The pink lion stopped abruptly, causing Amethyst to pitch forward a bit and get a mouthful of cotton candy like mane. (She found that, despite its appearance, it decidedly did not taste like spun sugar). Apparently tired of carrying his load, the animal sat down without giving them a chance to get off. All three of them toppled off of it in a tangle of limbs.
"Lion!" Steven complained. The lion only yawned. Amethyst rolled off the pile and got to her feet while Connie peeled herself off Steven and helped him get up.
"I see his training is going well," Amethyst commented.
"It's a work in progress." The lion got back up to its feet and casually wondered away. Steven watched him go with a sigh.
"Should we really let him go off like that?" Amethyst asked. "Isn't he our ride?"
"It'll be fine," Connie told her, "he'll come back when we need him."
"If you say so."
"Come on, this way!" Steven told her, grabbing her arm and leading her out of the wooded area they'd landed in toward a rocky beach. He looked left and right. Spotting a small group of humans walking down the beach, he waved an arm. "Guys!" he called.
Three people turned toward them. The woman looked vaguely familiar though Amethyst couldn't quite place her at the moment. Doubtlessly, she was one of Steven's friends from Beach City. However, the shape and color of the man's hair gave away exactly who he was: Sour Cream. The two adults held either hand of a small child, swinging it up with every footstep so it could keep up with their longer strides by hopping.
"Hey, Steven," the woman called when they got close.
"Hey Jenny! Hi Sour Cream!" He bent down, smiling at the kid. "Hiii Ellie."
At the sound of their name, the kid looked over at them. Their eyes slid right over Steven and Amethyst only to light up at the third member of their party.
"Co'ie!" the kid exclaimed, letting go of the adults' hands and stumbling over toward Connie.
"Hi Ellie," Connie replied, bending down and holding out a hand for the kid to grab and steady themselves with. They cooed and grabbed at Connie's hair.
Steven made a pouting face.
"Aw is someone not the favorite?" Amethyst asked.
"I don't know what you're talking about," he said. Connie glanced at him a grin pulling at the sides of her lips as she picked up Ellie. Steven pouted harder.
"How'd everyone manage the trip?" Connie asked the adults.
"Pretty good," answered Sour Cream. "Didn't run into any Homeworld soldiers. We picked up a few pieces of old gem tech at that spire you told us about. Greg might be able to use them."
"We also ran into a corruption a couple of times," Jenny added, "but we weren't able to catch it. It didn't attack or anything, just ran away. Yellow Tail has a map of where all we saw it."
"I'll make sure to pick that up from him before we leave," Steven said. "How's your food supply?"
"We're doing pretty alright," Sour Cream replied.
"Eating a lot of fish," Jenny added.
"I'll make sure to send some vegetables and other meat over for you guys soon."
"Cheese!" Ellie contributed.
"We have cheese Ellie," Jenny said.
"Cheese!" the child demanded.
Steven chuckled a bit. "We'll send some cheese over for you too Ellie." That seemed to be what it took for Steven to get some attention.
"Cheese!" they squealed and waved their arms at Steven.
He grabbed thier flailing fist and sighed. "You only use me for food." The kid giggled.
Jenny smiled at Ellie and then turned to Amethyst. "Vidalia's inside inventorying the food supply." She said.
Amethyst's eyes followed the tilt of Jenny's head to the boat that was docked. "Right," Amethyst replied.
Steven gave her a little shove to the back. "We'll get some things worked out with Sour Cream and Jenny while you're gone," he said. Well, it wasn't like she could back out now. She swallowed and trudged toward the boat.
She stepped onto the boat and headed toward the propped open door that led to the hull. She tilted her head and followed the sound of chopping until she found Vidalia in a make-shift kitchen chopping carrots. Amethyst stood there for a moment, unsure of what to say. What could she say really?
"Hey, Amethyst," Vidalia said without turning around. "Want to help me chop vegetables?"
"Sure," she agreed without even realizing it and before she knew it, she had a knife in her hand. She stared at it blankly for a moment.
"We're just chopping off the bad parts of these, so we can use up what we need to tonight," Vidalia explained. "If there aren't any mushy or brown spots, don't cut them up. Just put them in that pile over there. Once we have everything sorted, we'll count up what we've got left and start on the celery."
