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Chapter Text

Rose nervously tapped her fingers along the surface of the counter top. She was at a loss of what to tell him as she felt torn at what to say.

Across from her, Steven waited to hear her decision, a massive ringed planner sprawled out in front of him littered with scribbled notes organized into schedules for Steven’s latest project.

“Steven, I don’t think this is a very good idea.” Rose urged, trying her best to hide the desperation in her voice.

Steven took a deep sigh. It seemed he was expecting her to show resistance. “Look, Mom, I know this is a little intimidating. But-” He began to say before his mother cut him off.

“Steven, nobody is going to want to be anywhere near me after everything!”

Steven pinched the bridge of his nose, clearly frustrated but trying his best not to show it. He elaborated. “You agreed you wanted to be a part of my life, and Little Homeschool is going to be big part of it now! And it’s not like you can avoid this forever!”

Rose squirmed a bit in her seat. She knew this day was coming one way or another. She herself had to admit that she couldn’t dodge this forever, especially not after she had made her promise to him.

She felt a pit form in her stomach. This ‘Little Homeschool’ was everything she fought for during the War for Earth. She had dreamed of greeting Gems from across the stars with open arms. Of showing them that they could be something more than what they were made to be and of the wonders this world had to offer.

But that was a long time ago. And so much had changed between then and now. Even ignoring the obvious resentment that they would doubtlessly harbor towards her, she herself couldn’t help but feel she’d just be an unwelcome ghost of the past.

“I… I’m not avoiding this, Steven, I’m just not sure if they’re ready.” Rose reasoned, stumbling over her words as she made her retort. “Or even if I’m ready.”

“Mom, you shouldn’t have to hide from them forever. I’m not ashamed to be your son.” Steven said in as earnest a tone as he could muster.

Hearing Steven say that was enough to let the edge of Rose’s lips perk up into a smile. In any context, hearing him say that filled her with a sense of warmth. “That’s very sweet of you to say, but wouldn’t it be enough to just simply be your mother?”

“Mom, I’m not a little kid anymore. I don’t need someone to always look after me.” Steven explained. “I want those gems to see how me and Dad and the others see you. You can show all these gems how beautiful and amazing Earth is! Maybe some of those gems will warm up to you even!”

More kind words, Rose thought. And even if some would prove it to be true, would be enough to outweigh the inevitable discomfort? “I… I just don’t know, Steven…” She said, resting her chin on her hand.

“Hey, it’s not like we’re just throwing you to the wolves, either. I’ll be there overseeing everything!” Steven noted, his voice growing softer as he tried to restore some level of confidence in her. Flipping through the notes in his planner he listed off more names.

“Not to mention Garnet is gonna be there to teach Yoga, Fusion, and General Safety.”

“Pearl’s showing them Earth tech and plans to be a Fencing instructor.”

“Bismuth is showing them how to build homes and other stuff.”

“What about Amethyst?” Rose asked.

Steven flipped through more of his notes while giving a quizzical stare. “Oh, she said she wanted to teach a course, but I honestly have no clue what it’s about.” Steven admitted before his face lit up with delight, pointing to one note in particular. “And hey! Vidalia is gonna be an Art Tutor there! See? There’s plenty of people you know that you can go to if you’re stressed!”

“You almost make it sound fun.” Rose said, feeling a little better about the idea the more he explained it.

“It will be, trust me! Peridot asked to have you assist in her Botany lectures. You’ll get to show students different kinds of plant life and how they grow and everything, it’ll be great!” Steven said excitedly, although Rose guessed his enthusiasm was more for her sake than his. “Please, Mom, do it for me at least?”

Rose breathed a heavy sigh. She didn’t want to show it, but part of her was starting to hate how easily she could be swayed when Steven asked something of her for his sake. But she had to admit, part of her wanted this too. She wanted to be part of Steven’s future, and not just be a painful memory of his past.

“Okay…. I’ll do it…” she said.

Steven wasted no time, practically jumping out of his seat to hug her. “Thanks, Mom. This means so much to me.” Rose smiled as he returned his hug. At least now she could tell he meant it. “And it’ll be great, trust me.”

For Rose’s first day of class, everything had seemed to go well enough. At least she thought so.

When Steven first introduced her alongside Peridot as instructors, she wasn’t the least bit surprised to receive her share of boos and angry stares. One gem erupted from the crowd threatening to leave for having her there.

Steven, bless his heart, tried his best to settle things as peacefully as he could. But the gem, a stout little Cherry Quartz by the looks of it, wasn’t having it. She had marched straight up to Steven’s face to have him admit that his claim to hold all gems equally was a lie. That because Rose herself had been a former Diamond that she was somehow being given special privileges.

Bismuth was quick to shout her down. Stars, Rose could practically see the color drain from that poor gem’s face as Bismuth’s voice boomed throughout the open campus of Little Homeschool like thunder.

Once the rainbow haired gem had given a very vocal lecture on manners and the many things she’d do if anyone tried to intimidate Steven like that again, most everyone silently agreed to leave her be.

Of course, that certainly didn’t mean any of the students would suddenly like her. But their antics were at least comparatively quaint compared to what she had been through in past encounters.

It was… nice. She and Peridot each demonstrated various examples of plant life found on Earth. The ways they would sustain themselves while rooted to the planet’s surface. The fascinating ways they grew and procreated by relying on everything from the weather to the wildlife that would turn to it for sustenance or shelter.

Not to mention sharing in the small green gem’s energy and enthusiasm that rivaled her own felt so refreshing. She was practically giddy at the thought of teaching them how to cultivate their own plot of land to help experience life bursting out of the ground but not leave behind a dead husk firsthand.

At last, Rose felt like she was comfortable around other gems.

“YOU!”

At least, at first.

The cry seemed to come from the back of the crowd just as Rose and Peridot’s first class had finished. Without even a moment to properly respond, she felt a hard slap across her left cheek. Dazed, she looked to see another gem with ashen skin and pitch-black hair and eyes save for a lock of milky white that droop down the front of her face and blocking her right eye. A gem Rose recognized as a Black Onyx. Tears streamed down the curves of her cheeks as she seemed to fight the urge to cry.

“How… how dare you…” she struggled to say. Rose could already hear Peridot begin to scurry to her side, but Rose gestured to stay behind her. Let this gem speak at least.

“You… y-you lied to us!” she snarled through gritted teeth. “I believed in you… WE believed in you! I and Tourmaline!”

Rose could already hear how much it hurt as the gem’s voice cracked at the mention on her companion. “We… were planning our new lives during the war… she said she wanted to try fusion…”

The gem’s bitterness melted away to sheer anguish in front of Rose and she watched her choke back a sob. She herself said nothing, only holding her head low as she let this gem that once looked to her as a leader vent her grief.

“She loved me, and I loved her.” She whimpered. “After Our Steven freed us of corruption, I couldn’t find her at your spring. So I went to the Diamonds and asked them if she somehow made it home… I gave Blue Diamond her facet number….” She paused to wiper her eyes. “You want to know where she is now?”

Rose didn’t know if it would make her more upset if she answered and simply let her continue. After a few moments, the Onyx jabbed a finger towards the ground.

“She’s down there! Part of… that weapon… that thing that was meant to kill you!” Rose’s lip trembled a bit, her eyes beginning to water as she felt Peridot reach for her hand to provide some meager level of comfort. As if she were the one that needed consoling.

“Do you understand me Pink? She… she’s gone!” she snapped. “I will never see her again, and I don’t know what to do without her now…”

Rose wanted to do something to help. To provide some comfort to this gem as she was forced to grapple with her grief. But part of her knew she wouldn’t accept it, not from her. And that thought only made it worse.

Onyx took another deep breath as she tried to pull herself together. “So now after everything, I only have one question for you.” She said, her tone growing icier with every word. “Why are you here while she’s gone?”

Rose could feel her body begin to shake. Tears began to pool around her eyes as she fought not to crumple into a ball in front of this gem.

“Well? What makes you so damn special!?”

“I…” Rose tried to respond, her voice shaking. “I don’t know…”

Onyx shook her head, her face chiseled into a stone-cold grimace. “If it were up to me, you’d be down there in her place… And I’m sure there are plenty of gems here that have a story just like mine and feel the same way. But I hope you’re happy, Pink.”

Rose didn’t know how long it had been since the gem had left. She was almost scared to move lest she attract the ire of another gem simply wishing to let out their troubles towards her.

“Um… Rose… are you okay?” Peridot asked, her shrill, nasally voice sounding the softest she had ever heard it be.

Rose sniffed and wiped her eyes, looking back to the smaller gem with a broken smile. “Oh? I… I-I’m fine…

Chapter Text

Rose was, in fact, not fine. Any and all confidence that she was able to muster that day had long since been snuffed out like the faint embers of a young fire in a rainstorm.

She tried her best to pull herself together and muster up new courage in any way she knew how before their next class. She had made a promise to Steven, and she was determined not to let him down.

But the more she stayed there, the more she could almost feel everyone’s eyes follow her. All throughout Peridot’s lecture she could pick out too many familiar faces from the crowd. All baring the look of contempt. Their hateful glares burning into her very being. After what had felt like an eternity, she found she simply couldn’t take the stress anymore.

Peridot, thankfully, was all too happy to let her go. The normally loud and excitable gem calmly telling her to take all the time she needed until she was ready to return.

It helped her feel better at least. But Rose wasn’t sure how to tell her that she wasn’t certain if she even wanted to come back.

‘This was a mistake…’ Rose told herself. Her mind already conjuring the image of a disappointed Steven if nothing else than to torture herself.

She was right, she wasn’t ready, and neither were they. And they likely never wanted to be ready to see her again.

‘How am I going to make this up him?’

“Yo, Rose!”

Rose paused, spotting Amethyst running to catch up to her. “Hey, there, professor!” Amethyst said jokingly. “You wanna tag along with me for lunch?”

“Don’t you have a class right now?” Rose asked.

“Uh, yeah, I do.” Amethyst answered coolly.

Rose blinked, puzzled with her response. “Wait, so shouldn’t you be with-”

“C’mon, let’s just get something to eat!” Amethyst cut in before Rose could ask any more questions.

Part of her simply wanted to go home and forget about this day, but deep down she knew Amethyst wouldn’t leave her be until she agreed to join her. With a defeated sigh, she allowed the smaller gem to lead her back into town.

Before long, Rose found herself on an old bench by the boardwalk, taking in the crisp spring air that still carried with it a faint chill from the morning. As she looked above, she could see the clouds slowly trail across the sky. Their amorphous forms blocking out the sun and causing its light to dim. As the sky grew darker, all the color in the world seemed to fade with it into an overwhelming gray.

Rose had never seen the world around her appear so lifeless, even if it was just for a moment.

“I’m back, and I got the bits!” Amethyst said cheerfully, taking a spot beside her and handing a small paper tray of fries. Or rather, the otherwise discarded scraps of fries that Steven and Amethyst always loved.

“Sooo…… Peridot told me what happened with that gem this morning.” Amethyst said plainly, tossing a handful of bits into her mouth.

Rose sighed. “Did she tell you why she acted that way towards me?”

“Dude, what does it matter? She shouldn’t treat you like that.” Amethyst asserted.

Rose held her head low to the ground as she rested her head on her hands. “No, Amethyst, it’s fine. She was in pain. And I’m the one who caused it.”

“That doesn’t mean it’s okay for her to go and hurt you like that!” Amethyst blurted, her tone growing more irritable. “Like, okay, look. If Jasper decided to start pushing me around for whatever reason, what would you do?”

Rose turned to face the small Quartz. “Wait, is she?”

“What? No!” Amethyst corrected. “She and the Fam have been really cool lately, but that’s not the point. My point is that you can’t let other people treat you like crap. Even if you did something bad to them. They’re still hurting someone to make themselves feel better!”

“Amethyst, she wouldn’t have been like that if it weren’t for me in the first place.” Rose said.

“Did hurting you actually help her?”

“Well… No…” Rose shyly admitted. “Not really…”

“That’s ‘cause she wasn’t focused on making it right. She only wanted to get even.” Amethyst said bluntly. “You can’t just let every gem that you got history like that with to walk all over you! You deserve to be happy too!”

Rose look to the little gem with a smile at that. “Thank you, Amethyst.”

Amethyst nudged Rose’s side with her elbow to break her from her train of thought. “Hey, you still got us, right?”

The corner of Rose’s lips perked into a faint smile. “Right…”

“Excuse me, I’m looking for someone in particular?” Rose heard a familiar voice say.

The sound of it alone, so jubilant and filled with a child-like vigor, was enough to fill Rose’s mind with visions of her old life. As she turned to face the source of the voice, she froze. It was almost as if the figure before her had been plucked from her memories.

Pink Pearl…

Her Pearl…

“Excuse me, I don’t mean to be a bother, but I’m looking for Pink Diamond.” She said, sounding almost embarrassed to ask.

Amethyst gave a heavy sigh and stood up from her spot on the bench. “Okay, pal, look. If you’re gonna start shit with Rose, you…”

“Amethyst, wait.” Rose said, her mind still hazy from the shock of seeing her old friend. She slowly rose to her feet, her breath shaky as she spoke to her. “Pearl?”

Hearing Rose’s voice must have been enough. The placid smile melted away, her eyes now wide as saucers. “Pink!?” she blurted in surprise. Without warning, the Pearl tackled her with a hug as she let out a joyful squeal.

“Oh my stars-I barely recognize you! You… you look so different! Although I suppose I should have guessed given that you don’t even have your old gem anymore!”

Rose tried to think of what to say, how much did she remember from all the years she spent as White’s puppet? She rubbed the back of her neck and ignored was must have been an obvious blush as she tried to think of what to say. “I… well, you know, I changed a lot after having Steven…”

“How did you make him by the way? Oh, that must have been so fun!” Pink Pearl said, nearly unable to contain her giddiness.

“I dunno, it’s okay, not for everyone.” Amethyst said with a shrug.

Rose cheeks burned at the small gems comment, certain now that her face resembled a ripe cherry. “T-that’s not important right now!”

“Right, I was actually hoping to attend one of your classes.” Pink Pearl suggested.

“Oh, r-right, my class…” Rose said, immediately panicking at what she had just said. As she tried to correct herself, she found the words spill out all at once.

“Well, it’s not really my class. It’s more Peridots and I’m just something of an assistant to help students. Stars, could you imagine me in charge of anything after all I’ve done? It would just be another disaster, and everyone would be angry with me again and all I’ve been doing would have been for nothing and my son would disown me and-”

“Whoa, whoa! Dude, chill.” Amethyst urged, grabbing hold of Rose’s arm to help calm her down.

Just as Rose was sure she had made a fool of herself to her friend, she heard her former Pearl laugh. “My, you really haven’t changed a bit, Pink.”

Even with Rose aware of the harmless nature of Pink Pearl’s words, something about them still stung. “I… haven’t?”

“Still just as funny as you used to be.” Pink Pearl said. “I remember us being good friends back then. But you never came to visit me. So, I decided I wanted to come to you and see how you are.”

Rose tried to find something to say, but it was as if her mind had been reduced to static. “Um… uh…”

“Sure, man. Sounds cool. I’m sure P-dot’s got room for another student.” Amethyst said.

Pink Pearl’s face appeared to light up with joy at Amethyst’s words. She stole one last moment to give Rose a parting hug. “Wonderful! I hope to see you tomorrow!”

“Right. Um… It was… nice… Seeing you again, that is.” Rose struggled to say, still frozen in shock as her first ever friend walked away…

Rose wasn’t sure how long she had been standing there, silently looking into nothing as she tried to make sense of what had just occurred before Amethyst spoke up.

“Ok, spill it. Why were you acting so weird in front of her?”

Rose blinked. Her trance broken by Amethyst’s question. “What?”

“Like, I get she used to be yours back when you were a Diamond. But then White took her and janked up her eye.”

Rose felt a pain in her gut at that. Some part of her wanted to use White as a Scapegoat. She had certainly been guilty of worse, after all.

But it didn’t feel right to her here…

Not about this…

Not about her…

“Hey, you okay?” Amethyst asked.

What would she think if she told her? She’d have to be disgusted for sure. Very likely furious. But now that… she… was here, would she tell the others? How much worse would it be if they all knew she had kept them all in the dark like this.

What would Pearl say knowing she once acted so callous?

What about Garnet, or Greg?

What about her little Steven?

“Hey, I get it, she was your friend, and seeing her again with that messed up eye must be-” Amethyst began to say. Rose had to try, no more secrets…

“It was me. I broke her eye.”

Amethyst froze in place. The one eye not yet obscured by her bangs staring at her unblinkingly. “Dude… what?” she responded in completely flat tone.

Rose cleared her throat, she knew they would have questions. At least she could give them the full story. “I… she and I were playing some sort of game throughout the Palace. Yellow was in the process of Colonizing another world and had decided to bring specimens back from the planet’s surface…”

Memories of blank skies and shimmering palace walls ran through her head as she spoke. With all that she had been through, all that she liked to think had changed about her, the image of who she was then seemed so… distant now. Almost alien.

“Of course we were caught, and Yellow dragged the both of us before White. She told me she wouldn’t tolerate my antics anymore and that she would have my Pearl taken away…”

She gripped the fabric of her skirt tightly at the memory of seeing White’s face twisted in anger. The pit in her stomach ached enough that it almost bore a hole in her very being.

“I argued against her, told her it wasn’t her fault. I remember she said to me ‘Pink, this is precisely why none of us have yet to take you seriously. If you refuse to face the consequences like a proper Diamond, then you don’t deserve our respect, let alone a colony’.”

She couldn’t hold back the tears anymore and let out a heavy sigh.

“I had never felt so angry before in my life at that moment… And I just… screamed… loud enough I felt the world around me shudder and almost crumble. And when it was done… I found my Pearl… and she was so… frightened of me…”

She looked back to see if Amethyst had been listening, finding to her surprise less shock or anger as she anticipated and more… sad? Pitiful?

But Rose recognized a warmth from it. A silent gesture that didn’t seem to judge. And for that, she was grateful.

“White took her after she found she couldn’t fix her eye… she said it was proof that all I could do was destroy. I tried to apologize, but White didn’t want my ‘excuses’…”

Even now, all these eons later, the words still haunted Rose like vengeful spirit.

‘Oh, Pink. You’ll never change…’

Rose fought to swallow the lump in her throat when she finally finished.

“I was the one who hurt her, and I was so scared afterward that I would hurt anyone else the same way that I forced myself to bury my anger. No matter how much it hurt, I just kept thinking of how I hurt my only friend… and how I couldn’t fix it.”

Amethyst let out a sigh. “I just… man, that sucks that you did that.”

“I was an awful person back then, Amethyst. Just… careless and stupid and-”

“Hey, hey. I get it. It’s okay.” The smaller gem said, her tone shockingly blasé.

“What?” Rose said in utter bewilderment.

“Dude, you don’t think we’ve done any worse with Steven?” Amethyst asked.

“You never hurt Steven like I hurt her!” Rose stated. “You and the others-”

“You don’t think Pearl’s ‘You never even met her’ bit didn’t leave Steven with his own scars?” Amethyst retorted.

“What about when I dragged him to the old Kindergarten and plopped all my baggage on his lap?”

“Or when Ruby and Sapphire took their relationship issues out on him and Greg in Keystone.”

“He even admitted to knowing all this time about how he found out the obstacle course we made for him was rigged! But that he felt so bad for us that he decided to just throw on a smile to make us all feel better!”

Rose was at a loss at what to say. This wasn’t at all the angry screaming she had anticipated. But she had found herself completely lost with this gem’s reasoning. “But you didn’t-”

“Mean to? Nah, we didn’t.” She simply said with a shrug as she inhaled the remaining scraps of fry bits.

“But after talking to the other gems about, well, all of that I can tell we still feel like shit about it. ‘Cause back then, we were shitty people sometimes. And sometimes we treated Steven like shit. Honestly, if we left scars like you did on that Pearl, Steven would be covered head to toe.”

The pain in Rose’s chest returned. It hurt to think about the missteps, the moments of where they had fumbled. And she remembered all too well from just months before the impact it had left on him.

“But you wanna know why we don’t cry ourselves to sleep at night over it? Because we talked to Steven about it!” Amethyst said. “A lot of it hurt, but after that one psycho Quartz made Steven drag out all our dirty laundry, we talked to him whenever it was just, like, us. We apologized, made up, and we still got to be a family.”

“And you think I could do the same with her? After all this time?” Rose asked.

“You won’t know unless you try. ‘Sides most gems that seem to know ya tend to fall between either wanting to kick your ass or spit in your face. This is a step up.”

Rose almost wanted to chuckle at that but couldn’t decide if the accuracy of her comment made it funnier or upsetting. “I… I don’t know…”

“Look just talk to her after class and see how she feels about everything.” Amethyst said, her voice becoming noticeably softer. “And if it helps, tell me how it goes, ‘kay?”

“You’re very sweet…” Rose said, taking a moment to appreciate how much this little gem had grown.

Amethyst smirked, crossing her legs and folding her hands behind her head. “I get it from my Mom…”

Rose couldn’t help but smile at that. The clouds above now seemed to finally recede. The bleak and joyless world she once saw now popped with life again. Maybe it would be worth giving teaching another chance…

Chapter Text

Rose tried her best to not make a big deal about this. She knew she would only make the entire situation worse by stressing herself out and inevitably making another stupid mistake. And knowing her luck, it would be at the worst possible time…

But as she tried to focus on aiding in her and Peridot’s newest student, she couldn’t help but fidget a bit because of who she was currently tutoring. And the fact that she seemed to be blissfully unaware of Rose’s discomfort made it worse.

Her smiling somehow making the former Diamond feel that much more uneasy.

To Rose’s own shame, she knew that this reunion was inevitable, and yet had until now made every effort to avoid it. Perhaps to spare both parties unnecessary unease? Although she had to admit that was more based on how she felt.

But could anyone truly blame her? This gem… this person that related so much to a name and a life that didn’t really exist anymore was now here. And yet, after so long. After all this time, after doing what no gem has done before and tossed aside her old self so thoroughly as to literally change their gem type…

And yet to this gem, she was still just Pink.

Everything she had committed herself to being, her drive to change and to become a softer, kinder version of herself was spurred by her single act of carelessness and the guilt that had haunted her for those countless centuries since.

Were it not for the still present animosity the gross majority of the other students still harbored towards her, Rose might have been able to convince Peridot to trade places in helping their new student seeing as she had missed their class syllabus the day before.

And while Rose herself tried to keep the subject off her and on her and Peridot’s lesson, she couldn’t shake this sense that this all just felt… off.

‘Why is she so happy to see me?’

‘Did she even remember what happened to her eye?’

‘Does she even notice that something is wrong with it?’

She grumbled a bit and shook her head. ‘Stop!’ she told herself. ‘She hasn’t brought up anything about her eye or White. Whether she remembers or not, it’s clear she doesn’t want to talk otherwise she would have said something by now.’

She looked back to her newest pupil, who gave her another sweet, gentle smile as their eyes met, oblivious to the whirlwind that stormed in the back of Rose’s mind. Rose tried her best to mirror her grin, convinced that it must have looked absolutely forced.

‘Just… focus on the lesson and nothing else.’ she said. ‘Just talk about that for now.’

She held the small pot that held the young strawberry plant in her hand in front of her for the pearl to see. “Alright, I insisted to Peridot that it was far too early in the year to try and grow these, so don’t feel bad if these don’t grow as big as we say they should.”

The reason for Rose’s objection for their classes first project had to do with timing and the plant of choice.

Strawberries needed the heat and light of the summer sun to properly grow. Even if they were to give these young plants all the tender love and care they needed, they would barely grow much at all before the end of the semester. But Peridot insisted she had everything under control, and she chose to place her trust in the small green gem.

“Wait, you mean these things aren’t meant to stay the same?” her friend asked, wide eyed in amazement. Rose nodded and smiled, this time it felt at least a little more natural.

The Pearl let out an excited squeak. “So, what will they look like when they’re ‘grown’?”

“Well…” Rose began to think. “Over time, this fuzzy little plant with grow tiny white flowers from the end of its stems. And even as the peddles wilt and die off, the center of those flowers will grow bigger and bigger until it turns from green to white to finally red! Humans often love to eat these because of how sweet they are!”

The Pearl stood there, mouth agape as her eye twinkled in amazement at Rose’s description. “That sounds incredible! You plant it in the ground and it just bursts out?”

“Well, not exactly.” Rose stated. “It’ll take time, but hopefully this greenhouse will keep them safe until they’re ready to be picked.”

Despite Rose’s concerns, even she was impressed with Peridot’s setup. The greenhouse she and Bismuth had constructed was impressive in size and complexity. Within contained rows of deep, narrow troughs filled with rich, dark soil. The perfect level for growing smaller plants like strawberries that needed the extra space for their deep roots to take hold of.

And while outside, the last of the winter chill persisted in the air and the sun’s light was still hidden beneath the thick cloud cover, inside was a different story. Peridot and Bismuth had designed this structure so that the air was always conditioned to remain warm when necessary. And above each trough, Rose felt the faint heat of ultraviolet lights hanging above the pipes to the sprinkler system to accommodate for the lack of real sunlight.

Rose herself had to admit, she was impressed with the level of thought and care they had put into it all. And it seemed Peridot was just as excited to test her new greenhouse’s capabilities as much as the student’s ability to cultivate life within it.

Following Rose’s instructions, the pearl dug a hole into the soil with a trowel before gingerly pouring the strawberry plant from its pot and placing in the hole and filling it in. After carefully filling the surrounding area with soil, she sprinkled around the plant with compost.

“Alright, I think you did very well.” Rose said encouragingly. “Now in a few days, we’ll see how it looks and go over any changes we see.”

“So… that’s it for now?” the Pearl asked with a shrug, trying not to sound too disappointed. “Did you want to do anything else together?”

Rose cleared her throat and nervously scratched the back of her neck. “Well… Steven may want me to help him with something and Pearl wanted to…” she stopped. She was lying, of course she didn’t have anything else that day. But something about how she was trying to trick her oldest friend to leaving made her feel so sleezy. No matter how awkward things felt between them.

Maybe… maybe she did know how uncomfortable she felt? Was that the reason she had been so friendly all morning?

“Well… maybe we could do something later. Would you… like to meet the rest of my family?”

“I’d love that!” the Pearl said, sounding absolutely giddy. Rose smiled, what could go wrong?

“Uh, excuse me? Could I have some help please?” A student called out at the end of the trough. “I think there’s something wrong with my plant. Could you come take a look?”

“Um, excuse me a minute.” Rose said before approaching the student’s project. As she inspected it, it didn’t immediately appear that anything was wrong-

POP

Dirt and plant matter exploded out in all directions and splattered onto Rose’s face. With a defeated sigh, Rose wiped the debris from her face as her student burst out laughing.

Where the student’s strawberry plant once was now sat a smoking crater, her project now in tatters. Thankfully, the damage was only centered within her space, Rose guessing that she had likely bubbled the tiny explosive before burying it to avoid disrupting the other student’s projects.

“Oops, looks like I planted cherries instead!” they joked, their victory cut short as a metal baseball bat hovered over her head before striking the top of it with a hard metallic ‘whack’.

“Ow!”

“You, detention! One week!” Peridot hollered from across the room.

“B-but…”

“I SAID DETENTION!”

Rose chuckled a bit at Peridot’s scolding, making sure the last of the dirt had been shaken out of her hair. From behind, she could hear someone try to hold back a giggle.

“Oh Pink, that was fun! Do you do this in class every day?” the pearl asked jubilantly.

“Well, not really. Usually the students just yell at me…” Rose admitted.

“So… did you still want to do other things with me?” her friend asked, sounding just a bit nervous.

Rose smiled and shrugged. “Well, I don’t see why not…”

“Clear you mind, close your eyes. Close yourself off from the distractions of the world around you and focus on yourself…” Garnet cooed, her voice soft and quiet as she tried her best to not distract the gems gathered around her. Each of them sat with their legs crossed as they followed the fusion’s instructions.

Well, most did…

“Is this supposed to be fun?” whispered Rose’s former Pearl. “We’re just sitting around being quiet.”

“It can be fun sometimes.” Rose whispered back while keeping her eyes closed. “Garnet’s meditations help tremendously with all the stress I have to deal with.”

“Pfft, you? Stressed?” the gem scoffed. “The Pink I knew didn’t have a care in the world!”

“Please keep your voice down!” Garnet softly stated.

The Pearl blushed a bit as she awkwardly waved to acknowledge Garnet’s request. “Sorry!” she said, her voice cracking from trying to keep as quiet as possible.

“Well, that was then…” Rose rebuttled. “Now? I have a whole family to fret over. The gems, my husband, my son. They spent so many years believing I was dead. And they had to try and sort so much of my mess… And these days, I’m trying not to crack under the pressure of being a good friend, protector, wife, mother and now teacher…”

Rose could already feel her body begin to tense up as she felt her seemingly endless list of responsibilities pile up as she recalled them. Stopping herself, she took a deep breath, and slowly exhaled. She allowed her brow to unfurrow, her shoulders to slack, and her whole body nearly go limp.

“…But having a moment where I can forego the pressure that I place myself under is… nice…”

There was pause before her former Pearl spoke up again.

“I see…” she simply said, sounding a bit surprised. “So… she’s always fused like this?”

Rose smiled and gave a small nod in confirmation, happy to switch the subject.

“I’ve never heard of a fusion like her before. Is there a reason why they stay like that?”

“Ruby and Sapphire’s love for one another is strong.” Rose explained. “And Garnet is meant to be the ultimate embodiment of that love.”

“Really?” The pearl said in astonishment. “So have you… tried it for yourself?”

“Tried what?” Rose asked.

