So after all that chaos, how will both sides of our conflict move on?

It was another sunny day in Delmarva, but the Crystal Gems had nothing to celebrate. All of them were currently outside on the beach waiting for Pearl to check on Steven for the fifth time that day. Ever since they returned from the episode at the Kindergarten three days ago, the boy refused to leave his bed. It was only because the others religiously checked on him that they were sure he was still regularly eating and drinking.

The slender gem emerged from the house to the expectant faces of the others. "He ate his lunch, but he still won't say anything. Plus, he needs more tissues."

"Seriously?" gawked Peridot, "He's already gone through three boxes! Has he stopped crying at any point since yesterday?"

"Well, we know he was asleep, so there's that…" thought Lapis.

"Actually, he woke up at least three times last night," rebutted Pearl, "It looks like he's having nightmares after all of this."

"Geez, can't we find a way to cheer him up already?" grumbled Cinnabar, "I've never seen him so…"

"Traumatized," finished Adamite, "And no, at this point he's so psychologically damaged that he needs time to come to grips with his situation. Trying to force optimism from him would just isolate him further and stagnate any progress."

"I just can't believe any of it," remarked Rutile's left head.

"He's usually so gentle and kind, but now…" sulked the right head.

"Garnet, you got anything?" asked Bismuth, desperately looking for any bright spot in this situation.

"He'll get better eventually, but Adamite's right that he needs time. What's bothering him more than anything isn't just Jasper, but the lengths he went to. Being violent and manipulative are so unlike him that it's ripping him apart."

"Well, while we're on the subject of what to do," said Peridot, "We need materials to repair the warp pad protector. I couldn't salvage anything after Jasper fried it and someone else smashed through it…"

Bismuth giggled nervously at that last statement before hanging her head in shame. Garnet, however, placed a comforting hand on her shoulder.

"I'll get to looking for more places you can scavenge Homeworld tech for. In the meantime, we have plenty of issues here. We still need to be on alert since the Diamonds are not going to be happy."

"So that means more patrols?" asked Rhodonite.

"Right, and also more training for you courtesy of Pearl."

"I might as well…" sighed the motherly gem, "One of my students is in the hospital, potentially paralyzed, and the other one is emotionally broken."

"Wait, paralyzed?!" shouted Amethyst.

"I got a call from her mother a few hours ago. Jasper essentially tried to break her spine and now she has severe damage to her nervous system and right now she's in a coma. Best case scenario, she'll be in a wheelchair for the rest of her life after extensive surgery. Worst case scenario…She'll never wake up."

Topaz literally flopped onto the sand on her back, too frustrated to even bother standing up. "Why does Homeworld keep doing this?! Why do they need to destroy everything?!"

"Trust me, Rose felt the same way," said Pearl, "There's no point driving yourself insane trying to deduce their reasoning."

"That does remind me, Topaz," spoke Garnet, "There's one thing I need you to do today."

"What? Run maintenance on the Sun Incinerator?

"Well, that would be a good idea, but that's not what I meant. You need to visit Steven in his room."

The yellow fusion stood up and crossed her arms, clearly nervous about the prospect.

"You are the only gem here who hasn't been by to see him. I get that you were frightened when he attacked you, but you need to know he's not like that anymore."

"And hopefully won't be like that ever again…" muttered the captain bitterly, only to find Fluorite looking right at her.

"He's scared too…" said the massive maternal figure, "Just like you…"

Topaz could not deny that her ship's engineer had a point. She reluctantly trudged up towards the porch, only to be surprised to see Padparadscha walking with her.

"Topaz will go see Steven in his room! I will accompany her," was all the tiny sapphire said, but Topaz appreciated the gesture. Perhaps having the optimistic little psychic by her side would make the trip easier.

The duo walked inside, climbed up the stairs and found Steven in exactly the same place he has been for the past three days. Aside from bathroom breaks and needing to satisfy the very brief twinges of hunger or thirst, the boy spent all his time under his own bedsheets alternating between bouts of self-loathing and wallowing in grief when he was not struggling to sleep through frequent nightmares.

Topaz had to admit the contrast between the cruel crystalline fighter who leveled an energy bow at her, and this was like night and day, but even now she felt her throat seize up. Fear gripped her mind and made her legs itch to run back downstairs, but Padparadscha refused to give up. She actually pushed on her back and insisted she go forward.

