7. Half-Gem

Waking up and finding no change in his vision, Steven was starting to wonder if he had gone blind. Or had he been poofed? He always imagined retreating to his Rose Quartz gemstone would be… refreshing? Surprising, certainly, but whenever his caretakers had to retreat into their gems they seemed to come back in a better condition than they had before being poofed. In a way, Steven always imagined the whole regeneration process was like human sleep – come back, refreshed, ready to face the outside world again.

But, he wasn't like Pearl or Amethyst or Garnet. His "organic" body… he wasn't sure what would happen to it if he was badly hurt. He had thought about it of course (it was impossible not to when constantly under threat), but it never crossed his mind that it could be like this. Cold nothingness. Empty darkness. Hunger, pain and loneliness.

No, I'm being ridiculous. If I was in my gem, I would rather be healing or… gone. I would be turning back into mom, and I probably wouldn't be able to think or feel anything.

Again, blindness was an option, but Steven oddly found that even more unpleasant of a thought. He would still exist, could maybe return to his old life, but could he ever go on missions again? Would he never see a sunset, or the way his dad's face lit up when he would surprise him at the car wash, or Connie's soft smile, ever again…? Unhappy with this train of thought, Steven tried to distract himself.

He was feeling somewhat better than before, but his head still ached and he was even thirstier now than he was hungry. Instead, he felt around the floor to see if he had his cell phone, and was surprised when he found it a few feet off from where he had just been laying for hours. He immediately tried to unlock the screen to provide some reprieve from the darkness, maybe check the time… or at this point, the date. To Steven's dismay, however, no matter how many times he pressed the familiar buttons around the small, cold device, nothing happened. He ran his hand over the back of the phone, then again over the front, realizing the problem. Steven's phone was badly cracked, a million hairline fractures spreading in every direction, crisscrossing into a web of glass and jagged edges. Instinctively, the boy reached down and touched his navel for the second time since he had been here, flooded once again with relief that his gem had not suffered a similar fate.

In spite of its condition, Steven was ecstatic to discover his phone. His pockets were all empty, but this was tangible evidence that he hadn't gone into his gem. Not only would his phone, of all things, be a weird object to take with him, it wouldn't make sense that it was sitting nearby and only the screen had been broken. No, Steven was sure, this damage was as real as the world around him.

Taking a deep breath, Steven put his phone carefully into one of his jean pockets and rested his head in his other hand. The pain that radiated from the back of his head was stinging, but he didn't want to inspect it again. The blood he had felt earlier was completely dried, and if he moved around too much he was worried it might start again. Releasing another long, steadying breath, Steven braced himself as he tried to stand for the first time since he had been here.

All of his muscles stiff from the cold, Steven struggled with this feat for a while, awkwardly trying to readjust his weight from one side to the other without putting pressure on his ribs. Eventually, slowly, the boy managed to stand, although he was breathing hard now and winced when he put his weight down on his right ankle. It hadn't hurt so badly when he was laying, but now he was sure it had been sprained.

Standing there in darkness, the steady inhale and exhale of his lungs the only disruption to the stillness around him, Steven closed his eyes and hunched awkwardly in a position that proved to be least painful on his midsection and his ankle. It took several minutes for his heart rate to calm and his breathing to normalize after the strenuous act of standing, but eventually the hybrid began to limp around the blackness. It was frightening in a way Steven hadn't expected, thinking that he could accidentally tumble off a ledge or into a wall if he moved too quickly.

"Hello? Is there anyone there?" Steven was surprised by the weakness of his own voice, but he listened hard for a response.

Nothing.

Continuing his trek, Steven was certain he would have to find a wall if kept moving. There was a slight echo against his footfalls in the room, and although they were faint, their presence was reassuring. He had to be in an enclosed space, he figured – otherwise the sounds he made wouldn't return to him, bouncing from wall to wall. After what felt like 20 minutes of sluggish movement, hobbling in one direction without meeting any kind of surface, or even change in the texture of the ground, Steven turned ninety degrees and hoped to find a shorter path.

With nothing to do while he staggered painfully through the inky abyss, Steven figured he would try again to get someone's attention.

"Hello? Please, at least can I have some water!" His last words echoed faintly in the nothingness, the silence filled only by the hammering against the back of his skull and the rise and fall of his chest.

Finally, just before Steven resumed his slow exploration, there was a sudden blinding light and a jolting movement that knocked Steven down onto his knees. He squinted upwards, ignoring the shooting pain in his ankle when he went sprawling, looking into the perfect square of light, his eyes burning at the intensity of this remote sun. It took him a moment to realize, his eyes watering at the drastic change, that the mysterious light source had begun to illuminate the darkness that had been his prison, revealing an empty, absolutely massive room. It must have been at least 100 feet in each direction, a perfect square, the walls a powdery blue and the floor beneath a darker, oppressive navy.

