So, after Steven Universe wrapped up its original story, I've wondered about if things worked out a little bit differently. People, I present my first real Steven Universe fanfiction. I've had this account for a few years now but I haven't actually written anything for the site except for a couple of cringey things which I since deleted. I also didn't want to write anything for this series until it was finished out of fear of getting something wrong. Anyway, enjoy! All rights to Steven Universe reserved to Rebecca Sugar and Cartoon Network.

Steven was sitting on his couch and strumming his ukulele, keeping an eye on the Warp Pad in the living room in case his caretakers, the Crystal Gems, returned from their mission.

He remembered the first song he'd ever written, back when he was very young and still lived with his dad.

"If you're evil and you're on the rise,

You can count on the five of us taking you down.

'Cause we're good and evil never beats us.

We'll win the fight and then go out for pizzas.

We...

Are the Crystal Gems!

We'll always save the day!

And if you think we can't,

We'll always find a way!

That's why the people of this world...

Believe in...

Ruby, Sapphire, Amethyst, and Pearl,

And Steven!"

He was just wrapping up his song when he heard the familiar ping of the Warp Pad being activated.

"Hey, you're back- Agh!" Steven let out a shout as something jumped out from behind the Gems and spit a gob of acid at him, which he luckily dodged as it hit the couch instead. The creature lunged at him before it was lassoed by a whip which a short, (though still taller than Steven) plump, purple-skinned woman with long, off-white hair with a yellow star barrette in it and two small, darker purple horns on her head, Amethyst, had summoned from the dark purple gemstone embedded in her chest. She wore a loose, grayish-purple sweater which exposed her black shoulder straps, a seafoam green fanny pack, black leggings with star shapes cut out of the knees, and white boots. "Hey, dude," she casually greeted as she put a booted foot down on its back to prevent it from antagonizing Steven further.

"Are you alright, Steven?" a tall, slender, very pale-skinned woman dressed in a pale cyan, short-sleeved dress shirt, a teal tie with a yellow star on it, poofy, coral pink shorts with suspenders, and yellow socks and teal shoes, with short, peachy pink hair and a white, oval-shaped stone embedded in her forehead, Pearl, ran over to him and put a hand on his cheek. "The acid didn't hit you, did it?"

"I'm fine," Steven assured her. "But what is that thing? Why did it try to attack me?"

"A Rough Nephrite," Amethyst answered. "Pretty creepy-lookin' up close, ain't it?" The Rough Nephrite looked like a large, dark green centipede with a line of large green stones running down its back and a mane of white hair. Instead of pincers, its mouth resembled a beak lined with sharp, black teeth, and had a single, round eye in the center of it.

"The shrine we were at was swarming with them," a stocky, red-skinned woman who was shorter than both Amethyst and Steven and wore a burgundy headband, a burgundy tank top with a raspberry red star on the front, a mahogany sports bra which could be seen through the tank top's arm holes, maroon shorts, and mahogany boots, Ruby, added. "One of them must've followed us back here without any of us noticing! UGH!" Ruby dug her fingers into her dark, kinky hair in frustration.

"It's especially surprising that it had managed to get past my field of vision," a blue-skinned, light-blue-haired woman who appeared to be as tall as Ruby (maybe a little taller, but not by much) and wore an elegant-looking dress with white, poofy sleeves, a dark navy and baby blue bodice, and a floor-length, royal blue skirt with a baby blue strip of fabric adorned with a powder blue star running down the front, as well as white, elbow-length handless gloves with a loop around each of her middle fingers, Sapphire, spoke calmly while massaging Ruby's shoulders in an effort to calm her down. Her perpetually calm voice, coupled with her long hair covering the entire upper half of her face, easily made her the most stoic of the Crystal Gems. She then turned her attention to everyone. "Our objective now is to destroy the Rough Nephrite before it can get out of the Temple."

"Aw, do you really have to kill it?" Steven said. "It looks really cool." He reached out a hand to pet the Rough Nephrite's mane, only to reel it back with a gasp as the Nephrite snapped its hissing jaws at his fingers.

"I'm sorry, Steven, but we can't risk it attacking the citizens of Beach City," Sapphire said. "We have to do what we can to protect the Earth and its inhabitants. Even if it means killing Gem creatures like this one."

