Garnet has to find a way to reach Pearl's subconscious. Can she?
As so many of Steven's ideas were, it was an unorthodox one. Amethyst glanced to Garnet, unable to glean anything from her carefully guarded face, consumed no doubt by the futures she was combing through. Steven looked hopefully between them, then to Pearl.
"It has to work, right? If you can show her that she will wake up, maybe Pearl can do the rest!"
"Does it even work that way?" Amethyst asked, frowning a little, though the mental image of Pearl waking up to a kiss from Garnet would have been hilarious under any other set of circumstances. The lavender Gem's brows creased with worry when Garnet didn't respond. "I mean, I'm fresh out of ideas, but we can't just…"
"It might work," Garnet said abruptly, adjusting her visor. She knelt, getting as close to her unconscious companion as her position would allow and smoothing Pearl's damp bangs away from her Gem. Pearl didn't stir, deep in her sleeplike state. "It's better than not trying."
She leaned down slowly, brushing her lips over the smooth curve of Pearl's Gem—only to be met with a hot zap of magic and a burning green flash that tried to consume her vision. She jerked back, a hand to her mouth. The sting lingered, quickly turning into an aching tingle.
"Are you okay?" Steven asked frantically. Amethyst looked pale, but Steven had clearly beaten her to the punch.
Garnet nodded, tasting spice and fire on her lips and tongue—the strange incense from the room with the lantern, she realized. "I'll be fine," she muttered, "Tektite's influence is still there… I'll have to get in another way."
"What other way?" Amethyst cut in, raking her fingers through her hair as her nerves threatened to get the better of her. She was pacing, Garnet realized, not having paid much heed to Amethyst's constant movement. "Is that even possible!?"
"Calm down, Amethyst," Garnet said slowly, barely nodding toward Steven. The boy looked sick with worry. "Sapphire has an idea for how we might be able to reach her subconscious, I've just… never done it. We're trying to decide if it's possible."
"You can do it, Garnet!" Steven chimed in, "I believe in you!"
That was more than Garnet had currently, at least. Telepathy wasn't one of her honed gifts; Steven had a knack for it, and Sapphire insisted that it was possible. Ruby, however, had no such gifts of her own; she was a common soldier. Even her fire-based powers were an anomaly. Rubies were made for punching, for fusion. Sapphires were made for seeing the future and sharing it.
Which left Garnet somewhere in the middle.
The Fusion stared down at her hands, at her paired Gems, then sighed. "I'll do what I can," she said, ignoring the very many potential futures where this, too, went disastrously wrong. Steeling herself, Garnet took Pearl's face in her hands, Gems alight, and waited for Pearl's to follow suit. The glow was dim, but Garnet was still immensely relieved to see the white light flickering behind the green miasma that prevented her initial plan.
Pearl had always been eager to fuse, and they'd never needed to try very hard to synchronize. Garnet hummed to her, a song intimately familiar to the prone dancer, and watched as her Gem glowed a little brighter.
Their experience at the hub was far from forgotten, but then, Garnet didn't see any other alternatives. They couldn't fuse like this, but she trusted Pearl. The sting of betrayal weeks prior was still there, still fresh and raw, but this…
She stroked Pearl's face, wondered if she were imagining Pearl leaning into her touch, and sang instead, a mournful chorus, and Pearl's Gem responded.
Losing Pearl wasn't worth never opening her heart again.
So Garnet shared her light, put all her trust in the possibility of finding the future where they both woke up. Garnet glowed a brilliant white, and Pearl was consumed by it—their forms stayed that way, at a crossroads between light and the solid, physical bodies they so often took.
Fusion was impossible without explicit consent, and Pearl was in no condition to give it. Garnet couldn't help the nagging feeling of guilt at intruding like this, trying to enter Pearl's mind while she slept, but knew no other way to get around Tektite's magic. Ruby felt justified, and Sapphire worried about forgiveness, while Garnet tried to focus on finding the path that lead into Pearl's mind.
There were three doors; two side-by-side, red and blue, with a shared threshold, and these were to her left. She recognized them, knew without having seen either that these led to the inner sanctums of Ruby and Sapphire's deepest subconscious minds. They were one, in mind and—usually—in body, and Garnet turned her attention instead to the white door to her left, larger and narrower. Plain, cream colored, with a simple door handle. Incredibly modern; Garnet would have laughed at how much the humans had affected Pearl in recent centuries if the situation allowed it.
Instead, she paused, laid her hand on the handle. It was warm, with the kind of softness Pearl's hands had, and turned easily for her. Steeling herself, Garnet pushed it open and stepped into the dark.
The door swung shut behind her, leaving her in a sea of darkness.
She blinked against the darkness, but it was like staring into nothing she'd ever encountered. There was no room for light here, and she raised her hand, summoning some—only to realize with a yell that was not in her voice that the red glow that left her Gem wasn't her own, but Ruby's.
"Sapphire?" she asked immediately, casting red light around desperately, only to catch sight of her other half less than a pace away. Sapphire reached for her opposite hand, and they intertwined their fingers instinctively.
"I'm here," Sapphire said in a rush, drawing Ruby's hand up to kiss her knuckles reassuringly. "We made it."
"Why aren't we fused?" Ruby asked, voice strained. The other Gem's contact helped, but the bubbling feeling of panic in her chest was persistent. "Where's Garnet? How are we supposed to find Pearl?"
"Ssh," Sapphire said, "Garnet's still here. Between us. But…" her voice dropped, perplexed. "I can't see much. There are too many possibilities, and I have nothing to narrow them down with. I don't know where Pearl is in here, but we'll find her. Just… don't let go of me, all right?"
"Why would I?" Ruby asked, clutching Sapphire's smaller hand tighter still. "I'm not losing you!"
The cyclops smiled reassuringly, summoning light from her own Gem. "We'll be fine, then. Come on, let's find Pearl."