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

Chapter 15: Phoenix

You weren't sure how long it was before you came to. The gems hadn't reformed yet, and Stier was still out like like a light. You gripped a railing and hauled yourself to your feet, conscious of a faint hiss of steam rising off you.
You looked down at your hands and saw that they were glowing faintly.
“Fair enough,” you sighed. “I suppose I’ve pushed it past the limit this time.”
You limped outside and drew in a breath of fresh ocean air. The Pillar stood upright on the beach. A perfect landing. You’d made it home. You laughed triumphantly and dropped to your knees, then lay back on the sand. You winced as you hit the ground. It felt like your whole body was badly sunburnt, even on the inside. You focused on your right hand, channeling the sensation into it. It stung and crackled. You shook your hand as if flicking off droplets of water. A few sparks flew from your fingertips, and the pain subsided. You sighed in relief and lay still as you started to hear movement inside the ship. Sapphire stepped out, guiding an extremely dizzy-looking Stier by the hand. Finding his balance, Stier whipped out a medical scanner and knelt over you, while Sapphire merely looked at you.
“You’re dying,” they concluded simultaneously.
“Yeah… kinda figured.”
“You spoke once of another hybrid with the power to heal. Perhaps if we can contact him, he can repair your injuries,” Doctor Stier suggested.
“I doubt it. Check your scanner. There isn’t an unirradiated cell left in me.” You heard the sound of Jasper regenerating. “I don’t mean to be rude, but could you please give Jasper and me a moment of privacy?”
“Of course,” Sapphire replied. “And… thank you.”
“You proved yourself a noble warrior,” Stier declared, thumping his chest. The two of them wandered down the beach to where they were out of earshot. You struggled to your feet and put a smile on your face as Jasper stepped out of the Pillar.
“Hello,” you said, grinning.
“(Y/N)!” she exclaimed, her face lighting up. She ran over and hugged you, causing you to gasp in pain. She let go and stepped back with a concerned expression. “What is it? Are you okay?”
“Ah, not really, no, I'm afraid. In fact, it's looking like I'm never going to be okay again.”
“I don't understand. What's wrong?”
You sighed sadly.
“The Pillar was only ever meant to be piloted by twelve gems, and never by a human. And certainly not with the safety features offline. I've absorbed radiation comparable to the Chernobyl disaster by controlling it. It feels like every cell in my body's on fire.” You shrugged and added, “Which isn't far off from the truth, when you think about it.”
“You're going to be fine though, right? I mean, you're still walking around!”
“I'm containing most of the radiation in my gem, but I can't keep it up forever. Give it a few minutes and it'd crack my gem as well as irradiating the rest of me, and then I'd REALLY be in trouble,” you said, managing a laugh. Your smile drooped slightly. “And when I do release it, we're not talking cancer so much as… well, incineration.”
“So this is goodbye, then… again.” Jasper was beginning to cry, tears running freely from her eyes.
“Hey,” you said as you hugged her, “chin up. Remember who you're talking to. This isn't my curtain call, never is, just a change of costume. After all we're all always changing, every second of our lives. You never wake up as the same person who went to bed. Throughout our lives we all carry different names, play different roles, a few of us even wear different faces… but it's never easy. It's always sad when things change, but I suppose that's good, because it means that what was there was really worth something. All you can do is put one foot in front of the other and try to remember all of the faces that you've worn along the way. I couldn't forget one day we've spent together if you paid me.” You clapped your hands together. “I don't know what's going to happen next. I genuinely have no idea. It's scary and a bit thrilling, honestly. But in case something goes wrong… in case it takes a long time before I see you again… I want you to know you made it all worthwhile. You saved me in a way that has nothing to do with life or death. Jasper, I love you. You've been absolutely brilliant. And you know, I think I did a pretty good job being (Y/N).”
Jasper smiled through her tears.
“I love you,” she whispered. She shook her head. “Please don't go.”
“Hey,” you whispered, “you trust me, don't you?”
“More than anyone.”
“Then I want you to go on home, get those two set up in their rooms, and I'll catch up with you sooner or later. I promise.”
“You’d better not die on me and then never come back.”
“I wouldn’t worry too much. I’m still standing here talking, but I’ll let you in on a secret: my heart hasn’t been beating for the past five minutes.” You held her hand, placed your other hand on her cheek, and kissed her passionately. “Oh, nevermind, there it goes.”
