Spoilers for Beta and Earth... y'know what? I think you guys get it by now.
Jasper was on her knees, palms against the ground.
Everything around her was pitch black: the walls, the sky, the floor, everything. It made her feel blind.
The only thing that proved to her that she wasn't was a figure standing in front of her, her pink form vivid and clear despite the darkness, as if she were standing on a completely different plane of existence. Her back was turned to Jasper, her thin arms crossed over her chest; an unseen, unheard wind oscillated her thick, soft bush of hot pink hair.
A barely audible moan escaped Jasper's lips as she tilted her head up, her single eye narrowed to a yellow slit. That is, until her gaze fell upon the figure.
Jasper stifled a gasp and her eye went wide. "M-My Diamond?"
Pink Diamond said nothing in response nor did she move to acknowledge Jasper's presence, but the Quartz would recognize her Diamond any day.
Jasper let out a grunt of exertion as she pushed herself onto her feet, staggering briefly, but not falling this time. She hardly noted the fact as she immediately broke into an eager run, her feet making heavy, audible stomps against the invisible ground with every step. Jasper was a Gem that could keep her composure effortlessly, regardless of the situation, but she hadn't seen Pink Diamond ever since… the Great Gem War, over six thousand years ago. Tears of joy brimmed in her eye. Excitement and happiness, for the first time in millennia, overwhelmed her.
"My Diamond!" she called out. She repeated the two words when Pink remained quiet and still, and Jasper began to slow to a patient stride before she stopped altogether within arm's length of the Gem. Pink only stood a head taller than Jasper; that was tall for the average Gem, but abnormally short for a Diamond.
"My… Diamond?" Jasper said, her voice low. She stepped forward and reached out a shaking hand towards her. "P-Pink…?"
The second her muscular red hand touched Pink's thin shoulder, she immediately recoiled and grimaced as she held her clenched hand against her chest. Pink's form was as cold as ice, so cold it almost burned to the touch.
Jasper caressed her fingers, their tips cool even from a second of contact with Pink's freezing skin. She glanced back up at Pink, an unsure look in her eye, and tried to the best of her ability to shrug off the strange occurrence. She spoke up, continuing to try and fail to grab Pink Diamond's attention, before finally opting to step around in front of her. The moment she did so, Jasper quickly realized why Pink wasn't answering her.
It took a lot to scare, or even surprise a Gem like Jasper, but she let out a horrified gasp and threw both hands to her mouth, stepping back a couple of steps.
Pink Diamond's face was gone. No eyes, no nose, no mouth, just a featureless blank slate in their place. The exposed gemstone on her belly was there, but a deep, jagged web of cracks traced it from one edge to the other. Pulsating cracks of glowing white light started at the edges of her gem and extended out across her stomach with a pattern reminiscent of shattered glass.
"Pink Diamond…" Jasper whispered under her breath.
As she stood there, trying to recover from the shock, the winds began picking up, beginning to howl deafeningly in her ears and violently tousling her waist-length blonde hair.
It hardly fazed Jasper… until Pink's physical form began faltering and glitching out right before her eyes, the glowing cracks visibly worsening by the second.
"Pink!" Jasper cried out. "No… n-not again!"
Her cries went unheard as the wind picked up to near tornadic levels; the only thing that kept Jasper on her two feet was her weight.
Then, Pink Diamond's form began to fall apart in the violent winds. It started at her feet and slowly moved up, entire sections of her body being blown into fine streams of pink dust that sparkled in the darkness like glitter, flowing and twisting through the air as the wind carried it away. Jasper felt hot tears beginning to burn in her eye and, within seconds, they began to spill down her face as she outstretched her arm, stepping towards Pink's dissipating body.
"Pink! Pink Diamond!" she cried out. "No! You can't do this! You can't leave me again!"
Her screams of anguish went unheard and ignored in the darkness, by both Pink Diamond and fate itself. Before long, her illusion was little more than the sparkling pink dust, being carried by the wind as simply as sand being blown from the shore at the beach. Jasper collapsed helplessly to her knees, digging her clawed hands into the ground beneath her as she began sobbing deeply under her breath. The dust transforming into a cloud of pink rose petals went unnoticed.
"Please…" Jasper choked out. "don't leave me…"
She trailed off, beginning to sob openly, covering her face with her hands as she crouched there. There was nobody else here, it wasn't like she would risk humiliating herself.
"Jasper?"
Jasper let out a soft, trembling gasp. Her eye went wide and round, and her pupil shrank to a pinprick.
She would recognize that voice anywhere.
"You don't have to continue suffering under their tyranny," Rose Quartz began. "you can make a new life for yourself. You can be free, here on planet Earth."
Jasper didn't even take a moment to consider Rose's offer. She summoned her crash helmet and was on her feet in an instant.
"You…" Jasper cast a hostile glance over her shoulder towards Rose, wishing the sheer rage in her eye would shatter her on the spot. "you… traitor!" Jasper punctuated her enraged scream, whipping around to face where Rose Quartz stood, motionless and, for the time, silent much like Pink had been. Her facial features were hidden by the shadows cast by her glossy pink bangs, only her mouth, lips pressed into a thin, neutral line, was visible.
"How can you say such a thing?" Jasper began as she started towards Rose. "How can you even think about trying to convince me to join your little rebellion?!"
Rose Quartz stood her ground as Jasper stomped towards her, the banded soldier's weapon at the ready as she seethed with murderous rage.
"Those… Crystal Gems, those rejects! They mean nothing to me, Rose! Not now, and not in a million years!" Jasper's lips stretched into a thin, psychotic smirk. "But you, heh… you mean everything to me, Rose Quartz. I respect your skills, I respect your tactics! But you're nothing short of a savage who needs to be purged from this universe after what you did to my Diamond! Your Diamond!" Jasper's fists clenched into tight fists at her side and her smirk disappeared. She felt tears burning in her eye, but she blinked them away. "Pink Diamond!"
Blinded by manic grief, Jasper lunged forward with an enraged scream, aiming her crash helmet straight at Rose's gemstone, intending to shatter it into a million pieces.
