(Special thanks from Craftfury)

That night, Pink Diamond finally wanted to talk to Steven.

"Hello, my son!" she greeted. Steven couldn't help but shed a tear. "Mom..." Steven said.

"I hear you're having fun with your friends," she said.

"Y-yeah!!" Steven responded. Pink smiled immensely.

"I'm sorry I didn't talk to you for some time. There is no excuse for my actions, and I hope you'll forgive me." Pink apologized. Steven smiled and hugged her. "It's fine," Steven whispered through his tears.

Pink returned her son's hug. "I love you, Steven," she said.

"Mom? Can I ask you a question?" asked Steven.

"Of course, sweetie," said Pink.

"Your sisters, the diamonds, if you knew that faking your shattering would hurt them so much that mourn for centuries, would you have still gone with it?" he asked.

Pink tears up. "Is that what's been happening?"

Steven nods.

"Oh, my stars. Steven, please understand, even though we've had our differences, I loved my sisters. I'd never want to hurt them," Pink said as she sobs.

Steven hugs her. "It's okay, Mom. I know you didn't mean to."

"It doesn't matter if I meant it or not. The fact of the matter is that I still hurt them," she says, crying into his shoulder.

"I know, Mom. But what matters now is figuring out what to do now," said Steven.

Pink wipes away her tears. "You're right. I'm sorry, Steven."

"Don't worry. It's okay to cry sometimes," he said, smiling.

Pink was silent for a moment and then she spoke. "If you ever see Blue and Yellow, tell them that I love them and I'm sorry for everything I put them through."

"I will; I promise," said Steven.

"And Steven?"

"Yeah?"

Pink cupped Steven's cheeks and kissed him on the forehead before pulling back with a smile. "You and Amethyst are the best children a mother could ask for, and I love you both so much. I would never value anyone else, especially an autistic human."

Steven smiles. "We love you too, Mom."

. . .

Steven woke up feeling refreshed. Michael slept with the blanket only covering his torso and part of his topless stomach, while Robert was tightly tucked in his now much more comfortable sleeping bag, although he looked a bit tense, and was fidgeting around in his sleeping bag. Steven wanted to know what was wrong, so he put a hand on Robert's forehead. When he did, he was transported into a burning house.

"Get away from me!" Robert's voice was heard screaming from the higher level.

"You can't escape me if you tried!" a woman's voice was heard. When Steven made it to the higher level, Robert was seen with his sword engulfed in flames like the rest of the house. Michael's dead corpse was seen with beams on his body and several blood wounds were all over his face. Robert charged at the woman and sliced her in half. Steven gasped at Robert's sudden ruthlessness. The woman fell over and began molding into some abomination.

The new form was quite scary, but Robert wasn't scared. The now monster-like woman tried breathing fire at Robert, which melted his shield. The monster swiped away at Robert's sword, making it so Robert no longer had a weapon. Surprisingly, it's voice was scarier than it's looks.

"Do you give up? Do you realize that your so-called friends cannot help you now? Do you realize that you...."

" A R E N O W M I N E ?" said the deformed monster woman.

"I'm not like you, your faceless lies!"

"Your weak, dead heart!"

"Your black dead eyes!"

"I'll make it through, but not this time!"

"Your hope is gone, and so is mine!" Robert sang to himself.

...

...

"Don't make me laugh! You couldn't hurt a fly! It has always been your greatest weakness!" the monster teased. "I know you're sorry for all of this!"

Robert suddenly had a tint of red glow in his eyes, and it was rather unnerving. "How can I be sorry? After all you've done!" growled Robert. Steven then realized who this person was:

...

...

Lardna!

"Robert! You're in a dream! She can't hurt you!!" Steven yelled. Robert turned around. "You live with us now, Lardna can't hurt you anymore!" Steven continued.

"Don't listen to him! I'm your mother!" Lardna screamed. Robert took steps to Steven. "If you take...one more step towards that...creature, then...YOU'RE! G R O U N D E D !" Lardna yelled again. Robert's red tint in his eyes was gone, he smirked, and hugged Steven. Lardna tried to grab Robert, but was blocked by Steven's bubble.

