AN: Only three chapters left everyone. This one, Love Like You and finally The Future. I can't believe how much of a journey this has been for me as both a Steven Universe fan and a writer, but the destination can be just as satisfying as they say. It all started with proposing ideas for this in a Lapidot Discord server I'm on during a conversation about how Cartoon Network's grip on the show made certain things feel wasted, but now I feel like I'm close to fulfilling all of them. Once again, I just want to thank you all for sticking by me for almost an entire year.
Synopsis: The Gems have got Steven back, but now they need to know how to fix him as Steven fights with his inner self.
Cast:
Zach Callison as Steven
Ron Perlman as Negative Steven
Estelle as Garnet/Sitcom Garnet
Michaela Dietz as Amethyst/Sitcom Amethyst
Deedee Magno-Hall as Pearl/Sitcom Pearl, Volleyball
Tom Scharpling as Greg/Sitcom Greg
Grace Rolek as Connie
Shelby Rabara as Peridot
Jennifer Paz as Lapis
Uzo Aduba as Bismuth
Kimberly Brooks as Jasper
Susan Egan as Rosemary DeMayo, Rose Quartz, Pink Diamond
Lin-Manuel Miranda as President Eduardo Suarez
GZA as Major General Wade Grant
Wendie Malick as Vice-President Theresa Maxwell
Tim Curry as General Lloyd Waller
Patti LuPone as Yellow Diamond
Lisa Hannigan as Blue Diamond
Christine Ebersole as White Diamond
Sarah Stiles as Spinel
Aparna Nancherla as Lemon Jade
Lauren Ash as White Topaz
Noël Wells as Black Rutile
Steven Universe: Alternate Future
Part 4, Chapter 6: Be-All, Cure-All
We're a normal family,
In a normal neighborhood
Starring Steven DeMayo
No lies or betrayal here,
Everything is all good
With Greg DeMayo
Yes, everything is nice and friendly here
No time to shed a tear
And Rosemary DeMayo
How long can we keep it together?
A little Mayo's all we need!
"A Little Mayo's All We Need was filmed before a live studio audience." An offscreen voice announced as Steven woke up one morning to discover that something didn't seem right. This didn't seem like his bedroom, but it did at the same time.
"What am I doing here?" Steven asked himself just as the door opened.
"What are you doing here? That's a silly question!" Greg declared as he stepped into Steven's bedroom, eliciting cheers from the audience. "Morning Scthu-Ball, wakey wakey eggs and bakey!" The audience then started laughing.
"Dad, I had the weirdest dream last night." Steven said. "My mom was an alien war criminal who started a war that nearly destroyed the Earth, and now I was forced to make up for all the horrible things she did as her half-alien son."
"Wow, guess we should stop having chili for dinner so often with dreams like that." Greg remarked, causing the audience to laugh again, much to Steven's confusion. "Come on down, Mom's making breakfast."
"Wait, Mom?!" Steven exclaimed while getting out of bed. "But, she's dead! She gave up her physical form to give birth to me!"
"Well, she's bound to do that at some point when you're older." Greg shrugged with a grin. More laughter, which made Steven even more creeped out. "Now up and at 'em, don't wanna be late for school!"
"School?" Steven muttered as Greg left the bedroom before pulling up his shirt, revealing a belly button where his gem should be. "Wait, am I human?!"
"Indeed." Steven's inner voice boomed and took the form of his shadow. "This is what you always wanted, correct? Living a normal human life as a normal human boy in a world where Gems never existed. Well, I gave you your wish."
"Well, what about everyone else?" Steven asked his silhouette.
"Don't fret, they're still outside fighting your body, but your mind is perfectly safe here." The shadow purred before it slowly took the form of the more muscular Steven from when he fought Jasper. "My advice, just give in to the dream world you always wanted."
"I, uh…" Steven stuttered before the shadow returned to normal, and he finally decided to go downstairs for breakfast. However, he was in for a big surprise in the kitchen.
