(Picture above is Amber's mom)

As if it all came crashing down at once, I feel like my whole life has been a lie. It's too much to take in.

"Hey," I turn to Steven, confusion and pain written all over my face. "I know this is a lot to handle if it's true. But I can be the first to tell you I know what you're going through."

"You do?" I question him.

"Maybe not everything, but I know what it's like to be the offspring of my mom and her decisions. And trust me, she's made some pretty terrible ones."

I smile lightly. "Well, it's nice to know someone understands me for once."

He smiles back, discussing more with the Diamonds. But no one seems to know much about my supposed mother except for an old picture of her and what looks to be Pearl but turqoise.

By the time we leave, I feel like I've known more in just a few minutes than in my whole life. We warp back to the house where the gems explain that I should probably start training if I wish to do so.

"Train? Like how Steven can fly? Can I fly?" I say, widening my eyes.

Pearl walks up to me, "We aren't sure what you're capable of, Amber. That's why we want to help train you."

"Oo! Can I try first?" Amethyst says excitedly. She pulls me outside to the sand and tells me to get ready.

She chucks a rock at me, and I scream before closing my eyes.

"No, Amethyst!" I open my eyes to see Steven in front of me with a pink shield, the rock, now, sent back to Amethyst.

She takes out a whip from her gem and smashes it in half. "I'm sorry. You learned by being in danger, I thought that would help. I'm sorry."

"It's okay, Amethyst. I know you didn't want to hurt me."

"How about I try?" Pearl says, joining us down at the beach.

"No. All of this leads to Amber getting hurt in some way." Garnet says, stepping between us all. "She'll learn in time."

"In the meantime, just show me what you guys can do! It'll be super cool to see." I say to them.

"Well, Amethyst here can shape-shift into anything." Steven says, as Amethyst does just that. A large beast, a small bug, and even Steven.

"I can even do you!" I watch as she forms into me, but stagger back in shock. I hate looking at myself. I never owned a mirror. They'd force me to look at my reflection and would tell me I was disgusting.

I turn and look away. Steven rests a hand on my shoulder and asks what was wrong. "Nothing, I'm just not used to seeing myself. I'm fine."

I look to Pearl. "What can you do, Pearl?"

"Oh, me?" She giggles. "Nothing much. Just holograms of me, a spear." She takes out a spear from her gem.

I clapped. "Does everyone summon weapons from their gems?"

"Well, some, but not Steven. Besides his shield." Garnet answers. "I have gauntlets." She shows me graciously. "Im a fusion of two gems, sapphire and ruby, and I have precondition."

I furrow my eyebrows. Steven says, "She can predict the future."

I nod. "Makes sense. What about you, Steven?"

"I'm able to summon my mother's shield; create a spherical force field; heal Gems, humans, and objects with my saliva; create sentient plant life; shapeshift; float through the air; use empathetic telepathy and astral projection . . ."

"Oh wow. That's a lot." He nods, bringing a hand to the back of his neck. "Did you say create sentient plant life?"

"Yeah, it all started with these watermelons."

We all head inside and talk more about his adventures and how he saved earth a lot, along with other planets.

"You've been to space? That is so cool!"

He chuckles. "Where do you think we went today? Homeworld is in space, Amber."

My eyes widen in surprise. "No way." He nods and smiles. "So, who's pink diamond?"

Everyone quiets down, and I see Steven look down at his hands. "Me. Or . . .my mom was. She became Rose Quarts and gave up her form to have me. Homeworld wasn't always so welcoming."

"I'm so sorry for asking." I apologized.

He waves his hand around. "No, dont worry. There's no such thing as a bad question."

Before I know it, darkness is surrounding the outside, and I'm yawning like crazy. "I think I'm might go to bed. I'm exhausted for absolutely no reason."

"Agreed. Night, guys! See you tomorrow." Steven says, waving goodbye to the three girls. They disappear into the door behind the warp pad, each in a different room.

Note to self: ask about the odd door to multiple rooms.

"Goodnight, Steven." I say, climbing the stairs.

I hear him say goodnight as well. As I lay down, I can't help but wonder how all of this happened so quickly. I've learned so much in such little time. As much as it's amazing, it's also overwhelming.

I close my eyes, once again, accompanied by the nightmare that haunts me. But this time, no Steven.

[][][]

I wake up hearing commotion downstairs and tiptoe to the top of the stairs to listen in. "We put a tracker in her when she was seven. She kept getting lost in the woods behind the house. Her mother and I just miss her so much."

It's my dad . . . they put a tracker in me?!

"You must be confused. There's no one here but my dad and I. And I just came to visit." I hear Steven lying for me. Why is he lying?

"I know she's here, young man. Don't make me call the authorities!" He retorts back, angerly.

"Over a 24 year old? Let's see how that goes down." He laughs back.

Crashing can be heard clearly and suddenly there's no sound or anything. I step closer down the stairs but no one's down there anymore. I take a look outside and see Steven holding back my dad with his shield.

I step outside and look down. "Dad?" I say more out of fear than anger. He's with my mom--or who I thought was my mom. Turns out it's just Trisha.

I walk down, nearing them both before being told to stop by Steven.

"Come home right now Ordinary! I don't know what lies you've been feeding these people, but it's not funny."

I don't know where my anger is coming from, but the nightmare last night really got to me. "My name is Amber."

"Don't you ever say that disgusting word again, Ordinary. You are nothing!"

"It's Amber." I say through gritted teeth.

"No! It's ORDINARY. Because that's all you are. Ordinary."

"I said it's Amber!" I scream. The ground starts to shake and everything is dark. The sky is no longer bright and blue.

