#isnt that just swell ~ [ alt spinel rps ]

[two-sides-halved]

Raspberry Tart was used to all the negative emotions but never so harsh and never so concentrated as the both of them were feeling in that time and place. Gem Steven was isolating himself in his inner thoughts and Winter was soaking in their own self doubt.

Raspberry Tart found it increasingly annoying that both of them were being such cry babies over something that neither of them had any control over and that wasn't either of their faults. Raspberry Tart mustered all of his strength to stable himself into a more solid form rather than his usual runny goo. Raspberry Tart grabs Winter close pressing his forehead against the other's making sure his raspberry red eyes are the only thing they could see through the layer of tears beading up at their cheeks. "GET A HOLD OF YOURSELF, WINTER!! YOU'RE THE FUCKING SAVOIR OF THE GALAXY, AND YOU'RE HERE CRYING LIKE A NEW BORN JUST COMING INTO THOSE WORLD!! YOU'RE NOT AS HELPLESS AS YOU FEEL RIGHT NOW, THIS IS JUST HOW GEM STEVEN'S FEELING RIGHT NOW, THESE AREN'T YOUR FEELINGS, IT'S JUST YOUR EMPATHIC POWERS FUCKING YOU OVER RIGHT NOW."

And as in time with the weather around them, Raspberry Tart slapped Winter across the face as a loud roaring thunder sounded out, hoping that would jolt them into hearing them unaware if what he was doing was helping in the slightest but he was gonna keep yelling hoping something would make it through the constant mantra of negativity. "I NEED YOU TO FOCUS, DAMN IT!! IF YOU'RE GONNA WAKE UP, YOU HAVE TO GET SPINEL!! PLEASE COME BACK HERE... I CAN'T FIGHT THIS BITCH ON MY OWN!!" Raspberry Tart could feel the manifestation of Spinel creeping through the cracks of the landscape around them. "GEM STEVEN HASN'T SNAPPED OUT OF HIS FUNK LIKE HE ALWAYS DOES WHEN HEARING THAT GLORIOUS CRUNCH!! YOU NEED TO HURRY!! NOW!!!" Raspberry Tart yelled Spinel was starting to pull him away with her thorny vine like stretchy arms. He pushed Winter with enough force to send them flying through a butterfly door, back through the pink mindscape, hoping the force from his push was enough to jolt Winter to wake up their real body and hopefully his words had gotten through to Winter in a way that they'd still want to help Gem Steven.

Raspberry Tart was having just as hard a time focusing on Winter's feelings since Winter was also getting overwhelmed by their own sense of helplessness in the situation. The memory distorting around them so everything around them seemed to have gotten bigger. It was hard to tell who was the one causing that to happen. It could have been any one of the three of them.

Gem Steven, who was only a few feet away a moment ago, seemed like he was miles away on his own island surrounded by a glowing pink gooey sea of death. The visage of Spinel still taunting him, yet her words were drowned out by the distance.

The memory was still playing out, Mega Steven and Spinel's shadows loomed over the three of them. Raspberry Tart moved in close to Winter, holding Winter's shoulders.

"Winter, focus on me... focus on my touch, my voice, anything but the noises you're hearing in the background." Raspberry Tart's eyes darting toward Mega Steven's slow approach raising his four arms to Spinel, who went silent as if she were mesmerized by the visage of Pink Diamond.

"I know you need to focus to use your powers... all emotion based powers are a pain in the ass to deal with... and we both know how hard it is when someone you care about is clearly having a bad time... and you feel like you can't do a thing to help them... but you focusing on how helpless you feel in the here and now, isn't the fucking way to go about this." Mega Steven giving the small Spinel hug.

"That's just going to reinforce the negative energy... sure everything around us looks dim and bleak.... and that's because it is, but it's already happened before... you don't need to focus on saving the world here... it's too late for that, you need to focus on getting Gem Steven's attention." Raspberry Tart pointed over toward Gem Steven, just as there was a loud CRUNCHING noise to the side of them. Raspberry Tart knew that was the tell tale sign the battle was over, he just hopped that his words got through to Winter, hopefully it was enough to distract them from that killing blow, the sounds of the weather returning in the same force as it was before yet the feelings reverberating through the memory were no longer fighting for the planet but now ones rushing to gather Connie, and find their pink animal companion and their dad before it was too late.

[two-sides-halved]

@erisdiamas | Continued

Raspberry Tart watched as Steven went outside with Spinel, the gems had fully put their trust him to fix things. The sound of heavy metal music had gained his attention.

Steven and Spinel had passed the van that was rocking back and forth, there was loud heavy metal music playing and through the door that was swaying with the music, long pink curls were moving in large waves as Rose was head banging appreciating the music as a human would. Steven was smiling as he walked with Spinel to the injector, Peridot, and Bismuth confused as to why she was ok to be free now that she remembered who she was, but decided if she wasn't harming Steven in that moment it was best not to call it out, in fact, Bismuth had noticed that Pearl and the others hadn't come out quite yet and went to go see if there was a plan for if this all went up in smoke. Then it was just Steven and Spinel, no other bystander's insight. Spinel looked back at Steven, with a deep breath, "Here we are... Steven, you said that I could have a second chance on Earth right?" "Yea, of course. I know the gems didn't give you the warmest reception, but you do have to remember they need sometime to process you're changing for the better too." He smiled. "Right... but what about after I stop the injector... and you get what you want... how do I know you're not going to reset me again..." She asked. "Well, I did that out of self defense before, and I believe you can change... I know you can turn this around Spinel... and..." He replied, paused calling for Lion again, Spinel stepping back knowing how the Lion would tackle Steven with nothing but love like she had seen him do before. Steven went out to take the rejuvinator out of Lion's mane, the sight of the device in his hands made her tense, she watched him like a hawk assuming that he was going to reset her once this was all over, she went to open her mouth, but Steven continued, "As a show of my faith in you." He extended the device and slammed the rejuvinator over his knee and broke the rejuvinator in two pieces they crackled with energy before fizzling out on the ground. "I'm not going to reset you... you deserve to have a second chance with all your memories to know how much you've grown and changed as a person." He smiled. Spinel stared at him, she almost couldn't believed what she saw, he really wasn't like his mother, he really meant what he had sung up in the garden and that wasn't just some catchy tune to convince her. Rose had finally grown tired from all the headbanging in the van, turning the music off, going to see how Steven was doing after his meal since she was still heavily worried about him from before. She looked over to the gems inside unsure of what they were talking about but seeing Steven was absent from the table, and turned to look out near the injector. her eyes set sights on Spinel, she looked more menacing than the little heart clad form she had been sporting for most of the day. Rose like the gems before had assumed that Spinel had reverted to her old personality, and she wasn't about to let Spinel hurt Steven, she summoned the family sword, Greg unable to stop his reset son from charging out of the van at a fast pace.

[two-sides-halved]

@erisdiamas | Continued

Raspberry Tart looked over toward to the younger one with a simple nod. She wanted to see everything, so everything she'll get, he only hopes that she'd wake up thinking it was because she ate so soon before bed, or it was due to the heat of sleeping on the couch, instead of in a room with A.C.

