"I said enough, Pink!" Yellow's shout harshly echoed throughout the room.

He had decided that he would spend some time with Yellow that day and things had started off rather well. He even managed to get a small smile out of her. Then, they got to the topic of colonizing planets; he had once again refused and that had set her off.

The way that she had so flippantly talked about exterminating life on a planet like it was a chore had made him feel sick. He had tried explaining to her why all life was precious and worth protecting, but she had merely shaken her head and laughed at him; that had set him off.

He was getting really tired of being ignored and of pretending to be Pink Diamond. His voice had gradually gotten louder and louder and before he knew it he was shouting at her. His face was flushed red with anger and he could feel his heart pounding harder in his chest.

"I am notPink!" he shouted back equally as harsh, but regretted it the instant he saw her face.

Her pupils had shrunk to the size of pinpricks and her face contorted into a menacing snarl. She slowly stood up at her full height and he was jarringly reminded of just how much bigger she was than him. She could easily crush him if she wanted to and he would be powerless to stop her.

"Pink." she warned her tone promising punishment if he said the wrong thing.

She was glaring at him with an intensity that would usually make him back down and apologize, but he was just so frustrated. Why couldn't Yellow see that what she was doing was wrong? They kept telling him that he was a Diamond, but they refused to treat him as one. Why couldn't they just listen to him for once?

Pink.

Pink.

Pink.

He was so sick of hearing that name. That's all that they had talked about since the moment he arrived on homeworld. He wasn't Pink. Why was that so hard to understand?

He straightened his back and met her icy glare with one of his own. "My. Name. Is. Steven." he slowly punctuated every word through gritted teeth.

That was decidedly the wrong thing to say as moments later he was very suddenly and forcibly removed from his seat and thrust into Yellow Diamond's hand. He steadied himself and struggled to stay upright as she began to angrily march somewhere.

"Pink." Yellow glared down at him, effectively silencing any future protests. "I thought we had moved past this, but if you insist on continuing to play this little game of yours then you leave me no choice." She abruptly stopped walking as they approached the door to a room that he was all too familiar with.

He suddenly wished that Blue was here. She was always the more lenient of the two Diamonds. She would at least humour him by listening to his arguments for equality and peace even though he was certain that she wasn't convinced by them.

"Stay in there and think about what you did!"

He was roughly thrown into the dark and empty room. He let out a grunt of pain as his back made contact with the cold marble that made up most of the room. He used his right hand to shakily push his body off the ground and attempted to stand.

He despised the room he was currently in, but unfortunately it seemed to be Yellow's favorite way to punish him when he 'acted out'. The longest time he had been in the room was a whole week or what had felt like a week; he quickly learned that keeping track of time while in the room was near impossible.

A week of silence, a week of darkness, a week of solitude with no one but his own thoughts to keep him company.

His breathing started coming out in short erratic breaths. He didn't want to be here. He couldn't do this again. He frantically looked around the room for some sort of exit. He pushed himself up off the ground and attempted to make his way to the door, but was swiftly blocked by Yellow's hand slamming down onto the floor near him which caused the room to quake and caused him to lose his balance and fall.

"I'm a Diamond too! You can't ju-"

"You say that you want to be treated like a Diamond yet you refuse to act like one!"

He glared up at Yellow Diamond, whose back was now turned toward him. He had been trying, but no matter what he did they still insisted on treating him like a petulant child. He was tempted to respond, but he knew that would only bring him more trouble. It was best if he didn't say anything. Yellow was unreasonable when she was in one of her moods.

"I will check in on you later, Pink."

"Wait! No!" His arm was outstretched in front of him as he attempted to run towards the door before it could close, but he wasn't fast enough.

He was never fast enough.

His body crumpled onto the cold floor as the sound of the doors closing echoed throughout the room. He knew from past experiences that once those doors were closed there was no way to get out unless one of the Diamonds, usually Blue, allowed him to.

How long was she going to keep him in here? That was the worst part he decided, the waiting. He could be stuck in there for a few hours or a few days depending on the severity of his actions. From Yellow's reaction he guessed it would most likely be a few days before he would be allowed to leave.

