Note: Any references that this story makes aside from the universe that this takes place in belongs to their respective owners and should be as such.

Warning: Language, Violence

Ch.19: Act the Third: Chaotic Rage

"I'm not going to choose."

"WHAT?!"

Connie, Peridot and Chaos Emerald all shouted those words out in unison. For Steven to say that was unexpected to anyone.

"What do you mean you won't choose?!"

"Like I said, I will choose neither. Shattering you will haunt me and wreck me with an overwhelming guilt and failure that I would dishonor my mother. If I refuse you throw that and I wouldn't have enough strength to stop it, destroying everything around us and affecting this planet. It's a lose, lose kind of situation anyway."

"Then why refuse to choose either?"

Steven looked down for a moment, sighing to himself and then he looked back directly at Chaos Emerald's eyes.

"'Act 1: Flora Turnabout, with the plan using the Pheromone Miasma now in place I, Emerald shall make my appearance at New Homeworld after the effect manifests with Pearl, Garnet, and Amethyst. As soon as Steven Universe arrives to New Homeworld and gathers around the majority of Earth's Crystal Gems the opening of the starting scene will commence. All he needs to say is "Who are you?" to begin the act.'"

"...Eh? Wh-Where did you?"

Steven continued without answering Chaos Emerald's question. It was like he was reading out of a page of a book.

"2 hours later. 'Act 2: Diamond Coordination, After showing my capabilities I will write out a message to Steven stating to meet me at the Sky Arena alone. When he arrives the second act commences. I then convince him to join by my side as the Diamond he is suppossed to be, until I stab him in the back. In case he doesn't (which he will refuse) our big fight scene will occur. There is a likely possibility that I will lose so in this case I reveal the plot twist of the source by hitting Solomon's ring on any surface.'"

Sighing in disappointment Steven shook his head from side to side.

"The screwed up part of that was you were going to kill me if I accepted your stupid proposal. But apparently you knew I was going to refuse."

"WAIT! How do you know about that?"

Peridot tilted her head in confusion.

"About...what?"

"Oh sorry Peridot, you see when I was in Emerald's secret underground base I found a book that belonged to her. It had some events that we already went through. In other words, she had a little manipulation part per say in all this."

"Shut up, shut up!"

In response to Chaos Emerald's distress Steven smirked a bit.

"Oh and Act three really got to me to how you think I was going to shatter-"

"ENOUGH!!"

For a moment Steven saw that Chaos Emerald's eyes changed to red. Okay, joking done, now he was serious. The decision he.made was solid and final.

"Sorry but...I'm not going to choose. That's all I'm going to say, goodbye."

Shockingly Steven turned his body from Chaos Emerald and started to walk away.

"Hey...HEY!"

"C'mon Connie, Peridot."

"YOU NOW 120% LOST YOUR SHIT! THAT PSYCHOTIC CLOD WILL KILL US AL-"

"She won't do it...It's a bluff. Earlier she was sincere when she was talking about the Earth for me to conquor, not destroy. Even if she wanted to kill me later she hasn't killed any humans. Which would mean that she understood what my mom did for this planet."

"DON'T YOU WALK AWAY FROM ME!"

Connie caught up to Steven. She may trust Steven in his words but her worried face said otherwise.

"Steven hold on. I trust you when you say that Emerald won't do anything but what are we going to do about the miasma and the fact that Pearl and the others are still poofed. Peridot tried her best yet it was still no good."

"Y-Yeah it's taking them longer to reform themselves. I'm getting kind of worried."

"Well first we'll have to find Angeline, wherever she is? Oh wait Yellow Diamond is available, maybe we can get her to help."

As the group walk further away Chaos Emerald started to breathe heavily.

"WAIT! YOU HAVE TO CHOOSE UNIVERSE! KILL ME OR LET THE WORLD BE DESTROYED!"

The desperation in her voice was evident. Her whole plan was quickly falling apart and she couldn't think of much to do about it. She didn't think that this scenario would ever happen from the thinking process. Everything was so perfect, now it was shattering in front of her. Chaos Emerald prepared herself to throw the sphere.

"I'LL FUCKING DO IT!...KILL ME!!"

No matter how much she screamed and shouted Steven ignored her. Chaos Emerald's arms shook with rage and mostly disbelief.

"(No...no no no no.)"

Strangely tears rolled down Chaos Emerald's face while she bit into her bottom lip.

"(Nonononononono!)"

