My Little Universe: Mindwarp

by EquestrianKirin

Rating: everyone
Tags: Other, Science Fiction, Adventure, Crossover, Alternate Universe, Twilight Sparkle, Princess Luna, Original Character, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Steven Universe
Length: 22871

Everyone has dreams. But what happens when one's trapped in his own dream?

We all have dreams. That sate of mind where logic and reality are thrown out the window for your subconscious, and even your true conscious to run wild and run free. For young Steven Universe, this concept was no different; an average half-Gem with a good heart.

A young child's mind can go many places, but how far can a child's mind wander before it gets lost?

When the Gems discover Steven wasn't waking up, the situation becomes far more dangerous than anybody could imagine. With Princess Luna for help, the Gems must go in after him. Can the Gems rescue their Steven before it's too late, or will they all be forever trapped in the nightmarish realm of Limbo?

(Even if it has an E rating, be wary of creepy stuff in it :pinkiecrazy: :pinkiecrazy: :pinkiecrazy:)

Published 2016-04-01 17:20:01 UTC
Last updated 2016-04-01 17:20:01 UTC

My Little Universe: Mindwarp Pt1

"Ready Steven?"

"Ready!"

Along the coasts of Beach City, two friends were just about ready for an end of the day activity: one involving the waves of the setting sun. Out in the water, one of the friends was a boy named Steven, who was out on a surfboard. Close by was a type of Gem, named Lapis Lazuli. The two were pretty close, being together since first meeting at the beginning of summer. At the moment, Steven and Lapis both were planning on something special that Steven wanted to try out, surfing. With Lapis being able to control water, Steven was for sure to be able to get his waves ready to go. Getting out a pair of water wings from the Gemstone on her back, Lapis flew off ahead and began to work out the water from a few blown waves to a much larger wave. Steven was a bit new to surfing, but he was for sure to try it out. After the wave was big enough, Steven began to work out the board in the right direction, and it seemed to work out pretty well. Steven began to work out his stance on the board as they went, but it was a bit harder than it looked, and Steven soon ended up knocked into the water. Soon after, Lapis quickly flew over the water to look for him, only to pop out of the surface. Soaked, yet stoked out.

"Woo!" Steven beamed, arms in the air, despite his tumble. At least he stayed balanced for ten seconds. Lapis hovered over him soon after the wipeout.

"Steven! you alright?"

"I'm fine," Steven said. However, before he could say anything else, the water under him began to darken up as something was swimming under him. Steven was suddenly lifted out of the water, but soon after seeing it, the mood of worry turned to joy again. This wasn't a danger; it was another one of Steven's friends; Amethyst. Here, she had shape shifted herself to look like a dolphin, and just as well of a swimmer. Steven was still happy.

"Hang on!" Amethyst said, and suddenly swam off at high speed. Lapis easily kept pace, Steven laughing all the while. This was something that Steven had a lot of fun doing, and something not many other kids would end up doing; to ride a dolphin around the coast. Steven was a lucky kid. As he zoomed along though, another Gem standing along the shoreline soon gave a whistle to catch their attention. This Gem was a taller, reddish Gem fusion named Garnet - leader of the Crystal Gems. That meant she had to watch over Steven as well.

"Time to come in, Steven," Garnet called. Amethyst brought Steven closer to shore, quickly changing herself back into her natural, teenager-like appearance.

"Aww, already?" Steven whined.

"Yes, Steven," Garnet replied, a finger pointing over to the sun, which was about to set at that point. As for Steven, unlike the other Gems, he still needed his sleep much like any other human would be. Even if he wanted to get himself more fun time, there's always tomorrow for another fun day. So, he agreed to it. After all, he had a lot of fun with Lapis and Amethyst already today.

So, soon after that, things got busy for heading off to bed. For the kid, he got himself busy in the bathroom to freshen up. This involved him brushing his teeth, taking his shower, changing into his PJs, that sort of thing. Since he was just out in the ocean though, it took a while longer to clean up the sea salt from his hair, but that wasn't too much trouble for him to take care of. Besides, it wasn't much of a hurry anyway, and it was dark by the time he was done (dark enough for him to fall asleep anyway). The Beach House was quiet at the moment, only Steven and Garnet in the Beach House, as Steven went to his bedroom, and got himself into bed. Steven looked over to a picture right beside his bed, showing himself in a group photo with plenty of other people too. However, the other six looked like equine instead; ponies as a matter of fact. With Steven's adventures, his friends included a unicorn, two Pegasus, two earth ponies and an alicorn, about as friendly to him as the other Gems were. He knew each of them well at this point, as they've helped him out and had plenty of fun with him before.

"Don't worry; you'll have all day tomorrow. For now, it's time for cutie pie to go to sleep," Garnet said with a smile. Steven laid down comfortably, as Garnet tucked him in.

"Goodnight, Garnet," Steven said with a smile. Garnet gave Steven a motherly kiss on the cheek, before getting up.

"Goodnight, Steven. I love you," Garnet said, heading downstairs. Steven was left with a warm fuzzy when Garnet did that, and Garnet knew that. If Steven was going to sleep well, might as well leave with in a good mood for a great night. So, after that, the fusion went to the back, and went through the back door to her room. Before Steven went off to sleep, he took a glance to the front door, seeing the mural of another Gem above it. This Gem was named Rose Quartz, a sympathetic Gem and former leader of the Gems. However, for many of the Gems, Steven was the only one who didn't get to know her. But that didn't have any connection with her. Steven took a moment to rest his hand on his stomach, where he felt his own gemstone as well. On the picture, Rose's gemstone was on her stomach, and Steven's gemstone was in the same place. The gemstone was his only proof that his mother was Rose herself. Aside from the gemstone though, his own knowledge about Rose was minimized to only words spoken by the other Gems. All Steven did was sigh, before he closed his eyes and went to sleep. After all, he had a lot tomorrow to do, and he didn't need to bum himself out over that anyway.

.....

It didn't take too long before Steven's mind was off into his own dreams. From his bed back in Beach City, Steven opened his eyes to find himself in a completely different place. As dreams go, this one was about as typical as a dream could get; in this case, Steven was in the middle of a grassy field by himself, seeing grass horses gallop across the plain, as a flock of cloud, in the shape of geese, flew over his head. The hillsides were wavy, and rather green with some parts floating around all on their own. It was a typical dream set of logic. Also, he wasn't alone; he was actually playing a game of chess on a blanket with what looked like a young dog, but with a helicopter propeller on its back. In their game, the dog move over another piece on the board.

"I win." a voice said, which Steven assumed came from the dog he was playing with.

"Oh, what? That was a good move!"

"Thanks.

"Dogcopter. How do you do it?"

"How do I do what?"

"I mean, what's your secret? How'd you get so talented?"

"Don't focus so much on talent, Steven. Making art is all about communication. A piece of art is a conversation. Every choice you make, is a statement. -" The dog took a moment to eat one of the chess pieces. " - Don't worry about labels or conforming to a standard. Just be true to yourself, and people will appreciate your honesty."

"Woah. Thanks for the advice." Steven said, closing his eyes for a moment to let the words sink in. Such lovely advice from a doggy helicopter. When Steven opened his eyes to look, all of a sudden, he found that dogcopter was gone. Just as fast, the blanket and chess game had gone as well. Steven looked around, but then all the birds, horses, and even hillsides suddenly vanished into a blank void. Looking back down, the hill he was on had suddenly changed to a rounded platform, with one path leading forward to only one thing. It looked like the path lead to another platform, but Steven saw himself standing on that same platform. Steven found himself moving forward until he was face to face with himself, just inches away. Steven went forward with one hand, only to find that his hand didn't contact anything in particular. In fact, his hand went right through, making the reflection ripple like water. Steven looked to his hand in surprise, yet his curiosity over this odd thing he found overcame him. Soon, in a simple motion, he went right through, disappearing from sight ...

~~~~~~

The morning sun began to break over Beach City, and the gentle warmth of the sun rested within the Beach House. At the moment, it seems that nobody was up, including Steven who was still sound asleep in bed. To the back, the doors opened up to one of the Gems. This gem was smaller, about Steven's size overall, aptly named Peridot. Peridot was a rather newer Gem, not one of the original members like Garnet and Amethyst, but still she had her own perks for the group. Bored with nothing to do, Peridot looked around the room for something to do. Looking over, she noticed Steven in his bed. Peridot found Steven as her source of entertainment after a while, so maybe getting him up will have something to do.

"Steven!" Peridot said, only assuming Steven will wake up to that. However, there was no response to Peridot's call, which the Gem was for sure would get him up anyway. Peridot climbed up to Steven's bedroom, seeing that he was still fast asleep.

"Hey!" Peridot said. Still, oddly, Steven remained asleep despite the demand. That just left Peridot a little perplexed, but before she could go any further, the front door suddenly opened up to a portal of white. It wasn't any threat or any danger, though something pink and very fast suddenly shot out. Like a bouncy ball, the thing bounced around the room more and more. Peridot ducked for cover until the pink object landed right on Steven's bed. Turned out, she was one of Steven's pony friends - Pinkie Pie. The giddy pink mare bounced on Steven bed for a bit.

"Play date! Play date! Wake up sleepyhead!" Pinkie beamed...

Still nothing. Steven was still asleep. Pinkie stopped bouncing when she realized Steven wasn't waking up, and Peridot was for sure that would've done it. This was really getting weird at this point; the loud noise and light in Steven's face should've woken him up by now. In the back, the door opened up to have the other Gems come over, hearing the commotion from Pinkie Pie. They included Lapis, Garnet, Amethyst, and two others. One was a lean, white Gem named Pearl, and the other a large, muscular, orange Gem named Jasper.

"What's going on in here?" Garnet asked. Peridot went over to them as Pinkie tried to wake Steven up.

"Well, it seemed Steven is still in his sleeping state," Peridot informed, a thumb to the sleeping Steven. Suddenly Pinkie pulled out a trumpet from her mane and blew in it hard. It made a few of them jump, but Steven didn't flinch. Annoyed, she threw the trumpet aside (hitting Garnet in the head), and she suddenly popped up with an even louder instrument; a tuba. Pinkie blew hard into it, the loud bellow of the trumpet making everyone jump. But Steven didn't flinch either. Frustrated, Pinkie threw the tuba back (landing on Jasper's head) and brought out the big guns; a megaphone! Panicked, Pearl quickly covered her mouth before she can break anybody's eardrums.

"That won't be needed, Pinkie," Pearl quickly noted, removing the megaphone before they could try it. Still, the fact that Steven didn't even flinch or wake up was starting to worry them. Why was he still asleep, even after all that?!

"Something's wrong here," Garnet concurred, going to Steven's bed. Lapis landed nearby, also worried.

"Is he okay?" Lapis asked. Garnet felt his hand for a second, feeling a pulse still.

"He's just sleeping. But he should've awoken by now."

"Stand back; I got this. Lapis, water wing," Amethyst said. Lapis brought out her water wing, which Amethyst pulled over Steven's head. The water dripped down on Steven's head, but it didn't seem to work either. Amethyst shook the wing for more water to fall on him, but Steven was still asleep even after that.

"Okay kid, ready?" Amethyst said, reaching for Steven's eyelids. Of noise wasn't gonna work, she'll make him wake up. Having a grip on them, Amethyst pulled them open. Steven's eyes, despite Amethyst being right in front of him, seemingly stated off into space.

"Yo, Steven! Rise and shine buddy!" Amethyst said, Pinkie joining the gesture with her big grin. Still no response. Amethyst snapped the eyelids back into Steven's head - which didn't work either - and looked to the others, shrugging.

"That's all I got."

"You all done yet?" Jasper asked, getting bored.

"Jasper, this is serious, he's not waking up!" Pearl snapped. Jasper raised an eyebrow.

"I'm not stupid, I have eyes to see that. You're just overreacting."

"I'M NOT OVERREACTING!" Pearl snapped. The scream didn't work either. Rolling her eyes, Jasper went right over to Steven, pulling him from bed and holding him in front of her. Steven's body was completely limp as Jasper held him firmly with both hands. Pearl and Lapis were a bit worried over what the powerhouse was going to do to him. First, Jasper shook him rather roughly up and down, and that didn't work. Jasper then tried flicking his forehead - that didn't work. Frustrated, Jasper went a bit far with her physical force, and slapped Steven good and hard right across the face! That succeeded in freaking out the others with the loud slap and left a red mark on his cheek. Anyone in the right mind would've woken up by now ...

But it didn't work.

Garnet quickly took him away before Jasper would go any further.

"Humans sure can sleep through anything. Do their tolerance decrease in this state?" Peridot.

"Not this far," Lapis said in worry. No human can sleep through loud noise and physical abuse that strong without at least a groan, moan, or SOMETHING! Steven though was still deep in sleep. Garnet held Steven gently, looking down to Steven face. She didn't show it, but she was about as worried as anyone else at this point. Was this something outside just regular sleep? ...

"I got an idea."

~~~~~~

It didn't take too long, and as far as things were going that was a good thing. If Steven's sleeping was something bigger than they could figure out, then Garnet decided that they should head for somewhere where magic was not only of better use, but much more understood; Equestria. Throughout the summer before, they've hopped back and forth between their world, and Equestria. At this point, it had become a pretty regular thing overall. In this case, maybe somepony from Equestria can help the Gems with Steven's predicament. With Steven Universe still asleep, the Gems brought Steven over to one of Steven's other friends within Equestria. This one was a purple alicorn named Twilight, and with Twilight's large study on magic, perhaps she could figure something out for them. Arriving at Twilight's library, Garnet brought Steven to Twilight, placing him down gently inside the room, Twilight trying to think on what to do.

