~O~
Chapter Four: Leap of Faith
"Let me help you, Jasper."
Jasper's eyes opened and she was welcomed by the sight of Steven looking at her with worry. Then, he blinked in shock and his eyes widened.
"Wait, Jasper, your face!" he exclaimed.
Jasper furrowed her brow and turned to the water nearby. Her face had almost completely regenerated itself. The sides of her jaws were covered in ribbons of green and her mouth was still filled with sharp teeth. She could move her jaw better and her arms began to look more orange and striped, no longer covered in such green splotches.
Steven had accompanied Pearl and Connie to the cave and had frozen there when they saw her, unable to fathom the change. Well, they weren't the only one. Jasper also longed for answers. But then again, she was healing. That should have been enough.
"Jasper!" Steven exclaimed, amazed. "You're better now than you were before!"
Jasper's breath expelled out of her in a stream of hisses and groans.
"...Thanks to...you..." she growled.
Pearl's eyes widened. "You're speaking!" she exclaimed.
Jasper gave her a cold look. Obviously.
Pearl challenged her look with one of her own. Jasper smiled a little. Well, she was a defiant little clod, she would give her that much.
Steven was happy to hear Jasper speaking. "That's good! You're healing a lot more!"
Jasper shut her eyes tightly before managing to speak again. It sounded harsh and grating; more so than her usual, gravelly voice.
"Strange..." she snapped.
Steven nodded. "Yeah, my healing spit hasn't healed anyone like this before." he agreed. "Maybe my powers are getting stronger?"
Jasper frowned when he looked at her. Why did he do that? Did he think she had all the answers? It made her think about the dream she had and the caves she was in. Did the combination of these things aid her in her regeneration somehow? She didn't know.
Pearl looked at Steven, ushering him and Connie away. "Alright, both of you go and get lunch. You've been here with her all morning."
"But..." Connie started to protest.
Perhaps she was worried about what would happen if Pearl was left alone. The gem sighed, shaking her head, rebuking their concern.
"I'll be fine," she assured them. "Now go on. Do as I say."
The two walked away without further argument. Steven called back to Jasper. "I'll bring you back some food!"
Jasper watched him go before she was completely alone with the pearl in front of her. For a moment, neither one of them moved or spoke. It was just the simplest of glances exchanged. Pearl furrowed her brow and Jasper squinted at her.
It was a direct challenge, Jasper knew.
"You know, you may have him fooled, but I know what sort of gem you are, Jasper." Pearl said, her voice dripping with venom. "And if you do anything to hurt him, I can promise you one thing; there will be no one around left for you to blame. You will be bubbled and I will leave you in the darkest room in the temple."
Jasper raised her eyebrows, amusement touching her face. Or what seemed like amusement to Pearl. It was still difficult to tell with how disfigured the corruption made her look.
"Heh...and you call ME a brute...?" she growled.
Pearl was taken aback by the comment, but she quickly recovered with another of her own. "I wasn't the one who tried to destroy the Earth!"
Jasper scoffed, rolling her eyes. "Heh, that's just like you...Rebel gems. Always thinking...you're completely flawless beings."
Pearl folded her arms across her chest. "Yeah, I've heard it all before."
"You knew what she did..." Jasper continued, her eyes almost glowing now. "To Pink Diamond. You knew and you still followed her!"
Pearl's features filled with pain. "Do you think that was what we wanted?" she said, unable to hide the shake in her voice.
"I think you wanted war. Why else would you have followed Rose Quartz? That's what pearl's are good for, right? Being blind, obedient little slaves!"
She held up two hands for emphasis for her next words.
"I have been a warrior for a long time." she continued, "I have captured enemy gems. Interrogated them. I've been kicked in the face. I've been stabbed, spat on. Shot at. I've almost been shattered myself. But you know what? I don't hold any of that against them."
Pearl continued to glare.
Jasper's gaze was smoldering as she spoke on. "The gems I've had to shatter. Those gems? I respected them, even. I respected them because they were honest. I hated them. They hated me. The relationship was simple. It's gems like ROSE. Gems who make you feel safe, put ideas of freedom and liberty into your head, charms you, manipulate you to being their friend. THAT gem is the worst of them all."
Jasper's words hurt more than Pearl wanted them to. But she forced resolve. "And look what you are now," she said, evenly.
Pearl was silent, staring Jasper down. Much to her surprise, Jasper had no retort.
"You know, Jasper..." Pearl continued, her voice quieter now. "You seem to easily forget a lot of things. You can rationalize it any way you want. You can make whatever excuse comes to mind. But let's both be honest, for the sake of it."
