This fanfic contains a lot of swearing, smoking, violence and various other mature themes.
Jasper, Peridot, Lapis Laszuli, Steven, Garnet, Amethyst, Pearl, Peedee, Kiki, Gunga, Onion, Sadie and Lars are the property of Rebecca Sugar and Cartoon Network.
This is an AU where gems differ slightly from canon in that they have a measurable heart beat as well as other small changes that you will likely notice, I'm not mentioning all of them here because spoilers and I'm lazy. Mask Island is much bigger than canon version.
Day 6 of this story is the day of "Super Watermelon Island".
This fanfic is written from the perspective of E. K. Brooks.
Chapter 4: SpiderDay 11
I woke up to the sound of a seagull squawking far too close for comfort. I sat up quickly and squinted around. There were five gulls strutting around in the remnants of my camp, picking at what looked like bits of energy bars and peanuts. One bird had a packet of oatmeal in its beak.
Suddenly furious, I started to scream and flap my arms. They hopped away from me, but didn't fly off. Swearing loudly, I kicked my way out of the sleeping bag and used it to swat at them. They cawed at me angrily, but flew off.
Panting and groggy, I surveyed the destruction. The tent was in tatters. The bamboo and tarp lid I had used to cover my supply pit was crushed. I could see cans and food bags scattered across the sand. I dragged the tangled mess away and felt my eyes burn with tears. Nearly everything was broken, squashed or flattened. Red sauce, peanuts, beans in sticky paste and deflated water packets had covered the bamboo bottom in multicolored goop. The satellite phone case was crushed into a weird shape; I grabbed it and wedged it open with my knife. Opening the wonky lid, I bit my lip in anticipation, thinking "Please, please, please, please, please, don't be broken". It was in pieces. There was no way I could fix that. That box had been sand and water proof, isolated from impact and heavy as hell. I had felt so confident, thinking I had thought of every possible way that the satellite phone, my one and only life line to civilization, could be damaged – thought it could all be prevented. I hadn't included 'being stomped on by a giant alien woman' on my list.
"Motherfucking shit fuck!" I hissed and gripped the sides of the metal and plastic container as hard as I could, not even trying to stop myself from crying. I don't know how long I sat like that, tears cascading down my cheeks and dropping onto the sand. What was I going to do?!
Fernandez wouldn't be here for another nineteen days. NINETEEN! Was there enough food to last that long? I threw myself into the pit and took a frenzied inventory. There was a lot of damage, but some of the things might still be usable. I made three piles. OK, maybe and fucking useless. The coffee and tobacco packets were mangled, but whole. That was a relief, if nothing else. At least I wouldn't have to go through any withdrawal whilst I was starving. Because that's what it seemed like I was facing. I estimated I had about seven days of two meals a day, or one meal per day for fourteen days. For one person.
"Shiiiiit!" I groaned, feeling drained. I hated being hungry. As if to agree, my stomach rumbled noisily. I knew I could fish and pick fruit, but they were uncertain sources of food. I liked to be certain about stuff, especially about food.
I had never been in a situation like this before. If I ever ran out of food or even if I didn't feel like cooking, there was always the pizza place down the corner, or the twenty four hours fast-mart right next to it, with its fantastic breakfast burritos. My head started to throb.
Thankfully, the first aid kit was a soft fold out contraption and was completely unharmed. I scarfed down two paracetamol and one ibuprofen, lay down in the sand, lit a cigarette and pulled my hat over my eyes. The sun was nearly at its highest point. Ugh. I groaned again, and rolled over onto my stomach. Jasper had slid down even more and was now lying on her side, her back against the cliff wall. I huffed in frustration and clicked my jaw. I desperately wanted a cup of coffee, but there was no water and no fire. Getting up, I grabbed my two biggest water containers and stomped off into the jungle, treading the path to the spring. The air was thick in there, so I refilled my water supply quickly and made my way back to the beach. Anger gave me the strength to gather up a sizable pile of firewood and set it afire. Remembering that my swimming shorts were shredded, I stood indecisive for a moment. I wanted to be able to carry my tools and sit on the rocks to get at the second net without ripping my ass cheeks, so the green cargo shorts would have to do. I grabbed my string bag and went to the water. Hell if I was gonna wear a shirt. I threw it off. It felt so good to take the sports bra off. I wanted to be naked. I wanted to be alone!
