Steven wakes up back in the compartment of the drill. Peridot is holding his arms, staring into his eyes in anguish. "Steven, wake up!" Peridot smiles, relieved as Steven's eyes wander around in a daze.

Steven then sits up and gasps. "It doesn't wanna form!" Peridot back up. "What?" "We gotta put it in a bubble!" Peridot stares at Steven in disbelief. "Bubble that?!" Steven and Peridot face the Cluster.

"There's no way!" Suddenly, bubbles start forming on the Cluster's surface. Steven stands up and gasps. "They're bubbling each other!" Peridot's mouth hangs open as Steven bends down on one knee.

He places his hands on the compartment floor. "I've got you." More bubbles appear at a faster rate. "You've got this." The bubbles grow bigger and faster. "We've all got each other!"

Suddenly, the entire Cluster is encased in a huge pink bubble. Steven gets up, panting. He wipes the sweat off his forehead. "Phew. That...was a  close one." Peridot stares at him flabbergasted.

"H-how did you? What? Why? How? I don't-" "Peridot, it's okay. We did it. We don't need to worry about the Cluster anymore." "Uh..." Peridot looks back at the Cluster and then back towards Steven.

"Right. Okay. Mission accomplished." Peridot gives a smile and a thumbs up. "But seriously though, how in the world did you do that?" "Well, heh heh. It's a long story. I can tell you as we head back up."

"Right. But...don't scare me like that again, you clod!" Peridot light slaps Steven in the arm. Steven smiles and looks out the window. "Uh...Peridot?" "Yes Steven?" "How much damage did the drill take exactly?"

"Oh." Peridot rushes to the controls. "Uh, it's nothing. It's just a few scapes. I'm sure we'll get out okay." She presses a few buttons. "The drill starts to smoke. "Uh oh!" "We're trapped!" "Not yet! The drill has one thing that we can still use!"

Steven faces Peridot in anguish. "Aha! Got it!" The mechanical legs pop back out of the drill again. "Alright. Time to use the extension feature." Peridot presses a button and she thrusts the controls.

The mechanical legs stretch out into mechanical arms to pick up the drill from the Cluster's bubbled surface. The compartment reaches up to about halfway between the surface and the hole above them.

"Okay. I'm going to spring it!" The arms squat down like legs and the spring up. The arms quckly stick onto the ceiling. "Hold on. Getting down was easy. Going up is going to be quite a pain."

Peridot continues to work at the controls as the drill's mechanical arms start to pull the compartment up with them. Steven gasps, remembering something. "Wait! What about the asthenosphere?!"

"Oh." Peridot looks up. "Don't worry about that. Just be careful not to fall off." "What?!" Peridot presses some more buttons and the compartment flips upside down along with the drill pointing upward.

"Oof!" Steven hits the ceiling and gets up. He looks up at Peridot who is upside down. Peridot presses her thumb on a button on the controls and the drill spins once more.

"Woah!" The compartment shakes as the drill penetrates the asthenosphere again.

Super-heated peridotite passes by as the drill pushes through. Peridot casually talks with Steven like nothing weird is going on. "So, why did the Cluster bubble itself?" "I talked to it."

"What?!" The compartment shakes violently as Peridot stuggles with the controls. "Whoa! Look, after I passed out, I was in this giant space surrounded by all of the gem shards fused with the Cluster."

Peridot doesn't say anything. The shaking calms down a bit. "I know it doesn't make sense, but they can actually talk. Well, to me anyway." Peridot stays silent for a moment. "What did they say?"

"They said things like they want to, need to, have to." "What is that supposed to mean?" "It means that they want, need, and have to form!" The gem mutants from earlier are plummeting downward past the window.

"Exactly Steven. That's was all they wanted to do. Did I not say that to you earlier on our way down from here?" "No! I heard you. But I still didn't get it at first." "Well, now you do. Did you really think that was over?"

"Wh-what do you mean?" The drill stops shaking. The compartment flips back up, the drill now pointing downward. "Whoa! Ah! Oof!" Steven falls back down onto his seat. The drill climbs up as Steven gets up to sit down.

"That was only one Cluster. The Cluster is not the Cluster. Homeworld can send another one down to Earth if they wanted to. Either that, or the remaining gem mutants will fuse to form yet another Cluster."

"Another Cluster?!" Peridot faces Steven. "No no no! Don't worry about it. I doubt that we will have to bubble another one. You need about thousands of those prototypes to form one."

"Okay. But what about the Diamonds?" "You mean Yellow Diamond?!" "Not just her. All of them." "Umm...well." "What if they come Earth just like Jasper?" "Oh, uh...Jasper." "Peridot?"

"Uhh...how did the Malachite event turn out?" "Well, Jasper and Lapis got defused from each other." "And...?" "The beach started shaking." "And...?" "An earthquake happened." "And...?" "We were split up from the beach."

"And...?!" "Jasper and Lapis were sliding away." "What happened?!" "Lapis was caught by Amethyst before she could fall in and Jasper heh heh-" "What happened to Jasper?!" "Jasper...Jasper...slid into the earthquake."

"What?! Who was supposed to catch her?!" "Uh...Pearl." "That defective-" She groans, covering her face. "I'm sorry. Too much was happening at once. We didn't have enough time!" Peridot looks away from Steven and back towards the window.

"So you were able to catch Lazuli but not Homeworld's greatest general?" She sighs. "Oh well. If she survives, she'll come back. From where, I don't know. When, How, I don't. But she will come back if she makes it."

Silence takes over the compartment for a moment. "Jasper is strong. She will stop at nothing to be the one left standing after the war. She fought in too many to count all the way down to the rebellion."

Another moment of silence. "Steven, there may be tons of Pearls, Rubies, Peridots and Lapis Lazulis back on Homeworld. But there will only be one Jasper. And that Jasper still lives on this planet, Earth."

The two stay silent once more. They don't bother putting the elevator music back on. Time passes as Steven and Peridot stare at and through the window.

Finally, light shines above them. Steven smiles as he faces Peridot. "Hey. At least we did it, right?" Peridot faces Steven and smiles back after a moment. "Yeah. We did."