JASPER

"What happened?" Jasper demanded, gently placing the ocean Gem down onto her feet next to her. Steven came down from his bed, and they stood around in a circle around the warp pad staring at each other. Peridot stayed on the couch, not paying attention; her headphones on over her ears. Jasper could only see Garnet's face in a deep frown, and Amethyst didn't have much of an expression on her features. Pearl was a different story though; Pearl looked absolutely terrified, clutching her ribs with a wide-eyed expression; beads of sweat trickling down the side of her face.

"It was my fault." Pearl said, her voice barely an audible whisper. They all looked at her, waiting for her to elaborate and explain what exactly she had meant.

"What, you said you didn't know how it had happened? Now you're saying it's your fault?" Amethyst said in disbelief, her arms swinging through the air wildly as she spoke. "What did you do?"

"I was... visiting the gem shards again... When I turned around, I was so fixated on it; it was glowing so brightly and I... I touched it and it popped." Pearl continued, bringing her hands down against her legs, and pulling at the fabric of her shorts. "Yellow Diamond reformed and she escaped."

"You've got to be joking me." Lapis said, looking around swiftly for her babies, and picking them up into her arms. "This is a joke, right?"

"It's not a joke! I'm so sorry I..."

"How many times have I told you not to go into my room? There's a reason only I'm allowed in there. That, and you lied to us! I can't believe you." Garnet spoke angrily, taking a few steps back from the group, her fists clenched tightly to her sides. "I can't see her with my future vision, somehow she must be able to block it... We have to find her."

"Yeah P! Wow, You really messed up, worse that I ever have..." Amethyst looked up to Pearl, almost like she had felt bad for the white Gem.

Jasper was speechless. She was too enthralled by how the Gem's were treating Pearl, a Gem that was supposed to be one of their good friends. Everyone makes mistakes, and Jasper wasn't horribly worried about Yellow Diamond being on the loose; her gem was cracked, so she would be severely weakened. Besides, what could she possibly do?

"Let me help you look-"

"No. You've done enough." Garnet interrupted Pearl, and her and Amethyst went on the warp pad, teleporting away without another word.

"Lapis, Peridot..." Pearl said softly, looking like she was going to start crying at any moment... "Steven..."

"Absolutely not! Come on." Lapis looked to Peridot, Steven, and Jasper. Jasper watched as Lapis put the gemlings onto the couch, before the three of them went up onto the warp pad. Pearl looked downcast as everyone shunned and dismissed her, and Jasper couldn't help but feel a little sorry for her.

"Jasper?"

"I'll go with you, Pearl." She put a large hand onto Pearl's shoulder comfortingly. The white Gem looked up at her with an unreadable emotion in her eyes, until she shook her head and forced out a small smile.

"Alright Jasper."

Lapis shrugged, before her small party warped away.

"What about the gemlings? Can they stay here alone?" Pearl asked, looking over towards the couch.

"One sec." Jasper strode over to the couch, and put her hands on her hips. "Kit, you're in charge. Keep Jazz and Zuli safe. We'll be back after a little while, okay?"

Kit mewled at Jasper, and nodded. Her little Malakitten had gotten so big the last few days, she almost wondered if she were hogging all the crystals for herself; or if it was just something that happened with a gemling that was basically a permanent fusion. She shrugged internally, before joining Pearl on the warp pad. A flash of white light, and they appeared in the desert.

"I don't even know where to start! I figured we could just start here. There are so many places she could have gone, and I don't know if we'll ever find her." Pearl darted off ahead of Jasper, who was trying to stay calm and collected, not really sure if anything she could say could soothe this Gem. She hadn't really spent a lot of time with Pearl, so she had no idea how to interact with her. Generally, Pearl kept her distance from the orange Gem, giving her snooty looks when their paths crossed.

"What is that?" Jasper pointed towards a large sand colored building, shaped like an ancient temple. The wind and sand had eroded a lot of it, with its columns and structures disappearing with each lick of violent wind. The two Gems made their way towards the building as the wind speed started to pick up, sand lashing at Jasper's skin and leaving dark red welts along her arms.

"A sandstorm!? Come on Jasper, hurry!" Pearl goaded her, and she picked up her pace. They covered their faces with their hands and sprinted into the ancient temple; Jasper running right into Pearl who had stopped suddenly.

