Lesson One

The situation was dire. Garnet had been beaten, split in two. The Crystal Gems, captured and on their way to an uncertain future. Even Steven had been taken, leaving Earth without protectors.

But in that calamity, a small glimmer of hope. Their captors - that pesky Peridot and a gigantic Jasper - hadn't bothered to make sure their advanced Homeworld technology could hold an organic entity. Steven had taken advantage of this, and escaped from his cell.

Before he could get far, he found and released a small red Gem who introduced herself as Ruby. "Thanks, Steven. Now follow my lead - I have a plan."

"No, I have to go look for my friends-"

Ruby grabbed him by the shoulders. She clearly had strength in her hands, and was just as clearly holding him with deliberate gentleness. "-Sapphire. You have to find Sapphire first. This plan only works if you can find her."

"I don't understand?"

"We'll explain later. You..." Ruby shook her head, as though trying to wake up. "-rrgh!"

"Hey, are you o-"

"I'm having trouble concentrating." Despite herself, she began glancing around. The technology surrounding them, and even the material the ship was built out of, was completely unknown to her. Every small detail reached out at her, dividing what little focus she could direct to present situation. "Steven!" she suddenly yelled.

"Aaah!"

"Explanation later!" Through sheer force of will, Ruby pushed her eyes to look directly into Steven's. The words, what she could remember of the plan, began tumbling out. "We're still in the thermosphere! Pearl should be able to fly it. That Jasper probably followed protocol so we're still above Earth. Find and release Sapphire. We're still at jumping height. It's bigger on the inside! This is a spaceship-"

"I- I still don't..."

Ruby let go of Steven and went to the nearest solid wall, one hand cradling her head as though struggling with a headache. "Con! Cen! TRATE!" she yelled at the wall, before headbutting it repeatedly.

Steven took a step back, then another.

Suddenly, Ruby stopped bashing her head. The cacophony in her mind silenced down to a focus on the plan, like an orchestra that had finished tuning. Forty-eight notes from as many instruments were now just a single tuning fork, emitting a quiet middle A. "Steven Quartz Universe," she said calmly.

As alarming as things had become, hearing his full name stopped his desire to run. "Yes?"

"You are a Crystal Gem. You're going to save all of us today." The plan was clear; her mind was still. "I'll buy you time."

"I still don't- I mean, I'll try..."

Somewhere down the hall, a deep, familiar voice made an aggressively annoyed grunt. Heavy footsteps were making their way towards them. Ruby knew what would come next. "Aaaand now we're out of time." She turned and looked directly into Steven's eyes again. "Steven Quartz Universe, you will not 'try' to save us, you are going to save us. Find Sapphire first - she knows what to do."

"...Mm!" he nodded. Ruby knew his full name somehow; only his family and a handful of friends knew it. It wasn't something he carelessly gave out to his enemies, whoever they might be, or strangers.

"Good. Now go!" Ruby pointed down the hallway, in the opposite direction from the grumbling. "Do the Crystal Gems proud!"

She watched him run down the hall for a moment, not totally sure if he would immediately come back. When he was far enough away, she turned back towards the source of the footsteps.

Step by step, the deep-voiced grumblings got louder as they came around a corner. "...can't believe I needed to escort- Peridot! Are you making all that noi-" Jasper rounded the corner and saw Ruby. She fell quiet, her mouth open slightly.

"Hi Jasper," Ruby said confidently.

"Uhh?" Of all the things Jasper had been expecting to see in her ship, a cute little Ruby was not one of them. "Hiiiiii...?"

This confusion in turn begat confusion in Ruby - until it occurred to her that Jasper must not have stuck around earlier to recover her gem on the beach. They were meeting for the first time, then, and that meant there were protocols to follow. (After several thousand years, Sapphire was rubbing off on her.) "My name's Ruby."

"Huh? Oh! My- My name's Jasper."

"It's nice to finally meet you! I've been looking forward to this for a while!" Ruby said with a gleaming smile.

"Really?" Jasper's confusion and awkwardness turned to self-centered charm. "Did you stow away to meet me? Or, I bet you snuck aboard to fight alongside me, against the terrifying Earth Gems!" She struck a confident pose. "Too bad: I already won! Guess you'll just have to settle for listening to me tell the story."

"...Huh." Sapphire had seen a handful of possible responses Jasper might take, transmitting them in Garnet's last few moments along with the plan. Apparent attraction and peacocking had not been one of them, and really just made Ruby feel a little bad about what was going to come next. "Er, that's... not why I'm here, actually."

"Yeah?" Jasper leaned down closer to Ruby, clearly expecting something more personal. "Was there another reason?"

The plan was already not quite lining up with reality. So, Ruby decided to make a slight change of her own, something in line with her own long history on Earth. "Jasper? I'm here to teach you how to fight."

Jasper was quiet for a second, then burst out laughing. "Okay, okay, I'm game!" Her laughter trickled down into a bright smile and general amusement. "What were you going to show me?"

Ruby had already assumed a combat stance: body slightly turned to present a smaller target, weight off of her heels and balanced over the balls of her feet, knees bent, hands lightly balled into fists. "Like I said, I'm going to teach you how to fight."

"...oh my stars you're adorable" Jasper whispered to herself.

Ruby ignored it. "We noticed you didn't even try to fight Garnet earlier."

"Huh? The permafusion? Aw, you were watching me earlier?"

The full impact of what she'd said clearly hadn't gotten through. That reaction, certainly, had been one Garnet had predicted as highly likely. (A certain amount of overconfidence was a common Quartz trait, she recalled.) Ruby sighed. "Well, we'll start the lesson slow. Clench your jaw, Jasper."

"Sure, sure," Jasper said, theatrically preparing herself for a fight. "Like thi-"

*whukk*

Jasper slammed into the wall behind her, her last thought unfinished. It had been a while since anything had last gotten in a clean hit on her, and the unexpected shock meant her senses weren't fully taking in what was happening. "-what?" she heard herself asking quietly. Pain flashing through her being, but not from where she'd contacted the wall. No, her jaw hurt. Her vision caught up, and from where she was and where the Ruby was...

"You? You punched... me?" She realized that the cute little Ruby had suddenly burst forward and up, one of her tiny bare fists connecting with her own equally bare, unguarded jaw. She couldn't recall hearing the punch connect, it had happened so quickly, but she could hear her now.

"Lesson one: take your fights seriously." Ruby clenched her fists tighter. "Now get ready for lesson two!"