Bonded by Fate

The Bubble Breaks, the Bond Remains

A/N: Real quick before we start, I wanted to say, welcome! Just so everyone knows, this chapter has been rewritten to be up to the quality you would expect in the later parts of the story to, you know, put a better foot forwards. I'm sorry if there's a quality drop after this chapter, but just rough it out until chapter 7 or so and it gets better and stays better, trust me. Anyways, have fun reading the new and improved chapter one.

I woke up from a dream in a cold sweat in the middle of the night. What had I been dreaming about? It had to be a nightmare, right? I mean, duh, that's usually what a cold sweat means.

Weird, usually I remembered my nightmares. I mean, it wasn't weird enough for me to think too hard on it. If I did remember it my dream, I would've put it in my dream journal, but that's kind of hard if I don't know what I dreamt. I smiled wider at that little half-joke. Then I just tried to get back to sleep.

Wait. I smiled… wider? But I didn't smile in the first place. And if I didn't remember intentionally smiling in the first place, that meant I had been smiling since I woke up in the first place. That opened my eyes. I woke up in a cold sweat, and was smiling about it? That's not normal. What the heck was I dreaming of? I couldn't remember a thing about the dream. I realized, that in and of itself was unusual. I always remembered my dreams. That's why I kept a dream journal. So why couldn't I remember this one?

It might seem small to someone else. Maybe a bit strange, but it could wait until morning. But not me. It's my creed: even the smallest of details must have some sort of explanation. Whether that means I'm a young Sherlock Holmes or just really weird remains to be seen.

So, I thought about my dream, with all the strangeness surrounding it. The only dream I had ever forgotten, as far as I know. Why would I wake up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat if it wasn't a nightmare? And if it was a nightmare, why was I smiling? Further, what caused it to disappear from my consciousness in the first place? It's not that I have echoes of thoughts long gone like it would normally be when I woke up for a dream with no memory. It's that I reach deep within my brain to try to find the memory and it's simply not there.

I was thinking too hard about this. Any more and it would be impossible for me to wake up again. I write down my strange findings in my dream journal so I could examine it in the morning. My work done, I closed my eyes to get back to sleep. There's something off about the darkness, though. I see a faint image in front of my vision, like the imprint a light might burn into your vision before your cones and rods react. There's usually those things in your vision, so I might have passed this off as normal, but this seemed to have a more definite shape to it. What was it? An eight? No, an infinity sign.

My eyes flew open. What could it mean? This was getting interesting. A strangely missing memory paired with a strangely appearing infinity sign. I knew, this was no coincidence.

In my journal, I dog-eared the page and drew an infinity sign across the upper portion of the page. I slammed it shut. Now here was a mystery. And I swore I would find out what it meant or my name wasn't Connie Maheswaran!

…Great. All that attempted mystery solving fully woke me up. Now it would be ages before I could fall sleep again!

I sat on the beach, happily reading my new book.

I thought that dream would be the most interesting thing that would happen to me that day. Speaking honestly, the only reason I put so much thought into that dream was because nothing interesting ever happens to me. It's summer vacation, the time you're supposed to meet with friends and stuff, and all I ever do is read a book! What kind of a person am I? Not a social butterfly, I'll give you that. The truth is, I know that dream was a fluke. Sure, I was smiling and sweating at the same time, so what? And the sign was just me seeing patterns that weren't there. But if I don't make mysteries out of little things like this, how else would I stay sane? I have a pretty boring life, all things considered.

Little did I know, that was about to change…

Because it was then a boy walked up to me and both saved my life and changed it forever.

I was just sitting in the same place I always sat, reading the same book I always read. I felt a small earthquake, but I didn't think too much of it. It was only one of many that happened that day. Still, I happened to look up from my book, just to see if this one was anything special. I heard a cracking sound from above me, so I looked up in curiosity. And I saw it. I looked death in the eyes. A giant rock was headed straight for me, and I froze. I couldn't believe my eyes. I rubbed my glasses, but the boulder was going to hit me all the same. My whole life should've been ahead of me, but I was going to die before I had a chance to live it.

