"I never understood why you gems forgive so easily, yet never seem to forget anything. I mean, I don't think I could ever bring myself to love a nazi officer even if I found out that he was a really nice guy. It doesn't excuse what he did," Greg said to Lapis, who stared at him blankly as he sat on the beach. Lapis was standing over him, watching him relax as he stared at the ocean.
"But now, I understand everything. I think I understand you better than any of the other gems, and I understand you a lot more than I hope that Steven ever will," Greg continued speaking to the gem, and Lapis smiled down at him as she reached out one of her hands and started to stroke the cheek of the man.
"Do you have any questions for me? We still have a few minutes left," Lapis asked the man, who shook his head.
"What's the point?" Greg asked the blue gem, who smiled as she stared at the sunset.
"You humans are so curious. You have such a limited time to live and you seem to want to learn as much as possible. Us gems live forever, and I think we're far less curious because of that. We always say that we'll discover one of the secrets of the universe tomorrow, or next week, or next decade or next century. We're so lazy sometimes, so complacent,"
"We can be complacent too," Greg said to the gem, who continued to smile and stare at the sunset.
"I'm going to leave a note telling the others to bury you with a hang glider, so that you can have a bit of an advantage when the zombie thing happens," Lapis said to the man, who smiled as he stood up and started walking towards the ocean.
"Do you really want that?" Greg asked the gem as he approached the water and felt the liquid cover his ankles. The blue gem smiled as the man continued walking eventually becoming submerged up to his shoulders in the ocean.
"Maybe it would be funny to see," The blue gem said to the man, who chuckled before he took a few more steps into the water and his body was completely submerged. Lapis stared into the ocean and watched the bubbles float to the surface.
Eventually the bubbles stopped rising to the surface, and Lapis sighed heavily.
"Hey, why did Mr. Universe go into the water?"
Lapis jumped as soon as she heard the voice, and she looked down to see Navy gently pulling at her dress and staring into the water where Greg had drowned. Fate must have had a particularly bad sense of humor because at that moment the lifeless body of Greg had floated onto the sand of the beach. Navy shrieked, and Lapis quickly covered her mouth.
"Let go of her!" Lapis heard a second voice and groaned. She really didn't need any more trouble. All she wanted to do was leave and let the others discover Greg's body along with the note that she planned to leave behind which would explain as much as she could.
Sadly, it seemed as though she would need to resort to her other plan, which was to run away and leave behind no answers to any of the questions the gems might ask.
"I'm doing this for your own good," Lapis said to the gem known as Pearl as she released Navy from her hold. The ruby gem whimpered as she ran up to Pearl and hid behind her. Pearl checked to make sure that the gem was okay while remaining in a battle stance.
Pearl's eyes scanned the scene in front of her, from the terrified gem cowering behind her, to the dead body of Greg, to the clearly distraught Lapis Lazuli standing in front of her. Nothing in the scene could possibly be interpreted in any way other than a negative one.
"Dammit Lapis," Pearl said before she dropped her spear. She picked up the small ruby gem who had been cowering behind her and whimpering. Pearl walked up to Lapis while carrying the ruby gem, who had started to cuddle against her body as she was held.
"I don't need to explain myself to you,"
"You don't have to. I knew that this day would come eventually, how could it not? I just...I just hoped that Steven would have died of old age or some kind of human disease long before this happened," Pearl said to the gem, who nodded her head. Watery wings appeared on the back of the gem as Pearl was speaking, and Lapis appeared to be preparing to take flight.
"You know, I've always enjoyed fusing with you the most. Lately I've actually been having dreams about-" Pearl placed a finger on Lapis' lips to silence the gem.
"Please stop, you're making this harder than it needs to be. Just go, save the world if you can, and if you can't then…" Pearl paused for a moment, and what looked like a tear started to run down her face.
"We'll figure something out. If not, Greg's been saving something special for Steven in his room just in case something like this happened. Also, you know what the humans say right?" Pearl asked the gem, who had started to float in the air.
"Thank God for hammers, get out of my way birds," Lapis said, and Pearl nodded her head.
"Yeah, just replace birds with zombies and you have a good idea of what's to come," Pearl said with a smile, before she turned her back and the blue gem flew away.