Rose Quartz didn't summon her shield. She didn't hold up her sword or even flinch as Jasper dove at her. At the last possible second, Rose Quartz had moved behind Jasper, her form little more than a pink streak in the darkness. She moved at impossibly fast speeds that Jasper hardly had a chance to react to. Her helmet bashed through little more than empty air and nearly sent her falling onto her face. The only thing that kept her from doing so was Rose grabbing her hair from behind and jerking her back.
She let out a startled cry as Rose dug her plump fingers deep into Jasper's thick, tangled mane and wrenched her backwards onto her feet, effectively immobilizing her.
Jasper fought to free herself from Rose's grasp, cursing the pink-haired Quartz, but froze abruptly when a sharp blade was shoved through her, going in through her upper back and exiting out through her chest, truncating the yellow insignia on her uniform vertically through the middle. Her furious protests went cut off as a weak, strangled cry was ripped from her throat, an intense burn exploding into her chest. She felt her form struggling to stabilize itself around Rose's blade.
Regardless, Jasper twisted her head to look Rose in the eye, but when she looked over her shoulder, she didn't see Rose Quartz.
She saw the tiny form of Rose's host, a young human boy that designated himself Steven Universe.
His teeth were gritted in a furious frown. His eyes were missing and in their place was a blinding pink glow that emitted from his empty sockets.
That was the last thing Jasper saw before she retreated into her gem.
Jasper let out a choked, horrified gasp as her eye snapped open wide and she jerked upright. She grunted when her head hit the glassy ceiling of the dark, narrow hollow at the very back of her exit hole. She groaned as she caressed what was probably a bruise forming and went to stand up. Within seconds, her knees buckled and she collapsed hard to the hole's floor. For a long time, she just laid there, face-down against it.
When she got up again, she shifted around and situated herself in a sitting position against the exit hole's wall, waiting for her vision to adjust to the darkness.
It was eerily quiet and, for the first time, it actually had Jasper on edge. She was beginning to regret her decision from earlier that day.
That girl, she was just a human, a short-lived Earth-born organism and little more than a wild animal or livestock in the eyes of Homeworld and, likewise, in the eyes of Jasper. Her words, her thoughts, and her opinion meant absolutely nothing to Jasper; the human girl could've gone on all day about how she was a savage brute that deserves to suffer and Jasper couldn't have to cared less. But when her Corrupted, broken mind suddenly transformed the human into the image of Pink Diamond, Jasper's idol and beloved leader, the words suddenly became a whole lot harder to swallow.
She could barely walk on her own two feet, but she couldn't bring herself to stick around either. Seeing Pink chastise her and insult her to her face, even if she knew deep down that the illusion wasn't real, was just too much for the Quartz soldier to handle, even after five long millennia. So she ran. Well, to the best of her ability, anyway, and returned to her old exit hole, the closest thing to home that she knew on this… rock.
Jasper sighed, closing her eyes as she tilted her head back, facing the ceiling.
She flinched and let out a pained sound when pain suddenly shot through her hand, the one that was no longer a gnarled claw thanks to the boy's healing powers.
She grabbed her wrist as she held her hand up. Jasper looked at it for a couple of seconds before she began to shake, feeling anxiety building within her chest.
Her hand was slowly, painfullyin the process of twisting and reshaping itself into an animalistic claw. It felt stiff and the slightest attempts at bending her sharpening fingers sent a sharp wave of pain through her entire appendage, radiating all the way up into her shoulder and the side of her neck, making her grimace until it subsided into a dull throb. Her chest rose and fall rapidly as she began to hyperventilate, putting her hand down again and putting the opposite one against her chest, completely covering the diamond insignia there.
She was better than this. She was strong! She wasn't going to let fear overwhelm her, fear was weakness, and soldiers didn't have time for weakness.
A scream of agony was ripped from Jasper's throat as pain exploded into her back, up and down its length, concentrated into small, individual locations. It felt like being run through on a sword as she was suddenly pushed from the wall and fell onto her chest. Both arms outstretched in front of her, her now fully Corrupted hand was in clear view, right there in front of her. Massive, dark green spikes pushed themselves from beneath tough flesh of Jasper's back and protruded from her thick blonde hair, sticking up in every direction.
She felt tears, ones of pain and of sheer terror, forming in her eyes when she realized what was happening.
Her form was reverting back to its fully Corrupted state. The thought of her mind being imprisoned within the body of a wild, mindless animal that she, nor anyone else, could control scared Jasper to the core. Jasper never thought she'd find herself in this desperate a situation, but she wished Rose… Steven… whatever it was, was here with her again, ready to go to the ends of the Earth to save her from this literal Hell. Because now, she was going to let him do whatever he needed to do, anything to keep from Corrupting again… only when there was no longer anyone out there to save her.
It wouldn't be long now.
The Crystal Temple's Warp Pad activated, catching the attention of Garnet, Amethyst, and Pearl where the three of them waited anxiously in the living room.
They turned to look at the Warp Pad. The glowing blue warp-stream disappeared and revealed Steven and Connie standing upon its crystalline surface, both of them staring silently at the floor.
Connie was grabbing her arm, horrible bruises visibly covering it despite her dark skin. Her long black hair was dirty and completely disheveled and her body was covered with several more bruises and smaller, much more insignificant cuts and abrasions.
Steven fared no better, if not, he looked worse. The front of his shirt and his sleeve was completely torn away. He had an arm crossed over his torso, hiding several freshly bleeding lacerations of varying size and severity criss-crossing his stomach and chest. His left arm, hanging limply at his side, had two long, deep slices that ran his arm's length, parallel to each other. Fresh blood stains clung to the remnants of his sleeve and the fingers of his right hand; gradually drying blood caked the skin surrounding the gruesome injuries.
The boy appeared to be swaying slightly as if he was about to pass out and, judging by Connie's posture and expression, she was in excruciating pain that she tried and failed to hide.
All five of them were silent for a long time. Amethyst stared at the kids with wide, shocked indigo eyes and Garnet sprang to her feet in an instant, stepping forward to approach them. Pearl was faster, however, recovering from her shock and sprinting towards the kids, screaming out their names in horror. The first thing she did was spring forward and grab them both in a firm embrace, tears streaming from her eyes, her voice shaking as she desperately asked them if they were okay. She got her answer when the kids let out collective cries of pain and Pearl quickly recoiled, covering her mouth with both hands as she stared down at them, a scared look in her eyes.
