Chapter One: A Struggling Savior's New Journey!

On a single road in the purple night sky, someone was driving their car down it.

Who was driving this car you may ask?...

Why Steven Universe of course. You know, the half gem and human hybrid, the guy who puts everyone else's feelings first at the expense of his physical and mental health. The guy who, by sticking to his morals and being himself despite everyone's expectations had saved not just the Earth but the entire universe and restored the previously corrupted and suffering Gems from the previously fascistic and tyrannical Gem empire.

After he moved out of Beach City and the emotional goodbyes that came with it from the boisterous blacksmith Bismuth, the goofy, arrogant technician Peridot, and the laidback, mentally strong, water user Lapis, to his loyal soldier the smugly powerful and reclusive Jasper surprisingly, his dad, the bumbling musician Greg, to his girlfriend, the smart and beautiful Connie, and finally to the future seeing and confident Garnet, the cool and insecure Amethyst and the motherly but rather emotionally fragile Pearl, he was still seeing a therapist to help the young man cope with his bottled issues, repressed trauma and excreta after his physical as well as mental meltdown that nearly destroyed his family and friends, his home and especially himself while still trying to find a new home to call his own since he's not living with the Crystal Gems anymore.

"Hmm, I wonder where I'm going to settle down... so many options." Steven said to himself as he continued to drive down the road.

As he was doing so, he gently hit the brakes and slowed his car (known as a Dondai Supremo that Greg purchased a while back) to a stop just to make sure that he didn't accidently crash it into anybody like last time as he then took a deep breath and closed his eyes.

He then thought back to the first therapy session that he ever went to before he moved out...

(Speaking from personal experience, I don't know much about therapy so please forgive me if I don't get the procedure correctly. If you don't like this, you can skip it and there will be a "Back to the Present" to the end of this here, if you do want to see this, you may proceed with seeing this. With that said, let's get into this.)

A few months earlier...

"So Mr. Universe... I've heard that you've been having a lot of mental issues. Would you mind telling me some of them? A tall male doctor asked the young hero, who was laying down on one of those long therapy couches, before quickly adding in, "That is if you're comfortable with telling me them of course!"

Steven let out a deep sigh, already regretting coming here, knew in the back of his mind but he promised everyone from the Crystal Gems, to the Diamonds and Spinel, to his Dad and especially Connie that it's time that he recieved help that he desperately needed and he wasn't going to back out now because of the last time he did that and consquences that ensued because of it.

And they all promised that they would be there to help him in anyway they can and that they wouldn't judge him because of his rather desperate need for the mental help of therapy.

"To be honest Doctor um..." The young man began to say, but forgot to ask the doc for his name.

"Travis." The professional introduced himself.

"Right, Thank you." Steven thanked the doctor before continuing. "To be honest, I would doubt you would believe me if I told you." He said he let a surprisingly good chuckle, one that he had been suppressing since his meltdown of turning into a giant monster. "But I suppose I should start by asking you this," Steven's tone then went serious. "What do you know about Gems?"

"Well Steven, all I know is that they're just rocks right?" Travis answered confused. "Forgive me if I sound offensive, but what do gems have to do with anything?" The doctor asked.

"Everything." Steven said in a depressed tone. "Look Doctor T, while on Earth, gems are just jewelry and expensive materials to get rich. But out there," He then pointed his right hand to the sky. "They're aliens who have killed dozens if not thousands of planets just to expand their empire!"

"P-Please tell you're joking Steven." Travis, already not believing Steven's story.

"I'M-" The teen said as his skin briefly turned pink before he looked down at his hands before realizing what he almost did. Taking a deep breath, he calmed himself down and turned off his pink glow before he lost it again. "I'm not joking Doctor, it's true. Most of my family are aliens. Garnet, Amethyst and Pearl, the ones who came here with me are aliens. If my mom, who was also an alien, didn't step in, Earth would've been colonized and neither of us would be here talking right now. If I didn't go to Homeworld and help the Diamonds change their ways, Earth would've been destroyed by the Cluster and we would all be dead!" The teen said as a few tears began to run down his face.

The doctor was surprised at Steven's story. He knew Steven had problems but this was something entirely new.

Steven then interjected breaking Travis from his thoughts. "And that's not even the worst of it."

"There's more..." The mental helper said, already feeling nervous.

