Spoilers for Beta and Earthlings, as usual. And this is the chapter is the one you've all been waiting for! When Jasper is finally, really released from her stasis bubble! Yay! *throws glowsticks at the ground*
Steven hummed a tune under his breath at he stared at himself in the bathroom mirror. He hissed as he pulled the bandage on his head, above his left eye, away, revealing a thin scar there.
He winced as he caressed two fingers across the slowly healing injury, his first real "battle wound", even if it came from a Gem that wasn't really real. It was no longer bleeding and was beginning to turn a light pinkish-red. It still felt tender to the touch, but it was starting to get better.
He glanced at the removed dressing, a red-brown spot of dried blood in the centre of it, and grimaced as he tossed it away into the trash bin with a disgusted scoff.
He turned on the sink's faucet and began washing his hands, tossing up his hands to sprinkle the clear liquid onto his face. It had been a long couple of days, even though he hadn't been on a single real mission thus far. The cool water felt refreshing and quickly relieved any leftover anxiety and worry; though one thing still lingered at the back of his mind, he decided not to think about it until he really needed to. Connie was supposed to come over soon, he'd deal with it then, when he wasn't completely alone and near defenseless in case things suddenly took a turn for the worst.
Steven tried to give everyone the benefit of the doubt, even a ruthless Gem like Jasper, but he still couldn't be too careful.
He pulled a towel over and began drying off his hands when a knock at the screen door caught his attention. He nearly tripped over his own feet in his haste to get there and answer it.
"Hey, Steven!" Connie greeted cheerfully as the boy swung the door open to meet her. "You ready for sword practice today?"
She started to walk in, but Steven stopped her in her tracks. "Actually, the Gems went out on a mission a few minutes ago."
"Aw, really?" Connie said, sounding a bit disappointed. "I was really looking forward to… wait. They went out on a mission and didn't take you with them?"
Steven shrugged. "I told Pearl that I wasn't feeling so hot after… yesterday and all, so she suggested that I stay home and rest." He looked away, then looked back at her again with a mischievous little smirk. "But I actually had something else in mind!"
"Oh, really? Like what?"
"C'mon, I'll show you!"
Steven stepped past her and rushed down the porch steps, Connie following not too far behind. He went around to the side of the porch where they found Lion curled up beneath it, his side rising and falling as he slept soundly. Steven slowed to a much more patient walk, giving Connie a 'shh' gesture as she got closer. They walked over beside the magical animal and stopped, the hybrid boy turning to his friend, speaking in a hushed tone of voice.
"Wait here, I'll be right back."
With that, he sucked in a long intake of breath and held it, before leaping into Lion's fluffy light pink mane. As the boy disappeared, Lion jumped and jerked his head upright, his black eyes wide as he glanced around in surprise. Connie snickered softly under her breath when he turned and gave her an accusatory glare, before resting his head back down on his large forepaws and closed his eyes, intending to return to his slumber.
Meanwhile, Steven, his cheeks puffed up with held breath, stuck his head up above the swaying light pink 'grass' within the magical parallel dimension hidden within the animal's hair. He looked at the island a few yards away in front of him, a pink acacia tree sitting upon it with a number of Rose Quartz's old belongings on and around it. Before he moved towards it, he glanced in a different direction where he saw another, similar hill standing in the thick pink field. Atop it was a large oak tree of the same pink hue.
Steven smiled silently at it, before turning back towards Lion's tree and shuffling through the grass towards it. A little over halfway there, he ducked down beneath the grass again. Lion's eyes snapped open wide as Steven momentarily poked his head out to take another breath of air, disappearing again before Lion had a chance to see him.
Finally reaching the hill, Steven started up it towards the tree, glancing around at the objects scattered about as he did. There was a wooden chest that he had yet to open, an old 'Mr. Universe' shirt hanging from one of the branches, and, floating up near the top of the tree, was a small lilac gem bubble. Steven made a sound of satisfaction as he looked at it and jumped up into the air, gliding steadily through the air in an arc, latching onto the bubble with both hands as he passed by it. As he came back down, he kicked off of the hill with one foot and leapt back into the grass, tumbling out of Lion's mane and crashing to the ground on his chest, the bubble held up over his head to keep it from popping.
He began taking several deep breaths as Connie took the bubble to give him a chance to get back up while Lion sat upright, his black eyes wide again as he stared at Steven in stunned silence.
"What is this?" Connie inquired as Steven got up off of the ground. "A… gem bubble? What was this doing in Lion's mane?"
"Oh, I put it there this morning!" Steven said with a smile.
"Huh. This gem. It looks… familiar." Connie narrowed her eyes as she scrutinized the tiny disembodied gemstone encased within the bubble. "Wait, is that… is—is that…?"
