5. The Miles.

"We never live; we are always in the expectation of living."
― Voltaire

The weeks that followed were a drab affair. The sky tried to be blue, the birdsong had undertones of melancholy. The stars in the night looked down without care - even the sun was cold and distant as the ocean whispered ancient secrets in an evil tongue.

The little stone star in her hands had changed as well. It had become less a symbol of hope and more of a reminder, like catching a glimpse of a photo of the recently passed. Connie carried it one final time as she slunk downhill through the woods, away from camp.

Arbitrarily she picked a spot amid the trees and set about her task without enthusiasm, listlessly pushing the shovel down into the undergrowth, throwing all of her tired weight into every thrust.

Even the dirt she dragged out was duller than it should have been - and it was dirt.

When the hole was deep enough, she let the shovel fall to the side and dropped down to her knees. It was the perfect diameter. She placed the star inside it and gazed at it one last time.

She wondered briefly about saying a few words, but told herself that was silly.

Connie felt a tightness in her chest. Felt the whole Earth falling away from her. But she set her jaw and finished her task.

She unceremoniously began pushing the pile of dirt back in with her bare hands, burying the star and her old life with it.

"Hey."

His voice scraped the top off her glum thoughts as he dropped down to take a seat next to her on the upturned canoe.

"I checked Moldavite earlier. The resin's holding up," he was saying. "No cracks in it or anything."

"Great," she said, listlessly. "We finally got the consistency right."

"H'yeah, hope so," he said. It had taken a while to do. It was quite the production to create the mixture and then wait for Lars to cough and hack the gemstone back up again, only for him to hurriedly swallow it back down when the hardening resin proved unsuitable to hold the desperate gem. It had taken three tries over the last few weeks, but it was worth it in the end.

"Also, uh. This is for you."

She'd up until now been gazing down at the firepit, but now she was staring at a stick of jerky he was holding out for her. There was concern in his eyes as he followed up with an explanation. "You should eat more. You're getting thin."

"You're one to talk," she said, deadpan as she looked her perpetually skinny cohort up and down.

He gave her an exaggerated look of intense boredom. "Just eat the food," came his strong suggestion.

She finally accepted the sustenance and slowly bit off a portion. She lowered her eyes to stare back down at the dirt floor as she chewed, every movement of her jaw squelching the meat between her teeth.

Lars watched her briefly before glancing away. They could see birds pecking about in the grasses nearby while others squawked at each other in the air, and they sat in silence for a time. The sun was high overhead and despite a few scattered clouds, it was a clear fine day - one of a sequence of them, which Lars considered lucky. He could tell Connie was feeling down enough. He couldn't imagine what it would be like for her if she'd been forced to spend all this time inside the cramped cabin due to bad weather, on top of everything else.

He understood, of course. His life had been ruined in exactly the same way hers had been, simultaneously five years prior and yet thousands of years in the future. The funny thing was that finally knowing the reason made it all seem worse, somehow. More hopeless. They had recently received answers, but they had been neither helpful nor satisfying.

Actually, it wasn't that funny…

However. He'd been working on an elaborate concept and now seemed as good a time as any to pitch it.

"So I had this idea-"

"Hrrrgh," she groaned in a less than encouraging fashion.

He was undeterred. "Wanna cross what will someday be called the Atlantic?"

"Hrnnnn."

He slapped the underside of the canoe they were seated upon. "You'll get to chill in this bad boy while I do the work."

"Hnnnn."

"Then, imagine." He waved an arm about. "The two of us, kickin' it Old World style. I-in the stone age."

"Nnnn."

"It'll be…" he hesitated a long moment, searching for the correct word. When it was not forthcoming he instead said, "Fun?"

She shook her head slowly, unwillingly. "No. I don't want to travel. It's too hard."

Lars pushed the issue in lowered tones. "It's been weeks. I can't sit around anymore. We've moved beyond the plan we had for ourselves, beyond what Moldavite had planned for us. It's like, yeah. Everything still sucks. But aren't we also kind of free?"

Connie waited until she had finished chewing and swallowed before replying, "We're not free."

"We're-" His lips tightened and he lowered his eyes. He knew she was right. "Well, yeah we're not free." He shrugged, conceding the issue. "But I'm saying let's look around."

A long silence took place.

"We should, uhh, at least try to find wherever Rose Quartz lives, you know. For when-" he mumbled a little, awkwardly. "Well, you know."

She didn't appear to have heard him, but he knew that she had. He exhaled through his nose.

