Spinel knew from the moment she first saw Steven back on Homeworld, something was seriously off with him. As a friend, she was prone to picking up on other’s distresses. Unfortunately, she was not very good at dealing with other people’s problems (which may or may not be part of the reason she attacked the Earth a year ago). That was Steven’s department, it seemed.

Over the year she’d been living and healing with the Diamonds, Spinel had learned over and over again that trying to talk about other people’s feelings and helping them through them just added to her own stress, since then she felt like she had to fix that in order to move on, thus they became her own problems in the process, and with her running herself ragged trying to fix a problem she had no clue how to fix, like a thousand-year-old, broken relationship between four Diamonds… it proved too much too fast.

Instead, her department was helping people take their minds off their troubles! She was built to entertain, and that’s what she was good at. That’s what made her feel good. When she knew someone was struggling, if she could make them smile, that was one of the best feelings in the world. So, she kept her head held high with pride when a sad expression turned to one of laughter. That was more than enough, and always, people thanked her for helping them, even though she didn’t do much in the long run.

She was making a difference.

So, when Steven dragged himself into the throne room radiating unpleasant emotions, Spinel knew she had to do something! Plus, she would have wanted to hang out with him, anyways- it had been way too long! She practically flew to his side, gave him a side hug and a friendly kiss on the cheek, and-!

Well, let’s just say Steven was crankier than she expected him to be. Or maybe she’d crossed a “boundary,” as Blue and Yellow kept saying. Either way, maybe being that upfront was a bad move, since Steven immediately yelled at her. He also lit up like a star, burning a bright, neon pink color. Spinel had never seen anything like it before, but she tried to keep face so as to not make him more upset. It must have worked, since he stopped glowing, and from there, she kept her distance. Steven seemed a bit more comfortable after that, so she’d say she did a good job.

Soon after, Steven told her he wanted to bring her someplace special. Looking back, Spinel could see that his smile wasn’t quite right, and fit on his face oddly. He wasn’t exactly lying, as she would realize later, but in his eyes, bending the truth was probably close to it. So he had a lying face.

Spinel had been so excited, she’d forgotten about helping Steven. She’d seen him smile and had assumed everything was better! He whisked them off to the wonderful world of the Pearl, off to the Reef! And, oh, what a stellar place to be! Spinel could see why the pearls in the palace spoke so highly of the place. It was spacious, but not scarily so, and just screamed comfort. Spinel had planned on going back if she ever needed to just relax for a while.

She should have known something was still off when Steven locked himself in the room at the end of the hall. She should have definitely realized something was wrong when he spent what seemed like half of an Earth hour in there, alone. But, she was so busy picking out a nice outfit for Volleyball that she hadn’t even really thought about it.

Spinel had spent such a long time picking out the dress. Apparently, when “customizing a Pearl’s appearance,” you chose one of the outfits around the room, and then modified each individual piece to your liking! It was berries!

After about fifteen minutes of picking an outfit, then being pleasantly surprised at the custom options, Spinel spent a good ten minutes making sure the outfit was perfect. Of course, she chose the first dress that caught her eye (it was the best one in the room, after all), then proceeded to make it her own. She thinned out the bottom piece a bit, since it had too many layers and looked heavy. She turned the shoes to match her own a bit more, though decided against adding the spikey bit on the toe. The torso and arms stayed the same, with the gloves becoming shorter, matching Spinel’s in length, and had it cover all the fingers instead of just one. Then, she made the outfit a pink color.

The gown was being custom made, so it would take a few moments for everything to come together behind the scenes, so Spinel had run off in excitement down the hall, coming to the door and giving a small, rhythmic knock.

“Oh Steeeeee-veeeeeen! Guess who finally picked out the best outfit in the Ree-eeeeef?” She called through excitedly. “I’m all ready to head on out, whenever you’re ready!” The pink gem figured that the dress would be done by the time they got back, what with Steven’s walking speed being so much slower than usual. She could just snatch it on the way by!

