And now for part two...
Steven Universe had gone through many, many changes in the past several months ever since his near-suicidal decision to turn himself in to Aquamarine and the then-antagonistic Topaz. He had gained new abilities, truly experienced the heat of battle and learned very quickly that diplomacy was not always the answer. In spite of all this, though, he had retained his humanity and morality to the point where he still valued every individual life. Even the enemies who threatened his family and home were still individuals with their own lives and deserved to be treated as such.
Unfortunately, all that collectedness once again went out the window when Connie's safety was concerned. He barely gave a second thought about Jasper's demands before he dashed inside ad planned to warp to his destination, only to be stopped by Garnet lifting him off his feet.
"Steven, you need to get a grip!" she ordered as he struggled in her hands.
"But Connie, she's-"
"In danger, we know, but this isn't the way to handle things," advised Pearl, "This is exactly what Jasper and the Diamonds want. You need to take a deep breath and approach this situation rationally."
The boy did as he was told and regained his focus. While the anxiety was still buzzing in the back of his mind, at least now he could think clearly.
"Okay…I'm better now," he assured everyone, "But now what do we do?"
"Well, we all kicked Jasper's butt with all of us together," reminded Amethyst, "So if we all go together, we can save Connie and send her packing no sweat."
"While crudely stated, her statement is accurate," agreed Peridot, "Our combined abilities were more than enough to overwhelm her despite her superior hand-to-hand combat skills and centuries of experience. And if all else fails, any known fusion between us could effortlessly dispatch of her."
"Her demands never specified you meet with her alone, thus there is no obligation keeping us from accompanying you," added Adamite.
"As nice as that sounds, we don't know if Jasper is alone either," reminded Pearl, "She could have hundreds of troops waiting for you in the Kindergarten in order to ambush you or us as a whole."
"We could bring the Sun Incinerator!" thought Bismuth, "That thing's got enough firepower to match any ship the upper-crusts can throw at us and blow away any of their soldiers!"
"True…but we don't know where this Kindergarten is…" admitted Topaz, not wanting to bring up a snag in their plan. Peridot, however, already had a solution in mind.
"Don't worry, I am intimately familiar with the area and can act as your guide. Do we have any objections to this?"
"No, it's a sound strategy," approved Garnet, "You show the Off-Colors the way to the Kindergarten so we have backup in case this is a trap. The rest of us will travel via warp pad and confront Jasper directly."
And with all that sorted out, the team split up into two large groups in order to execute their plan. Steven, Garnet, Amethyst, Pearl, Bismuth, Lapis, Adamite and Cinnabar all squeezed onto the warp pad in order to teleport to Connie and Jasper's location while Peridot went off with Topaz and the Off-Colors to provide backup from their ship.
After what felt like the longest teleportation ever, the eight Crystal Gems arrived to find their target only a hundred feet away from the warp pad. Shockingly enough, it seems Homeworld really sent only Jasper for this mission as there was no one else in the lifeless chasm besides her and a captive Connie. Even still, the group stayed on guard as they figured the canyon could make an ideal ambush spot with its natural walls, divots in the walls to hide enemy troops in and lack of cover from ranged weapons.
"Well, have to admit that was fast," admitted Jasper grudgingly, "Where's the rest of your cult?"
"Not important," demanded Pearl, "We've come to negotiate for that girl's release."
The orange gem laughed at that. "'Negotiate?' There's nothing to discuss! Either Rose comes with me quietly or this one gets to be one of the few organic beings on Homeworld."
"Jasper, please, you don't need to do this," begged Amethyst, "Do you want to be some thug who kidnaps innocent people just because the Diamonds say so?"
"There you go again, defect. You don't get it. You know they'd throw you in a cell for even saying on Homeworld, right? When the Diamonds give you an order, you say how fast you can do it. There is no if. You do it, you like it, end of story."
"So you really are happy like this?" wondered Cinnabar, "Because it's seems really sad to me."
"To think I used to be exactly like you," added Adamite bitterly, "A slovenly servant to what I thought was an almighty authority. But now I see the Diamonds for what they really are: arrogant tyrants who claim they have the unalienable right to do whatever suits them. It sickens me that I was ever an ally of yours, even tangentially."
