8. Blood and Water
Stepping out of the shower as she readied herself for another day, Connie thought about the absolute stupidity of cell phones and, in particular, cell phone ownership. The human girl busied her hands with her morning routine, but internally she was still fuming from the night before. She couldn't see fathom why everyone had one and never answered them, why she bothered to ask her parents to buy her one when all they did was confiscate it, why Steven didn't think to use his stupid phone to let her know about any missions…
At this point, the thirteen year old was carefully withdrawing her sword training bag from her closet, hidden carefully behind some winter coats. Her mom and dad both knew by now that she trained with the Crystal Gems, but still, she felt it best to hide the bag in case her parents decided to snoop around. She unzipped the bag an examined the contents, a ritual she had grown accustomed to, and stocked the appropriate materials: bandages for her calluosed hands, two water bottles, an extra set of clothes to change into post-training, a travelsize bottle of acedometophine, and, of course, Rose's sword. She rested a hand along the scabbard, hard and resolute, and took a deep breath.
Closing the bag, Connie turned back to her routine and to her thoughts. Much to her frustration, she had resorted to using the home phone of the Maheswaran residence to call Steven twice this morning, to confirm the time for their training, only for the line to go straight to his voicemail. This wasn't unusual, as sometimes Steven would fall asleep without plugging his phone in to charge, but the whole thing was irritating. Today of all days, she had wanted to be sure of the agenda for training and the agreed upon time, but she after the second unsuccessful call to Steven's cell phone, she was forced to rely on her instincts.
Usually, Connie and Steven trained on Saturdays with Pearl, but her mother had specifically planned to visit some relatives halfway across the state for a cousins bridal shower. Normally, Connie might have tried to protest, but she had been trying to ease up on her relationship with her mother since coming clean about Steven, the Gems, all of the magic and adventures…
So, yesterday, Connie had agreed to go out with her mom, only for her mom to be called into work at the hospital and her plans for the day cancelled. At home all day with just her Dad, who was just a tad less strict then her mother, Connie had convinced him to let her hang out with Steven during the day and go to her rescheduled sword training with Steven the following day.
Absently, the girl pulled her soft, long hair into an intricate braid and checked her room one last time. The clean sight of her things, organized in the way she liked it, only disturbed by the presence of her training bag, made her feel somewhat more at ease. Connie really didn't want to be in a foul mood, especially with Steven, and she was sure there was a good reason he hadn't answered her yesterday, but still… She had sent him a few texts, trying not to be too obvious in her disappointment that he wasn't texting her back, but she missed him. It was an embarrassing thought that made her stomach flutter, but she found it silly to deny it. The time they spent together (and the time they spent together, if she included Stevonnie) were some of the most special moments in her life. The world seemed to move in slow motion when Steven was with her, days and nights filled with laughter and teamwork, the way he made her feel so confident in herself, the way he sometimes held her hand when he was stressed or upset…
Blushing suddenly, Connie paused with her hand on the door that would bring her outside. What was wrong with her? Steven's not even here and just thinking about him is making her cheeks warm and her heart beat loudly in her chest. She really needed to get a better grasp on her emotions, she decided.
One hand on the door, Connie called to her parents who she heard speaking in the kitchen. "Mom, Dad! I'm going. Bye!"
"Be back by 9:00, please. Be safe!" She heard her mother's voice carry as she shut the door behind her.
Just as Connie began to walk down the road, however, the girl smacked her forehead and turned back around, jogging to the front of her house.
Duh, Connie. You forgot to ask for your cell phone back. Mom might not let me have it, but it's worth a shot...
To her surprise, as she approached the door, her Dad was just exiting the house. He smiled as his daughter approached and she gave him an suspicious look.
"Forget something?" Her father reached into his pocket and held out her cell phone.
"Dad! Thank you!" Connie gave her father a quick hug, squeezing to show her gratitude.
"Just don't tell your mother… Whenever she notices, I'll never hear the end of it." He gave her a quick wink. Connie nodded, turned and ran towards bus that would deliver her to boardwalk of Beach City.
