"An old friend?" Pearl questioned as she tried to think of who Twoie was referring to. All of their friends had been corrupted or shattered.
The young man nodded his head. "Yup! I'm sure you remember Bismuth, right?" Garnet and Pearl gasped in shock.
Amethyst raised a brow in confusion at their behavior. "Nope! Never heard of her. Sure looks like you guys do, though. Why don't you share with the rest of us?" Amethyst rolled her eyes as the two quickly got in Twoie's face, asking all sorts of questions about Bismuth.
Pearl's voice rose over Garnet's. "Rose said she lost track of her after the Battle of the Ziggurat? How did you find her?"
Twoie held his hands out as he backed up. "Too close! Okay, The truth is, Rose never lost track of Bismuth." Pearl and Garnet shared a look of confusion. "Bismuth was bubbled after she attacked Rose."
Pearl let out a strangled noise of shock while Garnet clenched her fists in disbelief. There had to be some kind of mistake. The permafusion just couldn't believe it. "Bismuth was one of the original Crystal Gems. There is no way she would have attacked Rose. You must have misunderstood."
Twoie sadly shook his head. "She would if she thought Rose wasn't doing enough for the cause." The two looked at her in horror and disbelief. "Bismuth had created a new weapon called the Breaking Point. She brought Rose down to the forge one day and demonstrated it using some statues. It could shatter any gem, and she wanted to use it to shatter Pink Diamond." Pearl's hands flew up to her mouth. Garnet dematerialized her glasses in horror. Her three eyes scanned Twoie for any indication of a lie, but she couldn't find anything. He was telling the truth. "Rose disagreed with her; she thought shattering any gem was wrong. So, Bismuth fought her and lost. Rose decided to bubble her away, where no one would ever find her. I'm guessing she came up with that lie for you guys once you noticed she was gone."
Sometime during his story, Pearl had started crying silently. Garnet had turned away to stare at the ground. Although Steven and Amethyst didn't know Bismuth, both were looking away in discomfort. The discussion was as difficult as Twoie remembered it being when he had to bubble Bismuth. But it was a talk that needed to happen.
Garnet, back still turned to Twoie, widened her eyes as she realized something. "How did this turn out in your timeline." Twoie stayed quiet for a moment. He didn't like talking about what happened, especially because Bismuth was in a bad state of mind at the time. When Twoie didn't answer, Garnet turned to face him with her eyes narrowed. "You told us about Pink Diamond as an intervention. So that we could understand what happened before you brought Bismuth out. This means you're trying to prevent something from occurring. We need to know what could happen." The young man stiffened, cheeks glowing pink ever so slightly.
Garnet was insistent, but Twoie absolutely did not want to further influence their opinion of Bismuth. She was one of his best friends in his timeline, and he knew how much it hurt the gems to keep her bubbled after Bismuth attacked him. The large gem loomed over him. Eyes narrowed in anger and betrayal as Twoie refused to use the Breaking Point. That's what he was trying to prevent. And they were already hurt by learning of her fight with Rose. "She thought I was Rose and was pretending to not remember anything. She eventually realized that I was my own person, and we became friends." Although it wasn't everything that happened, everything he said was true. Twoie felt guilt clutch his heart as Sapphire's words about lies rang in his head. This wasn't a lie of omission, though; it was a modified truth.
Steven observed Twoie as he spoke. He was beginning to learn when Twoie was lying or understating something. His voice shifted higher very slightly, he'd sometimes fake a smile, or he would glow pink. Just like he was doing now. "Twoie, I know you're not telling us everything. Should I call Connie and ask if you could talk to Dr. Maheswaran? She always seems to know how to help." Before Twoie could reply, Steven had pulled his phone out and turned it on. Instead of showing his home page with his apps, it opened up into a video of himself. "What?" Twoie raised a brow in confusion at Steven's exclamation and walked over to see the screen. The other gems also gathered around Steven to see what surprised him.
When Twoie peered over Steven's shoulder, he flinched as he recognized the lower level of Bismuth's old forge. The phone was playing a video of Steven throwing the Breaking Point to the ground. "-you're lying about this new form, just like you lied to the others about me!" Bismuth grabbed him by the front of his shirt and lifted him into the air. "But I didn't just disappear, did I? YOU KNOW WHAT HAPPENED TO ME!"
But Steven hadn't encountered Bismuth yet, so how-? That's when he realized the phone was somehow playing Twoie's memory of the events. The young man tried to swipe the phone away from Steven, but Garnet quickly grabbed Twoie's wrists and stopped him. "Wait! That's my memory! Don't watch that! Steven, turn it off!" The permafusion knew it was wrong, but she needed to know what to expect. There was something that Twoie was brushing aside, and she knew in her gut that it was vital for them to know. She held the struggling teen back so he wouldn't take the phone away. Twoie froze and focused on the video again as he heard a strangled gasp come from Pearl. Bismuth slammed her hammer arm into the ground, right where Steven was just standing. The kid landed heavily on his back but quickly got up and hid behind one of the statues in the room. Garnet watched in horror as Bismuth's arm shifted from a hammer to a wide blade. Steven flinched when he saw himself barely manage to duck in time as the blade cut through the statue like butter.