"Connie. What else are we gunna do?" he said finally, turning to her after the painful silence had gone on too long.

She side-eyed him. "Can we portal there?"

He twisted the side of his mouth. "I've never been before so, no, not yet. You already know how all this works."

"Can I just stay here and you go? I'll call you if I need you."

"How?" asked Lars, at a loss.

She thought a moment. "I'll just use my phone that is real and totally connected to a global network that definitely exists right now."

Lars smiled a vaguely pained smile. "You're an actual lunatic." He placed his hands on his thighs and pushed himself back up onto his feet. "C'mon. Get your boots on."

By now they'd become professionals at sailing. They had spent years crawling the Caribbean Sea, after all. Sure, their recycled rig didn't come close to meeting the barest of the minimum safety standards. But they had cheats enabled and considered themselves quite clever about it all the same.

Lars towed the canoe against the wind as Connie lay back upon some barely-comfortable blankets, staring listlessly at the cloud-ridden sky as they went. The wind whipped what loose strands of hair it could find across her face in an annoying manner. The rope fastened securely to her waist was, as always, connected to Lars. He was also connected to the prow of the boat by a different rope, which he at this time had pulled taut over his shoulder as he hauled it across the vast plains of a sprawling ocean.

The idea being that Lars, who was unable to submerge, would be able to haul her up from the murky depths and save her if things were ever to go awry.

She, the damsel, the mortal, the burden, she thought miserably to herself.

At some point during the day she noticed the tension on the canoe slacken. The canoe drifted to a stop as she felt a shadow fall over her. She opened her eyes to see Lars.

"What's wrong?" she said with a start, lurching herself up into a half-sitting position. She couldn't see anything wrong, however. The day was still calm. The salty ocean still sprawled out in all directions away from them.

"Lars?"

He looked excited. "I had an idea."

"Another one?" she asked, eyebrow raised.

He ignored her attitude and smiled. "Yeah! All this stupid walking stuff? It worked when we were looking for something we could easily miss. But now it's just hassle. So-"

She couldn't deal with how self-satisfied he was looking as he spoke, and she rolled her eyes. "Oh, whatever you're thinking, just do it," she said with a flick of her wrist.

He dropped the smile. "Are you sure? I mean, it's a cool idea but I wanted to give you the heads up in case-"

She leaned back down. "Go on. The quicker we get there, the better."

Lars frowned. He was confused by her flippant nature. She actually seemed pretty annoyed, but despite it all he was in an okay mood and didn't want to risk losing it.

He therefore shrugged. "Uh, okay," he said uncertainly. "But you better hold on."

She reluctantly snaked her hands up to grip onto the sides of the canoe. "Happy?"

"Tighter."

She tensed her grip so that the color drained somewhat from her knuckles. She guessed this great idea of his was going to turn out to be 'run really fast to what would later become Africa or Europe' or something. So inspired, she thought with sarcasm as she closed her eyes.

She soon thought herself proved right. She felt the movement of the canoe pick up, his waterlogged boots slapping clumsily against the surface of the water. The canoe skimmed swiftly along the water behind him as he ran. So tame.

Then, out of nowhere-

"YAARGH!"

Her eyes flew open to find herself in an all-too familiar tunnel of moving, shimmering light and wind brought about by the voice of a pink one ripping a hole through the fabric of space itself. She felt something land in the canoe and lurched upward to find that Lars had jumped in with her. He squatted low in the prow, gripping the edges of it hard, bracing himself, staring ahead with squinting eyes.

Before she could ask what was happening, they exited the portal.

Before she could think, they were falling down toward the ocean which sprawled out as always - but now far, far below them.

Gravity enacted its pull on the vessel. They plummeted.

Lars had his teeth bared and eyes narrowed. His hair whipped aggressively around as he leaned into the resistance of the air which was trying and failing to work against them. He glared at the ocean below but there was no point of reference - he couldn't really guess how far up they were. It didn't matter, though - he'd put plenty of distance between them and the water.

He soon yelled once more to create another portal that the canoe fell into half a second later.

This time when they exited, all that falling momentum was now translated parallel to the Earth. They were flying across the ocean, high up in the sky in a wide arc - albeit one that would drop back down into the ocean if given the chance.

All the while, Connie was screaming as Lars laughed like a madman.

Despite the fear and excitement, she noticed a strange feeling in her gut as she realized the canoe was descending more and more, the front of it lowering, the ocean once again easily visible. She was losing her hold on the sides of the canoe and she scrambled, struggling to maintain that security.