"Yeah, buckle up, cause it's about to get pretty crazy." The hybrid then continued the origin of the Gems. "About 6,000 years ago, the Gem species came into existence with their leaders known as the Diamonds. My mom was one of them," The boy then began to unknowingly clench his left fist tightly as he took a deep breath before he continued. "She was known as... Pink. Diamond!" His fingernails then stabbed through the skin, causing it to start bleeding and drip down his hand, Steven didn't notice but Travis did.

"Steven, you're bleeding!" Travis exclaimed, bringing attention to his the boy's hand.

Realizing this, the boy then looked down at his hand and saw that it was indeed bleeding. "Don't worry, Doctor T. I've got this." He said as he then to the doctor's absolute confusion, he spat in his own hand. The spit stung his hand a bit as Steven then felt the magic in said spit begin to heal his wounds. After his cuts finally close up, he then grabbed a tissue with his clean hand and used it to wipe the spit and dried up blood off. Looking over to the confused doctor, he then explained himself. "Oh, that was my magic spit by the way. Speaking of magic, the gems have that in the gemstones on their bodies..." The boy paused a bit before continuing. "Including mine." He then pulled his black shirt up, revealing his pink round gemstone to the doctor, much to the therapist's surprise.

"My word, I had no idea." Travis said in shock.

Steven then put his shirt down. "Yeah, I probably should've said this earlier but I'm half Gem and half human." He revealed before getting back on track. "But anyways getting back on topic. Pink Diamond, my mom, was one of the four Diamonds, the three are Blue Diamond, Yellow Diamond and..." He felt his anger begin to rise but he stopped himself from screaming by rubbing his temples and breathing through his nose by continuing. "White Diamond!" He growled, his skin turning pink once more.

Noticing his anger at the literal white monarch's name being dropped and his pink glowing skin, the therapist gently but firmly grabbed his hands. "Steven, Steven, it's okay. None of the Diamonds are here, it's just you and me. Just... breathe..." He instructed in a soothing tone.

Steven, hearing this did just that before he finally managed to calm down, his skin turning back to normal, he didn't want to almost destroy another professional's room after all. "I'm sorry.' He said in a quiet tone.

"It's okay, just tell what you're comfortable with telling me before you go into the hard stuff." Travis clarified.

"Okay, okay, I'll try." He said as then continued the story. "The Diamonds had a very unhealthy relationship with each other as well as their subjects, like how White closed herself off from the other Diamonds, to how Yellow shattered-"

"Shattered?" Travis interrupted.

"Shattering is how you... kill a gem... by... s-shattering their... gemstone." Steven stuttered before rubbing his temples again. "Easy Steven, you healed her, you healed her. She's fine now." He then continued. "Yellow shattered any gem who were fused with another gem, didn't live up to her standard or tried to rebel against her, and what's worst, she made them into forced fusion experiments, like the Cluster as I said eariler! Then there's Blue, who not only, tried to shatter Garnet when she first fused but when she came to Earth with Yellow, we had no choice but to fight both her and Blue who, by the way, used her powers to make me and other Gems cry!" Steven revealed to Travis.

"Metaphorically?" The doctor questioned.

"Literally." The hybrid commented as he continued. "They abused each other as well as my mom. Speaking of which..." He then clenched the sides of his chair tightly in frustration as what he was about to say next. "Then there was my mom... Pink. Freaking Diamond. And to be honest Doc, I think she was the most horrible of the four, caused she not only did she abandoned Spinel in the garden and unintentionally hurt Volleyball, she asked the Diamonds to colonize Earth, sure she bailed on it later on, but she shouldn't have done so." His anger continued to rise up little by little. "She started a rebellion to save the Earth because Blue and Yellow wouldn't listen to her pleas to spare the planet. She disguised herself as another gem by the name of Rose Quartz, caused the shattering of thousands of her fellow comrades and even most of her enemies. Speaking of shattering..." He let out a dark chuckle as he clenched the sides of his couch even tighter, much to Travis' worry. "She faked her own shattering just so that she could run away from her responsibilities. Not only that, but she forced Pearl to keep her mouth shut about the whole situation regarding her shattering so that the other Crystal Gems or her grieving fellow subjects and her family couldn't know!" He yelled, surprising the doctor, not that he noticed. "Speaking of the other Crystal Gems, Lapis, despite being on Homeworld's side at the time, was trapped in a mirror for thousands of years because my mom's war and Bismuth, another Crystal Gem, was bubbled because she wanted to shatter the Homeworld Gems, the "upper-crusts" as she calls it, the Diamonds, my Mom!" He then remembered some more Gems. "Biggs, Larimar, Crazy Lace, Snowflake, amongst others were corrupted into giant, wild, monsters." He then remembered the one thing that started his role as a Crystal Gem as his hands then accidently ripped the couch's sides. "Oh, and speaking of corruption, Nephrite, her crew, Jasper..." He cringed on the inside from saying the latter's name. "...amongst many others were either corrupted by their own leaders because of mom's faked shattering, or by fusing with a corrupted gem and becoming corrupted through that and I couldn't saved them during the time because of Pink's lies and manipulation on both sides!" He then began to breath heavily.

