"How did Steven die?" Rose asked.
"Heroically," Garnet answered.
"But what happened exactly?"
"I wasn't there," Garnet said. "The mission was a trap. I knew it, but if we didn't go anyway Last Diamond was going to shatter the Earth. Their main goal was to capture Stevonnie, failing that, they were to eliminate us."
-o-
"We've got a mission, Gems. We'll leave in about 15 minutes," Garnet said.
"I'll call Connie," Steven said.
"I don't think you should bring her on this one. Not all of us are going to make it back," Garnet said.
"What do you mean?"
"You'll see," she said, kissing him on the forehead.
Future vision. Sapphire always had it, and it allowed her to view future currents to make better decisions in the now, but sometimes she would use it to avoid the now. It was the gift that help make Garnet such a good leader, and she could grant that gift to others for a limited amount of time.
Steven saw himself as Stevonnie arriving with the Gems on the portal where they immediately fall under fierce attack. If Stevonnie gives him/herself up they will let the Crystal Gems go, and leave the Earth. Stevonnie agrees, over the objections of the others. They are taken and bound to a table, unable to unfuse. They scream in pain as six Peridots slowly remove their organs, to study the nature of their organic fusion. Bad End. Steven saw himself and the Crystal Gems arrive on the portal, and fall under immediate attack, with only his shield to save them. It is just a matter of seconds before they break his shield and kill them all. Pearl and Amethyst fuse into Opal, and Steven opens a hole in the shield that allows Opal to fire an arrow at the World Breaker, destroying it. The resulting explosion, shatters Steven's shield, and Poofs the Gems. He is thrown back, and sees two of the Crystal Gems shatter, but he can't tell which two. Bad End.
Steven stands there, running every possible alteration he can think of to find a good end to the situation. If they don't go, the World Breaker will be turned on in another 12 hours, shattering the Earth. Another bad end.
He remembered how Garnet had told him how Sapphire knew her fate and had accepted it. He wondered if he would be able to do the same.
Steven was no longer the dumpy little boy he had been. He had grown, and filled out nicely into a man many considered quite handsome, but there was still an uncertain naive little boy deep inside him. "Garnet?"
"Yes Steven?" Garnet was polishing a huge axe she had once collected off the battlefield.
"Will I poof?"
She stopped. "I don't know. Your powers have always been…"
"Unreliable?"
"I was going to say unpredictable. You might poof, or you might not. You might poof this time, but not the next time. Even with my Future Vision, I haven't been able to see what will happen."
"I'm ready." Steven grabbed his mother's sword, and stood in the center of the teleportation pad. He was soon joined by Garnet, Amethyst and Pearl. They all seemed so confident, almost happy to into one more battle against their own kind.
Garnet tilted her head, seeing something new for the first time. "Steven, what—"
Steven's sword flashed, and in a puff of smoke, four Gems fell to the floor. He carefully picked them up, and placed them gently on the sofa. Ruby and Sapphire next to each other on one end, then Pearl, and finally, Amethyst. "Thanks for taking such good care of me. If this goes wrong, I'll need you to look after my children. If you do half as good a job as you did with me, everything will be fine."
Steven left the house, and walked down to the beach. Last Diamond's trap depended on them coming in on the teleport pad, but unlike the rest of the Gem's, Steven didn't need it.
"Lion!" Steven's call was rewarded by the appearance of the pink beast. It stood there, just looking at him. He climbed up on it's back. "Let's go, old friend."
The lion growled, and jumped. It took off from the beach, but landed in a field filled with Ruby and Quartz soldiers. The lion sailed over their heads and touched down between Last Diamond and the World Breaker.
"Last Diamond," Steven said, "End this, and we won't need to fight. Leave this world in peace, and there will be no need for further conflict between us."
"After everything you Crystal Gems have done? Never! Corruption is too good for the likes of you," the Diamond said.
"The only things we've done, are the things you've forced us to do to defend ourselves and this world. Today's actions included."
Quartz soldiers tried to move up to defend their Diamond, but when any got too close, a roaring blast from lion forced them back.