I think I heard someone yell something nearby, but it was drowned out. Maybe 'Watch out?' But it was too late for me to get out of the way. In those few seconds, my life flashed before my eyes, literally. I saw all of the experiences that had lead up to that point, and I wasn't happy with what I saw. I just saw a loser who sat in the back of class, trying her head to keep her head down and not taking any risks whatsoever. Somebody who nobody would care if she disappeared. And with those memories came the ones I tried so hard to forget. A name flashed into my brain, Kelia. Who was that? It was too late to know, now. I lost my chance to dodge, and if it didn't kill me it would break every bone in my body. I couldn't even close my eyes to block it out, I could only stare at my oncoming death.

And as I looked upwards, a pink screen somehow formed in between me and the rock. Was… was that me? Could I summon shields like that? But then I noticed someone standing beside me. A slightly chubby kid (I didn't care about that at the time) wearing a red shirt with a golden star in the middle. He held up his hands and formed a bubble between us and the falling rock, saving my life.

"Hi, my name is Steven!" he said. He held out his hand to help me off of the floor.

The moment I touched his hand, I felt a rush of energy into me. He was apparently magic, right? Maybe I was the protagonist of an adventure book. Maybe just did just get some magic powers. I mean, apparently magic existed, that was kind of a surprise to me. He pulled me up off the ground.

"Connie," I said.

The rest of the day was a rollercoaster. Sometimes literally. After a crazy series of events, we ended up trapped at the bottom of the ocean together, just the two of us. I was angry at first. He had saved my life only to have the two of to die anyways. But he was so… earnest. He wasn't like the backstabbing kids at my old school, where you could never tell who was really your friend. This was somebody who had just met me and would probably go to the ends of the earth to make me happy.

"I'm sorry Connie," he said, "if I had returned your bracelet back then, you wouldn't be stuck in this bubble with me now."

I couldn't stay mad at Steven. It wasn't his fault all this happened. I mean, yeah, I guess it technically was, but he still didn't mean to. "No, it's okay. I'm having fun."

We sat for a few seconds, smiling. There were worse people I could be trapped with, I supposed.

Suddenly, the bubble keeping us at the bottom of the ocean popped. Water came rushing inwards, and I struggled to keep water from entering my lungs. I panicked a little, but Steven thought fast. He put his hands in mine in an attempt to calm me down and pointed upwards, gesturing for us to swim to the surface. I nodded, and together, we swam our way upwards. I looked around into the clear blue waters, but the giant eel was nowhere to be seen, thank goodness. Finally we breached the top, for some fresh, fresh air. After we both took a deep breath, we looked at each other for a few seconds. And Steven burst into laughter. All that, and we're okay. His laughter was incredibly infectious, and soon I was laughing as well.

I felt a small ripple of water underneath us. That was our only warning before the giant worm monster burst its way upwards from directly below us with an ear-splitting screech, knocking us up into the air and sending us spiraling towards the beach. It kind of made me wish we still had our bubble at this point. So we hit the sand hard. I was in pain, but I didn't have time to think about that. In the few milliseconds of reaction time that I still had, I saw Steven was still on the ground. "Come on, come on!" I yelled, pulling Steven to his feet.

I had the idea to run to the rocks to hide in while he tried to run at the wooden pillars supporting the nearby dock for his own reasons. Maybe he had a plan, maybe it was just as simple as hiding in the dense jungle of pillars. It didn't matter, we were splitting up so at least it would only go after one of us. Then the strangest thing happened. I barely got a few feet towards the rocks before I felt a sudden pull in the direction of Steven. I was thrown off-balance and fell to the ground. I looked over to see that Steven had found a similar fate.

I didn't have time to think about why it happened, because the worm squirmed out of the water and charged straight at us. Steven helped me up and again, and again we tried to run in separate directions. Again, I felt that strange pull in the other direction. I managed to stay on my feet this time, but insead of me going my way and him going his, we ended up going just about straight, right into one of the wooden pillars holding up the dock. We both crashed right into it and fell to the ground.

Steven dizzily got up. "What's happening?" Steven said, but before I could say I didn't know, the worm thing had already caught up to us. It slammed into us again, collapsing the pillar of wood we were laying under and sending us spiraling into another one of the supports. The worm screeched and shook the rubble of the support off itself.