This felt like Twoie was vividly reliving a nightmare. The young man stood frozen in horror as he saw the attack. He could remember the terror that had filled him when he saw the blade coming towards him. As he summoned his shield, only for Bismuth to break it with one powerful hit. The force from the hit pushed him to the ground, and he could feel the floor burning his skin through his jeans. The fight escalated as Steven pushed Bismuth back with a bubble, and Bismuth retaliated by slamming her hammer into the ground. Steven squeaked in fear when he saw his sandal fall into the lava. He turned to Twoie, and his worry increased. Twoie was pale, except for his glowing pink cheeks, as though all of the blood had drained from him. It reminded him a lot when he froze up at the sight of Yellow Diamond. Amethyst's whispered "no" brought his attention back to the screen. The screen had gone black for a brief moment, and then Steven's eyes opened as he strained to lift the statue that had been thrown at him. He raised it above his head, pushed off from the wall, and launched it at Bismuth. "BISMUTH, WATCH OUT!"
Pearl managed a weak smile at the fact that Steven warned her about the attack, even though the gem was trying to kill him. Her smile immediately faded when Bismuth directed the weapon that Steven was now holding to her gem. "Just DO IT!" She hoped this meant things were over because Steven would never hurt someone intentionally. Steven's eyes filled with tears, and he blinked enough away to see Bismuth's face. "No! Even if we don't agree, nobody deserves this!"
And as Twoie saw the look of surprise morph into rage, tears slipped down his cheeks. Because he knew what would happen next. He recalled that Bismuth grabbed the Breaking Point and yanked it out of his hands. The force sent him stumbling backward. He tripped over Rose's sword, that was lying on the ground, and as Bismuth raised the Breaking Point in the air, with all intent of using it on him, he grabbed the sword out of fear. Twoie panicked, clenching his eyes shut and hoping he'd live. He could feel the moment his sword connected with her. See the surprise and pain in her eyes as she stood with the sword going through her. As she lowered the weapon, knowing that she had lost again. "You should've shattered me back then. At least if I was in pieces, I wouldn't have to know how little I mattered to you. You didn't even tell 'em." Twoie's vision blurred as more tears welled up in his eyes. "You bubbled me away and didn't even tell your friends! My friends…"
He let out a strangled sob at the grief in her eyes. Maybe his mom was happy with hiding it, but Twoie wasn't. He couldn't even fathom pretending this had never happened. "I'm going to tell them! I'm going to tell them everything." Bismuth's eyes widened in shock, and then she chuckled. "Then you really are better than her."Her form disappeared, leaving only a gem and the weapon behind. Twoie quickly bubbled her and then kicked the weapon into the lava. Bismuth didn't deserve what happened to her, and no gem deserved to be shattered. He picked up the sword and sheathed it. He needed to find the gems.
The feeling of hands gently tugging on his jacket snapped him out of his flashback. He blinked the vision away to see Steven's tearful, concerned expression as he stood in front of him. The kid hugged his older brother tightly once he knew Twoie had returned to awareness. Twoie wrapped one hand around Steven's shaking shoulders and brushed the other through Steven's hair out of reflex. He looked up to see pitied gazes from the gems. "I'm so sorry you had to go through that, Twoie," Pearl whispered. She wiped tears from her eyes as she gently placed a hand on his shoulder in comfort.
Garnet nodded in agreement. "I'm glad that we know what happened, though. We'll do our best to make sure this does not happen again. We'll also have to monitor this new power of yours. I don't recall Rose ever having the ability to project her thoughts and memories to technology." Twoie just nodded and looked away. He felt drained of all energy with this recent flashback. He almost wanted to put off releasing Bismuth, but she didn't deserve to stay bubbled because he was tired. She had spent thousands of years hidden away. And he wasn't going to let her wait a moment longer.
Amethyst strolled over to him and lightly punched his arm. "Dude, if she even tries to do something like that, I'll send her flying out the front door. We got you, Twoie." He smiled. Things would be different this time. He gently pulled Steven away from him and wiped his tears away.
After, he motioned for the gems and Steven to step back. Steven flashed him a concerned look. "Are you sure you want to do this now? We could wait for a bit and do this later?" Twoie shook his head. Waiting meant free time, which led to thinking. He didn't want to dwell on the fact that Steven and the gems had accidentally seen his memories. And he didn't want to remember how much Rose hurt Bismuth. He just wanted to fix it.
Once there was enough space, he called out for Lion. It took a couple of seconds for the familiar pink portal to show up in the living room. Lion bounded out of it and immediately honed in on Twoie. With a chuff, the fluffy cat greeted the time traveler with a lick to the face and a rumbling purr. "Nice to see you too, Lion." Twoie chuckled and gave him a couple of pats. "I need to go inside your mane for a second." The creature snuffed and laid down on the ground. Twoie turned back to the gems. "I'm going to bring her bubble out first, and then I'll unbubble her. We'll have to explain everything to her. Hopefully, this will be enough to make her realize that Steven and Rose are two different people." The others nodded in agreement, so Twoie took a deep breath and stepped into Lion's mane.
A moment later, he stepped back out, with a pink bubble in his hands. The other watched with bated breath as Twoie popped the bubble and set the gem down on the ground. The gem glowed white, and suddenly, Bismuth was standing in the living room, arms raised in defense.