Chapter 5

Steven hadn't seen Spinel for a long time; days, probably. Their last conversation had gone less than ideally, ending in her stomping off and leaving him alone in the cold prison. She hadn't come by to see him since.

His hunger felt like a knife's tip twisting in his guts, the sharp pains resounding up through his chest and into his dizzy head. His mouth had long since gone dry from lack of water, and his lips were cracked and bleeding. His body ached for food and water desperately for hours and hours before the pain eased away, only to return ever stronger as time wore on. Back and forth, on and on, his body was battling itself at the expense of his sanity. The rooted walls of the gray prison closed in around him, the dim light from the warp pad above him as unchanging as the silence which rang in his ears endlessly. Wherever he was, his circadian rhythm was still in effect, at least for now. His tortured body drove him to sleep intermittently, and he followed, knowing his dreams might hold the key to his escape from this hell.

Deliriously, he rolled to his side, the hollow feeling in his gut gnawing at him. Any attempts he had made to summon the cake from his gem had failed, and he had become too lightheaded and weak to keep trying. He desperately needed Spinel to come back. He could do nothing but wait for her return, and hope that she would be kind enough to grant him food and water. She wouldn't make him live on like this, would she?

He stared at his hand resting on the cold, stone floor. His vision was blurred and darkened from one side, as if he were looking at the world through a rippling pool of murky, black water. His left eye had finally opened yesterday, the crusted blood softened by the many tears that had washed over it. His body had failed to heal the crushed eye properly, leaving his range of vision compromised. Steven had learned that his left eye was now extremely and painfully sensitive to light, and even the dim glow of the warp gave him a splitting headache.

His hand shot up to his face as the cell flashed brightly. Covering his aching eye, he looked up to see the shadow of two feet walking off of the window. His heart skipped and he sat up abruptly, his spinning head causing his vision to shimmer. Shakily, he placed both hands on the ground around him, pulling himself back from the brink of fainting. Breathing deeply, he tried to cope with the lightheadedness as he saw the bright pink light split the stone in the corner. Spinel stepped in, her streaked face set in determined coolness. Underneath her mask, Steven could see that she was still shaken from their last interaction. Her eyes were glued to the wall above him, looking anywhere but his pleading, mangled face. She stopped in front of him, seemingly not knowing what to say. Her hands clenched and unclenched at her sides in the awkward quiet.

Steven broke the silence in a strained voice. "Please, I need to eat. I'm going to die if I don't have food and water." He looked up at her, begging. He couldn't take another second of starvation.

Her gaze flashed down at his desperate, blood-streaked face, and she paled dramatically. Her eyes grew wide, and one of her hands rose up to clasp around her throat anxiously. She seemed to be fighting an internal battle as her lips drew back in a grimace. Her attention was fixed on his opened left eye, which stared back at her, wide and unseeing. The black, scarred socket confounded her.

"Why-" She started in a high voice, then swallowed before continuing. "Why is your eye not better? You healed when I broke your neck, why is your eye still…like that? It's been days." Her thin eyebrows drew together in confusion as she watched Steven reach up to cover his vulnerable eye. His chin quivered as his narrowed right eye filled with tears that spilled over his grimy cheek, following a clean streak that cut through the blood and dirt. He had cried like this before, and a lot, she realized. He sorrowfully gazed up at her from where he sat, the light from the warp pad framing him like a spotlight. A pathetic whimpering noise issued from his chapped, pouting lips, and Spinel took a horrified step back. Her eyes darted from the streaks running down his face, to his dried blood-covered clothing, to the roots strangling his feet, panic building in her chest.

"Answer me! Why haven't you healed?!" She shouted across the cell, exasperated. She grew angry when she saw his shaking form flinch at the tone in her voice. He dragged his body away from her, fighting his tangled, rooted feet. Why was he acting so pathetic? She took a threatening step forward, brandishing her fist. She snarled angrily, "Answer me!"

