Stephen let out a mighty yawn, having just awoken from a good night's sleep. It was a brand new day, a perfect day to pretend to be Steven. Upon getting out of bed, Stephen noticed that there was a new, shiny TV in replacement of his old box one. Pearl thought the TV would hurt Stephen's eyes being so close to his bed, so she had it moved into the living room. It was twice as large and a flat screen, at that. He wondered why the gems would do this for him; it felt so random.
"Oh, Steven! You're awake." Pearl clasped her hands together, beaming at him. "Do you like your new television set?" She gestured to the flat screen beside his bed. "Yeah, it's cool, I guess. I don't see what was wrong with the old one, though."
Beads of sweat formulated on Pearl's forehead. She didn't have an excuse at the ready as to why she suddenly brought home a new TV, and a pricy one at that. "Um, well, it was because.." She trailed off slightly, looking around the room for an alibi. Her eyes locked onto the broken items that had never been cleaned up from the previous night. This gave her an idea. "Ah yes, well, it was Peridot's idea, actually." She gestured to where Peridot had remained the entire night, which happened to be in a corner by the couch, a smug grin on Pearl's face. In case if Stephen were to get angry again, he would get mad at Peridot instead of Pearl.
"I did what, exactly?" Peridot sounded confused, standing up and glaring at Pearl. "Yes, Peridot, you wanted to get Steven a new TV for his birthday, don't you remember?" Before she could ask what a 'Tee-vee' or a 'birth-day' was, Pearl glared down at her, gesturing for her to play along. "Uh, what?" Clearly, Peridot didn't get what she meant. "Just play along, unless you want to end up in a bubble again," Pearl hissed to her quiet enough to where Stephen couldn't hear. Hastily nodding in response, Peridot understood what she meant this time.
"Uh, yes, I did, Steven!" She immediately raised her tone a little too loudly, sounding overly enthusiastic with several cracks in her voice to try to appear casual. "I had decided that it would be best to get you a new, uh," She nervously looked at Pearl, who mouthed the word 'TV' to her, "a new TV! Yeah, that's what it was!" A false smile was plastered on her face.
Stephen squinted down at her due to both morning grogginess and bewilderment. "My birthday?" Peridot immediately froze, having not expected him to question her back. "Uh, yes?"
"Man, you're stupid! It's not even my birthday." he mocked her, letting out a nasally laugh. "But, whatever. Thanks for the TV, I guess." He hopped down from the bed, Peridot running behind the couch again and Pearl sweating nervously. Stretching, Stephen heard a knock at the door. "Oh, that's right! I texted Connie so we could hang out together today. She must be here." Finally relieved that Stephen was acting normal again, Pearl let out a massive sigh. Maybe the events from yesterday were just a phase he was going through.
"Hey, Steven!" Connie waved as he opened the door, a large smile on her face. "Are you ready to hang out today?"
"Sure am! But hey, Connie you wanna see something funny first?" A malicious grin crept up his chubby cheeks. "Sure, what is it?"
He called loudly into his house, "Hey, Peridot! Do you know what baseball is?" "No." she responded flatly. "Well, c'mon out here, and I'll show you. It's really neat!"
Fed up with Stephen and his incessant torment, she refused to move from her position. "I don't want to."
"Trust me, I think you'll really like this! I just want to have fun with you." The last line of Stephen's persuasion stuck with her. If she agreed to listen to what baseball was, then maybe, just maybe, he would start to leave her alone. Naively choosing the hope of the two reaching better terms, she left her hiding spot and walked out to greet Stephen on the porch. "I'm listening."
Stephen then went into a lengthy monologue, intricately discussing the details of the sport and how its played. Even Connie was amazed at how perfectly he described baseball, not knowing he was so enamored with it. After what seemed to be quite some time, he began to wrap up his speech. "-but, if we're just playing the game simply, all you'd need is a ball and a bat." "We don't have a ball," Peridot stated the obvious. Stephen gasped overdramatically, "Oh, geez, you're right! Whatever shall we do then? Oh, wait, I have an idea!" Another large smile appeared. "What is it, Steven?" Connie asked. Stephen grabbed a convenient bat that was resting on the front porch, using it to hit Peridot as hard as he could, launching her through the house's front window that had just been replaced from the night before. "That'll work."
As a screaming Peridot flew into the house, Amethyst happened to be walking by. "Holy shit!" she gasped, startled upon seeing the unexpected kindergartener lying on the ground in front of her. Stephen wheezed heartily as he watched the small gem land with a loud 'smack' on the living room floor. A soft 'ow' escaped her broken frame. Elbowing Connie in the ribs, Stephen chortled, "That was hilarious, wasn't it?" Connie, instead of sounding amused, looked disgusted at Stephen. "No, Steven! That's wasn't funny at all."
Inside the house, Pearl sighed at Stephen's behavior, realizing he was acting just the same as he had last night. It seems whatever has gotten into him hasn't changed.
"A-All right, Steven. Let's get going, then." Connie grabbed Stephen's hand, nervously trying to lead him away from the house. She didn't understand what was happening, but knew something was off with her friend. She assumed it must have been from pent-up stress caused from constantly dealing with aliens always trying to kill him. And now she had to repair the window again.
