-AUTHORS NOTE-

Greetings everyone!

Unlike my other fanfiction, I in no way think this is lore friendly. There's no chance of any of this being possible in Steven Universe. This is also a pretty low quality piece. Just keep that in mind, and board the feel train!

My name is Jackson. I live in, sorry, lived in Beach City. I worked at Fun Land, lived in a nice little apartment, and was quite happy. I'd never gotten involved with the 'Crystal Gems' and their shenanigans. I'd barely even seen them before. I'd heard thing that they'd done, like fighting a giant green hand, which was before I came to Beach City, saved the world's ocean, and a few other things, but it'd never truly witnessed anything. I was a little curious of what they were like, what they did, and why they were here. Now? Now I just wish to see the sun rise again.

It was early in the morning when it happened. I was out jogging, because I wanted the excise, definitely not because a girl I have a crush on goes jogging regularly. Anyway, I was running, going at a reasonably slow pace, when the ground started to rumble, and a dreadful sound pierced the air. It felt like my ears were going to burst. It sounded like an explosion, but also like metal grinding on metal. When it calmed down, I noticed the smell. It was ash, and fire. It didn't take long to find the source, as the hill at the end of town wasn't as big as it used to be, and smoke bellowed from the far side. People had left their homes by now, wondering what all the fuss was about. They should have run.

What broke the uneasy silence was a scream. Or was it a snarl? I can't quite remember, but it was animalistic, and it seemed like a very angry snarl. I could just see on the remains of the hill, a dark, shadowy figure. It was tall, taller than anything I'd ever seen before. Its six long arms clutched rocks below it, and its head, oh boy, its head. It was like a silhouette of a wolf's head, but with more, very real teeth. It raised its head and howled, and I'm sure every single person in Beach City felt a shiver up their spines. I turned and ran as soon as the others moved from behind it. They were all different shapes and sizes, there was a crab, a worm, a bird, and so many others. They just kept coming. I sprinted away, as fast as I could. Drowning out the sounds of the screams of the other residents with a song I heard on the radio once. It wasn't the best song, but it was all I could think of at the time. "I'm like a star, I'm burning out fast. I try to shine, but it's never gonna last…"

I reached the bus stop, and looked back. The city was on fire, smoke bellowed from almost every building, and those colossal things roamed the streets, snarling, and smashing. I continued running away, tears forming in my eyes. I kept running till I could barely see straight. Then, I fell. I heard a yelp of pain as I fell, but it was not my own. I quickly got to my feet, fearing what I could possibly have fallen over. What I saw after I wiped the tears from my eyes, was a child, lying on his stomach. He wore a red shirt, blue jeans, and salmon thongs (Flip flops). He turned over, and faced me. If his eyes had any more tears in them, he'd have two small lakes on his face. He whispered something, before he put his head down again, and was presumably unconscious. "I should have been there."

It was almost mid night by the time I reached the sign for Ocean Town. It was a cool night, but I was still burning hot. The boy was quite heavy, and didn't seem to want to walk or talk, so I carried him. I couldn't just leave him there. I thought we might be safe for a while at least in Ocean Town, but found it to be in a similar state to Beach City. The beasts were faster than I had thought. I was about to give up and lie down, and like he could sense it, the boy stood himself up, and walked. I, without speaking or knowing who he was or what he was doing, followed. I used the time to think about what had happened, and came to the concerning realisation that I wasn't sad. My eyes were dry, I felt normal. I tried forcing the images of the town on fire, the sounds of the screams, I tried so hard to feel bad, but they didn't do thing. I decided I must have been in shock, and I'd feel the sadness soon. After hours of walking through the almost pitch-black night, we finally came to a partially caved in barn. A very strange barn at that. It had a silo sticking out of one side, like it was there on before the roof collapsed. I walked inside with Steven, and I stepped on what I thought was broken glass. I froze, and lifted my foot. It was too thick and solid to be glass, and there wasn't a window anywhere in the barn. My eyes adjusted to the dark, and I saw the two shapes. It was a triangle and a tear drop, just sitting there on the ground together, but they were broken, shattered into many pieces. I stepped over them, wondering how much they were worth to Steven, and if he cared that they were broken. I sat in a corner, and tried to get some sleep, but the answer to my recent question was answered as Steven knelt over the two gem things and cried. I got fed up at him and yelled at him. "Dude, all the people in Beach City, hell, maybe even the world may be dead, and you're crying over two broken gemstones?"

