Chapter Text
The storm raged. Lightning flickered and rain poured down as Steven kneeled in the mud, trying to process what had just happened. What he'd just DONE.
A peal of thunder shook him out of the haze of disbelief and pushed him to move and start searching.
Drops of rain plastered Steven's clothes to his body, and cascaded off of his nose and hair as he looked, trying desperately to find and collect every precious shard.
How could I have - his mind was a spiral of thoughts, racing around each other and fighting with the joy he'd felt as he let loose and smashed Jasper into the ground where he was now trying desperately to collect all of the pieces of her.
His heart raced as he fought the fear that he'd miss just one tiny fragment, that he wouldn't have all of her together, and he kept fighting the rush of shame and guilt that he'd just DONE this. No matter how horrible of an accident he'd just - shattered someone. Shattered JASPER.
What was he going to do? He kept sitting there, pants getting more soaked with mud and grime as he tried to think. He'd go back to the gems - no they'd be horrified. But where else could he...
He scrambled to his feet, carefully clutching the pieces, worried about dropping them somewhere and never finding them again, and put his hand in his pocket, still closed around them like if he held on tight enough she’d be ok somehow.
A few steps and then a few more and he was running in the direction of his house, his only thought finding a way to fix things. The storm was starting to strengthen around him, and the dismal crashes echoed across the forest and his thoughts as he tried to just get home. Still plenty far from Beach City though he paused. He was racing to the gems, to his home, or maybe to the diamonds but what would they think when they saw what he'd done? What did that mean for him that he'd done it?
Going home meant facing the reality that was in his hands in small jagged very real pieces.
Fear made him turn. He wasn't really thinking, he wasn't really even paying attention to where he was going, he was just running. Terrified of what had happened, and what the people closest to him would think when they saw him. Right then the thought of them not seeing him at all was all he wanted. He'd find a way to fix things later. He just needed some time.
The surrounding forest was more and more unfamiliar as he bolted, across downed trees, and boulders that definitely were only still there because they were outside of the training radius Jasper had set them. Just looking at the rocks made his guts twist as he moved faster. Determined to put some distance between his thoughts and the things he knew he had to deal with eventually.
The sudden roaring, and appearance of a train racing down tracks he hadn’t realized he was about to stumble over was what finally got him to stop.
"A train? I must have come out on the other side of the forest already."
Of course he’d start hitting civilization sooner or later with how he was running. At least it hadn’t hit him. And it was… stopping?
He didn’t know where it was headed, he didn’t even really know where he was aside from the opposite direction of Beach City, but putting some more distance between his guilt, and having to deal with everything right then sounded like the right idea.
For a second he hesitated, considering just turning back, he could go home and come clean.
Go to the gems and ask them to help him fix everything somehow. Any way they could, but then the fear of facing his family rose back up and before he could think twice he was getting on the train - any destination was good enough for now. He'd just clear his head a little, get out of the rain, and find his way back later. No matter where he ended up there was sure to be a warp pad somewhere, and he could always call his dad to come pick him up after he figured out what on earth he'd say to everyone.
That was the last thing he thought for a while, as the train glowed around him, and then it, and he were gone.