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

Chapter 12: Endurance

The ground crunched unsettlingly under your feet as you stepped off the ladder. You tried to walk as softly as you could.
“(Y/N), I really don’t think you’re going to hurt them any more,” Jasper pointed out as she reached the bottom.
“I know, I know. It’s just… it’s like walking on bones.” You took a look around the cavern. The hollow area seemed to stretch for miles in all directions, as if much of the planet’s interior had simply been scooped out. Bending down, you picked up a small shard and tossed it a short distance away. Nothing happened. “Doesn't seem like anyone's home. I'm not sure what I expected to find down here. It all just looks more or less the same. Unless…” you knelt and began digging down through the gem shares, clearing a small hole. Jasper helped out, clearing them away much more efficiently. Every now and then you would pause and look up to make sure nothing was sneaking up on you. Underneath about a metre of fragments, you discovered something odd. It was a curved black surface, apparently part of a cylinder running through the ground like a pipe. Excited, you cleared away more of the area around it until you could confirm that it was indeed cylindrical, about as big around as your entire body. It was solid, with a fairly smooth surface neither warm nor cool to the touch. Puzzled by this strange object, you worked together even faster, trying to clear along its length. It proved to be slightly longer than you were tall.
“Uh… you'd better see this,” Jasper called. She had found one end of it, where it flared slightly and then ended… and joined to another object very similar to it. You stifled a scream, for you saw now that what you had uncovered was a single one of The Paragon's finger bones.
“That’s not good…” you muttered.
“Not good? How is this not great? This means there’s something we can fight against! Maybe even destroy!” She summoned her helmet.
“Jasper, wait!” you hissed. “You might wake him up!”
“Oh… right… yeah, that probably wouldn’t end well. But I still say we should see if we can damage it!”
“Oh, of course. Let’s just be a little more subtle about it.” You summoned your claws, angling them so one of them was lightly touching the bone. When this provoked no response, you began to drag them back and forth in a sawing motion, gradually applying greater pressure. Unfortunately, it quickly became clear that this wasn’t accomplishing anything.
“DID YOU REALLY THINK THAT WOULD WORK?” boomed a voice behind you. You turned to find the same three priests from before standing there, fully reformed.
“Oh come on,” Jasper groaned.
“Well you lot sure don’t waste any time. Jasper, I think it’s time for Plan F.”
“Plan..? OOOH. Gotcha.”
There was a flash of light and you stood together as Tiger’s Eye. You took a defensive stance.
“AH, VERY CLEVER. BUT YOU FORGET, FOOL CHILD, THAT TWO MAY PLAY THIS GAME.” The priests glowed white and began to morph together, but before they could solidify, the fusion’s amorphous arms shot into the ground, pulling in more gem shards. When the figure solidified, it was over seven metres tall - slightly taller than you were. And it wasn’t even standing at full height. It had a massively muscled frame, knuckle-walking on arms like a gorilla, while its legs were proportionally quite small. It didn’t have a discernible neck, and its bald head was nearly being consumed by its exaggerated musculature. It had no face to speak of, only a single blank orange eye turned sideways. Giant spikes of broken crystal erupted from its shoulders, while several smaller spikes poked through along the length of its spine.
You slowly circled the beast, maintaining eye contact. Finally, running at you with shocking speed, it attacked, swinging one arm built like a tree trunk. You caught it with all three hands and tried to push it back, but it was too strong, and slowly managed to move its hand with gnarled fingers closer and closer to you.
“Wait, I never thought - what happens to (Y/N) if we get hurt when we’re fused?” you wondered aloud. “Let’s not find out. Good call.” You headbutted the monster in the face; squarely in its single eye, in fact. It let out a surprisingly high-pitched, grating shriek and let go of you, clapping both hands over its face. You leapt away and ran to the ladder. You climbed as quickly as you could, but you felt the vibrations of the creature climbing up behind you. When you emerged, you took only a few steps back from the edge of the pit and waited for it to show itself. It wasn’t long before its massive hands clasped the ground and it threw itself upward onto the surface, causing the ground to shake. Locals screamed and ran. You bowed down in front of the creature as it shuffled towards you. It paused and tilted its head in confusion. That was when you grabbed onto the ladder where part of it lay along the ground and pulled it towards you. The monster tripped, easily set off balance by its topheavy frame, and fell backwards, back into the pit, where you heard it impact far below.
Unfusing, you fell to the ground and caught your breath.
“Well that didn’t accomplish much,” Jasper panted.
“Actually,” you replied between breaths, “I think it did. For one, I guess we know now that it doesn’t sleep very soundly. So that’s something to keep in mind. And second of all, we’ve discovered it has bones. The gem shards are just its skin and flesh. And if it has bones, I’ll bet it has a heart or a brain. A core of some kind.”
