Of all the things Steven expected to admit in his life, this was certainly not one of them.
And that thing? Yellow was right.
Steven had to admit it.
But not about colonization. Not about the perfect empire. Not about the Cluster. Not about anything like that.
No, she was right about the not-ghosts appearing on the edges of a person's vision when they were alone in the archives, standing there like a stalker carefully watching their intended target.
And just like the images of the bodies, there were just so many. Dozens, in fact, and like Steven said, he quickly turned to face each one any time they appeared, causing them to fade away. However, this only seemed to motivate the spirits to show up twice as often, and he now spotted them at an average of one a minute.
The one he saw right now was a man, one that he recognized from the screen like the rest, with a pale suit of armor on and a beard that made him look like a discount Santa Claus. Steven sighed once he caught the figure in his peripheral vision and looked fully at them, catching a glimpse of a wound in their side as they vanished. One second they were there, and the next they weren't. They didn't disappear in a puff of smoke or sparks, they were just...gone.
And Steven wasn't having any of this. More than once or twice he yelled at them to show themselves, but they never listened. And each time he did, he slapped himself in the face, reminding himself that he was pretty much shouting at ghosts to leave him alone.
If it was ghosts. If these things weren't ghosts, then he didn't know what they were. But as of right now, "ghosts" was the only answer he had, especially since these were all humans that were long dead, judging by their images on the screen.
He just didn't know why they would be here of all places. And Yellow claimed to see visions of Gems. Were they ghosts too? The lost souls of all the Gems the Diamonds had shattered over the millennia?
He didn't want to think about it. So he didn't. He just turned and looked, occasionally yelled, and that was that. If these things were hostile then they clearly didn't show any signs of it, so Steven didn't have any reason to believe they were. He simply sat down, leaned back, and kept scrolling.
And what a scroll. He began to regret telling Yellow to take Spinel somewhere else, because as he flicked his finger down the page he recalled why he had her do this in the first place. This was not a movie. Not a video game, not a book, not any other price of media that Steven had watched or read or played that contained blood.
This was real.
Real images of dead humans and animals, mercilessly slaughtered by Gems. Cataloged with the bodies then discarded like trash. It was horrible to see...and even more horrible to think about. Steven has to pause to make sure he didn't vomit a few times, wondering why he was subjecting himself to such horrors.
"All for Connie...all for my family...all so we can take down Mirror." He repeated to himself, as he went through more and more horrific images. "All so I never have to do anything like this ever again."
Truth be told though, Steven was beginning to give up hope. He honestly wasn't even sure what he was looking for, exactly. Would this file even have the Traitor on it? Would there be a special symbol next to their name or nothing at all? Had they already passed them, unaware of what-
This train of thought would have to come to a temporary halt, however, as Steven flicked his eyes sideways and saw yet another vision. This time it was a Gem, in their hand being some kind of tool that Steven couldn't make out. They looked like a dentist, a doctor, or…
...A scientist.
"...So that's it, huh?" Steven said to himself, shocked that he hadn't realized it earlier. "That's how things work when it comes to you. You aren't ghosts at all...are you? You're...you're memories. From these cubes. Any time I open one, you come spilling out of it somehow. Are they imperfect? Do they broadcast images that aren't supposed to be created? Something else?"
He turned to look at the Gem, and this time they didn't vanish. They stood there, staring back at him, twirling their tool around in their hand, until Steven blinked and they were gone. He looked back at the screen and went down to the next image, where he saw a picture of that same Gem, or more specifically just their Gem, shattered into pieces. Next to their photo was a line of text that said, "unwilling to continue", giving Steven another perfect example of how refusal to work was treated in the days of the Empire.
"Memories…" He mumbled. "That's all you are. Just shadows of the past. I wonder...why haven't the others realized this? Are they just unaware? Or do they know, but don't want to believe it?"
The image of the fragments stayed how it was despite his questions, and Steven groaned before scrolling down for the millionth time-
-and hit bottom.
That was it.
The bottom of the screen. He could go no further. That shattered Gem was the last one in a series of photos, and there was nothing else. For a moment he stared blankly at the screen, before his hands started trembling as they turned bright pink. His breathing became more erratic as he felt the urge to scream in frustration, utterly pissed at the fact that either the Traitor wasn't here, or he passed then and would have to go back up.
"Come on…" He growled. "Come on. Come on. Come on! Why are you...mom." Steven scoffed. "Pink Diamond. Why did you have to let this go on? Why didn't you just stop it? You had time. I know you did. I don't care what Pearl said, you had to have the time to send out one measly order. She may have been your best friend, your most trusted one, heck, maybe even your lover if my suspicions are correct, but I don't believe her when it comes to that, not for a second! And all that talk about being a knight and-"
"Access granted."