She looked to Steven for confirmation; he simply nodded a couple of times without a word.
"But how… why…I—I thought the Gems weren't going to let you free Jasper!" Connie said, almost shouting.
Steven sighed, grabbing his arm as he looked away, a slightly bitter look in his eyes.
"They won't." he stated. "So… that's why I went into the Burning Room last night, grabbed her bubble, and then stored it in Lion's mane so no-one would notice!" He finished his sentence by grinning slyly at the dark-skinned girl, who only gave him a skeptical glare in return.
"But… I still don't understand. She's dangerous, Steven!"
"Oh, c'mon, we've taken her on before, just the two of us!" Steven coaxed her, his enthusiastic grin suddenly acquiring a nervous edge. "I mean, I'm hoping we won't have to this time, but…"
"Steven."
"Huh?"
"What's going on?"
"What do you mean?"
"I mean… ugh, you're acting weird! Weirder than usual. What aren't you telling me?"
They both fell silent for a long time and Steven's smile suddenly disappeared. With a sigh, he turned away from his friend and idly kicked up some of the sand. Lion sneezed as some of it unintentionally sprinkled onto his nose.
"I—I… had another dream last night." Steven began, his voice low. "Well, not really a dream this time though. I—I saw her again, Connie. Like, I actually visited her in this weird Corruption realm that she's stuck in now. All Jasper ever does there is suffer and fight this… demon/zombie/ghost version of my mom. She gets poofed away, over and over again. But every time, she always comes back, just to fight and disappear and come back… over and over and over again!"
Steven scoffed in frustration, kicking up a lot more sand this time in his increasing anger.
There's nothing to greet me here. Nothing! Jasper's words echoed in his ears. Except end… less… suffering!
Steven grimaced to himself, but quickly shook it off. He turned back to face Connie and looked at the lilac bubble in her hands.
"She–She's suffering in there, Connie! And she'll suffer forever if we don't do something!" Steven stared at his friend with tearful eyes, but she still looked unsure. "Please. I—I can't just leave her like this, and I don't care what the Gems have to say about it!"
"But, Steven, what if she attacks us? What if she attacks the city?"
Steven sighed and glanced away, a bit guiltily. "I… I don't think she will. She won't admit it, but… I don't think that's what she wants anymore."
He lifted a hand and gently rested on the bubble's smooth surface as he forced a sad smile down at the gem within it. "Don't worry, it won't be long now. We're going to help you… I promise."
He glanced up to meet Connie's uneasy gaze, before he took the bubble in his own hands and walked out onto the beach with it. Lion lifted his head and watched with Connie as Steven walked away, standing about halfway between the shoreline and the Crystal Temple.
Steven took a deep breath and closed his eyes as he held the bubble out in front of him at arm's length. As much as he wanted to free her, he just couldn't bring himself to pop the bubble. The illusion of Jasper's Corrupted form, scratching his head and nearly ripping out his gemstone, flashed in his mind. The hallucination of the Quartz soldier stabbing Stevonnie through the chest with a sword. He briefly relived Jasper forcing Amethyst to retreat into her gem and nearly trying to shatter the defective Crystal Gem, when she fused with Lapis Lazuli into the monstrous Malachite, when she stabbed Garnet with a Gem Destabilizer in their very first confrontation.
She was a monstrous brute that would do anything to win, no matter what it was, including shattering an innocent Gem or forcing others to fuse with her. Ever since they'd first met, she'd done nothing but torment him and the other Crystal Gems and had tried, on a number of occasions, to shatter him, mistaking him for Rose Quartz.
But, even then, she was just a Gem that was doing what she was made for: fighting, and trying desperately to get vengeance for Pink Diamond. Jasper was far from innocent, but she wasn't just a brute. She had perfectly viable reasons to do what she did, and that meant that she still had a chance to do better, to be better. All they had to do was give her a chance.
Steven inhaled and held his breath again, before giving the bubble a light squeeze. A light pop! signified that the bubble had disappeared, and Steven opened his eyes to see Jasper's gemstone falling lightly to the ground. He reached down and scooped up some of the sand, placing the gem in the middle of a shallow hole as he tossed the sand off to the side. He stared down at her in silence, anxiously awaiting her return.
"Get ready." Steven said without turning to face his two acquaintances. He heard the distinct shing of Connie unsheathing Rose's sword and even heard Lion let out a soft growl. Steven briefly considered summoning his shield, but decided against it for fear of giving the Gem the wrong idea. The only "weapon" he needed was his healing powers, and he lifted his palm and licked it a couple of times as Jasper's gem finally levitated off of the ground, surrounded by a light amber aura.