"Okay." She looked down at the carrot on the cutting board. The tip of it had started to go brown so she cut that off and discarded it before glancing over at what Vidalia had already chopped up and cutting up the rest of the carrot into chunks the same size. She dumped the good pieces into the bowl with the other carrot pieces. She wasn't a stranger to cooking. She'd had to help prepare food for Steven often and the old familiarity of it helped her relax a bit.
"So, Sour Cream had a kid?" she broke the silence. Vidalia glanced over at her with a smile.
"Yep," she confirmed. "I have two grandchildren now."
"Heh, you're old."
"You're ugly."
They both burst out laughing.
"It's good to see you Amethyst," Vidalia said after a few minutes.
"It's good to see you too."
She went back to work on the vegetables and Amethyst followed suit. "So, where were you this entire time?" she asked. "You don't have to answer if you don't want to."
"I…" she chopped a piece of the carrot in front of her off and found that the rot went further down than she'd cut. "We all got poofed by the Homeworld soldier the day you were all evacuated." She dug her knife into the carrot once again. "I didn't think I'd wake up, but I did." There was still more rot. "They did something to my gem, cracked it but so it wouldn't break. I was apparently useful despite being a runt because of some weird thing with my weapon and was given 'mercy' because I didn't know any better." She was over halfway through the carrot now. "They put me with a squad of other amethysts. Eventually there was a mishap with the warp pads and I ended up near Steven's camp."
A hand reached over to stop her knife. "I think that carrot might be done for." Vidalia pushed the carrot pieces into the discard pile and set a new carrot in front of her before going back to her own carrot. "So, that's all that happened, but that isn't all that happened is it."
The new carrot was pretty good. It just took a few quick chops to get it in good shape. "No," she admitted. "It's not all that happened." She diced the carrot up easily and reached for another. "Have you ever seen a dead human."
Vidalia's knife hesitated just a bit. "Yes. I have."
"You guys don't die pretty you know. Like a dead gem is horrifying because you know what's happening when they shatter. But, you. You bleed and ooze and tear and its all right there. Right in front of you and all you can see is all of the faces you've seen before. Everyone you've ever met or cared about pasted onto that mess of blood and bone. And no one else even gets it. They don't understand how it works. That the red stuff is supposed to stay inside and why. How the bones are supposed to set together. But I did. I got it. I'd kissed Steven's scrapped knees to get him to stop crying and helped Greg up the steps with a broken leg. I'd watched thousands of ribcages expand with breath and felt hearts pumping blood whenever I got touched or hugged by one of you. How, how am I supposed to handle seeing that. I helped some escape, but my squadron wasn't trusted anywhere near the front line. We were usually just clean up afterwards and it was too late. Sometimes they'd even leave them half alive. Their guts hanging out and their limbs all twisted and… and I'd kill them because I knew they wouldn't ever get any better and I knew no one else would even think about it. And, and, how am I supposed to look at Steven now when all I've seen is his face plastered over so many dead bodies? When I've felt blood warm my hands as I finished off people like you and his dad? How… how am I supposed to hear my own name and not remember pain and hate and fear, mine and theirs?"
Vidalia laid a hand on her shoulder and she paused, actually taking a breath even if she didn't need it. "I don't know," she replied.
Amethyst turned and hugged her around the waist. "I've just suddenly been shoved back into this universe where it's not just about trying to live and see a glimpse of Pearl every few months and trying to stop the carnage where I can. Because he's right there. My kid; the thing that stole every bit of my heart in just 13 years and he's so alive despite all of my nightmares that told me otherwise. And he's been fighting this whole time. You are all here ready to fight. You and Connie and Greg and Donut Boy and Girl. And what exactly am I supposed to do with that?"
"I'm not sure," Vidalia admitted. "I don't know if there is something you can do about all of that, honestly, and I can't even imagine what exactly all of that feels like. But, I think you know what to do. Or at least, you can know if you try. Mostly I just think what you need to do is try to live. Talk to Steven even if you can't tell him all of this. Help him fight even when you don't think you can fight yourself. Take deep breaths and hug the people you found again. Look at the flowers that are still blooming on this planet despite Homeworld's best efforts. Chop a couple vegetables. See where it leads you."
