Crystal Clear Part 2: Familiar Faces (Jasper x Reader)

Chapter 9: A Whole New World

"Actually though," you said to Stella, "how did we get up here? Just in brief."
"Well, the basic mechanism is probability. No particle is ever definitely anywhere - just most likely in a particular spot. We make the locations of our particles completely uncertain, then make them certain somewhere else. It's a fairly simple concept when you think about it."
"Is that how you get the ship to go faster than light?" Jasper asked.
"Unfortunately, no. We're still using controlled wormhole generation. Uncertainty engines have proven to be... unreliable... for moving objects over a certain size. Some experimental craft were rearranged at a subatomic level after the jump, while others... well, theoretically, an object is never completely certain to be anywhere. So some ended up, well, nowhere."
"Oh. Yeah, you don't want that," Jasper agreed.
"Oh, I know. We've been there. Anyway, if you'll excuse me, I need to prime the gravity engine so we can be on our way." You followed some of the others to the bridge and sat with Jasper in a couple of extra chairs at the back.
"It's going to be different this time, you know," you said, noticing her anxiety.
"I know," she sighed, not sounding entirely convinced.
"This time, you're there as the hero."
"No," she said. "It's going to be different because this time, there are two of us."
You leaned against her and she put her arm around you, and you both watched the scene as the wormhole appeared in front of the ship and drew it in. The stars seemed to get closer and closer until they were just streaks of light, and then... the view returned to normal just as suddenly.
"Another flawless trip. Well done, everyone. Here we are: the Valoccar system. Vega, take us in to Valoccar Prime. Get us over Pallah City if you can," Tara instructed.
You felt Jasper tense up. Looking into her eyes, you could see she was in silent panic. You gave her hand a gentle squeeze and rubbed her arm.
"You won't be alone. Remember that."
"Thank you (Y/N)," she said softly, lifting you up and holding you in her lap.
Valoccar Prime came into view. It looked much like Earth, with blue oceans, green continents, deserts, and icecaps. It had a single moon, reddish in colour, with what appeared to be a thin atmosphere, overall resembling Mars.
As the Andromeda pulled into a comfortable orbit around the planet, an alarm began to sound. The lights darkened, and the old Great Diamond Authority logo - the one which included Pink Diamond's symbol - appeared on all the screens.
"Wuh oh. Distress call from the gem Homeworld," Astra announced.
"A code white?" Tara asked, audibly concerned, although her visor masked much of her expression.
"No ma'am, it's a code..." Astra's normally cheerful expression faded to one of terror. "Code black."
Tara turned to the two of you.
"Change of plans. There's a situation we have to deal with urgently. We're going to drop you off and come back when we can. You shouldn't have any trouble finding the issue. Sirius, put them down in the city square. I'm sorry, but this really is an emergency. I'll explain some other time."
There came the same pattern of noises as before, and before you could say a single word, you and Jasper were down on Valoccar, looking up at the sky as the Shooting Stars raced away.
"Whoa..." Jasper murmured. "This place has really changed since the last time I was here."
"How's that?"
"It's less on fire, mostly."
The city was full of widely spaced high-rise buildings interspersed with significantly lower structures, such that no area of the ground was ever permanently in shadow, and every few blocks there were untouched wooded areas about half the size of Central Park. Vehicles resembling flying cars paced about between the tall buildings, while thousands of people of all different species walked about on the ground.
"Wow, how many species live here?" you marvelled.
"They come from all over the galaxy," Jasper explained, before proceeding to identify several of them. There were, among others, Kuljakanananakajluk, who resembled taller versions of the classic grey aliens and ironically came from a planet simply called Kul, Veelox, pale green humanoids with pointed ears and radically varied cranial and facial features, who apparently had five sexes and wore armour which was not only organic but actually alive, Utopians, slender silver friendly-looking robots with a handle-like antenna sticking above their heads, Tarkanians, stout purple beings with fish-like heads with upward-pointing mouths and a lower jaw which came up over most of their faces, who were native to the planet and somehow seemed to be entirely male, Daerovaks, an amphibious species of impressive stature who had wide toothy grins, full heads of hair, black eyes with yellow pupils, fin-like ears of various designs, and who came in just about every colour imaginable, Xanth, gentle creatures resembling humanoid ants, Yggrdites, humanoids with six fingers and gills but no eyes or nostrils, diminutive frog-like Endarisiens, neohumans, who looked identical to humans despite no known connection, numerous astrals, and of course an abundance of gems.
"You know a lot of species."
"Yeah, I guess over the years I ended up conducting operations on most of their home planets." She saw the look you were giving her. "Mostly surveillance! Valoccar was a one-off, I swear!"
