Steven Universe-RUBY X SAPPHIRE-AU

Chapter 6: An Intervention

(At Bloodstone Alley)

(Ruby's POV)

"Ruby!" All my sisters yelled horribly at once.

"Guys you don't understand I need to go back-"

"You're leaving us already? But you just got here!"

"Where'd you get this fancy suit, Prime Cuts? How'd you afford this?"

"Sapphire bought it for me and...I need to get back to her now-"

"Sapphire? As in Princess Sapphire of Sapphi...Saphio...anyway, did you miss us?" says Navy, sitting under the rest of my sisters in a sort of group photo position. Jeez, what happened to them? When did Leggy's hair look so tangled and rough? When did Navy's clothes get so tattered? Shoulder and Backhand look like they haven't slept since I left; their eyes are bloodshot and baggy. Army looks like something off a bombsite, and one of her eyes is bruised. Eyeball's gem has a scratch on it. What happened? How can they all have gotten so rough in just a few weeks?

"If you were with a princess, then you gotta be filthy rich!" says Doc, not looking me in the eye but announcing from her throne that looks like it was made from trash...what happened to her old throne, I swear it used to look so much more grand.

Then all the others parted as Eyeball came through and gave me a big hug.

Then I realise it isn't a hug-she's mugging me.

"What he hell are you doing?! This is my allowance for the week!"

"What's an allowance?" Navy asks, getting right in my face before checking my trouser pockets for any spare change.

"Stop it! Get off me!"

"But we're sisters. You wouldn't turn away from your own family, would you?"

I am backed into a corner. The Rubies gang up on me, sidling up to me, limping, swaggering like some group of gang members. All their eyes look sleepless and crazy, their hair is tangled and quickly turning into thick dread-locks and their clothes are practically falling off them. When did this happen?! We were never like this!

"C'mon Ruby"

"Just a few pennies"

"I'm so hungry!"

"Don't turn your back on us!"

"Let go of me! Stop it please! No more!"

They are all over me now. My suit is ruined, covered in dirt and they are scraping every spare coin in my pockets. Their faces are full of content as what money I had glistens in the darkness of the alley.

"What happened to you guys? You're acting like savages!"

"What are you talking about? We've always been like this. Don't you remember?"

Then it hit me.

They really haven't changed at all. They've always been like this. I used to be like this. The only reason I was so shocked because I finally saw them from an outsider's point of view. A privileged point of view. I played the classic target- a servant with decent wages wandering around by a tailor's shop. Now that I see it from a target's perspective, I suddenly feel incredibly guilty. I look up at my sisters from a pit of mud, pockets emptied as they cave over me, and I am scared. I am frightened of my sisters; my heart is pounding and I am petrified and I feel this great weight of the fact that this used to be more not so long ago. I was as savage as they still are.

"I have to go now." I say solemnly, standing up wearily and limping towards the alley opening, covered in filth. I know it won't be there, the chariot. But I keep getting this image in my head, this hopeful image that it will still be there with Sapphire waiting with open arms.

"Where do you think you're going?" Army asks harshly.

"You're not abandoning us again, are you Ruby?" Doc hasn't moved since I saw her. Through the pinning down, the mugging, through everything she had remained perfectly still. She still refuses to look at me, but instead just calls from her throne of garbage. This made me angry.

"Are you serious? Are you fucking kidding me?!"

They all pay attention now.

"I abandoned you? Ha! I think your trash crown's a little crooked, Doc. Cause did you forget? YOU ABANDONED ME!!!".

Now Doc looks at me. Head on. Her eyes are definitely worse. It's not like me seeing it from another perspective; she is clearly, physically and mentally damaged. Both hands are on her throne arms as she bends down low, squinting her eyes, inspecting me.

"Dunno what you're talking about. Grab her."

"No!" I scream as the hands grab me again. Hands of strangers. I tear away, leaving my jacket in the rubble of red and I leg it. I can hear my sisters chasing after me, I can see their jagged shadows from each street lamp getting closer and closer until I can feel Eyeball's breath on my neck.

I keep running, and I can sense that my sisters are beginning to tire. But so am I. I try to deceive them, using the oldest trick in the book- I take a sharp turn down an alleyway, but they follow persistently. I have to stop or I will collapse.

"Ruby, I don't get it. Don't you love us anymore?"

"Why are you leaving us again?"

"We finally got you back!"

"Shut up!" I bark. They all are taken aback. "I don't care, okay?! I was happy and you ruined it! I admit it, I fell in love with the princess! And for a second I think she loved me too! And you just ruined that for me! Why?! Face it, I'm done with you guys, it's not my fault you didn't take an opportunity for a better life when it was given to you! 

So don't bring me back down to hell, when I've worked so hard to reach heaven."

I run as hard as I can, pushing through my sisters and bolting towards the Palace. They call after me and I ignore them. They don't chase after me...good riddance; I don't want to be carrying seven broken hearts when I give my own to the love of my life.