Malley Kite

Chapter 16

In the morning, Garnet had finished explaining to Steven what happened in the mindscape and after learning about Malachite, Steven went straight to the warp pad. He traveled to the barn in determination and he heard a grunt. He saw Peridot trying to lift the tracker with her metal powers which, judging by the look on her face, was strenuous.

Peridot spotted him, "Hello Steven." She said, after letting the tracker fall down with a thud.

"Hi Peridot," Steven greeted. "Where's Lapis?" Steven noticed Peridot visibly growing nervous but he continued. "Please Peridot, it's important."

Peridot sighed, "She's at her usual spot." And she pointed to the back of the truck attached to the front of the barn.

"Thanks." Steven replied, "What were you doing?"

"Practicing my metal manipulation or if you prefer," Peridot answered.

"Oh, cool. Good luck." Steven winked. He then jumped to the truck and found Lapis huddled up against one corner of the trunk. "Lapis Lazuli,"

Lapis nearly jumped up but she quickly composed herself, smoothing out her hair and rubbed her eyes. "Steven, what is it?" she said sitting up.

"Lapis, we need to talk about..." but his words nearly stopped when he saw Lapis' face. She had dark circles around her eyes, similar to that of someone who hadn't slept in days and she seemed to have trouble keeping them open. "Lapis are you ok?" Steven asked out of concern.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Lapis said, she rubbed her eye. "I've just had a lot on my mind."

Steven inhaled through his nose and let out a breath before saying. "After this, you should think about giving sleep a try. Amethyst and Malley sleep sometime and they seem to like it."

Lapis seemed to tense up at the mention of the malachite gem. "I'll take your word for it," she said flatly and turned away from him.

Steven carefully stepped across the trunk until he was next to Lapis and he sat down with her. For a while neither of them said anything but then Steven broke the silence. "Lapis, what were you doing in the temple last night?" he asked.

Lapis was surprised by his question but then she answered, in a hesitant voice. "I wanted to see you and know where Peridot went but then I–...uh. Garnet found me and she took me into the temple to talk."

"What were you talking about?"

"Well, we were talking about Malley..."

Earlier Last Night

Garnet, Peridot, and Lapis in the boiling room while Steven and Malley were asleep in the beach house.

"Lapis," Peridot said. "We couldn't take any pictures of it because it was deep underwater, but Malley's exit hole had nearly identical marking to that of Jasper's and an average lazuli gem, like yourself."

"Nearly identical?" Lapis repeated.

"The bottom of the exit hole had glass melt... it didn't reach to the brim but given what little resources there were, it was impressive."

"So?" Lapis retorted. "That still doesn't prove anything."

Peridot thought that over for a second. "Fair enough but the facts don't lie. She's a water gem with the hydrokinetic properties of a lazuli, like you. I know holes Lapis and in spite of the substandard conditions, the evidence was clear that she was made on this planet's surface in an unnatural manner." She groaned. "Apparently the ocean's currents and the sea creatures down there like to keep to the earth's theme of constantly changing and the structure of the exit hole was nearly damaged."