#and how the other jaspers have round gems but our jasper has a sharp almost diamond-shaped gem and that's why she's so single-minded

[maxbytes]

I feel Jasper would totally be the one who got pregnant. Aside from it feeling right in my brain, I've got a headcanon running in my brain that the ability to incubate was stamped out of gems at the beginning of or even before era 1. But Jasper has this one old function dredged up as the singular flaw in her form caused by her rushed Beta production.

i like the way you think. jasper is the only one who can get pregnant, whoops!

[e350tb]

Steven Universe: Marooned Together - Chapter Forty-Three

(with thanks as always to @real-fakedoors for proofreading)

Lars stared, his complexion blanched. His face was a white-pink colour that might have been funny to Stevonnie, were the situation not so completely unfunny. They were now in a standoff - Sadie on one side of the room (you might say in one corner, except the room, was circular), the two allied crews on the other. The Home Guard, out of instinct more than anything, had positioned themselves just ahead of the rest of the group, ready to fire at a moment’s notice - yet their hands shook, and they looked as ill-at-ease as everybody else, save the emotionless Sadie.

Above them, White Diamond smiled, almost pleasantly, and clapped her hands together. The sound was sharp, like claps of thunder, and it was enough to raise the hairs on the back of Stevonnie’s neck.

“Isn’t this much better, Starlight?” she asked, "Your little Earth creatures have proven useful in some of our most recent experiments. Why don't you come home? I think it would do wonders for you to look over the results of your influence.

"And, of course," she paused, smile tilting up at the corners. "There is always more to learn. Perhaps you might even like to pursue some experiments of your own, once we get your gem out of that little shell."

“You…” Jenny took a deep breath, “You evil bi-”

"Now, shall we go, Starlight?" White Diamond interrupted, no indication that she'd even heard Jenny speak. "This has been going on for quite long enough, I think."

“Enough of this!” snapped the lead Home Guard, “Jameson, Orange; take it down!”

“Wait, no!” exclaimed Lars.

It was too late - the Home Guards were already raising their weapons. For the briefest of moments, Sadie stared them down.

They never got the chance to fire.

Sadie went for the leader first - a red beam from her limb enhancers struck him, and for a moment he seemed almost to blur. Then he was indistinct, a vapour of steam that quickly evaporated, leaving nothing but a faint burnt smell.

“Holy shit-”

Sadie quickly swung round, firing on Jameson - just as quickly, he was vaporized, leaving Orange alone. She stepped back, dropping her weapon and throwing her arms up.

It wasn’t enough. A third beam - yellow this time - shot from Sadie’s arms, wrapping the unfortunate pearl in yellow electricity. She screamed for about a second; then, with a puff of smoke, her form was gone, her gem falling to the ground with a clatter.

Jenny stepped forward, arm outstretched, aiming to pick up Orange’s gem - before she could, there was another red light, and the gemstone turned into another small cloud of steam.

Sadie drew back her arm, her face completely devoid of emotion.

“Targets eliminated.”

Stevonnie glanced at Lars - the pirate captain looked like he was about to vomit.

“Chrysalis, do what you want to the rest of them, but bring Pink Diamond and the Lapis Lazuli to me.” White Diamond smiled, a simple look of contentment stretching across her pitch black lips.

“I’ll be seeing you very soon, Starlight.”

Her form flickered and the surrounding details of the  chamber melted into the air, leaving them back in the featureless, dark room.

Sadie raised her arms again. “Yes, my Diamond.”

“Sadie, no!”

Lars ran forward, slamming his hand down on her shoulder and kneeling.

“Lars, stop!” the Rutiles exclaimed.

“Get back, captain!” shouted Jasper.

“C’mon, don’t be an idiot!” snapped Amethyst.

Lars ignored them, looking into Sadie’s glowing eyes.

“Please, Sadie, this isn’t you!” he said, “They’ve… they’ve done something to you, but you’re still my friend! You’re still Sadie Killer, you’re… you’re still Player Two! I’ve been waiting decades to see you again, I… please, come back!”

For a moment, Sadie’s posture seemed to loosen.

“...Lars?” her voice was distorted, but recognisably hers.

“Yeah!” Lars replied, “Lars! Remember me? Please, you’ve gotta fight it…”

Sadie blinked.

When her eyes opened, they were glowing once more.

“No.”

The fingers at the end of her right limp enhancer warped, shifting into a long, holographic, hard-light blade. Before Lars could react, it swung upwards into his upper left arm, slicing through it like a hot knife through butter. The action was swift enough that Lars didn’t even seem to register that it had happened, still gazing into Sadie’s eyes.

