He was glad it was Pearl who found him. If it had been Garnet or Amethyst he probably would have kept quiet in fear they wouldn't believe him, but he knew that Pearl would understand. She had to understand.

"Rose Quartz, the leader of the Crystal Gem rebellion and Pink Diamond were the same person."

Saying it out loud was like a weight being lifted off his shoulders. His stomach churned as he waited for Pearl to respond. The longer she stayed silent the more painful the ache in his chest became.

Her hands had fallen off of her mouth and now lay limp in her lap. Her mouth opened and closed, but no words came out. Her eyes were glazed over and distant. He moved to place a comforting hand on her shoulder.

"Pearl?"

She jumped back as if she had been shocked. Her eyes wide and frantic as they scanned her surroundings.

"Steven…." she murmured, the fog finally lifting from her eyes.

His throat tightened and his eyes stung at the use of his real name. He blinked hard, preventing any tears from spilling. He swallowed the lump in his throat before speaking.

"I…." he struggled to find the right words to say.

There was so much he wanted to tell her about: Jasper, Malachite, the cluster, and the Diamonds. He had made detailed plans about how to fix everything before it started, but found that he could not recall those plans now.

The world around him disappeared. It was white. Everything around him was a blinding white. His stomach turned to ice when he met her intimidating gaze.

She smirked,"You can hide from yourself, but you can't hide from me, Pink."

A large white hand reached out toward him. He froze, watching helplessly as the hand came closer.

"Now, Starlight... This has gone on long enough."

He blinked as delicate fingers brushed against his damp cheeks. Pearl was watching him, a small frown on her face. She moved to give him a hug. She hesitated, guilt dancing in her eyes. Before he could stop himself he dove into her arms burying his face in the crook of her neck.

"Oh, Steven…" she murmured, her voice soft and calming like a lullaby.

His shoulders shake with each gasping breath as he struggles to tell her everything about the future. The information he gives is disjointed and muffled by his sobs. She holds him, gently caressing his hair. The soft reassurances helped calm his frayed nerves.


Steven nodded absentmindedly to whatever Amethyst was telling him. Garnet and Pearl had gone out to search for Twoie while Amethyst stayed behind to take care of him. The gems have been worried about him and were constantly trying to get him to stop looking for Twoie.

"Yo, Steven check this out." Amethyst said, shapeshifting into a lion. "I guess you can say I'm just lion around."

He stared at her, face blank, before turning his attention back to the warp pad.

"I said I'm just lion arou-"

"What happened that night with Twoie?" he interrupted.

Amethyst shapeshifted back to normal, surprise flashing across her features, "Nothing happened. Just forget about it."

"But you got poofed! Why were you and Twoie fighting?"

Amethyst huffed in annoyance before taking a seat next to him.

"Look, Steven…" she began, eyes focusing on a spot on the wall. "Twoie and I both did some stuff that night we probably shouldn't have." she explained, guilt bleeding into her voice.

"Is that why Twoie poofed you? Because of something you did?"

"Do you trust Twoie?" Amethyst asked, after a beat of silence.

His answer was instant, "Of course I do! He's me. Don't you trust him?"

She was silent for a moment, gnawing on her bottom lip. He could practically see the internal debate raging inside of her head as her eyes flitted across the room, focusing on anything other than him.

"No, I don't trust him." she confessed, the next words spilling out of her mouth in a rush. "Garnet and Pearl didn't want to risk getting his suspicions up by telling you, but you deserve to know the truth. I don't think Twoie is who he says he is."

Her words hung in the air, the tension in the room palpable as she eyed him warily. She was probably worried he would take her accusation badly. He should have been surprised by her revelation, but he had known that the gems disliked his older self for some time now. It was obvious in the way they treated him. They rarely spoke, they constantly avoided him, and they were quick to accuse him every time something went wrong.

What did surprise him about her revelation was their reason for distrusting Twoie; they didn't believe he was from the future. He almost laughed at the ridiculousness of her accusation because Twoie was so obviously him. Aside from looking similar, the gems on their stomachs were identical.

At his lack of response, she continued, "I know it's hard to believe, but you've got to trust me. Pearl and I were following him around and he was definitely up to something. If we just had his phone maybe we could figure out what it is."

A spark of anger flared up inside of him as he shouted, "That's why you guys have been so obsessed with his phone! You don't care about finding him at all!"

Amethysts flinched, a look of guilt flashing over her features but she didn't deny his claims.

"Maybe I'm wrong and Twoie really is you from the future or maybe I'm right and he is an imposter, but we won't know that for sure until we look at his phone." she reasoned.

His protests died in his throat when he met her determined gaze. He knew that Amethyst along with the other gems would not rest until they proved Twoie guilty or innocent. He felt he was betraying his friends' trust, but he was also confident they would find nothing incriminating on the phone.

"Ok," he conceded, surprising himself and Amethyst with how calm he sounded. "I'll unlock his phone."

His stomach knotted with guilt when she smiled at him, already regretting his decision. He took a deep breath to steel himself before heading to his room to retrieve the phone.


"-my Diamond."

A pair of faces he did not recognize peered up at him from his seat above them. He shot up like a bullet, his back straightening and shoulders squaring on their own. It was so ingrained in him that it might as well have been a reflex.

He smiled, it was plastic and strained but the pair of gems didn't seem to notice. Two pairs of identical grins appeared on their faces as they moved away, allowing for other gems to approach. This gem he recognized as a Sapphire, accompanied by her Ruby guard who stood at attention, eyeing the surrounding gems in suspicion.