Steven held his palms out to her, cowering behind his shaking hands. He answered in a feeble voice, "Please! I-I don't know why my eye is still hurt; I just know I can't use it anymore! I can't see from it anymore!" He moved one of his outstretched palms to wrap that side of his face, covering his eye gingerly. "It hurts so much…" He broke off, and curled in on himself, more tears cutting trails through the grime on his cheeks. His sobs echoed in the silence that followed his statement.

The pink gem's fist dropped to her side, her face morphing into a profound frown. She didn't know what kind of state she expected to find him in, but this…this wasn't it.

Through his choked cries, Steven bit out, "Why did you even come here?" He moved his hands to fix his uneven gaze on his captor and shouted, "What do you want from me!?" As soon as the words left his mouth, his hands flew up to shield his face again, expecting an attack.

Spinel paused, her face screwing up. "I- I came to-"

Staring down at this broken, feeble boy, she couldn't understand why she was there.

"I-I don't even know." She let out a sharp huff of frustration from her nose and turned on her heel to leave. She could leave him here to die, for all it mattered. She had taken him here to play with him, but this was just getting sad. She frowned at the wall as she heard the boy behind her gasp and struggle to move.

Steven's crazed eyes widened at her retreat, and he cried out, "Wait!" He crawled along the floor towards her withdrawing form, reaching his hand out. "Please, I need food, or I'll die!"

She paused for a short moment before continuing her march towards the door.

Steven was frantic, and he cried out in desperation the only thing he thought could get her attention.

"Spinel!"

The pink gem halted, one foot still in the air, and her hands spread out comically at her sides from shock. She stared, open-mouthed, at the wall in front of her, her mind dazed and reeling. Tears welled in her widened eyes and streamed down her face as she slowly turned to her victim. He knelt on the cold floor, cautiously watching her. His streaked cheeks were a perfect inverse caricature of her running-eyeliner form. She raised her hand to her cheek, resting her gloved fingers on the black lines.

"Do you remember me?" Her voice was feeble, but beneath it Steven could detect an ember of hope. "Are you…her? Pink?" Spinel tilted her head to the side, searching his face.

She cautiously stepped forward and knelt in front of him, level with his watery, mismatched eyes. From his curled brown hair to his bloodied and torn shirt, the pink gem looked over every inch of him, searching for any sign of the Diamond she used to know. Her attention rested on his pleading, sorrowful gaze. Placing her palms tentatively on both of his cheeks, she pulled him forward, her glowing eyes staring deeply into his. Steven's mind reeled with fear as her cool breath passed over his lips, before their foreheads pressed together. He breathed shakily through his nose, looking down at her thin knees pressed into the dirt, then at his own hands folded in his lap. Spinel held his head to hers, firmly clinging to him like a prayer.

He realized with relief that she wasn't going to kiss him, but his stomach lurched painfully upon remembering the last time he saw Connie. Before he said goodbye, they had done exactly what Spinel was doing now. Then, it was a warm and heartfelt intimacy that drove Steven to pull Connie closer. This crazed, vicious gem was nothing like her at all, and he definitely didn't trust her this close to him.

He put his hands on either side of her jeweled chest, gently pushing her shoulders back. He could feel Spinel's breath catch as her perplexed gaze met his.

"I'm not my mom. I'm- I'm sorry."

She blinked at him, stunned. Her fingers curled into claws in his face, dragging down his cheeks then dropping to the floor. She looked down as Steven moved his hands from her stiff shoulders, frowning quietly for a long, torturous while. Stevn's heart was pounding in fear from their close proximity, worsening the longer she stayed there. The tense silence dragged on.

Finally she stood, her face cast in shadow as she blinked tears of shame from her eyes. She turned on her heel, retreating from the prison.

Steven didn't call after her.

…

Amethyst walked along the warm sand of the beach, exhausted from days of searching for Steven. The countless planets she'd visited, and the countless gems she interacted with, had worn down her resolve. She'd of course gone to the diamonds and told them of what happened and asked them if they knew anything. They told her that they didn't recognize any gem by the description she had given, but that they'd send their armies out looking for him. They also expressed their sorrow for what had happened to Garnet and Pearl, but they didn't know how they could be brought back.