Blinking away tears, Steven's brain tried furiously to study his surroundings, approximately how close he was to each wall, eyes scanning for a door, a touch screen panel or anything he might be able to use before plunging back into the blackness. There was, however, nothing but blue chromatic metal covering all surfaces. Looking back up at the light, his eyes adjusting slightly, Steven realized the light was not growing brighter, but bigger.

Just as a panic started to set in, Steven felt a snap of unexpected coldness push against his feet, and then quickly following his right arm. Surprised by the sudden touch, Steven lurched away from the cold only to realize he hadn't found the walls, but the walls had found him. They were closing in on each other, the light growing larger from above, and Steven realized the walls were angled inwards, the room shrinking as the walls came closer together. Scurrying towards the center of his narrowing confinement, the claustrophobia that Steven had thought about earlier was now settling in, his eyes growing wide as the room became smaller and brighter, his head spinning from the pace of it all.

And then in an abrupt flash of colors, the floor that had begun to lift Steven upwards crossed a threshold. Everything changed there was shapes and voices that moved in and out of the boys vision. Disoriented, the back of his head flaring in pain, shivering, Steven realized he was in the center of a room, surrounded by gems he didn't recognize. It was, in a word, overwhelming. Unlike the Hand Ship, which was manned by just Peridot and Jasper, there were dozens of figures of all colors moving about, many occupied with a task, but many more were staring at him.

His brain struggled to keep up to speed with the present, as if lagging behind in a sort of odd slow motion as the world changed before he could grasp what was in front of him. Eyes were staring, then bodies were moving, someone dragged him to his roughly to his feet. There was plenty of talking, chatting, sly whispers and even some hostile shouting, but Steven couldn't make out a single word. It was warmer here, he realized, but not by much.

Between the pressure in his skull and being overloaded with sensory information, Steven found he was unable to focus on anything. A ridiculous voice in the back of his mind was cheering, relieved he wasn't blind, but that part of his brain was quickly silenced by the one that told him to be afraid. He was trying to catch up to reality, but he was seized in a panic, and he was in no position to practice his mindfulness exercises. Instead, his body reacted in quite the opposite fashion, his heart rate increased wildly and his breathing becoming erratic and forceful. At this point, Steven's ankle was white hot with pain, his ribs protesting violently against the pushing and prodding, and his head flared angrily at all of the chaos. His eyes just gazed forward at it all, trying and failing to process what was happening.

Finally, Steven managed to return to the present when a gem that oddly reminded him of Pearl, her eyes determined and her voice reassuring took up his entire vision. Her face, a delicate shade of pink, was only inches away from his own. She looked at Steven seriously and asked him a question so simple he didn't understand it at first.

"Do you know who you are?"

"W-what? I'm…" he bit his lip, but couldn't be bothered to lie right now.

"I'm Steven." The words came slowly but evenly, the speaker very aware of his panic and trying hard to subvert it.

This was obviously not the answer she was looking for.

"Drop the act!" the gem demanded sharply. She lifted up his shirt and pointed accusingly at his gem.

"Who are you?" the gem asked a second time, still holding up his shirt. Steven was dimly aware that the room had gone quiet, but he didn't dare break eye contact with the gem in front of him.

"Oh," was all Steven could say at first. What did they expect him to do, admit he was Rose Quartz, arguably one of the most hated gems in the universe, in front of a swath of unknown Homeworld gems? His brain raced, trying frantically to come up with something to say.

The pink gem shook him roughly, causing him to wince.

"Answer the question! We don't have all day." Her voice was growing shriller now, obviously feeling the pressure of the gazes boring into her back.

"I'm… half-human." Steven said carefully, thinking about the last time he lied in the presence of a Homeworld gem. His body ached involuntarily at the memories.

"…and half-gem. I never knew my mom." All of this was honest at this point, which made him feel a little safer. He started to cough harshly after he spoke, realizing how dry his throat had become during all of the madness. Before he could be asked any more questions, he used this opportunity of silence to make a request.

"Please, I'm thirsty and hungry… I'll tell you anything, just… I am half-human, really. I need to eat." He was about to add, "or I'll die," but he was fairly sure most of the people in the room wanted him dead, so he decided to stop while he was ahead.

The pink gem with whom he had spoken looked down at him, this time her face had softened and she opened her mouth to speak. However, she was suddenly thrust away from the half-human, half-gem and was replaced by a threatening, familiar voice.

"You humans and your insufferable whining. If my lustrous Diamond hadn't asked for you directly, I would kill you myself." It was that commanding, annoying voice he recalled clear as day, a voice he knew from his last time in space.

Steven gasped in realization, but before he could say anything he was swept off the ground and was held painfully by his wrist. Her grip was tight, crushing his wrist from the force, and Steven couldn't help but let out a cry. His wrist was surely broken now, and it felt like his hand was going to detach from his body.

"That is the last time you will ever make a fool of me," the gem spoke, and threw him roughly back into a wall. The last thing he saw, his vision swimming, was the enraged face of Holly Blue Agate, before everything faded into blackness once more.