Note: A warning for some blood in this chapter.

Chapter Three: Recovery

As far as Steven was concerned, his and Pearl's impromptu camping trip at the Lunar Sea Spire started off great.

There was more exploring to do, more poking his head into hidden crannies, more running up and down the stairs, more admiring the art, even a couple more visions of times long past. He kinda wanted Pearl to give more explanations, but he didn't want to risk her telling him to leave again, so he didn't ask for any.

When he started to get hungry, he ate a bag of chips. Pearl watched in silence.

He got his art book and pencils out, and started sketching. There was almost too much to focus on, too much to choose, but eventually he decided to draw a picture of the pretty little figurine that had been placed on a pedestal at the Spire's very top.

He had it about ninety-percent done when the light began to fade. Maybe he could have finished, but with the sunlight going, so did the warmth. His fingers were shaking a little from the chill.

Putting his supplies away and slipping his hands into his sleeves, Steven went for another walk to warm up, Pearl trailing silently behind. He chatted with the birds for nearly a full hour, and one of them— he named her Seafoam— was so nice that she even caught him a fish for dinner.

The problem, of course, was that he didn't have any way to cook it. He had a little box of matches in a safe pocket of his backpack, but nothing to burn it on. He looked through the Spire from top to bottom, but didn't find any wood. He found some kelp or seaweed or something on one of the lower levels, but it stubbornly refused to burn.

I could eat it raw, he thought. Like sashimi. Except the scaly, moist, un-cut fish lying on the stone floor looked very different from the nicely arranged plates of salmon, rice and vegetables he'd had at Japanese restaurants.

"We can take it home and cook it there," he said.

"Very well," Pearl agreed, moving to pick it up and put it in her gem.

"Tomorrow," Steven added. They still weren't leaving. Pearl stored the fish, and said nothing.

He ate cherry tomatoes and carrot sticks out of a plastic bag, and was left feeling hungry.

He really wish he did have a fire, just for the warmth. The mists which had been so pleasantly cool during the day were now getting downright cold, and even his hoodie couldn't completely keep the chill out.

Pearl could make her body warm, and cuddling with her sounded really nice just then, but that would have been paramount to accepting defeat, so he resolved to ignore it.

It was getting really dark now. Steven didn't feel particularly sleepy, but he supposed they were in a time zone that was further ahead than Korea's. Might as well go to bed.

Not that he had a bed, or even his sleeping bag, but that was what camping was about, right? He could use his backpack as a pillow and sleep on the floor.

The floor. Which was like, marble or something. And very hard. And very cold.

He laid there for hours, tossing and turning, trying to get comfortable, and not succeeding.

He could give up. Tell Pearl that she'd been right, that they should go home.

But no. He had wanted this.

And whatever a Diamond wanted, they got.


Pearl never slept, and so was well accustomed to keeping vigil over her half-human charge. That said, she could not remember a single night which seemed to last as long as that one did, not since Steven had still been an infant. It was deeply uncomfortable, almost painful, watching him turn this way and that the whole time, clearly getting almost no rest at all.

It was a relief when the planet's sun began to peek over the horizon. Pearl crouched down and laid a hand on the boy's shoulder. "Let us go."

Steven blinked at her with groggy, red eyes. Pearl was deeply relieved when he didn't resist, simply giving her a mute nod.

They warped onto the pad, cleverly hidden as it was in the bushes. It was still night in this region of Earth and the darkness ensured that Pearl got several twigs and sticks in her hair. Steven did not help her get them out this time.

In fact, the only thing Steven did do was whine about Pearl carrying him back to the Palanquin. With it so dark and Steven so restless from a terrible night's sleep, Pearl didn't trust him getting so close to the slopes that they would have to pass by in order to get home.

"I'm fine, Pearl. You can put me down," he said. He squirmed a little, but otherwise put up little resistance to her carrying her, numb complaints aside. She was thankful for that. If he had protested more, then… she probably would have put him down.

They turned around a tall hill and before them was the Palanquin. It was only now that Pearl placed Steven on the ground. He awkwardly lumbered through the Palanquin's curtains, Pearl following after him.

Steven pressed a small button on the table and the Palanquin filled with brightness from the string of lights Pearl and Greg had hung from the walls.

"My Steven… what are you going to do now?" Pearl asked.

"I dunno," Steven returned flatly.

"Perhaps you should bathe and then try to get some proper sleep."

Steven grimaced at the light button. "I don't want to bathe tonight."

