Steven said goodbye to Mrs. Maheswaran with a heartfelt hug, one of those given not out of obligation but out of genuine gratitude. She returned it without hesitation, placing a hand on his back with the serenity of someone who trusts completely.
"Thank you for taking care of my daughter, Steven," she said in a calm but appreciative voice.
Steven nodded slightly, pulling away with a small smile before turning to Connie. This time the hug was longer, tighter, as if neither of them really wanted to let go.
"Goodbye, Connie."
"It's not like I'm leaving the country, silly," she replied, laughing softly as she hugged him back with the same intensity, not letting go immediately.
After a few light words and vague promises to see each other soon, Steven and Pearl watched as the car slowly drove away down the road. Pearl stayed on the sidelines, waving politely, proper as always, without interfering in that very human moment.
When the vehicle disappeared, Steven turned his gaze to the ocean. The waves were breaking with a calm rhythm, unlike other days. There was something lighter in the air, as if the world had decided to take a breather.
After a few seconds of silence, Steven spoke in a lower tone.
"Hey, Pearl... I want to talk to you in private."
Pearl raised an eyebrow, surprised but not uncomfortable. She nodded gracefully, accepting without question.
They walked calmly toward the temple house. Lion, as if he had been waiting for this very moment, lay stretched out in a corner, completely relaxed. Steven stopped and looked at him.
"Lion, you're coming with me."
The pink lion stretched lazily, yawned unabashedly, and got up to follow them, walking behind them with complete ease.
Steven opened the door to his room in the temple, and the three of them went inside. The atmosphere was calm, familiar. With gentle movements, Steven created a small bed for Lion, making sure he was comfortable. Lion settled in immediately, closing his eyes as his mother's hologram appeared briefly. The figure said nothing; she simply sat beside the lion and began to gently stroke him, as if that gesture were enough.
Pearl watched the scene out of the corner of her eye. She said nothing at first, but her expression softened slightly, almost imperceptibly.
Steven sat on the floor and took a breath before speaking. There was no rush.
"Pearl... I've been thinking a lot lately," he began, absentmindedly playing with his hands.
"About fusions, about what we feel when we're with other Gems... even about things we don't fully understand."
Pearl sat down opposite him, maintaining an elegant yet relaxed posture, something unusual for her.
"I'm listening, my child."
Steven smiled slightly at that.
"Sometimes I feel like everyone expects me to have answers just because... I'm me. But the truth is, a lot of the time I'm just trying to understand things, just like everyone else."
Pearl lowered her gaze for a moment.
"There's nothing wrong with that. Learning is also part of what makes you different."
The silence that followed wasn't awkward. It was one of those silences that allows you to think, breathe, and organize your thoughts. Steven looked up at Pearl, his expression calmer.
"I'm glad we can talk like this."
Pearl looked at him with a soft, sincere, relaxed smile. "Me too, Steven."
And in that small space, between the distant murmur of the sea and Lion's calm breathing, the conversation continued without the need for grand pronouncements, only with the certainty that they were both learning together.
Steven, after saying a few more things, took a deep breath and finally steered the conversation to the point that had been on his mind for a while.
"Pearl, I have a gem in Lion's mane, but I don't know what it is... although it seems familiar," he said with measured hesitation, knowing perfectly well which gem it was, but aware that Pearl shouldn't know yet.
Pearl raised an eyebrow, clearly surprised.
"Really?"
"Yes," Steven replied seriously.
"Do you want to see it? It's inside a bubble."
The hologram of his mother looked at him with evident weariness, as if she knew exactly what Steven was about to do.
Without thinking too much, Steven quickly stepped into Lion's mane.
He appeared in a pink meadow, very similar to the temple room, only instead of clouds, everything was made up of soft fur that stretched as far as the eye could see. Steven had already conjured a bubble around his head so he could breathe easily, and he calmly observed the place, noticing details he almost never stopped to look at.
Whenever he entered that place, he felt a comforting familiarity, something that immediately relaxed him. However, he also knew that if he visited that place too often, that feeling would eventually fade. So he moved forward carefully, without haste, heading toward the only point that stood out in that space.
There it was, the gem, encased in a bubble and held close to the tree. It was a gem with an embedded rainbow pattern, beautiful to behold, with a soft glow that seemed to change depending on the angle from which it was viewed. Steven observed it for several seconds in silence, letting the sensations settle on their own.
Then he looked away at the nearby chest. There was the videocassette his mother had left, along with other belongings of hers and some of Steven's things that had accumulated over time. Everything remained still, as if that place took it upon itself to preserve each thing exactly as it should be.
Finally, Steven carefully, almost reverently, took the bubble containing the gem and returned the way he had come, leaving behind the pink meadow and that special calm that existed only within Lion's mane.
Before Steven left the mane, he didn't hear the conversation that was beginning outside.
Pearl silently observed the hologram, that projection Steven had described as an almost identical copy of his mother, a presence that existed only if Steven wished it to. At that moment, the hologram was there, kneeling beside Lion, gently stroking his pink mane.
