The second they were away, Nora sighed. "You can talk to me, Connie."

Connie was trying not to blush at the fact she was rather gaily holding hands with a girl in public eye. Her eyes drifted to Nora's face for a moment, an almost identical look to Steven just far more feminine. The dips and curves of her face were different, softer even more so than his baby fat. She'd never realized how feminine Stevens lips were, Nora's were almost the same. "It's alright, Nora. I don't have anything to talk about."

They walked in silence for a moment, staring at each other before Nora spoke again more carefully. "You said you were scared. I..." She finally broke eye contact. "I don't want you to be scared."

"Do you need me not to be?" Connie started to tremble with the dam of emotion threatening to spill over. She could feel Nora pulling at my consciousness like thread, whether she was imagining it or not.

She looked at her and a warmth as tender as hot cocoa on a winter day filled Connie's body. Her eyes were pink diamonds now, boring into her with intention and dragging its fingers through her inner design. She wanted to cry out for a moment, enraged that they even had to be the way they are and that this calmness feels like mania instead. She wanted to find their parents and hit them.

And then, She felt almost nothing like she did moments before. She felt at peace, her mind was taking everything a moment at a time instead of the next 8 years. They ended up getting pasta and ice cream, and during that her powers started to work words out of her.

"I'm overwhelmed by how much my parents put me through. A few months ago, and I'll never forget this, my mom had me doing CRAM school and violin practice. I'd have a 15 minute break every hour and during that I'd play violin. Don't even get me started on the nights my mom is even away and barely pays any attention to me unless it's to yell while my dad stands there and quietly tells my mom to calm down."

Nora smiled kindly. "That sounds like two helicopter parents with good intentions."

"They are. I'm also really scared about... you. I've heard about alters merging into each other..." She trailed off, suddenly feeling guilty. Part of her was worried Steven could phase into someone else instead of vice versa, and that part of her was afraid she'd start recognizing the results less and less. Could Steven be knocked down from Host to alter and if he could... could he disappear like alters sometimes do? Something told her she shouldn't really be talking about all that with an alter.

Nora turned away and leaned back. The salty air of the beach is a bit heavier today, signing for impending storm. Their hair was already a bit stiff, but the hot sand under their butts and legs urged them to stay for just a moment later. "Steven is the host. Worst case scenario, we fuse into him."

"That's the best case scenario," She corrected with a giggle but Nora's face went solemn.

"Maybe for you. I want to have a life. I have a life."

The way her entire soul sunk into her toes had her nauseous. She didn't think Nora of all of them would be the one with wanderlust. If anything, Connie would expect it to be Ruan.

The sound of the Gems and Greg arguing broke their talk in half. It's almost welcome, she wasn't sure if she was ready to go down the rabbit hole about that right now.

"I guess that's us."

Nora looked at me with wide eyes in what must be slow motion for her. Her face goes pale and she winces. "Ow."

Connie internally sighed at how she apparently had to deal with this topic right now because she was never allowed to even have a single break.

She hoisted their body up and dragged Nora off the beach and up into the greenhouse. Nora hyperventilating and terrified, but she seemed stuck between a glitch as if her body was completely made of light. "Nora, what's the matter?!"

Six voices spill out for half a second, it chilled her to the bone. "I– Something's happening to me!"

"Nora, you're just switching!" Connie tried to encourage lightly. Her brain was giving her horrible images of their gem finally cracking all the way through. "It's okay, take deep breaths!" She tried to take a deep breath with her.

Instead Nora screamed like she was being burned alive. Connie was sure it would have had everyone sprinting if she hadn't bubbled herself, and her unintentionally. The sound of her scream felt like it was the very last second of her life. The terrified shriek of an alter that wanted to stay would never leave Connie.

"Let me stay!"

"Nora, you can't stay yet, we don't know how!" She grabbed her face and forced her to look her in the eye.

Worst mistake of worst entire life.

She trapped, trapped in a metaemotional sense. She instantly realized she was having another panic attack. She'd had plenty before but this one is strong enough to feel like it was tearing her apart from the inside out. Her knees buckled and she held a hand over my chest. She felt blank on the outside but horrified comprehension on the inside. The fear burned, it felt like acid. She didn't want to leave, but she didn't know where she leaving to. She was confused and exhausted.

She was living that moment with Nora, as Nora.

Someone was talking to her.

Someone was touching her.

Someone was carrying her.

When she woke up, she was unsurprised to see The Protector sitting at the head of the couch. Light was still streaming through the glass dome, so she knew it was still day and they were still in the greenhouse. She wanted to ask him how long it had been and if the gems and Greg were still arguing. There was no way they didn't hear a little commotion. Unfortunately he's on his way out presence wise.

She watched tiredly, still partially paralyzed as who she genuinely hoped was the last altar appeared.

