Authors note:

Hey guys:) sorry for the really late update, school and my job do not give me a lot of time to write or get motivation. But! I do have some news that I think most of you will like! I've decided that for some chapters I'm going to provide some illustrations! Some might be just one, and some might be like a comic? I don't know the details yet- but at the end of chapters I'll let you guys know when I post art-the links will be in my profile with labels to which chapter they belong to. But let me know what you think, I'm not quite sure if it'll work or not.

Anyway, enjoy the chapter!

Disclaimer:

I don't own SU

Sad Song

Chapter Twelve: Warrior

"Jasper!" The small gem clung to the general's foot with a tight hold, and with her exclamation she had started to climb up Jasper's leg. "You're back, you're really back! I can't believe it! What took you so long!? Why are you in the tub? Did you get taller since the last time I saw you?" Peridot made it up to the orange gem's chest and eagerly leaned in towards Jasper's face, eyes wide. It'd been so long! Jasper was actually there in the flesh, the longing to catch up with the colossal warrior washed over Peridot. "Your hair is kind of tangly," her stubby green fingers brushed out a piece of seaweed that still clung to her mane of hair. This should've been gone if Jasper had to regenerate her form…. Did she rush her regeneration? "Do you need the tool that has an abundance of bristles to remove the massive amount of tangles? Amethyst uses them all the time- I could obtain one for you!" Peridot babbled on excitedly, her heart almost thumping out of her chest.

Jasper's eyesight was still trying to adjust to the lack of light in the room and something was on her foot- oh wait now it was on her chest. From the voice, she soon realized it was the little pipsqueak sitting on her. It was rather uncomfortable sitting in such a small space, she realized as she gave a little wiggle. Embarrassed, she couldn't help but blush at the fact that she had been clumsy enough to fall over, and into a small constricting space no less. She rubbed at her eye with her mobile arm, the other being stuck against the inside of the tub; the space she was stuck in wasn't exactly produced to fit her size. "Wha- Peridot slow down. I can't even see yet, why the hell is it so dark in here?"

Peridot's head perked at the question and she bounded off of Jasper's chest and ran to the door. "Oh I can fix that." She flipped the light switch, "Any better?"

"Yeah a bit…" When she opened her yellow eyes, Jasper could finally see. Her pupils became dilated but then shrunk back to their correct size, a dull pain flashed at the back of her retinas. Obviously, I needed more time regenerating. Blinking her eyes, she took in her surroundings skeptically, her cat eyes narrowed. "Wait."

"What is it?"

This room was definitely not familiar to Jasper, and her brain automatically flipped to 'on edge' mode. The hairs on the back of her neck stood on end, almost as if expecting something to jump out at her from the shadows. From what she knew about humans over the years- she knew that this was a waste disposal unit, but why was Peridot here? Why was she in here? Where were the humans? She looked up to the nervous looking Peridot at the door, "Who put you in this room?" Came the growl from the orange gem.

"Put? No one put me in here Jasper. I walked in here myself… The bathroom seemed like a good idea at the time-"

"Tch- bathroom? So, that's what they call this disgusting cubical." Jasper gripped the edge of the tub to pull herself up, her voice gaining a bit of malice. "Humans are repulsive creatures-"

"They're not all bad." Peridot interjected as she went to grab the others red hand, "Here."

Jasper's face softened at the action and even though she knew that Peridot was not strong enough to pull her up, she decided to humor her nonetheless. She had to admit- odd as it was- she had a soft spot for this tiny green gem. With a chuckle, she let Peridot 'pull' her out of the tub, when she stepped out of it, she was reminded just how small the young gem really was. After Peridot released her hand, Jasper walked to the mirror and examined it with a prodding finger, "So where are we anyway?" She questioned as she rubbed at a smudge on the glass.

"The Crystal Gems base."

Crack.

"Jasper! How am I supposed to explain what happened to the mirror!?"

The mirror gave way to a crack that Jasper had formed with the amount of pressure she had put on her index finger when the words had left Peridot's mouth. Her hands shifted to grip the sink for leverage, fierce yellow eyes made contact with nervous green ones in the reflection of the mirror.

"But more importantly-" Jasper's voice dropped to a dangerous growl, "Is how are you going to explain why I'm in the base of those traitors…" She made her way towards Peridot.

"Now Jasper-" she held up her hands up in a defensive gesture as the hulking gem came closer, "I told you I was going to bring you here when I found you on the beach! You said you…trusted me." The other gem stopped her advance on Peridot; quiet. Something seemed off with Jasper, but Peridot couldn't put her finger on just what was wrong. The hulking gem seemed frazzled, and her eyes would dart to all over the room; anxious and confused, but then they would refocus back onto the small gem. Then something clicked. "Do you...not remember?"

