fatwhiteguy: "Change Your Mind" has come and gone and I am still not 100% okay.
Dovahkiin795: Thank you for the review!
An Preson Peepul: Thank you very much! Ruby and Opal have both been through some rough stuff :( Neither of them really talk about it much so I thought having it be addressed during their talk would be an interesting discussion.
Kraven the Hunter: The canon Jasper plotline really isn't going to be carbon-copy here. I'm not going to say that Peridot will be perfectly fine and nothing bad will ever happen to her, but just know neither her nor Lapis will completely fill in the roll of a villain in this fic. The Chrysocolla plotline will NOT be solved as it was in canon. I completely agreed with your statement on how Ruby and Opal shouldn't have been forced to make up, so I went back and changed that little bit. When I was writing this at first, the idea was that they didn't really need to form Sunstone, and the others just wanted them to make up already...then I realized that was manipulative and super OOC for Sapphire, Steven, etc. Thank you for your review.
"Steven...?"
"Steven."
"Steven, you need to wake up."
"No, not like—"
"Steven, you need to really wake up. Come on."
Steven would have said he opened his eyes, but they were already open.
He was standing upright, which struck him as odd. He was wearing an apron, which struck him as odd. And he was in a building he didn't recognize, which struck him as odd. The familiar orb of dark light hovering before him sealed the idea that yes, this was a dream.
For once, looking around his environment, he did not feel uneasy or wary. This was not a twilit forest or a cliff that overlooked oblivion. It was a simple bakery, and somehow the normalcy in that made it stranger. It was actually quite nice. Everything was in warm hues of yellows and oranges, the lights in the ceiling giving off a homey glow. There were wooden chairs at wooden tables, all empty. The front window even had letters spelling out the bakery's name, but Steven couldn't even dream (pun unintended) of figuring out what they said.
Really, the only bad thing about it all was that, past the windows, there was nothing but nothing. Almost like a very thick fog, but there was nothing for it to cover.
"Steven," Star said again, almost whining. "Come on. You need to wake up."
Steven looked down. His hands were kneading dough. Covered in flour. "Uh...What's going on?"
"How am I supposed to know?!" cried Star. "If you can't see it, I can't see it!"
"Wait, I was...We were all together with Jasper! What happened? Where—?"
"Listen, Steven." Star drifted closer. "The last thing I saw was green. I am assuming through context clues that you are not in a very good state right now."
"Oh, this isn't good." Steven curled his fingers in his hair, shaking his head. "Oh, man...What am I going to do?"
"Take a second to relax," Star advised. "Eat something."
"Oh!" Steven only then noticed the array of pastries the shop held. Donuts, cookies, little cakes, eclairs, bearclaws...They all looked a little too perfect. Not a drop of frosting was out of place. Not that he was going to let perfection stop him—Steven immediately swiped up a cupcake. "I didn't know I could eat in this place!"
While he took a giant chomp, Star asked, "How is it?"
"Tastes like nothin'," Steven tutted in disappointment. He swallowed his mouthful, and felt it dissipate halfway down his throat. He just tossed the rest of it over his shoulder and grabbed a cookie instead. "Here, you can have one."
"Ah. Well. Thank you." Star 'took' the cookie from him, i.e. the cookie hovered very closely to them without anything else happening to it. "I will...eat this."
Steven looked out into the oblivion. The pure white of it made him think about what had happened to him and the others, the great flash. He guessed Jasper had done that to them, a sort of stunning move. It had certainly gotten the job done.
"Ah, man, Star...It feels like we never get a break anymore."
Star removed a little bit of the cookie, apparently tried to eat it, only for it to drop to the floor. They sighed and let the rest follow. "Wish I could help, but uh...I'm still here. Still will be."
"Riiight. Listen, Star: I promise I'm going to let the others know about you soon. And we're going to see if we can help you. Just hang in a little while longer, alright?"
"Gotcha." Star hummed. "Hey, do you think I got a body somewhere?"
"You could! Why?"
"I want to go swimming," said Star. "I don't know why, I just really want to go swimming."
"Star, I swear on my heart, mind, and body that if you have a body, not only will I teach you how to swim, I will get you the cutest duck floaty ever."
"I don't know what that is, but I want it. I'm going to hold you to that. Now, get yourself together! You've got to get back out there."
"Right." The door flew open right at that moment, ringing the bell on top. No one came in, no one went out. The pearly portal of consciousness had appeared once again. Steven had come to welcome its presence at this point, honestly.
So he walked to the other side of the counter, untying his apron and politely hanging it on the back of a chair. Star lingered where they were. When Steven turned to wave, they darted side-to-side in return. Then he walked out, and the door swung shut beside him.
000000000000000000000000
He woke up for real the next time, and it wasn't a pleasant experience.
For starters, his vision was swimming so much he probably couldn't have seen his hand in front of his face. There was something, somewhere, bright green. A headache was jackhammering at his temples. More than anything, he felt so unbelievably tired that he couldn't even think about moving.
He probably sank back into unconsciousness several times. It felt like hours before he could finally muster up the energy just to turn his head. It more or less just rolled on his shoulders.
He was correct in that the place was small, green, and mechanical. But it wasn't nearly as bad as he thought. While his headache eased away and his senses came crawling back to him, Steven was managing to put pieces together. The seat he was in was only one in a circle. Probably around ten in total, just by a guess. It was a tight area, and though it did have large windows, they were blacked-out.
Steven pushed himself up to a sitting position and looked around once again. He was the only person there. No strangers, and certainly no family. Though he still didn't know exactly what had happened, he had just assumed that all the others would be there when he awoke.
Tentatively, Steven got to his feet. It occurred to him then that the room had no doors, entirely enclosed. So, curious and confused, he went to one of the windows and pressed a hand against it. When that didn't do anything, he knocked instead.
There was change, but not much. Flat darkness gave way to darkness spotted with little white dots. Little, moving white dots.
Thus, Steven's suspicion was confirmed; he was on the escape pod Jasper had taken from the ship.
Just as a little punctuation to that, Jasper made her appearance.
It happened in a very short second—a diamond-shaped panel in the ceiling gave away, Jasper dropped in with a thunderous THUMP, the panel closed back, and he and Jasper were alone.
Surprisingly, Steven did not feel the immediate grip of fear he probably should. He really just felt confused more than anything, a fact that could probably be contributed to the expression on Jasper's face: not murderous, not furious, not twisted with the pure hatred. Just…coldly calm.
She did not lunge for him. She didn't even come closer. She turned and sat down on one of the seats across from him—as big as she was, she took up about three seats alone—then set her foot on her other knee and draped her arms over the backs.
She didn't say a word.
So, after much too long of just staring at one another in silence, Steven broke the very thick ice by saying, very simply, "Hi."
Jasper blinked at him.
Steven looked out of the window again. With how it was angled, he couldn't see the ground below them. He couldn't even guess where they could be.
"Where are we going?" Steven asked.
Jasper blinked at him.
Steven swallowed a lump in his throat. Now the fear was beginning to seep into him. Not only was he alone with Jasper—who had not only hurt him before, but had made it abundantly clear that she wished for him and his friends to be caught, tortured, and shattered—but there probably was no one for miles around who could help them. The best he could do was hope that Sapphire was trying to see where they were going, but even that was a bit of a long shot.
When he sat down, figuring he really didn't have anything else to do, he made sure to move slowly and calmly. It probably didn't matter, because Jasper's face didn't even shift in the slightest.
"Is someone flying the ship?" Steven asked.
Jasper didn't speak a word. Her hard glare pinned on him was making him shrink in his seat.
And yet...this was the first time where he could actually talk to Jasper. No one was fighting. If there was a time limit, Steven didn't even know what it was. There was no one there to tell him it was a bad idea; so he just decided that it was.
He swallowed again and began, "My name is Steven."
Jasper blinked at him again, a bit slower. The skin around her eyes twitched.
Steven continued, "I know you're super mad. I know you're suuuuuuuper mad, because you gave me a black eye and poofed one of my friends and threw my other friends in jail and then fought my first friend again and then tried to poof three of my friends in a giant ship and then you came into my town in the same ship and tried to attack us all again and, really, you've just made it verbally clear several times now that you do not like me—" Steven took a deep breath of air when his face began to turn blue. "—buuuuut I just want to...talk to you."
This time, Jasper didn't even so much as blink.
"I know that the Crystal Gems and Homeworld fought each other a long time ago, and I know that it was a really long war and a lot of bad things happen. I don't really know everything about what happened, but I trust my family, and they say that Homeworld is a bad place that makes Gems do bad things...Or, uh the Gems are just bad...Something about Homeworld is bad! I don't know! I need to ask more questions! But—anyway—all I'm saying is that maybe if you listen, you'll see that we aren't the bad guys, and then maybe we can—"
The ship suddenly lurched forward, and Steven went stumbling to the floor. He was very aware that they were now rocketing, the way it felt on a climbing rollercoaster, a car that was speeding past another car. Except the speed grew higher and higher, and the stars beyond the glass zipped by in bright white lines.
