Welcome, readers! In case you've never met me, I've been writing SU for almost five years and started a massive fic called "How It Will End" three-and-a-half years ago. And after making that for so long, as fun as it's been, I thought I'd never write something else involving this show ever again... Then this idea popped into my head, refused to leave and thus here we are. Let's see where this little rabbit-hole goes, shall we?

Jasper held her eyes shut, trying to keep her panic to herself. This was, without a doubt, the most terrified she had ever been in her entire life. Centuries worth of missions for Homeworld when it was still a planet-conquering machine never fazed her. Being stranded on Earth and the whole incident with Malachite was more arduous that frightening. Even when she ended up being corrupted, she was more enraged at what was happening than scared of her ultimate fate.

But now… If she could feel anything else, she would laugh at the irony of it all. The fact that Steven, of all people, managed to do this. The epitome of what she considered weakness only a few days ago had not only beat her, but he had also managed to scare her more than anything in millennia of experience.

Slowly she opened her eyes, only seeing something bright pink. Once she managed to fully look around, her body was still trapped and a wall of pink, spiked barriers floated only an inch in front of her face. She started to shake uncontrollably. If those had actually hit her…

Meanwhile, in the sky, was Steven flying above her. He silently let out a breath of relief since he also knew what would happen if that last attack landed. Now, however, he let out a laugh. The barriers around Jasper and the attack of his faded as slammed into the ground, unharmed from the drop. He strutted towards his mentor to see she was gawking at the ground around her and looked up at him.

"Heh, what was that about you could take anything?" he challenged, expecting her to get up in his face. And that's exactly what he wanted. He was still itching to go. He had let out so much aggression he didn't even know he had, but he still wasn't done.

That didn't happen, though, since Jasper just stayed there looking up at him. Rain soon began to fall from the storm gathering above them but that still didn't make the gem budge.

"Um, Jasper?" Steven asked, his high starting to wear off, "You okay?"

"You…" she stuttered, "I can't… You're…"

"Say something, Jasper! You're freaking me out!"

"You're stronger than me…" she awed, more to herself, "So much stronger… I… I've lost."

While that did stroke his ego a little, Steven was starting to get nervous. He held out a hand to help her off of her knees. She took it hesitantly but soon they were walking back to the gem's makeshift house built out of rocks. Now that they were out of the rain, they both just stood inside and watched the coming storm as lightning began to flash.

"Are you okay?" Steven asked, "I mean, I know I beat you pretty good but…"

"I haven't felt this way in a long time," she admitted, her voice much more subdued and quiet, "Not since I was back on Homeworld and met the diamonds."

"Uh, okay…? So, when are we gonna get back to training?"

"I'm not training you anymore."

That made the boy do a double take. "What, huh?!"

"You're not holding back anymore. Now you're strong enough to confront your problems, right?"

That made him pause. During the whole fight, or even beyond that, his whole time out here, he hadn't had any outbursts or loss of control. He looked down at his body and truly took in how much he changed. Over a foot taller, far more muscular than he ever imagined he could be and yet wholly in control. His skin was now constantly pink but now it did not scare him. If anything, it comforted him. Nothing could actually hurt him now…

"Heh, I am," he answered with a smile, "Makes me wish I had done this a long time ago. Would've made a lot of battles and other junk easier to solve if I could just have punched them."

"Why do you think that's my first answer?" Jasper kidded, actually making him laugh. This sudden shift in her personality may have surprised him but it was welcome to him. He was starting to wonder when the last time was he laughed. He was the happiest he had been for days out here in the wilderness than he had been in his home surrounded by his family.

"So… Now what do I do?" he wondered.

"Whatever you want."

"What I want…" He thought about that for a moment. Going home crossed his mind but that made him sneer. He could practically hear them going on about how different he looked and that nagging was not what he wanted to hear. He then realized if he went anywhere in town then word would get back to them plus he wasn't that keen on hearing from his father either. No doubt griping about his precious van being destroyed just like his hair.

Now, though, he shunted all of that from his mind. Jasper had asked what he wanted and that was a question he had little experience answering. Looking back, it was always what the gems wanted, what they needed and how he could fix it. He got a chuckle out of imagining how differently things would have gone if he simply told them to stop crying whenever they had one of their fits.

To anyone who knew Steven, this would be almost as disturbing as hearing he came extremely close to shattering a gem, but the boy was past that now. Now these powers weren't some scary force beyond his control. They were his, he knew how to use them and most of all he liked using them. Feeling strong, confident, able to handle anything the world could throw at him.

And from there, he settled on what he wanted. All of this progress had come after three days so why not keep pushing himself? Why not make a good thing even better?

He looked at Jasper, his pink-pupiled eyes full of determination. "I'm gonna keep training. You may not have anything else to teach me, but I know I can improve even more."

The rain kept falling but Steven just nonchalantly summoned a barrier over his head to keep himself dry as he walked. He could not see that Jasper started jittering as he got farther and farther away from her camp, and the tiny abode Steven had made for himself. Once he reached the edge of the clearing and was about to disappear into the thicket of trees, she ran after him.

"Wait!"

Steven idly turned around, expecting either a challenge or some kind of threat. He was completely floored to see Jasper fall to her knees and bow to him.

"Please let me come with you!" she asked. And from her tone, Steven could tell it was a request. If he said no, he wagered she would obey him. For now, though, he was still stumped.

