CHAPTER 4
[Evil!Steve is frowning down at the trio, who stare back up in shock. Steven is still caught in Older Lapis's net. Evil!Steve lands on the street and puts his fists on his hips.]
Evil!Steve: Lapis and Peridot from the past. It's been a while. Twelve years, to be accurate. [Raising a hand, he sweeps it down, Lapis and Peridot are encased, motionless, is green light. (Telekinesis)] So, to what do I owe this little blast from the past? [His eyes widen as he notices Lapis's MT medallion] MadamTime. Meddling again.
[He begins to raise his arm, but a water blast knocks him into a building. As he stumbles up and waves the mist away he sees Older Lapis, glaring. Scowling, he gets to his feet and charges. Lapis shoots a pair of ice spikes at him, but he transforms to a green, cloudy form and they pass through him. She fires more, but he is too fast and grabs her by both wrists. Meanwhile, Steven bursts from the net with a cry. Evil!Steve lifts Older Lapis with one hand and punches her with the other, sending her bouncing off the pavement. He follows as she props herself on one hand and one elbow, he spits on her gem injuring her(Unlike Steven's healing spit, Dark Steven's actually injures an opponent causing them a great deal of pain.)]
[Lapis screams in pain as her gem is beginning to melt.]
Evil!Steve: I suppose out of respect for our past, I should let you live. [He grabs her by the neck, choking her.] But that's not how I work. [He lifts her and throws her.]
Steven: Lapis!
[Steven leaps and catches Lapis around the waist, sealed in a bubble, flying through a few buildings before crash-landing in the street on the other side in a tangle. He wipes Evil Steven's spit off of her with his shirt. But the spit put a hole in his shirt.]
Older Lapis: You really are Steven from the past, aren't you?
[Steven just looks at her, getting up.]
Older Lapis: Almost forgot about the good times we shared back then. [she slumps back to the ground]
Steven: Wow even through 12 years of misery, she still remembers the good times.
[Back to Evil Steven, studying Lapis and Peridot]
Evil!Steven: You know, if I had an ounce of humanity left in me, [he walks around Lapis and Peridot, still trapped in the green light] this would be a touching little reunion. [Lapis and Peridot exchange a nervous glance.] But of course I surrendered my soul a long time ago.
[Behind him, Steven lands on the street just a few yards behind him, teeth gritted and fists clenched. Evil!Steve's ears perk up.]
Evil!Steve: Oh, please.
[He turns and punches a blast at Steven, who puts his shield up. The blast bounces off but knocks him off his feet as the blast vaporizes the shield and hits Dark Steven. Both are knocked down by the blast, and the green light trapping Peridot and Lapis vanishes, dropping them to the street as well.]
Steven: [sitting up, panicked] Lapis! Peridot! Run!
[Lapis took flight and Peridot took off.]
Evil!Steve: [back on his feet] Run? Where are they going to go?
[Turning, he lets out a Soul Wail. Steven covers his ears. Peridot and Lapis stop, looking up at the Statue above the temple next to them. The rocks begins to crumble, the head that crashed on top of the house rolls towards them. Lapis and Peridot cover their heads.]
[Steven gets to his feet, summons his bubble, and begins to floats to them, but Evil!Steven grabs him through the bubble by the ankle.]
Evil!Steve: Ah ah ah.
[Steven gasps as the Statue's head falls over on top of Peridot and Lapis, throwing up a cloud of dust. Steven stares in shock for a moment, then cries out as Evil!Steve shocks him with energy. His bubble discenegreate and Evil!Steve spins and throws him toward the wreckage. Getting up on his elbows, he sees the two time medallions Peridot and Lapis had been wearing lying abandoned on the ground.]
Steven: They took off their time medallions! [getting to his feet] That returns them to their time period just like the Blue Peridot and Sars! [holding up a medallion] Lapis and Peridot made it out alive! [taking hold of his own medallion] Which means I can-
Evil!Steve: [seizing Steven's arm] What? [Steven cries out as he lifts him into the air, dropping the other medallion.] Go back with them? They're doomed anyway. And you aren't going anywhere if you can't remove your time medallion. [His hand glows green. Ripping off the time medallion, he makes it intangible and sticks it inside Steven's chest. Steven screams then slumps, unconscious.] In fact, you aren't going anywhere at all.
