Beach City, usually a quiet little town that becomes a little more bustling during tourist season might as well be a graveyard. Businesses are closed, windows and doors boarded up tight, and not a human in sight. The town is on lockdown and has been for some time now. The locals are rarely seen as they hide in the safety of their homes, some even temporarily moving to other states to stay with relatives, all waiting for the all clear from Mayor Nanafua to safely return. A message they're beginning to believe will never come. Beach City may very well become the next Ocean Town.
While the city is quiet, the beach is not. Debri from weapons is strewn all over, small craters form in the sand, slowly being filled in and washed away by the tide. Near the temple, a statue of a giant woman with a wooden house built at the base of it, is pure chaos. Gems fight for their, and the nearby humans, lives against a foe no one could have expected.
First, one terrifying creature showed up, and stole away their precious Steven, never to be seen again. Garnet, Amethyst and Pearl had fought the creature, barely managing to give it so much as a scratch. Even Lion had been of little help. After the creature pulled him into the ocean, they dove after it, Lapis even helping them travel deeper than they've ever been before. So deep the pressure from the water could have cracked their gems. It was too late though, Steven was gone.
Everything had been going so well, with the corrupted gems healed, Steven home safe with them after talking to the diamonds and changing White's mind and everything. Only for the evening to go completely backwards, and end with the gems returning to the beach empty handed. Greg hadn't taken it well at all. The fear and grief of losing his only son to a monster was too much for him to handle, he wound up spending a few days in the hospital. Something to do with his blood pressure due to age, stress, and high cholesterol, whatever that means.
In the meantime, another monster appeared on the beach. This one, also strangely slimy and fish-like, was more grayish, with slitted cat eyes, and many tiny legs it used to propel itself up out of the water. Using its many pointed, sharp teeth, it snatched a gem, a ruby, from the shore and, totally unaffected by her fiery temper burning it and boiling the water around it, it dragged her into the ocean, also never to be seen again.
After that the creatures began appearing more and more often. Every few days, to every other day, to every day, and gradually increasing in numbers. Thanks to their skill and experience fighting in the war, the gems were quick to organize and work to protect the beach and nearby city from these creatures. A routine was quickly formed. Gems patrolling the beach, a creature appears, attempting to ambush them and snatch them away, fight it off, rinse and repeat.
The most frightening part was when they managed to keep a creature from returning to the ocean after it snatched up a gem. It was a large one, body eel-like with small armored patches along its spine and a sucker shaped mouth chock full of teeth. It burst through the sand, wrapped itself around a quartz that'd been patrolling, and attempted to wriggle its way back to the water. Thanks to its body being soft and flexible they were able to injure the creature, Pearls spears being particularly useful in pinning it down. They thought they'd won, and finally actually beat one of the creatures, when it whipped its head around, clamped its sucker mouth down onto the quartz still in its grasp. The poor quartz was barely able to utter a single gasp as her form dissolved into the creature's mouth. The process wasn't slow, but to the gems forced to watch, it seemed to drag on forever with them completely useless and unable to do anything. Black cracks traveled along her body, the light of her form appearing to be sucked in and dragged towards the creature's mouth until nothing remained of her hard-light form. After her form disappeared, her gem fell to the sand, the creature's injuries healed and it slithered its way back into the depths.
The quartz never reformed.
Even after being soaked in water from Rose's fountain.
Peridot, with her fresh supply of robonoids straight from homeworld, examined the quartz. The prognosis was not good. The gem was merely billions of oxygen and silicon tetrahedron atoms stacked upon themselves to form the crystalline structure. There was no light, no consciousness, left in the gem. It may as well have been a pretty looking rock one could find anywhere on Earth. There was no longer any indication of this gem ever having had any sentience. This was death, well and true. No amount of healing could restore her light, her life.
This incident happened a couple more times, where they were able to pin the creature on the beach, and just when they thought they'd finished it off, it would drain the life from one of the gems, heal its wounds and escape.
Curious, Peridot connected to Homeworld's recorded history network and combed through in an attempt to find any information. Creatures that could prey upon gems like this must have been encountered before, and if they had, it would be meticulously recorded somewhere in their history. Such knowledge could be beneficial to finding their weakness, and fending the creatures off without losing any more gems. Fortunately, she was able to find accounts throughout gem history of what is likely to be these creatures. Unfortunately it's all simply written reports of gems disappearing from their stations, only for their gems, completely inert, to be found nearby. Nothing useful.
