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Stevonnie’s dark, practical, t-shirt-topped martial uniform fluttered in the breeze as they leaped and flipped and turned to swing Rose Quartz’s sword.
The pink blade rang like a bell with every strike against the clattering, clanking crab-monster’s solid shell. Stevonnie flipped through the air between blows without touching down with anything but that unbreakable edge. The fighter finally leaped up double-high, came to rest on a nearby rocky outcropping in the choppy surf and then paused to catch their breath.
“It’s not working!” Stevonnie called out as they watched the ocean-blue Gem creature shake off the daze from that flurry of impacts and get its bearings once more. A wave crashed between them and the crab.
Further up the shore on the wet sand, Amethyst shook her head to get her unruly locks out of her eyes and cupped her hands to her mouth to bellow encouragement. “No way, you totally got this — your body is ready!” That said, the Gem still summoned her whip as a precaution. “Just try to find a weak spot, or something!”
Stevonnie took a cleansing breath and shifted their grip on the sword. “It’s not working,” they repeated inwardly. “I can’t keep this up — at this rate it’ll wreck the whole coastline before I dent it. It’s like the harder I hit, the tougher that shell gets!” They squinted into the beast’s wiggling, faceted eye-stalks for a moment, and then a flash of inspiration struck.
“Wait…I know! It’s just like ward-glaze in Dessert Planet!” Stevonnie fist-pumped and then frowned in confusion. “Yeah! ...What?”
They sighed before leaping sidelong to dodge a crashing pincer-strike that demolished the outcrop. “The Dessert Planet sci-fi books — you know, about harvesting the Sugar Supreme?” Stevonnie put on a flat, dreamy voice as they quoted: “The Sugar is life. The Sugar raises awareness…”
They took another leap, kicking up a wall of water, and called forth their rose-emblazoned shield to parry another claw-smash. Stevonnie’s confused frown held out. “Um…”
They shook their head. “Never mind! Point is, ward-glaze gets stronger the harder you hit it. You can’t get through by pounding on it.”
One more leap took them higher than gravity would allow. They soared in an arc propelled by blurring-fast leg-swings, and then dropped like a stone onto the giant crab’s plated back. They touched the sword’s point down feather-light, and then recited another quote:
“The gentle knife slices the cake.”
With a smooth and slow downward press, the sword pierced through the shell. A second later, the basket-hilt touched down and the crab let out a warbling shriek and whirled around madly.
Stevonnie cheered in triumph, but then the crab’s frantic death-throes tossed them off and down into the shallows. They grunted from the impact and then quickly kipped up onto their feet — right on time to take a wild pincer-smash to the stomach.
“OOOF!”
They rocketed back and crashed through another jutting stone, while the crab poofed with an echoing blast and the sword and the corrupted Gem washed up on the shore with the next wave.
“Stevonnie!” Amethyst raced toward the fallen Fusion while snatching up the Gem with her whip as she passed. She knelt by Stevonnie’s side. “You’re okay, right? You’ve taken WAY harder hits than that!” She bubbled the corrupt Gem and sent it to the temple with a flick of one hand.
Stevonnie rolled over and heaved up onto all fours. They swayed unsteadily when the next wave bathed their arms and legs. “I… I think so?” they said hoarsely. “Feels like it… knocked the w-wind outta… outta… nnngh!”
They clenched in tight and gritted their teeth before keeling over on their side, writhing. They coughed and sputtered as another wave soaked their face.
Amethyst moved in closer. “Stevonnie!” She dragged them out of the waves and onto the sand further up the beach. “What’s wrong? Is it your bones? Ma-a-a-an, why do humans hafta have so many bones? It’s like you can’t have any fun at all without… breaking… something…” Amethyst trailed off. Her eyes went wide.
As Stevonnie splayed out on their back on the sand, the motion shifted up their top a little and further exposed their stomach. The noonday light sparkled on the Rose Quartz Gem, and highlighted the hairline crack running across the whole surface.
Amethyst gasped. “Aww, no! No no no!” Amethyst stomped and trembled with anger at herself. “Rrrrgh, crud! I promised Pearl and Garnet we’d be careful! Pearl’s gonna be such a pain about this…” Her manner softened quickly. “Try to stay calm, okay?”
“A-Amethyst…” Stevonnie moaned. “It… it hurts… omigosh, it hurts!” Tears soaked their cheeks. They jerked rigid with a strangled cry and kicked gouges into the sand with their bare feet. “Uhhngh! Make it stop! I can’t take it! I can’t! I can’t!” All around them, the world burned with a red and molten waking nightmare, shot through with jagged crystal spikes.