"Huh?" Was all that Steven managed to say before the screen glowed brightly and switched to another one, like an app being closed. The confusion bells in Steven's head rang out as a flurry of new information and images were presented before him, all of them being much more bearable than what he was used to. And once his brain finally got the gist of what was happening, his eyes managed to comprehend what the images were of.
This was the Traitor.
The real, original Traitor. Steven stared in silent shock as he tried to figure out what triggered this to be unleashed, before recalling what he had said before the cube gave him access.
"Knight…" He whispered. "Was that it? Um...take me back to the main page? Deny me access to any of this."
"Confirmed." The cube chirped, and the new photos faded as the "app closing" thing happened again and he was thrust back into the same gorefest from before. He briefly averted his eyes before clearing his throat, praying that he was right about this and he wouldn't have to guess what the word had been.
"Grant me access." He requested. "Password: Knight."
"Access granted." The cube repeated, and for a third time the screen closed in on itself and a new one popped up. Steven then chucked, which might have been his first genuine laugh in days.
"Really?" He asked towards no one in particular. "Really, mom? When did you even…? Did you come back to Homeworld just to put this password in or something?"
As expected, he received no answer, although another vision did appear, clinging to the shelf a few hundred feet away. They were a human Steven didn't recognize, although he knew from their appearance that they were much more important than any test subject he had seen until that point. He could say that it was in their eyes, or their expression, or the way they stood that told him that…
But no. Really, it was the uniform on them, painted with colors of White, Blue, Yellow, and Pink. And it didn't take a genius to figure out what that meant.
"Yeah." He muttered, as they faded away. "That's you."
With a huff, Steven looked back at the screen, internally screaming in joy at finally finding what he had been looking for. Of course, this could all be pointless, as there could be no information about Mirror in here, but still. It felt good to finally find it. After all the shenanigans with Spinel, memories, and Yellow, it just felt...good.
But he did not feel good after seeing what was on the screen. There were dozens of links that had to make up hundreds of pages, along with what had to be an entire camera's worth of photos for each one. Steven winced upon realizing just how much information there was, not wanting to have another wild goose hunt. But then he remembered. If he could get the cube to lock him out just by asking, then maybe…?
"Show me the first file created in this...file." He requested, and almost instantly a new screen popped up, one that held information regarding the purpose of the Lab and a few notes from scientists, as told from a quick glance. Steven sucked in his breath but stopped himself from screaming again when he realized that he was still glowing pink, albeit a dimmer shade than earlier.
"Oh come on, just go away!" He said, but the glow remained, and Steven decided to just live with it for now and be careful of raising his voice. "Why didn't you tell me this either, Yellow...who knew that these things could be voice-activated." He growled, before turning his attention back to the device. "Give me the origins of the Traitor. Or the human who is the focus of this file."
"Confirmed." The cube said. "Would you like it told in voice format?"
"Uh...yes," Steven replied. "Would save me a read."
"Very well." The cube said, which had a feminine voice that reminded Steven of Pearl. "In the five thousandth, two hundredth, and thirty-seventh year of colonization, and the tenth year of the organic Lab of Earth being in operation, the Gems stationed there decided that they had enough info to move on to the final phase of their project: Creating an organic human soldier that was without any kind of free will, and would fight for Homeworld without care for its own life."
"Pause," Steven said, who was starting to get flashbacks of his ask-and-respond session with Pearl and Connie about the journal. "Why would Homeworld want to create a human super-soldier? The Traitor was only as strong as a Ruby, and I'm sure Homeworld had millions of those at their disposal. What was the point?"
"Processing question…" The cube said. "Response: The main focus of the project was to make organic beings that would fight for Homeworld. After the organic war in the Agorian system approximately a hundred thousand years before the Earth colonization, Blue Diamond wanted to figure out a way to better wipe out intelligent organic beings. The goal was to make it so that these beings would be turned into soldiers and then released before destroying their own kind. After all the members of their species were disposed of, the organic would self-terminate."
"My god…talk about an infiltration unit." Steven gasped. "But I thought that the whole point was to create immortal organic pets for Pink Diamond, and that the scientists were the ones who went off track, not Blue Diamond."
"Processing…" The cube said. "Response: This was used as a cover by Blue Diamond to make sure that Pink Diamond was not involved with the Lab. She wanted to make it a surprise for Pink Diamond. The immortal pets were one thing planned in the Lab, but the true purpose I'm describing was always the plan from the beginning."
"Of course it was." Steven groaned. "Okay. How many organics died at that lab? I know I'm going to regret this, and I know I just saw all those pictures, but I have to know."
