Chapter Eleven: Him and His Lion
His mother was there.
She was the lion, which Steven thought was a male. She wasn't.
Why else did the pink lion have Rose Quartz's most prized belongings? Especially her blade and the tape that Steven watched with Sadie, a friend who works at the Big Donut.
Malachite went out to get a hibiscus to serve as a catalyst. They were going to perform an old spell that was used to instantly return a Gem to their physical state. It required an item that was related to their power, which in this case was the beautiful pink and red flower, a tear from a loved one, a glass sphere stuffed with memories of the Gem, and a weapon that the Gem used once, which was her sword.
Garnet threw Amethyst into some sand to make glass, then took the glass clump to Pearl. She made some into a sphere and transferred memories of Rose Quartz into it, since she knew her best. Garnet got Steven to cry by telling him she was leaving the Gems, but of course this was a trick. They filled him in on the details and he went to get the sword from his lion's mane.
When Malachite came back, every single Crystal Gem put their items in a glass jar that Pearl also made. They drew a circle around the jar and had Altaite light four incense sticks near it. The Gems duplicated their own gems and materialized the holograms so they had actual ones. When they did, they put the new gems in front of them and waited, holding hands in a circle.
"We don't usually do stuff like this," Amethyst told them. She seemed unsure.
And then the jar started glowing. Inisde it was Rose Quartz's gem.
All that was left to do was to wait until she regenerated.
Lion was still alive, though. He just had to be there to bring Rose back, so really, he was her.
A couple hours later, she was there.
In the flesh.
Alive.
With her son.
At the same time.