistol raised. The corruption moved forward, and Flint suddenly opened fire a few warning shots keeping the corruption back, dangerously close to the gemstone.

"Flint, watch what you're doing! That's Pearl you're shooting at!" Bismuth yelled.

"Yes, that's a Pearl, but is it the one we're looking for?" Flint questioned.

"REALLY?!" Bismuth snapped. The corrupted Pearl rushed forward again, making the group split in two: Flint and Onyx to one side, Bismuth and Star to the other. The corrupted Pearl took targets, and aimed her sights directly to Flint, who still had a weapon up and aimed directly at her.

"Stay behind me, Onyx," Flint instructed, just as the corrupted Gem started to move in. One screech, and Flint gave another shot to keep the Gem back. Bismuth and Star Quartz almost got crashed onto. The hit made the corrupted Pearl collapse into Bismuth, stunned and conflicted actually. Both corrupted and warrior looked eye to eye, the corruption squawking loud in her face before Bismuth pushed her off. The corrupted Pearl tried to attack Bismuth now, both on their feet and in battle mode, though Bismuth needed to get her mind together. What were they supposed to do now?

"Star, try and find Jade - we need Nephrite more than ever," Bismuth instructed. Star Quartz rushed off out of the science chamber in a few silent steps, leaving Flint, Onyx, and Bismuth with the corrupted Pearl. The corrupted Gem found herself surrounded with little escape, each one willing at the least to keep her still. She squawked at them to keep them away from her even slashing at them with her "claws", but she was the target of interest and their main reason to even be here.

"Pearl. Easy girl, easy. We only want to help you," Bismuth said, trying to keep her calm, but the erratic Gem was about as skittish as some of the others were, the Gem spinning back and forth between each one of them for any assault on her.

"Ok, not too bad, just hold her here until Jade comes back. Nephrite can fix her up."

"Will you stop putting so much hope in that, Bismuth? What if it doesn't work?" Flint retorted.

"Well, what if it does work?" Bismuth retorted back. The corrupted Pearl saw her chance, and decided to make a bolt for it, much to their surprise.

"No you don't!" Bismuth couldn't have her just run off, not after everything. The warrior rushed over to her, and managed to grab her in the back They had to keep her here to -

*RRRRIP*

… This changed everything. Bismuth stumbled back, and the corrupted Gem fell forward head over heels. However, what Onyx, Flint, and Bismuth saw was the large rag of skin left in Bismuth's grip. But when they were looking over it, Flint's light adding to it, the skin turned out to be part of some form of suit. Looking over, and there she was. Pearl. Unconscious and weak.
This was a wired suit. What suit did remain on her had some sort of wiring inside, connecting to her body like tree roots, but now with the suit split apart, the connections were not as evident as before, leaving Pearl with little to comprehend on what even happened.

…….

"A simulation suit?" asked Topaz. Naturally they would go back with Pearl to the others, Pearl herself far too weak to react to anything, as she was being carried by Bismuth. Some of the other Gems weren't there (Diopside mainly), leaving only Jade and Topaz with the other Zoomans. The broken ship was more than evident on their arrival, and with some time to actually think, Onyx actually had the answer properly (kind of).

"Eh, something like that. White Diamond's Chrysoberyls have TOO much time on their hands sometimes, and this is something that came out of it," Onyx answered.

"And what is it, exactly?" Jade asked.

"You seen the corrupted Gems all over the place, it basically puts you as if you're a corrupted Gem yourself. It's like a VR experience."

"But why did Pearl attack us if it was just a simulation?" Flint questioned, annoyed that Onyx didn't say the idea until AFTER they figured it out.

"Hey, there's a reason why it didn't fly so well. What you got there messes with your gem DNA, and makes you think you really are corrupted. It's being corrupted … but not being corrupted."

"You know, I'd call this contrived as all heck if White Diamond didn't leave after we did. She's laughing at us right now, I know it," Flint sighed, looking over to Pearl. Flint had never seen Pearl look so weak. The experience really must've messed her up, however it happened, and by the looks of it too, the Gem looked exhausted by said experience.

