Hello everyone, I haven't really had the time to write recently, more so my fault because I kinda spent the past few days catching up on some anime, but it's late at night, I've finished two series, and I'm ready to write.

Now, I would like to say: go watch Code Geass as soon as you can. I know at first glance it's not exactly all that interesting, but it's truly a work of art! I personally enjoy anime where the protagonist relies more on his or her own knowledge and tactics rather than those where they're some badass fighter, especially when they're at least a little psycho and evil. If you are interested in that kind of anime, than this is the one for you, it's on Netflix as far as I know.

Anyway, enough of me weebing out, get comfy, grab some snacks, and let's read.

-=The Garden=-

-=Steven/Spinel=-

-=Thirty minutes after the last chapter=-

Steven had let this new Gem cry out her emotions that she had built up over the past six thousand years, he knew she needed at least that much, though she ended up just leaning on him and watching the stars pass by after a while.

"You know...I sat here...just watching everything pass by, wondering if she was ever coming back...or if anyone was coming at all. Honestly, I gave up almost a thousand years ago...I thought that I was destined to spend all of my existence, floating through the endless space around us..." Spinel spoke up after not speaking a word since she broke down in tears.

"I was so happy when I heard the warp pad activate, I thought she had finally came back to me...but then...there you were. A stranger intruding in her garden. So I hid, I thought that if there was an intruder, there shouldn't be a problem with me moving, then I thought that since you were intruding, I had full right to attack and ask a few questions...about her."

"Spinel...are you ok?" Steven asked as he looked over to her. He scoffed and facepalmed. "Of course you're not, you just figured out that you were left here by my mom..."

She just sighed and shook her head. "No...it's fine. I spent all those years wondering if it was my fault...if I did something bad...if I was bad. To be honest, after the initial shock and wave of emotions...I guess I feel better than I would if she was still around on Homeworld. At least I know she isn't just sitting somewhere and enjoying life, knowing that she left me here...at the same time though, at least I have some closure now...at least I have...you, right?" She asked, a sad smile forming as she looked over.

"Yes, of course you do. I promise, I'll help you make up for all that lost time. From now on, I'll do my best to fix what my mother did to you; to fix you, I swear." Steven responded as he squeezed her hand firmly.

Spinel felt a warmth in her Gem; a spark that had been extinguished for a thousand years had now been relit. It wasn't going to be easy, she knew that much, but she decided to put her trust in him anyway. "Thank you...Steven."

Steven chuckled slightly as he stood up. "Of course, what are friends for?" He said, helping her to her feet. "Now, would you like to get out of here? Homeworld has apparently changed a lot in the past six thousand years, and much more from that in the past year alone, I'm sure you'll enjoy it."

Spinel took one look at the garden, her eyes landing on the exact spot where she stood for the past six millennia. She hated it here, everything about this garden was just a constant reminder of the pain she felt, down to the last dead flower. Without the slightest hesitation she looked to him and said, "Yes, let's go."

Steven lead her to the warp and without so much as a second glance behind them, he took her home.

-=The Diamond house=-

-=The Diamonds/Steven/Spinel=-

-=continued=-

The bright light of the warp faded away, leaving the two Gems standing there, hand in hand. "So, before we do anything, you should probably see White, Yellow, and Blue, just so there won't be any issues later on."

Spinel looked over herself in panic. "I can't let them see me like this! My purpose is to be an overly happy best friend for Pink Diamond, who knows what the punishment will be if they see me this way!"

"Hehehe," Steven couldn't help but chuckle. "This is serious!" She shouted

"It's ok Spinel, things are different now, you can for the most part be whoever you want, even Pearls aren't servants anymore...though we do have to find a way to stop other Gems from being so discriminatory against them. Anyway, you can be whoever you want, especially with me by your side."

Spinel was a bit hesitant, she never spent much time outside the garden, but the rules were always clear, and this was in clear violation of those rules. She turned to Steven, who gave her a reassuring nod. "That's right...I'll put my trust in him." She thought to herself.

"Okay Steven, I'll go see the Diamonds." She said, returning the nod. The teen was glad that she agreed to see them, as he knew it would cause problems later on otherwise, her being just about unrecognizable from the form she had in the garden when he first saw her.

"Okay then, right this way," He said, leading her out of his room and towards the living room where the Diamonds were last seen. "Just wait right here, I'll introduce you."

