"So, would anyone care to explain to me what is going on between you two?" Connie glanced at Rose and Pearl while they were holding hands. The more she stayed with Steven and his friends, the more she was weirded out, but the fact that his presumably dead mother had come back to life at the expense of himself really took the cake.
"Connie, you should tell Greg that Rose is here. He's at the van next to the It's A Wash." Pearl looked back at Connie.
"But Pearl, wouldn't that make him unnecessarily worried for Steven? He would think that I killed him." Rose called out.
"He'll be fine. He didn't think that Steven killed you, after all." Pearl shook it off.
"I obviously was absent when that happened, so I am going to assume that you are right." Rose was still trying to see the possibilities, but without Garnet's heightened perception, that was proving to be rather difficult.
"Okay, but I'm definitely not running all the way to Greg's van again." While Connie had already regained her strengths after running to Steven's house and then eating breakfast, she didn't want to exhaust herself too quickly again.
"We are going to need Leo for this." Rose finally released Pearl's hands and glanced at the front door. Just then, a roar was heard and an all-familiar pink lion appeared. It appeared as if it could sense Rose's voice anywhere in the world.
"Leo?" Connie turned to where the roar was heard, and saw the lion that she recognized as well. "Oh, you mean Lion."
"Oh, Steven, you goofball." Rose laughed when she learned what Steven apparently called Leo. Even though she had already heard "Lion" before, only now she could register the fact. "Alright, Leo, I want you to take Steven's friend Connie to It's A Wash." Leo nodded, opened another portal by roaring again and swept Connie, so that she was riding him. He then entered the portal and disappeared from Rose and Pearl's sights.
Connie appeared in what, at first sight, looked like an abandoned warehouse. Though, a closer inspection revealed all the cleaning machines that were inside; Lion, or Leo as Rose called him, had taken her inside the carwash.
Suddenly terrified, Connie ran around the empty building, not even caring that Lion had already disappeared. Both the entrance and the exit for vehicles were locked, while a door to a maintenance room was open, but the door to outside from there was locked. Inadvertently, though, Connie set off an alarm. As it happened, someone inside the nearby van squirmed and picked up a random nearby object, which happened to be a wrench.
"I have a… wrench and I'm not afraid to use it!" The man shouted as he stormed off to the door, then struggled to find his keys to unlock the door. In confusion, he dropped his wrench, which hit his foot. Trying not to scream in pain, he finally grabbed his keys in his pocket, took them out, getting his finger in the ring, and rushed to unlock the door.
What he saw inside there shocked him even more than the pain from the wrench. "Miss Mahes… I mean Connie? How did you get inside the carwash?" After all, Greg knew that Connie also had relations to Steven, and therefore, magic stuff.
"Lion took me. I wanted to tell you…"
Greg's attention, though, was turned to a detail - more specifically, someone not being there. "Steven! Is everything okay with him?"
"Speaking of Steven…" Connie thought of how to break the bad news, and decided on the most subtle way. "Someone at the Crystal Temple has been wanting to meet you, Mr. Universe."
"Is it Garnet?"
"No..." Connie sighed. It was a pain that everyone except Garnet understood.
"Pearl?"
"No, but perhaps…"
Greg suddenly became confused. "Amethyst? She's not really a motherly figure, but…"
"Also no… I wanted to say-"
Before Connie could finish her sentence, the initially confused man suddenly grew in horror. "A gem from Homeworld?"
Connie glanced at what she thought was a green star in the sky, but what she dismissed as a twinkle from her glasses… even though she wasn't wearing glasses at the time. "Is that a gem history thing? Since I certainly wouldn't know that."
"Well, I didn't hear that much about it - I mean, Rose could…" Now, Greg was interrupted by Connie clicking her fingers.
"That would be it."
"…Rose? You must be pulling my leg, Miss Maheswaran; Rose Quartz gave up her physical form so that Steven could be born…"
Just then, Lion appeared again like the mischievous animal that he is. He pushed Connie towards Greg. She collapsed on Greg's leg, and he tumbled backwards. As both were lying down, they laughed at the visual pun, but returned to their original expressions soon after. "She could explain this stuff better than we do. Leo? Could you take us back to the Crystal Temple?"
Lion only roared in agreement. He opened another portal, and Greg and Connie rushed inside.
"Now that Steven's friend is gone, shall we resume the dialogue?" Pearl looked at the disappearing portal, then back at Rose.
"Alright." Rose nodded. "The core of the problem is that you want me to be there and tell you what to do."
"Yes." Pearl regretfully admitted, blushing. "You see, tidying things up is a bit of a hobby for me, since Steven and Amethyst are prone to leaving messes, but that is only a mental disorder, and when we go on missions, typically Garnet leads us."
"Then Garnet is doing a good job. Is there any way to remind me to talk to her after I'm done with you?" Rose glanced around the house once again, seeing if any of these human objects was used to write memories inside.