"Diopside, wherever you are, get yourself back here soon."

~~~~~~

Off within the Space Station, whatever life was roaming around within the place was trying their best to better adapt to the situation. Amongst these roaming monsters, there was a set of corrupted Quartzes moving along through the many halls. Much of the members of this pack of quartzes ad already been victims to the other crawling beasts within this place, and the foreign terrain it was so hard to just figure out where to even go. With their movement through the halls, one of the quartzes paused and looked into one of the rooms, quickly starting to growl menacingly at whatever was inside.
The quartz however didn't have much time to even do much, as a tractor beam suddenly covered the corrupted quartz's body, and in a sudden flick, the quartz was launched off down the hall! Both quartzes immediately bolted for it as the combatant walked out …

"Seriously! How dare White Diamond just leave someone like me behind. Does she not even know who I am?"

Aquamarine. As many of the Gems in here were either clustered, corrupted, or cautious as they could be, Aquamarine was actually more annoyed than anything. Her "deus ex machina" wand had kept her well out of trouble - just a flick of the wrist and she could send any of these mobsters flying out of her sight, but in her wandering around said Space Station, she had yet to actually find any way out of this place. Escape pods from all over had been and gone, and even if there was some warship somewhere in this place, she could barely get her bearings together going around this kingdom-sized space station. All she had to talk to was her thoughts, and the only company left on this bloody ship was trying to kill her. Not the best time ever, she had to admit. Which she did on a regular basis.

"First thing I'm going to do when I leave is have this place properly terminated. Yeah, that sounds about fair. And then White Diamond will regret the day she ever turned back on Aquamarine … as soon as I find a way out of here."

She was really in no mood for anything too good. White will feel her wrath, one way or another.
As she flew along though, the flying Gem was stuck with so many calls around her, she could barely hear herself think, covering her ears.

"Can you rockheads keep it down?! I'm lucky to hear my own thoughts over your racket!" Aquamarine complained.
Speaking of rockheads. As Aquamarine began to head off towards another four-way cross, she soon came across another of the O so many Corrupted Gems. Aquamarine wasn't threatened by it though, and as for appearance who would be? The corrupted "monster" looked more like a terrapin at first glance, with a rounded body, and staying still doing … well, nothing.

"Another one? How long is this going to take?" she griped, before getting out her wand once again. She was lucky the bow wasn't completely destroyed by White Diamond, and as such she could get her wand back, but that didn't make going through all of these monsters any more enjoyable. Shocking, I know. The gem monster bizarrely didn't react too much to her. In fact, it looked as bemused as she did.

"Oh, mock me huh?" Aquamarine said, feeling insulted. The least it could do was run away or something, but it didn't move. No matter, Aquamarine could do that for it, and the wand's aura wrapped around the thing. Now, what would happen was that it would be lifted and tossed aside, but something went wrong. The wand could move sure, but the object didn't move. Was the Gem attached to the ground underneath, or was it not even a thing to be picked up? Aquamarine tried over and over again, but it didn't seem to be working for whatever reason.
And then the creature started to move, disturbed by Aquamarine's involvement. The ACTUAL body starting to appear.

"Come on! I've moved thousands of items, why can't It -"

*snort*

Aquamarine found that this item was actually just part of the Corrupted Gem. The body of the creature was a lot bigger than Aquamarine expected it to be, looking much like a sort of hybrid between a ram, and a human. The plate Aquamarine was trying to move was on its head, and she wasn't going to budge it anytime soon. Aquamarine groaned and just changed from the head plate to the entire body, lifting up the body, and -

*SNORT*

In comes another corrupted Gem, of the same type, and managing to ram Aquamarine so its buddy wasn't stuck in mid air. Aquamarine got herself upright, shaken but finding even more opponents to contend with.

"It works alright. I really don't have time for any of this. Go bother someone else," Aquamarine said, readying her wand to send them on their way. If she could put an entire team of both Crystal, Equestria, Off-Color, and ruby squad in one try, two corrupted Gems will be no trouble at all. She raised her wand and got both of the Gems in her aura, before throwing them away out of sight. Barely even worth her time.

"Well, alright. If only I can actually control these bloody things …"

The two monsters were quick to come back around though, but Aquamarine simply zapped them for a second time, keeping them still. Aquamarine felt in power again over these things, and went on down to them with a smug grin as the monsters tried to move.