"Let me out!' he uselessly shouted at the empty room and was unsurprisingly met with a familiar silence.

He once again felt the resentment he had toward his mother flare up. If only she had dealt with her problems instead of running away from them then he wouldn't be stuck in this stupid room. Now he was left to pick up the pieces of the people she had hurt. It wasn't fair! He didn't do any of those things, but because he had her gem he was responsible. He has to fix her mistakes. That was his purpose.

He let out a shout of frustration as his fists roughly pounded on the marble floor. They would be bruised later, but it didn't matter he would just heal them before any of the gems saw. Right now the pain was a comforting feeling.

"Let!" his fists were throbbing.

"Me!" his knuckles were turning a nasty shade of purple.

"Out!" he thought he felt something break.

The room was suddenly enveloped in a pink glow as a hoarse scream left his throat.

Cracks rapidly began to appear as a small crater formed underneath him. He stared at his distorted reflection and gasped. His whole body was tinted with an eerie pink glow. He fearfully looked down at his trembling pink hand. He gripped his head. What was happening to him?

He looked at the massive crater that now surrounded him. Had he really done that? He attempted to take deep breaths in order to calm himself, but only succeeded in hyperventilating. He looked back at his hauntingly pink reflection and choked back a sob. What was wrong with him? He squeezed his eyes shut in order to prevent his tears from falling.

"Please…" he whimpered. "Let me out."


Twoie jolted awake in the dead of night and frantically took in his surroundings. It was too dark. He needed to get out. His breath came out in slow and ragged puffs as he desperately wrestled against the blankets that held him captive. He struggled before falling onto the floor with a small thud. He felt his breath catch in his throat as he caught sight of the window. The sky was turning a beautiful soft orange as the morning slowly arrived. Twoie's breathing calmed down as the presence of the sun made him realize that he was on earth and far away from the Diamonds.

Steven's light snores reminded him that he was in the past. He slowly untangled himself from the blankets and got up from the floor. He was careful not to make too much noise as he didn't want to risk waking Steven.

He stretched his back and winced as he felt it crack; sleeping on the couch was not doing any favors for his back. He glanced at the door to the temple. He wondered if he could sleep in his room in the temple. He was hesitant to do so when he first arrived because of how hostile the gems had been towards him, but they had been much friendlier as of late. He would bring up the topic later he decided as he got ready for the day.

After his breakdown last night, Twoie had managed to convince Steven to play some games with him before sending him off to bed. During that same time he also managed to find out that Steven was thirteen years old and that they were hunting for Peridot which meant that they still had the cluster to deal with. He shuddered as he thought about the millions of gem shards suffering in the mantle of the planet.

He shook his head to rid himself of those unpleasant thoughts; that was a problem he would deal with later. Right now he busied himself with preparing breakfast for Steven. He took bites of an apple as he cooked. He hummed in satisfaction as the smell of french toast began to waft through the house.

"Whatcha up to, Twoie."

Twoie jumped and quickly turned around and took a defensive stance. He instantly relaxed when he realized it was just Amethyst

"Oh! Amethyst, good morning." he greeted her blushing slightly at his overreaction; luckily she didn't comment on it. He was still a bit on edge because of his dream. "I'm just making some breakfast."

"Smells good. What is it?" she asked as she peered over his shoulder in order to get a better look at the french toast.

Twoie smiled, he should have known that the smell of food would attract Amethyst. She loved eating all foods and she even loved eating some things that probably shouldn't be consumed like motor oil or soap.

"It's french toast with strawberries and blueberries" he told her as he checked on the french toast to make sure it didn't burn.

"When did you learn to cook that? Or can you not tell me because it'll blow up the timeline or something?" she jokingly asked.

Twoie chuckled before answering. "Pearl taught me how to cook." It was a fun activity that helped pass the time on homeworld. As much as he liked the fruit from the human zoo there was only so much he could eat before he got tired of it.

"How is Pearl in the future?"

"Huh? What do you mean?" he looked up from the food to see Amethyst fiddling with her hair.

