Lapis' P.O.V

I groan and stretch my arms as I wake up from another night of restlessness. Even though recently I've not been having good nights of sleeping, seeing Steven and talking/hugging him gave my mind too much to think about to ensure a decent amount of rest last night. I'm still kind of sad, though, that he didn't come with me, because that's what I really wanted to happen. But, I'm not quitting until Steven comes back to me. Sitting up in my hammock, I go to slip out of it and I technically do, just not in the fashion I was wanting. I end up clumsily tumbling out of my hammock and landing roughly on the floor, giving me a nice good wake up call. This also alerted Peridot, who was already at our planning workbench for the day, that I was awake.

"Good morning, Lazuli" My small green friend says, turning to me with her tablet in hand as I pick myself up off the floor.

"You're up and about rather early today" I comment, walking over to where she's standing, "Did something happen while I was asleep?"

"Not quite" Peridot admits, "But there is something I wanted to inform you of".

"Ok, then, spill," I say, leaning against the workbench.

"Well, while you went to the Temple to see how Amethyst was holding up, I went to that meeting with the parents and kids that you didn't want to attend and found her there" Peridot arches her eyebrows, folding her arms, "But, that's not all. Mr. Maheswaran was practically forced to leave due to the parents having lost their patience with him. Kids getting killed can do that to you. And I went on to explain what we found out, especially in regards to Alesha".

"Right, right" I nod, remembering looking over that file and the photo within it.

"Here's the best part, though. When I was about to show her picture to everyone that was there, Mr. Maheswaran's phone, that he evidently forgot he left at the Big Donut, began ringing. Guess who it was?" Peridot hints.

"Steven?" I speculate.

"Steven" Peridot confirms, "He said that he just saw you, among other things. Is this true?"

"Yeah, yeah, it's true" I tell her, gently rubbing my arm and remembering that hug we shared out in the rain.

I wish we could've had more time to continue it.

"He must've said something to you, right? What was it?" Peridot leans forward, obviously curious.

"He said that he was done killing, that he came there to bury something that he didn't want me digging back up, Connie was the last person he killed, and that he was shocked to hear that Jenny and Peedee were dead. He also admitted that he wasn't the one who killed them, the reason being because he didn't have any issues with them" I recall to the best of my ability.

"Huh, interesting" Peridot thinks out loud, "Either he's good at keeping up a story or is actually telling the truth about not killing Jenny and Peedee, because he said pretty much the exact same things on the phone".

"Did you bring up Alesha when you talked to him, because I forgot her name when I was talking to him about the possibility of a second killer, mainly because, I suppose, I'm the first one to hear him admit to him not committing those murders?" I ask her.

"It was Amethyst who brought it up, along with her demanding him to tell everyone where Alice Anderson was. I didn't have the heart to tell her that going by the picture of Alesha, Alesha was Alice and given the fact that she lied about her real name, she must be hiding other things too, like why she came to the Temple, because I refuse to believe that she just stumbled across it" Peridot articulates, keeping her arms folded, "But, I'm getting sidetracked here. The phone went dead before we could get an answer on the Alesha/Alice question. Things went quiet inside the Big Donut and then Amethyst asked me to show the picture of Alesha like I was originally going to. I went to pull it up on my tablet when a medium-sized rock hit the glass door behind us and cracked the material, it being quite a surprise to all of us. Many of us moved back, but Amethyst and Greg saw something out in the rain. A pink jacket and who out of everyone in Beach City wears one? Steven. And despite the parent's protests on going outside the restaurant, Greg ran out into the rain with Amethyst going after him, the both of them chasing Steven into town".

"Uh, that wasn't Steven" I tell Peridot, dread rising in my stomach, "Because when he was right in front of me, Steven wasn't wearing any pink jacket".

Peridot pauses when hearing this, her eyes flickering back and forth with critical thought.

"Well, if that wasn't Steven, then who......" Peridot trails off, her eyes widening, "Alesha. It was Alesha they were chasing! Oh no. That explains it!".

