Azurite sighed as he gazed through the front windows the Guardians ship as it was slowly approaching Beach City. Nebula and Rocket offered to take him, Garnet, Jasper, Shi'ra, Peridot and Amethyst back to Little Homeworld, and they accepted their offer. The Avengers were planning to keep the world from falling apart even more, and they were going to do their part by keeping everything in Homeworld from falling apart and more importantly all of them were wondering how they were going to tell them that Thanos destroyed the stones, which pretty much destroyed their only change of bringing everyone back.

When the ship was finally landed in front of Little Homeworld, everyone could see a group consisting of Centi, Biggs Jasper, Orange Spodumene, Bixbite, Zebra Jasper, Cherry Quartz, Little Larimar, and some other Peridot that was unknown for some of them, but Peridot, Garnet and Amethyst knew who she was slowly approaching their ship. The hatch slowly lowered itself down and Azurite, Shi'ra, Garnet, Jasper, Peridot and Amethyst stepped out of the ship, with Nebula and Rocket walking behind them.

"Guys!" Centi's voice called over to them, coming over to them, "You're back!"

"We've been with the Avengers for over three weeks now, we felt like it's time to come back here." Garnet answered.

They all nodded their heads in understanding, before noticing that Jasper and Peridot came back with them. Lapis Lazuli didn't came back with them, but they knew they didn't had to ask them about what happened with her. Answer was pretty obvious to them. The group that had just arrived in Little Homeworld split up into small groups with the gems from Little Homeworld to have a talk with them, but all six of them knew that it just to prepare themselves to tell them the terrible news they brought with them.

Centi went to talk with Azurite, Shi'ra and Jasper, and the first thing she did was giving Jasper a quick hug, "It's good to see you again."

"I'm glad to see you too, Centi." Jasper said with a nod her head, offering her a small smile. Nebula and Rocket were staying in the background, not saying anything.

"I thought you were gone. Days were passing and you, Peridot and Lapis weren't coming back." Centi stated. "But I'm glad I was wrong."

''Shi'ra' ship was destroyed, and the Guardians' ship was in a bad shape. We were lucky that Danvers found us." Jasper explained, as Centi titled her head to the right, having no idea who was the person Jasper mentioned, but before she could ask her about it, Shi'ra spoke up.

"Centi, how are you doing with what happened recently?" The Kratai asked the former corrupted gem.

Centi looked down, "I'm trying to deal with that happened. This is what they would want me to do."

Shi'ra nodded her head in understanding, before asking her another question, "What about Terra. How is she doing?"

"She doesn't talk with anyone, stays in her room for most of the time. I tried to talk with her countless times but she tells me that she wants to be alone." Centi answered, letting her down. Terra was the only she had left from her crew and she wanted to talk with her, help her. It would be good for both of them.

Shi'ra put her hand on Centi's shoulder, comfortingly,"Give her time, she'll come out eventually, and when she'll do, she is going to need her captain."

"I know." Centi said, giving her a quick nod of her head in response, "I'm just worried about her."

"Oh, it's you..." Peridot spoke up, as she went over to the other Peridot, "Squaridot."

"Peridot." Squaridot, offering her fellow Peridot a quick nod of her head. She wasn't a fan of the nickname Steven gave her, but everyone just started using it, so she went along with it.

"I thought you were with Hessonite, Pyrope and Demantoid.'' Peridot asked her, rubbing the back of her head, trying to figure out what to say with her.

"Hessonite is gone. You may know what happened with her." Squaridot answered, as Peridot let out an 'Oh' in reponse, "I was staying with her because I was loyal to her, but with her now gone, there wasn't anything keeping me there."

"You decided to come here?" Peridot wanted to know.

"Yes. I heard one gem from the colony that I lived on was coming to stay here after what happened three weeks, then I thought to myself thaat I may give staying here a chance." Squaridot explained.

"Well, Steven..." Peridot stopped herself for a second at the mention of Steven. She let out a short sigh as she continued, "...He said that everyone is welcomed to stay here."

"Thank you. I appreciate it." Squaridot said with a grateful nod of her head, "And if I don't like living here I can always leave and find some other place, right?"

