Steven lay awake staring up at the ceiling above his bed, his gem projecting the image of Lapis spreading her wings and lifting off from the railing on a loop. She had been so afraid of the other Gems, and if he couldn't blame her, Rose had been ready to poof her and seal her away in a bubble rather than help her. The image shifted to Rose in the moment before she struck, rage twisting her expression, and something else, fear shining behind her eyes. Before he could play the scene back again, he heard the sound of the temple door sliding open. The light of his gem winked out as he turned his head to see who was exiting, somehow though, he knew who he would see. Rose wore an expression of worry, eyes shifting nervously, she checked back over her shoulder once before stepping up onto the warp pad and vanished in the sudden flash of light. It wasn't unusual for any of the gems, especially Rose to go out in the middle of the night, but something about the way she was acting, both now and earlier with Lapis that made him swing his legs over the edge of the bed and slip on the black loafers he always wore.

He made his way down the stairs quickly, his training with the holo-Pearl paying off once again, silently picking each step as he got to the warp, still humming gently with the energy it had used to whisk Rose away. He had never used the warp himself before, he had tried, and failed. That had been before, before his training, before taking the energy back from his mother's hologram, before summoning his sword and standing up for his friend.

"Focus on where you want to go." He whispered to himself and stepped onto the crystal platform. He didn't know where Rose had gone to, but he knew he wanted to follow her, so he concentrated on that, on following her. For a moment he felt silly, standing there in the middle of the night eyes held shut, then he felt a tingling sensation rush through him from the gem on his forehead down into his feet, and then he was weightless, propelled upward, though not really upward, streaking through that in between world of the warp system. Then he was on solid ground once again, it must have been in a completely different part of the world because while it was the middle of the night in beach city, the barest beginnings of dawn were peeking through the clouds above.

The warp was surrounded by barren rocky cliffs on all sides, so it wasn't hard to pick out the pink figure of Rose Quartz leaping up one of the sheer cliff faces, she must have been far enough off to have not heard the sound of his arrival because a moment later she vanished into a cave without looking back. He followed, strengthened legs carrying him over the craggy ground in long leaps, until he came up short at harsh sudden upward incline Rose had so easily ascended, it wasn't going to be so easy for him. Still he didn't hesitate, he spat into his hands and took hold of a pair of rocks that jutted out just above his head, and began climbing.

Even with his training and access to the enhanced strength of his gem nature, the climb wasn't what could be described as easy. Eventually, Steven made it to the top. The ledge he found himself on wasn't very large, and when he looked out over where he had come from all he could see was a vast barren stretch of earth. Behind was the mouth of the cave into which Rose had disappeared, and there was a light coming from deeper inside. He swallowed hard, and moving once again quietly down the short stretch of tunnel to where it opened out into a larger room. Peering around the corner he could the large gem standing in front of some kind of pedastal. She shifted and the floor opened to produce what looked like three more cannons like the gems had used to destroy the wandering eye that had appeared in the sky a few weeks earlier. He strained and could half hear her muttering to herself as the cannons retracted and was replaced by a set of swords.

"Cannons. . .should. . .fine. . .Wouldn't come themselves. . .Advanced." She sounded worried and he could only catch snippets of what she was saying. He was debating leaning closer when he felt something nudging at his back, and a blast of hot rolled over his neck. He turned very slowly and was met with a pair of saucers sized black eyes framed in a wild mane of bright pink fur. On instinct he reached for his gem to draw his sword once again but the lion was faster, and caught his arm in its jaws before he'd produced more than the pearl handle. A growl rumbled from deep in the lion's chest that resonated with something deep down in the human part of him, gripping him in primal fear. He couldn't have maintained the sword even if he had wanted to, and the handle receded back into his gem. A moment later he was in the air, lifted by the arm, the lion's teeth never breaking the skin. He was deposited in the shallow water at Roses feet, and the lion moved to nudge its head against her thigh. She absent-mindedly patted its head as she looked down, regret and sadness plain on her face.

"Oh Steven, why did you have to follow me?" He lifted himself to his feet and was about to try to explain why he'd come, or maybe ask her what this place was, before he could decide however she crouched low and pressed a finger to his lips. "Shhh it's okay, don't worry about anything. Now listen carefully. I order you to go back the way you came, take the warp back to the temple, get in bed, go to sleep and forget about anything you saw here today, do you understand?"

". . .Steven?" The voice was familiar but he couldn't quite place it, then it came again, more fiercely: It cut through the haze in his head. "STEVEN!" It was Amethyst, why was she waking him up? His eyes focused, not opened, focused. He realized she wasn't waking him up, he wasn't even in his bed he had been walking. At first, he saw her worry painted plainly on her face, then he looked around at the unfamiliar landscape, all barren broken stone. Then it all rushed back, following Rose, the odd cavern, the even odder lion. His head felt as if it had been stuffed with cotton and a dark cloth had been obscuring his gem for days. "Steven. . .Are you okay?" He shook his head once and asked.

"What are you doing here?" His throat was dry and the words came with some difficulty. A faint violet blush colored her cheeks before she answered.