"Explains what?" I ask, now feeling a bit nervous about what I'm going to hear.

"Well, me being me, I couldn't just let them run off like that on their own" Peridot continues the story, "So, after showing Alesha's photo like I wanted to in the first place, and everyone promising that they'd keep a look out for her, I ran out into the rain in search of Greg and Amethyst. It was harder than I thought to track them down, no footsteps or any kind of lasting imprint for me to follow. I spent almost an hour running around the darkened town before I turned a street corner and found Greg lying immobile on the sidewalk. I ran up to him and he was dead from the exact same wounds as the ones found on Jenny and Peedee's bodies. That concluded on what happened to him, but I still didn't know where Amethyst was. But, with there being a street lamp on the sidewalk, my eyes caught a glint of something near the storm drain. I then bent down and picked up this..."

Peridot then uncovers a tiny, pointed rock that she had covered with a washcloth. She gestures for me to use the magnifying glass hovering over the workbench and I look through it. This closer view reveals that the rock is shiny, purple, and looks an awful lot like a shard of.....oh no...

"Yes, indeed, Lapis" Peridot sighs, me standing up from the magnifying glass, "Amethyst was shattered and given what you've just now told me about how Steven was dressed last night, we now know that it was Alesha that killed the two of them".

"But how can we be so sure that she's really a killer?" I question, "She was arrested for 'underage drinking', right? And even though we've confirmed that she lied about herself when we found her near the Temple, where does murder get placed in all of this? It almost feels like we're jumping to conclusions without much real evidence".

"C'mon, Lapis, think about it!" Peridot argues, "That was Steven's jacket and he wore it pretty much all the time. He wouldn't get rid of it and he certainly wouldn't let anyone take it, which means that he would've had to have given it to Alesha. That's certainly saying more about the two of them than just escaping from the same police station. It tells me that they are in league with each other. But, let's also not forget what Steven himself said to each of us. It's the same thing that was said between the two of us, that he didn't kill Jenny and Peedee. And who would be close enough to know his style of killing that could very well replicate it? ALESHA!".

"Ok, ok, I see you point" I say, raising a hand to calm her, "But we're still going to need better proof than just a couple of connections".

"Hmm" Peridot murmurs, her hand on her chin as her foot taps against the floor, "Oh, I know. Security cameras! Homeworld had measures where the Diamonds could see everything that was happening on the planet, and even though humans aren't anywhere near as advanced as Homeworld, I think that they've at least evolved enough to where they'd indoctrinate similar but more crude versions of those same security measures. Let's look around where I found Greg and Amethyst and see if we can find any of those cameras".

"Good idea" I say, summoning my wings while Peridot jumps onto my back before I fly out of the open Barn doors.

Seeing as I'm in no mood to fool around or admire scenery that I've already seen plenty of times by bow, I head right for Beach City and hover directly overhead. However, it's still a fairly large area and trying to find a specific spot that only Peridot knows the location of can't necessarily be deemed as 'easy'. And it doesn't prove to be, either. Peridot ends up having me fly over some streets at random to see if they match what she remembers and pretty much all of them aren't ones she remembers seeing Greg's body on. As you can expect, I was beginning to lose my patience, but then we tried another street and Peridot points down eagerly to say that it's the one. Peering down, I see that there is a small crowd gathered in the area, yellow tape creating a border around Greg's corpse while police officers tell the Beach City civilians to stay back and don't cross the yellow tape. I gently descend through the air and touch down on the street itself. Peridot then gets off my back and we briefly look at the scene in front of us.

"You know, even though he wasn't my favorite human by any means, I've grown past the point of wanting people dead" Peridot admits, "So, I guess what I'm really saying is that it's sad to see and I wish he could've lived".

"I'm sure Amethyst would've wished that too. According to her, they were good friends" I comment, "But, now that she's also gone, we have to solidify Alesha's guilt and make sure Amethyst didn't die in vain, because knowing her, she wouldn't have gone down without putting up some sort of fight".

