I don't own Steven Universe in any way, shape, or form.

Chapter 1

Lapis floated lazily on her back through the ocean staring up towards the surface. She was to far down to see it, but was close enough that the light from the sun could filter down to her, illuminating the dark depths she now called home. A sudden movement caught her eye and she turned to see a small school of colorful fish swim by. With a smile, Lapis turned over and swam after them, gracefully and effortlessly cutting through the water, being careful not to get to close and scare them.

Lapis spent most of her days like this at the bottom of the sea. She found the sea life beautiful and fascinating. She didn't know what any of the various species of fish were called, but she still loved them.

A shark suddenly swam towards the fish she was following, causing them to scatter. Lapis stopped when the predator arrived and turned away, not wishing to bear witness to what would come next. She knew it was the natural order of things but that didn't make it any less difficult to see. She turned back after a moment to see that the shark had gone and a faint, slowly dissipating red mist was the only indication that it had been there.

With a small, sad sigh, Lapis floated down and sat on a large rock. She looked back up towards the surface, staring at the sun, a small, blurry circle at the depth she was at, no larger then dime.

"This isn't the beauty you saw in this world, is it, Rose Quartz?" she said, "You never saw this, did you?"

She looked around her as she spoke, looking at all the aquatic creatures that swam by, at the coral and seaweed, at the urchins and starfish that occupied the seafloor.

"It was the humans. That's what you fought to protect. But these creatures, this world, they're just as beautiful as your precious humans. They're worth protecting just as much."

Lapis sighed again and looked back up towards the surface.

"I never understood why you it did back then, but now I think I do. I think I feel something like what you felt. This need, this desire, to protect these creatures. Does that make me like you now? Does that mean I'm a Crystal Gem? Would they even accept me as one of them? Well, Steven would. But the others?"

Lapis closed her eyes and bowed her head forward, hugging her knees.

"Could I really be one of them? After the things they did to me? After the things I did to them? And what about Homeworld? Can I actually turn my back on them? Can I really be a Crystal Gem?"

As she sat, contemplating everything, Lapis felt something brush past her. She looked up and saw a small school of fish swimming past. She watched them swim for a long moment then turned her gaze upwards.

"I have to at least try."

She shot upwards, reaching the surface in a matter of seconds. She broke through and floated there, staring out at the endless expanse of water in front of her. She turned in place, looking around, finding nothing but ocean in every direction. She stared forward, confused.

"Wait, where am I?"

After several days of swimming in every possible direction, Lapis finally found herself in familiar waters. The beach she had left from so many months ago was in sight, the statue around temple the Crystal Gems called home watching her as she approached. Slowing down, she dropped to the sea floor, walking the last few yards, slowly rising out of the water as she did.

As she approached, she heard a familiar voice call out "Guys! Guys! Lapis is here!" from the temple. She smiled at the sound of Stevens voice, stopping as she reached the beach and watched the temple. After a moment, the door opened and the Crystal Gems came leaping down, landing a few feet away from Lapis. Steven came running down slope, stopping near Pearl to catch his breath.

"See," he panted, "I told you Lapis would come back!"

"Huh. Steven was right and Pearl was wrong. That's new," Amethyst said.

"I was not wrong!" Pearl barked at her, "I said that it was highly unlikely that Lapis would come back, not that she wouldn't."

"Eh, same difference," Amethyst said with a shrug.

"No it's not!"

"Um, isn't anyone going to ask me why I came back?" Lapis asked.

"Oh, yes, of course!" Pearl said turning to Lapis, "That's a much better topic to discuss then semantics. Why are you here Lapis?"

"Are you gonna stay here with us? Are you gonna join the Crystal Gems?" Steven asked excitedly.

"That… is my intention, yes," Lapis replied with a nod, then looked to Garnet, "If you'll accept me."

Garnet stared at her for a long moment, then looked at the others and said, "Gems, huddle up."

The four of them huddled up and began talking quietly amongst themselves. Even thought she couldn't hear them, she knew what they were talking about. She turned and looked out at the sea, waiting for them to finish. After a few minutes, she heard Garnet say her name and turned back around to face them.

"Have you come to a decision then?" she asked.

Garnet nodded. "We have. We're willing to give you a trial run. We'll let you join us temporarily and, when your time is up, if we feel we can trust you and that your intentions are as you say they are, we will let you join full time."

"Yes, that's about what I expected you to say," Lapis replied, nodding.

Steven ran forward, hugging Lapis tightly.

"Yay! Lapis is joining the team!" he said.

Lapis smiled and hugged him back.

"I hope so Steven. I hope so."

"This is… different," Lapis said, looking around, "This is what a human house looks like?"

"More or less," Steven replied.

Lapis stood in the doorway of the house with Steven, looking around the room. The others had gone into the temple, saying they needed to discuss Lapis's temporary status in a bit more detail, leaving Steven to give her a tour of the house. Lapis looked around, taking everything in as she walked around, drifting towards the kitchen and stopping near the stove.