Human Steven was right by Spinel's side. "Alright, you've got this." "You say that so easily, how do you know everyone's so willing to forgive and forget." "Well, usually the first step to solving a problem is admitting you had a problem in the first place." Human Steven encouraged. Meanwhile, Greg had taken the rejuvenated Gem Steven in the form of Rose, wearing Gem Steven's trademark clothing, which a similar outfit he changed into earlier in the day, toward the carwash to listen to music away from the rest of the bunch so Steven could focus on Spinel. However, Rose was getting increasingly worried about him, "Greg, I've had a wonderful time listening to music with you, but I'm worried about Steven... he seems stressed out and I wanna do my best to alleviate that stress." Rose mentioned. Before Greg could convince her other wise, she sped off home leaving pink molten footprints in the pavement as she headed toward the temple. Rose had slowed to a halt seeing Steven talking to Spinel but not being able to make a word out of what they were saying, but the fact she looked like she was covered in spikes put her on the offensive seeing her shift her fingers into a giant horn. Rose swiftly summoned her shield and sword, and sliced Spinel without hesitation, causing Spinel to poof and retreat into her gem. Before Rose was able to check if Steven was ok. The once calm Steven to turn bright pink growing to match her size in height. "What in the actual FUCK were you thinking?" Human Steven asked but putting a finger to Rose's mouth before she could let out a word, "No, shut up. That was a rhetorical question. I already know what you're thinking, it's what everyone's always thinking about me for years now, 'Oh, I hope Steven's ok, after all he's only a fragile little human, he couldn't hope to defend himself'" He exhaled through his nose continuing, "From the moment you all got rejuvenated, I was working my ASS off to try and fix this mess, that YOU caused. I've spent my entire childhood cleaning up after all of the shit YOU left behind... my brother solely wanted to shield me from it all..." He started tearing up, remembering when Gem Steven had unfused them and throwing him off the ship into the water with everyone else. "But you can't just tossing me out the ship like garbage every single time you think it's too dangerous for me." The tears in his eyes dripping down his cheeks, "I'm not this frail sick child any more... I can handle myself. Now I've gotta apologize to Spinel for you just attacking without any reason." He replied turning to Spinel's gem on the ground. Rose paused, "Steven, I..." "Just go... I can handle myself." His words cold, his tone stinging with a familiar anger. Rose was quiet before turning to head toward the house in quiet, slowly making her way back to the temple, in hopes of maybe trying to understand how to help Steven feel better after all this was over.

[two-sides-halved]

Raspberry's black butterfly swarm opened as the largest butterfly had saw Winel enter the mindscape creating a direct line direct toward the memory. The flashes lightening were bright enough to illuminate the dark tunnel only for brief moments, the sounds of thunder mixed with the horrid cackling of the twisted manifestation of Spinel could be heard as an echo.

Raspberry was being held against the the crumbling wall of what used to be the Big Donut, a bright glowing sea of pink had separated the dull and brittle landscape as its cracks became larger, creating deep caverns, cracking the metal pipes within, street lights flickered before falling like freshly cut down trees, the air was incredibly cold, the overwhelming feeling of despair was palpable in the memory.

The twisted visage of Spinel was letting out a short hyena like cackle before speaking toward Raspberry Tart. "You are so irritating... you hate him as much as I do..., yet you still reach out.... you still beg others for help and for what? So they can abandon him in his time of need, like Pink did with me?" Raspberry Tart had his attention split wondering if Winel was going to be able to get through all the overwhelming feelings that Gem Steven was feeling. "Don't you think this song and dance is a bit drawn out... a bit over done?" "What?" Spinel asked confused.

Gem Steven was curled up in a spiked bubble his tears creating thorny vines that surrounded his body rooting him down in this horrible, horrible memory.

@two-sides-halved continued

The constant noise was drilling into Winter's brain, rendering them unable to form a single thought. They didn't realize when Red got closer to them, only noticing what was happening when they found themself back in the pink mindscape, confused as to why Red had sent them back here.. There was a likely chance that Red had said something that Winter completely missed.

The half-human felt their body calming down from the intense emotions, their thoughts a bit clearer. They needed help. This much was clear, they couldn't deal with this on their own

They left Gem Steven's mindscape, back into the real world, looking around a bit confused after this, hoping to find Spinel.

She was sitting cross-legged on the floor near the both of them, lost in her crocheting, not realizing Winter was awake.

"Spinel," They said to catch her attention, the pink gem immediately looking up, her gaze shifting between Winter and Gem Steven, who looked to be just as panicked as he was.

"Why...why are you back if he's not okay?" She asked putting aside her crocheting material to pay better attention to Winter, who almost broke into tears again right here and there.

"I can't do this alone" They breathed out, lips quivering as they tried to keep themself from crying. "I need your help"

------

Winel found themself back in the Gem Steven's mindscape, looking around for any signs of Red. While Winter knew what memory they needed to get to, they weren't sure how to get back there and would appreciate Red's guidance here.

"Red?" They called out into the empty space, hoping they would be heard

[two-sides-halved]

Raspberry Tart was not there to answer her questions as he was still preoccupied with something else, potentially coming up with excuses on why a child would be so heavily in sleep despite the fact Gem Steven dropped a whole bunch of pans which would have certainly woken up everyone in the house if they weren't already awake to begin with.

The wide landscape of the memory shrunk down to the parts that the fusion was most focused on, it was just him and Spinel. The fusion was staring at the gem bouncing before landing on the ground. He called out, as he jumped up to meet her on the most solid part of the mountain that had crumbled. "Spinel!" The fusion called out, the pink gem turned seeing the fusion, she could pick out the different parts of this new creature standing before her, and her face twisted into one of disgust. "What am I even supposed to call this mess of a form you're in now?" Spinel replied. "Our name's Steven Squared." He replied. "You don't exactly look like a Square..." "Squared is a math term, it means to the power of two... cause I'm made of two Stevens... forget about that just get to the important part." Steven Squared muttered the last part to himself, before looking back at the other, "Spinel, we know you're hurting can we please just talk.... we can figure this out together." Spinel paused for a moment, "You think just cause of this gross and weird new form, that you're gonna try to pull the wool over my eyes again! Nice try, I know your tricks!" "Spinel, they weren't tricks... this isn't a game!" He yelled back, before promptly getting punched in the face. Steven Squared muttering a swear as he regains his balance from getting hit in the face. He saw the blood on his hand dripping from his nose, he got up slowly. Spinel waiting for him to make his move, after all this was still a game to her, and it wouldn't be fair to not let him get his turn. Much to her surprise he started singing? Steven Squared's eyes closed, his tone changing with the lyrics but it was still the same Steven-y voice that rang out as he sung. "I can make a promise... We can make a plan... I can make a difference... we can make a stand... we can make an effort, if I only understaaaaand that IIIII can make a change!" Steven Squared summons bubbled boxing gloves, Spinel went in to attack again, only for Steven Squared to block buy his basic shield, with every hit she made. (1/?)

~Continued from @two-sides-halved

It all happened so quick in just a few seconds Spinel's chance of a fresh start was met with relapse... draining the progress made this entire time were reduced to empty words and motionless promises that planted doubt in the ragdoll gem's mind.. Rose was the icing on the cake.

Netherless the scene shifted as the half human let out a sigh of relief seeing the fusion change into a more stable form and quickly save her father in the process.. it made her wonder if Ga-reg went into the new timeline with Nebula... what a silly thought having two fathers running around afterall the Gem has mentioned Pink a lot more than their own dad.

She paused as the pink blur rushed into the Human's arms blending into a beautiful bloom of lights fusing into... a more complete version of Steven.. their gem looked reinvigorated overflowing with energy again.

"Wait- Hang on! I thought Gems couldn't fuse with organics?? Nebula is a fusion!?" Eris took another glance watching the hybrid face the pink gem with her hair frizzled paired with a unhinged glint that matched the threats that came out... facing eachother like a long awaited battle between rivals..it'll be a lot more wicked if the girl couldn't hear the agonizing screech of humanity coming to a end... again.

[two-sides-halved]

Gem Steven looked confused at the fusions concern over him, it was a minor cut, but then he looked into their eyes. He could hear the heavy uneasy breathing in his chest.

Cherry's gaze was fixated on him, half his vision looked like Gem Steven was cut up by that all too farmilar blade, the very area around them shifted and warped the scenery of the forge's blacks and reds, fell away to the vivid pink ground cracking around and breathing a massive carvern separating the two of them. there was no Raspberry Tart for asorce of motivational spite. The fusions breathing became ragged and out of sync. The sound of that horrid cackling that chilled the air, and filled the fusions stomach with dread that nearly threatened to evacuate the pizza they had earlier in the day, even the comforting smell of molten glass faded into the smell of decay.

