We Aren't the Crystal Gems Without You

I Never Wanted You Getting Hurt, My Little One

"Woah," Steven breathed as he opened his eyes to a place he had never seen before. It didn't seem to have boundaries, but he knew he was closed in. He was in his gem. Well, in a way he was. He assumed he wasn't using his real body. Or was he? He didn't know. Somehow, his physical form was regenerating.
The last thing that he remembered was Amethyst screaming. He was on the ground, he was bleeding. And then he didn't remember anything else.
The gems. He wanted to see them. Did they know he was okay? Did they think he was dead? Did they have his gem? His gem was okay, right? He had so many questions that he wanted to know the answers to so desperately. But then, would he even regenerate?
"Pearl!" he cried, tears swimming in his eyes. He called the names of the other gems, his friends, his dad, even though he knew nothing was going to happen. As he cried, he ran. He didn't know where he was going, literally. He had never been inside his gem before. And no one could help him...
"Steven?" He heard someone answer him. The voice was female and he recognized it. He was feeling dizzy and lightheaded from his screaming and running. Was it the crystal gems?
"Pearl?!" he yelled loudly. "Amethyst... Garnet?" His voice was a hoarse whisper now.
     "Steven!"  The voice sounded closer. And he could tell that it wasn't Pearl. He opened his eyes. They had gone blurry through his tears and dizziness, but he could tell who was running towards him. His eyes widened, though he should've know that she'd be here.
     "Mom!" he cried out. She was there. She was in his gem, in her gem. She laughed, tears falling down her cheeks.
     "Steven!" She scooped him up in her arms. Her tears spilled onto him, streaking his hair pink. Then her laughing and crying ceased. She looked at her son, concerned. "Why are you here? What happened to you?"
     "I- I," Steven stammered, still astonished. "The gems and I and Connie-"
     "Connie? Who's Connie? Oh! I'm sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt. Go on, Steven," Rose Quartz said in apology.
     Steven beamed. It was amazing hearing his mother say his name. "It's okay," replied Steven. "Connie is my best friend. She's a human. Pearl's been training her to sword fight so she can go on missions and stuff with us! I help to! Pearl uses her holo-pearls that we can fight against. And Connie and I form Stevonnie and-"
     "Hold on," Rose said. "You fused with a human?"
     "Yeah! It's amazing! The gems think it's because I'm half human. But I don't know. You tried to fuse with dad."
     "Greg told you that? Then you know that it didn't exactly work."
     "Sure, maybe not in the real way, but  in heart you were. That's what Garnet says."
     "Garnet," Rose smiled. "Her fusion was the most in sync I've ever seen a fusion be. What's your fusion look like as Stevonnie, Steven?"
     "Garnet says we're a more perfect match than she is. She says our fusion is perfect."
     "Is it now?" asked Rose. "Well in that case, keep Connie around." Rose winked. Steven laughed. "Have you gotten the chance to fuse with any of the Crystal Gems?"
     "Amethyst."
     "Really? Amethyst? Huh. I always thought Pearl would be the the first. Anyway, tell me how it happened." And Steven did. He told her about his fight with Amethyst, how they fought to prove how they were the worst. Then he told her about how he and Amethyst talked about how they each weren't what everyone thought they should be. How Amethyst was defective, and how everyone thought he should be like her, like his mother, like Rose Quartz. Then he talked about how they found Jasper many times. One time, before he and Amethyst fought, Stevonnie had fought Jasper and won for the time being. Amethyst had wanted to be the one to beat Jasper, but she was poofed, so Stevonnie came in instead. Amethyst had wanted to beat Jasper so bad, she was obsessed to prove that she was as good as Jasper. But no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't. Then she and Steven acknowledged that even though they were unlike anyone else, they were like each other in that way.
     "And then we hugged and we fused into Smokey Quartz! We beat Jasper, but then she became corrupted after fusion with corrupted gems. I tried to heal her with my healing spit, but she wouldn't let me!"
     "Healing spit!" his mother exclaimed, laughing. "That's a new one."
     "Just like your tears," Steven told her. "So then Peridot's metal powers kicked in and she poofed the corrupted Jasper and then we bubbled Jasper's gem."
     "Peridot? Who's Peridot?" Rose asked.
     "Oh, she worked for Yellow Diamond when she came to earth, but she is a Crystal Gem now! Lapis Lazuli lives with us, too! She was trapped in a mirror for thousands of years!"
     "Wow," exclaimed Rose. "Now, Steven, we never finished talking about how you came here."
     "Oh yeah. So we all went on a gem mission to fight a dozen corrupted gems on the battlefield. Me and Connie fused but eventually one of the monsters broke our fusion. I tried to protect her, but my bubble broke. We were blasted away from each other. She was okay, but the corrupted gem hit me. I started bleeding and I could hardly see anything. Amethyst screamed my name, and then everything went dark. I think that's when I was poofed." As Steven told the story, his mother's grip on him got tighter. Tears glistened in her eyes when he finished.
     "I never wanted you getting hurt, my little one," she told him, her voice shaking.
     "Everyone's bound to get hurt sometime," Steven noted.
     Rose sighed. "For humans, I guess... that's just life."
     "Hey! Those sound like the lyrics in one of my new songs! Wanna hear? Oh wait... I don't have my ukulele."
     "Says who?" Rose set him down, took his hand, and let him to another part of the gem. "This gem is like any other gem. It knows us. It is part of us. We are part of it."
     "Wow! Look at all of these shields! And the swords! And the paintings! Woah! Is this one of Lion?" Steven pointed to a picture of his pink lion.
     "So, you found him. I hoped you would," Rose beamed at her son. "Anyway, as you grew older, more things appeared here. Things that you loved, things that you did. And this was one of them." She walked over to the wall and pulled down a ukulele. It looked very similar to Steven's ukulele at home. She handed it to Steven and said, "Play."
     "Will you sing?" Steven pointed to a microphone on the wall.
     "I suppose I shall," Rose answered, taking the microphone down. Steven started to sing one of his dad's songs, one that Rose knew very well. She smiled sadly as she sang with her son, who she finally got to meet. Though she wouldn't trade the time with her baby for anything, what else she would give to see the gems, her husband, and the earth again.