Smiling happily after that surprising interaction with her father, Connie glanced at her watch. 9:49 AM. She would likely be a bit early, given that Pearl began practice promptly at 11 AM. But maybe she would have a chance to catch up with Steven and figure out what had preoccupied him all the day before.
Her phone buzzed to life as she approached her stop, sitting comfortably on the bench, enjoying the warmth of the morning on her skin and the gentle wind that drifted through her hair. The tiny hairs on the back of her neck, too small to capture in the braid, tickled her slightly as she gazed distractedly into the street. She grimaced slightly, knowing those same hairs will be matted down against her neck in a few hours, sweaty but accomplished.
Readjusting her shoulder bag to her lap, Connie thought it best to not unnecessarily weigh down her shoulder – she would be sore enough after practice anyways… She kicked her feet absently, the tips of Connie's shoes grazed the pavement as she listened to the cars pass. Though she liked her neighborhood, and she was certain there was a number of biases involved, she loved the energy of even more Beach City. The call of seagulls, the distant music from Funland, the waters on the beach all mixed harmoniously with the enthuasism of the friends she mades there… it was a place that she never failed to be happy.
Bringing her back from her thoughts, Connie's phone began to buzz. She saw she had a missed call and text from Steven, which must have just come through since her phone had been shut off. She looked at the time of the missed call, 7:10 PM, and realized it was the call she ignored at dinner. The text, however, had the timestamp 12:21 AM, which surprised her.
Steven is almost never awake that late, unless he's had a nightmare… But he usually calls me when he does, never texts. Mmm…
Opening the text to investigate, Connie's heart sank through her stomach, down through even the bench she sat on and all the way into the cement below. There were only 7 letters spelled out on the screen, in all caps, and her heart clenched in dread.
SOS HOME
Steven would never send a message like that as a joke, Connie knew. This was serious.
And he wasn't answering her calls this morning…
Connie jumped up from the bench and wanted to start sprinting Beach City, desperate to make sure he was okay. However, just as suddenly as her feet began to propel her away, she stopped.It would be stupid, she realized, to run all the way there – the bus would be arriving any minute and would surely be faster and less strenuous than running.
Returning to the bench, the young girl fiddled uncomfortably, her mind racing with possibilities.
What if he's hurt? Maybe his phone is just dead, or busted, from whatever mission he was on yesterday? Surely if it was something to worry about, Pearl would have called her… or at least sent her a message. Yes, that's right… Connie was practicing her breathing, remembering how to release her stressful thoughts and watch them go by from a distance, just as Garnet had taught her. Her hands were shaking, but the steady breathing was making her stomach unknot slowly, so she continued to sit there in silence and tried to stay calm.
Connie was vaguely aware that she wasn't alone at the bus stop and that the people around her must have been staring, her odd behavior and outfit not exactly typical for a Sunday morning in the suburbs. She didn't care if they stared, though, right now she needed to stay focused. If she loses control, especially if this was all for nothing, it could affect her performance as a swordsman. She clenched the bag as it laid across her lap, the familiar weight of Rose's sword a comforting reminder that she did not have time to be afraid.
Eventually, after what felt like hours, the bus to Beach City arrived. Connie fumbled in her pocket for the exact change and deposited it in the money slot and beelined for the farthest seats towards the back. She was anxious, her foot tapping impatiently, even though the ride usually took no longer than 15 minutes. With nothing else to do, Connie pulled out her phone and stared into the accursed screen that had become her undoing. She studied the seven, cryptic letters, hoping that something would click in her mind if she read it enough times.
SOS HOME. SOS HOME. SOS HOME.
Coming up with nothing, Connie fingered randomly through her other contacts. She landed on Pearl, whom she very rarely sent messages to except in rare cases of emergency. This qualified as an emergency, right?
Pearl would understand. Of course she would – Pearl worries about Steven even more than I do, so she wouldn't be upset if I contacted her and it turned out to be nothing. Yes. This qualifies as an emergency. Connie repeated the thought a second time as listened to her phone as it dialed Pearl's number.