Lars felt the same awkward sensations as well and moments later, the canoe rolled horribly to one side.

Lars immediately aborted the operation with a loud expletive and a moment later the canoe and its contents were flying out of yet a portal just above the ocean's surface, and upward.

The two hapless portal-goers felt weightless for a moment before succumbing to gravity once again. Connie, realizing what was about to happen, let go of the sides of the canoe which plunged gracefully beneath as they hit. She splashed under too, leaving Lars to crash onto the upset surface like a magical fool.

He groaned and lifted himself up, wincing hard and a little confused at first as to where Connie and the canoe had disappeared to. Then a terrible fear gripped his mind. Recalling the Sea Shrine in a stark moment of clarity, he scrambled onto his knees and grabbed at the ropes around his waist. One of them was his friend's sole lifeline-

Connie, who immediately broke the surface with a gasp to tread water beside him.

A relief washed over him but only for a moment. The pull of the other rope on his waist, that of the canoe, yanked him without warning to face-plant back into the water.

The rope slackened again. Although the water was disgusting and salty, he was content to stay there for a moment. Connie swam over to use him as a floaty.

She watched as the canoe shortly resurfaced.

"Uh. A-are you… okay?" he croaked at her after a moment.

"Are you okay?" she asked right back, eyeballing him.

He nodded. He'd been winded, but he was abnormally resilient. "Nothin' a bunch of coffee won't fix."

Once Lars had regained his composure, it was a simple task for him to tip the water out and set it back down while Connie waited, treading water once again.

After she climbed back in, her eyes fixated on his and she finally took a deep gasp. "Lars! You're a crazy person! Weren't you scared?!"

He nodded, sending his half damp, half windblown hair into even more of a mess, eyes still bleary from the wind. "I'm always scared! My brain is drenched in fear all the time," he said, eyes burning back into hers. "But, I thought it would go faster-"

Her mind was racing. "That was awesome! Lars! We'll find land in no time!"

"Huh?" Lars was surprised by her reaction.

She wanted to jump out and walk around a little to revel in the adrenaline of it all a while longer, but surrounding her was nothing but open ocean.

"We need to do that again," Connie said with newfound enthusiasm. "We… we need to secure these ropes. And when we're in the air, we have to stay as low as possible so we don't spin out again. And I dunno about you, but I need some kind of facial protection - that wind was something else!"

Lars continued to seem surprised by all this, and it took her a second to remember why.

"Why didn't you tell me you were going to do that!?" she demanded suddenly.

"You didn't want to know."

Pushing an errant hair from her face, Connie frowned right back. "I was completely caught off guard-"

"That's why I tried to warn you!" He spread his arms wide. "What did you think I was going to do? Hoof it across a whole ocean?"

She wasn't completely sure of the limits of what he could do, and she doubted he knew either. But from what she had gathered so far from spending all this time with Lars and having known Lion once upon a distant future, these pink creatures appeared to be very powerful. It certainly seemed like it could lie within the realms of possibility. But was it really?

"Well... yeah!" she said anyway.

"Connie." He shook his head, tsking. "Connie, Connie, Connie. Gimme some credit. I like to think I'm a little less boring and way lazier than that."

She snorted, her smile still shaky and body tingling from the rush of adrenaline. "Okay! From now on, explain all your ideas first. Even if I'm not in the mood, and especially if it involves using magic to hack the laws of physics. Alright?"

Lars nodded in pure sincerity. "Agreed."

It didn't take long to prepare for the next flight. After securing the ropes and adapting an emergency towel that Lars had in his head into some makeshift facial covering, they were ready to try again.

A series of trial-and-error magic portal canoe catapults later, they cleared the Atlantic Ocean in less than a day.

They couldn't continue their lifehack over land. It was far too risky. There were gems to worry about and humans to whip into a frenzy, not to mention a relentless river of time - the nature of which they were never too certain.

They dropped the canoe back at their campsite a whole ocean away and quickly returned to the new location they'd unlocked.

Palm trees, sandy shores, warmth. The lively droning of unseen cicadas. Strange birds and trees that neither one of them had ever seen before, except perhaps in scraps of half-remembered documentaries and wikiwiki. They couldn't be sure, but they guessed themselves to be on some lonely West African coast.

"Hey look," said Connie, pointing as they walked. "A monitor lizard!"