"Grraaaaah!" I roared as I strode into the waves. Today was not a good day. The gods of the sea seemed to want to lessen my burden however and had blessed net number two with a lobster. The other nets gave me one really big purple and green fish with big eyes. It didn't look like it belonged in the shallows. Well, it was going in my belly no matter where it came from. I cleaned the fish out to the delight of the flying assholes and went back to the fire. I was hungry enough to want to have sashimi for breakfast, but made myself put the big fish on the spit. It took ages to cook and I had finished my coffee and four straight cigarettes before it looked acceptable. I tore off a piece and wolfed it down. Maybe it was because I was so hungry, but it tasted damn good, like cod mixed with river salmon. The meat was a pale yellowy pink and the bones large and easy to pick out. I sent a thankful nod to the ocean and burped my satisfaction to the skies. Maybe I wasn't going to starve after all.
When I had had my fill of fish and made sure the lobster was nice and cozy in a gallon of sea water in the big pot, I stood up and took a look at my camp. Fuck, there was a lot to do. Before I could get started however, my conscience made me go check on Jasper. She had turned so she was facing the cliff now, her hair casting shade over her head. She seemed to still be, for lack of a better word, asleep and breathing normally. That was all the charity I had for the time being. I grabbed my machete and headed toward the bamboo patch. So, I thought as I began to chop, she was here on an escort mission with two other aliens, judging from their names. I knew peridot was a type of gem too, but I'd never heard of lapis laszuli, but it seemed likely that it was another precious stone. Something had happened; Jasper had been separated from these two and was possibly severely injured. If she was the only person sent on an escort mission, did that mean that she was a formidable fighter who didn't need backup, or was the task so easy that any grunt soldier could handle it? Her commanding voice suggested she was used to giving orders, so it seemed likely the first option was true. But, when I had shouted at her to stop, she had stopped. So she could take orders too. I decided that meant that she might be an officer, but not the top brass. She had no markings on her clothes to show off rank. Maybe that was what the stripes were?
I had chopped down fifty or so stands of inch thick bamboo when I finished the thought. I carried them back to the beach and then took a water break. I stood and looked at Jasper's broad back. I snickered to myself. In video games, my least favorite type of quests were escort missions. Some NPC or other had to be transported from A to B to wherever the fuck, and they always got into trouble somehow, for some really stupid reason. "Oh, look, a flower" or "Wait I have to push this random button to see what it does. Oops, that released all the mutant bears and we're all gonna die. Sorry, not sorry!" I picked up the machete again and headed back to get more bamboo.
When I returned some fifteen minutes later, I glanced over at Jasper again. To my absolute horror, there was a spider like bug thing, the size of a golden retriever, creeping down the cliff face, heading toward the sleeping Jasper. It had long legs and a small body and a brilliant turquoise stone on its back.
"Jasper" I hissed, no reaction. The nightmarish creature moved very slowly, as if cautious. Fuck fuckety fuck fuck fuck, what the hell was it?! Curse this island and its fucked up fauna!
"Jasper, wake up" I said louder, putting all but one of the bamboo sticks I was carrying down on the sand. The one I kept was very long and pointed at the end, the result of a cut at a wrong angle. Wasn't I lucky to be so inept at chopping shit down? The alien woman did not stir.
"Jasper!" my shout was a mistake. The spider thing leapt down and landed with four legs on either side of Jasper, who finally grunted something indecipherable and moved feebly. I jabbed at the creature with my improvised spear and it hissed at me like a snake, lowering its body over Jasper, as if to claim it as theirs. It was so disgusting! My skin crawled with fear and absolute revulsion. I stabbed at it again, and it jerked forward, lifting its front legs threateningly.