As it grew, Steven began to very much fear that he would vomit out of nausea, or worse, black out again, but it hit its peak and slowed back down. Steven was still groaning on the cold floor, hands over his churning belly, while everything settled back into place.
Jasper stood to her feet, towering all the way up to the ceiling, and Steven's stomach dropped like a rock. Her face had not changed a bit, but there was no denying the new light in her eyes. Even as she so very calmly stepped forward and stopped in the middle of the room, Steven couldn't help but think she wanted very much to reach over and strangle him into silence.
She didn't. Which was a relief. And a source of much wariness.
Instead, Jasper reached up and tapped her knuckles on the ceiling. Once again, the diamond-shaped panel slid away. Steven caught a glimpse on what must have been the cockpit. It looked like a single chair surrounded by a board of controls.
With only one arm, Jasper hauled herself up and into the cockpit and didn't even make a grunt while doing so. Once gone, Steven could only hear a few clicks of buttons.
At long last, the ship began to sink down with a speed slow enough to be safe but fast enough to be worrisome. Steven decided to just climb into a seat and buckle in for this one—which turned out to be a good idea, as once the pod touched down, it did so with a great thump that bordered on a crash.
After the bad rattle, Steven was fine, and while ignoring the nausea making his whole body twist in on itself, he turned his attention back to the windows. Still nighttime, still starry, but they were definitely on solid ground now.
Steven unbuckled, and before the strap had zipped back in, Jasper dropped down once again. Already, one of the windows was split in half as a docking-like door hissed open and fell to the ground. Cool night air drifted into the pod.
A large orange hand grabbed his feet and pulled. Steven cried out and tried to wriggle away, but it was too late. With no effort and hardly even a sound, Jasper had him dangling upside-down, her fingers tight around his ankles. No amount of squirming or reaching could help Steven now.
It was when Jasper began to walk out of the pod that Steven began to panic. The Crystal Gems weren't there. He knew that. He also knew that meant he was on his own. He would have to escape from Jasper...on his own. The way she was holding him now might as well have been shackles. All it would take was a hard punch, or toss too high and far into the air...
He fought. He squirmed. He struggled. He didn't even budge.
Steven, in the midst of all of this, tried to get a look at his surroundings. Even that gave little to no fruition. Even if he did recognize the place, the late night masked it all in blues and silvers. The land was flat, a little grassy, mostly dry. Other than that, it was a crystal-clear sky full of hundreds of twinkling little stars. He would have said it was beautiful if he wasn't panicking out of his mind.
The blood flow running down into his head was beginning to make him dizzy, far too light. This was remedied in the worst way possible when Steven tossed him up into the air, spinning him upright, and caught him by the back of his shoulder. If there was a moment where he was going to barf, that was it.
Jasper held him up, and he realized, as he continued to squirm, that she wanted him to see where they were.
It was, to his immense surprise and extreme confusion, the Beta Kindergarten. At night, it looked entirely different. No yellows or oranges or browns. No warm sunlight. It was all blues and blacks and purples, the parts where the moonlight did not hit completely drowned in shadow. Again, very pretty, just not in the given circumstances.
It was actually only by the familiar humanoid-shaped holes in the valley far, far off to his right that had Steven recognizing where he was. Because what lied before him was unlike anything he had ever seen.
It was a giant, smooth bowl in the earth. A perfect scoop. Big enough to be a lake, but bone-dry. The slopes of it were so smooth that Steven could have slid down them without problem, but it would be a long, long, loooooooong slide to get to the bottom.
Steven tried, and failed, to get a look at Jasper's face. The hand holding him up was as still as stone, but honestly, he would have preferred it if it was shaking with rage. He had gotten so used to seeing Jasper like that, always angry, always violent, that this cold, calm fury completely unsettled him.
"It's, uh..." Steven coughed. "It's a bowl."
He was promptly dropped to the ground. He just barely managed not to scrape his hands.
Looking up at Jasper, he swallowed hard again. Her eyes were a stark, violent yellow even in the dead of night.
"This is where it happened," Jasper told him, even, but so very cold. "This is where you ruined everything. I want you to think about it."
Jasper bent down to him, hands on her knees, lip beginning to curl back from her teeth. Steven tried to inch away, as subtly as he could.
"Think about everything that has happened because of this. All the Gems that were shattered. Thousands unmade because the colony fell apart. The hundreds that could have made it out fine if you hadn't corrupted their minds. The one. person. in my and many others' life that was taken away because of you. Because you wanted this to be your planet."
The more she spoke, the more Steven disconnected her words from her. As if, even though she was speaking right to him, right in front of him, his own mind was putting him elsewhere.
He had known, of course, that Jasper had something against Rose Quartz. He also knew that most of what she said was untrue. Rose led a war against Homeworld because she wanted to protect Earth, and her friends. Her friends followed her willingly, she didn't "corrupt" them. As for the Gems...Rose wouldn't have shattered anyone. None of the Crystal Gems would have. It had to have been Homeworld who did that.
He assumed that this "one person" was maybe...Well, he didn't actually know, but maybe some kind of popular Homeworld comrade? A Quartz soldier who had fallen in battle?
Steven knew that Jasper was wrong, but he saw how she thought she was right. Homeworld just...did that to Gems, apparently. Made them think that what was wrong was right. Which was why, he realized, making her see the truth was not going to be easy.
Jasper stood back to her full height. Her huge hands were curled into fists by her sides. The cape around her shoulders was lightly rippling in the wind, same as her hair.
"I am going to ask you one question," said Jasper. "What do you have to say?"
Steven did not answer for a very, very, very long time. Not because he was considering, but because he found himself stuck. He was not Rose Quartz. He could not give Rose Quartz's answer. But Jasper was expecting it.
Steven coughed once, twice, three times and finally replied, "I'm sorry."
Jasper blinked.
Jasper blinked again.
And Jasper exploded.
"DON'T TELL ME YOU'RE SORRY!" she roared. Steven clamped his hands over his ears, and still her voice shot right through them. "YOU'RE NOT SORRY! YOU'VE DONE TOO MANY THINGS FOR TOO LONG TO BE SORRY! I WANT YOU TO TELL ME WHY YOU DID IT!"
Steven's mouth worked faster and more efficiently than his mind in that moment. And his heart, too, as it was starting to pound in his chest.
"I-I don't know," he stammered out, and when Jasper's face once again twisted in outrage, he bumbled out, "I-I-I mean, she did it because Homeworld was doing bad things to the Earth and her friends. She just wanted everyone to—"
"Your friends?! You have the nerve to call those things your friends?! Let me get this through your head, Rose Quartz: those four would have been perfectly safe before you came along. The Pearl just had to do her job and she would have been safe! The faulty Amethyst just had to make up for her weakness and she would have been safe! The Sapphire wouldn't have just been safe, she would have lived a life of luxury! But you knew that it was you against everyone else, so you got into their heads. What did you do, huh? Did you bribe them? Lie to them?"
"Mom didn't lie to anyone," Steven told her with some newfound bravery. "Even if they were safe, they weren't happy! Some of them weren't even—Homeworld shattered all the Rubies!"
"You think happiness is more important than safety." Jasper shook her head in disgust. "I guess that explains a lot. You sent all your cronies into battle to get shattered because it kept you happy."
"They chose to follow her!"
"They 'chose' to follow you after you twisted their minds." Jasper scoffed. "I want to know—what did Homeworld do to you that made you snap, huh? Did you want your own Pearl? Did you want to be the leader of a squad? Did they say no when you asked for a whole planet?"
"No! Mom started everything because she saw the beauty in—"
"WHO is MOM?"
"I—ugh!—I meant Rose Quartz?"
Jasper paused for a very long moment. "Alright. Well. Jasper has had enough of this conversation. I was just a little curious about whether you had any regret."
Jasper's crash helmet wrapped around her face with a quick flash of orange light.
"The answer is 'no.'"
Steven jumped out of the way when Jasper swung her head down hard.
He ended up crashing into the dirt just a foot away from the cloud of dirt and dust. His mind was on autopilot. No more consideration, no plans, just a nonstop loop of Run, run, run, run, run.
But he couldn't, and he didn't. When Jasper's head reared back and came right down, a piston, Steven just flailed away once again with no grace and no plan.
Then he was tumbling head over heels, rolling side over side. Dust bit into his eyes and seeped into his mouth. He couldn't stop himself from moving no matter what he did. He was going to be covered in bruises no matter what.
He did, of course, realize that he had tumbled himself right into the bowl. He really should have seen it coming, but now that it had happened, he was helpless.
Slowly and painfully, he managed to get himself sliding on his rear, but it was still far from a smooth ride. Wind rushed by his ears, grit stung across his legs and feet. Even putting his shoes down only managed to make clouds of dust that spat up right at him. He couldn't even get it out of his eyes properly.
That didn't stop him from seeing Jasper land herself in front of him. "In front of him" here meaning "twenty feet ahead while he was moving forward at what felt like a hundred miles per hour."
Either Jasper didn't calculate well, or luck was on his side, because when Jasper raised her head to strike a third time, Steven just slid right between her legs and kept going. Behind him, he barely heard Jasper give a confused "What—?", quickly followed by a growl of fury.