Amethyst stepped back and looked at the table they'd been working on. They were almost through all of the carrots. She looked at the rotted pieces and the good ones chopped up for dinner and the whole unblemished carrots ready to be counted and stored.
"I think I can start there," she said.
They'd finished chopping vegetables and Amethyst was watching Vidalia update the log she kept of their food supply when a man, Buck, walked in holding a baby. Amethyst probably wouldn't have remembered his name if Vidalia hadn't told her about all of her ship mates. "Hey, Onion Mom," he said. He looked over at Amethyst, "Hey, Steven's Purple Aunt," he greeted before turning back to Vidalia. "Do you know where my dad is?" he asked. "He said he was going up to get some air when I went to take Lee for a nap, but I can't find him on deck."
"Yeah he went to try to stop Kofi and Yellowtail from arguing about how to cook the fish again."
The man sighed. "I'm sure that's going as well as it always does."
Vidalia chuckled, finishing up her notes. "Want me to feed them?" she asked. "Sour Cream, Jenny, and El are outside with Steven and Connie."
"Sure," Buck replied, handing the small thing over. It made a little noise while being transferred, but otherwise was quiet, just watching with wide eyes.
"Also, take these to your dad and them," she said, handing him the bowl of chopped vegetables.
"On it," he replied, picking the bowl up off the counter and leaving with it.
"Hey, Amethyst, hold Lee while I get their lunch ready," Vidalia said. The baby was suddenly in her arms before Amethyst could register that it was being put there. Vidalia wandered off humming.
Amethyst looked down at the thing cradled in her arms. "Hey."
"Awo," the baby replied. They had been really quite up until this point, but now they were getting all squirmy. It wasn't in distress though, Amethyst noted. She sighed and flipped her hair around, so the baby could grab a couple of handfuls. Babies always did tend to get more active when she was holding them, and she wasn't sure why. When Steven was young, Greg holding him had always calmed him down, Pearl holding him (the few times she did when he was small) caused him to stare wide eyed up at her, and if Garnet held him, he'd be asleep in an instant. But, when Amethyst help him, he usually got more active: gurgling and kicking and hair pulling. She remembers trying to put him to bed when he was a toddler by herself. She'd chased him around and around the house, catching him and dropping him back into bed, just to have him pop right back up with a giggle. She'd finally given up and cuddled him into submission. He'd eventually drifted off with a smile on his face. Amethyst smiled at the memory and bopped Lee on the nose. They responded with a tug on her hair.
"Lee, you can't eat Amethyst's hair," Vidalia said.
"Eh, I don't mind," Amethyst told her. "I've had worse gunk in my hair."
"That's what I'm afraid of," Vidalia mumbled. Amethyst stuck out her tongue. "Hey, Lee, ready to eat?" she asked, pulling Amethyst's hair out of the kid's mouth. Vidalia smiled down at the baby with a bestowed expression. Amethyst shifted to hand Lee over and Vidalia accepted, gently opening the babies fists so Amethyst could keep her hair.
"I should probably get going," Amethyst said once Vidalia had given the baby a bottle.
"Yeah, Steven's probably waiting for you by now," she said.
"Yeah," Amethyst said she looked down and kicked at the floor a bit. "Thanks for listening," she swallowed. "It was a big help actually."
"Any time," Vidalia said. "Don't be a stranger. Steven always knows where we are."
Amethyst nodded with a smile. "See you later Lee," she said, ruffling the little baby hairs on the top of their head. She turned to leave.
"Hey Amethyst," Vidalia said. Amethyst turned back around. "I talked to Steven a lot the last few years. I know you might not want to tell him everything, but you should talk to him. He's and adult now, but he's still a kid too. He missed you."
"Yeah, I know… thanks." She turned back around and walked back the way she'd come in.
It was difficult to peel Ellie off of Connie, but after a while, Buck managed to bribe them with the promise of terrorizing their grandpas who were apparently all still arguing over how to cook the fish. They all waved goodbye to Jenny, Sour Cream, Buck, and their kid.
"So, we're going to go see your group of corrupted friends now?" Amethyst asked.
Steven's eyes lit up at the mention of them. Which made her smile even if she still had her trepidations about them. "Yeah, we just need Lion!" Instead of calling for him like he used to though, he just looked at Connie expectantly. Connie put her fingers in her mouth and whistled a high-pitched noise that had Amethyst wincing and covering her ears. There was a flash and Lion hopped out of the portal he'd just made to stand in front of them. They all got on the lion and with another roar, they catapulted through space.