"Remember? What's there to remember?" Jasper groaned and put a hand to her head in confusion, her thoughts muddled. The pain behind her retinas returned with a flash of white, and the pain and confusion fueled her anger. With a grunt, she closed the distance between her and the other gem, reached down, and snatched the panicked Peridot by the scruff of her green uniform. "Why. Am. I. Here?" Golden orbs burned into Peridot's stunned green ones, the distance between the two a minuscule amount. "You better start giving me answers runt!" The sharp point of Jasper's gem-nose met Peridot's dainty one. The gem planted in the middle of her face glowed threateningly as her anger flared.

Startled at the others tone, Peridot whimpered, "Jasper! Keep your voice down, you're going to wake Steven! Then we'll both be in trouble-" She stressed as she trailed off, she still didn't know how she was going to keep this gem hidden. Especially if Jasper was just going to give away her position to the others just by being loud. "But you told me to bring you here!"

Jasper complied with Peridot's wishes to be quiet, but her eyes narrowed at that last quip, "I… Did?"

"Well… You more or less agreed when I offered." The green gem gave a nervous laugh as she looked down and took notice that she was still dangling very high off of the ground. "Could you possibly… put me down now?" She swatted at any part of Jasper she could reach at, which was her chest, "I really don't want to turn into a gem pancake if I fall…"

Jasper was so much friendlier the last time they had met, what happened? But then again… that wasn't Jasper's normal behavior before either. Did the time fused as Malachite really have that much more of an effect on her than Peridot had originally thought? Aggressive was the word she would describe Jasper now, easily agitated, short fused. All-in-all, not a good situation to be apart of. But Peridot glimpsed a light of hope when she received a confused look when she mentioned the word 'pancake'.

"..."

"..."

"What the hell is a pan-cake?" At Peridot's soft smile, the anger in Jasper's chest dissipated and a grin graced her face as well. She set the small gem on her feet, and proceeded to take a seat herself on the pile of towels. She wrung a hand through her mess of hair as she watched Peridot dust herself off and right her uniform. Anger wasn't uncommon for a Quartz, but that was ridiculous. It shouldn't have happened.

Peridot wasn't the only one confused.

Unbeknownst to Peridot, Jasper was not the only gem who'd changed in the others absence. Peridot was acting… more immature than her usual self. Back on the ship she was always trying to hide emotion, but here… she was showing it willingly. Jasper couldn't tell if that was for the better or not. She looked so small without her limb enhancers… Why were they gone? Did those traitors strip them from her, and leave her utterly defenseless? Jasper had to admit, when put into the position of taking a prisoner, she would've done the same. Either way… She kind of liked Peridot this way. Looking back on her earlier behavior, she winced, and decided she needed to try to make up for it. She gripped the soft towels that littered the floor and leaned forward.

As Peridot was fixing her uniform to its original position, she felt a big hand softly ruffle her hair. She looked up to see Jasper gazing at her, the expression she wore regretful. It was her way of apologizing; it was a silent one but Peridot always knew Jasper truly meant it. She placed her hand atop of the orange gems' colossal hand, offering a quiet 'it's okay'. Jasper removed her hand when Peridot began to speak in a rushed tone.

Moment ruined.

"Never mind what a pancake is! You mean to tell me you don't have any recollection of when we were at the beach? You were covered in sand? You couldn't shapeshift? Any of this ringing a bell?" Peridot was grasping at straws now to get this gem to remember. She didn't want to seem distrustful in Jasper's eyes, "You know I would never lie to you, right?" She plopped herself onto the floor before Jasper, her hands on the others knees as she leaned forward in anticipation.

"I know you wouldn't lie to me Peridot," Jasper huffed, "But… No." The tiny gem waited silently for Jasper to continue, "All I remember… Is dragging my body out of the ocean-" She put a hand to her forehead and blinked; something came back to her. "I remember- ugh" She groans, "You… falling on me? And then… Nothing. Someone shouting?" She gave a shake of her head, her head feeling dizzy. "It all gets kind of cloudy from there."

"Well-" At that moment Peridot began to fill Jasper in on all that had happened, including the incident when Peridot was thrown into the wall. Jasper took notice of the fact that throughout her explanation, Peridot would reach up to her gem and give a barely noticeable wince. But her small discovery was overturned when the guilt of hitting Peridot sank in. She had hit her! Without her limb enhancers she must've flown far without that extra weight. It must've hurt tremendously.