Steven went around the corner while Spinel waited there, feeling a sense of dread come over her. She knew this was different, he was only going around the corner, but she couldn't help the anxiety that was building up.

"Hey guys!" Steven waived to the other Diamonds. "I'm back from the garden."

"Oh Steven, welcome back! Did you find her? I assume you have now that you're all cheerful again." White smiled as she leaned forward in her seat.

"Well I wasn't really sad or anything earlier, I don't think so at least." He shrugged, thinking back to earlier. "In fact, I just came home from a party with my friends and family, there's no way I was looking at all upset."

"Well it's more about how you've been...well you aren't as open to other as you used to be, you stopped trying to make friends with everyone and you spend most of your time in your room. Sure, you have been doing better since whatever happened back then, you haven't been spending every second of every day in there, but you're still so distant, we were just worried for you, that's all." Blue spoke with a motherly tone.

"I'm sorry if I worried you guys, I've just had a lot on my mind lately. I was actually able to vent out lots of those thoughts just now, thanks to-"

Spinel couldn't take it anymore, the conversation had shifted, had he forgotten about her? She rushed out from behind the wall and to his side.

Steven was surprised about her showing up before her introduction considering how anxious she was about the Diamonds. "Hey Spinel, I guess you didn't need an introduction to come out after all, good for you." He smiled.

"No, it's just- you were talking to them and you told me to stay all the way back there, I just didn't want to be alone, I'm sorry." She apologized for going against the original plan.

"It's ok Spinel, it was just so you'd be more confident about coming out in front of the Diamonds. Anyway, this is Spinel guys, she'll be living here with us from now on." Steven said, turning to the confused Diamonds.

"Hello, my Diamonds." She smiled nervously, using her stretchy limbs to make a triple diamond salute.

"Hmm, are you sure that's her? It's been a while but I'm pretty sure she didn't look like this last time we saw her. Steven, did you destabilize her or something?" Yellow commented, turning to her hybrid nephew.

"Come on Yellow, you know I don't do that. No, she chose to look this way, I guess it just has to do with her emotions, what mom did must've really messed with her." He sighed, turning back to her.

"No, no, i-it's fine my Diamonds, six thousand years is nothing, I- well I could do that on my head." She said, putting on a smile as she did a handstand to demonstrate, tapping her feet together.

Yellow just laughed at her antics. "She's right, that is nothing! I like this Gem."

"Yes, she's very nice." Blue agreed with her own little smile.

"What about you Starlight, what do you think of her?" White asked the young Diamond, Spinel standing upright and looking to him for his answer as well.

"I like her too, that's why she'll be staying with us from now on." Steven informed them of their new housemate.

Needless to say, the Diamonds were surprised about this new development, as was Spinel. "But Steven, this house is for us, to bring us together, right? Anyways, what about the garden, wouldn't she want to go back?" Blue questioned.

Steven glances over to Spinel, she had a nervous and uncomfortable look on her face, her hands behind her back where she was wringing her fingers, and she was shifting from foot to foot. "No, definitely not. I want her to stay here with us."

"Steven, there's just simply no room for her, where would we even keep her?" White asked, unsure where they could make room for another Gem.

Steven raised a brow as he gestured towards the massive amount of room the house had. "Oh come on, this place is huge, we can make enough room for her to have her own room."

"You must remember, we are very large compared to you, we need more room than you think." Blue reminded him. "There is no room for another Gem in this house."

Steven could tell Spinel was getting more and more anxious about this by the second, she obviously didn't want to go back, but she didn't want to intrude on the Diamonds of all Gems either. "Fine then, my room is huge in comparison to me, she can stay there if she wants to sleep, other than that, there is more than enough room."

The Diamonds glanced at each other for a little bit before seemingly coming to a silent agreement.

"Hmm, I guess we may have over done your room, yes. Fine, if you all are ok with it then I guess there aren't any issues with your little friend staying here." White agreed, turning to the other Diamonds.

"I don't see why not, if Steven isn't so lonely then I say we should let her stay." Blue nodded, just wanting her illegitimate son to be happy.

Yellow just shrugged. "Sure, I guess it's better than taking in a Gem we are completely unfamiliar with."

