Spoilers for Beta (again), Earthlings (again), and, for a couple of sentences, Bismuth.

"Are you sure?"

"Positive."

"But why?" Steven asked, his tone bordering on a whine.

The smooth oval gemstone on Pearl's forehead glowed a pale blue and projected a hologram against the far wall as she spoke, showing a simplistic version of the striped Quartz soldier. "Because, Steven, Jasper is a very dangerous Gem, you saw that with your own eyes. The only reason anyone managed to bubble her away was because she became Corrupted!" The hologram morphed to show Jasper's Corrupted form. The hologram roared softly before it vanished in a pixelated cloud, her disembodied gemstone being encased in a bubble.

Steven grimaced at the images playing out in front of him, grabbing his shirt as memories of his nightmares and of the encounter with Jasper in the Beta Kindergarten came flooding back into his mind. The light from Pearl's gem disappeared, taking the holographic projection with it.

"Are you okay, Steven?" Pearl asked, a concerned look in her cyan eyes as she stared down at the boy.

He stood there, frozen, for a few more seconds before he shook his head clear and regained his composure, jumping back to the original topic as if it had never happened. "But it's not like that! It really isn't! She's just… misunderstood!"

"Misunderstood?!" Pearl scoffed with a dismissive wave of her hand. "There's nothing misunderstood about her! She's nothing more than a savage brute! End of story!"

Steven crossed his arms, looking away from the pale Gem with a huff. "You wouldn't think that if you'd been there."

"Well, from what I heard, she imprisoned a bunch of Corrupted Gems, tried to shatter you, Amethyst, and Peridot, and forced one of those Corrupted Gems to fuse with her in an attempt to win the fight! Tell me, what about that is 'misunderstood'?!"

"Because," Steven started, speaking a bit more loudly and forcefully than he'd intended. "she said that Rose Quartz ruined everything for her! Rose took everything away from her! If it…"–Steven hesitated, debating with himself on whether or not to actually say what he was thinking–"...if it weren't for my mom, then Jasper never would've been the way she was! She wouldn't have been a savage brute! She—She actually would've been happy! It's all mom's fault that she wasn't!"

Pearl's eyes went wide and she flinched at the piercing words Steven threw at her. "Steven…"

"No! I…! I—I…" Steven trailed off. He let out a sigh, half frustrated and half forlorn, as he hung his head, struggling to fight back tears.

"Steven," He tensed as Pearl approached him and rested a thin hand on his trembling shoulder. "it—it's not Rose's…"

"Yes, it was. I-I'm so tired of seeing so many Gems suffer because of what she did. I'm tired of all of these Gems hating me because of what she did! It—It's not fair… I never wanted to hurt anyone, I—I just wanted to help them, but none of them would let me… because of what mom did."

Pearl glanced around silently, trying and failing to find the right words to say, so she crouched down and pulled him into a gentle embrace instead. He didn't return it and, after about three seconds, he pulled away from her, wiping the tears from his eyes. He looked up at Pearl and met her gaze with wide, teary eyes that broke the Gem's heart, but she tried not to show it. "I had a dream last night. I saw her… I—I saw Pink Diamond."

Pearl let out a soft gasp, looking away as she covered her mouth, before looking back at the boy, lowering her hand and forcing an uncomfortable smile down at him that went unnoticed as he lowered his head. "Steven, look, I'd rather not talk about…"

"Well, I do! Why didn't you tell me about her? Why didn't you and the others tell me that mom sh… shattered her?!"

"Steven, I… sometimes we… do things that we regret."

"But I thought the Crystal Gems never shattered to win their fights! I thought she was merciful! She bubbled away Bismuth because she didn't want to shatter other Gems to win the War, and then she just… turned around and did it anyway?!" Pearl awkwardly opened and closed her mouth a number of times, trying to figure out what to say, but Steven spoke up again before she could, "J-Just tell me why. Tell me why she did it."

"I…"

"Tell me."

"Steven…"

"Tell me!"

"I don't know! Okay?!" Pearl shouted, tears beginning to form in her eyes.

