"ARGHHHHH!"

"My Diamond! What's wrong?"

"Nothing, Pearl, it's...nothing."

"My Diamond, it is clearly not nothing. What is happening? I'm worried."

Pink Diamond, glowing a bright color the same hue as her skin, turned to look at her Pearl, who was staring up at her with wide, worried eyes. She wasn't crying, exactly, but Pink could see that she was on the verge of tears. Her hands were entwined together and placed behind her, while her stance was tall and polite, still managing to be respectful despite how weary she looked. And while Pink wanted to keep her problems to herself this time, she couldn't resist Pearl's gaze. With a heavy sigh, she flopped into a chair constructed by the Pebbles and facepalmed, wishing for all of this to go away.

"I…" She started. "It's the other Diamonds, Pearl. I asked them for a colony again, and they didn't give it to me. I've proven myself time and time again, showing them that I can and will take care of a colony and expand our Empire, but they never listen! Blue just says I'm not ready, Yellow complains that I'm being childish, and White…" Pink scoffed and looked out at her window, towards White's ship, which was parked stoically in the distance. "...well, one could say that she just doesn't listen at all. Always calling me by that annoying nickname. Always smiling no matter how much I yelled. Sometimes I wonder if there's even a semblance of a normal Gem in there, and not just a cold, unflinching machine."

"My Diamond…" Pearl said. "I think you are letting the other Diamonds get to you too much. I do not mean to complain, but it seems like every other second of your time is spent complaining about them. I am concerned that it is not healthy. All this anger is not good for you. Sometimes I fear…" She gulped. "...that soon you will disappear, and all I will be left with is a Gem who doesn't want to play with me like she always has, doesn't want to tell jokes or stories or anything else. My Diamond."

"Oh, Pearl…" Pink said. "That won't ever happen. I won't stop playing with you, or telling my jokes or stories. Those are the best parts of my day after all. The only time I manage to get any leisure…"

"Then why do you insist on complaining, My Diamond?" Pearl asked. "If that is the best part of your day, then why do you do any of your duties in the first place?"

"Because I have to. And also because I want to prove myself." Pink said. "This is still about getting a colony. Maybe when I do that, and I make a successful one, with thousands of Gems being made, the others will finally treat me with respect. They'll finally act like I'm one of them and not just a nuisance."

"My Diamond, I am positive that they do not think of you as a nuisance," Pearl said, before frowning and looking away. "Well, I'm not sure if I can say that of Yellow, but I know for certain that Blue cares for you greatly."

"Cares. Treats me like a child, maybe." Pink said. "I'm a Diamond. More powerful than almost any other Gem in existence. But Blue treats me like a Ruby, disciplining me and locking me away when I do something bad. I can't count the total number of years I've spent in that abysmal tower. It feels like my life is being drained when I'm in there. And you…" She turned towards Pearl. "...They just bubble you away when it happens, like you're some kind of object and not a totally independent Gem on your own!"

"But, My Diamond…" Pearl said. "All they see me as is an object. Like every other Gem I've known, except you. That's almost to be expected. And please don't get angry over that! Bubbling is not that bad! I don't even remember any of it! I just...vanish in one second and wake up the next! It's almost instantaneous!"

"Still," Pink said. "They don't have to do that. They could allow you to stay in here with the Pebbles. At least they get to be spared."

The Pebbles, upon hearing Pink call their name, crawled out from the walls and the ceiling, looking up at her to see if she needed help with anything. Pink spotted them almost instantly and smiled, before waving them away.

"Thanks, but I don't need anything right now. Just venting." She said, and the Pebbles all nodded before disappearing back into their holes. Pink's smile then faded as fast as it had come, and she looked back out the window, at Homeworld's surface, at White's ship.

"My Diamond," Pearl said, with a heavy sigh. "I am sure that you will get a colony eventually. It's only a matter of time."

"You've said that at least twenty times." Pink pointed out. "And each time, I wait a year or so to see what they have to say. And each time, they tell me that I'm not ready. What do they even define as ready? Do they think I'm going to magically change one day? So they think I'm going to be a new person the next morning? Cruel and cold and mean like me? Or worse…" She gulped and grit her teeth. "...Do they want me to be like her? Like White? An emotionless thing that enjoys hurting other Gems?"

"I am sure that they do not want you to be like White," Pearl said, before smiling. "Based on what I've seen, one White is more than enough for the likes of Blue and Yellow…"

"...Was that a joke, Pearl?" Pink asked.

"Just trying to lighten the mood, My Diamond. Did it...help?"

"...Maybe a little bit," Pink said. "And I suppose you're right about that. They seem to dislike her just as much as I do at times. I suspect it's because of how she punishes them...and if there's one thing I'm grateful for, it's that that isn't my punishment when I screw up. I hate the tower, I hate it almost more than anything, but it's definitely preferable to White making me a puppet for a thousand years or so."

