A/N: This chapter has been a long time incoming. The technical aspects of it beat me up a little bit, so feel free to drop me a line if something is confusing or just straight-up too weird to function. I have been known to do such things before ;P

And Kalo220: If you're interested in my take on Rupphire Human AUs, I do actually have a oneshot called Mathematics and Roller Derby up right now. It's pretty humorous, if I say so myself (it should be, I stole the concept from Tumblr). Later on this month I will also be finishing/releasing the other human AU I've been working on for-over a month now, I think? (it's the one I threatened to write the first time I asked for prompts-oh yeah, you guys thought I forgot about that one, didn't you?). It was supposed to be a kinda-longish oneshot, but currently it is 19,500 words and counting. Clearly, I have a problem. -.-" But my goal is to get it out in time to sort of make sense on the second day of Rupphire bomb (9/13 yo).

It takes some time for Sapphire to resurface from meditating on a particularly complex question from the Diamonds. Slowly but surely, the inquiries are becoming more nuanced. It's almost as if someone has found out about the advancement of her power. That, in juxtaposition with the fact that the fifty year probationary period to assess the 'newfound stability' of Sapphire's reformed behavior is nearly over, makes her leery. Every answer and reported movement over the last fifty years will come under scrutiny very soon now, and she does not want to inspire any more interest by giving up increasingly complex answers too quickly.

The problem is, she's getting to the point where the future vision she has now is the only one she remembers. Sapphire has become so accustomed to these new standards in her day to day life that her memories of how finicky and schizophrenic her future vision used to be are now glazing over. She finds herself stalling increasingly often, wondering if she's dumbed the answer down too much in the fear that she hasn't dumbed it down enough. She wishes she had access to her previous messages, but her communications station doesn't have long term internal storage. It receives questions and holds them until she answers. It also has the ability to save drafts of her current replies, but only one at a time.

This wouldn't be a problem, if memory weren't so fallible. Or if Sapphire had nothing to hide.

With this particularly inquiry, there are seven distinct and likely ways that it could go. Then there are the multiple, smaller variations of those seven distinct outcomes. Sapphire writes them all out, and then deletes the vast majority of the subtler variations. Bare bones answer, with a couple of surprisingly insightful nuggets on the most obvious outcomes. That's it.

The fifth outcome is too particular, isn't it? Her two-eyed self never would have been able to See that. The fine blend of events from outcomes four and six wouldn't have registered as distinct, but rather as variations of the latter. Right?

But the fifth outcome is so obviously its own variable! Why wouldn't her two-eyed self been able to notice that?

So, split the difference and mention it, but only vaguely?

Her two-eyed self never would have settled for anything less than a clearly defined possibility. Sapphire knows that as a certainty. She's a detail oriented individual, and she's been an oracle for the Diamonds long enough to know that nebulous answers are absolutely unacceptable. Being vague isn't an option; not in the way she wants it to be, anyway.

The more Sapphire reviews her answer, the less certain she becomes that she is staying true to her past self.

Her future vision, as wonderfully explicit as it usually is, is being decidedly unhelpful at the moment. She's so wound up that she can't concentrate on which version of her response would be the least suspicious. She's also so tense that she doesn't trust her current judgment of the responses she Sees anyway.

Ruby, who is moving through drills with decidedly more vigor than usual, stops when Sapphire lets out a frustrated "Ugh!" and shoves herself back from the communication station.

"Um, are you okay, Sapphy?" she says as Sapphire rips her wheeled chair to the side and scrubs at her face with both gloved hands.

"Fine," is Sapphire's terse reply as she stalks sharply down the short length of the constrictive little prison. "I just need to get rid of some extra energy."

"Isn't that usually my job?" says Ruby as Sapphire whirls about in a flurry of petticoats and stamps back the way she came.

She knows Ruby means that as a joke, but she's really not in the mood right now. There's too much on the line for her to crack a smile at jokes. Sapphire has to do this right, but how can she do that, then she has lost any and all confidence in her own recollections of—

That's it.

"Ruby."

Ruby starts at the intensity with which she is suddenly being addressed. The fact that Sapphire is suddenly right in front of her might have also contributed to her reaction. "Yes?" is the baffled reply.

"Ruby, what do you remember of my future vision, back when I had two eyes?"

Ruby's nose scrunches up, and she shakes her head in confusion. "Sapph, I don't—"

"Please, just answer the question."

"I-I just remember the basics! Sometimes it would take you off guard—"

Sapphire doesn't wait to hear the rest in real time. "Do you still mean what you said before, about wanting to stay here? About my visions?"

