Author's Note:
Hey guys, just dropping by to say that even though this chapter didn't turn out exactly how I wanted, I put a lot of love into it. From this point on, I'm going to start asking for stars. For the next chapter, let's aim for about forty. Love you all so much!
"Good morning!" said the guy now known as Uncle Grandpa, appearing with an absurd level of casualness that only he could pull off.
The two of us stared at each other for several seconds in a silence that was as awkward as it was surreal. Well, silent on my end, because he was casually playing chess against himself while I was drowning in a whirlpool of chaotic thoughts.
Finally, I let out a sigh and spoke aloud, declaring that I had officially lost my mind. That caught his attention, and he looked up.
"Not at all, kiddo," he replied with a disarming calmness that only made my internal crisis worse. "I'm here to help you."
I watched him without speaking. I ran a hand through my hair and noticed my fingers were trembling. I really am going crazy, aren't I? Doubt was eating away at me, and my own brain didn't seem to trust itself anymore.
"Maybe," he answered as he handed me a slice of pizza that I took almost automatically. I started eating without thinking, as if that slice were the only sane thing left in the universe.
"Then what the hell are you doing here, Uncle Grandpa?" I asked, my voice a mix of a nervous laugh and sheer desperation. None of this was supposed to be real. He couldn't be here. I had to be dreaming. Yeah, that was it. A weird, intense, completely absurd dream. I was bound to wake up any second now.
"I came here to get you to summon your shield," he said with total nonchalance, like he was just asking someone to pass the salt.
I stared at him in silence, not knowing whether to laugh, cry, or just accept my fate. "My shield?" I repeated, more doubtful than before.
"Yup, that's what my bag said. Right, Belly Bag?"
"You bet, Uncle Grandpa!" the bag replied, sticking out a massive tongue and showing a photograph of me. "Though this Steven looks way tougher than the one in the picture," it added snarkily. The picture, clearly, was of the other Steven. The one from Future.
"That's a different Steven," I murmured after a few seconds of silence, a cold shiver running down my spine.
"Huh," Uncle Grandpa said, examining the photo with several eyes I didn't know he could grow.
"I can already summon it," I mentioned, and promptly materialized my shield right in front of him.
His reaction was so over-the-top it almost made me step back. He was so shocked that his eyes, tongue, and even his skin flew right off his body, leaving behind a bare skeleton as if that were perfectly normal.
I looked at him with even more confusion, barely managing to ask, "Have I officially gone completely insane?"
Quick as a flash, as if nothing had happened, Uncle Grandpa snapped back together in a single second.
"This has never happened before, Belly Bag," Uncle Grandpa said with a strange seriousness while floating slightly in midair. "We have to help this kid." Then he looked directly at me, as if I had suddenly become the key piece to his absurd plan. "And you're coming with me. Since you can summon it, you should help me out."
I opened my mouth to reply, but I didn't even have time to form a word. A black hole suddenly opened beneath my feet, sucking me down with brutal force.
"UNCLE GRANDPA, YOU SON OF A BI—"
I didn't finish, because the hole snapped shut, cutting my scream dead in half.
"My, what language," Belly Bag commented, visibly offended.
"You can say that again," Uncle Grandpa replied, floating on his back and spinning slowly like some absurd satellite. Then he muttered something completely unintelligible—a bizarre mix of backward words and mystical sounds: "ragell ed oroh, oresorg le noc naivnen em euq selatro." His body began to fade into glowing particles until he vanished completely, as if he had never been there at all.
Lapis looked up from the bed, confused. She thought she had heard my voice in the distance, but noticing I wasn't there, she just shook her head, pulled the blankets tighter around herself, and went back to sleep, acting as if nothing strange had happened.
Meanwhile, I was floating in an absolute void. No light, no floor, no sky. Just an infinite silence echoing through my thoughts. A few seconds passed that felt like an eternity, and then the world decided to stop being nice.
Suddenly, I started plunging downward.
