Water Witch

The Beginning of Doubt

Lapis walked alongside Steven as they trekked through the forest, ready to catch him at a moments notice if he stumbled or fell. It had been a few hours since their talk, Lapis having taken the lead in search of a warp pad she knew to be in the area.

Throughout the walk, Lapis hadn't been able to make herself say anything to him. It wasn't that she couldn't come up with a good topic for conversation, she had plenty of things she wanted to discuss with her friend, she just...couldn't do it.

Lapis didn't know why, but it bothered her that Steven had been so quick in trusting her, not even questioning it for a second. Sure she had expected him to believe her, but it was troubling how easily he believed her lie. Did he really have that much faith in her, that he believed every word she spoke without so much as a doubt that what she said could be false? The thought was unnerving. She had done nothing to earn that from him. In fact, he should've felt rather wary around her, given all the problems she had caused... Perhaps that was something else she needed to worry about.

Steven stared at Lapis for awhile, the water gem in a state of deep thought. Through the time they had spent together, he had come to realize she did it a lot. He didn't know if this was positive though. Lapis seemed very troubled during these moments and Steven could only assume that this was due to her being unable to return back to the home she had been so eager to get back to when they first met. Steven wasn't too sure of what to do to fix this, having never experienced it himself. He decided that the only thing to do was to try to make her happy...but she had an obvious disdain for the planet and its creatures. The only thing that seemed to make her happy here was him...he was probably going to have to fix it.

"So, where's this place we're going again?" Steven asked, wanting to break the silence.

Lapis caught on to what he was doing and cracked a grin as she was pulled from her thoughts. "An old gem place." She told him. "I remember back before I was trapped there was a cave that was used as a base during the war. It should be a good place to hide for the time being. If I can find the warp pad that's supposed to be around here, then I can get us there no problem."

Steven grinned. "Cool, a cave home!" He cheered. He had always wanted a cave room like the Gems. He always thought that the idea was cool, his enthusiasm earning a smile from Lapis.

It surprised her how his personality had changed in comparison to how he acted in the Malachite Realm and during their fight against Jasper. It was as if he was a whole new gem, his previous serious nature dead to the world, in its place the rosy friend she knew him to be.

Lapis' smile dropped as she faced back to the path before her. She wondered...if she would ever see this side of him again after she stole him away from his..."home".
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Garnet could barely stay on her feet as she dragged herself back to the warp pad, completely exhausted. She had searched tirelessly for Lapis and Steven through the night and most of the day, coming up with nothing.

"This is bad. This is really bad." Garnet said shakily to herself, shaking her head. Garnet, just as she was about to make it onto the warp pad, stopped, looking up towards the sky. For the first time in her life, she didn't know what to do.

Since the moment Steven had put himself in his bubble, her ability to see into the future had become severely limited. She could see some, but even those instances were sparse. There were a few moments that she could see very clearly, but anything other than that was only occasional and would come in random bursts. Whatever she got typically was a comfort, but what she didn't have was what terrified her the most.

Garnet didn't know how she was going to do it, but she had to find a way to get Steven back, and fast. She knew Lapis wouldn't lay a finger on Steven in violence. Every single vision Garnet managed had proved that she was going to treat him as he treated her, with the utmost kindness and respect. Yet, there was something else that her future vision had shown her, something that sent shivers down her spine.