Chapter Text
Paragon.
Noun.
1. A person or thing regarded as a perfect example of a particular quality:
1.1 A person or thing viewed as a model of excellence:
1.2 A perfect diamond of 100 carats or more.
https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/paragon
The Crystal Gems screeched and contorted as the song of the diamonds surrounded them, and Steven looked on in terror.
“G-guys!” The boy rushed to their sides, raising his shield to block the attack, but in seconds it was quite apparent that a small, translucent shield wasn’t enough. His mother had only been able to protect two other scared gems when the diamonds had released their song from the stratosphere, the discordant notes washing across an entire planet, dispersing and weakening enough to be deflected by the shield of a single, if strong, rose quartz.
But this wasn’t two gems, it was five now crouched on the beach sand, the edges of their forms growing fuzzy, their weapons dissolved in the first seconds of the song. And then it was six as Garnet bellowed and split into two smaller figures, holding one another and still crying out in pain, hazes of caustic hot and cold air clashing where they met.
And it wasn’t diamonds in the sky, shocked and maddened with grief. Not this time. This time, they stood before Steven, at the tideline—they had laughed at the oceanic attacks of Lapis, slapping them and her aside—and they did not cry out in grief, but with an anger which had festered for millennium. Even Blue Diamond, whose pain Steven had once shared, who kept a hundred of his own gems in stasis as a tribute to her beloved sister, had only briefly looked upon Steven’s gem before lashing out with a power that dissipated Alexandrite instantly, leaving the gems as they were now. Small. Separate. And falling to the Corruption.
“Steven!” Connie, who had been slapped aside before the song began, was back now, rushing to Steven’s side. Looking over her shoulder, she saw her mentor, who had begun to sprout sharp wings from her back, and gasped. “What do we do!? Could Stevonnie—”
“No!” Steven shouted, terrified. He imagined their fusion, also screaming, and then separating, Connie continuing to contort on the beach like the gems as the song went on and he felt nothing. “No, we can’t. We...we…”
“Then what do we do?” Connie shouted, struggling to be heard over the song of the diamonds.
“I...I don’t know!” Steven shook his head, tears flying off his cheeks. Not Blue Diamond’s make, but his own. “I...stop!” His voice cracked. The young hybrid looked up through his shield, to the faces of the diamonds who stood serene, eyes closed and mouths open in glorious, discordant song. “Stop!”
The diamonds did not react. Not to Steven’s words or the screaming of gems. Just as they had not reacted to the lapping of waves at their feet.
At Steven’s back, six gems shifted and grew, smooth skin mottling with spines and fur and scales. Ice and magma. Shards of glass.
“Stop!” Steven screamed. “Stop stop STOP!” He repeated himself, over and over, until the word became meaningless. And then he just screeched. One long sound, torn from his throat and battling the diamonds for volume. Crashing and clashing against their song.
And then blending with the song.
And then harmonizing.
And at Steven’s back, the cries of the gems shifted. What was once pain and fear became just...fear.
Connie again looked over her shoulder at the gems, then back to Steven, her mouth gaping. Finally, her gaze rose to the diamonds. Her breath caught somewhere deep down in her core, below her lungs, where it went cold and sour.
The eyes of the diamonds were open once more. Yellow and blue and the nearly transparent iris of the eldest, the largest by a full head, White Diamond. They looked down upon the gems, whose forms shrank once more, bestial traits melding back into almost-human skin and hair and clothes made of light.
They looked down at the little boy whose song had gained in strength, notes expanding on their own patterns, forming a small, repeating melody. Turning their song into his own.
It was Blue Diamond’s voice which faltered first, though her lips remained open as her chorus turned to silence. She blinked, rapidly, and a long-accustomed haze came to her eyes.
“Steven,” Connie whispered, but then stopped herself. She waited.
Yellow Diamond’s chorus broke with a crack deep in her throat. She leaned back, looking at her blue sister, and then again down at the boy. Her brows drew and her head shook just a small fraction. So miniscule that it would have been imperceptible on a human, only seen now as magnified by the gem’s enormous body.
And, finally White Diamond went silent, her mouth closed to a delicate bow. The lines at the corners of her eyes and lips deepened as she tilted her head to listen more carefully.
And still Steven sang, his voice large, yet growing raw. He sang and sang, for minutes past the silence of the diamonds, until his gem family had long since gone silent, but for heavy breaths.
The gems sat hunched together on the sand, too tired to stand, too tired even for Ruby and Sapphire to reform into their larger self. They sat and listened, looking at the back of their ward in awe.
And Steven sang, tears gathering on his cheeks and coursing down to soak into the collar of his shirt. He sang until his voice went harsh and until it cracked and only went on as a rasp. He dropped his shield and dropped to his knees at the same moment, mouth still open, breathing out harshly, only managing the occasional squeak as he tried to sing on.
And then the only sounds on the beach were labored breathing and the susurration of waves, forming unmatched rhythms across the sand.
It was Blue Diamond who broke the stillness, lowering to her knees with a grace that seemed truly alien from such a large creature. The waves coursed over the skin of her calves and the many folds of her robes, leaving behind granules of sand. Even so much lower, she still towered over the humans and gems, and when she reached out with a hand, Connie reacted at once, stepping in front of Steven, sword raised and teeth bared.
“Back off,” Connie growled, knuckles going white on her grip. Her arms were bruised and the right shoulder of her tank and the skin below were torn, but she stood, staring down a diamond, ignoring the blood which oozed down to her elbow.
Blue Diamond...hesitated. She looked to Steven, her brows drawn.
“Call off your pet,” Yellow Diamond said, voice cold, though her eyes were no longer so intense as they had been when she had emerged from her ship to stand alongside her sisters. She made no effort to hide her examination of the half-human boy, except for not joining her sister on the sand.
Steven scowled at Yellow Diamond, pushing himself back up to his feet. “She’s not a pet. She’s my friend.”
Yellow Diamond snorted. “No. She’s a human you taught to do a clever trick. Now, tell her to—”
“Shut up,” Connie snapped.
Yellow Diamond gasped and clenched her fists. “Why, you little—”
But her words were cut off as a delicate white hand came to rest on her shoulder. White Diamond, who was as serene now as when she had told her younger companions to begin the song which would torture and deform the final defenders of Earth. “Yellow. Think. It’s what you do . We must find out what happened, and we can’t do that if we all just began to fight again.”
“We weren’t fighting, we were finishing this,” Yellow replied, shrugging White Diamond’s hand away. “So let’s get back to—”
“No,” Blue whispered, and Yellow once more choked on her words, staring down at her companion.
Blue looked upon Steven and Connie, but did not reach out further. Instead, she let her hand rest on the beach, palm up, fingertips digging into the sand.
Connie and Steven looked to one another and huddled closer. Between them, the air seemed to grow a charge, and Steven’s gem let out a small glow.
“May I see you?” Blue Diamond said, voice straining for calm.
“Are you crazy?” Amethyst finally spoke up, rising from the beach, using a hand on Pearl’s shoulder as leverage. She looked...smaller. Though perhaps that was because of the proximity of the three enormous gems waiting at the tideline. “So you can shatter him, like you did to everyone in the war? Or do you just want something different for your little zoo? ”
“It’s not mine,” Blue said, frowning, eyes flickering to Amethyst before once more training on Steven. “It’s—”
“Blue,” White Diamond said, bringing her companion to silence.
