We Aren't the Crystal Gems Without You

The Future is Breaking Us

     Garnet left her room to find Pearl sitting on the sofa, crying again, the rose quartz gem laying in her open palms. They had all lost much of the hope that Steven would regenerate. Without any proof of the possibility, they didn't have much reason to hold onto the hope. Garnet walked over to sit next to her.
     "Garnet?" Pearl asked, her voice strained. "Is it true? Is your future vision really not working?"
     "I told you the truth then, Pearl. The paths were unclear. I could only catch glimpses of the possibilities. Now I can see things clearly, though I don't know which paths will be taken. And there are a few paths that I'm not seeing as clear as the others. Some paths I'm not seeing at all, but they're there. I have to trust that they're good futures. But they're pulling me apart, Pearl. The future is breaking me." Garnet lowered her head.
     "Tell me, Garnet. Please. What did you see in one of the paths?"
     "Homeworld and Yellow Diamond arrive. Our battle will be lost. So many gems... Shattered." Garnet's voice started to tremble.
     "Who?" Pearl asked, though she didn't want to know.
     "...Amethyst," Garnet said.
     Pearls covered her mouth with her hand, eyes huge. "No... no, no," she cried, fresh tears spilling down her cheeks.
     "So many others... And you, Pearl," she said, her voice shaking, tears now running down her face. "A- and Ruby. My Ruby will be shattered, too. And you and Amethyst will be gone. Steven already is. Peridot and Lapis are shattered, maybe even captured in this path. But it will just be me! I'll be alone, taken back to Homeworld, or perhaps in hiding, I'm not sure... Pearl, Amethyst... RUBY!" she shrieked, splitting apart.
Astonished at their unfusing again, Pearl watched Ruby and Sapphire, wide-eyed. Sapphire looked from Pearl to Ruby and then burst out, "I'm so sorry!" and she ran to her room.
"Sapphire, wait!" Ruby called, but Sapphire had already left. Pearl's mouth was still covered, her tears flecking Steven's gem. She turned to Ruby, a pained expression on her face.
"That can't happen. I won't let it," Pearl promised. "There has to be a path where Steven comes back, and we'll survive. All of us, the earth, too. Everything will be okay, won't it?"
"I don't know!" Ruby exclaimed. She closed her eyes and seemed to be focusing hard on something. "Argh! I can't see!" She was talking about future vision. Without fusion, Ruby felt powerless.
"It was only a possible outcome... There are more. Perhaps that won't happen. Perhaps Homeworld won't arrive for a long time to come. And Steven will- Maybe there's a small chance that he isn't dead..." Pearl murmured to herself. Determined now, she looked at Ruby. "We can change this. The future doesn't have to happen that way."
     Ruby was crying. "Then how will it happen? I have to know! What if Sapphire is the one shattered, huh? I couldn't live with myself!" Ruby literally burst into flames.
     Pearl hardly cared much about keeping the house precisely perfect and clean anymore, though she did mind enough to say, "Ruby, the carpet," which was beginning to catch fire. Ruby quickly patted it out as she was calmed for a moment.
At that time, the door to the gem's rooms opened and in walked Amethyst. "What's going- woah," she said as soon as she saw Ruby. And as soon as Pearl saw Amethyst, she burst into tears again.
"Pearl! What's going on?" Amethyst asked, worried at what she saw. "And where's Sapphire?"
"She just ran off into her room!" Ruby exclaimed. "She wouldn't listen!"
"I don't understand. What happened?" asked Amethyst.
     "Garnet was right... Now the future is breaking us," Pearl said. Amethyst sat over on the couch, watching Steven's gem through the whole story of what had happened, waiting.

                    :::::::::::::::::::::

     "Mom, what's this?" Steven walked over to to one of the walls of the gem. However, unlike the other walls, this one appeared to be see-through. He gasped. "It's Pearl! And Amethyst! And- Ruby? They're talking to each other. Why are they crying? Why can't I hear what they're saying?"
     "Oh, Steven," Rose Quartz sighed. "They don't know you're here. They don't know you're coming back. I've been watching out of the gem your whole life. There are times when I can't tell what's going on, and I've missed seeing many important times in your life. I've never been able to hear your voice, or of the gems, or anyone else. But I can tell what the gems have thought of what became of you ever since you disappeared last week. What I don't understand is where you were the first days after you were poofed. Steven, I thought you were dead, too!" She was crying as Steven looked up at her, hugging her leg. "But here you are, my son. Thank goodness you're here." She picked him up and noticed that he was crying as well.
     "But the gems don't know I am!" he sobbed, holding onto Rose.
     "They will, little one," Rose Quartz reassured her son. "Soon enough they will, I promise."