Chapter Fourteen: Shifting

Rose didn't want to do this.

She'd been putting it off and putting it off. Garnet had even offered to do it for her, and the offer had been tempting. But no. This was something Rose felt she had to do for herself.

"Mr. Universe?" she said lightly, interrupting the music he was playing. "Could we talk?"

The human put down his guitar and gave her that careful, guarded look he'd been wearing for days now. "Uh. Sure."

He didn't get up.

"Outside, perhaps?" Rose asked, tilting her head towards the cave mouth.

The two Universe's turned to each other, a silent conversation passing between them. Finally, Mr. Universe sighed and stood up. Steven Universe fixed Rose Quartz with a piercing blue stare.

"You'll be okay on your own, bud?" Mr. Universe asked.

"I won't be alone," Steven Universe said dully, jutting a thumb towards Amethyst. She gave him a sharp smile in response.

Rose hoped the two would get along okay.

Rose Quartz led the way out of the cave and down the slope to the beach. Neither of them spoke. Once they were out of the Temple's immediate range, Mr. Universe picked up the pace, just enough for him to draw ahead of her. Rose Quartz let him do so. If it was a delay tactic, it was one she would allow herself to indulge in as well.

They came to a stop nearly five minutes later, and Rose understood why. He had taken her to his car wash. His place. Somewhere familiar, to provide him with extra confidence.

He stood next to his van, and turned to face her, expression weary, resigned, and defiant. "So?"

Rose had turned this conversation over in her mind many times, looking for a delicate way to handle it, something to make it softer, easier. She hadn't found one.

So she simply stated: "You spied on us."

Mr. Universe winced, but didn't deny it.

"You used us," Rose Quartz continued, voice trembling a little. "You used me."

"I had to," he said.

Rose's eye narrowed. "Did you."

"Yes!" Mr. Universe drew himself up, something fierce burning in his eyes. "I know about you, Rose Quartz, and the things you've done. How you killed Pink Diamond. I could never let you do that to my son." His fists clenched. "Everything I did, I did for him."

A distant, detached part of Rose Quartz observed that passion, and approved of it. He truly does believe what he is saying.

It lessened the pain, a little.

"So Steven truly is your son?"

"Yes!" Mr. Universe yelled. "For the hundredth time, yes! I know you Gems don't reproduce like we do, but I was there for his birth, I've raised Steven since he was in diapers. I know it must be hard for you to believe a Gem could have a kid, but I swear that's what happened."

"It's not so much hard to believe that a Gem would have a child, as it is Blue Diamond would."

Mr. Universe's face was hard. "Well, clearly you didn't know Blue very well, did you?"

You're the one who did not know her.

That's what Rose Quartz wanted to say, more than anything, but she stopped herself at the last moment. That would do nothing but antagonize him.

And perhaps he had a point. If Blue Diamond had sacrificed her existence to bring a human life into the world, then Rose Quartz truly did not know her as well as she'd thought.

Rose rubbed her eyes. "You should have just told me," she said. "We would never knowingly harm a human. If you'd been upfront and honest, we could have avoided all of this."

The anger on Mr. Universe's face faded, but some still remained. "Really?" he said. "So you're saying that if I'd come to you, two years ago and gone, 'Here's my son, he has the gemstone of a person you waged a war against', you wouldn't have thrown him in a cage?"

Rose Quartz said nothing.

The human gave a humorless bark of a laugh. "Thought so."

He doesn't understand, Rose Quartz said. And she wanted him to understand. She wanted to tell him everything. About what the Diamonds had done, and were surely still doing, elsewhere in the galaxies. Destroying planets, subjugating Gems, using everyone around them to expand, expand, expand

She wanted him to realize what a threat Blue Diamond posed. That if any of her original self remained in the being calling himself Steven Universe, he needed to be locked away. That it was necessary to protect the planet, and every living thing on it.

She was just figuring out a way to begin, when Mr. Universe spoke first.

"For what it's worth," Mr. Universe said. "I… really did come to respect you, Rose. And like you. Hanging out with you was… nice."

Something deep within Rose's core clenched and shuddered, and anything she may have said died on her lips.

Wordlessly, Rose Quartz turned around, and walked away.


Amethyst exhaled loudly as she fell against the Temple's wall.

After all these stories about war and rebellion, about keeping dangerous Gems under control, about protecting the Earth, she'd been eager to do whatever she could to help out. But now she was being forced to confront a reality no one had ever bothered to tell her: Guard duty sucked.

How had she allowed Pearl to actually convince her that it would fun to sit in the Temple's entrance and just watch the squishy Diamond sit there and stare at his hand?

