Steven Universe Future: A Corrupted Identity

Chapter 13: Facing A Monster

Vague images and thoughts flashed in his mind, but none stayed long enough for him to focus on them. A black and white gemstone. A scared pearl. A crack in a sea of white. A pink figure with curly hair.

Nothing coherent. Nothing worth focusing on.

Everything was calm around him. He no longer felt bone-splitting pain. Come to think of it, he no longer felt much of anything. The yellow and white enemy were gone. It was easy to stop them. Their coldness left him the moment the white one vanished from view.

But he was still cold. Not just in his gem, but his chest. There was something out there causing it. His eyes scanned the cityscape around him, but nothing moved. If he could find the source of that coldness and stop it, he could finally be free.

But no one was here. They all left after he burst through the roof of that blue chamber. They scattered when they saw him. Screaming. A few flying red dots tried to fight him, but he knocked how out the air as easily as if he were swatting a fly.

He slowly moved along the city, not caring about the damage he caused along the way. His large pink talons dug into the ground, his horns scraped against the glass and metal, and his gigantic form barely fit through the narrow alleys. He hardly noticed any of it. His eyes turned to a tall gray tower on the skyline, then to a pink room with an open balcony and to a head-shaped white statue.

Feelings began to rise within him, especially as he stared at the tower. Loneliness. Desperation. Sorrow. Ones he couldn't tether to any memory, but they were there, creeping in and stalking their way into his conscious mind.

Then he realized why. It was because of her. The person who made him this way. But if he wiped every trace of her from the planet, the cold would go away. No one would think of her anymore. She would be lost to time; lost to him. And he would be able to leave the past behind.

He made his way over to the tower, his breath quickening with an almost sickly excitement. He wanted to see it on the ground. To see the bricks shattered into dust.

His speed picked up and clouds of debris rose behind him in his wake. He reached the tower and was about to crash into it before he turned last second, his tail swinging high. It bashed into the tower, logging itself into the base and leaving a significant dent.

More, he thought. He grabbed into the tower with his clawed fingers and tore into it. Pieces began to fall as cracks compromised the structure. One bounced off his head and shattered against his horn. Immense satisfaction grew within him, a warmth that spread into a smile on his spreading face.

More.

A small stinging pain in his side distracted him from his next assault. He whipped around and saw a small figure lashing a purple whip against him.

"HEY!" the figure called. "STEVEN!"

He lowered his head to look at the insignificant purple speck and huffed. His breath pushed the hair out of her face and she suddenly looked very sheepish.

"Uh...hey dude," she said, waving.

He raised his head and looked away. Her words meant nothing to him, just a garbled mess of sounds. But this feeling in his chest. The coldness. The feeling that he knew her and that she knew him. That she knew him. Or knew who he used to be. He had to squash it.

... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...  

The gems didn't have to look hard to find signs of Steven. The ground shook and the isolation tower where Pink was so commonly locked in began to crumble. At its base, the Crystal Gems saw a flash of pink.