Lars stared at it as they walked by. The creature, basking on a nearby rock, merely blinked at them, only moving to turn its head to track them.

"Where should we go?" she asked, glancing around at this small portion of a continent entirely new to them.

His answer was also a question. "Why are you asking me? You're the one with an entire travel guide in your brain."

Yeah, he immediately realized his words were pointless. She had that familiar thoughtful look on her face, the one that meant she was already considering their options. He stood with arms akimbo, watching, waiting for it.

"North," she said shortly after tapping at her chin. "There's a lot of important gem sites north of the Mediterranean. But we should keep an eye out in case there are things that just don't exist long enough to make it into Buddy's journal."

He smiled. "Sounds vaguely plan-like."

Less than a week later, they were back into the groove of it. Walking was once again second-nature, and Lars' portals were there whenever they were needed. They had an important gem to find, after all.

But that didn't stop there from being dull moments.

"Connie. I'm bored. Drop a fact on me," Lars piped up after an indeterminate period of silence as they hiked.

She took a moment to appear thoughtful. To be honest, she was starting to run out of material for this pastime. "Hm. Well, I guess I've always wanted to play a Stradivarius."

"…Who or what is that?"

She carefully stepped over what she supposed was a rabbit hole. "Oh, it's a kind of violin. There aren't many seventeenth or eighteenth century originals left.. Weren't." She mentally kicked herself. "I mean, in 2019, there won't be." Her smile held undertones of sadness. "Kind of a pipe dream, really. Those that do exist are crazy expensive. I think most are in private collections or museums."

"So why are Strudenheimers so important?"

"Stradivarius. They're antiques with a unique sound. Now, you owe me a fact."

Lars appeared thoughtful for a moment. "There's a typo on my birth certificate."

She glanced up at him. "Really?"

"The United States government knows me as 'Lard'."

"That's... a lie. I've been told your real name."

He stumbled over his words, desperate to amend his joke. "Oh wait, no, that's the typo."

Eying him flatly, Connie replied, "You can't expect me to believe someone typed the letter and E instead of an S."

"I can. And I do."

"You already changed your story once. It's too late for me to believe you now." She appeared comically stern. "You've ruined Fun Facts. I'm in mourning."

"What!? No way. You've lied to me before!"

When she looked up at him with a vaguely outraged look on her face, he quickly backed up his statement.

"No way did you ever see Fetid Carapace live in concert," he blurted. "You're a huge nerd!"

She shook her head. "I was being sarcastic, because no way did YOU ever see them, either."

Lars scrunched up his face in reply.

Connie snorted and turned her head back to watch where she was walking. "Yeah suck on those eggs, Laramie."

"Can I just propose a new rule? We can lie? It'll make it more interesting if we have to guess if the fact is real or not."

After a moment's thought, she delivered her verdict. "Only if we can insist on truth as well."

He seemed reluctant. "I... I guess that's fair-"

"Shh-" she said in a quiet whisper. She slowed her pace before stopping cold in the forest, glancing around. Lars followed her lead, instantly pulling the spear from his glowing forehead.

Connie had her sword and scabbard slung over her back at all times. She didn't go for her weapon, however. She was merely moving her head around, listening, alert.

She heard it again, and this time Lars did too. The direction it was coming from was clear, so they quietly approached.

They saw the source of the noise - a boy, around the age of nine, perhaps, crying to himself on the ground. He was nursing what they soon realized was a broken leg. It couldn't have been a trap. Despite themselves, they approached.

The kid glanced up at them and recoiled at the sight of Lars. The pink guy was as good as a gem to the kid, so he lowered the spear and hung back as Connie moved forward. The child was far more receptive to her, of course.

"Hey, don't cry," she said softly, a niggling feeling beginning to gnaw at her heart. "Is it sore?"

The child sobbed and nodded, looking up at her with sad eyes.

"Of course it is," said Connie. "Did you fall?"

"Y-yes," came the kid's response.

"Lars," said Connie. "We gotta help him."

He swallowed. He knew she'd say that.

But he nodded because it was true. They couldn't not.

Connie trudged back to the forest, leaving the village and the boy behind. The shadows from the breezy boughs above danced across her, her thoughts plagued by growing troubles. She folded her arms across her torso.

She soon realized she had no idea where she was headed and stopped stock still. She glanced around, looking for any shock of pink that she could spot.

Instead, a bright portal materialized in the air beside her. Lars stepped out, the portal disappeared, and she saw that he looked every bit as troubled as she felt.

