The Nightmare Gems

ChaiDreamLatte

Steven hadn't had any good dreams lately, but when he soon realized was that no one was having good dreams from conversation with the town folk. Steven didn't think it was much for alarm, they were only dreams after all.

That night, Steven was dreaming about a red and black jester wearing red armour with a golden mask trying to tell Steven something.

"Ah, so you're the spawn of Rose Quartz?" asked the Jester, she adjusted her mask with the tip of her finger. Steven saw that there was a red gem on her chest, so she must have been a gem. Was she someone he met before?

"What if I'm not?" Steven asked, he wasn't going to give up so much information to a stranger, especially one that looks at creepy as this lady.

"Then you wouldn't be any used to me, you have some succulent Ideya that I can take anytime."

"What's Ideya?" Steven's curious mind spoke out, of course Steven was a child, and wanted to know everything there was to know, even from a creepy looking gem.

"Oh, so you want to know the power of your soul? Well, you have to tell me whether or not you're the spawn of Rose Quartz!"

This gem didn't seem very smart, but very brash; especially since she just told Steven the definition of an Ideya. Steven nodded his head, "I understand, well, I'll be off somewhere else now."

The gem chased after Steven, "wait, no, I need to know who you are. You're different from other Visitors, and I know Rose Quartz disappeared after falling in love with that… that… disgusting Visitor."

"Don't talk bad about my Dad!" Steven cried out, then covered his mouth.

"Ohhh," the jester gem thing flew around Steven, "so you are the spawn Rose Quartz, how very interesting!" The gem began to giggle, "I'll get you to help me, no doubt!"

Steven suddenly woke up in his loft. The sun was out, so he decided to get out of bed and eat some cereal. Steven checked his phone to see that Connie texted him at 4 in the morning.

I just had a bad dream. Some orange gem with an invisible body was asking me about you, then began to cry about how she 'wanted to be helpful.' It was really weird, but scary. Call me if you're awake.

Steven wasn't awake when the text sent, but he sure was awake now! Steven gave Connie a call, only to hear a groggy, "hello?"

Blast it! Connie went back to sleep, and he woke her up. "Um, hi, I heard that you had a bad dream?"

"Oh, it's fine, it's not like it was real."

"But it felt real. Like I was in some alternate dream world."

At that moment, Garnet walked out of the temple as Steven said, "I had the same sort of feeling with a dream I had about a gem."

Garnet looked directly at Steven, "you dreamed about a gem?" She sprung up, landed, tyhen grabbed Steven phone, she sternly barked at Connie "you dreamed of a gem too right?"

"Oh, hi Garnet," Connie stuttered a bit from the sudden change in voices, "Yeah, she was trying to find a way to our world. As if there was some sort of dream world."

Garnet dropped the phone and looked at the warp pad. "I suddenly have a mission," Garnet went to the warp pad and disappeared.

Steven cocked an eyebrow from confusion, but that confusion only lasted a second, because Steven was hungry. Steven too our some cereal and milk, and began to eat the wheaty concoction.

Steven turned on the television, when Pearl came out of the temple with a pile of books she probably organized alphabetically. "Where's Garnet?"

"She suddenly went out on a mission on her own," Steven explained, "must have been something important."

Pearl cringed her teeth, "would be important if she didn't get us first."

Steven didn't think much about it as he went on about his day. He had a donut, searched for quarters on the beach, then played at the arcade. When he got home, a purple jester gem flew right up to Steven and gave him a hug.

This freaked Steven out as he yelled, "it's the gem from my nightmare!"

The flying gem let go of Steven with a gasp, "no I'm not! That was Morganite, but she's been going by Reala these days..."

Steven took a look at the gem. Sure, she's a jester, but she was also purple, has a red vest with a blue gem on her chest, "so who are you?"

The Jester made a bow, "My name is NiGHTS, but my gem name is Tanzanite."

So NiGHTS seems friendly, and probably came into the temple invited. This is especially the case when Amethyst walked by noming on some potato chips, then she looked at Steven, "oh, I see you've met Steven."

"Yep!" NiGHTS jumped from the air, "and Steven can help me!"

Amethyst looked up as she hawed, "ummmm, I don't think he's ready yet. He doesn't have his weapon entirely down."

Steven frowned, just because he doesn't have complete control of his powers, doesn't mean that he's useless, "Wait, I can help! I'm good at helping gems! It's my specialty!"

"I think the kid has some confidence," NiGHTS winked as she flew closer to the ground. Could gems usually fly like that? "Can you heal and make bubbles like Rose did when she was alive?"

Steven eyes turned right into stars, those were things he excelled at, he could help the pretty jester gem, "yeah! I have magical healing spit, and I make bubble shield thingies all of the time!"

