Beach City was no stranger to weirdness. Giant woman-shaped aliens, magical monsters, and entire galactic civil wars had left their mark on the sleepy coastal town. But seventeen-year-old Kael never thought he'd be part of that world—until the shadows started moving on their own.
He was nobody. That's how he liked it. He didn't have Steven's warmth or Connie's courage. Kael kept his head down, worked late shifts at Fish Stew Pizza, and tried to forget the things he saw when he closed his eyes — a black throne, a crumbling temple, and violet eyes like eclipses.
The visions started two months ago. Ever since he turned seventeen, the shadows had grown deeper. Colder. Hungrier.
At first, it was small things: streetlights dimming as he walked beneath them, objects disappearing into his touch. But last night changed everything.
He had a dream — no, a memory.
A colossal figure knelt before him, draped in shadowed armor that pulsed with power. Black mist rolled off his shoulders like smoke from dying stars. Around him, an army of monsters bowed in silence. The figure turned. Where its face should've been, there was only a void… but Kael knew. Deep down, he knew.
That figure was him.
He jolted awake in a cold sweat. Morning sun filtered through the blinds, casting sharp lines across the floor — but the shadows between them danced unnaturally.
Kael didn't scream. He didn't gasp. He just stared at his hands. They were shaking again.
He got up, dressed, and walked the beach, hoping the waves might drown out his thoughts.
That's when he saw her.
Tall. Statuesque. Hair like woven light. Her body shimmered with a pearl-white glow. She was leaning against the sea wall, eyes fixed on him as if she'd been waiting centuries.
Kael froze. "...Are you one of them?"
The woman smiled gently. "You're perceptive. I'm Pearl. And you must be Kael."
He blinked. "Wait. Steven told me about you. You're one of the Crystal Gems."
She nodded, stepping forward. "We've been… watching you."
Kael frowned. "Why? I'm not one of you."
Pearl's gaze softened. "A few months ago, we detected a Gem resonance unlike anything we've seen. Ancient. Dormant. But powerful. It wasn't from space. It was here. On Earth. And it was coming from you."
Kael backed up instinctively. "I don't have a Gem."
"You do," she said gently. "You just haven't seen it yet. Because it's not like ours."
She extended her hand.
He didn't want to take it — didn't want to believe any of this — but part of him already knew it was true.
When their fingers touched, a shock ran through him. The shadows coiled at his feet, rippling like ink in water. A black flame burned briefly over his chest, and then he collapsed.
He woke up inside the Crystal Temple.
It was different from what he expected — warm, quiet, alive. Steven sat nearby, smiling nervously, hands resting in his lap.
"Hey," he said softly. "Glad you're up. Pearl said it was probably overwhelming. I know what that's like."
Kael tried to sit up. "What happened?"
Steven gave him a glass of water. "Your Gem activated. Pearl thinks it's embedded deep in your sternum. Not visible like ours, but fused to your body. That's... extremely rare."
Kael stared at his reflection in the temple's mirror. No visible Gem. But his eyes — they flickered black and violet like a dying star.
"I'm not like you," he whispered. "I'm not even human, am I?"
Steven looked at him with surprising seriousness. "You're both. That's what makes you powerful. I know what it's like to carry something ancient inside you… something dangerous. But you're not alone."
Kael turned to him. "Do you know what kind of Gem I have?"
Steven hesitated. "There's only one match in the entire Gem database. A record so old, it was almost deleted. It was listed under... Black Obsidian."
Kael's blood ran cold. He'd heard the whispers in his dreams. The name.
Pearl appeared beside them. "Black Obsidian wasn't just a Gem. He was a weapon. The Diamonds forged him to control the darkness between stars. The experiment was deemed too unstable. He vanished before the rebellion, and the Diamonds covered up his existence."
Kael laughed bitterly. "Of course they did."
Steven leaned forward. "But you're not your father."
Kael's fists clenched. "Then why do I keep seeing him in my dreams?"
Pearl's voice turned grim. "Because he's not dead. His essence — his power — was sealed away in a human vessel. You."
Silence filled the room.
Steven reached for Kael's shoulder. "You don't have to walk this path alone. I can help you. I've been where you are. I had to choose who I wanted to be… not what I was born to be."
Kael nodded slowly. "Then help me understand this power. Because I think something's coming."
He wasn't wrong.
That night, Kael stood alone on the beach. The stars were dull, barely visible behind thick clouds. He closed his eyes, focusing on the quiet pulse inside his chest.
Come forth.
The command didn't come from his mouth, but from somewhere deeper. Somewhere older.
The shadows around him surged.
From the sand, from the air, from the space between atoms — darkness coalesced.
Kael's body shifted — his eyes turned pure black, his skin glowing with faint cracks of violet energy. A crown of flickering shadow emerged above his brow. The beach itself seemed to bow to him.
He wasn't human.
He wasn't just Gem.
He was something new.
A monarch of the dark.
A king of shadows.
In the distance, a portal flickered open — one of White Diamond's scouts emerging in a glimmer of pale light.
It stopped short the moment it saw Kael.
"Obsidian…"
Kael raised his hand.
And the shadow swallowed it whole.