Ruby and Sapphire had told the others everything that happened when they had taken Steven to the fountain. They repeated everything that he had said to them—to Garnet. They all had to take a few days off after that revelation. Ruby and Sapphire still hadn't been able to fuse. Steven had remained in his room ever since they got back that day. He very rarely came out now, only to use the bathroom, which was far less frequent now that he stopped eating and drinking almost entirely. He never said anything when he came out. The Gems had to bring him food, but he hardly touched it. At most half of it would be gone, but usually none of it was touched. He was at least drinking one glass of water every couple days though, which still wasn't much but it was more than the food.
Amethyst was knocking on Steven's door now. She'd called Greg and Connie over today, and the two wasted no time in showing up. Steven had refused to let either of them visit for two and a half months and Amethyst had had enough. She was torn apart over everything Ruby and Sapphire had told them, but she wasn't going to let that stop her from doing something for her friend. She'd already explained everything that went on the last several months-it took about three hours-and told Greg and Connie that they need to stay calm when seeing Steven. Sapphire had told Pearl and Amethyst that it seemed that when Steven started feeling strong negative emotions is when he would begin to lose control of himself.
"Come on, Steven, open up!" she said, continuing to knock on his door as Greg and Connie waited at the bottom of the stairs. She had been trying this for about ten minutes. "You know I can just get through the cat door! And we can warp in there too, there's no point in ignoring me."
The Gem knocked a few more times before throwing her hands up and saying, "Fine! Don't open the door, we're still coming in!" before turning around and descending the stairs.
The two guests had taken residence on the couch. Connie was hugging her bag and Greg was nervously tapping his foot, his shoulders tense and his fingers gripping the cushion. They looked over as Amethyst appeared with a groan.
"Come on, we're taking the warp in," she stated, arms crossed. The other two didn't move and she huffed. "Let's go! Chop, chop, we don't have all day!"
Greg and Connie looked at each other before standing up. "Amethyst, are you…sure about this?" Greg asked as they joined the purple Gem. "I mean, after everything you told us, don't you think this is…well, risky?"
"We want to see Steven really bad," Connie added, clutching her bag tighter. "But we're worried about this. He could react badly. I…I don't know if I can stay as calm as you need me to."
"Don't you think I know that? But we need to try! Steven needs to be with someone. He says he wants to be alone but I know he's lying. He doesn't want us to see him, that's it. But he doesn't want to be alone. Just—just don't stare. And don't go running around either, or freaking out, or anything else. We can do this."
She spun around and marched to the warp pad, and after a moment Connie and Greg followed.
The warp in Steven's conservatory lit up and the three appeared on the platform. They didn't see Steven, so he must have been in his main room. Lion was there, though, but he'd pulled his bed to the complete opposite side of the room, as far away from the stairs as possible. He rumbled when they showed up and crawled over to shove his head against Connie.
"Hey, Lion…are you okay, buddy?" she asked, swinging her bag over her shoulders and grabbing the big cat's face. He growled gently and licked her wrist.