"Processing...response: Approximately 7,343,282 organic beings were killed and disposed of at the Lab." The Lab said, making Steven's blood run cold. "Most were killed with the various tools or Gem weapons around the Lab, although some were killed in a fashion that seemed to intend to extend their deaths. The scientists there wanted to see just how long the organics could survive even with those injuries, and each time-"
"Okay, I don't need any more information than that!" Steven interjected, feeling like he was really going to lose his lunch at this rate. "Why...just...Ugh. Did Blue Diamond know? Was she aware of everything going on at the Lab?"
"Processing...response: inconclusive." The cube said, taking Steven aback.
"Inconclusive?" He echoed. "What do you mean inconclusive? Isn't this everything about the Lab? Or at least the test subjects? Why isn't that information on there?"
"Processing...response: Inconclusive. Requested answer not part of memory banks." The cube said. "Would you like me to send a report?"
"Send a report?" Steven said. "Why would I-"
"Sending report." The cube said, and then it made a sound that was suspiciously similar to the sound of an email being sent.
"Oh, come on! Just...forget it." Steven said, deciding that he wasn't going to pursue that question any further. "Okay. Just keep going with what you were saying. Reading off the cube in voice format."
"Very well." The Cube said. "Homeworld wanted to create a human super-soldier. But they didn't know quite how organics on Earth worked. There was a greater quantity of organic beings on the planet than any other they had encountered in the past. So instead of going straight to humans, the scientists wanted to test their skills on Earth's less evolved creatures first."
"So they just took random animals?" Steven said. "That's why there were so many random Earth animals and not humans? They just tested on them and killed them to prepare themselves for humans? All those creatures slaughter for no reason other than to sharpen their skills?"
"Correct."
"This just keeps getting worse and worse…" Steven said. "Fine. Whatever. I'm sure there's stuff even more horrible than that coming, so I shouldn't be bothering to get upset about this. What happened when they started taking humans? Were the first hundred humans or so kidnapped just to eat their skills as well? Until they found one they considered perfect?"
"Correct." The Cube said. "This time was referred to as the "test run". Many of the scientists did not understand how human biology worked at the time, and they needed to know everything they could to perfect the Traitor."
"They didn't need hundreds of humans for that, they needed like two! Maybe four or six if they really wanted to learn everything there was to know back then!" Steven exclaimed. "Ergh...don't get upset, Universe. Lots more to get angry about later. Cube, what happened then? After they got the Traitor, what did they...actually, no, I think I can figure this part out. And I don't need a graphic description of all the horrible things they did to them. Not yet. Not ready. Not yet."
"Then what would you like me to tell you?"
"Well, I'm pretty sure I can guess the rest of the Lab's history from this point onwards…" Steven said. "I got it. Do you have the current status of the Lab in there? Was it really burned down?"
"Processing...response: Inconclusive."
Steven sighed. "Why was I expecting anything else from that?" He asked himself. "It happened after the way, you idiot. Of course, it wouldn't know. And that means...hey! Hold on a minute. The password used to open this file. Knight. Who put it in there? And when?"
"Processing...response: Pink Diamond." The cube replied. "Year: Data deleted."
"Deleted? Deleted?" Steven gaped. "Well, is there any way to recover it?"
"Processing...response: No."
"Pft. At least that answer is clear." Steven mumbled. "Okay, fine. Then who created this whole file? Who put the cube here in the first place?"
"Processing...response: Pink Diamond."
"When?"
"Proces-"
"Can you just skip the whole processing part?!" Steven said/requested, beginning to get tired of it. "Just don't say that, process it quietly, and then give me an answer."
"Processing...response: Confirmed." The cube said. "Would you like to make any other changes?"
"Not right now, no," Steven said. "No answer my earlier question. When did Pink make this cube?"
"Five hundred years after the end of the Rebellion and the Diamonds final attack on Earth." The cube said, after a short delay.
"..."
"..."
"Really," Steven said. "After the end of the Rebellion? Are you sure?"
"Yes." The cube said. "There are no errors or corrupted data detected within me, so the information cannot be wrong."
"But...but how?!" Steven exclaimed. "I'm sure the Homeworld warp to Earth was destroyed by then, and it's not like she ever wanted to go back to Homeworld in the first place. And even if she did, White would likely have detected her before she even came within a hundred light-years of the planet, considering that she seemed to have some super-sense when I arrived. How did she get in with no one noticing? Why did she do this? And were knights even around back then? Didn't they come hundreds of years later?! Just...what?!"
"...That is too many questions." The cube said, after a slightly longer pause. "Please pick one."
