Singing.
That's the first thing I hear. In the vastness of my unconscious mind, the first thing that comes to my mind is someone singing.
Very slowly, my eyes open to see a green ceiling. Very carefully I sit up and look forward to see a wall that resembles the ceiling. 'What happened?' I ask the question in my head but I close my eyes and grasp my head as I suddenly get a painful headache.
"RAAAAWWWWRRR!"
My eyes shoot open as everything that happened on the beach. The fighting, Garnets destruction, the Crystal Gems unconscious bodies, Jasper overpowering me, how easily she snapped my limbs like twigs and then… that thing.
I remember the sickening transformation I went through. It wasn't pleasant, not in the least bit. The pain of my bones snapping back into place, them shifting and reforming to accommodate that thing, the individual strands of hair that pushed through my skin, the crystals and digging out of my back and my skull… oh god my skull.
My headache throbs more painfully as I recall the bones in my face growing.
God it was so painful going through that hell and when it was done, my instincts just flared up and… took over.
"What… the fuck?" I curse at whatever type of thing that was.
"Finally, your awake." I quickly look to the side to see Jasper standing there but in front of something yellow. "It's been too long."
"Jasper." I scoff at her name and get onto one knee. "Where am I? What the hell's going on?" I demand of her.
"We're going home, Jade." She says with a smile, much to my surprise. "Maybe when we get back to Homeworld with that traitorous Rose Quartz, you can answer some questions as to why you're here when you marked as shattered." She calmly explains to me as she goes onto one knee in front of this barrier thing that's separating the two of us.
"Questions I—" I start to say but stop. "Listen, Jasper, I'm not who you say you think I am." She looks confused at my words but I press on. "What I am… I'm my mom's son. These Gems I have are hers, they are Jades… but I'm not Jade herself." I calmly explain to her. Her face remains impassive as I try to explain things to her. "My mother sacrificed herself to give me life. She's gone… and I'm here."
She stares at me for a few seconds in silence, the only sound being the hum of the barrier in front of us. "You really don't remember… do you?"
"Remember what?" Now it's my turn to act confused.
"Everything." She answers incredulously. "Don't you remember the fighting? All the battles and missions you were a part of? All those rogue Gems you shattered?!"
"… What did you say?" I ask her at the last thing she asked but the… smile she gives me as she asks looks scary.
"You were so much when you were made! You were going to be the best of the best and then…!" She trails off, her moment of happiness changed to a more somber look.
"What do you—?"
"Do remember anything?" She asks.
Flashes of the memories my mom showed me in her room go through my head but nothing as concrete as what she's asking of me.
"How many?" I ask her how many Gems' my mom shattered. I imagine your kill count isn't something that you want your son to know about you.
"You lost count after a hundred."
"WHAT?!" I yell in surprise.
"Yeah, when Rose Quartz started her little rebellion you were sent in all the time to eliminate as many members of her army before they could mount a proper offensive against us." She casually informs me. I look away in disbelief at the news. 'Over a hundred kills… but… how…' "I don't know what happened later that made you suddenly disappeared but after that, Rose's army grew stronger and we were getting so many reports of one Gem destroying so much and shattering so many of our own soldiers." She looks away and smirks with closed eyes. "At first I could think of only one Gem who could do that kind of damage… but I didn't want to believe it." She turns to me with anger in her eyes. "So I'll ask again… why did you help those traitorous scum?!" She asks with increasing hostility towards me.
I stare at her with disbelief. I'm trying to come to terms with my moms… actions but… "Look… I don't… I mean I…" I take a moment to collect myself and steady my breathing. "Over a hundred?"
"Way more… probably double that when you betrayed us." She sneers at the last comment but says it nonetheless.
"A hundred… Gems shattered… just… like that I…" My voice starts say things that don't make sense to me really. My mom seemed so… sweet when she was talking to me but I know its war but…
"I still remember how you operated. You were so powerful and fast against our enemies. I remember how easy it was that you shattered gems, especially with how brutal you took them out!" She says with glee and a smile starting to form on her face, "Even when you were trying to be quiet a few times, the look on those rogue Gems faces when you stuck your swords right into the their Gems was beautifully done!"
'No… that can't be! I don't even have that many kills. Both human and Gem!'
"Do you still have your collection of Gem shards you took from the ones you—"
"STOOOOP!" I scream.
Jaspers happy outlook turns confused as I curl up against the wall and grip my head with my hands.
"Just… just stop… please I…" My voice starts to break at the news.
