So, remember how this fanfic is for a show called Steven Universe? yeah, weird right? I've never written a chapter from Stevens point of View, so I thought I better give it a shot.
Besides, I had to end this fic on a bang.
I'll see you guys in the notes at the bottom.
It was Connie that opened it in the end. Which made sense, Steven should have known that Connie would know how to pick locks. It was a skill that definitely belonged on her 'Everything a YA hero should know how to do' list.
In the loft turned bedroom, Steven dragged the chest out of Lion's mane from where the cat was sprawled on the bed and narrowly managed to avoid dropping in on his foot.
"Wow, so you never found the key?" Connie asked kneeling next to it with lock picks in hand.
"Nope, Pearl didn't know anything about it and I never found anything at the fountain, or in her room, or the base, or buried under the temple." Steven plopped next to Connie on the floor, crossing his legs.
"You checked under the temple?"
"Yeah, like... around the sand, and I asked Mauve and she had no clue where it could be, neither did Garnet."
"Huh, weird, you would think your mom would have left something like that where you could find it." Connie stuck her tongue out the side of her mouth.
"You would think..." Steven grumbled. This wouldn't be the first time his mom had forgotten to tell him something important, like the moss that nearly ate him and Lars, or her secret alliance with pink diamond, or even how any of his powers worked! Thankfully most of that seemed to work itself out. And it hadn't even ended with him like, dying and meeting his mom and becoming a gem, that wasn't something he wanted.
Since meeting Domina, it seemed like he had just gotten more and more questions about what he was supposed to be as someone that wasn't quite gem and wasn't quite human. And now, as once again, the only gem hybrid in the universe, he was finally finding an identity he felt comfortable with. The last ten years had been good. He had finally gotten a chance to breathe, with the most stressful thing in his life being trying to help gems get used to life on earth. And he loved doing that.
But he also loved Connie and growing up with her. They were still as inseparable as they had been when they were kids, even though she had been away at Colombia in Empire City for a good portion of the year. Steven looked to his nightstand and thought about the black box sitting in the back of it. He wanted to spend the rest of his life with her, and he couldn't do that as a gem.
"Got it!" Connie said as the lock clicked open.
"Yeah!" Steven cheered getting to his feet, he put a hand on the chest lid and stopped. He saw Connie's grin fade as his own did. There was a long moment where the only sound was the beach outside and Lions snore. Thankfully he was stopped from going forward by the rumbling of his stomach.
"Hey... maybe we should go get some pizza."
"So what do you think's in there?" Steven asked Connie from across their usual table at Fish Stew Pizza. The building had been full from the lunch time rush when they arrived, but now, half a pizza later, it was mostly empty. It was Kiki's day off so Larimer was at the counter, where she was reading a fashion magazine that Jenny was fond of.
The gem population was the biggest around Beach City, though quite a few wandered out into the rest of the world, rounding up the remaining corrupted gems or just living their lives. Some, mostly those that had been Homeworld gems, had gone back to Homeworld and seemed to be doing pretty well from what he had heard from Yellow Pearl and Domina.
Connie hummed through a slice of pizza, jolting him back to their current conversation. "War stuff?"
"Maybe? But what else is there left to say?"
"Well a lot but, maybe that's where she put all the stuff she wanted you to know?"
"Maybe..." Steven's hand drifted to grip the shirt over his gem. Maybe it was the truth about him? Maybe Rose Quartz wasn't as gone as everyone thought she was.
"Steven..." Connie's hand was placed over his other hand, comfortingly, before it gently brushed his cheek stubble. "Your you, what happened to Domina was an anomaly, you two figured that much out."
"Yeah I guess." Steven shrugged, leaning his cheek into her hand. "Oh you never told me what your advisor said about your new thesis idea!"
They didn't go back to the beach house until later that evening, instead they spent most of the day wandering Beach City, talking, playing games at funland and eventually Stevonnie was the one that made their way back to the beach house.
And they were the ones that decided to sit in the bed, next to lion and finally begin to lift the lid on the chest.
"Ok, what do we have here." They let the lid fall back and right on top was a key.
Stevonnie burst into laughter.
Under that was a stack of old photos, each on with a picture of one of the gems, or Greg or Lion, and each with Rose Quartz's neat handwriting on the back.
Stevonnie smiled and set the stack aside. Below that was a pile of yellowed college brochures and travel guides. Then there was a layer of pressed flowers from around the world, sketches, more pictures. It was like everything in Rose's dump in the middle of the desert, combined with everything in the vault. And it was all about the earth, not some magical destiny, not some hidden agenda, just the planet the Crystal Gems had fought for.
Stevonnie felt relief from... someone, maybe it was their own.
"Alright, so no answers but that's ok." Stevonnie said, a little disappointed. Then they peered at the bottom. "Oh there it is, that's a little more like what I was expecting." They retrieved an envelope from the bottom of the chest. "Gems are nothing if not dramatic."
They read opened the letter, smile slowly fading.
"Oh no." they muttered, then reread it again. "Oh nooooo-"
There was a flash of light and the two of them slumped to the floor.
"-ooooooooooo." continued Steven. Connie looked over the letter.
"I mean... it makes sense." Connie said.
"Yeah, I know but..." He sighed and dug around in the chest for another moment before carefully pulling out a pink flower. It had delicate petals and it's center was a glittery pink, like gem shards. Steven looked back at the letter, then at the flower that he had seen on the man-eating moss so many times. The center looked exactly like gem shards. "I didn't expect to find Pink Diamond's shards like this."
It's been a long time coming but Domus Die Adamantus (Home of the Diamonds) will begin posting next week!
It's been ten years since the end of Seditionis Adamas and Era 3 is proving to be absolutely unprecedented. Not everyone's happy about with the changes though. The Diamonds have been joined by those who previously opposed them from the shadows in governing homeworld, Pearls are free and any gem may hold just about any position. It should be perfect but there are still tremors within homeworld, the gempire, and… even beyond. Both Steven and Domina will be digging within the past to uncover things that may have been better to leave alone.
I'm really excited to share this story with you guys and I hope you like what I have to tell.
see you guys next week