Greetings, and welcome to a new experience for all Steven Universe fans! We are so glad to have you here, and hope you stick around for this wild ride!

This story aims to give you all an incredible narrative to enjoy, to see all your favourite Steven Universe gems, humans and otherwise, and their new adventures! What adventures, you ask? Why the new adventures they will explore with the altered canon!

This story seeks to show you all something...what if something change? What if one, VERY signifigant event ended up differently, heavily altering the course of Steven and the Crystal Gems' adventures? One very important point of the story that changed?

What is that change in history? Well...you'll have to read to find out, won't you? Now sit back, relax, and enjoy the first chapter in the first Saga of the War of Light!

The Hunt, Chapter I!

...It had been ages. How long since Lapis left?
How long since that Peridot gem tried to crush him?

And...how long did the others want to hide things from him?
Steven watched off the edge of the deck of the house, as the waves crashed softly against the shore, wetting the previously dry rocks and the decayed, broken pieces of the Temple that laid in the sand. All he could do was think. Think about everything that'd happened in the last year.

He found a mirror that repeated what he said. It was fun at first, until...he found out it held hostage a gem named Lapis Lazuli.
She fought, nearly killed him, his father Greg, best friend Connie, and the Crystal Gems,
until he finally got through to her. He fixed her gem, and she left, returning the ocean she stole.

And that...was after the Crystal Gems grounded him for freeing her. For doing what he thought was the right thing.
She was so kind to him when he released her, but that attitude turned violent as soon as the gems showed up.
She mentioned that they KNEW she was in there, and did nothing. And yeah, they did actively try to stop him from having the mirror.
And...she said they can't be trusted.

...But he still did. Of COURSE he did, they were his family!
Lapis didn't seem that bad, not at all, but Steven knew for a fact that they cared. They just...kept stuff from him.
And to be fair...he rarely asked questions. To be perfectly honest, he worried about the kinds of things he'd hear. He knew there was a war before he was born, and...well, he didn't want to know about what the gems had to do. If they didn't tell him, then he probably didn't need to know anyway, right?

...At least, he wanted to believe that last part.
But ever since Peridot returned to Earth with a huge gem named Jasper and a captured Lapis at her sides...he wasn't so sure anymore.
They were captured, but just about as quickly they escaped, crashing back on the beach. Peridot escaped with an escape pod, but...
Lapis, he assumed in an attempt to save him, accepted an offer Jasper made to fuse. The two formed Malachite, but before she could make a move,
she seemed to trap herself, dragging the fusion down to the bottom of the ocean. He heard her voice before Malachite disappeared. He knew it was Lapis that did it.

...He hadn't seen her since. Not once. And several searches proved useless.
And Peridot hadn't been seen either. Whether or not that was bad or better...he didn't know.
But at the very least, he was confident they'd find them both. Find Lapis, handle Jasper...and heck. Peridot didn't seem that bad.
Steven felt...he could really get through to her. She didn't seem as bad as Jasper. Peridot seemed...different, somehow.

Maybe, if he could just pin her down for a bit to talk, they could really narrow down her problems.
Convince her to ditch Homeworld, and come to Earth! It was foolproof, sorta...!

"...YOU DON'T REALLY BELIEVE SHE CAN CHANGE, DO YOU?"

He tensed up.

"SHE'LL KILL YOU. SHE WILL GET YOU ALONE AND SHE WILL BREAK YOU."

He shut his eyes.

"SHE BELONGS TO US. SHE KNOWS THAT. SHE'D NEVER CHANGE FOR A DOOMED PLANET."

"No..." The boy shook his head.

"FACET-2F5L CUT-5XG WILL KILL YOU. YOU'LL BE SHATTERED. "

"S...s-stop...!" He continued to shake his head. "Leave me alone...!"

"...OH. OH, I SEE." The horrible voice spoke. "YOU STILL THINK SHE'LL CHANGE. BECAUSE OF FRIENDSHIP, RIGHT?"

A low, horrible chuckle.

"...THAT'S CUTE. VEEEEEEeeeeerry cute." The voice became clearer, more defined. "That you think she can break from our Radiance's will?
Pathetic. Lazuli turned, and that was unfortunate. But not that bad a loss. You'd be surprised how...expendable, her kind is."

Two hands took his shoulders. They were hot...no, burning-no, SEARING.
"5XG...is not like Lapis. I feel you know this. I know what 5XG is like. She is, like all Peridots...compliant. She LIKES her position.
She LIKES Yellow Diamond. And she DOESN'T, like you."

A hand pressed to his neck. Mechanical...separated fingers.
"So...DIE AT HER HANDS. OR MINE."

They gripped his neck tightly...

And he woke up.
He didn't scream this time, thankfully, though he quickly realized the house was empty anyways...

It was 2AM. Two in the morning, his clock told him when he looked over.
...It happened again. This wasn't the first time he'd dreamt of this. Not...at all.

It started with this...feeling. This feeling, deep in his gut, that kept him up at night. He didn't know why he had it, or where he got it, but...
He felt something was...coming. Something bad. It'd been keeping him up for longer stretches of time he thought of it.

This...black sillouette. Of a girl, he thought...from what he always saw, she was entirely black, and had...had hair, and a body shape that looked female.
And all those dreams-no, nightmares...always had something scary.

He could be trapped in a narrow hallway, the figure slowly approaching with this...CRAZY grin, being chased through a forest, or he'd be in his house, the exact same house he knew, but...there was fire everywhere. EVERYTHING was burning...and that was only a few examples. And he could swear no matter what the dream showed, he'd almost always see...

