A/N: Tbh this ended up going where I never expected it to, and idk if I like it, but it is what it is.

Amethyst gaped at the disintegrated mass of junk and drew in a sharp breath. "Oh my God. P, are you okay?" When she received no response, Amethyst began to lose her nerve a little. "Hey, Pearl, now's not the time to be punking me. You're okay under there, right?" Again there was no reply. At this point Amethyst lost all rational thought. She dropped onto all four of her limbs and crawled to the tower which had entombed Pearl.

She scrabbled at it unsystematically, trying to free Pearl, but to no avail. After several minutes of this she realised that her unconventional technique was not going to work, as all it resulted in was the mess being tossed about within the pile. Amethyst got to her feet, panting, and took a moment to regain her breath. She needed help, but there was no one. Garnet was on a solo mission, Steven was out somewhere, probably with Connie again and Pearl was quite clearly incapacitated. "What would Pearl do?" Amethyst muttered to herself. Pearl would do things in an organised fashion, she thought. She would removed each piece of junk individually, in as safe a way as possible.

Amethyst began to take away the scrap one piece at a time. It was painstaking but it did work. On the occasion that she came across an item too large to remove by hand, Amethyst would pull out her whip, wrap it around the offending object with a pirouette and then heave it away.

To Amethyst it felt like it took hours, but it took merely twenty minutes before one of Pearl's hands became visible. +Amethyst clutched onto Pearl's willowy fingers with her own stout digits. She knew it may have been her imagination, or wishful thinking, but Amethyst was convinced that Pearl squeezed her hand back. "I knew you'd be okay, P. I wasn't worried. At all."

Finding Pearl gave Amethyst a new burst of energy. Before long she had pulled up one last box, which had pinned Pearl's arm against the ground. Pearl didn't jump up and start hurling abuse at Amethyst as she thought she would. Instead she stared up at her with a weird smile on her face. "Rose?" She asked groggily.

"Uh, no. It's Amethyst. What's up with you? Did you hit your - whoa. Okay. That's bad."

Pearl, seemingly spurred on by the fear she saw in Amethyst's eyes, now the size of saucers, pushed herself up to a standing position. "What's not good? I am perfectly fine. This is just further proof that you need to tidy in here. Had this happened to Steven, he would be dead" Pearl said, a smug expression upon her face, and her arms folded.

"P, I don't wanna scare ya, but your gem is cracked." Amethyst said casually, seemingly unperturbed.

"What?" Pearl screeched as she brought a hand against her forehead to assess the damage.

"It's no big deal Pearl." Amethyst sighed. "Steven can fix it." Amethyst stared down at her hands, inspecting her nails.

"No big deal? No big deal?! This is a disaster. We all know Steven's powers leave something to be desired."

Pearl took a few stilted steps towards Amethyst. It was clear she didn't quite have control over her body. However, she still seemed capable to put up a bit of a fight. Amethyst took a few steps back. She was expecting a reaction from Pearl. She expected her to scream at her, telling her it was all her fault. She expected Pearl to try to fight her. She did not expect for Pearl to suddenly burst into tears and throw herself onto her shoulder. "I'm not ready to die." she choked out between sobs.

"P, chill out. You're not gonna die. Steven will fix this, okay?" The notion of Steven saving Pearl with his healing spit was the only thing keeping Amethyst together at that moment. She knew that anything that happened to Pearl would be her fault. Deep down she had known that her room was dangerous, yet she had ignored both Garnet's requests and Pearl's orders to tidy it just because she knew it irritated Pearl.

"I don't hate you." Pearl mumbled. "You're so annoying. But I don't hate you. I think I love you."

Pearl's voice had begun to slur. She sounded quite incoherent. Amethyst sighed and lifted Pearl over her shoulders. "I'm not Rose, P. I think this cracked gem has sent you gaga."

"I know you're not Rose. I'm not blind." Pearl snapped, sounding more like herself. "Put me down Amethyst. I can walk." Pearl demanded, despite the fact that she had gone limp in Amethysts arms.

Amethyst, as usual, ignored Pearl and began to sprint out of her room in the Temple, to the house.

When she entered the house Garnet was standing in front of the door. Her arms were folded and she was scowling at Amethyst. "What is going on?"

"Garnet. You're back." Amethyst said, relieved. "Where's Steven."

"What is going on?" Garnet repeated, more harshly this time.

Amethyst threw Pearl down onto the sofa, by no means gently. "I didn't do it." she said quickly.

"Do not throw her like that. Can't you see that she is dying?" Garnet questioned as she knelt down next to Pearl and gently stroked her forehead.

"She's not dying. She's gonna be fine."

"You are just seeing what you wish to see. Her eyes are glazed over. Her skin is even more pale than usual. She hasn't got long left."

Amethyst shrugged. "So? Steven can heal her. Where is he?"

"He's not here. I sent him on a mission." Garnet said as she raised an eyebrow.

"You knew this was going to happen, didn't you?" Amethyst said accusingly.

"Steven cannot save her." Garnet said with a hint of regret, ignoring Amethyst's condemnation.

"Why not?" Amethyst shouted, stamping one of her feet in anger

"In all of my future vision possibilities, Pearl dies."

"Yeah, well maybe your future visions suck. "

"I will not allow Steven to try to heal Pearl when I know it is impossible. It would destroy him."

"So, what, we're just going to let her die?"

"Yes." Garnet said gravely. "I am sorry, Amethyst."

"Fine." Amethyst growled. "I hate her anyways." She stormed towards the door, and left, with one final glance over her shoulder. Garnet could see the regret and guilt that filled her eyes as she looked at Pearl one last time.

"No. You don't." Garnet said softly as Amethyst left the house.

Once Garnet was certain that Amethyst was no longer in ear shot, she spoke once more. "Steven, you may come out now."

When Steven crawled out of the cupboard that he had been using as a hiding place at Garnet's request he stared up at the tallest Gem with tears in his eyes. "Why did you do that to Amethyst?"

"She needs to learn that her choices and actions have consequences. That girl needs to learn responsibility."

"But that was so harsh."

"I know. But it's the only way to get through to her."

"Do you think she'll ever come back?" Steven asked, sniffling.

"Do you think I would have used this misfortune as a learning exercise if I didn't?" Garnet replied as she ruffled Steven's hair. "Just trust me, kid."

Steven nodded. "Okay. I trust you. But how do you always know the right thing to do?"

"You have experienced my future vision before, Steven. Besides, two brains are better than one." Garnet winked, before sobering again.

"So, shall I do it?"

"No, not yet. I will tell you when."