A look behind him, and he decided that luck probably wasn't on his side anymore. Jasper had curled herself into a ball, something he had seen before, and so quickly that smoke rose up in her wake, she took off after him. He could hear how fast she was. The sharp whistle through the air made his ears ring.
Steven couldn't dodge, and he couldn't attack, and out of sheer instinct that was almost animal, he conjured a Bubble to protect himself.
The result was...not what he was expecting. He'd thought that the Bubble would stop him and anchor him down. Then Jasper would crash against the outside, but other than a bad reverberation, he would be safe.
As it was, however, the Bubble did not stop him, he was not anchored down, and when Jasper crashed into the Bubble, there was an effect similar to that of a golf club full-force-striking a golf ball.
So with a very nasty crash, Steven was soaring high into the air. So high, in fact, that when he looked down through the pink-tinted wall of his Bubble, his limbs flailing around uselessly, and saw the ground below...The only thought that came to him was "This is going to hurt."
It did. Maybe not as much as he thought it would, but he did. The Bubble came back down just a little before the bottom and went rolling the rest of the way. Inside, Steven was tossed around in every direction. He didn't even know how long it took to get back upright, just that he most definitely had a dozen more bruises to deal with in the morning.
The Bubble finally came to a stop at the bottom of the bowl. That wasn't the end of it, however.
Of course that wasn't the end of it.
Jasper struck down with the force of lightning. A single, powerful hit was all it took. The Bubble burst on impact. Steven was exposed once again.
Jasper did not immediately try again. She pressed her boot to Steven's chest, and even though she could have easily squashed him right then and there, she just kept him pinned. Steven didn't dare move out of fear of her pressing down harder. How easily would he break, he wondered? How quickly could she do it?
"Why do you keep looking like that?" Jasper demanded. The toe on Steven's collarbone pressed down, and he held his breath. "It's not going to get my sympathy!"
Jasper raised her fist, and Steven squeezed his eyes shut.
When warmth spread through his belly, Steven thought, This is it. She got me. I'm dead, I'm dead, I'm dead.
Such thoughts only lasted for a split-second, cut off by the sound of something harsh and reverberating in his ears.
It was enough to throw Jasper off her balance. She stumbled back with her hand shaking out of her control. The shout she gave out made it sound painful, doubly so when she grabbed her forearm. Her very fingers had become orange blurs.
The shield between them was not too large, nor was it too small. It was just as Steven remembered it to be, but in the darkness, its pink glow was almost blinding.
Without thinking, Steven took it onto his arm. At once the glow and the sparkles faded away. The weight was comforting, in a way, but not comforting enough.
The shield only served to push Jasper a little further. Again she raised a fist and brought it down hard, and again there was a reverberation that rattled Steven's bones. He managed to pay more attention this time, and saw that Jasper's hand was actually wavering from the impact. More accurately, its image was wavering. It didn't look right, and it made Steven's hand tingle sympathetically.
When Jasper instead reared her helmet back, Steven almost warned her, but it was too late. The next hit actually hurt him; he felt the shockwaves all through his body. He couldn't even imagine what it felt like for Jasper. She even let out a short but harsh scream as her whole head moved like heat shimmer. Her very facial features blurred together.
Steven finally got himself back up to his feet, but knowing there was no use in running, he just hunkered down and waited. Jasper collected herself quickly, and to put it as simply as possible, the look she gave Steven could have very well killed him.
"DO SOMETHING!" Jasper's fist pounded on the shield out of nothing but frustration. It wasn't even that forceful. "DON'T JUST SIT THERE! FIGHT ME!"
Steven really wanted to say that what followed was at the very least an effort of a fight on his part. Instead, one swipe of her arm had Jasper flinging the shield away from both of them. It disappeared before it even hit the ground.
"STOP PRETENDING!"
When Jasper reached for him again, Steven summoned up his Bubble in an instant. Just the blink of an eye, and Jasper was behind a screen of pink. Her fingers splayed across the surface with the typical tinny echo. Her other hand pounded against it, until finally she bashed her helmet into it. Even that didn't make it burst. Jasper took a step back, and the Bubble rolled with her—
Wait.
Steven looked right and left and saw…well, his surroundings. The moonlit dirt of the bowl, the stars up above. The color blue.
Then he looked at Jasper, all pink.
It took approximately thirty seconds for him to realize that it was, in fact, not him who was encased in the Bubble.
Steven let out a rattling sigh of relief, and quite possibly his first breath in far too long. The intake of air actually hurt. He hadn't realized he'd been shaking so much, but now his spine and shoulders were both aching.
Jasper, in the meantime, was giving it all and receiving nothing. Punches did nothing. Kicking didn't even crack it. The strike of her helmet just gave another short echo. At one point, she curled herself into a ball once again and went off at full power. The result was very similar to that of a hamster running in its wheel. It was actually kind of funny.
But Steven was careful not to laugh. For good reason, as if the Bubble wasn't there, it was clear just by the look on her face that Jasper would have throttled him.
"Let me out of here!" Even the power in Jasper's voice was dulled. "What is WRONG with you?! This is not how you fight!"
Steven cleared his throat. "I don't want to fight."
"UuuuuuuuuuUUUUUUUUUUUUGH—"
"I want…to talk."
Jasper rested her forehead against the Bubble and glowered down at him. Her right fingers were drumming on the inside, and Steven was once again reminded that they were the perfect size for breaking every bone in his body. Thank Rose for the Bubble…
"So this is how you do it. You trap them until they comply with what you want. Is that what you did with the human? Did you starve it? Did you refuse it water, sleep? You know those things depend on their parents at that stage. Did you separate them, or did you get them, too?"
"The human's name is Connie, and she was helping me because she's my friend!" Steven ignored the yellow eye roll. "Jasper, listen to me. I'm not going to hurt you. I'm not even going to poof you!"
"Well, no, I'd think not. How else are you going to spout your friendship at me?"
Steven took another calming breath. Oh, how he wished this day would end. "I know you're mad about the stuff Mom did—"
"Again with the 'Mom.' Is that some kind of Earth way to say 'I'?"
"I meant 'Rose'—"
"Again with the 'Rose!' Stop talking like that, you're already an idiot as it is!"
"I am not Rose!"
Jasper did not seem at all surprised with the outburst. She just raised a thick brow and drawled, "I have this terrible feeling that the next thing you're going to say is going to be really, really stupid."
Steven steeled himself. "I'm not Rose. I'm her son."
"I was right."
Jasper continued to glower down at him from within the Bubble. She seemed entirely disinterested in what he had to say, but at the same time was waiting for him to respond. Which, Steven supposed, summed up Jasper pretty well.
Still, he tried to reason: "I don't look anything like her!"
"Look, you might have a ton of special little quirks that other Quartzes don't have, but we can all shapeshift. Just because you're holding it up longer doesn't impress me. It was bad enough for you to shift to look like a newborn human to get sympathy, but now you're going to pretend you're not who you say you are?"
"Newborn…?" Steven shook his head clear. "I am who I say I am, and I say that I'm not Rose!"
Jasper ticked off her fingers one-by-one, very slowly, very angrily. "You have the same shield, you have the same powers, your cronies still treat you as their priority, and in case you haven't noticed, YOU STILL HAVE THE EXACT SAME GEM IN THE EXACT SAME PLACE!"
On instinct, Steven placed his hand over his Gem. That…was a fair point. For Jasper at least. Like—Duh, he wasn't Rose Quartz, but according to the Gems, a person like him had never existed. Of course Jasper would be trying to find logic in the situation.
"I'm not debating this, Rose Quartz!" Again, Jasper's fist rapped against her cage. "Let me out of here!"
Steven looked around him. He most definitely had no chance of winning once the Bubble fell.
"Um…If I do, are you going to try and get me again? Because—Okay, okay. No need to give me that look. I get it."
Ignoring Jasper as she fruitlessly tried to break out (again), Steven weighed his options. Letting Jasper out was a no-no, however much it was going to upset her. Leaving her there wasn't going to happen, either. Where was he going to go? He couldn't fly the ship. He couldn't even tell what part of the Kindergarten they were in. The Warp Pad was miles away and he didn't know where to start walking.
"Oh!" Steven snapped his fingers. "My cellphone!"
Jasper saw him pull it out of his pocket and grunted, "Your underlings aren't going to find you!"
"Hush now."
The second his phone's screen lit up, Steven groaned. Not a single bar. He might have even had negative reception out here.
Jasper, at this point, was basically woodpecker-ing the Bubble. If it wasn't for the rhythm of her helmet WHAP-WHAP-WHAPPING against it, it would have been dead silent. A cold breeze drifted by, making Steven shiver just a bit. This wasn't going to be a pleasant experience.
But…
This might have been his only opportunity to get through to her. With no one else holding him back, Jasper constrained, no ensuing battle. He knew the Crystal Gems would be hunting them now, and though he did feel some guilt for making them worry so, he took it as a good sort of rush. He could talk to Jasper, they would come, and they wouldn't be stuck here anymore.
But it was a rush nonetheless. Whatever happened once the Crystal Gems came, he had to try. He had to just try to get through to her.