Above her head the sphere faded away from existence, leaving Chaos Emerald to lower her shaking arms. Her eyes changed to white and black swirls, she was losing her mind.

"(NONONOOO!!!)"

Her gaze was now focused on Steven, the Human/Gem fuck child that ruined her plans for the final resolution. The control she had over herself was long gone and with that lack of self control she only had one thing on her mind. To kill this piece of shit. Fuck the resolution, she can kill herself later. Right now it's his head that she wanted.

Gathering a large amount of electricity into her index and middle fingertips Chaos Emerald aimed right at Steven's back.

"THEN DIE WHERE YOU STAND!!"

Firing a green laser aimed at Steven Chaos Emerald roared in insane laughter. Steven felt that the laser was coming towards him but also felt that it was coming too fast and he couldn't twist his body fast enough to block it. Shit! Ah what the heck, he has a little time to dodge it though he knew that he wouldn't dodge it unscathed.

Honestly Steven had alot of injuries. Some life threatening, some not so life threatening what's a hole through his non vitals going to do to him? Nothing that a little of his spit wouldn't fix...it was going to hurt alot so he prepared himself by closing his eyes and shifting his feet to dodge off to the side.

...Huh? That's odd? Steven was sure that he was going to feel an intensely singeing pain in his abdomen yet somehow when he opened his eyes he remained unharmed. He could've sworn that he felt himself being pushed out of the wa- wait, pushed?!

Steven slowly turned his head to his right, being presented to a horror he never expected to happen. Connie's chest was blown through herher, the light in her eyes were gone, indicating an instant death as her body went limp.

"CONNIE!"

In a panic Steven caught her before her body could fall onto the pavement with a sickening thud.

"Connie...Connie wake up!"

"No way..."

Peridot couldn't believe that this was real. This was fucking unfair, why her? At least she knew who to turn her anger towards.

"You..YOU FUCKING MURDERER!"

Chaos Emerald would've heard that but at the very moment she couldn't hear anything and everything in her vision was completely black, except for one. A few inches in front of her was herself in her Pearl form shaking with rage.

"What the hell did you do?!"

"I...I..I didn't...I didn't mean to...I didn't to."

In her shock Chaos Emerald could barely form a coherant sentence. The Green Pearl apparition stomped her foot down, it produced a loud clack despite the fact there was no ground to produce sound on.

"You promised me that you wouldn't kill anyone, especially Pearl! We just wanted them to understand our pain, our torment, our loneliness! Everything went so well yet you decided to throw away the last of your morality for a wish. You killed that human female!"

"No..nonnonoNO! You're not going to blame me for this, I'm not at fault! If, if, if Steven just simply shatter us then that girl wouldn't have died! It's all his fault, not mine!"

The Green Pearl apparition calmly shook her head in disagreement.

"You didn't break that injector, you didn't cause that power outage, you didn't do this, you didn't do that! Why don't you ever take responsibility for anything and just lie about everything?!"

Chaos Emerald felt that her control over herself was slipping and the amplification of guilt made the feeling even worse.

"You run away from responsibility yet you think you're able to be a conqueror of worlds?"

"Stop...please stop."

"You're not even a Pearl. YOU'RE NOTHING BUT A PATHOLOGICAL LIAR!"

"AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!"

With that Chaos Emerald's mind completely snapped as she did what her apparition has been saying that she was doing all along, running away by bursting up towards the sky, screaming like a bat out of hell. She didn't have any destination, she just needed to get away, far away from anything.

Meanwhile Steven tried again and again to heal Connie with his healing spit on the different parts of the hole but for some unexplained reason it wasn't working. It worked for Lars before, why wasn't it working now?!

"Why, why isn't it working?!"

"I...I don't know. It should've worked instantly!"

"Damnit c'mon...work fucking goddamnit!"

Steven kept trying again and again, no result. Desperation was rising up from within as he did it more forcefully. Not wanting to see this painful display anymore Peridot put down the poofed gems without breaking them and grabbed Steven's wrist. His hand was blood caked.

"Stop it, it's not working! She's...gone."

Steven went silent, the arm in which was holding up Connie's body went limp. Luckily she was put down gently.

"Steven...I'm so sorry about Connie. If only I stopped he- oww!"

Suddenly Peridot felt a slight prick from her hand that was grabbing Steven's wrist, causing her to let go of him. The pain felt like a knife cutting each of her fingers all at once yet when she looked at her hand there was no sign of damage.

"Steven?"

