Chapter 3: Earth without Steven

Beep-beep-beep-beep…

Greg: Alright, I'm up, I'm up, you stupid clock.

He stretched and went to start another day. Another day without Steven. He misses his son a lot, he thinks about him everyday.

How is he doing… Is he safe… Is he even alive...

The gems had tried to pull a rescue operation, but everything fell apart. Their first plan was to build a spaceship, but poor Peridot wasn't in good shape to do it. First Lapis and now Steven, the dorito gem had lost her best friends. He now thinks Destiny did Lapis a favor for sparing her from this. Maybe they could reunite in space, he knows that he has a crush on her, so maybe the fact they're in space could mean something. He can only hope.

So with Peridot out of commission, they had to resort to another measure. They unbubbled Bismuth, and had her do it. But that didn't work out either. After she saw what truly happened to her colleagues, and finding out the truth. She took a similar attitude like Steven. Which she shifted the blame from the Diamonds to Rose or Pink, she had lost all motivation

And he couldn't blame her, she just had woken up to a shock. So with Peridot and Bismuth out, Lapis gone, the space travelers were out, and the gems grounded.

The gems…

Greg has been thinking about a very important decision. You see, he has faith that Steven will come back, but when he does. He must make a choice. He recently had enough money to buy a house, as he was getting tired of living in his van. So he thought, should he bring Steven to live with him, the plan was for the young hybrid to switch between houses, spend some days in one house, and some days in the other. But given recent events made him think, maybe he should get Steven away from the gems for a while.

Now those gems don't include Peridot or Lapis when she returns. There's a reason why he doesn't mind them, but he does the others.

When Greg, Peridot, Lapis, or any Beach City resident looked at Steven. They saw Steven; this optimistic boy that's willing to help anyone. Even Bismuth, before the incident, saw Steven as Steven. Garnet, Amethyst, and especially Pearl were different, when they looked at Steven, they saw him as her successor. Which bothers him and he knows that each and everyday, the kid wants to be less like his mother, and wants to be him, create his own identity. That's perfect, but as he's with the gems, who sees Rose as an idol. He won't be able to do it, he'd told him himself.

Also, Pearl had no right to keep that from Steven, he's also that she kept it from him, Rose was his wife, but he can understand it was the command of her diamond. Steven was her son though, the guilt he felt when he thought Rose shattered Pink could've been avoided. There's one person that needs to keep their space from Steven, and that's Connie. The girl has gained an obsession with him.

It was her parents that told him, they asked if it was both ways. He said that while Steven certainly likes being with her, he likes to spend time with his other friends as well. So no, Steven wasn't obsessed with her. Connie's behavior was confirmed by Steven himself, when he told him his usual afternoon with Peridot was interrupted by Connie, and his gig with the band the night before.

It happened again, again, and again, Connie wasn't letting him be with his other friends.So he called Doug, to tell him what's going on. He told him that he was going to speak with her. Of course the same night his son was taken. Everyone misses him, some more than others. But he had a feeling that Steven will be okay, and will trust his feelings.

It's what Steven always does best.

--

Pearl: And tada!

Pearl showed her colleagues a destroyed spaceship.

Garnet: It fell apart.

Pearl: What! I'd checked it every hour, I thought we had the right components.

Connie: It seems we've made some miscalculations.

Amethyst: (groans) Your miscalculations are costing us Steven, who knows how he is now?!

Pearl: (groans) Garnet, where's Peridot and Bismuth?

Garnet: I can't see them, you know that my future vision is failing.

Pearl: (groans)

Connie: Where are those two? I get that Bismuth isn't cool with him, but aren't him and Peridot friends?

--

Steven being her friend was exactly the reason she wasn't helping them. She heard them talk about Steven following Pink or Rose, she doesn't care about footsteps. She knows that's what he doesn't want. He wants to be him, isn't what the rebellion was, to be you. Seems like the clods forgot.

Peridot was living in the forge with Bismuth, who wasn't happy with the clods also.

Bismuth: I know I did wrong wrong to the kid, but this is actually messed up. He can't be Rose, he is Steven.

And she wholeheartedly agrees, and besides, he's a diamond, he'll be safe. The Diamonds would soon get the energy signature and figure it all out. They'll be nice to him, Diamonds care for each other, and Steven was safe.

Does he miss him like she misses Lapis? Hell yeah, she does, she wants to hang out with him again, she wants Greg to see his son again, she wants Bismuth to have her chance to apologize. All in due time, she knows that he'll return.

She believes in Steven after all, not Pink, not Rose. Just Steven.