The entire area lit up with a pink glow that spread along the walls as if the place had awakened from a long sleep. In the middle of the room, a stone hand slowly emerged from a small tower, rising solemnly. Steven remained calm, observing everything as if it were something completely normal, while Pearl, her eyes shining with excitement, could barely contain her amazement.
Steven glanced at her, a mixture of curiosity and resignation, before moving toward the tower. He placed his hand directly on the shiny surface, and silence filled the cave.
For a few seconds, they both stood still, expectant.
"Uh," Pearl said, looking at Steven, her voice trembling slightly. "Your mother... she could only make things appear with this."
"Well said," Steven replied with a slight smile. "My mother. I'm not her."
Pearl frowned, at first cold, but then her face turned to confusion. "So... how does it work with you?"
"That's right," Steven murmured, placing a hand on his abdomen, right where his gem glittered. At that instant, the ground shook, and several columns of light rose up, revealing a set of gleaming suits of armor.
The suits of armor... whispered Pearl, marveling, as she slowly moved forward to examine them more closely.
Here too, Steven commented distractedly, scratching his nose. Though he then lowered his gaze with some discomfort. "Too bad," he thought to himself, since touching parts of his body seemed to be the key to activating things around here. He didn't know whether to feel powerful or uncomfortable.
"Wow," Pearl exclaimed as she examined several swords that materialized around her. She was examining each one with almost obsessive precision.
"What are you looking for?" asked Steven, crossing her arms.
"I'm looking for your mother's sword," she replied without taking her eyes off the weapons.
Steven just sighed. In her mind, she was silently cursing all the Gems in the universe, and those that had yet to exist. Somewhere far away in space, a Peridot felt an inexplicable chill as she analyzed a holographic screen.
Why do I feel like someone just cursed me? she muttered as she typed nonchalantly. "Oh, anyway. Let's see... my next mission is... Cluster? Hmm, sounds interesting. Though I'd better gather more information first."
"You know," Steven said, looking at Pearl calmly, "I think it's a pink sword, isn't it?"
Pearl watched him in confusion, trying to keep up with his words. "Yeah... it's pink," she answered slowly, "but... why do you ask?"
Steven tilted his head, scratching the back of his neck casually. "Because Leon has it," he said tersely.
Pearl froze.
"Huh?"
Her gaze shifted from the boy to the air, from the air to the swords, and then back to Steven.
"What do you mean, 'Leon has it?'" she asked, sounding half incredulous and half alarmed. "It should be here; this is where Rose kept all her weapons."
Steven shrugged, as if he didn't see the problem. "Well, I guess that 'random lion,' as you say, has the sword."
Pearl was silent for a few seconds. Her eye began to twitch slightly.
"A... random lion... has Rose's sword?" she repeated in a low, almost trembling voice. "That... that can't be. She told me it was here... or... so I remember."
Steven looked at her with a mixture of confusion and amusement. "Well, maybe the lion turned out to be more trustworthy than you," he thought, silently, watching how Pearl seemed torn between disbelief, nostalgia, and a touch of suppressed hysteria.
Or she just had her secrets, like everyone else, Steven thought silently as he watched Pearl, who still seemed torn between nostalgia and confusion.
"Well," Steven said, clapping his hands a few times to break the tension, "let's go get Leon. I want to see if that pillowcase fits, you know?" he commented as he headed reluctantly toward the cave exit. "Do we really have to come all the way back? Oh my God... let's go before a diamond slug appears or something."
So, the two of them returned to the house. The portal enveloped them in a flash, and in a second, they were back in the living room.
"Home," Steven sighed in relief, letting out all his breath at once. "We literally found a damn diamond slug gem. What kind of luck is that?" he muttered as he walked slowly, exhausted, his clothes all ruined.
"Umgh," Pearl muttered, her voice shaking.
"Huh?" Steven looked at her and noticed that Pearl wasn't responding, but instead staring at Leon with a mixture of anticipation, nervousness, and fear.
Oh, yes... Steven said, calmly approaching Leon.
At that moment, Amethyst and Garnet came out of their room. They both watched as Pearl stared at the lion, as if she were in front of a forbidden secret.
Leon, will you let me in? Steven asked with a calm smile.
Leon looked at him in confusion, tilted his head, and then looked even more confused.
"What's that face?" Steven asked mockingly. "How do I know you have that power?" Magic added with a mischievous smile.
Leon snorted, resigned, and lifted his mane of hair towards Steven. When he touched it, it began to glow with a soft glow.
See you in two minutes. If I don't come back, it's because I died," Steven joked with a smile before disappearing into the shiny mane.
"He won't die, right?" Amethyst asked, a bead of sweat forming on her forehead.