"Awesome! I thought all was lost when Rose left, but I just had to wait until her son get his powers."

Garnet came out of her temple, "So I have a plan to save Nightopia."

"Oh, we don't need one, Steven can use his powers help!" NiGHTS cried out as she jolted to Garnet.

Garnet frowned, "I'm not sure if…" Then a spark came into Garnet's sunglasses then she looked up, "we can give it a try." Steven knew that Garnet would let Steven help. Garnet got to the transporter, "let's get to the Dream Gate."

"Oh! I want to go to Dreamland!" Amethyst cried out.

"We're all going," said Garnet, "Get Pearl."

The five transported to the Dream Gate, and it looked beautiful. There was obviously a metal gate, with roman type statues in the front. As Steven and the gang began to walk through it, they found a fountain that dripped out water very elegantly and reflectively. Suddenly, an owl wearing a red jacket went right up to Steven face, "oh! So odd to have an Earth Visitor at the Dream Gate!"

"Oh, no, he isn't a visitor, he's a gem like me!" NiGHTS exclaimed, "he's here to heal and shield nightopia!"

That was when Steven began to get nervous. Steven can make bubble and spit heal, but he can't do that to an entire planet, or is it an immaterial plane? Anycase, Steven couldn't do something as grand as that!

"Um, Garnet?" Pearl began to ask as she stuttered, "can Steven even do that? I know there are a lot of Nightopias, but that'll take a lot of work and dedication."

Garnet's sunglasses flashed as she used the tip of her finger to adjust them, "It won't hurt Steven if he tried. He is just like his mother."

Suddenly, a black hole appeared from the ground, and the same Gem that Steven dreamed about appeared. She began to laugh, "you seriously think this little human boy can save all of Nightopia?"

Steven pointed to the gem that just appeared who must have been Reala, "you're the Gem I dreamed about and was asking if I was a spawn!"

"So I guess you are seeing you're with the other Crystal Gems," the gem bowed at Steven, "my name is Morganite, but in these part, I am named Reala."

"It's a stupid name," NiGHTS muttered, then spoke up, "it's not like you need him for anything!"

"Except for stopping you from healing nightopia!" Reala spat out as she was about to woosh over to grab Steven, but Pearl was quick on her feet and blocked Reala with her spear.

Reala flew back and huffed, "you and your weapons. No matter…" Reala flew in a circle then disappeared. It seemed like Reala was gone, and they can plan out this project.

Peal's had her speak back into the gem on her forehead, "okay, so let's go to the first Nightopia."

"How about mine?" Steven asked with stars in his eyes, "I want to see it!"

NiGHTS began to giggled, "your Nightopia is just fine, you're stronger than most Visitors."

Suddenly, a hole appeared under Steven and he fell through. Guess Reala did have a trick up her sleeve.

Steven was in the same dark space that he dreamed about, suddenly, everything light up and he was in a black and white checkered room. Reala was there and threw a package at Steven. It slid onto the floor, "here."

It was a frozen treat with an all new taste, cause he came from a planet from out space, it was a "cookie cat?"

"They're not Lion Lickers, but I know that you like them," Reala sighed, "look, I'm not trying to harm you in any way. I just want to discourage earth visitors so they won't defend themselves against the next Gem invasion."

Steven opened the package and began to eat the ice cream sandwich, he began to talk with his mouth full, "oh, that already happened, Pearl, Garnet, Amethyst, and I stopped them."

Reala crunched her teeth, "you stopped them?"

Steven took another bite from the cookie cat, can't believe Reala wasn't as informed as Steven was, "yeah, the ship crashed. Lapus imprisoned Jasper into the ocean, although we don't know where Peridot is at all."

Reala covered her head, "why didn't the officials tell me? It's hard enough working in a different plane from the other gems."

"Oh, it's not too bad, you have Cookie Cats here," said Steven.

"If it wasn't for Rose, NiGHTS would still been my partner," Reala sneered.

It seemed obvious that NiGHTS and Reala looked alike and had similar powers. So it seemed plausible that they worked together at one point. NiGHTS didn't seem to be a nightmarish creature like how Reala's appearance stated with the dark colors and make up. "So NiGHTS must have been like the Crystal Gems and rebelled against her Homeworld."

Reala rolled her eyes, "not only her Homeworld, but Master Wizeman!"

It seemed like Steven should know who this 'Wizeman' was, besides being a wise guy. Yet Steven didn't have a clue, "should I know who he is?"

Reala sighed, "not really. More than a millennia ago, we were made to be able to survive in other planes for a long amount of time. When we were ordered to go to the Dream World, since dreams can convince a creature to do anything. We decided to go to Wizeman for help since he has been in this world for a much longer time than we have, and can create Nightmaren. We decided to become Nightmaren along with Wizeman's creations and took on new names. We did a pretty good job until the civil war struck. NiGHTS tried to go to Rose Quartz' nightopia to convince her to end the war, but NiGHTS rebelled alongside Rose instead."

