Amethyst stomped through the tall grass, grinding her teeth in frustration. Stupid. Every single member of her crummy squadron was stupid, brash, and irresponsible.

They'd been using the warp pad to move across planet to their next station and two of them had decided to get into a fight mid warp. Not that that had been much of a surprise. Inevitably, the other four of the amethysts had decided to join the fight. Amethyst had tried to ignore them, rolling her eyes and distancing herself as much as possible in the warp stream. Before she'd realized what was happening, one of the idiots had slammed another into her, throwing Amethyst out of the warp stream. She'd careened through a few other streams before it had dumped her wherever this was. She couldn't even find a warp pad nearby to get back on.

What if she just didn't go back? The thought was so tempting. She knew the Earth, had spent her entire life here before Homeworld had decided to come back and muck everything up. She could hide out, run away from it all. She'd never have to see another amethyst again.

She could try to find the human resistance that The Diamonds were trying so hard to hide the existence of even though everyone knew about it by now. She could join them. If they let her. (Even now she somewhat wondered if that resistance could be… but, no, if the humans sabotaging the effort to drain the Earth of its resources were being led by someone with a Rose Quartz gem and a pink shield, everyone would know. True, Yellow Diamond thought that the leader had to be a gem somehow, but the description of the woman leading the charge didn't match Steven at all.)

The thought of just bolting was so tempting, but… Pearl. Amethyst couldn't just… No.

Besides, at some point, Homeworld would find her. She knew that.

So, finding a warp pad and getting back to where she'd been ordered to be it was then.

She sighed. If she just knew where she was, she could probably figure out the closest one. Sure, Homeworld had built a few more since they'd been back, but she knew the old ones like the back of her hand.

A sudden sharp pain licked through her, radiating from her gem and forcing her to stop in her tracks. Her form started to glitch: flickering and distorting just a bit. Since there was no one around anyway, she allowed herself to sit down and wait it out.

Her gem had been a bit testy the last few days. Her fingers rubbed against the purple gem. It was as smooth as it had always been, but Amethyst knew that if she looked at it closely enough, she'd see hairline fractures through the center.

It was a punishment and a hobbling mechanism by Homeworld. They'd crack you just a bit, not enough to completely disable you, but enough that it hurt constantly, sometimes more than others. Then they'd pour a glue like substance into the cracks to make sure you didn't break any more than they wanted you to. Unlike some that went through the treatment, she could still take out her whip. It hurt every time though.

In a way, Amethyst had been lucky, if luck is what one would call it. They'd been low on soldiers and she hadn't actually been a part of the rebellion. Plus, she had a whip, an unusual gem weapon for an amethyst. There was some gem hierarchy thing she didn't really understand. If she'd come out on time, she would have been a commander.

If she'd come out on time, she would have led an army against the Crystal Gems.

Before Homeworld had come back, she never thought she'd be glad she was a "runt," but she was now. If Homeworld knew she though that way, she'd have a lot more cracks then she did now. As it was, most of her "missteps" were seen as unavoidable mistakes due to her defective status. After all, what amethyst would be able to strategize with enough forethought to sabotage a sneak attack against a group of rowdy humans or destroy an almost finished drill for the new Kindergarten?

They were too stuck in their ways to realize she was still rebelling. That the stars she still wore were a promise to be a defender of this planet even if she couldn't do much.

The pain in her gem had faded a bit and she got back to her feet to restart her journey.

She really didn't want to go back to the other amethysts.

She understood now why Pearl had always been on her case about being a mess or being too rough or not thinking about the consequences of her actions. During the Beach City days, she'd though Pearl was just being lame and overly strict just because she was, well, being Pearl. Amethyst had learned over the last few years that she just hadn't wanted Amethyst to turn into… an amethyst. If she could turn back the clock, she'd keep her room spotless. Hell, she'd clean Pearl's room for her.

She'd never been as bad as the other amethysts. Maybe it had been Pearl's influence, but, while messy, her room had always had at least some semblance of order. Maybe not any that anyone else approved of, but things were in piles and there were paths and she didn't leave anything sharp on the floor. She only purposefully broke her own stuff and it wasn't dirty for the most part. Besides the occasional burrito she forgot about for too long, she typically cleaned up the dirty and goopy stuff after she was done with it.