The boy took a couple of cautious steps back as the monstrous, canine-like silhouette formed from the gem. Steven watched as the glowing white form snarled viciously at him, but before she could even take her physical form, Steven stepped forward and wetly smacked his saliva-coated hand to her gem and held it there, even as her form began to morph and change shape. Lion and Connie could only watch from the sidelines, their eyes going wide with shock.
Steven didn't even think about pulling away until Jasper began taking a humanoid form again, showing him that the healing spit was working.
He stepped back again, watching as Jasper's form glitched and lost its form for a split second, before the bright white light faded completely. The massive Quartz soldier simply stood there, her head hung, before limply collapsing to the sandy ground, prompting a shocked gasp from both of the kids.
"Jasper!" Steven cried out, quickly falling onto his knees at her side as Connie ran up to join him, opting to leave the sword sheathed while Jasper was being passive.
"Is she okay?"
Steven grabbed onto her right arm and lifted it up, looking it over, tears beginning to form in his eyes yet again.
"Oh… it—it didn't work…?" Connie guessed, her voice barely over a whisper.
The Gem's muscular arm was still covered in a splotchy teal pattern with a few darker spikes protruding here and there. Steven cringed at its strange texture as he ran a finger across it. He glanced up at where Connie stood over him, a matching concerned look in her dark brown eyes. She opened her mouth to say something, but was interrupted when Jasper abruptly jerked her arm out of Steven's grasp with a weak, muffled groan.
Steven quickly got up and both of the kids started hastily backing away as Jasper moved to finally get up. Connie cautiously reached for the hilt of Rose's sword until Steven rested a hand on her shoulder, shaking his head at her as a silent gesture not to draw her weapon. She turned to him and asked, barely over a whisper so Jasper didn't hear, "Are you sure?" Steven nodded in response.
They both turned their attention to the Quartz, watching as she trembled, trying to stand up, but over and over again, her weakened legs failed her. Finally, she gave up, deciding to remain in a kneeling position instead. She glanced at the sand beneath her for a moment and glanced up at the Crystal Temple in front of her, staring at it in silence for a long time. Steven and Connie exchanged confused glances, before the boy hesitantly started towards Jasper despite Connie's attempts to stop him.
"Jasper…?"
She let out a raspy gasp and jumped slightly, whipping her head around to look at where Steven stood, staring at her in concern. Her left golden eye was wide with surprise at first, before it narrowed bitterly as soon as she recognized him. The right half of her face was completely teal with residual Corruption and she didn't even have her right eye anymore. In its place was that hideous dark green spike protruding from her face.
"Ah, I guess I should've known." she rasped, trailing off with a bitter chuckle. "Hm. And I see you brought your pet with you as well."
"What?!" Connie shouted.
"Connie, no!" But the offended human didn't listen as she unsheathed her blade and strode up beside Steven, staring Jasper down as she pointed the sword in the half-Corrupted Gem's direction.
"You take that back!" Connie warned. "Unless you want to see how much damage this 'pet' can do…"
"Connie…"
"Gladly." Jasper chuckled again as she pushed herself upright, her gem glowing simultaneously as she attempted to summon her crash helmet. However, something strange happened. Her weapon summoned successfully on the first try… before it began glitching and faltering and vanished entirely as Jasper fell back to the ground, her legs failing her yet again. "What?! Wh-What happened?!" She grabbed her head, her eye wide with shock as she stared at the ground.
"It's… because you're half-Corrupted still." Steven explained.
"What…?"
"Sorry, my healing powers are a little… limited when it comes to Corruption."
"What're…? You… you healed me?!" Jasper said, beginning to sound a bit manic. "Why?! After all I've done… why would you go out your way to save someone… like me?!"
The kids nervously exchanged glances again as Connie lowered the sword, its blade aiming at the ground.
"Agh! Answer me!" Jasper growled, slamming her fists to the ground. She breathed heavily as she looked down at her hands: her right arm was half-covered with a green splotchy pattern and her fingers were thick and hard, gnarled into huge claws. Her left hand, however, still retained its yellow-orange hue, other than a few tiny insignificant spots here and there. At least her fingers were still… fingers, instead of the claws of an animal. "Unless, of course… I already know the answer."
Steven tensed. "What?"
Jasper chuckled bitterly as she turned to face the kids. "You want me to give up. You want me get down on my knees… and beg to join your little band of—of rejects because I know that…"–her tone acquired a sad air to it–"…Homeworld won't take me. Not like this." She snarled as she tried once again to stand up, raising her voice to a more audible tone yet again. "Well… you can forget it, because it's never. Going. To happen! I would rather let myself be shattereda thousand times over before I ever pledge allegiance to Rose Quartz and her group of failures!"
