1. Original (1/2)

so i have been watching a lot of steven universe recently and i gotta say i absolutely love it! i mean it's so full of magic and mystery and so many possibilities it's so awesome! since i saw my first episode of it (which was the sword fighting one) i have wanted to do a steven universe fic and now, i think i finally have an idea at least for a oneshot. i hope you all enjoy it.that authors note was made a long time ago. before i wrote stronger than you. but still i'll leave it.

note: this fic takes place a couple of years into the future. steven is sixteen now which is why he'll be a bit different. it's also why some of the gems have new powers which you'll see with garnet and steven.

disclaimer: i do not own steven universe because if i did the show would have a really long and complicated plot and would probably be a little darker. –i'm gonna leave this disclaimer here, but yeah the disclaimer was written way before i got into the plot and knew about rose and stuff. the point is i don't own it.

crystal gems:

like his own father, the crystal gems were family to steven. they were the only other known crystal gems in existence. they shared the load of being the sole protectors of the earth. in a lot of ways they were like him and yet they weren't. but even so he loved each of them dearly.

~crystal gems~

garnet was his trainer. with her help he was able to become stronger than he could've imagined.

steven chucked his shield at garnet only for the gauntlet wielder to hold her two power gloves in front of her face in a block.

using that to her advantage, garnet opened the palms of her gauntlets revealing the two holes on the palms of the gloves and fired a beam of energy at the teenager.

steven however was ready and called upon his cherry colored bubble that immediately dissipated upon contact with the attack.

"rah!" steven shouted as he spread his arms apart as several orbs of energy lashed from his two limbs. the orbs of energy slammed down into the sand and several turrets materialized in their place. the six pink turrets with steven's quartz gem just on top of the power supply pivoted themselves towards the gauntlet wielding woman.

the turrets then began to fire several magenta orbs of light towards the fusion.

garnet flipped out of the way and stood in a battle ready stance with her power gloves ready.

the woman ran through the blasts as she easily batted them away with her gauntlets, despite being shot at multiple times. the woman gritted her teeth as she was slowing down due to the continued onslaught. garnet knew she was going to have to do something otherwise steven would win.

garnet did come up with an idea though. the gems on her power gloves glowed

ight pink before she jumped right into the air and slammed her fist straight down onto the ground. immediately a pink shockwave spread through the ground and eliminated each and every one of the turrets that steven had created.

"woah!" steven screamed as he was thrown into the air by the tremor.

he landed on his chest with a thud.

he got up only to come face to face with a maroon gauntlet.

"game. set. match." garnet smirked. "better luck next time, steven."

steven smirked. "not done yet."

garnet raised an eye

ow under her sunglasses before her gauntlet was batted away by a pink shield. and she was flung back by another smack to her face.

"okay steven," the girl smirked as she cracked her knuckles. "i'll play around some more."

steven then went to chuck his shield at the woman only for her to shoot it out the air with a blast of light. she then went on to fire at steven only for the teen to be engulfed in his clear luminescent pink bubble.

steven was not intimidated by this and rushed at the girl as the bubble continued to take in the onslaught of light. he rolled towards the gauntlet wielder preparing to crush her but she was all too fast for him to get his way as she leapt around the beach with far too much ease, still making attempts to fire at him.

"gonna have to try harder than that, steven." garnet stated.

steven got out of his bubble and went back to using his shield, making sure to take in each of garnet's blasts.

steven took in one of the blasts and made it ricochet off of his shield and slammed into the fusion. garnet fell to the ground at that.

steven let his shield disappear and helped garnet up once that was done.

"well done steven, you're getting better and better at combat." garnet congratulated him as she took the boy's hand.

steven beamed. "i know! i'm getting so good; i even beat you this time."

"yeah, i suppose so." garnet rolled her eyes underneath her shades. "if i wasn't going easy on you."

"i'm so amazing and awesome and- wait? you what!?" steven gasped.

garnet chuckled. "i don't think you'd want to fight me at the top of my game, steven."

"but that's not fair!" steven shouted. "how am i supposed to get any better if you keep going easy on me?"

"trust me, you are." garnet said.

"no, i wanna fight again, garnet." steven insisted.

garnet shook her head. "come on steven, i'm tired."

"we can go over your mistakes and what improvements you need to make during our next lesson."

steven pouted.

garnet sighed. "i suppose we can spar for a few more minutes."

steven grinned, his shield already at his side. "this time, don't hold back."

garnet smirked. "alright, just be careful."

~crystal gems~

amethyst was like an older sister to him. with her he was able to goof off and have fun. she treated him as an equal more than garnet or pearl did and knew so much more about him than either of them.

it was before he had started dating connie. at the time they still considered each other to be best friends, but puberty had set in and feelings towards one another began to grow. they were both cowards and nearly everyone in beach city knew about it.

"so what's the deal with you and connie?" amethyst asked steven.

the boy chuckled. "what do you mean, 'what's the deal?'"

amethyst laughed. "i mean, what's going on between you two."

"n-nothing's going on." steven stuttered.

amethyst rolled her eyes. "come on dude, i know you. something's up and i wanna know what."