Steven stared up at her for a long time, a hurt look in his dark eyes. Pearl was breathing heavily; even though she had no need to, she found that it calmed her whenever she became anxious like this. She met Steven's gaze for a couple of seconds, then lowered her head, not wanting to look at the boy. Tears began forming in her eyes and they fell to the wooden floor.

"I… don't know."

Steven wiped one of his eyes with a hand and glanced up at the painting of Rose Quartz that hung over the door. He sighed and decided he'd rather stare at the floor.

"That's what I thought."

They both remained like that in silence for ten long seconds until Steven got up and began walking towards the Temple Gate.

"Steven, where are you…?" Pearl's question was interrupted and Steven stopped in his tracks when a distinct sound rang out from the Warp Pad. He took a couple of steps back as the cyan light vanished, leaving Garnet and Amethyst standing upon it.

"We're ba-a-ack!" Amethyst announced in a singsongy tone, stretching both arms into the air in a triumphant gesture. She dropped her arms at her sides, one hand casually on her hip, and her expression turned into one of concern when she noticed Steven's tear-streaked face and the hurt look on Pearl's. "Whoa! Uh, what'd we miss?"

Steven simply walked around the Warp Pad with a dismissive, "I don't wanna talk about it." He stood at the Temple Gate, but he didn't get a chance to open it when he felt a hand resting on his shoulder. It startled him a bit, but he quickly recovered when he glanced down at the red hand resting there, partially covered with a black glove.

"Steven," Garnet said calmly. "let's talk about this."

"There's nothing to talk about." Steven said. He lowered his voice so that no-one could hear, adding to himself, "Not anymore…"

"I know that's not true, Steven." She ran her index finger across the surface of her visor. "I saw it, before we returned here. You and Pearl got into a fight. Something's bothering you."

Steven remained silent for a couple seconds longer, before deciding that he was fighting a losing battle. He let out a sigh of defeat. "It—It's Pink Diamond."

He heard a high-pitched whimper from behind him, presumably coming from Pearl. Even Garnet seemed to hesitate for a moment. "…What about her?"

"I had a dream about her, her an-and Jasper. Last night." Steven paused. "I've actually been dreaming a lot about Jasper lately."

Once he trailed off, Garnet stepped around in front of him and crouched down to look him in the eye. "Steven, just remember. Jasper is trapped in a bubble in the Burning Room. She can't escape from that bubble. She can't get to you and she can't hurt you now, no matter what. I promise."

"No. No, that's not the problem." Steven said, looking away as he spoke. "I was actually thinking about… releasing her."

"Wha?!" Amethyst exclaimed in surprise. "But she's Corrupted now, Steven! And hasn't she caused us enough trouble already?"

"I know, I know!" said Steven, becoming increasingly frustrated. "But… these dreams and—and I can't stop thinking about her! I almost feel like she wants to tell me something!"

"She's in stasis within that bubble, Steven. She can't think, she can't feel, and she can't communicate as long as she's bubbled." Garnet stated.

"No, that can't be true! In my dreams, I keep seeing her… and her Diamond. She looked so happy back then and I wanna see if I can help her! Maybe get her side of the story about what happened when Pink Diamond was shattered and get some answers for once! Please, I just want to try… I—I want to give her another chance! Maybe I can help her. Maybe I can change her! For the better!"

Amethyst and Pearl remained silent as Garnet stood up. "You're not going to release her."

"What?! But… but why not?!"

"Because she's too dangerous!" the Fusion shouted. She stared down at Steven, then let out a sigh and calmed herself before she spoke again. "Steven, please. We only want what's best for you."

Steven crossed his arms with a huff. "If you really wanted what's best for me then you'd let me do what I want. You'd let me do what's right!"

"If we wanted what's best for you, then we wouldn't let you release a ruthless soldier like Jasper back into the world!"

"I know that she's ruthless, but she can still be a better Gem! All we need to do is give her a chance! Give her an opportunity to be a better Gem and then…" Steven trailed off for a moment, his frustrated shouting suddenly devolving into something barely over a whisper. "then… maybe she'll take it."

Everyone fell silent once again, and Steven took that chance to leave. Turning towards the Temple Gate, he closed his eyes as his pink gemstone began to glow beneath his shirt. A rose insignia flashed across the surface of the door, causing it to vanish, leaving the doorway to Rose's cloudy pink room in its place.