"Oh! I—I'm sorry!" she quickly apologized.
She hardly noticed as Garnet stepped up beside her. "Steven, Connie, what happened? Who did this to you?"
The kids exchanged unsure glances and, before they had a chance to say anything, Pearl had summoned her spear, holding it at the ready, an uncharacteristically cold look in her eyes.
"I swear, if that Quartz laid a hand on either of you…"
"No!" Connie interrupted hastily. "Don't blame her for this! It wasn't her fault!"
"Actually… we—we didn't even find Jasper!" Steven added.
"Wh…" Connie quickly silenced herself once she realized what Steven was trying to do. Luckily, the Gems didn't seem to notice her slip-up.
"Hm." was all Garnet said as she adjusted her visor, waiting for the kids to continue.
"We… had a run-in with a couple of Corrupted Gems that we missed the last time we were there." Steven began.
"We bubbled them away," Connie continued. "but… not before they dealt some significant damage." She winced as she lifted her broken arm, as much as she could, as an example. "I think it might be broken." she added softly to herself. The Gems exchanged concerned glances amongst themselves and looked back at the kids as Connie spoke up again, casting a glance out the window at the sky, turning a dark blue as night fell.
"It's getting late. I should really be getting home, my parents are probably wondering where I…"
"Oh, no, you're not!" Pearl shouted as she dissipated her weapon. "Neither of you are going anywhere until your injuries have been patched up!"
"Pearl?" Steven chimed in.
"Oh, um… yes, Steven?"
"Connie's mom is a doctor. Remember?" The boy smiled slightly in amusement at her.
"Oh." Pearl said. She looked away, her face tinted a shade of blue that matched her eyes. "Yes, of course. Carry on then."
The kids smiled at each other in silent amusement before Connie departed, quickly bidding a farewell to Steven and the rest of the Crystal Gems and running out the door. However, Steven had no such luck and was left alone to be an inevitable victim to the Gems', or more specifically, Pearl's version of human "first-aid". Once his injuries were doused with peroxide to disinfect them, considering the amount of dirt and dust he could've gotten into them back at Beta, Pearl got a bit carried away.
After she was finished, Steven was lying in his bed, flat on his back. He was wrapped in bandages from head to toe, only his two eyes visible from beneath them. He looked less like a half-human Crystal Gem warrior and more like a mummy laying there. He was helpless as he laid there, mostly immobilized. He could only stare up at the ceiling, a pleading look in his dark eyes for someone or something to free him from his cloth prison.
However, that became the least of his worries when he heard the Gems talking to each other downstairs.
"I don't understand. You should've seen them getting hurt like this!" That was Pearl's voice.
"It was one of the possible futures." Garnet said in her normal stoic tone of voice. "In fact, it was possible since the very first day we took Steven out on a mission. Him getting hurt out there will always be a possibility, Pearl, whether we're there or not."
"But it was still a possibility when they were out there alone!" Pearl retorted. "At least when we're there, we have the opportunity to get him out of harm's way! But what if he was knocked out? What if both of them were and they were left at the mercy of those—those monsters?! What if they died, Garnet? What then?!" Pearl was screaming at Garnet now, a rare occurrence when in a conversation between the pale Gem and the red Fusion.
Steven heard Garnet make a barely audible "Shh." sound. He could picture her putting a finger to her lips until Pearl fell silent again.
"You can't protect him forever, Pearl." Garnet said calmly.
Steven heard a soft whimper come from the skinny Gem. She was crying now.
"But I—I ca…" she trailed off momentarily. "I can't lose him, Garnet. I just… can't."
"I know."
About a minute later, Garnet had departed into her room, but Pearl hadn't. Steven saw her coming up to the loft out the corner of his eye and he quickly closed his eyes, pretending to be asleep.
He heard Pearl's light footsteps stop relatively close to him. He heard her sniff and choke back sobs several times and she didn't seem to do much else.
Steven sighed inwardly. Just when he thought Pearl had gotten past watching him sleep every night…
It wasn't long before his consciousness gave way to slumber and, when he opened his eyes, for the first time, his dreams weren't plagued by Jasper.
Soft, serene music seemed to play in the background as Steven opened his eyes to a cloudy place with a pink haze hanging over everything. It was very reminiscent of Rose Quartz's room in the Temple.
Red rose petals glided past on the cool breeze, and he seemed to be alone there.
For the first time in weeks, his dream was actually… good.
Steven was surprised, turning all the way around, looking up and looking down in search of something that broke the relaxing nature of his surroundings. He'd fallen asleep with such a hurricane of emotions that he could've almost guaranteed he was going to have another nightmare. After listening to Pearl's complete break-down when he was injured while out on a mission, to losing Jasper to the Quartz's own stubborn nature… again.
Then, in the distance, he saw it.
It was a figure approaching him from the distance, looking like a large silhouette. Once it got a little closer, he was able to make out features.
"M-Mom?" Steven squeaked out. No, there had to be some sort of catch. Maybe it was that monstrous version of his mom from Jasper's mind?
But then, he got a response. It was that silky voice that he knew so well, like the voice of an angel. Even when she only called out one word: his name.
Tears of happiness began to spill from Steven's eyes. He started walking towards her, before breaking into a sprint. "Mom!"
He rushed towards her, arms outstretched, ready to give her a hug. It may've been just a fabrication of his own subconscious, but he was going to enjoy it while it lasted.
And it didn't last long.
Once he was halfway to the towering Gem, she disappeared in an explosion of pink smoke. Steven's eyes went wide with horror and he thoughtlessly dove forward, falling onto his chest and sliding across the ground. Rose's glittering pink gemstone landed harmlessly in his palms. Tears, of increasing sadness this time, formed in his eyes as he stared down at her, his hands beginning to shake. His own tears dripped onto its sleek surface, doing nothing to reform her.
"Mom? M… Mom…?" He squeezed her gem in his grasp and cradled it to his chest, beginning to sob, until he heard something.
A heavy, raspy exhale of breath that wafted right into his face. He didn't have to look up to know who it was.