"No! Th-That's not…"
Jasper slammed one of her fists to the ground with a frustrated growl. "Then what?! There's got to be something! There's no way… there's just… no way you'd go out of your way to help me unless… you thought it might benefit you somehow."
"I—I don't understand. Nobody deserves a fate like that… not even you. Why would I just stand by and let you suffer if I knew I could use my healing powers to help?"
"You're the one who doesn't understand! I've failed my purpose, I've failed my Diamond, I've failed everyone! I have no use here anymore!"
"But… that's not how it works here. Not on Earth." Connie offered, forcing a kind smile at the Quartz. She flinched when the Gem shot her a savage glare from beneath her unkempt blonde bangs, snarling under her breath.
"Then just—just put me back in the bubble already!" Jasper snarled, leaning down with her face close to the sand. "If I'm going to spend the rest of eternity stuck on this worthless rock then at least I can spend it alone in my gem… away from these meatbags and… Crystal Gems…"
"I… I'm not going to do that, Jasper." Steven said, his voice soft and a bit uneasy.
Jasper raked her clawed hand through the sand. "Why… not?! It's not like I have anywhere else to go!"
Steven took a couple of steps towards her again, the Gem peering at him from between her fingers as she covered her face with both hands. "Well, sure you do! There are places all over the Earth if you don't like it here! Come on, just—just give it a chance. We can show you!" He hesitantly stepped within arm's length of her and offered his hand out to her. She stared at it in silence for a moment, before scowling and swiping at his hand with her claws, making the boy recoil back.
"Like I want to see more of what these meatbags have done to Homeworld's… Pink Diamond's colony than I already have!" Jasper was cut off with a soft pained whimper and she put her hands down, staring in horror as the Corruption began crawling across her left arm again. She quickly blinked away tears she felt forming in her eye before the kids noticed. "I told you before… I only came back to finish off Rose Quartz! And now, I can't even do that!"
She let out a pained cry, grabbing her rapidly Corrupting arm and squeezing it tight, letting her nails dig into her orange skin as if it would somehow stop the Corruption in its tracks. She keeled over, grimacing, her eyes squeezed shut. Connie gripped the hilt of her sword tight, watching in horror as Steven's healing was rapidly reversed right in front of their eyes. Steven quickly licked his palm again and offered it to her.
"Jasper, don't worry… I—I can help!"
Jasper seemed to ignore his statement, looking up at him with a tears in her eye that she didn't even bother wiping away. "I'm stuck here. I'll never see my Homeworld again, I'll never be accepted by anyone again! And it's all. Your! Fault!" She was practically screaming as she futilely lunged in Steven's direction, forcing him to jump back again to avoid her swiping clawed hands. She growled viciously, but eventually gave up on trying to attack him.
Tears were streaming from Steven's eyes as he practically begged to the rapidly Corrupting Gem. "Jasper, please! I-I'm sorry that all of this is happened to you! I'm sorry that you're suffering and that you've lost so much because of me and my mom! But, please, give me a chance to make it all up to you! Give me a chance to help you make it better!"
"Never! You're the reason I'm on this worthless hunk of rock! You're the reason I Corrupted in the first place! You are the reason I've lost everything!" Jasper shouted, looking up at Steven to reveal that her right eye had been replaced with a spike as well now. "And for that… I will never forgive you!" Her words turned to screams of agony as she curled up into a ball on the sand, desperately clawing at her head as if she could just claw the Corruption out.
Steven shakily stepped closer, reaching forward to use his healing spit on her again, but in a flash, she jerked upright again and lashed out at him, her screams turned to enraged, animalistic roars and growls. She managed to tear away part of Steven's shirt and knock him back a bit, but didn't actually injure him. He briefly tugged at the torn remnants of his shirt, before looking up at the Corrupted Gem with tearful, desperate eyes.
"J-Jasper…"
In response, she roared once more and charged straight at him, her head bowed in an attempt to impale him on her huge dark green horns. He hastily dodged her attack and watched in shocked silence as she charged straight past him. She ignored Lion and she ignored Connie, she just… ran, eventually charging into the ocean until she was completely submerged beneath the waters, not appearing to have any real aim in her actions. Steven, meanwhile, fell to his knees as he stared after her, tears darkening the sand beneath him. He let out a barely audible squeak as he hung his head, feeling defeated and guilty.
Her enraged, grief-stricken words echoed in his ears relentlessly, but at this point, there was only one thing left to say.
"I'm… sorry."
"Ugh, I can't believe this!"
Steven and Connie sat on the couch in the Crystal Temple, looking up wearily at Pearl who was anxiously pacing back and forth in front of them.
