"Beware the Jabberwock, my son!

The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!"

Jabberwocky, L. Carrol

It was a thankfully quiet night in Beach City. The streets and boardwalk were empty, the beach itself just a smooth ribbon of white next to the sea, free of the jagged chunks of debris that had littered it for weeks. Steven was the only soul out and awake, seated at the edge of the water in his pajamas, ukulele in hand. Ever since he had found Peridot's escape pod he had trouble sleeping, his mind too full about where the rogue gems had gone.

Peridot herself loomed like a sort of bogeyman, the pod had come down close enough to Beach City that she could be anywhere, waiting to do… Something, he guessed. And it just wasn't her. Everytime he closed his eyes Malachite would rise up out of his imagination, screaming and roaring and clawing out of the water and up the sand, both sets of eyes locked on him, mouth splitting as the two gems fought for control of the massive form.

Even just thinking about Malachite was enough to send a shiver down his spine. He had never seen gems fused with so much malice. He wasn't even sure how it was possible that they had stayed together. Amethyst and Pearl would just fall apart when they didn't get along or just were surprised by something. Malachite's double face was the stuff of nightmares, Jasper's desperation to escape and Lapis's determination to stop her from leaving. That was the frightening part. Why would Lapis want to stay like that after all she had been through? Steven could have convinced the Gems to let her stay with them in the Temple, he was sure of it.

He furrowed his eyebrows as he tried to think about why Lapis would do what she did, fingers running over the strings in a gentle strum. Yeah, Garnet could be way scary when she was mad, and facing down all three of the Gems could give anyone the willies, but Jasper had been way scarier. And bigger. Although most of that was the hair. His fingers played over the strings again, plucking out a tune. Was Homeworld really that scary, if they had Gems like Jasper to fight for them? If they had ships that weren't even scratched by four light cannons? Lapis had said that they couldn't fight Homeworld, but he couldn't believe that.

"Augh! Why does this have to be so complicated!?" Steven threw his hands up in frustration and let himself fall back onto the sand with a groan.

In the distance, there was a sound that could only just be heard over the waves hitting the sand. A sort of disturbance, but he ignored it. There were always fish jumping around in the water, sometimes even sharks! He scrambled back to his feet at the thought, the still too-recent memory of being afraid of a shark jumping out of the water to gobble him up running through his head.

But what was heading towards him out of the water was more terrifying than any shark.

Freedom was bitter sweet. Lapis Lazuli had left her chained to a massive outcropping of rock, deep in some dark ocean trench. Getting herself loose had been no easy task, and one of the translucent chains was still around her wrist, trailing behind her on the abyssal plain as she trudged along, following the massive furrows that Malachite had left. Jasper was infuriated. Coming to Earth should have been easy. Wipe out whatever was left of Rose Quartz's rebels. Re-activate the Kindergarten and repair the Homeworld warp. It would have been glorious, to watch the miserable, backwater mud-ball that had been the start of the worst Gem Civil War in recent history wither down into nothing but a barren rock.

Hands clenched as she had to muscle her way through the underwater pressure. Instead of her easy victory, she had been beaten, tricked, and left to rot by some coward brat with a chip on her shoulder. Jasper had seen the full extent of Lapis's grudge when they had fused but it was so inconsequential in the grand scheme of things that it was laughable. Lapis was lucky she was left on Earth. Gems like her weren't tolerated by the Diamond Authority. You fell in line, you did your job. If you didn't, there were consequences.

It was the thought of completing her mission that got Jasper through the first stretch of her walk as she followed the line gouged in the ocean floor. Everything was planned out. Find Peridot. Beat the traitors into a fine, crystalline powder and capture Rose Quartz. Start the Kindergarten, repair the Homeworld Warp, and go home. Maybe find Lapis Lazuli before leaving and sticking her back into some mundane object. She kept running the list through her head while struggling through the darkness. It would be easy. She could still win.

As the days dragged on (at least so far as she could tell, there wasn't any way to tell time in this subterranean hell she had found herself in, she couldn't even see the stars, let alone any light) it became more and more taxing to keep her form underneath the massive pressure she had to travel through. A voice in the back of Jasper's head started whispering to her that this was Lapis's plan all along, to leave her where she couldn't escape until the force of this forsaken planet's ocean trapped her inside her gem. That thought alone was enough to keep her going forwards.

