The events of the day had started off so slowly, the calm before the storm. Before I knew it, we had been caught in a squall, tossed about on waves without any land in sight. As quickly as the storm had borne down on us, it passed, leaving behind damage that we were struggling to fix.

Now, we sat in the wake of the destruction, our ship being the living room of my house. I was sitting on the couch, watching as fragile silence wrapped around my friends. Bismuth was beside me, her body bent forward so that her rainbow locks hid her face from view. Pearl sat on a stool by the counter, fumbling with a cup of tea with no incentive to drink it, the liquid long since lost its heat. Garnet was leaning against the temple door with her arms crossed, staring at the floor as if she could see through the miles of stone to the void of space beyond. Lapis and Peridot sat next to each other by the window, observing and silent. Amethyst was the only one moving as she paced the length of the room, somewhere between thought and just needing to be in motion.

It was a silent battle, one that would rage the moment one of us conceded by speaking. I feel like it should be me. I’m the one that’s supposed to bring us together and keep our hopes up. And yet, I can’t seem to say anything. Whenever I tried to gather my voice, I would remember Mo’s face, the sound of her broken voice. What am I supposed to say? I don’t even know what I’m supposed to think! This is all so messed up! Mo’s supposed to be this horrible criminal that tried to get all of my friends, her allies, shattered in the Rebellion. It’s just… I can’t imagine that. It could all be an act, but it felt so real! How am I supposed to make sense out of all of this? I want to help, but I don’t know how I can. Should I speak against Mo, deeming her a criminal like the others say she is? Should I try to stand up for her and the doubts that keep gnawing at me? Maybe I should just stay out of it, but that doesn’t feel right either! Why can’t I figure this out?

Just as it seemed that I would lose my head, that gossamer silence snapped.

“She didn’t do it,” Bismuth said, barely louder than a whisper, but we could all hear it. Bismuth looked up, her eyes staring straight ahead as if she was seeing something that wasn’t there. “Mo wouldn’t do something like that. Not her.”

Pearl sighed, her shoulder slumping underneath her blazer. She kept her eyes on the cup in her hands. “Bismuth, please don’t start this.”

“There’s nothing to start. She didn’t betray us.” The edge was returning to her voice as her temper started to rise. She was now fixated on the star on Pearl’s back. “You can’t honestly believe that Moissanite, our Mo, would do anything to harm another Crystal Gem. She did everything she could to make sure we survived! We would be shattered hundreds of times over if she hadn’t been on our side!”

“And hundreds of us would still be here if it wasn’t for her!” Pearl’s exhausted, calm demeanor evaporated as she rose from her seat, pushing the cup away as she turned to face Bismuth. “We lost so many of us because she decided to abandon us! It took us days to pick up their shards!”

Bismuth shook her head, her hair flapping wildly. “There has to be a mistake! Mo would shatter herself before harming an ally!”

“You weren’t there, Bismuth! You can’t say what happened since didn’t see it!” Pearl was shouting now, a state I had rarely seen and hoped I wouldn’t have to see again.

“And neither were you!” Bismuth rage seemed to rattle the house as she stomped her foot. With her hair and physique, it was hard not to see her like a lion that was defending its pack. “All you have is what you were told!”

“We were told the truth!”

“You can’t say it was the truth if Rose is the one who told you in the first place!”

Bismuth might as well as struck Pearl. I felt the recoil of the effect her words had on Pearl, who, despite all this time, I knew still held Rose in a special place in her heart. “Rose wouldn’t make something like that up! It broke her to see what Mo did! She wouldn’t-”

“Rose locked me away in a BUBBLE for thousands of years!” Bismuth bellowed. “She abandoned the Gem that wanted nothing more than to be her friend on a hunk of rock! She faked her death because she didn’t get what she wanted and got all of our friends Corrupted! She lied to all of us, the Diamonds, Spinel, everyone! DON’T TELL ME WHAT ROSE WOULDN’T DO!”

It was if a puppet’s string had been cut loose. Pearl fell back on her stool as if she had been pushed. Tears threatened to fall, but she held them back as she kept her gaze locked on Bismuth. “Rose-”

“ENOUGH!”

Garnet’s command was enough to silence the arguing pair. It was so rare to hear her raise her voice like that we all responded immediately. She broke away from her space against the door. Garnet stepped over the Warp Pad and stood where the kitchen floor abruptly ended at the Temple’s stone. “No matter what Rose said or did, Moissanite is a danger to all of us. She has to be dealt with as soon as possible.”