"SHIIIIIIIIIT!" I screamed as I free-fell toward a surface that looked like sand. I squeezed my eyes shut, bracing for a brutal impact against the ground. But before I could eat half a desert's worth of dirt, a giant hand shot out and caught me midair.
"Good morning!" Uncle Grandpa's voice said with an irritatingly calm tone, lowering me down with exaggerated gentleness, as if I were a newborn baby.
The moment my feet touched the ground, I stumbled. I was dizzy, confused, and definitely incapable of keeping up with this character's chaotic pace. I felt like my brain was two thoughts away from quitting its job and going on a permanent strike.
"Looks like you're all in one piece," Uncle Grandpa said with an innocent smile, acting like he hadn't done a single thing wrong.
I just let out a long, exhausted sigh while looking at the house. It was familiar... but at the same time, it wasn't. It was like looking at a memory that didn't quite belong in my head.
"So this is where we're supposed to be, huh?" I asked, raising an eyebrow in resignation.
"You betcha!" Uncle Grandpa replied as an extra hand materialized out of nowhere, holding a list. The list was written entirely in a code that made zero sense to any sane mind. It looked more like a Lovecraftian manuscript than anything useful. I peered over his shoulder, took one look at it, and just gave up.
"Let's just get this over with. I have a furious Jasper back in my world," I said, walking toward the house like someone trying to leave before things got any worse.
"You got it!" Uncle Grandpa said, following me like we were out for a casual stroll. The two of us reached the front door.
"So, how are we doing this?" I asked, raising an eyebrow again, because obviously nothing was going to be normal.
"Why, we knock with our Door-Knocker-Inator 8000, of course!" he said perfectly naturally.
He pulled the device from some impossible corner of the universe and pressed a button. First, a guitar popped out and started playing itself; then, an extra hand emerged to tap out a weird rhythm; next, a violin appeared and was grabbed by a multicolored cat who played with the grace of an interdimensional tavern musician. Finally, that cat gave a loud whistle, and a woodpecker flew in to hammer on the door like a rock-and-roll drum kit.
I stood there in silence. As bizarre as it was, that whole sequence looked way too much like some thoughts I didn't like to admit I had.
"Good morning!" Uncle Grandpa said, giving me no time to process a thing.
The moment we stepped through the door, my eyes locked onto a younger version of myself. Well... the other me from this universe. He was shorter, rounder, and adorably confused. Even though our heights weren't miles apart, the perception made him look even smaller. He was maybe around 5'6", while I bordered on 5'9". It wasn't a massive jump, but for my age and compared to the original, it was pretty noticeable.
"Huh?" little Steven said, squinting at us in a mix of confusion and curiosity. But the second he spotted Uncle Grandpa, his face lit up with a smile larger than any I had ever seen on anyone.
"UNCLE GRANDPAAAA!" he screamed with an overwhelming joy that almost knocked me back.
Uncle Grandpa opened his arms wide as if welcoming a dear old friend, and that's when the conversation kicked off.
Uncle Grandpa explained with pure excitement that he had arrived to make sure everything was in order—ensuring the cosmic threads of destiny didn't get tangled and that the universe didn't turn into a messy smoothie of alternate timelines. He said that time, space, reality, and breakfast had to be kept in perfect balance. He also mentioned that his duty was to visit alternate versions of important people, especially when their emotional, cosmic, and heroic energy was on the verge of overflowing.
Then he pointed at him—the short Steven—and told him that he also played a major role, because one Steven always influences another Steven even if they've never met, since all Stevens are connected by a sort of universal protective instinct that he couldn't quite explain himself.
Finally, he pointed a sudden, serious finger at me and said I was there because there were things I couldn't solve alone in my world, and that crossing realities was part of the process of learning how not to break on the inside before breaking something on the outside.
"I'm just here to help you summon your shield," I said, letting my instincts take over. Even though I was standing in front of Uncle Grandpa and a version of myself... or not myself... whatever, it didn't matter. It was time to just let out everything I had inside.
