Steven Universe: Above and Beyond

Summary

A week after the arrival of the Homeworld Gems, Steven again finds himself in a potentially dangerous situation when the wailing stone activates itself and sends what seems to be a signal out into the world. Before long, Gems are turning up left and right in response, both from Earth and Homeworld and it's a race against time to decide who is friend and who is foe. But is the activation of the stone and the arrival of the newcomers simply chance? Is Lapis the only one who dislikes the turn Homeworld has taken? Is a new Civil war brewing on the horizon?

Luckily, Steven is determined to find the answers and fulfill his destiny, in the Steveny way we all know and love.

A/N: Hey guys! Welcome back! I hope you enjoy this first chapter, it was a lot of fun to write. First though, I have to thank the talented Authors who sent in their ! You guys are all awesome, and I appreciate the time and effort you guys all put in. My only regret is that I couldn't use them all! They were that great!

Anyway, for now here are the that will make up our main group. If you don't see your OC here, please don't despair. Most likely I have a plan for them and I don't want to spoil it. But please don't let that discourage you. Truth be told, I don't think I got one character that I didn't like for one reason or another. Anyway, I'll shut up now. Here are the characters and their very talented creators!

Pyrite: Sent in by MyOtherPersonality. (Special shout out to them for putting up with my ceaseless questions. You are a gift and I love you.)

Onyx: Sent in by SANZOKU-RASSHU. (Again, another shout out because I am useless. Thanks guy/gal I really appreciate your tolerance of my ineptitude).

Black Star Sapphire: Sent in by PepperMentShock. (Don't ever let anyone tell you that you are anything other than an absolute sweetheart.)

Rhodochrosite: Sent in by VioletAssassin. (I am really glad you decided to submit. Thank you for your adorbable character.)

So! In honor of these wonderful people, here's our first chapter! Enjoy!

Chapter 1

Cacophony

There comes a point in time of every person's life when they wonder if they will survive the next five minutes. In Steven's life, usually that meant he was being attacked by some kind of monster, or running from fallen debris and the like. Today the threat was different and if you asked him, he'd probably have chalked the whole thing up to circumstance. Everything had been very quiet as of late, and though that was no reason to complain, it had almost grown boring over the last few days.

Then the Wailing Stone went off. And now they couldn't find it. Anywhere. So much of the morning had been spent in general chaos, alternating between shouting, running, and occasionally both at once.

Amethyst wasn't taking it well, so she seemed the most in danger of expiring at any given moment.

"AGH, IT'S IN MY BRAIN!" She screeched, barely audible over the undulating wails. "MAKE IT STOP!"

Around them the whole temple resounded, shaking on it's foundation with the force of the sound waves, everything that was not directly built into the wall was either jittering or had clattered to the ground, leaving absolutely everything in complete disarray. Even Steven's bed had shaken out of it's nook and was slowly making it's way towards the edge of the loft. Luckily, Steven had a damage plan and an extra large roll of duct tape.

He was in the process of taping down the couch when Amethyst ran past him in her freakout, tripping over several books he had already secured.

"Amethyst, be careful!"

With the roll of tape around his small wrist he ran to her aid. Well, ran is the wrong word, bounced is more appropriate in this case. As he did, he tried to calm the purple Gem, his voice going up and down along with the vibrations.

"A-Amethyst, s-screaming isn't going to help!" He shouted, reaching out for her. Partly to stop her flailing, and partly to prevent himself from falling over. "G-Garnet w-will find it! Just calm d-d-down!"

A sudden burst of baritone horror knocked the two of them off their feet and they fell together in a lump of arms and short, stubby legs.

"UGH! This is ridiculous!" Amethyst shouted.

On the other side of the room, Pearl's door opened and she appeared with a pained grimace on her face. "Steven, Amethyst!" She called. "Are you alright up here? Did Garnet find the stone?"

Shoving Steven off of her, Amethyst sat up. "Did you find the stone?" She called.

"What?"

"WHAT?!"

"I can't hear you!"

Steven scrambled to his feet, "Guys, guys! Com'ere!" He called, and waved his arms to get their attention in the extreme likelihood that they could not hear him.

Taking the hint Pearl came over, careful to avoid the taped down piles of miscellaneous debris while Amethyst crawled back to her feet. Steven linked arms with both of them, and lowering their heads close together the trio huddled against the nearly palpable noise. Pearl repeated her question.

"Did Garnet find the stone?"

Amethyst scoffed. "Well if she did we wouldn't be hearing the stupid thing."

"I was just asking."

"Well at this point, I don't care who finds it! I just want it to sto-op!"

"Sometimes when I lose stuff, I retrace my steps." Steven piped. "Did you try that?"

Pearl rolled her eyes. "We didn't lose the stone Steven. I put it in the burning room."

"So...You lost it." Amethyst deadpanned.

"I did not! That's where we usually keep the artifacts we don't use, it made sense to put it there!"

Steven considered this, and wanting to change the subject before Pearl and Amethyst got to into it, he voiced something that had been bothering him for awhile.

"Guys...Whyis it going off?"

The two Gems looked at each other, then back to Steven, but before either of them could say anything, the Temple door slid open and Garnet rushed out with the wailing stone under one arm and the scruff of Lion's mane in the opposing hand. Having seemingly accepted his fate the animal blinked calmly, curled in a near fetal position with all four paws in the air and when Garnet dropped him he simply huffed and lay there.