Her and the Little Homeworld gems had already checked almost every planet in the galaxy with a warp pad, to no avail. Lars had immediately set out with the Off-colors to scan planets that weren't warp pad accessible. She doubted the Diamonds could look anywhere she hadn't already been, so it seemed like a waste of time.

She plopped down onto the beach, drained. She fell onto her back, her lavender hair splayed out around her, blowing in the seabreeze. She closed her eyes against the sunlight, hoping to sleep for the first time since the attack.

The attack was what she called it, the day her family was completely destroyed and stolen from her. Everyone looked to her now as the new leader of the Crystal Gems, a position she'd never even imagined having. The pressure was taking its toll on her for sure. She could still see the devastated look on Greg's face when she told him what had happened to his son, and the anguish on the faces of the townspeople when one by one, they stopped by to see what had happened to their friend. The entire town was silent, in shock over the violent destruction that had taken Steven from them.

The bright sunlight filtering through her closed eyelids was suddenly eclipsed by something large standing over her. Long pink hairs tickled her cheeks as she opened her eyes to find Lion staring at her, his nose almost touching hers. He huffed out a hot, stinky breath across her face, effectively ruining her rest. She sat up, waving the smell away from her.

"Hey, Lion." She ran a hand through his cotton-candy colored mane. Lion stared determinedly in response, seemingly waiting for something. His gaze locked steadily with her own, unnerving her.

"What is it, buddy?"

He huffed in her face again, pressing his forehead to hers. She pulled her face away, frowning. Lion blinked at her before turning around and bounding up the steps to the house. She heard the screen door creak open and slam closed behind the big cat. She briefly wondered what could be his issue before the door sounded again and he vaulted down the stairs, running towards her with something clamped in his mouth. He stopped in front of Amethyst, pressing the drool-covered item into her palm.

She accepted the small, square photo and gasped. Connie! In the panic after the attack and her subsequent exhaustion, she had forgotten to tell Connie what had happened to Steven!

Amethyst dreaded what she had to do, but she looked to Lion and commanded, "Take me to her." Lion lowered his back so that she could climb up, and they were off.

His lithe pink body flew down the beach, flinging sand out behind him. The wind combed through their hair as Lion rumbled and roared loudly, shooting a bright beam of light from his mouth. The beam stopped at a point twenty feet ahead of them and grew into a swirling pool of pink and white just as they breached its surface. Amethyst saw an endless dimension of streaking sparkles and blushing hues rushing past her like brushstrokes. Lion roared again, his portal revealing a metallic blur of blue and gray.

They flew out of the portal, Amethyst clutching to Lion's mane as he slid to a halt on the silver floor. She looked around quickly, noting that they were in a large-windowed room overlooking a hangar filled with a single, gigantic rocket. Hundreds of people scurried around it, looking like ants from her vantage point. A small voice called her attention behind her, sounding worried.

"Amethyst? What are you doing here?" Connie stood amongst a large group of teenagers in blue jumpsuits, who were all ogling at the stout purple woman who had appeared out of nowhere on a massive pink lion.

Amethyst jumped from Lion's back and wrung her hands in front of her, preparing herself for what she had to do.

"It's Steven, he's in trouble. We need you to come back." She looked up at Connie's stricken face apologetically. "We really need help." Despite her best efforts, her voice cracked and trembled, further alarming the girl in front of her.

"What happened to Steven? Is he okay?" Connie ran to the purple gem, wrapping a comforting arm around her shoulders. She peered down into her face fearfully as the gem prepared to break the news.

"He's…gone." She shakily took a breath before continuing, feeling Connie's grip tighten on her arm. "Someone took him, and did something weird to the others. They-they don't remember who they are."

Connie's face was pale and blank as she slowly murmured, "Let me go…go get my bags…"

Her arm dropped from Amethyst's shoulder as she stood and slowly stepped through the parting crowd of teenagers, to a door behind them. The audience's heads followed her stunned retreat, before whipping back around to look at Amethyst, who buried her face in Lion's mane. She could feel their stares burn into her back as Connie packed her bags.