Steven began to shake as a mixture of grief and rage rapidly built up within him. "No… no! Just—Just go away! Get away from me! I—I never want to see you again!"
But Jasper didn't leave. She towered over the boy in silence, continuing to breathe heavily. Her Corrupted physical form was restored and she stood within arm's length for Steven to try and heal her again, but he didn't care. She had just poofed his mother away right before his eyes and he was becoming blinded with overwhelming rage and frustration. The tears spilled down his cheeks in salty torrents and he squeezed his eyes shut. He jumped up to his feet and Jasper let out a surprised grunt as Steven shoved her back.
"I said go away!" he shouted. He opened his eyes again, staring at Jasper with a look of hatred in his eyes. "Why do you always have to do this? Why do you always have to come back? Why do you have to come back and ruin everything for me?! I get it now, you don't want my help! I've tried and tried with you, Jasper! I really have, but… I just can't win with you! Nobody can! So, I give up! Okay? That's what you want, isn't it?!"
Steven winced in concern at Jasper's reaction. She didn't growl, she didn't attack, she didn't do anything. She only hung her head, letting a low growl rumble in her throat. But it didn't sound like a growl of hostility, it sounded like a growl of… defeat, if that was even possible. But various forms of growls and roars were the only real sound Jasper could make in this form, she had no other choice. Steven's mind briefly debated on whether or not she was trying to trick him, but he finally gave in with a sigh. He couldn't help but feel bad for her.
"Are… are you sure, Jasper? This isn't some kind of a trick, is it?"
The Corrupted Quartz didn't react for ten seconds. With a sigh, Steven licked his palm and held it up in front of Jasper.
"Here. Knock yourself out." he said listlessly. With a grunting sound, Jasper perked up and stared blindly at Steven's palm for a long time before she pressed her gemstone to it. As her Corrupted form was shrouded in light, Steven noticed she was making a strange repetitive sound that trailed off as she began to reform. Once she took her humanoid form again, Steven realized that it was her Corrupted form's closest thing to a low chuckle.
"Jasper, what's…?"
"Heh-heh… I guess you really aren't her… are you?"
Steven did a double take at those words. "Wha… What?"
"Rose Quartz would have never gone this far. She would've given up… a long time ago." Jasper rasped. She chuckled bitterly, but her smirk vanished as quickly as it appeared when she spoke up again, "I know by experience."
"What?! N-No, the Crystal Gems never give up on anything!" Steven retorted.
"That's what you think. That's what those traitors have brainwashed you to believe." Jasper began. "Rose Quartz doesn't give second chances. Or third chances, or fourth chances. But you… you do. I realize now that I have underestimated you. I respect your determination, your charisma, but most of all, I respect your abilities. And that's why I'm here, I…" She let out a sigh of exasperation and muttered something under her breath. "I'm… reaching out to you. I need your help."
"What…?"
"I… I… I can't take this anymore!" Steven flinched when she suddenly started screaming, grabbing and pulling at her blonde hair, squeezing her eye shut. "I'm doing nothing but suffering. Over and over again, every second of every day! I didn't think so much of it at first, I thought I would finally have some semblance of freedom, even stuck here on Earth, but then… you reminded me of what it was like to be conscious! To be in my right mind! To be… me again! And I want that back!" Steven let out a yelp when she reached forward and grabbed his hand in her two, falling to her knees. "Please! I'm begging you! I—I can't live like this, like—like a wild animal anymore! Just… just let me be… myself again!"
She pushed her face against their hands, crying softly. Steven couldn't tell if she was faking it or not.
"But I… can't heal you, Jasper." Steven admitted.
"What?! Wh-Why not?! You've already done it three times now! What do you mean you can't?!"
"...Every time I heal you, Jasper, you just go right back to being Corrupted!"Steven explained. "It—It's not just you either. There was another Corrupted Gem that I tried to heal, a long time ago. I healed her Corruption… sort of, but then she went right back to square one! I can heal a Gem's Corruption all day long, Jasper, but I'll never be able to do it permanently." Tears began to form in his eyes again as he looked down at hers. Her eye was wide and pleading as she looked up at him. She was desperate, but all Steven could say was, "I… I'm sorry."
Jasper released Steven and threw her hands to the ground, beginning to breathe heavily again.
"No… no, there—there has to be some way." she choked out. "I can't stay like this forever as one of these… these things! Just another Gem tainted by this planet!It's an embarrassment to Homeworld! It's an embarrassment to the Diamonds! It's an embarrassment to everything I stand for!" She punctuated the examples on her list with three swift punches to the ground.
"If there was a way to heal you permanently, then I'd do it, Jasper!" Steven said. He reached down and took one of her hands in his own again, forcing a sad smile down at her. "Whether you want to believe it or not, I—I care about you, and I'd do anything to help you and to protect you if I could, but, I just… I can't." His smile faded, but Jasper flashed one at him instead. It had a sadistic, bitter edge to it, but it was sincere.
"Then… you really are better than Rose." Jasper echoed. Steven shivered at her words.
"You can't heal me, and you won't bubble me… then why don't you just—just… shatter me?"
"Wh-What?!"
"Shatter me! Do it and get it over with!"
"I… n-no! I won't do that, Jasper! I know you're suffering but being destroyed forever isn't the answer!" Steven retorted, becoming increasingly frustrated.
"Oh, don't tell me," Jasper snapped. "because it's 'not right'?" She added the last two words in a high-pitched, half-hearted imitation of Steven's voice, rolling her eye and making corresponding gestures with both of her hands.
"Ye… uh, no! No! Because nobody deserves that kind of fate, Jasper!"
"But which fate is worse?!" Jasper shouted. "Being Corrupted and suffering for eternity? Or being in pieces?!"
"I—I…" Steven racked his brain for answers, but found none. "Ugh… I won't shatter you, Jasper! But… I'll figure out something else, I promise!"
He didn't even wait for an answer. He turned on his heels and began walking in the opposite direction, even as Jasper called after him.
"No! No...! D-Don't you walk away from me!" Jasper shouted.
Steven paused momentarily, but sighed and continued on into the pink-hued distance, shaking his head solemnly. He still heard Jasper's cries as the world began to swirl away. "Nooo…! Come back
here! C-Come back… and finish this…!"
