Steven Universe: Something Dark
Chapter 1: Welcome
The clouds hung low on Beach city. The forecast today called for a heavy overcast and umbrellas. Though it was raining, Steven still found ways to have fun with his pink Lion even with the size of his room at the Temple."hey guys are you back yet?... No?... Oww! Lion!" Steven asked before he panicked due to Lion picking him off the warp pad. Just as he did it began to glow blue and his care takers appeared in winter clothing and each carrying bags of magical containment bubbles. "Guys you're back! Lion was getting lonely!" Lion threw him right in front of the three.
"STEVEN! What have I told you about him being in the house. And look he tracked mud in here!" Pearl scolded while teleporting some of the bubbles away.
"Heh heh yeah...Lion brought the mud..." Steven nervously replied kicking a pair of muddy galoshes behind the couch. "Wowwwww! Where did you guys get all these from?" He instantaneously began to dig through Amethyst 'a bag.
"The Himalayas." Garnet simply answered back as she let her outfit switch back to her casual wear.
"Hey Steven! Check this out." She pulled out a certain bubble that contained a bag of chips in it.
"You brought barbecue flavored chips?" Steven asked questionably examining the bubble.
"Here look carefully." She removed the bubbles and held it closer to his face. " now here, hold it and look."
Steven took the bag and gave it a look without opening it. "What?" He asked again getting even more confused.
"It's finally a bag that isn't just a bag of air!" Amethyst happily exclaimed.
"Uhh... So we can eat it then? He tore a little tear in the bag allowing a little black smoke to disperse out of it and into his clothes but, Pearl quickly swooped in and yanked it away. "Amethyst! Are you crazy?! You know how dangerous this thing is!" She hollered in a panicky yet angry tone. She put the demon bag into a bubble and threw it into the other bags.
"I forgot to mention that instead of air it's actually an Eighteenth century Frost demon we caught." Amethyst cooly explained just dropping her bag and proofing her winter gear away. She then jumped onto the couch and laid back to relax. "We still need to burn it."
Pearl sighed in annoyance and picked up the rest of the bags to warp them away. "I'll be right back Steven. I have to make sure everything is alright and today's gathering go to where they need to. " she explained before going off to look for Garnet in the Temple. leaving Steven, Lion, and Amethyst in the warp area.
"Aww... But, I waited all day for you guys..." Steven sadly exclaimed. But thinking quickly he hopped on Lion and made it through the temple door. As the door closed Steven couldn't help but marvel at the room they were in. The walls were covered with various works of art that contained images of other gems and what looked like other temples. "Whoa!... Who are all of these guys?" He exclaimed in wonder.
"Steven?" Came Pearl's voice from another room. She shortly walked out of a door and locked it. "Steven what have I told you about entering the Temple without us? And you brought Lion." Directly after mentioning his name, Lion quickly gave her a lick on the face. "Aaarghh... Cute..." She sighed annoyed and slightly grossed out.
"Hey Pearl what is this place supposed to be and are these other gems?" Steven asked still looking at a few including one that appeared to hold his mother.
"Well it is part of your heritage and you ought to know a bit of our people." Replied Pearl. She walked them over to the beginning of the line of art. She pointed to a picture of a planet very similar to Earth. "We arrived on Earth ages ago while the humans were still getting into the shape it is now. We managed to co-exist along side humans as they grew and changed with the years but..." She paused.
"But what?" Steven asked wanting to hear the rest of the story.
"Things changed when monsters came into the equation. The humans were unable to protect themselves until we stepped in and fought them. The humans then became aware that we had powers... And well humans did not have the kind of appreciation we did for our magic and chased us around for a bit. That's when we began developing Temples where no mere mortals were ever supposed to enter. Temples gave us a safe haven that we could use to monitor the monsters and the humans. That's an easy way to sum up how it was until now."
"But what happened to the rest of the gems?" Asked steven.
The scene changed from Steven, Lion and Pearl in the gallery to the Beach city harbor.
Pearl: I don't think you're ready to know yet.
Steven: Aww but c'mon you said it yourself it's part of my heritage I need to know.
A single fishing boat carrying two figures pulled into port. One of them being a tall cloaked figure in a black tarp and the other in a yellow fisherman's trench coat and hat. They both spoke in a gibberish until a little boy had walked up to the boat. It was Onion come to embrace his father.
Pearl: How can I put this in a way you would understand?... A lot of them went home and some others stayed and fought against the monsters. Some just... *she gasped trying to avoid a risky topic* They... Just vanished without a trace.
Steven: But that's not what Garnet and Amethyst told me when we went to the strawberry field triangle temple thing.
Pearl: They what?!
