"We measure our happiness by the amount of suffering we have to endure in order to have those moments in our lives"

Jack B. Diamond

Ch 3 one last shot at happiness

Everyone just stood there, not even able to comprehend what Lapis was telling them as if to say she made it up or she may of not fully understand what had happened to her to begin with.

"You don't believe me do you?"

"It's not that we don't believe you it's just that what you're saying is that someone played a part in all this and it's not clear to us what their end goal is"

"Don't worry Lapis I believe you told us the truth"

Lapis smiles softly at Steven "Thanks, Steven your opinion is all that matter to me, but how did I end up reforming here of all places"

"Oh a person named Jack brought you here for my late birthday present"

"What's a birthday present? And who is this Jack person?"

"A birthday is when humans celebrate a full Earth rotation on the day that they were born which becomes a yearly thing and then they give the person a gift as a token for making it to the next rotation" Peridot explained but as she did Lapis just glared intensely at her.

Before anything was said or done Pearl steeped in to continue Lapis's question "well we don't really know who Jack is honestly we only met him today in fact but if it helps I can show you what he looks like"

Pearl positions herself standing straight as she breaths in her gem starts to glow and projects a full-sized blue hologram of what Jack looks like.

"Does he look like the person you saw when you were Malachite?" Garnet asked

Lapis just stares at the image of the human Pearl was showing her, she did not know this person but she oddly feels like she does.

"No the person I saw was taller and more shadowy if that's even a thing"

Pearl shut down the hologram and looks towards Garnet as to ask what to do next, Garnet understands this and steps forward to Lapis to get her attention.

"Lapis we don't know how that human got you or why he gave you to Steven, and if we'd known that you were inside the box he gave Steven we would of questioned him about it, but to the point we know you have nowhere to go and you most certainly can't go back to Homeworld after what you done. So if you want you can stay here with us until we find a place for you"

Hearing this Steven became starry eyed while Pearl and Amethyst were shocked even Lapis was as well at the sudden offer of sanctuary offered by the de-facto leader of the crystal Gems.

"Garnet do you really think that's a good idea to do that?"

"Don't worry Pearl I know for a fact Lapis would never hurt Steven, she was willing to be in prisoned forever under the sea with Jasper all just for Stevens sack, so she has earned the right to choose whether to stay or leave I am only giving her options"

Hearing this Lapis was now deep in thought and was truly debating whether to stay or leave this place, it didn't help with Steven looking at her with his big awe-filled eyes jumping up and down filled with anticipation for the answer she would most likely give. Lapis looks over at Steven and cracks a smile and then give an answer to Garnet's question.

"I'll stay for now at least"

And as she spoke those words Garnet smiled at her, Pearl, Peridot, and Amethyst, on the other hand, smiled awkwardly at her trying to show some level of support for this out come.

"Oh, my god! We have another new member of the Crystal Gems" Steven cheered as he jumped onto Lapis and hugged her.

"What! Who said anything about joining the Crystal Gem? And what do you mean another new member? You mean the human over there" Lapis points to Connie

"What? No, I'm talking about Peridot"

"Peridot became a Crystal Gem? How and why?" Lapis asked in disbelief

"You should've seen it, it was a day to behold when Peridot became an official member"

Lapis looks over to Peridot for answers and Peridot notes this and looks away in an uncomfortable manner.

"I may have disobeyed a direct order from Yellow Diamond herself and called her a clod to her face and then hung up on her when she was about to say something to me after trying to save this planet, then she tried to kill me by activating the self-destock sequence in the communication device I used to contact her" Peridot shamefully admitted.

Lapis was shocked, one of her former jailers had officially turned traitor was now an official Crystal Gem. So great was this shock she collapsed to the ground in utter disbelief, two of her worst enemies have joined together. She would have just left this place if under any other circumstances she would have flown off into the sky and beyond. The only reason she was still even here after regenerating was because of Steven, her one and only true friend in this cold lonely and unforgiving galaxy.

"Lapis!" Steven calls out "are you okay?" he asks as he helps her up to stand up along with Connie.

"Yes I'm fine, it's just too many things are happening all at once, but thanks for asking"

"No probs Bob"

"It's Lapis"

"I know" Steven replied with a cheeky smile.