I shook my head to clear the pain. "Why is it chasing us? I thought it only cared about shiny things!"

Steven's eyes widened. He said, "Your bracelet's shiny! That's what it's after!"

The worm lunged at us again. I dodged right, Steven left. But the invisible force again pulled us inwards. Steven pulled at my hand and we both went to the left, dodging the worm's assault by a hair.

"We have to get it to keep crashing into the pillars," Steven said. "If the dock crashes on top of it, we might stand a chance."

"But we're under the dock!" I said.

"We can figure that out later!"

I took a deep breath and grasped his hand harder. "I guess it's a good a plan as any."

The universe already conspired to kill me and failed. I wasn't going to let it do it again. I mustered up all the courage and energy I had in me after all that had happened and ran like my life depended on it.

I held the bracelet high in the air, and the worm, seeing it so directly, charged straight at us. I was terrified, frozen in place. Because up until that point it had always attacked from behind, and now I saw the worm itself… two rows of spinning teeth, a giant priceless gemstone right down it's gullet, and the whole thing was a blood red color. If that had hit one of its assaults directly, I would already be dead.

Steven lunged to the side, and for once I was glad for the invisible force. Steven dodged to the side, and I was pulled down, sliding across the ground. The mouth missed me entirely, the body didn't. The scales scraped against my back, shearing off my clothes and then a layer of skin. I cried out in pain.

The worm crashed into another pillar and was dazed.

Steven grimaced at my wounds. "Okay," Steven said. "There's this stupid… link thing in the way. Before you ask, no, I don't know what it's all about, we need to work around it." He grabbed my hand. "If we move, we move together."

The Worm charged us again, and we both dodged to the right. Finally, something went our way. The worm hit the pillar and not one of us. But it didn't take nearly as long to shake itself off this time. With almost no warning, it charged at us again.

We had no choice but to just run through the maze of pillars all around us. The worm fortunately didn't seem to have any other attacks other than 'chase down as fast as possible,' but that didn't exactly change the fact that we were in a tight situation.

The more we ran, the angrier the worm got. It stopped worrying about pain and it entered a frenzy, crashing into pillars left and right. As the two of us ran down the beach, The dock began to give way. I looked up and saw a giant chuck of wood headed straight at us! I pulled Steven out of the way, but just barely. More and more chunks started falling, and I knew all it would take was one more blow to the dock's structural integrity to take the whole thing down. We were deep into the dock, and with the woody rubble everywhere, there wasn't any way out. My stamina was running out, and the worm was gaining on us. If the calculations I made were right, if we kept on our current path, we were about to get eaten.

Steven apparently came to the same conclusion. "We're not going to make it!" He yelled.

But I said if we kept on our current path, didn't I? So it was time to change that.

I scanned the area. We were too far away to get out of the dock area. So what could I do? I might be able to stop the worm if I threw the bracelet away, but we would still be left under this still-collapsing dock with no way out. The structural integrity was too far gone to be saved. So what could we do?

I can't just throw the bracelet away. But that doesn't mean I can't use it at all…

I had an idea. It was stupid and probably suicidal, but it was better than our current one. I quickly worked out the angles in my head and threw my bracelet straight up into the air. I immediately tackled Steven in the back, and the two of us rolled across the sand. The worm lunged up towards the bracelet and into the dock above us, dealing the final blow to the dock's structural integrity. The dock groaned and the whole thing collapsed. The worm was skewered by several sharp pieces of wood, but no blood came out. Even though rubble was falling everywhere, the worm's body, which was now right above us, shielded us from the collapsing dock. As the last of the pieces of the dock fell, the worm screeched its final screech, then seemed to disappear into nothingness, a single gem falling a few feet in front of us. A few pieces of rubble fell nearby, but we were fine.

I was breathing heavily. Slowly, the two of us slowly got up. I was okay. I was a little bruised, a little bloody I guess, but all in all, I was okay. Honestly, anything short of death would be 'okay' for me.

