"I need to tell you what really happened with Pink Diamond."

Steven's heart fluttered. This was really happening. She was really going to tell him. He was so amazed he had to pinch himself just to make sure he wasn't dreaming. Pearl gave him a concerned look, but he just laughed.

"Yes! Alright!" He flapped his arms, unable to contain his excitement. "Tell me, tell me!"

Pearl said nothing. She sat down, elegantly folding her legs beneath her, and stared through him. Steven sat down across from her, forcing himself still.

The only sound was the calming trickle of the fountains.

"Rose didn't actually shatter her," Steven blurted out. "Th-that's it, isn't it? Bismuth was right the first time. I-I've been thinking about it and, and, it would make more sense if she faked it, it's not like she actually needed to shatter her, right, it would be enough if Homeworld thought she did so she faked it and Pink Diamond is just in a bubble somewhere and it was a big secret plan and that's why you didn't tell anyone! Right?" He grinned desperately. "See? I already figured it out, so it's okay, you can tell me."

Pearl looked at him, expressionless, and held his gaze for an uncomfortably long time. "Not… exactly." She slowly turned her head and stared into the distance, then started threading her fingers together in the way Steven knew she did when she was anxious. "Pink Diamond really was shattered, Steven," she said. "I wish I could tell you she wasn't, but… that's really the truth." She paused, before adding, "I'm sorry," sheepishly, like she didn't know what else to say.

Steven felt cold.

"No," he said. "No, I won't believe that! It must've been – Mom kept secrets, even from you, you said so! Maybe – maybe she faked it and didn't tell anyone, and Pink Diamond is still alive somewhere, that's, that's the only thing that makes sense!" He felt himself starting to cry again, and his voice faded to a whimper. "She… she would never do that. She wouldn't. You said… you said she saw the good in everyone. Everyone. Isn't that why she stopped Bismuth? It's like she said, why would Mom bubble her for trying to shatter gems and then do it anyway?" He clutched at his arms. His skin felt clammy and heavy. "No matter how awful Pink Diamond was, she deserved a chance like everyone else! You keep saying she had no other choice but that doesn't make sense, why couldn't she have just bubbled her, wouldn't that have been good enough?!"

To his surprise, Pearl laughed at that. It was a sharp, sad laugh, just on the edge of a sob. Steven looked up, and saw her wipe a single tear from her eye.

"You sound just like her," she said with a sad smile.

Steven could only stare. "I don't understand," he said eventually.

Pearl just looked at him with a deep, yearning sadness. She took in a sharp breath to say something, but all that followed was silence. She raised a hand to her mouth again and looked away, shame in her eyes.

"Tell me." Pearl looked up, anxiousness written all over her face, and Steven's attempt at a determined expression became too hard to maintain. "I know," he sighed as his face fell. "I know I'm not gonna like it. But… I need to know. I need to be able to see why she did it."

Pearl's expression went as blank as still water. She nodded once, stood up, and took a breath.

Her gem shined with rays of light, and holograms flickered into existence over the fountain, pale blue ghosts of his family. Steven saw Garnet, without her shades, facing a Rose wearing an expression he had never seen from her. Her face was tight and angry, hands balled into fists. This wasn't the Rose Quartz he had seen in the video, the kind mother beaming with love. This was the rebel general in a war council.

The Garnet hologram's lips moved, but it was Pearl's voice she spoke with. "'They're coming for us, Rose. Blue and Pink are attacking together. It's going to be a force like we've never encountered before.'" The Garnet in the hologram looked terrified, but Pearl spoke like she was reading lines from a textbook, flat as death.

"'So how do we win?'" Pearl said for Rose, again in that same dead monotone.

Garnet opened her mouth, stopped, closed it. Her expression hardened, and she spoke up again. "'We have to shatter Pink Diamond.'"

Rose's response was immediate. "'No.'"

"'We have to, Rose.'" Garnet took a step forward. "'The good timelines are running out. Every battle we're losing more possibilities, every escape is getting narrower. The timelines, they're all moving towards something inevitable, like… like streams flowing into the ocean.'" She raised a hand to her temple and closed her eyes, looking scared beyond imagining. "'I can see our end, Rose. If we do not do this, they will find us and they will shatter us. This is the only way.'"

