Before they realized it, it had already reached past 12 noon. After stopping by the Big Donut, Steven and Connie found themselves seated on the bench across from the pastry shop.
With a big sigh, Steven leaned back in his seat, still in his kid sized form. He found it easier now to at least shrink just his height to his normal Steven-y size without too much mental fatigue. It was when he tried to shapeshift his usual shirt, jeans, and sandals or tried to shapeshift into himself that the believed to be gone headache reared it's ugly head.
"Thanks for the donut Connie! I actually haven't eaten since, you know," he let the statement hang and took another bite of his chocolate pastry.
"No worries!" Connie dismissed, taking a bite out of her own glazed donut. "It was something to take our mind off of things for awhile."
Satisfied for the moment, and not wanting to crash from sugar intake, Connie placed her donut back into it's brown bag and hopped off of her seat.
"How are the rest of the Gems holding up?" she softly queried. "I saw Pearl before I...fainted," Connie winced at the memory. "But what about Garnet and Amethyst?"
"Pearl and Amethyst are okay," Steven answered. Connie noticed the very clear omission. "Pearl took it the easiest. It's a long story," he said, holding the half donut up to his face.
"Amethyst won't stop calling me 'Space Queen'".
Connie snorted at this.
Steven's slight smile dropped. "It's Garnet I'm worried about. She split up."
Connie gasped, hand to her mouth. From what Steven had told her, Garnet had split only one other time that Steven had known her. But just finding out Steven had Pink Diamond's gem wouldn't be enough to split her would it? Connie asked this aloud.
Steven's donut was forgotten now, and at some point, he'd already placed it atop his brown bag. "I uh..." Steven hesitated to answer her question, instead swiping his hand through his poofy, rose colored hair.
He explained how he and Pearl were at the Strawberry Battlefield. How Pearl was the first to find out what happened after he'd revealed himself to her, the talk they'd had and even the revalation that Rose Quartz was Pink Diamond.
"I figured that's why you fainted," Steven explained. Connie, on the other hand, blushed, attempting to hide it with a cough.
"Actually, I was more surprised that you were turned into a giant woman," she said. "Besides that dream Stevonnie had, I didn't really have much of an opinion about Pink Diamond," she added. "That and that same Pink Diamond calling me by name."
"Yeah, I can see how that can be a bit surprising," Steven added needlessly.
Eventually, Steven addressed the elephant in the room.
"Garnet thought I was Pink Diamond and attacked me."
"Oh..."
Steven was quick to wave his hands. "I'm not worried about that. It was an accident, after all." He rested his chin in his hands. "Garnet wouldn't speak after she found out it was me and that's when she suddenly split," Steven's shoulders rose and fell as if he took a deep breath. "I've been abke to talk to Ruby the few times she's left the room, but I haven't seen Sapphire at all." Steven explained how any time he tried to talk to Ruby, any dialogue turned into Ruby babbling apologies and smothering him with "Are you okays". It made Pearl at her most overbearing seem aloof in comparison.
Connie rested a comforting hand on Steven's shoulder. "I'm sure they'll realize you're okay and not hurt over it. You're the Crystal Gems after all."
"Thanks Connie!"
Immediately after saying this, Steven clapped his hands together once. "Good talk," he declared. "What do we do now?"
Connie shrugged. "You're sure you're feeling better?"
"I think maybe Sapphire just needs some space," Steven replied as a way of answering. He hopped off the bench, and his form immediately returned to full height.
"Oops," he muttered. He didn't seem as bothered by it as he used to. "How's the weather down there?" he asked with a snicker, making Connie blow air through her nose.
"Very funny, Steven," she reprimanded, though her failure to keep a straight face didn't make her seem that upset.
Connie rubbed her chin for a moment. "Does Peridot know what happened?"
Steven did something in between a negative head shake and a shrug. "I kinda' forgot." Steven crossed his arms thinking. "I should probably go tell her..." Steven looked down, tapping a finger on his arm. "Not sure what she'd think about all this, but I don't want her to be out of the loop."
"I'll come with. It'll be easier with a familiar face around!"
xxxx
Steven and Connie returned to the front porch of the house, but had already searched everywhere inside. Connie was at the door while Steven stayed closer to the bottom of the steps. Right now, it'd be difficult for Steven to fit inside the house, let alone the narrow steps.
Unfortunately, Peridot was nowhere to be found. They'd searched the bathroom and the rest of the loft with no luck.
"Where could she have gone?" Connie wondered. "I remember you told me the barn's gone..." Connie paused, not needing to finish the sentence.
"Yeah," Steven acknowledged. He was leaning on the porch railing near the bottom of the steps (He was a bit fatigued from maintaining a smaller form). "There wasn't anything left behind-" Steven paused midsentence, with a shout of "I remember!"
Connie looked down from where she stood at the door. "Where is she?"
"Peridot, Amethyst, and I had went to the Kindergarden a week or two ago. Peridot wanted to see if plants could grow there again," he explained. Connie made her way back down the steps while he mulled it over. "That's the only other place I can think of."
