Cold, beautiful blackness enveloped Lapis Lazuli as she entered deep space. Earth was now but a tiny speck of sand, just like the rest of the universe floating without method around her.
She opened her mouth and stuck her tongue out. She tasted familiar stardust and radiation and fearless freedom. A laugh erupted from deep within the gem. She covered her mouth, frightened stiff for a moment. Space had eaten the sound, but the laugh felt loud and violent inside.
Laughter. She had forgotten what it was to feel her full physical form move like that, feel like that. It was internal, physical, spiritual. It was joy manifested in short repetitive motions of her diaphragm. She had been trapped inside the mirror for so long...
She forgot who she was. What she was. What was she? She was a gem, a member of an ancient, powerful, and proud race.
But who was she? Her name was Lapis Lazuli. "Lapis Lazuli," The blue gem tasted her own name on her tongue, just like the stardust. She said it over and over, then laughed again. It was so quiet.
Her eyes grew wet. The abyss of stars and their systems floating endlessly around her became blurred blue, and she stopped and blinked.
Tiny droplets of moisture floated away from her eyes, just far enough to see.
Tears. She remembered them, how she used to shed them when she was hurt or scared.
But she wasn't hurt or scared now, so why was she crying? The gem shook her head, wiped her eyes, and flew on.
Lapis remembered more and more about having a body the further she flew. She let her toes curl and her fingers run through flowing blue hair. She tested out sighing and found that she could hardly stop. She bit her lip and spun in circles with her wings and spat and screamed into silent, lonely space.
She thought about emotions other than desolation and helplessness and fury. She started with resentment, the faces of her captors vivid in her mind's eye. Then she saw the human boy's face and felt glad and grateful. Disbelief that he saw that she was more than just a mirror. More than that, admiration for his courage and heart.
She thought about love, how she would like to say she loved her home world but couldn't bring herself to. No, she only felt a strong sense of betrayal when thoughts of her world came up. They never came for her. But it was the only place she had left. They would take her in. It was home.
Was home a place? Or was it a feeling? Lapis frowned at the concept; if it were so, her home was behind her, with Steven. But it wasn't with those crystal gems.
She remembered the feeling of conflict, too.
Lapis could see her home world. There it was, a gleaming sphere of military glory. The gem wasn't sure if it was just her eyes from crying, but the planet seemed dimmer than she could recall. It was as though she was seeing it through a dull filter. She decided it must have been from being in that mirror for so long.
Satellites of armed stations wrapping around the world blinked threateningly at her. There were so many more stations than there had once been. Would they let her in? Of course they would. She was sure of it.
Cerulean blood streamed down her face. Lapis could taste it in her mouth, could feel it matting her hair, could hear it sizzling on the beams of light that shackled her to a hard chair.
"Welcome home," A cruel voice chuckled as she paced in front of Lapis Lazuli, cracking her knuckles before landing another solid blow.
The tears were back. "Stop it, I told you everything already," Lapis dryly croaked, another line of blue streaking down her chin. "There are three gems left on Earth, just let me go."
That was the last thing she said before passing out and retreating into her gem to heal.
When she came to, Lapis was face to face with the wall of a prison cell. The yellow glow of a force field hummed in threat. She backed against the wall and held her knees to her chest.
No longer shackled by beams of light, she lifted a finger to her face. All healed, there was no more blood. She wished she felt happy about it, but she couldn't really feel anything at all. Just like how she felt in the mirror.
Forehead lowered to her knees, Lapis rocked herself back and forth. She whispered, "I should have stayed."
Eventually, a guard came to visit. It wasn't a guard, she soon learned. The hulking great gem had some commanding rank, by the looks of her. She said she was to be called Jasper, and Lapis wasn't about to forget it any time soon.
By the time Jasper left, the blue gem's head was ringing with the news of returning to earth and countless threats if Lapis made up any of the information regarding the three Crystal Gems. Then, the orange gem used Steven's name.
Standing on shaky knees, Lapis pushed a finger to Jasper's chest. "If you hurt him-"
"You'll do what?" Jasper's booming voice sneered in return, pushing Lapis back onto the floor. "You'll cry? You'll tell on me? What a joke."
When the cruel gem left, Lapis ran her shaky fingers along the sides of her cell until she could find a panel that would lift. But her plans to hot-wire her way out of the cell were crushed when she saw the inside of the wall; there were strange glowing wires and curling, string-like coils, along with other things she had never seen before. She replaced the panel and curled up again.
She would keep Steven safe, no matter what. She would find a way.
"Get up, it's time to go." A green gem who called herself Peritot led Lapis out of her prison and through a ship hanger. "We're taking off, and don't even think of escaping; we're taking Jasper with us. I trust you've met her?"
Jasper. The blue gem shivered in discomfort from the idea of space travel with the brute, and Peridot nodded as her suspicions were confirmed.
Thoughts of Earth and the journey there were washed from her mind as she saw what her home world had become. Ever since landing on the planet, she hadn't had an opportunity to just look around. Her jaw hung loose as she walked along side Peridot midst the strange ships and odd shapes with and without wings floating in and out of the massive, open-ended building.
Gems of all shapes and sizes rushed from one vessel to another, busy like a colony of ants. Well, that much isn't so different from before, Lapis admitted to herself. It was different, seeing all of these gems after being alone for so long. But she was still alone.
Even Peridot didn't pay her much mind. She worked away on her holo-pad she formed with her fingers, the world completely dead to her. An idea formed in Lapis' mind as she followed the green gem, walking slower and slower until Peridot was around the corner and she was left alone in a hallway between hangers.
"It has to be now." She whispered, making her way over to a control computer along the wall.
She held her back straight and kept her eyes half-lidded with disinterest. Even with her old-styled dress, she blended in enough that nobody asked her any questions. Working furiously with the computer's new interface, she finally managed to send a message to Steven. It was a warning; advice, more like. She wished with all her heart he would listen and do as she said.
She wondered how he could interpret the message from this new gem technology, but it was all she could do. She would have sent it via wailing stone, but there wasn't anything like that here. There were only computers. Nothing but computers, actually.
The thought that home was a feeling comforted the blue gem just a little as she ran to catch up with Peridot before she was noticed missing.