Original storyboard written by Lamar Abrams, Colin Howard, Jeff Liu, and Katie Mitroff

Steven Universe belongs to Cartoon Network and Rebecca Sugar

"Homeworld treats us like dirt because we don't shine like the elite!" Castora shouted from her spot on the beach. Sakura, Isabel, and Madeline all stood posed with their weapons ready as Alfred watched wide-eyed from his spot on a beach chair, a half drank Diet Coke at his side. "But the Crystal Gems are back! And we'll give those diamonds a taste of what's coming!"

Her hands transformed into hammers, and she slammed them together, "Now show me what you got, soldiers!"

Instantly, Madeline shot forward, her gauntlets meeting with Castora's hammers, the impact causing the ground to shake. "I think the power couple's losing their touch!" She stated, swinging her hammer and knocking Maddie into the sand. "Who's next?"

Sakura leapt into the air, but Castora met her before she could touch the ground, and the smaller gem landed on her hammer. "Sakura, I don't recall asking you to bring me a spear." She teased, and Sakura flipped backwards into the air.

"You won't like how I give it to you!" She exclaimed, pointing her weapon and shooting lethal laser shots out of it's point. Castora looked as though she were dancing as she tried to avoid being hit.

"Lasers? When did that happen?" She laughed, before a morning star-tipped whip wrapped around her leg, and she shouted in surprise.

Isabel laughed, changing into a muscular man with messy brown hair and the same green eyes, wearing a bull-rider outfit. "I'm gonna wreck your BISMUTH!" She shouted, flipping Castora over her head and sending her crashing into the sand.

She laughed, looking at Isabel with narrowed eyes, "Very creative."

Isabel changed back from a man into her original form, putting her hands behind her head. "Yeah, I guess I am pretty great."

"That's right! We are powerful! We are important! We are-" She leaped up, slamming down on a rock with both her hands as hammers, "THE CRYSTAL GEMS!"

She looked up at Alfred, who was watching with wide, fearful eyes. "Alfred! Come down and show me what you're made of!"

"Uhh, I would, but this is a little intense for me." He explained.

"But it's a ritual for us Crystal Gems to spare before battle!" She said as she wrapped her arms around Madeline and Sakura.

"Well, actually, I have some rituals I like a little better." He smiled.

"Oh yeah? Lemme see 'em."

First, they played badminton. Sakura gracefully hit the shuttlecock over the net, and Isabel ran to get it, but slammed into Madeline, who didn't budge, and fell over. Castora smiled, jumping up as her hand turned into a racket, and she spiked the shuttlecock, sending it flying into the sand and knocking both Sakura and Alfred over.

Next, they played cards. Alfred set down his card, a black star, but as he did so, Isabel peeked at his cards, before setting down a red diamond. Before Alfred could get even mad for losing, Madeline spread out of her cards, which were all red hearts, and everyone started laughing.

Then, they decided to cook. Alfred rolled out some pizza dough and Castora observed. About a half hour later, Castora pulled two pizzas from the oven. One went to Isabel, who placed a burrito and chips on top, before wrapping the pizza around it.

Finally, they watched a movie. Madeline, Castora and Alfred chose to eat pizza, while Isabel choked down her pizza burrito speciality.

"The powerful legendary demon blade. Possessed my Mari Maza. With this demon blade, I WILL BE THE MOST POWERFUL FIGHTER IN THE WORLD!"

"No, Lonely Blade, don't use it!" Alfred shouted at the TV.

"What?" Castora asked through a mouthful of food, before swallowing. "If that thing's got infinite power, than of course Lonely Blade should use it! It just makes sense!"

"It doesn't have to make sense, it's entertainment." Sakura explained quietly.

"Castora, you can hang out here for tonight." Alfred explained, before patting the couch, where he already set up a bed. "And, sleep, if you want to."

"You know what? I think I'll give it a try, I like these new Crystal Gem rituals!" She smiled.

Alfred laughed, rubbing the back of his head. "You know, usually, when I meet a new gem, they try and kill me and it takes me forever to become friends with them!" He explained. When Castora smile dropped, he smiled awkwardly. "I guess I mean, I'm really glad you're here."

