Connie was relaxing, finally. The Temps were gathered on the grass, while Pearl explained her and Connie's recent journey.
"It was very frightening, to be sure. Those mutants came after us, but we fend them off!" Pearl creid. "And then, right when we reached the Cluster, Connie's body started to malfunction, and she collapsed! I don't really know what happened then…" She glanced at Connie, who seemed to be spaced off. "Would you like to tell us, Connie?"
"Hm? Oh, er, yes, I just have to check something."
Connie soon peeked into the barn, trying to see if Amethyst was awake….
The gem was still asleep, and she gave a moan in her dreams, clutching the hay under her.
Connie gave a small sigh.
"Hey, kiddo! Whatcha' doing…" Jasper paused seeing Connie leaned against the doorway. "Is she awake yet?"
Connie solemnly shook her head.
""Well, she will be eventually. She's a tough one." She placed a hand on Connie's shoulder. "Now, you gotta tell me more about you beat the Cluster!"
Connie gave a weak laugh, turning away from Amethyst. "I suppose she isn't going anywhere…"
"Connie! Connie!"
A familiar voice was whispering in her ear.
Connie yawned slightly and brushed sleep out of her eyes before seeing Amethyst, awake.
"A-Amethyst!" Connie cried. Amethyst shushed her, looking serious until a big grin appeared on her face.
She grabbed Connie up in a hug, making the girl laugh as softly as she could. "Oh man, I sure missed you, kid!"
"You're… back to your normal self!" Connie said, with surprise and suspicion in her voice.
Amethyst gave a laugh. "Why would I ever change?"
"You were trapped in Sugilite for months, you sounded so scared-"
"Oh, were you worried about me?" Amethyst said in a tone one would speak to a human baby. She wrestled Connie around a bit before Connie told her to stop.
"You mean, it didn't affect you at all?"
"Kiddo, nothing affects me!" Amethyst grinned.
Connie frowned, but soon tried to ignore that. "Er, well, will you be staying with us? I could always set you up in the barn, you know, Pe-"
"Whoa, whoa, whoa, slow your roll, Con-man. You think I'm staying here? With the Temps?"
"Well, I assumed-!" Connie tried to say, but Amethyst cut her off.
"Connie, I'm not staying here, okay?" Amethyst asked darkly and coldly.
"Okay…" Connie sighed. "Then, where will you live?"
"Um… you know… somewhere." Amethyst shrugged with a blush.
"Why can't you stay?" Connie asked with clear disappointment.
Amethyst shook her head. "I just can't, squirt." She then smiled weakly. "But hey! I'll still come back here every now and then, so we can hang out at night, right, summer friend?"
Connie nodded slowly. "I guess."
"Right, welp, I gotta go." Amethyst smiled, jumping onto the warp pad. "See ya around, Connie, and don't tell anyone that we talked, okay?"
"Okay…" Connie only lifted her hand sligthly, watching in dismay as Amethyst warped away.
"I wonder where she went…" Pearl muttered, looking at the shifted pile of hay.
"I don't know…"
There was a few moments of silence and Connie gave a small cough. "I'm sorry that Amethyst is gone, but do you still want to stay in the barn?"
"I do." Pearl sighed.
Doug had loaded up all the junk from the barn, but hestatied in taking down a picture.
"Well, it looks like we're all packed up, I better take you two home, pumpkin." Doug called, getting Connie's attention.
"Oh, Pearl's going to stay, and… I'm going to ride Lion home." Connie said, sounding unsure as that was indeed what she was doing.
"Okay then. Be safe!" Doug sternly said, but still in a obvious loving tone.
He and the other Temps, excluding Pearl, drove off.
Connie didn't call for Lion though, she instead ran down the hill nearby, leading to a warp pad. She sat down quietly, staring at it. Prehaps if she had Peridot's machine, she could tell when Amethyst was warping, but then the Temps would surely find out…
Suddenly, the warp pad glowed and Amethyst warped in front of her.