Rather than respond to the earthen gem, Jasper glared at Steven.
"I don't know how you do it, but you brainwash gems into your little puppets. It's disgusting how you can even be one of us."
"I didn't do anything! We all chose to be like this!" he replied, grasping at any straws to make her see reason.
"Yeah right! Like any self-serving proper gem would ever willingly choose this kind of life! You may have gotten through to them with your lies, but not me!"
Lapis Lazuli, her tolerance for Jasper's obstinacy already low, was now fed up with her ramblings.
"AAAAAH! Will you ever shut up with this?! You are such a hopeless little peon that you can't even see that the Diamonds don't care about you! The second they're done with you, they'll throw you away!"
"Of course, I know that! But as long as I am useful to them, they'll never get rid of me!"
"If you can somehow stomach that kind of role, I wholeheartedly pity you," spoke Pearl venomously, "And every word you say makes me more and more grateful I joined the rebellion. Now let Connie go before we have to hurt you."
Jasper then yanked Connie up by her hair and hung her fist at her face. "You take one step and I'll pummel this thing until it breaks."
"Jasper, wait!" pleaded Steven, "Please, just calm down! It's me you want, right? Just leave her out of it!"
"Rose…Don't you get it? You hurt me and billions of other gems with what you did. Never mind all the gems that could have come from this miserable rock without your little rebellion or all the lives you took with that rebellion, but when you took Pink Diamond away from us, it hurt us. We lost one of our leaders, a being above you or me that was going to help gem-kind grow and become better. But no. You and your obsession with this planet decided that the only way to save this piece of rock was to shatter her. And now I know you did it all for these…things."
She dropped Connie onto the ground and stared down at the battered girl. A wave of anger and resentment welled up in her looking at her, the hostage girl bruised all over and quivering in fear.
"Maybe it's about time someone hurt you…By taking away someone you care about."
Jasper then proceeded to literally Connie while she was down, ramming her foot into her hard enough to lift her off the ground. She yelled in pain as she felt her ribcage being strained by the force and landed with a nasty thud. The Crystal Gems gawked, horrified by the sight, as Jasper then yanked Connie up by her hair and slammed her into the ground hard enough not only knock the wind out of her, but cough blood from the internal damages.
"STOP IT! PLEASE JASPER! I'M THE ONE YOU WANT!" screeched Steven, the waterworks now flowing after watching his best friend be brutalized.
"When did you get so pathetic?!" barked Jasper, "You're supposed to be the scourge of all gems! The ultimate defect who destroys everything she touches, not some weak-willed imp who cries and begs for mercy when the battle starts!"
"Jasper, stop it!" admonished Pearl, "He is not Rose Quartz, he's just a child who never wanted to fight like this but Homeworld keeps forcing him!"
"Yeah, all he wants is to be left alone! That's what we all want! Why can't we just grow up and drop this whole thing already?!" offered Amethyst.
"We know the Diamonds still miss Pink Diamond and trust me Rose was not proud of what she did," added Garnet, "But the war is over, Jasper. It's been over for over five thousand years. That was the past, but now we can let bygones be bygones and focus on living in the now."
Jasper merely looked at the fusion with utter disdain. "You think this is something we can just forget?! How can we forget that there's one less diamond thanks to you?! Now I'm glad White Diamond burned the rest of your friends."
With that sentence, the already cold atmosphere of the Kindergarten dropped substantially. All eight of them looked at the orange invader with absolute dread.
"What are you talking about?" asked Bismuth, already knowing she would not like the answer.
"Remember how we retrieved the two outdated gems from your base with robonoids? Well, they ended up taking all the gems you had prisoner in there. White Diamond was wondering why so many of them were corrupted, so she studied them and found some of them were old Homeworld troops while others were more rebels."
"And? What did she do once she identified them?" asked Peridot, praying that her memory of Homeworld's protocol was wrong.
"The ones who were loyal were shattered but were given a proper memorial for their sacrifice. A plaque with all their names will be placed in each of the Diamonds' personal sanctuaries and several monuments commemorating the honorable gems who fell in service to their empire."
"And…the others?" asked an already queasy Lapis.
