Gem Ship Down

' How did we manage this? '

That was the thought of the day. Of all days, this was the one .

He messed with his scabbard a bit. Right next to him was… everyone. Really, everyone. Amethyst, Pink, Garnet, and Pearl. Smack dab in the middle of them was him, and it gave him a nice opening to see all their faces.

Garnet was the easiest one, just her usual straight face. He honestly expected something else given the drastic gap between hers and everyone else's looks. Amethyst had an uncomfortable frown on her face, and he could see a drop of sweat linger on her face before the warp stream stole it.

Pearl had an equally uncomfortable look, but hers had a depth of nervousness and… fear. Steven gave a sympathetic look back, but Pearl didn't return anything. She probably didn't even see him; she seemed to stay in her own head more than actually pay attention.

And then there was Pink.

The diamond was, and trying to find the words for this, scowling? She had an overall annoyed look to her. He knew it was probably because she was practically forced to be next to Pearl. It sucked, but he tried not to be negative and let it show.

Ever since his trip with dad and Garnet, where the fusion split up and Sapphire and Ruby managed to work out their own conflict, he had high hopes for the future. They didn't seem to be so cold anymore, but she still wasn't talking to Pearl. If he pieced it together, he would have assumed the gem was waiting for Pearl to approach her instead. With that, he could understand why she wasn't talking to the pale gem.

Although his thoughts asked why she didn't face it either. Wouldn't it be easier to just approach it directly? What if Pearl just never tried talking to Garnet? Then the feud would really never end.

The warp stream ended, the light disappearing around them. Now, instead of just white, it was a field of dull yellow grass and hard stone. But what caught his attention the most was the amount of debris and… ships around the warp. Some were rounded out and looked like crunched circles, while others had a boxier and less tame look to them. While some looked like they had the beginnings of wings, another wouldn't have any at all. But each one looked equally destroyed, with no saving grace to show they would fly again.

Amethyst had the same thought. "Wow… this place looks wrecked." She commented while putting her hands on her sides.

"Yeah, look at all these things. They look like ships." Steven stepped off first and looked at the looming bits of the wreckage, which gave a strange pattern with the sky. He had to admit, the strange greenish rust that covered the broken ships hanging under the blue sky looked pretty. As if the wreck became its own ground, with flat grass growing across it.

"That's because they are ships," Pink interjected, stopping next to Steven before turning and looking behind them. "This used to be an old base for ships to land at… but it looks like the war caught up with it."

Steven saw her sad look and turned his head, before his jaw hung open at the sight of a large spire standing behind them. It had chunks of rock and decoration hanging out of it, all floating in the air like magic. "Woooah, that looks awesome! Are we gonna go in it?"

"It's not important to us. Our objective is in there." Garnet said as she pointed towards an opening in the wreckage, leading into the maze of crashed ships. Steven gained a look of disappointment, which he wiped off his face to instead seem determined. Which he wasn't really, but he did want to catch Peridot. So maybe he was?

It was hard for him to describe, but he hoped that catching her might serve to help shorten the gap between Garnet and Pearl. He dropped the whole, 'It'll change everything, and things will go back to normal' bit. After his little moment with Amethyst, he realized that it wouldn't accomplish much.

"Garnet, are you sure she'll be in there?" Pink asked as she turned her head to the fusion with a look of uncertainty. A frown crossed over the stoic gem's lips before she fixed her visor over her eyes and nodded.

"Yes, I see very little futures where we don't confront her in some way."

"Then let's g-"

"Then let's catch us a Peridot!" Pearl yelled bombastically as she lifted up her arm and pointed towards literally nothing. She was met with strange looks, and a glare from Pink.

He had to say, the ships were impressive. Some had the general shape of something like a UFO from t.v, while others had the design he would expect from aliens.

It was still hard to think of gems as aliens, but seeing as they had spaceships and technology he would never really expect to see ever, it was sort've glaring at him now. He knew the gems weren't human, ever since he was a child and he hung out with Amethyst, who would shapeshift into different things he commanded her to. Or Pearl when she just… didn't do human things at all besides singing, and crying… singing and crying. Or when he would get hurt and Pink would cry and heal him, or make weird plant creatures to keep him company until…

Yeeeah, he wasn't going past that. But the fact that they were unnatural, in a way, always stuck with him. He chalked it up to magic then, but turns out it was alien magic.

