Steven dreamed of that dark place, the eternal nothingness surrounding him.

This time, Lapis was in front of him. She sat cross-legged, her hands propped up behind her as she faced him. He appeared sitting down, his legs stretched out a little in front of him - not quite cross-legged, yet not quite spread out completely either. He drew them closer, however, when he saw the blue gem, giving her a long, uncertain stare before ultimately ripping his gaze away and taking a deep breath to compose himself. It didn't take him long to figure out this was a dream, just like the one he'd had before, but he didn't particularly understand why his mind chose to keep dumping him here. The hybrid furrowed his eyebrows, staring off into the darkness for a moment, while Lapis slowly blinked her eyes open to look up at him curiously.

"At least you're not dying anymore," she commented, and Steven swept his gaze back toward her at once, raising his eyebrows slightly before letting them fall slack with a frown. "I mean…" She tilted her head and grinned, the wicked little smirk of someone who knew the punchline. "You know, not physically." She giggled and snorted, and despite himself, Steven's lips twitched.

"Right…" He trailed off, gazing at her for a moment. "Lapis, I…"

Lapis hummed, lowering her head and peering up at him through her lashes. "I know, Steven."

"You don't," Steven said softly, swallowing hard and taking a deep breath as he struggled to compose himself again. He leaned his head back, looking away from her for a moment, and cleared his throat. "I'm sorry. I'm-" He stopped, chest shuddering as he inhaled. "I'm so sorry."

"Why?" Lapis asked him rather bluntly. "You didn't do anything. This wasn't your fault." Steven turned his head toward her at that, opening his mouth, but she interrupted. "It's her fault." Steven stared at her for a moment, jaw wobbling furiously as he tried to speak, then abruptly snapped it shut and just blinked. Lapis raised her eyebrows and smirked again, looking amused.

"I…" Steven closed his eyes, breathing in and struggling to think past the pain pounding strong in his chest. He knew that. And he wished he could stop blaming himself so much, he really did.

Lapis huffed out a chuckle and sat back. "What, like it's hard?"

"Harder than you think," Steven defended himself, lashes fluttering as he opened his eyes.

"Or maybe it's easier than you think," Lapis retorted, grinning, and Steven shook his head and gazed at her for a moment, tilting his head to the side and falling silent. The blue gem looked back at him for a while, an intrigued look flickering across her face, before it softened once again into an almost warm smile. "You're smarter than that, Steven. Don't pretend you're not. You didn't force me to fly to Homeworld. You didn't mean for that escape attempt to go the way it did and you know as well as I do that if you'd known I was there, there's no way on Earth you would have even tried to leave to begin with. Actions have consequences, and that's fine. But that doesn't mean what happened to me was your fault. None of this, Steven, is your fault."

Steven hesitated, silent for a while, and looked down at his hands. Yeah, he knew that.

"Besides," Lapis hummed. "You've got bigger things to worry about now."


He woke with a start, heart pounding, mind racing, startled awake as if from a nightmare. His pink twin turned his head toward him at once, a concerned look flitting across his face as Steven managed to heave himself into a sitting position, using his hands to hold himself up for the most part. He shuffled closer, not close enough to touch but close enough that Steven could hear the faint, constant humming of his gem, the rest of the room encased in a somewhat dreary silence. "Are you alright?" His brother moves closer still, looking him over as if checking for an injury, and Steven knows he'll find many of those from battle scars he hadn't healed yet, but they don't seem to be his major concern, because he lifts his eyes back to Steven quickly. "Did you have a nightmare? I had a nightmare, too. I also had a dream. A good dream, not a nightmare dream."

Steven shook his head a little, pushing himself to sit up completely and curling inwards for a moment, arms folding carefully over his stomach. He held himself like that for a few seconds in silence before he brought himself to respond. "I didn't… I didn't have a nightmare. I dreamt…" The hybrid stopped, his mouth thick and tongue stinging with the bitter taste of his next words, and did his best to swallow them down. "I dreamt about Lapis. I-" He shook his head, as if to expel the thought from his mind, and peeked up at his brother. "... what'd you dream about?"

"Oh, I don't remember…" The gem stared at him in concern for a long moment before his eyes widened, pupils shifting into exclamation points. "Oh! I dreamed I had a name. Aster Universe."

"Aster Universe," Steven echoed, and blinked, eyebrows furrowing. "That's… really cool." His brother nodded, exclamation points shifting into diamonds, and fell silent again with a smile. Steven studied him for a moment, flicking his gaze across the gem's face silently, then managed to tug his lips into a tired but genuine smile in response. "Now we've got something to call you."

"Yeah," Aster giggled. "I've got a name."

"And-" Steven paused, watching Aster's gaze snap past him suddenly, diamond-shaped pupils shifting into pinpricks, and whirled his head around, pushing himself up a little protectively. His shoulders stiffened, admittedly, at the sight of a white bubble rising through the floor, and he remained tense when it finally entered the room completely and dropped to reveal Chevron. The sight of her alone caught him off guard, but the sight of her holding a pile of pink, white and purple fabric and a basket with what looked like a bunch of those colorful, blocky fruits from the human zoo set off about a million warning bells in his head at once. "What are you doing here?"

"I'm on business," Chevron chirped. She looked past him for a second, at Aster, and the lack of surprise made the hybrid tense all over again. "Just dropping a few things off for my Diamond."

Steven flicked his gaze down to the clothes and the basket, then back up to Chevron. "Why?"

"White?" Aster's hand curled around his arm, holding tight, as he peered around the hybrid and stared ahead at Chevron. He didn't seem nervous - if anything, his eyes seemed to harden a little when he looked at the Amethyst - but it didn't take long for his own gaze to stray to the things she was holding, as the Quartz leaned down to put them on the floor. "Is that… clothes?"

Chevron hummed and looked up at them, sparing Aster a toothy grin, and Steven nudged the pink gem behind him a little more on instinct. "Sure is. White said you're welcome to change if you feel like it, but they're entirely optional. The Pebbles didn't have too much to work with on such short notice, but she said they can work on something more comfortable if you don't like these." Steven furrowed his eyebrows at that, exchanging a confused look with his brother while Chevron continued, gesturing toward the pile of things she'd sat down. "She sent a few of the Amethysts from the zoo to bring some food and water, something about staying nourished. There's also a tablet somewhere in here with a direct line to her if you need anything else, but I wouldn't use it too freely because she's going to be rather busy taking other calls with all the repairs going on. I'll be back with some more food once the Pebbles finish making your 'beds'."

Aster's grip on Steven's arm tightened a little, but the hybrid could do little more than stare at Chevron at that point, heart pounding, mouth dry, throat clenched tight with so much confusion and disbelief and shock that he didn't think he'd be able to speak a word right then if he tried.

"Y'all have a good day." Chevron winked, then a bubble formed around her and she was gone.

"Did that…" Aster shook his head a little, pressing closer to Steven after a moment, and peered over his shoulder at the things Chevron had left behind, almost warily. "Am I still dreaming?"

Steven snapped his mouth shut, still too stunned to speak. He certainly felt like he was dreaming right then. It didn't make any sense; why would White Diamond put them in here in the first place - well, put him in here in the first place…? But… 'beds'. She knew about Aster. Chevron had known about Aster, which explained her lack of surprise upon seeing him. The hybrid's stomach twisted a little at the thought, staring at the basket and clothes for a moment. It didn't make sense. It was like a switch had been flipped. Like she'd done a complete 180. Wariness pricked at him like needles, every instinct screaming not to trust this for a second.

"I…" Aster trailed off. "... I don't trust this."

Steven shook his head, glancing at him, then looked back at the basket. "... neither do I."