Chapter Text
It’s Garnet’s wedding day. It’s Garnet’s wedding day, and Steven can’t enjoy it properly, because today is Important. Oh, how he would so love to dance with Connie right now, uncaring about the world outside their bubble, but he can’t. There isn’t the time.
He stares up at the stars, and he knows.
“Guys.” He says. His voice carries unnaturally over the crowd. Everyone pauses. “It’s time to evacuate.”
Garnet nods. “You heard him, everyone. It’s time to go.” She herds the confused party-goers away from the beach, back towards the town.
The other Gems stay, alongside Connie and Dad. “You too,” Steven says. They don’t look happy at that, but, eventually, they leave too.
Steven is alone now. He clouds above him part, revealing the Diamond’s spaceships. Yellow and Blue, just as predicted. Yellow’s ship hovers to a flat bit of ground, and stabs into the Earth. It does nothing, of course. Yellow’s ship tunnels itself deeper, but its efforts remain fruitless. The Cluster isn’t there. Hasn’t been for a long, long time.
Yellow seems to realize this, and she leads her ship back over to Blue’s. Together, both ships slap the ground, and when they rise, the Diamonds rise from the ground below.
“Two Diamonds,” Steven greets, “welcome. I would ask you to leave, but I know that won’t work.”
“And what, exactly, are you supposed to be?” Blue Diamond asks.
“I am Steven Universe,” He replies, “Son of Greg Universe and Pink Diamond.” He bows, “And unless you leave right now, I will be your undoing.”
Yellow’s face screws in anger. “You can’t be hers. She would never have made something like you.”
Steven hums. “And yet, here I am.”
Yellow scoffs. “Let’s just squish this thing and be done with it. I don’t want to have to spend any longer on this planet than I have to.”
“Agreed.” Blue speaks.
They rush forwards. Steven closes his eyes. “I’m sorry for this.”
The
world
breaks.
Shatters like glass, like so many Gems. A pinprick that starts right where Steven stands and expands outwards in creeping, crackling lines that connect and fall, colors warping and reversing, until, finally, nothing remains.
Yellow Diamond blinks, and then she’s staring herself down. No, up. Her other self is so much taller, so much more, so much-.
The Other Yellow does not have a head. Does not have a face. Does not have a front, the facade of her chest is torn away to reveal a deep, black nothing underneath. Her Gem is still there, being held in place by four small, dripping hands.
Do you enjoy this, The Other asks, a thousand voices coming from a thousand places, Does this please you.
“I- What-.” Yellow backs away from her other self. She bumps into something, and glances at it. It’s a pink desk. “That’s not- that doesn’t matter.”
Of course not. The Other mocks. It only matters if it pleases your master.
There’s a chain on Yellow’s neck, end wrapped around The Other’s wrist. The Other tugs, and Yellow tries fruitlessly to crawl away.
There’s a white light behind The Other. It grows brighter and brighter.
“I-! I don’t know what you’re talking about! I don’t have an owner! I’m not a Pearl!” She shouts, scrabbling against the nonexistent ground.
The Other grabs her chin, and forces her to face it. Its empty chest. But, no, there’s something there. Something deep inside.
Grab it. Pull it forward. Into the light.
She puts her hand deep, deep inside, and grabs something cold and wet, pulls it out.
It’s her own face, lips pulled back into a grotesque smile. Where there would be a neck there is instead raw, red intestines and fat arteries, connecting the head to the depths of The Other.
Yellow drops the head and scrambles back as far and as fast as she can. More of them come out of The Other, more smiling, diamond-eyed faces. Faces she knows and faces she’s never seen. They fill up the black void, and still more pour out, dripping blood and viscera.
IS THIS WHAT YOU WANT? The Other uses their voices, mouths unmoving. The light halos it, harsh shadows stare at her with hallucinatory eyes. DOES THIS PLEASE YOU?
“Get away from me!” Yellow screams.
This is what will become of you. The Other waves to its many faces, What will become of all of them.
Yellow’s eyes widen. “No, she wouldn’t do that. She wouldn’t do that to me.”
She will. The Other leans over her, faces crying thick, black tears that burn where they drip onto her. She can see Blue’s face in there. She can see Pink’s face. She will.
Blue Diamond blinks, and where there was once beach there is now a familiar field taken over by pink hibiscus flowers. Pink’s palanquin is here, but it’s in perfect condition.
Screams echo around her, and she looks around to see Gems by the hundreds, fighting and dying. Pink Diamond is nowhere to be seen, however, and she can’t tell which side is which. None of the Gems have insignias. None of them have faces.
Come inside, a voice beckons. It’s soft and sickly sweet. It’s safe in here.
Blue Diamond follows the voice into the palanquin. There’s nobody inside.
Sit. The voice tells her. Get comfortable.
She sits down on the throne. It’s too small for her, and it squeezes against her thighs painfully.
An arm reaches around from the back of the throne. It looks like one of her own, but twisted and strange, with long, knobbly, stick-thin fingers bent in all the wrong places. It makes halted, jerking motions as it settles its hand on her thigh.
It’s nice to be able to spend time together again, isn’t it?
The hand slides up her thigh, and Blue Diamond reflexively swats it away. “Please don’t.”
But I’ve missed you so much. More hands appear, touching her face, her arms, her legs, her gem-.
Blue Diamond tears off the throne, whirling around to face the source of the voice. “Stop this, now!”
The hands grab onto the throne, dragging themselves forward to reveal something that wear’s Blue Diamond’s face, but it’s body seems completely organic. It’s shaped like an elongated tongue and exudes some sort of slimy substance. The arms are all attached to the side of the tongue-body, and there’s hundreds of them, grasping at the throne, the floor, the air, each other.
I thought you liked this. Don’t you love me? Don’t you want to spend time together?
“Of course I love you,” Blue finds herself answering, “But this isn’t what I want!”
The Other gives her a sickly sweet smile. You say that now, but you’re still young. You’ll come to your senses soon.
The hands descend on her again, grabbing, pulling, tearing at every piece of her. “Stop!” Blue cries out, but it doesn’t help. The Other isn’t listening.
I love you.
“This isn’t love!”
The illusions break.
Steven stands right where he was. His smile stays exactly the same.
The Diamonds take a moment to regain the senses, and they look upon Steven in dawning horror. “What are you?” Yellow asks.
“I am Steven Universe.” Is his reply. “Tell White Diamond that I am waiting for her.”