Chapter Two

A Growing Boy

(Several years ago)

Amethyst sighed as she sat down near the wooden structure in front of the temple. Greg had managed to get ahold of some money for the Crystal Gems to use for Steven.

Greg had left a letter for each of the Crystal Gems, except for Rose who received a tape. Each letter began the same, a greeting from Greg. After the greeting there was a personalized message for each one of the Gems. Out of respect and privacy the Gems didn't say what Greg had wrote for each one of them.

Amethyst would often look at her letter and think about a certain passage in her letter.

'Amethyst, please understand that I will miss all of you. I think that Rose would be a better parent to Steven than I could ever be, and with you three around I know that he will be in good hands. Please make sure he stays safe. If he's anything like I was when I was a kid he'll be a handful, even for the best of parents. I left you a nice little something in the storage shed, which I managed to clean up for the most part. I will miss you all, From Greg'

Amethyst held the keys that Greg had given her the day Steven was born. She hadn't gone by to check on the shed, mostly because the Gems have been working on a house for little Steven. He wasn't comfortable with the temple, always crying when he was inside any of the rooms, so Rose had decided that his own "room" would have to do.

His "room" had turned out to be a house, which all four of them have been working on, Rose less so for obvious reasons.

A call for Amethyst was heard from the house, so she slowly stood up and walked to the source of the voice.

It was Rose, holding Steven in her arms.

"Amethyst, could you watch Steven for me?" Rose asked softly.

"Yeah, sure," Amethyst said reluctantly.

Rose knelt down and held Steven out for Amethyst to carry. Amethyst wasn't new to holding Steven, she was not really comfortable with it quite yet.

"Thank you Amethyst. I need to check on the moss, and that is too dangerous for Steven to handle right now," Rose explained. Amethyst nodded saying, "It's no problem. I'll keep an eye on him."

Rose smiled and turned back to the incomplete house leaving Amethyst alone with Steven. He was looking right at Amethyst. His smile reminded Amethyst of Greg's smile, big and goofy, but sincere.

Amethyst looked to see if anyone was around, and when she was sure that the coast was clear she looked at Steven and said, "C'mon lil man, I'll show you something really cool."

(Present Day)

"NOOOOOO!"

Steven was horrified beyond belief, "Tell me this isn't happening Lars! Please tell me it's not real!"

He grabbed the teen's shirt as he began to cry. Lars angrily replied, "Get off me, I'm working here!"

Steven promptly let go and looked at the other person working at the Big Donut, Sadie.

"Sorry Steven, I guess they stopped making them," Sadie replied sweetly.

Steven was severely disappointed, "Why would they stop making Cookie Cats? They are the most amazing and scrumptious ice cream sandwich in the world!"

"They stopped making them because no one buys them anymore. Lion Lickers are beating them by a mile," Lars said as he continued to stock the shelves.

"Aww but those are gross! They don't even look like real lions!" Steven proclaimed.

"Sorry Steven, but that's the way these things happen sometimes," Sadie said, trying to console Steven. It wasn't working, so Sadie said, "Hey Steven, you could take the freezer if you want."

Steven nodded, a small smile on his face. He grabbed the freezer with ease and walked out of the store. Steven could hear Lars and Sadie talking, but he couldn't make it out. From what it sounded like they were making plans or something.

Steven walked towards the house. He was humming the theme from the ads he had heard on TV and as he climbed up the steps he had heard fighting noises inside.

He listened closely and heard several high pitched screeches, so he had assumed that there were monsters inside. He sat down near the front steps, lifted the bottom of his shirt, and looked down. Just a plain belly button. His mom said that this was because his dad sacrificed his physical form for him to be born, so he didn't have a gem on his body.

Steven would often search to see if he had a gem somewhere, anywhere, on his body, but there was no luck. No matter how many times he looked he didn't have a gem anywhere on his body. This meant that he didn't have any powers, and living with a bunch of super powered women, he felt like a burden.

The high pitched screams had inside had stopped, so Steven stood up, picked up the Cookie Cat freezer and walked in.

"Hi guys!" Steven said in his usual cheery tone.

