The pieces came together one by one until finally the last piece slid into place and she was whole again. The glow of her own satisfaction illuminated PB's gem from the inside and reached outward, her light following the imperative to take form. Solid ground rose up to meet her feet and her form, too, solidified in Jasper's trophy room, mere feet from where Jasper had plunged a blade through her gut. It looked the same, as if only a few moments had passed. Maybe a couple minutes at the most. Even Jasper herself still stood nearby, head pressed against a wall.

PB went cold when she saw her gem. She still had no clue what she had done to provoke the quartz soldier and now that she was reformed she found herself trembling in fear at the prospect of facing Jasper. A good two meters separated the two gems and PB hoped that would be enough space to protect her.

"J-Jasper?"

Jasper turned slowly at the sound of her voice and it was immediately apparent from the look on her face that PB had been absent for far, far longer than a few minutes. There was a moment of strange silence between them as Jasper took in her presence in disbelief. Then she straightened and PB shrank back.

"I'm sorry, my Jasper," she said meekly. Jasper pulled back at her apology, her eyes full of what PB could only describe as reproach.

For a moment Jasper didn't speak. In fact, it seemed almost as if she couldn't speak. Her jaw clenched uncomfortably and she said, "It's been almost a full cycle." Whatever emotion was in her voice—be it anger or pain—PB couldn't parse it. The news itself was a shock. A cycle was an absurdly long time, particularly for a Pearl to be absent from her duties. Shame and mortification gripped her.

"That's…How is that possible?" PB's voice shook and she took a few steps backwards. She looked around herself for some sign of the passage of time but Jasper's trophy room may as well have been fixed in time. Nearly every detail was as it had been before PB dissipated.

Everything except the weariness settled into Jasper's features.

"What have you even been doing in there?" Jasper demanded, ignoring her question.

"Putting myself back together. Trying to come back!" PB pleaded. Her Jasper seemed uneased by that for reasons that PB couldn't guess at. To cut her losses and to hide her sudden fearful tears, PB knelt before her gem. "Forgive me, I had no idea. Really, I came back as quickly as I could."

The tension in Jasper's body tightened when PB knelt and the quartz soldier put her hands up uncertainly and cringed. "Alright, alright, get up. Get up." There was a plea and a sternness etched onto her face that made PB clamber to her feet with more speed than grace. The pearl's face was red with embarrassment. It seemed everything she did was an offense to her gem.

"Yes, my Jasper," she intoned meekly. Then in a small voice she dared to ask, "What… my Jasper, what did I do?" Jasper pulled back from her again at the question and PB recoiled into herself with a violent jerk, her face paling. A pearl shouldn't have to ask such a question, she knew that, but here she was. While she was in her gem she had considered a thousand different reasons that Jasper might have attacked her but each was more troubling than the last. She needed to know for sure so she could serve her gem better. Even if Jasper's answer only confirmed that she had interrupted some sacred meditation. "I mean no disrespect! Please just… please tell me what I did wrong so I don't do it again," she begged. "I only wish to please you."

Jasper's expression, though clearly uneasy, was inscrutable. An uncomfortably long moment passed between them in which Jasper's gaze remained fixed on Pearl with such unbearable intensity that she thought she might dissipate once again. Finally Jasper sighed and spoke.

"You startled me."

Stunned into silence, PB only blinked at her.

When she saw PB's confusion Jasper stood tense, as she did when addressed by her own betters. The change was remarkable and frightening for a pearl who knew that Jasper only behaved like this before her agates. It was the stance of an underling in trouble and PB's mind tied itself into countless knots trying to understand why Jasper – her confident and commanding Jasper – suddenly acted like an inept pearl.

"I forgot where I was," Jasper admitted finally, deflating as if in defeat.

"…I don't understand."

The quartz soldier grimaced and tightened her hands into fists, encouraging PB to take yet another step back. "I forgot where I was," Jasper said through clenched teeth. "For a moment I was on Earth. You caught me there, it was reflex when I…" The rest of the sentence died in Jasper's throat and a glassiness came to her eye.

PB feared she might be slipping away again. "My Jasper," she squeaked and inched forward, keeping an eye on Jasper's muscular hands. Even without a weapon those hands were deadly. Her gem's gaze refocused and fixed on her and PB hesitated some before asking, "Will you tell me about it? I want to understand."

Jasper's lip curled and her usual personality seemed to resurface. "How could you understand?" The rest of Jasper's thought was clear even if she didn't vocalize it: You're a pearl, not a quartz, this comprehension is beyond you. But even knowing that, PB ached to see into this part of Jasper, even if it would only give her a superficial knowledge.

"I… I can't, forgive me," she stammered. "You stabbed me, I just want to understand." Too bold a request for a pearl, PB knew that and she cringed in anticipation of her rebuke.

Instead Jasper balked and the same nervous guilt and humiliation reappeared on her face. "…Fine," she said gruffly, "But only because this can't happen again. Got it?"

Utterly surprised, PB nodded her head obediently. She fumbled in a moment of panic to remember how a pearl should behave. "Certainly, my Jasper. Why don't you rest and I'll—I'll tend to you while you tell me."

After some huffing and scowling from Jasper, PB got her settled in the cubby meant for her to recline and recharge. It was more spacious than most cubbies PB had seen, though Jasper's bulk easily filled it. Rather than sit inside, Jasper took a seat beneath it and rested her back against the cool stone wall. PB perched in the cubby above her and pulled a comb with wide teeth from inside her gem.

Silently, PB dragged the comb through Jasper's mane of white hair. Because she was made of the light of her gem Jasper's hair obviously didn't need to be detangled. But somewhere down the line she had discovered how soothing it could be to have somebody play with her hair and it was one of the few physical pleasures she confided to her pearl.

Jasper relaxed as PB worked with the comb and eventually she sighed heavily and said, "Rebel gems attacked my kindergarten just before I emerged. I woke up in the middle of a massacre."

PB listened in quiet horror to the story of how her Jasper barely escaped from the Crystal Gems' forces with a handful of her sisters from Earth's Beta kindergarten and given no time to recover before getting thrown back into the war. The quartz soldier recounted frothing battlefields and catastrophic ambushes, long nights comforting their wounded in secret and the urgency with which living with one eye over her shoulder became her only hope for survival, the threat of death that encroached on every step she took on that miserable colony – and all of it ultimately for nothing. It was a wonder her gem wasn't dark and clouded after a millennia or more of such toil.

By the time Jasper finished, helpless tears were rolling down PB's cheeks and her chin quivered as she combed the quartz's hair. She couldn't fathom the depths of peril her Jasper had endured during the war but now she could see the disjointed pieces of Jasper's personality fitting together. The attack that dissipated her made sense.

"It's still part of you, right?" PB asked gently, "You're still living like that?" She abandoned the comb and ran her fingers through Jasper's hair instead, drawing them lightly across her scalp. Her gut ached again when she thought about how quickly Jasper returned to leaning on her survival skills. Already her mind was racing for ways to head those instincts off in the future.

Jasper sighed in a way that made her seem tired, almost vulnerable. She nodded her head in answer before leaning back against PB's lap. "I wasn't trying to hurt you."

It almost sounded like an apology.