Note - This chapter was partially inspired by the song "Go Tell Aunt Rhody" from the RE7 trailer.
Domination of the World - I had actually intended it to be Carnelian. It was difficult and I had gone through many different kinds of gems before falling on that one.
~O~
Chapter Twenty-One: Twins
It had been different then.
Pearl's mind drifted to Rose. How she had been before the rebellion. How Pearl had stayed by her side even after Pink Diamond's destruction.
Pearl did not regret siding with her. She did not regret saving a planet full of life; life she had come to love and appreciate with each day. Pearl had nothing she would ever change different should she have been given the chance. The only regret she DID feel was the pain it had caused Jasper.
They were both laying together in that field of strawberries, watching the clouds drift overhead. Pearl was sharing her stories with Jasper about how she had first realized her potential in the war.
Jasper glanced at her for a moment, then cast her stare to the sky again.
A flash.
The clear, bright clouds above were replaced with dark, gray storms. Rain pouring down on her from her memories in the battlefield.
Jasper charged through the scorched earth, shouting out the call for war while she rode on the back of a familiar in battle armor. Her soldiers behind her echoed her cry and followed.
Crystal Gems were cut down in the paths of the weapons from Homeworld warriors.
It was a symphony of death and destruction.
The screams of gems as they fell from battle. Their forms flickering from damage. The wide, unseeing stares of horror and agony all around.
An arrow made up of pure light sailed through the air, whipping passed warring gems before it was caught by Jasper's waiting hand. She looked up, just in time to see a gem standing among the chaos, armed with a bow.
Jasper smirked coldly, stepping down from her familiar. She started to walk forward before breaking out into a full sprint toward the gem.
It was a glorious chase that felt like it went slowly.
"I won't forget it."
Pearl looked toward Jasper, watching how her features darkened. She was thinking about it again, considering the past. She knew Jasper had been thinking of war. How she had drifted back into that dark place.
"I won't forget what she's done to my Diamond." Jasper said, with finality.
"I know you won't," Pearl said, with a sigh.
She gently rested her hand on Jasper's and the larger gem looked down, almost confused by the gesture. She seemed to tolerate it more than enjoy it. After a few moments, she pulled away with a snort and sat up, turning from Pearl.
"You're confusing me!" she snapped.
"Why?" Pearl asked, troubled by the change. "It's what gems who share feelings do."
Jasper's lips curled in a sneer. "Really."
"Yes. Really. I trust that what we shared wasn't all for nothing."
It was strange watching Jasper struggle with herself. She had been so sure of what they had performed together that night after their date with the ritual of candles. She seemed so willing, albeit uncertain all the same.
Maybe she was having second thoughts. It made Pearl feel a little sickened by the possibility. But instead, she simply reached out and placed two hands on Jasper's shoulders.
"Jasper, if you're afraid - "
"I'm not afraid. What can I possibly be afraid of?" Jasper looked insulted.
"Of me."
A sneer and a show of teeth. "I'm not afraid of you."
"No, you're not afraid of a pearl," Pearl said, with a sigh and a saddened stare, "You're afraid that this pearl will be just like the others, aren't you? That I might leave."
Jasper said nothing, which proved Pearl's assumptions to be correct. She didn't blame Jasper for having doubts or for struggling with herself. It had all moved so quickly.
"Why did you side with her?" Jasper suddenly asked.
Pearl frowned and looked at Jasper curiously. "Who? Do you mean Rose?"
"Yeah."
Pearl smiled and leaned her head against Jasper's shoulders. "She was wonderful," she said, "She showed me an entire world of possibilities. Of what we could be. Of what I could be."
Jasper made a non-comittal sound.
"I understand what Rose had to do, to make gems realize what it means to be free - "
"And what if there are gems who don't want freedom?" Jasper interrupted, frowning. "What if they're perfectly content with where they are?"
Pearl had no answer.
A sigh left Jasper's lips. She looked down at her scarred arm. "I wish I could do something about this..."
Pearl moved so that she could sit beside her and placed a hand over hers. Touched it without a grimace of disgust or a hesitance in her stare.
"I have nothing. Nothing left." Jasper said, quietly.
Pearl lowered her head and Pearl leaned against her shoulder. "You have me."
Jasper glanced down at her briefly, but sighed and closed her eyes.