Doctor Travis held a hand to his mouth in shock at this new information. He didn't that Earth was nearly destroyed because of one Diamond's abusive upbringing and selfish actions. He was surprised that the boy had this much negativity inside him about his mother. But he had a feeling that he wasn't finished.

And he wasn't...

He was about to say something when Steven continued. "That's the not the worst part of it all, she lied to everyone, not just to save the Earth which she did ultimately do, but at the end of day, it was to save her own pink butt whether she was a Diamond or a Rose Quartz and because of that the freaking galaxy and the countless lives in it was caught in the crossfire of it all. Now... I'm left to pick up the pieces cause she's not around to do it herself anymore. Whether it's fighting for my life against a gem either because of my mom and I have to protect my home and my friends, or because I dismantled their empire and took away their purpose and I have to protect myself!" He stated before finally concluding his emotional rant. "And the worst is, my friends and family don't understand! I push them away because I fear that I'll just end up hurting them with my pink powers just like when I shattered Jasper before bringing her back, or when I nearly shattered White, I'll just hurt them just like mom did before she died! I know that I shouldn't blame her for my problems but I can't help but do so..." He stated in a broken tone before beginning to sob to himself, much to the doctor's sympathy.

The therapist now began to understand what Steven was going through, to the best of his abilities anyway, parental abandonment was the worst as he's dealt with many patients with the same issue or something similar to it. He waited for Steven to calm down before he could ask him a few things. After five minutes of the galactic savior's waterworks, he managed to slow his cries down to a few sniffles. Afterwards, the therapist decided to gently ask him a few questions.

"Steven," He started. "Do you better now?"

"Much." The teen answered. "Thank you for listening."

"No problem." Doctor Travis said. "Is that some of your problems?"

"Not all of them. Steven stated" There's a few more of my problems."

"Before we continue, is it okay that I ask you a few questions?" Travis asked.

"Sure." He gave permission.

"How long these issues been going on?" Travis said.

"From when I was thirteen." Steven said.

"I see..." The therapist said before asking another question. "Steven... do you run away from your problems by helping people?"

"I don't know, maybe." He said before quickly adding. "Now don't get me wrong Doctor T, I'm not just running away from my problems, I do genuinely want to help people, that's all."

"That's noble. But..." He stopped to think over his next question as he didn't want to accidently set off the boy's pink form again. "This gem empire. Did you really rehabilitate it?"

"Yeah, took two years." Steven answered.

"How do you feel about that?" Travis asked.

"Happy to be honest. After two long years of fighting the other half of my own kind, learning about the universe around me as much as I did, training nonstop to fully control and master my diamond powers, and doing what I can to help everyone, it's finally over." He answered before he looked down at the floor. "But that's where my current problems are now..." He then wiped his tears away before continuing. "There's nothing left for me to fix and there's no one that needs my help anymore. For the past two years, it was a cycle for me: Someone needs my help or a gem I don't know wants to kill me and friends and I have to fight them even though I really didn't want to, or I personally pay for what my Mom's mistakes, or I struggle to master my powers, or the world nearly ends due to it and I need to remain strong for everyone else so I can save the day." He said truthfully before exclaiming loudly. "I CAN NEVER CATCH A BREAK, CAN I?!"

"My god." Travis commented in shock before shaking it off. "Continuing with my questions, you said the your friends and family don't understand. What do you mean?"