"How long was he like this?" Twilight asked.

"He's been like that all morning - we tried everything to wake him up," Lapis explained. Twilight Sparkle thought for a little bit, seeing the slightly red mark where Jasper slapped him still, so they've tried some big ways at least. Eventually, Twilight sparkle nodded, but Pinkie suddenly jumped at her.

"Please wake him up! WE'RE LATE FOR OUR PLAY DATE!" Pinkie begged, shaking Twilight for a bit as she did.

"Okay, okay, I think I got something," Twilight said, getting Pinkie to let go as she put some distance between herself and Steven. "I've studied a spell that wakes anypony from sleep that should be just what we need. Alright, here we go." The Gems moved away, despite some worry, as Twilight's horn began to glow. After some strong focus, Twilight ended up making some bring rings which went right towards Steven. The rings went around Steven's head, and soon disappeared. They waited for something to happen ...

nothing.

Steven was still asleep.

"What was that?!" Peridot suddenly snapped, seeing that as simply nothing. Twilight tried again, but again, Steven still was passed out as ever.

"I don't get it, that should've done it," Twilight wondered, as Pinkie Pie opened his eyelid and waved her hoof just to make sure. Twilight decided to try one more time as Pinkie had Steven's eye open. Pinkie bolted aside just as Twilight fired, but unlike before, the rings suddenly came to a halt before it got to Steven, almost like it was either getting knocked away or sliced up with each ring. Only one got the closest to go around Steven's head, to which it almost appeared to be pulled apart and split in two. Everybody and everypony seemed a little silent about this; the way that the rings were moved away was not of Twilight's own power, nor was it intentional by any means. And it seemed painfully obvious that there was something deeply wrong here. Since Pinkie was closest to Steven and whatever the hat did that, she made a large sidestep over to a safer distance (Aka the other side of the room). Twilight did the only other thing; a quick scan with her horn to see if any apparition or haunting was there.

However, nothing seemed to show up. Whatever did that was either hiding away somewhere or had disappeared before Twilight could catch it. Either way, the Alicorn was starting to wonder what was really going on with Steven, or how the heck it happened? Same things went with the Gems too (well, most of them anyway). They knew Steven couldn't stop that kind of magic without some form or shield, and you can't exactly react fast enough while sleeping like this. Pearl moved over to Steven, kneeling down to his level, very worried for him. Could he be possessed by something to make him this way?

"Sweet Luna, this is much bigger than I thought," Twilight thought aloud.

"No, no, no, there must be some way to wake him up!" Pearl said, her hands gripping her head as she went on the verge of freaking out. An alicorn can't wake him up?! If that couldn't be done, what's to come for Steven? Is he to stay asleep like this forever? That was something Pearl didn't want to think about. Garnet looked over to Steven. He surely did look lifeless at this point, but his breathing can tell them that death wasn't the case (at least, not a physical death, or a literal one). Garnet needed to think some more on what to do, or who to contact. However, Twilight own mention of 'Luna' seemed to work some gears in her mind.

"Can the princesses help?" Garnet asked, looking to Twilight. Twilight quickly thought for a moment. Maybe they can help them out with Steven!

"Give me a second." Twilight flew off to her own bedroom, where her assistant was still snoozing in his bed. This little guy was named Spike, Twilight little dragon assistant. Spike wasn't having the same problem as Steven, he just had on some earmuffs to keep him asleep. The alicorn's magic easily pulled them off, waking the dragon up.

"Hey, I'm taking a nap," Spike said, rubbing his eye. He gave a yawn, but only then did Spike suddenly notice the Gems there. Spike looked over to Twilight.

"Uh ... Did I miss something?"

"I'll tell you later. right now, I need a message sent."

~~~~~~

-- Bring Steven to Canterlot Castle. If we can have a look, we might be able to find a solution. --

That was the overall reply from the princesses soon after the message was received and got the Gems over to the castle. Twilight and Spike too were with them and waited. The information wouldn't be given right away, as the princesses in question - Celestia and Luna apply named - had to check him out first. The wait as well seemed to be a rather long one, or at least it felt like it to the others waiting. The Gems had to wait outside of one room of the castle. while the others waited patiently, Pearl ended up pacing in complete worry over what answer would come around. Even if not meaning to, the pacing was starting to bug some of the other Gems as well.

"Can you quit pacing? He'll be fine," Amethyst said, getting a bit edgy herself from seeing Pearl pacing about.

"I can't help it, who knows what could've happened? Just yesterday he was fine and wide awake, but now he won't react to anything," Pearl reminded, getting more paranoid as she was talking. About as annoyed as Amethyst was, Jasper flicked Pearl right in the temple, knocking her over.

"Thanks," Amethyst said. Jasper just nodded, as Pearl got back up, rubbing where Jasper flicked her. A bit rough, but it stalled her just enough, as the doors opened up. Celestia and Luna were both standing there, looking to the others.

"Did you find anything out?" Twilight asked. The princesses looked to eachother first before answering.

"We have. Come here."

The Gems went on inside the room to see Steven. The room that Celestia and Luna brought him to was Celestia's royal bedroom, the light outside shining in. It was fairly big, plenty enough for the others to fit in comfortably. On the bed, tucked in, they all saw Steven just lying there in his sleep. He looked so peaceful just lying there, not uttering a sound. Still, Celestia and Luna both knew that there was something more troubling than it seemed to be. Twilight moved over to Steven, looking down to him.

"What's wrong with him?" Lapis asked.

"We do have one theory. But one question first; how long was he like this?" Celestia asked.

"We found him this morning like this. He was just fine last night," Garnet explained. Celestia and Luna looked to Steven before Celestia continued.

"Then our theory is true. Steven has been hexed during his slumber, and his conscious mind became dormant. In short, he's unable to wake up in our world."

"But he was like this back in our world, wasn't he?" Amethyst asked, scratching her head. Luna sighed.

"Not that way. We mean that his mind is trapped in his dreams, and he's unable to return to the real world."

"What's this "dream" thing?" Peridot asked.

"You never heard of dreams?" Spike asked.

"We Gems don't require this "sleep" practice like you organic creatures."

Luna then spoke.

"It's a state of mind while a creature sleeps. Your mind and soul are placed in a world beyond time and direction, and where logic has no effect. And I'm afraid Steven's mind and soul had been tampered with ..."

"What're you talking about?" Asked Twilight. Luna sighed, looking away for a moment and moving out onto an open balcony nearby. The Alicorn looked out to the setting sun (it was close to bringing out the moon for the night anyway).

"I'm afraid I know exactly who did this to Steven," Luna began, a sigh escaping her muzzle. With a nod of her head, Celestia aided in a projection from her own magic, knowing what she was talking about, detailing the frames and images to Luna's words perfectly.

"Thousands of years ago, there had been mysterious cases all over Equestria when ponies, and other creatures will end up in a deeply hibernated state, unable to wake up no matter what anypony had done. Me and my sister tracked the problem to a mysterious being within the frozen north, known simply as "Lucid". In order to awaken the ponies, we defeated him, and banished him to the deepest abyss of the dreamscape - the realm of Limbo, where he'd remained ever since. Somehow, he had contacted Steven and is doing the same to him."

"But ... But how?" Pearl asked.

"I'm not sure yet. But I do know this; Steven's consciousness has become lost. And now, it needs to come back," Luna explained. Her horn glowed as the sun outside disappeared, and everyone watched as the Alicorn began her nightly duty of raising the moon. She had to do that at least.

"And how do you expect to do that?" Jasper asked, arms crossed.

"Not me. You. All of you Gems have to go in after him, otherwise he'll never be the same again." Now things were a bit weird. Okay, so something from the dreamscape had taken Steven away, and now the mission was clear, but confusing. How are they supposed to go after him if it wasn't in the real world? However, the first to actually catch an idea for how Amethyst was, who got comfortable on the floor with her hands behind her head and laying on her back.

"Now we're talking. Ready when you are," Amethyst said.

"What're you doing, we have to figure this out," Pearl said.

"Actually, that's exactly it. Steven's mind is trapped in the dreamscape, and the only way for you to go find him is to enter the dreams yourselves," Celestia explained.

"Once you all do that, I'll connect your dreams to Steven, and you can find him from there. Be warned though; even if your physical body won't be effective, it is still as much a dangerous place to be. I can't have you in there for too long," Luna explained.

"Why?" Garnet asked.

"The realm of Limbo is more than just Lucid's refuge; the deeper you are in sleep, the stronger likelihood for you to venture further and further into Limbo. If that happens ..." Luna paused and didn't finish the last part. Still, her information was just enough to get the point across.

"Don't worry princess, we'll get Steven back."

"Not you, Twilight."

"Huh?"

"Listen. Steven's not a pony like you, and therefore I'm unable to connect your species' dreams to his. I'm sorry but this is a mission for the Gems only. Besides, somepony has to watch over them while they sleep. Anything can happen for the time they're in slumber, and they need someone in this world to make sure they're safe. Understand? I'll be here to help," Luna explained. Twilight didn't really enjoy that answer, but if the Gems are able to go, then she had to contribute to help in some way.

"I think we'll be fine without a bodyguard," Jasper said at a point.

"Your bodies will be as inactive as Steven is, making you unable to defend yourself in the real world. Yes, you need somepony on watch. And if you are to go, we have to do it now. If the sun rises to the next day, then you'll be cut off."

"Can't you keep it nightfall until they come back?" Twilight insisted.

"I would if I could. I know this may sound unfair, but all of Equestria needs the passing of the days. I can't halt time for you to find your friend - I can't keep it night forever," Luna explained, feeling a slight sense of guilt for saying that. Still, it was the truth.

"Let's do it," Garnet said. If it means to save Steven, the risk is worth the reward. However, most of the group didn't have much clue where to start since they never needed sleep. Garnet and Amethyst knew the idea of it and were ready to go. In fact, Amethyst got a head start and was already asleep. Lapis, being more flexible on the idea, laid down by the bed with her back to the bed frame, and copied what Amethyst did to go to sleep.

"So ... How does this work?" Pearl asked.

"Just lay down and close your eyes. I'll take care of the rest," Luna said. Still not sure what she was doing, Pearl did just what she was told, and laid down on the bed next to Steven. Jasper and Peridot could only follow their lead, again not sure what they were doing. Still, just a little bit after everyone had done so, Luna began to focus her magic to them. From her horn, a white light beamed out, a number of lines stretching to each of the Gems, including Steven. Disconnecting the line from herself, a few small, brighter lights flowed from each other Gem at rest, each light moved over to Steven's head as they did.

The Gems were on their way.

~~~~~~

Within the mentioned dreamscape, Steven was still roaming around in his own dreamworld. He had eventually gotten himself through the strange mirror-like pathway and had gotten himself in an entirely different area. From being in the grassy hillsides and blue skies, suddenly the area around him looked a bit drier, and less lively as before. At first, Steven didn't seem to recognize anything anywhere here.

"Hello?!" Steven waited for a response as he walked along, but nothing seemed to reply to him. He tried to feel for a way back, but that also seemed to disappear from behind him, so, going back to find dogcopter was out of the question. Steven wasn't sure exactly where he ended up, but all he could was roam around and try to figure it out for himself. Every step seemed to echo around surprisingly loud compared to the rest of the area. the ground was firm, flattened out, and not very much of life apart from small grass. Steven kept going forward for a while more, not seeing anything out of place until his wandering eyes caught glimpse of something moving farther away. It was very far off, so, it was almost impossible to tell what it was.

"Hey!" Steven called. But whatever it was soon disappeared from Steven sight. Something compelled him to start moving off towards whatever it was, but as he went, the ground in front of him suddenly began to split open very quickly! Steven raced back as fast as he could, but the cracking ground split open much faster than he could run, and he ended up falling right down the cliff! Steven tumbled head over heels as he screamed for a little bit, before landing on something. Sitting up afterwards and checking, turned out the item was actually a Gem injector, and it was currently active. The injector was in middle of the process of putting a gem into the earth, and as Steven looked around side to side it seemed there were a ton more.

"How'd I get to the Kindergarten?" Steven thought. He recognized this place from a few trips before, but last time he checked the place was completely abandoned, and these injectors were just as deep in disrepair. Now though, the whole place seemed very busy, and very much active. Steven saw a ton of Injectors all over the canyon wall moving about and working like clockwork, and other activity going on along the canyon floor. From where he was, the view he got from the injector got him seeing other Gems working around the canyon, but Steven couldn't tell what they were doing. However, as he tried to get a better view, suddenly the injector moved, making Steven stumble! He grabbed the injector, but it was no use, and Steven ended up falling right down to the ground below. The hit was rough, but Steven shook it off as he looked ahead. Nearby, suddenly he saw someone familiar.

Gem Log 107:

Progress on Planet Earth has been going successfully. The prime kindergarten progress was continuing on at a steady and reasonable pace.

"Peridot, glad to see you! Can you tell me what's going on here?" Steven asked. However, a number of things split her apart from his Peridot. One; she still had enhancers. Two; her Gemstone wasn't on the forehead. Three; she didn't even acknowledge Steven. Steven got up, as the Peridot was fiddling away, but before he could get her attention, this Peridot began to move away. When Steven had a better look at the other working Gems. The sizes vary from large fighter Gems, or smaller Gems in study. Many of them were different in their own way, and none of them noticed Steven standing nearby.