My mind raced. What was I even doing! I needed a strategy! If this was a boss battle in realm of warlords, the tank would charge in and taunt it, getting the agro. Fuck me, I always played a rogue. I darted forward and whacked it across the side of the head. It gurgled a hiss at me and rushed at me. I threw myself to the side and it skittered across the bamboo sticks I had dropped, losing its balance momentarily. Cursing loudly I tried to smack at its legs, thinking to immobilize it, but it turned around and tackled me. My back hit the sand with a crash and lights popped in front of my eyes. It dipped its head to bite me but I managed to jam the improvised spear under its neck. It gurgled and spat thick saliva at me and I screamed and tried to get my legs under its body to kick it off. I couldn't get a good angle with my feet, but I twisted sideways at the same time as I pushed at its neck, it twisted its head in turn and grabbed the spear. I let go of it and rolled away. Shit fuck! It took a moment for the beast to bite the stick in half and I managed to scramble to my feet, looking around for another weapon. I stepped on something hard in the sand – my machete! This was way better than the bamboo. It turned around to face me and charged at me again. This time I jumped to the side and swung the machete in the same movement. The wild swing connected with one leg and sliced it clean off. The creature squealed and hissed shrilly, falling onto the ground. I had no time to loose! I jumped onto its back and hacked at the head, screaming wordlessly. Its legs waved in sickening spasms, trying to get at me, but they couldn't bend that way. Liquid sprayed my face as I struck the head and neck, but I didn't stop. Suddenly I was lifted off the ground and the creature vanished from underneath me in a puff of smoke. Screaming in surprise I fell face first into the sand but scrabbled round to see where it had gone. There was no sign of it! What the hell! Then I saw a turquoise gem lying in a small crater in the soft white sand. I felt as if my heart was going to explode, it was beating so fast.
"Destroy it" a hoarse voice said from behind me. I turned round so fast I felt my neck crick. "We don't want it coming back" Jasper was sitting up, looking at me with serious eyes.
I grabbed the turquoise gem and carried it over to a rock. I put the gem on the rock and picked up another stone in both hands. Without hesitating, I smashed the gem repeatedly. First it cracked in to several pieces, then it became shards, and finally dust. I dropped the rock, breathing heavily, got up, went to my supplies and dug up the bottle of Absolut vodka, pulled the screw cap off and took a long pull. It burned feeling back into my body. A wave of nausea hit me, but I forced myself not to vomit. Then I sat down, finally trying to catch my breath. My head swam with adrenaline and endorphins. I had killed something. Me. Holy crap. I looked at my hands. They were shaking and covered in blue black liquid mixed with sand. A strange jumble of emotions was surging through my body – disgust, fear, an overwhelming urge to go scrub my skin clean and some sort of feral pride that made me want to pound my chest and roar. I took another swig of vodka and stood up to go down and wash myself. The need to rid my body of the clingy goop intensified and I threw off my clothes. I needed to be free of their restraint. I started to sprint and dove head first into the waves. The mess came off quite easily and I relished the sight of clean skin. I checked my body for cuts, but only found bruises. Getting out of the water I grabbed my clothes and gave them a thorough scrubbing too. As I turned around to head back to the tent, Jasper suddenly stood in front of me. I froze. I had completely forgotten she was awake. I forced myself not to try to cover my intimate areas, and stood as tall as I could be. She looked me straight in the eye and said:
"That was pretty good" then her gaze swept down and back up again, one corner of her mouth twitching. "For a human"
Her voice dripped condescension. Anger swelled in my chest and before I knew it, I had swung a hand at her. Grabbing my wrist in a vice like grip, her mouth widened into a crooked grin. I tried to slap her with my other hand, but she caught that too. She narrowed her eyes and laughed coarsely, I felt like I wanted to grow spikes. I waited for her to blink, then kicked her on the knee cap with my left foot, used her buckling knee as a step, put my other foot on her stomach then my left knee shot up and hit her on the chin. She grunted and staggered back, still holding my arms.
"Oh, you are feisty" she growled and lifted me into the air at arm's length so I couldn't repeat my move. Her smile had vanished and a trickle of something ran down the side of her mouth. I glared at her and clicked my jaw defiantly.
"Why did you defend me?!" she roared at me. I struggled to get loose, but she squeezed my arms tightly. It felt as if the bones ground together. In a burst of adrenaline, I did the hardest pull up in my entire life and chomped down on her pinky finger as hard as I could. She hissed, let one arm go and grabbed me by the legs instead. I dangled upside down while she stared at me incredulously.
