Chapter Text
“Hey mister post-man gimme a post! Gimme a post that I love the mooost!!!!” When waiting for stuff, doing it while singing was always better! Soup saw someone start to walk over to behind the hill, his song came true!
“Do you have a package for- oh hi Nova!”
Well his song did not come true. On the other hand though, Nova was back! They usually disappeared sometime at night and then came back in the morning (They started leaving notes after that first time), he honestly wondered where exactly they went every day, he would have to ask later
“Oh hey soup, what-cha doing?” Honestly, if you asked him, Nova shouldn't be doing whatever it is they do at night, they looked tired all the time, and being tired all the time sounded horrible! “I'm waiting for a package, it's supposed to be delivered soon! I ordered it a couple days ago and it said it would be here today” Nova tilted their head curiously “Oh? What package?” he was about to answer “Well-”
Soup spotted another figure going around and coming over “It's here!”
He rushed over to the mail man excitedly “DO YOU HAVE A PACKAGE FOR ME TODAY?”
“Hold on, let me see what I've got here ” he pulled out a loaf, yummy but not what he wanted. “Did you order a loaf of bread with a stamp on it?”
“No!”
He put the bread back in his bag and looked around more before pulling out an envelope “Did you order a jury summons for R.J. Finkle?” Soup shook his head in response “That's not me, I'm Steven!”
“Oh, right, right, right, Steven!” he dug around the bag again and pulled out a box, GASP! Was that it? Here it is, “Steven Universe!” It WAS it!. “Ha! This thing is gonna help me save the world” He would be able to help out so much more with this! Now the gems HAD to let him come on magical adventures
“Really? It says it's from Wacky Sacks Supply Company” the mailman looked at him confused. He felt something on his head and looked up to see Nova giving him head pats “The gems don't let him go on adventures because he can't use his powers yet”
“ ...That seems reasonable. ”
Steven looked back determinately “There's other ways I could help tho!”
The mailman looked confused again “with a wacky sack?” Well yeah! That's why he bought it after all!
“Yup!”
“you know how you could save MY world?” Oh! Maybe he could help right now! He pulled out a signature pad and held it out to him “Sign here please” Nova reached out and took the pad “Here I’ll sign it if you want”
They signed it and handed it back “Barb yells at me if I don’t get signatures” Nova looked at him with slight pity “That’s gotta be awful”
A blue light shined behind them and Steven turned around and could see it was coming from his house “Garnet, Amethyst and Pearl are back!” He grabbed the package and ran over. He also saw Nova stay behind saying something to Jamie. What did they say? Oh well, he didn't think it was anything important
“Hello Steven”
“Amethyst, we do not need that! It's not going to fit in the fridge!”
Garnet was covered in feathers, Pearl was upset and Amethyst was trying to get a giant egg into the fridge “what? I got this” “What? I got this” She slid out the tray and dropped it, spilling the milk and dropping the bagels. Well that was a waste of food :( “LOOK IT FITS” she shoved the egg inside and shut the door
Crack
…it was probably fine
“Oh, man. We can make a big omelet, or a quiche, or big sunny side ups!— ” Pearl made a face before turning to him “We fought a giant bird ” ohhhh, well that explained the feathers and giant egg “We're only here for a second, we've got to go back out. ”
“What? why?”But they just came back! Why did they have to leave again?? Pearl held up a small statue of a woman “We have to place this Moon Goddess Statue on the top of the Lunar Sea Spire before midnight. Without it, the whole place will fall apart!”her voice took on a fond tone “Oh Steven, you should have seen the spire in its heyday!” a hologram started projecting from her gem, showing what was apparently the sea spire “It was an oasis for Gems on Earth. It's abandoned now, but we can still save it with this statue!”
Oh! This was great! A mission that fits wonderfully right now! He just got his new bag, he can help out! “That’s perfect!”
Pearl looked confused “What? Why? ”
“Because I can help carry it, in this!” He took the cheeseburger backpack and held it up, making some cool sound effects while he did so. It was 100% necessary. The gems could see how cool and useful it was, and they would let him come! This was a foolproof plan!
Pearl sounded even more confused now “A hamburger?”
“It's a novelty backpack, shaped like a cheeseburger!” the gems didn’t seem that impressed, maybe it just wasn't a good time “Aww, I blew it! I was just going to wear it one day, and you guys would be like, ‘Dang, Steven, that's so cool’ But this is obviously important Gem business!” as awesome as it would have been, using his brand new bag on a mission was a good way to use it!
Pearl looked at him sternly “Yes, so you should let us take care of it.”