"When will you animals figure it out? I could pummel you all with one simple wave of the wand, and you still think you can stop me. How sad." She said, even pointing to her gemstone on her face. Even if the creatures understood her, they'd rather tear her to pieces than listen to what she had to say, but eventually, the two monsters started to relax a bit, and Aquamarine launched them away. Seemed the talk did something, as the two gem monsters raced away.

"Was there ever any doubt? I do wonder if this will work on the others back home? I could almost rule on the same level as the Diamonds!"

It works alright

"… Ok. Whoever is mocking me my mimicking my voice, when I turn around you better be begging for your mercy."

And she turned around. Next up was another monster of the Space Station, and this one looked GIGANTIC! The head itself, ending in a toothy beak, looked big enough to cover the hallway in of itself!

"... Well. Ok then. Off you go." Aquamarine readied to send the thing away, but this thing was NOT going to move, it was just too big. For the position it was in anyway. Aquamarine tried and tried, but the end result was simply nothing, and the Gem beast began to push itself forward right to her. Well, what's a small Gem pixie to do other than try to fly away? The small Gem flew as fast as her wings could carry her, but it was a losing battle, the Gem monster closing the gap behind her and it, jaws wide open, and ready to grab her. Aquamarine tried cutting corners as tight as she could, but it was homed in on her, and she wasn't getting away anytime soon. With the beast right on her tail, Aquamarine flew right out from the hallways and into a far larger room, giving the beast more room to maneuver. It was revealed to be an eerie resemblance to a Centipeedle, only with no legs, and the body more pinkish instead of green, and no eyes were evident.

"Oh WHY DOES THIS HAVE TO HAPPEN TO ME?" Aquamarine yelled in frustration.

"I could pummel you all with one simple wave of the wand, and you still think you can stop me. How sad," the beast replied, mimicking Aquamarine's voice like a parrot. No, it didn't help much either.

"Very funny." Aquamarine groaned, readying her wand again. With more room, perhaps she could best the giant worm yet, as her wand got hold of the animal's body … then came the problem of actually figuring out where to put the thing. The position of the animal didn't make that possible to just slip it into a hallway or anything, so that didn't work.

"Well … at least you're in one place. Now I can actually think on what to do … What room is this anyway?" Aquamarine took a moment to look around the room for a bit more. The room turned out to be a separate docking station, and looking about the place, she hoped that this one wasn't another docking station she had come by already, but this one didn't look familiar to her. She looked around more and more, and then (probably the most contrived bit of luck ever) a Gemship.

"FINALLY!" Aquamarine beamed. … Then she saw her wand.

"... I just moved my wand away."

"How sad." said the Gem monster, before its beak was above and below Aquamarine. The pixie had to bolt away for the gemship, but the creature already got in her way, its tail hitting her hard enough to send her flying back towards the back wall. She was left dazed, and at the mercy of the monster but with all the noise and racket echoing throughout the place it began to get some more attention off through the halls.

"Attention! Attention! All non-corrupted and/or clustered Gems arrive to the docking station 712. There's a uh … tiny Gem, in trouble by a giant Gem corruption. Thank you."

"TINY?" Aquamarine strained through her gritted teeth. Sure she wasn't the biggest Gem in the world, but she didn't like getting that pointed out all too much. Still, the voice didn't sound familiar to anyone anywhere there, corrupted or otherwise. And the response was surprisingly immediate, as they began to hear something come up from one of the halls.
The corrupted giant looked down into the hall to investigate the newcoming meal, but once it did that, it suddenly ended up getting something slammed into its snout, strong enough to bend its beak! The gem monster shrieked from the pain shooting through it, and while it was still angry, it shook the hit off and moved off from the opening a bit. Who-so-ever did that had to be very strong.

"Off you go!" said the gem monster, again mimicking Aquamarine, but this was more to itself before it rushed off down another hall, leaving Aquamarine alone again. That was, until whoever sucker-punched the Gem monster soon came up to her.

"Hey, you okay?"

It took a bit for Aquamarine to look and see who actually was there. No one she recognized, that was for sure. She appeared to be a Gem, surely, a coloration similar to Flint, but lighter in complexion. She had black gloves and boots with a light grey rimming to them both. Her skin was grey as well, and her upper body is rather roundish, showing her muscle. Her outfit was light grey with a black rimming on her shoulders, and the bottom half of her upper body. Her hair was curly like Steven or Sapphire. What Aquamarine caught off guard on was that there was a total of THREE gemstones, lined up along her chest. She didn't appear like a fusion, so how was this even possible?
Aquamarine got up on her own, wings open so she could fly up to the Gem's eye level.