"Good morning my little starlight!" Steven's mother, who bore a striking resemblance to Rose Quartz, greeted her son with a big hug and a kiss, eliciting aww's from the audience. "How did my rosebud sleep last night?"
"Like a log!" Steven robotically said like a script was being forced into his head.
"Well, all little logs need a healthy breakfast to start their day." The fake version of Rose stated before handing him a plate of pancakes and scrambled eggs. To Steven's surprise, the scrambled eggs spelled out a message saying "GIVE IN STEVEN."
"Uh, Mom, Dad, have you ever had those times where a voice inside of you tells you to give in to something?" Steven asked his parents while eating breakfast.
"Well, a voice certainly told me I made the right choice marrying your mom." Greg smiled. "Right Rosemary?"
"Of course, Greg." Rosemary smiled back and the parents kissed.
"Okay, this is starting to get a little sappy." Steven muttered to himself. "Mom, do you remember anything about the Diamonds? The Crystal Gems? Anything?"
"Yeah, he's had this dream last night where you were an alien who forced all this trauma onto him after your death." Greg explained to his wife. "Maybe tonight we should have meatloaf for dinner."
"Oh, I would never do that to you!" Rose gasped. "I only want the best for my little boy."
"Yeah, the best." Steven laughed nervously. "Well, guess I should get ready for school. Can I be excused?"
"Sure you can kiddo." Greg agreed and let Steven leave the table.
"This is only a dream; this is only a dream." Steven muttered to himself on his way back to his imaginary bedroom. "A dream taking the form of a sitcom, of all things."
"But is it still a fantasy?" the Negative Steven pondered while suddenly appearing in a family picture featuring Steven as a toddler. "Or could it be real life?"
Steven let out a yell as he stumbled back, catching the attention of his imaginary parents. "Steven, you alright up there sport?"
"Never better Pops!" Steven once again said automatically before he covered his mouth. "It's like this world is taking me over."
After getting changed for the day, Steven was dropped off by his mom at Beach City High School, where the students either resembled his human friends, or human versions of the Gems he had met throughout his life. And much to his delight, some familiar faces immediately caught his eye.
"Garnet, Amethyst, Pearl!" Steven cried happily while racing towards human versions of the Crystal Gems. Garnet had a big letterman jacket on, Amethyst was squatting on the ground & looked like a juvenile delinquent, and Pearl was dressed as a head cheerleader while looking at her phone. "Oh good, am I glad to see you!"
"Hey, got any cheese?" Amethyst asked with a goofy grin, causing more laughter.
"Steven, you have to wake up!" Garnet urged Steven. "We've been created by your damaged psyche to try and break you out of this dream world, but we need you to work with us!"
"Please come back to us Steven!" Pearl began to sob. "To all of us."
Before Steven can respond to his three guardians, the dream world began to activate some sort of defense mechanism. "Why do you three always have to pick on me every day?" he asked, once again talking like he read a script. "There are tons of other students in this school, yet you always go after me!"
"We're too late, the dream world is starting to take over!" Garnet exclaimed while watching Steven walk to his first class. "Our real-world selves have to act fast!"
"I think not Crystal Gems." Negative Steven growled as he suddenly appeared behind the three and prepared to attack.
"A LITTLE BIT OF MAYO WILL BE RIGHT BACK AFTER THESE MESSAGES!"
In the real world, the Steven monster had returned to Beach City after fleeing from Black Rutile and gazed at his reflection in the ocean below him, amongst the deceased Watermelon Stevens and the wreckage of their ship. He kept having a splitting headache, as if something was trying to take over from the inside. Suddenly, he began to hear footsteps from behind him.
"Steven, it's us!" Yellow Diamond called for the son of their deceased sister. Steven's head perked up and he let out a beastly shriek before lunging at Yellow, pinning her to the ground. "We know you're still in there, you have to fight it!"