“Uhh! Just a moment!” Steven’s voice was shaky, and Spinel realized with a jolt that maybe leaving him alone had made whatever it was worse.

“Steven, who is that?”

Spinel jumped a literal foot in the air. She and Steven had come in here alone! How did- where did- how could anyone else have come in? “Steven? Who is that?!” Spinel pushed herself up against the door, trying to look through the cracks. “What’s goin’ on?”

“Just a minute, Spinel!” Steven’s stressed voice screamed back at her. Gosh, he sounded like he was afraid of something. What in tarnation was happening in there?

“Awaiting orders, Steven Universe.” The robotic voice of Shell cut through the door as well.

“Shell, I need you to rejuvenate this pearl!”

Time froze.

Spinel was back on the injector, looking down at Steven for the first time. Back then, all she could see was the source of her problems, the descendant of her best friend. She had been filled with so much rage, that she attacked him without ever thinking about the consequences, nor who he was, his life, his struggles… none of that mattered in that moment. All Spinel cared about was revenge, a catharsis she would never really get because Pink Diamond was not around to give that catharsis.

She could feel the hand held devise in her gem, the one she’d stolen from the temple in the Garden, where she also found out about the biopoison injector and where it was located. She could feel the weight of it, unfamiliar to her, and yet in the moment she pulled it out, she swung it like it had been made for her. That was the weapon that made the end of Steven’s world possible, since with his powers and his friends, the injector would have been easily taken care of (maybe. Probably. With what Spinel knew about that group now, she didn’t doubt it). But, by taking those things away, it was a race against time to get them back rather than deal with her injector.

The rejuvenator took everything from him, if only temporarily, because Spinel was too blinded by hatred to see who the real enemy was.

Did Steven feel that hate, too? Towards whom? Spinel could only imagine it at one of his enemies, maybe, but the other person in the room with him was a pearl, apparently. She only knew of four pearls that he knew of, and those would be his guardian Pearl, Volleyball, and the other two that used to belong to Yellow and Blue. Did he hate them? Why?

Spinel broke herself out of her shock enough to shout, “WHAT?!” She took a few steps away from the door, as if the door itself were the source of the hatred Spinel had failed to pick up on (how had she missed HATRED? That was an emotion she connected to strongly, and tended to make itself known pretty fast!). She frowned in determination, rushing towards the barrier and slamming her shoulder into it. “Steven, lemme in,” she demanded, “what are ya doin’-?“

“Understood,” Shell interrupted her. The gem heard the sounds of two smooth objects rubbing against each other- something was happening in that room. “Rejuvenation sequence activated.”

“W-wait? What’s going on?” The unnamed pearl in the room’s voice shook, genuine fear in her voice. She didn’t sound like any pearl Spinel could easily recognize. Who was she? Why did Steven hate her? What was going on???

“STEVEN!” Spinel raised her fists to pound on the door in rage. How dare he even think hatred of anyone was a good idea! Didn’t he know that hate only bred more hate, and that it would consume him, and once he realized, it would haunt him forever? There was no taking back actions fueled by anger and malice. You’d think that, after spending so much time fighting it, he’d know this!

The sound of two hard objects smacked together. The pearl cried out in shock and fear. Spinel’s eyes were beginning to tear up at the thought of every terrible thing that could potentially be happening in that cursed room. She brought her fists down on the door again, feeling it vibrate a bit beneath her.

It was a barrier, but barriers could be broken.

“Hang on, I’m-“ Spinel tried to call out to the pearl, to tell her that help was on the way, but a scream cut her off. Surprisingly, it was not the pearl, but Steven himself. It started off low, then it escalated into a shriek. The pearl’s voice was speaking frantically, though what she was saying, Spinel couldn’t tell.

She had to get inside. She had to figure out what was happening and stop it.

Spinel began to pound on the door, increasing the size of her fists with her stretchy, elastic abilities. Each pound on the door grew louder, more powerful, and more desperate. It took four attempts, but once the door cracked, Spinel was able to easily punch her way in.

