Ruby's eye was half-open, casting a glazed look at the scenery around her: space. Space everywhere.
Even though her kind was used to being in space, it gets old when you stare at it for months, to no end.
If only I could've waited… She thought to herself, tormented in her mind, ...then I could have killed her while she was distracted. Rose Quartz. The leader of the rebellion…
However, Ruby's cloudy misery soon drifted apart when she thought "What if?". What if she did kill her.
She had perverse thoughts of fame and luxury, having her own pearl, being known through history.
"But the best thing I could have wanted…" She monologued, her eye locked on a distant red and orange planet, not worth the effort to travel to.
"...Is that I would actually get to see her." Ruby blushed at the thought of seeing her hero.
She played out the moment a million times in her head, and a million more times to come, considering she's got nothing better to do. Ruby's mind imagined the scene as clearly as in real life.
Ruby would be smiling down at her medal of honor, for killing the notorious Rose Quartz, and ending the traitor that caused shame towards her kind. She saw an Emerald rush towards her in a hurried manner.
"Greetings, Ruby." She straightens herself up, to make her more presentable to her superior, "I'm here to discuss with you about your Pearl, which will be created shortly. What kind would you want?"
Ruby chuckles, "Oh wow, I've never thought of it before," she feigns, before projecting a hologram from her eye, a description of what she wanted her Pearl to look like, which was several pages long, and was obviously planned years ago.
The Emerald quickly nodded and typed down the list on her computer gauntlet, before tensing up as she sees a large figure approach. She backs away and bows her head in respect.
Ruby also notices a shadow looming over her, and turns around to see an attractive sight. A muscular quartz soldier, with hair as white as clouds during a sunset, with tangerine skin with red stripes tattooed on her body. Her face, in which her nose was her gem, looks down at Ruby with great admiration. Ruby sees this admiration in her sharp eyes, and blushes.
"Greetings, Ruby-1F4 Cut-4ND. I'm-" But Ruby cuts her off.
"I know who you are, Jasper of the Beta Kindergarten on Earth." She salutes to the quartz.
Jasper's face shows surprise at being interrupted by a ruby, but then her face softens to a slight intrigue.
"I received word that you shattered Rose Quartz," Jasper informs, bending down on one knee to talk to Ruby at eye level, "And I want to say thank you. You are truly an inspiration to me." She says with charm. Jasper lifts up her arm for Ruby's hand.
Ruby's blush grows as she slowly puts her hand into Jasper's, becoming immersed in her sharp yellow eyes.
"You've...always been an inspiration to me…" Ruby mumbles, and Jasper smiles.
Without warning, Jasper sweeps Ruby off her feet, carrying her. Ruby is startled to find that her eye are only centimeters away from hers. The Emerald with them squeaks at the gesture, and hastily exits out of the ship's captain quarters, allowing Jasper and Ruby to be alone.
"How about we inspire each other?" Jasper asks as she pulls in Ruby for a k-
THUNK! Ruby's fantasy was interrupted by a meteorite, which crashed into her stomach, taking her breath away. As soon as she could gather her mind, she grabbed the rock with both hands, and flung it away from her in fury.
"Gah! You stupid, stupid meteors! I'll shatter you all someday!" She shouted into the void, getting no response. She lets out a few punches into the air, to get the anger out of her system.
There was truly nothing to do in space, except being a meteor's target dummy.
It looks like I'm going to be here for a while before Homeworld will find me, she thinks, feeling a wave of defeat suffocating her. She shook the feeling off, What was that ritual that humans do? Sleep?
She tried to not think about it. Was she really that bored, to resort to using a human ritual to pass the time? But then her mind darkened to a thought, that maybe Homeworld would never even find her. Ruby had nothing to lose, except her dignity. But that was already gone when she revealed her plans to Rose when she attempted to kill her.
Ruby remembered the mission briefing inside the roaming eye, with the others on her platoon goofing off, while she read important mission work with the leader of the squad.
"So this is the dominant species of Earth?" The leader questioned, swiping through images of humans from hundreds of years ago. Ruby muttered under her breath.
"This is what Rose chose to fight over." She had a disgusted tone, looking through information about their weaknesses and vulnerabilities, in case they ever encountered hostiles when retrieving Jasper.
"It says they use 'sleep' to restore their energy when their star sets." Leader says, scanning the information.
"'Sleep'" Ruby quotes, chuckling at the thought of doing something so ridiculous. Gems don't need to restore their energy in such a time-restraining way.
Now there Ruby was, jamming her eye shut in order to try to do the ritual of human slumber.
Strangely, she felt more relaxed, as her head cleared up, not focusing on everything in space anymore. Her eyes softened, yet remained closed. Ruby felt a wave of exhaustion over her, and stopped moving her limbs, and instead let herself be carried off into space.
…
"Ruby?" She heard a voice, a boyish one.
