Chapter Text
It had only beed two days since Lapis had officially joined the Crystal gems. Peridot had insisted on her joining the group for a while now, but Lapis had needed time. She needed time to be herself, not another cog in the homeworld’s machine, not a slave to a mirror to be used by enemy and ally alike, and certainly not a member of those who knew she was trapped and willfully chose to do nothing.
When Steven, the only one who trusted and respected her for the longest time, had asked her to join, and she refused, he accepted her decision without question. He understood her reasons, without being told, and was just grateful to have her as a friend (and glad she wasn’t trying to drown him again).
When Peridot asked her to join, and Lapis refused, she had come at her with charts, graphs, and carefully planned speeches, read off of notecards full of countless bullet points. But they saved my life! They saved your life! Lapis had carefully pointed out that saving her life didn’t negate the time she spent trapped in a mirror in their possession. Peridot only huffed at that and resolved to come back later with more argument and talking points.
After nearly a year of constant badgering, something Steven was very apologetic for, Lapis had made up her mind. So, for Steven’s sake (and not just to get Peridot to finally shut up, as Amethyst had theorized) Lapis became an official member of the Crystal Gems as a 15th birthday present.
Peridot was ecstatic, and Steven was touched. Garnet had stated that she was by no means required to go on missions, and that it was perfectly alright if her membership was in-name-only but Lapis was insistent on fully committing.
Two days later, there was trouble at the sunken seaspire that Lapis was uniquely equipped to handle. Garnet pulled her aside. She didn’t have to do this, Garnet had told her. There was a chance, as with every mission, that someone might not come back. This only steeled Lapis’s resolve, and Garnet understood. The odds of a stray piller falling and snapping Lapis’s gem in two were slim. Only one of thousands of branches in the river of the future.
Steven took it hard. Lapis only went on that mission because she was a Crystal Gem, and she was only a Crystal Gem as a gift to him. Peridot took it harder. While Steven was her first friend, Lapis was her best. Maybe if she didn’t push to join the team, Lapis wouldn’t have. Maybe she would’ve made a morp for Steven’s birthday and called it done, like they had planned when they invented the artform.
Garnet knew Lapis joining the gems was inevitable, knew that on every mission there was one path where someone died, but it happened so rarely, there were so many other options, she couldn’t have known.
Peridot was the one that bubbled her gem. Originally she suggested Steven do it, but he had insisted that her home was the barn. Her home was with Peridot. Secretly she was glad. Even though Lapis was gone, she wanted to keep her close, keep her memories alive.
Not knowing what else to do, Peridot placed her Gem in a place of honor within the barn, Ethereally floating above one of their collaborative pieces; a piece that would never again be truly complete.