Prime Steven

Prime Steven, or just **Prime**, is the main Steven in Walk the Line, and the canonical version of Steven. He's from the Prime Line, in which the events of *Steven Universe* takes place. At the start of Walk the Line, he is 17 years old. His main motivation is simply to get back home, as he was forcibly removed from his Line by Mirror Lion.

## History

Since he is considered to be the canon version of Steven, his backstory is identical to the events of *Steven Universe* and *Steven Universe: Future*. After *Future* ends, Steven goes on a road trip and starts traveling the country, searching for himself. All the while, he keeps up with a therapist, his friends, and makes sure that he's taking care of himself.

At some point along his journey of self discovery, he switches from using Rose's shield pattern to his own pattern that displays a star.

One day, he takes Lion back to Beach City to visit Connie and catch up with her in person. The two were enjoying a picnic together until Mirror Lion, a gray-colored, alternate timeline version of Lion, appeared through a portal. The Prime Line's version of Lion became aggressive, causing Mirror lion to charge up his eye beams and open a portal below Steven and Connie, dropping them off in the Monster Line.

They wander the Line for around a day and a half before the comic begins.

## Personality

Steven is optimistic, friendly, outgoing, soft-hearted, and carefree with a happy-go-lucky attitude that is appreciated by many of the citizens of Beach City in one way or another. He is musically inclined, a trait inherited from his father, with a propensity for breaking out into song and occasionally playing on his ukulele. Steven sees the best in everyone and is also very compassionate, something which Pearl notes he inherits from his mother and treasures his friends and family. He is friendly toward almost everyone he meets (even to his detriment), rarely holds grudges, and is non-discriminatory, never treating anyone with prejudice, even enemies. No matter the situation, Steven will always go out of his way to support his loved ones, even if it means putting his life on the line and he will avoid resorting to violence if possible. He would much rather make a compromise and choose to reason than fight back.

## Abilities

As a human/Gem hybrid, Steven possesses unique physiology, resembling a fusion of a Gem and a human. He is capable of using Gem magic, though it is unknown if he possesses all the abilities of a pure Gem, such as retreating to their gemstone when taking fatal damage. As associated with his gemstone, Steven's powers are maternal and the control of his gemstone is based on emotional clarity.

Steven has shown to have some abilities of a regular Gem, but sometimes has little control over them due to not receiving enough training. He can warp using the Warp Pads and bubble objects and gemstones to be teleported to the Temple with seemingly full control. He is not strictly oxygen-dependent and is vacuum-resistant as shown in "Ocean Gem" and "Space Race". He also shows that he can fuse, as he can fuse with Connie to form Stevonnie. While in the beginning, they tend to fuse spontaneously when they dance and while thinking about each other, by "Beach City Drift" they fuse and re-fuse into Stevonnie at will. Furthermore, he has also been shown to be able to fuse with other Gems as well, as he first fused with Amethyst to form Smoky Quartz in "Earthlings". However, this ability to fuse is only possible through his gem and training, and once his gemstone was affected by Spinel's rejuvenator, fusing with his father proved to be extremely exhausting for Steven and severely weakened him since he lost the power and focus he originally had.

Steven is also capable of shapeshifting, but he has not yet learned to fully control it. His first attempt in "Cat Fingers" was disastrous, temporarily turning him into a cat monster. He has not been able to change his form entirely but can freely shapeshift parts of his body as seen in "Too Short to Ride". His greatest feat in shapeshifting is seen in "Steven's Birthday", where he can use shapeshifting to make himself appear older.

Despite his happy-go-lucky and cheerful attitude, he shows himself to be a competent shield fighter and can hold his own in most situations with his skill consistently increasing due to practice.

The final battle with Spinel in *Steven Universe: The Movie* shows him at the peak of his abilities as he fights her one on one, showing that he has grown exceptionally skilled since he was a child, able to either withstand or counter everything Spinel throws at him.

"Fragments" shows a new level of Steven's abilities as he fights Jasper in his pink state, showing increased strength, speed, and the ability to fly.

