Clinging to dear life, Connie struggles to bring herself back together to move forward.

At the first strained breath, Connie regained a portion of consciousness as she heard herself take the second, then third deep breaths. Then came the chill that followed a flush. There was no light as she batted her eyes open. She honed her ears to the hollow but subtle gusts of wind. But her jagged breathing was the loudest noise. It became cramped quickly, as she tried to make sense of where she was. Next was the slight, prickles on the different parts of her body. They become more painful the more aware she had become.

The deep breaths were still the audible focus. They quickened as Connie realized she was trapped under debris. She tried to push it all off as her mind became fully conscious.

"Steven..." She croaked.
"Snow?"

No answer. No Black Pearl either. She caught her breath in a cut off gasp as she pushed more debris off, just as a spear of pain struck through her like lightning. The little bit of heaven that came from above, was the fallen light that flickered with the broken globe. It allowed her to look at her hand, as the shock had her shaking heavily. Warm tears fell down her cheeks as she struggle to sit up.

She could see the cracks and holes in the walls of the now broken elevator, then she noticed its two doors slightly ajar. Checking her surroundings, Steven was not there. They must have unfused during the crash. Snow was gone too, until Connie noticed a small white gemstone behind her. She picked it up and examined it properly. Oddly enough one side was pure white, the other, held blue green dot patterned flecks. Flashes of Snow's panicked face went by her so quickly, but then she was distracted by her blade in the corner. With what strength Miss Maheswaran could gather, she pushed herself up on her feet and slid herself across. She got her hold of her weapon and clung on to it tightly and used it to hold herself with just enough balance to be less than upright. Better that than to behold the sluggish feeling she would have, if she were to be scampering on the ground instead.

She remembered to take deep breaths and only focused on those alone as she pushed herself through the opening and into a long hallway, with a long blue floor and black walls adorned with lights and a black and turquoise diamond shaped patterns. No flowers either. Her legs wobbled as her nerves felt like they were on fire, forcing her to lean against the wall after about a few minutes of staggering about. Something got caught in her throat in the meanwhile that forced her to cough and splatter. Connie could see the blood on the floor right after as her eyes rolled to it. What ever impact they had, her organs had been hit pretty badly as she felt her anxiety play with her heart and stomach...not to mentioned the quicker paced breathing she'd developed. No...she couldn't die here. She had to find Steven.

Connie then pulled herself up off the wall and wobbled her way down once more. Echoes of the wind filled the hallway as she pushed herself to move on. Her pain was irrelevant as all her willpower was used to continue herself forward. Where was Steven? Who knew? Snow had yet to regenerate from her earlier poofing, which Connie surmised as the impact being so great her body couldn't take the great force. Unless she shielded the two when they were fused from a possible fatal fall.

She wished Steven were here. She wanted his healing powers...and his smile and his words that would take the pain away. But she felt so weak as she bled from different cuts to her body...and as she looked into her reflection on her sword. Her face was a mess as blood dripped from her mouth, as well as a massive gash on forehead. The bags under her eyes were heavy and she was white as a sheet, like she'd seen a ghost, but it felt more like all the blood in her body had already been drained.

But the ghost stood there, taking the sight of the Pink Diamond Eyed Steven to get her to almost freak out. It was just like that dream again.

"What...you gonna stand there and watch me die?" She cried out in frustration.

He failed to move at all, instead, preferring to stand there and stare. While she dragged herself, wobbling knees and all, to him instead. Connie approached him and put all her weight into the sword to where she plunged it through the ground. Her glare was immense, despite her feeling incredibly frail and pathetic.

But...she became lost in them. The inhumanness, the vacancy and the outright creepiness of his dull expression. He raised his hand to her own, as she flashed back to when Pink Steven touched her hand as Connie handed the human Steven to him. She was left speechless by this bizarre feeling. PDE Steven grabbed her hand out of nowhere and forced her hand open, seeing Snow's gemstone within her palm. He looked at it for a good few minutes, before his stare went back to Connie. She didn't know what to do or what to expect.

But parts of her eavesdropping back at the Beach House had her listening into Pearls and Snow's conversation about her mutations due to fusing with Steven. An aura of sorts she gained from the experiences they had together. That they would find out from direct contact at some point should the mutations become more noticeable. Not that Connie felt any different from the overall repeated motions but for all she knew they developed over time and Connie just didn't notice. She looked at Steven again, who's diamond eyes became purple, instead of Pink. She grasped both Snow's gem and the hilt of her blade as she jumped back.
"...You're my aura...aren't you?" She muttered.

Steven didn't budge, but as Connie looked down, then looked back up again, Steven was gone and in his place, was the sight of herself in a turquoise dress. With teal diamond eyes.
She gasped, then looked at Snow's gem in her hand.
"Please help...I need help...please Snow...I need to find Steven...please..."

Her emotions exploded from within. Connie burst into tears as she dropped to her knees and let go of her sword as she clung onto Snow's gem like she depended on it.

"You cannot hope to achieve if you allow yourself to fall in despair..." A voice said, dull in tone.
She opened her eyes to see herself on the beach during sunset. The only person she saw was...her diamond eyed self.