One by one, the other gems joined Amethyst in standing. Pearl had to lean on her spear. Peridot and Lapis leaned on one another. Ruby and Sapphire stood in each other’s arms, too battered and exhausted to fuse, but needing to be close again. Each gem looked one hit away from dissipating their form, but they took small, awkward steps forward until little bits of their skin were brushing the backs of their human counterpart. They waited, ready for another final stand.
They waited. All of them. Three massive and elegantly attired diamonds. Six small, battered gems. One determined, but quaking human.
And Steven.
“What…” Steven licked his lips. His voice cracked on the word, but he gathered himself and tried again. “What do you want?”
Blue studied the boy’s face, and her lips curved in a small, gentle smile. “We’d like to see you.”
No one bothered with a “you can already see him.” They all just gathered closer to the boy. Their not-quite-leader. Their collective son. Steven looked around at his friends and back up to Blue Diamond.
“We will not harm you,” White Diamond said in her low, almost slow voice, each syllable pronounced with the precision of a diplomat. “You have my word.”
Peridot snorted.
Yellow Diamond shot the little gem a glare, and there was just a moment when Peridot quelled. Then she stuck out her lower lip and straightened her spine, hands out, a strange tension entering the air as she reached for all the metal on the beach. Abandoned bottlecaps and lost coins and entire ships seemed to shimmer. None moved, but all seemed to wait, as if alive and eager as trained hounds.
Yellow Diamond rolled her eyes.
Blue Diamond spoke again. “Please.”
Steven frowned at the word, gaze flickering between his three enemies. All around him, his many protectors didn’t move. Connie barely seemed to breath. The diamonds looked on.
Steven looked to the sand covering his toes, where his feet had sunk down under the force of the diamond’s attacks. He was still surprised he hadn’t been outright buried by their power. It was...unstoppable.
Steven reached out and lay a hand on Connie’s shoulder. The muscles twitched under his touch, but she did not break her focus on the diamonds.
“Okay,” Steven said.
“ WHAT!? ” Pearl shouted, taking her eyes off White Diamond to gape at Steven. “No! Not ‘ okay’ !”
“Yeah,” Amethyst joined in, “they’re just getting your guard down so they can shatter you.”
Blue gave a small shake of the head, opening her mouth, but Steven spoke first.
“They can do that anytime they want. You know that.” He took a deep breath. “We can’t win this. So...okay.”
“Steven. Please,” Ruby choked out. “You can’t. You...Sapphire, tell him not to.” She looked to her lover, but the royal gem was looking at her hands. “Sapphy?”
“He...he has to,” Sapphire breathed.
“He does not!” Pearl shouted.
“I do!” Steven snapped, turning to glare at Pearl.
She flinched back. Just an inch, but more than enough for Steven to notice. He took a breath, clenching his fists at his side. “I do. I will.” He turned again, looking up at Blue Diamond. “I will. Connie?”
The girl, his companion, his knight, stood between Steven and the diamonds, sword raised, for some moments more. Then it seemed all the will was sapped from her. Connie’s arms lowered, the tip of Rose’s sword digging into the sand. She turned to Steven, gaze lowered, hair obscuring her eyes.
“Connie?” Steven whispered, reaching out to cup her cheek.
“If they hurt you,” she said, her tremors so violent Steven could feel them in his fingers, “I’m going to kill them.”
White Diamond let out a soft laugh, pressing a hand to her chest. “I forgot why she liked them so much. Amusing creatures.”
Connie held out a hand to the diamond and made a gesture whose meaning failed to cross species barriers.
Steven snickered, but quickly grew quiet. He took a moment, looking about at the battered, yet valiant gems. Each plead without words, and he smiled.
Then he stepped away from his family and walked onto Blue Diamond’s palm.
When Blue rose from her crouch and lifted her hand, it was with all the care of a grandmother embracing her child’s firstborn. A little shaky, a little unfamiliar with the maneuver after so many years, but desperate. Her fingers curled up, not into a fist, but into the cup of a hand at rest. Steven reached out to steady himself on the diamond’s pinky—the smallest joint of the massive digit was a fair bit larger than his head—but it was entirely unneeded, his rise through the air so slow and gentle.
She brought him up in a smooth arc, slowing as the boy came close to her face, stopping so close that, if he had edged up to the heel of her palm and leaned far out, he could have rested his own hands on the diamond’s nose.
At Blue Diamond’s side, Yellow and White leaned in, Yellow pressing her chest to Blue’s back as she strained close, White holding back only enough to allow the smaller pair their fill.
Steven considered speaking. He could tell them about Earth and all the living things on it, as he’d done with Lapis and Peridot. Or about the ways the Crystal Gems had grown and changed in his lifetime, becoming things never seen before on Homeworld. Or maybe he could tell them the story of his mom and dad. About how they fell in love. About how they made him.
But before he’d worked up the courage to say anything, White Diamond began to hum, joined in moments by Blue and Yellow Diamond, and he froze in horror as the trio opened their mouths to let out a single note.
On the sand below, Connie and the gems cried out his name, and Steven wished he was back with them, instead of feeling the power of the diamonds’ slam into his gem.
But there was...no pain. His skin didn’t crawl, he didn’t double over. Steven stood tall and...confused. Even more-so as he realized the diamonds were no longer singing their one note and no longer looking at him, but focusing their gazes just behind him, each of their eyes reflecting something...something….
Steven spun around.
“No,” he whispered.
The shape of a shimmering pink diamond hung in the air, bright and strong.
Under his feet, Blue Diamond’s once confident hand began to shake, and Steven stumbled, losing his grip on the gem’s fingers. His sandaled feet sought purchase, and found none, and the boy fell backwards, arms waving, towards the sand below.
It was less than a second before he landed in a pair of cupped palms, shocked by their hardness and coolness, the abrupt landing forcing half the air from his lungs. He gasped to regain his breath, and then gasped once more as he looked up at the close and suddenly vibrant eyes of White Diamond, who was...smiling.
“What...what is that?” Steven whispered, sprawled on the elder leader’s hands. “Is that...because Pink Diamond made my gem?”
“No,” White Diamond said. “No, it is not.”
“T...then...what is that?”
White Diamond gave a soft laugh. “Little gem. You tell me. What are you?”
At the elder gem’s side, Blue Diamond’s once-comforting hands had gone to her mouth, trying to muffle small cries. Yellow Diamond had her arms around her quaking sister, shaking her head.
“I’m...I’m a Crystal Gem,” Steven said, pushing himself up to his knees.
“No,” Blue Diamond croaked. “ You’re not. You’re—”
“Blue,” White Diamond warned, “let him say it.”
“You’re her,” Yellow Diamond finished for her sister.
Steven looked between the trio. “I...I’m not Rose Quartz. She’s my—”
“You’re her,” Yellow Diamond repeated, and Steven saw something on the tactician’s face that he had never thought possible. Tears. “You’re her.” She reached out, cupping her hand under White Diamond’s, as if she desperately wished to hold the boy, as well. “Pink. Pink Diamond, it’s...it’s you .”
Far below, on the beach, shocked silence.
And then Amethyst called up, “He’s WHAT?”
“Did you know?” Steven asked, for what felt like the millionth time in his life, though just the first time that night.
A jumble of “nos” and “of course nots” and one “HE’S WHAT?” was Steven’s response, and it was all so automatic—and the gems generally so bad at lying—that Steven believed. Which was no comfort. He groaned, pulling a fuzzy orange blanket tighter around his shoulders, and scooted back, closer to the furnace.