After it occurred to Steven we were out of danger, he was overcome with guilt. "Connie, I am so sorry you had to deal with that. You nearly died! You know what, I'm a horrible friend. I say hi to you, then I trap you in a bubble, and just as we escape the next thing you know I'm forcing you to fight a giant monster! You probably hate me. I am so… sorry?" Steven looked up as he said the last sentence to see me grinning from ear to ear.

"You're sorry? You're sorry? Are you kidding me? That was the Awesome! The worm was chasing us, and you were like, 'Hold on, we're going to collapse the dock,' then I was like, 'Let's do it,' then we did but the dock was collapsing, and you were like, 'We're not going to make it', then I was like 'Not if I have anything to say about it' and I threw the bracelet straight up into the air and even when the dock collapsed over us the worm protected us and then it diead and became a priceless gemstone for some reason and… and… that was the coolest thing that ever happened to me."

Steven relaxed and grinned with me. "Oh, that? That was nothing. You should've been there when I defeated the Centipeedle with nothing but a refrigerator!"

"All on your own?"

"Well, the gems helped a little bit…"

"STEVEN! STEVEN, ARE YOU OKAY?!" A voice cried out.

"PEARL!" Steven cried out. Turning to me, he said, "She's one of the gems I mentioned. You'll love to meet her. PEARL, OVER HERE!" He began to climb through the rubble. I was suddenly pulled forwards, faceplanting into the floor. I rubbed my forehead. "So, I've been meaning to ask, what's with this thing?" I said.

"I, uh…" he said.

"You don't know."

"Not in the slightest."

A shiver ran down my spine. "We… we aren't going to be stuck like this, are we?"

"No, no. Of course not. The gems will know what this is and get us out in, like, three seconds. Don't worry."

I breathed out the breath I hadn't know I had been holding.

Steven looked at the rubble surrounding us. "Well, we still need to get out of this rubble, strange invisible force or otherwise. We climb together, then?"

I nodded. "Together."

It wasn't easy, but we climbed out. It turned out it wasn't random, it activated whenever we got more than 3 feet away from one another. Once we figured that out, it was simple enough to climb together. When we reached the top of the pile of wood, I saw a few people at the edge of the dock. And even from this distance, I could tell they weren't human. For one thing, they were all technicolor. I mean, maybe they were just wearing bright clothes, but the clothes seemed to be attached to them.

The second biggest of them, the one dressed in a bright blue, ran over to the two of us, full speed, nimbly dodging around the rubble all around us. I was a bit nervous, I didn't want to have to deal with another foe, but Steven didn't seem scared. When the blue 'gem' reached us, she hugged Steven. She said, "Oh, thank goodness you're okay! I can't believe you took down that thing all by yourself! By the time we found you, the dock was already collapsing and that monster was chasing you. Oh, I feared for the worst. But somehow, you beat it! I'm so proud of you!"

"Stop it, Pearl! You're choking me!" Steven said.

Pearl dropped him. "Oh, but you make me so proud!"

"It wasn't just me," Steven said.

"Oh, yes," she said, turning to me. "You simply must tell me your name so I can thank you better."

"It's Connie, Ma'am," I said. This… what I thought to be some sort of superhero, she was talking to me.

"Well, Connie, you were very brave, rushing in there with Steven when you could have easily run away."

The two of us exchanged a look, but before we could say anything about it, another gem jumped over to us. "Seriously, great going there, Steven! I couldn't have done better myself."

"Guys, could you please stop the praise? You're kind of embarrassing me. Besides, it wasn't all me. Connie's the only reason we're still alive, after all."

The two gems looked onto me with a new respect. "Really?" the shorter one said. "Well, you're slacking if you let a human save your life. Connie-girl, what's he talking about?"

"It-it's nothing," I said. This was a team of superheroes, I didn't hold a candle to what they did every single day. "All I did was tackle Steven so we could duck under the worm. He's the one who realized the worm was after my bracelet and had the idea of collapsing the dock on top of it in the first place. You're right to be thanking him, compared to him I did nothing."

"Nothing?" Steven said. "Connie, you sacrificed your bracelet! Don't try to underplay it, I saw what you did. Even though we were running at full speed, you managed to find just the right angle and velocity and stuff so not only would you defeat the worm but also save us from the falling dock? I couldn't have done that. It was nothing short of brilliant!"