"That's a lot of Gems. This must be when Gems were made," Steven thought, scratching his head. However, standing there, he was right in the sight of a planted Gem, right on the wall next to him, the wall began to make an outline of another, much larger Gem (at least compared to Steven). This Gem had a white outline to her, about had a similar body set to the other fighter gems. Or at least the same in overall shape. Steven stepped back a bit as the body took shape, though apparently other Peridots took notice and were right behind him, watching as well. About three Peridots were there as the reformation was complete.

"Welcome to Homeworld," the Peridots all said in unison. Steven got up, amazed on who he saw.

Rose.

Steven didn't know what to say, but his mind went completely haywire on seeing Rose standing there (not looking to him by the way). Steven just stayed put at first, but as a Peridot stepped forward, her foot enhancer ended up too close to Steven. Not exactly considered stepping on his foot, but her enhancer almost seemed to "note clip" through Steven's leg. Steven didn't notice just yet.

"Mom!" Steven beamed, running to her to hug her. When Steven tried though, he ended up tumbling right through her! He ended up landing on the other side, towards the same hole Rose had been reformed from. It was only then did Steven realize he wasn't changing anything here.

"If you follow us, Quartz, we'll show you your proper placement," one of the Peridots said, motioning Rose to follow them. Steven watched as the curious Rose Quartz began to go. Steven got up, but suddenly the ground under him began to shift backwards. Just as Rose seemed to turn around back to him, Steven went right down into a steep, slippery incline back into the back of Rose's hole. Soon, the kid was out of sight again ...

~~~~~~

Further back, and just arriving, the other Gems needed a bit before they woke up in the dreamscape. It was something they didn't seem to end up getting used to, as they just ended up there without waking up (or knowing that they did). First thing they knew they were back at the castle in Canterlot, and the next minute they suddenly ended up somewhere completely new. Getting up, they ended up in what seemed to be some sort of city, with them at town square right by the city center clock (which by the by had no hands on it). As for the buildings, they all had a sort of 'older' look to them in terms of design and construction. Rather than the smaller buildings in Beach City, these buildings were fairly tall, though clearly built with stuff like smoothed out bricks, or cement. Still, something just felt off to the place (aside from the fact they just popped up there without any logical reason).

"Is this ... The dreamscape?" Lapis asked, looking around into the sky, which had cloud birds flying around. While many of them seemed normal as they got there, only one of them had a bit of a surprise in store for her. Peridot, got up to her feet, but as she did she suddenly realized that she was a bit taller than usual ... Then she saw her arms and legs ...

"My ... My ... MY ENHANCERS!!" Peridot could barely contain her excitement for having them back, and everyone else was just as surprised to see the enhancers back on her, despite Peridot losing hers beforehand.

"B-But how, I thought they were unable to work! She came to Canterlot without them, didn't she?" Pearl wondered, about as surprised as everyone else as Peridot went all out on her returned enhancers (basically running around and playing with them for the joy of it). Still, Amethyst wasn't too surprised.

"We're in a dream, Pearl - anything goes," Amethyst said. Unlike everyone else, Amethyst took to the dream world with a much calmer, but happier vibe to it. Being a Gem who sleeps regularly herself, she should know this stuff by now.

"Don't be silly, Amethyst, there's easily some sort of ... explanation ..." Pearl had trailed off once she looked to Amethyst again. At this point, Amethyst was actually floating in mid air, without any sort of visible power. The Gems surely know that Amethyst couldn't fly without using her shape shifting magic to make her so (say as a bird), but here nothing like that seemed to be in effect.

"What, never seen a floating Gem before?" Amethyst asked, flipping herself upside down, and staring Pearl in the face. Her hair didn't get effected by gravity, so it still went down her back rather than hang towards the ground.

"Okay, focus! Steven's here somewhere, and we have to find him before he's gone for good," Garnet reminded, beginning to walk around and looking for him. It was something that they really needed to do, and they can't get sidetracked at this point. Still, the fact that Amethyst and Peridot were ecstatic at the moment didn't seem to help her out on the matter. Garnet looked back to them, yet Jasper went over to her.

"Forget them. If they want to mess around, that's they're choice," Jasper said, not caring too much. Still, Garnet went to them anyway, as Jasper continued ahead.

"Amethyst, Peridot!" Garnet yelled. Even if it was fun, the two went over to catch up, Peridot moving on her fingers stubs because she can (you got them, might as well use them). With them going off, the place truly seemed rather empty, despite it being as well maintained as it was. No cars, no trash, as if the town had just been made within one day. Still, the exact effects of said place was leaving them all a bit on the lookout as they went, trying to figure out where Steven had gone. Lapis (and by this point, Peridot) flew up into the sky to have a better look around. there wasn't too much to really see aside from the rest of the city ...

Then, suddenly a garbage can was tossed out to the street, catching most of the Gems off guard. The Gems readied themselves for whatever would come next, as something moved out onto the street. The thing looked rather rough in appearance, and fairly huge. The beast was as tall as a horse, with the main body of a gorilla with its forelegs much longer than its hind legs. It's feet ended on hoof-like fleshy stubs, which didn't make any noise on the ground as it moved out to the street. It's head didn't belong to any normal creature, with a flattened human-like face and sharp, uneven teeth. Small white slits for eyes curved in a rough glare, and it's skin was a leathery black. The beast didn't look like it was any corrupted Gem, or a sort of normal creature. Even if in a dream, they still need to be wary.

At first, it seemed to be a stand off between them and the creature, but soon the beast locked eyes with the closest Gem; Jasper. All of a sudden, it ran forward towards her in long gallops, stopped inches from her, and roared good and loud. Instinctive response; a swift uppercut to send the beast back. The other Gems rushed forward, and the fight quickly turned one sided for the beast. Amethyst and Lapis restrained the beast by grabbing its legs. The beast struggled in their grip, but very quickly (maybe too quickly) Garnet took care of it with one powerful grab and swing. The beast was soon out of sight.

Anticlimactic, and quick.

"That's out of the way," Garnet said, moving on ahead.

"Well ... That was quick," Amethyst said in disappointment. She didn't expect the fight to be over that quickly.

"We didn't come here to fight, we came here to find Steven," Pearl said, starting to move on ahead. But, soon the Gem suddenly walked into something just in front of them. However, they didn't seem to really see what Pearl walked into, as Pearl stepped back. She felt around a little bit in front of her, feeling some sort of surface in between them and their path. It was invisible as they're concern, but no doubt something was there and in the way.

"What can you make of it?" Peridot asked.

"I'm not too sure," Pearl replied, feeling around the barrier. Garnet placed a hand on it as well, but instead of finding a strong wall, she found a liquid pathway when her hand slipped through. As she moved her hand, she actually made out the boundary of the supposed door; just tall enough for Jasper to go through.

"Found our route." Garnet announced, looking back to the others. Garnet took point and went on through, and with not much else to go, they soon started to follow.

~~~~~~

With himself tumbling down whatever hole he gotten himself into, Steven ended up finding himself stuck again. From a light above the area, Steven had a rather rough landing, right on his back. The hit was hard, and left him a bit sore as he sat up to look around. The only light in the place was where he landed, but rather than just being stuck underground underneath the Kindergarten, the place he ended up looked more open than it actually was. As for the ground, turned out the supposed dry earth was actually firm paneling, almost like metal but had a reflecting compliment to it almost like a mirror. Aside from that though, Steven couldn't see anything beyond a few feet from the light.

"Now where am I? ... Hello?!" Steven called. However his voice echoed out around him, and not seemingly reaching anyone, or anything for that matter. Steven trued to look around, trying to figure out where the heck he was, or what else was around beyond the light.

"Anyone know where I am?!" Steven asked again. His echoes still went all over the place, but not much response ... Well, not at first, anyway.

All of a sudden, Steven began to hear footsteps from further away, right behind him. When Steven turned around though, the footsteps then turned into flowing water. Looking down, water suddenly appeared under his feet, and rising fast! Steven immediately freaked out, as he ended up deep underwater. Steven instinctively held his breath as he found himself deeper and deeper in the water, ending up on a smooth sea floor. Steven at least wasn't in the dark - having more light in the blue water then when out on the metal floor. This odd ocean came with a waterfall-like effect right in front of him, providing more light for him to see. Quickly, Steven swan like mad to the light, and popped his head out to get some air. The new waterfall didn't drag him down, or pulled him up, as if he was in still water despite his vertical placement. The kid looked on ahead of him, trying to get himself out of the water. Steven only got himself half way through, but then he ended up sealed tight, unable to get himself out of the flowing water. Steven pushed as much as he could, until his body popped out like a cork from a bottle (and surprisingly just as fast). He landed right onto the ground, which was actually a open sea floor. Looking up again, Steven got to his feet and got himself a better view on his location.

Standing tall, Steven saw a huge building, a tower going straight up from the center of the dry sea bed. The huge walls of water around the tower didn't seem to be able to go any further, and as such were blocked by some sort of force. Steven didn't see any other buildings around apart from a sort of glass roof dome house nearby, but that was about it. Even if it seemed like a place that no one had been to before, Steven seemed to have some old memory of the place. Much better maintained, yeah.

"The sea spire," Steven realized. As he was looking, the kid soon noticed a number of other Gems roaming around as well, different sizes and different Gem types. Steven went on ahead, passing other Gems as he went but none of them seemed to notice. Steven didn't recognize any of them but was fascinated none the less. Soon though, up ahead, one Gem got his attention right away, which soon ended up in front of him. In fact, he ended up walking right into her. One look at the blue Gemstone on her back said it all, but when she looked back, she looked anything but joyful.

"Lapis?"

"What do you want?" Lapis asked, acting slightly cold towards him.

"Lapis, it's me, Steven, remember? Beach summer fun buddy?" Steven said, trying to remind her apparently. Still, Lapis kept a similarly rough look on her face.

"I don't know what you're talking about. Stop bothering me," Lapis insisted, going away. However, Steven followed her quickly.

"But, don't you remember? We had so much fun together back in Beach City, we explored Equestria, played in the ocean -"

"Stop bugging me. I got enough to keep track of with the Sea Spire, now go away," Lapis demanded, walking off from him. Steven tried to think, and thought of something that might get her memory going.

"Lapis! Remember this?"

Lapis turned back in a scold, as Steven took a deep breath, got his hand out, and ...

*PPPPBBBBHHHHHTTTTT*

The same fun noise Steven used while Lapis was trapped in the mirror. However, Lapis just glared at Steven before walking off, and disappearing into the crowd. Steven's heart sank, speechless from Lapis's colder demeanor towards him compared to the friendlier, fun-loving Lapis he knew. He would say that it was another Lapis if her Gemstone was in a different spot. Still, soon after she left, he suddenly found himself moving away from the lobby, and outside the Sea Spire at breakneck speed. He didn't had any control over where he was going, and soon ended up back in the deep ocean again. The kid tumbled about for a little while, but he got himself upright after a bit. He couldn't believe that Lapis would act that way, even after everything. As Steven just floated about for a while, he began to see a blur of something moving around in the water close by. Steven didn't had much clue about what it was at first, but soon it started to close in on him, with a loud moan echoing in Steven's ears.