"Of course." Peridot assured her.

"Shi'ra, Azurite!" Garnet's voice suddenly called over as the said gem and Kratai turned to the fusion and Amethyst, "We should head out to tell Blue Diamond now."

Azurite and Shi'ra just gave her a quick nod in response, bracing themselves for whichever way she is going to take it. When they came over to Garnet and Amethyst they heard Little Larimar ask them, "What do you have to tell Blue Diamond?"

"Peridot, Jasper, Rocket and Nebula are going to tell you all you need to know. All we can say to you is that we tracked Thanos down." Amethyst answered,

Azurite, Shi'ra, Garnet and Amethyst all turned away from the group of gems, and began making their way to the warp that was in the center of Little Homeworld which was going to take them to Homeworld.

As they were walking back, they could hear Zebra Jasper telling Peridot, Jasper, Rocket and Nebula, "You found him? That's great! We can now..." There was a small pause in what she was saying, probably when she noticed their grim expressions, "Guys?..."

"Did something happened?" Bixbite added.

Azurite, Shi'ra, Garnet and Amethyst all internally cringed at their question, knowing that they were going to receive another terrible news, as they made their way over to the warp pad and use it to warp themselves to Homeworld, right ot the throne room of the Diamonds. The first thing they saw there was Blue Diamond, sitting on her throne. Yellow Pearl and Blue Pearl were standing by her side.

"Garnet, Amethyst, Azurite and Shi'ra, right?" She spoke up to them, a little uncertain about Shi'ra's name but the Kratai didn't said anything, so Blue Diamond assumed she got her name right, "If you're here, then I assume you came back to Little Homeworld."

"We've been with them for over three weeks, we thought that we should finally come back to our home. Rocket and Nebula gave us a lift." Amethyst told her.

"And we came here to inform you about something." Garnet added.

Blue Diamond titled her head to the right, "What is it?"

"We found Thanos and the stones..." Garnet began but Blue Diamond quickly cut her off, clearly rejoiced by the news.

"Your found Thanos and the stones? That's a great news! We should..." It seemed like it was first good news she has gotten in a few weeks, but she didn't knew the truth, yet. They had to tell her that the stones were destroyed.

"We already went to him." Azurite interrupted her.

"And killed him. One of the Avengers, Thor cut his head off." Shi'ra added. Both of them wanting to get over this as soon as possible.

"So it means you have the stones, right?" Blue Diamond wanted to know, now sounding a little uncertain when she noticed their expressions.

"No... He destroyed them, two days before we found him." Garnet answered.

Garnet didn't had to say more to Blue Diamond. This was enough for her. A spark of hope that she will see her fellow Diamonds, Steven and Spinel again was destroyed. She knew that she promised not to make anyone cry, but it was too much to take. Thanos, the man responsible for her fellow Diamonds, Steven and Spinel all dissolving into ash was gone, but they were gone too. Blue aura surrounded the room as Blue Diamond bursted into tears which was followed by Garnet, Amethyst, Yellow Pearl, Blue Pearl and Shi'ra doing the same.

"Guys?" Azurite who surprisingly didn't broke into tears spoke up, looking around the throne room in confusion, "...Are you okay?''

"I'm fine, brother... but I have no idea why I started crying..." Shi'ra said, looking as much confused as Azurite.

The others in were confused as well, but their confusion was not direction to the fact that they started crying out of sudden, it was towards Azurite.

"Azurite." Blue Pearl's quiet voice called over to him.

"Why aren't you crying?" Yellow Pearl added.

"What?" Azurite titled his head in the direction of two pearls, "What do you mean?"

"Azurite..." Blue Diamond said, putting her hand on her mouth in shock, "You poor thing..."

"Can you stop? The crying thing." Amethyst asked Blue Diamond.

"Oh...Sorry about that.'' Blue Diamond said, wiping her tears as everything in the room went back to normal, "It was just too much to take. When you said that you found, a spark of hope that we may bring them back grew in me.'' As the others remained silent, she added, "Now, can I talk with Azurite in private for a second?"

"What, why?" Azurite looked up at her.

Amethyst sighed, "We should go back to Little Homeworld, anyway."