"S-Steven?" stuttered the fusion. She only got a slight rustling of the covers for an answer.

"Steven…I…Don't really know what to make of all this. None of us do…But…"

"Topaz will try to express herself, but fail," announced the sapphire, much to her captain's embarrassment.

"Ugh…What I mean is…We all want you to know…"

"Topaz will stall for time but will just sound awkward."

The fusion glared at her and tried to keep talking. "Steven…We all want what's best for you and…"

"Steven will ignore everything Captain Topaz is saying."

"AAAAH! What are you doing?! Why are you making this so hard?!"

"Because you need to stop dancing around the problem and face it."

Topaz's jaw dropped and even Steven, still stuck in a depressed haze, looked surprised.

"You can talk normally?" asked the boy, the first clear words he said since his episode began.

"Of course, but most of the time I choose not to. I mostly dedicate myself to the art of precognition to the best of my abilities."

The fusion was still stunned, both by the sass she received and by how she somehow missed this. Granted, Lars had been the captain of the Sun Incinerator far longer than her, but did he even know?

The petite gem, however, was barely phased as she hopped onto Steven's bed. His head was still foggy from his days of reclusion, but for once his puffy eyes were able to focus on something besides shedding tears.

"I understand that I was defective," she explained, "But even still, I longed to fulfill my purpose and aid other gems with my clairvoyance. Of course, once it was proven my abilities were far from the desired level I was thrown aside. I only escaped being shattered by some agate because she wanted to taunt me and asked me for one last prediction. She asked if there was anything I could do to 'prolong my worthless life.'"

Topaz shook her head, remembering all too well the times Aquamarine would bluntly insult and mock any gem deemed imperfect. Over half the time those comments would be directed at her on a good day. Steven, however, was enraptured with the story and was clearly waiting for her to continue.

"A weapon malfunctioned in a nearby testing ground and blew a massive hole clear through the building, obliterating my executioner and sparing me. I naturally ran as fast as I could, using all the time that accident bought me to make my way into catacombs under the city-wide planet that forms Homeworld. While I was down there, aimlessly wandering the tunnels, I let those disparaging thoughts fester until I fully agreed with them. There were several times I contemplated just giving up and revealing myself so that the predator robonoids would do me in."

Both of the listeners paled hearing that, but Padparadscha said it as calmly as someone talking about yesterday's weather.

"Right before I could do that one day, I heard the sound of footprints and thought they may have finally sent a formal search party after me. Instead I found Rhodonite, rambling on like mad about being split up and shattered by Morganite. I actually got her to calm down and once she was coherent, I was brought to her hiding place. It was there I met Rutile and Fluorite for the first time. Although I appreciated the companionship, I felt I contributed little and my melancholy did not fade until I tried making a prediction for them."

"What was it?" asked a riled Topaz.

"I predicted that Rutile would suffer a great downfall…right after tripping over a rock. The others all thought it was funny…They laughed for several minutes straight."

Steven and Topaz were rather confused until Padparadscha let out a few chuckles that quickly turned out to be happy sobs, made even more prominent by her tears landing on the floor.

"It was the first time anyone appreciated my visions. Ever since I was created, I was told I was a failure, a burden, a miserable waste and that I was better off being harvested. But down there I meant something! I could provide them with insight and levity, a rare moment of joy in the dreary oppression we all suffered! It was the happiest moment of my life and now I can continue to bring that joy to all of you."

While her audience were taken aback by the story, they were perplexed. What did any of this have to do with Steven? Almost as if she could actually predict the future for a change, Padparadscha brought herself closer to Steven until she was staring right at him and answered his unspoken question.

"Steven, grief will only do you so much good. I understand pain and loss. I know all too well what it feels like to hate yourself. I most likely spent centuries imagining how life would be better off without me. But when I joined the other Off-Colors I found my purpose, a new reason to live! And now here I am, able to share my gift with gems who truly do accept me. I never would have gotten here if I had that epiphany, Steven. I learned to love myself and to move past my flaws. In time, I hope you will too."

And with that, the peppy psychic hopped off the mattress and descended back downstairs to the others. Topaz followed shortly after bidding Steven goodbye and realizing she definitely needed to talk to Lars now. She clearly did not know her crew as well as she thought.

