Everything had been so peaceful, so perfect. A day of happiness, solely to celebrate Garnet's love. But Steven was used to disappointment… and gems trying to kill him. Those gems just usually weren't the diamonds themselves.
The fight, Crystal Gems versus Blue Diamond, was intense, but the Gems managed to hold their own against Blue while the cluster battled Yellow Diamond's armship. Then, in a booming crash, Yellow's ship was thrown to the earth, debris flying in a catastrophic meltdown. For a moment it seemed the fight might be over, both diamonds buried beneath the rubble, but with a blast Yellow emerged topside, bristling with rage, no longer with the cluster to occupy her. No, as she leapt from the wreckage to free Blue, it was obvious her new targets were the Crystal Gems before her. Both sides of the battlefield waited, tense as the diamonds caught their breaths, a standoff cut short by a small green gem.
"Hah!" Peridot laughed, leaping from Bismuth's arms, ecstatic from her short-lived victory over Blue and now looking to test herself against Yellow, "I told her off once. I can do it again."
"Hey! Yellow clod!" she yelled, running forward to face the behemoths before her. "Remember me?"
Steven didn't need future vision to know what came next.
"No," Yellow stated, leveling Peridot a look that Steven might give a fly, buzzing annoyingly against the window. Electricity shot from her hand, swallowing Peridot in a flash of sparks as her body destabilized.
With a poof, Peridot's gem dropped to the sand.
"Stop!" Steven cried desperately, running forward to face the two towering gems. "Don't do this! Listen to me- I'm the one you're missing! I'm Pink Diamond!"
He instantly knew he'd made a mistake. Where Blue had just ignored his pleas for peace, the sentence had caught Yellow's attention, just not in the way he'd wanted. Her look of tedium turned to one of recognition, bordering between disgust and rage.
"You," Yellow snarled, charging towards him faster than he thought possible.
"Steven!" Garnet cried out in horror as he threw up a shield, but Yellow's foot was already crashing down upon him.
Steven's back hit the dirt hard, a bone-crushing blow instantly shattering his shield. He sucked in a labored breath and it left his lungs in a cough, the taste metallic on his tongue. He blinked the stars from his eyes, only to find an enormous yellow hand obscuring his vision.
"Don't! Touch! Steven!" Amethyst cried, punctuating her sentence with blows from her whip.
Yellow drew back with a huff of indignation, aiming a blast at the purple gem that was thwarted by a quick blow from Lapis.
"Is that all you've got?" Lapis shouted, dodging another attack. Water curled around her in ribbons, as beautiful as they were dangerous. "I've only just begun to fight!"
Garnet interrupted a retaliation from Blue, but Lapis wasn't so lucky. Yellow recovered near-instantly, lobbing another jolt of electricity, and with a startled scream and a flash of light Lapis' gem dropped to the sand amidst a splash of water, joining Peridot's.
"S-stop!" Steven cried, dizzily pushing himself up from his knees, but it was useless. The diamonds wouldn't listen to him. They only saw him as Rose Quartz, rebel and shatterer. He stumbled, trying to keep his balance as the world tilted dizzyingly. With a groan he clutched his side. Yellow had really done a number on him.
"Come at me, diamond!" Bismuth roared, charging in only to get knocked back by a kick from Yellow. Pearl took her place, slicing viciously at the diamond with a fierce battlecry.
Garnet was holding strong against Blue, dodging every attack sent her way while trying to land few of her own. Blue attempted to unleash her grief once more, pushing Garnet back, but Connie was ready. Steven watched with awe as she portaled in and out on Lion with precision, knocking Blue off balance. Yet, even with the Gems' coordination their blows were failing to find purchase; for being so large, the diamonds were quick, and with Yellow joining the onslaught the fight was starting to turn against the Gems.
"That's enough!" Yellow yelled, firing another blast at Amethyst. One she couldn't avoid, caught up as she was in a flurry of attacks.
Steven reached out, knowing he couldn't shield her in time, only to gasp as Bismuth came between Amethyst and the surge of electricity, shielding her with her own body. She lasted longer than Peridot and Lapis, crying out for a few seconds as Amethyst and Steven watched in horror, but even Bismuth's strong form fragmented before Yellow's rage.