Pearl shuddered at this reference, fully recalling the one time she had seen White blast Blue and Yellow with her eyes beams right in front of Pink and her. They had been arguing with White one second, and the next their bodies were slowly turning a grayish-White hue, their faces frozen in agony as they cried out in pain. A moment later they froze and took the exact same stance White had, both of their Pearls having a look in their face that was a mix between horror and "oh god, not again". As for Pink, she was mostly, "oh god, not again", although there was definitely some fear in there as well. White then left without saying another word, the two possessed Diamonds following her. The three remaining Pearls and one Diamond all looked at each other before leaving, Yellow and Blue Pearl heading in the direction of their respective Diamond's palaces.

This was the only time Pink's Pearl ever witnessed such an event, as afterward Pink never took her along to a meeting that involved the other Diamonds. Pearl didn't know why, although it was likely because Pink feared that if one day she got blasted by White, then something awful might happen to Pearl. Bubbling, as she had mentioned earlier. Which really wasn't awful short-term, or any sort of term, considering that like Pearl said, it almost felt instantaneous.

But back in the present, Pearl was done contemplating what Pink had said and was ready to respond, hoping that she could get her Diamond to calm down.

"I suppose that is true, My Diamond." She said. "But like I was mentioning, they can't hold a colony off of your forever. One day they have to give it to you. You've waited thousands and thousands of years, with me witnessing it all besides you, for this to happen. And each time you ask, they consider it for a moment longer. Eventually, they will give in and give you your colony, My Diamond. You just have to wait a little while longer."

"Pearl, when did you become my therapist?"

"When you requested I try to be, approximately 4237 years ago," Pearl said.

"...Huh. Yeah, I did do that." Pink sighed. "But how much longer? You're right. I've waited thousands of years. Even for a Gem, that's a decent amount of time. I've been absurdly patient with them, all the yelling and screaming and tantrums aside."

"Maybe you should try...not doing that, My Diamond?" Pearl recommended. "You did say that they treat you like a child. Maybe if you don't throw all these tantrums and...ah, act like one, then they won't see you as one any longer. It's only common sense."

"I guess…" Pink said, internally chuckling at how much leeway she had given Pearl when it came to sharing her thoughts. "But I tried that once. It was one of the hardest things I ever had to do. I kept it up for five hundred years, and I don't think they even noticed. And if they did...they didn't show it."

Pearl then let out a sigh, not sure what else to say at this point. As stated before, Pink had employed her as her "therapist", but when it came to the more complex issues, Pearl tended to drive herself into a corner. She wasn't made for this after all. No Gem was. In fact, therapist was just a word Pink had invented and tried to get White to turn into an actual job, only for the monarch to claim, "Oh, Starlight, Gems don't need help with their "personal" problems. If they are unable to work due to internal thinking, then they will be rejuvenated. It's as simple as that".

Then again, most Gem problems brought to White seemed to end with someone being shattered/rejuvenated. It was really just her metier.

"My Diamond," Pearl repeated, stepping closer to her. "I think-"

However, before Pearl could say anything else, she was interrupted by a loud ringing sound, and they both turned to look at Pink's communicator, which was flashing a bright White. The surface of Pink's skin immediately turned pale like she had seen a ghost, and in an instant Pearl was at her side, knowing exactly who was calling and that nothing could be out of place when the communicator was answered. Slowly, Pink grabbed the communicator and turned it to the side, and it floated up in the air and a screen appeared, which was completely filled with White Diamond's face. The brightness being emitted from her, even from the screen, spread throughout the room and made every other source of light irrelevant, and in a matter of seconds, the inside of Pink's room was grey and white just like the inside of White's ship.

"Hello, Starlight," White said jovially. "I hope I'm not interrupting anything."

"You're not." Pink lied. "What is it, White? What do you need?"

"Well, I just received a troubling message from Blue and Yellow. It seems you asked them for a colony again, and when they denied you one, you ran off and said several impolite things about them in the process." White explained. "Is this true, Pink?"

"It is." Pink gulped, knowing it was foolish to try and tell a lie to White. "But I can explain myself. I've asked them and you do many times for a colony, but you never give me one! It's been thousands of years and I-"

"That's quite enough," White interjected. "Choose your words carefully, Pink. One shouldn't waste time babbling. It's not right for a Diamond to do such things."

"Funny you should say that, considering the arguments I've heard between you, Blue, and Yellow…" Pink muttered. And if White overheard this she didn't respond, only continuing to stare and smile. "Okay, White. I won't babble. But you should at least try to hear me out."

"That won't be necessary," White said. "I have "heard you out" dozens of times by this point, Pink, and each time the answer is the same. However, this time I noticed that you said something different that was a deviation from your previous arguments."

"I did?" Pink asked, who remembered no such event occurring. "What did I say exactly?"

"You claimed that you were ready," White said. "And while this is about par for your tantrums about getting a colony, you also mentioned that Blue and Yellow likely had colonies before they were even one year old, and thus it is unfair that you get none."

"Oh yeah...I did mention that." Pink said. "But it's true, right? They had colonies at that age?"

"Oh, far from it, Starlight." White beamed. "It was over fifty-thousands years before I allowed them to have a colony. I wanted to make sure they were ready, like you."