The pain was just starting to strike him when Sadie acted again, swinging her left fist into his stomach and sending him flying across the room, slamming hard against the wall. His arm flopped almost pathetically to the ground next to him, and his head slumped onto his shoulder - he was out cold.

“Lars!” exclaimed Stevonnie.

“Lars, don’t go near her!” exclaimed Padparadscha, “She’s going to cut off your arm!”

Sadie stepped forward, her arm charging with red energy. She stopped under the orb, lifting her limb up to finish off the space pirate.

Boom!

Overhead, a sudden fissure ran the length of orb’s hemisphere, splintered outwards in a series of spider-webbing fractures. With the faultline came a cacophonous din of metal and debris splintering, a hail of car-sized fragments crashing towards the earth. Sadie was effectively buried beneath the fallout, and when Stevonnie glanced to their right, they saw  Jenny,  a smoking ray gun in hand, still pointed up where the orb had been. She grimaced and holstered the weapon.

“We gotta get outta here,” she said bluntly.

“But Sadie-”

“We can figure out how to help her later, ‘Von,” interrupted Jenny, “But if we hang around, we’re dead.”

Jasper scooped up Lars and nodded.

“Get back to your ship,” she said, “We’ll get back to ours and meet at New Earth.”

“Got it,” nodded Lapis, “Hold on.”

“Hold on to wha-”

Peridot was cut off as Lapis yanked her by the collar, wings emerging from her gem - the green gem had enough time to grab Amethyst before they were being whisked off down the corridor. Stevonnie, for their part, had managed to grab hold of Jenny as Lapis took them under her arm.

They looked backwards as they soared away - the orb chamber had already vanished into the distance, but the fusion could have sworn they still saw glowing yellow eyes in the darkness…

More and more, Stevonnie was finding that they hated hospitals.

Ceara, the new Ruby head doctor who had replaced Doctor West, was cleaning up Lars’ bandages. The space pirate stared at the roof from his position in the bed, his face set in an unreadable frown. The metallic stench of blood still filled the air, mixed uncomfortably with the faint smell of rubbing alcohol. His skin seemed to shimmer slightly under the harsh ward light.

Stevonnie and Lapis sat on one side of him, Jasper on the other. The bigger gem seemed to stare at absolutely everything except the captain - or more specifically, the captain’s stump.

“Okay, I’ll send a nurse to change them again after you’ve slept,” said Ceara, “We’re talking to Lenny and Bismuth about getting you a prosthetic but that might take a few days. In the meantime, you gotta rest.”

“Mm-hmm,” muttered Lars.

“Well, I’ll leave you to it,” Ceara nodded, “Visiting hours close in fifteen minutes, so you three are gonna have to skedaddle soon. I’ll be back to make sure you’re gone - goodnight.”

She turned and walked out the door, leaving them all alone.

Lars sighed.

“I told you, y’know,” said Jasper quietly, “After what they’ve done to her… the Sadie you knew is dead.”

“Gee, nice bedside manner there, J,” grunted Lars, “Besides, I got through to her - just for a second. She’s still in there. She just can’t break out.”

Jasper pursed her lips.

“Then she’d be better off dead,” she said, standing and moving towards the door.

“I’ll be on the ship,” she said, “Need to punch somethin’.”

“Yeah, I’d join you, but…” Lars raised his stump.

Jasper grunted and walked away.

Lars lay back, blowing out air.

“She’s taking it hard,” he said.

“How can you tell?” asked Lapis dryly, “Isn’t she always like this?”

“Yeah, but she’s slightly blunter.”

He turned to Stevonnie.

“You agree with me, right?” he asked, “That there’s… that she’s…”

“That we can save her?”

Lars nodded.

“I just… I can’t lose her,” he muttered, “Not now that I know she’s still here. But… but I need help, and…”

“I agree with you.”

Lapis spoke up, rubbing her own arms in a sort of self-hug.

“Lapis?”

“Well, maybe she’s just… stuck,” she shrugged, “In the … robot equivalent of a mirror or something, trying to get out. Stevon… Steven helped me, so maybe I should be helping her.”

She turned to Stevonnie and smiled, blushing slightly.

“It’s what you’d do, right?”

Stevonnie grinned and put a hand on her shoulder.

“It’s what we’d do.”

They turned to Lars, their face set in a determined grimace.

“We’re got your back, Lars.”

“Well,” said Lars, “Put ‘er there.”

He extended his stump.

There was a long, long, long silence.

“It’s a joke, Stevonnie.”

“Right, yeah, okay.”

[words4bloghere]

One of a Kind: 2

<FIRST

Nacre set the irregular gem on the floor while still looking at the screen floating next to her. Walking over to her seat, she flicked through files as she waited. The live feed from Incubation Tank 72JR showed no change and she frowned.