"We aren't even the same species. Tell me why!" she commanded in a low growl.
"What kind of person would I be if I let some random monster kill you?!" I shouted back at her. She stared at me, shock evident on her face. I was kind of stunned too. She let me go suddenly and I crashed to the ground with a yelp. I got to my feet and spat out a mouthful of sand.
"What kind of thing are you that you can't thank someone for saving your fucking life?!" I snarled and pushed past her before she could say anything. I'd had enough. I was bruised, tired, hungry and had entirely too much adrenaline pumping around my system. I knew this would cost me dearly tomorrow.
The fire was still going, but I broke a few logs into smaller pieces and threw them on. I put on a t-shirt and my last pair of shorts and plopped down in the sand, arming myself with vodka and a cigarette. What I really, really, really wanted to do was to storm off into the jungle and kick the shit out of something, but it was getting dark and I would probably get lost. I couldn't just sit still though. I stood back up again and stomped off down the beach. It felt better to move, I knew I needed to spin off the anger. The best way to do that was to talk about what had happened with my best friend. But the satellite phone was destroyed, because of her. This was not how I wanted my vacation, or whatever the fuck to call it, to be! I wanted to be alone, think only about myself and just argh! And now this, this, this fucking alien just had to appear and suddenly it there was all this stuff to deal with! I wanted to scream! So I started to. Self-consciously low at first, because I wasn't alone, then I thought "Fuck it". I took a deep breath and felt my entire body vibrate as I let the first one rip. I didn't care that it sounded like a little girl. I screamed again and again, feeling the anger leave me in bursts, like there was a fire in my stomach I had to let out. Soon I had run out of steam and I took a drink of vodka to numb my aching throat. I turned around, wanting to go make some food, to find Jasper standing a few yards away from me, wearing a confused look.
"Why were you screaming like that?" she asked, forehead creasing.
"I was angry" I stated coldly.
She stood clenching and unclenching her hands and then said "You are the strangest human I have ever seen", I raised an eyebrow at her and grumbled a hoarse "Seen a lot, have you?" as I moved to walk past her.
"Yes" she answered. "During the war"
I spun round, "What war?" I had never heard of a war with any aliens, what the fuck was she saying?
"It was more than five thousand years ago" that would make it earlier than three thousand BC. That was before humans had discovered the wheel (thank you jeopardy).
"There's no record of such a war!" was she lying again?
"Of course there isn't, the war wasn't with humans!"
"What?!"
"Earth was supposed to become a new colony to expand the Gem Empire. Some bleeding heart gems betrayed their home and started a… rebellion" Jasper's face hardened on the last word.
Colony? They invaded earth?! I couldn't believe what I was hearing.
"Why the fuck were you trying to colonize a planet that was already inhabited?! Were you going to enslave us?" I demanded.
Jasper made a 'tch' sound, "Inhabited by organic life", 'organic' was said with so much disgust, like it was the foulest word in their culture. "We wanted the earth, not the vermin running around on it"
I was appalled. Is that how their species saw humans? Like… cockroaches, like we didn't even matter? Occupying something they wanted. Big powerful aliens, with the power of space travel trampling around earth when the human civilization was in its infancy. The people back then would have been completely defenseless. They must have seemed like little more than animals to the invaders. The thought made my head spin. Humans did that to animals every day, taking their hunting grounds and territories because we want the resources. Animals had no claim on land… The rebellion though, someone had stood up for the humans… I drew an uncomfortable parallel between the rebels and PETA. Wow. Perspective mattered a fuck load.
All this flew through my head in a second, leaving me unsure at what to say next.
"What… what happened with the rebellion?" I asked, out of my depth.
"In the last days of the war the cowards used a weapon capable of destroying all gems; we… retreated back to home world. We thought they were all dead, and it was decided to leave the earth… alone" that last statement felt like it left something out.
"So… why return now?" I asked suspiciously.
"I told you, I was escorting a technician and her informant. That was the extent of my orders"
"What, you're afraid of some humans? I thought we were vermin"
"Tch! The technician had evidence that there were gems on earth!"
"What, there are more of you here?!"