"Alright, Jasper. I'll make you a deal."
WHAP-WHAP-WHAP-"Keep it."-WHAP-WHAP-WHAP
"When the Crystal Gems come for us—and they will!—we won't hurt you. I'll even ask them not to poof you. But until then, you stay in the Bubble."
"Sounds fair." WHAP. "We wait for your backup to show—" WHAP. "—until then, you try to brainwash me—" WHAP. "—and if it doesn't work—" WHAP. "—you can just do what you want with me." WHAP.
"That's not going to happen. But let's change the subject!" Steven sat down and crossed his legs together. He propped his elbows on his knees, his chin in his hands, and smiled from ear-to-ear. "Let's talk about you!"
"Shut up."
"You were made here on Earth, right?"
"Shut up."
"Do you like your job?"
"Shut up."
"What's your favorite color?"
"SHUT UP!"
This is going to be a long night, Steven decided.
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An hour or so later, and Steven was stuck. Any and all attempts to start up a conversation had failed. If Jasper didn't tell him to shut up, she'd yell, and if she got angrier past that, she'd shriek. And her energy was never-ending. Not once did she stop trying to get out of the Bubble. She would try everything she possibly could, failed, and tried again.
In breaks, Steven would take out his phone and play games. Several times, he'd tried to get reception, but it never worked. At some point, he'd gone so far as to climb to the top of the bowl—a feat that took more than fifteen minutes—and still nothing. Jasper didn't like it, either, and had yelled at him not to leave her there like a coward. Steven had returned more out of annoyance than defeat.
According to his phone, it was coming near ten, and his body was reacting accordingly. When he sat back down in the dirt, he didn't want to get up. The light of his phone started to hurt his eyes. The Crystal Gems still hadn't arrived, which was both a good thing and a bad thing, he guessed. More time to spend with Jasper and more time to worry about the future.
With his voice slurred, he asked, "Have you ever played Tic-Tac-Toe?"
"Shut up."
"Here, I'll show you." Steven drew lines into the soft dirt with his fingers. "I'll go first."
He drew a circle in one of the squares. Jasper didn't even glance down at him. She was pounding at the Bubble non-stop, alternating her hands. She hadn't even broken a sweat.
"Oh," Steven murmured, "You can't really play, huh?"
"Shut up."
"I can do it for you. Just tell me where you want me to put the X."
"Shut up."
"If you get three in a row, you win. I promise I won't cheat."
"SHUT UP, SHUT UP, SHUT UP, SHUT UP, SHUT UP!" Every exclamation was punctuated by the pound of a fist against the Bubble. Her fingers curled against it, wishing so very badly to just rip it apart, but it was no use. Still, Steven felt the heat of her eyes from where he sat. "JUST SHUT UP ALREADY! I'M NOT GOING TO TALK TO YOU! I'M NOT GOING TO FOLLOW YOU! I'M NOT GOING TO FORGIVE YOU!"
Steven's mouth opened out of his control, and he stifled a yawn behind his mouth.
"DON'T BE SO SMUG! THE SECOND THIS BUBBLE GOES, I'M ENDING THIS ONCE AND FOR ALL!"
"Sorry," Steven said before he was really done. "I'm sleepy. I wasn't trying to be rude. Here…I'll put an X for you."
Once he was done, he just sat there a moment, staring down at the single X and the single O in the grid. His eyelids were started to weigh down heavier and heavier, but for just a moment, they widened when he realized Jasper had been completely quiet for more than two seconds.
She still had her eyes narrowed at him, even if she had paused in her struggle. "You're what?"
Steven blinked at her, slow with drowsiness. "What?"
"Don't—! What does sleepy mean? Are you insulting me?!"
"What? No. 'Sleepy' like 'sleep.' Like I'm tired." Steven drew another O into the grid. "I want to sleep."
"Oh, here we go…" Jasper set her forehead against the Bubble and sighed. "Let me guess. Now you're all weak and slow and defenseless."
"Pretty much." Steven drew another X for Jasper. "Have you ever slept before?"
"Just stop already! I'm not falling for it! I know who you are, I know what you did!"
"I'm not Rose," Steven said again, and of course it came out in a little sleepy mumble, completely derived of any firmness. He put in another O. "I would explain to you why, but you don't want me to."
"Shut up."
"Exactly. So I guess I'll go to sleep and see if you've changed your mind in the morning. I would keep talking, but…" Steven yawned again, loud and long. "I don't think I can anymore. But wake me up if the Crystal Gems arrive. I'll keep them from hurting you."
"Shut. Up."
"Wait, let's finish the game." Steven drew in another X for Jasper, then paused. And blinked. "You beat me."
"I'll beat you in more ways than one once I get out of here!"
"M'kay. Good night. Don't let the bedbugs bite."
Steven just laid himself down on the ground. Of course, he had no blanket, so he pulled his arms out of his sleeves and against his torso for warmth. It wasn't that bad, actually, and once he'd gathered some of the dirt into a little pile, it made for a decent pillow.
He kept his phone beside him and shut his eyes. Behind him, Jasper's noise continued, but it was somehow relaxing. Like a metronome, he guessed. Slowly but surely, he fell asleep to the sound.
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The next morning he woke up to a world of orange.
The sky was darker on one end than the other. Turning his head just slightly, he saw the burning-hot sun hadn't completely risen from the horizon yet. He had a beautiful sky above him, clear and bright, but it was a reminder of the situation he was in. The dirt all around him was orange, from the top of the bowl to the "bed" he slept on.
He pushed himself up with a groan. His clothes were dusted in orange, his hair probably worse. His back was stiff and his mouth felt dry. He then remembered that he probably wasn't going to have a breakfast of eggs and bacon with orange juice waiting for him, and sighed aloud.
Something was unsettling him, and it took him too long to realize the silence. It was dead quiet, not even the whistle of the wind passing by.
Jasper was still in the Bubble. Of course she was. But now she was sitting down. Laying down, more like. Her arms were crossed over her chest. Over the toes of her boots, she was glowering at Steven.
"Good morning," he greeted her cheerily. "I hope you weren't bored."
Jasper clicked her tongue. "Did you seriously just lie on the ground for eight hours straight so you could keep up this game?"
"'S not a game." Steven stretched his arm behind his head. "But I guess sleeping really is weird when you put it like that. You know, usually when you sleep, you put on ceremonial clothes, lie down on a special cushion, and hallucinate for hours." He paused mid-stretch. "Man, now I think sleeping is weird."
Jasper just glowered at him a little more.
Steven finally stood up to stretch his legs. The Tic-Tac-Toe game was still there from the night before, which he found funny for some reason. But looking at the dry dirt, he was once again reminded that there was no water around for probably miles. But the Gems would come for them. But he was thirsty. But they were coming! But he was really thirsty…
Actually, thinking about it, the fact that the Crystal Gems weren't there was worrying him much more than it had before. Sleep must have taken over all his other priorities. It was, what, ten hours now? And still no sign.
"So," he said, "no sign of the Crystal Gems?"
"What do you think?"
"Fair enough. Man, I hope they show up soon."
Jasper's upper lip pulled back from her teeth. "I'm sure you do."
"I'm not trying to be mean," he chuckled. Somehow, a good night's sleep and having her threat neutralized made Jasper's ever-burning fury a little…funnier, he guessed. "I just want to go home."
Jasper didn't say anything.
Steven thought to himself for a second. Jasper had been gone from Homeworld for more than two months now. Even if Homeworld was a horrible place with horrible Gems…"Hey, do you miss Homeworld?"
In response, an eyebrow arched upwards.
"Guess not. You know, I heard you say you're from here."
Jasper shifted her boots just to glare a little better at him. "Don't mock me."
"I'm not, I'm not! I'm just curious." Steven walked closer to the Bubble, probably not a good thing, but he just did it anyway without thinking. "If you were made here, why do you want this place to be destroyed so much?"
"This better not be a real question." One look at Steven's expectant face answered that, and Jasper groaned. "Alright, let me spell it out for you. I was pumped out in a shoddy Kindergarten, I ended up being correctly formed by sheer luck, all the other Gems in the same Kindergarten were defective in some way or another, so the only reason I have any higher ranking is because the 'competition' was nonexistent, the colony I was sworn to service was taken over, and—last but not least—my one reason for living was taken away by a psychotic rebel who makes others suffer before batting her eyelashes and feigning innocence."
Steven's heart beat with sympathy. He couldn't help it. "Geez, that sounds rough…Who did it?"
A pause. A very angry pause.
"Oh, yeah." Steven coughed. "But still. Why are you so loyal to Homeworld? You weren't made there."
"This might come as a shock to you, but some of us are grateful that we're alive."
Yet another good point from a bad view. Steven hadn't really thought about it before, but every Gem he knew was created by Homeworld. Even the Crystal Gems. Even his mother. For as horrible as Homeworld was, for all the things it did to its Gems, it couldn't be denied that without it, said Gems wouldn't exist.
A sudden, violent growl in his gut made him flinch. As if it would even help, he clamped his hands over his belly and squeezed. Of course, this did nothing but let him feel the rumble through his hands.
Jasper blinked. "What was that?"