"We told you not to release her, that she was too dangerous to be set free like this! But you didn't listen, and look where we are now!"
The kids exchanged nervous glances as Pearl shot an accusatory glare Steven's way, making him flinch. "Well? What do you have to say for yourself?"
The kids continued to sit in silence, Steven opening and closing his mouth a couple of times. The only time he actually said anything, he clumsily stumbled over his words in a shaky, incoherent mess.
"Pearl," Connie chimed in. "please, don't blame him. I… I could've done something but I—I… didn't. I'm sorry."
"There's no need to be." Pearl dismissed. She turned her attention to Steven again, who didn't look at her. She winced when she noticed the light glinting off of tears in his eyes. "I… Steven, look. I understand that you had good intentions by releasing her, but, Gems like Jasper, they're just too… too…" She trailed off, searching for the words to say, but Steven spoke up, beating her to the punch.
"There's nothing wrong with her!" he shouted defiantly. "She's not that bad! Really! She's just another Gem that's scared, an-and alone, and… sad. She doesn't want to admit it, but I know…"
"Steven," Pearl stepped forward and rested a gentle hand on the boy's shoulder. "even if that is the case, Jasper is far too self-centred and proud of herself to admit it! She'd probably shatter all of us long before we ever even got close to getting her to crack!" Steven looked at the floor, remembering how upset, how scared, how desperate Jasper looked out on the beach. Pearl let out an exasperated sigh. "And that's not a risk that I'm willing to take! And it shouldn't be one you're willing to take either."
Steven threw a hand frustratedly to his forehead, letting out an explosive sigh of his own. "Well, what do you expect to do with her then? Just… just bubble her away again and forget it ever happened?!"
"That's all we can do!"
"But… we can't! We can't just imprison her again! Then she'll just suffer for eternity because you're not willing to give her a chance!"
"But Gems don't suffer in bubbles, they…"
"You don't know that!" Steven shouted, practically screaming at the Gem. Connie rested a comforting hand on his shoulder, prompting him to pause and take a few deep breaths before he continued speaking, "After we accidentally poofed you back in the Cloud Arena, I bubbled you and then unbubbled you again so that you would reform faster! But did being bubbled feel any different than normal?"
Pearl said nothing at first.
"Well? Did it?!"
"Ugh… well, how should I know? It was only for a second, not near long enough for any real observation!"
"But what was it like? Even for just a moment, what did it feel like?"
"I... don't know! I—I can't know! When a Gem is bubbled, they're in stasis! They can't think, they can't feel, they—they don't even know they exist! Whether it was for a second or a century, I wouldn't have been able to tell the difference!"
"But that's not how it was for Jasper!" Steven paused to let out a sigh, his voice becoming solemn again when he continued. "She was in that bubble for weeks! She didn't know she was in a bubble, she just knew that she was stuck inside her own Corrupted mind. She suffered in there, Pearl! For weeks on end! It doesn't matter what Jasper did in the past… how can you just—just turn her away like this? She isn't our enemy anymore! She's just another Gem that needs our help!"
Pearl stumbled over her words for a moment as she tried to think of a viable response, before finally settling on, "But… that doesn't matter anymore. You both saw her, it's too late for her now! She's Corrupted again, and thus, a danger to us and to the whole city if we don't capture her as soon as possible!"
"She didn't go into the city." Connie chimed in. "She… actually went into the ocean again. Like back when she was rounding up those Corruptions?"
Pearl opened her mouth to say something, looking surprised, but Steven spoke up first, seemingly ignoring his friend's words for the moment. "But… what if I can do for her like I did for Centipeetle?"
"What do you mean?" Connie asked.
"I tried to heal her Corruption a while back. It didn't work for long, but I managed to help her retain some of her old memories… kind of… by returning her to her old spaceship where the rest of her crew is. They're Corrupted too, but… at least they're together now."
"Aw, that's so sweet." Connie said.
"But Jasper already has it out for us. And everyone and everything on this planet, it won't be easy!" Pearl stated matter-of-factly.
"Ugh, but I have to try!" Steven retorted, abruptly jumping up. "I don't want her to suffer anymore, Pearl. Even if she is a bad Gem, nobody deserves that fate!" He fiercely wiped away tears from his eyes as he looked up pleadingly at Pearl, the pale Gem still looking decidedly unsure. "Please, Pearl… even if you don't trust her… you trust me, don't you?"
Pearl bit her tongue and looked away. The obvious answer was 'yes', of course, but when it came to a matter like this one, she wasn't entirely sure. No-one could deny that Steven's intentions were always good ones, no matter the outcome, but he could be a little short-sighted at times. If Jasper hurt anyone, especially Steven, then Pearl didn't know if she would ever be able to forgive herself. She was pulled from her thoughts as the Warp Pad activated, leaving Garnet standing upon it.
