Steven and Matthias' eyes just locked and stared at each other, none of them even blinking. The barn gone really quiet as everyone's eyes were on those two. Matt's grip just became tighter and it burned hotter as jolts of electricity shot up through his arm. "What are you talking about? Just let me go, Matthias." Steven knew he was going to get a burn and most likely a bruise where Matt was gripping him, "Let me go. You are just feeling betrayed because Jasper left you. Left us all. You're going to seriously hurt me if you do not let go." Tears were starting to form in his eyes as he took his other hand and grabbed Matt's wrist to try and pull free, but he only got electrocuted. He moved his hand up and down trying to get rid of the tingling sensations in his hand.
Peridot walked over to them and put a hand on Matt's chest, just below where his gem was. "Your gem is burning making your whole chest feel like you're on fire." Peridot leaned closer to Matt, Steven was almost not able to hear what was being said, but he managed to catch what was said. "If you go at this rate … you will be consumed." He had to pull away his hand as it was getting too unbearable, "You're also going to break the boy's bones. He is not durable like the rest of us, you know this. Just because he is "half-gem" doesn't mean he is made as one, Fish brain. Let's step outside and discuss this with the others." Matthias let go of Steven's wrist with force pushing him back, he would have fallen if Amethyst and Lapis didn't tag teamed and caught him. They steadied him to his feet.
"Maybe you should go try and rest, Steven. Go up to the loft and lay down on the couch, I'll be up there shortly with the first aid kit." Lapis patted his back, and Steven just nodding. He was drained from what happened, and he was drained from panicking about the gems finding out that he wasn't their Steven. He had a feeling that something like that would happen, he was afraid of what the others would do when they find out too. He was especially afraid of Rose and Pearl's responses.
"Out now!" Snapped Peridot and pushed on Matt's arm towards the door. The blue gem growled and slapped his hand away as he stormed out of the door. The other five gems looked at Steven wearily before he made his way up to the loft of the barn, his arm was burning and still tingling from the grip it previously had on. He looked down at the bottom floor, both Peridot and Sapphire with her hair moved out of her eye stared at him. He nodded towards them before they walked out of the barn with the others. When Peridot walked out of the barn, he wrapped his arms around his girlfriend's waist. Lapis put a cigarette in his mouth and lit it for hm, he stared at Matt, wondering if he should just play dumb or flat out tell him that he already knew.
Either way, he knew Matthias would get mad and it was only going to make his situation worse. Matthias was obviously flustered, Peridot could tell by the blue sparks flying from the blue gem's skin and gem on his chest. He unwrapped his arms from Lapis and took the cigarette out of his mouth handing it to her, he moved around her to stand on her left side. He wanted to hear why Matthias thought this wasn't their Steven, even if he already knew it wasn't, he wanted to know his side of the story. "Alright, we need you to tell us why you don't think that's our Steven in there." The tourmaline gem stared at Peridot with cold purple eyes, his jaw was clenched.
The gem's chest rose when he took in a deep breath, "Since he came here, haven't you noticed changes?" He was addressing the three smaller gems of the group; Sapphire, Ruby, and Amethyst. "My god, he is so much more polite and generous than our Steven! That's the biggest difference. How does no one notice that?" Tourmaline racked his hand through his hair that was starting to stand up in attention from the electric current coursing through his body. The others stepped back as sparks flew hitting the ground where they were just standing. The sparks made a small fire which he immediately stepped on it to distinguish it. "Look … this Steven … or whoever this person is refused to take drugs when Marty offered. Yeah … our Steven has been sober from it, but we all know that he has been getting stressed lately, he would have taken them. And listen to this, he forgot he was seventeen. Pearl told me the morning when Steven woke up from party he was talking nonsense about a corrupted gem monster shooting shards out of his beak and hitting him in the chest. We haven't fought a monster like that in months."
His hands were shaking and he wasn't able to keep them steady. "He was WORRIED about me. Worried. Yeah, we are best friends, but he would never worry or care as much as that Steven." Amethyst stepped forward, digging her shoe into the ground and twirling her thumbs, she took a deep breath and looked at the others.