Jasper met her gaze, scowling.
Pearl's eyes changed. She looked sad now. "You were the only gem who was loved most. More than others." A quieter sigh. "More than Rose, me or any pearl in existence."
Jasper never thought of that. She knew that she had been considered to be "The Perfect Quartz", but she never really understood the possibility that she was loved more than others. Jasper couldn't comprehend being loved much at all. At least, that was how she felt now.
"Then, the war happened, and you...in all your perfection and construction for war..." Pearl continued on, never so sure of herself until now. "...were the first of us to break."
Jasper was silent for a long period of minutes. Finally, she answered, cruel and biting.
"You don't understand. None of you do."
O
Steven set down a few things for Jasper to eat. Most of it looked disgusting to the larger gem. But the Pomegranates were particularly good. Steven didn't see why she liked them, but at least she was accepting his offerings.
"Jasper?" Steven finally said.
The gem had been stuffing fruit into her mouth. Ribbons of juices trickled down her frightening jaws. At the mention of her name, she stared at Steven with irritation.
"For what it's worth..." Steven began. "I'm sorry."
Jasper looked up sharply at that. For a moment, she seemed confused by the benediction. Then, her features twisted and she snorted coldly.
"You don't know what sorry is."
Steven withered a little. Jasper stared down at her hands. They looked almost completely healed. Even her feet. But she still had spikes jutting out of her shoulders. Her hair was also still lengthened down and around her feet, which ended in claws.
Steven sighed. "You're right, I don't know."
Jasper frowned, not expecting the reaction she got.
"I can't imagine anything about the war, or what my mom did..." Steven continued, sadly staring at his hands. "But I can make it right."
"Can you?" Jasper snarled, her voice becoming sick and garbled. She was taking steps back mentally. "Can you fix my Diamond, Rose? Can you correct all of those wrongs you've made?"
Steven didn't know how to answer.
Jasper smirked, her expression nasty. "That's what I thought." She looked down at the offerings and gave them a swat. "Take your little false offerings and swallow them with your guilt. Pacifying me will change nothing."
She wasn't wrong.
That evening, Steven was hanging out at the Big Donut with Connie. Sadie cleaned up a few things from tables and chairs before she noticed them.
"Wow, you two look down." she said, noticing the distracted, disappointed looks on their faces.
Steven sighed. "It's Jasper. I can't seem to get through to her."
"Is she one of the gems you live with?" Sadie asked.
"In a way." Steven answered, not sure he wanted to tell her anything about her. Sadie didn't seem to know that Jasper was responsible for the attack on Beach City. It was best to keep it that way.
"What's going on?" Sadie asked, wrapping the strings of a garbage bag up.
Steven hesitated and looked at Connie before he answered. "What do you do if your mom upset someone? I mean, really hurt them?"
Sadie made a face. "That's a tough one. Was it bad?"
"Very." Steven couldn't shake the thought away of his mother shattering a Diamond. "She took someone from Jasper. Someone important. And I don't know what she needs to make it better."
"It won't be better, Steven." Sadie reminded him. She sat the bag down and sat across from him. "Forgiveness like this isn't easy. Maybe start by finding out what she needs. Then, she'll come to you."
Connie and Steven looked at each other.
"You think that might work?" Connie asked.
Sadie smiled. "It worked for Lars, didn't it?"
Steven thought about that. Really, it was obvious what Jasper wanted. But it was something he wasn't able to give.
O
A mission was a good distraction.
Pearl, Steven and Garnet wandered through the jungle after Garnet had seen images of a corrupted gem pass through. She had led them to a gem temple and pushed a statue aside. Pearl looked distracted and sought to ease the feeling a bit with a conversation.
"Steven, this is impossible," she said.
Steven sighed, nodding. "I know..."
"We can't change Jasper's ways." Pearl told him, as they stepped into the temple. "You did good trying, but I can't see her just putting those feelings aside like Peridot and Lapis."
...Hello?...
The sound of a voice suddenly froze the three of them. Pearl, Garnet and Steven looked around wildly for the source of the voice. It was female, weak and pleading. The temple itself was filled with wall paintings, but cracked and withered with age. It couldn't have been the corrupted gem. Corruptions didn't speak.
"What was that?" Steven exclaimed.
"...Hello...Is someone there?"
Garnet looked at the others. "Follow me. Be ready." she said.
They followed her in the direction of the call, approaching a makeshift cavern consisting of rubble from the court and fragments of statues. Garnet entered first, then Pearl and Steven.