Rose looked pained for a second, then threw her head back in a single, silent laugh – Pearl didn't mimic the noise. She shook her head. "'So those are my choices? Shatter, or be shattered?'"

"'Rose. I know you don't like this, but please…'"

"'No.'" Rose whirled on Garnet, gesturing impotently with her arms. She looked like she was screaming, but Pearl never raised her voice. "'You've said before you can't see every possibility. Sapphire used to think there was no free will, only one string of fate pulling us all along, but Ruby did something she never foresaw. You told me that. Free will does exist. We can choose our own fate. Homeworld wants you to believe that's not true but you have to fight it, Garnet. You have to believe in yourself.'"

"'Rose…'"

"'I'll poof her.'" Rose was leaning forward, eyes distant, hunched and aggressive in a pose that reminded Steven, with a painful jolt, of Jasper. "'I'll poof her, bubble her in front of everyone, lead them on a chase. They'll have to negotiate with us if we have her hostage. That's always been the plan, right, and don't tell me I can't, Garnet, if you're saying it's possible for me to get close enough to shatter her that means poofing her should be the easiest thing in the world.'" Her eyes refocused on Garnet, and their intensity sent chills down Steven's spine. "'We don't have to shatter anyone.'"

"'And I told you, I can see what happens when you try that.'" Garnet spoke through gritted teeth, looking stern, but Steven could see her knees starting to shake. "'Homeworld is never willing to negotiate with us. They just redouble their efforts, overwhelm us again, and recapture her, no matter what we do.'"

Rose shook her head furiously, and dug her fingers deep into the curls of her hair. "'That can't be true.'" Her whole body shook as she spoke, like she was going to explode, the intensity looking almost a mockery paired with Pearl's perfectly calm voice. "'You're telling me to… to end someone's existence. How can I possibly do that? How can I ask anyone to follow me after that?'" Then the fire seemed to go out of her all at once. Rose sank to her knees, her gown billowing out like a wilting flower, and she hung her head in her hands. "'If I… if I shatter her, I'm just playing Homeworld's game. I'm admitting that we can only rule by strength and shattering. I'm admitting… I could never save her.'"

"You… really think you can save her?" This was spoken with real inflection. Steven startled and looked around, before realizing it was Pearl herself speaking. For the first time since the scene started she wore an expression, and it was… so pained, like Rose was hurting her with her words. "After everything she's done?" It wasn't an accusation; the question was soft as a whisper, flitting between hope and despair.

Rose turned to Pearl, and her face softened to something almost like in the first memory Pearl had shown him. Almost, but… that had been in the beginning of the rebellion, when she had been so full of warmth and hope. Now, here at the end, there was something else there too, something eating at the edges. Steven realized that it was tiredness – no, exhaustion, a tiredness that hollowed you out and left nothing behind. She looked worse than Steven had ever felt.

"'Yes. I really do,'" Pearl said for Rose, once again in monotone. Rose closed her eyes and hung her head, but her fists still pawed at the ground in frustration. "'I… I can feel her, you know. Whenever she gets anywhere near, she's overpowering. And, you're right, she's angry and violent and arrogant, I can feel all that coming off her in waves, but…'" It seemed like she was breathing heavily, and then she looked up. "'She hurts, too, Pearl. She hurts so much. She is just as angry at Homeworld as she is at us. I don't… I don't think she wants to be a diamond.'"

Rose sprung to her feet suddenly and her expression hardened, an ember sparking in her eyes again. "'Think of what that could mean. If we can get even a diamond to reject Homeworld's system, the whole empire would be broken beyond repair. We'd be saving all gems, everywhere, not just this planet. I can turn her, I know I can, if I just get one chance.'" She turned on Garnet with a look that brooked no argument. "'And I will not stop believing that, no matter what you say, Garnet. Isn't that what we've been doing all along? Everyone here was a Homeworld soldier once. We showed them there's more to life than their cut, and we gave them the chance Homeworld never did. Everyone deserves that chance. Even her.'"

