Lion
We now cut to a tropical island, untouched by human hands, in the South Pacific, an island which happens to be inhabited by a great many Gem-introduced but non-Gem crystal-lifeforms which are not native to Earth, such as Crystal Basilisks and Crystal Shrimp. For centuries now, Lion has tracked down, killed, and devoured all such creatures, as he knows by instinct (even if Rose hadn't explained it to him) that they're invasive species which interfere with Earth's native ecosystem; no matter what, he'll eradicate them all, everywhere they exist, in order to protect his planet.
He's absolutely determined, and nothing if not stubborn; he will manage to complete his mission from Rose before he leaves this world in about 200 years (with his heightened animal instincts, he has a better feel for his remaining time than any mere human medical researcher has). In fact, he'll have to make sure to complete the mission before declining too much from old age, so he probably has about 80 to 120 years left as his deadline.
For the last several days (Lion hasn't exactly been keeping track of time since Stevonnie passed), he's been far more harsh than usual in his methods. Typically he's dispassionate and cold, showing no hostility or malice in his extermination of Gem-introduced species; it's not like he actually hates them after all, as he knows it isn't their choice to be what they are. They simply need to be eliminated in order to preserve the natural order of the planet.
But right now, he doesn't give a damn about any of that. He needs to vent. So he roars, smashes, and tears through the island, wreaking havoc upon all crystal-animals unlucky enough to be his current targets. In stark contrast to his usual habits, he doesn't even bother eating most of them; he just leaves their carcasses where they lie battered and broken, moving on to find more such creatures upon which he can take out his rage and grief.
He knows that Rose, Steven, and Connie would disapprove of how he's acting right now. He's not just coldly destroying these creatures in order to protect Earth's biosphere; he's being outright cruel. He even actually tortures some of them, stalking them over time, inducing fear and terror before eventually pinning and slowly dismembering them. He knows that if there's an afterlife from which Rose, Steven, and Connie are watching him, they're probably turning their faces away in disgust and disapproval.
But he just can't help himself. Rose, Steven, and Connie, especially Connie (for some reason he grew attached to her the most of all), they were his entire world. As he continues to torture and slaughter the innocent but invasive crystal-animals, he thinks back upon his long past.
Back in the nineteenth century, he got to spend some of the happiest days of his life with Rose when he was the leader of his pride during his late juvenile and young adult years. His pride appreciated him, Rose was ever so nice, and he even got to meet some interesting humans like Buddy Buddwick. Then came the fateful day, when he was five years old, when a pair of three year old late juvenile males seeking a pride of their own invaded his territory while Rose was away with her own pride, the "Crystal Gems."
As the leader, he took it upon himself to fight them one-on-two. He earned a hard-fought victory and killed the two rival males, but was nevertheless mortally wounded himself. Rose happened to return just in time to witness him expire from blood loss, but a few moments too late to heal him. But he died happily, with the final thought "I protected my family."
Who in their wildest dreams would have thought that Rose could not only heal injuries, but could even revive the recently deceased if their death was unnatural and their body mostly intact? Astonished upon his reawakening, he didn't mind that he'd turned pink (thanks to Rose it was his favorite color), and was happy that he seemed to be stronger; he also didn't seem to require nourishment but could still enjoy the pleasure of eating. Upon discovering his "roars," the full magnitude of his enhanced strength and durability, and his other incredible powers, he became even happier, as it meant he could always protect his precious family.
But within a few years, he realized that the blessing Rose bestowed upon him was also a curse. Not that he was ever the least bit ungrateful to Rose; thanks to her, he got to spend more time with his precious pride and with her, and he eventually got to meet her incredible half-human son and Connie.
Nevertheless, he came to curse his existence as the rest of his pride aged and died around him while he himself aged ever so slowly. As the years went on, he remained the uncontested leader of his pride, until almost twenty years later, the originals were all gone and the group consisted of the descendants of his original pride, some of them the descendants of his own cubs who were conceived before his resurrection apparently rendered him sterile (yet another cursed aspect of his new existence).
In his grief over losing his original family, he eventually left one day with Rose during one of her visits, choosing to follow the Sand Castle wherever it went; he couldn't stand to be around his own species anymore, and so he passed the role of leadership on to his eldest grandson and told the pride not to follow.
