A/N: Hello everyone, I am back with chapter twenty - eight of this story. Here, Steven goes on a hunt.
Disclaimer: I don't own Steven Universe
Hours after his nightmare, Steven dragged himself out of bed. He had trouble getting back to sleep and was exhausted. He nearly fell asleep in the shower, changed, took his medicine and sat down for breakfast.
"Steven, you don't look so good." noted Amethyst.
"I had trouble sleeping." sighed Steven.
"Are you concerned about the wedding?" asked Ruby.
"Yes." answered Steven.
"Steven will tell us he had a nightmare." revealed Sapphire.
"I dreamed Aquamarine and Emerald crashed the wedding." said Steven.
"Oh Steven." said Pearl upset.
Pearl hugged Steven.
"I'm so sorry." said Pearl upset.
"I'm okay now." said Steven.
Pearl let go of Steven.
"It sucked but..." began Steven.
Steven stopped needing to yawn.
"I might need a nap later." noted Steven.
"Steven, what happened?" asked Pearl.
"Aquamarine and Emerald crashed the wedding as giants." answered Steven.
"She might be small, but Aquamarine has a lot of hate in her." noted Topaz.
"Sure seems like it." muttered Ruby.
"Well, I am glad you are being open." stated Sapphire.
"It does feel nice not to bottle things up." replied Steven.
"Are you supposed to face your fears or something?" asked Amethyst.
A possible dangerous idea came to Steven.
"That's what I'll do." decided Steven.
"What was that?" asked Topaz.
Steven stood up.
"Thanks Amethyst." said Steven.
Steven finished eating and left. He called Connie and headed to the outskirts of Beach City armed. After a little bit, Connie arrived coming from her home. Connie had the sword. Once there, Steven explained his nightmare and his talk with the Crystal Gems this morning. Connie held great sympathy for Steven. Once he finished, Steven explained the next part of his plan and why he called Connie here.
"We're going after them." said Steven.
"Aquamarine and Emerald?" asked Connie confused.
"Yes." answered Connie.
"Steven...this is extremely dangerous." noted Connie worried.
"I know." sighed Steven.
"If we find them...what do we do?" asked Connie.
"Poof and bubble them." answered Steven.
"I think we should get the others." said Connie.
"They're focusing on the wedding." shrugged Steven.
"What if we can't beat them?" asked Connie.
"We form Stevonnie." answered Steven.
"Then it'd be two on one." said Connie.
"We're stronger together!" declared Steven.
"I don't want to do this." said Connie.
"We need to stop them before they do more harm." said Steven coldly.
"You're scaring me." said Connie shaken.
Steven winced, but turned around.
"Steven..." began Connie.
"I'm doing this with you or alone." stated Steven coldly.
Steven began heading into the woods.
"Wait!" cried Connie.
Steven stopped in his tracks.
"I'm coming with you. You cannot do this alone." sighed Connie.
Steven turned his head smiling.
"Thank you." said Steven.
"Let's go." said Connie.
Steven drew his shield as Connie drew the sword. They began to enter the woods.
"What are we looking for anyway?" asked Connie.
"Aquamarine and Emerald." answered Steven annoyed.
"I meant, how will we know when we've found them.
"Sorry, we need to fins evidence." said Steven.
"What kind of evidence?" asked Connie skeptical.
"I don't know, but there has to be something." answered Steven.
"Well...they're probably not too far." mused Connie.
"Exactly." agreed Steven.
Steven spotted something on the ground.
"There!" cried Steven.
Steven raced over and knelt down next to the object while Connie followed.
"There's our first track." said Steven confident.
A small acorn sat on the ground.
"An acorn?" asked Connie, not convinced.
"Aquamarine must have flown by and caused it to fall." replied Steven certain.
"Or a breeze could have knocked it down." noted Connie.
Steven laughed.
"Good one Connie." said Steven.
"Seriously, a breeze could have caused it to fall." said Connie.
"Yeah. Sure." replied Steven sarcastic.
'We should go." said Connie.
Steven stood up.
"Right. We don't want to be ambushed." said Steven.
Connie next stood up.
"That's not what I meant." muttered Connie.
The two kept walking.
"Keep your eyes open." whispered Steven.
Connie murmured and rolled her eyes causing her to bump into Steven.
"There's another clue." said Steven.
Steven pointed to a mossy rock.
"This is a sign to point the way." said Steven.
Steven rubbed his chin.
