"Garnet, I know these last months have been hard on us," Rose began. She patted her belly as she continued. "This is such a wonderful experience I've had, and I wouldn't trade it for anything else, but I know you're all still trying to figure out what to do…"
She trailed off. Rose knew that the child growing inside her was now only weeks away from being born, from taking her gem. She knew it, but it was still sometimes difficult to say out loud that she would be leaving. Garnet held up her right hand, with Sapphire's gem seeming to indicate that she knew what Rose was saying.
"I'll find a way. I've known for some time that this could happen." Garnet thought back to the first conversation she'd ever had with her leader. "I know you're doing this out of love. Love for Greg, and for all the other humans like him. Don't ever question it."
"Oh, Garnet." Rose hugged the fusion, but when she broke the embrace, she once more had a serious expression on her face. "But there's something we need to do. Something I must ask of you. When I'm gone, I'll need you to look out for the others. For Amethyst, for Pearl, and one day for Steven, too."
"Me? Pearl has been with you since the beginning. Since before I even… How can I…?"
"Pearl was a loyal soldier for me, and has served me well in all the years since, but we both know she needs direction. And I think she is still not ready to accept that she won't see me anymore. I don't know that she ever will, really, accept that. No, I have faith in you to take the lead. You always know what's best."
Garnet thought for a moment, and then nodded. Rose hugged her again, and then left. Inside her mind, Ruby and Sapphire debated what they should do next, and together they came up with an idea.
Garnet walked out of the Temple, and saw Amethyst on the beach. She called the younger gem over. "Amethyst! I've thought of something we can do, as a send-off for Rose and to show how we're still united."
Garnet calmly split herself apart, as if she were sliced through the lightning bolt pattern on her chest. Ruby and Sapphire landed on the ground near the warp pad. After a moment of looking at each other, Sapphire broke the silence.
"It's been so long since I've seen you, Ruby," she said sarcastically.
"Yeah, Sapphire. Where have you been?"
The blue gem tried to answer but stopped as she lost herself in laughter. Ruby joined in with a loud chortle. Then the two leaned in so their foreheads touched, Ruby picked up the love of her life, and they began to spin, again forming Garnet. She looked over her new design and, with no one else around to comment on it, she gave herself an approving thumbs-up. She left the Temple and found Amethyst waiting for her at the warp pad, sporting a new design.
"What can I say?" she said, letting her hair envelop her almost completely. "I knew I liked his hair. It's so fun to play with, I don't know why I didn't do this before!"
Garnet brushed Amethyst's hair to the side, and gave an approving nod. "Let's go find Pearl." Nudging her glasses, Garnet stepped onto the warp pad and the two disappeared.
Pearl walked aimlessly through the field of green and red. Once the site of great chaos, now the Strawberry Fields served as a memorial to the Great War for Earth. It was where Pearl had pledged her undying, her eternal devotion to Rose. And now that eternal had an expiration date, it was where she often went to get away from it all, to forget the pain she was feeling. A holographic projection of a long-ago battle played from Pearl's gem.
Behind her, a warp pad whirred to life. Rose must be looking for me again, Pearl thought. She could usually spend a few days at the Fields before her leader, her liege, her love chased after her. But this time, it wasn't Rose who stood on the pedestal when the light faded.
Garnet understood, or could at least appreciate, the pain Pearl felt that kept her running away. As hard as it was for her to imagine a world without Rose, every time Pearl saw her, that was all she could think about. "Pearl," she said. "I know this isn't helping you."
The image of a hard-won battle flickered off. Pearl slightly turned in the direction of Garnet and Amethyst. The smaller gem had changed forms again, no doubt after having fallen off the lighthouse or been buried under an avalanche in her mess of a room. "Did Rose send you two after me?"
"No, P, we came by ourselves. Garnet had a great idea!"
Pearl now saw that Garnet looked different as well. She jumped up with a start. "Garnet, my goodness! What happened!?"
"Nothing," she began. "I wasn't injured. This was a voluntary change in appearance." Garnet considered how to explain her idea.
"We need something to unify us, now more than ever. Rose brought us all under her care as part of the Crystal Gems, and now we all will have to keep watch over Steven. Greg cannot do it alone, and no one of us could either. So we need to realize we are all in this together. Rose has always worn the star around her gem, representing her belief that we are more than the Diamonds ever thought we were. You know that better than anyone. In tribute to her, we should all wear the star, so that her child may always know Rose's legacy."
Pearl was caught more than a little off-guard. "A star? That's your solution to all this? We're all going to wear a star, and everything will be fine? Where am I even going to put a star? It wouldn't fit around my gem, and it wouldn't…"
Pearl kept going, while Amethyst rolled her eyes and started to step forward. Garnet held out her arm to block her path. "Give her a moment." Eventually, Pearl's rant gave way to another shallow sob. Garnet nodded towards Amethyst, who walked over and put an arm around the crying gem.
"Pearl, I had an idea for where you could wear a star, to show how much Rose has always meant to you. Vidalia's taught me so much about the human body." Pearl recoiled from the embrace. "No no no, not that part. Human emotions come from their head, but they act like they don't. When they want to show how they feel, they say it comes from the heart."
Amethyst put her hand on Pearl's chest. She continued, "You can show Rose one more time how you really feel."
"Come on, Pearl, hurry up!" Amethyst yelled at a silent gem. "You take too much longer, you're gonna miss the big moment!" Rose had grown even larger than before, and Greg said that—while he was no expert on half-human hybrids—a human child would be expected to be born any day now.
Obviously, it was impossible to hide Garnet and Amethyst's new forms, so Rose had already seen the star outline across Garnet's body, and the two small black stars on Amethyst's knees, but Pearl had retreated to her gem almost immediately after being convinced of the idea, and it'd been almost three weeks since then.
"You know Pearl, she's always trying to make the best possible impression. You should've seen her back during the war. She was so desperate to get back to battle, she might only spend a few hours in her gem. Now she won't come out until every part of her form is just right. She's such a wonder." Amethyst looked away sheepishly at the mention of the Great War, but Rose reached down and put her hand under the small gem's chin. "And so are you. Steven will be lucky to have you all as his protectors."
Amethyst thought back to the days when she was new to the Crystal Gems and Rose was her protector. She wondered whether she could live up to Rose's example. "You really think so?"
"I know so." Rose reached out for an embrace from Amethyst. "Now go see if Garnet's around, please." She nodded and hurried into the temple.
Rose sat down and picked up the pearl, still dormant, that lay on the ground. "I know how sad you are that soon you won't see me again. I hope you can forgive me, and know that I will miss you all the same."
The gem began to stir. Rose quickly put it down and stepped back to give it space. In a flash of light, the white gem ascended into the air, generating a framework body. As the glow receded, a gem body—fairly tall, but still dwarfed by Rose—settled its feet on the ground. Rose looked at the new form starting from her feet. No more was she wearing those garish tube socks; those had gone out of style and always made it harder when the gems tried to blend in with humans. Her shorts were now pink, and layered with a sheer skirt; her shawl was gone. She stood with her back to Rose, and gained her balance. As she looked around, she caught sight of Rose and was startled.
"Oh! Rose! I didn't expect—"
Rose put her finger to the gem's lips. As Rose looked down, she saw the modest insignia: right over where the heart would be, a small yellow star.
Rose smiled and knelt down to get on eye level.
"I love it. It's beautiful… my Pearl."