I summoned my shield with a confident grin, and immediately, little Steven's eyes went wide, a massive spark of excitement lighting up his face from ear to ear.
"How do you do that?!" the little guy asked, pointing at my shield with bursting enthusiasm. He asked if he could see it, and I just handed it over like it was no big deal.
He took it with both hands and began to examine it like it was an ancient treasure. He felt its texture, stared at the gleam, the light it radiated, the exact curve of the edge. He took it all in with the intense concentration of a child absorbing multiversal knowledge through his fingertips.
I just watched him, a single drop of sweat rolling down my forehead, completely speechless, wondering if I had ever possessed that much energy.
"And how do you summon it?" the younger Steven asked, giving me that chubby, lovable look that reminded me exactly why I never wanted to be that round again. That face was dangerous. It could make anyone confess their deepest secrets.
I was about to explain it to him. Seriously. I opened my mouth to give him the basics, but before I could utter a single syllable, Uncle Grandpa slapped duct tape over my mouth out of nowhere. I froze, glaring at him with a raised eyebrow, a moral insult trapped in my throat.
"Oh no, Big Steven," he said, wagging a finger at me like I was a naughty kid. "You can't just tell him like that. He has to experience it, know what you did, feel what you felt to summon your shield. So..." he turned toward the warp pad with a chaos-promising grin, "...let's go to a zone I really love!"
He grabbed both of our hands without asking and yelled, "It's time to find the truth of the universe!"
And just like that, the three of us vanished into the warp beam, with absolutely no one questioning why on earth Uncle Grandpa could open a multiversal warp pad like it was a bathroom door.
Meanwhile, Amethyst, Garnet, and Pearl were standing right outside Steven's room. Moments before, they had been debating how to help him with his shield problem, looking for ways to cheer him up, support him, and teach him how to control it. They were fully prepared to walk in with words of encouragement.
But what they saw when they slid the door open defied any form of acceptable logic.
Steven. With two guys.
One was an old man with a belly and a completely absurd art style... yet he looked strangely familiar to them, though they couldn't place why.
And the other... was another Steven. Similar to him, but tougher, more confident, and taller. He had a gaze that seemed lost somewhere in the distance, as if he were standing in two realities at the exact same time.
"Did we just watch Steven kidnap Steven?" Amethyst asked, her mouth hanging wide open, desperately needing confirmation because her brain was already short-circuiting.
"My baby is in trouble!" Pearl cried, not letting Garnet say another word. Garnet tried to use her Future Vision, but the timeline was so distorted by Uncle Grandpa's presence that her visors just flashed with pure static.
Pearl didn't wait a second longer. She grabbed Amethyst by the arm, shoved Garnet forward, and without a second thought, the three of them lunged into the glowing warp pad, vanishing into a wave of light that swallowed them whole.
Steven was certain he had just met the god who had brought him there, as Uncle Grandpa teleported them through an absurd number of locations. We flashed through so many different backdrops that I eventually had to grab my mini-me to keep him from drifting away into the multiverse.
It was an endless few minutes of dimensional hopping while Uncle Grandpa just shook his head as if cross-referencing a cosmic checklist.
"Is that Adventure Time?" I asked, my face completely deadpan. Honestly, this day had started out so well... until Uncle Grandpa showed up.
"Well," Uncle Grandpa said calmly, "that's Finn. I'll have to help him out one of these days. Too bad he's not a priority right now. He can handle himself, even if he is just a kid," he added with a flash of wisdom that completely contradicted his chaotic personality.
Before I could even process the comment, he looked off to the side and said, "Here we are."
He teleported us in a flash, and we materialized in a vast, strange space.
"What is this place?" little Steven asked, scanning every corner with that relentless curiosity of his that didn't rest for a single second.
"This, my dear Little Steven, is..." Uncle Grandpa paused for dramatic effect, "...Pizza Steve's training zone! Pretty cool, right? This place is so durable it can take your most powerful attacks."
