Pearl froze in her tracks, hands over her mouth and eyes open wide in shock. Garnet did her best to stare coolly at the figure in front of the three Crystal Gems, but couldn't help the shaking hands or worried frown that sneaked onto her expression. Saying the figure was large was an understatement as right now, it seemed to be larger than even White Diamond herself. It was sitting cross-legged, its upper body obscured by the inherent darkness of the cavern. Not even Pearl's light could reach its face.
Amethyst, who had fallen behind due to a piece of falling debris, gasped and skid to a halt when she rounded the corner into the room the other two Gems were in. "Wow! What the frick is that?!" Amethyst yelled.
"Amethyst-" Pearl went to hush Amethyst, but it was too late. The very earth began to shake as the figure shuffled. Slowly and carefully its ancient, chipped stone body stood up and now all of its body but its lower legs were encased in darkness. That is, until a pair of bright white eyes opened far above the three gems, shining like a spotlight down upon them.
"Get ready!" Pearl had pulled out her spear and began to speak, but was interrupted when Garnet stuck out her arm and held her back. At that moment, the figure spoke in a deep, rumbling voice that sent shivers down their back and made their minds go blank. Of course, the first to snap out of the reverie was Garnet.
"Crystal Gems…" It said to Garnet as it seemed to bend down to look at them more closely, "… Fighting…? There is no need for us to take that path."
The gaze was intense, more than anything she'd ever felt before. The closer it was, the heavier she felt. She fell to her knees just in time to hear her companions fall onto the ground unconscious.
"Who… What- are you?" Garnet asked through grunts and heaves as she tried to pull herself to her feet.
The figure kept silent for a moment. Then it stood straight. Immediately, Garnet felt the pressure lifted off of her and she sighed in relief.
"It has been a long time… A long time since anyone but me has been here and the first time one of you get this deep into the Temple of Gods."
Amethyst groaned and stood up, shaking her head. "Temple of Gods? Those Gods seriously need a lesson from Pearl in cleaning. This place is a mess."
The figure looked around, at its body and then back at the gems. "How long has it been since the Battle of the Pumice Plains, if I may ask?"
Garnet and Amethyst looked at each other and Pearl, who was now standing up, spoke. "The Battle of the… Pumice Plains? I'm… Afraid I don't know. That battle wasn't mentioned in any of the archives I've visited."
There was a sound like grinding stone. The figure was rubbing its palms together. "I see. How may I help you, so that I can go back to my eternal slumber?"
"We're here looking for a way to defeat White Diamond and liberate Homeworld." Garnet said without hesitation. The other two were shocked at how easily she revealed their mission to the strange figure.
"… I see. So she was successful. I'm afraid you can't defeat her, and those who could are long gone or in my case, long past their prime." The figure seemed… Sad for a moment. "Care to listen to an old God's story, Crystal Gems?"
The figure took the cool Garnet, shocked Pearl and uninterested Amethyst's silence as affirmation, and began to tell its story. A story of a long gone race on a long gone planet in a long past era.
"You see, long ago… Before White Diamond and even Homeworld, we were… Different."