Steven found himself in the kindergarten, it looked as it always had: Desolate, and abandoned. Except now he could hear the sounds of movement not far off. He reached up to the gem in his forehead to draw his sword, but when he concentrated his energies they simply wouldn't come together the way they usually did, leaving him empty handed. The sounds came closer and he ducked behind a small cluster of fallen rocks. When he peaked over to find the source of the sound he found Amethyst scrambling up a nearby boulder. She looked different, smaller with far shorter hair, her arms and legs segmented weirdly. As he was about to stand and greet her when the nearby warp suddenly flared into life and he ducked back down, but shifted himself to be better able to see the pad.
When the light of the warp faded away three figures stood there Rose as she had looked before her recent change. Garnet's skin was a deep purple, her hair mostly black with streaks of red and blue woven through it, wearing a dress of violets and red that ended halfway down her thighs, leaving her legs exposed, and beside her, was Pearl. She wore what might have been a breastplate or a tunic, it shimmered, somewhere between her usual gossamer and chain mail. There was a sword belted at her hip and her legs were covered in a bluish green material.
"Alright let's get this over with." Pearl sighed, her eyes sweeping over the kindergarten below. "It's not like we're going to find anything this time, this place has been inactive for almost five hundred. . ." She broke off when her gaze landed on Amethyst. Amethyst for her part sat on the top of her rock and stared back at Pearl, seemingly unperturbed by the intruders.
"Oh my stars!" Rose exclaimed as she made to leap down, only for Pearl to fling an arm out in front of her.
"Rose no, she might be dangerous." Rose rolled her eyes looking down at her.
"Even if she was full sized do you really think one Amethyst is worth this much concern?" Rose asked placing her fists on her hips and lifting an eyebrow. Pearl's cheeks and the bridge of her nose grew gently more teal.
"Well, I suppose not, but it's better to cautious isn't it? What do you think Garnet?" Pearl asked as she turned to find Garnet gone, only to find her already down in the kindergarten, knelt to speak with Amethyst who was busily pacing a circle around her. Rose gave a faux haughty sniff and leapt from where she was to join them. Pearl gave an exacerbated sigh and followed soon after. They spoke for a long while letting Amethyst get used to them, eventually she began to mimic each of them eliciting bursts of laughter, which in turn got mimicked.
Steven abandoned his hiding place and began to approach, certain this was another of his mother's memories he'd some how tapped into.
"Guess this means I'm dreaming again." When he spoke Amethyst's eyes turned to him, wide with surprise. She turned from the group to step towards him, and she did, but at the same time she didn't. A second Amethyst remained with the other gems, acting as if she was completely unaware of his presence. Between one step and the next the first Amethyst changed, no glow of transformation no shifting of her body, one moment she was small and segmented the next she was nearly his height, her hair long, though tugged back into a ponytail, a tattered white t-shirt covering most of her form with leggings on her legs, which was how she looked in the present.
"What is going on?" She asked eyes narrowing as they shift between him and the still chatting gems behind her. "Why do I remember you being here? Why do I remember asking these questions?" Steven stopped short, racking his brain for how an answer. He reached out as he had before, touching the gem in her chest and found her form to be solid.
"I think. . .I dreamed my way into your memories." Her eyes grew wider still.
"So this is happening right now?" He nodded and she put a hand to her head. "This is so weird, it's like we're talking, but I remember it like it happened a really long time ago." She looked back again. "I don't think you're just in my memory I think you're changing it, or at least making a copy. I remember how it really happened, but now I remember a version of it where I stepped away and talked to you. This is really freaky dude." Steven nodded again.
"Yeah, I don't know how I'm doing it though." Amethyst took a deep breath and sighed as she exhaled.
"It's cool man, I'm getting used to it, and despite how weird it is, it's pretty cool, you don't just see memories anymore, now you can mess with them." Steven's expression darkened at that.
"That's a pretty messed up thing to be able to do. You could really mess someone up doing that." Amethyst nodded looking thoughtfully.
"Nothing different happened until I saw you, so just stay out of sight if you don't want to change things around." Steven brightened a little.
"Well that's something until I figure out how to control it better." The world began to shift, his vision seeming to blur. They both looked around to find the gems and the other Amethyst making their way up to the warp pad. "I don't think it would be good to stay here after the other you leaves." He said and closed his eyes focusing on his own memories, willing himself away from Amethyst.
"See you in the morning dude." Amethyst's voice seemed to be coming from far away now, and when next he opened his eyes Steven found himself floating in a vast sky dotted with stars. Most of the stars were just that, stars: Points of light a vast distance away. There were however several closer points like glowing like tiny suns. The majority of these were dim and pale, experimentally he reached out to one only for his hand to pass through. In his mind he could feel a connection attempting to be made but there seemed to be nothing to latch on to, so he moved on.
The next point of light swirled and bounced in place, white and violet light pulsing as if to an unheard beat. Somehow he recognized it as where he'd just come from, this was amethyst's memories. He slid away from those, moving through the emptiness as quickly and easily as thinking about it. Nearby was a larger light, it shone bright pink and the light emitting from it blazed steadily and so strongly he had to shield his eyes as he approached. Then he encountered something solid, he pressed against it but it refused to yield. After making a full circle around it he determined it was in fact a perfect sphere. This was Rose's memories he knew, but somehow she had put a wall up around them.
He considered thrusting an attack against it but decided one: That would be rude, and two: if she could put this kind of defense up, what else might she be able to do to someone trying to break into her head. He shuddered at the prospect, and while his gaze lingered on that intense energy he slid slowly away. The last ball of light he saw turned out in face to be two smaller lights, one red, one blue. They orbited each other, occasionally colliding to form a single larger purple sphere, only to split again moments later. During one of the collisions he reached out to garnet's memory, and as he did the empty space seemed to fill up rapidly around him. It was night, and he stood on the beach, looking around he found the temple, the house he and the gems would come to live in only half constructed.
