Garnet's Mission

Chapter One

What seemed like a simple day to Steven when he first woke up, turned to chaos as soon as he was able to stand up. The words he heard were soft and gentle at first, but they were interrupted by ear-piercing screaming.

"What? How could she be back?" Pearl continued, not as loud as before, but still enough to give anyone a headache.

"Pearl calm down-"

"Yeah, you're giving me a headache"

Steven agreed with Amethyst in silence as he walked down the stairs to greet the gems at the warp pad. "What's going on?" He asked in a hushed voice. "Who's back?"

Pearl and Garnet glanced at each other, and after a few seconds of contemplation from them both, Garnet spoke in her usual calm and low voice.

"Steven, Malachite is back. We don't know how Jasper escaped or got Lapis to fuse with her, but you three need to check out every place she may be."

"You're not coming?" Steven asked, concerned for his friends. Garnet was their leader, in a way. Strong. Smart. You name any good quality trait in a leader and she had it. It felt weird to Steven to not have her beside him on missions, but he had done it before, and everything had always gone fine, but this time felt... different? He questioned his thoughts. No, they'd be fine, he finally concluded.

"No. I want us to split up to find her. I originally wanted you to come along with me, but Pearl wants you to go with her."

Pearl spoke in a protesting voice, "Steven, if you came with Amethyst and I there'd be more of us to protect you! Well, logically speaking no, it wouldn't be, but in a sense it would..." Pearl had trailed off her thought there, confused in her own reasonings.

Garnet leaned down to Steven while Pearl was distracted and said in a suppressed voice. "Steven, go with Pearl. I can see that you'll be okay, and even though she's wrong, she's also right. There'll be more eyes on you if you go with them." She gently smiled and tipped down her visors, giving Steven a small wink, Garnet then stood up. "Steven said he'll go with you Pearl." Still lost in her own thoughts from before, she had quickly looked up flustered.

"Oh, okay." She had responded much quieter than before. There was an awkward pause of silence in the room when Amethyst's voice sharply cut through it.

"So are we going yet?" Everyone turned to look at her.

"Of course we are! Steven, on the warp pad! Let's hurry up and- wait, where are we even going first?" Pearl had asked a question nobody had even thought until now.

"To the barn. I need you to check on Peridot first, maybe if we're lucky Lapis will have held her fusion back. Now go!" Garnet said hurriedly.