"They were shot into the nearest sun. I saw them send off the shuttle myself."
All of the Crystal Gems, even the ones who were not around for the original gem war, were horrified. Pearl and Garnet looked especially heartbroken and started sobbing for their former allies and friends. Their reactions, however, were nothing compared to Bismuth. The dreadlocked gem trembled as she fell to her knees as she recalled all the allies she once had were now gone forever. She had the urge to rush forward and bash Jasper's gem into shards, consequences be damned, but for the moment she was racked with grief.
Steven was not faring much better with the news. The poor boy was already stressed by how he and his family were targeted by Homeworld, but the thought that dozens of innocent gems who spent the last several millennia as mindless monsters, thanks to Homeworld, no less, it was too much. The boy was completely overwrought as his knees threatened to give out from under him. Even with Jasper in front of him, he completely lost his composure and he sobbed. He buried his face in his hands, kicking himself for breaking down at a time like this.
"Oh, don't feel too bad," mocked Jasper, clearly enjoying their suffering, "Those gems are in a better position now. They don't have to live as abominations and can pay for their crimes like a proper gem should."
That finally blew Bismuth's lid as she screamed as loud as she could and shaped both her hands into axes, literally crying for blood. It took Garnet, Adamite and Pearl to restrain her as Jasper once again used Connie as a meat shield by grabbing her by the scruff of her neck.
"LET ME GO! SHE'S GONNA PAY! THEY SHATTERED MY BEST FRIENDS! YOU UPPER-CRUSTS ARE ALL GONNA PAAAAAAY!" She desperately tried to escape their grasp, but before she could Steven revealed his face and spoke the last the words any of the Crystal Gems imagined he would say.
"I give up." His voice was hoarse and broken as tears streamed down his face. He even started walking towards Jasper with his head hanging down.
"WHAT?!" collectively gasped all of the Crystal Gems and a distraught Connie.
"I'm done…You win…Just please leave my friends alone…"
The other gems, even the still incensed Bismuth, all turned their attention to him. They were disgusted by what they saw; a terrified child who had finally reached his breaking point. He tried being brave, he tried so hard to keep it together for the sake of his home and his friends who needed him, but now it was finally gone. While many assumed his young age and relative inexperience compared to his peers, but there was something else at the core of his mind that brought him to his knees - responsibility.
He felt completely at fault for this. Once again, he was blamed for something Rose Quartz had done, but never before had it gone this far. He and his friends had been abducted, threatened and even invaded before, but there were never any casualties. Now, gems were dead because of him. His existence and rebelling had caused innocent lives to be destroyed all over some grudge that the Diamonds refused to let go of. If they were willing to shatter gems to get to him now, what was to stop them from doing it again? What would stop them from hurting people he loved? From how Connie's been beaten and treated like an animal, he could already tell gems looked down on any organic beings. He was not even sure Homeworld would uphold their end of the bargain and leave the Earth alone, but the alternative meant that everyone he loved would most definitely die and he knew they would rather face the guillotine than give them up. He did not have a choice in his mind. He had to do this, or they would all be the next victims.
Little by little the boy trudged his way to Jasper until he was at her feet. She looked down at him with pity before turning away from the boy.
"Well, at least you finally saw reason…" she admitted, her back still to him, "Before we go, though, there's one more thing I need to do."
"W-What is it?" asked a browbeaten Steven.
Jasper walked over to Connie just as she was getting back on her feet, assuming now that since Steven agreed to her terms, she was free to go. Instead, she got a backhand to the face and sent into the dirt once again before the gem loomed over her.
"I need to teach this little pest some manners!"
The Crystal Gems watched in horror as Jasper wailed on Connie without mercy, landing blow after blow until she was pressed against the canyon wall. When she tried to run away, Jasper grabbed her by the hair and forced to take more blows. She did not stop when Connie stopped resisting. She did not stop when Connie began crying uncontrollably from the pain she was in. She only stopped once the girl was begging her to stop and had several broken bones.
Steven was on the verge of hyperventilating when Jasper finally turned to face him again. The bruiser gave a malicious grin at the apparent panic he was going through, along with the disgust and horror apparent on the other Crystal Gems.
