Steven Universe fic

part 16 Chapter Six: The Last Time

Steven happily made his way downstairs to share the wonderful news with the gems, he was so filled with joy he hugged each and every one of them with gusto.

"Steven, are you sure this is cause for celebration?" Pearl questioned, finding it odd for White to suddenly change direction.

"Well, yeah, kind of but as long as she isn't killing everyone I'm fine!" He replied, turning to his friends with his hand in the air in exclamation. "We're safe! All I gotta do is just talk to her about a better way to deal with gems fighting!"

His joy didn't seem to translate to the rest of his companions, even Amethyst and Spinel felt unease at the shift.
Garnet was silent, still contemplating which event the future held.
She too understood the oddity that left an eerie dissonance in the air, though even in some of the possibilities she saw White laying down her arms of her own volition.
It wasn't entirely out of the question.

"We can repair the galaxy warp and go talk to her, and we can work everything out!" Steven smiled at them, undeterred by their visible discomfort at the idea.

"Steven, I don't think the galaxy warp will be repaired in time." Amethyst mumbled, hoping that it might sway him to wait a little longer.
Sugilite had wrecked it almost entirely on their mission without him.

"Nonsense, Peridot still has tons of those little ball bots who can fix it easy!" He retorted, too excited to fix the issue once and for all.

"I mean..it can't hurt to go and make sure everything is okay," Spinel's voice softly spoke up, "and I want to make sure Pink Pearl is okay."

She hadn't seen the gem since they had first tried to stop the Diamonds, and in all that time so many things could have happened, deeply, she wanted to reconcile with the pearl, who had suffered just as much as she at White's hands.

"I could maybe-"

"No." Garnet's voice cut through her words, shocking Spinel, the pink gem stared at her, confused by her outright dismissal.

"Spinel can't go." She stated, crossing her arms as if the decision had been made already.
Guilt and shame panged the pink gem. Did they not want her there? Would she mess something up?
Was she simply going to be a hindrance?
She knew how her fear of White caused them to fail last time.
She would just ruin everything- but if she stayed, what if she did bad again?

"Garnet, I think it'll be fine, she could handle Blue." Steven tried to stand up for her, though his efforts didn't garner any gratification.

Sure, she stayed in the general vicinity of the diamond, but it wasn't as though she enjoyed any moment of it. She only spoke to her when Steven had made her.
And she enjoyed that even less.

"No..it's okay, you can go without me." She mumbled, dejected by the controversy of her existence there.
No.
She had to stay positive, it wasn't that they hated her, none of them hated her.
She was being silly, thinking they did. And stupid.

Stop that, she internally chided, stop thinking like that, you're not stupid it's fine.

Steven's hand on her shoulder pulled her from her thoughts and she turned to face his genuine and loving smile.

"It won't take long, promise. Connie's in town, you can spend the day with her." He suggested. Spinel glanced down at the floor. The thought seemed nice enough, though deep down she knew he was suggesting her as a stand in babysitter.
After all, he couldn't trust her to herself, what she done to prove that? Nothing.

"Yeah..that sounds nice." She finally answered, though the creak in her voice gave away her guilt at the thought.

"Yeah I can fix it." Peridot waved Steven dismissively as she rummaged through a box, pulling out three or four little robots and turning them on. "It'll take like an hour."

Steven nodded, turning to Connie and Spinel.

"So we will probably only be gone for a day, so just hang out with Connie, I'm sure she's got a lot of fun stuff planned for you two!" He grinned, hoping Spinel's demeanor would lighten. She only nodded slightly, her eyes still on the ground.
Connie's hand wrapped itself around hers and she swung it, hoping the gem would smile at least somewhat.

"Don't worry, it'll be no time before they get back, you don't have to worry!" She encouraged. Spinel finally pulled her eyes from the ground and provided a meager smile to give her friends some semblance of comfort at the thought.
She wanted to go. She wanted to be there for Steven, and some small part of her really wanted to see the look on White's face when he'd tell her off, and force her to apologize.
While at the same time, she didn't want to go, or see White Diamond ever again for that matter.
Some other small part of her was terrified of her brilliance, her ability to make her do anything she wanted. She could make her hurt him- kill him.

She knew that at least Steven was protected from that if she didn't go with them. Perhaps that is what Garnet meant by her not being able to go.
Still, it ached.