"I can hear you... Have you finally come back for me?"
The voice was growing louder. The gems found themselves inside an enormous cave filled with scratches on the wall. Even the ceiling. Pearl shuddered at the sight. Garnet pursed her lips and Steven hid behind them, an uneasy feeling settling in the pit of his stomach.
In the center of the cave rested a pinkish, inhuman blob about the size of a large horse. It shifted wetly, gurgling a few times before turning.
Steven's eyes widened in horror. "Uhhhh..." he moaned.
It was a gem. A corrupted one made up of sticky, pink ooze. It had long, spider-like limbs and sharp claws. Wet pink mass fell over its face like strings of hair and when it spoke, its mouth was nothing more than a frightening maw of teeth.
"M-My Diamond?" the gem gasped, voice airy and haunting. "Is that you? Have you come back for me at last?"
The gems were frozen in their places, unable to fathom the horror they were witnessing. It moved, dragging itself forward with great effort. A bright, mad grin touched its face. It breathed happily, excitedly. Its whole body jiggled like pudding.
"I-I waited for you! Like you asked me!" the gem cried. "I kept it safe!"
She was holding something in a secondary pair of arms that had grown on her chest. It reminded Steven of a Praying Mantis. He couldn't tell what it was that she held, though.
There was the sound of something shifting and the trio looked over toward another gem, trapped in between the stages of corruption. She was mostly blue, except for the dull, red eyes. Her body was partially twisted into that of a deer-like mutation. She had horns growing from one side of her head, long blue whips of hair nearly engulfing her body. She looked like she'd once work a dress of some kind, but it was frayed at the end and her legs ended in hooves.
The gem seemed to stare right through the others, talking now.
"I tried to wait. They told me to wait." she mumbled.
Steven carefully approached. "Hello?" he said.
"I tried to wait. They told me to wait." the gem repeated without pause.
Steven frowned, unsettled by the sight. He waved his hand in front of her face, but received no reaction. She continued speaking in a loop.
"I tried to wait. They told me to wait."
Garnet shook her head slowly. "We can't leave them like this."
She started forward, but Steven held up two hands. "Wait! Just...give me a minute."
Pearl looked wary, clutching her spear tightly in two hands. "Steven, these gems are too far gone. They don't even know who we are."
The pink gem looked around, sniffing the air like a frightened dog. "My Diamond, please..." she mumbled, her voice breaking. She sounded like she was weeping, but she had no eyes. "I want my Diamond. Where is she?"
"I'm sorry..." Steven told her, quietly. "She's not here."
The gem reached up shakingly with two hands, grabbing Steven's face. Pearl and Garnet moved quickly, forcing her apart from him.
"My Diamond... My Diamond..." the pink gem sobbed. "I lost my Diamond!"
She recoiled, those long hands coming up to her head. Her sobs were broken, pitiful and heart-wrenching that Steven felt his eyes prickle.
Garnet looked at him gravely. "Steven, you don't have to be here for this."
Steven abandoned the cavern, listening to the gem still sobbing. It was abruptly cut off by the sound of poofing and the clatter of a gem falling to the ground. Then, the sound of another poof happened and the gem that was repeating herself was abruptly silenced.
O
It was an orb.
He looked up at Pearl in confusion as they walked back toward Jasper's location. "What is this?" he asked her.
Pearl sighed. "She had this. She was probably believed that it would help in some way. I'm not sure what it is. Only a quartz can activate it."
Steven hesitated, studying the rough surface for a moment.
"Sometimes, gems can't shake their attachments to the ones they were made for," she explained. "They form an unshakable bond. Like me, I suppose. But then gems like that? They go beyond. They are broken for the rest of their lives. Lost without their master's call."
Steven remembered when Jasper had called pearl "lost and defective". He was curious now by what she really meant.
"Steven, do me a favor," Pearl told him. "Don't tell Jasper what we saw back there."
Steven looked surprised by her words.
She almost sounded sympathetic about Jasper.
That was new.
Meanwhile, Garnet had returned to the temple with the two gems she had poofed in bubbles. Lapis, Peridot and Amethyst stared at them with amazement.
"So they were in between corruption?" Peridot asked.
Garnet nodded. "Yes. It's possible that the corruption may have only affected them in time." She studied the bubbled Gems for a moment and her voice carried a weight of sympathy now. "But to be there for five thousand years. Waiting for Pink Diamond..."
Peridot snorted. "Well, they were going to wait forever."