“Y’know. Fusion.”

Rose thought back to the day she and Pearl planned to scare away Homeworld for good. Of seeing Garnet form for the first time after trying to confront Blue Diamond herself.

How her Pearl blushed after her failed first attempt at fusion, stumbling over her words and believing she was defective for wanting to run away with her and be together on Earth. Rose, moved by her confession, begged her to never stop feeling that way.

But over time, Pearl only went on to destroy herself during the war…

And after… how long did she suffer in silence, too scared to admit her feelings as Rose shared her heart with others besides her trusted knight…

And now… that was over…

‘No’ Rose told herself. ‘She’s forgiven me, we’ve moved on. Things are… better.’

“I… I have dabbled in fusion.” Rose admitted. “What about you? Would you ever want to try fusion?”

Rose’s friend paused, sounding more than a little flustered. “Maybe. I guess so… But I can’t imagine being fused all the time like that.”

Rose gave a shrug. “That’s okay, it’s not for everyone.”

“Well, do you still have time for fun?” her friend asked.

Rose gave a cheeky smile at her question. “Oh, yes!”

Worn out and exhausted, the gems gathered at each side of the volleyball court struggled to stand once Pearl finally blew the whistle and marked the end of the game.

“Well done, all of you! Spodumene, Biggs, good teamwork!” Pearl congratulated. The later gem, a burly Quartz with wavy patterns of reddish-brown tones and three horns that sprouted from her forehead through her bangs lifted the other, a gem with translucent light blue and brown skin up off the ground for a celebratory hug.

Pearl gave a little smile before turning her attention to the opposite team. “Blue Lace, Ocean Jasper? Don’t think either of you don’t deserve any praise. You both gave it your all and have made me very proud!”

The turquoise colored Quartz gave an exhausted sigh as she tried to force a smile, her mood lightening as her fellow gem helped her to her feet as all four departed the volleyball court.

Just in time for the next players to arrive.

“Hey Pearl!” Rose cried out excitedly. “Room for two more?”

“Well, I don’t see why not…” Pearl began to say before she notices the gem standing beside her. “Um… are you okay playing with only one eye?”

“Oh, that’s not really a problem.” The other Pearl said cheerfully. “I can still see with the one, right?”

“Well… I suppose that would be fine.” Pearl said. “But this other team had been waiting since the last game to play but I’m not sure how they would feel...”

Rose cocked her head curiously. “Oh, and who would that b-”

Before she could even finish her question, her answer already came by way of a volleyball that struck her face like a cannon ball, nearly burying her within a small crater in the sand.

“Yes! Direct hit!” cried a gruff voice in triumph.

Rose’s vision blurred and doubled as she dug herself out of the sand, both pearls rushing to help her out as she heard another voice begin to speak.

“Dammit, Jasper! I thought you were two were done kicking the crap outta each other!” Amethyst scolded.

“What? I just saw an opportunity, and I took it.” Jasper said cheekily, pretending to act innocent.

Amethyst growled. “I’m gonna stop inviting ya if you keep pulling shit like this…”

“Well, I thought it was funny.” Jasper said casually. “Hey Rose! You seriously plan on challenging us with a one-eyed Pearl!?”

Rose could hear her former Pearl growl at Jasper’s comment, her grip on her arm tightening before letting go to retrieve the abandoned volleyball off the ground.

The moment the ball left the gem’s hand, it shot towards Jasper’s face like a rocket, planting itself into her brow. The hulking Quartz’s neck snapped back from the sheer force, taking a few steps back as she wiped her eyes.

Jasper squinted at the shameless gem through squinted eyes. “Your friend asked for it now, Rose. I hope you’re ready for the sporting match of your life, Pearl!”

“You want to take this someplace else to settle this properly!?” Pearl fearlessly shouted back.

“Um, Pearl…” Rose timidly mumbled, pointing to the true instigator. “I think she was referring to her…”

Pearl tried to remain stoic even as her face turned baby blue from her blush. “I… I know that.” She said. “I suppose we’re going to need to give her a sort of nickname to avoid this kind of confusion in the future.”

“Hey, I know, how about ‘Volleyball’!” Amethyst jokingly suggested.

“I kind of like that name.” The other pearl said. “But maybe it should be a little shorter, what about… ‘Val’?”

Rose smiled. “Val is a lovely name.”

Val’s face lit up with joy at Rose’s approval, her cheeks turning rosy as she looked to her with a tender smile.

“Are were going to play or not!?” Jasper barked, stomping her foot into the ground and shaking her fist.

Val looked back the large Quartz with a confident grin. “Oh, we’ll play!” she said, pausing a moment before sheepishly turning back to Rose. “Um, so… what are we playing?”

“Ah, so this is your first game of volleyball then?” Pearl said. “Don’t worry, Rose and I can familiarize you with the rules as you play…”

Pearl was surprised at how quickly Val had picked up on the rules. Though the first few serves were clumsy and she had her share of hiccups once the second set started, she quickly became a novice.

Rose wasn’t much surprised. In the days Val served her as her pearl, one of her many duties was to keep Pink Diamond entertained and happy. And part of that involved playing many games and coming up with all sorts of rules to them. Over the many centuries, they both had quickly gotten good and learning and working within those rules.

Val’s quick taking to the sport had been enough to win the second and third set. Though not as strong as her and Rose’s opponents, she had proved to be nimble and crafty to secure her share of cheeky wins.

And although Rose was worried at first with Jasper’s apparent hostility as well. As the game carried on, she had noticed something else.

She seemed… happy. Even when Rose’s team scored, Jasper never seemed to take is as a slight against her person.

And when Amethyst would joke, Jasper seemed to play along with her. Albeit, her enthusiasm came with more than a fare share of violent undertones. But even still, it was a marked improvement.

Was this really the same gem that wanted nothing more than to grind her to dust only months ago?

When it all fell to the final set, the score was a tie of 23 to 23.

Rose and Val played hard, but Amethyst secured the winning score by shape shifting into a giant tennis racket to hit the ball back towards Rose’s side. She tried to stop it from hitting the ground and deflect it back, but it was too late. The Quartz sisters walked away the victors.

But as she looked to Val, she still seemed and bouncy and restless as ever, unfazed by their defeat. And Rose couldn’t help but smile at that…

The sun was already beginning to set as the two of them sat beside one another in the beach house as Rose told her friend of the memories she had made on Earth. Through it all, Val could only look on it awe and disbelief.

Rose wasn’t the least bit surprised by her reaction. She could only imagine the shock in trying to process all that had happened in her absence. And she had so much to tell her… and so much she tried to omit to avoid spoiling the moment…

Her first day as ‘Rose’ and experiencing Earth for the first time.

Of the friends she had made when she chose to leave Homeworld.

Of the day she had met Garnet.

Part of her wondered whether it was safe to mention Pearl… but she soon realized she was too important to leave unmentioned.

She especially made sure to regale her with the adventures she shared with the gems in the thousand of years following the war.

And most importantly… of how she met Greg and would later decide to have Steven.

“…and then he looked me right in the eye and told me ‘You’re everything I want’!”

Val gasped and raised her hand to her mouth. “Stars, just like that?”

Rose nodded, grinning from ear to ear. “Greg is so sweet. And he means the world to me. We had our ups and downs since then… but we decided that what we had was worth the trouble…”

“And then you two made the new Pink Diamond, right?” Val said, quizzically tilting her head. “The hybrid, I mean.”

“You mean Stev-”

Rose’s answer was cut short by the creaking of the screen door followed by frantic, heavy footsteps. Rose turned to see Steven, already discarding his book bag onto the futon and kicking off his shoes.

“Hi, Baby Bear! Did you have a good day?”

Rose’s question seemed to fly over Steven’s head as he took a deep breath, his shoulders slouching as he exhaled and wiped the sweat from his brow.

“Hey Mom, Peridot just called to tell me what happened this morning. I’m really sorry. I don’t even know how they managed to get cherry bombs in the first…” Steven began to say before spotting their guest sitting next to Rose. “Oh, hey!” he greeted with a friendly, if somewhat nervous wave.

“Oh, I know who you are!” Val stated, already looking over Steven curiously. “You’re Pink-uh, I mean Rose’s ‘son’!”

“Yeah, sorry we didn’t have much time to talk after I freed you.” Steven admitted with a shrug.

“Oh, well then let me introduce you two properly.” Rose stated cheerfully, already plucking him up off the ground and into her arms. “Wait, Mom, what’re you-”

“This is Greg and I’s precious baby boy, Steven.” Rose said, her voice growing softer. “And he is just the sweetest boy in the universe!”

“Mooooooom…” Steven pouted, crossing his arms.

“Well, you are!”

“Aww! He’s so cute!” Val stated, stars dancing in her eye while she folded her hands together and held them to her cheek.

“Isn’t he?”

“Mom…”

“Okay, okay. I’ll put you down…” Rose said, gingerly setting her son down and rolling her eyes. “Oh, he gets so fussy when I do this, it’s adorable.”

Val nodded. “He is just precious!”

Rose smiled as she held Steven close to her side and ruffled his hair. From the look on Steven’s face, he seemed far too tired to put up much resistance. “Steven was the one who helped lead out of… well… a very dark chapter of my life. I’m very fortunate to have him…”

“Well, it was very nice to meet you properly, My Steven.” Val said, raising her hands before pausing as if she were preparing to form an old Homeworld salute.

“Y-you can just call me Steven…”

“Right…” Val said, finally deciding to do away with the formality before turning her attention back to Rose. “Well, I best be off for Homeworld. And Pi… Rose…. Thank you. Will I see you in class tomorrow?”

“Hm? Oh, no. Tomorrow is a Saturday.” Rose corrected.

Val raised an eyebrow at Rose’s statement. “Which means?”

“Oh, right, you’re not used to these sorts of schedules… it means there won’t be any classes for a few days until Monday. If you like, we could meet tomorrow. Just the two of us?”

Val smiled. “Right… sure. Perfect.”

With that, the Pearl said her goodbyes and made her way to the warp pad to carry her on her way back to Homeworld. A high-pitched chime could be heard as she vanished in a flash of light.

“Well, seems like you had a good day.” Steven said.

Rose felt her cheeks warm as she nodded. “I decided to stick around and acquaint her with you all.”

“That’s great to hear! So, do you think teaching is working out for you?”

Rose stopped for a moment to think about how her day had gone before she gave her answer. “You know what? Yes. I think I’m really enjoying my time at Little Homeschool a bit more now.”

“That means a lot to hear that.” Steven said. “Honestly, Mom? I was worried you’d get used to hiding here at home all the time. I know you want to mostly spend time with me, and that’s really sweet. But you deserved to have a part in Little Homeschool.”

Rose swore something in her fluttered at that. “Awww, thank you, Baby Bear.”

“And it’s really nice to see one of your old friends here, too.”

Rose cleared her throat. “Yes, it was… nice… to see a face I remember finally greet me with a smile for once.”

“Amethyst told me how she lost her eye…” Steven said somberly.

Rose sighed, she figured she’d have told him by now. But all the same, something in her sank at the thought of what his initial reaction had to have been. “I’m sorry you had to find out, sweetheart…”

“No, no. She told me that you wanted to apologize to her and that you were worried she’d be upset.” Steven explained. “But it looks like everything between you two is figured out.”

Rose nodded. “It would seem so…” she said, trying to sound optimistic.

Steven reached out his arms to bring her into a hug. “I’m really proud of you, Mom. Thanks for doing this.”

‘He… was proud of… me?’ Rose choked back the sudden urge to cry at that. “Thank you for not giving up on me.” She said, lifting him off the ground to hug him in return.

“Hey, we’re family, we’ve all got each other’s backs.”

‘Oh, I can’t wait to tell Amethyst everything!’ Rose thought.

The hours seemed to slip by as Rose relayed the events of the rest of the day with Amethyst. When her talk with the small quartz came to an end, she returned to the beach house to see it bathed in darkness.

Greg’s snoring could be heard from the futon loud enough that Rose swore the entire house was shaking. But not, evidently, loud enough to spur her little Steven awake.

Rose giggled at the sight of him fast asleep while seated by the kitchen counter. His head facing towards her whilst resting it on his arm. With every rise and fall his chest made with each small breath, the sight proved enough to take Rose’s breath away.

But as precious as she found the sight to be, she knew he couldn’t stay there. She stood beside him, gently running her finger along his cheek. The gentle brushing eventually spurring him awake with a groan as he turned his head away.

Rose giggled. “Time for bed, sleepy head.”

“Okay…” Steven mumbled, still clearly only half awake. “Just need to finish organizing next week’s classes…”

“I’m sure those can wait until the morning.” Rose assured.

“No, Mom, it’s okay…”

“Steven.” Rose pressed, her soft tone growing just a touch firmer. “You’re still human enough to need a good night’s rest.”

Steven let out a sigh, knowing full well there would be no deterring her. “Fine…”

Without another word, Rose gingerly lifted Steven from his seat and into her arms. Though too exhausted to resist, Steven made his displeasure known as he let out a long, deep groan.

“Mooooooom… m’not a little kid. I can walk to my bed…”

Rose only let out another chuckle. “You’re still my baby, Steven. I can carry you just fine…”

Steven let out a defeated huff as Rose carried her son up the stairs to the loft where his bed awaited him.

“Are you getting enough to eat?” Rose asked. “You feel lighter.”

“Mom…” grumbled Steven in annoyance.

“I mean it, sweetie! I don’t want to find out that you’ve been skipping meals because of-”

“Mom!”

Rose rolled her eyes. “Okay, okay… you clearly need to get to bed.”

Rose threw back the thick comforter from his bed as she sat him down. After helping to remove his jacket and shoes, he finally sank into the plush surface of his mattress. Rose fished his phone from his discarded pants and played one of Steven’s tracks of relaxing music he used to help him sleep before tucking him back under his heavy bedsheet.

“Thanks, Mom…” Steven whispered.

Rose smiled and bent down to kiss his forehead. “You’re very welcome. Sweet dreams, Baby Bear. Mommy loves you so much.”

“Love you more…” Steven said, his words trailing off as he drifted back to sleep.

Chapter Text

It never really mattered when or where, or how much time had passed since, time and time again Rose found herself having the same dream off and on bubble up from the deepest, darkest corner of her memories.

It always started the same.

There would first be a loud rumble. After her time on Earth, Rose would often liken it to the sound of thunder. Only here it wasn’t off echoing in the distance, she could hear it in all its clarity all around her.

The ground beneath her would shake and her head would spin as she grew to feel lightheaded and dizzy. She’d stumble for a moment while her vision would blur. But once it finally cleared, she would quickly wish it hadn’t.

She would see her Pearl… Her Friend on the ground, curled up with her arms over her head cowered in front of her. Her left eye now cracked and damage.

Who could have done this?

‘You did this.’

‘Me? N-no! Of course not! She’s my friend, I would never-’

‘You took your anger out on her, she’s scared because of you! She’s scared of you!’

‘I didn’t mean to… I…’

A stinging white light began to assail her eyes as a familiar voice mocked her. “Oh, Starlight… just look at what you did…”

Rose looked down to the cracked floor at her feet, the visage of a young and frightened Diamond stared back. “I… I didn’t mean to…”

“There’s no point in apologizing dear.” White said softly. Pink assumed it was to help comfort her, but she couldn’t help but feel it was in some way condescending. “It’s simply in your nature to destroy everything around you when things don’t go your way…”

“Please, just tell me how I can fix this-”

“Oh, Pink…” White scoffed as she plucked the broken Pearl off the ground like a discarded doll. “You’ll never change…”

Rose awoke with a sudden gasp, the hair on the back of her neck stood up and she felt a chill crawl over her.

Her senses returned when she felt the warmth of morning sunlight shine over her face and let out a pained groan. Sitting up on the mattress of the futon, she stretched her arms out and yawned to greet the new day.

Outside, she could hear the cries of seagulls as they flew in the bright blue skies above, preying upon the shoreline for their morning meal. The ocean waves crashing against the beach and meeting the crisp sea air.

But even in the beauty of the moment, she still felt some small part of her still shaken from her vision.

‘What happened was just a dream.’ Rose thought to herself as she lumbered towards the kitchen to brew a pot of coffee. ‘Just a bad memory of an old life.’

Still, part of her didn’t feel so sure. She couldn’t ignore the nagging doubt that still lingered in the back of her head. Nor could she see having this dream resurface after the events of the last two days as simply being a coincidence.

She had enjoyed introducing her friend to Earth. And at least she was happy to see an old face that seemed sincerely happy to see her again. At least on the outside…

But Rose couldn’t help but wonder again, did Val really remember what happened? As much as it hurt to think about, she recalled how everything happened so fast as she still only had brief flashes of the most vivid parts.

Her anger towards White.

The echo of her scream.

Her Pearl’s her wounded eye…

Was it the same for Val as well? Was she scared to talk about this too?

Rose could hardly blame her. Anyone would have been scared to confront the person who hurt them like that. Especially if it was someone you had once thought of as a friend…

She paused for a moment after pouring herself a cup, briefly turning her attention towards the loft to see if Steven was still in bed, only to find it empty… and with the sheets tossed aside.

‘Oh, Steven…’ Rose thought as she smiled and rolled her eyes. Despite his insistence that he wasn’t a child anymore, she and Pearl still found they had no shortage of things to do to for him. But she didn’t mind, and she knew Pearl didn’t either.

To her right, she heard the distinctive hum of the warp pad before a sudden flash of light erupted from it to mark Val’s early arrival.

“Good morning.” Rose greeted cheerfully, her voice still groggy. “I certainly wasn’t expecting you to show up this early.”

Rose tried her best not to chuckle as she noticed the gems face begin to blush a soft shade of pink. “Yes, well, I was just excited as I had this idea for what we could do today…” she mumbled nervously.

“Well, would you like some coffee to start the day?” Rose offered.

The gem tilted her head. “Some… what?”

A whirl of excitement stirred within Rose at there still being so much of Earth still left to share with her. Without another word, she placed a second mug on the counter and began to fill it.

“I mentioned just the other day that humans like to create new ways to enjoy how they gain their nourishment. This is one that you simply need to drink. Although when it’s dark like this, Steven and I find it to be a bit too bitter. We usually like it sweeter.”

Rose slowly pushed the mug to the other end of the counter as a trail of steam billowed from the top. Curious, Val lifted it to her face gently with both her hands before looking back to her. “So…. How do I?”

“Don’t worry, it’s very simple.” Rose assured, already removing the small spoon from her own mug to see the cream render her drink’s color from a deep ebony to a light amber. Slowly, she brough the cup to her lips and took a sip. For moment, her entire body began to feel warm and cozy.

The same feeling she’d get from hugging Steven.

Or from gazing into the night sky with Greg.

Or from her memories of kissing Pearl…

“Stars… this is amazing…”

Rose’s concentration broke, she looked back to see her friend looking starry eyed at the cup in her hands. To her surprise, Val’s reaction was not what she expected.

“Are you sure you don’t need anything in it? It isn’t too bitter?”

“No… I think I like it bitter.” Val said quietly.

“I see, so, what did you have in mind for the two of us?”

Val averted her gaze from Rose as she set the cup down. “Well…” she nervously looked back to Rose as if she expected her to understand what she was trying to convey without words.

After a moment, it had finally clicked. “V-Val… please.” Rose began to say, trepidation already in her voice. “I… I just can’t…”

“I know you have no shortage of baggage there.” Val said. “I understand that you’re scared. But I promise, the other Diamonds have no idea that you’ll be there. We don’t need to see them.”

Well, that certainly made it a little better. Rose was in no mood to spend the day arguing with her former family, especially if they were going start begging to see Steven again.

Val’s grip on her mug tightened as she continued. “It’s just… how long has it been now? Eight thousand years since we played together in your old palace?”

“It feels even longer than that…” Rose admitted.

Val looked to Rose, her eye glittering in the sunlight as she gave her a pleading look. “I missed it. Don’t you miss it too?”

A dull pain ached in Rose’s chest at Val’s question. Much as she had wanted to escape her old life and the nightmares that awful place had left her with, she still held the memory of her first Pearl close. Be it out of love for her oldest friend or shame for her part in that friend’s enthrallment to White.

Even as she grew to see Earth as her new home, she would often miss the days she and her Pearl would spend together.

As Pink, she had felt like a prisoner in her own palace. Always scrutinized for not living up to the image of a ‘proper’ Diamond and never expected to change… but with her Pearl, she never had to be anyone else to be with her. And Rose was sure she was only thing that kept her going during her darker days.

“I do miss that.”

“So… do you trust me with taking you to Homeworld for a day?”

Rose nodded. “I do.”

The journey to Homeworld itself was mercifully quick. And true to Val’s word, they did not arrive to be greeted by the Diamonds. It was certainly a relief. When she had been Pink, her resentment towards the Diamonds was a well shared secret between the two of them. And thankfully, Val clearly had still remembered that after all these years.

Even still, Rose felt her body tense up as the warp stream dissipated. She let out an audible gasp as she felt something take hold of her hand and looked to see Val lead her away from the warp pad. “It’s alright. No one else know we’re here. It’ll just be us.”

Rose took a deep breath and tried the best she could to relax. But there was something about this place that threw her off and made it difficult to concentrate. She looked to her surroundings again to get her bearings.

Things did certainly seem… different… than how she had remembered Homeworld. The towering spires seemed markedly absent. In their place now stood magnificent hanging gardens of crystalline flowers tangled in a web of chutes that seemed to have taken root in every structure.

Off in the distance she could spot gems that likely belonged to the various courts mingling with each other. The face of other gems displayed while below their image read their candidacy for the position of ambassador of Homeworld for Earth.

The segregated tidiness of old Homeworld had given way to a multicolored shimmering garden. A Constant reminder of the mark her son left on Homeworld and on their former despots. And for just a moment, she allowed herself to savor a moment of pride for all her child had accomplished.

But even then, there were stark differences that could not go unnoticed. Gone were the blue seas and cloudy skies that she had known for so long.  There was something else about Homeworld that Rose had never taken note of before as she continued onward. Perhaps something that could only every be noticed after spending so much time on Earth before coming back.

The silence… the almost dead stillness of it all.

No songbirds in the distance happily chirping their tune, no gentle ebb and flow of the tides colliding with the sandy shore.

Not even the faint whispers of the wind as it breezed through her hair.

The only thing around her was simply the eerie, deafening nothingness. After being surrounded by the chaotic growth and beauty of Earth, the sterile and unchanging state of her old home seemed so barren and joyless.

How funny it was, Rose thought, that she, a gem, would become such a total stranger to Homeworld. It was a feeling she couldn’t shake even as she stepped foot into her old palace…

“Is it just like how you remember it?” Val asked eagerly, showing Rose into her old room.

“It feels… bigger…” was all Rose could say, at least out loud. ‘Big… but empty.’

Compared to the comforts of the Beach House or even of her room within the temple, this space felt like a mere gilded cage. A clean, neat space with nothing within it. No signs of anyone having used or of anything having changed it.

It was the same as it had been from before the idea of a place like Earth existing was something beyond even a young Diamond’s wildest dreams.

Of course, it wasn’t totally devoid of features…

Rose rolled her eyes as she saw White’s own ship, crafted to match her likeness and positioned just so take make sure it would be well within view from the window. And Rose was more than sure that it was always made to have White’s visage loom over her even if she herself was not there to watch her.

But the only thing that aroused her ire more was seeing that tower again. The lonely little room in the center of the city that stripped away all the shine and glamour and made her role as the Diamond’s prisoner clear to her.

“I would have thought White would at least have the decency to tear that horrible place down!” Rose whispered through clenched teeth. Her hands balled into tight fists. “I should just march in there right now and-”

She almost jumped as something touched her shoulder. She spun to see Val look back, her face soft and pleading.

Rose recognized this look before.

It was the face she gave whenever she returned from a particularly heated argument with Yellow, covered in scorch marks and smelling of burning ozone.

From when she had been brow beaten by Blue and forced to cry for so long, she didn’t know how to stop.

Of one day when she came home after being locked away in the tower for so long that she couldn’t even remember what she had done to deserve it. She remembered seeing her Pearl frantically pacing back and forth across the room.

It was in these moments, when her friend would be there to console her and help make her smile again, that the former Diamond had grown to cherish the most. And now, Val was giving her that same look again.

“I’m sorry.” Rose sighed.

For a moment, Val didn’t say another word. She could see that she understood how she felt. And without hesitation, she reached out to embrace her.

“It’s so good to be free to see you again.” Val whispered.

“It’s good to see you, too…”

Val let go. Taking a moment to wipe her eye. “By the way, I wasn’t the only one here who missed you…”

The room began to rustle with hushed whispers and tiny footsteps. Val grin widened as she turned away from Rose. “You can all come out now!”

Soon, small nooks began to open all over the walls, revealing a tangled labyrinth of twisted cogs and winding staircases too small for almost any gem to use properly.

Well, almost.

Slowly the hidden space’s inhabitants nervously peaked out from the safety of their homes. The forms these gems were dull and gray, their garb as simple and plain.

Stars danced in Rose’s eyes as she flashed back to the days when her tears carried with them the gift of healing and life. All the countless hours after her first pearl was taken where she would try to fill the empty void she had left.

“Do… any of you… recognize me?”

Some began to poke their heads out from the shadows.

“That voice…”

“Can it be?”

“She looks so different…”

“But she was different last time, too.”

Unable to contain her joy anymore, Rose knelt to the nearest hole in the wall, tears already clouding her eyes. “Hello, my little ones.”

“It’s her!”

“It’s Pink!”

“Pink’s back, Pink’s back!”

“What is that she’s wearing?”

“Silly Pink, you already changed how you look before.”

“N-no, no. That wasn’t me.” Rose corrected. “That was my son, Steven. But now, it’s really me. And I’ve missed you all so much!”

Soon enough, Rose found herself surrounded by a swarm of excited Pebbles. Some even proving bold enough to their way up her skirt and t-shirt and climb their way up to perch themselves on her shoulders.

One looked to her with a bashful smile and raised her arms up towards her. Rose smiled, recognizing her request and placing her open hand out for her to stand on as Rose raised her up to her face and nuzzle against her cheek.

“Oh… you poor things… it’s good to see you all too!”

The former Diamond was so enamored with seeing her tiny creations again after countless years, he has nearly missed the wall beside her begin to open from the corner of her eye. This time, it was large enough for her to easily enter. And just as soon as her little friends has appeared from their own hiding spots, they just and swiftly began to scurry away to disappear within the walls.

Part of her was curious to look inside. She wondered how different it all would be with a fresh pair of eyes…

She remembered storming through these halls in moments when she was in desperate need of privacy. She liked to think White would have at least granted her such during such times. But she knew better than to give her the benefit of the doubt.

She gazed at the large desk and chair at the end of the hall, finding it funny at how different it felt despite being so certain that nothing had truly changed. But curious, she wanted to be sure. She leapt to the top of the desk, her things all still in place as they were as she remembered. From the first stressful night where she wept for the loss of her Pearl…

“Hiya, Pinkie…”

Rose flinched, that wasn’t Val or any of the pebbles. She turned to face the voice, and was met with the sight of a short, lanky gem. Her dark pink hair oriented in two messy ponytails on each side of the top of her head.

She glared at Rose with a wolfish grin, showing off the streaks below her eyes that reminded Rose of the kind of human make-up that would often run down the sides of their face when they cried.

“Oh, ‘scuse me. I remember now. Ya go by Rose now, don’t ya?”

Did she know this gem? She didn’t seem familiar. Rose looked to the stranger’s gemstone, but there was something about it that felt… off. Its cut was that of a heart shape, but it appeared as though it had been inverted…

‘A heart shaped gemstone…’

She froze, overcome by a sinking feeling in her chest as she stared at the gem as though she were staring down a phantom. No… it couldn’t be. It had been so long since then. But maybe…

“S-Spinel?”

The gem paused a minute at the mention of her name, as though she wanted to process Rose simply uttering her name for the first time in eons.

“How do you like my new look, Rosie? Looks like we both changed after… what’s it been now? Almost six thousand years since you left me! Only unlike you, I didn’t decide to trade height for, uh, girth…” the gem sneered.

Rose felt the all too familiar sting of guilt at Spinel’s venomous words. Stars, what could she even say that would somehow make for what she had done or at least explain why she had done it?

‘Spinel… I never meant to leave you behind! After seeing Earth for myself, so much happened all at once that I just…’

No. No excuses. The best she could do was at least give her the truth. “Spinel, dear, I didn’t want to have to leave you there!”

“So why did you?” the gem jabbed, her body already beginning to stretch and morph like rubber into a somehow even more manic version of herself to loom over Rose.

“Did you think it was funny!?” She hissed.

“Spinel, no, that’s not-”

“Ya thought you’d have a laugh looking at this idiot standing around for six thousand years waiting for the punchline to finally drop, only to find out she was the punchline ALL ALONG!”

Rose held her head low out of shame. She knew it was her fault for making her feel that way. But what had to hurt most of all was beneath all the malice and rage Spinel’s voice carried, she could also clearly hear remorse.

Spinel wasn’t just angry, she was hurting. She allowed herself a moment to look back to the gem, seeing tears pool around her eyes. “I just wanted to be your friend, Rosie! It’s all I was made for! And you shut me out! And worst of all you made me feel like I was worthless because of it…”

‘Maybe I can calm her down… I-I can maybe make this right! Just like my Steven would!’

The twisted gem regressed to her normal size before curling up in a ball on the floor. Her arms stretching and coiling around her to hug herself tighter as she buried her hands. Rose knelt to meet her at eye level as she spoke to her.