"Yo' Steven, think you'd wanna drive one of these things?" Amethyst asked as she bumped his shoulder with her own. He rubbed it a bit to get rid of the painful sting before nodding.

"Yeah, but these ships look totally destroyed. You have to be a genius to fix one of them." He watched a broken ship's back end split off and fall to the ground, only emphasizing his point more. As he tried to continue on walking, a hand quickly stopped him by the shoulder. He looked away from the broken ship to ask why, but his eyes froze on what was ahead.

A slanted ship rested on the ground while countless pipes and tubes ran into it, looking similar to the ones on the handship, only more… handmade. Pieces of metal and lines ran across the ship's plates, which were unmatching in color. Some of it was green, others were yellow and dark, deep blue. It was easy to tell which parts were from another ship, and the original.

"She's fixed a ship?" Pearl gasped as her mouth parted open in shock. Pink's did the same, except she was quicker to fall into a glare before going behind a nearby wreck and groaning. She grabbed the bridge of her nose and said, "Now we'll have to deal with that . How did she even get… oh yeah ."

"I think fixed is kind of a strong word. It doesn't even look like it can get off the ground." Amethyst said as she stared at the ship unimpressed. A panel slowly peeled off the ship's side before landing on the grass beneath, sending a loud bang throughout the clearing.

"It still stands that she has a spaceship at her disposal. And if that thing is running, then we need to deal with it as fast as possible." Garnet declared, crossing her arms and frowning deeply. Pearl, riddled with a faux confidence, smiled.

"Right! And I know that if-"

Clank clank clank clank!

Everyone paused as they heard a set of continuous clanking noises originate from the ship. Peeking over the edge of their hiding spot, they saw Peridot walk out and see the panel before she promptly shouted, "Can't anything on this chunk of rock work for once!?"

She strode over and kicked it, causing a dent in her… in her leg? Steven's eyes focused on her damaged left foot, raising his eyebrows. Peridot looked down and used her strange fingers to lift up her foot to inspect it. All five watched as the largest tantrum four of them had ever seen played out. Peridot began yelling random absurdities and things Steven didn't understand. Even so, Pearl covered his ears on some parts, which he suspected meant more than just ranting. Eventually Peridot's yelling turned into useless screaming again, and Pearl let Steven go.

She smirked right after, her face giddy. "Look at her, she's got the temper of an infant! Oh, this'll be so much easier than I anticipated."

"We shouldn't let that make us cocky. She's still dangerous." Pink commented, side-eyeing Pearl with a heavy gaze. Just as Pearl was about to say something, Pink cut her off. "Let's head this way, we need to find another entrance."

"Are we going in it? I call driving it!" Steven asked, his eyes lighting up slightly.

"And I call shotgun-"

"No, we are not driving it. We need to deal with it before Peridot can get it working. And if it already does work, then we need to destroy it as soon as possible." Pink explained, looking over the edge as she talked to see if Peridot had moved. "She isn't moving at all, we'll have to find another way in."

"Yes, and who knows what defenses she has. If we try to approach, we could very well shatter." Pearl said, keeping her voice low yet unable to stop the height of her pitch.

Amethyst crossed her arms behind her head. "Then let's get movin', I'm tired of hearing her scream." She remarked.

No one responded, instead moving around the wreck to get a better angle on Peridot's ship. After a short walk around, they found the other end and saw the grounded side of her ship resting in the dirt. The side of it rose out and leaned up in the air, giving them an idea of where they were from Peridot.

"Garnet, do you see us finding an opening on this side?" Pink asked the stoic gem while looking over her shoulder.

"Only if we make our own. It seems there's only one entrance to the ship." Garnet pointed to a point on the ship, halfway above the ground and sticking into it. "I see that point right there will get us into the ship the fastest."

"But how? We can't be loud or we'll get caught by Peridot. But we don't have anything quiet enough to break through the ship's outside."

"We can use my spear?" Pearl spoke up, looking a little unsure. Both Garnet and Pink looked at her with frowns, causing the pale gem to gulp and continue. "I can make an energy blast on the end of my spear, and we can use it to cut through the ship's hull. As long as I keep it steady, it should go straight through."