Garnet's face looked like it was fighting a war, twitching between expressions too fast for Steven to follow. It finally settled on a rigid stoicism, but Steven could still see frustration in the way her jaw was clenched. "'Of course I believe in you, Rose. I believe you can do anything you set your mind to. But even you still need that one chance, and they will never give it to you. They will come for us, and they will shatter you.'"

Rose just hung her head. "'No.'"

Garnet ignored her this time. "'Every battle now, we lose more than we gain. We thought we could keep bringing more people to the cause, but they're just throwing more and more soldiers at us. And now that Bismuth's gone –" Even with her head curled into her chest, Steven could see the guilt written clear on Rose's face. "– we can't even keep up with their weaponry. We will lose, Rose.'"

Rose pressed her hands to her face, and looked like she was crying. "'No.'"

Garnet suddenly lunged forward, raising a fist. Rose didn't move, but Pearl jumped and the image stuttered. "'Enough, Rose.'" Steven could see Garnet was crying now, even as her face bridled with fury. "'Do you think I didn't look for another way? Do you think I didn't try? I've seen you shattered so many times, you and Pearl and Biggs and Crazy Lace and Ruby, every time I had to watch them all die and I still kept looking but I just – can't – take it anymore.'" She looked like she shouted that loud enough to bring down the whole room. Her tears were coming so strongly now she had to close her eyes. "'You shatter Pink Diamond or we all die for nothing. If there's another way I'm done trying to find it. I'm done, Rose.'"

Garnet shook, and crumpled to her knees. She began to shudder violently, and Steven realized she was sobbing, crying out silently with a voice Pearl wouldn't echo. Rose just remained in place, looking down at nothing.

They stayed like that for a long time. Finally, abruptly, Garnet's face went as blank as a sheet of paper again. She rose to her feet, slowly, beads of tears rolling off her face. "'We all admire your ideals, Rose,'" Pearl said for her. "'But you can't hold ideals over people's lives.'"

Then she turned, and left Pearl's vision.

With careful steps, like she was afraid she would shatter the ground below her, Pearl walked forward until she was almost touching the pale image before them.

"…Rose." Pearl spoke in a soft whisper, wreathed in an affection Steven had never heard from her before. "I know you want to save everyone. We all do. That's what we admire about you." She swallowed, and looked like she was holding back tears. "But, Rose… How many of us have already been shattered? How many have they shattered on Homeworld that we'll never even know about, just because they seemed too close to us? We still don't know what they've done with the other rose quartzes, or… if they even kept them all in one piece." Rose flinched at that. Tears bunched at the corner of her eyes as she ran a hand over her gem. "I know you thought that if we just kept fighting, eventually they'd give up. We all did. But… it's been a thousand years, and all they've done is make another kindergarten. Another place that's killing organic life to make more soldiers. Even if we survive this, they'll just make a gamma kindergarten, and a delta, and an epsilon. If this goes on any longer, Rose… will there even be a planet left to save?"

Tears spilled freely from Rose's eyes. With infinite care, Pearl raised a hand to Rose's face and angled it towards her with the slightest of touches. Rose… just looked defeated. That spark, that light of hope and drive she had always had in every memory, in the video, in every image Steven had ever seen of her, was gone.

"This has to end, Rose."

Rose looked at her for several moments. Finally, her mouth flickered into a sad smile, and she mirrored Pearl's gesture, gently caressing the side of Pearl's face. "'You're right,'" Pearl said for her. "'Of course you're right.'"

Rose stared down into her hands again. "'I could have shattered her at the very beginning, couldn't I? I wanted to… to show Homeworld I didn't have to, that I wasn't like them, that we didn't have to solve all our problems by shattering the gems we didn't like. That I could see the good in everyone, even the diamonds. But…'" She shook her head, and shuddered in a motion Steven wasn't sure was a laugh or a sob. "'How long has it been since then? How many gems have I gotten shattered just to prove I won't shatter anybody? Am I… am I really valuing our enemies' lives over our own? If I hold my pride over people's lives… am I any different from Homeworld?'"

She angled her head up, tears still running from eyes that stared at something beyond either of them.