The building glow from the gem caught her attention and she turned to the Jet. Once again, Nacre wondered how much of a gem’s form was a stylistic choice and how much was already built into their gem. This Jet, like all the others, was heavy jet and all blunt angles. She was, of course, beautiful - all of her semi-organics were - but Jets were always so, serious. 

“Welcome to Homeworld Jet. Your identification code is Structure NC1, Composite 9368.” Nacre said as she started to fill out their ID card. 

“Thank you ma’am.” Jet said. They peered around the clean room and gave a satisfactory nod. Jets were used on colonies to purify areas marked out for Kindergartens and so they had to emerge on Homeworld first. They weren’t as fun to converse with as Ambers or Mercuries, so Nacre didn’t linger on the introductions.

“You have been assigned to Yellow Diamond’s court. A Jasper is waiting for you outside as your escort.” Nacre said and swept the ID card down the system to the cohort of Peridots that were assembling the launch party. 

“Yes ma’am.” Jet replied and saluted before walking to the exit. Nacre watched them go and sighed as the door hissed shut behind them. 

She hadn’t really talked to anyone since she re-incubated Pink Pearl. The price of being elite, she supposed; it was lonely being one of the favored few. 

The other Nacres were to be kept in the dark about the nature of the project, and were already suspicious enough. Talking with them wouldn’t be friendly collaboration; many of them were wanting to stay on in the Homeworld lab instead of being shipped off to backwater colonies to grow Jets and Obsidians for thousands of years. That meant taking her job.

The Amethysts who patrolled the halls were off limits, and the Agates occupied a parallel but unequal niche that made them hostile. Some of the Jaspers who came for the Jets were companionable but still were not gems she could talk to.

There was no one else in the universe who understood her now.

Nacre went to the incubation tank and put a hand on the outer glass.

“Hello Pearl.” She greeted softly. “How are you feeling today?” Nacre floated her screen over and tapped the top left corner, clearing it and making it transparent. It scanned over the gem. Nacre frowned.

The flaw was still there. She had worked with a Sodalite for about two hundred years in an attempt to smooth out the flaw, but it hadn’t worked. 

“It is too perfect perhaps.” Sodalite had said with a shrug. “It has nowhere to escape.” 

For fifteen hundred years, she had tried everything she could think of.

Fifteen hundred years wasn’t very long to them, but enough had happened that it stretched her failure over a massive timeline. Each of the Diamonds - save Pink - had conquered a new colony. Yellow had called for a celebration after the first successful yield from a Kindergarten and Nacre had gone to that ball. Pink Diamond had also been in attendance, but had sat on her throne glowering at everyone gathered.

Nacre had never seen a gem behave in such a manner, though she had heard ill-tempered and newly emerged Jaspers could act similarly. 

Pink had come by the lab frequently over the years. Usually when Yellow and Blue were both gone so that the former wouldn’t scold her and the latter wasn’t smothering her. 

The first visit had almost caused Nacre to poof from stress.

But Nacre had seen the pain in Pink Diamond’s face. She had wondered what had happened to cause such damage to a Pearl, and such guilt to a Diamond. Nacre didn’t ask, only patiently answering Pink’s repetitive questions and demands. 

The other Diamonds also checked in now and again. 

The lab door hissed open, and Nacre turned to see Blue Pearl standing in the archway. 

“The Diamonds are calling for you.” Blue Pearl said softly. Nacre nodded and nervously brushed down the front of her body.

“Of course.” She said and started forward.

“You are to bring her with you.” Blue Pearl added and Nacre halted.

“Of course.” She repeated, but sounding less sure. Nacre went back to the tank and took up a scoop. Ladling up the gem, Nacre let the goo drain through the mesh scoop while she flicked on the filters. When they came back, Pearl would have a clean and fresh tank to return to.

Using a worn polishing towel, Nacre carefully cleaned Pink Pearl’s gem before placing it back in her own. Turning back to Blue Pearl, Nacre nodded.

The pair walked down the same whispering hallway Nacre had gone down alone a millennia and a half ago. The door was no longer guarded and the doors opened automatically. Once again, it was only the three Diamonds, though they were now sitting in their own thrones. Blue Pearl walked with Nacre to the center of the room before leaving her to join Yellow Pearl. Three Diamonds, two Pearls, and one Nacre, all alone. 

“My Diamonds.” Nacre saluted and bowed, holding the position. 

“We have spoken to a Sapphire, in regards to the flawed Pearl.” Yellow Diamond said, once again ignoring any proper greeting. Nacre stood and did not reply, knowing she wasn’t expected to. 