For the first time in weeks, Steven woke up calmly. He didn't scream, he didn't inhale sharply, and he wasn't unpleasantly thrown back into the waking world. He fluttered his eyes open to find his surroundings shrouded in darkness, his legs still tied together with cloth bandaging and his arms still bonded firmly at his sides. He writhed half-heartedly for a few minutes before giving up altogether. Jasper's words still echoed in Steven's mind, as per usual. But, this time, the memories sent chills down his spine and he felt goosebumps forming on his arms.
She told him to shatter her, destroy her forever. That was the closest thing a Gem got to dying.
But… why would Jasper want to die? Was her suffering so bad that she preferred being destroyed to living the rest of her life that way?
Steven thought back to when he entered Jasper's Corrupted mind and witnessed her suffering for himself. Twice. But for her, that was life now and she had no escape from it. Steven winced in a mixture of sadness and disgust as the realization caved in on him.
He had no intent of actually going through with it, but he played with the thought. If he found himself in a situation where shattering, killing another Gem was all but necessary, could he even bring himself to go through with it? He didn't know if he'd ever be able to forgive himself or if he'd ever able to live with himself knowing that a living, breathing Gem died by his hand. Their shards would be on his hands for the rest of his life.
No, there had to be some other way. There just had to be.
Healing her every day for the rest of his life would get tedious, even if it meant keeping Jasper's half-Corrupted physical form stabilized. But what would happen if something happened to him or he just wasn't around? She would outlive him in the end anyway, all of the Gems would. Doing that was completely out of the question. "Taming" her Corrupted form was an option that was still on the table, much like Centi. He wasn't entirely comfortable with the idea of keeping a mentally broken extraterrestrial war veteran around as a pet, though. On top of that, he still wasn't really… healing her.
He wondered if Centipeetle continued to suffer mentally, tamed or not.
Then, Steven tried to think back to the Centipeetle Mother and when he tried to heal her Corruption. She seemed fine at first, if a little amnesiac… until he got her "talking" about how she became the way she was when the Corruption Song was set off over the Earth. She was seemed okay… then she started coughing acid and reverting back to her original form when she began recalling her old memories: losing track of her crew, the Song and the flash in the sky, and the rest was history apparently.
But her transformation was just so… sudden.
Jasper was a little different, Steven could heal her much further than Centipeetle was. When Jasper was healed, she retained her speech again, if a bit deeper and raspier than normal, while Centi still only "spoke" through chirps and squeaks. That, and her Corruption always reverted much slower. One second, she was relatively okay, the next, she was slowly turning Corrupted again. Not to mention his healing powers didn't work as long on her. Or so it seemed. Perhaps her blatant hostility towards Steven, Connie, and the Crystal Gems played a part in it too. She was always in the middle of yelling at him and freaking out when the Corruption came on again
Was that a factor in how quickly a Gem's Corruption reverted? Centipeetle had been doing fine… until she started crying because she was remembering, reliving her old, still troublesome memories. When she began to panic as she rapidly lost her humanoid form again, the Corruption began to spread much faster.
But what if that hadn't happened? If Steven had decided to take her out to Beach City or something first, would her healed form have lasted longer?
If Jasper wasn't so driven by hatred and bitterness, would hers last longer too?
That was it! He knew how to heal her! Steven wriggled in his cocoon for a moment until he flipped off of the bed and landed with a thud on the floor of the loft. He needed to go back to the Beta Kindergarten, and soon before the Sun came up or the Gems caught onto his plans… if Garnet hadn't already. That is, if he could get free of his bandaged prison first.
It was a strenuous task, but Steven eventually managed to free his good arm enough to tear apart the bandages and pull them away. He used their remnants to wrap up his wounded, still mildly bleeding arm and wrapped a few layers around his battered torso before he headed out again. He would've felt more confident in his actions if he had Rose Quartz's sword with him, but Connie had taken it home with her tonight. He could've asked her to leave it behind, but, not only did she need to get home as soon as possible and have mother dress her wounds, he hadn't planned on heading back out to Kindergarten tonight.
Especially not with his still fresh injuries and the possibility of there still being leftover Corruptions out there with ferocity to rival that of the Carnelian.
If things went his way, which, as it seemed to turn out lately, they didn't, then he wouldn't have to fight at all.
Steven adjusted the wrappings on his arm before stepping onto the Warp Pad. He looked around cautiously, making sure the Gems were nowhere in sight, and he closed his eyes. He pictured the Beta Kindergarten in his mind, the images of sandstone walls that stretched into the starry night sky, the deformed holes scattered across their surfaces reflected into the darkness of his closed eyes. He imagined the sights, as well as the sounds, wind howling softly through the canyon, and the sensations, the warm air swirling around his body, the grains of sand carried by the wind and stinging his skin like millions of tiny needles.
Lifting both arms and outstretching them at his sides, the warp-stream flashed to life and carried Steven away into Warp Space, transferring him to his location of choice.
When his eyes opened again, the illusion of the Beta Kindergarten around him became a reality as he was dropped out of Warp Space again five seconds later.
The sky was still dark and starry, but no longer tainted by the light pollution that carried over from Beach City. It was just like he had imagined it, the warm air still and silent in the darkness, the wind blowing through the canyon intermittently. He scanned his surroundings for a moment. At first glance, he was completely alone there, and he looked at his feet, sighing softly. He tried not to think about what might happen if he encountered something like that Carnelian again. He probably wouldn't have made it out at all if Connie hadn't been there.
He clenched his fists at his sides and tried to put the thoughts to the back of his mind and focus on his primary objective. He was going to find Jasper's exit hole and search for her there. If she wasn't there, he would search the Kindergarten until he found her. And there, he would put his theory to the test and possibly, hopefully save Jasper from her shattered mind once and for all. This was his final option, he couldn't really think of anything else. And, if this didn't work, then he didn't know what he'd have to do with her. Maybe poof and bubble her away again; that was all he'd have left to do anymore.
Steven inwardly kicked himself for dwelling on the worst-case scenario. He could save her, he would save her if he put his mind to it.
He couldn't just give up on her, not now. Because the Crystal Gems never give up on anything.
