“I’m telling you guys, he wasn’t corrupt!”
“Connie, we know you care for Steven, but he had to be corrupt. Why else would he have been in such a form?”
“I just can’t believe that we let this happen…”
“We were shooting a movie! Look, I can show you the tape! Will you listen to me then?”
“Then why did his form deconstruct? Wouldn’t he have been in a costume?”
“Because he was trying to practice his shapeshifting powers! He wasn’t in a costume!”
“R-really?”
“Yes, Pearl, really! He wanted to impress you guys and he had been practicing for weeks now!”
“Uh, guys? Guys, his gem is glowing!”
Who was she? She was Rose Quartz, wasn’t she? What had happened last? Hadn’t she given up her physical form for Steven? He was her little boy, what had happened? It was time to chose her physical form again, and without a doubt, she chose him, again. She was vaguely aware of how he had aged, how he had grown, and picked his form because she had done it once, and she would do it again and again. He needed a chance to grow up, and she wanted him to have that.
Light surrounded her, and she was expecting to be shifted back into the barest of consciousness, just something stored inside her gem, but then she was there, standing on the floor of the house she never got to see. Tears started streaming her cheeks before she thought twice about it, because her girls were there with a small human girl, and tears were bubbling over the surface for them too. Garnet was shaking, and she was two before Rose could say anything, Pearl was on her knees in seconds, head in her hands as she sobbed, and Amethyst was froze, because she was there, and not him. He was supposed to be there, but instead, she was.
She took the chance to glance down, seeing his clothes, his form, like she wanted, but her colours. A pink shirt with a white star, where it was supposed to be red and yellow, and her gem sticking through it. She couldn’t believe it. They had lost him, he was gone, and yet, she was his shape, because that’s what she was supposed to be. She was supposed to be a part of him, not actually him. What had happened to the son she had never got to hold, never got to see, never got to know?
“St-Steven?” the human child tried, and she could only shake her head, before she was on her knees too. The only one still standing was Amethyst, because she was froze, and everything was a mess. Sobbing filled the air, and she couldn’t move, couldn’t breathe even if she needed it, couldn’t see. She hadn’t meant for this to happen, even though she wasn’t sure what had, but it wasn’t right. It wasn’t fair, it wasn’t fair, it wasn’t fair. What had happened to her loving boy, and why wasn’t he here instead?