Around him sat his family. Greg, of course, who had arrived too late for the sudden battle (probably the best for his poor, beleaguered heart). But also the Crystal Gems, Lapis and Peridot included. Connie sat at Steven’s right hand, a phone in her lap, fielding a constant influx of texts; not just from her parents—who demanded a reply every five minutes, or they were coming to take their daughter home, so help them!—but from Mayor Dewey. And Sadie (and Lars, at her side). The Frymans and Pizzas, Vidalia’s clan, and even Uncle Andy, far off in Croatia and cursing a frozen engine and fuel scarcity. The arrival of three massive aliens had been noticed by the whole world, and the world wanted answers.
To be fair, so did the gems.
It looked like no one was getting them, though.
Despite all of the fighters having taken a trip to Rose’s Fountain for healing, all somehow looked haggard, if more wary than weary.
“It just...it doesn’t make sense,” Greg said. “I spent so much time with Rose. You all were with her for thousands of years. Surely someone would have seen her turn into an even more enormous woman? ” He threw his hands in the air. “It’s not like that would be something you could miss!”
“I saw her...shattered,” Pearl whispered. “I was there. Rose and I—” She cut herself off, clenching a fist and pressing it to her lips. “I saw it. Hundreds of gems watched Pink Diamond shatter.”
“Not to mention Steven having, you know, Rose’s gem and not a big diamond!” Amethyst said.
“Yes!” Pearl agreed. “Those diamonds are wrong! They have to be.”
“But...he resonated to their song,” Peridot muttered, chewing on a knuckle. “The Diamond’s call...but not the...the other one.” She shivered. “I...look. The evidence all points in one direction.”
“It’s just a song,” Lapis said, though she, too, shuddered at the memory of her fingers turning to glass. “Maybe it’s because Steven is a hybrid? After all, he was able to bypass the security barriers on the ship. And you said he was able to keep his form when he broke the safety barriers on the Ruby ship.”
“Maybe that’s how he avoided being corrupted, but what about Steven’s song?” Peridot said, looking to the human boy. “I’ve never heard of a gem being able to stop the corruption song...except if that gem was another diamond.”
“Whatever that was about, it got the diamonds to leave,” Lapis said. “We’ve got until dawn to come up with a new plan.” She looked to Garnet. “Alexandrite wasn’t strong enough, but maybe if Steven and Connie joined? And if Peridot and...and I…” She swallowed.
“It wouldn’t be enough,” Garnet said, dispassionate. “Even if we brought back Bismuth and every gem in this temple, we couldn’t take on a diamond, let alone three.”
Steven gasped. “T-the other gems! Garnet, if I could stop the song, shouldn’t I be able to reverse it?”
“How, Steven?” Garnet asked, quelling the boy’s excitement with two low, pained words. “That song hurt you. You still don’t sound right.”
Steven reached up to touch his throat. Even drinking from the fountain hadn’t soothed the hot scratch that came with every word. Aspirin had helped dull the pain, but he could feel it waiting for when the double-dose wore off.
“It was less about stopping the song than...negating it,” Peridot said. “And shocking the diamonds enough to stop. If they had tried again when you stopped singing….”
“But...but I want to try,” Steven said, a crack on the final word, though that crack was more similar to the ones that had begun to sneak into his speech in the last few months, rather than from the day’s strain. “I can do it. Listen. Ahhh,” Steven opened his mouth to sing, but it came out shrill and wavery. “Aaaaaaa,” he tried again, frowning. “Aaaaah-huu-hugh.” The boy’s creaking song dissolved into coughing and a wheeze. He rubbed at his injured throat, going silent.
“Give it a few days, buddy,” Greg said. “I’ve blown my voice at a few concerts in my day. Gargle with salt water and drink some honey and ginger tea. You’ll be singing in no time.”
“We don’t have ‘no time,’” Peridot said, flailing her arms. “We don’t have any time!”
“They’re kind of the same thing,” Lapis said, rolling her eyes.
“Either way, even I know we need a plan,” Amethyst said, turning her focus to Garnet. “So...what’s going to work?”
It was an unsettling question from Amethyst. She’d never dismissed Garnet’s abilities, but none could recall a time when the purple gem had sought out the future. Amethyst—and all quartz kind—were responders. Doers, fighting against gems and fate, never accepting any loss.
Garnet sighed, pushing her visor up to rub her third eye. “They have a sapphire on one of those ships. Probably many sapphires. Having them so close...it fuzzes the future. I can’t see past White Diamond arriving at the old battlefield in the morning.”
“But...they’ll be there?” Steven asked. “It’s not a trap?”
“They can be there and it could still be a trap,” Connie said, and all went silent at the truth in her words.
Steven rubbed his round gem. There was no way he was some...long-dead diamond. How long was it going to take the Homeworld gems to realize that? Well...Jasper had never seemed to catch on, but she, to be frank, didn’t seem quite so intelligent as those massive diamonds.
More importantly, did he even want the diamonds to realize he wasn’t one of them? What would they do when their hope was once-again...well, shattered?
“It sounds like we don’t really have any options but to go,” Greg said, looking at his son. “We’ve just got to show up, right? Like to a coworker’s wedding. You gems can't fight the diamonds. Talking to them is our only chance.”
“I guess you’re...wait, ‘our?’” Steven said, looking to his father. “‘Our?’ Dad, no. You can’t even fight. You’ll—”
“I’m not letting my son do this alone,” Greg said, reaching out to lay a hand on Steven’s knee.
“That’s right,” Connie said, sending a final text to her parents and long-pressing on her phone’s power button until the screen went dark. “We’re all going, Steven. Whatever happens, we face this together. Humans and gems, fighting for Earth!” She held a fist up in the air, earning a whooping cheer from Amethyst.
“Aw yeah,” Greg said, holding his palm out to Connie, who gave him an enthusiastic high-five that left him shaking his palm out and blowing on his fingers.
“Sorry, Mister Universe,” Connie said, blushing. “Training. I guess I’m still not used to being so...strong.”
“No, it’s fine,” Greg said, standing. “That’s good. It means we have the best possible chance tomorrow. But know what else will give us an even better chance?” He raised a brow at the gems and human children, an enormous smile on his face.
“E...explosives?” Peridot asked, hesitant.
Greg pause. “I mean...maybe. But I meant a good night’s rest. Come on, everyone. Gems, you too. Time to cool down and head off to sleep.”
Peridot groaned. “I’d much rather it be explosives. I hate sleeping.”
“You only have to do it once,” Greg cajoled.
“You’ll only get to do it once,” Lapis muttered, wiping the smile from Greg’s face.
“Greg is right,” Garnet said, standing and walking towards the bathroom, stopping just to its left and opening a thinner, slatted door. “There’s nothing we can do to train that won’t exhaust us.” Pulling out a stack of blankets that rose nearly as high as her hair, Garnet made her way back to the lounge, where she tossed the blankets up high, each falling down in gentle, perfectly flat rectangles, marking out beds for each of the meeting’s participants. “Now. Go get ready for bedtime.”
Lapis sighed, also taking to her feet. “Fine, but, we can’t leave Veggie Head overnight. Last time we tried that, he got pump-napped by racoons.” Glancing down to Peridot, she added, “Come on.”
