Chapter 15: Shattered Joy

Connie woke up from yet another nightmare. Ever since the other day with the showdown with Phil, Connie would have constant nightmares about it. And the fact that Steven wasn't there to comfort her made it much worse, as it would always remind her that he was gone. He had saved her, getting shattered in the process. Connie couldn't help but to break down in tears again.

The gems had done their best to try and console Connie from the loss of Steven, but they could only do so much; having been greatly affected as well. Not to mention Pearl hadn't come out of her room in the temple since the incident.

Connie reached over to the bubble holding Steven's shards and began to hold it to her chest; the only thing left of the young half-gem.

...

Meanwhile, the gems were at the barn working on improving the gem scanner to be able to scan the mysterious glowing container that was left behind by Phil, although Pearl could barely keep herself together. Suddenly, the warp pad lit up, as Connie appeared on it. The gems turned, surprised to see Connie coming towards them.

"Connie…? Wh-what are you doing here?" Pearl asked, confused as to why she was here.

"I came here to ask you something important," Connie said, determination in her eyes, as well as grief. "I wanted to know if there was any way to un-shatter a gem; you know, bring them back?"

"Well, unfortunately, if there is a way, we don't know what it is yet. Nobody does." Garnet replied. "If gems did know of a way to do so, Homeworld would've used it to revive Pink Diamond a long time ago."

"But what about Rose's fountain? Steven told me all about how it fixed Amethyst's gem, and I had witnessed its healing water for myself as it was used to fix Steven's gem." Connie said, tearing up slightly at the mention of Steven.

"Well, that only works on cracked gems. It won't mend a shattered gem, even if you put the pieces together and do it. We've already tried it." Garnet replied. "Believe me; we all want Steven back. But there's just nothing that we can do about it. He's gone." She continued, a hint of grief in her usually level-toned voice. "But for now, we need to focus on figuring out what this odd container is."

"Oh… okay, then…" Connie said, her voice filled with disappointment. "I'll… just be heading back then."

...

Connie had just finished hearing Steven's story on Amethyst's cracked gem and how the gems had traveled to Rose's healing fountain to fix it. After hearing what Steven said Pearl had told him, she was left in disbelief. "She didn't really say that!" Connie said, knowing that Pearl would never say such a thing.

"No, but that's what it felt like…" he confessed.

"Is that why you've been so down?" Connie asked, to which she just got a shrug in response. "Oh…."

"You can have your juice back." Connie offered in an attempt to cheer him up.

"Nah, that's okay." Steven replied, starting to tear up again. "Everyone expects me to be like my mom…. What if I never get those powers?"

"Then you'll be like me." Connie replied. "That's not so bad."

"But if I don't have powers, then I can't hang out with Amethyst. Or Garnet. Or Pearl! And I-I can't go on missions!" Steven says, grabbing onto his pants at his knee, then stops as Connie puts her hand on top of his.

"You don't need any powers to be here with me." Connie tells him. She then takes a sip of the juice before starting to lean in closer to Steven, a large blush spreading on her face as she was about to kiss him, but stops short with a sudden headache. "Ow. Ugh." She says, putting a hand to her forehead as she leaned back to how she was before.

"What's wrong?" Steven asks, slightly worried.

"I think - there's just - something wrong with my glasses." Connie says, taking her glasses off. "My… my eyes. I-I can see!" Connie says, unable to believe it.

"What?!" Steven asks, equally bewildered.

"I can see without my glasses!" Connie replies, confirming it.

"Did I… heal your eyes? But… how?" Steven says, still confused. He then glances down at the straw of the juice box Connie is holding, which is sparkling. Connie also looks at it, reflexively dropping it in shock. "The juice box!" Steven says, realization striking him. "I don't have healing tears! I have healing spit!"

"What am I going to tell my parents? What am I going to tell my optometrist?!" Connie says.

"I don't even know! Oh, thank you Connie!" Steven tells her, getting up from his sitting position and giving Connie a brief hug. "Lion, let's go tell the gems. They're never gonna believe this!"

Connie then looks down at her glasses she is holding, and after a brief moment of consideration, pops the lenses out and puts her glasses back on.

...

"Connie!" Connie wakes up from her position on the couch to see Peridot looking down right into her face with the biggest grin.

"Connie! You're never gonna believe this! We finished upgrading the gem scanner and scanned the container. It's a pure substance of Oganesson, previously known to humans as Ununoctium, an element with a normal half-life of 0.0007 seconds, but somehow, the container of the element is perfectly stable. Anyway, the reason it's so great is because according to the scanner, it can un-shatter a gem and bring them back! We can use this to revive Steven!"