It was Connie's banging on Steven's door that roused the Crystal Gems from their chambers.
"Connie?" Pearl asked, confused. She took in her quivering and frantic form, the scratch under her eye and the lack of her date. "What happened? Where's Steven?"
"He's not here?!" Connie exclaimed, wildly looking around. "He…," she showed Pearl's Snowflake's gem, which was cupped in her hands. "I think he's in trouble."
Pearl caused and drew back at the sight of her friend's gemstone. She set her face and ushered Connie inside. Connie sat down as Pearl called Garnet and Amethyst to the room.
"Tell us everything," she said, taking control of the situation.
Connie explained how everything was going great when Snowflake accidentally hurt her. She told them how Steven immediately turned pink, formed a bubble around his fist, and jabbed his arm right through Snowflake's unsuspecting form. How he stood over Snowflake's gem, his face devoid of guilt, and how he knocked her down and then came to his senses. How he ran at a speed she couldn't follow.
Amethyst looked to Garnet. "Can you find him?"
The fusion didn't immediately answer. "I can't," she said, her voice blank.
Pearl nodded. "Then we need to start looking. Connie, stay here."
Connie jumped up. "No way, I'm coming too!"
Pearl put her hand on Connie's shoulder. "I know you're worried, but we need someone here in case he comes back."
The teen huffed but nodded. "I'll call you if he does," she vowed, her face was determined.
The gems split up their duties. Garnet would check the Earth warp spots, Amethyst would look around Little Home-School and Pearl would check around the city. All of them glanced at Snowflake's motionless gemstone before heading out the door.
"This is bad," Amethyst said once Connie was out of earshot. "Steven? Poof a gem?"
"I know," Pearl said. "It has to be his new power. We all know his powers are manipulated by his emotions. If it's anything like what he did at the Reef," she trailed off, eyes scanning the horizon.
"We'll find him," Garnet said, face vacant. "He'll be fine."
"Yeah," Amethyst said. "It's Steven after all."
They searched well into the night. No one had seen or heard from Steven since he and Connie left Fish Stew Pizza. They returned home and found Connie asleep on the couch. She stirred when they opened the door. Her face fell when Steven wasn't with them.
She was about to speak when the warp sounded and a flash of light illuminated the sky.
They all rushed upstairs.
"Steven!?" Connie called as the figure took shape.
"Not quite." Spinel stepped off the warp, her eyes wide and face terrified. "He's not here?!"
The gems shook their heads.
"What do you need, Spinel?" Garnet asked.
"Steven!" she exclaimed. "Something is attacking Homeworld! We need backup. The Diamonds...," she trailed off, her eyes filling with despair.
Pearl summoned her spear. "Connie, stay here and wait for Steven. We'll go on ahead."
Connie nodded, knowing she was useless to them without her sword. "You can count on me."
The Crystal Gems all stepped on the warp with Spinel and were gone in moments.
Homeworld was indeed a mess. The throne room was destroyed with a large hole in the back wall and pieces of the roof missing. The gems caught a glimpse of the rest of the planet and saw smoke rising from the city and a line of destruction leading to or from the palace.
"Spinel," Pearl asked. "Where are the Diamonds?"
Spinel said nothing and waved for them to follow her. "Brace yourself," she said as she opened the door to Blue's chambers. The roof had been blown clear off and the bridge leading to it was crumbling, threatening to fall into the abyss below.
The door opened and the gems had their weapons out, but all of them vanished in a poof of light when they saw the scene in front of them.
Two large gems, yellow and white, laid in the back of the chamber with Blue hunched over them, sobbing to herself.
Spinel cleared her throat.
Blue jumped up, her posture ready to defend her family, but she relaxed when she saw who it was.
"What happened here?" Pearl asked the first to regain her composure from seeing the monumental gems poofed. Her hand covered her mouth when she noticed the crack in white's gem.
"It's all our fault," Blue said with a broken voice. "We couldn't help."
"Help?" Pearl pushed, but Blue didn't look at her.
Her gaze was on the destruction behind her, her eyes tearing up as she watched the smoke and pieces fall from the city. "I've ordered the evacuation of the planet. All of the gems should be safe for now," she said.
