Steven Universe Of The Creek Chapter 11 Glowing Truth

After the day with the Williams family, Craig and his family left their grandparents. They were more than happy to see Craig enjoying his time, rather than how he acted this morning. As if he appreciated the value of Steven himself. Unfortunately that’s far from the truth. Steven parted ways with the family as he headed straight back to his apartment to pack up. However Bernard, throughout the entire day wanted to see Steven one last time before he left. But it’s anything but positive that he’s been showing to him since meeting him several days ago.

Right when he got home, he texted Alexis to meet him in the front yard to pick her up. Upon doing so, he also took Craig along to where Steven is staying which is in a different apartment to where she lives.

“Bernard.” Alexis spoke. “Not that I want to say goodbye to him, but you never told me why you wanted to meet him.”

“It’s hard to believe, but my brother Craig turned into a happy person even though he wasn’t like that this morning.” Bernard answered.

When Alexis turns to Craig, he holds onto his head, getting a headache ever since he returned home. “I don’t even remember how I got happy at first.” Craig retorted. “I still have something in my ear.”

“I wish he was crazy since Steven got here, but since he couldn’t communicate with me all day, It had something to do with Steven.”

“Steven wouldn’t do something bad to your brother.” Alexis replied.

“That is…if my brother wasn’t shaking with him from behind. If you were there today, you would know how empty he was before it happened.”

All that Alexis remembered of Craig over the past couple days is the incident at the restaurant yesterday. Her boyfriend told her everything other than the reason why Craig did it since he didn’t understand until today.

“Well we can agree what happened yesterday wasn’t Steven’s fault.” Alexis replied.

“Yes, but what happened today had something to do with him that made Craig different.” As he looked through the indoor car mirror, Craig looked straight at him.

“All I can tell you is that last night, he wanted to keep it a secret from everyone, including you.” Craig answered.

“Well tonight, we’re gonna find out since he showed it to you.”

Craig sighed, since he can’t take control of protecting the truth of how his brother caught on as quickly as he did. Bernard found the apartment Steven is staying at as he parked his car next to Steven’s. After he got out along with Alexis and Craig, he took a look at Steven’s van from the inside. With many personal belongings, he has a lot of questions, but only the biggest ones of them need to be answered.

Inside the apartment itself, Steven washed up his dish after having supper. Bernard walked up to the apartment door and knocked on it, catching Steven’s attention. Upon putting his dish away, he made his way to the door and unlocked it. He witnessed Bernard and Alexis standing in place, without saying hello for the final time, but also noticed Craig still getting a headache after the sparkle effect wore off.

“Bernard?” He spoke.

“Can we please come in, we need to talk.”

Steven invited the three in as they all sat in the living room of the apartment. “Is this mostly a goodbye before I leave tomorrow morning?”

“Technically yes, but this is serious.”

“It’s between you and Craig.” Alexis added.

“Oh.” Steven took notice while sitting down.

“Last night after we had the family meeting to sort things out, you took him out.” Bernard replied. “At first I didn’t care and defended you, but during the whole bean bag thing, you did something to his ear.”

“What makes you think that?” Steven giggled.

“You were behind him the whole time? What’s so funny?”

“I think you're really overthinking it, sometimes kids have mood swings from time to time.”

“Oh no…” Craig whispered to himself.

“Then why was he shaking? I saw him when you thought you saw a phoenix.” Benard said, staying on track. “Please, I’m not mad at all, but please be honest.”

Steven wished he could get out of this with him having the rest of the day to himself, but since Craig’s brother caught on, he has no choice but to tell the truth. “This isn’t gonna change anything but…I have gem powers.”

This only raises more questions from Bernard, not forgetting what Steven did during the family reunion. “What about the shield you showed me and Craig? You said your parents made it for you.”

“I’m not the only one with powers.”

“You seriously expect me to believe that!?” Bernard reacted. “I’m sorry, but sparkles from your shield? I’m starting to not buy on the idea that your parents made it if it had all of those accessories. Nor having powers like you do.”

“No offense, but I actually agree with him.” Alexis added.

This causes Steven to become worried, knowing how catched on Bernard is. “I know my brother more than you, not a lot but still.”

Craig wanted to help out his brother, but he promised Steven to keep his secret from anyone. Bernard told him before he took him to let him do the talking while understanding what he’s dealing with. If he told him before he left, he still needed to see the whole deal to prove that he’s telling the truth.

“If your shield can sparkle with gem powers, does that explain why it was shrinked?” All that Steven did is nodded. “So it only appears…”

“When he activates it of his own will.” Craig answered to which Bernard turned to. “I’m not lying.”

“Yes, I activated my shield.” Steven confessed.

“So you're like a magician?” Alexis added.

“Yes, but it’s not like what you're thinking about.”

“If you're not really a magician, why do you take magic lessons?” Bernard replied.

“I don’t take lessons at all.”