Pink glanced at Garnet before letting out an annoyed sigh, "Will that work?"

"I see it working." Garnet shrugged at Pink's deadpan, before the pink gem turned back to Pearl and nodded her head grudgingly. She didn't share any words with the pale gem afterwards, her nod being enough to make Pearl kneel down and sneak towards the ship.

Once she was close enough, she summoned her spear and paused, closed her eyes, and opened them back up to find the tip of her spear burning white. It wasn't enough to make an arrow or charged bolt, but it still coursed with an intense energy. Slowly, she lifted it up to the hull and stabbed into the metal. It went smoothly, easily burning through the grey-ish green material. But it abruptly hissed and let off steam, making her pause.

She turned her head at lightning speed back at the others, who were looking out for Peridot and waving their arms frantically. Pearl whisper-shouted, "I know!"

She watched them sneak over before Pink bit her lip and placed a hand near the wall of the ship. "Oh, of course it was gonna make noise! If we do it now, we can get caught!"

"But how else will we get in?" Pearl asked, looking at the diamond in confusion. "This is our only way in… how could we-"

"Shields."

Pearl faltered, "W-wah? But that'll-"

"No, I can create shields around it. I don't know if they can really do this, but it might cancel the noise." Pink said as she created a small construct in her hands, barely the size of her palm. She glanced at Pearl before putting it near where she had started cutting. Then, more shields appeared in a hexagon, surrounding it completely. Pearl hesitated before putting her spear between them and, after more shields appeared around her spear, she continued.

It worked… partially. When Pearl tried to put more force into her cut, it would let out a low hissing again, but it was significantly quieter. Through anxiousness and worry, they managed to cut a well-sized hole into the ship. As soon as the plate came free, Garnet caught it with her hands before it could fall and placed it on the ground carefully.

"I call dibs on going in." Amethyst said as soon as they were out of the way, grabbing onto the edges of the hole. She slid through and landed in a barely lit hallway, with flickering lights that gave it the look of some kind of horror movie set-up. But the weird thing she noticed was the fact that, looking up at the others, she saw that she was technically standing sideways.

"Woah… hold up, what?" She asked nothing as she looked up, then down at herself. Steven went down next, and after glancing up, noticed the same thing.

"We're… sideways? How?" He looked at his hands before Pearl, Garnet, and Pink came down and landed next to him.

Pearl noticed the twos confusion and raised a finger, "The core of the ship is creating a gravity vortex, so we can stand at angles like this without toppling over."

"So that means she does have it working. We can't waste time anymore, come on." Pink walked away from them with her hands closed into fists. Garnet and Amethyst followed behind, while Steven and Pearl took a moment to start moving. Steven, after his awe of the gravity thing died down, looked up at Pearl and saw her downcast expression.

He wanted to say anything to cheer her up, but he found he couldn't form words. Honestly, what could he say that he already hasn't?

So, he turned his attention back to the other gems walking down the decayed, cracked hallway. The walls were partially covered in grass and vines, while some sections looked like they had been cleaned or attempted to be cleaned. It was made apparent from the broken vines resting on the ground, stacked into a pile.

Eventually, not even a few seconds afterwards, they passed a large door with a broken holoscreen in the shape of a hand. It fizzled in and out of existence, and looked not too different from something that could be from the handship a few months back. He gave it a quick glance before continuing, trying to see if he could spot anything ahead.

But one gem didn't continue. And he turned his head to see Pink looking startled, and holding a hand to her forehead. She slowly turned her head back to the door before taking small steps towards it.

Steven kept his eyes on her, watching as she placed a hand on the door. He barely noticed Amethyst stop next to him and cross her arms.

"Yo' PD, you good?" She asked, eyes locked onto the diamond as she leaned closer before letting out a surprised gasp. Pearl and Garnet, who had stopped a few feet away from the other two, came closer at Pink's disturbed look.

Pink stepped back as she said, "Someone's in there." Under her breath, holding a hand up near her chest. Pearl's, Steven's, and Amethyst's eyes widened in shock as the Pearl stuttered, "W-what? But… what if it's Peridot?"

She quickly walked over and summoned a spear, but Pink tried to stop her by grabbing her shoulder. "Wait! It… it didn't feel like it."