"Very true, Lapis" Peridot agrees, "Now, let's find us some security cameras".

"Well, what are we supposed to be looking for? Like, shape and size-wise?" I ask.

"Hmmph, I'd say they would be small and rectangular-sized, if my knowledge is to be correct" Peridot answers, "Oh, and they'd probably be higher up, like near the top of these buildings, so that the capture field is larger".

"Ok, then. I'll get to looking" I sigh, getting my wings back out and rising up into the air once more.

I ascend to where the roofs of the buildings on this side of the street are and scan the edges, trying to visualize what Peridot described to me and keep in mind. Flying sideways, and going from right to left down a whole block bit by bit, I didn't find a single instance of a 'security camera'. I then glide above where the humans are gathered, a couple spotting me, and search the roofs of these buildings too. And, just like before, I come up empty. I return to Peridot upon realizing this and land next to her, tapping her on the shoulder to get her attention.

"Well, I tried, Peridot, but there doesn't seem to be any cameras around here anywhere" I report.

"Urgh! That's just great" She huffs, obviously annoyed at the fact, "Ok, new plan, Lapis. We go talk to Mr. Maheswaran and see if he knows anything about these cameras".

"Fine, but I'm not flying us there" I reply firmly, crossing my arms, "I've been flying around for nearly 30 minutes or more, with you on my back for most of the time too".

"Yeah, yeah, I see your point" Peridot says, still miffed.

And when there's no flying, there's walking, which is how we cross town and get to Mr. Maheswaran's house. Like before, there were some people that we passed by on the sidewalk that recognized me and Peridot and fortunately, it wasn't by people who were looking to take their anger out on us for Steven's actions. Peridot didn't particularly care for their sympathies and well-wishes, though, her nose buried in her tablet for most of the walk. It's only when we're coming up on the house when she sets it to the side and complains about how if humans were even close to Homeworld's evolution, then our jobs would be a whole lot easier. I just let her vent, though, not wanting to comment on it or let her bad attitude get in the way of what we're doing here.

As the two of us walk up the couple of steps leading to the door, I notice that the door doesn't seem to be closed all the way. Holding up a hand for Peridot to halt, I walk the rest of the distance and lightly push on the door without much of any effort. Sure enough, it opens all the way, the inner doorway showing some damage, meaning that somebody broke the lock. I wave Peridot to come with me and I cautiously make my way up the stairs, trying to not make much noise if the person who broke in is still here in the house. When I reach the very top, I quickly peer into what I assume to be Connie's room, finding nothing, before I look the opposite direction and lightly push this door open. It slowly creaks open, but when I enter, I'm greeted with a less than pleasant sight.

Mr. Maheswaran is sitting in a chair with his head leaned back and knives stabbed into both of his eyes, his mouth partly agape. My hand clasps over my mouth, shock coursing through my body. It's not an easy thing to see, especially when it's a complete surprise. Hesitantly, I walk a bit further inside and a bit closer to Doug's body. When I do, I then notice a throat slit wound, which Peridot and I know by now is the trademark killing style of Alesha. But why would she choose to kill him? And how did she even get in without him knowing about it? Was he drunk due to Connie's loss and getting told off by the parents at the Big Donut that Alesha just has to bust through the door and walk upstairs to kill him? Multiple questions and I can only guess that maybe she wanted him dead because he was pretty much the only one that had a documented record of her escape and/or her personal information. Too bad that she doesn't know that he wasn't the only one that knew. Peridot then comes up the stairs for herself and pauses in the doorway, seeing Mr. Maheswaran.

"Oh no" Peridot exclaims, "Him too?!"

I nod and Peridot trudges over next to me, getting a closer look of Doug's wounds.

