Steven didn't think he'd ever seen Pearl, Amethyst and Garnet pacing at the same time. Amethyst and Pearl would cross one side, while Garnet reached the other and so forth. It was a monotonous march he could almost recognize from war. It almost could've been soothing if they weren't screaming at the top of their lungs and panicking.

"𝐓𝐡𝐞𝐲 𝐚𝐫𝐞𝐧'𝐭 𝐬𝐚𝐟𝐞 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐮𝐬, 𝐒𝐭𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐧."

Their voices rang clear but it was surreal, like he'd been sucked into a show. He almost couldn't even understand them actually. Leaning forward he tried to focus on which voices were coming from which mouths.

Amethyst sighed. "So there's multiple Stevens with different names? That doesn't make any sense!"

"He's just an unstable fusion," Garnet murmured. "We should go to Roses Fountain."

"It's a mental health thing, you guys, not a gem thing," Greg tried. "Roses Fountain can't fix trauma."

"Could we like, rejuvenate his gem?" Everyone stared at Amethyst. "Not by taking it out, Jesus!"

'I wouldn't put it past Pearl.' As unfair as it was, it was true. He was being unfair, but hadn't life been unfair back? He didn't know anymore. He could barely think straight with their bitching.

"Shattered! We shattered her again!" Pearl was tugging at her hair and sobbing so hard she could barely stay standing.

"Steven is not Rose, Pearl! You have to stop doing this!" Greg demanded with a boom. "Stop saying that!"

Amethyst and Garnet stopped pacing and the unfortunate Visor of Uh Oh reflected Pearls face back at herself. "Speak for yourself, Pearl. Amethyst and I didn't have anything to do with that."

"Hey! Th-that's not fair! We all had a part in this!" But Amethysts voice was drowned out by Garnet and Pearl screaming at each other.

His dad tried to break up the fight but only ended up getting pulled into it. "He's my son! This is a human thing that just so happens to be using his gem to show it!"

"But his gem is cracked at the bottom! We can't even see it! How is he even alive?"

"Priyanka said it could just be an illusion, a psychosomatic expression of how you guys and not me did this to him!"

He hadn't ever seen his dad this furious, it scared him. Was he really this massive of an issue that everyone he loved was arguing about him?

His hand was being squeezed so hard it was getting difficult not to sense an impending explosion from his girlfriend. "Should we just run away?"

She laughed tensely. "Sometimes, I wonder."

He looked looked her over for a moment. Just a year ago, they'd been happy-go-lucky teenagers ready to get to the future as fast as possible. They'd still had issues, but it wasn't anything like these days. He was shattered, barely a shell and yet apparently six different versions of himself too. As far as they knew anyways. He was so tired, and so fed up. Meanwhile, his bright girlfriend had turned bitter with stress.

Connie's previous ambition had tampered out. Her parents had burned her out for nearly 12 years and finally it had taken its toll. She was still recklessly brave, but now more cynical and pessimistic. And they had changed together from the point everything started to go to shit. He wondered why the best love stories don't end with both main characters ending up like this. Was he cynical now? Sour Cream and the Cool Kids always seemed so uninterested in everything and focused in on themselves when they were the age he was now. Was this it?

"Enough!" Connie's voice cut through his thoughts and he turned to her in surprise. "I am so tired of telling you people the same things over and over again! Can you please just... stop screaming at each other for five seconds?" She slowed to a stop and hugged her arms around herself. "I've given you guys this same speech before. It doesn't matter, does it? It doesn't matter to you if Steven is literally split because you'd rather prove yourself right first so no one blames you. Well, I've heard both stories. I'm on Steven and Greg's side."

"Your judgment is biased. You're not a gem! You don't understand this!"

Connie gritted her teeth and turned to Garnet. "Is that a Sapphire I hear? Able to see the future and still can't stop spewing unsolicited advice or worse, advice thats so problematic you convinced a teenager to propose? Or Ruby, who makes big problems out of thin air and can't let shit go if it would save her gem?"

Garnet crossed her arms and stood rigid. "Rude."

Pearl scoffed after a moment. "She's right. You're not a gem. And regardless, you're always on Steven's side."

"𝚆𝚑𝚢 𝚌𝚊𝚗'𝚝 𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚢 𝚎𝚟𝚎𝚛 𝚋𝚎 𝚘𝚗 𝚘𝚞𝚛 𝚜𝚒𝚍𝚎?"

"And when have I been wrong?" Steven could barely feel the anger, the rage, but he knew it was there so he held onto it as much as possible. "When have I ever screwed up so badly that it didn't end up even better than it was supposed to?"

It was quiet for so long that Steven almost thought he went deaf. The search for genuine validation was probably fruitless, so he let himself fall back into nothingness, and then the couch.

Greg took a deep breath and backed away from the gems to stand by his side. "Never." Connie agreed and joined in protecting him.

"Yᴏᴜ ᴋɴᴏᴡ ᴡʜʏ. Tʜᴇʏ'ʀᴇ sᴇʟꜰɪsʜ. Wᴇ sʜᴏᴜʟᴅ ʜᴀᴠᴇ ɢᴏɴᴇ ᴀꜰᴛᴇʀ ᴛʜᴇᴍ ʙᴇꜰᴏʀᴇ ᴡᴇ ᴡᴇɴᴛ ꜰᴏʀ ᴊᴀsᴘᴇʀ."

His head twitched as if it wanted to nod but then he grew nauseous. That wasn't his thought, it couldn't have been. According to Doctor Maheswaren, hearing voices was a common symptom. But it wasn't one he wanted to share when he barely knew how it worked.

"Cᴏᴍᴇ ᴏɴ, ʟᴇᴛs ʙʟᴏᴡ ᴛʜɪs ᴊᴏɪɴᴛ ᴡɪᴛʜ Cᴏɴɴɪᴇ."

His body shot up and reached for Connie's hand with a little grin. "Let's go."

"Where?"

He let his eyes travel over the Crystal Gems, the parent figures he'd had since the second he was born. Pearls hysteria, Garnets hardened expression, Amethyst just trying to understand and keep the waters calm. "Anywhere but here, Connie. I'll shoot you a text if you load my card, Dad."

Greg was pensive but nodded. "Escape for a while son."

"Stop fighting. Talk it out, write it down, get some incense and scented candles or something but just–," He felt the light pressure of Connie's hand on his chest.

"Don't parent them. That's their job."

They left hand in hand and didn't look back.