"'I'm so scared, Pearl. I don't want to shatter anyone, but… I don't want you to be shattered either.'" She closed her eyes, her whole face trembling with pain. "'I feel like I'm being torn apart. I wish… I wish I didn't have to do this.'" Her eyes snapped open, suddenly awash with guilt. "'I'm sorry, that's so selfish. I'm the leader, I, I started this, no matter how much it hurts I have to do what's right for you…'"

"No, you don't." Pearl leaned her head forward until her head was just touching Rose. "If you don't want to do it… I can, Rose."

Rose immediately jumped back, terror written all over her face. "'No. You can't – they'll shatter every pearl in the empire.'"

Pearl froze, a choked sob forming in her throat.

Rose's face went slack. "'But they've… already done that to the other rose quartzes. Haven't they?'" Pearl didn't respond. "'You said we don't really know, but… I think it's time we stopped fooling ourselves.'" Rose shook, like she was about to cry. "'I couldn't save them. From the very beginning, it was always impossible to save everyone. The most I can do now is stop it from getting any worse. If we do this…'"

Rose's eyes narrowed, and her fingers slowly curled into fists.

"'It has to be me,'" Pearl finished for her.

After several seconds, Rose turned away, so that Steven couldn't see her face anymore. "'I… need to think about this. Maybe something will come to me. Maybe Garnet will see something new. If not…'"

A terrible, awful pause. Steven's heart was beating so hard he could feel it, hammering painfully against his chest like it wanted to burst free.

Rose just shook her head. "'…I need to think about this.'"

She walked away, and the hologram winked out.

Steven blinked.

"Is… is that it?" he asked. He flailed with frustration. "But… that doesn't explain anything! What did she do? What actually happened? I don't…"

Ignoring Steven completely, Pearl stepped back to the edge of the fountain with precise, mechanical steps. Her gem shined again, and suddenly there was –

There was –

Huge and towering, dress like a knight's armor, all jutting and violent angles –

MINE!

Pink Diamond.

Steven couldn't breathe.

Pearl, however, seemed completely at ease. She stood up straight to look Pink Diamond square in the eye, a huge grin on her face. But Steven could see the grin was too wide, her stance too straight, everything about her body screaming that she did not want to be here, that if she allowed even a single crack it would shatter her into a thousand pieces.

She made a diamond salute with perfect effortlessness. "Pink Diamond, your radiance!" Pearl fluted, her voice impossibly bright and cheery, nothing at all like how she really talked. "I have an urgent message about the upcoming –"

Pink Diamond waved a hand sharply and huffed, a sound Pearl mimicked. "'What, is Blue gonna tell me I can't get my hands dirty again?'" Steven jumped as Pink Diamond leaned down with a suddenness that should have been impossible with her behemoth size. She stared Pearl down with an intensity that made Steven's legs shake, her diamond pupils burning like dark suns, like they wanted to sear Pearl away until nothing remained. This is just a recording, he reminded himself, Pearl made it out, she's going to be fine… "'Well you can tell her to stuff it. This is a perfect opportunity. I'm not missing my chance to finally see some action just because Blue's too paranoid to let me out of my cage.'"

To Steven's amazement, Pearl's expression didn't even flicker. "Oh, my message is far more joyous, your magnificence!" she trilled. "I have vital intelligence that will assure our victory!"

Pink Diamond's face shifted to an easy joy with unsettling speed. "'Oh, really?'" She leaned back and fluffed her hair with a flourish, staring into the distance. "'Perhaps Blue is finally starting to have some faith in me.'" She looked back at Pearl with a toothy grin. "'Let's hear it, then. We're already going to win, but anything that helps me crush those traitors faster is music to my ears.'"

"Oh, but your radiance!" Pearl looked around with exaggerated concern, then leaned forward conspiratorially, as if that would mean anything with Pink towering so far above her. "I was expressly ordered to tell you in private! Rebel spies are everywhere these days! Why…" Something glinted in her eye, and for just a second, her manic grin looked completely genuine. "…one could be here at this very moment!"