[Back to current time at wreck of the Fry Shack. The city bus drives up and parks in front of it.]
Connie: [getting off the bus and looking around] If Steven wasn't at Temple then I'm sure he has to be out here somewhere.
[In the alley beside the Fry Shack, Lapis and Peridot appear in a flash of light. The still-live heating element and tanks of Sauce are visible. Peridot is on her knees, still shielding her head, screaming. Lapis crosses her arms and frowns at him. She looks up, surprised.]
Peridot: You got the medallions off, didn't you.
Lapis: I don't accessorize well. Unfortunately, Steven's still stuck in the future fighting his jerky older self! We've gotta help him!
Connie: [off from a distance] Hey you two are friends of Steven.
[They turn and see her standing at the entrance to the alley.]
Connie: You got a second? Let me answer that for you. [approaching with one hand pointing] Yes, you do. I know Steven stole the blueprints. And he's going to destroy the city!
Lapis: Actually, Steven wasn't going to-
Connie: [holding up a hand] Enough. I know more than you think I do. A lot more. So I suggest when you see Steven, you tell him I wanna talk to him. Tonight! Because if I don't, I will be talking to the Crystal Gems and my parents tomorrow. [walks off]
Lapis: Her parents knows Steven has the blueprints?
Peridot: Wow, is he in trouble.
Lapis: That's gotta be it. Steven building that device is what leads to that horrible future!
Peridot: Let me get this straight. Steven destroys the city and I pay for it with my live? How is that fair?
[Back in the Future: Steven is lying on the ground, opening his eyes. A large stone statue comes into focus before him.]
Steven: Garnet? Pearl? Amethyst? [rolls to his knees]
[The statue is of the Crystal Gems, Greg, Lion, & Connie all smiling. An epigraph on the large pedestal reads "GONE BUT NOT FORGOTTEN". Steven's arms are bound to his torso with glowing green rope.]
Steven: "Gone but not forgotten"?
[He looks to the side and sees a statue of Connie's Parents off by itself. The pedestal has sunk into the ground so that it reads "MR & MRS MAHESWARAN - GONE".]
Steven: [standing] And where's the Fry Shack?
[He looks up at the wreck of the Fry Shack. It's been blown open, and the sign is fallen. Evil!Steve walks around the corner of the building.]
Evil!Steve: Strange how one massive fireball of highly combustible condiments can ruin your whole future.[Dilating his pupils]
Steven: [looking down] The time medallion?
Evil!Steve: Fused inside you. Nice, huh? Intangible and unreachable which means...you can't go back in time. [He raises his hand and a disc of a bright swirling light begins to form around it.]
Steven: It doesn't matter if I go back in time or not. I'll never turn into you! Never!
[Behind Evil!Steve, the swirling white vortex has grown to his height.]
Evil!Steve: Of course you will. [he reverts to human form, he now appears to be Steven's age; a perfect clone.] It's only a matter of time. [seizing Steven by the bonds, he throws him screaming into the warp portal.] I need you out of my way and out of my hair while I make sure nothing happens to change my past. And luckily, this [he pulls out one of the time medallions] is all I need to make sure of that...
[A ball of bluewhite light engulfs him and he vanishes. He reappears back in the present, in the alleyway next to the Fry Shack.]
Evil!Steve: ...And to get where and when I need to be.
[Back at MadamTime's Tower. MadamTime stands before her viewer, which is blank, fiddling with something on her staff. The two Observants appear behind her and she stops what she's doing, looking back at them.]
Observant 1: Have you completed the task?
MadamTime: [crossly] Everything's fine. [smiling] Everything's the way it's supposed to be. [She turns to the console of the viewer and presses a button as she reverts to her old form. Disguised!Evil!Steve appears on the screen in front of the Fry Shack's Sauce vats.] And there's your boy, back to his time. Safe, sound, and clearly not evil. [onscreen DE!Steve starts walking.] Now. Care to observe the door?
[The two Observants look at each other, then vanish. MadamTime switches to child form.]