“So we just need to find it,” she realised, grinning.
“When do you want to go back to look for it?”
“I think I’ve still got some energy in me. Why waste time?”
You descended again into the pit to search for The Paragon’s core, and did the same the next day, and the day after that. Soon, you’d entirely lost track of the days… or was it weeks now? Perhaps even a month. Sometimes you fought the priests while fused, sometimes while separate, running when you had to, but always charging back into the fray just as eagerly. Often Sapphire would stand up above, singing to The Paragon, which seemed to prevent him from manifesting larger, more complex constructs. Eventually, you did find one of his ribs, and knew you were close.
The day after that when you descended and started digging towards where his heart surely lay, you noticed that all was quiet. Nothing was appearing. Nothing was coming after you.
“I don’t like this,” Jasper whispered. “It’s too quiet.”
“Could there be an invisible one?”
“No, we'd still be able to see its gemstone.”
“Still… he's up to something. I can feel it.”
“I know what you mean,” she replied as she resumed digging. When she flung away a large pile of shards, she called you over excitedly. Through the layers of fragmented crystal you could see a steady, pulsing blue glow. You started to dig towards it when you heard something shift.
“We're not alone. It's close,” you muttered. Jasper climbed to the edge of the hole you'd been digging to look for the source of the sound while you dug deeper. Suddenly, some of the gem fragments parted, and your left leg fell between them. Too late, you realised they were the jagged teeth of a construct which had burrowed its way to you. The crystalline teeth snapped shut. White hot. That was the only accurate description for the pain you experienced. You didn't feel it for long before the shock numbed all sensation, and your vision faded to white. You heard Jasper holler, but it sounded like everything was underwater. In an instant, everything went black.
Regaining consciousness, you leapt up, only to have Jasper grab you and force you back down.
“(Y/N), easy! You're safe!” She hugged you lightly. “You're safe,” she repeated, more calmly this time. You realised that she was right - you were in hospital. You noticed your left leg itched. You winced as you remembered what had happened and refused to look down.
“I don't have a leg, do I?”
“Uh…” Jasper groaned, blushing. “Yes and no.”
“Ah good, very good, you're awake,” declared Dr. Stier as he entered. He took your hand and poked the inside of your wrist. “You seem to have and good amount of blood back in you. Now, onto the matter of your injury.”
You finally looked down and saw that your left leg was absent below the knee, in its place a light grey prosthetic with purple detail. You tried to move it and were shocked to find that you had immediate and complete control over it.
“You should be able to try standing on it, if you wish,” Stier suggested.
You stepped down with your right foot, then hesitantly lowered your new left foot, slowly putting your weight on it, discovering that you could do so without issue… although it did feel like you were leaning to the left a little. You even took a few steps around the room.
“Was the damage really that bad, though, that you couldn’t reattach it?”
“Oh no, I absolutely can, just as soon as I have it.”
Jasper blushed.
“Yeah, I… sort of panicked. I didn’t know what to do, so I… bubbled it. It’s at home,” she said sheepishly. You laughed.
“Yes well, at least it’s in perfect stasis that way,” Stier noted. “Just… bring it back here when you get the chance. Otherwise we’ll have to grow you a new one.”
“Why not just do that anyway?” you asked.
“Ordinarily, that is the ideal remedy. However, the regenerated limb would have the muscular development of an infant, and you would require a lengthy course of physiotherapy. I beg your forgiveness if I was presumptuous, but I assumed that you don’t have time in your schedule for that.”
“Fair enough,” you shrugged, practising flexing your ankle. “So is this thing waterproof, or..?”
“Oh, quite. It should prove impervious to water, cold temperatures, heat of up to three thousand six hundred ninety-five kelvin, scratching, oxidising agents, small arms fire, heavy weaponry, most forms of acid, spatial distortion, and electric shock. My only warning would be to be cautious of anti-armour positron grenades.”
“Thanks, I’ll uh, keep that in mind.”
“Now, something else to keep an eye out for, are you experiencing any pains where the limb was?”
“I wish you hadn’t said that,” you remarked after a pause. “Now I can feel it itching.”
“Ah. To be expected, I suppose. I’m prescribing you dixenium phlogistonide. One tablet nightly should get the phantom pain under control.”
“Hello?” Sapphire said from the doorway.
“Oh, hello!”
“How are you feeling?”
“You don’t know?”
“Well, yes, sorry. I just thought it’d be weird to walk in declaring ‘Oh, you’re fine.’ You want to get right back at it, don’t you?”
“You read my mind.” You looked to Jasper. She looked back at you with concern at first, but eventually smiled and nodded. “Well then. Once more unto the breach, my friends!”

I know this sequel's been a bit weak overall, but just stick with it - the next chapter should prove reasonably epic.