Kael stood in the center of the Cathedral's inner sanctum, surrounded by the shifting shadows of his growing court. The throne loomed behind him — vast, dark, yet somehow radiant. Each day, it changed. It grew. It remembered.
And now, so did Kael.
"Are you sure this is safe?" Connie asked as she paced near the base of the throne. Her blade was slung across her back, but her stance was ready — always.
Kael didn't answer at first. He knelt, pressing both palms against the runes carved into the obsidian floor. The veins pulsed under his touch.
"Shadelace said the Cathedral remembers everything," he said softly. "If I can reach deep enough… I might see the truth."
Connie frowned. "You mean like a memory?"
"More than that," Kael whispered. "A vision. A shadow left behind by the first Obsidian."
Before Connie could respond, the room darkened. Every flame and crystal dimmed. A wind — cold and dry like dust off an ancient tomb — passed through them.
Kael's eyes rolled back, and his body went still.
He was no longer in the Cathedral.
Then...
The vision hit like a tidal wave. Kael stood in a world of black and silver — a place where light struggled against the suffocating dark. The landscape was jagged and alien. The stars above spun unnaturally fast.
And in the center of it all was a throne.
The First Throne.
On it sat a figure — tall, cloaked in living shadows that shifted constantly. His eyes were twin fires of violet. His gemstone pulsed at the center of his chest, deeper than black.
Black Obsidian.
He was not kind.
He was not cruel.
He was purpose.
Before him knelt thousands — Gems twisted into new forms, fusions gone wrong, forgotten soldiers cast aside by the Diamonds. He raised his hand.
They rose as one.
Kael staggered backward, unseen in this vision, but overwhelmed.
Then Obsidian spoke.
"They cast us out. Shattered what they feared. But from shards, we are born again. Not as rebels… but as kings."
The vision twisted — a war. Kael saw Diamond ships fall from the skies. Whole courts of Crystal Gems and Homeworld loyalists alike frozen in shadow. And at the center, the Cathedral — rising from scorched stone like a wound in the world.
And then…
Kael saw the betrayal.
Not from the Diamonds.
But from within.
A Gem cloaked in red, standing beside Obsidian one moment — and driving a blade of red-gold light through his back the next.
Obsidian fell.
And with him, the Cathedral screamed.
Kael gasped as he returned to the present, stumbling away from the throne. Connie caught him.
"Kael!"
He wiped blood from his nose. "I saw him. I saw Obsidian."
Steven entered just as Kael was catching his breath. "We felt a ripple from the beach," he said. "Are you alright?"
Kael nodded weakly. "I am. But the past… it's not what I thought."
Pearl followed Steven in, a serious look on her face. "The records said Obsidian was a warmonger. A tyrant."
"He was a king," Kael said quietly. "He built a place for Gems no one else wanted. He gave them purpose. But he was betrayed… not by the Diamonds. By someone he trusted."
Connie frowned. "Do you know who?"
Kael's hands clenched into fists. "No name. But I saw the weapon. Red-gold. Like light... wrapped in hate."
Pearl looked uneasy. "That sounds like Pyrope."
"Pyrope?" Steven asked.
"A Gem that once served as a strategist for Homeworld," Pearl explained. "But she vanished before the war ever reached Earth."
Kael turned toward the throne. "Then she might still be alive."
And if she is... she knows how to kill me.
That night, Kael stood alone in the upper balcony of the Cathedral. Stars swirled above, far away and uncaring.
He heard footsteps behind him. Steven.
"You okay?" he asked.
Kael didn't turn. "He didn't want war. Not really. Obsidian… just wanted a home for people like us."
Steven stepped beside him. "Sounds familiar."
Kael cracked a small smile. "Guess we both inherited complicated legacies."
Steven's tone turned serious. "There's something else."
He handed Kael a data tablet from Peridot.
"Before the war, Black Obsidian left a code. Buried in old Gem tech. It only activated after your throne woke up."
Kael tapped the screen.
A message displayed in ancient Gem script, translating line by line:
"The Cathedral is not the end. It is the gate. What lies beyond… is the seat of true power. Only the Thronebound may enter."
Kael's breath hitched.
"There's more," Steven added. "Peridot thinks it's not on Earth. The gate… it's on another world."
Kael stared out into the stars.
"Then it's time to expand the court."
He summoned the glaive of shadows to his hand.
"I'm not just rebuilding what Obsidian lost."
He turned, eyes glowing with violet flame.
"I'm going to finish what he started."
Far across the galaxy, in a fortress of living crystal, Pyrope gazed into a mirror of bloodstone.
She saw Kael.
Young.
Powerful.
Determined.
She sneered.
"So the boy has found the Cathedral," she murmured. "Let's see how long he lasts once he sees what true betrayal looks like."
The lights dimmed.
And the war began again.