As the decades wore on, he developed a human-level intellect far greater than that of any mere animal. He's unsure whether that's a side-effect of his resurrection by Rose, or whether it's due to him gaining far more experience and memories than other lions. He suspects that it's a combination of the two, as he knows that an animal like himself shouldn't have the brain-capacity to understand and be able to think in human language like he can no matter how much experience they accumulate. He wonders if in time, Lars will come to exhibit a superhuman intellect just as he himself has developed a "superlion" intellect.
Lion was so incredibly lonely during those decades; the only being with which he ever had any meaningful interaction was Rose during her visits. Recognizing his boredom and loneliness, she pitied him; and so she tasked him with portaling all over the world to track down and exterminate all the invasive gem-introduced species, a mission that was both mentally and physically stimulating due to his natural hunting instincts as a carnivore. She explained to him that crystal-animals were the fauna native to "Homeworld" other than Gems themselves, and that Gems introduce them to planets during colonization in order to more closely replicate the conditions on Homeworld.
She told him, however, to always find and return to the Sand Castle, as the Desert Glass may one day grow "aimless," and she needed someone to watch over it as she spent most of her time with her own pride rather than visiting him. Not to mention that she needed a way to always find him since his mane now served as her secret "storage space," a role which he didn't mind one bit; it was the least he could do in return after she bestowed the blessing of life upon him, after she cared enough to shed tears for him upon his death.
One day she came to visit him with her belly swollen; he recognized that as pregnancy, but was quite confused as he knew her "body" was non-organic and an illusion, merely a hologram projected from her gemstone. She explained to him that she'd chosen to have a half-human/half-Gem child with "Greg," a human man she had droned on about during previous visits. Unfortunately, as a Gem she couldn't have a child without dying so the child could inherit her gemstone.
It was then that she told him the truth about herself, the reason why she had godlike powers such as resurrecting the dead:
She was the mighty Pink Diamond, one of the former leaders of Homeworld and "The Empire," who was nonetheless mentally and emotionally abused by her elder sisters, the other Diamonds. Despite apparently being the mightiest of them when her emotion-driven powers reached their peak, she simply couldn't find it in herself to intentionally fight and harm her own family, although long ago she did apparently have a bad habit of unintentionally harming others during "tantrums" with her "screams," a power similar to (and obviously related to) Lion's roars.
She told him the story of how she eventually chose to lead a rebellion and live a new life with a new identity on Earth, but how that was a thoughtless mistake. She believed thanks to how they abused her in the past that her "death" would only inspire fear rather than grief in her sisters and would end the war; but she was a fool, and after she faked her own "shattering" at the hands of "Rose Quartz," her sisters' retaliation resulted in the "corruption" of most Gems on Earth. The Gem War only "ended" because the Diamonds thought they eradicated the rebellion; if Homeworld ever discovered that some of the Crystal Gems lived on, they would return.
She then told him: "My dear Lion, you are such a sweet, good boy. I need you to listen to me now, and listen closely. Having a child may turn out to be a selfish and stupid choice like so many of the choices I've made, but it's one that I'm making out of love for Greg and my love for life on Earth. As strange as it may sound, I wish to not only give birth but also to die in order to finally fully understand organic lifeforms."
"Above all, I wish to bring something new into this world, a human being who can grow and change over time but who will have a gemstone at their core. It's so exciting, Lion; never before has there been a Gem with an organic body that can grow and change, and never before has there been an organic being with a gemstone. But nevertheless... my child, Steven or Nora, they will possibly inherit some or all of the consequences of my poorly thought-out actions. And they will almost certainly inherit at least some of my emotion-driven powers which proved so very difficult to properly control."
"Someday, whether it be a few years or a few decades from now, my child will come to this place; perhaps it will be with the Crystal Gems because the Desert Glass will grow aimless as seems likely to happen, or perhaps it will be to seek answers, power, or a means of transportation; those pink hills you've seen at my 'Landfill' near here are actually my warship from my time as Pink Diamond. I have a feeling that my son or daughter may have need of that ship someday if... if my... sisters ever learn of Garnet's, Amethyst's, Pearl's, and my child's existence."
"Lion, I know that I'm once again being selfish, but may I please ask one final thing of you?" Lion nodded his head in the affirmative.
