The evening sparkles with color, the sunset gorgeous with gradients of blue, orange and red and, finally, everything will be at peace. Steven sits in the sand of the beach, fiddling with his ukulele, and enjoying the beautiful sky and peaceful environment. His dad, Connie and the gems are enjoying a small celebratory barbecue on the beach now that they're home. The diamonds headed back to Homeworld a few hours ago, for now, since they've managed to heal all the corrupted gems they'd kept in the burning room. He glances around himself, seeing all the new gems mingling about along the beach, catching up with Garnet, Pearl and Bismuth on what they missed. A few gems seem interested, curious or uncertain, about Beach City nearby. Looks like they're gonna have more work ahead of them, these gems are all going to need a place to stay, and there's not enough room in the temple for all of them. Maybe they can start a program where each family can host a gem or two, to teach them about the earth and human society. He frowns, even then there's way more gems than people right now, so that wouldn't be a good permanent solution. Then he smiles, he'll talk to Bismuth, maybe with her help they can build something, and get the newly healed gems to help! They're much more likely to want to stay, and to feel comfortable if they were able to help build their home, plus it'll give everyone something to do, something to focus on.
Glancing back out to the ocean he sees a dark shape break the surface before diving back down. Dolphins aren't entirely uncommon sights, but it still brings a smile to his face to see one right now. Dolphins always seem so happy, and right now he feels incredibly happy himself. Things are going so well, finally. It wasn't so long ago that he was excited and begging to go on missions and fight monsters. Now he's just happy that it's over, and he can enjoy some peace for a while.
"Room for three more?" He looks up at Garnet, Amethyst and Pearl standing over him.
"Of course!" He smiles
The three crystal gems sit around him, making themselves comfortable in the warm sand and enjoy the peaceful atmosphere together as he returns to fiddling with his ukulele. As the sun sets and the sky begins to darken, stars slowly become visible. Garnet Amethyst and Pearl only have eyes for Steven, he's worked so hard for all of them and they couldn't be prouder of how far he's come. The air begins to have a slight chill to it, so Garnet suggests they all retire to the beach house for the night. Steven, Pearl and Amethyst agree and stand to head inside with everyone else. Steven lags behind a little bit, affixing a strap to his ukulele so he can hoist it over his shoulder, before beginning the walk to the house.
The sound of splashing catches his attention and he turns to look back at the water. It's getting too dark to see clearly, but something is splashing around in the water; a dolphin again? Something in his gut tells him no, this isn't just a dolphin. Worried that maybe it's a corrupted gem, drawn to all the healed gems across the beach, he turns to the group walking to the house, they hadn't noticed he stopped, to get their attention.
Before he can utter a word chaos erupts on the beach as a giant shadowy monster bursts from the water, lands on the beach with a crash, and releases an ear splitting screeching roar. The gems turn to the sound, drawing their weapons. The creature is all torso, a large rounded head with a giant mouth teeming with teeth and bulbous eyes rolling in its skull. It has massive, muscular shoulders and long thick arms, both ending with disproportionately long fingered hands, each finger tipped with a sharp claw. Its entire body is black and covered in a sheen of slime, where its hips and legs should be is a thick, stubby, eel-like tail, flopping around behind it in an attempt to help it keep balance out of the water. Steven doesn't even get the chance to summon his shield, as the creature reaches out one long clawed hand and snatches him from the ground. He screams as it thrashes back and forth, roaring as if in triumph, and works its legless body back towards the water. He's tossed back and forth viciously as it makes its way back towards the water. Through his disorientation he sees the gems, weapons drawn, running to his rescue, calling his name as they run.
He manages to free an arm and holds it out, "Help! Please!" He yells and begs.
Amethyst's whip appears, wraps around his arm, and he grips it tight. The creature's thrashing stops as Amethyst and Garnet pull on him, attempting to free Steven from its grasp. He grits his teeth at the painful strain on his arm and shoulder. Pearl elegantly leaps onto the taught whip as Garnet and Amethyst tug o' war with the creature, and runs along it. Reaching Steven she raises her spear and slices down at the creature's forearm, hoping to make it either release him, or cut the arm off entirely. Instead it lodges in the creature's muscle, causing it to yank Steven hard as it reflexively pulls it's arm away, making him cry out in pain and knocking the gems off balance. It flops onto its chest and grabs the whip with its free hand, pulls it to its mouth and rips it in half with its teeth. It then uses its free hand to grab Pearl before she can regain her balance and throw her into Garnet and Amethyst.
"Pearl!" Steven screams, tears streaming down his face.
The creature rips the spear from where it was lodged, throws it away and continues its retreat to the water.
