Long after Steven was gone, and the band had said its good-nights, Connie was staring at where Steven had been processing. When she finally shook herself out of it, she found the crowd had thinned. Gems were at the bar, getting drinks, and listening to the music being played through the speakers, dancing. She wasn't the only one still up near the stage, but she felt alone.

She wandered back toward the bar and thought about ordering herself a drink. However, as she approached the bar, a few gems started looking at her and talking excitedly. She smiled at them and pivoted to head for the door. Her footsteps picked up as she moved across the warehouse until she burst out into the sunlight and rounded the corner into the alley where she and Steven had come down.

Pausing to catch her breath, Connie leaned against some boxes. This wasn't fun. With Steven, it was fun. But she wasn't with Steven; she was alone and unsure. Almost by instinct, Connie looked around the boxes to find Steven's cloak. Smiling at it, she picked it up and shook it out of the ball he had wrapped it in. Though she knew she shouldn't, she put it around her shoulders and sat down behind the boxes.

The pink and white cloak was too big on her, but soft and broken in. Connie pulled the hood up. She was instantly comfortable and could have closed her eyes and gone to sleep there behind the boxes if not for someone tapping her on the head.

"Con-con? Is that you?" a familiar voice asked.

Connie looked up to find Amethyst standing over her. She gasped and pulled off the hood.

"Amethyst! I don't–"

"Shh! Quiet!" Amethyst said, then looked around. "It's Axelle around here." Amethyst tapped the pink diamond-shaped patch now on her black shirt. In fact, she was wearing a black shirt with sheer red lace over it and black leggings with pink lace forming glittering star formation along the legs. "I'm not even supposed to be here."

Connie frowned. "What?"

"Steven and I are supposed to be a trip to a colony," Amethyst sighed and slumped her shoulders.

"Steven?" Connie whispered in disbelief.

Amethyst straightened up and put her hands on her hips. "Uh, yea. Does he really think he can hide anything from me? We've only been best friends since he was born."

"So when he gave me cheeseburger backpack?" Connie began.

"Oh, I didn't know then," Amethyst said. "But when he asked us to leave you in the Tower to recover, I knew it. You weren't that injured. Come on. He's probably looking for you. I wasn't going to bother you guys, but I saw him, saw you run out, then he ran out after you."

"Oh, my stars!" Connie said, getting up and pulling off the cloak.

"No worries, We'll go find him. And remember. I'm Axelle. And do not tell Garnet and Pearl about this."

"I would never!" Connie yelped. "But… Why Axelle? Is that your name?"

Amethyst shrugged. "My whole Facet has A-X names. I'm Axelle. 8XG is Axena. 8XJ is Axandra. 8XL is Axia."

"Oh," Connie muttered as they started walking. "I thought it's be something…"

"Cooler? I know," Amethyst said. "So what has Steven told you about everything?"

"I don't know," Connie sighed. "Not much. I think he's lying to me about a lot."

Like about how he can ask the Pink Stars to do something and they do it, Connie thought.

"Probably," Amethyst muttered with a frown. "This whole thing. I think it's just… so not our business. It's above our gem type, you know? I know Steven, being you know…" Amethyst trailed off.

Connie pressed her back teeth together, then threw Amethyst a lifeline. "A hybrid," she whispered.

Amethyst opened the door to the warehouse and nodded. "I know he's a big deal, but he's just a dude. He was just a kid when had to deal with a lot of this. And his aunts are crazy."

Connie nodded as if she knew the identity of these now twice mentioned aunts.

"I wish we could all forget this stuff. Like why does it have to be a big secret, anyway? His mom never kept secrets."

"Rose Quartz?" Connie asked.

Amethyst looked at Connie, then looked away. "Maybe you should talk to Steven about this," she muttered.

Connie unfocused her eyes to keep from looking at Amethyst, but in doing so, looked past her to see a frantic Steven in the distance.

Steven had his hair up again and someone had loaned him a black jacket to put over his dress. He looked nice.

"Steven!" Connie called and stepped around Amethyst. She waved her hand overhead and smiled.

Turning, Steven saw her and called back. Faster than he should have, he crossed the distance and grabbed her, swinging her up in the air.

"Oh, my stars!" Steven said. "I lost you! I thought you'd gone home for a second!"

"No. I'm fine!"

They hugged for a second, before Amethyst's laughing was too loud to ignore. Steven looked over and blushed.

"Axelle! What are you doing here?" Steven whispered angrily.

