Summary:
Time for good therapy
Finn tossed another eye guy aside as he heard lightning in the distance. "So we never really come to Ooo." One of his new friends, Marco, said as he punched another mook. "What's the deal here?"
"Let Wander fight off Hater by annoying him. The guy's weaker emotionally than he is physically." Jake said as he started juggling the villains. "He actually saved the galaxy a while back, so him trying to conquer Ooo is more to prove his bad guy level rather than being bad."
"Ah, something to prove." Star said as she froze some peepers over. "Seems fun to try and mess with him."
"Oh like you wouldn't believe." Kelly laughed as she sliced through some lasers. "Leave you singed if you can't run fast enough, but the reactions are hilarious."
BANG
"WANDER!" A skeleton shouted, chasing the little orange dude. "I WILL HAVE YOUR HEAD!"
"Wow, this gives me some serious early Ludo vibes, except somehow more funny." Star giggled.
"Definitely." Steven laughed, glowing pink as he bubbled a few eyeball guys.
"Bro, you okay?" Star asked, stopping her onslaught as she turned to her brother. "You've been pink since the fighting started."
"I have?" Steven turned to his glowing hands and inspected it. "Oh, ah, guess it's a combat reflex I guess, like how you fight in your sleep."
"Yeah, except you've just been bubbling guys." Finn pointed out. "No judging, just pointing out the obvious."
"They're Eyeball people, I'm not going to be punching them in the face, that's just rude." He said. "You don't try to poke the eyes out of every enemy you fight."
"Nah, that's only for the hard core baddies." Jake laughed. "Although my favorite one was Evil Sandwich…boy, was he delicious."
"Wander's still trying to cope with it, wondering if it counts as cannibalism." Kelly laughed
"So Hater, you mind telling me if you are a carnivorous skeleton that ate meat, do you think eating the bones would count as cannibalism, or just natural?" The orange one himself asked.
"WHY DO YOU ALWAYS HAVE TO MAKE DESTROYING YOU SO ANNOYING!?"
"You could always try him." Sylvia pointed at the villain. "He can take a punch or two."
"Oh yeah, no problem." Steven smiled. "Let's try a simple bubbled fist for protection, followed by a rush and jab." He covered his hand in with a jagged pink bubble, took a deep breath, and warped straight into Lord Hater's side, connecting his bubbled fist into the man's boney ribs..
As if lagging, nothing happened for a few seconds, followed by a shockwave and gust of wind, everyone pushed back, the eyeball crew went flying, and Lord Hater was sent flying through the hull of the ship, rising farther and farther into the sky until he was nothing more than a twinkling star. "Whoa…now that was a Banay-nay punch." Jake whistled, impressed.
"Well that's certainly not how I wanted things to go down." Wander sighed. "I know he can come off as a bit of a jerk, but that seemed just a tad uncalled for."
"Sorry, sorry, sorry! So Sorry!" Steven panically began to explain himself as he stared at the now empty battleship in shame. "Sylvia said he could take a punch! I, I, I didn't mean to use that much power! I guess I-I just thought by association, I threw at him what I do to Mina … or Vilgax … or Jasper … or Him …" Each name seemed to make the kid go paler and paler by the second.
"Hey, no sweat dude, Hater's survived way worse than that before." Finn walked up to pat the kid on the back. "You got the jerkward of Ooo, that's a win in.." Finn paused as he felt something around his wrist. "Ah, Steven? Why'd you bubble my hand?"
"I did?" He looked at his bubbled wrist. "Ah right, sorry. I swear, this hasn't happened before! I don't struggle with my powers like this anymore, I swear!"
"Seriously dude, are you okay?" Marco asked. "We can take you to a doctor or something."
"Marco, this is gem stuff probably. There is no doctor alive qualified to fix this mess."
"We have Doctor Princess." Finn suggested. "She's helped deliver eldritch abomination babies."
"No appointments, no doctors, and no abomination babies." Steven waved off. "I just need to-to-to catch my breath! Yeah, that's all!" Steven began walking off. "I'll be taking a walk! Shout if you need me!"
