Corruption

The concert

Steven spent the rest of the day warping from memorable places the gems remember showing him. He went to the Strawberry battle field, the galaxy warp, the kindergarten and the hole where the barn used to be. Nothing reminded him of his life, however, he seemed to recognise specific parts of some areas, such as the hole Amethyst emerged from  in the Kindergarten. Their last hope was the concert.

Steven, staying close to Connie sat down on the sofa in the temple, waiting for the concert to begin. He noticeably figited occasionally, specifically when Garnet or Pearl came near. Amethyst was the only gem he was comfortable being around at the moment, but he still was slightly nervous when she came near by.

"Garnet, do you see this concert helping him?..." Pearl quietly said to the side, wanting to be confident.

"I can't tell you." Garnet bluntly responded, "If I tell you it won't happen."

Pearl shot Steven a worried look, before the sound of Sadie's voice filled the beach house.

"Hello Beach City!" She yelled. Steven stood up and walked outside, Connie looked at the gems hopefully, before following him out.

Steven was gripping onto the railings on the balcony, peering to the giant, lit up stage, which read "Sadie Killer and the Suspects", surrounded by a cheering crowd of humans and off colours.

"Come on!" Cheered Connie, running down the steps as the band started playing. Steven quickly followed, the gems too, but further back from the corruption, not wanting to scare him.

As the two young adults ran into the crowd, Steven got many looks, mainly by gems, of worry, he ignored them and joined Connie in the centre of the crowd, looking up at the band.

The gems stayed outside the cheering crowd, apart from Amethyst, who wanted to be a part of the action, all keeping Steven in sight. Greg joined the gems and watched Steven in the crowd.

Everyone around the corruption started jumping and cheering to the music. As Sadie sung her heart out, Steven watched with amazed eyes. He remembered this kind of music, and playing instruments with others.

Connie saw her frozen friend, whilst dancing. She saw a smile creep onto his face, he started to laugh and dance along to the music. Connie smiled and teared up, and the two danced to the band's songs for what seemed for an eternity, neither of them wanted the concert to end.

The crowd danced for hours, bought the band's merch and eventually dissipated. Once the final song played, Connie immediately jumped onto Steven, wrapping him into a hug. He hugged her back, with double the amount of arms, it was like getting hugged by two people. The gems joined into the hug and so did Greg, as the band started to take away their instruments.

As the hug ended, Steven wiped a tear away from his eye, Connie was the last to let go. "How are you feeling?" The happy human asked.

"I'm fine," he began, before adding, "really, I feel alright, my head hurts alot and the past like day is all blurry but I'm fine!"

"We're glad to hear it, it's been strange without our usual happy Steven" Garnet chuckled.

"Yeah, you where like terrified of us." Amethyst joked.

"Now I'm just happy that everything is back to normal..." Sighed Steven happily.

"Well..." Greg rubbed his forehead, gesturing to Steven about his new form.

"Oh.." Steven responded, saddened. Pearl realised his sorrow and spoke up.

"It's no problem! We can just take him to Rose's fountain!" She chirped, creating a hologram of the fountain from her gem.

"Great! Why don't we go now?" Steven suggested, eager to get back to his normal body.

"There's no reason not to" Amethyst agreed.

The others all agreed and headed to the Warp. The gems and Connie all warped away, Greg left to help the band take down their set. 

The group all landed outside the fountain's shrine, Steven ran forward and placed his hands in the water, and cupped them. Or that was the plan.

As soon as his hands touched the water, he yelled out in pain. The water was boiling hot, his hands felt like they where on fire. The gems ran forward as he staggered back, looking at his smoking hands.

"Steven, what's wrong?" Questioned Connie, placing a hand on his arm.

"T-The water... it's boiling hot..." He stuttered, shaking.

"Boiling hot?" Asked Pearl, with disbelief, she walked over to the fountain and stuck her pinky finger in the water, "It's not hot...it's quite cold to be honest.."

"Obviously not! My hands are burning!...Gah!" Steven let out a pain filled gasp, bringing his hand closer to his chest and stomach.

Garnet analysed the fountain and the water. She stepped into it and waded her way behind the central statue of Rose, "The Diamonds did this." She angrily stated.