Chapter Text
Steven couldn’t understand what was happening to him. His head was full of so many thoughts and conflicting emotions. Why am I so angry-What is happening to me-GET AWAY FROM ME-Stop it-Who are you-Help me-It hurts-What am I doing?! All those thoughts collided into one giant rampage. Steven could only know one true fact.
He’s a monster.
— —- —
Steven roared and charged back to the people on the beach. Now that the giant hand was gone(he didn’t understand why it just popped out of existence but ignored it) he could finally do something about the people on the beach. He could see they were talking, perhaps planning a way to take him down. He roared once more, and noticed the blue flying one next to his head.
“Sorry buddy, I need you to stay here!” Lapis said, swinging her arms and conjuring up a large wave.
As the wave approached, Steven growled. She was just going to keep throwing water at him and he’d never get anywhere! If only he were faster, then this wouldn’t be a problem! He just needed to be faster…
And what he needed, he would get.
His gem glowed pink, and everything slowed down around him. He took a moment to adjust, and started to move. He crashed through the wave with a big swipe of his claws, and smacked the flying one down into the ocean, and continued moving forward. He noticed the rest of them, all running to where he was. Probably to attack when the flying one had him distracted. Well, he had no time to waste.
He charged forward, tripping the glasses girl-did she get taller?- with his tail, smacking the other 2 flying people out of the sky, throwing the ones on the cloud into the sky, and charging through the 3 tall ones. He looked at the remaining girl and large cat, but left them alone, for reasons he didn’t know. Now that they were taken care of, he could finally reach the town.
The thoughts in his head kept colliding. What is this town? Why do I have to go there? Who are these people and why do they keep trying to attack me? Why am I so afraid-confused-angry?! He began to climb the large hill. When he reached the top, time turned back to normal. Looking upon the town, he roared mightily and knocked over the lighthouse.
— —- —
Back in the water, the gems were feeling the effects of Steven’s attack.
“Agh...What happened?” Amethyst said, holding her head in pain.
Pearl got up next to her, and struggled to stand. “He must’ve moved fast like before...”
They both heard yelling from above them, and saw Greg falling. Amethyst reacted fast and grabbed Greg before he hit the ground.
“Phew...thanks Amethyst.” Greg said as Amethyst set him down.
“No problem. Ugh, I thought that would’ve been so easy after that speech!”
Connie rode next to the fallen gems on Lion, and asked “Are you ok? What happened?”
The large Garnet stood up and said “Steven was able to slow down time in his pink form. Connie, are you ok?”
“Yeah, I’m fine. He didn’t do anything to us, there was just a bright flash and all of you were down!”
“He left you alone?” Peridot said, limping up to them with Bismuth.
“That’s good, right? So Steven is still in there!” Bismuth chimed in.
“That may be. The plan stays the same, we have to keep him away from the-“ Garnet explained, but stopped short when she saw Steven on the hill, heading towards the town.
“Oh no he’s at the town! Connie, did you-“ Pearl asked.
“I evacuated everyone to the shelters, and double-checked, the town is empty.” Connie said as the gems started to rush forward.
“Yellow, change me back to normal size!” Garnet yelled, rushing past the Diamonds, who were starting to follow.
Yellow shot a beam at Garnet, changing her back to normal size. Garnet grabbed Amethyst and Pearl’s shoulders and called out to everyone else.
“Do what we did last time, just get him back into the ocean!” Garnet said as she fused with Amethyst and Pearl into Alexandrite.
— —- —
Steven stomped loudly around the vacant town, crushing buildings and roaring loudly. Why am I here-What is this place-EVERYTHING OUT OF MY WAY!!!!
He got ready to step on a small building with what appeared to be a large circle on top, but stopped. A clear thought seemed to be forming, until the big 6-armed lady from before leaped on his face. He struggled with her for a bit and stumbled around. He finally grabbed her, took a large step, and threw her off. He then looked down and found that in his struggle, he had crushed the building.
Steven started to get angry. Why am I so angry about this-THEY MADE ME CRUSH IT-But why do I care so much-IT’S THEIR FAULT! Steven roared angrily, and all his horns started to glow. He aimed himself at the large 6-armed lady, and his eyes started to glow. He reared back, but something slammed into the back of his head, making him lose coordination and aiming his roar at the ground. The force of the roar knocked him backwards and he collapsed on the ground.
In his blurred vision, he could see the two flying people above him.
“Sorry again, Steven!!!” He could hear from the green one. Steven?-Why do they keep calling me that-GET OUT OF MY WAY!!!! Steven growled and flipped over onto all fours. The flying ones hit his head as they flew by again, so Steven set off. He only got 2 bounds in before realizing where they were leading him. Back to the water. He may be a monster, but he’s not a dumb monster. So he stopped.
— —- —
Peridot and Bismuth were once again flying for their lives from the large monster Steven. They flew over the ocean and started doing circles.
This was taking longer than last time, so Bismuth asked “Is he almost here?”
Peridot turned, and saw Steven just staring at them, standing right before the beach.
“He’s just...standing there. Menacingly…” Peridot responded.
Peridot made them stop moving, and they both looked at Steven, and Steven stared back.
“Uhh...Hey! Come get us you...spiky...lumpy…large person!” Peridot yelled, trying to get Steven to move. Steven continued to stare at them.