"Fifty-thousand years?!" Pink gasped. "But I'm only fifteen thousand years old! Are you seriously going to make me wait that long to-"

"Possibly," White interjected. "I am still deciding. However, Pink, the point of this call is to inform you once and for all that no matter how much you beg, you will not be getting a colony anytime soon. So it will be better for everyone if you stop asking and just let us inform you when we think the time is right. It worked for Blue and Yellow, and I'm sure it will work for you."

"I'm not like Blue and Yellow," Pink said. "I'm not sure I can wait that long! I-"

"Pink…" White said softly, although it came out as a hiss. "Are you disobeying my commands? The decision that has already been made? Do you want to take this further and challenge me to undo it?"

"I…" Pink said, suddenly terrified. "...No. I don't."

"Good," White said. "Then we agree. Any arguments of yours from now on will be ignored, and that is final. Now, do you have anything left to say, Pink? That isn't about getting your first colony?"

"...No."

"Very well. Goodbye, Starlight." White said, and with that she vanished, the room slowly regaining its pink hue as the light that White had infested it with began to dwindle away. For a moment, Pink didn't move, simply staring at the place where the screen once was, as if looking into oblivion. Pearl gulped and nervously approached her, unable to predict what her Diamonds reaction might be to that.

"My Diamond?" She said. "Are you-"

"THAT'S IT!" Pink screamed, stomping her foot down on the ground and creating a giant crater at least two feet in diameter. The shockwave from the blast threw Pearl onto her back, but she was on her feet again in a moment, knowing that she had to calm Pink down before she started wrecking even more of her palace.

"My Diamond!" She said. "Please calm down! You won't want-"

"I don't care!" Pink said. "Not anymore! After all that asking, after all those arguments, after all the cases I made for why I should get a colony, White just swoops in and says I'm not old enough and that I should just forget it. Are you kidding me?! Does this mean that it was pointless from the beginning?! Was there absolutely zero chance that I was ever going to get anything?! And if so, why did she wait until now to reveal it?! Does she enjoy watching me suffer like everyone else?!"

"My Diamond, I'm sure none of those things are true!" Pearl said, stepping forward again and standing at Pink's side. "I'm sure White has her own reasons. Yes, this incident might show that they never planned to give you one in the first place, but it also means that your cries haven't gone in vain! And it means that...ah…"

"Means what, Pearl?" Pink asked. "What else does it mean?"

"I...I'm not-"

"You don't know." Pink sighed. "I suppose that's to be expected. Don't blame yourself, Pearl. It's fine if you don't have an answer. I don't have one either. But I just...agh!" She yelled, her skin now glowing. "I can't believe they would do this to me! I've proven myself! If they're upset about the tantrums, then they can get them to stop by giving me a colony! Can't they see that?!"

"I'm sure they do, My Diamond…" Pearl said. "But perhaps-"

"No. No. No perhaps." Pink growled, now glowing so bright that Pearl almost had to turn away to shield her eyes. "No buts, no perhaps, no maybes, no none of that! I've heard those words too often as of late, and I'm sick of it! I just wish...I just wish...I JUST WISH THEY COULD TAKE ME SERIOUSLY!"

And with this scream, Pink let out an enormous shockwave of energy, so loud that it could be heard from a hundred miles away. Pearl, being right next to Pink at the time, was thrown backward again, but this time she was slammed against the wall and poofed on impact, where her Gem landed behind a nearby chair. Said chair, however, like everything else in the room, was also sent flying, smashing into the walls and ceiling and shattering to pieces on impact. The ground cracked under Pink's feet, and these cracks traveled across the surface of her entire palace, making it look like a great earthquake had struck it. Gems just outside screamed as they were blasted off their feet, a few even barreling off platforms and sent falling into the great depths of Homeworld below. It was an awesome show of power...and even more frightening to witness.

And then it was over. Pink was left standing alone, the glow fading as the energy surrounding her form faded away. Her room was an absolute mess, if it could even be called that anymore. The ceiling was nothing but a giant hole, the walls were practically non-existent, and the floor looked like ocean waves, violent and messy and unstable, chunks crashing into each other. She looked around the room, shocked into silence by what she had created. The anger inside her dispersed in a second as she noticed the absence of one person, their name leaving her lips with a cry.

"P-pearl!" She yelled. "Pearl! Where are you! Where did you go?! Pea-"

Steven shut off the screen and let the cube drop to the ground.

He already knew what was going to happen next.

She was going to find Volleyball's Gem, it would reform, and then that crack would have replaced one of her eyes. Steven didn't have a single doubt in him that this incident was the one that created it. And likely made White take Volleyball away from his mother. He let out a sigh and picked up the cube before placing it back on the shelf, once again berating himself for getting too sucked in. After taking a brief moment to wipe some tears away from his cheeks, he moved onto the next cube.

And the next. And the next. And the next after that, skimming each one carefully. But time and time again, he just found more memories that he didn't need, as well as no more password-encrypted files. After over two hundred cubes and one and a half-hour of searching, he had reached the end of the shelf. To both his left and right were the seemingly infinite dark hallways again, and now he knew that the shelf no more than ten feet away from him was the one that held all the information on Earth.