The kid quickly began to swim upward as something huge swam past him. When looking down, Steven saw that it was actually a van-sized whale. Steven swam towards the surface as fast as he could, with the whale following close behind. As for the whale, its head was very broad and large, looking like that of a sperm whale but more compact. Steven was swimming fast, but the whale soon began to push him up very quickly until they both breached the surface. The whale ended up throwing Steven very high in the air, the kid spiraling around in the air until he ended up landing on something. It wasn't the water, but instead it turned out to be a orange life raft, which kept Steven afloat. Looking back, he still saw the sea spire, but he wasn't getting dragged to it. Instead, he was actually moving away a little bit. Appearing nearby was the same whale, but it didn't look as dangerous as before. However, the whale gently placed its head on the back of the raft, and began to push Steven away. Guess his travels weren't finished yet.

~~~~~~

Back with the Gems, the portal they'd gone through has brought them off to their next destination - wherever that was. When exiting their own source of a portal, they got themselves into what at first seemed like some dark room. However, as they ventured out, the light had gotten them to see what they had ended up; a grey, lifeless canyon, covered in holes like that of a beehive. some machines laid wrecked and didn't do well with the test of time. It was painfully clear that this was the Kindergarten, but unlike Steven's visit, this was the more 'current' condition of the Kindergarten on Earth, than the Kindergarten Steven had been to.

"What the - how'd we get here?" Jasper asked.

"Let's just look around. Keep in pairs, and split up. Come back to the others if you find him," Garnet instructed. Soon, the group's did split from there; Amethyst and Pearl, Peridot and Lapis, Jasper and Garnet.

The place made them feel pretty small compared to the tall, holed walls, the place quiet as quiet can get. Pearl and Amethyst looked around as they went, Pearl keeping front as they went. Being in such a place made Pearl a little uneasy, knowing what had occurred here, and the consequences that came to be from it. Same goes for Amethyst, who was lagging further and further behind from Pearl.

"I sure hope we find him soon. Did you find anything Amethyst? ... Amethyst?"

When Pearl turned back, Amethyst had actually disappeared, Pearl ending up in a white fog all by herself.

"Amethyst, this isn't a game!" Pearl yelled. Still, Pearl didn't hear anything or anyone. Unaware to her though, someone did start to catch up from behind.

"Don't make me look for you!"

"Then why don't you just leave?!"

Pearl turned around just in time to dodge a sudden whip attack! Looking over, Pearl saw Amethyst standing there, but she looked a bit different. For one thing, she looked about as tall and muscular as Jasper, with a similarly sadistic expression on her face.

"Amethyst!" Pearl yelled. But her anger went away fast on seeing the sadistic smile (which had shark-like teeth). She got out her whip again, and attacked Pearl with strength and speed almost unnatural. Pearl dodged them easily, but Pearl didn't get why Amethyst would do this at the drop of a hat. One whip was so quick, Pearl barely saw it and stumbled onto the ground. Amethyst charged forward and was about ready to crush her! Pearl bolted to the side as the ground shattered under Amethyst's attack.

"What're you doing, Amethyst?! This isn't you!" Pearl said, but all she got was a punch to the face, sending her flying fast. The hit missed her Gem by millimeters, but Pearl ended up landing hard on the ground, spinning head over heels until she stopped at the wall. The crash was (oddly enough) where they came from, so the crash was heard all over the place. Pearl got herself up, hearing the sound of Lapis, Peridot, Garnet and Jasper making their U-turn back to her. Lapis first arrived back, seeing Pearl pulling herself to her feet.

"Pearl! What happened?" Lapis asked.

"Amethyst," Pearl replied, regaining herself and checking her Gem. The punch left a large bruise on her face, right between the eyes. Soon, the others came around, but by the time they did Amethyst caught up.

"What happened?"

"I happened, triple eyes," Amethyst mocked, cracking her knuckles on seeing them. Jasper was the one to confront her, seeing that they matched size now.

"What's with this display?" Jasper asked.

"This is the real me, you pebble," Amethyst mocked with her smile.

"What?! Watch it!"

"Why should I? Making Gems suffer and shatter is what we Quartz are made for. This is the true me!" Amethyst said, full of pride. Jasper was about ready to fight as anybody, and Amethyst began to go forward. After a few steps though, one of her feet were grabbed and pulled from under her by another whip. At the other end of it, they all saw Amethyst - the real Amethyst - holding her down. One quick hit though, and the whip snapped in two, as this monster Amethyst faced the normal Amethyst.

"Amethyst?!" Pearl gasped.

"You again? I got better things to shatter than you right now," the monster said, referring to her friends. Yet, the real Amethyst looked angry at this other version of herself.

"I wouldn't want to fight me neither!" Amethyst growled, and charged at her monster. Quickly, the battle between them both kicked off with brutal force, both sides pummeling eachother. The others watched them go at it for a bit, as Amethyst's whip was grabbed by the monster, and Amethyst was slammed to the dirt hard! Amethyst got herself up, a bit bruised up.

"Don't bother yourself runt, you can't beat me," the monster mocked.

"I. DON'T. CARE!!"

Amethyst gave a battle cry, before sending out two whips from her Gemstone, and got a grip on her monster by the shoulders.

"I'M NOT GONNA HAVE YOU STAND THERE AND REMIND ME OF EVERYTHING I HATE ABOUT MYSELF!!!"

In one motion, the whips built up some power, and exploded once reaching her monstrous self, the explosion extremely violent. Soon, the place became very quiet, Amethyst just standing there with whips in both hands. The other Gems looked to Amethyst, hearing every word Amethyst had screamed. For Amethyst, she didn't need to see that while on this crazy mission of hers. She had anger on her face ... but tears were seen on her face.

"Amethyst ..." Pearl said at one point, slightly hushed. Amethyst turned to them, forgetting for a second that they were actually there in her rage. As she was looking though, suddenly the monster Amethyst slammed both fists into the earth, making the ground violently shake. The entire wall above them began to tip forward, about to crush them! Lapis got out some water, and quickly concealed everyone ... All but one.

"Amethyst!"

But rather than get to safety, Amethyst turned and ran, just as the wall fell on top of them! For a few seconds, everyone in Lapis's shield was safe, but wondered what happened to Amethyst. The wall soon disappeared, and Lapis removed the shield, but Amethyst wasn't anywhere to be seen. Both monster Amethyst and normal Amethyst were gone completely. Not a sign of her ...

"Oh my. Amethyst! Amethyst!" Pearl called, going out and trying to find her. Lapis quickly joined her, and the two got a head start on their little search. First Steven, now Amethyst. It didn't take too long before they figured it out though; as Pearl went by one of the many holes of the area, one of them caught her eye to the point upon stopping herself. Inside one of them looked like Amethyst, or at least Amethyst's hair, as she had her back turned to the outside. The two quickly came forward to see her.

"amethyst, there you are!" Lapis gasped in glee, happy to see Amethyst alright. However, the feeling was only mutual.

"Go away. I'm bad, and you shouldn't be around me," Amethyst said, a bit hurt in her voice.

"No you're not, don't say that."

"Yes I am! I was made here - This whole place was a mistake! I'm a big mistake!" Amethyst retorted, turning to show that she looked exactly like the monster she was fighting, feeling tears down her face. Seemed her inner monster had gotten to her. Next it was Pearl's turn to speak.

"No, no. Amethyst, you're not the mistake. You're just the byproduct of a ... big mistake." Pearl quickly saw the error in her words, blushing a bit. "No, that's not- I ... I just never thought of this as you. None of this is your fault - You didn't build this place. I-I'm sorry, Amethyst. I hope you can forgive me. You're the one good thing that came out of this mess. I always thought you were proud of that." Amethyst took a minute to just look at them both, letting the words sink in. As she was thinking, Pearl and Lapis saw her body turned less monstrous, reverting back to normal after a while. Lapis, Pearl, and Amethyst came out after a bit.

"... You both mean that?" Amethyst asked. Both Lapis and Pearl nodded to her. Though hesitant at first, eventually Amethyst went over and hugged them both. The two didn't expect that, but they both returned the gesture. After all, it sounded like she needed one after that ...

"All better?"

The three turned away on hearing that, and saw Garnet nearby, just showing up to see the hug rather than hearing the talk. Peridot and Jasper caught up after a while. Amethyst looked to them soon afterward.

"Sorry you had to see that."

"It's okay to share your feelings, Amethyst. Now, I think it's time we move on," Garnet concluded.

~~~~~~

With the wind to his back, and the sea calm, Steven continued going forward with his whale pushing him along the ocean waves. Moving along the seas gave Steven some time to think over what has happened so far; particularly with the Kindergarten and with Lapis at the Sea Spire. On one hand, he saw basically Rose being born, but on the other, Lapis Lazuli seemed to forget him entirely. He couldn't really get it, or what was going to happen next. Still, the spire was far behind him, and wherever the whale was pushing him was up ahead. Well, at least the sky was clear and the sun was shining ...

... The sun ...

Suddenly, the raft hit something rather abruptly, sending Steven forward. The object looked like land, but purely made of metal, or some sort of smooth material not of Earth. When the raft hit, the whale nodded and swam away.

"Thank you," Steven said, waving to the whale. The whale waved a fun back before it disappeared underwater. As for Steven, he went onto the metal platform, pulling the raft on too after some effort (could come in handy). Soon after he did, he got a good look over where he got to this time. So far, he ended up in he Kindergarten, the Sea Spire, and now ... well, Steven didn't even remotely recognize this place. It was a large, arena-like place that also seemed to have a ton of Gems amongst the crowd. Unlike before though, this crowd all looked like silhouettes, with a single color splitting one from another. Each one had holes on them showing their mouths, eyes, and where their Gemstones were. To Steven, they looked like colored paper cutouts for the most part. As with before at the Sea Spire, none of them really bothered with him, and instead kept their attention to each other. Steven couldn't understand what they were saying, but that didn't mean he didn't try anything.

"Hello? Can you tell me where I am? ... Hello?" Steven tried to tug on one of the Gem's arms to get some attention, but when he tried, his hand ended up going right through the Gem! It was like as if he was trying to grab a hologram. Steven went around and tried his luck with other Gems, but it ended up the same. That meant one of two things; either all the Gems weren't truly there, or he's not really there himself. Still, he wasn't going to get any information this way. At first, nothing seemed to really happen.

"Does anyone know I'm here?!" Steven yelled, trying to get some attention. But his voice was put on deaf ears, and no one responded to him, or acknowledged him to any extent. Ironically, Steven felt alone for a little bit amongst the crowd, until ...

"We. Are the Crystal Gems!"

Steven immediately had stars in his eyes and a smile on his face as he turned to see his friends. Looking up above, he did ended up seeing a familiar Gem; Pearl.

"Pearl! There you -" Steven suddenly stopped when he saw her fully, his mood turning to unsureness. Pearl looked a bit different here than before. First of all, her outfit was a bit different, and actually had a slightly different pallet in color; this included a small ballerina-like silk skirt. Her skin was, ever so slightly, darker than normal, her hair a bit longer and closer to what Lapis's hair would look like, and she had two swords in her hands. However, he didn't see Garnet, Amethyst, Lapis, or anyone of the other Crystal Gems. The only other person he did see though, was actually Rose Quartz! The same Gem he saw back at the Kindergarten, and she and Pearl both were now here, and apparently ready for battle.

All of a sudden, Pearl and Rose went right down, as some of the other Gems took battle with them. It was Pearl who'd shown true infamy in the battlefield, slicing and dicing any who gotten close. At one point, two larger warrior Gems charged her, and all Pearl did was swipe at them both, one sword per attacker, to defeat them. Further away, he then saw something interesting; Rose ... and Ruby. However, this Ruby not only had three other Gemstones on her, but she was huge! Easily, she was Jasper's size, if not bigger, and this Ruby was charging at Rose. However, with a smirk, Rose easily defeated the supposed fusion with a few punches, the fusion splitting from one to three. Two of the three Rubies were suddenly sliced up by Pearl, leaving only one Ruby left. Now, Steven was worried. And what's worse, Pearl landed with blades raised ... at Sapphire?!

"thank you, Ruby. You did your best," Sapphire said, unfazed. Then ... something strange happened. For Steven, anyway.

Naturally, Steven raced over to try to stop the carnage. Even if he couldn't touch anything, or interact with anybody, but he had to try something before Pearl could finish Sapphire off. As he ran, he didn't notice but, he began to change a bit. His skin turning red, his hair larger and square, his voice from a young boy to a tomboy. Next thing he knew (or rather, she knew at this point) reached Sapphire just in time, and tackled her out of the way before Pearl's blades could meet with her head. As the two were in mid air for the moment, both of their bodies began to glow bright. Steven knew exactly what that meant ...

Just a few seconds later, his body fused with Sapphire, and they both turned into something very different; taller, mixed colors of blue and pink like mixed paint, three eyes on the face ...

He found himself as a Garnet!

