Amethyst was the first to make a move, producing her whip to lash out at the odd sphere, only for garnet to catch it up on the backswing.
"No! If we destroy it, we can't learn anything from it." Amethyst pouted but acquiesced and dismissed her weapon, then turned to Rose.
"Do you know what it is?" Rose never took her eyes off the little limping device, wonder twinkling in her eyes. She whispered.
"No." With a giddy sort of surprise in her voice. Garnet nodded and crossed her arms, by now the device was nearly to the pad.
"If we follow it we'll learn more about it." While they spoke Steven just watched, he watched in the way he had watched Rose heal lapis, as if seeing perfectly clear as his eyes unfocused. It was different this time however, the process wasn't shunted off into the back of his head, this time he was fully aware of an invisible beam emanating from his gem that understood things. There was an energy about the little thing, a familiar energy he swung his head and his view of the world landed on amethyst; That was it.
"It's like you guys." Steven said coming out of whatever state he'd been in, suddenly utterly exhausted at the strain of what he'd done. "It gives off an. . .an Aura I guess? Kind of like what you guys give off but not exactly the same." They all turned their attention to him. "I don't think it's a Gem, but. . .Maybe Gems made it?" He rubbed a hand over his gem and the surrounding flesh.
"Whatever it is we don't have time to discuss it now." Rose put in just as the sphere vanished up into the warp. She reached a hand in to keep the beam from vanishing. "Come on, Steven, are you alright to come?" She had been less inclined to try and hold him out of the fighting lately, willing to let him help even when the fighting got tough, even rely on him. It had gone a long way to mitigate his mistrust of her, but there was still a part of him that couldn't completely let go of suspicion.
"I'll be fine." It was even true even as he took the first few steps towards the warp he felt his energy returning. He stepped up into the beam and was whisked off right behind amethyst, with Rose bringing up the rear. They arrived at the galaxy warp a moment after the sphere had, and watched it scuttle off to a writhing mass of others just like it gathered around the home world warp. It wasn't long before all of them began gushing an odd liquid out over the damaged pad.
Steven tried to relax, doing some of the breathing exercises the Holo-pearl had shown him while training, and tried to clear his mind the way Connie had taught him when they began meditating together. Peace came with surprising ease, unfortunately that hadn't been his goal, he was trying to achieve that extra level of understanding he had been in just a few moments before, to try and learn what these odd creatures were doing: but it alluded him. He let his thoughts tumble back into their normal rhythmes but maintained his breathing, which allowed him to move quick, quietly, and ready to spring to face an attack. Mindful of each step, of each swing of his arms, mindful of his own emotions. He was afraid, he was excited, and determined to prove himself. It wasn't just to impress the gems, or live up to his mother's legacy like it had been before, that was part of it of course, but a big part, maybe the biggest part was his own curiosity, this was something completely new to him, and he had to drink in as much information about it as he could.
At that thought he found himself slipping easy into that extrasensory mode once more. The little devices, (he was sure they weren't alive now.) were all connected somehow, their auras were blended together and a single thin line of it extended endlessly up into the sky.
"It's like wifi" He whispered half to himself. "I think. . ." Something in his gem shifted, and he felt himself reaching out, though his arms stayed limp at his side, just as his awareness brushed against that energy field that pulsed between the. . .robanoids, that's what they were called he knew that now. Just as touched the barest part of what connected them they ceased their task and the Homeworld warp was repaired. As the warp activated Steven felt himself gathered up in a pair of strong arms and yanked gently into the air. The connection was broken and he was aware of the more mundane aspects of his situation once again. He was held along with Garnet and Amethyst in Rose's arms hovering high above the galaxy warp. A moment later a tall green colored gem was standing at the pad that had been repaired. He couldn't make out what she was saying but she was working on a screen that hovered in front of her face.
"What is she doing?" Amethyst asked but no one answered. The new gem stepped from the pad, knelt then hurried back on and warped away. A moment later something sent a wave of energy out and all the robonoids ceased movine. Rose floated them back down and they all began talking.
"Have you ever seen anything like that?" Amethyst Asked and Rose shook her head.
"They're coming back, or they're trying to at least." A hint of something very foreign entered Garnet's voice, apprehension. Steven remained silent however, trying to see in that other way again, to understand, but he was so tired already.
"I wonder what kind of Gem she was." Rose wondered out loud, looking up where the trail of the warp had vanished. Something clicked inside Steven's head. . .his gem? Something clicked anyway something from when he touched that signal, information he had gotten the barest hint of, and the song tumbled from his mouth.
"That was a Peridot
She is an expert, Engineer!
Though there was something off, about her!
Just what is not quite clear!."
