The Funeral

Virtually the entire town of Beach City had turned out for the funeral. Of course there really weren't that many residents in the town.

They were all seated in metal folding chairs that had been lined up in front of the casket holding Steven Universe.

In the front row was Connie, with her two children, and her parents, who were putting up a front of sadness to cover their relief that Steven could no longer be part of their daughter's life. Connie was keeping up a brave front of her own, trying to be strong for her children, who were letting loose with a steady stream of tears.

"Would anyone like to step up and say a few words?" the man leading the ceremony said.

Mayor Dewey, of course, stood up first to take the stand. He adjusted his ever present sunglasses, and cleared his throat. "We all know and love the annual stage play of the founding of Beach City, which was written by my father, the previous Mayor Dewey. However very few people remember that the first showing of that play only included two actors. Steven himself played the lead… Captain Dewey himself. Despite the small cast, I still remember it as one of the most moving moments of my life… Thank you, Steven!"

The Mayor sat down, and Onion stood up to take the stand. He paused once to scratch his leg where his Ankle Monitor was firmly attached. He opened his mouth to speak, but was suddenly overcome with such emotion, that he had to return to his seat without saying a word.

By chance, Sadie had taken the seat next to Lars. "Steven always thought we were the perfect couple, didn't he?"

"Boy, he sure had that one wrong," Lars laughed. "I'm going to miss the guy."

"Me too," Sadie leaned her head against Lars, and for once neither one of them seemed to mind.

Ronaldo took the stand. "I knew Steven better than any of you. We were kindred spirits, specializing in the Unknown that you normal people want to turn your backs on and pretend doesn't exist… be it the Mole Persons, or Alien invaders from Space! Now that Steven is gone, I'm sure it is just a matter of time before they target me… I too, know too much. But… without you, Steven, Beach City just became a lot less weird, and I am truly going to miss you."

Peedee followed his brother up onto the stand. He set a small tray of fry bits on top of the casket. "That's for you, buddy. Every day it was the same thing. Steven would stop by with his kids in tow, and demand 'Gimmie the bits!' and there was no denying him. It didn't matter that wasn't on the menu… he wanted the bits, and he was going to get them. Well, they're on the menu now."

Kiki's sister glared at her, but Kiki remained firm, "Nuh-uh… I ain't going up there."

"Sadie," Lars said, "you should go and sing."

"What? Lars, you can't be serious?"

"Of course, you have a wonderful voice, and you know how much Steven loved music and singing. It wouldn't be right to send him off without a song."

Sadie looked around, but it didn't look like anyone else was going to go up there, and Lars was right about the song. She stood up and went to the stand.

"It was just pointed out to me, that it would be wrong to say goodbye to someone who loved singing as much as Steven did without a song. My usual song isn't right for this occasion… I'll try to come up with something else… I apologize now if I completely mangle it."

Sadie began to sing Amazing Grace, a song she associated with funerals. Everyone who was at the service later commented that it was the finest rendering of the song they had ever heard.

In the back, a few feet behind where everyone was sitting, stood the Crystal Gems, and Pearl's girlfriend, Karen.

"Connie seems to be holding up really well," Pearl said.

"She's not," Garnet said. "She's going to need us when she finally faces it."

"Oh."

"We should be up front in the family section," Amethyst said. "I wanted a better view. It is nice what everyone is saying about him." She wiped another stray tear from her eye.

"Thanks for keeping the rain away," Garnet said.

"It was the least I could do," Lapis said. Her eyes were still red.

"This isn't personal," Peridot said, "I loved the guy… he was my first friend… ever, but we need to think about the larger picture."

"What are you saying, Peridot?" Pearl asked.

"We should remove his Gem," Peridot said.

Pearl looked shocked that anyone would even think of desecrating Steven's body in such a way.

"No," Garnet said.

"But…"

"No!" Garnet insisted.

"Ugh!"

Bored with the argument, and noticing that the funeral service was starting to break up, Amethyst left the argument to get in the line of people passing by Connie and the kids.

Onion wanted to say something, but again, words failed him.

"Thanks, Onion," Connie said to the unspoken statement.

Connie hugged Sadie when she passed. "Thank you. You were right, it needed a song."

"I just wish it had been better— I'm sorry." Sadie wiped away a tear and held her breath until the urge to cry passed.

Ronaldo made a big show about leaving clandestinely.

"Hey, Connie," Amethyst said.

"You guys should have been up front with me," Connie said.

Amethyst blinked, and wiped dust from her eyes. It had to be dust, right? "Garnet and Pearl couldn't—We didn't want to risk making a scene in front of the whole town… We didn't want to embarrass Steven."

"Steven didn't embarrass."

"Look, Connie, I still have a bunch of Greg's junk—stuff in my room. If you ever want any of it, or just to go through it… let me know."

"Sure… Don't you guys go anywhere yet. I need to give you something," Connie said.

Amethyst nodded, and tussled Stevie's hair as she walked past.

The Gems waited until the rest of the visitors had gone, and Connie and her family stood by the grave as the casket was lowered in and the cemetery workers started to fill in the hole.

Connie left her kids with her parents as she climbed the hill where the Gems were waiting.

They all embraced her in a group hug. Even an uncomfortable Peridot tried to get in on it. "Thanks for coming," Connie said.

"We wouldn't have missed it for anything," Garnet said.

"I want to help the kids move on as best they can, so I'm going to hold Stevie's birthday party next week. Will you be there?" She handed each of them an invitation that had been hand addressed by the little boy.

"Of course," Pearl said.

"Whatever you need," Garnet said.

"I get one too?" Lapis said.

"Of course, you're his favorite," Peridot said.

"This may be a bad time to ask this, but…" Pearl said, "why is your mother's hair black, while your's turned grey?"

"A long time ago, when she was trying to adjust to me and Steven, we agreed that we would each have one secret from each other. Her secret was the nature of her hair, so… no idea."

"What was your secret?" Amethyst asked.

"That I have more than one secret," Connie answered with her first smile since losing Steven."

[Thanks to Guest to pointing out my spelling error in the last chapter. I am nearly at the end of the story I wanted to tell. To answer Guest's question about Last Diamond… she is an original character. I was planning to follow the normal Gem naming scheme and the new jewelry trend and call her Chocolate Diamond, but then I decided that she was more unique and had achieved a rare level of individuality and given herself the title of Last Diamond. It doesn't mean she is the last Diamond, it means that when all is said and done, she plans to be the Last Diamond after uniting her entire culture under her own "benevolent" leadership. I hope I remembered to put everything in this chapter that I had wanted to… oh well, enjoy!]