"We messed up, didn't we?" was the only thing he said.

"This is why I can't just, y'know, run off and start a family," she said in low tones, rubbing her hands along her arms, seeking a comfort that was not forthcoming. "Live a normal life? Hah. It'll just… create ripples. One more person in the gene pool, especially this far back?"

Lars watched with sad eyes as she vented at the unfairness of it all.

"And say we find Moldavite here in the past," she continued. "We remove her from the timeline - what then? We don't know the full extent of the role she played during the rebellion. The future could be incomprehensible to us."

Lars scratched his head. "But, maybe this was all supposed to happen, like you said once. Maybe that kid was supposed to make it home because of us. Maybe that's why we're okay, sort of."

Her brow furrowed. "This could be an alternate timeline. Like, we're here because our past was in some other universe that we're not part of anymore. We could have engineered a vastly different future, Lars!" She glanced up at him, worry in her eyes. "What if we can't get out of this? And… what if we never see Rose again?"

Lars bit his lip. The only sound for a long moment was cheerful birdsong.

"Lars," she piped back up in soft tones, her eyes beginning to water. "What if I actually die here?"

"Th-then-" He blinked back tears of his own and balled his fists. "I'll wait it out. Connie, I'll make it back. I'll undo all this. I'll stop her, I promise you." He looked determined. And breathless. "I-I, I mean, if I can-" He stammered, filling with uncertainty now. "Huh. Wait. Can I stop Moldavite?"

Connie scrunched up her face, attempting to clear her head as Lars unclenched his fists.

"I feel like the fact that we're still here means it doesn't happen," he said, staring down at his empty hands, tense from the stress of all this.

She looked glum. "Not if we've ruined the future just now with the kid. Not if we're now part of some alternate universe different from the one we knew. And," she added unhappily, "Not if it turns out we can't change the future, either."

"Even if that stuff turns out fine, what happens when she sees me? Do I stop existing? Then what?"

"She could just… do it again later," Connie said unhappily.

"Holy crap, this is hard to think about," he said quietly, teeth grit. "Being lost in space? Straight-up, five stars. This? Minus a billion."

Connie frowned. "Wait."

"What?"

"Steven..." The word brought pain with it, but also a memory. "When we were kids, when he was explaining what happened at the Sea Shrine, Steven said-" She pursed her lips together. "Look. Talking to her, just stopping Moldavite might not be enough. The way Steven described it sounds like we have to destroy the hourglass."

Lars was unimpressed. "In related news, it's already destroyed. Remember? About a month ago- wait," he interrupted himself as his brain developed a brand new wrinkle. "You mean we have to somehow destroy it before it gets used on us in the distant future."

Connie brushed hair out of her face thoughtfully. "He said, a bunch of alternate Stevens showed up just as he picked the correct one." She frowned. "One of them grabbed it and destroyed it."

A world with so many Stevens in it - terrifying. Lars grimaced. "So, what happened to the other Stevens?"

"They turned to sand." She scuffed at the dirt below. "Which probably means they died."

"What!? That doesn't make sense at all," observed Lars. "Shouldn't a bunch of Stevens showing up make one hell of an impact on everyone there? Like, his aunts were with him. They wouldn't have let him keep it after that, for a start. That alone should have fixed everything." He scratched his head. "Why would the side-orders of Steven still exist at all after that?"

She shook her head. "They definitely still existed up until that point, because Steven and the gems remembered them."

"But that-"

"Argh! I don't know! Alternate timeline… magical reasons!?" She pent her fingers against the side of her head. "The main fact, here? Destroying the hourglass was important. It was only then that it seemed to fix things, and then the Steven we knew could move forward."

Lars exhaled heavily. "Well. That's an option."

"Yeah," she muttered as she scuffed her foot in the dirt. "It is."

The world wasn't overflowing with alternatives. They knew the task immediately in front of them, looking for Rose, was the most literal form of death-proofing. But this other task - simultaneously saving and yet negating their own selves - was difficult to grapple with.

It seemed downright impossible already, considering the gulf of time separating them in this moment from another that may not even come about anymore.

All dependent on the true nature of time.

It was all insane.

At length, they continued walking. The woods were deep, dark and lonely, the only sunlight hitting them was what little snaked its way through the canopy shyness, so they spoke quietly as they went.

"I never thought I'd become some doomed alternate version of myself, Lars." Connie mumbled. "It just wasn't part of the plan."

