"This must be it," Steven sighed in relief as he stepped out of the wooded thicket into the clearing before him. The sun had set over an hour ago, but he could make out the faint shape of the huge Gem structure in the thin moonlight. "The Quartz Cathedral."

Lion followed him forward a few steps, then flopped down onto the soft moss of the clearing. Steven turned and knelt down by his companion. "You did good today, buddy," he murmured, scratching the big cat's broad, pink flanks, "You deserve a good night's sleep." They had been traveling for the past two days, and Steven knew that Lion was pushing the limit of his stamina.

As he pulled his tent and supplies from Lion's pocket dimension, Steven considered the mission that brought him to this unfamiliar place. The Quartz Cathedral, as Pearl had explained to him at the Temple, was an ancient fortress used by the Crystal Gems during the rebellion against the Gem Homeworld over five thousand years ago. It had come under attack, so the Gems attempted to warp the Cathedral's Crystal Heart to a new location, which would move the entire structure out of harm's way. However, the Heart became unstable in the warp stream, and the Cathedral vanished.

The Crystal Gems had located the Cathedral again, but there was a strong warp irregularity that prevented them from accessing it with a warp pad. They sent Steven and Lion alone on a mission to clear the fortress of any corrupted Gems, and to account for any Gem-powered weapons and artifacts.

Sure there was the mission, thought Steven, but that wasn't the only reason he was here. He was eighteen years old, and he was starting to feel restless at the Temple. He loved Garnet, Amethyst, and Pearl, and his dad of course, but part of him wanted to escape the shadow of his mother and the Crystal Gems.

Steven settled into his sleeping bag, too tired to give his conflicting feelings any more thought. There would be plenty of time for that in the morning, he thought drowsily as he drifted off to sleep.