NEWS BEFORE WE START: Sorry for the hiatus. I really just couldn't find time to write, I lost my notes and writers block is hell. I MADE A TUMBLR BLOG for the fic if anyone wishes to annoy me or leave suggestions satda-fanfic if anyone cares I will ask for input and answer questions. There are also pictures of some of the characters already up!

Okay.. you've heard enough from me. Let's go

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Harsh blue eyes reflected the rapidly shrinking landscape below her in the black pupils. It seems she was always destined to be a mirror for her existence. A helpless object while the world turned upside down. For all her power that seemed wrongly bestowed for how much use they had been. Why not give her status to the life force of a measly Pearl or Peridot? At least then it could be an object of functionality instead of reflecting her past. The droplets each fracture hundreds of images, of her mind and her surroundings.

Recent flashbacks flooded her senses. Peridot turning on her, that damned warp pad, Steven fallen and hopeless. Collapsed on the courtyard of the school, on the barren dirt where nothing had ever grown. His organic skin was pale, matching the almost greyscale dull powder of the ground. He looked out of place with his carbon based light. Her gem felt as though it would cast off her physical form as he began feverishly rambling about the foolish religion that the whole Homeworld was dedicated to.

She retracted her wings with a sigh, the floor now shining dimly with sparkling blue droplets.

Foolish was a rude term to refer to it as, Lapis realised. Simply because it was different to her own upbringing and no doubt many others, doesn't mean the beliefs were wrong. However, Steven was the evidence that it rivalled even the previous order in cruelness, showing pain in the mind rather than social class. This was always the way, she supposed. There would always be a wrong method in a society no matter how pure the intentions are. A single crystalline rebel group couldn't fight it…

But they can have their small victories.

Perhaps they could save the Crystal Gems, get them off planet to a backwater planet. Earth would be hollowed no matter what they tried, a development planet like it was always destined to be. General Rose Quartz was only delaying the inevitable, like her son after her….

Steven wasn't doing well, the coding visibly fighting with his human side and own will. Lapis hoped that they would get to earth in time to help him since she wasn't sure that he could be bubbled. Humans were so weak, she had heard tale of them going into war with metal suits to protect themselves and had fallen anyway.

Shining eyes that were humanoid but definitely alien gazed upon closed eyes that were middle ground and shining in the artificial light from sweat. Steven's eyes were scrunched in his state of almost sleep. His gem glowed through the white, diamond clad clothing in a duller pink.

"Path…. path…pa-path. Wrong. Stop. Ga—garn-eet. Hurts…" Steven moaned, half aware and in obvious distress. He writhed on the crystalline floor clutching his dirty blanket. A warm comfort and connection to his temporary home of capture and dread but also friendship. Lapis chuckled, closing her eyes in acceptance of the chances of a second rebellion seeded by Steven. Those gemlings were more aware and expressive than she had ever seen in Homeworld especially after she had returned.

He had brought empathy and Lapis was glad. He had a way of reflecting people's mistakes back at them that she never could. He let them see where they could grow, forgave them and saw without bias. He would work with the enemy if he thought it was right. If he hadn't she would've died.

Lapis flinched at the recollection of Garnet's hand reaching for her, screams, darkness. Her figurative breaths quickening as Steven's did. The trembling in anticipation for true freedom.

Lapis clamped her hand on her opposite arm, tipping her head back and breathing deeply trying to ground herself. She wasn't there nor was he. There were both safe and no one was smashed nor cracked but there was nothing she could do for Steven at that moment. So she forced her gaze away.

The thick, force field reinforced window of the small war fighter displayed the wideness of the indefinite blackness of vacuum, colourful dots cluttering the scene in a way that was disorderly but beautiful. It was the same as Steven's ocean, sparkling depths that defied the order the authority strived for.

Strived for was a key word; no matter what they tried there were mishaps. Devastating tremors on planets, hail and murderous sunshine switching in the harsh, season-less environment of Homeworld and the rebellion of Earth.

She was there, during the 1st expedition. Her water abilities and high status made her invaluable, her blue head held high and her hair long. This shadow of the person she had become, or perhaps she had become the shadow, lack of light trying to reflect the past but never succeeding.

The ship was on autopilot at the highest speed and Peridot had destroyed the Earth home warp. So she was sure that they would reach Earth first but perhaps only by the thin margin of a coding line. The crystal gems, as much as she loathed them for imprisoning her were Steven's family. She had to warn them in advance.