His eyes were hollow. "At least we have a little time to get used to the idea, right? And if I... if we get there, and if it works, at least-" He paused to organize his thoughts. "Maybe some other versions of us will get to be happy."

When Connie thought of how possible all this was, she didn't feel secure. "Maybe."

Lars shrugged as they walked. "I hope so."

She tightened her lips, but it wasn't really a smile she was going for.

Aside from looking for Rose, hope was all they could do.

The search for Rose Quartz resumed with something resembling gusto. Every day was important again.

Together they explored the world. Having access to the Afro-Eurasian super continent as well as the Americas now meant there were fewer and fewer places for the Crystal Gem rebellion to truly hide, but it was still a massive task. They could easily lose each other if they split up to cover more ground - a risk neither could afford. And although they stressed constantly about the implications their actions placed on the future, Connie still had to eat. They still needed to ask directions from time to time. They often required supplies, sewing materials for ripped clothing, replacements for worn.

Lars and Connie could only hope their impact on the world was small enough not to matter. That their actions would only translate into mere droplets, absorbed and negated by the constant forces of an endless, churning ocean.

During their travels, they listened carefully to any and all reports of gem activity they heard. Often such news reached them days or weeks too late to be useful, but they followed every lead religiously. Thanks to this they caught the tail end of two skirmishes, but evidently nothing important enough to warrant the presence of either the rebel leader Rose Quartz or the lustrous Pink Diamond.

Carefully stalking troops of gems as they retreated was pointless. More often than not, the two were left stranded at some remote warp pad with no way to follow any further.

They found they couldn't rely on gems to lead them straight to their bases, so they darted around, searching the world for themselves.

They were careful not to give out their names.

When the heat bore down too heavily in what they guessed to be northern Africa, they were moments later exploring a much more reasonable what-they thought-might-someday-be Denmark. When what they figured could someday be Oregon became much too frosty for Connie, they were suddenly in a central American rainforest, their abrupt portal upsetting the local birdlife.

Connie had a general idea of some must-visit gem locations from her memories of carefully pouring over every single page of Buddy Budwick's journal multiple times. These locations, though prioritized slightly below their main goal, they also sought.

They found Rose's healing fountain in what would later be called Spain on a rainy, humid day. It was unoccupied at the time, so they were able to approach. Connie gingerly dipped a toe in the sparkling waters. Her most recent scrapes healed instantly. A promising result.

"Maybe this thing has pink resurrection juice," pitched Lars as he bounced idly on the fountain's surface. Connie seemed uncertain, catching sight of a beetle floating dead in it. She didn't want to rely on it.

They made it as far north as someday-Scandinavia, home of the not-so-ancient Sky Arena, which they found floating in the cold. It was thronging with gems, so they observed carefully and from afar.

"I used to - will someday train up there," Connie told him, pride fighting against sadness for ownership of those words.

This new status quo held a period of adjustment, especially for Connie. The whiplash of traveling instantaneously to such different parts of the globe gave her a feeling similar to jetlag on multiple occasions. Lars, who still didn't seem to require sleep as a necessity, was largely untroubled by such feelings. Each envied the other, but neither could say it.

While the search for Rose Quartz continued, they returned to the Delmarvan cliffside in disappointment whenever it was time for Connie to rest.

Both of the diamond's identities appeared to be equally elusive and important figures.

The winged beast of time flew on.

"There is no way I'm in my thirties," said Lars, who continued to look not a day older than when he died at eighteen.

"Early thirties," replied Connie, for whom the passage of time was still important, while she chomped down on some trail mix.

They were performing a rare moment of rest, observing a human city from the heights of a nearby mountain.

"Give or take a few months," she added, shrugging.

"Listen, the more vague the better," he said with a snort. "I never thought I'd be spending my early thirties watching China happen, with you."

There was no time for hobbies. No time at all. Every passing day made it all the more important to find Rose. All they ever did was search, broken only by brief periods of rest. Some of those periods they preferred to spend here, watching civilization take place in these idyllic hills.

"This must be pretty cool for you, huh?" she asked.

"Why?"

She eyed him with curiosity, chin resting on hand. "Aren't you half Chinese?"

He looked comically appalled. "You forgot my fun fact?" he chided her. "That's not like you. Aren't I supposed to be the dumb one?"

She thought a moment before shaking her head. "Actually, all I remember is you saying you're half asian. You never said which part." She shrugged. "I guess I just assumed."