As for Steven, he actually thought about getting out of the house for the first time in a few days. He began to think that he had been grieving long enough. He could at least see his father, Lars and Sadie, maybe Connie…

And with that horrible reminder of where his best friend was right now, the little progress he had made was wiped out and the awful pangs of guilt came right back. He would end up lulling himself back to sleep before his subconscious forced him awake with yet another nightmare.

(Break)

In towns like Beach City, where it was conceivable that the entire population could fit in the average city block with plenty of room to spare, news traveled fast. The Crystal Gems had always been known around town but did their best to keep their affairs from affecting them. Aside from one minor evacuation, no harm had befallen anyone. Going out of their way to save people from the occasional alien menace did wonders for the reputation as well.

That all changed when Connie Mahesweran was brought into the hospital outside of town looking like she tried stopping a bullet train with her body. Her mother, on her lunch break at the time, promptly discarded anything and everything that did not relate to her daughter and spent the entire day doing everything she could to ensure Connie's survival. While she first hoped it was just broken bones and internal bleeding, an MRI proved she had several vertebrae dislocated and severe damage to her nerve endings alongside her lungs and many other vital organs brutalized. To say her reaction to this news was bad would be like saying nuclear fallout was mildly unpleasant.

She insisted on staying at the hospital overnight until Doug showed up and convinced her to at least go home for the evening. While Doug stayed at his child's side all night, though his heart was shattered seeing her now hooked up to more life-support devices than he even knew existed, Priyanka was a complete wreck. Her night consisted of one part crying her head off, one part wanting to find that sword Connie trained with and slashing the life out of whatever sick monster Amethyst said did this to her baby girl, and two parts in silent shock as she tried any way she could to rationalize this. Even with her decades of experience, however, she could not do anything for the graphic feeling of her heart being used as a chew toy by whatever twisted cosmic force decided her daughter deserved this.

For the next two days the hospital figured she was in no shape to work, but that left her even more time to stew. She considered visiting, but she did not want to torture herself with seeing her daughter hooked up to multiple life support machines. Doug insisted on going to work, but his boss agreed to give him a paid week off out of sympathy. Now the Mahesweran parents were at home simply sitting in their living room when someone knocked on their front door.

They both ignored it until the person at the door knocked for several seconds straight and made it clear he was not leaving. Doug went up to order someone off his front porch, only to be shocked by who was there.

"G-Greg Universe?"

"Yep, that's me," chuckled the portly father, "I was just seeing how you two were doing. May I come in?"

Doug looked back and was met with a nod from his wife. "Sure."

Both the Maheswerans realized they had not seen Greg in months, possibly even a year or more. Somewhere between then and now they could tell he had started losing weight as the black t-shirt he was wearing was much looser on him.

"Can I get you anything?" asked Priyanka.

"No thanks, Doctor Mahesweran, but do you all need anything?"

The two briefly thought about it before Priyanka answered. "Yes. We went a full explanation of what happened. What…did that to Connie?"

Greg winced at that but knew full well they deserved the truth. It took nearly an hour, but eventually he explained everything from when Jasper suddenly showed up to Steven shattering his foe and being a wreck ever since. The Maheswerans had a great deal of sympathy for the boy by the end of it all but could not wrap their heads around one fact.

"Wait, so that gem is dead?" asked Priyanka, ensuring she heard the story correctly.

"Yeah, once a gem's stone is broken it's gone."

"And this is the gem that crippled Connie? After Steven surrendered and was going to do what she wanted…" added Doug.

"Yep."

"And she basically wanted Steven to go to an alien planet and be executed by their insane queen who blames him for everything his mother did?" finished Priyanka.

"Pretty much."

"So why is Steven so distraught over all of this?" asked Doug, "I mean, of course he'd be sad for Connie, but he still saved the day. Now that Jasper can't hurt him or anyone for that matter."

"Because Steven's not a fighter, never has been. He's been the kind of kid who always wanted to solve problems with his words. Ever since he was a baby, he's just been a gentle spirit."

"I may not be a psychologist," spoke Priyanka, "But I think I understand some of what Steven is going through."

"You mean besides PTSD?"

"Well, that's apparent, but a part of it is called cognitive dissonance. You yourself said Steven has more or less been the peaceful type who never relishes in violence, but after he…transformed, he became his natural opposite. Right now, he's more or less at war with himself, trying to figure out who he is and what he really wants. Combine that with seeing his best friend and family threatened and the fact that he's a fourteen-year old with who knows what other problems he has and it's no wonder he's isolated himself from the world and entered a depressive episode."