All of the gems around him looked at him with shock and disapproval - something he was not used to. What happened? How did he end up as a Garnet?! He couldn't make sense of it, nor knew what was going on but he saw Rose and Pearl staring at him with similar expressions. Soon, the two went away physically (jumping away), but the world around him started to shrink, leaving him with less of a arena to stand on. The only thing not growing was the raft, which Steven ran to (which was easier with his apparent new body). Soon, he ended up tumbling on the shrinking edge, and landed on the raft. The only good thing was that the raft acted like a parachute as he fell down from the arena, to the seemingly endless sky. The arena had disappeared completely, but Steven remained a Garnet still. He could only float down on his raft to wherever he was going. Steven looked to the sky one more time before he disappeared into the lower clouds ...

~~~~~~

"Any luck?" Garnet asked, after everyone came together. However, the overall answer was no, much to her dismay.

"Let's go then."

As for the Crystal Gems, their walk about was left with less of a result. The Kindergarten was searched up and down, but Steven wasn't found anywhere. There wasn't any more incidents thanks to Amethyst's own closure over her issues, but that didn't mean she didn't want to stay around any longer than they need to. After going through all of the Kindergarten, it had become painfully clear that they were going nowhere, and time was getting away from them. If they don't go now, there's going to be a lot of trouble for both them and for Steven.

"Please be okay, Steven," Garnet thought. The last thing they needed to find was him in any serious danger while trying to find him. All they could do was try to find a way out of the canyon. Since they couldn't find any Warp Pads, they were stuck walking. As they were though, something from the shadows was keeping an eye on the traveling Gem group. Hidden deeply in the wall, the creature remained unnoticed by any of the Gems. Out of them all though, Peridot like they were being watched. With all of the dark shadows, and the many holes in the canyon walls, Peridot was left thinking that something was just hiding in the darkness. Time and time again, Peridot kept looking around, to make sure no other surprises were actually there. Next to her, Lapis noticed Peridot's own worry.

"Don't worry, Peridot, we'll be going soon," Lapis said, trying to comfort her, arm around Peridot's shoulders.

"I'm not worried ... much," Peridot insisted. She didn't want to be seen as scared, but, it was kind of hard to. Being in such a dark place, the watcher had plenty of room to keep itself hidden, despite Peridot's vision. As they kept going, the figure snuck along the walls until it eventually perched itself in one of the holes, higher up the walls. Peridot kept glancing along the walls, and finally did catch a glimpse of whatever was watching them. All she could see was a black humanoid figure, looking down like a vulture. It had a deeply judging look, trying to see what the Gems had to offer in this dreamscape. Before Peridot could say anything, the figure disappeared once she blinked, making her wonder if she did see anything real or not. Then again, the dreamscape's rules don't match up with the real world, so -

"Ah!"

The sudden scream made everyone jump, and turned back. Soon, they all noticed something wrong; Lapis Lazuli was gone! No sign of any struggle, just two footprints in the dirt, and only taking mere seconds to disappear! Where'd she go?

"Lapis!"

........

For Lapis, she opened her eyes, and suddenly found herself ... well, somewhere. It was far too dark to exactly see anything aside from herself. It was deeply quiet, and not a single soul was around. The only thing in this void was Lapis herself, though she could've sworn something got her before she ended up there.

"Hello?!" Lapis called. Her voice was left in a long echo, telling Lapis that wherever she was wasn't as small as she thought. Even her footsteps left some small echo as she moved around, though personally she was unsure on where to actually go, or where the right direction would be. There wasn't anything that Lapis could see that would point her the right way. All and all, the only thing that she can manage to go, is forward. Lapis kept looking around for some sort of sign of anything left, but it was painfully obvious that the farther she moved, the more obvious that she was completely alone.

"Pearl! Amethyst, Garnet! ... Steven ..." Lapis felt a small tear go down her face. "Please ... I don't want to be alone. Not again ..." The Gem soon sat down after a while ... But then she heard something.

Farther away, she heard the sound of footsteps coming her way. Lapis didn't react at first, but soon she felt something touch her back. The object felt cold and flat against her Gemstone, and Lapis got herself around to see it. Soon, she was face to face with her own reflection, casted on her by a large full body mirror. While it may not be frightening to some, Lapis quickly backed up in pure shock. She didn't say a word, but the mirror seemed to move closer to her, making her even more panicked. What's worse is that the reflection showed a dully colored version of herself, with eyes that reflect just as the mirror did. That was more than Lapis could take, as she took off running.

That didn't mean her own version of a nightmare; more and more mirrors spawned up all around her, until she ended up trapped in a room of mirrors! No matter where she turned, no matter what corner she tried to get, she only saw her reflection in a mirror. She was horrified to the point of tears.

"STEVEN!! HELP!!" Lapis cried in her panic, falling to the ground and curling up into a ball, tears streaming from her face. All the mirrors boxed her in, so she was simply stuck - much to her horror.

"Steven. I need you," Lapis sobbed. As she just laid there, feeling the eyes of her mirror selves staring her down, she then heard something else. Something oddly calming, yet a bit confusing.

Steven laughing.

Lapis looked over, and found a very familiar hand mirror within arms reach. Without getting up, Lapis reached out, and felt the handle of the mirror before bringing it to her. Looking at this one, Lapis didn't see herself. Instead, she was seeing her times with Steven, starting from the very start when Steven freed her from her mirror. Lapis continued watching, actually starting to relax as she saw all of the good times she had with her beach summer fun buddy. With her trip to Equestria with her friend, to the shenanigans she'd done with Steven, even down to the surfing she and Steven did just before this problem started.

"... Steven ..." Her face soon had a smile on it after the visuals were presented to her. When it was done, Lapis saw her own reflection in the mirror, but not altered. She gently placed the mirror down, and got to her feet. Steven wouldn't want to see her like this. Her face showed strong determination.

"I'm Lapis Lazuli! And you can't keep me trapped here anymore!"

Getting out as much water as she could muster, she went all out on the mirrors around. Not exactly breaking them, but sending them off out of her sight with a powerful water current. With confidence regained, she got her arms to work, and the water got every single mirror almost instantly. Very soon, all but one mirror had been removed; the only mirror there was the small hand mirror she spared. After that, she picked up the mirror with a gentle grip, a smile equally sweet. But there was one more twist to this.

The hand mirror began to float out of Lapis's hands, and grew into a door. With a nod, and a smile, Lapis didn't hesitate ...

........

Lapis ... Lapis! ...

Lapis opened her eyes to see the other Gems again, still in the Kindergarten as she was before.

"Huh? Guys?"

"You alright Lapis? We found you passed out over here," Amethyst said. Lapis got to her feet.

"Yeah ... Yeah, I think so," Lapis said.

"That's a relief," Pearl said. After a little bit, while Lapis had finished her ordeal, something else then presented itself. Further away, Jasper began to come over.

"Hey, found another wall portal over here," Jasper informed, pointing away.

~~~~~~

Meanwhile, Steven, in his Garnet form, was still floating around slowly downward in the life raft. He didn't know where he was going, or why he was in this fused state anyway, but either way the Garnet could only lay there, looking up at passing clouds like they were laying on a hill. What else could he do anyway? Jump off and hope he lands safely on the ground from an impossible height? Course not. However, with this fusion he was stuck in, he also had Sapphire in his mind as well, and Steven didn't know how to deal with it.

"Lovely clouds," Sapphire said from his head.

"Yeah, they are," Steven replied. In his head, Steven and Sapphire were both side by side, though Steven wasn't aware of his body change just yet.

"Do ... Do you know where we're going?"

"We could be anywhere. It's fun to guess though in a dream."

Steven felt a bit surprised on hearing that.

"Dream?"

"You didn't know that yet?" Sapphire asked.

"Hm ... Well, I fused with you, grew too big for the arena, and floating down on a life raft ... Yeah, I'm dreaming," Steven concluded. Sapphire smiled.

"So ... where do you think we're going?" Sapphire asked.

"Somewhere safe, I hope."

After a while, the Garnet looked off down from the raft, Steven and Sapphire both looking down to where the clouds were starting to clear up. Under them, the ground slowly began to become visible out of the cloud cover. The place opened up from the open sky, to flying around skyscrapers. All of them weren't overall new, but they both saw the reflection in the glass windows, but rather than the Garnet, they instead see themselves sitting by eachother. It was only then did Steven notice that he wasn't himself, with his skin red and square afro.

"W-Wha?!"

"Breathe, Steven."

"But when did I -"

"When you fused with me. Don't worry, I'll be with you the whole way," Sapphire promised. After a little bit, the raft landed gently on the empty roads below. No one else was around, so, it was safe to go and look around. The Garnet got up and began to go around for a bit more. Within the city, they both felt quite small, even if fused together. The towering structures, with the lack of people, just left them with a bit of loneliness, and even uncomfortable. Still, the fusion continued to move around the empty city regardless of that. After all, they both don't entirely know where they are, nor where they're going. Steven and Sapphire both took the time to look around, occasionally seeing the reflection of a Ruby and a Sapphire in the glass mirrors. They began to hear some sort of odd whisper after a while, seemingly coming from nowhere...

The sound of the whispers began to have some sort of effect on the Garnet, making both Steven and Sapphire more and more tired. Soon, still in their fusion, they both could no longer keep awake. The Garnet gently laid down, and was soon fast asleep ... With a looming shadow hovering over them.

........

Farther away, still in the city, the other Gems had arrived from their other portal found by Jasper. They all were on their guard after what happened at the Kindergarten, not wanting any surprise attacks this time around. After looking around the area for a bit, it was clear they had a bit of searching to do in this city if they were to find him.

"It'll take forever to find him here," Amethyst stated. The others quickly realized she was right; from what they could see they won't be able to find him around here so quickly. It was a pretty big city after all.

"You're right. We can't waste anymore time," Garnet said, beginning to move ahead. It was all they could do in order to find Steven. With what happened with Amethyst and Lapis though, it was probably better to keep together than to split up. With that in mind, they all kept together and kept their eyes open for any sort of trouble, or any sign of Steven. By the looks of the city though, that'll be a long time to accomplish - time they don't have.

"Lapis, Peridot. Try to fly up and see if you can spot him," Garnet said.

"You positive about that?" Peridot asked. After seeing Amethyst's struggle, and Lapis being knocked out, going off into the sky could have some sort of consequence. Plus, she was the only one who saw that figure back in the Kindergarten anyway, which left her on edge. Still, Garnet nodded.

"We'll wait right here," Garnet promised. While the two still were slightly a bit concern about it, if it means to find Steven, then they might as well try it. So, the two fliers got up in the air (not too far away), and tried to have a better look. However, with the tall buildings, it was hard to exactly look around the place. They can see further down the road, but not past any of the other buildings or glass windows. Not a single soul seemed to be around really, but both Lapis and Peridot kept close together just in case there was something waiting to get them. However, as they looked on ahead down the road, something else started to show itself farther down the path. It seemed rather far away, about a mile down, but something else was starting to move around the road, seemingly dragging something across the way. It was just too far away for Lapis to get a good picture of it, but Peridot seemed to have a much better view of the situation than most. What she saw there looked like two people, one passed out on the ground, and the other dragging her as best as it could. For the figure on the ground, she looked like someone dumped pink and blue paint on her, and the other ... well, it looked like some large, hunched over figure. The head was small, but expression was impossible to tell.

"Anything?!" Garnet called.

"Something's going on down the road," Lapis called back. Peridot looked closely at the figure, not noticing the Gems farther away. Soon though, Lapis took a closer look, but rather than seeing one, she saw someone else ...

"Wait ... Someone's in trouble down - IT'S STEVEN!" Lapis called in shock, looking through some binoculars to see the details ...

"Where'd you get those?" Peridot asked.

"Convenient, now come on," Lapis replied, tossing them aside. Peridot just rolled her eyes, but at least they had someone close. Lapis was off like a light, with the others running to catch up with her. Peridot also flew close by her, trying to get to them. The figure dragging the fusion noticed Lapis and Peridot coming in hot, and suddenly disappeared in a quick movement. It wasn't any natural teleportation, or even running; the figure holding the other and just floating off at high speed. With the dream logic coming into play, all the other Gems were moving very fast in order to catch up with this odd figure, flying or running, but no matter how fast they went, or how many turns they had to make, they couldn't catch up to the figure for the life of them, or for whoever it had. As for the figure in question, it seemed undeterred by their chase, and kept a strong grip on its target, and it wasn't letting any of them get close no matter how fast they were going. Out of all of them though, Lapis was going the fastest, and was the most determined to get Steven back. With her water wings almost at a hummingbird's pace, she reached out and finally grabbed Steven's hand. The figure turned back as they were flying fast, Lapis trying to get it to let go.

Lapis's eyes were glued to the face she was staring at; the figure didn't had a face per say, having on a mask. This mask though was having a odd pattern to it; eyes staring off into space, a menacing grin, and a nose straight forward the size of a eggplant. Even if scary wasn't the main point, it was by far disturbing, especially with the chase they were doing. As she was looking at it, a strange whisper was starting to echo in Lapis's ears ...

Then, she too had passed out.

The figure watched as Lapis loosened her grip and ended up falling back as the figure disappeared behind one of the glass buildings. While Lapis tumbled, Jasper ended up catching her, while the rest skidded to a stop. Lapis was back asleep again, and the figure had slipped away. Course, they saw where it went, and they weren't having any of it.

"Get back here!" Pearl demanded, chasing after the figure. Pearl though couldn't go pass the glass walls. Pearl felt around, but then remembered what Amethyst said.

We're in a dream, anything goes.

So instead, Pearl tried thinking of something to lead them to their goal - at least somewhat. After a bit, the glass window began to disappear, and Pearl started to pass through. On the other side was a simple box room, with a bed inside. On the bed, Pearl saw who the figure had; the Garnet, but the figure was nowhere to be seen. The other Gems went in as well, with Lapis having to be carried in by Jasper.

"Where'd it go?!" Peridot wondered.

"Better question is what did it do to Lapis? She's not waking up," Jasper informed. As they were thinking over that, Garnet looked over to the figure in the bed. With her, Garnet looked surprised, yet tried to see if she was Steven like Lapis had said. She gently placed her hand on the other Garnet's forehead, just above the third eye, and waiting a minute before she came to her conclusion.

"Steven's in there," Garnet said, sensing Steven inside. Peridot scoped her over before she looked to Garnet.

"Well, now what? If that's Steven, we still can't wake him -" suddenly, Garnet laid down rather abruptly. "... Up."

"Now what?"

"We have to go in deeper."

"Aye-aye, napping captain," Amethyst said, soon joining her in sleeping. It was a rather odd, and bold move. If this was just a simpler dream, then the deeper they go, the crazier things will end up getting. In the end though, what else could they do? Bring back the unconscious Steven? ...

After a bit, Peridot, Jasper, and Pearl joined them in the slumber ...

Author's Note

My brain worked the hardest with making this as creative, and as thought-provoking as possible. Just to clear things up, What I've tried to do was give the dreamscape the similar creativity and randomness real dreams do, so, I hope I did it right :pinkiecrazy: Randomness intensifies :rainbowlaugh: (Dreams are dreams, and Dreams can be very sketchy when they want to be)

Yes, the Crystal Gem moments are a bit larger in role and more in depth compared to that of Steven. Admittedly, there's more to work with :twilightsheepish: And sorry the Mane Six aren't involved here. Hey, at least the antagonist is from Equestria, so I didn't forget it :twilightblush:

My Little Universe: Mindwarp Pt2

While she couldn't grasp what happened, Lapis Lazuli felt herself slowly waking up to the sight of midnight moonlight. She wasn't back in Canterlot, not with the Crystal Gems, yet not with Steven either. She was alone again, but not in the same room of mirrors as of before. Instead, not only was she in a much larger space, but she had a perfect view of the world around her. Laying in an open field, the world Lapis found herself in was as blue as she was, from the color of midnight, to the shining cyan. For the blue Gem, the field was very quiet, with the sound and feel of the cool nightly breeze brushing her skin. As for the ground, it was a long field of grass as far as the eye could see, with a few smaller flowers scattered around as well. It was cool, calm, and collected, yet Lapis felt more unsure than moved. Considering she was just chasing some odd person with Steven in a glass windowed city (in midday by the way), this sudden shift in tone Lapis could only consider as odd. On the bright side, it at least calmed her nerves a little bit, which was probably the point of this next stop anyway.

