"So... how's Pearl holding up with all this?" Connie put her book down and looked at Steven, lying opposite her.
Steven sighed. "I don't know. She mostly stays in the temple lately, and only comes out when needed. I guess this whole thing has made her remember way too much, and she's taking time to deal with that..."
Connie nodded. "Shame we can't just go and check on her, make sure she's okay, or if she needs to talk to someone..."
After a brief pause, Steven sat up. "Actually... we could probably get there through mum's room. That's how I got to the basement and got Peridot out of a bubble. The rooms are all like, connected and stuff, so we could probably just go in and check on her."
Connie slid off the couch, eye sparkling. "Ooh! I've always wanted to see Pearl's room. Can we?"
Steven nodded, and focussed his thoughts for a moment. The temple door glowed briefly before splitting open, and with a grin, the two ran into the room.

As the door closed behind them, the small pink whale appeared, cooing happily at them. Steven gave it a high five before pausing to think about the wording of his request.
"Room, I want to go to Pearl's room. The real one, please."
Steven and Connie waited as the whale stared back at them.
"Uh... Open the path to Pearl's room?" Steven tried again.
The whale drifted up slightly, but nothing obvious happened. The two teens shrugged. "I dunno." Steven sighed.
Connie tapped her chin. "Hmm... Maybe there's some reason why the room can't do that. Try asking about that."
Steven nodded. "Okay. Room... Is there a reason why you can't open a path to Pearl's room?"
The whale nodded and smiled back at him.
"Show me why. Please."
The whale spun in place and with a short gathering of clouds, Pearl appeared in the room, standing on a pool of water wearing a light blue top and pale pink shorts. Steven and Connie glanced at each other.
"Okay, Pearl is in her room here... Hmm, this must be a flashback... I've only seen Pearl wear something like that in her repressed war memories..." Steven whispered to Connie, who nodded in response.
The whale waited as they got comfortable and suddenly, the Cloud Pearl began to move.

She gracefully drew a sword and danced around on top of the pool as Connie's eyes widened. "Wow..." she breathed.
Suddenly, movement nearby caught their attention, and Steven gasped as Rose popped up from the pool that he knew lead to Amethyst's room. "Oh..."
"Pearl?" she called out, hopping up to the pool as Pearl paused in her sword practice.
"Huh? Oh, Rose. How long have you been here?"
Rose shrugged as she settled herself down on the edge of the pool, legs dangling out over the pool below. "Just now. I've been trying to get here for a bit though. The shortcut's broken, and I don't know why!"
Pearl rolled her eyes and put the sword away in its scabbard. "No, it's not, you drama-quartz."
"Yeah, it is. I asked for it to open every way that I could think of, and pftt-" she blew a raspberry in frustration. "-nothing. Not even a ripple in the clouds."
Pearl smiled. "It's not broken; I closed it."

Rose looked back at her. "Huh? How come?"
"Because that path opens up in the centre of this pool, which I've recently decided to use for sword practice and storage. And as a sword to the face often offends..." She lifted her hand and raised a selection of swords from the pool around them, one popping up just behind Rose.
"Oh..." Rose watched as Pearl put the sword into an empty gap, and with a satisfied nod, dropped the swords back into the pool. "That make sense. I really don't want another sword to the face... But, why not open up another path instead? Like... over there?" Rose pointed down at another pool.
Pearl looked down and huffed. "I've got things in there. I'm not moving them. If I have to go through the Crystal Heart to reach your room, you can just go through Amethyst's room, like everyone else. Say hello to her on the way through." Pearl finished with a smirk.

Before Rose had time to react, Pearl gave her a small kick in the back, knocking her back down into the pool below her feet. Rose disappeared with a shriek and a large splash.
Pearl bent over, laughing.
Steven and Connie covered their mouths and sniggered.
Suddenly, Roses' head popped back up, long pink curls drifting in the current. "That was a dirty trick, you little minx!" She waved a fist in mock-anger, but the grin on her face told all.
"How can it be dirty if you got a good wash?" Pearl grinned back at her, leaping up and swan-diving into the pool with barely a splash.

The scene dissipated, and the whale floated back into their line of vision.
"Okay, I get it now." Steven nodded. "Whale, can you open a path to Amethyst's room?"
The whale nodded, and the clouds nearby parted to reveal a purple door.
Steven got up and offered a hand to Connie. "Come on. We can get there through Amethyst's room. It's really cool in there."
The two opened the door and found themselves in a corridor. "Oh, be careful. Sometimes gravity's kinda... optional in the temple. Mostly in these corridors. You might end up on the ceiling for a moment. Just stay calm, you'll flip right-side-up again soon."
Connie nodded as she nervously followed Steven. "Okay..."