I just stared in silence, completely out of energy to question anything else. I simply sat down and waited to see what the multidimensional old-timer had planned.
I remembered that show where there was an episode where he helped Steven... the other Steven. What was happening right now looked so much like that, for a moment I felt like I was stuck inside a parody. But I wasn't in the mood to deal with my mini version. I didn't hate him; I just felt he was way too childish... something that clearly didn't match his stature or who I was now.
I watched Uncle Grandpa explain things to little Steven, whose face erupted into a giant smile as he started trying out everything: shoving, posing, yelling, vibrating, making absurd movements—it was practically a ritual dance. All because he thought that was how he was going to pull out his shield.
The scenery kept shifting without warning. First, we were on a beach. Then a desert. Then a forest. Then the moon. Then deep space. We even ended up on Homeworld; I practically scared myself shitless right there, but Uncle Grandpa sensed my fear and instantly warped us directly inside Lion's mane.
Don't even ask me how any of that worked. All I can say is that as time ticked by, I actually ended up enjoying the moment. I even got more involved in the conversation, showing little Steven how I could fly. That moment coaxed a genuine laugh out of me when I saw him looking up at me with pure admiration, like I was some kind of superhero.
After several hours of the three of us trying to figure out how little Steven would summon his shield, we finally came to a conclusion... one that, to be perfectly honest, I had already known from the very beginning.
I looked at Uncle Grandpa. He nodded, letting me be the one to explain it to him.
"Steven," I said, making the little guy lock his eyes onto mine. "I know this is new to you. Even now, you can't summon it, but you really need to. I'm not trying to pressure you... but you're gonna need it."
Little Steven took a deep breath and gave a firm nod.
"Just..." I let out a sigh, "...you have to have a clear feeling. A feeling of warmth. The feeling that makes you feel protected. Another one you need is love. Cherishing someone or something."
I looked at him intently, and he stared back at me like I was explaining the secret recipe to Coca-Cola.
I smiled. "You just have to let it flow. If you force it, you won't be able to summon it. If you get stressed, you won't either."
I gave his head a gentle pat. He made an adorable pout, puffing out his cheeks like he wanted to protest, but he didn't say a word.
The little guy closed his eyes with a shaky determination. He had hung onto every word, even though his tiny hands were trembling a bit from the excitement. Big Steven looked at him with a strange, almost paternal pride, taking a deep breath and murmuring that he trusted him, that he knew he could do it, that he just had to let it flow. The little guy clenched his fists as if grasping the very warmth of the universe.
The training room fell dead silent. Even Pizza Steve, who at some unknown point had ended up splatted against a nearby wall, seemed to hold his breath. Little Steven inhaled, thought of something warm, thought of his mother, his home, his newly discovered courage. For a second, nothing happened... and then a tiny pink spark appeared in front of him. It quivered like a bubble on the verge of popping, but it didn't burst; instead, it grew and expanded until it formed a small, glowing shield.
The little guy's eyes snapped open and an excited yelp escaped him without warning. Big Steven blinked in shock before leaping to his feet so fast he almost lost his balance midair. Uncle Grandpa let out a celebratory screech so over-the-top it echoed through the entire shatter-proof hall.
Big Steven was the first to react. He lunged forward to wrap the little guy in a tight hug, lifting him off the floor and spinning him around once. The shield vanished in a bright flash, but the achievement remained etched on their faces. The little guy laughed with a sound so pure that, for a fleeting second, Steven stopped feeling the crushing weight of everything else.
Uncle Grandpa joined the hug, squeezing the two of them so hard he practically knocked the wind out of them, declaring he was incredibly proud, that his little Steven was now a certified master of love and internal warmth—though Big Steven furrowed his brow, wondering if that last part sounded kinda weird or not.