"Steven, wait!" Pearl called out.

"No. I… I need to be alone right now."

Without another word, he stepped in, the door poofing away into the pink atmosphere behind him. He walked a ways before he finally stopped, throwing himself backwards onto the cloud floor with a frustrated grunt, allowing his thoughts to wander freely now that he was finally alone.

Unfortunately, whenever he let his mind wander, it always wandered straight to Jasper. He could still hear her voice echoing in his ears, he could still see her face whenever he closed his eyes. Even when he laid down to go to bed at night or sat down to watch TV or play a video game, he would see her silently watching him from the window. Whenever he turned to look, she would vanish the split second before. That Gem was taking over his mind, and it was beginning to drive him crazy.

On one hand, he wished that she would leave him alone. For good. On the other, he continued to feel bad for her. Not only had she lost her Diamond all those centuries ago and gotten repeatedly beaten by the one who killed her, but now, she had lost her mind to Corruption and was trapped in a bubble, possibly forever if Steven didn't find a way to change the Gems' minds. Sometimes, he wondered who Jasper would be if she had never lost Pink Diamond.

Maybe she would've been more patient and motherly like Rose. Maybe she'd be more like those Quartzes at Pink Diamond's old human zoo. Maybe she wouldn't have held such a grudge against Rose Quartz for all these millennia.

At the end of the day, she was still a brute who might just kill him the second she laid eyes on him.

But then again, he'd never really know unless he tried.

Pushing himself upright into a sitting position, Steven glanced around for a few seconds, speaking up in a whisper, "I'm probably going to regret this." Standing up, he looked up at nothing in particular, calling out in a hesitant tone of voice, "Room, show me… show me what'll happen if I release Jasper from her bubble."

Steven's wish was the Room's command. However, it took a bit longer than usual for anything to appear, as if the room itself were hesitating. Before too long, a small lilac bubble poofed into existence within arm's length from where the half-Gem boy stood. Within its confines was a small, diamond-shaped gold and red gemstone. He reached out and took the bubble between both hands, pulling it close, staring at his unsure reflection on its spherical, reflective surface and the disembodied gem floating within it.

He took a couple of deep breaths and closed his eyes, squeezing the bubble until it vanished in its own tiny pink cloud, fading away as the imitation gemstone fell to the cloud floor at Steven's feet. Bending down, he scooped it up, holding the gemstone between his index finger and his thumb, staring at it until it began letting off a distinct amber glow.

He bit back the urge to re-bubble her and tossed the gem a good distance away from him. Before it could even hit the ground, a vivid white silhouette sprouted from it, taking the vague form of a huge, bulky Quartz that crouched down on her hands and knees, facing the floor. Stars briefly entered Steven's eyes as he watched her reform, but they vanished when the silhouette distorted and morphed into something entirely different. Her muscular hands became massive claws, the shapes of spikes began emerging from all over her body, her arms, and her legs. Her entire physical form took a much more animalistic shape.

Steven took a step back, watching uneasily as the light faded away, leaving an illusion of the Corrupted Quartz standing in front of him. With little hesitation, he summoned his shield, holding it protectively in front of him. He looked up in stunned silence at the Corruption, her whole body rising and falling rhythmically with raspy, audible breaths as she glared down blindly at the boy in front of her with dark green tumorous spikes that replaced her golden eyes.

"Jasper…?"

In response, she opened her fanged maw and let out an extended, monstrous roar, powerful enough to blow Steven back like a particularly strong gale. He dug his feet into the floor to avoid being thrown back, tensing and squeezing his eyes shut, a vice grip on his shield. By the time she went silent and Steven blinked his eyes open again, it was already too late. The Quartz was within arm's length of him, raising one of her massive claws with a snarl of exertion. Steven instinctively lifted his shield to block her attack, but that didn't keep her claws from leaving a thin laceration just above his left eye. He let out a cry of pain and stumbled back, glancing up with teary eyes as Jasper lunged at him again with her opposite foreclaw.

His shield vanishing, Steven outstretched both arms at his sides. As Jasper's blow came down, it did little more than scrape the impenetrable, translucent surface of the magenta bubble Steven had formed around himself.