"Well?! What's the matter, aren't any of you going to stop me?" Her taunt only got the gems glaring daggers at her while Steven truly was having a panic attack, too busy with his anxiety to move.
"To think these pathetic little things are what you're fighting for…If they're all this fragile, then I don't see the point."
With that, she landed one final blow to the already beaten Connie; she sent her foot straight into her spine. A sickening crunch sounded throughout the Kindergarten as the girl's spine all but buckled under the force. None of the Crystal Gems were experts on human anatomy, but they all knew it was possible that blow paralyzed her for life.
"S… St… Steeeeveeeen…" rasped Connie, her voice garbled as blood started coming from her mouth, "H-H… H-H …. Help meeeee …. I'm …. sorry…"
She then fell into unconsciousness. The other gems were now all shedding tears and contemplating the best way to send Jasper back to Homeworld in a box.
"Amethyst, get Connie to the hospital," asked Garnet, her voice only slightly higher than a whisper, "Her mother…needs to see her."
The purple speedster was completely silent for once as she dashed over and carefully picked up the girl, worried about exacerbating her injuries. Rather than return home through the warp, she immediately dashed out of the canyon and planned to run back home through the fields surrounding Beach City.
"You…monster…" growled Lapis as she stepped forward, only for the orange invader to laugh in her face.
"Oh, really?! You're gonna hurt me?"
"No. I'll end you."
"Ha! As if, you traitor. You've let this planet corrupt you, make you soft and worthless! That's the only thing Crystal Gems are good for; making the trash feel better about itself. Isn't that right, Rose Quartz?"
She then turned back to Steven, who had been completely still once Connie fell unconscious, only to find his body trembling. When she uttered the name of his mother, and a name he was completely sick of being called at that, he did something none of the gems had ever heard.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"
He screamed louder than any of them ever heard before. If hatred and pain could be condensed into a sound; it would be identical to the noise erupting from Steven's throat. The gems even covered their ears as the sound shook the canyon and made the ground quake underneath him. As they all stared in absolute shock, his gem began glowing like a miniature sun embedded in his chest. It only grew brighter and brighter as it enveloped his body, finally cutting off his wailing in the process. The completely stupefied Crystal Gems watched as his body began to expand, losing his typical chubbiness as his muscles seemed to develop until he looked like a well-built adult man. When the light finally faded, something completely different was standing before them.
They knew it was still Steven, but the only reason they could tell was they watched the transformation happen. For one thing, he over doubled in height and was now eye-level with Garnet. His arms and legs were also substantially longer and thicker, making him even more unrecognizable from the portly child they all knew and loved. And yet these were not the most drastic changes. That would go to the fact that his entire body, head to toe, appeared to be made of pink crystal. Even his skin and hair were not spared, making him look like some sort of statue come to life.
While the Crystal Gems were surprised and dismayed, Jasper was as lost as someone could get. Here she was hoping that "Rose Quartz" was finally going to show her true form and drop this persona she developed. Instead, now she changes into some unrecognizable…thing. The bruiser's good mood from fulfilling her mission went right out the window.
"What the-?! What is this?!" she screamed at Steven. The recently transformed boy did not reply.
"Oh, you think you're so clever?!" She marched right up to his face, not noticing how they were both the same height now, only to find his eyes were closed.
"If this is your idea of a joke, I'm not laughing! Answer me, or do I have to beat the rest of your troops like I did your pet?!"
She got a reply in the form of his eyes opening. Even she was taken aback by the sight that his eyes were completely pink with no pupil. They seemed to bore right into her being and somehow sent a chill through her.
"Alright, that does it!"
She summoned her helmet and crashed right into the boy's face, only for him to barely flinch from the blow. She tried again, but instead found his holding her face back with two of his fingers.
"H-Huh?! How are you-?"
"Shut. Up."
His voice was several octaves lower, disturbing the Crystal Gems to their core. Hearing a tone so deep and guttural from Steven was wrong on a fundamental level. To make matters worse, his tone was definition of malicious. Every iota made it clear he would love nothing more than to see Jasper in pain and agony.
"You little-!"
Her taunt was stopped when Steven kicked her in the stomach so quickly, she did not even see his foot move. From that one kick, she was sent flying over thirty feet and plowed through the ground like a comet falling from orbit.