Lion landed softly in the middle of a sandy area. Having learned from her earlier mistake, Amethyst hopped off his back before he could remove her in some other, less dignified manner. The two humans followed her lead, managing to get off the large cat before it collapsed onto its belly and closed its eyes already half asleep.
Steven patted Lion on the head. "Thanks Lion!" it huffed a bit in response. "This way," he and Connie led her toward a rock structure. The area appeared desolate: there was nothing green anywhere in sight and the only sound was the sand crunching under their feet as they walked. Yet, when they got closer, she started to hear muffled banging as though something heavy was being thrown against the sandy ground. After a few more yards, she heard hisses; her spine stiffened, but Steven and Connie didn't seem too worried. When they were almost at the rock structure, the noises abruptly stopped for a moment before there was a shout and more vigorous hissing. Two giant green and black snake-like monsters slithered out from behind the rock, lunging toward them with impressive speed. Amethyst jumped and summoned her whip on instinct, but Steven's face lit up with a smile.
"Hey!" Steven greeted with a giggle. Amethyst watched, tense, but the corruptions just sort of curled themselves around Steven like energetic house cats. "Why're you guys all like this?" he asked, petting one of their heads.
"We were training," a voice said. This gem had the same color scheme as the corrupted gems but wasn't obviously corrupted. She glanced over at Amethyst and Amethyst let her weapon dissipate. If it had been 12 years ago, Amethyst probably wouldn't have noticed anything was wrong. However, there was something off about her face. It seemed like there was something flickered under her skin, stretching and rolling: barely contained. "They got a bit excited."
"Oh, well, that's alright. You're still making progress," Steven said. He kissed one on the top of its head. Acid poured from its mouth burning away some of the rock under its own feet. "How're you doing Centi."
"I'm doing quite well," she shooed the others away from Steven, so she could ruffle his hair.
"Amethyst, you remember Centipedal."
"Yeah, your corrupted friend you fed Chaaaps and threw a refrigerator at."
He laughed awkwardly, rubbing the back of his neck. "Not in that order," he mumbled.
"How's everyone doing?" Connie asked. The corrupted gems had turned their attention to greeting her now. One had wrapped its way around her legs and she had to hold on to its back to keep her balance.
The monster not wrapped around her legs hissed out a mouthful of acid in response.
"She says good," Centi replied.
"We thought we'd introduce Amethyst to everyone today," Steven said.
Centi turned to her. "I heard that you had returned. Welcome back."
"Er, yeah, thanks," Amethyst replied.
Steven grabbed the hand she'd been using to toy with the hem of her shirt. "Come on, let's go see everyone." She let him tug her along toward where the centipedals had come. The large rock formation must have blocked most of the noise from behind it because as soon as they passed the structure, the sound of living could easily be heard. She could hear muffled conversations and shuffling sounds as people moved around. A few gems milled around this front area, lounging on chair and couch like structures that had been sculpted out of sand and rock. The other gems she could see all were in strange forms, most somewhere between fully corrupted and normal looking. She thought she saw a few rubies and carnelians. Maybe even a jasper, but it was hard to tell when they didn't have their normal forms and they were too far away to see their gems.
"Hey, I'm going to go check on the new ones," Connie told him. She squeezed Steven's shoulder and shot Amethyst a grin before heading off toward the north.
"And, if you don't need anything, I'm going to go get these two calmed down," Centi said gesturing toward the other centipedals. The two in question made hissing noises and she rolled her eyes. "Yes. You are," she insisted.
"Yeah, of course," Steven replied. "I know my way around." He gave her a brief hug before grabbing Amethyst's hand again and leading her toward some of the stone furniture. He introduced her to a dizzying number of gems, with a string of names that did nothing to help her identify what their actual gem type was. He led her around a maze of caverns that seemed to have been carved by a mix of natural causes and by intentional design. They had a nice little settlement set up. Steven explained that each of the gems had carved out a little hole for themselves within the walls, places to call their own where they spent their down time. There were different sections: places for fire pits (though she wasn't sure what they used them for considering they didn't need the heat or to cook), places for training, even a few small gardens with a mixture of different edible (for humans at least) and non-edible plants.
