Steven took a big bite of his sandwich, chewing loudly. "Life is beautiful!" He almost cried out.
He was sitting on a maddrass in a familiar room with a bandage around his head.
Greg sat by the feet of the maddrass, smiling gently.
"How're you feeling, Stu-Ball?" He asked him.
"Good. I think." Steven shrugged, putting the plate with the sandwich on the table beside the bed. "What happened anyway?"
"The gems said you took a nasty hit in the head in space, getting Garnet back." Greg explained to him. "The gems carried you to some escape-pod and called me on a public telephone once they reached earth."
"Where on earth did we reach?" Asked Steven.
"We're in Stone Wall, fifty miles from Beach City." Greg a answered him, handing him a juice-box. "And uh... your phone took a nasty hit too." He handed him his phone, which's screen had a few cracks in it.
"Noo!" Steven gasped, grabbing his phone. "Please still work, please still work!" He begged and pressed the button.
The screen light up.
"Oh thank goodness." Steven sighed in relief and opened his phone.
37 un-answered phone-calls from Connie.
"Geeze." He grimased, scrolling through his phone-book. "How long was I out anyway."
"Well, you only got here about an hour ago but you were out maybe half a day." Greg shrugged. "You really scared us, buddy."
"Sorry?" Steven squeaked, taking a long zip of his juice.
When suddenly, the van-doors opened and Garnet, Amethyst and Pearl rushed inside.
"Steven!"
"Guys!" Steven gasped as they all ran in and sat beside him.
"You scared the heck out of us dude!"
"Oh Steven! How are you feeling?! Let me look at you!" Pearl frantically began examinating him, looking at every part of his body she could.
"Pearl! I'm fine!" Steven mumbled when Pearl suddenly opened his mouth wide.
Pearl hummed. "You seem fine but let's give you a flu- shot just in case." She summoned a syringe out of her gem and held it. "This will only hurt a couple hours." She grabbed his arm.
"No! Pearl! I'm fine! I promise!" Steven jumped back, waving his hands in defence.
"Oh, alright then." Pearl hummed and threw the syringe over her shoulder.
Greg immediately threw himself to catch it, nervously holding it by the end with two fingers.
When suddenly, Steven's eyes widened and he tensed.
"Pearl! The basement! There's a pool! And the-." He blurted out, leaning forward to grab Pearl by the arms.
"We know." Pearl calmed him down, resting a hand on his leg. "After your fight with the guards, Bismuth used her hand to make an evasive. The impact caused the pool to break and the essence went down the drain."
Steven was still in distrust. "But the Cluster-."
"Is no more." This time, Pearl didn't answer.
A big blue figure with rainbow hair and tattoos stepped through the door-way into the van, smiling at him. "Hey ya, meatball."
"Bismuth." Steven gasped in surprise as he watched her walk over and sit on the floor beside him.
"Bismuth carried you to the escape-pod when you were un-conscious." Pearl explained, resting a hand on the bigger gem's shoulder. When a sad expression covered her face. "Crazy Lace, Biggs and Snowflake didn't make it." She looked down in respect.
Bismuth looked away painfully.
"They-?" Steven began but was interrupted.
"They weren't shattered, thank goodness." Pearl sighed.
"The escape-pod wasn't build for more than five gems at one time." Garnet continued explaining, crouched down before him. "Crazy Lace and Biggs had already been poofed by the guards. And Snowflake took the noble choice and pushed Bismuth into the escape-pod before it closed. She was a real hero." She nodded proudly.
"She shouldn't have done that." Bismuth muttered bitterly. "We were supposed to do it together. Not..." A few tears ran down her cheeks.
Garnet rest a hand on support on her back. "Crazy Lace and Biggs are clever gems. As long as they don't get any shots, they should be fine." She told her. "And Snowflake will probably loose her duty as a guard. But she'll have Crazy Lace and Biggs."
Bismuth looked back at her and cried. "I lost the little guy too..."
"There was nothing you could have done." Garnet told her supprtingly. "Lapis will be fine."
"So Lapis is inside the facility now too?" Steven asked.
