Chapter Text
“Come on! I want to help you! What can I do?” Steven shouted at the mirror. It showed him a picture of himself taking the gem off of the back.
“Steven!” Pearl yelled from the distance. He flinched, he didn’t have a lot of time.
He grabbed the cracked gemstone. He pulled and pulled, concentrating his strength. Water pooled underneath his feet in an arcane pattern, the gemstone eager to come out.
With a loud POP, he wrenched the gem out of its socket. He watched in awe as it floated over to the water, and began to form.
Then the mirror exploded, the shock and force of it sending him staggering forward into the gem. He expected to bump into her, and to have to apologise. But he didn’t feel anything. There was no impact, he just felt warm and wet, like he had stepped into a hot bath.
He clutched his head, feeling a headache coming on. He brushed his hair out of his eyes- Wait, what? His hair wasn’t this long.
He looked at his skin. It was purple.
He looked at his reflection in the ocean. It wasn’t him anymore.
“Steven?” His mouth asked. “It’s… Steven, right?” He felt his eyes looking around, but he could still see ahead of him. He gazed into the weird reflection. There was a purple lady staring back at him, with four eyes wide open in confusion. Two of them were black, but the top two were clouded over, like they couldn’t see properly.
“Yeah, that’s me. I think. Where are you?” He tried to ask. “Who are you?”
“I’m Lapis. Lapis Lazuli. Where are you?”
“I think… I’m inside you.” He said.
“Inside me? What does that… mean?” She asked.
“I- I don’t know! This has never happened to me before!” He shouted.
Neither of them seemed to notice that they had the same voice. That they were using the same mouth.
“Steven!” Garnet yelled angrily, sprinting up to him.
They turned to face her, and both of them were equally stunned.
“S-Steven…” She repeated, dropping her fighting stance, her gauntlets fizzling out.
“Garnet!” He shouted. “You… You’re not going to hurt me.” He felt his body shout angrily. “I won’t let you hurt us!”
“Steven! You have to calm down!”
“I’m in here too! ME! Lapis Lazuli! And I’m not trapped any more!”
“Who are you? Where’s Steven?!” Pearl screamed hysterically.
“I’m here!” They screamed. “I- Both of us are! We’re here and we’re not going back! You can’t keep us trapped anymore!”
“Dude, no way…” Amethyst gasped.
A giant fist of water burst out of the ocean, ready to smash into the Crystal Gems. But it collapsed just before reaching them, water splashing harmlessly on the sand. “No! I don’t want to hurt them! I… but they hurt me! I… I… I just want to leave! I- We’re going home!”
The water parted for both of them, and they sprinted off into the ocean, the passage collapsing before the Crystal Gems could follow.
“Steven!” The gems screamed. “No!”
It was too late. He was gone, and so was Lapis.
“Dude, like, what even. Just what even? They were fused.” Amethyst said.
“Okay. Okay.” Pearl paced up and down the beach, all but pulling her own hair out in worry. “What are we going to do? Garnet, what are we going to do?”
“I don’t think she’s listening, P.” Amethyst sighed.
Garnet couldn’t hear anything right now. She was sitting cross legged on the beach, staring at her hands. Seemingly having a conversation with them.
“Steven’s out there! That… that thing has him! She has my baby!”
“Didn’t you hear her, Pearl? She’s not a thing, she’s Lapis.” Amethyst glared. “Still gonna whop her good, it’s just…”
“It was just supposed to be a mirror! It shouldn’t be able to talk! She shouldn’t have been sapient in there!” Pearl shot back. “Don’t try to blame me for this. I couldn’t have known that-”
“I know where they are.” Garnet said, suddenly standing up, interrupting their discussion.
“Where?!” Pearl asked.
“Mask Island.” She said, turning to the house.
“Excellent! Then let’s-”
“I’m going alone.” Garnet said, firmly.
“Uh, what?” Amethyst asked.
“Steven and Lapis fused, and neither of them know what is going on.” Garnet explained. “It was an accident, both of them were scared. And now they’re alone out there, lost, with no answers.”
Garnet pressed her hands close to her heart. Where her heart would be, anyway. “I know what that’s like. I’ll talk to them.”
“But don’t we gotta poof Lapis and save Steven?” Amethyst asked.
“We’re not fighting.”
“But-” Pearl protested.
“I know you’re worried about Steven. But to be honest with you, every possible future in which the two of you come end in disaster. They get scared off, or they poof all of us, or we poof them and hurt Steven… I could go on, but there’s not a lot of time.”
“Okay, Garnet.” Pearl sighed. “We trust you.”
“I’ll be back soon. With both of them.”
“I… What are we?” They stopped, catching their breath on a lush island somewhere. There were some geodes jutting out of the rocks, glimmering from the reflection of the moonlight. “I think we’re… a fusion? How? I’m a gem, and… I’m a human, or… No, is that the other way around?”
