Steven Universe Movie Novel

The Rejuvenator

Atop one of the highest towers in Little Homeworld, Peridot stared at the Injector through her binoculars. "She rode in on that?!" she squeaked in disbelief.

"Yeah," Steven said slowly. "She said... my human half wouldn't stand a chance against her Injector."

"What's that mean?" Peridot wondered aloud as Bismuth paced behind her and got a little too close to Ruby, who growled at her. "What even is that? Well... why don't we just ask her?"

"Well... here's the thing," Steven stammered, wondering how he could explain the Gems' crazy antics. Behind him, a pink gloved hand started poking him. "Ah - where'd she-"

"Surprise!" said Spinel, grabbing onto his arm. "Heheheh!"

"Here she is... " Steven sighed, "... my new best friend Spinel."

"A pleasure to meet you all," she said and bowed to Peridot, Lapis, and Bismuth.

Bismuth stared at her. "But I thought you said she was just trying to kill you!" she cried.

"Wow - quick turnaround," added Lapis.

"No kidding. It took me months to stop trying to kill Steven," Peridot said. Steven felt his face burning. It was true, but she didn't need to point it out...

"I'd say it took me a day, day and a half," Bismuth bragged slyly.

"I'm still on events," Lapis joked, and the three of them laughed. Steven's face grew slowly redder.

"All right, let's see this thing she hit you with," Peridot said after a moment, sparing him the shame. Steven extracted the pink handgrip from his jacket pocket. "Woah!" she said, holding it up to her eye as if trying to see through it. "Is there like a laser, or-"

"Be careful with that!" Bismuth scolded, snatching it out of Peridot's grip. "It's a Rejuvenator." She ignited it and watched the pink electricity crackle around the blades of the scythe in awed horror.

She went on, "Homeworld used to use these things on Gems that started steppin' outta line. One hit with this... " she turned it off sadly, "you're back to how they made you."

Steven finally understood what the weapon had done: It had reset all of the Gem's memories, so they were like when they had first formed. Steven wondered how Spinel could get her hands on a weapon that powerful.

Ruby stepped protectively in front of Sapphire. "What are you looking at?" she hissed, trying to hide her from Bismuth's view and being very unsuccessful.

Peridot sprang back. "Oh my stars, I touched it! I could have lost all my character development!" She turned suspiciously towards Seven. "Wait. How did you survive being hit by that thing, Steven?"

Steven looked horrified. "I... I think I didn't," he stammered. "My human half kept me from poofing, but - but my Gem half," (he lifted his shirt to show his blank gemstone), "i-it took the hit. She set me back! It's like I'm a kid again; I can barely control my powers!"

He held out his hand. "How do we reverse this?" Bismuth placed the deactivated Rejuvenator in his palm and closed his fingers for him. "Oh, no... do I need to get the Diamonds?" The last thing I want right now is them begging me to stay at Homeworld again! He grumbled in his head.

Lapis looked at him sympathetically. "You're the one with healing powers," she said grimly. "If anyone can fix this... it's you."

Steven stared at the handgrip. "I can't believe this. For the first time in years, everyone's in danger. Everybody needs me. And - I'm useless!" He glanced back with worry at the Injector. "Bismuth - what are we gonna do?"

"I'm sorry, Steven." Bismuth lowered her head. "I don't know."

Steven stared at the ground in dismay. When he looked up, Ruby glared at him, protecting Sapphire again. "Garnet would know what to do," he thought aloud. He choked back tears. "Garnet... always knows what to do."

Behind him, Spinel put her arm around his shoulder (and scared the daylights out of him). "Hey - don't be sad!" she pouted. She started repeating to herself, "Your new best friend, your new best friend, your new best friend... " She bounced around him playfully, laughing as if nothing devastating was happening. "Ooh, cheer up! Spinel's here!"

Steven reached into his jacket and opened his phone cover. He scrolled down his photos and found the selfie he had taken with them: Garnet smiling, Pearl forcely grinning while telling off Amethyst, Amethyst sticking her tongue out as her eyes rolled different ways, and Steven doing a peace sign. Steven stared at it sadly. But now they're all gone, because of her. He gazed at Spinel, who winked at him and peeped at his phone. Steven let her look for a second, and then hugged it to his chest, as if protecting the photo from her harm as well. Happily ever after, there we were.

"Now, hold on a second, mister," Bismuth said. "I'm not gonna let you be all sad and depressed because this Gem - Spinel - crashed your happily ever after. We'll help everybody. I believe in 'em, I've known 'em a lot longer than you have."

Bismuth led them all down the tower, by lowering a plank to the ground. "I've known 'em for over five thousand years," she went on. "And even if it takes us a thousand years to get 'em back, I know we will!" She marched over to the newly installed warp pad, which, Steven had just noticed, had carvings of a star around it. She poured in what looked like molten gold into the carved insignia. "That's why I believe in 'em, and I believe in youuuuu!" she howled at the top of her lungs.

"Yeah - we'll find a way," said Peridot.

"-To save the day!" added Lapis.

"That's who we areeee!" both of them declared at the same time. They burst out laughing.

"Wow - how did we do that?" Lapis laughed.

"I don't know, I guess we've been together for so long we now read each other's minds," Peridot giggled.

"Why the hell are you two laughing?!" Steven snapped. "The world's going to end!"

"Hey - we're talking about memories, right?" Spinel asked.

"Yeah," Steven said, trying to keep the anger and desperation out of his voice.

"Well - maybe, it's like, you needa collect pieces of parts of their lives, and when you have all the pieces, they'll see the picture!" She made a square with her fingers and looked at Steven through it.

Steven was about to contradict her when he realised she might be right. "Spinel - I think you're onto something!" he said excitedly. Perhaps having her along isn't that bad, he reasoned.