"Safe from what?" Garnet growled.
Blue turned to them with her sad eyes. "I'm so sorry," she whispered. "I couldn't help him."
The gems explained glances, but it was Spinel who asked the next question. "Him?"
Blue nodded, looking off into the distance again. "I never expected this to happen. How could we have known?"
Amethyst shouted in frustration. "Yo, Blue Diamond! What. Happened?!"
Blue looked down again. "Right," she said, taking a breath and composing herself. "You all need to know." She took another second as if it pained her to continue. "Steven did this."
"Whaaaaaat?!" Amethyst shouted. "Steven?!"
Blue nodded. "He came to us for help. He lost control and…" she sighed.
"And what?!" Garnet yelled, her fists clenched.
"He turned into a monster."
Silence. A loud ringing silence filled the destroyed chamber.
Blue looked back to the city before she spoke again. "He came to us when the corruption was spreading. We tried to heal him. It almost worked, but White couldn't touch him," she explained. "I don't know why.
"White tried to overpower him," Blue continued. "To calm him down and stall the corruption so we could help. She asked him first," Blue hastily added, seeing the look on the gems' faces. "It was the only way. Steven said he tried using our essence, but it didn't work."
She signed. "White tried, but he fought back. He…" she gestured to the crack in White's gem, her voice breaking as tears overcame her.
"Steven did that?" Amethyst repeated, her jaw dropping. "How?"
Blue wiped her eyes, but her voice was as unsteady as ever. "Yellow tried to protect White, but," she gestured behind her before covering her mouth. She shook her head, the memory of Steven changing into a giant horned beast still fresh. The sound of his pained wails and bones cracking as he grew in size.
She did nothing as White yelled at him in anger. Yellow raised her hand to destabilize him.
And she had just stood there as he rushed at them. She watched helplessly as Yellow stepped in front of her and took the blow. His horns impaled her chest and a pink aura overtook her fellow Diamond before her form poofed.
White didn't even have a chance to raise her arm to protect herself before the creature's tail smashed down on her body.
"And he didn't hurt you?" Pearl asked, finding her voice and breaking Blue out of her memories.
Blue shook her head. "He left after he…" she gestured to the poofed Diamonds. "I don't think he remembered I was here."
Spinel cautiously walked over to Blue Diamond. "So, how can we help him?" she asked her eyes on the carnage.
Blue shook her head. "I don't know if we can."
"We can't just give up on him!" Amethyst said. "He's still Steven! We fought corrupted gems before and healed them. We can do this!"
Garnet pursed her lips. "Steven is different," she said. "He is half-human. It's like Pearl said before: Steven's powers are tied to his emotions. The more emotional he is, the more powerful he becomes."
"But how is this possible?!" Pearl exclaimed. "He can't be corrupted! He's half-human!"
"He can fuse," Garnet said. "He can do everything a full gem can do, despite being human. But a gem corrupting itself?" She shook her head. "That shouldn't be possible."
Spinel toed the ground nervously. "I think it has something to do with his new power. When he came to Homeworld a few days ago," she started, glancing nervously at Blue. "He lost control of his new power and ran off to the garden," she said. "And yesterday, when I visited, he still wasn't okay."
Pearl looked to the ground. "He was like that in the Reef too," she said. "He got so angry hearing about what Pink did to Volleyball that he nearly destroyed the repair chamber."
"But he could control it!" Amethyst countered. "When we were Smoky or when he was fighting Emerald!"
Garnet shook her head. "It might not even be caused by that! We can sit here all day and try to figure it out, or we can go find him."
"Right," Pearl said. "Blue, are you coming with us?"
The Diamond glanced to her fallen comrades, but Spinel stepped next to them.
"I'll keep an eye on them," she vowed. "You go help."
"One moment," Blue told them, her hand glowing blue as she laid it on White's cracked diamond. The gemstone slowly healed, but the Diamond did not reform.
Blue nodded, her face set as she stood. "You'll need all the help you can get," she told the gems, her hands forming into fists. "Let's get our Steven back."