Steven departed from the Warp Pad and made his way to Jasper's hole. At this point, he had practically memorized his way from the Beta Warp Pad to the glass-lined Quartz exit hole in the middle of the Kindergarten, even in the pitch darkness of the night. He didn't look at the towering walls of sandstone or the shapeless and vaguely humanoid shapes etched deeply within them. He cleared his mind, staring silently at the ground as it passed by beneath his feet. He didn't look up once he reached it. Somehow, he just sensed that the hole was there.
He turned to face it where it lied in wait, carved deep into the sandstone. The moonlight glinted off of the glass as if it were crystal.
Steven moved forward and prepared to climb up to the hole, but, just for a second, he stopped himself. He wondered if he was really going to do this or not. He was alone, the Gems had no idea he was up and about and Connie was, not only injured, but at her home, asleep more than likely. He was alone here with a Homeworld-affiliated Quartz soldier that wanted nothing to do with him; he couldn't guarantee that she was being truthful when he saw her in his dreams. What if she was just manipulating him? Trying to trick the boy straight into a trap where she would shatter or rip out his gemstone as revenge for what happened to Pink Diamond?
Steven's fingers clenched, his nails digging into the sandstone floor of one of the lesser Quartz holes. He'd always been so optimistic and well-intentioned… but how did he know his optimism and good intentions wasn't blinding him to what was really there? A savage, animalistic brute that wanted nothing more than to shatter him and the rest of the Crystal Gems too? He refused to shatter her when she requested it, but would she show him that mercy? Would she show that same mercy to Garnet? Amethyst? Pearl? No, of course not.
The boy closed his eyes and bit his tongue, letting out a heavy sigh as he stood there, latching onto the edge of one of the holes and preparing to pull himself up. He hesitated for a long time, until he finally came to a decision, speaking up half to himself, his voice barely over a whisper, "Don't make me regret this, Jasper." Then, he pulled himself up and climbed into Jasper's hole. He stood at his full height within it, but he still looked miniscule in comparison.
He listened hard for any telltale signs that Jasper was somewhere deeper in the cave, like her raspy breathing reverberating off of the glass walls or some other sound. Then, suddenly, a voice called out and caught him completely off-guard.
"Hey! Get out of my hole or I'll come up there and tear you to shreds!" a raspy, but feminine voice shouted at him.
Steven tensed up hard with a soft whimper and cautiously turned to face the owner of the voice. "J-Jasper?" But when his gaze fell upon the culprit, he quickly realized that that wasn't the case. She looked like Jasper, with her well-built, shapely form, intense glare, and the distinct bandings that streaked her arms and face. But, at the same time, she looked different: the insignia on her chest was white instead of yellow and she had a purple, hexagonal-faceted gemstone visible just over the edge of her collar that sparkled in moonlight. Steven gave the Quartz a skeptical look and she grinned up at him in response.
"Amethyst?" Steven couldn't help but wince a little when she returned to her short, stocky physical form and began laughing in her normal tone of voice.
"Haha! Priceless! Y-You should've seen your face!"
But Steven didn't think it was all that funny, grimacing at her, feeling a little hurt. "It's not funny, Amethyst!"
The purple Gem suddenly trailed off when Steven shouted at her, and she fell silent altogether when she saw him looking away, a hurt look in his eyes, tears glinting in them.
"Hey!" she said, leaping up and landing at the edge of the hole alongside him. Steven turned away from her, crossing his arms, much to Amethyst's dismay. "It was… just a joke, y'know."
"Well, not a very funny one." Steven said bitterly.
"I-I don't get it. Why have you been so… uptight lately?" Amethyst asked, beginning to sound frustrated herself. "You used to be fun,what happened? We don't need another Pearl, y'know, one is more than enough." Again, Amethyst's remarks and jokes fell flat on the hybrid boy.
"I'm not being 'uptight'!" Steven snapped, suddenly turning to face her. "It—It's just… ugh. What am I saying? Do you even care, Amethyst?!"
"What?!"
"Do you even care?! About Jasper, about why I'm here! Do you… do you even care about me?!"
"Hey, hey, slow down there, Steven! Of course I care about you!" Amethyst cut him off before he could rant further. "What made you think that I didn't? Is it something, ugh… Jasper told you?"
"No! And quit blaming everything on her!" Steven shouted. "Just because she's a bad Gem doesn't mean everything's her fault!"
Amethyst crossed her arms over her gem, looking away and smirking ever so slightly. "Well…"
Steven scoffed in disgust and turned from her again. "Why are you even here? If you're just here to crack jokes, then you can go back home! I can deal with this on my own."
"Well, excuse me for trying to lighten the mood a little!" Amethyst snapped. "Jeez, I'm just trying to help."
"You're not, though. And you can't." Steven said, lowering his voice to a whisper. "I don't want your 'help', Amethyst. I—I just… I want… Jasper."
Amethyst gave him a weird look. "What? But… why?"
"Because, I want to help her, I want to help her so bad… but I can't. I keep trying, but it just… it feels like I'm getting nowhere!" Steven covered an eye with his hand and closed his other. "I—I figured it out now, I figured out why she keeps recorrupting. It's because she's so angry and hateful. Towards me, towards the Crystal Gems, towards this planet, towards… herself. I could heal her every day for the rest of my life, but she'd always just go right back to being Corrupted again."
"Eh. That's Jasper for you." Amethyst said, glancing away with a sly smirk.
"Ugh, Amethyst! Take this seriously!"
"Okay, okay, I'm sorry! But I don't know what else to say. That's just… Jasper for you, or any Homeworld soldier for that matter. Quartzes are stubborn, you can't change that."
"Trust me, I know." Steven said flatly. He then flashed a slight smirk at Amethyst who quickly returned it, but it disappeared as soon as it came. "Then… what do I do? She wants me to heal her, she told me! She's suffering and she's… she's so scared, Amethyst, an-and I don't know what to do about it anymore. I'm afraid we'll just end up bubbling her away again…"
"Well, a good place to start would be… doing what you do best." Amethyst suggested. "Talking to her. Just give her one of your Steven™ brand rousing speeches and then maybe she'll finallycrack!"
"Are you sure? I mean, I thought Quartzes were stubborn."
