It was a beautiful day. Birds were singing, waves crashed against the shore, and the sand glimmered like gold under the midday sun. It was the perfect day for a game of catch, but failing that, a kitschy open air market would do.
Steven raced around the corner of Dewey Street, his grin spreading from ear to ear. For the first time since his last hangout with Connie, Steven's joy was genuine, not faked for his family's benefit, and he was going to capitalize on the opportunity to have real fun no matter what.
He ground to a halt, a myriad of sensations washing over him in a beautiful, discordant cacophony: the sizzle of grease, the scent of musty toys, the yells of a bargain in the making, sugar floating in the air, and the friendly chatter of complete strangers combining to form something resembling a five-senses song that played throughout the beachfront. Lapis touched down beside Steven and Pearl, her wings making it far easier for her to keep up with her Diamond's fleet feet than Greg. The poor man was still catching up, having been quickly outpaced by his son and Pearl once Steven began his sprint.
Lapis blatantly gawked at the mass of humanity, who returned the favor, showering the Gem in a cascade of camera flashes. "What is this place?"
"The County Fair!" Steven explained, gesturing to the hastily constructed wooden shacks and folding tables that covered every inch of the beach and boardwalk, stretching from the dustiest corner of Funland all the way to the Big Donut. "People come from all over the place to sell their junk and food and stuff that's both at the same time every year to," he glanced at Pearl out of the corner of his eye, "help bring the community together!" Although that was true, the actual purpose of the fair was to scam the summer tourists out of their money, though of course Pearl's Diamond was too innocent to know that. He'd just have to explain it to Lapis later.
"Oh." Lapis paused. "What's the point of all of this, my Steven? This… stuff looks completely useless."
"Well, you don't really buy the junk for what it is. You buy it for what it probably isn't! The point is to make up cool stories about this stuff, and imagine things about the person who had it."
"I see." Lapis clearly didn't see.
As Lapis had pointed out, the various tables were laden with knickknacks of all kinds, and there were dozens of tantalizing scents mingling in the air. Steven's stomach growled as the smell of fried sugar crept into his nostrils, but he managed to resist the temptation to run to the nearest unhealthy something-or-other vendor. The last time he'd gotten food from here, the grease-induced bellyache had lasted for days.
"Gee, kiddo, slow down for your old man, huh?" Greg panted, finally catching up with his son.
"Sorry! I'm just super excited," Steven apologized, sheepish.
"Ah, it's no problem, Schtu-ball," his father said, ruffling Steven's hair. He surveyed the beach, whistling. "Wow! This is the busiest I've seen it in the entire five years we've lived here. Who knows, we might actually find something halfway-decent this time around." Greg and Steven chuckled as the family moved into the market.
"Yes, Greg, I believe-" She flinched as a brusque fairgoer brushed past her, nearly summoning her rapier from surprise. Pearl barely relaxed when he passed by.
"You alright, Pearl?" Steven asked, stopping to look up at his guardian. He was well aware that Pearl had difficulties with crowds, but she had insisted on coming despite Steven's protestations. Yet another reminder of what- No. It was a day to have fun, not a day to ruminate upon all of the potential atrocities that Steven's mother may have committed.
"I am fine, my Diamond," she replied stiffly, standing rigidly at attention.
"You sure? You can go home if you want," Steven said.
"I will be fine."
Steven sighed under his breath. All he wanted was one day without being reminded of the long, long list of things that his mother broke that he had to fix, which had grown even longer when Lapis told him of what little she remembered of Homeworld. Even from the view of a nostalgic aristocrat with a foggy memory at best – she barely remembered anything at all from before the mirror - the anecdotes Lapis related were horrifying. Millions of Gems, toiling under the watchful eye of the regime, all to keep the powerful happy and complacent in their endless strings of parties. It was like a YA dystopia novel.
He just wished he knew how to help Pearl, but it was near-impossible to get her to actually listen to him and not just nod along like she must've been expected to back when she was… was… The very thought gave rise to a storm of anger within Steven that he just barely managed to tamp down. He had to keep smiling. Probably the most important lesson that Pearl ever taught him was how to hide his feelings for the benefit of others. All he had to do was smile, nod, laugh, and act like a doofus, and everyone would be happy. Including him. At least in theory.
