'Darkness. Just total darkness. Void. Space. Emptiness. Silence. And insanity. Such is the price of isolation. But this darkness is the lesser of these that I will unleash upon she who entrapped me here condemned for an eternity.'

Black's emotions welled up; he channeled them into power through his gem, which he had billions of lifetimes worth of training under his belt for.

'The same powers that put me here can get me out.'

His gem glowed and glowed, brighter and brighter.

Technically, this mysterious being was nowhere, but still somewhere. Drifting aimlessly through space, but also through nothingness. He was invisible; his light was extinguished. For as long as he was trapped, no glow he produced in that dimension was enough to shine his way back.

He worked his powers up until he could glow to the brightness of a million suns. Something seemed to be happening. From an outside perspective, it looked like a tiny spark with the most powerful brightness one couldn't even fathom.

'Almost there!'

Around the shine, there was a series of light prisms. They formed Black Diamond's shape, and he found himself pushing through the prisms like passing through a sea of glass. From an outside perspective, it almost seemed as though he just appeared from nowhere.

Once again, he could feel the power of the universe coursing through his gem. He sighed as if finally drinking a cup of water after a week of thirsting.

'I'm finally out.'

"I'm coming for you, White." And then jumped into warp speed.

Four Years Later

Connie woke up and turned off her alarm clock mere seconds before it sounded. She pumped herself up for the day, full of her usual enthusiasm. Almost in a flash, she was prepared for the day, freshened up, breakfast eaten, sword in hand, said goodbye to her parents, and gone out the door. She hopped on Lion, ready to portal away.

Just then, her phone buzzed. "Oh! A text from Garnet."

She checked it out, and the text read 'You forgot your school supplies.'

"Oh!" She noticed she didn't have her backpack on her. She texted Garnet back quickly. 'Thanks, Garnet.'

After the rain ended and everything dried up, the Pines family hit the beach. Stanley stayed back under a parasol while the other three played in the sand. Dipper and Mabel made an impressive but simple sand castle; they looked over at Stanford and saw him use a little trinket to form the sand in his image and make a grand-looking, magnificent sand castle as tall as he.

"Showoff." Stanley chuckled.

Afterwards, they managed to persuade Stanley into a four-player game of beach volleyball, which persisted for a good hour and a half.

After volleyball, the Pines tired out, then retreated to their spot on the sand to tan, where they remained for a while.

Stanford decided to check up. "Mabel, you good?"

"Yeah I'm good. Dipper, you good?" Mabel asked, looking over at Dipper, who was several deep shades of red. "Dipper." She called, tapping his chest.

"AAAAAUAUAUUAUAGH!" Dipper screamed, flailing his arms around at the contact of his sunburnt skin.

Dipper was in too much pain to move, so the others had to help him apply some aloe to his skin. Soon after they finished, some figures walked from around the cliff on the corner of the beach.

"Oh, look. I didn't know people were allowed back there." Mabel observed the strangers.

"It's probably their property." Stanford suggested.

"Let's go say hi. They look fun." Mabel said cheerfully, running over.

"Mabel! Wait up, sweetie." Stanford kept up behind her, Stanley following behind.

"Ah! Ow! Guys, wait up." Dipper exclaimed in pain, walking like a statue.

The Pines approached the beach owners (the Crystal Gems), or, more like they followed Mabel. "Hiiiiii! I'm Mabel, and we're new to town!" She said with her usual cheery attitude.

Pearl was surprised by the sudden very cheerful stranger. "Oh, hi there, uh, Maple? Nice to meet you."

Stanford stroked his chin as he observed the several characters. "Interesting. Your physical makeup is unique. Could you be the aliens we heard that live here?"

"Oh THAT would make more sense. I just thought you were in desperate need of a tan." Mabel said as she got close to Pearl, closely observing her pale-as-heck skin, also making Amethyst chuckle.

"We, are the Crystal Gems." Pearl stated proudly. "We're the guardians of the planet."

"Eh, mostly of this city. The biggest threats have usually been focused here." Garnet spoke up.

"Then you've never been to Gravity Falls." Stanley laughed. "Name's Stanley." He extended his hand to Garnet, wiggling his eyebrows.

Seeing behind Stanley's eyes, Garnet shook his hand but gave it a heck of a squeeze.

"AH! OW! OW!" Stanley rubbed his hand when Garnet let go. "Wow! Heh heh! Heck of a grip."

"I hope you'll forgive my brother." Ford said, giving Stanley a semi-disappointed expression. "I'm Stanford." He then said, shaking Pearl's hand.

"Charmed." Pearl said, glad he wasn't like his brother.

"Woooooah!" Amethyst exclaimed, running up and grabbing Ford's hand. "Six fingers! Are you an alien too?!"

"Um," Ford wasn't sure how to respond as he lightly blushed.

"Amethyst! Manners!" Pearl scolded.

"Hey, hey, it's all cool! Check this out!" Amethyst said, shape shifting both her hands, giving herself six fingers on both hands. "Eeeeh?" She presented her hands, wiggling her extra fingers.

