"Thanks dad! Bye!" Connie called, closing the car door and stepping back. She waved as he pulled away, and as he turned the corner she walked towards the beach.
Connie climbed the stairs to the beach house but paused halfway up as she heard the noise and saw the now familiar blue glow of the warp pad activating. 'Wait... Is that... shouting?'
"Why didn't you tell us?!" Ruby shouted, arms raised as she steamed slightly, smoke rising gently from the floor beneath her feet.
Pearl stepped back, hands wringing nervously before her. "I-I-I..." she stammered.
"She couldn't!" Steven yelled, gaining everyone's attention. "She wanted to, but mum ordered her not to tell. She had no choice!"
Amethyst groaned. "I don't understand what's happening here..."
"Uh... is this a bad time?" Connie asked nervously as she pushed the screen door open.
"Yeah, a little." Amethyst grunted, shaking her head.
Steven sighed. "Okay. Everyone needs to calm down. Ruby... the floor." he pointed down.
"Huh?" Ruby glanced down at her feet. "Ahh!" she yelped, jumping onto the warp pad with an embarrassed flush. "Uh... sorry about that Steven..."
"It's okay. You're upset. But please don't burn my house down."
Pearl moved into the kitchen area and got a bucket from the cabinet under the sink. Filling it, she quickly darted back and poured it onto the dark scorch marks burned into the wooden floor, which hissed as they quickly cooled. Sighing, she summoned a large clump of steel wool, some paper towels and a bottle of mineral water from her gem and started her attempt at removing the worse of the damage.
"What's going on?" Connie whispered to Steven.
Steven sighed. "Let's... go outside for a second."
Settling themselves down on the bottom step, Steven ran his fingers through his curly brown hair. "Geez, where to begin..."
Connie waited patiently for him to collect his thoughts.
"Okay. Last night, I had another diamond dream."
Connie nodded. "Like on the jungle moon."
Steven smiled briefly at the memory. "Heh, yeah. Anyway, Blue and Yellow were talking to Pink about the colony, Earth. Well, Blue did most of the talking, but..." he groaned and rubbed his face. "Then, they left, and it was just Pink Diamond. But then, Pearl showed up. She was carrying mum's sword, and she just... had this look. It was like... murder, ya know?"
Connie nodded. "Oh, like when the holo-Pearls do that majorly creepy death glare, during training?"
"Yes! Exactly like that!" Steven exclaimed, happy that she understood.
Connie nodded. "So, then what happened?"
"I woke up." Steven blushed. "Well, it was scary!" he added at her amused look.
"So, how did that, turn into... that." she pointed back towards the house.
Steven groaned. "Okay, so I asked Pearl about if she had anything to do with Pink Diamond being shattered, and she freaked out for a moment. She slipped into the temple the first chance she got. So, I was pretty annoyed about that..."
"That's fair." Connie nodded.
Steven shrugged. "So, I went to get some tater tots from Peedee's food truck. I got this message on my phone, from Pearl, telling me... wait." He reached into his pocket and grabbed a cell phone. "I gotta give this back, hang on a second."
Steven darted back into the house and quickly swapped phones with Pearl. As he reached the door, he sighed as she stored it back into her gem. "Don't put it in your repressed war memories this time, okay?"
Pearl blushed. "Don't worry. It won't happen again."
"Good." Steven nodded, opening the door.
Connie waited as Steven sat down and fiddled with his phone.
"Here." he said. "This is the text I got."
"Hmm... I want to tell you, but I can't." she read, shielding the screen with her hand to see past the glare.
Steven nodded. "So, I ran back here to ask her about it, and... Did you know she vacuums the warp pad?"
"Wait, seriously?"
The two shared a brief giggle.
"Anyway, she didn't know about the text. I asked if she maybe butt-dialled me, with her gem... and I'm just realising how dumb that sounds, oh man..." he groaned as Connie cackled beside him.
"Oh my god, Steven!" Connie snorted.
"I know!" he blushed.
As Connie finally stopped laughing, Steven sighed. "Where was... Oh, yeah. So, she tried to take her phone out, and got a bunch of random items instead. A remote, her violin and a big wad of cash, and I have no idea where she got that. It looked kinda old though..."
"Huh. That is weird."
Steven nodded. "Yeah. So, then I got another text from her, even though she wasn't even holding the phone." He briefly paused to show her the pink flower emoji before continuing. "She looked at her hand kinda... weird, before she told me that I needed to go into her gem and find her phone. She took my phone so I could text her when I found hers and was ready to come back out." He sighed. "And that's when things got really strange."
"Huh?"
"There's a Pearl, inside Pearl's pearl. She, I dunno, organises everything. She almost filed me under 'S', for Steven." he chuckled. "She couldn't find the phone either, and there was a space where it should have been. She told me that it was probably one of the other Pearls who took the phone."
Connie held up a hand. "Wait... other Pearls? What?"
Steven shrugged. "I guess they're like, different parts of her personality. So that one, she said she was the surface Pearl, and I guess she's the reason why Pearl does things like alphabetises my video games and vacuums the warp pad." he sighed. "She also said that... she compartmentalises things easily, and that why she's the surface Pearl, and the others got put away. So, she's pretty much repressing a lot of her personality all the time."
"That's... not healthy." Connie looked shocked.
