"Um, Mike, who is this?" Nancy asked, gesturing at Steven. "Oh...hi! I'm Steven!" Steven greeted. "Don't worry, Nance, he knows," Mike said. Nancy's eyes widened. "What? I don't understand. Why?"
Steven grinned nervously, sweating a bit. "Uh... it's kind of a long story..."
"He's related to the Mind Flayer. Who, by the way, is back," Mike said bluntly. At Steven's sputtering and Nancy and Jonathan's looks of confusion and slight panic, he hurried to correct himself. "Sorry. Not, like, blood-related. They're just..." Mike trailed off.
"It's hard to explain," Will offered. Nancy crossed her arms, glaring slightly at all of them. "Yeah? Well, I want an explanation."
Steven sighed.
"You should get comfortable."
"So... you're from another universe," Nancy began, pointing at Steven, who offered a small smile. "And you're a half-alien with magical powers; and your alien side is the same species as the Mind Flayer; who's really another Gemstone that got burned into ash."
"Right," Steven confirmed. "His real name's Black Diamond, though."
Nancy looked downward, pinching the bridge of her nose as she concentrated all her willpower on suspending her disbelief. "Can I see your...Gem-thing again?"
"Sure," Steven shrugged, pulling up the hem of his beloved star shirt. Nancy inspected it closely; before tracing her finger around the edge of it, where it met Steven's skin; just like Hopper had. Upon seeing how his skin clung to the edges of it as it fused seamlessly into his flesh, and then looking closer at how the Quartz (?) sparkled in the light, she stepped back; looking a little out of it.
"Kay. So you're not crazy; there's no tape there, and that's an actual gemstone. Good to know."
Steven frowned. "Did you think I was crazy?"
"Well, to start with, everything you just told me sounds like some insane sci-fi story. One my gullible brother and his friends would definitely eat up. For all I knew, you could've just made it all up in exchange for our secrets."
Max crossed her arms. "Hey, I don't believe everything I hear! I can't say the same for numbskull over here," at this, she gestured to Mike, who scowled in response, "but I sure as hell was skeptical at first. He kinda made a shield out of thin air, though, showed me a futuristic phone, and then showed me pictures of his colorful sister-aunt-mom-things. Kinda hard to not believe him, at this point. Especially after the Mind Flayer's little villain speech last night."
"Gems; not things," Steven corrected with a disappointed frown.
"Futuristic phone?" Nancy asked. "Yeah," Steven said, pulling the sleek object out of his back pocket and handing it to Nancy. She accepted it and looked it over with shaking hands. The screen lit up with the absolute last of its battery power, displaying the purple Gem he'd told her about giving him a noogie, her own sparkling jewel shining from her chest.
Nancy tiredly handed the phone back to Steven and ran a hand exhaustedly through her hair. "Okay. Let's see this shield of yours."
Steven stood and held his arm in front of his Gem, summoning his shield with an ethereal clang and a flash of pink light. Nancy's eyes widened and sparkled in the rose light, and Jonathan muttered a quiet, yet impressed, "Holy shit."
Steven de-spawned the shield in a shower of diamond-shaped sparkles and sat back down. "Got all the proof you need now?" Lucas asked with a raised eyebrow. Nancy nodded, breathless.
"Yeah. Holy shit."
"I still don't really understand this whole thing. Your mom... turned into you?" Nancy asked. Steven shrugged helplessly, a little distressed at the familiar dilemma. "I-I guess? Everything that made her her is stored in her Gemstone; which I have now. Even if her form's gone, her mind could still be in there somewhere. Maybe I am her, just with amnesia and a Human body. I dunno."
Nancy noticed how his hand had started subconsciously clutching at his Gem, bunching his shirt up around it. Her eyes darted briefly downward as she looked at it with a furrowed eyebrow; then they flashed with something like sympathy or understanding; and she moved on.
"So these Diamond Gems... they wanted to take over Earth," she said like a statement, though clearly wanting confirmation. "Yeah," Steven said. "It's what they do to every planet they make a colony. They wanted to use the energy of its natural resources to make more Gems to take over more planets and... well, you get the point."