"Amethyst! You're back!" Connie gasped. "Where did you go?"
"I tried to go to my home on Earth, but… uh… something came up." Amethyst blushed. She hopped off the warp pad and slid into a sitting position next to her. "So, I need a new place to live, that's not here."
Connie smiled. "I know most of the surrounding areas, I can show you around if you'd like!"
"I… guess?" Amethyst shrugged with a weak grin. She then shapeshifted into a wolf and gave a soft howl, before going under Connie to get her on her back. "Let's blow this popsicle joint!"
Connie gasped as Amethyst started to run, and wrapped her arms around the gem's neck.
"So, there's some open houses in Babe Berg, and a few apartments in-" Amethyst was quick to shrug her off, and quickly eat the map the girl had brought in her small purse.
"Amethyst!" Connie gasped in horror.
"Yum, I feel a lot smarter." Amethyst said, licking her lips. She then gave out a massive burp.
Connie laughed, she then frowned. "How are we going to find you a place to live now?"
"Uh, we explore, duh." Amethyst smirked, letting Connie on her back again.
They soon slowed to a trot once they reached a feild of flowers. Connie sneezed and Amethyst shapeshifted back to her normal self.
"You could live here, and find yourself a bit, it's really lovely, all the flowers and such… I heard that sometimes being alone is a good coping mechanism for some things, but then again, so is being with trusted friends so-" Connie stopped when Amethyst shrugged.
"Nah. This place is too pretty for my liking, I need somewhere I can mess up!" Amethyst cried. Connie thought for a moment then snapped her fingers in a idea.
Amethyst soon was a large bird, with Connie hanging on her back.
They landed at a swamp, and Connie hopped off.
"This place is surrounded by mud, and water, no one would care if you played around with it." Connie smiled, showing Amethyst a frog.
Amethyst frowned. "Yeah… this is great, but something feels missing…"
"Company?"
"No."
"A persistent landlord?"
"I don't even know what that is."
"Oh! Are you upset because you aren't close enough to the city? All the people, lights, food-"
"What's… food?"
"Oh man, this is awesome!" Amethyst said with her mouth full. She took another bite of pizza and then a bite of a hotdog.
Connie laughed. "I thought you might like it!"
They were now in Empire City, Amethyst wanted to try everything. "So, there's food here, all the time?"
"Pretty much!" Connie beamed cheerfully. "However, you would need to get money to pay for it."
Amethyst choked slightly. "What's that?"
"Er, paper currency that you trade for all sorts of things. You'd have to work for it."
"Work? I've been working for months." Amethyst motioned for Connie to get on her back, and the gem ran off, to where, she had no clue.
"Be careful!" Connie yelled through her squeals of excitement. Amethyst smirked. The gem used her whip to swing them to the other side of a mountain crevice. They then leapt swiftly up the rocks, to the top.
Connie practically rolled off and Amethyst slumped down beside her.
"Nice view, huh?" Amethyst smiled, seeing Connie's diamond eyes.
They sat on top if the high mountain, the view was extraordinary. Everything seemed so tiny, yet so detailed at the same time…
Amethyst shapeshifted into a bird immediately, and quickly flew from the ground, high as she could, to the point where she could only barely see Connie.
"Are you okay?" Connie called.
"WHAT?"
"ARE YOU OKAY?!"
"OH, YEP! DOING GREAT! SO,WHY ARE WE HERE?"
Connie soon pointed to a rocky place, just below them. "LOOK! IT'S A KINDERGARDEN!"
Amethyst glanced at where she was pointed and gave a short nod. "YEAH?"
"JUST, COME DOWN HERE!" Connie yelled. Amethyst fluttered slightly closer, her teeth slightly gritted as she did.
Connie stood and ran to the edge of the cliff to see the edge of the Prime Kindergarten. "Let's go check it out, see if you'd like it there! You were made there, right?"
