Chapter Text
“Night lights are for kids.”
“You are a kid, Steven.”
Pearl was crouched in Steven’s room by the bed, plugging a small night light into a socket. The light was shaped like a sun behind a cloud. She had gotten it from Greg earlier; he said it used to be Steven’s when he was very young, before he moved in with the Gems. She had only just told Steven about it a few minutes ago, as it was getting late and he’d be going to bed soon.
Steven mumbled something as Pearl stood up and she put her hands on her hips. “You haven’t been able to sleep almost at all for the past five weeks, Steven. Not since…this—” she gestured to the small horns protruding from Steven’s skull “—Started happening.” She sighed.
“Pearl, I—I’m fine, I just—” Steven stammered as Pearl sat next to him on his bed.
“Listen, Steven…I know this is all hard. It’s hard on everyone. We’re all doing our best to find a cure for this…or at least something to stop it from getting worse. Just, work with me. This…this is the best I’ve got, okay?” Pearl placed her hand on the boy’s and gave it a squeeze.
The other Gems were off searching for something today. It was Pearl’s turn to stay home. Next would be Amethyst’s, then Garnet. They’d been taking turns watching him and going out, watching him, going out, ever since they discovered his corruption. It would be several days before the small party of two returned to swap out. Steven was never allowed to join them.
He’d hidden the corruption from them. They noticed changes, but didn’t think much of them; he started wearing sneakers one day, wearing a hooded jacket another. Steven had claimed that he was just trying new clothes, and that was that. Nothing too out of the ordinary for Steven. Those excuses, however, did not work for long.
He had dark purple splotches visible on his hands and legs, four inch long horns coming out of his head. He had claws on his hands and feet. His whole body felt sore. And ever since this started he’d been having…hallucinations at night when he’d try to sleep. They’ve gotten worse in the past couple weeks. There are things in the dark, things Steven knows aren’t real but at the same time their presence is so strong.
“I think the light will help, Steven,” Pearl said gently. “I know you don’t want it. But a little light can keep things away. It’s worth a try.”
Steven looked at the little night light in his wall and rested his head on Pearl’s shoulder. She was probably right. He hoped so. He was so tired…
“I’m scared, Pearl.”
Pearl hummed sadly and put her arm around him.
“We all are,” she said quietly, rubbing his arm. They were all so scared. When the pool didn’t work, even with the Diamonds, they had all started to panic, including the Diamonds. Spinel took it especially bad. She’d been crying into Steven’s jacket for a solid thirty minutes when the healing pool didn’t work. Her first real friend in six thousand years was…losing himself. No one wanted that. Certainly not her.
Everyone was terrified.
Pearl stood up. “Try and get some sleep tonight,” she said, leaning down to give Steven a kiss on his forehead. He smiled up at her. Ever since this started she’d been giving him kisses. It helped, just a little bit. Pearl went and switched the night light on, turned the lights off, and quietly walked down the stairs. Steven didn’t hear the door close. She never closed it completely.
The night light gave off a soft yellow glow. Not much, but enough to cover the majority of the room in a vague light. The darkness wasn’t so crippling tonight.
Steven settled himself under his blanket and stared at the light. He stared for a while. He looked around his room. Nothing was standing in the shadows to watch him. That was good. With a small amount of comfort in his heart he closed his eyes.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
He slept for several hours. More than he had been recently. But it was still dark when he woke up, a sudden pain in his sides forcing him awake. Steven had never felt a pain like this. It was scorching hot yet freezing cold, the pain so extreme that he almost didn’t feel it. His agonized yell brought Pearl barreling up the stairs to his room and the lights came on.
Steven’s body had reacted so violently to the pain that he’d fallen to the ground, writhing and groaning, tangled in his blanket. His eyes were shut tight and tears were streaming down his face.
“Steven!” Pearl yelped, running over, but she froze when Steven’s eyes snapped open. They were black, pure black, irises white and glowing, and they bore right through her. He was growling at her, a sound so guttural and aggressive that she actually stumbled back a few feet.
Steven appeared to be fighting himself, his expression changing from anger to pain to fear and back again in a grotesque distortion of emotions. He managed to kick away the blanket, only after slicing a few holes in it with his claws. Pearl gasped.