"This is Alesha alright" She notes, "Throat wound matches the other deaths we've seen on record that don't fall into Steven's pattern. But this time, she's left the murder weapons behind. Perhaps she's getting sloppy, because even she knew that police could get her fingerprints off of the knives she used to kill Jenny and Peedee, which is why she disposed of them/took them with her. Unfortunately for her, though, I'm still plenty capable of removing fingerprints off of things and if we document this crime scene well enough and present these findings to the police, they can begin a more widespread search for Alesha, especially given how Mr. Maheswaran was one of their own and they'd probably have more drive if they found out he was the victim in question here. And if more people are aware of her, it'll only be a matter of time before she's found".

Peridot's method for extracting Alesha's fingerprints is then shown when she grabs a piece of paper, a roll of tape, and a charcoal pencil from Mr. Maheswaran's desk, materials that were no doubt used for crime catching purposes anyway. Peridot scribbles the charcoal pencil onto the paper, creating a solid enough area of black before blowing the charcoal bits off the sheet. Then, setting that down, she takes a piece of tape and places it on one of the knife handles, flattening the adhesive and putting pressure on it. Peridot then carefully peels the tape away and sticks it smack dab in the middle of the charcoal covered part of the paper, applying pressure and flattening it down too. After enough pressure has been applied, Peridot peels the tape away and lo and behold, a fingerprint is visible on the charcoal.

"Ah ha! We've got her with her hand in a pastry bowl!" Peridot exclaims triumphantly.

"I believe the phrase is 'we have her with her hand in a cookie jar', Peridot" I correct.

"Right, right, that" Peridot waves off, still proud of her work.

I smile a tiny bit, rolling my eyes at how stubborn she can be at times and then proceed to look around the room for anything else that could help us catch Alesha. That or see if there was anything else she was possibly looking to take after killing Doug. While Peridot takes a picture of Doug's body with her tablet, I look over his desk, under his bed, and even through his dresser to see if anything was hidden between clothes. Some would call this an invasion of privacy, but doesn't that only work when the person is alive? I'm not trying to sound harsh, but the police no doubt would do the same thing that we're doing right now if they came across Doug before we did. We're just saving them from looking for things that either aren't there or are there. And from my searches, there doesn't seem to be anything out of place. I then wonder if I should check the other rooms and go to leave, only pausing when I see a security camera similar to what Peridot previously described above the door. It's pointed down and in Doug's direction, it's purpose is to probably catch anything coming in and out of the room that's not Doug.

"Uhm, Peridot?" I say, getting her attention, "What do you think of this?"

I point to what I've spotted and Peridot comes over, peering up at it for herself.

"Ha! Good find, Lapis! This is exactly what I was telling you about in regards to a security camera. And if Alesha came in here and killed Doug, that camera would've captured it, seeing as it's position isn't one that anyone coming inside the room would see unless they already knew of it's presence. Do me a favor and see if you can find Doug's computer, because footage captured on cameras is almost always kept/backed-up on a drive. If you can find that, then we'll really have her fingers ensnared in a candy container!" Peridot assesses, still getting that saying wrong.

"Well it's obviously not up here, cause I would've seen it on his desk" I evaluate, "And unless Doug thought that Alesha was coming for him, I find it unlikely that we would've hidden his computer somewhere else in this room, which I also would've found by now seeing as I just searched the area from top to bottom".

"Well, check the other rooms and downstairs, then" Peridot suggests, "It's got to be here somewhere".