The other amethysts weren't like her. There was no organization and no respect for private property. Messes stayed where they were until they dried or happened to be rubbed up on accident. Most of the time they abandoned the base before that happened. Many times she'd come back to the smell of something horrible that she couldn't identify.

Worse, sometimes she could identify it. Like the one time she had come back to the smell of human blood pervading the entire base. She wasn't sure if they'd intentionally killed her or if they'd just been too rough, but, either way, they'd decided to drag the body back to play with.

It was the most horrifying thing Amethyst had ever seen. It was mangled, but she could still discern many of the features. It reminded her of- a young woman's smiling face. One of her hands holds a paintbrush while the other presses against her mouth as though trying to force her giggles back down her throat. "Amethyst! I'm trying to paint you! Stop shifting!" Amethyst obliges, but then the baby is crying and a second later, the doorbell is ringing. Sour Cream is dropped into her arms without warning. It's the first time she's ever held a baby.- She'd felt like puking at the comparison even though she knew the body couldn't be Vidalia because the skin was more like- there's a girl on the beach and Amethyst wouldn't have notice except that Steven is acting weird. It takes a while to click, but when it does, well, it's Amethyst's job to make a fool out of him and Pearl's job to make a fool out of herself. Garnet stops them both. A few months later, Amethyst sees the first Gem-Human fusion and as Stevonnie runs off, Garnet says casually, 'Well, we know they'll have beautiful children,' and Amethyst isn't sure if it's a future vision thing or if she's just awed by the new love fusion. Pearl does the only thing she can do it such a situation and buys every book she can find on human sexuality.- The next time the other amethysts had been distracted, she squirreled the corpse away. She buried her a little ways away from the base. She'd never personally attended a human funeral, but she knew enough from TV to hastily yank a few of the wildflowers up and lay them on top of the fresh mound of dirt. If the other amethysts even thought to look for their toy, they wouldn't understand the significance anyway.

She shook off the memory, forcing her feet forward. If she thought about those types of things too long, she'd stop functioning. She needed to figure out where she was, find a warp pad, get back to her squadron. In a couple of weeks, they'd have to give a report to Yellow Diamond. Maybe she'd be able to catch Pearl's eye for a couple of seconds.

She was so distracted by her mission that she almost didn't hear the noise behind her.

She spun around, her weapon out before she'd even completed the turn.

When she saw what had startled her, she hesitated. It was a little human boy. Even after all these years, she wasn't that good at judging the ages of humans, but he looked about the age Steven had been when he'd first moved into the temple. Her heart ached at the thought. Without a second thought, the whip had faded out of existence.

"Hi," she said and her voice must have been harsher than she'd meant it to be because his eyes widened in fear and…and he didn't even look like Steven. His hair, though curly, was the wrong color. His eyes were a bright blue and his nose was all wrong. Yet, all she could think about was her human.

Steven had never been scared of her. He may have been scared for her or of what she was doing, but he'd never been scared of her. What would he think of her now?

She called on her memories of cooing softly to a newborn baby she could have crushed with one finger. 'Human infants cannot understand language, but they can understand your tone and facial expressions,' she could hear Pearl's voice in her head. She'd probably been quoting one of those books she'd memorized just after Steven had been born. Amethyst almost smiled at the memory. Almost.

"Hey," she said to the child who was defiantly not Steven. She bent down so she was on his level. Trying to be small. Trying to be nonthreatening. "It's okay. I won't hurt you." She must have gotten the tone right this time because his face relaxed a bit and he tilted his head at her. "My name is Amethyst, but, that's probably hard for you to say," she continued. She could hear a young voice in her head chanting 'Ama, Ama, Ama?' excitedly in her arms. Pearl's voice screamed her full name in frustration and fear as she summersaulted down a small hill with a toddler hugged close to her chest. Honestly, he wasn't going to get hurt. His head was completely protected and she could shape-shift into a pillow without a second thought. "So you can call me Amy if you want."

"Amy," the little boy repeated back, testing the word.