"What do you mean, 'Didn't feel like it'? That could be Peridot! We need to be cautious." Pearl took her hand off and pressed down on the holoscreen, and raised a brow when nothing happened. But when she opened her mouth to comment, the doors slowly slid apart and revealed a pitch-black room. Confusion ran through both the gems until a dull light turned on above and revealed the person inside.

Steven looked over Pearl's side and promptly felt himself freeze. Lapis was leaning against the opposite wall with her hands wrapped around her stomach. She looked up at them after a few seconds, her eyes dead to the world. But, upon seeing exactly who was standing at the doorway, a light dully glowed behind them.

Steven stepped in closer before Pink gasped, "It's… you." Her face fell to a grimace, but she didn't say anything else and chose to watch Steven approach the blue gem. Lapis stared at him for a second before whisper-shouting, "Stop!"

Her voice sounded rough, unused, like it had been put on the line over and over again. Steven stopped and asked, "Lapis are you-"

"Please, you need to leave! It isn't safe here, none of you are." Her voice lowered as she cowered and hugged herself. She still kept an eye on the three, which fell to the ground after she got no response.

Pink turned her head to Garnet and Amethyst and said, "Go look up ahead for anything, Peridot could've heard us enter."

Amethyst gave a lazy thumbs up and followed Garnet down the hall.

Steven, meanwhile, held onto his scabbard as he asked, "Lapis, why are you here? Why aren't you at Homeworld?" His eyes shot around the room before he asked again, "Are… you trapped here?"

"Leave me alone." Lapis muttered coldly, turning her head away from him.

"We can't do that."

The blue gem turned her head to Pink, meeting the diamond's glower. Pink continued, "You told Peridot and Jasper our location. I was foolish to make such a childish promise, and you made me see that." She took a step forward, her gloves making a short whine as they squeezed into fists.

Lapis glared at her before her form tightened, "W-what are you going to do? Shatter me, Diamond ?" She spat harshly, leaning over and holding herself up with one hand.

Pink stared wordless, until she let out a quiet sigh and said, "I won't shatter; I never have before. But that doesn't mean I don't trust you in the slightest. And if you try and harm us, I won't hesitate to poof you," Pink warned, before stepping to the side. "And... I won't stop you from leaving, and if you want to go to Homeworld, then... go."

Lapis' eyes widened from surprise, and her brow lifted up an inch. Steven looked between them before she pushed herself up and held onto the wall with her palm for support. As soon as he noticed her struggling form, he moved in to help her, but the blue gem moved away, sending him a weak warning glance. One that he got the message of, and stopped in his tracks as a result.

When Lapis was able to stand up fully, she walked towards the door with careful steps. But once she made it to Pink, she stopped and stared at the diamond with an emotionless expression. No words left the two's mouths before she moved on and, for the first time, left the room. She breathed in deeply, taking in her short-lived freedom.

Her wings shot out from her gem, looking more jagged and thinner than the last time she used them. She gave them an experimental flap before Steven's voice came up from the side.

"The exits that way… are you gonna be okay?" The boy asked, his fingers fidgeting with each other.

"I will." Was all Lapis said as she turned her head down to him. Steven paused, trying to comprehend such a short response.

"We… never really get to see each other." Steven muttered after struggling to find the right words. Lapis hummed lowly before heading down the hall, leaving Steven to sit in his own silence. His eyes stayed at the back of her head, until he lowered them to the floor and frowned.

A hand gently rested on top of his head and he glanced over at Pink. She sent him a sympathetic look before turning back to the others and saying something he didn't care to hear. Well after Lapis disappeared from view, Steven let out a depressed sigh and copied Pink, turning to the gems and continuing the mission. Which was, to no surprise, traversing the aged ship and looking for Peridot or the core.

The wallways were short at some points, and long in others. It never seemed to end, and he wondered if there were entire sections of the ship they didn't actually see. But the ship was pretty big anyway, but... he didn't thi-

Dnng, dnng, dnng, dnng!

He stopped in his tracks along with the gems as every door around them slammed shut. They were quick in summoning their weapons, facing every which way to find any attackers. A holoscreen flashed into existence against the wall and produced a glitched cackle.

