Cover by MJStudioArts
Disclaimer
Steven Universe is created by Rebecca Sugar and is a registered trademark of Cartoon Network. The following story is a work of fanfiction created for entertainment purposes only without any knowledge by or permission from the creators or copyright holders. No copyright infringement is intended. If someone asks you to pay for this story, just say no.
Chronological Note
The events of this story begin between the episodes "Three Gems and a Baby" (4x10) and "Steven's Dream" (4x11). The narrative to follow will diverge from main canon. I can't hope to outguess the Crewniverse, and I wouldn't dare try.
The Stranger in Me
Connie gritted her teeth as she clutched her sword and found her balance. Balance is the key, she chanted silently. As her heart pounded and her senses flared, she became acutely aware of the sweat dribbling down the small of her back, and the loose hairs from her braid drifting against the bare skin of her shoulders. The pink blade in her hands felt heavier than it ever had before, trembling slightly, so she gripped it even tighter.
The high tide rolled into the shore, scattering foam over dark sand as it crashed over the creature's back. The creature rose out of the surf on long, segmented, serrated legs, green and glistening in the afternoon sun. Razor mandibles split open and filled the beach with a shrill, rattling hiss that shook Connie to her core. The sound was alien, and rage, and pain, and it screamed at every instinct Connie had to run away.
Next to her, Steven raised his arm. The air before him shimmered and flashed pink as his shield blossomed into existence. "Um, do you think she wants to play too? We can take turns," he said.
His voice drew the eyeless creature's focus instantly. Mandibles clacking, it skittered forward at impossible speed. Connie dove to one side, rolling and back on her feet in one smooth motion, her tank top wet and gritty with sand. Steven caught one of the creature's legs on his shield and tumbled back in the opposite direction.
The creature's charge carried it through the net set up from their impromptu game of badminton. Its fluttering, waving-layered body shredded the net to pieces as it knocked the poles aside. Made of dozens upon dozens of chitinous sheets that fluttered around a central core, the creature looked to Connie like a sheaf of green papers, like a book spread so wide that the faces of its covers met. Its spidery legs were just more pages folded into shape.
As she watched, more pages on its back folded together, the motions too fast to follow, and suddenly the creature had a pair of spindly claws to match its legs. "It's like origami," Connie marveled.
The creature hissed in rage, and its claws snipped the closest metal pole clean in half. Steven blanched at the sight of the thick metal tumbling to the sand. "Deadly origami," he agreed. Then he started toward the creature slowly, lowering his shield.
Connie's frantic heart-rate doubled. "Steven!" she hissed, hesitating after him. They were supposed to talk to each other, to let the other know what they were doing so they could work together. And they were supposed to stay close to each other in case they needed to fuse.
"It's okay," he said, his voice softening. The shield vanished from his arm as he spread his open hands toward the creature. Connie couldn't tell if he was speaking to her or to the monster. "Nobody has to hurt anybody here. Right? If you don't like badminton, maybe we can try something else?"
The monster hissed again, but less sharply than before. It worried from side to side, the tips of its legs sinking deep into the sand. Its sheaves rustled uncertainly.
Connie bit her lip. What had started as a leisurely Saturday waiting for the Gems to return had quickly spiraled into chaos. She had been looking forward to lessons with Pearl. Now her teacher was nowhere in sight and the lesson had turned dangerously practical. She felt like a bundle of nerves.
Steven looked as impossibly calm as ever. His round face was spread into a smile as he gazed up at the eyeless, chittering beast, not seeming to care that it could snip him in half as easily as it had the badminton post. His dark, messy hair glittered with sea spray, and his eyes glistened with sincerity.
She wanted to run, either to flee or to rush into the fray. It took all of her control to fight her adrenaline jitters as she watched Steven approach the monster. If the Gems had been present, Connie thought they wouldn't have hesitated to leap to his rescue. But Connie was not an invulnerable, ancient warrior from another planet. And Steven had far more experience with situations like these.
She wanted to trust him. She did trust him. The monster, however, did not inspire the same level of trust. "Steven," she pleaded.
"We're okay," Steven said, never taking his eyes off the monster as he edged closer. "We're okay, right? You just came here because you're lost. You're scared and hurt. But it's going to be alright."
The monster's hiss softened. It warbled, and its legs and folds stilled. Slowly, it lowered its mandibles, making noises that seemed somehow curious as it responded to Steven's voice.
Steven grinned. "There, see? We're not so bad." He lifted his arms. As his shirt rose up on his stomach, the sunshine caught his gemstone, making it sparkle pink and bright.
The monster reared back, shrieking like a foghorn. Its sheer volume forced Connie back, wincing in pain. By the time she steadied herself, she saw two sharp claws descending to split Steven in half. "No!" she cried.