“Spinel… I…I’m sorry. I wish I could take back what I did. There’s no excuse for it, I know. All I can say is that I was a different person back then. I should have known how much my actions would hurt you. I know I don’t expect you to forgive me, but-”

Rose reached out to help the gem to her feet, only to see her hand immediately snatched in the blink of an eye. Spinel bounced like a spring to her feet before retrieving something from her gemstone. The cylindrical object extended, the top illuminating into the shape of a scythe blade.

“Good, ‘cause I don’t!”

She didn’t even have the time to say anything before Spinel swung her blade. Already, Rose could feel the white-hot pain travel across her body and spread from the slice across her torso. The hard light keeping her form together began to fade out and prepare to poof as she heard the gem’s last words.

“Well, well, well, looks like I win the game!”

She already could begin to feel her form begin to take shape. Her gem was already hard at work emitting and shaping the hard light that would make up her physical body. But as this process carried on, she could hear the voices of others close by…

“Spinel, I think we may have taken this a bit too far!”

“You shut it! She got what was coming to her!”

“Shhh!”

With her form complete, she fell to the ground. When her vision cleared, she was greeted with the sight of two gems, one a Pearl with a crack over her left eye and another she didn’t quite recognize. She guessed that she may have been the ‘Spinel’ the Pearl had been talking to.

From the looks of it, they both seemed rather shocked to see her.

‘Is that gem… my owner?’

‘Wait… what am I supposed to do?’

‘Why aren’t they saying anything?’

She was already growing anxious with how silent everyone was. Part of her told herself to stay quiet and await further instructions from this gem, another part wondered if perhaps they were waiting for her to say something herself…

“Um… Hi…” She finally said, giving off a timid laugh. “I’m sorry, I don’t really know why I’m here. I just sort of showed up and I don’t really remember anything, can you please help me?”

The Pearl looked especially shaky as she approached her. “Uh… can you at least tell us who you are?”

She tried to think of a right answer, but when none came to mind, she only gave a shrug.

The other gem looked over her quizzically while scratching her chin. “That thing was meant to bring them back to square one. You’re supposed to be a Rose Quartz soldier, but you don’t really act like one.”

Her head tilted curiously. “I’m a Quartz?” She looked down to the rest of her. Her form was large and stout and garbed in a plain uniform with a Pink diamond-shaped insignia on her top. “Oh! I guess I am! ‘Rose’… that sounds right. I-I’m a Rose Quartz!”

“Hmm, and you’re certainly a big one too.” Spinel said, poking a finger into her abdomen. “A little soft in the middle, though.”

Rose bit her lip and fought to hold back a giggle. “Wh-hey! I’m very sensitive there!”

The Pearl looked about the room as though she were expecting someone to jump out of the walls before rushing to Spinel’s side. “Spinel, what do you plan to do with her?” she asked, sounding desperate.

“Don’t worry, Pip. I got an idea.” Spinel calmly reassured before grabbing hold of the cracked gem’s chin and twisting it to look her in the eye. “And before ya start whining again, I ain’t gonna hurt her!”

She let go with enough force to almost throw her to the floor. There was something about the sight of it that simply didn’t sit well with Rose. Sure, maybe this Pearl was acting a bit jumpy, but was it really necessary to treat her so carelessly? Even a damaged gem like her?

“Say, you like games, right?”

Spinel’s question snapped Rose from her train of thought. “We could play a game. If of course that is what you wish to do, My Spinel!”

Spinel looked to her with a snicker. “Good, good. I got just the place in mind…”

Oh, stars, why here? Why here of all places in the universe?

Here Val was, surrounded by the dead and decaying remains of what she presumed had once been a beautiful flower garden.

It was almost uncomfortable for her to look at. To see the shriveled remains of life that had once bloomed here now lay withered and greyed, even as their roots had escaped from the cracked stonework that once contained them.

What remained of the old gem architecture had given way to ruin. The thinning atmosphere allowing the broken pieces to hang suspended.

By nearly every definition, this place was truly dead.

“Spinel, why are we here?” Rose asked. “This place doesn’t really seem all that important… or much fun for that matter.”

She could still feel a knot in her stomach at the sight of her. Though her form was more or less the same, something about her just looked… different.

It was something she figured she would have only noticed when seeing her placid smile and innocent, wide-eyed expression as she took in the scenery.

Whereas the day before or even the just this morning, she appeared burdened with an unbearable sense of guilt. But here, she acted more like the Diamond she had met all those thousands of years ago. Still as sweet and ever, and no longer holding back her thoughts.

And that alone was enough to make her feel sick for what Spinel planned to do with her…

“I brought you here for a very important job. You’re a Quartz, right? Big tough soldiers that can guard important places.” Spinel asked.

Rose gave a halfhearted shrug. “I suppose I am. But this place is completely empty, what makes it so special?”

Spinel grinned.  “Well, this spot is very important to me, and you want to do a good job, don’t you?” she said, talking down to Rose as though she were a Pebble that didn’t know any better and needed everything explained to her.

When Rose failed to answer, the gems thin attempt at a friendly demeanor quickly eroded. She stood up straight and stretched herself until she was tall enough to look down on Rose and stare daggers into her eyes, her hands clenching into tight fists.

“Don’t you!?”

“Y-Yes! I do…” Rose blurted out, now too scared to break eye contact with the gem.

“Good. Now then, here are the rules for this game.” Spinel explained, pointing to an open spot free of dead flowers or rubble only a few feet from them. Val wasn’t sure if Rose had noticed the two footprints there or not. From the look of it didn’t seem to be the case.

“Stand right here, and don’t move. Don’t go anywhere, now, or you’ll let everyone down. You don’t want that, do you?”

Rose shook her head. “N-no.”

“Perfect.” She said, muttering something under her breath as she walked past Val. “Let’s see how much YOU like it.”

Val couldn’t shake this feeling as the two made their way back to the warp pad. This had all gone far.

Yes, she wanted to help Spinel. Yes, it hurt think that Rose had chosen to cut them out of her life after being back for two years.

But… was this really the best way to fix things?

“Spinel… I… I don’t think this is right.” Val admitted timidly

“Excuse me?”

“I know you’re angry with her. I was too. But is this really helping?”

“I’m sorry… are you… defending her?” Spinel looked over her shoulder to her with a piercing gaze.

“Spinel, please, we used to be her friends-”

“No, Pearl. We weren’t. Pink didn’t have friends.”

“She and I…”

“Okay, let’s get one thing straight here. You weren’t nothin’ to her, Pearl! You were a toy. A disposable plaything to make her laugh. And just like a toy, she threw you away and left you to White Diamond’s ‘mercy’ after she broke you and got bored with you.”

Val tried her best to swallow the lump in her throat and hide the tears that had already begun to form in her eye. She tried to cut Spinel from her view to help calm herself down, but the gem was having none of it, stretching so that she would loom over her as she got up in her face to make it impossible to ignore her.

“You getting the picture here, Pip? She left you. Tossed you aside and forgot about you so you could be replaced by me! She don’t care about nobody but herself.”

She wanted to say something back, reflex caused her hands to ball up into fists even as she wiped her eyes. But the thought of fighting back made her legs turn to jelly. She was right. She was just pearl. If she tried to fight her, what could even do really?

And yet still, the gem was not yet done with her tirade.

“But y’know, if ya want. I could just leave you here like she did with me if that’s all you wanna be without me. Just a stupid, lonely, broken little toy…”

Every last word of her statement felt like a dagger to the chest. She paced her breathing to collect her until she speak. “No… That’s not what I want. I’m sorry.” She said, her head held low to the ground. She could practically feel Spinel’s satisfied grin before the two were whisked away by the warp pad.

“That’s a good pearl. Glad we understand each other.”

In a sudden burst of light, the two were gone. The Quartz they left behind looked around to see their new station to guard and saw only decay and death. For a moment, she wondered what about this dreary place could have made it so special…

Chapter Text

Homeworld, two years ago…

At first, she didn’t even notice what had happened. One moment, she had been whisked away by White Diamond herself while she promised her that she knew a way for her to still be useful.

Then there was an intense white light…

And now, she found herself on the floor of White’s palace, the room completely encompassed in a soft pinkish light.

“Huh… what?” was all she could say in her dazed state. She knew something was off. She looked around, spotting gems she didn’t recognize and two… what were those things walking towards her?

The one that wore some sort of uniform that bore the symbol of a five-pointed star on its chest placed a hand on her shoulder and looked to her with a gentle smile. “Welcome back…”

“Wh-wha… who...?” She tried to form a coherent sentence, but all that seemed to come out were a few fragmentary words.

The little being gave a bashful smile and rubbed the back of their neck. “Oh, right, you don’t really know me…” it said, sounding a little embarrassed. “I’m Steven… I’m sorta of Pink Diamond’s son…”

‘Son?’

Without saying anything else, the ‘Steven’ lifted the bottom of it’s garment and revealed… a gemstone. Was this some kind of gem? From the look of it’s pentagonal cut, it seemed to be a type of Quartz. But something wasn’t right.

The color… the way the light danced off its facets. It looked like…

No…

No, it couldn’t be…

She looked into the little one’s soft, dark eyes to see for sure, to be certain if it really was her or not. Was this her? Her Diamond? Her friend?

But the longer she searched for some sort of sign… the more it became clear…

“I’m really sorry… but… she’s gone.”

“G-gone?” She mumbled in disbelief.

The little one nodded its head. “Y-yeah… I’m really sorry. Were you two… close?”

Even she was surprised to hear herself chuckle at that. “She was… my best friend…”

Pink’s ‘son’ didn’t say anything. Only sparing a moment to embrace her in a hug before walking away to join the others. All while she sat there feeling alone, confused, and so terribly lost…

It felt like an entire planet was sitting on her chest the whole time she stood in Pink’s palace. She expected to feel remorse, that she would in tatters at the news of her Diamond’s passing. And yet… she only felt numb. Perhaps the reality of it all had simply yet to fully sink in for her…

‘She’s… gone.’ She kept thinking to herself. ‘And White said it had been out for eight thousand years… Eight thousand!’

None of it seemed right to her. It still only felt like just moments ago, she was right beside her Diamond. They were both brought to White Diamond and Pink had…

She felt a chill crawl up her back, her hands instinctively cupped her left eye. Stars, she could feel the hairline cracks along her face. She wondered if that little creature that now had Pink’s gem would help… but it seemed almost desperate to leave White’s presence.

At least she couldn’t blame it. Part of her wanted to escape from her as well. But… where could she go now? What would she do?

The Diamonds didn’t seem to be of much help at all, simply telling her to do as she pleased and that she was permitted to stay in Pink’s palace if she so desired.

But when she had reached the main chamber, everything felt askew. As though all of Homeworld had been titled to its side ever so slightly and no one told her, and now everything familiar to her felt so unnatural.

She remembered all the silly games she and her Diamond used to play together, the laughs they used to share…

Or even the moments when she needed to dry her tears…

And now… she was gone. And this room, this entire palace had never felt so empty.

“Pink?”

The room had been so quite that even a sound so small and so soft made her jump. Her eye darted around the room before spotting a small opening on the floor adjacent to her. The hole itself was barely the size on her fist. It was hard to even imagine that anything would be small enough to fit inside. But she was curious.

“H-hello?” she said through a shaky breath, kneeling down to await the tiny stranger’s reply.

Sure enough, a little gray gem emerged. She was garbed in a simple green tunic, her gemstone placed where her left eye would be. Even as she tried to seem as non-threatening as possible, the poor little thing seemed so timid.

Were these little gems… hers?

“W-Where’s Pink?” she asked, already ducking her head back behind the wall.

It already felt like someone was squeezing at her chest as she remembered what the little stranger with Pink’s gemstone had told her. And no matter how she tried, she couldn’t bring herself to lie.

Stars, it just had to be her, didn’t it? The new ‘Pink Diamond’ had already departed with its court and the other Diamonds for a planet whose name she didn’t recognize. All while she was left here to wander the empty halls of home for a Diamond that didn’t exist anymore.

“She… she’s gone…” she said, cursing herself for already noticing her eye begin to mist. It seemed that finally the reality of it was finally starting to hit her.

The tiny gem cautiously moved to face her. “Gone?” she said, sounding confused and a little frightened. “Gone… where?”

Stars, this hurt just to think about…

“No, no, she’s not… she’s gone. She…”

Her lip quivered as she took in shallow, shaky breaths. She couldn’t even face the little gem anymore as she tucked her face behind her knees. She felt her chest rise and fall with each breath as she finally let go, the high ceilings on Pink’s room echoing with her sobs.

That was it, she was gone. Forever. And she never even had the chance to say goodbye.

She peaked up to see more pebbles begin to gather around her, encircling her in a mass embrace as they all mourned for the loss of their Diamond…

She had lost count of the days she had spent in Pink’s palace, alone, whimpering in the corner with her thoughts. But it had evidently been long enough for Blue Diamond’s Pearl to stop by and check on her from time to time, apparently of her own volition. That itself had seemed odd to her, and was a sign of how Homeworld had changed so much since she had been gone.

It had taken some convincing, but eventually Blue had managed to convince her to accompany her and in exchange, she’d fill her in on all that had happened in her absence.

But while the two casually meandered through the bustling walkways, Blue explaining whatever she could gleam from her Diamond and the ‘Steven’, she couldn’t help but focus her attention to how much Homeworld was changing before her very eyes.

The grand palaces that were supported by specialized gems were now starting to disappear as those same gems now enjoyed their newfound freedom.

Other gems were now openly partaking in fusion without fear the judgement of others or even of punishment from the Diamonds.

And yet in the middle of it all, Pink’s own palace stood there, alone. A solemn reminder of a bygone age, clinging to the memory of a Diamond that many of these gems had likely never met. The memory of Pink Diamond, and anyone tied to her, was now being left behind…

“Ooof!”

Her thoughts here swiftly interrupted the moment she walked into Blue, the force nearly causing her tiny frame to fall to the floor.

“S-Sorry!” she nervously stuttered. But the other Pearl seemed unfazed as she extended a hand a help her up. In the other hand, she noticed she was holding a tiny display screen that levitated just above her palm, the rough sketch of one of the fusions that had caught her attention scribbled onto it.

“It’s my fault really, with fusion now being allowed on Homeworld, I’ve been inspired to improve my artistic skills. I just wanted you to accompany me as I thought you’d want to get out of that dusty old palace.”

She had decided out of politeness to ignore her last comment.

“What do you think?” Blue asked, presenting the doodle more clearly for her to see. It was a detailed sketch of one of the fusions they had seen earlier. One she had recognized as being of two Jades from separate courts.

She smiled. “Why… it looks lovely…”

“Thank you.” Blue said, her voice still as soft as she remembered it. The part of her face not hidden from her bangs seemed to even turn a slightly deeper blue as she gave a gentle, bashful smile. “It’s nice to see you finally free from White.”

She felt her entire body stiff as a rail at the mention of the name. Her mind flashing to the moment the enormous gem engulfed her with her glow…

She tried her best to not show her discomfort. “O-oh, thank you! It’s certainly nice to be back as well! Homeworld… certainly has changed… hasn’t it?” she said, already noticing her voice was quickly losing its natural pep.

The other gem either didn’t seem to notice or neglected to pay mind to her tone as she gave a nod and smiled. “It has! This is the first time since, well, ever that I’ve ever really been allowed time to myself! The little human with Pink Diamond’s gem, ‘Steven’, mentioned that there are humans that like to draw too! I think I want to go to Earth and see them for myself…”

“Oh…. That’s… nice…” She tried her best to hide her disappointment. But the thought of yet another familiar face leaving her behind stung.

“What about you? Is there anything you want to do now that you’re free?”

She paused as no answer seemed to come to mind. “I… don’t really know…”

She was torn, part of her wanted to leave this all behind, but it somehow it felt wrong to her. She was Pink Diamond’s Pearl! Her best friend, her only friend! It was all she ever was because it was all she was ever made to be.

What, she’d just leave? Forget that she had ever known this gem and try to find her own place in this new Homeworld that had already carried on without her for eight thousand years!?

Hearing from Blue that Pink had run away honestly didn’t surprise her in the slightest. She knew how the Diamonds were to her, so the moment she would have found a way out, she’d take it. An observation that seemed to have eluded the Diamonds themselves.

But after that, what she had been told didn’t sound the least bit like her former Diamond…

The Pink Diamond she knew couldn’t keep a secret to save her life. But from what she had been told, she lived on Earth as ‘Rose Quartz, leader of the rebellious Crystal Gems’.

This was Pink? Her Pink? The same silly little Diamond that loved to dance and play with her all day? She of all gems became this feared rebel leader?

Even taking into consideration how long it had been since she had been gone, she still felt that everything Pink had done in her absence was nothing short of jarring. Her Diamond had gone on to live this entirely different life after she had left.

In a way, even Pink moved on and left her, it seemed…

Even still, she felt an ache in her chest at the idea that her former Diamond had been without her for so long. No one to talk to, no one to keep her company, to dry her tears…

“Was she alone? I mean… after… me…” she asked…

“Oh, goodness, no!” the gem corrected. “From what I remember, Pink was a wreck. And after a while, My Diamond along with Yellow and White each convened to create a new Pearl for her, along with a new playmate.”

‘Playmate?’

“What sort of gem did they make to be her playmate?”

The Pearl held her chin for a moment as she waited for the answer to come to her. “Oh! Spinel! That’s it! Yes, she and Pink were only allowed to play in a special garden!”

She made sure to take note of the name of the gem. ‘Spinel’…

She didn’t recall seeing this gem with the ‘Steven’ or in Pink’s palace. Stars, would she still be there? Another lost gem that was so close to her…

Maybe… maybe Spinel could help her find her place in this new world without Pink… or at the very least she wouldn’t only have the Pebbles to keep her company.

“Would you or someone you know happen to have any idea where this garden is?”

She didn’t know what to expect when she followed the Blue’s directions to Pink’s old garden. Even she admitted that she had been mostly going off of memory of a brief time where she had been put in charge of supervising Pink before she had received her second Pearl…

And even then, she had spent hours navigating the least taken routes along the warp stream. With what little information she had been given, she was able to tell when she hadn’t made it. That all she had discovered were what she presumed to be only Warps leading to long abandoned colonies.

But at last, after enough trial and error, she had made it…. At least she thought.

This place was different than the locales she had seen before. As she looked out to the horizon, she could see its end was much closer, stopping at what looked to be a clear dome that sat above the entire enclosure.

She looked up to see more of the structure…

Broken, just as she would have thought. Not that it was of any concern for her, but she knew it was the only thing keeping a sustainable atmosphere inside of it.

From the look of the dried-out roots that stretched along the ground, it had seemed that the garden had been free to spread from beyond their stone confines before they finally died out.

This was certainly the place… but she couldn’t possibly imagine anyone willingly staying in a place like-

“Hello?”

She flinched at the tiny, tender voice that broke the deafening silence. And when she had finally spotted her, she was surprised she didn’t see her sooner…

This gem looked so small amidst the ruins of Pink’s gardens, standing out as a tiny spot of color lost in a void of overwhelming grey.

She was just shorter than her and garbed in dark pink and white, her hair done up in tiny heart-shaped buns on the sides of her head. She could clearly spot her heart-shaped gemstone on her chest, its facets shimmering in what little light there had to be in such a drab place.

And that looked to be the only thing that still glowed…

The poor gem was clearly a mess from the look of desperation she gave her, the bags under her eyes alone told her this had been the first time in a very, very long time since she had seen anyone…

The rest of her was no better, tattered, messy, and disheveled, but still patiently waiting in her little spot.

“W-who are you?” the gem asked again. She finally noticed how hoarse her voice truly was. How long had it been since this gem had spoken to anyone?

“I… I was looking for a… ‘Spinel’?” She asked.

The gem gave a slight nod. “Y-yeah, that’s me!” she said, her attempt to sound more cheerful and upbeat only succeeding to leave the Pearl with a pit in her stomach.

“Pinkie and I ‘er playin’ a game together!”

The Pearl cocked her head in confusion. “You mean you ‘were’, right.”

Spinel huffed and shook her head. “No We’re still playin’! It’s a special game! She told me to stand right here and not move from this spot! And if I can do that, I’ll get a prize!”

“Pink told you this?”

The gem nodded. “Uh-huh! And I’m sure she’s gonna come back any minute… I think…”

Stars, why did it have to be her who had to tell her the truth?

Hadn’t she been through enough? Wasn’t it torture enough to have to tell the Pebbles the same news?

Or when she had learned firsthand from the new being that still carried her gem?

Or when she had learned she had been cut off from the waking world for eight thousand years, as the universe carried on without her, everyone just leaving her behind…

Just like how Pink left her behind after breaking her…

She fell to her knees, her hands balling into tight fists.

‘Why am I left to be the one to have to pick up the pieces of Pink’s life?’ she thought. ‘Everyone else got to move on… without me…’

And this… did she know this would happen? Did she… did she choose to leave this gem alone? And for this long? Stars, she could already feel tears begin to crawl down her cheek.

“How could Pink do this…”

The little gem tilted her head curiously. “What d’ya mean?” she asked, a tinge of worry in her voice.

The Pearl sorely wished that there was a better way to tell her…

“I… I’m so sorry but… Pink’s not coming back…”

She couldn’t even bring herself to look her in the eye, but the anguish in her voice was enough. “W-what do you mean?”

“Pink… she’s gone…” she knew she’d need more than that. She pressed on, biting back the pain. “She doesn’t exist anymore… and it seems she’s left you and me behind…”

She could already hear the gem begin to cry. “N-no! You’re lying!” she snapped. “She’s my bestest friend! She’d tell me! I’m gonna tell on Pink that you lied about her!”

“How long have you been playing this game Spinel!?” she said, her words rushing out of her mouth before she could stop herself. “When was the last time you even saw her!?

Her shoulders slacked as she shrunk from the sudden guilt. Spinel was already blubbering inaudible nonsense to argue back. She didn’t deserve to be yelled at like this. Not when she’s like this… not after how Pink left her…

“I… I’m sorry… I know it hurts to feel like this. Like you’re just some silly bauble to be admired for just a short time before being thrown away…”

The gem pulled Spinel in to embrace her, petting the top of her head. “And I’m sorry Pink did this to you… But hey, I’m just like you. Maybe we can both be lonely together. It must be better than being here alone…”

For a moment, the two gems stood there in each other’s company. Neither saying a word to one another. The only companion being the deafening silence of the empty void of space.

“Alright now… let’s take you home…” Pink Pearl said softly, taking Spinel’s hand to guide her to the warp pad.

But before she could take a single step, she noticed Spinel tug at her hand. “I… I can’t…”

“Why not?” she asked.

Spinel pointed to her feet. She hadn’t noticed it before. But the roots that had been allowed to run wild throughout the garden had stretched and wrapped themselves around her feet. The smaller gem pulled a bit with her legs, but she could barely move to free herself.

“They’ve been like this for a little while now… I’ve been waitin’ right here for Pink to come back so long that is hurts to move…”

The Pearl fought hard to swallow the lump in her throat at the thought of this gem standing in constant agony for centuries. Waiting for a Diamond that seemingly never planned on coming back…

“All right…” she said, knowing what she needed to do was not going to be pleasant. “I’m going to need you to grab hold of my arms as tightly as you can, and I’m going to try and pull you out, okay?”

Spinel could only give a timid nod in acknowledgement. She looked the gem in the eye to make her point clear.

“I’m so sorry, but this going to hurt…”

The gem gripped as hard as she could, ignoring Spinel’s protests that it hurt to move her feet. After a few hardy pulls, the roots finally snapped and gave way as she pulled the gem up from the ground and into her arms. Afterward, Spinel said nothing, her arms stretching to coil around her for a hug as she cried into the Pearl’s shoulder.

“Shhhhh, it’s okay… no one’s going to hurt you now. We’ll be home soon…”

Homeworld, one week ago…

Pink Pearl had lost track of how much time had passed when she had first carried that poor, shaken gem from the garden. Since then, it had almost been like a comforting return to form, if not a fair bit dull. But she could certainly see the spark in Spinel’s eyes that her own Pink once possessed.

It was to no surprise that she had later found a passion for her Diamond’s favored pass times, spending endless hours playing with her or the Pebbles inventing new games togethers.  

Though over time, one thing was made clear. Spinel was not the same as Pink. They had their similarities, sure. But she was her own gem.

Where her Pink was curious about the world beyond Homeworld, Spinel seemed content within the walls of the palace. She supposed she couldn’t blame her, given her experience outside of Homeworld. And most days, she didn’t mind.

So long as they had one another, and she never did anything to upset her, they were happy. Most days she had been catering to Spinel’s whims, hardly leaving palace unless she accompanied her. And they never ventured far for too long. It wasn’t often when she would be willing to leave…

But as time passed, and the view of Homeworld from the balcony of their ancient Diamond palace changed, she felt a growing curiosity. Her fear and anxiety was still present, but with it came a kind of excitement and curiosity that she hadn’t felt in a long time.

What sorts of new gems she see?

What was Homeworld up to now since the Diamonds had stepped down as absolute rulers of gemkind?

And what about Earth? That curious little planet that her Diamond had apparently fallen in love with? She had heard from Blue that gems on Earth were building a new ‘Little Homeworld’ to help teach gems about living on Earth.

Was it possible that there could be something waiting for them there?

It still scared her… but now she was willing to try. The difficulty would come in convincing Spinel…

“Why do you wanna to leave me?” Spinel asked somberly, light glinting from her eyes as she stood in the middle of the room, a bubbled pebble in her hands that she had been juggling just moments before.

“Don’t take this the wrong way, I’m not trying to leave you.” The Pearl retorted. “I just… I think we’re ready to move on. Besides, it’s not like I’d leave you behind.”

“You better not!” the gem snapped, her gentle tone taking on a harsher edge and causing her to flinch for a moment.

“I-I promise I’m not. I want to take you with me! I think you’ll actually really like Earth!”

Spinel looked down to the pebble in her hands before looking back to her. “But… don’t you like us being here? We got the Pebbles and this whole Palace to ourselves!”

“Pink’s palace is nice, but I want to see the planet she fell in love with.” She insisted, already regretting the mention of Pink’s name, seeing Spinel grip the bubble even tighter and making the Pebble inside tremble.

“Can’t be that special.” Spinel grumbled. “You’re probably just leaving to go be with the other Pearls you talk about…”

“We… yes, but…”

“See!? You’re not even hiding it!” Spinel snapped, jabbing a finger in her face. She hated it when Spinel got like this. Admittedly, but it was hardly her fault. She knew that she had been through a lot sitting in that garden in pain, waiting for someone who had likely long since forgotten about her…

About them…

Pink Pearl took a deep breath and spoke as softly as she could, “Please, Spinel, I don’t want to start another fight…”

She could already see Spinel’s face begin to twist in anger. Though she knew this gem was made to look cute and be a friendly little playmate for Pink, it shocked her with how frightened she would be whenever her temper would flare up.

Especially when she would raise her voice as well…

And she was all set to receive another angry tirade from her, but she heard herself breathe a sigh of relief as she heard the arrival of a visitor.

“S-Spinel, we can look at a few classes they’re having. We can go together. We can make new friends! Won’t that be nice?”

Spinel grumbled, choosing not to say anything as the Pearl let her visitor in…

“It’s so nice to see you again!” Blue said with delight as she greeted her with a hug. “It’s been so long since we’ve last had a moment to ourselves…”

Pink Pearl nervously rubbed the back of her neck. “Oh, w-well I’ve just had my hands full for a while. I remembered you had mentioned Pink having another gem that kept her company…”

Spinel met the other Pearl’s curious look with a sneer. “What’cha lookin’ at?” she growled.

She could already feel a wave of panic overtake her as she tried to stand between the two gems. “Oh, don’t mind her. Spinel can be a little, erm… picky around most gems…”

“Oh, that’s fine.” Blue said softly, seemingly unfazed by Spinel’s piercing glare. “And I also have a surprise for you!”

Reaching into the small satchel that hung from her shoulder, the gem retrieved a handful of small pamphlets. Each of them showed images of gems engaging in various activities.

“I thought these might help with you choosing your own classes. But I felt there was one that you might be interested in…”

She sifted through the stack of leaflets before pulling one from the rest. On it, it showed gems next to flowering plants or even packed fields of towering stalks.

As she opened it up to see its contents, she could see in the center the image of a Peridot smiling confidently whilst holding a large, orange object in her arms and floating aloft on a metal disk…

Beside her was a Rose Quartz garbed in a strange garment. Below the image, it read;

‘Come learn about how to grow and cultivate life on Earth with Peridot and Rose Quartz Universe!’

She blinked. “Rose Quartz… what?”

Blue shrugged. “It’s supposedly a human custom with the name. I’m surprised she hasn’t told you about that.”

Told her? Why would she know this gem?

“What do you mean?”

“Wait, so she never contacted you?” The gem asked curiously. “I would have assumed she would have wanted to see you as soon as she could to let you know she was back.”

“What are you…”

She stopped, suddenly it started to click…

“Wait, you’re saying that… this is her?” she asked, holding up the leaflet to show the image of the pink-haired Quartz. “This is Pink?”

From the corner of her eye, she could see Spinel start to fidget at the mention on her name again. But she could hardly keep herself at ease let alone try to help anyone else.

She felt like she was being pulled in several directions with this news, unsure as to what emotion she had to feel… shock, for certain. But she could also feel a mixture of joy, excitement, confusion, frustration… and to her dismay, anger…

She should be happy, right? Her friend wasn’t truly gone! She could just as easily go to Earth right now and talk to her!

But it was another nagging thought that ate away at her…

‘Why didn’t she come to visit us here herself?’

“Blue, do… do you know how long she had been back for?”

The Pearl held her chin in thought. “From what I’ve been told, she’s been back for some time now… I believe it’s been almost two years?”

‘And yet she never came back to see us? Never thought to tell us she was still alive!?’

