Steven Universe fic

part 17 Chapter Six: For No One

Time stopped.

At least.

It seemed that way.

Every memory Steven had suddenly flooded in his mind as he stared forward, his vision blocked by the torso of someone he swore wasn't there.

But she was.

Time stopped and Spinel was standing in front of him, the fangs of the beast embedded in the fragile gem on her chest.

Her head turned, ever so slowly, agonizingly slowly until he could just see the soft, wavering smile on her lips, and the tears that seemed to float in the air beside her.

And then he heard it.

The loud crack, the sound of glass breaking and he found himself, only for a split second, in the garden.

The sound of it was deafening, as though everything else had suddenly become silent.

His eyes widened as the cold, dark and terrible realization washed over him. Spinel's form glitched, though she still smiled, and she still looked at him lovingly, despite that.

The beast pulled itself from her gem, and she still stood there. Still smiling.

But time stops for no one.

Spinel's body began dismantling, glowing threads falling apart until the only thing that was left was her gem, at it seemed to hover in the air.

With great hesitance, Steven lifted his hand to touch the heart shaped gem. Until the pieces began to fall. One by one, each sound of them crashing against one another more agonizing than the last.
the tiny pieces clicking on top of one another as they fell to the ground.

Steven watched helplessly as the shattered gem crumbled to the ground, tears, forming in his eyes as he frantically started gathering the pieces in a pile at his knees.

"Spinel." He breathed, unable to comprehend what had occurred.

"No!"

Steven wept, helplessly mushing them together, trying to force them to resemble its previous cut.

"No, no, no no, NO!" Tears now rolled down his face, as he tried to reconnect the broken pieces of the gem, guilt panging him deep in his stomach as he felt he caused such a horrible thing to happen, he did cause this, he just lost her.
She was shattered.
She was gone.

"I can fix it..I can fix you, I can- I can fix this, I can make it better, Spinel, please!" He begged, his tears puddling around the gem shards as he tried to peice her back together.

"I can..please, please.." he continued to sob, until the rumble of laughter broke his frantic pleading with his broken friend. His shattered friend.

"You cry...over one single gem?"

Steven's head shot up in shock, forced away from the precious thing that held his attention. The beast stared at him, its body shaking and clacking with gemstones as it mocked his sorrow.

"She was my friend.." he answered softly.

"Your what?"

Steven clasped the shards in his hands tightly, drawing just a faint amount of blood. He pulled himself to his feet, standing protectively over his pile of shards, glaring down the beast, just a hint of pink in his eyes.

"She was my friend." He said louder, manifesting his shield. He held it in front of himself, growing its size until it protected Pearl, Amethyst and Garnet, who were still down on their knees from Blue's attack.

"Then good riddance!" The beast snarled, preparing to strike once more at the boy.

It stopped though.

Held in place by another fractal of Steven's sheild.
He glanced down at Spinel's shards, then at the creature that decorated itself in gems, in sentient creatures.
People who needed to be protected.

"I'm tired of monsters like you thinking it's okay to hurt others." He said, deceptively calm, despite feeling himself tremble.

Though this wasn't fear. This was a lot of things but none of it was fear.

He met eyes with the beast, growing his sheild until it fit snugly under each individual gemstone the monster hoarded for itself. And then he pulled.

The beast howled in pain, attempting to wriggle its way out of his grasp but it was no use.

It began to ooze, pink watery liquid, similar to it's own venom from its skin until the gemstones embedded within it had nothing left to hold onto. Then they burst away, the sheets of them clacking to the floor in its slippery slime.

It writhed, shaking and screaming and shrieking with agony until it sloshed and slithered away to its disgusting hole in the ground.

Steven let out the last of his breath and dropped to his knees, now focused once more on the gem he lost.
The only gem he had lost.

His tears forced their way to his eyes once more, burning his face as they streaked down, landing on the shards. Pearl stepped toward him, crouching down next to the wailing boy, silently helping him gather even the smallest of peices, tears forming in her eyes as well.
Then Amethyst, she crawled to his side, picking up shards for him to attempt to put together. It was no use though, he didn't know where they went, he didn't even know if he had them all. He shuddered through another sob as Garnet rested her and on his shoulder, before pulling him into a hug.

"I tried to avoid this..I tried." She said softly, but her words only made him cry harder, huddled into his friends, his family. It hurt.

It hurt so much and he couldn't make it stop. He couldn't save her, he couldn't protect her and that was all he wanted to do. And he couldn't do it.