I nod and leave Doug's room, immediately heading to Connie's room. I look through her stuff, except her diary because that stuff's personal and I don't want to even though she's dead, and search through the rest of her room. No computer. I then move onto the only other room on this upper level, which is the bathroom. There's not many places where a computer could be hidden, so it takes even less time to rummage through the things inside the room. Still nothing. This is becoming a recurring trend for today. Sighing, I run a hand through my air and walk down the stairs to the ground floor/main level. My search begins in the living room, turning over cushions, looking under the sofas, and looking behind the movie stacks. Again, nothing. Moving on to the kitchen, I raise myself up a bit with my wings and look above the cabinets, not seeing anything. Then I peruse through the interiors of the cabinets themselves, only finding plates, cups, and silverware. The lower drawers had even more of these things. The trash can came next and when I pull it out, I'm caught by surprise to find Doug's computer lying rather obviously inside. I nearly let out a laugh at where it was this entire time, but then that laughter dies when I pull it out and see the screen cracked nearly in half and the back cover off, a rectangular section missing. Groaning, I toss the computer back in the trash, a hand covering my face as I scold myself for giving my hopes up so soon. I guess Alesha isn't entirely sloppy, cause this just proved that she took the drive with her, meaning that she probably saw that she was caught on camera. Maybe that's also why she forgot about disposing of the murder weapons, cause she was too busy on getting rid of this other evidence.

"What are you doing in here, Lapis?" A voice says from behind me.

Taking the hand away from my face, I feel myself jump slightly at seeing none other than Steven himself standing about five feet away from me.

"I could ask you pretty much the same thing" I answer.

"The front door was left wide open" He says, pointing a thumb behind him, "That and I wanted to see if Mr. Maheswaran had gotten my final message, seeing as his phone wasn't with him last night. Now, back to my question, what are you doing here, Lapis?"

It's at this moment when Peridot chooses to come down the stairs. Steven turns in her direction, having heard her coming too, and when Peridot turns around that corner, she freezes. Oh, that's right, Peridot hasn't seen Steven since he was taken by Doug at the beginning of all this. I forget that I've been the only one, between the two of us, that has seen him before today.

"Hey, Peridot, it's nice seeing you again, though I didn't imagine it would be here of all places" Steven says to her.

I can see in Peridot's expression that she's struggling with herself, internally debating on whether to hit him or to hug him. She then unfreezes and slowly walks toward me, making me curious on what she's going to do to him. And then, when she's right in front of him, she jumps up and slaps him across the face, Steven holding that side of his while simultaneously admitting that he deserved that, before then also hugging him tightly. Steven cracks a small smile and lifts Peridot up into his arms, letting him hug her in return. It's moments like these that make me smile and give me hope that the Steven we love is still here. And maybe now that we're finding more and more clues leading to Alesha, we can use them to convince him to give her up/work with us to stop her.

"What are you doing here?" Peridot asks Steven as he puts her down.

"I'd ask Lapis about that, seeing as I just told her" He replies, gesturing to me.

"I found the computer, but it's broken with the drive missing. Alesha must've taken it when she left" I inform Peridot.

"Ugh, I should've expected things to not be that easy. It hasn't been up to this point" Peridot grunts in frustration.

"Alesha?" Steven comments, looking confused, "How do you know of her? And why do you think she did this?"

"Simple, Steven. We looked through the murder files on the people you killed and found her picture within as part of the account of your escape from the police. Then, Lapis and I recalled her coming to the Temple under a false name of 'Alice Anderson', having recognized her face, and deduced that she lied about who she was, which made our suspicion rise. It rose even further due to the events of last night, when someone with your pink jacket on came by the Big Donut and got your father and Amethyst to chase them. And seeing as how you wouldn't just give that jacket to anyone and Alesha was the only other person that you kept near, I drew my conclusions".

"Well...you're right about her having my jacket, because I did give it to her" Steven admits, "And, since we're past the point of it meaning much of anything, it was her idea to create a false persona of herself and go inside the Temple".

"And why did she say that she would do it?" I ask him.

"She said that it would be so that she could listen in on what you guys were planning at the time" The hybrid answers.

"See? That's some sketchy behavior, Steven" Peridot points out to him, "And that same sketchy behavior is why Lapis and I also believe that she's this second killer connected to this string of murders that have been happening recently with Jenny, Peedee, your father, Amethyst, and even Mr. Maheswaran".

"Hold on, hold on, time out" Steven halts Peridot, "Did you say that Dad, Amethyst, and Mr. Maheswaran are dead?"

