Alright, the big one. What this has all been leading up to. The clash between Ash and Jasper for Lapis. Please know that there will be mature content and difficult subject matter in this chapter. Because of that, reader discretion is advised I CANNOT STRESS THIS ENOUGH *POKEMON AND STEVEN UNIVERSE ARE NOT OWNED BY ME*
The sudden dimensional change expectedly left the three barely nauseous. While Cynthia was much more capable of withstanding the affects, Cilan and Iris were both far too young and collapsed. Steven and Amethyst brought them to Steven's bed and laid them down.
"Are they going to be alright?" she asked after drinking her third glass of water and filling it again for a fourth.
"Yeah, their bodies just need a little bit to recover." Gary answered. "It's good to see you're safe."
"What happened after we split up on Homeworld?"
"It's mostly a blur. I remember going back for Ash, but after that, I woke up in a hospital here."
"I'm just glad you're here, Flannery and Surge weren't so lucky." She then turned to Garnet, "Sorry that we interrupted your wedding reception."
Outside, Ash stood on the front porch overlooking the beach lost in thought.
"You doing alright?" Serena asked as she, Steven, Pikachu and Clemont joined him.
He took a deep breath. "The thought of her in Jasper's hands sickens me. The thought of my child with her infuriates me."
Steven came to his side. "We're going to bring her home Ash."
"Ash." Pearl announced from inside. "We're ready."
Everyone met inside where Cilan and Iris were now fully conscious and standing. Ash turned to the group standing in the living room.
"Alright, before we do this. Just a reminder that my world is completely different than this one."
"Whatever your world has in store for us, I'm sure we'll be ready for it." Connie declared.
"And one more thing, not all Pokemon will be as friendly as Pikachu. Wild Pokemon can and will be defensive, you might have to defend yourself."
Amethyst cracked her whip "You're kidding me right dude?"
Seeing the group was all ready, Ash lead them onto the warp pad. "Alright then. Let's take this fight to them." The warp pad flashed around them and brought them into the void. He turned to Iris and saw her face was turning more green than Cilan's hair. "You alright?"
"I really didn't want to do this again." she said with shaky knees.
Thankfully, the warp pad's light faded, and the group found themselves in the Petalburg Gym.
"Ash!" Max screamed rushing to his friend and squeezing him tightly.
"Max? You're here too?" he asked returning the hug. He was surprised to see the younger boy seemed much taller than the last time he saw him.
"You'd be surprised by who else is here." another familiar voice said from the door. Ash turned to see the face of one of the most important men in his life standing in the doorway.
"Professor Oak!"
"Gramps!" Gary exclaimed in happiness rushing to his grandfather and hugging him tightly.
"My boy!" the respected pokemon researcher returned the embrace.
"Ash!" another familiar voice screamed as she rushed towards him and squeezed him harder than he'd ever been squeezed.
"Mom? What are you doing here?"
"Norman called us. We flew here as fast as we could on the Professor's plane." Tracey answered.
"I didn't know you had a plane." Ash said to Professor Oak, still being squeezed by his mother.
"Well, I don't."
"We used mine." a new voice declared. Everyone turned to see a handsome, tall, lanky, young man standing across the room.
"Professor Sycamore?"
"In the flesh. I'm sure you remember my assistants Sophie and Cosette." he said gesturing towards the two women standing beside him. "We were already out of Kalos when Professor Oak told us."
"What's happened to Kalos?"
"The entire region is under lockdown. Lumiose City is lost and is under their control. If your friend is being taken somewhere, I'd bet it'd be there."
"Dad!" Bonnie shouted in concern when she realized what this implied for her father in Lumiose. "Is he okay?"
"Don't worry Bonnie, your father is safe with Alain in Lumiose."
"Alain's still in the city?"
"Who's Alain?" Steven asked.
"Only one of the best trainers I've ever met." Ash complimented his former rival.
"He's still in the city helping everyone who couldn't get out." he answered. He pulled his pokegear from his pocket and displayed a hologram of the capital city of the Kalos region in chaos. Smoke arose from the buildings as the Homeworld flag flew from the top of Prism Tower. Alain stood in the center of the screen, his partner Mairin behind him.
"The entire city is lost Professor." the Kalos champion announced. He turned to the group that had just arrived with surprise. "Ash? Is that really you?"
"Long story. We'll explain when we meet you there."
