Screams filled the streets and humans scattered and bolted. Some got into their cars as they remembered the plans they created years ago for gem related incidents, while others were just too panicked at the sudden appearance of the pink monolith to think clearly.
It had been a calm day. Everyone was going about their business; Sadie and Shep hung out outside of Fish Stew Pizza as they wrote their next song, Mr. Smiley was relaxing in the sun as the Quartz soldiers ran his amusement park; Nanefua was strolling along the boardwalk with her Roby guards.
It started with a rumble, then cracking noises. No one looked in time to see Steven's home explode open. They only saw a lizard-like monster appeared behind the mountain, so tall that it blocked out the sun. Collectively, their eyes trailed the monster. They counted the spines on its side and stepped back when they saw the iridescent rosy horns on its head and the pair that protruded from its face.
"What is that?!" Kiki asked, nearly dropping Sadie and Shep's pizza.
Nanefua's Ruby's raced in front of the mayor and led her away as quickly as they could. They shouted instructions to everyone at her orders: Gem attack. Evacuate now.
Sadie and Shep looked to each other and then back to the monster. They both knew that shade of pink. Could it be?
"Steven?" Sadie asked, throwing logic to the wind. The boy always had strange powers, maybe this was just one of them. But then the monster's snapped down to the city when someone in the distance screamed and they both jumped at the cruelness reflected in them.
"Maybe not," Shep said as they pulled Sadie out of her seat. "Kiki put it on our tab. We need to go!"
They all began to run as the beast lifted one of its four legs and stepped over to the city. In two bounds, he was able to cross the beach and reach the boardwalk.
"This way!" Sadie yelled. She pulled Shep and Kiki down an alley and they raced behind the Big Donut. The three cowered in its shadow and waited for the beast to take another step past them before they headed up the hill to the lighthouse. "We need to get the Crystal Gems!" Sadie told them. "They'll stop whatever that is!"
They ran around the mountain and were the first to see what Sadie feared as they peered over the edge to see Steven's house. It was completely decimated like something had burst through its roof and crushed the wood under its immense weight. Remnants of Steven's torn jacket caught their attention as it fluttered under a piece of debris.
"Steven!" Kiki called. She ran forward and Shep boosted her and Sadie up. They helped Shep up and all of them ran carefully over to the jacket and started shifting rubble.
"Is...is that?" Kiki pointed to red flecks on Steven's jacket and to small pools on the floor near it.
"Blood," Shep said. "That Steven kid could be in trouble."
"He can heal himself," Sadie reminded the group before they panicked. "Let's keep looking."
They searched as the chaos echoed across the beach. They heard screams of panic and loud crashes as the monster stepped through the city. And they found nothing. No Steven. No Pearl. No Amythyst. No Garnet.
"Steven!" They all jumped as Greg ran over and yelled for his son.
"He's not here!" Sadie told him, waving her arms to alert him. "We can't find the gems either!"
Greg stopped and looked around, something clearly catching his eye. He stepped out of Sadie's view and he heard him say, "Oh boy."
The three jumped down from the debris and landed hard as Greg walked over to them. In his hands were four gems: one pearlescent white, one deep purple, one dark blue, and one blood red.
Sadie and Kiki covered their mouths in shock and Shep looked on, confused.
"That thing must have caught them by surprise," Greg said, his voice uncertain. "They wouldn't have gone down with a fight."
"Where did it even come from?" Kiki asked. "The warp pad?"
Shep and Sadie looked at each other again, but neither had the heart to voice their idea to Steven's father.
Luckily, they didn't have to. Amethyst's gem glowed bright and floated out of Greg's hand. She reformed quickly, nothing changing from her previous style.
"Woah," she said as she landed. "That was unexpected."
"What was?" Greg said. "The monster?!"
Amethyst looked at him like he lost his mind. "What monster? No. One of Steven's outbursts."
She looked around and caught sight of the house.
"STEVEN!" She yelled. She was about to jump up to the wreckage when Kiki put her hand on her arm.
"We checked," she told the gem. "He's not up there."
Amethyst sighed and looked relieved. "Then where is he?"
The ground shook and the deafening sound of an oddly humanoid roar caused them all to clamp their hands over their ears.
"What is THAT?!" Amethyst called with her whip now in her hand.
Sadie sighed and put her hand on Greg's shoulder. "I think that's Steven," she told the group.
