Templeschool

47. Righting Our Wrongs

AN: Hello! Sorry for the long wait! Things got really busy around Christmas and I didn't get the chance to update like I wanted to. This is gonna be another big update!

When the van pulled onto the beach, Greg and Pearl sighed in relief. Going to Empire City was fun, but nothing would ever beat the comfort of the small town of Beach City. Steven had fallen asleep during the drive home since it was still night when they left, and the sun was only just rising when they entered the town. While Greg grabbed their bags, Pearl gently shook Steven awake. "Oh, Steven, we're home! Time to wake up!"

Steven mumbled softly before he slowly opened his eyes. "We're home?" He muttered with a yawn. At Pearl's hum of affirmation, he crawled out of the backseat, leaning heavily against the van as he struggled to rub the sleep from his eyes.

His dad laughed at him as he closed up the back of the van. "We sure are, Schtu-ball! You can go back to sleep once we're inside, okay?" His son tiredly nodded and followed the two adults as they led the way up the hill and to the stairs.

"I'm glad Twoie convinced me to join you two on this trip." Pearl chuckled as they climbed the stairs. "I was so worried about leaving him alone, but we really needed to have that heart-to-heart." She paused outside the front door. During the drive, Greg had confided in her about Twoie's feelings regarding her restrictive behavior. "And I promise that I won't be as smothering as I have been with Twoie. I had no idea that he felt that way."

Greg was about to respond when panicked yelling sounded from inside the house. Everyone was now alert, and they quickly ran into the house. No one expected the sight that greeted their return.

Amethyst was trying to calm a frantically pacing Ruby and a panicking Sapphire. "-erywhere! My future vision is absolutely useless, and the others will be arriving any second! Where did he go?" The tiny blue gem froze when she noticed Greg, Steven, and Pearl. "Oh, no. This is bad..."

"What's bad? What's going on? Where did who go?" Pearl gestured at Ruby and Sapphire with a look of horror on her face. "And why are you two unfused? I have so many concerns right now!"

While Pearl was yelling at the other gems, Steven looked around and noticed a mess of papers on his bed. He quickly ran up to the stairs, and everyone became silent as he read through them. "These are Twoie's lesson plans! He never leaves these out!" He looked back at the gems. "Where's Twoie? This isn't like him at all!"

Sapphire started crying at his question. Ruby quickly went to comfort her beloved, so Amethyst sighed and stepped forward. "It's my fault. Twoie noticed that I was upset after the incident with Bismuth and confronted me after you guys left. I was mad that I couldn't protect him, so when he kept pushing me to tell him how I felt, I... kinda got angry and yelled at him." Steven paled as she told her story.

Sapphire sobbed loudly. "No! It's my fault! He was rightfully upset that I never apologized for insulting him after he told us the truth about Pink Diamond. And for making assumptions based on my future vision. He's right, I do assume that I understand situations that I've observed with my powers. But my vision only tells me the most probable timeline, not what's actually happening!" She clutched Ruby's arm tightly to her chest as she sobbed. The small red gem gently shushed her, trying to calm her down.

Steven's face screwed up in annoyance. "You guys are avoiding the question! Where's Twoie?"

Ruby looked up at him. "We don't know! Twoie got really upset and packed a bunch of his stuff. We tried to stop him from leaving, but he used that new barrier power to prevent us from leaving the house. We searched everywhere we thought he would go. Sapphy and I even unfused so we could cover more ground, but we never found him." Ruby's eyes filled with frustrated tears. Greg and Steven were staring at her in horror, while Pearl covered her mouth with her hands.