DISCLAIMER: I still don't own Steven Universe.

~~~OOO~~~ -Daniel-

You weren't ready for Steven at all.

Okay, so, quick catch-up. You were just released from the hospital about three hours ago. You arrived at this huge six-armed statue with a HOUSE just sitting in it's hands, and a washer suspended about 70 feet in the air on one of it's other hands. Upon entering the house you noticed some strange things. First off, he whole house was one room, apart from the bathroom and closets. Second, there was a lion laying on the couch. (Also, you're pretty sure that that lions aren't supposed to be pink.) Third, there was a big slab of crystal on the floor near the rear of the room, and a colossal door of solid stone with inset gems beyond it. Steven immediately wanted to hang out, and Greg sat down on a stool near the counter to wait for the Gems to arrive.

You were currently sitting in a cloud. Steven had asked you if you wanted to see what his mom's room looked like, and, Much to the dismay of Gr—Mister Universe, you followed him in.

"So…," Steven began. "can you summon a weapon yet?"

"Steven, I just woke up a few days ago with no knowledge of who I was. Even if I could've summoned a weapon then, I don't even know what a weapon IS now."

"Oh, that's easy, your weapon is just a magical weapon that you pull out of your gem. Except… I don't really pull it out of my gem. It sorta just appears in front of me when I need it. Wanna see it?"

"Sure."

Steven steps away and slides one of his feet backwards and suddenly, a pink glowing shield appears on his forearm. "Pretty cool, huh?" He says as he flexes his arm.

"I wonder if I can summon my weapon?"

"No."

'Great. The non-responsive voice in my head is back.'

"Don't worry, I'll help you summon it! We can practice on the beach! Garnet always says that without practice you can't get better at anything."

"Practice won't help. You already know how to fight. You'll summon your weapon when you need it."

'Asshole.'

"You do realize I'm you, right?"

You shrug and move your hand to your pocket. Pulling out your hospital release papers and… a marble? You put the marble back and start reading about the identity Mister Universe checked you out under starting from the note on the bottom.

Memorize the highlighted parts front and back kiddo – Greg

Name: Daniel Quartz Universe.

Age: 14

Eye color: Grey

Hair Color: White

Height: 5'4''

Birth Date: 02/24/19— (The rest is smudged out)

"That's insulting"

What?

"Your name is not Daniel, Nor are you a Quartz."

Oh so now the voice responds. Okay voice, if I'm not a Quartz, how can me and Steven be brothers?

"You will find out in due time."

Your gem itches and you move your eye-patch to the other eye so you can rub it.

"Hey you need to keep that on!"

"Why? It itches." You turn to look at Steven.

"We need to break it to the gems that you're a half gem slowly, so they don't freak out and try to poof you. Dad already promised not to reveal anything until you got the chance to say hi."

"Hey Steven, two things, I need to say. First, I apparently can see through my gem."

"Really? How many fingers am I holding out?" He holds out his hand.

"Three, Excluding the thumb."

"Aw man, how come I can't see through my gem?"

"All you'd be able to see is the inside of your shirt. You shift the eye patch back to cover your gem. Second thing I need to ask, what's poofing?"

"Well, if a gem gets badly damaged, they'll retreat into their gem to heal up. It leaves them vulnerable though, so it's a last resort for the most part. The Gems poof monsters all the time to capture them, but we don't know if half gems can be poofed."

...

Holy crap. You're inside a home of killers. You're gonna die.

"Don't worry, you can retreat to your gem. You won't die. It's a lot messier though considering you're a half-gem. Imagine meat confetti"

Your heart starts pounding as visions of them ripping your gem out fill your head.

"I think I'm gonna be sick. I need to go before they get ba—"

A large hum fills the air, then suddenly stops.

"Oh hey the gems are back."

SHIT.

~~~OOO~~~ Greg

You look up as the warp light fades to see Garnet, Amethyst and Pearl standing on the warp pad (with Peridot riding in Garnet's hair?). They look around and one by one their gazes settle on you. Garnet is the first to speak.

"Hello Greg. Is everything okay?"

"Yeah, G-Man, Where's Stee-Man?" Amethyst adds.

"Well, Steven's in Rose's room, and that's a good thing because I need to talk to you guys about something that happened with him at the beach."

"Oh my stars, He didn't get hurt did he?! I knew it was a bad idea to leave him alone!" Pearl ran up to you, shaking.

"No, no, God no. Him and Connie were on the beach playing, when Connie screamed and pointed out at the water. He turned and there was—"

"Malachite" Said pearl.

"Nope. There was a boy a few years older than him laying face down on the water. Steven, my little man saved him."

Peridot rolls off Garnet's hair, walks up and sits down on the couch. "So, you were just letting us know that the stev— that Steven was safe?"

"Well no," You start fidgeting. "I thought you'd like to meet the boy he saved from the water. Uh... the boy kinda needs to talk to you guys as well."