The buttons were confusing and despite being waterproof, she retracted her wings for safety. Her powers left her in higher risk of a destabilising form from methods of electric shock regardless. Amalgamating her meagre knowledge of the Ancient ships with what Peridot had explained, she began to record. A short message she hoped would reach them, put on loop through the Wailing Stones.

-/-/-/-/-

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-/-/-/-/-

Steven whimpered, trying to tread literal molasses in an attempt to keep afloat in his mind. He gazed up at a pink sky, the image switching with simple words in his mind describing the scene. He was sleeping and aware of it contrary to his usual obliviousness.

He flinched when a large voice cracked from the sky, cracking it to expose blue code. "Follow the path. To conquer is to enact mercy. To sacrifice the wasteful is to be kind to the society. Walk the path to enlightenment. Follow…" Steven winced at the words the seemed to vibrate in his very core and tried to block them out but they were extremely convincing. His vision went blue with code and he desperately grabbed his ears. Then he sunk.

He couldn't breathe.

He couldn't breathe.

He… couldn't breathe…

Somehow he was okay with that.

He was lying in a field of pink grass that was as soft as Rose's moss blossoms. He knew exactly where he was. Steven sat up, his cheeks perfectly flat because he had no need to breathe. The words that were yelling in only moments previous had temporarily dulled to echoes that were manageable. They only poisoned him in increments but he could still feel it like a ball of needles seeded in his gem.

Soft gentle laughter filled his ears. He sprung to his feet, recognising it immediately from the mornings he had gotten up before opening at the Big Donut to watch it again. Before Sadie transferred it to a DVD. He ran in the direction of the sound with his eyes closed. He couldn't watch, couldn't dare to hope even in dreams.

His arms made contact with the strange texture signature of a gem's hologram and shakily he allowed himself to look up. There she was… taller than he had imagined but he wasn't afraid. He had met Opal before who was a GIANT woman.

"Mum," Steven murmured in awe as he clutched her dress, her pink curls large corkscrews above his head. He didn't dare to speak louder, afraid she would crawl back inside his subconscious. Then she turned around, her eyes closed in joy as it was in all the pictures. The centipeedle was purring gently in her arms. Her eyelids opened to stare at the smaller Rose Quartz gem.

"Steven," She spoke in calm surprise at the star-eyed child. "What are you doing here?" She put the Centipeedle down, allowing it to curl around Steven's feet like a housecat.

"I don't know mum. There are words in my head and I'm trying to get home and… WE MUST WAL-," He paused running his hand through his hair and feeling tears well up in his eyes. "I just want to go home."

"I know how important home can be." She soothed. She sat and pulled Steven into her lap which didn't feel real, the dream that let him come here dulling the senses.

"Why did you have to leave them?" Steven asked, snuggling against her side and closing his eyes to will the moment to last.

"I knew there would be a time when humanity and gems would unite, a bridge between the worlds. You can be that bridge and follow the path to a greater future." Steven flinched at the word path, still in heavy defiance on what he was now aware to be a virus in his gem, eating away at his soul. Rose seemed blissfully unaware or unsympathetic.

"The path is beautiful you see Steven, I made you to live among the beautiful things. To weed out the corruption in your caretakers, to lead them to enlightenment." Steven gasped and scrambled for the grass upon the realisation that it wasn't her voice anymore. The harsh voice that had cracked the sky now manifested as ghostly whispers from her plump lips.

Steven watched in horror at his mother's blue coded eyes, flashing red at intervals. Her form flickered and became disjointed as if her gem had cracked. White streams pooled around her joints, her arms broke and fell to the ground while the voice continued to recite, becoming persistently louder. Steven curled up, not wishing to see anymore and slid away with the numbed agony of being liquefied by centipeedle acid.

-/-/-/-/-

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Lapis sat by Steven with nothing else but her own thoughts to keep her company. Just like the past 5000 years, it wasn't exactly bad. She was good at making scenarios. They used to be daydreams of triumph, freedom and finally complete pulverisation as she became increasingly hopeless. She didn't know what she wanted to imagine now, it didn't really matter though. No matter how much she tried to stick to the path of her goals it never worked. She contented herself with cooling Steven's flushed forehead with her slick, cold hand.

He mumbled in his sleep. She couldn't make out many words until it became a mantra. All the mottos from the Authority repeated endlessly. Until, finally his eyes flew open to reveal the blue code of a buffering gem.

"Steven," Lapis grabbed his shoulder "Come back to me."

Slowly the coding faded, replaced by dull heavy eyes. "Lapis?"