Steven groaned. "The Pit Montser."
"The what?"
"My stomach."
"Your what?"
"Stomach. S-T-O-M-A-C-H."
"Ess-tee-oh-em-aye-see-eich what?!"
Steven sighed and lifted up the hem of his shirt just so. Jasper visibly stiffened at the sight of his Gem, but he pointed to the skin above it.
"I have a stomach," Steven tried to explain. "I need food to eat. It's how I get energy and stay healthy."
"Alright, let me get this straight." Jasper pinched the bridge of her nose. "You expect me to believe that you have a body part you don't need so you can process food that you don't need so you can get energy that you don't need."
"Take out all those 'don'ts' and you've got it!" Jasper obviously didn't think this funny, so Steven let his smile drop. "I'm sorry, I can't help it. It's just the way I was born."
"Stop talking like that!" Jasper clenched her fingers at him as if to squeeze his shoulders. "You were not born. You do not have a 'stomach'. You do not sleep."
"I'm not Rose Quartz, Jasper. Sorry not sorry, I don't know how to get this through!"
Jasper ran her hands down her face until they covered her mouth. Steven's confidence wilted. He wanted to convince Jasper, not wear her down by annoyance. But he wasn't trying to be annoying! He just didn't know what to do.
"Jasper, you've got to tell me how I can make this clear. I know this might sound weird to you, so—"
"Alright." Jasper tucked her legs beneath her and leaned forward. Her entire body screamed fake interest. Especially when she propped her chin in her hand. "I want you to hear just how dumb this lie is. So explain to me how you're not Rose. Tell me how you're…"
She flippantly waved a hand, to which Steven offered, "Steven."
"Right. Tell me how you're 'Steven.'"
"Okay!" Even in her dripping sarcasm, Steven saw the opportunity. This might just be his big chance at getting through to her. "So, um…I do have Rose's Gem."
"Mm-hm."
"But I don't have her memories. Because she and I are two different people. We just have the same Gem because she's my mom."
"Mm-hm, mm-hm." Jasper batted her eyelashes. "And what is a 'mom'?"
"A mom is…Okay. For a human to exist, they need a mom and a dad. Or, uh…They need a mom and a dad to make them. And my mom and my dad made me. Rose was my mom!"
"Ahhhh, so two parents create the child, and care for them until they can live on their own?" Steven nodded, and Jasper nodded back. "Of course! That's how all organic lives work. So, let me ask: where is Rose now?"
"Um…" Steven swallowed. "She's not here anymore."
"Oh? What happened?"
"She, uh…She gave up her physical form to make me." Steven glanced down at his Gem again. "My dad was a human, but she was a Gem, so things didn't work like they usually do. My dad is still around, but…She had to leave so I could exist."
"Oh nooooo…" The very dry sympathy almost made Steven wince. It hurt. Even though he knew that Jasper hated Rose, hearing her be so sarcastic about it just—hurt. "But at least you got everything else from her, right?"
"Well, kind of! I have her shield, and I can Bubble like her—obviously—and I used to have healing powers, but then they went away. But otherwise, I'm a human! I'm all…fleshy! See?"
Steven patted himself on the belly in demonstration. Jasper nodded as a rapt student would.
"So," she said after, "Can I sum up what you've told me?"
"Sure you can!"
"Great! So—a being made of light managed to create a child with a being who physically has nothing in common with her, and even though the child has her Gem and her powers, it conveniently doesn't have her memories, and it just so happens that in creating the child, she had to stop existing!"
"Exactly!"
"THAT DOESN'T MAKE SENSE!"
Steven flinched at the roar, even dulled within the Bubble. Jasper had gone from sarcastically interested to shaking with frustration in half a second. Her fingers were still clawing at the air, so desperate for him to admit defeat.
"I guess it doesn't," Steven said eventually. "Apparently, someone like me has never existed before."
"Shut up, shut up, shut up, shut up…"
"I'm really sorry I can't explain it better. I know it must be really confusing, but I'm telling the truth."
"Shut up, shut up, shut up…"
"Alright, listen…" Steven spoke as he thank, slow and careful. He pulled the hem of his shirt back down. "I told you something that I know but you don't. So why don't you tell me something you know, but I don't?"
Jasper's face was completely hidden in her hands at this point.
"You said before that I took away your 'one reason for living'. What did you mean?"
"Don't," Jasper growled against her palms.
"You mentioned that me fighting for Earth 'took away' someone from you. Who—?"
"DON'T YOU DARE!" Jasper threw herself against the Bubble with everything she had. For the first time, the Bubble shifted, but nothing gave. Fists and feet pounded over and over and over, so loud that it almost took over her shriek of, "DON'T YOU DARE ASK ME THAT QUESTION!"
So after that, Steven decides that a break was in order. Not because he was frustrated, or scared, but because he would swear that in that final burst of rage, he heard Jasper's voice crack.
000000000000000000000000000000
The lovely dawn gave way to a hellish morning.
Steven should have expected it, really. With dry land and not a drop of water anywhere, he was practically sitting in a sunspot. The temperature shot up like a rocket. While last night he had curled in on himself for warmth, now the temptation to strip his sweat-soaked shirt off his body was overwhelming. He was sweating everywhere—his armpits, his neck, his hairline, even the backs of his knees were stickier by the second.
He couldn't look too far into the distance without heat shimmer blurring everything. Even looking a few feet in front of him necessitated shielding his eyes with his hand.
He wondered if Jasper felt cool in her Bubble, if she even felt hot or cold. Even with the sun shining right through her cage, casting a pinkish shadow below her, she still kept the heavy cape draped over her shoulders. She'd gone back to lying down arms-crossed, but she'd taken to glaring at her boots instead of him.
Steven's stomach never stopped growling, something that very much annoyed Jasper. For a few seconds, it would help to imagine a breakfast prepared before him. Crisp bacon, runny eggs, golden toast, a tall glass of cold orange juice dripping with perspiration…But then the orange juice would remind him that his tongue was basically sandpaper in his mouth.
Every second was a reminder that the Crystal Gems weren't there, that his time with Jasper was running shorter and shorter. He really hadn't meant to upset her so with that last question—his curiosity had overtaken his judgement. How could he not realize that asking about a person Jasper had lost would be a sore subject?
Steven still assumed she was referring to a comrade of hers that had fought in the war. It only made sense, though how she'd been lost was not something he liked to think about. He refused to believe that a Crystal Gem had done it; the Crystal Gems didn't do that.
Steven swallowed down nothing. He once again thought of orange juice, and that made him think of trees, and then trees with rainbow stripes, trees that could dance…
He realized delirium was beginning to set in, and knew he had to do something about it. His phone had already died. He tried to make another Tic-Tac-Toe game, but the feeling of the bone-dry dust under his skin was too much.
Steven couldn't give up on Jasper. He couldn't, he had to get through to her, he had to make her see reason…but how to do it, how to do it…
"Hey, Jasper."
She didn't answer.
"I know you don't like what happened…I don't blame you…but why do you hate the Earth? The Earth didn't do anything…A planet isn't a person, it can't do things on purpose…imagine if it could, though…oh, how many galactic wars would there be…"
This last part came out in whispers, but the rest he was sure Jasper could hear. He wasn't even looking at her, but he guessed she was paying attention.
He was honestly a little surprised when she answered. "It's just a planet. It was always just a planet."
"Yeah, that's what I'm saying!"
She tried again, slower. "It's just a planet, so there's no need to feel attached to it. It's flora and fauna and water. That's it."
"But what about the humans?"
"What about them?"
"Humans aren't bad." His senses were coming back to him. He decided to talk as long as Jasper would allow, even if it was only to help his health at this point. "Some of them are. But some Gems are bad, too. Doesn't mean they're all the same."
"What are you talking about?"
"If you want to destroy the Earth, that means you want to destroy humans, right? 'Cause humans live here. My dad lives here, and Connie. And the Cool Kids. And the Pizza Family. And Onion. I think."
"The only difference between humans and any other lifeform is that they're a little smarter," Jasper scoffed. "They live short lives that consist of eating and sleeping. They have no purpose."
"Do they have to have a purpose?" Steven finally looked up at her. She was watching him warily. "I know how Homeworld works. Peridots are scientists. Rubies are soldiers. But I don't get why it has to be like that."
"Ever heard of this thing called 'order'?"
Steven chuckled. "Have you ever been in a city? Humans have positions, too. But they choose them. Anyone can be anything so long as they try hard enough. Everyone can do what they want and we're not in total anarchy."
"And what happens when no one wants to build the buildings? What happens when no one wants to defend the weaker? What happens then?"
"That doesn't happen. There are so many humans, there has to be at least a few of them who want to have a certain job. Anyways…the Earth is a good place. That's why Mom and the Crystal Gems fought for it."
"Does it really sound that simple too you?" Jasper waved a hand around them, at the dust and the heat and the empty sky. "'This place that isn't my home is good, so I'm going to fight for it?' Why was it so good? What is it about this one planet that's so much greater than everything else you ever knew, huh?"