WHAT?! Unfairness! Unfairness he says! He’s ALSO a gem!
The door opened up behind him and he turned around to see Nova walking in “Hey guys! Sorry, I had to explain to Jamie what a wacky sack was” they looked around a bit awkwardly around the room “Whats going on?”
“Pearl doesn’t want to let me go on the cool gem mission, but im also a crystal gem! I can help out!” surely Nova would understand right? They had probably gone through the same thing! Come on Nova, help him out!
He heard a sigh behind him “Steven, you may be a gem, but you still have a lot to learn” Amethyst immediately spoke up “Then let him come! It’ll be educational” even Amethyst is backing him up! “I agree with amethyst, plus, I went, so shouldn't soup do too?” Nova went! Pearl had to let him go now right?
“Hmm, alright ” SUCCESS! She handed soup the moon statue “you can carry it in your hamburger. ”
He grabbed the statue and went to put it in his backpack “Check this out! Everything's a pocket! Even the cheese is a pocket! ” There was a lot of space, he could probably put more things in here couldn't he? “I could fit a lot more stuff in here. Give me a minute. I'll pack extra supplies”
“Wait!” he turned and saw Nova looking slightly nervous “Do you want me to help you pack?” oh, that was sweet! “No, I'm ok. Thanks tho!” They opened up their mouth to say something else, but they ended up hesitating and backing out. Weird, but if they didn't say anything then it probably wasn't anything important!
Alright! He had bagels for food, a raft just in case, sweaters in case it was cold, plushies for comfort and about 20 other things, that was good enough for now! What else would he have needed anyways? He's pretty sure this was good for a simple mission
Pearl hurried him up “Steven let’s go!”
Welp, that was his sign. He rushed down the stairs and saw Nova looking through a pile of stuff as if they were looking for something “Nova! Come on, we’re leaving! Did you lose something?” They jumped up startled “uh, no everything's fine, yeah lets uh, lets go!”
“Steven! Nova! Are you coming or not??” Amethyst sounded annoyed at having to wait for them, oops
They got to the warp pad and squeezed in as best as possible, but it was hard with the filled-to-the-brim bag and with an extra person coming along "woah Steven did you bring your whole room?" Pearl looked at him questioningly. Ok he didn't bring THAT much! "Bag that thang up!"
"Let's warp" Garnet deadpanned
The blue light shined around them from the warp pad, but it missed a spot because he was still half sticking out "SUCK IT IN STEVEN!" Yelled out Ame. He pulled himself in as much as he could and took a step back to finally let the light engulf everyone
Pearl turned to him "Do you remember how to do this?"
Steven giggled as he floated around, this was really fun! He really liked the feeling of weightlessness the warp pad always had, it felt like flying! Hopefully he would be able to go on it more often. In between his laugh floating his head poked out of the stream of light and Pearl quickly grabbed him by the head and pulled him back in "Keep your head in"
The light died down and Soup fell face down into the ground. ow. he looked up from the floor and gawked at the ruins "Whoa, the Sea Spire!" It was beautiful! it was like a tower that got thinner the higher it went, everything was surrounded by water that made a huge hole where the spire and even they where. The gems on the other hand didn't look as impressed, they actually looked unhappy, why? The place was awesome! they made a displeased "ugh" sound as they watched a piece break off of the structure
Pearl looked around "It wasn't like this 100 years ago!" he had to wonder, how DID it look like before? it was already pretty, so how would it be repaired?
"Im sensing structural instability" he looked around. Yeah Garnet was right, this didn't look very stable "oh yeah, that's never good"
Nova grabbed him from the backpack and pulled him backwards. Just then the edge where he had been standing on cracked and fell off.
"STEVEN!!" Pearl grabbed him out of Nova's hold and pulled him even further back "ok, we need to take the Stevens back, this isn't safe!"
"Actually I just remembered there was something I planned for right now at this very moment! I'll go back but Soup can stay, it's ok. Don't wait up for me!" Nova spoke hurriedly and by the time they stopped they had already scurried to the warp pad. They gave a final goodbye wave and left. Huh, guess they really wanted to do whatever they had planned cause they sure left quick
"Alright that's enough. We need to get going now" Garnet turned and started walking towards the edge of the cliff closest to the sea spire. Oh yeah! He needed to focus on the mission! Soup and the rest of the gems followed behind and came to a stop when the tallest gem put a hand up
Amethyst glanced at her confused "What's the hold-up? We can clear this easily"
"No. The magic that sustains the whirlpool creates a vortex that will pull us below" Garnet picked up a rock and it faltered in the air for a moment before falling and plunging into the water, yikes "So we can't jump?" Pearl questioned.
