Long after Steven was gone, and the band had said its good-nights, Connie was staring at where Steven had been processing. When she finally shook herself out of it, she found the crowd had thinned. Gems were at the bar, getting drinks, and listening to the music being played through the speakers, dancing. She wasn't the only one still up near the stage, but she felt alone.
She wandered back toward the bar and thought about ordering herself a drink. However, as she approached the bar, a few gems started looking at her and talking excitedly. She smiled at them and pivoted to head for the door. Her footsteps picked up as she moved across the warehouse until she burst out into the sunlight and rounded the corner into the alley where she and Steven had come down.
Pausing to catch her breath, Connie leaned against some boxes. This wasn't fun. With Steven, it was fun. But she wasn't with Steven; she was alone and unsure. Almost by instinct, Connie looked around the boxes to find Steven's cloak. Smiling at it, she picked it up and shook it out of the ball he had wrapped it in. Though she knew she shouldn't, she put it around her shoulders and sat down behind the boxes.
The pink and white cloak was too big on her, but soft and broken in. Connie pulled the hood up. She was instantly comfortable and could have closed her eyes and gone to sleep there behind the boxes if not for someone tapping her on the head.
"Con-con? Is that you?" a familiar voice asked.
Connie looked up to find Amethyst standing over her. She gasped and pulled off the hood.
"Amethyst! I don't–"
"Shh! Quiet!" Amethyst said, then looked around. "It's Axelle around here." Amethyst tapped the pink diamond-shaped patch now on her black shirt. In fact, she was wearing a black shirt with sheer red lace over it and black leggings with pink lace forming glittering star formation along the legs. "I'm not even supposed to be here."
Connie frowned. "What?"
"Steven and I are supposed to be on a trip to a colony," Amethyst sighed and slumped her shoulders.
"Steven?" Connie whispered in disbelief.
Amethyst straightened up and put her hands on her hips. "Uh, yea. Does he really think he can hide anything from me? We've only been best friends since he was born."
"So when he gave me cheeseburger backpack?" Connie began.
"Oh, I didn't know then," Amethyst said. "But when he asked us to leave you in the Tower to recover, I knew it. You weren't that injured. Come on. He's probably looking for you. I wasn't going to bother you guys, but I saw him, saw you run out, then he ran out after you."
"Oh, my stars!" Connie said, getting up and pulling off the cloak.
"No worries, We'll go find him. And remember. I'm Axelle. And do not tell Garnet and Pearl about this."
"I would never!" Connie yelped. "But… Why Axelle? Is that your name?"
Amethyst shrugged. "My whole Facet has A-X names. I'm Axelle. 8XG is Axena. 8XJ is Axandra. 8XL is Axia."
"Oh," Connie muttered as they started walking. "I thought it was something…"
"Cooler? I know," Amethyst said. "So what has Steven told you about everything?"
"I don't know," Connie sighed. "Not much. I think he's lying to me about a lot."
Like about how he can ask the Pink Stars to do something and they do it, Connie thought.
"Probably," Amethyst muttered with a frown. "This whole thing. I think it's just… so not our business. It's above our gem type, you know? I know Steven, being you know…" Amethyst trailed off.
Connie pressed her back teeth together, then threw Amethyst a lifeline. "A hybrid," she whispered.
Amethyst opened the door to the warehouse and nodded. "I know he's a big deal, but he's just a dude. He was just a kid when had to deal with a lot of this. And his aunts are crazy."
Connie nodded as if she knew the identity of these now twice mentioned aunts.
"I wish we could all forget this stuff. Like why does it have to be a big secret, anyway? His mom never kept secrets."
"Rose Quartz?" Connie asked.
Amethyst looked at Connie, then looked away. "Maybe you should talk to Steven about this," she muttered.
Connie unfocused her eyes to keep from looking at Amethyst, but in doing so, looked past her to see a frantic Steven in the distance.
Steven had his hair up again and someone had loaned him a black jacket to put over his dress. He looked nice.
"Steven!" Connie called and stepped around Amethyst. She waved her hand overhead and smiled.
Turning, Steven saw her and called back. Faster than he should have, he crossed the distance and grabbed her, swinging her up in the air.
"Oh, my stars!" Steven said. "I lost you! I thought you'd gone home for a second!"
"No. I'm fine!"
They hugged for a second, before Amethyst's laughing was too loud to ignore. Steven looked over and blushed.
"Axelle! What are you doing here?" Steven whispered angrily.
Amethyst put one arm over each of them and leaned in close. "No wonder you guys almost fused. I've seen Ruby and Sapphire fuse while doing that."
Connie blushed and glanced at Steven to see him doing the same.
"Axelle! That was a secret," Steven hissed.
"Whatever," Amethyst said. "Are we headed backstage or what?"
"Oh. Well, yea. If Connie is up for it." Steven looked at Connie.
While going to another new place with more new rules was the last thing Connie wanted, she didn't want to ruin Steven and Amethyst's day, so she nodded.
"Let's go," she said.
#
Backstage was just another room in the warehouse. Connie could still hear the music from the party in the main room. Inside the smaller the room was the band, lounging on old furniture, playing around with what looked like an older set of their instruments idly. Sadie and her band already weren't alone when she, Steven, and Amethyst showed up.