"You have me."
Pink Diamond had her arm around Jasper while they were sitting together on her throne. They were watching the sun rising together.
It felt surreal to be sitting beside her Diamond. Jasper had never known any other gem to be given such an honor.
She leaned against her, drawing comfort from her Diamond's form.
O
The storm was strong.
Jasper was running quickly, sprinting through the warped buildings of the colony. She saw faces in the shadows. Gems horribly twisted and deformed, moaning her name. Pleading her for mercy. She tried to shut out the sounds, ignore the reaching arms that swiped at her feet.
"Jas...perrr..."
The moaning was coming from the Diamond Sanctum; the building was covered in rot, ensnared in vines. Rose blossoms covered every inch of it.
Jasper made her way close, drawn by the sick, beseeching call.
"J-Jasperrr..."
She found herself in Pink Diamond's throne room and noticed the roses and thorns that had swallowed up the entire area. She looked in front of her and froze, eyes widening in horror. A trail of pink ooze had formed toward Pink Diamond's throne.
She made her way closer.
The light of her gem cast a glowin the room and first she noticed a slug-like form, then multiple limbs attacked to said form. A thick head of pink hair that draped a veil over a dripping, pink face. Jasper was frozen, unable to move.
"J-J-Jasper..." the thing spoke, groaning out her words.
Jasper backed away as the enormous thing moved toward her, dragging its enormous body on its long-nailed hands.
"Looookkkk aaattttt meeee..." it gurgled.
Jasper shook her head, but a large hand wrapped around her, pulling her toward a familiar, wide pink eye. She saw a cracked, sickly set of lips open, revealing sharp, frightening teeth.
"Look at me!"
Jasper was frozen, watching as the creature's other hand pulled back the hair from its face. Jasper's eyes widened and a new look of horror touched her features.
Pink Diamond.
"Look what they did to me!" she screamed.
Jasper jolted awake from her dream with a strangled groan. Pearl was lying beside her and quickly awoke at the sharp movement. Jasper was hyperventilating, her high-anxious sounds piercing the air. Pearl attempted to bring her reality.
"Jasper! Jasper, calm down!" she cried. "It was a dream!"
Jasper's eyes were wide and unfocused and she struggled to collect herself; her hand clutched at her chest and she breathed rapidly.
"N-No, I can't!" she gasped, clutching the front of her uniform. "I can't - I can't - I don't know... What's wrong! What's happening - I can't - "
Pearl cupped her face and made her look into her eyes. "Jasper, look at me!" she said, "It's okay. It's okay. You're safe. It was just a dream."
Jasper's hands shot up and she clutched at Pearl's hands on her face. She squeezed her eyes shut and hissed through her teeth.
"I can't!" she groaned.
"Yes, you can! Just think about happy things! Like family - " She cut herself off sheepishly when Jasper glared at her through her grimace of pain. "- Oh, stars, no... I meant - "
Jasper moaned again, thrashing her head back and forth. "What's wrong with me? I can't - "
"Shhh." Pearl soothed, pressing her forehead to hers. "It's okay. Just take a deep breath and count to ten."
"...Wh-Why?"
"Just do it, Jasper. Count to ten."
"W-What do I do when I get to ten?"
"Repeat it until you feel better."
Jasper didn't argue. She shut her eyes, took a deep breath and began to count her breaths. She paused only a few times in the middle of counting to collect herself. This happened a few times. She repeated the counting as Pearl instructed, searching her face for something. Pearl nodded her approval when she felt Jasper eventually stop shaking and her breathing even out.
"Feel better?" Pearl asked.
Jasper murmured a half-hearted affirmative.
"What was that?" she said, rubbing her forehead. "I felt like I couldn't control my own form."
Pearl looked a little surprised. "You don't - " She sighed. "Jasper, that wasn't anything wrong with your form. You were having a panic attack."
Jasper looked confused before shaking her head. "No. No, I don't panic."
Pearl looked at her skeptically. Then she relaxed and gently brushed a lock of hair from Jasper's face. She sighed.
"Was it a bad dream?" she asked.
Jasper looked down. She still saw her Diamond flash in front of her eyes; a twisted and corrupted abomination of what she was.
"Yeah." she said.