Connie was a bit surprised but tremendously relieved as Pearl answered.
"Yes, Connie?" Pearl's voice sounded strange.
"Oh, Pearl! I'm so glad you picked up." Connie's words stumbled out, emotions overflowing as she thanked the stars nothing was wrong. She realized as she spoke that she didn't know what exactly had happened yesterday that had made her worry and did not want to sound foolish, so she tried to be as vague as possible. "I've been worried sick because of… well, yesterday."
"Oh, yes. Yesterday was quite the rollercoaster." Her teacher really didn't seem her usual self, Connie noted. Her answers were short and her voice sounded impatient. Not sure of what else to say, and fairly sure Pearl was not going to contribute further to the conversation, she chuckled nervously and tried to quickly wrap up the call.
"So, um. We are still on for sword training, ma'am?" Connie managed, trying to recover her composure while speaking to her teacher.
"What? No! We still need – wait, Connie, how do you know about yesterday?" Pearl's voice had changed midway through, shifting from exasperated to confused to something… darker.
"What? Oh, um, I'm sorry, ma'am. I just called because Steven hadn't answered his phone, and I saw his text from late last night and I was worried. I'm sorry to have called your line, I know it is reserved for emergencies, ma'am." Connie spoke seriously, trying not to be scolded by her teacher.
Pearl said nothing on the other line for a moment. Finally, sounding confused again,
"But, Steven shouldn't know about what happened to Garnet…"
Now it was Connie's turn to be confused. "Something's happened to Garnet, ma'am? Is she okay? All Steven said to me was 'SOS Home'." Connie repeated the phrase, but now her heart was beginning to beat painfully in her chest, her conversation with Pearl no longer reassuring.
"Connie. Did you speak to Steven yesterday or this morning?" Pearl's voice had turned sharp.
"No, ma'am. That is why I called you." Neither of them said anything for a long moment.
Unable to keep with her usual etiquette when speaking with her teacher, Connie practically whispered into the phone. "…Pearl, he's okay, right?"
Pearl ignored her question. "Connie. Where are you?"
"I am about to arrive in Beach City. I am approximately five minutes away from the Temple." Connie answered, gritting her teeth. She would have been a bit hurt that Pearl dismissed her question, but Connie found that she was too caught up in the stress of the moment.
"Connie. Meet me at the Temple, immediately. You might beat me there," she added the last part quickly and hung up the phone.
Using every ounce of her will power, Connie suppressed an urge to punch the siding of the bus. Her conversation with Pearl had not only failed to calm her nerves but it was now sending her brain spiraling into a million worst case scenarios.
The final minutes of the commute dragged on for an eternity. Finally, as her steel prison rolled to a stop, Connie bounded from the bus wildly and began sprinting towards Steven's home. She started to rationalize a list of questions for Pearl when she arrived, re-ordering and re-prioritizing the list countless times. Where's Steven? Is he hurt? What had his text meant? Where had Pearl been, if not at the Temple? Why hadn't anyone told her what was happening? Where was Garnet – what happened to her? Why did Pearl sound so strange on the phone?
The Temple was starting to come into view, the beautiful arms of the stone woman on the side of the cliff-face, so masterfully crafted, were now visible as she made her way around the bend in the beach that would soon reveal Steven's house. Connie looked around desperately while she ran, looking for any sign of a pink shirt and dark hair, scanning the sand, wary she might find a gemstone, praying that she didn't…
And then, just as she turned and took the corner sharply, she flung herself painfully into something hard. Connie held her head and reached for the cliff-face, trying to steady herself, thankful she had chosen to leave the frames of her glasses at home.
"Connie?" The voice was nearly as surprised as the young girl, although it did not share in her pain despite being hit at full-speed. A blue blob started to form as Connie regained her composure, expecting to see Pearl and surprised when it was Lapis Lazuli that stood before her.
"Lapis? What are you… where's Pearl?" Connie managed as she rubbed her forehead gently, thankful she had only run into Lapis and not stumbled and tripped over her as well.