Steven breathes a sigh of relief as she visibly relaxed. "Thanks guys, we are both grateful for you letting her stay, right Spinel?"

"Yes, thank you all for letting me stay here with you." Spinel nodded, agreeing with the small Diamond.

"Wait here for a second, I'll be right back." He told Spinel, who wasn't as anxious about him leaving as before due to the Diamonds being there, but nevertheless still not happy about it.

The hybrid came back after maybe ten seconds, putting on a red hoodie that sported a star.

"We'll see you later guys, I'm going to take Spinel out to see new Homeworld." Steven waved as he lead Spinel back to the warp pad.

"Good bye Steven." They all said in unison as they waved to him. "Come home soon."

"So Spinel, I guess you'd like to know what all has changed here, huh?" Steven asked, turning to the pink Gem as they warped away.

"Well, I've only ever seen this place when I was on my way to the garden, since then I haven't really seen anything else. It was kind of a straight journey from my kindergarten to the garden, that's kind of where I've been since I was made." She admitted as the stream dissipated, leaving them at a central hub in the middle of Homeworld.

Steven pulled his hood up as to not gain the attention of the Gems around them. "Well at least you won't have to readjust to the technology I guess, but there's still Homeworld customs that have changed. Like, you can no longer own another Gem, not even a Pearl, all Gems are equal. We are also having a service fee system created based off of earth's currency system." He explained as he walked her through Homeworld's capital city.

The Diamonds had agreed to change things around here after Steven put his foot down, but they looked to him for guidance, and he wasn't exactly experienced in building an entire civilization...so he turned to Connie for help. That's when he realized that they were no longer close friends anymore.

Steven realized that he left her here on earth and went off to Homeworld for a year, but he never thought she would all together just stop hanging out with him outside of training and Gem stuff, he even brought her to Homeworld to try and make up for it, but she didn't seem to enjoy it all that much.

She was able to get along with him long enough for her to teach him how a proper currency system should work and gave him a few resources to study on how a government should be ran, but they haven't really talked much since that.

He knew that his decision to go alone was probably not a good one, but he was just so upset at Garnet at the time. He tried to explain everything to Connie, but she didn't seem to care, all she had to say say was, "If you're just going to keep leaving me behind every time you have an important mission, all of this training I've devoted myself to is for nothing."

"Ever since I met you, I've let go of the idea of making friends in my school, why would I need all that when I have all these crazy magical adventures to go on with my best friend? But my dad has been assigned here permanently, I can make friends that I won't just leave in a month, and that won't leave me for nearly an entire year. I've actually already made lots of friends, I even have a boyfriend now, his name is Jeff, I'm sure you remember him."

Steven kept on a happy face for her, congratulating her for making all these friends and finding love...but after he got back to Homeworld, he stayed in his room for nearly a week straight, only coming out to eat once or twice a day.

After that, he forced himself to put on a happy face for the sake of Homeworld, he needed to start fixing things here. Now a month later, he had implemented the currency system on Homeworld and started to change, abolish, and creat some laws. He got a lot of work done and now he genuinely felt a lot better about the Connie situation, especially after today when he was able to vent out his feelings on his mother.

"What's a service fee? How would any human, or really any organic's ideas help a race of beings like Gems? No offense." Spinel questioned staying close to him as to not get lost in the crowd.

"None taken, and it works like this: on earth, we have stuff called money, depending on how much you have, you can by material items, or pay for services if you don't want to or can't do something yourself. You can buy food, cloths, and a whole bunch of stuff. Now we call them service fees here because Gems don't typically need materialistic items, they don't eat, they can shape shift cloths and hair, and we don't really have any games being made here yet. But what they can use, is help from other Gems."

He began to explain.

"So, let's just say a Pearl needed a bodyguard, or really any service. She could give her currency to maybe a Quartz and they would do what she needed them to do depending on the price. Now we plan to implement it into the world for more than services, but for now, that name is just a placeholder. We will begin to sell technology and ships in exchange for these service fees. I also plan to bring video games here, but I feel we should fix things with all the other alien races before we worry about games."

"It sounds complicated, how would 'hiring' a Pearl, be any different than just owning one?" Spinel asked, confused on the whole concept.

"Well now Pearls would be getting service fees, meaning they would be rewarded for their work, unlike before, where they were expected to work whether or not they wanted to." He tried to elaborate for her.