"I will remind you. Don't you worry about anything." Pearl projected a hologram of Rose once again, which repeated: Is there any way to remind me... before disappearing.
"But... it would seem that there is also an emotional attachment to me, that neither Steven nor Garnet can replace, hence making you miss me." Rose remembered her past conversations with Pearl, all at once, trying to piece together where the relationship had gone, both with her and without her.
"We don't know that yet, okay? Steven's still yet to grow up and Garnet acts nothing like you, so the entirety of the problems still hasn't resolved..."
"And while the entirety of the problems still hasn't been resolved, I remain." Rose sighed. "That is one of our rules."
"You really shouldn't, Rose. Think of it - your body is now organic, and therefore you're subject to all the vulnerabilities of a human..."
"And all the advantages." Rose remembered the fact that Steven was able to fuse with Connie, that one time.
"We still don't know of all those advantages, though. You should really stay out of this; Steven still needs taking care of..."
"You're not going to make this easy, will you." Rose looked away from Pearl and through the door. The outside world was still there, begging to be explored, and yet Pearl was still there, thinking she can resolve all her problems of her own, when it was obvious that she couldn't, even for Steven. (Hehe, even Steven. While Rose was looking away from Pearl, she could afford to make a smile, but not laugh.)
"I am not. It just made me realize that I... You see, I never felt this way until you met Greg, but once you did, I realized that he was replacing the place I held in your world..."
"So, you're in love with me." Rose was still looking away, preferring not to get honest.
"Hehe. Yeah, you could say that." Pearl very nervously laughed. "But you now have Greg, and Greg is supposed to have Steven to bond with..."
"Once again: Steven is not returning." It was very unusual for Rose's voice to change from anything but soothing, and Pearl grew worried. "Not for a while. And as for Greg, I'm pretty sure..." Before Rose could finish her sentence, she saw a pink portal opening, meaning that Leo was finally able to retrieve the guests to the house.
As both Rose and Pearl were able to correctly predict, Connie and Greg stepped out of the portal, just before it closed. Since Connie was already familiar with the environment, she decided to watch the three adults converse from upstairs, being as curious as any child would be.
Greg, though, got lost in the familiar pink curls and a face that he thought he would never see again. "Rose!" He jumped towards the love of his life and stood right next to her, touching his body. The sensation wasn't exactly the same as the last time they did that, more than ten years ago just before Steven was born, but Greg dismissed it as forgetting something.
When Rose embraced Greg with his arms, though, he definitely felt different. It seemed as if this Rose's body was heavier and more... human. It also felt pretty painful. "Rose, I don't think you realize, but you're crushing me right now."
"Oh. Sorry. Still getting used to the body." Rose released Greg, and he stepped back. Pearl thought back to the moment when she was similarly embraced by Greg, and devilishly grinned, thinking that she had finally gotten her revenge.
"Anyway, if you're here... where's Steven?" Greg asked. Instead of answering, Rose turned to Connie, staring at her face. She swerved a bit, feeling the same out-of-body sensation as during other times, and said: "You can ask him anything now."
Greg still didn't know what that meant in gem terms, but then again, the case of Rose and Steven was an unique one, so likely no one knew. This still didn't hide his embarassment when he was stumbling on the simplest question: "Hey... Steven?"
"Hey, dad!" Rose suddenly spoke in a voice that sounded much more like Steven. "I see you're meeting mom as well, after as long as I can remember! Get it? Since she was gone during my entire life? ...I keep jumping into the most awkward moments, don't I?" As Rose heard this, she turned away, deciding that both Greg and Pearl had had enough of Steven.
Mildly scared, Pearl decided to climb upstairs to watch the scene together with Connie. Greg, though, kept looking at Rose, and she looked back at him. "So... he's literally inside you?"
"That would be an incorrect interpretation," Rose began elaborating. "You see, Steven and I share the same gemstone... and the same organic body."
"Then, wouldn't you just be able to transform into my kid right away, when we decided we wanted a kid?"
"No." Rose said, and with each of her words, Greg became more and more confused. "If I had transformed into a child, that child would still have my memories, my personality and a gem body. Instead, I decided on the human pregnancy process, so that the result would be an actual human being that grows up with age..."
"...but then it turns out that the age is irrelevant, as Steven is as old as he wants to be. Right, we know already." Pearl finished the sentence for Rose. Connie glanced to where Pearl was sitting, next to her, and sneered her eyes due to the rude interruption.
"Woah, Steven can do that? Why didn't you tell me?" Greg glanced at Pearl.
"Yeah? His older self just wasn't around to meet you, because he knew that only we can help a gem with his gem problems." Pearl began patronizing Greg.
"Also... exactly how old are we talking?"
"Let's see... white hair, almost all bald except for the moustache and beard, wrinkles on his face..." Pearl began listing the traits of old Steven, projecting him onto the lower floor, between Rose and Greg.
"Woah! That's even older than I am!" Greg was thoroughly shocked by Pearl's description and the hologram, just before it disappeared before his eyes.
