"Stay OUT OF THIS!" The runt yelled and threw the weak form of Rose Quarts out of her way.
The thing that referred to itself as Steven looked hurt and shocked by her actions and said her name quietly in a disappointed tone, but the purple runt ignored this.
"It's just you and me, Jasper!" The purple quarts said in a deadly voice, her eyes alive and flickering like fire and she face scowling in anger that was alien on her round face. She let her spiked whip fall across the desert-sand at her feet. "ONE ON ONE!"
She cracked her whip and Jasper's eyes grew small as she saw the shadow of an old memory on her opponent. For an instant, Jasper saw someone taller and blue, with a whip that sparkled and cracked like Gamma Orionis. The whip scratched her cheek and Jasper flinched and grunted, remind of another attack that occurred hundreds of years ago.
"HOW DARE YOU DISOBEY ME?" A voice screeched like a hawk on her prey.
The runt pulled out another whip from the quartz at her chest and that, with Jasper's distraction, was enough to slam her against a stone wall by the monster's cage.
"Who's the runt NOW?" The purple quartz asked in victory, feeling on top of her enemy for once, and it felt right.
"You ready for more?" An old voice and the runt's echoed.
What had she done? What was it? She remembered. She had stood up for some of the other jaspers and amethysts in the God-forsaken zoo. Skinny had always made her smile, and Carnelian was so small and weak that she couldn't help but look after her. They needed her. They needed her strength. And she needed…
Jasper felt enraged, but it was a cool and cunning kind of rage, the kind that made it possible to keep a straight face. She looked at the runt dead in the eye and stood straight, determined not to show weakness like she used to. She whipped Jasper's cheek again, and though it stung slightly, it was nothing and Jasper did not flinch.
"THERE'S MORE WHERE THAT CAME FROM!" The runt yelled, but it sounded different.
Jasper remembered. She forced herself to recall it, and make her stronger.
"HOW DARE YOU DISOBEY ME?" Holy Blue had screeched like a hawk on her prey.
Holy cracked her electric-blue whip and it sizzled and hissed around Jasper's limbs, making them sting like nothing she had felt before. Gems cannot bleed, but they can hurt. Jasper tried to stand tall, but the whip was made to hurt, it was made to tame and to control. She was made to terrify, but Jasper wouldn't let her.
Jasper stood tall and tried not to show any pain in her face, no fear in her eyes. This only enraged Holy Blue and she used her whip to cut and burn Jasper's legs and make her fall on her face, her white hair everywhere and her face hidden so she could cringe and try to swallow the pain. Her fists were in tight balls of paling fury.
"Who's the hero NOW?" Holy Blue yelled at the jasper's back, peering down at the creature that was so beneath her. "You ready for more?"
Jasper was stupid, exposed, how could she be so blind? Why did she allow herself to get so attached? Holy Blue was right, they were weak, they were nothing. Well, all of them except for her. Holy Blue can be right about Skinny's worthlessness, she can be right about Carnelian's weakness, but she was wrong about Jasper.
She was better than them, better than the Beta Kindergarten and the Earth, better than the quartz that shattered her diamond and placed her here. She was better than Holy Blue and would prove to be just that.
Jasper had stood up and turned to face Holy Blue, stone faced and strong, but she was no longer strong for others; only for herself.
"THERE'S MORE WHERE THAT CAME FROM, YOU WORTHLESS HEAP OF ROCK!" Holy Blue yelled and whipped her rebellious soldier.
The runt whipped Jasper one, two, three times, but Jasper was too strong for her and only slid on her feet, letting there sand beneath their feet rise into the hot air. No more looking at the past. Everything Jasper ever experience only made her stronger. Let Holy Blue be one of them. She had been transferred when seen as great value, and now she was stuck on this worthless planet. Might as well destroy Rose and her army while she was here.
Jasper flexed and it threw the whips and dust away. The runt was scared for a moment, but she did not let it faze her. She cracked her spiked whips so they caught on purple-fire and drew in a breath, and then she let her physical-form form a whirlwind and she sped fast to Jasper, on fire and alive with destruction. She hit Jasper and it left the runt on the floor coughing as the smock settled, but Jasper was unscaved.
"Is it sinking in yet?" She asked coldly as she brushed her chest with one hand.
She had said the same thing hundreds of years ago.