Lapis couldn't help but smile at the cheeky little boy and his silly antics, but she still could not shack the doubt that she was feeling staying here. Lapis still debates if she should stay for long or not with the very people she had considered her enemy not so long ago. She even still thinks that if she lowered her guard for a moment one of the Crystal Gem including Peridot would take her moment of weakness and strike at her gem shattering it to little pieces.

"So Steven are you going to tell me the long story you promised?" Lapis asked Steven in the hopes that Steven's presence would safeguard her and keep her safe from the Crystal Gem.

As the day progressed Connie went home as she could realize that the situation she was in could be very dangerous to her well-being. But also understanding her involvement could cause more problems than solutions if she interfered with things that were out of her grasp to truly understand at her age. However, she left knowing that Steven could handle the challenges to come, for his heart was in the right place and she thinks Lapis knows that, Connie only hope was that she does not steal the Earths Ocean again and almost drown everyone like last time.

Whoever unlike Connie Peridot was having the worst time of her life, because the moment Lapis re-formed she has only got a hate filled glares whenever they would look at each other. Even when Peridot looked away she could still feel Lapis's white hot glare burning the back of her head. She even tried to ask Steven to help her in this predicament but she was incapable of asking him for any help because Lapis was sticking very close to Steven every time she saw them.

To be fair on Lapis, Peridot understood why Lapis was treating her this way with such hostility, after all, she was one of the people that kept her in an energy containment field that would severely hurt and destabilize her form if she touched it.

Thus she retired into her only safe heaven on Earth, the bathroom. Hoping that spending time with Steven would somehow lessen Lapis's hatred and rage at her and the Gems. By her calculations that would have taken a long time, maybe a few years but if Peridot had learned anything of value while on Earth, was that Steven had a way to just help people move past the negatives in life and to show them the positives in life. After all, she was one of those people not so long ago, she only hopes that Lapis's arrival does not impede the construction of the drill.

As the day progressed into the night and with the explanation of the 'long story' as Steven puts it, Lapis still didn't lower her guard down. Constantly looking over her shoulders and eyeing the Gems whenever they enter the room. Steven tried to lighten the mood up with a movie of Dog Copter one but unbeknownst to him, Lapis didn't pay any attention to the movie, but instead paid closer attention to the bathroom door and the main Gem door, just waiting for them to come.

Ironically Lapis herself didn't even notice Steven had fallen asleep in her arms half way through the movie and as the movie ended she noticed that the main gem door slides open and reveals Pearl emerging from her side of the room.

As Pearl walked in the main living room she saw unsurprisingly Lapis staring intensely at her like she has been doing all day today, but she also notices that she is also holding on to a sleeping Steven and just realizes that Lapis knows next to nothing about humans.

As Pearls starts to approach Lapis she sees that Lapis slightly tightens her hold on Steven, her eyes focus on her more intensely as if she was ready to fly into action and fight her to the death. When Pearl got in front of her she merely just stood there waiting for her, staring back at her with both grace and form befitting a Pearl.

"What do you want Pearl?"

All Lapis got for a response from Pearl was a raised eyebrow which came with a look of disappointment staring her down ending with a long sigh as Pearl lifted her hand and pointed to Steven's sleeping state.

The look of hate was now replaced with confusion as she looked down at Steven. She then started to notice Steven wasn't moving as much as he was when she first placed him on her lap, his body was limp and his eyes were closed. Lapis was starting to panic, she only knew very little about humans and nothing about half human gem hybrids. So with little to no knowledge, she was going to try and shack him in the hopes it would achieve something, maybe rebooting him?

Thankfully Pearl saw this coming and stopped Lapis before she could shake Steven and wake him up from his sleep.

"Lapis stop! Steven is completely fine, he's just asleep" Pearl whispered to Lapis as to not wake Steven.

"What's sleeping? Lapis whispered as well, not really understanding why she too was whispering.

"Humans need to sleep to restore their energy, and gems can sleep too but only Amathus can and Garnet… sort of?" Pearl paused to think about is "so anyways hand over Steven so I can put him to bed"

Lapis hesitated handing Steven over to Pearl "why can't I put him to bed?" Lapis aggressively asked.