"no no no no no No not again, this isn't happening this can't be real"

"Oh ho ho hoo, but it is. hehehehe." the warped sounding tones coming from behind them, that voice, it was farmilar to them both.

Cherry's upper arms held his head, pulling at his curls hard, while in reality, Gem Steven tried to stop their upper hands from ripping their hair out.

"cherry, cherry can you hear? can either of you hear me?" he asked worried, knowing that his presence would have caused it damn it he should have stayed home.

Continued | @erisdiamas

Human's own belly was glowing where his gemstone would be, his eyes glowing a bright pink showcasing white star pupils as they conversed as they talked and danced. His voice replying. "Gem Steven has only poofed once in his life and that was from a ... really bad cut... and there was that drink too but he was fine... he's too stressed to let himself get overwhelmed by stress because he worries about everyone if he were to just be poofed... " before a voice came from their mouth he did not recognize.

He looked down examining their new form through the fusions eyes, using the two extra arms. "... ok we fused... this is .. new i mean not really new to me I've fused plenty of times... I mean usually with Gem or with Connie... and the gems a handful of times and even classic on occasion, but like this is new new... like woah.... we should look at a mirror right? Like I wanna see what we look like, do you wanna see what we look like... are we going to even fit in the house?"

[two-sides-halved]

As Winter stepped through the jelly like threshold of the memory, they saw a fully corrupted Nephrite on the beach, the gems having a hard time handling it as they were huddled behind the temple statures severed hand as Nephrite was spitting acid at them. The conversation sounded like it was coming from behind Winter.

A younger Human Steven in his blue star shirt turning back to Gem Steven, "We can't just sit here, they're getting creamed out there!" He was getting a whole bunch of extension cords out of the different shelves in the house and hooking them up to the cookie cat freezer. "Garnet said to stay put and keep you safe, and that's what I'm going to do... they can handle it... They've done more dangerous stuff without us being around." Gem Steven replied, only half heartedly believing his own words, since they clearly don't got this. "Steven, I can summon my shield by eating ice cream, I can't just sit here on the sidelines while they are getting hurt." Human Steven replied packing the portable cookie cat freezer, with a good sized portion of Cookie Cats for battle.

"Steven, I'm fairly certain that you can't just summon your shield by eating ice cream, my powers don't work like that." Gem Steven replied, summoning his bubble boxing gloves for emphasis. "I mean look, I'm not eating ice cream to do this."

"Well, not all of us can have mom's gem you know." Human Steven replied, huffing as he had to carry the cookie cat freezer himself, thankfully due to his adrenaline he could manage it but barely.

Gem Steven wasn't expecting that comment, but he wasn't wrong, he was the one who had mom's gem... but Human Steven was so fragile, and here he was ready to jump into the fray while he was too busy following Garnet's instruction to make sure his brother was safe.

He clutched his gem and hoped that his brother was right about this, but something was clearly wrong. His powers didn't work like that and if they were twins why would Steven's powers work differently than his own. It didn't make sense.

The sound of Human Steven in distress returned his attention to the battle in front of him on the beach, he walked through Winter as if they were a ghost, "Ahh, why isn't it working??" Human Steven exclaimed frozen in fear as Nephrite was getting ready to spit acid at Human Steven.

Gem Steven hopped over the porch and ran to his brother as face as he could, "Steven!" Their was a large flash of light amidst the sand that was kicked up by Gem Steven rushing to his brothers side. The fusion shakily stood up having an out-loud conversation. "Steven are you ok??" "Yea-yea I think so... are you ok??" "well we're not being hit by a bath of acid spit so I'd think pretty good." Steven Squared then looked down at themselves in surprise momentarily confused. "What's going on here?" Nephrite was getting ready for another attack. "We have to save Steven!" Pearl yelled only to be nearly bitten in half by Nephrite's tail end. "Let's focus on ourselves first!" Amethyst yelled back.

Steven Squared looked over to the freezer a sadness on his little face seeing that the cookie cat freezer was destroyed. He reached out to touch it getting a slight spark from the machine, causing the fusion to recoil back, and gasp as his pupils changed to white as he got an idea, "Steven, we need to close the circuit!" "the fuck does that mean?" "Ugh, just help me through the freezer!"

Steven Squared nodded and grabbed the freezer by the power cord and seeing the cookie cat logo the fusion started singing the the cookie cat jingle and tossed the freezer at Nephrite and lit her up like a Christmas tree, Steven Squared huffed and as Nephrite poofed, the fusion came undone exhausted by the action. Gem Steven looked sick, while Human Steven looked tired and a little confused at why his stomach no longer hurt.

Garnet bubbled nephrite and Pearl rushed in to make sure both the Steven's were safe hugging them both so tight to her form. Amethyst giving them congratulations on defeating their first gem monster on their own.

After that Human Steven had his heart felt goodbye with his precious cookie cat freezer moments before Gem Steven puked the half digested mess into the open shallow 'grave'.

There was no sign of Gem Steven other than the memory that was playing out like they weren't there, then there seemed to be a path of butterflies flying by Winter's hair and leading them to a new door standing alone on the beach. The previous door vanishing from existence. Were they leading him closer to Gem Steven or was this just Gem Steven's mind not wanting Winter to get closer to what's bothering him since he wanted to handle it himself?

---

Gem Steven was in the dark green tinted sky, seeing the entirety of beach city in ruins, the land was glowing pink with the rivers of Pink Glowing Bio Poison. Spinel spring-loading herself into a large jump to following after him into the sky. "You think you're so tough and powerful huh tough guy?" "No, I'm just saying I have better sportsmanship despite my left over trauma from my mom." Gem Steven replied only to get punched down with a huge spiked glove into the glowing pink goop covered ocean.

---

Gem Steven tensed again, groaning in pain like he had been kicked in the stomach.

Winter's cry out for Steven couldn't penetrate this massive sound barrier of butterfly wings. It sounded like a mixture of static and thunder, with the occasional phrase with an accusatory tone that was directed toward Gem Steven himself.

Gem Steven tried his best to ignore the twisted image of his world's Spinel, but after hearing that all too familiar laugh, he lost this internal battle of focusing on the fact this was all in his head. "What do you want from me... haven't you taken enough?!" Spinel coiled her arms around him like a snake her hand squishing his face so they were staring face to face with one another. "Oh, I've barely even began to settle our score, you filthy cheater." She grinned before spinning him out of her arm outside.

Gem Steven tried to regain his balance only for Spinel to launch a well aimed kick at his face causing him to roll and slam into one of the stone statue hands. He groaned.

[two-sides-halved]