She froze. In front of her was a pearl she’d never seen before, being a light purple in color. The gem was staring wide-eyed at a giant clam in the middle of the room, not daring to get closer but also too scared to run away. She was shouting words, though Spinel couldn’t even begin to make out what they were. Above the clam there was a live video feed of Steven, trapped somewhere, and being given the hot seat, if Spinel knew any better.

So that’s why Steven had wanted to come here. To rejuvenate himself. Why would Spinel ever even think Steven would hate someone, let alone go out of his way to harm someone like this? Didn’t explain why he himself thought he should be rejuvenated, though, and Spins was going to find out.

In one leap forward, Spinel was upon the clam. She could hear his screaming coming from inside of it, and any doubts that Steven may be elsewhere vanished like smoke. Using the same technique from earlier, Spinel pounded on it until the walls gave in and broke. Her hands shot inside from the force, and she felt the shock of something akin to static electricity shoot down her hands for just a second. Then, she felt around until her hand touched soft material, grabbed that a bit harder than she’d meant to, and yanked Steven out as fast as she possibly could.

She briefly considered slapping him across the face, but one look at his worn-out features deterred her from doing so. Instead, she started shaking him back and forth, still openly crying. “STEVEN UNIVERSE,” she screamed out in rage, “I DON’T CARE IF YOU HAVE THE BEST EXCUSE IN THE WORLD, DON’T YOU EVER DO THAT AGAIN, YA HEAR ME!?” She forced herself to bring her voice down- yelling probably wasn’t helping. “Rejuvenation? What in the cosmos is WRONG with you??”

That dumb organic had the gall to give her a soft smile. “Nothing,” he replied, voice barely above a whisper. “Not anymore.” Then, he went limp in her arms, his gaze glossing over as he went to sleep at the worst possible time.

Spinel nearly dropped him, having been caught off-guard by his surprise nap. “Steven? Hey, this is no time for sleeping, you gotta answer me! What’s goin’ on?”

His head lolled around uncommitedly to any direction.

That scared her enough to drop him. He landed with a dull thud! on the floor, limbs splaying around limply. He was still breathing, thank the stars, but the terror of the past two minutes made themselves reality in that moment. Something was seriously, seriously wrong. Had it been the rejuvenator? Steven couldn’t poof, so what had been his plan for getting back out? Did he have one? The nutcase never really thought that far ahead, did he? Did his family know about this? What about that one human girl, did she know?

“E-excuse me,” a soft voice spoke up. “Is… is she okay?”

Spinel turned to see the pearl finally have the courage to take a few steps forward. Her lavender eyes were filled with fear, anxiety, and worry, along with a few unshed tears. A hand was outstretched towards Steven and Spinel, but she seemed reluctant to come any closer. Spinel felt like she had a pretty good understanding of why.

“I… I dunno,” Spinel replied honestly. She turned back to the sleeping teen, watching his chest rise and fall. “I’ve never seen him… do something like this before.”

The pearl blinked, then mustered up the courage to come closer. She knelt down on Steven’s other side, her hand still reached out towards him, wondering if she should touch him or not. “Do you know her well?”

If Steven were awake, Spinel knew he would not want to hear that. “He,” Spinel said. “He’s a ‘he’. And… yeah, I know him. Though…” Spinel faltered. Maybe she didn’t know him very well, if she’d let all these tells go past her without her noticing. “…I dunno if knowin’ him ‘well’ is the right term…”

“Oh.” The purple gem looked away, processing this. She fidgeted with her fingers for a moment before looking back up at Spinel. “Where are we?”

“This is the Reef.” Spinel cringed at her own words. The whole idea seemed tainted now.

“The Reef?”

“Yeah. This is where… Pearls are made…” It clicked. That’s where this random gem had come from- Steven made her. But why? And why threaten to rejuvenate her? Spinel was sure there was a logical explanation to all of this, but for the life of her, she couldn’t imagine what it could possibly be. Steven wasn’t the type of gem to want a personal pearl, so this had to run deeper than that.

(Cut off chapter again! Sorry!)