Sapphire's plan worked better than anyone could have hoped. Garnet won Andrew's respect in their brawl, and he was happy to accept her leadership from then on, and even asked her to spar with him, when he wanted to train. At the same time, Garnet also respected Andrew's own skills as a leader, and still afforded him the freedom to carry out the missions she delegated to him, how he saw fit.
Over the following few days, Garnet reported two more opportunities to intercept Peridot, but they were unsuccessful in both capturing, and befriending her. All the while, Penny continued her work on Peridot's hand, in the hopes of extracting the data it possessed. She had disassembled the device, down to its core components, and laid them out carefully, on the length of the breakfast table, and all but hissed at anyone who moved any of them, even slightly. Peal had offered her assistance, but like Penny's own mother, Pearl was hopelessly inexperienced with the sophisticated workings of Era 2 Gem technology, unlike Penny, who had been extensively taught, by the Peridot from her world.
Five days after Andrew and Garnet's fight, Penny was taking a much-needed break, lying on her back, on Steven's sofa, reading one of the Spirit Morph books Connie had loaned Steven, while the two of them watched her eagerly, hanging on her occasional comments. As it turned out, Penny's world had Spirit Morph books too, and she had always been a big fan, but in Steven and Connie's universe, the books were riddled with differences, of various degrees of subtlety.
"Wait, Archimicarus is a boy?" Penny said, quietly.
"Yeah, isn't he in your world's books?" Connie asked.
"No, she's a girl falcon."
"Is the main character a boy?" Steven asked. "Called... Leroy?"
"No, they're both girls, that's the point." Penny replied. "The books are set in an aggressively patriarchal world, with exaggerated references to real life, and a lot of Lisa's Spirit Trials are heavy-handed metaphors for the struggles young, gay women face in the real world... at least that's my theory."
"So, they still get married in the end?" Connie asked.
Penny rolled her eyes. "Yeah, and that bit I didn't like. I mean, I loved that they fell in love, and it was so sweet, but why would a falcon have any care for the human concept of marriage? Especially since, back in those days, it was hardly any more than the legal sale of a woman to her fiancé!"
"Well, my theory is that they never should have fallen in love in the first place." Connie said, reprising what she had told Steven. "I think the author was writing for the more fickle fans, at the request of the publisher, instead of finishing the story the way she had wanted to!"
"And I think the ending was perfect the way it was, but I respect our difference of opinion." Steven proudly informed Penny.
"I wish I could read the books from your world!" Connie said, longingly. "It would be like a cool reboot!"
"Hang on..." Penny said.
She rested the book on the sofa next to her, crossed her hands over her chest and closed her eyes, as if she was going to sleep. A few seconds passed, and Connie and Steven were about to ask what she was doing, when they were startled to see the gem on Penny's forehead glowing brightly. Several more seconds passed, before a small, white crystal floated upwards from the gem, and Penny quickly opened her eyes and plucked it from the air. Her gem stopped glowing immediately.
Penny held the crystal out to Connie. "Here you go."
Connie took the crystal curiously. After fiddling with it for a second, she gasped as a flat, rectangular screen was projected upwards from it, featuring a list (clearly hand written, in English, on the crystal's interface) of book titles.
"No waaay..." Connie whispered.
She tapped on Unfamiliar Familiar and the list was replaced with what was clearly a photograph of the first page of the book, but with such quality that it was perfectly legible.
"I prefer the feel and smell of paper, but you never know when you'll need a book, in a pinch." Penny said.
"I agree completely!" Connie said, as she experimented with the crystal's interface. "Like, I have a Kindle, and it's super useful, but it's just not the same as a real book, ya know?"
Steven and Connie began reading Penny's version of the Unfamiliar Familiar, while Penny continued reading Connie's, and silence fell for several minutes.
"So, you two are BFF's in this world, right?" Penny eventually asked, rhetorically.
"I guess so." Steven said, confidently.
"We don't really label it." Connie elabourated.
Penny sighed, and her eyes seemed to drift away from her book, as she stared at the house's ceiling.
"What was the Connie in your world like?" Connie asked, gently, sensing that Penny was upset.
"She was super smart, and fun, and I guess we were BFF's without labels too." Penny said. "Peridot said that she shipped us though..." Penny laughed weakly.