"I'll join you as fast as I can." Azurite told her, Garnet and Shi'ra just a moment before they warped themselves back to Little Homeworld, and Yellow Pearl and Blue Pearl left the throne room, leaving him alone with Blue Diamond, "What is it that you want from me?"

"Can you sit down on the stairs?" Blue Diamond asked him, in a more of a pleading tone.

Azurite raised his brow, but eventually sat down on a set of chairs that were leading to her throne. Blue Diamond stood up from her throne and sat next to him, before asking him, "May I ask you about Spinel's last moments?"

"...What?" Azurite asked, wanting to be sure if he didn't misheard it.

"I already asked Garnet and Amethyst about Steven's last moment when they were informing me about what happened three weeks ago, and I'd like to know how Spinel's last moments looked like. Of course if you'll able to tell me." Blue Diamond told him.

Azurite sighed. He despised all of the Diamonds, and that included her too, but Spinel cared about them, and she'd want him to tell her. If he doesn't want to do it for Blue Diamond, he could at least do it for Spinel. He bits his lips as he started to tell her what happened, "It all started when we rised from the ground after failing to stop Thanos, and saw how a Ruby guard faded away, which was qickly followed us witnessing that happen to Orange Pearl and Groot of the Guardians of the Galaxy..." A small pause, "...and after seeing Steven share the same fate, I turned to Spinel, and saw her hand dissolving, fading away alongside the air. I grabbed her and set her down on the ground, knowing that I was powerless to stop it. She faded away in my arms, and you know what she was doing? She wasn't telling me that she doesn't want to go or to stop it from happening to her, she was telling me not to worry about her and was trying to cheer me up, to make me smile one last time..."

"It sounds exactly like something she'd do." For the first time since Thanos' snap, Blue Diamond brought herself to smile, but it was a very small one, almost unnoticeable, "Azurite, I know that you despise me, and that you despised White Diamond and Yellow Diamond and that my words will probably mean nothing to you, but we all noticed one thing about Spinel when we came to Earth to visit her and Steven. She was happy with you and she cared about you.''

Azurite gave her a quick nod in response as he looked up at her, "I should go now.'

Blue Diamond gave quick nod of her head, "Thank you for telling me this Azurite. I know it wasn't easy for you to tell me about this terrible memory."

Azurite sighed as he stood up from the stairs and began to move to the warp pad, "It doesn't change anything between us. I just did what Spinel would want me to do."

Blue Diamond let out a sigh as well as she rised up from the stairs as well, as Yellow Pearl and Blue Pearl walked back into the throne room, "Pearls, If the stones are gone, I think we should start preparations."

"Preparations? For what?" Azurite raised his brow, as Blue Pearl and Yellow Pearl nodded their heads at what the last of the Diamonds just said.

"For Era 4." was Blue Diamonds reply.

-------

2 days later

Everyone were slowly arriving on the beach in Beach City.

Azurite and Shi'ra were among of the groups of the gems that were leaving Little Homeworld. A lanterns were in their hands, Azurite holding a lantern with Spinel's name and Shi'ra holding a lantern with Orange Pearl's name. Jasper was walking with them, not holding any lantern, but was coming with them to her respect for everyone that lost their life in Thanos' snap.

They were quickly joined by Centi. The green gem offered them a quick nod of her as she was holding a lantern with the names of most of her crew written on it. Terra stood by her side, Centi finally conviced her to leave her room, a lantern with Cotta's name was in her hands. The group of five just walked by each other side, not saying anything to each other.

Garnet, Amethyst and Peridot were leading the group from Little Homeworld, as the place where they were planning to meet with everyone appeared in everyone's view. The fusion, purple gem, and green gem meeting Greg in a short hug. Connie's parent were standing next to him, both of them offering the gems silent nods of their heads.

Blue Diamond was the last one to arrive, her hand just like most of the humans and gems here was holdng a lantern, with the names of White Diamond and Yellow Diamond inscripted on it. Azurite could also see Yellow Pearl and Blue Pearl by her side, the latter one holding a lantern with Pink Pearl's name written on it.