"Oh. My dad, uh-" he cut himself off. "The Philippines," he finished, shrugging off the pain. "Close, though, I guess. What about you? I know you're from the Indian Islands, but-"

"My mother's family will someday be from Punjab," came her reply with a soft smile. "My father's will have been in the States a few generations already." She then leaned in to jostle him briefly with her shoulder. "Also? You're not dumb."

He matched her smile briefly. Then, shrugging, turned back to consider the settlement below. "It's still cool, though. These guys invent fireworks, right?" he asked.

"Hm, not until the seventh century I think," she replied. "That's still around four thousand years from now." She attempted a shrug of nonchalance, glancing away. "Give or take."

An uneasy silence passed.

"So, uh, keep that in mind, I guess," she added after clearing her throat. "Maybe let a couple off for me."

"You will have to remind me to light up a bunch for fun," he corrected her, elbowing her gently. Terrified of losing her.

She laughed. Brief and pained.

They sat in silence for a long moment, gradually losing sight of the settlement to the encroaching darkness as the sun dipped below the distant mountains.

They shortly portaled away to explore a much brighter part of the world. Then, when Connie was ready to sleep, back to the Delmarvan cliffside to rinse and repeat.

Lars and Connie returned to the far eastern mountainside only once more after long months of searching. They remembered it fondly - a picturesque place to stop and unwind for a moment. But this time, in the sunrise, they only found the region below in chaos.

Gem ships idled overhead as a colorful army set about the process of invading the hitherto peaceful settlement. Perhaps this wasn't the far-flung beginnings of ancient China after all. Perhaps this would instead be some forgotten ruins that the enduring civilization would some other day be built over the top of.

It was a terrible sight to behold nonetheless. Tiny figures of humans spilled out in droves, fleeing into the surrounding countryside while the much stronger gems were already tearing it down.

They hadn't seen this happen before. It was far too weighty a situation to interfere with. They knew they had to let this disaster run its course. They couldn't bring themselves to sit, though - they stood, tense, watching in a state of alarm.

Resigned alarm.

Lars stammered, "Why would Rose - Pink - still be doing this? She's been rebelling, probably for centuries now, I can't-"

"She has to keep up appearances," came Connie's grasping reply as her wide eyes scanned the goings-on. "Or, wait - the other diamonds. They could have stepped in whenever they felt Pink wasn't performing to standard. They had the authority."

They watched the goings-on for a few moments, until Connie pointed. "There, look."

Lars followed her gaze to see orange-toned gems rounding up humans, corralling a group of them away from the others, herding them toward a ship on the ground. Its doors, flanked by guards, were open for them.

Connie at length managed to croak out, "We should go home."

"Oh," said Lars, flat. "Yeah."

He took a breath, expelled it loudly, and a portal sprung into being beside them. They couldn't bring themselves to jump through it and it soon disappeared.

Instead, they continued watching uneasily as a human tragedy unfolded far below them. While they couldn't help, they still couldn't look away.

They didn't notice they weren't alone until it was too late. A pair of gems, sneaking up on them while they were distracted.

The first they knew of any of it was Connie being yanked back, yelping. She found herself struggling frantically within the grip of a large gem. Lars spun around and was immediately intimidated by a pair of citrines, smiling toothily.

Lars, wide-eyed, glanced between them and Connie.

"Let me go!" She yelled, but her captor's grip could have been comprised of the same stone her gem was made out of. Lars pulled the spear from his forehead and pointed it at the one holding Connie, making a show of gritting his teeth.

Only two out of the four of them knew he couldn't use it out of fear for the timeline.

And the other two didn't find the situation dangerous at all, either way.

"You were right," chuckled the one holding Connie. "She's too runty and odd-looking to be The Rose Quartz."

He quailed as the other one approached him. She kicked him and he fell back into the dirt. She had her weapon out - a blunt mace. Lars was more than able to produce a very specific mental image of that thing being used on him and he froze up, recoiling in fear.

"What are you doing!? Run!" Connie shrieked, helpless to do much else. The citrine holding her clamped a hand over her mouth.

"Stop," she said. "Don't poof her yet. She'll have information. We'll take her to Hessonite"

"What!? But! She's a rose quartz... I think," said the other, lowering the weapon somewhat, distracted now by the conversation. "We're obligated to destroy every remaining one of them on sight. It's treason, otherwise!"

The first citrine looked bored. "She's captured and she's a Crystal Gem," she reasoned, ignoring Connie who was still trying to get out muffled yells, trying to free herself from the gem's solid grip. "We'll let Hessonite decide."