She was saying something, most likely a compliment or perhaps she was giving him advice about his future. Whatever the case, he didn't care and merely nodded in agreement with a smile still plastered on his face. She soon left with her guard and her spot was once again filled by more gems eager to greet him.

Even after realizing that he was dreaming, he could not bring himself to act out of line, to break etiquette even if there were no consequences. He stole a glance at the other thrones that were situated above the ballroom.

White, as was usual, was absent. She was always too busy to attend any sort of celebration. In her stead was her cracked Pearl, her single unblinking eye catching his gaze and causing him to shudder before looking away.

Yellow's face was impassive as ever, but he had known her long enough to realize that she was bored. One of the few things they had in common was their distaste for events like this. Yellow detested third era balls simply because she believed them to be a waste of her time. The only reason she attended these gatherings was because it was her duty as a Diamond and Yellow always took her duties seriously. Her fingers twitched, probably longing for a screen she could use to file reports on.

Blue, for her part, was the most content out of the three Diamonds. A soft smile graced her features when their gazes met. He returned her smile easily, Blue was always the easiest Diamond to talk to. Her mood had greatly improved when he started taking his role as a Diamond seriously and she could not be more overjoyed to have her precious Pink back.

Something in the seas of faces and salutes caught his attention. A blur of black and red weaved in and out of the crowds, occasionally being swallowed up by the wave of gems before reappearing each time a little closer than before. It wasn't long before the figure made it to the front of his throne and revealed himself to be Steven.

He internally sighed, Steven had been getting better at invading his dreams and it was becoming difficult to block him out. He attempted to kick him out of his mind, blinking when he stubbornly remained. He didn't dare glance back at the other Diamonds as if that action alone would prevent Steven from seeing them.

"Twoie…" he greeted, his eyes dancing with some emotion he could not recognize. "Where are you?"

A wave of guilt washed over him at the concern in his voice. After he poofed Amethyst he kept running. For a while he had stayed in the forest, near where Little Homeworld would one day be built. He eventually forced himself to go back to Beach City, knowing that he could not hide from his problems forever.

He was going to march straight back to the temple and didn't plan on running into his dad who, to his relief, was not afraid of him in the slightest. They hung out all day and he found himself spilling the truth to his dad without any prompting from him. Most of the information about the Diamonds and the cluster flew over his head, but his dad did realize that he was taking on more responsibilities than he could handle.

The fog that had permeated his head finally parted as he recalled his conversation with Pearl. She had managed to find them on brooding hill and he finally told her the truth. Well, at least he tried to. He had been crying for most of his confession and he was certain that she wouldn't be able to decipher most of what he said.

"I'm on brooding hill, with Pearl."

"You need to come back." he said, gaze briefly darting over to the Diamonds.

He nodded, "I'm sorry for running away. You must have been worried."

Steven's gaze dropped to the carpeted floor beneath his sandals. His hands curling into fists at his sides. A spark of worry flared in his chest at his behavior. Was Steven upset with him?

"... I'm sorry too." He muttered.

His heart dropped like a stone to the pit of his stomach at his tone. There was something his younger counterpart wasn't telling him.

"When you get back home… We need to talk." was the last thing he said before taking off and disappearing into the crowd.

He leapt off his throne and moved to chase after him, but the room rumbled causing him to lose his balance and trip. The faces of the gems in the crowd blurred and the objects around him lost their detail. He was waking up.


Pearl stroked Twoie's curls, humming absentmindedly as she waited for him to wake up. He had passed out from exhaustion after dropping a bombshell of information on her. She didn't understand a lot of what he told her, most of the information was lost in between sobs, but she was able to piece some things together.

From the way he casually referred to the Diamonds as simply 'Blue' and 'Yellow' she speculated that they had discovered the truth behind Rose Quartz. A scenario that made her shudder just thinking about their reactions. Her fear doubled at the realization that Twoie was forced to deal with the wrath of the Diamonds.

Her mind flashed back to when he first arrived, dressed as Pink Diamond. His cryptic behavior and strange mannerisms was starting to make sense.

Twoie's face twitched as he twisted and turned, muttering in his sleep. He stilled before shooting up like a bullet. His eyes wide and confused as he adjusted to being awake.

"We have to go back. It's Steven… something's wrong."

She ignored the tightening of her chest and chose not to question his information. She followed along silently as they made their way back to the beach house. She opened her mouth many times to utter apologies at how she had treated him, but her voice disappeared before she could say anything.

"Is Garnet back?" Twoie asked her when they reached the beach.

"Yes, Ruby and Sapphire fused shortly after you left."

He nodded, satisfied, "Don't tell her about… Pink."

"What?! She ha-"

"Garnet doesn't take it well. In my time she split over it and I was afraid I would never see Garnet again. I'm not going to order you to keep quiet about it if you don't want to, but Homeworld is coming and we can't afford to weaken the team."

She was silent as she processed the new information, wanting to tell her teammates the truth but at the same time not wanting Garnet to split.

She knew something was wrong the moment they walked into the room. The tension in the air was suffocating. Steven stole a quick glance at them when they first arrived, but now refused to look up from the floor. Amethyst's eyes lit up in relief when they landed on her, hardening when she glanced at Twoie.

Garnet's back was turned toward them making it difficult to tell how she was feeling, her shoulders trembled with suppressed emotion.

"What's going on here?" she asked Amethyst, who was the most collected of everyone.

"We unlocked his phone-" she gestured to Twoie with her head. "-and we found something."