Chapter 36: Actions speak louder than words

I don't own Steven universe, it's owned by its respected owner or owners

AN: Just want to apologize to all of you for waiting so long to update, but you know the holidays. Now I hope you all heard what I heard… STEVEN UNIVERSE WILL BE BACK IN JANUARY…for the U.S anyways. So now I will have more ideas for the story and have more background on the characters we all love. Now just to let you guys know the show down between the crystal gems and Yellow Jadeite will begin, and with help from the wreckers and renegades as well. And more new faces will appear, all good, bad and in between. Also I like to officially announced that this is a Steven and Lapis story. Sorry for some of you that wanted a different pairing but hey… this probably won't be my last Steven Universe story so don't fret to much. So enough about that… ON WITH THE CHAPTER! Oh and if you guys who have OCs want to have your OC in a pairing give me a PM and we'll talk.

At Beach City, Beach House

"So… don't want to be that guy but… this is pretty awkward." Raven said with a nervous chuckle as the atmosphere around the living room was rough. It was only a few minutes ago that the White Diamond and the wreckers decided to make their presence known. The living room was filled with gems all around, some giving each other glares which were from Amazonite, Ruby and Pearl mainly. The others on the other hand were trying to act as civil as possible, which for Amethyst was very strange. Many of the gems in the room from both sides or nether dare not to do anything aggressive to each other since they were all under the watchful eye of Emerald and Sapphire… especially White Diamond who was sitting on top of the kitchen counter with a cup of tea in his hand. After taking a sip from his tea White Diamond decided to look around the house as most of the gems on each side were placed all over. He saw Emerald and Sapphire attending to the injured Alyssa and Lapis, Alyssa was stationed on the large couch where Sapphire was also with Raven by her side… though mainly for Alyssa. While Lapis was placed on Steven's bed since he was in Rose's room with Rosie and lion along with tiger who wanted to stay by lion's side. After the whole meeting on the beach everyone thought that Steven needed to be with lion and his aunt. As White Diamond's gaze continued to look around the house he could tell that Raven was right, this was pretty awkward.

Amazonite was right by the front door, leaning on the wall with his arms crossed. His gaze was on Pearl who in return sent a few subtle glares back at him which made him let out a chuckle. Pearl was sitting by Amethyst who was sitting on the steps leading towards Steven's room. While Pearl was dealing with Amazonite, Amethyst was trying wrap head with all that's happening since it was probably to big for her to act like her usual self. She was sitting in the same room with a Diamond, and not just any Diamond but The White Diamond! There was also the fact she just found out that Rose, the person she saw as a mother figure had a sister! Which was quite a shock to her, though she wasn't here when the crystal gems were originally formed she heard stories from Pearl, Garnet and of course Rose. After about a minute of taking everything in, Amethyst looked to her teammates who were doing their own separate things and thought 'Why didn't they tell me… do they even trust anymore'? As Amethyst began to feel like her team didn't seem to trust her, Ruby on the other hand wasn't being herself at all.

So unlike herself that she offered to help Emerald and Sapphire with Alyssa and Lapis, which made Sapphire and Emerald begin to worry about her even more. The talk with Steven and this whole situation must have hit her more than they expected. Currently Ruby could be sitting on a chair looking out the window as she could see the golems help around the town. Since most of the public would think that another attack would happened it was decided to reassure Mayor Dewey that everything would be alright, so Emerald ordered Steven's golems to patrol the town and help with what they can. Though they proved to be difficult at first but Rosie helped her though. Since Rosie was technically like Steven since they were related it was easy for the golems to listen to her, so before the golems went off the help White Diamond decided to have a little chat with Mayor Dewey. Though only Rosie and Emerald knew what he did everyone else didn't have a clue. One minute Mayor Dewey is spouting some nonsense and soon when White Diamond led him away he's as calm as a ice cube when he comes back. Which shocked everyone, even Steven though he was busy by lion's side. Thinking about it now Ruby looked over to the door leading to all of the crystal gem's rooms, she could only worry about Steven and let out a bit of a grumble since she didn't like the feeling of having Rosie in the same room with. Though she did have the right to see her nephew, it didn't make it any better since she just decided to show up now of all times.

White Diamond could see the look on all their faces, both wrecker and crystal gem and knew that this was going to be hard. He proceeded to let out a deep sigh, his expression was a solemn and tired one. Even though gems didn't actually needed sleep, White Diamond felt like he could need some right now. Being over a half a million years could do that to someone, even as powerful as he is. No matter how powerful and strong he was there is one enemy he can't defeat, and that was time. Sometimes he wondered what would have happened if Yellow Diamond and the others didn't betrayal him and Black Diamond, and if Rose took his position in the Diamond… probably many things good and bad. Though he didn't know why he was thinking about such things now, maybe it's just an old man wondering if these had gone differently than maybe this wouldn't be so dire like right. With most of the team in shambles, with distrust, anger, pain and sorrow all around. It was a wonder how he, Rose and Rosie learned to deal with it. White Diamond looked to the door as Ruby just did a little while ago and thought about Steven. Hoping that he was brave enough to learn what he had to do because the crystal gems needed their true leader. Because if not then… all would be lost.

