Chapter 4

The moon is high and the stars shine in unison. The road is empty so he walks in the middle. 3 o'clock in the morning lends itself to no cars passing on any road in beach city so Steven takes advantage of the little comfort given by walking in the center.

But his mind swirls from hours ago. The images flicker flicker within but less vivid from before. He could barely see between the images while he walked Lapis back. It was a long walk but neither used their powers. Something held each back. They don't speak of it. They walked in silence with the passing breeze and the disappearing sun in the distance. Their hands find each other for comfort, if possible.

When they arrived at the barn, Peridot was sleeping on a haystack by the corn field. Lapis stood at the door to her home. She observed every speck of paint, chip of wood, piece of hay. Steven saw her hand shivering slightly.

"Are you ok?" He asked. She turned with glassy eyes.

"Don't go back there," she whispered to him. She locked him in a firm gaze. She was a powerful being but kind and honest: a duality Steven respected. He saw she was very serious. In a way, almost dangerous. He wondered if she knew something of what had happened. If so, she would not tell. No, only the threat to her life and those she loved mattered. The conclusion swam clearly in her windowed eyes. If she felt he would be somehow involved in destroying this life of hers, she would finish him off.

"I promise Lapis. I won't go back." She observed Steven for a moment more before embracing him. Both stood in the quiet moonlight with Peridot's gentle snores behind. And that was that.

Steven couldn't help but notice the feeling of awe, as he walked on the lines in the middle of this road with a clear view of the moon hovering over the small town, and fear that a car could scrape him on the road in the dead of night. Such conflicting ideas. But they live as a hybrid inside him. It was similar to the experience he had with Lapis. The duality of beauty and fear. Who else would invoke this feeling in the coming days?

A breeze stirs him awake. Clouds of pink float quietly above with a deliberate slowness. Pink wheat stirs all around him. He cannot breathe but knows why: he is in Lion's mane. Steven doesn't get up immediately. Rather, he tries to sink deeper. When was the last time a moment enveloped him in its infinite embrace? Not in recent memory. It came easier back when he was oblivious to all of life's edges. Head on sand, friends nearby, floating to other worlds with the gems - he could have done that forever. He considered it: he could have lived in that cube of time until he wasn't anything. No Spinel, no Diamonds, not even Pearl's change. It could have been just that, and he could have faded out content: the act of being in moments, young.

But growing takes you out of it. The cube is now in a corner within and all he can do is hold it, revisit it even - but he'll never fit inside again. He'd like to now. With everything he has seen and discovered, in this moment all he'd like to do is crawl in the cube and lean on its walls for just another moment. Just a moment…

In the distance, he hears something. It breaks the veil so he looks up from his vantage point. The pink tree with his mother's history at the base of the sturdy trunk. Another smaller pink tree in the distance with the magnificently long branches. Lars takes pride in his branch's length. "Like me, they reach for everything!", he said once.

Then it's all pink.

It still rings out. Far away. Farther than he could see. It echoes in this colored void. Steven pops his head out in the material world to take a breath. His room is empty and Lion is curled on him, shivering. Steven notices he is as well. He takes one deep breath and goes back into the pink-world.

He places his feet on the ground firmly and leaps upward. The world stretches below him and the trees become pink dots. Once he has a clear view, he maintains a light fall to find where or what could be making the noise.

The pink spreads out in all areas. There are no mountains, hills, or ridges. It is all flatland. But he does see one or two trees in the distance, far away. Were those old portals his mother had? Old beacons? On a different day, he'd try to answer those questions, but for now, he focuses on the objective. In the utter silence of this world, he hears it again. It is far north.

Steven drops to the ground, pokes his head quickly out to catch a breath, then launches himself toward the sound. He leaps and bounds over the pink land. He passes Lars' tree. The distance to this sound is unknown. Would it be smart to grab one last breath? He decides to risk his lungs and let the space pirate float on in the universe without his own Steveny interference.

A few more leaps and bounds before the sound comes again. It's close. But he can't see any landmarks. He skids to a halt and listens over his beating heart. A breeze stirs the field. The long grass grazes his chest. He can just see above it all but nothing stirs. No landmarks or indentations in the landscape. The sound floats again. Far away like a beacon.