That didn't mean that she'd forget why she was there; Steven was somewhere in the dreamscape, an if she was asleep within another dream, then she must either be in deeper sleep, or in a different dream entirely. Either way, Lapis got up and tried to see if anything was around. However, it didn't look too promising, as all she saw was the open fields and scattered flowers. She didn't want to be left alone - not again.

"Where am I?" That questioned echoed in her head as she looked around for some sort of answer. If she couldn't figure that out, how was she to find Steven, or any of the Crystal Gems for that matter? Lapis then did the only basic thing to do; opening her wings, she got ready to fly. In this dreamscape, her wings actually gave a faint glow, which could help Lapis see a bit better. In one flap, Lapis Lazuli was off in the air, and looked around like a falcon as she flew around the fields.

"Guys! Anyone here?! Hello?!" Lapis called as she continued on her way. All she could see though was the grass, and nothing much else. The water Gem didn't want to give on Steven, especially after she was so close to getting him free. Now, she wasn't sure if she'll be able to find him so quickly, if at all. Her soaring soon stopped, as Lapis landed on a higher hill for a break. As she landed, the grass under her seemed to glow a fainted blue, though she didn't really notice yet. It was after she landed though ...

"Hello?!"

Lapis looked around some more on hearing that voice. She hoped it was real, and not some trick in this dream world. She saw the plains and fields pretty well, but she didn't see any sort of figure to make such a call. But then, just over on the next hill, she then saw the source. The boy she'd been worried sick over, and the one she'd hoped to see.

Steven.

Steven looked over and saw Lapis a short time later, as the blue Gem quickly took off towards him. Overjoyed, she didn't hesitate to catch up to him.

"Steven!" Lapis gasped, landing in front of him with a big smile on her face. Lapis went over to hug him, but Steven oddly backed up, looking hesitant.

"Huh? What's wrong?" Lapis asked, worried that the figure did something to him. As for Steven, with his previous encounter with her at the sea spire, he wasn't so sure if this was Lapis or not.

"Wait. You do remember me?" Steven asked, slightly suspicious.

"What? Of course!"

"But why were you so mean to me? I found you already, but you didn't know me at all," Steven retorted, referring to the Lapis at the Sea Spire. As for Lapis, she felt a bit appalled, yet perhaps something did happen for him to think so.

"No, no, Steven. It's me, really; that wasn't me at all, I swear," Lapis assured him, but after how cold the other one was, Steven wasn't too sure.

"You're my beach summer fun buddy," Lapis said with a smile. Steven looked to her eyes, starting to think twice about his doubts. Soon, the kid gained a smile too.

"Lapis!"

"Steven!"

The two gave eachother a big hug, now very happy to be together. For Lapis, it was a great relief to see that Steven was alright, and Steven was glad to have his beach summer fun buddy remember him. As they were hugging, they both forgot for the moment that Steven wasn't alone; another Gem soon went forward.

"Nice to have you drop in," she said. While Steven was happy, Lapis actually looked puzzled on seeing her too; Sapphire. Considering Lapis was just with Garnet, seeing Sapphire instead was a bit confusing.

"Wait. Sapphire?"

"Yes."

"But how're you here, I was just with Garnet a minute ago."

"Garnet's here too?" Steven asked, as Lapis let him go.

"Sure! Pearl, Amethyst, Peridot, Jasper, we've all been looking for you. Which reminds me; we got to get you out of here," Lapis said, ready to fly off with Steven. Just before she could though, Sapphire gripped her to keep her down.

"You might not want to."

"What? Why not?"

Sapphire pointed away, aiming to her reason why. When Lapis and Steven looked, they both suddenly saw someone else standing just feet away. Steven didn't have much clue, but Lapis could recognize that face from a mile away. That same big nosed mask that stared her in the face before she found Steven. Closer, they got a better view of this thing; the back largely hunched, and the body a bit stout and broad. It was about as tall as Jasper, though its head was leveled to stare Lapis in the face. It had large gloves over its hands, and its feet were extraordinarily huge, almost cartoony in size. They didn't appear like clown shoes, or human feet, but a pair of Pony hooves. Just to the back was its pony-like tail, touching the ground. Immediately, Lapis got in between it and the other two, so she wouldn't lose either.

"Stay back!" Lapis demanded, but rather than back away, the figure moved closer to her. It didn't stop until the nose was inches away from her face, the eyes staring blankly at her.

"I-I'm giving you until three," Lapis warned. Still, the figure didn't budge. Steven wasn't sure what was going on, but Sapphire seemingly knew already what'll happen.

"One."

Nothing.

"Two."

Still nothing. But just when Lapis was about to say three ...

*honk*

It pushed its nose into her face, and as such it made a loud honking sound, like that of a squeaky toy. It quickly disappeared seconds after that, leaving Lapis confused and blushing. Sapphire couldn't help but quietly giggle afterwards. Honestly, it was pretty silly, and out of nowhere with the honky nose. Well, at least they stuck together instead of splitting up that time.

"... Uh ... Ok then."

"Who was that?" Steven asked. If Lapis was going to act that way to it, she must've at least known who it was. But the only thing Lapis knew was that it tried to steal Steven away, and nothing more, though she remembered what Luna had said.

Maybe it was this "Lucid" she was talking about that Lapis dealt with? Sapphire looked on the ground where Lucid was and saw a small letter. Sapphire went on and picked it up, seeing a similar looking picture of Lucid's mask on it with words on it saying, "Let's play Limbo!". Lapis and Steven looked over Sapphire's shoulder as they looked over what the letter said.

First clue to understand; find the egg to where it began.

Seemed obvious that Lucid wanted to play a little clue game with them. Still, the clue didn't seem to make much sense though, where would eggs be in the middle of a grassy plain? First thing's first ...

"What's an egg?" Lapis asked, scratching her head. The only one that really knew was Steven.

"It's kind a small, round, and white. About this big," as he was talking an egg suddenly popped up in his hand, floating like a pickup in a video game. Sapphire and Lapis both gave it a good look over, watching the egg spin and float in the air.

"Well, we got the egg apparently," Lapis pointed out, looking it over. Well, that was one half of the clue, but unless they could bring up a bird too, where the egg began was a bit of an odd one to figure out.

"Let me see that," Sapphire said, Steven giving her the egg. Sapphire gave it a closer look as she held the egg. For an egg, it had a much smoother shell. It also looked oddly familiar in a sense; something about the texture and shape just seemed different from any regular egg. Sapphire gently held the egg with her thumb and index finger, holding it forward and higher up, not taking her eye off of it. After a little bit, it suddenly gave off a quick shimmer, and that's when it hit her.

However, rather than say anything, suddenly Sapphire rocketed off.

"Hey, wait up!" Steven yelled, running after Sapphire. Lapis grabbed Steven and took to the air in order to catch up to her. As for Sapphire, the actual place where this 'egg' began shouldn't be too hard to find if it was correct. As they went along, Steven and Lapis saw the grass lit up as Sapphire went, with a long glowing trail of cyan blue grass for Lapis and Steven to follow easier. While it was pretty, they were more worried about catching up with Sapphire than sightsee. Speaking of the site, as would be expected in a dreamscape, began to alter and change around them. Starting off as just a midnight plain, some chunks of land began to lift up and float. Lapis and Steven tried to avoid the shifting landscape, yet Sapphire was maneuvering surprisingly well, even if the land shifted under her. Different parts of the land floated upward, and all Sapphire did was jump from one land mass to the other in between gaps. Pretty soon though, Sapphire was far off the ground, just on each of the platforms. Pretty soon, Sapphire stopped on a particularly large land mass, flattened out on the top with soft grass. Steven and Lapis finally caught up after a while, Sapphire just waiting and watching, but before anyone could say anything.

"Pearl."

"Yes?"

Lapis, Steven, and Sapphire looked on ahead and then noticed something not too far away. Along the edge of the land mass, not noticing the three other Gems, actually looked like Rose and Pearl again. Pearl was kneeling on the ground as Rose was standing there. Steven wanted to go to them, but Sapphire got her hand out to keep him back.

"I'm going to stay, and fight for this planet. You don't have to do this with me," Rose said.

"But I want to!" Pearl insisted, hopeful in her words.

"I know you do. Please, please understand. If we lose, we'll be killed. And if we win, we can never go home ..."

"But why would I ever want to go home, if you're here?"

Rose gave a calm chuckle, her hand out to Pearl. Pearl looked a bit hesitant at first.

"My Pearl. You're wonderful," Rose finished. Pearl's hand went out, and grasped Rose's hand. For those watching, this was a glimpse to Rose's relationship with Pearl. Before it could go any further, suddenly both Pearl and Rose Quartz disappeared in a sudden cloud of white smoke. When the smoke cleared, rather than seeing the two there, they both saw a door there, with a small note put on the door for the three to see. Like their clue before, it had Lucid's mask drawn onto it, with the same 'let's play Limbo' message on it. Just as Sapphire had thought. It was Lapis who got the next message from the door and looked it over.

One, two, her and you; love born from spring's bloom.

They all then heard a sort of click from the other side of the door, telling them that the door was previously locked beforehand. The clue was still tricky, though perhaps more straightforward than the previous one with the egg. Course, Sapphire figured it out very quickly, so maybe this one would be as easy. As for where to go ...