Pink Pearl bit her lip and breathed deep, now was not the time for her to lose her temper. “N-no… she never even came to see us…” she said dryly.

“Well, I’m sure she had her reasons.” Blue reasoned. “That pamphlet says that she’ll be co-teaching a class centered on Earth’s plant life or something. I wasn’t terribly interested and decided to take up art classes with the human called ‘Vidalia’. But I hope to see you around!”

She didn’t even know what to say as her visitor was already on her way out the door. “R-right… thank you…”

She didn’t know how long she and Spinel stood there in silence, both likely still trying to process just what this news all meant…

“She… she was still alive… all this time…”

“She could ‘a come back for us at any time, and she didn’t.” Spinel sneered. “And really, why would she? She got to have everything she wanted on that crumby planet. She ran away and left us behind, Pip…”

No, that still didn’t sound like her Pink. “It’s not like she wouldn’t have had any reason to leave. I-”

Spinel cut her off. “I knew her better than any other gem, Pip! I was her bestest friend! There’s no reason she wouldn’t take us unless she didn’t care about either of us!”

Pink Pearl sighed and reach out embrace the gem, they couldn’t lose their temper over this. “Spinel, please, you’re making yourself more upset-”

“Shut up, Pip!” she snapped, shoving her aside with enough force to push her to the ground. “Pinkie left us both behind and made us think she was dead, and here you are makin’ excuses for her!? You tellin’ me she didn’t hurt you too?”

Her mind once again flashed back to the last time she had ever seen Pink…

Of seeing White Diamond’s gaze drown her in ivory light…

Of Pink’s scream…

Of the pain that rocked her body… and broke her eye…

Pink Pearl’s fingers curled to form tight fists as she fought to hold back a wave of tears. “She… yes, she did hurt me…”

“And are you gonna take that layn’ down?” Spinel spat?

She took a deep breath and shook her head. “N-no…”

“Good…” Spinel said, light radiating from her gemstone and spreading to the rest of her her body. Her form shifted and changed, her heart-shaped gemstone beginning to rotate until it had become completely inverted.

Once it was over, she could immediately see the new changes. Her tiny, heart-shaped ponytails had now grown into long and wild ponytails. Gone was the softness of her dark colored eyes and in their place was now the visage of manic rage. And just along her cheeks were three dark streaks under each eye.

Everything about her new form screamed outrage and hurt. Even as she smiled, it just looked twisted and wrong. “Now then, how about we go take her little ‘Happily Ever After’ for ourselves…”

Chapter Text

Why were they here?

That was the question Val kept asking herself as she and Spinel ventured further and further into the chambers to Yellow Diamond’s palace.

She wanted an answer from her. What were they doing now? Was this part of some other plan? Why?

They finally got their payback against Rose! Or at least Spinel seemed to. Val herself couldn’t help but feel like there was a knot inside of her whenever she was reminded of what they had just done.

‘She left us.’ She kept telling herself, the words somehow sounding more hollow the more she heard them. ‘She didn’t care about us anyway…’

But then she would remember something else. Of the nervous Quartz she greeted only a few days ago. She thought of the sadness in her eyes, even as she recounted the times that had made her most happy…

Her train of thought halted at the sound of Spinel snapping her fingers in Val’s face.

“Hey, look alive already! We’re here!” She said excitedly as she stretched her arms to pry one of the massive, heavy the doors open.

Wherever they were, it certainly wasn’t the front entrance to Yellow’s palace. She looked down over the edge of the short bridge they stood upon, spotting deep below and far from the shining towers and now newly planted greenery the scars of Homeworld’s past. Countless exist holes littering the walls of the chasm, a grim reminder of the world she once knew.

If they were far enough down to see this, they were certainly far from any prying eyes.

“Don’t look like nobody’s home,” Spinel noted, her neck and arm retracting before grabbing hold of Val.

“Spinel, I don’t understand, why are we here?”

“I wanna have a lil playdate with this new ‘Pink Diamond.’ And if I wanna impress, I better bring the best toys!”

Toys? What was she even talking about?

Val’s answer came as she entered another chamber…

Bubbles. Dozens of them. Each containing gemstones that looked to be different kinds smashed together into curious amalgamations that now sat suspended several feet in the air.

But… what could these gems even be?

Then she remembered one of the stories Rose had told her… of the monsters Steven had to face when everyone had thought she was ‘gone’…

Of forced fusion monstrosities made from the fragments of fallen gems that had shattered during the war. And how horrifying they sounded.

She felt a sinking feeling when she realized why they were here…

“S-Spinel, you can’t be serious!”

“Oh, keep yer skirt on, Pip,” Spinel said, waving off her concern. “B’sides, ya said that hardly nobody was gonna be there today any-whose. What’s wrong with a little fun?”

“Why!?” Val finally blurted out. “Because there’s no point! It’s over! Rose is where she left you!”

“I said I wanted her ‘Happily Ever After’!” Spinel angrily growled back. “That don’t just mean getting even with her! That was the start! I want it all! I want friends that’ll play with me and do whatever I say whenever I want! Like hers did! I wanna live on a beautiful planet that I can have all to myself! I want all the praise and love that she had been getting that she selfishly kept for herself! And I don’t care which jerks I gotta step on ‘ta get what I deserve!”

“Did you hear that?” a distant voice said.

It was as though time had come to a complete stop. Spinel’s angry scowl morphing to panic as she dashed towards the ceiling to cling to it with one arm and while she scooped Val off the ground with the other.

Val had to cover her mouth to muffle the gasp that escaped her lips at the sight of Yellow and Blue Diamond entering the room.

She could already tell that she was starting to shake at the sight of them. Of course she had been told that they were different now. That they had changed and wanted to be kinder and more forgiving. But she wasn’t sure to trust that assumption. Especially given where they were now. She only hoped that neither would think to look just above their heads as they scanned the room.

“What is it, Yellow?” Blue asked a tinge of concern in her voice.

Yellow only shook her head. "It’s… it’s nothing. I’m sorry, what were you talking about earlier?”

“I just… I’ve just been so distraught lately. Up until now, I’ve tried to put on a smile and focus on how happy I make other gems by making them feel better with my tears…”

‘Happy?’

Val only looked to the Diamond below her in bewilderment. She had remembered when she had followed Blue once to retrieve Pink from the isolation tower. Even after a few centuries straight from being trapped inside, she still had the will to talk back to Blue… only for her to cry…

The entire room was filled with a blue aura. It was so small and so cramped that neither had any space to escape, Blue’s power forcing them to burst into tears and cry until finally, after what felt like an eternity, Pink broke and apologized.

How could that ever have been something a gem would want to subject themselves to, let alone find enjoyment from?

Blue wiped her eyes and continued. “But now my tears cannot even form into clouds of sheer bliss anymore. I can’t shake this awful pit in my stomach, Yellow. Pink… Rose… is on Earth right now. I miss her and Steven so much… but she has nothing but contempt for us! It hurts enough believing that she was gone forever. That Steven was all that was left of her. But it hurts more knowing she’s out there and is choosing to avoid us.”

Yellow had her back turned for the entirety of Blue’s confession, seemingly more focused on combing through the collection of floating gems.

“That’s her choice,” Yellow coldly stated. “We hurt her, threatened her son, and now she no longer wants to associate with us for her and her family’s sake.”

“We’re her family!” Blue blurted. “Steven was the one who wanted us to talk to her! And Rose had us promise that we would be there for him when she couldn’t!”

“That was before she had gotten her new gemstone. And Steven only wanted us to talk to her to clear the air and voice her grievances. Rose wanted to put our love for her to the test by having us promise to look after Steven in the event that no one else could…”

“And then she shut us out!” The room soon became swallowed in a hue of blue. Val could already feel the urge to burst into the tears well up inside her. Spinel right beside her had begun to sniffle as she clenched her teeth and squeezed her eyes shut.

But just as soon as it appeared it immediately retracted until the space was finally returned to normal. Yellow’s attention now focused solely on her fellow Diamond.

“The moment she had gotten her new gemstone she cut us off completely! I… I thought that perhaps we were being given another chance. I was so ready to show Rose that we changed, and we could be a family again. But the last time we visited, she practically chased us off! Doesn’t that make you feel hurt!?”

“Of course it does!” Yellow shouted, swatting aside a group of bubbled gemstones away. “Of course, I’m hurt by Rose’s choices! Just like how I imagine she was hurt by our choices!”

“I wanted to believe that maybe she would have the strength to forgive us as well, and maybe she wished she could too! But that’s not what happened!”

“She decided that how we treated her and how it made her feel was too much for her to look past. And with her new newfound freedom from her new gemstone, she’s finally able to live how she sees fit, without us.”

“And that is our burden to bear! Not Rose’s, not Steven’s! Ours! Dwelling on what could have been won’t change that!”

The room fell silent, Blue huffed as she seemed to fight back the urge to weep even more. “It’s really too late then?”

“It may be too late for us to reconcile with Rose…” Yellow said, gently placing her hands on Blue’s shoulders. “But that doesn’t mean our growth has been all for naught. I’ve had a lot of time to think about how we were, and what I want us to be now… I miss Rose and Steven too, Blue… But I don’t want us to mourn what we could have had like White has…”

White… mourning? The thought seemed impossible to Val. In all her time on Homeworld, she had only ever been able to imagine White as an unshakable figure of perfection. Always smiling, always mindful of herself. Trying to imagine her expressing any sort of emotion seemed off to her.

“She’s been so quiet. And I haven’t spoken to her since the last time we came to visit Steven…” Blue said.

“She’ll have to leave her own head sometime. But we need to think about how we’ll be better for our own sake. We’ll need to make peace with the reality that Rose doesn’t…” Yellow paused, tears forming in the corner of her eyes as she took a shaky breath. “Doesn’t care about us anymore…”

Blue wiped her eyes and nodded, leaning onto Yellow’s side as the two finally began to leave.

Val let their words rattle around in her mind. Even if Rose had never returned to Homeworld until today, it seemed the Diamonds had been aware of her presence and had spoken to her.

And that their reunion was far from pleasant.

She expected as much. She as well as anyone knew of the suffering they inflicted towards Pink. If she did find some way to escape, then what reason would there have been to ever go back?

It was no small wonder then why Rose never returned to Homeworld. Why she was so scared to go back in the first place. Val squirmed in discomfort at never having seen that before.

Even as their thunderous footsteps began to fade, Val could still feel herself tremble. This was it. This was too much.

Getting back at Rose was one thing, and even then she still found she was doubting whether what they did was truly justified.

But stealing from the Diamonds? Plotting to attack other gems, or even just their homes? Taking Rose’s friends? No… no, this was too much.

But what could she really do? She was too scared to stare down Spinel. She couldn’t imagine what she’d do to her.

She had to warn them. Steven, the gems, everyone! Maybe if she got to them fast enough she could stop them.

She looked back to Spinel. After the Diamonds had left, it seemed she had gone back to scrounging up as many misshapen gems as she could get. Her focus was taken entirely off of her.

Val took a few steps back, making sure Spinel didn’t notice her exit. When she was sure she was far enough away, she bolted for the nearest warp pad…

“Thanks for doing this, Connie.”

Steven tried his best to just focus on the phone in his hands and not the ringed planner sprawled out beside him.

“Hey, it’s not a problem, Steven.” Connie cheerfully replied. “So what’s up?”

Steven sighed. “It’s just… I don’t know. Running Little Homeschool and everything… it doesn’t feel right. It’s hard to really find words for it. But I haven’t really been able to focus much. Like my mind just wants to focus on something else.”

Connie nodded. “Steven, I told you this was way too soon after we brought you home!”

He figured Connie would bring that up. “I know. But Bismuth and everyone had been working on this for so long and everyone expected me to run it and I didn’t want to say ‘no’.”

“Was that what you really wanted?” Connie questioned.

“I don’t know… maybe?”

“Steven, Pearl told me about all the stuff that happened out there. I think all of this is really starting to get to you!”

“What do you mean?” Steven asked.

“The gems said you’ve been feeling angry at them for making you feel like you had to be the grownup in charge when you didn’t have anyone to turn to yourself. You even admitted to it just now! You’re just taking charge because you feel you have to and it’s left you stressed!”

Steven let out another heavy sigh.

“Do you remember when we were having trouble with fusion a while back?” Connie said. “How we both saw what each of us were going through and how much we were hurting?”

Steven nodded, recalling the moment they spent fused together, accosted by visions of seeing Bismuth’s looks of betrayal as they stabbed her with his mother’s sword…

Of seeing Jasper’s anguish as she became lost in her state of corruption.

Of Eyeball Ruby’s piercing hatred for him.

And how it left him crying and insisting he never meant to hurt anyone.

“Yeah. I remember.”

Through the other side of the video call, he could see Connie give him a pleading look. “Steven, why are you still doing this to yourself? This doesn’t have to be your life anymore. Isn’t your Mom or someone else offering to step in for you?”

Steven shrugged and rubbed the back of his neck. “Well, I don’t think Mom would really be comfortable running the school, I don’t want to worry them-”

“Are you at least talking to them about how you feel.”

Steven looked away from the screen so he wouldn’t have to see the worry and frustration from her face. “I do talk to the gems sometimes about the stuff I said. And about how I felt all these years. It hurts… But I don’t like sharing these thoughts with Mom often. I’m worried she’s gonna blame herself. I just want her to enjoy being here with everyone.”

“She’d be happier if you were honest, Steven.” Connie said sternly. “It’s sweet how you don’t want to hurt her feelings, but I think she’d be much more worried about you.”

Another sigh. “Okay, Connie… I’ll… try to be more open with Mom. And I hope this isn’t distracting you from Space Camp too much. I hope we can meet up when you get home. Just the two of us, y’know?”

Connie gave a gentle smile. “Hey, it’s not a problem. I’ll always try to make time for you. I’d like to meet up too. But I want to hear that you’re retiring from gem stuff for a while. You don’t need to feel like the whole Universe is on your shoulders…”

He snickered. “Good one… I love you, Connie.”

“I love you too. See you soon.”

Steven sat for a minute after the call had ended. He knew she was right. Of course, she was. The nightmares he had been having and the likely the strange glowing he had the other night were proof of that. And he knew he couldn’t go on like this forever.

He remembered the numerous times his mother insisted that he wouldn’t have to deal with her past anymore. That he was never responsible for her actions. But Little Homeworld was different.

It wasn’t about settling thousand year old grudges or working through trauma from the war. At least that wasn’t the focus. It was meant to be his legacy. He wanted to help others learn about living for themselves on Earth.

And he loved that! He loved helping people and making them feel better…

He didn’t understand. Little Homeworld was going well, all the gems were happier than ever. He and his mom had settled everything, and he could just enjoy the reality that she was here and that she loved him and everyone else.

But if everything was going so well… then why wasn’t he really all that happy? Why was he left with this empty feeling? Was it selfish of him to want to step down when it seemed like the worst was long past them?

And after leaving this life and everything else… what could he do? He tried to imagine his life outside of gems.

Outside of magic and monsters.

Outside of helping others.

What would the other gems think? Part of him worried if they would be disappointed. Even if they wouldn’t say anything out loud, he could already imagine their judgmental glares.

After all, he was ‘Steven Universe’, the half-Diamond boy who helped save, well, the universe! And now he was deciding to quit while there were still gems that needed help figuring out their new lives?

Maybe… maybe it was selfish of him to want anything else…

His thoughts were interrupted by the hum of the warp pad behind him, a bright light filling the room for a moment as he turned to greet whoever had arrived.

It looked to be his mother’s old Pearl, her hands shaking as she spotted him.

“My Steven!”

“It’s… just Steven…” he said, trying to hide his mild annoyance.

“R-right, I’m sorry.” Val sighed and shook her head. “Look, I need your help. I’ve made a terrible mistake and I’m worried other gems might get hurt…”

“What do you mean?” Steven asked, realizing now that she had come alone. “What happened to my Mom?”

She went quiet, her eye darting across the room to avoid looking directly at him. Something clearly had her scared, and he needed to know why.

“Val.” He said, taking a deep breath and gently taking hold of her hands. “You need to relax and tell me what’s wrong.”

Steven’s phone buzzed in his pocket before he could speak. Probably another text from Connie, he figured.

‘Sorry, Connie, that’s gonna have to wait.’ He thought to himself as he fished the phone from his pocket to set it aside on the table.

But when his screen lit up, he saw the text wasn’t from Connie.

It was from Bismuth…

‘WE NEED YOU HERE’ was all it said. It was a weekend, but he knew she and a few of the gems would be at Little Homeworld. Whatever Val came to warn him about was likely already here.

And it was bad enough that Bismuth was calling for help.

And somehow his Mom’s old friend was involved in this. His family was in danger all over again…

“Steven?” Val muttered, taking a few steps back.

Confused, Steven finally noticed that his body had begun to glow Pink before it slowly faded away. He didn’t have time to think about that now. He needed to get to Little Homeworld and find the others.

“Val, you’re coming with me.”

Steven wasn’t sure what to expect when he had finally made it to Little Homeschool. He knew it had to be bad if Bismuth was the one calling for help…

But this…

He immediately noticed how the air around him turned heavy and hot while it blew in his face. The heat already stung his eyes enough to force him to blink and wipe them before he could see the true extent of the damage for himself…

Mangled, deformed figures ran amuck, smashing into everything in sight. They crashed through the dormitories and tore up the support within, allowing the weakened structures to tumble and collapse into the adjacent buildings in time for them to charge headlong to a new target to repeat the cycle. Like dominos, each building was soon crashing into another.

Among the wreckage, Steven could see Bismuth’s forge buried in the rubble…

And how it had begun to light another ever-growing fire all throughout Little Homeschool.

Panic had already begun to set in at the sight. Thankfully, he knew there weren’t any classes being held today, but if Bismuth had been in there when this all started…

“S-Steven?” he heard Val speak with a measure of concern.

Puzzled, he looked to his hands, their vibrant Pink glow returning, even if it was drowned out by the harsh light of the raging inferno that had engulfed everything he and his family had built…

He couldn’t think about that now! Right now, what mattered most was that his family could be in danger and that he had to help them!

Garnet was going to be holding a couple’s therapy session today.

Amethyst was planning to meet Jasper here to sign her up for classes in the coming week.

Pearl would be waiting to meet Bismuth after she was done with her “personal project” at her forge.

And lastly, Peridot would be looking after the greenhouse.

Those were the gems he knew off the top of his head had to be here. And that would be where he would have to start.

“Val, stay close to me, we can’t get separated!” 

The Pearl said nothing, only giving a shaky nod before taking a few steps off the warp pad.

He knew the forge was the closest place to him, so that would have to be the first place to look. If she had been inside when it fell, he knew she’d normally have been strong enough to find a way out herself. Assuming she hadn’t been poofed when the roof came down on her head…

But he knew he had to be sure. He ignored his instincts to avoid the white-hot flames that erupted from inside as he knelt to lift a piece of broken support and heave it above his shoulders.

He could barely feel his muscles ache as he hoisted thousands of pounds of rock and burning wood off the ground. The smoke came pouring in and forcing his eyes to water, but he fought back the sting to look inside…

Nothing. From what he could see, he couldn’t find her or even her gem anywhere. Maybe that was good, maybe it meant she wasn’t there… or maybe her gem had already been smothered by the debris.

But all thoughts of Bismuth were soon brushed aside as he noticed his feet leave the ground. His captor spun him around to face him. It was a hulking monstrosity, easily taller than Garnet with a mangled upside-down face. It was holding Steven with an arm that jutted out from its mouth while it curiously prodded him with its other arm on its right, showing that it was, in fact blind.

Steven’s stomach dropped at the sight, his mind racing in sheer panic as he fought to free himself…

“LET! ME! GO!!!”

It was like a clap of thunder. The ground beneath him shook as a powerful shockwave erupted all around him, freeing him from the monster’s grip. It’s body already began to crack like glass as it stumbled back before breaking into pieces. The fragmented remains of its fused gemstone shards breaking apart.

Steven rushed to bubble them all as fast as he could before they could reform as a small pile of shambling limbs. All the while he tried to make sense of what he had done.

‘I… shattered it… with my voice!’

He felt an ache in his stomach at the thought. He shattered it. He did the very thing he never thought he could forgive his mother for before he learned the truth. It was the closest thing to death that a gem could go through…

And he…

‘It… it wasn’t a normal gem, ok?’ he told himself. ‘It was never meant to be held together like that… but… if that had been anyone else…’

He took a deep breath to try and calm himself, immediately regretting the action as he coughed out black smoke from the flames around him. Was this how his mother had hurt her original Pearl? And she had to keep herself from using it for all this time before she had him… even during the War for Earth…

Steven suddenly discovered a newfound level of respect for his mother… wherever Val and this other gem had taken her…

Speaking of whom… where was Val?

Steven paused to look around, spotting the frightened Pearl huddled under a piece of a collapsed roof. “Val?”

Steven felt his heart sink when he noticed she was shaking. Even after all this time, the memory must have still been so fresh in her mind.

“Val, I’m sorry I scared you like that. Look, I’m scared too! I’m scared about the people I love being in danger. I need to make sure they’re ok and get them out of here.”

He extended a hand towards her, the gem only sat there looking at him like a frightened puppy. “If you want to make this all up to me and Mom, then help me. Please!”

A tear crawled down the side of Val’s face before she swiftly wiped it away. “I…”

He didn’t want to leave her like this, not if there were fusion monsters and a rogue gem on the loose. “I’m not gonna hurt you, Val. I promise.”

Steven waited, ignoring the amount of time it took until Val finally agreed. When she finally got to her feet, he simply gave her a hug. “It looks like you’ve been going through a lot. And I’m sure there’s a lot to talk about with my Mom. But lets focus on finding everyone here first, okay?”

Val nodded. “Okay.”

“Steven!”

Without even a moment to react, Steven felt himself immediately be plucked off the ground once again. The air in his lungs squeezed out in Bismuth’s vice-like embrace. He allowed himself a moment of relief, ignoring the fact that she was hugging him tight enough for him to hear his back start to pop.

He didn’t mind the discomfort. He was simply happy to see at least one of his family was okay, and that there may still be hope that he could find the others. At least he and Val wouldn’t have to do this alone…

“Oh, thank the stars you’re okay, little guy, I…” Bismuth then paused, their moment of solace cut short as she stared in confusion.

“Steven… w-why are you glowing?”

Steven could already hear a mounting distress in her tone, but all he could do to help quell it was shrug. “I… I think it’s some kind of power Mom had…”

“It’s not any that I recognize!” Bismuth stated before shaking her head. “We don’t have time to talk about this now! Where’s Rose!?”

Val timidly raised a hand to provide an answer. “We… Spinel and I can explain…”

Bismuth raised a brow. “Spinel?”

“Supposedly, she was Pink’s old playmate after White… took me…”

Wait, playmate? The gem that did all this was basically his mother’s old toy?

But Bismuth just shook her head. “Focus on what’s going on now! I still haven’t found Pearl after one of those things broke my forge! Steven, we need to keep moving! Once those monsters are rounded up and everyone’s safe, we’ll need Lapis to come and put out the fires! Then we get to dealing with this crazy gem! I’m gonna knock her around so hard, she’s gonna reform with a twitch!”

Val almost seemed to shrivel up as she looked around at the destruction surrounding them. “I can’t believe she’d do this. Look at all this destruction...”

“At least I got to have some fun!” Cried a voice that made the color drain from Val’s face. Steven summoned a shield to his side and prepared to come face to face with this new gem.

“Pip, did you spoil the big surprise?” she asked in a playful voice. “Tsk, tsk!”

Spinel’s voice seemed to come from every direction, and through the black smoke and debris Steven couldn’t make out her silhouette anywhere.

Bismuth gave him a knowing look and Steven nodded. They had to stay close, standing back to back until they could pinpoint Spinel’s location. Val tried her best to stay calm as she huddled with them and grasped onto a stray hunk of wood for a makeshift club.

There was a high-pitched yelp to his right, Steven jumped to respond, spotting Bismuth being dragged away by a gloved hand towards a hole in the ground a few feet away.

“Bismuth!” Steven cried out in distress, already noticing his glow begin to intensify.

Dropping his shield, he and Val rushed to grab her arms and pull her free.

“Sorry, squirt. She’s mine now!”

In an instant, he felt Bismuth’s hands slip right out of his grasp. Val’s own grip proved just as fragile and they watched her be swallowed by the Earth. The hole closing like something out of an old cartoon.

He felt the ground beneath him begin to tremble as the spot where the hole had been began to rise and move towards them. Steven motioned for Val to get behind him as he raised his shield to defend them.

He thought about running, that maybe the other gems were still out here and could help them. But he was sure Spinel would follow. And he couldn’t risk the others being taken from him like Bismuth had.

He could already feel a pit in his stomach at how easily she was taken. It was an all too familiar sense of guilt, but he couldn’t dwell on it now, not when they were about to face this latest threat.

The mound moved straight for them, only stopping once it had reached just a few feet from them. The dirt beneath them rumbled once more before bursting open for Spinel to make her grand entrance.

“Hel-lo new Pink Diamond! Say hi to your new Best Friend!” She loudly stated with an over exaggerated wave towards Steven.

The gem that greeted him had to be no taller than him. She had pink skin and dark pink hair done in two messy ponytails. Three dark streaks could be plainly seen under each eye that resembled running mascara. He could also see her gemstone on her chest in the shape of an upside-down heart.

This had to be the gem Val talked about. The one that had whisked his mother away to stars-know-where, who was currently burning down Little Homeworld and hunting town the rest of his family.

His knuckles cracked as he formed his hand into a fist, fueled by fear for his loved ones and righteous anger for the destruction of everything they fought for. He lunged towards Spinel, paying no mind to the object in her hands that now extended out before the gem countered his attack.

A sudden numbness overwhelmed his body. The pink glow that had once encompassed it was now vanishing. And when Steven fell to the ground and scrambled back to his feet, he felt… heavier… as though his muscles strained more to lift himself back up.

Spinel hummed. “Hmm, looks like ya don’t poof, you really are a freak-a-nature. Aren’t ya?” she mused as one of her arms coiled around him like a snake and lifted him into the air with ease.

Steven tried to push her away with a bubble, throwing up a shield to break free of her grip. Something that could help him escape!

But… nothing… A small bubble formed for an instant in his hand before it simply blipped out of existence. He tried to focus on the light of his gem, but it was as though a switch had been flipped and it had all been taken away from him. Now he was as helpless as that little boy who thought he could unlock powers from ice cream.

What had Spinel done to him!?

He looked over to her right hand, now noticing the scythe-like weapon she possessed. What was that? Some type of destabilizer? Was it supposed to poof gems?

No, no this was different. He had been hit with a destabilizer before, and it had never affected his powers like this. And what would happen if Spinel used this on other gems?

“W-what have you done with my family?” Steven said, trying his best to sound assertive, though even he could still tell the trepidation in his voice.

“Oh, don’t you worry, little Diamond.” She said mockingly, sheathing her scythe before revealing four dark pink bubbles stored within her gem, each containing a different type of gemstone.

He could already recognize each one she held. Amethyst, Ruby, Sapphire, and now Bismuth. All poofed and bubbled away.

He was too late. She had already gotten to them. All of this had happened right under his nose while he was talking with Connie about himself.

His family was fighting for their lives and all he was worried about was what he wanted. How could he have been so careless… and so selfish…

He could see Val grab a piece of debris before she attempted to strike Spinel’s head. The other gem swatting her away with the back of her hand.

“Spinel, enough!” he heard Val cry out while she wedged herself between the two of them. “I-I can’t sit back and let you hurt these gems!”

“This again?” Spinel sighed in annoyance and rolled her eyes.

“I get it, we were both angry with Rose! And I understand that she was the one who left you! But them?” Val said, gesturing to Steven. “They had nothing to do with this!”

“Oh, would you quit your whining!” Spinel growled. “I waited to do this when there was hardly anyone here like ya said it’d be because I knew you’d never stop nagging me! Who cares what happens here? I wanted to have fun!”

“If I knew you’d do something like this, then I wouldn’t have even told you!” Val shouted back at her. Spinel paused, as if shocked by Val raising her voice towards her. “I… I’m sorry Spinel. I know you’re doing all of this because you feel hurt and angry. But this won’t undo that pain. I… I won’t let you hurt the other gems too!”

Spinel shook her head and scowled. “Some friend you were.”

Spinel held her hand to her face and blew air into her hand like a balloon until it grew larger than her entire body. With one swift motion, she slammed the Pearl into the ground like a hammer striking a nail, Val’s form poofing instantly.

“Good riddance. Now then… where were we…” Spinel said, her hand returning to normal size to grab her scythe out of her gemstone. “I kept hearin’ that you're supposed to be a better Pink Diamond than ol’ tons-o-fun. I think you and I are gonna be great friends…”

“Put him down!”

A spear sliced through the open air towards Spinel’s head, the gem barely having enough time to move out of the way to stretch out her legs and allow the spear to pass harmlessly between them.

“You wanna piece a’ me!?” Spinel angrily shouted, shaking her fist to the open air. “Come on out here so I can see your ugly mug!”

A lone figure emerged through the smoke. Her thin silhouette was all Steven needed to recognize who she was.

“Pearl!”

The pale gem gave Spinel a steely eyed glare as she pulled another spear from her gemstone. “Put him down! Now!”

Spinel shook her head. “Lookie here! It’s Pink’s other Pearl. Seems she took you at least. Ain’t that just swell!”

The small cylindrical object in Spinel’s hands extended, its glowing sickle-like blade igniting from the end of it.

This couldn’t go on. He couldn’t sit by and watch this gem bubble his entire family like this, and he certainly wasn’t going to sit there and watch her do the same to Pearl! He tried again to focus on his gemstone. To do something! Not just stay on the sideline and be helpless!