"Okay." Steven reluctantly stepped back and let the Gems do their work.

"I'll take care of this." Pearl summoned her spear and sliced the Nephrite's head clean off, a viscous, cyan liquid oozing from the newly made holes, which were reminiscent of the holes in a lotus pod.

"How do you guys do that anyway?" Steven asked.

"Do what?" Pearl asked.

"Summon your Gem weapons."

"From our gemstones, of course." Amethyst snarked.

"Yeah, but, how? Maybe if I learn how it's done, I'll be able to summon my own weapon." Steven lifted his pinkish-red T-shirt to look at the gemstone that he inherited from his mother: a pink, upside-down, brilliant-cut diamond which was where his bellybutton would be if he were fully human.

"Allow me to explain, Steven!" Pearl grabbed Steven's hand and dragged him over to the Warp Pad.

While Pearl and the rest of the Gems were used to warping, Steven was not. While Pearl was able to keep perfectly still, he kept flipping over and over in the air all throughout the journey, and face-planted into the ground beneath them when they made their destination. Pearl helped Steven to his feet and dusted him off as he shook his head to ward off his dizziness.

When Steven looked around, he saw that they had warped to Pearl's favorite place: a peaceful, green meadow with a cherry blossom tree. "What are we doing here, Pearl?"

"I'll show you." Pearl took Steven's hand and lead him to the tree, its pale pink petals slowly drifting to the ground below. "Do you see the petals falling from this tree?"

Steven nodded his head yes, not sure what that had to do with summoning Gem weapons.

"The way they dance as they fall may seem improvised, but it's actually carefully calculated in accordance to the physical properties of the Earth. That's how I summon my weapon: with precise calculation of my environment so that I may do my own dance!" Pearl's gemstone started glowing as a long, white handle slowly emerged from it, which she grabbed and pulled out her spear while spinning in a pirouette, its winding blade shining cyan in the sunlight. "Like so."

Steven looked down at some fallen petals on the ground, scooped up a handful, and threw it up in the air, paying close attention to how they spun and twirled as they floated back down. He then spun around himself, trying to mimic Pearl's pirouette, and lifted his shirt to see if his own gemstone was glowing. Nothing.

-At the boardwalk-

"Pearl says that she summons her weapon by calculating her environment to dance like a tree. Or... something like that. What do you do, Amethyst?"

Amethyst took a sip of the soda she had in her hand before promptly crushing the can against her head and eating it. "I don't really need to calculate my environment or whatever crap Pearl was squawkin' to you about. I just do it." Amethyst's gemstone glowed as she grabbed the hilt of her whip and carelessly whipped it around, slicing a nearby trashcan in half.

"Wow."

"Yup. And I didn't even have to try."

"HEY!" they heard a voice shout. "What do you two hooligans think you're doing?!"

"Run for it!" Amethyst exclaimed as she grabbed Steven and ran away from the scene.

-On the beach, near the Crystal Temple-

"You wanna know how I summon my weapon?"

"Yeah."

"Okay, so what I do is direct all my energy into my gem, and then... Hah!" Ruby let out a war cry as she pumped her left fist in the air, the hand that housed her gemstone, and a dark red gauntlet appeared on it in a flash of red light. "That's all there really is to it."

"Whoa... I'm gonna try that."

"Knock yourself out."

Steven took his shirt off and closed his eyes, inhaling deeply through his nose and concentrating on directing his energy into his gemstone. "Time to activate the glow of my gem. ...Hyah!" Steven suddenly thrust his stomach forward and let out a war cry of his own. He then looked down at his gem to see if it was glowing. Once again, not even a flicker. He sighed in disappointment as he put his shirt back on.

Ruby gave him a comforting pat on the back. "Better luck next time, buddy."

Steven went inside his beach house and slumped on the couch, feeling very sorry for himself.

"I sense that you're upset because you're having trouble summoning your weapon."

"Huh?" Steven looked to the right and saw Sapphire sitting next to him. "Yeah, I am. Ruby, Amethyst and Pearl can all summon their weapons so easily. Why is it so hard for me?"