"He … um … comforted me yesterday …" her voice was shaky as she tried to talk, "He was the sweetest thing ever, he was there and he understood so well. I don't know if I believe it or not, but if this is our Steven then maybe he is just changing." But what was she kidding? Their Steven would have never comforted like he did with her yesterday, he would have laughed in her face and call her weak. "I like this kid … he is far better than our Steven. He reminds me when he was just a boy, filled with more innocence and joy," she flipped her bangs out of her eyes with a swing of her head. "I do not care who he is, I'll treat him like he is one of us." Amethyst had to jump back as sparks flew from Matt again. "Watch it, dude. I'm on your half on your side."
Ruby shook her head and stepped forward. "I don't see what you are getting at, seriously. Can you not see that some people change? He is growing up, he's almost an adult. A person does think about what they are doing in their lives and feel like they need a change. That's probably what he is doing." She was unusually calm, Sapphire kind of calm. The gems could see the smoke coming off of the grass where Ruby stood. "You're just upset because Jasper played you. Now calm your balls and drop the subject."
"I don't need to calm my balls, Ruby. I can tell when my best friend is not acting like himself. And he is certainly not acting like himself. I've been around him since he was born, I know everything about that boy. Yes, you were there as well, but I know him better than his own parents," he said through clenched teeth, he was ready to punch something. "Have you recently looked at his arms? You haven't seen any of the scars? Or holes, have you? Yeah me neither. I haven't seen one scar on that boy's arm. Not one. And did you see the unusual scar that's on his chest? He didn't have that before and you all know it."
The grass beneath Ruby's feet was no more than charred ashes, but her outside appearance was calm. Her face showed no sign of being angry, her tone of voice was a different story though and her clenched fists which turned into gauntlets, "Look here, Tourmaline, like I said before you need to get over Jasper, she played you, and now it's over. You don't need to take your anger out on everyone else." Matthias drew his sword from his gem, if Ruby wanted a fight than she was going to get a fight. The sword was an arming or most would say a knightly sword that was made out of damascus steel. It was a European styled weapon with a single-handed cruciform hilt and straight double-edged blade of around 70-80 cm, but his sword was bigger than average around 130 cms, or three feet in length.
It almost resembled a long sword if you didn't know the difference. His blade was a beautiful bright yellow and his hilt had stunning navy blue leather wrapped around for a better grip. Sparks flew from the store, you could see the electricity dancing around the blade itself. Sapphire bit her lip, the outcomes she saw wasn't pretty as she walked over to her wife, putting a cold hand on Ruby's shoulder. "Ruby, baby, calm down. It's nothing to fight over. We just need to talk to Steven himself." Ruby pushed Sapphire away from her a little too hard as she fell backwards on her butt. Ice went everywhere the other gems managed to avoid the ice, but Ruby and Matt was so into fighting each other that they weren't paying attention. That is until their feet were frozen solid to the ground, "Ruby, stop! Matt's right! He isn't our Steven! Now stopped the fighting." Her breathing was rough as she snapped, she didn't like losing control of her temper. She always was the very calm and collected person in the group.
"Sapphire is right …" Peridot spoke up, "I knew as well … but I didn't want to cause drama in the group so I kept my mouth shut." He looked down at his hands before looking to the side to see Lapis was gone so was Amethyst. Where could those two run off too? That's when the barn door opened to reveal Steven and Lapis. Steven's bandages on his eyes and hands were changed, but the bandages on one of his hands extended just below his elbow. That poor boy was beat up to hell, and he looked scared. Ruby looked pissed as the ice was melting away, when she was free and before anyone could say anything the small fire gem ran at Steven. Peridot was the quickest and closet to the red gem, he managed to grab Ruby as she yelled and kicked. "Ruby … there's no need for violence. Stop. We can talk about this. This might not be our Steven, but he is someone's. If you hurt him, think about his family at home." His arms were starting to smoke and a look of surprise was on his face before he suddenly poofed in a green cloud of smoke.
"Peridot," squeaked Lapis running over to his gem that laid in the charred grass at Ruby's feet. Lapis pushed the red gem away angrily as she picked her boyfriend up and held it to her chest. She looked like she was going to cry as she looked straight at Ruby, "No one cares if that isn't the real Steven or not. What does it matter? He isn't a piece of shit like the other one." She snapped and grew her wings out flying away.