"Ash?" another voice asked from off screen. Pushing Alain back, they were greeted to the sight of Jessie forcing her way into frame. "Did it work?"
"Jessie!" James screamed in happiness seeing his reformed partner after all this time.
"James!" Jessie and Meowth exclaimed in joy to see him.
"You guys made it!" Cyntia said, relieved to see the rest of her group had arrived safely.
"Yeah. We just barely made it though."
"Keep your heads down." Garnet instructed them "We'll be there shortly."
"Copy that. We'll see you then."
After the pokegear hung up, Ash turned to Professor Sycamore "You sure your plane has enough space or all of us?"
The professor took a quick head count. "I think so. It'll be a bit crowded though."
He turned back to the rest of the group "I can't ask for anything more from you all. What I'm about to do doesn't have a guaranteed happy end. Last chance for anyone who doesn't want to go."
Room fell eerily silent. Steven approached his brother's side and put his hand on his arm. "We're not going back without her."
Ash looked up from person to person and saw the same response on their faces. He smiled determinedly. "Alright then. Let's do this."
Inside their cell, Brock examined Lapis as best as he could without the proper materials.
"You seem to be in good shape. It's hard to tell though without an ultrasound." he confessed after removing is ear from her stomach.
Lapis sighed with relief. "I'm just glad we're all safe for now."
The trio felt their prison stop moving as the ship landed. Misty gripped Lapis's arm supportively as the door hissed open.
"Get out." Cassidy ordered the group.
Misty gave her an angry glare, but Brock held her back to keep her from doing anything for Lapis's sake. They followed her out of the ship to see they had landed on the landing strip of Prism Tower.
"Where are we?" Lapis asked under her breath.
"Lumiose City." Brock answered looking out to the ruined city in chaos.
The three were lead down the long hallway towards a room on the end of the hall, Cassidy opened the door to reveal it to be a bedroom littered with electronic parts and blueprints. It was obvious this was Clemont's bedroom. Chained to the wall was another person, a purple haired, stern faced trainer Brock surprisingly recognized.
"Paul?"
"Brock? What are you doing here?"
"Shut up." Cassidy ordered. "All of you, on your knees."
The three followed her instructions and kneeled. Butch approached and shackled Brock and Misty to the wall, while Lapis was chained in the center of the room with chains that descended from the ceilling, forcing her to stand in place. The door opened and Jasper entered, having to lower her head on account of her massive height, following behind her, was the Marauder.
He pulled an odd looking device from his pocket and used it to scan Paul.
"What is that?" he asked annoyed.
"Just making sure you're not hiding anything. We don't want to have any surprises from you don't we?" The Marauder asked with his deranged smile. He did the following with Brock and Misty before turning to Lapis.
"Don't worry." Jasper told her with a smile, "He's just going to do a quick scan and it'll be done. After, we will take this world, together."
Lapis felt sick from the authenticness that seemed to come from Jasper. "You actually think I want this?"
"I know you do. We can be what we were. We will be the unstoppable force we were. No one will stand in our way."
"Ash will." she responded "He always will. Right now he's fighting to stop you. He's fighting to reunite with me. And he'll never stop fighting until I'm safe."
Jasper looked down at her looking insulted "You will see in time."
The Marauder looked down at the scanner with surprise before grinning evilly. "Uh, you might wanna see this." he said showing Jasper the screen.
Jasper snatched the device from his grip and looked down. "What is that?" The Marauder leaned in and whispered what it was. Jasper's eyes expanded greatly with shock, disgust and anger. She turned towards Lapis furious. "You…"
Lapis arched her head up in her restraints to look her captor in the eye. "I what?"
Jasper balled her massive fist with repressed rage. "You resign yourself to doom, just to spite me further? Just when I thought you couldn't hurt me any further, you let him put that cancer in you?"
"To hurt you? You think I did all of this, went through everything I've gone through just to spite you? You truly are delusional. Everything I've done, I do for him, and this child. Until you returned. I thought nothing about you, I was free from you. I don't want anything like what we had ever again. Look around Jasper, this, all of this is pointless. All the innocent lives you ruined, just to "reclaim me", was pointless. Please Jasper, end this. The Crystal Gems can help you. We can help you. Just end all this. Please."
Jasper looked down, then at the three trainers chained to the wall. Then back down at the image of the fetus on the screen. To everyone's shock, a single tear dropped from her eye, before she straightened her face and tossed the scanner aside, turning around and leaving the room.
