They arrived just outside of the temple, Lion skidding to a stop before plopping onto the sand to let them off so he could go rest underneath the deck. Lion may be a big cat, but he was just as lazy as the real thing. Of course, Steven bolted up the stairs to get the living area ready, with Connie just behind him. Pearl couldn't stop the smile that was on her lips, even if the story he was so excited to hear wasn't exactly a happy one. She made her way up to find Garnet and Amethyst already waiting, thankful that Garnet had likely seen them coming with her future vision.
For as little time as Steven had, he'd made sure to make the living area as prepared for story time as possible. Pillows for Connie and him, some larger ones for the gems, with ambiance lighting and some snacks which Amethyst was already eyeballing. As she took her place among them Steven and Connie both looked up at her with big smiles, returning it with one of her own before she even knew it.
"So Pearl," Garnet started, her smooth voice making her come from her observations "Steven was telling us you told them about the Armor of the Fallen, his in particular." she said softly "Do you really think it's a good idea? It's quite the story, not really one for children."
Pearl only considered it for a moment before she was interrupted by the shortest, and most rambunctious of their group, Amethyst "The Ste-man can handle it, we've been hiding things from him for a while now and it never works out. This is about a dead guy, so it's not like it can come back and bite us." she said, laughing at her own, unintentional joke.
Pearl let out an exasperated sigh before she spoke, earning a somewhat shocked looked from Amethyst at her words. "I agree with Amethyst, we've hid so many things from Steven, and sometimes it's almost caused him to be injured, and other times it's kept him from really helping us to his best potential." she said softly "And...as much as I hate to admit it, this is something that happened that he needs to know." she said, wringing her hands nervously
Garnet looked at the two other gems, considering her options before nodding. "Steven, there are a great many things on Earth, and in the universe at large that you are unaware of." she started, looking at the two young humans from behind her shades "And until we met that man, we were sure that we had a pretty good understanding of what humanity was capable of."
Amethyst laughed as she worked on making an abomination of a snack, made up of various things that Steven had put out "Man, here we were thinking 'oh well there's no way humans can stand up to us! We're the strongest!'" she said in a dopey voice, drawing a small frown from Pearl.
"To the majority, yes we are superior." she said, somewhat insulted that they were being compared to something as squishy as humans, although she pushed that sentiment away. Old beliefs were hard to get rid of, especially for someone like a Gem. "Vlad was, well he was different from other humans." she said softly "He fought hard for his country, he was greedy, selfish, and he had self destructive tendencies. You know, most of the things that humans are known for." she said, a hologram coming up and showing them what he looked like. Long, flowing black hair with a goatee, his dark eyes filled with a fire that was both inspiring and terrifying.
"When we first encountered that man, he stood up to us with no fear in his eyes or his heart. He stood below Rose, but he spoke to her as an equal." Garnet started, noticing the frown and a slight puffing of cheeks from Pearl "We'd seen humans act like that before, but it was usually posturing. It was the first time in nearly a thousand years, that someone actually-" she paused for a moment, thinking of a term Steven would understand "walked the walk." she finally said, pausing to looking down at the two.
Connie raised her hand like she was in a classroom, hugging her pillow to her chest. Pearl let out a soft chuckle and motioned to her as if giving her permission to speak. "Why did you even need to meet with him? From what I'm hearing it sounds like he was standing in the way of your mission! Couldn't you have just kicked his butt?" she asked, earning an agreeing nod from Steven, although in his mind he would have preferred a more peaceful approach.
"How did you guys meet?" Steven asked, now in the same position as Connie as he looked at the three gems. "You said he didn't fight alongside mom, and that he actually fought you guys! Not to mention that he was one of mom's mistakes! So how did you guys meet him?" he asked, bouncing up and down and drawing a small chuckle from Pearl.
"I suppose we should start from the beginning then." she said softly, her hologram shifting to the inside of the temple, nearly half a millenia ago...