“She foresaw that Pink Pearl will never reform.” Blue Diamond continued and Nacre winced. She had come to a similar conclusion years ago. 

“There is one thing, your Esteemed Radiances.” Nacre said and retrieved Pink Pearl. The pale rose coloring made something rise inside of her and she gave a little, sad sigh. 

“What is it?” Yellow Diamond demanded. Instead of gripping the gem tightly as she wanted, Nacre instead held her fingers loose. As if the pearl was lighter than air. 

“If the Luminous White Diamond was to house the pearl within her gem, she could project Pink Pearl.” Nacre said and looked up from the gem in her hands. 

Light, though life sustaining, was not life itself. It built their bodies but not their minds. White Diamond was light, and had already proven her dominance over their forms. 

“She still couldn’t go back to Pink.” Yellow Diamond said, pointing out the massive flaw in Nacre’s plan.

“Her presence would only upset our Pink.” Blue Diamond added in a murmur. Nacre did now curl her fingers over the gem. 

“It should be shattered.” Yellow Diamond replied with a dismissive wave of her hand. “Then Pink could move on.”

Nacre looked up and was startled to see White Diamond looking back at her. Her body shivered and her arms curled up to pull the gem closer to her chest. 

“I will do it. For Pink.” White Diamond said and Nacre felt herself sink. She didn’t believe it was for Pink Diamond at all, or at least not for her benefit. Still, Nacre approached the dais. 

To further surprise her, White Diamond came down from her throne. Nacre went still, unable to bow or salute, and could only stare up, open mouthed, at the massive Diamond towering over her. Light trailed from the Diamond’s fingers and the gem in Nacre’s grasp started to pull free. She let it go and it floated up to the sharp clawed bowl of White Diamond’s hand. Without another thought, White Diamond popped the pearl into her gem and Nacre blinked.

She had assumed there would be more consideration.

With a yelp, Nacre jumped out of the way as White Diamond projected an image of the pearl. It looked so solid, Nacre almost reached out to take it back. But within White Diamond’s light, another light started to bud and unfurl. Pink Pearl began to appear facing her, still with the cracked missing eye, but without color. Her one good eye was open wide and a thin smile made another crack at the bottom of her face. 

Twitching her hand, White Diamond seemed to command Pink Pearl and the gem saluted.

“Perhaps it is time I was attended by a Pearl.” White Diamond said before turning her back on them and ascending to her throne. Pink Pearl stayed on the floor, staring at Nacre. 

“What do you mean?” Yellow Diamond, obviously bewildered, questioned.

“This is now White Pearl. Nacre will incubate a new Pearl for Pink.” White Diamond answered as she settled back into her seat. “And this one will make our beloved Starlight happy.” 

“Of course.” White Pearl said. It didn’t sound like acknowledgement, but a further press on Nacre to obey. 

Nacre gulped. 

“Yes, my Diamond.” She said and bowed. Panic thrummed inside of her and the lines of the tiled floor shifted in her vision.

What had she done?

Three hundred years later, Nacre put a gem on the floor of her lab. It was the last round of tests for this one, and hopefully it would pass. The others had failed in some small way and were dispatched, assigned to gems far from Homeworld. This one had shown promise, though without Pink Diamond’s extraction, the coloring wasn’t completely correct.

Pulling up her screen, Nacre flipped through the failed files as she waited for the gem to project. 

She had since learned that other gems, fully inorganic ones, emerged from their sections in the Kindergarten already fully formed. The Semi-organics had to be prompted by being placed in the open. 

Light erupted and a gem stood before her.

“Hello Pearl.” Nacre greeted with a wane smile.

“Good afternoon Nacre.” Pearl replied and bowed. “More tests today?”

Nacre had been conflicted on whether to label this Pearl’s chatty nature as deviant, or to make a note of it at all. Pink Diamond seemed so lonely, and loneliness was something Nacre recognized. All this time, she just wanted someone to talk to.

“Last one.” Nacre said and went scrolling through the list of tasks Pearl had been performed. She got to the last item and hesitated.

“Pink Diamond obviously has many responsibilities. And there are certain expectations she must meet.” Nacre said and took a seat in front of Pearl.

“Of course.” Pearl replied easily. Talking to fill a space she didn’t need to fill.

“What would you do if Pink Diamond’s happiness came into conflict with those responsibilities and expectations?” Nacre asked.

It was the question that had failed all the others to reach this point. Their answers, always varied, had been submitted to the other Diamonds for review and had been summarily denied. That was how Nacre had pieced together what had happened to Pink Pearl.

“I exist to serve Pink Diamond. To make her happy.” Pearl said, mimicking many other similar answers. Nacre couldn’t help the frown.