Spinel looked over at the fusion. She felt no remorse, no regret, in fact, she was thrilled to have hit a nerve. "Wow, you must have really cared for your little pet." She let out another twisted cackle she had pepper into the entire fight, "Well, on the bright side... she doesn't have to watch you bawl like a little baby... I mean." She let out that awful twisted laugh, "... look at yourself... This great savoir of the galaxy, blubbering on his knees like some big cry baby..." Spinel cackled, slapping her knee, wiping a happy tear away from her face.. Spinel stepped on Connie's arm turning her upper half to face Steven Squared. The light in her eyes gone. Spinel raising her weapon pointing at the fusion. Steven Squared was breathing hard and heavy, only able to mutter "connie..." under his breath, moving his body. His dislocated gemstone that had been pulsing with pain as he was trying to keep himself together. His arms supporting him as one leg was arched and the other was straight forward, like he was trying to back away from the gem. "Now let's see how you like being alone! No friends, no family. JUST YOU AND YOUR FAILURES!" Spinel let out a cackle. Steven Squared's eyes dull, the world around them disappears as once again the mindscape replaces the ruined landscape around the fusion. The butterflies had swarmed between the both of them creating twin tornados in the mindscape. Human Steven had curled up crying over Connie, hearing the whispers of her begging her to let her do this for him. He clung on to those words, those were the last she had ever said to him, why did he let her go. He sobbed letting his tears fall to the ground of the mindscape as he let out barely audible sobs. The fusion curling up as Human Steven did in his tornado, while sobbing deep flowing tears, the tears falling onto the ground between them, creating thorny vines that warmed around their entire being encasing them in a thorny vine like shield, with no cracks to the outside world. Gem Steven could only hear the word promise over and over again, grabbing his hair and pulling it tight to try and block it out. That forsaken word was cursed as far as he was concerned. Only bad things have come from it, ever since the incident. The vines closing around Steven Squared as the two felt worse, starting to tear at their fusion's outfit, more than it had gotten torn through out the fight. Steven Squared's hands move in the same motion to pull at his hair, the pain at the scalp caused a surge of pain through Human's scalp as well. The human jolted feeling the pain bring him part way to his senses, then came Spinel's taunting words, calling Connie his little pet, demeaning their emotions, and the laugh, cause him to tense up, Spinel had every chance he had given her to turn this around, now that she k i l l e d Connie. The human's rage started to boil his blood his body glowing pink. The pink glowing human visage of Human Steven, wordlessly stomped his foot down against the grown of their shared mindscape sending out a burst of wind to knock the butterflies far away. He looked over to his brother, his white star shaped pupils were now black as night. The whispered promises suddenly vanished as Human Steven picked his brother up. This energy of Human Steven's rage pulsed through the mindscape turning the entire mindscape red with rage. Gem Steven was baffled but wasn't going to argue with his brother, not when he felt that same overwhelming feeling of unbridled rage. The fusion inside the cocoon of vines that were digging into him at this point, caused the gem to glow, his form glowing pink entirely, the light beaming from the cracks. Spinel's cackling had stopped seeing the light show from the vines, she was confused. What was going on here?

@erisdiamas | Continued

The butterflies continued their swarming around them, unseen by the memories in the moment, who continued their conversation. "Connie, you can't be serious." His pupils white reflecting the worry in his human half. "This is stupidly dangerous, how the fuck are you expecting to pull that move off with a gem that's made of fucking taffy?" The pupils switching to black to represent the doubt in the gem half, the movement in their stance caused a severe pain to wave through their body, the gemstone nearly half away out of his form. He groaned in pain, doubled over, but fighting through the pain through his breathing techniques. "Squared..." She held his face squishing his cheeks, having them both focus on her, reflected in their balanced black diamond and white star pupils. "I'm dead serious about this. The world is actively dying, you know we can't waste time with an argument over my sake... just let me do this for you, Steven. I promise you we can make it out of this mess together " She gave the other that same warm smile that just beamed with energy to calm them down and helped them not worry as much. Squared looked deep into her eyes, not a hint of doubt on her end. Every word of it was true, so they had to take the chance. He gave in, Connie had a plan, and he put all his trust into her. He nodded, summoning a shield. "Ready when you are." Spinel was cackling off to the side as she peeled herself off the ground, took a deep breath and blew into her thumb and inflated herself back to normal with an audible pop. She was on her feet ready for another round of fun, seeing the other two put their plan into action. The fusion flung the shield directly at Spinel, who yawned as a taunt, the same old moves as before, they must be running out of material, however she turned confused, watching it fly past her. The fusion taking the chance, and throwing a second shield as Connie charged at Spinel as well, then took a leap off the second shield as Spinel turned around, shouting at the fusion, "Ya missed!" Spinel noticed sparkles from a freshly dissipated shield, then saw a shadow getting bigger as Connie had her sword above her head ready to slice the gem straight down the middle. "But I won't." Spinel replied with a twisted smile, pulling a ball of light out of her gemstone, as Connie grew closer. The light formed into a pair of garden sheers, a pink diamond shaped gem embedded at the hinges, and before the human or the fusion had known what would happen. Spinel opened the sheers, thrusting forward into Connie's midriff. Connie gasped in pain. Steven Squared tried to speed up as he had done before, but the pain from his dislocated gemstone brought them to their knees. Then with one large clang of the handles as they rammed into each other so the blades would cut. There was a light cling of the sword, the thump of Connie's lower half followed by a second thump of Connie's upper half as she had lost momentum and fell to the ground. She was in shock, her body pouring out more and more blood onto the grey dead grass of their small chunk of Earth they called their battle field. "Eegh, you humans don't exactly poof, do you?" Spinel replied with disgust as she rung herself out like a sponge to get the excess blood off herself. The sound of the butterflies flying over head, surrounding them in the moment. The beating of their collective wings sounding like the thunderstorm echoing throughout the memory. The fusion's legs gave out from under them, they fell to their knees, with a sobbing shout. "CONNIE!" His voice full of deep regret, and sorrow. His eyes burning up as big globs of tears beaded up under his sad eyes. (1/?)

[two-sides-halved]

Raspberry Tart looked over the memory, a grimace on his face at what was yet to come. His attention taken from the cracks of their surroundings with the ominous glow from the planet killing poison to Eris, she seemed to have been holding herself, he's almost sure she's bracing for the emotional impact. The memory halts just before Human and Spinel head down toward the living room so Human can explain things, the butterflies swarming around them shielding Eris from the view of outside.

His hand slides through his gooey hair before looking over at the child, "Eris... I'm sure you've had enough of me telling you, you can stop at any time, but I think right now, might be the best time to take that offer... you aren't going to like what happens next... and I'm almost certain Steven's going to start making a whole lot of noise in the kitchen while making a big breakfast for everyone."

He smiled, "I'm sure you wouldn't want to miss out one quality time with your new found family, right?" He asked with a raise of his brow, hoping this would coax her into leaving this depressing memory.

@erisdiamas | Continued

Raspberry Tart huffed as he knew there was another song from the pink gem. If Gem Steven were witness to this memory, he wondered if this would lessen the rage toward Spinel, or further reinforce it.

"Wh-what about this place do you remember, Spinel?" He asked holding her shoulder to show he was right by her side... hoping that she'd understand that he was doing his best to show his care and support to the gem that reset his family back to square one, after all she's upset, and he wants to know what caused it. "This was a special place, just for Pink and I." She replied, happily reminiscing, "She used to come here to spend time with me, talk about her day... over time when she got her colony she visited less and less often." Spinel replied, looking down. "... ok... i'm right here if you need a shoulder to cry on, or a hug." He offered. Spinel took a breath shaking her head, she needed to get it out of her head, her gem glowing showing the hologram of her memories much like Pearl. "Here in the garden, let’s play a game, I’ll show you how it’s done." The hologram of Pink, while the hologram of Spinel replied, "this’ll be so much fun!" Spinel now talking to Steven in her sing song voice, "And then she smiled, that’s what I’m after, the smile in her eyes, the sound of her laughter, happy to listen, happy to play, happily watching her... drift away" She sighed the hologram showing a calendar flipping through pages and pages "Happily waiting, all on my own, under the endless sky, counting the seconds standing alone as thousands of years go by..." The garden in the hologram aging while Spinel, just stood there in the same position for years on end, the garden unkempt, roots keeping her in the place she hadn't moved in years, her heart shaped buns drooping sadly, the little cute fasteners dropped from her hair and on to the floor, yet she still had a smile on her face. "Happily wondering, night after night, is this how this works? Am I doing it right? Happy to listen, happy to stay, happily watching her ... drift away." Steven frowned watching the other walk away from him the hologram before them fizzing out, he made sure to follow the other as she sang her somber song. "You keep on turning pages, for people who don’t care, people who don’t care about you." Spinel giving Steven a withered flower, as she continued her song. "And still it takes you ages, to see that no one’s there, see that no one’s there, see that no one’s there, everyone’s gone on without you." Steven muttering under his breath, "we are in a dome out in space... where did that gust of wind come from??" He paused, shaking his head, looking over to Spinel as she continued. "Finally something, finally news, about how the story ends..." The communicator that sat on the pedestal, fizzled back to life playing the message from before announcing Gem Steven's stepping down as Pink Diamond and a little promo for little homeschool. "She doesn’t exist now survived by her son and all of her brand new friends... Isn’t that lovely? Isn’t that cool? And isn’t that cruel?! And aren’t I a fool to have, happily listened, happy to stay, happily watching her" Spinel's gem glowed, the heart flipping upside down as she continued singing, "driiiift, driiiift, driiiiiiiiift, away." She huffed her form, her hair unfurled into their more wild pigtails, her round puffed sleeves turned into longer spiked ones, the little hearts on her gloves popped up into spikes... her outfit growing darker to match her more upset and bitter look on life. "Oh Spinel.... I can't believe mom would do that to you... ehh, actually I can... she was really stupid and didn't really think things all the way through.... I'm sorry that this happened to you." Spinel turned to him, sniffling, "Well, now you got me here.... I suppose you want to keep me here like your mother would have wanted... use your plant powers to keep me chained up here." (1/?)