She was woken up from her sleep, and opened her eye to see no space anymore, as there was nothing anymore. Just blackness.
The stunning discovery was soon interrupted when she felt a chubby hand being placed on her arm, and she jumped from her spot, making the figure flinch.
"Who are you?!" Ruby screeched, ready to pull out her knife. The figure was small, around her size, and it seemed strangely familiar.
"Oh no, you're one of the bad rubies!" He shouted, backing away from her as soon as he examined her gem, where her eye should be.
"Tell me where I am, now!" Ruby shouted at the boy, who was hesitating to get any closer.
He sighed and walked an inch towards her, and Ruby stepped back. It wasn't a human child, it was Rose Quartz.
She could utter no words before he spoke up, "You're in a dream. My dream. I'm asleep, too." He answered. Ruby took no solace in his response, as she did not understand the term.
"Look what you've taken away from me!" Ruby screamed at him, before crouching down in defeat, letting her emotions get the best of her.
"I was stuck in the middle of space! Homeworld will probably never find me. I'll be stuck out there for the rest of my life!" She cried to herself, hearing his footsteps come closer to her.
She quickly pulled out her knife, and lunged at him, pressing her body against his, with Ruby's knife to his throat.
"What excuse do you have, to make sure I won't kill you now?" She mumbled, the deadpanned tone signifying she meant business, and Steven couldn't escape this time.
He was stuttering as his eyes became large, the true terror that the gems couldn't save him settled in.
"I-I can help you! What do you want?!" He pleaded, but Ruby's grip only hardened.
"You can't help anybody this time."
"Wait! I can! You like Jasper, don't you?!" Steven asked frantically, closing his eyes, waiting for his swift death, but it never came.
He opened his eyes to find Ruby staring down at him, her eyes as round as his were.
"...How did you know?" She whispered, dropping the knife to the ground, where it disappeared into nothingness. Steven was surprised.
"I saw how you looked when we were going to the moon base, when Amethyst pretended to be Jasper. I saw how you looked when Doc got to sit in her lap,"
He paused for a moment, as Ruby remembered her sinking feeling, that Jasper didn't even consider that maybe she would have sat in her lap.
"You looked so sad." Steven finished, as Ruby got off him and layed on the pitch black floor in a fetal position, mortified that her secret was out.
"What does that have to do with anything…?" Ruby asked him, as he got up and shook off his near-death experience.
He sat next to her, "I can get into people's dreams. Maybe I could connect you with Jasper's dream! Though I'm not sure if corrupted gems sleep in a bubble…" He trailed off, but Ruby was already curious.
"What does corrupted mean?" She asked, and his face grew white. She wondered if it had anything to do with that bomb she remembered the diamonds planted, to finish off the rebels.
"Um...It's nothing.
But Ruby grabbed him by the shoulders and stared him dead in the eye.
"You are going to connect me to Jasper." She ordered, feeling superior, noticing the fear expressed on his face.
"Okay, I'll try." He breathed, and closed his eyes and focused.
The scenery changed, though slightly. Ruby felt the black ground shake, and had to hold her stance, until she noticed a door appear out of thin air.
Steven's eyes opened, and his face showed pride as he turned to the door he envisioned.
"What is that?" Ruby asked him, uneasy.
Steven breathed again.
"...It's Jasper's door."
Ruby looked at the door, a dull grey color, yet she could feel something intense lurking behind it.
"Behind that door, is Jasper. I'm not going to go in there, but you can go if you want." Steven offered, stepping away from the object.
Ruby felt some doubt about her decision, but still managed to gather the courage to approach the door, and open the knob.
…
As soon as Ruby opened the door, she felt a rush of heat envelop around her, yet it made her shiver. Something about this place made her very uneasy.
The room itself was nothing particularly amazing, just purple scenery with some fog mist. Ruby began to felt duped again, as she didn't see the gem she was seeking.
However, she flinched as she heard a large howling in the distance, to the east of her. Could that be her? Ruby thought, butterflies in her stomach.
She sprinted towards the sound of her voice, until she could barely see massive white hair a mile away from her.
"Jasper!" She shouted, excited to see her war hero. But her shout made her perk up, and run off somewhere.
"That's strange…" She spoke to herself, wondering why she would run away from a fellow gem.
Must've been her warrior instincts… She assured herself, ...a quartz like her must always be vigilant.
She heard panting from a location nearby, to the west this time. Ruby made sure not to let her go again.
She could see her hair in the distance, which only made her increase her speed.
The gem didn't even notice Ruby was so close until she appeared in front of her.
"I know who you are, you're Jasper, from the Beta Kindergarten on Ea-," but was interrupted while she was examining Jasper.
The gem looked out of breath, exhausted, and had a defeated expression engraved in her face. Her hair, even more wild than usual, and she was slumped over. Jasper was in pain.
Ruby's stomach dropped at the sight.
This is not the gem she expected to see.
