The world became deafening to Twoie. As he stared into the angry yet worried eyes of his little brother, all he could hear was the thunderous sound of his pulse in his ears. Anxiety clawed at his throat, choking him. He could barely breathe. Pink Diamond. PiNk dIAmONd. PINK DIAMOND.

"Twoie!" Twoie jumped at Steven's shout. "See? This is exactly what I'm talking about! You keep having these moments where you panic about something that I don't understand!" Steven took a deep breath. "I know you don't want to talk about your problems. I know you don't want to tell me. But you're getting worse every time something new happens! I know you've been talking to Dr. Maheswaran, but you need more help than she can give you. Please. Just talk to me." Steven knew it was a dirty trick, but desperate times called for desperate measures. He flashed Twoie the most heart-wrenching puppy dog eyes he could muster.

Twoie saw the look and averted his gaze. But the sad look on his dad's face made him look back to Steven. "Son. Is everything okay? You can talk to me. I didn't realize you were hurting so badly." It was starting to feel like too much. He kept looking back between his brother and his dad. Both of them felt like they were too close. Like they were pressuring him to talk. He glared at both of them.

"Why can't you guys just leave me alone? I don't want to talk about it, and I'm sick of being interrogated! You're just like the gems, turning on me when I'm not doing what you want." Twoie stood up and walked away from the others. Steven glared and walked up behind him.

"I'm not turning on you! And I know you hate feeling like you're being interrogated because the gems did it to you a lot. But you leave me with no other choice! Do you think I want to be standing on the side of the road, yelling at my older brother because he bottles all of his emotions inside himself? Because I don't!" Greg, seeing that both of his sons were yelling at each other, quickly stood up and tried to calm everyone down.

He stood beside them with one hand on Twoie's shoulder and the other on Steven's head. "Alright. I think you two need a deep breath before we continue. We can have a discussion without yelling." He turned to Twoie. "You need to stop yelling at him. He's worried about you and just trying to help." Then, he turned to Steven. "I know you're frustrated. You've been trying to help him for what sounds like a while now, but you can't push people to talk. Forcing him to talk about his problems will only make things worse."

Twoie glowered at the ground. Everything was so frustrating right now. They saved the cluster, helped Lapis and Peridot become friends, got rid of the Rubies, but he felt awful. He felt tired and achy. And the one thing he thought would help, made everything worse. This whole family road trip turned out to be anything but normal. He had more family! Family that wasn't dictators who almost killed him on multiple occasions before they decided to be good. Family that was human. And his dad just couldn't understand why he was so upset that he hid that from them. Twoie really wanted to just go home and sleep.

Steven stared at the stars. Everything was so frustrating right now. Their family road trip was supposed to be fun, but it turned into a bad trip for everyone. His dad was upset to go home, Twoie was upset that dad had hidden even more family from them, and Steven found himself in two different fights. He was tired and worried and wanted to be there for Twoie like Twoie was there for him. But Dad was right. He shouldn't be trying to force Twoie to talk. Steven really just wanted his older brother to be happy.

Steven took a deep breath and hugged his older brother from behind. "I'm sorry, Starbright."

"Starbright?" Twoie broke the hug so he could face his younger brother.

Steven laughed at Twoie's shocked expression. "Yeah. You call me Sunshine, and I've been trying to come up with a nickname for you for a long time. I know you picked Sunshine for me because you think I make everything brighter." He smiled and threw his hands in the air. "And you're even better than I thought I'd be when I grew up. You're strong, you're tall, you're smart. You can cook, and you teach!" Steven's smiled softly. "I know you don't always think so, but you're amazing. You're everything I wished I would be as a grown-up. So, I thought Starbright fit you perfectly!" Steven looked up at the stars twinkling in the night sky. "You remember the nursery rhyme dad taught us, right?" Twoie's eyes widened. He did remember. "Starlight, star bright. First star I see tonight." Steven recited. "I wish I may. I wish I might. Have this wish, I wish tonight." Twoie felt tears well up in his eyes.

Greg and Steven both wrapped Twoie in a group hug. "So, do you think you could let us help you? Can you grant me that wish, Starbright?" Steven quietly asked.

And though all of his senses were screaming at him not to say anything, Twoie felt his resolve break. He was tired of carrying this burden of a secret. He hadn't been able to fix much of anything in the past, but he could fix this. He had to. Just say it. Blurt it out, so there's no going back!

"There's a gem in Lion's mane!" And that wasn't even what he meant to say. Steven and Greg shared a look of confusion. Twoie groaned, plopped down on the ground, and let himself fall back, so he was lying down. Steven shrugged at the maneuver, and the other two Universes sat down on opposite sides of Twoie. Steven took over the conversation since it looked like Twoie was regretting the situation.

