Robert could barely sleep that night. He couldn't stop thinking about Michael. How his face was distorted, how he was most likely under Yellow Diamond's control, how she may just kill him as soon as she's done with him, rather than reward him for his efforts. What would Steven think? Would the Gems be as merciful with Michael as they were with himself? How hard would it be to defeat him? Should he even try? Robert tried to take his mind off things by playing Portal 2 that night.

(SPOILERS FOR ANYONE WHO HASN'T PLAYED PORTAL 2)

When he encountered GLaDOS for the second time and was about to swap Wheatley and GLaDOS, her robotic scream only reminded him of the pain and suffering Michael would go through. He kept playing, and when he reached the end, one sentence of GLaDOS's speech really stuck out to him. "The best solution to a problem is usually the easiest one." It played over and over in his head.

"The best solution to a problem is usually the easiest one"

"The best solution to a problem is usually the easiest one"

"The best solution to a problem is usually the easiest one"

Robert turned his laptop off and went to sleep, trying to ponder what that meant. It sounded self-explanatory, and in most cases very true, but what solution could be easy as well as the best solution? He thought about just ignoring it and forgetting about it, but that would only make things worse, Yellow Diamond would torture him even more, and Michael would only blame him for it all. "If only there was a way to make peace between us." He thought. He wrote down ideas for ways to solve the conflict in a composition book along with illustrations for fight choreography, should it come to that. He spent so much time writing and drawing, he fell asleep on the table.

That morning, Amethyst noticed the note on the table as well as Robert fast asleep with his face pressed against his arms. Steven woke up and noticed Robert as well. He thought about waking him up, but he was curious to see what he had in his book. He read it and knew what it was about. "Why would he want to talk things out?" he asked Amethyst, who was too shocked to find what Peridot thought of her. "I dunno..." she said "He's the merciless EXECUTIONER, not the merciless NEGOTIATOR." she said. Steven shook Robert awake, and he thought he was going to school. "Don't wanna go to school..." he groaned before remembering the events of last night. Amethyst put down the note. "Did you seriously spend all night just making a speech?" Amethyst asked while laughing. Robert went back to formulating his plan. Steven and Amethyst were more curious as to why he was making the plan in the first place as opposed to what the plan even was. They both knew the best person to ask was Garnet. Luckily enough, she came out of her room. "Garnet, can we go somewhere a little more private? I want to ask you something." Steven asked. Garnet nodded and went to her room, with Steven and Amethyst following close behind.

The door shut behind them. "What did you want to ask?" she said. "Well, Robert's making a plan to deal with Michael and it's not in the way you'd expect." He said awkwardly. "He wants to 'talk things out' with the kid who made his life hell." Amethyst interrupted. Garnet thought for a moment. "Remember when he came back from fighting Hessonite? How he fell under a depression and didn't come out for a while?" she asked. "Like it was yesterday." Amethyst responded. "Well, it seems to me that he loves Michael too much to watch him suffer. He prefers to solve his conflicts peacefully." She answered. "What about the fight with Jasper and Hessonite?" Steven asked. "I'm not entirely sure, but with Jasper, it's most likely because he knew he had no choice, and being in front of Lapis, he didn't want her to think he was weak, and with Hessonite, he knew that if he didn't fight, then he was going to be killed, either by Yellow Diamond or by Hessonite." She explained.

When they returned, Robert was already dressed in his signature blue t-shirt with a black coat over it,his coat pockets filled. His sword was in a custom-made scabbard wrapped around his back,underneath a backpack filled with assorted items. And his Zapper was in a holster on his belt. (ANOTHER MINI ART CHALLENGE: Draw what was described in this paragraph)

Pearl appeared on the warp pad, along with Peridot and Lapis, who smiled and waved at Robert. "Are you ready to take on your brother?" Pearl asked. "Uhh...Y-yeah, sure" he stammered. "You beat Jasper, you can definitely beat another human." Lapis encouraged. RObert blushed, because he knew he wasn't going to "beat" anyone.

To be continued...

Question for the chapter: Would you be as forgiving as Robert if you were in his shoes? Explain your answer