"Oof, looks like he's locking quite a few things in the vault." Finn winced.
"The vault?" Star asked.
"The mental lock I have in my mind whenever I want to shut out any unpleasant memories or experiences." Finn explained. "One of them ended up being memories of a past life that kept haunting me until I made things right."
"I actually met Shoko once when a dream demon tried to take over Finn." Kelly shrugged. "Lovely girl."
"I keep forgetting there's this huge gap of context that happened when you went off on your own." Marco rolled his eyes. "So do you have any advice on how to deal with the vault?"
"Gently talk him through trying something small." Finn said. "If you force him he'll close up and it gets worse, and if you get him to let it wide open, every horrible event floods through your mind as you relive your worst nightmares in real life over and over as you suddenly regain consciousness while holding a bloody head." They all stared at him with concern. "I was really lucky I was in the neverzone when I did that."
"I'm not sure if you saying it so nonchalantly is a sign of well-adjustment or another level of insanity." Star muttered.
"Probably both. I have trauma-memories dating back as a baby." Finn admitted. "It's given me a wide range of life experiences, maybe even two lifetimes worth, so I say it's a good trade off."
"So start small, then work your way through it bit by bit." Wander told them. "Patience is a virtue after all."
"Oh, believe me, hairy spoon man, if there's one thing the ignorance of my own people has taught me, it's that patience is the key, even when you get so frustrated you feel like the only answer to all life's problems is to destroy the nearest living town." Star nodded confidently.
"Oh, you'd get along super well with Flame Princess on girl's night." Slyvia snorted
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Kelly cuddled with her boyfriend, who was watching the show intensely. "You know, I didn't believe you at first … but you're right." Steven said. "Crying breakfast friends has a lot of character depth."
"I told you Steven." Star snickered. "It starts off slow and unassuming, and BAM! It hits you right in the feels, touching your heart in ways you didn't know was possible." She looked at the screen. "Just be glad we're watching it now with the main story progressing. When I started, there were so many hiatuses that I almost dropped the show entirely."
"Man, I haven't watched TV in like … ever." Kelly reminisced. "We never really settled down back then, and on Ooo they had no internet, so this is really weird to watch others deal with emotional problems." She paused. "We should hang out with the off colors more and watch them deal with the drama for a change."
"With Rosie being a part of Fluorite now?" Steven asked, his eyes flickering a diamond shape. "I kinda want to wait on that part."
"That reminds me, there's still all those Rose Quartzes in the zoo." Marco pondered out loud. "Probably should do something about that one of these days now that we're no longer enemies with homeworld."
"Oh … yeah …" Steven tensed up, his hands flickering with a pink light. "We should probably free them … and fix up the Holly Blue situation too … not sure about the Zoomans, don't think we can't just let them live on earth after they've spent so much time in space….plus they probably hate Dad and Mom."
Star sent a jab into Marco's chest for bringing up something uncomfortable. They were all treading on a thin line right now. "Hey, we don't have to go to space anytime soon, we'll deal with them when we feel like it." Star rubbed Steven's head. "For now, we can be grounded, as in, stay on earth and only earth."
"That's right, we can just stay home." Kelly hugged Steven further. "Where there isn't anything here that'll try and kill you."
BOOM
"AHHHH!" Steven jumped from the seat as his entire body glowed. "What was that!? Are we under attack!?"
"Nonono, my mom and dad are building a jacuzzi out back for relaxation stuff." Marco waved Steven off as he stood up to calm him down. "They got some construction workers, and it's just drilling out back.
DRRRRRR
Steven's arm began to inflate a bit. "Just construction, okay, okay, just construction …" This was getting worse.
"Steven, calm down, just keep breathing and focus on my voice." Star got up and grabbed him by the face. "There's nothing to be afraid of here. There isn't anything or anyone to fight."
"Right, there's nothing to fight. Nothing to fight." Steven calmly breathed as the light on his body began to fade. "There's nothing to…"
"Arf!" One of the laser puppies came in and shot a weak blast at Steven.
" NO!" Steven lit up pink again and threw a chair right at the little creature.