Nancy nodded. "So, this Black Diamond guy was the first one? The first Gem?"
"Yeah," Steven said. "He created White to be, like, a puppet ruler or something, but her power went to her head and she decided to get rid of him so she could be the leader. So she created Yellow and Blue Diamond to help her take him down. They shattered his Gem and ground it into pigment, and then burned it; which is why he looks like a big smoky mess nowadays. Then she bubbled him and sent him to the Upside Down. He must've broken out of his bubble at some point and has been what you guys call the Mind Flayer ever since."
"Then, I guess they must've erased him from history, created Pink Diamond later, and together formed the Great Diamond Authority that's been ruling Homeworld and messing with Earth ever since."
Nancy looked downward in thought. "He said your Gem-your mom-was a Diamond?" She asked. Steven frowned at the mention of it, bringing back memories of his breakdown earlier that day as he considered the implications.
"Yeah," Steven said. "He said my Gem was a Diamond; but that'd mean my mom was one. But she can't be! She started a war to protect Earth from the Diamonds! It got so many Gems and Humans killed and caused all the other Gems on Earth except for her and the rest of the Crystal Gems to be corrupted and turned into monsters! And then Homeworld took the shards of killed Gems and fused them all together into one and put them into the Earth's core so that when they took form they'd destroy the planet and then Yellow Diamond could use them as a weapon against more planets!"
Nancy frowned. "Jesus."
"I know! Steven exclaimed. "And if she was a Diamond too then that means it was all for nothing!"
Will hummed thoughtfully. "I mean, not all for nothing."
Everyone turned to look at him. He was staring into space in thought like he often did when trying to explain his thoughts to his friends. "If she hadn't fought, then there wouldn't be any Earth. Sure, a lot of bad things happened because of the war, but the Earth's still around, right? And... you're here," Will carefully thought aloud, giving Steven a small smile as he finished.
Steven blushed at this as he remembered his accidental fusion with Will earlier. But still, those old feelings were bubbling up again; and he was growing more distressed by the minute.
"I mean, yeah, sure, but she can't be a Diamond because she... s-she..."
Mike frowned in concern. "What?" He asked. Steven's eyes widened. He'd messed up. He hadn't really wanted them to know this, but it looked like there was no turning back now.
"She killed one," Steven muttered. "Sorry, what?" Max asked. "Say that a little louder, Steven?" Nancy requested.
"She killed Pink Diamond, okay?!" He shouted, startling everyone as he leapt to his feet to address the whole room. "Earth was Pink Diamond's colony, so my mom had to shatter her to end the war! She killed Pink Diamond and then shoved her Gem and responsibility onto me! So now Homeworld thinks I did it and they have it out for Earth, and the Crystal Gems, and-and everyone else I care about! She put us all in danger and just... disappeared!"
Stars, it was like being in his mom's Room screaming at her ghost all over again. While deep down he knew she at least partially had him because she wanted him to exist, he just couldn't shake the idea that she'd just used him as a convenient scapegoat for whenever Homeworld decided to come back to check on the Cluster and found out the Crystal Gems had survived the Corrupting Light.
There were hot tears streaming down his cheeks. He was crying for what felt like the sixth time this month. Stars, first on the way to the Human Zoo, where he'd called out pathetically for his dad like he was an actual eight year-old. Then, in the Room. Then, earlier today, and now...
He was just... so tired. So unbelievably tired of this damn mystery. He just wanted everything to make sense. He just wanted to go back to the innocent days when the only thing he wondered about his mom when he stared up at her portrait on the wall with lion on lazy afternoons when the Gems were off on missions and his Human friends were busy was if she'd make him box lunches with space cookies if she were still around.
Will got up and walked over to him, and Steven felt himself crying in his arms for the second time that day. He was too emotionally messed-up at the moment to accidentally fuse with him again, though; thank the stars.
He focused on the feeling of his Gem's ever-present hum, and it got him thinking.
What are you, really, Mom?
A/N: More Steven and Will hurt/comfort because they are my favorite messed-up fictional teenage boys! Honestly, dude, imagine season 4-era Will and Future-era Steven meeting. I hope you enjoyed, and as Steven would say...
Have a great weekend!