The gems nodded.
Steven looked down sadly. "Poor Lapis..." He then looked up at them again. "What are we gonna do now?" He asked them all.
"We'll be on the rode until we find a place to stay." Greg answered his question with a faint smile, still nervously holding the syringe in his hand.
"Yes. We are as you remember no longer allowed in Beach City." Pearl reminded him.
"Or Florida." Amethyst chuckled.
"Right." Pearl nodded. "But we'll make sure we find us a new place. For all six of us."
Amethyst bumped her elbow into Bismuth's arm. Bismuth grinned as a reply.
Steven smiled.
Later that day, Steven was sitting outside on the grass beside the van, holding a phone to his ear.
"- and my dad catched up with them." Steven ended his explanation of the previous event.
"Wow..." Connie spoke from the other line.
"You okay?" Steven asked.
"Yeah, I'm fine but... are you okay?"
"Well, yeah." Steven shrugged. "I mean, I'm not hurt or anything." He said.
"So there are actually more gems out there?"
"Yeah! Tons! Some of them are bad but... they're mostly good... I think." Steven said. "It was really scary, though. All these gems trying to grab me and 'poof' me and all." For a second he grimased.
"Have you talked to the gems about it?"
"No, not really. I just feel that-."
"Steven, I really gotta go right now. My mom's taking me to tennis-practice and she doesn't take a no for an answer! I'll call you later! Bye!"
The line broke and Steven removed his phone.
He sighed and put it in his pocket before looking up.
It was so odd. After all that just happened, everyone acted so normal.
They were discussing their next direction with his father. Just like nothing ever happened.
But he still saw that not everything looked as it should.
He shut his eyes and leaned against the van.
He slowly disappearred in total darkness.
When he opened his eyes, he was floating in a an empty void.
Before him, stood five different kinds of statues.
Pearl, Garnet, Amethyst, Greg and Bismuth.
And on top of their heads stood their own personas, played like a movie what they were doing in the moment.
Steven waved his arms, 'swimming' over to the first statue. Pearl.
He landed on her 'head' and watched her persona.
"What are we gonna do?" He could hear her speak her mind. Litterally. "Don't worry, Homeworld doesn't know we're Crystal Gems. They don't know where we are. I hope."
Steven watched her before he floated over to the next statue. Garnet
"It's not true. It's wrong." He could hear her thoughts say. "It must be wrong." She adjusted her visor.
Steven frowned and then floated over to Amethyst's statue.
"I won! I freakin' won! Heck yeah!" Her mind shouted. "By cheating..." She suddenly muttured.
At last he moved to his father's statue.
Greg looked worried.
"This is too much for Steven. He's just a kid. He shouldn't go through this." He thought loudly. "Rose would have put a stop to it."
Steven took a step back, looking hit and hurt.
When suddenly, he woke up to reality.
"Steven!" Greg shook his shoulder. "You fell asleep right by the van." He smiled. "How about we get something to eat?"
Steven nodded and stood up.
At sundown, Garnet was sitting in a hammock probably build up by the community to sit, watching the sunset in the distance.
She was in deep thought, as you could tell, with her hands tangled together.
Steven walked up next to her shyly.
"Hello Steven." She said as she smiled towards him warmly.
"Hi Garnet." Steven smiled back at her. "How's it hanging?"
Garnet smiled a bit wider. "I think I need to ask you the same thing. You look a bit 'not' well." She spoke.
Steven gave a small chuckle, shrugging. "Heh, well... I guess lately I've been feeling a bit...blue." He scratched the back of his head.
"It's okay." Garnet replied back, sitting up a bit straighter. "Join me. Tell my why you're feeling "blue."
She sat back and Steven jumped up at the other end of the hammock, looking a little bit scared as it swayed.
But soon he sighed.
"Have you ever felt, you know, that something can get, like... abnormally normal?" He asked her.
Garnet's mouth turned into an 'o'.
"I mean-." Steven began again, trying to figure out what to say. "Has something ever happened to you, that makes you feel like you need to act normal, but it kind of gets... too normal?"