"I got you Barco!" Star dove in and grabbed the puppy right before it could be turned into a bloody smear. "Okay, maybe staying at Marco's house wasn't the best place to hang out."
"It's fine, it's fine." Marco raised his hands. "We'll just take the dogs outside for now, alright?" He asked, trying to pacify her boyfriend as she rubbed Steven's back.
"No, no, no! No moving! I'm going to stay here where I can see the danger right in front of me!" Steven's breathing started getting more rampant and gasp-like as he began backing himself into a corner. "WHY IS THIS HOUSE SO SMALL!?" Spikes began to align his back as he grew.
"Steven, Steven." She tried to get his attention. "You're getting bigger, you need to calm down. Take deep and long breaths, alright?" She grabbed his big arm, even when her hand ended up bubbled. "Nothing is going to hurt you as long as I'm here."
"Hey, don't hit too close to the powerline! You'll-" A voice shouted outside, before the TV began to spark.
"AGG!" Steven screamed as he threw a small shield, which went straight through said device … and the walls, and the truck outside, and the house right across the street…and probably through more houses if the continuous crashing noise were any indication.
"Okay Steven, we need to take this seriously." Marco marched up to him. "Your powers haven't been on the fritz since Toffee corrupted your powers. I can handle a little bit of overkill in fights and mild property damage, but I draw the line at nearly decapitating any family that could have been standing outside the house."
"It's fine, it's fine." Steven growled as he turned his head. "Everyone just needs to leave me alone and everything will be fine. Just gotta shut everything out."
"Steven, you of all people should be the last person promoting self isolation." Star argued. "There's literally no situation where doing something alone worked out for us."
"That's not true … there was Lapis." He brought up, not even sounding that sure of himself as the bite and anger began to build up in his voice.
"That was you going to her, that was two people working through issues together." Star argued back.
"Look, it's fine, alright?"
The broken TV started flickering, an image of Steven on it. "It's fine, it's fine, not fine, not fine."
"See Steven, even your own subconscious is telling you otherwise!" Marco yelled, making Steven flinch more and more. "If you don't start cooperating, we're gonna have to drag everyone we know and force you out.." Kelly knew this was going to end ugly even before Marco began reaching out to grab Steven, but seeing it practically happen in slow motion, it was like watching a train wreck right before the carnage unfolded.
"Leave me ALONE!" At his shout, everyone was blasted back by pure sound and force, the walls cracking and crumbling as parts of the ceiling started to fall down.
"STEVEN!" Kelly yelled as a huge piece fell on top of her whole body, only stopped from being totally squashed by the cushion of her hair.
"KELLY!" Her boyfriend shouted once more as he rushed over, taking the entire slab of wood and cement off her. " Please be alright, please be alright!"
"I'm fine…nothing more than the usual round of scrapes and bruises in a typical fight." She reassured, trying to shake off the rubble out of her hair.
"Um …" They turned to the two Diaz parents, who were staring at the children exposed to the open air … which made sense considering a full half of the house was gone.
"One of you is going to a doctor, now." Mrs Diaz said with a glare. "Or so help me I will drag you there myself."
The sternness made Steven's skin glow pink again. "Ah, ah, ease up on the tension! It just makes things worse!" Star quickly shook off the debris on her and rushed to her brother. "Bro, I know you just want things to sail smoothly after everything with Mina and Homeworld, I do too. But..But this." She waved to the destruction. "We can't just shake it off and say everything's fine when it's not. You have a problem, and we want to help you solve it."
Steven was shocked, looking like he was looking for the quickest exit, only for Kelly and Marco to be standing right behind him, giving stern but very concerned nods. "I…I don't want to go to the doctor…I don't trust anyone there."
"Dude, we know one, and she's literally going to be our step mom." Star groaned. "She's looked you over before, and she clearly cares about your health. If there's anyone you can trust, it's her."
Steven fidgeted in place. "...Alright, but I won't like it."
"Steven, if anything funny happens, we'll be there with you." Kelly kissed him on the cheek. "I swear on my life, nothing is going to hurt you."
