I couldn’t accept what just happened. In an instant, the whole atmosphere had changed. A breeze stirred a cloud of dust, allowed into the house from the hole punched into the wall. Garnet stood in the spot where Mo had been seconds before, her gauntlet still posed from the strike.

“Mo!” Bismuth cried. She started to move towards the beach, but Garnet was faster, leaping towards the sand in a streak of red and blue.

Pearl let her spear disappear, crouching in front of a shocked Peridot. “Did she touch your Gem?” Slowly, Peridot shook her head. “Did she use any of her powers on you?”

“She… She didn’t do anything to me,” Peridot managed. “Why did you-”

Pearl took off sprinting after Garnet before the green Gem could finish her sentence.

This doesn’t make sense. Bismuth had been so excited to see Mo. What’s happening?

I was running before I could think any further, Bismuth and Amethyst beside me, Lapis and Peridot bringing up the rear. I leaped from the porch, drifting to the ground as Amethyst and Bismuth landed heavily on the sand. Peridot was scrambling down the stairs while Lapis took flight on her water wings.

Garnet had her back to us, her entire form rigid and tense. Pearl stood beside her in a stance I recognized from combat training. As I watched, Pearl pulled her swords from her gem, the kind she uses to train Connie. Mo was picking herself up from the sand, her eyes so wide that her irises were lost in a sea of white.

“Garnet?” Mo’s voice was shaking, lost and fragile from the Gem’s reaction. “What are you doing?”

The normally calm Gem didn’t respond. Instead, she leveled a gauntlet at Mo, the kickback from firing the weapon able to be felt as we closed in, still several meters away.

Mo was moving, evading the rocket as it shot past her and exploded in the ocean. Garnet fired again, this time toward the sand at Mo’s feet. A wave of sand erupted momentarily obscuring Mo. Pearl leaped, her swords flashing in the sun as she swiped at Mo. The pale Gem narrowly avoided each slash, deflecting one using the metal ring on her arm. Pearl pulled back, only to be replaced by Garnet who slammed the back of her restored gauntlet against Mo’s side, sending her tumbling across the beach.

Garnet charged but was stopped short as Bismuth broke ahead of me, catching Garnet’s weapons before she could reach Mo. “What are doing?” Bismuth bellowed, the strain edging into her voice. “Why are you attacking an ally?”

“She’s not our ally, she’s a traitor,” I could barely recognize Garnet’s voice. The calm demeanor and steady flow of her words were swept away by a bark filled to the brim with spite. “She sold us out during the Rebellion!”

Pearl was on the move again, bearing down on Mo with her blades at the ready. On her next step, she dug her foot into the sand and braced her legs, pushing off with sword positioned for a perfect lunge. I reached for the gem in my navel, a moment of warmth filling my core as my shield appeared, hovering over my hand. I hurled the shield, the pink-hued barrier intercepting Pearl’s attack. The force of the impact carried the shield towards Mo, trapping her underneath of it like a bug caught in a jar.

“Steven,” Pearl faced cleared for a moment, the ferocious determination pushed aside by her surprise.

“What are you guys doing?” I was torn between disbelief at my friends' actions and concern for Mo. I can’t understand what’s happening! “What’s going on?”

Garnet freed herself from Bismuth’s hold, her temper seeming to have cooled by a few degrees. “She’s dangerous, Steven.”

“That doesn’t make sense! Mo hasn’t done anything to us since she showed up yesterday!” I argued, my blood pounding in my ears. I couldn’t rein in my emotions. “She’s a good person! Why are you doing this to her?”

“She’s one of our closes allies, Garnet. Mo was part of the Crystal long before you or I. Don’t do this to her,” Bismuth pleaded, still standing between Garnet and the trapped Mo. “I don’t know what’s happening, but I do know that Mo would never have done anything to deserve this. She’s a true Crystal Gem!”

Pearl lowered her blades, glaring at Mo for a long moment before turning her gaze to Bismuth. “It’s not that simple, Bismuth. Things changed.”

“What could have changed!? What would ever have caused you two to react like this!” Bismuth was furious. Pieces of our fight at the Forge came back, the bitterness that Bismuth had held towards my mother finally spilling over. This was almost the same but had underlying desperation to her movements. “Tell me!”

“Moissanite is a traitor,” Garnet snapped bluntly. “She turned us over to Homeworld during the Rebellion.”

Bismuth’s eyes narrowed, and lips pulled back in a snarl. She doesn’t believe that. “Mo would never do something like that.”

Mo wasn’t trying to free herself. Her hands were pressed against the underside of the shield, her forehead against the smooth weapon. The rest of her was pinned to the ground by my shield. Her eyes kept passing between Garnet, Pearl, and Bismuth as the three of them continue to argue.

Pearl returned one of her swords to her gemstones. She laid her now free hand on Bismuth, who flinched at the contact. “It’s true, Bismuth. I wish it wasn’t, but she betrayed us,” Pearl's voice was shaking. I had heard that tone before, tired and defeated. Another memory surfaced, one of Pearl and I standing on a mass of vines and rock floating hundreds of feet in the air. Pearl crying as my mother’s scabbard laid in the grass inches away.

“I don’t believe it,” Bismuth shook her head, her voice cracking. “Mo’s the most loyal Gem I’ve ever seen. She wouldn’t hurt us!”

Garnet’s gauntlets glowed, retreating back into her gemstones. Her visor turned towards Mo, her expression unreadable. She turned back to Bismuth. “But she did.”