The strange cloaked figure flipped a gold coin from his hand into the hand of Onion's father who then gave it to Onion to hold. The cloaked figure bid them farewell and walked into the foggy wet streets of Beach city.
Back in Steven's room of the Temple.
Amethyst lay snoring on the coach in a very awkward upside down fashion.
"What did you tell Steven about the battlefield?!" Pearl quickly asked picking up Amethyst by the leg and shaking her. Steven and Lion stood there watching the little quarrel.
"I told them they just made bets and that the losers had to leave!" Amethyst replied with a shaky voice. "Put me down!"
"That's it? I thought that you told them something else." Pearl sighed in relief as she placed Amethyst back on the couch sitting her down in a proper fashion. "What did Garnet tell him?"
"I don't know why don't you ask her?" Amethyst added to the already confusing situation.
"You know how hard it is to get stories out of her especially when that happened a whole month ago. So no I'm not going to ask her" Pearl explained.
"Ask me what?" Garnet's voice suddenly came from the kitchen causing both Amethyst and Pearl to gasp.
"They just wanted to know what you told me about the battlefield." Steven answered.
"I just told him they died." She cooly replied.
Pearl sighed once again but in disappointment then walked into the temple. "I wanted him to learn that later." she calmly yelled back into the living room.
"Okay... Wanna go check out what Dad is up to Lion?" Steven asked looking straight at Lion's blank expression. He put his hands onto his face making him look like he was talking. "Yes Steven. That'll be very cool." Steven said in a silly voice. Lion brushed Steven's hand away and returned to just sitting there with his blank expressions. Steven pulled his rain coat and boots from the rack and got ready to go. "Hey Garnet me and Lion are heading into town wanna go?"
"Not right now Steven I'm going to be busy." Garnet replied carrying a stack of flour into the temple door.
"Okay... How about you Amethyst?" Steven quickly noticed that she had returned to her upside down position and had fallen asleep again. "Never mind looks like it's just you and me today after all." He opened the door leading outside letting Lion out and then himself. Lion threw his owner on his back and away they went walking along the beach into town.
Within the Temple.
Pearl walked into a large room that had several magical containment bubbles floating above her. She pointed her finger downwards and a mass off them came down to her. She began to quickly divide them into three groups talking to herself. "Treasure room... Crystal heart, to be burned..." But then she sighed again turning towards the exit with the three groups of bubeles she noticed something odd about one of the ones that needed to be burned. The bag of chips had spilled out signifying that the frost demon had escaped and probably attached itself to Steven. "STEVEN!"
Back with Steven and Lion.
The light rain and fog gave the streets an empty yet dark feel. The store and street lights were on showing activity going on inside but it still was weird not seeing anybody outside. Usually the town would be alive on this side but today it was dead. Luckily he noticed one of his favorite shops in the distance notably because of its big donut.
Inside the shop, Sadie and Lars sat around the shop with both eyes fixed onto the Tv which was airing a Spanish toned dramatic soap opera where a male actor was romancing a woman in one of the most cliche ways.
Feeling peckish Steven Jumped off Lion's back but into a small puddle. "I'll be right back." He patted the pink cat and headed in. The sound of the door's bell and a sudden chill snapped Sadie out of the Tv's ever entrancing programing.
"Oh uh welcome to The Big Donut may I take you-" Sadie paused when she noticed who it was. "What's up Steven?"
"I'm gonna have a couple of the usual and a few hot dogs just without the buns." Steven replied holding up the cash and three fingers.
"That's a weird combination Steven but alright." Sadie grabbed the hotdogs and put them into a plastic bag then grabbed two donuts and placed them into a paper bag as to not mix them together.
"The hotdogs are for Lion he's sitting outside." Steven added pointing at the big looming figure with the glowing white eyes.
Sadie nearly freaked at the sight and hid behind Lars who was still hypnotized by the Tv. "Okay Steven... Have a nice day..." She shook until the figure departed with Steven.
Suddenly, a gunshot rang out in the room and Lars jumped to the Tv. The man who was with the lady earlier laid on a street on the screen with blood at his side showing that he had been shot. "No! No! No! Carlos no!" Then suddenly the credits began to roll and the infamous TO BE CONTINUED popped up. "No! Who shot Carlos?!" Lars began to rock the Tv back and forth with Sadie trying to stop him.
"It's just a Tv show LET IT GO!" Sadie yelled trying to stop him.
Outside Steven ate one of his donuts and fed Lion his hot dogs. He tucked the bag containing the other donut away and continued to the It's A Wash car wash.
On another side of town
The same cloaked figure from earlier made his way to a certain row of small businesses and entered one Beach city realtors where a listing of apartments was visible on the window. After a few seconds a short pudgy man came out with a red marker and marked off one of the locations as sold. As the cloaked figure left through the door, the short pudgy man had a crazy look in his eyes with the amount of gold coins that the cloaked figure had left. The cloaked figure then continued down the road holding what seemed to be a map in his hand. Seeing that nobody was around he suddenly zipped through the streets rather quickly.