Regardless of millennia-old injustices, nothing would stop Steven from having genuine fun when he had the opportunity. His eyes shining, Steven ran into what Mister Smiley had dubbed Haggle City. The vendors, as per usual, sold nothing but useless electronics (who would even buy a labelmaker cut in half vertically?), old toys from kids' meals, furniture in poor condition with questionable stains, and other antique yet utterly valueless items being sold. Once or twice in the past four years, Steven managed to find something actually worthwhile – he still fondly remembered the time where he bought an old Project Jupiter with the accompanying cartridge collection and spent days afterward exploring the owner's old save files – but it seemed like he would have no such luck this time around. Hours of fruitlessly searching the stands yielded nothing even remotely interesting.
Despite the good company, his dad's puns, Lapis' snark, and the general friendly atmosphere of the fair, Steven's interest waned. He could remember that for the past few years he was filled to bursting with pure excitement and glee at even the mention of the fair. But now it was just... fun, not a transcendental experience of absolute joy, and that was only because he had his family with him to keep him from getting bored.
Steven was ready to go home when something shined in the afternoon sun, catching his eye. That level of bling was rather unusual for the fair. Steven excitedly dragged his family towards a bored-looking vendor's booth, which was covered in jewelry of all kinds. He turned towards the two blue Gems and asked, "Y'know, I've always meant to ask you guys something. How do Gems feel about jewelry?"
Pearl raised an eyebrow under her bangs. "They're just lifeless minerals, my Diamond, completely worthless compared next to true Gems. I do not see the similarities."
"I was just a piece of lifeless jewelry a few weeks ago," Lapis remarked drily.
"A-apologies, Clarity." Pearl bowed low.
Steven gently elbowed Lapis in the side and cleared his throat. "Oh, um. No problem," she said rather belatedly.
After a moment of awkward silence, Greg clapped a hand on his son's shoulder. "Sooooo, does anything here catch your interest? Seeing something like this at the County Fair happens once in a blue moon! We shouldn't pass this opportunity up."
Steven nodded vigorously. "Yeah! Lemme take a look." He began to peruse the table covered in cheap bling. The quality of the jewelry varied wildly; a necklace of pearls shared space with a cheap armband with a cracked blue stone, and sitting above those two was what must have been an engagement ring. There were too many rings to count, necklaces abound, and a plethora of earrings. Off to the left and right of the table were felt pouches and smooth, colorful rocks found typically in mom and pop gift shops.
"I dunno," Steven concluded after a few minutes, shrugging. "Hey, Pearl, you want anything?" Steven already knew the answer, but could always hope that Pearl would prove him wrong.
"I do not require anything, my Diamond." He barely suppressed his sigh of frustration.
Something stirred in his gem, and a particularly vibrant stone drew Steven's eye. "Ooh! Actually, that one right there looks pretty cool," he said, pointing to a violet and bubblegum pink pendant with mossy splotches.
The bored man reclining behind the stand immediately perked up, leaning forward to point at the boy's choice. "Oh, that's a fine choice. You've got a good eye for minerals," he said. "That right there is Pink Kona Dolomite, all the way up from Michigan. Do you see those green wispy things?"
"Sure do."
"It's fossilized moss! Legend has it that they're the crystallized souls of dryads."
"That's pretty neat," Greg said, stroking his beard. "Gee, you're pretty passionate about rocks, aren'tcha?"
The merchant bristled and glared at Greg. "Hey, pal. They're minerals. I'm not running a con here. Even tourists aren't gullible enough to buy shiny rocks."
Steven immediately leapt to an appropriately silly thing to say to defuse the situation. "Like you, Pearl," he remarked, looking back at the Gem and setting the necklace down. "Well, not like like you, but like you!"
"Pearl? That's a lovely name." The mineral man wiggled his eyebrows.
The Gem nodded, visibly uncomfortable as she searched for the appropriate human response. "Oh. Um, thank you. Sir."
Steven plucked the dolomite necklace from the table. "Honestly, this feels kinda weird," he said. "But… I also feel like I should get some of these. It's my heritage, after all."
"Ye- wait… What?" the man asked after a pregnant pause.
OxOxO
Steven tossed a rock-filled burlap bag from hand to hand as his newly-acquired dolomite necklace swung back and forth from his pacing. They hadn't returned with anything but nearly three pounds of pebbles and assorted jewelry from the market, which, to be fair, was a better than average haul. Greg had returned to the car wash to capitalize on the train of dirty cars that the surge of tourism brought after dropping Steven off at the Palanquin. Lapis, to everyone's surprise, accompanied him to practice her hydrokinesis. Steven had the sneaking suspicion that she still felt guilty about the Galaxy Warp incident, and was trying to fine tune her control so that something like that would never happen again. She had extended an invitation to Steven to join her in amazing the puny humans with basic hydrokinetic techniques, but something held him back, something tugging at the back of his mind that he just couldn't quite pin down.
