The Heretic caressed his flail's chain with his thumb, relishing its cold comfort.

The storm had picked up, drowning out the last pockets of sunlight in a torrential downpour of thick, heavy rain. It was already hard enough to see through his great helm and the rain only served to further hinder his already limited sight as water dripped past the thin slit of his visor.

Jasper stood across from him on the road, unphased by the storm. Her massive frame was unlike any other Quartz soldier he ever faced; she was large as a fusion with a stature that imposed an uncontested strength, but she had clearly changed since they last met—a change far more sinister than just the subtle differences of her sleeveless uniform. From her sandy white hair protruded two teal horns that did not match the orange tones of her body which bore fresh scars of its own.

It was as though she had become partially corrupted in some way. It doesn't matter, he thought. All the more reason for her to die.

The giant of a gem tilted her head up to look him over. "Do I know you?" Jasper asked, her voice rough yet uncertain.

"Loyalist thrall, your gem is no better than the rocks beneath my feet," he replied, dropping the head of his flail so it dangled by his waist. "I won't even bother having you bubbled, no, that would be too good for you."

Jasper snorted. "Been a long time since I seen one of you fanatical types." She tilted her head down as a powerful light formed around her head, its edges brimming with a wrathful energy as the light shaped itself into a horned, crystalline helmet.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, you guys can't seriously be considering fighting right here!" Greg yelled at them. "Lapis, Peridot, tell em to calm down," he pleaded.

"Eh, I say let em fight it out," Lapis replied with a shrug.

Peridot nodded in agreement beside Lapis. "That usually solves all our other problems just fine," she remarked.

"Hush up!" Jasper shouted over them. "I wanna enjoy this," she said with a chortle.

The Heretic could no longer feel his heart beat—not since he died—but if he did, he was sure it would be beating against his chest with the rhythm of war drum willing him to battle, a mix of the apprehension and anticipation which always worked its way into his mind before a battle.

This fight was no different except now he was alone against a perfectly cut Gem; legend said Jasper had shattered 80 crystal Gems and put down 1000 men the day she emerged at the battle for the beta kindergarten, so what hope did he have alone?

He pushed aside the cowardly thoughts, the reservations of a traitor. To die was to make men holy, to die was to make amends. He knew that well, so he was compelled to die fighting.

The Heretic leaped forward, cleaving through the rain as he swung his flail overhead, aiming to strike Jasper's helmet. Jasper caught the spiked head in her hand with no sign of strain. She was far nimbler than her size portrayed, moving quicker than any other man or gem he had ever fought before.

"Was that the best you could offer, little man?" Jasper mocked. He tried to pull his flail back, but she held a firm grip on it as she taunted him.

With ease, Jasper used the flail to fling him behind her, lifting him from his feet as he was sent barreling through the trees along the road. The crunching of fractured wood was followed by the rumble of the ground as he crashed into the muddy field of a nearby park. His gleaming plate armor was now slicked with mud, but he was left otherwise unscathed.

"Y'know you're gettin worked out there, right?" He heard Lapis ask with a tone that sounded close to pure indifference. She was crouching down beside him, a pair of wings at her back formed from water, the rain rippling against them. He would have said she was majestic in the storm had she not opened her mouth.

"I see that," he replied through gritted teeth as he punched the ground and pulled himself up.

"Maybe try not running directly at her next time," she suggested with a mild sincerity.

"You gonna help?" he asked, tilting his head down at her.

"Strength is the only concept Jasper grasps, if I help you, she won't respect you."

"I don't want her respect; I want her dead!"

"I don't blame you, but I can't let you do that." Lapis pulled the nearby rain into a small ball of water and washed the mud off of him.

The Heretic could not fathom why Lapis would need her alive, or why Jasper was even in their town for that matter. Surely, they did not forget all she had done during the war; he certainly hadn't.

The ground quaked beneath his feet, turning around, he saw that Jasper had landed in the field a few yards away.

"Feel free to blow off some steam though," Lapis added with a playful nudge before flying off.

"Fantastic," he muttered to himself.

"Come on little man, I want to see what you're made of!" Jasper taunted him some more, her mouth twisted into a nasty grin.

The Heretic looked around at his surroundings in search of anything helpful. He found only mud, the scattered branches of the trees he crashed through, and Jasper waiting for him at the other end of the park.

Don't run at her? I'm in the middle of an empty field, there's nowhere else to run but at her! Lapis had proven exceptionally unhelpful, so he would need to figure this out himself. He hated to take bait, but he had little other choice but to face Jasper head on.

Back into the fray he charged, coiling his flail around his arm and gripping the head in his hand—Jasper matched him as she thundered toward him, tilting her head down at him. Was she planning to ram into him like a bull? He quickly ducked into a tackle just as he and Jasper were about to collide, taking her by the waist and using her own momentum to throw her over his shoulder. In a swift motion he had slammed Jasper into the ground and begun to bash her face with the flail head.

Jasper took the hits with a smile on her face, not even trying to fight back as the Heretic assailed her. After tasting a few good hits, she took the flail in her hand again, easily pushing back against him as he tried to resist.

"Not bad for a human," Jasper said amidst the struggle.

For a moment he froze as the fire inside him waned as if extinguished by the storm. In his hesitation, Jasper headbutted him, sending him reeling back in pain.

Pain? He knew pain, he knew death, so why was he suddenly so scared of dying?

Jasper pinned him to the ground and begun punching his helm; she didn't even bother to rip it off him as though she wanted the challenge of breaking through it. With each strike she pushed him deeper into the ground, burying his grave with a flurry of strikes, each with more force than the last.

I can't die, not yet. I need to find them! I need to know what happened!

He tried to strike back, getting a single good hit in before she hit him back down.

"Jasper, that's enough," he heard Lapis say. She sounded distant, or maybe he was losing his hearing as his helm rattled against Jasper's fists. Regardless, the flurry of attacks did not slow, but rather it sped up as she hit him harder.

Once again, he struck back, catching her fist in his palm as he desperately tried to push her off of him. When he fought back it seemed to only make her happier as her smile widened the more he struggled.

"I said enough!" Lapis shouted with a ferocity he had not known was within her.

Suddenly, the rain stopped. No, it froze, each drop suspended in the air around him as Jasper's assault stopped. When his vision cleared, he saw shackles of water around Jasper's waist and wrists which pulled at her until she was ripped off of him.

Lapis rushed over to him, the rain continuing once again as she reached him. "I'm so sorry, I didn't think things would go so far," she said with a genuine remorse. "Are you okay?" Lapis extended a hand out to him.

The Heretic groaned as he took her hand and stepped out of the hole he was in. He should have known better than to challenge Jasper, but pride was a fickle thing.

"I'll be fine," he replied, gasping for breath. "Besides, it's my fault . . . thank you . . . for saving me," he continued between his gasps.

He watched as Jasper got up—her smile gone—and walked away.

Just like that? The Jasper he had fought so many millennia ago would have never stopped. Maybe, she really has changed, he considered, chuckling at the thought. What a strange world I've awoken too.

"So, Greg said you needed some help," Lapis said "I suppose it's the least I could do for you after, well, all of this." She gestured to the destroyed field. "So, how can I help?"

He thought back to the last memory he had of his comrades. He was with them when they found the prism, when they were attacked by the corrupted Lapis Lazuli.

He looked at Lapis again, she had no signs of corruption which was enough to put his doubts of her to rest. "What do you know about the Prism?" he asked her.