Chapter 3

It was morning. While Steven sat on the edge of his bed lost in thought, the gradual morning warmth creeped over the entire city like a golden hand. Ragged edges of the blinds caught this light and turned it into spears that curved over the boy.

Why couldn't he sleep? Pearl's distance invoked fear but it shouldn't matter. Dreams are dreams, astrprojection or not. He played with that notion like a ball of lint in a dryer. If everyone fretted over them, who could sleep?

But over the years, he's learned to listen to the pink gem as guidance. A gut feeling is one thing. But a gemmed feeling is a separate beast. And it's crying out to him with a simple warning: she's hiding something.

It was a loud thought and it keeps him up until he sees the rays of light dancing upon him like disrespectful ghosts.

But he knows he's right. Rather, he knows his gem-gut is right.

He realized Pearl must have seen something. He realized he couldn't talk to Amethyst or Garnet about this realization due to their proximity to Pearl, who Steven has seen of late is more perceptive than Saddie during her mic checks. He also realized a boy can realize many things if he is awake during the night, staring at the stars from a vantage point of anxiety.

He comes to the conclusion as Lion crawls on his lap: he must find out where that dream took place. If it was real and it was some extended form of astroprojection, then someone was out there in pain. And somehow Pearl was involved.

But to get there, he knew he needed help. And he had just the person to go to.

"You want me to what?" Lapis asks as she adjusts yet another piece of her 'art' upon the barn. She's calling this one Why Is All the Corn Yellow?

"I just need you to help me fly above the forest north of here. I...need to look for something important."

She gives him a look while shifting a cinder block. "Huh...Why don't you just do your floaty thing?"

"Because I can only do it for minutes at a time. And I'm exhausted afterward!" And because he's slightly afraid whatever is lying in the dirt may be dangerous enough to need back up. But he wasn't about to tell her all of this. Lapis sighs and lets the great piece of art sit still.

"Alright, I'll help you find your thing. But just letting you know, you're not a kid anymore so I can't have you on my back. I'll have to hold your wrists."

"Yes, yes! Thank you Lapis. I promise it will be fast so you can go back to your...art."

She floats down beside Steven. "Alright, ready?" She grabs his wrists and unfurls her water wings. Both take flight in seconds. She grips his wrists tighter. "Jeez, what have you been eating? Rocks?"

"No! I've been training. I'm pure muscle...and pizza." He scans the area below. He realizes this forest is large. Very large. Connie told him of a story once of a boy who got lost trying to find his dog in this forest. Apparently, he was never found. Steven doesn't come to this area of the city often unless he's driving and needs to take the forest road shortcut that leads to one of the popular lookout cliffs. The trees are thick and tall and blocks nearly all of the sunlight from reaching below, nearly making the forest ground dark. There is something unnerving about the place. Perhaps it was the unknown lurking in the branches? Or the disruption of light in pure darkness during midday? The feeling was there regardless whenever he was near. He could almost feel the reaching him from up here with their 12 foot branches.

"Do you see anything Steven?" He almost forgot why he was flying above this place. He looks around but can't see anything apart from green. What exactly was he looking for? A clearing, perhaps. The image of the man showed the area he was in destroyed, as if he crashed landed. A giant rock was in the image too. One that was rose-like. But what giant rock?

After thirty minutes of circling, and seeing more trees and unimportant clearings than any boy should see, Steven sighs.

"Alright Lapis, let's just-" He stops. In the distance, close to the base of some hill, was a cracked tree. It lead to a clearing that seemed...made. "Lapis! I think I see something. Over there, do you see?"

"Ugh," She tightens her hands. "Kinda hard to focus with all this sweat on my eyes!"

"It's straight ahead, by mountain. Fly me over!" They both glide forward lazily. Steven begins to see the clearing. It was, truly, ripped open from the natural forest landscape. A series of broken trees, about 20, lay like a lined-thread toward a pocket of a sort of blast radius. From above, the scene was like a silhouette of a fading comet in the sky. Steven thought it looked almost nice, natural even.

Lapis gently lands in the center of the carnage. The trees were blackened and charred. Remnants of other melted rock was embedded in the ground like shrapnel. Yet there, in the center of the deserted chaos, was the rock shaped like a rose. Uncanny was the resemblance of the flower but stonned grey in appearance. It was almost untouched, save a few black smudges on the side. The image struck Steven and he paused: a bouldered rose in the center of what could only be described as a blast site, near some streak of charred round and rubble that scarred the earth and left it open with black liquid still crusted as if the sap of the earth leaked in mourning at this isolated spot in the middle of nowhere. Nowhere at all.

Steven forced himself to move to the side of the rosed rock. The black smudges seemed to be handprints. They were small though, not nearly the same size as the charred landing area. He touched the black spot and shivered: he felt someone else was there before, surely, using this spot as a crutch to lift something else. It wasn't seen or guessed but the sequence there in his mind, as if placed by something. His fingers tingled and the gem warmed his belly. A reaction to this liquid?

He looked closer at this odd black substance. It shimmered slightly, with flecks of white embedded within. Just like my dream…

Then he was somewhere else. In the same place but at a different time. Not him. Standing by this person. Thing? He was gasping, holding his side, muttering something. He could smell the smoke of fresh impact. He felt the words 'no' on his scalp, like mice tickling his skin. Was he talking? He heard another cry from this person. He knelt down to him but couldn't interact or see fully, like a veil was over him. His sight. The man though is hurt. Bleeding. The dark liquid. 'Blood'. Blood?! He gasps but its silent. The man stops. In the distance from the trees, a pale-blue light is emerging. The man's heart thumps. He has a heart? It's not a man though...is he? 'Half of it' - the concept on his skin. The half-man sees this blue light. Steven is beginning to fade out but he shouts. He knew it.

"Steven," Lapis said. Steven gasps and turns to see Lapis shivering. She was scared and shaking and looking at the charred area where the other smudges of the liquid lay. "I want to leave. I...I need to leave."

"Lapis, are you ok?" He walks over and touches her shoulder. He is shaking now too. What did he see just now? She was cold and clammy.

"No, something about this place is wrong. I…" She shook her head. He doesn't speak to what just occurred. She's terrified. He looks at the blood on the ground. This black liquid…

Steven leads her out of this place, through the woods toward the old road that would lead back to their home. The farther they walked, the less Lapis shook. But Steven was shaking now. She asks if he's ok and he says he's cold, which is true. But not fully. No, images are fluttering over his sight as they see the curvature of Beach City in the distance: a darkened man holding a wound, an untouched rose, a surge of power, and her, walking through the clearing with her weapon seized. Pearl he knew, unfamiliar.