And he hadn't even found the memories he was looking for. Part of him wanted to backtrack and keep searching, but the other part silently reminded him that that memory was not what he came for, and that he should just drop it. After a fleeting moment of contemplation, Steven decided on the latter, effectively making the past couple thousand words completely pointless. So he straightened himself out and got ready to move forward, going over everything he had just seen in those memories...as well as one other thing that was beginning to bother him.

"I really should have gone to the bathroom before I arrived…" He mumbled, as he stepped forward before abruptly stopping, realizing that he was missing someone. Spinel. While he was perfectly fine with leaving the rubbery Gem to her own devices, he figured that it would be best if he got her out of Pink's section sooner rather than later. The pile of cubes she had looked over must have reached the ceiling by now, if her speed at the start was anything to go by.

"Spinel!" He called out, cupping his hands together. "Come on! I'm going to the Earth section now!"

There was no reply.

"Spinel?"

Again, there was no reply. Steven was about to call out a third time, before he realized that it would just be better if he just went after her. Even if sound traveled differently in here like Yellow claimed, it was more likely than not that Spinel was too engrossed with the memory cubes to care. Steven started back down the way he came, jogging this time, and found Spinel after ten minutes. Like he had suspected, the pile was much larger, almost seven feet tall, although nothing like the height he had expected it to be at. Spinel was right next to it, a cube in her hands, which was displaying a tiny screen that Steven couldn't make out.

"Finally." He said. "Spinel, I'm going to check out the Earth cubes, and I think it'd be best for everyone if you came with me. So put down whatever you're looking at and come on."

"..."

"Spinel?" Steven said, hoping he hadn't come off as impolite. "Okay, I'm sorry if I was rude there, it's just that I'm worried-"

"She doesn't even care…"

"What?"

"She doesn't even care." Spinel repeated, turning around and standing up to look at Steven. Her eyes were brimming with tears, and she revealed a large puddle on the floor that was no doubt caused by them. The cube in her hands, as far as Steven could see now, had a message displayed across it. Her fingers were trembling as she gripped it, along with every other part of her body.

"Whoa, Spinel, are you okay?" Steven asked, fully expecting her to be angry instead of sad. "What is it? What did you find?"

"...Yellow forgot to mention something." Spinel said, after a brief hesitation. "I think that on every shelf, there's a cube that tells you the whereabouts of everything you want to know on those pairs of shelves. Glowing white instead of...another color. That's why this one caught my eye. There's a sort of search bar thing at the top, and you type in whatever you're looking for, and it tells you the exact location. I typed in your name, and what looked like a hundred beams of light shot out of it and headed towards the direction opposite to you. The ones placed there by the other Diamonds."

"Disturbing as the fact is that they placed cubes about me in Pink Diamond's section, as well as the fact that this sounds suspiciously like Boogle…" Steven started. "...and that Yellow didn't tell us about this thing, it would have made all that searching so much easier...why were you crying, Spinel? What did you find?"

"I searched up my name." Spinel said. "And this is what I found."

She then handed over the cube/screen to Steven, and he looked it over. On it was a single line of text that he couldn't read, along with a search bar at the top that contained six unknown characters. He sighed and handed it back to Spinel, his unmoved reaction clearly confusing her.

"Spinel, I can't read that. You're going to have to translate it for me." He revealed, and Spinel scoffed before suddenly lifting the cube up high and smashing it on the ground. Bright flashes of light exploded out of it as the sound of shattering glass rang out, and Steven moved away to cover his eyes from the scene. A moment later, all that remained were a few crystalline shards laying on the ground, one clearly furious Spinel, and a bewildered/slightly frightened Steven.

"Spinel, what are you doing?!" He asked, gesturing to the pieces. "If that was the only way to accurately find information in here, then why did you-"

"There was NOTHING!" She shrieked, and suddenly Steven understood everything. "It said, "no results found". No. Results. FOUND. There's not a single mention of me in all of these cubes! Not one! Pink effectively erased me from existence! And not only that, but there's no record of any cubes ever being here that had my name in them, so it's not like there were ones that she later removed, she just never put them here in the first place! She didn't want anyone to remember me! She didn't want to remember! She never had a single thought about coming back to get me! I'm betting by the time she got to Earth, after leaving the Garden, she had forgotten entirely!"

Spinel then sank to the floor and melted again, her eyes staring up at Steven with pure rage and indignation. And even though he knew that the anger in the wasn't directed at him this time, it still shook him enough that he stepped away from her.

"Spinel…" He said, not sure what to say to this. "...I...I think we should leave this shelf. The both of us. I don't think it's good for either of us."

"Of course it's not!" Spinel said. "But I went looking anyway, and this is what I found! She...she just…" Spinel then reformed herself slightly, leaning up against one of the shelves. "...She didn't care. She never did. Nobody cared. The song...the song…"

"Song? Which song?" Steven asked, recalling that Spinel had sung quite a few.

"The one in the Garden...about how she left me." Spinel said. "I was right. Everything had gone on without me. No one was listening. No one cared. No one even knew I existed. And if I hadn't seen that message, I'm sure it'd still be that way. Just me, standing in that horrible place, until the end of time."