"I'm sure you won't have answers for any of those," Steven said. "Great. Just great. Another mystery. And it's not like I can ask Pearl or Garnet about this one, because if they knew that she was planning to do this they'd never allow it." He put a hand to his chin as his brain began racking itself with possibilities, trying to make sense of any of this. "Did she use her mind powers to possess a Gem on Homeworld? Like I did with the watermelon Steven's? No...this place had to be guarded back then. Unless she took over another one of the Diamonds, I don't think she'd be able to get in here. I'm sure that clapping thing Yellow did earlier wasn't just a move everyone can do. It had to respond to something else there. But what…no." He said, shaking his head. "One thing at a time, Universe. One thing at a time."
"Would you like to see an image of the person who created me?" The cube suddenly said, knocking Steven out of his head.
"What?" He asked. "How...how did you do that?"
"Do what?"
"Speak," Steven said. "Without me speaking to you first. I thought that was how you operated. I was speaking to myself the whole time, so did you just count that as me speaking to you by mistake, or are you actually alive-"
"I believe you are mistaken. I am simply an A.I." The cube said. "Designed to help anyone with the proper clearance who wants to know about the data stored in this cube. I can also detect what a person is looking for by their speech, even if they are not addressing me directly. When you mentioned that you wanted to know how Pink Diamond managed to get in here, I created a proper response that I calculated would assist you with this answer. Thus, an image of the person who made me."
"Oh," Steven said. "Thank you? I guess I shouldn't be surprised, Homeworld has created some pretty crazy stuff, a semi-self aware A.I. isn't that much of a stretch. Alright then. Show me the image. I'm betting that it's not going to be her or something. I swear, if it's another Gem, then I am going to have a talk with-"
Before Steven could finish his sentence, the cube responded and a new photo popped up, causing him to pause as his brain registered it.
Because this was most certainly not Pink Diamond.
Heck, he couldn't even tell if it was a Gem. He didn't even know what it was.
The figure was tall, and draped in what appeared to be a black raggedy cloth, looking like it had been stolen from a used costume shop. Most of their body was covered in it, except for their right arm, left leg, and part of their face and hair. And those were what set Steven off. Because they didn't look like a Gem, and they certainly didn't look human.
Was it their eyes? Maybe it was their eyes. Only one was visible, but Steven was physically chilled by it, like the temperature in the room had just been turned down. There was something in it that he couldn't detect. Happiness? Suspicion? Cruelty? Whatever the cause, he forced himself to look away after only a few seconds, getting the feeling that it was staring right at him. And not like the photo was somehow alive. No, he felt like this person was actually in the room with him anytime he looked into those deep, purple-irised pits.
And then there were the two exposed limbs. He couldn't quite tell what their skin color was, giving him the impression that maybe they were monochrome in appearance, like one of White's puppets. But just like the eye, the longer he looked at it the more uncomfortable he grew. After a minute or so Steven started feeling like he was getting sick, a sort of nauseous ache in his stomach. He didn't know why, until he realized that it looked like the skin on this person was moving. Like a writhing mass or earthworms or a strip of cloth being pulled along in a game of tug of war. It was almost impossible to describe, and even more horrifying to witness.
Once again, Steven was forced to look away, trying to convince himself that this was only his brain pulling tricks on him, and that there was nothing wrong with the image. It was him. Only him.
But there was still one last part to look at. Their hair. Steven had mainly focused on the eye when looking at their face earlier, so he hadn't gotten any kind of look at the name attached to their head. Cautiously, like he was defusing a bomb, he tilted his head in the direction of the screen, settling his attention at the top of their head.
And thankfully for his sanity, it was rather underwhelming compared to the last two things described in too much detail. But it was still odd to look at. The hair was long, and...shiny? Steven couldn't think of a better word to describe it. It was almost sparkling in the light, having the appearance of a pink metal sheet that glittered like a thousand crystals. It was more confusing than disgusting, and it was hard for Steven to pull his eyes away from the screen this time.
But eventually, he managed and closed the image, rubbing his eyes between his thumb and index finger.
"Cube. File. A.I. Whatever you want to be called." He said.
"Yes?"
"Do you know who this is? In the picture? Because it is not Pink Diamond."
"My records state that it is indeed Pink Diamond." The cube said, making Steven grit his teeth.
"It's not." He said bluntly. "You must have seen an image of Pink Diamond before. How can you think this is her? How...okay. Do this. Pull up an image of Pink Diamond stored within your database, and put it alongside the image you just showed me. And I want you to use every bit of sentience you have to tell me whether you think they are the same person or not."
"Confirmed." The cube said, and whirred for a second before beeping. "My database says that they are the same person. Pink Diamond."