Jasper stares at me for a few seconds at my odd behavior but the small gasps of whimpering makes her sigh. She stands up, "We're on our way to Homeworld. We'll figure out what's going on with you from there." With that she turns to leave, but not before giving me one last look of pity and stalking off.
"M…mom… what… what did you… do to me?" I cry out as I start rocking back and forth, memories of what I did at the beach coming back to haunt me… and what I did before I met the Gems.
Steven runs through the hallways of the ship, frantically trying to find out where his friends are. After freeing that Ruby Gem from the cell and the depressing talk with Lapis, he left to find any other clues or cells that are keeping the rest of his friends prisoner. He's not sure exactly what's going on but considering how mean and angry Jasper and Peridot were to him and his family, he knows for a fact that he doesn't want anything to do with them and wants to keep the people he cares about safe.
"Alright, come on. Where are you guys?" Steven mutters to himself after going through another empty hallway. After Ruby left when he was talking to Lapis and how one-sided the conversation was with her, he's now on his own, alone on an enemy ship. The hallways don't have any special indicators or pieces about them that makes them stand out compared to the others pieces of the ship so he's more than a little worried that he might be going in a circle. However as he makes it along another curvature hallway, he spots another set of glowing yellow barrier cells. "More of them! Maybe the others are here!" With that idea set in his head, especially since the previous few times he came across some cells that had at least some Gems in them, he lightly sprints forward quietly, making sure his footsteps don't attract too much attention. He passes by a particular cell and almost completely moves past it but some slight movement catches his attention. He backpedals and takes a better look at what or who's inside it. "Marcus! I found you! Don't worry about the shield. We can pass right through it. See!" Steven casually explains and sticks his arm through the barrier, which gives way momentarily to allow a small gap appear in the shield before he takes his arm out. "Come on! We have to find the others." He says and takes off down the hallway, expecting his brother to follow after him. When he realizes no one is behind him, he attentively walks back to the cell and peers in to see Marcus hasn't moved at all. "Marcus… you alright?"
"…" At first, Marcus just sits there in the cell with his face in his arms and legs curled up against him. "… No. I'm not alright Steven." He answers in a low tone.
"Wha-what's wrong? Are you hurt?" Steven asks worriedly since this doesn't like him at all.
"I'm not hurt, man. At least… not… physically." He continues to say in his sad low tone.
"Then what's wro—"
"Steven," Marcus looks up at the kid. Steven's eyes widen in slight surprise at seeing the disheveled look he's got. "Jasper she… she told me things…and I found out about some stuff… things about my mother that I—… that she… didn't tell me." He answers as he places his chin on his arms.
Steven stares at him for a second before moving to sitting down. "Well, what happened?" He asks curiously.
"… Steven… she told me how many Gems my mom… how many she… shattered. So many Gems Steven." He momentarily hesitates on his explanation but says it nonetheless. Steven stares at him, surprised at how jarring the news is and how much it's affecting his brother. "And not only that," he adds, "But something else happened. I don't know how, why or what but… I just don't know." He curls up even more. "A form that… that left me so…" He lets out a sigh. "I'm scared Steven." His hands crawl up his head and run through his hair until staying there, gripping his head. "I thought I knew everything about my mom… but even the answers she gave me weren't everything I knew and the way how Jasper described her… how she acted and what she does sounds so bad… and so similar to what I've done!" He says the last part with a slightly raised tone and his voice turning into partial hysteria. "I always thought how I lived was just me being how I was but the idea of a lot of it being because of my mom… especially those corrupted monsters 'I' shattered… it's hard to comprehend it Steven." He takes a moment to reign in his breathing because of his rant and curls into his arms again. "I'm so scared about what else I'll find out."
After Marcus's long winded explanation about what's got him so messed up after they woke up on the ship, the two of them fall into an eerie silence; the only sound accompanying them is gentle occasional creaking of the ship and the hum of the barrier between the two of them.
"That… is a scary thought. I don't know everything about my mom. If things can be as bad as… you say they are… with your mom, then I don't know how I'll feel if I found out something like that… about my mom."
Marcus tightens his hold on himself, tears threatening to break through his shut eyes.
"But I do know one thing that's true, no matter what." Steven says in a hopefully tone.
"… What's that?" Marcus asks after a moment's hesitation.
"You're not your mom."
"…" His slightly shaking body freezes at the words his brother says to him. "Wha… what?" He asks, not looking up.
