It had been a week since the Sardonyx incident and things still weren't back to normal. Pearl, unnerved by Garnet's cold, judgmental silence, had retreated from the temple with no word on when she'd return.

"Suits me just fine," Disgust R. "That traitor can keep away forever as far as I care."

"But what if she gets into trouble?" Fear S asked.

"Well," said Joy R, "does the Future Vision have her getting into trouble?"

"Er… no."

"See?

Garnet walked into the beach house, where Pearl was talking to Steven.

"Oh great," Anger R shouted. "The liar's back!"

"Settle down," said Joy S. "You can't get so worked up every time you see her. She lives here; she's part of our team. We're bound to interact eventually."

"Yeah, but that doesn't mean I have to like it."

"Oh! Garnet! I was just looking for Peridot!" Pearl said. "She's bound to be somewhere, right?"

Sadness R sighed. "She thinks she can make it up to Garnet by capturing Peridot," she said. "But Peridot's not what caused this. She did."

"Right," Anger S said. "She's trying to fix a symptom of what she did instead of addressing the root of the issue."

"Exactly!" said Anger R. "And until she does, we'll continue treating her like this! No mercy! No lenience!"

"Isn't that a bit extreme?" Fear S asked.

"Nope!" Anger R pressed some buttons.

Garnet said nothing but continued walking.

"I'm sorry…"

This gave Garnet pause.

"She sounds pretty sincere," Sadness S said.

"Well, sincere's not good enough!" Anger R said.

"Who wants to go on a road trip?" Greg yelled as he stormed into the beach house.

Disgust S groaned. "This is not a good time, Greg."

"No, no," said Joy S, "let him talk. Be polite. He doesn't know about the problems they've had."

"Right," said Joy R. "He's done nothing wrong. Unlike some other people we could name."

So Greg explained how he had bought some supplies for the car wash online, but had to drive over to the next state, Keystone, to pick them up. With this in mind, he was planning to stay overnight at a motel.

"It'll have a pool, and free ice, and it's right next to the best diner in the world!"

"You know," said Sadness S, "getting away for a bit, just for a night, might be good right now. Clear Garnet's head."

"Yeah!" Joy S concurred. "And it might be fun besides!"

"I'm not too sure about this," said Sadness R. "Isn't this just like running away from our problems?"

"No," said Joy S. "This is simply placing some distance between us and our problems."

So Garnet indicated that she'd like to come along.

"Hey, Garnet," Greg whispered, "I know I'm talking this place up, but... it ain't exactly the Ritz."

"I'll be the judge of that," Garnet said, smiling.

"You know, it probably won't be the Ritz," Fear R said to Joy S. "I feel like you're trying to justify Garnet going on this trip."

"What? I'm just being optimistic."

"Well, in that case, road trip!" Greg yelled.

"Road trip!" Steven repeated.

"Road trip," Garnet said, nodding. But she sounded unsure.

"Oh, come on, Fear!" Joy S said to Fear R. "Why'd you have to make Garnet all hesitant like that?"

"I'm just not convinced that this trip is the best idea right now."

"Wonderful!" Pearl said. "I'll make sure that Amethyst knows that—"

Garnet ignored her and went outside.

"Hey!" Disgust S said. "Now which one of us is running away from our problems?"

"That wasn't running away," Disgust R said. "I just didn't want to listen to her."

As the trio crossed the state line and checked into the motel, Garnet remained stoic. But in her mind, her emotions were engaged in a heated argument, reaching its peak just as Greg had left to collect his purchase.

"It's not like Pearl disappeared just because she's in another state!"

"Would you stop fretting over Pearl?" Disgust S asked. "Can't you put the past behind?"

"But that's not the past!" Anger R yelled. "That's still the present!"

"But the present becomes the past!" Joy S stated.

"And the future becomes the present!" Fear S added.

"Look!" Anger S said, activating the future vision. "Dozens of long-term scenarios, all of which show Garnet getting along with Pearl. That means that, eventually, Pearl will realize her wrongs and we'll forgive her. We might not know exactly when or how it'll happen, but it will happen!"

"Who cares?" Anger R rebutted. "It hasn't happened yet! Here in the present, the rift's still happening!"

"They function best as a team!" Fear S said. "We need to do what we can to keep them together."

"Oh, so that means we have to ignore how we feel?" Disgust R groused.

"Well, we can't keep feeling angry forever!"

"Oh yeah?" Anger R said. "We'll see about that!" He grabbed his controls.

"Hey!" Anger S yelled. "Those are my controls, too!"

The two tussled over control of the controls to the point where Garnet's mind couldn't handle the conflict anymore; she split in twain and sent her emotions back to their own, original stations, those of Ruby and Sapphire, who tumbled to the floor of the motel room.

"Gah!" Fear S shouted. "We have to fuse again!"

"Spending a little time apart won't hurt us," Disgust S said, taking the center seat of the console. "We can fuse when Ruby and her emotions stop being ridiculous."

Over in Ruby's head, her emotions were also unconcerned with fusing back right away.

"First Pearl, now Sapphire… Isn't there anyone who we can depend on?" Sadness R sobbed.

"Oh, whatever!" Anger R said. "At least this way I get to have the anger controls all to myself. And I choose to be angry at Pearl and Sapphire!"

So indeed, Ruby began arguing with Sapphire, not caring about Steven's discomfort. Her anger made her body temperature rise, threatening to catch something on fire.

"Ruby, the carpet," Sapphire warned.

"Yeah," Fear R said. "Burning the motel down wouldn't be a wise course of action."

"Okay, fine," said Anger R. "We'll go outside."