"Ugh, it's just that she's so…" she struggled to find the right words "uptight. I was just hoping that maybe she chilled out a bit in the future."

Twoie frowned as he remembered that Amethyst and Pearl were currently in a fight because of him. Pearl and Garnet didn't seem to want to tell Amethyst about Pink Diamond and it was clear to him that she had been hurt when she realized she was being kept in the dark.

"You guys get along way better in the future. I mean you still tease each other and stuff, but you guys don't really fight anymore."

"What so Pearl can tolerate being around me in the future." Amethyst said as she rolled her eyes. It was clear from her reaction that she did not believe him.

"No. She doesn't just tolerate being around you" he told her seriously. "She likes being around you, loves it even. You guys are always laughing and joking around."

"Ha! yeah right." Amethyst laughed and shook her head. "Pearl laughing and having a good time. That's a good one, but for real what's she like?"

"I'm serious, Amethyst. Pearl's changed a lot. There was this one time when she took us all to a rock show and the poli-" he was interrupted by a sleepy looking Steven.

"Are you guys making breakfast?" he yawned as he rubbed the last vestiges of sleep from his eyes.

"Morning Steman." Amethyst said as she ruffled his hair.

"Good morning Steven." he glanced over his shoulder and flashed him a small smile. "I'm just finishing up the french toast." he grabbed a plate and began to place the french toast alongside the freshly cut fruit.

"Oh! I love french toast! Can I have some?" he excitedly asked as he took a seat at the kitchen island.

"Of course I made it for you after all." Twoie placed the plate of food in front of Steven and poured a generous amount of syrup over the french toast. It wasn't the healthiest, but Twoie knew that Steven really loved sweet foods.

"What? Really? Thank you!" he said happily as he eagerly began to dig into his breakfast.

"Yeah if you're serious about training then you need to eat more than just donuts for breakfast." Twoie told him as he remembered how unhealthy his diet used to he. Pearl was the only one who knew how to cook; it was something that she enjoyed doing even if she did not like to eat. She would occasionally make him breakfast, but the gems were always busy so it was a rare treat. He was sure that if he asked his dad that he would come and make him breakfast, but he didn't want to bother him.

"You guys are training?" Amethyst asked as she not so discreetly swiped a couple of fruits off of Steven's plate.

"Yeah!" Steven's excited shout was muffled by the food in his mouth. He swallowed before continuing. "Twoie promised that he would teach me how to summon mom's shield."

"That's right, you summoned Rose's shield against Garnet when you first got here. So I guess that means you finally figured out how to do it in the future."

"Yeah and I can do loads more stuff then just summon my shield." Twoie told Amethyst as he emphasized the fact that it was his shield. It wasn't his mom's shield and it was definitely not Pink Diamond's shield. It was his shield. If she noticed his slight irritation she didn't comment on it.

"Woah! Like what?!"

"Yeah can you fly or something." Amethyst jokingly asked him.

"Well…" he considered the question. Did floating count as flying?

"Wait, seriously?" Amethyst asked incredulously.

"I can fly in the future! That's so cool! Do you think I can do that now?" Steven asked him as he got up from his chair and began to excitedly jump up and down in, what Twoie thought was, an adorable attempt to fly

"I mean technically It's more floating than flying, but yeah I can." he smirked as he saw a surprised look flash across Amethyst's face. Even though he was no longer a kid it still felt good to impress the gems.

"What else can you do? Can you shoot lasers out of your eyes? Oh! Do you have superspeed?! Can you turn invisible?!" Steven had stars in his eyes as he imagined himself with hundreds of spectacular powers.

"Heh nothing like that, but I'll tell you all about your other abilities when I think you're ready to learn them."

"Aww, man." Steven pouted.

"If you're finished eating then you should go get ready so that we can get started on your training." Twoie told Steven who immediately perked up at the prospect of training.

"Is it cool if I join you guys?" Amethyst asked.

"Yeah! You should come with us that way we can all have superpowers!" Steven enthusiastically answered.

