Sole Survivor
Ch. 1: And Then There Was One
A few weeks had passed since the ocean was returned to Beach City, after Steven and the Gems' climactic fight against Lapis Lazuli. Slowly, but surely, normality eventually returned to the city and business resumed as usual with the summer tourism coming in full force. The city was alive with buzz, as the beach was littered with people from all walks of life. Steven, wearing nothing more than his sandals and swimming trunks was no exception, as he chilled on the beach building a huge sand castle with Amethyst. Pearl and Garnet, however, were standing just a few meters away from them, talking with one another with something very important.
"It's been a few weeks and there still hasn't been any activity," Pearl explained to Garnet.
"I know but I can feel as if that's about to change soon," Garnet mentioned.
"Which is why we need to keep our guards up until then," Pearl reasoned.
"Guys, how come you're not having fun with us?" both Garnet and Pearl turned and saw Steven right next to them.
"Yeah, you two! This is no time to be beach bummers!" Amethyst called out, still building the sand castle. Pearl rolled her eyes and turned her attention to Steven.
"Steven, I know that you want us to relax, but there are a few gem creatures out there that can attack at any time," Pearl explained.
"But there hasn't been one for weeks," Steven countered.
"We still have to be ready," said Garnet.
"You guys are paranoid!" Amethyst said as she placed a purple flag on top of their ten foot tall castle. "If there was going to be an attack, it would have let us know by now!"
Suddenly, Steven, the Gems and everyone on the beach felt a large tremor and screech that shook every inch of the city and caused Steven and Amethyst's castle to crumble to dust.
"NO!" Steven shouted to the heavens in despair. "We didn't even get to take a picture of it!"
"Oh it's on now!" Amethyst agreed, mad that all that hard work was destroyed. "No monster destroys my castle and gets away with it!"
"But we don't know where it even is!" Pearl pointed out in an attempt to calm Amethyst down. Just then, a giant hole appeared in the sand, leading down into a dark cavern.
"I think it's that way," Garnet stated the obvious, as the trio turned to her. "Just a hunch."
"Then, what are waiting for? Let's whoop its sorry butt!" Amethyst said fired up, as she summoned her whip out of the gem in her chest, let out a war cry and jumped cavern entrance.
"Does she know where she's going?" Pearl asked.
"Considering her, no," Garnet answered, motioning for Pearl and Steven to follow, as they raced after Amethyst.
After having Steven put a shirt on, Garnet, Pearl, and him went in after Amethyst. Fortunately, they were able to catch up to Amethyst before she got lost and ended up going around in circles. Garnet then caused both gems from her hands to glow, illuminating the caverns, before she leads her friends to the source of the large tremor.
"Remember, do not split up," Garnet informed her friends.
"Yeah, yeah, we get it," Amethyst simply sassed.
"Says the one who leaped into the hole first," Pearl countered.
"At least I was ready to battle," Amethyst argued.
"Letting out a war cry and charging head first isn't what I describe as preparation," Pearl argued back.
"Guys; please, don't fight," Steven pleaded with a quivering lip, as he could feel another fight coming.
"Steven's right, we need to focus right now," Garnet agreed.
Both Pearl and Amethyst sighed and gave each other an half-hearted apology, before the group entered an area in the shape of huge circular dome that was the size of a stadium, with it having to be at least 200 feet from the ceiling to the floor. Stalagmites and stalactites covered the room and made an enormous amount of places to hide.
"If the creature could make a tremor like that, it must be too big to hide in here," Pearl deduced.
"So where is it?" Amethyst asked. "Cause I don't see no sand castle wrecking monster anywhere."
"It's here. I can feel it," Garnet replied.
Just then, the group felt another large tremor coming there, being much erratic compared to the previous one. Garnet, Amethyst and Pearl summoned their weapons, ready to face whatever it was coming their way. But then, the tremor stopped suddenly as it started and coming out of the stalagmites, was…
"Is that...a seagull?" Amethyst asked out loud. Indeed it was, as a small seagull started to hop out from behind the stalagmites. It's wing was bent in a way that it wasn't supposed to, showing it was injured.
"What is something like that doing down here?" Pearl asked, just as confused as Amethyst.
"Maybe it injured its wing and must have made its way here," Steven concluded, as he began to get close to the injured bird. "Don't worry, little guy, I won't hurt you." Suddenly, Garnet noticed a very thin string attached to the seagull's leg.
"Steven, wait!" Garnet shouted.