"Oh, Garnet! You're back!" Pearl was quick to take that opportunity to excuse herself from the discussion, at least temporarily. She ran up to meet the Fusion. "How did it go? Did you find Jasper?"
"No." the Fusion said stoically. She adjusted her visor as she spoke, "I saw, with my future vision, that we would find her back in the Beta Kindergarten, but she wasn't there when I showed up."
"Oh, heh, well, she probably just hasn't gotten there yet." Pearl said, becoming increasingly anxious.
"Negative. She wasn't there now, she wasn't there before, and she won't be there later either."
"Wh-What? But… how can you know…?" Pearl was cut off as Garnet rested a hand on her thin shoulder, prompting a soft gasp from the Gem.
"I know, Pearl." Garnet assured her. "It seems that Jasper has somehow managed to… change the future so that even I cannot see the outcome."
Pearl's eyes went wide and Steven reflected her thoughts from afar, jumping up with a shocked, "What?!"
"No," Pearl pulled at her peach hair anxiously. "no, that can't be true. She's still out there somewhere! She just has to be!"
"Well, of course she is. But there are thousands of places on this Earth that she could have gone. We could spend months trying to find her."
"But she couldn't have gone far! Corrupted Gems can't use the Warp Pads, so…"
"Unless," Garnet cut in. "someone activated it for her."
"B-But who would…?"
"I don't know. There isn't even any guarantee that that's the case." The red Fusion brushed past Pearl and strode over to where the kids were waiting on the couch. "Steven, Connie, where was the last place you remember seeing Jasper go?"
The kids exchanged glances and Steven chose to speak up this time, "Just… into the ocean. I—I don't know if she was actually going anywhere specific except… the ocean."
Garnet sighed in frustration and adjusted her visor momentarily, before looking back at Steven at resting a hand on his shoulder. "Well, for now, I think you should go to bed." She briefly cast a glance out the window, where the Sun was gradually sinking beneath the horizon. "It's been a long day for both of you. You need your rest."
"Aw, c'mon! It's not even dark yet!" Steven whined.
"Steven, just trust me on this one. Okay?" And, with that, she stood upright and headed out the front door. Pearl and the kids watched in silence as Garnet walked to the shore, before leaping into the air and diving beneath the flowing waters several yards out. There was a small splash, and then there was nothing.
"So… what do we do now?" Connie asked.
"I dunno." Steven admitted.
"Well, Garnet told you to sleep. So… maybe you can do that for now?"
Steven shrugged. "Well, I can usually trust Garnet on these sorts of things." With that proclamation, he threw his legs up onto the couch and flipped onto his opposite side so that he faced the back of the couch. He writhed momentarily to find a more comfortable position, before falling still, partially curled into a ball. He opened his mouth wide in a yawn as he said, "Good night, Connie."
"Oh, uh… okay, um… good–good night, Steven."
A few minutes passed as Steven lied there, eyes closed, trying to give into the embrace of unconsciousness. Before long, he had drifted off into a deep slumber.
When Steven opened his eyes again, he was no longer looking through his own eyes. Or anyone's for that matter.
He was completely blind as he temporarily took refuge in a brand-new body. It was much larger and bulkier than he was, with a similar build to that of the average Quartz soldier. He had a long, dirty, badly unkempt mane that stretched from a few bangs hanging over his forehead to his lower back, where it extended into a fluffy doglike tail. His mouth was hanging open, letting out loud, raspy gasps of breath. He was running, charging rather aimlessly like an animal.
Every single time his feet hit the ground, it made a deep, slamming sound against the terrain, signifying that his host weighed a lot. His chest heaved, but he quickly realized that the rapid panting did no good for him. It felt like he could choose to breathe, or not, and it wouldn't make a single difference either way.
Am I… in a Gem? his thoughts suggested.
Despite his perpetual blindness, he couldn't help but notice how every other sense was significantly heightened.
He could feel every footfall, every blade of grass that was smashed and every tiny rock that he stepped on as he went, but every last one of them went unnoticed by the sprinting creature. Though breathing in through his nose proved futile, suggesting that this thing didn't have one, he could still smell everything… through his mouth, as if the tastes of the air were translated into scents. In fact, he could smell even better than he could in his half-human organic form; he could smell things that he didn't even know existed! He could hear everything too, despite seeming to lack any visible ears like most Gems did. He could probably hear a butterfly's wing beat if one got close enough.
To put it lightly, he completely lacked sight… but every other sense was strengthened so much that it may as well not have mattered.