“However,” Pearl went on and made Nacre come to attention. “My Diamond is flawless and would never fail to meet those responsibilities and expectations. I would be sure of it.” 

Nacre’s stylus hovered over her screen and she let her mind tick through a few thoughts before she recorded Pearl’s answer and submitted it. When the form was sent off, Nacre closed the screen and tapped her leg with the stylus. 

She had needed to make an adoring Pearl that had a sense of self. The other Diamonds believed that would make the Pearl less likely to indulge deviant behavior. 

Nacre knew how a sense of self could do the exact opposite.

“You have to understand something Pearl.” Nacre said and Pearl turned serious. “If you pass, you will never be Pink Pearl. There is only one Pink Pearl. You will be Pink’s Pearl. Do you get it?”

This was Nacre’s private test.

“I will be hers.” Pearl said softly and Nacre smiled. 

“You will serve her.” She corrected Pearl gently and the other gem smiled. 

“Of course.” 

The screen beeped and Nacre tapped it open. Denials were getting quicker.

“Oh.” She said. “Congratulations.” Nacre flipped the screen around. “You’ve been accepted.”

[kaikamahine]

Set-of-thee-things story: Jasper with either 2) or 9) pretty pretty please?

I know it doesn’t seem like there’s much Jasper in this, but it circles back around to her, promise! :D 

THANK YOU FOR SENDING A PROMPT, FRIEND.

2: Tiles, clacking of high heels, herbal tea

By the time back-up arrives, Connie’s barricaded herself in the kitchen, crouched on top of an overturned soup pot in the manner of a particularly uncomfortable bird sitting in a nest much too small for it, knobby knees propped up by her armpits. She’s made a helmet out of a colander, and she’s using the Rose Quartz sword to pin the pot handle to the kitchen tile, balancing herself with it. Grim determination makes steel out of her face, her aquiline profile turned to a sharp cleaver’s edge.

“Hurry,” she says to them without preamble, as soon as Steven lets them in, calling, Connie, it’s us, we came as fast - “It hasn’t reformed yet, but I don’t know if my defenses will hold!”

“Never fear,” Peridot shouts in answer. “The Crystal Gems are here!”

She barrels through the door ahead of the others - the effect only slightly spoiled by the fact she’s on the wrong side of the kitchen island, which she isn’t tall enough to see over. 

Connie gingerly unfolds herself, keeping her sword point trained on the pot as her weight leaves it.

In one smooth movement, Peridot whips it off the ground, revealing a scaly honey-gold gem underneath, which Steven punts across the tile to Lapis, who claps her hands together and bubbles it.

A pause, and everybody expels the breath they’ve been holding, all at once.

“Well, I was expecting more of a fight,” Peridot says acerbically. 

“It was hiding under the shoes in my mom’s closet,” Connie tells them, fetching the sheath from the other room and returning, sliding the sword home and buckling it around her waist. “I mean, okay, they’re mostly my dad’s shoes since he needs to have every pair he’s ever owned in black and brown, it’s a thing with him, and Mom usually keeps hers by the door. But she needed her second-best pair of heels today, so she opened up the closet and started digging - fortunately, I was there, I don’t want to think about what would have happened if I wasn’t - ”

Steven looks alarmed. “Is Dr. Maheswaran all right?”

“Yes, she’s fine - she got it on the snout with a loafer - ”

“- looks like a Topaz,” Lapis comments, studying the gem through the dark membrane of her bubble. Even obscured, it’s obviously encrusted with calcified, bone-white growths. “Or. She was a Topaz.”

“- but then I got her and Dad to leave it to me.”

“Wow, Connie,” Steven goes, round-eyed. “You really vanquished a corrupted gem all by yourself?”

“Oh, no, I called you immediately, so I knew I wasn’t going to be all by myself, it was just…”

She trails off, and then peeks out from under the rim of the colander, suddenly looking uncertain, like she doesn’t know whether to be embarrassed or proud. 

“Yeah,” she says, and slowly starts to grin. “I guess I did.”

“- only in Yellow Court, but that didn’t change, I’ve never met a Topaz who’d turn down the chance to poke their nose into other people’s business,” Peridot’s saying dryly, studying the gem in Lapis’s hands. “So if she wasn’t in a closet with the Connie’s human feet-shirts, she would have been in someone else’s trash can.”

She draws breath, revving up to full-blown lecture mode, and then suddenly the line of her mouth snags.

Lapis glances up. “What is it?”

“Steven … ” Peridot calls, cutting through Steven’s rapt preoccupation with Connie’s tale. "Can you take a look at this?“

Obediently, he circles around the kitchen island. Peridot grabs his arm, and the two of them have a hasty whispered discussion behind cupped hands. Lapis waits, looking patient and bemused, as they surface to peer intently at the bubbled corrupted Topaz.