Amethyst put one arm over each of them and leaned in close. "No wonder you guys almost fused. I've seen Ruby and Sapphire fuse while doing that."

Connie blushed and glanced at Steven to see him doing the same.

"Axelle! That was a secret," Steven hissed.

"Whatever," Amethyst said. "Are we headed backstage or what?"

"Oh. Well, yea. If Connie is up for it." Steven looked at Connie.

While going to another new place with more new rules was the last thing Connie wanted, she didn't want to ruin Steven and Amethyst's day, so she nodded.

"Let's go," she said.

#

Backstage was just another room is the warehouse. Connie could still hear the music from the party in the main room. Inside the smaller the room was the band, lounging on old furniture, playing around with what looked like an older set of their instruments idly. Sadie and her band already weren't alone when she, Steven, and Amethyst showed up.

While Steven ushered them in and shut the door behind them, Connie noticed a group of eight other gems, all in the same black uniform with a pink diamond on it, their gems shiny and on display. Despite showing their rank, they weren't typical gems. There were seven natural gems and one gem Connie guessed was organic. Of the natural gems, there were two cross-gem fusions, some sort of orange sapphire that Connie couldn't name, and one pair of rutile quartzes fused at the gem. Connie wasn't sure who was odder, the average emerald who more comfortable here with hybrids and overcooked amethysts, and whatever Sadie and her band were than Connie herself was, or whatever the hell the pink organic gem was. His gem was on his shoulder and he was a fluorite, but he was pink and had a huge scar over his right eye. He and Sadie were sharing an over-sized chair.

"You okay?" Amethyst whispered. "You look like you're going faint."

"There are just…" Connie struggling to find a reason for her distress. "Too many people."

"Hey guys," Steven said, slipping an arm over Connie's shoulders.

"Hey," one of the band, a gem with sunglass said. "Steven, your friend is cool. Like an onyx's pearl."

The group gasped.

"Buck!" The dark-skinned gem said. "That is so not cool! I'm sorry, girl. Buck is a padparadscha," she bit. "So he can't help being observant."

"Oh no!" the little orange sapphire gasped. "Buck is going to tell everyone the gem type of Steven's new friend!"

The fused rutile quartzes laughed and one of them patted the sapphire's head.

"No worries, Paddy." The right rutile said. "We might as well know."

Steven hugged Connie tighter. "Guys this is Connie. She is a pearl with the Pink Stars."

"With the Pink Stars?!" the emerald said. "Interesting. What do they want with you?"

"I… that's classified." Connie hoped that she could say that.

"Hmph. I'll bet." Emerald smiled. "You're probably here for Pink Diamond. She's probably on her way back. Mark my words."

"There is no way you can know that," the dark-skinned gem said, rolling her eyes.

"Guys, guys. Let's introduce ourselves," Sadie said in a cheery, raised voice. "Sit down. I'm Sadie. Flourite Facet BRG Cut SD. This is my best friend and partner Lars Flourite Facet BRG Cut LRM."

"Hey, Connie," Lars said with a wave of his gloved hand.

"Hi," Connie said. She, Steven, and Amethyst had sat down on some crates covered in cushions. "Cut LRM?"

Sadie giggled. "His cut is supposed to spell out to Laramie. Anyway, that's Jenny and Sour Cream, both of them Amertrines. Jenny is Facet PZA Cut XJY and Sour Cream is Facet ONN Cut MRY."

Connie frowned. "Cut MRY?"

"It's a long story," Steven whispered in Connie's ear. "Don't ask. Too messy."

"And," Sadie finished, "you already know Buck, Padparadscha Facet DWY Cut BCK."

"And then there's my crew," Lars said, standing up, his cape sweeping the floor behind him.

"We're the Off Colors," Lars shouted. "The flagship of Pink Diamond's new elite star force. You already know me, Captain Lars of the Stars, a humble fluorite from New Homeworld. Then my indispensable co-captain Emie, the most shining Emerald to ever take flight."

Emie laughed and dropped from her perch. "Oh, Lars. You're too right. But where would we be without our crew! The amazing, the many, the one-of-kind Fluorite!"

"We call her Fluo," Lars said.

The large fusion of six gems slowly raised herself and took a bow. "Thank.… You.… All.…"

"Thank you, Fluo," Lars said. "Our pilots, the Rutile Twins! Joan who's left-handed, and Grace who's right-handed."

"Thank you, yes." Joan said.

"Yes, thank you," Grace followed.

"Next our Strategics Officer!" Emie said. "The fantastic Rhodonite, Rodnie."