"Whoa…" breathed Lapis. The others all shared her sense of shock.
Before any of them could even blink, Steven was on top of Jasper and sent a fist straight at her face. The orange gem finally decided to dodge, but only barely moved aside before his punch made an even deeper hole in the ground. From there, her reflexes were pushed to their limits as this new Steven relentlessly pounded away at her until he finally got around her guard by sweeping her legs from under her. Once she was down on the ground, he grabbed her by the leg and slammed her face-first before tossing him with all his might into the canyon wall. She was only a few feet away from flying straight out of the Kindergarten altogether.
The Off-Colors parked their ship on the rim of the Kindergarten about a hundred feet further in from where the warp pad was. While they were equally surprised that there was no ambush waiting for them, they were even more surprised as they watched the events unfold before them. After hearing Steven's deafening screams, they watched him be engulfed by light from his own gem before suddenly pounding the daylights out of Jasper.
"Wow look at him go!" commented Rutile's left head.
"She can't even touch him now!" cheered her right head.
"I must say, I-I never expected the boy to have it in him," thought Rhodonite as she watched curiously, "Maybe Pearl taught him this in advance?"
"Steven will change into something completely different from the first time!" announced Padparadscha.
"Never mind…"
"Something's…very wrong…" meditated Fluorite.
"What do you mean? Steven's turned this entire fight around with this new form! How is this a bad thing?" questioned Rhodonite.
"I think I understand," answered Topaz, "I've seen Steven fight before. Even when Aquamarine had him on the ropes before, when he fought he never messed around. He got straight to the point and finished off everyone. But now…It's like he's just playing. If he's really that strong, he should have already bubbled Jasper by now."
"So…What should we do?"
"I think I'll go down there and talk with the other about it. You all stay up here in case this turns out to be a trap and we need an escape, got it?"
"Yes, Captain Topaz!" responded all four Off-Colors. With that said, Topaz floated her way down to the bottom of the Kindergarten and made her way along the wall to the others as the fight intensified.
The transformed Steven was not fighting Jasper. He was singlehandedly mopping the floor with her, and yet even the Crystal Gems would consider that an understatement. Every hit she sent at him was blocked, every strategy she tried was turned against her and every defense she put up quickly fell. As she grew more and more frantic, trying everything she could think of to maybe gain the slightest advantage in their struggle, Steven's expression never changed. That chilling stare with his blank eyes scared her more than anything ever had, and his mouth set in a grim line made the feeling worse.
As if his hand-to-hand combat skills and absurd physical strength and speed were not enough, he started utilizing multiple weapons to further humiliate her. One minute he would summon a pink whip and lash at her or tie her up to make Jasper even more vulnerable. Then he would pull out a spear and smack her around before trying to run her through. And then later he would summon a pair of gauntlets in order to punch her into oblivion. The situation was looking worse and worse for her as she was quickly running out of options and energy as the beatdown continued.
After several minutes, Amethyst finally warped back to the canyon only for no one to notice her return.
"Hey guys, Connie's back home, her mom flipped out but…"
She then noticed everyone's eyes were glued to what sounded like a fight and soon pushed her way to the front. She then watched a muscular man seemingly chiseled out of pink crystal block a headbutt from Jasper and then send a brutal punch to her midsection that left her winded long enough for him to start slapping her around with several strikes from a spear he summoned. It was only when she saw the weapon in his hands along with the glowing spot on his stomach that Amethyst caught on.
"WHOA! Is that Steven?!"
The only response she got was a nod from Pearl.
"Alright, man! Kick her butt! Woooooooooooo!"
"Topaz?" asked Peridot, noticing the yellow gem approach, "Where's the ship?"
"Resting above the canyon. We're pretty sure there's no surprise from Homeworld here, but they're still there keeping the engines running in case we need it."
"What business do you have down here with us?" asked Adamite.
"I wanted to know what's going on. Is that thing really-?"
"Yes, that is Steven," answered Garnet, "He changed into that new form after watching Jasper brutally injure Connie."
"Oh no, that's terrible!"