"Aw, no! Please don't hurt Connie!" Steven silently begged, somehow wishing he could change fate. With every step that his brother and Connie took off the steps, his heart skipped a beat. As well as worry, a sudden sense of disappointment washed over Steven. Even Connie, his best friend, couldn't recognize the difference between the two twins. And soon enough, Connie would discover the horrible truth to Stephen's plans, and soon wish she was never friends with him. It hurt Steven to think that another of what was left of his friends was about to be broken by him. But still, a little hope remained that maybe, just maybe, Connie would be able to help him. Then she'd eventually find the real Steven in the basement and everything would be okay.
Connie and the fake Steven began their journey into the markets of Beach City, eventually starting to laugh normally together. After some time, Connie began to forget about the events of the morning and started to enjoy being with Steven again. But that was about to change.
As the friends walked on the boardwalk, they came across Onion. At first, neither of them paid any mind to the small child. Then, something caught Stephen's eye about him. The boy had small remnants of what appeared to be chocolate icing on his clothes and fingers. Just like the icing from the doughnut that was missing from Stephen's pocket. So, that's where his doughnut went! Although it wasn't abnormal for Onion to have stolen something from Steven, he hadn't quite realized that this wasn't ordinary Steven. The poor child's day was about to become much grimmer.
"Hey!" Stephen shouted at Onion, who in turn faced him silently, giving a small little wave to him. "You stole my doughnut!" Onion only stared back, but began to slowly walk away from him, assuming Stephen was going to chase him like he normally would. Onion thought it was like a game that the two would play when Steven would chase him. This Stephen however, took this as a sign of retreat, and began to summon his powers once more. Onion wouldn't escape from his crimes any longer.
Before the young child could run any farther, a terrible feeling sprouted in his stomach, so painful that Onion had to crouch down and hold onto himself to try and ease it. But it would be no use. As he tried to relieve his pain, Onion noticed small pecks of skin falling off of his head and onto the boardwalk. He thought it was strange, but it was even stranger yet when hair follicles as well began to blow away into the breeze. The pain worsened.
What used to be only skin and hair soon became pieces of flesh as well, spiraling off the top of the child's head, causing him to bleed profusely. A thick layer of meat, revealing parts of Onion's skull, became separated from his body, falling onto the ground with a loud squish. In no time at all, only bones remained. But Stephen didn't stop there; he began to have the boy's skull broken apart. It peeled away from the rest of itself and exposed its organs, his brain falling out of the now split skull and too, landing on the floor with the rest of Onion's remains. Arteries and veins were split open and organs were twisted and manipulated into nothing but a peeled pile of mush. Onion had been peeled.
"STEVEN!" Connie shrieked, tears glistening in her eyes. "W-wha-What was that?" Was all she could say before throwing up at the sight of the mangled Onion. Even facing the deformed reanimations of the mangled gem corpses at her mom's hospital was nothing compared to this. Connie couldn't understand what would provoke her friend to do something like this, it was more than unnatural of him: it was abominable. After the weird behavior from the morning and now this, it was too much for Connie to handle. And she hadn't known even half of what Stephen had done.
"I peeled that bitch like the rotten thief he is! It turns out onions really do have layers." Stephen stared down with hatred at the pile of flesh before him. Unbeknownst to Stephen, it turned out that Onion hadn't even stolen his doughnut; it had just fallen out of his pocket on the way home. Onion had actually bought one that morning. "Steven, what is wrong with you?!"
"He deserved his punishment; he stole my doughnut! Nasty little thieves like him and selfish pessimists like Lars don't deserve the benefit of living."
"You did something to Lars too?! Steven!" Connie shrieked upon hearing Lars' name, now fully sobbing. She couldn't deal with this any longer. "I don't know what has gotten into you, but this is insane! Onion didn't deserve that, no matter what you tell me! He was just a kid... " she bent down on her knees to face the boy's corpse, kneeling at a distance to avoid the increasing smell of exposed flesh. Her voice softened. "I thought you said the Crystal Gems fought for love and justice, but this, THIS... This is no worse than something Homeworld would've done..."
"Excuse me?" Stephen looked back at her, narrowing his eyes. "What does someone like you know about gems? How would you know what's best for others? You're nothing more than a simple human child, meddling in affairs that don't concern her. You're nothing more than a useless, petty sidekick to me, a tool, if you will, and you're nothing more than a mere distraction to the rest of gemkind. Sooner or later, you'll be dead, and the world will go on without you. You'll be remembered by no one. None of what you say will have any power over anyone or anything. So, don't talk to me about what you 'think' is right and wrong, when you won't even be here to tell me soon enough!"
Connie was speechless, completely hurt by Stephen's speech. After all they'd been through, this was how he truly thought of her? She began to cry again, almost refusing to accept what her only friend had told her. "Well, if that's what you really think of me," she spoke through gasps for air and soft sobs, "I'll just leave you alone, then! Then, you can go off and kill more people and go to stupid alien stuff that I'M apparently too insignificant to know about!" her fists were clenched and she screamed as loudly as she could. "I hope Homeworld finds Earth, and takes away all of us stupid humans so that you and your fancy Crystal Gems can go live in peace where people like me aren't a burden to you!" Much to Stephen's surprise, she immediately lowered her tone, wiping tears from her eyes. "I, I'm sorry I couldn't have been more of a friend to you." She ran away before Stephen could respond to her, now leaving him to be the one speechless.
Realizing that he was never going to see her again, Stephen began to feel a form of regret. Maybe he got a little too carried away. Maybe.
Solemnly, he began to walk to his dad's car wash, hoping to seek comfort.