[two-sides-halved]

Raspberry Tart held on getting used to the movements as the memory went on. He looked toward Human Steven, "No. That's not something that normal humans do... this is a Human Steven thing, because despite lacking a gem, he still has a strong connection with his brother as well as possessing his own gem powers." He replied, "I know it must be frustrating for you to still not know her name... they'll get to it later."

Spinel's attention was solely on Gem Steven, "Aww, what's wrong, Sttteven?" She asked drawing out his name with a cutesy yet mocking tone. "Miss ya friends already?? Well, don'cha worry. You're next!" She replied hopping toward him, while Gem Steven hopped back backing himself into one of the legs of the injector, throwing a shield at her, only for her to take a split second to stretch her body apart of dodge the serrated shield as it stuck into the ground behind her and dissipated, and coming down with another slice, hitting Gem Steven as well as his spiked shield, causing that shield to be cleaved in two as well as leaving a bright mark across his body. He laughed, "Really, that's all you got?" Spinel snarled as she didn't waste time with a remark and spun to slice at him again and again. He managing to get nicked as she sliced at him while he dodged again, only for the next few slices to four more times. Human Steven closing the distance to catch the pink gem by surprise. Gem Steven huffing as the hits from this destabilizer like device wasn't like the ones that he'd dealt with before. Spinel looking at him, "You don't poof do ya?" She tilted her head with a small idea bulb floating over her head before it lit up, "Should have figured as much... doesn't matter anyway... your human half isn't going to stand a chance against my injector... not ever what I did to your gem~" She said in a sing song voice. Gem Steven looked up at her confused, she couldn't known about his brother... he never mentioned his brother on the announcement. Spinel turning, "Aww, nothing to say?" "How about fuck off?" He replied with both of his middle fingers up, poofing shortly after hearing Human Steven adding "How about leave my brother alone!?" while he was standing right behind her. Her mischievous grin, twisted into shock, "THERE WERE TWO OF THEM? HOW WAS THAT EVEN POSSIBLE??" Spinel had no time to think before hearing twisting her body around to face the other Steven. Seeing the same disgusting features as the other one. Human Steven was in mid slash at Spinel to poof her. Only for the gem to stretch in a way that let the blade go right through her. He quickly rebounded clashing his shield as she was slamming her scythe against it, separating her from his brother's gem. Human Steven snarling, letting out his own battle cry, that made a small indent into the Earth with his feet. His body glowing pink starting at his cheeks before spreading out, getting bigger to deal with the stress of the situation. He swiped his sword up and moved his shield in a way to send the light bladed scythe spinning in the air and disarming Spinel. She stood there, astonished, she wasn't going to let him win. The two of them staring at each other before he noticed her gaze fixating on the device, before his super speed kicked in, a pink blur went by before Spinel as also sliced in half. Human Steven looking at her, as she let out a horrible cackle, she truly feels as if she won, before poofing like all the rest. Human Steven moving and bubbling Spinel's bubble with his hand, holding it without touching it, while he carefully picked up the rest of his gems and brought them back into the house. The darkness consuming the memory.

@erisdiamas | Continued

Raspberry Tart listened to the child a thoughtful look plastered on his face. Simply ripping Gem Steven from his peaceful dreams was no problem for this self imposed warden of self loathing made by the pure negative energy that Gem Steven had toward himself and all that he had deemed his fault... However, he shared the same feelings of protection as Gem Steven, rarely. He knows what's going to happen, he's visited this memory many times himself.

He had paid no mind to the threat, she had no power hear, and as far as he was concerned, he has the homefield advantage, and the experience. His thoughts however were derailed by the physical contact, and with that, there was the sheer feelings of the others emotions. He could feel her frustration with the secrets, the burning drive for answers, the overwhelming need to fix it." He shuddered a moment, it was so raw, so potent, it had certainly suede his position on the matter.

Raspberry Tart looked down at the child, giving her a soft gentle pat on her head, "Well, I can certainly feel that this burning curiosity of yours will not be quenched by me simply telling you that you don't want to know... because I clearly can tell that's only going to make that fire burn brighter... so I propose this offer... I allow you to view this memory. I will allow you to have a wake up call at any time you feel like the memory is too much for you to handle... BUT" He emphasized this with the color changing glow in his eyes, the echoing boom to his voice.

"You can't say I didn't warn you. You aren't going to like what you see. You aren't going to be able to unlearn the knowledge you would have accrued here... and I hope for your sake, you only wake up thinking it was all a bad dream..." He replied. "Now, I shall occupancy you, if you agree to the terms, that you don't blame me for the terrors you're about to witness... because it would only get worse from here on out." He replied with that wicked smile from before, but the warm look in his eyes that remained, was unmistakable.

[two-sides-halved]

It seemed like all was going well, people were being evacuated from the town by Nanafua and other gems from Little Homeworld.

Rose was wearing Gem Steven's casual clothing, while headbanging to some really old rock music that Greg had on hand. He had figured she was distracted enough for him to slink away and use the bathroom.

Human Steven and Spinel emerged from the house, the words were muted and mumbled as the music played over them as the pair passed by, the track had soon ended.

Rose stretched out. "That was so fucking fun, Greg... If the world wasn't in danger, I would really like to stay longer." She paused and looked around seeing as Greg was no longer by her side. She hopped out of the van curious as to where that funny little musically talented human went off to... he soon wandered from the house back up toward where the injector was, her eyes had zeroed in on Human Steven and Spinel talking yet Spinel didn't look like the bubbly self she had been nearly all day, she was taller, she was spiker, she looked dangerous. Rose had that spark of worry, and of course taking her sword she leapt into action without a second thought.

However, while Human Steven was talking with Spinel, he didn't get enough time to react or to stop Rose from slicing her in half in front of him. Rose looked over worry in her eyes. "Are you ok? She didn't hurt you, did she?"

Human Steven twitched, looking at Spinel's gem then looked at Rose's worried face, and his immediate reaction was anger, and lost of it, like finally a dam had broken after all these years. "OK? OK?? I WAS THIS CLOSE TO FIXING THIS WHOLE MESS!!"

Rose seemed surprised by the other's volume. Human Steven continued, "I AM SO SICK AND TIRED OF YEARS OF YOU AND THE GEMS ALWAYS PUTTING ME IN THE SIDELINES BECAUSE YOU ALL HAVE THE POWERS AND YOU ALL THINK I'M SO GOD DAMN FRAGILE. I AM NOT THAT SICK LITTLE KID ANY MORE. I HAD TO DEAL WITH THIS WHOLE MESS BY MYSELF WITHOUT THE GEMS,... WITHOUT MY BROTHER AND NOW, YOU THINK YOU'RE HELPING BY POOFING THE ONLY PERSON, WHO COULD HAVE REVERSED THIS WHOLE MESS!" Human Steven yelled back his cheeks glowing a slight pink, his eyes changing to pink with white star shaped pupils.

"OH WAIT, I FORGOT YOU DON'T THINK BEFORE YOU ACT, YOU NEVER HAVE... YOU JUST DO WHAT YOU WANT ALL THE TIME AND THE GEMS JUST LET YOU BECAUSE YOU'RE A DIAMOND AND THEY COULDN'T POSSIBLY SAY NO TO YOU..." Human Steven huffed, some tears falling from his cheeks, landing on the dying ground and making roots that grabbed around his ankle.