They stood among the dozens, families and group of friends split in half and missing key members as the first lanterns were ignited and let into the sky. Greg stared tearfully to the name of his son, Steven written on the lantern he wielded, then he released it into the sky, which was followed by Connie's parents doing the same with the lantern with their daughters name. Azurite his lantern a quick kiss before igniting it as well and realising it into the sky. Shi'ra and Jasper lowered their heads, paying their respects for Orange Pearl as the Kratai's lantern joined many others in the sky, which was quickly followed by Centi and Terra doing the same with theirs. The two nephrites wrapping their arms around each other, mourning everyone they lost. Garnet was glancing down at the lantern with Pearl's name, Amethyst's at the one with Bismuth's name and Peridot at the one with Lapis' name before they also released them into the sky.

Everyone were gazing at the dozens of lanterns litting up the darkened sky of the night. Some of their eyes were brimmed with tears.

Era 4, the Mad Titan's era has officialy begun.

-------

1 week later

Quick breaths were leaving Azurite's mouth as he was swinging his fists around at the invisible target. He was currently having a training session where he used to train with Orange Pearl before Thanos' snap. He didn't knew for how long his todays training session lasted, but he honestly didn't care.

He had to stop when his device on his hands uddenly opened and a familiar person appeared on the screen, then a voice spoke up, "Az, are you there buddy?"

"Jon?" Azurite asked, wanting to be sure if this was who he thought it was as the person nodded his head, confirming that he was indeed Jon Whitebound, "What do you want for me? I thought I told that I quit this job."

"I'm not here to offer you a job, I'm just checking if my friend is alright." Jon simply replied, Azurite failing notice the depression in his tone.

"We're not friends, Jon." Azurite said with a quick shook of his head.

"We're not friends. You always thought like that about me and my brother, but we always liked you. You were always getting your job done and you were always making..." Jon began.

Azurite just decided to sit through this in silence, as Jon continued to say something to him. It was until he noticed something off about this talk between him and one of the people who used to give him contracts back when he was working as a mercenary. In all of the talks he had with them through his device was with three of the brothers, but now there was just one. It was when he noticed another thing about Jon. Everytime when he talked with him, Job always had that cocky smile on his face, but now he looked more depressed, like a complete opposite of his former self.

"Wait a second Jon... What happened with your brothers? Where's Robb and Rickon?" He asked him, interrupting him in whatever he was saying.

Jon let out a sigh, before replying, "They're gone. They fell apart into ash right in front me. They and half of our tribe did."

"Oh..." Azurite said, dropping his head down. If there was no thing that he liked about these bandit brothers was the brotherly love they had for each other. He wasn't a fan of Jon Whitebound, but now he was just another victim of Thanos' snap and he felt like he needed to be nice to him, despise not being a huge fan of him, "I'm sorry to hear that... I know how much you cared for each other."

Jon chuckled, before stating, "Your attitude has suddenly changed."

"Because at first, I thought..." Azurite tried to say, but was interrupted.

"It's alright. I understand, you thought I was trying to offer you a job." Jon told him, crossing his arms, "I just wanted to know how many people I considered a friend dissolved away."

"As you can see I survived." Azurite said, dropping his head down.

"I can see that you lost someone too, when you informed me, Robb and Rickon that you're quiting your job as a mercenary because you found yourself a place to live you actually looked happy, but now, you look far from it..." Jon said, before a realization appeared in his mind, "Did that friend of yours Shi'ra..."

"No, she made it out alive..." Azurite told him, with a shook of his head, "It's just I lost many people I considered a friend... I don't want to talk about it."

Jon nodded his head in understanding, "I understand, there are a few people in my tribe that lost someone they cared about and don't want to talk about it."

"What are you doing to do now, Jon?" Azurite asked him.

"I'm going to lead my bandit tribe. We have some tough days ahead of us but I will make sure that we'll get through this. It will be something Robb and Rickon would want me to do." Jon explained, to which Azurite just nodded his head in understanding, "What about you?"

"I'll stay where am I now." Azurite answered.

Jon nodded his head to that, "And try to move on?"

"You can say that." Azurite replied.

