🔓 (-The Observer freeing Steven, mayhaps?)
@markedmuses
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Steven felt like he was dying.
Cold. Exhausted. Battered, bruised, weak.
It had all started with some rogue sect of Gem soldiers that had split off from Homeworld and the authority of the Diamonds. They were unhappy - unhappy with the arrival of Era 3, of how their Diamond leaders had shifted from maintaining their cold and cruel idea of 'order' upon the Empire, to trying to amend for their various sins. To how Gems were no longer valued for the purpose they were created for, but for the content of their character. How those that would have once been considered a deviation against the norm and thus, unacceptable... weren't shattered.
So naturally, they took out their rage upon Steven - he'd been the one who spurred the Diamonds into changing their ways, after all.
Under more normal circumstances, he'd be on his feet, mostly recovered from his injuries, trying to fight his way out from his prison - perhaps even trying to negotiate with the rogue Gems to stand down. But he was missing something; something very important, something that was vital to his very being.
They had ripped out his gem.
It was a sensation he'd hoped that he would never have to feel again - it was like someone had taken the very heat, energy, and life from both his body and soul. He didn't have the strength to force himself to even try to get up. And, he knew that his Gem half should've formed upon removal of his gem; maybe they'd somehow figured out how to suppress the forming. It could've been something as simple as bubbling the gem.
Regardless, all he could do was lie there, curled upon himself to try and conserve what little strength and body heat he had; he couldn't even muster the strength to cry.
He was going to die here, and no-one would know until it was too late.