She smiled gently. "Me too. Glad to have another chance. So, tomorrow you gonna show me whatcha got on the battlefield?"

"Oh, I mean, I would, but most of my weapons are for defense." He stated, his gem glowing before a pink shield appeared on the outside of his forearm. "Oh! Expect for one!" He ran over to Lion, who was asleep on the floor, and reaching into his mane, pulling out a thick, pink sword.

Castora gasped, her eyes wide. "Amelia's sword. My finest piece of work."

Alfred held the sword in both hands, looking it up and down quizzically. "You made this?" He offered it to Castora.

"You really don't remember, huh?" She smiled, taking the blade and walking towards the couch. Alfred followed, hopping up on a cushion while she opted to sit on the floor.

"Amelia Jones changed my life. I came to Earth thinking this was just another colony. Build another arena for important gem fighters to fight in. Build another spire for important thinkers to think in. Then I met her." Both gems glanced at the picture of Amelia Jones on the wall, her short, golden blonde hair kept back from her face with twin stars clipped on either side of her head. "Just another quartz solider made right here in the dirt, but she was different. And she was different because she decided to be. And she asked me what I wanted to build. And I'd never heard that before. And gems never hear they can be anything other than what they are," she thrusted the sword gently into the air, "but Amelia opened up our eyes."

Alfred looked to the floor, his face emotionless. "Everybody always tells me how great mom was." He frowned and shrugged. "I just don't feel like I can ever measure up to her."

Castora chuckled slightly. "I can't believe this. That I'm the one giving advice to Amelia's- Amelia's..."

"Son." Alfred stated.

"Right. You are different. That's what's so exciting! You don't have to be like Amelia Jones! You can be someone even better. You can be... You." Castora smiled. "And you know what? You deserve an even better weapon."

In the Forge, Castora examined Amelia's blade, the scabbard leaning against the blacksmith's table as Alfred watched close by. "I designed this sword for a fair fight. It can cut through a gem's physical form in an instant. Destroying the body, but never the gem."

"Coooool." Alfred smiled.

"But," his smile dropped as Castora sheathed the weapon, "Homeworld doesn't fight fair. That's why we need a different strategy." She glanced at Alfred, winking at him, before she walked forward, shapeshifting her hand into an 'X' shape, and sticking it into a sort of keyhole. She turned it, the platform that they were standing on lowered onto a different level of the Forge. "I was working on a weapon that would have been a game changer." The platform lowered into the center of the room, surrounded by 6 other floors with larger stone statues against the walls of each. Separating each floor was a pond of lava. "Homeworld knows how to hit us where it counts, but we can do everything they can do and better!

"Here it is." Castora stated, and Alfred turned to her, his eyes wide. "The weapon that would have won the war." She turned, slicing through the air with her fist and bending her arm so her forearm was completely visible. Strapped to her arm was a giant black block, with a plunger on one end and a sharp metal point on the other.

"Whoa! What is it?" Alfred inquired.

"I call it, a Breaking Point." Castora explained.

"Cooooool, what does it do?"

"Just watch." She said, before pressing her foot down on a bottom, allowing lava to spill from the ceiling into the 6 stone statues. Their eyes lit up from the heat, only to go out when the lava stopped. The stone casings opened to reveal pure obsidian dummies. They slid towards the center at Castora and Alfred, and he looked around anxiously.

"Listen up you Homeworld upper crusts!" She pointed the weapon at the gem of one of the dummies. "WE," the sides the weapon opened, "ARE," the plunger pulled back, "THE CRYSTAL GEMS!" The plunger flew down, shooting the point all the way through the dummy. The whole structure cracked like spiderwebs, and burst.

Alfred's face was that of horror as the pieces fell into lava, and Castora blew on the steaming weapon. "So, what'd think?" She asked, glancing back at him.

"You... Shattered it." Alfred muttered.

"THAT'S RIGHT!" She shoved it in his face. "One shot from this baby will shatter any gem in the galaxy in the blink of an eye." She hissed.

Alfred grabbed his own gem subconsciously. "Shattering a gem... Would destroy them forever."