"They are." Amethyst said as she leapt from the hole and back onto the ground. "But do you have any better ideas? It might be worth a try."
Steven smiled slightly at her and turned to leave, but his face screwed up in confusion and he turned to look down at Amethyst again. "Hey, Amethyst!"
"Yeah?"
"…Why are you here?"
She shrugged. "Dunno. It's just my time in the spotlight, I guess."
Steven gave her an even weirder look. "What are you…?"
"We can talk about this later, Steven." Amethyst interrupted with a dismissive wave of her hand. "Right now, Jasper needs you."
Steven nodded once and turned to go, but stopped in his tracks again. "Uh… Amethyst?"
"Hm?"
He smiled sadly down at her. "Thanks."
She stopped in her tracks and turned to face him, her indigo eyes wide and her mouth neutral. She turned away again with a slight smile of her own. "No problem, man."
"Oh, an-and Amethyst? Could you… maybe… wait out here? I'd… feel better if I had a little back-up."
Amethyst hesitated for a moment, before shrugging and summoning her whip, lashing it against the ground. "Ah, well. I've got nothing better to do."
Steven smiled and thanked her one last time before finally starting his descent into the darkness of Jasper's exit hole. About halfway down, he paused and looked down at his gemstone. The wrapping of the bandages stopped just above it, revealing the bottom half of a diagonal laceration that skirted past the top edge of his gem. And again, he came dangerously close to losing his gemstone and whatever would become of him after that. He grabbed the rim of his gem and glided his fingers around its edge a few times.
"C'mon… light!" he commanded it. Again, it remained dark.
That is, until stomping sounds began to sound through the tunnel, accompanied by raspy let out a mixture of a terrified whimper and a strangled gasp as his gem flickered a bright pink a couple of times. Once it stopped flickering and emitted a brilliant beam of pink light, Steven could clearly see the massive shape of a Corrupted Quartz monster sliding through the narrow tunnels in his direction. She really hadreverted back to her Corrupted form… all except for one thing.
Her remaining eye, the only one that retained its form even when she was healed. It was squinted, but not out of malice. A closer examination revealed that the corners of her eyes had thin stretches of skin binding the edges of the lids together as if her eye was going melt shut. He didn't know which concept disgusted him more: the spikes bursting out from the depths of her eye sockets or her losing her eyes altogether and the spikes protruding from the blank skin in its place.
"Jasper…"
Jasper snarled softly in response and, to the boy's surprise, opened her mouth to say something, "Ste… ven…"
His eyes went wide in surprise as Jasper said his actual name for the first time. It sounded like the simple act of saying those two syllables was a painful, strenuous endeavour, but Steven couldn't help but smile up at her as stars entered his eyes. He put a hand to his chest as he spoke. "Yeah! That's right! Ste—Ven… well, Steven actually, but it's close enou…" He was cut off when a loud, deep growl of pain emitted from her throat and her legs faltered slightly.
"H-h… he… help… m—me…" She let out a scream of agony that was crossed with a monstrous roar.
Steven's smile fell and the stars disappeared. "Don't worry! I—I will, just… just be patient! I… actually wanted to talk to you."
"No…" Jasper choked out.
"No? Oh, right!"
Steven licked his palm and pressed it to Jasper's gem, but a second passed and she abruptly recoiled with shrill, pained growl, stumbling backwards. Despite her wolf-like appearance, she was a perfect fit in the hole and the walls didn't allow her to fall. Steven cried out as Jasper thrashed her clawed paws and raked them across the ground, growling and roaring in a pained frenzy. Finally, she fell, more or less, silent, crouching close to the floor and raking her claws through her mane.
"Jasper! Jasper, I-I'm sorry! I thought it would help!"
Jasper roared furiously at him. "L… Liar…"
"What? No! No, Jasper, don't do this! Please!"
With a growl, she lashed out at him, forcing him to duck with a startled cry. At this point, tears were welling up in his eyes again. Thanks to his small size, Steven had plenty of room for error in the hole as Jasper mindlessly attacked him. He finally stood up straight and held off Jasper's furiously snapping jaws with his shield, crouching on the ground and shielding his entire, balled up body with it as tears began streaming from his eyes again, blurring his visions.
"N-No… it—it can't end like this." Steven whimpered. He yelped as Jasper used her claws to break his shield in two, causing it to disappear. "It won't end like this!" He jumped back to avoid another attempted strike from her claws, before charging straight towards her. "Jasper!" She let out a questioning snarl as she watched him blindly, having since lost her single eye to her Corruption. She stepped back once as Steven rushed her.
He didn't have his healing spit at the ready. He didn't have his shield or Rose's sword. He had nothing… but himself.
"Here! I! Come!"
Before Jasper had a chance to dodge it, he sprang forward and latched onto her raised foreleg, pulling it close to him. Jasper struggled to pull her foreleg free of his grasp and furiously snarled and roared at him. Even as the claws on her opposite foot relentlessly tore at Steven's flesh, he didn't let go. In fact, he only squeezed her tighter. She didn't begin to relax a bit until she felt his streaming tears begin to drip onto her skin and roll futilely off the edge.
"You don't have to do this anymore, Jasper! You don't have to fight!" Steven cried. "I—I know what's happening now, Jasper. I know why I can't heal you."
Jasper grunted in confusion.
"You're so full of negativity. Grief because of what happened to your Diamond, fear because of your Corruption, but, most of all… hatred. Because of me, because of the Crystal Gems, but because of you too! You—You hate yourself, Jasper… but, don't worry, I—I can help you fix that!" He forced a sad smile as he closed his eyes, tears continuing to fall from them, still firmly hugging Jasper's leg. "You may act like a savage brute that doesn't care about anything and lives only to fight, but… but I know that's not true! You were happy once, you thought about something that wasn't endless fighting and war once!" He felt Jasper tense up and he finished with, "Back when you still served Pink Diamond."
He paused momentarily, waiting for a reaction from the Corrupted Gem. She said nothing, she did nothing, so he continued. "You were happyonce, Jasper! I know that, after five thousand years, it's probably really hard to remember but… you were. Can you remember back that far now, Jasper? When you were optimistic and content with your life and everything that happened around you! When you were happy with… yourself, with who you were!"