Back at the Temple
Garnet and the rest of the gems surrounded the bag of chips in the Burning room while Pearl provided a hologram map of where it could have gone along with where Steven could have gone. "Steven could've gone anywhere and if the demon attached itself to Steven he could be in real trouble." Pearl worriedly exclaimed.
"Well we could try to catch it again. I mean it wasn't that hard the first time." Added Amethyst trying to make the situation sound better.
"This is your fault." Garnet abruptly pointed out.
"How was I supposed to know he was going to open it?" Amethyst shot back.
"It doesn't matter. What matters is we find Steven and that demon." Pearl continued to search through her hologram version of Beach city planning a route to search.
"He's going to Greg." Garnet quickly announced throwing the bag towards Amethyst who actually took a chip out and ate it.
"Why didn't you mention it earlier?"Pearls asked breaking her concentration making the hologram collapse.
"I just remembered." Garnet quickly replied.
Let's go before it's too late!" Pearl said as they all bolted out the door. After a few seconds Pearl returned with the bag of chips and threw it into the lava hole then she bolted out again.
In town
The cloaked figure tried to approach but was turned away due to his ghastly appearance all except one sunburned car wash operator who was sitting in the shop portion of the car wash. He sat behind a cash register with a magazine covering his face. On the wall was a picture of him with the name Greg at the bottom of it. Noticing a little desk bell the cloaked figure stuck out a rather deathly pale grey hand with a large black streak ending at the very center of his hand in a triangle and pressed the little button at the top once causing it to sound a small ding. The man behind the register did not budge. So the cloaked figure pressed the bell once again but harder making an even louder ding but, Greg still did not budge. The cloaked figure once again brought his finger over the poor little desk bell to press it. Impressively his hand moved rather quickly as he rapidly pressed the bell at an intense speed causing it to ring as if it were an alarm clock bell.
Greg quickly shot up from his seat launching the magazine at the cloaked figures face. "Who? What the?" He panicked but quickly yawned. His eyes focused and noticed the hooded figure with the magazine clinging to his face. "Oh uh let me get that Mr...-" he suddenly paused as if he had seen something shocking. He quickly ran from behind the register counter and towards the door. "Nooooo!... I'm not ready to go yet! It's not my time!" Yelled Greg as he gripped the handle of the door and proceeded to pull as hard as he can in vain. "Oh please open up! Oh please! Oh please! WHY WON'T YOU OPEN!"with the tears flowing in his eyes he dropped to his knees in prayer and whimpered.
The cloaked figure walked his way towards Greg and pulled out his map. He quickly unfolded it and tapped on his shoulder trying to get the frightened man's attention. Finally Greg did open one of his eyes and looked at what was in front of him.
"You're... So you aren't here to take my soul to the afterlife?..." Greg asked in fear and wonder. The figure did not respond to that question instead he took his other hand which bore the exact same detail as the other and pointed at the red building on the map. "Oh directions you just wanted directions... That was sure embarrassing..." Greg got up on both of his legs and recollected himself. "For a second there, I thought that I was going to die..." The cloaked figure did not respond to anything he had said. He just continued to point towards the same spot in the map. "I take it you're new in town and you don't talk much... What your looking for is the Ocean View Apartments complex." Greg pointed his finger through the glass towards a big building across the street. "Interested in a car wash? No? Okay..." The figure put the map away and walked right past Greg flipping a gold coin onto the register counter. Greg picked it up and marveled at it. Instead of pulling on the door he simply pushed the door opening it just for himself. As he walked out a very loud and chilly gust of wind blew keeping him in place for just a second. He shrugged it off and walked across the street. Greg watched as the figure disappeared in the fog. "Hmm... Tourist get weirder every year... But look at this!" He held the big coin up to his eye. Just as he was about to head in he noticed another figure approaching from his side. This time way larger than the one before.
"Hey Dad!" Came the familiar voice of Steven. As he approached Greg shivered from the gusts of wind that seemed to follow Steven wherever he goes.
"Oh hey there Steven. Brrrrr... It sure is chilly out here today. And you brought your... Lion... The magic one... He won't try to eat me or anything will he?" Greg quickly asked as Steven threw him a little paper bag.
"I got you a donut. Oh and don't worry I just fed him." Steven scratched the back of Lion's ears prompting him to sit so that Steven could slide down from his back and go and hug his own father.