Castora took Alfred's hand. "Exactly! The Homeworld gems won't be able to retake this planet when they're reduced to shards." She fitted the weapon on Alfred, who brought it up and looked at it in horror. "There! Now you look like you really mean bismuth. Now that's a real weapon. Why don't you give it a test run?" She patted an obsidian dummy. "Come on, this one's got your name on it."

Alfred stepped forward cautiously, "Wait, lemme get out of your way." Castora said excitedly, hopping over to another floor.

Alfred held the Breaking Point up to the gem of the dummy. He squeezed his eyes shut, willing himself to obey Castora's command. It was just a dummy. It wasn't like he was shattering a real gem...

No. But it was the principle behind it.

He sighed, tears welling in his eyes. "Castora, I can't use this."

"What?" She inquired, before her eyes narrowed. "Why not?"

Alfred backed away from the dummy. "Shattering gems... Wouldn't that make us the same as Homeworld?"

"Of course not! We'd be shattering them for the sake of our cause. To protect our allies. Our friends. To free all gems from Homeworld's tyranny!" Castora exclaimed.

"It's just, it- it's not what a Crystal Gem would do." He muttered sadly.

Castora approached him, and his eyes widened. "Don't tell me what a Crystal Gem would do. Nobody's more Crystal Gem than I am. If you won't take it, I'll just use it myself." Castora muttered, reaching for the weapon, but Alfred yanked it away from her.

"No! No one is using this!" He took it off his arm and threw it across the room. "I'm sorry, Castora, but it's not right." He stated, glaring up at her with tears in his eyes.

They stood in silence from a moment, staring each other down, as if daring the other to make a move. Then, Castora's fist clenched. "That's exactly what she said."

Alfred paused. "Huh?"

"That's exactly what you said." She hissed. Alfred glanced back to see if there was anyone else around for her to be talking to. "It is you, isn't it, Amelia?"

"W-what're talking about?" Alfred stuttered.

"Don't lie to me! You can't expect me to believe you now after you lied about everything! You're lying about this new form, just like you lied to the others about me!" She shouted, grabbing Alfred up by the collar of his shirt. "But I didn't just disappear, did I? YOU KNOW WHAT HAPPENED TO ME!"

Alfred surrounded himself in a bubble, breaking Castora's grip and allowing him escape. He slammed down on the ground as it popped, but stood up as quickly as he could. "Wait! Castora! This is just a big misunderstanding!"

"Liar! Don't play games with me, Amelia. We were right here. I offered you the secret to victory, and you refused. The Breaking Point would have changed everything." As she spoke, her hand turned into a hammer. "I didn't want to fight you, but you left me no choice!" She slammed the hammer down on Alfred, but he managed to dodge the blow and run, leaping onto another floor and hiding behind an obsidian dummy. "What type of leader," she walked forward, the hammer shapeshifting into a crescent blade, "doesn't give her army the best chance to win!" She yelled, punching forward so that her arm extended several feet, slicing cleanly through the chest of the dummy. Luckily, Alfred was able to duck before the blade caught him as well.

He didn't have time to recover, however, as Castora leapt forward, crushing the dummy under her feet and sending Alfred stumbling backwards, before he hopped across to another floor. "How could you value the gems of our enemy more than our own? And look what you've done without me! Without the Breaking Point!" She swung at Alfred again, but this time, he activated his shield, meeting her blows before she could hit him. "YOU'VE LOST!" She screamed, swinging as Alfred ducked, and she crushed another obsidian dummy. She struck again, and he met it with his shield, holding it against her as she continued to push against him, until finally, the shield collapsed, and Alfred fell.

"Wait! I'm not my mom!" Alfred shouted, putting his hands up. "I don't know what she did, but I'm sure she didn't want to hurt you!"

"It's too late." Castora sneered. "I don't believe you any more!" She took a few steps forward, but before she could get any closer, Alfred projected another bubble, this time protruding spikes outwards, causing Castora to jump back to another floor.

"All that talk about how gems could take control of their own identities," Alfred's bubble dissolved, and he fell to his knees, losing energy quickly, but when his hands landed on the floor, he flinched and jumped up, discovering that the stone was scalding to bare skin, "how we've been convinced to ignore our own potential, that's all it was, wasn't it?" Her hand turned into a hammer again, and she smashed the dummy by her, before leaping forward and smashing the one next to Alfred.

