History
The first time he hears about his mother, he's still a little kid. Peridot is watching him while his dad tries to teach Jasper and Lapis how to setup wifi in the temple. He remembers that it's unusual, because Lapis is usually the one to watch him, but Jasper and Peridot like to buy extravagant things when their not being watched.
Peridot tries to make him watch her dumb camp show, and when that bores him she tries her dumb high school show and dumb hospital show, until she finally gives up on TV altogether.
"Steven," She says, and stands up from the couch, "How would you like to learn of your mother?"
He says yes of course, so she leads him to the doors and has him place his hand on the input scanner.
"This is mom's room?" He asks, eyes wide and taking in all he can.
It's a looming, grey room, almost empty save the dias and chair at it's center. The walls and floors are covered in odd patterns, not quite language or math but some fusion between the two, sentences turning into equations turning into symbols that Steven could not understand no matter how hard he looked.
"This is the history of our people." Peridot explains, gesturing towards a crop of the odd symbols underneath Steven's foot, "It's difficult to translate, but Our Diamond did her best, she knew that the traitor would try to hide it. She didn't want us to lose our history."
"Wow." Steven says, spinning to take it all in, he looks up and is shocked to see the story continues up the wall, which go so far up a dense cloud of fog covers them.
"One day, we will defeat Pink Diamond, and we will return the stories." Peridot says, "They didn't fight before because Pink Diamond hid them. She programmed an entire regiment of quartz so that they didn't know the stories y'know."
"What! Really?" Steven asks, spinning to face her, "Why did she do that?"
"Hmm," Peridot stares down at him shrewdly, despite their half-inch in height difference, "If you were born and didn't know your story, would you believe someone who told you a good story about yourself, or a story that was true but you didn't like?"
"The true one!" Steven says, then pauses and rubs his chin, "But I guess, I wouldn't know it was true would I?"
"Correct!" Peridot says, "Pink Diamond told the Quartz regiment they were created to help others, to heal the hurt and build farms." She sneers the last thing like it's the worst thing she's ever had to say.
"That does sound good." Steven frowns.
"But the Quartz regiment was not created for that! They could heal, true, but they had that ability to heal battle wounds, not the ill. They were strong, but not to build things. And because Pink Diamond lied to them, she caused three regiments to shatter."
"What?!" Steven gasps, hands on his cheeks and eyes wide.
"The Quartz regiment had been planted to help us fight against those who would see all gems destroyed. But instead they went off to other planets, and the armies fighting to protect us were destroyed. It was only the intervention of Yellow Diamond that Homeworld survived at all!"
"Woah." Steven says, "That's so awful!"
"Yes, it was." Peridot agrees, "I hadn't been formed yet of course, but it's here, Our Diamond told me personally. Our Diamond didn't care about what story sounded better, she cared about the truth."
"Me too." Steven declares, solemn like a holy vow, "No matter what, I'm going to make sure everyone knows the truth about mom and Pink Diamond."
Peridot looks surprised for a moment, then grins, "You are a good child Steven." She pats him on the head, ruffling his hair and he grins back at her.