"Do whatever you want to them." she told the Marauder as she closed the door, leaving them all in the care of the mad trainer. "Just get what we want from them."
"With pleasure." he answered grinning. He approached the desk in the corner of the room and opened a rusty tool box laying on it. "I'll bet you're curious as to how I got back into Giovanni's good graces." he said looking at Brock and Misty. "After our encounter with Celebi, he would've ordered my death for my treachery. Thankfully, he appreciates my talents." he walked over toward Misty, nearly inches from her face.
"He told me this himself. He asked me if I'd kill for him." He leaned in intimidatingly into Misty's ear and whispered "I answered "of course I would." Misty's breathing heavied, her attempt at a neutral face betrayed her as her lip trembled.
The Marauder quickly turned around and faced Brock. They saw now he was holding an object from the tool box, a large crowbar. He brushed the blunt instrument against Brock's cheek, who flinched in discomfort as the rusted, cold metal caressed his skin.
"But then he told me "That's too easy" he said turning to Paul and running his gloved finger across his throat. Paul, being the man he is, gave no response to the threatening gesture and instead continued to stare at his tourmentour with his cold, uncaring glare.
The Marauder turned away slightly upset he didn't get a response from him. But his evil grin returned as he stepped in front of the trio on the wall. "He asked me, "Would I kill even a baby for him?" With that, he turned around to Lapis, his grin reaching as far as the corners of his mask. "Do you know what I said to something as horrific and awful as a request like that?" To everyone's surprise, he turned back to the trio on the wall. "I said of course I would."
With that, he swung back around with the bar in his hands and struck Lapis directly in the stomach with a disturbing thud. Lapis bent over in unimaginable pain tears beginning to form in her eyes as he swung once again in the same spot.
"No! Stop! Stop!" Misty screamed in furry, pulling on her chains in a desperate attempt to free herself and stop the unspeakable act being done in front of them.
"You monster!" Brock screamed in his restraints.
Even the normally uncaring Paul's eyes widened in shock and disgust.
Lapis hunched forward in pain after the Marauder swung one more time into her stomach. He panted slightly before looking down at his victim with a shrug.
"Thought that'd be more enjoyable." he said nonchalauntly tossing the crowbar away. "Oh well, look on the bright side honey. You've got a long life ahead of you now." He chuckled evilly as he stepped out the door and left the group to reflect.
"Lapis, can you hear me?" Brock begged, trying to find any sign that she was alright, one desperate last call to make sure. But Lapis gave no response as she held her head downwards in pain and agony. The silence in the room gave a grave answer to everyone's main concern.
"Lapis…" Misty cried out, tears streaming down her eyes.
The three's attention was suddenly taken away to Lapis's gem which was beginning to glow. A pink bubble of a gemstone Brock instantly recognized that Lapis had hidden away and forgotten emerged from her gem. The bubble burst and the gem took her form in the middle of the room.
"Bismuth?" Brock asked as Misty and Paul looked on in awe.
The blacksmith turned quickly towards Lapis and hugged her tightly. Having been in Lapis's gem, Bismuth had full access to her memories and experiences. She saw just how deep her love for Ash ran, all she had been through, all she had done for Ash and Earth. She had been wrong about Homeworld Gems. And now she had to be there for Lapis. She shifted her arm into an axe head and destroyed the restraints holding Lapis in place, gently placing her on Clemont's bed.
"Bismuth, it's Team Rocket." Brock began to explain with a voice filled with tears.
"I know, Brock." she answered freeing him from his chains and turning to Misty and Paul.
Brock rushed immediately to Lapis's side and checked Lapis's condition.
"You're Bismuth?" Misty asked as she rushed to Lapis. "Steven and Ash told me a lot about you.
"Nice to meet yah." she answered freeing Paul. "How is she?"
Brock checked under Lapis's skirt. But looked up with a thousand yard stare. "Lapis, I'm so sorry. The baby's lost."
Misty buried her face into Bismuth's arm sobbing uncontrollably. Bismuth herself began to tear up as well. Brock took Lapis's hand, which laid limp in his hand as she stared off in a catatonic state of both depression and shock. Even the normally uncaring and unempathetic Paul stood in respect to the grieving mother.
Bismuth gently lay the still sobbing Misty down by Brock and approached Clemont's work desk.
"What are you doing?" Paul asked.
"Getting us out of here." she answered grabbing as many tools as she could and began to get to work.