As he galloped uncontrollably in a random direction, he couldn't help but notice the telltale sounds around him; nearby, he could hear men and women crying out in horror and disgust or shouting hostile slurs at the monstrous animal. He heard a number of higher-pitched shrieks and sobs from terrified young children. The creature's body suddenly felt hot and the all too familiar sensation of intense anxiety stabbed into her heart. He felt her massive claws dig deep into the dirt as she abruptly skidded to a stop when her thick skin felt the sharp burn of rocks being pelted against it.
She whipped around and faced her assailants, snarling softly as tiny, painful projectiles continued to pelt her in the face. She opened her fanged maw wide in a loud, monstrous roar, one that had become familiar to Steven as of now, but it was cut off with a startled, pained growl of sorts when another, somewhat heavier projectile hit her square in the face. Steven heard a telltale cracking sound that suddenly made the Corrupted Gem stumble back and let out a series of agonized snarls and roars, but the relentless pelting continued regardless.
He couldn't see who or what was attacking her, but he wanted desperately to yell at them to stop. Now.
Her—Her gem! Steven's thoughts cried out.
Even though he couldn't see it, he could sense it. A long, thin crack that ran from the upper point to halfway down, crossing against the middle of the two upper facets.
Her gemstone was where her nose otherwise would be.
On several occasions, he felt her entire form beginning to falter uncontrollably. With every slight hit of the rocks, her form started falling apart. Finally, with a prolonged roar of agony, Jasper forced herself back up onto all fours and immediately began charging in the opposite direction until she could no longer feel their attacks. Steven could hear the commotion of a town or small city nearby, but in the midst of Jasper's ordeal, he hardly noticed it.
Her entire physical form was exploding with excruciating pain, as if her entire being was being torn apart at the seams. The only real relief she got from it was the occasional distortion and falter of her physical form, but as soon as it was restored, the pain immediately came rushing back in full force. Most sounds were blocked out by an awful scraping sound, as if Jasper's consciousness were attempting to claw its way out by force, and combined with that was what sounded like hundreds of voices screaming in relentless agony. They sounded like the screams of the damned. Jasper roared in a combination of agony and a desperation to block out the screams, but no matter how loud she was, it seemed the screams only went louder.
This is what greets you here! End. Less. Suffering!
Steven wanted desperately to wake up now. He wanted to put his hands up to his ears and block out the sounds, to escape the Hellish existence once and for all that was Jasper's horrifically Corrupted, warped consciousness. On top of that, she was cracked now, and he wondered if they'd be able to get to her in time before she shattered altogether.
End.
He began to wonder if she'd prefer that fate over this one.
Less.
At this point, he was wishing that something would happen, like retreating into her gemstone or something, to just give her a bit of pause. But there was no such relief from this.
Suffering!
Steven cried out inwardly. Please… make it stop!
It seemed like an eternity trapped in the midst of her pain before Jasper stopped abruptly, lifting her head and examining the scent in the air.
It was strange, a dusty, sandy sort of scent. It was strangely familiar to Steven, but he just couldn't place it.
For a moment, he thought she'd returned to the beach, but didn't sense any seawater or the sound of the tide coming in.
With a soft snarl, Jasper started running again, in a new direction this time, before beginning to slow down as she pushed herself up against a tall, smooth wall until an empty space interrupted it. It was a hole; she took a moment to turn and trace its edges with her clawed forepaw, before moving onto the next one. She did this with several others, the internal screaming and the agony of her cracked gem seemingly subsiding temporarily as she did so. It didn't disappear entirely, but it faded enough to be easily ignored. It may as well have been gone for the time.
Before long, Jasper reared up, pushing both forepaws against the smooth sandstone wall, her head tilted back. With a good jump, she latched her claws onto the edge of another, much larger hole. Its edge was smooth and a bit slick, hard for her to latch her claws into. Regardless, she recognized it in an instant as she climbed into the massive Quartz exit hole and made her way to the very back of it, eventually reaching a large, misshapen hollow there.
Like the rest of the exit hole, its edges had been superheated into solid glass.
She lifted a claw and briefly scraped them against the glassy walls of the exit hole, but walking in a circle a couple of times and curling up into a ball, her fluffy blonde tail wrapped around her huge form. Steven felt her physical form falter one last time as she laid there and forced herself to relax, even in the midst of the screaming and the indescribable pain. She just ignored what would drive anyone else to madness; she'd done it for thousands of years now, after all.
The dizzying blackness and the painful consciousness swirled away as Jasper fell into her own slumber, Steven jerking upright, suddenly wide awake, at the same time.
"Jasper!" he thoughtlessly cried out. He was breathing heavily again, scanning his dark surroundings. Night had since fallen and someone had put him to bed. Connie was nowhere in sight, presumably having headed home for the night at some point. It disappointed Steven a bit; he had wanted her to stay over for the night, but he shrugged it off. Maybe next time. He had more important things to think about right now.
