Chapter Text
“That’s the end of another day…” Steven started singing “It was mighty serious, I’d have to say!”
Amethyst rolled her eyes playfully. Pearl elbowed her.
“The Crystal Gems looked really cool when they made the temple-”
He was interrupted by the sound of something sparking, sounding as if it were about to-
“explode?” He finished singing, turning to look at the sound. There was a ball of blue light, floating and throwing off sparks furiously. Pearl grabbed Steven hurriedly and pulled Steven closer to the other two Gems, who pulled out their weapons in preparation. The blue glow sputtered and fizzled before collapsing in on itself and revealing a teenage boy, who fell onto the ground and didn’t seem to want to move.
The Gems shared a confused look, and Steven squirmed to get a better look. Pearl nudged Amethyst to go take a look. Amethyst trudged forward and kicked the boy’s side lightly.
“Amethyst!” Pearl chided.
“What?” Amethyst responded. “I’m waking him up.” She punctuated this with another, harder kick. The boy made a groan and shuffled slightly. “See? It’s working.”
Pearl sighed. Garnet dismissed her gauntlets and moved over to the boy. She crouched down and inspected him for a moment, before picking him up by the back of his shirt, revealing his face.
“He looks a lot like Steven.” Amethyst noted idly.
Garnet lifted his chin up to get a better look, hummed, and then slapped him in the face. It was that that finally startled him awake. He reacted with a shout and by summoning a shield. Rose’s shield. The Gems startled back, Pearl dropping her hold on Steven. Steven immediately rushed forward, arms open for a hug.
“Future me!” He exclaimed, and hugged his future self.
“Oh boy.” Future Steven mumbled with dread.
***
They decided to take Future-Steven back home with them, with no small amount of drilling for details, of course.
“So why’d you come back? Does something happen soon? Are you from the bad future?” Amethyst started.
“Um.” Future-Steven fumbled.
“How’d you figure out her shield? Can you teach our Steven?” Pearl asked.
“Hey-”
“Well, obviously he had to figure it out because he’s from the bad future.”
“Guys-”
“You can’t just assume that, Amethyst.”
Garnet interrupted them both by laying her hands on their shoulders.
“That’s enough pestering.” She stated gently. “Future-Steven, tell us why you’re here, please.”
Future-Steven looked up at Garnet for a second.
“Nope.” He said.
“Wait- You can’t just-” Pearl started.
“Lil’ me, wanna ride on my shoulders?”
“Yeah!”
****
Future-Steven continued to ignore the Gems, instead choosing to entertain Present-Steven for the entire rest of the day. He would answer questions about the future when Present-Steven asked, but his answers were vague and didn’t paint the full picture, and he’d clam right up if any of the Gems asked for clarification. He spoke meeting other Gems; a Lapis, a Peridot, other Amethysts, but talked nothing about how or why or where. He said that Future-Connie was good at sword fighting, and changed the subject quickly afterward. He tensed up when Present-Steven mentioned Lars, and then mumbled something about not wanting to see him “so soon.”
That was all the information the Gems got.
That was all they got, until Future-Steven put his past self to bed. He tucked his smaller self in, and waited quietly until Present-Steven was fully asleep, and let out a deep sigh, his shoulders falling from where they’d slowly built tension throughout the day – slowly enough that nobody had noticed until all that tension was suddenly released. Pearl walked over to his side and turned toward him, ready to start talking, but the look on his face gave her pause.
His face when he looked at Present-Steven like this – it evoked the same feeling Pearl felt when Present-Steven did something that reminded her too much of Rose. It was a sad, wistful sort of nostalgia.
“You miss being him, don’t you?” Pearl guessed.
He breathed a huff of air, like a silent, humorless laugh.
“Not really, no.”
“Then what-?”
He looked up at her. “I just don’t want him to become me.”
Whatever response Pearl had died in her throat. What does he mean by that?
Thankfully, Garnet took over for her. “Then tell us what happened, Steven.” She spoke “Tell us what we are trying to prevent.”
He turned around to look Garnet straight in the eyes.
“I’m trying to prevent your mistakes from ruining him.”
“Wha- We don’t-” Pearl started protesting.
“But you do.” Future-Steven responded simply and sternly. “You fail him every single day until he breaks. You all do.”
It felt like the world stopped, then. Everyone was stock-still, unblinking, unbreathing. The only movement other than the settling dust was Future-Steven, pain in his face, anger in his frame, readying to speak once more.
“And that stops today.” It was said as an order, clear as glass and sharper still. His gaze was still on Garnet, but everyone else in the room could still feel its fire.
And then he told them everything.