Steven woke up. He opened his eyes. There was pitch black surrounding him. He sat up. He was sore all over his body. He winced as he lifted his arm to his head.
He was okay. Just sore. Steven didn't know what they did to him, but he felt fine. The last thing he remembered was a Topaz carrying him and hitting him over the head so hard Steven passed out. His head didn't even have a bump.
Steven stood and felt woozy at first but gained balance fast enough. He walked over to a panel that was on the door. It didn't have a hand print on it, but a confusing array of squares all over the screen.
He pushed his hand on a square and it slid back into place. He dragged a random square on to another square. It made the whole screen glow red and the squares went back to place. It seemed as if the squares were codes. They just had to be the right squares. Steven tried again, this time dragging a square to the square in the corner. It had the same effect.
Steven sighed and looked around the room. The room was fairly small. It was probably twenty by ten feet. In the middle was the singular platform that Steven woke up on. Nothing else was found in the room except the pannel. He had to make sure Lars was okay. He almost forgot about Lars when the trial was happening. He was so scared...
He went back to the panel. He slid squares repeatedly for countless hours. He was about to give up when he slid the middle square to the square on the bottom left side of the panel. The screen shone white and a panel hissed as it released itself from the wall.
Steven was hit with fresh air. He smiled and peeked his head out of the doorway. Outside, was a long, dark hallway. The floor was a dimmed white light, but other than that, it was dark. He had to decide. Right or Left?
He went right. You could say it sounded like the "right" choice. He smiled again and then pinched himself for thinking of puns at such a dire moment.
After a few minutes of running down the hall, he heard footsteps ahead. He stopped and looked around. The walls were empty of anything dpr him to hide in. He had to think fast. The footsteps were right around the corner. He decided shapeshifting was the only way. He never completely shifted before. The only time he ever tried to shift his whole body, cats tried to take over. He needed it to work. It had to work.
He thought of a vase. No particular reason why, it was the first thing he thought of. He concentrated on what the vase was supposed to look like and let his thoughts turn into a feeling. He felt warm light engulf him but he stayed focused on the vase.
After what seemed minutes but was only a second he somehow watched a gem walk past without a second glance. It was a tall purple gem with long blue hair. Her heels clinked away from Stevens view and went quiet once more.
Steven tried to get back up and ended up toppling himself on his side. Duh! he was still a vase! He let the thought of a vase slide from his mind and was once again engulfed in warmth. He opened his eyes and looked at himself, he was back! Perfect shapeshifting! He was elated that he finally did it. Amethyst would be proud...
Steven wondered what they thought of him now. Were they anrgy or sad? Were they looking for him or were they staying on Earth to protect Beach City?
That made Steven think of Lars. He had a mission, and he was determined not to fail.