They also had cells.
"They don't get any better if they're bubbled all the time," Steven explained, "but they can be dangers to themselves or others." Amethyst bit her lip, staring at a gem that was still completely corrupted. It looked calmer than most of the gem monsters she'd fought. It watched her with curious and slightly wary eyes. Amethyst had to wonder if the Crystal Gems would have done something similar eventually if they'd had more time and with pressure from Steven. He had, well… it felt weird to say "tamed" now didn't it… Centi that one time and, she imagined, it would have only been a matter of time before Steven's puppy dog eyes wore them all down. She wondered how it would have worked out with the five of them (counting Connie of course) "Ooo," Steven said, suddenly with stars in his eyes. "We should check out the animal hospital!"
"Animal hospital?" Amethyst asked, drawn out of her musings.
"Yeah! We have a place for animals that people find that got hurt."
"Okay," she agreed easily. "Let's see it." He pulled her toward a section of the camp. Ah yes, that was definitely the smell of animals, Amethyst thought when they drew near. There were holes in the walls much like the holes that were used for gem homes, except they had bars over them like the cells. They each seemed to be labeled with different colors and symbols. She could guess some of the symbols were for snakes and scorpions, but others were incomprehensible.
Steven began happily dragged her around showing her the different animal enclosures. They passed through the first part of the section into another "room." She glanced around this space to see two gems off to the side under a large archway like hole. The two seemed to be completely in their normal gem forms. One was a little shorter than Steven and blue and the other one was big: tall and buff. And purple.
It was an amethyst. Amethyst wasn't quite sure how to feel about that. She kept herself behind Steven and watched the two. She was bigger than Amethyst, in fact, she was probably bigger than a typical Amethyst. As Amethyst watched, she laughed and shoved the other gem. Amethyst thought it was an Apatite. Amethyst winced.
"What's wrong Amethyst?" Steven asked when he noticed her lagging behind.
"Nothing."
Steven looked at her and then over at the two other gems. "Oh!" he said. "That's right, Sleam is another amethyst! I bet you want to meet her!"
Sleam? Wait. "Wait, Steven I-" but it was already too late. Steven had pulled Amethyst out from behind him by the arm and was waving at the other gems. He started tugging her in their direction.
"Hey Sleam! I have someone who wants to meet you!" He pointed to Amethyst who tried her best to hide behind her own hair. "Hey Picket!"
The Apatite, who Amethyst guessed was nicknamed Picket by Steven glanced at her and moaned. "Oh no, another one." Amethyst flinched.
"Can it string bean."
Picket rolled her eyes. "Well at least this one's shorter so won't…" before she could finish, the other amethyst bent over and grabbed her by the ankles, flipping her upside down. The Apatite blew some of the hair out of her face. "Do that," she mumbled.
"Apologize."
Picket clucked her tongue. "I was just joking."
"Apatite."
She puffed out a breath. "Sorry," she said to Amethyst.
"Uh, it's cool," Amethyst replied.
"Good."
When the amethyst didn't make any move to set Picket down, she squirmed a bit. "If you don't put me down this instant, I will never fuse with you again."
The amethyst kept ahold of her feet with one hand and grabbed her elbow with the other, bringing her face up to eye level. "Liar," she said. She dropped Picket's feet and lowered her to the ground.
"Maybe." They smiled at each other a bit.
Oh. It was… not malicious. Right. Okay.
"So, you must be Steven's Amethyst," the amethyst said. "We've heard a lot about you."
Steven gave her a little nudge. "Good things I hope," she managed to spit out.
"A lot of good gems came from your kindergarten. Glad to see another one of you joined the Crystal Gems."
Amethyst blinked. "You were a Crystal Gem then? Before?"
"Yeah, a lot of us were actually," Picket replied.
Amethyst had known of course that most of the corrupted gems they'd fought were Crystal Gems before their corruption. That had been the entire point of the Diamond attack after all: to wipe them out. But, she hadn't really thought about it. Ever. Certainly not when she'd been fighting them all those years and not when Steven brought her to meet all of them. She'd never really thought about another amethyst being a Crystal Gem.
"That's. Cool."
The other amethyst eyed her. "Hey, Steven, Cardinal figured out how to summon a weapon. I think she'd like it if you went and saw."
