SPOILER ALERT. While this is going to be a daily-updated series of character-study drabbles about Garnet, Sapphire and Ruby, I follow the show and the wikis closely and that will inevitably bleed into the writing. You have been warned!

Garnet is her own person. Well, sort of.

Intellectually, she knows that Sapphire and Ruby are in there—that she literally cannot exist without them—but it's not like they step in too often. When Garnet finds that glorious, giant purple axe in the strawberry fields, there is no question of whether or not she's keeping it. Technically, her reaction could be broken down and described as Ruby getting really excited over all the potential futures in which they might wield the thing like a badass, and Sapphire shrugging her shoulders because hey, it is a nice axe. That's not what it feels like, though. It just feels like… her. Taking the huge purple weapon home to the temple was a decision she made by herself, for herself.

Garnet is Ruby and Sapphire, but she is also more than that. She's been around for 7,000 years now, and in all that time she's unfused in less than a dozen instances. If Sugilite can develop a unique sense of self in just a few days, then you can bet that Garnet began to feel like a singular individual much sooner than that.

That being said, maybe it's not such an oxymoron to say that Garnet cannot understand why Rose Quartz would give herself up to make a human-gem hybrid, but Sapphire and Ruby can.

The Crystal Gems do not react well to the news, to put it kindly.

"You're going to what?" Pearl squawks. Her complexion is at once flushed light blue and strangely ashen, as if she is just seconds away from retreating into her gem. "Rose, are you hearing yourself?"

Of course, Pearl has to speak over Amethyst's screams of rage and anguish. Their youngest member has latched herself onto the leg under Rose's tiered skirt, and is refusing to let go for anything. "You can't do this," she mutters into the fabric. "You can't do this to me. You can't leave me too."

Garnet doesn't say anything. She doesn't know what to say. What to think. Rose Quartz is a deeply trusted friend, one whom Garnet was honored to fight next to during the rebellion, and not at all upset to live with in isolation for the 5 millennia that followed. They have saved each other's lives more than once. They both gave up everything to preserve Earth; there is a bond between them that can never be replicated. Now, in a short year's time, all of that is going to just—disappear? Garnet likes Greg Universe well enough, and she doesn't begrudge Rose Quartz the happiness she finds with him (because they are, undeniably, happy together), but this?

Instead of vocalizing her opinions, Garnet silently watches on, leaning against the side of the temple entrance with her arms crossed. She waits until Pearl has ranted herself hoarse and disappeared into her room, Rose watching her tensed, skinny shoulders with an expression of gut-wrenching sadness. She waits until Amethyst has run off without any indication of whether or not she will be coming back (she will, though; Garnet can see too many ways she could do it to find the other possibilities more probable). Rose reacts to the latter with a grimace like a mother who knows she's pushed her child way, way too far.

Garnet waits until Rose is standing, resolute if somewhat disheartened, on the edge of the temple's stone plateau, before finally standing shoulder to shoulder with her, both of them facing the ocean.

"What about you, Garnet?" Rose asks quietly. "You haven't said a word."

Whether she realizes it or not, the palm of Rose's right hand is resting next to the gem on her abdomen like she expects to already feel something, though her announcement was only of her intentions, and not of an actual pregnancy. There are tears of empathy and grief shining in her eyes, but she doesn't let them fall.

"Doesn't seem like it would make much of a difference if I did," Garnet remarks idly.

The taller gem gives her a look that is so deadpan it's almost entirely human. "Which doesn't mean you lack an opinion. I know you better than that."

The words are obviously coming from her mouth, but the question "Are you sure you know what you're doing?" isn't actually Garnet's.

There are still tears in her eyes, but suddenly Rose is smiling. "Yes," she says. She doesn't say so outright, probably because hearing it outright would hurt more than her family planning announcement has already, but Garnet hears in her voice that this isn't an obligation. Rose knows that no one is asking this of her; Earth doesn't necessarily need it. She's doing this because she wants to, wholly and completely. It doesn't make the decision hurt her closest friends any less, and it certainly won't soothe how much they will all miss her once she's gone, but the fact that she knows what she's doing has Garnet turning to face her and holding out both hands.

"Then you've gotta do it," Ruby says with Garnet's voice.

Sapphire adds, "We're going to miss you."

Rose, still teary eyed, reaches out to clasp their hands together. She's wearing another smile, but this time there's irony in it. She replies, "Why would you have to miss me? It's not like I'm going anywhere."

When Rose squeezes, pressing her two gems against the flesh of her palms, Garnet finally understands. Just as Sapphire and Ruby never truly left when they decided to stay fused together, neither will Rose. Rose will just be making a fusion of a different kind.

Note: I'll be mixing in some of my own theories with the canon. For example, while it's pretty much been confirmed that Garnet has been around for at least 5,000 years, I believe that Ruby and Sapphire have been fused for much longer than that, even before the rebellion. That's where the 7,000 year reference comes from. I'm making that part up ;P