When he opened his eyes, he didn't know where he was and it felt like every light in the world was shining into them. He groaned and immediately gagged. His throat was so dry and sore.

What had happened to him? He tried to think but nothing came up. Not just about what had happened, but anything at all. He tried to recall how old he was. Nothing. He tried to remember where he was born. Nothing. He didn't even remember his name. Every time he tried to think his head ached and he started to panic. Icy dread filled him from head to toe as a crushing blow to his chest took his breath away.

He didn't remember anything.

Eventually he stopped trying at all and sat shaking as he stared up at the ceiling.

"Glad you're awake, Steven," A woman's voice said off to his right. It was sharp with disgust and hatred, but he was so exhausted it barely registered as such. "We have unfinished business."

When he turned, a sword was two inches from his face and he yelped, then gripped his head as searing pain made him cry out again.
"My head! It hurts so bad!"

"What?" The sword dropped and out of the shadows stepped indeed a woman, but his breath caught in his chest.

She was... beautiful! Ethereal, winsome, absolutely stunning! Long ebony locs fell down her back in a cascading waterfall up in a high ponytail so she could move a bit more freely without getting it in her face. A few baby hairs framed her face, he could tell she'd been in combat recently from the way she was sweating and they stood a bit on end in messy tangles he sort of wanted to run his fingers through to tame. Her face held a button nose with a deep bridge and chocolate brown eyes. Thick lashes accentuated them along with the immaculate eyebrows, and the bow of her lips was perfect. Various little cuts, scratches and bruises littered her arms and visible skin. His mouth tingled with the need to kiss them better. Such a perfect woman shouldn't ever have even a single mark on her smooth, dark skin.

His eyes dropped lower of their own fruition and he nearly had a stroke. She was curvy and fit, abs showing under her tightly fitted crop. Her legs were long and sturdy, he could tell she was athletic and strong.

"Earth to Steven!"

He snapped out of it and blushed heavily. "S-sorry. That was impolite."

She seemed startled as one eyebrow raised above the other. "Are you okay? You fell like, 200 feet off a building and stopped moving so I brought you here... out of pity." She came a bit closer and he sat up to stare at her in wonder.

"Who are you?" He breathed.

Her face dropped in horror. "Stars and Diamonds, how hard did you hit your fucking head?!"

He flinched but tried for a wary smile. "I'd imagine pretty fucking hard. I don't remember anything."

The blankness turned to triumph but he caught a flicker of sadness and hurt too. "You don't remember anything at all?"

"Nothing." He did feel something though, an undying and roaring feeling urging him to grab her hand. Out of politeness he didn't, but he had to tell this beautiful woman. "I don't remember anything, but..." He glanced away to find he was in some sort of dungeon or maybe an interrogation room or something. Still, it didn't change his mind. "I feel like I'm supposed to trust you."

She hopped back so far in shock he had to chuckle. "WHAT?!" Then her eyes narrowed. "Wait a minute. You're a pathological liar, this is totally something you'd fake to get a one up on me."

He scrambled off the cot he was on to try and get away from the sword she was indefinitely going to draw again to skewer him. As soon as his feet hit the ground he stumbled into a wall and slid down. "Wait, please, I'm hurt!"

Maybe he'd been wrong about her, but he couldn't shake the feeling that he wasn't when she dropped her sword. "Do you..? You don't remember me?"

He wanted to lie to her and say he did but he couldn't bear to hurt her more when it became obvious he didn't. "I'm sorry. I don't even remember my name."

Her lip trembled and she wrapped her arms around herself before turning away. "Well, your name is Steven Universe. And you're my mortal enemy. You work for the Diamond Authority, a matriarchal dictatorship that's been terrorizing the Earth for decades. You're a Diamond, Pink Diamond, but you go by Steven because you're technically half human. Not that you act like one. You oversee humans and walk around the streets to scare people into listening to the rules." He heard a tremor in her voice that all but broke his heart, but his head was spinning from all of the information she was giving him. Was he really all that evil? "We've been enemies since we were around 12. You're 21, by the way. You're a year and three quarters older than I am which is stupid."

Steven. He wondered what he looked like. "Wow... I suck. I'd guess you fight for the humans? And what do you mean I'm half human?"