Steven plucked a turquoise stone from the bag, sighing. On top of the normal mess of guilt and anxiety, Steven got the feeling that he was missing something important, no, crucial. He flopped down onto the steps leading up to the Palanquin's curtain and turned to Pearl. "How are gems made?" he asked, something telling him that he was heading in the right direction. He had always wanted to know, but she always chose her words carefully when it came to telling him anything relating to Homeworld. Not that it helped in "protecting" Steven in the end.
Pearl sat down next to him. "My Diamond, there are many ways to create Gems, but all but one of them have been rendered archaic by modern technology," she started. "The efficient way is to inject an adaptive stone, akin to human stem cells, into the local bedrock in an especially prepared area that is roughly translated to the Earth word 'Kindergarten.' The Gem then emerges from the earth once they have absorbed enough minerals from the planet's soil and bedrock to form properly and generate a once-in-a-lifetime explosion of heat and kinetic force to blast them out of the hole. As is the problem with most forms of industrialization, there are rare... issues that are promptly taken care of, but it is the most efficient way of creating new Gems."
He swallowed hard, clutching his t-shirt. "But… there are other ways, right? I mean, if I start making my own Gems with this 'Kindergarten' stuff, I'd feel pretty bad for the Gems who don't come out right. I mean, whoever made the first Gem had to have done it differently. What was it you mentioned about less efficient ways?"
Pearl pursed her lips, pondering the origin of Gem life. Pearls saw and heard many things that they weren't supposed to see and hear over their existences. However, this particular secret escaped her vast library of knowledge. "There are a variety of techniques to handcraft Gems that were prevalent before Kindergartens. However, Gem quality tended towards extremes. Handcrafted Gems are either exemplars of their type, but more often they're defective or completely dormant due to a small mistake during their formation. I've heard rumors that your mother also had the ability to spontaneously generate new Gems, but this process was... flawed in some way that I am not aware of, and was phased out before I was even formed. As for your first question, my Diamond, I… do not know. I do not believe even your mother was aware of the exact circumstances of the origins of our race."
"Really? Gems are artificial. There had to be a first…" Steven gripped the pebble tightly between his thumb and index finger. "I wonder if I'll able to make Gems one day." The rock began vibrating in his hands. "I mean- uh, woah! Pearl! What's- HOLY GUACAMOLE!"
"What?!" Pearl cried as the turquoise began to glow. It wasn't possible. How could a Gem that small have the energy to reform after being dispersed?
They watched with wide eyes as the rock slowly took on a physical form, floating down to the grass. The small pebble of a… Gem… appeared to be a forest camouflage version of Little Red Riding Hood, wearing a hooded green cloak over a plain, miniature dress. The peculiar gem looked up at them with her grass green eyes, which were as glassy as Lapis' had been when she had first been freed.
"Wuh- huh- duh- bah-" Steven stuttered, crouching down in front of the Gem. She was barely six inches tall. He eventually settled on, "What?" The tiny Gem stared up at him.
"S-Steven." Pearl silently hyperventilated, a nervous habit she picked up from humanity after the past few months' long series of harrowing experiences. "How-?! Stars above! You don't even..." She stared at the tiny Gem. Steven's talents often manifested in strange ways at unexpected times, but this was beyond anything that Pearl had ever seen in her life.
"I don't know, but she sure is cute!" he exclaimed, the initial shock passing. After a few moments of deliberation, Steven decided on the course of action that the Steven that Pearl thought he was would take, which, in all honesty, was somewhat appealing to him even now. "I have to make more!"
"W-wait," Pearl objected, too quietly for him to hear.
Steven pulled out more stones, barely brushing his fingers against them before they started brilliantly glowing. Mere minutes later, after making dozens of these odd Gems, Steven flopped to the ground as he fought to keep his form, such an intense use of his power draining him. He admired the crowd of Gems from their height, smiling. "Man, making these babies... It feels like I ran three miles uphill covered in weights!" he said, forcing flippant cheer into his tone.
Pearl just stared at the tiny army, utterly dumbfounded. "Gems don't have an infantile stage," is the only thing that she could think of in the face of such madness.
"Really? Then what are these guys? Your sketches never had anything this small. I think the Beryls were the shortest. But… these guys are like action figures!" Steven exclaimed.