"Sapphire, stop."

It isn't until two broad hands are firmly grasping her biceps and eyes narrowed in concern are peering at her through her bangs that Sapphire feels her mind stop racing so phenomenally fast. Now that she's being grounded like this, everything is starting to slow back down. The pace is agonizingly lethargic, to start, but after a couple of moments she adjusts again. With a breath, Sapphire bows her head slightly.

Ruby's fingers squeeze once around her arms. "I can't keep up with you when you race ahead like that," she says in a much softer tone. "You're going to have to break this one down for me, Sapph."

Sapphire nods, and the grip on her arms goes away. "Sorry," she mutters, tangling her fingers into her skirts.

She waits, staring stubborn and persistent, until Sapphire looks back at her, in order to flash a little smile and say, "Don't be. Just help me catch up."

Sapphire does, albeit somewhat haltingly (faulty memory feels like a rookie mistake, and she can't help how ashamed she is to admit to it). It doesn't take more than a couple of sentences to get Ruby up to speed, so to speak.

"But then I thought, you wouldn't have my problem of getting the details mixed up," Sapphire says. "So if you looked my answers over it would help reestablish the right perspective—but then you'd be looking at the answers, and that would irrevocably trap you here, and I know we've talked about it, and talked about it, but I just…" She trails off with a small grimace and clenches big handfuls of her skirts to steady herself.

"I know." When Ruby touches her wrist, it takes a moment for her to loosen her grip on her dress. Instead their fingers weave together as if to form a living tapestry, and Ruby offers a small smile as she cups Sapphire's cheek in her right palm. "I'm not afraid of learning the things you see," she says softly. "And I would be happy to look over what you have, but I honestly don't know if I can make the difference you're looking for."

"At this point, any perspective is going to be better than mine," Sapphire says frankly, holding that warm hand against her face.

"Maybe you just need to take a break," Ruby suggests. "If this question really as nuanced as you say, then it's not like taking a little longer than usual to answer is going to be suspicious."

Sapphire looks at Ruby, the grip on the back of her knuckles twitching. "I didn't mean to scare you. You really don't have to look if you don't want to."

"Oh no, I want to and I will," Ruby says simply. "I want to do everything I can to help—to start, let's get away from the question for a little while. Sit with me."

With that, Ruby drops to the metal floor with a thud. She crosses her ankles and gestures for Sapphire to do the same. Sapphire does, albeit more slowly.

It's not until they're both settled on the floor that Ruby gets the idea. Sapphire finds herself being pulled and prodded and adjusted until she is seated between Ruby's legs with her arms propped up on Ruby's knees and her head leaning against Ruby's chest. It's a little bit of an odd position to be having a conversation in, but other than that it's admittedly comfortable, and when Ruby's arms hug her around the waist and her chin rests on Sapphire's shoulder the inquiry of why this arrangement was initiated fades from her lips. Being enveloped in Ruby's warmth like this is… really, really nice. Sapphire feels secure here, and the small, traitorous part of her is still so scared of showing her vulnerability is implicitly soothed. This is Ruby. Of course there is nothing to fear.

"Okay," Ruby says in a perfectly normal and companionable tone, as if this happens all the time (and, for the record, it decidedly doesn't). "Tell me about your first vision. Don't talk about the categories of information, tell me about the actual event you remember seeing."

Just because Sapphire feels comfortable doesn't mean she can't also feel skeptical. "What does my first vision have to do with anything?"

"Because what you remember from your earliest visions, and all of the most important visions you can remember up until you switched to one eye, will give me insight on the kinds of details you were privy to then, so that when I read this answer that's giving you so much trouble I'll have a better idea of the sort of response you should be giving."

That…

"It's so simple, but that could really work," says Sapphire. She gestures from Ruby's knee with her gem-holding hand. "Why didn't I think of it sooner?"

"Because you're getting yourself lost in the details."

'That was a rhetorical question, Ruby."

The chest she's leaning against quakes with poorly suppressed laughter, and Sapphire smiles despite herself.

"Thank you for helping me," she says, tilting her head so that she can see the red gem's face.

"There's nothing to thank me for," says Ruby with a smile that makes something inside of Sapphire stop and stutter. "We're partners. Helping out is what partners do."

Sapphire knows that her connection with Ruby is good, and she knows that she's fortunate to have found it, but right now, looking into the smile of someone so wonderful, Sapphire has never felt so blessed.

I'm never letting you go.