Steven swung the sword again, nicking the crystal that provided power to the World Breaker. He then stabbed the sword down into the ground in front of him and knelt down. A rose blossom formed around him, solidifying into a solid shield bubble that surrounded him. He kept one hand on the hilt of the sword, and the other, was across his Gem, as one extra layer of protection.
The World Breaker exploded, sending a massive shockwave across the field, leveling soldiers, trees and everything else in range.
-o-
The teleport pad activated, and Garnet, Amethyst, Pearl, Lapis and Peridot appeared. Before them was a massive battlefield of lost or wounded soldiers. So many Gems and Gem shards were scattered everywhere.
"Bubble everything," Pearl said franticly, "we can't let this have been for nothing." She bent over and bubbled a small pile of gem shards.
"Last Diamond is around here somewhere," Garnet said, "we can't let her reform."
Lapis didn't bother about trying to bubble anything. She sprouted her water wings and started flying across the field. She found what she was looking for. She landed next to Steven's fallen form. "Steven? Wake up. Why aren't you moving? Steven? He's not breathing. He told me once he needed to breath, why isn't he breathing?"
Garnet walked over to Lapis, bubbling a few Gems as she went, including the shattered shards of a Diamond. She looked down at Steven and Lapis, and adjusted her visor so no one could see her eyes. "He's gone, Lapis."
"But he's right there," Peridot approached, sending a bubbled Gem to her home with a tap.
Garnet took a deep breath, and wiped under her visor. "Human's aren't like us, and Steven is half human. I don't know what Humans have in place of a Gem... but his has been broken… Shattered like so many of the other Gems here."
"Can we fix him?" Peridot asked.
Garnet shook her head and walked off, bubbling more Gems as she passed them. Once she was out of sight of everybody, she fell to her knees and cried.
Tears rained down Lapis' face, now that the concept of death had registered and been fully understood. She sat so that Steven's head was on her lap, and refused to move.
Peridot sniffled, and moved to stand behind Lapis to comfort her. The sadness she felt was easier for her to manage than it was for Lapis… but later, when they were back at the barn, she would sit and examine her tape recorder, and Lapis would have to do the same for her. At the moment, she tried to keep her mind on other things, like the wreckage of the World Breaker. There wasn't much left, but she couldn't get any closer to it without disturbing Lapis.
"STEVEN!" Pearl ran over to his fallen form. Tears were streaming from her face before she was half way to him. She collapsed next to him and Lapis, just looking down at his body. She focused on Steven's Gem, "I'm sorry Rose. I couldn't protect him. It feels like losing you all over again, except worse." She stroked the hair Steven never combed.
"What's everybody doing over here?" Amethyst asked, as she walked over. She saw Steven's prone body, but the heartbroken look on Pearl's face told her all she needed to know. "Awww, Steven… I was supposed to be the impulsive one, always getting poofed or damaged, not you."
After what seemed like hours, a Quartz Gem glowed and raised itself into the air to reform, but a quick lash from Amethyst's whip rendered it dormant again.
"We better get back to bubbling those Gems," Amethyst said.
"Your right," Pearl admitted. "We'll have to take his body back to Connie." She stood up, rested her fingers ever so gently on Rose's sword, then set to work, looking for a bubbling the fallen Gems.
Amethyst buried herself in the dull repetitive nature of the work, keeping her head down so nobody could see the tears streaming down her face. She was supposed to be the tough one, carefree, not caring about anything. That certainly wasn't the way she felt.
Collecting the Gems took forever, at least that was how it seemed. The highest concentrations had been around the warp pad, and near Steven's body.
Pearl generated two long spears, and used some ruined cloth laying around to make a stretcher. They put Steven's body on it, and carried it home.
-o-
There was a knock on the front door, and Connie rushed to answer it without tripping over her children as they tried to keep pace with her.
Pearl was standing just outside, holding Rose's Sword, in it's scabbard. Tears were still streaming down her face as she offered the Sword to Connie.
"Steven?" Connie asked with a touch of hope in her voice.
Pearl slowly shook her head.
Tears swelled up in Connie's eyes. She crouched down and enveloped her two children in a bear hug, and didn't let go.
"What's wrong, Mommy?" little Rosie asked.