It was another half an hour till Steven stopped crying, and another till something actually happened. In all that time, I didn't get a wink of sleep. It was strange, ever since we left Beach City, I'd felt off, like this wasn't entirely real. I was never tired, I was never hungry or thirsty. I pondered what the meaning of that was, until a voice startled me, and I not-so-elegantly fell off the plank of wood I had been lying on. It was a girl's voice. I didn't quite catch what she said, but apparently, Steven did, as he was out of the barn before I could get to my feet. I slowly walked out of the barn, very aware of how cold it was, despite it being mid-summer. I looked to the horizon, and saw the most beautiful thing. It was a sun rise. Rays of golden light flooded the country side, bouncing off the small lake by the barn. I spotted Steven hugging a girl the same size as him. She wore what appeared to be some form of black training outfit, though I couldn't figure out what kind of training it was.

"Are you ok Steven? I saw on the news that the temple had exploded! Then the power went out, and well, then everything went bad. Where are the Crystal Gems?" She sounded scared. No wonder, I thought at the time, the world was most likely ending.

"I'm not fine, Connie!" Steven replied. "I couldn't find any of them, I had to leave without them. I don't know what happened, but I should have been there, I could have helped!"

"You couldn't have known that was going to happen Steven, and it's better that you're safe here, so we can sort this out instead of you being there and injured, or worse. We should wait here until they arrive. Where's Lapis and Peridot?" There was a silence, and Steven started crying again, as he pointed to the barn. Connie walked into the barn, and a few moments later, I heard her cry out in shock. I guessed those gemstones meant a lot to these two. She emerged again, cradling them in her arms. She gave them to Steven, and he did something that raised my eyebrows. One moment, they were in his hand, the next, they were in a pink bubble, hovering just a little bit off his palm.

"How long are we going to have to wait here?" I asked, and got no reply.

Chapter 2

So, you may be wondering, 'Who's this Jackson guy? What's his background" etc. Well, the reason I didn't go on a huge monologue about my past, is that I don't exactly have one. My life was boring. The biggest thing that happened to me before the end of the world was a broken jaw when I fell down some stairs once. The doctor said I now have a cool scar on my jaw bone that'll never heal. Anyway, back to my story of the end of the world.

I knew something wasn't right. I had felt it ever since I left Beach City, and now I knew for sure. I'd been with Steven and Connie for months now, traveling from gem location to gem location. We'd given up on waiting for the 'Crystal Gems', and decided to travel, and see if we could find them that way. We'd seen very few actual people, and those that we did see ran away. It seemed everyone was looking out for only themselves now. We were in an arena floating in the air, when I realised that I hadn't eaten at all since we left Beach City. So, I tried to eat, but just the feeling of food in my mouth made me want to throw up. It was then that I also realised that neither Steven or Connie had said a word to me this entire time either. So, I experimented. I waved a hand in front of Steven, I poked Connie on the shoulder, but neither seemed to notice. I sat down, and watched the camp fire that Connie had made hours ago, the flickering flames dancing towards the sky. I watched the dance for a bit longer, thinking of what happened to me that could make me invisible and not need or want food, before I laid down, and drifted off to sleep.

I almost didn't make it to the warp the next morning, as I had overslept. I had to dive onto the warp pad just before it started to warp us out. Warping had never been fun for me. It made me feel sick, and I couldn't control how I moved. It felt like every cell in my body was buzzing, and wanted to be free.

We finally landed, and I hit the pad with a thud. We were in the country side, which country side, I couldn't say at the time. Connie and Steven were already moving out, so I got up, brushed myself off, and chased after them. We saw a few corrupted gems along our travels. They were acting like any other animal on Earth, despite their stranger, and larger appearances. Steven wanted to go 'bubble' all of them, but Connie kept telling him that they didn't have anywhere to put them all. I wasn't one hundred percent sure what that meant, but I was felt it was like that bubble thing he did to those two gemstones back in the barn. Speaking of which, I noticed that we were head towards the same barn.

The state that this barn had been in before seemed like an expensive pent house compared to how it was now. The roof had caved in a lot more, the silo had fallen over, the grass around where it lay was higher than the rest. It looked like one small gust of wind would knock the whole thing over like a pile of sticks. As we continued past the barn, Steven and Connie started talking about where they were going.

"It's been months, Steven. We should go back to Beach City and find out what happened, so we can start getting everything back to the way it was." Connie said. I had to admire how she was reacting to the end of the world. She was very focused, and didn't let her emotions get out of control, without removing them entirely. I agreed with her, we should go back to Beach City, but I didn't want to go for the same reason. I was feeling home sick, and really wanted to see the beach and the glistening sea again.

It took us hours to make it to Beach City, and the heat was getting intense. Strangely, I found that I didn't sweat now. Just another trait to add to the list now, I guessed. Don't get me wrong, I was very concerned about why the hell no one could see or hear me, but being in this state did have its perks, and I didn't want to fiddle with things that I didn't, and still don't understand. At least for now, I'll just keep following Steven, and maybe my answers will show up.

