“You know, it’s actually kind of funny.”

Amethyst whirled while I instinctively summoned my shield. Just around the corner of the passage we had been watching from, Mo had appeared without us noticing. Maybe she had been there the entire time, staying silent as her memories ensnared our attention.

Mo leaned against the rock as she drummed her fingers against the wall, keeping her eyes on the now-empty clearing. “This spot just looked so familiar. I must have relived that day thousands of times, but I still don’t feel any different about it. Does it seem strange that the part that sticks with me the most isn’t the Diamond squashing me?”

“It was what the Peridot said.” It was Amethyst that spoke. She didn’t sound angry or ready for a fight. She sounded drained as if the memories had sapped her energy. She hadn’t even drawn her whip when Mo startled us. “The one with the octagon for a head.”

Mo nodded, the barest traces of smoke drifting around her hair. “I’ve lived for innumerable millennia, but it still stings. I’ve seen and done so much worse than some of Peridot’s tiny words, but they still hurt. It’s kind of pathetic.” Mo finally looked at us, a small, sad smile pulling on her lips. “How does that phrase go? ‘Stick and stones may break my bones, but words can’t hurt me?’ Whoever came up with that clearly never met a Gem.”

“Mo, what are you doing out here?” I asked, putting my shield away. It doesn’t look like she’s going to attack us.

Mo shrugged. “Just stumbled across this place a few thousand years ago and decided to see it again. I didn’t have anywhere else to go. How are they doing?”

She’s talking about Garnet, Pearl, and Bismuth. I just know it. “They’re… upset.”

“Spending days arguing, right? Yeah, that happens.”

Amethyst adjusted her stance in discomfort. “They used to fight like this a lot?”

Another shrug. “A few times. During the Rebellion, the tension was thick enough to stop a sword. Some of us would suddenly go off on the smallest of things, the argument evolving through the root of their distress. A disadvantage of never having to worry about aging: you waste so much time stressing over the dumbest of things. Have they been fighting since I ran off?”

“Pretty much,” I told her.

A sigh this time. “I never wanted this to happen. I guess I shouldn’t have gotten my hopes up.”

“Mo, did you really…” My voice failed me. How am I supposed to ask her if-

“Did I really cause hundreds of my friends to end up shattered?” She finished for me, the tone of her voice unchanging. She slipped her hands into the pockets of her jacket. “What do you think?”

Amethyst turned her gaze to the ground. I tried to keep eye contact with Mo, but it was becoming increasingly difficult. The heated words thrown out by three of my closest friends echoed in my head. What do I think happened?

“I already know you think I did it,” Mo interrupted my thoughts. She pointed at my stomach, to the gem under my shirt. “You don’t summon your weapon over a little spook unless you think that it’s actually a much bigger threat. Am I right?”

She was. As much I don’t want to believe that Mo did those things, I can’t shake the horrible certainty that she’s guilty. Bismuth is trying to defend her, but she didn’t see what happened. The two were obviously close, so of course, Bismuth wanted to believe that Mo was innocent. It was the way that Garnet and Pearl pushed back, that absolute and terrible defense that seemed unwavering to them in spite of Bismuth offering a different solution. They believe without a shadow of a doubt that Mo caused that ambush. And I believe them.

“I do,” I replied honestly. “I’m sorry, Mo, but I think you’re that one who got all those Gems shattered.”

Mo’s eyes never left me, her steady gaze unsettling. “That’s what I thought. And you?” She directed her question at Amethyst, who didn’t reply. “I guess it doesn’t matter. You believe what you believe.”

“Are you saying that they’re wrong?” I pushed, hoping that Mo would deny her accusation but knowing that would be impossible.

Mo made a circle in the air with one of her fingers, a wisp of smoke holding the shape before returning to her palm. “I would never harm my friends. I never betrayed them. But you think I’m lying, so I guess it doesn’t matter what I say.”

“Then show us!” Amethyst snapped suddenly. “You can show us any of your memories! You just showed us the day you first EMERGED! So just show us what actually happened!”

“And what good would that do?” Mo replied evenly against Amethyst’s anger. “I’m not saying that I can’t do it. I’m saying it’s pointless.”

“And why’s that?” Amethyst yelled, her voice thick with emotions that had built up since we first escaped to the Kindergarten. “It would be so easy for you to just show us!”

“And it’s nearly impossible to change something that someone believes so fervently,” Mo returned, breaking away from the wall and standing in front of us. “I’ve tried to use my powers to prove someone wrong before, and even though I show them the absolute truth, they still reject it. Some things are so deeply sown into our heads that there is just no way to shake them loose. After being around so many different humans all this time, I know that better than ever. And besides, it’s for the best if the truth never surfaced.”

“You know how guilty that makes you sound, right?” I pointed out.

Mo mulled it over for a second. “Uh. Well, that’s not great.”

I took a step forward, Mo following my motion without any other reaction. “Why won’t you try to prove your innocence? Even if Garnet and Pearl won’t believe you, Bismuth will. She’ll believe anything you tell her, good or bad. Don’t you want her to know the truth?”

“More than anything in this world. Still, I can’t bring myself to do it.”

“Why not?” Amethyst's voice had faded to a raspy growl. Her teeth were clenched so tightly that I thought they would crack.

Mo’s shoulder slouched, her stance loose and weary. “Because I would never hurt my friends. Now, are you two going to let me go?”

“What?” The question came so suddenly that it slipped by my mind. “Let you go?”

“I’m leaving,” Mo declared. “I’ve had an idea I need to put some work into. Are two going to let me walk by you and use the Warp Pad, or are you going to stop me?”

Mo said it so casually as if there was no real urgency to the situation. She has to know what our answer is going to be. She’s still giving us this choice, to find out for certain if we believe her innocence even the slimmest bit. If we let her go, she’ll know we have our doubts, that she has a chance. I want to let her walk right by us. I want her to warp away without a struggle, knowing that there’s still the possibility of changing our minds. But I can’t do that. And she knows that. We can’t let Mo just walk out of here to do who knows what. I know she’s dangerous, no matter what I want to believe. We have to stop her, just the two of us.

Amethyst’s gem glows. She pulled her out her whip, her eyes locked on Mo with an expression so hard to read that I can’t begin to place it. I reach for my gem, feel the glow and the brief warmth. My shield appears in front of me, ready to protect me as it always has.

Mo’s eyes roamed over our weapons and fighting stances. She rolled her shoulder. She pushed the lock of hair that seemed to be permanently dangling in front of her face back into her hairline, joining the rest of her limb mane. Smoke began to rise off of her body, wisps coiling and uncoiling in agitated motions. “That’s what I thought.” Once the words had left her mouth, Mo raised her hands. Smoke poured from them, pooling in the air around them. It gathered around her like a shroud, as much a part of her body as her arms or legs. “Then come at me with everything you’ve got, cause I’m not holding back.”