"Well, I could've handled it myself you know. But I … appreciate your effort," Aquamarine said, trying not to be too forward with what "thank you" she could bring up. Then came some more noise from the same hall, as some more Gems began to show up, starting with Diopside - a more familiar Gem.

"Aquamarine! Thank the stars," Diopside sighed in relief.

"Well of course I'd be alright, what did you expect? And who's this?" Aquamarine questioned, her wand pointing to the tri Gem. Diopside was feeling a lot better with herself, and for the Gem with her.

"Aquamarine, this is Concrete," Diopside said.

"My pleasure, your clarity," said Concrete. Well, at least they know who they were talking to.

"Well, that's more like it."

"Stars, stars, you Aquamarines have so much pride." said another voice.
Then came another Gem coming in from the same hall, chilling out as she leaned on the wall. This was a bit easier to figure out: a cut of Jasper, but this one had a bit of a different look to her body. She had shorter hair than usual quartzes, and unlike normal Jaspers who're muscular and bulky, this one was more like a Pearl in body shape - thin and skinny, and her gemstone on her navel.

"Good call on the intercom, J. Hey, where's Carnelian?" asked Diopside.

"That was awesome!"
Well nevermind, there she was. Soon after that, in came another Quartz Gem, one that almost mirrored Amethyst from physical height to the shaggy hair behind her. Her gemstone though was on her shoulder, and her body was red instead of purple. It was then that Aquamarine began to put two-and-two together for what actually was going on, especially after seeing the blue Diamond outfits on both Skinny and Carnelian.

"I see, a rescue team. What kept you?"

"We had a long time trying to find you. Now, soon as we get a gemship operational, we can -"

"Like that one?" asked Concrete, pointing to the oddly-untouched Gemship sitting off nearby.

"Well, that was disturbingly easy. … Flint would want to check the ship before we could fly off," Diopside figured. No way Flint would just jump the gun on an opportunity like this without checking it over first.

---(end flashback)---

"So, we checked the ship over, and uh … here we are," Flint finally finished.
Everyone was practically on edge with the whole story. Steven was pretty glad it was all handled, not to mention the Zoomans were safe along with the others (and a few extra).

"I did wonder where that other gemstone came from," noted Lapis, remembering seeing a new gemstone just showing up in the Temple one day.

"So where's the other Gems and Zoomans?" asked Jasper.

"The Gemship flying away didn't tell you?" questioned Aquamarine. She thought that would be enough indication.

"Ok, where'd they fly to then?"

"It took a bit to work out, but we found somewhere where the Zoomans can live. The three are getting them dropped off before coming back here."

"Wait. They're staying here?" asked Rhodonite.

"They can't fly back in that ship. If you're going to blast us so quickly, how do you think Homeworld will react?" Bismuth said.

"True that," said Amethyst.

"Well, it's good to see everyone's finally back together again. And I'm interested in seeing these Gems," said Garnet.

"And I'd like to see those humans again," added Connie, "I can't wait to see how they're doing."

"Eh, maybe later. But first, how's about you catch us up?" Bismuth said.

So, the others told them their side of the story.

Author's Note:

It's about time we catch up with the other half of the Crystal Gems, and what the hay happened to that White Diamond Space Station. How many surprises did I manage to give you all in this mess? And I'm more than sure this "incident" might be defying so many rules right now. But then again, it's not the first time. Apologies for the rushed ending there. … Why is it whenever we go to the Space Station, the chapters are the longest they've ever been? XD.

Anyway, here's a few new corrupted Gems, clustered Gems, and some older Gems coming up.
… And I might as well say it, Save your complaints of one Gem in particular for someone who actually agrees it's bad. Her design's the original, and I see no problem with her design whatsoever personally. You'll know who it is when you see the name … or you probably won't, it's been a while since this was discussed .

Comments

[Hexan Tronic]

I sense an adventure to clear that station to fix the clusters and cure or bubble the corruptions. Am I right?

[EquestrianKirin]

9002626
It does seem aiming in that direction ^^

[Macdaverin]

Yes! Team B is still alive!

[EquestrianKirin]

9004251
Alive and better than ever :D

[Macdaverin]

I just love the fact that the Crystal Gems went back to "shoot first, ask questions later" again.
Love the use of the light cannons again. They are just forgotten about in canon. Again.
Do you plan to use the plot point in "A Single Pale Rose" in this story? Personally, I think you can make it fit. In-universe reactions would be varying and chaotic(Discord-1, Rebecca Sugar-.5)
And the reaction from the Current Pink Diamond~
(Not Steven, your Pink Diamond, but an interesting thing for those two to talk about.)

[EquestrianKirin]

9007103
Glad you're enjoying everything. It'll be some hurdles yet, but everything will come to fruition in time. All you got to do is provide some patience and a hint of motivation, and everything will be flowing fine ^^

[LionelCorp315]

I finally got around to reading this. I have a lot going on right now.