Even as she ran forward, too late to save him, a bubble of translucent pink light blossomed around Steven. The monster's claws slammed into the top of the bubble hard enough to drive the bottom of it into the beach, leaving Steven sitting several inches below the sand in his protective shelter. He flinched as the creature hammered his bubble, the edges of which bowed with each hit before bouncing back into shape.
"There's a breakdown in negotiations!" Steven cried, wrapping his arms over his head.
Howling, the creature reared back again. Its folded claws unfurled back into sheets, rejoining the sheaf of green that made up its body. In one fluid motion, the creature coiled its sheets into a conical shape and reticulated its whole body. A hurricane gale exploded from the mouth of the cone and kicked a wave of sand into the ocean. Steven's bubble, caught in the gust, shot out of the sand and went sailing over the water.
Gritting her eyes into the sudden sandstorm, Connie heard Steven's bubble-muffled cry and saw a wall of pink hurtling at her. She dropped to her knees and threw her body backwards, flattening her arms against the ground. A fleeting glimpse of Steven flashed above her before the sandstorm carried him high and far over the ocean, where he disappeared into the surf.
The wind died down an instant later. Connie ignored the pain of the blasting sand and rolled back onto her feet. Her blade rose right in time to block a needle-sharp tendril folded and flailing from one of the sheets on the monster's back. The tendril lashed back and forth, forcing Connie backwards toward the ocean. The tide began pulling at her sandals as she lost ground. Her sword flashed, catching the tendril at every turn, but she could feel her arms starting to burn with the effort.
As Connie parried and ducked, she heard Pearl's words echo back to her. No warrior ever won a fight with defense alone. Choose the right moment, make your opening, and take your victory.
The monster's attacks were fast, but sloppy. It lashed out at her without any discernable plan. It only wanted to hurt her, and it didn't care how. Connie planted her feet and muscled the flashing tendril back, flinching as sparks kicked off her blade where the origami claw skidded too close for comfort. She tried to tease the creature into swinging high, pretending to leave her head open. Then, as it struck from overhead, Connie dove on her knees again, sliding across wet sand as her sword's edge cut across the creature's bottom folds, showering her in more sparks as the blade kicked against chitinous skin.
Its scream filled the beach as Connie rolled onto her feet and spun to face the monster. "That's right!" she bellowed over the sound of her own heartbeat thundering in her ears. "Don't start what you can't finish, Flappy!"
Legs skittering, the creature pivoted. The sheets between its legs hung limp, bisected by the sword. But the sheaf at its back stood straight up, quivering. Each sheet in the sheaf folded itself into a new tendril with its own needle-fine point, so that the creature resembled nothing so much as a furious, green porcupine with long spears for quills.
"Oh," Connie said, feeling her stomach drop. "Instantly regretting that thing I said now…"
The monster charged her with tendrils flared and mandibles wide and screaming. Connie lifted her sword to defend, but it was over faster than she could see it coming. Three tendrils slapped the blade out of her hand and the rest lashed out at her from every direction. She twisted and jumped, spinning herself between deadly strikes, and for half a second thought she might make it through unscathed. But the green blur of living blades caught her against the hip, spiraling her to one side, and she fell in a bright flash of pain.
She hit the sand hard and rolled, losing her grip on her sword as the world tumbled around her. A hard jab in her side stopped her flat on her back. When her eyes focused again, she saw the green creature looming over her, its underbelly still hanging in tatters. The origami spears in its back curled around and stabbed the beach, pinning Connie's legs and body between its deadly tips. Its mandibles split for another shriek and then descended upon her, snapping at her face.
Connie shoved at the monster, pushing with all her might against the bulk pressing down at her. The tips of its mandibles brushed her face, her throat, her chest, leaving hot little lines wherever they scraped. Deep inside its maw, Connie could see a large, square shape cushioned where its throat would be.
So it is a corrupted Gem, she thought, clinging to a sliver of rationality somewhere inside her panic. Of course, what else could it have been? The question only reminded her of how little she actually knew about this life and this war she had been so eager to join.
A splash of color teased the corner of her eye. It was her sword, laying just out of arm's reach, even if she could spare an arm from the effort of keeping the creature from biting her head off. She tried to remember everything Pearl had taught her, but nothing she had learned covered wrestling a multi-limbed spider terror from the deep.
It was Amethyst's voice that came to her instead. Fighting's all about that feeling deep in your guts. What do your guts feel like?
Connie growled and pushed with everything she had left. Slowly, the monster inched away, its mandibles snapping right in front of her nose. Snarling through clenched teeth, Connie said, "Get your nasty face off of me!" Then she jerked one arm back and punched straight into the creature's maw. Her knuckles struck hard gem.
