Steven Universe Future: Isolation

Chapter Eight: Isolation

Everything around him was in turmoil. The shadows shifted and flashed with pink and blurry images of gems poofing, of a clawed hand crushing Garnet, of White Diamond begging him to stop as the song warped her sense of right and wrong, of a forgotten melody and the feeling of thorny vines wrapping around him.

He was trapped there. Unable to move. Unable to think. Only able to feel and even those feelings didn't feel like they were his. He was detached from himself. Removed. Isolated from the person he once was.

At the time, it felt like a reprieve. When the world was falling around him, he didn't have to feel the ground beneath his feet crumble. But now, it was suffocating. The screams of his friends. Barely being able to make out their terrified faces and hardly able to recognize that they were trying to hurt him.

But it wasn't to hurt him, right? They needed to help him and they didn't know how. He fought them. They just defended their home. His home.

After everything he's done, they would be right to leave him here in this darkness, Steven thought to himself. After everything he's done, all the pain and trouble he's caused, he wouldn't blame them if they wanted nothing to do with him. After all, he didn't want anything to do with them back then. Why should he expect them to still want to help? To still care?

Everyone has their limit. Was this theirs?

At least he would have Connie.

At her name, a small bubble of warmth grew in his chest. She hurt him, but it wasn't intentional. She was distant lately due to school, but she still came to his aid. She still believed in him enough to push through her own guilt and struggles. It was her touch that kept him from drowning. Her voice called him back from the void of the damned. Her love that brought him back to life.

He didn't deserve her. Yet, she stayed. The slight pressure he felt on his hand told him she was here now.

Steven took a deep breath as he willed the darkness around him to lessen.

"Steven?"

The voice was faint, but he recognized it. The worry and gentleness behind it were enough for him to force his eyes open and face the world again.

"You're awake!"

Before he could register his surroundings, Connie pulled him into a tight hug. Her shoulders shook and he felt wetness on his shirt. He held her close and ignored how his arms screamed in protest at the slight movement.

"Hi Jam Bud," he whispered, his voice hoarse.

She pulled away with a relieved laugh and wiped her eyes. "You remembered?"

Steven nodded before he dropped his eyes down to look at his hands. Connie's were resting in his, relaxed and at ease.

"How much do you remember?" she asked, her voice soft.

"Enough," he admitted as his thumb ran over one of the deep pink scars left on his hand. His eyes flicked to Connie's fingers and his entire body visibly relaxed when he noticed they weren't discolored.

"It went away when the Diamonds healed you," Connie said, her eyes also on her hands.

"I'm sorry," Steven responded. His voice broke and he did everything he could to not look at the girl in front of him. But Connie raised her right hand and cupped his chin. She gently lifted it for their eyes met: one pair watering and filled with shame, the other calm and caring.

"It's okay," Connie whispered as she wiped Steven's tears. "We're Jam Buds, right? Nothing can tear us apart."

Steven nodded and gave a water chuckle before he finally noticed his surroundings. It was a small room with wood walls and mismatched painted beams. He seemed to be laying on a pile of pillows instead of a bed.