Crystal Lite AU

[panspermia]

In the years since the Crystal Gems were last seen, things have gotten... interesting, in the Universe family. Monsters don't stop attacking the temple simply because its inhabitants are gone, and dangerous artifacts don't stop threatening humanity. The last remaining remnant of the Crystal Gems is one little boy, without any proper magical guidance or teachers of his heritage to show the way. What he has left to him is a handful of abandoned relics to piece together hints, and the secondhand experience of his very ordinary, very overwhelmed father.

They get by. His powers are growing, slowly but steadily. With each new ally or ability they uncover, things get a little better. It's never easy, but it's not as hard. And they've always got each other to count on, no matter what. So long as they've got that, there's nothing in the universe that can stop them.... though it does try.

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[panspermia]

Ever since Steven figured out a way into the temple, he's raided the rooms for whatever small connections he can find of the ones who used to live there. Most often, he comes running home to the van with armfuls of garbage that had once presumably belonged to Amethyst. Greg doesn't mind the extra stuff too much (aside from one of the times he came back sopping wet with several swords piled into his arms), he's got the storage space for a reason. Still, between the old junk and the new, he doesn't keep a whole lot of track of what gets brought in. He focuses more on the awkward tetris game of where to fit everything in the limited space.

"I know I left it somewhere around the plastic ficus... hmm. Was it in the--woooahjeez--!"

In his attempts to shove the rolled carpet off to one side, Greg jostles an unsteady stack of boxes. The unbalanced heap falls apart, and he lunges to catch some of the more fragile trinkets before they can hit the concrete. The broken old TV's a lost cause, landing with an unpleasant crunch, but Greg manages to snatch a couple old empty photo frames and mirror from a similar fate. He's caught awkwardly leaning up against the boxes left standing, trying to lean them back into place with his arms full.

"Ahhh boy."

"Dad!! What was that? Are you okay?"

"Watch your feet, bud! Broken glass." He shoots his son a smile as he comes running from outside. "Could use a little help here, though."

It takes a lot of grunting and the loss of a box of tangled fairy lights, but the two of them get things set up right again. Only at that point, while gingerly putting them back in place, does Greg pay any attention to what he's got in his arms. He blinks into his reflection.

"Huh. Don't remember this one." He's likely forgotten about more things than he even has in his unit, but the design still manages to look outside his entirely eclectic style.

Steven leans over his father's arm to see into it. "Oh! That's the mirror I found in Pearl's room! She left it on one of those big pools I was telling you about, remember?"

"Pearl's? Really?" Greg purses his lips. "Huh. Wonder if it's some sort of magical doodad, then." Steven gasps at the thought, eyes sparkling and wordlessly begging for details, and Greg lets out a small laugh. "It's just a thought! Pearl hung on to some pretty dangerous stuff."

"Aw, c'mon, dad. It's too pretty to be dangerous!" Steven gently pulls at his father's hand, so he can get a better look into the mirror, smiling wide.

He doesn't quite catch Greg's wry chuckle. In angling the mirror so Steven can better see, Greg gets a better look at its back. The whole thing is covered in faint scratches and marks. Greg's thumb runs around the space just outside the big, cracked teardrop of a stone embedded in the back. If it's anywhere near as old as it looks, it's a wonder the glass itself is intact.

"Can we keep it in the van, dad?" Greg's broken from his thoughts by the question. "I wanna have it around, can we please?"

"Uhh." He chews his cheek a moment. Pearl was a lot of things, but never vain. She probably had this thing for a reason... to keep it safe. But... well, they had it now. And it hadn't caused any issues in the unit since it had gotten moved right? He holds the mirror out, smirking faintly into his reflection. "Ahh, what the heck. You can't be any scarier than the bubbles, right?"

Steven whoops a cheer. "That's the spirit!"

[panspermia]

It had been maybe three or four hours since the crash outside. Greg and Steven had woken in a daze, sprawled out on the mattress in the back, but realization something had crashed into the temple roused them well enough, and they ran out to investigate without pause to dress.

Dawn light has just begun to break over the ocean when there's another sound. Not another crash, nor the distant and unfamiliar thrum of the warp pad in the temple, but a deep roar. A flash of light illuminates the van's windows. A moment or two later, the van's back doors open again.

Greg has returned, a flash of pink fur around the corner indicating he's not alone. Steven, however, is nowhere in sight.

And Greg has clearly been crying.

He rummages through the mess in the back of the van, movements listless, eyes distant and unfocused. He's not really sure what he's looking for. Something. Anything. They've got to have something that could help, after everything there must be some option, he has to... has to find... something...

His eyes fall on the framed picture propped up on the side. After a moment, his shoulders begin to shake, and he pulls it off with trembling hands.

"Rose," he gasps at the picture, barely a whisper. I don't know what to do Rose, I... I'm so sorry, I... Steven, I don't know where he... our son, he's..." He breaks, head bowed as the tears flow. He'd thought he'd run himself dry while waiting at the Galaxy Warp. "I don't know wh-what to d-do, I...help me, Rose, please... please help..."

[panspermia]

Maybe half an hour passes between Greg jogging away and puffing back. It took him a tiny bit longer than he was hoping, but judging by the size of his pack it's no shocker.

The objective observer may look at the mishmash of belongings Greg gathered and think he'd grabbed them at random from his storage unit. They wouldn't be far off the mark, either; as a distinctly mundane human interacting with magic, Greg had learned that the most innocuous and unexpected items could come in handy in a pinch. (Also, he'd found Onion rummaging around after having broken in somehow, and had to grab it away from the sticky-fingered gremlin.) On top of hiking gear and food, he'd loaded himself up with some scuba gear, an old shiny whistle, a broken cuckoo clock, two tennis rackets, a slinky toy, some glass doodad he couldn't remember how to use, a bongo drum... and plenty more. It was a wonder he could move with it all weighed on his back and belt, let alone run.

"Lapis? Hey Lapis! I'm back! It's me! I got... hopefully everything... we'll see. You okay? Ready?"