“Yeah,” Steven says, after a long pause. “That’s her.”

“That’s the third one we’ve found, just in this area!” Peridot flings her arms up. “Do you know how far they had to travel to get all the way back here, and what for?”

“We don’t really know why corrupted gems do what they do,” Steven answers. “And the Gems have been trying to figure them out for thousands of years.”

Connie hops up onto the counter, rearranging the sword as it bangs against the cabinets. The colander wobbles on top of her head.

“Where did she come from?” she asks.

Steven and Peridot exchange a look.

“Beta Kindergarten,” Peridot answers, simultaneous with Steven’s, “Arizona.”

Ding! Connie’s eyebrows spring up like toast.

“Oh,” she says, uncomfortably.

“What kind of place is that? Arizona?” Lapis interjects, letting the bubble float over her head and frowning up at it, like she’s trying to imagine why a gem would hike all the way to Delmarva if they didn’t have to.

“I don’t think you can really count Arizona as a place, ma’am,” Connie deadpans.

Lapis nods, like that makes perfect sense. “Like Jersey.”

“OKAY WELL,” comes out of Peridot at sudden top volume, and she edges towards Lapis and the bubble in her best attempt at casual, which lands three degrees off anything remotely resembling such. “We should send her to the temple and then move on with our day! The Connie can tell us all about how she managed to poof her - “

Lapis’s expression changes.

She snatches the bubble and holds it high out of Peridot’s reach.

“No fair!” Peridot complains, hopping on tiptoes.

“What aren’t you telling me?” And before anybody can say anything, a dawning suspicion steals across Lapis’s face, like she’s starting to see the giant, woman-sized shape paper-punched out of the conversation.

Her voice comes out cold. “What was she doing with them?”

Steven, Peridot, and Connie all flinch.

Peridot recovers first, and forces out a deliberate, offhanded laugh. 

“Oh, the usual crazy stuff,” she says with a shrug, ignoring Steven’s hissed, Peridot, we don’t say that word! “Collecting them, keeping them trapped in cages, some drivel about prisoners and purging, I wasn’t paying attention - I was busy and my powers were needed,” she buffs her nails on her uniform. “Ehh, I think she mostly she was taking her own inadequacies out on gems who couldn’t fight back, because it felt good.”

Lapis’s face goes very still.

Connie and Steven exchange miserable looks.

“Oh!” Peridot continues with a snap of her fingers, oblivious. She looks over at them. “But she didn’t start in Beta, did she? You said that after the mountains, she tried keeping those corrupted jaspers in the ocean, right? That’s where you fought her?”

Usually happy to recount how Amethyst and Stevonnie rescued one corrupted jasper from imprisonment and drove off Jasper herself, Steven now looks like he’d rather be anywhere but here.

His head turtle-ducks towards his collar. “Peridot …”

Her brows pinch together. “You’re using the ‘Peridot, you’re being insensitive’ voice. Why are you doing that? She’s bubbled - it’s not like she has any feelings in that state - she doesn’t care what we say!”

With an almost crystalline snap of something frozen forced into movement, Lapis releases the bubble and taps the top of it. It vanishes.

She leaves the kitchen without a word.

“What’d I say?” Peridot blinks, and then with dawning concern, “No, wait, doesn’t matter. I’m going to see if she’s all right.”

The door closes behind her, and at last, reluctantly, Connie takes off her colander helmet.

Steven makes a face at her. “Sorry, Connie.”

This should have been your day, is implied. Connie shrugs and says, “You better go after them.”

*

Peridot was right about one thing, though:

The corrupted Topaz is the third gem recently bubbled that they recognized from Beta Kindergarten, and they didn’t have a clue what could prompt a corrupted gem to trek all the way back to Delmarva from Arizona.

Honestly, without Lapis or Peridot, Steven wouldn’t even know that the gem was a Topaz - and neither would Amethyst, since any gems outside their immediate family are as unfamiliar to her as they are to him. When it comes up, Garnet and Pearl just call them corrupted - but he thinks that has more to do with grief than ignorance; if Garnet and Pearl avoid calling corrupted gems by their names, then they don’t have to confront the likelihood that they’ll look at a monster and see a friend.

Lapis and Peridot, while not as straight-up callous as they used to be, don’t suffer the same sentimentality.

Still, Peridot’s suggestion - put forth some two weeks after the Topaz incident - is met with an immediate icy silence.

“Bait,” Garnet echoes, a single reproving syllable.

Undaunted, Peridot pounds her fist into the palm of her other hand.