Garnet, Amethyst, and Pearl were standing around with their weapons drawn and looking around the house. Pearl replied, "Hello Steven, we were just taking care of some centipeetle's, which somehow managed to make their way inside the temple."

"Oh. Where's my mom?" Steven asked.

"She's off doing a mission," Amethyst replied with her mouth filled with a sandwich.

Steven was used to hearing this. His mother would often go on missions on her own, so Steven would often hang around town waiting for her to get back. He took the Cookie Cat freezer to the kitchen and began to look for an outlet when the warp pad activated.

Rose stood on the warp pad with a large bag in her hand. Steven left the Cookie Cat freezer on the floor and ran to his mother, giving her the biggest hug he could muster.

Rose chuckled as she picked up her son effortlessly and hugged him back.

"Hello Steven, how was your day?" Rose asked.

"It was ok…until I found out that there are no more Cookie Cats and there never will be," Steven said, his voice still saddened by the news.

Rose gasped, "What? Well if there aren't any more Cookie Cats, then what do I have here?"

Rose raised the bag to Steven and when he looked inside he gave an almost exaggerated gasp. The bag was filled to the brim with Cookie Cats. Not just the regular Cookie Cats, there were also a bunch of different types of Cookie Cats.

"I heard the news, so I went looking for as many as I could," Rose said.

Steven beamed his thousand watt smile and hugged his mother even tighter, "THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!"

Rose gave him the bag and he ran to the Cookie Cat freezer, plugged it in, and placed all of the Cookie Cats he could inside, putting what couldn't fit inside the small freezer into the other freezer.

"I will treasure these forever," Steven said, taking a Cookie Cat out of the freezer, "After this one."

He opened the wrapper, closed his eyes, and took a bite out of the Cookie Cat. As he chewed the Cookie Cat his body began to glow. Every Crystal Gem looked shocked at this, and as he took another bite out of the ice cream sandwich, a round object began to form in front of him.

"Steven open your eyes!" Amethyst yelled out.

"Wha-?" Steven said, opening his eyes and looking in front of him, seeing the disk form in front of him. It didn't last long and faded away. Steven took another bite of the Cookie Cat, but nothing happened.

"I do have powers!" Steven yelled in excitement.

Pearl was very clearly puzzled, "But…how? He doesn't have a gem, we've searched him dozens of times!"

Rose just stood there with her mouth agape. She couldn't believe it. She looked at Garnet, who looked as stoic as usual.

"Garnet…" Rose began.

"It was a faint possibility that some of your powers would carry over to Steven," Garnet said, adjusting her visor.

"Who cares how he got them?! He has them now!" Amethyst exclaimed, going over to Steven and carrying him around for a sort of victory lap around the house.

Rose wasn't sure how to feel about this. On one hand she was happy that Steven had powers, but on the other hand she was sure that he would be a completely human child.

The cries of laughter from both Steven and Amethyst echoed around the house. Rose walked to the two and asked Amethyst to put Steven down. She did so, albeit with reluctance, and Rose said, "Steven, would you come with me to my room please?"

Steven nodded as he followed his mother into her room. He had been in here a few times before, but he was still surprised at how beautiful the room was. Pink clouds everywhere that made Steven feel comfortable, yet at the same time he felt sad. He couldn't explain it but every time he had come inside the room he felt like a part of him is crying.

"Mom…?" Steven began before Rose hugged him. This wasn't any normal hug, and Steven could feel it. He could feel the back of his head getting wetter, which meant that his mother was crying.

"Mom, why are you crying? Did I do something wrong?" Steven asked sincerely.

"No Steven, you did nothing wrong," Rose began as she let go of the embrace, tears still in her eyes, "I just want to show you something."

Rose grabbed her son's hand and led him deeper into the room. Everything still looked the same, pink clouds everywhere, until something in the distance popped into view. Steven couldn't tell what it was, in fact for all he knew it was a construct of the room.

As the two approached the object, Steven managed to process what the object was, a white van with intricate designs on the outside. Steven liked the way the van looked, and then he noticed that the van had a name on it.

"Mr. Universe?" Steven asked, not sure what was happening.

"This van belonged to your father," Rose said, squeezing Steven's hand.