"Why don't you just leave? I can handle this mess, besides my brother and I have always had to deal with cleaning up every mess you made... why should now be any different?" His voice was uncharacteristically dark, cold and distant.

Rose was quiet before she turned away from him to leave him with dealing with Gem she thought was danerous... she traveled slow as she reflected on what had happened, pausing to turn around to see if Human Steven was still upset with her.

Human Steven was turned away from her, his eyes following Spinel's gem as it reformed on front of him. He started with an apology for Rose's actions explaining that it was only an accident and that she didn't know any better. However, Spinel wasn't so easily swayed this time around, she barked back with theories about how he just wanted to use her to fix the damage the injector caused and then poof her again and send her away again to be all alone again!

Human Steven tried to get her to see reason, only for her to kick him in the face, and bounce onto the top of the injector. Rose was watching this interaction go on, a thought came to mind of how she should help him, but then she remembered how he had yelled at her for helping before... that she would only make it worse.

But something had sparked in Rose's mind seeing the pink glowing goo, the sparkle of the gem in the distance and Human Steven struggling to move. It flashed part of their childhood in their mind, specifically their fight against a Corrupted Nephrite.

Rose's gem glowed and she ran back at human Steven at full speed, her form glowing entirely pink before Gem Steven formed back in his proper form before tackling his brother out of the way and forming Steven Squared once again.

The fusion having a brief moment of glee as they realized that Gem Steven was back to being himself again before they summoned a shield to protect them from the explosion of goo that was terraforming the landscape, sitting on the water like a thick oil, melting the terrain.

Then it all went down hill from there. The two began fighting, only for Steven Squared to keep getting his ass handed to him, over and over again before Connie had joined in the fight. Things looked up until Connie was sliced in half in front of the fusion.

That sinister bone chilling laugh was in the air. It even sounded like it was doubled. It was all going wrong... Steven Squared was being mocked for his feelings over what Spinel had called another meaningless broken toy and the fusion's tears had caused a cacoon of vines to envelope the fusion while Spinel continued to laugh and laugh.

Meanwhile, the real Gem Steven was fighting off the mental manifestation of all his guilt of what happened to Earth, he looked like he was still going through the ringer, his skin a dark pink, his wings and horns fully sprouted it had looked far worse than it did on the surface. The horrid cackling of this gem was echoing through out his mind, cracking the ground more and more around him.

Raspberry Tart couldn't focus past all the negative energy that was concentrated into this one moment of the memory. A loud beastial ROAR was heard breaking through all the laughter as the cocooned figure broke through its bonds, revealing Mega Steven.

"Yea, yea, that's understandable, Classic's the same way." Raspberry Tart replied. "Granted Classic has never seen him poof before, he'd probably have the same thoughts in his little teen brain."

Raspberry Tart looked over, "I'm glad you'll try to not get so panicky about seeing Pink, but remember she's only gonna be like this until the concert later in the memory... then you'll get to see Rose... who I'd think you're probably have the same ammount of problems with...." he sighed. "I'll stay by your side ok..."

[two-sides-halved]

Spinel was caught between the two of them. Gem Steven had deep pink glowing cuts across his body in multiple different places. He wasn't fit to fight since it took everything he had in his will power and his stubbornness to keep himself from poofing on the spot. "Steven, go, I can handle it!" He replied, struggling to even keep his form together at this point.

Human Steven ignored the other telling him to leave, his brother needed him and it seemed that Spinel's weapon wouldn't do a thing to him that mattered since he was human. Human Steven's stress about the situation caused him to grow taller, more muscular and glow pink, before Spinel recovered from her initial shock of the situation he lunged at her with the family sword. Spinel blocked it with the rejuvenator.

The two went back and forth blocking and dealing blows before being caught at a standstill with Steven using his sword defensively, while Spinel was trying to push against trying to get him with the rejuvenator's blade. "You are a lot stronger than you look... for a human that is." "Mmmhm, and you've looked like you've been through a lot of hard to process emotions and you're lashing out in anger... you know you could just talk things out... maybe there's some way I can help you come to terms with whatever's bothering you?"

Spinel looked baffled at Human Steven's offer, she snarled thinking it was some kind of trick while Gem Steven stared with a look of 'I dont know what I expected' on his face when his brother was trying to deescalate the situation after witnessing how much bad she's done so far.

Human Steven saw an opportunity in Spinel's frustration that she left an opening for him, and using his super speed and his sword he flung the rejuvenator out of Spinel's hands. They stood still briefly before he saw the look in her eyes, the both of them raced for the rejuvenator before Human Steven got a hold of it before Spinel's gloved hands could get to it and with a swift slice, she was cut in half, but instead of the shock or surprise that he thought that he would get, he heard her laughing before she had poofed.

Human Steven huffed and went to his brother, "Steven, are you ok?" "Yea, I'm fi--" Gem Steven finally poofed in front of him leaving his clothing behind. Human Steven gathered the gems and bubbled Spinel with no issues. "It'll be ok, I'm here for you guys." He headed into the house and explained things to Connie, and called their dad, telling him to head home as soon as possible and that it was urgent.

Then he just placed the gems on the table aside from Spinel's who was in a bubble, who floated in it's upside down position in the bubble.

There was still no response to Winter's calls.

Gem Steven laid back and relaxed enjoying finally feeling like he could relax. "Garnet, I hope things stay calm just like this." Garnet paused, before she got up. "I wouldn't count on it." The other three looked over at Garnet before the area around them got dark, and a giant weird looking object came from the sky.

It was huge, filled with a glowing pink fluid, incased in a glass, it was almost shaped like an injector with a giant heart shaped gem on top. Soon the drill was exposed, and the gems moved up, Garnet grabbing Steven and they all jumped away as the massive machine landed with it's large purple spider leg like attachments and the drill piercing the Earth below where it landed.

An all too familiar voice yelled out, "ARE YOU STEVEN UNIVERSE?" The silhouette of the gem stood on top of the injector, waiting for an answer. Gem Steven paused, "you gotta be fucking kidding me." he muttered to himself.

[two-sides-halved]

Gem Steven spoke up, "Yes, I'm Steven Universe, is there are problem?" The silhouetted figure gave a malicious shark toothed grin, as she cooed out the word, "Perfect." The gem stepped forward out of the shadows. Despite the distance, it was clear that this Spinel was different. The look in her eyes, the way her inverted lashes spread out over her cheeks instead of stopping half way, the sharp teeth, the horns, the extra spikes added to her outfit.

"Well well well, let's me get a look at the menagerie... this must be Garnet, this must be Amethyst.... and Pink Diamond's Pearl... of course she took you with her... isn't that just swell?" She had a smiled that had an added twitch to her toothy grin.

"It can't be." Pearl muttered as she realized who it was.

Gem Steven gave a look at Pearl, a single thought crossing his mind, "Are you fucking kidding me, another problem of mom's come to kick my ass and Pearl KNEW ABOUT THIS ONE TOO??... Pearl is so lucky she's family that I like other wise I'd punch her into a tree... Focus Steven, right now keep your anger on the actual enemy at hand."

"Oh ho ho ho, but it can be... and it is." Spinel's friendly chuckle continued, "I got a new style, and a few new toys... that are gonna put an end to your happy ever after, ONCE AND FOR ALL!" Gem Steven tried to see if he could diffuse the situation, "Whoa whoa whoa there, this has got to be some misunderstanding, maybe you haven't heard but I established peace across the ga--" "Yea yea yea, I've heard... I've had your little message to the universe ON LOOP!!" She yelled back stretching out a deceptively fast kick into Gem Steven's face.

Gem Steven groaned as he rolled back from the kick, the gems only then summoning their weapons.