Now, months later, there's suddenly an explosion of the monsters. They've been appearing out of the water in droves, grabbing the gem nearest them and dragging them into the depths. Lapis has been their biggest saving grace, with her water manipulation powers allowing her to keep the gems from being eaten. She's been successful at ripping gems out of the creatures' grasps but she can't seem to do any damage to them. So she flies high overhead, well outside the reach of the creatures, rescuing any and all gems she can before they can be dragged away and eaten. Alongside Lapis, Peridot flies overhead on her trash can lid, using communicators she'd quickly cobbled together, to keep everyone coordinated. Her skills have kept many a gem from getting caught by surprise by the creatures once this mass attack began. Bismuth, Garnet, Amethyst and Pearl fight with the other uncorrupted gems on the ground. Their hard-light weapons have had very little effect on the monsters, requiring much more work to do damage than, say, running them over with a van. So Bismuth and a few gems went to the Strawberry Battlefield to collect good ol' fashioned steel weapons. These weapons are much more effective in defeating the creatures, and driving them back. Connie on Lion, with Greg work to keep Beach City proper safe, even though the creatures don't seem to have any interest in the humans. Lars and the Off Colors fly overhead with the Sun Incinerator, blasting any creatures that stray from the main battlefield, keeping them from getting further inland from the beach. Their laser cannons work well on the smaller, more numerous creatures, though they don't seem to have much effect on the larger, more horrifying looking ones. Though they haven't found a specific "weakness" of these things, they are able to at least hold their own. Oftentimes the creatures will simply retreat back to the ocean if they fight back hard enough, almost as if the risk to their own life isn't worth the reward of catching a gem.
Down on the ground, Amethyst, using "normal" whips with sharp steel barbs along the rope, grabs two creatures, spins and launches them back into the ocean. As they fly away, skipping pleasantly along the water's surface, she squints. There's something on the horizon, she can't quite see clearly. With no creatures near her, she pulls out her communicator and calls to Peridot.
"Peridot! What's that to the East? In the sky?" Using the communicator has the added benefit of everyone using them hearing her and being made aware of whatever it is.
Peridot rotates midair, looking to the East over the water. She can see something, flying rapidly toward the beach. "Whatever it is, there's two of them and they're incoming fast!" she calls back. Suddenly the air vibrates as two massive roars reach them from the things flying at them.
Lars, from the Sun Incinerator calls, "They kinda look like the dragons in my old fantasy books."
The creatures on the shore pause in their attack when another roar shakes the air. They all seem to freeze, as though the beasts roaring cries had caused their sinewy muscles to seize up out of their control. The giant beasts soar overhead, a massive gust of wind following behind them as they turn around the lighthouse. They split apart to fly in opposite directions, completely and perfectly coordinated, and land on either side of the hoard of monsters, effectively cutting them off from traveling further down the beachline. One is a silver color, with raised feathers reflecting the light like polished steel making it look simultaneously fluffy and massively imposing, the other is a pale pink, like the petals of a flower, feathers also fluffed out, making it appear like a cherry tree in full bloom. They're both beautiful and terrifying. They open their maws, revealing incredibly sharp looking teeth and roar again. The sound can be felt as well as heard, reverberations that vibrate the air and shake the ground, like a lion's roar multiplied by ten.
The creatures, seeming to unfreeze from their fear, begin to run, turning back to the water in an attempt to escape back into the depths. Their movement triggers the beasts to attack, snatching up creatures left and right and ripping them apart and devouring them, letting none escape. The beasts seem to have no interest in the gems on the beach, their focus entirely on the creatures that had been giving them so much trouble not a few minutes ago.
Not wanting to get caught between them and the creatures, the gems retreat further up the beach, Lars lands the Sun Incinerator near the lighthouse, and Lapis and Peridot join the others on the ground. They stand as one with Pearl, Garnet, Amethyst and Bismuth, everyone ready to fight, but unwilling to get in the way of the beasts and their apparent lunch. The beasts ignore the gems clustered together further up the beach as they continue to rip the monsters apart, not letting any escape.
Suddenly the silver one's chest begins to glow; gradually the glow travels up its neck. The pink one uses its powerful wings to launch itself backwards and out of the way just before the silver one releases a massive flood of blue fire along the beach. It torches the monsters trying to retreat into the water, and boils to death the ones already in the shallows. The pink one smashes, claws and promptly devours every creature that escapes the blue flames. The beast greedily downs large chunks of meat, as if it hasn't eaten in forever. Before long all goes quiet as there's no more monsters left on the sandy beach.
The small army of gems cheer in uncertainty at the apparent victory. Unfortunately their excitement is premature as the water begins to bubble and froth, not from the residual heat from the fiery breath but something else, something big. Out of the water a giant monster, easily the same size as the two beasts, slowly lumbers. It has six thick elephantine limbs, a long paddle-like tail, a massive square head with 6 tiny eyes and seemingly no neck. It opens its mouth to screech at the two beasts. The mouth easily takes up the majority of its face and head, revealing rows upon rows of sharp teeth, and several long slimy tongues
The two beasts stand on their hind legs, flap their wings, wrapping them around themselves, and lifting them into the air. They each take a sharp turn, looping midair to fly toward the gems, seeming to shrink as they do. As they change a sound like tinkling crystal chimes through the air. The silver one lands across Bismuth's broad shoulders making her raise an arm to brace for the weight, wings raised in the air, form somewhat humanoid now, with blue fire flickering at the corners of her snarling mouth. The pink one lands across Garnet's shoulders, making her hold her arms out to stabilize him, humanoid now and in the same pose as the silver one a growl rumbling in his chest.