They rolled again and leaped upright. “Help! S-Somebody help!” They staggered a few strides before falling again with both arms hugging their stomach. Their whole body lit up with a white glow.
Amethyst jogged up to them again. “Stevonnie!”
The Fusion screamed, and their voice resonated and harmonized and then split into higher and lower notes as the glowing mass ruptured and Steven and Connie tumbled into being in opposite directions. While Connie sprawled on her back in a daze, Steven curled up tight around his fractured Gem and sobbed.
Amethyst picked the boy up with both hands. “Don’t worry, Steven… I gotcha!”
Steven struggled to speak. His normally energetic voice came out in frail wheezes. “Amethyst… I’m sorry. I… didn’t think it would… feel like this. Y-You were so brave, before…” He shook from head to toe and choked on another pained cry.
Amethyst blushed purple-on-lavender and looked down and away. “Well, that’s different! I’m not half Human. Plus, most of that time I was cracked is kind of a weird blur for me now.” She pushed away the confused memories with a shake of her head. “But that’s not important! You need to healing-spit yourself, pronto!”
Meanwhile, Connie had come to her senses. She got to her feet to approach the pair. “Steven…” She frowned in worry.
Steven blinked through his tears and tried to focus on his trembling hand. He gave it a lick and then wiped his magic-charged spit over the crack. Motes of light played across the Gem, and the hairline faded until it was all but invisible. Steven sagged like a rag-doll in Amethyst’s arms and softly sobbed in relief. “Oh geez…” he groaned. “And I thought getting smashed in the face by Jasper hurt…”
Connie let out the breath she hadn’t noticed she’d been holding. “I’m just glad you’re okay. That really sucked — my stomach still hurts just thinking about it!” She put a concerned hand on Steven’s shoulder. “Are you sure you’re all right?”
“What, this little guy?” Amethyst crowed as she set Steven down on his own two feet. “He’s better than all right — he’s a CRYSTAL GEM!” She shifted into the towering form of the Purple Puma and struck an arm-flexing pose. “Yay-uh!”
Steven feebly raised his arms as well; Amethyst reached down to help him curl them into a proper flex. “...y-yay...uhh…” he mumbled.
Amethyst shrank back down to her normal shape. “Seriously though, it’s probably for the best if we don’t mention all this to Pearl and Garnet. It’s all taken care of, the corrupted Gem’s poofed and bubbled, and everybody’s okay. So why make them worry, right? Right?” She offered Connie an encouraging smile.
Connie rubbed the back of her head with a hand. “Well… I guess that makes sense. We don’t want another big freak-out like Mom at the hospital.”
“Now you’re talkin’!” Amethyst chucked Connie’s shoulder. “C’mon, let’s go get you awesome monster hunters some fry bits to celebrate!” She picked up Steven again and tossed him up to ride piggyback on her shoulders. “How’s that sound, Steven?”
The offer brought Steven back to life. “Yes! Totally! I’m SO hungry! My stomach feels like a bottomless pit!”
“Woo! Mine, too!” Amethyst cheered and strode toward the nearby warp pad while punching the air in time with a chant: “Bits for the pits! Bits for the pits! Bits for the pits!” After a few repetitions, Steven joined in.
Connie couldn’t help but laugh. She jogged over to pick up the sword and then tagged along with them. The unpleasant memory of that wrenching, burning Gem-pain lingered, but at least the crisis was over.
• • • •
Seven minutes before her phone alarm was set to go off, Connie rolled out of bed and then scampered to the upstairs bathroom. She fell to her knees, clenched her toes, and squeezed the toilet seat with both hands as she coughed and shuddered with dry heaves.
Nothing came up, so when the gut-spasms quieted a bit she reached out and hauled herself up to counter-height. Connie braced herself before looking into the mirror; with the way nausea, fever and chills were tormenting her slight frame, she knew she wouldn’t be a pretty sight. She hated how she looked when she was sick, with her dusky complexion paled to ashen grey and ugly dark circles under her—
Connie looked perfectly normal.
“Wh-Whah…?”
She frowned in confusion and gingerly touched her cheek. No deathly pallor, no baggy eyes. Her pale pink nightgown wasn’t even rumpled. Nothing. The only outward sign of how ghastly she felt was a sheen of sweat on her forehead.