"Why did I hear Lapis screaming and then her flying away?" Rose's voice came out of nowhere, they all turned to see her and Pearl walk up with Amethyst behind their tail. That's where she must have gone to get his moms. "What the hell is going on here? Why is the grass charred to ash? Why is Matthias in a block of ice with his sword out?" Rose put her hands on her hips and stared at them waiting for an answer, "Well?"
"That's not your son, Rose," Matthias said trying to break free of the ice by constantly butting it with his sword. His eyes were shifting towards Ruby who was now in Sapphire's arms trying to calm down. He then looked at the scared Steven by the barn door, his whole body was trembling as he watched the outcome fold out. "Whoever that boy is, whatever that boy is, he is not our Steven." Rose looked at Steven to confirm the truth before he could speak up, Sapphire did for him.
"It's the truth, Rose. I knew from the beginning, and I wish I came out with the truth then. I didn't see how bad it would get if I didn't tell you. I am deeply sorry." Rose held up her hand to silence Sapphire, she then pointed a finger at Steven, motioning him to step forward. He did what she asked of him. Steven was deathly scared of the taller women in front of him, she easily was three feet above his height. He didn't know how she would take the outcome if he told her everything.
"Is it true, my boy, that you are not our Steven?" He nodded, tears finally escaping his eyes sinking through the bandages that covered one of them. "There is no need to cry, my dear. Come here." She opened her arms wide and he ran into them, she hugged him so tightly he felt like he was going to suffocate, but he didn't care. He suddenly felt another pair of arms around him, he looked to see that it was Pearl who was smiling softly.
"I can't say I wasn't skeptical about you … I had my doubts, but I pushed them back thinking our Steven was trying to get better. Even if you are not our Steven, you are still our son, no matter what dimension you come from. You could have told us from the beginning that you were not from this world." Pearl whispered and kissed his forehead, her lips were warm and soft to the the touch. He felt loved as she wiped away the tears from his eye, he didn't know why in the beginning he was scared. Now though, he knew everything was going to be alright. "Do you know how you got here?" She asked.
Steven shook his head as he pulled away from the embrace and stood in the middle of the gems that now surrounded him. Ruby had unthawed Matthias so he was about to get into the group as well. "I had went on a mission with the gems. There was this corrupted monster that looked like a giant bird who would shoot gems out of his beak. The last thing I remembered was Garnet telling me to get to somewhere safe … in my world Garnet is a fusion of Ruby and Sapphire. Well, when I was trying to get to safety I was struck with multiple gem shards. One went right through my chest," he pointed to wear it had stuck, his head lingered on it longer than he meant. "There was so much blood … I could remember …" He started to choke up, "I could remember feeling cold and numb as I fell into Garnet's arms. I remember trying to tell the gems that I loved them before blacking out … I woke up … here." His throat felt tight like it was closing up on him like he couldn't breathe.
The gems were all silent as they took in the new information, all had grim looks on their faces. Once Steven was able to breath again, he started to continue recounting events. "I didn't want to be accused of doing something to your Steven … I honestly swear on my life that I have no idea where he is. If he is okay or anything." He then faced Rose, trying to not cry once again. His clean bandages were needed to be changed again on his eye. "I-I also wanted to spend as much time as I can with you … in … in my world you gave up your physical for to give birth to me … fifteen years ago … I never got to meet you. I only knew you from stories and videos, I always felt like it was somehow my fault that I was the one who took you away from your family." He took a deep shaky breath as his whole body shook, "I took you away from dad, from Pearl, from Amethyst, and from Garnet. I took you away from the world you tried to save. I could never exceed to be what you were. A great leader, a great inspirational person. I'm just a child that has the weight of the world on my shoulders. I am a child born of a human and a gem. An abomination." He finally wasn't able to hold his weight any longer as he fell onto his knees.
Suddenly there were chubby arms that wrapped around me, when he looked up he saw Amethyst on her knees hugging him, then there was another set, Pearl's. More of the gems came by one by one hugging Steven in a huge group chat. The only one who didn't join was Matthias, he just stood there with his eyes narrowed. He wasn't going to have this, he still didn't trust this being that was in front of him. Steven could feel Pearl's tears on his neck staining his skin, he took in a deep inhale all the smells of the gems filled his nose reminding him of home and calming him down. They all moved out of the group hug, except Pearl and Rose. His mom's chubby pink fingers went under his chin and lifted his head before wiping away the tears once again. "You don't have to be afraid to tell me anything, Steven, I-we will always be here. If I and your Rose are the same people, then we wanted to have you. We made the sacrifice to have you. You should never feel at blame for taking us away from our family, my boy. That gem you have, your Rose is always watching over you and your family. She never actually left you." Her words were soothing as he listened to her speak, his eyes were red and puffy as the tears dried up.
