The harmonious ambiance of the room now mimicked a hazy war scene of out the annals of gem history. A mixture of pink, gray and black clouds filled the room, reflecting the animosity toward the home world intruder that pummeled their innocent youngling.
"DARN IT! FALL ALREADY!" screamed Jasper in between her panting.
The Rose copy didn't say a word; just loomed over the battle weary warrior. It was no secret how much she loathed Jasper. The room was able to tap into Steven's memories as soon as he crossed the threshold, and after witnessing the traumatic events he experienced, it was a miracle that the room didn't crack her gem when she was first released from the bubble.
Jasper summoned her battering helmet again, jumped back a few dozen feet and revved up. The energy generating from her spin caused the clouds to dissipate around her. But copy Rose stood tall and absolute; the winds rippled through her cascading white dress and curly locks.
"I'm going all out! I'd rather be trapped in a bubble for all eternity than be reeducated again!" she thought as her revved up cycle completed. The speed at which she traveled toward copy Rose rivaled that of a fighter jet with rockets attached to it.
"GOT YOU!" she yelled as she uncurled herself to deliver a blow that would've undoubtedly created a crater the size of Australia.
But this was Rose, an immortal Rose in this domain. Before Jasper could even get within one inch of copy Rose's hair, she held up her hands and stopped her attack cold. The aftershocks of the impact created another high-speed wind stream. Jasper was stupefied. She tried to sputter out some words while copy Rose held her midair by her helmet. But she didn't get the opportunity to do so before copy Rose flipped her and slammed her into the ground; and the room made sure to make the area she was slammed against was as hard as a diamond.
"GAH!" she yelled as her body recoiled upwards before settling down for good. "Rrrrnghh…ahhhhh…" she incoherently moaned as her helmet dissipated from the trauma. Even if her body was an illusion, it still didn't negate the excruciating agony she felt.
Copy Rose walked over to the left side of Jasper's body while peering down at her. "…Pathetic. For someone to supposedly have so much bravado, you couldn't get past your own insecurities to realize the answer to your problems was literally staring you right in the face."
Jasper gritted her teeth and glared in defiance to silently refute her outrageous statement. But the little tears in the corner of her eyes proved to be a different indicator that copy Rose might be right.
"Now you will never know" copy Rose said as something manifested in her right hand. It was a sword, but this one was completely different than the one housed in Lion's mane. Instead of being a straight bladed pink saber, this one was forest green and had a serrated edge that consisted of what appeared to be thorns. Jasper didn't deserve a swift cut to end her existence. After the way she made Steven suffer, she deserved the exact same slow and tortuous fate.
The room manifested a whetstone table underneath Jasper and raised her up to copy Rose's hip level; a set of wrist and ankle shackles attached her to the stone surface. Not like it was necessary…she was too exhausted to move out of the way of the impending termination. But nothing was left to chance. Copy Rose grabbed the hilt of the thorn sword with both hands and raised it over her head.
Before she could chop her gem into little fragments, Jasper spat out, "You diamonds are all the same! Get rid of anything that tries to challenge your authority!"
"…I am NOT a diamond. And how is this different from a regular fight? You try to stop the other from hurting you or the one you care about, the latter providing the most motivation and strength to win. That's where you fall short, you don't care about anyone and in turn…no one cares about you…" she coldly stated as she brought her sword down to finish the job.
"STOP!"
The signature vine decorated, large-sized, pink shield came between the thorny guillotine and its spared convict. The sword clanged against the magical shield and the reverberations immediately dispelled it.
"Mom…it's okay, you don't need to protect me anymore. I got this" said the heroic hybrid.
Copy Rose looked down at her "son", then back over at Jasper, who was completely stunned by what just occurred. She looked back down at Steven and smiled. "I know you do" she said before dissolving back into clouds.
Steven turned around and faced the multi-colored gem whom he just saved. Her mouth was gaped and it matched her orange eyes. Steven banished the executioner's table with matching manacles and replaced it with a comfy, king-sized bed. Jasper managed to find the strength to sit up, but continued to stare at him.
Then all of a sudden, Steven shrank his shield to only cover his fist then back hand slapped Jasper with it on her right cheek. The room amplified the force that he hit her with, so she landed back on the bed.
