"Tell me a story." the littlest gem climbed onto Garnet's lap, playing with her hair. She smiled down at the gem, the youngest of all of them. She had dark brown eyes, the color of hot chocolate, her favorite drink. She was only four years old, yet she took on the traits of her parents.

"Which one?"

"My favorite one." Garnet smiled, she already knew which one she had been talking about, but it was always calming to know it was her favorite story, every single time. Garnet's smoothed her wild, curly hair down, which she ruffled back to its natural curliness.

"Steven was a half-gem, with a Rose Quartz." the little gem nodded in agreement, making sure that Garnet didn't make any mistakes while telling the story.

"He met a girl that he liked." Garnet purposely told the story slowly, knowing that the little gem loved to fill in the blank spaces, and show off how well she knew it.

"Connie."

"Connie." Garnet agreed. "And then there was his family, Pearl, Amethyst, and me. Soon, Lapis and Peridot joined, too." Garnet left out details about where they came from. She was too young to know about how Homeworld ruled.

"And then Homeworld happened."

"Homeworld happened." the little gem didn't understand why Garnet was always so sad when talking about 'Homeworld' wherever that could be. She never shared more information about the place than needed to tell the story.

"'N Connie and Steven fought them."

"Yes."

"Steven got hurt."

"Yes."

"And he's in the bubble, now, 'n he's getting better."

Garnet nodded. It was the saddest nod that the little gem had ever seen.

"He's gonna come back."

Garnet smiled the saddest smile that the little gem had ever seen.

"And then I happened!" the little gem said with a huge smile. Garnet nodded.

Connie and Steven's child would know their story. Maybe not all the details, like how the war between Homeworld and the Crystal Gems dragged on for nearly a decade, instead of just one sentence. She would learn when she was older. Like how Connie died after the little gem's birth. None of them were sure what it was from, but the news that Steven died had been too much emotional strain, they assumed.

The little gem would later, when she was much, much older that Steven wasn't going to come back. Right now, to the four year old gem, Steven was in the bubble because he was healing, and he was going to come back.

She wasn't going to know that Pearl and Amethyst were shattered during the war, fused together as Opal. Garnet always took comfort in the fact that they were together when they were shattered, not alone.

She wasn't going to learn that Lapis had corrupted, slowly, like a disease that spread through her body, until Garnet was forced to put her out of her misery. She wasn't bubbled, but she was shattered. Garnet knew that Lapis hated closed spaces, being in a bubble for the rest of forever would be horrible. If gem shards could think, Garnet couldn't do that to Lapis.

Peridot left. Lapis and Peridot had something special, something that mirrored Sapphire and Ruby's love, without fusing. They loved each other as two separate people, without the need of fusion. She stayed at Lapis's side through the entire time that Lapis was being eaten away by corruption, and she held Lapis's hand as Garnet shattered her. She was there for Lapis's end, but after the end, there was no where for Peridot. She left, simple as that. She still wondered the world, trying to find something that might be able to fill the gap in Peridot's heart that Lapis left. Garnet had the feeling that Peridot would never be able to find anyone like Lapis again, even if she lived for the rest of time.

And now it was just Garnet. And Steven's daughter.

"And dad's gonna come back!" the little gem squealed, dancing up and down like Steven might just come back at any second. "And he'll name me!"

After Connie died, Garnet tried to name Steven's daughter. She was tempted to name her Rose, but she didn't know what Steven wanted his daughter wanted to be named. She didn't know what Connie wanted her daughter to be named. So she didn't have a name. The littlest gem was the only name she had.

The littlest gem.

Maybe a few decades ago that would be a cute name, something that would make them smile. Them.

Now it was a reminder of sorts. The littlest gem. Garnet had to be prepared to die to protect the littlest gem. The littlest gem.

The littlest gem.

Sometimes it felt like it was she was the only gem, because Garnet knew.

Garnet knew that she would be the only gem on Earth, soon. Not yet, but soon. She could see it in the future, vivid and clear, with no way to avoid it. Garnet's end was coming so quickly.

She had to ready to meet her family again, Pearl, Amethyst, Steven, Lapis, Connie, maybe Peridot.

The littlest gem needed to know where she came from.

Rose Quartz.

She had a Rose Quartz. She needed to know the story of how her family had been before the Homeworld attacks, happy and together. She needed to know that the world wasn't always like this.

It hadn't always been like this, with just Garnet. A long time ago, there was a family with Garnet in it.

But again, it was a long time ago.