Garnet wiped the tears from her eyes and got up. As painful as this was going to be, she couldn't put this off any longer. The last thing she wanted to do was bring those memories back up, but she knew that no matter how hard she had tried to change, she needed to talk through what had happened in order to regain Pearl and Amethyst's trust. Her shades had cracked and poofed when she had thrown them aside, so she phased a new pair over her eyes with a wave of her hand. She didn't want the others to see her like this.
She removed the visors for a moment and examined her face in the reflection. "Look at me, I'm pathetic" she thought with shame. All three eyes were crusty and bloodshot, her face blotchy and even redder than usual. She scarcely recognized herself. She wiped the eye crust away and put the visors back on. She silently walked back to the warp pad. She paused and held herself for a moment, and inhaled shakily. She was genuinely afraid to face them, she laughed bitterly. "But that's exactly how I've made them feel, isn't it." She thought as she stepped onto the warp.
When the living room of the house came back into view, she saw Steven happily watching TV as if nothing had happened earlier in the waterfall room, and Pearl and Amethyst were standing in the corner whispering to each other.
"What do you think she'll do when she gets back? There's no way she was really that calm! If Steven weren't there, I don't know what she would have done!" Amethyst said nervously.
"I don't know" Pearl whimpered. "We're dead when she gets back. We really messed up this time. Those things could have…"
Pearl nearly jumped out of her skin when she saw that Garnet was standing in the kitchen. Garnet felt even more heartbroken after having heard them talk. Sure she had punished them before when they screwed up, even Rose had been firm with Garnet at times after she joined her the Crystal Gems. After all, however small it may be now, it had been an army, hadn't it? Garnet's punishments however, were always something petty in reality, and not deserving of this kind of fear; she had never laid a hand on either of them ever again. However, since the incident even something as small as being angrily scolded by their leader would have them shaking. Garnet never wanted this. Garnet had followed Rose out of loyalty and admiration, not out of fear. She never once had to question if Rose would forgive her or not, no matter how badly she had messed up. She had been so much more to Garnet than a commanding officer. Garnet looked down at the two smaller gems and suddenly she realized that this was not an army anymore; Pearl and Amethyst were Garnet's family. Garnet knew what she had to do now, but she couldn't allow Steven to overhear this conversation.
"Pearl, Amethyst, I need to talk to you in my room." The duo turned sickly pale and looked like they would rather do anything than follow the giant red gem through the temple door, but they didn't hesitate to obey the order.