Chapter Text

Chapter One

“Hello?”

Silence.

Connie looked around the Beach House, her shoulders slumping as she received no reply. She walked in, placing Rose’s sword on the ground. Nobody was home- that was strange. The only time Pearl had missed a lesson, she’d still assigned Amethyst to her and Steven for the day. Maybe they were on a mission? But, no, Steven would’ve called ahead to tell her. Unless they were running late?

Connie walked to the couch, sitting and waiting for the gems to arrive. She pulled out her phone to send Steven a quick text, but he didn’t respond. Steven always replied- really quickly, too. She quickly dialed a number, and stared at the warp pad until the phone was picked up.

“Hey, Connie!” Greg said. “How’s it goin?”

“Um, good.” Connie nodded. “Is Steven with you?”

“No…” Greg paused, probably checking the time before saying, “Shouldn’t he be with you? Aren’t you supposed to be doing your swordfighting thing?”

“Yeah, but nobody’s here.” Connie magain looked to the warp. “Usually someone would be here to meet me so we could go to the sky arena but the house is empty.”

Greg was silent for a while, before saying, “I’m going to try his phone. You sit tight for a second.”

“Roger that.” Connie said as Greg hung up, and turned her head towards the door. Maybe Steven was on the beach? But then one of them would have seen the other when Connie walked up. Where on Earth was he?

Greg called back, and Connie answered quickly. “Did he answer?”

“No. This is bad, he usually has his phone with him. I’m going to drive out to the barn and see if he’s there, you go ahead and go home. No use sitting around an empty house.”

“But what if they come while I’m gone?”

“Then you can talk to Pearl about doing a makeup lesson or something. I’m sure they’ll understand.”

Connie sighed. “Okay, thanks.”

She hung up, and stood to go, but after hesitating a moment, walked over to the warp pad. She spread out her arms, thinking of the Sky Arena.

Nothing.

She should have figured. She had just hoped that maybe… No, nothing would have happened. Logic said that a human couldn’t control a Gem Warp.

Connie walked back to her sword and picked it up, figuring she should probably take it back with her. As she turned to go, she glanced over her shoulder for one last look at the warp.

It remained empty.

The Warp wasn’t the only thing that stayed empty. The Beach House and the Temple were empty, too, for the next week. The Barn was empty, too, save for a few bugs and fish. Connie ran to the Beach after school every day, waiting by the Warp, growing more and more worried every day, more and more panicked that her best friend was missing. Greg had called the Police, but they didn’t seem to be doing much- just put out a Lost Notice for Steven, as they didn’t know where he had warped to. The Gems were all missing, too, leaving behind everything. It didn’t make sense- they wouldn’t just disappear without a word, without telling Greg or Connie where they were going. Even Lion had vanished, though that wasn’t unusual in of itself.

Connie tried calling and texting Steven every day, but he never replied. Half the time the texts didn’t send. Wherever he was, his Wifi connection sucked.

A week after they’d gone, Connie waited in the Beach House all day, her sword on the ground beneath her as she sat on the couch, reading a book and waiting. This was the second lesson she’d missed. She tried to do her best to keep the house- she’d dusted a little, cleaned the rotting food out of the fridge, even left little notes for Steven around the house, in case he was just hiding from her. But he’d agreed not to do that again. Had she done something wrong? Was this her fault?

Connie slowly walked home as it started getting dark, dragging the huge pink sword behind her. She greeted her parents, asking them if Mr. Universe had called about anything. The answer was, of course, no. He would have called her first anyway. She sighed and walked up to her room, leaving her sword on the ground and flopping on her bed, groaning. She wanted to scream or cry, but she wasn’t going to. Steven wasn’t gone, she would know. Unless…

What if he and the other gems had been shattered?

Connie shook her head. No, they couldn’t have been. They were strong, and powerful. Nothing would have been able to do that, nothing would have been able to shatter them.

Well, nothing that would have flown off the human radar.

She wondered if Steven knew about the commotions the Gems caused all the time. How the Gem Monsters would sometimes rampage a city, only to be taken down by the Gems when nobody was looking, the occasional blurry photo as the only proof of their existence. The news coverage of the Giant Eye and Hand falling from the sky, the exploding communicator in the sky, the near destruction of a protected landmark, which Steven described as a Beta Kindergarten, that one time the ocean disappeared and then miraculously came back, the major earthquakes from when the Cluster tried to emerge. Connie didn’t know how the Gems managed to avoid it all; she suspected a Government Cover-Up, but she wasn’t going to imitate Ronaldo and go around shouting it. Steven didn’t seem to be concerned. Connie assumed he- and probably the Gems themselves- were unaware. His TV lacked a lot of news channels and he didn’t spend that much time on the internet.

She wondered if maybe the Government had kidnapped the Gems. That was a possibility. So what should she do? Storm into Washington and demand to see the hidden aliens? That wasn’t a plan. That was plain stupid.

She thought about the possibilities until she fell asleep, still in her sword fighting uniform, still worried over her missing friends.

She woke up when she heard something crash.

She sat up in bed, blinking away the dreariness in her eyes. Shadows reflected on the ceiling, barely visible in the darkness. Connie could hear only her own breath, which was slowly quickening as she realized that something had crashed outside. She rolled over and pulled the curtains away from her window, peering out. It was hard to tell what was out there, but it had a vaguely humanoid form- and seemed to be purple.

Well, there was only one person she knew that was purple, but just to be safe, Connie grabbed her sword and holstered it over her back, carefully leaving her room and tip-toeing down the stairs, sliding on some shoes as she reached the bottom. She quietly unlocked the door, flinching when it made a noise. She pulled the door open, and slid through before closing it again. She wondered if she should leave a note, but if this was what she thought this was, she wouldn’t be too long, right?

She turned to where she saw the figure, only seeing a lamppost that had fallen, blinking ominously. That must have been what the crash was. She ran across the street, sliding over to the sidewalk and seeing bushes behind the fallen post. She crawled through, ignoring the sticks and leaves brushing against her face and back. Every now and again she’d put a hand on her sword, making sure it was still there. She reached the end of the bushes, bursting through. In front of her was nothing. Just another street.

Connie let out a small yell, kicking at the grass underfoot. Her frustration was short-lived, though, as she heard a rustling behind her. She whipped around, staring as she saw something disappear into the bushes to her right. She ran, again pushing through, passing again to her first street, and looked up to see the purple figure running. She was running ahead, towards the forest at the end of the street. Connie hesitated for a second, before running after her. Because there was no doubt now that she’d seen her- this was Amethyst.

At first, Connie feared she’d never catch up, but Amethyst kept tripping over her own feet, something that started to confuse Connie. Amethyst was usually much lighter on her feet, way more agile, and if she was trying to outrun something, wouldn’t she just shapeshift? Why wasn’t she speeding away right now, as nothing but a ball of light?

Amethyst entered the woods, starting to run into branches and logs. Connie ducked and jumped, determined to catch up to the gem. She called out the gem’s name, causing her to whip around in confusion and horror, giving Connie enough time to jump on her and pin her to the ground.

Amethyst struggled, trying to kick her off, as Connie started to yell. “Amethyst, what’s going on? Where is everyone? Where have you been ?”

Amethyst then stopped moving and started to tear up, which only served to add to Connie’s rising panic. “Amethyst, where is Steven ?”

Amethyst looked up at her. “C-Connie?”

“Yes! It’s me! Where is everyone ?”

Amethyst’s tears flowed more freely now, as she looked up with a hopelessness and sorrow Connie never thought she’d see in Amethyst’s eyes. “That’s just it, I don’t know ! They’re all gone !”