"What was all that about?" Navy asked Pearl, who shook her head as she walked towards the beach house while carrying the ruby gem in her arms.
"I wish I could lie and say that it was nothing important, but you heard so much that I don't think that you'd believe me if I did,"
"Well, you could try," Navy said to Pearl, who smiled at the gem in her arms cuddling against her body and staring at her with her incredibly innocent eyes. The eyes that hadn't truly witnessed the horrors of war, and the eyes that had absolutely no idea of the horrors that were about to be seen on Earth.
"Well, Greg is sleeping right now and he doesn't want to be woken up, so Lapis is trying to find a way to make him stay asleep. Greg will get really grumpy when he wakes up, and none of us want to deal with a grumpy Greg," Pearl said to the gem in her arms who smiled.
"Thanks for trying to cheer me up," Navy said to Pearl, who smiled and started to stroke the head of the gem.
"Anytime, now let's go home and run a nice hot bath to help you relax," Pearl walked up the deck of the house. She pushed open the door with her foot and walked with the little gem to the couch in front of the television, where Peridot was currently watching a cartoon about adorable dragons.
"Garnet wanted to talk to you," Peridot said to Pearl, without taking her eyes away from the cartoon. Pearl sighed and started walking towards Garnet's room.
"She wanted to talk to you, but now she can't. She did want me to tell you something. She said it was the most important message I would ever need to give,"
"What's the message?" Navy asked the gem, who grinned and turned to face the two gems.
"You were wrong Pearl, it's genetic. Did you hear that Pearl, you were wrong about something," Peridot laughed and Pearl paled. She immediately started running towards the door of the house.
"What's the matter Pearl! You can't accept that you were wrong about something! You clod!"
"We need to get out of here right now! If you don't follow me you will suffer a fate worse than being shattered!" Pearl yelled to the green gem as she ran out of the cabin, still carrying Navy in her arms. Peridot scoffed and continued to watch the cartoon playing on the television set.
"Clods," Peridot said to herself.
"What's going on? Why aren't we taking Amethyst or Garnet or Steven with us?" Navy asked the gem who was carrying her.
"We can't save them now. We'll be lucky to save ourselves," Pearl said to the ruby gem as she ran through the sand. Navy stared at the beautiful setting sun as it disappeared over the horizon.
Navy's smile immediately faded when she heard a low-pitched growl from behind them.
"What was that?" Navy asked Pearl, who continued running through the sand.
"Greg, or Steven or Garnet. Who knows and who cares? We just need to make sure that it isn't us making that noise," Pearl said to the small gem as she ran. Navy took this opportunity to peek over Pearl's shoulder, and she gasped at what she saw.
Running after them was Greg, except he didn't look very much like the Greg that she had come to know. Instead, he looked like a feral beast with green skin and sharp fangs. Behind Greg was Amethyst, except she looked extremely similar to Greg, with the main difference being the four extra arms which appeared to have grown on her back.
"I thought we had more time," Pearl mumbled to herself as she continued running. Navy whimpered as the sounds of the animal-like creatures who were once her friends started to get closer.
"I have an idea. But, you're not going to like it very much," Pearl said to the gem in her arms. The gem whimpered and held onto Pearl much more tightly.
"As long as I don't get shattered, I'll be fine with whatever you think will help us,"
"Well, I guess you're not going to like my backup plan then," Pearl muttered. The gem quickly transformed her body into a pterodactyl, with the ruby gem still holding on to her as tightly as she could, and she flew high into the air away from Amethyst and Greg.
"I see Steven down there, and I see Connie and Peridot, but I don't see Garnet," Pearl said to the ruby gem who was currently holding onto her pterodactyl body with wide eyes as she stared at the ground below.
"Maybe she's somewhere safe," Navy said to Pearl, who shook her pterodactyl head.
"She had to have known that Steven was infected somehow. He had to have infected someone else before we got there, and Peridot did say that she couldn't talk to me," Pearl said to herself, and Navy shivered.
"So, Steven turned Amethyst into whatever she is now and he might have turned Garnet into that thing?" Navy asked Pearl, who nodded her head.
"She must have shattered herself," Pearl whispered and Navy whimpered as she thought of Garnet committing suicide.