There was a knock on the bathroom door.
“Everything okay in there? I know my well-behaved daughter would only run in the house if it was an emergency…”
Connie wiped off her brow with a forearm. “Um, actually, I think I might be coming down with something, Mom.” She opened the door. “I feel pretty sick…”
Doctor Maheswaran was minutes from leaving for work, and well prepared to deal with such concerns. She crouched down to face her daughter, pulled a digital thermometer out of the breast pocket of her white coat with one hand and took out a pen-light with the other. “Describe your symptoms,” she said firmly while she pressed the device into Connie’s ear and tested her pupils with a few flicks of the light.
“I’m queasy and I’m burning up.” Connie cleared her throat and tried again. “Uh, that is to say, I’m nauseated and febrile.”
“No vomiting or other gastro symptoms?” Mom withdrew the thermometer when it beeped and then squinted at the readout.
“Well, n-no…” Connie admitted with a defeated slouch.
Mom raised an eyebrow. “What about English class speeches?”
“Uh, one.” Connie frowned. “...I’m not malingering, Mom!”
The doctor held the thermometer before Connie’s eyes. “Ninety-eight point seven,” she said flatly. “Not exactly life-threatening. And unproductive nausea without any other verifiable symptoms matches a diagnosis of anxiety quite nicely, wouldn’t you agree?”
Connie heaved a frustrated sigh. “...yeah.” Mom’s eyebrow raised again, but far more sharply. “I m-mean, yes!”
Mom put away her tools and then pulled Connie into a hug. “It’s going to be fine, honey,” she said softly. “You’ve got me trusting in your ability to do… a great many things, lately. Now trust me when I tell you that you can deliver a great speech.” She drew back and smiled.
Connie did feel a little better in the warmth and closeness of her mother’s white-clad embrace; maybe it was just nerves, after all? She vaguely remembered having some awful dreams, but then that was hardly rare these days.
Connie returned the smile. “Okay, Mom. I will.”
• • • •
The school day passed by at at even slower pace than usual, with minutes dragging by like whole days apiece. Connie couldn’t focus to save her life, and more than once teachers who depended on her to actually know the answer when called upon were disappointed. When the lunch bell finally rang, she didn’t notice until everyone around her got up to leave the classroom.
She went through the motions of finding a seat and unpacking her nutritionally balanced lunch, but the idea of eating turned her stomach. When she pushed the food back a bit, though, the turning didn’t stop.
“Ooh… oh no…” she groaned. Her innards gurgled loudly and she clamped a hand over her mouth. She jerked upright; she had to get to a garbage can before it was too-
The cafeteria’s constant rumble of conversation died down as everyone turned to watch Connie Maheswaran throw up a pile of tiny, scattering, tinkling, glossy-black crystals.
There was a long moment of stunned silence, and then the noise erupted twice as loudly as before.
Connie stared at the sand-like mess covering the table and spilling into the floor. She wiped her mouth with a hand and rubbed the hard, faceted texture of the crystals between her thumb and fingers. They weren’t food. They weren’t even organic. She sniffed, and the scents of ozone and rose petals brought her back to her first adventure with Steven, deep under the ocean.
“M-Magic…? I… I need to… I…” When she turned to go, her foot skidded on the black mess and she fell sprawling to the floor.
At some point the school’s kindly, moustachioed janitor had appeared. He towered over her and offered her a hand up.
“M-Mister Humphrey…” Connie mumbled. “I’m so s-sorry. Let me clean that uhh …” Her eyes rolled upward, and she knew no more.
• • • •
Connie opened her eyes to blinding light and wailing sirens. Her vision was a blurry tunnel, and at the end she could see Mom’s vague outline, and hear her familiar voice — all stern authority and well-mastered panic:
“...Coffee ground emesis, signs of anemia, syncope, non-responsive. Likely UGI bleed — she’ll need to be scoped.”
Mom was speaking into a phone, Connie realized. As her vision widened a little, she saw that she was on a gurney in the back of a speeding ambulance. When she reached out, she saw that an IV tube stuck out of the back of her hand. “M-Mom…”
“Connie!” In a heartbeat, Mom put down the phone and bent over her, clasping Connie’s hand in hers. “Try to lie still. It looks like you’re bleeding into your stomach, but we’re almost at General. I should have listened to you this morning…”
Connie squeezed her hand. “No… Mom, it wasn’t…” Connie paused to catch her breath. Every word was a struggle. “It wasn’t blood.”