After only one quick flip, the two found themselves before another door. Opening it slightly, Steven grinned. "Yep, Amethyst's room." He pushed the door open, and Connie's mouth dropped. Piles of... things, were just... everywhere. Chairs, tables, toilets, fridges, tv's, and a surprising amount of rubber duckies were stacked higher than she thought possible, with no rhyme or reason.
Steven stood by, waiting for her reaction.
"This... is the coolest place I have ever been. My mum would flip out if she saw this though..." Connie whispered, eyes still darting around trying to take everything in.
Steven chuckled. "Yeah. Pearl's always randomly bugging Amethyst about cleaning it, or letting Pearl clean it for her. Amethyst says that she has a system, but really... it's mostly just throwing things on a pile and seeing if it sticks. You can find just about anything here, but it's best if Amethyst is around to tell you which piles are probably gonna fall on you." He glanced around. "Uh... I've never been in this part before... It's probably best to avoid touching anything while we're here, even if it looks cool."
Connie nodded. "Okay. So, Pearl's room?"
"This way." he bowed with a grin.

"Uh... It should be around here somewhere..." Steven started darting forward and looking around the edge of the junk piles.
Connie sighed. "Steven... We're lost, aren't we?"
Steven shook his head. "Nah-uh. I just haven't had to find the pools from that part of the room before. But I know we're close, because that waterfall up there leads to a pool close to where we need to be. I'm just trying to work out how to get there through this maze of stuff..."
Connie followed his pointing finger and nodded. "Oh. Maybe we can smell for..."
"No." Steven said firmly. "Amethyst... really doesn't like cleaning. There's a lot of old food in here. The smell wasn't so bad near where we came in, or over by the temple door, but it's always a bit rank near the pools. Maybe it's her way of trying to keep Pearl from coming in here without her permission? Anyway, it's best not to take deep breaths."
Connie nodded. "Right. Let's listen for it then."
They fell silent as they listened briefly, and simultaneously pointed to their right. Giggling, they stepped around the nearby pile and soon had the pools in view.

Steven point down at their feet. "Okay, this pool leads to the burning room. That's basically Garnet's room, and where we keep the bubbled Gems and shards. But it's also pretty dangerous, and I don't think she'd want us going in there without her permission... Plus, it's a long drop down, and kicking my legs to slow us down might pop a bubble, and I don't wanna be grounded from tv again..." He shuddered.
Connie nodded. "Got it. What about that one there?" She pointed over to their left, and Steven leaned over to look.
"Oh. That's just a pool. It's fun to play in though, especially in summer."
"Oh." Connie's face fell.
Steven shrugged. "Yeah, sometimes, a pool of water is just a pool of water, and not a magic portal to someone's room."
Connie glanced at him slyly. "Do you ever think that maybe your life is a little weird?"

"Whatever do you mean?" he replied with a grin, playing along.
Connie counted off on her fingers. "Well... Magical healing spit; magic weapons you can summon at any time from your bodies; magic temple built into a cliff where gravity is 'occasionally optional' and pools of water lead to other rooms; a magical pink room in said temple that's full of clouds where you can ask for pretty much everything except a path to one particular room; a magical pink lion that creates portals by roaring and has a pocket dimension in his mane that leads to the hair of a teenaged boy out in space somewhere..."
She glanced over at him and held up the other hand. "Not to mention: fusion; shapeshifting; the risk of alien invasion." She paused. "Although the fact that it already kinda happened a long time ago is weird enough... The fact that you seem to be collecting magical space mums like action figures or something...; and the incredible amount of singing, dancing, crying and any combination of those that tends to happened around the gems. Mostly Pearl." Having run out of fingers, Connie placed a hand on Steven's shoulder. "Face it, Steven... Your life is a weird magical musical space adventure."
Steven shrugged. "Eh, you'll get used to it."
The two briefly paused as they both blushed at the implication. "Uh, anyway, that one over there leads to Pearl's room." He quickly led the way to a pool at the base of a precariously balanced stack of objects. "I found it by accident whilst cannonballing with Amethyst. Pearl was annoyed that we just burst in there without warning though..."
Connie looked up. "Please don't tell me you jumped from that?"
Steven grinned nervously. "Uh... okay..."
"Good. I don't want to know." Connie sighed, shaking her head.