"Okay, there are many things wrong with what just said it's almost funny, first off you didn't even know what sleeping is, secondly I'm pretty sure you couldn't even point to the bed in this room and lastly you don't even you how to put Steven to bed"

"…"

There was no response from Lapis as she begrudgingly handed Steven over to Pearl who gently cradled Steven in her arms as she walked to his bed and tucked him in as well as placing his favorite stuffed teddy bear right next to him and kiss his forehead good night.

"Good night Steven"

Lapis looked upon this show of care and affection with such wonder, a part of her felt bad for trying to shatter her when she first re-formed after her witnessing such a display of love for Steve. But something felt off, really of about what she wasn't seeing, it took Lapis a minute to see this but she just realized that Pearl hasn't moved from her position, she was just staring down at Steven.

"Uh, Pearl what are you doing?" Lapis asked grabbing Pearls attention.

"Oh uh? Sorry kind of forgot you were there, I was just… watching over Steven! You know to make sure his safe!" Pearl nervously spook.

Lapis could tell Pearl was hidden something from her by the way she was not having any eye contact with her made Lapis feel like she was leaving something important out, then it donned on her.

"Steven doesn't like it when you do this does he? Lapis questioned.

Pearl panicked and tried to play it off but to no avail.

"Phffffttt of course Steven likes it when I do this, it makes him feel safe" Pearl hesitantly looks back at Lapis and just from that short glance she could tell her lie wasn't working "okay I admit, he doesn't like it when I do this but I find this very relaxing, it also makes me reassured in Steven's safety" Pearl could see the confused look on Lapis's face and thought it best to explain a bit into it "Lapis humans are very fragile beings, their squishy and they age and dead before your very eyes"

As tears run down Pearl's face thinking of all the things that could happen to him, she also thinks back to the time during the rebellion and how the humans back then had fought with the rebels and that for every gem they managed to defeat 20-30 human lives would be lost. She remembers that after every battle they would look for their fallen comrades in order to give them a proper burial and say their final goodbyes.

Finding the fallen gem comrades was very hard because you had to sift through the ground to find every last shared that were scattered across the battlefield, even to this day they haven't found them all. Sadly, however, finding fallen humans were far easier than finding shattered gems, you only needed to smell the air for blood which to Pearl smelled like raw iron and earth with a strong hint of rust.

Every time she found a body she hated it, for it meant she would smell rotting and decomposing flesh, and every time she would move them to be buried she would sometimes find her hands and chest stained with blood, and no matter how hard she tried to wash it away it would always leave a light shade of crimson on her light pale skin and bright clothing. It was so bad that the only way she found to get rid of them was to get poofed and reform. But sometimes she would feel as if it was still there on her, causing her to constantly cheek over herself again and again only to find herself clean, for now at least.

Pearl snaps out of her nightmarish memory and sees that she had been crying, she wipes her tear away and turns to Lapis who is giving her an indifferent look, Pearl regains her lost composer and try's to apologize for the sudden outburst.

"Sorry about that, it's just that watching Steven sleep soundly at night puts me at ease, it also shows me that what I fought for was for something, even if this was not what I had in mind, I would not trade it for anything"

Pearl looks back at Steven seeing that their conversation is causing Steven to start tossing and turning because of all the noise they are making.

"Oh look at myself I'm a mess, I should be going back to my room, see you in the morning Lapis"

As Pearl reached the door she looked back on for one last final cheek to see Steven still sound asleep and Lapis just standing completely still staring back at her. Seeing everything was fine she opens the door to her room and hopes nothing bad happens when she's not here.

When Lapis saw Pearl leave she was glad she had finally left the room but now found herself with nothing to do. So with nothing better to do Lapis walks up the stairs to see Steven and to see what this 'sleeping' thing is and way humans need to do it.

When she reached Steven she looked down upon him as he slept, Lapis than starts to wonder how long humans need to sleep for. For no other reason than boredom, Lapis pokes Steven in the cheek to see what would happen only to get a soft grunting sound as Steven gently grabbed Lapis's finger that she used to poke him.

For a time Lapis just stood there not moving as Steven's grip on her finger loosened to the point where his hand just slides off her finger. Oddly enough Lapis found this very adorable and very relaxing for some strange reason.