"Was she... like me?" Connie asked, awkwardly, emphasising her question. "Or really different, like your dad?"
"She was pretty much exactly like you..." Penny said, blushing slightly when she realised that meant Peridot would have shipped the two of them, too. Connie was similarly embarrassed.
Penny rolled onto her side, put her book down, and looked at Steven and Connie. "So, can you two fuse?" She asked, innocently.
"Yeah, we form Stevonnie!" Steven said, with a smile. He pulled out his phone and showed Penny a selfie Stevonnie had taken with it, grinning happily. "Can you, Andrew and Amelia fuse with humans, too?"
"Well, Amelia doesn't have enough control of her gem to fuse, yet. Andrew was never close enough with his human friends to fuse with them, but he could fuse with Amethyst and Peridot."
"Hybrids can fuse with Gems!?" Steven demanded, his eyes sparkling excitedly. In his mind, he raced through possible fusions between himself, and Amethyst, Garnet and Pearl.
"What about you?" Connie coaxed Penny.
"The only person I ever fused with, was you..." Penny replied, quietly. "We thought about amalgamating our names, like you two did, but that would have meant a choice between 'Pennie' or 'Conny'…" Penny smiled as she remembered how hilarious their fusion had found that. "In the end, we decided on Keshi."
"Ooh, because it's a kind of Pearl." Connie quickly realised. Connie studied Penny's expression some more, she was clearly very upset, about being separated from her Connie. "Do you... want to try forming Keshi with me?" She hesitantly offered.
Penny and Steven both audibly gasped in surprise.
"I... if you want to!" Connie continued. "I know it must be tough being in a new world, with a new Connie who doesn't know you, but maybe if you knew you could still be Keshi... you wouldn't feel so... alone?"
Penny stared at Connie in surprise. Obviously, this wasn't a position her own Connie had ever been in, but it was both shocking and humbling, that Connie was prepared to perform an action as intimate as fusing with her for the first time, just to make her feel better. Penny was sure her Connie would have done the same. She was both flattered and touched by the offer.
"Okay..." Penny said, uncertainly, and then, much more confidently, "Yeah!"
The two girls joined in the centre of the house, where Penny started playing music on her phone. While Connie energetically shook her arms and shoulders, Penny's dancing was reminiscent of Pearl's graceful ballet, but with a speed and energy which matched Connie perfectly. After dancing towards each other, Penny span Connie around and leaned forwards, catching her friend before she fell. Starting at Penny's gem, the two of them were consumed with white light, which shone for several seconds, filling Steven with anticipation, but when it faded, Connie and Penny were still separate.
"It... didn't work..." Connie pointed out, disappointedly.
Penny smiled. "I guess you still don't know me as well as I know you..."
"I'm sorry..." Connie said. "I know this means a lot to you."
"No!" Penny quickly argued. "What means a lot is that you were prepared to try! I'm really glad that you're as sweet as the Connie I knew..."
Penny and Connie both blushed at the compliment.
"Is anyone else, totally starving?" Penny awkwardly changed the subject, with a laugh. She pointed at Connie and Steven in turn. "Big Doughnut? Big Doughnut?"
"Sure!" Steven enthusiastically agreed.
"Okay... but don't tell my parents!" Connie grinned mischievously.
As Connie and Penny ran ahead, chatting animatedly, Steven hung back and frowned to himself. He had felt a twinge of nervousness when Connie offered to fuse with Penny, and had felt relieved when it failed. Steven felt guilty, fusing would have made Penny very happy, why wouldn't he want that for her? Exploring his feelings further, Steven realised how much he valued the uniqueness of his relationship with Connie, and their subsequent fusion. Surely that didn't make sense? Surely that was a ridiculous reason to appreciate having a person in one's life?
Steven imagined if Connie and Penny were able to form Keshi at will. What would that mean for Stevonnie? If the three of them were to keep spending time together, then it would be crass for Connie to fuse with them alternately. Steven caught himself before he continued down that path any further. Who Connie chose to fuse with was her choice, and wouldn't affect her relationship with Steven.
Pushing his concerns to the back of his mind, Steven followed his friends out of the house, and ran to catch up with them, on their way to the Big Doughnut.