The moment they touched Greg felt the coldness in Steven's raincoat. "Hey buddy you feeling alright?... You feel pretty cold there yourself." Greg asked feeling Steven's forehead. Just then Lion roared towards Steven with enough force the raincoat had flown off revealing his trademark star shirt. Steven panicked when he had noticed it had changed into a snow white color and had frost starting to form on his shoulder. Steven quickly ripped his shirt off in fear and threw it into the street. For some odd reason it stayed floating in position until it started spinning and morphing into a hideous looking creature with six eyes, large thin arms with overly sized claws and had the appearance of a specter with a tail of visible frosting air. It gave a sickening shriek as it rushed its way toward Steven and Greg but they got out of the way in time.
"It's the Frost Demon that Pearl was talking about!" Steven yelled horrified. The demon phased into the shop leaving a frosty mark on the shop window as well as the inside. The demon re-appeared on the roof. Lion quickly roared at it with a sonic roar in an attempt to drive it away. It failed heavily as the demon remained in place. It quickly made its way to Lion and shrieked at him blowing a large gust of freezing air and freezing the poor cat. "Lion!" Steven yelled worried about his pet. He grabbed a big scrubbing brush of the wall and proceeded to try to hit the demon with it. The demon just knocked him away with ease towards his father.
"Are you okay son?" Greg asked as he held him up. Steven just brushed him out of the way and tried the exact same thing again but only to get the same result. "Steven this isn't going to work we need the other Crystal Gems I don't think we can beat this thing on our own."
"I know..." Steven sadly replied until he noticed the two line of hoses on the wall. "Wait dad I have an idea. Grab one of the hoses and set it to hot." Greg immediately understood what he meant and did just as he was told. "Fire!" The hot water hit the demon causing it to shriek in pain.
"It's working Steven!" Greg shouted in victory. The hot water removed the specter like appearance and gave it more of a solid look. The demon shrieked one more time before it froze the water hitting it. The ice spiked out as it traveled through the hose and towards the faucet. "It's not working Steven!" Greg dropped the hose as the ice ripped it apart.
Steven ran towards Greg and watched as the Demon made its way towards them. But then the Demon suddenly stopped and turned towards the other side of the street. On top of the apartment complex was the same cloaked figure Greg had given directions to. The Demon turned its attention towards it and watched as the figure held his arm out. A small glow emanated from the black triangle on his hand and a Black Katana materialized out of it. He suddenly leaped from his place and down in front of the demon which quickly swiped at him. The figure managed to dodge the attack and swing his sword at the demon. In return the demon using its massive claws blocked at each of the swipes the figure made. It shrieked at the figure sending gusts of freezing air at him almost freezing him in place. Feeling a sense of victory the Demon seized this chance to return its attention to Steven and his father. This proved fatal as the cloaked figure shook until he broke the frozen tarp that he wore revealing a man in a short sleeveless dark grey shirt and what looked like black jeans. He had deathly pale gray skin, pitch black medium length hair, and surprisingly two black triangular cut gemstones embedded into the sides of both of his shoulders both with the same black streak leading into black triangles on both of the center of his hands. He took this opening to slice the demon clean through the middle. The demon shrieked as it disappeared in a puff of frosty air leaving a pointy crystal on the ground. The man with the Gemstone in his shoulders turned towards Steven and Greg giving them an Eagle like stare before he turned around and walked back towards the direction of the apartment.
"Steven!" shouted three voices emerging from the fog and into view. As they approached with their weapons drawn, they froze at the sight of a topless Steven, Greg, the crystal and the mysterious man walking away. The man noticed the three, he stopped and turned his head in their direction giving the same stare but instead of walking in their direction he quickly turned his head away and returned to walking towards the apartment complex allowing them to see his weapon vanish.
Though the three were confused it didn't stop Garnet from approaching the crystal and sending it to the temple then focusing her work on freeing Lion. "Steven who was that?! And where is your shirt? You might catch a cold if you stay out here like this." Quickly scolded Pearl ignoring Greg.
"It turned into some sort of ghost thing." Greg still shaken up said aloud.
"Oh hey Greg... What do you mean turned into a ghost thing?" Amethyst asked in reply.
"That thing that attacked us. The freezer demon." Greg answered when he noticed the gold coin he received from the mysterious man was on the ground. He reached for it but Garnets foot reached it first. She picked it up and examined it.
"Where did you get this? This is gemstone currency." Garnet held it up for everyone to see.
"That guy with the sword came in asking for directions. He left it." Greg admitted. "He came here looking for those apartments across the street.
"This is bad..." Garnet concluded as the five of them watch the figure pull out a key and enter one of the units.
Author's note.
This story is just a thought I had when I first laid my eyes on this series. The mystery of what exactly the Crystal Gems are, where did they go, and the rest of the lore intrigued me. Also the fact that Rebecca Sugar made it.
I like her.