Steven Universe Future: Isolation

Chapter Two: The Song of Corruption

Author's note: NOTHING beyond Chapter 1 is a spoiler. It is purely a continuation of the leaks as I perceive it. It's another brain bug I had from the leaked audio. Chapter Two and on is purely fanfiction!

It sounded like Steven is fighting himself and depression from a loss of identity. AI am drawing from my own experience to write this. It does get dark, but not terribly so. I tried to keep it as in character as I could.

I fully expect therapy (or something like it) to be the end result for SUF. I don't think it will happen before the problem, though, as I don't think Rebecca and the SUF team will want the fanbase to see therapy as something that didn't help before the problem gets out of hand.

Enjoy!

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He didn't mean it. Any of it. He just wanted to feel needed again. To feel like he had a place among the world he helped create. If everything weren't so wrong, he might have laughed at the irony of that; he created a better universe and didn't know how to include himself in it.

Instead, everything was just a mess. A mess he created. One he had no idea how to fix; all he knew was being around them, seeing them succeed and being left behind, wasn't the answer.

Why would they want to talk to someone like you anyway, asked a small sinister voice in the back of his head. They don't have time for you. They won't be able to understand what you're going through. You're not the person they need you to be. How can you help them, when you can't even help yourself?

Steven's breath hitched as he shook his head and drew his knees close to his chest. These thoughts weren't new to him. He had them when he learned his mother "shattered" Pink Diamond. He had them when he turned himself in to Homeworld. He had them when he learned his mother was actually Pink Diamond. He had them when he tried to protect Connie by shutting her out.

But he could ignore them then. He always had another problem to distract himself. But now? He stared as his clenched fists and pulled his knees closer to his chest. Now, he was the problem.

He took a breath and allowed the ringing silence to set into his soul. The pink glow slowly faded from the room, though his skin was still wrought with the color. Downstairs, he knew the gems had given up trying to break his pink wall when he heard the front door slam.

It wasn't long before Steven heard the gems pounding on his glass sliding door and yelling at him.

"Steven, let us in!" Garnet said. "We can help you!"

His eyes snapped to the door. They didn't get it. He wanted to be alone. He needed it. It was helping him to be alone with his thoughts. Talking just hurt. They wouldn't understand. They would just reprimand him for feeling this way, yell at him for losing control, and then move on like it was fixed.

No, they can't help me, he thought. His mind was made up. He sat straight on his bed and grabbed at the sheets.

"Just take deep breaths, dude," Amethyst suggested. Steven could see her hand on the glass through his curtains. "We're here for you."

He shook his head and tears that he didn't feel cascaded down his face. What made them think he was so special? He wasn't worth their time. Not anymore. Sure, he used to be. Their attention, love and training used to bring out the best in him. But recently, it all ended in destruction.

He was tired of them thinking he needed them. Tired of them needing him. Tired of them not understand anything he was going through and not respecting him enough to give him space. Tired of not even understanding it himself.