The Soul Gem

Reformation

Steven walked into his old home's bathroom. Reflecting about the time he used to spend healing corrupted gems from Homeworld in there. He also remembered the time he had to fix Jasper because he shattered her after a fight they had...oh right. Steven dumped the Diamond bottles into the tub to fix Jasper. Which means he needs to get more Diamond Aura to fill the bottles.

"Don't worry big guy. I'll get you fixed up. We just need to head home first," Steven said to the gem in Peridot's bubble as he went onto the Warp Pad and warped to the Diamond Palace on Homeworld. He walked right into Yellow Diamond's room.

"Hey Yellow! I uh...I need your help with something!" Steven yelled up to her.

"Steven! It's so good to see you again! What's the emergency?" Yellow asked, crouching down to nearly meet Steven's eye level.

"Uh...this guy had a bit of a meltdown. We just need to rule out corruption, and uh...I accidentally used up all the Diamond juice," Steven said with an awkward chuckle as he held up the bubbled Ermac.

"The prototype got corrupted? I didn't think that was possible," Yellow Diamond asked in surprise.

"Not sure. I just want to heal him up though, just in case it was a corruption," Steven replied.

"We can make the aura blend in Blue's onsen. Let's get the other two ready," Yellow said as she went off to go inform White Diamond of the situation. Steven went to go fill in Blue Diamond, who was using her emotional clouds to make gems happier.

"Hey Blue! Do you think we can use your onsen for a healing?" Steven asked the emotional diamond.

"Steven! Of course! Who are we healing?" Blue Diamond asked with glee.

"See I don't know. Some gem that's apparently like...a tiny cluster," Steven said, not fully recognizing what Ermac was.

"Tiny cluster? You mean the prototype?" Blue asked for clarification.

"That's what Yellow called him," Steven shrugged. The sound of stomping was heard and in came the other two diamonds. Along with Spinel resting on White Diamond's shoulder.

"STEVEN! You're here!" Spinal cheered as she leapt from White and ran happy little circles around Steven.

"Steven! It's so great to see you!" White greeted as the four diamonds got to Blue's onsen. A large pool meant for when all four diamonds would relax back in Era 1 of Homeworld. They all got into the pool, Blue activating the mechanism that filled the pool with water. Yellow, Blue and White Diamond all began flooding the water with their respective auras. Steven making his gem glow as the colors all swirled into a majestic pattern of restorative harmony. Steven pushed in on the sides of the bubble, popping it and letting Ermac's gem fall into the healing blend.

"If this Ermac gem has any corruption in him, this'll get it out of his system," Steven said as they all saw the gem begin to glow. It cycled through a set of rainbow colors before settling on the same verdant green Ermac's eyes and powers were. A brief cycling of the physical forms of all 10,000 gems that composed him was seen, before shifting to the giant form he was in before. Then shifting to his old form with his trench coat before shifting back to another, even bigger form of the giant before shifting to a new form and then having the glow fade. Ermac's new outfit composed of a set of black underclothes, with a black hood on his head. On top of those, he had a red vest patterned with red diamonds all along it. He had a red face guard that covered his mouth, along with wrist braces. His metal soled boots now looked like normal shoed, and he had a red belt thay wrapped around his waist and held his best closed together. Finally, his legs had red shin guards that looked as though they were made of metallic plates. Ermac was floating on his back, his eyes closed and one floof of his hair was able to poke enough through his hood to cover his right eye.

"Hey buddy. Wake up," Steven said, nudging Ermac's shoulder. Ermac stirred awake and opened his green eyes, staring up at the ceiling of the room.

"Were we....not on Earth?" Ermac asked, not aware that he's in the presence of the Diamonds.

"You were, but now you're on Homeworld," Blue Diamond said. Ermac's eyes widened as he immediately righted himself in the onsen.

"Blue Diamond! We were not aware that we were in your presence!" Ermac replied, immediately performing the Homeworld salute. Then he realized he was in the presence of all the other Diamonds...and a human.

"Our diamonds! We apologize for our ignorance! We did not realize we were in such regal presences!" Ermac stated, eyes flickering between the three of them. His eyes finally dawned onto Steven, and he was confused to say the least.

"And...who are you?" Ermac asked Steven.

"Steven Quartz Cutiepie DeMayo Diamond Universe," Steven said, reciting all of his varying last names he's bad as his middle names.

"Diamond?" Ermac asked once he recognized what Steven said.

"Yes. Contrary to what you might believe. Pink Diamond is right here in front of you," White said, gesturing to Steven.

"We apologize for our-"

"It's okay. You can just call me Steven. That's who I am," Steven said, cutting off Ermac's apology.

"It is...a pleasure to meet you...Steven," Ermac said in confusion.

"Nice to meet you too, Ermac. Don't worry about being formal, we sort of abandoned that. Welcome to Era 3," Steven said.

"Era...three...we are in Era 3...but we were designed for...what would be considered...Era 1? Or 2?" Ermac asked towards the diamonds.

"You were technically the last thing that came out of Era 1. The Cluster was the first project that we started in Era 2 because we thought Pink was shattered," Yellow explained.

"We...we understand," Ermac said with a nod.

"Don't worry. I'll take you back to Earth, we can try to get you all straightened out and get you enrolled in Little Homeschool," Steven said, trying to encourage Ermac. Ermac nodded in acknowledgement and started following Steven out of the onsen. Steven walked back to the warp pad with in tow.

"Did....did we hurt anyone?" Ermac asked Steven.

"You don't remember?" Steven asked in return.

"Our memories are fuzzy. We vaguely recall what happened...it's all scattered though," Ermac replied with a sort of thousand yard stare.

"You didn't hurt anyone," Steven comforted as the warp pad activated and they were transported back to Earth.