"..."

"..."

"...Spinel," Steven said, for what felt like the thousandth time. "You shouldn't care."

"I...I what?" Spinel asked.

"You shouldn't care about Pink anymore," Steven said, praying that he was saying the right thing here. "Maybe all that stuff is true. That she tried to erase you from history. But that's not how it is now. You're here. On Homeworld. With the Diamonds. I'm sure if you went to White's or Blue's or Yellow's section of cubes, that you would find your name there. Describing how you came to Homeworld. This section...about my mother...it doesn't matter. It's in the past. The only new cubes in here are about me, which I'm going to request be moved later, so this place will be dead and dark. You shouldn't...well…" Steven then started faltering on his words, running out of things to say. Spinel noticed almost immediately and groaned, fed up with his pointless attempts to cheer her up.

"Steven, stop. If you don't know what to say, then don't say anything at all." Spinel sighed. "I don't blame you, okay? I'm not angry at you. I'm just so furious with her again! Just like I was at the start! All the anger and frustration you helped me get rid of after I almost destroyed your planet is just creeping back in the longer I stay in this place! And while you're right, I should just leave, I should just let go of all this and forget her...I can't. It's stuck with me. And I'm worried that I'll never be able to forgive her, no matter what I do."

"..."

"..."

"Okay. I'm done." Steven said, before standing up and grabbing Spinel's arm. She looked at him in surprise before he started walking off, and she followed him nervously, wondering where he was taking her.

"What are you doing?" She asked.

"If you can't come out of this...hell by yourself, then I'm dragging you out of it," Steven said. "I know this isn't like me to use force, but I'm not sitting here and waiting. If you can't get away from Pink alone, then I'll do it for you. I'm taking you out of this section, we're going to the Earth one, finding the white cube, looking everything up about the Traitor, and then we're leaving this place and hopefully never coming back. I've wasted enough time here and I don't want to waste any more."

"But, Steven!" Spinel protested. "You told me yourself that simply walking away from your problems like this isn't the way to handle things! You told me that we shouldn't worry about them and try to forget them, but you had a whole procedure for how to properly do that! This isn't it!"

"Yeah. It isn't." Steven said. "But the Gems are probably already out looking for me, and I have to find this information as fast as I can so I can solve this whole Mirror debacle and cure Connie's amnesia. If I don't go fast enough, they'll find me here and take me home."

"...It sounds like you didn't think this whole thing through." Spinel commented, yanking her hand away from him but continuing to follow. "If you're not supposed to be here, why didn't you just ask your friends to come here in your place and look up that same information?"

"Because I didn't think the Diamonds would let them in here," Steven replied. "The Homeworld archives. Every bit of knowledge Gemkind has to offer. And it's literally as fragile as I imagined, as you demonstrated with that cube back there. If they're actively communicating with each other now, they may be more trusting, but I don't think they're trusting enough to let them in here of all places."

"They're trusting enough to talk to them in a private Diamond meeting, one that I'm not allowed to attend." Spinel pointed out. "If they don't trust them enough to not let them in here, then why would Yellow allow my presence?"

"...Spinel, you're not making this any easier for me." Steven sighed, before deciding that enough was enough. "You want the truth, Spinel? Yeah. I didn't think this all the way through. But at the moment, I only cared about Connie. Yes, I should have planned things out better. Heck, if I told the Gems about the situation and my plan, they might have let me go. But it's too late for that now. I don't want to have to focus on the past right now. I've been doing too much of that lately, and all I want to do is keep moving forward until Connie is cured, Mirror is stopped, Pink Steven is freed, maybe, and I get a new therapist so I can put this whole mess behind me and start moving on with my life!" He exclaimed, before taking a moment to breathe. "So do you get it now, Spinel? I just want this to be ended as quickly as possible. Yeah, I'm taking a lot of risks and making a lot of stupid decisions. But hey, I've always done that, and hey, it worked out pretty well in the end, all things considered. But I've been put through horrific illusions, terrible nightmares, an actual event which almost made me nearly kill like twenty of my friends, and god knows how many near-death things I experienced during that fight with Jasper. I. Am. Done." Steven gasped.

For a moment, neither of them spoke, simply looking at each other while Steven panted for breath. A second later he kept speaking, somehow still not finished with his speech. "And I don't want to have to put you through any of that. Or put anyone else through it. Not my friends, not the Diamonds, not you. And I guess that in the end...that's why I went off alone. Because I need to deal with this alone. So none of you can get hurt anymore on my behalf. Maybe I realized that subconsciously back at the house or maybe I'm only realizing it now, but either way, I guess that's the truth."

"..."

"So do you understand, Spinel?" Steven repeated. "My reasons for, as you said, "not thinking this through all the way"?"

"...Sure. I think I got more than enough." Spinel said, nodding awkwardly. "But you are a pretty good rambler, Steven! I thought that was never going to end!"

"Neither did I." Steven scoffed. "The entire time there was a little voice in my head telling me to keep going. I guess I just followed it a little too well."