"Pearl was right this is very relaxing," Lapis thought to herself

As if out of nowhere she reels back in disgust as she starts to believe she was finding things in common with a pearl, especially that pearl her a rare high-ranking gem that had a seat on Blue Diamond's court.

"Oh, my stars! Am I becoming a pearl?" Lapis questioned herself

"I need to clear my head" and before she knew it she found herself outside the temple and was now on the shore line of the beach.

It was a beautiful night, the water of the sea reflected the light from the stars as the sea rolled over the sands. Lapis looks up at the sky as her water wings form on her back she starts thinking that she could leave this place and on one will try to stop her, but then again where would she even go.

"Leaving so soon? After all the work I put in, in freeing you, you leave without saying goodbye, a lot of people would find that incredibly rude you know" a voice calls out in the night.

Lapis quickly turns her head turns her head to where the voice was coming from and through the darkness a human steps out under the light of the stars. Lapis recognized this human as the one Peal showed the one they gave her to Steven to be reformed.

"You're Jack, the one who gave me to Steven are you?"

"I'm impressed you know who I am, I'm flattered really I am, I came to see how you were doing on your first day of freedom was treating you, from what I can tell not so good am I right?"

"How could you tell? Were you watching me?" Lapis asked aggressively as she used her power to control the water in the sea to grab onto Jack's hand an form a chain "answer me now!" she demanded

"Well now this is very rude but to answer your question when I saw you leaving the house you had a look of disgust on your face, you looked to the starry night sky sprouted your watery wings and was flapping them about so I assumed, am I right" Jack jokingly explained

"…"

"I am right aren't I, cool!"

"Are you treating this as if this was a joke?! You have no idea of the pain and suffering I've done through! And for you to pawn my gem to the Cristal Gems you have no idea how that made me feel or what I would have done!"

"You know I wish I doesn't have to slap some séance into you but yes, I do think what you've been through is a joke!"

"What!?"

"I mean if you think of it you got off pretty light, you were only cracked and put in a mirror for 5000 years and after that you were not only freed but had your gem fix, compared to the others that were shattered and or corrupted and even forced fused together, it just makes what you have been bitching about sound pathetic"

"How dare you say"

"Do you want to know what makes this even more hilarious?"

"What?"

"It's not what you've been through that's the joke, it is you who is the joke, because even when you were freed you just became someone else's prisoner and when freedom was offer to you, you rejected it and not long after that you made your own prison"

"I did that for Steven!"

"He never asked you to do that, in fact, he told you not to do that, face it you've been a prisoner for so long you can't be anything other than someone's prisoner"

Lapis was at a loss for words, everything he said was right she couldn't deny it she was the joke.

"Oh one last thing, you have no idea what real suffering is, I do because I have been through pain the likes of which you could not possibly fathom for you as a gem are incapable of truly understanding my pain"

"So… are you going to try to stop me from leaving then?"

"That was never my intention and I think you believe I can't stop you from leaving but my intention was to simply show you is that sometimes you have to take risks if you want to get anywhere in life, both I and Steven gave you freedom but you have made many mistakes do you want to know what you did that lead you to fail?"

"Tell me"

"You always stood alone you never stood with friends, that's why I gave you to Steven so that you would never stand alone"

"Thank you" Lapis thanked as she undid the water chains on Jack "oh and can you answer one last question, Jack"

"Sure"

"Was that shadow person in Malachite's mind space you?"

"Yes"

"I am so made of questions right now!"

"You get to ask one"

"How?"

"I don't think you're ready to know that just yet but in time you will, goodnight Lapis and remember Lapis take a chance and stand with people that care for you, even if it's just one person" and with that Jack left as he walked along the beach.

Lapis, on the other hand, retracted her wings back into her gem and walked back inside the temple and simply waited for Steven to wake up.

As Jack exited the beach two people were waiting for him beside a limo one male and one female both had a light brown complexion and looked to be sibling wearing fancy suits and each wore a single black leather fingerless glove on one hand. The male of the two stepped forward to Jack.

"Sir was this a wise move, this goes against your plan and will more than likely cause more complications in the long run"

"Diego no plan goes without a few problems and few alterations right Stella"

Stella only nods as she opens the car door for Jack.

"After all, I do like a challenge but in the end, I'll get what I want"