The holographic Rose looked up and gave him a tired smile, one of those smiles that seemed to carry more memories than words.
"Hello, Pearl," she said calmly.
"Hello, Rose," Pearl replied, with a slight nervousness she couldn't quite hide.
Rose turned her attention back to Leon, running her fingers through his fur in slow, almost meditative gestures, as if this simple act allowed her to organize thoughts that had waited centuries to be spoken.
"The gem that's there..." she began, pausing briefly.
"is locked away because of me. Or, rather, because of the real Rose."
Pearl's shoulders tensed slightly, but she didn't interrupt.
"I'm just a collection of fragments, incomplete memories, and decisions already made," Rose continued, still stroking Leon.
"But I know enough to tell you that that gem is someone you know very well. Someone important."
Pearl lowered her gaze, as if those words awakened something that had been buried for too long.
"When the time comes," Rose added gently, "treat her well. Don't rush her. Tell her everything if you want to, don't hold back... but be patient with her."
Leon let out a small sound, settling under Rose's hand, and she smiled faintly, a hint of melancholy in her voice.
"Carrying the past isn't easy," she concluded. "And waking up after so long... even less so."
Pearl nodded slowly, not entirely trusting her own voice to answer. Memories, guilt, and questions were already crowding her mind, but so was a silent certainty: when that gem awoke, nothing would ever be the same.
The next moment, Steven emerged from Leon's mane, calmly removing the bubble from his head. Floating in his hands was the gem, protected inside another pink bubble, intact, glowing.
"Wow..." Pearl murmured, her eyes widening as emotion blurred her vision.
"Bismuth..."
Before Steven could react, Pearl snatched the gem from his hands with surprising speed. She held it carefully, as if afraid even the air could damage it.
Silence fell between them.
Steven watched her, but said nothing. He just stood there, attentive.
Pearl was the first to break the silence.
"She was... incredible," she said softly, her gaze fixed on the gem.
"Not only strong, but brilliant in her thinking. Bismuth didn't see weapons as mere tools, but as extensions of those who wielded them."
Steven nodded slowly; he already knew something about the memories from the series.
"She was the blacksmith of the rebellion," Pearl continued, her tone a mixture of pride and nostalgia.
"Every weapon she created had a purpose. Not just to fight, but to protect, to resist. She truly believed we could win."
Steven nodded again, listening intently.
"Sometimes we argued," Pearl confessed with a small, sad smile.
"She thought of direct, decisive solutions. I... I was always more cautious. But I never doubted her loyalty. Bismuth loved the Crystal Gems, she loved Earth."
Steven tilted his head slightly, as if absorbing each word.
"She had a loud laugh," Pearl added, closing her eyes for a moment.
"And a very unique way of encouraging the others. When all seemed lost, she kept working, hammering, creating something new... as if as long as she could forge, there was still hope."
Steven gently pressed his lips together and nodded again.
"Losing her was... difficult," Pearl finally said, her voice barely breaking.
"For a long time, I thought I had failed as a partner. That I hadn't done enough."
Steven took another step closer, silently placing a hand on Pearl's forearm.
She took a deep breath.
"But if she's here," she concluded, looking at the gem with renewed determination, "then maybe we still have a chance to make things right. This time... better."
Steven nodded one last time, silently, knowing that this story wasn't just about the past, but about what was about to return to their lives.
Pearl turned to me with an expression I rarely saw on her face, a mixture of restrained hope and pure fear.
"Can I free her?" she asked, though deep down she already knew the answer.
I took a deep breath before speaking.
"You can," I said calmly, "but if anything goes wrong, if she gets upset or tries to explode something without thinking... I'll bubble her again. No arguments."
Pearl nodded immediately, accepting the conditions without hesitation.
For a few more seconds, she watched the gem suspended inside the bubble, as if gathering courage. Her fingers trembled slightly, but her posture remained firm.
"Watch out," she said finally.
With a swift and decisive movement, she popped the bubble.
The gem fell to the ground with a thud.
For a moment, nothing happened.
The silence grew heavy, almost unbearable. I could feel my heart racing, the energy of the place beginning to stir. Then the gem began to glow, first faintly, then more intensely, until it rose into the air as if it had been waiting for this moment for centuries.
The light exploded in a brilliant flash.
The form was constructed swiftly, as if each part knew exactly where to go, as if there were no doubts or hesitations. A robust body, marked by scars that looked like star tattoos, vibrant hair that fell freely and wildly, and in the center of her chest, the embedded gem shining with renewed brilliance.
Bismuth was back.
She landed with firm feet, like someone who had never lost the habit of being ready for a fight. She looked around with wide eyes, processing her surroundings at an impressive speed. The temple house, Pearl, me... and then she saw it.
My mother's hologram.
Her eyes locked on her as if time had stopped.
"You...!" she said, her voice heavy with disbelief, rage, and something deeper that I couldn't immediately identify.
Shit, I exclaimed.
I didn't even have time to react before Bismuth lunged forward. His movement was pure instinct, an explosion of emotions pent up during years of confinement. His body propelled itself with brutal force, straight toward Rose's hologram.
End of Chapter 66.