"So... do we just... jump in then? Do I have to hold my breath? How long will we be under water? Wait... is this even really water? Is it wet, or is it some sort of magical substance, or some Gem technology that just looks like water? Or..."
Steven held up a hand. "We just jump in. It's wet, and yeah, you gotta hold your breath, but only for a couple of seconds. I don't know about magic or technology though... I think it's just water..." He glanced back at the pool, suddenly unsure. "I mean, it wouldn't be the weirdest thing about the temple if it wasn't water..."
Connie took a breath to calm herself. "Sorry. Curiosity got a hold of me just then. I'm ready."
Taking the breath, the two prepared to jump into the pool, but a strange noise stopped them.
"Hey... that sounded like shouting..."
Steven turned around. "Yeah. Maybe Amethyst? She sounds upset. We should go check on her first. Make sure she's okay."
Connie nodded, stepping back from the water's edge. "Yeah. It sounded like she's over that way."

Peeking around every junk pile they came across, they followed the sound of Amethyst's voice. Finally, as they peered around near a clear plastic bucket filled with golf balls and a single yellow rubber duck, they spotted Amethyst pacing back and forward in front of a couch. Pearl was sitting there, arms wrapped around herself, looking miserable.
"Oh." Connie whispered. "Guess we don't have to go to her room after all."
Steven nodded. "Yeah. We should probably just wait by the pools until they finish talking..." Connie nodded and the two turned to retreat.
"I mean, I know you insist that Rose wasn't abusive, but come on! You're smarter than that!" Amethyst groaned as Pearl looked away.
The two teens paused mid-step and glanced at each other in shock. After a brief nod, they slipped back and half-hid themselves behind the junk again, hearts pounding.

Amethyst starts pacing again. "She asked ya to do this big thing, promised to be with you after the war, was probably real cutesy about it too, so ya did it, cause ya loved her big dumb pink arse." Amethyst stopped in front of Pearl and scrunched her hands into her thick hair in frustration. "But then, she forced you to be quiet about what happened. Didn't give you a chance to do anything about it. Not even a choice. And she cheated on ya, like, constantly!"
Connie glanced over at Steven as he gave a soft sigh, his hand reaching for his gem.
"Pearl. When someone loves ya, they don't fucking cheat on you for five thousand years!" she shouted, throwing her hands in the air. "They don't look you in the eyes, say that they love you, and then run off for a quickie with some monkey!"
Steven flinched from the realisation of what his mother had done.
"And they don't take advantage of your... programming, or whatever, to keep their dirty little secrets against your will. That's messed up! I know you're smart enough to know that... And there's nothing ya could have ever done to deserve being treated like that. No matter what she made ya think, or whatever you've done in the past that made ya convince yourself that ya deserved the pain of being miserable for so long..."

Pearl doubled over and gave a sob, covering her face with both arms.
Amethyst's face fell. "Ah, shit... Come here, P..." She gently wrapped Pearl up in a hug and patted the slim gems back as Pearl cried horribly into Amethyst's shoulder, her face hidden from view behind Amethyst's wild mane of hair. "I'm sorry... Everything's always getting messed up... It's not your fault though, kay? It's not your fault..."
Connie felt a tap on her shoulder and glanced over to see Steven standing up. He started walking away, and with a quick looked back at the miserable scene, she stood and followed him back to the door.

Connie closed the door behind her and followed Steven along the tunnel, neither one caring when gravity flipped briefly. Reaching the now familiar room with the pink clouds, Connie quietly closed the door and watched it vanished behind the clouds again before she turned to Steven.
"I-I didn't know it was that bad..." Steven whispered. His hand clutched at his gem. "Why was my mum so freaking stupid! She messed everything up, and made Pearl think that it was her fault... Why would she do that to someone she claimed to love?"
Connie gave him a hug. "I don't know, Steven. It's messed up and wrong."
Steven gave a sobbing gasp. "How can one person make so many mistakes, be such a horrible person, and not even realise how much they're hurting someone who loves them so much?! Pearl literally died for mum. She suffered for five thousand years, and mum couldn't even respect her enough to be as faithful to Pearl as she was to mum... Is it because she was a Diamond? Are they that wrong in the head?!"
Connie followed him to the floor as he collapsed to his knees. "I don't know... But I do know that you're not her. You're Steven. You're sweet, and kind, and smart enough to know that the stuff your mother did was wrong."

Connie sighed. "Maybe she didn't know because... she didn't have parents to teach her how to respect other people's feelings. The other diamonds probably only taught her to demand respect, not give it. She never really learned right from wrong, because the Diamonds are always expected to be right about everything. And if they're wrong, it becomes the new right, and anyone who argues about it gets shattered..."
Steven sniffed. "I guess... That kinda makes sense. She didn't really respect dad at first..."
Connie nodded. "Maybe she only realised what a jerk she was at the end, when she was already pregnant with you... It was just too late by then to make up for any of it..."
The two fell silent. After a moment, Steven wiped his eyes with his shirt and hugged Connie back. "Thanks."
"You're welcome." Connie whispered back with a blush, aware that the pink whale was floating nearby. She chose to ignore the quiet giggle from behind her.