"Yeah, she's in really bad shape, but at least Steven is fighting off Jasper!" said Amethyst.
"While his fighting prowess is leagues above what it was before," spoke Peridot as she kept her eyes glued to the action, "There is a downside to his metamorphosis."
"What? What's wrong with him?"
"Look at the way he fights now. You'll see soon enough," spoke Pearl in a whisper.
As all nine Crystal Gems refocused on the battle, Steven was in the midst of holding Jasper in a headlock. As the gem choked and struggled in vain, her opponent flung her several feet into the air before leaping after her with a massive jump. Once he reached her, he sent a kick to propel her even further in the air before summoning a whip and wrapping it around her midsection. With one mid-air spin, Steven sent her plummeting back into the ground with enough force to leave a crater. Jasper barely recovered in time to spin-dash out of the way before Steven landed feet-first and doubled the size of the hole.
"He's so…ruthless. He's barely giving her a chance to breathe," realized Topaz, actually cringing at some of the blows Jasper was getting.
"Exactly. Steven's never been this merciless," responded Pearl, "He's clearly overpowering her, but he's just toying with her instead of bubbling her. He's clearly letting his anger towards what she did to Connie distract him."
"Well yeah, he's a little peeved, I can't really blame him," shrugged Amethyst, "But what's so bad about that? We'd all be in the same shoes right now if Steven was hurt!"
"I have a horrible feeling about this," said Garnet.
The conversation was broken up again as Jasper actually dropped to her knees. Steven calmly strode towards her, his vacant angry expression wavering slightly at the gesture.
"Alright…I give in," admitted the orange gem with a great deal of embarrassment, "It's obvious…I can't beat you. You win, I'll leave Earth. Happy now?"
Steven's glassy eyes widened a bit, before a new look donned his face. It was a cruel sneer that sent chills up everyone's spines. Instead of an answer, he rushed forward with blinding speed and punched her with a gauntlet so hard an impression of his armored fist was visible in her back. Amethyst's enthusiasm was replaced with a disgusted wince as even she felt that was uncalled for. The surrendering Jasper did not even have to time to yell in pain as her body dematerialized and was forced into her gemstone to heal.
After several seconds in silence, the Crystal Gems wondered why Steven was merely standing over the fallen gem glaring at it instead of bubbling it. Amethyst decided to ask the question first.
"Um, Steven, buddy? That was really cool and all, but maybe you should bubble her already?"
The boy turned to face her with the same glare without saying a word.
"Dude, relax, it's all done! Look, I'll do it for you, okay?"
She stepped forward to do just that, only for Steven to grip her shoulder. He then spat a glob of saliva straight at Jasper's gemstone, much to the confusion of the others.
"What the heck, man?! What'd you do that for?"
"I'm not done…"
"What?!"
"I said," Steven snarled with absolute loathing, "I'M NOT DONE WITH HER!"
He then flung Amethyst with the hand still holding her shoulder hard enough to send her flying almost a hundred feet. He then faced the suddenly reformed Jasper once again.
"Wh-What the-?! How am I-?"
Her rambling could not get much farther before Steven pounced on her again, the fist she dodged leaving a dent in the ground. The Crystal Gems were all watching, now completely outraged by what they saw.
"Steven Quartz Universe! What on Earth are you thinking, young man?!" scolded Pearl. She tried to march up and smack some sense into her surrogate son only for Garnet to beat her top the punch.
"STEVEN, PLEASE STOP!" she yelled as she ran ahead with her gauntlets drawn, "YOU'LL NEVER FORGIVE YOURSELF!"
"Forgive what?! You saw something, didn't you?" asked Bismuth as she tried to hold Garnet back.
"Yes! We have to stop him before he goes too far!"
"What's he planning?! Spit it out already!" demanded Cinnabar.
"Steven's completely lost himself. He just forcibly healed Jasper so he can keep attacking her. I'm certain he'll do it again."
"Well, we could all have come to that conclusion on our own!" griped Peridot, "What will the lead to that's so horrible?"
"He's not just aiming to beat Jasper. He fully intends to shatter her."
Tune in next week for the conclusion! Side note: What a fitting cliffhanger for Halloween!
Thank you all so much for reading! Please feel free to leave a review!