With Steven missing, the gems attempt to figure out just what had happened to the boy.

...

After Steven had left for Little Homeworld, Pearl utilized the day to clean the house up. It had been some time since she had been able to clean it without an incident of some kind leading to the immediate attention of the dwelling. The last time she needed to give the home a thorough cleaning was after...what happened with Steven. She didn't like to think about it. None of them did. She couldn't even imagine how he must have felt all this time. The boy she had grown to love and care for had fallen so far and none of them did anything about it until it was far too late. Shaking the thought, she moved to begin the few chores that needed done.

As she finished cleaning the home, she noticed that the sun had begun to set. As the gem put away the cleaning supplies, she received a message on her phone from Steven. "Hey Pearl, just finished up with Centi. Heading back that way". Knowing that he was on his way back, Pearl began gathering the supplies for dinner. If she started it now, it should be finished around the same time Steven gets home. Choosing to make one of the boy's vegetarian meals, she started cooking the hearty dinner. After about an hour, it sat in the pot so it could stay warm, as she awaited the young man's return. After another hour had passed, Pearl was somewhat concerned, but not too badly. It wasn't unusual for Steven to be stopped by either a Beach City or Little Homeworld resident. After the third hour had passed, anxiety began to set in. Usually if he was going to be late, even if a little, Steven made sure to let someone know. Electing to check in on him, she quickly found his phone rang until reaching voicemail. After leaving a brief message, she wondered if he had reached out to the others. Sending a message out to Garnet and Amethyst, she was quickly struck with a sour reply from both of them saying they hadn't heard anything. Becoming somewhat panicked now, she called Greg and Connie next, both of whom also denied speaking with Steven recently. No one seemed to know where Steven was, which was unsettling since at least one of his family members or close friends tried to keep a tab on him, especially since his breakdown. Now beginning her own, Pearl began contacting everyone to see if anyone knew his whereabouts. As the night had become the setting for some time now, she re-contacted the other Gems, updating them of the lack of knowledge on Steven's location. Afterwards, the three of them plus the B-Team, consisting of Lapis, Bismuth, and Peridot, moved into Beach City and Little Homeworld. Although many of the residents had called it for the night, there were still plenty of individuals that they could check in with. After asking around for a few hours, the Gems met up at the temple, the panicked look on each of their faces giving an answer to the unasked question on everyone's minds. Sometime after returning to the beach house, dawn began, signaling the start of the next day. With a fruitless search throughout the night, the Gems began to consider conducting a wider range for the search. Before they could set out however, one of their contacts responded to Pearl. She looked at her phone to find that Centi had just responded to her initial message from the late evening the day before. Usually, the gems would have questioned why it took so long to respond, but upon hearing that she was in space with her crew, they immediately understood as they all knew that space had a rather low internet signal, in that there was none at all (something Peridot had tried and was still attempting to remedy to this day). Much to their shock, Centi knew his last location as she had been the last gem to be around the boy before his disappearance. Once she informed the group of his last location, they thanked her and moved towards the countryside.

Upon their arrival, it didn't take long for the lot to find the dondai, which was still parked alongside the road near the wood line. Thankful for a clue of some kind, the grateful thoughts were quickly changed into those of sorrow, as the condition of the area was evidence enough that Steven's disappearance was no accident. The dondai had a couple dents that were forced into it's one side, a few nearby trees were broken, seemingly by force, and a nearby dirt crater confirmed that there had been a fight of some sort. Deciding to search around for more clues, the gems spread out in the area. Despite their best efforts though, all they had managed to come up with was a pink deer, which was evidence enough of Steven's healing powers. Unfortunately though, even with further proof that Steven was at some point in the area, the group could not pinpoint when or where the deer had been revived, leaving the gems with very little to work with. It especially didn't help that whoever attacked Steven didn't leave much behind for the group to follow up on. After doing one final search of the area, the gems decided to move back to the beach house to figure out a game plan only to come to the conclusion that they had none. Garnet offered to check to see if she could find anything with future vision, but any results she could find would take time and were not always guaranteed to be the truth, as the power had been proven to be wrong or misguided before. While the fusion was off doing that, the remainder of the group elected to contact Little Homeworld and the Diamonds on Homeworld. Many of the residents of the Earth side version of the gem planet had either been asked or heard rumors about Steven's disappearance. Upon hearing an official confirmation, several volunteers offered their assistance to search around for the boy. Homeworld had also decided to send some gems to search. Once the Diamonds were informed of the status of their youngest family member, they first had a similar reaction to the Crystal Gems. Once regaining focus and composure, the former tyrants began search parties any area with an available warp pad that they knew of. The parties were sent to various locations, from the Earth to it's moon, to Homeworld and any other planet that could be warped to. A galaxy wide search had begun, and with that underway, the two parties could only hope that some info would arise and that a clue of some kind would point them in the direction of the young hybrid.

