Steven stared at the gem before him, while she excitedly fiddled with the blender on his counter, jumping backwards in shock when it whirred to life.
He turned away, the crystal gems and himself all huddled behind the staircase wall.

"Should we do something?" Amethyst questioned, peeking around the wall to see Spinel running around the kitchen with the still plugged in blender a look of confusion and joy on her happy face.

"I don't think she's going to hurt any of us." Pearl paused, "intentionally." Steven shot a look at her before turning toward Garnet who simply shrugged at him, not providing any useful answers.

"I'm gonna talk to her." He said, taking a step down the stairs, his foot now within Spinel's sights. The bouncy gem cocked her head, stretching out her arm and wrapping it around Steven's leg up to his torso and pulled him into her view.

"You're back!" She giggled, she held the blender up to her check with a sheepish grin. "Look what I found. You wanna play with it?!"
Spinel shoved the blender into Steven's hands and jumped over the counter pulling out several items that very clearly should not go inside of a blender and threw them one by one into it.

"Let's turn it on!" She laughed, "I wanna see what happens!" She inched her finger toward the on button on the blender before Steven dodged the catastrophe, lifting the blender above his head.

"Spinel let's not!"

The gem paused, retracting her outstretched arm, and putting it at her side.

"Okay, wanna play another game?" She said excitedly, low looking around the house for other things that could grab her attention and be a potential toy.
Steven sighed, lowering the blender and resting it in his armpit. This was going to be hard.

"Spinel?" He spoke, searching for what to say, the gem turned her attention away from his mother's broken sword and faced the boy.

"Spinel, I-" Steven began to panic, "I want you to meet my friends!" He blurted, gesturing toward the staircase where Garnet, Amethyst and Pearl hid. The three of them cautiously and confusedly stepped from behind their hiding spot, glancing at Steven for direction.
Spinel's eyes shined with wonder.

"This is Pearl, Amethyst, and Garnet."

The pink gem reached out her hands from where she stood grabbing Pearls hand and shaking it vigorously.
"Pleased to meet you! And you, and you!" Spinel whipped from one gem to the next, offering them the same jovial handshake before retracting her arms and giggling to herself with joy.

"This will be so much fun!"

Steven rubbed his head, letting out a nervous laugh.

"Yeah.."

Steven turned toward the crystal gems who looked genuinely confused at his save face in the midst of explaining to Spinel what actually happened, he shrugged sympathetically.

"I figured we'd make her feel at home?" He laughed nervously, trying not to let it show that he couldn't bring himself to speak seriously to the bubbly little gem. Not that she would understand or even listen.
He faced Spinel, causing her to retract her arm from Rose's sword once again. The gem had somehow silently managed to climb up and balance herself precariously on top of a stool, and a couple of books to reach the intriguing weapon. The small gem leapt down off her makeshift tower, without letting the rickety contraption collapse and stood in front of Steven, a genuine and friendly smile on her face causing Steven to crack a small smile in return.

"Spinel, welcome to the Crystal Gems." Steven gestured toward his friends who gave nervous smiles back, fidgeting as they drew Spinel's attention.

"What's that?"

Steven paused, feeling at a loss for words to explain what exactly Crystal Gems were. It wasn't as though they really had thought about what it was to be a Crystal gem, beyond the rebellion. Now nearly every gem was a defacto crystal gem.

"Oh, oh, oh!" Spinel began to bounce excitedly, "Is that like our friend names!? That's so cool! I want to be a Crystal Gem too! Can I? Can I? Can-"

"Yes!" Steven interrupted her, she seemed to vibrate with overjoy. "Yeah, just um...let me talk it over with my friends."

Steven turned toward Pearl who glanced up in the least nonchalant way possible toward his bedroom.

"We'll be back." Steven said, quickly backing up toward the stairs. Spinel nodded excitedly before clambering up her ugly little tower and reaching towards Rose's sword.

"Don't touch that!" Steven quickly retorted, his head popping out from behind the wall as he eyed Spinel.
He turned heel and ran up the stairs, slamming the door shut and pressing his back against it. Pearl and Amethyst stood in front of him while Garnet leaned against the wall, her arms crossed.

Pearl began, "why didn't you tell her, I thought you were going to make her remember?"

"I don't know!" Steven gasped in mild despair, "it doesn't work like that and..I don't know if I should." Steven sighed, pressing his cheek against the door to listen for Spinel. All was quiet.

"I mean, she's pretty harmless, and happy so I don't see why changing her back would be good." Amethyst mentioned.

"But it's not really her." Steven muttered under his breath, pressing his face into the cool wood of his door.

"So what? She's less likely to go all nuts on you."

"That's not what I mean, and we don't know that for sure, anything could make her remember I don't know what all the diamonds did, they- they reset her too." He mumbled, his voice growing quieter as he spoke. The boy slid down his door and sat on the floor, fiddling with his fingers as he tried to come up with a solution.
Of all the things to happen, this whole few days have sent his world tumbling. He expected something to cause issues moving forward, but he didn't expect it to be this. At most, he imagined it to be more of his mother's mistakes popping up to throw a wrench in his plans.

"Give her a test." Garnet's voice was as imperial as it was gentle, the suggestion permeated the room, Steven realizing it just might work. Give Spinel a test, something that could bring back her memories, but also might not. What could do that?
He pushed his hand into his jacket pocket, remembering he had kept her spare rejuvenator, and pulled it out.
The gems stepped back defensively.

"Did she have that the whole time?!" Pearl squaked in disbelief. Steven nodded, rolling the rod on his palm before standing.

"The diamonds used this on her, if we give it to her, she might remember, and if she doesn't, then I'll keep it in lion's mane." The boy turned toward the door and let out a preemptive breath, before opening it and making his way down the stairs.

Spinel stood with her hands clasped together, patiently waiting for Steven, her eyes brightened at his sight. Steven stepped hesitantly toward the gem, holding up his hand apologetically before speaking.

"To be a Crystal Gem you have to take a test. To make sure you got the right stuff." He said lightly.

"A test? I can do that!" Spinel cheered, beginning to bounce with excitement before Steven rested a hand on her shoulder causing her to slow.

"It's an important test," he smiled half heartedly, holding out the retracted weapon. "I need you to tell me if you remember this."

Spinel slowly picked up the tool, twisting it in her fingers quizzically, inspecting everything it had to offer. She stared intently at the rod racking her brain, searching for whatever familiarity it had. Then shrugged and sighed in defeat.

"I don't know what it is.." She pouted, handing the rejuvenator back to Steven and lowering her head in shame. Steven faked a laugh, shoving the rod back in his pocket.

"That's okay! You're not supposed to know, it's a bad thing..you passed the test!" He waited for the gem's response. She looked up at him, her watery eyes losing their tears as a wide grin grew on her face. She wrapped her arms around Steven and bounced him in the air before letting him down on the ground.

"Yay!!" Spinel laughed, beginning to do a childish victory jig. Steven glanced back at the crystal gems, concern in his eyes.

"Well, now that you're a crystal gem, I'll show you where you can stay." He laughed half heartedly.