But it was too late, as the "seagull" rose up, followed by another large tremor, as something was slowly rising up from under the floor. Upon getting a good look at it, it turned out to be another gem creature; a giant crab with a dark green armored body, covered in sharp, light green crystals, the "seagull" being nothing more than a lure on a string at the top of its head, with four claws at each side and eight legs sticking out; its piercing black eyes staring the Gems down.
"Aah!" Steven shouted with horror, too shock to move his body, as the lure attempted to snatch him. Fortunately, Amethyst quickly grabbed Steven with her whip and pulled him back to them.
"Thanks, Amethyst," Steven expressed his gratitude.
"Don't mention it, Stevie," Amethyst simply said, before she rushed towards the Crystal Crab.
"We'll take it from here, Steven. Just get behind something sturdy," Garnet ordered, to which Steven replied with a salute before running off into the stalagmite maze.
"This is for destroying our sand castle!" Amethyst shouted, whipping the Crystal Crab like mad, with Garnet pummeling it and Pearl jabbing its underbelly, getting slight pierces.
The Crystal Crab, however, reacted with an annoyed roar and quickly shook off their attacks like they were nothing, stomping the ground as hard as it can, with the shock waves knocking all three Gems down. As they all got up, the Crystal Crab immediately struck back with surprising speed, using its four claws at them, prompting Garnet, Amethyst and Pearl to deflect each and every one them as best they could. But the crab's bizarre agility was starting to wear them down and Garnet, in particular, was unable to deflect it any longer, as one of the claw knocked her out to the ground. Garnet got up as quickly as she could, but the crab got to her first, quickly piercing Garnet with one of its sharp legs. She could feel the sharp leg piercing through her and with one last gasp, Garnet disappeared into smoke, leaving only her gems to take her place.
"GARNET!" both Amethyst and Pearl shouted in horror, realizing the strongest of them had just been beat, before the former quickly leaped at the Crystal Crab with righteous anger.
"This is for Garnet!" Amethyst declared out loud, as she summoned a second whip, as she proceeded to whip the Crystal Crab in a mad frenzy, along with Pearl desperately trying to pierce its tough skin after summoning a second spear, with much more success. It's armor was resistant to slashes and blunt force but was weak to stabbing weapons which Pearl began to abuse. Steven sprung into action but tripped over a fallen stalagmite and just as he went to get up, found that his shorts were now caught because of a fallen stalactite that just barely missed hitting the boy himself.
Again, the Crystal Crab reacted with annoyance, shaking off their attacks once again, this time, grabbing Amethyst whip, with its owner still clinging on it, as it brutally whipped her back and forth without mercy. Eventually, it whipped to the ground very hard, leaving an injured and daze Amethyst, just as Steven peaked out from the stalagmites to see what was going on.
"Amethyst, are you...alright?" Steven asked with his voice full of sadness and worrisome. The boy could only watch helplessly with tearful eyes as his friends were getting pummeled.
"It's okay, Steven. No pain...no gain, right?" Amethyst joked.
Sadly, it was the last thing she would say, as the Crystal Crab's claw quickly slammed her into the wall, shaking most of the cave and causing Amethyst to disappear in smoke, leaving behind her gemstone.
"AMETHYST!" Steven and Pearl shouted with shock.
Caught right off guard by this, Pearl failed to notice one of the crab's claw grabbing her, picking her up, as it began to crush her body. Pearl struggled to free herself, but it was no use; the Crystal Crab's claw was too powerful and it's grip was starting to tighten, squeezing her as hard as it can.
'Too strong...I can't...break free,' Pearl thought, her body too weak to do anything, as she turn her gaze at Steven. "Steven...you have...to run," she barely blurted out, just as the crab succeeded in crushing her, causing Pearl to disappear and leaving her gemstone on the ground.
"PEARL!" Steven shouted, horrified that the Gems have been utterly defeated. His tears finally broke through and started pouring down his face.
But there was no time for Steven to mourn for his loss; the Crystal Crab finally noticed Steven hiding behind the stalagmites and with one tremendous roar, began to stalk the now frightened boy. Steven finally managed to rip his shorts out from under the stalactite and took off running as fast as he could into the maze of stalagmites, but they were no match for the crab, easily destroyed by its towering body, before he ran straight into a dead end, with no other way out, before he slowly turned to face the Crystal Crab. All he could do was put up a bubble and pray something saves him.