In the end, the three of them stood together, laughing, happy, and breathing an air that felt lighter, as if the universe had granted them permission to just exist this beautifully, even if only for a little while. Little Steven looked at his older self as if he had just met a future that didn't scare him, and Big Steven, for the first time in a long time, felt that maybe he could trust that future too.
The three of them spent a quiet moment together while little Steven kept summoning his shield over and over. Each attempt came out brighter, more defined, and every success triggered spontaneous laughter and celebrations. It was a beautiful day, the kind of day Big Steven rarely allowed himself to enjoy. The little guy looked at him like he had found a secret hero, and Uncle Grandpa floated around dropping exaggerated comments that echoed through the indestructible room.
"Hey," I said, looking over at Uncle Grandpa.
"What's up, son?" he replied, while watching four ants armed with assault rifles recreate the war in Ukraine as if it were a totally normal thing to do.
"Am I ever gonna see you again? I feel like there were a lot of people left to meet."
Uncle Grandpa looked at me with an oversized grin. "Of course! In fact, you know what? I'll introduce you to them right now."
His hand reached straight through the wall like it was gelatin, leaving me with a drop of cold sweat running down my forehead.
"Mr. Gus!"
The named individual appeared holding a frying pan with what looked like a perfectly cooked breakfast. He was completely bewildered.
"Huh? What's going on, Uncle G?" he asked, spotting not one, but two Stevens: one chubby and punchable, and the other jacked... and also punchable.
"Oh, if it isn't the Steven Universes. You babysitting them?" Mr. Gus asked, raising an eyebrow like this was the most ordinary thing on the planet.
"Yep," Uncle Grandpa replied. But suddenly, his 100% real no-fake watch started ringing.
"Oh, holy mackerel!" he said, making a face so funny it looked like it had been drawn by a hyperactive kid with a three-digit sugar rush. "Mr. Gus, I'm leaving both Stevens with you. I gotta go check if the neuro-logico-whatchamacallit system is running fine."
Mr. Gus just gave a thumbs-up in understanding, acting like he knew exactly what he was talking about (he clearly had no clue).
"I'm out, catch ya later!" Uncle Grandpa said as a multicolored black hole opened beside him and a celestial horse appeared, carrying him away like an interdimensional Uber.
Little Steven was staring with his jaw practically glued to the floor, completely blown away.
I, on the other hand, just had the most "XD" face humanly possible.
"Hello," Mr. Gus now spoke. "Follow me, I want to show you the RV."
The moment he opened the door, both of us walked in, stepping into an interior that looked like an entirely different universe.
"Incredible!" little Steven yelled, his eyes sparkling.
"Totally," I replied, looking around. Through one window, different worlds were flashing by—I could even swear I saw the Dragon Ball one... and honestly, I don't want any part of that nightmare. I don't see myself tanking a Kamehameha without galactic health insurance.
I shook my head and looked over at the couch, where... wow.
"A tiger!" little Steven said, rushing over to hug it without a second thought.
I just turned to look at Mr. Gus. "Do you think I have little to no survival instinct?"
"50/50," he said with a grimace, crossing his arms. "But the good news is Giant Realistic Flying Tiger is friendly."
"Good to know," I replied, as the hyper-realistic PNG of the tigress started playing with the little guy like she'd known him her whole life.
"Should we leave them? I want to see the rest of the cabin, you know?" I asked curiously.
"Sure," Mr. Gus nodded. Before we left, he told the tigress to show the kid around.
"Roar," she replied in a boss-like feline voice.
As we walked down the hall, I saw a wall lined with picture frames. "Is that... a nuclear explosion?" I asked in surprise and a bit of admiration.
"Ah, yeah," Mr. Gus said, completely unfazed. "That was when Pizza Steve did a backflip so good the air friction caused a nuclear blast. Uncle G took the photo to immortalize it. A historic moment."
"Holy mother of god," I murmured, staring at more memorabilia of Pizza Steve like he was a national hero.