"Thank you, Lion. No matter how much you travel the world protecting Earth's ecosystem from invasive species, I need you to frequently return to check up on the Sandcastle and my Landfill. When Steven or Nora arrives, I need you to follow them and help them from then on."
A few tears gathered in Rose's eyes, and they began to slide down her cheeks as she continued: "Thousands of years have passed with no sign of Homeworld. So I want to believe that things will stay this way forever, that my terrifying sisters will never learn the truth and that Homeworld won't return to Earth... but I... I have a feeling deep within my gut, an instinct which tells me, that something will happen during my child's lifetime and that they will have to... to pay for my mistakes."
She began to cry harder as she said: "I-if only I'd tried harder to talk to Blue, Yellow, and White, if only I'd had the courage to fight them, perhaps I could have changed their minds after physically subduing them. I... I r-really am a selfish fool to the very end; perhaps deep down, dying to become half of my child is just a new way for me to flee from my responsibilities, but it's... it's t-too late now to take back this decision. Lion, my... m-my instincts tell me that my sisters aren't done with this planet, that Nora or Steven will need all the help they can get, that they will face terrible danger and hardship. Can you please promise me you will follow them and help them, Lion?"
Lion solemnly nodded his head. Rose wiped the tears from her face and collected herself before she once again spoke:
"Thank you so much, Lion. You really are a good boy. I'm so very sorry to have to leave you like this. Like I said, it's too late now to take this back; my pregnancy has come to full term, and tomorrow I will leave this universe forever. I'm sorry that I... broke down like that just now, I just... those things I told you, these doubts that I'm having, I'm too much of a coward to express them to Garnet, Amethyst, or even Pearl, and I certainly can't tell Greg that I'm having doubts about my decision, or that I know deep down that my child will live a difficult life as a consequence of my thoughtless, selfish choices."
She sighed before continuing: "It's just like when I moved Bismuth's bubble to the inside of your mane; I'm dumping all my feelings on you because I'm too cowardly to be honest with the others, and because I know you can't tell anyone about all my horrible secrets. I'm sorry for... using you like that, Lion. I suppose that I just needed to vent to someone before... before the end."
Lion stepped forward and nuzzled Rose, rubbing his face and mane against her bulging stomach and her gemstone in an obvious attempt to comfort her and tell her that he's okay with her "dumping" everything on him.
Rose bent down and wrapped her arms around him in a fierce hug, a few tears gathering in her eyes once again as she said: "Oh Lion, you... you really are a kind soul. My dear, sweet Lion, I will miss you very much. Thank you for all your hard work, and I love you."
He nuzzled her face and neck, tickling her and making her giggle a bit; she playfully ruffled his mane as he affectionately growled and huffed before licking her face for a few seconds. This caused her to giggle some more, and she said between giggles, "c-come on Lion, s-stop."
He stopped licking and nuzzling her and allowed her to simply hug him as she spoke: "Oh Lion, thank you for cheering me up. I know what you're trying to say, and you're right: Whatever hardships may come, my child and my comrades will persevere, because there is always hope. You're right Lion, this decision isn't a mistake: I will be bringing something new into this world, something incredible, a human being with a gem who will learn and change and grow. Nora or Steven will overcome whatever trials and tribulations they may face, and they can learn to be better than their selfish fool of a mother. My instincts, they're now telling me something else, something more hopeful: My child will surpass me in every way that matters."
She let go of Lion and stood up straight, her face settling into a serious expression as she gazed down at him and spoke one final time: "Again, thank you Lion, and I love you. Please protect the Earth and my child. Goodbye." She then took off towards the nearest Warp Pad and left him forever.
Nearly fourteen years later, things turned out exactly as Rose, as Pink Diamond, had told him they would. The Desert Glass indeed grew aimless, so Lion stopped traveling and waited. Sure enough, within a few days, the Crystal Gems ("so that's what the three of them look like," he thought) showed up with Steven, Rose/Pink's son, in order to put a stop to the Desert Glass. Lion honored Rose's final request; he followed Steven and helped him.