"We just all need to figure out how to get back to your universe and get our son back," Pearl ruffled his hair like he was still a little boy. "Not that we don't love having you here, but I bet you miss your own family." Steven nodded. "That's what I thought. We will figure it out in the meantime, we need to keep you out of trouble." They parted their hugs before Steven looked over at Matthias, his face was hard as a rock not showing any emotions towards him, he then turned his head not wanting to look his way. Steven felt guilt, like he ripped something important away from Matthias.
"Matthias ... I want to ... erm ... apologize for my outburst earlier. I guess you were ... grr ... right and I was wrong." Ruby's rough voice came out of nowhere. Steven turned to face her and watched as she walked over to the much taller gem, holding out her hand. Matthias had to slouch a bit to grab her hand and shake it without saying a word, she then turned towards Steven. "I want to apologize for running at you, Steven. I was just upset and wanted to punch something. You were the first thing I saw and what was on my mind."
"It's okay, I understand Ruby. No need to apologize." He smiled softly before it fell and looked down at his hands. "I have some questions that has been gnawing at me. Can we go into the barn where it's much warmer and we can go over them?" They all nodded as they followed Steven into the barn, finding places to sit they gathered around into another circle. Matthias, however, was a little ways out of the circle, but still close enough to hear the conversation. "My first question is towards Sapphire and Ruby. A couple of days ago, when I first came here … I asked you a question of how Garnet was standing with you guys. You were going to tell me something, but I blocked it out. Now thinking about it, that wasn't the truth was it?"
Ruby and Sapphire's cheeks were bright as they looked at each other and giggled. They looked back at Steven, "Well, you see, we originally were just too separated gems trying to find a safe resort from the diamonds. The story is to long to recount everything today, but what happened was we were messing around, dancing and giggling, we had accidentally tried to fuse. But then something happened, something interrupted the fuse. It's still a mystery to this day how it happened, but when we separated there was baby Garnet in the middle of us. She had two gems on both of her hands and was combined of the two of us. You could call her Cotton Candy Garnet when she was first born. We never really questioned what happened that day all we knew was that were were parents." Sapphire kissed Ruby's cheek after explaining what happened.
"In my world … you two were part of Blue Diamond's court … Ruby tried to save you and ended up fusing. You guys had to flee before you were shattered for the forbidden act." He shrugged, before looking at Rose and Pearl, "My next questions are for you two … Why did you choose to have me with Greg? Why didn't you just try and have one with Pearl? How come you didn't lose your physical appearance like my Rose did?" The room grew on a heavy blanket, maybe he asked the wrong questions. "I'm sorry is something wrong?"
Pearl and Rose separated a bit , and Pearl wouldn't look at Rose. "Maybe you should tell the story …" Pearl mumbled, now looking at her hands. "I-I don't think I am able to retell it …" She sounded sad, but also angry. Maybe he did ask the wrong questions, and he wasn't sure if he wanted to hear any of it now.
"I'm sorry, Steven, this subject is really touchy. I'll try to explain as best as I can." Rose softly said. "It was a few years before our Steven was born, I had wanted to go explore Beach City … Mr. Universe was a big time rock star back then and I heard there was going to be a concert on the beach that night I went exploring. There was so many people, so many lovers, and friends, but when Greg was on that stage, he wasn't a drug addict, he was just a normal guy. Of course being 8ft tall, I stood out like a sore thumb and he noticed me … and we started to talk. The days go by and I would stay away from the temple more and more, I would become distant with the love of my life." She glanced at Pearl, who wouldn't even look her way. "I had … I had thought I had fallen in love with this man … but it was just the foolishness. He fed me lies, he gave me gifts. I had broken my Pearl's trust in me, broken the trust of my family for the mistake I had made."
"Wait … are you telling me that you cheated on Pearl with Greg?" Steven asked, his stomach twisted inside of him. He felt kind of disgusted with Rose on how she could ever do that to Pearl, but then he remembered what his Rose was like. He guessed that they weren't that much different … or were they? He still had one more question to ask her after she was done explaining the others he had asked of her.