Shards. Purple, red, blue, white...even black, green and grey ones...
He hoped they were just plain nightmares, but...they didn't go away. And they only got worse. Something HAD to be-

"Yo, Steven!"

He jumped slightly. The hybrid gem-human turned, seeing Amethyst entering the house, a box of donuts under one arm, a pink frosted sprinkled donut in the opposite hand.
The rather thick gem walked into the house, looking up at him from the living room.

"Dude, you're up late again. Still can't sleep?" She hopped up into the air, landing in front of his bed.
"...Donut?" She offered the box.

"N-no, thanks." He waved a hand. "Hey, Amethyst! Where have you been? Like you said, it's pretty late..."

She shrugged. "Eh. Out. Got some donuts, ate them, got some more donuts...ate them, then got more...kiiinda went on for a while. Be honest,
thought'cha would be asleep by now. You're usually down by, like, one?"

Ignoring the fact she got donuts at 2AM...he'd rather not think about that.
"Yeah..." He replied. "It's...that dream again. You know the one."
In fact, she did. So far, she was the only one that knew. Amethyst made it clear she knew almost as little as he did about the war, and she was always closer to Earth culture than the others, so he talked to her about that stuff more.

"Ooohh." She nodded. "THAT dream. With the shadowy guy?"

He nodded. "It still hasn't stopped. And it's getting worse."
He hugged his legs as Amethyst hopped onto the bed, sitting down. "I...I saw hands this time. And...a-and they were burning hot, and..."

"Eaasy, dude." Amethyst raised a hand. "And the shadowy guy was there?"

He nodded.
"...Yeah. They're the one that did it." He said. "Their hands were...on FIRE, and they were saying these really bad things..."
He sighed. "...I don't know what it means. I don't know why I keep HAVING the dream! It's been happening ever since we saw Peridot last, on that video to Homeworld she recorded?"

Amethyst bit into a donut.
"So...this ain't stoppin', then." Her words were slightly garbled as she chewed. "Look, Steven...I dunno why it's happening, I dunno how it's important, or if it even IS important, but hey." She put an arm around him. "You know we're here for ya. And if ANYthing comes here, we'll all have it handled.
Right?"

"...Yeah." He looked up at her with a smile. "I know. It's just...they won't stop. And it all feels so...real. Like something is GONNA happen."
His smile disappeared as quickly as he gained it. It was unlike the normally cheerful child, but that seemed to be the toll the supposed nightmares took.

"...Then we'll stop it from happening." Amethyst said. "Like that one movie, remember? Where they see visions of bad stuff and they stop it?"
He remembered it. They prevented...death. Ugh...

He nodded. "I guess so..."
Steven wanted to agree with her. He wanted to more than anything at that moment. But both he and Amethyst knew...

The people in those movies ALWAYS lose...

"...Look, Steven. I know this crap has been bugging you for a while. I get it. But, like...you've been holed up for a few days.
I know this all probably has something to do with Peridot, and Lapis, and all that stuff. But hey. You gotta remember there's people out there worryin'. Connie came 'round the other day. Greg did, too. Even Lars and Sadie asked where you've been when I was out yesterday."

"...I know. I'm just...trying to get a feel for what this is all about. If it's real, if it means anything, y'know?"

"Yeah, I get it. But you're not giving up, right?"

He shook his head.
"Of course not. I just think I need to get a wrap on this stuff. It's all distracting, and it has SOMEthing to do with Peridot...I need to talk to her, next time we see her. Maybe she'll know?"

Amethyst shrugged. "Good luck having a conversation with that rabid nacho."
She paused, and looked out the window, when her face lit up. "Hey, shooting star!" She pointed.

Steven quickly looked up. Indeed, he saw it. A small shape, shooting over the horizon.
"It is! Quick, make a wish!"

He closed his eyes, as did Amethyst...a moment passed.
"...There! I wonder if it''ll come true?"

"What'd you wish for?" She asked.

Steven giggled. "If I told you, it wouldn't come true, right?"
He fell for that once. He wished that they'd make those tiny chocolate eggs legal where he lived. ...And then Amethyst tricked him into telling her. He almost immediately laughed it off, though.

Amethyst chuckled.
"Thought you'd say that. Was betting you'd slip up like last ti...hey, that stars' getting pretty close, huh?"

"...Huh?" The boy turned his head...and indeed, not only had the star not moved out of view...it seemed to be heading CLOSER.
Shooting stars didn't do that...right?

It shot fast, fast, approaching at near light speed. Amethyst hopped up.
"Hang on a second...that's no shooting star-!"

The sudden impact rocked the house, Amethyst almost immediately tumbling off the bed with a "WOAH!"
Steven flopped off the bed himself, smacking his head onto the floor with a grunt. And just as quick as that mini earthquake came...it was silent.
The boy got up, shaking himself off, before looking out the window next to his bed.

Amethyst got up, rubbing her head.
"Ow, what's this floor MADE of...?" She groaned, looking over. "Steven? You good? Must've been like a meteor or something."

"No..." Steven looked at her, a look of terror on his face.
"It's a ship!"

I hope you enjoyed the first chapter! Did you like it? Leave a fav to show your love, a follow to stay caught up, and a review to let us know what you thought!

You can follow us on Twitter TheTrioIsComing for future updates on the story, or go to our DeviantArt page, Zenny-Boy, where character art will be posted in the future for your reference! We hope to see you again soon!