A few long seconds passed. Steven tried to jerk her leg away from Steven again and snarled softly at him, seeming to become fed up with his speech.
"Ah! J-Jasper, no! Please, just listen to me! Just let me…!"
Then, a new voice interrupted his desperate pleas. "It's been such a long time since you've felt that way, Jasper." Steven glanced over his shoulder as Amethyst cautiously approached. She hung her head, refusing to look anyone in the eye. "It was so long ago, since the last time you really felt... happy, that it's probably really hard to remember. It feels so foreign to you now, maybe a little scary even, that you choose to just... push that feeling away now instead of embracing it. After you lost Pink Diamond, you felt like... you felt like you've been in a downward spiral ever since. Being trapped in a toxic Fusion like Malachite, being beaten over and over again, being Corrupted... at this point, it probably seems like there's no possible way things could turn out better for you in the end. But, the truth is, you're not the only one who feels that way.
"We've all been there before, at one time or another in our lives. Back when I emerged from Prime after the Gem War, I was alone, because the other Amethysts had already gone back to Homeworld. I thought I was doomed to live there alone for the rest of eternity, with nothing but a bunch of rocks to keep me company. I thought my life was over ever since the day it started, but the thing is, it wasn't. As hopeless as everything seemed for a couple of centuries, it finally took a turn for the better when Rose showed up and found me there. As hopeless as things may seem, they can still get better in the end. You just have to give it that chance."
"And we can help you with that, Jasper." Steven added once Amethyst had trailed off. "Please, you don't have to hurt anymore. And if you do, then you can do with us! You can do it with your friends!"
Steven tilted his head up and forced a weak, but sincere smile up at the towering Corrupted Gem, waiting for something, anything to happen. For a long time, nothing did. She remained eerily quiet and still; they couldn't even hear the sounds of her breathing, which would've been concerning if she hadn't been a Gem that had no need to do so. Steven exchanged a nervous glance with Amethyst as the lavender Quartz hesitantly stepped beside him, staring up at Jasper and looking even more concerned for her than Steven did. Then, she glanced towards Steven and, after a moment of hesitation, lifted her hand towards him, her palm facing him. Steven could only look at her, tilting his head in slight confusion, before it finally clicked with him.
Amethyst grimaced in disgust as he leaned forward and licked her palm, shuddering softly before turning to face Jasper once more. Jasper responded by turning her head in Amethyst's direction with a grunt, letting a low snarl rumble in her throat, but Amethyst didn't allow it to dissuade her. She squeezed her indigo eyes shut and turned her head away, reaching up and pushing her palm against Jasper's gm, prompting a startled growl from the Corruption. Steven let out a small gasp as she began struggling again, squeezing her leg a bit tighter, waiting for his healing spit to take effect. But Jasper wasn't being quite as patient. She began struggling and growling again, trying in desperation to pull from Amethyst's touch, but the purple Gem wouldn't let her, keeping her hand pressed firmly to the gemstone.
"C'mon, sis," Amethyst said in a low voice that Steven barely heard. "just—just let us help you." He couldn't help but notice how downcast she was beginning to look as they both stared up at Jasper.
Tears began to form in Steven's eyes as he looked at Amethyst, opening his mouth to say something, but he was cut off when he fell straight through Jasper's leg as her form became engulfed in a brilliant white light. When he fell, the light from his gemstone abruptly went out, but as Jasper changed her form, he didn't need it anymore. Steven and Amethyst both had stars in their eyes, the latter looking on in shock as if she were genuinely surprised that their attempt had worked, while Steven looked on eagerly as the light faded away again.
Jasper sat on her knees, her eye closed for a long time.
Once he got onto his feet again, Steven hesitantly stepped towards the Quartz, holding out a slightly trembling hand toward her. "H-Hey… Jasper?"
Her eye snapped open abruptly, seemingly glowing in the darkness. In the same instant, her gaze travelled from the overcooked Amethyst to the half-Gem boy, before she reached forward and grabbed onto Steven, pulling him towards her and prompting a startled shout from him.
"Steven!" Amethyst cried out. Her gemstone glowed as she grabbed the hilt of her whip, preparing to summon it, but the light faded when she realized something. Her whip, in the middle of summoning, disappeared and she activated the flashlight from her gem to confirm what she had seen, the lavender glow beaming onto Jasper and Steven. She couldn't help but smile as she looked at them.
Jasper's huge arms were wrapped tightly around Steven's much smaller form, hugging him close to her chest. Her head was lowered, her single eye closed. She wasn't smiling, but she wasn't really frowning either. Steven looked around, his eyes wide and round, stunned by her sudden uncharacteristic action. He looked up at her, then smiled and pulled his arms free of her grasp, eagerly returning her embrace. Well, to the best of his ability anyway. He jumped slightly when he felt something else and looked down to find Amethyst joining in the hug. Jasper either didn't notice or just didn't mind or care one way or another.
Steven closed his eyes and returned to hugging the half-Corrupted Quartz.
In the midst of the Gems' group hug, Jasper opened her mouth and speak softly, whispering into Steven's ear two short, simple words. They meant a lot to him nevertheless.
"Thank you."
Whoo! And that concludes chapter six! And yes, from here on out Jasper will stay uncorrupted... sort of, but explaining what I mean would be too spoilery. I really hope I got Amethyst's characterization right... or at least close; she's always been the one I struggle to write the most. That's why she seldom ever appears or has any lines in this story. On the subject of characterization, no, Jasper isn't going to suddenly turn into a sappy, blubbering idiot once she's officially redeemed.
I was thinking, if she ever becomes redeemed in canon, she'd be an anti-hero more than anything else. Unlike the rest of the Crystal Gems, she'll prefer shattering gems over poofing and bubbling them away, and will still retain several of the Homeworld ideologies beat into her head by Yellow Diamond. For example, she'll have a love/hate relationship with Amethyst and Pearl and will... tolerate Garnet. At best. Steven is her moral compass and keeps her and the Gems from killing each other half the time. Don't worry though, I've got the whole arc planned out in which she improves her relationships with the Crystal Gems, Peridot, and, yes, even Lapis Lazuli.
I think I'll have the most fun with the latter. That is all. XD