But his powers failed him yet again.A dim pink glow flickering for a moment before dying out. Now he’d have to get desperate, summoning all the strength he had left, he squirmed to bring Spinel’s arm closer to his face.

“Would you stop squirming, ya little-OW!!!”

Steven bit down as hard as he could on the gem's arm as it coiled around his body, the initial shock loosening her grip. Using the distraction to his advantage, he snatched the scythe from Spinel’s hands, wasting no time to snap it in half over his knee.

“Why you little-!”

His victory was short-lived as he felt his body leave the ground, a dark pink bubble forming around him before being tossed aside.

“Now stay there!” Spinel shouted angrily, shaking her head and she turned her attention back to Pearl. “Well that’s just flippin’ dandy! I was gonna poof you too! Would’a been kinda sweet to take ol’ Pinkie’s other Pearl and make her mine. Really could have been a lot of fun…” The gem gave a shrug. “But nuts to that I guess!”

“I’m only going to tell you once! Let Steven go and surrender, now!” Pearl demanded.

Spinel shook her head and laughed. “Oho! Look at the little Pearl talking like she’s so tough! Just what’re ya gonna do if I say ‘no’?”

“I’m going to beat you so hard that you’ll reform with a twitch.”

“You ain’t the first gem to threaten me like that.” Spinel said. “You and what army?”

Pearl gave a confident little smile. “I love it when they ask that…”

Pearl’s gemstone began to glow, forming into beams of light that shot out in every direction. When it faded, she was surrounded by over a dozen holo-pearl duplicates, each brandishing a spear.

‘This gem was in for it now!’ Steven thought to himself. Pearl was one of the best, if not the best fighter he’d ever known, besides Connie. And this gem was surrounded by a mob of enemies all just as good as her. He tried to steady his breathing to calm himself down. ‘It’ll be over in a minute…’

“Cute that you wanna play soldier. Stupid, but cute. Still, if it’s a whoopin you’re a’wantn’!” Spinel said, seemingly not intimidated by Pearl’s display as she rolled up her imaginary sleeves and raised her fists.

Pearl planted her spear to the ground, cracking her neck as she gave a confident smirk. “Please, I used to eat gems like you for breakfast.”

Spinel gave a mad cackle as she charged towards the mob of Holo-Pearls. Stretching her arm to wrap around the spear of one, she pulled back to ready herself before flinging herself towards her intended target like a giant slingshot, her form twisting to the shape of a rocket.

“Incoming!” Spinel shouted excitedly, slamming into one Holo-Pearl before unraveling her limbs and reaching out to pull any unlucky Holo-Doubles close to her. Grasping on with each limb, she smashed the four of them together, their forms disappearing in a sparkle of light.

More Holo-Pearls appeared to take the place of their fallen brethren, their movements perfectly in sync with one another as they surrounded their foe. They readied their spears to attack from all sides.

Spinel smirked, stretching and bending her legs into a spring shape before launching herself into the air, her laughter nearly drowned out completely by the sound of Holo-Pearls poofing each other out of existence.

“I’m sure you and Pink had lots of fun playing hero.” Spinel said, brushing off her shoulders. “But the truth is that a Pearl is still just a Pearl. You can pretend to be some kind of fighter, but you’re only really fooling yourself.”

The gem’s pompous smile disappeared from her face as it collided with Pearl’s foot. She was quick to not allow Spinel the time to react, smacking the butt of her spear into the gem’s nose and pinning her to the ground with its shaft against her throat.

“You just lost to a Pearl, how embarrassing must that feel?” Pearl mocked.

Steven hoped this meant it was over. Of course there would still be the matter of finding his mother and rebuilding what they had lost in the fire. But no one was hurt, he wouldn’t have to be the one to fix everything this time...

Spinel’s eyes darted in every direction in search of an escape, only to stop as she looked to Steven with a demented grin. 

“I’m not going to tell you ag-ow!!” Pearl shouted, Spinel’s finger stretching out to jab into her eyes.

That moment of distraction was all Spinel needed. Deflating like a balloon, she stretched and contorted her body to slither along the ground towards him, dodging Pearl’s spear before wrapping herself around the bubble that held Steven like a tarp.

“Pearl!” Steven cried out in panic.

The bubble gave a muffled pop as it vanished, Spinel’s form stretching over Steven’s body like a second skin. Steven tried as hard as he could to resist and fight back, pulling with all his might to pry her off of him. But he just wasn’t strong enough, and with each successful tug Spinel’s form simply snapped back in place.

Eventually he was too tired to fight back. And when it was done, and the horrified look on Pearl’s face was enough for him to realize that it looked as bad as it felt. 

Even as this gem had completely consumed his body, he still fought for control with every movement Spinel made, his body shaking as she held her hands out as though expecting an applause for her gruesome feat.

“Ta da!!!”

Steven could see that Pearl was scared for him, tears welling in the corners of her eyes.

“Steven…” Pearl grit her teeth, summoning two more spears to her hands to level at Spinel’s gem. “Let him go, NOW!!”

“Pfffft, a Pearl giving orders? Now I’ve seen everything.” Spinel quipped. “And in case you couldn’t tell, I just changed the rules to our little game. ‘Cause so long as me and the new Pinkie here are like this… You. Can’t. Touch us.”

“And I imagine you won’t be able to use so many of your little tricks if you’re like that.” Pearl reasoned. “You won’t be able to get away easily, and for all you know, I might have friends on the way to put your sorry butt in time out!”

Was that true, were there others coming? Steven wanted to believe she was telling the truth and that it wasn’t just a bluff.

“Fine then, I’m not above breaking my toys…”

Steven felt pressure on his chest, the air erupting from his lungs and he collapsed to the ground. His entire body felt like it was being squeezed to death. He wanted to cry for help, but when he opened his mouth, only a faint whimper came out.

“No, please, stop!” Pearl cried.

Suddenly the pressure stopped, Steven gasped for air, Spinel forcing his body to spring onto his feet.

“You know how this works, Pearlie! ‘Pink Diamond’ is supposed to be my friend! And if I can’t have him…” Spinel chuckled. “No one can.”

Pearl simply stood there, the spear shaking in her hands. He could tell from the look on her face and the tears in her eyes that she wasn’t looking at Spinel. She was looking at him.

Pearl’s brow furrowed, her grip on the spear tightening. Spinel released Steven’s arm to stretch her own to reach for a discarded spear. But Pearl focused on Spinel, her face twisted in anger, no doubt determined to save him if it meant shredding the gem that helped him hostage to ribbons.

“I’ll-!”

Pearl froze, her words halted as the spear sliced cleanly through her form. It had taken her a moment to notice just what had happened. Her hands shook as they grasped the spear that was now buried in her chest. 

“I’m sorry, Steven…”

Not a moment too soon, Pearl’s form erupted in a cloud of dust. Her gemstone made a metallic clink as it fell to the ground.

Steven couldn't understand what all had happened. Even as his senses were assailed by the overpowering scent of smoke and saw Pearl’s gem right in front of him he still couldn’t believe it. All of this had happened on his watch, and he had watched his own family taken away from him.

And now his body was moving against his will to stars-knew-where as his entire life burned down around him…

‘Mom…’ he thought to himself, wishing so badly he could wipe the tears from his eyes. ‘Where are you? I need you here.’

Chapter Text

Even after reforming, Val could still feel her head throb from Spinel’s blow. It was a dull soreness that thumped with an intensity that demanded her full attention as she stumbled to her feet. She could feel the soot between her fingers, her first breath carrying the distinct smell of smoke.

She opened her eye, spotting through blurred vision the vague appearance of an orange blob approaching her. She tried to steady herself and focus, finally noticing that her feet were no longer touching the ground. And that something was holding her by her head.

“You!” snarled a faintly familiar voice. “Where’s. My. Sister?”

The moment her senses returned, she was greeted by the angry scowl of a Quartz. From the gemstone where her nose would be and the presence of a set of small horns, she recognized her as the Jasper that had challenged her and Rose to a game of volleyball just the day before.

But the word she mentioned confused her.

“S-sister?”

Jasper held Val closer to her face. “Amethyst!” She barked. “Where is she!? Pearl said she saw you talking to the gem that took her like you knew each other!”

Val spotted a figure beside Jasper, recognizing her as Rose’s Pearl. The gem gave her a steely eyed glare, her voice in contrast was cold and sharp when she spoke.

“I don’t know your history with Spinel, or even why she decided to attack us and take Steven. But I’d suggest you start explaining. And be precise.”

Val wanted nothing more than to disappear back into her gem. She could practically feel their utter contempt for her for everything that had happened. But her guilt denied her that easy escape.

Spinel may have been the one who burned Little Homeworld down, but she couldn’t have done that or gotten to Rose and Steven without her.

Deep down, she told herself that helping them wouldn’t undo the harm that she and Spinel unleashed… but right now, that didn’t matter. What Spinel was doing was wrong. And if she wasn’t going to stop on her own, then someone else would have to make her.

“I… I’m not totally sure where Spinel could have gone. But I can lead you to Rose.”

The vice like grip on her head released. Val plopped to the ground, no doubt kicking up more soot and ash that clung to her form no matter how hard she tried to brush it off.

“Spinel left Rose in the old garden where they evidently used to play…” Val said, dusting herself off the best she could as she stood up. “Did you recognize what Spinel was carrying?”

Jasper held up her other hand. “You mean this?” she asked, opening her hand to show the broken halves of the rejuvenator. “Yeah, I know what this is… if she hit Rose with this, then she’s basically useless.”

The Quartz’s choice of words seemed to have struck a chord with Pearl, her posture stiffening before shoving the larger gem to face her with surprising force. “I don’t care what your reasoning is, we are getting Rose back! Either way, we need as much help as we can get!”

Val noticed a sloshing noise from above, sighting a Lapis Lazuli floating in on fluid wings and landing just beside Pearl. For a moment, her attention focused on Jasper as she gave the Quartz a dismissive side eye before turning her back to Pearl. The Quartz sighed, all malice melting away before taking a few steps away from her

“The fires are out finally.” Lapis said plainly. “Do we know where that gem took Steven?”

“We’re not sure yet. Right now, there could still be shard monsters causing all sorts of havoc in Beach City, assuming more haven’t run off into the woods.”

Lapis sighed. “Fine… Peridot and I can handle them. Call us if you need help.”

Without another word, the gem unfurled her wings and swiftly took to the sky.

Val looked back to Pearl, awaiting some new order or at least some sort of plan. But for a moment, the gem was utterly silent, a sullen expression on her face as she looked around what was left of Little Homeworld.

“Um… Pearl?” Val tried to find something to say to get her attention. “You alright? Did you… have a plan?”

Pearl blinked and shook her head as she was brought back to reality. “Oh, I’m… I’m fine… this is all just…” she took a deep breath and wiped her eye. “It’s nothing, we just need to get Rose and then focus on hunting down Spinel.”

“Do you have any idea where she could have gone?” Jasper snarled, the reminder of her presence startling Pip.

“She… She mentioned wanting to take Rose’s ‘Happy Ending’ for herself.” Val muttered. “All she talked about was wanting to take everything Rose loved and leave Rose in the old garden forever.”

Jasper’s brow furrowed. “So most likely she’ll still be somewhere on Earth.”

“We could check a few places that would hold importance to Ro-” Pearl froze, her hand covering her mouth as she stared off into the distance in horror.

“What is it?” Val asked.

Pearl said nothing, simply pointing out towards the general direction of Beach City. Even from where they stood, from side of the hill that faced towards the sea, they could see it.

Smoke.

Their worst fears were confirmed the instant they arrived through the warp stream. The beach house, Rose and Steven’s home, had been completely engulfed in flames. The walls burned away to reveal the wooden framework. Sunlight shined through the open space where the roof once stood, exposing the blacked woodwork and leftover debris.

The air felt heavier around Val, but she already knew it wasn’t the smoke. Amongst the burnt ruins, one object stood out. The portrait of Rose that hung above the front entrance, now ripped from its frame with a wooden spike driven through Rose’s face. There was no doubt as to who was responsible.

Another wave of guilt washed over Val. She couldn’t imagine what Pearl must have been feeling now. Those closest to her having been taken by Spinel, her home and livelihood now a pile of ash. And the one partially responsible for it all right beside her…

This was where her anger had led her… and everyone else now had to pay for it…

“Pearl… I…”

“Don’t.” Pearl said bluntly. “This… This is Spinel’s doing, not…”

Something began to cry out from ruins of the beach house. Its bestial wail sounding nothing like any gem she knew. Could it have been one of those shard monster Spinel had stolen from Yellow Diamond?

“Oh my stars… Jasper, help me dig him out!” Pearl cried, already rushing to what was left of the living room. In no time, the two of them cleared away the rubble find the source of the noise…

It was a large, four-legged creature, a mane of light pink fur covering its head and upper body. Its ears pointed back as it let out an angry snarl.

“Shhhhh, Lion, it’s okay…” Pearl said softly, gently holding out her hand to its muzzle.

The pink beast sniffed, its features softening as it gingerly licked the tips of Pearl’s fingers with its tongue. Uncurling its body to show a smaller creature. This one was slightly different, colored white with splotches of black and brown. Its single eye scanning the three figures that surrounded them.

Despite its shaking it refused to leave the larger animal’s side, as just beside it, was a wooden board that had splintered and pierced the larger beast’s underbelly.

Pearl let out an audible gasp. “L-Lion! Oh my stars! Please, don’t get up.”

“Is there… anything I could do to help?” Val asked.

Pearl looked around the rest of the house as though she was looking for something. “In the fridge, I suppose whatever is left of it. There should be a few bottles of water from Rose’s spring.”

“You really think it’d survive the fire?” Jasper asked.

“What else do you want me to do!?” Pearl blurted angrily enough to make the Quartz flinch. Pearl took a deep breath. “I… I’m sorry. I should not have yelled. I don’t know if Lion can heal from this on his own. If we can’t get to Rose in time, then it’s our only chance…”

Jasper grunted. “Fine.” She said, walking away.

Val knelt beside Pearl, the later cradling the smaller creature in her arms. It still quivered in her arms and buried its face under Pearl’s chin to find some semblance of comfort as she gently stroked her fur.

“Did Spinel give any hints as to where she was planning to take Steven?” Pearl asked.

Val scratched the back of her neck, that uncomfortable sinking feeling returning. “I… I really don’t know…” she admitted, feeling ashamed of her answer.

“You and Rose talked about her time on Earth, didn’t you?” Pearl said. “Did you tell her anything?”

 “A little.” Val shyly admitted. “She wanted to know what Rose had been up to since she left Homeworld. I told about the War for Earth, the cluster, her having a child with a human, she even told me of the time he was sick and had to take him to her…”

It finally clicked in her mind. “Oh dear…”

“What?”

“I think I know where she took Steven. Do you have a warp leading to her Fountain?”

“We do.” Pearl answered. “But I’m guessing Spinel would expect us to follow once we recovered and likely damaged the warp pad that would lead us there.”

Jasper towered over the others, a melted plastic water bottle in her hands. “Well, better hope Rose had more bottles of fountain water, because there’s nothing left in that fridge but ash.”

Pearl nodded, taking another deep breath and pinching the bridge of her nose. “Okay…” she breathed, try her best to sound as calm as possible. “First, I am going to call Greg to look after Lion and Cat Steven with Jasper. And then Val and I are going to go get Rose.”

“Why are you having me stay?” Jasper asked.

“In case one of those fusions monsters find their way here. Who knows how many Spinel has and Greg can’t defend himself against those things. Whatever that thing may have done to Rose, we need her if we’re going to stop Spinel…”

With another loud clang, the Warp Pad finally shattered into pieces. Its smooth crystalline surface cracked and splintered around the crater left by the head of a stone statue carved into the likeness of Rose Quartz.

“Ah, perfect. Now we’ll have the place all to ourselves” Spinel said gleefully, tossing away the statue head.

It took every ounce of Steven’s will not to cry, this couldn’t have been happening again. He had been taken away from his loved ones again.

Only now, it wasn’t some trick to lure him away while he was separated. It was in full view of his family. And despite their best efforts, this gem had still slipped from their grasp and taken him along with a handful of his own family.

And why here? Why his mother’s fountain?

Rose’s Fountain, even now, always left Steven with mixed feelings. He remembered healing all the corrupted gems from the Temple, accomplishing what his mother couldn’t and washing away the damage that had been down to their physical forms. The gems now free to reunite with friends they had thought long gone for thousands of years…

And how they could only do so with the help of the Diamonds. The very gems that only a few days earlier had tried to shatter them all and destroy him and his home.

He remembered curling up in the lap of the now headless statue of his mother, feeling lost and wishing he could learn to mourn someone he never knew. And he remembered how helpless he felt almost losing the gem that was like a sister to him as they laid in the dried-up pool, surrounded by thorns born from the years of neglect in Rose’s absence.

This place, despite its serene beauty, always left Steven with a subtle feeling of sadness.

“Oh, we’re gonna have lots of fun here!” Spinel’s said, her voice echoing in Steven’s head.

Spinel reached behind her head, her fingers trailing down the center before splitting apart and falling to the ground as though it was the zipper to a cheap costume.

Confused, Steven took a few shaky steps away from the gem before a long, snake-like arm coiled around him to pull him back to her side.

“Nah-ah-ah! Can’t play hide n’ seek yet, new best friend!” Spinel said. A bubble materializing around Steven. “Now let’s see what other new friends I got!”

Spinel’s gem lit up as she retrieved the other bubbled gemstones. Wasting no time, she excitedly set each gemstone gently on the ground before popping their protective bubbles

What did she hope to gain from freeing them? If she just poofed them, then they were going to fight her for sure!

Or maybe… that was the whole idea? Did Spinel just see fighting as some silly game?

Light poured from each gem as they began to float in midair, twisting and changing into their desired forms until finally…

“Wait…”

Something was wrong. These gems…

Ruby and Sapphire weren’t fusing. The former angrily eyeing everything around her as Sapphire stood in total silence.

Steven had also noticed Bismuth’s star tattoo was now completely gone. In its place were four diamond shapes each colored to represent a part of the Diamond Authority.

And Amethyst was barely even recognizable, looking more like some discarded children’s doll than any gem. The little Quartz met eyes with Spinel, the gem watching this all with an obnoxious grin plastered on her face. Without a word, Amethyst’s gem began to glow, her form changing into a perfect mirror of Spinel herself.

“Oh, I like you!” Spinel said excitedly.

“Oh, I like you!” Amethyst repeated.

This didn’t make sense. What had that thing done to them?

“Hey, you!” Spinel hollered, pointing to Bismuth. The rainbow haired gem flinched and looked around before finally pointing to herself. “Me?”

“Yeah, you! You’re supposed to be good at building stuff, right?”

“Y-Yes, I am!” Bismuth said, suddenly stand as stiff as a board and holding her arms into a Homeworld salute. Seeing Bismuth like this nearly made Steven’s stomach churn.

“Good! I want ya to change all these stupid statues of this fat, stupid Quartz into lil’ statues of yours truly!” Spinel held her hands up to her face in way Steven assumed was meant to make her seem ‘cute’.

Bismuth nodded, her hands morphing into a hammer and chisel as she wandered off to begin her work.

“Halt!!” Ruby shouted. “I won’t let you go another step closer to my Sapphire!”

“Aw, c’mon squirt. Ain’t ya gonna get bored watching over her?”

“Never!” Ruby blurted. “As her Ruby guard, it’s my purpose to keep my clarity safe from any harm that would come to her!”

“That’s noble of you, but I’m afraid it won’t last.” Sapphire stated grimly. “I can already foresee your existence coming to an end within the day.”

‘This wasn’t right.’ Steven thought. ‘Whatever Spinel did to them had completely erased who they were! Like everything they had gone through, everything they’d done was completely wiped away.

Was there even a way to undo this? The thought of Bismuth, Garnet, and Amethyst as he knew them being only a memory now made his head hurt and his heart race.

“Change them back!” Steven screamed.

Spinel stared back with a smile. “Why? Even if I could, why would I wanna do that? They’re my friends now! Rose got them to run around and do whatever she said, and now it’s my turn!”

Spinel placed her hands on the surface of Steven’s bubble, her face just inches from his. “And the same goes for you, Steven. You’re all mine now! And we’re gonna be best friends… whether you like it or not!”

Pearl’s memories of the old garden were sparse.

She remembered times when she would accompany Pink to meet with Spinel for playdates. Before Earth, it was her Diamond’s one and only escape from her life on Homeworld.

From the few times she had to retrieve Pink for important tasks, she recalled seeing bright, colorful flowerbeds and other beautiful plant life.

But this…

All color that was once there had long since faded away. And now any life that was there was long dead, though seemingly not before they had outgrown their confines.

“She should be right down…” Val paused, rushing past Pearl as she frantically searched around the Garden. “She… she’s not in her spot! Spinel told her to stay right there!”

“Hello?”

That deep, soothing tone was unmistakable. As was the sight of the gem’s mass of pink curls that were almost long enough to touch the ground. Her broad features and burly form were typical of a Quartz soldier.

But her eyes were all the difference. Dark, wide and filled with a level of curiosity that Pearl was all too familiar with.

“Uh-um…” Rose stumbled, her cheeks turning a rosy pink before averting her eyes and hiding her hands behind her back. “I-I’m sorry, I was just…”

She trailed off, the pause between her words growing longer with every second she failed to find the right words before taking a step forward looking like a wounded puppy.

“I’m sorry…” Rose said softly, holding out her hand to show a shriveled and dead flowing in her palm.

“I know Spinel wanted me to stay in that one spot… but I just couldn’t stand being there any longer. And after a while I tried to find something to keep me preoccupied and started looking closely at all the flowers that were here.” Rose explained. “I don’t know why Spinel would leave them like this if this garden was so important to her… and I’m sure these flowers must have looked beautiful before they wilted away like this…”

Pearl sighed and allowed herself to smile. Even if she didn’t remember, she could still see so much of the gem that convinced her to run away with her.

And here, she was seeing Rose in a whole new way, no regrets, no secrets, no overwhelming guilt. Here she was, still captivated by life, even in a place that was so lifeless.

“Rose!” Val cried from behind Pearl, already rushing towards them. “Oh, thank the stars. I was worried she’d left altogether!”

“No, I would never do that!” Rose insisted. “Spinel told me that I had to stay here. And that if I left, I’d let her down. A-as a Quartz, it’s my purpose to guard this place.”

“Excuse us a moment.” Val said, putting on a clearly forced smile before grabbing Pearl’s shoulder and forcefully turning the two of them away from Rose.

“Any ideas to make her come to her senses?”

Pearl rubbed her chin in contemplation. “Do you have an idea to help remind her of when she was Pink Diamond?”

Val paused. “I’ve got it!” she said, forming four small bubbles in her hands. “I taught Pink how to juggle. She wasn’t really a fast learner. But once she got the rhythm down, she was a natural!”

Val handed the bubbles to Rose, summoning four more for herself to hold before tossing them in the air. Pearl watched as the little balls danced in the air, Val trying every trick she remembered watching Pink perform.

When she was finished, Val waved her hand to make the bubbles pop, leaving a few small sparkles of light fall beside her. “Okay, now you try!”

Nervous, Rose seemed to try her best to mirror Val’s motions as she tossed the bubbles over her heard. Already, it was clear Rose lacked Val’s coordination and finesse, and one by one the bubbles hit the ground before disappearing.

“I-I’m sorry.” Rose mumbled nervously.

Val looked back to Pearl and gave a shrug. “You have any ideas?”

Pearl pondered for a moment. “I might have something.” reaching to her gemstone to retrieve a special item stored within. It was a pale, curved bone that arched over her head and ended at a dull point. And though it may not have been heavy, it was easily twice as tall as her.

“What… is that?” Val asked.

“During the first few centuries we spent exploring Earth, Rose discovered these strange, hairy animals hiding in the Northernmost regions. They were enormous, and Rose became absolutely infatuated with them! But over time, their home began to shrink, and their numbers dwindled. Rose grew attached to the last of them. And she made sure keep him company when he had no one else. And this is one of his tusks.”

Pearl held the tusk to Rose, stars dancing in the Quartz’s eyes at the sight.

“Alright, hold out your hands.” Pearl instructed.

Rose’s hands shook with excitement as Pearl placed the massive tusk. The Quartz curiously looked over every angle, gazing at the bone with a look of sheer awe as she planted the tusk on the ground to see its curved tip hover over her head, tightening her grip before…

CRACK!

Without warning, the tusk crumbled to dust in Rose’s grasp, the leftover halves falling to the ground by her feet.

“I… I’m sorry…” Rose mumbled, tears already forming in her eyes as she scrambled to retrieve the broken pieces. “I didn’t mean to…”

“No, no, it’s okay.” Pearl reassured. “It… it wasn’t important…”

This wasn’t working, they would need to try something else. They couldn’t just use any old memory from Rose’s past, perhaps they needed to be more… specific? Target memories that were closest to Rose. Memories that helped shape her into who she was now…

It was like a light went off in Pearl’s head. “Val?”

“Y-yes?”

“Go wait up with Greg. I have an idea. But for it to work, Rose and I have to be alone.”

Val paused, looking back to Rose, who seemed equally just as clueless. “All right.” She said, already making her way to the Warp Pad.

Pearl took a deep breath. Part of her was in disbelief of what she was about to do. Another felt a rush of excitement at the thought, which didn’t surprise her…

But another part of her felt… afraid. Would this work? Or would this just end up opening an old wound that she had tried so hard move on from?

She shook her head. It didn’t matter right now. Right now, she needed all the help she could get, and she knew that Steven needed Rose.

Taking hold of Rose’s hand, she looked right into her deep, dark eyes. The Quartz’s attention focused squarely on her. “I have a new idea.” Pearl said. “Why don’t you come with me?”

Rose’s face lit up with excitement, only to quickly fade away into trepidation. “But… Spinel told me I had to stay here…”

“Well, Spinel’s not here.” Pearl said. “And I won’t tell her about it. It’ll just be our little secret…”

Rose still seemed hesitant. “Well…”

“I can show you the planet where these flowers came from.”

Rose thought for a minute, looking around the deserted remains of the garden before giving a nervous grumble. “Okay… but please don’t tell her… I don’t want to upset her…”

There was no way for Pearl to rationalize this in a way to not make it feel so strange…

She tried to remember if she had ever returned to this spot again during her and Rose’s entire time on Earth… but nothing came to mind.

For the first time in almost six thousand years, here they were again. Just the two of them, surrounded by beautiful rosebushes.

She could see Rose was in sheer awe of the life that bloomed on this planet the moment they had arrived from the warp pad. And she made sure to be right by her side as they went off to rediscover Earth all over again…

She wished she could have had more time for them to just enjoy the moment… but she knew already that her time was short. This had to work.

“This place is very special to me.” Pearl explained, taking hold of Rose’s hands. “A long time ago, I journeyed to Earth with My Diamond. I was her Pearl at the time. And for a while, that was all I ever was. But after spending time here and falling in love with this place, she started to change…”

“What do you mean?” Rose asked.

Pearl smiled. “Well, on Homeworld, my Diamond wasn’t like the others. She was smaller and liked playing silly games. But usually, she seemed… lonely.”

Pearl thought back to her memory of Pink Diamond, looking out through the balcony window at the vast metropolis of Homeworld. Her mind always drifting elsewhere. And even when she smiled, she never truly seemed happy. No matter what she tried to do for her.

“But on Earth, she was like a completely different person. For the first time since I had known her, she seemed genuinely happy. After a while, she had started to discard her existence as a Diamond, and found herself more comfortable being someone else… a Rose Quartz…”

Pearl tried her best not to giggle as she noticed Rose’s blush. “And the more time we spent together, the more I began to imagine things… even when she didn’t ask me to…”

“What sorts of things?” Rose asked.

“I imagined that I ran away from My Diamond to live on Earth with a Rose Quartz.” Pearl could already feel her cheeks start to warm as she remembered the nervous gem she once was, laughing off these crazy thoughts. She looked back to Rose, stars dancing in her eyes, the gem hanging on her every word.

“I wouldn’t be hers, but I’d make her so happy! Isn’t that ridiculous? And when I wanted her to order me to stop, she said-”

“PLEASE DON’T EVER STOP!”

Their gemstones began to glow, their forms becoming pure light that mixed and morphed to take shape. For just a moment, they were no longer two separate beings.

But it did not last, their light splitting apart and leaving them to tumble to the ground. Pearl hit the ground with a thud, her back feeling sore as she stood up.

“Pearl?”

Something seemed different about her voice. Her bubbly curiosity that seemed to echo from her voice now gone and replace with a much softer, more reserved tone. Did that mean she was back? Did it work?

“Rose… do you remember?”

Pearl could certainly see that something was now certainly different about Rose. In place of her standard Quartz uniform, Rose was now garbed in her familiar white layered gown.

“I… I remember running away with you…” Rose said, rubbing the back of her head. “I remember fighting in a war… and…”

Rose’s expression turned grim. “I remember hurting a lot of gems…”

“Anything else?” Pearl asked. “What about Steven?”

“Who?”

Pearl let out a heavy sigh. ‘Well, it helped a little. She’s almost there… But I think I know what we have to do…’

“I was surprised this thing survived the fire.” Greg said, pulling an old VHS tape from a pile of salvaged items from the beach house.

It smelled of smoke but seemed relatively intact. The neatly written label on the front of it still perfectly legible.

‘For Steven’

Greg opened the back doors to his van and pulled out an old television set, inserting the tape into the slot just below the screen. He and Pearl looked to Rose. She seemed completely confused.

“Are you sure this will work?” Val asked.