For now he was forgotten in the shadow of the larger problem at hand because if it had been loud before the cacophony from the stone was now deafening, and everyone was too busy squeezing their heads in hopes of keeping them from falling apart to ask Garnet where she had found it. Silently Steven pitied the tall Gem, since she only had one arm the shield herself with. But she seemed to be taking it well as she ripped a taped cushion from the couch and shoved it in the stone's opening.

Unlike the last time, the stone didn't go completely quiet upon finding itself gagged, instead it settled with a low hum that was not dissimilar to a beehive. But considering the alternative it was much preferred.

Steven released his head and breathed a sigh of relief. "Glad that's over." He said, "Way to go Garnet!"

She adjusted her visor gave him a thumbs up.

"Everyone alright?" She asked, looking over the mess.

Pearl, seeing the damage contained, nodded in affirmation and Amethyst groaned. "Sorry Garnet, I can't hear you. I think I have melted brain in my ears."

Snickering at the mental image, Steven went over to where Lion lay, having still not moved, and flopped over the animal's stomach. "So where'd you find the stone anyway?" He asked Garnet, resting his chin in his hands.

"It was in Amethyst's room."

Immediately all eyes went to the purple Gem who was busy digging in her ears. When she noticed them, she shrugged. "What?"

Pearl frowned sternly and crossed her arms. "How did the Wailing Stone get in your room?"

"Dunno."

"Well it didn't grow legs and walk there!"

The idea enthralled Steven. "Did it?" He inquired of the Fusion.

"No."

"Aw."

"But he has legs." Here she pointed at Lion. "So I'm guessing he had something to do with it."

"Whaaaat?" That was nearly unthinkable. Lion? His Lion? "Hmm... Actually that doesn't sound too out there." Steven admitted. "Isn't that right Lion? You do your own thing."

Lion rolled over with a grunt and Steven disappeared. Only to erupt chuckling from the mountain of pink fluff a few seconds later. "See what I mean?" he asked the trio.

A look passed between the Gems and Steven, having seen it before, hesitated. "Oh, I almost forgot. This is a serious Steven moment." He crossed his arms and took a deep breath, willing the change to come. "If the stone's going off, does that mean there's another message coming through?" Serious Steven asked with great deliberation.

Garnet shrugged. "I don't think so, it was probably just an accident."

"But the last time, it was a message. An important message. What if this one's the same?"

Pearl put a hand to her chin in consideration. "While that's certainly possible, who would be sending us a message? Homeworld maybe, but why go through the stone when they could just..."

She broke off seeing Steven's distraught face and Garnet's silent stare. "B-but of course Garnet's probably right. It was probably an accident. Lion might have hit the button when he moved it." She added hurriedly.

Reaching over, Garnet plucked the boy from Lion's mane, countering the animal's disapproving glare with one of her own, and held him in front of her.

"In any case, it's not something you need to worry about Steven. Understand?"

"Mmmm..."

"If it will make you feel better, Pearl and I will take the Stone to Greg. Make sure everything is alright."

"Mmmm, alright Garnet." He said, a tad begrudgingly. "If you say so."

Garnet set him down and patted his head fondly while he tried his best to keep a pout. It tickled when she did that.

Before he could say anything else, Amethyst swooped in and tossed Steven into the air. When he came back to earth she caught him and tucked him under her arm. "Well alright, you know what that means! Now, you and me get to go eat till we pass out while Pearl and Garnet do all the work!"

"I don't know..."Steven considered from his position. Food? Or possible emotional scarring? Those were quite the options, but luckily his stomach had the presence of mind to rumble at that moment.

"The belly has spoken." He said, his usual grin making a comeback. "Food it is!" Amethyst shifted Steven to her shoulder and kicked open the door. "Woohoo! Goldbricking for the win!" She declared, and Steven put up the fist with his duct tape in a victory salute.

"To the Big Donut!"

Pearl and Garnet came out to the porch to watch them go. And when they barely more than blips on the horizon Pearl glanced back, almost venomously, at the stone where it lay still humming. Why now? Things had been going so well.

"Garnet,..." She began, rephrasing Steven's previous question. "Do you know why the stone is going off?"

Adjusting her visor against the late afternoon sun, Garnet sighed through her nose. "Not specifically. But what I do know is that things are going to get very exciting, very quickly. So we'd best start preparing."

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A/N: And that's our first chapter! Sorry it's a bit on the short side, next chapter will probably be longer. Go ahead and tell me what you think, and if you have any advice for me I would greatly appreciate it! (As you can probably tell, I need all the help I can get. :/ )

Anyway, special thanks again to all the Authors who submitted. will begin appearing in the second chapter, so if you felt this was a little boring, don't despair! Like Garnet said, things are going to get very exciting, very quickly. So stick around!

Also, if anyone is interested, I'm currently hiring characters for the Pro-Homeworld team! So if you have a Gem you want to submit, you can go right ahead! (Super special thanks to MyOtherPersonality to submitting our Homeworld Squad Leader, Topaz.)

The form is still on my profile, the only thing I ask is that down below in the Head Cannon area of the form, add whether you think they could/would be reformed. No guarantee that they will be, but in the fog of war anything can happen.

Signing off for tonight, stay cool guys. Stay cool forever.

Mavenrogen (Mavro)