He looked up at her as she hesitated, tilting her head as if silently wondering why her strike didn't hit the target this time, before opting to violently batter the bubble beneath her huge claws with a cacophony of frustrated roars and growls. Steven's desperate cries for her to stop were ignored as she continued to strike and claw his bubble shield like an enraged animal.

Steven cowered at the back of the bubble, staring up at the Corruption until a drop of blood falling onto the floor of the bubble caught his attention. He winced at the sight and lifted a trembling hand to the cut on his head. He hissed as he pressed his palm to it, holding his hand out in front of him to examine the damage, horrified to find a sizable stain of fresh blood on his palm. He gasped in shock at the sight, causing Jasper to pause for a second before she proceeded to ram her head into the side of the bubble, sending it rolling uncontrollably away.

I can't keep this up forever! Steven's thoughts told him as he popped the bubble to stop the chaotic rolling in its tracks. If I don't do something soon, she might… He gulped nervously as he turned to face Jasper again, the Quartz beginning to charge straight towards him.

Glancing down at his hands for a moment, he wiped the blood away on his pants' leg and licked his palm a couple of times, looking past his hand at the sprinting Corruption. He closed his eyes, even as Jasper closed in on him, and began blindly sprinting towards her.

Please, Jasper, just let me help you.

His eyes snapped open wide at the last possible moment, Jasper lifting a claw into the air and swiping at him in the same instant. Ducking down, causing her claws to slice through nothing but empty air, he pushed himself forward, jumping up with his arm outstretched, and smacked his saliva-coated palm against the surface of her gemstone. She seemed a bit stunned by his action at first, then let out an enraged growl, lifting her other claw in an attempt to lash out at him, but she never got the chance to. Her physical form becoming engulfed in a blinding white light that froze her in place like a statue.

Shielding his eyes with his forearm, Steven stepped back a few feet as he watched his healing spit do its work.

For a long time, the glowing silhouette did little more than distort and ripple in a shapeless, deformed mess, occasionally trying to take one of the two forms before it fell apart again.

Steven tensed as he watched her in silence. Come on, Jasper, you can fight this!

As if he'd thought the magic words, the silhouette stopped moving for a moment, glitching and distorting, then finally began to take a much more humanoid form once it re-stabilized. Stars once again entered Steven's eyes as the light faded away.

Jasper crouched on her hands and knees, breathing heavily and trembling slightly. Her long, messy blonde hair fell down and into her face, shielding it from view. Steven at first thought it was best not to startle her, but after she stayed that way for a good twenty seconds, he took a couple of cautious steps in the illusion's direction, holding out a shaking hand towards her.

"J-Jasper?" he began, his voice low and a bit shaky. "Are… you okay?"

He flinched when she snapped her head up to face him, her hard golden eyes gleaming ominously from beneath the shadows cast by her unkempt hair.

"Ah! You… you! I'll… I'll… agh!" She trailed off when she noticed her arms. She lifted her left arm, red from her elbow to her finger tips, turning it over in front of her, repeatedly flexing her thick red fingers in and out of a fist, her golden eyes growing wider and wider as she stared down at it. Other than a few small, insignificant splotches of residual teal Corruption, it looked exactly as it had before she fused with that Corrupted Gem back in Beta.

She was actually… healed.

She looked up at Steven again. "…Why?"

Steven's eyes widened at her sudden question. He fiddled with his fingers in front of his chest, glancing about nervously, opening and closing his mouth, searching for the right thing to say.

"I asked you a question." Jasper reminded him, her voice low and hostile. "Why?!"

Steven recoiled instinctively at her sudden shout. "Because I… you… ugh." He trailed off momentarily with a frustrated sigh. "I—I thought you needed help, Jasper. That's why."

"You thought nothing!" Jasper pushed herself up from the floor, staggering as she got up and stood at her full height. "Who said I wanted your help? Who said that I wanted to be healed?!" Steven looked on with wide, fearful eyes as she summoned her crash helmet atop her head. She was in front of him with three great strides, grabbing him by the front of his shirt and jerking him up to eye level. "Who said… that I ever wanted… to come… back!?" With a grunt of exertion, she threw Steven away from her, sending him tumbling to the cloudy floor several yards away with a pained moan.