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Camila sighed as she looked over his results one more time. She was glad Greg's kid was being reasonable and allowed himself to be examined, even with his body constantly shifting sizes making the measurements go off every so often. "Now, despite you thinking I don't know anything about gems … thanks to the major overhauls of the city, this hospital has had to study many species of all kinds." She told the kids. "Witches, Dragons, anything that Tennyson kid can change into …" That last one was essentially a whole encyclopedia of knowledge itself.
"So you know about gems?" Marco asked.
"Well it's mostly for doctors who have a dual major in geology, but I figured if I was living right next to them I should at least be there to get something." She displayed images. "These are x rays of the Crystal Gems." She showed off Pearl, Garnet, Lapis, Bismuth, Peridot. "They only show the gemstones themselves … besides Amethyst." The last one had a picture of a human digestive system with her gem.
"How is that possible?" Star asked
"From what I've gathered, she shapeshifts the entire system, and she eats so much food that it leaves an imprint for the x-ray to find." They were going to have to add an additional wing to the hospital dealing with extranormal patients. "Now, here's Steven's." She displayed an X ray of a pink gem next to a human skeleton … a very damaged looking human skeleton. "You've increased the number of fractures since the last time by at least three times."
"And they're not just on the skull too." Kelly pointed out, the boy in question silently listening.
"No human child normally would be able to survive this much damage, it is by your sheer healing ability alone that you're still able to walk." Camila carried on. "From what I gathered, the bone's healed almost instantly upon breaking."
"That's good, right?" Steven asked, curious and worried.
"I would say yes in most circumstances, but whether healed bones or not, it still hasn't prevented your body from experiencing the trauma associated with these types of injuries."
"Yeah, but, why is that a problem?" Luz asked, watching intently. The only way she got her daughter to enjoy her work was the promise of observing random paranormal species … a mixed bag really. "Yeah, we've experienced trauma, but we can get over that."
"No, that's not how it works." Camila groaned, doing her best to not get angry with a kid that she knew didn't know better. "Trauma is something quite a few do work through, but childhood trauma has a lasting impact throughout people's life. It affects how your body reacts to stress or adverse situations."
The kids all looked at each other in confusion at her explanation. "... It does?" The boy asked.
"Yes. You've said that loud noises make you uncomfortable in ways they didn't before, and you feel like you're under attack and you need to be alert?" Steven gave a weak nod. "Well, when people face a crisis, the brain releases a chemical called Cortisol. It triggers bodily functions where your heart starts racing and all your body tenses." She gazed at his glowing pink skin. "If my theory is correct, your body's cortisol might be supercharged due to your powers."
"Well, that's good, right?" Star asked. "His body is naturally doing what it needs to do?"
"While good for dangerous situations, it's happened so often that his body and subconscious are now treating smaller situations as bigger ones." She said, "Could you give me some small examples of past problems?" A little reference to work with.
"Yeah." Steven said. "We're all in danger all the time, we've fought monsters over the familiar heirloom, we got lost in a dimension for a couple of years cut off from the rest of our friends, family, and society in general, getting attacking by a giant bug monster, the times Lapis almost drowned us.." Each more example seem to make the boy shake and sweat with every passing moment.
"I said small examples!" She shouted, trying to cut him off.
"That was small." Star shrugged. "We didn't even mention the emotional manipulation, the fact Marco is sixty years older than us, and the times we actually did die and were brought back to life."
"This…This is what I've been talking about." Camila took a deep breath and made sure to stay professional. Above all else, despite their great accomplishments, these were still children who were naive about how the world worked. "You've all been facing so many threat's that you don't even comprehend what qualifies as dangerous, and Steven's body has been through so much stress and abuse that his body is now taking all forms of stress as if he's about to die, which is why his powers are constantly flaring up."
"But why is it only showing up now?" Kelly asked. "It's been over a month since Mina last attacked.."
"His body is still trying to cope with being able to rest after going through hardship after hardship." Camila explained. "It likely didn't show up before then because he has you all as a support group to ease the tension."
"Oh, so just hang out with my friends and do normal earth stuff, and my brain will fix itself, right?" Steven asked hopefully.
