Steven showcases the Gems to the first memory on his mind.

...

Reference: Should a character with a P before their name show up (which it will at some points), this is referring to them as 'past' or 'projected' character. Example: P-Steven jumped...P-Pearl poofed...etc.

These characters are ones made by the room and are excluded from the present day cast, whom will still have the regular names.

Thanks and enjoy!

...

"Are you sure this is going to be alright Steven?" asked Pearl suddenly while the room continued making the first scenario for the group.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, the room isn't meant or really able to usually make a large environment. Remember what happened when you tried that with Beach City"

Gaining a slight shiver from the chilling memory, Steven responded. "Yeah, I do. But the room tried putting together all those people and structures. As long as I keep it small and keep my focus on the memory, then I think we'll be fine. Worse comes to worse, I can always just take it slow and show the specific area at a time, which now that I think about it...we might have to do just that for some occasions."

"Well, alright...so long as we don't break the room."

With this, the group focused their attention back onto the place in question as it continued creating the environment on Steven's mind. As the clouds swirled and changed shape, the color also began to change to nothing but black. Soon, the group was sitting in a abyss. Before anyone could say anything though, the room made a much younger Steven, who was standing in place. After a second, he looked around as if he were expecting something.

"Uh dude...is this part of the memory?" asked Amethyst.

"Yeah, just give it a second."

As if hearing the words from the two, a sudden flicker of flames circled around P-Steven as several torches on the wall lit up, allowing illumination to enter the room. With this, the group saw P-Steven standing on what looked like a ramp in a darkish red room. Behind him were several metal bars, implying that an escape was blocked. As they looked beyond the initial slope of the ramp, the group saw that the pathway extended further down the way. As P-Steven began looking around, he looked up to the top of the ramp to see what appeared to be a giant stone Amethyst, who seemed to have the pathway turn into her tongue.

"Whoa...where is this?" asked Amethyst, who had shown an excited interest in the structure and design of the room.

"I'm surprised you don't remember. You were excited to have created such a construct after all. This is when Steven wanted us to test him, isn't it.", said Pearl.

"Yeah, that's right. My confidence was low at the time and I had just found out that the lunar spire was a test, so I wanted another chance. You guys made this obstacle course for me to prove myself."

"But why show us this?" Pearl continued. "If I recall right, you completed the course. How is this a bad memory?"

"I wouldn't exactly call it a bad memory per se. Remember, I said I'd be showing you guys things I feel that you should know now. This is one of them. As for why exactly, you'll have to watch and see."

With this, the memory continued as it had paused to allow for the gem's questions. The group watched as P-Steven soon found himself beginning the course as he began to be chased by a giant circular stone. As the chase progressed, P-Steven soon found himself reaching the end of the ramp. At it's end, a gap between the ramp and a platform was present. Seeing that he didn't have another option, he pressed on. As he jumped, he found that a whip was present over the gap, to which he used to swing to the platform. Soon after, the door on the platform turned to star balloons, allowing P-Steven to exit the room.

"Hang on, we gotta switch over to the next one." said Steven as the room began to quickly swirl.

"Man, I miss that course. Nice job getting past that one."

"Heh...thanks." said Steven, to softly responded to the comment.

As the room continued swirling and making new shapes and colors, soon enough, the group were in a dark blue room. In it were several tiles, with the exit door located on a higher platform with no immediate way of reaching it.

"Ah yes, my room. I enjoyed making mine as well, I'll admit. The tiles and the sounds, it was interesting to design." said Pearl.

As the memory continued, the floor in front of P-Steven soon began lighting up individual tiles. As each tile lit up, it almost seemed like a pattern. As P-Steven noticed this, he began to figure out the pattern the floor was signaling off. Soon enough, he found the right tiles and found that a set of stairs leading to the platform had presented themselves. As P-Steven declared victory, he soon found that several swinging blades were also present.

"I'll admit Pearl...didn't see that one coming at the time. Didn't seem like your style." said Steven.

"Well, you did want a challenge. Wouldn't be too much of one if it were predictable after all."

With this, the group watched as P-Steven made his way to the top, while narrowly missing the blades on a couple occasions. Soon after, the door turned to stars once more, allowing passage into the next room. With this, the room began to make more shapes and colors once more.

"Well done Steven. It might be your past self, but that still took some effort. Honestly, I feared that the surprise of the blades would have been a little too much."

"Yeah...too much. Well, it was creative if nothing else." said Steven, who once again seemed to respond in a soft manner, almost as if he'd rather avoid the praise.

Not too long after, the room had finished it's creations as it showed off a bright room with a lava pool over the main pathway. On the platform, the group watched as walls of fire burst from cracks in the pathway.

"Don't you think you went a bit overboard G?" asked Amethyst. "I mean...we were testing him...not actively trying to kill him."

Hearing this, Garnet shrugged. "This was in line with what he wanted. That and Ruby might've took the wheel a bit more than she should have on this one."