"'Hah.'" The laugh sounded eerie in Pearl's monotone. "'Tell me about it. Just yesterday I found some idiot trying to sneak out of our camp.'" Pink Diamond grinned even wider. "'She's dust now, of course.'"

Pearl's grin stayed fixed.

Pink Diamond turned and started waving dismissively. "'Alright, you heard her, everybody out. Shoo.'" Behind her, Steven could see faint images of other gems he hadn't noticed before – quartzes like Jasper, agates, and other gems he didn't recognize. In the hologram, they trotted out of the palanquin in silence, until Pearl and Pink Diamond were alone.

"'Alright, so what's so important –'"

As she spoke, Pearl raised a hand to her forehead, and from it sprouted Rose's sword, eerie in the same pale blue as the rest of Pearl's holograms. Pink Diamond's eyes glanced over it for a single instant and then, faster than Steven would have thought possible, she lunged. Her massive hand shot forward, clenching around Pearl's head – her gem – and Steven let out a squeak of terror –

– and just as suddenly, the hand stopped.

The sword shot out like a ray of light, through Pink Diamond's palm, straight between her eyes, and out the back of her head. Pink Diamond stared at her from either side of the blade, and in those eyes was pure, absolute hate.

Then she shone, as blindingly as the sun, and burst into a cloud of smoke.

Steven finally let himself breathe out.

Pearl just stood frozen for a moment, looking as if she could scarcely believe it herself. Then she stood back, breathed out, and her face changed to a mask of grim determination. She placed the sword back in her gem and replaced it with a hammer, also inlaid with Rose's vine patterns. She bent down, and with her other hand picked up the massive diamond.

Then –

It took Steven a second to realize that, for the first time in his life, he was seeing her shapeshift. He watched as she glowed and warped –

– until –

– until –

Steven gasped, tears pricking his eyes.

Pearl turned, and there staring through him was Rose Quartz, perfect in every detail except the pearl twinkling from beneath the curls of her hair. There was even a pink circle on her stomach – just a flat image, but enough to fool a casual glance.

Pearl walked forward, out of Pink Diamond's palanquin, and now the hologram expanded to fill the whole room. Steven saw gems rushing around the camp, into and out of strange domes and ships, outfitted in armor and weapons he didn't recognize. Pearl extended her arm, raising Pink Diamond for them all to see. The gems of the battlefield turned as one and for an instant it all stopped, as if frozen in ice. Then a few soldiers pointed and cried out, and in the far distance Steven saw Blue Diamond sweep aside a curtain from her palanquin to lock eyes with Pearl.

Blue Diamond thrust out an arm, shouted something.

The soldiers started to move.

Pearl raised the hammer.

Before he even realized what he was doing Steven was running forward, arm outstretched, as if he could change this, as if he could save her if he could just run fast enough, as if he could stop anything that was about to happen.

He screamed, "NO–!"

Then the hammer fell, passing through his hand like a ghost, and Pink Diamond exploded into a thousand tiny points of light.

The hologram winked out. Pearl glowed, and then she was Pearl again.

She collapsed to her knees.

Steven couldn't speak. His arm still reached out, stupidly and futilely, to where the gemstone had been.

"So… so you see, Steven, you were right." Pearl's voice was thin. "Rose never shattered anyone. Rose… would never do something so unforgivable."

She paused. Steven lowered his arm, slowly.

Pearl fell to her hands, and tightened her fists around the water. "I always wondered… if she hated me for it. And now…" Her voice cracked, and she choked back a sob. "…I know it's true."

"No," Steven said numbly. "That can't be right. I… I thought she loved you, Pearl. Why would she…"

He trailed off. His tongue felt dry and heavy in his mouth.

Pearl was silent for a long time.

"I remember," she said slowly, "a long time ago, you told me… that if you have part of Rose in you, then if you cared about me, that meant Rose must have cared about me too." Her whole body seemed to collapse, her spindly arms bending like white reeds. "But if that's true, then… if you hate me for this, it means Rose did too."

Steven could only watch as she curled her arms around herself, and started to sob.

"I don't," he said, so soft he could barely hear it himself. "I don't hate you."