"Fascinating. Shape shifters from space." Ford got down to Amethyst's eye level to observe her. Dipper had caught up and was intrigued as well.

"Ew! That's so cool." Mabel said in awe.

Amethyst herself blushed at the complements.

"I'm Dipper." Dipper said, slowly waving his hand. "My uncle and I" He gestured to Ford, "are enthusiasts of paranormal and the other-worldly."

'Oh, more of them? We already have one.' Pearl shuddered as she thought about Ronaldo.

Amethyst expelled a knowing chuckle. "We already have someone like that here. Total geek."

"I think we ran into him earlier." Dipper said.

"Everyone runs into him." Pearl said.

"Pearl! Did you just make a joke?" Amethyst asked with half surprise.

"Wait. 'Amethyst,' and 'Pearl?' Are you guys actually named after gemstones?" Dipper asked.

"We are! Our beings are projected from our gems." Pearl explained, gesturing towards her forehead where her gem was. "They're the core of our being. Upon birth, gems are also assigned identification numbers. Although as we're a part of a small peacekeeping team, we don't need the numbers."

"Huh." Ford exclaimed in understanding while Stanley was lost. "And you are?" He asked Garnet.

"Garnet." She introduced herself with a grin and a curtsy tip of her glasses.

The others aren't sure if they saw what they think they saw on Garnet's forehead.

"Yes, it's exactly what you think it is." Garnet said ahead of their questions.

"But they have two?" Dipper asked, gesturing to Pearl and Amethyst.

. . .

"Perhaps you'd like to come out of the sun and we could explain things?" Pearl suggested.

"Oh, that's alright. We don't want to intrude." Ford said, putting his hands up.

"Oh nonsense! We don't often get such interesting visitors. Not for a while, at least." She dismissed, waving her hand.

The gems brought the Pines back to the beach house. Everyone was in awe of the temple that the house was built into.

"Gems, fusions, diamonds. A half-gem named Steven Universe? This is a lot." Dipper said.

"More than what you're used to in Gravity Falls?" Ford asked, surprised to hear Dipper say such a thing. "We literally faced the apocalypse."

"Apocalypse?" Amethyst asked. "We never heard anything about that."

"A spell contained the paranormal activity to just the city. We put an end to it before it could spread." Ford explained.

Stanley leaned in to whisper to the gems. "I'd take it with a grain of salt. I don't remember any of this happening."

Ford furrowed his brow. "We keep telling you we wiped your memory. That's how we won."

"What?" Pearl wondered, very confused.

"It's a very long story." Dipper told.

"So, how long have gems been here?" Ford asked.

"A long time. Honestly I'm surprised you haven't heard of us. There were several gem colonies all over the earth for a while." Pearl answered.

"Probably a government cover up. They've been weird about aliens." Dipper said.

"Oh, there was no government when we first arrived." Pearl said. "There was a gem presence on Earth for over six thousand years."

"Six thous- . . . How long has, gem kind existed?!" Ford asked, his mind almost exploding.

"Oh, billions of years. For as long as there's been light." Pearl answered simply.

Ford and Dipper's minds were blown at this point. This was an answer, a confirmation of a thought-to-be never-ending debate.

"Light is the essence of our being. The gems are the core of our forms, but it's light that flows through us all." Garnet said.

"Is that metaph-" Stanley asked, trying to make sense of things.

"Literally." Garnet interrupted.

Stanley's eyebrows raised as Garnet seemed to know what he was asking instantly.

"What, are you able to-"

"Yes." She interrupted again.

Stanford leaned back. He opened his mouth to ask something, but Garnet interrupted him, "You're going to ask what you're thinking about."

Mabel gasped in surprise. "You can see the future?!" She jumped up on the couch. "Oh please tell me! Does Dipper stay a geek forever? Do I become President? What will my love life look like?"

Pearl and Amethyst were somewhat amused by Mabel's enthusiasm. "Listen," Pearl said, "I know that knowing the future sounds exciting; but believe me, that's a road you'll regret going down in the long run."

"Awwww okay." Mabel groaned, sitting back down.

Pearl chuckled to herself. "You remind me so much of Steven when he was younger." Pearl said fondly.

"He sounds like a nice guy."

"Does he still live around here?" Dipper asked.

The gems looked at each other. "Steven. . . went through a rough patch. He's getting help, and helping himself by exploring the world."

Ford hummed.

A moment of awkward silence passed. Then the temple warp pad activated and Bismuth rushed out. "Guys, come qu- oh! New guests!" She calmed down when she saw the Pines.

"This is Bismuth." Pearl introduced.

Bismuth gave them a smile. "Hi, nice to meet you." She turned her attention back to the gems. "Seriously, you guys need to come with me."

Stanford stood up. "Well, it was nice meeting you all. We'll get back to our vacation while," He looked at Bismuth, "you get to get down to Bismuth."

Bismuth laughed. "I like this guy." The gems loaded up the warp pad and then disappeared in a beam of light.