The odd, pebblelike Gems came in all varieties. The tallest topped out at about eight inches head to toe, and the shortest were barely one. They were absolutely precious, and despite his exhaustion, their adorableness managed to lift Steven's spirits.
Steven flopped over onto his belly, holding out his hand to the smallest of the crowd. She was a frail looking thing with a red sundress. "Come here," he whispered, and tentatively she hiked up onto Steven's hand.
He brought her close to his face, observing her features more closely. The boy's eye was perfectly reflected in hers, just like how Lapis' eyes were perfect mirrors when she first was freed. Were they… broken? Her face was shaped like an almond, and her hair was (proportionally) long and curly. She was only as tall as Steven's pinky finger.
Pearl was finally roused from her confusion by the achingly familiar sight of a Gem in her Diamond's palm. The very sight drove a spike of grief into her heart.
The boy gently set her down. "So what do you guys like to do? Or- what's it like to be just made?"
None of the pebbles answered him. They all remained silent, blinking up at Steven or looking at one another. They were probably mute, then. "Pearl, do you think they'll listen to me?" Steven asked, looking back at her.
"I… Why not?" Pearl said, still somewhat dazed. "It wouldn't be the most unbelievable thing to happen today, my Diamond."
He supposed she had a point. Steven jabbed a finger at the largest one, a yellow pebble. "Start digging a hole in the dirt. Oh, uh, please," he ordered, motioning to a patch of grass near his feet. The yellow pebble nodded, moving to the spot to begin excavating.
"Wow," he whispered. "I've got a little pebble army. I…" He really should have thought this through. What was he going to do with them now? And Pearl had said that there was a reason why Diamond-created Gems were phased out.
"Er-" Pearl mumbled. "My Diamond, these are extremely primitive Gems. Their capabilities are most likely limited."
"Primitive?" he said, placing a finger over each ear of the nearest pebble to him. "Don't say that in front of them, Pearl! They're Gems just like you and me." He gasped, jumping to his feet and pulling the pendant from his shirt. Steven's gem vibrated in anticipation, everything finally clicking into place. "That's right, I have this too! I wonder if this one will be a plant Gem. There's algae fossils in here or something."
Steven delicately popped the rock out of the necklace. Taking a deep breath, he wiped sweat from his brow and said "This one is going to be special," with absolute certainty. He brought the soon-to-be-Gem to his lips and kissed it for luck.
Almost immediately it began to glow and hover in the air. With a brilliant flash of red light, she finished forming and fell into Steven's outstretched hands, landing on her bottom. The tiny Dolomite blinked up at Steven, her magenta hair flowing in the breeze and her soft pink skin still glowing.
While in most ways she was similar to the others, what with her bodysuit matching a good half of the other's forms, there was one thing that distinguished the Dolomite: her eyes. Unlike the rest, they were fully formed, with whites, pupils, and sclera. She wasn't... broken.
"Look," he gasped, showing Pearl. "She's different from the others. Do you think my kiss made her special?"
"Perhaps," Pearl remarked, leaning in to get another look. The Dolomite took a few tentative steps back at her scrutiny, staring up at Pearl fearfully. Blue Diamond's tears had always had special properties even before she began grieving for Pink. Perhaps the properties transferred to Steven's... dental fluid.
"Hmm…" he said, turning to look at the crowd. "You know... I wonder if…" A bout of dizziness struck Steven, and his form began to shift and warp before he forcefully compacted it. A stronger wave of nausea washed over him, followed by his limbs deadening from exhaustion. He stumbled to the ground, groaning.
"M-my Steven?!" Pearl knelt next to him, checking his forehead.
"I'm… I'm okay… Just grab the- uh, the- barbecue sauce..." Steven's vision narrowed, faded, then turned completely black.
OxOxO
"Urgh… Dagobah…" Steven grumbled as he awoke, feeling like someone had tossed him through the car wash on its Stain Exterminator setting. Pearl and Lapis loomed over him, conversing in hushed tones. "What's wrong?" he asked, head throbbing. Steven attempted to get to his feet, and nearly fell flat on his face again before Pearl snatched him by the collar and steadied him.
"You passed out." Lapis answered, frowning. In her hands she held the trembling Kona Dolomite. "That's like a rest period, right? It happens to Aang a lot." Her cheeks darkened as Steven raised an eyebrow, impressed at Lapis' quick adaptation to geekdom. "Um, anyways. What's this?"