Pearl took a deep breath, the air rattling as she inhaled. “It happened shortly after you… disappeared. Mo was to lead a squadron of Crystal Gems to prepare for an ambush against a massive group of Homeworld soldiers. I was with Garnet, waiting to attack, when it happened. We were suddenly surrounded, fighting for our lives as our plans fell apart. When it was over, several of us were… gone. We found some shards, but others completely vanished in the battle. What remained of our squad retreated before reinforcements could arrive. When we made it back to base, Rose was waiting, and she was crying.

“She told us what went wrong. Rose had returned early from a different mission and decided to group up with Mo. When she arrived, Rose couldn’t believe what she saw. Mo’s entire squadron was being pushed back by Homeworld soldiers, many of us already poofed or worse. Rose joined the fight, trying to find Mo. When she did, Mo was fighting with Homeworld, picking off our allies one after another. Mo had been the only one that knew the exact route they would take. She led them into a trap."

“That can’t be… She wouldn’t…” Hands clenched into fists, Bismuth looked past Pearl as if she was trying to see into the past to a fight so long ago. “Mo wouldn’t…”

Pearl was on the verge of tears, but she pushed on, the words choked as they left her mouth. “Rose fought her off, protecting the remaining Crystal Gems from Mo. The tides were beginning to turn in their favor, but Homeworld had been ready. Explosions tore the battlefield to ribbons, decimating everything caught in the blast. Rose was the only one to survive, only thanks to her shield. Many of us were lost that day, beyond Rose’s healing powers. All this time, we thought Mo perished. Apparently, we were wrong.”

The silence that followed her story weighed down on all of us, broken only by the sounds of waves against the sand. That… That can’t be true. Mo had been so friendly last night. She couldn’t have done something like that. She’d been so happy to see Bismuth and we all had so much fun! It was like…

…

Navy…

It was like when Navy had arrived, all fun and eager as she played us. We’d believed her when she said that she wanted to join the Crystal Gems. She strung us along until she could get her ship back, throwing us out after she had her payback.

Is that what Mo was doing? Tricking us?

Trapped underneath the shield, Mo seemed to have aged thousands of years in seconds. Gems are practically immortal, their ageless bodies immune to the effects of time. Mo was like that. She hadn’t changed, physically at least. It was the way her pinned body held itself that had morphed. It was as if the years she had accumulated had been dropped on her shoulders, her body barely resisting sinking into the earth under the weight.

I don’t know.

“I’m sorry, Bismuth,” Pearl said softly. “I want nothing more than for it not to be true, but it is. We can’t trust her.”

Garnet’s hand tapped her visor, the three-pointed screen vanishing in a small flash. She met Bismuth’s sinking face with her three eyes, each one as pained as Pearl’s and Bismuth’s. “She tried to destroy us, Bismuth. Our allies… our friends… so many of them are gone because of her. Moissanite is dangerous. We have to do this.”

Bismuth didn’t reply. She couldn’t. I could the strain on her face, wanting so much to say that they were lying or it was a mistake. But she couldn’t. Pearl and Garnet would never lie to her. Bismuth looked over at Mo, the trapped Gem’s body hunching over further at the look Bismuth was giving her. The hardy Gem stepped aside, more broken than I had ever seen her. Tears ran down her cheeks.

Pearl covered her mouth with her hands, turning away as Bismuth cried. Garnet’s visor returned, hiding the hurt exposed by her eyes. She started to raise her hand, one of her gems glowing.

A horrible screech ripped apart the tense silence like lashing talons. I turned to the source. Smoke was pooling around Mo’s hands, pressing against my shield. Gray veins seeped from her palms, eating away at the soft pink hue. As I watched, the shield glitched, losing its shape, before shattering in a burst of sparks. Mo sprinted towards Garnet, the smoke billowing off her body like a cloak.

Garnet tried to push her back, but Mo pivoted on her foot with impossible mobility. She rammed her shoulder against Garnet, knocking the Gem off balance. At the same moment, she clasped Garnet’s right hand, smoke swirling around their forms.

Garnet’s shock lasted only moments. She tightened her grip on Mo’s hand, throwing her shoulder back and flinging her arm up, launching Mo high into the air. Something wrapped around Mo’s midsection. I barely realized that the thing was Amethyst’s whip before the purple Gem turned and pulled. Mo’s body streaked through the sky, slamming into the side of the cliff hard enough to fracture the rock. Mo landed on the sand in a heap, the whip still secured tightly around her middle.

“Amethyst, recall your whip!” Garnet called urgently.

“What?” Amethyst called back. “But I’ve got her!”

“Now!” Garnet returned, already charging over to us.

It was too late. Smoke rose from Mo’s body like a fire without heat. Where the whip touched her form, veins of gray began to spread across the weapon. They shot down the entire length of Amethyst’s weapon with blinding speed, stripping away the color. Once it reached the handle, the whip glitched frantically before dissipating. Amethyst stared at the empty air where her weapon had been, fingers twitching at its absence

A high whirl rang across the beach over the sounds of shifting sand and waves. Pearl’s was holding her spear with both hands, the point aimed directly at Mo. A ball of energy was building at the tip before she fired, the enormous shot flying true. Mo vanished behind the blast, the impact sending up a huge cloud of dust and pebbles.

“I think you got her!” Amethyst called as we all stared. Pearl and Garnet made their way over so that all four of us were grouped together. Their weapons were still out.

“We’re not done,” Garnet said.