Steven looked at the van and the small sadness inside seemed to grow even larger. He touched the side of the van and looked at the name once again.

"This was dad's?" Steven asked softly. Rose nodded and pointed to the back of the van. Steven walked over to the back of the van and reached for the handle. He stopped.

He didn't know how to feel about this. He never even knew his father aside from the stories he had heard from his mother and the other Crystal Gems. Steven knew that his father was a musician that was a nice guy overall, but apart from that he had no clue who his father was. He didn't even know his name.

Rose placed her hand on top of Steven's and looked at him. Her tears had lessened and she was smiling. Steven knew that this was something he had to do. The two reached for the handle on the back of the van and opened it together.

Steven looked inside and saw a bed on the floor of the van, several pictures lined the walls, and there was a small TV with a VCR on it. Steven climbed inside and sat on the bed. When he looked around at the picture he saw a man who looked very similar to Steven.

"Is that…Dad?" Steven asked his mother, eyes becoming glassy.

Rose nodded as she looked around the van. She would often visit the van, but never looked inside it. She waited until she thought Steven was ready to see it to look inside.

"I brought it in here right after your father…" Rose didn't continue, but Steven knew what she meant. Steven looked around and saw a single small box in the corner of the van. Steven grabbed the box and looked at the label and gasped.

"Mom, I need to show this to Amethyst!" Steven exclaimed. Rose looked confused until she saw the tape. She nodded and led Steven out of the room.

Luckily for Steven, Amethyst was sitting on the couch in the living room doing nothing.

"Sup Steven," Amethyst said lazily. Steven didn't return the greeting, instead grabbing Amethyst's hand and dragging her outside.

"Steven what's going on!?" Amethyst asked while Steven was taking her into town. Steven didn't say anything.

After a few minutes of running Steven stopped at U-Stor, the storage facility. Amethyst was really confused and asked, "Steven, what are we doing here?"

Steven was still silent as he held out the box from the van. Amethyst looked at the box and read the title out loud, "Lil Butler: Series Finale? Where did you get this?"

"My dad's van," Steven said, shocking Amethyst. She didn't look into the van after Steven was born, none of the Crystal Gems did. She looked at Steven and asked, "Did Rose…?"

Steven nodded as he fished his pocket for the key to the storage unit. He opened the storage and headed towards the back, knowing where to find what he was looking for. Amethyst followed, holding the small box close to her chest.

Steven stopped right in front of a small television set that was connect to a VCR. He removed the tape from the VCR and motioned for Amethyst to give him the box. He took the contents of the box, an old VHS tape, turned on the TV, and placed the tape inside the VCR.

A small jingle played and then some familiar lyrics played.

(Several years ago)

Amethyst took baby Steven out to the storage unit, somewhere she and Greg would often hang out. The two hung around here if the others were out doing a mission, leaving her and Greg alone.

Amethyst opened the storage unit, which to most would seem like a pile of junk, but to Amethyst was old memories. She looked inside the storage unit, trying to find what she was looking for, but holding a baby made things exceptionally harder.

It took her some time until she found the box of old tapes Greg and her used to watch. Amethyst looked around and saw the old TV set was still plugged in, as was the VCR. She rummaged through the box until she found a tape labelled, "Lil' Butler Pilot".

She turned on the TV and put the tape inside. After a few moments of waiting the opening jingle of the show played.

"An orphan boy with sass and pep, got dropped off on our mansion step, Lil' Butler, Lil' Butler!"

Amethyst looked down at Steven, who was entranced with the opening and said, "Me and your dad used to watch this all the time."

"…and teach us lessons 'bout ourselves, Lil' Butler. Lil' Butler that's yooouuu!"

"You people have too much money!" Amethyst said along with the titular character. She and Steven were watching the show, and during a scene involving a lost cat, Amethyst started crying.

She didn't like to cry, but watching the show brought up the fact that Greg wasn't around anymore.

'I should probably turn this off' Amethyst thought to herself, but before she could do anything she noticed that Steven was looking at her. He seemed to have noticed that Amethyst was crying. She quickly wiped her tears and said, "Oh don't worry Steven, I'm fine! Really I-"

Before she could finish Steven hugged her.