Sure, Lion could sometimes be a bit of a stubborn jerk and might occasionally vomit the remains of a Crystal Basilisk onto Steven's bed, but he's a cat after all, not a saint; and besides, he couldn't be soft on Steven, he had to toughen him up. Like Rose, Lion had instincts which told him that terrible danger was just over the horizon. Sure enough, Homeworld would soon be coming, something called "the Cluster" was already there, and Steven had to be strong, had to be ready.
Lion remembered all to well what Rose/Pink told him about her elder sisters; he knew that they were inconceivably powerful, godlike even, and he knew how terrible their wrath could be. She told him that they were evil shatterers who destabilized Gems' forms and controlled their emotions and even their minds, and that they could not be reasoned with, at least not without first being defeated in combat.
Lion had no idea whether Steven, being half-human, could ever hope to match his aunts in sheer might and combat-prowess. Sure, his mother was apparently the mightiest Diamond due to her powers being able to grow with her emotions; but nonetheless, Steven might be limited by his human side. Moreover, even if he could match her power, he was even more gentle, even more of a pacifist than Rose/Pink. Upon Steven having his "issues" at 16 years old, Lion came to see that he indeed had the same limitless potential as his mother; but that didn't help Steven one bit when he was still only 13 to 14.
When Steven was 14 and the Cluster and Homeworld were at his doorstep, Lion knew he would need strong allies. But beyond just helping and protecting Steven as per Rose's request, Lion came to care a great deal for Steven himself as a person; he was so kind and so strong of heart, and Lion suspected that Steven far surpassed his mother in that regard. Also, the boy gave great belly-rubs and fed him plenty of yummy treats. After a certain point, Lion's devotion to Steven was for the boy's own sake and he would have continued to help Steven even if it weren't for Rose's final request.
Lion's suspicion that Steven surpassed Rose in compassion and strength (just as Rose believed he would) proved to be spot-on when the boy somehow worked out a diplomatic solution with the Diamonds and converted them to the side of good, despite how Rose/Pink claimed such a thing to be impossible without physically subduing her "terrible" sisters first. Perhaps she'd simply never had the courage to speak completely honestly with them; clearly that was part of what she meant when she told Lion that she was "selfish and stupid" as well as "cowardly."
Anyway, Lion expected Steven. What he never expected was Connie. She was a mere human, a fully-organic Earthling like himself; she was clearly in love with Steven, who likewise obviously reciprocated her feelings. Lion knew that Connie was very strong, very powerful, very intelligent, and very skilled for any human, let alone for a juvenile human; the remarkable girl was able to somehow learn swordsmanship from Pearl, a Gem, and surpassed her teacher's greatest expectations.
But Lion also knew that she wasn't like Steven who had the constitution of a tank (and could regenerate from serious injuries instantly, although Lion realized that long before Steven did), and she certainly was nothing like the Crystal Gems who would simply "poof" if they took too much punishment unless their gemstones themselves were damaged.
Connie wasn't even like Lion himself, a mortal Earthling who'd been modified to have a superpowered constitution and long lifespan. She was as he once was during his early life; a very strong and capable member of her species, and yet still just a fragile sack of blood and organs that could easily be ruptured, could easily be broken, a lesson which Lion learned the hard way when fighting against that pair of rival males on that fateful day so many years ago.
Sure, Steven turned out to have healing powers and even proved capable of resurrecting the recently deceased as his mother could. Lion knew that if Connie was killed and resurrected, her life would be hard; she'd be rendered sterile just like Lion was, and she'd outlive all the humans she knew just as he outlived his pride. But at least she'd be alive, and she'd still have Steven and the Crystal Gems. But Lion couldn't help worrying about a far worse possibility than that; what if Connie was broken beyond repair? She was extremely intelligent, but seemed to vastly underestimate the constant danger to which she was exposed.
Lion knew that Connie's choice to battle as a mere human against tremendously superhuman entities on a regular basis using nothing but her incredible skill and Rose's special Gem-durability-bypassing sword was as foolhardy and reckless a decision as anyone could ever make; it frankly made his arrogant and prideful decision to fight a pair of rivals one-on-two seem positively brilliant by comparison.