Greg's mouth was slightly open and even Doug did a double take. "Honey, where did you learn all that?"

"One of the benefits of my profession is you meet a lot of different doctorates. I have a few friends who have their PhDs in psychology, but I'm far from an expert on it."

"Could you maybe have one of them talk to Steven? He could really use some mental help to get him out of this."

"Perhaps…Though I can't promise anything. If you need anything, however, we will do our best to assist. We honestly owe you and Steven too much for everything."

The former rock star looked very puzzled to hear that. "Wait, owe us? For what?"

"Steven, and by proxy you, made us reconsider how we were as parents," explained Priyanka, "We were…overly strict, to put it mildly. Connie was a natural introvert and while very book smart, we always assumed that she could easily get mixed up with the wrong people. When she came home that first day after meeting Steven, she seemed different."

"Then again, anyone's bound to be different after beating some giant sea worm with a glow ring," chuckled Doug, the first time he done so for several days, "But she suddenly became so excitable. Little by little she started coming out of her shell, but we never liked how she never told us much about what she was doing with Steven."

"Before that, we pretty much managed her entire schedule. School nights, weekends, even during summer vacation we always kept her busy thinking she had to keep studying or keep her occupied. She never argued against it, so we figured she liked it. Turns out we were wrong about almost everything…"

"After that incident at the hospital she came clean about everything. Including how she felt she had to lie and keep secrets from us about her eyesight being fixed and the whole training thing because we would forbid her from ever seeing Steven again. I couldn't believe she thought we would think we would rip her away from her first real friend like that."

"I can," Priyanka spat, "That's pretty much what I thought about doing at first, until I realized she was far more capable than I thought. Here I was worrying about her being influenced by rap music and junk food when she can fight off a small horde of creatures straight out of a horror movie!"

"Yeah, life can get pretty strange like that," admitted Greg, "But you guys shouldn't beat yourselves up over it since nobody's perfect. It's like I always used to tell Steven: if every pork chop were perfect, we wouldn't have hot dogs."

The Maheswerans looked at him, surprised by his odd choice of words, but appreciated the advice.

"How…How did you do it?" asked Priyanka, "How did you trust your son so much?"

"Well, most parents don't have to deal with the kind of stuff Steven goes through. I knew from the second he was born he wasn't gonna be like any other kid, but I still wanted him to have a happy life. The Crystal Gems were always there to look after him so I knew he was safe, but I wanted to make sure he could handle life when he got older. I wanted him to be kind, respectful and thoughtful so that's how I always treated him. I told him right from wrong, but I also told him why it's important to think like that - because he'd be on his own someday and one day, I wouldn't always be there to make decisions for him."

"How old was he when you said that?" asked a very curious Doug.

"Maybe five? Steven already knew what it was like when someone didn't come back because of Rose, but I trusted him that he could handle it. Heck, he handled it better than I ever did since at his age now I was the kind of teenager who thought he knew everything. But Steven…He knows he doesn't have all the answers, and there's been times where he thought he did and it backfired, but he always does his best to fix things. And now I know I did a good job with him because he can stand up for himself and others when they need him."

The couple stared at him, amazed at how little credit they gave him. They quickly learned that despite Greg's look and lifestyle he was an upstanding man, but now they had a newfound respect for him. Then, much to their shock, it was his turn to look depressed as he sulked into his chair.

"I just wish he remembered that now…Nothing I say to him gets through."

"Well, like I said, Steven should begin coping with his emotions given enough time," said Priyanka as stood next to him, "We know better than anyone that trying to force your kid into something never works."

"Greg," added Doug as he stood on the fellow father's other side, "Trust me when I say we've all made mistakes. But in the end, we both got some pretty great kids who need us right now. Your son needs someone to reassure him and our daughter needs to recover. We might know nothing about gems and battles, but we'll try to make things easier for you anyway you can."

The former Mr. Universe looked up at the two and smiled, taking their words to heart. His son needed him now more than ever and what was moping around going to accomplish? He headed to the front door after shaking hands with the pair of them and was soon on his way in his van. Once he checked on Steven for the day, he planned to go straight to Pearl and really learn how to use that suit Peri and Bismuth were making for him.