Lapis looked at her, confused and concerned by Connie's tone. The blue gem did not know the human girl well, but the panic in her voice was plain as day.
Pointing towards the sky, Lapis said "I have no idea about Pearl. I only just got here," Connie realized the blue gem still had her water wings outstretched.
When Connie said nothing, Lapis spoke again. "I needed to get away for a bit, and I wanted to ask Steven something, so I just got here… Why are you looking for Pearl?"
Connie shook her head at the question Lapis posed. "Wait, no, there's no time. Just, come with me!" Connie began to run towards the Temple again, grabbing Lapis by the wrist, remembering Steven's text, and something had happened to Garnet, and Pearl's strange voice on the other line…
"Hey. Don't touch me." Lapis pulled her hand back angrily, grabbing her wrist with her other hand and rubbing it.
"I'm – ugh! I'm sorry, there's no time! It's Steven!" Connie was already running again, this time not bothering with the gem that was staring and vaulted herself up the stairs to Steven's house.
Her hand flew out to throw open the door, only for Connie to stumble a bit on her feet and lurch forward into the room.
She had no words for what she saw, but pain broke across her face as she felt tears well in her eyes. There was wood and dust everywhere, the framed portrait of Steven's mother was mangled at her feet, glass from the picture littered the floor. Her eyes followed a line of scratches across the dirty floor to see the door she had just tried and failed to open was in a heap against the warp pad, the relic of gem technology broken into huge chunks, jutting out from the floor.
Connie's chest was tight with fear, a fear unlike something that she had ever known. She bounded up the stairs to Steven's bedroom to see an empty mattress, sheets and covers mostly made up, just a little uneven. Connie's eyes scanned the room below her, looking for something that might explain the chaos she had just disturbed. Then, all of the color from Connie's face drained, her eyes resting to the left of the broken warp pad. Pooling on the floor, there was an indent in the wall that was splattered with blood.
Connie jumped from the second floor onto the couch, not caring about manners at the moment, and inspected the horrifying scene. There was a medium-sized pool of blood, mostly dried, meaning it had been here for several hours. In the sticking, dry mess that made her stomach churn, Connie spotted a loose piece of pink fabric, stuck to an enclave in the wall.
The girl crumpled at the sight.
No. It's not possible. He's can't be gone, he can't be. Where is he? Steven, you can't be… She was crying outright now, hard and heavy sobs as she knelt down and grabbed a piece of the pink shirt, squeezing it in her hand desperately. Connie felt like she was going to die, kneeling there, holding the piece of Steven's iconic shirt.
I was supposed to be there for him – his knight, his partner, his friend… I was supposed to protect him!
Connie screamed while the hot tears rushed down her cheeks like a waterfall and she spun around, anger and anguish spilling out, her legs pushing her out of the house without thinking. She headed for the door to go, just to go anywhere, somewhere that wasn't here. Just as she was about to cross the threshold to the outside, however, Connie felt the weight of a hand on her shoulder her, placid but firm enough to stop her from running. Not caring who it was, Connie flung herself towards the presence and wrapped her arms around whoever it was, crying into the cold stiffness that could only belong to a gem.
Lapis placed one arm around Connie and another on her head, holding her close. Her eyes scanned the floor for gem shards, hardly relieved when she saw none, her eyes resting on the blood and eventually out to gaze at the sea. Lapis had surprised herself with her desire to comfort the human girl, as she herself wanted to explode in fury, or tears, or perhaps both – but Lapis knew that this little human cared for Steven and was being ravaged by the same hurt and fear that was tearing her apart.
The two stood there and exchanged no words, the silence interrupted only by Connie's sniffling and shuddering breaths. Lapis and Connie remained frozen in the middle beach house, a place located at one of the most wondrous part of Earth where the water became sand and sand became soil and soil became life. But there was no life in this house, only a suffocating despair that drowned them both.
Lapis and Connie just held each other, human and gem, blood and water, each heart broken, each swearing revenge.