Lion loved and respected Steven, but at the age of 14 Steven was still a starry-eyed and optimistic boy who preferred to live in denial of the more brutal aspects of reality; Steven insisted that as long as he was the Shield to her Sword, the Biscuit to her Strawberry, then Connie would be okay. But Lion wasn't naïve like Steven, and knew not to take such things for granted; as a member of a territorial species of carnivores among whom survival of the fittest was the only law, Lion knew that Connie's fights against Gems could easily result in her being torn in half, fully dismembered, or even ending up as nothing more than a bloody pulp smeared and strewn across the ground. Lion was fairly certain that such a gruesome death would be well beyond Steven's ability to fix.
As he torments and kills the hapless crystal-creatures everywhere he can find them on the island, Lion continues to ponder the past. When he thinks about it, Lion understands exactly why he grew so especially attached to Connie. When she was young, she reminded him so much of himself before his death: She was strong, prideful, brave, quick-witted, extremely skilled, and far too reckless.
Beyond all that, she was ever so kind to him and to everyone else, and so brutally honest with people when they needed to be put in their place. Unlike Steven (with the exception of his period of "issues"), she could easily turn "mean" when the situation required it as a means for everyone to get their act together and be good people. As a cat, Lion respected that.
Despite all the danger she rushed headlong into, despite being a mere human fighting against vastly superpowered enemies, thanks to her wits, skill, and willingness to allow others to aid her (in this way, she was unlike his young, reckless self who refused aid in a fight against two opponents), she managed to survive everything. Sure, as what humans call a "child-soldier," she, like Steven, ended up suffering through a period of issues, and apparently was a sufferer of "post-traumatic stress." But she was so strong and brave, and in the end she came out the other side even stronger, and far wiser, than before, becoming by all accounts the greatest leader that humanity ever produced.
For all those reasons and more, Lion respected Connie more than anyone, and loved her as much as he loved Steven. And when the two of them fused into Stevonnie, well, there was just no comparison; nobody was as amazing as Stevonnie.
The thought of Stevonnie makes Lion stop contemplating the more distant past and vividly recall the death just several days ago of the two he loved most in all the universe. It was so beautiful how they died fused like that, but it makes him so very upset and angry that he has to live on without them. He wants to scream his denial and anger to the heavens; so he does.
Having now killed every last crystal-animal on the remote island, Lion stands before a pile of mangled carcasses; behind them is a rocky outcrop. He lets loose a mighty roar with all his power, and completely annihilates the corpses as well as the outcrop and a whole swath of the jungle behind it; "so much for protecting the ecosystem," he thinks, "Rose, Steven, and Connie really must be disgusted if they can see me now."
And yet, he's still not satisfied. Will he ever be satisfied, ever be happy, ever again until the day he dies? He wishes that day would come right now, so that he can join Rose, Steven, and Connie in whatever afterlife they may have gone to, or even join them in oblivion if that's the only fate which awaits the departed.
But he can't afford to die yet, he knows that. So that he could satisfy his instincts as a hunter and a carnivore, Rose was "kind" enough to never tell the Crystal Gems about the dangers posed to Earth's ecosystem by crystal-animals. Even Pearl isn't old or knowledgeable enough to be aware like Pink Diamond was that even without all the terraforming and the Kindergartens, crystal-animals left unchecked can ravage the entire biosphere of a planet like Earth that's only populated by relatively weak native species. Pearl should have been able to figure it out, she knows for example about how deadly the shards of crystal-shrimp are, but Lion supposes she's never given it much thought.
No, Rose/Pink left hunting the crystal-animals as a job for him alone. And for a while, the Crystal Gems had their own hands full with corrupted Gem-Monsters that posed an even greater threat than the crystal-animals, so Lion was fine with the loneliness of his job. But by now, the never-ending hunt, the never-ending mission to eradicate all the invasive creatures, seems at best like a means to vent his grief and rage, but at worst like simply another one of Rose/Pink's poorly thought-out and selfish decisions, a truly lonely mission, an obligation which falls squarely upon his shoulders alone.
Lion doesn't resent Rose, and he never will, but he realizes now exactly what she meant when she told him she could be "thoughtless" and "selfish." Make no mistake, she was a good person, but she was flawed, as most people tend to be no matter how good they are, and happened to be a great deal more flawed than Steven and Connie were in the end.