"But, my Steven, we were out late yesterday. The Spire was not the most sanitary of places and I believe that—"

"I'm not bathing!" Steven yelled. "I don't wanna and I'm not going to!" Without another word, he stormed off, throwing the Palanquin's curtain aside violently as he did.

Pearl ran her fingers through her hair, pulling as she did. Steven could be so trying sometimes. Usually he was so agreeable, but when he wanted to do something, or not do something as the case may be, nothing could deter him.

No. That's not true. Greg is able to say 'no' to him and keep him from doing things that he otherwise shouldn't.

Greg made it look so easy. Last time they were all together, Steven had wanted to order chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast with chocolate milk and Greg had said no. Steven had complained, argued a little, but ultimately, he'd gotten the cheesy egg breakfast instead.

Pearl knew that, had she told Steven no to the pancakes and milk, if he had then insisted, she would have given them to him. And most likely, it would have made him sick and even if it hadn't, all that chocolate couldn't be healthy for him. Humans had such strict dietary requirements.

It was so hard to just say 'no' to him. It felt… unnatural. Dangerous even. After all, she had never said no to Blue Diamond, and with good reason. Pearl served her Diamond, unquestionably. The same was to be expected of her when serving her son, the bearer of her gem.

Pearl let go of her hair and folded her hands in front of her.

She loved Steven, she knew that, even if the subtleties of the human term still felt beyond her grasp. She'd cared for him since he was born. And it had been her Diamond's final order for Pearl to serve him as faithfully as Pearl had served her.

And that's what she did. She loved him and cared for him. So she served him, just as she had her Diamond.

She squeezed her own hands tightly.

What else was she to do?

Serve him, of course. No matter what. Even when he—

A scream pierced through the air.

His scream

It yanked Pearl out of her own head. Her eyes raised and she looked around, but she was alone in the Palanquin still.

Another scream, this one louder with a plea on it, " Please~! Don't hurt her—"

In an instant, Pearl discerned where the scream was coming from and who the scream was coming from. Silently she leapt from where she stood and dashed out of the Palanquin, past the hill, down the slope, and behind the trees.

Past all that, was the other Palanquin, the ruined one, still painted in vivid pink even after all these millennia. And bowed, on his knees, was Steven. He held his head in his hands and was shaking, visibly shaking, all over. Pearl rushed to his side, wrapping her arms around him and hugging him close.

"It's okay, it's okay," she cooed softly into his ear. "You're on the mountain. She can't hurt you."

"I-I saw her," Steven whimpered as he pushed his face into Pearl's shoulder, no doubt smearing it with tears and snot. "I saw her shatter Pink Diamond and then she looked at me and—"

"She did not," Pearl responded gently, petting the back of his head. "It was merely a vision of the past. You were not there that day, my Steven."

Slowly, Steven stopped trembling, his breathing levelled, and his sobbing stopped. He pulled away and looked up at her. His eyes were red and swollen and his face was still tear stained. There were a few sparks of lightning flickering around his fingers, enough to make Pearl wary, but she knew it was not aimed at her, knew that the boy wouldn't try to harm her. Hesitantly, he spoke, "Why did she do it, Pearl? Why did Rose Quartz shatter Pink Diamond?"

"To sow chaos, my Steven. Beyond that, I cannot say."

Steven looked down at the space on the ground between them before slowly getting to his feet, Pearl following suit. "That she gets to keep walking around, unpunished after shattering so many Gems… It's unfair."

"It is," Pearl agreed. "And perhaps one day you will be able to mete out justice to the remnants of the Rebellion. But, until then…"

"Yeah…" Steven reached over and grabbed her hand. "Let's go to the Palanquin."

"And… perhaps get you cleaned up?"

Steven nodded. "Yeah. I could use it, I guess."

Pearl smiled softly at him as she led him back towards home.

Love and care for him, serve him as she did Blue Diamond.

What else was there to do?


There was a human on the beach.

Amethyst wasn't sure what to do about this.

For the last fifty odd years, the unofficial 'rule' had been "No humans near the Temple." Well, maybe the rule had been going on for longer than that, on and off, but when new colonizers from Europe had showed up, they hadn't had the same sense as the locals about how dangerous it was to set up camp right next to the Crystal Gem Temple. The place was a magical beacon, one of the only things that got through monsters' corrupted minds, and it drew them like catnip. So the Crystal Gems put up a fence and signs to try to make sure no humans would wander in at a bad time and get themselves killed.

(And if the fence going up had coincided with the death of Rose's then most recent human friend… well, probably just a coincidence.)