"...Hey, isn't that-"

"No, it wasn't the Other Side or Pink Steven, and it wasn't them pretending to be my "brain" either," Steven said, anticipating Spinel's question. "One of them is stubborn and probably can't talk to me at the moment, and the other is very dead, if Pinkie is to be believed."

"...That's not what I was about to ask." Spinel replied, wondering how many times the things Steven was saying was going to make her pause before speaking. "Who's the Other Side? Another friend of yours?"

"I...would not call it a friend, no," Steven said dryly. "But that doesn't matter. Sorry, I just...sorry. It's just that I'm so used to everyone back on Earth asking questions about stuff like that, which they've been doing for literal weeks on end, so I guess my brain went into auto-pilot and-"

"Ah, you don't need to explain, Steven!" Spinel said, back to her joyful self in half a second, which wasn't even a new record. "From what I've seen of your friends, if I was cooped up with them for weeks I'd probably go crazy too!"

She then laughed, and Steven laughed alongside her for a few seconds, before realizing that she had basically just insulted them. "Hey...hey, wait, that's not-"

"Anyway, the question I was going to ask was: isn't that the cube we're looking for?"

"Huh?" Steven replied, before glancing to her right and following Spinel's finger. And there, no more than a few feet away, was a cube on the shelf that was glowing a bright white, impeccably different from all the other cubes surrounding it. Steven paused for a moment, wondering if it would truly be this easy, before deciding not to shoot a gift horse in the mouth.

"...Yeah. It is." He said, and without further ado, the hybrid stepped forwards and grabbed it off its resting place where it had sat for so many millennia. The cube glowed brightly in Steven's hand, as if responding to his touch and his touch alone. He tapped the top of it and a similar screen to the one she saw earlier appeared, search bar and all. Tapping that, a keyboard-esque sequence of numbers appeared, none of which Steven could read. Even though he had seen this coming, he sighed and handed it over to Spinel, who took it gingerly.

"I need you to type a few things in for me." He requested. "Still can't read any of that."

"Okay!" She said enthusiastically, somehow already back to her old self, despite it sounding a little more...forced. "What do you need me to type? Name of the guy we're looking for? The betrayer or something?"

"The Traitor. Although maybe you should add a bit more than that, considering that if you just type in Traitor, you'll probably get a few thousand files about Rose." Steven mumbled. He thought about it for a second before humming. "Okay. Type in "lab". As far as my knowledge goes, the Lab they were made in was the only one on Earth, so anything should immediately go to that."

"Gotcha." Spinel said, and as she began typing it in, Steven looked at her curiously, a question on his mind, one that he wondered why he hadn't thought of before.

"By the way…" He started. "Where did you learn how to read and write...err, type in that old Gem language? Did the Diamonds teach you?"

"No, it was...her." Spinel said. "She wanted me to know it for whatever reason." She chuckled and tapped what was presumably the "search" button. "Guess she was good for one thing, eh?"

"Yeah...totally.." Steven said, and left it at that. He leaned over and looked at the screen, which was now displaying ten linked results. "What do each of these say?"

"Ermmm...we have a blueprint, a list of what Gems were stationed there, a record of construction, a list of successful experiments…" Spinel began listing. "Are any of those useful so far?"

"Two of them, maybe," Steven said. "The one about what personnel were stationed there could be helpful if Yellow doesn't find anything wherever she is, but what we're here for is the successful experiments. Click on that."

Spinel nodded and then tapped the link, and instantly a bright light shone out of the cube and pointed into the darkness at a slightly tilted angle. Steven and Spinel stared at it for a while before the former cracked his knuckles and sighed.

"Guess that's where we're going." He said, before starting forward. "Come on, Spinel. Let's get what we came here for."

"What you came here for really, but okay!" Spinel said cheerfully, leading Steven to believe that one of her traits was getting right back up and being overly happy after a traumatic or otherwise emotional experience. It had practically happened back on Earth, and he had just seen it in action again here. Was that one of her powers due to her being created as a playmate? Being able to become happy no matter what?

For a brief second, Steven wished that he had been born with a Spinels Gem instead of a Diamonds, because that ability would have been really useful in the past few months. But he didn't, and never would, so instead he turned to the Gem who did and tried to spark conversation, not in the mood to walk through the dark in silence again.

"So, Spinel, what else have you been doing while I've been gone?" He asked.

"What?" Spinel asked, before her eyes lit up. "You really want to know? I thought you'd never ask! Whenever I tried to tell you in the past in those screen messages between you and the Diamonds that I interrupted, you always turned it off as quickly as possible! Are you saying you actually want to hear about this?"

"..."

"..."

"...Yes?" Steven said, already having second thoughts.

"HEEEEEEEEE…" Spinel said, her entire body shaking with excitement. "Okay, so when I first got here the Diamonds tried to show me Pink's room, but they didn't go so well when I started trashing the place. So then they took me to the throne room and took me on a tour of the rest of the palaces. It was so fun! I got to see a bunch of Gems that I didn't even know existed, and then I got to play in that big pool of water that Blue has, had a conversation with a sentient comb, and then-"

"Wait, the comb is still there?" Steven asked. "The weird singing comb Blue has in her bath is still there?"