"I loooove that part, where PINK DIAMOND spends the rest of her days on this no where planet... with a BUNCH OF NOBODIES!" Spinel hopped off the injector, while she started to sing, eventually beating the four of them in to a near submission taunting them in her song, before finally standing on top of the light house.

Gem Steven turned toward Pearl, "How many more people from Mom's past are gonna show up and have a fucking beef with me Pearl... why the fuck do you not think these things are important to share with us!?" "Steven, I understand you're upset about me not being straight with you about your mother being a Diamond, or the fact the whole war was started with herself by herself, but you have to understand that at the time I thought it was too much for you to understand at such a young age." "Ok... so what's your fucking excuse now?" "... to be honest, I sort of forgot myself until I saw her." Pearl replied. "... ok so who the fuck is she? I want all the fucken details don't leave a god damn stone unturned."

"WHO AM I?? WHO AM I?? WHAT ARE YOU EVEN SAYING, I'M THE LOSER OF THE GAME YOU DIDN'T EVEN KNOW YOU WERE PLAYING!" Spinel yelled out, before summoning the rejuvenator. "Let's play another game, this time I get to win, LIVES ON THE LINE, WINNER TAKE ALL, LET'S BEGIN!!" She hopped off the light house and started spinning around with her glowing scythe, the gems dodging it, Gem Steven getting kicked in the face against as, he was knocked into one of the legs of the injector, while Spinel with a swift moment, still singing, eventually poofs Garnet, Amethyst and Pearl with the rejuvenator.

Gem Steven huffed looking back irritated with the amount of times he's been kicked, taunted and the fact that the song was fucking catchy wasn't helping the situation either. He snorted, and cracked his neck a couple of times. He saw their gems on the ground, it was up to him to handle this gem by himself, he's never been poofed in the traditional sense, and he wasn't about to let some random looney toon-esque gem about to be the first.

There was still no response to Winter's calls.

Gem Steven laid back and relaxed enjoying finally feeling like he could relax. "Garnet, I hope things stay calm just like this." Garnet paused, before she got up. "I wouldn't count on it." The other three looked over at Garnet before the area around them got dark, and a giant weird looking object came from the sky.

It was huge, filled with a glowing pink fluid, incased in a glass, it was almost shaped like an injector with a giant heart shaped gem on top. Soon the drill was exposed, and the gems moved up, Garnet grabbing Steven and they all jumped away as the massive machine landed with it's large purple spider leg like attachments and the drill piercing the Earth below where it landed.

An all too familiar voice yelled out, "ARE YOU STEVEN UNIVERSE?" The silhouette of the gem stood on top of the injector, waiting for an answer. Gem Steven paused, "you gotta be fucking kidding me." he muttered to himself.

[two-sides-halved]

There was still no response to Winter's calls.

Gem Steven laid back and relaxed enjoying finally feeling like he could relax. "Garnet, I hope things stay calm just like this." Garnet paused, before she got up. "I wouldn't count on it." The other three looked over at Garnet before the area around them got dark, and a giant weird looking object came from the sky.

It was huge, filled with a glowing pink fluid, incased in a glass, it was almost shaped like an injector with a giant heart shaped gem on top. Soon the drill was exposed, and the gems moved up, Garnet grabbing Steven and they all jumped away as the massive machine landed with it's large purple spider leg like attachments and the drill piercing the Earth below where it landed.

An all too familiar voice yelled out, "ARE YOU STEVEN UNIVERSE?" The silhouette of the gem stood on top of the injector, waiting for an answer. Gem Steven paused, "you gotta be fucking kidding me." he muttered to himself.

Gem Steven headed outside of the Diamond base being extra sneaky as he moved from the walk way down into the boy's shared room. Human Steven's half of the room was neat and tidy with extra pillows on both sides of the bed, while his side of the room was messy just like he left it, a thin layer of dust was covering his desk and other things of his except his bed which looked like it was freshly cleaned and tucked.

He got changed into his darker pink shirt with a light green star on the chest and a darker pink pair of jeans folding up his diamond outfit and putting the clothes in a bubble for safe keeping. Gem Steven was humming to himself as he looked at himself in the full body mirror smiling happily. It looked so different from how he usually smiles now adays.

Raspberry Tart looked over, "Winter do you think I could leave you just so I can scout ahead to see if I can find Steven? Or would you rather prefer I stay by your side?"

Gem Steven headed out of their room being extra careful to be sneaky he started summoning small extra thick shields just to step on so he could surprise his brother.

Human Steven was in the kitchen making cookies. Connie had saw the movement out of the corner of her eye spotting Gem Steven to which he held a finger in front of his mouth to make sure she wouldn't say anything. Human Steven popped the cookies into the oven "Mmm... do you think these are enough cookies, Connie... I wanna make sure he gets the best welcome back when he gets home... it took me so long to make everything was Perfect." "Mmm, I don't know, Steven... maybe you should just take a breath and relax." Connie replied, holding his hand. "Yea... maybe you're right... I've just been really worried about how Homeworld was on him... I can't even imagine how hard it was for him..." "Mmm, I think you might need to take a moment and stop worrying so much about me since just being home already makes it perfect." "oh hi Steven." Gem Steven smiled waiting for the other to realize. "STEVEN!!" Human Steven replied. "Well hello to you too." Gem Steven replied as Human Steven tosses off the apron to Connie and tackles his brother so hard the two of them fuse and spin around before falling flat on their rose quartz sized body. "I missed you so much!" "I missed you too." The fusion got up chuckling not used to being so tall. "Wow... I wasn't expecting this much of a growth spurt." Steven Squared chuckled.

[two-sides-halved]

Spinel's frustration growing as he continued to block her onslaught of attacks while singing. She was frustrated enough as is, but the singing felt like he was taunting her. Steven Squared knocked her back with a shield. Spinel started spinning and twisting like a top, while he continued to block those twisting punches, and slammed her back again, and jumped further so they'd gain the distance to have more time to talk Spinel down. "Spinel, listen to us! After everything you've been through, it would make sense for you to be in a lot of pain... and that's normal, but attacking us for what mom did won't undo that pain, it wouldn't fix what she did to you." Spinel twitched a bit, similar to be fore when asked who she even was.... but he was right. This wouldn't bring Pink back... But no, she wasn't gonna give in so easily, she wasn't this silly naive trusting stupid little gem any more. She knew this was just another trick to make her feel guilty. This stupid place is why Pink abandoned her. "No! NO!!" She pulled her hair, hitting her head making squeaky toy noises, she wasn't going to let him get into her head, not again... she already put too much trust in Steven before. "YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND HOW I FEEL. NOBODY DOES!!" She snarled as she bounced over and shifting her fists into a bigger shape than before and started punching him over and over again, the pink gem growing more irritated with every blocked hit. The human half of him just wanted her to stop fighting, they wanted to help her, but the gem side still had his doubts. "Well, if you think nobody understands you, then why don't we talk about it? Let you're feelings out, it must have been so hard with no one to talk to for 1000s of years, so many thoughts and feelings to go through and I'm right here to help you..." Steven Squared replied, only for Spinel to grab him with her giant hands, and spin him around, faster then the teacup ride at Funland. Steven Squared screaming as he was starting to get dizzy from being in the circular motion, only for him to be tossed up into the air. Spinel turning into a spring and jumping up after him. Steven Squared continued to sing the song he was singing before hoping that this would convince her to stop fighting. "You can make it different You can make it right" They had risen above the green sickly clouds to reveal the beautiful colors of the middle of the night sky while the sun was behind Spinel, while the moon was behind Steven Squared silhouetted but the soft blues behind him, "You can make it better, we don't have to fiiiight." Spinel's eyes changed as she listened to his song. "You can make an effort, starting with toniiiight." Steven Squared's voice started to lose it's hopeful tone as Spinel's face twisted into one of anger, both fists had grown to a massive size, clasped together. "''cause youuu- you can make a change." Spinel yelled back, "SHUT THE FUCK UP!! YOUR STUPID SONGS 'NICE' GESTURES AND ANY OF YOUR OTHER TRICKS AREN'T GOING TO WORK ANY MORE!! YOU CAN'T CONTROL HOW I FEEL!" She brought up her arms, and with all her rage and hurt fueled strength, her fits came speeding down at him. Steven Squared made a bubble before the she had come into contact with his entire body, causing him to be slammed down. His bubble popping on the contact with Spinel's hand. Steven Squared was falling down fast, at the realization that he's failed to get Spinel to see she could still have that fresh start despite everything she's still doing. Steven Squared could see the ground coming faster and faster, he couldn't think of anything positive, he was in a panic. As he was falling back to Earth, he was intercepted by Lion and Connie coming through a portal, catching him while he was midair. Steven Squared snapped back to reality seeing that Connie and Lion were there to help. They weren't supposed to help him, they were supposed to be save with their dad. Steven Squared's mind was going a mile a minute wondering where his dad was, where the gems were, how much he's failed the Earth. (2/?)