"She's a… a… pebble!" Steven declared, gently taking her away from Lapis and holding her in his hands. She immediately relaxed, letting out a small sigh and leaning against his cupped fingers. "I made her."
"She's kinda freaky," Lapis said bluntly.
Kona Dolomite slumped, and tears threatened to spill from Steven's eyes as he briefly felt a pang of sadness and an all-too-familiar feeling of inadequacy. "She may be little, but she still has emotions, Lapis. She's more like us than we think," he snapped, then rubbed his forehead with his free hand. It was becoming harder and harder not to break character as the days wore on. "Sorry 'bout that. My head's killing me."
"Riiiiiight," Lapis deadpanned. "I'm heading back to the wash. Apparently the whole thing's a lot more complicated than I thought, and since I lost the bet that I could clean ten cars in a minute, I owe Greg two weeks of work. I only came to make sure you two didn't drop the Palanquin into the ocean or something when Pearl called us and had a panic attack over the phone."
"Fine," Steven sighed. "We're alright, go wash cars."
When Lapis had taken off, Steven looked back up at Pearl. "So where did the others go?"
Pearl nodded, forcibly stopping the tremors in her hands. "I apologize, my Diamond. I was unable to prevent them from fleeing when you collapsed." she said, a tinge of fear in her voice.
"We'd better go find them before they hurt themselves. Or somebody else." Steven sighed. "Let's roll."
The three made their way down the grassy hill, Dolomite held in Steven's hands. The tiny Gem glanced around her rapidly changing surroundings with wonder in her eyes, jaw agape at even the most mundane of sights.
When they reached the bottom, the entire town was eerily silent. Not a soul was outside. If Steven's life was a cliched Western, a tumbleweed would be rolling down Main Street.
His anxiety flared. Steven had seen this many times before, when the Crystal Gems were engaged in a battle long-lasting and destructive enough to warrant the normally apathetic citizens of Beach City to lock themselves inside their homes and call their insurance companies for their policies on Acts of Gem. If it was that bad, people were probably already hurt and it was his-
A light, warm touch brushed against his thumb, slowing his frantic heart. Steven glanced down to see Dolomite reassuringly patting it, staring up at Steven with a kind smile.
"Where do you think they could be?" Pearl asked, interrupting Steven and Dolomite's moment. A scream echoed from the beach, answering her question. Eyes wide, Pearl and Steven raced towards the boardwalk, Kona Dolomite held carefully in Steven's hands.
They were not met with a pretty sight. The County Fair had been demolished, most of its stalls smashed, cut into pieces, or cleanly bisected. Tourists and vendors fled the scene, scrambling out of wrecked booths and stumbling over piles of overpriced junk. Steven helped a portly man out of the rubble as he and Pearl sped towards the center of the chaos.
Steven barely managed to dodge a purple blur flying through the air, which crashed into the remains of a fried dough cart. Amethyst groaned and staggered to her feet, ever so slightly punch drunk, and Dolomite squeaked at the sudden surprise. She soon overcame her fear and peeked over Steven's cupped hands at the new Gem, her head cocked to the side quizzically. Growling, Amethyst roared and shapeshifted into a hulking wrestler before leaping back into the fray. Steven and Pearl worriedly glanced at each other before following the purple Quartz, Pearl summoning her rapier as she ran.
The Crystal Gems were engaged with a towering enemy, the giant humanoid easily having a foot and a half on Rose Quartz. Covered in innumerable multicolored gemstones and eyeballs, the glimmering Gem lashed out with reckless abandon, her flowing mane of glimmering hair fluttering in the wind as she kicked Garnet across the beach. Dolomite whimpered at the sight, and Steven absentmindedly pet her.
Steven glanced at Pearl, swallowing a lump forming in the back of his throat. "I guess they really are an army."
Pearl growled in frustration, astounded at her stupidity. "Of course. These 'pebbles' don't have enough mass within their gems to maintain an independent sentience, so they link together in a hive mind to accomplish complex tasks. But when their leading mind – you in this case, my Diamond – is cut off, they go berserk without guidance. That's why they were phased out. The Diamonds couldn't personally oversee every single Gem under their command." She pursed her lips, analyzing the battlefield in a blink of an eye, and frowned, puzzled at the situation. "Why aren't they attacking it? They're more than capable of defeating her if they simply tried." Indeed, the Crystal Gems were dancing around the fusion, fending off blows but never actually making an offensive.