Amethyst's mouth dropped open. "WHAT?!" She didn't wait for an answer. She ran out of sight to see the damage for herself. Greg, Sadie, Shep, and Kiki slowly followed. They were not in a hurry to see the cause of the black smoke that billowed into the sky, nor to damage under the thickening dust cloud.
Beach City came into the view and the majority of the boardwalk was decimated. Fish Stew Pizza was burning; the fire quickly jumping to other buildings. The pink monster, Steven, standing on his hind two legs and swatting down at the people below.
"That's not Steven," Amethyst said, her eyes terrified. "Steven's like...small."
"The monster came from his house," Shep pointed out. "He attacked you three. And he's not here."
Amethyst glanced back to the house and leaned back to catch a glimpse of the destruction.
"B-but…," she said, heface falling. "It can't be him."
Greg stepped beside her and placed his free hand on her shoulder. "Look, right now, we need to evacuate the city. We'll figure out the rest later."
It took a moment, but the purple gem nodded. "Right." Her entire body glowed and stretched. A moment later, a helicopter with her face on the front appeared. "Get in," she said.
They all piled into her head and she raced off. They flew low to the ground and all jumped out to direct people where to go.
"Leave the monster to me!" Amethyst shouted to them as she flew off toward it. "Get everyone out of here! And Greg," she called, her eyes on the gems in his hand. "Keep them safe."
Greg nodded, his face set as the gem flew off to meet the beast that terrorized the city.
"HEY UGLY!" Amethyst yelled, her form glowing as she turned back into herself. She launched herself at the monster, whip in hand. It snagged on one of his horns and she used it to pull herself toward its face. She curled up and spun to become a spinning projectile before she smacked right into the monster's cheek.
It roared in annoyance and pain and whipped around, its eyes trained on the small purple gem. As she fell, Amethyst stared into them and gasped out. The face shape. The nose. Pink irises. Diamond-shaped pupils.
It really was him.
She didn't recover from her shock in time for a steady landing. She crashed back into the earth and onto the road. She barely felt the impact though.
How? How is that Steven? How did he get like this? Was it shape shifting?
She stared at the lizard-like beast as it peered down at her, eyes narrowed.
"Very funny, dude," she weakly called up to him. "Just turn back into your normal self and we can talk about it."
The monster growled at her lowly as he raised his hand to crush her.
"Or not," Amethyst said as she jumped away. "We'll leave you alone, just like you asked?" she called hopefully, but the hand slammed into the pavement, narrowly missing her. She watched the long claws dig into the cement and tear up the entire width of the road.
"Watch it!" she shouted to him as she jumped away. But her voice broke and her eyes burned as she stared back at the monster. "Don't you know me?!"
His large hand swept sideways and knocked her through a building window as an answer.
She pulled herself up from out of the rubble. Her entire body shook as she watched the monster turn away and look toward the hoard of retreating humans. Amethyst took a short breath and stood up as she pulled two whips from her gemstone.
Steven or not, she had to keep fighting. He wasn't in control. He didn't know what he was doing. She had to stop him from hurting anyone else.
"I'M NOT DONE WITH YOU YET!" she yelled to the monster, who whipped his head back to look at her. She ran over and slammed her body against his leg. Steven didn't even flinch, but he did whip his tail around to hit the gem.
Amethyst smirked to herself as she jumped up and grabbed onto his tail. She flicked her wrist and one whip wrapped around a spike. Another flick, the second wrapped around another. Steven jerked his tail around wildly, trying to throw her off, but Amethyst locked herself in and slowly became stepping back every time she sensed an opening.
He slammed his tail on the ground and was about to raise it again at full speed.
"Now!" she told herself. She slingshotted her body upward, using the strain on her whips and the momentum from Steven's movement and slammed her feet into the back of his head. The giant body stumbled forward and landed on all fours and crushed a building in the process.
He whipped his head around to face her. A glint she didn't like was in his eyes when another body slammed into forehead and knocked his head away.
"Hey Garnet," Amethyst said. "Thanks for the backup."
Garnet landed next to Amethyst on Steven's back, her face unreadable.
"What happened?" she asked, though her tone revealed she already knew. Amethyst didn't have time to respond before Steven bucked and spun. They were thrown off his back and landed on the ground. Both of them slid to a stop as the monster turned to face them.
Amethyst only watched as Garnet looked into the beast's face.
"Steven…," she breathed, her boxing gloves poofing from her hands the moment she stopped denying the truth.
"Look out!" Amethyst tackled Garnet out of the way, just as Steven's hand swung around to smash them. They rolled out of sight behind a dumpster and heard Steven take a step away from them.
