Emerald Spartan

Inner Demons

.......en

...ven

Steven!

He started to open his eyes slowly.

Steven immediately felt groggy, like he'd stayed up all night playing his golf game.

He struggled, but managed to open his eyes fully. But he was surprised when he saw his surroundings.

Walls of flat gray metal surrounded him on three sides. With a set of heavy bars that were obviously bent in front of him.

His shoulders were shaken lightly. He finally noticed the person that had shaken him awake. Rather roughly if he would add.

A good visor stared at him. With blue armor layered all over the figure.

While he'd only met her for a few minutes there was no mistaking who was in front of him.

Naomi was crouched by his side, rifle in her off hand.

"Good, you're finally awake, kid. Now if we could please get going, there are about to be several dozen insurrectionists coming through the doors any minute." She said with a bit of annoyance in her voice as she stood to her full height of 6 feet 9 inches.

She scanned the hallway connecting his cell to the few others he could see. Finger only slightly off the trigger.

Steven slowly stood up. His joints audibly cracking as his sore and tired body moved. But as soon as he did he noticed several key differences.

He was taller for one, nearly at neck height with the Spartan in front of him. Which would put him just under the six foot mark.

His clothes were dirty and torn. Probably from the forest he realized.

His appearance was slightly more....monstrous than he remembered. His nails were pointier, his skin had a slight pink hue to it. And worst of all, he put his hands up to his head and felt the small nubs where horns had grown out of his head. The same went for his spine.

That was when everything came rushing back to him. His monstrous transformation, what he did to that rogue gem when it attacked lapis, and the strange dream of.... Pink Diamond.

He felt overwhelmed. There was just so much happening all at once. He just wanted some time to process everything that was happening. Maybe talk about this with Garnet.

He didn't exactly trust Pearl or Quasar at the moment. They had both lied about mom or Rose Quartz.....Pink Diamond? Did he really care about the distinction right now?

Sleeping again sounded really good right now.

Hey! Steven! I know shits gotten real over the last couple of days but I need you to get it together for a few hours so we can get out of this pile of junk!" Yelled an annoyed Naomi.

It was then that a small explosion happened to his head right down the hall. Small bits of debris simply bounced off the thin gold barrier surrounding Naomi.

She swore before putting several short bursts down toward figures he couldn't see.

She ducked into the cell as a powerful boom sounded out and what he guessed was a sniper rifle round ricocheting off her shields. They shine bright for a moment before going invisible once more.

"Alright, times up! Sorry in advance kid!" She yelled at him before switching her rifle for a pistol. She then grabbed him and rushed out of the cell. Firing .50 cal rounds from her Socom magnum as she did.

He heard several yells and a loud thud when she stopped.

He wisely hugged the wall and tried to avoid any gunfire. Although he only had to worry about ricochets from here.