"What?! How can you-hold on." Steven said, stopping himself from getting angry at a machine that was only following orders. "The day that picture was submitted into your database...are there any records of someone tampering with the cube? Because this isn't Pink Diamond, as I've said multiple times, but if someone hacked you to make you think that…"
"Hacking my files is near impossible." The cube said. "Would you like me to show you some data of how that is-"
"Just tell me if there was any tampering or not!" Steven shouted, before slowly covering his mouth with one hand, as the cubes around him jiggled from the force.
"Confirmed…...there is no evidence of tampering on that date." The cube said. "Therefore, the person in this picture must be Pink Diamond. There is no other alternative-"
"I'm not going to believe that. Stay quiet for a second. I need to think." Steven requested.
"Confirmed. Activating sleep mode." The cube said.
"Sleep mode? Why would a Gem-made object even have a...oh, forget it." Steven said, before looking back at the screen. 'Was that Mirror?' He thought. 'Or the original Traitor? Mirror does have their nanobots, so they could have used them to hack into this thing and make it look like there was no hacking, but their appearance...they didn't look human. No more than some of the corrupted Gems. Were they really a subject at that Lab? What did Homeworld even do to them that made them so disfigured? And another thing, what was wrong with that image, was that some trick of the light, or was it actually a gif or whatever and not an image made just to screw with my brain?'
Steven felt an urge to look back at the screen, but reason brought on by his recent memories won over, and he ignored this as best he could. He didn't need to witness any of that again.
'But if Mirror did come in here and screw with this cube, all the while pretending to be Pink Diamond...why? What would they gain from doing that? Did they erase all the information about them on here? If that's the case, then coming here really has all been for nothing.' He frowned and picked the cube back up, flicking the screen back to the information about the Traitor. 'Of course, if I was them, and I didn't want anyone knowing about me, I'd just delete every scrap of data on the Lab. Make it so that there's no mention anywhere. Hm. I wonder if I scrolled past their death picture earlier, or if they erased it…'
"Cube," Steven said.
"Sleep-mode off." The cube said. "Yes?"
"Have any photos been deleted from this archive? Any of the pictures of the dead organic?" Steven asked, getting an idea of what the answer was going to be.
"There is no evidence-"
"I thought so." Steven groaned. "Okay. But why knight?" He asked himself. "Did they know about Pearl's obsession with becoming a knight for whatever reason and chose to make it the password for…another whatever reason, or is there something special about it to them and it's all a complete coincidence?"
"Cube. Were any of the organic who were taken to the lab given a designation of "knight"?" Steven asked. "Name, title, rank, whatever. Is that word anywhere else in your database?"
"One result found." The cube responded, making Steven lift an eyebrow. "The name "knight" was given to a single human organic brought into the Lab three days before it was destroyed by an unknown entity."
"Show me their picture." Steven said, and the cube beeped again before a "new" image popped up, one Steven recognized from earlier. It was a human male, as far as he could tell, with a fair skin tone and brown hair with hints of blond at the end. Steven stared at the image for a moment, like he was an art critic inspecting a painting. There was nothing particularly special about this person, and as far as Steven could tell, they didn't resemble the person who altered the cube in the slightest, other than having the same number of limbs.
"What can you tell me about this human?" He asked.
"They were taken from a tribe of humans who attempted to fight back against Gemkind and one that also fought alongside Rose Quartz. However, in the battle of the fifth castle, they were captured and taken to the Lab to be experimented on. They were given the permanent name "knight" by a scientist because another Gem working there called them that when first seeing them upon their capture."
"So they were a knight…" Steven mumbled. "Again, I thought that stuff came hundreds of years later, but I guess history just didn't write it down. Okay then. How did they die? Or more specifically, what experiments were conducted on them?"
"Data not found." The cube said.
"Of course," Steven said, his fists clenching you somewhat. "Do you have that sort of data for every other test subject?"
"Yes."
"Well, then it's confirmed. I guess this...was Mirror?" He surmised. "Or maybe the Traitor? But if that's true, then why does it show a picture of their dead body? Mirror is obviously still alive, unless my mom resurrected him or the scientists found a way to do so, but if it's not them and actually the Traitor, then did they kill them after they failed to kill my mom as punishment? Or did they just see them as useless? Why...ARGH! This is all so confusing!" He exclaimed.
"Okay. Okay. It had to be Mirror. I don't think they'd kill them after one failed mission. Leader of the entire Rebellion, after all, can't expect perfect results sending a human, even advanced, after her. Have to do more testing, push the limits...that was probably their thought process." Steven said, before biting his lip. "Or I could just ask. Cube. Was the human in this picture even known as the Traitor alongside their name "knight"? And check for files that may have been deleted as well."
