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Lapis looked down at the ‘lake’ Steven and Peridot had supposedly gifted her with from her perch atop the silo, arms resting over her knees. She had spent the last day thinking about what Steven said concerning Peridot and Peridot’s own words when she lashed out after Lapis crushed her tape recorder. Her mind occasionally wandered to Peridot’s visceral reaction to Lapis asking her if she was okay, it wasn’t the reaction she expected. Peridot’s ability to knock down one of her carefully built up walls disturbed and disquieted her -- Peridot herself was a memory for a time she did not wish to repeat or even think about ever again. Weak Lapis, always someone’s prisoner, the Lapis she never wanted to return to again. Just looking at Peridot made her uncomfortable.
Lapis stood up, her watery wings forming on her back and drifted down to the ground, her feet brushing against the long grass. Her wings vanished and she glanced back at the barn where she could hear Peridot working on something -- Lapis had been mostly left alone since Steven and the rest of the Crystal Gems returned to the temple after the baseball fiasco. She had glimpsed Peridot several times while she worked on repairing the barn but Peridot had for the most part left her alone, aside from some frantic waving when they would occasionally meet eyes. Lapis rolled her eyes a bit and began to wander across the grassy knoll, heading down the slope, her eyes drifting to the horizon where the sun was beginning to rise and tint the sky a mirage of colors. She frowned to herself, remembering Peridot’s mention of watching the sun come up and wanting to deny how nice it truly was. Lapis had seen many planets, but she had never seen anything quite like this before. It was… beautiful.
Lapis stubbornly crossed her arms over her chest and huffed. She was so caught up in her thoughts her didn’t noticed the malicious presence approaching her from behind until it was entirely too late. A pair of large arms grabbed her and hauled her back, a hand covering her mouth roughly, and a hauntingly familiar voice in her ear, “Thought you could get away so easily?”
Jasper. It was too soon. She has just gotten free of Jasper. Lapis clawed at Jasper’s arm and struggled against her brute strength, unable to match it with her own. She couldn’t go through this again. She managed to free one of her arms and tried desperately to access the water from the little lake but was only able to disturb the surface of the water before Jasper pinned her again.
“Aw, trying to escape so soon? I’m hurt.”
Lapis made a sound of frustration and opened her mouth, biting down fiercely into Jasper’s arm, reason abandoning her. “Get your hands off of me!”
Jasper laughed, seemingly not affected by Lapis’ desperate attempt to get away. “Oh no. This time, you’re going to be my prisoner again. Like you should have always been.”
A bolt of panic shot through Lapis, Jasper’s words paralyzing her. Then, in the distance, another familiar alarmed voice, coming closer.
“Hey, wait! No! Jasper!” It was Peridot, running down the hill towards them, looking a mess after hours of working on the shed, splinters of wood sticking out of her hair and flecks of paint on her skin. “Don’t hurt her!”
Jasper rounded on Peridot while keeping Lapis secured in her grip, scowling down at her previous partner who looked utterly pathetic and defenseless with her lack of limb enhancers. “ You… you’ve betrayed the mission, haven’t you? Are you both on their side now? Disgusting.” Jasper stepped towards Peridot who started to backpedal, the worry on her face turning quickly to fright, but Jasper was quicker. She grabbed Peridot by the front of her modifier and lifted her up in the air, Peridot’s hands grabbing onto Jasper’s wrist.
“Just… wait! I can explain everything, okay? Don’t hurt her, don’t hurt anyone,” Peridot struggled to speak, obviously panicked and grasping at straws. Lapis had a feeling whatever Peridot told Jasper wouldn’t help, and she had a feeling Peridot knew that too.
Jasper smirked with mirth as she watched Peridot writhing in her grip, amused. “Look at you… so weak now. ‘Don’t hurt anyone’? Pathetic. You didn’t have any trouble hurting them before, did you?”
Peridot shook her hand, her little fingers digging deeper into Jasper’s arm. “That’s not… just listen to me, alright!”
Jasper shook her head, smirk still in place. “I’d rather do this instead.” Jasper turned back to Lapis with a malicious gleam in her eye, headpiece appearing, her intent obvious.
“ STOP!” Peridot’s legs kicked fruitlessly, trying to gain any sort of purchase. Her face was flushed and her eyes cast off to the side. “Whatever just, hurt me instead? You… we’ve hurt her enough.”