So Ruby went outside, where she paced and muttered to herself. She continued pacing and muttering even when Steven invited her into the pool, which quickly became boiling hot, forcing Steven to retreat back to the room.

The room, however, had turned to freezing due to Sapphire's ice powers.

"A-are you doing okay?" Steven stammered, teeth chattering due to the cold.

"We're doing just fine!" Disgust S announced. "Because unlike Ruby's emotions, all of us are rational enough to remain calm and collected during such strife."

"Exactly!" Anger S said, not noticing her elbow was pressing down one of her buttons. "We're a model of emotional restraint!"

"Ruby can't avoid the inevitable," Sapphire said. "She's just letting her emotions get out of hand."

"Not you though?"

"No."

"I'm going to the bathroom," Steven said.

"And that's also inevitable," Disgust S said. "Gross, but inevitable."

"Uh, Sapphire?" Steven said. "The toilet's frozen."

"Oh well," Joy S said with a shrug. "One can't avoid these things. They just have to accept them as they are."

Annoyed, Steven went outside to pee.

"And you're all sure that everything will work out?" Sadness S asked.

"Of course!" Joy S said. "That's how fate works."

"Without Ruby comingling with Sapphire's body, her future vision is working at peak capacity," Fear S said. "Look! We can predict what will happen with almost complete certainty. Greg will return with the brushes safe and sound; he'll bring a pizza, which Steven won't like because it's square…"

"Square pizza is kind of weird," Disgust S said.

"…and we'll reconcile with Pearl within a few months! And Ruby too, most likely, though future vision doesn't work with fusion…"

"Right," said Joy S. "She'll calm down and see that Sapphire's right eventually."

Ruby paced all through the night, while Sapphire sat in the room, leaving Greg and Steven to bunk in the van. In the morning, everyone gathered together and went to a local diner for breakfast. But while Steven and his father dined on bacon and eggs, neither Gem touched their plate.

"What's the matter?" Greg asked. "Not hungry?"

"Gems don't need to eat, Dad."

"Garnet likes to eat sometimes."

The mention of this name triggered something in Ruby's mind. "Garnet? Ruby's not Garnet!" Anger R said. "She only becomes Garnet when she fuses with Sapphire! And she's not fused!"

Ruby began to shake the table.

"Ugh," said Disgust S. "Now she's shaking the table."

Sapphire turned to the others. "This will pass," she said. "She'll eventually just burn herself out."

"That's what she thinks," Anger R said.

"Yeah!" Joy R said. "Ruby's an eternal flame, baby!"

Greg and Steven quickly grabbed their plates as Ruby summoned a gauntlet—smaller than Garnet's, but still formidable—and pounded the table, sending everything crashing to the floor.

"Hey, it's okay, pal!" Greg said to Steven. "We can still save this! Why don't we just bag them up to go, and—"

But Steven threw his plate to the ground and stormed out of the restaurant.

"Steven!" Fear S gasped in concern. "We should head after him."

Over in her mind, Ruby's fear had the same thought. The two gems Sapphire rushed after Steven, calling out to him.

"I was so happy when Garnet said she was gonna come on this trip with me and Dad!" Steven snapped. "Home's been awful! Here's been awful! I thought you wanted to have a fun time but, everyone's been acting awful too! It just came with us! I don't understand! Is it… is it me?"

Sadness S gasped. "He thinks it's his fault!" she said. "We were too caught up in our feud with Ruby that we didn't think about how he felt!"

"Yeah, but what about how Ruby feels?" Anger S said. "We kept looking at the future, when everything was solved… we were totally neglecting the present!"

Sadness S sobbed. "You're right!"

"No wonder you think I don't care!" Sapphire cried. Tears streamed down the middle of her face.

"She's blaming herself?" Sadness R asked. "Ruby was the one in the wrong! Getting so upset over such a small disagreement…"

"Okay, maybe I got a bit carried away," Anger R admitted.

"And the rest of us let you get carried away!" Disgust R said. "We didn't bother looking for a solution, we just wanted to be mad! We were being totally unreasonable!"

"You're right!" Ruby said. "You're always right! I was being stupid!"

"I don't think you're stupid!" Sapphire said.

Ruby comforted her partner, brushing aside her hair and wiping the tears from her single eye.

"You know," said Joy R, "at least when we're split up like this, Ruby's able to see how cute Sapphire is."

The two gems laughed and began canoodling.

"Man, I love it when she gets all mushy like this," Joy S said with a smile.

"But she be getting this mushy in front of Steven?" Fear S wondered.

"Oh, who cares?"

Greg, having paid for the damages at the restaurant, walked up. "I think I'm all vacationed out," he said. "Ready to call it a day?"

"I think we probably should," Sadness S said. "And we should fuse back before that; this is the longest we've remained apart in quite a while."

"And I'm sure Ruby's ready too," Joy S said, looking at her smiling visage.

So the two groups once again occupied the same headspace.

"So," Joy R said, "back to the temple?"

"Well, now that I think about it," Joy S said, "we really shouldn't leave before getting our…"

"…free ice!" the two said at the same time.

"Of course," said Fear R, "If we were still split up, we wouldn't need that ice; Sapphire could just make it!"

"You saying we should unfuse to access her powers?" Anger S teased.

"Nah, we're good," Joy R said.

So, Greg, Steven, and Garnet drove home. Entering the beach house, they were greeted by Pearl.

"Garnet, how are you?" she asked.

Garnet held up her hand. "Not now," she said. It was the first time she had spoken to Pearl in a week.

"We'll reconcile eventually…" Sadness R said.

"…but not until we're both ready," Sadness S concluded.