Hmm, well that was a problem, they needed to find a way to cross somehow… actually, this reminded him of something he saw in a movie once! "Oh wait!" He took off his bag and pulled out the sweaters he had brought along with him. Amethyst looked at him curiously "What are those for?" he started grabbed the end of the sleeves of one sweater "They were for keeping warm" he started tying them together to make one long piece "but check it out!" he threw one end of the connected sweaters and to wrap around a hole in the ruin. He took a deep breath and jumped
The gems yelled out after him "STEVEN!"
He felt the pressure of the vortex trying to suck him down, but he held on tightly to the sleeves. He kicked until he managed to get footing on the wall properly. HE'S GOT THIS!! ""CHEESEBURGERRRR!!" he ran up and managed to jump up onto the Sea Spire, he was panting by the end of it, but he did it! Hurray!
Amethyst cheered him on "Steven! Way to go! Come on guys!" she summoned her weapon and wrapped the whip around the same hole he had wrapped the sweaters in and grabbed both Pearl and Garnet "Steven Styleeeee" she swung herself and ran up the wall the same way he had and jumped right beside him
Pearl looked at him "DON'T EVER DO THAT AGAIN"
"Sorry!"
Garnet and Amethyst passed by him with Garnet ruffling his head a bit she did but when Pearl passed by her tone got a bit softer "But, it was pretty great" hehehe, good job Soup!
They kept walking through the Sea Spire, with Pearl wincing every couple of steps when she looked at the condition everything was in "Oh, no, no, no, this is even worse than the outside. Ugh... that's... oh! Oh, this didn't used to be so— Oh, and the water damage. This pillar.." they walked nearby a statue with a part of it's head missing and Pearl looked at it pitifully "Oh, and this had a head... Oh, Soup, once the statue's in place, it'll restore all of this to its former glory"
While she talked Soup saw a pair of funky looking creatures crawl out from behind the broken statue. Pearl glanced over at the curious little guys and shrieked, summoning her weapon and slicing the sculpture in half, sending the half with the creatures off the ledge and sending them down to the water below. Aw, he found them cute :[
"What was that goober?"
Pearl looked over, making sure the things were gone "Crystal Shrimp." so they were shrimp? they didn't look like any shrimp he had ever seen but sure
Amethyst yelled at them from further up along "You guys, we got a problem!" oh no! what was wrong? he and Pearl ran over to where the others were and saw a bunch of the crystal shrimp he had just seen all over the floors and even climbing the pillars
Pearl gasped "It's an infestation! And we have to pass through there to get to the top."
Weren't they just shrimp? they couldn't be THAT hard to deal with, Steven was pretty sure he could just stomp them to death. He leaned over to get a better look at them "Can't you just squish em?"
Pearl pulled him back immediately "DON'T TOUCH THEM THEIR SHARDS ARE DEADLY!" She moved him over to the side and looked at the shrimp contemplating what to do. "We need to clear a path" ok well if squishing them didn't work, what would? Ok, if HE was a shrimp, what would get him to move out of the way? What did shrimp even like? Hmm, food? yeah! Everyone loved food!
He took his bag off again and dug through until he grabbed the snacks he had brought. Pearl was talking about a plan he hadn't been paying attention to. "then I can advance with my-" he threw the food to the two opposite corners of the area "Bagel sandwich!"
The crystal shrimp looked at the food and immediately went over to it, clearing the path. Garnet smiled and nodded "Brilliant"
"Oh hey, what do ya know"
Pearl looked shocked and she faltered "Uh, uhh, how did you know that would work?"
"Well, if I was a shrimp, that's what I would do!"
The gems started to keep going but Amethyst turned to look at him "You ARE a shrimp" Soup followed after them,he heard Pearl behind him but kept walking ": I just want everyone to know: my plan would have also worked" Its not that he doubted Pearl's plan (Not that he knew what it was) But sometimes doing things in a simple way was better!
Garnet put her hand in front of them "Watch out!"
A wall broke off just where they were about to walk through and water rushed out, effectively cutting off the path they were just taking. That could have been bad! good thing they stopped, but what were they going to do now? The path was blocked!
"What are we going to do?" Amethyst must have been thinking the same thing as him. The water was making it so that they couldn't pass. Everyone looked at him expectantly
huh
"What? Me?"