The monster reared off of her, skittering back with a shrill cry. Connie rolled and reached, and fumbled the sword back into her grasp as she scrambled back to her feet. Wind and grit kicked up from the ground as the creature's scream turned back on her, its legs pounding the beach in another furious charge. Squinting, Connie screamed back, meeting its charge head-on, her sword raised.
A green blur.
Her blade flashed.
The monster's scream squelched into a whimper. Connie opened her eyes to find a cluster of its tendrils mere inches from her face, their sharp points glistening. The end of her sword had pierced the sheaves of its body straight through one mandible, deep behind its gem. The sheaves hung motionless together, trapped in the final moments of their battle. Despite its facelessness, Connie somehow thought the creature was staring back at her. Then it disappeared in a burst of green smoke. The boxy gemstone dropped to the sand, bodiless.
Connie let the sword fall, her chest heaving with ragged breath. She carefully collected the gem from the ground and clutched it tightly. Her fingers couldn't quite wrap around the square, flat shape, but it seemed like such a small thing for what had been a deadly threat a moment ago.
"Woo! Go, Connie!" The shout drew her gaze to the surf, where a large pink bubble was rolling out of the water. Steven's bubble popped, and he emerged splashing up to Connie. "I didn't make it back to shore until the very end, but you were great! Pearl's gonna be so proud!"
Her cheeks burned at the praise. "I'm just glad we're both safe," she said.
Steven's smile gave way to a concerned look. "You're hurt!" he cried.
Taking stock of herself, Connie noticed the small cuts crisscrossing her arms. The collar of her tank top had been torn by a long, shallow slice that had come dangerously close to her throat. She felt at her cheek with her free hand and hissed at the fresh cut on the side of her face. The worst one, though, was the gash at her hip where the creature's tendril had ripped a long tear across her side. "It's not bad," she said shakily." They're all pretty shallow."
Steven hardened his expression with resolve. He took her gently by the shoulders, staring deeply into her eyes. "Hold still," he told her. Then, lips pursed, he leaned toward her cheek.
Connie froze as Steven drew closer. Her heart raced twice as fast as it had during her death-defying victory. She pressed her hand to her chest, still clutching the defeated Gem, as her mind and body leapt into overdrive.
Is he kissing me? He's going to kiss me! He's only healing me with his magic spit, so it doesn't count. Yes, it counts! But it's on the cheek, so it doesn't count. Mom and Dad kiss you on the cheek, so it isn't different. It is different! It's totally different when it's Steven! What does this mean? I really like him, and I think he likes me, but does this mean he like-likes me? Do I like-like him? And what happens after? Tomorrow? A year from now? Are we dating? Am I ready for something like that? What if we get married? I could support us with a job while he went on Gem missions. Something in local government, building experience for larger representative positions. He could stay at home with the kids. Do your kids qualify for scholarships if they're quarter-Gem? But maybe his responsibilities as a Crystal Gem would keep him too busy. I'd have to work AND watch the kids. That's too much responsibility! And the strain would eventually lead to a bitter divorce, which could really sink my campaign for president. And I'd never see Steven again! He'd never see me or the kids again! This is happening too fast, I'm not ready for this, I can't—
Tilting his head, Steven leaned close until his breath tickled Connie's cheek, raising goosebumps all across her body. Then he stuck out his tongue and ran it across a clean patch of skin in a long, wet slurp.
Connie reeled back, swiping at her cheek. "Ew, Steven! Gross!" she laughed. When she examined her arms again, she saw perfect skin where the cuts had been. "But I can't complain about the results. Thank you."
"No problem," he said, grinning. Then, sobering, he said, "Where's the Gem? I'd better bubble her before she can reform and cause any more trouble."
"Sure, it's…" Connie looked down and saw her hands empty. Panicking, she began turning in place, taking her sword back up as she scanned the ground. "Oh, no! Did I drop it? I had it a minute ago!"
She caught sight of Steven staring at her uncertainly, and she stopped turning. "Uh, Connie?" he said, and pointed at her neck.
Looking down, Connie saw something green at the very edge of her vision, just above where her tank top's collar had been sliced. Reaching up to the base of her neck, she felt a large, hard, smooth lump protruding from her skin, seated atop her breastbone. Her fingers traced the size and outline of the flat shape, and she recognized it immediately. It was the corrupted Gem she had defeated, sitting right where the cut in her chest had been.
Connie grasped at the edges of the shape, pulling at it to no avail. It refused to budge in her skin. "Uh, Steven?" she asked, panic rising in her voice. "Is this what I think it is?"