Jasper smiled and reluctantly released your hand as you turned and walked towards the Pillar. You stepped through the portal into the control centre, shutting the door behind you. Now that Jasper wasn’t there to hear you, you let out an agonised groan, clutching your abdomen. You staggered over to a control panel along the outer wall and activated it.
“There's about to be a large amount of ionising radiation flooding this room. Can you clean it up when that happens?”
NEURAL INTERFACE IS NOT FUNCTIONING PROPERLY. SOME COMMANDS ARE NOT AVAILABLE.
“Yes yes, that’s fine, but can you do it?”
PREPARING FOR HAZARDOUS RADIATION SWEEP, MAXIMUM SETTING. CONFIRM?
“Affirmative.”
You were okay with this. Two of you had left, four of you had made it back, and three of you survived. Those were acceptable numbers. You shuffled on rapidly weakening legs down to the central control area, tracing your hand fondly over the controls and mechanisms. Your face fell when you realised your sense of touch had faded. Your hands dropped to your sides, and you fell flat on your back. You lay still on the grated floor, only turning your head when you heard the sound of footsteps on the metal stairs around the central area. Jaspilite, visible as clearly as day, came down the steps and over towards you, smiling. You smiled back weakly. “Hello old friend,” you whispered with what strength you could manage. She reached out her right hand, and you reached out to take it with yours. The moment you touched, she vanished, and you realised you had been hallucinating… and that you had the energy to stand. You rose and drew in a deep breath. Brilliant white light began to swirl and wind around you. You shrugged off your coat and pulled off your scarf. Feeling an odd pain in your left leg… wait, left leg? You detached your artificial leg and watched as the organic one regrew as if by magic. You studied yourself as even your oldest scars spontaneously healed. Your skin began to glow white, brighter and brighter, until nothing was visible beneath the glow. You spread your arms in a T-pose and tilted back your head. You allowed the massive radiation to flow out from your gem, blasting from your hand in a great jet of light. You glowed brighter and brighter, until, with a force that shook the entire structure, your body was consumed in an explosion of pure energy.
The pain had ended. But there was no light for you. Only a deep, empty nothingness. Your whole world was darkness. At least, it was until you swept your hair out of your eyes. When you did, you saw that the skin of your hand was black with thin red stripes and bands.
“Ooh, that's new! Let's see, I - where's a mirror? A-ha!” Above one of the stations of the central console, a mirror was suspended. You rotated it to face you. “Why's there a mirror?” you wondered aloud. “Do gems do their makeup while they're driving?” The face in the mirror was that of Jaspilite, as you had pretty well guessed already. You tucked your fingers under the hair which covered the right side of your new face. “Oh come on, please please please… yes!” you cheered when you'd moved it aside. “I still have two eyes! Binocular vision!” You turned away from the mirror. “Oh yes, this is good, I'm alive, I'm a gem, my name is (Y/N) or Jaspilite or The Dreamer or whatever, I'm in a stolen alien ship, I'm, I'm, what else am I..? I'm…” You looked down at yourself. “…Naked! I am completely naked!” you declared proudly. Without looking down or changing your expression, you muttered, “Why am I naked?” Your expression turned to horror. “But what does this mean as far as…” You looked down at yourself a little farther and breathed a sigh of relief. “Ah, good, good, that's the view I like.” A realisation about your present nudity hit you. “Wait, I'm a gem now! Which means I can shapeshift, which means I should be able to…” You shut your eyes, clenched your fists, and concentrated. There was a loud cartoonish *POP*, and when you looked in the mirror again, you were wearing a black and red uniform in the same style as the one Peridot wore. Both because it felt natural and as a show of solidarity, you chose the Pink Diamond symbol. You looked down to the floor and found that your scarf and coat, which you had previously removed, had survived your going supernova. You put them on, figuring they’d become your trademark while on Valoccar, and might help make you more recognisable. “Waste not, want not!”