“Yeah!” she says. “We unbubble one of the Beta gems we have and see if that’s the common denominator.”

Steven glances back and forth, trying to slurp quietly from the top of his mug to see if his tea’s cooled enough to drink yet. He grimaces at the taste: Connie has a five-minute presentation on why herbal teas are good for you, but do they have to taste like suffering?

“That’s not much to go on,” Pearl points out reasonably.

“Sure it is! If we just - ”

“I can kinda see Perrie’s point,” Amethyst says, and when Garnet and Pearl both turn to look at her, she shrugs. “Nobody likes to be alone, guys. Not permanently. You all remember Centipeedle? If all the Beta gems did used to be part of Jasper’s army thousands of years ago - assuming she wasn’t just crazy - “

“Amethyst,” Steven complains.

“ - then they’re gonna wanna be together. Like soldiers or whatever.” She spreads her hands, like, see? “This is our chance to round them all up.”

It’s a testament, Steven thinks, to how far they’ve all come that where once Garnet, Amethyst, and Pearl would have balked at the idea of attracting any kind of attention from corrupted gems, now they’re confident that that between five weaponized gems and one Steven, not to mention Connie and Lion, they’ve got a good chance at handling whatever’s thrown at them. At least from this planet.

Garnet’s mouth makes the faintest upward twitch.

“Let’s try it.”

*

BAM!

The screen door bangs off its hinges, and Peridot comes barreling in already yelling.

“I’ve made a terrible mistake! You’ve got to come quick!”

With a low vrrrrrBMM, Garnet’s gauntlets crystalize over her hands. This, more than Peridot’s histrionics - which are often caused by other such distresses as an unpaid Netflix bill interrupting her streaming or some unknown species of spider hiding in her paint cans, convincing her it’s an invasion (”the more legs it has, the more likely it is to murder us, Steven!”) - alarm Amethyst and Pearl, who also come to attention.

“What’s wrong?” Garnet says.

“It’s Lapis! She went into the temple, and she - “

The tension in the room ratchets up so suddenly she stumbles, and frowns at them. Behind the counter, Steven sighs.

In his opinion, the civility that exists between the Crystal Gems and Lapis is nothing short of a miracle. It’s one thing to continually tell Lapis that the Gems never meant to keep her imprisoned, and another thing for Lapis to break a 5000-year habit of loathing and obsessing over how the Crystal Gems are cruel, heartless, trophy-hunting monsters. These days, Steven just shrugs off the ocean-theft, near-murder incident - so she had a villain moment, who hasn’t had a villain moment, they’re going to make a catchy musical number about it one day if Dad hasn’t already - but he sees the exact conclusion Garnet, Amethyst, and Pearl leap to with that declaration alone.

“Guys - “ he starts reprovingly, but Garnet speaks over him.

“Where is she?”

“Uh.” Wrong-footed, Peridot blinks, then remembers what she was trying to say. “At the Greg-dad’s alternate housing facility?”

Whatever the Gems were expecting to hear, this wasn’t it.

“She’s where?” Pearl says blankly.

*

It’s easy to tell which storage unit belongs to Mr. Universe’s - even if it wasn’t the only one that’s open, the deep blue light pooling on the asphalt would be a dead giveaway.

At the sight, Peridot starts to dash forward, but Amethyst grabs her shoulder in a restraining hold, shaking her head, and so Peridot settles for cupping her hands around her mouth and calling out, sotto voice, “Lapis! Lapis, it’s okay, I’m here!”

“Shh,” comes the reply, and something in the storage unit makes a distinct whumph!

Pearl tightens her grip on her spear, expression grim.

Unable to stand it, Steven pushes forward until he’s almost at the garage door, wrapping an arm around Garnet’s leg and peering out.

At first, all he can make out is a mass of orange and white. Crouched in front of all that bulk, Lapis seems laughably small. The only light comes from the streetlight several paces back and Lapis’s gem, illuminating the edges of everything in a ominous, midnight glow. Somewhere back in the dark, something breathes.

Peridot speaks first.

“Lapis.” Her tone is tense, her hands fisted at her sides. “We could have used any of the Beta gems, you didn’t - “

“No,” Lapis says mildly.

At the sound of her voice, the monster shifts her chin along the cement, and Steven abruptly realizes what they’re looking at.

The corrupted gem that had once been Jasper lies on her belly in front of Lapis, her head lowered until it’s mere inches away from Lapis’s outstretched palm, the way Steven once saw the Pizza’s old dog behave with Nanefua, sitting poised and obedient as she held a piece of fish in front of its nose and made it wait. Jasper holds so still she’s almost shaking, a ripple of movement under her fur and the sickly, conical growths that encrust her head and shoulders. Steven can’t tell where her eyes are, but he can just make out her nostrils, flaring open and shut under the heel of Lapis’s hand.

