In which only one can leave the dream alive.
The Crystal Gems, we can help!
Somewhere in the howling void that came through, and Tektite whirled on the boy, eyes alight with madness. "What do you know?!" she screeched, voice raw and angry—and hurt, Steven realized, not that he could help that. Her chest heaved, breathing the scent of incense that was like lifeblood, and Tektite drew herself up to her full height.
Not much taller than the boy's, now, as the unbalanced power in her dreamscape tipped in the enemy's favor.
"You're a trick—an illusion! You're just that traitor Rose Quartz hiding somehow! You think I don't know magic when it's right in front of me?" She laughed, extending a clawed hand to point accusingly at the child, even as the walls continued to give way around them. "Don't try to lie to me, Rose. You may have fooled others, you may fool even yourself, but humans don't have magic!" But the Gem knew that wasn't quite right even as she said it, even as she screeched desperately and tried to rewrite their reality. That wasn't the problem.
It's been over—for thousands of years!
"I don't know what makes you think I'm fool enough to fall for your lies," Tektite raved, "And I don't much care! We'll win this war, and I'll deliver you to the General in pieces myself!"
Stones crumbled around them, and Steven slowly stood up, still in his bubble. "I'm not Rose Quartz!" he insisted, frustration visibly building. "Calm down and talk to me! We don't need to fight!"
He had her eyes.
The realization set fire to Tektite's madness. Dark eyes and curly hair; Tektite could see her yet, with her bigness and soft, sad face. An honest face, she thought, recalling how unguarded the little boy seemed only moments ago. Without that bubble, she could have him, she thought. "I'll pull Rose Quartz right out of you, child!"
Steven's arm raised automatically, protecting his Gem, and Tektite got a glimpse of the pink stone peeking out beneath his shirt. But more than that, more importantly, she saw fear—raw, unprotected—in his eyes. She laughed.
"You don't want that, Rose?" she mocked, stepping forward, swinging her lantern. The green light cast no farther than each stride she took, but in her wake was darkness, the way things should have been. The emptiness where walls no longer stood was a dull red, rusty and flat, and Tektite was certain she could still win this. Somehow. "I don't know what you did to this human, but it doesn't matter. If you're in there, I'll rip you to bits, just like that pearl!"
"You hurt Pearl?" Steven gasped, and he backed away somewhat, bubble rolling easily with him. The pink tint to the room went with him too; protected him, even though Tektite was walking briskly and cutting into the edges. "What did you do to Pearl?"
There. Tektite had found the chink in the boy's armor.
She smiled, saccharine oozing from her expression, and the hand that wasn't firmly grasping her lantern's handle settled easily on the swell of her hip. "I could show you," Tektite cooed, leaning in. "I could break you down the same way… She was my greatest project; the finest clay I've ever sculpted from. Such a pity she fell apart in the end."
"What does that mean?" Steven demanded, dark eyes wide and fearful as the enemy Gem pressed closer, finally raking her clawed nails down his bubble. It didn't pop, but the scratches left behind were visible for long moments. Tektite didn't answer. Instead, she drew with her claws, leaving streaks in their wake. Steven couldn't read the writing, and that frustrated him further.
"Where's Pearl? What did you do?!" he cried, frantically trying to maintain the concentration needed to keep his bubble intact despite his panic. "Tell me! Please!"
"No… I don't think I will," Tektite drawled, "You can't get something for nothing."
"Then what do you want?" Steven was desperate; the walls were still coming down around them, peeling away like raw bark now, with fresh hot pink beneath. The ground itself was cracking audibly, and Tektite seemed to stand on the only stretch of stone that was stable. Steven's heart trip-hammered in his chest. "Just tell me what happened to Pearl!"
"Oh, I can do more than tell. You can be next, you know. Stay here with me in this dream world, and I'll show you everything… everything I did to her, everything that made her break. You can appreciate the beauty with me," Tektite was back to smiling toothily, spreading her arms wide. Darkness swirled behind her, and her lantern gleamed, sinister and bright, and Steven felt sick at the sight of it.
"Break?" Steven's blood ran cold. "You broke her?"
"She broke herself," Tektite corrected, tutting with her tongue against her sharp teeth. "I only gave her a little push… Well," she laughed, immeasurably pleased by the chance to gloat, "Maybe not so little."
Steven was a gentle soul. He took pride in that, took pleasure in the way that Pearl and his father and the others all praised his soft heart. That he'd inherited from his mother something so precious, so rare as boundless kindness, was worth celebrating. He was only a boy, small and weak and half human, but he strove to be like Rose Quartz in that respect. Steven was made of second and third chances, and a heartfelt belief in the good in everyone.
So the rage that filled him, made him see red, was like nothing he had ever felt. It surged up from his Gem, through every cell of his being, grew bigger than he was, bigger than his bubble, and burst out from his chest in a roar that sounded like Lion. The last of the walls came crashing down around them.
"How dare you!?" he shouted, tears streaming down his cheeks, and the ripple of his bubble expanding and popping bowled Tektite over. The pink was back again, overwhelming and brilliant, and burning in the air. "How dare you brag about hurting someone? How can you smile about that?! How dare you hurt my Pearl?!"
Tektite scrambled to rise again, but wave after wave of magical energy assaulted her. She clutched her lantern, the last source of darkness left, save for the crumbling patch of mossy stone she stood on, and Steven saw the beginnings of cracks in the enemy herself—cobwebbed lace spreading up her arm like lightning.
He'd won.
Tektite crumbled like dust in the wind.