"It's okay Jasper. I believe you. Now, do you have any idea where we need to go and who we need to talk t- oh rubbish, no one's going to speak English," you started to ask, interrupting yourself with your own realisation.
"With this level of advancement? They probably have translation technology. And if they don't, I can interpret for you."
"I've been wondering about that - how do gems know how to speak English, anyway? I'm told they even speak it when they don't know humans are listening."
"Low-level telepathy," Jasper explained simply."
"So how exactly does that-"
"(Y/N), frankly, I don't know. I'm not a scientist."
Suddenly, you felt a tremendous rumbling through the ground and saw a tower drop below the skyline, as though it had suddenly been swallowed up.
"I'm willing to bet it's over there," you declared.
"Do you think?" Jasper asked sarcastically.
You arrived to find a large gathering of people of various species standing around what resembled the largest sinkhole you had ever seen.
"Hello, we're here now. Can anyone understand us?" you asked.
"Your speech is clear to us all," a Veelox replied.
"Ah, right, excellent. So I'm (Y/N), and this is Jasper. The Shooting Stars sent us."
"They sent one gem and a human?!" someone exclaimed in disbelief. "Where are they?!"
"There was some sort of emergency and they had to go... they just dropped us off here."
"And why did they send HER?" growled a familiar voice. A ruby hobbled out from the crowd, and you soon saw why; she was leaning heavily on a crutch, as her left leg was missing entirely, no doubt due to the sizable chunk missing from the gem which served as her right eye. "Of course, that's assuming you even remember me. There were so many of us, after all."
"I've never forgotten," Jasper sighed. "Ruby-1F4 Cut-4NE."
"So, you remember my designation. Do you also remember how you grabbed me by the neck and-"
"Ground your face into a wall until I heard a crack and left you for dead. Yeah. Every day."
"So what kind of game is this you're playing? We're promised heroes, and instead they send a civilian and a... a war criminal?! Everyone stay well away from her."
You saw that Jasper was struggling not to cry. You stepped in front of her.
"It's nothing like that. She's nothing like that. Everything's changed. She's been through more than I'd wish on my worst enemy. And I've seen inside her mind. She's haunted by the things she's done. It's in her dreams every night. She isn't the monster you saw then. I've fought beside her. I know her. I love her," you said, clutching Jasper's hand. "Imagine if you were that old and that alone. Everyone you'd ever fought for dead, and always pursued by the shadow of your past. Imagine how far you'd go, just for the faintest hope of making it right. I don't have to imagine."
"That may be all well and good, but it doesn't change the fact that she's a shatterer of gems young and old, strong and weak, even the newly formed, the children," the ruby growled.
"Never!" Jasper snapped, stepping forward. She calmed herself and lowered her voice. "I never harmed a child."
Except for the one you thought was Rose Quartz, but he's fine, you thought to yourself, but wisely chose not to say so aloud.
Jasper knelt in front of the ruby.
"I know I deserve punishment for the things I've done, and that nothing I've endured since, always because of my own choices, is enough to repay my debt. It'd take me longer than forever to make everything right. So let me start now. I want to help. Please, let me."
"You're... you're serious," the ruby realised. "In that case, I might as well brief you on the situation. Take a look down there."
You and Jasper carefully peered down into the gaping pit. It looked as though the ground had been hollowed out, and in the depths you could see a spherical mass of gem shards. But rather than being fused into a solid, stable ball, it shifted and undulated, as though its surface were an ocean. Periodically, appendages (mostly hands) would rise from the mass, but they weren't projections of light - they were formed directly from the clumped-together fragments.
"It calls itself The Paragon. Every gem ever shattered on this world has become part of it. It doesn't fool anyone sensible, but it claims to be a god. And it constructs..." - she shuddered - "...'priests.'"
"Wait, so it can talk?" Jasper asked.
"Not directly. But its priests speak with one voice... the voice of The Paragon."
"So this thing's been here since the rebellion. What's changed?" you asked.
"You just saw it swallow a skyscraper, didn't you? It's getting more and more active. Causing earthquakes. Sinkholes. Sending up its minions. Even proclaiming that the end is coming. It slept for millennia, and now it's starting to wake up."
The ground started to shake again, and this time showed no sign of stopping. 4NE started to look about nervously.
"C'mon, she should be here by now!"
"Sorry! Sorry!" called a nervous voice. A small green sapphire was running towards the scene, but tripped on her own skirt and fell flat on her face. Jasper walked over and helped her up, her hand able to grasp only one of Jasper's fingers. "Sorry I'm late!" she declared, making her way to the edge of the pit. "Was anyone hurt?"
"No," answered a Kuljakanananakajluk, "although I guess I won't be going into work tomorrow. Unless anyone has a very long rope."
"Well, at least that's a relief," the sapphire sighed. "Well, time to get on with it." She cleared her throat before starting to sing down into the pit.
"Sleep old god,
Your day is at its end.
Rest your weary head,
Rest your soul old friend.