"It was just my tennis practice helping, It helped me easily work out the angles. Really, I was terrified the whole time. You were the one who did most of the work."

The final gem, who I hadn't even realized had waded through the rubble yet, appeared before us and said, "You were scared, yet you went with Steven and defeated the monster anyways. That isn't fear. That's bravery."

I chuckled nervously. "I'm not brave. Really. I just had no choice but follow him. The worm was chasing after me, it was chasing my bracelet, so it was more that Steven followed me."

Pearl shook her head. "Why do you humans deflect our compliments so much? You saved Steven's life, it's okay to admit it! Of course you had a choice but to follow him, you could have handed him the bracelet and ran off. But instead, you went right into the fight and even dealt the final blow. You did an excellent job, especially for a human."

"No, you don't understand," I said. "I physically had no choice but to follow him. The best I did was think well under pressure. But I literally couldn't have gotten away."

The three gems looked at me with blank expressions. Steven finally stepped up to my aid. "No, it's true! I mean, Connie was totally way more awesome than she's letting on, but there really is something weird going on. Connie and I… it's like there's some sort of invisible force linking us. It's kind of hard to explain. The best way to see it is if I show you."

He walked away from me, but after we had walked about 3 feet away from each other, the invisible force pulled us both backwards. It wasn't like a wall, it was more like very strong bungee cord pulling me back towards him. I braced myself against the ground, then leaned backwards into the air. I could lean on thin air. That's pretty cool. I hoisted myself up and we stepped closer to each other again.

There, I'd proved it. "I'm not brave, see? So stop comparing to me to all this magical nonsense when I'm just some normal, out-of-town girl who. I'm not all that special." I saw the shocked looks of on the three faces in front of me. "Oh, yeah, and could you maybe figure out a way to stop this? He seems like a nice kid, but I don't want to be chained to him for the rest of my life."

The gems brought us up to a beach house that seemed to be sitting atop a giant statue. There was a beautiful view of an ocean out the windows, and the whole house, despite being home to 3.5 superheroes, was quite homely. It would have been very peaceful if it weren't for the scene before me.

"It isn't in any of the history books," Pearl said. "This can't be something new. I've tried both the rod of separation and the mirror of resetting, and they don't work. It can't be something Rose did, or I would've heard of it. I don't get it, what's going on?"

The one I learned was named Amethyst tried to get her to stop ranting. "Calm down, P. Maybe Rose did do it once and you just never learned about it or something."

"No, that can't be right. She would have told me. But there has to be something I'm missing! What if… what if we can't fix it?"

That made my heart skip a beat. These guys were supposed to help! If they didn't know what was going on…

Amethyst quickly dismissed the thought. "Look, the bubble they were in popped after, like, 10 minutes. There's no reason to panic about this. Worst case-scenario, it'll be gone by morning."

I relaxed a bit. Maybe Pearl always overreacted like this or-

Wait.

Did she just say…?

"Did you just say it might not go away until tomorrow morning?!" No, no, no no nonononono- "You have to fix this. You have to fix this now. There is no way I my parents will kill me."

Steven, despite the panic in the room, suddenly smiled so wide his eyes seemed to glitter. Actually, looking more carefully, his eyes literally became stars, I guess I shouldn't have been surprised. "We can have a sleepover. I've always wanted one of those! Please, please, can I, can I can I?"

Pearl was skeptical. "I don't know, is that really the best idea? We just met her."

"Come on, we're going to be together no matter what we do, right? So why not make it official? Maybe it'll go away when we're both happy, like in the bubble! And what better way could we get our emotions up than a sleepover? Oh, and it'll give you more time to test your gadgets on us. Oh, PLEEEEAAASE?"

Pearl sighed. "Oh, I suppose I can't resist those eyes. Yes, you can have a sleepover."

"Yes! Oh, thank you, Pearl!" Steven said.

"Guys, wait. What am I going to tell my parents about all of this? There's no way I could tell the truth. And how would I lie? 'Oh, I just met this boy today, but I swear he's cool. Can I stay at his house for the night?'"

"Well, what would be wrong with that?" Pearl said.