And kept appearing.

And then did it some more.

The shimmers of pink and outline were there, but his stone in general seemed to be skipping over a crucial part of the process and then restarting. It was stuck for almost 2 minutes, most of that she spent having another mini panic attack. Steven's body was made of flesh right? It would force him back tangibly if it couldn't... She forced herself to move and place a single finger on the stone. It stopped, and her wrist was grabbed so tightly she could feel that even a single square inch more of surface pressure would shatter it.

"Connie." She raised her eyes to meet his, nearly three extra feet above her.

"He-llo, Connie! It's a pleasure to see you, it really is!" He sounded far too chipper given the circumstances and his grip was not loosening, or friendly. She'd seen this Steven. She personally met him before any of this even happened.

"You're hurting me," She croaked first. She had no idea how she was going to explain the bruise if nobody could heal it.

His smile never faltered. "I know. You touched my gem. Shouldn't you have all people know the honor of touching a Diamond is saved for a very select few?" He spat sarcastically.

"Diamond." That's what she decided on calling him.

He released her hand finally and she took a moment to study the bruise on it already beginning to appear. "Are you not afraid of me?"

"You've done nothing to frighten me. Only mildly irritate me," She boredly stated, shoving a finger into the hanging open in shock mouth of his. He was so surprised that he didn't bite it off, which is good because she healed herself with the bit of spit she managed to get. "So what's your deal?"

He blinked a few times, his fists clenched. "What do you mean what's my deal?! I'm a Diamond. I'm dangerous. There's only one option."

She surveyed his posture, the deep pink glow, and despite him seeming to be unsure and discombobulated, the regal presence about him. Which, as usual, never means anything good. "Diamond."

"Pink Diamond," He corrected immediately.

She growled at him. "Over my cold, dead body am I calling you Pink Diamond."

He grabbed my chin and forced me to look into his eyes, the cold eyes of a murderer that Jasper must have seen before she was shattered. "That can be arranged."

And the accompanying flicker of brown.

She laughed at him. She didn't know if it was resentment that this alien man was suffering and she couldn't fix it, if she hated the cold hard Diamond threatening to kill her without an ounce of humor, or if she was crazy, but she laughed harder than she ever had before. So hard she was pretty sure he heard the beginning of a psychotic break.

Connie caught her breath at a scary pace. "You wouldn't dare hurt a hair on my head. You're vicious and unstable, but you won't be to me. You remember me, and I know you know I saw you. I did my homework when it came to intimidation, did you do yours?"

Diamonds brows furrowed and his lips parted to answer her, but nothing came for over a minute. He just stared at her in bewilderment. She assumed he must have been feeling dangerous, like he should be mean because the Diamonds were mean to him. He felt nasty inside, but he couldn't even emote that past his genuine nature. His cruelty was flimsy, and her resolve crushed it because she was right.

She checked her phone and saw her parents were acting as if she'd been chopped into pieces and delivered at their doorstep. The time told her she'd been gone three hours or so. It was still light out.

Diamond snatches the phone out of her hand, read it and flashed the scariest smile she'd ever seen. "Do they need to be taken care of? I can just call them and tell them you're in my court."

Yes, please. "No, thank you." She needed to get him out of here. He was clearly on edge. Just now she was starting to see the hint of humor but it certainly was not friendly. He was testing her mental limits, how fast and far she could adapt to his mania. "Let's go."

"Steven? Connie? Think you could–," Greg came rushing up the stairs and saw us both. "Oh boy. H-hold on."

She heard him run down the steps and back into the temple. There was faint muttering and then a single tense one.

She sensed his tension before he tapped her, but she still yelped at the force. His hand covered her mouth firmly as he held her against him. He was shaking harder than she'd ever seen him, and she wrapped her arms around his stomach as high as she could reach. "I can't let them see me like this."

A light struggle of her head takes his hand away from her mouth. "Who?"

"Them." His heart rate was going 600 miles an hour. "I can't let them see me like this."

The Diamonds? The Gems? Who knew? But she did know that the Gems set him off the last time, and he was practically vibrating with completely still, combustible power. One half skilled hit and he might just explode.

"Why?"

"They'll shatter me next." Right. So this one was stuck in after he killed Jasper. She wondered if it would even make a difference that Jasper was fine now and thought of him as a Diamond, a King, a god.

"Go to the warp, wait for me."

When Diamond and Connie reached Greg as they tip toed, Diamond kept going as Greg took a split second to see her out of the corner of his eye while the Gems whispered among themselves.

She nodded at him and offered a half smile. He gave her a full one, and The Mister Universe gives her a nod of respect and trust. They were on completely different aspects of this fight now, him a parent with little to no degree of success doing it and herself, a child, and one of two safe people for the adults in my life to dump on, leaving once again to find peace somewhere that wasn't home.