"Out of everything we've been through, why sacrifice your life for HIM?" Pearl sobbed as she hugged her knees. Her tears flowed from her cheeks and dripped into the massive water fountains in her room.

It was only a couple of weeks ago when Rose gave up her physical form for her newborn son, Steven or whatever Greg named him, Pearl didn't exactly bother to remember. Ever since then, it felt like Pearl was simply drifting out into nothingness, like everything that once mattered to her vanished before her eyes. Her life has lost its purpose, its meaningfulness, and now she simply fell apart.

"It wasn't necessary to give up your life," Pearl muttered to herself. "So why, Rose, why did you do it anyways?"

Rose could have easily kept her gem and gave birth to a non-hybrid child, but she took another route, and for what? Why did she do it? Why could have Steven just have been normal? Why did Rose simply . . . abandon her?

Pearl could still remember her last conversation with Rose, clear as day. Rose went into labor and Pearl had carried her over into her leader's room. Garnet and Amethyst went to get Greg, who was the only one who had the slightest knowledge of human birth. Pearl had clutched onto Rose's hand, begging her to reconsider her choice.

"Rose, you don't have to do this," Pearl pleaded. "You don't have to sacrifice your physical form."

"Pearl," Rose wheezed, breathless from the pain of childbirth. "You wouldn't understand."

"Yes, I would!" Pearl sobbed in response. "What do you have to gain from this?"

"Pearl, I can't explain why I want to give up my gem," Rose replied, "especially not now. You just have to understand, this is my choice. Nothing you could say or do could ever change that."

Pearl was shaking as she gripped onto Rose's hand. "Please don't do this to me. Please don't do this to us. Don't leave us here!"

"Be good to him, Pearl," Rose said, placing Pearl's delicate hand on her abdomen, where Steven was. "I know he is going to be wonderful."

Pearl was crying all over. She couldn't be losing the one person that mattered most to her. She couldn't just be alone! Why did Rose want this? She could have simply taken the easy way out and leave Steven to be gem-less. It was a much easier route, Rose and Steven could both exist and Rose could raise her 100% human child without having to suffer. How could giving up her physical form benefit Rose in any way?

Suddenly, Greg arrived and the birth began to take its course. Pearl didn't expect childbirth could be so messy. She couldn't stay in the room any longer. Pearl made a mad dash for her room and stayed there for hours, hoping Rose would make the right choice. But when all the screaming finally stopped, Pearl entered Rose's room to find Greg cradling a small, plump baby that possessed big dark eyes . . . and a round pink gem.

She really did it, Pearl thought as she approached Greg and the child. She really left.

Greg introduced Pearl to the child, declaring his name to be Steven and asked if Pearl wanted to hold him. The white Gem refused and marched out of the cloudy haven that was Rose's final resting place, watching Garnet and Amethyst coo over Steven, as if they didn't care at all that Rose had abandoned them.

Pearl stopped flashbacking to that awful day and continued to weep. She couldn't find the motivation to do anything really, like all the obligations in Pearl's life didn't matter anymore. She found herself questioning the fact on why she was here on Earth, on why she kept the planet safe from harm, on why she willingly killed off her own kind to live here in peace.

It was all for Rose. And now she was gone.

Who was to blame for Rose's disappearance? Pearl wanted to pin it all on Steven, the child that Rose seemed to have desired so badly enough to off herself in the process of creating him. But the baby wasn't even aware of his wrongdoings. He was a child after all, naïve and clueless. He didn't even know who Rose was at this moment in his life, he was simply that narrow-minded. None of it was his fault; really, he just came to exist without any knowledge of what was happening. He didn't choose for Rose to give up her physical form, he didn't choose to come to existence at all; all Steven ever did was come into the world, without knowing what the consequences of his parents' actions caused. There was simply no logic when it came to blaming Steven.

Who Pearl really chose to blame was Greg Universe.

He was the one who showed Rose the ways of humankind, showing her what human birth was and managed to persuade her into having a child with him. He didn't care enough about Rose to stop her from making her choice. He practically told her to give up her physical form. And now look at what happened. Greg was so clueless that he didn't even realize what he did to Rose. He didn't love her the way Pearl did. Rose was better off without him, as she would still be alive if it wasn't for Greg narrow-mindedly persuading her to give birth. He indirectly killed Rose himself; he was the one who got her pregnant after all, didn't he?

"This was all because of Greg, wasn't it Rose?" Pearl seethed. "What did he offer you that I didn't?"

Greg didn't deserve Rose at all. He was foolish, naïve, barely even understanding what Rose did for Earth. He wasn't even there most of Rose's life. Greg had only spent twenty or so years with Rose, who had lived for thousands of years. How could that be worthy enough to sacrifice a life for? Pearl was there all of Rose's life, she knew everything about her, she knew what Rose sacrificed. Greg barely understood any of it, nor did he care. So why was Greg somehow a better choice?

Suddenly it all dawned on Pearl. Perhaps even in the eyes of the beautiful Rose Quartz, Pearl wasn't good enough.

Ever since Pearl crawled out of her manufactured pod for the first time, she was deemed unworthy. The Gems who ran the Pearl factory noted everything that made her different from the other Pearls, every single mistake she had in her appearance. In their eyes, she was even lower than a regular Pearl. She was a defect, a flaw in the machinery, something that shouldn't exist. They weren't able to fix all of her flaws, but they decided to haul her off as a slave anyways. She was berated for being different, for being flawed, for something she couldn't even control. It was why she strived so hard to be viewed as perfect, to make up for every time she was considered a mistake, to fix whatever flaw her gem had, to be worthy.

She wanted so badly for Rose to love her the same way she did, but whatever she did to capture Rose's attention wasn't enough. She rebelled against her own kind, abandoned her home, and fought for the humanity, all for Rose. But everything Pearl sacrificed was all for nothing, as Rose chose an ignorant human who only strummed a guitar and sang a dumb song to steal her heart. What if, even compared to Greg, Pearl was still inferior? She gave up everything for Rose, and still failed. She couldn't get Rose to love her the way she wanted her to, which was what Pearl wanted from the start. Rose gave up her life because no matter what Pearl tried to do, it wasn't enough. Perhaps everything she was told on Homeworld was true: that Pearl was a failure, a mistake made to be erased, a defect no one could ever love.

"Pearl," Amethyst interrupted Pearl's mourning. "I'm going over to Greg's to watch Lil Butler. Wanna come? We can see Steven."

"I don't want anything to do with Greg," Pearl sniffed.

Amethyst knew exactly why Pearl was angry at Greg. "It wasn't his fault, you know?" she defended. "He didn't ask for Rose to disappear."

"But he didn't love her enough to make her stay!" Pearl cried. "He could've convinced her otherwise. But he didn't! He just stood there as Rose killed herself! Now she's gone and he doesn't even regret it! He doesn't love her the way I—the way we do."

The young purple Quartz was silent.

After a long uncomfortable moment, she finally spoke. "Well, if you need me, you know where to find me."

A/N: This concept might be overdone, but I really wanted to do this. Hopefully you liked it and remembered to favorite and follow! Next chapter will be what Amethyst did to Greg to break their friendship. Can't wait for Steven Bomb 4!