"Probably the work of Emerald." decided Steven.
"I really think it's just a rock." said Connie.
Steven pointed to the moss.
"It's growing in the same direction." said Steven.
"Moss always grows on the north side." replied Connie.
"Oh." said Steven.
Steven rubbed he back of his neck.
"I'm more familiar with magical moss." noted Steven.
Steven could see how annoyed Connie was getting.
"Do you think we should go back?" asked Steven.
"Yeah." answered Connie honestly.
Connie saw how was upset he found nothing.
"Think of something to perk him back up." thought Connie.
Connie quickly got an idea.
"I mean...who knows what kind of trap we could be walking into." said Connie.
Steven mulled this over.
"You have a point." said Steven.
"Plus it'll be getting dark soon and we wouldn't be able to see." added Connie.
"Yeah. We should head back." said Steven.
Connie felt a wave of relief wash over her.
"Let's go." said Connie happily.
The two began to go when they heard a rustling noise.
"What was that?" asked Steven.
Steven drew his shield and jumped in front of Connie.
"It could just be an animal." noted Connie.
The noise was closer.
"It's coming right toward us." whispered Steven uneasy.
Connie drew the sword just a precaution.
"Let it be a raccoon." thought Connie.
Instead, an opossum wandered through the bush.
"There!" cried Steven.
The opossum began to hiss.
"Steven you're scaring it." said Connie.
Steven got rid of his shield.
"Sorry buddy." said Steven.
The opossum suddenly tipped over.
"It's playing dead." noted Connie.
Connie put the sword away.
"Will it be okay?" asked Steven concerned.
"It's an involuntary reflex. It'll come back too later." answered Connie.
Connie looked at the scared marsupial.
"Opossums are really great. They eat disease carrying ticks and it's rare for them to get rabies." explained Connie.
Steven began to study the opossum closely.
"What are you doing?" asked Connie.
"Making sure it's not Aquamarine or Emerald shapeshifted." answered Steven.
Connie balled her fists.
"Are you kidding?" asked Connie angrily.
A confused Steven turned around to face her.
"What's wrong?" asked Steven confused.
"Steven, I didn't want to do this." answered Connie.
"What do you mean?" asked Steven.
"I tried talking you out of going looking for Aquamarine and Emerald." answered Connie.
"But..." began Steven.
"No! You need to listen!" declared Connie.
Steven was taken aback by this.
"I feel like you tried to manipulate me into joining you...and it worked." continued Connie.
"I didn't manipulate you!" huffed Steven offended.
"You ignored my points about why this was dangerous and said you'd go with or without me." replied Connie.
"Exactly. You didn't have to come along." said Steven bitterly.
"Steven, you know I'd never let you do this alone. You forced me to join you by using that against me." explained Connie, badly hurt.
Steven winced as Connie got choked up.
"I'm sorry." said Steven softly.
Steven hung his head.
"I had a stupid nightmare about Aquamarine and Emerald crashing the wedding. And it led me to drag you out here when you didn't want to." said Steven regretful.
While calm on the outside, Steven was kicking himself on the inside.
"I'm such an idiot. I hurt Connie." thought Steven angrily.
Connie walked over and took Steven's hands.
"It's okay. I'm not mad. I don't think I could be mad at you." said Connie.
The two hugged.
"Let's head home." said Steven.
"Yeah." agreed Connie.
The two left holding hands.
"It was so silly of me to let a nightmare take me over like that." sighed Steven.
"But, you realized your mistake and apologized. That is admirable." said Connie.
Steven snickered.
"Okay doctor." joked Steven.
The two left not knowing they had been watched.
"So...there's going to be a..." began Emerald
Emerald snapped her fingers.
"What do they call it?" asked Emerald annoyed.
"A wedding." answered Aquamarine.
"Yes that." said Emerald.
"You don't know what that is." said Aquamarine smugly.
"Of course I do!" declared Emerald blushing.
"It's some silly human commitment ceremony." revealed Aquamarine.
"How pathetic." scoffed Emerald.
"It seems that Steven is afraid we will crash it." mused Aquamarine.
"Then I propose we do that." said Emerald.
"A splendid idea idea." agreed Aquamarine.
A/N: That's where we'll end things for now. So, I continue to parallel Steven Universe Future with the dream and Steven let his anxiety get the best of him. But, in a paradox, he's created the thing we wanted to stop. Next time, we continue. Please review.