"I don't know if there's anything I can teach you, but you're welcome to join if you want." Twoie told her. He was surprised that she would want to tag along at all. Amethyst tended to get bored easily and for someone who loved fighting so much she had a surprising dislike for training.

"That's fine. I just really don't want to be around those two right now." she gestured toward the temple door with her head.

"Huh? Are you guys fighting or something?" Steven asked clearly bothered by the thought that his loved ones might be upset with one another.

"Nah, don't worry about it Steman." Amethyst swiftly replied in an attempt to reassure Steven. "Pearl's just being Pearl and Garnet is…" she trailed off.

"Garnet's what?" Steven prompted her to finish her sentence.

"Nothing, nevermind." Amethyst shook her head and plastered on a large smile that Twoie recognized was more for Steven's sake than from her actually being happy. "Let's just focus on getting you some x-ray vision." she cheerfully told him.

"You mean laser vision?" Steven corrected her.

"Yeah, sure whatever. So where are we going to train at Twoie?" Amethyst asked him eager to change the subject.

Twoie smiled. "I know just the place."


Steven stumbled a bit, but managed to keep himself steady as he exited the warp stream. He smiled a bit; he was getting better at warping to places. He glanced to his side just in time to see Twoie gracefully land on his toes as the warp stream disappeared. Steven frowned as he realized that Twoie was better than him at warping. He knew that he shouldn't be surprised by now since Twoie was great at everything, but it still shocked him to see how amazing Twoie could be. He had a lot to learn.

"Oh man the ancient sky arena, the last time we were here was when Pearl got poofed." Amethyst commented as she took in the view.

"Yeah, she was in her gem for so long before she came back. I really missed her." Steven frowned as he recalled the weeks in which Pearl had been gone. He saw Pearl get stabbed and disappear. He thought that she had died because of him.

"Don't worry Steven we're just going to be summoning shields today. No one's going to get hurt." Twoie reassured him.

"Yeah Steven don't worry about it so much. Pearl's not even here she's safe back at the temple." Amethyst said which succeeded in calming him down.

"Yeah, you're right. Everything will be just fine." Steven gave them a small smile.

When Steven had agreed to train with Twoie he thought there would be more fighting. He imagined it would be like one of the training montages he saw in the Loney Blade movie's. He hadn't expected to start off the training session with breathing exercises and stretches, not that he minded because he was sure that Twoie could beat him in a fight easily. Amethyst quickly made her way over to the seats in the arena when she realized no fighting would take place.

"Just take a deep breath, clear your thoughts, then just visualize your shield and…" Twoie's arm briefly flashed Pink as his mom's shield materialized. "it should appear." Twoie said as he flicked his arm and made the shield disappear.

Steven felt his eyes widen in amazement. Twoie made it look so easy.

"Ok, I can do this." he told himself as he took a deep breath and cleared his thoughts like Twoie had taught him.

He closed his eyes and imagined his mom's beautiful pink shield then he imagined that shield appearing on his own arm like it had appeared on Twoie's moments ago.

He hesitantly opened his eyes after a few seconds and was disappointed when he saw nothing appear on his arm.

"Hmm… try standing like this." Twoie suggested as he widened his stance.

Steven fumbled as he quickly tried to imitate Twoie's stance. How did he get his foot to look like that? He almost fell as he adjusted his footing only to be caught by Twoie. He blushed as he heard Amethyst laugh at his mistake. Twoie helped him align his feet in a perfect defensive stance.

He took a deep breath and focused on summoning his mom's shield again. He glanced down at his empty arm in disappointment.

"Maybe try flicking your arm like this." Twoie instructed him as he demonstrated another flawless shield summon.

Steven nodded and tried once more. He hopefully glanced down at his arm.

Nothing.

He was starting to get frustrated at himself.

"Shield activate!" he yelled at his arm in the hopes that something would happen.

"Shield powers go!" he shook his arm around.

"Come on at least sparkle a bit or something." he sighed in disappointment when nothing happened. How was he supposed to help the gems if he couldn't even summon his shield?

"I don't think that's working." Amethyst told him from the audience stands. Steven blushed in embarrassment. Great, now he made himself look silly in front of Amethyst. If she told the other gems about this they would think that he was useless.