"White, hold him steady!" Blue yelled while grabbing one of the monster's arms, and White did the same with the other, releasing Yellow and giving her the chance to grab the beast by the neck.
"Who would've guessed it would be us left to save the Earth from her?" White Diamond grinned. "After all these years spent wanting it destroyed?"
"Helping first, irony later!" Yellow struggled while Steven kept on waving his arms around, trying to break free from the ex-monarchs' confinement. "Don't fight it, Steven, this is for your own good!"
Suddenly, a Warp Pad activated from inside the temple, and out the house came the Crystal Gems, the president and the military ready to assist. "There he is men!" Wade Grant shouted. "Fire, keep him down!"
Firing the anti-Gem weapons previously used on the Crystal Gems, the military shocked Steven repeatedly until he could barely even stand, and he fell to the ground unconscious. Almost immediately afterward, other military personnel began getting to work on investigating Steven's condition and trying to find a way to cure him.
"Good work, all of you." Garnet declared. "Now, let's get him back to normal."
"Hey, don't forget about us!" Spinel cried as she, White Topaz, and Lemon Jade arrived just in time to help out. However, White Topaz's appearance wasn't as well-received as she thought.
"You!" Jasper yelled at the Topaz. "What are you doing here?"
"Don't get suspicious everyone." Yellow Diamond stated. "White Topaz is on our side now. She just fell in with a really bad crowd."
"Wait, you serious?" Amethyst asked.
"Yeah, the Diamonds helped me learn that I should find better friends while they were held captive by Black Rutile." White Topaz explained. "She was planning to shatter them all with this Breaking Point gizmo and frame Steven for it, but those hopes were dashed when I finally decided to stand up to her."
Although the Gems were a bit unsure, ultimately they had no choice but to accept it. "Welcome to the club White Topaz." Lapis said, the first to step forward and welcome Black Rutile's former bodyguard. "We're gonna need all the help we can get to save Steven."
"Wait, what club?" White Topaz wondered.
"The club of people who tried to kill Steven before changing themselves for the better." Peridot stated. "You may call me president of the club since I was among the first that Steven reached out to."
"I was kinda here before Peridot." Lapis remarked.
"Wait, another Breaking Point?" Bismuth gasped upon hearing the name of her old anti-Diamond weapon. "Oh wait, she got the idea from her interviews with us, right?"
"Yeppers." White Topaz nodded cheerfully.
As the conversation between the four Gems went on, Jasper helped the Crystal Gems fasten a helmet with a satellite dish attached to it onto Steven's head, and it began delivering footage to a nearby console that Eduardo, Wade, Theresa, and Lloyd were watching.
"With this state-of-the-art technology," Lloyd grinned. "we'll be able to reach out to Steven from within his deepest, most sensitive of thoughts. All we need to do is find the right frequency."
"Okay, just need to turn the knob a few times." Eduardo muttered while operating the video equipment that was transmitting Steven's thoughts from his mind. As he finally found the right frequency, the president was in for a shock. "My goodness. Uh, everyone, you're gonna need to come over here."
The Crystal Gems began to gather around the console and started watching what the president had seen, and what they saw was Steven living a whole other life inside his head.
"Is that Steven in some cheesy sitcom?!" Greg exclaimed. "What's going on, and why a sitcom?"
"I don't know, but I think I might need some popcorn." Theresa said with interest in the program.
"Steven did say he wanted to live a life as a normal human free from Gems." Garnet analyzed the situation. "Perhaps this is what he meant."
"But the question is," Jasper declared. "how much longer can he hold out?"
"Wow, I can't believe it!" Steven declared in his dream sitcom world. "I got all this homework to do, those three keep telling me I'm living a dream, and the prom's tomorrow!"
"Yes, a prom." Negative Steven declared. "A perfectly normal human event in this perfectly real human world. You won't ever get that in your silly alien dream."