"Hello Steven." His heart skipped a beat as he spun on one heal to find Garnet as she appeared in the present standing on the sand. She stared right at him, arms crossed, lips quirked into a little smile. "The oddest thing happened to me, while looking into the future I saw one of my own memories, except you were there." He returned her smile
"That must have been very confusing." Her smile grew wider and nodded.
"it was but I figured it out." She moved, walking towards the water and motioning for him to follow. "You need to be careful with this power Steven, not just because you might upset someone by getting into their head, you risk seeing things you aren't ready to see." He thought about voicing an objection, then he imagined watching Rose shatter pink diamond, and found his mouth shutting all by itself. "You already know Ruby and Sapphire's story." For a moment Garnet became the two gems, holding hands as they walked. She didn't unfuse, much like Amethyst before she simply was one way, then she was another and back again. "So I figured you might like to see this memory."
They came upon another version of Garnet, looking as she did in the memories he'd seen in other dreams, from the time when his parent's met. She stood looking at the sea, Pearl beside her, a swell in her usually lithe form in her belly.
"The house should be ready before the baby comes." Pearl said, not turning to look at the fusion. "Garnet you know better than anyone how hard this is going to be." The younger Garnet nodded one finger absentmindedly trailing over the rim of her glasses. "There's something I want you to know before all that though." Pearl's hand Rose to her mouth, tear filled eyes reflecting the moon light. After a long moment her hand came away. "You're not the answer." At that, the younger Garnet turned and quirked one eyebrow. Pearl didn't look at her. "You're not, no one is the answer. Ruby isn't Sapphire's, and Sapphire isn't Ruby's, just like Greg. . .or Rose isn't mine. It's okay to question how you feel,even what you thought was right and wrong. . ." She turned then, smiling through her tears. "It's okay to be unsure or to disagree, and I'm afraid for you." She took Garnet's hands in her own. "I'm afraid that you're afraid to ever ask yourself the big questions. Love is so important and amazing, you're proof of that, but if you never question that love, if you never explore it, how can it ever grow stronger?
"You. . .You're saying you doubt your love for Greg?" Garnet asked, the cadence of it seemingly off as if unfamiliar. Pearl laughed, throwing her head back.
"Stars yes." Wiping a tear from her eye. "Come on Garnet, me? With a Human? With a man? Even you couldn't see that coming. The old me would have never allowed herself to doubt how she felt about Rose, how she felt about humans, but now I'm happier than I've been in thousands of years." Then she placed her hand upon her swollen stomach. "And soon I'm going to give him, and all of you the most amazing gift I think of." She looked down at her own stomach and hands. "It's a boy, biologically speaking, Greg wants it to be a surprise but I found out early. When he's ready will you tell him for me? That it's okay to not know things, to not be sure of himself all the time? Greg told me that can be so hard for young humans to understand, and I think you're the best one to show him that it'll be alright in the end." The younger Garnet lowered herself to be on eye level with Pearl and let her visor vanish, each of them holding the other's face in both hands.
"We're going to miss you. What are we going to do without you?" Pearl smiled that sad sweet smile of hers and kissed the gems in each of Garnet's palms.
"Keep asking those questions." She said firmly, the world beginning to blur once again. Steven looked up but found garnet was gone instead Ruby and Sapphire was on either side of him each rubbing tears from their eyes.
"We argued so much after this." Ruby laughed.
"Oh they would get ugly sometimes." Sapphire said with a hiccuping little snort.
"We would split up for days at a time, and I realized I didn't know who I was without Sapphire, it was. . .scary." Ruby admitted looking down at her hands.
"I relied so much on Ruby's strength and confidence, when she was gone I felt so frail." Mimicking ruby's motion. The next moment Garnet was back.
"But we always came back to each other, with new perspectives, new ideas and points of view." She squatted down, much as she had for Pearl in the memory and looked into his eyes. "You listen to your mother, and don't you dare be afraid to ask things, of us, or of yourself alright?" He nodded, tears welling up in his own eyes. "I think this memory is over for now." Looking around he found the world melting away.
"I have something important to ask you when I wake up." Garnet nodded and kissed his forehead. Once again he closed his eyes and focused on nothing but his own thoughts, and moving away. It was easier this time, and before even opening his eyes he knew he was in the void again. There was something different now though, his not real body felt oddly heavy. Before long he realized he was moving, but not of his own accord. There was no up or down here but he was being dragged in the direction of his feet and so it seemed enough like looking down to not make a difference. When he did he saw another light.
This was different than the others it was huge, if the others had been tennis balls this was truck that delivered them to the store. Unlike the others it wasn't a perfect sphere, it roiled and heaved into oblong shapes, tendrils of light like solar flares whipped off it, reaching out towards him before sinking back below the surface. The gravity of it pulled at him, dragging him towards it. He tried to will himself away but the force of it was too strong. As he drew closer he could hear voices from within, all different, all demanding things. Some wanted help, others wanted to be alone, most were utterly incoherent.
When one of those tendrils slid across the bottom of his foot he got images of a battlefield, of pain and the sounds of breaking crystal. With new desperation he clawed upward as if reaching for some hand hold that didn't exist, he flung himself with every ounce of his willpower screaming out "Away" in his head and using the same focus he did when extending his aura pushed against the inexorable gravity of the memories.
Hands still raised he shot up in bed, panting wildly and soaked in his own sweat. He took a moment to calm himself with breathing exercises, eyes scanning all as if the dangerous memories could follow him into the waking world. As he felt his heart rate return to normal he reflected on what he'd just encountered, and remembered what Jasper had told him.
"The Cluster."
