Shattered Bonds - Steven Corruption Story

4: Monster

Garnet, Amethyst, Pearl and Connie ran through the meadow, Connie still messaging Steven, hoping for an answer. Online 11 minutes ago.
'Has he answered yet?' Pearl said, worry still coarsing in her voice.
'No, he hasn't. What if we never find him!?' Connie cried, already expecting the worst.
'We will find him, Connie.' Garnet said, calmly. 'Atleast, that's the future I want...'
'What are the other futures?' Connie replied, her eyes growing wide with worry from Garnets statement.
'We don't find him, or we do find him, but...' Garnet cut herself off, clearly not wanting to finish her sentence.
'But what?' Pearl questioned, her worry growing more and more with every second of silence from Garnet.
'We find him, but he's corrupted.' As soon as Garnet said that, they all stopped running. Nobody wanted to believe that corruption was a possibility, but Garnets silence told them all they needed, to believe it.

With Steven

Steven took slow, agonising steps, each worse than the last, with the pain growing more if he payed mind to it. The uncomfortable feeling of something heavy stayed on his back, as he glanced over his shoulder every few seconds, and would stare in disbelief at the sight of a huge, pale pink spike sitting uninvited on his back. His only thought was that he was becoming even more of a monster than he already was. But that's why he ran away, so nobody would see him like this. Suddenly, he heard the sound of grass crunching behind him, like someone was walking up to him. Turning around, however, he didn't see anyone.

With Connie and the gems

'Garnet, do you think we'll ever find him?' Connie said, her worry becoming even worse than it was previously.
'I- I don't know. The best we can do right now is, is-'
'Garnet? Are you okay?'
'Everyone, down!' Garnet said as quietly as she could, pushing everyone down behind a bush of roses. Pearl noticed two tear streaks going down either side of her face, and immediately saw Garnet unfuse.
'Ruby? Sapphire? What-' Pearl began, before her eyes drifted over to where they were looking. 'No...'
'Pearl, Ruby, Sapphire? What is it? Connie whispered, but Pearl simply looked at her with sorrowful eyes, and turned Connie's head to see what they were looking at. Connie's eyes grew wide, and a look of horror glazed in her eyes. 'N-No, this can't be. This isn't real, Pearl? Please tell me I'm dreaming!' Connie cried, her voice stretching into an almost shriek.
'No, this is, this is very much real.' Pearl replied.

There before their eyes, was Steven. Only, he didn't look the same, or sound the same. He lay on the ground, his breathing sounding more like gentle roars than a normal breath. His skin was pink, and a long tail hung off him like a chain from the ceiling.
'STEVEN!!' Connie screamed, but her scream wasn't that of a happy one. Her scream caused Steven to immediately whip his head around. His eyes were pink and black, and his pupils were shaped like diamonds. His face looked like a mix of worry, fear, anger and sadness. He stared directly into Connie's eyes, his face morphing into a look of pure rage. Connie covered her mouth and her pupils dilated, as she dropped to her knees and bent down so that she was faxing the ground. She couldn't look at him, not like this.
'It's, it's too late... H-He'
'I know what he his, Pearl.' Connie snapped, now clutching at her heart, tears streaming down her fade. Ruby and Sapphire glanced at each other, and Sapphire placed her hands on Pearl and Connie's shoulders.
'Listen, I know we don't always get along, especially, Pearl and Amethyst. I know this whole situation is really, really messed up. But, we can't give up, not with Steven like this.' Sapphire said calmly. She turned her head to face Amethyst, who had been silent for a worrying amount of time. She sat behind them, her head turned to the side, and she held a tight grip on her elbows.
'Amethyst?' Sapphire said, softly. Amethyst didn't respond, she simply turned away from everyone. 'Amethyst, please, talk to us-'
'What is there to say, Sapphire? How Steven is "corrupted" and it's my fault!?'
'Amethyst, this, this isn't your fault. You didn't cause this!'
'Oh, really? Well I never even tried to do anything! And when I did, I stopped because he didn't want to open up! I should've pressed on, I should have made him talk! Seriously, what else is there to say!?'
'Amethyst, if there's one thing I know about you, it's that you've never once intended to put any of us at risk, and you've never purposely hurt us. Please, Amethyst, don't let that change now, not when Steven needs us most.'
'I-, okay. Fine.' Sapphire let out a sigh of relief.
'Thank you, Amethyst. But, we don't have any time to waste, we have to help Steven, and we have to try to get him back to normal.

Steven continued to stare at Connie, and then the other gems. The spikes on his face and back grew larger, and his hands became more like giant claws.
'Why are you here?' He said to Connie and the gems. The tone in his voice was much darker than he usually sounded, and he didn't sound happy to see them.
'Steven, we came looking for you, we want to-' Connie tried to say before being cut off.
'That was stupid. You shouldn't have looked for me, I came out here for one reason, and one reason alone.'
'And what would that be?'
'So I wouldn't hurt anyone more than I already have.' A look of confusion spread across Connie's face.
'Steven, what? You haven't hurt anyon-'
'Please just go. You don't know what I've done.'
'Steven, no. You ran, but we're not going to. You have to open up about what's going on.' Amethyst said to Steven, but this only caused Steven to look even more worried, but angry.
'Do you think it's easy? I'm not doing this.' Steven responded, and proceeded to turn away from them. Ruby and Sapphire ran in front of him, blocking his path.
'Steven, please.' Pearl said softly. Steven looked around and found himself surrounded, and the look of anger only grew, alongside the spikes, but faster this time.
'Steven, just tell us. We'll be here to hear it.' Connie said to Steven, with a look of worry.
'It's not a big deal! Besides, I don't want any of you to worry.'
'Steven, we ARE worried!'
'Well you shouldn't be! I'm fine!'
'No you're not. Please just open up to us.'
'I-' Steven stopped himself. He looked around at the gems and Connie, and his look of anger turned to a look of sadness, and shock. The memory of shattering Jasper flashed in his mind, the thought of hurting White Diamond did the same. Flashing repeatedly in his mind, refusing to leave, meanwhile he refused to acknowledge them. He turned his head to look behind him, and saw a huge drop. He looked back at the gems and Connie, before murmuring one final sentence.
'You shouldn't need to waste your worry on a monster anyway.' Connie's eyes widened, as Steven fell backwards, spikes growing even more, and his body dissapeared.
'STEVEN!!!' Connie shrieked.

Aight sorry that was pretty dark in the end. Don't worry though, this is still not over. There's still a little more to go until it's finished!

1262 words