My dad runs to me before Steven can stop him and his fist aims for my face. But I don't feel it. I just laugh.

"You're a monster, you little bitch!"

"I wonder who made me that way, dad." The ocean rises up as it engulfs my father, rising him up into the sky. I follow suit and fly up to him. "Who's scared now, Daddy?" I mock him.

But something inside of me breaks. No matter what he's done, I can't end his life. Two wrongs don't make a right. I set him down in the sand gently, the ocean going back to normal and me falling to my knees, out of breath.

I can't remember what happens next, but I find myself in another nightmare before I can react.

[][][]

"Amber? Thank the stars you're okay! We were all so worried about you." I stare up at Steven, still weak, but feeling better.

My eyes widen and I go to sit up quickly. "My dad!"

"Has left for now. Don't worry, he won't be coming back any time soon." Garnet says to me reassuringly.

"I almost killed him." I say, matter-of-factly.

Steven shakes his head. "But you didn't. I saw you hesitate. You did the right thing. I wish I had that control."

"And you were blue! Well, turquoise, which I suppose is a blue but still! You remind me of Lapis." He adds.

"Who's that?" I ask, standing up, weakly.

He holds onto me to make sure I don't fall. "An old friend of mine. You should rest. That probably took a lot out of you."

I sigh, sitting back down.

Steven doesn't let go of my hand but takes a step away from me and sits on the edge of the bed next to me. "So... you're okay now then?" He asks, looking at me with concern written in every line of his face.

"Yeah," I say. "It was so weird. I felt like I wasn't in control of anything."

"How does it feel?" he asks, rubbing my hand with his thumb. He seems so concerned about me it hurts. His eyes shine with sincerity. There's no pity in them though. Just genuine affection and concern. "You looked like your powers were out of control . Do you feel better? Does it hurt any less?"

"It felt surprisingly good. I had so much anger in me about my dad that I guess it all just came out."

We don't say anything for a while until he speaks again. "Why does he call you Ordinary? And who was that lady?"

I look down at my hands, picking at my nails seems to be so intriguing right now. "Ever since I was a young child, he made me conceal my defect. The gem." I explain, pointing to it. "Everyone in town knew me as Ordinary. If anyone spoke my true name, they were killed."

"That's so wrong and disgusting. No one should have to feel like that. Especially a child."

I shrug my shoulders. "It is what it is. Can't change the past." I sigh. "That woman was whom I thought was my mom my whole life. I just thought they hated me for my own mistakes. But I never made any!"

My voice trembles at the thought of what could've been. There are too many things I can't remember. Too many horrible memories that aren't even mine anymore. All this time, when I really wanted to remember those terrible things, I couldn't, not even a little bit.

It made me feel sick. Sick with guilt.
I know now why people hate me so much. I know I deserve it. They'd do the same to me if they could. For my own sake.
I shake my head. "She told me to never speak about my defects ever again after the incident. So I didn't."

"The incident? What happened?" He asks, taking a hold of my hands in reassurance.

I look at our hands, entwined together. My hands are smaller than his. "My hair was turqoise since I was little. Probably since I was born. It was colored constantly but the color wouldn't stick for long. maybe a few weeks. It didn't even fade back, I just woke up one morning and it was back to blue. I hadn't noticed because I didn't own any mirrors."

"I thought it was just my imagination, but when everyone in town witnessed it and fought over it, I knew I was different and didn't belong." I continue, Steven carefully listening. "They were cutting down a tree in the square. I didn't want to see it die. I stopped them halfway through and hugged the tree. I started crying as people tried to pull me off of it. Before I knew it, the tree was no longer cut halfway through."

"You healed it?" I nod. "I can heal things too!"
He grins excitedly. "If there's anything I'm good at, it's healing things. How cool is that?!"

I smile and squeeze his hands gently. "It is cool."

"And how does it feel knowing it was you that did it? Your power was the source?"

I shrug. "That was before. After I became Ordinary, Dad kept me locked up in my room, afraid of me. At first, I was terrified and confused. I accepted everything I was put through. But I was called a witch and the town . . ." I trail off.

"The people in your nightmare? They tried to kill you?" His voice rose slightly, his skin suddenly turning pink.

"Yes. It got worse. In order to prevent me from showcasing my powers or something, my parents decided I needed to be isolated." I say bitterly. "I spent years being bullied for my ability and for my appearance. Because of that, I was labeled an anomaly, a freak. A defective."

I shudder slightly, remembering that time, my father shouting into the phone at me and my 'mother' threatening to hurt me if I made her angry again. That had always scared me more than anything else. "I didn't realize I was hurting anyone until my accident. Then I realized how powerless I was against all of the prejudice in town."

"None of that is your fault, though! They didn't understand you and never tried. They made you out to be the bad guy when you were the one being mistreated."

"I think I'm going to head to bed, Steven. I still feel so drained. Thanks for listening to me."

He sighs, frowning, but leaves me to fall back asleep. And that just what I did.

I'm on the beach watching the events replay in my head like a movie. Steven's holding back my dad with his shield, but then turns to me and smirks.

His steps pounding in my head like a drum, unusually loud and terrifying. I manage to stutter out his name in confusion.

He just stands in front of me, raising his fist, turning pink all over. He hits me. I fall to the ground, feet away from where I just stood.

I sit there in shock, holding my face while trying not to cry. "You ruined my life, Ordinary. I was happy before I had to bring you in. Now you're causing trouble everywhere you go. No one loves you, and they never will. You'll always be a pathetic little wimp."

And that's when I started crying. Hearing it from someone I trusted put me at my breaking point.

Everything turns black, and I'm alone. No where to look, no where to hide.