"What's this device?" she asked, pointing at it.

"That's a stove. You use it to cook food."

"Food…" she said slowly, as if it were a foreign word, contemplating it, trying to understand its meaning.

"Humans need food," she said after a moment, "To get energy to live."

"That's right," Steven said nodding.

"You're human, but you're also part Gem. Can you not draw energy from your gem?"

"Nope," he replied shaking his head, "Even if I could though, I wouldn't be able to live off of it. The human part of me needs stuff you can only get out of food."

Lapis stared at him for a moment before crouching down and placing a hand on his stomach.

"You're such an interesting creature Steven. There's never been anything like you before. You truly are one of a kind."

Steven giggled and placed a hand on Lapis's.

"I know. The Gems tell me that all the time."

"The Gems…" Lapis said, looking over at the temple door, "Do you really think they could ever accept me?"

"Well, they're giving you a chance, so they probably will," Steven replied with a smile.

"I do hope so. Say, what happened to Amethyst?"

"What do mean?"

"She looked as if she regenerated since the last time I'd seen her. I'm curious as to what happened."

"Oh yeah. That happened when we were chasing the Slinker."

"The… Slinker?"

"It was a corrupted Gem monster that was in the temple. It poofed Amethyst four times."

"Four times?"

"Yeah. Amethyst kept rushing her regenerations though. Me and Garnet were getting really worried."

"And in the end she ultimately decided on that one?"

Steven nodded.

"It looks nice on her."

"You should've seen the other ones. On one of them she made herself look like Pearl. She even acted like Pearl."

"Really? I would loved to have seen that," Lapis said with a chuckle, "A Quartz, pretending to be a Pearl."

"What do you mean, a Pearl?" Steven asked confused.

"Steven, what do you know about Pearls?"

"I know about Pearl," he replied glancing at the temple door.

"No no, I'm talking about other Pearls."

"There are other Pearls?" Steven exclaimed, eyes going wide.

Lapis looked at Steven for a moment before looking over at the temple door.

"What have the Gems told you about Homeworld?" she asked looking back at him.

"Um… They told me that Homeworld wanted to do something bad to the Earth and my mom stopped them."

"They haven't told you anything about life on Homeworld? About what the kinds of roles different Gems had?"

Steven shook his head. Lapis looked back at the door and frowned.

"I see. I'm sure they have their reasons for not telling you. And I don't think it would be my place to tell you. I'm sure they'll tell you in time though."

Steven looked over at the door as well then down at his gem. Lapis watched him for a moment then stood back up and made her towards Steven sleeping area.

"Say Steven, what's this?" she asked pointing at the television.

"All humans do this?" Lapis whispered.

Pearl nodded in response.

"Why?" Lapis asked looking over at her.

"I've never been entirely sure. As far as I can tell, humans need time to recharge themselves and this is how they do it," Pearl whispered back.

Lapis looked back to Steven who lay in his bed, fast asleep. The two Gems sat nearby, watching him. The Gems had decided that until they made their final decision on Lapis, one of them would be with her at all times, watching her. Pearl was given the first watch.

"It's kind of like when retreat into our gems," Lapis said.

Pearl brought a hand to her chin and looked down, contemplating what Lapis just said.

"I never thought of it that way, but I suppose, in a way, it kind of is," she responded after a few seconds.

"It's a very interesting thing."

"Yes. That's why started doing this. I wanted to better understand it. Although Steven doesn't like it when I do this."

"He doesn't?"

Pearl shook her head.

"He seemed a little… freaked out when he found out and asked me not to anymore."

"Oh. I suppose we shouldn't be doing this then," Lapis said and looked around a bit, settling her gaze on the screen door, "I think I'll go outside for a bit."

Pearl nodded and followed behind her. Once outside, they both leaned against the railing, staring up at the night sky in silence.

"Do… Do you belong to Steven?" Lapis tentatively asked after a moment.

Pearls entire body tensed up and she tightly griped the railing, causing it to crack slightly.

"Why would you think that?" she tensely replied.

"You were Rose Quartz's Pearl, right? From what I understand, Steven inherited her gem and all of her powers," Lapis explained, "I just thought that-"

"I don't belong to anyone," Pearl interrupted, "I haven't belonged to anyone for thousands of years."

"I'm… I'm sorry," Lapis quickly apologized.

Pearl loosened her grip on the railing and seemed to relax somewhat, letting out a long breath as she did.

"It's alright," she said after a moment, "You didn't know. Best you learned now rather then later I suppose."

"Right, of course. It's just so different here. I guess I'm just not used to the way you do things here quite yet."

"That's alright Lapis. It took a while for me and Garnet to adjust to it," Pearl smiled and placed a hand on her shoulder, "It'll come to you in time. Don't worry about it to much."

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