Steven talks with gems in preparation of what's to come.
...
As the group made their way back into the home, the four of them each stayed silent. No one said a word as they made their way into the main living area. As the trio continued following Steven, he looked back and put a finger up to his mouth, as a way of saying to keep quiet. As he did this, Greg let out a loud snore seemingly as a reminder that he was still out. With this, the group followed Steven towards the temple door, to which Steven willed open to Rose's room. As the last person entered the magical cloud filled room, the door shut, allowing the group to finally speak without worry.
"Sooooo you alright dude? Gonna be honest, I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one who was expecting to come back to hear you suddenly ready to drop this on us."
"Amethyst is right. Though I'm glad to hear your ready to talk, what exactly happened while we were away that led to this?" asked Pearl.
"I had another dream last night while you guys were gone..." he said as he willed a large couch to appear. Now sitting on it, he continued. "...though this one had a bit more meaning to it. Don't worry, I'll be sure to catch you guys up. We'll be here for awhile anyway."
As the rest of the group joined him in sitting down on the fabricated furniture, it was Garnet who continued the conversation. "It doesn't matter how long this takes. We're here for you Steven. Whatever you need to say, we'll listen."
"Thanks Garnet...and I know. But the problem is, I'm not sure if I could say much about what's happened. After all, there is a lot and I know on my own, I'm not ready to just talk about a lot of the things that happened in the past."
"Then, why are we here? Not that I don't want you to talk to us, but if your not ready for somethings, then wouldn't this too stressful? said Pearl
"Usually yeah, but I thought of a work around. Plus, I don't really have much of a choice." He said as he saw the trio's confusion. "Don't worry, I'll elaborate here in a bit. As for my work around, that's why we're here. If I can't talk about my problems, then why don't I just show them to you all."
"Of course. You can change the scenery and use memories to your advantage here." Pearl remembered.
"Yeah...just like this." he said as the room began to shift around. As the room transformed, the world they were in began growing darker and darker until a familiar black abyss was the setting for the area.
"Steven...what is this?" asked Amethyst.
"I'm not too sure actually. I think it's the inside of my gem right now, but it could also be my mind. Either way, this is what I dreamt of last night."
While he said this, a version of him appeared.
"I'll play this memory, and the others as well as I can. Thankfully, I should be able to have better control in here now since my powers are much easier to handle...guess I have that one to thank Black for." With that bitter note left in the air, Steven began to will the room to play the memory. As the dream version of himself began walking through the abyss, the audience soon saw a faint glow in the distance, which after sometime, became the same Pink Steven from the dream. Seeing the glowing version of the boy caused some panic in the trio.
"Steven...what...who is that?" asked Pearl.
"That is my gem. I call him Pink Steven or PS. Think of him, or rather me, like a fusion of my human and gem halves. He is the gem half of myself. I don't know too much else about him though since I've only really met him twice."
"Twice? When was the first time?" asked Amethyst.
With a nervous chuckle, Steven responded, "Don't you worry about that...we'll ah...we'll get there soon enough." As the trio took note of the nervousness and the slight, but sudden frantic change in attitude at the topic, they each elected to drop it for the time being. With this, Steven continued playing through the memory.
As the group listened to the conversation between the two dream people, they began to understand as well as Steven had while everything was happening. The memory continued playing up until PS's mention, and showcase of what would happen if Steven hadn't talked to them. As the group stared on at the manifestation of the giant monster, they were stunned.
"Steven" said Garnet.
"So that's what you meant...when you said you didn't have much of a choice." said Amethyst.
"Yeah. All this stuff that's happened...plus the add on of our recent events, it's becoming too much for me or my gem to handle. Like he said, if this keeps up, then we...I, will relapse and break for good this time." he said as the memory continued and the giant butterfly thought disappeared.
As the memory near it's end, the gems gasped in shock as PS revealed the black spot and cracks on his form. As they listened to the conversation between the two dream people on why that spot was there, everything fell in line with the trio just as well as it had with Steven, though they seemed a bit more horrified at the development. As the two finished conversing, the memory came to an end. With the two of them disappearing along with the dark background, the group soon found themselves within the regular setting of the room.
