Chapter 19: Escape to Reality

"What is this place?" Connie wondered aloud as she looked around. All she could see was an endless expanse of white. "I have to find Steven, but White Diamond's got him trapped inside this strange bubble." Connie's musing was put to an abrupt halt when the white all around her started cracking, patches of very dark shades of blue, red, and black visible through the cracks, until suddenly, she fell through, all of the white vanishing, leaving her falling through an apocalyptic-looking landscape, until she landed roughly on the ground below.

Connie groaned in pain as she struggled to get up off the ground. When she finally managed to steady herself, she looked around, seeing a nightmarish landscape. The sky was blood red, the ground was a shade of blue so dark that it was difficult to tell where the ground changed levels, dead trees dotted the landscape, black clouds scattered across the sky, and there was a tall, black tower in the middle of it all that looked like it was from an old castle, but rugged, decaying, and looked rather menacing. Seeing as how the tower was the only structure around, it was unquestionable that that was where Steven was at.

...

"N-no! P-please, stop!" Steven said. The fake Connie kept torturing the young gem, and he couldn't even defend himself from it, since the bubble was blocking all gem magic. The torture felt like it was going on forever, until the fake Connie transformed into the gems. Confused, Steven opened his eyes to see the gems standing there. "Pearl! Garnet! Amethyst! What's going on? Why was Connie attacking me?!" The confused young gem asked.

"Steven." Pearl began. "You sho-o-o-ould know by no-o-ow that we don't want a-a-a-anyth-th-th-thing to do-o-o-o with yo-o-ou. You will ne-e-e-e-e-eve-e-r be as gre-e-e-eat as Rose wa-a-as."

"G-guys?" Steven asked, teary-eyed. "Why are you acting like this?" Steven became even more upset and fearful when he saw them moving in, drawing out their weapons.

...

"AAAAHHHHHH!"

"Steven?!" Connie called. Steven's scream echoed throughout the entire landscape, brimming with a level of raw pain and fear that Connie had never heard before. "Don't worry, Steven! I'm coming for you!"

Connie began sprinting towards the tower, before suddenly halting in her tracks. What she saw was like something straight out of a horror game and a nightmare combined. It was what appeared to be a very torn-up, robotic bear with a black bow tie and top hat, easily at least the size of Garnet, if not bigger. It had patches of "fur" missing from its hips, legs, arms, and head, revealing its metallic skeleton frame. Its eyes were glowing a bright red, it had two sets of razor-sharp teeth, which were tinted red at the roots of them, and it had razor-sharp claws as well. It also had what looked like three miniature versions of itself attached to it, which were much smaller, but still looked quite terrifying.

"Uhh…" Connie began to cower away in fear, hoping it would leave her alone, remembering a terrifying nightmare she had about this exact same creature, and a few others like it, a few months prior. Connie was forced to make a break for it when the creature lunged at her, teeth and claws bared and emitting a terrifying, almost deafening sound akin to that of a roar and a scream. Connie tried to pull out her sword, but found that the bubble was blocking all of the gem magic. "Oh, come on. Seriously?" She said. "Why can't I use my gem?!"

Connie continued running as fast as her legs could carry her. When she took a brief look over her shoulder, she saw that the robot-creature was still after her, and was catching up fast. She almost ended up becoming its victim when she tripped over what was apparently a hill, but forced herself to get up as fast as she could, running straight for the tower. Just as the robotic bear-like monster reached her, Connie had managed to get inside of the tower and slammed the door shut, locking it. No more than a split second later, the creature started pounding on the door, making Connie fear that it was going to break it down.

"Okay, okay, this must be some kind of… nightmare-creating bubble." Connie told herself. "Whatever I'm seeing is fake."

"Connie?"

"Huh?" Connie turned around and saw Steven standing next to her, looking at her with a blank expression. "Steven?"

"Hello Connie…" he said, suddenly turning into a more monstrous form, similar to that of a corrupted gem.

"No… YOU'RE NOT REAL!" Connie shouted at it, swinging a fist at it, making it disappear in a puff of smoke.

"I've gotta find the real Steven." Connie said, finding the stairs. As Connie climbed up the stairs, another scream from Steven echoed throughout the area. "He sounds like he's doing way worse than I was. I have to find him fast." Connie concluded, sprinting up the winding staircase.

After what seemed like hours, Connie had come to a single door at the very top of the stairs. She opened the door to find Steven cowering in a corner, curled up on himself. "Steven! There you are!" Connie said. She began running towards him, but stopped short upon seeing that her speedy approach only seemed to frighten him even more. "Steven…?"

"P-please… don't hurt me…" Steven said shakily.

"Don't worry, Steven. Whatever you were seeing wasn't real." Connie said, approaching him more slowly this time. "I promise. I'm not going to hurt you. It's me. The real Connie."

Connie's assurance seemed to calm him down, because Steven was no longer shaking. "Come on. We have to get out of here." Connie told him. "Just before I came in here, I saw the gems get captured. We need to go rescue them and defeat White Diamond."

"Okay." Steven replied.

The two ran down the stairs to the door; Connie expecting the monstrous robot to still be trying to get in, but when Connie opened the door, it was nowhere to be seen. "Did it disappear?" Connie asked herself.

"Did what disappear?" Steven asked her.

"Uh, nevermind. Let's just get out of here."

Steven and Connie continued running towards the edge of the bubble, but had to stop again upon seeing another monster. "Seriously?" Connie asked, feeling a mix of fear and annoyance.

"That thing looks like if a three-headed ghost had a skeleton that was black." Steven commented, seeing that the beast did, in fact, look just like that. The creature was floating in midair, and let out a roar-like sound, then shooting one of its skulls at them, which exploded upon contact with the ground in front of them, growing back its skull.

"Run!" Steven yelled; something that Connie easily agreed with. They turned around and ran away from the ghastly creature, trying to get to the other edge of the bubble of pure nightmares. Thankfully, this creature was slower than they were, so they were able to outrun it. Finally, they got to the edge, and tried to run out of it, only to run right into the edge.

"What?! H-how do we get out?!" Connie asked frantically. Their attention was brought back to the creature that had been chasing them when an explosion sounded out just behind them, seeing as how it had now caught up to them. "Uh oh…"

"Um, would you mind helping us get out of here?" Steven tried asking it, only for it to shoot another explosive skull at them.

"Wait! Maybe it can!" Connie thought. "We can lure it and make it shoot at the side of the bubble, popping it!"

"Connie, that's brilliant!" Steven exclaimed. "Hey! You… you monster! Come and get us!"

The monster roared in response, shooting two more skulls at Steven and Connie, who ran in opposite directions, trying to get the beast to destroy the bubble. After a while, however, one of the skulls hit Steven directly, knocking him to the ground in pain.

"Steven!" Connie called, seeing that the monster had dealt a direct strike to the young gem. The monster shot another skull at Connie, who ducked out of the way just in time, directly hitting the edge of the bubble, exploding, and destroying the bubble.

"Steven, are you okay?" Connie asked, once the debris had cleared up, running over to Steven.

"Yeah, I think so… but I'm probably scarred for life now from that horrifying experience." Steven said.

"Yeah… I think I am, too." Connie replied back. "Now, come on. Let's go save the gems."