Steven Universe Future: A Corrupted Identity

Chapter One: I'm Not Pink

Author's Note: This story contains some small spoilers for Steven Universe Future. It is set after the events of Bluebird, so if you are behind in the series, please read at your own risk.

When doing research, I noticed most fanfictions focused on near-immediate corruption, but this didn't sit well with me. Steven Universe is all about exploring your emotions and learning to be okay with yourself over time and I wanted my work to reflect that as much as possible.

The entire story is done and will go up every other day. I hope you enjoy my latest plot bunny!

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Chapter One: I'm Not Pink

Everything was wrong, but this time, it was because of him. He needed answers, but no one could give them to him. While at first his newfound powers wowed the group and himself, he steadily grew more wary of them. In the Reef, when he lost control and let his anger overpower him, he nearly got Pearl and Volleyball rejuvenated. He caused Volleyball to cower, fearing for her safety. Fear that he too felt when he looked down and saw his pink reflection staring back at him.

Anger wasn't a new feeling for Steven, but this, this unrelenting loss of control, was.

Volleyball said it was an accident. That his mother had a temper, that her scream could shatter walls. But he wasn't her. He was himself. Steven Universe. No one more, no one less. He was better than Pink ever was.

But staring at his reflection in the cracked floor of the Reef made him less sure than ever. The fear in Volleyball's face. The look on Pearl's face when she protected Volleyball from a power she didn't know Steven had.

And that incident with Bluebird. Sure, she instigated the fight by hurting his dad, but it was he who hit her first. He didn't have the patience with her to talk her down. All he wanted to do was fight.

Sure, he could use his power to save people, to fight and make peace with gems like Jasper, to put a stop to those that wronged his family, to rescue those from mistakes he made; he could use it for good.

But Pink wasn't good. His mother, the gem who led a rebellion to save Earth and mankind from tyrants, was a tyrant herself. She was immature, always hurting those who loved her.

"No," Steven whispered to himself as he stared at his bedroom's dark ceiling. "I'm not like her."

His hand instinctively reached down to cover the gemstone in his naval as he let out a long sigh.

"I have the power to change. I can be better than she was. I can turn this into something positive," he told himself.

His mind wandered to when he and Amethyst, together as Smoky, managed to save everyone the day he royally messed up on the boardwalk with other gems. To Jasper, who enjoyed having the chance to fight again. To himself, who was so surprised about his ability to grow and change.

Yes, he thought to himself with a small smile, I can be better.

He turned over, but sleep still eluded him.

Even so...what was this pink glow? It was like nothing he'd ever felt before. Nothing he'd ever seen –

Wait.

He sat up and looked at himself in the reflection of the sliding glass door. With a quivering hand, he pulled up his shirt and looked at his gem. He had seen it before. Stony. Stoic. Devoid of sympathy.

He remembered it so vividly that he cursed himself for not thinking of it sooner. That day. In White's head. Right before she changed her mind.

-Flashback-