"So now you guys understand why its time to talk about all this. I don't have much of a choice, but I suppose ripping this band aid off was the eventual plan anyway. There's a lot that I need to show you guys, some of which will be painful...for you and me. And like they said in the dream, I'll show you guys the points you weren't there for and the other important ones. I've...been keeping a lot of things in the dark with you guys for so long now and I think now, while we're talking about it, is the right time to show you guys everything you've missed along the way. I'm...sorry I kept all of this from you guys for so long."
"Steven, it's not bad to keep secrets so long as their not harmful to anyone. You felt you had a need and a right to keep these thoughts to yourself and while we may not know yet about everything, we'll still support you the same as we have, even afterwards. We love you Steven and nothing could change that." said Garnet.
"She's right. We'll help you get past all of this.
"Yeah. And don't apologize man. You have nothing to be sorry for, heck if anything, it's all of us that should be sorry."
"Amethyst is right. We're part of the reason you had to experience so many things as such a young age. We didn't think how it could effect you and although we see our errors now and how we can correct them, it's still something we'll be left with."
"We're all ready to help you get past your demons Steven, no matter how long or how troublesome they might be. We'll be with you all the way."
"Guys..." he said as he brought the trio into a hug. "Thank you."
As the group broke the embrace, it was Garnet who picked the conversation back up. "Before we start though, we have something we need to tell you. So long as we're all done keeping secrets from each other, you should know where we were while you were out last night."
Seeing the young man's curiosity, the fusion continued. "We went to Homeworld. We initially believed that these dreams of the past were a result of being under Black Diamond's control for so long or even at all. To try and confirm our theory, we went to ask him ourselves."
"And...what'd he say?"
"Nothing great. Said without further research or info, he wouldn't be able to really say yay or or nay to it. Getting him to explain that to us though didn't come without some bargaining though." explained Amethyst.
"What'd he want? Please tell me you guys didn't free him."
"No, of course not." Pearl said, continuing the discussion. "He asked for Red and Earl's freedom, to which we didn't see an issue in allowing."
"Huh, good for them. Where're they are now then?"
"Who knows? After we warped away, they did the same. They didn't seem too keen on staying on Earth, but we did extend the offer to them so we can't really say for sure." explained Amethyst.
"Hmm, alright. Well, so long as they don't cause any trouble, I'm good with that. Thanks for telling me though...and thanks for trying. I'm sure it wasn't easy for you guys to do that, especially after everything that's happened."
"No problem little man...anything to see you better."
"Heh...yeah. Well, I'm ready to start this up if you guys are."
"We're ready Steven."
"Yeah, let's see the epic adventures we've missed." said Amethyst.
"Though I wouldn't agree with the 'epic' aspect, I am just as eager and ready as they are." said Pearl.
"Alright, here we go then." he said as he willed the room to change about. As the clouds began to swirl, a new background began to form as the group braced themselves for the start of their journey through some of the past.
...
Woo, let's move into talking about the past, or at least part of it.
This scene killed me in that I wasn't sure how I wanted to handle it. Initially, I had four methods of doing this. Either A: they used Rose's room, B: Steven projected onto a TV with his controlled abilities, C: they used a mindscape similar to that of the one we've seen fusions in the show use to face the demons of their parts or D: they enter Steven's mind/gem while he sleeps with a device made by Peridot. With the ending of the last chapter, it didn't leave much room (from my standpoint at least) for C or D, and in the end, I chose Rose's room because I believe it will have a greater impact seeing it first hand rather than putting it on a TV and having the group basically watch moments from the show (though a 'cast watches the show' might be an idea for a fic down the line...hmmm lol).
Regardless, we'll be moving into this part of the story now where Steven begins to catch the gems up on the important things they missed out on. I'm not too sure how long this'll take chapter wise nor which events in particular I'll include (I have some in mind that have made the cut, but I'm toying with a couple others...trying to draw the line of where major and minor events are technically labeled in terms of how they impacted the boy), but I know that there a quite a few still...if you really think about it, the trio have missed out a lot more than you'd think.
Happy Hump Day everyone. Can't believe it's already basically June...where tf is 2021 going lol. Hope everyone is staying safe though. Thanks for the continued support and I hope to see e'er one again in chapter 7, where we tackle our first memory or two (gonna depend on where it comes out in terms of length...).
Breaking the Habit by Linkin Park