As Bismuth's gem dropped to the ground Yellow struck again, turning suddenly to catch Pearl mid-attack. With a vicious squeeze and an accompanying pop the Gems' numbers dwindled once more, and Yellow turned to face Steven. Their eyes met and he flinched as he felt the fury directed towards him. He hastily summoned a shield, stumbling as he retreated back a few paces. His head ached, his lungs burned, and the ground continued to sway beneath his feet… but he couldn't give up. He just needed to get through to them.
"Rose," Yellow hissed, spitting the name like a curse.
"I'm not-!" Steven gasped desperately, barely holding his shield together as a bolt of energy hit. He grunted in pain, only to see a purple blob race past him.
"Amethyst, no!" Steven cried, but it was too late. She dodged Yellow's destabilizing blast, only to be swept aside by a giant hand, hurled against the rocks like a pesky gnat. With a cry of pain and a quiet poof, Amethyst's gem joined the others.
"Steven!" Connie cried, trying to reach him, only to be glanced by one of Blue's orbs in her distraction. "Ugh!" she growled in frustration, forced to turn back as Blue brought Garnet to her knees with another wave of emotion. Tears flooded Steven's eyes as well; he struggled merely to remain standing.
"Please Yellow!" Steven called out as she advanced upon him. "You don't have to do this! I-!"
"Be. Quiet!" Yellow seethed, pounding his shield to oblivion with a vicious strike of her palm, Steven just as helpless to stop it as before.
He must've blacked out for a second, because the next thing he knew he was being crushed in Yellow's fist. Her fingers were tight- too tight! His ribs felt like fire, his lungs- He couldn't breathe! He struggled fruitlessly, mind overcome with terror as darkness closed in around the edges of his vision. Suddenly Yellow's fingers shifted, loosening ever-so-slightly. Steven rasped in half a breath before the crushing pressure returned, this time with even greater force.
Yellow was saying something, her voice echoing like poison in his ears, but he only caught a few words. "-this revolting organic shell-"
It wasn't until he felt a sudden tug at his navel that he understood. She was going to pull out his gem, she was going to pull out his gem and then she was going to shatter it! She didn't know- he had to tell her-! He struggled, writhing as he fought to breathe, just- Breathe! And all the while the pain at his navel grew, it grew until it blocked out all thought, all sound, as Steven's back arched, mouth opening in a scream that never came. Until every fiber of his being tore at once in pure agony.
And then darkness.
"Steven!" Connie's voice called out desperately, echoing as if across a great distance. "Please Steven, wake up!"
"C-Connie?" Steven rasped, the words thick and unfamiliar on his tongue. "Connie, I'm right… here…" He trailed off as he forced his eyes open, a brilliant pink glow flooding his hazy vision. He squinted in confusion before the rush of memory hit him, then leapt to his feet, summoning a shield as distorted blue and yellow blurs danced before his eyes. He clenched his eyes shut, then opened them, blinking rapidly as the world finally swirled into focus.
He huddled behind his shield, ready for another onslaught, but the diamonds knelt unmoving before him. He lifted his gaze to their faces, tense and panicked, but the anger that had so dominated their expressions was absent. Blue was- crying, no surprise there- but with wide eyes, hands clasped over her mouth as if in horror, and Yellow- well, Yellow wasn't moving at all. She didn't even blink as she stared, lips slightly parted in shock.
Steven looked back towards the house, confused. Where was Connie? Hadn't she been calling for him? He spotted her a ways back, crouched over a small figure laid prone on the sand. Amethyst? Her shoulders shook as if she was crying, but why would she be calling for him when he was right-
He had stretched out a hand, unconsciously, as if to comfort her from so far away, and it was then Steven found the source of the pink glow. He flinched back as the neon appendage entered his sight, only to freeze in shock. The hand did as well. His breath hitched as he slowly, so slowly, turned his hand to face palm-up.