Until she hit the slope. Literally. It had loomed out of the darkness, and Jasper had been so intent on her thoughts of vengeance and victory she had only just avoided tripping forwards and smacking her face into it. Wouldn't that be an embarrassing way to go. She had to use her hands to follow the sharply inclined surface, hoping that there was a way around, but found after so much useless floundering that there was only one way to go. Up. The slope was sharp enough that she couldn't actually walk up it, instead having to jab her hands one-at-a-time into the stoney incline and pull herself up, growling with each motion. As if dealing with the pressure wasn't enough, now she had to haul herself upwards, and for once she was cursing her massive frame.

There was one good side to the climbing. As she continued upwards, the pressure lessened just the slightest bit every hundred or so arm-lengths. Jasper's world shrunk to the surface inches in front of her face as she climbed, intent on her task. She couldn't even see what she was climbing in the darkness, having to feel with a hand before punching herself a hand-hold. Everything became so mechanical, the repetitive motions of reach-feel-punch-pull, that the first time something passed behind her, she didn't register it. She felt it the second time, and it was startling enough that Jasper almost lost her already precarious grip on the slope, whipping the chain still attached to her wrist into the nothingness behind her, hanging on to the cliff with one hand.

"IS THAT YOU BRAT? COME OUT AND FIGHT ME FACE TO FACE!" Jasper's scream was swallowed up by the water, and she received no response except the silence which had been following her since the start of her trek. She hung there, in the stillness, staring out into the watery void, wishing for something to fight, something to tear apart so that she could break the deathly calm that had become her world. With another roar she turned back to the task at hand, her next punch leaving a crater in the cliff face instead of a useable hole. The rock around the crater started to crumble, and Jasper had to scrabble for another hold. She started punching her fingers straight into the rock for purchase as she hauled herself up, but could still feel the ground crumbling in her grip, beneath her feet, and for one terrifying moment when she reached out her hand swiped through emptiness-

And then her palm reconnected with the surface she couldn't see, and after a desperate scramble she was up over the edge that she'd reached without knowing. Jasper had to crawl forwards on all fours as the slope continued to crumble beneath her, the disintegrating rock and sediments swirling in the water, clouding her already obscured vision. She didn't know how long she crawled until the water finally cleared and the ground became solid again, but she thought she noticed the pressure easing as she dragged herself forwards. Even getting back up to her feet was almost too much but she still managed, one foot dragging after the other.

Her world had once again become nothing more than moving forwards, one step at a time, through the darkness that surrounded her and pressed in on all sides. The pressure wasn't as crushing as it had been when she first started, but it was still draining for Jasper to keep herself together and to keep moving forwards. Again the thought snuck in that this was all part of Lapis Lazuli's plan. She had to get away from the water, away from where Lapis could continue to stalk her. She just had to be watching and waiting for Jasper to fail, so she could sweep in and break her gem.

In all her thousands of years of existence, nothing had felt so close to futility as this. Jasper had traveled far greater distances in her line of work. Lightyears of space and countless planets were under her belt. This small section of Earth's ocean should have been a baby step to her. But it wasn't. She had even had the misfortune of floating in outer space a few times, while dislodging things from a ship's hull or taking the brunt of enemy fire. But even the blackness of space was not like this. In space, there was at least starlight. Space didn't press in on you from all angles. Space didn't have gravity to drag you down, using your own mass against you. In space, she could see her enemies coming.

Not here. As she traveled, Jasper felt what she hoped were native organisms swim past her in the dark, and all she could do was flinch rather than lash out. But her mind kept going back to thinking that Lapis was trailing her, torturing her, just waiting for Jasper to make one mistake and leave herself open. All thoughts of vengeance on the Crystal Gems was out of her mind. She just wanted to get out and away. She couldn't stop and fight, there'd be no chance of her winning if it came to blows between her and Lapis. All her energy had to go towards staying mobile and keeping her body intact.

The first time she could actually see something other than absolute darkness, Jasper hadn't believed it. It took a few light cycles until she realized that she could actually see the ground beneath her feet and the creatures that would keep sliding past her in the water. The light was encouraging, it had to mean she was getting closer to the surface, and now she could actually keep track of the days while trudging over the ocean floor. If she could see, if the water was shallow enough for the sunlight ri reach her, then that meant she was almost out of this forsaken water, almost away from Lapis Lazuli, almost free.