"This is something I'll try to do too, but I don't think I'm going to be able to move on." Jon stated. For as long as he could remember, he, Robb and Rickon were always together, now their bandit tribe was all he had left, "Azurite, I know that you think of me as a cocky bandit, and I can't really blame you for thinking about me like that, because it's not that far from truth, but if you ever need someone to talk to, or if you will ever need my help in something, just call me."

Azurite nodded his head, "I'll keep that in mind.''

"After all there were many situations where you helped us." Jon stated.

"Well, because you were paying me to do this. This is what happens when you are in a need of units." Azurite pointed out.

"If you say so." Jon chuckled, "This may be one of the most friendliest talk we had with each other."

Azurite gave a small smile in return, finding this statement to be true, "Yeah, I guess so."

"Well, I gotta go. We'll talk later." Jon said, giving him a little wave, before Azurite's device closed down, telling him that the talk between them was over.

The male stretched his arms and was about to return his training when he heard someone say, "Well, he stopped talking with him."

"I guess we should talk with him now." The other voice added.

Azurite turned to the source of the voice and saw two gems heading his gem. A jasper and an agate. It didn't took him long to recognize these two. Their names were Yellow Jasper and Purple Agate, they were one of the gems that he came across back a few thousand years ago back when he was living on Homeworld. They were one of the gems which made him avoid the gems as best as he could after coming out of his ship.

"Hey, Azurite." Purple Agate greeted him, awkwardly.

"You probably don't remember us." Yellow Jasper added.

"I do. You're Yellow Jasper." Azurite quickly responded before turning his attention to the other gem, "And you're Purple Agate, it's been quite a while you two." He told them before turning away from them, "And now if you excuse, I'd like to go back..."

"Wait!" Purple Agate said, putting her hand on his shoulder, "We just want to talk with you."

"Fine." Azurite sighed as he turned back to them, "Who told you that I'm here?"

"Your Kratai friend." Purple Agate answered.

"She's not my friend, she is my sister." Azurite corrected them, crossing his arms, "Another question. How did you knew that I was living in Little Homeworld."

"We saw you on the broadcast, when you and Steven informed us about Thanos. We event went to help you fight his forces in..." Yellow Jasper stopped herself in the middle of the sentence, not remembering the name of the place where they thought fought off Thanos.

"Wakanda." Azurite told her, suprised that these two were there. He didn't saw them anywhere on that day. It was maybe because he was too busy fighting off hordes of Outriders.

"Right, Wakanda, and after that happened, you mean what I mean by that, we went back to our colony..." Yellow Jasper was cut off by Azurite.

"Colony? Weren't you living on Homeworld?" Azurite raised his brow.

"We moved to one colony, about 100 years ago." Yellow Jasper answered.

"Oh." Azurite said in response to it, as he asked another question, "Why are you here?"

"One of the reasons why we came here is because we want to apologize to you." Yellow Jasper informed him as Azurite titled his head to the left.

"Just as she said. The way we treated you on Homeworld all those years ago was wrong. We're not excepting you to forgive us, but we just want you know that we're sorry." Purple Agate.

"...Okay." Azurite simply said.

"Okay? That's all you have to say to us?" Yellow Jasper raised her brow.

"Yes." Azurite confirmed with a nod of his head.

Purple Agate sighed, "Listen, Azurite. We don't except you to forgive us, but we just wanted to tell you this."

They received another nod from Azurite, this time he didn't said anything, as Yellow Jasper added, "I think we should go now, but there's someone we want you to meet."

"Meet? Who?" Azurite asked, as Yellow Jasper and Purple Agate made a space between them and two other gems came into his view. Both of them were dark blue and looked very similiar to each other. The only thing that actually distinguished them was their hair colour, as the one on the left had shorter one than the one on the right. The other thing he noticed about themis that they were azurites, just like him. It was the first time in his life when he met gems who are the same gem type as he.

"We leave you alone, now." Purple Agate said, before heading off with Yellow Jasper, leaving Azurite alone with these two other azurites.

As Purple Agate and Yellow Jasper left them, a very awkward silence filled the place, neither Azurite, and other two azurites knew what to say to each other, before he spoke up to them, "You're both Azurites, like me."