"How?" Garnet asked. "What happened to him?"
Amethyst shook her head. "I don't know. Maybe this is a side effect of his pink outbursts?"
Garnet's eyes traced Steven's form. "It's possible," she said, but she didn't sound convinced. "He's not in control."
"No duh," Amethyst said. "He wasn't exactly in the best shape before either."
Garnet ignored her and stood. "We'll need backup," she said. "Amethyst, you'll find Lion napping in the Big Donut's dumpster. Get him to find Connie. Then go to the warp and alert Little Homeworld. We need to draw him away from the city and toward gems that can fight."
Amethyst nodded. "Okay. Anything else?"
Garnet took a breath before saying the next thing through gritted teeth. "Send a messenger to Homeworld. We may need the Diamonds."
"What?" Amethyst exclaimed. "Why? We got this!"
"Just go!" Garnet told her. Amethyst heard the urgency and panic in her tone and knew not to question the fusion further. She nodded again and raced off. Garnet simply didn't have it in her to tell Amethyst what timeline they were in. Not when Garnet herself could barely hold it together.
There's still a chance we're not in that timeline, she reminded herself. She's been wrong before.
Human screams jarred her back to reality. She reformed her boxes and ran toward Steven. She had to keep it together. She had to help the teen she failed.
"STEVEN!" she yelled. Her voice boomed between the buildings, swirled up in the cloud of smoke and hit the monster's ears. He glanced back at her, face showing nothing but annoyance now. Garnet chucked a piece of rock at him and it bounced harmlessly off his side. Steven huffed and watched it fall to the ground before he turned back to the fusion.
He roared. The sound was so deafening that Garnet had to physically hold herself together as she recognized her family member's voice in the animalistic screech. Though the roar was one of a predator, Garnet heard more. She heard the struggles of the boy the loved. The pain, the guilt, the lack of control.
The corruption.
He turned to face her and his tail knocked down power lines. Garnet heard them sizzle and zap his skin, but Steven didn't even flinch. He didn't even seem to notice how his skin was charred black from the impact. He only had eyes for her.
"You want me?!" Garnet yelled as she slammed her fists together. "Come and get me!"
She ran and tried to head out of the city. She saw Sadie, Shep and Kiki dodged out of the way and hide by the Big Donut as she passed. They moved carefully, their mouths covered as the smoke of the flames concealed them. Garnet zig-zagged between streets and when the ground began to rumble behind her, she knew Steven was on her tail.
His shadow soon overtook her. She dove around a pile of smoking rubble, narrowly missing being crushed by one of his four legs. The fusion ran forward, out of the city, but not far enough away from the humans, when Steven finally caught her.
His hand lunged out and grabbed her. It pinned her to the ground. He lowered his head, his breath hot against her skin as he huffed in her face.
"Steven," Garnet said, voice strained as she pushed against his fingers. But he was too big, too heavy for her to move alone. "Don't do this," she pleaded with her. She removed her visor to stare into his enraged eyes. "You know me."
If Steven understood her, he didn't show it. The monster slowly added weight to hand and began to crush her. He watched her struggle, watched her gasp out in pain and push feebly against his hand. He added more weight and his eyes glinted as his lips curled upwards.
He liked seeing her like this. Struggling. Feeble. Not in control.
"HEY!"
Garnet glanced over and saw two humans tumble out of a moving car right before it slammed into Steven's wrist. He yelled out in pain and lifted his hand out of instinct. The limb turned purple and bleed profusely as the shattered windshield dug into his skin.
Shep grabbed Garnet and pulled her over to Sadie and together, the three ran. Steven took the car in his mouth and tossed it over his shoulder. It landed with a sickening crunch behind him. When he turned to look at the ground, the fusion and humans were gone.
Unseen by the beast, Garnet, Sadie, and Shep caught their breath as much as they could through the smoke and dust. Their lungs burned, but they didn't dare cough. Their hiding spot, behind a burnt tree, wasn't the most concealing.
They watched Steven gingerly put weight back on his hurt wrist and wince, but he was too far gone to let a little pain stop his rampage.
"What do we do?" Sadie quietly asked Garnet.
The fusion shook her head. "We wait for backup."
… … … … … … … … … … … ...
Author's Note: Yes, I am continuing the story! Unlike "A Corrupted Identity," I am writing this one as I go, so there may be delays between publishing. I do have a lot of it outlined, though! It's going to be a short-to-medium-length story, probably around 8 chapters. I hope you enjoy!