"Haven't you ever heard what people say about strangers? They wouldn't let me anywhere near your house until you proved you were trustworthy. And no, before you ask, we couldn't stay at my place, either. Do you have any idea how hard it would be to convince Mom and Dad to let us sleep in bed together?"

"And why would that be a bad thing?" Pearl asked, genuinely curious.

"I- Okay, if you don't know, I probably should be the one to tell you. Okay, fine, I'll figure something out. But you're lucky you don't have to be the ones dealing with them!"

I started walking towards the door, only to be jerked backwards. I looked back at Steven, who was currently fallen over. "I was trying to get out of here so we could tell my parents as soon as possible. You coming or what?"

"Don't blame me! You didn't exactly tell me that you were going to walk towards the door."

Oh. Right. Okay, maybe I was in the wrong, here. "Okay… you're right, I'm sorry. But emotions aside, I really do need to talk to my dad as soon as possible. So could we go outside now?" Steven nodded. I grabbed Steven's hand we walked out the door.

On the way out, I heard Amethyst say, "I wonder what would happen if we pulled them really hard away from each other…"

"You think that would work?" Pearl said.

"I mean, we wouldn't know until we tried, would we?"

"If that worked, I would give you that sword you've been asking for."

"Deal!"

We were outside before we heard the rest of the conversation. I stopped on the wooden walkway just outside of the shack. "So… aren't we going to your parents?" Steven asked.

"Yeah, but then I remembered that I had my phone in my pocket… this is awkward."

Steven rubbed the back of his neck. "Heh, I know how that's like. You want to come back into the temple, then? It is a bit warm out."

"I don't know. I don't really feel comfortable being around the gems. From what you said, they aren't even human!"

Steven tensed up a little. "Is… is that a problem?"

I flinched. "No, no, of course not! I'm so sorry, I didn't mean it like that. It's just that, you know, yesterday I didn't even know that magic and monsters and stuff were real, and now I find out there's a task force of magic people looking over the earth, and have probably already saved my life multiple times. I'm having sensory overload here. I can't decide if it's awesome or terrifying."

He loosened up. "Okay, I'm okay. But I swear you'll warm up to them later. They might seem imposing now, but trust me, they're all really nice."

I smiled. "You know, Steven, thanks for being here to talk to, even if you don't really have a choice."

"Don't mention it," he said. I jumped up onto the rail of the balcony and looked out at the sea. I gestured for Steven to sit with me, and he jumped up onto the railing. We both checked out the breathtaking view.

We sat in a companionable silence for a few seconds. Finally, it was Steven to break the silence. "So, you said you were going to call your dad…?

"Oh, I almost forgot!" I said. "Oops…"

"No problem, just call him now. Well, let's cross our fingers, right?"

I took a deep breath and dialed the number. I had no idea what I would do if he said no. I couldn't exactly tell him that magic was real and I was stuck to another magic person for the night, could I?

Well, it was now or never. His voice crackled from the other end of the phone. "Hey, honey. What's up?"

"Hi dad! How are you doing?"

"It's slow here. I'm glad you called, honestly. It's something to do."

"Aw, don't mention it."

"I would assume that you didn't just call to say hi?"

"Yeah," I said. Okay, moment of truth. "I just met a new friend here in beach city, and I was wondering if I could maybe spend the night at his place."

"Oh really? Well, I'm very glad you're making friends."

I was somewhat surprised that he didn't immediately turn the offer down. Did that mean I had a chance? "You haven't said no yet, dad…"

"I'm going to have to talk to your mother, of course."

And there was the crux of the matter. Even if he said yes, Mom would say no. I couldn't let that happen. Time to play my last card and pray that it worked. "Come on, it's not like I have school or anything tomorrow. And you know I usually have so much trouble making friends. Well, now I made one and we really want to hang out together, and tonight is our first opportunity in a long time. Pleeeeeaaaase?"

"Alright honey, fine. I give you my permission. I'll talk to her about it."

"Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you! You're the best, dad!"

"It's no problem. Now, be careful, dear. Don't do anything we would want you to."

"I'll be careful! I promise!"

"Okay, then, have fun."

"I will."