Despite being educated in an isolated environment and never attending conventional school, he possesses a good deal of knowledge not only on general topics, but also in scientific and technical fields like physics, chemistry, and geography due to being educated by the highly intellectual Pearl. However, due to the Crystal Gems' obliviousness about some human activities, he is quite oblivious about some social terms, like "nuclear family". The prime example is during his conversation with Connie about a family gathering in which Connie mentions the concept of a nuclear family, which makes Steven think that she thinks the Crystal Gems are radioactive. Another example is that when Connie introduces Steven to her favorite novel series, Steven had no idea about the order of the books in the series and was reading them out of order.

### Fusions

* When fused with Connie, they form Stevonnie.
* When fused with Greg, they form Steg.
* When fused with Amethyst, they form Smoky Quartz.
* When fused with Pearl, they form Rainbow Quartz 2.0.
* When fused with Ruby and Sapphire (or Garnet), they form Sunstone.
* When fused with Ruby and Sapphire (or Garnet), Amethyst, and Pearl, they form Obsidian.

## Story

Though at first Prime's main motivation is to go home, this idea starts to change when he meets Druid. Seeing as Druid is basically the last one left in his own timeline after all the humans have died and all the gems have corrupted, Prime shifts back into 'help mode' and does what he can to make Druid feel better, much to Connie's disapproval. She insists that he's done enough for one lifetime, but Prime ignores her - not for lack of care, but simply because he doesn't want to give up on someone just because he's "done enough."

This leads to a confrontation with the Monster Line's version of White Diamond, who has corrupted into a gigantic dragon. Druid goes to fight her alone, insisting that Prime leaves. Though he and Connie do leave, Prime promises to come back and make sure Druid is okay at a later date. He, Connie, and Mirror Lion go through a portal.

After traveling through Ultraspace, the three of them burst through some curtains and into the Second Chance Line. Here, we meet Star Steven and a Crystal Gem version of Spinel, who had been showing him magic tricks. Prime and Connie are offered refuge there for a few days while they figure stuff out.

## Relationships

### Connie Maheswaran (Prime Line)

Prime Steven and Connie are dating, and have been in a healthy relationship for around a year now. Though they had mostly been long-distance partners, they would occasionally make time to hang out together in the same location. Connie watches over Steven and tries to keep him from overworking himself again, not trusting that he'll keep himself above water this time and that he'll go straight back into helping too many people again. But together, they're strong - both in combat, debate, and just in everyday life. He trusts her with his life, and she does the same. Though they argue sometimes, they're always able to come to a solution.

### Druid Steven (Monster Line)

Druid is the first Steven Prime comes across. Though a little off-put by him at first, they quickly grow fond of each other. Prime sees how much pain the older one has been through, and wants to help him out - either by fixing the timeline or helping Druid escape from it. Though, he and Druid do not see eye-to-eye on this. Prime was forced out of the Monster Line, but as he was leaving, he promised that he wouldn't give up on Druid, and that he would return.

### Star Steven (Second Chance Line)

Star Steven is the second and youngest Steven Prime comes across. Star Steven is essentially Prime Steven back when he was 12, so Star winds up giving him second-hand embarrassment over a lot of things, but overall they have a friendly relationship. It ranges from just friendly to playful depending on the mood, but neither are ever really malicious towards each other in any way. Prime finds himself wanting to give his younger self advise, who is never sure how to take it when he does receive said advise. Prime never explains why he's telling Star all these things in detail, so the kid's left to just kinda nod along. That said, they are different enough that one odd comment out of Star will leave Prime very confused, at least at first.

### Star Spinel (Second Chance Line)

Prime's relationship with his own Spinel is strained, friendly but mostly acquaintances. So seeing a Spinel living with a younger version of himself is very jarring, especially when considering how different she is. The two are friendly towards each other, but it's very awkward and guilt-ridden on Prime's end since he's left to imagine what would have been if things had been different in his own Line. Spinel doesn't seem to notice or mind, though, and tends to lighten the mood whenever she can, though she can also be annoying sometimes if she fails to read the room first.