"What have you got?"Garnet questioned
Amethyst started chanting as he looked through his bag "Cheeseburger backpack! Cheeseburger backpack!" o-oh ok, they wanted HIM to figure this out this time! uhhh ok think Steven! What can you do to get to the other side?
Amethyst "Pearl come on!" she finally relented with a simple "oh, alright" They both started cheering for him. Ok ! he's got this! He spotted the perfect thing in his bag, bingo!
"A RAFTTT"
He held it up in the air and pulled on the handle to make it inflate, Amethyst and Garnet gasped while Pearl got a big smile on her face "Steven, that's so sensible!" Ok!! Another good job for Soup!
He threw the raft towards the water. The current took it along with it and it fell off the Sea Spire. Maybe he shouldn't have spoken so soon…
Crash
He turned and Garnet knocking down one of the pillars to make a bridge to the other side "Good idea anyways Steven"
They all got on top of the fallen pillar and managed to get past the water, ok idea didn't work, but that was fine! they still managed to cross so it didn't really matter which method they used. Amethyst turned to look at him "Yeah, they can't all be winners!" Yeah! Amethyst was right! He just needed to make sure not to mess up anymore… but for now, at least everything turned out a-ok!
They slowly climbed up the steps that winded around the entirety of the structure. So many stairs. Why were there so many stairs? Steven was starting to regret bringing so much stuff, it was getting heavy :[
They finally got to the top and Soup stared around in awe. Everything was so pretty from up here! Peal sounded happy that they had managed to get here too "This is it. The Moon Goddess pedestal!" she looked up, you had a perfect view of the moon from here "And the moon is almost overhead! It's not too late to save this piece of history!"
Garnet looked at him "Steven, the statue"
He took off his backpack and started opening the pocket where he had left the statue in
…It wasn't there
M-maybe he put it in a different pocket? He checked, it wasn't in the cheese pocket, not in that one, and not in that one either…
Amethyst was starting to get confused at the is point "What's the hold-up?"
He could feel regret settle deep in his chest "I-I don't have it" he had forgotten it, he was supposed to bring it and he had forgotten it! Oh no, why did he have to forget it?!
Pearl gasped “What!?”
“I must have left it on the bed!” He should have been more careful! This was his first PROPER gem mission, and he messed up!
He heard someone scream behind him “WAIT!”
NOVA?!
They ran up the stairs and then past him to where the pedestal where the statue was supposed to be was and shoved something in it, he had to move his head to see what it was. It was the Moon Goddess Statue! Was THAT what Nova had gone back for?!
A light erupted out of the pedestal and the statue started floating up, it shook before light erupted out, knocking both him and Nova backwards and even managing to make the gems stumble and back up by the force of the impact.
Soup looked out amazed as the broken edges of the Sea Spire glowed for a moment and then repaired themselves, now looking as pristine as if they had never been damaged in the first place. The ground kept shaking and glowing for a few more moments before the light finally dimmed and the sea spire stoped moving
By the end the Sea Spire looked absolutely magical, the floor was no longer cracked, the pillars and the statues were complete now. And that was only from what he could see! It probably looked better from the inside too
He heard someone let of a tired huff and he sat up to see Nova laying down completely out of breath, jeez, they must have had to run through the entire structure just to be able to get up here in time to place the statue
Steven felt guilty again
If he hadn't messed up, Nova wouldn't have had to go back for the statue! If they weren't here, what would have happened? The entire structure would have collapsed! what would they have done in that situation?
The gems ran up to where he was sitting down and Nova was still breathing heavily on the floor. Pearl got to them first and looked worried "Are you ok? I didn't think it would knock you over like that!" Amethyst laughed at that "Yeah! you fell over like a bunch of bowling pins. And there wasn't even a ball!"
Nova sat down just like Soup did, finally catching their breath "Sorry… I'll be more careful next time" Garnet walked over and put a hand on their head (Pat pat) "It's ok, it's not your fault the Sea Spire shook like that"
They turned to him, immediately noticing his upset expression "Hey, uhm" oh, he hadn't meant for it to be that noticeable "don't beat yourself up about forgetting the Statue, I forgot it when I came here too!"
Wait, Nova also forgot it? Well, actually it DID make sense! they were just him, but from the future, if HE forgot it, that meant they did too!
He smiled at them, it made him feel slightly better, slightly "At least the Sea spire is repaired this time then!"
Pearl spoke up in a cheery voice "yes! This precious piece of history wont be lost! oh, it looks so much better now"
all well that ends well, right?
He just had to make sure to be more careful next time… he didn't want to be the cause of issues! He wanted to help!
He would help next time