Peridot, still deep in a scowl, grumbled back, “Do you really need me for that?”
Lapis paused, chewing on her lower lip. Tentative, she reached out with a hand, waiting.
Peridot took some moments to notice the hand, and finally looked up. Her scowl faded and she studied the blue gem, eyes darting across her thin face.
“I need you,” Lapis said, softly. “Really.”
In the background, Amethyst and Pearl shot one another glances, brows rising, before turning back to the little drama that was the barn gems.
“Oh...okay,” Peridot couched and reached out, allowing Lapis to encompass a hand with her own. A little tug and she was also on her feet, lead by her barn-mate, threading their way between gem and human legs. PEridot held her head high, the angle of her visor hiding her eyes, though it was unable to mask the dark green on her cheeks. Mercifully, all in the room remained quiet until the pair had mounted the warp pad and phased away.
The moment the pair of gems was gone, though, Amethyst crowed in glee. “Finally! Go get it, P-dot!” Woofing, she pumped her arm in the air, cheering on the long-absent gem.
Steven tilted his head, looking to Amethyst. “Go get wh-aaaaah!” Mid-way through his word, understanding dawned, and Steven went into a cracking shout. It took some seconds to recover from the jab of pain in his throat, but when he had, his excitement had only grown, his volume barely kept in check. “Oh em gee, I’ve got to see this!” Jumping to his feet, he sprinted towards the warp pad, but soon found his feet swinging several inches off the ground.
Garnet raised Steven up by the back of his shirt, making sure to hold on low, so he wouldn’t choke. “No one is to follow Peridot and Lapis. This is a private moment for them, and I will not have it turned into a show.”
“But...but....awwww….” Steven slumped, bending at his waist. His toes and fingertips both nearly touched the floor. “But fusion….”
“Garnet is right, Steven,” Pearl said, standing and coming over to her charge, putting her hands under his arms to lift him back up to a standing position. “They deserve some privacy.”
“Speaking of privacy,” Garnet said, letting Steven’s shirt go and looking down at Pearl. “I think there’s enough time before bed for a phone call.”
“Hmmm? Oh!” Pearl straightened up, arms going rigid at her sides and a light blue blush covering not only her cheeks, but also rising up the back of her neck. “I...yes. Yes, true. I...yes.” Patting Steven’s hair as a last bit of comfort, she trotted past the warp pad and to the temple door, which lit up and slid open, letting Pearl in to her inner sanctum.
As the door closed again, Amethyst looked about at the other five remaining beings, lips quirking. “Well. Anyone looking to have some private time? I know, I’m intimidating, but I’m a real pussycat when you get to know me.” To illustrate, her form glowed bright, sinking down until all were presented with a luxurious, fluffy cat, who sat up and tossed her head back before licking at the ruff of fur on her chest.
Greg laughed, pushing himself over on the couch and reaching out to twitch a finger under Ame-cat’s chin. “Aw, how can anyone resist that offer?”
Leaning into Greg’s hand Amethyst allowed first her chin to be scratched, and then her ears, before her body began a long undulation under the human’s hand as she walked over and settled on his lap.
Greg’s laugh turned a fraction strained. “Okay...uh...is this weird?”
“You’re a sack of thinking meat, dude. Of course it’s weird. Between the shoulder blades. Yeah. Aw yeah. That’s the stuff.”
Looking up at his son, Greg tried to regain his smile, but only managed on his upper lip, and just on one side. “Does she do this a lot?”
“Only to the unsuspecting,” Connie said, standing.
“Unsuspecting?” Greg looked down at Amethyst, who stretched, paws flexing, revealing inch-long claws.
“Yeah,” the girl said, going to Steven’s side. “I learned better after the first time I missed training because she wouldn’t let me up. You’re stuck.”
Groaning, Greg let his head fall back on the couch back. “Ugh...just like a real cat.” His hand slowed as the will left his body.
Which was not to Amethyst’s liking. Sabre-sharp, but so-delicate claws curved down into Greg’s leg, not puncturing, but pushing in the skin of Greg’s thigh in a clear and diplomatic warning. The human clued in and got back to his scratching duties.
“Garnet,” Connie said, looking up at the mountain of a gem, “is there enough time for a walk before bed? To relax?”
Garnet opened her mouth to answer, then paused. While she continued, as was her usual, to display very little emotion, there were little twitches on her face. The right side seemed to tense up, lips curving down, while the left was soft and smooth, mouth not so much smiling as serene. Sighing and giving a nod, Garnet turned from the two children, climbing the stairs to Steven’s room to fetch pillows. “Fifteen minutes. Then, bedtime .”
“Yes! Thanks, Garnet!” Connie cheered. Reaching out, she wrapped her fingers around Steven’s wrist, pulling him to the beach house door. “Come on! Let’s see if we can find any sand dollars.”
At first pulled off balance by his surprisingly strong friend, Steven got his feet back under himself quickly, doing a few jogging steps to catch up with Connie’s stride. “Huh? Connie, it’s high tide, we won’t find any—” But his words were cut off by another tug as Connie pulled her friend through the door and began to sprint down the stairs, only slowing when feet met sand. That being more from necessity, given how impossible it is to run on dry, loose sand without tripping and getting a mouthful of grit.
Still, they moved quickly for two people walking on sand, tethered to one another by Connie’s strong grip, which showed no sign of easing. It wasn’t uncomfortable, and Steven was sure he could twist free with no protest from the girl, but she was so focused on moving forward that he just let himself be carried along without an explanation. Just the sound of breath growing a little more labored and the crunch-squeak of sand pressed under feet.
Connie didn’t stop until they had nearly reached the tideline, where the ocean water added firmness to the shifting ground beneath their feet. There she paused, looking at the sky. Not at the moon rising over the ocean, creating a shifting reflection of itself in the water, but a bit above and to the left, where three shapes also hung in the air, far enough to only resemble blobs, though the light of the moon gave them a little shine. Yellow and blue and a white which shone like the moon itself.
Steven stood at Connie’s side, following her gaze for a moment. Once he realized what she had focused upon, he turned his attention away from the distant flagships of the diamonds, and to the girl’s face.
She still had a little scar on her cheek from her early training days. Maybe a half-inch long, and thin as pencil lead, but it was light on her brown skin, which had gone even darker as summer and the sun returned. It was the only real mark he could see, after their trip to the healing fountain, but he could recall each scrape and bruise and drop of blood she’d suffered just a few hours before. And he could hear her gasps and cries as the diamonds made their few, devastatingly effective strikes before the song.
But, despite all that, her eyes were still strong and keen, never wavering from the diamond ships on the horizon. Connie would attack the very flagships if Pearl had built her a shuttle.
It must have been at least a minute that they stood there. When Connie turned her head to look at Steven, she gave a small, strained laugh, reaching up to tuck a lock of hair behind her ears. She used her free hand, her grip on Steven’s wrist no less strong after all the time they’d been out. “So...do you feel any...different?”
Steven swallowed, and it felt like a lump remained in his throat. Not an obstruction, but a muscle spasm working its way slowly down. He didn’t think it was all from the singing. “I’ve felt like this for a long time,” he said.
“Yeah. I mean,” Connie shrugged, “if you were some kind of...other gem, you’ve always been that gem. Right?”
“Ah.” Steven paused, then nodded. “Yeah. Exactly. I don’t know what’s going on, but...it’s always been going on.”