"No." The cube said. "There was another human in these files known as "The Traitor". Would you like me to bring them up?"
"Oh, well, that's that mystery solved," Steven said. "No. Not yet. Because this means that Mirror somehow died and was brought back to life. I couldn't get a good look at the color of their skin in that image, unfortunately, and there's no way I'm going to try again, so I can't tell if their current skin is pink or not…cube." He announced, saying it's "name" yet again. "The things the scientists were working on in that Lab. Was bringing organic beings back from the dead one of them?"
"Data not found." The cube said. "This information is likely not sorted within me because it is meant to be somewhere else."
"..."
"..."
"...Go on…"
"The information that you are looking for is most likely in another cube with data about the Lab. If my memory is correct, then there is a cube in the archives that contains the full details of what kinds of experiments the Gems there were conducting and how they accomplished them. You should be able to track this cube down using the universal one stored on this shelf."
"Already have that," Steven said. "Okay then. Time for another trip. As annoying as this is going to be, I guess I'll have to find this one. Hopefully, I can get some information about Mirror. Even knowing what they did to them will be useful. Could somehow use that against them…"
And with that, Steven picked up the A.I. cube and stuffed it in his pocket, before taking out the "universal one". He paused for a moment, staring at a language he couldn't understand, before recalling that it also had the ability to switch to one he could read. And maybe…"
"Switch to the new Gem dialect." He requested, and instantly the characters on the screen changed. Steven bit his entire bottom lip, now even more peeved at how much time could have been saved, before realizing that he could get mad later. He was still glowing, after all. The frustration from earlier had never left.
So with a narrowing of the eyes, Steven scrolled down to the line that read, "experiments and procedures". He tapped on it, and another light shot out of the cube, this time pointing towards the way he came. He wasted no time in jogging towards it, knowing that if he didn't then it might be a good ten minutes before he made it there.
"Hey, Cube." He said as he ran along. "Why are these things all organized like this? Shouldn't the files on the procedures be next to the ones about the beings those procedures took place on? How do the Diamonds decide where to put something besides having a similar topic? Do they just toss them all on a random shelf and rely on the universal cube?"
"Correct." The Cube said, muffled by its pocket. "Although my databases do not have a full explanation of how it is done, the most likely option is that cubes are stacked at random and then the tool is used to find any. Usually, the tools are placed at the edges of the shelves."
"Well, this one wasn't. And also: Seriously?" Steven asked rhetorically. "Considering how much of a perfectionist White was back then, how did she decide to let this one slide? Cubes just stacked wherever? Did she just not care about the past? Or did she assume that nobody would come in here because of the…*gasp*. The ghosts." He panted. "Hey! Do you know anything about the weird spirits...visions...whatever floating around in here? I know you're not entirely sentient, but you seem to have some sort of self-awareness, considering the picture. Have you seen anything like that? Or more specifically, have you seen any other beings that look like the ones stored in your photo archive?"
"I am not sure what you mean." The Cube said. "I am not what you would define as "self-aware". I merely have thousands of pre-made responses for any questions or comments a person makes towards me. Millions, in fact."
"Even that one?"
"Yes."
Steven sighed again. "Right. How could I be so stupid? Asking a robot if they've seen anything. And I'm not sure if I should even feel bad for you about saying that. Seriously, this place is beginning to get to my brain."
"I am not a robot." The Cube said. "In actuality, I am an advanced A.I. preprogrammed with-"
"Lists of phrases and stuff, I know," Steven said. "Doesn't matter anyway. Whether you were real or not all this time is irrelevant. We're here."
The Cube didn't respond as Steven saw the light end on another one, glowing like a million-watt light-night. Steven shoved the universal cube in his pocket and grabbed the new one, before shutting down the old one so that he didn't have to deal with two not-A.I.'s at the same time. He opened the new one, which now showed what looked like thousands of files, so many that Steven was having trouble looking at them all at the same time. Like pop-ups, the screen expanded and got bigger and bigger as the file opened, a holographic nightmare that eventually went over Steven's head. It suddenly occurred to him that these cubes were likely built with full-size Diamonds in mind, and he hoped he didn't have to shape-shift just to get a good look.
"Oh, jeez. That's a lot of them." He said. "Um, is there any way to compress this for me? Make it so that it takes into account that not everyone who opens it is the size of a Diamond?"
"One moment." The Cube said, which had a different voice from the last one. This one was more accented and reminded Steven of his Uncle, and he was left briefly wondering why the cubes would have different Gems voicing them. "Yes. There is a way to do this. However, it will take much longer to look through the information. Are you sure you want to continue?"