Her rage recharged her energy supply as she instantly sat back up, put her hand to her jaw and yelled, "OW! WHAT WAS THAT FOR?"
Steven gave her a "really" look and said "That's for beating me and my family up."
She couldn't argue that she didn't deserve it but the reverberations were giving her a mind splitting headache, almost as if millions upon millions of years of bad teachings were knocked out of her. While she groaned in pain and annoyance, Steven dismissed his mini shield and launched himself at her. She closed her eyes and flinched, thinking that he was going to attack her again. But there was no punch, no injury, no nothing. Just clinging and…crying?
Jasper looked down and saw that Steven was holding her around her waist. "What…are you doing?" she demanded. This by far was the worst grappling move ever.
Steven lifted his head off of her chest and stared at her through moist eyes. "This is for whatever made you sad."
"What?! I'm not sad!" she refuted.
Steven dug his head into her chest, tightened her hug and said, "Jasper! Please, don't. Just…no. You're okay now."
Jasper tingled as if someone just put ice cubes down her shirt and slowly moved her arm. "You don't know me!" she said as she grasped the back of Steven's shirt, threatening to rip him off of her.
"You're right, I don't. But I want to! I want to know what makes you tick so I don't do it! I hate seeing others like this, pretending to be strong on the outside when they're troubled on the inside!"
"Shut up..." she said.
But Steven continued wouldn't relent. "And what good does that do? Not a dang thing!"
"I SAID SHUT UP!" she roared as her grip on him tightened and she started to rip him off of her.
But he held onto her like a Pinsir to a sap tree and cried, "Whatever you're going through, we can go through it together! Because everyone deserves to be loved!"
Jasper looked down incredulously at the weepy boy.
"This human…cares about me? Even after everything I've done?" she thought. It was too much for her mind to handle. She gritted her teeth, raised both arms into the air and clenched her fists. Steven braced himself for a potential assault, but instead she pounded the edge of the mattress.
"GRAAAAAAAGH!" she yelled then burst into tears. All the pain, the forced upon thoughts of self-worthlessness and in turn transforming her into a fighting machine came flooding out through her raw cries. She hesitantly grasped Steven in her muscular hands, returning the foreign action of an embrace, albeit a bit stronger than intended. But Steven didn't mind. He merely smiled, content in knowing that he accomplished the impossible. Lion, who had been observing the scene from afar, nodded at what was done and lied down for a well-earned rest.
Steven and Jasper stayed locked in that hug for what felt like a lifetime. Her cries reduced to soft whimpers and she released him, but he still sat in her lap.
"B-better?" he cautiously asked.
Jasper leaned back on her arms and exhaled. She revealed a small smile and replied, "Yea…better" while wiping the tears out of her eyes. "What was that?" she asked.
"What was what?" he responded.
"What you just did. When you were holding me" she clarified.
"It's called a hug. You've…never been hugged before?" he asked.
She chuckled bitterly and said, "Unless you count being wrapped by a barbed whip while you're regenerating, then no."
Steven gingerly reached out to one of Jasper's arms. She sat back up so he could grasp it in his tiny hands. He ran his hand over her well-defined features and asked, "Is that how you got your…"
"Stripes? Yea…" she despondently replied. Steven stared at her, silently egging her to continue.
She sighed and said, "It was a long time ago. I was created to be a warrior, to help conqueror other planets for home world. One of the first batch made. But I was…defective. It didn't help that I was also a wild child so to speak. I mean, just having the other warriors telling me how weak I was made me volatile. So in order to fix my insubordination, Yellow Diamond…reeducated me."
Jasper shuddered as she relieved the horrific memory; she subconsciously grabbed onto Steven to steady her. She still couldn't believe that she was actually opening up to him, but she continued.
"She made me…retreat…into my gem multiple time through various…methods. And every time I would regenerate, my form would be constricted by an electrified whip fueled by that destabilizer energy. And I would only be released if I created a form strong enough to break through it."
"That's when she uttered these words that I'll never forget, "You're only here out of necessity. If you want to live…I suggest you use that temper of yours for your own benefit."