"They're afraid of hitting the Gemstones!" the boy realized. "Look, she's covered in them. She's like a disco ball! An angry, huge disco ball!"
"Gems are not easily shattered. They can be cracked under stress, but it takes a massive amount of force to break a Gem into pieces." Pearl said, still confused.
"Yeah, but those gift shop rocks break into a million pieces if you throw them at the ground," Steven explained.
"How would the Crystal Gems know about their origin?"
Before Steven could answer, Amethyst was sent sailing once again, landing a few dozen feet behind them. "Hey, you guys are missing all the action! This thing just showed up and started wrecking the place."
Steven stumbled over the remains of the County Fair to meet her, presenting the quivering Dolomite to Amethyst. "I made those Gems! Don't hurt them!"
"Whaaaaaaa?" Amethyst shook her head. "You can explain what other cool space power you got later. We've got a weird fusion thingy to take down." The purple Quartz bounded back into the fray. "Uh, guys, keep on not hurting Quadruple Rainbow!" she cried. "Steven says that he made her!"
"We'd better finish this quickly," Rose shouted, barely managing to block a punch with her shield. She grunted, her feet leaving deep grooves in the sand as the fusion forced her backwards. "We can't keep this up for long, and I think we've got a lot to talk about."
Steven sprinted towards the battle, Pearl following close behind to fend off the fusion if need be. He waved his hands in front of the fusion, ducking a wild haymaker aimed at the white Pearl. "Hey, you guys can stop!" It appeared as if they were no longer taking orders, as they casually back-kicked Amethyst, sending her on a home run for the third time that day. They did however, focus most of their eyes on him, their suddenly manifested pupils all looking at him in a distinctly unsettling way. "Guys! Please!" Steven pleaded.
Garnet crashed into the sand from a dozen feet in the air, returning from her all-expenses paid trip to Fish Stew Pizza's roof with a perfect three-point landing. She slid to the back of the fusion in a blink of an eye, lining up a megaton punch to an unarmored point on the fusion's body.
Time seemed to slow down. Most of the fusion's dozens of eyes shifted their focus towards Garnet. Then, it contorted its studded arms backward, each of its strikes lined up perfectly with Ruby's gem.
Far faster than what Steven had given her credit for, the Dolomite leapt out of his hand and towards Garnet, directly in the path of the fusion's attack. Garnets gauntleted hand collided with the pebble, impacting her gem with immense force. Steven would never forget the sound it made when her gemstone was split in two. It was like a thousand mirrors cracking at once. Both fusions pulled back in surprise, the battle forgotten.
The Pink Kona Dolomite shattered.
"Oh my!" Pearl exclaimed, clapping her hands over her mouth. Her rapier dropped to the ground, forgotten.
A silence fell over the entire beach. Garnet's jaw fell slack, and Steven were certain all three of her eyes were wide under her visor.
Steven walked forward, picking up the two halves somberly. He calmly swept away the waves of blue grief that threatened to explode from his gem as the pebbles fell apart, each individual surrounding the boy. None of them needed to speak for Steven to understand that the pebbles had suddenly been introduced to two new concepts: regret and grief.
Garnet's gauntlets disappeared in an instant. She opened her mouth several times to speak. "I- I- She-"
"It wasn't your fault, Garnet," Rose immediately told the other Crystal Gem, her voice gentle. "She threw herself in the way to save you. It was her choice."
Garnet calmed down, but tears still threatened to spill from her eyes. She cast her head downwards "Yes, you're right. I just-"
Steven sighed, scanning the crowd of pebbles. "I think you all should go."
"Wait-" Amethyst began.
"We don't have space for all of you," Steven said simply. "You don't belong to me. You should make a life for yourselves. If that means staying around here, that's okay. If that means staying around here, that's alright too. And..." he teared up slightly. It was completely illogical for Steven to have formed such an intense emotional bond with Kona in less than fifteen minutes, but... something had happened. He could remember the pebble's tears forming in his eyes. "...and try to understand what Kona did for you. For all of you."
Not a single Gem, Crystal or otherwise, spoke.
Steven watched solemnly as the sea of pebbles washed past him, moving toward the city. Like a river, they flowed seamlessly, careful to avoid the emerging residents and the panicking tourists. Steven could spot Mayor Dewey in the distance, crying on his knees and begging for the rapidly fleeing visitors to come back next summer.
"Arrivederci…" he muttered, staring down at the halves of Kona. Yet another tragedy to add to the ever-growing list. But this time, the shards were on his own hands.
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