"there's nothing." steven insisted. "the two of us are just really good friends, best friends."

amethyst shook her head. "i see the way you look at her."

"i don't look at her any sort of special way." steven shrugged. "i look at her like i look at you, like i look at everyone else."

amethyst shook her head. "the last time i saw someone look at anyone the way you two look at each other were your mom and dad. that's not just normal."

"i don't know what you're talking about." steven insisted.

"oh come on, it's okay that you like her." amethyst laughed. "nobody's gonna have a problem with it."

"i don't like her."steven said.

"whatever," amethyst rolled her eyes and began to stroll out of the room. "i'm gonna go run and get some fry bits."

"wait up!" steven shouted after her.

"nah, i think you have more important things to worry about." amethyst nudged her head towards the window. the two could see connie approaching the beach. "your girlfriend."

"she's not my girlfriend." steven stated.

"then make it happen." amethyst told him.

"bu-"

"besides, i think she really likes you too." amethyst added as she finally left the temple.

~crystal gems~

pearl was like a mother to him. in a lot of ways she was able to fill the void left by rose quartz.

he fell to his knees. "i can't do it!" steven screamed as he tried yet again to summon his turrets out of the beach sand, but he just couldn't.

"steven, it's okay." pearl said.

"no, it's not okay!" steven shouted. "we've been at this for hours and i haven't even able to make anything out of the sand!"

pearl shook her head. "we'll just have to try again, steven. i know you can do it."

steven shook his head, the tears beginning to

im. "i've been trying so hard, i've taken all of your advice on how to do this! making it happen like amethyst, channeling the power of the universe like garnet and putting my heart into it like you said. but nothing's really working! i just can't do it!"

"yes, you can steven." pearl insisted.

"you guys always say that!" steven bellowed. "i'm weak! i'm so weak and everybody knows it, my powers are never going to be as good as my mom's!"

"steven don't say that!" pearl pleaded.

"but it's true!" steven shouted. "i'm never ever going to be a real crystal gem!"

the tears then began to flow freely. steven tried to look away from pearl, shameful of the events taking place. he hated crying nowadays, he felt it made him look weak to others and he just didn't want to take it.

"steven, you stop that right now!" pearl commanded, taking on a harsher tone.

steven looked up at her through the tears.

"you are a crystal gem, no matter what anyone else may think whether they be from homeworld or here on earth, they don't know anything about you and your true power."

steven sniffled at that. "but-"

"no buts." pearl stated. "i know you better than they do and i know that you'll be able to do this."

steven

ushed one of his tears away. "you really think so?"

"i know so." pearl stated.

steven snorted but let lose a small smile.

"come 'ere." pearl smiled at him, opening her arms.

it felt so familiar, something he hadn't done in so long, but running into the woman's arms and just melting into her comforting em

ace. it was euphoric.

"you really think i can?" steven asked.

"i know you can." pearl said. "it was the same with your shield wasn't it?"

steven wiped away the rest of the tears and grinned. "then let's get back to work!"

and with that, steven and pearl got back to trying to materialize objects.

~crystal gems~

the gems were his family but then they were so blatantly ripped away from him by the hands of jasper.

garnet finally found her six years after what had gone down with the homeworld gems. but jasper made sure to make quick work of lapis, shattering her gem to bits. steven and the others were quick to pounce on jasper after that. but he had become far more powerful than any of them had anticipated.

~crystal gems~

garnet was the first to fall; she used the gem destabilizer on her.

"garnet!" the three called after their fallen friend.

but jasper simply scooped up ruby and sapphire faster than anyone could've anticipated and crushed them within her enormous fists.

~crystal gems~

then there was amethyst.

she learned from garnet's mistake and kept her distance from jasper, snapping her whip at the powerful gem while pearl threw multiple staffs at her like spears.

steven tried to form his turrets but he couldn't help but think of garnet. it was throwing off his concentration, all of them ertr so out of focus due to what the gem before them had just done. jasper, however, still continued to fight on not even

eaking a sweat as she took each and every one of them down.

amethyst wrapped her weapon around a boulder before flicking it and sending to right at jasper. but the woman simply formed her war helmet and slammed her head into the rock.

it exploded into a shower of pebbles that effectively hindered their sight. no one expected for jasper to come soaring through the rock only to slam into a surprised amethyst.

she quickly retreated into her gem and didn't even get the time to reform when jasper scooped her up and chucked her into the rock face of the temple, shattering her upon impact.

"amethyst!" both pearl and steven cried. the two couldn't believe what was happening, jasper couldn't just show up and destroy them all in no time flat and with so little effort. there had to be so much more that they could do.

steven clenched his fists. "come on pearl; let's go we can take her."

"please," jasper rolled her eyes. she landed on the ground causing a slight tremor to erupt, shaking the two ever so slightly, steven fell to the ground but pearl stood proud and tall. "you couldn't take me on even if you tried; i'm done playing games with you, crystal gems."

"steven run!" pearl shouted to him.

"no, i'm not leaving you alone to fight jasper."

pearl smiled down at him. "promise me you'll stay safe."

"but pearl-"