When she attacked, the shock was so great it woke both of the two up with a start. Robert looked at Steven and promptly hugged him tightly. "Did you...go into my dream?" Robert asked. "Yeah...Sorry," Steven responded. Robert smiled. "No need to be, bud." he responded in a cool manner. Just then, Pearl appeared on the warp pad. Michael woke up. "Boys, we need you all at the Sky Arena." she said. The three looked at each other before grabbing their weapons and going to the sky arena.

When they got there, there appeared to be a ghost-like doppelganger of Pearl standing in the middle of the arena, completely still. "Robert, Michael, meet Holo-pearl. She's a training hologram I made. I want you to take turns demonstrating what you know in combat so far, only using your weapons, No superpowers or Mega Busters, boys. Best of three," she explained. "Robert, you go first."

Robert stood in front of Holo-pearl, confused and slightly intimidated. Robert looked around to see Amethyst, Garnet, Lapis, Bismuth, and Peridot behind the stand. "Should we be worried? This is the thing that poofed you and tried to kill Steven that one night, after all." asked Amethyst.

"He'll be fine." Pearl responded. Robert didn't want to embarrass himself in front of Lapis. After all, he planned on taking her and two others on a date this weekend. Robert drew his sword and readied his shield. He then saw Lardna's face in the training hologram. "You wouldn't hurt a fly, it's always been your greatest weakness. It's why you A R E N ' T A R E A L M A N !" he heard it in his mind. Robert glared at the enemy with fire in his eyes.

"BEGIN!" Pearl announced. Robert started with a downward strike, which was immediately cut off with Holo-Pearl's sword. Holo-pearl tried a side strike, which was blocked by Robert's shield. Robert saw his opportunity and decapitated Holo-Pearl, claiming his first victory.

Holo-pearl then formed a new head and readied herself for combat once more. He heard Lardna taunting him again. "You C H E A T E R ! You don't decapitate your enemy, It's why you were a mistake at birth!" she said, Robert's fire burned brighter as Pearl announced they begin. Robert started by leaping over Holo-pearl and kicking the back of her head, making it fall over. Robert ran to Holo-pearl, now downed, and made his final attack

DIE! Robert thought as he impaled the hologram, poofing it. "Robert wins the match!" Pearl announced as the fire in Robert's eyes put themselves out. Robert down next to Lapis. She looked like she saw a ghost. "What's wrong, Lapis?" Robert asked. Michael stood in front of Holo-pearl, and began fighting it.

"I...just didn't expect you to make it look so easy." she responded. "You were so merciless at the thing, and...I just didn't expect it, considering how you are when you aren't fighting."

Robert was confused, "What do you mean?" he asked.

"Well, just now, you were like a cold-blooded killer. It almost looked like you were seeking revenge. You were a lot more merciful to Jasper and your brother than you were to Holo-pearl." She explained. "Normally, you don't want to fight, you're hard-working, sweet, selfless, and honest: the opposite of what you are when you're in combat."

"Do you not like it when I'm in combat?" Robert asked.

"It's fine, but I prefer you when you're not in combat." she explained. Robert hung his head in shame. "But it's fine, just try not to do this to your friends," said Lapis. Robert smiled and placed a kiss on her cheek "Alright, but can I talk to you about something?" Robert asked. "I-It's about my parents..."

Meanwhile, Michael was busy fighting Holo-pearl. Michael eventually did a downward strike on Holo-pearl's "gem," rendering her shattered. "Michael wins the first round." Pearl announced. "Pearl, we can see that, why do you feel the need to state the obvious?" Garnet asked.

"Being a fighting tournament announcer is a hobby of mine." she explained, blushing a bit.

Pearl generated another Holo-pearl and began the second round. "Begin!" she announced as Michael and Holo-pearl began fighting. Michael started by using his scythe as a hook to attempt to disarm Holo-pearl, but she flung him in the air.

"Come on! Use the ability engrained in the scythe." Bismuth muttered.

Michael pointed his scythe at Holo-pearl, and as if flying, changed his trajectory to home in at Holo-pearl. The combined force of Michael and his scythe, as well as the speed at which they were homing in on Holo-pearl, shattered her sword as well as Holo-pearl once more, claiming his second victory. "Michael wins the tournament!" Pearl announced. Michael went back to his brother.

"...and that's how I ended up here." Robert concluded. "What were you talking about?" Michael asked.

"Robert was explaining how you two ended up with Lardna." answered Lapis.

"Did anyone ever tell you that Yellow Diamond actually hired Lardna to treat us the way she did?" Michael asked.