Pearl tried to think of what to say. “I reminded Rose about the start of our time on Earth… But this tape. Well, this was the end. At least for some time.”

Static filled the screen before revealing a beautiful golden beach, the old speakers playing the sound of ocean waves and the calling of seagulls…

“Isn’t it remarkable, Steven?” said the voice on the tape. “This world is full of so many possibilities… Each living thing has an entirely unique experience. The sights they see, the sounds they hear… The lives they live. They’re so complicated, and so simple! I can’t wait for you to join them.”

Pearl looked to Rose. Her attention focused solely on the screen. She could only imagine what she was thinking, hearing what was meant to be her message to her son before she was supposed to disappear forever.

And even if she didn’t fully remember, how strange must it be for her to hear your own voice, but not the message they carried…

“Steven, we can’t both exist…”

“Wait… I… I know what this is…” Rose said, gently taking Pearl’s hand, as she looked to her with a worried complexion. “I don’t want to see this…”

Pearl sighed. She was sure this wasn’t going to be easy for her. “You need to, I’m sorry…”

“I’m going to become half of you… And I need you to know that for every moment you love being yourself… that’s me! Loving you…”

“And loving b-being you… oh Steven… I had no idea. I should have been there for you…” Rose took in shallow, shaky breaths. Through her weeping, a dull hum began to ring out as light surrounded her form, glowing brighter and brighter before finally fading away.

Once Pearl could clearly see Rose again, she could tell she had changed. The skirt to her dress made shorter to show the presence of pink sandals on her feet, her massive curly hair held up by a loose ponytail, and over her dress she wore a t-shirt that read ‘Mrs Universe’.

“You okay, Rose?” Greg asked.

Rose took a deep breath and wiped her now red, puffy eyes. “I’m fine. But where’s our baby?”

Pearl fidgeted as she tried to find the best way to catch her up to speed. “Steven…”

“Spinel took him.” Val said plainly. “Rose, I-I’m so sorry. I completely stabbed you in the back…”

Rose’s brow furrowed. “Val… why..?”

“I… I was angry.” Val explained, trying her hardest not to look Rose in the eye. “You left me there on Homeworld! You never reached out to me! And Spinel… you just… left her! How could you do something like that?”

Rose let out a heavy sigh. “My relationship with Spinel is more… complicated than that.”

Val blinked and gave a puzzled look. “What do you mean?”

Chapter Text

Whatever Steven was expecting Spinel to do with him, this was probably the last thing he could imagine.

“Tag, you’re it!” Spinel gleefully hollered before hitting Steven’s shoulder with enough force to almost push him to the ground.

“Hey, you, step back!” Ruby barked as Steven got to his feet, punching into her palm as a warning if he didn’t heed her orders. Sapphire silently sat right behind her guard at the edge of the pool, remaining completely still.

Ignoring Ruby’s warning, Steven grabbed her shoulders. “Ruby, stop, it’s me! Steven! You remember me, right!? You’ve known me since I was a baby!”

Ruby scanned over Steven, through her confused look in her eyes, Steven hoped to find some spark of familiarity. Some glimmer of hope that the Ruby he knew was still in there…

Instead, his plea was met with a punch to the stomach. The sudden sensation of pain leaving him to collapse to the ground again in a coughing fit.

“Would you all keep it down?” Bismuth grumbled from the top of the fountain. “I’m trying to finish this statue here for Spinel!”

“It won’t matter.” Sapphire stated coldly. “It’ll be destroyed shortly anyway…”

Bismuth glared at the gem for a moment, grumbling to herself again before resuming her task at chiseling away the figure of Rose into the shape of Spinel.

‘I don’t know what Spinel did to you guys.’ He thought. ‘But you’re still my family. And I’m not going to leave you here.’

“Hellooooooooo!” Spinel cried out, stretching her hand out to wave in front on his face. “You’re supposed to chase us! You do know how tag works, right?”

“Why are you playing tag with us!?” Steven cried out.

Raised an eyebrow. “Uh, ‘cause it’s fun!” she said with a smirk.

Steven couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “You… you burned down Little Homeschool and my home…”

Spinel nodded with an innocent look on her face. “Uh-huh.”

“You… you killed Lion and Cat Steven, took my family and did something to forget about who they used to be… just so you could play a stupid game of tag with them!?”

“It’s not stupid!” Spinel shouted, angrily shouted like a spoiled child. “You’re all my friends now! So now you all have to do what I want!”

This was all Spinel wanted? Just to have a bunch of gems around to play with her? Steven knew that apparently this gem was his mom’s old playmate. It was what she had been made for. But it seemed as though that was really the only thing she had on her mind.

From the moment she had set him free from her bubble, she seemed to act like a completely different gem. Her form even changing from her dark, more manic guise to something smaller. More ‘cute.’ Or at least what he would imagine the Diamonds would have seen as cute when they had commissioned her…

A little pink gem with heart shaped buns in her hair to match the shape of her gemstone. Of all the gems Steven had known, Spinel had to look like the least threatening of all. Never would he have guessed a gem like this would have gone on to cause so much destruction…

“Tag, you’re it!” Amethyst cried out, slamming Spinel to the ground with a shove not unlike Spinel had moments before. Her form had changed to match Spinel’s, the color being the only hint to her identity.

The small Quartz watched as Spinel rose to her feet, a wide grin brimming on her face as she braced herself for Spinel to give chase.

Spinel felt one of her heart buns had been ruffled by her fall, and a light scuff mark showed on her face. She stared daggers towards Amethyst, the latter’s playful mood dying up under Spinel’s glare.

“That! Hurt!” Spinel screeched, stretching out her arm to grab Amethyst by the throat and throw her as hard as she could. The little gem flew straight through the air, crashing into the incomplete statue.

The stone structure shattered to pieces with enough force to knock Bismuth from her perch into the pool below. Another piece of debris was close to colliding with Ruby. Steven rushed to push her out of the way until…

As if a switch had been flipped, Sapphire ran to her bodyguard’s aid, her arms wrapped around Ruby as the two tumbled into one another. Light began to glow from their gems, their forms melding together and reshaping them from one being into two. Finally, in place of two gems, there was now just one.

She was different from the gem he had known since his youth. Her entire form looking like a mismatched amalgamation of her halves that seemed to only just be compatible with one another. In place of her silent stoicism was a look that conveyed a child like awe of their very existence.

All the same, Garnet was back. And Steven allowed himself a bit of relief at seeing her again. Maybe there was hope that whatever Spinel had done could perhaps be reversed. That maybe deep down the gems he loved were still in there.

But he knew he wouldn’t have any luck accomplishing that while they were still here.

With a loud splash, Amethyst finally resurfaced from the pool. Still in Spinel’s form and giggling like a madman.

“Stop!” Spinel shouted at her, causing the little Quartz to freeze.

“Spi-” Steven tried to speak before Spinel stretched her hand out to pinch his mouth shut.

“First off, you ain’t funny!” Spinel cried out. “And second, you play way too rough! Who taught you how to play tag huh?”

Amethyst had stopped laughing, her head sinking further into the water as she avoided Spinel’s glare.

“And stop copying me! It’s so annoying!!! What is wrong with you!?”

Spinel finally let go of Steven. Amethyst didn’t say a word as she reverted to her old form, only quietly swimming her way out while keeping her head down.

It hurt Steven to see Amethyst like this. From what he knew about Amethyst’s past, this was what she was like when his mother and the others had found her. She never knew anything of Homeworld or the Diamonds or even much about the war for Earth…

She was just a lonely little gem trying to find out why she was left here. With Rose, she was encouraged to embrace herself for who she was and never be ashamed of that…

But now all of that was gone, undone.

“Hey…” Steven whispered, kneeling to meet Amethyst at eye level. “You okay?”

Amethyst said nothing as she fought to hold back a sniffle.

“Amethyst?” Steven said, the mention of the gem’s name finally getting her attention. “There’s nothing wrong with you, okay?”

Amethyst took in a shaky breath, her eyes already glossing over with tears. Steven only smiled, gently bringing the gem closer to him for a hug.

“Are you done yet?” Spinel asked, clearly annoyed. Steven fought back the urge to snap at the gem. His powers had yet to return, and he worried if a confrontation like that would only make things worse.

For now, they had to play along…

‘Wait…’

It was like a lightbulb went off in his head. If Spinel wanted to play games, then he knew just the game he had in mind.

Steven let go of the little Quartz, taking a moment to ruffle her already messy hair. “Well, I kinda want to play something else.” He said, trying to sound as enthusiastic as possible. “You ever played hide n’ seek?”

Spinel’s face lit up with excitement as though the outburst with Amethyst had never happened. “You bet!!!”

Steven smiled, maybe this would be easier than he thought. “Okay, you go over there and close your eyes.” Steven said, pointing to the side of the fountain opposite to the exit. “Make sure you count all the way up to… a thousand!”

Spinel tilted her head in confusion. “A thousand? That’s a little high, don’t ya think?”

Steven froze for a moment, rattling his brain to think of something…

“It’s… just how we play on Earth!” he said with as much conviction as he could muster.

Spinel squinted and rubbed her chin as Steven stood there, forcing himself to smile to keep up the illusion of innocence.

“Okie dokie!”

Without a second thought, Spinel’s form snapped like a rubber band towards the spot Steven had pointed to, her hands covering her eyes.

“1, 2, 3…”

Steven had to act fast, already grabbing Amethyst’s arm before rushing to gather the others.

“Bismuth…” Steven whispered, looking back to see if Spinel was still counting down. “Bismuth!”

“What? What do you want?” Bismuth growled and flailed her arms to dry herself off.

“C’mon, she’s busy, we can go! Oh, and we’ll need to take Garnet with us too!” Steven said, pointing to the fusion as she finally managed to balance herself on her feet.

Bismuth shook her head. “Buddy, Spinel gave me a job to do. A Bismuth is supposed to build whatever her higher ups tell her to build. I just wanna finish the job and be done.”

“You don’t really sound all too excited about it.” Steven noted.

“It doesn’t matter how I feel, it’s my job! I may not be excited, but I always try to give it my all with my projects!”

“Do you think Spinel really respects how hard you’ve been working?” Steven asked, gesturing the smashed remains of the stone statue Spinel had destroyed.

Bismuth sighed. “You got a point…”

“What if I told you there were gems like you that felt the same way?”

Bismuth raised an eyebrow. She was skeptical, but at least she was listening.

“There’s a place where tons of gems can just be themselves and do whatever they want. I think you guys would all love it!”

Each of them looked to one another, they seemed hesitant to join.

“I’ll go…” Amethyst said timidly, catching the other two by surprise that she was no longer copying someone else’s words.

Steven waited until the other two gave a nod. They knew anything had to be better than staying here. He supposed they knew they could only stomach a gem like Spinel for so long.

Now with them on his side, all the remained was how he would go about fixing the warp. He knew better than to hope his healing abilities would just magically resurface. There had to be something else they could try…

Perhaps the fountain water? But how would he get enough of it from here to the warp pad?

“Hold on a sec…” Steven said. “Garnet?”

The fusion flinched at the mention of her name, looking to the other gems before pointing to herself. “M-me? W-what do you want me for?”

“Do you think you can freeze the water here? We just need a big chunk of it.” Steven explained.

Garnet tilted her head. “Why?”

“It’ll make sense later…”

With a shrug, Garnet stepped up to the edge of the water and held out her right hand. After a few seconds, the surface slowed and crystalized into solid ice.

“Okay, Bismuth, could you cut out a big piece for us?” Steven asked, looking back to see Spinel still counting down. So far so good…

Bismuth nodded, her hands morphing into a hammer and chisel to break the ice apart.

“What’s going on out there?” Spinel hollered. “Is the big one doing something?”

Steven’s heart raced as he tried to think of some excuse. His mind screamed to come up with something, only for his mind to simply draw a blank…

“Just starting over on the statue that little Amethyst broke!” Bismuth blurted.

They waited for a moment, Steven dreading the thought of Spinel getting curious to see if they were telling the truth.

“Alright…”

Steven let out a sigh of relief. He didn’t want to think of what would happen if Bismuth hadn’t thought of a decent bluff.

“Okay, we got the ice. Now what?” Garnet asked.

Steven looked to the archway that led to the warp pad. Unguarded and intact. Spinel must have thought smashing the warp pad would have been enough.

“Now… you guys follow me-”

Steven’s words were cut short as something grabbed hold of his leg and pulled him to the ground. The ice cube dropped from his hands and shattered to pieces.

“Why are you trying to leave!? You’re supposed to be my friends and stay here with me!” Spinel screamed, her face only a few inches from his as he dangled upside down. Her brow was scrunched into an angry scowl that, given her current form, would have almost been comical…

“I don’t even know you!” Steven blurted.

“Pinkie said you were better than her!” Spinel cried. “That’s what Pip told her! But you’re not, you’re just as bad. All anyone ever wanna does around me is leave!”

“Is that what my mom did to you?”

Spinel paused, the malice in her eyes subsiding before she released her grip on Steven, letting him land with a thud. Steven waited for some sort of retaliation. But she seemed to ignore him altogether. Her arms wrapping around herself in a hug. What happened between them to leave her like this?

“H-hey, how about we just sit and talk about that. Val said you were a friend of my mom?”

“You wanna know why I went through all this trouble? Fine.” Spinel said. “Ya see, back when she was a Diamond, she and I used to be besties…”

Spinel sprung to her feet, striking a cute little pose with a broad smile on her face.

“I was her bestest friend ever, Spinel! And we played all kinds of games, and goofed around, and had lots of fun here in her garden! We used to have all kinds of fun until…”

Spinel grew quiet for a moment, her smile disappearing…

“One day she came and said she didn’t want to play with me anymore… But I didn’t want her to leave! Before she left, though, she said she wanted to play one last game there… ‘Stand still, and don’t move’. That’s what she told me. And that’s what I did… for nearly six thousand years.”

His mom… just left her? No, that… that didn’t sound like her. She wouldn’t have just left for no reason. Rose was certainly forgetful and maybe more than a little careless. But never outright malicious.

She said she waited for six thousand years? That had to have been when his mother had gotten Earth as her colony. And after Earth, well, every had changed...

But whatever reason Rose had, it still meant leaving this gem behind. Maybe it was too late for Rose to reach out to her… but could he?

He was ashamed to admit most of his desire to help was more to help him and the others. But that didn’t matter. So long as he could find a way to settle this without any more violence, perhaps he could diffuse everything.

‘Just like the Diamonds…’

He felt a chill crawl up his spine at that thought…

No… no, he had to press on. Not just for him or his mom, but everyone…

“Spinel, I’m so sorry. What happened to you was awful.”

Spinel wiped her eyes. “It sure was… And you wanna know the kicker? After all that waiting, I suddenly get a visitor from Homeworld. And she told me everything. At first, she said that Pink was gone but… wasn’t? And that all that time I spent waiting was just… for nothing. And this… kid, this little half gem freakshow was like the newfangled ‘Pink Diamond’?”

Steven couldn’t imagine how hard it had to have been for Spinel. To have spent all that time thinking any moment her Diamond was going to return. All those years just by herself. Just… waiting.

“Spinel, I’m sorry my Mom left you like that. I know you’re upset with her. But I’m sure she feels awful about what she had done too.”

Springing to her feet, Spinel hoisted Steven off his feet by the collar of his jacket. “Oh, so you’re defending her too!? You think fixing this is gonna be as simple as me forgiving her and-”

“No, no. I don’t expect you to forgive my mom!” Spinel raised an eyebrow at his statement and gently set him down. Steven took a moment to calm his nerves. He knew he was treading on thin ice.

“I know you’re not ready to forgive my mom. And maybe you won’t ever be, and that’s ok! I was able to talk to mom and work through everything out between us. But how you heal is going to be different.”

“You’re just making excuses for her…” Spinel huffed, crossing her arms.

Steven sighed. He had heard the same thing from countless gems that he had healed. Gems who remembered feeling betrayed from both sides. He knew it was a delicate balance at times when he had to reason with them.

He took a deep breath, remembering the words he had to repeat at nauseum so many times before.

“Spinel, look, my mom messed up a lot! She tried to do the right thing and never wanted anyone to get hurt. But she struggled, and yes, she got so many people hurt in the process! But since I got to meet her, she’s tried to push herself to take responsibility and be better. And I’m proud of her for that! And if she could push herself to be better than so can you!”

Something about that statement didn’t seem to sit will with Steven. As though it had felt… rehearsed, almost hollow. Of course, he meant it when he said he was proud of his mother, and how he believed in any gem’s ability to change…

But saying the same thing to Spinel? This gem… from the moment she set foot on Earth she had done nothing but cause absolute misery and chaos to everything Steven cared for.

Part of him didn’t care if she got better. He didn’t want her around him or his family! How could he ever bring himself to feel comfortable around her after everything…

But that didn’t matter. How he felt didn’t matter. If he could simply talk her down, just end this without anymore fuss… maybe the others could put this behind them.

“You think so?” Spinel said, leaning closer to Steven. “And you? Would you wanna help me to? That’s what friends do, right?”

“Um, well, of course…” Steven muttered.

Spinel squinted her glare, her hand wrapping around his shoulder. “We are friends, aren’t we?”

“Um…”

Steven tried to gently remove her hand, only for her grip to tighten. “Pink Diamond is supposed to be my best friend! And if Pinkie ain’t a Diamond no more that means you gotta be my friend!!”

“Spinel, just calm down…”

“No! I see what you’re doing, and it makes me sick!” Spinel screamed.

“What are you even talking about?” Steven could practically hear his heartbeat thump in his skull as he tried to take a step back, only to be yanked closer by Spinel.

“You’re just gonna make me drop my guard before you turn tail and leave again! Like she did!” Spinel gently placed her hand under Steven’s chin, staring right into his eyes. “But I think I know one way to keep you from every leaving me… Fuse with me!”

Steven struggled to loosen Spinel’s grip, the gem’s limbs coiling around his and enveloping his body once again. His breathing hastened, his heartbeat like thunder in his head.

He wanted to get away from her! He didn’t want to be left alone with no one to help him, no one to turn to. Please, stars, don’t let him have to be alone with this gem...

In horror, he noticed his own gemstone begin to glow…

No, this couldn’t be happening…

“S-stop! I-I don’t want this!”

He could sense Spinel’s light begin to mingle with his own. Every fiber of his being screamed for her let go, their cries only being met with silence. He had never experienced fusion like this before. This felt wrong, all of it felt so terribly wrong…

“You’re only making it harder for yourself when you struggle, Steven!” He could hear Spinel scream in their voices…

A bright light began to glow from all directions. The immediate sting of pain forcing them to reflexively close their eyes. After a moment they ventured to open their eyes again, only to be met with an endless expanse of blank white nothingness.

They blinked, the dull pain receding as the light slowly died down.

But from what they could tell, this wasn’t Rose’s Fountain…

They looked all about the room, only spotting blank, featureless white walls. A chill ran of their spine, something about this place didn’t sit well with them. They just wanted to find a way out of here.

They turned to leave only to freeze in place.

There were three figures that stood before them. All color from their gems bleached away until only a gray hue remained. They stood perfectly still. Their arms held out to their sides with their palms facing upward as they stared at them with a blank, plastic doll smile.

They knew where they were now… and they could feel Steven’s panic…

“This has gone on long enough…”

They could already feel the color drain from their face at the sound of that haunting, ethereal voice. They wanted to run. Their mind screamed to escape. But their legs had practically turned to jelly and refused to move before they left the ground.

Tears already filled their eyes as they were spun around to face their captor.

White Diamond.

They could practically hear their heart crawl up their throat. They wanted to scream for help, but only gibberish escaped their lips.

White glared at them with wild eyes and a wolfish grin, her talon like nails hovering towards their gem… Steven’s gem…

Was this what his mother had to endure during her days as a Diamond? Every moment of every day, possibly for longer than mankind had existed on Earth, she was under the constant watch of someone like White. It was of little wonder why she left…

“Please…” was all they could utter past their sobbing. “Please don’t do this to me…”

White ignored their pleas, her talons grasping their Diamond gemstone.

“It’s time to come out, Pink…”

“Mooooom!” They screamed. “Mom, please, help me… I don’t know what to do…”

The bright light had returned, drowning out everything around them as they felt White’s grip dissolve. For a moment it felt like they were lost again in a sea of white.

When it had finally faded away, they could see everything had changed. The clean walls of White’s palace replaced with crumbling stone. Outside, they could hear the winds howling as they recognized a familiar chill crawl up their spine. The cold biting at their skin like a thousand tiny needles.

They felt the reactive urge to shiver, only for the impulse to be ignored. They tried to move their arm and found that their body was equally unresponsive.

They felt Steven anxiousness again. They didn’t want to be here. He didn’t want to be here…

“Oh, Steven. Why do you want to leave me so badly? Weren’t we having fun?”

That voice! Was it… Rose?

No, no… it wasn’t her. Not quite…

It sounded so much like her… but something about it was off…

A gem finally had appeared from behind them. It was certainly a Rose Quartz beyond any doubt. A passing gaze would see the identical form and more noticeably, nearly the same head of massive curls.

But from the wicked grin plastered on her face, devoid of any trace of the overwhelming sorrow Steven’s mother wore they could see this gem was not the Rose Quartz they knew. This was Rose Quartz, Facet 9, Cut 1NK. The gem that had held Steven captive just months ago…

“Did you think your mommy was waiting out there to save you?”

1NK gently took hold of their chin to guide their head to meet her at eye level and leaned closer to their face.

“No one’s coming for you, child. No one is going to find you. At least not until I wish it. And I know enough about humans to know that you’ll freeze before you find anyone else out here…”

Steven’s urge to cry surged through them, their statuesque stiffness becoming unbearable. They wanted to scream, to run away. They didn’t care if they died in the cold. They just wanted to simply get away!

Would they ever see the others again? Would they ever see Rose? What about Garnet, Amethyst, or Pearl? What about Steven’s father, Greg?

Or Connie?

“Don’t worry, my favorite little mistake of Pink’s. I promise that I’ll let you see them again…”

Her gemstone lit up to retrieve an object she had stored. The object extending outward into an ivory crystalline staff.

‘no……’

“And when you do… I want you to hit them right where it hurts them. All the easier to shatter them once they’re completely broken…”

‘Nooooooo!!!’

They couldn’t recall how long they had waited for her to return. In truth, they never really kept track.

But they didn’t mind. Not usually…

They knew she’d always come back. And why wouldn’t she? This garden was the most beautiful place they knew, and they were Pink Diamond’s best friend! She had to show up, right?

A butterfly fluttered over them, momentarily landing on their head before changing course and flying off to a nearby flower…

‘Did it take this long for her to come back last time?’

They tapped their foot in irritation and crossed their arms in a huff.

‘Not like she has anything better to do…’

This was right around the time she’d come to play with her! It was always the same every time! And they wanted to play right now!!

They already knew what to do. They’d give her the perfect joke to make her laugh, then they’d play games. Just like last time… and the time before…

They paced back and forth, occasionally eyeing the warp pad to see if it would start to light up. Their annoyed grunts turning to infuriated snarls.

‘WHERE IS SHE!?’

Finally, the warp pad began to hum. A pillar of light bursting outward towards the heavens before just as quickly disappearing. As the light finally died, a towering figure stood upon it, already rushing down the stairs in excitement.

“I can’t believe this is actually happening…” she began to say, almost whispering to herself as though she were getting away with something truly devious.

“Hey! Hey, Pink!!!” They cried, wasting no time in stretching their limbs out to entangle themselves around Pink.

“It’s finally happening…”

“Pink? Pinkie! Piiiiiiiiiiiiiinkiiiie!!!!!!” They cried, dangling off her shoulder to get her attention. But she did nothing to acknowledge them. It was as though she didn’t even exist, the Diamond’s attention clearly focused on something else.

‘Is she… ignoring us!?’

Defeated, they released their grip on her and fell to the floor. In a huff, they stomped their feet as loudly as they could and screamed. “HEY! PINK!!”

Finally, Pink’s focus snapped to them, a gentle smile on her lips and she sat down in front of them. Finally, they had gotten her attention!

“Spinel, you won’t believe it! The Diamonds finally agreed to give me my own colony!”

“They… what...?” They said, dumbfounded.

Pink’s smile widened as she gave an excited squeal. “I know! Isn’t it exciting!? I’ve been waiting for so long to have my own colony!”

“Who cares!?” They blurted. “Don’t-”

“Oh, Spinel, just think of it! If they agreed to change their minds on giving me a colony, just think about what other changes could be in store!”

‘C-changes?’ They thought, and uncomfortable shiver crawling up their back.

“Maybe they’ll finally listen to me…” Pink said, more muttering to herself than to anyone around her. “No more talking over me or laughing when I ask them to listen to me. I won’t be the same silly little Diamond to them anymore now.”

‘What was wrong with being silly?’ They thought.

Pink only continued to ramble on. “And all the while I’ll be getting to watch life spring from nothing! Oh, I can already imagine watching whole veins of new gems come bursting out of the ground and welcoming them into the existence-”

“But what about us?” They asked.

Pink stopped, her brow furrowed as her smile faltered. “W-well… I suppose it’s only fair if I tell you… I’m afraid I won’t be able to spend a lot of time with you…”

They blinked. “B-but can’t you take me with you?”

Pink gave a heavy sigh. “I can’t. Yellow told me this new colony was a serious matter. And that I wouldn’t have any time to play at all. It’s a big responsibility… but I promise after the colony is established, I’ll try to visit when I can, honest!”

“No!” they screamed, Pink flinching as they stomped their foot in frustration.

“This isn’t how this is supposed to work! You’re supposed to stay here with me and be my friend!” they hollered.

“Spinel, dear, I’m sorry. But…”

“I don’t care about your stupid colony!” They barked. “That’s practically all you’ve talked about around me and I’m so sick of it!”

“You hardly laugh at my jokes!”

“You barely ever want to play with me anymore!”

“You always mope about some stupid Pearl!”

“And now you’re just gonna leave me here all alone!”

Tears formed in Pink’s eyes, her voice shaky as she tried to speak. “Spinel…”

“YOU’RE A BAD FRIEND!!!”

Pink froze, her hands clenching into tight fists as her gem began to glow, the light spreading out to the rest of her form. Her soft expression twisting into an angry scowl, her nostrils flaring as she struggled to hold herself back.

They trembled at the sight of her, taking a step back to prepare themselves to try and flee before Pink could retaliate. The ground shook under their feet, a massive crater opening beneath Pink’s feet.

They fell back, holding their arms up to await whatever Pink had in store…

A few moments passed… nothing…

They dared to open their eyes. Pink was still there, her fists still shaking, her teeth clenched…

But something was different… the look in her eyes wasn’t of anger…

“I-I…” Pink started to say, quickly wiping her eyes as she rushed back to the warp pad.

They couldn’t let her go. Not like this! Maybe they could find some way to get her to stay. If she felt bad enough, they could use it to convince her to play with them!

“Wait.” They said, stretching their arm out to take Pink’s hand, the Diamond stopping dead in her tracks.

“Just play one game with me. Please? I promise I won’t tell nobody about what happened…”

Pink paused, her eyes trailing off as she mulled over their offer. She’d have to agree. They knew Pink enough to know her guilt wouldn’t allow her to say no…

“Alright…” Pink said. “But only if I pick what game to play.”

They let go of Pink’s arm. Fine by them, they were finally getting what they wanted either way. “Okay! So, what game are we playing?”

Pink rubbed her chin in thought. “Hmmmmm. Ok, here’s the rules for game…”

She pointed out towards the Garden, between a set of flowerbeds. “Stand over there and stay still. If you don’t move from this spot until I come back, then you’ll win a prize…”

“So… you just left her there?”

Rose let out sigh and nodded. “I know, it was pathetic, and cowardly, and utterly heartless of me. I won’t even try to defend it.”

“Well, it was…” Jasper casually said with a shrug, Pearl jabbing an elbow into her side with a frustrated grunt.

Though Jasper’s comment was blunt, it was hard for Rose to argue with it. “I was such an idiot.” she said. “I had no idea she would really just… stand there for all those years! I thought that eventually she would get bored and leave or that maybe the other Diamonds would have brought her back to Homeworld!”

She could never have guessed back then that her decision would lead to this. How could she have been so careless, so stupid back then!? And now everyone was paying the price. The gems in Little Homeworld, her friends and family…

Steven…

Why was it that every gem that’s held a grudge against her insisted on targeting her loved ones? Couldn’t they simply take their grievances out on her and leave the others out of it? Especially her son.

Rose couldn’t begin to imagine how her son would feel learning about Spinel like this…

Jasper stepped away form the others and towards Lion, tearing away the bandages that had covered his wound to show it had healed completely.

“Jasper, where are you going?” Pearl asked.

“Oh, I just thought it was time for us to go and finally deal with this mess Rose made… Like we always do…” she grumbled, helping Lion to his feet and tossing away the now empty water bottle.

“No, not this time! I’m the one who caused this, I should be the one to fix it!”

“Technically, it was me who helped Spinel do all of this…” Val mumbled.

Pearl gently placed a hand on Rose’s shoulder and took her hand. “Rose, not be rude, but I don’t think she’s going to care what you have to say.”

Rose shook her head. “No, I came back to help those just like her. Of all the people I’ve hurt. You… Pearl… Steven… she most of all deserves help after what I’ve done.”

“Rose…”

“I am not arguing with you here! I am Steven’s mother, I’m the one most responsible for making sure he stays safe!”

“I-I’m coming with!” Val said. “Rose, please, I don’t want you to go in alone.”

“Well, she isn’t.” Jasper stated. “And no offence, our terrifying renegade notwithstanding, Pearls aren’t exactly made for combat…”

“I can still help!” Val huffed. “I know how Spinel thinks! That has to count for something!”

