Freshwater sighed as she made her way through Beach City, using one hand to shield her gaze from the blinding sun as she scanned the boardwalk for any signs of Steven or Amethyst. As soon as she and Pearl had gotten back, they'd found Sapphire wrapped in one of Steven's bedsheet covers and sobbing. Apparently the boy had left to find his red parental figure after the pair discovered the note Ruby had left explaining she had left to take time to reflect on Sapphire's words.
Freshwater grimaced as she pushed the memory of the look of distraught that had flashed across her girlfriend's face as she comforted Sapphire, both gems voicing their concern about the pair's relationship.
"Of course Rose somehow manages to hurt people even after death. Why am I not surprised?" the gem muttered to herself as she pushed open to Fish Stu Pizza, her head popping up when she heard two familiar voices calling her name.
"You're back!" Steven said, sliding over in the booth and patting the place next to him. "Are…you and Pearl okay?" he asked, a hopeful expression on his face. Freshwater nodded, heaving a deep sigh as she took her seat. "Yeah. Pearl decided to hang back and comfort Sapphire while I went to see if I could help you guys find Ruby. Speaking of which." she said, glancing from Amethyst to Steven. "Have you guys had any luck?"
Steven and Amethyst shook their heads dejectedly. "No. We've looked everywhere with no luck, so we decided to take a break to grab dinner."
Freshwater nodded. "Yeah, I don't blame you. Dealing with the fallout of finding out Rose was Pink Diamond has been…a lot." she said, looking up when she heard footsteps approaching.
"Woah, you guys look exhausted. Long day?" Kiki said, offering the gems a smile as she placed a pizza on the table..
"You have no idea." Amethyst groaned, Freshwater and Steven nodding in affirmation.
"Well, I hope some of Fish Stu Pizza can lighten the mood." Kiki said, looking around before lowering her voice. "Hey…have you guys heard anything about Jonathon and Lars? We're working on putting our first show together, and we really want him to be there because the music just isn't the same without him."
"They're probably fine, Kiki." Steven said, offering the human a reassuring smile. "Last time Jet, Connie, and I saw them they were fighting off Homeworld just fine on their own and even managed to steal a ship that has novathrusters. In fact, it wouldn't surprise me if they showed up in a few days."
Kiki let out a sigh of relief. "Okay, good." she said, thanking Steven as he handed her the money for the pizza along with a tip before turning back to Amethyst and Freshwater, who had each picked up a slice of pizza.
"Whoa, since when do you eat?" Amethyst asked, arching an eyebrow at Freshwater, who laughed. "Honestly? The craving comes and goes. I could never put food away like you do, though. It's both disgusting and impressive."
Amethyst snickered. "That sounds like something Pearl would say." she teased, laughing when Freshwater's face darkened considerably. Freshwater rolled her eyes. "What can I say? You guys rubbed off on me." she said, taking another bite from her slice of pizza.
"Enough for you to still consider yourself a Crystal Gem after finding out how… 'controversial' our leader is?" Amethyst asked, cocking her head to the side.
"Amethyst!" Steven gasped before quickly turning to Freshwater. "You don't have to consider yourself a Crystal Gem if you're not-"
Freshwater raised her hand, finishing off her slice of pizza before turning decisively to the purple gem. "Yeah. I do." she said, pausing and looking away. "My feelings about Rose don't matter because I'm not fighting for her. I'm fighting for what the team she built represents."
"And…what are your feelings about Rose being Pink Diamond?" Steven asked, Freshwater flinching as she felt a twinge of the red-hot anger from earlier return.
"What are your feelings about Rose being Pink Diamond? I mean she's your mom, after all." the gem deflected as Amethyst nodded.
"Yeah, dude. I've been trying to get you to open up about how you feel about it all day and you've been deflecting me about as hard as Freshwater's deflecting you right now."
"Hey!"
"Look, my point is there's no point in pretending what Rose - Pink Diamond - uh. She did was divisive, to say the least. But that doesn't mean we shouldn't acknowledge how we feel about it." Amethyst said, glancing between Freshwater and Steven. "So. Who wants to go first?" she said, rolling her eyes when both gems refused to talk. "Yeah, should have expected that." the gem said, rolling her eyes.
"Ooh, what if we all just on the count of three say how we feel about her? Rip it off like a band-aid." Steven suggested.
Freshwater nodded. "Good idea. Okay," she aid, taking a deep breath and releasing it slowly as she started to count.
"One, two, three."
