Jasper had never been good with time. Gems, as a general rule due to their long-lived nature, aren't really good with the perception of time, but Jasper, in particular, struggled with it. Time for her had two speeds: blisteringly fast and agonizingly slow. When she was doing something like fighting, for either for duty or sport, time seemed to speed up and hours or even days could pass in a blink of an eye. But during any inactivity time seemed to crawl to a halt. And the slowness drove her to distraction. Back on Homeworld, whenever she passed Topazs or Spinals just sitting around and thinking… Jasper shook the thought from her head. Even now, it annoyed her. And it annoyed even more because for a time beyond what Jasper could figure out that's all she had been doing.
Sitting in a damp cave. Thinking.
Jasper remembered everything leading up to the cave. She remembered fusing with the Lazuli. She remembered Malachite and being trapped within her own body at the bottom of this planet's copious oceans. But she also remembered finally breaking free!… Only to have that freedom and power taken away from her by the Crystal Gems. She didn't know what happened after that, only that she awoke at the bottom of some kind of fissure in the earth. Had she a slightly more poetic disposition, she might have described it as like awakening after being freshly harvested from her Kindergarten hole. But she didn't, so all she thought was how much she wanted to get out.
As she began her climb upwards, Jasper saw nothing but pitch blackness surrounding her. However, as she scaled her way upwards she began to see her surroundings more clearly. Not that there was much to look at in the fissure, but eventually the Homeworld warrior reached the top. Once she pulled herself out of the hole, she saw where she was proper. A simple, completely uninteresting cave. There was light filtering in from somewhere, but Jasper wasn't sure from where exactly as she couldn't see the caves entrance from where she stood. However, she didn't press forward to try and find the way out of the cave. Instead, she sat down and began thinking.
And after a seemingly countless amount of time, that is where she still was.
Sitting in a damp cave. Thinking.
Thinking about… what came next….
"Hello?" The sound of a voice echoing through the cave stirred Jasper from her thoughts. "Watermelon Stevens? Are any of you here?" Jasper rose to her feet as she could begin the speaker moving further into the cave. As she did, the voice spoke again, "Come on, guys. If you're in here, just make that 'rawwg rawg' sound you do. Makes it a lot easier to track all of you down."
Jasper eyed intently where the narrow cave turned. As soon as the speaker turned that corner, they would see Jasper. She braced herself, not sure who was going to appear before her and even more unsure who she would want to appear.
"Alright, I guess no one's in here, so I'm going to head-…" In the same instant that the person turned the corner, they also saw the Gem standing just a few feet away. "J-Jasper…" the person squeaked.
The person that now stood before her was eerily familiar. Their eyes, despite the unexpected cave resident, still looked bright and determined. They were also tall, almost as tall as Jasper herself and their hair was long much like her's as well. Though their hair was dark and… bouncy. Somewhat like a Beryl's. The most striking detail to Jasper was the pink quartz gem that they had placed in the center of their stomach.
"Rose Quartz…" Jasper gasped, the weakness of her own voice surprising her. "You've taken another form."
However, the person shook their head vigorously. "No, I'm not Rose Quartz. I'm…" they trailed off. "My name is Stevonnie."
"Stevonnie…" Jasper spat. "Is that what you call your new form? Hmph, it's at least more impressive than that tiny body from the beach."
"No, you don't…" the person stopped as if trying to get a handle on their own thoughts. "The person you met before, his name is Steven. And… My name is Stevonnie." they repeated. "I'm… the fusion between Steven and his… friend."
"Fusion?" Jasper perked up immediately at the sound of that word. "You're a fusion?"
The person nodded slowly in response. "Yes, I am."
"Perfect." Jasper said as an excited grin grew on her face. The quartz warrior summoned her helmet; it's visor coating her view in yellow. "If you are a fusion, then come and fight me!" she declared.
"Fight you?" the fusion seemed confused. "Why would I do that?"
"Because you're a Crystal Gem and I'm a loyal soldier of Homeworld!" Jasper answered, wondering what game this fusion was playing. "We are sworn to fight!"
"But I don't… want to fight." the fusion said.
Jasper meanwhile was thoroughly confused by this exchange. "'Don't want to'?" The words felt strange in Jasper's mouth. "Want has nothing to do with it. You are a fusion. Your purpose is fighting!"
"That's not my purpose." The fusion shook their head. "I just want to… be me." For one of the few times in her long life, Jasper was rendered completely speechless. A fusion? Denying their purpose? What madness was this?
"I don't know what you're trying to pull…" Jasper said slowly. "Is this some kind of stalling tactic so you can finish setting up your sneak attack?"