"Maybe," Garnet replied, calmly adjusting her glasses, as if she weren't worried at all.
"Huh?" Pearl and Amethyst said simultaneously, alarmed. They both ran to Leon and began shaking him desperately, trying to get him to expel Steven.
Steven had emerged from inside Leon's mane with the sword in his hand, breathing heavily and with a drop of sweat running down his forehead. The scene before him was as absurd as it was everyday: Leon was practically immobilized between Pearl and Amethyst, who shook him relentlessly while Garnet watched everything with her usual calm, as if this were nothing new. Seeing him emerge, Garnet simply gave a thumbs up, then looked at the sword and raised two, a gesture that spoke volumes. Steven let out a small, tired laugh and muttered to himself that his mother was quite the fighter.
When Pearl finally noticed him, she froze, her eyes fixed on the pink blade Steven was holding. Her face, normally so serene and precise, twisted into amazement and longing. She stammered that that was it, that was it... her friend's sword... and stopped abruptly, clumsily correcting herself to say it was her mother's sword. Steven, Amethyst, and Garnet looked at each other in silence, as if they'd heard too much. Steven, in his mind, decided to pretend he hadn't heard anything, keeping his face completely expressionless.
Pearl, however, seemed to have forgotten everyone present. She touched the sword delicately, as if it were a sacred diamond, forged not by ordinary hands, but by twenty giant dwarves working in unison. The devotion in her gaze was evident, and the mixture of respect and emotion emanating from it made the entire room feel different, as if the weapon's presence brought back a piece of the past. Steven looked at it and thought with a hint of irony that yes, they were tremendous examples, and that somehow that sword seemed more important to Pearl than he had imagined.
Steven stared at her silently, the sword still in his hand, sweat sticking to his forehead. Pearl's question hung in the air like an accusation. Why was the sword on a lion? Why not in its rightful place? Her voice trembled, filled with frustration and suppressed rage. He swallowed and took a deep breath before answering calmly, though inside he was also confused. He said there were many things about his mother, too many, and that even he didn't understand everything. He looked at Leon, who, after feeling his gaze, simply sat down on a piece of furniture, as if forgetting that just a moment before, Pearl and Amethyst had almost shot him.
Pearl, however, didn't stop. Her voice grew increasingly high-pitched, increasingly broken. She said that his mother had never kept secrets from him, that she always told him everything. She was his best friend, his everything. Pearl ranted, almost breathless, insisting that she had known her before them, that she had confided her problems, her virtues, all her secrets to her.
Steven felt something tighten in his chest at the sight of her like this. Pearl's image, usually so steadfast, crumbled before him. In a calm, measured voice, almost a whisper, she told him that everyone had secrets. Garnet had secrets, Amethyst had secrets, he had secrets, even she had secrets. "We can't tell everyone everything," she explained gently. "If not, what would be left for ourselves?"
Pearl glared at him, her eyes blazing, trembling with rage. She screamed, "You don't know anything, you didn't know her, you... you're not her." Her voice cracked in fury, and she slammed her fist against the wall. The picture of her mother tore from its nail and fell, but Garnet, still imperturbable, caught it before it broke. The room fell into a thick silence, heavy with unspoken words and memories that seemed too heavy to hold.
I froze, my breath caught in my throat. Was this what the original Steven had experienced? How the hell did he endure something like that? I felt my chest tighten, a huge emptiness expanding inside me. If it hurt so much to hear it, I couldn't imagine what he must have felt, that boy who always tried to smile even when the world was falling apart, a kid who just wanted to understand why everything around him seemed so broken.
Pearl realized what she had said. Her eyes opened, a tremor ran through her body, and without thinking, she ran toward the portal.
Wait—Pearl, I cried, my voice breaking, but before I could finish the word, she had already disappeared into the glow. The sound of the portal closing was all that remained.
I stood there, my hand stretched out toward the void, trembling. Amethyst said nothing. Her expression said it all: no words could fix what had just happened. I knew Pearl had said everything to me, had blamed me for things that weren't even mine, things that belonged to someone else, to a past where I didn't even exist. Garnet remained silent, although her gaze showed that she understood something I still didn't.
Steven, she finally said, her voice calm but firm.
I looked at her, my throat still dry. Yes.
Go for her, you know what to say.
I watched her for a few seconds, trying to process it. "Do you think she wants to see me?" I asked, my voice low, hesitant.
...
...
...
Possibly not," she replied evenly. "But you have a chance to talk. It's something. Let her vent. Only you can do it. If one of us goes, it won't be as effective as if you go."
I looked at her for a few seconds and let out a small, tired laugh. "You even seem to see the future, or possible futures."
Garnet tensed for a moment, barely perceptible, before returning to her usual calm as she put my mother's painting back on the wall.