"Uh what the heck was that?" Steven came back to himself at Amethyst's question, and Rose looked down at him positively stunned.
"Pearl used to sing a song like that, back when we first met." Rose spoke as if picking her words very carefully. Steven suspected that might serve to bolster his suspicions if he wasn't so woozy.
"It doesn't matter who she was, or what her job is. Neither she or any other gems from homeworld are coming back." Garnet's gauntlet's expanded to a massive size as she raised them, and brough them crashing down upon the warp cracking it once again. "We need to go." She reached down to pick Steven up but he groggily pushed her hand back.
"Hold on, I want to collect those." He said pointing to the robonoids. "I think I can learn something from them." For a moment he thought one of them would stop him but Garnet simply told him.
"Alright, hurry though, and don't play with them in the house or temple." Steven nodded, though he chaffed a little at the word "Play" he was studying them after all. One by one he picked up the robonoids and slipped them into his gem, securing them in a more secure section he had created while exploring his Gem's inner storage. Before long they were all back in the house, Steven sipping at a cup of tea, Amethyst with hot coco. Even with the strong mint tea though he found it difficult to keep his eyes open as the others spoke of what might be coming, how they should prepare, what they should do about. . .
"What do you mean leave?!" He bolted up at the mention of him evacuating. "No way, I can fight now, and I was able to find out who that Gem was when none of you knew." Rose reached over to touch his shoulder, the serious expression she wore at odds with her usually smiling face.
"You don't know what it was like Steven, what a war can be like. We fought for a thousand years to free this planet and a lot of our friends, humans and gems didn't make it. If anything happened to you. . ." Tears welled up in her eyes and she threw her arms around him, her tears splashing on his skin washed away the tiredness he'd been feeling, it was a relief, but he was still upset. He pushed her back and leapt off the couch.
"Amethyst doesn't know what it was like, and you're going to let her fight aren't you?" When he realized what he'd said he turned an apologetic eye to her, but he could see the hurt in her eyes.
"Not cool dude." She crossed her arms and fell silent. Garnet simply shook her head, cupping her head in both hands.
"If Amethyst is run through with a sword, she'll poof and be back in less than an hour. . .if that happens to you. . ."Rose trailed off, wiping the tears from her eyes.
"You just said being a gem didn't save a lot of your friends in the war, so what's to stop them from cracking you once you poof? You're right I don't poof, so if you all get hurt I have to be there to protect you when you can't protect yourselves." Rose sighed and fell back onto the couch, nearly ejecting amethyst from the other side.
"Think of your father Steven, we can't make him worry like that. Him and all the other humans in town will need someone to protect them as well, it makes sense that it would be you. Please if not for us, do it for him."
"Is that an order?" Steven spoke through clenched teeth but then took a deep breath. "Fine, if something happens, I'll go with my dad and try to keep beach city safe." He heard each of them sigh in relief and his heart sank a little. They still thought of him as a child, in need of protection. "I'm tired, I think I'll go to bed." Rose had been taken aback, but composed herself and nodded agreeably.
"Of course, we should all get back to the temple, so we don't disturb you." She stood back up and motioned the other two to follow, which of course they did. Steven made his way back up to his loft and stared down at the bed. He wasn't tired anymore, he wanted to do something and the gems wouldn't listen. Then he thought of the robonoids in his gem and resolved to begin unlocking their secrets.
"Amethyst will definitely check up on me though." Still staring at the bed he remembered the holo pearl, a representation left behind by his mother. There was no one to teach him how to project a hologram, this would have to come from himself, from the gem that belonged to his mother. "Gem bodies are just solid light. . ." He spoke softly to himself. "Holograms are basically the same thing, and when they shapeshift that's them changing the way that light is projected. I know how to produce things from gem, I know how to shapeshift. . ." He melded the two abilities, he took the energy he would normally use to shift his form, and tried to expell it the way he would when summoning his sword. It took a bit of trial and error, but eventually he made a ball of light spring from his gem and come to rest on the bed. A moment later the light expanded and contorted itself to take his shape.
To his surprise his hologram wasn't the monochromatic type his mother had left, but rather a fully colored representation, indistinguishable from the original. It breathed, it shifted in it's "sleep" and it mumbled the way he knew he did, it would even be warm to the touch. The hologram left an emptiness in him, like a part of his stomach had been sectioned off and would never fill with food again, he knew it had to be the loss of the power he'd put into the hologram, just like the one his mother had left said her existence had kept him weakened until she vanished. All and all though he was happy with it, and as refreshed as he was he would have all night to work on his new project, so he slipped out the window by his bed and started down the beach towards the warehouse he and Connie had danced in, already pulling a robonid into his hand.