"You will be able to summon your weapon someday, Steven. In time, you'll figure everything out."

"You really think so?"

"Have I ever been wrong about anything before?"

"No."

"There's your answer."

Suddenly, there was an animalistic screech outside.

"What was that?!" Steven exclaimed.

"It's another Rough Nephrite; a much bigger one." Sapphire got up from the couch. "Stay inside where it's safe." And she quickly flitted out the door.

Steven went up to the window and looked out to see a Rough Nephrite that looked about 50 feet long, spitting acid in every direction.

"Where the slag did this one even come from?!" Ruby cried in exasperation.

"Who cares?!" Amethyst exclaimed. "Let's just kill it and get it over with!"

"Do we have a plan?" Pearl asked, turning to Sapphire.

"Amethyst will distract the Rough Nephrite by running around it. While it's distracted, I will use my ice powers to freeze it in its tracks, and then Ruby and Pearl will use their weapons to break the frozen Nephrite into pieces, killing it once and for all."

"Right," the three other Gems all spoke in unison as Amethyst proceeded to curl up into a ball and roll at almost supersonic speeds around the creature. The Rough Nephrite sprayed a yellow-green stream of acid from its huge maw, trying and failing to hit her.

Sapphire then shot a long, continuous stream of ice magic from the gemstone embedded in the palm of her right hand, effectively freezing the monster in a giant block of ice.

However, the ice prison would quickly prove ineffective as the ice fell off the Nephrite's massive body in chunks. The Nephrite roared in fury as it spit a stream of acid at the remaining Gems, which they jumped away from.

"It didn't work," Sapphire said.

"What are we gonna do now?!" Ruby exclaimed.

"I'll tire it out!" Amethyst said. "You guys go hide 'til it's safe to try and attack it again!" And Amethyst continued to roll around the Nephrite as it continued to try and hit her with its acid.

"She'll be fine," Sapphire said. "Let's go." The remaining three Gems ran and hid behind one of the fallen hands of the Crystal Temple.

Steven couldn't bear to just stand by and watch any of his friends get maimed by this giant, acid-spewing monster. He had to do something.

He ran out the door to the beach. "Steven, go back inside!" Pearl shouted at him. "It's too dangerous!" But Steven didn't listen to her. He picked up a large rock with the intention to throw it at the Rough Nephrite. "Hey, you big jerk! Stop attacking my friends!"

Suddenly, Steven's gemstone started glowing and... SHOOM! A pink, round, translucent shield decorated with a rose design popped out of his gem like an image from a film projector.

Steven couldn't believe his eyes! He finally summoned his Gem weapon, and it was a shield!

Steven saw that everyone else was shocked at the sight as well, including the giant Rough Nephrite, its jaws agape and still dripping with acid. He took advantage of its disoriented state and threw his newly-summoned shield at its head like a Frisbee, knocking it unconscious as it went down with a hard THUD, kicking up a large cloud of sand particles in its wake.

"It's safe," Sapphire said, and on Ruby's command of "Let's go, Pearl," she and Pearl jumped out from behind the now partially melted stone hand and used their weapons to break the unconscious Nephrite into multiple chunks.

"Did you guys see that?!" Steven exclaimed excitedly. "I summoned my Gem weapon all by myself!"

"Yes, that was excellent, Steven!" Pearl said, kneeling down to give him a hug.

"Yeah!" Amethyst piped up. "Especially how you lobbed it at the Rough Nephrite and conked it out!"

"You made us real proud today, champ!" Ruby said as she and Sapphire held hands. "We don't know where we'd be without your trusty shield to save the day!"

Sapphire gave an encouraging nod. "I told you that you would be able to summon your weapon," she said with a smile.

"Yeah," Steven said. "And in time, I'll figure everything out. And you guys'll help me, right?"

"Of course, Steven," Pearl said, putting a hand on his shoulder. "We'll all be here to help you figure out your powers so you can fight for the Earth alongside us as a fully-fledged Crystal Gem."

"So, what do we do now?" Ruby asked.

"Well, we won the fight," Steven said. "So I guess now we can go out for pizzas."

"Sounds good to me," Amethyst said, and so they all went to Fish Stew Pizza for a celebratory pizza lunch.