His legs ached and the air felt sticky, pushing him back with hot humid air. Steven brushed off the winds as he trudged through the storm.
"We have to get to Roses fountain back on Earth!" Pearl shouted, although with the loud whipping winds it seemed so distant. "There's a warp pad somewhere north from here!" She cried. Harsh snow began falling as Steven fell to his knees. He felt strong hands grip him by the sides and haul him upward.
"Garnet?" He cried through the snow, the large gem carried the boy through the winds. He heard loud footsteps. He saw a very faint face in the snow, he made it out to be Amethyst.
"Is that-" She began, but was shushed by the sudden burst of wind thrown at her. Garnet nodded nevertheless, as if the smaller gem could see it.
"It's the Homeworld army isn't it." Pearl said, Steven couldn't see her face, but he guessed it was full of worry and distress as it had been the last week or two, they'd lost track of time. The loud footsteps seized. The group was hesitant to step forward and make any noise as they got farther away the the storms subsided.
"If we don't get away soon we'll be hopeless if they attack, as you saw before there are several spikes in the time here where our gems stop working and we cannot fuse, nor heal, neither draw out weapons, Amethyst lost very easily during the battle when her weapon began loosing its power and retreating back into her gem." Garnet said. Steven considered that when he remembered the gems didn't heal within all that time. Pearl simply nodded, slowing down her pace and inching closer to Amethyst.
"You mean you saw the entire thing? Weren't you asleep?" Pearl asked. Garnet shook her head and simply began moving faster.
"We have to hurry we can't let the Homeworld gems catch up, we're in no condition to fight." Garnet ordered, she laid her back against a cave wall, they had made their way to a caves entrance. She waited for Pearl to get ready as she rummaged in her bag.
"Okay, I'm ready." She confirmed, she tapped her gem which emitted a faint glow.
"No luck huh?" Amethyst asked in a raspy voice, she must've gotten a bit sick in the storm. Pearl was the first to go inside the cave.
"The warp pad should be somewhere in here, only we know where it is, Rose told us she had implanted a warp pad for herself, but when she rebelled against Homeworld along with us, it became our main access to Homeworld for information, until the war broke out and all warp pads were shut down on Homeworld." Pearl mummered.
"That's why the Homeworld gems had to come in a ship rather than warping...They still don't work." Steven said. Pearl nodded reluctantly.
"But...You have Roses gem...If anyone can activate a warp pad made solely by Rose herself...It'd be you Steven." Pearl looked the boy in the eyes, he wriggled his way from Garnets grasp to look Pearl in the eye. "Steven...You can do so much more..y-you're capable of so many things that you don't know of yet.." Pearl said, her eyes watered a bit. Steven nodded, he wrapped his arms around Pearl, shooting heat through her, shutting out the cold air from the cave inside. He let go and let a big smile wash over his face.
"Let's go." Garnet interrupted, she wasn't one for moments like these obviously. Pearl gathered herself back together and sped up towards the taller gem who immediately began walking stealthily through the cave.
Pearl entered the last room she assumed had the entrance to the warp pad. "I think I found it!" She cried upon seeing the large staircase downward.
"Hey where'd Connie go?" Steven spoke up upon going through the passage way.
"She's with Amethyst." Pearl said, she pointed to the purple gem who seemed to have a mirror in her hands.
"She's in the mirror?!" Steven cried, Pearl put her hand on his shoulder.
"We found it a while back before you came, Amethyst was the last one and since we figured out how to use it, we thought we'd transport her that way." Pearl said. "But you seemed to be out of it and way to tired to listen so it never came across my mind to say something." Pearl said. It made sense after all.
"How did you figure out how to use it?" Steven asked.
"Well, before we couldn't get the gem out, but we found out only gems who've come from the same place the mirror was made can get another out, Rose was made on Homeworld in another area separate from me and Garnet. But you have her gem, it's no wonder you were able to free Lapis Lazuli, and we could never. It does explain how you were freed by Jasper as well." Pearl said as they walked down the large corridor.
"You mean Jasper was made in the same area as my mom?" Steven asked, Pearl nodded.
"Because of this Jasper was able to easily get Rose on their side to dominate Earth, Rose was a trusted friend of mine and Garnet by the time and...well...we went along with it, we made the biggest mistake of our lives...but...I guess it worked out in the end." Pearl said, glancing over the the half human gem.
Steven glanced over to the mirror, it had, instead of a gem, a hollow hole, round at the top, but pointed at the bottom, with curls flowing down representing hair, obviously Connie's face imprinted in a mirror.
"So...My mother...She was on the Homeworld armies side, does this mean at one point..." Steven didn't finish, his face was shielded by a dark shadow he used as a visor to hide the tears tempting to escape.
"Yes...At one point we were all on their side, we even-" Pearl stopped, glancing over at Amethyst. Pearl felt a pang of guilt, attempting to shove the horrifying memory back down into the hidden corner of her mind she always chose to keep under a facade, in a lot of ways, Pearl had acknowledged she was similar to the kindergarten gem in many ways.
"Amethyst..?" Steven muttered so quietly it was no longer audible over the loud thoughts in the groups head, shouting at them at how horrible gems they really were. Steven knew this, it didn't take much to know they were trying to hide it, even a boy with no memories could figure this out.
'You tried to kill her once...didn't you...?' Steven thought to himself just one second before tripping over a stair and plummeting to the ground below, but for once...He didn't care.