Lapis lay on the couch her eyes half open, and she heard a faint sobbing from below. She looked over, and found Peridot, dried tears on her cheeks, and her eyes red. Lapis sat up and whispered, "Peri, what's wrong?"

"I don't deserve any of this." Peridot said, rubbing her eyes, "I've done nothing but vicious things to you and the gems since before I even knew about you."

"What do you mean, that was Jasper, she made you do all that." Lapis responded, and pulled Peridot up onto the couch next to her. "Not your fault at all."

"No, you don't know the whole story." Peridot turned her head away, "You wouldn't be able to stand me if you did."

"I can't believe that!" Lapis said, "Even back on the ship, I knew it wasn't the real you."

"No, no no no" Peridot covered her face, "You don't know anything about who I used to be."

"Then tell me." Lapis put her arm around Peridot, and smiled.

Peridot groaned, "I might as well start at the beginning."

Lapis turned to face Peridot "Story time!"

"Don't act so excited." Peridot frowned, "It all started on homeworld, I was grown on a kindergarten there to be a servant. I quickly rose through the ranks, eventually peaking with a job in kindergarten management for gem controlled planets all over the universe, but mainly here, on Earth."

"Ooh!" Lapis smirked, "Tell me more."

"Earth was no ordinary job, The warp pads were shut down, and it was the site of a huge war thousands of years ago that was hugely costly to the diamond authority. This made it the perfect place for the aggregate experiments."

Lapis's mirthful attitude faded instantly, "Y-you don't mean."

"I thought these gems had consented!" Peridot feverishly defended herself, "I thought that, like me, they had donated their gems to science when they were finally destroyed. I didn't know. When I fused them together, I didn't think the individual shards had any consciousness at all! Yellow diamond kept all this to herself, it was only when the amalgamation of the fallen gems had materialised, the sewn together bodies screaming in anguish, that I it sank in."

"I-I can't" Lapis covered her mouth with her hand, "This is all too much."

"Lapis, I know. Fusion is a choice, I thought these gems had made that choice! I'm sure you haven't told me everything either. Come on, you made me tell you this, you have to have some secret."

"Fine." Lapis scowled, "I guess I couldn't hide it forever. I-I was in the war, the first one."

"The war for Earth?" Peridot asked, "That's why you knew so much about the crystal gems! You fought alongside them against Blue Diamond!"

"Not exactly." Lapis rubbed the back of her neck, "I was with Blue Diamond. How was a high class gem like me not supposed to fight. I would have been outcast, it's worse now but even back then if you weren't useful they cut you off from gem culture entirely."

"But, it didn't work, did it?" Peridot leaned on Lapis's shoulder, "You still got trapped in the mirror, and you still got kept prisoner."

Lapis sighed, "I'm glad to have that off my back."

"Yeah," Peridot agreed, "Let's just hope Steven didn't wake up."

"We don't have to worry," Lapis giggled, "He sleeps like a rock"

Peridot couldn't contain her laughter, and neither could Lapis, and there they lay until morning, when Steven finally awoke.