Well it was an attempt at a hug.

He didn't completely understand the concept of sadness, but he knew that whenever he was crying, his mom would always hug him to make him feel better.

Amethyst hugged him back, tears now flowing freely.

The two stayed inside watching the show until late in the evening. Steven was fast asleep as the episode ended. Amethyst didn't want to get up to change the tape, so she stayed sitting down, holding Steven.

(Present Day)

"Well Lil' Butler this is the last time we'll ever see you, do you have anything to say?"

"Just one thing…you people have too much money!"

A laugh track finished the episode as a car drove off. Once the ending credits began to play Steven looked to Amethyst.

"What did you think of the finale?" Steven asked.

"Ehhh, they should have brought the daughter back for the last episode," Amethyst said shrugging.

"But how would she have come back from space?" Steven asked.

"It's not that hard. I mean they could have had some sort of call from where she was stationed to say bye to Lil' B," Amethyst replied.

"I guess. I still liked it," Steven said, standing up to get the tape out of the VCR.

"Well that's all for Lil' Butler, I guess," Amethyst said, "What do you want to do now?"

Steven put his finger on his chin and looked at the box full of tapes, "Want to watch them again?"

Amethyst gave a small smile and nodded. Steven gave a wide smile and pulled out the pilot episode of "Lil' Butler".

Once he put it in he said, "Do you think the others want to watch?"

"Nah, they're probably busy doing something important." Amethyst said.

(Back at the Temple)

"Rose, we've spotted a Red Eye approaching the Earth," Pearl said in a worried tone.

"How long until it enters the atmosphere?" Rose asked, very seriously.

"Approximately two hours," Garnet said, adjusting her visor.

"Is there any way that we can destroy it discreetly?" Rose asked.

"A shot from the light cannons will be able to destroy it if we have a good angle," Garnet replied.

"Then we take the light cannons and destroy it before it becomes visible from the ground," Rose said while walking towards her room.

"What about Steven and Amethyst?" Pearl asked.

"Amethyst is with Steven. The two are probably watching the tape that was in the van," Rose said.

"There was a tape in the van?" Pearl asked, "But how did Steven get into the van?"

"I brought him to it," Rose said, "He should know more about his father and I thought now was the time to do it."

"But why? We now know he has powers and with proper training…" Pearl began, but was stopped when Rose held up her hand.

"Steven does have powers, but he isn't ready to know about the war," Rose began, "We will train him, but the less he knows about the past, the better off he'll be."

Rose looked at Garnet, who just looked down, "It will be better right?"

Garnet took a moment and said, "No matter what decision you make, Homeworld is still a threat. We will need to tell Steven at some point, the sooner we tell him the better prepared he will be."

"Prepared for what?" Pearl asked.

"An invasion. It could be as large as an armada or as small as single ship, but that doesn't matter. Once there is word of Gems on Earth, we could be facing another war," Garnet responded.

Pearl looked solemn. She didn't want Steven to have to experience the hardships of war, especially against Homeworld. She asked, "When should we tell him?"

Rose sighed, "I don't know."

The three looked out to the sky, trying to figure out if everything would work out in their favor.

Rose whispered to the night, "Greg, what do we do?"

(That Night)

Steven and Amethyst had come home much later, and after a scolding from Pearl, Steven was sent to bed. Amethyst said good night and went to her room, leaving Steven alone in the house.

Steven dressed in his pajamas and tried to go to sleep, but had a hard time doing so. He was feeling wide awake, which wasn't common for Steven. So he did what his mother would do to help him go to sleep.

He began to hum.

He wasn't humming anything in particular, but whenever he or his mother hummed in bed, it seemed to always help him sleep.

This was no exception. After humming for what seemed like a minute, his eyes felt heavy. They slowly fell until they were completely closed, and Steven was drifting off to sleep.

He was in the middle of town.

Alone.

He tried to call out to someone, but before he could a flash of light appeared in front of him.

He covered his eyes as quickly as he could, but that could only do so much. After what seemed like hours, Steven opened his eyes.

It was a small ball of blue light.

