Jasper

"Jeez, it's worse than I thought." Amethyst let out a long sigh, took another step forward and to Jasper's surprise, dared to sit down right in front of her. "Okay, look", she said and raked a hand through her hair. "You guys think you're supposed to keep your head down and always obey the rules. But why don't ya just try to follow your own path here on earth? It's pretty cool. Trust me! There is sooooo much you could do! Oh, I know! You could totally become my wrestling partner! And we call you... Um... The orange tigress! Yes! How does that sound?!"

The Amethyst was smiling hugely and clapped Jasper so hard on the arm that she was seriously considering to summon her weapon again. Instead she just stared at her, eyes flashing, halfway between being impressed and annoyed of this odd behavior. The Amethyst however ignored her death stare.

"Pretty awesome, right?!" she said, still grinning. "And Steven can think of a good background story for ya!"

Jasper remained silent, not sure if she understood what the tiny twerp was babbling about.

"I know you Homeworld peeps don't know it any better, but one of the reasons, we love earth so much, is, because here we can be whoever we wanna be. You don't have to be a warrior just because you were made to be one. Here you can do whatever you wanna do. You're free. Don't you see how great that is?"

"You're talking nonsense!" Jasper paused long enough to glare at her. The words the Amethyst had said, left a cold sliver of rain down Jasper's spine. "When I abandon what I am meant to be, what my Diamond wants me to be, then nothing will be left of me! There would be no meaning in my existence anymore!"

Jasper tried to get up on her feet again but the pain was simply too much and she felt how her body began to glitch for a second or two. Ignoring the growing fear, she sat down and stared furiously at the Amethyst.

"Jasper! C'mon! Can't you see how messed up Homeworld is?!"

"I AM NOT A TRAITOR!", Jasper shouted.

"You just don't get it!", Amethyst yelled back frustrated. "Why do you have to be so stubborn?! Don't you see? You can't go back to Homeworld. They would shatter you! They already sent some gems to retrieve you. Luckily they were pretty dumb and we tricked them to look for you on Neptune."

"W- what did you just say?" Jasper felt a desperate panic clawing it's way up her chest. Yellow Diamond wanted her to be shattered?

"Pshaw", Amethyst said and waved a hand dismissively. "Don't worry about a thing. You're safe with us. We've got your back."

Feeling completly empty inside, Jasper took a deep breath and avoided the Amethyst' gaze. She wouldn't think about that now. She would find a way to regain her honor. She would survive. Like she always did. She wouldn't allow herself to get distracted by emotions...

"If you don't intend to fight me then go away! Leave me alone!" Jasper snapped.

"Don't feel like it", the Amethyst replyed and Jasper heard the challenge in her voice.

"Then why do you continue to annoy me?"

"It's not my fault you're so grumpy."

"Actually, it is", Jasper said sharply.

"If you would just listen to me for a sec... Man, Steven is really better at these things..."

"You mean Rose?"

"Wha'?" Amethyst gave her a startled look. "No, he's Steven, her son."

"What's a son?", she asked in confusion and crossed her arms.

"Ha, now you sound just like Peri", the Amethyst giggled.

"I do not sound like that annoying Gemling!"

"Whatever. Rose gave birth to Steven by loving a male human- but don't ask me for details! Steven does have her gem but he is his own being. Half human, half gem. Rose gave up her existence to create him."

Jasper's mind had gone blanc with shock. It took a few seconds for the absurdity of this statement to sink. "Why,- why would she do something like that?! How is this even possible?"

"Love", the Amethyst replyed simply and shrugged.

"So... Rose is no more?"

"I dunno. Guess not. But who knows? Steven does have her gem and her weapon after all. Sometimes he reminds me of her."

There were several long moments of silence, in which Jasper's mind painted an image of Rose, surrounded by several different gems, who were listening to her songs. Jasper felt drained and strangely empty at this memory... She really hated singing...

"I really hoped to see her again... I guess... I will miss her", Jasper murmured absentmindedly, then clamped a hand over her mouth. She hadn't intended for that to slip out, and wasn't sure why it had been on her mind in the first place.

"I miss her too", the Amethyst admitted, giving Jasper a surprised but gentle smile.

Pushing the distracting thought aside, Jasper changed the subject, embarrassed about loosing control of her emotions like that. "So... So you're too scared to attack me, aren't you? I understand. The first time I saw my reflection, even I was frightened by how BIG my reflection was." Jasper smirked, secretly glad to be the one taking hold of a good pun when the moment arose for once.

Amethyst looked more amused than anything at the reply. "Dude, you're unbelievable."

"Very true", Jasper said seriously.

"That wasn't a complement", the Amethyst sniggered, unable to keep a straight face at Jasper's eternally disbelieving expression.