Once you felt that your mental processes had settled somewhat, you set off back home on foot. As you did, you considered that you were running on legs which would never tire, using muscles which would never ache. You were seeing the sun with eyes which would never go blind, hearing birdsong with ears which would never go deaf. Your stomach would never hunger, your skin would never bear scars, your brain would never grow forgetful, your hair would never thin, your heart would never fail. For so long as your gem remained unbroken, you would live forever in exactly your present physical state. The more you thought about it, the more you had some mixed feelings about it, but that wasn’t going to change anything.
You were standing on the doorstep before you knew it, and realised what a significant moment this would be. You thought of all kinds of things you could say in the moment before you knocked - quips about how that was your fastest time yet or how you felt like a whole new person, sincere speeches about how even death wasn't enough to prevent your return to her, a casual and confident hello - but when she opened the door, the only thing which came to mind was…
“I just realised I'll need a new photo for my driver's license.”
Jasper stood wide-eyed, her mouth slightly agape, tears already starting to form.
“Is it you?” she whispered, her voice failing her.
“Yes,” you choked, starting to cry yourself. There was a moment's hesitation, neither of you knowing what to say. Finally, Jasper lifted you up and hugged you to her chest, alternating between crying into your shoulder and laughing joyfully. You just hugged back and shut your eyes, still coming to terms with the fact that you were alive and that you had all made it home.
“I'm sorry to ask this question, and please don't take it the wrong way, but… who are you? Are you Jaspilite now, or are you still (Y/N)?” Jasper asked once you were inside and sitting down.
“I don't know,” you admitted after some consideration. “As (Y/N), I didn't have Jaspilite’s memories, except if they came to me in dreams, but I have them now. But I also have all of (Y/N)’s memories. I can't really say whether I'm one or the other. Perhaps there's no difference now.”
“So I get the best of both worlds, I guess?”
“You know it, BBCP.”
“What?”
“Ehh, Big Buff Cheeto Puff. I thought I'd try shortening it a bit.”
“Oh. It doesn't really work.”
“No, it doesn't, does it? Oh, how are Pinky and Jack?”
“Relax (Y/N), they're fine. They're just upstairs meeting the new arrivals. Dr. Stier wanted to give them both checkups…”
“Oh Jasper, I hope you-”
“I told Sapphire to keep an eye on him, don't worry.”
“Ah. Good. Good thinking. So how well do you think this is going to work, four people living in the house? Do you think we'll all get along fine?”
“Actually, (Y/N)... I was waiting for a moment to tell you… it's going to be six, not four.”
Your eyes lit up.
“You mean..?”
She nodded.
“The babies are on their way. I'm sorry I didn't wait, but, well, I expected you to be dead for a little longer than a few minutes, and… I wanted to tell them all about you, about who you were, about how I felt about you, about what you did for us. And I wanted to be able to do that while the memories of you were at their freshest… nine-month delay notwithstanding.”
“Oh, c’mere you big mama bear!” you exclaimed, hugging her tight. After a pause, Jasper spoke.
“Two hybrid embryos gestating in a machine in the basement isn't very romantic, is it?”
“No it is not.” You brushed aside your hair so both of your eyes were visible and winked. “Not to say there's no way we can compensate in that regard.”
Jasper looked mildly disturbed.
“Huh? Oh, yeah, sorry, just… a jaspilite with two eyes… it's gonna be a while before that looks normal.”
“(Y/N), is that you?” Sapphire's voice called from upstairs.
“I'll just be a minute,” you told Jasper with another wink. You went upstairs to find Sapphire in one of the previously unused bedrooms. “You called? And before you ask, yes, I'm a gem now.”
“Oh! Well, I feel like that's worth talking about at some point, but for now I just wanted to tell you there's something moving up in the attic.”
“Did your vision tell you anything more than that?”
“Oh, I didn't see it, actually. I heard it. I think I can hear it right now.”
You listened and heard what sounded like human footsteps above you.
“That isn't a raccoon,” you muttered grimly. “Stay down here, I'll check it out.”
You climbed the ladder to the attic and slowly lifted the hatch, peering in.
“Hello dear, did you miss me?” a voice called in a light Scottish accent.
“What?” you exclaimed in surprise. Lifting the hatch all the way and raising yourself up, you found yourself facing a tall, slim amethyst in Victorian garb.
“What?!” you exclaimed in disbelief. You looked down at her feet, and saw that while the right one was clad in a dark purple high-heeled shoe, the left one was your foot - it was the leg you'd lost!
“What.”