"And I did. I focused all the hurt and anger I experienced by her hands to treat others as if they were nothing. To keep them shackled so I could continue to gain power and respect. And it worked. I became a commander because my subordinates feared me. It wasn't until now that I realize that I'm nothing more than a glorified bodyguard…brawn to complement the brains on home world. Heh, I guess I'm expendable now…seeing that no one came to check on our status since we didn't return at the designated time." She wiped away more tears that were threatening to spill out; she was still new to the whole "revealing emotions" thing and still didn't want to be perceived as a weakling.
Steven absorbed the story that was told to him, and a mix of feelings ran through his mind. Unbelief and unbridled anger at Yellow Diamond for treating Jasper and apparently all home gems this way. Sadness for her because she had to basically survive for a living, and relief in the hopes that she could be free from all of that, just like Lapis. He grasped her arm again and studied it. Then another idea came to mind.
He licked his hand and attempted to heal Jasper's scars; that is until she wrestled her arm away and asked, "What're you doing?!"
"Oh! I was just…um…going to see if I could heal your arms. I have my mom's healing power. Mine is healing spit…or at least I hope I still have it" he silently added.
Jasper took in his explanation and chuckled. "That's okay Ro-I mean…Steven. I've gotten used to looking this way. At least I'm different from the other ones...in a way. In fact...some of them have actually sported stripes on their physical forms for aesthetics. It's just that they look down upon me because of what my stripes represent. But anyway, these wounds are older than you. I think I'll need to bathe in your spit in order to get rid of'em."
Steven got stars in his eyes at her suggestion. He remembered his mom's healing spring and was about to tell her about it, until Jasper immediately said, "Don't even think about it" believing that he was going to suggest actually taking a bath in his spit.
His face fell in disappointment as he rubbed the spit off on his pants, but Jasper remedied that patting him gently on the head. "Anyway, you said that my stripes reminded you of a tiger. What is a tiger?" she asked.
"Let me show you! Room, I want a friendly tiger" he commanded and soon enough a tiger about the size of Lion with light pink fur and alizarin crimson stripes appeared out of the clouds.
Jasper was awestruck at the beauty of the beast. That little rage charge from earlier faded away, so she didn't have the energy to get off the bed and walk to it. So the tiger walked over to them and nudged her leg with its muzzle. She cautiously put her hand out to touch it, and the tiger did one better and put its head right underneath her hand. She awkwardly chuckled as she petted its luxurious fur and it purred due to the soft caresses. Steven was beaming from ear to ear and he joined in petting the tiger too.
Lion opened one eye to see what was going on. "…I'm still better" he thought then went back to sleep.
"Alright, I can see why you made the connection between me and this Earth beast. It is formidable and as you said, cool…such as myself" she exulted. The tiger got up on the bed and curled up next to her. As she continued to pet it, she said "…I would've never guessed that any of this would happen. I-I'm sorry…f-for everything."
Steven saw how difficult it was for her to apologize and said, "I forgive you. I know you were just following orders"
"Yeah…messed up orders" she lamented.
"Hey, it's okay. All that matters now is what you want to do after all…this" his said gesturing in the air.
"What I want to do? …Heh, I don't think I've ever had that kind of choosing freedom before" she said.
"Well you do now! This isn't home world so you can do whatever you like! So what do you like?" he asked.
"I-I don't know" she hesitantly said, but Steven wasn't buying it. He knew she had to like something other than fighting. Then he had an idea; he was on a roll in the creative cognitive process today.
"Room, I want you to show me one of Jasper's favorite things to do!" But nothing happened. They waited a couple minutes, and still nothing.
"…See? Told y-" Before she could finish saying "I told you so", the room created a small set of bongo drums and a large dunun drum right in front of them (the room needed a moment to sift through all the baggage in her mind to find this one bright spot).
"You like to play the drums?" he asked as he gazed at her with starry eyes. She ran her hand through her hair and attempted to hide her blushing embarrassment at being exposed.
"Yea…I guess. I forgot all about these things. I remember during the war, the squadron I was in came across this abandoned human village and I happened to see one on the ground. I didn't think much of it when I picked it up, if anything it would've been a nice souvenir if we won. One night after an extremely arduous battle, my unit retreated to a secluded area so we could recover. In order to keep my mind off the possible danger, I summoned the drum out of my gem and examined it. When I started to tap on it, I don't know…I just had this innate sense of rhythm and I just pounded away. When we lost the war, needless to say Yellow Diamond wasn't happy and she wanted all evidence of our defeat as well as anything related to Earth destroyed, and unfortunately that meant my drum" she explained.