“So you just need to figure it out!” Connie said, smiling. She gave Steven’s wrist a tighter squeeze, and then her grip finally slackened enough to give her friend’s arm its freedom.
Rather than taking it back, though, Steven turned his palm up, cupping it against Connie’s own, and then, slowly, shifting the grip until his fingers intertwined with hers, and they stood on the ocean, in the moonlight, looking down at their clasped hands and most definitely not at each other.
“I will figure this out,” Steven whispered.
“Mmmhmmm,” Connie agreed, a little squeak coming into her hum.
“And when I do….” Steven bit at his lower lip, daring to lift his eyes for a peek at Connie’s face. He smiled on realizing she, too, was worrying at her lip, and her scar stood out even brighter over blushing skin and rising moonlight.
“Connie?” Steven said, and it was a clear enough question that the girl looked up, waiting for the rest.
She was only a little taller than him, now. Maybe an inch. Despite being younger than him, she’d always been tall, but the last few months had changed things enough that, when Steven reached out and put his free arm around Connie’s shoulder, dragging her body to his, he was easily able to rest his chin on her shoulder and hers on his.
Connie stood, surprised in her friend’s embrace, before putting her own arm about Steven’s waist. It felt a little odd, standing there, each with an arm at their side so they could keep their fingers twined, but neither was letting go.
“It’s gonna be okay,” Steven whispered.
“I know,” Connie said, holding on tighter.
Steven turned his head, hiding his face in Connie’s neck, knowing she was going to feel the wetness of tears on her skin. He didn’t worry about that. She’d seen him cry plenty of times. He cried easily. And it wasn’t long before she, too, was shaking and pushing down sobs, only allowing hot, wet breath and strained squeaks out of her mouth.
There really wasn’t any way for them to comfort each other. No soothing shushes or “it’s gonna be okay” declarations. They knew it wouldn’t. There were three diamond ships on the horizon, only holding off their attack until they could figure out what this strange Earth boy was to them. And, once they realized he was nothing more than the killer of their beloved companion, it wasn’t just Steven who would suffer, but the entire planet. The life of everything below those ships was being measured in hours, by a race which thought of things in millennium.
It was, no doubt, longer than fifteen minutes before Garnet came onto the porch and called to her human charges. Future Vision, even when marred by the none-too-distant presence of another clairvoyant gem, had definite uses. Just enough time had passed for the crying to turn into a gentle emptiness, and for the ocean wind at night to dry their eyes. The children parted with smiles, wiping at their eyes, not bothering to hide the strain, even if they were unwilling to speak of it.
Then Steven and Connie walked back up the beach, fingers still laced together.
They drifted off to songs from Greg, who himself had betrayed drooping eyes and clumsy fingers as the night wore on. In a half-asleep daze, Steven saw Pearl reach out and ease the guitar from Greg’s hands, setting it aside and patting a pillow on the couch to urge him to just tilt a bit to the side, until he fell over into deep slumber.
Steven didn’t sleep solidly, but in fits. Several times, he woke to a dim light from his right as Pearl checked another text message. Other times, it was the shifting of Amethyst to his left as she fought for a better position. And, sometime after the moon had disappeared behind the temple, its light gone from the windows, the warp pad came to life, and all the gems, sat up, tensed, only to find it was Peridot, finally returned from the barn, Veggie Head cradled in her arms.
Pearl looked down at Steven, who closed his eyes, pretending sleep. It must have been good enough for her, as she whispered “Where’s Lapis?”
“The sea,” Peridot said, stepping around the tangle of bodies, finding a large area which had been left for her, Veggie Head, and one other. She set the half-animal, half-vegetable creature down, urging it to be quiet, and then lay on the blankets herself, moving in as close to the other gems as possible, instead of using the entire, geneous space available.
Questions hung in the air, but none were voiced, and all the Crystal Gems lay back down, their bodies taking on a still and quiet that would have been unnerving to anyone who had not grown up beside them.
In and out of sleep. He caught five minutes here, ten there, but it was the kind of night where, logically, you know you have slept, but you’re remain certain you lay there, awake and thinking, for every single minute.
It was still dark and quiet when Steven left his bed on the floor. His movements were slow and silent. Every moment, he expected Garnet’s large hand on his shoulder or his father’s voice, asking where he was going. Perhaps it was charity on their part as they saw Steven approach the Temple Gate and bring up its resonance with his gem. They all needed time alone, on occasion, in their sacred spaces. And with so little time left….
Steven stepped through into the brightness and pink clouds of his mother’s room, but he did not stay for long. Once inside, he called out to whatever powered the space, telling it where in the temple he needed to go, and it guided him there as it had those few years before, when he had only just begun to control his powers. He slipped out of his room and back in only moments later, holding something close in his arms. He breathed a sigh of relief, half unable to believe he’d gotten this far. He addressed the shifting clouds once more. “Any way to get to the hand?” He asked.
A glowing rectangle appeared before the boy, solidifying into a wooden door, which he opened and stepped through, finding himself high above the beach, standing before a washer, dryer, and warp pad.
And one very pissed-off pink lion, sitting upon the warp pad. It was actually rather impressive the degree of disdain the creature could exude without moving, and while being so glaringly...pink.
“Oh, h-hey...Lion,” Steven greeted, all false enthusiasm, holding his prize close to his chest. “Waiting, uh...for the sun?”
Lion flicked an ear and blinked slowly at Steven, the ocean breeze ruffling his fur.
“I, uh...I think I just heard the Big Donut opening and putting out the trash. I bet they’ve got some expired Lion Lickers in there.”
Lion perked up, sitting a bit taller and looking off down the beach. After a moment, however, he seemed to compact again, looking back at Steven, tail lashing.
“Heh...yeah. I guess you’d know before anyone,” Steven said. “Look, Lion. I...I need to go somewhere on the warp pad. Could you…?”
Lion looked upon the hybrid boy, impassive.
But then, he shifted. Just a bit to one side. He was still well on the warp pad, but there was a little space to his left. Just enough for a child. He looked down on it, and then back to Steven, head tilted.
“Oh. You...want to come with?” Steven asked.
Lion sat silent.
“Um...okay,” Steven said, coming forward and mounting the platform. “But you have to be good, okay? No hunting up weird animals or digging or, er...grooming yourself. Beha-ow!”
Steven ducked down and rubbed the back of his head, looking over his shoulder at the lashing, thick tail of the cat. How could something with such a fluffy tip hit so hard? One of these days, Lion was going to break something.
“Just...just be good. Please.” Steven said, knowing that the request was all but useless. Lion was a cat. And a feral one, at that. He’d do what he wanted.
Steven paused there on the warp pad only a moment longer. He kept expecting it to light up and for Lion and himself to be pushed off as several angry gems transported up to ask just what, precisely, he was doing, and with...with that ? But it was just the setting moon and the blinking stars and the line on the horizon where you could barely tell that the ocean ended and the sky began.
Steven took a steadying breath, hugging his arms tighter about the bubble in his arms, and activated the transport.
His body turned to light and the warp spirited him away to that strange, interstitial space between spaces. He had just enough time to straighten from his stealthy crouch before he felt himself go solid again. Steven stood in a sweet-scented wilderness of vines and strawberries, already awash in the light of a day that was still hours from touching Beach City.
“Early,” a voice said from behind the boy, and he spun around to find not three gems waiting, but one. Still tall and powerful and terrifying, but just one creature, her pale skin almost reflective in the bright light of the noon sun overhead.