"Sadly, yes" Peridot nods, "We found the police officer upstairs when we got here with knives jabbed into his eyes and after chasing Amethyst and Greg down myself last night, I found your father lying dead on the sidewalk with this near a storm drain".

Peridot then pulls the cloth containing Amethyst's gem shard out from her gem and hands it to Steven, Steven unfolding the cloth and seeing the shard. And for seemingly the first time, he's at a loss for words.

"She did come in last night with a cut on her face and saying that she got beat up by somebody. Though she said that she fought off some guys that were trying to sexually assault her" Steven says, referring to Alesha, "Why would my girlfriend kill them?"

I feel a surge of jealousy rush through me when he says that Alesha is his girlfriend. I then feel regret about how I wasn't fast enough to admit my feelings to him. Then comes worry, worry that now that we know this bit about her and his relationship, it'll be even harder to turn him against her.

"Why would she be out in the rain, cracking the front door of Sadie's store, and run when Greg and Amethyst were going after her? Why would Peedee and Jenny end up dead when you yourself admitted to everyone that you didn't kill because you had no issue with them? Why would she do what she did to get inside the Temple that day? Because she's not who you think she is, Steven. Humans can lie, manipulate, and do all kinds of things, but hide it under a guise of innocence so others around them don't realize what kind of person they truly are. All those events add up to something and with your girlfriend in the middle of it, she's certainly not innocent" Peridot explains to him.

Steven then hands back Amethyst's gem shard to Peridot, sighing. In his head, he's probably thinking over everything that Peridot just said, along with trying to come to terms with the fact that now his sister figure and father are now dead. And that pause to think about it shows that he really did care about them.

"What would you have me do, then?" Steven asks, his tone more somber than before.

"Keep an eye on her and report back to us if you find her doing anything beyond what you deem as 'normal' for you two. Or, if you catch her in the act, tell us immediately or stop her" Peridot requests.

"Are you absolutely sure that it's her?" He asks.

"We're very sure" I tell him, "But with your help, we could make it 100 percent sure".

Peridot's tablet then buzzes, making her look down at it and tap it a few times.

"And if you're wondering why you should help us, come into the living room and turn on the TV" Peridot hints.

Steven frowns but does it anyway, following Peridot out of the kitchen and into the living room with me right behind him. The three of us, with Steven in the center, sit down on the couch together as Steven grabs the remote and turns the TV. The image shows a live recording of Mayor Nanefua of Beach City at a podium, looking ready to make a statement.

"People of Beach City, I regret to inform you that last night, Greg Universe, father of the ruthless killer Steven Universe, was killed. The injuries he sustained match similar lethal injuries found on those killed in recent days, so it can be clearly said that Steven himself is responsible for his father's death. I also received a notice from a couple of you that stepped forward this morning that Steven actively called and proclaimed that he wasn't going to be killing anyone else. Yet the death of his father is proof enough to say that that was a lie. Make no mistake though, Steven will be found and proper punishment will ensue" The Mayor addresses.

She then goes on to say some more things in regards to how people shouldn't try to fight Steven and if they see him, they should report it immediately, but I stopped paying attention. Steven himself, though, clearly heard what Mayor Nanefua said and is troubled by it. He then mutes the TV and sets the remote down, not changing his expression. This is when Peridot takes the chance to talk to him, placing a hand on his arm.

"Do you see now, Steven?" She says, "When it comes to someone of the Mayor's authority, people will believe her word over yours, even if she's not correct. Sadie and the others are probably the ones who came forward and told the Mayor about what happened last night, though they don't have the rest of the story. But the three of us know the truth. We know that you didn't kill your father. We know you didn't kill Jenny and Peedee. But as long as Alesha continues what she's doing, you'll continue to be framed and look even worse. Help us stop her and we'll help clear your name of these falsely accused killings".

Steven is silent for a moment, his eyes flitting back and forth, before finally speaking.

"Alright. I'll help you" He agrees.