None of them had expected it. Sure they had dealt with humans dying before, they had even felt with humans they loved dying, but this was different. Greg didn't exactly lead a healthy lifestyle and while Sheena had outlived him she too passed with a few decades. Connie was next, though her time spent fused with Steven had extended her lifespan quite dramatically. But in the end there was nothing any of the gems could do for her.
Neither Steven or Pearl dealt with the losses very well but three hundred years had a way of dulling some of the pain. It would take much longer than three hundred years for the Crystal Gems to recover from losing Steven though.
He hadn't aged in close to four hundred years. Stuck as a young adult while the human around him grew up. They had assumed that he had inherited Rose's immortality. He wasn't exactly biologically a human after all, so immortality wasn't too big of a stretch of the imagination. Until one day it was. He had complained of a headache. They had shrugged it off as too much sugar in his diet.
It wasn't.
Humans - even those who were half Gem - weren't meant to live for four hundred years. Amethyst was the one to find him the next morning when she entered his room on her way to the kitchen. He had gone to bed the night before and just hadn't woken up. Instead there was nothing but a large pink gem lying under the covers of his bed.
There had been hope in the beginning, along with a huge helping of anxiety. It was possible he would reform. Maybe this time with a light based mass rather than the fleshiness of a human. The waiting drove Garnet to diffusion, and the six gems spent months keeping a careful vigil over the precious stone.
Peridot was the first to leave, Ruby the second - her grief and anger threatening to burn Steven's room down. Sapphire left shortly after when Ruby dragged her away. She should have seen this future! Amethyst only left when a large corrupted gem rose for the sea and started to attack New Beach City.
Only Lapis and Pearl were present when Steven's gem started to glow faintly. They had barely talked over the past few months, but both had accepted the touches and soft words of the other gems. Not easily at first, but eventually they even took turns watching while the other took a break. Lapis' usual stoic personality had cracked quickly as soon as she learnt the news, but now she watched with the same borderline arrogant apathy that she used to sport. Pearl wondered if even Peridot saw the brief glimmer of hope that was dashed everytime Lapis came back after a break to find nothing had changed.
Both of them reached a hand towards the dim gem before it flashed brightly and started to take form. Lapis grinned, Pearl cried. In that split second, as the light around Steven's gem grew larger and larger, Pearl knew the truth. She knew who was forming, and it wasn't Steven.
Hardly able to withhold her sobs, Pearl stood and started towards her room. Lapis' wail of grief was her only sign that Rose had taken physical form. Neither of them had quite dealt with the idea that Steven might not be the one to reform. But Rose was proof that they had lost Steven. They had lost him forever.
Pearl was almost to her room when Rose's voice rang out.
"Pearl? It's so good to see you My Pearl."
Lapis didn't bother with the warp pad, she flung herself out of the front door and into the air, her wings carrying her far away. Pearl turned to watch Lapis flee and wished that she could follow. She wasn't ready for this. She had moved on, she had given everything she was to the Crystal Gems, Sheena and Steven. And now Rose was back.
"Pearl? What happened? You look so different, and what is this building? Wait … Steven? I thought …."
Pearl closed her eyes tightly, her hands curling into fists at the mention of Steven. She turned quickly, her eyes snapping open. Pearl took in Rose's confused and concerned expression but couldn't find it in her to care enough to try to help Rose out.
"You don't get to say his name. You don't deserve that right. You gave us the most precious thing in this word, and then you took him away from us. I went through agony losing you, but I will go through the worse losing Steven."
Rose stared at her with shock. "He's my son."
"Was!" Pearl snapped. "But no, he wasn't your son. You may have given up your physical form for him to exist, but you weren't his mother. We were. What kind of mother leaves their child alone?"
"He wasn't alone. He had you, and the rest of the gems."
"Us?!" Pearl shriked. "If he had been in our care Steven would have died in the first week. Thankfully Greg stepped up. I wasn't perfect, in fact I think at times I caused him more pain than he ever let on, but I loved Steven. We all did, we still do."
"I love him too." Rose said taking a step forward.
Pearl backed up. "No you don't. You don't even know him. Do you know his favourite food? His preferred weapon? What about how he deals with nightmares, or what instruments he plays? Do you …"
Pearl took a step forward, straightening her shoulders as her voice rose. "Do you even know what he looks like?"
Her stance and voice broke at the same time.
"Looked like. Do you Rose? Because you were never there for him. You couldn't be, and that's fine but we were. You can't claim to love someone you don't even know. You loved the idea of him. You loved that idea of much that you left us all. And now you've taken him away from us. I don't think I can ever forgive you for that."
Pearl turned back to the door to the temple. Her room wasn't good enough. The temple was so interconnected that Rose would easily be able to find her. Warp pad it was, maybe she could hide at the barn. Rose wasn't likely to look there.
"And I'm not your pearl. I haven't been for a long time. He was better than you. In every conceivable way. But now all we have is you to remind us of the amazing gem we lost."