"Um…yeah. But I don't feel like going down there." Amethyst shrugged.
"Why not?"
"Just not feeling it, okay?" Amethyst called.
"But, this could be the perfect place!" Connie protested, stepping closer to the edge, looking slightly annoyed.
"Trust me, it's not!" Amethyst growled.
"How do you know?!" Connie yelled.
Amethyst then flew down, and right into Connie's face. She looked angry. "Because, It's where my team left me!" Connie looked shocked, and backed up. She suddenly gave a cry, slipping off.
"CONNIE!" Amethyst screeched. She shapeshifted back to normal, leaping after the girl.
Amethyst threw out her whip, and it wrapped around Connie's waist.
They slid to the ground, and Amethyst ran up. "Hey, hey, you okay?"
"I'm fine." Connie whispered, still in shock. "But tell me what happened here…"
"Well… When I first emerged, thousands of years ago, I was overcooked, a mistake." Amethyst sighed. "I was alone for a while, not knowing a war was happening, until one day, a Rose Quartz soldier who had snuck away from the battle, had found me. Over the years, after the gem war, I became Rose's personal Amethyst, and I protected her with my life. I was loyal to Rose, but her mercy didn't save me from the ridacul all Homeworld gave me." She shuddered slightly. "Some… tried to shatter me."
"What?" Connie gasped.
"One day, I got sick of it, sick of getting threatened, or hurt, or teased by some of the gems closest to me." Amethyst walked to the warp pad. "And so, one day in secret, I planned to meet the Crystal Temps, and… well, join their rebellion."
"No way…" Connie breathed. "But, why do you not want to be a Temp anymore? You're free."
"I'm getting to that." Amethyst moaned. She then looked away from Connie and to the night sky. "I only told one gem my plan… and she sold me out. She… betrayed me, and told her misstress, who told Pink Diamond. Pink Diamond was furious at me, and as a punishment for my near betrayel, she poofed me, and trapped me in the mirror, just for wanting to not to be threatened any more… Soilders left me here, and threw me so hard on the ground, my gem cracked. I stayed there for who knows how long, until… I was found."
"Amethyst, I had no idea-!" Connie started but Amethyst gave a chuckle.
"It doesn't matter. Come on, let's get you home."
Connie looked concerned, and grabbed a pebble from the ground.
"I'm still trapped here, this isn't my home, nowhere is." Amethyst sighed.
Connie sat on the roof of the barn with Amethyst, thinking on what to say. She lightly threw the stone, accidentally scaring a bird who squaked before finding a new place to sit. It settled, looking relaxed again. Connie caught a feather that came off and smiled slightly. "... Well, a fact about home is that you always return to it, maybe not in the same place, but in the end, your heart makes your home out of nothing but feelings of joy, safety, comfort, sometimes maybe some sadness, but it's still home." She gave Amethyst the feather.
"Yeah…" The gem fingered the feather with a small pout. She then gave a tiny smile. "Yeah!"
Amethyst then stood and smiled broader. "I feel fine here, I guess. And, I'm happy with my favorite…" The gem seemed to be wondering whether to say human or gem… "...Connie."
"Wait, here? Really?!" Connie cried in suprise.
Amethyst smirked. "Yep! So, where can I stay?"
"Come on! You can stay here! In the barn with-"
"Sweet!" Amethyst scooped up Connie and leapt down to the ground. She looked at the barn, inspecting it. "Yeah, I could live here."
"Amethyst! You're okay?"
Amethyst turned to see Pearl.
The other gem realized she must look too relieved and dropped her hands to her side.
"Pearl?!" Amethyst gasped.
Pearl gave a tiny wave. "Um… I hope you didn't get into too much trouble with Garnet."
Amethyst blinked and then again.
Pearl gave a nervous laugh.
And then, without warning, Amethyst then gave a war cry and tackled her to the ground.