"Whoops," Amethyst said as the pink glow of Lion's portal dissipated.

The renegade beast had swept up the Heretic without prompt and—disregarding the commands of the Crystal Gems—he leapt through his portal without a second thought, leaving Steven, Connie, and the Gems in a state of disarray.

"Amethyst!" Pearl exclaimed, her ivory complexion burning a rosy red in a heated frustration. "You were supposed to restrain him while we calmed him down!"

"What? I slipped!" Amethyst yelled, sitting in a small puddle of water which had pooled atop the armory. Bismuth reached out a hand to help, but Amethyst smacked it away as she stood up on her own. "And it's not like you were passing any speech checks with that weirdo anyway!"

"What was I supposed to say? Hey, it's been over five thousand years since we locked you up, the war's over, and everyone you knew is dead now," Pearl recited sarcastically.

 "Thats exactly what you should have said! And how come you never told us about this guy, huh? I mean, how many other dudes do you got packed up and tucked away in here like another one of your weapons?" Amethyst asked with no shortage of stout fury.

"Just him," Garnet abruptly replied, standing idly by the Heretic's Anguish.

Pearl rushed to her side. "This is bad, really bad, Garnet! Garnet, why don't you seem worried? Cause I'm worried! Why would Lion just run off like that? Lion doesn't just run off on his own, does he?" Pearl began pacing around the armory in a frantic panic, asking too many questions too quickly for any but the last to be answered.

"No, that's pretty on brand for him," Steven said with a nervous smile—Connie bobbed her head in agreement—as he rubbed the back of his head before turning to Garnet. "So, uh, what do we do now? We don't know where they went and it's not like we could follow them even if we did," he pointed out.

Garnet readjusted her shades again, looking over the mess they were in. "This . . . is fine," she declared.

"Fine? How is this fine?" Pearl asked, pointing at the Heretic's Anguish sitting agape beside them—the mountainous man it once contained no longer in their grasp thanks to Lion.

"We have to trust Greg to handle things for now—" Garnet began.

"My dad!" Steven yelled. What did his father have to do with this? His heart raced as his mind ran through a thousand scenarios, imagining all the worst things the Heretic could do to him with no one there to stop him. How were they gonna get to him now? He felt a warm grip wrap around his hand; Connie had walked up beside him.

Garnet knelt down beside Steven and placed a firm, comforting hand on his shoulder. "Greg is just the man the Heretic needs to see right now," she said in a stern yet soothing voice. "Your father will understand him in a way we cannot."

Steven looked at Connie and back at Garnet before nodding his head in agreement. Lion must have some sort of plan in mind if he ran off like that, he thought. He remembered the skin on the Heretic's hand was pink—like Lion and Lars. Was he . . . undead, brought back by Rose? That would explain how he was still alive. But then, why weren't there more like him?

"We need to get moving quickly," Garnet announced. "We may not know where he's going, but I've foreseen where he'll be," she continued and promptly walked away without relinquishing any more information.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Bismuth asked, clearly confused as to what just transpired.

"There are many paths the Heretic can walk, but all will inevitably lead him to Homeworld, and end with him confronting with the Diamonds," Garnet replied before briefly stopping. "But we can stop him if we get there first. Lapis and Peridot will occupy him for now . . . and Jasper."

"Jasper!" Pearl shrieked. "That can't possibly end well, can it?" Pearl asked, her hands clasped around her mouth in anticipation.

"Lapis will handle it," Garnet assured before setting off again.

Nonetheless confused, everyone followed Garnet into the water, out of the cave, and onto the ruinous path back to the warp pad. The mountainside was a winding maze of jagged rocks and steep, untreaded paths unfit for travel. It was no wonder Rose's Armory had managed to remain a secret for so many millennia.

Connie continued to glaze over Garnet's words. The Heretic's path would lead back to homeworld.  Why would he ever want to go there? The more she thought about it the more she wanted answers. Pearl was walking in front of her, still bickering with Amethyst. "Hey Pearl," Connie managed to call out. She felt like a little mouse as she worked up the courage to ask the question prodding her mind.

"Oh, Connie, what is it? Are you getting tired? I'm sure Amethyst could carry you," Pearl said with a faint hint of a grin on her face.

"Why don't you?" Amethyst jabbed back.

"No, no, I just had a question . . . about the Heretic," Connie jumped in.

"Oh, what did you want to know?" Pearl asked, surprised.

"Why would he go to homeworld?"

Pearl's face straightened to a flat line. "Well, um, that's a long story." She paused, carefully considering her next words. "I suspect it might have to do with his family."

"What do you mean?" Steven joined in, sounding particularly concerned as he froze for a moment.

"Well, as you know, over five thousand years ago when your mother was still . . . Pink Diamond, she became attached to the beauty of the life on earth. She pleaded with Blue and Yellow to stop the Gem colonization of the planet, but Blue mistook Rose's love for infatuation and constructed the human zoo to appease her." Pearl clenched her hands into fists at the thought. "To fill it, she sent Quartz soldiers all over the planet to collect a diverse collection of humans," she paused and took a deep breath to calm herself.

Steven and Connie stood perfectly still—a mix of rapt attention and apprehension—not wanting to miss a single word. The pair shared the sensation of an upset stomach, struggling to digest the contents of Pearl's story. They had a sick feeling of where the story was heading.

Amethyst remained silent, keeping her back turned to Pearl, but still listening to the tale unfold. 

"By the time Rose found out, the nephrite dropships had already deployed across earth, dropping soldiers into human villages where they stormed into homes, taking people away to be placed in the zoo," Pearl's words became uneasy as if it was suddenly painful to speak. "Rose and I went down to earth try and at least stop some of them, but we were too late. We found only ruin and chaos everywhere we went until we stumbled upon a lone man in a field, watching helplessly as a nephrite ship faded away until it became just another star in the night sky." Pearl looked up at the cloudy sky, letting a single tear slide down her cheek as she unclenched her fists.

"The Heretic?" Steven asked.

Pearl shook her head. "He was just a man then, a victim of our mistakes."

"What happened after, were—were you able to help him?" Connie stammered. 

Pearl's face became pale, flushed of any color. "When he saw us, he was scared and then angry, like he wasn't sure what to think. He picked up a flail from the field and charged at us in a reckless rage. It was so sudden I—I—"

"Pearl!" Garnet shouted, startling everyone who had become engrossed in Pearl's story. "There is a better time and place for this,"

"They deserve to know the truth now!" Pearl contested.

"Not now. Later. Trust me," Garnet replied. "The Heretic will need to hear the rest of your story."