"I was watching you, I shapeshifted into one of the books on your shelf. When you followed Rose, I waited a few minutes and came after you, I was looking out for you that's all." There was something familiar about that, and with his head still throbbing he reached out, planting his hand on the gem in her chest. He felt something in his own gem stir, and mingle with something he drew out from hers. A moment later a pair of holograms emerged, both translucent blue as the holo pearl had been. In fact, one of the holograms was of Pearl, though she looked much different, she had a serene aire about her, and her midsection was noticeably swollen. She stood in front of a more compact Amethyst, who was leaning one ear against the bulge in her stomach.

"I know this is going to be hard on all of you, and I'm sorry, but I am convinced this is the right thing, not just for Greg and I, but for you, and Garnet and all the Gems back home." The holographic Amethyst scrunched up her face, failing to hold back a few stray tears. "Listen to me though, when he's born, and I'm gone I need you to watch out for him." The other Amethyst drew back, eyes wide, and worried and confused.

"Wha. . .Why, why me?" She asked, eyes darting as if hoping for help to arrive. "Rose and Garnet will be around they'll be able to handle that stuff." Pearl lifted her hand to stroke Amethyst's hair, then slowly that same hand slid up to her own face, covering her mouth for a long moment. When at last she pulled it away she sighed.

"I'm sure Rose and Steven will have so much fun together, all of you will, and Garnet will be a wonderful teacher, but to know what's best for him. . .I'm not sure I trust Rose with that." The shock on Amethyst's face contorted into unmistakable astonishment. "and Garnet. . .Well Garnet is very good at looking forward, but when it comes to the past she's blind to a lot of things, you don't have that kind of baggage, you're the only one I trust to really care about him, above everything else. If you tell me you can't handle it, I understand, and you shouldn't feel bad about it, but if you can, I need you to promise to protect him from anything, or anyone." Amethyst's eyebrows drew down, and she set her jaw, one little hand reached out to stroke Pearl's stomach.

"I can do it, you can count on me Pearl, I'll take care of him no matter what." Pearl smiled and pressed a kiss to the smaller gem's forehead.

"Then I can do this knowing he's in the best hands possible." The image vanished as quickly as it came, and he felt the link between himself and Amethyst fade to nothing. Suddenly his head was clear and a new stream of memories rushed to the front of his mind, not ones that had been suppressed or someone else's they were his own, times when he had been with the others when one of the corrupted gems attacked there was one constant, Amethyst was there in front of him, sheltering him or ushering him to a safe place, sometimes at the expense of her physical form. Still other times when facing some seemingly impossible task, there she was taking some eccentric form making a joke and breezing through to show him it wasn't so insurmountable, and more than anything he remembered being sad, only for Amethyst to appear with a sack of donuts, or a tray of fries and a story about his Mother.

It all came flooding to him in the blink of an eye, and in that blink, Amethyst was completely changed to his eyes.

"You were looking out for me." All other concerns vanished for a moment and a wide smile bloomed across his face. Amethyst's blush intensified and she lowered her eyes.

"I. . .I promised." Steven gathered her into a hug, when they touched there was a sudden burst of energy and smoke. When it cleared Opal stood looking down at herself curiously.

"This feels. . .new, but familiar." She wasn't as tall as she had been before and there were other differences her nose was shorter, her skin was lighter not to mention the oddities in her personality that she didn't have time to adjust to, because her component pieces suddenly split. Steven and Amethyst just stared at each other for a long moment stars in their eyes. They were broken from their reverie by a sound that Steven felt more than he heard, the same one that had moved through him in the cave moments before.

"We can freak out later right now we have to get back." Steven took hold of Amethyst's hand and lead her towards the nearby warp pad. The return trip came easier to him than the initial had and they were both quickly whisked back to the temple. "Pretend to be asleep." He rushed back to bed and swept himself under the covers. Squeezing his eyes shut he focused on the first none incriminating memory that popped into his head, the day he had spent at Connie's a week ago, and played it through his gem as if he was having a dream. Almost immediately he felt Amethyst curl up in beside in the form of the fluffy purple cat she preferred. Long minutes stretched before the warp flared to life once more and the gentle whoosh of air that signified Rose leaping up the steps to settle beside his bed.

He felt her lips against the gem on his forehead and he suppressed a shiver. "I'm so sorry I had to do that Steven, I hope you can forgive me some day, and that you'll understand why I had to." She leapt away again and the door to the temple opened, then closed again. There was a long hesitation before he let the scene, he was playing end, and he sat up. Amethyst moved to the edge of the bad, reclaiming her usual form and sat there looking back at him.

"So, you wanna tell me what all that was about?" Steven stared down into the bedsheets, taking long deep breaths before lifting his head to meet her eyes.

"Rose, she. . .she did something to me, made me forget what I saw and forced me to do what she told me to. If you hadn't stopped me, I would have come back here, gotten in bed and never known what happened tonight." Amethysts eyes were wide with surprise, but to his great relief and appreciation Steven saw no incredulity there, she believed him.

"Woah, that is like crazy messed up, I've never seen Rose do anything like that before, and believe me there were times it would have come in handy if she could just snap her fingers and make a monster stop." Steven nodded. "Don't worry dude, we're gonna figure this out together." She moved up to curl an arm around him. "I think your mom might have been right, until we figure this out, we shouldn't tell anyone. . .not even Garnet." He nodded again and hugged her again, he felt the connection there, just waiting if they wanted to, Opal would be back in an instant. Instead he pulled her down under the covers with him and pressed his head to shoulder and allowed himself to drift off to sleep, feeling for the moment utterly safe.