"This is already taking an obscene amount of time, so yes. I don't care." Steven said. "Do it. Compress it. Whatever."
"Confirmed." The Cube said, and a second later the hundreds of files (which were still being opened and looked like they were starting to stretch over the shelf) vanished as the Cube now displayed only one. A single inbox of text that simply read, "enter?" "The compressing is complete. If you need to find something specific, please ask."
"Please?" Steven repeated. "Huh, well, at least whoever made this had their manners in mind. And there is something specific I want. Look up files on the Traitor. The human one made at the Lab, not Rose Quartz just in case you have anything about her."
"Confirmed." The Cube said, and in a fraction of a second a new file showed up, reading, "Test subject 3647335: "The Traitor". Restricted access. Please enter password to proceed".
"Should have seen that coming…" Steven mumbled. "Hmmm...stuff related to my mom, eh? How about...fountain?"
"Access denied."
"Tears?"
Access denied."
"Sword?"
"Access denied."
"Oh my god, not this again…" Steven groaned. "Alright. Forget this. I shouldn't need a password. I didn't want to have to refer to myself in this way, but with the Gems and Mirror on the loose, I can't-"
"Access granted."
"Wha-! Are you serious-!" Steven spat out, as he realized that for the second time, he discovered the password by accident. The file opened and began displaying more text and images, a sight that was practically burned into his brain at this point, while Steven himself stood there with his jaw hung open like a zombie.
"What...what was it this time?!" He exclaimed. "Gems? Loose? Mirror?"
"You have already entered the password. You did not need to enter it again."
"..."
"..."
"Mirror."
You have already-"
"Yeah, okay." Steven moaned. "Forget it. Just like most things that have been happening in this place." After that, Steven took a quick look around to see if any more "ghosts" had shown up, and after a quick confirmation that they hadn't, turned back to the screen. "Jeez, and I thought that the last cube had a lot of information. Which one would it be? Date of capture? Already know that. Blueprints of a cell? Hmm...maybe later. Where is the-ah!" He said, as his eyes spotted what he was looking for. "Procedures and experimentation process on subject 3647335. Hm. You know, even if it's been annoying, it's really convenient that all this stuff is here. At least I don't have to go on a wild goose hunt outside of this place. So let's see. First procedure, removal of…" He started, before pausing and swiftly moving on to the next one. "I'm not going to read that out loud. Second procedure, removal of natural hair and nails...ugh. Third, cell reconstruction, infusion with PD/DNA from classified source...okay, what?" He asked, getting the feeling that another sidetrack was coming. "Um, Cube, what is "PD/DNA"? And why is it classified? What did they inject this guy with?"
"Data not found." The Cube replied.
"Is that so?" Steven asked, before yanking out the universal tool. "At this rate, I should just grab every cube with stuff about the Lab on it, put them in bubbles, send it to my room hidden in my closet, and just live through their "safety technique" of keeping me inside all day long."
Steven actually took a moment to think about this, wondering if this plan was a good one or not. And to be honest, he was having trouble figuring out if it was. On one hand, he could hide the bubbles in his closet along with all the information and read them whenever he wanted, since the Gems rarely came up to his room even now. It might take days, even weeks to finish, but this way he could get all the information he needed without having to spend another second going back and forth in this creepy room.
But on the other hand...that plan was filled with too many holes. Steven had a hunch that they searched his room while he slept, and there was really nowhere to hide all of the cubes other than his closet, which would probably be the first place they'd look if they were trying to find stuff he shouldn't have. Not to mention that they certainly knew he was gone by now, and if he came back to Earth saying, "I didn't find anything at the archives, sorry I left", then they would definitely see through it. Especially since he was a terrible liar.
'Or maybe…" His conscience said (this one is entirely made from Steven's imagination). 'We could just tell them.'
"That's a terrible idea," Steven replied. "They wouldn't believe me. They already have eyes on me like a hawk. It's clear that they don't trust me. If I tell them that I was looking for info about how to take down Mirror, they'll think I'm lying and automatically assume the worst. I know how they look at me. I've seen it."
'No, we haven't.' His conscience said. 'We're just assuming the worst because that's a natural response at this point. After all those months of pain and repressed feelings with the pink state, we've become this sad, little, angry person whose mental state could use some improvement.'
"I'm not disagreeing with that last part," Steven said. "But it's not a natural response! You saw! They're scared of me!"
'Scared of us? Do we really believe that?' His conscience asked. 'What about Bismuth? We nearly shattered her! Yet she swung by and baked us pancakes because Pearl asked her to! She wasn't afraid of us! Sure, she might have been watching just in case we went pink, but that was for good reason! They're scared of Mirror, not us. For them to be scared of us, we'd have to commit some truly heinous acts. Without any sort of outside influence.'