I hung up the phone. Steven looked at me expectantly. "So what'd he say?"

I smiled. "He said yes."

"Oh, yes! I knew it! We're going to have so much fun!"

"Yeah, fun." Suddenly, a though crossed my mind. "You know, why are you being so nice and stuff to me? I'm not exactly that special or anything and yet you treat me like I've been your best friend for years."

Steven shrugged. "Well, why wouldn't I be? I try to be nice to everyone."

"You're still treating me differently than other people. I can tell. Would you get this happy over anyone else sleeping over at your house?"

Steven actually stopped and thought about that. That was kind of the one response I didn't expect. Up until now, it seemed like he just always had an answer ready before I even asked the question. I wonder why this in particular one gave him a bit of pause.

"Honestly?" Steven said. "I don't know. I guess you're new, and new people are always exciting. But yeah, I think there is something more to that. Let's see, you seem nice. You were pretty cool defeating the monster and stuff, and you haven't complained at all about this whole situation with us being stuck together. And you're so upbeat, that's my favorite characteristic I could want to see in people! You seem like someone I want to know better. Plus, we're stuck together anyways, what would I have to gain from being all mopey about it?"

I blushed. There had to be something more than that, I wasn't that special. "Come on, you fight monsters for a living, right? What's so special about me? What's so special about a sleepover?"

"Oh, but that's where you're wrong. Sure, I might fight monster from time to time, but that shouldn't mean I ignore the rest of my life. Life's no fun if you have no one to share it with! Connie, stop being such a downer. I just said you were upbeat, I don't want you to change that. Come on, let's get ready for this sleepover. We have so much to do!"

Steven's bond thing pulled me along with him as we made our way back to the house. I thought about Steven. Oh, Steven, you really are something. You spit off something so philosophical in a bright and cheery voice and then talk about a sleepover in the next sentence. You really are something else, aren't you?

Wow, I never knew a sleepover could be so… weird. Also, incredibly fun! I mean, with Amethyst there it couldn't exactly be a normal sleepover. She eats plates, for crying out loud! I promised myself I wouldn't be too pulled into her games, but I failed that very quickly. Heck, she even convinced us to play a few party games with our bubble-link (Amethyst made up the name), like tug-of-war and blindfolding each one of us and having the other lead them around using nothing but the link. She's definitely not as serious as the other gems, and that's kind of a double-edged sword. But she's really fun to be around.

Pearl broke up the pace from time to time. She came in every hour or so and tried another artifact from 'the temple' to try and break the link, with no success. After her original freak-out, she was a lot more methodical about it, trying artifact after artifact, but nothing seemed to work. She seemed like a nice person; all the gems do. Steven was right, they aren't intimidating at all.

Garnet, the third gem, though… I have a specific story to tell about her.

(Line)

Steven was reading a book at my request (He needs to learn about true artistry in the world!) and I was reading over his shoulder, when Garnet walked up to us.

"Oh, hey, Garnet," I said.

"Hello, Connie," she said.

"So, do you want to talk, or…?" I said.

Garnet nodded. "Everybody else seems to have forgotten, but I wanted to talk to you about what happened while you fought the giant sand-worm."

Oh, right. I had somehow forgotten about that. "Okay, what about it?"

"After the battle, you kept denying you did anything of worth. And I want to tell you that you're wrong."

"Come on, does it really matter what I think of myself right now?"

"Of course it does," Garnet said. "It's one of the most important things there is."

"Isn't that a slight exaggeration?"

"No. that's the complete and utter truth. I… I lost a few friends simply because they didn't believe in themselves."

I looked at the floor. "I- I'm sorry about that…"

"Don't be. Learn from their mistakes."

"But I didn't do all that much-"

"Tell me exactly what happened. I'll jusdge whether you really did nothing. Don't tell me any of your personal feelings, tell me the cold, hard, facts."

She had such an imposing stare. She was somehow even worse than my mom. I told her exactly what had happened, how I froze, how we both ran in tandem, What we said, and what I did to save our lives.

After hearing all of that, the first thing she said was, "You're an idiot."

"…" I said.