"Wait…how did they know about it if it was in your gem?" he asked.
"They did a medical exam on all the soldiers to check for cracks and whatever else, and the process caused my gem to release it…" she explained.
"Oh…well…do you want to try playing again?" he tentatively asked.
She eyed the instruments in front of her and said, "…Why not?"
Steven grinned and got off her lap to hand her the dunun drum with its companion stick while he grabbed the bongos for himself.
Jasper ran her hand over the semi-rough rawhide surface and closed her eyes, trying to conjure up the memories of when last played it all those years ago. She griped the thick drumstick and started to gingerly pound on it, trying to shake off the rust. She started with singular beats, then a glint appeared in her eyes as she increased the speed and power of her strikes. The room rang with the simple, yet powerful rhythm of her playing. A small laugh erupted from her core as her confidence level increased. Soon, Steven hands subconsciously began tapping the bongos in time with her.
Then Jasper was temporarily wrought out of her rhythmical trance when she glanced at him. Steven immediately stopped playing and looked around the room, avoiding eye contact with her. "S-sorry, I just-"
"Why did you stop? We were sounding good" she asked.
"B-but"
"I was just admiring your skills" she said as she gave an awkward grin.
Steven had galaxies in his eyes when he heard the complement and they both continued where they left off.
"Man, I need to come up with a song for this! It's like a warrior dance/chant" he beamed as he laid on the bed, hands still tingling from the jam session.
"Sounds fitting" Jasper replied as she lied down between him and the sleeping tiger.
"Yea, you're really tough and super strong" he praised.
"I wasn't talking about me. I was talking about you. I was forced to be strong. I didn't have a choice. But you…your strength is different. It's no secret that you're lacking in terms of physical strength. But in the long run…physicality can only do so much. You just have a way with words that you can, at the very least, make others think differently. You got spunk, Steven. And I like that about you" she said as she rubbed her hand through his thick, curly hair.
Steven giggled at that.
"And I think I'll stick around to see how you do it" she said.
"Do what?" he inquired.
"Reconcile without pounding anyone into the ground" she clarified.
Steven let out yawn, the events of however long they've been in this room finally caught up with him. But he managed to say, "I don't know...**yawn**...how I do it. I guess…there's a time and place for everything. A time…to fight…and a time to…talk…like how I did…with you just now…" as he curled up into her side.
Jasper was awestruck with that realization. How was it that someone so young could have the amount of knowledge to surpass even the brightest minds back on home world? "Well…it seems like you have the talking part down. So I'll train you to be a better fighter, whaddya say?"
"Mm mm…sounds cool…I'll be like your…tiger cub…" he mumbled as he grabbed a few strands of her white hair while he tossed a bit trying to find the perfect position. Jasper just watched him with fascination. I mean just a little while ago she wanted to throttle him and bust out of wherever they were. Now he's her little Steven cub. An overwhelming sense of a renewed purpose in life caused another toothy grin to appear. Unbeknownst to her, a light shine emanated from her gem but it quickly went away.
A gentle breeze of unknown origin wafted through the room, infusing it with the scent of roses.
But Lion knew what was up with the sudden zephyr when he mentally asked, "So this was your plan all along, huh?"
The wind increased its velocity for an instant then resumed its leisurely pace.
"Well…your method was unorthodox to say the least, but it worked."
Lion opened his eyes and beheld the tranquil duo. "Yea…he's pretty remarkable. I'll admit he's growing on me, and I'll continue to protect him." The breeze flowed through Lion's mane, as if it were caressing him. He got up and walked over to them.
Jasper noticed her new protégé's pet approaching and tensed up. For some reason or another she instinctively placed her arm around Steven and grumbled, "What do you want?"
Lion huffed and ignored her question. He went over to Steven's side of the bed and nudged a part of him that wasn't smothered by Jasper's arm.
"Steven. Hey, it's time to go back" he said.
"Mmm…five more minutes…" he mumbled.
"C'mon, don't you want to show Jasper around your room? Especially that one game with the tiger that throws boomerangs?"
With that, Steven sprang back up and excitedly said, "Oh yea! Jasper, let's go! I want to show you everything!"
