A/N:

Hey all! This is going to be a bit more laid-back than my other fic, with shorter chapters and hopefully coming in under 100k words (wouldn't that be something)

This fic takes place a few months after the events of SU: Future, sometime in the middle of Steven's road trip of self-discovery. He gets dropped into the Heights Alliance common room in-between the Provisional License exam and the work study announcements. Will he ever get back? Who knows!

I do want to mention that, even though it's one of my favorite animated shows ever, I have not seen a single episode since the end of SU:F. Therefore, I might be a bit rusty with what is or isn't canon.

Case in point: Steven, as another aspect of his Diamond abilities, can understand all languages. I'm not sure if this is canon or not, or if only part of it, but it is used in a more extreme capacity in the fic Faded Blue, so I'll just run with it. This just makes it easier for everyone involved, and I don't want to have to explain why Steven suddenly knows Japanese.

Pretty sure that's everything I need to go over.

Probably?

Eh. Have fun! Please leave your comments down below!

Chapter 1: tasty floor you got there, mind if i...

"Oof!"

Steven fell onto the ground, groaning at his misfortune. He lifted his face and touched his nose—

Yep, that was broken. He quickly licked his finger and healed himself, wincing at the slightly uncomfortable sensation of his nose returning to its normal shape.

Now, onto the next question.

Where was he?

Steven remembered video calling Connie. The connection kept cutting out, so ultimately they decided to just have her drop in with Lion whenever she was free.

Then, he'd decided to do a bit of exploring, as one tended to do. It's not like the woods were of the spooky variety or anything. As far as he could tell, they were perfectly normal woods, so he figured he might as well take a walk. If there was something dangerous, he was more than capable of defending himself.

He hadn't expected to find some sort of shrine. A Gem structure, considering the similarities to other sites he'd explored with the Crystal Gems in the past.

In retrospect, maybe it wasn't a good idea to touch the glowing artifact in the center of the compound.

To be fair, it wasn't the first time he'd found something similar. The Crystal Gems had done a good job of recovering unstable or dangerous gem relics from the rest of the world, but that didn't mean they'd found everything. In the past few months of his road trip, he'd discovered more than a few inert artifacts, all of them recovered and sent back to the Temple.

Then again, none of those were glowing. That could have clued him in.

Well, that didn't really matter right now. It was more important to figure out where he was right now.

Steven pushed himself up, rolling up from the hardwood floor that certainly didn't bear any resemblance to the stone where the artifact was found. He made eye contact with a group of teens.

After a period of silence, during which nobody blinked, one of them yelled,

"Sensei!"

Then there was chaos.

"Quick, someone get him!"

"Iida, go—"

"Of course!"

This exchange was followed by someone with… engines in their legs? They ran out of the room almost as fast as he'd seen the Crystal Gems run, but he didn't even have a chance to marvel at that before he was charged.

"Sero, can you—"

"On it!"

A split second later, he found himself wrapped in tape, which he was pretty sure came from someone's elbows?

Steven was picked up and placed in a chair, and a tall girl with a coil of rope tied him to it.

"I will guard him until Aizawa-sensei arrives."

"Thank you, Todoroki," a green-haired teen nodded gratefully, and Steven had to interject because this really was happening much too quickly.

"Uh, sorry to interrupt… whatever you're doing, but could someone tell me where I am?"

They all glanced at each other, and someone with tall purple hair walked up.

"Why should we tell you?" he asked.

"Well, it's a—" Suddenly, everything became muted. Steven was vaguely aware of what he was seeing, and he could barely make out muffled voices in terse discussion, but he had no control over his muscles. This was the first thing that made him truly panic, and in his desperation he tried to activate his gem powers. At first, nothing happened, but a jolt of electricity ran through his body, and he was able to bubble himself off, causing everyone in the room to jump away from him in shock.

A few choice bubbles loosened the tape and rope that bound him, and he stood up, arms crossed in a strange mixture of annoyance and confusion. Their voices were muffled from his position in his orb, and he watched as they argued between themselves. He considered dropping the shield, to see if they were willing to converse normally, but the engine-legged teen returned with an adult, scraggly dark hair floating and body poised to attack.

Steven decided to just wait this out, and he observed as several students (because they were students, they'd used 'sensei' earlier, but that brought up even more questions) yelled at the man who struggled to maintain some semblance of order. After a futile twenty seconds, he sent everyone out and approached Steven himself with a cautious gait.

He raised both hands in a show of peace and willed the bubble to disappear. Thankfully, the man didn't move to attack, so Steven figured he could try to fish for answers.

"Do you know where I am?"

The man's eyes narrow in suspicion. "Do you not know? How did you get here?"

Steven barked out a nervous laugh. "No? I mean, one moment I was picking up this glowing amulet thing, the next I appeared five feet in the air and fell onto my face."

An awkward silence filled the air, and the man gestured toward the door. "Come with me. If you're telling the truth, you will get your answers."