"W-What?! I thought you weren't training me anymore!"

"I'm not, but it's not about that! You're the first thing that's ever surpassed me since the diamonds! Power is the only thing I respect… And it's something I've missed since I've been stuck on this world. Someone to look up to, someone to follow…"

The young man studied her, amazed by her earnestness. The look in her eyes was genuine respect and that made him feel an odd happiness. And, if nothing else, at least it meant no more getting told to shut up with a kick to the face.

"Alright then," Steven made a second barrier above her, "Let's go!"

"Where are we going, My Diamond?"

That title made Steven cringe. "You don't have to call me that. Just Steven will work, okay?"

"Yes, Steven."

"Phew, that's better. As for where we're going…" Steven looked into the thicket before charging ahead.

"Let's find out!"

(Break)

As Steven and his new follower ran off into the woods, others were far less happy. Back in Beach City, the mood was as cold and unforgiving as the rainstorm hitting them as well. Pearl, Amethyst and Garnet were all gathered inside the temple all with one question on their mind - Steven.

"Garnet, it's been three whole days!" Pearl fretted, "Everyone in Little Homeschool is asking about him and I can't keep covering his duties forever!"

"I've looked for him all over town. Nobody has a clue where he's gone."

"Guys, I think we need to do something, like, more active," Amethyst suggested, "I ran into Greg this morning and the dude is a mess. He looked like he hadn't come out of his van in days."

"The gems at Little Homeschool aren't responsible for something like this," Garnet told her, "They need to focus on their work while we do our job of looking after Steven."

"Then I'm with Amethyst at this point," Pearl spoke up, "We need to start searching the surrounding area and then spread out to cover more ground! He can't have gotten that far."

"Last I checked, Steven was running at super-speed up towards town. For all we know, he could be halfway across the planet by now. I understand you want to find him, like I do. But right now, we can't afford a wild goose chase!"

What the three of them did not know, however, was that someone was overhearing their entire conversation. Connie had also been fretting nonstop for the past few days. She had now tried over a dozen times to call or text Steven and yet every single attempt was met with failure. This morning, she decided enough was enough and was going to investigate personally. Thankfully her mother perfectly understood since she herself was worried for the boy after his disastrous first trip to the hospital.

She had planned to be courteous but the more she listened in from under her umbrella, the more her mind seemed to shut down. Eventually, she ended up bursting through the door. "STEVEN'S BEEN MISSING FOR THREE DAYS?!"

"C-Connie!" Pearl gasped, "How much did you hear?"

The girl ignored the question and stormed into the house. "What happened?! Did he take his things with him?! Have the police been called?! Oh, no wonder he hasn't been answering his phone!"

"Connie, just calm down!" Garnet ordered, "Steven had an accident in Greg's van but-"

"HE WHAT?!" she shrieked, "Then what the heck are you all just standing around for?! We need to find him NOW!"

The girl bolted to Steven's bedroom and grabbed his phone before charging outside back into the rain, forgetting to shield herself from the rain as the gems hurried after her. Unfortunately for Connie, she was one fit teenager against three aliens with much more stamina and speed than her and she was quickly caught.

"Are you guys nuts?!" she demanded, "Steven could be out somewhere alone, scared or have his powers going berserk! We need to find him before he hurts someone else or himself!"

"We understand that!" Amethyst told her, easily keeping the girl down by pinning her arms and legs, "But Steven had his super-speed on and ran away from the house! One minute he was there and the next he was gone!"

"She's right," Pearl sadly agreed, "It's killing us inside but he could practically anywhere at this point! It'd be one thing if he just warped somewhere but since he just ran away… We'd have to feasibly search the whole globe."

"Then start somewhere, darn it!" Connie insisted, "I can't believe you'd all be this stupid! Don't you have, like, a few hundred gems to help with the search?"

"Those gems have enough trouble trying to integrate to a society they know nothing about," Garnet insisted, "Having them drop everything for a massive search is-"

"Fine! Be that way! If you won't do it, then let me go!"

"Connie, that's insanity!"

"So is just standing around! I get you have your own lives, but Steven's worth putting things aside for! Run your stupid school while he's in the middle of no-one-knows-where, I'll find him myself!"

Realizing that they weren't making any progress in talking her down, Amethyst let her go and the girl quickly headed down the beach. The other two were about to chase after her except Lion beat them to it, charging up to Connie and quickly letting her ride on his back before heading off.

"Well, that does make me feel better…" Pearl sighed, "Where did Lion even come from, though?"

"Come on, P, he always pops in whenever he wants," Amethyst told her, "I dunno where he runs off to, but he's good about being around when it's important."

"Well, now we're going to have to tell Connie's parents," Garnet admitted, "But at least someone's looking for him. And she's proven pretty capable for herself. No doubt she'll get her sword in case anything happens."

As much as it tore Pearl up, she just nodded along and slunk back inside with the rest. Unfortunately, they learned Steven's phone was gone and had no idea where Connie and Lion could have warped off to by this point. They wanted to be more active but they had their own responsibilities to attend to. At the back of their minds, however, they kept telling themselves one version or another of the same thing…

It's Steven. What's the worst that could possibly happen?

And now the ball is in motion! Now that Steven's set in developing his powers, where will this go? Only one way to find out!

Thank you all so much for reading! Feel free to leave any questions or comments below!