This made the situation even more awkward, and caused another silence between them before thw azurite with shorter hair said, "This is so awkward."

"Yeah.'' Her friend agreed with her.

"So, do you have nicknames, or what? Because if all of our three are azurites, then we should, you know." Azurite asked them.

"Well, we actually haves ones already." Azurite with shorter hair told him.

"How should I call you then?" Azurite wanted to know.

"You may call me Rose." The one with longer hair answered.

"And I'm shorty." The one with shorter hair added.

"Shorty?" Azurite asked Shorty, wondering why it was her nickname.

Shorty pointed at her short hair in response, "That's why."

"Oh." Azurite said in response, it had enough sense, as he turned his attention to Rose, "And you. Why Rose?"

"When a friend of ours came back to our colony after paying a small visit to Earth, she brought a flower with herself. It was Red Rose, and I just liked it and when we were picking nicknames for each other I choose Rose." Rose explained with a shrug of her shoulders.

"What about you?" Short asked Azurite.

"Well, for most of my life, I was the only azurite around, so I never really needed a nickname, but there were some people that called me Az. I guess you can call me like that." Azurite said, earning nods from both of them, "So, may I ask why have you come here?"

Rose sighed sadly, lowering her head, "Back on our colony, there was a group of us, but we're the only ones left now. We saw you on the brodcast on which you and Steven told us about this Thanos. After Era 4 begun, Yellow Jasper and Purple Agate offered to take us to you."

"I'm sorry to hear what happened to your group." Azurite told them, offering them a small bow of his head.

"We're sorry for you loss too." Shorty said to him.

"What?" Azurite asked her, confused. How did she know, "How do you..."

"Your bracelet." Shorty said, gesturing towards Spinel's necklace which Azurite turned into a bracelet, "I may be wrong, but you didn't have it on your arm on the broadcast."

Azurite glanced down at his bracelet, "You are perceptive, Shorty."

"I get that a lot." Shorty stated with a nod of her head.

"...Az, do you want to do something?' Rose asked him,

"What?" Azurite raised his brow as the sudden question.

"Well, I think we all should get to know each other.'' Rose replied, glancing down at the ground.

Azurite rubbed the back of his head, "Well, if you want to, but what should we do?"

"Well..." Shorty joined in this conversation about what they should do now, "We saw you train, before this guy called you. It looked like you know something about fighting."

"You were watching me for longer than just my talk with Whitebound?" Azurite asked, crossing his arms.

"Just for a second!" Shorty defended herself and Rose.

"It looked like you know something about fighting. If you only saw how I easily got myself beaten by Proxima Midnight." Azurite thought to himself, still cursing himself for letting his desire for revenge and his hatred towards this woman take the full control o fhis body which almost got him and his friends killed, "I can show you some basics if you want to."

Rose gave him a small smile, "Thanks, Az."

"When do we begin?" Shorty wanted to know.

"We can start now." Azurite responded.

Rose and Shorty nodded their heads to this, as the latter one said, "What should we do now?"

Azurite pointed at Rose, "Rose, c'mere." Rose nodded her head as she walked closer to him, "Attack me."

"What?" Rose asked, suprised by the sudden request.

"You want me to show you some basics, c'mon, punch me." Azurite repeated his request.

Although at first hesitant, Rose swung her fist at him, which Azurite easily ducked and answered to it with his own punch, that knocked her on the ground, earning a gasp from Shorty.

"Lesson number one. Get used to the pain because he will accompany you throughout most of our lessons." Azurite told them.

Rose nodded her head in understanding as she stood up from the ground. He gestured to Shorty to join her, who did as she told to and joined her fellow azurite by her side.

It was when a certain feeling filled his body. A feeling that he had done this before.

A second later a realization hit him. Everything he was saying to Rose and Shorty, those were the same words he said to Orange Pearl when he started training her on the day when Spinel finally made him come out Little Homeworld.

He felt like he was going to have these kinds of feelings for the next few weeks, or even months.

He will have to get used to them...

-----

Have you seen the trailer for the finale of SU Future? Things just went from bad to worse with Steven and this is a gentle way to put it. I can't wait to see what the finale is going to show us.