Author's Notes: This is my first Steven Universe fanfic. It turned out really short. Also really depressing, but if you like this show I assume that you're used to that. I hope you like it!
The humans were gone now. Their settlement had been destroyed. Pearl walked amidst the wreckage, not sure what had happened or what she was supposed to think.
She could hear Rose Quartz crying. Her soft sobs seemed loud in the otherwise deathly silence.
"Rose?! Rose, where are you?!"
"Pearl..."
Her response was soft, like a whimper, but just then Pearl saw her, kneeling in what had once been the largest of the primitive human dwellings. She looked so out of place among the splintered tent poles and torn canvases flapping in the wind—tall, strong and immaculate, except for the ugly tear tracks that were shining on her face.
"Rose—are you alright?! What—"
And then Pearl saw the girl.
She was a small human, which meant that she was young—one of the oddities of organic life was the way that it grew and changed, becoming stronger and then weaker over the course of its short lifespan. The girl looked especially tiny next to Rose, who was holding practically her whole body on her lap. She lied motionless, cuts and bruises all over her skin.
Pearl tore her eyes away from the girl and met Rose's watery gaze.
"I don't understand, Pearl. I found this human...my tears aren't healing her. Why aren't they working?"
"I don't—I don't know..."
Rose's voice was pleading. "You're the closest thing we have to an expert on humans. Help me. Please."
"I—I'm not sure I—let me see..."
She knelt down, touching the small human's face with her hand. She was damp all over; Rose must have been trying to heal her for a long time. But the skin was cold, too. Pearl's fingers froze at the thought, and then, remembering her research, she placed her hand onto the little girl's chest. After a moment she moved it slightly, but she still felt nothing. Her hand fell away.
"Rose...I'm sorry."
"What? Pearl, what is it?!"
She looked down as a breeze blew through the dry, blackened grass. "She's...already gone."
Rose stared. "Gone? Pearl, she's right here!"
"No...Rose, human bodies are organic," Pearl said, daring herself to look up and meet her friend's gaze. "They don't disappear when they're injured. Or...even when they're dead."
Rose's eyes widened. Pearl hesitated, then took Rose's hand, placing it onto the little girl's chest.
"Feel that? This is where humans keep their hearts—like their gems, only underneath the skin. When they're alive, they beat, pumping energy throughout their entire bodies. But when their hearts are still..."
"...it means their gems are broken?"
Pearl nodded, then bit her lip, unable to stand how shattered Rose looked.
Rose took her hand from the little girl's chest, using it instead to lift up her head and gaze at her face. "No...no..." she whispered.
Pearl drew back, unsure of what to say, as Rose began to sob again. She placed her face on top of the human's, spilling more tears, but the little girl remained still and broken regardless.