But not that long ago, Rose had adopted a new human friend. Pearl didn't like him, of course— she really didn't like any of Rose's humans— and Garnet thought it was probably unwise, since the guy was fairly old for a human, so it'd have to end even sooner… but Amethyst thought he was pretty cool, old or not. He played fun music, and had rad long hair, and was always giving Amethyst lots of tasty snacks. She'd been the one who'd suggested putting a door in the fence so Greg could visit more often, and Rose had been more than happy to accept.

The door wasn't locked, cuz it didn't need to be. The locals all kept their distance, so Greg was the only one who ever used it.

Or normally, he did. Today, another human had. Amethyst stood a little down the beach, watching her.

It was a her , Amethyst was pretty sure. She was dressed like most human women— or girls, since she looked pretty young. Brown skin, brown hair, big glasses. Cute green dress with a neat bow and yellow boots. She was sitting under the cliff, reading the book.

She probably wasn't meant to be there, all told. But Amethyst didn't just want to tell her to just— go away. She should at least be able to have some fun first, right? The good old 'talking animal trick', maybe. That was always good for a few laughs.

With a flash of purple light (that the girl didn't even notice), Amethyst transformed into a crab. It was a bit of a tricky shape— so many legs!— but a fun one, once you got the hang of it. She clicked her pincher experimentally, wiggled her eyestalks, and set off across the sand towards the human.

Amethyst wouldn't actually hurt her, of course. Just startle her.

There was a cracking sound, and then, Amethyst saw it. A chunk of rock, coming loose, right above the girl

She didn't think. Amethyst leapt, jumping out of her crab shape, springing at the human—

— Amethyst slammed into her, and the girl screamed at the impact, the two of them thrown across the sand. Amethyst screamed too, as she felt something heavy crash into her back. A moment of pain, of dust, of human blood, of the girl's wide brown eyes beneath her—

— then blackness.


Greg's plan for the afternoon had been nothing more complicated than washing the car with the help of Rose Quartz to try to get more details out of her, grabbing some dinner from the Fry Shack, then heading over to Vidalia's place for Saturday night cards.

It was interrupted by a Garnet's frantic cry from down the boardwalk: "Rose! Rose!"

Rose Quartz immediately spun around, dropping her bucket, and Greg turned too. Garnet never sounded frantic.

And here she was, charging up the boardwalk, like a monster was hot on her heels.

Except, there was no monster behind her. There was, however, something in her arms. Greg couldn't recognise it at first, but as he got close, he saw it was some kid in red—

No. Not red. Green. But her dress was stained red, stained with blood.

Greg felt the stomach drop out from under him.

"The rebels are killers," Blue had told him. Had— had Garnet, t-the fusion— had she done this?

But then, why would Garnet look so grim?

"Falling rocks," Garnet explained, as Rose and Greg rushed to meet her. The girl in the fusion's arms moaned in pain. She was still alive, still conscious, even! It was her hand that was bloody— so bloody, Greg couldn't tell how bad it was. But there were already bruises all the way up her left arm, and he was afraid of how much worse it was under her clothes. Maybe she wouldn't be alive for much longer.

"Give her to me," Rose said, voice soft. Soft too, were her hands, as she took the girl into her arms. "Stay with me, child."

Greg's heart was beating fast, and he was already fishing around in his back pocket for his phone, barely paying attention to the scene playing out in front of him. Rose's face was scrunched up, she was crying, the tears streaming down her face—

Aha! His phone! Greg grabbed it, and rapidly punched in the numbers 9-1-1.

Rose Quartz's tears fell onto the girl's body, which was suddenly encased in shimmering pink sparkles. The girl's groaning subsided.

"911, what's your emergency?" came a voice from the phone.

"There's been an accident," Greg stammered out. "At Beach City, near the boardwalk— It's A Wash carwash—"

The girl was sitting up. She was rubbing her head with her right hand, blinking in confusion at her left. "What— what happened?"

The emergency dispatcher was asking the same question.

"A young girl— rocks fell on her?" Greg stammered. "On her left side— her hand looks really bad, there's a lot of blood—"

"I feel fine," the girl said, shaking her head, as if waking up from a sleep. She looked around at Garnet, then at Rose, who was still holding the girl in her lap. "What did you do?"

"I healed you," Rose Quartz said, but she didn't look very happy. Relieved, perhaps, but regretful, too. "Almost completely. You will be safe. But, I apologize, child— I could not save your finger."

"How severe is the injury, sir? Sir?" the voice on the phone was saying, and from the tense nature of the tone, Greg realized they must have asked a few times already.

