Amethyst is aware pretty quickly that something has happened.
Her assigned superior takes the whispered announcement, delivered by an orange gem, with no small amount of panic, darting through the door.
The orange gem glances nervously at Amethyst, nodding at her and excusing herself from the room. Stretching out her hand as subtly as she can, she shapeshifts her arm along the wall, taking a page from Garnet's book, and stops the door from closing without the leaving gem realizing.
Amethyst nudges the heavy door open with her foot, shifting once more before exiting the room.
Eventually, someone's probably going to realize who she is. For now, appearing the same size as the other amethysts is enough, and gems pass by her with barely a glance spared.
She avoids eye contact, moving quickly and confidently in the direction of Ruby's cell. Something's going down, judging by the amount of gems rushing past. She's new to Homeworld, but where she comes from, most trouble comes back to her friends, in the end.
...
Steven releases his bubble involuntarily, sweating from the effort of growing and shrinking it to Spodumene's orders.
She sent Jasper away a while ago- the large gem had offered again to get Pearl and escalate things, but Spodumene thought the bubble was enough for now, and that they could do the shield later.
"That's enough for today," she announces, looking over his data on the screen. Whatever it is the nodes are measuring has been fluctuating with his work, "I'll get you more food, and maybe you'll have enough energy for the shield, tomorrow."
"Thanks," Steven breathes, slouching against the wall.
"You know," she tells him, as she clicks open the machine that they've been using to create his nutrient squares, "I never met Rose Quartz, but I heard she was a real terror on the battlefield. Your pearl, too."
"You were in the war?" Steven asks; he could see her being real good at fighting, with those scary teeth and long arms.
"Yes," she says, "my... job was the same as it is now- research. Only we had less time, so things didn't move as... gently."
She turns to him with a funny look in her eye, gem clouding significantly.
After a moment, she shakes her head, collecting his food and walking it over to him. The clouds have gone, and her lopsided grin is back at full force.
Steven stares up at her, silently, before taking a bite of his new food. The taste reminds him a little of spicy cherries. His face scrunches up in disgust, and she observes him curiously, to see if he'll puke again. This time, at least, she doesn't pick up her data recorder.
He's about to hand them back to her, and ask if she could possibly make a new batch, when light floods the room. A half second later, a familiar pink beast skids into the room, teeth bared.
"LION!" He yells, jumping to his feet, "How did you find me?"
Spodumene gasps beside him, taking in the sight with horror. Her shaky hands reaches into the pocket of her coat, pulling out a familiar set of prongs.
Garnet, light spreading through her body on the beach... falling to pieces in front of him... the last sight he'll ever see of her.
Lion recoils from the device. Steven, acting without thinking, grabs it.
"Don't hu-u-urt mm-" He shivers as the device sends a strange, unpleasant feeling throughout his body.
Before the scientist can pull it back from him, she finds herself being bowled over by the aggressive animal. She opens her mouth to scream, revealing her sharp teeth, but is cut short by Lion's own choppers at her throat.
"No-" Steven says, grabbing Lion's mane.
Too late. He sees a flash of blood before the gem goes up in a puff of smoke, leaving no trace but a cloudy white mineral.
He turns his rough hold on his friend's mane into a hug, giving Lion a tight squeeze before leaning down to collect Spodumene. After a moment's deliberation, he bubbles the gem, pushing it into Lion's glowing mane.
"Let's go get the others."