"Yeah. Why?"

"Oh my...I asked her to get rid of that!" Steven exclaimed, before backtracking. "Well, not get rid of it, but like, set it free! That's what we did with everything else like that! The living walls, statues, objects, anything else like that comb were all set free to do whatever! Why does she still have it?"

"Because maybe the comb likes doing that?" Spinel suggested. "If I got to be in Blue's hands all day, treated with as much care as possible, I wouldn't be complaining! They're so soft and big and gentle and...so many other things!"

"...Right," Steven said, now giving Spinel an odd look. "Fine. I'll ask her about it later. If the comb wants to stay, it can stay. I just...want the best life for everyone."

"Oh, Steven, haven't you realized by now that you can't make everyone happy with this whole schtick you've got going on?" Spinel asked, almost in a joking manner.

"What?" Steven asked. "What do you mean by that? And furthermore, and no offense, but what would you know about the Gems that don't like what I'm doing, which is far and few between?"

"Everyone knows!" Spinel said. "I see a new group of protesters right outside the palace every week! Always holding signs that have your face in them, with large red crosses going through it, yelling about how you've made Gemkind and the Diamonds weak, and also complaining that you've taken away the "fun" of colonization!" She sighed. "Same thing every week with those bozos. Eventually, the Diamonds hear the commotion and they have to flee into the parts of Homeworld where no one goes anymore, all the abandoned kindergartens, but they come back eventually! They always do...and totally ruin the mood!"

"There are protesters to my new system on Homeworld? In plain sight?" Steven asked, stunned. "Wow. I was...not expecting that. I thought these guys only worked from the shadows, and even then, they were extremely careful not to make their existence known. For them to be doing this...it's like they're going against every tactic they used before."

"Well, it probably didn't help that their "leaders" have supposedly disappeared…" Spinel mumbled.

"Wait, what?"

"You haven't heard?" Spinel asked, like Steven wasn't hearing about all of this just now. "There are a bunch more rumors sprouting up that the leaders of the little Rebellion against you have vanished into thin air! Poof! Like that!" She exclaimed, out-spreading her arms. "Nobody knows where they've gone, and despite a bunch of Gems trying to find out, they've come up empty. And without them, the C.G.A.S. doesn't have any-"

"The C.G.A.S.?" Steven asked. "That's what they're calling themselves? What does it even stand for?"

"The Collected Gems Against Steven." Spinel said. "Kind of a lame-o name in my opinion, but hey, at least it's short and easy to remember. But like I was saying, they're not much without their leaders. They can't organize properly, they don't know how to steal ships like they used to, in fact, the only thing they seem to be good at is yelling and running. And that's because...that's all I've seen them ever do now."

"I see…" Steven said, wondering how many other things he missed because of his constant shutout from Homeworld business. "Who was their leader? Or leaders?"

"An Emerald." Spinel said, and Steven's anxiety suddenly tripled. "High-ranking, I know. But most Gems with them are high-ranking ones who got all mad that they lost their positions. Power-hungry Gems. Ones that like giving orders. I'm sure you get it."

"Yeah...totally," Steven growled, as several things suddenly fell into place. "You know, Spinel, I don't think we have to worry about trying to find out where the leaders of that rebellion went. I'm already aware of where Emerald is."

"Really? How?" Spinel asked. "Did you use some weird mind-power to snuff her out? Propel your mental form across the galaxy? Or...heeeeeeey…" She said suspiciously, putting a hand to her chin. "If you already knew about Emerald, then how did you now know about the rebellion? Have you just been wasting my time or-"

"She's working with Mirror," Steven said flatly, and Spinel immediately fell silent. "She infiltrated my mind alongside them and she's also partially responsible for getting my friend Connie hurt. The whole "accident" I mentioned. And while I and everyone else have mainly focused on Mirror for the past two weeks, I haven't forgotten about Emerald. My family knows she's working with them, but don't really care because if we find Mirror, we find Emerald anyways."

"..."

"..."

"Huh. That's a lot to take in!" Spinel said, playfully elbowing him. "I guess that explains why she up and vanished! Saw a better opportunity to take revenge on you! I wonder what she's doing now...if she went inside your head, she must have a pretty good relationship with this Mirror, knowwhatimsayin?"

"I don't, actually. And thankfully." Steven replied. "But I have to ask. How long ago did she vanish?"

"A few months." Spinel said. "Which I guess means she's been working with Mirror for that same amount of time. Hmm...oh! I have an idea!" She said joyfully. "Emerald seems to have gotten a job easily enough! What if I try to find Mirror and offer up my services? Then I can infiltrate them from within and take them all out when they least expect it! Like that! She enlarged two of her fingers and snapped them, causing a small shockwave that made Steven cover his ears and some of the cubes nearby to shake. "Pretty good plan, eh? We can take them out and we never have to worry about them every aga-"

"I don't think that's going to work," Steven said. "Mirror almost definitely knows how devoted you are to me. How trusting. If you suddenly show up and pledge your allegiance to them, then they'll know somethings up. And then you'll just get shattered, and I don't want that."