"Oh. Me? Yea. Thanks, Captains." Rodnie twisted her hands and smiled.

Connie nodded and said. "You've got pearl in you, huh?"

Rodnie blushed. "Pearl and Ruby."

"I thought so."

Steven laughed and used his free hand to push Connie's hair back. "You're a fusion expert," he said.

"I know another pearl when I see one," Connie said. "And you," she said looking at a little gem, "are Padparadscha."

"We called her Paddy," Lars said. "She's our technical adviser. Natural padparadschas can make present predictions. They can tell you anything that already happened, even if you can't see it or don't know it's happened. So since Paddy is never wrong, we can just ask her what's just happened somewhere we can see and base what we do on that."

"Organic Padparadschas," Jenny continued, "are similar. They're like, super observant and can see things you miss. Not future vision, but like natural talent to be observant and insightful."

"That's amazing!" Connie said.

"I know, right!" Sadie said. "When I ended up in a band with these guys, I was knocked for such a loop!"

"How did your groups even come together?" Connie asked. "I mean no offense, but this is the craziest group I've ever been in a room with and I live in the Pink Stars base."

The group chuckled. Then another soft laugh joined in.

"Connie is going to ask how we all became friends!" Paddy laughed. "Isn't that hilarious?!"

"Sure is, Paddy!" Rodnie chuckled behind her hand, trying to bite back her laughter.

"Hey," Buck said. "Pour you a drink? We're having whiskey and soda."

"Oh! Well, just half the whiskey," Connie said.

"Cool!" Sour cream said. "Now we have someone to give the other half of Steven's whiskey to."

#

Soon they were settled in with their drinks. Connie shared a crate with Steven. There was plenty of room for the two of them. Amethyst had the same sized crate to herself and she was lying on her side, propped up on her elbow. Still, Steven had his arm thrown around Connie's shoulders so she had to lean into him and wrap an arm around his waist to be comfortable. She thought the others would stare, but all of them were lounging all over each other too.

Sadie took a long sip of her drink, wiped her mouth with the back of her hand, and sat forward.

"So, it started like this. We were all pretty standard at first. We tried to be standard. But some of us were better at it than others."

Sadie nodded at Emerald. "Emie was a starship captain. She led a fleet in Yellow Diamond's army."

Connie looked at Emerald, lounging up high, sipping whiskey and coke. She didn't look like a part of Yellow Diamond's court.

"Lars and I were typical fluorites," Sadie went on. "We worked at a place called the Big Donut."

"That place with the giant pastry on it?" Connie asked?

"Yea! Do you not know what a donut is?"

"I'm from a colony," Connie said. "Donuts never made it out there."

"Wow," Jenny cut in. "You're like, really from a colony? I've never been off New Homeworld. Not even to visit the Moon Palace."

"No one's allowed there now that Pink Diamond is in seclusion," Lars said. "But she comes out sometimes."

"Hold on, you guys," Sadie said. "We're getting ahead of ourselves!" Sadie looked at Connie. "Sorry about that. Where was I? Right. Emie was a fleet captain. Lars and I worked in foodservice. Jenny and Sour Cream were in training to do music for balls and stuff. Buck was training with the sapphires to work in some elite gem's service. All normal. But then there were the original Off Colors. The ones that couldn't help being themselves." Sadie grinning.

Connie leaned in to listen, despite Steven's arm tightening around her.

"Paddy was used to see the future, obviously. But she sees the present. Instead of putting her to use, they abandoned her." Sadie shook her head. "Joan and Grace were born as conjoined twins. The only ones on Homeworld. They were left behind by the other rutile quartzes, who feared them. Rodnie was replaced by her Morganite for daring to exist as herself, as a fusion. And Fluo is like Lars and me, but has six components to make her a fluorite. Flou, Paddy, Grace, Joan, and Rodnie were together on Homeworld for thousands of years before they were made into a crew by Emie and Lars."

"But how?" Connie asked.

"It was all because of Pink Diamond," Lars said. He sat forward and put his elbows on his knees. "You know the planet in the Jade System that's refusing to assimilate into gem-kind?"

"Yea," Connie said. "I'm from the Jade System. They send wounded organic gems to my home for treatment in my mother's hospital."

The room gasped. Steven leaned forward and held her with both arms. Lars nodded.

"They're only the second planet to be assimilated into gem-kind. Right after us," Lars said. "But they're not like us. They aren't like gems. They're dangerous. And since the Jade System is right on the edge on Yellow Diamond's territory, she decided to handle it."