"Hello Steven," the ball of light said in a soft voice.

"Umm, hi…ball of light," Steven replied.

"So that's what I look like eh?" the light replied, "Ah well, that doesn't really matter."

Steven was really confused. He had to be having a dream, but it all felt very real to Steven.

"Look Steven, I don't know how long I can talk to you, but I need to tell you something very important!" the light said loudly.

"What? What do you need to tell me?" Steven asked.

The light began, "The Crystal Gems are not doing so great right now. Something big is going to happen."

"What's going to happen!?" Steven asked hurriedly.

"I don't know, but it's something big. I need you to insist on training. No matter what the other Gems say, no matter what your mother says, you need to get stronger," the light replied.

"How do you know all this?" Steven asked the light.

"Trust me. I know this all seems weird and strange, but please trust me on this!" the light begged.

Steven wasn't sure what to do. The light floated lower and continued to speak, "Please."

The way the light spoke made Steven feel…safe. It wasn't something that he could explain, but he felt like he could trust the light.

"Ok. I trust you," Steven said.

Suddenly the ground around him began to shake and he heard the light yell, "Steven!"

His eyes opened. The sun was shining brightly through the window. He sat up straight and looked around. All he saw was Pearl making breakfast.

Pearl noticed that Steven was awake and said, "Good morning Steven!"

"Uh, good morning, Pearl," Steven said as casually as he could.

"Garnet and Amethyst are on a mission and your mother is in her room. Do you want me to tell her that you're awake?" Pearl asked, placing eggs onto a plate.

"Yes please," Steven said, getting out of bed. Pearl set the eggs and toast on the table and went to the temple door. Once she was inside, Steven quickly changed out of his pajamas and into his usual clothes and when he sat on the table the temple door opened.

Rose and Pearl walked out and Rose whispered into Pearl's ear. Pearl nodded and stood on the warp pad and was transported away, leaving Rose and Steven alone.

"Good morning Steven!" Rose said cheerily.

"Good morning Mom," Steven replied less enthusiastically. This was noticed by Rose quickly and she gave a concerned look and asked, "Is something wrong, Steven?"

"I, uh…had a weird dream," Steven said.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Rose asked.

"I was in the middle of town, alone, and this ball of light started talking to me," Steven said, trying to remember the dream.

"That is weird. Do you remember what the light said?" Rose replied.

"I can't remember what it said, but once the ball of light stopped talking to me the ground started to shake and then I woke up," Steven continued.

"How odd," Rose said.

Steven began eating his breakfast when a thought occurred, "Hey, Mom?"

"Hmm?" Rose replied.

"Can you teach me how to use my powers?" Steven asked.

Rose was surprised, "Of course. What brought this up?"

"I don't know. I just want to help you guys out with missions and stuff," Steven said, "I mean, I don't want to be stuck here if something bad happens to you guys. If I can help then I want to help!"

Rose sighed, "Steven," she began, "This isn't an easy thing to do. We face constant danger every day, and there is a chance where we can get seriously injured, possibly killed. That is the risk that the Crystal Gems are willing to make. I don't want you to take that risk, but if you want to, you listen to anything and everything that any of us say. If we tell you to run, you run. If we tell you to hide, you hide. If we say that a mission is too dangerous for you, then the mission is too dangerous for you. Do you understand?"

Steven nodded without hesitation, ready to take the risk.

Rose gave a small smile and said, "Then we start tomorrow."

And that ends this exceptionally long chapter. I meant for this chapter to come out earlier, but technical issues kept me from doing so (shout out to Windows 10 finally downloading and installing after about four days while dealing with corrupted files that I had no idea existed).

All that aside this was a fun chapter to write. I originally wanted to stop about halfway through, but then I wanted to continue on. Now all chapters will probably about this long, maybe longer because I have the habit of either matching or writing more than the previous chapter.

I've also started experimenting with different viewpoints, flashbacks and dream sequences. Just to clarify, the bold is Author's Note stuff, the italics are flashbacks, and the bold and italic combo is a dream sequence. That was experimental, so if that doesn't work please let me know.

Anyways, thanks for reading, review if you liked it!

Peace.