"Oh, um," he glanced at Amethyst. She shrugged. "Sure."
"Picket, you should go show him."
"But he knows his way around."
The other amethyst took the apatite's hand and kissed her knuckles. "Please."
Picket titled her head. "Alright. Come on Steven let's let them have their super-secret Quartz talk."
"I'm a Quartz," Steven pointed out trailing behind her.
"C'mon I'll show you around," the other amethyst said.
"This is Bunny," the other amethyst stated, dropping a rabbit into Amethyst's arms. Amethsyt rubbed behind its ears and it sniffed her a bit, settling down pretty easily. "And this is Bunny 3 and this is Bunny 5. That one is Bunny 2. I don't know where Bunny 6 is, but that one is Sir Fluffington Esquire."
Amethsyt hid her smile in Bunny's fur. "Steven name that one?" she asked. The other amethyst had immediately led her to what she claimed was her favorite part of the settlement: the bunny pin, where a bunny had just given birth to babies a couple of weeks ago.
"Indeed." she answered Amethyst's question with a perplexed shake of her head. "Steven has a strange naming convention." That reminded Amethyst of Garnet and Pearl. Amethyst had spent her entire life on Earth and had even interacted with humans before meeting the other gems, though sparingly. So, she understood the whole naming thing. However, despite having lived with humans for millennia, the others never quite got it. She vividly remembered the day where Pearl and Garnet had tried to talk a 3-year-old Steven out of naming a rock Harry.
'But Steven,' Garnet had reasoned. "The rock has no hair."
'Harry.' Steven stubbornly replied. Amethyst had watched amused, eating one of the popsicles they'd brought to the beach.
'That is not a good argument Steven,' Pearl had pointed out. Greg had sighed next to her but hadn't bothered to try to explain. It wouldn't work anyway.
'Harry!' was Steven's rebuttal.
Steven had ended up winning the argument after a few hours by virtue of the pure stubbornness only a human toddler could manage. That was such a fun day.
"You used Picket's nickname though, Amethyst pointed out."
"Yeah," she agreed, offering a rabbit a bit of celery. "Feels right for some reason. Sometimes it feels weird for us to be called what we were before. Corruption changed us all. It's nice to have a name like that. It reminds us we aren't the same, but at the same time we are still people."
"I guess that makes sense." They sat in silence for a bit. "So, you two fuse?" Amethsyt asked.
Sleam's eyes moved from the bunny she was patting to Amethyst. "Yeah."
"That's cool."
Sleam smiled a bit. A third bunny hopped into her lap. "Yeah, yeah it is." There was more silence. "You knew Garnet, right?"
"Yeah, did you… wait, that's a stupid question isn't it? Sorry, it's just that I knew them for so long, I forgot they had lives before me."
Sleam shrugged with an easy grin on her face. "Yeah, I knew Garnet and Pearl back in the day. Rose too of course." She picked up another bunny (Fluffington Esquire?) and held it to her chest. "Picket and I were like Garnet back then," she said, scratching the top of the bunny's head. "A bit hard to do all the time at the moment, considering. It's hard enough to keep ourselves together let alone keep together, together."
Amethyst nodded in understanding. "I figured. Bet you two look cool."
Sleam puffed out an amused breath. "We do," she confirmed. "You know it's kinda nice to talk about it with someone who was never really with Homeworld."
Amethyst shifted around uncomfortably to the ire of Bunny. "Well, I mean I was for the past decade or so."
"Yeah, but it's different," Sleam said. "Like most gems are a little disturbed by it or take a while to warm up to it or they're like Garnet and are over the top enthusiastic to combat the viewpoint that there's something wrong with it. Even most humans don't really understand it because they can't do it. The only other people I've met who act like it's not that big of a deal are Connie and Steven. And, well, actually Steven can be a bit…"
"Of a shipper," Amethyst supplied. Sleam gave her a confused look and Amethyst waved her off. "Just a human term. I know what you mean."
"Yeah, well, anyway. It's kinda nice that fusion can be seen as normal. Like being that way about it isn't written into our genetic code or something."
Amethyst looked at this other amethyst, covered head to toe in bunnies (literally one was chewing on her toe and another was in her hair) intermediately giving the one Steven named soft kisses on its nose and smiled. "Yeah, I get that."