While Steven ushered them in and shut the door behind them, Connie noticed a group of eight other gems, all in the same black uniform with a pink diamond on it, their gems shiny and on display. Despite showing their rank, they weren't typical gems. There were seven natural gems and one gem Connie guessed was organic. Of the natural gems, there were two cross-gem fusions, some sort of orange sapphire that Connie couldn't name, and one pair of rutile quartzes fused at the gem. Connie wasn't sure who was odder, the average emerald who was more comfortable here with hybrids and overcooked amethysts, and whatever Sadie and her band were than Connie herself was, or whatever the hell the pink organic gem was. His gem was on his shoulder and he was a fluorite, but he was pink and had a huge scar over his right eye. He and Sadie were sharing an over-sized chair.
"You okay?" Amethyst whispered. "You look like you're going faint."
"There are just…" Connie struggled to find a reason for her distress. "Too many people."
"Hey guys," Steven said, slipping an arm over Connie's shoulders.
"Hey," one of the band, a gem with sunglasses said. "Steven, your friend is cool. Like an onyx's pearl."
The group gasped.
"Buck!" The dark-skinned gem said. "That is so not cool! I'm sorry, girl. Buck is a padparadscha," she bit. "So he can't help being observant."
"Oh no!" the little orange sapphire gasped. "Buck is going to tell everyone the gem type of Steven's new friend!"
The fused rutile quartzes laughed and one of them patted the sapphire's head.
"No worries, Paddy." The right rutile said. "We might as well know."
Steven hugged Connie tighter. "Guys this is Connie. She is a pearl with the Pink Stars."
"With the Pink Stars?!" the emerald said. "Interesting. What do they want with you?"
"I… that's classified." Connie hoped that she could say that.
"Hmph. I'll bet." Emerald smiled. "You're probably here for Pink Diamond. She's probably on her way back. Mark my words."
"There is no way you can know that," the dark-skinned gem said, rolling her eyes.
"Guys, guys. Let's introduce ourselves," Sadie said in a cheery, raised voice. "Sit down. I'm Sadie. Flourite Facet BRG Cut SD. This is my best friend and partner Lars Flourite Facet BRG Cut LRM."
"Hey, Connie," Lars said with a wave of his gloved hand.
"Hi," Connie said. She, Steven, and Amethyst had sat down on some crates covered in cushions. "Cut LRM?"
Sadie giggled. "His cut is supposed to spell out to Laramie. Anyway, that's Jenny and Sour Cream, both of them Amertrines. Jenny is Facet PZA Cut XJY and Sour Cream is Facet ONN Cut MRY."
Connie frowned. "Cut MRY?"
"It's a long story," Steven whispered in Connie's ear. "Don't ask. Too messy."
"And," Sadie finished, "you already know Buck, Padparadscha Facet DWY Cut BCK."
"And then there's my crew," Lars said, standing up, his cape sweeping the floor behind him.
"We're the Off Colors," Lars shouted. "The flagship of Pink Diamond's new elite star force. You already know me, Captain Lars of the Stars, a humble fluorite from New Homeworld. Then my indispensable co-captain Emie, the most shining Emerald to ever take flight."
Emie laughed and dropped from her perch. "Oh, Lars. You're too right. But where would we be without our crew! The amazing, the many, the one-of-kind Fluorite!"
"We call her Fluo," Lars said.
The large fusion of six gems slowly raised herself and took a bow. "Thank.… You.… All.…"
"Thank you, Fluo," Lars said. "Our pilots, the Rutile Twins! Joan who's left-handed, and Grace who's right-handed."
"Thank you, yes." Joan said.
"Yes, thank you," Grace followed.
"Next our Strategics Officer!" Emie said. "The fantastic Rhodonite, Rodnie."
"Oh. Me? Yea. Thanks, Captains." Rodnie twisted her hands and smiled.
Connie nodded and said. "You've got a pearl in you, huh?"
Rodnie blushed. "Pearl and Ruby."
"I thought so."
Steven laughed and used his free hand to push Connie's hair back. "You're a fusion expert," he said.
"I know another pearl when I see one," Connie said. "And you," she said looking at a little gem, "are Padparadscha."
"We called her Paddy," Lars said. "She's our technical adviser. Natural padparadschas can make present predictions. They can tell you anything that has already happened, even if you can't see it or don't know it's happened. So since Paddy is never wrong, we can just ask her what's just happened somewhere we can see and base what we do on that."
"Organic Padparadschas," Jenny continued, "are similar. They're like, super observant and can see things you miss. Not future vision, but like natural talent to be observant and insightful."
"That's amazing!" Connie said.
"I know, right!" Sadie said. "When I ended up in a band with these guys, I was knocked for such a loop!"
"How did your groups even come together?" Connie asked. "I mean, no offense, but this is the craziest group I've ever been in a room with and I live in the Pink Stars base."
The group chuckled. Then another soft laugh joined in.
"Connie is going to ask how we all became friends!" Paddy laughed. "Isn't that hilarious?!"
"Sure is, Paddy!" Rodnie chuckled behind her hand, trying to bite back her laughter.
"Hey," Buck said. "Pour you a drink? We're having whiskey and soda."
"Oh! Well, just half the whiskey," Connie said.
"Cool!" Sour cream said. "Now we have someone to give the other half of Steven's whiskey to."
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