"Which we've been having a lot of lately, haven't we?" Steven said. "Heck, I'm still wondering if Pink Steven is going to try and talk to me again! Remember that? His voice was all corrupted and weird! He's trying to break out of that Gem, and we can't help him!'
'Our Gem half is strong. He will make it.' The conscience said. 'And the Other Side is gone. The only outside influence right now is Mirror. And if we are to take him down, we cannot be thinking like this! We've thought it time and time again! We've already waited too much time here! Already took too many risks. We must hurry this along...before we're bored to death by repetitiveness.'
"That's a little dramatic."
'But not inaccurate.' The conscience said. 'But long story short, we mustn't hide the cubes in our closet. They will find them and take them away. Then they will not fear us, but distrust us. And that is worse. Without trust, they will allow us to do nothing. We will be locked in our house for months as they ponder over whether every word that comes out of our mouth is a lie or not. In fact...we should have just asked them for help in here from the beginning! If they heard about Connie and our plan, I'm sure they'd have gladly went here searching for a way to help here! There was no reason for us to come along and-'
"Okay, you're my conscience, I know you're not "real" like the other two, but I'm treating you like a separate one anyway," Steven said. "There's no point in getting all upset over that. It's not like we can travel back in time…okay, we can, but the time dial was destroyed, and to this day I'm still having trouble figuring out what that nonsense with all the hundreds of Steven's was, and why so many of them had that weird but awesome hairstyle. So forget that. Like I was saying, we should forget about what happened in the past and look forward."
'We are correct.' His conscience admitted. 'But we still made a poor decision. We should have planned it out better...or at the very least, not brought Spinel along.'
"Of that, we can agree." Steven sighed. "But Yellow can take care of her. And White. But then…" He reached his hand down and felt the cube in his pocket, as well as the one in his hand. "Shouldn't we try and warp them home with the bubbles? What if we do that and tell them? We can go through the information altogether! Get things done much faster! If we want to better our relationship with them and make our vows think that they don't hate us, then maybe we could do that!"
'See, that's better.' His conscience said. 'We should do that right now, in fact. The longer we stay in here, the more trouble we'll get in. If they get here and find us, then we'll be grounded for a millennia or two. But if we go back voluntarily, then they might be a little more forgiving for us running off.'
"Yeah!" Steven said. "And maybe I can even convince the Diamonds to put a good word in for me!"
'Ehhh…'
"No, we're relying on them this time," Steven said. "We may not have forgiven them, but that doesn't mean they aren't useful. Doesn't mean they don't...care about us. Because they truly do. And they'll help us out with anything. The fact that Yellow brought us down here and went to go help Spinel when I asked proves that. If we're improving how we look at the Gems...maybe we can try to improve our look on them?'
'...'
"..."
'We approve.'
"Great! This may be a little fast…" He grabbed the cube he was holding in his hands containing the info on the Traitor, bubbled it, and sent it away. "...It may be a little rushed…" He then took the cube with the list of organic scientists out of his pocket and did the same. "...But it's the best thing for us right now. All we have to do is find the eight other cubes with data on the Lab, check up on Spinel, go home, pray that the Gems are forgiving, and then we'll be done." Finally, Steven got the cube that Yellow gave him and sent it away as well. "And after Mirror, I can help Connie."
With a small sigh, Steven then grabbed the universal cube and swiped back to the page with the ten results for the lab, tapping the first one and walking off as a waypoint appeared.
"You know, this feels sorta weird." He said to himself. "Maybe it's the excitement, maybe it's the happiness I haven't felt since that day with Connie, but something feels off."
'It's the happiness.' His conscience said. 'We were smiling back there. It shows that it's working. We're making good choices. We're becoming happy. Maybe we could keep making good choices instead of lazing around all day, we'll be happier.'
"Happier? Us being truly happy again? You know, maybe that's just-" Steven started, before his voice died away as he thought he heard something scurry past him. Like a rat running around in the dark. He whipped around only to see nothing, his breath becoming panicky and his heart beating twice as fast in a second.
"Did you hear that?"
'Not real, remember?' His conscience reminded him. 'But if we want to treat "me" like a separate person, then very well. What did we hear?'
"I think…" Steven whispered, before the footsteps began. Light, heavy, fast, slow, all kinds. It sounded like they were coming from everywhere around him, one shelf over. Then the giggling started. Then more whispers that were not his own. And soon an orchestra of disturbing sounds was happening all around him, and for a second Steven thought he could see the glint of a Gem as he frantically turned to his right.
"I think…" He repeated, as he gulped and summoned his shield.
"That we're not alone in here."