~Continued from @two-sides-halved

It all happened so quick in just a few seconds Spinel's chance of a fresh start was met with relapse... draining the progress made this entire time were reduced to empty words and motionless promises that planted doubt in the ragdoll gem's mind.. Rose was the icing on the cake.

Netherless the scene shifted as the half human let out a sigh of relief seeing the fusion change into a more stable form and quickly save her father in the process.. it made her wonder if Ga-reg went into the new timeline with Nebula... what a silly thought having two fathers running around afterall the Gem has mentioned Pink a lot more than their own dad.

She paused as the pink blur rushed into the Human's arms blending into a beautiful bloom of lights fusing into... a more complete version of Steven.. their gem looked reinvigorated overflowing with energy again.

"Wait- Hang on! I thought Gems couldn't fuse with organics?? Nebula is a fusion!?" Eris took another glance watching the hybrid face the pink gem with her hair frizzled paired with a unhinged glint that matched the threats that came out... facing eachother like a long awaited battle between rivals..it'll be a lot more wicked if the girl couldn't hear the agonizing screech of humanity coming to a end... again.

[two-sides-halved]

Raspberry Tart had left Eris alone for a moment as that odd feeling of dread was pulling him back, and of course being the creature he is, he must go check on that immediately, after all Eris had been determined to see this journey through, she didn't need her tour guide right when she had gotten to her destination after all.

Rose using her super speed, with her sword. She had sliced through Spinel's form as she had formed her horn about to command the injector to do something she assumed would have been an evil act of retaliation for something the human had said. Rose stood there briefly before looking over toward the smaller human. "Are you ok? She didn't hurt you before I got here to save you right?" She asked. Human Steven stared back incredulously. He had just talked Spinel into turning over a new leaf, that she would be accepted a fresh start, but just as she was going to fix the problem Spinel had caused, Rose comes and dissipates her right in front of him. His body grows now fully glowing pink, now matching his mother's height, pink stary eyes, full of frustration. "No, I'm not hurt, and I'm sure as hell not ok! Do you even know what you just did?" He asked. Rose was quiet and looked down at herself, "S-steven, I was only trying to help." "Help? You wanted to help??" Human Steven laughs, a few beads of angry tears in the ground growing a few vines at his feet, not realizing one of his feet were rooted to the ground. "You just poofed the one person that could have fixed this mess!" "But- Steven, she looked so threatening I I thought you were in danger... I --" Human Steven yelled back, "I'm so sick and tired of you and the gems always thinking I can't handle myself." He continued mocking Pearl's tone, "Oh, poor little Steven, he's a human, he's so fragile, one gust of wind could knock the poor sick kid over, we need to be extra careful around him." Human Steven speaking with his own tone of voice, still very upset toward Rose, "I grew up being treated like I was this priceless antique vase, that one wrong move and I'd just crumble into a million pieces... and I was sick of it... I worked hard to prove myself to the gems, but having to prove it to you after years of not getting to see my brother... it seemed like it was only---" He saw that the sun seemed to be rising he had stayed up all night, no wonder he was extra irritated. "only yesterday that I was excited to see my brother again... and now I might never get to see him ever again." He replied, sniffling. His eyes fixated on Spinel's gem. "Steven... I..." Rose reached out to him only for her to brush her away and hold himself. "Just get out of here... I've gotta apologize to Spinel when she gets back and reassure her, that you didn't mean what you did." He took a deep breath, to calm himself down. Rose turned and headed away, she held herself squeezing her arms, her tears steaming off her face out of her own frustrations at herself. All she wanted to do was help, and it seemed she kept messing things up over and over again. Rose walked barefoot against the dying grass picking up a flower, seeing the flower blow into segments in the wind. The silence was deafening, there wasn't even the sound of beating butterfly wings to accompany the moment. The tension thick enough to slice with the family sword. Spinel's gem glowing and rising up, she went through her reformations, a grimace painted on her face. She was staring daggers at Steven. Steven looked back, "Spinel, I am so sorry, let me expla--" "Oh, ho ho ho, I know exactly what's going on, Steven Universe." She hissed out, "You don't need to explain a thing." She let out a manacle cackle, loud enough for Connie, Greg, Pearl and Amethyst to know they needed to move fast to get everyone started on their evacuation plan. Garnet was wondering down the beach, following a butterfly stopping to see the confrontation between a very angry looking Spinel, a scared looking Steven, and Rose who was on standby, observing what was going on before just rushing into action like she had done previously. She tilted her head wondering what was going on but didn't dare to interrupt the conversation. (1/?)

@erisdiamas | Continued

Raspberry Tart watched as Steven went outside with Spinel, the gems had fully put their trust him to fix things. The sound of heavy metal music had gained his attention.

Steven and Spinel had passed the van that was rocking back and forth, there was loud heavy metal music playing and through the door that was swaying with the music, long pink curls were moving in large waves as Rose was head banging appreciating the music as a human would. Steven was smiling as he walked with Spinel to the injector, Peridot, and Bismuth confused as to why she was ok to be free now that she remembered who she was, but decided if she wasn't harming Steven in that moment it was best not to call it out, in fact, Bismuth had noticed that Pearl and the others hadn't come out quite yet and went to go see if there was a plan for if this all went up in smoke. Then it was just Steven and Spinel, no other bystander's insight. Spinel looked back at Steven, with a deep breath, "Here we are... Steven, you said that I could have a second chance on Earth right?" "Yea, of course. I know the gems didn't give you the warmest reception, but you do have to remember they need sometime to process you're changing for the better too." He smiled. "Right... but what about after I stop the injector... and you get what you want... how do I know you're not going to reset me again..." She asked. "Well, I did that out of self defense before, and I believe you can change... I know you can turn this around Spinel... and..." He replied, paused calling for Lion again, Spinel stepping back knowing how the Lion would tackle Steven with nothing but love like she had seen him do before. Steven went out to take the rejuvinator out of Lion's mane, the sight of the device in his hands made her tense, she watched him like a hawk assuming that he was going to reset her once this was all over, she went to open her mouth, but Steven continued, "As a show of my faith in you." He extended the device and slammed the rejuvinator over his knee and broke the rejuvinator in two pieces they crackled with energy before fizzling out on the ground. "I'm not going to reset you... you deserve to have a second chance with all your memories to know how much you've grown and changed as a person." He smiled. Spinel stared at him, she almost couldn't believed what she saw, he really wasn't like his mother, he really meant what he had sung up in the garden and that wasn't just some catchy tune to convince her. Rose had finally grown tired from all the headbanging in the van, turning the music off, going to see how Steven was doing after his meal since she was still heavily worried about him from before. She looked over to the gems inside unsure of what they were talking about but seeing Steven was absent from the table, and turned to look out near the injector. her eyes set sights on Spinel, she looked more menacing than the little heart clad form she had been sporting for most of the day. Rose like the gems before had assumed that Spinel had reverted to her old personality, and she wasn't about to let Spinel hurt Steven, she summoned the family sword, Greg unable to stop his reset son from charging out of the van at a fast pace.