Jasper observed the little Amethyst for some seconds. Her eyes were bright and it occured to Jasper that she was actually enjoying herself. And oddly enough, Jasper didn't really mind it anymore. The twerp's presence, albeit surprising, did not bother her much at all. After all those months she was forced to spend time with the most depressing gem she had ever met, it was nice to talk to someone as lighthearted as this Amethyst. Even if she was just a defective gem.

"You're something else, you know that?", she said and raised an eyebrow.

"Sure", the Amethyst replyed cheerfully. "Just like you, Jas."

"What do you mean?"

"There is no one in the whole universe that is just like you. You're one of kind."

"Actually there are hundreds of Jaspers. They're getting mass produced since so many of them get shattered during all those battles against other planets."

"Oh man, that's sad", the Amethyst said and hugged herself.

"Why?", Jasper asked in confusion about the twerp's reaction.

"Are you going to punch me when I try to hug you?"

"Yes!", Jasper said sharply.

"Yeah, thought so. It's just... I was wondering all my life what it would be like, if I was normal like you and not defective. What it would be like, if I would live in Homeworld and do what quartzes are supposed to do. Then I met Rose, Garnet and Pearl and learned that it's not all unicorns and rainbows up there, if ya know what I mean."

"I have no idea."

"But there was always a small part left in me, that really wanted to see other quartzes aside from Rose." The Amethyst continued, ignoring Jasper's reply. "I mean, I loved Rose but she was so very different from me. Ya know, less chaotic and less wild, I guess. Well, Garnet and Pearl were awesome too, they still are, but... I dunno. They are my whole world. I didn't know much about Homeworld. They didn't really like to talk about the life they had before they came to earth."

The Amethyst paused for a brief moment in which she seemed to be very interested in a little sea shell, which was lying between her and Jasper. Shadowed by the Amethyst' long hair, that was covering her face, Jasper coudn't see the little runt's expression. She had absolutly no clue why this gem was telling her all this. Why would she talk to an enemy like that in the first place?

"Well, and then came Peridot to us.", The Amethyst continued and Jasper noticed, that the twerp's voice was shaking a little.

"She came to you?", Jasper interrupted her in disbelief.

"We kinda poofed her and she locked herself in Steven's bathroom before she agreed on helping us to defeat the cluster", the Amethyst corrected herself. "Well, in the end it was just Steven and Peridot who saved the earth, since we were busy fighting you and Lapis, but aaaanywaaaay, as I was saying, Peridot came into our lifes and when she told me what a normal Amethyst is supposed to look like and I realised just how... how wrong I am..." The Amethyst made another brief pause. "Everything was coming back to me. All this hate that I'm feeling towards my whole existence. The others told me how bad the kindergartens on earth are. That the gems growing in there had sucked all the energy off the ground around them. That I did that too. My whole being is just so... Wrong... I don't blame Garnet and Pearl for what they said about quartzes and kindergartens in gerneral, nor do I blame Peridot for reminding me of what I am meant to be, It's just... I dunno..."

The Amethyst looked at Jasper as though she was expecting some words of comfort. But Jasper was completly lost at this point. She couldn't recall anybody talking to her like that. Except for Rose … maybe but that was so long ago...

"You and I, we were both made to destroy worlds, aren't we?"

Jasper was so lost in thought, that it took her a few seconds to realize, that she was asked a question."We were made to conquer other planets."

"That's the same. We were meant to be war machines. Nothing more and nothing less... Jasper, you present everything I was supposed to be. It's like looking into a mirror of what could have been. And the way you speak about Jaspers, the way you think about how they treat you and all the other gems, the way you act... It makes me so sad, it almost hurts... Please try to understand me. You're not a Jasper. You're Jasper. Just Jasper. The one and only. Here on earth you can make your own decisions. Live by your own rules. Be free."

Jasper was stunned. Really, though, it wasn't entirely – or really, at all – untrue, the more she replaced the words in her head. Hasn't she already started to make her own decisions right after they had arrived on earth? By abandoning the Peridot's mission to check on the cluster thing? Didn't she rejected Homeworld's rules by choosing to fuse with the Lazuli?

Still, the broken pieces of her ego persisted in making a comeback; "How do you know?", she responded with as much arrogance as she could muster.

Amethyst opened her mouth for a reply, as they heard a sharp voice behind them.

"Amethyst! Take cover!" Jasper froze when she heard the Pearl's shrill voice. She let out a breath she didn't know she was holding when Pearl and Garnet arrived at the scene.

Pearl was already moving, faster than the speed of thought. In a flash, the sphere was in her hand. Air, space, angles, speed... and pain.

It took Jasper a moment to realize what had happened, and the truth came to her on a sudden drumbeat of terror. Slowly she looked down to the sphere in her chest. She felt how her body began to flicker and to glitch. How could she be so stupid? The Amethyst was a trap. It coudn't be more obvious!

"Uoy deyl ot em!", Jasper said, practically spitting the words, as though they were full of poison. "I wewk-"

But before she could finish her sentence, everything went dark around her.