Smiling herself, Sapphire presses a small, affectionate kiss to the corner of Ruby's jaw. The smile fades as the memories of some of her most potent visions finally surface. "Not all visions are good," she warns. "In fact, a lot of them aren't."

Ruby flashes her a reassuring grin. "That's okay. After spending this much time in a Containment Unit, I don't think that long-passed visions of what might have been are going to frighten me."

Sapphire supposes that's a good point. Nevertheless, the warning needed to be said, if only so she can placate herself. She lets out a breath and settles deeper into Ruby's embrace, and starts talking. As she talks, interrupted occasionally by Ruby prodding for clarification, patterns begin to form.

Back when she had two eyes, Sapphire's visions were dominated by disorienting snippets of loosely connected information, like a video feed with a poor connection. Their character was derived from the inductive and deductive reasoning she would employ to make sense of it all, and after a while she performed them without even thinking. Extrapolating information from her choppy visions based upon this or that premise became a process so automatic that it happened simultaneously with the visions themselves. No wonder it feels as though her future vision is more accurate now—having to assume what happened between snippets A and B would make anyone's predictions inaccurate!

Of course, now that she doesn't have to expend the energy to mentally fill in the gaps in short scenes, Sapphire has been able to push her visions further and better explore the implications of suggested courses of action. This, too, makes sense in juxtaposition with how taxing her future vision used to be.

Ruby is a surprisingly good listener for a gem who can never stay still. Oh, she fiddles with Sapphire's fingers and braids small sections of her hair and all other odds and ends like that, but her concentration doesn't break once. When Sapphire is finished with all of the visions she remembers best, Ruby disentangles herself without offering any theories of her own. Instead, she perches on the edge of the chair and reads the Diamonds' question as well as Sapphire's answer seriously and without comment. As she reads, she rests her chin in her right hand and hums, frowning at the screen.

Finally, she lets her hand fall next to the keyboard, turns to Sapphire, and says, "You should be presenting only a third of the detail from each scenario, because you shouldn't be able to see that far. Considering the fact you've been giving more than you should recently, you're probably going to have to give them half from now on. I'd cut out most of the smaller stuff, too, or at least rewrite it so that it looks like you're just following the good arguments where they lead instead of actually seeing it. If I had to guess, judging from the quality of the questions here in your inbox, the Diamonds probably assume that you've either found a way to improve your ability, or your inductive reasoning has gotten a lot sharper over the years."

Sapphire gets to her feet slowly, and braces her hand on Ruby's shoulder as she reviews her response with these constructive criticisms in mind.

"You're right," she realizes. "And I was about ready to give it up and send this as-is!"

"Somehow, I doubt that would have gone over well for us."

Sapphire becomes abruptly dry. "Is it that obvious?"

Ruby lets out a small laugh, but as she scrolls through the question again she can't seem to help whistling, impressed. "You weren't joking when you said you knew too much. They send these kinds of questions to you every day? I always thought the Diamonds did some thinking of their own."

"I prefer to think that they handle the easiest questions without me, but yes. While this one is a little more sensitive than usual, this is typically the sort of thing I'm answering for them," Sapphire replies.

"And you're the only one who can do this."

"As far as I know, yes."

"No wonder they've always gone so easy on you! I'd never do something to maim or kill an asset who can do this for me, either." Ruby turns away from the screen and looks up at Sapphire, causing the latter's hand to fall from her broad shoulder. "And you use that against them all the time when we go after Supervisors."

Ruby's expression is far too enigmatic for Sapphire to tell whether or not that is supposed to be a compliment. "Yes…?"

The next thing she knows, she's being swung around in an affectionate embrace as Ruby laughs. "Oh, you toe the line between nuisance and pawn so perfectly!" exclaims Ruby, still cackling at the Diamond's expense. "That's an art form, Sapphy—it's beautiful!"

Sapphire braces her hands on her partner's shoulders and grins as she is set back onto her own two feet. Ruby has yet to release her grip on her waist, but Sapphire doesn't mind. "I thought you already knew that."

"But I didn't know the details! I don't know how you aren't laughing about the irony every time you reply to one of these things."

"That would be an awful lot of laughing."

Ruby snorts at her tone, but still has to ask, "So you know where to take your reply from here? You don't need any more help?"

"Actually, if you wouldn't mind." Sapphire doesn't know why asking for this makes her so bashful. Maybe it's the fact that they still have their arms around each other. "I think I could use a proofreader from now on."

At first Ruby looks surprised, but then she smiles as bright as Sapphire remembers the sun to be, and darts in to give her the sort of kiss that sings with warmth. "I thought you'd never ask."