--
"So, Pink Diamond turned into Rose Quartz and faked her shattering. And then she... gave up her physical form to create me. Are you... okay?" Steven hesitantly placed his hand on top of Jasper's, shocked that she didn't move or object. Eventually, she slowly nodded her head, her expression unreadable. She then abruptly stood up.
"Psh, of course, I'm fine. If we're done here, I'm going somewhere else." Jasper began to make her way toward the Temple, but stopped and turned toward Steven again. "And oh, no it doesn't involve corrupted gems, forced fusions, or any other act you'd consider wrong." She continued. "So don't bother tracking me down."
"Jasper, wait!" She ignored Steven's call, and quickened her pace. She started running, back to the only place she felt safe in. The Beta Kindergarten. When the warp stream disappeared, she found the orange desert, silent and blindingly bright as usual. The iron bars from her former prisoners' cages still remained, untouched off in the distance.
She kept running. It hurt. Everything she'd lived for since she watched her beloved diamond die, it was only a futile attempt to get revenge on the person who never even shattered her, who never truly existed. She was going after the one she wanted to avenge the whole time. She had been lied to and left to suffer. Pink's whole court had been lied to and left to suffer.
Pink left devoted, brokenhearted, determined gems like Jasper to run in circles, chasing an enemy they'd never catch. Jasper finally caught sight of the hole she'd emerged from. She'd emerged with her helmet on, ready to fight for her diamond until her own death. Now it felt so painful and stupid to think about. She was just another gem who believed all the lies.
Fury boiled inside her. Her vision blurred. She punched the rock, leaving yet another series of cracks behind. The force of the impact made her hand hurt just a bit. She didn't care. She didn't care about anything anymore. She kept hitting the rock, as if it was the real Rose Quartz who murdered her diamond in cold blood. Tears leaked from her eyes. She stopped, sinking to her knees, silently weeping.
Never once had she allowed herself to cry, or display any amount of weakness. A weak, diamondless Quartz soldier would just be shattered and harvested. She'd just let her pain turn into rage, and let that rage take over her mind and body. Now she couldn't do it anymore. She was just another defective freak, a runt.
Jasper buried her face in her arms, her back up against the rocky walls of the Beta Kindergarten. Finally, she did what she had never done before and couldn't stop doing now- crying.
Pink was gone. The gem she had lived as for the last 6,000 or so years was gone. She couldn't avenge someone who was never really killed- until 14 years ago, of course.
"Why- why did you HATE ME SO MUCH!?" She screamed. "I GAVE UP MY LIFE FOR YOU!" The unbearable pain she felt started to convert into fury once more. Hot tears ran down her face as she punched the rock face once again.
The sound of her own sniffling and sobbing was all too foreign to Jasper. She had never known anything but rage and regret.
Apart from the sound of the wind and her crying, she heard soft footsteps warily approaching her.
"Jasper, I'm here..."
Steven had appeared, his eyes tearing up and his expression laced with concern.
"It's g-gonna be okay, Jasper..."
Not thinking, she let Steven wrap her into a hug to the best of his ability. She took notice of how he did it, hugging him back, which was quite difficult because of the size difference.
"I-I'm sorry..."