Garnet was quiet for a few moments. "You're saying we act like nothing happened, even though it did." She stated.
"Yes! That!" Steven shone up. "I mean, I know you guys don't want me to worry or anything but-."
"Hey guys! How's it hanging?" Amethyst suddenly asked with a sheepishly smile as she, along with Pearl and Greg joined them.
"Oh Amethyst." Pearl rolled her eyes and crossed her arms.
Amethyst giggled. "Admit it. You thought i it was funny!"
Pearl rolled her eyes again, but then smiled sheepishly. "Well, I have to admit it was the beginning of the pleased secreting of...fun."
Amethyst made a 'yes!' Motion with her fist but then turned back to Steven again.
"Is something the matter?" Pearl asked.
"Steven's upset." Garnet responded.
"Well, I'm not really upset. I just..." Steven tried to reason but then saw all the gazes of the gems and his dad.
"He says we act ''too normal'." Garnet added.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Amethyst asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Steven, it's okay. You can tell us." Greg told him fatherly. "Tell us what's on your mind."
Steven felt himself sinking into the hammock. "I...there's nothing... I..." He then sighed heavily.
"Steven." Greg told him, sounding a little bit more stricter.
"Do you wish that that mom was here instead of me?!" Steven suddenly cried and dug his face inside his arms.
Nobody didn't really gasp, they were more taken aback by the question.
"Oh, Steven. Come here." Garnet sighed, offering her arms. Steven sobbed and dried a few tears away as he crawled over into her grasp and rest his body against her stomach as she wrapped her arms around him.
Pearl and Amethyst crawled up into the hammock and Greg just moved closer to them.
"Steven. What in the world made you think that?" Pearl almost gasped in worry.
"I heard dad think so." Steven sobbed into Garnet's chest.
The gems looked at Greg.
"Steven- I never, have you been-." Greg stuttered, still taken aback. He calmed down. "Steven. I would never think so." He told him in a hushed tone.
"But you're right!" Steven sobbed. "If mom was here she could have stopped it! She could have stopped the gems getting here, and taking Garnet away, and keep Biggs, Crazy Lace and Snowflake from being poofed on some zoo..." He said through sobs. "If mom just didn't disappear... maybe everything would be okay."
"Hey, Steven. It's okay. Shh." Greg hushed him, rubbing his back soothingly.
"Yes, everything isn't 'okay' right now, but we shouldn't stay in the deep because of that." Pearl told him.
"And we would never trade you for anything." Garnet told him as well.
Steven looked up, face all red from tears. "Really?"
They all nodded.
"No way, dude!" Amethyst told him. "Hey- Ste-man. If Rose decided to have you even though she knew she could die from it, that, like,... means you really had to be worth drying for."
Steven looked at her for a long time before he sat up, drying the tears away from his face.
"Are you mad at me?" He asked a bit worried.
"Oh, Steven. Of course we're not mad at you." Pearl sighed and clapped her hands together.
"Yeah dude, and even if we were furious we'd forgive you." Amethyst simply shrugged. "Or ground you for a few thousand years."
"Amethyst!" Pearl scolded at her, but then sighed. "It's true though. You have been in lots of trouble lately, young man. "But it's not exactly polite spying on our thoughts like that." She crossed her arms.
Steven laughed with a sob. "Sorry..."
"Stu-ball, the universe wouldn't be the same without you." Greg told him with a smile.
"Scratch that." Garnet cut in, smiling. "Nothing would be the same. Because you ARE our universe." She reached to take off her visor so that he could look into her three, mis-matched eyes.
Steven smiled, eyes filled with tears of joy.
"Come on, dude! Bring it in!" Amethyst hugged him tightly. And not long after, everyone went in for a hug.
And the episode ended happily ever-
"Wait-." Greg suddenly cut in in thought. "How many people can this hammock really carry?" He asked.
They all could only think about it for about five seconds until the hammock started to creak and no one had time to escape before they all laid on the ground, laughing and groaning.
"I love you guys." Steven laughed.
"We love you Steven." Everyone said in unison.