“Do you think he’s remembering us?” Bismuth asked, looking up at Peridot.
“Maybe…” Peridot said, cautiously piloting them close to Steven. Steven continued to stare as they got closer.
“Steven, it’s us. Bismuth and Peridot...Don’t worry, you’re fine. We’ll come to you.” Bismuth reassured Steven.
Peridot was shaking madly, and looked over at Alexandrite for guidance. Alexandrite hesitated, then nodded. Peridot sighed in relief, and kept floating herself and Bismuth. Soon they were right in Steven’s face. The other gems started to approach Steven from the side and behind, but Lapis stayed close to the water.
“See? We’re not gonna hurt you. We just want to talk, Steven.” Bismuth said.
Peridot gulped, and reached out to touch Steven’s nose. “Y-Yeah! Steven, I know you feel like-“
Steven immediately swiped to grab Peridot, sending Bismuth falling, but not too far. Steven stared down Peridot and roared in her face.
“AH! Steven, please! You’re an amazing person, and you’re very lovable, and you’re the best thing that’s ever happened to me! AND I’M SORRY I KEEP STEALING YOUR WASHER PARTS!!!” Peridot pleaded as Steven continued to stare.
A yellow beam then struck Steven’s hand, making it momentarily large enough for Peridot to get free. Steven roared at Yellow, but noticed Lapis throwing an even larger wave at him. He growled and a pink wall formed in front of him, blocking the wave. Lapis tried redirecting it, but Steven blocked it every way she tried.
A little away from the fight, Alexandrite unfused.
“What do we do now? Now he knows to stay away from the ocean!” Pearl asked, getting more and more worried.
Garnet thought, and said “We’ll have to show him love in another way. We need someone to talk to him and actually get through, and then everyone else can do their thing.”
“But who? We can’t risk Greg or Connie without knowing it’ll work! Maybe-“ Pearl thought before getting cut off by Amethyst.
“Ooh, I know! No time to explain, but I’ll be right back!” Amethyst said, spin dashing back towards the house.
— —- —
Steven had enough of the water lady, so he turned around and scrambled away from the water, blocking all her attacks with his pink wall-shield. When he was a safe distance away, he got back on his feet. The 2 flying ones were flying fast towards him again, but instead of dodging, he set up another wall, and the two of them smacked into it. This gave him an idea. He extended the wall to cover his entire body, but left him room to move around. He watched as the flying ones tried to break the wall, but couldn’t make a dent.
Now he was finally safe, no one to hurt him, fight him, or get in his way. He continued forward, as his foes made futile attempts to break his safe haven. After a while of moving through the town, he suddenly set his sights on the large building in the distance with the spinning thing on top. Go now-But why-You’re a monster, so act like one-Why does this hurt-DESTROY!!!! Steven roared once more and picked up the pace.
“Stop!!!” Steven suddenly heard someone call out to him. He would’ve normally ignored this voice, but this was a new one. And it sounded so familiar…
He turned to see another Gem, one with one large green eyeball for a gem. Who are you-I know you-Nephr-GO AWAY!!! Steven roared at her, but she stood her ground.
“You don’t need to do this! This isn’t you! You’re not a monster!” She said, starting to approach him. He backed away and roared at her again for a warning, but she kept moving forward.
“You’re more than this, Steven.” She said, now up to his wall. Send her away-Let her in-Don’t be fooled-STOP!!! He had temptations to roar, but didn’t.
“We have so many memories. Remember drawing?” She said, putting her hand on the wall. Don’t listen to her-This is familiar...and nice… The wall started to weaken slightly where she was.
“And when you got me back to my crew? And how we became best friends?” She said. Steven could start to see tears forming in her eye. Why is she crying-Why am I so sad-Don’t be fooled-Let her in… The wall dropped around her, letting her walk in, but then closing immediately when she was inside. She walked up to him and hugged his foot.
“You have to remember! I know I probably didn’t do your speech as well as you did, but you helped me when I was a monster, so I’m going to help you!” She said, now crying. Steven roared at her once more, but she didn’t move or run away in fear.
Suddenly Steven started to relax. The angry feelings were going away, and so were all the colliding emotions. The whole wall dropped, and suddenly the other gems were around him too. IT WAS A TRAP-THEY’RE GOING TO DESTROY YOU-No… They felt the same as she did, gentle and kind. The three large ones made him feel some hostility, but the other ones felt gentler. Even the giant hand from before stretched out of the ocean to hold his own giant hand.
“Steven, I know you probably feel so low now, and that nothing is ever going to get better, but it can! You showed me that! You can make a change, right?” The stretchy armed one said.
“Steven, you were that one glimmer of hope for me after I was trapped in that mirror for so long, you made me who I am! I’m going to be that for you!” Said the blue-flying one.
The other people around him were saying stuff too, and Steven heard them, but a precise thought was finally forming in his twisted mind...
I’m not like this...I’m not a monster...I’m Ste-
Suddenly something powerful struck him in the back, and all those thoughts were lost. He crashed to the ground, the people around him scattered, and he looked up to see who had done this.
“Back off you monster. I’ll protect my Diamond!” Said a harsh, familiar voice.
Jasper.