The girl was holding up her left hand, fingers spread out. Four of them. She was staring in horror at the giant gap where her index finger was meant to be.

"Uhhhhh." Greg had no idea how to answer. "Bad. Really bad."

"An ambulance is on its way, sir. Should be there in the next eight minutes. For now, try not to move the body, and if she's conscious, keep her that way. Try to stem the flow of blood…"

And so the emergency operator continued, giving Greg advice that no longer seemed to apply. There wasn't a blood flow to stem anymore. Instead, garnet had gotten the water bucket and was holding it out to the shell-shocked girl, who stared at it for a moment, then plunged her hand in and washed. When it came out, the hand looked perfectly normal, aside from the obvious missing finger. There should have been a jagged, red, open wound. Instead, the skin was sealed over like a scar that had healed years ago.

"Why— how—"

"I must have left the finger on the beach," Garnet said. "Sorry. I didn't realize."

"It's alright," Rose Quartz said.

The girl stared at Garnet, opened her mouth, then closed it again. When she opened it again, the question she asked was, "Where's the girl who saved me?"

"Girl?" Greg echoed, finally ending the 911 call. Then he noticed there was still one other thing in Garnet's hands. A purple rock.

Amethyst .

Greg had known that Gems could be damaged enough that their bodies got destroyed, leaving nothing but the gemstones behind. But it was one thing to hear about it, quite another to actually see it.

The fusion didn't explain any of that. She just said, "She'll be here soon."

The girl had almost been crushed by falling rocks, but then Amethyst had done something to save her. Something dangerous enough that she'd gotten crushed instead. And then Garnet had brought the still-injured girl to Rose Quartz, and Rose Quartz had healed her—

And the poor girl was looking overwhelmed.

Greg got it. Gems, however nice they may or may not have been, were pretty much always overwhelming.

So he crouched down next to the kid, who looked up at him with bloodshot eyes. "Hey," he said gently. "What's your name?"

"Connie," the girl said, voice surprisingly level as she pulled out of Rose's arms and stood up. "Thanks for helping me. What— who are you guys?"

Greg introduced the Gems first, then himself. "Mr. Universe. But you can call me Greg."

He knew the ambulance was going to be there soon, but it seemed to him that Connie could do with some distraction, and it wasn't right, keeping her sitting there in that bloody dress. He lead her to the car-wash toilet, along with a spare t-shirt from the merch box he kept around. It was one of the biggest sizes, so when she came out, she was wearing the red star t-shirt like a dress. Her actual clothes were placed in a plastic bag. Greg wondered if those were the kind of stains that could be removed.

"Thanks for the shirt," Connie said. "My parents can pay you back…"

Greg shook his head. "Don't even worry about it. On the house."

Rose Quartz and Garnet were still waiting outside… along with Amethyst, no longer just an inert stone, apparently. "Hey!" she yelled, waving at Connie. "Nice to see you're not dead!"

"Uh. Yeah," said Connie. "You're the one who pushed me out of the way of those rocks. You saved my life!"

"Eh, all in a day's work!" Amethyst swept her long hair back in a dismissive gesture.

And it was long hair, Greg realized, with a start. Last he'd seen Amethyst, her hair hadn't even reached past her shoulders, but now it was practically touching the ground.

Amethyst noticed him staring, and grinned. "Like it?" she asked. "I saw how you were rocking it, and thought, man, I gotta try that too."

Greg nodded numbly. She'd changed her hair because of him?

Amethyst turned back to Connie. "And you! You gave me some great ideas for my new duds!"

Connie cocked her head, looking Amethyst over. "The bow," she said, suddenly smiling when she saw it on the hem of Amethyst's purple sweater. "Like on my dress. And my boots! After saving me you went to grab a… a change of clothes like mine?"

"In a sense," said Rose Quartz.

Amethyst grinned even more broadly. "Yep! So thanks!"

"Well, you're welcome, I guess. Consider it repayment for saving me," Connie said. She looked immensely confused, but confusion was probably better than panicking, so Greg would take it. Greg fished out a half-finished box of donuts from his van and handed it out to her, on the premise that there weren't a lot of problems that a donut couldn't help solve. A little hesitantly, she took one.

In a few minutes, an ambulance would arrive, looking for an injured girl, and finding one unharmed aside from a case of shock, a bag of bloody clothes, and a healed stump where a finger should be. There would be questions, he was certain: from the paramedics, and later, Connie's family. Greg would do his best to answer them. Until then, he'd sit with Connie, and try to make sure she was as comfortable.