Steven sat in front of his T.V. with a big grin on his face. He had an awesome day. He got to go on a mission with the gems and walk around Beach City with Connie. He was pretty tired after his excursion with Connie so he changed into his pajamas and laid in his bed but he couldn't go to sleep. He was too excited, if today was so awesome I can't imagine how great tomorrow will be. He couldn't have been more wrong. As Steven's excitement began to wear off he slowly drifted into sleep.

In his dream he was on top of a hill sitting on Lion, his shield in his left hand and his mom's sword in the other. As his eyes adjusted to his new surrounding he found himself surrounded by complete chaos. Gems yelling, fighting, and, much to Steven's horror, dying. He tried desperately to move. He had to tell them to stop fighting but his body wouldn't respond, it's like it had a mind of its own. His body was turning his head back and forth, but he didn't want to look around he wanted to stop the fighting! His head turned to the right and he saw a ten foot tall gem leap toward him with a battle ax. Her gem was placed a little higher than Amethyst's and was circular in shape with a diamond cut. He couldn't think and he didn't know what to do, but his body did. He raised his shield and the gem rammed into it falling to the ground. When the gem hit the ground it shattered. What did I just do? No, what did my body just do?

Steven's body looked down at the gem that he just shattered and crouched next to it was pearl, but she looked different. She looked younger.

"Nice one." Pearl said with a smile.

Nice one? Nice one! How could she saw that? I just killed a gem! Steven tried to talk to her and explain that he didn't kill that gem and that his body was moving on its own, but as he spoke his mouth didn't move. His body only nodded and Pearl disappeared into the fight.

"No! Don't leave!" Steven shouted. "Help me!" But again his mouth didn't even twitch. He was a prisoner in his own body and his body was killing gems.

Steven shot up in his bed and screamed. No one was there to hear him. What was that? Steven thought to himself. I've never had a dream like that. Steven shivered as he remembered the dream. That was awful. He attempted to fall back to sleep but was afraid he'd have another bad dream so he sat in his bed and tried to forget the awful things he'd just seen.

^^^Next Morning^^^

Pearl was the first to come out of her room. When she walked past the couch she saw Steven sitting on his bed staring at a wall, his eyes wide and almost glazed over. His blank stare unnerved her. Why wasn't he asleep? He was usually asleep this early in the morning.

"Hello Steven," Pearl said as she walked towards the door.

Steven was so startled he yelped and fell backwards off of his bed.

"I'm sorry I didn't mean to frighten you. Are you alright?" Pearl said as she leapt up into Steven's room to help him.

"N-nothing. I'm alright. I'm perfectly fine. Nothing's wrong here," Steven scrunched his face. She's never going to believe that I'm okay after that performance.

"Okay... Why were you up so early?" Pearl wanted to find out why Steven was so jumpy.

"I...Uh..." Why am I hiding that nightmare from her? It was a pretty weird nightmare. I guess I'll try to find out what it means but if I have another one then I'll tell her. "I just wanted to wake up to get an early start on the day." Nice one Steven. She's gotta buy that.

I don't buy it. I guess he'll tell me what's wrong when he's ready. "If you say so." Pearl said as she stood up and headed to the screen door.

Whew, that was close one. Steven crawled back up onto his bed and glanced at the digital clock he had on his nightstand. 4:30 a.m. Okay that gives me some time to find out what that dream was. Steven got dressed and tidied up his room. He laid down on his newly made bed and stared at the ceiling. That dream didn't feel like a dream at all it felt like I was there, but Pearl was so young. So more like a memory, I guess. It couldn't be a memory though I've never seen a gem war, much less fought in one. Steven lifted his shirt and stared at his gem. The longer he stared at it the more it began to look like the gem he'd cracked. Steven pushed his shirt down quickly and shut his eyes tight. I didn't kill that gem. It was just a dream. But it was so real. Steven laid there on his bed for almost an hour and a half thinking about his dream. He came to the conclusion that it was just another one of those realistic dreams and that he wouldn't tell the gems about it unless he had another.

The rest of Steven's day didn't go well at all. He couldn't get that dream out of his head and anytime he thought about it he became jumpy and distant. It was about noon now and Steven sat on the couch next to the other Crystal Gems. Steven was on the far left of the couch while Garnet, Amethyst, and Pearl were on the right. Maybe I should tell them about the dream, he thought. No, I can't. If they think I can't even take care of a little nightmare then what makes them think I can take care of a gem monster. The other gems started to notice that their usually exuberant Steven was very distressed.

"What's up with the little man over there?" Amethyst whispered to Pearl, who was sitting next to her.

"I don't know but he's been acting weird ever since this morning." Pearl replied quietly.

"If I didn't know any better, I'd say that he looks a little bit guilty."

"Guilty?!" Pearl said a bit shocked. "Of what?"

"I'd say he's guilty of…" Amethyst paused for effect. "Something I don't know about." Amethyst smirked.

Pearl pushed her lightly and playfully. "I thought you actually knew something. But I'm not surprised you didn't."

"Hey! What's that supposed to mean?" Amethyst spoke a little too loud and Steven gasped as he snapped out of his thoughts. He rubbed his eyes and yawned. He was extremely tired and it was showing.

"Okay seriously dude what's going on with you?" Amethyst asked.

"Noth-"

"And don't say nothing. You've been distant, stressed and, from the looks of things, extremely tired." Pearl said interrupting Steven.

Steven sighed. There was no getting out of this one. He was almost glad he could tell them. He thought that telling them would make him feel better, but it did just the opposite.

"I had a really bad nightmare last night. It was super realistic and scary." Steven went on to tell the gems the dream in detail.

"That doesn't sound like a dream it..." Pearl drifted off into her thoughts.

Amethyst was as confused as Steven was. Why was Pearl so stunned, it was just a bad dream.

Garnet, who had been sitting nearby quietly, had a look of concentration on her face which slowly turned to a look of trepidation.

"Can you guys help me? I can't stop thinking about this nightmare." Steven said.

There was a long pause. No one knew what to say. Amethyst and Steven thought it was just a nightmare but Pearl thought it was something more. They all looked to Garnet for an answer and, much to their surprise, Garnet raised her arm and smashed the table in front of them in half. She stood up, looked at Steven, and walked out of the house.

"Woah, what was that about?" Amethyst said.

"That was a little bit scary." Steven replied.

"Her being angry isn't what I'm afraid of." Pearl said staring at the ground.

"What? All I want is to know what that was about." Amethyst looked at Pearl in confusion.

"That is what I'm afraid of." Pearl said still staring at the ground.

"Why?" Steven asked.

Pearl wanted Garnet to tell them this since Garnet probably knew what it meant. "Because what you had wasn't a dream…It was a memory."

Author's Note: Thanks for reading chapter one of Unintentional Return hope you enjoyed. Before I sign out a huge thanks to Lady Shadow92 for all of the help. Stay fabulous. Until the next chapter, bye!