Disclaimer: I don't own Steven Universe!

Title: The Ones That Bleed Visibly Hurt The Least

Summary: Connie's first four, real scars. The first is from Pearl; the second, she's gives herself. The third comes from a mission. The fourth; a battlefield. Pearl's hurts, her's is a distant memory, and the third can be soothed with some healing spit. The fourth hurts both inside and out; this is the one she's the most proud of.

Warnings: Blood, wounds, thoughts of death.

...

The Keeper Or Worlds- Thanks! I really enjoyed that chapter. =)

Dante Watterson- Thank you again!

Canvis- Thank you!

loosecat56- Thanks! (I know I'm saying that a lot.)

...

The last scar is one she's proud of.

It's not that this big, heroic thing. On the battlefield, there are no heroes; merely people trying to survive. Some of those people do amazing things. Connie is not one of them.

She's fifteen.

She almost dies.

There's fire everywhere, although Connie would be hard-pressed to tell you when and how it started. Beach City was long evacuated, so the town lays dormant beneath the screams of war.

Steven is... somewhere else. Connie doesn't know where. She's a bit concerned, but also not really; Garnet had been by his side, and the fusion is far stronger than she is.

Opal is above them, playing sharpshooter. Peridot is by her side, blasting at gems with her cannon. That perpetually terrified look is back on her face.

Connie feels calm. Adrenaline is pumping through her veins; fear has long since vanished. If she was to die here, fallen by a Homeworld gem, it would be for the right reasons.

But, still. It'd make Steven cry.

Connie fights harder.

She hears a roar behind her and is halfway through turning when a blade is forced through her stomach.

Peridot screeches. "Connie!"

She attempts a weak stab at the gem, but what's done is done. Connie falls to her knees with a wet sound; her body sliding off the weapon, leaving it encrusted with blood.

I'm going to die, she thinks. It's the first time such a thought has been real to her. Death was always a hypothetical thing, a reaper who'd come for her when she was due. Now it was real; real and ugly.

I'm going to die, her mind repeats. She numbly presses her hands to the wound. It's going to hurt. It already does hurt.

"Get away from her, you clod!"

Connie's head snaps up. The gem- a quartz, she thinks dimly. She can't ever let Amethyst know; Peridot can't ever let her know. I'm going to die- is stopped mid-swing by a green force field. Peridot, a grunt of effort escaping her, slams the gem against the ground until she poofs.

"Ugly brutes." Peridot snarls, but it comes out more as a whine. The last thought on her mind is her fellow teammate; they've both come to differentiate quartz's from Amethyst.

Mechanical hands grab her by the armpits and drag her behind the cover of piece of debris that's been half buried in the sand.

"You're doing that- that secretion thing." The technician notes, voice edging on panic. Connie hums and presses her hand to the wound once again. Pressure. Gotta put... pressure.

"Bleeding, Peridot." She slurs. "It's blood. I'm bleeding."

"I don't care what it's called." She snaps, waving her arms around. Watching the movement makes Connie dizzy. "I'll go get Steven."

"No." She says before she can move, voice rising. "Steven's... Steven has things to do."

"You have things to do." Peridot counters. "And bleeding isn't one of them."

"Don't want him to see me like this." Connie grunts, head falling back. Everything hurts. "Gotta... gotta keep fighting."

Peridot's hands are on her shoulders before she can get her legs under her. "If you even think of moving I'll knock you unconscious."

"You don't know how."

"I'll find a way!" Her teeth go pointy with rage.

Connie laughs, but it comes out a cough. Spasms of pain hit her. "Ow." She whimpers.

"That's it. I'm getting help."

"Peridot-"

"If you die, they'll crush my gem in a nanosecond." Peridot hisses, peering over their barricade. "If anything, do it for that."

Connie can't argue that. She hates to cause others pain. "Take your time." She calls weakly.

Peridot's a good teammate. The Crystal Gems are lucky to have her.

She eventually blacks out.

Peridot watches over her as she recovers. She grunts something about the frailness of humanity as she unwraps and re-wraps her wounds.

"You could send me home." Connie points out. "My mother is a doctor."

"I don't trust human medicine." Peridot replies simply. "It's all so... barbaric."

Eventually she heals enough to be put back in action. Rigorous training needs to be done to help get her back to her old level after months of bed rest.

(They're all really paranoid, her family especially. Connie lets them fuss.)

"Come on." Steven takes her hand one day. "I wanna get you a new sword."

"My sword isn't broken." She reminds him, but lets him lead her to where Lion is waiting. She has a love of weapons she can't deny.

"Still." Is all he says. Steven knows she likes them too.

Lion leads them through a portal to Rose's Armory. Steven sets his hand on the controls and concentrates.

Connie feels respect well up inside her as the familiar sight of the Armor Of The Fallen rises up. The pairs of armor had drawn childlike fascination out of her, the first time she saw them; now she felt the urge to lower her head, and did so.

"They're like me." She tells him quietly. Her shoulders straighten with pride as she comes to stand in front of a pair. "Human fighters."

They were humans who'd fought in a war with no hope of living, who'd put their lives aside in order to help keep the world safe. The type of person she could only strive to be.

"Yeah." Steven answers, voice hushed. He comes to stand by her side. "I thought you were gonna be one of them." Dead.

Connie grabs his hand. "I wouldn't mind the honor, someday." She admits. "But I want to earn it."

"You will be." He squeezes her fingers. "You already are."

It hurts, sometimes. The scars- all of them- are a reminder of that.

It hurts.

But it's worth it.

Author's Note: Whelp, the ride is over, ya'll. =)

I loved this story. It'll start popping up on tumblr soon enough.

Good luck and good karma, everyone! You'll see me again soon; planning on a possible polygems human!AU thing. Cliche, yes, but that doesn't necessarily make it bad. If that falls through, I'm sure to pop up at some point before or after the next Stevenbomb. (We can do this. We're experienced waiters, right? This won't ruin us yet.)

-Mandaree1