"No, this is deeply psychological, you're going to need mandatory therapy if we're going to even have a chance at fixing this."
"Oh come on, Luz goes through the same level of stuff I go through, and you don't see her going crazy with magic." Steven tried to defend himself and ditch the problem immediately.
"Don't throw me under the bus!" Her soon to be grounded daughter shouted.
"Luz isn't you. Just as you aren't her. We're all different people, and trauma affects us all differently, on an emotional and mental level." Camila affirmed. "You haven't fully processed the full scope of what all those traumatic experiences have done to you."
"They made me who I am, that's what they've done." The boy tried to defend, his body already shifting in response to the current stress.
"But have you truly considered how they made you feel?" Camila, even with the boy larger than two cars stacked on top of each other, approached like he was any other child. "Have you felt free to be frustrated, or sad, or scared of everything that's happened to you, or have you been forcing yourself to smile for everyone else's sake?"
Steven looked at her with big and stern eyes, but she saw them wince back as his expression became more and more ashamed. "I've been frustrated before … and now I really am happy …how I felt before shouldn't matter."
"It does matter, Steven. All your feelings matter." Camila reassured as the boy began to shrink just a little. "If you can learn to cope with what they meant to you then, and what they mean to you now, you will be able to get through this." She met the boy on eye level when he returned to normal size. "I can recommend where to go to get help, but the choice is yours."
"Steven, it's time, you can't keep running from it forever." Marco said bluntly.
"Oh shut up, you're the only psychologist I know, and all you did was show me how evil it was." Steven rolled his eyes.
"...What exactly did he do?" Camila narrowed her gaze at the red hooded boy.
"He wore dorky glasses and had Steven and I argue for ten minutes." Star explained. "We just got more angry afterwards and swore off therapy from then on."
"... I took the hippocratic oath, Luz, you're punishment for not telling me about all the life threatening trauma you took all depends on how healthy Marco is when this is over."
"Out the window Diaz!" Her girl shouted as she began dragging the boy in question. She felt a weird sense of concern and pride as Luz did.
"Oh come one, I was just trying to help!"
Camila shook her head. "I'm sorry you have such a deplorable example to go off of, but I can promise you therapists will not be anything like your friend over there. They'll be willing to listen to what you have to say, and they definitely won't be unlicensed amateurs that'll claim to know the answers you don't have."
"I guess that's a relief." Star sighed. "Don't worry bro, I'll be there for you if you need it."
"Good, because I'm recommending therapy for everyone here." Camila announced. "You've all experienced potentially the same level of trauma. Your nonchalant attitudes to it only lend credence to what I've been saying."
"Alright, I guess that's fair enough." Steven sighed as he looked up at her. "Ah…thanks for..checking on me."
"Of course, no problem at all." She smiled at the boy. "I may not have magic, but I've promised to help all life."
"All life, huh." That made her soon to be step-son let out a light laugh.
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Aquamarine could do nothing but stare at a wall. First she lost her Pearls because she threatened 'Pink Diamond', and just last minute, the Diamonds announced something that shook her to the core. The hierarchy was gone.
No rulers, no order … and she lost all of her power. All because of 'Steven Universe'. One organic with some lucky connections managed to change the minds of the Diamonds. And now Aquamarine was a laughing stock.
Gems everywhere berated her for harming 'Steven' and how 'cruel she was' to them. They're lower lifeforms, they're lucky to be in her presence at all! She wasted all that pathetic time on the rock known as earth for this! So much work for nothing!!
The legacy of Gems everywhere, ruined by one boy … the laughability of it all. No status, no respect, no purpose. Worse of all, she didn't even have Topaz to vent all her frustrations to. The moment word got out, the buff idiot punched her through a wall and said she always hated her, before performing the abominable act of fusion without purpose … it was pathetic.
She had spent the last few months flying through her once mighty empire, slowly watching as it broke down piece by piece. Bismuths started building statues that didn't reflect the world's glory, pebbles talked and ran through the streets like they were all equals, pearls began doing things without orders, absolute madness.
And the worst part of it all, was that her former status, her once proud and elite status now meant absolutely nothing. She was in charge of nothing, and ordered no one around.