Two new additions to the corruption had taken form. A pair of dark purple arms had sprouted from his sides and pushed through Steven’s shirt, moving in a spasm. They stretched and twitched and grabbed at nothing and everything while Steven continued to growl and moan on the floor.
Pearl swallowed the lump in her throat and stepped closer to Steven. His eyes were closed again and he was breathing heavily, squirming painfully, growling, whimpering, and wailing. Pearl didn’t know what to do. She reached out toward him.
Steven screamed a deep, gravelly scream when he sensed her closeness and blindly lashed out. Pearl let out a sharp squeal and fell backwards when he connected. Steven’s claws had slashed down her arm and caught her knee. The light that made her body shone brightly from the cuts for a few seconds before the spaces reformed, leaving what looked like scars. She’d been slashed and cut and stabbed and received every other menagerie of injuries one could think of, but nothing had quite felt like that, nothing had ever left marks like that.
The noise she made, the look of shock and fear on her face, it did something to Steven. His growling stopped abruptly, replaced by a high-pitched crying and his eyes went wide. He was shuffling backwards and bumped into his bed. Pearl couldn’t read his expression. She couldn’t speak. She couldn’t even cry. She didn’t know what was happening.
Steven had pressed himself against the bed frame and was shaking so hard Pearl swore she felt it. Then Steven was crying out again, falling onto his side once more as he gripped his head. His claws dug into his skin, his new pair of arms mindlessly grabbing at each other. A few long minutes went by before the boy’s breathing, while still heavy, calmed down. If Pearl had a heart it’d be pounding in her chest.
Steven slowly looked up. His eyes were back to normal, aside from the pure, unrestrained fear pooling in them. Tears finally started falling down Pearl’s cheeks.
“P-Pearl?” Steven almost whispered, his voice hoarse. He saw his own fear reflected in her shining eyes.
He suddenly felt something…wrong, more wrong than before. His hands moved away from his head as he looked down his body. He scrambled up off the ground in a panic when he saw the arms twitching at his sides. It almost appeared as though they were trying to mimic the others as Steven moved. His terrified gaze locked with Pearl’s.
“Pearl!” he cried, quickly crawling over and throwing himself around her. He felt her flinch hard when he touched her. “I-I’m sorry-y, Pearl! I didn’t-want to hu-rt you. I-I didn’t mean to-!”
Finally, Pearl managed to shake herself out of her frozen state, looking down at Steven sobbing into her chest. His claws held her in a death grip. Her movements started slow, hesitant. Her mind was racing.
Then her arms came up in a flash and pulled Steven in. Tears flooded from their eyes as they sat in each other’s presence. Pearl felt two more hands latch onto her.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
The warp pad activated and there stood Garnet and Amethyst, looking exhausted. It was around five in the morning and the lights were dimmed. The pair walked into the main room, faces downcast and hands empty.
“No luck, I assume,” came Pearl’s soft voice from the couch. The others didn’t reply. Or, they couldn’t reply. Garnet and Amethyst could only stare at Pearl, who was holding Steven ever so delicately, and Steven, who was lying against Pearl, asleep—and with two new arms draped on either side of her.
No one said anything for a long time. Amethyst dropped to her knees. Garnet gripped the kitchen counter to steady herself. Pearl didn’t look up from Steven’s sleeping form. She heard Garnet’s form waver and her eyes shut tight as Amethyst rose to her feet to try and comfort Garnet before she split. The purple Gem talked softly, doing her absolute best to keep her voice steady while the other tried to hold it together.
Pearl was listening helplessly. She and Amethyst had talked to Garnet previously about this whole thing, and Garnet said, no matter how many times she tried, that she couldn’t see a future where they stopped this. Of course, she’d been wrong before. There were things that she never saw that happened. So they kept going, kept searching, but it was getting so hard to continue. They continued because Garnet’s been wrong before. But the longer they went, the less likely it seemed that Garnet even could be wrong about this. There were hundreds of possibilities, all pointing to failure.
Eventually Amethyst managed to calm Garnet down enough that she stopped morphing. That’s when Pearl looked up. They all looked at each other.
None of them could last much longer like this.