"Okay… That doesn't answer anything I asked you about earlier, but you're talking! And that's progress. Why didn't you put her with the other gems if you knew? You can get inside Lion's mane still." The older half-gem mumbled some words into the back of his hand. "What?" Twoie moved the hand, so it covered his eyes instead.

"Because something bad will happen if I don't handle it right." Twoie brought his hand down and looked Steven in the eyes. "Because it's going to challenge what you think of mom and what the gems think of her." He glared and sat up. "Because mom wasn't a good person and I have to fix everything she's messed up so that everyone can be happy. But not me? Because I'm going to scream if I hear one more comparison of mom and me or one more reason about why she was so great!"

Greg placed a hand on Twoie's shoulder. "What do you mean by fixing her mistakes? And earlier in the van, you said something about a second war? Is that why you're upset with her?" The young man narrowed his eyes at the ground.

Steven scooted forward so he could catch Twoie's gaze. "I thought you had to fix Pink Diamond's mistakes? You had to fix Mom's as well? What's going on, Twoie?" Twoie's eyes widened in surprise.

"Okay, so you know the story about Rose Quartz and Pink Diamond?" Steven nodded. Their dad was a bit confused, though.

"You're going to have to fill me in a bit, Twoie. I'm getting older, and my memory's not what it used to be." Steven and Twoie exchanged a look before Twoie decided to tell him.

"Rose Quartz fought a rebellion against these gems called Diamonds, to protect the earth. That was the Rebellion. The event that escalated the war, though, was the death or shattering of Pink Diamond." Twoie took a deep breath. "Except Pink Diamond was never shattered."

Steven's eyes widened in surprise. "What do you mean she was never shattered?"

Twoie pulled out of the hug so he could look Steven right in the eyes.

"Mom was Pink Diamond."

After a lengthy discussion about Pink Diamond, Rose Quartz, and the Diamond Authority, Steven felt like his world had shattered. His mom was a war criminal who faked her own death to fight against her family. Who were tyrants of a space empire. Now the family thing made sense. "So, is that what you meant when you said she wasn't a great person?" Steven had a hard time believing it, even though it made sense. Wouldn't the gems have known? And why did Pearl never say anything about it? He felt sick and hoped that Twoie was just hard on her. "But she changed her mind! She thought the earth was something worth protecting, even if she was originally going to destroy it!"

Twoie shook his head. Steven still didn't get it. "She wasn't a great person because she ran away from her problems. She started a war, which led to so many gems being shattered and corrupted on both sides. She let her family believe she was dead for thousands of years. She forced Pearl to never talk about it, so even now, she can't say anything! She left a gem alone and abandoned for thousands of years, in a deserted garden, where no one knew where she was! She traumatized her friend by hurting her so badly that her injury stayed a part of her light form, even after she was healed! She even poofed and bubbled her own teammate for disagreeing with her plans during the rebellion, instead of making her understand why it was wrong!" Twoie felt his anger rising again. He hated reminding himself of all of the horrible things his mom did. Greg placed a hand on Twoie's shoulder, startling him into looking up and noticing the horrified look on Steven's face. "No, Steven. Wait… I-I didn't mean to say it like that."

But Steven shook his head. "That's… the gem in Lion's mane. Isn't it…" Twoie frowned and looked at the ground in shame.

"Yes, but I shouldn't have said it like that. You didn't deserve to hear me say that so bluntly. I'm sorry." Steven somberly nodded. It was hard to hear Twoie talk about her like that. But he could understand why. Those were awful things that his mom did. And those were awful things that continued to bother not only Twoie but the people that were involved.

Greg sighed and rubbed Twoie's shoulder. "I'm sorry you had to deal with all of that. I know being in the past puts a lot of pressure on you to keep secrets, and if we can relieve even a tiny bit of that pressure, we want to. I'm glad you told us." Twoie looked up at him and then back to the ground again.

"I really shouldn't have. You guys found out so much earlier than you did in my time. What if that messes up the future too much? You would've learned eventually." Twoie rubbed his tired eyes with the palms of his hands.

Their dad smiled. "Then we'll deal with that bridge when we cross it." Greg took his phone out to check the time. "My goodness! It's really late, and we still need to drive home. How about we finish this discussion while I drive?"

Steven and Twoie nodded. "I'll tell Pearl that we know in the morning. Maybe she can help us find a way to tell the others. Garnet didn't take it well when she found out, and we're going to need everyone's help if we want to change what happened with Bismuth." Steven raised a brow at the name.

"Is that the name of the gem that Mom poofed?" He had never heard of that gem before.

Twoie hummed in affirmation. "I'm hoping that'll be enough to keep her around this time."