An irritated growl rumbled in Jasper's chest as her nose picked up a new scent. She was still laying on the mattress, Peridot and Lapis curled up on either side of her. They were the only reason Jasper wasn't snarling at the intruder. She moved her head so that it was resting on Lapis's shoulder and glared at Garnet who was climbing the ladder. How dare the fusion interrupt their bliss? Jasper hissed at her and felt Lapis shift under her chin, waking up. She felt Peridot do the same and realized that the two must have fallen asleep with her. She couldn't blame them, they were exhausted after last night's lovemaking session.
Garnet reached the second floor of the barn and took a tiny step towards the three. Jasper responded with another growl, her arms tightening around the two. If the fusion took another step, she would take it as Garnet challenging her. She knew firsthand how difficult it was to fight Garnet but if the fusion thought that she could waltz in here and take her two mates away… Jasper finished the thought with a hiss.
"Calm down, Jasper" Garnet said, unfazed by the quartz gem's reactions. She lived with Jasper long enough to recognize that she tended to have less control over her animal instincts in the morning as her mind woke up. To make Jasper more comfortable with her presence, she turned her head to look at the wall to her right. Garnet would have given the three some warning before coming unannounced and most likely unwanted, but she couldn't waste a moment. "Something's wrong with the warp pads."
"War pas?" Peridot repeated sleepily, rubbing her eyes. She leaned up to look around and noticed Garnet standing awkwardly stiff near the ladder. The technician let out a squeak and phased on her uniform. Jasper looked at her with confused and disappointed eyes. Peridot realized with a start that the quartz gem wasn't all the way there and scoot away from her before Jasper could do something animalistic and gross like licking her cheek.
Lapis was the last to wake up but she didn't bother clothing herself when she saw Garnet. In fact, she wore a smug smirk and snuggled closer to the two. She couldn't deny that she felt glee at the fact that Garnet saw Peridot with the two of them. When she noticed the tense body holding her however, the smirk slid off her face and she turned around to face Jasper. A cupped cheek brought the quartz's attention to her and Lapis kissed her swiftly. "It's okay, Jasper." Some of the stiffness left Jasper but she still glared at Garnet.
"We need Peridot to see what is happening," Garnet continued, either unaware or not outwardly reacting to the three gems.
The three looked at one another and Lapis sighed, phasing on her clothes. Jasper followed Lapis's example and lend a hand to Lapis and Peridot when they got off the mattress. Now that she was more awake, she was no longer growling or glaring at the fusion but rather feeling an animalistic elation that Garnet knew the other two were marked and taken. Jasper knew that she sported her own pattering of love bites and scratches but that just made everything all the better. Anyone who looked at the three would see that they were not for the taking.
The four walked to the temple in silence. Jasper made sure to walk in between Garnet and the other two. The fusion seemed to find that amusing because she wouldn't wipe that small grin off her face. Jasper hated seeing that smile, it meant Garnet knew something that she didn't. When they reached the temple, Pearl was outside waiting for them. The gem wouldn't stop pacing on the deck. As soon as Garnet walked up the stairs, Pearl thread her arm through hers, trying to seek strength from the fusion. Jasper raised an eyebrow and wondered if Amethyst knew about this.
"Told you Pearl was with Garnet," Lapis whispered to Peridot as they entered the beach house. She was trying to make light of everything but Jasper could tell that she was unnerved by the way her eyes went straight to Steven who was sitting on one of the stools with Amethyst next to him. The relief in them made Jasper rest a comforting hand on the small of her back and a green hand bumped into hers. Apparently, Peridot had the same idea and that made Jasper feel a bit better. At least they knew they could count on one another to alleviate the fear and stress.
Amethyst hopped off her stool and walked to the three. "Hey, sis, Laps, Peri," she said in greeting, the nicknames subdued by the concern in her voice. "Pearl's making a big deal about the warp pads being broken but you can fix them, right Peridot?" Jasper noticed how her eyes flitted away from the trio to rest on Pearl and Garnet every so often, but there was no jealousy in them. The quartz gem began to wonder if they were in a relationship much like her own. If it was true, then Connie's comment of Steven having three moms instead of one would make a lot more sense.
"It's more primitive than what I'm used to but I'm sure I can fix it without too much difficulty." Peridot walked to the warp pad and kneeled down in front of it. She placed her hands on the surface and her eyes flashed red. Peridot frowned and grumbled to herself, reading information that was displayed on her eyes. She smiled in triumph. "Here we go!" The eyes became green for a second before flashing red. "That's strange. Let me try this." The eyes still flashed warning red. "No, no I got it now." Peridot's eyes were green for a millisecond and the gem growled in frustration as it flashed red. "Maybe this?" Nothing happened. "Oh, come on!" The others didn't know what the technician was doing to the warp pad's system but soon a hand started to smack the surface. "I am a Era Two Peridot and you will do as I say!" Peridot tried a few more things before she got up. She kicked the warp pad with an angry yell. "Work, damn you!" The technician took a moment to calm down before looking at the group. "I can't fix it."