'Oh man! This looks like the end for Steven Universe!' Steven thought, as he continued to stare at the monstrous crab, too frightened to move his body.
The Crystal Crab, in turn, continued to stare down at Steven, like it was nothing more than an ant and slowly approached the frighten boy. Unbeknownst to it, a giant stalactite was hovering above, its foundation starting to crack due to the Crystal Crab's wanton destruction. The foundation suddenly caved in, causing the giant stalactite to impale the Crystal Crab, preventing it from hurting Steven and causing the crab to explode into dust, leaving only a gem in its destruction.
"That...was...a close...one," a emotionally wrecked Steven said with a sigh, before he realized what he had to do. "I need to get the gems out of here before something else happens!" Steven said as he wiped the tears from his eyes and quickly bubbled the crab's gem and sent it back to the burning room before picking up the four gems of his friends and quickly heading for the entrance. Though a new problem reared its ugly head.
"I'M STUCK IN A HOLE!" Steven shouted when he finally reached the entrance and realized he would have to climb out all by himself.
After a grueling six hours of climbing and nightfall overtaking Beach City, an exhausted Steven finally made his way back to the beach house, before falling to his back, still carrying the gems of his friends. Steven slowly grabbed a pillow from the couch and placed the gems on it to see if there were any cracks that he would have to heal. After inspecting them for a few minutes under lamplight, he sighed with relief, having found no cracks on any of the gems.
"Thank goodness for that!" Steven exclaimed with joy, before he looked at the gemstones sadly. "I wish you guys were here right now. I don't know what to do without any of you," Steven knew he wouldn't be receiving any answers out of them until they were fully regenerated, but just the fact he would have to wait without any of them didn't make it any better. "Just please don't take two weeks this time…"
As much as he wanted them to heal right away, Steven knew he couldn't rush them. All he could do about it was be patient and wait. Steven looked at the clock to see it was far past ten at night and that he should get some sleep. The young gem grabbed the pillow with the gems and took it to bed with him, intent on keeping them safe with him.
"Good night, you guys. See you in the morning," Steven bid them a good night, as he fall asleep. Little did he realize that something astonishing was about to happen, as all four gems started to glow dimly in the moonlight.
Beep… Beep… Beep...
Steven woke to the sound of his alarm clock going off and slowly, but sleepily, he started to stir up, eventually managing to crawl off his bed and attempting several times to find the off button without opening his eyes. Finally, he managed to hit the button, deactivating at last.
"Ugh… I'm so sore…" Steven whined as he felt all of his muscles ache from last night's six hour climb out of the hole in the beach. "But at least you guys are safe and…" Steven trailed when he turned and saw that none of the gems were on the pillow. Steven searched his entire room, turning it inside out but finding nothing. Of course to Steven this could only mean one thing.
"Wow you guys must of healed fast!" Steven, ever the optimist, quickly ran downstairs to find the gems. But when he made it down, he saw no trace that anyone had been in the house at all. No Garnet, no Amethyst, no Pearl, no anybody. "GUYS?! HELLO!?" Steven shouted as loud as he could, making sure that someone would hear him. But after a few seconds, it was clear that he was still all by himself.
"They must be out on a mission or something. Though they would have left a note or something…" Steven trailed off when he took a look at his palms and saw something he wasn't expecting at all: Garnet's gems now stuck in his hands.
"H-How did they get in there?!" Steven shouted, as he tried and failed to get them out of his hands; the gems refusing to budge. Steven began to panic as he thought of something. He quickly ran into the bathroom to look in the mirror. Upon closer look, he saw that not only was Pearl's gem on his forehead, but he saw Amethyst's gem was now on his chest. "This has to be a dream…Yeah, that's right. It has to be a very bad dream! Oh, I know!" Steven ran towards the wall before smashing the back of his head against the wall. While he succeeded in giving himself a huge headache, looking into the mirror showed that he accomplished nothing else besides ruling out the dream explanation. All of this was enough to freak Steven out of rational thought, as he ran out of the bathroom in utter fear.
"No… No. No! NO! NOOOOO! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" Steven shouted as he ran in circles in a confusion-induced frenzy. "AHH! AHH! AHH! AHH! AHH! AHH!"
To be continued…
A/N Before anyone asked, this is just a pilot chapter. I'm still working on Return From Limbo first as I'm nearing the end of that. This is simply to test the waters for this story so that I can determine what I want to do next. If you like this idea, let me know and I'll begin work on it after Return From Limbo.
Till Next Time: Sal out!
