Steven dreams, but why do these dreams seem so familiar and so...distressing?

...

Not long after he had given himself up to the familiar feeling of slumber, Steven awoke soon after to find himself on the beach, something that gave him a great deal of confusion.

'Okay, why am I on the beach? I could have sworn I was going to sleep just a bit ago.' Steven thought.

He had remembered laying down to sleep for the night, but the moment he found himself in didn't quite feel like a dream. As a matter of fact it, felt very real...and familiar. As he looked around, he noticed a light green hue had enveloped the area.

'Wait...is this-' Before could continue his thoughts and get his bearings any further, a large boom followed by a slight shockwave shook the area, interrupting his inner monologue. Wanting to investigate the disturbance, Steven began moving in the direction of the loud noise as the shaking ground settled. Turning the cliff corner, Steven found himself staring at a giant green hand ship with several figures in front of it. Unable to make out the figures from the corner of the cliff, Steven began his approach, but the closer he got, the more familiar everything seemed.

Now nearly on top of the group of individuals, he found that Garnet, Amethyst, and Pearl, each of whom had their weapons summoned and were in their old attire for some reason, were standing defiantly in front of the handship, which had Jasper, Lapis, and Peridot facing towards the group of rebels, all of whom were also dressed in their old uniforms. But the strangest part the stopped the young man in his tracks was the addition of one more individual in the group of gems. Crouched in front of the gems was himself, but as a kid again.

'But...what. How the heck?' thought Steven as he attempted to figure out just what was happening. Before he could though, the scene began playing out as if he weren't even there. He watched as Jasper became irritated and ordered Peridot to unleash another strike from the handship, to which the green gem. The arched blast separated the Gems and his younger self while sending dust and sand into the air.

'Well, I guess this is a dream then...but why I am seeing this moment of all things?' Steven thought as the dust began to settle. As he continued watching, he saw Garnet and Jasper clash leading up to Garnet's defeat as she was hit by a destabilizer. With Garnet poofed, he watched as young Steven was picked up and captured by Jasper.

'Alright, I've seen enough. If this is a dream, then it's time to end it and wake up' Steven thought. Now summoning a pair of boxing bubbles, he charged at the orange gem in an attempt to disrupt the memory, only to find that his strike, and his whole body for that matter, didn't have any effect as he went through Jasper as if she weren't even there.

"Who, huh, wha?" said a surprised Steven as he steadied himself. While Jasper was still finishing her talk to the younger him, Steven walked up to the two. As if to confirm his theory, he swung at Jasper, only to find his fist go through her once more.

"I don't get it...why can't I stop this?" he said as he watched Jasper knock the younger version of himself out, giving him the black eye he painfully remembered.

As he watched this, he flinched as he could swear that he could feel the injury as if it just happened. Before he could begin to think much of that however, the world began to shake and everything started to fall apart. Things started disappearing while Steven was left to watch as everything began to turn to black. Once the world he was in had turned into nothing but darkness, the only thing he heard was the large whirring of his gem. After a few moments, he found himself being pulled away from the darkness back into reality.

Now back in the real world he knew, he jolted up in his bed with beads of sweat rolling down his face. Before he could even attempt to think about the dream, he found that Pearl had entered the room at some point and was trying to get his attention. As he allowed himself to calm down, he focused on his guardian.

"Steven, are you alright? I heard some thrashing and you were mumbling rather loudly in your sleep. I came up to check on you and you seem distressed."

"Yeah Pearl...yeah, I think I'm good. Just a bad dream is all."

"Are you sure Steven...you seemed rather panicked while your were out after all."

"Pearl, it's ok. I'm fine."

Seeing that she wasn't going to get anywhere with this, she elected to leave it at that. "Well alright, I'll leave you be then. Try to get some rest still though won't you." she said as she left the room.