Steven frowned, but it crumbled when a cough tore up his throat. It was dry, and it hurt, and he wished more than ever that he had something to drink. He would take muddy water at that point. Jasper furrowed her thick brows at the sound, or more at the fact that he didn't say anything about it when he continued.
"Earth is the only planet with humans on it, right? Mom fought for the people who lived here."
"As if I didn't know that. It doesn't matter how much you tell me about humans. They're not Gems, and you're not one of them. There were hundreds of Quartzes just like you! Like me! And you turned your back on them for things that won't even live to a century!"
Steven wanted to tell her that no, there was more to it than that, but he found herself coming up blank.
It occurred to him then that even though he knew that Rose Quartz had fought for the Earth and the people that lived on it, he'd never thought to ask why. He loved the Earth, he loved his dad, he loved Connie, he loved all the citizens in Beach City, but he couldn't think of what Rose saw. Even if Rose Quartz had known humans the way he did—even if she had human friends she wanted to fight for, which might not even be true, as the others had never said as such—what about the others? The Crystal Gems had stayed away from humans for thousands of years, speaking to them like they didn't know their language, looking at them as if they were weird creatures.
Maybe they just fought the war because they loved Rose. It was just a little heartwarming, he supposed, that his mother was just such a good person that dozens, if not hundreds, of Gems would fight her war. But more than that, it was disconcerting. Because that made Rose sound selfish. And Rose wasn't selfish, was she?
More times passed, and the heat only got hotter. Steven found that crawling in the pinkish shadow of the Bubble gave a little shade, but it wasn't much, and Jasper clearly didn't appreciate him getting closer. At some point, Jasper stood up for another round of attempting break-out. With rage dissolved into annoyance, it seemed more like a workout routine than anything, the way she powerfully but calmly struck the glass with her fists, her feet, her helmet.
At some point, Steven fell asleep, but he didn't recall feeling sleepy. He might have passed out, he supposed, but he didn't like to think that was the case. After all, that meant he was getting sick, and if he was getting sick, he was on even more of a time limit.
Steven looked to the far side of the bowl and paused. It wasn't actually a perfect bowl, not as he thought. On either side there was one long crack reaching up to the top. It had to be where the canyon continued on, not that he would be able to tell which way was north and which was south.
Somewhere in the canyon's path, there was a secret bunker that he and Jasper had both been in. She did so and came out with a ship. He did so and watched a horrid amalgamation of shattered Crystal Gems forcibly assimilate his friend inside of it.
"You want the Earth to be destroyed," Steven whispered.
His voice was so cracked and quiet he was surprised that Jasper heard him. "And?"
"You said that there was something that was going to do it. Something called the Cluster. What is it?"
Jasper laughed very dryly. "As if I'd let you in on our plans."
Steven swallowed painfully again. "You said it would really upset me. So why not?"
"Look, you want the answer?" Jasper shrugged while glaring at him. "I don't know what it is. All I know is what it's going to do."
"What's it going to do?"
"Shut up."
Steven blew a raspberry with the very little saliva he had left. "You're no fun."
Jasper curled her lips at him. "When are your 'friends' getting here? I don't think I can take much longer of this."
"I have no idea. I thought they'd be here by now…Sapphire's probably trying to figure it out. Maybe they split up, or something…Or maybe they think we're in space now and they don't know what to do—"
"It was one. simple. question."
"Actually, that's another thing…If you want to take me back to Homeworld so I can be…something-ed, why didn't you just go ahead and take me there?"
"I already told you," snapped Jasper. She gave another powerful punch to the Bubble. "I took you here to see if you had even a shred of regret for what you did."
"I said I was sorry!"
"And then you said you aren't actually Rose."
"I did indeed also say that."
Jasper clicked her tongue. "Don't you think that maybe you can't regret something you didn't do?"
"Hm…" Steven twiddled his fingers in the dirt. "Yeah, but…I'm sorry that whatever Mom did hurt you. Maybe what she did was right, or maybe it was wrong, but it hurt you. And I'm sorry for that, even though you probably don't believe me."
Jasper just snorted and resumed her workout. Another wave of nausea came over Steven, and he teetered where he sat. He couldn't stay like this much longer, and he needed something to do, anything. And he really was no closer in convincing Jasper that he and the others weren't the bad guys in this whole ordeal, so underneath the sleepiness and the sweating, anxiety was beginning to swell in his chest.
"I've been asking you a lot of questions," he told Jasper. "Don't you want to ask me anything?"
"No."
At this point, Steven decided to play perhaps the only card he had: reverse psychology. "Alright. But just so you know, once Homeworld gets me, you won't be able to talk to me ever again. So if you have any questions, do it now."
Jasper finally stopped to look down at him. She stood just in the sun's image, so Steven couldn't look up at her eyes, just the blue diamond-shaped insignia at her chest. He took a guess at her expression, however.
"Fine," Jasper spat. "Why did you do it?"
"Do what?"
"Everything. The war. The rebellion."
Steven sighed. "I'm not my mom, so I can't answer that. But if I took a guess, I think maybe she just thought the Earth was beautiful and worth fighting for."
It really wasn't anything new, so next Jasper just huffed and asked, "Why do you keep the others around? Of all the Gems to force into your army, why those three? Rubies are nothing compared to Quartzes. Sapphires have no business on battlegrounds. A Pearl and a defect are pathetic as is, but fused into that thing?"
"Opal's not a thing," Steven snapped before he could really help it. For as patient as he was trying to be, he wasn't going to let Jasper talk about his friends as such. "Ruby is a lot of things, and Sapphire's stronger than you think she is. I keep them around because they love me. They don't give up on me, even when I screw up. And I screw up a lot."
"Ah, so you admit that almost everything you do ends in disaster?"
"Not everything, but yeah. I don't have all the powers Mom did…Even the ones I have, I'm not very good at them. I want to be just like the others, but I'm not as strong as them. The first time we all went on a mission together, I lost the code and got the Aerial Tower sent into the ocean." Steven chuckled at the memory, and marveled that he could do so now. "But they're really patient. They could leave me, but they don't."
"Yes, well, chains do typically make leaving harder."
"I didn't ask them to come find me, but they're going to anyway." Finally, Steven stopped giving her such a kind smile. He liked to think his patience was abundant, but now he finally felt a chip in it. Still, he kept his voice surprisingly calm. "You won't take anything I tell you, huh?"
"Why should I?!" Jasper jabbed a finger at him, pressed against the pink barrier between them. From where he sat, it was almost right at his nose. "After everything you've done, what reason do I have to believe a word you say?"
"I didn't do anything! I'm not Rose. I'm Steven. Stee-ven. Even if you just pretended you believed me, I think you'd understand everything a lot better."
Jasper was silent for just a moment. And then she was back to her assault on the Bubble.
At this point, Steven considered—considered—giving up. Talking to Jasper was the closest he'd come to talking to a brick wall. He couldn't think of a single thing that would convince Jasper to at the very least stop in her pursuit of getting them all shattered. But even if he didn't (though he really, really, really wanted to), Jasper did have answers that he needed.
"Could you at least tell me what the Cluster is going to do?" he asked again.
Jasper crashed her helmet against the Bubble. "No."
"Alright, Jasper. You've left me no choice." Steven cleared his very dry throat and asked, as sweetly as he could, "Pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee—"
Jasper frowned down at him. "Stop that."
"—eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee—"
"I'm serious. Shut up."
"—eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee—"
"ENOUGH!"
"—eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee—"
"ALRIGHT, I'LL TELL YOU!"
"—ease? Thank you!"
But Steven's all-genuine, grateful smile was completely slapped off his face by what Jasper told him next.
"The Cluster is a weapon in the middle of the Earth. Once it's ready, it's going to burst out, completely destroying this stupid planet and all the stupid things that live on it."
It must have been the heat that kept Steven from understanding what he just heard. He was very aware that Jasper was still watching him, and that there was the beginning of a little smirk at her lips, but he could still only say, "What?"
"That's right." Jasper knelt down, elbows on her knees, no longer hiding her smile. It was catlike, smug, satisfied. "Your pwecious widdle planet and your pwecious widdle humans are finally going to get taken away from you. And there's nothing you and your 'fweinds' can do about it!"
Steven finally understood then.
And if that didn't wake him up, nothing else would.
He stood up without realizing it, and the dumbstruck expression on his face only made Jasper grin all the wider. He had thought…he had thought that Homeworld was a threat they were keeping at bay, but they had been there, literally under their feet, the whole time.
It was going to rip the entire planet apart. Like…like paper.
How long until the Cluster would come out?
Oh, no—
Beach City—
Connie—
Greg—
The others—
—everyone—
—everywhere—
—they would—
—they were going to be—
"No."
Jasper hummed at him, one brow raised, a little bemused. "'No'?"
"There has to be something we can do. The Earth is our home—they've all done too much to lose it like this!"
He couldn't even describe the fire that was burning in his chest. He thought, in some small part of his mind, that maybe he should be crying right now, shaking with fear. But instead he was filled with nothing but pure determination. Not a single doubt was in his mind.
He was not losing his home. He was not losing his family.
Jasper, of course, had no way of knowing about the fire inside of him, and her reaction was thus very unimpressed. "Right. Okay. You got a plan?"