Jasper looked up to see large, ancient gem statues and fixtures upon the walls; gears made of gems and hieroglyphs adorning the walls. There were four Gem's carved into the wall, each Gem taking its place in the point of the diamond shape they made. Rose Quartz was carved into the bottom of the diamond, holding her arms up towards the center, her tears flowing down her cheeks. Hands were carved below her, reaching towards her, but not quite making it to her. Yellow Diamond was carved in the left point, sword point in the ground, knuckles adorning her fist, and a whip twirled around the intricate blade she was holding. The look on her face was hardened and emotionless; with many humanoid shapes surrounding her signifying the vastness of Homeworld's armies. To the right was Blue Diamond, holding a spiked mace over her shoulder, with gem tech surrounding her. Finally, on the top point of the diamond shape was White Diamond, Supreme Commander of the Diamond Authority on Homeworld. Jasper wondered if the other Diamonds realized Yellow Diamond had been subdued, and was now trapped here on Earth.

"Rose..." Pearl walked up towards the wall, and placed her palm against the carving of Rose Quartz, her fingers tracing along the lines of the fallen Gem's body.

Jasper walked up next to her, looking down at Pearl, and back up at the carving on the wall. Did Pearl miss Rose because she was her leader... or? Was it something more? She swore this Pearl was the strangest one she had ever met, she didn't act how other Pearl's acted, and it was very interesting to her.

"Rose Quartz was a great strategical tactician during the war." She said simply, her eyes darting back up towards the carving of Yellow Diamond.

"She was wonderful, yes. Come on, she could be here, let's have a look." Pearl turned her head a little, before turning to head down a nearby hallway. Jasper found herself wondering what this place was, and why it was here. Why did it have carvings of the Diamonds on it? What secrets lay hidden in this odd building hiding in the sand?

"Why did you join Rose Quartz when she defected?" Jasper asked as they ambled along, the corridor seeming to never end; the silence threatening to become overwhelming. "You couldn't have believed in this place like she did; immediately wanting to join her in protecting these... humans. How did she reprogram you to follow her?"

Pearl stopped walking, her fists clenching to her sides as she turned to glare up at Jasper. Jasper wasn't trying to be offensive, she just didn't want to beat around the bush. She wanted to know how a Pearl designed to obey orders; designed to be told what to do, had a will of her own. Her gem didn't look flawed, but this Gem, she was most definitely flawed. In her own way. She had a hard time deciphering what words sounded completely offensive, and blatantly right now, she didn't really care.

"When I was created, I knew I was different than the other Pearls. I had ideas, and I had free will. When the Diamond Authority found out about this, they threatened to have me destroyed. A Pearl with free will was dangerous. But Rose, she took pity on me, and offered me an escape serving her, and pleaded with the other Diamonds to allow me to serve her." The white Gem explained. Pearl turned and glared at Jasper, who took a step back into the wall.

A brick moved into the wall, and the floor beneath them gave way as they fell down a few levels into a black pit. Jasper landed on her back, the wind knocked completely from her; and Pearl landed on top of her. The smaller Gem picked herself up quickly and looked up to watch as the floor closed above them, shutting out the only light they had had. A beam of light shone from Pearl's Gem, lighting up the room they were now stuck in. Jasper sat up, and saw on the far side of the room there was a door.

"Rose Quartz wasn't always the perfect Gem you seem to think she was." Jasper muttered before standing up and wiping the sand from her body.

"Excuse me?" Pearl exhaled, shining the light from her Gem at her eyes and blinding her. Jasper covered her face, and Pearl looked away quickly. "Sorry."

"Didn't it even bother you at all how many Gems you destroyed during the war? You know, on my end of it, you were the evil ones, and I was the righteous one."

They came into a large room that was lit up only by torches with blue flames. Behind them the door became barred, preventing them from going back the way they came. Pearl seemed to take this opportunity to draw her spear and point it at Jasper, her eyes wide with hurt, and what Jasper saw as denial.

"Of course I know about all the Gems we destroyed; but we had to, to protect this planet and its living creatures. It's what Rose wanted, so I did my duty to serve her. I..."

"So, you blindly charged into battle over and over, only because Rose told you to? Sounds to me like you were brainwashed. Acting exactly how you were supposed to; maybe you weren't as defective as I originally thought."

Pearl jabbed her spear towards Jasper's chest, and she grabbed onto the blade as it sliced open her hands. She held fast though, preventing the spear from stabbing into her body.