She smiled and hoped it was soft, not full of teeth. "Yep," she confirmed, popping the "p" because it had always made Steven's nose scrunch up (even when he was trying to be mad at her). "What's your name?"

"Larry," he replied.

"Nice to meet you Larry."

He grinned at the use of his name and then he was walking toward her. He was young enough that his torso was still a bit big for his short legs, but he managed to get over to her easily enough. She didn't breathe as he reached out to touch her hair. His eyes lit up. "Your hair is soft!" The small fingers were clumsy and pulled a bit, but the lack of malice behind the gesture made it feel like the gentlest touch in the world.

"Thank you," her voice cracked a little bit and he looked up at her in concern, noticing the change in tone. That made the knot in her throat thicker. The boy's eyes weren't the same, but the expression behind them was so familiar.

"Why are you upset?" He asked, so innocent and so soft. She hadn't even realized how much she missed human's capacity for empathy. Before, she'd never really understood why Rose, Pearl, and Garnet had rebelled against everything they'd ever known to protect the Earth. She'd understood in an abstract way, but she hadn't known Homeworld or what it was like. What it did. She understood now why they'd fought for the humans all those years ago. Why they'd continued to fight for them, at least, until they couldn't anymore.

She was about to try to give a response that wouldn't terrify a small child, but before she could, a voice spoke from behind her. "Get away from him." Something sharp pressed into her back. She couldn't see the person speaking to her, but it was probably a woman. The tone was incredibly familiar. Scared, furious, protective, all rolled up into one. She'd heard Garnet and Pearl use that tone thousands of times. She'd used it herself whenever their little half human had done something that was brave, but stupidly dangerous. It had to be a family member or a guardian.

Amethyst didn't more, didn't draw her weapon. Honestly at this point, she'd rather be shattered by this little human's caretaker than go back to her squadron. Larry looked over her shoulder, confused at the worry in the other human's tone.

"Larry, come here," the voice said, quavering just a bit. Larry looked at Amethyst and then back over her shoulder. Amethyst could hear the sound of other humans surrounding them, called by the woman's panic. The boy looked at her once more before toddling away. Once he was out of her reach, the sharp thing backed away a bit, but Amethyst assumed it was still there.

"Get up," the voice said. Amethyst obeyed, getting to her feet. She could see the other humans now, poised to attack. She turned to face the woman who had been speaking. The features were extremely familiar. It was Larry's mom, Amethyst knew immediately. Or, at the very least, an aunt or sister. Defiantly closely related. She had the same hair, but longer and the same nose and eye shape.

The crowd of humans shifted, ready to go for the kill and Amethyst couldn't blame them. She was almost glad. But, then, something shifted in Larry's mom's face.

"Wait!" She barked suddenly. The other humans paused. She was looking at her, eyes wide. "A-amethyst?" She asked. It's not like she hadn't been called Amethyst in the years since Beach City, but this was different. It wasn't used as a title or as a thing. The woman was using her name with a familiar lilt to it. Like she knew her. Amethyst stared at her in shock. "It's Sadie. From Beach City." The town name caused Amethyst to suck in a breath. She looked at the woman more closely.

"Donut girl?" Amethyst wasn't exactly proficient at recognizing humans unless they were really special and the girl was older now, but after a moment, she realized it was the same girl who always stood behind the counter at Steven's favorite restaurant. It wasn't just that she looked like Larry that made her seem familiar. Amethyst knew her.

"It is you!" There were suddenly tears building up in her eyes. "You're alive!" Before she knew what was happening, she was pulled into a hug. She hadn't exactly known the girl well before, but Amethyst didn't care because she hadn't been hugged in years. She hugged back. The girl pulled back and looked to the other humans. "It's okay guys. She's one of the Crystal Gems, like Steven."

Amethyst's eyes widened at the name. It was the first time she'd heard it aloud in years. The thought hadn't occurred to her when she'd first recognized Donut Girl, Sadie, but now… "Steven?" she croaked, gripping the girls arm tightly. "Is, is he…?"

Sadie turned back to her smiling. "He's missed you. So much."

Amethyst hadn't cried that hard since waving goodbye to Greg's van as it took Steven out of harm's way over 12 years ago.