[Back at the Fry Shack. DE!Steve is looking up at the sign. Even disguised, he retains his adult voice.]
DE!:Steve: The Fry Shack. Still standing. For now... [he looks inside where the heating element is warming the Sauce tank. The temperature indicator is still slowly creeping higher.]
Lapis and Peridot : [from a distance] Steven!
[DE!Steven turns away from the hole in the Fry Shack, surprised. Lapis and Peridot run up, grinning. They both hug him ]
Lapis: You made it back!
Peridot: Did you beat that evil puspack alternative version of yourself?
DE!Steve: [his eyes flash red for an instant, then return to normal, and he laughs shortly. He now speaks with Steven's voice.] Always with the quips. In my weaker moments I sometimes miss your droll sense of humor.
[Lapis and Peridot look nonplussed.]
Peridot: What?
Steven: [realizing he's messed up] I'm just kidding! I beat my other self quite easily. Had you guys going there for a second, didn't I?
Peridot: ...Well...we should probably do what we can to stop this building from blowing up, huh?
Steven: Already done! Now, who's up for...[to himself] what did we used to do together? [out loud] Hang out and Make some meep morps?
Lapis and Peridot: [enthusiastically] Yes!
[He gives an evil grin.]
[Back in the white swirling part of the Warp portal, Steven is drifting, still bound. He struggles against the ropes.]
Steven: [grunting] Gotta get out of this!
[He struggles some more and finds himself still stuck, then finally gives up.]
Steven: Well, it was worth a shot.[The warp portal leads him into a dismantled homeworld.]
Doc: [from a distance] Well, well, well. [Steven floating toward her; she is large and muscular now, with a mechanical leg, a missing eye, and cracked glasses.] All this time we've been planning how we'd take the fight to you, and here you are. Wrapped up like a present.
Steven: Doc?
Doc: Bingo.
[Raising a fist and punches Steven, knocking him into an much chubbier Bismuth missing a hand that is now replaced with hook.]
Steven: Bismuth?! You look...
Bismuth: Like my hand dissolve to ashes, WITH THAT BURNING SPIT OF YOURS.?
Steven: I was gonna say statuesque, but uh-
[With her other hand Bismuth throws a hammer shaped fist at Steven knocks him back. He crashes into Eyeball, now balding and in a wheelchair.]
Steven: Eyeball?! Ok, whatever happened to you, I swear I had nothing to do with-
Eyeball: [in a wheelchair] Been waiting a long time for this, punk.[Pulling out her chisel.]
Steven: Wait! [More gems close in on him.] No! Nooo!
[Bismuth shape shifts her hand into a knife now and Doc throws another fist.]
[Back in Steven's room. DE!Steven rises up through the floor and looks around distastefully.]
DE!Steve: My old room. [Looking in the mirror, touching his face] And my old pudgy face.
[Behind him, the front door opens. It's Pearl, looking peeved. Connie was outside the window carefully watching]
Pearl: Steven? We need to talk.
DE!Steve: And my old looney guardian, Pearl. What do you want, Pearl? I'm busy.
[Pearl approaches, holding his cheeseburger backpack. Lion comes up the stair growling at Steven, as if he sensed something wasn't right.]
Pearl: Yeah, trying to destroy this city! [She pulls the blueprints out of the bag.] Connie was right, you did steal it! Don't you understand?
DE!Steve: That I'll be destroying my future? Haha. You don't know the half of it. [he takes the plans and bookbag from her.]
Pearl: [downcast] Steven, I'll spit it out. [DE!Steve shoves the plans in his bag] You've made so much improvement over the time that's pass. Your patience and your initiative on always doing the right thing with your powers like Rose. Until now.
DE!Steve: [Sarcastically] Really?
Pearl: Yes. Me, Garnet, and Amethyst have been proud of you, and all the good that you do. But not anymore.
DE!Steve: Maybe you aren't so defective after all. [he abandons his disguise, changing to his adult gem form]
[Connie widens her eyes in disbelieve]
Pearl: You're- you're not Steven! [backing up along with Lion still growling and summons her spear] That's why Lion kept growling at you! You're not Steven!