"I'm not trying to say these things to upset you, what I want to know is how could someone like you, someone with a free will, allow herself to be used over and over again. You seem much stronger than that, why don't you make your own path, without anyone telling you what to do?" She barked, throwing Pearl's spear to the side as she pulled out two more, twirling them around before charging her again.

"Just silence yourself! You don't know anything about Rose! She was kind, she was beautiful!"

She never realized how ruthless this Pearl could be. She was fast and determined, striking out at her, barely leaving her enough room to dodge her assault. Pearl lunged towards her, and Jasper side-stepped, grabbing hold of the handles of both her spears and tossing them off to the side. Pearl pulled one more spear out of her gem, and held it out inches from Jasper's neck. She had let her guard down; she had become too confident. She backed up against the wall, and swallowed, watching the Gem before her breathing heavily with sweat trickling down her cheeks. Her eyes shone with an anger Jasper hadn't seen from this Gem yet, even though they had lived together for several months.

"I love Rose Quartz." Pearl breathed, pushing the spear against Jasper's neck.

There it was. The truth. Pearl had recklessly thrown herself into battle for her matriarch, because she was in love with the pink Gem. That's the detail Jasper had missed, the one that explained everything to her. She felt a jolt of pain in her chest at this statement, and her head throbbed against her skull. Love made Gems and humans do stupid things, she had to admit.

"I know more about Rose Quartz than you might think." She spat, eyes becoming slits as she glared back down at the white Gem.

Pearl withdrew her spear and dropped it onto the floor. She hung her arms loosely to her sides, taking a step backwards as large tears spilled from her eyes.

"I never told her how I felt..." Pearl admitted to her softly. "Then she met him, and I lost her forever. I... After the war I thought we would spend eternity together, and I was content serving her to show my affection to her. I didn't want to burden her with the knowledge of my feelings for her. She was too busy and I... didn't want to distract her."

"You spent thousands of years silently watching her, and then she fell in love with a human and gave up her physical form to become human herself?" Jasper asked, the whole idea of it was confusing to her. She understood love, she didn't understand what Rose had done.

"I just wanted her to be happy."

The room started to shake around them, as several gem monsters dropped from the ceiling. They were shaped like globs of jello, each with a gem buried in the center of their bodies. The creatures all combined into each other, creating a large gooey creature shaped like a beast with four legs. Goo tendrils stretched from the back of its body and wrapped around Pearl's feet, tripping her onto her stomach. She clawed at the ground as the tendril pulled her backwards; she went to pull a spear from her gem but was stopped when another tendril left its body to wrap around her wrist.

"Pearl!" Jasper called, diving for her hands but missing when the monster suddenly whipped her back and tossed her against the far wall. Jasper charged at the beast, but the monster's body was too soft, causing her fist to become stuck inside of it; the goo sticking to her hand and dragging her back.

"Jasper, try to reach its Gem!" Pearl screamed, slicing off more tendrils that attempted to grab onto her.

Jasper shoved her arm deeper within the creature, her fingers stretching to try and reach the green colored gem inside of it. The tips of her fingers were mere centimeters away before she felt the goo wrap around her torso and left her into the air, slamming her against the ceiling. Her skull slammed against the brick, juggling her mind around; causing her vision to blacken. She half- opened her eyes to watch Pearl shoot charged up energy at the creature, causing the gooey creature to explode in a mass of goo. The gem shot up and struck Jasper in the forehead, causing her to go unconscious.

LAPIS

Lapis, Peridot, and Steven had found themselves on Mask Island, searching for any sign of Yellow Diamond's presence. At this rate, they were never going to find her; she literally could have gone anywhere, and why would she let herself be easily tracked? That would be sloppy of her, and she really wasn't one to make things easier for them. The fact that the Gem Commander had escaped made her feel extremely uneasy; weakened or not.

Steven had run off ahead of them, leaving Peridot and Lapis alone in front of a giant cracked geode. She made a mental note to herself to grab one with Jasper later, when they could form Malachite and carry it back for the gemlings. Malachite. Malachite.

"Ugh, I don't see why we're looking for trouble. Her Gem is cracked, can't we just let her roam around? This island is creepy." Peridot whined, sitting down on a log that was sitting on the ground in front of the geode.

"You're joking right? What if she finds a way to send a message to Homeworld? Again? Maybe her first message didn't work, and if she has the chance to send more, there's a chance that more Gems could come to Earth. This is bad Peridot, and I'm at my wits end." Lapis sat next to her and rested her elbows against her knees, placing her chin into her hands. "First I have the whole Malachite situation to deal with, and now Yellow Diamond?"

