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It didn’t take them long to bubble all the shards, the forced fusions for that matter. Steven’s eyebrows were creased as he fought, mostly just deflecting the crawling limbs off into Pearl or Amethyst’s direction.
He kept looking over to Garnet, who was fighting ferociously, grunting and heaving like she was fighting someone better than her. She slammed down on each gem she found dragging itself across the room, leaving no mercy, going harder than usual.
But Steven could tell that she was scared, she shook as she fought, teeth clenched tighter than her own fists. Pearl fought with her usual elegance, her spear slicing the clusters piece by piece, dancing across the room, unbeknownst of Garnet’s pain. Or so it seemed. Pearl had not asked one question or spoken one word, which was unusual even for her. Usually she would be all over the subject, going into detail on how these certain enemies were, how they seemed to be no threat except the occasional pinch.
Her silent dance to Garnet’s powerful pounding was in it’s own painful to watch. Amethyst was humming, whip wrapping and squeezing as she worked around Steven, her eyes glittering with the confusion of Garnet’s sudden ferocity. Steven himself was silent. All he wanted to do was crawl into his bed and sleep. In his luck, when they got back it was nighttime, in which he hugged each of the gems, and rushed straight to bed, not thinking once about how stiff Garnet was, how Pearl was using the voice she always used when she was worried or lying.
All Amethyst said was “Sleep well, Squirt.” Once Steven was in bed, Pearl watched for a few minutes but she soon lost interest. Garnet sat on the couch with her fists balled, slightly rocking. Amethyst sat next to her, unsure of what to do. Pearl hated to worry, it was her least favorite human emotion, but she seemed to be doing it a lot lately. She walked down the steps with ease and toward Garnet and Amethyst, to whom she nodded and stood in front of Garnet.
“ Garnet? If I may ask, what happened when you found Peridot’s base? Did you find what she was doing? Any news from Homeworld? You seemed stiff and angry when we were collecting, those erm, things…” She rambled on with more questions, long hands waving, Amethyst watching Garnet and Garnet watching Pearl. In a few more minutes of this ramble, Pearl stopped when Amethyst reached over to Garnet’s face and removed her glasses gingerly and gulped at what she saw.
The fusion’s eyes were leaking with tears, glossy and red rimmed. Pearl yelped at the sight and Garnet’s arm’s extended and pulled Pearl’s waist close enough to bury her face in the blue fabric. Amethyst came forward then, frowning deeply as her arms went around Garnet’s arched waist. “G… Can ya tell us what happened? What did you guys see?” she said softly, slightly muffled, as her face was in Garnet’s large shoulder pad.
Pearl’s arms hovered uncomfortably at her sides until they finally found themselves moving in and around in Garnet’s tight curls. After many sobs and rubs on the back after Amethyst’s words, Garnet lifted her head. She gazed at the tear stains she left on Pearl’s shirt and over at Amethyst who hugged her arm tightly. With slight difficulty she explained what had happened, and than her feelings on the topic. “I-i just- It felt wrong, being held by it, by something that was not meant to happen. It’s not right! They were forced! I-” She kept stuttering, and she started to glow like she did before when she was in the cluster’s grip.
Pearl gasped and grabbed Garnet from under her armpits and lifted her off the ground, Amethyst still attached to the fusion’s arm. “Garnet! You are okay, it’s not your fault!” Pearl said quickly, hugging and lifting tightly. Amethyst loosened her grip on Garnet and fell to the floor before almost shouting, “Garnet! You are not the reason for the rebellion! Ruby and Sapphire’s love is what made you guy’s win the war isn’t it? Without you, we are nothing. Without you, we can’t fix the forced fusion. They have been through the worst torture, you know that.” Pearl replied to that nodding, Garnet still glowing almost fully unfused. “You can’t let them force you Garnet. You are not them. You are a fusion and you are correct.”
The glowing slowly faded and Garnet collapsed in Pearl’s arms. All three gems fell to the ground, Garnet sandwiched in between the smaller gems. The words “Thank you” and “I’m sorry” were played on Garnet’s mouth like a broken record and they stayed like that for the rest of the night. Garnet had her girls, she had her love. She would fix those clusters, no matter what it took. She would stay herself, for Steven, for Ruby and Sapphire. Garnet fell asleep quickly, Pearl kissing her eyes and Amethyst her forehead. They were going to be okay.