“There’s no deterring you is there?” Pearl chuckled, watching Val furiously shake her head. “I thought so. Maybe Rose and I could lend you some protection just in case.”

Rose gave a faint smile. It was simply amazing to her that after everything that this gem was still willing to help.

“Val?” Rose said, the Pearl fidgeting as she struggled to look Rose in the eye. Rose sighed, pulling her into a hug. “Thank you for deciding to help us… and… I’m sorry. About your eye, and for never coming back…”

“Well, I’ll be sure to tell Steven you all took so long getting to him because you were all getting mushy on the beach.” Jasper said. “Now are we going or what?”

Rose looked the others and nodded. “All right, we’re ready…”

Chapter Text

The moment Rose arrived at her fountain she could already see the signs of Spinel’s presence.

As she dismounted from Lion, she spotted the Warp Pad in ruins. Almost certainly a way for Spinel to make sure others didn’t come to interrupt whatever she had in store for Steven and the others.

Beside it lay the fractured head of a statue carved in her likeness. Spinel had to have used it to destroy the best means of escape while taking out her anger on her…

Rose struggled to blame her for the latter.

She shook her head. This wasn’t about her right now, this was about Steven. This was about Bismuth, Garnet, and Amethyst who had been taken by Spinel and likely had their own memories compromised too.

Remembering the trick Pearl had taught her, she reached into her gem. As it glowed, three orbs of light flew out and expanded to form Pearl, Val, and Jasper.

Jasper gave a shiver once she had gotten her bearings. “Ugh, we are never doing that again…”

Pearl rolled her eyes. “It’s not as though Lion could carry all of us at once, and the space inside his mane can only be accessed by those with Steven’s gem!”

“You don’t get it.” Jasper said in sharp, irritated tone. “I… don’t like feeling trapped. And that was too close for my comfort.”

Rose sighed and looked to the Quartz with worry. She knew exactly where this was coming from. Through Steven, she witnessed this gem try to take power through experimenting with fusion…

But back then… she lacked any understanding of it, and her fusion of Lapis Lazuli had left with little control of their shared form…

Through Steven’s shared dream, she saw for herself the heavy toll for their union…

And it seemed to have left its fair share of scars.

“Jasper…” Rose cooed, gently laying a hand on the hulking gem’s shoulder only for her to snarl and brush it off.

“I ain’t your fracking baby, and I don’t want a hug.” Jasper growled with enough vigor to make Rose flinch. “Stop worrying about all of us and worry about the others! I’m only here for my sister and Steven.”

Rose noted a paused at Jasper’s mention of her son, as if she were about to say something else.

But either way, she was right, all of that had to wait.

“Okay, so what should we do, Pearl?”

Pearl rubbed her chin in thought. “Hmm, Spinel is crafty but not terribly powerful. I was able to overpower her in our fight earlier. If we took an indirect approach…”

Pearl fell silent the moment she looked out towards the fountain. An expression of dismay clearly shown on her face. Curious, Rose quickly noticed the reason for Pearl’s shock…

Where once was bare marble stone now stood thick overgrowth throughout the archway. Their roots clinging to the rocky architecture and blooming into an array of strange flowery buds that seemed unlike anything Rose herself had seen before.

“Was your fountain… always like this?” Val tentatively asked.

Rose shook her head. “No… This… I’ve never seen anything like this…”

“Could Steven have done something like this?” Jasper asked. “He has your old gem and you had some kind of control over organic life.”

“No, Spinel used something to suppress his powers. It’s possible he could have had them restored again. But if that’s the case, he could have escaped and found his way back to us easily. But something about this… it feels off.”

“Hello?”

Rose stopped. The voice was barely louder than a whisper. But even so, it was familiar to her.

“Amethyst?”

After a few moments of waiting, a figure emerged from behind a broken piece of stonework that had been crumbled to bits by the grip of the oversized vegetation. The sight of her alone summoned memories of exploring the remains of a long-forgotten kindergarten… and of the guilt she felt knowing this poor gem had been waiting so long for a family Rose had thought she would never meet…

“H-how do you know my name?” The little Quartz asked, her head just barely poking up from her cover.

Jasper barreled past, nearly shoving Rose to the ground as she approached the frightened gem. “Amethyst, we know who you are. I’m Jasper, your ‘Big Sister’, remember?”

Amethyst tilted her head in confusion. “What’s a ‘sister’?”

“Jasper, you know she poofed by Spinel’s rejuvenator.” Pearl noted.

“I know that!” The large Quartz barked in response. “I was just thinking that if it was so easy to get Rose back to her senses it shouldn’t be too hard to do the same for the others!”

“Then let me help.” Rose said, stopping herself from placing her hand on Jasper’s shoulder again. “I raised her for millennia, maybe I could help her along a bit if I just talked to her.”

Jasper refused to look Rose in the eye as she huffed. “Fine, but it had better work, and I intend to have her stay close to me while we’re here. Unlike you, I don’t plan on abandoning her.”

Rose felt a sharp pain in her chest at Jasper’s comment. Biting back at the bitterness of her comment, she took a deep breath.

“I promise, I’ll do all I can to help her. Believe me, Jasper, I care about Amethyst too…”

The Quartz grumbled to herself before giving a heavy sigh. “Fine, if it’ll help her…”

“Thank you, Jasper…”

Rose knelt to her knees to bring herself to Amethyst’s level, the small Quartz still choosing to hide herself.

“It’s alright, little one.” Rose muttered softly. “You’re safe now, we won’t hurt you.”

Amethyst slowly crawled out of her hiding spot, her eyes darting to the others surrounding her. Only now Rose finally noticed that she was shivering.

“Amethyst, would you like a hug?”

The little gem’s lip quivered, tears forming in her eyes as she rushed to meet Rose’s embrace. Holding her tight to her chest, she stroked the Quartz’s messy hair and gently rocked her. It was a gesture she had done many times before not long after they had taken her in, and it never failed to sooth the little gem whenever she was upset or scared.

“Shhhhhhhh, it’s okay now…” Rose cooed. “We’re here for you.”

Wiping her eyes and nose on Rose’s shirt, Amethyst struggled to take in deep, shaky breaths to speak. “Th-thank you.”

“Amethyst, I know you’re still shaken by what you’ve been through.” Pearl said kneeling down beside Rose. “But was there anyone else with you? Do you know where they are?”

Amethyst wiped her eyes and nodded. “Yeah… they’re still by the fountain…”

Another look towards fountain revealed another change. A large, circular maze of rosebushes that surrounded it with walls easily twice as tall as Rose herself.

Rose felt a tiny hand cling to her shirt. “You’re not gonna go in there, are you?”

“I have to.” Rose said. “Steven and the others are in trouble, and they need us.”

From what she could see, there wasn’t anything stopping her from just flying over the entire maze…

“Give me a moment…”

Focusing on her gem, Rose’s form began to glow. Her form shrinking and morphing before taking the shape of a Harpy Eagle.

“No, wait!”

By the time Amethyst had made her plea, Rose had already left the ground, her focus fixed on the fountain. The center itself seemed completely closed off, a thick cover of roots and branches that domed over the entire fountain.

‘Why was this here? Was Steven perhaps trying to hide himself? But if he still had his powers-’

Rose’s thoughts were cut short as a thorny vine shot up from the ground to lunge towards her, only narrowly dodging its grasp. Rearing to launch another attack, Rose braced herself… only to hear a metal blade slice through. The vine froze for a moment before the top half limply fell to the ground and immediately dry up and wilt into nothing.

Rose allowed herself to breathe a sigh of relief… until the ground began to tremble.

A horde of prickly vines pushed their way up from beneath the stone floor, their sights clearly set on her. It didn’t take long before her agility was rendered mute by their sheer numbers. She knew it would only be a matter of time until she was finally caught.

She tried to free herself from its grip, but it was too late. As one grabbed hold the others followed suit. Their vice-like grip strangling her to the brink of poofing. Rose felt the wind blow through her feathers as she was quickly slammed into the cold hard ground. Exhausted, her avian form reverted to normal. Her entire body ached as Pearl helped her to her feet.

“Looks like we’re not going over it.” Jasper stated dryly. “And if we tried to just tear through the walls, it wouldn’t be a stretch to assume it’ll retaliate again.”

Amethyst clung to Rose’s skirt and tugged to get her attention. “Please don’t go in there.” She pleaded. “Please, please, please!”

“Sis.” The little Quartz flinched as Jasper gently scooped her off the ground. “It’ll be okay. We’ll protect you.”

“Y-you promise?”

Jasper looked to her with a gentle, crooked smile. “I promise.”

That seemed to cheer her up enough, along with Jasper offering to let her piggy back on her shoulders the whole way through. It was a moment of unexpected tenderness Rose had never seen from Jasper before, and she hoped it would be the last time she’d see it.

Something about the maze itself that Rose hadn’t noticed until she was inside it was that it felt… off. Outwardly, beyond it’s mysterious presence here at the fountain it didn’t seem insidious at a glance… But now it felt like there was some ghostly presence that haunted them here. Someone was watching them…

The ground began to rumble again, a whirling mass of roots bursting from the ground so quickly Rose and the others has little time to react as it rapidly grew between them. More thorny vines reached for them, only to be bludgeoned and sliced to pieces by the rim of her shield. Val clung to Lion’s mane as he made short work of the rest of their attackers until there were no more.

“Rose? Rose, is everyone alright over there?” Pearl cried out from the other side.

“We’re ok! What about you?”

“Amethyst was little startled, but we’re fine.” Jasper reassured.

“I don’t see any way we can get through… And I have a feeling this won’t let us through.” Pearl said reluctantly. “Jasper and I will see if there’s a path that’ll lead us to the fountain itself. It’s the most likely place for Steven to be. He’s the only one who could make something like this…”

“Maybe… but the plant life here… something about it all feels terribly wrong…” Rose muttered as she watched the vines writhe beneath the foliage. “He must have been so scared to make something like this…”

“We’ll find him, Rose.” Pearl said, clearly trying her best to sound so sure, even as Rose could hear a noticeable shakiness to her voice. As scared as she was, she still tried so hard to look out for everyone…

“Thank you, Pearl… We’ll meet you at the fountain…”

It had felt like an eternity had gone by since Pearl and Jasper had started with trying to find their way out. At first, they asked if Amethyst could act as a guide for them. Only for her to explain that everything seemed different than when she first made it through.

Pearl later hit upon the idea of marking areas where they had been by cutting an ‘X’ into the ground, only to realize they were starting to go in circles before finding overgrowth spreading across the ground.

Now it was all up to blind luck and intuition to find their way out. Much to Pearl’s own annoyance.

“Tell me something…” Jasper finally said to break the uncomfortable silence. “Why is it that you decide to side with her?”

“What do you mean?”

“I know you enough to know you aren’t like any other Pearl I’ve known.” Jasper explained. “You aren’t bound by any sense of blind loyalty to Rose. You don’t need her at all! And yet you’re still by her side!”

Pearl gave the Quartz an incredulous stare. “I stayed because I care about Rose! She’s still my closest friend!”

“According to Val, so was Spinel” Jasper noted mockingly. “And look how well that turned out.”

Pearl stopped dead in her tracks, shoving the Quartz so that she could look her right in the eye. “Look, I know you aren’t fond of Rose. But don’t think for a moment that her extended absence was out of selfishness or cowardice! I thought a soldier of all gems would understand the scars Rose is carrying. And I’m sure you know it can be too much for some…”

Jasper was silent for a moment. Pearl could see that she clearly wanted to say something, but no words came to her.

“Rose was hurting for so long, and not even I knew the extent because she never felt safe with ever being that vulnerable. And it just kept eating away at her until finally she just wanted it to stop…”

Pearl let out a sigh, her voice growing quiet. “I think it’s part of why she wanted to have Steven. She loved life and the concept of creating life, and I think she wanted her passing to be more… meaningful by giving that life to him.”

The silence between them was deafening, Amethyst nervously darting her eyes between the two of them.

“I’m a new gem, I’ve changed and become a better person. And I believe Rose can be better too, and I want to help her because even after all that change, I still care about her.”

“Not everyone can change.” Jasper said.

“You did.” Pearl noted. “It’s never easy, but you can if you want to.”

A cry rang out in the distance, Pearl recognizing the voice as Bismuth’s. After running through the twisting halls towards the source they at last found an open space. At the center laid a battered and bruised Bismuth. Without a second thought, Pearl rushed to her aid.

“Bismuth!”

The rainbow-haired gem struggled to lift her head in response to her name, her tired gaze quickly morphing to panic. “Watch out! Don’t let it hit you!”

Pearl had barely a moment to react as she heard the thunderous approach of a hulking figure marching towards her and dashed away, narrowly escaping its assault.

Almost instantly, another figure appeared. Pearl recognized their forms as being reminiscent of Earth creatures. The large one that had charged her was clearly an elephant, its ‘tusks’ made from a sharpened set of bare twin branches, while the other resembled a creature from human legend called a ‘Minotaur’.

Pearl noted that one of its horns was broken off, hopefully that meant that these things wouldn’t simply grow back after being shredded to pieces.

She smiled, she could work with that at least.

Pulling a sword from her gem, Pearl readied her stance and waited for her opponent to strike first. The Minotaur dragged its wooden hooves against the stone floor as it prepared to charge. She waited for her moment, knowing she had to strike at the perfect moment to end this as quickly as possible…

The monster’s footsteps pounded her ears as it reared to attack…

‘just a little closer…’ Pearl thought.

“What’re you doing!?” Bismuth hollered before wincing in pain as she steadied herself.

Finally, her moment had come, she felt her blade cut clean through her foe. The Minotaur staggering as it seemed to try and assess what was wrong… only for its upper body to collapse to the ground as it split from its lower body across the waist.

Jasper meanwhile had her sights set on the elephant, the two colliding into each other in a test of might. The large Quartz gripped the plant beast’s tusks with a glint in her eye and a crooked grin. After all that she had been through today, she was willing to let herself have a little fun with this fight.

Catching her opponent off guard, Jasper hefted the elephant off the ground before hurling her against the wall as hard as she could, the creature’s leafy body exploding in a veil of snapped twigs and loosened vegetation.

With shaky legs it struggled to regain its footing, but Jasper was determined to never give it a second to recover.

“Hey sis.” Jasper said, seeing Amethyst look up at her in awe. “Watch this!”

As Jasper ran towards her target she leaned forward and tucked in her arms and legs. Her entire body lighting ablaze as she spun at blinding speeds towards her foe. The moment she struck her target, whatever was left of the beast was little more than burning foliage as it was blown apart and engulfed in flames.

As she stepped out of the remains, Jasper allowed herself a moment of pride as she saw Amethyst look to her with stars in her eyes. “Whoa… that was so cool! I wanna do something like that!”

“Heh, you know you can, right? Any Quartz can. Even a tiny one like you.” Jasper couldn’t place why, but she couldn’t help but smile at the excited look Amethyst gave her at that.

“Bismuth, are you alright?” Pearl asked, helping the gem to her feet.”

“Y-yeah…” Bismuth muttered, holding her side in pain. “Those things aren’t too hard alone, but they didn’t fight fair and just jumped me…”

Pearl sigh. “I don’t understand, why would Steven do this? Why create this maze to trap you and then fill it with monsters?”

“Steven didn’t do this.” Bismuth said plainly.

“W-what?”

“Spinel… she did something to him…” Bismuth explained. “She made this maze saying anyone who got out could go free… and then she started making monsters to throw at us. I got separated from a Sapphire and her Ruby guard and told the little Quartz there to run on without me…”

Pearl felt her head spin as she tried to process what she had heard. Spinel had somehow forced Steven to do this? How? Why?

The only way this could have been possible is if she…

Pearl felt her hands ball into a tight fist. ‘No…’ she thought. ‘Not even she would…’

But it was the only thing that made sense.

“We’re going back for Steven.” Pearl said. “Bismuth, we need you to take us to him.”

“Look, I know you think you’re all tough with your little sword, but what’s at the end of that maze is…”

“I don’t care.” Pearl blurted. “My baby is being used by that monster and she needs to be stopped! Do you think it’s fair for Spinel to just use people like Steven?”

Bismuth sighed. “No… no, it’s not fair. She’s clearly just a brat that’s never been told ‘no’ in her entire life.”

“Then help us be the ones to knock some sense into her.” Jasper said, slamming her fist into her palm as Amethyst watched and mirrored her gesture.

Bismuth looked to the three of them, letting out one last sigh as she gave a smirk. “Okay… I’ll help…

Since being separated from Pearl the others, Rose had been completely silent. To say the events of today had made talking to her oldest friend difficult was a massive understatement.

As if it wasn’t already awkward before to talk to Val… but now… after everything…

Rose was no less frustrated with what had happened. So much of what the other gems had built was now burned to ashes. And her own home had suffered the same fate. Pearl had even told her how it was only out of luck that Lion and Cat Steven survived at all.

All this destruction… Spinel kidnapping members of her family, including her own son! And where was she when they needed her? She was just… standing around in the old garden! She should have been there!

“Rose…” Val’s quiet voice was barely murmured as she tried to avoid making eye contact. “W-when this is over, I promise I won’t bother you anymore…”

Rose felt something in her chest sink at that. “Val…”

“No… you don’t have to say anything… This is my fault. I didn’t stop until I realized how far she was going to take it… and now you’ve all lost so much. Despite everything the Diamonds threw at you, you still managed to carve out a home for yourself… and you created a wonderful family. It wasn’t I or Spinel’s place to attack that when we were angry with you…”

Rose couldn’t explain why. No one would blame her if she truly did wish to blame Val even partially for Spinel’s rampage. She’d certainly be right to do so…

But she simply couldn’t…

Part of it was certainly from her mostly blaming herself for all of this, of course. But the idea of the two of them parting ways for good struck a chord with her. Her mind racing to give some reason for her to stay. After all the times she had been there for her, after the centuries spent with her… she couldn’t bear the thought of letting her go. Not if it could be helped.

At the very least, Lion trusted her enough to let her ride on his back while trying to find their way to the center of the maze. That had to count for something!

“Val, I…”

Rose noticed something move from the corner of her eye. At first she thought it was a trick of the mind. But taking a moment to watch, she could see the vines writhe and twist beneath their leafy cover. She remembered seeing something similar in serpents, how they’d move as slowly as possible to not draw attention to themselves before…

“Val, look out!”

Almost instantly, a vine shot out of the wall to reach for Val before Rose pushed the gem away. It ensnared itself around Rose’s wrist and pulled with an alarming amount of force. Summoning a shield to her other hand, Rose struck the vine with the edge to slice it clean in half.

The ground beneath them shook, the leafy walls surroudning them parting to reveal a monstrous crocodile-like face. Greenish drool dripped from its toothy maw as it unleashed more vines towards the two of them.

Rose batted away as many of the tendrils around her as she could as she heard Lion roar in distress from behind. A vine had wrapped itself around Lion’s muzzle as more were dragging him and Val towards the monstrous head.

Rose struggled to fight her way towards them in a desperate attempt to save them. Using the rim of her shield she tried to cut clean through their bindings, only to barely break the surface. Further tries only proving her efforts fruitless. She didn’t have time to keep trying, she had to find another way.

“Rose… just forget about me…” Val said. “This is all my fault, don’t drag yourself down trying to save me…”

“Stop!” Rose ignored the pain in her chest she noticed Val flinched from her raising her voice. “I should have done something sooner! I should have reached out to you in some way! After all those times you were there for me… I owed you that much.”

Rose’s head ached from the stress. Despite her Quartz strength she couldn’t pull the vines apart. She didn’t want Lion or Val to end things this way. Not if she was here. How could she live with herself if she failed to save them? She couldn’t let anything go unsaid if this was how it would end for them.

“I’m sorry I left you behind…” Rose said, wrapping her arms around Val for a hug.

She could hear Val’s sobs as she buried her face in Rose’s shoulder. “I’m sorry I let Spinel burn away your future…”

With Rose refusing to let go, the two of them were swiftly snatched into the creature’s massive jaws. But as it prepared to finish its meal with Lion, a pinkish light began to glow from within. It groaned and churned in pain until finally bursting into pieces…

Her vision was blurry as she climbed out of the monster’s remains. It felt like the entire world was spinning. She tried to stand up, only to immediately feel lightheaded before falling to her knees. Something soft and fuzzy brushed against her leg. It seemed Lion was rather grateful for the last-minute rescue.

She smiled and bent down to stroke beneath his chin.

“W-wow… you did it… thank you Rose…”

Wait… something felt strange.

She was Rose… wasn’t she?

Shock gave way to realization, and then excitement. She had to see what she… what they looked like! She summoned another shield to her hand to looks at her reflection.

Right away, she could see an initial resemblance to Rose’s fusion with Pearl, Rainbow Quartz. Not surprising as this fusion was quite similar, being that it was between Rose and another Pearl. But the longer she looked she could pinpoint key differences…

Right away, she noticed her upper left eyes showing a milky white film over it, Val’s crack lightly faded over it like lightly damaged porcelain. She chose to pay it no mind as she felt a sting of guilt from Rose.

Below that, dark pink dots covered her light pink cheeks. Rose remembered humans referring to them as ‘freckles.’

Rather than Rainbow Quartz’s perfect flowing locks, hers was a massive, curly mess.

“Okay… so we’re not a Rainbow Quartz…” She reasoned. “So… what are we?”

The freckles that dotted her face reminded her of the tiny seeds that covered the surface of a strawberry…

“Strawberry… yeah… y’know, I think I like that. I’m Strawberry Quartz!”

The excitement and relief from the both of them was almost too much for her. Neither of them could hardly believe it. They fused! They had actually fused! She couldn’t help but squeal in excitement. She wished they had more time to appreciate this moment, but that had to wait. At least now they knew it wasn’t too late.

“I still want you as my friend.” She whispered, hugging herself. “You’re worth it, I promise.”

Strawberry took in a deep breath and let it out. It felt like a huge weight had finally been lifted from their shoulders.

“Okay… now to find the others-”

“uuuuuuggggghhhhhh….”

A large chunk of what used to be the plant beast began to shift and rise. Finally, a small red figure crawled its way from the dead monster’s husk, a similar sized blue figure following close behind.

“Well, that was quick…”

The moment Ruby had spotted Strawberry, she instinctively placed herself between her and Sapphire. “Not another step further, we’ve had enough trouble with fusions today!”

Ruby’s remark puzzled Strawberry. “What’s wrong with fusion?”

“Believe us, it may seem innocent…” Sapphire said, brushing off leftover bits of plant matter from her dress. “But we’ve seen how ugly fusion can really be with our own eyes…”

Strawberry sighed… they had a point. Rose recalled seeing the monstrous union between Lapis and Jasper… the horror of the Cluster…

“Fusion… it can be bad.” Strawberry explained. “but it doesn’t have to be! Fusion is such a unique experience of two or more gems coming together to form something entirely new!”

She could already tell from the way they looked to one another that they had fused at least once since reforming. She chuckled, even with their memories of being together taken a way, they had still found their way back to one another.

“What was your fusion like?” Strawberry asked, her question causing Ruby’s face to turn a dark red from her blush.

“It was… wonderful…” Sapphire said, holding back the urge to giggle as Ruby hid her growing blush. “We were both… confused… and maybe a little afraid. But it felt… right…”

“And do you still want to be fused?” Strawberry asked.

The smaller gems looked to one another. Their answer clear with the looks they shared between each other.

“I know I can trust you.” Sapphire whispered before giving Ruby a small kiss.

“R-right… and I trust you too…”

Strawberry wasn’t sure what to expect once they had reached the center. It had taken her a minute to fully realize they had finally reached the fountain, or at least what was left of it.

The stone carvings made in Rose’s likeness were, predictably, smashed to pieces. At the center of the fountain, in place of another of her statues, sat an enormous flower bulb, its roots spiraling down into the nourishing waters below it and extending outwards towards the walls of the labyrinth.

Was this one bud somehow controlling everything from the center of the pool? Why and how could Steven have gone to such lengths to defend himself like this?

“Rose… Val?”

Strawberry’s train of thought was halted by the sound of Pearl’s voice. As she turned to greet her, she could see the shock written on her face. Part of her worried if some measure of it was also frustration.

‘Do you think Pearl will be upset seeing us together like this?’ she could hear Val ask.

‘Don’t worry about Pearl.’ Rose assured. ‘If she could somehow forgive me, then you’ll be fine.’

“You’ve… fused.” Pearl said in disbelief.

“I… we have…” Strawberry said, trying not to sound nervous. “I know they still have a lot to discuss… but they think that if they could fuse… maybe there’s still hope for them.”

Pearl gave a gentle smile, catching the fusion off guard with a hug. “Well, I’m glad to hear it...”

“Um… hi…” Garnet muttered, her face poking out from behind Strawberry like a frightened child. “I’m sorry if this is a strange question but… do I know you?”

“You feel it too, huh?” Bismuth said. “I kinda have the same feeling when I first saw her. Like there’s something about this Pearl that feels familiar…”

Garnet nodded. “You’re right… I think we were friends? And we fought together… I think…”

“Sounds fascinating.” Jasper said sarcastically, Amethyst perched on her head. “Spinel, you coward! Where are you hiding!? You got a lot to answer for after burning Little Homeworld and taking my sister! If you did anything funny to Steven, I’m gonna tie your arms and legs into a knot until you look like a… um…”

Jasper stuttered a moment before turning to Pearl. “What’re those salty dough things Amethyst likes to eat?”

“A pretzel?”

“Yeah, that!”

The ground began to shake once again. A pinkish hue emanated from the enormous bulb as its petals began to open.

“Uuuuuuggggh! No, no, no! You were s-supposed to die!!!”

Strawberry recognized the voices that spoke in tandem, followed by the horror of realization as she deduced why.

She wasn’t quite sure what she would have expected to see as their figure emerged from their flowery cover, but this…

The face… or faces were what stood out to her the most. On the right, Steven’s looked to them with a look a sheer agony, tears streaming down his face while Spinel’s displayed a wickedly curved grin on the right.

Their eyes scanned the crowd around her, Spinel’s half seeming to almost relish as she saw Strawberry’s visceral shock at the sight of them.

Their garb was reminiscent to that of a court jester, complete with a decorative lace ruff around their neck and hat whose three ends drooped into star-shaped tips.

The star symbol from Steven’s shirt seemed warped and stretched into an unnatural shape as though it was being forced to make room to present Spinel’s inverted heart-shaped gemstone.

“Like my new look?” They said mockingly, their form freezing at random intervals as though they were just an imagine from a broken television screen. Their every movement appearing stiff and forced as though Spinel was straining to hold the fusion together.

“Pip told me how much you just loooooved Steven! How he was so sweet! Now guess what? He’s my friend now! All mine! I finally get to have that happy ending you never deserved!”

“Steven…” Strawberry choked, her shock morphing into despair. The look Steven’s half have was practically screamed how dreadful this fusion must have felt without saying a word. Spinel was always made to be a friend… but to twist that purpose and take it this far…

‘This is all my fault…’ she could hear Rose say. ‘I…’

“Spinel…” she muttered, already feeling something forcing Rose and Val apart, Rose falling to the ground as Val marched towards the fusion.

“…Are you out of your mind!?” Val screamed. “Look at yourself! Do you honestly think clinging to Rose’s son will get people to actually like you!?”

Rose was surprised by how calm they seemed despite Val’s outburst. Though she reasoned that they were perhaps more confused by it than anything. Was this really the first time Val had raised her voice with her?

“You always talked about how much Rose hurt you! How she was awful because of what she did to you! But everything you’ve done just today alone is worse than anything she’s ever done!”

“Everyone loves Steven, and now that he’s half of us, everyone has to love me now!!” The unstable fusion barked.

“And how much longer can you keep it up?” Jasper asked, already sizing them up. “Trust me, fusions like this… well… they don’t last. And the moment your time together runs out you had better hope you can get away before we get our hands on you.”

They tried to look unphased by Jasper’s threat, but Rose could easily spot the drop of sweat that trickle down the left side of their face.

“Y-you wouldn’t hurt me if ya knew what I… S-Spinel had been through… what she did to us!” they blurted, jabbing a finger in Rose’s direction.

Amethyst poked her head up from behind Jasper’s. “You weren’t nice to me, either… You yelled at me and hurt me. Maybe that pink gem over there did hurt you… but that doesn’t mean you can hurt us. You’re the one acting like a big bully and hiding behind Steven!”

“The Pearl here said you took us and made us forget who we were!” Garnet blurted, summoning her gauntlets and cracking her knuckles. “What gave you that right to take that from us!?”

Rose could see they were getting nervous. They were already distancing themselves from Jasper and their glitching was only getting more sporadic.

“G-get away from me!” They barked in a way that was clearly meant to sound intimidating. But the crack in their voice revealed just how desperate they really were.

“I-I have the power of a Diamond! I made this place! I made those monsters, and I can do it again!”

“Fine.” Bismuth said with a shrug. “Then do it.”

The fusion froze, clearly surprised they were called out on their bluff. “I... u-uh…”

“Whatever was left of Steven’s power has clearly been exhausted.” Pearl assessed. “Let him go, and the worst we’ll do is bubble you…”

Spinel’s half grit their teeth and stretched their hand to shove the others away. “No! H-he’s mine! I deserve to have him!”

“They’re too strong like this…” Bismuth said. “We just can’t beat them!”

Jasper just gave a crooked smile and cracked her neck. “We don’t have to beat them. We just need to tire them out…”

The fusion fought hard to hold them at bay. Though their power had clearly diminished, they still had enough to hold some limited control of the vines and roots closest to them, using some to split the ground from below or simply bat them away.

But it was clear it was a strategy they couldn’t uphold forever.