Flipping onto his side, he fluttered his eyes open, watching as she slowly began to approach him, a vicious smirk appearing on her lips. "Besides, I know why you're really here, I know why you really healed me."

"Wha…? No! Please stop, Jasper, I'm not trying to manipulate you! I'm not trying to hurt you! I'm not trying to do any of those things!"

"Heh-heh. After all I did to you, to your friends, and you still went out of your way to save me. Why else would someone… like you ever want to help someone, a brute, like—like me?"

"Because, Jasper, nobody deserves Corruption! Whether you're a brute or not, you don't deserve this!"

"Fool!" she hissed. A horrified look entered Steven's eyes as he laid there: with every step she took, more and more of her Corruption returned to her features. It started with the splotches of teal, then the dark green spikes began protruding from her hair and from her splotchy skin. The Quartz didn't even seem to notice. "I'm suffering because it's what I deserve. We all get what we deserve!" She was on him in an instant, pinning him to the floor, a clawed hand sinking into his chest, beginning to draw blood that was camouflaged by his red shirt. She lifted up the bottom of his shirt, revealing his sparkling pink gemstone to both of them. "Except for you, Rose Quartz. Until… now!"

She had the claws of her opposite hand latched onto the edges of Steven's gem in an instant. She twisted it hard, pulling at the same time, intending to rip it right out of his stomach.

Jasper may have been little more than an illusion created by the Room, but the pain caused by her attack was very much real.

"Ahh! Aahh!! N-No! I—I didn't… want... this!" Steven cried out in the midst of his agonized screaming.

His whole body trembled violently as he summoned a spiked bubble shield around him. When the pink spikes pierced her form, Jasper abruptly disappeared in an explosion of pink smoke.

He laid against the floor of the bubble, tears streaming from his eyes as he rested a hand atop his sore gem, breathing heavily, struggling to come to terms with just how close he came to dy… to losing his gem. He groaned painfully, clapping twice and causing the bubble to disappear, dropping him onto the cloud floor again. He moaned as he writhed there. Every fibre of his being hurt and, no matter what position he laid in, it couldn't be relieved.

With another pained sound, he staggered upright, swaying and nearly losing his footing at first. His voice strained with agony, he choked out, "Room, I—I… I want to go home. No, scratch that. I—I wanna go home and be with the Gems… for real." A second passed, and the door appeared out of thin air in front of him. He wrapped an arm around his stomach as he limped towards the door. He hesitated for a moment, casting a glance over his shoulder at the Room's interior, before opening the door and returning to the Temple.

Jasper seems to have a... traumatizing effect on the Gems she encounters. Let's see, there was Lapis Lazuli as of the episode Super Watermelon Island, though she seems to be recovering a bit as of Lost at Sea after uppercutting Jasper into the ocean. From the episodes Crack That Whip to Earthlings, Amethyst was having a similar Jasper-induced ordeal after she not only had her physical form crushed by Jasper, but her self-esteem as well. She even reformed with a squinty eye, much like Jasper's is.

I feel like, after all he went through, Steven should've had a similar obsessive reaction regarding Ms. Perfect Quartz. She tried to shatter him on several occasions, she tried to shatter his friends a few times, she nearly blasted all of them into oblivion in their very first encounter, she hit him so hard that he was knocked out cold in their first encounter, she brutally poofed Amethyst and Garnet both right in front of him, and then he witnessed her slowly and painfully Corrupting after fusing with a Corrupted Ocean Jasper while she was screaming in pain and fear all the while. And now, to top it all off, he knows that the only reason she's so hostile is because his mom shattered Pink Diamond, seemingly for little reason other than they had different views on the world around them. It was shown in Mindful Education that he's having some bothersome memories regarding her, Eyeball, and Bismuth, but I feel like that was resolved way, WAY too fast.

So, here it is, Steven's Jasper-induced mental breakdown... at least until he manages to partially heal her Corruption and starts getting through to her a little. That's all for now, and thanks for all that feedback, you guys! Means a lot! Stay tuned for chapter three! XD