The sun set peacefully amongst Beach City. Greg Universe napped quietly in the comfort of his van, his loud snoring being the only noise in the vehicle. He had no dreams this night, which was actually a relief. Lately, he had been plagued with nightmares that seemed to constantly gnaw at him from the moment he woke up to the moment he would try sleeping once more. They were always a blur when he woke up, be he always felt a sense of dread soon after. However, even with the lack of night terrors, he still did not wake peacefully from his slumber. A loud knock from the van doors jolted him awake, and he sat up.

Stretching, he opened the van doors, only to see Garnet and Amethyst standing before him. He yawned.

"Oh, hey Garnet, Amethyst." He said with a small wave. He managed to put on a tired smile, but they didn't smile back. In fact, they had a face of dread plastered on their faces, and it kind of uneased him.

"I'm sorry, but we have to tell you something." Garnet said, her usually monotonous voice replaced with one of sadness.

To ease the tone, Greg reached for his guitar behind him and plucked a few nonsense notes before looking back up at them.

"What do you mean? Did something happen to the house?" He asked. He was okay with the damage of the house, since he didn't really live in it.

"No, man. It's really important." Amethyst finally spoke.

"If there is bad news I would've thought Pearl would tell me. In fact, where is Pearl?" He questioned. Pearl always seemed to handle bad news more.

The two gems gritted their teeth and their looks changed, making them appear even sadder.

"And come to think of it, where's Steven? Is he with Pearl?"

"Amethyst? Garnet?"

"In a way, yes, they are together." Garnet said inbetween the silence.

"Well, where are they? How have they been? I've been itching to show Steven this song I've been workin' my butt on." He smiled and started playing a tune on his guitar, before Amethyst put her hand on Greg's shoulder, making him stop.

"Greg. I don't know how I'm gonna explain this to you, but... Steven is... dead." The purple gem confessed.

Ten horribly long seconds passed.

"W-what?" Greg stuttered, putting down his guitar and sitting up.

"Steven is gone. Something happened, and he's dead."

Another few seconds passed, before the silence was soon broken from loud laughter.

"Hahaha!" he laughed, leaning backwards and clutching his stomach. "Great joke, Amethyst, it must've been hard to get Garnet in on this! Haha!"

"Greg."

His laughing continued.

"Greg!"

The laughter died down into chuckles, but still carried on.

"Listen!" A hard smack sound was heard as Garnet slapped him back into reality. She seemed discontented, as she had on a face of anger, yet despair could be seen in her eyes, even through her glasses.

"Steven is dead. He is dead, dead, dead! And you think this is a joke?!" She snapped. Greg's eyes changed from lightheartedness to concern.

"He's... Steven... dead?" He questioned himself, before his eyes started to tear up.

"Look," Amethyst started. "Pearl and Steven were assigned to go on a mission and--"

"I knew it." Greg muttered.

"Huh?"

"I knew it!" he yelled, tears now rolling freely down his cheeks. "I knew it would be from some crazy mission! I knew he would get hurt! It isn't safe with you gems! I knew he would get hurt, but I dreaded the day where he would be killed. You just-- I--!" His angry shouts turned into loud sobs.

Nobody dared to speak, they didn't want to interrupt Mr. Universe's cries of loss. After he managed to quiet his sobs, he muttered something else under his breath.

"Please tell me... it was quick and painless." He begged. "Please tell me he wasn't in any pain! Please!"

"We're sorry." Garnet interjected. "But Steven had major injuries from a gem beast. We arrived too late, and he could not be saved." She let out a few tears as well, and so did Amethyst.

"What?! You let him go on a mission by himself?!"

"No!" Amethyst tried to explain. "Pearl was with him, but--" She stopped. Could she really explain that Pearl basically left Steven to die? How would this affect him. She swallowed, and continued.

"Pearl was with him. After he was attacked by the beast, she left him there. He was in pretty bad shape. He was sputtering blood like a fountain, and we couldn't do anything when she told us about it, 'cause after we arrived he was already too far gone."

"So Pearl... killed Steven." He said after he understood. He repeated that phrase over and over, and it stuck to his brain like a tumor.

Greg stared down at his hands, and he clenched them into fists. He stood up and started running towards the beach house.

"I'm going to kill Pearl!" He said with a shriek, bolting towards the sandy beach. The two gems tried yelling for him, and chased after him. But he had already made it to the house.

He made it to the door, but it was locked. He banged on the glass, hoping that somehow it would open. With every hit to the door, he loud out a loud yell, bringing emphasis to his anger.

"Pearl! Pearl! Pearl! Pearl!" He repeated the gem's name, before he began getting tired and soon started crying once more in defeat.

"Pearl... Pearl... Pearl..." He managed to breathe out before he closed his eyes out of exhaustion. He felt Garnet's hand on his shoulder.

"You should go to sleep, we will explain everything in the morning." She said. She tried using her future vision to see what would be the outcome of telling him the bad news, but even she couldn't see what would befall of Steven's father.

Greg nodded, and trudged slowly all the way back to his van. By this time the sun had already gone down and was replaced with pitch blackness. He opened the van doors and lied down. Amethyst left, as well as Garnet, to leave him to rest.

He closed his eyes, finally muttering a small "Steven..." Before his body succumbed to his tiredness.

Soon, the nightmares would come again.