Chapter 1: It's A Good Thing Nightmares End
(A/N: Hey there people's here is the new story! I hope you enjoy it. :3)
All he could do was sit. All he could do was watch. All he could do was fail. Steven Universe sat there and watched as they fought for him. He was supposed to be the shield! But he couldn't be this time...He wanted to help but it felt like he was trapped, as if some sort of invisible chain was binding him to the ground. Garnet and Amethyst were then tossed to the side, landing with a loud 'thud' as they crashed onto the ground beside him. When he looked to them, there was something piercing their gems but he couldn't distinguish what it was, it was fuzzy...just like the creature who had killed his two friends. Why? Why was this happening to his friends? All he could do was sit. There was only Pearl left now. She gave him one last smile with sadness in her eyes. All he could do was watch. The blurred out creature raised what looked to have been an arm and immediately a claw shot out of the hazy creature only to pierce the gem of his last friend. She fell to the ground with the type of grace that she always carried...even in death. All he could do was fail...Tears were streaming down his face, why wouldn't their bodies disappear? Why was he forced to look at their lifeless forms? No matter how much taller he got, no matter how much stronger he got, no matter how much control he gained over his powers...no matter the stubble of facial hair that now covered his face...All he could do was fail. He wasn't a man...he couldn't protect his friends. He couldn't protect Pearl.
Steven was, thankfully, pulled away from his awful nightmare when he felt a calm and soothing hand press against his forehead. He opened his eyes hastily and upon the sight of his not dead team mates standing above his bed, he shot up. Pearl had been leaning on his bed side, with the back of her hand resting on his forehead. Usually Steven would have been a little upset that she was babying him again but at the moment all he could do was wrap his arms tightly around her.
"Pearl!" He mumbled out with his face buried in her shoulder. He couldn't find the words to express how happy he was that they were all alive and still with him. He hoped that the nightmare which visited him last night, never reared it's ugly face again.
"Oh!" Pearl gasped out a bit at the sudden hug from Steven, her eyes were wide for a moment before they softened. She wrapped her arms around him. She soothingly rubbed her hands up and down his back. "It's okay Steven..." She tried to soothe. Her voice calmed him down, he was shaking and there were almost tears streaming down his face like in his dream but he didn't want to cry. He just stayed close to Pearl and before he knew it, he felt two other pairs of arms wrap around him as Garnet and Amethyst gave him a hug. When he calmed down enough, he removed himself from them.
"You okay Steven?" Amethyst asked, her head cocked to the side. It was very unlike Steven to act so scared after waking up. Steven just nodded his head and with that Amethyst and Garnet had a bit of an unsure look in their eyes but decided not to press further upon as they left his room.
Pearl remained by his side and she sat on his bed with her legs tucked under her. She rested her hands on his shoulders and gave him a soft smile. "What happened Steven?" She questioned him with a still very concerned look on her face.
"Nothing, really Pearl I'm fine...It was just a bad dream that's all..." He explained though it didn't come out as confident as he would have liked it. Pearl let out a quiet sigh but remembered why they had originally went to wake Steven up.
"Garnet has our next mission for us, so come on down." She instructed before getting up off of his bed and towards the teleporter so that Garnet could instruct them on where they would be heading next and what it was that they would be doing. Steven let out a long sigh when he saw her leave, he was happy that the Gems were always there for him but he didn't want to re-live the nightmare, even if it was just a dream that couldn't hurt him. It scared him, Steven was an adult now...he shouldn't be so scared of dreams. But it was nice that no matter how old he got, the Gems were there to protect him, even if it was from a dream. Quickly, he made his way over to the group as he stood waiting for instruction on their next mission.
When the group was gathered together, Garnet stepped before all of them. "For our next mission we will be splitting up into two pairs, Steven will go with Pearl and I will go with Amethyst. We are looking for the Black Diamond, it was split into two pieces which are located in the East and West Carbonite Towers. All we know is the general location of the Towers so we will have to split up and find both of them so we can retrieve the Black Diamond pieces and put them together before the end of the Carbon Moon cycle." As Garnet finished her explanation, everyone seemed to have a dumbfound look on their face. What was a "Carbon Moon cycle"? Steven shrugged and put on a smile.
"Alright! New mission! Fighting monsters and kicking butt!" As Steven said this he kicked the air in front of him only to fall onto his behind. With a smile he started to laugh and soon all of the Gems joined, excluding Garnet who just had the hint of a small smile on her face. When Steven finished being...well Steven...He got up and stood beside Pearl as they all made their way onto the teleport pad to be taken to their desperate locations.
The beam of light shot up from the pad and soon the Crystal Gems were off, though unlike everything they usually do, they were now split up into two groups. When Steven and Pearl landed, his eyes widened at the immense amount of jungle life. He didn't quite know what to expect but tree's were definitely not one of them. It made no sense but Steven shrugged his shoulders as he and Pearl split up temporarily to find the tower that they were looking for.
As Steven walked he let his mind begin to wander. It had now been a couple of hours since he had woken up from the nightmare but he still couldn't take his mind off of it. What was that about? What was the creature that he couldn't see? He knew it was just a dream, he knew that it wasn't real but no matter how many times that he reassured himself of that, it wouldn't leave his mind. Steven was thinking he should turn back when he heard a shrill scream, immediately he began to sprint towards the scream. He knew it was Pearl and he just hoped that she was okay. When he finally reached the source of the shout, his eyes widened at what he saw. Three large crab-like creatures made from black jagged rocks were snapping their claws at Pearl, one had her held in between it's massive claws while her arms flailed, trying to get the monster off of her. They began to close in before they saw Steven. When they turned to him, his eyes widened as he immediately tried to summon his weapon. In the past 10 years the times he summoned his weapon successfully he could count on his two hands, it was still a struggle for him but he needed it! He closed his eyes tight and tried to think happy thoughts, the only other times he had summoned his weapon, he had been happy or at least been close enough to his friends to summon his rose bubble. He tried thinking all the happy thoughts that he could muster, most seemed to be teeming with the image of Pearl. When he cracked his eyes open he saw a light emerge from the gem in his stomach and his eyes widen at the shield that he had summoned. With a smile and glint in his eyes, he grabbed it.
Quickly he tossed the shield at the claw that was clamping down Pearl, the creature gave a loud shriek in pain as the shield came back like a boomerang to his hands. Pearl hastily got up as she readied her weapon, jabbing and stabbing at the creatures that had previously been attacking her after they had trapped her and caught her off-guard. The black rock-like crabs began to crawl away into the forestry.
Pearl and Steven gave each other a knowing look before they began to follow the crabs through the forestry. When they emerged from a bundle of tree's they saw a massive cave and in the center looked to be large black tower, the same color and jagged formation of the crabs that had been attacking the two of them moments ago. Steven's eyes widened, "We did it! We found it!" He began to cheer and shout with excitement as he jumped up and down, though before he could continue his shouts of joy he felt a hand covering his mouth, his eyes darted to the side to see Pearl holding a finger to her lips signaling him to quiet down. He just nodded his head.
Pearl let out a sigh as she removed her hand and took a seat. "Let's rest for now before we continue on." She instructed as Steven joined her in sitting on the cave floor. He nodded his head once more before laying down on the cold hard floor. Steven allowed himself to relax a little bit before he began to doze off.
(A/N: Well I hope you guys liked it! I will try to upload as much as possible for this story!)