"So now NiGHTS is a good guy! Not using people's minds to surrender to the gems!" Steven called out, "My mom was a cool lady!"

Reala began to yell, "and leave me all alone?"

"What about the other Nightmaren?" Steven knew they had to be good company for Reala.

Reala stuttered, "they don't have free will, except for one... Wizeman's attempt to make a Gem."

"Oh, maybe you should talk to her."

Suddenly, an invisible Gem in a white and orange cape appeared out of nowhere, "you called?" This must have been the Gem.

Steven smiled, "yeah! Maybe you two should talk more!"

Reala rubbed her face, "alright, I could talk to Jackle more."

"That would be swell, I can help you a lot with Homeworld business!" Jackle yelled out, "but you never give me a chance."

"Because you're not a Nightmare Gem," Reala cried out.

Steven had to speak up. He felt the same way Jackle did, he had to validate, "hey, Jackle is a gem just like you!"

Suddenly, a hole appeared on the wall, NiGHTS and The Crystal Gems appeared out of the hole.

NiGHTS placed her hands on her hips with pride, "told you I can find Reala!"

Reala cringed, Steven knew that she couldn't defeat The Crystal Gems. Yet it seemed like Reala wanted to try. Reala swiftly flew in a drill towards NiGHTS.

Yet Amethyst went right back and rolled into a ball to bolt towards Reala, which pushed Reala back.

"You want to be a Nightmare Gem, now prove yourself," Reala growled at Jackle.

Jackle summoned her weapon with the gem on the neck of her cape which was a deck of cards. Steven wondered why cards were a weapon until Jackle began to throw them.

Pearl sliced them with her spear as quickly as she could, spinning the spear to get towards the card's direction.

Garnet then jumped over Pearl, and smashed Jackle with her gauntlets. Only to go through Jackle and stumble into her cape. Garnet quickly grabbed the neck of the cape, then pulled it off.

Pearl threw her spear at Jackle which made her poof into a yellow jade.

Reala wouldn't be that easy. Amethyst summoned her whip and grabbed Reala with the whip.

NiGHTS drilled towards Reala, only for Reala the break free, and kick NiGHTS. NiGHTS fell onto the ground.

"Not so strong now Tanzanite?" Reala cried out, "if the Homeworld failed to invade Earth, then I will!" Reala tried to circle tailing that black protal around NiGHTS, but Steven ran over to Reala and NiGHTS and summoned his shield.

Reala fell backwards and crashed into the wall. Reala felt her head in pain. She looked down, then looked at Jackle's gem, then picked it up. "It's not like I can be of any help to the Homeworld anyway I can't fight like the rest of them."

This was when Steven chimed in, "why do you have to? Do you do missions for these gems?"

Reala nodded her head, "yeah, but it's hard to do alone."

This was the moment when the yellow jade began to form. Jackle came in longer gloves, and a argyle pattern on her cape. "Reala, I may not come from the Homeworld, but I can help!"

Reala sighed, "you don't know anything about the Homeworld, how can you help?"

"Well, you seemed to do most of the destroying of human's nightopia already, I can help you do the rest!"

Reala looked down, then smiled, "let's get the rest of the nightopias to pieces!"

"Yay!" Steven cried out.

Pearl made a frown of disapproval, there was a huge flaw in Steven's help, "aren't you supposed to be protecting Nightopia?"

Steven didn't seem to know why Pearl seemed so sad about protecting Nightopia, of course Steven will protect this world! "Let's get onto that!"

Steven went into a windy wasteland that was covered in grey skies and dandelions. Steven usually liked dandelions, especially when Lion was feeling dandy, but this just seemed eerie. Steven saw a boy in this land with blonde hair, blue eyes, a puffy vest, and cargo shorts. Steven had to ask, "is this yours?"

The boy nodded his head.

"Aw, it'll be okay." Steven licked his hand and placed it on his head. That was when the grass began to grow, the dandelions began to perk up, a river streamed, and little angelic creatures began to laugh and play. Steven then began to focus, and made a bubble around this area.

NiGHTS appeared from a hole in the ground, and began to smile, "so that's 500,084 down, 499,916 to go!"

Steven began to groan, "can I take a break?"

NiGHTS gave Steven a Cookie Cat, "I was just thinking that! But don't worry, you're just doing catching up to what was missed since Rose left!"

Steven opened up the Cookie Cat package and took a bite, "I'll catch up. Maybe in the morning, I can get some rest."

"And come back here!" NiGHTS smiled.

Steven's back fell to the ground. Being a Crystal Gem was hard work.