Connie stepped back into the room, her luggage slung over her shoulders and the sword Bismuth made for her tucked under her arm. Her glassy eyes were set determinedly as she nodded to the purple gem.

They hopped onto Lion's lowered back, and he roared another portal for them. Connie's arms stiffly clung to Amethyst's waist as they flew through space, back to Beach City. Not a word passed between them on the journey.

They landed in Little Homeworld, just outside of the Nephrite's office that Amethyst had first run to after the attack. She and Connie dismounted, cautiously approaching the cracked door. They peered inside the darkened office to see Sapphire sitting serenely in the cushioned chair Pearl had summoned for Lapis, while Ruby marched back and forth in front of her.

Catching them staring, Ruby shouted, "What're you lookin' at?!"

They closed the door fully, shutting the two inside. "They barricaded themselves in here days ago. Ruby thinks she has to protect Sapphire from everything, and Sapphire has no idea what's going on. I don't know where Pearl is, but she's acting like a slave to Lapis. They've like, reverted. Bismuth says the weapon that poofed them did it."

Connie's face was warped with confusion and worry as she asked, "How did this happen? Who did this?"

Amethyst pulled her onto the warp pad. "I'll show you."

They landed inside of the dark, silent house. The air felt heavy with… something as Connie walked over to drop her bags on the couch. She passed the stairs to Steven's bedroom on her way to the door, and a knot formed in her stomach. They were just up there, together. She left for only a few days, and what had happened? Shaking her head of those despondent thoughts, she moved along.

The screen door creaked closed behind her as she stared out into a scene of chaos. The sand was thrown out in a wide radius from a crater in the center of the beach. The pit itself was crowned with a ring of jagged glass spires; a violent splash frozen in time. She numbly dropped her feet on the steps, one at a time, her brown eyes wide and scanning the area. Her feet met the sand, and Amethyst stood next to her, also surveying the damage to her home.

"She came down there," Amethyst started, pointing to the glass towers, "and she got Garnet first. She was behind that statue." Again, she pointed; the hand gracefully rising from the beach had drops of glass like melted wax splashed across its entire surface. They walked further onto the wrecked beach as she explained how the intruder threw her at the temple, and the scene that met her when she finally got back.

"She had Steven…up in the air, and-"

Connie cut her off, panicked. "What do you mean, up in the air?" Amethyst cringed and looked to the ground, not wanting to make this any harder than it needed to be for the girl. Connie snapped, "Amethyst, tell me!"

She sighed before elaborating. "He was- I'm pretty sure he was dead, or almost dead. But he wasn't! I don't know how, but she broke his neck, and he healed after she dropped him. He saved me, when I was about to get hit with that weird weapon she was using."

Connie's face had gone stark white, her hands clamping over her mouth in horror. She looked across the beach to a particularly dark patch, which had already begun to blend with the surrounding sand. "Oh, Steven…" Her eyes brimmed with tears as she looked to Amethyst, signaling her to continue.

She explained how she had tried to end the fight, only to be thrown out to sea. By the time she made it back to shore, the attacker had already dragged Steven away and into her robonoid, flying off just before she could make it to the crater.

"He was in pretty bad shape…but hey! It's Steven. For all we know, he's best friends with that gem already! They're probably out there, right now, chatting about their feelings and working it out!" Her voice sounded hopeful, but she knew that probably wasn't the case.

Connie's expression was calculating as she wiped a stray tear from her cheek. "Where have you guys been looking for him?"

Amethyst hummed, counting on her fingers. "We've checked, like, every warp pad, Lars is out looking around the nearby planets and moons, and the Diamonds said they're sending out a ton of gems to look around."

Connie placed a hand on her chin, deliberating. "Can you- I mean, are you able to use a warp pad that you don't know about?"

Amethyst frowned and shook her head, "No, we have to think about where we want to go. Are you saying he could be warped someplace we don't know about?"

Connie shrugged. "It's worth a try, isn't it?"