(Break)

While the Crystal Gems fretted about on Earth along with all the humans of Beach City, there was a handful of others concerned with the recent events on Homeworld. White Diamond has taken the time to personally monitor Jasper's entire trip to Earth, watching the entire encounter with a live video feed. After it was all finished, however, White felt more confused than she could ever recall feeling in all her millennia.

She immediately called for Yellow and Blue and showed them the entire meeting between Jasper and the Crystal Gems from the moment she arrived until her end at the hands of "Rose Quartz." For once her intention was not to reveal some plan or genius insight, but rather to gain a second perspective because White had nowhere else to go. She would never admit that of course, but this was one time she wanted their advice.

Once they had watched the whole affair, though, they were not much better off.

"What…was that?" asked Blue after several minutes of all three of them sitting in silence over their personal communicators.

"This…greatly complicates things for one," admitted Yellow, already sending her Pearl off to cancel whatever meetings she had for the next hour.

"Well, let us at least start with the concrete facts," spoke White, "First and foremost, that Jasper is shattered. A very minimal loss, but it still deprives us of a potential resource."

"It was another one of Pink's subjects…" wept Blue, "All she wanted was to serve her Diamond."

"I suppose we should add her name to that new memorial," offered Yellow, "After all, she did fall in the effort to stop Rose Quartz like all the others."

"Agreed! At least she valiantly served until the end…"

White rolled her eyes at this. One of the reasons she pushed herself away from the lesser Diamonds was their overbearing sense of chivalry and grief. She only agreed to that memorial in order to stop another round of petitioning from Blue, but this was another thing they did not need to know.

"Right…As depressing as this is, it may still serve as an advantage. We now have active footage of the remnants of Rose's rebellion ending a faithful gem's life."

"Are you suggesting we…display that?" pondered Yellow.

"Indeed I am. While Rose is by far the most infamous of our kind, she has become something of a whisper only spoken of like a long-cancelled model of gem. There is no active fear of her anymore, the masses believing her to either be in a far-flung system or outright shattered by untold means. To see proof that not only is she alive, but also still attacking and endangering our way of life we can stir the public into a frenzy! We will instantly reignite the war effort and can have the entire might of the Gem Empire gunning for her with this evidence!"

Yellow and Blue Diamond both had to resist the urge to shut off their communicators and just pretend the entire incident never happened. The fervor in White's voice and the manic glee in her eyes terrified the other two to no end. Hearing so enthused for once was jarring at best and nightmarish at worse. It also meant that they would have to spend more time working alongside her and that was a risky prospect in and of itself.

"Before we get to that though," ventured Yellow, her voice threatening to crack, "There is one massive puzzle to solve first."

Yellow then brought up the feed and paused on a moment showing the offending pink gem that looked absolutely nothing like their old nemesis.

"Yes, that is quite the anomaly," admitted White, "How did Rose Quartz change her appearance like this? Where did all these new abilities come from? Why this change of identity to 'Steven' of all things? This will be quite the enigma to solve."

"Until we have more answers to all of this," said Blue, "Perhaps its best to keep all knowledge of this confidential. As much as I want to make Rose Quartz suffer for all she's done, we need absolute certainty of her identity. We'd turn the public's opinion against the war effort just as soon we would gain it otherwise."

White, though she would never admit it verbally, acknowledged her point. The last thing they needed was for a false alarm. "From what I studied from the corrupted gems, it couldn't have been anything inherent to the planet itself. Unless…"

"Unless what?" asked both the other matriarchs.

"It is something from the planet! An element native to that world that allowed Rose to augment herself and gain new abilities!"

"As horrifying as that sounds," thought Yellow, "It would be a valid explanation. And it would be just like her to sacrifice her physical purity just for more power."

"Is there nothing she won't stoop to?!" shouted Blue, "First she betrays our empire and shatters Pink, but now this?! Next it'll be that she experiments on gems for fun!"

"Calm down, Blue, there's nothing definitive yet. We need to test this hypothesis before we draw anything conclusive."

"Agreed," commanded White, "We need to analyze Rose's new form and figure out how she has modified it so extensively. Although, I may already have an idea about this…"

"And what would that be?" asked Blue.

White set the video to rewind until near the beginning where Pearl was attempting to threaten Jasper and then let the audio speak for itself.

"'Human beings are unique individuals capable of far more than us gems are!'"

Next time we're going to focus exclusively on the human characters, though, with Steven trying to move on and getting some help from a few friends. Tune in next time!

Thank you all so much for reading! Please feel free to leave a review!