She sighed. "Never mind all that. I'm still going to kill you."

Steven tipped his head, wincing at the movement. "I suppose that's fair. What's your name?"

"CONNIE!" She burst angrily, turning to him to show she was in tears. "My name is Connie Maheswaren and I fight for the resistance! How do you not remember me?! We've been fighting for almost an entire decade!"

"Whoa, hey, I can't help it!" He cried. "I can guess who pushed me off the goddamned building! Why are you so upset about it if we're enemies?!"

She went silent and still as her cheeks flooded with color. He stared at her hard and slowly got to his feet, noting his pink jumpsuit complete with medals and... a pink stone where his belly button should be!

He figured there was a lot to unpack with that.

Ripping his eyes away, he slowly approached her and she dropped into a defensive stance. Before he could react, he found himself doing the same. It was pure bodily instinct. He didn't know how he'd learned it, but it seemed like the right thing to do. "Connie, why are you so upset about it?"

"I'm just tired." It was obviously a lie. He truly doubted she would tire easily, and from how massive he felt, how trained, she must give him a run for his money every fight.

Steven quirked a brow and stood to his full height. She followed suit and glanced away bashfully. When he came closer she backed up, but there wasn't much conviction. He decided to see where it took him and found that when her back pressed against the wall, her head turned to the side. "What's this?" He tapped the mark and she hissed at him, eyes turning into little infernos of rage.

"What is wrong with you?!" She growled, batting his hand away. "Don't touch me."

He laughed and turned her head back. "It looks like a bruise. Or a hickey."

She swatted his hand again but didn't move away. "Stop it."

Steven did it one more time, just to see if she'd draw her sword and kill him. "Did someone hurt you?"

"You hurt me, dumbass." Her eyes traced up his body to hers and he tented his brows in humorous confusion. She certainly wasn't acting like she hated him or wanted to kill him. She seemed flustered and annoyed about being flustered.

He had an ache in his side that he glanced down at, noting a moderate amount of... well it looked like blood but it was pink and had seeped through his outfit. Her sword had a bit of blood on it too, bright pink. "What's actually going on?"

She pushed him away and he barely kept his balance. He was still a little disoriented but this little spitfire made him want to poke at her nerves and piss her off a bit more. It was cute how easily pissy she got, he kind of wanted to see more.

"Nothing! Nothing is going on between us!" Her fingers curled a bit as she pretended to strangle him. "Ugh, you drive me crazy! You spoiled, entitled, stupid... ANNOYING little asshole!"

He couldn't help it, his smirk turned into a full smile. "Who said anything about 'between us'?"

Connie's face looked caught and she fumbled around for her sword but he grabbed her and pinned her against the wall. Yes, this felt right. Her squirming body beneath his felt like the shadow of familiar in the white landscape of his mind. That color comparison made him shiver as untimely fear trekked through him. But her shifting was getting weaker, she was getting breathless and frustrated. It was starting to make him frustrated too. She was turning him on and he was trying to be serious. "Connie?"

"I don't believe you," She muttered, glancing up at him. "If you didn't remember me you wouldn't have me like this."

"Call it familiar and nothing else." He had an urge to touch her hair so he did. If he was part of an authority, good or bad, he must be able to do what he liked. He felt a rush of energy in his brain and hummed at the softness of her hair, then leaning in to smell her. She smelled pretty, like perfume and... "You smell like me."

This time when she tried to push him off he was immobile but that didn't stop her. She slugged him right in the jaw but it barely stung, even though he could feel just how incredibly hard she'd hit him. And all that did was turn him on even more.

What a feisty little creature to hit him like that. It intrigued him greatly, so he didn't let her go.

The girl... Connie, yes, Connie, turned beet red and called him every name under the sun. "You pompous asshole! You demented cunt! You festering idiot! You... you..." He giggled and she slapped him across the face. "You entitled bitch!"

"Says the one that hits like a bitch," He jested playfully. "Come on, put your back into it, sweetie."

He backed away and she grabbed her sword. "Gladly."

As she swung her sword, he realized he maybe was in over his head and blocked the hit to at least save himself from another hit to the head. A clang sounded and he peeked out to see he was now holding a shield. "Oh. Cool."