Steven just sat there, motionless and slumped over. After a few seconds both of his hand clenched into fists til they bled. A low painful growl pierced through his clenched teeth. Peridot saw the same place on Steven's wrist that dark purple sharp looking crystals growing out from under his skin, blood dripping from the tips. More of them ripped through his jacket along the shoulders and the lower back.

Sickening cracks and pops from the crystals in his joints caused Steven to yelp out in pain, his voice becoming more distorted and animal like. Peridot has seen this phenomenon happen many times before. But she never expected it to happen to Steven.

"By god Steven, not you."

Steven let out a loud roar, his aura exploded from his body in response to his uncontrolled state of rage. Just by his roaring and sheer power anyone who was around him were blown away and the entirety of Beach City cracked, rattled and shook.

Peridot was panicking while she was high in the sky. She didn't have any metal on her or near her that could save her from shattering on the ground.

"(*Sniff* This is it Peridot, your final end. Why didn't I get stronger? Damnit all, I'm a Crystal Gem yet I lazed around when something catastrophic as this happens!)"

All Peridot could do right now is close her eyes and pray that this fall won't be as painful as she would expect. It was until she felt herself getting scooped while in midair by a big hand. Opening her eyes she was surprised to see a familiar face come to her aid.

"My Dia- I mean Yellow Diamond!"

"Sorry Steven, but I'm not going to sit idly by anymore."

Yellow Diamond landed on her feet into a skid along the sand. Meanwhile Blue caught the poofed gems and White caught Connie's body. All three Diamonds has arrived onto the beach despite Steven telling them to stay out...in a nice way.

Yellow settled Peridot down, she stepped away to wait for her sisters that they like to call eachother now. Blue then gave Peridot the poofed gems and walked away to stand next to Yellow. Finally White put down Connie's body next to Peridot.

As soon as all three of the Diamonds were all next to eachother they looked ahead to the massive aura that the enraged Steven was emitting.

"I thought you told us to stay where we were Yellow. The moment you saw that enormous surge of energy you just ran off by yourself."

"I know Blue...But I knew something was off and my instincts told me t-"

"Oh stop Yellow. Blue and I already knew that you couldn't hold it back any longer and you wanted to hold us back."

"Mmmmmmmm."

Yellow Diamond's face turned a dark yellowish red when she was exposed for her own lack of control of her motherly instincts towards Steven and Pink Diamond. That just reinforces that she was no different from them.

"Okay fine! I wanted to run to Steven's aid desperately, are you happy now?"

"Very."

"Bah whatever...Steven saved all of us when we were lost and fixated on each of our forms of grief. Now,-"

Each of the Diamonds unleashed their auras that were always natural to them ever since their birth into this universe.

"-we save him."

For a couple of minutes it felt like Steven was falling downward at a rapid speed through an unknown pinkish, liquidy substance. Surprisingly he could breathe and his clothes were still on his back. By gosh it felt like this was going to go on forever, he couldn't see the bottom.

"(Ugh geez is there no bottom to this crap? Hmm, a light?)"

From the darkness a tiny hole of light, the size of a prick appeared. It began to expand little by little, blinding Steven as it engulfed him inside. A few seconds past and Steven opened his eyes to a familiar scene.

"This is...mom's room."

Steven struggled a bit as he got up to his feet. The pink background, the fluffly pink clouds,-

"Cheeseburger."

-even the good looking juicy cheeseburger that poofed into existence on Steven's hand. He proceeded to eat it whole since he knew that it doesn't exist, confirming this was indeed his mom's room. Why was it here though?"

"Strange...the last thing I remember was that Connie...pheew shit she was...gone and then I blacked out."

Steven had a tough time holding back his tears. But he needed to be strong compared to a couple moments ago.

"Okay calm down Steven, snnnfffff calm down. I know it's painful. Snnnnffffff hooooh. Wha, who's that?"

Squinting his eyes Steven saw a figure being surrounded by a calm circling of the clouds. He started to walk towards the figure. As he got closer and closer he can feel a gravitational pressure that grew in strength. It took a little struggle but not by much when he stopped a good distance from the figure so he wouldn't invade their space too much.

"Um...hello?"

The figure didn't respond...It seems like they didn't hear him so Steven tried again.

"Ahem uh sorry for disturbing you but um my name is Steven Universe."

"...Steven?"

"(That voice.)"

That time the figure heard Steven's voice, prompting them to slowly turn their body to him. They both gasped in unison.

"Mom?!"

"Steven?"

End of Ch.19