“No, I… We have two gems. But… Lapis, you’re cracked. I-I can help, I have… healing powers? Wait, how am I gonna lick my own back? Ew, what? No, wait, go back, please. We’re not taking this seriously enough! We’re fused! This is bad, this is bad… I mean, Opal was fine, but what if I end up like Sugilite?! Oh, of course the Crystal Gems fused! That’s, like, their whole thing, apart from keeping innocent gems prisoner, I…”
They took a deep breath.
“Okay. Okay, calm down. If we calm down, maybe we can work this out. Just… concentrate on unfusing.” They sighed. “This is just… it’s so… Is it so bad? I- We mean, it wasn’t intentional, but gems fusing is a thing gems can do- but it’s wrong. Normal gems don’t fuse that’s just wrong. We know it’s wrong but- but this is Earth. It’s a forgotten planet. The only gems here are Crystal Gems and they’re definitely not gonna judge us.”
They took another deep breath, and came to a realisation. A horrible realisation. They could not unfuse.
“I’m trapped. I finally got out of that horrible mirror, and… and I’m still trapped. But hey, it’s not so bad is it? Because if there was anyone I wanted to be trapped with, it would be the one person who talked to me. Who tried to set me free. Now we’re both… trapped together.” They sighed. “Wait! Hold on, I know! Rose had a healing fountain, we took Amethyst there a few days ago. I almost- I- Rose! Rose… Rose… Rose is… Ow, my- our heads, uh, head, I… What’s wrong with Rose? They never told you? Us? I…”
A puddle of water sprung to life in front of them, showing a memory of Rose Quartz, cleaving through gems with a pink sword. Pearl was beside her, holding a flag. The symbol of the Crystal Gems. The rebellion.
“Rose… I’m not… I…”
They shook their head, the reflection shimmering away.
“I… We can feel, Steven. I can feel inside you. It’s just you here. You’re a Rose Quartz, but you’re not the Rose Quartz. She’s… she’s gone.”
“I… I never knew any of this stuff about Rose… The gems always told me about how great she was, but they never… She wasn’t great, was she? She fought a war. We got caught up in that war.”
A different memory rippled into focus in front of them. It was of Lapis, landing on Earth. Nothing needed to be said. Steven could feel all of her thoughts, her feelings. He felt the pain as Lapis was poofed, the desperation as she tried to convince her former allies that no, no, she wasn’t a Crystal Gem, she was a loyal Homeworld gem-
The fear, when everyone left. The sour song that tried to drive her mad, but she didn’t have a form for it to affect. The brief glimmer of hope when Pearl found her thousands of years later, which soon turned to resignation.
“That song.” They sighed. “Those monsters, they’re… They’re gems, aren’t they? They’re gems, but they were… Wait, monsters?”
There was the rustling of trees behind them, and they tensed up, ready to run.
There was nothing there. They relaxed a little. It was just the wind-
Something smashed into them, knocking them flat on the ground. They scanned around. It was too dark to see anything, and they couldn’t-
Another punch came at them from the side, sending them flying into a tree, right into the Lapis gemstone on their back. They cried out in pain, just trying to focus and locate what was attacking them.
There. It was just a faint glimmer, but the moonlight reflected a floating gemstone.
It was a gem monster. No, a corrupted gem. An invisible one, at that.
A fist burst out of the ocean and held the invisible gem down. Or, tried to, anyway. Lapis couldn’t concentrate, her gem felt like it was about to break in half, the already severe crack now even worse. And Steven had no control over water.
There was a good side effect, though. The monster was wet, now. It was slightly easier to see, as the moon reflected all of the droplets.
It charged again, and Steven instinctively summoned a bubble to protect himself. Lapis could work with bubbles.
The wall of the bubble became a purplish liquid, held aloft by the force of one hand. They stepped out of it, the liquid passing over them as though they weren’t even there. They launched it at the corrupted gem as it pounced at them once again.
It became trapped in the bubble, the purple liquid far too thick for it to swim through, as it was held in the air by their combined power.
“Hah! Got you.” They laughed. “Uh… what do we do now? I can’t… actually… we don’t have any weapons. We can’t use water, that hurts too much.”
“I’ll back you up!” A voice shouted from the forest. They tensed up again, almost losing their magical grip on the bubble.
A fist missile came through the trees, exploding on contact with the monster. The bubble splashed to the ground, leaving behind a small, smooth blue gem.
“That was amazing, you two.” Garnet grinned, as she knelt down to bubble the gem.
They froze, wanting to run away again. “She’s not here for us, she just saved us.” They tried to reassure themselves. “I don’t trust her. She knew I was in there and she didn’t let me out. I… I mean, I kind of trust her because we have Steven’s gem but I still don’t like her-”
“Hey.” Garnet said, interrupting their panicked monologue. “Let’s talk.”
She dismissed her gauntlets, as a show of non agression. She sat down on the beach, looking out at the waves.
“So.” She began, as they stood next to her. They were still tense, still itching to flee. “Who are you?”
