Amethyst sighed softly. "Julianna." She shook her gently, and her eyes snapped right open.

"I did it again, didn't I?"

"It's alright."

Julianna groaned and rubbed her eyes. "I'm sorry, Amethyst."

"Are you okay? This is the second time that this has happened..."

"Yeah. They're just nightmares, I'll be okay." She sat up slightly and moved a few inches away from Amethyst to give her space. She pulled her knees to her chest, and moved her hair from her face, shivering as the back of her wrist brushed against her lips. They were cold, making the dream feel much more real than it had before.

"Do you wanna talk about it?" Amethyst offered, sitting up and crossing her legs. She wiped the teardrops from her skin, her worries increasing.

"I don't remember.." She lied. Truthfully, she remembered every second, but she couldn't let her cover down.

"You were talking." Amethyst persisted. "You said something about Peridot.. Julianna, what's going on?"

Julianna creased her eyebrows. "Peridot? I have no idea who that is, Amethyst."

Amethyst gave her a look, her eyes falling on her wrist. A narrow sliver of her gem showed through the sleeve of her shirt, the pale pink color alarming her. "What happened to your arm?"

Julianna glanced down at her wrist, yanking the sleeve down. "Nothing. What are you talking about?"

"There was something on your wrist. I saw it."

"There's nothing on my- hey!" She pulled her arm away from Amethyst, who'd been trying to pull up her sleeve. She got up off the bed, not expecting Amethyst to follow. "Stop it!" She stumbled backwards towards the wall, tripping and crashing out the window. She smacked her arm on the railing of the balcony, grunting as she landed in the sand below.

Steven, Connie, Garnet and Pearl ran out of the house to see what was going on, utterly shocked by the commotion.

Amethyst leapt out of the window after her, landing in the water. She grasped her arm tightly.

"AMETHYST! GET OFF!" Desperately, Julianna tried to push her off, but she had already pulled up her sleeve, revealing the gem on the top of her wrist, the pink diamond glittering modestly in the sun. Her heart pounded in terror, and she stood frozen. The Crystal Gems and their human counterparts stood around her in a sort of semi-circle, and there was nowhere to run besides a vast ocean, in which she'd face certain death. While none of them had their weapons drawn, there was still the underlying threat of attack. If she moved, she'd be dead.

Amethyst stared at her wrist in shock, then moved her gaze to look her in the eye.

"Please don't kill me..." She pleaded, and trembled with dread as she stepped backward, stumbling and falling in the shallow waves.

Garnet stepped forward and extended her hand to the distraught gem. "Julianna... If that is even your name-"

"It is!" Julianna protested. "I swear-"

Garnet gave her a look, and she silenced her pleas. "We're not going to hurt you." Garnet gently grasped her hand and pulled her up from the water, then let go. "As long as you do the same for us."

"We'd never hurt you." Pearl agreed, magicking a towel and wrapping it around her quaking shoulders, gently placing her hand on her right shoulder. "What ever made you think that?"

Julianna lowered her eyes to hide her tears. "That's what Peridot told me..."

"Peridot?" She questioned, raising her eyebrows, lowering her arm.

She nodded, choking on a cry.

"Let's get you in dry clothes." Garnet interrupted. "We can talk later." She gently placed her hand in the center of her back, leading her inside.

Steven and Connie stood dumbstruck in the aftermath of the events.

"What does any of this have to do with Peridot?" Connie wondered aloud.

"I'm not sure." Steven admitted. "But, I have a feeling she'll explain it all soon. We should go in."

She nodded. "Yeah, probably... Do you think she'll be okay?"

"I hope so."

The Crystal Gems sat in a circle in the living room, all eyes on Julianna, paying no heed to the pouring rain and dark skies. She'd abandoned her previous attire, donning grey jeans and a light blue tee shirt that rested loosely over her figure, clinging slightly in the right places, attracting Amethyst's attention, although she'd tried to be subtle about it. Her hair was still damp from falling into the water, the darkened, slightly curled strands hanging loosely over her left shoulder, pulled to the side in an elastic band. A hardly touched mug of tea rested between crossed legs, her hands rested on the sides. Her deep grey eyes shone with hurt, reflecting everything she'd suffered in her thousands of years.

Steven and Connie sat in front of the couch, sharing the large comforter off of Steven's bed. Underneath it they held hands, their embrace covered in the clouds of fabric. Neither of them were really in the mood to deal with Amethyst's bantering, so they discreetly displayed their affections. Connie's head laid on Steven's shoulder, and Steven's head rested on hers.

Garnet and Pearl were seated between them and Amethyst, curled up together. Garnet's arms were wrapped around Pearl's abdomen, her legs bent around hers, with Pearl seated in front of her, her back pressed against Garnet's torso, their hands wrapped together and resting on Pearl's legs.

Garnet looked at Julianna expectantly, waiting for her to speak. "Why don't you start with how you were involved with Peridot?" She prompted.

"It all started when I was born." Julianna spoke quietly, avoiding their gaze. "I woke up in an empty room, and then Peridot came in." Her heart clenched at the mention of her name, but she continued on, maintaining her composure the best she could. "She told me that I didn't have a mother, and that she was assigned to be my mentor, or something like that. She named me, and I spent the first five hundred years of my life with her. I was mostly her companion, for a time, until she sent me off to train for battle. She would always mention a war, another planet, traitors to our kind... I never understood what she meant; she wouldn't explain. Come to think of it, she rarely explained anything I asked her about, claiming that it was beyond my understanding, and she wouldn't speak of it afterward. I got badly hurt in training, and she pulled me from it, before I could even discover my weapon, or throw a halfway decent punch. I went back to being her companion, and after awhile it turned into something else... We loved each other." Silent tears streamed down her cheeks, but she continued on. "After I'd lived for about five hundred years, she sent me on a mission in an abandoned gem training center, and something caused it to explode while I was inside, and it launched me here to Earth. I stayed here and waited for her, but she never showed up..."

"How long has it been?" Steven asked, curious. Her story was deeply touching, unlike anything he'd heard about before.

"Six thousand years."

The gems fell into silence, the only sound the falling rain, and Julianna's gentle sobs.

"Julianna.." Garnet spoke, her voice light with hesitation, treading on dangerous ground. "Peridot isn't who you think she is. She manipulated you. Only used you for her physical needs."

"What?" Her heart fell. "She would never-"

"She would. And she did." Pearl affirmed. "You said she never explained things to you, and withheld you from your training.. She kept you in the dark, so you had no choice to leave her."

Amethyst nodded, wrapping her arms around Julianna's abdomen to soothe her. "They're right, Julianna..." She murmured, rubbing gentle circles between her shoulder blades.

Julianna shook her head, refusing to believe it. "They can't be... She told me she loved me... A-And she meant it.."

"She didn't feel anything for you, Julianna." Garnet restated. "That's just how Peridot is. This is what she does- lies, manipulates, steals..."

Julianna said nothing, realization slowly starting to sink in.