"Pff! I would barely call the remaining rebels gems! They're weaklings, rejects" she looked away, squaring her massive shoulders.
"Seems they were stronger than you – "
"WHAT DID YOU SAY?!" she roared and rushed up to me, raising one enormous fist and staring at me with blazing eyes. A surge of fear rooted me to the spot and my breath caught in my throat. She looked absolutely terrifying.
"Y-you are… injured, and… No one else is here, you said they could be anywhere by now…" I squeaked out, it didn't sound like my voice at all. She was breathing heavily. Why had she reacted like that? Was her ego really that fragile? Then I noticed her hand was shaking and it looked as if she was trying really hard to keep her face in a threatening grimace. I had made that expression myself too many times for it to slip me by. It was the 'don't get afraid, get angry' face pushed to the breaking point. Suddenly I wasn't afraid anymore. Offence is the best defense; it was an act, a mask. And it was slipping.
"What… happened to you?" I asked. She flinched as if I had hit her, staring at me with wild, terrified eyes. She glitched, this time, her raised arm flickered and twisted into a horrific angle, making her scream out in pain. Half a second later, it was back to normal, but hanging limply by her side and she grabbed at it with her other hand.
"What is happening to you?!"
"It's", she winced "my gem…" I looked at her nose, and to my surprise, the middle crack seemed deeper than before, and the spidering that went off to the left had split in to two smaller tendrils. "I need to r-rest" she swayed. "Can you make it back to camp?" I asked, stepping to her uninjured side. She put one massive arm over my shoulder, but didn't really put any weight on me. As we were walking, she stumbled and nearly fell, but I managed to hold on, though my back muscles protested. I saw a surprised look pass over her face out of the corner of my eye, but pretended like I hadn't noticed. I thanked my personal trainer in my head. There was no way I'd be able to do that a year ago. When we got to the other side of the beach she lay down in the sand next to the fire.
"Here" I said, holding out a bottle of water to her. "You haven't had anything for, I have no idea how long"
"I don't need to eat or drink" she said in a low, exhausted voice. I was taken aback. "Excuse me?" I blurted out.
She grinned crookedly and chuckled, making the tops of my ears burn. "I get all I need from my gem". That sounded… weird as fuck. How was that even possible?
"More lobster for me then" I said with my eyebrows raised. Great, I wouldn't have to share my food store. Feeling relieved, I got up and got the big pot, refilled it with fresh water. When it boiled, I scooped up a cup to make coffee and then threw the lobster in the pot, after having stabbed it in the head.
"Why did you do that?" Jasper asked me sleepily.
"Mercy" I answered and she let out a 'pff' before closing her eyes. She started to snore half a minute later.
I sighed and leaned back on my hands. What a fucking day. What a fucking day. My body ached all over. I groaned as I realized I hadn't really done anything to fix my camp. The fight with the spider thing, Jesus fucking Christ. I huffed. "Pretty good for a human, my ass". That thing had had a gem too, I remembered suddenly. Fuck, had they brought a zoo with them or something? What else was on this island? I sipped my coffee and stared into the fire. The events of the day spun around in my head. The way the monster had hissed at me made me shiver, even though the sun hadn't set yet. I really didn't want to become a snack for another one of those things. The lobster wasn't quite done yet, so I got up and grabbed some bamboo sticks and shoved them into the sand, creating a perimeter around the camp. I tied a bunch of crushed cans and the two smaller pots to my longest piece of para cord and strung it all up on the bamboo sticks. At least now there would be a little warning if something came during the night. I took out the spare nets and hung them up on the side that faced the cliff and the jungle, just as an extra precaution.
I devoured the lobster as soon as it was done, not caring that I burned my fingers or my tongue. I was too hungry to care. The whole thing vanished into my mouth in less than twenty minutes. I threw the tarp over the supply pit, shook out the sand from my sleeping bag and settled down with the rest of my coffee and a cigarette. The moon had risen. I looked up at the stars. What was Jasper's home world like? Did it have trees, or lobsters, or giant spider monsters? I yawned. Maybe it had all three, or maybe it was covered in ice cream. Oh, some ice cream would be good about now. I stretched out in the sleeping bag and closed my eyes.
