A/N - Thanks for the reviews! This was another chapter that was a little tough to write but hey, more Amedot! Next up will be some more plot stuff. And Onion ahoy!

Feel free to review!

-FourFaces

A green sparkle reflected in Onion's eyes as he looked over the gem that he held in his hand. Everyone had noticed that he became extremely withdrawn after hearing about Steven. He only would reply to a question or comment with a short word or sentence and then disappear into his own world. Most of his time was spent looking over the gem that he held in his hands. It was green and large, almost too big to have fit in one of his pockets, and it felt heavy in his hands.

Steven had explained to him what would happen if one of these gems was badly damaged. Onion wondered if Steven looked like this now too. Steven had never said what would happen to him if he was injured.

He wasn't even sure if this gem was one of the bad gems or not. She had just attacked him at one point, so he assumed she was. She barely looked human when she attacked him, looking more like a sandy, crumbling statue. When he had poofed her, she had disintegrated into sand, leaving only the gem.

Onion sighed and put the gem back onto his bed. It wasn't regenerating now, so there was that. He laid back and stared at the ceiling. He wondered if Steven would be proud of him for poofing this gem. Maybe he would be annoyed or angry with him, like he had been so often when they were younger. He rolled over and looked at the gem.

Something was pulling him to take the gem outside, but he ignored it for now. After all, it could get lost in the sand …

Garnet sat in the bubble room, curled up on herself. She continued to search for chances of healing the shattered gems. She knew that the shards were still alive in a way, but she wasn't sure if they could be recovered. She wanted them to be recovered. She wanted to believe that Steven could heal them.

She wanted to believe that he was going to come back.

Another bubble appeared above her. They were appearing in the room more slowly now, signaling the end of beach cleanup. Soon, a decision would have to be made. She knew that there was a high probability of Jasper returning soon. She didn't want to call her Yellow Diamond yet. She knew the previous Yellow Diamond before. Or rather, Ruby and Sapphire had. Before Rose was a part of the Diamond Authority. When Ruby was a low level laborer and Sapphire was Blue Diamond's favorite seer.

Garnet held onto herself tighter. She wasn't going to fall apart again over this.

They'll be finished soon.

I know.

We need to confront them before they make any brash decisions.

I know. But they might be right.

… I know.

Garnet clenched her fists and then stood up, walking towards the door. She needed to get away and think.

She walked out into the beach house and stepped onto the warp pad. She was about to warp away when she looked up at Lion.

The ginger stripes on the fur had faded slightly. This unnerved the fusion as she decided to walk over to the giant beast.

Connie had not returned yet from sparring so Garnet might have some time alone to examine the large cat before Connie returned to her constant vigil. He did seem different from the last time she looked at him. Perhaps the previous observation was a trick of the light or wishful thinking. Perhaps his mane really was as full as before and the stripes were just shadows from the blinds.

Garnet went to the window and opened the blinds to remove that possibility.

The stripes remained.

Garnet grinned and then sat next to the lion, stroking his mane.

"Steven. I hope that you can hear me," she began. "I know you can do this. I believe in you."

There was no response from the big cat. Garnet expected this. She sat in silence for a long time until she began to hum softly, stroking Lion's mane and hoping that Steven might hear.

Steven had been afraid of this part of regeneration, if he was being truly honest with himself. The thought of possibly having another shape-shifting accident still horrified him. He looked at Lion who sat on the treasure chest expectantly.

"Just try growing out your hair a little more. It's easier than trying to make yourself into a cat," he chuckled.

Steven nodded and thought about what he would look like with longer hair. He pictured curls, slightly like his mother's, down his back. He imagined how it would feel, the weight of longer hair. A brief thought of how it would finally get Lion off of his back with regards to Steven needing a more regal hairstyle distracted him, as did the ensuing laughing fit from Lion. Steven quirked open an eye and looked at Lion.

"What?"

"Oh man! I need to get the mirror out of the treasure chest for this one! Oh Steven!" Lion howled. Lion pawed at the treasure chest and struggled to get it open. When it popped open, he leaped in and pulled out a hand mirror. "Don't worry. This is just a regular mirror. No gem on it," Lion purred, holding up the mirror in his teeth for Steven to see.

Steven's hair was a mane alright. Long, shaggy, fluffy, and framing his now whiskered face.

"Augh! No! I don't want that!" Steven cried out.

Lion laughed and hopped over to him.

"Don't worry. Just focus on something that isn't me and you'll be fine. Maybe you would like to do this in the mirror after all," the cat grinned, holding the mirror up for Steven again.