Amethyst sighed, bored and frustrated. Of course Pearl would find this enjoyable. Pearl would think that paint drying was a thrilling. Amethyst laughed at the image, Pearl standing in front of wall, looking so closely at it that the tip of her nose almost scraped against it—

There was a grunt from the cage, turning Amethyst's attention towards their captive, 'Steven'. He always had been kind of a weird one. Interesting, but weird. But now he was just staring at his hand and groaning. Amethyst pushed against the wall and walked over to the cell.

"Hey! Whatcha doing in there?"

Steven glanced briefly up from his hand. "I'm practicing my shapeshifting."

"Really?" Amethyst asked. "I didn't think you could shapeshift."

"Why wouldn't I?"

"Cause you've got a meat body," Amethyst answered, since it was the most obvious thing ever. "I mean if ya had a hard light body like a normal Gem, then sure."

"Well, I can shapeshift," Steven said. "Just… not very well."

"Huh. Well, can I see?"

"Why?" Steven asked, narrowing his eyes.

Amethyst shrugged. "Not like we have a whole lot to do otherwise."

"That's… true, I guess," Steven admitted. "Okay. But just remember I'm not really that good. Pearl wasn't able to teach me much about shapeshifting."

Amethyst laughed. "Yeah. Our Pearl doesn't really like shapeshifting that much either. Doesn't know what she's missing."

"Yeah, shapeshifting is cool," Steven agreed, before turning his attention back to his hand. He stared at it, his expression growing more and more intense as he did. Amethyst was just about to ask if he was going to actually do anything when she saw the tips of his fingers begin to grow and stretch. They grew for about two inches before quickly reverting back to their original length. Steven let go of his breath and turned back towards her. "So? What did you think?"

Amethyst blinked. "That's it? Ya can't do anything else?"

Steven grimaced at her before saying quietly, "I told you I wasn't that good…"

"Hey, woah! That's alright," Amethyst quickly said. "I mean, everyone's gotta start somewhere, right? Even I wasn't a master of shapeshifting right away, ya know?"

"You're really good at shapeshifting?" Steven asked.

Amethyst grinned proudly. "Heck yeah. I might even be better than Rose."

That seemed to catch his attention. His eyes grew wide with surprise and wonder. "Really? Can you show me?"

"Sure," Amethyst chuckled. "Ya got any requests?"

"Um…" Steven tapped his chin. "I don't know. Something really cool?"

Wasn't the best bit of guidance ever, but Amethyst always had liked the chance to be creative.

"Hmm… Alright, I think I gotcha," Amethyst said. She turned her back to him and flashed as she felt her body begin to morph and take a new shape. Slimmed her body, redistributed her mass into a little extra height; lengthened her nose, sharpened her chin, pulled in her hair…

It was done quickly (Amethyst's claim as a master hadn't been all bluster), and without even stopping to inspect herself, Amethyst turned back to face the very surprised Steven.

"Woah…" Steven cooed as he looked her up and down.

"Yeah. Pretty cool, huh?" Amethyst asked grinning, flicking some strands of hair off her ears. "How'd I look?"

"You look just like me!"

Amethyst couldn't help but grin even broader. She hadn't been one-hundred percent sure how it was going to turn out, but if Steven's reaction had been any indication, she must have done a fairly good job. She turned in place, letting Steven get a good look.

"Woah," Steven repeated. "How long did it take you to be able to shapeshift like that?"

"How long did it take you to be able to shapeshift like that?" Amethyst mimicked, pitching her voice lower.

Steven giggled. Amethyst copied him.

"I dunno," Amethyst shrugged, once the laughter had subsided. "I was doing it before Rose found me."

"Found you?" Steven asked. "Like, when you joined the Rebellion?"

"Well," Amethyst started as she sat down and let her form return to normal. "I guess I'm technically a Crystal Gem. But by the time Rose found me, the war was way over."

"Really?" Steven sat down as well, crossing his legs "Huh. I just kind of assumed all three of you had fought during the Rebellion."

"Nah. Not me. Just Rose, Pearl, and Garnet."

"So then… what were doing before Rose Quartz found you?"

"Chilling, mostly," Amethyst answered. "Hanging around my hole, exploring, talking to Pebble."

Steven tilted his head. "Pebble?"

"Yeah, Pebble was my best friend before Rose found me." Amethyst laughed. "We talked about all kinds of things."

"With a pebble?"

"Not a pebble. Pebble," Amethyst sharply corrected. "Pebble was great. You could talk to them about anything."

"Oh, okay," Steven nodded. "So… where's Pebble now?"

