Garnet had seen a lot of horrible scenes in her life. She had been running around dirty battlefields covered in human-blood, choking on glittering dust as the remains of friends and foes was carried by the wind blowing in the deep valleys and high hills they fought for.

Garnet had seen friends fall for the hands of the enemies mere seconds before she reached them, mere seconds before she could have saved them. She had seen visions of the future than she hadn't dared consider possibly coming through due to its horridness.

She had seen what was left when the war and the battlefields they fought for was all over and behind them. She had seen the fear of humans fragileness keeping Pearl from befriending them, and she had seen the nightmares that made it impossible for Pearl to sleep like humans did. And she understood, that there was too much haunting, for it haunted her too. Humans reminded them of earth coloured red with innocent lives, dreams turned to nightmares of battles that were never forgotten.

But despite all things that happened to Garnet, few things had ever come to haunt her more than Pearls limp body laying lifeless on the beach, splayed out and broken, satisfied smile of pale lips and a gem broken and dented and cracked on a bruised forehead. It was the ultimate horror and would make you both come apart and put back together quicker than anything else.

The first time Rose was still around, pregnant but fully living. It had been a few months since Rose told everyone, but none of them knew yet that she wasn't going to make it. Except Pearl. Unbeknown to them, she had heard Rose discussing it with Greg, and it had been all that she could take. Two months later she lay there on the beach, broken but smiling all the same. The smile didn't fade from her lips until she realised that she survived, and after that it was a long while before Garnet saw it again.

The second time Rose was dead, and for Pearl, it was all she needed to make a decision. Desperate to escape, she tricked Garnet, and she fell. She fell so quick, so suddenly, that Garnet didn't have a chance to stop it. Yet, it still didn't work out. Amethyst found her, found her broken and pale body lying in the sand, and thanks to the healing powers of Rose's fountain Pearl survived.

Still, Amethyst was never the same.

The third time, was something Garnet hoped would never come. She hoped and prayed that Pearl would realise there was a place for her in this world, even without Rose. Her prayers were never answered. For no matter what they did to help, the third time still came, harder and more hurtful than ever before.

She had been in the kitchen, preparing an afternoon snack for Steven and feeling mystified that she hadn't seen neither Pearl nor Amethyst around the house for some time, but assuming their absence was motivated. They had been out on a tiering mission all of the day before, and she assumed that Amethyst was probably napping to regain energy and Pearl was taking some well-deserved time by herself. Nothing out of the ordinary, really, and Garnet didn't even bother to check her futurevision for any potential disturbances in the future.

In the end, she really wished she had.

The sound of something heavy hitting the ground outside the window on Steven's side of the house soon had Garnet rushing out of the house on pure instinct, wanting to know what it was that caused the sound but not expecting to find anything particularly upsetting.

She wasn't and she couldn't have been prepared for the sight that met her, but it didn't stop her from wishing she had been.

The moment she saw Pearl's bleeding, broken body with the horribly massacred gem, she knew it might be over. Carefully, she bent down beside it and cradled the dead weight of the body in her arms, waiting until it finally poofed and she was left with just the remains of the gem instead, pressing it to her chest. She felt as broken and pained as Pearl must have, even though her gem was perfectly fine.

It was not a physical pain, but a mental agony that so easily overcame her, because Pearl promised not to do it ever again, and yet she had gone and fucking done it like no one would care, knowing fully well that they all cared.

She knew that, didn't she? It couldn't have been why she did it, could it?

She doesn't here or see when Amethyst comes running, but rather just register her presence close by. She is screaming, panicked, Garnet can tell, but there is no stoic strength for her to give the younger gem. "Help" She whisper it as loud as she can, but her voice is hoarse and broken for reasons beyond her perception and she doesn't think Amethyst heard.

Yet she must have, no matter how quiet Amethyst whispered, because she is there by here side, comforting. "I'm here it's okay."

It's such a big lie that past Amethyst lips, and Garnet can feel Ruby boiling inside her, but she remain frozen in place because Sapphire is dominating and the only thing Ruby is doing is preventing ice from visibly spreading around her body.