"Language," Mr. Gus corrected me, walking past a computer sitting in the middle of the hallway like it was part of the feng shui. "Come take a look at this, Steven," he said, showing me a drawing of his.
"Nice details," I commented on the illustration.
"It's a fanart I did when I was bored," he said with absolute pride.
"Don't you think that gem on the tail would be better off somewhere less vulnerable?" I told him, using my best anime wise-man voice.
"Could be," he replied, and the two of us stood there analyzing the fanart like absolute dipshits, treating it like a high-priority nuclear strategy plan.
And so we spent a good chunk of time observing every detail, making absurd comments as if they were scientific theories, and talking about topics that didn't involve screaming, existential drama, or surprise attacks from vengeful birds. I really needed to talk to people who had at least more than two IQ points to rub together. I don't mean to offend my own universe, but honestly, it's starting to annoy me a little bit. XD
But every day has its end. Both Stevens were taken back home by Uncle Grandpa, and the moment they crossed the threshold, the atmosphere shifted. Little Steven ran inside with a smile while Big Steven walked a bit slower, sensing something strange in the air. Stepping back outside, both he and the little guy watched as Uncle Grandpa vanished along with the entire place.
Big Steven was left in an immense, silent void, floating with no sign of the eccentric old man. He raised an eyebrow, confused, until a deep voice resonated everywhere as if echoing from infinity itself.
"My nephew," the voice said, making the void vibrate.
Steven spun slowly. "Huh? Are you God?"
The voice seemed genuinely bewildered. "What? No, that's my buddy. I'm just washing my hands of this mess."
Steven didn't know whether to feel offended or intrigued.
"You're always helping everyone else," the voice continued. "I know you're stressed out, I know you're giving it your all, so I'm gonna give you a hand. A guide. Think of it as a little favor for a little favor today. You're one of the weirdest versions of Steven I've ever seen, you know?"
"Hell yeah, I'm one of a kind," I said, causing the voice to erupt into laughter so massive it shook the void.
"You're lacking spikes," it replied.
Before he could ask, Steven felt a tingling sensation in his fist. Bubbles materialized around his hand, wrapping it tightly before solidifying into sharp, glowing spikes. He stared at them in surprise, struck by the bizarre sensation that he had done this somewhere before without remembering it.
"You're doing great, kid. Keep it up, and you'll be able to steer that world in a whole new direction."
Steven could only blink before being hurled back into his reality as if someone had flipped a giant switch.
The moment he snapped back, he heard Belly Bag's voice whispering from somewhere. "He's different," it murmured. "You were very calm today. You didn't do what you usually do."
Meanwhile, in some cosmic corner, Uncle Grandpa was looking out into the void from his space RV. "My buddy told me to treat him well," he confessed in a low voice. "He's suffered quite a bit, even if he doesn't remember it due to his time in the void. Poor soul." He shook his head while checking his phone, which displayed a text message that was more unsettling than usual.
"It was never a coincidence finding him," Belly Bag said, peeking out a bit.
"Not at all," Uncle Grandpa replied. "It was always planned. He needed a day off. But we have to keep moving." He looked down at his list and muttered a name. "Clarence. Interesting."
Steven fell hard onto his bed, his eyes wide open, breathing rapidly, his hands still encased in the spike-transformed bubbles. The impact didn't shake him. It felt like a weightless body landing with zero resistance.
Lapis was walking toward the bedroom when a black hole manifested in the middle of the house. She saw Steven go flying straight onto his bed as if something had launched him from another universe. What truly froze her in her tracks wasn't the portal, but Steven's expression—a hollow, overflowing look of sheer madness she had never seen on him before.
"Steven?" she asked, her anxiety spiking.
"I saw."
"I saw," Steven repeated without blinking, as if the words were too massive for his head to hold.
"What did you see?" Lapis asked in terror. Did he see the Diamonds? her heart raced at the thought.
"I saw God."
Steven was left pale as a ghost.
"Who is God?"
End of Chapter 44.