"Oh...yeah, I think I sort of understand. So no one owns anyone, there are rewards for your work, and Gems can be who they want and look however they want." She went over everything she had been told.

"Yep, welcome to era three." He grinned with a small laugh. "Now we should probably go to that tower over there, I guess it's some kind of worshipping building for the Diamonds, some Gems have chosen to still look at us as gods I guess, even if we tell them we aren't perfect. Anyway, it won't bee too crowded there, plus we could get a better look of Homeworld." He said, pointing to the tallest building in the area.

They began walking towards it, Steven making sure to keep his head down as there were still many Gems that chose to see the Diamonds as perfect beings around here, and he didn't want that kind of attention, especially around Spinel.

Thinking about Spinel, Steven looked back to check and see if she was still there...she wasn't.. "Oh no, this can't be good..."

He walked back through the crowd of Gems, keeping his eye out for anything pink. He had to make sure he found her soon incase she started to have some sort of breakdown, he could tell she had some issues from what his mother, he just didn't know if she would be ok getting separated in a crowd or not.

Well he got his answer when he came upon her, she definitely didn't like it. Spinel was seen pacing around trying to find him with tears in her eyes and her fists gripping her hair. "Spinel, I'm right here!" He called over to her, raising a hand.

She turned around to see him before rushing over. "W-What happened, where did you go?" She asked as she grabbed his hand tightly.

Steven realized her specific condition to be separation anxiety. There was an anime that he had recently watched, the protagonist brother and the protagonist sister had this condition to the point that they couldn't even be separated by so much as a closed door without having panic attacks, though they never really worked it out. (Tell me if you knew what I was referring to before you get to the end)

"It's ok, we just got separated by the crowd.

He grabbed her hand before pushing through the crowd and towards their destination.

He brought the pink Gem to the very top of the tower, where they overlooked the capital that was still being built. "Well, this seems like it will be the highest we can go in the capital without going straight for the palace, but I'd like to keep a low profile and not go there. I know that there aren't any special landmarks yet, or any fun places to go, but I can just take you to earth for that."

"Earth...you said something about a war for that planet, I only caught some of it, what happened there?" Spinel asked as she overlooked the capital.

"Oh, well that's actually a long story, I guess I'll start with what I've been told, when Pink got her own planet." Steven began.

-=End Of Chapter=-

This one was more so to fill in what happened with Connie and Steven, and to establish that Spinel dose in fact have separation anxiety.

Now Steven probably wouldn't know that, thats even a thing, so I just used my absolute favorite anime as an example. Did you guess it? No Game No Life, it's an amazing anime/manga that absolutely needs a season 2 for the anime, I also suggest you check that one out, it's on Crunchyroll which you can get for free by downloading AppValley on your mobile device. You get it from your browser and it gives you apps that are I guess hacked or whatever.

But I digress. Her having this separation anxiety in this story is based off of the part in the movie where Steven tried to leave her with the others while he went after Amethyst, but her subconscious kicked up that separation anxiety that was caused by her being left in the garden and apparently not erased when she was reset. Her eyes went wild like when she's in her newest form and her face went dark as she got mad.

Now mix that with the fact that Steven came to her rescue instead of just being on screen not even acknowledging her, she would want to be with him at all times, she never wants to be alone again and she's attacked herself to him... metaphorically of course.

Also, I believe that she was manipulated into wanting to attack him and the earth by whoever gave her that injector and rejuvenator, so take them out of the equation and just give her a shoulder to cry on for nearly an hour and she no longer has this hate, though she is still filled with sadness.

And I'll just address this now so you don't think I'm just filling plot holes. Spinel in the movie did say that six thousand years were nothing and she could do it on her head, true, but just think about it: she's sitting in front of the Diamonds, her issue being caused by Pink Diamond, of course she'll act strong in front of them!

Six thousand years is a long time for her, why else would she be attacking Steven like that?

Sure, Yellow did agree that it was nothing, but she's a Diamond! One of the first Gems ever created, of course six millennia would be nothing to her, I'm sure she's lived for tens of thousands of years, six is such an insignificant number at that point.

Now Spinel on the other hand? She was created for Pink Diamond and kept in that garden. I say she was alive for one millennium at max before she was abandoned, therefore six more would be a long time. A long, agonizing hell for that poor Gem...