There was no point in fighting them, he realized. The sooner he got some answers the sooner he could figure out where on Earth he was and the best way to get back.

With a sigh, he set off towards the door. Once outside, he was led to a tall building covered in glass windows. It reminded him of the skyscrapers of places like Empire City, but this was a much shorter building. A dizzying maze of hallways greeted him once he was inside, and finally he entered an office containing two individuals— someone wearing a trench coat and some sort of furry white rat-creature wearing a suit. He stared dumbly at it, because while the last few years of dealing with gem stuff had prepared him for a lot of weird stuff, this was certainly like nothing else he'd ever encountered.

"Sit," he was prodded once again by the man who led him here. Steven sat in the free chair, constantly aware of the man behind him. He didn't want to fight, but he was prepared to defend himself if the proceedings turned hostile.

"What is your name?" The detective-looking fella started with no preamble.

"Steven Quartz Universe."

"Are you a villain?"

What kind of question was that? "What…? No!"

"Do you harbor any hostile intentions towards anyone at this institution?"

"Of course not!" he sputtered.

"What is your quirk?"

"My what?" Steven had no idea what the man was talking about.

"Your quirk," he sighed. "What is it?"

"Sir, respectfully, I have no idea what you're talking about."

A look was shared between all of the other occupants, and the furry creature spoke up from behind the desk.

"If you have no idea what a quirk is, then where are you from?"

Steven ignored the bizarreness of speaking with something that was decidedly not human nor gem.

"Well, I spent most of my life in Beach City, in the state of Delmarva in the United States," he answered.

"I'm afraid you're mistaken, Universe," the creature replied. "Delmarva is not a state, nor is it, indeed, the name of any region in the world."

"What?" he exclaimed. That didn't sound right. There couldn't just not be a Delmarva, he was there just a few months ago.

"If you don't have a quirk," the man who led him here asked, "then how do you explain the orb you were in?"

"I mean," he said with slight bashfulness, "I am half-Gem."

"Half-what?"

"Y'know, Gem." He lifted up his shirt just enough to show off the pink diamond on his navel. "Dad was human, Mom was a Gem."

"That doesn't explain as much as you think it does." The man seemed to want nothing to do with this conversation, and Steven was happy to oblige.

"Look," he started, "I don't know how I got here, I touch this one artifact and poof, I appear in midair. I'm just trying to find out where I am and how to get back, so if we could all just calm down and let me go, we could all move on with our days."

"Perhaps, but your appearance here represents a serious breach of security that must be addressed," the creature butted in. "I have my own theories on where exactly you came from, but I will require more information from you in order to confirm it."

"Couldn't you just, I don't know, let me go?" he asked futilely. "I'm not a villain or whatever you called me."

"I'm afraid not, Universe."

He groaned and slid down in the seat. "Just call me Steven."

It was an hour later that they were finally able to come to some sort of consensus. Steven had been shown a map of the world, and there were definitely a lot of discrepancies at first glance, and each one he pointed out led to weird looks from the detective (Tsukauchi was his name).

He explained what a Gem was, because it was clear that none of them had ever seen or heard of Gems. One of his ideas was to see if he could borrow a laptop or a phone— he knew Ronaldo's blog had pictures of the Crystal Gems, but inputting the URL brought up an error page. As far as Steven knew, Ronaldo had never taken down Keep Beach City Weird, so undoubtedly there was something wrong.

The final straw was when he happened to glance at the date.

"Why does it say the year is 2186?"

Aizawa (the man who had retrieved him in the first place) huffed. "Because that's the year?"

"No-no-no-no-no, that doesn't make any sense," Steven griped. "It's 2020, not 2186. There's no way that I time traveled and traveled to another dimension or anything, that's way too outlandish."

"On the contrary, Steven, I believe that encapsulates your situation quite well." Nedzu, the talking animal (that was never going to stop being weird) lit up a cigar and lounged back in his chair. "After all, I don't see how else one might be able to explain your sudden appearance, not to mention the clear differences in what you believe the Earth's geography to be and what it actually is. Your… Gems are also a feature that, as far as humanity knows, does not exist in this universe."

"I—" Steven attempted to find a reason to discount Nedzu's claims, but as outlandish as it seemed the theory did make some sort of sense, or at least more than whatever he could come up with.

"Okay, fine, great," he groaned. "Then could I maybe start figuring out how to get back home? If I'm gone too long, then people will start to wonder where I am."

"Of course," exclaimed Nedzu, "we'll do all we can to find you a way back. For now, I would actually like a demonstration of your so-called Gem abilities. Thank you, Tsukauchi-san, for your assistance, especially on such short notice. We will be moving to Gym Gamma."

Steven was more than a little irked by the way the creature did everything the way he saw fit, controlling everything that they'd discussed. For now, he was content to go along with what he said, since he was particularly interested in finding out what these 'quirks' could do. The way they were described to him sounded like real-life superheroes.

"So," he said once they were outside. "What is this place, anyways? Seems to be pretty big."

