Author's Note: And thus begins the next entry of the Gemstone Saga. This time, we take a look at how Greg Universe and Rose Quartz came together! This should be interesting, especially since Zoisite is also in this one and the roles of Aunt Carole, her dead husband, and her kids Gwen, Johnnie, and Parker are very much explored here.

I hope everybody enjoys!

-Voltalia

July 16, 1991

Life hadn't been treating him kindly as of late. His parents Shep and Stella were dead, he and his sister Adrienne had been estranged for a while (at least on Adrienne's side), he hadn't had any success with his music so far (he had been touring in his van for three months straight from Washington state to California), and his love life was practically nonexistent. Where did he go wrong?

Maybe it had all started back in April on Shep and Stella's wedding anniversary night. They had been driving along the cities of Aberdeen and Chehalis on the highways in order to get to their favorite anniversary tradition, Carmine's Italian Restaurant which was located in Kennewick. For the two fifty-something-year-olds, that place had been one of their favorites of all time since their relationship had begun in 1965 at a restaurant just like it. As those fond memories trekked through their minds, they kept driving along and they surely would've made it had it not been for a drunk driver suddenly and devastatingly rear-ending them.

Neither of them even had enough time to react, and especially not Shep who had been behind the wheel. He was violently thrust forward, his head colliding abruptly with the windshield and blood spilling out of the gashes the glass shards made when they embedded themselves into his skin; almost an instant later, he was dead.

As for Stella, she had been left with a broken neck, a great deal of internal bleeding, and a spinal cord severed below her head.

When the police and paramedics arrived several minutes later, Stella was whisked off to the nearest hospital that could be found. During the ambulance ride there, the redhaired fifty-something-year-old woman couldn't resist panicking and crying out for her dead husband and flailing her arms about, and all while she was bleeding to death. By the time they finally arrived, she had already lost consciousness. The next morning at 7:15 A.M., she was pronounced dead.

Greg had remembered being at the funeral later that week, but trying his damndest not to cry in front of his sister and everybody else who was there because it seemed like a totally uncool thing for a rocker like Mick Jagger or Don Henley to do. But all that got him was nothing more than passive-aggressive glances that seemed to imply scorn and disgust.

So he decided to go on tour not only to console himself, but also to try and start living his life without them while also keeping them in his heart.

Yet here he was now. There were no concert profits to reap from, he was practically homeless, he had no sort of job to speak of (it didn't help matters he had dropped out of high school years ago), and he was so desperate for fame that he had even resorted to changing his last name to Universe.

His latest stop was Beach City, which just so happened to be a few miles away from where his aunt Carole (Shep's kid sister) and uncle Jared lived. Surely, he'd able to attract some fans in this small town, right? Well, there was only one way to find out...