"Rumors are," Emerald said, "that when Pink Diamond went into seclusion, Yellow Diamond wanted to do something for her, something to show there were no hard feelings. So she ordered the colonization of the planet in Jade System, to show she could colonize a planet in Pink Diamond's way. Only she found intelligent organic life. So she thought she assimilate them."

"But they started fighting back," Connie guessed. "And only Pink Diamond has the power to bring gem and organic life together."

"Exactly," Lars said. "The organic life there lashed out, stole a ship, and came here."

"Here!" Connie whispered. "To New Homeworld?"

"Yes. They reached the ground but were attacked when they entered the city. The Pink Stars lead the troops against them, but they fled back to their stolen ship and took hostages with them."

Sadie took Lars' hand and continued.

"The Pink Stars mounted a rescue mission. That's when Pink Diamond interfered. As the ship tried to take off, a huge pink shield appeared above it, holding it down. That gave the Pink Stars time to fuse into their ultimate form, Alexandrite. Alexandrite wrenched the door open and pulled out the hostages. But then… then Pink Diamond shield broke! The ship lifted off! And disappeared into the sky with one hostage still on it!"

Connie frowned. "It was you, Lars."

Lars swallowed. "Yea. I wasn't… pink back then. That came later. The ship's controls were all wonky. They could only auto-set it to Homeworld. On the way, they started shooting at other Gem ships. We caught the attention of Emerald."

"Hmph," Emerald said, uncrossing and recrossing her boot-clad legs. "I didn't think much of you organic gems. Or any off-colors. But I was wrong. If not for my crew, my friends, I wouldn't be here today."

She took a sip of whiskey and coke.

"I was leading a fleet for Yellow Diamond when the organics from the Jade System started cutting a path from New Homeworld to Homeworld. They would pop into warp and disappear for a while, then drop out of it and wreak havoc, before starting the cycle again. I was to chase them down. We knew the path they were taking, but not when or where they'd drop out of wrap. Finally, just once I caught up to them, but I was overconfident. They outgunned my ship. They boarded us. There was no mercy in them. These organics didn't dissipate our forms; they used improvised blunt force weapons and went right for our gems. I was the last one on the bridge, fighting with my cutlass against three of them. I knew that was it. Until… I heard a roar, like some wounded creature's last cry in battle. It was Lars, brandishing one of their weapons from their fallen, coming right at them. He fell two of them before they could react! Finally, hope! But the third knew better than to face two armed enemies at once. Instead of turning his back on me, he ran straight for me, aiming for my gem! I felt the cold metal hit my face and felt my gem crack. Everything went black. And the next thing I remember, I was on a small ship rushing towards Homeworld."

Lars was smiling and shaking his head. "I had tackled the last guy, making him fall before he hit her. Her gem was cracked, but not broken."

Connie let go of a breath she didn't know she'd been holding.

"I brought her gem back to the stolen ship," Lars said. "And we headed for Homeworld where I hoped we could get some help. I was sort of freaking out because I had… killed, or at least gave serious head trauma to those guys."

Sadie nudged him. "How I some lighter stuff for a minute?" She looked at Connie. "While that was going on in space, on New Homeworld we were all freaking out about Lars being missing. Steven started hanging around with us around that time, but his mom worked for Pink Diamond until she died and he has to as well, so his whole back story is hush-hush until Pink Diamond comes out of seclusion. But you're a Pink Star, so you probably know more about that than we do."

Connie smiled and shrugged, and was pleased that her non-answer seemed to satisfy the group.

"Steven, Jenny, Buck, and Sour Cream started jamming together, and I just worked myself to exhaustion to stop thinking about Lars. Well, one day they asked me to jam with them, and I kind of became their front gem. Steven eventually dropped out of the band when he got more work to do and we started doing shows. We even got an official permit to do big venue shows. And they listed me as the front gem. Me, a fluorite."

"We literally have no idea how it happened," Jenny said. "But, we know it got the agates around here back off. Especially Kevin."

"Ugh, that agate with the fancy car?" Emie groaned. "This isn't even his patrol area. I could talk to him."

"Don't bother," Buck said. "Kevin just wanted to accidentally get to meet Pink Diamond. He only hounds us because of that. Especially since–"

"Don't tell her yet!" Sadie said. "Lars, tell the rest of the story."

"This is where we come in!" Rodnie said.

"I can't wait, oh my stars!" Grace said.

"Oh my stars, I can't wait!" Joan added.