Steven watched as the hair went back to his normal cropped length and the whiskers receded from his face. He then stared at his hair, watching it grow again. Chocolate brown ringlets framed his face and he gasped at how much he looked like his mother now. He ran his hand across his chin and soon the starts of a goatee sprouted. Steven smiled. At least now he looked his age.

He wondered what Connie might think.

"Ooh, she's going to like that!" Lion smiled. "I mean, she'll be happy to see you anyway, but she'll especially enjoy your new look. Now … let's see. You'll need to replace that torn shirt. Let's try focusing on creating -"

Lion's eyes glowed.

"What?"

"Oh no. We need to get you out of here and fast. I can't believe it's been this long. Argh!"

"What? Why?" Steven cried out.

"She's back," Lion said as he ushered Steven over to the tree.

Peridot had come in at some point while Garnet was humming and stroking Lion's mane. She quietly made her way up the stairs and stood at the threshold. Things were definitely less tense than when she first regularly interacted with Garnet, but there were still doubts in Peridot's mind, especially knowing what she may have to do soon. She was still afraid of the fusion as well. She was about to clear her throat so that Garnet knew she was there (but of course, she probably knew anyway), when the warp pad activated.

Peridot and Garnet looked to see Connie, Pearl, and Priyanka warp in. Connie was drenched in sweat and looked exhausted yet happy. Pearl was slightly shaken and Priyanka was speechless.

"I take it the sparring session went well," Garnet stated as Connie ran to Steven's bathroom to shower.

"Yes. She did well against all of the holograms. It took a lot of concentration to change those holopearls into holodiamonds and I'm still not sure that she'll really be prepared if ..." Pearl trailed off.

Priyanka walked to the couch and sat down. This was only the third time that Peridot had seen Connie's mother and she looked much older now than she had the last time. Peridot walked over to her and sat on the couch next to her.

"Mrs. Maheswaran. Maybe we can convince Connie to stay in if the Diamond Authority really does return to Earth. If Steven doesn't return, then she may not fight -" Peridot started.

"No. She'll fight even harder if I know her. I've never seen that fire in her eyes like I did in the arena. It's frightening but at the same time, she seemed more at peace there than I expected her to be. Like this was meant to be."

Deep down, Peridot knew this was true, but neither she nor Pearl wanted to believe it. They knew what could happen to Connie. Pearl had seen it before and Peridot had seen flashes in holographic nightmares that Pearl had. In a way, she was their only tie to Steven right now, other than the Lion who was currently comatose on Steven's bed.

"I'm so glad you were able to come over, Connie!" Steven smiled as he pulled Connie along to the barn. "We really need your help with this drill and you're one of the smartest people I know!"

Connie blushed.

"I don't know about that, Steven," Connie smiled. "I think Pearl would know about this more than I would."

Connie stopped when she saw the new gem sitting down, tied to the fence. She didn't look as dangerous as Steven had told her before, especially with the harness. She even seemed almost scared or sad.

"Is that Peridot?" Connie whispered.

"Yeah. But I don't think she's an evil gem anymore. She even is starting to get along with Amethyst and Pearl! Garnet … not so much."

Connie's eyes darted over to the giant drill that had been created. It towered over Pearl who was currently doing a third check of the structural integrity of the exterior.

"That already looks so good. I don't know how else I could help to improve it, Steven," Connie gasped. "Where does the driver sit?"

"Oh, just at the top. It's got room for all of us in there," Steven beamed.

Connie nodded and then paused.

"Wait. Are you going in it too?"

"Yeah!"

Connie shook her head.

"No, no. There needs to be something to protect you from the intense pressures when you're drilling into the ground. And if you really are going to be getting there quickly, you'll need to do it from the bottom of the ocean. Sure, the Gems are good swimmers, but I don't think you can hold your breath that long!" Connie rambled.

Soon, she was off, running to Pearl and talking to her about her concerns for Steven's safety on the drill.

Steven smiled, watching Connie and Pearl talk. He had known she could maybe help, but even if not, he had missed her. Sure, it was nice hanging out with the Gems, but he missed the interaction with his favorite human friend.

"Steven?" He heard Peridot whisper behind him. "What is that human doing talking with Pearl?"

"Oh! That's Connie! She's my best friend and I wanted her to come help too. She's really smart and already saw something all of us missed when building the drill."

Peridot's nose scrunched.

"A human, improving on Gem technology? Even with our scrapped together plans for this drill, her engineering skills couldn't possibly compare to that of even the – I mean – Pearl's!"