"You're an idiot if you think you did nothing. I'm not sure if I could've done better with what you had at your desposal. Steven was right, you saved his life. You not only saved his life, you escaped all harm in something that should have shattered at least a few of your bones. You preformed admirable, don't ever forget that."

And with that, she walked back into the temple and closed the door behind her.

Steven closed his book and looked up. He said, "Sorry, this book is amazing. Did I miss anything?"

So yeah, I have a newfound respect for Garnet. She was right, I should take responsibility for the bad and the good.

And the heavy stuff didn't let up. Because then, mom called on the phone. She was not happy that Dad didn't check with her before allowing me to go on the sleepover. But she didn't blame me for anything, and I was free to stay, as long as I stayed safe. I'm so glad she wasn't in one of her 'moods' today, who knows what might have happened if she was. No point in dwelling in what-ifs, though. She was fine with it, yet another miracle.

By the end of the day, we were both exhausted. I've never had a sleepover before, but I was pretty sure they weren't usually that bad. Steven and I flopped into bed. I was pretty much caught up on what gems were, but it was still confusing. I mean, there were just these magical beings that had always existed that can use something that I would be crazy to not call magic? Bending light, my foot, it's magic. Anyways, we had been trying to sleep for a while, with little success. I wasn't used to sharing a bed. Not positive thought ran through my head. I turned to Steven. "What if we're stuck like this?" I said.

Steven shook his head adamantly and immediately. "Of course we won't be, Connie. Don't be ridiculous. It'll probably be gone by morning, like Amethyst said. Or maybe one of Pearl's gadgets will break the bond instead, she hasn't exhausted her supply yet. Or maybe I'll be able to do something about it. The bubble popped when we were happy together, maybe if we just have to have a similar experience again it would go away! Yeah, I could drag us down to the bottom of the ocean again, I'm sure that couldn't backfire at all."

I chuckled at that. But my stupid mind kept dragging me back to the same question. "But what if it doesn't?"

"Then we'll work through it. Together."

I lay back in bed. "I suppose tonight was fun. Why do you always know just what to say? I totally blame you if this doesn't get fixed, by the way."

"And what're you going to do about it then?"

"Then I'll boop you on the nose 5 million times!" I booped him on the nose. We laughed at that.

Maybe we laughed a bit too loudly, because Pearl's voice sounded from outside of the room. "Kids, get to bed. You organic life forms need your sleep."

"Yes, Pearl," we said simultaneously.

Once I was sure Pearl was gone, I spoke in a whisper. "Good night, Steven. I guess today was okay, after all. I killed a monster and made a new friend. Keep it up and soon I'll be my very own Lisa, right?"

"I don't know what that means, but sure. 'Night Connie."

And with that, we drifted off to sleep. Yeah, he's right. It'll be okay. By tomorrow we'll look back and remember a time when we were Bubble-linked together. We'll think back and laugh…

A/N: A monument to my first ever author's note…

A/N: No idea how good this first chapter is. I was throwing ideas at a wall and I liked this one. This is more of a setup for the rest of the story, that's why it might seem rushed. I wanted to get into the good stuff! Anyways, hope you enjoy the story. Expect semi-frequent updates.

Cute, isn't it? And now inaccurate. I've officially went back and un-rushified it! I wanted to leave a good impression to anyone new to the story. So there's that. Again, I'm slowly working through editing the first 6 or so chapters to be up to standard with the rest of the story. Not that they're bad or anything, I still recommend reading them, but if you aren't impressed, wait until chapter 7 or so until the good stuff really comes.

Oh, and remember to review my story! I'll always respond to your reviews and comments, whether they be theorizing (this story is a mystery, after all), actual reviews, or just someone saying hi, so feel free to post something of the sort.

And if you like the idea and want to post a side story/spinoff/similar idea in another universe, just send me a PM to let me know and we can work something out.

You know, I just realized, unlike every other chapter, I didn't end this one with a 'next time' section! I always like to give teasers of what happens next in these author's notes. So here you go!

Next time: we see if Connie was right and the Bond will be gone when she wakes up. Spoiler: there wouldn't be much of a story if it disappeared so easily. See you guys… well, I would say then, but it's out by now, so whenever you click on 'next chapter.'