Chapter 17: Amnesia

"Wh-what do you mean 'Who's Steven'?" Connie replied.

"Hey, c'mon, dude. This isn't funny." Amethyst tried.

"Um, who are you? And why are you purple?" Steven replied.

"Y-you… you don't remember? You really don't remember anything, Steven?" Connie asked, tearing up.

"Who is this… 'Steven' you keep talking about, anyway?" He asked.

"Y-you! You're Steven!" Connie told him, grabbing his shoulders for emphasis. "Steven Quartz Universe! That's you. The boy I love…" Connie trailed off.

"Are you really sure you don't remember anything?" Sadie asked. "Anything at all?"

"Look, I'm sorry, I really don't remember." Steven said back. "Who I am, who all you guys are, why some of you have jewels embedded in your skin and have unusual skin colors…"

"Seriously, dude, if this is a joke, it's not funny. We're seriously worried about you here." Amethyst tried again, only to no avail.

"No, I-I really can't remember anything."

"Peridot. Use your scanner on him." Connie said. "Maybe it'll tell us how to bring his memory back."

"It's worth a shot." Peridot replied, taking out her scanner and using it on him. "Well… no, unfortunately, it doesn't say anything about his lost memory or how to retrieve it."

"Okay, w-well… maybe we just need to show him some of his things. Maybe that will jog his memory?" Connie said. "We have to try!"

...

"Thank you so much for letting me watch 'Under the Knife' here, Steven." Connie said. The pair were gathered up and sitting in front of Steven's TV watching the show.

"How come you can't watch the show at home?" Steven asked curiously.

"My mom says this doesn't represent a real emergency room." Connie told him. "She just doesn't understand that it's satire."

Connie's phone then begins to ring, drawing the attention of Steven and Connie. "Is that your phone?" Steven asks Connie.

"It's probably my mom." Connie replies, picking up her phone and looking at the caller id and seeing that it was, indeed, her mom, then answers the phone. "Hi, mother. It's Connie." She says into the phone. "…Yes, ma'am. … We're—we're just hanging out. … Oh— Steven's parents. They're, uh— they're in the other room. … You would like to talk to Steven's mom. … Oh, okay. Hold on a moment."

"That's gonna be pretty hard since my mom gave up her physical form to make me." Steven tells Connie after she had put her hand over the speaker so her mom wouldn't hear.

"I can't tell her that!" Connie says, worried that if her mom found out that Steven was anything but ordinary, she wouldn't be allowed to hang out with him anymore. The pair run down the stairs to find Garnet sitting on the couch.

"Garnet, quick. You have to pretend to be my mom to Connie's mom." Steven says. Garnet takes the phone, not even questioning why since her future vision already told her the reason.

"Hello. This… is Mom Universe." Garnet says into the phone. "Yes. The children are playing swords. Sorry— playing with swords. They're bleeding. Oh no, they are dead. Don't call again." She says, having kept a calm tone the entire time, then hanging up the phone and handing it back to a shocked Steven and Connie. "Sorry, I panicked."

...

"Um, how about Lion?" Connie tried, leading Steven over to where Lion was quietly napping. Unfortunately, this seemed to fail, since Steven started to slowly back away, assuming he was a threat, even though he was asleep. "Come on, Steven, you love Lion! You really don't remember him?"

"No, not really." Steven replied.

"How about the gems?" Connie said. "What about them? Don't you remember Amethyst? Or Garnet? Or Pearl? Don't you remember how you freed Lapis from the mirror? Or how about Peridot? Or meeting Ruby and Sapphire? Do you remember any of that?"

"Look, you all seem really nice, but I really don't remember anything." Steven said.

"What about me? Don't you remember me, Steven?" Connie tried. She figured that if this didn't work, nothing would. They had already tried everything else, after all. "Don't you remember that time you saved me from that falling rock when we first met? Or when we first fused? That time we spent together at your 14th birthday? Or anything?"

"…Connie?"

"Steven?!" Connie said.

'I… I remember! I remember everything!" Steven said.

"Oh, thank goodness you're back to normal!" Connie exclaimed.

"Sorry I made you go to all that trouble, Connie." Steven told her.

"I don't care about all that! I'm just happy you're alright!" Connie replied.