Sleep now my god below,
From here 'til stars burn dim.
Rest your eyes with holy glow.
Rest and praise to him!

Rest now lord of all above,
And keep with you the night.
Praise to you for you are love,
Keep all our days so bright!

So shut your eyes,
Lay down your head,
'Til very last sunrise,
And rest in peace as do the dead!"

The quaking slowed to a stop, and all went quiet. The sapphire breathed a sigh of relief and sat on the ground.
"What just happened?" you asked her.
"When The Paragon stirs, he needs to hear the song he wants in order to stay asleep. Only... he's getting a lot more active. I don't know how much longer I'll be able to keep him down."
"What makes you specially qualified?" Jasper asked. "Not implying that you aren't," she added, raising her hands defensively.
"I can usually see what he wants. I'm not telepathic necessarily, but, well, I'm a little bit... defective. See the mark on my gemstone?" She turned to reveal the gem between her shoulderblades with a distinctive white star-like marking.
"Oh!" you exclaimed, delighted. "You're a green star sapphire!"
"Yes. And because of that, I don't have future vision like most sapphires. I don't even know what you'll eat tonight. I can only see the present... but I can see what others can't. Your name is (Y/N)... and Jaspilite... and The Dreamer... and... and there's another name, but... it's buried so deep... it's... dark, and it's cold... your body was born on Earth, but your gem is impossible. It's real but its origin isn't. It's like... an effect without a cause. I... I don't want to be rude, but what are you?"
"What I am is here and now. That's all that matters."
"So obviously keeping The Paragon asleep isn't sustainable. Do you have any idea what we can do to stop it?" Jasper asked.
"I'm not sure there's anything you can do," Sapphire replied. "Other sapphires have foreseen that The Paragon can only be defeated by one who knows his name."
"That's another thing," Jasper noted. "This thing's made up entirely of beings who almost universally identify as female. So why do you consistently refer to it as male?"
"Because The Paragon is made from gems, but isn't one. His body is crystalline, but his essence is something completely unfamiliar. Something old, something impossibly ancient. Something so old that no one could still remember his name."
"Well that's promising," you remarked sarcastically.
"While you're on a vision-streak, can we trust this one?" 4NE growled, pointing to Jasper with her thumb.
Sapphire looked up at Jasper's face, her single green eye not concealed by her hair. Jasper looked back at her fearfully, afraid of what Sapphire might see in her. But the smaller gem only smiled at her, a tear even forming in the corner of her eye. She wiped it away and turned back to 4NE.
"Absolutely. No one has anything to fear from her."
"Thanks," Jasper said meekly.
"No worries. I was just telling the truth. You're not here to hurt us."
Jasper smiled and bent down, carefully hugging Sapphire.
"I'm glad you can see it too," you said. "So I guess next we should... start researching this thing, maybe?"
"Shouldn't we figure out where we're staying?" Jasper suggested.
"Oh!" Sapphire exclaimed. "So you're who they sent! I can show you to-"
She was cut off by a sound from below, somewhere between glass clinking and rocks tumbling over one another.
"Oh no... here they come. Everybody back to your homes! Or if you live right around here, run!" 4NE ordered. Everyone immediately obeyed, fleeing the area. Only you, Jasper, and Sapphire remained.
"ONE VOICE. ONE MIND. ONE FATE. WE ARE THE VOICE OF THE PARAGON," boomed a voice from below. The ground trembled again as a colossal hand formed from disparate gem shards emerged from the pit. On its palm stood three freakishly deformed figures. "WE ARE THE PRIESTS. WE ARE THE ADHERENTS OF THE OLD GOD. YOU WILL KNOW HIS TRUTH."

Aw yeah, we're doing this. Word of advice, if you notice any peculiar or out of place details, or things which seem to be recurring themes... keep an eye on it.