"Yeah, who'd ever want to live in a world as horrible as that one?" Steven replied with a laugh. "Three guardians constantly putting your life in danger, a negligent father, a whole town's worth of ungrateful friends." However, that was when he began to realize something. "Wait, would I ever really say that?"
"It was only a matter of time." Negative Steven boomed while the colorful television world began to get a little darker. "Everyone has already turned their backs on you. Now it's about time you did the same to them."
"No, this can't be real, this is only a dream!" Steven exclaimed and soon tried to run. "I have to get out of here!"
"NOOOO!" Negative Steven roared as some nearby flowers suddenly came to life and tied Steven up, long enough for Negative Steven to reveal himself as essentially an evil version of Steven with much darker colors, menacing red eyes, and a more muscular build. "Why leave when you can just give in?!"
"You!" Steven yelled at his darker self. "You're the one who keeps making me do all these horrible things! Just what are you anyways?!"
"Pardon me for being so rude Steven." Negative Steven stated. "I am the thorn in your side that is everything bad about you personified. Your immaturity, your refusal to accept that you're not the center of the universe, your unwillingness to let everyone move on without you. I am all of that taken physical form."
"If you're like the evil me, why is this place so happy?" Steven asked. "I mean, what's the point of trapping me in my own dreams if it isn't anything I recognize?"
"I had it custom-made especially for you." Negative Steven smiled evilly. "This neighborhood, these people, all to satisfy your dreams of living like a normal boy. If only you'd give in and let go of your atrocious old life!" He began gesturing to the imaginary townsfolk conjured specifically for Steven. "Here, everyone loves you and that's all there is to them. Like so." With a snap of Negative Steven's fingers, some of the side characters began coming to life as an example.
"Howdy neighbor, what's the haps?" a well-meaning but overly nosy next-door neighbor resembling Ronaldo asked.
"I'm your long-lost relative, and I'm here for a very special episode about terminal diseases!" a self-proclaimed relative resembling Andy proclaimed.
"Be sure to keep studying, because learning rocks!" a teacher who looked like a dead ringer for Mr. Smiley exclaimed.
"But these all look like my friends. My REAL friends." Steven growled at his darker half.
"Oh please, enough with the excuses." Negative Steven rolled his eyes in disgust. "If they were your friends, then you wouldn't get your nose in everyone's business under the foolish belief you can fix absolutely everything because of your hideous savior complex! Admit it, you're no hero! You're just like your mother." He then began to smirk. "In spite of everything you've done for them, eventually they will hate you, just like how you hate her despite every good thing she's done."
Being compared to his mother set Steven off, and he let out a feral roar while summoning his shield to break free from the flowers and knock Negative Steven down. "I am nothing like my mom, and I never will be!"
"If you hate her so much, surely you wouldn't mind if I burned a few bridges to her?" Negative Steven waved his arm and brought forth the dream versions of the Crystal Gems, trying to wriggle free from shadowy bonds. "Your choice child, return to that accursed real world or stay here and live with them forever."
"I don't care what happens, I won't let you hurt anyone I love!" Steven yelled defiantly.
"If you say so." Negative Steven shrugged and with a snap of his fingers, the three burst into flames screaming as they were disintegrated into ashes right before his good half's eyes. "Oh, did I strike a nerve? You still hold affections for those three?"
Steven said nothing. He was still processing the gruesome deaths of the human versions of Garnet, Amethyst & Pearl before he decided to turn and run.
"Stop him!" Negative Steven commanded the sitcom characters, who gave chase while he led them in pursuing Steven.
Meanwhile, Rosemary stepped forward, apparently not a pawn of Negative Steven, and she glared at Steven's dark side with righteous fury.
"I feel like something's not right here." Theresa observed the screens depicting Steven's thoughts. However, even though Steven looked very distressed on the outside, the screen seemed to imply nothing was going wrong in his head. "He's not looking too hot, yet things are shown to be perfectly fine here. What gives?"