The fires in Beach City had died long ago, most buildings were destroyed or damaged to differing degrees. The Big Donut was crushed under its sign, the fries' restaurant sign could be seen sticking out of the sand, and so many other businesses that I knew were in a similar state. We walked through the streets, very cautiously, when we saw the first skeleton, lying on its front. It wore a charred suit and eye patch. Its hand clung to a suitcase in front of it, and its other hand was by its side. I saw many other scenes like that. There were two skeletons in a burnt out and rusted car with Mayor Dewey's head on it that was split in half. I saw a skeleton in a van by the car wash, I saw two clinging to each other outside the big donut. It seemed less people made it out than I had thought. I went to the Fish Stew Pizza, which was still standing, thought the ceiling had caved in just a bit. Inside, I saw three piles of bones, all crushed by the collapsed ceiling. I frowned, trying to remember how many people were in this family, because it felt like there was meant to be one more. I moved to the back of the shop, and sure enough, I found a charred pile of bones sitting in the wrecked pizza delivery car, half way out of the parking lot. I slowly walked back to the board walk, feeling lower than ever. How did I survive when everyone else didn't? Why were so many of these skeletons burnt? My thoughts were cut off by a quite familiar snarl. I glanced to the rubble of the hill at the end of town. That six-armed thing from the explosion was there, and I could see it clearer now. It had almost a rainbow of colours, maroon skin, dark green hair, and its clawed arms were big, bulking, and where three different colours. It had seven, no six wild eyes, franticly observing its surroundings. It looked like it had a seventh eye in the middle of its forehead, but it wasn't an eye, it was a gemstone of some sort. Flames flicked out from between its teeth, and I felt my own mouth drop. It could breathe fire, it was what killed almost everyone in Beach City.

I noticed that at in front of it, seeming like ants compared to it, Steven and Connie stood together. Steven held a pink shield that I'd never seen before, and Connie wielded a large pink sword. There was no way they could beat that thing. I was sure of it. There was a light, it came from Steven and Connie, I had to shield myself from it, it was so bright. But when I looked back to where they were, a teenage girl stood. She had long hair like Connie, but wore Steven's clothes. She wielded both the shield of Steven and the sword of Connie. Where was Steven? Where was Connie? I had no idea, but that wasn't important right now, because this new girl was sprinting towards the giant six-armed beast. The ground shook, and I got to cover behind the remnants of the building beside Fish Stew Pizza. I could hear the beast snarling, roaring, and fighting, so I covered my ears, and screwed my eyes shut. I reopened one for a second, and noticed something quite odd, even for the situation I was in.

The skull that I saw made me feel empty, but I wasn't sure why, until I completely noticed the jaw bone. It had a scar on it, in the exact same shape that I had. I crawled over to it, the sounds of the fight making the skull bounce a little. I picked up the skull, and my world was spun upside down. This was my skull. I was sure of it, I wasn't sure how I knew, but I did. I saw the rest of the skeleton the skull belonged to, and it was wearing my clothes, but burnt. I put my hand to my forehead, noticing the pain just behind my eyes. I moved to a position where I could see the girl fight the beast, and she was now riding an animal. I was sure I wasn't seeing properly, because it looked like a pink lion. The pain behind my eyes was growing, and I found it harder to concentrate. I was dead. It made sense now. Why I couldn't eat, why no one could see or hear me. The thoughts ran races through my head, trying to distract me from the pain. The pain began to increase more, and I felt faint. The fight seemed to be almost over now. The girl was lying on the beach, the beast looming over her. She'd lost the shield, and the sword was stuck in the sand beside her. I stood up, and almost fell over again, the pain was so great now. I slowly and painfully walked across the board walk, and onto the beach. I collapsed beside the girl, she looked a lot like both Steven and Connie at the same time. I don't know why I spoke, but I did. I turned my head to her, and said, before I zoned out from the pain "I believe in you"

I snapped back to reality a few moments later, the fight was back on. The girl was running up the beasts' lowest right arm, wielding the sword in both hands. I couldn't get up, like all my strength had faded, so I looked out to the ocean, and there she was. She was tall, wore a white dress, and had huge pink hair. She was walking on the water, towards me. When she was standing over me, she offered me a hand. I saw my hand raise it self and take her hand. I felt myself standing up, but I wasn't doing anything. She smiled at me, and I smiled back. She lead me to the ocean, and I looked back to Beach City, my home. The girl was standing alone on the rubble, a bubble in her hand. I turned back to the lady in the white dress, and cried. I wanted to see the sun rise, just one more time, but I knew I couldn't, so I allowed her to lead me away from the land of the living, and I was at peace.