Steven Universe Future: A Corrupted Identity

Chapter Four: Back on Earth

The light of the warp caught Pearl's attention first. She poked her head outside to watch the beam leave Earth before heading up the stairs.

"Steven, was someone here?" She peeked into the empty room. Steven was gone? Was he overpowered and taken? No, that was impossible. They would have heard a fight. Unless there wasn't a fight at all. Was he kidnapped?!

Concern filled her face and she quickly climbed the stairs and looked over to the console to see a blinking message.

Going to Homeworld. I need to find out more about my mother. Be back soon.

-Steven

"Oh that can't be good," Pearl said to herself. She sighed and shook her head before turning and leaving the warp room. She nearly walked into Garnet, who was waiting at the bottom of the stairs.

"Oh Garnet," Pearl said. "Steven left to visit Homeworld."

"I know," Garnet said, her face angled up at the sky. "It won't go well."

"What do you mean?" Pearl asked, concern filling her face again.

Garnet shook her head. "All the futures I see end with Steven getting hurt. But I can't tell you which one he'll experience."

"Then we need to stop him!" Pearl said frantically. She turned to run back up the stairs, but Garnet's hand enclosed around her wrist.

"Pearl," she said. "Steven needs to figure this out on his own. Besides," she looked back to the sky. "He can take care of himself. Probably."

"PROBABLY?"

"Well, there is one future where the Diamonds attack him and Homeworld is destroyed, but I'm sure he'll be fine."

"WHAT?!"

"Hey, I'm trying to sleep here," Amethyst said as she poked her head out the door. "Where's Steven?"

Garnet pointed to the sky.

Amethyst looked up. "Ah man, did he forget how to control his floating?"

"No, he's on Homeworld, which could explode!" Pearl said, frantically tugging at Garnet's unrelenting grip.

Amethyst looked between them and shrugged. "Should I be worried, Garnet?"

Garnet pursed her lips. "Hmm."

"Garnet?" Amethyst waved her hand in front of the fusion's visor.

"Yes," Garnet finally said.

"Then let's go get him!" Amethyst called, trying to move past Garnet who was blocking the stairs.

"Apparently we can't," Pearl said, exasperated.

Garnet nodded. "This is something he needs to learn himself."

"Okay?" Amethyst didn't look convinced but shrugged and turned back to the house. "Wake me up when he gets back, okay?"

--

Steven groaned, trying to ignore the whispers that came in and out of his consciousness, like a poorly tuned radio. He no longer heard the high-pitched ring nor felt anything beyond the tired ache, it was just like he was floating; not quite here, but not quite there.

He wished the whispers would stop, but they were slowly growing louder, keeping him from enjoying the moment of calm.

"Come on, Steven, wake up" one said. He thought he felt a hand on his face, but everything just seemed so far away. "Why did you do that?!" the voice yelled again.

A voice, too muffled to make out, said something quietly. It sounded mad, but soft, like someone in mourning.

"I don't care if you didn't want this!" The first voice yelled, this time sounding close enough for Steven to know who spoke. Spinel. "You did this!"

He needed to figure out what was happening. He couldn't just lay here. Steven slowly opened his eyes and blinked the room into focus. Spinel was crouched over him, her hand placed gently on his cheek and her face angrily pointed upwards. Steven looked over and saw the Diamonds crouching in front of the hole in the wall. The one he made.

"Steven!" It was White, her hand over her mouth when she noticed his gaze. "Steven, we didn't know, we..."

Blue cleared her throat. "Yellow and White thought we should show you what can happen if you let your anger get the best of you," she said, contempt dripping from her calming tone. "I was against it from the start."

"Wait," Steven gasped, pulling himself into a seated position, ignoring how his body screamed in protest. He glanced down to his hand while doing so, relieved it wasn't pink. "What do you mean?"

"Oh Steven, Spinel was never in any danger and our argument, well, we made it up!" White said, her hands clapping together.

"You...what?" Steven gasped, his eyes widening as he looked up at the monumental monarch.

"We thought it would do you good," White said. "If you could see what damage you can cause, maybe then you'll understand the importance in controlling your emotions."

Yellow nodded and jumped in, her finger now pointing in the air like she was lecturing Steven. "Pink never learned. She used it for herself. But you! You jumped in front of Spinel and look at her, untouched!"

Steven just stared at her, words lost.

"This is just more proof you're not Pink," Yellow said.

"Horrible proof," Blue murmured. "To put him through that. To get him to the point where we could barely stop it."

"So...it was a lie?" Steven managed to say. "Spinel wasn't in danger?"

"Of course not!" White said. "I would have missed her."

"It didn't seem that way," Spinel muttered. Steven wasn't sure she wanted him to hear that, so he resisted looking at her. "And you still attacked Steven," she pointed out, louder so the Diamonds could hear.

"It was necessary," White shrugged. "He couldn't control himself, so we needed to step in."

Steven slowly got to his feet and stumbled back a step before gaining his balance. "Thanks," he said bitterly, unable to look at the Diamonds. "I get it now."

"Steven, please," Yellow begged. "We had to! We did it to help you. A Diamond is powerful. You needed to see what you could do. Losing control here, to us, was the safest option."

Steven shook his head, his energy spent. "Yeah," he said. "Thanks for the lesson." He stood on the warp, arms shaking, but he was too empty to feel anything besides disbelief and a pang of betrayal. "I'll see you around."

He was home before the Diamonds or Spinel could say another word. He quickly stumbled over to the warp and disabled Homeworld's link for the next 24 hours.

He took a breath before heading outside and back to his bedroom. Everything was quiet and the sun was just about to breach the horizon. If he was lucky, he'd be able to get some sleep before his daily routine began.

He tossed his jacket aside and collapsed into bed. Too tired to think about what happened, he fell asleep within minutes.