"I had gotten pregnant … I knew the risks of having a baby ... especially with a human. It's not like your world where we have to get up our physical form … we have to give up a power that we have … we don't get to chose what that would be … it could be multiple for all we know. That's how you were born, well my Steven was born. And that's the only reason why he has a gem like mine because he possesses power from me... finds out that my power that was taken away from me was healing. I can no longer heal gems or humans or anything… we have been watching our Steven for the past seventeen years seeing if he was going to develop gem powers like us. We noticed that he does possess the powers of gem, but his human genes take over more. He is not as durable as us as you can see with being all bruised up. And his powers are not as strong as ours." Rose looked over at Pearl once again who was finally looking her way.
"I had left Greg … I had felt terrible for what I have done to Pearl and the others. Greg went down here from there. Taking drugs, illegal street fights. I just couldn't handle all that either after I had you all I wanted to do was try and make things better with everyone around me …" Rose scooted back over to Pearl and kissed her cheek, Pearl smiled at her and sighed. She couldn't stay mad at her for long, especially when she is only retelling a story.
"I have .. urm .. one more question for you …" Steven bit his lip and his hand went down to his gem. "Are you Pink Diamond?" There were gasps around the barn as everyone stared at him then at Rose, Rose just sat there looking at him confused and Pearl held her mouth with her hand. She then started to laugh loudly and everyone joined in. Steven felt stupid for even asking that question, they must thought he was stupid for even thinking it.
"What do you mean?" Rose asked, she was the only one not laughing. "Why would you ever assume that I am a diamond?"
"Well, my mom is Pink Diamond…" He let that sink in as the laughter died down. "She had lied to everyone and only entrusted her identity to Pearl and Pearl alone. Everyone thought Rose Quartz shattered Pink Diamond, when she was her all along…" He bit his lip.
"... Who knew that Mama Rose is a diamond in another dimension." Amethyst said, "That's some crazy shit there. It's kind of funny honestly, when Pink Diamond is not in the picture … and everyone thought White was-" Amethyst got cut off my Rose giving her a look of silence. "I mean never mind, but still some crazy shit."
Steven wanted to ask what she meant by that, but he didn't have a chance when Rose started to talk again. "I promise you, love, that I am not Pink Diamond or any Diamond at that. I am just a normal Quartz gem." Steven nodded at this, he kind of wanted to get off this subject now as it made him feel uncomfortable, but Amethyst spoke up once more.
"Wait … if Rose was Pink Diamond and she gave up her physical form to give birth to you … are you technically a diamond?" Steven just nodded and averted his eyes away from the others.
"Let's change the subject …" He said before looking over to Matthias. "I want to know more about you, Matt. You're not in my world … that I know of. I want to know your story. I want to know why you joined the Crystal Gems." Matthias' lip turned up as he heard the questions, he walked over to the group and stood there with his arms crossed over his chest.
"You don't need to know my past … all you need to know is that I joined the Crystal Gems because I had no other way. That's it and that's all. I'm going to bed. It's late." Matthias went to walk out the door when he turned around again and stared at Sapphire he could sense there was something off about her, the others noticed as well. "Sapphire, are you okay?" He asked her as she stood up and went over to the barn doors pushing past Matthias and stood in the doorway.
"Bismuth ... is coming ..." was all she said before all of the gems rushed over to her and out of the barn. Steven and Amethyst just stood in the doorway staring at the others before they watched as Leon the blue Lion jump through one of his portals out of nowhere. He landed in front of the group of gems with a large, bulky gem with broad shoulders like that of Jasper. The gem hair is styled in several dreadlocks in a mixture of several bright tones, all held back by a lilac headband. The gem had a periwinkle complexion, and she sports a single tattoo-like marking of a star pattern on her left shoulder in a smoky dark red. Her gemstone is in the center of her chest, and is noticeably concave.
As she jumped off Leon's back, Steven noticed she was wearing a black apron-like outfit, resembling a blacksmith, with a single brownish attachment and a pinkish-red star shaped belt around her waist. Her pants are a burgundy color, and she has dark brown boots. She resembled exactly like his Bismuth back home that was now in bubble. His heart started to race as his breathing hitched and his throat tightened. He started to have flashbacks from that day in the forge.