"The mind is a complex thing to read." Garnet informed. "Steven's is no different, especially recently. Whatever he's thinking, it looks like he's trying to cover it up."
"Yeah, kinda like how I covered up all the terrible things Black Rutile did to me." White Topaz concurred. "I really thought she was my best friend, but the last good while has proven she doesn't feel the same at all."
"Same." Jasper declared. "I thought I finally got my Diamond back, but then I got turned down just as quickly as I got her back. If you ask me, I know what it's like to be betrayed by someone you thought you cared for."
"Wow, really?" White Topaz said to Jasper while blushing. "I thought I was the only one. I mean, who knows, maybe we could become each other's real friends."
"I'll try anything once." Jasper blushed back at the thought of a new bond. "I guess my Diamond, er, Steven would be proud of me if he were still here."
"Wow, good on you." Lapis grinned at Jasper. "Making your first friend."
"Who would've thought?" Jasper mused when she got an idea. "Wait here, I got some inner demons to settle."
Strolling away, Jasper walked back into the beach house and into the bathroom, where she gazed at herself in the mirror. "Hello again, old me." She greeted her reflection. "If you don't mind, I'm getting the help of the Crystal Gems to get my Diamond back, and I believe you can't follow me from here on out."
"You fool!" Jasper's reflection, taking the form of when she first arrived on Earth, bellowed to her present self. "They are weak without that imposter, and this is your chance for revenge! They humiliated us, forced us to fuse with that flying brat, and then let us get corrupted after saving you!"
"My body has been corrupted before," the present Jasper stated. "but I won't let my mind do the same again."
"Is that humility I see?!" the past Jasper roared. "That's the same humility the boy failed in using to brainwash you, and now he succeeded. What are you waiting for?! Shatter everyone who has ever wronged you now and join Black Rutile! She is the only one who can respect you now!"
"And let my own past haunt me again?" Jasper argued with her reflection. "Black Rutile is stuck in the past, but the Gems are living in the here and now. And it's time we do the same. We may have failed Pink Diamond, but I'd rather be a Crystal Gem than fail her son."
This rebuttal quickly caused the past Jasper's expression to soften, as if she had reached an understanding with her current self, and she sighed. "If you insist on being weak just to keep Pink alive, then I see no reason to care about what you do anymore. The Crystal Gems shall live."
As the reflection faded away, signifying Jasper coming to terms with her past actions and how Pink Diamond had partially influenced them, she heard a voice cry out for her. "Hey, Jasper!"
"What?!" Jasper yelled back.
"I think we made a breakthrough, you gotta come and see!" Greg exclaimed from outside. Jasper raced back to the beach as Steven began tossing and turning in the sand, causing the console in front of him to go crazy with activity.
"What seems to be happening?" Volleyball exclaimed while the screens only showed static.
"We seem to be getting through to him!" Pearl declared. "Okay, who wants to reach out to him first?"
"I'll go." Connie stepped forward with determination. "I'm Steven's best friend, it's only natural I go first."
"Yeah, that sounds like a good idea." Lemon Jade said while Connie was fitted with a headset by the president.
"This is it, Connie, you could be the key to saving him." Eduardo encouraged the girl.
"Thank you, future predecessor." Connie smiled before she began adjusting the headset and began speaking into the mic. "Steven, can you hear me? It's Connie. Can you hear me?"
"It's Connie. Can you hear me?"
His friend's soothing voice was able to calm Steven down as he kept running through his dream world, searching for a way out. Just as Steven was about to call out to Connie, Negative Steven had other plans.
"Don't listen to her!" Negative Steven bellowed while conjuring up a bad memory to toss at Steven. "That girl is just as bad as the rest of them!" He then tossed the memory at Steven, and it took the form of Connie leaving him after the first visit to Homeworld. "Remember, you had given your life to protect your friends from Homeworld, and this is how she thanked you! That ungrateful little shrew!"