"Yeah, I'll bet she would have done that even if she wasn't involved." said Robert. "Remember Kenneth?"

Kenneth was another foster child under her care. She seemed to treat him the same way she treated Robert.

"Here I was thinking that your mother was as sweet as you were." said Lapis.

"SHE'S NOT OUR MOM!!" Robert and Michael yelled in unison. Lapis raised an eyebrow

"Then who is?" she asked. Their expressions turned somber.

"We...don't know..." Michael responded.

"She and Dad are..." Robert took a breath. "In a 'human zoo,' whatever that is..." Robert sighed. Lapis's eyes widened. "How do you know this?" she asked.

"I don't know if you're gonna believe this or not, but...Pink Diamond told us in a dream." explained Robert.

At first, Lapis didn't believe him, but then he remembered what he said last night; about how he would never lie to her.

"Hey, Pearl's made a spaceship before, and Peridot's good with machines, maybe we could ask them to make us a vessel that could take us there and back." Michael suggested.

"Yeah! We could get our parents, and we could introduce them to the Gems!" said Robert.

"Are you brave or stupid?" Amethyst asked, as she was listening to the conversation.

"Yes!" answered Robert. Amethyst was confused.

"To which one?" Amethyst asked.

"Yes!" answered Michael.

"What about this weekend?" asked Lapis. Robert thought for a moment. "How about we leave after our double date?" Robert suggested. "And you can come with us if you want." Lapis blushed as she smiled. "You really mean it?" she asked.

"Of course, I would never lie to you!" said Robert. Then a thought came to Amethyst. "What if you lose each other?" she asked.

"I never lose!" said Michael as he equipped his Michael-buster.

"Okay, if you say so," said Amethyst.

"Well, you haven't seen him lose, so you can't exactly doubt that." said Garnet.

"Garnet, we've been meaning to ask you something," said Robert. "We just haven't found the time"

Garnet smirked. "What do you want to ask?"

"Pink gave us the sixth melody, and told us to ask you what ability we have." explained Michael.

Garnet thought for a moment, then beckoned for them to follow her.

Back at the beach house, GArnet stood facing Robert and Michael.

"Why did you bring us here?" Michael asked. "Is this some sort of secret?"

"No, I just didn't want to seem redundant in front of everyone else, and I don't want you to feel stupid for not knowing this." Garnet explained as her body began to glow brighter until she split into two gems, one red and the other blue. Robert had no clue who they were, but Michael seemed to know exactly what they were.

"Ah, I should have guessed a Ruby and a Sapphire were making up Garnet." Michael said.

"How did you know who we were? We haven't even introduced ourselves." asked Ruby.

"Remember that faceplate he had? That was essentially a database on everything needed to know about us,"explained Sapphire.

"But it didn't say anything on...whatever you just did." Michael added.

"Fusion, Michael." Ruby corrected. She and Sapphire continued to explain the ins and outs of fusion, and what that meant for them.

Author's Note: If you don't know by now, you can look it up, because I'm not putting it all here.

"I don't think I'm gonna use that one." said Robert. "Sharing a body is kind of like sharing underwear; it's disgusting."

"Same here, If we did, It'd be extremely unstable." Michael added.

"Fair enough, We never said you had to" said Ruby as everyone else appeared on the warp pad.

Robert looked outside to find that it's rather dark outside, so he and his brother wanted to get some rest.

...

...

...

That night, Robert, Michael and Steven heard something in their minds, Robert and Michael felt like the person talking to them was someone close to them, but really far away at the same time. Steven, however, felt that the person speaking to them was a stranger, but trusted the speaker anyway.

"Hello? Robert? Michael?"

"I cannot hear your responses, but I know you two are my brothers."

"I am your sister, who you haven't met in a long time. I assume you have forgotten me, but I assure you, I exist."

"In fact, I have come to you to ask you to free us. I am with your true mother and father in the Human Zoo."

"I assure you, I am being truthful, so please listen to me."

"I have been waiting for both of you to realize your potential to call you. I have seen you fighting the training Pearl, and I believe you are both ready, now listen carefully."

"Blue Diamond has sent someone to Earth for the purpose of collecting more of you to add to the zoo, to be forever imprisoned in this jail."

"I am counting on you two. Save them, and save your family. Your mother and father are with me."