"What? No, of course not." The fusion feigned their surprise well. If Jasper didn't already know better, it might be convincing. "I just came into the cave looking for… well, that's kinda complicated. But I don't want to fight you, Jasper."
"And just what would you do then?" Jasper asked angrily.
The fusion was silent for awhile before responding, "I dunno. Just talk?"
"Talk?" Even just repeating the word, Jasper could hear the insanity it was laced with. "We're not Tourmalines! My duty is not to just stand around and talk!"
"You keep saying 'my duty' and 'my purpose'. Why choose to do this?"
"I choose nothing. I am a Jasper, a quartz soldier of Homeworld. This is why my Diamond created me. And I will honor that creation." She widened her stance, preparing herself. "Enough. Trap or not, I crave a good fight. It's been far too long since I faced an opponent on my own. Ready yourself."
And with barely a pause, Jasper lunged at the fusion; her hand curled into a fist ready to strike. However, as the distance between them shrunk and she threw her opening blow, Jasper felt her fist suddenly stop when it struck a surface that wouldn't relent.
It seems the fusion had more fight in them then they let on. They had completely blocked the warriors attack with a round, spiral pink shield. Jasper knew that shield well and seeing it again reignited a long forgotten flame within her. Whether they wanted to admit it or not, this fusion was still Rose Quartz, in some way. Rose had known her purpose. Even if they denied it, this fusion knew theirs as well.
She pushed away from the fusion, creating some distance between them. They now looked like they were ready to go. The way they held themselves was known to Jasper as well. A 'Zeta' stance. Best used in close quarters. It seems the fusion had been trained in the classics. This was going to be fun.
Jasper immediately flew back at the fusion, this time preparing a new strategy. Like before, she let go a mighty punch. And, as before, the fusion stopped it with their shield, but this time, Jasper swept forward with her leg, hoping to kick their legs out from underneath them. Unfortunately, her gambit failed to pay off. The fusion was able to jump over the sweep while still holding against Jasper's punch. And then, while her balance was thrown, the fusion pulled back their shield, causing Jasper to stumble forward and land on her knees. She quickly threw herself backwards and onto her feet and looked to where she had been kneeling, expecting to see the fusion's failed counterattack, only they weren't there. Jasper slowly looked upwards and saw that the fusion was still standing where they had retreated to after pulling away their shield. They hadn't taken their chance to counterattack.
"Are you mocking me now?" Jasper asked bitterly.
"No, I'm not." the fusion responded simply. "I told you, I don't want to fight… We don't have to fight."
"You're wrong! Our separate purposes drive us to fight. It's who we are!" Jasper snarled, her rage starting to get the better of her.
"It's not who I choose to be. And it's not who you have to be."
The fusions trickery finally sent the warrior into a fury. She lunged once more, but this time, her whole body was stopped by the small shield. Jasper tried to push against it, but the fusion was surprisingly strong. As she continued to try and push them away, Jasper felt the shield give away, for just a second. But before she could exploit this opening, Jasper felt the shield slam against her, sending her falling back. She hit the ground hard and slid backward for several seconds before she felt the ground give away beneath her.
No, that wasn't it. She had fallen back into the fissure where she had awakened.
Without even missing a beat, Jasper quickly got up and began to once again scale the wall back to the top of the fissure. However, once she had reached it, the fusion was gone. She looked around angrily, cursing the fusion for leaving in the middle of their fight and trying to deny Jasper her duty and her honor.
But with the fusion gone, the anger began to drain from her. Not the desire for battle, or course, but the flame that had ignited within her began to dim. She thought about leaving the cave; about trying to find the fusion. But instead, Jasper found herself where she had before this had begun.
Sitting in a damp cave. Thinking.
Thinking about… what came next….
And what the fusion had meant by choosing…
A/N: Well, here's something I never thought I'd be doing.
Alright, cards on the table. I'm generally anti-Jasperdemption. With out getting into it to much, I think it would make a better and more profound note for Jasper to refuse Steven's offers to change and instead side still with Homeworld. Sad yes, but for me, an interesting counter balance to the shows themes of love and change. That said, I'm 99% sure that the Crewniverse are going to do a Jasperdemption and I'm 100% sure they'll hit it out of the park.
But all that aside, while writing my last fic, I started to think about what different interactions Stevonnie would have with various characters. And when I started to think about them and Jasper... well this fic is the result of that line of thought.
So yeah, here's a Jasperdemption from someone who considers themselves anti-Jasperdemption.
P.S. And no, just because I'm anti-Jasperdemption doesn't mean I hate Jasper. Really. Just read the fic.
Also, I know it seems like it ends here, but it doesn't. Expect two more chapters in the near future!
Thank you and here's hoping for the next.