"No, she was mad because I got them all worried sick! I could've died on Homeworld!" Steven argued, causing the memory to dissipate before he started running again. "Any more bad memories you want to throw at me?!"
"As a matter of fact, I do!" Negative Steven roared while conjuring up another bad memory, this time of Lapis nearly getting him sucked out of the moon base. "Lapis never cared one bit for anyone but herself, and this was no different! How come you keep her around when she has done the most horrible things?!"
"It was an accident!" Steven yelled, once again causing the memory to vanish. "Are you just going to use all the horrible things my friends did to me just to break me?"
"I'm not sure, let's give it a shot." Negative Steven grinned at the idea before raising his hands to the sky and gathering bad memories from all over to form a massive sphere above him. Some of them were real experiences Steven had, but others were no doubt false ones created to give Negative Steven more power. A fake one that Steven could easily identify was Amethyst & Pearl teasing him for proposing that he play a song in battle.
"Pearl would never do that." Steven muttered as the fake memory zipped past him. "Amethyst, maybe, but not Pearl."
"Once these memories crush you, your mind will finally submit to the dream." Negative Steven bellowed as his orb finished charging and prepared to throw it. "SAY GOODBYE TO THE WORLD YOU KNEW!"
As Steven summoned his shield to protect himself from the bad memories, Negative Steven saw fit to gloat one last time before obliterating his good half. "This all could've been avoided if you had listened to me more." He stated. "If you hadn't been such a goody goody-two-shoes, things could've, no, should've been different."
"You forced me to act out!" Steven yelled while bracing himself and trying to push the bad memory orb back.
"You are right, but it was just the thing you needed to grow a spine." Negative Steven said solemnly with a salute. "Adios my friend. Have fun at prom."
Suddenly, Rosemary stepped in-between the two Stevens and pushed the bad memories back one-handed, all with a calm but furious stare at Negative Steven.
"Mom?!" Steven exclaimed. "Dream Mom?!"
"No, it cannot be!" Negative Steven roared in shock.
"Yes, it is." Rosemary declared fiercely before she closed her eyes and began to glow. Rosemary began splitting herself in half, one half of her was stockier and had a pink circular gem, while the other was taller with her gem upside down. However, one trait they both shared was that they both had pink, curly hair.
"No, this isn't possible." Steven began to cry at the sight of both Rose Quartz and Pink Diamond standing before him. "This is just another dream!" His tears of shock quickly turned into tears of anger as he charged at the two and began fruitlessly trying to hit them. "This is all your fault, everything is your fault!" Steven began sobbing. "You're a monster, you ruined everything for everyone! It's because of you that everyone is suffering, because of me!"
"Oh, poor dear." Rose sadly shook her head and turned to her other identity. "He's been through so much."
"I think you and I know what he really needs." Pink replied before she decided to take the struggling Steven in her arms. "Come here, Steven." She said and gave her son a hug, which started to calm him down.
"What are you doing?" Steven said, still letting out some tears. "You both never cared for anyone."
"We just thought you really needed a hug." Rose answered as she joined Pink in giving her son the hug he so desperately needed. "We've put you through so much. It's all our fault for this."
"Are you kidding me?" Negative Steven growled while his eye began to twitch. "You're letting them hug you? Go on, keep fighting! They said it's all their fault!"
"You stay out of this." Rose firmly said to Negative Steven while forming a rose-colored barrier to keep him out.
"No, don't listen to a word they say!" Negative Steven hollered while pounding on the dome.
"If I had learned to behave myself back in the day and were as sweet & gentle as you are," Pink stated. "I would've saved everyone centuries of my tantrums."
"And I wish I didn't have to give the Diamonds such a scare by faking my shattering," Rose added. "but in the end, it was for the sake of Earth."