“I… We don’t… know. Garnet, I don’t know what this is and I can’t fix it, I- We’re stuck. We’re… trapped.”
She said nothing for a few moments, instead just breathing steadily. She tapped her visor, and it vanished. Three eyes met four.
They sighed, and knelt down on the ground, straightening out their skirt. They didn’t even realise they had a skirt. Or… they did, subconsciously. It had to be Lapis’. They hadn’t really looked at themselves yet. Steven’s shirt was stretched around their torso, pushed just under where Lapis’ gem was, and resting just above where Steven’s gem was.
“Let me tell you a story, first. I didn’t want to share this until your- until Steven’s next birthday, but… It’s important.”
“What’s a birthday?” Some part of them wondered quietly.
Garnet told them both. The story of how Ruby and Sapphire met. How Ruby tried to save Sapphire, how they both fled, and how they formed Garnet.
Steven was completely enraptured, listening with star filled eyes. Lapis was… less so. She felt bad for them, actually. She could… relate to the Sapphire, in a way. She thought she was valuable to her Diamond, but when it came down to it, she was discarded like trash.
It didn’t completely dispel Lapis’ feelings of hatred toward Garnet. She was a Crystal Gem. She was part of the reason she ended up in the mirror in the first place, and for all her foresight, she never even knew that Lapis was there, still mentally intact, still silently pleading for freedom in the void of the Pearl’s gem.
Even when Steven woke her up, she was the first to try and take her back, to try and lock her away again.
But she knew more about her, now. Something… relatable. And if Steven trusted her, Lapis would try to.
“Wow! So… I had no idea. All this time, you were a fusion? I mean, it’s obvious in hindsight. Even I can tell from just a brief look back through our memories…”
Garnet glowed and split apart, falling into two new gems. “Hello.” The blue one- Sapphire- waved, a small smile on her face. Her eyes- eye was obscured by hair. She had a poofy, frilly dress, a stark contrast from her red partner. She had the source of Garnet’s hair, plus a headband. She didn’t have any more clothes than she needed to, clearly a warrior.
“Hey.”
“Oh my gosh.” Steven screamed. Lapis was far more contained, keeping them rooted to the ground. They ended up falling forward, Steven attempting to rush forward and hug them both.
“Such is fate.” Sapphire silently laughed to herself.
“So, uh… I’m Ruby.” Ruby grinned. “Aw, geez… We wanted this to be a birthday present for ya, Steven. But then… this happened.”
“I… We’d like for it to not happen any longer.” They folded their arms.
Ruby and Sapphire looked at each other knowingly.
“We can help you stabilise yourselves.” Sapphire said.
“We can help you enjoy being you.” Ruby said.
“But splitting up is something the two of you will have to figure out on your own.” Sapphire said. “I… cannot predict when that will be. I don’t know anything about you. You’re too much of an anomaly. I don’t even know your name.”
“Our name…” They hummed to themselves. “How did you become ‘Garnet’?”
“I’unno.” Ruby shrugged. “That name just… felt right.”
“So what feels right to you? What should we call you?” Sapphire asked.
They rolled over, looking up at the stars. “I don’t know. We… don’t want to exist long enough to have a name. But… you’re right, I… we don’t know how long this will last. If we had to choose anything… Charoite. Call me… Charoite. That’s… what I feel like.”
Ruby and Sapphire fused together again, Garnet taking the confused fusions hands into her own. “Charoite.” She said. “Listen. You are not one person, and you are not two people. You’re an experience. I… I want to make sure you’re a good experience, so…”
This hesitation seemed alien coming from Garnet, but then again… Steven had never really noticed how alien the gems were to begin with. He knew they weren’t human, but he never considered that they might be from a different planet. And now he knew that planet. Well… not him, but… Charoite knew that planet. A beautiful memory of a symmetrical city from Lapis’ side.
“I’m sorry.” She said.
“I- What?”
“I’m sorry.” She repeated.
“That’s all you have to say?” Charoite growled. “I- We were- I was trapped in a mirror and all you have to say is sorry?!”
“Not about the mirror.” Garnet said, catching them off guard. “I’m sorry for scaring Steven, and for trying to take the mirror away when it- No, when you showed sapience. I wasn’t thinking clearly. I was so busy looking into the catastrophic futures of the ocean being taken away so Lapis could boost herself to- her home… world.” She said, carefully. Steven knew Homeworld now. There was a bunch of other stuff he knew the gems were keeping from him now. “I didn’t look right in front of me and at the two of you being friends. And I’m sorry.”
“I… We forgive you. Partially.” Charoite sighed. “And I know that the- that Amethyst is mostly innocent as well. But Pearl- that Pearl… She knew I was in there. That we- That Lapis was in that mirror. She knew and she kept me- kept Lapis as a tool anyway.”
“We’ll make it up to you. I know how we can start.” Garnet said. “Come on. Mask Island’s warp pad is this way.”