Work Text:
The future was no mystery to Sapphire. To see it with perfect clarity, she did nothing to muddy the waters. Her inaction meant the future was fixed, unchanging, certain. And if it was not the best future, well, it was also not the worst. It simply was, and she accepted it.
(The worst futures haunted her. They were the stuff of nightmares. And they waited, for her to choose, to act, to loosen the bonds of fate and open the way to chance and chaos and catastrophe.)
She would have continued on that path, forever. But a spark became a conflagration.
Love.
And with it, change. Garnet tried to hold it back, to be someone entirely new and yet the same. To learn and grow, to be a partner and a partnership, without letting those grim futures gain a foothold in this new, uncertain world. So she sought non-action. Motion, without effort. Flowing with the current, rather than fighting against the tide.
Rose made it easy. She was their rock, holding firm against every ebb and flow, every storm and deluge. She chose, easily, decisively, unflinchingly. She saw what was right and committed herself to it, fully and without reservation. And when Rose stood firm for Earth, for life, for freedom, their foes broke against her like a crashing wave.
In the lee of that rock, where the waters of fate split to flow around Rose Quartz and joined again behind her, there was a quiet, still space, a space almost free of choice.
Following Rose was a choice, but a very small one. Ruby and Sapphire had followed their Diamond, before, when it had not seemed like a choice at all. So Garnet followed after Rose, chose to let her choose. It was close to non-action. Almost close enough.
And then Rose was gone.
Rose, who had been their fixed and guiding star, saw the chance to change herself and took it, without hesitation, without regret. Gone, in an instant. Gone forever.
There was no certainty now. The terrible futures were at her heels, pursuing her, waiting for the moment when she would falter and fall. She had to choose the path ahead. Only she could see the dangers, see the narrow way to keep things safe. She held on to what certainty she could. She didn't try to rise above that narrow path, for if she stumbled, took one false step, everyone she loved would vanish in an instant.
But Steven was here now, ever changing. Rising, falling, and rising again. Always choosing, and always choosing love.
So Garnet looked to the future, again. She did not look for the dangers, because risk was now a certainty. She looked instead at what good might come, should she reach out for it, should she demand it, and the brightness of those possibilities nearly blinded her.
She understood now why Rose had never hesitated to choose that bright future, nor to fight for it. Neither would she.