"I feel confused." Steven blurted, his eyes widening in shock at the realization Freshwater and Amethyst hadn't said a word.
"Hey!" Steven protested, Freshwater shrugging with a smirk as she and Amethyst fist bumped.
"Your emotions are more important right now, dude." Amethyst said as Freshwater nodded in agreement. Steven looked like he wanted to protest, but gave in, rolling his eyes before continuing, the gems across from him leaning in to give him their undivided attention.
"I-I thought I'd really finally got it. That Mom didn't have everything figured out, even though everybody put her way up on this pedestal, but... now I guess she's royalty too? I'm relieved that she didn't shatter anyone, but... She lied to everyone. I mean... I'm not surprised. I knew she was a liar. But this is just... so much."
Freshwater and Amethyst exchanged a look. "But like….aren't you mad?" Freshwater asked, Amethyst nodding in agreement.
Steven hesitated. "Kind of? I don't know... I can see how she was good and bad... and bad and good. But I... I guess what really matters right now is how hard Garnet took it." he said, he and Freshwater jumping when Amethyst slammed her fist on the table.
"But what about you?" she protested. "But what about you?! She's your mom! You were always under all this pressure to be like her! But... Was she even like her?! Was anyone ever like her?!" she said, throwing her hands into the air as she started to go on a rant. "She was supposed to be so great! She was supposed to know everything! And... She was supposed to make everything better! It's not fair! We shouldn't have to deal with any of this, we shouldn't have to fix any of this, we weren't around for a stupid war! This... is everyone else's problem... This has nothing to do with me." the gem said, glaring at the wall as the gems lapsed into uncomfortable silence.
"I mean…This doesn't haven't have anything to do with you!" the gem said, backpedaling as she attempted to check on Steven, who raised an eyebrow in suspicion.
"Amethyst, are you okay?" Steven asked, concern washing over his face as the purple gem groaned, putting her head in her hands.
"No! I mean... Yes! Of course, I'm okay! Ugh... I'm trying to find out how you feel about all this! Ugh! She's... your mom, okay? Doesn't really affect me." the gem said, looking away in frustration, the momentary silence only stopping when the door opened and Jenny stepped in. "Dude! Kiki, I just got the biggest tip from Mr. Universe and I'm totally gonna buy those boots now!"
Kiki looked up from her spot behind the counter, her eyes widening as she grinned at her sister. "Woah... Seriously?"
Jenny nodded, her grin widening. "Yeah! He was like all the way out on Brooding Hill, which is totally out of our delivery radius, comforting some little friend! She must've been crying because she was like really red."
Amethyst, Steven, and Freshwater exchanged a look, the gems falling over themselves as they made their way to the door.
"Steven, go back inside and eat while me and Amethyst go get Ruby." Freshwater said as Amethyst shapeshifted into a helicopter. "You fight so hard to help this family out, and while that is incredibly sweet, you're just a kid. No more adults should be putting anything else on you." she said, turning her heels and starting to ignore the boy as he started to protest, but unable to keep herself from tensing up at his words as she boarded the helicopter.
"There's someone else who needs help even more, and it's you! Both of you!"
Freshwater let out a sigh of relief as the helicopter lifted into the air. This relief was interrupted, however, when the helicopter shook violently, throwing the gem to the ground. Looking out the window, the gem gasped when she saw Steven hanging onto the back.
"Dude are you insane?!" Freshwater demanded, slack jawed.
"Let me help you with your feelings! Come on! You can talk to me!" Steven yelled over the sound of rushing wind as Amethyst tried to shake the boy off as he barely managed to crawl into the helicopter, he and Freshwater barely managing to hold on as the gem started to fly in circles.
"If you open up you'll feel so much better!" Steven yelled.
"Amethyst! Look out!" Freshwater yelled, pointing.
Too late.
Before Amethyst could swerve out of the way, the helicopter had collided into the Water Tower and began diving towards the ground, Steven barely managing to have time to summon his protective bubble around him and Freshwater before they crashed loudly, sending all three gems collapsing into the sand on the beach, groaning.
"Are you two ok-"
"I swear to the Diamonds if you finish that sentence I'm going to lose my mind." Freshwater said, pushing herself to a sitting position.
"Okay, fine!" Amethyst said, pushing herself up as well, frustration in her voice. "You wanna know how I feel, Steven?!"
Steven blushed and nodded. "I thought I was pretty clear about that."