Lars laughed. "Right. So there we were. Just me and Emie. Emie's got a cracked gem. I can't summon a gem weapon yet. We're all alone and we've crashed in the depths on Homeworld. And unfortunately, there are bands of roving, shattering robonoids everywhere down there. We're trying to find a way to the surface to find Emie help, but we find the shattering robonoids first!"

"Oh!" Paddy said. "He going to tell them our story!" She climbed up on Rodnie's lap and said down.

"I sure am! Because just when I think it is the end, that when they show up! The Rutile Twins attacked the robonoids with a rock, while Fluo wraps her entire body around us and protects us from the scanner. The robonoid gets confused and wanders off!"

"All right!" Connie said. "That's amazing!"

"It's… nothing… sweetie," Fluo said.

"Yea," Rodnie added. "We'd been dodging those things for ages!"

"Since we finally had a moments peace, I leave Emie with the Off Colors and go to find a way up to the surface."

"Which was really a stupid idea," Emie muttered. "We should have stuck together. I know I was fading in and out. But he could barely fight. Joan and Grace were better able to fight than him. And better able to hide. They could have got and secretly lead someone back to us! But no, Lars in idiot. And I knew he'd get hurt. I so got up, despite being injured, and lead the Off Colors after him. We found him fighting a robonoid with a stick!"

"And who almost got shattered by it?" Lars asked?

"Who jumped on it and got thrown into a wall and died?!"

The room was silent. Lars smiled ruefully.

"Well… that was me."

"You… died?" Connie whispered.

"See the scar?" Lars said. "I got smashed into a wall. I… didn't feel anything. I must have hit it pretty hard."

"His gem and face were both shattered," Joan said.

"We'd never met an organic gem," Grace said. "We didn't know which one had made him stop working."

"Damn stupid organic gem," Emie said. She sniffed. "The others were taking me away. I wanted to take his shards back to his home at least but… they were pulling me away, saying another robonoid would be there soon to check on the destroyed one. But as we left, there was a howl. We peeked around a corner and figure in a pink cloak and hood walked out of the shadows. The figure kneeled next to Lars and held him, leaning down over his face. Then I realized the figure was crying. Suddenly Lars was pink and figured gently put him down and rushed away before Lars could open his eyes. We rushed over and Lars' face and gem were healed, but he was pink. We heard a howl and then nothing."

"Pink Diamond?" Connie asked.

"Yea," Lars said. "She healed me. And I'm connected to her somehow. After that happened I was more like a natural gem, I didn't need to eat or sleep. But when I slept, things would happen. One night in the caves, I convinced everyone to take a nap, and when we woke up, Emie was healed and there was map out of the caves and to a launch bay. When we got there, they listed us as a single crew with our own ship in Pink Diamond fleet."

"We… even… had… orders." Fluo said.

"To track down another stolen ship in the Jade Region and capture the organics of the colony planet that stole it," Rodnie said.

"Ha! What a ride that was!" Emie said. "We really proved the cut of our gems chasing them down! Remember when my Sun Incinerator was given back to us from Yellow Diamond's fleet?"

"We were amazing!" Joan said.

"They barely saw us coming!" added Grace.

"That's how their space travel was put to an end. And at last, they assigned us to go home," Lars said.

"Our new home," Emie said with a grin.

"New Homeworld!" Paddy shouted.

"Where they landed on the beach right in the middle of our concert!" Sadie said. "We'd heard of the Off Color Leaders, the ragtag group of rebellion-fighting gems that almost single-handedly put an end to Jade System's starship fleet. But hearing Lars was out there be a space captain, and seeing him with his crew were two different things."

"Well hearing you were a galaxy famous rock star and seeing were two different things!"

"Aw. You guys are too cute together," Jenny said.

"Yea," Amethyst muttered. "Gross. Anyway, we gotta get back. Pink Star stuff and all."

A few groans went up, but Steven, Connie, and Amethyst said their goodbyes and headed out the door.

#

"You better head back to tower and fake up something for today," Amethyst said to Steven.

"You're being pretty responsible," Steven muttered.

"Ah, well. That story just… reminded me of stuff."

"Me too," Steven said.

"You guys alright?" Connie asked.

They both sighed.

"Come Con-con. Let's go. Later Steve-O." Amethyst started meandering away, head down.

"Connie, I'll call you," Steven hugged her, tight and desperate somehow, then let go and walked away in the opposite direction as Amethyst.

With heavy steps, Connie followed Amethyst.