"I don't know about your mom... even I don't know about my mom," Steven says as he looks to the side sadly. He then turns back to the depressed prisoner with slightly more conviction. "But even though we have our moms gem, that doesn't mean we are them! The Gems keep saying that I'm not my mom no matter what I do and the same goes for you. Whether your mom was good or not, you're not her and you'll never be her… Just like how I'll never be like my mom either." He adds the last part in a sad tone.
Marcus doesn't say anything. His body is still as he tries to process the words that the young kid has said to him.
Steven looks sadly at his brother and reaches a hand forward towards the barrier before suddenly pulling it back.
Metallic footsteps can be heard coming from down the hallway he came from. "Oh no." Steven whispers and quickly gets to his feet. "Listen I have to go! Remember you can get out at anytime!" He loudly whispers to the prisoner before taking off down the hallway away from the footsteps.
Soon what comes into view is a bipedal green robonoid who's height is on par with that of the average human. It's body isn't all in one piece. The head is circular like that of the robonoids the Crystal Gems and Peridot are familiar with but has two black holes for eyes and two wings jutting out the top back of the head. It's chest and the rest of the body all have the same design of what Peridot looks like but are all the same green color as the robonoids with divided floating legs like them too. The chest is its own piece, being suspended in air with the head floating above it, the joints of the arms and forearms floating away from the chest but are still connected by an invisible force, and the legs are the same as style as well.
It doesn't last long because as soon as it passes a cell does a hand thrust outwards and grab its head before pulling the whole thing into the cell and smashing its head against the wall.
"Alright you asshole… enough moping around. Find the others. Get to the cockpit and turn this thing around.' I think as I quickly make my way down the corridor. Thanks to Steven's speech, he was able to get me out of my funk after my defeat. While the info I got about my mom, and my whole… transformation-messed-up-ness, was a bit much to take in, I know I'm not her even though I have her Gems, I am my own person with my own faults I need to own up to. At the very least, I can mope about this stuff later when we're not being taken prisoner by a hostile faction to their planet several hundred miles, light-years? I don't know. Away from our home planet and into unknown territory.
Thing is, after that whole ordeal and promptly getting shot to hell by Peridot, I don't feel drained or tired or anything. I feel down because of the info but other than that my physical health seems to have improved. Overall I feel more badass and awesome now for reasons I have no idea , right now I'm focusing more on getting the hell out of here and getting my family out too rather than focusing on how good I somewhat feel.
As I pass by a window, I take a moment to admire the scenery out the window. "Woooooaaaahh." I say in awe at the view. Right now I am staring at a picture that some people only dream about seeing with their very own eyes: Planet Earth. Not some video or picture of the big blue marble but I am actually staring from space at the giant with my own POV of the things beauty. It's a bit different when you can actually see it with your own eyes rather than a movie adaptation or from pictures. "I wonder if I can see a satellite." I say to myself as I press my face against the window in an attempt to make out any of the human constructs floating about. After a few moments of looking, I smile as I spot one. "There you are. Awesome." I comment at actually seeing the thing. However my smile turns into a frown as I notice the satellite and planet in comparison are getting slightly smaller. "Okay enough gawking. Time to get out of here." I scold myself for the stop and get going. Interestingly after a minute or so of constant light quiet jogging, this place does seem massive but I haven't seen any stairs, elevators or anything that may come off as access to another floor. "Dang it. Where am I going?" I question under my breath as I continue to make my way down the same looking corridors. Seriously I haven't found a single directory, a map or anything of that nature that can give me any insight as to where I am. Like for instance I'm coming up on a dead-end hallway with a cell at the end of it. Now if I had a map I could probably plan my route better instead of coming to another cell that has a blue— "Lapis!" I yell the Gems name as I immediately recognize who it is.
She flinches at the new voice and stares in surprise at seeing me in front of her. "… Marcus?" She squints to see me and I nod.
"Yeah it's me." I answer as I slide on my knees to the front of the barrier in front of her cell. "Listen, Steven and I are planning to bust out of here and we can get you out too. Let me just…" I begin to reach forward.
"He already explained that. I told him no."
"…Oh." I reply to her explanation a little confused. 'If she already knew, then why is she still here?' I begin to question in my head as I drop my arm. "So why are you—"
"Because I'm not stupid Marcus. If we fight back then our punishment from Homeworld will be that much harsher." She doesn't bother looking up to explain to me her reasons and her voice is slightly muffled but I can still hear her. "Besides… I'm not looking to be shattered anytime soon."
"Lapis, look, I know your scared of what Homeworld is capable of bbut—"
"I'M NOT SCARED OF THEM! I'M SCARD OF YOU!" To my absolute surprise, she screams at me with tears in her eyes.
