The first planet that Sylver found was really quite lovely, with rolling hills blanketed in gently swaying grass and a stream meandering through. And where they touched down, it just so happened to be the beginning of a dual sunset. Cradling Emerald's gem in their hands, they simply stood and enjoyed the view, breathing contently.

It wasn't long before the gem started to glow and float up out of their grip. Letting it go, they watched the pure white light take the shape of Emerald's body. When it dimmed, they got a short glimpse of her slightly altered outfit—which, oddly enough, now featured a star similar to the one on Wander's hat—before she fell prone onto the grass.

Emerald's spiky hair rose as she looked up at them, her expression merely confused after assessing their features. "Uh . . ." was the only noise she made.

Quickly, light overtook them next, and they split back into Sylvia and Wander, the latter waving rapidly. "Hiiii, Emerald!" he said.

Emerald's face contorted readily. "You . . ." she growled. Looking between the two of them, her fury mixed with incredulity. "You fused with . . ." Apparently unable to finish the sentence, she set her forehead on the ground and clenched one hand into a fist. "I know you're trying to hurt me," she grumbled, "but that . . ."

"I don't wanna hurt you," Wander replied, his body hanging sullenly as he stared down at her.

"Then why do you?" she rebutted.

Wander sighed and closed his eyes briefly. When he opened them, he said, managing an upbeat tone, "Emerald, you're one o' the best spaceship captains the Diamonds have." He raised an eyebrow at her pointedly. "But y'ever notice how, even with all that, you make one teensie mistake—" he pinched his fingers together demonstratively— "and your gem's on the line?"

Looking up at him with her own eyebrow raised, Emerald said dismissively, "So what?"

"That's not how it should be!" Wander answered, throwing his arms forward. "It's—mean!"

Emerald scoffed at this. "You think the Diamonds care about your feelings?"

Wander's eyelids lowered, doing a good impression of Sylvia when she wasn't buying a con. "Emerald, I'm a Spinel," he said, putting one hand over his chest where his gem was concealed. "My job is to make you feel happy. You think the Diamonds woulda made me if they didn't think feelings matter?"

This clearly got through to Emerald, as for a moment her one actual eye widened and she looked like a helpless puppy. But shortly her anger returned, and she repeated, "Then why are you making me feel so . . . bad?"

Sylvia, who had her arms folded, responded to that by drooping them with a frustrated "Ugh," sagging backward as she did, before glaring down at Emerald and saying, "You're just like Hater. Why don't you get it? Wander is tryin' to help you. The problem's not him, it's you." She pointed at the green Gem for effect. Wander, however, placed his hands lightly on top of Sylvia's.

"Gently, Syl," he advised.

Seeing this, Emerald slammed both of her fists onto the ground. "How could you choose her over me?" she seethed. "I'm an Emerald! She's not even a Pearl!"

Holding his position, Wander explained with a smile, "Sylvia and me aren't best friends 'cause the Diamonds told us to be." He rolled his eyes at the very idea. "We're best friends 'cause we actually like each other." At that Sylvia offered her other hand to him, which he gladly added to the pile. "We help each other 'cause we care about each other, not because we'll get in trouble if we don't." The hands split apart so that Wander could reach for his chest, displaying his gem. "True friendship comes from the heart," he said. "Not from an order."

Seeing this, Emerald's eye welled up. Scrunching up her face in an attempt to stop the tears from falling, she protested, "But you're supposed to be my best friend."

With a chuckle in his voice, a sidelong glance at Sylvia, and a flourish of his hand, Wander said, "That's what's so great about not followin' orders." And then, the light of both suns forming a spectacular multicolored halo around him and Sylvia, he held his hand down to Emerald. "I can do both."

Emerald could do nothing but gape. After several seconds of doing so, Sylvia began to talk, and Emerald looked up at her, for once without venom.

"Wander's been helpin' everyone in the galaxy, and I've been helpin' him help them." Her Zbornak face went from smug to soft. "Why don'tcha forget about those Diamond jerks—and try helpin' us?"

And she offered her hand as well.