The other three stared at her and she sensed the mild judgement in their stares. Peridot frowned and shrugged her shoulders.
"What? It's true." she said.
Garnet took the bubbled gems and gave them a tap, sending them on their way to the room where the rest were stored safely.
"So how is Jasper doing?" Peridot couldn't resist her curiosity. "Does she have fleas? Is she drooling?"
Garnet turned to go. "See for yourself."
Peridot hesitated. "I...probably shouldn't." she said, rubbing her hands together. "She might remember that I poofed her. Jasper tends to hold a grudge if you hadn't noticed already."
Amethyst rolled her eyes. "Yeah, we noticed."
Garnet shrugged. "Suit yourself. But this isn't about us. It's about Steven." she told them. "He believes in forgiveness, and so should we."
Amethyst nodded. "You're right. I'll come with you."
Peridot sighed, staring skyward. "Alright, but the moment she looks at me funny, she's going to get poofed again."
She walked off in a strut, head held high. Clearly being able to poof a quartz was a point of pride to her. Garnet started to go with the two, but she looked back and noticed Lapis standing there, hesitant. She tilted her head.
"Lapis, are you coming?" she asked.
Lapis shook her head.
"I understand your feelings toward Jasper," Garnet said, facing her completely, "And you have every right to refuse. But Steven believes in making peace. Forgiveness. Is that something all of us should try if it's even the slightest bit possible?"
Lapis seemed to consider her words for a moment. Then, she stared at Garnet, her features hardening.
"No."
Garnet watched as liquid wings sprouted on Lapis' back and she flew, disappearing out through the window.
O
Pearl and Steven were drawing close to the cave, still talking.
"You really think Jasper can change?" Pearl asked him.
Steven sighed. "I think we have to believe enough for her."
That was a surprisingly wise comment from him. Pearl smiled, impressed. "Rose said something like that once." she told him.
"Really? When?"
Pearl didn't answer.
Just then, the sound of heavy breathing stopped them. They looked up, just in time to see a corrupted Gem appear over the canyon. It looked like the Quartz corruption that Jasper had fused with before, but it was purple and striped. It had been drawn by the sound of voices.
"Steven! Stay behind me!" Pearl shouted, moving in front of him with her spear drawn.
The corrupted gem snarled, charging forward.
Steven raised his shield moments as it lunged. Its claws collided with it, and the force was enough to throw Pearl and Steven backwards with several grunts. Pearl immediately shielded him with her arm.
Just as the gem charged again, a large hand seized it violently from the air. Pearl and Steven watched in mute disbelief as Jasper stepped between them and the corrupted gem. She brought it close to her face and roared loudly enough to shake the canyons around them.
She was still partially corrupted, so it was a shockingly disturbing sight.
The corrupted gem was thrown violently to the ground. Steven and Pearl continued to stare in absolute shock as Jasper and the gem fought with all the savagery of wild animals. Jasper's jaws were still massive enough to clamp down on the gem's throat.
A roar of pain burst from the gem's jaws. Jasper was relentless; she punched the corruption over and over, drawing winces from Pearl and Steven.
"YOU. DESERVE. ALL. OF. THIS!" Jasper roared, with each violent punch of her fist.
The gem shrieked in pain and a few moments afterwards, it disappeared in a poof of smoke. Jasper stood over the gem that laid uselessly in the dirt. She raised her foot over it and grinned cruelly.
"Time to shatter this useless failure!" she spat.
Just as her foot came down, Steven acted quickly and tossed his shield. It slid into the gem, knocking it out of Jasper's path. Jasper looked back at him with fury flaring in her golden stare.
"Why did you do that?" she snarled, sounding less human and more corrupted once more. Her eyes were wild, almost mad with fury. "I was having FUN!"
Steven frowned at her, stepping forward to retrieve the gem. He bubbled it and sent it onward to the temple. "Shattering gems isn't supposed to be fun!" he told her.
"Really, Rose?" Jasper was backpedaling now. Back to her old ways. "You wouldn't know anything about shattering gems and how FUN IT WAS?"
Steven remembered how Jasper had looked when Pink Diamond had been destroyed. He remembered how much pain he had seen.
"No one deserves to be shattered." he said, quietly. "Not you. Not them. No one."
"You're wrong." Jasper hissed, spiteful in her conflict. "I should have been shattered a long time ago. But you? You were too weak to do it yourself."
Pearl frowned, advancing with her spear clutched tightly. "What do you mean?"
Jasper seemed disoriented. Her teeth gnashed and she clenched her fists before letting out a scream, grabbing rocks and smashing them. Steven quickly avoided her tantrum by hiding behind Pearl.