Mom stroked Connie’s sweat-glossed forehead. “I know, honey. I know. It looks strange. The iron in the hemoglobin reacts with stomach acid to-”
Connie squeezed tighter. “MOM!”
The doctor fell silent.
Connie reached out with her other hand to grab Mom’s labcoat. She raised herself up, shaking from the effort.
“Mom… it’s not medical. It’s magic. M-Magic! Find Steven. Find… P-Pearl…”
Mom supported Connie. Her own brow was shining with sweat as well, now. “Connie... if I’m right, you need medical attention right away. You could have a severe ulcer, or worse!”
Connie felt the world narrowing its focus again; she was dropping down a well. “Mom, please…” she begged. “You’ve gotta… trust me!”
The two shared a look that seemed to last for decades before Mom turned and called out to the front of the ambulance:
“Hiro! Norton! Change of plans.”
• • • •
Doctor Maheswaran crashed into Steven on the deck of his beachside cabin as she ran up the stairs and he raced toward them. She held Connie tight to keep her safe, so she hit the wood hard.
“Connie! Doctor Maheswaran!” Steven was up in an instant. “What happened?”
The doctor got up on her knees, frowning. “She told me to ask you and your… guardians.”
Steven’s expression crumbled into an anxious grimace. “I had a dream that she was in trouble, so I was on my way to see her!” He reached out to try and pull Connie from her mother’s arms. “C’mon, Connie! The Gems will be home any minute — we gotta get you inside right away!”
“Not this time!” the doctor said sharply as she got to her feet and pulled Connie out of reach. “I’m done with being out of the loop. Connie is my daughter, and if you’re going to help her then I’m going to be there when you do it.”
“Mom…!” Connie inhaled to try and form further objections, but then Steven interjected:
“Okay!” He scampered to the door to hold it open.
The doctor stared for a moment. “Uh… yes. Well. Good!” She went inside and laid Connie down on the long sofa. “How are you doing? Any further symptoms?”
Connie squirmed on the cushions. “Everything tingles. And my stomach r-really… ahhh!” She jerked stiff as a board suddenly enough to bounce on the sofa. The motion untucked her teal top, and exposed a web of black veins and purple-red bruises in the rough shape of a pentagon around her navel.
Doctor Maheswaran gasped. “Connie…! This wasn’t here in the ambulance...” She knelt down next to the sofa and traced the discolouration with her fingertips. Connie hissed in a breath even at that gentle touch. The doctor drew back and turned to pierce Steven with a steely glare glossed with barely contained tears.
“What. Did. You. Do to her?”
Steven took a step back and raised his hands defensively. “N-Nothing! I don’t know what’s wrong! We fought a corrupted Gem yesterday, and it got a little rough, but she was fine! Honest!” Steven’s voice quavered with emotion, and his eyes were no drier than the doctor’s.
Before either of them could say more, the room blazed with blue-white light as Garnet, Amethyst and Pearl appeared on the warp-pad near the temple entrance.
Steven ran up to them at once. “Everybody! Connie’s sick! You gotta help!” He dragged Pearl forward by her wrist while the other two followed.
Pearl knelt down next to the doctor and examined Connie with similar gentleness — and with similar whimpers and gasps from the stricken girl.
“Connie…” Pearl cupped Connie’s chin and angled her head to stare down into her eyes. “Can you hear me? Do you know where you are?”
Connie squinted up at the Gem; another shiver shook her all over. She swallowed hard and then tried to speak:
“I’m sorry, Ma’am. I thi-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-” She clenched and froze with her face seized into a crooked rictus, holding the syllable in a constant loop, and then sagged and spoke on. “...before you got here!”
Everyone stared in shock. After a long silence, Doctor Maheswaran spoke up.
“What is this? Aphasia, now? Absence seizure? What’s happening? Somebody TELL ME!”
Pearl frowned in sympathy and spoke smoothly and calmly. “We’ve seen mental and physical issues like this before — just never in a Human. It’s almost like the effects of a cracked Gem.” She turned to fix Amethyst with an accusing glare.
Amethyst folded her arms and looked away, tapping her foot. She slowly grew more and more tense, tapping harder and faster, until she threw her arms up and shouted: “OKAY! Stevonnie got a crack fighting the giant crab, is that what you wanna hear? It’s no big deal — Steven fixed it up before we even left the island!”
“Steven fixed it,” Garnet said flatly. “Not Stevonnie.”