"Yeah...I'll try." he responded. With the door now shut and his privacy restored, Steven took a deep breath. He looked to the clock and saw that it was about 4 a.m. Seeing that it wasn't quite time to start the day, he laid back down in an attempt to return to his slumber. As the time went by though, he found that he was unable to do so. Soon, four o clock became five, and then six. Finally, after a few hours of sleepless silence, his alarm sounded at seven in the morning, signaling the start of the day. He sighed and shut the alarm off as he moved out of bed in a groggy fashion and began getting around. Now dressed, he moved downstairs and was greeted by Pearl and Amethyst.

"Good morning Steven." said Pearl.

"Morning Pearl, -yawn-, hey Amethyst."

"Didn't sleep well last night?" asked the purple gem.

"No not really. Got woke up in the middle of night from a nightmare...couldn't fall back asleep after that."

"What was it about?"

"I saw all of us when Jasper first came to Earth. The scene played out up until I was knocked out...not really sure why I dreamt of that of all things, but it seemed so real...like it didn't even feel like a dream at all" explained Steven.

"Hmm, could be your mind playing tricks on you. No sense pondering about it now though. After all, that's all in the past still and it was just a dream right." said Pearl

"Heh, yeah...just a dream."

As he let Pearl's words comfort him, he shrugged off the memory as well as he could in his groggy state. With this, he ate breakfast and went about his day. Soon enough though, Steven found that nighttime had once again approached. After his bid the gems a good night, he returned to his bed and began to feel the drowsy effects coming on. Soon enough, he was out cold.

Similar to the previous night, Steven found himself in another location. This time, he was on the cliff side with lighthouse. After getting his bearings and noticing that this dream felt real in a similar way to the one he had the night prior, he began to turn the corner of the lighthouse. As he did, he noticed that himself and the other Gems were facing off against Spinel and her injector. As he approached the scene, he watched Spinel give the group a run for their money as she tossed and toyed around with them as she continued her 'other friends' song. Seeing that the two parties had stopped fighting for a moment, Steven attempted to break up the fight again as he moved grab Spinel, but once again found that he phased right through her, just like he had done with Jasper.

'No...not again. Why is this happening?' he pondered as he watched Spinel begin to swing the rejuvenator scythe about. Soon, she wrapped herself around the light house and brought the weapon down on his friends, poofing each of them in the process. Steven continued watching as she set her sights and the weapon onto the dream version of himself. As their battle continued, Spinel brought down several swings onto the hybrid. Seeing that the scythe seemed to have no effect on the younger him (something he silently wished were the case as he watched from the sidelines), Steven could swear once again that he could feel the strikes going through him, along with the after affect of the rejuvenator settling in his gem. As the fight continued, he watched as the younger him gained control of the weapon and poofed Spinel. He continued watching as he saw himself put the weapon away and gathered up each of the gemstones that were his friends, along with Spinel's gem as well. As he watched himself begin walking to the beach house, the world began to shake once again as everything turned to darkness once more. With everything turned into nothing more than a dark abyss everywhere he looked, he heard the loud whirring of his gem once again right before he jolted out of bed in the same state he had been in the night before.

While he calmed down his panicked breaths, he noticed that no one came to check on him this time, something that he was somewhat glad at as he didn't want them to worry about this anymore than he currently was. He looked to his clock which said 5:30 a.m. Seeing that he still had sometime before the day started again, he tried to fall back to sleep, but found himself unable to do so yet again. As the time went by, Steven sat in the darkness of the room wondering why he was having these dreams and what they all meant.

...

Well, that's probably not good. Someone should really check into that.

Ain't got too much to say this time around guys. Steven's dreaming of old experiences, but why exactly, who knows ('cept me lol). Hopefully he can find out why this is happening soon...wouldn't want to let him continue retraumatizing himself after all.

Happy Friday everyone. YAY WEEKEND (unless your work weekends, in which case...oof, sorry bout that). Thanks everyone for stopping by once more. Hope to see all you peeps again in chapter 3.

Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This) by Marilyn Manson or Eurythmics (your choice)