No Man Is An Island

Chapter 7: Home

Garnet, Pearl and Amethyst were listening intently as Steven told them exactly what happened with the island attack.

"I swear Steven, there was no future where she didn't go to that island alone. And I didn't see a possiblity that she would be attacked."

"Oh, Steven. You were right. I should have trusted your judgement. You're a Crystal Gem too." Pearl said pursing her lips.

"Yeah, way to go, Pearl-"

"Hey," Steven interjected. "I'm upset but not with you. Just the situation in itself should have been safe. You guys did your best. Besides," He ran a hand through his hair, loosening the top knot just a little. "She's a Crystal Gem, too."

"I still feel at fault, though." Garnet sighed.

"We all do." Amethyst said.

"Again, I'm not mad at you guys. I'm just glad this whole thing is over. So what have we learned?"

The gems looked at each other and sighed in tandem. "We promise we won't send Connie on missions without you." Pearl promised. "Although we will go back and do a sweep of the island again to see about those trees. You sure they are exactly like the ones in the zoo?"

"Identical."

"Hmm... Okay. Well, we should get going before it gets dark out. Connie's being checked up on by her mother right?"

"Nah, she gave that task to me. She's on bed rest and I'm supposed to make sure she stays in bed."

"Shouldn't be hard." Amethyst and Garnet said together.

"I wasn't supposed to say that out loud." Garnet grinned. "Amethyst was going to anyways."

Steven rolled his eyes and checked his watch. "I actually need to get going to if I'm going to catch her sneaking out of bed in about 12 minutes."

"Well, you two have fun." Pearl called as they parted ways.

"We always do." He called back.

Steven grabbed the door and took half a step before Amethyst called to him. "Hey Steven, whatever happened to that dude who hit Connie?"

He stopped in his tracks and looked her dead in the eye, his irises glowing pink. "I killed him."