"Garnet? What's in your hands?" Her question is worse than the earlier words of encouragement, and unable to scream or in any way vent her emotions, Garnet can immediately feel herself starting to come undone.

"Her gem." It's all that pass your lips, before your not you any more, and in an act of sheer protective instinct you hand over the gem to Amethyst so you won't still be holding it with you infuse, something that happens mere seconds later without your consent.

"She really did it" When Sapphire and Ruby finally come to it, both of them uncharacteristically emotional or unemotional, almost as if though they switched personalities, they can see Amethyst standing there with the gem in her hand. The gem they gave her. There is raw fear and deeply inflicted guilt and hate in her and it's so easy to tell that she doesn't want to hold the crumbling remains of her best friend in her hand like this, not at all.

"We'll take her to the fountain, if you find Steven." Though her voice is still frozen like ice, Ruby can tell that there is more emotion than what is normal in her voice, and she moved to stand closer to her girlfriend. Amethyst look both relieved and guilty, quickly handing back the somehow still somewhat intact gem to Sapphire.

"Thanks" Amethyst answer, vary, and Ruby feel an overwhelming need to ease her guilt over leaving Pearl with them.

"Don't worry, Amy, we'll get her back. Good as new, I promise!" Ruby offer quickly, trying to quiet her own need to offer Amethyst some empathy, and she look at the others, challenging them to contradict her optimistic prediction. They do not.

"I'll entertain Steven, okay? I'll go look for him. He's probably with his dad or something. " Amethyst offer back, clearly wishing to get away from Ruby and Sapphire and the broken gem as soon as possible. They just nodded, suddenly feeling quite urgent to leave for Rose Fountain, which they does.

The ride with the warp pad is not long, but Sapphire is being quieter than ever before, creating a silence that Ruby doesn't want to break and both of them just keep glancing between each other and the broken gem in Sapphire's hand as they wait to arrive and their destination.

Once they do arrive, the green garden will all the pink roses stretching out in front of them, they both break into a sprint without a second thought about their companion. They're so close to the healing waters that can actually save Pearl, now, and knowing how painstakingly slow they'd been before they feel compelled to make up for lost time.

Sapphire, of course, got the gift of hers that make her ten, twenty times faster than Ruby, and the gem is already in the water when Ruby actually reach the real fountain, the statue of Rose crying out a never ending supply of healing pink water wrong underneath her eyelids and into the pool.

The white piece of smoothened nacre is resting at the very bottom, slowly trying to repair itself as the blue haired conundrum sat by the edge and glanced down at it.

"You okay, Sapphy?" Slowly, Ruby sit down by her girlfriend, grabbing her arm with her hand and pulling her willing girlfriend in for a tight hug. "You know she's going to be perfectly alright."

"Her gem is going to be alright" Sapphire corrects, a tiny sob escaping her throat with a cry. "She is maybe never going to be alright, not if she continues to think that this is all of a solution there is, and we Continue To miss it." Sapphire couldn't help but feel responsible, guilty filling her from the inside out that she missed something that should have been blatantly obvious, obvious enough that she should have been able to do something.

"Schh, it's not your fault, you can't help that Garnet prefers to try and trust her teammates. We and her only want what's best for them.

"BUT MAYBE IT'S BETTER IF WE MEDDLE MORE!" Sapphire is screaming, and Ruby draw back, shocked. She can count the times Sapphire has screamed at her in all of their thousands of years of coexistence, both figuratively and literally, on her right hand. Sapphire's scream now scare her, even if she doesn't want to admit that to her partner.

"I'm sorry, I just…" Ruby's apology is cut short, when they suddenly see something rising out of the water, both of their eyes drawn to the strawberry blonde woman rising out of the healing waters, a now repaired white pearl resting on her forehead and glittering as the sun hit it from just the right angle.

The slight woman look at the other two woman, seeing the anger and pain on their faces even though she's not entire sure she understands whatever is wrong, and does what first comes to mind. "I'm sorry." She say, sad and hoarse and apologetic, tears spilling down her cheeks.

It took her forever to realise it, but she really hadn't meant to do this.