Maybe, she said simply. Who knows.
And for a moment, that simple answer gave me the push I needed to go after Pearl.
Leon, will you take me, Steven asked with a smile. Leon stood up without a word, as if he understood exactly what I was saying. "Let's go, Lion, to the distant islands," Steven added, though he immediately wondered quietly where Pearl was. Lion looked at him in confusion for a second, then opened his own portal, one of those glows seeming to burst from his mane.
Amethyst blinked, incredulous. "Since when can a lion create portals?" she asked, not hiding her surprise.
"I don't know," Garnet replied calmly, as if this were no worse than any normal day. Amethyst shrugged and left the question hanging.
El portal los tragó y Steven llegó a una zona de flores que le quitó el aliento. Qué bonita, musitó al ver un mar de rosas y otras flores brillantes que flotaban sobre pequeñas islas. Al frente, Perla corría entre los pétalos; Steven apretó la mano en sus bolsillos, pidió a León que se quedara atrás y echó a correr tras ella.
Perla iba desesperada, gritando que la dejara en paz y desviándose por senderos imposibles. Steven la llamaba con la voz recortada: Perla, Perla, ven, por favor. Ella no respondía, solo repetía que quería quedarse sola.
Garnet, con un tono entre amenaza y dije: Si no me das algo por esto, juro que averiguaré cómo entrar a tu cuarto y dejaré libres a las gemas.
Garnet solo estornudó en señal de indiferencia. Salud, dijo Amatista rápida; gracias, añadió garnet.
Ambos corrían ahora por tierras flotantes, pequeñas porciones de roca cubiertas de musgo y flores que se suspendían en el vacío. De dónde habían salido esas islas, se preguntó Steven con una gota de sudor en la sien; todo el mundo parecía normalizar lo imposible aquí.
Avanzó entre pétalos y brumas, decidido a alcanzarla. Tenía una oportunidad, pensó, y no la dejaría escapar.
Perla estaba en la zona de la última piedra flotante. Perla..., dije en voz baja, hablándole. Ella solo estaba acostada en la hierba. Bueno, parece que es lo mismo que el original, pensé con una ceja levantada. Qué casualidad. Solo unos pequeños detalles, pero parece que me olvido de algo.
Rápidamente corrí hacia Perla y de un salto llegué a la piedra flotante. Cuando ya casi iba a alcanzarla, su mirada me dejó helado. Eh..., murmuré perdiendo la concentración. La ma... ¡mierdaaa!, grité mientras caía. Esto era lo que se me había olvidado. Rápidamente me agarré a unas ramas que salían de la tierra flotante y así evité por poco una muerte segura. Miré hacia arriba y vi cómo Perla solo me observaba y luego se metía de nuevo en la tierra.
Qué cojones, dije con furia. ¿Esto era la mejor opción?, pensé recordando lo que me dijo Garnet. Así, agarrándome, hice algo que solo hacía en juegos. Invoqué mi escudo, lo puse como plataforma y salté. ¿Cómo lo hice? Magia.
Steven llegó arriba y su furia desapareció. Miró a Perla, la cual estaba con la espada de su madre, agarrándola como si fuera a desaparecer.
Lo recuerdas, ¿no? Estábamos aquí.
Steven permaneció en silencio.
En la guerra, me dijiste que siempre estarías para mí, que yo era irreemplazable, alguien a tu lado, un igual..., dijo Perla con tristeza.
A veces pienso si ella puede verme a través de tus ojos. ¿Estará decepcionada de mí?, ¿o simplemente ya me dejó de lado como me dejó hace trece años?, preguntó con la voz rota.
Steven caminó a su lado. Sus pensamientos se habían ido. Solo estaban ella y él. Se sentó detrás de ella. Perla se tensó, pensando que él iba a insultarla, golpearla o lo que fuera, pero simplemente la abrazó.
Perla quedó en silencio.
Sabes, Perla, siempre piensas en mi madre. Aunque muchas veces ustedes me dicen lo increíble que fue, lo dudo al verte así. Ella ya no está, no tienes sus expectativas. Si quieres que alguien te tenga en confianza, ese seré yo. Quiero que estés a mi lado, por favor, dijo Steven abrazándola aún más fuerte.
Perla quedó en shock. Todo lo que esperaba no era eso. Y lloró. Lloró y abrazó a Steven como si fuera una niña perdida. Steven dejó que se desahogara. Tranquila, ¿sí? Eres buena. Eres... eres una madre buena, dijo acariciando su cabeza.
Así, Steven tuvo su primera redención gracias a que su madre dejó a una Perla traumada. Y esto no será lo único que su madre le dejó de regalito.
Fin del capítulo 16.