“Who’s Stevonnie?” the doctor cut in. “What, are these two a … a power-couple now? Like Brangelina? ”
Connie frowned. “What’s a Bran-n-n-n-n-n-” Before she could finish, another spasm froze her and she rolled onto her side. The black veins spread wider. She coughed as her body slackened again, and a scatter of stray black crystals tinkled across the floor.
“What difference does that make?” Amethyst said to Garnet. “It’s the same Gem!”
Garnet adjusted her mirror-shades. “Yes. And no.”
Steven turned back to Connie. “If she got hurt because my Gem did, then I know what to do!” He tugged Connie’s top up higher and licked his hand.
The doctor shoved him back. “How DARE you?”
Steven struggled to reach past her with his glistening hand. “No, wait! It’s not like that! This is how I fixed her eyes before!”
Doctor Maheswaran’s outraged expression worsened. She pushed him back further and held him by both shoulders. “You LICKED my daughter?”
Steven frantically shook his head as a blush coloured his cheeks. “N-No! See, she swallowed-”
The doctor bellowed in maternal rage and hefted Steven over her head, ready to hurl him out the nearest window. Steven matched her roar with a cry of alarm. The Gems hopped back into combat stances, ready to summon their weapons.
“JUICE BOX!” Connie screamed. “W-We shared a juice box…” She dropped back down onto the sofa, wheezing.
Her mother slowly lowered Steven and set him down while she and her daughter both fought to catch their breaths. “...I see. Well, that’s still unhygienic. You should know better.”
Steven looked up at the doctor with huge, watery eyes. “Doctor Maheswaran, I would never do anything to hurt Connie. Just let me help her. Please." He unleashed the full power of his most pitiful puppy-dog pout.
The doctor sighed into a slouch. “Just keep it above the waist, you hear me?”
Steven nodded gravely and then went back to the sofa. He licked his hand again and then gingerly smeared it over the corrupt flesh on Connie’s abdomen. The girl tensed and whimpered. Shining sparkles danced over her skin.
And nothing changed.
“Well…?” The doctor stared Steven down. “How long does it take to work?”
Steven frowned. “Uh, usually no time at all? I dunno what’s wrong!” He licked and smeared again, and then leaned in to plant several kisses on Connie’s tummy. She kicked and squirmed and choked out a few strained giggles. “Eeheehee! S-Steven! That tickles! ” A coughing fit shook her when he drew back.
Steven looked at his hands, at Connie, and back again. “I don’t get it! Why isn’t it working?”
Garnet put a hand on his shoulder. “I was worried this might be the case. She really does have a cracked Gem.”
Steven’s face creased in confusion. “How? She doesn’t even HAVE a Gem!”
Garnet nodded. “That’s right.”
Doctor Maheswaran straightened to her full height and did her best to look Garnet in her hidden eyes. “If you know what’s happening to her, you need to tell me. NOW.”
“Connie is suffering from an injury she doesn’t have,” Garnet replied. “Gem bodies are merely tools we repair at our leisure, but Human bodies try to heal themselves. Her body is disrupting itself trying to fix a Gem that isn’t there to be fixed.”
Steven lifted his shirt. “But I fixed the Gem already! Look!” He wiggled his stomach for emphasis.
“You did,” Garnet said. “She didn’t.”
Pearl crouched down and stroked her chin while squinting at Steven’s Gem. “Hmm. There do still seem to be very slight traces of damage. It’s unmistakeable. I know every facet of that Gem.” Pearl looked up, and saw that the others were giving her a look. She blushed teal. “You know what I mean.”
Steven put his shirt down. “Okay, so we fix it for her too, then!” He turned to Connie and offered his hand.
Connie propped herself up on one elbow. “S-Steven… but…” Her bleary eyes darted to her mother and back.
“We don’t have a choice!” said Steven. “You’re really sick, and this is the only way!”
Connie frowned, but she gave a firm nod. “...Okay. Let’s do it.”
Steven helped her up off the sofa. Her knees wobbled even with Steven supporting most of her weight.
“What are you doing now?” the doctor asked. “What does what happened to Steven have to do with Connie?”
“Mom…” Connie wheezed. “It’s… it’s complicated…”
The two kids moved in a slow, gentle dance, mindful of pushing Connie too hard. They turned, and dipped, and touched their foreheads together.
And nothing changed.
Connie slipped from Steven’s grasp and collapsed.