"Nyeh, heh, heh! You finally found me, you lumpy, clumpy clods," Smirking like an excited child was Peridot, "Did you really think I didn't know you were here after… wait, no!" She cried out before a large pink construct smashed into the screen and wall, breaking it down and revealing another hallway behind it. Everyone turned their heads to Pink as the gem shrugged with a frown, "No point in staying stealthy anymore."

"She was giving a villain monologue. You aren't supposed to interrupt them." Steven pointed out, and he earned a deadpan from Pink, Amethyst, and Pearl respectively. Opting to ignore their looks, he pulled out his sword and followed them as they went through the newly created opening. Walking out into the new hall, another holoscreen appeared and showed Peridot angrily gritting her teeth.

"Don't do that! Do you have any idea how long it took me to fix this hunk of dirt?!" Her eyes narrowed as she stared directly at Pink. "I don't know how you did that, but you're going to feel my unbridled rage!"

Pink's lips turned down into a scowl as she said, "Peridot, this is your first warning. Surrender to us and show yourself befo-"

"What?! I can't… nyeh! Hold on, these comms are gunked up," Peridot looked down at something off screen as she said, "Wait just a moment." A clicking noise came from the wall next to the screen, and they watched a diamond-shaped drone pop out. A long wire held it to the wall as it looked at them and gained four spikes on its sides. Peridot abruptly yelled, "Die! Die! Die! Die!" As the diamond shot red lasers at the five.

Pink summoned a shield in time to block two lasers, making them disappear into tiny pink lightning bolts. Steven summoned his own to block one, and ended up deflecting right back to the diamond, making it explode.

Peridot's eyes flew open into saucers before she screamed, "Why won't you give up!?" And disappeared again. Amethyst growled before slamming her fist into her palm.

"Alright, I'm turning her into a green pancake!" She declared as Pink stepped up and looked over her shoulder at them.

"We need to find the core as soon as possible. Come on!"

They were on the move again, and Steven had to push himself a little to keep up with the large sword he was lugging around. It actually wasn't that heavy, and he choked it up to that only because he had the gem of a quartz. Apparently, that meant he was a soldier or something, so yeah, strong.

Turning down the hall, they were left in another room with vine covered walls. They heard a cackling, mocking laugh from the right, and they all saw Peridot with her arms crossed. She stood defiantly in the middle of another room, and-

"Peridot!" Pearl cried before charging straight at the green gem.

"Pearl, no!" Garnet called after her, but the pale gem didn't listen. Spear raised over her head, Pearl jumped at Peridot and slashed straight down on her. The white-blue tinted spear flew... Straight through Peridot, who glitched and reformed in a swirl of holographic coding. Pearl growled and let out a yell before cutting straight through her again. Her swings became more desperate and her voice grew more hoarse and she let out animalistic, wild grunt and cries.

Steven and the gems watched with disturbed looks at Pearl's breakdown, and everyone besides Garnet froze in place at the… viciousness of her attack. Even Amethyst, who was winded up in taking down Peridot, stood in place.

"Pearl, it's an illusion!" Garnet said as she stepped towards the pale gem. Pearl didn't listen, slashing at the hologram two more times before Garnet continued, "This isn't helping, you need to stop."

"I need to do something! I can't just be useless! How can I when everything's my fault?!" She screamed as her grip on her spear increased tenfold and left tiny fractures running up from where her hands choked the handle. Garnet stopped dead in her approach, her mouth falling slightly before she closed it back up.

Pearl's shoulders sagged as she leaned against her spear and muttered weakly, "I'm sorry."

As Garnet opened her mouth to speak, the openings around them closed shut and the walls made a horrible cranking sound before moving. Each wall took a turn closing in on its target.

"We're gettin' crushed!" Amethyst cried as she looked around in a panic.

"W-what?!" Steven yelled with horrified eyes, before cowering at the looming walls slowly but surely coming after them. Like the flip of a switch, they all began attacking and trying to stop the walls as fast as they could. Pearl and Amethyst were cutting at the stone-like squares of death with all their might. Steven eventually joined them, striking it with his sword. It didn't work at all, but it was an effort.

Pink threw up her shields to try and stop the walls from moving, but struggled after the force began cracking them. She released them when her gem began feeling a strong pull into itself.

Pearl screamed everyone's thoughts after giving up her attacks. "Augh! Nothing's working!"

"The ceiling!"