Right through the door.

~~~~~~

With the absence of another member of their group, the other Gems woke up in another dreamscape, only hoping that it won't affect their bodies in the first to any extent. The first one to wake up this time was Peridot, taking the moment to look around the place.

For the area this time, they seemed to have ended up in a more futuristic sort of setting. They all were in a larger room as before, but this one didn't look as mundane or as bland as the other one. This room looked flowing with energy, lines of light along the walls, ceiling, and floors of green and blue flowing lights. It was just enough to make out the room, otherwise they would just be stuck in empty space. Soon, Peridot turned to the rest as she got to her feet, only to realize another change ...

She's small.

"What the? Hey!" Peridot gripped, realizing her enhancers were gone. She just had them, and suddenly they were gone! Like she needed that in this second level. However, as the others woke up, something else soon presented itself to them ...

Garnet was missing.

"Sapphire! Sapphire!"

The calls came from nowhere but got their attention pretty fast. Seeing just black and glowing lines around them. If the voice was calling for Sapphire, then that only meant one thing ...

Next thing they knew, someone raced out of the darkness, and accidentally ran right into Peridot, both of them tumbling to the floor. Peridot jumped up and looked again, ready for another dream attacker, but instead ...

"Ruby?"

Indeed, getting to her feet, it was Ruby. By the look on her face, she was completely worried over Sapphire.

"Oh great; first Steven, next Lapis, now Sapphire. We're getting picked off here," Jasper assumed, arms crossed. While the fact that now three were gone for the moment (shockingly considering Sapphire and Ruby were fused when they got there), this left them with little options. The further they go, the more they'll possibly lose to Lucid ... Well, if it was Lucid doing it that is.

"Someone please tell me Sapphire came back," Ruby said. Before anyone could reply to comfort her.

"No, and we'll all end up taken if we don't get this over with," Jasper replied, walking ahead. To what they assumed to be the wall. However, given this dreamscape, Jasper rallied up her fist, and slammed it hard on the wall. That strength was hard enough to shatter the supposed wall, literally opening up to another area of this crazy world. No clue, no puzzle, Jasper just broke whatever was in mind for that one.

"Well, convenient," noted Peridot.

"Don't jinx it," Amethyst insisted. Before she could ask about a jinx, the area they were in became pretty clear after a little bit. The quote-on-quote room they were in was actually a crate, which Jasper smashed open. Course this crate looked like it was made of silver plastic than actual wood, but just as sturdy. There were a number of others around them too. Why they were in a room full of crates was a bit confusing, but as they looked, there was actually some extra details this time; the appearance matched a factory of sorts. They saw steel upper levels, railings, worker Gems, the whole works. In their case, the area was wide open, lined with an iron wall to hold the crates inside.

"Finally, something original," Peridot commented, a bit relieved oddly enough.

"What?" Ruby asked.

"What do you mean what? We're in a Gem factory! A bit old perhaps, but seems to be operational," Peridot noted, a bit nonchalantly. Even if they were dreaming, at least this one wasn't too far off as far as Peridot was concern. For Pearl though, her expression was wide eyed, and silent ...

"You mean like the Kindergarten," Amethyst seemingly corrected.

"Not even close; this is stricter on what weaker Gems are created and manufactured."

"Like you?" Jasper commented, making Peridot annoyed.

"I wasn't made by such primitive means," Peridot insisted.

"Where's Pearl?"

After Amethyst asked, suddenly Jasper, Ruby, and Peridot noticed that Pearl was indeed gone from the large container, leaving them with the other crates.

"You serious?! Stupid defective -" Jasper's anger ceased when they suddenly heard something activate close by. Above them, they suddenly saw a large claw come down from a mechanical wretch, reaching down to another one of the crates. It grabbed the front of one of the crates, and pulled it open like a screen door. It was when they looked inside when they saw what was in them.

Pearls ...

LOTS of Pearls ...

The one crate alone held about twenty of them, all looking exactly the same as their Pearl, though they all stood still like boards, and their expressions shown a black stare and not any sign of emotion. It was then that something seemed to click in Peridot's head, snapping her fingers.

"Aha! A Pearl facility! Why didn't I think of that before? We're alright."

"Whoop de doo, but, where's our Pearl? We got tons to look through," Ruby pointed out, directing their attention to the many other Pearls. the same crane opened about three other crates, each with twenty Pearls as well. They all were blank-faced like a bunch of drones, and they all were eyeing the remaining four. Jasper was the only one who had a view above all of the Pearls, everyone else who didn't disappear too short for an easy view. Jasper saw the other crates move away, like going down some sort of platform through the floor to leave the Pearls alone with them. Still, more crates were placed, and more Pearls were put in, until a total of one hundred Pearls remained with them, and surrounded all four of them.

"Great, now we got to waste our time looking through all these Pearls," Ruby gripped, not wanting to waste anytime anymore than the others do. Jasper, though, was already on it.

"Alright, which one of you is our Pearl?" Jasper demanded, good and loud. But the Pearls seemed oblivious to her words, and kept their blank expressions, with little to no acknowledgement. Jasper knew they could see her - she was the largest one in there!

"Hey, don't act like you don't hear me!" Jasper snapped, getting in one of the Pearl's faces. Still, the expression was unchanged. Jasper raised her fist, ready to punch the snotty Gem back into her stone, but when her fist rushed forward to hit her head, the Pearl's head suddenly snapped back, the back of her head touching her back! her neck looked ready to snap itself from the position the head was in. Jasper was left a bit disturbed, as she moved her fist away, and for the Pearl's head to move back.

"That didn't work. Come on, let's get out of here," Jasper insisted, trying to get that image out of her head. sure, their bodies are just illusions, but, seriously that isn't normal.

"And how are we supposed to do that with all these Pearls in the way?" Ruby asked, arms out. Jasper grabbed Ruby by the head, and brought her to her shoulders. She did the same with Amethyst and Peridot, before beginning to plow through the Pearls. It was a surprisingly easy effort, considering most of them moved out of the way as Jasper moved through. It was pretty quick when they all got to the edge of their container, and got themselves out. Still, with Pearl somewhere in there, they couldn't just rush off right away. On the bright side, they all got a better view of the Pearls inside the container. They all were just standing there, like mannequins staring off into whatever direction they were put in. None of them seem to be their own Pearl, as they all seem to behave the same way. Any sign of their Pearl was gone, and even if she was there, the 100 others blocked off whatever signs were left.

"PEARL! YOU IN THERE?! COME OUT!" Amethyst screamed. All of the pearls looked right up to them, keeping the same expression.

"NO, NOT YOU -"

Too late; tons of pearls went out and tackled Amethyst to the ground. Not exactly the best plan ever, and Amethyst was pulled out by Peridot and Ruby. Jasper was getting very peeved; she didn't need anymore time wasted with finding Pearl in this group. Steven's still gone, Lapis had passed out, Sapphire ended up missing, and now Pearl disappeared! ... Though seeing Amethyst get pummeled by Gems was a bit silly to watch ...

"This is getting nowhere," Amethyst sighed. Looking back in the container, the area suddenly looked a lot barer, sighting a bit easier. Not all of the Pearls lunged for Amethyst, and some stayed put. However, one of them was on the ground, laying on her back. Her gemstone had something shown in a screen hologram.

"How many of you wanna bet that's her?" Ruby asked.

"Come on," Jasper said, starting to go down. The other three could only join in her, and soon the four ended up right by Pearl's sleeping body. As for the image, it was blurry like static on a TV. Seemed Lucid got to Pearl as well. Her body was stretched out, as if she fainted on the spot, and she didn't show signs of waking up. Jasper felt her teeth grind and her fists tighten up on seeing another person lost.

"Pearl? Pearl, wake up you!" Amethyst said, trying to wake her. As she was trying her best, the hologram above her began to show a picture of Pearl, curled up, but awake and crying a little bit.

"Pearl, can you hear us?" Ruby called. The Pearl in the hologram looked over to them, but not seemingly knowing they're there.

"N-No. N-No."

"No what? Come on Pearl, work with me?" The hologram stayed on Pearl for a little bit. until something showed up above Pearl. However, the hologram went static before they could recognize anyone. This wasn't good at all ...

Strangely, while the others couldn't see it, Peridot saw through the static on what's going on ...

For Pearl, her head left her alone in the dark once she woke up. Did she end up deeper in her dreams, or was this Lucid's doing? She couldn't see anything, but felt some sort of floor under her. That wasn't the only thing though. When Pearl looked ahead, she noticed something floating towards her; a set of white clown gloves and a white smiling mask. One glove actually waved to her.

"You? Are you ... Lucid?" Pearl asked, as it moved closer, until it was a few feet away. Pearl was about to pull out her Gem weapon, but both gloves pushed the weapon back into her head. The mask nodded up and down to Pearl's question, revealing his identity to her. Pearl moved her hand away, but didn't put her guard down.

"Alright; Luna warned us about you. Now, where's Steven?" Pearl demanded. However, Lucid didn't answer that question, but instead both gloves clapped together. Upon opening, paper figures suddenly appeared, which consisted of all of the Crystal Gems and the Mane Six. Pearl wasn't sure what Lucid was doing, but then a glove gently picked up the Paper Pearl. He moved the small figure over to Pearl, which she held in both palms. After looking, Pearl looked back and saw that Lucid made a ton more paper Pearls, seemingly removing what made her unique ... At least at first.

Pearl felt ready to cry again, but Lucid started tapping the paper pearls on their heads. Each one he touched them had a floating diamond above them, and reached over to what Pearl had in her hand. Once he tapped hers though, the object wasn't a diamond, but a star. As such, it made her unique amongst every other Pearl created. Lucid then tapped the paper Pearl's back. Curious, Pearl turned it around, and then noticed what it said.

you are your own Gem.

...

With a gasp, Pearl suddenly woke up with Jasper, Ruby, Amethyst and Peridot, sitting up. The hologram had disappeared from her gemstone, and Pearl looked over to the others. Peridot had an unsure look on her face, seeing in a way on Pearl's reaction to what she was made for, being the only one who actually saw what was going on.

Before they could go any further, something began to appear on the container wall; a door. On the door showed the same mask Pearl and Peridot seen during Pearl's extra dream.

Did they had any alternative?

~~~~~~

Lapis, Steven, and Sapphire's own adventure in their dreamscape had went from the grassy plains, to the tree-covered forests. The trees covered what sky they could see, leaving the lunar moonlight in small patches to the forest floor. Nothing seemed bad, though Lapis Lazuli worried herself with what might come around. The pattern of what had been going on could easily whiplash on them; Amethyst had the Kindergarten, she had her mirror room, and she could guess the others might be going through some more trouble thanks to Lucid. If Steven didn't go through his yet, Lapis didn't want him to go through anything like that.

On the bright side, at least it didn't look very threatening in the area. In fact, the forest looked almost mystical in a way.

"Uh. Do you know where we're going?" Lapis finally asked.

"Not entirely. Whatever Lucid has planned, I'm sure we'll run into it soon enough," Sapphire said, taking the lead.

"Hey, Steven, you doing okay? Did Lucid hurt you?" Lapis asked. Steven just shrugged, not having much idea on Lucid anyway. So far, his only encounter with Lucid was with Sapphire and Lapis back at the plain, and that's about it. Also, any fears he had weren't faced like the others had, and not as crazy. As they continued going along their away, the three then began to hear something farther away. It sounded like a sort of humming tune echoing in the forest, one as soothing as it was sung by a pretty voice. However, Lapis and Steven couldn't pinpoint where it was coming from. Sapphire though knew exactly where, and who. With a smile, Sapphire motioned the other two to follow her, and in no time at all Sapphire moved a smaller bit of bushes aside. In a clearing, the three saw two Gems, both humming the same tune and slow dancing. It was a much sweeter sight to see than what they'd seen so far, and it was obvious that the two were very happy together.

"Aww, so cute," Steven beamed. Sapphire smiled, resting her elbow on the bush, as she watched the two slow dancing for a bit more, but eventually the two began to glow a little bit, and suddenly the familiar fusion light started to glow again. After a little bit, suddenly the two gems started to fuse together, and the end result? ...

Garnet!

Well, the garnet Steven and Sapphire ended up in anyway with the unintentional fuse earlier. This time, the Garnet had a bit of trouble adjusting, walking around a little bit until she was getting the hang of it ... and then she tumbled down a nearby hill. Worried, Steven rushed out and tried to see if she was okay. She was a bit hurt, but alright overall. Sapphire and Lapis caught up with him and moved him out of the way before he could be seen. And good timing; just as the Garnet shook off the fall, something was aimed right at her face - a sword! Low and behold, the same Pearl from the arena was back.

"Ah! Don't hurt her! Don't hurt... me?" she begged, confused on the last part.

"It's you! The fusion..." Pearl stated. Guess even dreams have continuity in them. This garnet looked less confident like the Garnet Steven knew.

"We didn't mean to fuse! Well... well, we did this time. We'll unfuse! We, we'll -"

"No, no, please... I'm glad to see you again." Coming from the forest, another Gem soon went out to greet the Garnet; Rose Quartz to be exact! She remained unchanged since they last saw her, and as before, didn't acknowledge the other three nearby.

"I don't upset you?"

"Who cares about how I feel? How you feel is bound to be much more interesting."

"How I feel? I feel... uh, lost... and scared... and happy. W-why am I so sure that I'd rather be this than everything I was supposed to be, and that I'd rather do this than anything I was supposed to do?"

Rose actually laughed.

"Welcome to Earth!"

"C-can you tell me!? How was Ruby able to alter fate? Or, why was Sapphire willing to give up everything? W-what am I!?"

"No more questions. Don't ever question this." Rose quartz held both of Garnet's hands. "You already are the answer."

As for the other three, this was yet another moment in Rose's time being played out. This would make it Steven's third Rose encounter so far. Soon after the scene played out, a large flash of light blinded them for a second before they could look, only to find all three disappeared. With them gone though, something else soon fell to the ground; another note. Lapis flew over, and got to it this time.

Search for the first without your nose, and the second without your eyes - you will find you'll be surprised.

"Without your nose and eyes?" Lapis questioned.

"That's not how flowers work," commented Steven. Course, looking over again, it didn't help that they were right by a ton of flowers - which supposedly was where they should look. All the flowers in question matched Rose's main colors; pinks and whites mostly. They all looked exactly the same, and none of them looked like any special flower, or anything different.

"Clever," Lapis simply stated, before giving the note to Sapphire and starting to look through the flower bed. Steven took looked around, but Sapphire stayed put and looked over the clue a few more times. After a few minutes, Steven and Lapis were still not having much luck in their look about. So far, they were just finding pink flowers in the small field, and nothing else really different comparing. Sapphire thought it over some more, until she walked over to Lapis and Steven.

"You're looking in the wrong place," Sapphire informed, stumping them both. Where else would a rose be aside from a rose garden?

"But we're in a rose garden, aren't we?" Questioned Steven, scratching his head. However, Sapphire knew what she was talking about, and once more, knew how clever this would be for anyone else.

"What did you see before this clue?" Sapphire asked. Steven and Lapis replayed what they saw in their head; Garnet reforming again, and seeing her meet with Rose and Pearl. Still, how that had to deal with finding a rose neither of them knew currently, but then Sapphire began walking away, and going through some of the bushes nearby. Glancing at eachother, Lapis and Steven moved away from the rose field, as Sapphire looked through where they were beforehand. As she expected, she pulled something out from the bushes, and showed it to Steven and Lapis. The item in her hand was actually a small flower, only deep blue rather than bright pink. Suddenly, it struck them both what the 'roses' meant.

"Nice thinking!" Lapis said. Sapphire kept the blue flower, and moved over to the rose garden, as Steven and Lapis looked around for that other rose. If Sapphire was correct on her statement, then the next rose should be close by, and not pink like all the others. But then something else struck them and they all stopped looking.

Find the second one without your eyes ...

But, how does that work? If they can't see, how will they find it? But before they could get Sapphire's help, she actually had her hands out in front in a cup, the flower in her hand, and towards Steven. This is still the same Sapphire, right? She hadn't moved.

"Uh, Sapphire?" Steven asked.

"I love you, Ruby," Sapphire said with a smile. First of all, Ruby wasn't there. Second, Sapphire was talking right at Steven. And third, no prompting for this! Of course, they were off guard, but then Steven realized something to Sapphire's sudden proposal. This whole moment related to another before, and what happened to Steven then? ...

It became clear what he is to do.

Lapis moved aside, and watched as Steven smiled and closed his eyes, bring his hands forward as well. As he was closing his eyes, Lapis saw that Steven's body was gently changing from one form to another. His skin, hair and clothes all began to turn red, and his body started to alter some more to match. In his hand, something began to bloom in his hands; a deep red rose. The blue rose matched Sapphire, and the red rose matched Ruby.

"If only I had a camera," Lapis thought. The moment was simply perfect; Sapphire and Ruby facing eachother with their roses of love to one another, with the gentle glow from the background with a pink hue. After a little bit, both roses started to glow their respected colors, floated out of their hands. The two fused together, and formed a much larger flower, which bloomed into a giant purple flower. As it opened up, it revealed another door, but rather than just another clue, there was a small package with Lucid's face on it. Steven still was in his Ruby form, as he got the package.

"Another clue?" Steven wondered, opening it up. In the small package, there was another small clue for them to work with, but also they had a small picture included; which showed Ruby and Sapphire just seconds before from Lapis's point of view (which was picture perfect by the way). As for their next clue, Steven went on and read it over.