Amethyst groaned. "I thought I was pretty clear too! I feel like I don't wanna say, "What about me?" Okay!? And I don't want to be bent out of shape! I don't wanna be stuck in the past, and I'm not responsible for what Rose did! None of us are! But I am responsible for me! And right now, I am NOT gonna dump another thousand-year-old complex on you or anybody else! I'm ending it right here! I am the ding-dong sunshine future; your friend forever! And I'm not gonna fall apart on you." she said, climbing to her feet and hoisting Steven to his feet.
"And neither is Freshwater." she said, turning and giving the gem a nod of approval, whos eyes widened in shock at the acknowledgement before nodding and hoisting herself to her feet.
"So Steven, how do you feel?" she asked, glancing at Steven who smiled. "Pretty good."
Amethyst and Freshwater studied the boy's face for signs of a lie before exchanging a look and nodding.
"Good." Amethyst said, flopping onto the ground, Steven at her side.
"Well. Now that that's settled you two should take a break. I'm going to see if I can find Ruby." Freshwater said, turning on her heel and starting to leave, looking down in surprise when she felt something wrap around her leg and pull her clumsily to the ground. "No way dude. Not alone you're not." the gem holding the other end said, the purple gem flashing her a smirk.
"You deserve a bit of a break too. We'll go get Ruby together." Steven explained.
"You could have just said that." Freshwater grumbled as the whip disappeared in a flash of light, Freshwater joining the gems and flopping into the sand.
"Eh, it's more fun that way." Amethyst said, putting her hands behind her head. "You're a good person. You deserve a break."
Freshwater felt a hot blush come to her cheeks as she laughed awkwardly. "That's a bit of a stretch, don't you think?"
"No way, dude." Amethyst said as Steven nodded in agreement. Freshwater scoffed. "How do you figure?"
Amethyst arched an eyebrow. "Dude, in the past few years you helped start an uprising at the Zoo, released a bunch of humans from captivity, risked your life to save Pearl from the Diamonds, bubbled hundreds of shattered pearls, leaked the news of Project Perfection to all of Homeworld, helped the Off-Colors escape, and to top it all off, you escaped Homeworld - and you came back here." she said, glancing at Freshwater.
"I didn't get it at first. I didn't want to get it at first." she said with a sigh, standing up and staring over the horizon, Freshwater and Steven doing the same. "I didn't see why Pearl was so distraught over the fact that someone who had betrayed us was now out of our hair. But when Pearl insisted we try to talk to you at the Zoo, I started to think maybe you had changed, and I just…didn't see it yet." the gem said, playfully punching Freshwater in the arm.
"I'm glad you proved us right." she said, offering the gem a grin that Freshwater returned.
"I am too. And for the record…I am sorry. And…not just for trying to get you guys killed, though that is arguably the more deplorable offense." she said, she, Steven, and Amethyst sharing a laugh before Freshwater continued when the laughter died down.
"I'm sorry for how I treated you when we first met. I am ashamed to admit that when I saw how happy you were I was bitter and jealous." she said, grimacing at her toxic mindset. "I thought that since my defectiveness made me miserable that you should be miserable too. It was very toxic, and while I can't take it back, I would like to apologize."
Amethyst paused for a moment, mulling the gem's words over before nodding. "It's okay. And…I'm sorry too. Pearl and Garnet tried to explain how badly Homeworld treated gems who were defective, but I just…didn't get it until Peridot and Jasper showed up and started making fun of me for being defective. I can't imagine having to go through that for my whole existence. Then I met Holly Blue first hand and I realized she's-"
"Terrifying?" Steven offered.
"A tyrant?" Freshwater said, cocking her head to the side.
Amethyst snickered. "I was gonna say she's a bigoted, evil, soulless bitch, but that works too." she said with a snicker before returning to her serious tone. "Anyway…the point is, I should have been more understanding of how difficult it is to change. I shouldn't have been angry at you for not being able to just flip a switch and not see that being defective isn't bad it's just-"
"Different." Freshwater said, she and Amethyst sharing a smile.
"Yeah. Different." Amethyst said, turning to the gem. "You weren't a good person then. But you are now. It just took you a while."
"I'm glad you guys think so." Freshwater said with a smile. "Hopefully one day I'll think the same thing about myself."
"You will! And, until then, you've got us! And, of course, you've got Pearl." Steven said, playfully nudging Freshwater, whose face immediately heat up, the gem unable to keep a smile off her face.
"So, Freshwater." Amethyst asked, glancing up at the gem who cocked her head to the side. "How do you feel?"
Freshwater laughed, throwing her arms around both gems, who looked surprised but returned the gesture.
"I feel pretty great."