"N- No way," Steven breathed, barely more than a whisper. "This can't be-"
His eyes shot to the object of Connie's attention, who he had so carelessly glanced over moments before. A familiar shock of dark hair, a perfectly-fitted tux now stained and torn, the sand darkened with- was that blood?
Steven took a step forward, then another, until he was running to Connie's side. But then he froze mid-step, his worst fears realized in a flash of recognition as he caught sight of an all-too-familiar face. The figure in the sand… was him.
He fell to his knees, and only then did Connie look up. "S- Steven?" she queried, as if she couldn't believe what she was seeing. Steven couldn't either.
Steven- the Steven before him- was bruised and bloodied, blood spilling from the corner of his mouth. His eyes were closed as if asleep, but he was terribly still, limp and lifeless. Steven shuddered as his eyes traveled down from his doppelganger's face, finding the source of the dark pool still spreading around them. Connie had torn part of her dress, using it to compress the wound on other-Steven's stomach, but every inch of the fabric was stained crimson, Connie's trembling hands pushed far- too far- into the hole in his stomach. The hole left from a diamond.
"No way," Steven parroted, bordering on hysteria, his own hand instinctually searching out- and finding- the gem at his navel. He was looking at himself- his human self- and he was-
Even in his thoughts he couldn't complete the statement.
"Steven!" Connie sobbed desperately, and only then did he look to her face, tearing his eyes from the gory sight in front of him. "Steven I can't- it won't stop bleeding." Her expression was panicked, desperate, the strong girl Steven knew trembling like a leaf in the wind as blood and sand mixed on her skin. Her eyes pled with him to do something- anything to end this nightmare.
As if in a daze Steven reached out to himself, gingerly placing a hand on his own chest. He flinched back as warm, sticky wetness met his touch, as reality struck him- oh stars, this… this was real! Connie wasn't the only one shaking now. He stared, blood dripping slowly from his glowstick-pink palm. A million thoughts of nothing buzzed through his mind, suffocating him as the world shifted, thrown off its axis in a moment of sheer impossibility.
Steven wasn't sure how long he had been frozen in horror, praying to wake up, when he heard a strong - yet broken - voice plead, "Pink…"
Steven's eyes grew wide as he shuddered, turning as if in slow motion to face the diamonds he had momentarily forgotten. Blue and Yellow still knelt where they had last, though Yellow had now added 'disgusted confusion' to her catalog of expressions.
"Steven, please," Connie begged, though Steven barely registered that she'd spoken at all. A pit of rage grew within him, burning from the inside out, his thoughts curdling into daggers, his fists clenched painfully tight.
"You did this…" he whispered, looking upon his own murderer, filled with a hatred he had never known. Yellow opened her mouth to speak, no doubt to insult him, antagonize him, and Steven exploded. "YOU DID THIS!" He screamed with a violent gesture, the force of his fury splitting the sand in two with a deafening crack.
Yellow sat stunned, face furrowed in anger, but for once seeming at a loss for words.
"Pink, please," Blue pleaded, "we didn't know…" but stopped short as Steven turned his murderous gaze upon her.
"HOW COULD YOU?" He roared, and the diamonds flinched as another crack sent sand flying. "YOU K-" The rest of the word left his mouth as a moan. He tucked his arm into his stomach, hovering protectively over his gem. His voice dropped to a raw, pained whisper, "You- you killed me…" His statement was quiet, so quiet, but it echoed deafeningly in his ears.
Steven swayed, trembling. He felt sick. He sucked in a breath that turned to a harsh sob, collapsing to the ground as his knees buckled.
This wasn't real. This wasn't happening. He was dead. Why hadn't they just listened to him? They killed him. He was Dead. He was DEAD-!
Steven gasped for breath, clutching his head as he pressed his palms into his ears. He curled in on himself with a harsh cry, thoughts burning like coals beneath his skin. He couldn't do this- it was too much. He couldn't fix this! His thoughts were loud, too loud. They hurt. Knives cut into his chest; tears streamed from his eyes. It hurt, please make it stop. Please, I'm begging you, stop! STOP THIS! And with a world-shattering crack, it did stop. His thoughts, his fears, his pains, all ceased in a single instant, fading together into warm silence. He welcomed it.