As the memory played on, the group watched as P-Steven began getting past several of the firewalls. Soon, he neared the platform, much to the growing excitement of the group while Steven watched on with a mixed look of sorrow and upset. As the pathway neared it's end, P-Steven soon found that a large pillar of spikes began to drop down from above. Not being able to react in time, he stiffened up as he braced himself for the pain he was sure would come...only to find that it hadn't. As the group watched P-Steven look up, they all gasped as he noticed the spikes had stopped midair.

"Oh no" said Garnet as she voiced the group's realizations at why the memory needed to be shown.

As P-Steven stepped aside, he placed his arm out in front of the spikes as they fell again to confirm that they did stop before striking him. As he stepped back in disbelief, he also found that the wall of flames wouldn't shoot out where he was standing as they completely avoided his being, even if he tried touching it. Now curious, P-Steven began to move back into the other rooms to confirm his growing suspicions. The group watched as the room quickly brought back the other rooms while expelling the previous, as if it had each of them ready for the occasion. As the memory played, the gems watched as Pearl's swinging blades would go right through him. Wanting to test the course even more, he moved back to the tiles where he tried several patterns with little meaning or reason to them, only to find that each one would trigger the stairs. Now in Amethyst's room, P-Steven soon found the gap was able to be walked on as if an invisible path were present. He also found that the giant stone would not flatten him, and that it wouldn't even touch him as he forced the ball back with each step he took towards it. Soon enough, the gems saw him walk back up the ramp and soon found that he had managed to walk to the top of the structure, where each of the 'traps' were placed.

As P-Steven walked along the top of the structure, he neared its end to find the P-Gems standing at the end. With a large amount of star balloons and a congratulations sigh, he watched the trio from overhead. As he did so, he heard the concerns and worries of the gems as their own confusion and wonder if they had been doing what was best for him all this time. With this, P-Steven, whom had found a thing of determination and purpose, reentered the course and completed it. Soon enough, he was walking out to the gems, who congratulated him, while being all the none wiser as to the events that transpired. With this, room dissipated the memory, and began to return to it's original, bright cloud setting.

With a sigh, Steven addressed the gems. "So now you guys know. I never really completed that course...and I found out it was rigged from the start. I'm sorry I couldn't tell you guys. Hearing what you said and seeing how clueless and lost you were at trying to raise me, I just couldn't bring myself to tell you. You guys made that course to help improve my confidence, but you guys were struggling in your own ways just as much. In the end, I came to the conclusion that I needed to watch out for you guys as well and help you all just as much as you were trying to help me...if not even more so."

"Steven." said Garnet. "We're sorry that we did that. We shouldn't have rigged the course at all. We made you feel like you mattered less and didn't deserve the challenge, or that you weren't up for it."

"Garnet's right. And although we appreciate you giving us that boost in return, it should have never been left to you to make that decision. We just wanted to see you happy and ready again...and it ended in the opposite in that you felt you needed to help us instead."

"Yeah dude, we're glad you were worried about us, but we still shouldn't have done any of that."

"Heh, thanks guys. I am glad I can tell you all this now. I don't think you would have handled it well if I had tried telling you about it back then...though it hardly compares to what's to come."

"Whatever is down the line, we'll face it together. This one may not have been particularly bad, but we're ready for whatever you have to show us, even if it's against us." explained Garnet.

"Speaking of, what's next on the agenda?" asked Pearl.

"Yeah, let's get this trip down memory lane back on course." said Amethyst.

"Alright, hang on. Let me get it together first...and guys, thanks for being understanding. I know that probably wasn't the easiest thing to learn."

"Honestly, after everything we know of now...I'd say it rates somewhere middle-ly in turns of shocking discoveries." said Amethyst. "I mean, we all survived learning about Rose's secret of Pink Diamond. Compared to that...I'd give this like a 4 or 5."

"Heh, fair enough."

With this, the group sat on and watched as the room began swirling it's clouds to form the setting for the next memory to come.

...

And we're off. Glad I was able to start this off light versus what's to come. Part of me thinks Steven would have told them about the test eventually...but then I ponder if he ever really told them about a lot of the things they missed. I mean, a large portion of the fandom believed that he never told them about what happened in White's head (I know that the test doesn't really compare to that in terms of traumatizing, but still, it something he most likely didn't tell them about...and if he did, we never saw it). Regardless though, now they know (hear at least...actual canon to be debated lol).

With that out of the way, we can start moving into more of his memories, many of which are more painful.

Thanks guys for stopping by again and for the continued support. On a four day weekend now for Memorial Day (not sure if I'm posting, or at the minimum writing on Monday as I do observe the holiday...if I manage to get ahead, then I'll probably post something still, but think that day'll be a break from this). But with this extended weekend, I should be able to get back up to speed quite well. Again, thanks guys and hope to see everyone in ch 8.

Also, not naming these chapters after relevant song titles, but rather from the episode of the memory to help keep relevance. So here we are with The Test from Season 1.