"What do you mean you can't fix it!?" Pearl tightened her hold on Garnet's arm, too upset to even comment on Peridot's swearing.
Peridot scowled at the warp pad and crossed her arms. "I can't fix it," she repeated. She tapped at her chin as she tried to explain for everyone. "I can't say for sure but I believe that they were deactivated."
"Warp pads can be deactivated?" Steven interrupted. Peridot nodded, eyeing the warp pad in distaste.
Amethyst tapped the side of the warp pad with her foot. "Well, then reactivate them, Peri."
"That's what I've been trying to do, you clod." The troubled look on the technician's face took the sting out of her insult. "A gem must have sent a virus to the warp pad's system to disrupt the connections it has to the other warp pad systems on earth. In other words, I can't fix it, even if I had my robonoids." She turned to looked at the warp pad fully, her eyes trying to find anything that could make it work again.
"Who would be able to do something like that?" Steven asked.
It was Jasper that answered and she clenched her fists. "Homeworld. They must have gone really deep into earth's files to find the access codes to do this." She looked at the others, seeing understanding only on Peridot's and Garnet's faces. "They don't want us to hop from one area of earth to another. They want to isolate us here."
Amethyst played with her hands. "Why would they do that?" Jasper knew that Amethyst already had the answer but was too afraid to ask if she was right.
"Homeworld wants to take us all out," Garnet spoke up, a hand raising to push up her visor. Jasper hid the shock she felt at how it trembled slightly. "With us forced to stay at one corner of the earth, they don't have to send a search party to locate us."
"We have nowhere to hide," Pearl whispered, a hand covering her mouth.
Steven jumped off his stool, unable to keep still. "I don't understand. Why are they still attacking us? Shouldn't they just leave us alone?" He gestured to Peridot. "The Cluster! You told Yellow Diamond that the Cluster was going to emerge soon and destroy the earth so why are they bothering us now?"
Jasper couldn't hide her shock at Steven's words. "You spoke with Yellow Diamond?" How could Peridot keep that from her? She glanced down and saw the same reaction on Lapis's face. From her too?
Peridot hesitated, shame spreading across her features, and nodded meekly. "I didn't want to disappoint you two." Her fingers played with one another as she fought to say the words. "At the time, I was still loyal to Yellow Diamond and I was going to report the Crystal Gem's existence. But I didn't!" she hurriedly said. The rest nodded as testament to Peridot's words. "When I realized that she didn't care about the life on earth and the endless possibilities here, I forsake my allegiance with her." Peridot had a funny look on her face, pride mixed with regret. "I also might have called her a clod," she admitted.
"WHAT!?" Jasper roared. Lion, who had been snoozing on Jasper's couch the whole time, yowled and jumped up, landing on the floor, his claws extended to attack the enemy. When he saw nothing, he sat on his haunches to watch as Jasper shook her head in disbelief. "How could you do something so fucking stupid, Peridot!?" When the technician winced at the yell, Jasper felt guilt clawing at her insides. She took a deep breath and held up her hands. "Wait, don't, I-I'm sorry." She walked to Peridot and gently cupped her cheek. "I shouldn't have yelled like that."
Peridot leaned into the touch and smiled weakly at her. "No, you're right. It was really idiotic of me to call her a clod to her face." She covered Jasper's hand with her own, as much as she could anyway. "I know you didn't mean it."
Jasper let her hand fall back to her side and stood up. Lapis watched the two and gave them a comforting grin. Everyone's attention focused on Pearl when she gave a groan. She was too busy thinking on Steven's question to pay any mind to Jasper's outburst. "Why didn't we see this coming?" She unthread her arm from Garnet's and started to pace back and forth. "Of course they would try to do something like this! Not only did one of their ships never report back but a Lapis Lazuli, a rare and powerful gem even by Era One standards, and one of the most decorated warriors have gone missing." She glanced up at the spot that Jasper was no longer standing in, only now realizing that she had moved.
Steven spoke up, still watching Jasper and Peridot wearily. He didn't expect the quartz gem to fly off the handle like that and kept a close eye on her. If she got too upset, she might revert. "Don't forget the five rubies."
"Five rubies?" Jasper asked.
Steven nodded with a grunt. "Yeah: Navy, Doc, Leggy, Army, and Eyeball. They all came here to look for," he glanced away, as if trying to decide what he should tell Jasper.
"Everything," the quartz gem answered for him. "I need to know what happened here."
