Consequences

5 - Accidental Escape

Steven was lying on a green field when he opened his eyes.

"Where am I...?" he wondered to himself. Getting up from the soft grass, he brushed himself off and wandered up the hill.

"Am I dreaming again?" he asked himself aloud. "I hope not. Last time, that landed me in a cell tinier than my bathroom in the temple, way off in outer space." Steven's face fell into a grim expression, knowing this taste of freedom wasn't going to last forever.

Steven slowly climbed the hill, which overlooked a pretty countryside-like view. A few times Steven paused just to observe the area. It looked so familiar...

When Steven finally breached the top of the hill, he jumped up from his hands and knees in anguish. Before him was the barn he remembered so well from not too long ago, when he still roamed that solar system. The barn was the last place he'd been before he, Pearl, garnet, and Amethyst had gone into outer space... and never came back.

Not only that, he saw Peridot sitting on a lawnchair, a sort of weird tanning machanism she'd probably crafted out of the junk in the barn hovering below her face.

Steven tried to run forward, but he couldn't move his legs. He was stuck where he was standing. Instead, Steven tried a different tactic.

He leaned forward and yelled, "PERIDOT!"

Said gem snapped her eyes open and sat up trying to identify where the noise came from. She looked around for a few moments.

"Uh... Lapis?" she asked unsurely. Steven called to Peridot again. This time, Peridot saw him, and the frantic look on his face. "Steven!?" Peridot yelled, knocking the (appearantly rotational) tanning contraption out of the way as she jumped to her feet.

Steven opened his mouth to tell Peridot where he was, and what had happened to him and the gems, but then a memory whispered in his head, "you will not argue or attempt to escape, understood?" Steven froze, and suddenly he felt a presence looming behind him.

He turned around and...

Steven awoke in a cold sweat, breathing hard. He jumped up from the floor, but fell back down when he banged his head on the ceiling.

"Ow..." he complained, and rubbed the back of his head.

Ignoring the fresh bruise, however, he got back to thinking about his dream. He'd seen Peridot, but he couldn't tell her what happened. Maybe if he could try and contact her again in a dream...

But Yellow Diamond threatened him not to. Then again... it's not like Yellow Diamond would know if Steven was dreaming... but maybe she would. And, if Peridot and Lapis showed up to save them, or attempt to, chances were, they'd be caught.

"It's no use," Steven groaned, "I'm never getting out of here!" He laid down on his back, pitying himself. The darkness and shortage of space to move in this cell after all this time was making Steven claustrophobic. Steven sighed and was about to fall asleep and try to contact Peridot again, but, as routine would have it, the cell door opened.

Surprisingly, no one was at the door.

"Um... hello?" Steven asked. No one answered. Huh. That's strange. Steven got to his feet and walked to the edge of the door. The guards weren't there. Not even Larimar, or a Pearl, or anyone.

He took a cautious step out the door, and quickly braced himself for something to happen. For some reason, nothing came.

"What's going on...?" Steven asked himself. He didn't know where everyone went. There were no gems roaming around. There was not even noise. Steven took a couple steps forward, and still nothing happened. Pretty soon, he broke into a full out sprint up the hallway. He became elated when he looked down the different corridors and saw no one.