[if they pretended it never happened, it would simply go away. that was what they'd hoped for with all they'd left on earth - and even what Lapis had hoped when she'd dragged them down to the depths of the ocean. down there in the blackness...if they stayed long enough, maybe Jasper would forget the sun.]

Of course it does. She's not a god, she's-

[Eren has her expression. she knows it because that was the image she'd seen reflected back in the ocean tower, glassy eyes unable to disguise the burning need to return that blazed within. she'd nearly cracked a planet in two with her efforts to escape the suffocating atmosphere of her prison - and for what? there had been no one left to care.

humans were too young to understand, she thinks. stories like that...they weren't worth the pain of pursuing.]

They said our worlds were frozen, right? I think something's wrong with that.

[she can't smash her palm down on the raw wound just yet, but she can gradually build her way up to it like this. hurtful as it was, it helped the gem to gather her own thoughts as well.]

Malachite shouldn't be here if I am.