I hate my school so much. I was planning on getting this chapter done sooner, but school and all its stupid shit happened and caused some delays. But enough about my crap, let's get back to the story shall we? *I DON'T OWN SU OR POKEMON*

Ash found himself in the darkness yet again. He had been having is same nightmare for the past week or so with the same result, he would run to Lapis at the end of the darkness, but just as he reached her, she would transform into a six armed abomination, roar at him, and he'd wake up. But this time, Lapis was standing directly in front of him already. As she once again glowed and transformed into the monster, it roared at him as usual. Except this time, he didn't take up after that, it swung a blow directly at his stomach, the same spot Lapis had hit him, and then he woke up.

He began looking around the room he was in, it was dark and the only light source was a large yellow colored field covered the only exit. He felt a great pain in his lower torso causing him to place his arms on it. It was then he felt around his waist, to feel his pokeballs were all gone.

Panic set in, as he frantically looked around the cell for them, he finally saw his belt lying in a corner of the room, six red and white balls were all connected to it. "They didn't" he said as he grabbed the one with a small lightning bolt on it. Opening it released Pikachu, he was shaking and frantically looking around, his claustrophobia having got the better of him. Ash finally understood what emotion he was trying to process earlier when Jasper defeated him, hatred. He absolutely hated Jasper for what she did to his friends, manipulating Lapis and abusing her, killing Garnet right in front of him, making his best friend's worst fear come true, beating him and his friends into the ground, and what Ash found most important, was how she treated Lapis. Just the mere thought of the giant orange gem, was enough to cause him to kick the field in rage. He expected at the very least a shock, but to his surprise, his foot went straight through it with no pain whatsoever. "Huh?" he said as he pressed his hand against the barrier and fell straight through.

"Must be busted" he thought as he put his belt back on and began running through the hall. As he ran, he could've sworn that he heard a woman singing. He turned his head to see that there was a number of cells all along the walls, being distracted by the sights of the prison cells, he ran into something causing him to fall onto the floor.

"ASH!" he heard a familiar voice shout above him, he looked up to see it was Steven and another red gem the same height as him. He could see he had a black eye and a few cuts on his face.

"STEVEN!" he shouted as he pulled him into a large hug "are you ok?"

"I'll be fine"

"Are we done here?!" the red gem shouted "we need to find the others and get out of here!" she exclaimed as she lead the two boys through the corridor

"Steven who is this?"

"Ruby" she said

"I'm"

"I know who you are" she interrupted him with an annoyed tone

She lead them further down the maze of hallways, Ash again heard the singing. They reached the end of the hall and saw that the cell's walls were on. Ash could see its occupant as Lapis Lazuli. She was huddled in the corner with her face to her knees looking down in shame.

"Oh, it's just you" Ruby said after realizing this was Lapis in the cell and not whoever she was looking for.

"Lapis!" both the boys said approaching the cell's walls

"STOP!" she shouted to them through the cell wall.

"It's ok we can" Ash started to explain

"No! I don't want your help! I've already caused too much trouble. Once we get back to Homeworld they're going to decide what to do with us."

Ruby growled in anger "we don't have time for this!" as she turned and ran down the hall

"Wait!" Steven said

"Steven, Ash, whatever you're doing just stop. If we do everything they say they might go easy on us"

"But they're. Mean" Steven answered her, "They hurt my friends, they hurt my face"

"They hurt you" Ash added

"That's why we can't fight them." she said in defeat

"That's exactly why we have to fight them!" Steven answered. But their pleas fell on deaf ears, as Lapis turned back to her original position "i'll come back for you" Steven said as he turned

"No, we'll come to you" Ash said "go find the others Steven"

Steven obeyed his friend's wish and followed Ruby.

Ash knelt down on his knees to be at the sitting Lapis's height. He simply watched her as he waited for a response

"Why are you still here Ash?" Lapis finally asked him

"Because i care about you Lapis" he said "please don't freak out" as he slowly climbed into the cell with her

"Stop what are you doing!?" she demanded as he crouched over to the other side and squatted down to face her, Pikachu joining him.

"i just want you to be able to look me in the eye when you explain to me why you chose Jasper over us, over me."

Lapis thought whether or not to answer him before she said, looking him straight in the eye "I didn't get a choice to help them. Peridot took me the second i was revealed to have information about the Earth. My loyalty was questioned, and the Diamonds, if the Diamonds thought you were not loyal to them you are shattered. So i had no choice but to help Jasper, and unfortunately it required hurting you. I don't know if you can ever forgive me for that"

"I do forgive you Lapis" he took a deep breath "and when we all escape, and send Peridot and Jasper back to space crying for their "precious Diamonds", I want you to consider staying on Earth with us"

"What?"

"Lapis you've seen how they treat you, how they treat others. You're different than Jasper or Peridot. You're a good person who got mixed up with bad people. You said it yourself, you were given no choice to return, on Earth, with us, you'll be given a choice. You'll be free to follow your own path. One that nobody can make you change. You'll have a place with us, with me"

Lapis gave him no response, except for a single tear in her eye that dripped down her cheek. He began to move his hand up to gently caress her cheek, but before he could, he could tell that was what she didn't want and decided against it.

The tender moment was interrupted by a loud explosion from down the hall, Ash could've sworn he heard singing again. They'll need our help. Are you with me?"

She looked down to the floor in shame

"I'll give you time to think about it" he then awkwardly hugged Lapis goodbye, and although she didn't answer him, she hugged him back. Not knowing that would be a very long time before he would share a happy moment with her again.

