The Prowling Gem

Chapter One: System Shock (Finale)

The warp pad chimed at their arrival, she held the boy by his hand, she didn’t feel great doing this but she, in her mind, had no other option. She didn’t care if she didn’t see the end of this day, she just wanted to end this once and for all. While she wished she could say that she could handle Rose, she, even now after all this time had her doubts. Maybe she would get closure on all of this.

‘Maybe I don’t have to suffer anymore…’

She looked around the room that surrounded the warp pad that they were standing on. It looked like a human building which was odd to her, but Rose seemed almost obsessed with the idea of humans, it was strange to her still. On one of the walls, she saw a painting of her, she wanted to rip it apart so bad, but she didn’t want to cause a scene, not right now anyway, there was no point if the real one was close.

She stepped out of the pad and looked through the window, she saw the planets orange star very slowly submerge itself into the water. Of course, she knew that wasn’t what was happening, but she like to imagine that’s what it was. She had to admit it was an impressive sight to witness.

“It’s beautiful, isn’t it?” Asked the young boy looking up at the gem. Spinel looked at him for a moment, had he read her mind?

“I-I, yeah I guess so…” She said as she quickly turned around to walk somewhere else.

Steven looked at her as she approached the door to the temple that had gone unnoticed when they arrived. He didn’t know how he was going to tell her; it was clear that his mom had done something to anger this gem greatly. Though she didn’t seem evil, she was very scary, he thought on how the pink gem would react to her mother being gone. Would she hurt him over it? Would she think that I’m her? He didn’t know and wasn’t to keen on finding out, but he knew that it was an inevitable confrontation.

Spinel passed her hand over the door; she didn’t really know why she did it, but she guessed it was curiosity.

Then she turned around to face the boy, who flinched at the speed in which she had turned around. She looked at him dead in the eye, the waiting around was getting on her nerves, even though it had been maybe two minutes since they arrived there.

“Where is she?” She asked to which Steven fidgeted awkwardly in his place, not knowing how to approach the situation. Spinel just looked at him expectantly, but he wouldn’t say anything, he didn’t know what to say.

“It doesn’t matter, she will arrive soon enough.” She said confidently as she walked to the middle of the room. She crossed her arms and looked at nothing as she went over possible scenarios of what could happen when Rose arrives.

Steven on the other hand was trying to speak but words would not come out of his mouth. It felt like as if there was something in his throat that wouldn’t let him speak to her, probably since this was also a tough subject for him. He was always compared to his mom, whether it be positive or negative it still annoyed and frustrated him, he sometimes felt as if he wasn’t his own person.

So instead of taking the direct approach of just saying she doesn’t exist anymore, he decided to question her about his mother. Maybe this would answer some question of his, he knows that the gems hide things from him, so why wouldn’t they about his mother and her past? Maybe Spinel knew things that the gems would never tell him, he knew there was some conflict, but he didn’t understand the full scale of it, who better to ask than someone who was there and wasn’t biased towards Rose? Well… unbiased in the sense that she wouldn’t be afraid to speak negatively about the leader.

Honestly all he craved was to get a better picture of how things came to be and maybe get her to understand him, understand that he is himself.