While they were arguing, Lars and Connie made eye contact.

Is this how we part? they each asked the other.

It was broken an instant later as the other citrine grabbed him roughly by the arm.

"H-hey - Let me go!" he yelped.

"Huh. Squishy," came her astute observation as Lars swore and tried to pull free, letting the spear clatter to the dirt. She barely noticed his struggles.

"Nevermind," growled the first citrine. "Let's head back. This one can go to the Zoo."

Seconds later, they found themselves hurtling through the air as prisoners of two warrior gems neither of them stood a chance against. Connie had stopped struggling now that they were in the air and simply clung to her captor with tears and hair whipping her eyes in the wind, afraid now of shuffling loose as the landscape zoomed by far below them.

She could tell their tangent would soon place them in the middle of the activity going on down there.

One terrified shriek later, they entered a tunnel of moving light.

It was the citrines' turn to be afraid. Their grips on their captives relaxed as they began to freak out, struggling to understand what was happening - they'd never experienced anything like this before.

Lars' desperation took over. He wrenched his arm free and managed to climb over the top of the citrine that had held him, and tried not to think as he launched himself from the back of her head at Connie. He ripped her easily from the arms of the other terrified citrine.

Her eyes widened as she found herself tumbling through apparent weightlessness with him, away from the two gems.

The citrines disappeared as they exited the wormhole, which would put them not far from where they started.

Before the two humans could follow suit, Lars barked up another portal to somewhere else.

Their dusky campsite was peaceful and empty no longer.

"I'm just a burden to you!" Connie freaked out as startled birds took flight.

Lars tried his best to placate her, but he was still reeling from the close call. "Hey! What!? No!"

It didn't feel real. The situation had gone from zero to a car crash and yet it was over so quickly. It ended seconds ago, and now... they were safe? On the other side of the world? Their minds remained drenched in adrenaline. Their fight or flight instincts still in overdrive.

The peace of the woods on the sloping hillside made it all seem invalid. Surreal.

She glared uselessly up at him. "Yes I am. You save me constantly-"

"Not constantly-" he stammered, temper rising. "Stop it!"

"And you cook for me! And you even spend all your time hauling me around, trying to help me find Rose! For my benefit! After all these years, you can say it. It's easy. It's spelle N."

Why was she being so difficult?! He raised his eyes to the sky in exasperation. "H-hey! I do things for you because I want to!"

She glared as she corrected him. "Because you have to."

He grit his teeth and pointed straight at her. "We're friends, alright?! Quit bein' weird!"

She balled her fists. "You only saved me because you don't have anyone else!"

Lars was loud and angry. "As if you wouldn't do the same for me if you were the pink dude! If the only reason I was here was because some terrible gem thought I'd be useful to you!"

She was just as outraged, but as she looked at him, his chest rising and falling, she began to lose her grasp on why, exactly. "Of-of course I would!"

"And you have! Our first day here, remember? You saved me from those people at the river."

"You would've been fine without me!"

"Not a theory I wanna test!" Lars folded his arms. "I owe you big for that!"

Wait. What was actually happening here? The feelings were one way, but the words were all wrong. Her temper faded quickly. "No, you… don't."

"You know things. You knew about the Sea Shrine, how to use a sword, wood pitch glue - all these things I'm bad at!" He glared. "You're not useless, Connie!"

She frowned and brought her hand up to rub at her forehead. Any remaining air left her sails. "I… I know I'm not."

Lars suddenly felt awkward in this unexpected silence.

"Then, like," he asked haltingly, bringing a hand up to rub his shoulder. "What are we arguing about?"

"I don't-" she started, frowning. "I just… I mean, all I wanted was to thank you for saving me. But then it came out wrong because I have these feelings, and I'm not used to them. But that's stupid, right? Maybe I should be! I just don't want to get used to feeling helpless."

Lars' expression softened. "Yeah, but isn't it okay to feel helpless? That's just what our lives are. Listen. If you don't think I'm not freaking out at all times, I got a surprising true fact for ya."

She shook her head. She knew they were on the same page, for the most part.

All they could do - all they ever did - was try their damnedest to cling with tired fingers to whatever slivers of hope they could grasp.

And continue the search for Rose Quartz.

Tomorrow.

For now, there was a schedule to keep for the sake of Connie's physiological wellbeing, and maintaining any semblance of normality. They had another fire to start and yet another meal to cook as the same unsympathetic sun dropped below the horizon.