If Emerald had recovered from her prior shock, this regenerated it. The two hands before her were patient, not rushing her. Awaiting her decision, encouraging but respectful of her autonomy. Eventually, however, the only decision she could come to was to spew out a flabbergasted, "Why?"

Wander's gaze got even warmer, and he answered, "Never hurts to help."

It took some more waiting, but finally Emerald reached one of her hands up and took Wander's, and then gave the other to Sylvia. Together, they helped her to her feet. Wander even brushed the dust off of her, before she could do it herself.

Still at an utter loss for what to do, Emerald's eye bounced between the two of them uncertainly, and she brought her hands up and fiddled with them. She opened her mouth to speak, but didn't know what to say, so closed it again.

"Aww," said Wander. "C'mere, old best friend!" His arms whipped out, Spinel-like, and wrapped around her, pulling her into a hug. Uncomfortable at first, Emerald shortly broke into tears again, and hugged him back.

Standing next to them, Sylvia remarked, "Well, that was easier than I thought."

Wander responded by disentangling one of his arms to throw around Sylvia, pulling her into the hug as well. "C'mere, new best friend!" he said.

The second sun finished slipping below the horizon before the embrace ended, leaving the three of them in the beginnings of twilight.

When they separated, Wander took off his hat, looked down at it as he held it over his chest, and said, "I'm sorry I ran away. That was selfish of me."

Emerald wiped the last tear from her eye and, slowly plodding through her own thoughts, replied, "Well . . . I suppose . . . when I . . . yelled at you . . . all those times . . . that—must have made you feel . . . bad." She had taken to flipping her hands randomly at each bit; Sylvia, eying her, nodded in approval, but held up her own palm and made a 'come here' gesture, bidding her continue. With apparent difficulty, she said, "And—if I don't like feeling bad . . . then . . . you—probably—don't—either?"

Sylvia gave her a thumbs-up, while Wander simply beamed with pride. Emerald herself, after a moment, dropped her hands and stared wide-eyed at nothing, stating bluntly, "Well when you put it like that it seems so obvious."

"I KNOW, RIGHT?!" Wander exclaimed jubilantly.

Emerald rubbed her chin. "But that still doesn't change the fact that if the Diamonds find out what we've done—" Suddenly her eye bulged to the distant sound of breaking glass, and she clapped both hands to her temples and screamed, "I threw a Sapphire into space!"

"You did?" asked Wander, touching his own chin calmly. "We should prob'ly go help 'er."

Throwing her arms up, Emerald said, "But it's in the middle of an active warzone!"

"Yeah . . ." said Sylvia, scratching her belly. "We kinda throw ourselves into those a lot. You'll get used to it." Then, with a laugh, she gave Emerald a playful slug on the arm and said, "This is great!" She pulled Emerald's head down and gave her a noogie. "I'm not the newbie anymore!"

Emerald looked ready to retaliate lethally, but being now at eye level with Wander, she saw him use his fingers to trace out his own smile, and her expression turned to one of resignation.

"What did I get myself into?" she muttered.

Pure blackness encroached but for a star-shaped hole of visibility that shrank until it displayed only Emerald's face. Then, to the sound of a banjo chord, it popped into a few smaller, pure white stars, which fell offscreen, leaving only black.

Albeit depicted merely in storyboard sketches, in the skies of Homeworld, an Orbble descended with the speed of a meteor, followed by the Destiny Destroyer—and the Irken armada. Aboard the Massive, the Tallest sobbed uncontrollably, hugging each other and babbling about friendship. Inside the Orbble was Emerald, riding on the back of Sylver, brandishing her gun.

"Alright, Diamonds!" she cried. "We need to talk!"

Before much else could happen, however, Sylver skidded to a halt in midair, and the two of them stared down at the scene below. The Diamonds' four-colored giant robot stood in the square, not far from where its white head and torso were normally seated as an effective castle, but its blue and yellow arms both had their hands severed, and smoke was leaking from many different spots all over its body. Gems of all kinds were crowded around its pink feet, looking up in awe and confusion, and ships of different models were beginning to converge near the head. Most oddly of all, there was a pink tint to the robot's cheeks, almost as though it were blushing.

Sylver raised two of their four eyebrows. "Whoa. What happened here?"

Grate Oracle Lewot 2021