Steven Universe: The Return [English FanFiction]

93- New Changes

[Steven walks along the shore of the beach, listening to the sound of the waves crashing, the sound of the seagulls, the departure of the boats out into the open sea or rather, the ocean. Steven feels the soft sand of the beach, it was so fine and warm, it felt good between his toes. So Steven keeps walking, heading to the beach house, looking at the seashells and the clear waters of the ocean.]

Steven: *narrating* Months have passed and thanks to our hard work, the universe is slowly returning to normal. During these months of work, I have been calm and very good with myself. In fact, I haven't needed my therapist for some time now. But most of all, I'm amazed that the Diamonds have been so serious about restoring peace throughout the universe, they had the initiative in most things.

[Steven walks in his house, walks up the stairs to his conservatory, and then warps away to a particular place in space.]

[Steven narrates as he travels through the warp stream.]

Steven: In addition to restoring peace across the universe, we destroyed every single weapon in existence, from rejuvenators to warships. Not a single weapon of any kind is left on the face of the universe. We also created a not-so-rigorous system of universal laws based mainly on those of Earth, and even built a special place for problematic Gems. We gave it a pretty cool and very original name: "Little Homeschool... 2."

[Steven arrives on a warp pad in the new "Little Homeschool 2", which sits on a large floating rock in the middle of space, protected by a large glass dome-like a greenhouse.]

Steven: *narrating* Gems who are caught committing misdeeds are brought here, tried and sentenced to receive the same classes as the Little Homeschool on Earth. They won't be released until they have served their sentence, but they will be assigned a Zircon as representative and defense attorney who can help them get released or just reduce their sentence. "That sounds like a prison," you'll say... Hmm, in a way it is, but it's worse to just bubble them and be done with it, isn't it? While the idea of having to try, sentence and lock them up still doesn't entirely appeal to me, I don't think it's such a bad thing to take such measures when it comes to making justice prevail. For that very reason, the main purpose of all this is to help the Gems rectify their misdeeds, our best teachers will be there to guide them to the right path, they'll never learn from their mistakes being in a bubble after all.

[Steven walks down the hallways, looking at the facility.]

Steven: *narrating* I learned the hard way that total and unrestricted freedom is not as good as I thought. There will always be malicious people whose words go in one ear and out the other, always ready to hurt others but not to improve or change their minds, let alone repent their actions. I never imagined there were still Gems committing misdeeds on the sly in the universe; lost and confused Gems who haven't known how to let go of the old diamond ideology, Emerald took advantage of this to influence them and get them to sympathize with her. To tell the truth, I always thought everyone would like the changes I made across the universe, or at least accept them, but that wasn't the case. I'm not saying that's wrong, they have every right to think the way they want! Nobody has the same tastes or thoughts, that's the best of all! Varieties and differences are the most beautiful thing in this life! So trying to force others to change so that they become what we think they should be is a mistake, the only thing we can do is to help them realize what they can't see and that doesn't usually happen if we want to force such change or such awareness. However, for no reason can we allow them to hurt others, so we'll do our best to guide and instruct every Gem who is brought here. Fortunately, many of the detainees have shown a willingness to learn, improve and change.

【Later.】

[Steven walks down the hallways with another Gem. They both get to a cell and see a Gem in it, sitting in the corner, hugging her knees and staring off into space.]

Steven: Hey! *knocks on the wall beside the cell*

???? ?????: *confused* Huh? *turns around* You? What are you doing here?

Steven: You got a visitor.

???? ?????: What?!

Nice Lapis: Hi.

[It's Mean Lapis' cell, Nice Lapis came to visit her, Steven just guided her to this cell. Mean Lapis' gemstone was found floating in space, and she was brought here shortly after. She now has a new form and her cell, like all the others, has a yellow force field that separates her from her visitor.]

Mean Lapis: I-It's you! *stands up* You're really here!

[Mean Lapis runs up to Nice Lapis, but hits the force field and her body gets deformed, forcing her to quickly retracts in pain.]

Mean Lapis: Ah! Nugh! I forgot there was a barrier.

Nice Lapis: Are you okay?!

Mean Lapis: Y-Yeah. I've endured worse.

Steven: Ok, guys. I'll leave you alone so you can talk about your stuff more calmly. *leaves*