"Oh no, she's not engineering anything. She just pointed out that I wouldn't survive the trip if I went in the drill. She's been going to school for years and knows about all sorts of things. She's who I talk to when I need to know stuff bout being a human that my dad can't teach me," Steven smiled. "And she's just fun to be around."

Peridot noticed something about the way the Steven talked about the Connie. It was almost like how Pearl talked about Rose Quartz (or Amethyst about Pearl). She couldn't quite place it yet, but it felt nice almost, if not a little annoying.

"So, why's your girlfriend here, Steven?" Amethyst chuckled from behind them.

Steven blushed and stammered, "She's not my girlfriend, Amethyst! I wanted her to come help, that's all."

"Uh-huh," Amethyst laughed.

"What's a 'girlfriend'?" Peridot asked.

Steven went even redder as Amethyst laughed.

"Oh Peri, you're a riot! A girlfriend would be someone who Steven loooves!" Amethyst teased.

"Stop it, Amethyst!" Steven stammered. "She'll hear you!"

"Wait," Peridot began, "So, the Connie is a 'girlfriend' that the Steven 'loves'. Interesting. And this love is obviously something distressing to the Steven."

"No! She's not -"

"Amethyst! I'm going to need you to come over here and hold something for me!" Pearl exclaimed, motioning for her as Connie stood nearby.

"Ugh! She's always asking me to hold this or do tat!" Amethyst groaned as she transformed into Purple Puma and stomped over to Pearl. "I'm more than a pair of strong arms that hold things, Pearl!"

Steven let out a deep breath and turned to Perdot who was blushing a dark shade of green.

"Peridot?"

"Steven. I think something might be wrong with me. I may be more defective than I originally thought."

Steven panicked, "Oh no! Is it something with your gem?"

"No … no. I just have this weird … feeling. It seems to correlate to interactions with Amethyst. As if she's causing me to feel these feelings."

Steven cocked his head.

"Like butterflies in your stomach?" Steven asked.

"What's a butterfly?"

"It's a – never mind, I'll show you in one of my books at home. Is it like a nervousness? Like you want to impress her and don't want to look silly in front of her but you're afraid that you do anyway?"

"And I want to be around her even though I'm feeling this way whenever I'm around her."

Steven grinned and then laughed.

"What? What's so funny?" Peridot complained.

"Peridot! You like her!" Steven cried out.

"What? Well of course I do. She's the most tolerable gem here!" Peridot explained.

"No! I mean like-like. In fact …" Stars appeared in Steven's eyes.

"It's really weird that your eyes do that," Peridot stated.

"You love her, don't you? Awww Peridot has a crush!" Steven smiled.

"What? I do not have a crush! My gem is perfectly intact!" Peridot cried out.

"No! I mean, you really, really like Amethyst. That's what a crush is," Steven sighed.

"Oh. So like you and the Connie?" Peridot asked simply.

Steven paused.

Yes. It would be like Connie and himself.

But he wasn't about to admit that. She might hear and then she might think he was weird or not feel the same way and that would be the end of the world for him.

It was almost an hour before Connie returned to Steven. Peridot watched how the two of them interacted. Steven was always such a sickeningly positive person to be around, but with Connie there, the effect was maximized. It was almost intoxicating to be around them. She listened to Connie speak and could instantly recognize the intelligence that this small human showed. Not quite Gem level, of course, but definitely better than a lot of the humans she had interacted with (granted, that was limited to the father of the Steven and the human that the Steven later told her was called "Ronaldo"), but at the time, Connie was the only human she felt like she could connect with.

The Connie was oddly friendly with her, even though it seemed that the Steven had told her all about Homeworld and the altercations they had in the past. The Connie even shook Peridot's hand, which alarmed her at first. This human might be alright.

The sun was setting and the Connie had to leave. Steven seemed a little sadder after she was gone, compared to how he had been the entire afternoon. It was almost like how she felt if she didn't have a positive interaction with Amethyst or if she didn't see her right away in the morning.

Maybe it was this "love" thing.

She wasn't sure how she felt about that.

Connie stood in the shower watching the soap bubbles swirl around the drain. She had worked herself into exhaustion, trying to take her mind off of Steven. It had worked, for the most part. Now though, she was fighting to hold herself together.

She was angry now. She had cried enough, almost to the point where she couldn't cry anymore. She wanted someone to blame for it. Anyone.

She was mad at Yellow Diamond of course. At all of the Gem Homeworld. They had send the armada to Earth. They had come to kill millions. It was their fault that Steven might not ever come back.

Jasper, of course, was the most to blame. She was directly responsible for this. Steven would still be there if she hadn't plunged her sword into him. It was her fault.