"I-I hit you…?" Jasper was clearly upset, "Are you hurt? I didn't hurt'cha did I?" Orange hands went to check for any sign of injury, but Peridot would slap her hands away.

"You did-" This only seemed to upset Jasper more, so Peridot quickened her speech. "But you made it all better! No-no need to worry about it!"

"But I do need to worry about it! Peridot I could've seriously hurt you!" She made a move to grab Peridot again, "You can't just take a hit from a Quartz and say 'you're okay'." Grabbing her by the underarms, Jasper hefted Peridot into her lap and cradled her in an arm. She fit into the crook of her arm like a glove, that is, if a glove normally struggles when you put it on.

"Jasper!" She yelled indignantly, as a green blush imprinted itself onto her face. What's up with these quick mood changes? First she was angry, sad, and then affectionate. But she had to admit…

She would be lying if she said she didn't enjoy the affection right now.

"Shush Peridot, the others might hear you~" Jasper teased, once she had a good hold on the green gem, she started examining her in a playful way. "Let's see-" Peridot squealed when Jasper grabbed at her little toes, "these seem to be in working condition…"

"I'm fine, honest!" Peridot scrambled in the hulking gem's arms, in a vain attempt to get away from her prodding fingers.

"You never can be too sure." Jasper sprawled her hand across Peridot's tiny stomach, stroking her in a comforting gesture. "I was gone for a long time, and I don't know if those Crystal Gems did anything to you."

Peridot purred at the hand giving her a belly rub, and gazed up at the orange gem. "They didn't…" She thought back to the time when they had bubbled her, and the time when she contacted Yellow Diamond. If Jasper ever found out, she had a feeling that a fight would break out. So she decided not to mention it at all. "I'm all in one piece."

Peridot insisted that she was fine, so after a few more seconds of prodding, the Quartz stopped. She was glad that the gem hadn't caught her with a cracked gem, surely she would've blamed the others, and then no trust would ever be formed by the Crystal Gems and Jasper.

It must've been somewhere between midnight and two o'clock in the morning by now, Peridot couldn't hear movement outside of the bathroom. Her ear had been pressed on the door for a few minutes- just to be sure.

"The Steven and the others are still in their sleeping chambers. So we still have to be quiet for awhile."

"Whatever you say Dot." She picked at the towels on the floor, "What in the hell are we supposed to do until then?"

The light that emitted from the nightlight made Jasper's half-lidded eyes glow warmly; making her look drained. Being stuck in a fusion must have taken a lot of this strong gem, which was surprising to Peridot; she had never seen this gem look this way. With a scratch to her head Peridot soon thought of a brilliant idea. She may not like it herself, but she was sure that Jasper could gain a lot from it.

"I'll be right back!" She whispered as she softly turned the doorknob and tiptoed to the living room. She left the door slightly ajar. Jasper sat on the floor and ran a tired hand through her tangled hair again as she tried to get the snarls out. Peridot returned not a moment later, in her arms a jumble of pillows and a medium sized blanket. She struggled to close the door and ended up just tossing everything onto the floor in a big pile as she swiftly shut the door with a soft click. "Now I know this may be new to you- but I think you need this right now." She motioned to the pillows on the floor, "Do you mind getting up for a second?"

With a confused tilt of her head, Jasper heaved herself from the floor and stepped out of Peridot's way. "What's this about?" She eyed the working gem as she scattered the pillows evenly onto the ground, how had she even carried that many pillows in her arms at once? She shook her head from side to side, crazy little gem.

"On Earth, organic life normally does this thing at night-" She grunted as she lifted the blanket to spread it over the pillows in a makeshift bed. "It's called sleeping. They do it to regain energy." The little gem plopped herself down onto the bed and patted the space to her right with a smile gracing her face, motioning towards the other gem to join her. "Come on."

Author's Note:

I know, I know, it's kind of a crappy place to stop- but I wanted to get as much written as possible so I could post it:) And I just want to say, thank you all who follow me and who favorite my stories- it means a lot. It gives me motivation to write, and it makes my day when I get to see what you guys think of my writings. And now, I'll try to update more often- and I'll try not to disappear off of the face of the earth again:) And hey! I've got art for this chapter!

Okay guys, so FF won't let me put a link directly in it. But if you search CedeK18 on tumblr you'll see it! Sorry guys. and if you have trouble finding it, just search #sadsong on my profile. But if you don't have a tumblr search "CedeK18 deviantart" in google