Author's Note: Yep, surprise. I'm actually going to finish this. I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! Also, this chapter is a little shorter than my usual chapters. But we are nearing the end.

Edit: I am so sorry! There were edits made on it by someone I had read it, but I didn't realize they had done that, so I had uploaded it with those suggestions. Once again, sorry about that! I cleaned it up.

Peridot walks alongside Garnet, silent. She can feel the larger gem's stare on her, but she does not look up to meet her eyes. What would even be the point in initiating contact, Peridot wonders. So, they continue in silence, the tension not to be broken by Peridot.

Eventually, Garnet speaks.

"How are you?"

"How... am I? I simply am. I... don't understand the query."

Garnet chuckles, causing Peridot to look up, expecting a smug look on her face at Peridot's ignorance. But, she's just smiling gently. Like how Greg had smiled at her. Not a hint of superiority can be found.

"No. I guess you wouldn't. It's something humans ask each other when they want to know how the other person feels or how they are emotionally, mentally, or physically at that moment. So, how are you Peridot?"

"I'm uh... hmm. I uh... ARGH! I still don't know how to answer!" the green gem confesses.

"That's alright," Garnet assures her, "Let's start off with how you are physically."

"Well, I'm performing at relative peak capacity."

Another chuckle. "That's not quite what I meant. But what do you mean, relative?" The bigger gem inquires.

"Given my... disadvantages."

"Ah. I'm also guessing that these, 'disadvantages' affect how you are feeling?"

"You... would not be incorrect."

She once again chuckles, a little more heartily than before. Peridot glares at her indignantly.

"What's so funny?!"

"Oh Peridot, do you still think we are your enemies?"

"Wha-?" Peridot asks, taken aback, halting in her tracks. Garnet stops as well and turns to look back at Peridot.

"No! Why would you think that?!"

"Because you think we don't trust you. That we think that you are our enemy. Even despite all that you have done for us, given up for the Earth, that
you don't belong. That you aren't a real Crystal Gem."

Peridot looks down guiltily, ashamed that Garnet had hit the problem on the head. Garnet takes a couple steps forward, and kneels in front of Peridot.

"We are not your enemies. And we don't think that you are our enemy. I knew... I thought that if I gave you space and time to come around, you would. I didn't want to rush you, or to make you feel as if we didn't trust you by pushing you around or crowding you. But, Steven is worried about you. He wants you to feel like you belong. And even though you would eventually feel like a part of the Crystal Gems, Steven needs to know that you know that you are a part of the Crystal Gems. Because Peridot, like it or not, you are one of us."

Peridot stares at her, struck speechless by the Gem's passionate speech, and then she tears up. "Really?"

"Really."

"Wow, thanks," she mutters, wiping her leaky eyeballs.

Garnet stands up to her full height, towering above the green gem. But Peridot does not mind. She does not mind that she no longer has limb enhancers to make up for her short stature. She does not mind that she might not be the strongest, or the most powerful. Because she knows, she is a Crystal Gem.

"Let's head back," the leader of the Crystal Gems says to one of the newest members. And Peridot nods her head, and says, "Yes, let's."