Steven began to pace. There was still sweat on his brow, an itch on his skin, a dry throat and an empty stomach, but he ignored all those things in favor of putting his mind into overdrive. Whatever the Cluster was, it was deep in the Earth, and the only way to get to it was to dig somehow.
"We need to get down there," he said aloud. "We just need to find a way to get to it."
"Yeah, with what?"
Steven stopped to look over at Jasper. She was watching him. Still unimpressed.
"Shouldn't you be worried?" he asked her. "You're on the Earth now."
"In case you forgot, I have a ship. And once your backup shows, I don't intend on letting them keep me from that ship. If it makes you feel better, you're coming with me, but it's only going to get you a few extra hours."
Steven just ignored her in favor of looking down at the dirt. It was all dry and loose, but beneath that it got harder. Then it was rock, then at some point magma. Then something else, but whatever it was, the point remained that they were going to need something powerful to get down as much as they needed to.
Something not too far away from him caught his eye. It was a little sparkle, it looked to him, and it was very out-of-place in all the brown and orange.
He stumbled after it and Jasper let him go, seemingly marking it off as more pacing. For the time, he forgot her, too—because, well, Jasper wasn't really the number-one priority anymore.
Once he got to it, he saw that it was a little piece of metal, jutting up from the dirt, just the size of his fingernail. He meant to kneel down beside it, but dizziness hit him once again, and he crashed to his knees. He had to keep his head up while he dug around it with his fingers. They were moving out of his control now, his brain too disoriented to get them moving right.
Still, he managed to get several inches of the thing out. It didn't reveal the thing very much. It seemed to be a simple metal spike, but it wasn't supposed to be there. It wasn't natural, so he wondered where it had come from.
Looking to the far end of the bowl again, where the crack ran up to the sky, he thought about what lied in the path of the canyon. More dirt, of course, but also many, many holes in the silhouettes of people. Those holes had been made by emerging Gems, and those Gems had been put there by Injectors, and…
That's when a lightbulb went off over Steven's head, and though he would have liked to have another wave of invigoration out of it, it was more like a very muted pinch. Make no mistake, the idea gave him much, much hope, but that hope was squashed under the fact that he felt like a pile of mashed potatoes at the moment.
"We can drill down," he laughed aloud. "We can drill down and get to it! It'll be easy! It'll be easy…"
As he laid a hand over the spike, which must have been part of an Injector's leg or a drill or whatever, he could just imagine it. All they had to do was get one up and working. They could even dig up this one. The legs would have to come up, one by one, bit by bit. They would be like spider legs. They would be all around him, curling in, their sharp points targeted right at his soft, fleshy body.
Steven blinked.
Because that was what was happening.
He just barely managed to throw himself forward and away before it happened. A loud BOOM, a spray of dust and rock, the sound of old gears grinding and twisting together, something sloshing and spilling. With the sudden movement, the world span around in circles. He only vaguely felt himself skidding across the ground.
Flopping himself over, he found himself looking up at a tower. The sunlight glinted off it harshly. Something red was spilling forth from it and glittering scarlet. He knew it was an Injector, but it didn't look like an Injector. It looked like some kind of giant bug, and for as long as it had been underground, the stinger between its four legs was as sharp as ever.
The Injector walked around almost drunkenly, its body swaying and teetering. It was making unnatural churning sounds. It was dying, but it was fighting.
He heard Jasper say something, and if his mind had been clearer, he would have been able to tell that it was a cry of, "Look at that. You've made another friend."
His vision was beginning to blur and warp together, so he didn't realize that the Injector was creeping for him until it was too late. He only managed to start crawling away when one of its legs touched down just a hair away from his foot. When its drill was above him, right above his belly, something rang out. A chime.
And again, Steven just barely managed to roll away. The drill struck down into the Earth, spinning and pushing, completely biting through the rock. Once it was all the way in, something in it tried to inject a Gem, but there was nothing to give. So with just an empty sort of chug, the drill pulled itself back out.
"Just lie still," Jasper called out to him. "I think it'll leave you alone if you let it kill you."
Steven heard the sarcasm, could have from a mile away, but he just couldn't pull himself up to his feet. No matter how much he strained his arms and legs, his body just refused to pull itself up. When the drill came over him again, he flipped himself over and out of its way again, but he knew that was it.
He couldn't move anymore. He was tired. He was thirsty. He was empty. He was sick. He couldn't even flex his big toe, his body felt so heavy.
Jasper spoke up again, and though he still heard the sarcasm, there was a hint of confusion there, too. Not worry, but something was bothering her as she stared down at him. "You know, if you want to cut the 'I'm pathetic and can't do anything' act for five seconds, you're more than welcome."
If the drill came for him again, that would be it. It would have been. He'd be obliterated.
But the drill crawled over him to go to Jasper instead. She did not look immediately alarmed as it came towards her, even appearing amused when its legs prodded at and slid off the Bubble. She just crossed her arms and stared it down. It kept making its weird sounds, and more than ever, it sounded like a confused but predatory animal.
Steven watched from where he laid in the dust. At last, Jasper scoffed at the thing. "Come on. What are you going to do, huh?"
She knocked her shoulder against the Bubble, sending it rolling forward and bumping against the Injector. Jasper stopped smirking when a leg touched down on it, then another, then another.
The Injector somehow managed to perch itself up and over the Bubble with balance despite its obvious malfunction. Jasper tried again to roll the Bubble away, but then the Injector's legs shot out at double their length, embedding themselves in the ground. The Bubble, and Jasper, were trapped at its mercy.
Jasper's helmet wrapped over her face again. Though she was scowling upwards at the sharp drill, Steven's weak stomach plummeted. He reached out, and his arm fell limply into the dust.
The Injector pulled itself up, and he tried again. He concentrated. He forced himself to do what needed to be done, just barely managing to wheeze out a brittle "Jasper…!"
The Bubble popped. Jasper was free.
For half a second, she blinked. Then she jumped.
She shoulder-rolled away from the drill right before it came striking down. This was where Steven was sure it was going to end. Surely Jasper would take advantage of her freedom to get to her ship. Well, no, she was more likely to get him first and then get to her ship.
Jasper didn't do that.
Which confused him immensely.
While the drill kept spinning and churning up dirt, Jasper took hold of one of its legs and pulled. There was a creak, almost a shriek of surprise, and then the whole Injector came crashing on its side. Its other legs scuttled to keep it upright and failed. The reverberations only made Steven queasier.
All it took was one hard yank to rip the leg off. Jasper just let it drop, and when another leg tried to pull the Injector up, she gave it an annoyed kick. She rounded the thing with lazy speed, arms at her side. Steven was confusedly reminded of a prowling tiger at that moment. He would have laughed, but the idea alone of laughing made him hurt.
The drill was still spinning, but that didn't stop Jasper. She put one hand on the drill, another on the body, and pushed them apart. For once, Steven saw Jasper exerting effort. Her biceps bulged. Her teeth grit together.
It only took a moment. The drill went flying off the Injector and crashed somewhere in the distance. The rest of it twitched on the ground, a sight that visibly annoyed Jasper. She jumped atop it with surprising elegance, though her boots still thumped down hard on it.
Steven stopped watching when Jasper reared her head back. Rather than hearing, he felt her helmet bashing down hard, felt the crack of destruction and the final whine of the gears. The very last of the red biomaterial trickled out in congealed puddles.
Steven was positive he lost consciousness for a moment, because even when his eyes were wide open, his vision was dark for several seconds. It came back to him bit by hazy bit. He felt as though he were breaking the surface of water. Oh how he wished he was in water.
The sky was the first thing to come back, then a shadow looming over him. He couldn't see her face.
Steven was too exhausted to be scared. He knew what she was going to do. If only he had gotten through to her, some part of him still insisted. If only the Crystal Gems had gotten there sooner. If only, if only…
Something bit his cheek. He couldn't even wince.
When nothing else followed, Steven hesitantly opened his eyes again.
It was, of course, Jasper, but she did not have her hands on his throat, or her boot against his chest. She wasn't even looking into his eyes, instead focused on his cheek, where one finger was pressing into his skin.
She pulled it away and stared at her fingertip, where red liquid was smeared. She rubbed it against her thumb, slowly, not blinking. Steven did not remember getting his cheek scraped at any point, though considering what all he had been through, he guessed he probably didn't look too great.
Jasper then looked into his eyes.
Steven didn't think he'd ever seen the yellow so clear before.
"You're not Rose."
He breathed out. "No."
"You don't know anything."
"No."
Hands went beneath his armpits and lifted him up. It wasn't exactly gentle, but for as harsh as Jasper's every movement was, it might as well have been a delicate touch. His head lolled around his shoulders and his legs dangled beneath him. Even with his mind spinning in tornadoes, he managed to keep his eyes on her face. On her eyes. On her pursed lips and furrowed brows.
"What are you?" she asked.
"I'm Steven."
"You're human?"
"…Kind of."
Using one thumb, Jasper pulled up his shirt hem just a touch. At the sight of his Gem, she frowned, yet Steven couldn't find any anger in her face. Displeasure, perhaps, but not anger.