"Malachite. Yeah, how's that whole fusion thing going anyway?" Peridot asked, her fingers twirling in a circle in front of her. "I noticed you two have fused a lot more lately."

"It's so weird to me honestly. I love becoming Malachite. I love being a part of her, but something I've noticed, is the fact that I seem to lose myself in her a lot more lately. She has her own conscience now, and it's... scary. What if we fuse sometime, and she doesn't want us to defuse?"

Lapis turned to look at Peridot who she caught gaping at her. Peridot blushed and looked back down at her twirling fingers; Lapis finding this behavior odd.

"I never had the chance to thank her for protecting me from Sugilite." Peridot stated simply, pulling her fingers back into their proper position. "I don't understand why she would bother."

"Peridot that's silly, you're our friend." Lapis chuckled. "Of course we would want to protect you, we weren't going to just let you be squished by Sugilite."

Peridot stood up and turned away from the ocean Gem, and Lapis couldn't help but raise an eyebrow at her.

"Yeah, that's... right."

"Let's just go back to the house, I don't think Yellow Diamond is here."

Peridot turned and tromped back to the warp pad, standing atop it and crossing her arms to the best of her abilities. Lapis felt this air of awkwardness between them; she didn't quite understand it. Steven appeared at the warp pad at the last second, jumping into the stream before they warped back to his house. When they arrived, Kit, who had been sitting in front of the warp pad looked up at the green Gem and smiled.

"Mommy!" Kit pointed at Peridot. Lapis felt like she was hit with a bolt of lightning. Did she just hear her gemling call Peridot... Mommy?

"No Kit, Peridot's not your mommy!" Lapis frowned, picking up the gemling and holding her out in front of her, staring into her multicolored green eyes.

"Mommy." Kit said softly, reaching her hands out towards Lapis' face. This made Lapis smile, almost willing to forget her little malakitten's slip of words. "Mommy." Kit held her arms out towards Peridot.

"No! No, no, no, no, no!" Lapis screeched, completely and utterly green with envy.

Kit saw the anger in her eyes, and heard the anger in her voice, and started to cry. She crawled out of Lapis' hands and ran to the kitchen area, and wailed with sadness. Water started to spray from the sink, and Kit waved her arms wildly, sending a stream of water right into Lapis' face, knocking her off the warp pad.

"Ah!" Lapis cried out manipulating the water away from her, and back towards the sink. Apparently her little Malakitten was going to be a water manipulator just like her, and probably Zuli. Kit bawled even louder, until the stream of water died away when Peridot picked the little gemling up into her arms.

Lapis watched as Peridot held the gemling close to her, smiling and making cute faces at her. Her anger melted away, and she actually started to feel happy at the sight. Peridot hadn't even shown such care and attention to any of them before, and seeing her care about her gemling actually warmed her heart.

"Kit, no more crying okay? I'm not your mommy, think of me more as your... Aunty? It think that's a good human term to use in this situation. Jasper and Lapis are your 'mommies', okay? Come on, let's go find the other two and take a nap."

With that, Peridot and Kit gathered the other two gemlings, and the four of them curled up on Steven's bed. Lapis leaned against the wall and exhaled her breath, wondering what Jasper and Pearl were doing, and if they had found Yellow Diamond.

JASPER

Jasper opened her eyes to see Pearl kneeling over her, eyes closed like she was thinking. She sat up on her elbows and looked around, seeing they were still in the same room as before. She fingered the middle of her forehead, where she felt some sort of bandage over the spot on her forehead. She groaned a little, her forehead still stinging with pain at her touch.

"Pearl, we have to get out of here. I don't think Yellow Diamond is here." She said, sitting up and passing a glance over the white Gem.

"Would you, be so kind as to, tell me about Rose from before the war?" Pearl inquired softly, her eyes remaining shut, and her hands remaining clenched against her shorts.

Jasper was a little taken aback that this Gem wanted to know more about the Rose Quartz she had known, before she had defected and started the Civil War. Jasper didn't want to talk about it. She didn't want to think about those memories she had buried in the back of her mind.

"No." She spoke bluntly, standing up and summoning her Crash Helmet.

"But, Jasper I-"

"I said no, I don't want to talk about the war, I'm done talking about Rose Quartz right now. Can't you just respect that?"