The following morning, Garnet had been attempting to train Jasper on how to calm herself and channel her anger. How it would benefit her in the end. Jasper had argued about it for a long time. Pearl couldn't quite hear the words being exchanged, but Garnet's constant collectiveness assured her that nothing too serious would happen.
"Jasper, if you are to learn to control your temper, you must first let it out - " Garnet began.
"That's the stupidest thing I've - "
" - and let it go." Garnet finished.
Jasper looked confused by the suggestion. What sort of gem would suggest doing that? Anger drove her battle. Anger allowed her to conquer. What a ridiculous idea to just...let it go.
Pearl exited the temple and passed Peridot and Lapis. Peridot was scrolling through a few photos she had taken on her tablet. She stopped Pearl with a grin.
"Oh! Pearl, you have to look at this photo Lapis and I took!" she said.
Pearl murmured thoughtfully, taking the tablet. She scrolled through the photos, not quite sure what Peridot wanted her to see.
"Lapis and I were going for a morning flight when we've located enemy movement in the forest north from here." Peridot explained. "It was making its way toward a human museum."
A lot of the photos saved were of Lapis and Peridot making ridiculous faces - some of them were actually quite adorable, if Pearl had to admit it. Peridot laughed a little at the photos.
"Oh, Lapis took this one on the top of the temple," Peridot said, chuckling.
Another swipe and a photo of Lapis laughing.
"Oh, I was laughing because Peridot fell off of the temple again." Lapis said, unable to hide her laughter behind her hand.
"Yes..." Peridot quipped, annoyed by the laughter.
Pearl looked toward Garnet and Jasper, still holding the tablet as she approached. She swiped photos until coming up with a blurred image of a Cluster Gem.
"Garnet, take a look at this." she said.
Garnet picked up the tablet, studied the photo. "Alright, we have another Cluster Gem to retrieve." she told the others. "Let's go."
O
Onyx had been sent to Earth as the Diamond's requested. She stepped down from her drop ship - which she had hidden in the Prime Kindergarten. Behind her were two Obsidians. They were hooded and cloaked, towering with the height and build of a Bismuth.
One of the Obsidians were made up entirely of black coloring and green stripes. A hood covered her face, save for a single slot where a pale eye looked out at them and a tub connected to her mouth around her neck. The shimmer of her gem over her chest cast an eerie shimmer of light across the old Injectors nearby.
Her duplicate was bone white, a complete mirror of the other and instead of a pale eye, it was nothing but pitch.
Onyx approached the ground panel and the two Obsidians followed silently behind her. She waited as it drifted deep down into the Kindergarten's control room. Once there, she studied the remnants of the gem Clusters and ran her fingertips over the cracks in the pillars.
"The Clusters cannot be allowed to roam this world," she said, her voice devoid of any emotion. Same as White Diamond. "Find them."
A silent nod from both Obsidians.
Onyx approached the control panel and pressed a few keys on the holographic pad. Immediately, a screen lit up before her and she selected one particular file that interested her. It recorded all form of activity that occured in the control room.
She opened the video feed and watched it open up with an image of Steven.
"Hi! I'm Steven."
Onyx tilted her head slowly like a confused dog. What was this creature? She watched as he seemed to be talking with Peridot over the monitor.
"There appears to be an infestation of 'Stevens' in the Kindergarten."
"Daw, I'm not so bad once you get to know me!"
"And how many more Stevens are present in this area?"
"Oh - just me."
Onyx prepared to fast forward the video feed as she found this conversation to be irrelevant to her particular mission. She continued to fast foward until images of Pearl, Amethyst and Garnet suddenly appeared. She immediately rewound the video feed and allowed it to play again.
"Ah! More? But the Red Eye didn't report the presence of any Gems on this planet!"
Pearl on the monitor scowled. "That's because we destroyed it."
"You what? But the records say that Gems were wiped out on earth... wait a minute... you're the ones that have been destroying my Plug Robonoids... are you the reason the Homeworld Warp is down again? Is THIS your bizarre icon?" A furious yell from Peridot off screen. "Why do you keep destroying my THINGS?!"
Pearl on the screen thrust her spear out. "Because we are the Crystal Gems! We're still alive, and we're still the guardians of this planet and all its living creatures!"
Onyx tilted her head. How unusual for a pearl to behave in such a way. It warranted an approach and study for her Diamond. She ended the video recording then. The ruby's report had proven correct after all. Onyx would have to locate these gems and Rose Quartz.