Steven nodded. "Yeah, I guess. Anyway, she then put me into her gem, where I met the Pearl inside the Pearl inside Pearl's pearl... and that's gonna get confusing." he shook his head briefly.
"I ended up in the past. I guess about the time mum was pregnant with me. That Pearl was crying on the beach, and it got kinda awkward for a moment..." he sighed. "...until she started crying about her missing phone."
Connie nodded. "Maybe that one represents her depression? The part of her that can't feel happy, not matter what." She shrugged. "I dunno. I'm mostly going off of a psychology book I read once. But whatever. Continue."
Steven glanced at her. "Nah, it kinda makes sense, I guess. Anyway, she said that she knew where the phone probably was, that it was in the place where she lost everything else. And then..."
Connie held up a hand. "Let me guess. She put you into her gem?"
"Yeah, that happens a couple more times."
"So, then I was in her repressed war memories. There were poofed gems all over the place, and some shards..." he trailed off with a shiver.
Connie laid a hand on his shoulder. "You okay?"
Steven nodded. "Yeah. I kinda get it now. Why she doesn't like to talk about it, I mean..." he sighed. "Okay, uh... Right. So, I found that Pearl, and she talked about the end of the war, but didn't answer any questions, she just... put me into her gem."
"Uh-huh." Connie nodded. Sensing the story was nearing its end, she shuffled closer.
"Then I was at the point where Pink Diamond was shattered. There were pink shards on the ground, and my mum was there, holding her sword."
"Whoa." Connie breathed.
"But, it wasn't her."
"Wait, huh?" Connie looked confused.
Steven gulped. "It was... Pearl, shapeshifted to look like my mum."
"WHAT?!" Connie gasped, shocked.
"But, she held out her hand, and... Pink Diamond's gem was sitting there, intact. Those weren't her shards."
Connie leaned forward. "And then?" she prompted.
"She put me into her gem again. Last time though." he added meekly as she groaned.
"The suspense is killing me, Steven."
"So, then I was inside Pink Diamond's palanquin. Pearl and my mum were there, talking about what needed to be done. Then mum said... 'I can't exactly shatter myself'." He leaned away from her a little, waiting for Connie's reaction.
Connie stood up and started pacing on the sand in front of him. "Holy crap, Steven. What the hell happened next, tell me!"
Steven sighed. "Then, mum shapeshifted, or rather... she stopped shapeshifting." His hand moved and clenched at his shirt above where his pink gemstone sat. "Rose Quartz was really... Pink Diamond. My mum is Pink Diamond." he said, voice cracking slightly. "I'm... Pink Diamond."
Connie stared in shock, her jaw working soundlessly.
"They faked her death, so they could be free. Mum didn't think the other diamonds would care and would leave the Earth alone, but she was wrong. She ordered Pearl to never tell anyone the truth. So now Ruby's mad, Sapphire's run off though the warp pad, Amethyst is freaking out, and Pearl's... I guess both relieved and scared." Steven clenched his shirt tighter. "I'm... still kinda... confused about all this..." he laughed, but it wasn't filled with his usual joyous humour. "Everything I know was a lie. Mum wasn't a quartz, I'm not a quartz, are my fusions even quartzes?!" His voiced pitched as he started shaking. "I-I-I don't understand anything anymore..."
Connie quickly moved forward and wrapped her arms around him as he shook. "Steven, I know what you are. You're... You're Steven. You're sweet, goofy, talented, smart, and my first and bestest friend in the whole wide world. Even if you didn't have a gem, or were a full gem, you'd still be you. Not Rose Quartz, not Pink Diamond, just Steven Universe. The biscuit to my strawberry." she blushed.
There was a brief glow, and Stevonnie sat on the step, hugging themselves. "Thanks." they whispered quietly. "That's okay, you goof." they whispered back.
After a moment Stevonnie unfused, the two kids deciding to return to the house. They were both thankful to see that Ruby had apparently calmed down, as she was now sitting on the warp pad meditating peacefully.
Nearby, Pearl was still working on removing the burns from the floor, but she paused to look at them as they came in. "Hello..." she whispered sadly.
Amethyst was lying flat out on the floor but lifted her head up briefly. "Hey..." she sighed. "Crazy day, amirite?"
The two kids nodded.
An awkward silence fell, broken only by the sound of Pearl rubbing the steel wool across the floor boards.
"So..." Connie began. "I guess it's true what they say."
The gems all looked at her, curious; Ruby opening one eye to acknowledge her.
"Diamonds really are a girls' best friend." she smirked, pointing at Steven.
Pearl stopped scrubbing, and as everyone stared, Connie briefly wondered if she stepped over the line. "Uh..."
She was interrupted by a loud snort, and Pearl rolled onto her back, laughing maniacally, not even seeming to notice that she had rolled into the dirty water that lay in small puddles on the floor. The dam seemed to break at that, and soon everyone was laughing, the stress in the room completely gone.
"Oh man, I'm gonna pee my pants!" Steven gasped, as he ran for the nearby bathroom. The echoes of his laughter carried through to them even after he closed the door.
Ruby wheezed. "Why am I so short of breath?! I don't even need to breath!"
After a moment, Pearl calmed down enough to speak. "Stars, I needed that. Thank you, Connie."
"Yeah, good one!" Amethyst stood and grabbed Connie into a hug. "That totally burned through that tension."
Connie blushed. "Well, someone had to say it."