"They were looking for you," he said gravely. "They wanted to take you back so you could report to Yellow Diamond. We had Peridot hide in the barn while we played baseball with them, disguised as humans. Ruby and Sapphire started flirting which was really cute except it was hurting our chances of winning. Sapphire did get a homerun and won us the game but when she ran for home base, she sort of jump into Ruby's arms and then Garnet came back which exposed us to the other rubies. They got angry and fused to make one giant woman and demanded to see the leader of the earth mission. But then Peridot came out from hiding in the barn and told them she was the new leader of the Crystal Gems which was weird. They asked where you were and we told them you were on Neptune so they left. We thought that was it but then they came back saying they searched every planet in the solar system and you weren't there so then Amethyst shapeshifted into you and said you were here keeping an eye on us because we were your prisoners." Jasper looked at Amethyst who smiled sheepishly. "The rubies wanted to take Amethyst to the moon to file a report saying you were staying on earth to watch over the prisoners which would have been great if we hadn't already destroyed the communication device there. The rubies then wanted to take us to Homeworld but we obviously couldn't do that so Amethyst told Eyeball to give the report for her and they were about to leave but they caught us faking and Sardonyx knocked them out into space before they could do anything but then I was dragged along and I managed to create a bubble so I could still breathe. Somehow, Eyeball was there with me but then we were attacked by a lot of meteors and her gem got cracked so I let her into my bubble and healed her which made her think I was Rose Quartz. She took out this little knife and tried to kill me so I flung her out into space before she could and then the rest found me and brought me back to earth. And a week later I had that dream and healed you."
Jasper lost track of what Steven was saying at the baseball incident but she believed she got the gist. Someone must have either discovered the rubies' absence or found them. She doubted it was the later but she kept that to herself; she noticed the conflicted emotions playing on Steven's face when he talked about Eyeball's attempt to murder him. For some reason he blamed himself, like he blamed himself for her own predicament. She didn't have to rub salt in his wounds. "With everything considered," she said, choosing her words carefully, "the Diamond Authority is most likely sending something to earth to wipe out the rest of Rose Quartz's rebellion." Jasper spoke as if she were the one making the orders.
A gasp of horror made everyone look at Peridot. The green gem held onto herself with an expression of pure terror. Jasper had the impulse to attack whatever was scaring Peridot but with nothing here, she wanted to punch the wall or break the counter. To stop herself from doing that, she curled her fingers so that her claws bit into her palms. The pain grounded her and she was able to listen to the smaller gem.
"They're actually going to go through with it," Peridot whispered to no one in particular. She looked up and focused on Jasper and Lapis. Peridot sighed and gave a weak, sad laugh. "At least I got this far without being shattered."
"No one is going to lay a finger on you," Jasper growled. "Not when I'm still alive and kicking." The urge grew to almost unbearable levels and Jasper felt her claws and fangs lengthen as her body shook with rage. She needed to ram her horns into whatever Peridot was afraid of, even if it was Yellow Diamond. She would make the bitch pay for causing the whimpers of fear that came out of the green gem.
Lapis laid a hand on Jasper's arm and the trembling stopped. She felt her own surge of protective anger but hid it well. Only she knew that the waves of the ocean suddenly started to crash onto the shore and dark clouds were gathering in the sky. "What do you know?" she asked Peridot.
Peridot looked at Pearl. "Do you still have the chalkboard?"
"It's in my room," Amethyst said. "One sec, I'll go get it." The purple gem ran to the temple door and showed it her gem. One of the points of the star glowed and opened to reveal Amethyst's room. Wasting no time, she literally ran into a pile of junk, throwing one object after another over her shoulder. After a minute, Amethyst dragged a chalkboard out of her room and into the living room. "Here, and there's some chalk too so you can write."
"Wow, thanks," Peridot said, taking one of the chalk and immediately started writing down log numbers and bits of information. As her hand flew across the board, she explained. "As a Peridot, I had a natural curiosity of the advancement of gem technology through the ages." She drew something that looked like a mess of gem shards stuck together. "As we all know, the diamonds authorized the research on the artificial fusion and corruption processes." She allowed her eyes to flit to Garnet who gritted her teeth. Peridot's hand slipped from the board and she was quick to wipe away the accidental line she drew. "During the rebellion, fragments of gems destroyed on both sides were used for the artificial fusion, however there were entries on captured Crystal Gems that were," she hesitated long enough and looked at Steven for a moment, "interrogated and then used as practice subjects for corruption. There was a highly restricted file that had only one entry, a leaf note really, on the possibility of combining both processes to create the ultimate geoweapon." Peridot stopped writing and pushed up her visors. "If such a thing really was created, then it would be stronger than even the Cluster."
"So I'll just talk to it!" Steven called out nervously. He had thought that Homeworld was cruel but after what he had heard from Peridot, they were pure evil. Steven could never understand why anyone was loyal to the diamonds.