"…"
To say it hurts would be an understatement.
The memory of what he almost did to the person he cares about rears itself to the forefront of Marcus's mind and it hurts. It hurts a lot to him that he almost did something truly horrible. He casts his eyes downwards and slumps forward
"I'm sorry I led them to you but—"
"You think I'm angry about that?" He interrupts her in a low voice, not even looking up.
Lapis's tears stop in confusion at his question. "We-well, yes. That's the only thing I can think of that I did to make you angry with—"
"You think… I'm so angry with you that I… I almost…" He has trouble finishing his words as the memory is still fresh in his mind.
She looks on in confusion at him. 'If he didn't want to… attack me… then why…?' She thinks but her eyes widen as she sees his own tears beginning to drop.
"Lapis…" His voice barely cracks but it's when he looks up that she's surprised. "I could NEVER hurt you." He states firmly. "Remember that story I told you?" She nods slowly. "Friends… don't come to me often. You… are one that I really don't want to lose. I just…" He looks down again. "I'm… I'm really sorry Lapis." He apologizes to her tearfully.
'Marcus…' Seeing him so sad like this confuses her, but also makes her feel sad for the human in front of her as well. In the short time that she remembers that monsters face that was mere inches away from completely tearing her apart, the fact that it was someone she cared about made her both angry and sad at the idea of something she did that made him angry… but seeing him broken like this, so hurt and sad… its confusing. "If you didn't mean to… then why did you?" She asks in hopes to clarify why he was seconds away from attacking her.
"I… I-I don't know why I… why I did it in the first place." He says as he places his hands on his head. "That… thing was something I never saw or felt before and it was soooo… powerful… and scary." His hair comes a little disheveled as he runs his fingers through it more. "I honestly don't know what that was and I'm really sorry I almost—…" He stops himself from saying and trails off. After seeing the humans saddened demeanor about the whole thing, and the fact that he seems honestly scared about the whole thing, Lapis can't help but feel sorry for him and how awful he genuinely feels. She goes to say something but the sound of footsteps coming from down the hall silences her and snaps Marcus up from his slump. "Shit! Someone's coming." He whispers as he jumps to his feet. "I need to get out of her." He quickly starts making his way back down to a side passage and away from the sound of the footsteps. "I WILL come back for you!" He loudly whispers and points to Lapis just before he takes off down the hallway.
Lapis looks sadly at the retreating form of Marcus before looking down and curling up again.
My determined demeanor from before kind of takes a hit from that conversation.
It's one thing to lose friends to someone else… but it's an entirely different matter when it's YOU that makes you lose them.
I honestly don't know what that monster was… but I need to be careful, like really careful from here on out because if that… thing comes out again and tries to hurt my friends, then well, I'll probably never forgive myself. Probably do more than just beat myself over it, probably literally do it.
Even so, right now I'm sad I left Lapis but if whoever was patrolling down the hallway sees that she's gone, then the alarms could be raised and it would make our escape that much more difficult. So far I don't see increased security or anything that suggests an alarm is going off so thankfully it seems that they haven't noticed Steven and I escaped. "Speaking of who, where is that kid?" I question to myself as I wonder where he took off. After I took out that bipedal robonoid, I went down the same direction of the hallway that Steven went down but it seems we went in separate directions because I haven't seen high nor hair of him. 'Man, I hope he's alright. But since there isn't any announcements about people escaping means that he hasn't been made. Best thing to do is keep it that wa—' "Whoa!"
"Agg!"
Unfortunately because of my thoughts and the sharp corner I took on the next turn, I ran into someone and the two of us came tumbling down. After a quick yelp from both of us, we lay on the ground groaning from the rough impact on each other before we both sit up and take stock of each other. The person I ran into is another Gem but this one is all red and has a ruby gem on her hand. We stare at each other for a few awkward seconds before the two of us quickly pull out our weapons. She uses her other hand to take out a sort of red dagger looking knife and swipes it at my throat while I swing both my arms in a scissor formation towards her neck. We both freeze as we simultaneously feel the sharpness of our blades on each other's throats. I feel her dagger poised to stab and slice at my jugular vein and my swords are in a scissor formation right at her neck as well.
No one does anything as the two of us can easily end each other with one quick movement from either of us. "Friend… or foe?" I ask.
"Grrr…" She groans in slight anger, probably angry at getting placed in a precarious position like I am but soon calms down. "Friend to who?" She clarifies.
