Stevonnie Forever

Back to School

    Stevonnie has her week of rest; little disturbed her except an occasional check-up. When finally it was time for them to return Garnet gave them some final preparations, acquiring for them a pair of crutches to help them get around for the first few weeks, and sorting things out with the school. Her last parting gift to them however, was 3 vials of Rose's water in case of an emergencies.

    "Make sure not to use the vials of you can avoid it, you know how taxing it is, and it's better if you can get stronger on your own." Stevonnie nodded before blowing into their warp whistle and leaving.

    Their first day back was a bit awkward. Everyone wanted to know what happened. At first, they wanted to keep it personal, but the constant pressure from everyone eventually lead to them spilling the beans. "Ok everyone, since you want to know so badly, the Diamonds got rejuvenated and tried to corrupt the gems on Earth. I repelled the attack, but at the cost of my gem; I lost all my powers and most of my strength." The only face that had any understanding of what had been said was Maria, who was mortified at the news. Even though almost nobody understood, word quickly spread around the school, enough to quell the constant requests for information.

    The next day Stevonnie sat down at lunch with Maria. "So Stevonnie... I don't mean to pry but, are you ok? I mean, it sounds like you've been though a lot."

    "Well I mean my gem got shattered but other than that yeah I'm totally ok."

     "I don't mean physically, I mean emotionally"

    Stevonnie was silent for a few moments. Connie sought to avoid such considerations. Her training with Pearl taught her to push down those sorts of feelings when it came to fighting and war, all that mattered was protecting the person who mattered most, and that was Steven. But Steven was with her already, in fact now that they couldn't separate, to a degree she was him. Connie, for all her knowledge, had no idea how to deal with that. Even so, that wasn't the sort of thing to dump on a friend. Steven wasn't concerned about that part, his focus was on having lost Pearl, who was the closest person to a mom that he had ever had. He lamented also on the work of his mom's last years and his childhood vanishing in an instant because of a handful of gems. And, most pressing on his mind, how to fix this without his powers, how to get to Homeworld, how to get an audience with the Diamonds, and how to get them to remember without his powers and without the Pink Diamond gem. What he could agree with Connie on however, was that it was nothing to dump on a friend, much less one without any involvement. This cacophony of worries culminated in an eloquently curt "No I'm not"

     Stevonnie and Maria day in silence for a moment, Maria shocked by the response, and Stevonnie feeling she had answered the question to the greatest appropriate extent. This silence was interrupted by Jack, who was ready for a fight. "Well well well, if it isn't the magic lady and her pet." Steven was trying to maintain a level head, while Connie's blood was aboil.

     "What do you want? Haven't you had enough of me already; I thought two times would be enough."

    "Perhaps it would have, but your not so high and mighty anymore now are you?" He came in with the same gut punch as the last time, and Stevonnie went to dodge, but was to weak to get out of the way in time. "Come on, not so tough anymore huh?"

    Stevonnie began to pull herself to her feet, but not before Maria jumped in. "If you want to hurt them, your going to have to go through me. At first, Jack was ready to oblige, but more and more people began to come to Stevonnie's aid in her moment of need; after all she had saved all of their lives before. Soon, Jack backed off, and the rest of the students returned to what they were doing.

    "Thank you Maria. I'm not sure if I could have held him off like this."

    "Don't mention it. Now, if you don't mind, what's wrong?"

    "I don't want to burden you with it."

    "It's not a burden if I ask."

    Stevonnie sighed. "This wasn't a one off attack; this is a war. A war which Steven fought for 2 years to bring to a close, and 2 more to begin fixing the damage it caused. All of that work was erased in a few days by a handful of resentful gems. It's been reignited for barely half a year and it's already claimed Pearl; someone who is very dear to me."

    "She was shattered?"

    Stevonnie shook her head "Rejuvenated."

    "Well then you can bring her back can't you? And anyways, if the war ended in two years last time, and you have vastly more people now, that it's bound not to last long."

     "The war didn't end in 2 years, that's how long Steven worked to end the war, which had in truth mostly ended a thousand years or so before he was born. He cleaned it up, kept the aftermath in check. The war itself raged for 6,000 years before ending with the corrupting light. Or well, the first one. And even so Steven was only able to accomplish that thanks to his power and the Diamond's love for Pink, both of which are now gone."

    "Oh" Maria was not prepared for such a large scale. "Well you have more people standing with you now."

     This cheered Stevonnie up some "I guess your right." Stevonnie went home that night with a little spark of hope which she had not woken up with.