O
The Cluster gem had lead the group to a museum. It had been closed, but the sight of a gaping hole in the wall drew their attention. Large enough for the Cluster Gem to fit through. It was an unusual sight for it to seek any interest in human museums.
"What is this?" Peridot quipped, annoyed. She studied the hole for a few moments. "This Cluster Gem is behaving erratically. There is nothing within human preservation halls to warrant any need for this sort of behavior."
Garnet produced her gauntlets.
"All the more reason to put it down." she said.
Jasper glanced down at Pearl, then ran her fingers over the roughened buckle of the metal near her head. Where the Cluster Gem had supposedly gone through.
Something didn't feel right.
Her warrior instincts told her that she had to be cautious.
"Jasper?" Pearl said, quietly. "What is it?"
Jasper peered into the museum before eventually following the other two. Peridot was chatting about "human history on display", but she didn't really listen. Instead, she looked at Pearl with hesitation in her stare.
"This feels wrong," she told her.
Pearl looked a little worried. "What do you mean?"
Jasper passed a painting that portrayed the image of a tiger being pierced by a sword from a large, towering titan. She stopped, studied the mural with a curious frown.
She looked down, noticing a trail of footprints in the floor. Kneeling, she ran her fingertips over the prints, but found that they had been melted into the floor. She had never seen one of her Cluster Gems do anything like that.
As Garnet walked on, every gem froze at the sound of something heavy colliding, followed by a pained screech from what they could only guess was the Cluster Gem. They quickly made their way down the long hallways before stopping.
At the end of the hall was a large figure, hooded and cloaked. The figure was standing on the Cluster Gem with one foot pressed into its chest. She wielded an enormous black and silver hammer.
Peridot's eyes slowly widened with a frightened sound that escaped her throat. The noise seemed to interest the Obsidian because she turned partially in their direction.
"It's an Obsidian!" Peridot screeched.
Pearl backed away slowly, spear at the read. "Obsidian?" she exclaimed. "What are Obsidians and why is she here?"
Peridot shook her head, her eyes haunted. "Obsidians are the cleanup crews on Homeworld. The only reason they'd be here at all is if..."
The Obsidian turned completely, facing them.
"If WHAT?" Pearl cried.
Peridot screeched her words out frantically. "If an Onyx was sent!"
The Obsidian clenched the hammer in her hand tightly.
"There's only one. We can take her down." Garnet promised.
Peridot groaned, shaking her head slowly. She looked absolutely terrified. "You don't understand. There's never just one Obsidian!"
"What do you mean?" Garnet asked.
"They function as a pair!" Peridot screeched, frantically.
As if on cue, heavy footsteps sounded behind them and the other bone-white Obsidian stepped up from around the corner.
"Okay, this might be a problem." Garnet said.
"You think?" Peridot hissed, fearful.
The two Obsidians watched them, their single stares narrowing. They squared themselves, clenching their powerful hammers.
Jasper looked down, noticing the smoke billowing up from the place they stood. Their bodies were literally melting the floor. She had never seen Obsidians before, but she had heard stories about them. How the Diamonds used them to clean up messes left behind in certain failed colonies.
Finally, both Obsidians charged for them.
O
Note - The Obsidian Twins were partially inspired by Pyramid Head from Silent Hill. Their appearance and concept was inspired by the gas masks and hazmat suits worn during nuclear fallout.
Obsidian is a naturally occurring volcanic glass formed as an extrusive igneous rock. It is produced when felsic lava extruded from a volcano cools rapidly with minimal crystal growth. Obsidian is commonly found within the margins of rhyolitic lava flows known as obsidian flows, where the chemical composition (high silica content) induces a high viscosity and polymerization degree of the lava. The inhibition of atomic diffusion through this highly viscous and polymerized lava explains the lack of crystal growth. Obsidian is hard and brittle; it therefore fractures with very sharp edges, which were used in the past in cutting and piercing tools, and it has been used experimentally as surgical scalpel blades.
Also, I was inspired by the OST "Courtyard Apocalypse" from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows pt.2 for Jasper's flashback of the war.
I thought Mary Elizabeth Mcglynn would be a good voice for Onyx.
Also, I imagine gems could probably have panic attacks, same as humans.