Garnet yelled, making them turn their attention to her. She craned her neck back before aiming her gauntlets up and clacking them together. "Move back!" She commanded, and Steven jumped away as quick as he could, being the one closest to her. After he landed a few feet away, her gauntlets shot straight from her hands and exploded the ceiling. Rocks and metal chunks flew up and down, landing on the gems in the aftermath.

Steven coughed from the dust before a hand grabbed him by the back of his shirt. He got pulled up and eventually felt arms wrap around him before they jumped out of the hole. Looking up, he saw that Pink was the one that grabbed him.

She turned her hold on him into a hug before she asked, "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine." Steven replied quickly, waiting for her to set him down so he could get his… wait. "Where's my sword?!" He asked frantically, and Pink let him go when he began trying to escape her grasp. His head whipped left before he looked down into the hole they just left. As he bent his head down and Pink tried stopping him from falling in, Pearl flew up right in front of him and gracefully landed on her feet. In her arms was the large iconic pink sword.

"Steven, keep better care of legendary swords for now on." She said exasperatedly as she handed the blade back to the boy, who took it as soon as it was in reach and hugged it.

"Oh, I'm sorry Swordy! I thought I lost you!" He rubbed his cheek against the width of the blade. Pearl watched him with an awkward look, sweat rolling off her cheek at the strange sight.

Amethyst was the last one up, grabbing onto the edge of the hole and pulling herself up with a huff. "Thanks for the help guys." She said with a disappointed frown.

"Sorry, I couldn't see you in-"

" Why won't anything work?!"

Everyone paused as the scream echoed from down the hall.

"Why won't anything work?!"

Peridot shouted as she smashed a button over and over with her finger. She gave up after the fiftieth time and let out an annoyed yell.

Her shout fest was interrupted by the wall behind her exploding open. Whipping her head around, she barely had time to jump out of the way of a pink hexagonal shield crashing straight into her control panel.

She looked up at the sparking equipment and crushed panel in horror. "My ship!"

"You have nowhere to run Peridot! Surrender now!" Her head turned to the pink, mysterious gem as a scowl traced her lips.

"Yeah! We're gonna get you!" The short one said next to her while sticking out their tongue. Her arms shook with angry tremors as she stood up and glared harshly.

"Y-you think this is the end?! This is only the beginning!" She aimed her arm at them before her fingers created a circle and began spinning rapidly. A ball of greenish yellow energy slowly grew from the fingers before shooting towards the gems.

The pink one easily blocked it with her shield, protecting the others. It didn't even faze the gem, who glowered and summoned a sword in their left hand.

A squeak escaped her lips before she turned and ran as fast as her legs would take her to the far door to the left. She sucked in air rapidly as she heard them move, until a shark object hit her in the foot. Her body tumbled forward and she quickly scrambled up like a cat. Sweat ran down her forehead and gem, her form uncomfortable from the slickness.

She clicked her arm and quickly aimed it behind at the enemies giving chase. Four extensions rose out from the sides of her arm and shot out. They clinked onto the ground, and formed a large rectangular shield, blocking their chase. With their time gap closing, the pink gem tried using her strange constructs to block the door. Peridot, however, was already through by the time the shields blocked it.

"She's getting away!" Garnet yelled as Peridot disappeared through the door. The barrier she had put up disappeared and left the small canister-like objects to fall on the floor. Soon the chase led outside, and also came to an end, seemingly. The green gem was nowhere to be found, and all they could hear was the breeze whistling by and a low chopping noise. They looked around for the source of the weird noise, until Steven looked up and pointed, "Look!"

Way above them, Peridot hovered in the air as her levitating fingers whirled above her. She had her knees up to her chest as she glared, "I-I'll get you clods one day! I'll have you shattered!" Her voice cracked as she began flying away.

"Good luck shattering a diamond!" Pink yelled back with a raise of her fist and a stretched sneer, which looked more like a smile as it ran down her lips.

Peridot's eyes widened in horror as her eyes flicked all over Pink. " D-diamond? " Her miniature helicopter fingers took her away farther and farther in the distance. As her figure disappeared in the distance, everyone stood silent in contemplation. It was broken when Steven rested his sword over his shoulder and said, "I guess she can fly now."

"That was certainly unexpected." Garnet replied, fixing her visor while placing a hand on his head.