Evil!Steve: I was. But I grew out of it. The Steven you know is floating helplessly in the Warp Portal twelve years in the future.
Pearl: He'll escape. He'll beat you! If we don't first!
Evil!Steve: [Ignoring that comment.] How? Is the answer A, the Warp Pad in the Temple? Destroyed it.[Pearl looking extremely worried] B, the only remaining warp pad? The one my idiot nemesis who thinks I'm Rose has? As soon as I find it, that's going too.
Pearl: Thinks your Rose? Jasper?! She has a Warp Pad?
Evil!Steve: Is it C, you? Uhh No. You can't stop me from building that device and solidifying my future, so it must be D- [He throws a blast at her and Lion who is crying in pain, freezing them both with a green light] None of the above!
[He releases them and they fall to the ground unconscious. Connie scared out of her mind, runs off. Dark Steven returns to his human disguise and pulls the blueprints out of his bag, unravels it and looks inside.]
DE!Steve: [adult voice] Well, what do you know! It's a bomb that's Deadly to gems. [evil laugh]
[Hours later Pearl and Lion are lying in the Strawberry Battlefield fields , Pearl is thrashing in her sleep.]
Pearl: Steven! [sits up as she wakes up screaming] Nooo! Huh? [looks around] What? The Strawberry Battlefield.
[Pearl leaps up and runs out to the warp pad in the field now severely damaged, she summons a pen and paper out of her gem, writes on it, and and ties it to a rock. And puts it up to lion's face.]
Pearl: Lion I need you to send this to Steven. Our Steven, twelve years from now. [Lion being extremely hesitate.] Please! Lion! [Finally he bucks up the courage and grabs the rock with the paper on it from her hand. Lion performs the most powerful portal creation roar yet. He actually succeeds. But the unfortunately due to him using all of his power to perform such a task, he's unable to create any more portals at the moment and nearly weakens him to the point of almost falling until Pearl catches him. She encourages him and get on his back and they both make their long journey back to Beach City.]
[The message flies around in the Portal, and ends up in space. It pass through 12 years. It then arrives in HOMEWORLD: 12 YEARS LATER. The rock, scorched and cracked alittle, with the message attached to it crumbled alittle as well.]
[Steven, still bound, getting bounced around by cranky gems. Blue Peridot hits Steven with a blast from her limb enhancers, then Bismuth kicks him, Eyeball then cuts him slightly with her chisel. Before Steven nearly blacks out he see Sars threatening him with lightning, Blue Peridot socks him and knocks him into Doc again. She seizes him and slams him into a wall.]
Steven: Please! I didn't do all this to you, it wasn't me!
Sars!Lars: Oh, shutup! You're responsible for all the horrible things that happened to your world and here.
Sars!Sadie: And to everyone you've ever come in contact with!
Doc: Your family, your friends, [backing away] and most importantly, us.
Steven: But-I didn't do any of that!
[All of the gems power up to attack.]
Steven: Get away. [His eyes turn red and dilate in the snake like fashion] (seems like he's getting enraged) Get away! Get AWAAAAAY!
[His scream turns into a Soul Wail, knocking the other gems away and vaporizing his bonds. The effort of the attack weakens him , his eyes turn back to normal but his gem is glowing.]
Steven: Whoa.
[All of the gems are floating unconscious in space, the Blue Peridot's limb enhancers in pieces and Sar's suit smoking.]
Steven: My voice is changing? Great. [he regains his consciousness] Now I'm going through evil puberty. Everywhere I turn my stupid future is smacking me in the face! [The rock with the note clocks him in the back of the head] OW! ...A note? [he takes the note and throws the rock to the side] [reading] Jasper. Figures she's involved in this!
[Back at Beach City on the Beach. DE!Steve follows the directions on the blueprint up as he goes by, then smirks as he's building the bomb. Peridot and Lapis come across him. Peridot looks shocked and Lapis despondent.]
Peridot: Steven, don't! If you build that we-
[Before she could finish her sentence, her and Lapis are chased away by a swarm of seagulls.]
DE!Steve: [he looks over at Lapis and Peridot being chased away by the seagulls and he snickers.] No problem at all. [his eyes go red]