Whether he felt confused, or hopeful, or scared, it didn't matter. The moment was swiftly and effectively ended by a voice neither his nor Jasper's tearing through the hot, dry air.
"JASPER!"
Steven guessed Jasper had pressed himself to her, one hand on the back of his head and the other on his body. That's what it felt like, anyway. He couldn't tell what she did next, only that it involved some kind of swift movement that did not make him feel better at all. Neither far away nor nearby, something burst.
"YOU PUT HIM DOWN RIGHT NOW!"
When he recognized the voice as Opal's, he finally got his body working. Or, rather, he finally "told" his body to get it together because if it didn't, something very bad was going to happen very quickly.
For the next few seconds, Steven was unable to tell what was happening all around him, but the others could see it just fine. From the top of the bowl, the Crystal Gems—all bearing their Weapons, all staring down at Jasper, staring down at Jasper holding Steven, staring down at Steven with the cut on his cheek and bruises on his skin—had finally arrived. And Jasper, holding the being that was not Rose Quartz but wasn't entirely human but also had no business being involved in any of this, was watching them all and debating just what she was going to do. Should she get…Stee-ven away from this, or go straight for the rest of these traitors?
Of course, the Crystal Gems weren't thinking so calmly. The sight alone of the much taller, much stronger, already-having-hurt-him-once Gem manhandling Steven had even Sapphire burning with rage. Opal had struck first, firing an arrow she had very carefully aimed for Jasper's head.
Now they all took off. Sapphire zipped down and left a stream of glittering ice in her wake. Opal jumped up into the air and came flying down hard. Ruby blazed a trail as she ran faster than she'd ever run before.
Here Jasper held Steven a little tighter, still thinking. She was positive she could take them all with the curious little thing still in her hold, but whether or not it would come out with its fleshy little body unharmed, she couldn't tell.
And, of course, Steven was between all of them, summoning up every last bit of strength he had in his body and channeling it all together. He wasn't going to let them fight. They couldn't fight anymore; there was so much more to take care of. He couldn't let this happen, he couldn't let this happen…
Lightning zapped through his belly. The shield returned.
With a sudden stop, a hard thud, and a skid, the Crystal Gems all pulled themselves ten feet short of it. It wasn't even all that large, maybe just big enough to go on Steven's arm, but the sheer sight of it—not only that, but that it was being used against them—had their bodies and minds freezing. Ruby's fire and Sapphire's ice died in an instant.
Steven knew he was working on his last burst of adrenaline, so he was thinking fast. He pushed himself against Jasper's chest, and was speaking even before she had pulled him back. "No! No more fighting! Everyone stop!"
The shield phased away, giving him clear view of the others. They were all staring at him, eyes wide and mouth agape. And looking up at Jasper, she was watching them warily. Though not poised to attack, she didn't let her helmet go.
Ruby was the first to speak up. Steven had never heard her voice give such a whip-like crack before, but maybe that was the…everything speaking. "WHAT?!"
"Get away from her, Steven!" Sapphire took a step forward, knuckledusters raised and ready. "Now, before she does something!"
Opal did not at all drop her bow, and she appeared as though she was just barely resisting the urge to summon up another arrow. Her gaze on Jasper was as sharp as broken glass. "Jasper, if you hurt a hair on his head, I won't hesitate."
"You must be forgetful," drawled Jasper, even as she let Steven sit in the bend of her arm. "I poofed you the first time. We didn't even finish the second time. I really don't think you want to—"
"I said stop!"
Again silence fell. And finally, it seemed that they were listening.
"This isn't important anymore," Steven told them all. "It doesn't matter who is on who's side. What matters is that the whole Earth is going to be destroyed and we've got to do something about it!"
All three Crystal Gems started at this. Sapphire herself went rigid, and it was only Ruby who let out a quiet and very confused, "What…?"
Steven felt Jasper's scoff. "Need I remind you of the fact that I do not care and that I have a ship?"
"Hey."
Jasper looked at Opal sharply, but the fusion just threw a thumb over her shoulder. Steven and Jasper both turned their gazes upwards, and immediately found the trail of greenish smoke spilling upwards.
"You…stupid…rebels…"
"Homeworld put something in the Earth that's going to destroy it from the inside-out," Steven told them all. "And we've all got to do something about it right now!"
Of course, this was followed by another length of stunned silence, along with obvious dawning horror. Sapphire let her knuckledusters disappear seemingly without thinking. Opal had frozen up in the telltale sign of inner turmoil. Ruby was blinking rapidly, and her head was shaking just slightly.
She finally snapped out of it enough to grip her raise her gauntlets up again and bark out, "She needs to be taken care of first! She isn't going to stop until we're all dead, Steven! Get away from her so I can—!"
"I won't let you poof her."
Ruby's mouth snapped shut.
Opal spoke up next. "What do you think she's going to do, Steven? Sit back and let us work?"
"No. She's going to help us."
"What?" whispered Sapphire.
"What?" barked Ruby.
"What?" asked Opal.
"What," stated Jasper.
The idea had come to Steven in that one moment, and as such he was at a loss for words to explain himself. Even as they all stared at him, waiting.
He did come up with something.
"Would you excuse us for just a moment?"
And then he put he and Jasper both in a Bubble.
Steven didn't see how they reacted to this—"negatively" was his guess—as he turned his full attention to Jasper. She set him down on his feet, again with a surprising lack of roughness. And when she stayed kneeling in front of him, she did it with her elbow just resting on her knee, with a posture that could have been called casual.
"Okay," Steven began, "I know you don't like us all—"
"Uh, you think?"
"—but now you're stuck on the Earth, same as us. If the Cluster emerges, what will happen to us will happen to you, too. But if you help us…"
"I'm going to stop you right there." Jasper held a palm up to him, big enough to cover his face. "And I'm going to tell you that I feel sorry for you."
Steven blinked up at her. "You're sorry?"
"I feel sorry for you." Jasper sighed and looked off to the side. Her jaw was working side-to-side. "This isn't your fault. You shouldn't be involved in any of this. You never should have been involved in any of this."
"Oh…Uh…Well…"
"But that doesn't change anything. That doesn't change the fact that Rose Quartz…made you so she could run away from what she did. And now that I know that, those things disgust me even more. Brainwashed or not, they knew you weren't Rose Quartz, didn't they? And they forced you to take her spot anyway. To keep up their image, I bet. I know I'd be embarrassed if my 'brave and fearless' leader made herself into a human just so she didn't have to deal with what she did."
"You were so close. You were so close…"
Jasper ignored him. "And because of that, I can't work with them. I refuse to. And I suggest you open your eyes and do the same."
"We don't have time to unpack all of that," Steven said slowly, "so I'll just get to the point. We're the only ones that have a chance of beating this thing. You know more about it than any of us. And whether or not I'm supposed to be involved doesn't matter because I would be involved no matter what! This thing is going to destroy the Earth, so it's going to destroy me, and it's going to destroy you."
Jasper did not at all appear happy with this, but she didn't disagree. "Having this planet be destroyed was the only reason I agreed to come here to begin with. Getting revenge on Rose Quartz was just going to be a bonus, and now…"
"And now?"
"And now that's changed," she clipped out. "So…I will assist in taking care of the Cluster. But I have some conditions."
A few minutes later, the Bubble finally burst, and the Crystal Gems—who had been in a very confused pseudo-argument about what exactly was going on when did this happen what even—stood to attention. Though they had let their Weapons go at seeing Jasper speaking so calmly to Steven, however startling that sight was, they kept their fists clenched and their feet apart.
Jasper and Steven stood almost side-by-side. The former looked very unhappy. The latter looked very satisfied.
Jasper crossed her arms over her chest and declared, high and clear, "You are all the most disgusting excuses for Gems I have ever had the misfortune of meeting, and you should be ashamed of what you've done to this Steven, this planet, and countless other Gems who would be alive today had you not started a war to satisfy a single Gem instead of minding your business and doing as you were told."
They took all of this, albeit with hackles raised and eyes narrowed. Once it was over, Ruby offered, "But…?"
"There's no but to that. I would like to add that I will assist in the plan to keep the Cluster from destroying this planet, however worthless it is, if only to keep myself from being killed with the rest of you."
Opal offered, "But…?"
"But once that task is completed, I will go to the Moon Base to contact Homeworld and tell them that I am stranded here on Earth. Afterwards, I will explain everything that you have done, I will say that I had no part in neutralizing the Cluster, and once I have been retrieved and returned, I will do nothing to stop the Cluster from being un-neutralized, or to stop Homeworld from shattering you all in whatever way they do it."
The Crystal Gems looked past her at Steven.
He nodded.
"Fine," Opal agreed. Sapphire and Ruby mumbled together.
"I do not look forward to this," said Jasper.
Ruby clicked her tongue. "Ditto."
Steven at last let out a sigh of relief, even though he knew this was just the first step of a very, very, very long road.
That's when the dehydration, fatigue, and starvation decided to make their comeback, and just before he fell into a long, deep, deserved sleep (that would be ended with a glass of water and many orange slices a few hours later), he tugged on the end of Jasper's cape and asked, "Can you hold me again?"