White Diamond actually...sat. She was sitting on the ground of the Strawberry Battlefield, shifted to one hip, her legs curled up at her side, hands folded gently on her lap. Her diaphanous gown was unsoiled, despite being pressed to the dirt, and she seemed to give off a faint light as the sun reflected off her skin. She looked down upon the boy, but it wasn’t from nearly so far away as when they battled. And her gaze certainly was far less distant than when he was merely the new form of an old, hated enemy. It was...curious.
“Where is the rest of your retinue?” White Diamond asked, turning her gaze to Lion, who was ignoring her steadfastly, flopping down on the warp pad, pushing Steven off the surface with a back paw.
“Where’s yours?” Steven asked, mentally cursing himself for the sullen turn in his voice.
If any offense had been given, it wasn’t received, as White Diamond shrugged. “I do not have the best grasp of time, I suppose. Especially in such small quantities. So, I am also...early.” She smiled, and it was...warm. Easy. Perhaps not familiar, but unconcerned. “Now...do you intend to answer any of my questions today?”
“Yes,” Steven said. Then shook his head. Then nodded. Then sighed. “Yes, but...I’m here alone because I have a question, and I need to know the answer right now.”
White Diamond extended a generous hand. “Ask away.”
Steven looked down on the bubble wrapped in his arms. He held it out. “You caused the Corruption?”
White Diamond looked about at the field. At the weapons that served as the final remnants and memorials of a thousand-thousand gems. At the strawberries run wild on the ambient energy of their fights and their deaths. At all that had once been.
She sighed. “If you speak of the song we sung to end the war on this planet, then yes. The other diamonds and I did cause the Corruption. But I really do think you can’t put all of the blame on us. The Crystal Gems did shatter many of our soldiers, and my own sister.”
“I know, I know,” Steven said, words rushing out of his mouth with far too little thought. “But you made gems get sick. You made gems like this.” He held out the bubble, urging the diamond to look.
She did. Though she didn’t lean in and though her eyes were so far away from the bubble and the gem inside that any human would have been strained to see more than a vague geometric shape, Steven had the impression she could see each facet of the cut and each blemish on its hard surface.
“Yes,” she said. “We did.”
“You did it,” Steven said. “So you fix it.”
White Diamond blinked. Genuine shock was obvious on her face, and, on a diamond, it almost seemed comical. But then she frowned, and it sent a chill through Steven’s heart.
“Why?” she asked.
“Because you did this!” Steven shouted. “You did this, to Crystal Gems and to your gems and to gems who just couldn’t get out of the way fast enough. My home is filled with the gems of soldiers who were turned into monsters just for doing what they were told, or for doing what was right , and you need to fix this , White Diamond. If you’re any kind of...of gem like other gems, if you feel like other gems, then you need to fix them!”
Sighing, the diamond rolled her eyes, rubbing at the deep line between her brows. “I didn’t mean why should I? Seriously, I don’t care either way. I meant why haven’t you? ”
Steven let out a small, cracked noise. He looked down at the bubble in his arms. At the orange gem within, and the blue and green mottling that had nearly overtaken the entire surface. He had to control his grip on the bubble, because he was so close to just tightening his arms and letting it pop, and letting the gem inside emerge. “But...I can’t.”
“Of course you can,” White Diamond said, upper lip curving up in a light snarl. “You’re a diamond.”
“I don’t know how!” Steven shouted, and the force of the words, even from such a small creature, had White Diamond leaning back. Just a few degrees, though it translated to several feet of her large body.
She opened her mouth to shout back a reprimand...and stopped.
Below her, the small diamond—this strange creature she had never seen before, but which she had felt so many times, which she had stood beside for centuries, and which she had said goodbye to millennia ago—was crying.
Surely, it wasn’t an activity she was unfamiliar with. Over the years she must have spent many nights at Blue Diamond’s side, soothing her through long grief, wishing she knew what to do for someone who found themselves unable to move on.
“I...I don’t know how,” Steven said, his tears falling onto the bubble and sliding off its surface. “This...this one is my fault, and I don’t know how to fix it. Please. Please, just...just fix it.”
White Diamond looked to the sky. Far above, barely visible, two ships were descending. Blue and Yellow, on time to the coming meeting, surely ready with battalions and battle plans. Ready to end this era of loss, for all and good.
She again looked about the battlefield, at the strewn weapons of countless brave warriors. Gems she herself had directed to grow from the ground. Which she had greeted and evaluated and sent forth to serve Homeworld and their kind. Gems who were now only remembered by their weapons, and not by the shattered jewels that gave them life.
She looked down at the almost-human, almost-gem creature that shook and sobbed on a warp pad, holding onto one of the gems he had ordered created once, so long ago, in another life.
Gently, White Diamond reached out a hand.
“I will teach you,” she whispered.
Steven looked up, into the clouded-glass eyes of the diamond.
“I will heal her. This I will do for you. This once.” She held her hand out, inches from the bubble. “But then, I will teach you. And you will learn from me, and from my sisters. We will teach you how to be a diamond once again.”
Steven hesitated. But briefly. All he had to do was look down at the orange gem in his arms, and he knew what had to be done.
Gently, he placed the bubble on the diamond’s fingertips, giving it a little push so it rolled down onto her palm, where it rested in a confluence of lines.
“Do it,” he said. “Heal her.” He took a deep breath. “And then...teach me. Teach me everything.”
White Diamond smiled and gave a small nod.
She looked down at the miniscule pink bubble in her hand and clicked her tongue, soft and quick, the sound digging into the surface of the bubble, popping it.
The gem inside hung in the air. Then glowed. Both figures on the battlefield watched as it turned to light, growing in size, first becoming an enormous figure of power and purpose, a cascade of hair falling down its back. Then a wave of static passed over the gem, and it began to turn. It bent over, arms shortening and legs elongating. Its mouth turned to what could better be called a “maw,” lined with sharp edges instead of teeth. Its hair became a ridged mane, all down its spine. And all over the skin, which was at first orange and cinnabar, green splotches spread and sprouted spikes, until it was hard to tell which color was more prominent.
The gem beast that was once Jasper rose to its hind legs and roared a challenge up at White Diamond.
White Diamond laughed. “Ah! Yellow Diamond was wondering where this one went. Well. Brash as ever.” Reaching out with one finger, she attempted to stroke the monster’s mane, but was warned off by slashing claws. “And as impertinent as ever, she will be disappointed to know. Though...I suppose this one isn’t her problem anymore.” White looked down on Steven. “She’s yours.”
Steven frowned, opening his mouth to protest the ownership of this gem, but was silenced but an upraised finger from his elder.
“Now. Listen.” White Diamond turned her gaze back to Jasper and opened her mouth, pouring out a song.
And it was beautiful.
The beach house was roused long before dawn by the cries out on the sea. Distant, but shrill, cutting through the troubled sleep of all inside.
“Whuzza?” Greg mumbled, struggling to sit up from the absolute pit that was the old, sagging couch. He had barely got an arm under his chest by the time the gems had taken to their feet, rushing for the screen door, somehow managing to go through in a swift line, instead of bunching up. Connie was close behind, followed by a barking pumpkin dog.