"You're the one who wanted to tell me about her in the first place, and now you don't even want to talk about it? I'm willing to listen, I'm willing to do as you say, just tell what she was like!" Pearl was practically begging her now, chasing after her with a thick desperation in her words.

"You just don't get it, do you!" Jasper yelled, before curling into a ball and using her spin dash attack to break straight through the wall into a hidden chamber. This chamber was freezing cold; the floor covered in ice. She could see her breath in front of her as respired. In front of her was a large statue of a Blue Gem, one she didn't recognize. Embedded in the stone swords it was holding were two large Gems. Jasper grabbed both of them with her hands and pulled, until they both were released and sitting in her palms. She held them out to Pearl who had appeared behind her, and the smaller Gem bubbled them away.

The building around them started to fall apart fast, Jasper caught large chunks of ceiling that threatened to crush the both of them. When she saw the crack in the ceiling that signified their impending doom, she threw her body over Pearl, and clutched her against her, taking the brunt of the boulders with her body.

"Jasper..." Pearl gasped, clutching the fabric of Jasper's shirt between her slim fingers.

When Jasper was sure the building had finished collapsing, she hoisted the sandstone blocks off of them and threw them off to the side with reckless abandon. If Yellow Diamond by chance had been there, then she was poofed for sure now. Jasper didn't really believe the Gem Commander was there, she was sure she would know when they found her; she wouldn't be able to resist telling them she was around, Jasper was sure of that.

Pearl and her made it back to the warp pad; Pearl touching Jasper's arm lightly before they stepped up onto the rounded Gem technology. Jasper stopped, and waited for the begging to resume where it had left off.

"Jasper, at first I wasn't sure about trusting you at all. I'll admit that, up until now, I didn't respect you. I didn't want you to be here. If it weren't for Steven, I probably would have taken it upon myself to make sure Garnet would have destroyed your gem. But.." Pearl sniffed loudly, wiping the tears quickly from her eyes before they could travel down her cheeks. "What I'm trying to say now, is I'm sorry. I'm sorry for pushing you to tell me about Rose, I'm sorry for dragging you into this mess I've made. You were the only one who offered to go looking for Yellow Diamond with me, and... Thank- You."

Jasper blushed at this apology, embarrassed by Pearl's heartfelt words and kindness towards her. She nodded to her, before they entered the warp stream together.

Maybe someday she would enlighten Pearl with her war stories, or her remembrances of Rose Quartz. For today though, all she really wanted to do was relax.

Xxx

All six Gems, not including Steven sat around in the living area, not looking at each other. Jasper, Lapis, and Amethyst all sat in front of the window; while Peridot, Pearl and Garnet sat on the couch next to the stairs. None of them spoke. Jasper figured they were all thinking of the same thing. Where was Yellow Diamond, and what was she going to do next?

"I'm sorry for breaking the bubble." Pearl said aloud, catching the attention of all the Gems around her.

"It's okay P, we all fuck up sometimes."

"Amethyst, that doesn't help." Garnet chastised the violet Gem.

"We're all going to die." Peridot whined.

"Don't be daft." Lapis hissed, shooting daggers across the room at the green Gem.

"It's fine." Jasper commanded attention with the sternness in her voice; as the rest of the Gems turned to look at her. "Pearl, I believe even if you wouldn't have been there, Yellow Diamond would have magically found a way out of the bubble anyway. We were stupid to think we could just lock her away and pretend all that stuff never happened. We'll keep looking for her, but there's nothing we can do about the past now. It's in the past."

It's in the past. What had happened in the past, may have defined who each of them were now, but it didn't mean they had to let those feelings and experiences ruin their lives today. Why had it taken her so long to understand that?

"Guys!" Steven came in through the front door holding up what appeared to be small childrens pajamas. "Look what I found! It's a dinosaur onesie!"

"A what?" Jasper raised her eyebrow at the small human boy.

"Where's Kit? I want her to wear it, it would be so cute."

Peridot held up the little malakitten, who chomped on one of her fingers playfully. Peridot held the gemling tightly as Steven stuffed her into it; a lime green onesie with a hood that pulled up over the gemlings head and had little teeth on the edge. It even had a large tail.

"Oh look, now she really is a little monster." Peridot said sarcastically, putting the gemling down on her feet.

"Mommy!" The gemling said, running over to Jasper and hugging her leg.

"Jasper, you've gone starry-eyed." Lapis laughed, picking up the gemling and putting her in Jasper's lap.

She was completely okay with it.