“Of course you would say that,” Bismuth snarled. “You always hated Mo! All because of one power she has!”

If a stranger had been watching this scene, they might have believed that Garnet had kept her cool, forever being that composed pillar amongst the team of extremes. I knew better. I saw the way her fists clenched. I could practically feel her barely leashed anger trying to burn through her visor. “This has nothing to do with that.” Garnet forced through her teeth.

Bismuth scoffed, which sounded more like an agitated grunt. “There’s something new. Whenever you had a problem with Mo during the Rebellion you always avoided her. You couldn’t stand to be around her!”

“That’s enough Bismuth!” Garnet snapped, all attempts of composure thrown out. “You’re bringing up past problems that have nothing to do with this!”

“Don’t act like you’re above it! No matter how many times she swore not to use that power, the times she put herself in harm’s way when that power could have saved her, you still treated her like she was something that had to be monitored! As if one day she would break all her promises and attack you!” Angry tears were pooling in Bismuth’s eyes. She slammed her fist on the table, the legs almost buckling from the impact. “When she found me, Mo hated herself because she only survived by using her own power! That’s because of you! You made her feel like she was horrible!”

“I never did that!” Garnet roared back. “Moissanite was never harmless! She was too enthralled in battle! The way she fought, the way she acted, that’s why she was dangerous! I knew something would happen if we didn’t watch her!”

Bismuth laughed. It was born of anger and bitterness. It was awful. “You can’t say anything about her! You don’t know what she would do! Maybe that’s why you hated her! Because you couldn’t see her!”

“Don’t talk to Garnet like that!” Pearl shouted. “You’re taking things too far, Bismuth!”

“I’m taking things too far? Do you not even know how you treated her all those years? You were all-”

Their voices continued to lash back and forth, raging animals snapping at the other until one would remain or they destroyed themselves. I want to stop them. I want to say the right thing that will smooth all of this over. I want to be the peacekeeper that they need me to be! But I can’t. It felt like my chest was being ripped open as I watched them fight, but there’s nothing I can do. I don’t have the words. I can’t find a song. I’m as powerless as when I was a kid, up against a force that overwhelmed me.

A hand grabbed my wrist, pulling me along past a distracted Garnet to the Warp Pad. We were gone, our exit going unnoticed except by Peridot and Lapis. When we arrived, Amethyst let go of my arm. I turned in a circle, taking in a gloom of the Kindergarten. No powers or magic could fix the damage that was done to this place. The life had been completely drained out of it during the early stages of Earth’s colonization. Even the sky seemed to have been tapped, the constant presence of clouds blocking the sun. Hundreds upon hundreds of holes dotted the cliff sides, interspersed with the long still bodies of Injectors. No matter how many times I saw this place, I still feel the pang of sadness that sunk in my stomach.

Amethyst leaped from the Warp Pad onto the ground several yards below. I jumped after her, slowing my descent to land softly. With my emotions in flux, the landing was rougher than expected, making me stumble. Amethyst kept walking, leading us deeper into the Kindergarten than I had ever gone before. We walked past the hole in the ground that leads to the control room. Our surroundings began to shift, becoming completely unfamiliar.

“Amethyst, where are we going?” I asked kindly, trying not to push.

Amethyst came to an abrupt halt. Her head turned this way and that before she dropped to the ground. “Sorry, Steven. I wasn’t paying attention.”

“Oh, okay. So, um, anything you want to talk about?”

“I just thought we should get out of there,” She shrugged. “It didn’t look like things were going all that well.”

“Maybe we should go back. I think I can sort all this-” I had started to walk back when Amethyst pulled me down beside her.

“Remember, Steven. You can’t fix everyone’s problems.”

Right. She’s right. I’m doing it again. “I know. It’s just… I should be able to help them. That’s what I’m supposed to do.”

“You can only do what you can,” Amethyst replied, kicking a pebble away. “Forcing it may be worse. Just let them go at it for now.”

“I hate that idea.”

“I know. I do, too.”

We sat for a while, watching the unchanging terrain of the Kindergarten. The stillness was almost soothing. Far away from the shouts, the Kindergartens seemed to steal away any thoughts that grew too loud. There were no bird calls. There was no wind. There was nothing to alter the stagnant view of the Kindergarten. It was sort of peaceful, eerie but still calming.