Hi everyone! Crazy to see Jasper fuse with one of the corrupted on the show, right? I was so excited to see that! Still, I think it couldn've been stretched out longer, and so here I am with another chapter. Hope you enjoy!
The first thing to do would be to find the Crystal Gems. Jasper had been traveling by water, using the ocean to move around unseen. It was familiar to be underwater, not quite the same as being Malachite but as close as she could get.
The Crystal Gems had been here, though, and they didn't travel by foot the way Jasper had been forced to. If they were here, there was a warp pad nearby, and one near their base. If Jasper could find it, she could sneak up on them in the place they felt safest. Was it honorable? No. But Jasper barely cared about honor anymore. If it would let her get to the Crystal Gems and shatter them to dust, she'd do it in a heartbeat.
She set off through the woods, in the direction that Rose and the human had come from, searching for the Warp Pad.
The Gems making up the rest of the fusion were beginning to stir in their shared mind, questioning what she was doing with their body.
Hunting, she told them, and they quieted. These Gems had lost all higher thought, but they still understood some things. Hunt. Survive. Kill.
The new body moved more swiftly through the snow than Jasper had, faster even than the corrupted Gems themselves had. Their long, powerful legs let them cover in a single bound what would have taken Jasper a dozen strides at least, and Jasper was careful to go slowly enough that she could spot the warp pad when they came across it.
The falling snow was beginning to cover the tracks left by Rose and the human, and soon Jasper was left without any tracks to follow. She swore, and her frustration brought out the corrupted Gems.
Hunt . . . fail?
No, she thought. No, I cannot fail. Not now, not when my victory is assured as soon as I find them.
One of the corrupted seized control of the body, and pressed their face into the snow. Jasper grabbed for power, trying to stop the other Gem from leading them off course, but a new sense flooded their body. Scent.
Of course! Jasper had been focused on following them through normal Gem means, but now she had more at her disposal. What was the use of fusion if you weren't using what each Gem brought to the table?
She nudged the corrupted Gem away from the controls and searched for a scent herself. There was one organic scent, the human, and one that was distinctly harsh—Rose.
Following the scents each had left behind, it was almost too easy to track them, and Jasper had found the warp pad in minutes. There were a few light drifts of snow on its surface, which Jasper brushed off with their front hand before climbing on it. She tried to activate the warp, focusing on the sensation of being carried weightless through space, but the warp remained as dead as a normal Earth rock. Why wasn't it working?
Broken.
The voice of one of the corrupted Gems in their shared head reminded her. She was fused to corrupted Gems, and by extension the warp would consider their fusion corrupted, no matter who was at the helm. No warp pad would work for her unless she unfused, and as calm as the corrupted Gems seemed to be now, Jasper didn't want to have to wrangle them into submission again.
Looked like they were going to have to take the long way.