Jasper stared down at Peridot for a long moment while Lapis’ mind went blank, her eyes staying on Peridot though she didn’t really see anything. She didn’t notice when Jasper let her go and she didn’t notice the nearby shouts of the Crystal Gems. She startled when Jasper smashed her headpiece directly into Peridot’s face, visor shattering and the unmistakable sound of a gem cracking ringing in her ears. Jasper dropped Peridot as the Crystal Gems descended on her but Lapis couldn’t move, all she could do was stare at Peridot’s prone form laying on the grass a few feet away, her eyes white and her form erratically phasing in and out of existence.
A fray around her. She still couldn’t move. Garnet, Amethyst and Pearl were all attacking Jasper and driving her further back. Steven was next to Peridot, looking up at her frantically and trying to talk to her but Lapis couldn’t hear him. He was cleaning the broken pieces of her visor from her face and touching her severely broken gem on her forehead.
Never. No one had ever done something like this for her before in her thousands of years of life. Steven protected her from the Crystal Gems but this, this was different. Lapis could, for the most part, take care of herself. She was undoubtedly more powerful that Peridot was, yet there was Peridot, laying on the ground, nearly shattered in an attempt to protect her.
The static in Lapis’ mind finally cleared enough in time for her to hear Amethyst yelling at her, “hey! Lapis, hey, we could really use some help you know!” Lapis took a deep breath and nodded, watching Steven and Peridot for another brief moment before turning and going to aid the Crystal Gems against Jasper.
Steven had tears in his eyes. He’d tried to heal Peridot, but it didn’t work. It didn’t always work. Peridot was projecting images from her broken gem now, though they were too contorted and bizarre to completely understand. He could see some of them well enough to understand they were of Homeworld and of her ship. Her physical form fizzled out for a moment before it reformed, her body shaking with some phantom pain, eyes still wide and empty. She wasn’t aware of her surroundings at all. Her gem started projecting again, Steven could pick out Lapis, the times she pushed Peridot away and spurned her.
“This has really been bothering you, huh,” Steven mused.
Everyone had gathered around Steven and Peridot a moment later, Jasper had been poofed and bubbled with some effort. Garnet was already reaching down for Peridot before Steven realized they had all come over. “We need to get her to Rose’s fountain, immediately.”
“Where’s that?” Lapis was beside Garnet, watching Peridot, her usual apathetic expression replaced with a hint of worry.
“We’ll use the warp pad in the temple. Just us three, Peridot might want some space once she’s back.” Garnet looked down at Steven’s watery expression. “It’s alright, Steven, we’ll be back as soon as she is healed. She’s going to be fine.”
Steven nodded and wiped some of his tears away while Pearl comforted him. Lapis looked down at Steven and tried to smile for him. “See you soon, okay?” Her wings appeared and she took off after Garnet who had already headed down the hill towards the beach, flying close to her, Peridot’s state making her anxious. She briefly wondered why Garnet wanted her to come instead of Steven, or anyone else, really. She didn’t ask any questions.
When they warped to Rose’s garden Lapis found herself looking around in awe, following Garnet through the tunnel to the center where the statue of Rose Quartz stood in the middle of a huge fountain. Garnet paused at the top of the stairs and looked down at Lapis with an appraising look for a long moment before speaking. “You must take her down into the water.”
Lapis stopped on the step below Garnet when she realized Garnet had paused, looking back at her, confused. She stared at Garnet, perplexed by her words before thinking it didn’t really matter and reaching out to take Peridot’s smaller form in her arms when Garnet offered her.
“Sure. Okay.” Lapis looked down at Peridot’s eerie eyes that flickered every down and then, her gem glowing brightly for a moment before fading. Lapis turned and took the rest of the steps down and into the fountain, sitting down when she was in deep enough, the water reaching up to her waistline. She rested Peridot in her lap and tilted her further back into the pink water until it washed over Peridot’s face and gem, watching with interest as the crack in Peridot’s gem filled in as if nothing happened, her eyes closing half way, relieved.
Peridot’s eyebrows creased as she came back to herself, blinking her eyes open and staring up at Lapis. Lapis couldn’t help a half smile at the completely bewildered look on her face. “You’re okay.”
Peridot continued to stare for another moment, fidgeting. “So… maybe you’ll stay now?”
Lapis rolled her eyes, exasperated. "I guess so."
Peridot grinned, satisfied and looked up to see the sun poking it's bright head over the horizon, reflecting off the pink water. "Hey look, it's the sunrise..."
Lapis followed Peridot's eyes to the sky, seeing a different sunrise from the one at the barn, nonetheless beautiful. "It's nice."