Jasper had spent the majority of her time that day talking things over with Amethyst. Asking about the years after that she had joined Rose's forces, to learn about how many had been lost by that time. Amethyst did her best to answer these questions; she had still been very young when they found her in the Kindergarten. "You do know that Garnet or Pearl would be better at answering these, right?"

"Yes, but as things are, you're the best I can ask. Garnet and I don't get along, and Pearl is out of commission right now," Jasper explained nodding to the gem in her hand. She had been holding the whole time that the two of them were on the beach.

"I guess you do have a point," Amethyst agreed with a small shrug, a slow sigh leaving her lips. "Well what else do you want to know?"

"How many times, since the war ended, has this happened to all of you?" Jasper questioned referring to being drawn back within their gem. She was curious, to know how often that this happened and the incidents.

"Most of those happened to me. I get excited and go overboard so I get hurt a lot," Amethyst answered at first with a grin at her own record. "Garnet, as far as I know the only time she was forced to unfuse was when she first fought you." There was an awkward pause at this statement. "And Pearl, it happened once recently," she added thinking about it.

"And how long did she take then?"

"That time, it took…" Amethyst had to think about it "Two weeks? If I remember right."

"That long? What happened to her?" Jasper pressed. If this time was going to take that long, she wanted to know.

"Well, we had watched this movie with Steven, and he wanted to learn to do a trick in the movie. So Pearl was demonstrating sword techniques with her HoloPearl. Things were going boringly smooth," the purple gem started to tell the event to the bigger one. "Steven wanted to her to the move from the movie. Pearl tried telling him that it was just in the movie. That's when she got distracted, and…"

The orange gem noticed how Amethyst looked down. Did Pearl really get caught off guard by her own hologram? She waited for the shorter to continue, doing her best to resist pushing the other to tell her.

"The hologram ran her through with its sword. Through the back and out her stomach. After that, she tried telling Steven she was fine, except that she retreated to her pearl before she could finish. So we told Steven about regeneration. It was a long wait for her to come back, that was the longest she ever took to come back."

Jasper glanced to the side for a moment, looking back to the one talking to her. "Thank you… I can tell it wasn't easy for you to retell that," she meant it. It couldn't be easy, not with how similar that Pearl's current state was to that last one. Amethyst had a look of surprise as she looked up to Jasper. She hadn't thought that she would be thanked.

After a period of somewhat comfortable silence passed, Amethyst stood up "I'm going to get back to Garnet, see if she's had any luck with coming up with a strategy about how to fight those guys in case P isn't back soon," she told Jasper with a slight smile of appreciation at the conversation they had. Hurrying back across the beach, back to the house, assumedly back to Garnet's room of the Temple.

"Maybe Garnet will stop giving me that look when you come back," Jasper stated to herself as she thought about it. Garnet was the only that wasn't willing to speak with her, only when it was necessary. Which was reasonable, but it wasn't something that she particularly liked.

She waited outside until the moon started to rise into the sky, watching it shine down onto the beach, it seemed late enough for Steven to be asleep. Jasper didn't feel like talking with him, answering questions probably about what she did while he was out with his friends. Entering the house as quietly as the screen door would allow.

Once she was on the couch, she ended up laying down on it not much later. The sounds of Steven's snores confirmed that the boy was asleep. Thoughts drifting to the idea of sleeping, it sounded very weird. Lowering your guard, and somehow you saw things that weren't real. Closing her eyes with a huff of breath she continued her pondering. How long she was like that? Who knew, but she found that she was pretty comfortable stretched out. Being sure she put Pearl's gem into her other hand, so that it wouldn't fall from the couch to the floor.

The striped gem had been quite aware of where she had the other's gem, not wanting to be the one to cause any harm to it. The rhythm of the human-gem's snoring was calming now that she noticed. Listening to it, she slowly lost the feeling of the couch against her back. Muscles started relaxing, as her mind slipped further back into what was new to the gem.

She stood in the middle of a barren scape, looking around her; at first confusion was painted across her features. "Where?" she whispered, before the scenery clicked, this place she knew. The battlefield, before it became what it was today, the strawberry field.

"What do you think you're doing? Get out there and do what you were made for!" Words barked out by a commander she once knew. The voice snapping her out of her confusion, feeling her body do as she was told. Weapon summoned, she ran forward. It had her pulse racing, but not from the thrill. She knew was on the other side of this battle. Who she was fighting.

"I knew she couldn't be trusted!" Garnet's voice echoed out, reaching Jasper's ears causing her to look up. There they were the three gems. Rose, Garnet, and Pearl. Warriors being forced back to their gems and some being destroyed before she could look away. "She's only using us."

"No! I don't want to fight you," the tall gem said tightening her hands into fists. A frustrated look on her face. "I don't know what I'm doing here. This has already happened. The war's over!"

"Why are you hesitating Jasper? We have a job to do. Take. Out. The. Traitors!" A hiss hit her ear, a cold sensation running through her as she felt sharp nails against her back. "Look, you already have one at your mercy. Just end this," came a whisper filled with venom.

A sickening drop in her stomach as she looked to her hands, a sword in them, from a fallen gem no doubt. Before her on the ground laid Pearl, the pale one's eyes wide as she tried to scoot back. There bruises lining her arms and legs. Her outfit covered in dirt and torn in places from the trading of blows; gritting her teeth in attempts to keep any pain from showing, her eyes were giving it away.

"Just let go, it's what you were made for. It's all you're good for. Destroying."

Jasper's mind was saying no, as loud as she could. Sword lifted above her head, hands gripping firmly, a sinister smirk pulling at her lips, revealing her sharp teeth as she stood ready to strike.

"No…Please, please wait," Pearl managed to shakily get out. "I don't want to die," she begged, tears breaking free to run down her cheeks.

"You're just a defective gem, useless." Jasper heard her own words, an amused tone. Her laughter rung in her ears as the sword was driven downwards; point being driven through the centered gem, splintering it into many pieces. The scream that left her victim's lips was shattering, her own mind stopping.

Jolting up to a sitting position, Jasper looked around wildly, chest heaving. Cold sweat covered her body and face. She was in the beach house, not the battle field. Pearl's gem wasn't shattered either; it was still in her hand, secure and safe.

"What was that?" Jasper asked herself, wiping the sweat from her brow, it was horrible. She still felt sick about those whispers in her ear. That didn't seem what Steven called 'dreams'. Straightening herself up on the couch she didn't dare allow herself to fall back into that kind of vulnerability.