"It's not that simple, Steven," Peridot said sadly. "There will probably be a billion gem shards and, and," she couldn't bring herself to say it.
So Jasper did it for her. "Do you remember what it was like in my mind?" It was the first time she had ever acknowledged it since she was first unbubbled. Steven gulped and the look in his eyes portrayed just how horrific the experience was. "There will be billions of minds worse than that. I was only corrupted for months; their madness has been festering for thousands of years."
"You barely left Jasper's mind intact," Garnet said, her hand clenching her arm. "It took us almost half an hour to bring you back and that was only after Lion alerted us." Lion lifted his head and mewed, his fur standing on end as the memories of Steven's screaming assaulted him. "Who knows how long you were in her mind. When you were Lars's body, you had control. Back then," Garnet turned her head and wiped a finger under her visors. Steven startled when he realized she brushed away a tear. He saw that Amethyst and Pearl were fighting back their own tears and Peridot and Lapis were looking very concerned. "you were physically here but mentally, you were still Jasper. If you try to enter that cluster's mind, we might never get you back."
Steven looked down, thinking over Garnet's words. She was right: that night he was thrashing about and screaming for help but he didn't know he was safe in the temple. He was still there and he couldn't escape, not until Garnet brought him back after she slapped him. Steven realized he never asked how many attempts it took for him to come back. He didn't want to ever know. "Okay, so I can't talk to this cluster. What can we do?"
Pearl took the other piece of chalk and drew a quick earth. She put an X roughly to where Beach City was. "They will most likely send the creature here since it is the last known locations of both the rubies' and Peridot's ship." She erased some of Peridot's writings and the green gem didn't say anything, she didn't even call Pearl a clod. "We need to be prepared and treat this seriously. We need to evacuate the town as soon as we see the creature enter the atmosphere, before then if we can. Steven, I would ask you to leave with your father,"
"No way!" Steven interrupted. "I'm a Crystal Gem too so let me fight!"
Pearl smiled down at him but the gesture was tampered with pain. "I know and you would use Lion to get back to us like last time, right?" Steven nodded, his eyes fierce with determination. Pearl sighed heavily and wrote down Stevonnie. "You should fuse with Connie to form Stevennie and with Lion, make sure everyone is evacuated. Once done, I want you to stay at the outskirts of the town. If we can't defeat the monster, we need a quick escape which means we need Lion's abilities." She looked at Amethyst and Garnet. Both of them nodded their consent. "Garnet, Amethyst, and I will fuse as Alexandrite and fight the creature."
"That won't be enough," Amethyst said. "We got our asses kicked by Malachite," she glanced at Jasper and Lapis to make sure they were okay at the unwanted memory. "There's no way we can beat this thing if it's going to be anything like the Cluster!"
"I know," Pearl whispered, setting the chalk down. She turned to face Peridot, Lapis, and Jasper with a solemn face and realization dawned on all three faces.
"No," Jasper said through clenched teeth. "Don't even suggest it, Pearl," she growled.
Lapis touched her arm to get Jasper to look down at her face. "We don't have a choice," she said. "We have to fight. If we don't, we'll lose and be shattered."
"And earth will be destroyed," Steven added.
"I won't do it," Jasper said. "I can't, not again."
Pearl cleared her throat and laced her fingers together. "Jasper, please listen. Malachite, although unstable, was tremendously powerful. We need that strength now, more than ever, to beat this abomination."
"Malachite was an abomination," Jasper barked back. Why won't they stop? She just tried fusing with Lapis and couldn't do it, so why are they still talking about this? "Malachite will never exist, I won't put me or Lapis at risk like that."
Peridot reached up to grab Jasper's other hand. "It won't be Malachite though," she argued, giving the hand a squeeze. "I'll be there too and if something goes wrong, then I'll use my metal powers or something. I don't know what happened with Malachite but I can guarantee that it won't happen again with me there."
Jasper said nothing and Lapis nodded to Pearl. "We'll do it but on one condition. We will only fuse if Alexandrite can't contain the creature."
"Okay," Pearl said, slapping her hands together. "Now that we have our game plan, I'll go down to the mayor's office to inform him of the impending doom." No one laughed at the poor attempt of a joke.
Before anyone could stop her or ask where she was going, Jasper turned and stomped out of the beach house, ripping the screen door off its hinges. She didn't say anything, only throwing the remains on the porch and walking down the stairs. Lapis looked at Peridot, hoping that the green gem had a suggestion of what to do. However, the same question was in the green eyes that stared back at her.
"You need to talk to Jasper and fast," Garnet said.
Lapis and Peridot jumped at the voice. They didn't hear Garnet coming towards them but they nodded and started to follow Jasper. "I wonder if Jasper had to go through this," Lapis muttered.