Corruption

Starlight..

"Steven!" Connie screamed, rushing to Steven's unconscious body, as the white aura surrounding him faded into eventual nothingness. His face now back to normal, but extremely tired looking and exhausted, with dark circles under his closed eyes. His cheeks brandished a bright pink glow, similar to the colour of his gem half's skin.

The Gems all glared up at White Diamond, except for Pearl ; looking up at White in fear and guilt, clearly hurt by her allegations of ruining Pink's  mind. Her hands where gripped tightly around her spear, shaking vigorously, and her breathing shallow.

Garnet noticed and silently stepped in front of her panicked friend, gauntlets at the ready. As White looked down upon them, clearly pleased with herself.

"Soon! Very soon, Pink will be back! My Starlight will have come home!" Celebrated White, raising her arms in triumph.

"This won't work!" Called out Garnet, with intense burning hatred.

White chuckled at the fusion's remark, "I think it already has"

Steven groaned quietly, holding his head and lifting his body with one hand. He muttered under his breath, "Ugh...what happened?...Where's White?..."

Connie, who didn't hear Steven's muttering, instantly pulled him face to face with her, "Steven?..."

Her heart dropped seeing Steven's eyes. His iris was a bright pink and his pupils where diamond shape, he brandished a scared expression upon the sight of Connie.

"W-What's a Steven? Who are you?" He responded in a confused, threatened tone.

The Gems and Connie looked at him in despair, he had Pink's memories but lost his own, and to make things worse, he's scared of the four of them again.

"Why are you acting like this again?! YOU'RE Steven!" Amethyst desperately shouted, making Steven back away in fear. Amethyst's face immediately brandished a guilt expression, ashamed of her out burst.

Garnet's fists clenched as she came to a sudden, infuriating realisation; "White! You did this to him! You made him terrified of us! You pitiful excuse for a ruler!"

Garnet's yell shook everyone to the core, even Pearl snapped out of her daze. The group's rising hatred burned brighter by the second, as everyone's head switching between Steven's terrified face and White's triumphant smile.

"Starlight!" White discarded the angry group below her, and turned her attention to Steven on the ground, "How are you feeling, Starlight?"

Steven's face suddenly lit up at the sight of the glowing gem in front of him, the pink glow across his face seemed to grow slightly, "White! What happened? The last thing I remember was Blue refusing me a colony and then..." Steven's face dropped, a wave of guilt hit him like a truck, "Where's My Pearl?! D-Did I break her?!"

The Crystal Gems watched their interaction, heart-broken, defeated, enraged. A whirlwind of emotions looked above the groups head, as they watch their beloved Steven vanish into Pink.

"Starlight, I had to take her away, you damaged her, don't you remember?" White explained with a sinister, motherly tone. Steven's face dropped, as the false realisation that he broke Pink's Pearl was dropped into his brain.

"White! You have to stop this! You can't get Pink back, Steven ISN'T Pink Diamond! No matter what you do, Steven is Steven, Pink's gone" Pearl suddenly snapped, making Steven flinch and shuffle towards White's blinding shoe.

"What on Homeworld are you talking about? Can you see? She's right here!" White laughed, before adding with a sinister tone, "And you're scaring her."

The Crystal Gems all turned their heads to Steven, almost in unison. He was petrified of them, more than before. Amethyst walked slowly towards him, her purple whip vanishing. She extended her arms as Steven moved further up the stairs White was standing on.

"Steven?...Come on, Bro...Can you remember me?" Amethyst softly spoke, coming face to face with Steven.

For a moment, Steven's expression and deminor loosened, before White's eyes glowed, causing Steven's eyes to become encased in White's aura. He quickly covered his eyes and the pink on his face expanded to his cheeks.

"Keep away from me!" He yelled, and a bright pink flash threw Amethyst across the ship.

"Amethyst!" Yelled Pearl, as a chorus of shocked gasps greeted Steven's outburst, it seemed Steven didn't know what was happening either. He was looking at his hands; his skin was bright pink for a few moments before slowly retreating back to his normal skin tone.

Pearl slid gracefully over to Amethyst, who was face down in the ground. She help the purple gem up, she was clearly and very angry.

"Gah!" She angrily expressed, "White! Change him back!" She tapped her gem expecting a purple whip to reappear, but instead, nothing happened.

"Oh...Oh no..." Pearl worriedly gasped, as she knew what happened, having seen it once before, "Amethyst, your weapon...you won't be able to summon it for a while...that's Pinks ability...She used to be able to effect a gems mental state, making them unable to attack..." Pearl looked worriedly at Steven.

"Well, I believe that your time here is up! It wasn't even welcomed in the first place..." White concluded. "Good bye." She waved her hand and a large white pod encased the rest of the Crystal Gems, before quickly floating outside, leaving Steven and White Diamond alone.

The white orb opened quickly, revealing where the Gems and Connie now where; The landed just by a large Warp Pad, in the ball room.

"Oh stars...What are we gonna go?!" Amethyst cried out, worrying insanely  about Steven.

Her worry wasn't solitary, the entire ball room was over ran with the unbearable sense of dread and doom. They couldn't just leave Steven alone, but what could they do? He lost his memories again and White's keeping a close eye on his every move.

"We need a plan." Garnet spoke up, after some brief moments of quiet sorrow, "First, we need to assess what we know..."

Connie was the first to start listing, "Well, we can assume White used Steven's first memory loss as a test run, to see how much control she could have from afar..."

"And now she knows, she won't let Steven wander too far away" Pearl continued.

"We know that Steven's corruption is gone...but that...that doesn't seem right..." Amethyst practically muttered.

"What do you mean?" Garnet inquired, everyone's eyes focused on the theorising gem in front of them.

Amethyst, keeping her head down, continued "Well, all the corrupted gems before could only be healed if all four diamonds where present, right? So how did white heal him by herself? She couldn't have that much power...right?"