Now they fought a bit more aggressively, both panting with adrenaline. She used her foot to kick him back into the cot and he laughed joyously, grabbing her wrist to wrench behind her back and disarm her.

Connie stomped on his foot and he grunted, slackening enough to let her go. She kicked her sword up in a move he was impressed by enough to let her do it successfully. Her curves were distracting him, he wanted to run his hands along him. Another idea came to him and he smirked.

At least he knew how to do that.

She whirled around to stab at him but his eyes were focused on her body. "Uh, hello?! We're fighting!"

Steven nodded, not bothering to look up cause why should he respect her if she was trying to kill him, albeit halfheartedly? "Yeah, you're not very good at it so I thought maybe it was foreplay. I think I have healing powers cause every time you cut me it goes away. Plus, I'm kinda fighting something else right now."

She stomped her foot and growled in frustration. "Stop it! Stop it right now!"

"Not a chance if you're going to show so much skin," He chuckled, edging toward her again.

"God, I fucking hate you," She sighed, dropping her sword. "I still don't believe you. You've said that to me before."

He shrugged and pulled her against him. "And you still didn't take my advice? If you're like all the other humans, I'd say maybe your cockiness is your downfall. Maybe you need someone to tell you what to do." He leaned closer to her ear and she trembled. "Maybe you need guidance."

Connie struggled for two seconds flat before going limp. "I've been training my entire life to do this, it's called confidence."

He frowned, burying his face in her neck to smell her scent again. God she was pretty to every sense. "That's sad. You never got to have fun?"

"Not until we started doing this."

"This," He prompted. "Tell me more about this."

When she blushed he ran a thumb over her cheek, mind clearing a bit. Things were staying foggy and impossible to decipher, but he was now absolutely certain he could feel his brain mending itself. He wasn't so dizzy, nor was he nauseated or exhausted anymore. Being around this woman was invigorating him. "We like to fight to the death."

"And?"

"And when it comes to a stalemate after one of us gets hurt, either you heal yourself when you wake up down here or you heal me and then we have crazy sex even though we're definitely not supposed to," She whispered.

He kind of got that vibe but it still shell shocked him. So... two people on opposing sides of a war between government and people fought viciously in the streets and then fell into the sheets? That seemed pretty inefficient.

But he wasn't complaining at all. In fact, he kind of wanted to kiss her but first he had to ask, "Were we in love, Connie?" His hand went to the top of her ponytail to tug it out of the quickly deteriorating hair band. Her hair fell in a wavy heap that made his mouth water. She smiled at him for the first time and he skimmed his thumb over her lips. "I feel like we were. I feel like I was. You're beautiful... and fiery. And passionate." He paused. "And a complete and total bitch."

Connie laughed a squeaky, bashful laugh and looked over his shoulder. "I wouldn't use the phrase 'in love', personally."

"Ah, you're the anti-romance hardass, huh?" He smiled at the way she nodded firmly. "I don't believe you, Connie. I think you cried because you're hurt I don't remember anything about you."

Her nod broke his heart this time, it wasn't as cute. It was heartbroken and distant. "You're not lying?"

"I'm sorry, Connie. I don't remember anything." Her head fell against his chest to hide her tears as she started to cry. He thought about what she had told him, that he was apart of an organization oppressing people. He thought about his role, wondering if he was just muscle, or if he even mattered to the people above him. Pink? Were others color coded? Was what why white made him feel fear? And how long had he been gone? Were...

Were they even looking for him?

"Oh, god!" Connie wrapped her arms around him and nuzzled into his chest. "9 years just gone! What am I going to do?" Her voice came out soft and horrified at the end and Steven kissed the top of her head because he wanted to fix it. He wanted her to stop crying and never cry again. It didn't matter what he had to do, who he had to brutally kill, or just how vicious he'd have to become, this woman in his arms hellbent on killing him and then aggressively flirting with him would never cry if he could help it, dammit.

"This feels good... Connie, please don't cry." Steven picked her up and walked backwards to the cot to sit. "Teach me."

"What?" She croaked. "What do you mean?"

"I want to switch sides." He tilted her head up and wiped away her tears. "I want to join the resistance."