All of the gems give a collective gasp when they see a familiar, if pink, silhouette and a very familiar pink gem slightly hidden amongst downy feathers.
"S-Steven?" Garnet whispers.
He doesn't so much as glance at her, pink diamond eyes focused entirely on the creature making its way out of the water, that same growl still rumbling deep in his chest. He suddenly releases the loudest roar anyone's heard yet, making everyone, even the humans further away, grimace and cover their ears. The ground in front of them collapses into a massive crescent shaped crater, and cracks travel rapidly towards the shore. The giant creature coming out of the water might as well have been made of paper mache. It doesn't stand a chance against the sonic energy released. When it reaches it, its form simply collapses under the pressure with an awful crunching sound and, quite literally, vaporizes before their eyes.
Steven and Silver climb off Garnet and Bismuth, carefully walking to the edge of the water. They both still completely, eyes almost glowing in the low light of sunset as they watch the water's surface, prepared to shapeshift again if needed. He looks to Silver who glances at him, and shakes her head. The Shadow Beasts are gone.
Your family is there. I'll keep an eye out, you go. You know you want to. she smirks at him
He smiles back at her, and turns to the gems up the beach. Pearl is on her phone, calling Connie and his dad he assumes. He's proven correct when a roar is heard and a portal appears, Lion leaping through with Connie and Greg on his back. His eyes fill with tears at the sight. He missed them all so so much! It's been so long! Unable to contain himself he runs to them all, crying and calling out to them, "Amethyst, Garnet, Pearl, Connie, Lion… DAD!" and leaps into their collective arms. Everyone's bawling, Peridot Lapis and Bismuth join in the giant group hug, they all collapse into a massive heap of hard-light, skin and feathers.
They never gave up hope.
He's here.
After months, he's safe.
It takes several minutes of sobbing and bawling, but after the group calms down Greg speaks up.
"I'm so glad you're alright Schtu-ball! What happened? My goodness you've grown so much in such a short time!"
Simply enraptured by the sound of his dads voice Steven almost misses the questions entirely. As his mind catches up though he looks at him oddly. Steven recounts what happened, how Momma rescued him in the In Between, describing the beautiful place he began to call home after that, and how he spent his time working and developing his powers and learning to shapeshift into a dragon. He briefly yawns, and quickly explains that his roar uses a ton of energy and tires him out quickly.
Garnet looks at him oddly after he finishes telling them everything. "Steven… how long were you in this other dimension?"
He raises an eyebrow at her, "Uh… It's hard to keep track of time there, but I think it was… three years? Why? What's wrong?"
Everyone near enough to hear him gasps in shock, hands covering their mouths. Garnet dissipates her visor, looking at him sadly with tears in all three of her eyes, "Steven… for us it's been about… 9 months…"
He stares in shock. Only 9 months? No way. It's been 3 years, he kept close track so it has to be. He's 17 now. He knows it…
"Don't be so shocked." Peridot pipes up, "Many gems have theorized alternate dimensions over the eons. Many theories included the probability that time may flow at different rates in some of them, which is why we struggle to access them, even with our advanced technology."
So he essentially… time traveled? Freaky, he thinks. Then he shrugs, it doesn't change much after all. He grew and aged like he normally would in this world, it's just that, that world moved along faster compared to this one. He actually finds the thought somewhat comforting. He was worried how everything would have changed when he returned after three years. Knowing it's been only 9 months here, eases some of his concerns.
He figures they can go over the details later. He turns to where Silver is watching the water, hesitating for a moment when he sees the, somewhat, lost look on her face. He calls for her attention, breaking her out of her reverie. She turns and, at his gesture, runs over to the group of gems and humans, where Steven introduces her to everyone. He tells them about how they grew up together, along with their other siblings before coming here and now he'll get to show her all of Earth, just like he promised.
She's a little shy at first, never having met anyone new outside of her family, besides him, before but she quickly warms up to them all. She and Amethyst become fast friends, and when Greg gives her one of his patented Universe Hugs™ she quickly becomes practically glued to him. Not one to be left out of a Universe Hug™ Steven joins in and sighs in pure joy as the group once again presses him in the middle of their warmth and love.
Far, far away, in a beautiful waterfall fed clearing, bright colored fish swim in a lake, deer wander through a forest, small animals frolic through blue-green grass, and a bright beautiful full moon shines in the night sky over a massive bed of pure white flowers, swaying in the breeze.