Amethyst felt her face glow as she looked down at her lap. "I dunno. I set them down when Rose was gonna take me to the rebel base for the first time, but…" She shrugged. "Came back and I couldn't find Pebble anywhere." Amethyst frowned at her hands. She remembered being excited to show Pebble the base, only to return to the Kindergarten and not be able to find them. Probably some rain had come in and washed them way down the cavern, or something.

It had devastated her. And it had almost made her not want to return to the base, to just live in the Kindergarten forever. If Rose hadn't been so… Rose-like, encouraging and reassuring, then she might never have left her hole in the Kindergarten again.

"Well, maybe Pebble left too," Steven suggested, drawing Amethyst's attention back in the present. He was looking directly at her and it might have been her imagination, but the corners of his eyes seemed to glisten. "Maybe someone found them and they left together. Just like you did with Rose Quartz."

Amethyst blinked and wiped her eyes. "Ya think?"

Steven smiled and nodded. "Yeah. You'll meet Pebble again someday."

Amethyst laughed. She knew it was stupid to think she'd run into a single specific pebble again, almost as stupid to actually treat one like a friend.

Still… it was a nice thought.

"Okay, okay. Enough, sap," Amethyst said, smiling at him. "Let's do some more shapeshifting practice. Is that hand trick the only one you can do?"

"I can make myself bigger."

"Oooh. Alright. Let's see that." She paused. "But not too big. Pearl will probably think you're trying to break out or something."

He nodded. As Steven closed his eyes and began to focus, Amethyst leaned in a little closer, deciding that maybe guard duty wasn't as bad as she had thought.


After Rose Quartz left, Greg just… stood there, for a while.

Eventually, he made himself get up, start walking down the boardwalk. It'd be dinner soon. Seven would need food.

He went to Fish Stew Pizza. He'd been going there a lot, lately. Couldn't be healthy. Not for him, and definitely not for a growing boy. Still, wasn't like he had a lot of options. The Crystal Gem Temple hardly had a fully stocked kitchen he could use to make proper, home cooked meals.

Oh. He never should have moved out of their apartment in Korea. Never should have left his son behind. Never should have come to Beach City. What had he been thinking, that he could play spy on a group of alien soldiers?

The betrayal on Rose Quartz's face hovered in his mind.

He pushed it away. It didn't matter. Why should he care about the 'feelings' of some murderous war criminal? Someone who'd locked Lapis Lazuli for thousands of years, and was going to do the same to his son? She was the one who who should be apologizing to him

"Greg! There you are!"

He nearly jumped out of his skin.

"Geez, man, didn't mean to give you a heart attack," Vidalia said, clapping him on the shoulder. She must've come in behind him.

"Sorry," Greg muttered. "Didn't see you there."

"Yeah, and I haven't seen you anywhere. Where have you been? You completely bailed on cards night, and when Barb tried to call you, she said some random lady picked up and screamed nonsense at her before hanging up."

"Oh," said Greg. "Sorry."

Vi peered at him, annoyance and mock anger fading into concern. "Dude— is everything alright?"

"...No. I've got some— family stuff going on right now. Keeping me busy."

Vidalia's frown deepened. Greg had never told her anything about his family; far as Beach City was concerned, he didn't have one. She must've been curious, but she didn't act on that curiosity. She just said, "Man, I'm sorry. Any way I can help?"

"No. Not really."

Which was true enough. But after Vi ordered her pizza, she sat there and waited with him. She didn't ask him any questions, which Greg was grateful for. She could tell he needed a distraction, and she gave it to him, talking about how Onion was settling in well at his new school, and the plans they had for when Yellowtail got back from his fishing trip next week, and how her online art store was really starting to take off.

"Order up for Greg Universe!" called one of the Pizza twins from the counter. He stood up to go grab it.

"Greg," said Vi, making him pause. "Take care of yourself, okay?"

He gave her a wan smile, and said nothing.

He left the restaurant, and carried the hot box up the boardwalk and up the beach to the Crystal Gem Temple, trying his best not to drag his feet.

When he arrived, he was met by the strange sight of a purple cat rolling on the floor with laughter, as Steven walked the length of his cage, hands tucked into his armpits as he flapped his arms like wings, bobbing his head. A loud clucking sound came from his mouth, now stretched out into the long yellow shape of a beak.

"Look at me, Dad!" he cried. "I'm a chicken."

Greg couldn't help it. He burst out laughing.

It wasn't even really that funny. It was just— sometimes, you had to laugh.

Greg spent the meal tossing pizza crusts into the cage, for Steven to catch in his constantly shifting mouth, trying on everything from an elephant's trunk to a frog's tongue. Most of the crust landed on the floor. Steven gave them to Amethyst to eat. Greg hesitated a little, and let her eat the box, too.