Steven and Doctor Maheswaran shared a panicked cry of “Connie!” and knelt down to help her.
Steven looked up at Garnet. “Why didn’t it happen? Why didn’t we fuse?”
Amethyst piped up instead. “You’re outta sync!”
Steven tilted his head in confusion. “Whaaat?”
Amethyst gestured rhythmically with both hands while gyrating her hips. “You’re both usually totally in tune, but now one of you is cracked and the other one isn’t.” She clapped loudly and halted her dance. “Can’t share one Gem if you’re trying to make two different ones!”
Everyone looked to Garnet. “She’s right,” the tall Gem said.
Pearl gasped; Amethyst shot her a withering glare. “You don’t have to be THAT surprised!”
“So what do we do?” Steven pleaded. “How do we get back in sync?”
The Gems shared worried looks and then looked back to Steven.
“We can’t fix Connie’s half of the problem,” Pearl said. “Not until you’re fused again. Which m-means...” She trailed off and covered her mouth with a hand.
Amethyst pointed at Steven’s belly. Her expression turned grave. “Which means, we gotta jack you up again.”
Steven started in shock. “You have to… crack me?” He looked down at his tummy. Sweat beaded on his forehead. “But, it hurt so bad last time! I thought I was gonna die!” He looked down at Connie. His hands balled into fists. “If that’s what it takes… I’ll do it.”
Connie was kneeling, barely upright, with her hands on her thighs. Her arms were trembling from the effort of supporting herself.The weight of her streaming tears nearly tipped her over again when she lifted her head. “No! Y-You can’t risk yourself like that, Steven. Not for me…”
The doctor rushed in to cradle her daughter. “Connie…! What are you saying?” She looked up at the gathered Gems. “What is all this? Sharing Gems? Synchronizing? I don’t understand!”
Garnet stepped forward. “Please, be patient a little longer. Soon, you’ll know everything.”
The doctor sighed. “That’s not very reassuring.”
“No. It isn’t.” Garnet turned toward Steven and called forth her fighting gauntlets. “Steven… close your eyes, stick out your tummy, and hold really, really still. I need to do this right.”
Steven did as he was told; nothing moved but the droplets of cold sweat running down his face.
Garnet fixed her stance, drew back a fist, brought it whipping forward with precisely aimed force — and then she bounced across the room and smashed through the refrigerator door. The whole appliance slowly tipped forward and fell with Garnet underneath it.
Steven opened his eyes to a world tinged pink by the force-bubble surrounding him. “No…! I didn’t mean to!” He willed the magical shell to dissolve.
Connie pawed at her mother’s lapel and struggled to breathe. “Hurry!” the doctor pleaded.
Garnet was still pulling herself free, so Steven turned to Pearl and presented his stomach. “Okay, go!”
Pearl’s pupils shrank. “S-Steven… you can’t expect me to… wh-what if I hit it too hard?” Her bottom lip quivered.
“Pearl!” Steven barked. “You’re the best fighting teacher ever! Just DO IT!”
Seized by that stern command, Pearl twirled in place and summoned a spear. She lined up a perfect thrust and lunged, but the bubble reformed and blocked her just as it had Garnet. Pearl tumbled back and then rolled to dodge her own falling weapon.
“Noooo!” Steven pounded his fists on the sphere. “Stop it! I want this! I wanna do this for her!”
Doctor Maheswaran had laid Connie down on her side in the recovery position, to stop her choking on coughed-up crystals formed from minerals leached out of her flesh and bones. She glared at Steven. “Whatever is supposed to happen, it needs to happen now!”
Steven dropped the second bubble. “I’m trying!” he wailed. “But my Gem won’t let anybody-” He trailed off. His expression hardened. “Hold on, Connie…” he growled. “Just a little… bit… longer!”
Steven summoned his shield, gripped it by the edge, and then smashed it into his own stomach with a furious cry. The sharp sound of gemstone cracking brought Garnet, Amethyst and Pearl racing to catch him as he fell. The faint mark on the Rose Quartz on his belly had once more opened into a thin fracture.
“This is one of the most reckless things you’ve ever done!” Pearl chided. “You could have shattered yourself!” She buried her face in his shoulder and sobbed. “You were so b-braaave!”
Steven tried to speak, but he couldn’t unclench his jaw as the pain of the crack wracked his nerves.
“We’re out of time!” Garnet shouted.