He let out a soft sigh as he threw off the covers and headed downstairs. He could still hear those awful sounds echoing in his ears, as if they'd followed him from Jasper's consciousness. He could still feel a distant pain as if he were being torn apart from the inside-out; it began to feel vivid enough that he stopped at the bottom of the stairs and checked his gem for any damage. There was nothing, it was as smooth and shiny as ever, not a crack or scratch to be seen.
With a sigh, Steven stepped into the kitchen where his phone laid on the counter, hooked up to a wall charger. He turned it on to check the battery percentage, before removing it from the cord and accessing the device's photo gallery. He had a number of camera photos of himself, Connie, the Gems; he idly flipped through all of them until he reached the series of photos he'd taken on Connie's first mission in the frozen North. There were a number of photos of himself, Connie, and Pearl posing for a selfie that he chuckled softly to himself about, until he reached one that depicted the two huge Corrupted Quartzes.
One was a reddish-brown with a strange cobblestone-like pattern on her skin, three spikes protruding from where her eyes once were. Her light brown gemstone, an intricate pattern on its face, was placed on her chest, surrounded by a thick, tannish white mane.
The Corruption to the left of her looked similar. Well, in body shape at least. Her skin was a light teal with darker rings that had pink splotches of colour in their centres. She only had two spikes, one was o a dark blue-green colour, the other was the same with a couple of lighter pink rings near the tip. Her gemstone, also on her chest, matched the wild colour scheme of her skin and the splotchy, complicated teal and pink pattern upon it.
He stared at the spotted Corruption for a long time, tears forming in his eyes as he looked at her.
Come on! We can win this, if we stay… together!
Steven grimaced as the memory flashed through his mind; Jasper and the Corrupted Gem had defused in mid-air after Smokey Quartz launched them into the air with their yo-yo's. The banded Quartz tried in desperation to force the Corruption back into the Fusion, to no avail. Finally, they both came crashing back to the ground, the Corruption smashing Jasper beneath her weight before scrambling up again and fearfully galloping away, leaving Jasper to face her inevitable fate of Corruption.
Steven squeezed the phone in his shaking hand, hardly noticing the tears beginning to stream from his eyes and drip onto the phone's screen. The sound of the front door opening and closing went unheard as well.
"Steven?"
"Ah, Jasper!" Steven cried out, nearly dropping his phone. He looked up, his eyes wide and frantic, to see Garnet patiently walking towards him. He let out a heavy, relieved sigh as he connected his phone again and placed it back onto the counter. "Oh… h-hey, Garnet. Did you find anything out there?"
"That's what I should be asking you."
Steven's eyes went wide as she bent down to his height in front of him, silently awaiting his response. "I… you—you knew?"
"Of course. Why wouldn't I?" She ran a finger across the rim of her visor as she spoke.
"Well, if Jasper changed the future…?"
"It was always a possibility, but I didn't want to disclose the truth to Pearl. Not yet, anyway."
Steven smiled at her, before it abruptly disappeared as he began to explain. "I saw Jasper. I—I was in her body, actually. She was attacked an-and then… her—her gem was cracked."
Garnet's eyes went wide beneath her visor when she heard those words.
"I—I… I'm worried about her, Garnet. Like really, really worried about her. Wh-What if she… what if she's…?"
"She won't be, Steven, I can promise you that." Garnet reassured him.
"She—She's hurt, Garnet. She's alone and she's scared an-and… she's in pain. She went to the Kindergarten again, but… I don't know if she's staying there or not."
"More than likely. Most Corrupted Gems always return to what they recognize as "home", if that's still possible, or the place that means the most of them. It's the only real semblance they still have of their past life, prior to being Corrupted. It grounds them, it stabilizes them, at least until they're put in a bubble. The Beta Kindergarten isn't Jasper's home,but it's her birthplace, so that's the closest thing to "home" she has here on Earth. I can almost guarantee you that she's still going to be there."
Steven's expression finally lit up and stars entered his eyes. "Really? So… can we go there?"
"Not right now, Steven," Garnet said, smiling slightly. "It's almost three o'clock in the morning."
"Oh, right. Well, I—I guess I'd better get some sleep so my healing powers are working at full capacity in the morning!"
He hardly hesitated to run back up to his loft, crawling back into his bed and closing his eyes, immediately trying to return to his slumber. Garnet looked on in silent amusement, chuckling softly, before walking away and activating the Temple Door, disappearing into her respective room. Before she departed, however, she spoke up in Steven's direction, her voice barely over a whisper in the silence of the night, "Good night, Steven. I love you."