"I wonder how I would look like if I wanted to imitate that. For obvious purposes, though, I will not participate in shapeshifting while in this organic form." Rose glanced upwards, trying to think of what she would look like. Obviously she would not have a beard, since she is what humans know as "female"...
"Okay, okay. Let's get back to Steven. And you had to disappear because...?" Greg got back onto the point.
"You see, sometimes an object that is particularly close to a gemstone acts as the cage for the gemstone, not allowing to escape. Steven, as a fetus, had become such an object, and as such I disappeared, only leaving behind him. You might also know the effect from... Pearl, what about that mirror with the blue raindrop gem?" Rose looked at Pearl once again.
"Steven released it. It turned out to be a gem named Lapis Lazuli, who then stole our ocean..." Pearl very obviously still held a grudge against Lapis.
"And we went on a mission to bring it back!" Greg threw his arms up in the air. "Eventually, Steven convinced Lapis not to fight us, and went up to the ocean, where he healed Lapis's gem with his healing spit. She then got to Homeworld, and I don't know of the rest of the tale. At least, that's what Steven told me."
"Healing... spit?" Rose looked at Greg, then took a sample of her own saliva, wondering if it had healing powers as well.
"And bad stuff is going to happen. Homeworld now knows of us and is going to attack us one way or another, and it's all Steven's fault. And he isn't even here to apologize!" Pearl crossed her arms, while Connie finally realized that she wasn't wearing glasses, and that the green star really was something in the sky. Was it a Homeworld ship, ready to destroy the entire human race with a single flick of the wrist?
Connie shuddered at the thought, but was interrupted by Greg again. "Speaking of Lapis. I've been getting back into music! I wrote this song, inspired by her stealing the ocean. Come to my van! I'll sing it to you. I also drew an album cover!"
Rose smiled at Greg, knowing that even he somehow got back into his music business. Perhaps Pearl needed a similar hobby to keep herself occupied. "Alright, Leo. I want you to take us to It's A Wash again."
"Not the carwash itself, though." Connie added. She didn't want to scare anyone again.
"Sorry, then. I want you to take us to just outside It's A Wash." Leo appeared in the room, and opened another portal. Rose and Greg stepped through, holding hands, and Pearl followed, having swept Connie and swiftly descended the stairs.
"Woah, Leo? So his name is not Lion?" Greg said, as soon as he and Rose stepped through the portal.
"I know that Steven's been calling him Lion. You should not be reminding me every now and then." Rose giggled once again, and Greg opened the back of his van, looking for his guitar. As Pearl exited the portal, she made sure to drop Connie on her legs, as humans apparently do not like when they stand on anything but their legs.
When Greg pulled his guitar and the album cover out, he passed the cover to Connie, who got Pearl and Rose to stand around her and look. The cover depicted a blue gem - Pearl and Rose recognized this as Lapis, and Connie just shrugged, thinking that maybe this was accurate - behind a water stream that was flowing… upwards? The cover was titled "Water Witch".
"Alright, folks. Mr. Universe is back in action with… Riptide Queen, from the soon-to-be album Water Witch!" Greg returned to how he acted in his younger days, as he demonstratively plugged in the guitar and began shredding chords. "Well, she's a riptide queen and she's super mean!"
Just then, Greg's musical equipment inexplicably shut off. He tried getting more chords in, but they just sounded like ordinary guitar, rather than electric guitar. Rose then spoke. "That is so historically inaccurate on so many levels. Haven't you even heard of what Lapis used to be?"
Pearl then turned to Rose. "No, we haven't. But you seem to make it out as if you have."
"Well, then, sit down and put your guitars down, since it's time for a story of a lost gem's rise and fall."
Connie then tugged on Rose's dress. "Is it really a good time? I mean, you still have to pull yourself together."
"That's what Lapis thought as well," Rose continued, ignoring Connie, while Greg reluctantly put his guitar back, thinking that he will never be a musician again. "In fact, why don't we start from the beginning?"
"You knew that and you still wanted to protect us. Don't you know you can wholeheartedly trust me?" Pearl had begun losing her mind.
Just as Pearl said that, though, a deafening noise started to be heard from the Crystal Temple. It sounded oddly periodical, and as it happened, it shattered windows in the distance, likely in the beach house.
"The story will have to wait. Leo, back to the house by the Temple Fusion." Rose said. As Leo obliged once again and the troupe stepped through, Rose sighed, knowing that there were more important matters than a silly story.
Author's idiotisms: Issuing corrections (that would require replacing more than just a few words) again, as well as things I wanted to say:
1) Chille Tid actually reveals that Garnet is too tall for the door to Steven's room, so I didn't mess that part up.
2) Yes, you are right; since Rose's Scabbard was actually the first part of a StevenBomb, we're going to see the rest of it, except with Rose instead of Steven. (Cue all the "Jasper was right" comments.)
3) I'm talking to myself and comparing myself to episodes since I haven't been receiving reviews. Just saying.