"So… would that mean making her into a flying green pancake, or is that just me?" Amethyst asked jokingly while placing her hands on her hips. She let out a chuckle, and Steven joined her right after with a giggle.

It was short-lived when Pink turned around and said, "come on, we still need to deal with the ship." And walked past, all the while frowning deeply. Steven, Garnet, and Amethyst followed, ready to get the mission done. But he soon realized that only Pearl stayed behind to watch the sunset.

'How did we manage this?'

That was thought number one as Steven leaned his head on his hand and watched the gems talk downstairs. Well, three of the gems. Pearl was sitting on a stool while talking about some random topic, probably about history or some fact no one else knew. Amethyst was laying on the counter nearby, a hand resting on her knee as she listened. And Garnet had her arms crossed while leaning against a wooden beam between two of the counters, her attention directed to the pale gem.

Somehow, in some way, the two had finally made up for the incident, which he sort've wished he saw for himself. But they did it privately, and he couldn't fault them for it.

As he was deep in his thoughts, the front door opened and caught his attention. Looking over, his eyebrow raised a little by the sight of Pink standing in the doorway, an uncertain look on her face. The gems looked over too, and Pearl's brow knitted together when Pink coughed into her hand and said, "Pearl… could I talk to you? In private?"

The pale gem stood up and dusted her sleeve off, "Of c-course. Um, excuse me." She said to the other two waiting in the kitchen. Garnet gave a thumbs up, but her gaze was set on the diamond. Pink seemed to notice it, awkwardly glancing at the silent gem before walking outside with Pearl in tow.

"So… what is it?" Pearl started, putting her hands together and giving an uneasy grin. Pink didn't respond and walked to the stairs instead, stopping right at the first step. The tall gem sent a look over her shoulder.

"I'm still frustrated by what you did, Pearl," She looked over at the skinny gem while her eyes hardened a bit. When Pearl didn't respond and instead hugged her chest, Pink walked down the stairs. "Come on, let's talk down here."

Pearl reluctantly agreed, nodding her head as her eyes fell. As she followed behind, her gem felt heavier on her forehead. She was still wracked with guilt, and she knew it was about to explode if she stayed. But she had to deal with this.

Their walk ended near the edge of the beach, leaving them surrounded by the twinkles of sand and the ocean straight ahead. Pink stopped and turned towards Pearl. "I… wanna know why you did it. Why would you use her like that?"

Pearl sucked in a hiss of breath and said, "I don't have an excuse for what I did. I've already talked to Garnet abo-"

"I know that already. But… why?! Why do it in the first place? Were you trying to use her for your own pleasure or something?!" Pink began pacing as she held her hands up to her head, grabbing onto her hair. Pearl gasped in horror before shaking her head.

"No, no! It wasn't that… I wanted to feel… confident, and secure. I know it was horrible to do, but I… wanted to know what it felt like."

"So you think you can just insert yourself in Ruby and Sapphire's relationship?! You know what they have is special!"

"I know! And I'm sorry for doing what I d-did," Pearl bit down on her lip as she looked away ashamed and hugged herself. "I-I'm just a pearl, all I know how to do is follow orders… I wanted to feel useful for once."

Pink slowed her pacing as she gritted her teeth and sighed. Her entire face screamed conflicted. "Pearl… how long have you felt like that?"

"It's… I don't know." Pearl's shoulders sagged at the question. "I'm sorry, for all of this."

Looking over the black waves in front of them, Pink's face softened and her eyes fell to the sand. "I can't fault you for your emotions, but you shouldn't have let them make you do something so awful. If you don't, you'll become a monster ."

Her words caught Pearl's attention, simply from how intense the final words were. She'll become a monster ? The idea was completely ludicrous! But… it wasn't.

"I won't… I'll stay strong." She said while narrowing her eyes, which seemed weak and less focused. Her response made Pink grin and soften, but it fell right after. A sad glint hid behind her eyes, going unseen by Pearl. But the skinny gem did notice the veil of depression that sat on Pink;s face when she walked past her.

"Hey… do you wanna walk with me?"

"W-what?" Pearl looked taken aback a bit, but her surprised look disappeared when Pink shot her a small grin over her shoulder. She nodded right after, unable to hide the smile growing on her face.

"Let's."