She’s so big the sound of her breathing takes up the entire unit, an inhaling-exhaling rush like being trapped inside a seashell.

“You’re right, Peridot,” Lapis says.

The Peridot of a year ago might have brushed that off with a casual, I know, but now she narrows her eyes and says, “about … what?” with trepidation.

“They’ll hunt her down. All the Beta gems - she’s their common denominator. So if you’re right, if she was doing to them exactly what I did to her - “

“Lapis, no - “ Steven tries, loudly.

The next inhale comes as a low, warning growl, and his mouth snaps shut of its own accord.

“- then they’ll come to where she is.” Her calm and carefully moderated tone now drops, and Jasper’s chin inches along the cement like she’s trying to follow it. “They’ve been alone and frightened for thousands of years. They’ll leap at anything that isn’t that, even if it hurts. And then we can help them.”

“You can’t leave her unbubbled, Lapis,” Garnet says firmly.

“She won’t hurt me.”

Whumph! comes again, and Steven has a strange moment when he realizes that it’s Jasper’s tail, thumping against whatever it is his dad’s got back there. 

Is she … she’s wagging her tail! he thinks with sudden glee, and clamps down hard on the urge to smile. It’s not appropriate for the situation, Steven.

“Or you,” Lapis adds, like it’s an afterthought.

Garnet, Pearl, and Amethyst all exchange skeptical looks; absolutely nothing in their experience says Jasper’s ever tried to do anything but hurt them.

“You can’t know that,” Garnet insists. “Corrupted gems aren’t something to play around with. They’re a danger to themselves and to the lifeforms on this planet.”

“Not if she stays in here!”

A pause, and then all eyes swivel to Steven.

“Well,” he continues, carefully releasing his hold on Garnet, “it doesn’t have to be here, here, it’s probably not fair to keep her in a doghouse. Especially in the dark! But we’ve got something, don’t we? Like the Centipeedles on their ship!”

“Steven - “ Pearl clicks her tongue. “That’s different. They’re with their crew, that’s - “

Lapis stands and abruptly pivots to face them.

“What do you think I am?” Her voice is so flat you could skate across it.

Garnet’s mouth skews like she tastes something unpleasant.

Lapis meets her gaze and doesn’t flinch. She keeps one hand extended behind her, palm flat - Jasper stays where she is.

Steven wonders if they can tell how much it costs Lapis to confess that - that doing to Jasper what Homeworld had done to her, that Jasper in turn did to other gems, made Jasper hers in an unfortunate kind of way, the kind that takes bravery to admit to - but before he can say anything, Peridot jumps in, her expression apprehensive - this whole thing had been her idea. “And - if Amethyst’s right and the corrupted gems from Beta were part of her army, thousands of years ago, that means she’s their crew, too, right?”

Garnet shakes her head. “You’re asking us to let you release a proven enemy, without - “

“She won’t hurt us,” Lapis says again.

“Why not?”

And the answer, when it comes, surprises them all:

“Because of Steven,” says Amethyst.

Everyone looks at her. She looks at Lapis.

Then she folds her arms, looking grumpy. “Well? Am I wrong?”

A beat, and Lapis turns, once more crouching down in front of Jasper, who whoofs out a breath, thumping her tail in a manner that’s almost contented.

“You’re the Crystal Gems,” she says. “You’ve lived with Steven all his life, so you don’t know what it’s like, being so rock bottom you’ve got nothing else. There’s nowhere to go at that point - except there is, because the one thing you’ve got left is being what Steven sees when he looks at you.”

Steven starts to fidget, uncomfortable, but when he steals a look around, he sees Peridot nodding with perfect understanding, and - to his shock - Amethyst, too.

But how can I see something in you if it’s not already there! he wants to protest. You’re the ones who are so special, not me, and all I want is to show you that!

“The plan will work,” Lapis says confidently.

She sneaks a glance in Steven’s direction, tucking a stray fringe of hair away from her face, and he’s reminded suddenly of the shyness in Connie’s expression the day she vanquished the snooping Topaz without their help: I did good, right?

A hand descends, flattening the hair on top of his head: Garnet, conceding.

“We’ll try it once,” she allows, and Pearl heaves her this is a bad idea and I’m going to say I told you so later sigh. “And then we’ll decide where to go from there.”

The storage unit fills as Jasper draws in a huge breath and releases it gustily.

Then she tips her head forward, just barely, just enough that her nose bumps up under the palm of Lapis’s hand.

Lapis smiles.