If Pink Diamond was actually dead, then she would still have her illustrious reputation. If Steven Universe never existed, she would've had her own army of Pearl's by now to serve her hand and foot every second of every day!
Even if the wrath of the Diamonds came down upon her, she had to say it. "Curse you Steven Universe!" It was almost as cathartic as cursing that hybrid rodent back on Mewni."
"You hate him too?" She turned to see a Ruby with a gem on its eyeball. "I'm glad to see i'm not the only gem with common sense."
"I know, right!? It's like one moment, the whole universe makes perfect sense, but the second he comes along, everyone loses their mind and life loses all meaning!" Aquamarine ranted, feeling much needed relief after holding it in for so long. "So what did he do to you?"
"Ejected my entire crew into space, I tried to fight them and accuse him during the trial, but apparently my actions are negative, since it was against 'Pink Diamond'." They scoffed. "Punished for doing our jobs. It makes no sense whatsoever."
"Exactly! We did as we were told, and no one ever had a problem with it until he came along and started asking questions." Aquamarine groaned. "Did you hear how they're going to dismantle all the colonies? A millenia's worth of expansion, and it's tossed away like nothing."
"Oh, I've heard it gets even worse than that." The Ruby grunted. "There's rumors that the Diamond's are researching methods to use their powers to 'reverse damage' on all the planets. Not only dismantling colonies, but making it habitable for organic life."
"As if the universe doesn't have enough of those running around already." Aquamarine rolled her eyes. "If only that boy hadn't ruined everything."
"I need to make him suffer." The Ruby muttered. "Make him pay for this great mistake he inflicted onto our kind."
"We need him to suffer beyond all measure …" Aquamarine looked at her. "I take it you're still willing to take orders from an intelligent gem?"
"I never thought that definition would exclude the Diamonds, but yes, yes I am." The ruby nodded. "Anything to make him pay for what he's done to me."
"Excellent." Aquamarine giggled. "After all, if he's so gung ho about us having our own choice, then we should feel perfectly free to make him beg for mercy."
"Let's do it then." They laughed. "Soon you'll feel the pain we've felt, Steven Universe." A lowly gem, but one with a worthy cause.
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"And now we're here." Steven finished his tale. "I mean, I guess compared to everyone else my powers make it worse, but other than that they all seem fine, so I should be fine, right?"
Having been given little choice in the matter, from both his friends and from fear of his power's screwing everything up again, he reluctantly arrived at his first therapy session. He at least had the assurance his family would burst through the doors if something sinister were to happen.
It was very different from the first time, so far it was just talking about his life. He wasn't too sure about doing it alone without Star sitting next to him, but as he talked, he felt more…safe to let everything out.
The doctor didn't really try to pry anything out of him. Steven would just be asked a simple question and he was given as much room as he wanted to express how he felt about it. Ms Wong took a sip of her tea, placing it down along with turning a new page of her notebook. "Steven, do you mind if I ask you a personal question?"
"Ah, sure, I guess." He guessed that was the whole point of therapy.
"You seem to emphasize yourself and people around you as being 'fine' a lot." She pointed out. "As if it's a standard you need to achieve. Why do you think this is?"
He was taken aback at how she phrased it. "Ah..I guess because well, a lot of the time, things aren't fine. Something goes wrong with me or my family. If everything's fine, that means nothing is wrong anymore."
She gave a hum. "You mentioned before you fought against 'White Diamond' and her idea of perfection, claiming it as an impossibility." Ms Wong referenced. "If it's impossible, that means the solution to any situation isn't perfect, correct?"
"Ah, well.."' He wasn't sure if he was being tricked into saying something wrong, but he didn't want to be caught off guard like this. "White's idea of perfection was either be a mindless puppet or die, literally anything else would be better."
She nodded. "So you admit it's acceptable to have flaws."
"Well, yeah, that's part of growing up." Steven responded. "You don't just write someone off because they seem off."
The doctor looked up. "Flaws aren't just physical Steven, they're mental. Pearl had abandonment issues and projected herself onto you, which wasn't fine, but you accepted her, which means you accepted she wasn't fine."
