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Amethyst woke up with a jolt, as if a disturbing nightmare had been playing inside her head.
(Silly Amethyst. She can’t dream.)
Looking around, she noticed she was inside a prison cell. Such a strange place to fall asleep. Moreover, she didn’t even remember going to sleep-
“Oh.”
There was the arrival of those a-holes, and explosions, and Garnet being defused, and that brutal right hook, and Pearl falling, and-
“Steven!” Amethyst screamed
She ran straight into the yellow screen that covered her cell’s entrance and got zapped.
“Fuck!” she yelled in pain
“Amethyst? You’re here?” a voice was heard in the cell next to hers.
“Pearl?”
“Yes, it’s me.” her friend answered “Are you alright?”
“Yeah, I think so.”
“Good.”
An awkward silence settles between them for a moment.
“We all gonna die, ain’t we?” Amethyst’s voice cracked, heavy with despair.
“No, no…” Pearl tried to calm down the other gem “They are probably going to set us in a trial-”
“And then they are gonna condemn us. Pearl, I wasn’t around when you all went to war, but I’m sure as hell this is some high betrayal.”
“What do you want me to say, then?” Pearl asked, utterly distraught “That they are going to crack our gems? That they will study Steven as just a gem-human hybrid and, when they lose interest, kill him?”
Amethyst heard some muffled sobs.
“I’m so sorry for all of us.”
More sobs and, lastly, silence.
“I’m sorry, Pearl.” she apologized
“It’s okay, Amethyst.”
“No, it’s not.” she looked down at the pathetic mess she was “I am just an overcooked runt, didn’t you hear? That’s why they left me behind. I couldn’t keep up with y’all.”
“Amethyst-”
“You know it’s true! I’m a big mistake. Couldn’t protect Earth, couldn’t protect Steven. Maybe I deserve this.”
“Then we all do. We, the Crystal Gems, all failed.”
“I-, I am just dead weight, P.”
“We can’t fight against the overpowered agents of Yellow Diamond. This. Is. Not. Your. Fault.”
Silence again.
Suddenly, a singing voice echoes through the corridors.
“Isn’t that-?” Amethyst asked
“Sapphire?” Pearl sounded surprised
“Yeah. Woah, I hadn’t hear her voice in a very long time.”
“It’s been a while.”
“Yeah.”
Somehow, just listening to Sapphire’s melody, the mood changed. Both gems felt a bit more hopeful. Amethyst reclined to the side of her cell that was closer to Pearl’s. Pearl did the same.
“D’you remember the last time we saw Ruby and Sapphire?” Amethyst asked.
“Oh, it must have been centuries. I remember them playing with you in the moat.”
“Oh, yeah! I was the crocodile.”
“But you didn’t commit. You never do.”
“You gonna nag right now?”
A pause.
“No. I guess I won’t.”
Another uncomfortable silence.
Amethyst was getting crazy with this situation. She couldn’t fight nor do anything else other than talk.
(For now.)
She then started to sing. If Sapphire could use her voice, why couldn’t she?
“It’s time to get moving, time for us to have some fun. There’s no time to hang around, our adventure’s just begun.”
“What?” Pearl was confused
“We’ll be thinking ‘bout our friends as we chase the setting sun, but we’re leaving them behind, we’re on the run.”
“Amethyst, what are you doing?”
That part was tricky, she thought while whistling. She had to sing Steven’s backing vocal portion.
“(We’re on the run) I don’t care ‘bout what all the others say, (we’re on the run) well, I guess there are some things that will just never go away. (We’re on the run) I wish that I could say that there’s no better place than home… But home’s a place that I have never known.”
“Amethyst?”
“That’s why we’re on the run…”
She stopped and looked at herself, smiling a bit with the memory. Man, she was so excited to show Steven her first home.
(It didn’t go well.)
“What was that about, Amethyst?”
“Oh, it was a song Steven sung that time we went to Kindergarten.”
“He must have felt quite… lonely while composing it. Specially the last part.”
“Oh, that was all me.” She blushed
“Is that how you feel around us?” Pearl sounded sad.
“I dunno. It’s just-” she couldn’t find the exact words to describe her feelings “Stuff happens so quickly when you’re some kind of imortal being. One day, you’re there fine with your best friends, just goofing around – d’you remember then, Pearl?”
“I do.”
“Well, so, on the other day, we have no more Rose. We move on, but grow apart and resentful.”
“You know it’s not like-”
“Yeah, it is. I love Steven with all my heart, and today wouldn’t trade him for our Rose, but, sometimes, I wonder. What if she never met Greg? What if she never went away?”
Amethyst sighes sadly.
“I… Do wonder too.” Pearl comments “There are some days, when I walk out of my room, and still wait to hear her laugh or see her smile.”
“Humans are right, y’know? Time does fly when you’re having fun.”
“Yes.”
“I already miss our fun times, P. They seem so short as of now.”
“Indeed.”
More silence.
“Hey, P.”
“What?”
“If I don’t get to see ‘ya again, goodbye. I love you, pal.”
“I love you too, Amethyst. Goodbye.”
Feeling drained of all hope, they just got quiet. Resigned, they waited together for their end.