"Sounds like a plan!" Connie declared.
xxxx
Blue Diamond held back a yawn as she sat in her chair. Both herself and Yellow had decided to wait before using the ships' gravity engines to propel them towards Earth. Instead, the ships travelled at their standard speed, the vessels' fingers enclosed like fists closing in on a target.
It may seem like Gems don't need sleep. And while this is true, Gems could grow tired like certain carbon based life forms if left with nothing to do. She'd usually be handling documents and other paperwork, but all of the free time left her to rest the side of her face on one hand. She initially passed the time by watching the stars, but eventually her eyes grew heavy. It was a sensation she wasn't used to, as she was always working or moving about, but it was a strangely comforting feeling, so she let the heaviness in her eyes persist.
When Blue opened her eyes again, the weight of sleepiness was gone, but something was off.
She was no longer seated in her ship. Instead, she was standing in a large rocky expanse that looked like a canyon.
"Where-" Blue slowly surveyed her surroundings, looking for a familiar object or labdmark. There were figure shaped holes dotting the walls, and it was hundreds of these shapes.
"A kindergarden," she whispered, hand to her chin. She looked uo at the sky, noticing the blues of the atmosphere and the whites of the clouds.
Was this Earth? Blue grimaced at the thought, not sure how to feel about it. It was where she and Yellow were headed, and the landscape looked a lot like the planet when she was here hundreds of years ago...
Blue wasn't sure what was going on or why she was standing there on Earth, when she should actually still be in space on her ship. She sighed. Since she was here, she decided she would have to get a better grasp of where exactly on Earth she was.
The Kindergarden looked barren of course, with dark colored rock and even darker dead soil on the ground. The lack of life in the area saddened her somewhere in the back of her mind, but she squashed the thought. It didn't matter. She stepped forward, examining the holes along the canyon walls. This was apparently the Prime Kindergarden, if she remembered correctly. She'd helped to oversee the construction of this one when Pink was first given her own colony.
But none of that explained why she was standing here, at this moment.
"So how'd the testing go?" a separate voice suddenly asked. Blue started, looking towards the ground. The voice seemed to have floated up from somewhere below her. Blue kept moving, attempting to track down the owner of the voice.
"Well, we had found what we thought was a plant, but it turned out to be a corrupted gem," a strangely familiar voice replied to the unknown one. As a matter of fact, it sounded too familiar. She quickened her pace, one arm using one of the canyon walls as a support. Something told her she needed to see who that second voice belonged to.
"Peridot's still hoping that plants can grow here. I hope so too. Amethyst didn't say, but I think she hopes so too."
That voice spoke again. Blue felt tears threatening to escape from her eyes, hoping this wasn't some sick illusion she was experiencing. She knew that voice, she knew who it belonged to!
Just as Blue began to turn the corner, the owner of the two voices came into view.
She didn't recognize the organic creature. It had short black hair, wearing strange looking appearance modifiers. It was small enough to fit in her palm.
But that was only a passing observation. What seized her attention was who was walking next to her.
Easily three or four times the size of the organic at least, and about just under half of Blue's own height. Rosy pink hair, the Gem embedded in her stomach.
Blue gasped. It felt like the air was sucked right out of her.
It couldn't be. But she was right there ahead of her.
This time the tears did escape from her eyes. The blasted moisture in her eyes began to blur her vision and she reached out towards her sister.
"Pink?!"
Pink Diamond began to turn around, but before she could see her face-
"My Diamond?"
"Huh..?"
Blue blinked her eyes aggressively, suddenly surrounded by the familiar environment of her ship. Something wet was on the side of her face, and she swiped her hand across.
So she really had been crying. Below her, near her feet, a gem was looking up at her, concerned. A thin thing, with short hair and the standard uniform. A Nephrite, she think it was. How long had that gem been standing there? How unsightly, she chastized herself, to lose her decorum in front of someone else like that.
"I am fine, return to your duties," she ordered, not unkindly. The Nephrite crossed her arms in salute and left without another word. As soon as she vacated the room, Blue released a drawn out sigh, as if all her energy was gone.
"That had to have been real," Blue said to herself. She pressed a button on her chair. Yellow needed to know what she saw.
Pink Diamond was alive.
xxxx
Steven suddenly paused, turning around. He squinted, looking around for something.
"Steven?" Connie asked. "Everything okay?"
"Huh..?"
Connie looked concerned as she watched him. "You kinda spaced out for a second," she explained. She hesitated before continuing. "You didn't respond for almost two minutes."
"I," Steven cleared his throat. "Sorry, I thought I heard something...behind me," Steven answered, attempting to spit anything out of the ordinary.
"Maybe Peridot's nearby?" Connie offered. Steven shook his head to clear his mind. "You-re probably right," he said, smiling. He knelt down, offering his hand, and Connie hopped on. "Let's check near where the lab was. She might be near there." Steven and Connie took off, dashing passed the holes dotting the Kindergarden.