"I guess I really am as bad as you guys are." Steven realized. "I've done a lot of nasty stuff over the years. I keep making myself the center of everything, I forced the Diamonds to change their ways and allowed a megalomaniac warlord to almost take control, and I even shattered Jasper."
"Shattered?!" the two larger Gems exclaimed.
"You've got to be joking, right?" Pink asked.
"I'm not, but it wasn't my fault." Steven answered. "She was training me to control these Diamond powers that keep messing things up for me, but then I went mad with power and shattered her. I put Jasper back together, but now she's so sad because of me."
"I think I remember a Jasper under my command, don't think I ever got to know her super personally though." Pink claimed.
"I remember her more though, we fought a lot during the Rebellion." Rose responded.
"Yeah, and now it's because of me she's stuck on a planet she hates so much." Steven said glumly.
"Oh, stop beating yourself up so much, Steven." Rose said to Steven. "You have done so many remarkable things too. You helped so many people, both human and Gem alike. Heck, I don't even think anyone could've reached out to the Diamonds quite like you did!"
"Yeah, I did do some pretty great stuff!" Steven declared, his spirits brightening as the darkness around them gave way to a hot pink landscape. "Sure, I may have done some pretty bad stuff too, but I shouldn't let them outweigh the good!"
"NO! NOOOO!" Negative Steven screamed abruptly, breaking through the dome and charging straight at both versions of Steven's mom. "You've listened to them long enough Steven!"
"Stay away from them!" Steven yelled back, summoning his shield once more to protect Rose & Pink from Negative Steven. "You've been a thorn in my side for too long! I won't let you make me hurt the people I love ever again!"
"He's right!" Rose added defiantly. "Nobody's perfect!"
"And you shouldn't let bad deeds outweigh the good either!" Pink stated.
"So that's how it is." Negative Steven panted and stood up straight against his kinder self and the two sides of their mother. "It all comes down to this!" Negative Steven then slowly began to transform into a beastly gargoyle-like creature, simulating Steven's transformation in the waking world. "Once I had killed all three of you, this body shall be mine to control!"
"Bring it!" Steven, Pink Diamond, and Rose Quartz replied, standing united against the monstrous personification of Steven's inner demons in a battle to literally save Steven from himself.
"Did that work?" Greg asked Connie in the real world. "I mean, I don't hear an answer."
"I'm not sure either." Connie replied, just as the pink monster before them slowly opened his eyes. "Wait, look! I think we got through to him!"
However, what Connie got wasn't a sign Steven was still in there. Steven let out a roar as he stood up and tore off the satellite dish strapped to his head, the roar causing everyone to fall down and Garnet being forcibly un-fused into Ruby & Sapphire.
"I guess not!" Pearl exclaimed as a familiar silhouette soared above them. "Oh no, it's-"
"FINALLY!" Black Rutile screamed as Bluebird Azurite dropped her to the ground. Compared to when the Crystal Gems last saw her, Black Rutile was frothing at the mouth in rage and her green visor was gone, everyone taking both as a sign that she had finally cracked. "I'VE BEEN FOLLOWING YOU ALL, AND FOR TOO LONG I WATCHED AS YOU TRIED TO RUIN MY LIFE'S WORK!" The Rutile drew her sword from her gem and made the blade widen across the guard. "YOU'VE ALREADY DONE ENOUGH TO RUIN EVERYTHING! NOW PREPARE TO DIE!"
Standing before the psychopathic Rutile, however, the Crystal Gems and the Diamonds prepared for one last battle against her and her two surviving allies. Meanwhile, White Topaz held tightly onto Jasper's hand as she glared at her former boss.
At long last, the final battle can begin! Will the Crystal Gems be able to save Steven and the world? Has Black Rutile truly gone insane? Will Rose Quartz & Pink Diamond help Steven escape this WandaVision-esque reality of his own creation? How many more characters can get involved in this epic finale? Find out in next week's penultimate chapter of Steven Universe: Alternate Future!