It was dark when she finally broke the surface, dragging herself and the chain still trailing behind her up the surf and on to the shore. She was so relieved, no more pressure to fight against, an even ground to fight if Lapis tried to come after her again, that Jasper didn't pay any attention to where she was. Instead she was busy digging her fingers into the blessedly dry sand and laughing, scooping up a handful and turning around to fling it into the sea. "COME GET ME NOW, LAPIS LAZULI! I'LL SHOW YOU HOW A REAL GEM WARRIOR FIGHTS!"

Steven could only watch, fists clenched tight around his ukulele as he watched Jasper pull herself out of the water, then turn right around and start yelling at… Nothing? He peeked out from behind the rock he'd taken cover behind to watch the homeworld Gem as she paced back and forth at the water's edge, not actually letting the waves touch her as she walked and screamed. "I'M NOT GOING TO FALL FOR YOUR TRICKS THIS TIME, YOU COWARD!" He winced at the yell, turning to look down the beach, towards the cliff that obscured the bulk of the temple, hoping that one of the Gems would hear.

A tense minute passed, with Jasper still pacing on the sand, back and forth, growling and glaring at the sea. Steven had to bite back a groan, wedged in his hiding spot that was not comfortable at all. Maybe if he just hid and waited, Jasper would go away, then he could run back and get Garnet and Pearl and Amethyst, then the four of them could go catch Jasper together. Yeah. That was the best idea.

Until something started tickling his foot. At first he tried to bite back the laugh and move his foot away from whatever was poking him. Then the thing pinched. With a yelp, Steven launched out of his spot and onto the sand, landing on his ukulele with a TWANG right out the open. Jasper froze and turned in place, her yellow eyes zeroing in on Steven. "You!" She turned her head, looking between him and the water like she couldn't decide which was more dangerous before focusing on him.

"This is all your fault! You weren't even supposed to still be around!" She took a step towards him, and Steven scrambled up to his feet, holding his instrument in front of him like a weapon. "You were supposed to be gone and all I had to do was help Peridot activate the Kindergarten!" Jasper took another step towards him, fists clenched. "Come on! Fight me! What are you waiting for!? You didn't hold back during the war, what's stopping you now?"

"I don't want to fight you!" He was lucky that he didn't stutter. All the rest of him was shaking like a leaf. Steven took a breath and brandished his improvised weapon at the Gem looming over him. "You and Peridot lost! Just go away!" Another breath.

She laughed, a laugh that was enough to make him shiver again. "I don't know about her, but I don't lose! I can't lose! Not to you! Not again!" Jasper hunched down, then launched herself at him, kicking up a cloud of sand behind her, her left hand pulled back in a fist, ready to punch. Everything slowed down as she flew at him, eyes bright and angry and wild.

Steven gasped and did the only thing he could think to do. He swung his ukulele forwards with a yell right at Jasper's face, just like when he and Connie had to fight the robot when all they had wanted to do was see a movie. The impact sent a shock up his arms, and there was another loud TWANG followed by the sound of shattering wood. He was all twisted up, eyes screwed closed, both hands outstretched, still clutching the neck of the instrument.

When nothing else happened, it took all the courage he could muster to crack open one eye. Jasper was gone. And his ukulele… Was shattered, and all he was left holding was the neck, the rest of it in splinters. Steven slowly relaxed the smallest bit, looking around, finding himself alone, besides his ruined instrument and the sound of the waves hitting the shore. He kept what was left in the ukulele up though, in a guard, as he scanned the beach. It could just be a trick.

Then he looked down and gasped. There was Jasper's gem, twinkling with reflected starlight. Steven dropped his instrument and frantically scooped her gem up in both hands. "Oh no! I'm sorry I didn't mean to do that! I just wanted you to stop!" This was Pearl, all over again. No, not like Pearl, because Jasper was supposed to be an enemy. This should just be payback for what she had done to Garnet, right? But then why did he feel like he was going to be sick?

"Oh no oh no!" He managed to get to his feet, looking towards the temple, heart in his throat and Jasper's gem heavy in his hands. What could he do now?

AN: Woof, what a whopper. Many thanks for Fabulfuz for helping hammer the start of this beast down! I really like Jasper as a character, and I know I'm not the only one who wants to see her get a redemption and become the Grumpy tiger mom of the group. This is dedicated to all the Jasper fans out there! Don't worry, Lapis and Peridot will show up at some point, but right now this is mostly Jasper-centric!