"Pearl doesn't.." He was very uncertain about finishing that sentence. "She's family…"
"I know, and I'm certain she cares about you, but that doesn't change that she did. Just as you accepted your adoptive mother even when she hid information about you for so long.." Ms Wong noticed him grabbing the sofa cushion tightly as she stopped writing. "If you're too uncomfortable we can switch to another subject if you wish."
"Yes, please do." He let out a long breath
"Very well … Now as for Kelly, you've mentioned that you two have broken up twice before and come back together."
"Uh, yes."
"A pattern she exhibited numerous times when she was with her Ex-boyfriend, someone you've stated that you have…less than positive things to say about."
"She's moved on." Steven stated firmly.
"And while that is true enough that I can't confirm without a session with her, have you moved on?" They asked.
"I … don't understand the question."
"When she broke up with you both times, did you feel abandoned by her? Did you feel resentful?"
That was such a loaded question. "I…I did feel abandoned, I felt used…and I did feel angry…but it was at myself." Steven admitted.
"Why do you feel angry at yourself?" She asked.
"Because if we broke up, it meant she wasn't happy, and if she wasn't happy, it meant I wasn't good enough for her." Steven admitted.
They looked at him. "But on the Moon you mentioned you talked about how she felt she wasn't good enough for you, correct?"
"Yeah, we got stranded and we talked about how we ended up where we were while waiting on the others." Steven continued. "A lot of people, especially lately, have been trying to put me on this pedestal, that I can solve everyone's problems just by smiling and singing…but it's not as easy as that. I've struggled a lot to get to this point.
"No one is putting you on a pedestal. You may be part gem, but you're part human as well. Both are allowed to make mistakes, the problem is admitting them." She told him. "You talk with all of your enemies and work with redeeming them … however, there were two notable exceptions." She stated. "Toffee and Omnitraxus."
"I..I tried, corn knows that I tried even when it was clear that they wanted me dead." He let out a small tear. "That must make me sound like a real idiot, huh?"
"I'm not saying it was the right or wrong decision to try, or right or wrong to stop them. History has shown people fighting for their cause to the end." She said, putting her book down and leaning forward. "The problem is that when someone takes another's life, it can imprint onto them, lead to you constantly referring to them mentally whenever you think of regrets or mistakes, and gives them control over you even when they're gone."
"Ugh, that sounds exactly like the kind of messed up thing Toffee would want for me." Steven sighed.
"Exactly. To use layman's terms, the best way to 'get back' at those people so to speak, is to keep living your life. To not look back, and to not hold yourself to who you may have been back then. In other words, you are free to be happy." She glanced at the clock in the room. "How would you rate your strength on a scale from flyswatter to world puncher?"
"I'd say on an off day, I can punch a building to the ground in a couple of blows."
She went to a drawer, looking through it before pulling out a black ball. "This is a stress ball, squeeze it for now whenever you feel energy pent up, and don't be afraid to ask for help. It's a strength to have people like that on our side." She gently handed it to him. "We're out of time now, tell Star it's her turn."
"Alright." He took a step towards the door, and felt weirdly lighter than he did back before he came in. "Thank you." He nodded before going out the door, where his family and friends were waiting for him.
"How'd it go, Shtu ball?" His earth dad asked with a concerned smile
"Do we need to blast her?" Star began forming glitter in the palms of her hands.
"No … it was fi-" He thought about how much he's used that word. "It wasn't unpleasant… I guess." He gently squeezed the ball in his pocket. "She said it's your turn Star."
His sister groaned. "Fine." The girl walked in. "But I won't like it!"
"That's how I was when I went in." He nodded as he sat down next to Kelly.
"So, official verdict?" His girlfriend asked.
"She's not evil, even if her questions hit a little close to home at times." He sighed. "It wouldn't be the worst thing in the world if I came again next week."
"As long as she's helping, that's all that matters." Mom ruffled his hair. "Do you want to bake some treats later?"
"Yeah, I'd like that." He leaned back, just focusing on everything the woman said. Maybe it was alright … that things weren't fine.