Steven shook his head to clear it and then narrowed his eyes. Still trembling from the pain, he heaved himself out of the Gems’ embrace and staggered over to Connie. When he tried to pull her from her mother’s arms this time, the doctor did not resist.
There was no dance — just a desperate hug. Light surrounded the pair and their silhouettes blurred into a single glowing mass.
The doctor scrambled back and shielded her eyes with a forearm. “Wh-What’s happening?”
The light faded, and Stevonnie pitched forward onto all fours. They took only a brief moment to get their bearings before licking their hand and pressing it to their cracked Gem. Shadowy traces of Connie’s wounds vanished from their stomach. As the crack completely healed at last, the Fusion breathed a deep and grateful sigh.
“Omigosh, that was so scary!” they said. “I thought you… I… was gonna…” All at once, they jerked back into an upright kneel and turned to face the doctor. They stared in wide-eyed worry.
Doctor Maheswaran stared back. “Connie… y-you and he…” As Stevonnie rose up to their full, imposing height, the doctor’s bewildered shock slowly resolved into flat realization. “This is how you got hurt. This is how a twelve-year-old is fighting monsters.” She stood up facing Stevonnie. Hurt seethed in her eyes, but it failed to boil over. There were no tears. No sounds. Her shoulders slumped. The hurt drained away like the tide going out.
“M-Ma-… Doc-… uh...” Stevonnie reached out a hand.
The doctor backed away. “How long has this been going on?”
Stevonnie winced. “Please, just let me-”
Connie’s mother stomped on the wooden floor. “HOW LONG?” The shout echoed in the high-ceilinged room.
The Fusion cringed, and when they spoke it was in Connie’s voice: “Since before winter…!”
Doctor Maheswaran gasped. At last, her tears escaped. Without another word, she turned and headed for the door.
Stevonnie reached out to her. “W-Wait! Please!” Stevonnie felt the world waver and tint as their upset threatened to dissolve their reality. They put their hands to their head and staggered. “No! Not now!”
The doctor was gone. The door clattered shut behind her.
Stevonnie fell to their knees once more and struggled with the menacing visions. “Breathe… just breathe…”
The Fusion felt a heavy but reassuring weight on their shoulder; Garnet’s stony gauntlet. Little by little, they rose above the disorienting turmoil. They looked up at Garnet with tears in their eyes.
“Doctor… Mom… sh-she…” They sniffled. Their voice dropped in pitch. “I should go after her. This happened because of me!” It rose again. “No! It’s my fault. I shouldn’t have lied…” Their body shone and wavered a little as their bond began to fray.
Garnet gave Stevonnie’s shoulder a firm squeeze. “No. This is something Stevonnie needs to do. You have to explain this to her, and you won’t have the words if you separate.”
Stevonnie put a hand on Garnet’s. They took a deep breath and let it out in a cleansing sigh. “...Okay. I’ll do it.”
• • • •
Connie’s mother sat on the sand near the shore and tapped a cellophane-wrapped cigarette package on her knee as she watched the waves and fought to stop the flow of her tears. Thirteen years, ten months. She and Doug had both quit when they decided to have children, and she’d gone completely cold-turkey.
She looked at the cigarettes. Her last, unopened pack. A talisman to remind her of the need for self-control. A memento of how far she’d come and of what she now was. She frowned at the crumpled, misshapen container; did they even still make Red Apples? She couldn’t remember ever wanting a smoke more, but if she opened the thing now, they’d be horrifically stale. She chuckled darkly and sighed.
A long shadow fell across her from behind. And that sickeningly familiar-yet-strange voice called out:
“Um… P-Priyanka...?”
She tensed, but didn’t turn. “First name basis, now?”
Stevonnie sat down on the sand beside and behind her, staying out of view for the moment. “I… I don’t know what to call you. Nothing feels right.”
Priyanka pocketed the cigarettes and wiped her eyes with her palms. She took a long moment to steel herself before turning to face the thing she’d watched come into being.
“What… what are you? Is Connie inside you? Do you even know me?” She squeezed the sand with her fingers, willing herself not to shed any more tears. Not now.
Stevonnie held up their hands in a defensive gesture. “Yes! Yes, of course I do! I’m not… they aren’t…” Stevonnie pulled their legs in and hugged their knees. “It’s so hard to explain.”
Priyanka stared at the meek, childish pose. It looked comical performed by that huge, elegantly muscled body, but it vividly reminded her of Connie cowering under a coffee table as a toddler, hiding from thunder.