"You tried so hard to reach out to him when he himself was overburdened. Hope is your only way out of despair."

You can't live off of it, however. Connie was more practical than that.

"Despair is an illusion of hopelessness and can be nothing more than a heavyweight in your Heart."

Which is why she couldn't allow for this travesty to slow her down...but being injured this badly wouldn't help.

"Love is a Shield. Hope is a Sword. Let them be your guiding light out of the darkness of despair."

The vision faded away back into reality, pixel by wave of pixels. Connie was still in a lot of pain that washed over her like a gigantic wave.

Time no longer mattered as every minute spent felt like an hour as she hauled herself down as far as she could. Love and Hope were indeed motivators...but it wasn't enough to drive away her pain. Only her own willpower called for her.

The Curse of Humanity is also its blessing.

Whispers coated her mind in a white softness. A less harsh and sharp reality that she had come to know in this forsaken place.

She looked at her sword. It was a bit damaged. Nothing Bismuth couldn't fix. She held on to it tightly as she prevented herself from screaming in agony, like shards of glass that were dug deep into her body. It was broken bones and ruptured organs that were her enemy.

It's too dangerous for gemkind. Because they don't know how to use it properly. They've never had to. No Heart to drive them.

She rammed her sword into the ground again. She shook violently as she tried so hard not to scream as a hiss escaped in between her clamped teeth. This time her sword almost broke...if not for the surge of a light blue glow surrounding it. It was practically beaming with energy. Connie's eyes widened as she quickly pulled back her hand. The glow disappeared as the sword returned back to normal, but not before Connie looked at herself in disbelief.

In any other circumstances, Connie would be amazed. But the flurry of horrible pain and anxiety fled between her stomach and her heart again. Why hadn't she passed on yet?

Her only known answer was a simple refusal to die.

She clung on to the sword as an Earthquake shook the room violently as horrible, deep and hellish screams reverberated and echoed down the hallway. She's heard this before. But where? His sunken eyes haunted her. He was dying and she knew it. She was dying...and she was alone. He was alone.

Another earthquake sent her toppling against the nearby wall with a nasty crunch. She dropped her blade again as she bit down so hard on her knuckles that they bled worse than the cuts made there before it.

"This is a Curse indeed...I can't let it win..." Connie gasped through her winces.

"But how can a curse be a bles...blessing at the sam...ahhhckck."

More blood poured out of her mouth and on to the floor. Her legs weren't listening to her anymore as her quivered breath became the only winds in her ears and as her vision blurred in and out. She looked at the light above and tried to reach for it. She saw her hand eclipse it as it became shadow. Images of her parents, her friends...the gems fled before her eyes. She then looked at Snow's gem again. Using her last ounce of logic and reason, she imagined Snow telling her that she had become delirious as she dumped herself into the comfort of false happiness and security.

"Love confuses everyone." Connie stammered as she spoke to it, remembering their discussion on the beach.

"It...it can hurt more. It's not just a shield. It's a spear. It's a whip...it's a gut punch...when twisted the right way."

Her own immense, whirlpool ocean of feelings for Steven wrenched her more than the physical pain. All she could think about was him in her last moments. How she wanted to say so much but priorities forced her mouth shut. She wanted one last dance, one last jam bud session, one last fusion...

One last...and first kiss.

Out of all the thoughts that were knocked around inside her rattled head, the only stable one she had was the want to kiss him, badly...but deep down, after the first attempt, she always wanted to leave it him to initiate it and that if...if he ever wanted to. He could take it. It was there. Yes, their previous disputes put a damper on matters and part of her was just so happy to have someone like him in her life that nothing came of it. She took a deep breath as her Aura expanded, like she had fallen into water for that brief moment...she felt like she was floating as her tears drifted away from her face. She smiled and like for a while, the pain drifted away as well.

Look at you, Incarnation of Hope. It's why you've been chosen. Your Aura has grown strong. But the Sword needs its Shield as the Shield needs its Sword.

She saw something swim towards her. Something bright and pink. Was...was that who she thought it was?

Her aura disappeared as she returned back to painful reality. But the being was walking towards her now. It was Steven...no...yes...Pink Steven and his big, blank stare. The Lillim had to be at her again. She unintentionally dropped Snow's gem with the dizziness being too much to bare right now.

The world is the cruelest ruler to the nicest person.

"This...is... is cruelty..." She muttered, before her eyes began to feel really heavy. She felt something touch her as she fell in and out of consciousness again. A warmth surrounded her as she suddenly felt lighter than she'd ever been. It felt so nice...so cosy that she didn't want to leave. She looked up to see Pink Steven's face near her. She felt her cheeks blush. She blamed this on the adrenaline that kept her alive so far that she was in such a daze. But it was like the serotonin became alive again from just being held by him. She touched his face and splayed her fingers on his cheek as she cradled it on the palm of her hand. The warmth continued to seep through her as she sat up and rested her forehead against his.

He did not act at first, instead, he stood there and stared at her while she smiled and whimpered softly. She then wrapped her arms around him, then felt her mind fade into the puddle again. She did not mind.

"I'm here..." Pink Steven echoed.