“It’s Lapis!” Pearl shouted for the elder human’s benefit. “What is she sa—”
“They’re leaving! The ships are leaving!” The blue gem went from a small spot on the horizon to her full size hovering before them in seconds, flapping her wings before her to counteract her momentum. At her back, the ocean had parted ten feet down the surface, the waves crashing off to either side before filling back to the sea’s normally troubled level.
In the sky above, three spots of color were moving away, growing smaller, until they seemed no bigger than the last stars in the pre-dawn sky.
“Get Steven,” Lapis said. “They’re going to sing again!”
“ Liars! ” Pearl snapped, turning from Lapis to the other gems. “Quickly, we need to get inside the Temple. Steven, your shi—”
From far above, nearly out of the atmosphere, there came a tremendous boom and a flash of light.
They screamed. All, without any attempts at bravery. Even Connie, the safe human, screamed out final breaths, arms raised as ineffective guards.
Their screams faded out before the last echo of thunder from the sky. In the silence that followed, each waited for the first, terrible note.
The waves crashed on the beach, and birds startled away by the noise cried out in annoyance. In Beach City, car alarms set off by the explosion blared, turning off again one by one.
The beach house screen door creaked open and crashed closed.
“Where’s Steven?”
The gems turned to look at Greg, standing before the door, looking them over. They turned to one another.
“He went into his temple room last night,” Amethyst said. “I bet he’ll come out—”
The quartz was interrupted by the crash of Garnet’s knees hitting the wood deck, and then her fists slamming down to either side of her head as she screamed, “No, no , NO !”
“Garnet!” Pearl crouched next to the leader gem, laying a hand on her shoulder. “Garnet, what’s wrong? Are they going to sing?”
“No no no no no!” Garnet cried out again, and her body turned to light as she literally fell apart, leaving Sapphire supine where her greater self had just been, Ruby staggering back a few steps before getting her balance and looking down on the screaming seer.
“They’re gone,” Ruby said, oddly calm for the normally raving gem. “The ships, the other sapphires got far enough away, so Garnet looked for Steven and….” Ruby went to stand before Sapphire, laying her hands on the court gem’s shoulders.
“Ruby,” Greg said, words even, yet tense. “Where is Steven?”
Ruby shook her head. “We didn’t see him.”
Greg’s mouth opened in a croaking cry. Even without all the words, the final sentence, the worst fate for a parent, his eyes had begun to spill over in tears. “Is he...d...d—?”
“No,” Ruby said, looking up at the father. “No, if he was, we could see...we’d still see him, somewhere. We didn’t see him...anywhere.”
Peridot gasped, and looked up past Lapis, to the sky. “If you can’t see him, then….”
Lapis turned in the air, following the path of the retreating diamonds. “No. No!” Pumping her wings again, she streaked into the air, far faster than her wings themselves could accelerate.
She didn’t get far before coming to another sudden stop. For a moment, Peridot couldn’t see the reason. Then, far off in the sky, a speck appeared. Small and blurry, at first, but falling swiftly into Lapis’s outstretched palms.
Her wingbeats slowed. Lapis began to descend, gentle, controlled, until her bare feet touched the wooden deck, and still she continued down, legs folding under her until she sat back on her thighs, feet just visible under her pooling skirt.
“Sapphire,” Ruby whispered, shaking her lover’s shoulders. “It’s a communicator. The diamonds sent a communicator.”
Sapphire shook her head, continuing her cries, though they grew softer, the ice forming around her body growing at a glacial rate.
“What is that?” Greg said, stepping to Sapphire’s side. “Some kind of ransom letter? What does it say? How can you even read that?”
“No, it’s,” Pearl began, then sighed. “Here.” Reaching out, she twisted the top of the octahedron, which moved smoothly for a full rotation before becoming suddenly stuck. From within, a pink light began to glow and the communicator rose out of Lapis’s hands.
The gems and humans looked on as the glow strengthened, overtaking the other colored sides of the octahedron, which suddenly split in two, the pieces moving apart, the glow between then turning flat and solid and, suddenly, shifting from a plain, bright pink and into a full-color display of a room, though said room was, for the most part, a sterile white.
A boy sat in the middle of the screen, a strained smile on his face and an enormous pink lion lounging behind him, forming the back of his seat on the floor.
“Hi, everyone,” Steven Universe said, waving, then quickly looking away from the screen. “Um...gosh, where to begin?”
“You begin,” Pearl shouted, stamping her foot, “by coming down here this instant!”
“First of all, this is a recording,” Steven said, and Pearl screeched in frustration. “Sorry. I know I’m not going to be able to answer all your questions, because I won’t think of all of them. But, uh...here goes?”
On the deck of the beach house, gems and humans looked at one another and, without saying a word, began to move closer. Even Sapphire went silent, shifting from her wailing crouch to sit in the icy patch, arms wrapped about her knees. Ruby stood at the blue gem’s side, arms wrapped around her partner’s shoulders, squeezing to remind Sapphire that she was still there.
Up above, the image of Steven took a deep, preparatory breath. “You’re safe,” he said, then quickly, “I’m safe. We’re all...all of us, the Earth, everyone. We’re safe. Don’t worry, the diamonds won’t be coming back, they won’t be sending anyone. That would be…” He held up his hands, making air quotes, “‘Interfering with a sister-colony.’ At least, that’s what we’re calling things until we come up with a better term for….” He frowned. “Gah...beginning, beginning.”
A longer pause came as the boy sorted out his thoughts. None below complained, as they all studied their loved one’s face for emotions, for connections, for anything.
“Okay,” Steven said. “The diamonds think I’m a diamond. Pink Diamond. And...I don’t know, maybe there’s something there, because I...I can do things mom couldn’t. But only a few things, and not the things you need me to do. Things like...protecting the Earth or leading the gems or...healing Corruption.” He looked directly at whatever device had been used to record his speech. “They can do all that. Diamonds can heal Corruption. White Diamond, she…” Steven paused, biting his lower lip, then looking off to the right.
He turned back to the camera. “Hey, Peridot? Um, get ready to calm down Lapis, okay?”
Peridot frowned and, though she knew it was a recording, she asked Steven “Why?”
Her answer came as Steven reached out, grabbing his recording device and moving it so the view shifted, no longer straight back at his face, but over his right shoulder.
Standing some thirty feet away, crossing her arms and leaning against a vast window—an entire glass wall, it seemed, with no frame in sight—looking out on a view of the Earth below, stood a familiar, enormous, and no longer green-mottled orange gem. It took the gem some moments to realize she was under scrutiny, and when she did, Jasper looked up for only a second before scowling and turning her back on the recorder.
Down on Earth, Lapis screamed. “No! No, Steven, NO! Get AWAY from her!”
Peridot hesitated, looking between the screen above and her friend, before edging in towards the elder gem. “Calm down. We need to hear Steven, Lap—”
“Shut up!” Lapis snarled, turning on Peridot, her wings raised high above her head, the very tips curved back down, edges sparkling like glass in the rising sun.
Peridot’s mouth hung open and she looked up at the face of her companion. Then, swiftly, she looked to the ground, taking a step back, hand going to fists at her side.
“I know you’re not okay with this,” Steven said, returning the camera to its original position, flopping back onto Lion, who huffed at the impact, raising his head to give Steven a reproachful look. “But White Diamond healed Jasper, and then she did that song thing, where the pink diamond came out of me and….” He sighed, rubbing his hands over his face. “None of us—me, the diamonds, Jasper—none of us know what is going on. But Jasper...she said she wouldn’t hurt me.” Steven frowned, brows drawing. “Vowed, really.” Shaking his head, he tried to meet gazes across the screen once again.