Ash ran through the corridor to the large room he somehow knew was the control room. Ready to take on Jasper and Peridot head on, he barged in, Charizard's pokeball in his hand. Only he saw that he had missed the entire party as Steven had already freed Pearl and Amethyst, as she was sitting on a tied up Peridot.

"Don't touch that!" she shouted to Pearl "you Clods don't know what you're doing!"

"Yo Ash!" Amethyst exclaimed "you missed the party. Also dude, really? That Lapis speech had me totally cringing"

"How did you guys see that?"

"There's a monitor showing her cell on the screen" Steven explained showing the monitor, we saw the whole thing"

Ash's feelings of embarrassment quickly left him as another explosion from the lower decks shook the entire ship. "Where's Ruby?"

"Dealing with Jasper" exclaimed Pearl as the ship temporarily lost its power and shook again with another explosion.

"I hope that means Ruby's winning!"

"I've gotten the ship to its proper trajectory, but there isn't enough power to keep us from crashing!"

"Lapis!" Ash realized as he turned back the way he came, desperately trying to save her from the doors ship. He finally reached the hallway with Lapis's cell. He could see her still in her position of defeat, sadly looking to the ground against the wall. "Lapis!" he shouted in vain as she clearly couldn't hear him. As he began to get closer to her, an arm grabbed him and threw him over their shoulder. It was Garnet. "No we have to help her! I have to help her! Let me go! Lapis!" But it was all for nothing, as Garnet threw him into an escape pod. Steven and the others joined him, as the ship began to crumble. Peridot had taken the time to sneak away to an escape pod of her own landing somewhere on Earth near Beach City.

"WHAT ABOUT LAPIS!" Ash screamed angrily

"There's no time!" Garnet shouted as the escape pod activated and dropped them into the Earth. The ship followed slowly as it smashed into the coast of the beach, narrowly avoiding the Temple. They exited the cramped pod to see the devastation across the beach. Pieces of the ship littered the once clean sand.

"Ruby didn't make it out either" Ash said sadly

"You and I need to have a major talk when we're done here" Garnet told him.

The moment was interrupted as a large pile of rubble began to move, Ash thought it was Lapis and began to run toward it, but Garnet held him back. And he was grateful, as once the rubble was moved, it was a cut and bruised Jasper under it. Ash was amazed the small Ruby was capable of doing something neither Garnet or all 6 of his Pokemon couldn't do.

"You!" Jasper angrily said finally noticing them "you only beat me because you're a fusion! But if I had somebody to fuse with I would" she lost her train of thought as a smaller pile of wreckage moved next to her. Lapis stood up and looked around in fear. She sprouted her water wings as she desperately tried to fly away, but Jasper was too quick, and grabbed her by the legs dragging her back to her and then moved her arm to be grabbing hers. "Oh no you don't brat. Aw, leaving so soon?"

"LET GO OF HER!" Ash screamed in a furry even he didn't know he could achieve

"Lapis" Jasper said ignoring him, "fuse with me!"

"What?"

"Think about it. They kept you on this dump for thousands of years, now they're planning on keeping you here. This is your chance for revenge!" She explained as she reached her arm out.

"Don't do it Lapis!" Ash screamed. She looked back at them, specifically looking Ash in the eye. To his horror, she turned to Jasper and took her hand. "NO!" He screamed as the two began their fusion dance. It ended with Jasper dipping her into her arms as she turned to the Gems with an evil smile on her face. A turquoise light blanketed them as they grew in size. Once the light vanished, standing in their place was what could only be described as an abomination. She had four eyes, razor sharp teeth, six legs, and stood nearly a skyscraper's height. Ash realized it was the monster from his nightmare.

The monster began laughing a deranged laugh as it summoned a water vortex from the sea. Ash prepared for the end this time with the Gems all embracing each other in a group circle. Suddenly the monster's twister scattered and a series of chains made of water latched onto her they began to drag her closer to the water.

"What are you doing!?" He heard it say in Jasper's voice

"I'm done with being everyone's prisoner. Well now you're MY prisoner!" It then spoke in Lapis's voice. "Let's stay on this miserable planet. Together!" It shouted as it began to vanish into the ocean.

"LAPIS NO!" Ash screamed at the fusion as it began to leave him.

"You told me to chose my own path on Earth, well here I am choosing it! Thank you Ash! Goodbye!"

And with that they were gone. Ash practically threw himself after it as he lept into the water. Kicking and splashing trying to catch up to her. Garnet pulled him from the water. That was all he remembered before he collapsed and fell into the darkness.

He woke up on a familiar couch in a familiar barn. He saw Pearl sitting across from him on a chair watching the VHS of the 1988 Summer Olympics.

"Ash!" She said embracing him in a concerned hug.

"How long was I out?"

"Nearly two days. After Malachite escaped, we brought you here. It's over now, we're safe."

"Not everyone" he said sadly

"Ash I'm so sorry" she said "but there is still a chance that we can help her. We just need to find her first. We'll also require to find Peridot as well"

Ash was not having any of Pearl's false hope "I just need to be alone", he insisted, but Pearl wasn't going anywhere. Apparently the Gems thought he was going to hurt himself as they took shifts to keep an eye on him for the rest of the day. Afterward he went back to the car wash and helped himself to the sodas from the vending machine using the key Greg gave him. He threw a few bucks on the table to pay him back and went back to the house, Amethyst was already there ready to begin her shift watching him.

"You were right" he admitted "I think I do love her"

His short friend embraced him in a hug. "We'll get her back. Now you helped make that mess on the beach to, you've got to help pick it up." She said as she lead him to the beach to help remove the fragments of the Homeworld ship. He took a single look out into the ocean, wondering if she could hear or see him. "Stay strong Lapis, we're gonna save you soon".