"Well, to Garnet, Amethyst and Pearl, my human problems were unimportant to them and to my Dad, Connie and my human friends, my gem problems will make them scared of me and gems in general. So I have no one to turn to one either side. I'm so alone, Doctor T." He admitted in sadness before clenching his eyes shut to avoid crying again.

Doctor Travis now fully understood Steven's position, it's not just PTSD Steven was having, it was also a sense of loneliness, a feeling of unimportance to others, a hidden fear of being lonely and feared because of his status as a hybrid of two different beings a feeling that there's no one to help him and a sense of no purpose in life as well fear that he'll end up hurting the people around him if he let's his control on his emotions falter in a moment of weakness.

"Steven... even if the Gems or your Dad or that Connie girl don't understand you. Why didn't you talk to them about these problems instead of bottling them up?" Doc T asked.

"Are you kidding me Doc?!" Steven exclaimed, spooking the professional. "I couldn't tell the Gems about how I feel because they'll break down if I do, especially Pearl, because every time something concerning my Mom is brought up in a conversation, she'll do whatever it takes to defend her! Then there's Amethyst, I'm sick of her acting like she's so mature now because my Mom was always there for her. And I don't want to hear advice from the high and mighty Garnet, she was lost and scared since she's now the leader of the team since Mom's gone! I'm supposed to know better than them. When Mom died to give birth to me, she left them all lost and broken! My dad never found love again after that. Speaking of my dad, he's no help either despite him trying to at least, because I nearly got him killed when I crashed the van because of my powers were acting up. Lastly, there's my Connie, my sweet, smart, beautiful Connie. She's not around as much to help me because she's preparing for college even though she's two years away from actually applying, but that's besides the point. When I proposed to her, she said not now, which I get because we're both young. So I can't go to her for help because that would be insanely awkward so I choose to avoid her for a while." Steven stated before finishing. "My point is they're always expecting me to be some angel like my mom was when I'm not! I don't think things through, I let my pacifistic nature stop me from getting stronger, I end up unintentionally hurting people even though I fix the problem and on top of all that, none of them asked me how I was feeling?"

Doc T interjected. "Maybe that's true, but still Steven, they care about you. Why don't you let them help you?"

"It's because I doubt that they would've helped me if I did." He stated bitterly. "But's that's not the even the worst part. A few weeks ago, because of my uncontrolled powers and my repressed emotions. I ended up turning into a giant monster that nearly killed everyone and almost destroyed Beach City. Thankfully, The Gems, the Diamonds, Spinel, the Cluster, Lion, Dad and Connie managed to stop me before I did."

"You really did turn into a monster? How?" The professional asked.

"Well, my gem powers are tied to my emotions. That's why if I feel bad, my powers either don't work or go out of control crazy." He said, a smile grazing his face for the first time since he got there. He then let out a deep sigh of relieve of finally getting all of that off his chest. "Thanks for listening, Doctor Travis."

"No problem, but you know you must do now right?" Doctor T asked.

"Yeah, but I really don't want to." The hero said.

"Well it's better than continuing to bottle them up. Remember what happened the last time you did that?" Travis said gently.

"Yeah." Steven said. "I'll try to."

The room was silent for a few minutes Steven began to get up and head towards the door.

"Oh, and one more thing Steven." The therapist said, making Steven pause. "Make sure you tell them everything, if you don't, your relationship with your loved ones will never get better. Trust me, I'm speaking from experience here."

Steven thought about this for a few seconds before coming to his decision. "I will." Steven said before opening the door and walking out the room.

Back to the present...

Steven opened his eyes and realized that by that looking in the sky that it was now in the dead of night now.

"Wow, I must how been remembering for a while." He said, chuckling before stepping on the gas pedal again, causing the car to go forward. "I'm glad I told them how I felt." He said to himself as he continued to drive, intent to settle down in a hotel for the night.

As the former Gem/human ambassador was focusing on his drive into the night, he was seemingly unaware of the dangers out there, not just on Earth, but out in space as well...

To be continued...

AN: Remember when I was going to do a Steven Universe fanfiction while doing the next chapter of "Man of the Loud House" when I did the author's note on the current chapter?

Well, this is that story I was talking about.

AN 2: If you guys want to do fanart like the cover for this for me to use, please PM me on this so can know and see what you guys come up with.

This is the Reality Shredder, I hope you all enjoyed the first chapter of this and I'll see you all next time.