It didn’t take long for Garnet to learn she could freeze the ground beneath them, stopping the hidden roots in their tracks for her to burn them into cinders.

All that was left were the ones they could still see. And the group made short work of them. Morphing her hands into sickles, Bismuth fought back-to-back with Pearl to slice their attackers to ribbon at blinding speeds. The dismembered remains dropping lifelessly to the ground.

Jasper was less graceful, but just as efficient. Rose could see she was waiting until she knew she had Amethyst’s full attention as she grabbed one tendril at a time before tearing them apart with her bear hands. The little Quartz herself finally mustering the courage to join her sister.

That left Rose and Val the opportunity to get close to them. Coercing Spinel to surrender didn’t work, but maybe reaching out to Steven would. She knew they would have to get close if what she had in mind was going to work.

Without a moment to lose, they mounted Lion to charge right for them, dodge and weaving their way through Spinel’s attempts to hold them at bay.

Finally, they had made it only a few feet from them. The fusion was twitching profusely and their glitching was only getting worse. They readied themselves to run only for Lion to circle behind them. There was nowhere to run to now.

“Val, grab their hand!”

Before the fusion could get away, Val gripped one half as Rose already began to pull at the other.

Rose could feel Spinel try to resist. She clearly wasn’t giving up Steven without a fight. But neither was she.

A single ray of light began to glow, splitting the two halves of the fusion apart until finally it became undone. Rose was already quick to grip Steven close to her chest and hold him as tightly as possible. Stars, he was already shaking. And she could hear his muffled sobs through her shirt.

“Shhhhhh… It’s okay, baby. Mommy’s here now. It’s all over.” Rose whispered.

“No!” Spinel screamed in protest before batting Val away. “Give him back! He’s my fri-”

A flaming purple fireball cut the gem short as it careened into her face with enough force to knock her into the fountain. Jasper beaming with pride as she saw Amethyst stumble with her landing after seeming to perfectly strike her intended target.

Before Spinel could hope to make a mad scramble out of the water, it quickly began to freeze all around her, stopping her in her tracks.

“That cold enough for you?” Garnet asked, pulling her hand out of the water.

Spinel tried to fight her way out. But it was clear that her separation from Steven had sapped much of her strength. Now powerless, she could only watch as Rose tried her best to comfort her son in her arms as she tried her best to ignore her.

“Oh sure, protect the stupid kid! You’re just friggin’ crazy about him, huh!?” Spinel screeched, her anger fading into a pathetic whimper. “What about me!? I just wanted to be your friend! But I wasn’t good enough for you… And now I ain’t any good at all…”

Rose’s mind raced as it tried to process it all. Part of her still ached from the all too familiar sense of shame for leaving Spinel and how it left her in the state that she was in now.

She was the one who left her.

The one who hurt her… regardless of whether she meant to or not…

But while she still tried to process the sting of another past guilt… something else welled up inside her.

A burning fury that made her grip her child that much closer to her and sharpen her gaze at the weeping, defeated gem…

Anger…

‘She hurt him…’ She thought to herself. ‘She hurt my baby… my Steven…’

Even as she tried to reason with herself that all of this was still her fault, she couldn’t help but levy a feeling of frustration and fury that she hadn’t felt since…

…Since the day when the war for Earth ended… and the Diamonds corrupted the last gems still on Earth…

Half of her wanted to take the blame for this, like she always had. If only to spare her family anymore unnecessary pain.

But she felt another thought enter her mind. ‘What would my little Steven do?’ Would just blaming herself solve anything? Wasn’t there more she could do now to make things right?

However, it was hard imagining him showing this gem any kindness as he was curled up and sobbing in her arms.

Her stomach churned at the other half. The part of her she sometimes felt in times when she felt her loved one’s lives were at stake. She gritted her teeth and shook away the urge to rush towards Spinel and lash out.

To make her regret ever harming her family. To never stop making her pay.

It was those thoughts that scared her the most.

‘No.’ she thought, forcing herself to relax. ‘Vengeance won’t solve this. I need to face what I’ve done… and so does she.’

Rose handed Steven to Pearl before approaching Spinel, kneeling to meet the gem at eye level.

“Rose are you sure-?”

“It’s fine, Pearl…” Rose said over her shoulder. “I need to do this.”

Spinel lifted her head to look her dead in the eye, tears streaming down the gem’s face.

“Spinel, we need to talk.”

“Why…” Spinel hissed through gritted teeth. “Why should you get the happy ending!? You were the one who threw me away and left me in that Garden! Why should you get everything you ever wanted!?”

“I don’t know…” Rose admitted with a heavy sigh. “Spinel… I’m sorry… I am so sorry that I left you. It wasn’t fair to you. And a part of me knew that. But what you’ve done… the pain you’ve cause my family…”

Rose paused, feeling a surge of rage boil within her at the thought. Spinel looked positively tiny compared to her as she sat there dazed while Rose glowered over her with a look that she could only guess made her contempt clear for her to see.

“All this? This was your doing. Yes, I was the one who hurt you. But I wouldn’t have cared what you would have done to me. Don’t you think for a second that I will excuse your actions when you hurt my family. Especially my son.”

Spinel was so utterly speechless that she had stopped crying. Rose wondered why, until she realized that this had to be the first time Spinel had heard her former Diamond’s voice twisted in barely restrained rage.

Rose remembered her time as Pink Diamond after losing her first Pearl…

How she grew to fear her own power. Always pushing herself to be more patient. To speak more softly. To be gentler with others around her. Lest she quickly learn how fragile the world around her truly was.

But she wasn’t a Diamond anymore. She was a Quartz. And this was no ear-splitting howl with the power to crack the ground beneath her...

This anger was different…

It was quiet, focused, and it was cold.

She felt a feeling of disgust and shame at the thought of how it reminded her of White…

“You are no longer welcome here. I want to believe that even someone like you can change… But that won’t change what you’ve done...”

“Are we still friends?” Spinel asked, the words choked between barely suppressed sobs. Her voice sounded so tiny and fragile. More suited to the small gem she used to play with in the garden than the twisted being that spoke to her now.

Rose waited a moment to think of what to say. Did she truly think after everything she had done that she could still call themselves friends? But she didn’t want to hide anything from her. She would be blunt, but truthful.

“No, Spinel. No, we are not friends… At least not anymore.”

“No…” Spinel’s face began to twist in anger, a snarl escaping her lips.

The icy shell that encased her began to break apart. The moment she was free she snatched Steven from Pearl and shoved her away before striking Rose.

Rose tried to summon a shield to put up her guard, but it was too late. The force of Spinel’s blow slamming her in the ground. Beneath her shirt she heard a faint crunch, her form already starting to glitch out as she tried to rise to her feet.

She looked up to see Steven stare back in utter horror, tears streaming from his eyes. “MOM!”

She had to get up. She had to help him. But she could already feel fragments of her gem begin to flake off as she tried to get up.

The other gems were each ready to charge ahead to take Spinel down. But with Steven at her mercy they were too scared to make the first move.

“So that’s it, huh? Some friend you were! How fracking noble of you when you’re the one with all the friends!” Spinel cried out. “Do us all a favor, no more encores!”

Steven couldn’t let this happen. He wasn’t going to sit here and watch his mom literally fall apart in front of him like this. He wasn’t going to let this gem hurt her or anyone else anymore! He tried to help her. He tried talking to her, but all she wanted to do, all she seemed to care about, was hurt people. No more. NO MORE!

“STOP!!!”

CRACK…

Chapter Text

Pink didn’t know how long she had been sitting there in complete silence in her Palace. For days she sat huddled up in a corner, hugging her knees to her chest and watching the sunlight crawl across the room only to disappear and reappear for days.

She struggled to fully accept what had happened. She hoped it was all just a twisted figment on her imagination. That her Pearl would show up any moment now to greet her and show her it was all in her head…

But she knew it wasn’t.

She knew what she had done.

And thinking about it more forced her to choke back tears she dared not weep lest White was somehow still watching.

How could she have known she could do that? No one told her what sorts of powers she’d have!

The little Diamond choked back a sob, wishing this discovery didn’t have to come at such a terrible cost.

Was this why the other Diamonds belittled her so much? Did they somehow know that all Pink would ever be capable of was destruction? And all it took was for her to raise her voice… to lose her composure and her temper for even a moment…

Pink barely remembered it happening. All she remembered was being so angry at White, her screaming in frustration…

And her Pearl’s eye cracking…

She begged White to let her fix it, but she wouldn’t hear it. And White of course was quick to remind her that it was her doing. It was her own selfish anger that caused this.

How could she have been so thoughtless!? Suddenly everything White kept telling her was true. Destruction was all she was good for. She just made everything worse.

No… she didn’t want this… she didn’t want to hurt anyone!

“No more…” she mumbled to herself. “I don’t want to hurt anyone like that ever again…”

It looked like Rose was nearly done putting the pieces together. She had spent so long in the burning room of the temple fidgeting with the tiny shards to finally see how each one would fit together that she had lost track of time.

She held it out a bit to examine her progress so far. At least it finally started to look like a heart, albeit with a noticeable chunk still missing…

Rose took in a heavy sigh. She just wanted this to be done, just set this whole nightmare aside so she could look to help fix everything Spinel had done. She knew she at least needed to see Steven again to see how he was holding up…

He had been so quiet after everything. Rose desperately wanted to stay by his side. But recovering Spinel’s shards was of the utmost importance. She didn’t want to risk pieces of her forming parts of the now shattered gem so they could scurry away.

‘Oh, Steven…’

She couldn’t imagine what he must have been going through… What could she even do to make up for all of this?

The door to the temple slid open, Pearl and Val stepping inside each holding something in their closed palms.

“Here, I think these should be the last of her shards.” Pearl said somberly, the two presenting a few stray chips of what was once a whole gemstone.

Rose took the gems and gave a small nod. “Thank you, both of you.” She said, already spotting where the shards were meant to go. Once she had fit them in place, it seemed like her work would be done at last.

But even as she fit the last pieces into place, she could still feel this twisted well of emotions boil inside her at the sight of Spinel’s gem.

Why did she have to do all of this? Why did she have to go after everyone else when Rose was the one who hurt her? Wasn’t her suffering enough to satisfy her?

She didn’t need to hurt her family and friends…

Or burn down Little Homeschool…

Or make Steven…

She paused, her fingers trembling a bit before she fit the final piece into place. It hurt enough to think about the state he must be in now after everything. It was important that she check up on him as soon as possible. Dwelling on it all would only serve to hurt herself and solve nothing and she well knew that.

Even after all she had done… she couldn’t let herself be swallowed by this anger. She of all gems knew how easy it was to give into it. To let it twist you into something ugly and cruel.

What scared her most of all was how easy it was slip into that mindset. And to her shame she could recall times when she had lapsed. It didn’t matter if she could reason whether those instances were justified… it still made her uneasy.

“Are there any pieces still missing?” Val asked.

Rose realized she had been practically frozen in place for a while. Now free from her daze she fit the last shard into place and carefully inspected the gem and shook her head.

“No, this is everything…”

“I’m surprised we were able to find all of her shards.” Pearl said. “Steven’s shout obliterated the fountain. We barely had enough leftover water to heal you.”

The Fountain…

“Wait. Pearl, do you still have some of the Fountain’s water in a bottle?”

“Um… yes, a little.”

“I won’t need much.” Rose assured holding out her free hand.

Pearl looked to Val for a moment before giving Rose a puzzled look. “You’re not seriously thinking…”

“I know… believe me, I don’t want to really do this. But I’m hoping at least… it might help ease Steven’s conscience.”

Pearl seemed to hesitate for a moment, her gaze going from Rose to Spinel’s gemstone. Rose couldn’t blame her. After everything Spinel had done one could hardly blame anyone for holding a grudge. But if doing this would indeed help Steven, even just a bit, she knew Pearl would do it.

With a heavy sigh, she retrieved one of the last bottles of fountain water from her own gem to hand to Rose.

“I hope you know what you’re doing…”

Pearl and Val could tell she wasn’t comfortable with this. Rose wished she didn’t have to do it. But she knew she’d only feel worse if she didn’t. Carefully, she let a few drips fall onto the surface of the shattered gem. The water immediately disappeared into the tiny cracks on the gem’s surface that were already beginning to close, leaving only hairline fractures. A permanent reminder of this gem’s shattering.

Once it was clear the spring water had done its job, Rose placed the gem in a bubble before gently nudging it upward.

“I didn’t think we’d see another gem here…” Pearl said. “I’ve gotten so used to seeing this room empty.”

Val averted her gaze from the heart shaped gemstone and crossed her arms. “Well, now she can’t say we never showed her any kindness…” she said with an icy tone that caught Rose off guard. “Even if we all know she never really deserved it…”

“It’s not about what someone deserves.” Rose said. “I made a promise to help those who suffered because of my actions. Regardless of how I feel, I don’t want let my anger consume me like it had with her.”

“Or with me…” Val mumbled.

Rose sighed, gently taking hold of Val’s hands and looking her in the eye. She fought to hold back the sense of panic in the back of her head. Even after everything it was still hard for her to talk to her oldest friend face to face without an overwhelming sense of guilt.

“Val, what I did to your eye… I know I can never take it back…”

Val struggled to keep eye contact with her, but she had yet to pull from Rose’s grip.

“You were all I had for the longest time… and I was too stupid to appreciate it…”

Val shook her head and pulled her arms free to embrace her. “You’re not stupid…” she whispered. “You never were. That’s White talking, and you know it.”

Rose was stunned. Whatever words she still wanted to tell her died in her throat, leaving her only option to return Val’s hug in kind.

“I’m sorry, Val.” Rose finally choked out. “I am so, so sorry I hurt you…”

Rose almost couldn’t believe this was happening. Over the centuries she had many a moment where she had imagined the two of them reuniting.

Sometimes she had allowed herself to imagine it as a happy fantasy where her old Pearl would have miraculously found some way to escape to Earth and find her.

Other times… especially during her darker moments… she often told herself that all she would have for her would be pain and rage.

But this… well… it wasn’t quite the happy fantasy she had dreamed of. But at least she was here. And she didn’t hate her. And that alone meant the world to Rose.

Val’s grip tightened. “I’m sorry too. I didn’t wish for your family to get hurt. Especially not your son…”

Rose let out a heavy sigh. Even with the threat of Spinel over, she knew there was much work to be done, not only for her home, but for the Future of every gem on Earth.

“I hope to see you around Little Homeworld soon, Val.”

The Pearl gave Rose a nervous smirk. “Thank you. That… that means a lot.”

Rose wanted her to stay. If anything, it would have been good to have another person that didn’t openly loath her. But the look of discomfort she noticed from Pearl didn’t sit well with her.

As happy as she would have been to not only welcome Val to Earth but also to her home… she had to remember it wasn’t just her home. And it didn’t sit well with her to place her comfort over anyone else’s.

It still pained her a little to see her old friend return to Homeworld. But she hoped with time and a little convincing that it wouldn’t be for long.

“I have a feeling we’re going to be busy for a while, but I’ll try my best to make time for you.”

Val smiled, giving Rose one last hug. “I have to admit, I was wrong when I said you hadn’t changed. You seem a lot different from how I remember you, Rose. You’ve lived this entire life and done so much since I had last seen you… I… thank you for still letting me be a part of your universe…” The warp pad under Val erupted with light, and in an instant, she was gone.

“I’m surprised you didn’t ask her to stay.”

“I didn’t think it was right to ask her.” Rose said with a shrug. “I could tell you seemed uncomfortable with her. And I didn’t think it was my place to decide that.”

“It’s not so much her as it was her ‘friend’.” Pearl huffed as she gripped herself tighter. “All of this just to make herself feel better! I can’t believe someone like that can be so brazenly reckless and selfish and, and…”

Pearl’s thoughts stopped dead as Rose gently pulled the gem close to her chest for a hug. “That doesn’t matter, she’s gone. I promise, she’ll never hurt anyone ever again.”

The pale gem took in a deep breath and nodded. Her face still showing a scowl she gave a passing glance towards the temple door.

“Let’s go see how Bismuth and the others are doing.” Rose said, hoping to get Pearl’s mind away from her anger. “I’m sure she’ll want to see you.”

“Right…”

A multicolored light began to glow from the charred remains of the beach house. It struggled to free itself of the rubble before bursting free to hover towards the two baffled gems. The colorful lights faded away before the device opened into a large screen that flicked with static before displaying a face that was all too familiar to Rose.

“What do you want, White?”

“Rose.” White said sternly. “We need to talk.”

The Quartz gave an exhausted sigh and shook her head. Between her son, her home, and Little Homeworld, she simply did not have time to distract herself with whatever this gem had to say. “I’d rather not-”

“Rose, this is urgent.” White said, Rose noticing the restraint in her voice. She was clearly trying her best to sound as calm as possible even as her tone grew harsher. “I’ve just been informed of what happened on Earth, and I feel we need to talk about Steven and your repeated failures to keep him out of harm’s way!”

Rose’s hands clenched into tight fists. “….Excuse me?” she snarled. As if White had any room to talk.

She could see White flinch just a little before pausing to compose herself and clear her throat. Seems she was still adjusting to her talking back like this. “How many times has this happened since you’ve returned?” She asked.

“First, a Fire Agate attempted to kill him and a number of his court after using some of his own stolen essence to produce Rose Quartz soldiers to attack Earth…”

“Then a version of you from a split timeline convinced her own fellow Diamonds to take him from you to satisfy her grief…”

“And then one of the Rose Quartzes of your failed colony steals him from right under your nose and leaves you all to search for him for three months in a plan to shatter you all and impersonate you!”

‘Like I need to be reminded of that.’ Rose thought. ‘As if I don’t already know how terrible I’ve been at protecting him…’

“And now your old Spinel has run amuck and destroyed Steven’s little project!”

Little project? Was that all she thought Little Homeworld was to Steven? Though honestly with White, she shouldn’t have been so surprised. Everyone and everything had always been ‘beneath her’. And it seems not even her own son could completely shake her of that mindset.

“Now dear, I won’t deny that you care about him deeply. And regardless of what you think, I do too! Which is why I feel you and your Crystal Gems are no longer enough to keep him safe if these threats to his safety continue to escalate!”

Rose hated how kind she was trying to sound. Did it even matter if she was telling the truth? She claimed to have cared about her too, but she well knew how that worked out.

“White, don’t you dare-”

“Rose, we need to discuss the possibility of perhaps moving him to Homeworld with me and the other-”

“You had better rethink this, White.”

Not even Rose could have predicted White would be this clueless, this entitled! After everything she had done! Everything her child alone had been through because of her cruelty and stubbornness! And after all that she thought she still had any say over either of them!?

Rose bit back her lip and fought the urge to shove her fist through the screen.

And of course, she’d rub each of her failures in her face before telling her this. Just another way to break her down and fold just so she could get her way. But she wasn’t the scared little Diamond she preyed on, and no one was going to take her child away from her if she had anything to say!

“Rose, if you’re going to make things difficult, know that you only have yourself to-”

“STOP!!!”

White flinched again, clearly taken aback at Rose’s outburst. Given her experience with seeing Rose lose her temper like this in the past, she wasn’t surprised.

“I know what you’re doing! You just want to tear me down and make me feel guilty enough to let you do whatever you want with me! But not this time! Not with my Steven!”

Rose felt her face go numb as her frustration grew. This was different from her previous talks with White. She wasn’t asking for forgiveness or minding her words this time. She was acting like the White that Rose always knew. The stuck-up Diamond who had to always be right and win every argument.

The White that Rose dreaded ever seeing again. It scared her that she had to face her like this now. But she wasn’t going to back down. Not this time!

“I promise you, White, if you try to take my son, you had better be ready for a fight! Steven is my son! And I would sooner have my gem ground to dust before I leave him in your hands!”

White’s brow furrowed in frustration, her tone growing colder with every syllable. “Steven needs to learn how to be a better Diamond to prepare-”

“Steven isn’t just a Diamond! He’s a child!” Rose cried back. “What he needs is to get away from all this! I should have had the forethought to do this sooner… but Steven meddling in gem business needs to stop. Do you hear me?”

“No more managing Little Homeworld.”

“No more dangerous missions.”

“No more being forced to settle nearly six-thousand-year-old grudges with a bunch of selfish, self-absorbed monsters who think the best way they could love a child is to shove them in a dark room all alone!”

For a while, neither of them said anything. White seemed to find it difficult to keep eye contact with Rose.

Rose herself simply whipped her eyes as Pearl took her arm and caressed her hand to help calm her down.

“I will never be able to give back the years we stole from Steven while he and the others were busy fighting for their lives. But I will give him the chance to be safe with me and enjoy what little time he has left to be young. He is going to stay with me and the rest of our family!”

“We’re his family too!” White pleaded.

Rose shook her head. “No, White. You’re not.”

White’s face went cold. Her gaze narrowing until it reached a laser focus to pierce through Rose and forced a shiver to crawl up her back. “You can’t shield him forever, Pink. There’s no changing what he is. And if it comes to it, I won’t hesitate to rip him from your arms if I must.”

Rose couldn’t deny her feelings, she was scared. Not just for Steven, but for the others. Stars knew how far White would go to make good on that promise. But she wanted to be clear that she wasn’t going to back down. Mustering up all the courage she could find she forced herself to stare right back into eyes of her former tormentor.

“I’d like to see you try.”

‘This is stupid.’ Jasper told herself. For the last hour she had been helping Rose’s human partner, whose name escaped her, with moving whatever was left of Steven’s belongings into this new human enclosure.

Apparently this human was also a good friend of Amethyst, if the numerous portraits in her likeness were anything to go by. She had even offered to make one in her own likeness if she wanted, which Jasper simply said she would keep in mind. As admittedly awkward and uncomfortable interacting with humans often felt with her, this one was a good friend to her sister…

From the way he talked to this other older human, it seemed they must have known one another for some time. Or at least… long by human standards.

Part of her had wanted to stay by Amethyst’s side as she and the other gems effected by Spinel’s rejuvenator recovered their memories. But the moment Lapis had returned from rounding up the last remaining shard monsters, she suddenly didn’t feel quite as welcome to stay.

Rose’s human asked if she wanted to help Rose collect what was left of Spinel’s shards, but the last thing she wanted to do was volunteer to clean up after her mess. It didn’t matter if she was her former Diamond. She was just a Quartz now, and that was Rose’s problem to deal with.

That finally left her with helping Steven and the other human. And Jasper could not have felt more awkward.

Steven himself had been quiet during the whole ordeal as he watched them collect whatever could be salvaged from the fire while sitting in the back of the other human’s Earth transport. Though Jasper couldn’t put her finger on why, something about seeing him like this didn’t sit well with her.

Should she have said something? What could she even tell Steven that he wouldn’t have already heard from the others? He probably wouldn’t even listen to him. If anything, she’d just frighten him more, and stars know the last thing he needed was to scare him more.

Maybe it was just best she didn’t bother him-

“Hey, Jasper, could you take these to Steven?”

Rose’s human held up a small rectangular box to the large Quartz. Inside of it contained a row of small plastic sleeves that held what looked to be pictures of colorful figures that Jasper didn’t recognize.

“What… are these?”

“This is just a box of some of my comics that I used to read to Steven when he was little.” Rose’s human answered. “Most of it is my old collection of Val Hallen, but there’s also a few issues of The Gray Ghost and Kangaroo Commando in there too. I thought it might help to give him something to take his mind off everything.”

Curious, Jasper pulled one of the plastic sleeves to inspect it further. It displayed a tall musclebound human with long golden hair with heavy bangs that obscured his eyes and a tattered black garment. In his hand looked to be what she remembered Amethyst describing as an electric guitar and triumphantly standing on a rainbow-colored bridge.

Jasper could see what she presumed to be human writing in certain places on the cover as well, though to her annoyance she struggled to make out what they said…

She shook her head and grumbled. It frustrated her how often she had to rely on Amethyst for help with understanding her way around Beach City. And it wasn’t for lack of effort! It also didn’t help when she explained to her that humans had more than one language.

She remembered when Amethyst first realized this setback when they had visited the Big Donut. She simply stood there for what felt like an eternity just staring at the strange markings until Amethyst finally realized what was going on.

She mentioned that she wasn’t the only gem with this problem. That there were classes at Little Homeschool that she could take… or at least there used to.

Jasper wasn’t sure if she would have even gone to these classes. According to Amethyst and the other Earth Quartzes, she was their “Big Sister” and that meant that she had to help protect and look out for the other gems that came from Rose, which also included Steven.

Having to rely on those under her protection to help with something that should be so simple for her was humiliating!

“Um… you ok there?”

Jasper shook her head and placed the comic back into the box. She didn’t realize how long she had just been standing there staring at the comic.

“Are you sure there isn’t anything more I can help with here?” Jasper growled, eager to pretend the last few seconds didn’t happen.

The old human shrugged and scratched the back of his neck. “Well, not a whole lot survived the fire. Really anything to help Steven just… get his mind off everything while we try to sort it all out would mean a lot right now.”

Jasper sighed. “All right, if it’ll help Steven.”

“Thanks, Jasper. He should be just upstairs and down the hall.”

Following the human’s instructions, she eventually found a door at the very end of the hall. Carefully, she creaked open the door just enough to spot Steven lying in a bed and facing away from her.

“Steven?” Jasper said. “I… uh… brought you some… comic books.”

Steven slowly rose from bed to see the box in her hands, his eyes still red and puffy while dried tear marks could be seen on his cheeks.

“Oh… thanks, you can just put them over there at the foot of the bed.”

Even as she dropped off the box of comics, Jasper felt there was still more she had to say. It pained her to see Steven like this. Even as she tried to think of him less as her new Diamond and more as just her “Baby Brother” she was still left with this sense of urgency. She couldn’t leave him like this.

“Steven… about what happened-”

“I don’t want to talk about it.” Steven blurted, catching the Quartz off guard.

“… Okay…” Jasper said, already feeling like she was only serving to make Steven more uncomfortable. Why did this have to be so hard?

Jasper could already tell she was only making things more awkward the more she tried to find the right words to say. Finally, she gave a sigh of defeat. “Steven I… I’m going to be honest. I know I’m not any good at this, and I don’t really know how you feel about me. But know that I do want to help you however I can.”

Steven said nothing for a moment. Jasper sighed, she had bothered him enough for today…

“Jasper…” Steven said, his voice was so faint she could just barely hear it. “Thank you.”

Jasper just gave a cursory nod. “If you need anything, just let me know.”

“Okay...”

As Jasper left, she made sure to promise to herself that she’d never let anyone hurt Steven like that ever again. She owed that to him at as his big sister.

“Hello? Is anyone here?”

Steven couldn’t remember how long he had been wandering around the boardwalk all by himself. He had figured that the town would have been quiet on a day like this where the skies were a depressing shade of gray, and the fog was so thick that he could barely see more than a few feet away.

Not many would be in a rush to go outside on a day like this…

But even as Steven tried to reason his way around it. He still couldn’t shake the feeling that something was very wrong. Even beyond the creepy fog, the town looked… dirtier… Like it had been abandoned for years after weathering a bad storm.

And it was eerily quiet.

Steven didn’t understand, where was everyone? Why was he the only one here?

From behind, Steven heard the faint noise of footsteps. He turned to locate the source and could just barely spot the silhouette of a humanoid figure hidden in the fog.

“H-hello?” Steven cried out. Despite his best efforts, he couldn’t make out any details through the fog.

But the stranger said nothing, they didn’t even move.

Could it be that they didn’t hear him? No, that didn’t seem right. He was sure they were close enough. They had to have heard him!

After a few moments of silence, however, the stranger did finally respond. With laughter…

Her laughter…

 Steven practically felt his heart crawl up his throat. He had to go. Maybe he could find someone, anyone. He just didn’t want to be out here alone with her!

And then he heard it. It took a moment for him to recognize the sound as it blared through the town…

The Diamond Alarm…

Steven awoke with in a cold sweat, a sudden jolt forcing him to sit straight up as he gasped for air. As he looked around, spotting the opened box of old comic books Jasper had left at the foot of his bed as well as Lion softly snoring on the floor beside him.

He was right back in Vidalia’s house.

With a groan, Steven reached to check his phone. 2:46 AM. Great. Looks like he wasn’t going to even get a good night’s sleep after yesterday…

He couldn’t help but notice this was different from the other dreams he had. He wasn’t being ripped apart by White or running away from 1NK in the snow…

No, this was different. It wasn’t the fear of some immediate harm. Instead, all he could feel was a ceaseless, overwhelming sense of unease.  

Though he knew no one else could have been there with him, it still felt as though someone was watching him…

Steven knew they were only dreams, but his mild trembling was enough of a sign of how little that helped to calm his nerves.

He wondered if he should tell his mother about this in the morning…

But he quickly shot that down. He already had a solid guess what Rose’s response was going to be. Not as though he could blame her, but the last thing he wanted was to worry his mom. She had been through enough. He didn’t need to worry her over some stupid nightmare.

He gave a heavy sigh, already feeling how bone-dry his throat was and seeing the empty glass beside his phone on the nightstand. Might as well get up and get some water now that he was awake…

Groggily, Steven lumbered into the bathroom, flicking on the light switch before blindly reaching for the sink. Once his glass was full enough he held it up to lips to drink until…

Steven felt all the color drain from his face, the glass slipping from his hand before shattering against the bathroom floor. He almost couldn’t believe what was staring back at him in the mirror.

“No…” Steven mumbled to himself as he loomed over the sink, as if to confirm that what he saw was indeed real.

“No no no…”

Steven tightly shut his eyes and opened them. Nothing happened. Trying to shape shift them back to normal helped… for a bit. But once he thought the issue resolved, they just immediately shifted back.

No matter what he tried, he could only stare in horror at his eyes in the mirror…

Diamond eyes…