“A diamond can cure corruption, but they won’t just...do it for me. Not to everyone. It’s that ‘interfering with a sister-colony’ excuse. If we’re going to get rid of corruption on Earth, then...I’ve got to do it myself. And...I don’t know how. Yet.
“So we—White Diamond and I—made a deal. It took a few hours, and there’s still some little bits to work out, but it’s...fair.”
Steven hesitated, then. For quite some time. He looked down at his hands, fingers laced together, with the thumbs rolling over one another. He had a few near-starts. Single sounds, not even words, each waved away as he went back to thinking.
Down below, no one was speaking. Greg had long-since settled down on the ground. The early-morning wake-up, the disappearance of his son, and the sudden presence of this communique from space having raised his adrenaline and heart rate too quickly for the out of shape man. His heart didn’t so much race as seemed barely to beat, and Amethyst had gone to his side, feeling his forehead and pressing her fingers to his neck. Whatever she felt didn’t seem to increase her alarm, but she kept by the man’s side.
Ruby rocked Sapphire, shushing her little cries, trying to hold her close, as if holding the gem was nearly as good as being fused once more.
Pearl was crying. Without any sounds, merely letting the tears cascade down her cheeks. But she would not wipe them away or hide her face in her hands, because she needed to look up at her charge. She had to keep looking at his face.
Lapis, stood, wings still outstretched, shaking and Peridot looked on, terrified, more terrified than she had been facing the Cluster. Even Veggie Head seemed to feel the tension, backing up from the pair to go stand next to Connie.
Connie. Who merely shook her head, whispering, so quiet her repeated word had been overtaken by each of Steven’s own, a constant litany of “no no no.”
Steven took a deep breath and finally continued. “They get to teach me for as long as you taught me.” A very brief pause before he shook his hands at the recorder. “Not five thousand years! Gah, no. I mean, they wanted that, but they knew it wasn’t an option.
“Fourteen years. They’ll teach me for fourteen years. All about gems. Writing and technology and culture. And...how gems are made.” He hesitated there. “On ancillary colonies. Nowhere that there’s complex life. That was one of my demands.
“I said no, at first. I didn’t...I don’t want to make gems. But what the diamonds did to Earth, trying to create more gems...there’s got to be a better way. And I’m not going to find it if I don’t learn how it’s done in the first place.
“So, making gems and leading gems and...and how to heal the Corruption.”
“Fourteen years?” Greg said, as if it had taken this long to process. And perhaps it had.
“But...but…” Connie said, “but he’ll be an adult! We’ll be old when he’s done!”
“I wish there was some other way,” Steven said, closing his eyes, his lashes ushering small teardrops down his cheeks. “But this is what I have to do. The diamonds said...if you had me for fourteen years without them interfering, then you had to do the same for them. They won’t let you send me any messages directly. This communicator will only work one more time, and the only message they’ll pass on is if one of you all is really hurt. If it...looks bad, I can come home.” He gave a strained smile. “But...do me a favor, guys? Take Dad to the fountain every few weeks, okay? The diamonds...did not like that concession.”
“Because we won’t let you go again if you come back!” Greg shouted at the sky. “Steven! Steven, dammit, you come back this instant!”
“And the diamonds will let you send supplies,” Steven went on, his past self oblivious to his father’s mourning. “Food, seeds for growing fresh stuff, clothes, books, movies. Oh, and, Dad?”
“What?” Greg said, as if it were a real conversation.
“Please send a guitar, okay?” Steven smiled. “I don’t want to get out of practice.”
Greg suddenly let out a wail that the gems hadn’t heard in over fourteen years. Not since Greg had lost someone else who had meant everything.
“I’ve got to wrap this up. Um...geeze.” Steven huffed, rubbing the back of his neck. “Look, I know you’re all going to be worried. About what the diamonds are going to say to me, and what I’ll think of you because of what they tell me and just...don’t worry. I mean...you taught me first, right?
“Amethyst,” Steven said, and the purple gem sat up straighter, turning her attention from the boy’s father to the boy himself. “Our first stop is the Zoo. I’m kicking Holly Blue Agate out of there. Your sisters are going to be okay.”
Amethyst smiled, small, and whispered, “Thanks, bud.”
“Peridot,” Steven went on. “If I’ve got to make gems, I’m...I’m gonna give it everything I’ve got. I’m going to give them everything. Even if I can’t make as many as the other diamonds, I’m not cutting any corners. Every gem gets to be the best they could ever be.”
Peridot nodded, stern.
“And Pearl,” Steven said. “Whatever those gems are, they...they can be whatever they want. I told the diamonds that. I’m allowed to do what I want with my gems, and I am going to have them choose who they are.”
“Good,” Pearl whispered.
“And I promise you, Pearl,” Steven said, “I am never...never making a pearl. Never.”
Pearl let out a quick breath. “Yes. Good.”
“Garnet,” Steven addressed his leader. “I’m not going to keep everyone...divided. Or make them seem...different, or more or less important because of what type of gem they are. We’ll be gems. Just gems.”
Ruby continued to look at Sapphire, rocking her gently, but nodded in agreement.
“And, I guess...Lapis, I know you’re mad at me.”
Lapis flicked her wings.
“But I chose Jasper to be healed. What you both went through...I’m never going to let gems take advantage of each other. Not like that, not any other way. I’m gonna protect them, from each other and...from themselves.”
“But who is going to protect you , Steven?” Lapis keened. “Who’s going to protect you from her? ”
“Dad,” Steven said. “Dad. I’m going to be okay. All the other things, all the things that I learned that the gems didn’t teach me? That was all you. You taught me, Dad. I’m gonna be okay. After all...I’m Mom’s son, right?”
There was no way for Greg’s wailing to grow louder or more pained. It just went on and on.
“And...Connie.”
Steven sat forward, pressing his lips into a thin line. He looked away from the camera, a redness coming to his cheeks. His breathing picked up and he let out a quick, shrill laugh. Then he quelled that, focusing on the recorder, seeking out distant, deep brown eyes.
“Connie. Connie, I...I...” Steven hesitated, his tongue high up in his mouth, resting on his teeth, keeping in a sound half-formed. With a sob, he cut it off, reaching up to wipe at his eyes, before looking back at the recorder, tears already obscuring his vision again. “I’m gonna think of you every day. I’m gonna think of everyone, but I am going to think of you the most because, Connie, I already miss you so much it hurts, and I am so sorry . Please, believe me, I’m sorry, but I had to go.” He choked on a cry, hunching up his shoulders. “W...would you...could you send some jam with the supplies, bud?”
Down on Earth, Connie sobbed. Sobbed and nodded and shook her head, no no, then again yes, and no again, because she was lost, she couldn’t think, he was gone , already long gone, so far away that the light of his ship wouldn’t touch the Earth’s surface for dozens, maybe hundreds of years.
“Gosh, it must be almost dawn,” Steven said, looking back over his right shoulder, where the orange gem and the view of Earth awaited. “I really wish I could see that….” He sighed. Then, turning back to the recorder, he reached out, holding his hand over the device. “I’ve got to go. Don’t worry, everyone. I love you all. I’ll be okay. I’m coming home. I promise.” And then the screen went blank.
And Steven was gone.
Long, long gone.
And on the Earth far below, the cries began anew.