"You sure you can do it, Connie?" Steven asked.

"I mean, I'm pretty sure," Connie replied. "I've been practicing a lot lately and have gotten fairly good at it. I guess it depends on what type of lock it is. And hopefully, it's not magic or advanced gem tech or anything like that."

"Guess we'll find out," Steven said. Taking a deep breath, he plunged into Lion's mane and emerged dragging Rose's chest soon after.

"Looks like a pretty standard pin tumbler," Connie said after a quick examination of the lock. "It shouldn't be too hard to deal it." She got a set of lock picks from her bag.

"It was pretty cool of your parents to get you those," Steven remarked.

"Well, my dad's kind of a security geek anyway, so he was pretty excited about it," Connie said. "And they were even more supportive after I explained what I planning to do with them. Plus they knew I would never break the law- well, no just law, anyway. And compared to having a sword..." She selected a pick. "I think I'll use a half-diamond pick for this. Seems appropriate, doesn't it?"

Steven chuckled. "I guess it does."

Connie began to work, and a few minutes later, a click was heard from the lock. "Got it," Connie said. "Go ahead, Steven. Open it."

Steven approached the chest but hesitated.

"Steven?" Connie asked. "You okay?"

"I have no idea what's in there," Steven said. "It could be anything. It could be something innocuous, like the tape she left for me. Or it could just be evidence that she was Pink Diamond. Like, that would have been shocking if I had opened it a while ago, but we're well past that point now. Or it be another dark secret she had. Like Bismuth. Or worse. I mean, not only was it stored in Lion's mane, but in a locked chest to boot!" He sighed. "Which is to say… I'm scared."

Steven felt a comforting hand take hold of his. Looking over, he saw Connie standing beside him, giving a reassuring smile. "Whatever is in here, we'll face it together."

Steven smiled in return, but his face soon steeled itself to a look of resolve as he let go of Connie and slowly opened the lid to the chest. Its contents made him recoil physically. He stumbled to the floor and scrambled back a couple feet, as if the distance would somehow lessen the horrible revelation.

"Gems," he said. "She was keeping a bunch of gems in there. It's worse than I could have possibly imagined."

"Er, Steven?" Connie said.

"Why was she keeping them in there?" Steven continued, clutching his head. "Why didn't she just bubble them like the others? And who are they? Rebels? Homeworld loyalists? Subjects from when she was still Pink Diamond?"

"Steven..."

"Connie, watch out!" Steven said, summoning his shield. "They could reform any second! I mean, I hope we don't have to fight them, but-"

"Steven, I'm pretty sure these are just regular Earth gems. You know, the non-sentient kind? The kind humans sometimes like to put in jewelry?"

Steven cautiously approached again and looked at them more closely. "Oh," he said, dismissing the shield. "Well, that's not even bad, actually. Just kind of weird. Why do you think she had these?"

"Curiosity, maybe?" Connie shifted through the gemstones with her hand. "I mean, look at these. There's rubies, sapphires, amethysts… I think there's even a couple of diamonds. I know if I were a gem, I'd find these fascinating. In a sort of unsettling way."

"Maybe." Steven stared at the chest. "So… what should we do with these?"

"Well, if you don't want to keep them, you could always sell them. They're probably worth a few thousand dollars in total."

"Don't really need the money… but sure, that would work. Yeah, I could ask my dad about that tomorrow."

"Would he know about selling gemstones?"

"I don't know, but he's rich, and he owns a business, so he's a good person to ask to start with. In the meantime, though, I'll just put this back." Steven closed the lid and carried the chest back into Lion's mane.

"Well, that's one last mystery solved," Connie remarked as Steven returned. "Although, admittedly, the answer was a bit underwhelming."

"That's kind of a relief, actually," Steven said. "I mean, could you imagine if there were actually a bunch of gem-gems in there?" He chuckled.

Connie raised an eyebrow. "That doesn't really strike me as something to laugh about. You reacted pretty strongly when you thought it was actual gems in there, after all."

"Yeah, that's what I was laughing about; it was a silly mistake to make. But don't worry about it; I just got myself worked up and let my mind assume the worst. But, you know, my mom might have been irresponsible and sort of manipulative, but she wasn't evil or anything. Not like that. And now that we know it's just a weird collection she had, I don't have to worry anymore!"

Connie shrugged. "Okay, if you say so. So… what do you want to do now?"

"Well, we could just always hang out and play video games."

"Yeah, that'd be fun."