The blonde flew up in the air, but stuck his arms out, his face contorted in concentration as he focused his energy into staying afloat in the air. One of his scandals fell off and into the lava below, melting into a red puddle, and he made a small whining sound out of fear.

"You should have listened to me, Amelia!" Castora grabbed the last dummy. "I would have taken the war to Homeworld and shattered the diamonds!" She seethed, yanking the dummy up. "I would have liberated everyone!" She spun and chucked the dummy at Alfred, and it hit it's target, concaving the wall that it smashed him against it. Castora turned, her face emotionless as she grabbed the Breaking Point.

Meanwhile, Alfred struggled to lift the dummy away from him, his clothes ripped and blood oozing from a few cuts on his skin, his pale complexion already showing bruising in several locations. He grunted, standing inside the dent in the wall as he lifted the dummy above his head, gritting teeth before he lunged forward and flipped through the air, "CASTORA, WATCH OUT!" He shouted, chucking the stone down in her direction in another attempt to separate her from the Breaking Point. However, she didn't have time to move before the dummy struck her, breaking her apart from the Breaking Point, which went flying into the air, landing at Alfred's feet. Castora fell as Alfred hopped over to her, the weapon held to his chest as he kept his bare foot lifted, as to not touch the hot floor.

"Castora, this has to stop." He stated, his expression that of sadness.

"So what're you gonna do? Shatter me?" She challenged. When Alfred hesitated, she took the Breaking Point and put it part-way into her gem. "Go ahead! JUST DO IT!"

"No!" Alfred yelled, tears welling in his eyes. "Even if we don't agree, nobody deserves this!"

She looked at him, her lips pulling into a frustrated frown, she before ripped the Breaking Point out of his hands. Alfred stumbled back into his mother's sheathed sword, which had been on the blacksmithing table that got lowered down with them. He looked up in alarm as Castora stood, Breaking Point already strapped to her arm, and she lurched forward. That's when Alfred yanked the sword from the scabbard and turned.

The blade entered Castora's stomach before she could reach Alfred. They both paused. The tip of the Breaking Point steamed, as well as Alfred's bare foot, which was now placed firmly on the ground, the pain numb in the adrenaline of the moment.

Castora closed her eyes, "You should have shattered me back then. At least if I were in pieces, I wouldn't have to know how little I mattered to you." She opened her eyes, the brown irises shining with agony. "You didn't even tell 'em." Tears gathered in Alfred's eyes as she continued. "You bubbled me away and didn't ever tell your friends- my friends!" She cried.

"I'm going to tell them." Alfred stated. "I'm gonna tell them everything."

Castora looked at him in surprise, her eyes glinting with moisture, before she chuckled slightly. Then, she smirked at Alfred, a final tear rolling down her cheek. "Then you really are better than her."

With that, she burst, her gem clattering to the ground, along with the Breaking Point. Instantly, Alfred reached forward, bubbling Castora, before he picked up the weapon and chucked it into the lava.

The warp pad activated at the base, and Alfred materialized. Sakura and Madeline glanced over to greet him. "Alfred." Sakura smiled, and Isabel waved from her spot where she lounged upside down on the stairs.

"Hey, dude." She greeted, before all three gems noticed the banged up condition the boy was in. He limped forward silently as they rushed forward, their eyes falling on the bubbled gem in his hand. 

He looked up sadly, "There's something I need to tell you."

In the gem room, Madeline held Castora's gem sadly in her hands, and Sakura had a hand placed on the bubble as well, their eyes filled with grief. Isabel, even though she was no where near as close to the poofed gem, still looked to the ground sadly as Sakura and Maddie let go of the bubble, allowing it the float into the air with the hundreds of other gems that had been collected over the years.

Alfred turned and left, exiting the temple and limping to the balcony, where he leaned against the railing, looking up into the sky. Eventually, the gems came out to join him, Sakura and Madeline touching him reassuringly, while Isabel flashed a nonchalant smile. They looked up to the sky with melancholy expressions, silent as a shooting star stretched across the darkness.