What will happen if there isn't enough time, if he succumbs to the weakness of old age before he can complete his mission? He's already been working at it for almost 250 years, and still the crystal-animals continue to reproduce, to repopulate like the vermin they are. "Perhaps it's only on isolated islands like this one that I can eliminate these pests for good," he thinks, "and perhaps Rose was truly a fool for thinking that I could ever hope to take care of this issue on my own. I've lost count of how many times I've had to return to the same places more than once to eradicate these things repeatedly."
"If only the Crystal Gems understood the importance of my actions," he thinks, "then surely they could help me." Garnet with her future-vision, Pearl with her intellect, and Amethyst with her versatile adaptability and can-do attitude, could certainly assist him in completing this mission that seems hopeless all by himself.
It's then that he remembers something he'd forgotten during the several days that have passed since Stevonnie died: Both Connie and Steven told him before they passed to stay in touch with the Crystal Gems, to "not be a stranger."
"How could I be so blind, so stupid," he thinks, "have I already forgotten all the lessons that Connie, Steven, and Stevonnie taught me about friendship, about love, about family, about the pride? I was never especially close with them, but the Crystal Gems are my pride, because they were Rose's, Steven's, and Connie's pride."
He's smart, as smart as humans. He'll find a way to tell his pride, to communicate with them about the ongoing problem, the mission that Rose assigned to him. He finds himself wishing that he'd learned written language so that he could write his thoughts in the sand on the beach.
But even without that, there should be a way. If he can get them to realize he wants to communicate, Pearl and Peridot are ingenious enough to build a machine enabling him to talk regardless of his lack of the necessary vocal cords. "Could it really be that simple," he thinks, "that just as Steven and Connie would have told me, as Stevonnie would have told me, all I need to do is ask my family for help?"
Yes, he'll visit the Crystal Gems, and he'll find a way to tell them about his problem, about his mission from Rose. But not now, not yet. He isn't ready yet. Thinking about Stevonnie again has already filled him with an unbearable amount of pain and rage, with grief beyond measure. He may no longer require food, but he's a carnivore, a predator, and he thirsts for blood.
He needs to vent some more. And so, he roars open portals to several random remote locations on Earth, sniffing the air through each of them until he detects the scent of crystal-animals once again; these are some big ones, seemingly including some of the rare extra-large variety of Crystal Basilisks. If there's enough of them, maybe they can even give him a bit of a good fight, a rare case of a decent challenge.
In time he will go to the Crystal Gems for both comfort and assistance; he will go to them soon, he promises himself. He definitely won't disregard Steven's and Connie's wishes. But he isn't ready yet. So for now, he jumps through the portal where he can smell the Basilisks; for now, it's time to vent his grief in the most unhealthy of ways. It's time to hunt, to mangle, to slaughter once more.
Notes: The various weird "crystal creatures" that clearly aren't Gems, but also probably aren't native to Earth, that we saw during the course of the franchise always stood out to me as an unexplained mystery. We also saw that Lion likes to hunt such creatures. So I came up with this neat little idea here about what those creatures are and why Lion hunts them. I thought it would be cool if he's actually not hunting those creatures for fun, but rather for a good reason. Then I thought, "hey, what if this is another case where Rose/Pink screwed somebody over by not thinking things through enough and leaving them behind with a legacy that's just too damn much?" And that's how I came up with the idea for this chapter.
As for the actual canon franchise: Most likely, Rebecca Sugar just thought it would be cool to have some crystal lizards and shrimp wandering around ancient Gem ruins, and I'm probably putting way too much thought into this when it's something that Rebecca probably never really thought about or had an explanation for, haha.
And yeah, in the end a large chunk of this chapter ended up being a speculative character study on Rose and what may have gone through her mind shortly before giving birth to Steven, while also being a character study on Lion's love for the woman who made him what he is by having the compassion to shed healing tears for him when he died. I like to think that she knew deep down that Homeworld wasn't done with Earth; was it the Cluster that her "instincts" sensed, or was it simply a feeling of certainty that her sisters would one day return, or could it have been both? Could the instinct have been related to her empathic/telepathic powers/senses? Who knows; I'll leave that for you, the readers, to interpret as you please.
I imagine Lion as having a human-level intellect and being able to completely understand and even think in human language. There were many times in the franchise when it very much seemed like he could understand human speech, so I've decided to go with "Lion could talk if only he had the right vocal cords for it" as my headcanon here.