"Do you hate Homeworld?" I ask.
"Do you?"
"With a passion." I answer her question to my question.
After a few seconds when I answer, she starts to relax a little but still keeps the knife to my throat. "Yeah, I do to."
After a few more moments of silence, I sigh. "Alright then, guess that's good enough for me." I slowly take away my swords from her and she does the same to me after I did it first. We put away our weapons and stand up. "If you hate Homeworld, why are you working on their ship?" I ask.
"I wasn't working on this ship! They captured me and—!" Her eyes go wide and she grabs her head in surprise. "Oh no. SAPPHIRE!" She yells loudly, making me freak out and look all over.
"CHU-Shut the hell up!" I quietly scream at her as I force her to side and out of the middle crossway of the hallway. "Are you TRYING to alert the whole ship to our location?!" I scold her quietly.
"I don't care about that! I gotta find her. I gotta find Sapphire!" She exclaims and goes out into the hallway but I quickly pull her back and kneel in front of her.
"But I do and if you go screaming out to everyone on this ship then they'll know we escaped and sound the alarms!" I quietly say to her in firm tone the implications of her yelling out loud. She tense and grits her teeth at my words. Real quickly I poke my head out into the other hallway to see if anyone heard her. At the far end of the hallway I see a couple more of those bipedal robonoids pass by and continue on with their patrol. 'Good, they didn't hear.' I lean back to Ruby to see that she's angrily pacing back and forth. "Alright, here's the plan." I say, getting her to stop and pay attention. "My friends are also on this ship too as prisoners so as long as you keep quiet and help me find them, I'll help you find Sapphire. No matter what, alright?" I propose.
"You promise?" She demands angrily. 'Whoever this Sapphire she must be really important to warrant trying to run off like that. Or it could be her own brashness but still.'
"On my life." I tell her, deathly serious. "Help my friends, and I'll help you. Deal?" I extend my hand for her to shake.
She looks down at my hand warily for a second and I get the feeling she's not going to go for it but grips my hand nonetheless and shakes. "Deal." She says firmly and nearly crushes my hand but I smile anyway.
"Good." We release and I stand up before looking down both hallways. "Alright well it looks like we still haven't been so let's try to keep it that way."
"Hm, let's move." She nods and takes off down the hallway that either of us haven't been with me trailing right behind her.
"Right behind you." I say as we make our way through the ship. As an afterthought, I clench the hand she shook a few times to get the kinks out because she almost crushed it. 'Ow, damn. She trying to break my hand. Only other time someone tried to crush my hand like that was Garnet.' With that thought in my head, I grit my teeth in anger and clench my fists as I remember what Jasper did. '… Hope she's alright.' With anger and determination fueling me again, I kick up the speed a little so I'm moving alongside Ruby.
Apologies if some scenes don't pan out right, some don't connect right, rushed or there's some misspelling or word errors here and there but since college is just right around the corner, I've been trying to get my sleep schedule back in order and god does it suck. I hate it and its been making my head all loopy and I'm worried I'm gonna screw some things up with my chapters. Since college will be starting soon, don't forget that the release dates for my chapters will be taking a hit as well. For those of you who are guests, expect the next chapter releases during college time to be something along the average of 4 or 7 days. Obviously there's going to be some exceptions for specific chapters and depending on their length but hopefully you understand. I'll be dealing with the same psychology teacher I did last semester so I'll be a bit tense when it comes to those tests and all but hopefully things will be alright.
Also I have to say to some of you that review many of my chapters, those of you that also try to review every single one of my chapters, its fine if you miss some. I know how my life is going and I get out my chapters when I am able but I don't really need or rely on every single review some of you feel obligated to give me. For example, people like you Coldblue, I'm not gonna be disappointed because you or anyone else miss writing a review for me and giving me feedback when I make a new chapter. Write them at your own time just as I'll get these chapters out at my own time as well. If some of you feel bad, especially those of you that are guests since you don't get the notification when I upload something, about not reviewing when I upload a new chapter, its fine. Read at your own pace or even hold reading until a day you feel down or awesome for some reason or another. That's what I tend to do with some of the stories I follow so don't feel bad in the least on any actions that you could take to tell me. Even if this part of the note applies to only one or only a few people, I just want to make that clear to everyone.
And finally, with college right around the corner to start, I went ahead and split up the chapters for this episode so I can tell you all this information, and ease up on me while I get everything settled as I start my classes. Getting my sleep schedule back on track is really screwing with me. I hope there are some of you that understand.
As said before, have a great time, and have fun reading.