In Rose's Room

Though the living room had a rough atmosphere, it was nothing compared in Rose's room. For Rosie anyways, for Steven and tiger… that was another story. She could see the look on tiger and knew it was an all to familiar one. Once she saw to often during the war and occupations on other planets when she was in the homeworld military. Though tiger was just an animal, that didn't mean she didn't have emotions and feelings. It was no big surprised that tiger and lion were close, they were especially close during the war. At first not everyone thought to much of it since there was a war going, but some thought it was cute. So when they got bigger that's when people really started to notice. Soon during the duration of the war lion and tiger would disappear, sometimes days or weeks and even months at a time. Still no one dared to do nothing about it since they were technically the pets of the two most powerful gems of the crystal gems. But that all changed when the war was over and when White Diamond left, that's when things started to changed and not for the better. Since Rose kept lion a secret it wasn't hard for him to be with tiger and especially since she never once thought about using him in battle. But with tiger leaving with White Diamond… it caused some sort of rift between lion and Rose.

A rift so huge that it caused lion to run away which made Rose more heartbroken than ever. With most of her crystal gems leaving and some that never got to see the end of the war it was hard for her. And when Rosie left it would have probably have broken her beyond repair. But luckily enough she had people to help her through it, though White Diamond had left he still stayed in touch with Rose which helped her a lot. Though most of crystal gems left three stocked by her side and those were Pearl, Sapphire and Ruby. Four if you counted Garnet, then five when Rose found Amethyst. After that Rosie didn't know much about what happened that… and that made her feel worse since she missed the birth of her nephew… and the death of her dear sister Rose Quartz. Rosie then looked to her dear nephew as he was sitting by his injured faithful feline companion. Steven just sat there gently petting lion's mane and whispering in his ear that everything was going to be alright. But to Rosie and to anyone who saw what a gem made grenade could do… it wasn't going to be alright. As Rosie stood behind Steven wondering what to do or say, Steven decided to break his long silence.

"I sometimes wondered… if things would have been different if I wasn't even born and my mom was here instead of me. Do you think that sometimes…?" Steven said in a quiet tone that was empty of emotion. Hearing him finish that sentence deeply shocked Rosie, was he that deep in self-doubt that he would think such things? Did he really think that if Rose was here that it might be a bit different? Though they might have been different, there was no telling if they would have been bad as they were or worse. So there was no telling if what Steven was say was true or not, but for Rosie… she was at a lost. Even though she lost her sister and never got the chance reconcile with each other, she would have never wanted what Steven would have wanted. That would be spitting on Rose's sacrifice, and that was something Rosie would never think of doing… ever. As Rosie continued to try and figure out what to do or say, Steven did something she wasn't expecting… though it was appropriate. He began to cry silently as he continued to pet his feline friend who looked to be in too much pain to move. This only but made it to hard for Rosie to watch as her nephew she was supposed to be there for… crying his heart out. After a few minutes of Steven crying Rosie decided to do something that Rose used to do for her when she was deeply upset.

Steven continued to cry silently and all of a sudden he felt to around for around him that formed it a hug that was all to familiar to him. Rosie was hugging him the same way that he did for Pearl before he awoken his powers. He could feel her head rest of top of his and he felt her hands gently held his. This hug… didn't just feel so familiar not because he did it in a similar way with Pearl. It felt like he has done this before multiple with Rosie… but that would be impossible since it was only a few hours ago that they finally met fact to face. Before Steven could do anything or say, he finally felt something that he hasn't felt like doing in awhile. He started to cry in his aunt's arms which she began to held him a bit tighter, Rosie looked down at her nephew as he began to let out all his bottled up emotions that he's been trying to keep a tight lid on. This moment in this room with his aunt and two large felines, it wasn't the best place to let out all your pain… but it was better noting. As both aunt and nephew were having their own personal family moment. They didn't notice the tiny figure who was White Diamond who looked on with sad expression but with a single thought in mind that was telling him only one thing. 'He's ready… I only hope that his family… his team and friends are ready as well.'

To Be Continued

AN: What do you guys think Steven is ready for, and is he really ready? Will the teams learn to work together as one team or will long time mistrust and anger destroy that? Where are Tekite, Verdelite and Schorl and are Yellow Jadeite's mind controlled renegades and team are on the move? Most importantly though… when will the romance start… well soon. Just want to still apologize to you guys because of my own personal life and other things. My bad, now that I'm back in the groove we'll see what happens. Anyways hope you guys are as excited as I am for the return of Steven Universe. Well thanks for reading and do please leave a review. See ya and if it don't have any time before the new years… happy new years!