Jasper blinked a couple times, trying to make sense of human energy fluctuations, but that could wait. She smiled as she picked him up and held him in one arm. She turned around and petted the tiger one last time, before him and the bed returned to their cloudy forms.
She looked down at Lion and gave him an annoyed glare.
Steven felt the tension and said, "Jasper, don't be mad at Lion. He was just protecting me. Besides, you guys have the same soft hair!"
She sighed, once again his persuasion overruled her fighter instinct. "I-I'm sorry" she said.
Lion took it in and placed his head underneath her hand, similar to what the cloud tiger did. Jasper stared at him for a brief moment, but returned the gesture by stroking his luxurious mane.
Steven grinned at the interaction, satisfied that they were able to let bygones be bygones. "Alright! Now. Room, I'd like to go back to my beach room please"
Meanwhile…
"Again!" gasped the clearly exhausted fusion leader.
Her perfect cube-shaped afro was drooping and she was once again visibly shaking, more so from pushing her gem powers to the limit while trying to open this seemingly impenetrable barrier.
Pearl and Amethyst weren't faring too well either. Both were breathing heavily and their hair was sticking up in every which way.
But Pearl had tears cascading down her cheeks as the prospect of never seeing her baby again loomed closer to reality; it created a waterspout of distress and turmoil inside the forlorn motherly figure.
Amethyst reverted back to her animalistic tendencies as she growled and ground her teeth, frustrated at the lack of positive results.
Lapis was on her knees with her eyes closed. She couldn't stand to watch any more, and her shivering spoke volumes about how the stressful situation and the overwhelming sense of failure was affecting her since she couldn't even lend them her power. Her hands were clutched together near her heart, as she hoped beyond all odds that Steven would return to them unscathed, and of this was all merely a miss-activation of his powers.
The original trio dug in deep and summoned the energy to try and open the door again. But the repeated use caused the glow to sputter and go out.
Pearl and Amethyst collapsed to the floor, the former's body wracked with heart-wrenching sobs.
"GRAAAAH! WHY WON'T THIS STUPID DOOR OPEN?!" Amethyst yelled as she punched the ground.
Even Garnet had little tears run down her left cheek. "No...he can't be gone" she whispered. She tried to use her future vision again, but it was still hazy due to the internal duo's worry.
"Steven…" all four of them choked out.
As soon as they said that, the gems on the door did three rotations and they all regained their natural color. Immediately the familiar pink, spiky circle with a triangle in the center appeared. The door opened and the gems waited, their eyes ready to behold their little brother safe and sound.
However, Lion was the first one to emerge. Once he saw their exhausted and disheveled state, he groaned. He did not want to listen to another yelling match.
He moved out of the way so the other occupants could exit the temple.
The gems were speechless when the massive gem stepped onto the hard wood of the beach house. However, their unbridled hatred could be felt in the air once they noticed Steven being carried by Jasper, mistaking his drowsiness (that burst of energy didn't last very long) for battle injuries.
"JASPER!" they roared and Steven immediately jolted awake.
Through his half lidded eyes, he saw his enraged family with their weapons drawn. He felt Jasper tighten her grip around him. When he looked at her, he saw the same scary glare she displayed when he first released her from the bubble.
"Oh no"
Oh snap...Steven better put those reconciliation skills to work before someone gets hurt. Stay tuned.
Also, thanks to those anonymous guests who wished my aunt a happy b-day and I hope everyone had a good time with their dads on Father's Day.
So Jasper liking drums...I figured since she's a warrior, likes to beat up on stuff and apparently has an innate sense of rhythm as evidenced when she danced with Lapis in the show, I thought it would be cool. Then I watched a bunch of videos of African tribes drumming and I don't know how else to explain it, but its empowering. And Jasper's desire to get stronger fits it to a T.
I got the wind scene idea from The Lion King 2 when Mufasa talks to Rafiki via the wind. I'm sure you can guess who was talking to Lion:) And the "cub" thing I got from some tumblr art from The GemBeast Temple.
And I felt Steven needed to knock some sense into her, I know I would've.
And those who placed their bets on me, the author, wins! Cause I control everything;) Thanks again you guys for taking the time to read this story. Still can't believe I've done 14 chapters in a little over 2 months. But it's all worth it:)
Steven Universe belongs to Rebecca Sugar and Cartoon Network, the only thing I own are my imaginative capabilities.