"Really? But how would they even know who I was?" Spinel asked. "I haven't been keeping a low profile, but I haven't been broadcasting my voice across the galaxy either."

Steven gave Spinel a look that let her know exactly what he was asking without even having to open his mouth.

"Okay, fine, maybe I did try to take over that galaxy-messaging thing you've used a few times, but for good reason!" Spinel admitted. "I was going to throw a gigantic party on Homeworld with all the other Spinel's out there, so I wanted them to all gather in the palace! I thought it would be fun…"

"Not sure if you would get that big of an attendance. Before you arrived on Earth, I hadn't even heard of your Gem type…" Steven said, before shaking his head. "But no. Joining Mirror's crew is not a good plan."

"Then what is a good plan?" Spinel asked, once again bouncing up and down with anticipation. "You gonna finds their ship, go in guns blazing, walk out with their head impaled on a spear or something-"

"Wha-NO!" Steven said, horrified by the Gem's suggestion. "I want to stop Mirror, not commit a murder that's on par with horror movies that I'm not even allowed to legally see by myself yet! Where did you get that idea from?"

"I don't know. Just seems fair after everything they've done to you. And sometimes White talks like she wants to do that." Spinel said.

"Hold on, White said that she wants to do that to Mirror?"

"No. She just sounds like she does." Spinel said. "All of the Diamonds do, really."

Steven took a deep breath and looked away. "All the more reason to find Mirror first. Like I told you, I don't want to kill them. I don't think I've ever wanted to kill anybody."

"Nobody?" Spinel gasped, like wishing for the death of another was a common occurrence in her world.

"Yes. Nobody." Steven repeated. "And I've been that way since the day I was born. Sure, maybe once or twice I've wanted to hurt someone...but I can't think of a time where I've yearned to commit murder."

"I'm having trouble believing that. Not even me? On top of that injector? When I was literally destroying your planet?" Spinel asked.

'Why is she so adamant on…?' Steven thought, before sighing. "No, Spinel, I didn't want to kill you then either. I knew what had happened to you. I understood why you were angry. If I had tried to shatter you then, then I would be no better than the person who left you in that Garden for thousands of years."

Spinel gasped, and then all of a sudden she rested her arm back and slapped Steven straight across the cheek. He stopped where he was and stumbled backward, too shocked to react at first, before lifting a hand up to the red mark she had left and staring at Spinel like she was crazy.

"What the-SPINEL!" He shouted, now glaring at her furiously. "That actually really hurt! What the heck is wrong with you-"

"Don't you dare say you're worse than her!" Spinel interjected, making Steven stop short. "Shattering me would not have made you worse than Pink. You're better than her! I'm sure you always have been! And I'm not going to allow you to turn delusional and say that you're not! Snap out of it, Steven!" She then grabbed his shoulders again, and Steven, seeing that she was probably about to start shaking him around like a rag doll for the second time, quickly pushed her away.

"Okay, okay." He said, putting his hands in front of him defensively. "I'm not my mom. I'm better than her. There. Does that make you happy, Spinel?"

"Absolutely. Helps me know that you haven't lost your marbles." Spinel said, before tapping his nose. "Now come on! We're almost to the cube!"

Without waiting for him to respond, Spinel ran off again, forcing Steven to follow her. He shook his head again and again as he tried not to lose sight of her, his cheek still stinging.

"One of these days, Spinel, we really have to get your Pink problems fixed…"

And that day would have to come later, because just as Spinel has claimed, the cube was just nearby. The light settled on one that was flashing a bright pink like a beacon, and instantly Steven knew that they had found it. The pair gingerly approached it and stopped, with Spinel looking at Steven expectantly.

"..."

"..."

"Well, Steven?" She asked. "Aren't cha gonna pop that thing open? Find everything you want to know about this Traitor guy?"

"Yeah, yeah…" Steven said. "It's just that I didn't expect it to be this easy."

"Easy?" Spinel asked. "We've been in here for hours and you call that easy?"

"Well...yeah," Steven said. "All we've been doing is walking in the dark and looking at screens. It's not like this has been hard. Just boring and redundant."

"Huh. Good point." Spinel said. "Ah well, if you won't open it, then I will! It's time we crack this box open! Find out all the secrets that the Lab was hiding!"

Spinel reached for the cube and snatched it up, before tapping the top and opening it. Part of Steven wanted to stop her, but he knew that the files inside were probably filled with that old Gem language, so it would be better if she just read off of it and showed him the pictures when necessary.

"Okay." He said, as Spinel opened the first file. "What do we have?"

"..."

"...Spinel?"

"..."

"Spinel, what are you-"

"I think I understand now what that red stuff leaking out of you was in our fight…" Spinel mumbled, her eyes scanning the screen. Steven's blood immediately went cold, and slowly he looked over and caught a glimpse of what Spinel was seeing.

And if he hadn't already been a vegetarian, then those images certainly would make him one.

He and Spinel exchanged glances, looked at each other, and then back to the screen.

"Okay," Steven repeated.

"I think we should just use the search bar for this one."