"This place, as you say, is the high school known as U.A., of which I am the principal of. We pride ourselves on unparalleled academic prowess and performance, and we have produced some of the highest caliber heroes and engineers, not to mention the numerous entrepreneurs, politicians, and researchers that have walked these halls."

Steven honed in on one word. "Wait, 'heroes'? Like the superheroes from comic books?"

"Indeed," Nedzu confirmed. "A super-powered society requires super-powered defenders of that society."

"Wow," he marveled. For a moment, Steven felt like a little kid, looking at all of the superhuman things that the Crystal Gems did to protect the Earth, but this was somehow even cooler. It was like his comic books, his video games, his cartoons had all come to life, resulting in a world like this. So what if he had powers— he wasn't a superhero, with costumes and cool catchphrases said while taking down villains! The novelty of it all even lessened the shock from discovering he wasn't even in his own world anymore.

A wave of melancholy washed over him. His world. He wasn't even in the same universe as his friends, his family, Connie…

They were probably worried, if they even suspected anything at all. He was on a road trip, and it wasn't uncommon for him to go silent for multiple weeks at a time. Maybe, if he could find the artifact's counterpart in this universe, he'd be back without anyone realizing.

Maybe.

Nedzu came to a stop, and Steven whistled in appreciation at the size of the building they were entering. On the inside, the gym was impressively large, and their footsteps echoed throughout the open space.

"Excellent. I believe it will be most efficient if you two spar. I trust you know how to fight, Steven?" the principal asked. Steven nodded in affirmation. He could use a good spar right about now— it had been months since the last time he'd trained with Connie.

He moved to stand across from Aizawa, ready to summon a shield at any moment. In a flash, the older man sprang off the ground, ending up at Steven's right. His scarf unfurled, and Steven was just barely able to make a shield in time to have the weapon wrap around that instead of his body.

Cautiously moving away, he summoned shield after shield, bombarding the man with the projectiles. He danced smoothly through the barrage, making admirable headway. Steven decided to go for something different, summoning his bubble gauntlets as he entered a melee.

However, no matter how much strength and speed his half-Gem physiology gave him, he was no match for the martial arts prowess exhibited by Aizawa. It was all he could do to prevent himself from being cocooned in tough fabric, until he left an opening for the man.

Just before he was immobilized, he formed a bubble around himself. It shielded him from the scarf just in the nick of time, and rather than hide in the orb Steven decided to press his advantage. He willed the bubble to pop, and the knockback from that was sufficient to temporarily stun his opponent.

He rushed forward faster than any human could, landing a solid punch, but before he could go for some sort of immobilizing attack he was grabbed, flipped, and subsequently tied up in the scarf.

Steven sat there, breathless at what had just happened. That was as exhilarating as some spars he'd had with Connie and other members of the Crystal Gems, and he found that he truly enjoyed the experience.

On the sidelines, Nedzu peered at the young man laying on the floor. "Absolutely fascinating," he muttered to himself, jotting down quick notes on the abilities he'd exhibited.

There was clear evidence of some sort of formal training, though there was no single specific martial art used. The creative use of his mainly protective powers was indicative of an innovative mind— under other circumstances, he would have been thrilled to be able to cultivate such a human.

Unfortunately, he didn't belong in this world. Nedzu had never had proof of tIme travel or alternate universes, but this sort of discovery lent strong support for the multiverse theory. If only he could study the artifact that Steven claimed brought him here!

Alas, it didn't come with him. However, if they found a counterpart in this universe, or a quirk with a similar ability, he might be able to study the mechanisms behind them for himself.

He'd hardly admit it, of course, but Nedzu was practically salivating at the prospect of being involved in truly groundbreaking research, the kind that could revolutionize the progress of humanity as a whole.

Suddenly, the future was looking a whole lot more interesting.

"Alright, I'm beat!" Nedzu looked up from his scheming to see the boy (Was he really a boy when he was as old as his third years? Eh, semantics.) laying on the ground. He didn't seem all too tired, but the principal wasn't willing to push. The data he'd collected so far has been more than necessary, and he didn't want to alienate Steven. Better to ingratiate himself, as an ally and friend, for as long as he was in this world.

"Of course," he nodded. "We can continue our discussions at a different time— it may be that the artifact that brought you here has already been found. I assume you are rather tired from your ordeal?"

"A bit," the half-human admitted.

"Very understandable," Nedzu allowed. Suddenly, an idea popped into his head that seemed like it would lead to a particularly entertaining serious events. He grinned viciously, and only Aizawa noticed, his soul visibly shriveling in exhausted resignation. "Aizawa-san can take you to your lodgings— I believe Heights Alliance has a few spare rooms?"

"Heights Alliance? What's that?"

Aizawa gave a muffled groan. Nedzu cackled. Steven avoided thinking about when he'd be able to return home.

(Or if he even could.)

End Notes:

i will update as i finish chapters, no schedule.