Pearl immediately sprung to her feet with a splash. "Of course you do!" she wailed, tears streaming down her face in a twisted mirror of the perfect fountain below. "You refused to believe it, you said no one as good as Rose could ever do it, because this is the worst thing anyone could ever do!"

Steven stumbled back. "Th… that's not…"

"Well you're right and it was me, it was all me! I shattered a gem!" She clutched her hands to her face, so tightly it looked like she was trying to claw it off. "I betrayed everything she believed in, and for what? This – this false victory, running and hiding, fighting our friends as they're twisted into monsters! How can she not hate me?!"

Pearl started to collapse again. Steven rushed forward, hugging her tightly as she broke into loud, ugly sobs. "She – she just never told me because she was s-so nice! She pretended she forgave me, she pretended she still loved me, but I knew it, I knew she always hated me and now you hate me too –"

"I don't hate you!" Steven cried.

Pearl went silent, but Steven could still feel her shuddering, barely holding back sobs.

"I don't hate you," he said again. "And… I never hated Mom, either."

Pearl let out a half-choked sob. Slowly, Steven pulled back and looked her in the eye. He felt tears at the edge of his own face now, but he swallowed and tried to speak. "Pearl, I think… the real reason I didn't want to believe it was because…" He couldn't hold his tears back now. He wiped an arm across his face and continued, "Garnet kept telling me the reasons, the, the logic behind it, but that would never be enough. She could tell me every single reason she had to do it, she could tell me everything that happened in the entire war, but I'd still never really understand. Half of me shattered someone, and I'd never know how she really felt about it." He sniffed, looked up into Pearl's shocked face, and smiled. "But… I know you, Pearl. And… I could never hate you. No matter what."

"Stop it." Pearl screwed her eyes shut as more tears leaked out. "You don't have to forgive me. You don't have to pretend to be okay with this!"

Pearl hung her head, and sobbed quietly. Steven looked down, and swallowed. "I… I wouldn't say I'm… okay with it. But…" He looked up. Pearl still hadn't moved. "Even though everyone got corrupted… we can still heal them. No," he said, voice hardening, "we will heal them. I won't stop until I find a way. That's a promise." Steven paused, and his voice went quiet again. "If they were shattered instead… there'd be nothing we could do. They'd really be gone. So…"

Pearl looked up at him, eyes still cold with despair. Steven's voice started to shake. "Garnet said… that's what would have happened if… if you hadn't… done it. I want to believe that she wasn't right, and there was still a way Mom could have saved everybody. But… you thought she was, and if you were right, then… then…" He let out a shuddering breath, and let his eyes drop to the water below. "…Then I think you made the right choice."

"It wasn't a choice I wanted to make," Pearl said, voice tight.

"I know. That's why I think you made the right choice."

They stood there together for a long time. Eventually, Pearl's breathing calmed down, and Steven let his arms drop to his sides.

"…Mom looked so scared in that memory," Steven said eventually. "So sad." He looked up, but Pearl didn't. "You always sounded so excited when you talked about the rebellion. Like it was this great, happy thing. But… it wasn't really like that, was it?"

Pearl finally looked up at him, only to immediately avert her gaze. "I'm sorry," she said. "Some of it was, but…" She paused. "I didn't mean to keep secrets from you. I know I said it was because you were a child, but…" Her face flickered with pain. "I think that was just an excuse. I just… I didn't want to talk about it. I didn't want to remember it. It… it hurts, to remember those parts."

Steven paused. "Then… I'm sorry, too," he began. "But… I want to see those parts. I want to know what was so awful you felt you had to…" His voice seized up, and he had to take a breath. "…to shatter her." The words felt sick and alien on his tongue, like swallowing poison.

Pearl just kept staring down. Eventually she stood up, looked over the fountain, and paused. "Feeling people die…" Her eyes were unfocused, and Steven got the impression she was saying the words half to herself. "I was the first one it happened to, you know. That was the first time we realized fusion could hurt us, too."

She went quiet for a long time. Something in her eyes… shifted, and she suddenly looked like a different person.

Pearl's gem shone, and Steven watched the next memory unfold.