He looked towards Twoie for guidance.

"Ok, so the arm flicking didn't work." he snapped his fingers as he came to a realization. "Try to imagine that a monster is attacking you and then try and summon your shield."

"Good idea." he told Twoie. "Let me try…" he said as he attempted to imagine a terrifying monster. He imagined the monster running towards him getting closer and closer until…

He opened his eyes and glanced down at his arm.

Still nothing.

"Nothing's happening." he told Twoie sadly. Maybe he just wasn't strong enough to summon his mom's shield.

"Don't worry about it, Steven. Just try again." Twoie attempted to encourage him as he flashed him a smile which only made Steven feel worse about himself. Twoie was always so patient with him and all he did was mess up.

"Yeah maybe this time something interesting will happen." Amethyst said reminding Steven that he had most likely disappointed Amethyst as well.

"I can't do this." he said as he ran toward the direction of the warp pad. He thought he heard Twoie shout at Amethyst, but he was so embarrassed that he didn't really pay any attention.

"Steven, wait!" Twoie shouted as he chased after him.

Steven ignored him and increased his speed. He didn't want to be here anymore. He collapsed on top of the warp pad and attempted to activate it, but it didn't work. Steven furiously wiped at his eyes in order to prevent himself from crying.

"Great now I can't even get this warp pad to work. Why am I so useless?" he sniffled as he smacked the warp pad in an attempt to get it to activate.

"Steven, what happened? Where are you going?" Twoie asked him when he finally caught up to him.

"Home. This isn't working." he looked up at Twoie. "I can't do this."

"Don't say that. It's only the first day of training. It's ok if you can't summon your shield yet, but you can't give up."

"That's easy for you to say! You can summon mom's shield, and you can fly, and you probably have laser vision and I can't even summon her shield once. You're so much better than me." he angrily wiped at his eyes. He wasn't a little kid anymore; he shouldn't be crying.

"Steven, we're literally the same person." Twoie said as he sat down on the warp pad next to him.

That made Steven pause and think. He knew that they were the same person, but he was nothing like Twoie. Twoie was strong and cool and useful. He was just so… useless, but if Twoie was him from the future then maybe he wouldn't always be useless.

"It's just you make it seem so easy. What if I never learn to master my powers?"

"I know you will." Twoie told him with such confidence that he almost believed it himself. "I didn't learn how to consistently summon my shield until much later so don't feel bad if you can't do it right away."

"Really? How did you learn to summon mom's shield?" Steven asked him as he attempted to imagine Twoie struggling with anything.

"I…" Twoie trailed off as he attempted to think of an answer. "that's it!" he shouted as he stood up.

"Huh?"

"My powers." Twoie looked at him. "Our powers are tied to our emotions. My shield only appears when I experience feelings of protectiveness."

"Feelings of protectiveness?"

"Yeah, come on let's head back and I'll show you" Twoie offered him his hand.

Steven reached out to accept his outstretched hand, but hesitated. "What if it doesn't work?"

"Then we'll figure out something that does." Twoie said and Steven believed him. He grabbed onto Twoie's hand and stood up.

Steven griped Twoie's hand a bit harder as they approached the inside of the sky arena. His eyes were still slightly red from when he had been crying earlier. He just hoped that Amethyst didn't notice; he had embarrassed himself enough today.

"Steven, I want you to imagine that a scary monster is charging towards you."

"I already trie-"

"But this time I want you to imagine that one of the gems, or dad, or Connie is standing behind you. Your shield is the only thing stopping the monster from hurting them."

"Ok, I'll try." he said as he closed his eyes.

At first he tried to imagine the gems standing behind him, but he had a hard time believing it because he knew that if an actual monster charged at him then he would be the one hiding behind the gems. They wouldn't need his help to defeat a monster.

Then, he tried to imagine his dad behind him, but he knew that his dad would never go anywhere near a monster. He always avoided 'magic stuff' as he called it.