And Steven. Why did he choose right then to try to talk about all of the issues the two were having? Why couldn't he have waited? Why did he have to be her first friend? Why did he inspire her to love him so much? Why did he find her on the beach all those years ago only to be ripped away from her like this?

No. Connie knew who was at fault.

She was supposed to be watching out for him. They were a team and she failed at her job. She should have seen Jasper coming. She should have kept an eye out for any movement on the beach. She should have held the Fusion together longer, told Steven they needed to stay as Stevonnie … anything. Then he would still be here.

No longer did she feel that it should have been her. She could have gotten both of them out of there alive and she knew it.

A solid punch hit the shower tile. She didn't even realize she had done it at first. The pain was barely there. She stared at the cracks in the tile before looking at her bloodied knuckles. The blood dripped down and mixed with the soapy water that still swirled around the drain.

She didn't truly feel the pain until much later, after hiding her injury long enough to try and find a vial of Rose's tears. Having failed at that task, she made sure no one was still in the temple (thank goodness someone decided that the gems and her mother should all go out onto the deck), and, after finding a warp whistle, hopped onto the warp pad to head to Rose's fountain.

Warping used to make her dizzy. Right now, she was only slightly dizzy from blood loss, not that she really cared at this point. She needed to fix up her hand before she went back home. The gems would ask and then get concerned. Her mother would probably insist that she came home.

She was not about to do that.

As she landed in the garden around Rose's fountain, she felt a new wave of anger bubble up inside of her. At least the fountain had been maintained enough that the water was still running. The image she saw of Rose, weeping over the fountain, made her place a new blame.

"Why did you do it?" She cried out. "Did you know that he would touch someone's life so much? That someone might love him? That he might die?"

She stormed over to the fountain and stared up at the statue's face.

"Garnet says he may survive but she's been wrong before. And she only said there's a chance! A small chance! You knew this would happen, didn't you? When you decided to do this … You knew that your son would affect someone so much … I ..."

Connie stopped herself before she continued on in her anger.

"I sometimes wish that I hadn't met him. I know I would have had a miserable time growing up but … but this hurts more than anything! You must have known that pain. I know you felt love for Greg. You were immortal so you had to have loved others … You must have known how much this would hurt …

"And I'm mad at you for Pearl too. At least now she's become more of her own gem but … she got me into this whole mess because of you! She got me thinking that I needed to sacrifice everything for Steven, like she did for you! It took so long to get her out of that. Did you even know how much she loved you? Did you know that she was still so devoted to you?"

The dull pain in her hand returned and she looked down at her swollen knuckles.

"Steven still didn't know if he was living up to your legacy. He was always so caught up in his destiny. He was so worried that he was a disappointment when he couldn't use one of his powers. Did you know that you left that much of an impact? Do you know how hard it has been for all of them? How hard it will be?"

Connie finally couldn't stand the pain anymore and plunged her fist into the fountain. She looked at her reflection and saw her haunted face staring back. It was obvious that sleep had not been a priority and her face was thinner from a week of refusing to eat. She looked back up at Rose's statue.

She wondered for a moment if the fountain worked on one's emotions.

Splash!

When Garnet warped in a moment later, after seeing a troubling future vision when she saw the broken tiles in the shower, she was not sure if Connie had jumped in out of despair (her worst fear after her troubling memories from the war) or fallen in from exhaustion. She pulled the barely conscious young woman out of the fountain and dragged her to the warp pad. After studying her tired face, Garnet came to the conclusion that Connie was just exhausted. Relief waved over her entire being.

"I thought it would help ..." Connie murmured. "I was so mad ..."

"I understand, Connie. Let's get you home," Garnet whispered. "I won't tell anyone."

"Thank you, Garnet."

The two warped home and Connie dragged herself back up to Steven's bed, flopping down next to Lion.

Garnet watched Connie from the bottom of the stairs before turning to the other three Gems and Priyanka.

"She'll be fine here, Mrs. Maheswaran," Garnet stated. "We'll keep an eye on her."

Priyanka wanted to argue, but Garnet was right. If Connie stayed here, she might at least come to grips with the loss of Steven if that did happen. If she was away and they confirmed that Steven was gone forever, Connie would never believe it without seeing it with her own eyes. This way really was better.

After another half-hour of reassurances and conversation, Priyanka left, casting one more glance to her sleeping daughter, and the Gems were alone in the living room again. They were silent until Garnet finally cleared her throat.

"I think there is something we all need to talk about … We need to do something about the bubbled gems."