Steven screams for help as the creature retreats into the water, desperately reaching for his family. Pearl, Amethyst and Garnet call for him as they all begin to wade into the water. The other healed gems have all crowded onto the beach, several of which have spears and whips they're trying to hit the creature with, but without much success.
A roar sounds across the beach and Lion leaps over the water, with Connie on his back, to Steven, but he's too late. The creature is far enough out to dive, and does so just as Lion and Connie make a grab for him, missing by mere inches. Connie nearly falls into the water as she reaches. As he's pulled under, Steven desperately forms his bubble, hoping to make it let him go. It doesn't, instead it tightly grips his bubble and dives deep into the water. He sees several forms dive into the water after them; it's the gems still trying to rescue him. They swim desperately for him, faster than any human in the water but the creature, now in its element, is too fast for them, and rapidly descends into the black depths of the ocean.
All light has been extinguished around him, except for the slight glow of his bubble. Steven's thankful that he was able to form the bubble with air, so he's not going to drown at least, but it's so dark he can't even see the creature beyond its strong, clawed, hand gripping his bubble. Steven remembers in one of Connie's schoolbooks, it mentioned that the further beneath the surface you go in the ocean, the less light there is. A place called the… The Abyssal Zone… He must be very, very deep now… He can feel a slight swaying motion, as the creature swims deeper and deeper. He curls up into a ball in his bubble, shaking and terrified. At this point there's no way any of the gems will be able to reach him, and get him to the surface before he's either eaten or suffocated at the bottom of the ocean. He's going to die here. After everything he's been through, everything he's worked so hard to fix, this is how it ends.
Then he spots it. A light in the dark and it's closing in on them, fast. The gems! They must be swimming after them! That makes sense since several gems, like Lapis, have water based abilities and should be just as 'in their element' as this creature. They're coming for him!
The light grows larger, one light becomes two, then the two lights move to the side, revealing rows of more, smaller, lights, and it's with horror growing cold in his veins that Steven realizes; it's not the gems. He watches as the lights dive below them, out of sight, then rapidly reappear launching upwards and another creature rams into his kidnapper, throwing him around in his bubble. The creature releases his bubble as something covered in glowing spots wraps around it.
He slowly begins to sink, and can only watch in terror as the two creatures fight, flashes of light and sudden movement of the water around him the only indication of what's happening. Something in the water floats by his bubble and he recoils in shock as the light from his bubble reveals a dark red substance streaming through the water. Blood. A low rumble vibrates through the water along with a loud crackling snap that makes him cover his ears, then silence. Whatever fight was happening is over, and he's left alone, in the dark.
He touches the side of his bubble and looks around him. He can't tell what's up or down, especially after being tossed around in the water like he was. It's so dark. A glow grows behind him, casting his shadow on the bubble in front of him. He's almost afraid to turn around, afraid of what he'll see, but he turns anyway. Anything is better than the dark nothingness around him.
His jaw drops at the sight before him. The other creature floats there, easily twice the size of the one that kidnapped him. Its long body is covered with scales, appearing black in the lightless water but nearly white in the glow of its spots. Four legs with claws dig into the creature that kidnapped him, holding its bleeding corpse tight. A long tail ending in a whale-like fin swishes through the water, along with two stingray-like side fins, keeping it floating in place as it observes him. It lowers its head closer to him, making him realize the first two lights he saw had been its eyes, glowing in the dark waters. A sound, simultaneously high pitched and low vibrates through the water from the creature as it looks closely at him. As they stare each other down, he can tell it's thinking, probably deciding if he's worth the effort of eating or not.
Seeming to have made a decision, it opens its mouth and gently grasps his bubble in its teeth. Steven cringes against the side of his bubble, curling up into a ball, covering his ears and squeezing his eyes shut. The creature then dives, deeper and deeper into the abyss.
Steven's not sure how long they swim for. It could have been minutes; it could have been hours. Time seems to have no meaning anymore when surrounded by blackness and the sound of his own heart as it feels like it's practically beating its way out of his chest. That is, until the blackness gradually becomes blue, growing lighter and lighter.
Steven squints his eyes open, seeing that blue gradually grow around them. Lifting his head he can see it getting lighter above, the silence being replaced by the swooshing of currents and waves. The creature seems to grow excited, fins moving them through the water faster and faster, until finally! They burst through the surface of the water into the air with a deafening roar of triumph! Stevens' ears ring, and tears of hope pool in his eyes. Above them is a beautiful purple, cloudless sky; something he'd begun to believe he'd never see again. Daylight! Sunshine! There's a chance he may make it out of this after all!