Finally he imagined Connie behind him. They were probably on the beach in front of his house. Maybe they were reading Unfamiliar Familiar together or maybe they were just talking then all of a sudden a monster emerges from the ocean. It looks angry and its charging right at them. He wants to shout at the gems for help, but he knows that they won't make it in time. He looks over at Connie who looks frightened; he puts his arm in front of his body and takes a defense stance. He feels his arm tingle just as the monster reaches them.

Steven opened his eyes and was greeted by the pleasant sight of his mom's shield resting on his arm.

"I!… " he looked at his arm in disbelief. "I did It!" he joyfully exclaimed.

"Good job Steven! I knew you could do it." Twoie praised him.

Steven beamed at him. He couldn't believe it. He really did it! He felt so happy.! He couldn't wait until he told the rest of the gems about this. They would be so proud of him.

"Yeah, and it only took all morning." Amethyst added while chuckling a bit.

"Amethyst." Twoie's voice took on a tone that Steven had never heard from him before.

"What? I'm just teasing. Lighten up a bit you're starting to sound like Pearl." Steven felt his smile shrink a bit at that comment. He didn't like it when Amethyst made fun of Pearl.

"Amethyst, can I talk to you." Twoie stole a glance in his direction. "Alone."

"Ugh, fine!" Amethyst stomped over to a corner in the sky arena muttering something under her breath that suspiciously sounded like "Pearl jr." to Steven.

"Steven," Twoie gave him a small smile which he eagerly returned. "I'm very proud of you. You managed to summon your shield on the first day of training."

Steven felt his face flush with pride. "I couldn't have done it without your help. You're a great teacher." he complimented Twoie.

"And you're a great student." Twoie said as he gently patted his head. "Listen, Steven why don't you go wait by the warp pad while me and Amethyst talk." Steven opened his mouth to protest, but was cut off by Twoie. "It shouldn't take long and we can all go get some fry bits after to celebrate."

Steven wanted to ask him what he and Amethyst were going to talk about and why he couldn't listen, but he ultimately decided not to. Twoie had this look on his face that Steven recognized as the look that all adults got when they were really serious.

Steven nodded and made his way over to where the warp pad was. He paused as he reached the top of the steps that lead to the warp pad. He glanced back toward the main part of the arena where he could faintly make out Twoie and Amethyst talking. He knew that he should probably listen to Twoie, but he just couldn't help himself. He was really curious about what they were talking about. They sounded upset. If he could just figure out what was wrong then maybe he could help.

He slowly inched his way towards the direction where he heard their voices. He not so subtly hid behind a pillar, but luckily for him it seemed like they were so engrossed in their conversation that they failed to notice his presence.

"I said enough, Amethyst." Twoie looked very angry as he pinched the bridge of his nose in frustration. "Steven's waiting for us."

"No!" Amethyst angrily replied back. "just because you're not as good of a teacher you thou-"

"I said enough!" Twoie angrily shouted as his whole body turned a vibrant pink. Steven felt the pillar shake next to him. Small cracks appeared under Twoie's feet. Amethyst was shocked into silence.

"Twoie?" he asked suddenly nervous. He flinched as he made eye contact with a very angry looking Twoie.

He was glowing pink and his pupils had taken on a strange shape. He looked so angry that were it anyone else other than Twoie, Steven would be scared for his safety.

"S-steven!" Twoie yelled out nervously as he looked down at his body in shock. Steven saw him frantically shake his hands as the pink left his body and his eyes returned to normal. "What are you doing here? I thought I told you to wait by the warp pad."

"Why were you guys fighting?" Steven asked ignoring Twoie's question. He glanced over to Amethyst who still looked as shocked as Steven felt.

"We weren't fighting. We were just…" Twoie paused as he let out a tired sigh. Steven finally noticed the bags under Twoie's eyes; he looked exhausted. "Talking."

Amethyst blinked before her face returned to normal. "Y-yeah we were just talking." she nervously repeated as she began to walk towards the location of the warp pad

"Let's go Steven." Twoie began to walk behind Amethyst all while refusing to make eye contact.

Steven frowned, but followed Twoie nonetheless. Something was clearly wrong, but Twoie and Amethyst would not tell him.