This caused Bernard to lay his back head on the couch. “You're not making this easier for me to believe Steven.”

“You can’t expect me to answer a lot of questions okay.” Steven replied, which caused Bernard to lean forward.

“I’m the person who trusted you the most by giving you a tour around the neighborhood and spending more time with you. You can’t make me believe you're not a magician if you can activate your shield.”

“There are a lot more ways to do magic tricks than being a magician, you know.”

“Then what do you do for a living other than traveling?”

Steven’s heart begins to pound hard with no option to avoid his predicament. “It doesn’t involve money, okay?”

“Then how can you affo-”

“Just tell them the truth!” Craig reacted after getting off of the couch.

“I can’t Craig!” Steven also gets off of his couch.

“Steven you can’t hide this from me, you did something to my brother and I wanna know that as much as yourself.” Bernard getting up.

“Bernard.” Alexis piqued up, also getting up.

“Alexis, I got this.”

“Okay, I insert my saliva from my finger in his ear.” He pointed at Craig.

“Your saliva!?”

“I’m not a tester of science, but I wasn’t trying to hurt him mentally!”

“You gave him a headache!” Bernard walked up to him. “Side effect or not, you told me you only went to the doctor once.” He then looked at Steven’s body which is where his brother’s been suspicious. “What's underneath your shirt?” He almost grabbed his shirt only for Steven to move out of the way. “Steven!”

“Please, boundaries may have nothing to do with this but-”

“I’m not leaving until you show me what’s under there!” Steven continued to lose more breath which Bernard is catching onto. “You're not setting an example of how you acted two days ago.”

“Bernard, you're actually going way too hard on him.” Alexis spoke from behind.

“I got this!” He turned to his girlfriend.

“Bernard, when I talked to him last night-” Craig turned to his brother only for him to interrupt him.

“I want the whole answer!” Bernard turned around his brother. “Right now, I’m not against you and if everything you did yesterday is really in the right, then I’m in the right.”

Craig looked at Steven again and noticed his gem underneath his shirt is glowing. With his heart pounding faster, he then glowed pink, catching him and Alexis by surprise. Soon Bernard took notice from the pink light from behind.

“Steven?” Bernard turned around, backing away from Steven. “Are you sure the doctor saw everything in your body?”

“Yes!” He panicked. “I have gem powers to activate my shield,” He activated his shield in front of them. “My saliva can heal people even when they’re down and-”

“You're starting to creep me out!” Bernard continued to back away.

“I did what I could to protect myself!” Steven walked up to him.

“Without the family you lied about?”

“I’m protecting them too!”

“By making up a story!?”

After that rhetorical question, Steven glows brighter as he tripped onto Bernard. Bernard can feel the vibration and sparkles from Steven himself. With a look of fear on his face, he had no time to crawl out, with Steven looking down also in fear.

“I’m so sorry.” He spoke as he lit up. The building of the apartments shook like an earthquake with the four still inside. Then the explosion happened, imploding the furniture and everything else inside. As Alexis took cover, Craig covered his ears while watching everything around him collapse on itself. He knew Steven had powers last night, but didn’t know he didn’t have full control all the time.

With the explosion all done, Craig let go of his ears while witnessing Steven’s apartment torn down to practically nothing. But what catches his attention is his brother with his hair, glasses and clothes ruined. After Steven glowed down, he got back up while witnessing Bernard, who’s still shaking with Alexis getting back up. Steven sighed, knowing he can’t hide anything anymore as he lifted the end of his shirt, showing Bernard and Alexis his gem.

When Bernard slowly got up, he slowly headed close to Steven’s gem. He didn’t want to touch in case something bad could happen, but he finally saw the whole deal in his eyes.

“Bernard…” Steven spoked. “I didn’t mean to-” He stopped himself, noticing Bernard rushing out of the apartment. “Bernard!”

He didn’t respond back as he rushed back into the car, inserted his key and drove away as fast as possible, just after Steven and the others got out of the apartment. Even without picking up Alexis and Craig, he made up for his mistake of going against and disbelieving his brother while making Steven his friend.

Alexis had no words to describe what she experienced and Steven as a person now. “I’ll take you home Craig.” She reacted as she grabbed his arm.

“Alexis.” Craig took notice.

“Forget about him, let him leave tomorrow.” Without a chance to talk to Steven one last time, Alexis pulled him away from him, leaving Steven all alone.

Steven felt broken after the explosion he caused. He can tell it wasn’t Craig who convinced his brother to come over, but all he wanted was to end on good terms with him before it’s too late. He sat on the porch with the clouds from above, sprinkling a bit but he didn’t care. In fact, the moment he saw Craig in the distance who looked back at him disappearing from the objects, made him realize his closure with him is wrong. He wanted to leave first thing tomorrow but now, with a broken apartment, he can’t get some sleep unlike last night, just like Craig who didn’t.