“Is it safe? Can it go wrong? Can you get… stuck? You-” Priyanka caught herself. “ Connie almost died!”
Stevonnie looked up. “No. It’s not always safe. It can be scary. And confusing. And sometimes I’m not sure if I’m one person or two, or I feel lonely even though I’m so impossibly close to somebody who cares about me.”
Priyanka frowned. “Why are you doing this? And with all of the nightmarish things you’ve been going through, why did you hide this from me? What else don’t I know? I thought we were past this! I th-thought we were...” The lump in her throat choked off her words. She half turned away a hid her face with a hand while her shoulders heaved.
Stevonnie reached out and pulled the doctor into a tight hug. They effortlessly pulled her onto her feet as they stood up. When they turned her to face them and then drew back, their cheeks were streaked with tears.
“It was an accident, the first time. But once Connie and Steven understood it better, they loved it. It’s like talking all night, every minute. Being Stevonnie… it’s like I’m being what they are to each other. Being their feelings. And I am so strong...”
They smiled a bittersweet smile, and Priyanka’s heart hurt from the beauty of it.
“But why?” she asked. “Why couldn’t you tell me? Did you think I’d be mad, again? Did you think hiding something this immense would go better? Connie promised me! No more lies! No more!”
Stevonnie winced. “I know! That’s not it. I know you’re doing your best, just like Mister Universe is. It means so much to me that you’re trying to understand how important this all is.”
Priyanka squeezed the old cigarettes in her pocket. “Then why? Why couldn’t I meet this- ah… you?”
Stevonnie looked down and away. “...B-Because it hurts.”
Priyanka’s scowl softened. “What hurts?”
Stevonnie sighed. “Being around you.” They met Priyanka’s eyes and continued before she could answer. “I feel what both Connie and Steven feel. All at once. All mixed together. Connie knows you love her so much, and you’re only trying to protect her. But Steven’s only known you for a little while, and he never even knew his own mom, and it ends up feeling like someone I barely know loves me so much she’d do anything to keep me safe.”
Priyanka slowly nodded. “And that hurts because it’s so strange?”
Stevonnie hugged themselves. Their voice dropped. “...No. It hurts because it feels really, really familiar.” They hung their head and then looked at Priyanka with Connie’s pleading eyes. “P-Please don’t be mad…”
Priyanka started the hug, this time.
“Good Lord, you’re just children! Why did all this crazy stuff have to happen to you? It’s not fair…”
Stevonnie hugged back. Priyanka wheezed from the forced of it. The imposing Fusion buried their face in Priyanka’s shoulder and sobbed. Priyanka felt a surge of awkward uncertainty, but as a mother she had reflexes she couldn’t hold back. She held the strange, beautiful creature and kissed the top of their head and softly hummed the lullaby that had always soothed Connie as a baby.
Slowly, smoothly, Stevonnie glowed and unformed. For a moment Priyanka felt like she was holding summer sunshine, and then Connie was in her mother’s arms once again and Steven was clinging to the doctor’s leg.
“M-Mom…” Connie whimpered. “I’m so sorry!”
Priyanka set her little girl down. “I know. It’s all right. I can barely begin to understand all of this, but I know I didn’t raise a fool. I know you wouldn’t be doing this if it wasn’t for very important reasons.” She looked down at Steven. “Or very important people.”
Steven cleared his throat and released the doctor’s leg.
Priyanka turned back to her daugher. “Connie… is this everything?”
Connie fidgeted. “...Sometimes we eat junk food when I go over to Steven’s. But I burn SO many calories during sword practice!”
Priyanka rolled her eyes. “I think I can let that slide, all things considered. But I do want you to text me. Tell me when it’s not just hanging out. Tell me when you’re on a… a mission.” She folded her arms. “And your father is going to have to meet Stevonnie as well. I’m sure he’ll have questions for her.” She paused. “Him…?”
Steven piped up. “We kinda use they .”
Connie nodded. “You see, Mom, some people don’t entirely identify-”
Priyanka mussed her daughter’s hair. “All right, all right — I know about preferred pronouns! I’m not THAT out of touch! For goodness sake, I’m a medical professional!” She turned and led the kids back toward the temple beach house.
“Phew!” said Steven. “This is such a load off my mind! And the Gems are gonna be super relieved!”
“Garnet, especially!” agreed Connie.
“Why’s that?” Priyanka asked.
Both kids shared a drawn-out: “Ummmmm…”
☆
THE END