"ARE YOU HAPPY NOW, ROSE?" Jasper shouted, enough to buckle the foundations of the canyon around her. Her voice betrayed only the faintest hint of despair.
Just then, the sounds of movement above stopped her long enough to look up. Two more Quartz corruptions had been drawn by the sounds of her fit. Their mouths were dripping with saliva, their claws rending the ground beneath them.
One was light brown, spikes jutting out from its chin and head. The other was purple.
Pearl and Steven readied themselves, but Jasper surged forward, howling like a thing possessed. She fought the two corrupted gems with utter savagery, not with the military prowess she was wont to have. Steven started forward, but Pearl stopped him with one hand at his shoulder.
"We should help her!" he cried.
"Wait!" Pearl insisted.
Jasper was bitten, slashed and clawed. But she fought on, clawing back and biting with enough force to crack the gem of one of the corrupted. The sound felt louder to Steven that the fighting itself. He winced, clutching his own gem tightly.
"YOUR FAULT!" Jasper screamed, into the face of the corruptions. She seemed mad, nearly delirious. "ALL YOUR FAULT!"
The corrupted gem gave a yelp of pain, quickly prying itself loose from Jasper and fleeing. The other did the same, giving out frightened gurgles.
Jasper stood there, crouched like a beast. She panted heavily, giving Steven one final look before collapsing to the ground. It took a few seconds before she disappeared in a poof of orange dust. Her gem laid there and as the dust settled, Steven and Pearl noticed Garnet, Amethyst and Peridot standing there, shock on their faces.
They had seen everything.
O
Pearl held Jasper's gem in her hands. The others had been waiting for her to come back, but it had been almost five hours of silence.
"I can't believe Jasper saved you guys." Peridot remarked, amazed.
"I don't think she was trying to." Steven told her, staring sadly down at Jasper's gem. "I think this was something else."
Amethyst sighed, leaning close to the gem. "Garnet told us what you saw. I mean, that would be enough to make anyone crazy, right?"
"War brings out the worst of all of us," Pearl reminded them. She didn't want to think about it right now. In some way, she actually sympathized with Jasper and didn't know why. "I think maybe Jasper felt like a failure. Failed to protect the Diamond she was made for."
Peridot gave a small sigh. "Yeah, I was there when she fell of the ship." she said.
"You mean 'off the wagon'?" Steven asked.
"Yeah, that." Peridot continued. "But come on! It was war! She of all of us should have known there was no time for mourning."
The following day, Jasper still didn't emerge from her gem. And the day after. And the next day after that. He decided after a while to take Jasper's gem with him to the barn.
O
"ARE YOU CRAZY?"
Lapis couldn't believed what she was seeing and she had yelled loud enough that it knocked over several MeepMorps. Pearl quickly retrieved one before it could fall on Steven's head. Steven was taking Jasper's gem into the barn, setting up a corner for her in the hay above. Lion was nearby, rumbling softly.
Steven ignored the arguments of the gems. He reached into his pocket for an MP3 player. Smiling, he began to set up some soothing music for her. Setting it next to her gem, he looked down at it.
"There you go." he said. "I don't know if you can hear it, but at least when you come out, it'll be nicer than being alone in a cave."
He could barely make out the sounds of a door slamming and looked down. Lapis wasn't among them, so he understood exactly what had happened. He gave a sigh and wandered downstairs.
"She has a point, you know." Peridot said. "I mean, taking Jasper here is not exactly an act of intellect."
Steven nodded in agreement before the other gems could argue with her. "She's right, it's crazy." he said. "I mean, REALLY CRAZY. But we know what Jasper's been through. And she was doing so well. I mean, well enough for HER, anyway."
They looked at one another and murmured their agreement. Most of them had still been surprised by Jasper saving Steven. Or at the very least, that was what it had looked like. He was taking an enormous leap of faith doing something like this. He looked at the door with disappointment.
"Lapis needs time, Steven." Garnet told him. "I don't think this is going to be easy for either one of them, but the fact that you're making an effort is admirable. And we should all follow in your example."
Steven sighed. He didn't intend for Lapis to get upset. Really, he should have known by now. "Yeah, I didn't mean to upset her..."
Garnet put a hand on Steven's shoulder. "We will all do what we can to help you in your decision, Steven." she told him. "But be prepared for anything."
He nodded his head. Then, he looked up toward Lion, who had chosen to rest near Jasper's gem.
It was going to be quite a day tomorrrow.