Suddenly you see the temple door open behind the gems.

~~~OOO~~~ Daniel

You steel yourself as the door opens to the house. You don't know why, but you find yourself filled with DETERMINATION. As you walk out into the room and see everyone staring at you, however, it all evaporates at once. Steven walks out behind you and runs up to the gems, hugging them all one after the other. Greg notices your anxious look and calls you over.

"C'mere kiddo," He pats the couch cushion next to him. "they don't bite."

Steven looks up from hugging Peridot. "Well Peridot bites sometimes, but she's doing it less often now."

"You have me to thank for that." Garnet says, while picking up a rolled-up newspaper from the floor.

Peridot sees the newspaper, hisses, and runs up into the loft.

"Um hi," you say while sitting down. "M— My name's Daniel."

"No it's not."

'Now's really not the time to be a smartass. Until I know my real name, I'm using Daniel. Besides, how do I even explain you to them without them trying to rip you from my eye socket?'

"They won't try that, trust me."

'Fine.'

"Greg probably filled you in on the situation, but long story short, Steven saved my life. I want to repay Steven and protect him."

Not your true reason, but you probably shouldn't divulge anything to them about how you two are basically siblings just yet. Besides, you really want to protect Steven, in case anything happens to him. Or does your gem want to protect him?

"We both want to protect him."

… Well that settles that then.

Pearl turns to you. "I'm sorry, I know Steven saved your life, and you probably feel indebted to him… but you can't protect him from the… trouble he gets himself into. You're only human."

"I think I can prove you wrong," Pearl seems irritated by that statement. "But before I go any further, I need you to promise not to overreact at what happens next."

Garnet looks at you knowingly and places her hand on pearl's shoulder. "You have my word that we won't overreact. Now show us."

Did Garnet… know about my gem?

"Yes"

Oh. Well then, Screw it.

"I need your help with a small problem I have. When Steven saved me I woke up in the hospital without any memories and with uh..." You pull off the eye patch and look at the gems. "With this in my eye socket."

~~~OOO~~~ -Steven-

You've been staying quiet this whole time with your gaze fixed on your new… Friend, (Brother?) when you had the urge to look at the gems. Good thing too. You'd barely looked towards the gems when you saw Pearl squirm out of Garnet's grip and dash towards Daniel while pulling out her spear. You dive towards him and just barely manage to get a bubble around both of you fast enough for pearl to ping off of it and back into Garnet's waiting arms, where she found herself in a tight hold.

"Pearl, stop this, we promised we woul—!" She began.

"NO! You promised we wouldn't overreact! Besides, Hnng, I'm not overreacting! This is a perfectly normal way to react to seeing HER."

'Her? But Daniel's a boy... I think.'

"Pearl please," You say. "Don't hurt Daniel. He's my friend." At this she stops struggling and instead turns to argue with Garnet about him.

You look to the right and see Daniel sitting calmly on the floor of the bubble. He looks like he's fighting hard not to try and bolt. You are about to open your mouth and speak when he does it for you.

"Um… I'm a guy. I don't know who 'her' is, so I just— oh. You're a girl?!" He looks like he's having a small conversation with himself. "That explains a lot, thanks."

He turns to the gems. "Hey." He says, but they're still arguing. He cups his hands around his mouth and yells. "HEY!" The gems stop arguing and look at him confusedly. Peridot quickly peeks over the ledge before going back to whatever she was doing up there. "She says that she can hear you, and that she doesn't appreciate you talking about her like that." The room goes silent. Before you can stop him, he suddenly places his hand on the bubble and it pops.

"Huh, it worked, cool." He says while examining his hand.

Pearl speaks up. "She can talk?! How can she talk?! Rose can't talk from inside Steven's gem!"

Daniel stops talking again, then gets a shocked look on his face and starts shaking ever so slightly. He opens his mouth. "She says… She says that's because we weren't like this initially. She allowed herself to become part of me," Garnet sets pearl down. "To save both of us."

Garnet thinks for a minute. "That still doesn't explain how you ended up floating, very coincidentally might I add, off the shore of beach city. Can she tell us why you were there?"

David gets quiet for a moment again. "She says that you won't like this part. She says a large green and blue fusion helped us get to shore... What's a fusion?"

~~~OOO~~~ Garnet

You've called a gem huddle and are currently talking with the other gems (sans Peridot, who was currently shredding all newspapers in the house). So far the topic at hand has shifted to the small child and the gem currently residing in his eye socket. The only things you knew about the boy beforehand was that he had a gem and that he was no danger to Steven, but, seeing just whose gem it was, or more correctly, whose gem it still is, is making you doubt the certainty of one of those forseeings. You can see that pearl is about to talk again, so you refocus on the conversation.

"I say we bubble it."

"Pearl, No way! We can't just bubble a person! That don't sit right in my books. What if it was Steven being bubbled instead?" Amethyst being the voice of reason? Strange, but it seems to make pearl pause for a moment. You take this opportunity.

"Pearl," You start, steepling your hands. "We can't bubble it. Although she is currently residing inside the human, we have to remember that first and foremost, it is still a human. We pledged to Rose that we'd protect all humans, and we won't go back on that promise just because we're dealing with something that we've never dealt with before. Let's see what she has to say first, Okay?"

Pearl thinks about this for a moment before looking you in the eye and saying "fine."

You turn and clear your throat and the reaction you get is immediate. The boy turns head and looks you in the eye. Directly. Through your glasses. This boy, you can see, isn't afraid of the situation. Or at least, he's doing a good job of hiding it if he is.

"Let's talk" you say to her— him.

He looks at you for a second and then nods his head. He opens his mouth, closes it again, then opens it and starts talking. "She has a few things to say to you. First off, she knows you don't want to say her name around Steven and says for Steven's sake you can call her White Quartz."

You nod at that, then glance at Steven, who has a look of pure confusion on his face, but inside you're wondering why she said 'for Steven's sake'. You look at the boy. "Has she told you her other name?"

"Nope. Actually, almost everything you guys are hearing here is news to me too. This is the most she's ever spoken to me. She's also saying that she knows what your next question is and that it can wait until I'm asleep. She says that you guys can talk to her directly then."

Oh right, she can see the future too. Seems she didn't share that ability with the boy though. Next question then.

"So… what do you know about the underwater fusion?"

~~~OOO~~~ Malachite

You're sitting at the bottom of the Marianas trench when you feel your ears burning. This can't be good.