He leaps again, this time higher than before. Up in the air, he thinks he sees something. It's far away - nothing more than a mere black speck, but it sticks out like a monument in this place of pink.

Steven lands and launches forward toward the thing. His body flies fast and free while the sound rises with a temepred nature with each passing second. A gentle hum at first but it gradually forms into a minor sizzling, a form of piercing. It stings the air. He tastes something on his tongue with a slight pinch on his skin.

He's close now. He feels it on his skin like a layer. This thing, whatever it is, emits something in the air and in the soil. It's warm and he feels a memory on his body. It escaped his mind and is now living on his skin, manifesting itself on his arms, in the hairs, between the skin. In a passing image, he sees himself running along the beach, his father in tow. He's running toward the waves to see the fish. There is a desire and a freedom fully realized in that small moment that causes Steven to falter.

In front of him, suddenly, is the thing. A black, gleaming thing of bulky proportions. Its shape is indistinguishable. Something drips from the blackened surface and he thinks he sees it shuddering. His heart is beating in his ears. He moves forward with the sizzling on his skin increasing, followed by fragrances of memories he can't track.

Steven touches the surface of it and a man turns to look at him. His eyes burn like embers in a skull drenched in tar. They seem kind. The once uncertain figure morphs into a fixed figure of a body. This man, the man Steven recognizes with gradual disbelief as the one in the mirror, looms over him like a hunched crow. His skin could be smooth stone at first glance for any eye; it gleamed in the pink light and took on the appearance of undisturbed wood polish. His hair trails over his face like fallen rope; behind it, he could see the strong hollows of his eyes: they were glistening white pools that, when flashing with the pink hue of the air, resembled a falling rose petal paused in time.

When he saw Steven, he smiled. Steven felt it was similar to the first time he levitated so he smiled back without realizing. "Ah," the man said, a voice that dripped like sap from some venerable tree. "You must be Steven Universe."

"How...who are you?"

"My name is Obsidian 2523. Those who know me just call me Obsi. Truth be told, I know about you. Most beings do." He blinked and paused. "I was hoping to speak with you. But it must be done in person, when I'm free from here."

"What do you mean? We are speaking."

The man smiled again and blinked heavily. "You saw me, didn't you? Back when I had landed. I felt it when I first arrived on this rock, your presence. It was warm...a nice reprieve. Unfortunately, I believe someone has found me before you did and is holding me for reasons I don't understand."

Steven shuddered."We are speaking through astroprojection? But I'm in my mother's space. This is my mother's land."

"We were known for occupying the gems' space of mind. We weren't just known for healing wounds but internal struggles were fought as well...if there is a seed, a home that a person clings to, we can hold it to. That was, before…" He grunted and gasped. Steven saw the kindness fade from his eyes and was replaced by a rage that brought Steven a step back. The man looked up apologetically. "It seems we are ending our conversation. I can sense her coming back. But I believe you can help me: my captor is a Pearl. She is looking for something I may possess but cannot give."

"I don't understand," Steven gasped, pushing unwanted thoughts and fears as deep down one can. "I-I don't understand." Obsidian leaned in inches from Stevens face. He touched the curvature of the boys profile and Steven felt himself slipping again into some distant memory, or feeling, or whatever it was locked within his body, however long, that fluttered to the surface.

"You have her eyes," he muttered. "Same as hers: kindness. Empathy." He scoffed, his eyes sharpening like a razor, his mouth tightening like leather, while the glistening black on his body seemed to shift into a ragged pattern similar to scales upon a serpent. "Then why didn't she do anything…"

"What?" Steven asked.

The man grunted again. "She let them banish us." The man gasped. This time he almost lost full consciousness. He looked up at Steven again with wet eyes. The man reached out. "I am here. You should wake soon. Good luck." Steven felt his fingers were wet. In a moment, he felt mind open like a broken cage.

Steven returned in the main of lion and began clawing his way out. He stands on the wooden floor and goes outside in the night on his balcony. Lion is sleeping on his bed shivering but it's not cold. The moon hovered over the massive machine in the distance. Such destruction on the land with such power. The being that caused it all is now his friend. He feels he can't escape this circle of duality. His mother. The Diamonds. Now Pearl. The cracks aren't healed, despite the foliage returning to the edges. He can't help but wonder if the same were happening to him. Steven pressed his nose and decided he needed to speak with Pearl.