5 months later

Despite their best efforts, neither the Gems nor the Diamonds could locate any sign of Steven. It was as if he had simply disappeared from the face of the galaxy. With only a few parties still searching around, morale was low, both for the two main groups and for the gems on both planets. Knowing his trauma and troubled past, everyone longed to find the boy to help set him back onto his road to recovery.

Now regrouped at the beach house, the Gems sat, awaiting any kind of info. Everyone aside from Garnet, Pearl, Bismuth, and Connie had positioned themselves in the main area of the dwelling. Garnet had shut herself out in her temple room during her free time to continue her future vision search, though any hope for results from that were few and far between. Connie's parents had elected to keep the young warrior at their home until some info was available. Despite their feelings for Steven, whom they had grown to care for like a second child, considering the feelings and the bond of the friendship of the two young teens, they felt it was best to keep Connie with them so that her health was kept up as they had to literally step in and change her schedule during these past few months as they found that their daughter had continued searching, even to the point where she was ignoring sleep and her own general well being. Despite her protests, Connie knew she couldn't win this argument and had since promised the gems to keep Lion on standby should she or they hear anything. Bismuth had elected to stay near Little Homeworld, both to keep up an appearance for it's residents and to keep an ear out for any evidence of Steven's existence. Pearl was off checking in on the separate groups to see if anything had changed, though she secretly knew the answer already. Once her suspicions were confirmed, she returned back to the beach house. Upon stepping off the warp pad, it was Greg who approached her first, with worry painted across his face. The gem could only imagine how the single father could be feeling. Sure Steven's vanishing had been hard on all of them as they cared for the boy as if he we're their own, but none of them could guess how the only actual surviving parentage of the young boy felt. He was already torn to pieces with Steven's breakdown, and this could not have been helping the older man's anxiety. Upon looking at Greg, all Pearl could do was sigh and look at the man with eyes full of sorrow. With silence giving an answer all it's own, the group sunk into further despair.

Sometime had passed. No one was sure what to do anymore as they, and nearly all of gem kind on Homeworld and Earth, had been unable to find even an idea of Steven's current whereabouts. Much to the group's surprise though, Garnet burst through the temple door with a panicked look on her face, though this wasn't the kind of panic they all had experienced. This was more a 'we need to move, NOW' kind of panic.

"Everyone, I've found something." Upon hearing this from their current leader, the lot sprang to life, bombarding the fusion with questions. Upon hearing the continuous requests, which Garnet pieced together as the group collectively asking what she found, she got them to settle down and listen, which also helped calm herself down in the process as she hadn't been able to contain her anxiety filled enthusiasm towards the info since it's discovery. With everyone calmed down, but still intensely focused on her, Garnet continued.

"I've got a location. I couldn't see Steven in any of my visions, but they all continued pointing towards one spot. Everyone, we're going to the moon base."

...

Thanks for reading guys. Any comments and support you leave me really helps me, both with motivation towards the story and in any improvements I can make.

See you all in chapter 3, when we go to the moon.

Side note: originally posted on A03. Working on posting everything from there over to here for viewing pleasure, but the layout is quite different, so it may take some time.