Happy picture for a happy memory. Where do you store them happily?

This was more straightforward than the other clues brought along so far by Lucid.

"Well, let's go," Sapphire said, leading the way through the door. Lapis held the picture, smiling, before going through with Steven.

~~~~~~

For Jasper, Pearl, Amethyst, Ruby and Peridot, their next stop was less sweet than where the others had ended up. After going through the next pathway, their own world had grown much darker; twilight night. So, it was hard to really see anything at first. Once they all past through, the light from the door cut off their main source of light.

"Give me a break," Jasper groaned.

"Hold on." After a little bit, a light soon came around from Pearl's gemstone, acting like a flashlight. with the new light on, they saw that they were actually out in a forest somewhere. The light lit up the trees and leaves, and they got a good view of the area.

"Nice, Pearl," Amethyst said with a thumbs up. Soon, Peridot pulled the same trick, and got another light to glow up, though hers was greenish instead of Pearl's light blue. Oh well, at least Pearl's color was special. If the pattern was to continue, then Jasper wasn't taking any chances.

"Alright. Amethyst, Pearl, Garnet, and Lapis had been messed with already. If anything else goes wrong, it'll be too soon," Jasper though in annoyance. Amethyst was messed with, Lapis was passed out and gone, Garnet was split up, and Pearl pretty much broke down. If Lucid was targeting them, then it would be either Peridot or herself that would come around next, and she wasn't willing to deal with either way. Steven's still gone, and Sapphire and Lapis were stuck missing too. If they could find Steven and the other Gems soon, then they can get out of here. If they could find Lucid and make him give them up, even better. Course, they needed to know where to go first, and not let the lack of logic mess with them as it had been doing. As Pearl and Peridot kept the path lit up, something started to come down.

A tiny drop of water.

After a few more seconds, more drops followed, and Jasper stopped, making some of the others walk into her. Amethyst had the Kindergarten. Lapis had her prisoned mirror. Garnet had the separation. Pearl had the Gem facility ...

Now it was Jasper's turn.

bit by bit, the rain came down all around them, turning into a strong rainstorm. The others ran for cover quick to get out of the rain, but Jasper stayed put, feeling the rain on her hair and skin. Her gaze stayed down to the ground, but the last thing she wanted to do was to deal with anymore of these fear factors.

"... No ... NO!" Jasper growled, her fists raising in the air. She knew what was coming, and wasn't having any of it! As the others watched, Jasper slammed her fists as hard as she could into the ground. Since this was dream logic, Jasper's desire to get rid of this challenge had made the whole world crack like broken glass. white light beamed out from each one, but not natural light like from any source like Pearl and Peridot's flashlight. Soon, the entire world shattered away, leaving nothing but an empty space for them to stand in. No line, no floor, just white space for them.

"LUCID! I'M DONE PLAYING GAMES, COME ON OUT AND SHOW YOURSELF!" Jasper demanded, not exactly focusing her order in one particular direction. Jasper's voice echoed around them, the others moving over to keep by her. Anyone in the right mind would probably keep out of Jasper's way, and stay hiding ... Well, Lucid isn't in the right mind, and after a little while he soon appeared from behind the crowd of Gems. Lucid was standing further away, and every Gem turned to face him. Lucid didn't move, and kept his gaze right to Jasper, who stepped forward.

"Alright! We know you've taken our Gems away; hand them over!" Jasper demanded. She didn't want to be here anymore than anyone else, but Lucid didn't answer her at first. He just stood there, staring at them with his creepy mask. His silence and refusal to cooperate just stirred Jasper up even more.

"Don't act like you don't know, Lucid!" Jasper yelled. All that came out of Lucid was a annoyed groan, but still he didn't look ready to attack anyone. In the end, behind Lucid, another door suddenly popped up.

"NO! NO MORE!" Jasper screamed, not wanting anymore surprises. The scream actually made Lucid hesitate in opening the door, cringing. It was obvious Jasper had enough, and looking by the others, they really wanted their friends back. To show them what he was really doing, he did a sort of magician's magic trick; pulling a letter from his glove, and it flew right to them. The letter had Lucid's mask imprinted on it, and the message it read was rather straightforward.

follow old mc Lu

Old mc Lu must mean for Lucid. Looking back, the door was already open, Lucid inviting them inside. The others were not too sure about this, but if it meant to find and locate Steven, then what other choice did they had? Lucid wasn't going to talk, and they didn't know too much on where to really go. Jasper did a 'I'm watching you' gesture to Lucid before they began to go through the door. Any trap, and Lucid's dead.

~~~~~~

with a small walk, and the click of the doorknob, Lapis, Sapphire, and Steven were deeper into their dreamscape. Lapis began to get a bit cautious on their decent; still aware of the time they got left, and how deep it 'll take before they end up in Limbo. Luna never exactly said how deep that actually was, but, they had to be close at this point. Steven was more wondering where Lucid got them to this time around, and what their next clue really meant for them. Something to do with that picture, that was for sure, but where are they mainly stored was the question ...

And where they ended up didn't help either.

Upon going through, their next stop looked like it was a bit darker in terms of time; night time to be exact. As with the plain and forest, night time seemed to signify how deep they were going. Before then it was at least bright out, or daytime. But here, most of the spots were darker and with the moon shining brightly in the sky each time. As per mentioned; with this constant trend in the sky, they must be closer to this realm of Limbo by now. As for the rest of the area, it was less recognizable on anything Earth had to offer; there was no plants, but it had water, so they weren't in any desert. The ground under them was flat and looked similar to ice, but it wasn't really cold, nor was there any snow around either. As for the water itself, it was slow moving, clear, and about as mystical as the starry sky. The area was completely barren apart from that, and no sign of any creature or plant anywhere.

"Where are we now?" Steven wondered. Every step taken sounded like walking on a metal floor, and no walls kept them contained. either. Just a huge floor, one river, and a sky full of stars. One way or another, they were there, any they don't know where else to go. Lapis and Steven went to the edge of the star river, not able to see their reflection. As Lapis touched it though, it felt exactly like the water in her wings, so, a river was indeed there ... And it stung Lapis a little bit. Crossing it on foot was out of the question.

Then, they saw Lucid on the other side of the river, just staring back at them. He made himself known with a loud honk from his big nose. In one hand, he had a book with him; a bit obvious on what's next for them to do.

"Do you have the picture, Lapis?" Steven asked. Lapis showed them the picture. Lucid gestured them to come over, happily waiting for one of them to come over. Before either one of them could though, Sapphire suddenly got worried, and held them both back.

"Wait a minute, think about what you're doing," Sapphire warned, turning back to Lucid across the river. Lucid felt a little bugged with Sapphire's intervention. Steven didn't know, Lapis was a bit concern, and Sapphire knew exactly what was going on now. Lapis, Steven, and Sapphire were on one side, Lucid was on the other, and the river stood between them as if laying down a strong boundary line. Since the water had a stinging affect to it, going across might not be the best idea ever. As for the the representation Sapphire was talking about, with their knowledge of the Limbo thing ...

Well, it seemed clear that where Lucid was standing was that realm ...

"Okay. I see. Come on, Steven, we found you, let's get back to the -"

Lucid suddenly let out a moan, and the floor behind them disappeared! All that was left was them, Lucid, and the river line. Either go for Lucid or go for bust. Lucid extended a hand, the other holding onto the book, waiting for the picture. If any of them cross, they'll be stuck with him in Limbo. But, where do they go? Steven looked over to Lucid for a second or two, thinking about what he'd gone through.

"Has Lucid been doing this?" Steven asked.

"That's why we were looking for you Steven; Lucid trapped you," Sapphire explained. But rather than show fear over Lucid, Steven began to realize something. Lucid was behind the dreams, and bringing him to Limbo for sure ... But all of the stuff Steven had gone through didn't get him hurt, or scared him. They all had a pattern. And that pattern was something that Steven wanted to figure out for sometime. All but one of them ...

"Hey Lapis, can I see the picture?" Steven asked.

"I guess so, why?" Lapis asked, giving the picture to Steven.

"I'm giving it to him."

"You can't cross, Steven!" Lapis insisted, a bit freaked out as Steven began to fold the picture in different ways.

"I'm not, I'm not. Watch," Steven said. Looking to Lucid, he folded the picture into that of a paper airplane. Working his aim, Steven let the airplane fly with a good throw. The paper airplane flew in circles at first until it was by Lucid, circling over his head until it landed comfortably on Lucid's nose. At first nothing happened, but then Lucid picked up the picture, and unfolded it. The picture was all the same, but there was a small change in the work; a arrow pointing to the corner of the picture. Not pointing to anything on the picture, instead, it pointed for Lucid to flip it. The creature flipped it over, only to read this ...

thank you.

Under it, showed Steven's smiling face. Lucid looked back to Steven, who looked back with an innocent grin. Sapphire and Lapis felt it clever how the picture was given without crossing the line. All Lucid did was nod, and opened his book. He moved the pages and eventually put the picture inside. Lucid looked across the river to Steven for a little bit. If Lucid was in charge of these dreamscapes Steven had went through, then Lucid also knew what to use to help him out. Each one involved someone Steven knew well about, but never got the chance to meet in person. And someone he wanted to know more about personally. It wasn't exactly what he had in mind, but, it was a big help none the less.

Lucid looked to his scrapbook for a bit, now containing the picture inside, as he turned around and began to walk away. Before he disappeared in the realm of Limbo, something flew up in the air, and back to them. It landed nearby on the ground, making another door pop up. This door, rather than any sort of Lucid mask on it, or a 'let's play Limbo' writing, instead confetti and streamers shot out from the ground. The door looked much more friendly, and the message on the door read "congratulations, you win!"

The door opened all by itself, revealing a shining, blinding light that quickly consumed them and everything else around them. The light was beyond regular light, and they couldn't see anything ...

.....

"You've returned!" A familiar voice said. Canterlot was still quiet, the Gems finally waking up from their long dreamscape. Jasper, Garnet, Pearl, Peridot, and Amethyst all woke up pretty close to the same time, a bit groggy but all well. Lapis and Steven both didn't wake up right away. They were back in the real world, back in Canterlot castle, with Luna and Twilight close by.

"Did you get him?" Twilight asked, hoping for some good news. The others though weren't so sure, not having luck in finding him even. The first to get up was Garnet, who looked back to Steven on the bed. There didn't seem to be very much reaction, but, as the morning sun was brought up on its normal time, the gentle sun beams moved over to the royal bed, the sunrise was soon over Steven's face. The others waited a bit ... then he began to stir.

Soon, Steven's eyes opened.

The boy sat up in the royal bed, rubbing his eye and yawning.

"I had the craziest dream."

"Steven!" Pearl gasped, quickly going over to hug him. Steven was finally back after, to them, the longest dream they all went through. Not to mention the most emotionally whacked one they've gone through. A little bit after, Lapis soon began to wake up.

"Did we do it?" Lapis asked after a yawn.

"We're all back, thank the stars," Jasper said, relieved. Lapis got up, and saw Steven awake in the bed. For Steven, the dream was long, memories stocked away in his head, and a headache from it all. The only thing left to question; how'd he end up in Equestria when he was asleep in his bed back in Beach City?

"How're you feeling, Steven?" Luna asked, going over to him.

"My dream was so crazy. But, it wasn't bad ... How'd I get here?" Steven wondered. Before anyone could answer, Steven felt something next to him on the bed, under his hand. After pulling it out, he found a surprisingly familiar picture right next to him. No one given that to him in the real world, but the image was given to him in the dreamscape. It was the picture of Ruby and Sapphire in the rose garden, still as beautiful as ever.

"Here Garnet, this is for you," Steven said, giving Garnet the picture. However, the picture also had another piece of paper clipped to it. Garnet liked the picture, yet Peridot pulled off the other piece. It was a folded letter, a small flower sticker keeping it together. Upon opening it, the letter read as followed;

I'm sorry for causing so much worry; I was only trying to help Steven with his mother. I didn't want anypony else coming into the dreamscape, though I guess that was something waiting to happen. Anyway, I gave you back your picture - I hope it'll be a nice gift for you. I made a copy anyway for my scrapbook. I won't keep anypony trapped again, so you can rest safely. Guess it took longer than I thought it would, but then again, time flies by in dreams, don't they? If you get this, Steven, I hope I helped you out, at least a little bit.

Signed: Lucid D. Limbo

After being read aloud, this information was kind of off the beam, at least for Luna - who was the only one who actually met Lucid before this occurred. Lucid had caused a lot of trouble before, and when he did the same here it wasn't malicious, but a way to help Steven out with his troubles. How'd he knew about Steven and rose anyway was an even bigger question; Lucid was from Equestria (more evident by the 'anypony' language bit), though Steven was from another world entirely so, how'd he catch it? Still, it didn't matter; Lucid agreed to not trap him again, and Steven was back in the real world with them, good as gold. Still, with the problem resolved one way or another, the troubles were over. Luna took a moment to look over the letter, reading it to herself. Lucid seemed more sympathetic now than he was before - only trying to help in his own way. Albeit a bit risky but help none-the-less.

They were just glad to have Steven back.

Author's Note

Admittedly, my pre-planning had reached only up to after Pearl's troubles, so, everything else was me just making it up as I go ... and yes, I meant the 101 Dalmatians reference :twilightblush: Guess the change from lost search to scavenger hunt was Lucid's fun game.

I hope I kept up with your brains and didn't accidentally dull it down anywhere :twilightblush: