Hello friends!
So I've been writing almost nothing but the Life Of A Hammer Brother remake recently and while I'm still enjoying that and writing the rest of it, I encountered a problem. If I was burnt out about writing that story then I was making no progress whatsoever. If that were to last for a long period of time as it is known to do, then I have nothing else to work on.
Well not anymore!
Now we have this story! This is an idea I've had for awhile and will incorporate a lot of sparatic ideas I've had into one story. So hopefully you'll enjoy it as much as I've had fun writing it!
Edit: Um hi so I started writing this story a day or 2 before Comic Con which was a huge mistake. One of the main characters of my creation is a gem with a red heart-shaped gemstone... just like the currently unnamed villain of Steven Universe: The Movie. Just know that my character is not meant to have any relation to this official character (or any character) unless I add her to the story in the future which I probably will. Thanks and now you can finally read! Have fun.
Chapter 1: A Strange New Lifeform
This is an alternate timeline in which Pearl and Rose Quartz meet a gem that joins them early on, and becomes one of the first Crystal Gems. None of what happens is meant to reflect or predict the show, although I guess if you take the original character out it's mostly a story about how the Crystal Rebellion and the Gem War happened.
Our story starts one week before Rose Quartz's attack against Blue Diamond's court on planet earth, set to take place at the cloud arena. Pink Diamond had been advised to check her Kindergartens following a previous rebellious attack. Her loyal Pearl accompanied her for the inspections.
To her gem Homeworld she is the perfect Pearl. Loyal, obedient, she falls right into place in the gem hierarchy. Just a Pearl. But Pink Diamond's Pearl. Now that was special. Pink however didn't require such a gem. She had been pretending to be Rose Quartz for months now, going back and forth between rebel and leader of a colony.
The Earth. What a wonderful planet. Pink Diamond was in love with it. Pearl was too, of course, but that's not why she followed Rose+
Whether she'd admit it or not, whether Rose knew or not, Pearl turned against her kind for her diamond.
She felt ashamed. The rebellion had been about protecting Earth and thinking for yourself yet she mostly just cared about Rose. She was... in love. She was in love and she had to follow the orders of her Diamond, no matter what.
All of that didn't matter now, as the pair of pink gems were keeping tabs on the Prime Kindergarden, one of 3 on Earth. They had already checked the Zeta and Beta Kindergardens, leaving the darkest and most depressing of the trio.
The two weren't alone however, as they had a Peridot accompanying them. This Peridot looked extremely different from modern ones, as they had been made during Era 1 on Homeworld. They were much larger, and could create large screens with their bare hands. This power was helpful for documenting the condition of the colony.
"Can we leave yet?" Pink whined, kicking a rock in frustration.
Pearl nudged her leg with her elbow as the leader realized her mistake.
"I-I mean, um, are we close to completion yet?"
Following the question she leaned down and whispered something to her Pearl, just out of earshot of the Peridot who was documenting a nearby set of exit holes.
"I was hoping to be able to visit the hideout and prepare some things before our raid."
"We are close to completion my Diamond, we just have this last sector left." Pearl stated.
"Yes, we have made excellent time. Blue and my Diamond will be very happy to receive this news at the conference meeting!" The green gem happily chimed in from a distance.
Pink groaned at that last sentence. She hated everything about it. She hated how she wasn't allowed to have her own Peridot, she hated the stupid conference meetings, and she hated the other Diamonds. The three continued onwards until they could nearly see the end. Pink ran towards the exit, only to hear a loud noise. She stopped dead in her tracks and spun towards the wall next to her.
"HEY! It's someone! Someone's here!"
Pearl and the Peridot cowered in fear, however all three looked upwards towards one of the highest exit holes. There they could make out the shape of a creature, presumably a gem. It had a more masculine sounding voice, similar more to a male human. It jumped from hole to hole until finally reaching the bottom.
"NO. WAY!" Pink began screaming and jumping up and down with delight.
"Wh-wh-what is it my diamond?" The Peridot began frantically looking through her records for any sign of this strange new gem.
"IT'S MY HUMAN GEM HY-" Suddenly she stopped. Realizing what she had done she turned to face her subordinants.
"Human? Gem?"
"You heard none of that!" Pearl ordered.
"Oh right, like I'll let some puny Pearl give me orders. Pfft! Yellow will hear of this at once! This is big! We always knew there was something off about Pin-"
In a giant cloud of smoke the green gem had disappeared, leaving nothing but the gemstone lying on the ground. Pink had squished Peridot with her hands until her physical form had vanished.
"ROSE!"
"Shhh! Pearl! What if there are other gems around?"
"Ahem."
The strange new third gem cleared his throat as the other two were whisper-yelling at each other.
"OH! Right! Where are my manners? Pearl, this is my human-gem hybrid! I inserted some human DNA we had extracted from one of the zoo humans and inserted it into a gem drill and here he is! Pretty cool, huh?" Pink posed next to him as if she were presenting him.
"So that's what I am, huh? Cool... I guess."
"Fascinating!"
"My Diamond, I-" Before Pearl could finish her sentence Pink had shape-shifted into Rose Quartz and shook his hand.
"Rose, don't you think it's dangerous to reveal yourself to him? And how come I was unware of this experiment?"
"Pfft it's fine! He'll be helpful for the rebellion!"
"I guess it could be useful to finally recruit a new gem... most people just ignore us." Pearl thoughtfully looked at the ground before continuing.
"So, what can he do?"
Pink was taken aback by this question, something she had not yet thought of.
"OH MY GOSH WHAT CAN YOU DO?"
"I, uh, I'm not sure." He responded, looking at his hands.
"Oh, right. I made it so he could think for himself. Name himself, choose his form, and even develop his own powers! Oh this is so exciting!"
It was indeed, exciting, as this strange new character had a form unlike anything else in existence. He was rather tall, being nearly 6 feet high. He had short brown hair with pale, human caucasian like skin. His design was interesting but rather basic, with a blue upperhalf donning a v-shaped collar around his neck. It wasn't clothing, however, just the color of his skin. The blue stopped part way up his arm, leading into his hand. His legs were red and looked similar to pants. They stuck out from his skin, looking rather puffy, with pink diamonds scattered about on the surface. He had no shoe like feet, just being barefoot. His face was pretty much that of a normal human. If you looked at him you'd probably just think he was an ordinary human, aside from one difference; the gemstone on his chest. He had a large, bright red gemstone on his chest that was in the shape of a heart.
Pearl reached out and touched the gem with her hand. It was incredibly smooth, just like any other stone. She didn't know why she thought any differently of it. She admired the being before suddenly coming to a realization.
"MY DIAMOND! I mean, Rose? Pink? THE DIAMOND CONFERENCE!"
Pink was nearly in a trance observing this new gem, so much that she barely heard what her Pearl had said. When she fully processed the exclamation she turned cold.
"Yellow and Blue CAN'T find out about this! About-" She pointed at the creature.
"Abnu."
He had confirmed his name to be... Abnu. Pink had no idea what it meant but she loved it.
"Exactly! They can't see this! They'd shatter me..."
"Oh I doubt they'd shatter you, my Diamond."
"Pearl! Of course they would! They have no respect for me. They never have and they never will unless we fight them off of this planet!"
Pink was getting fired up now. She decided to sit down on a nearby rock to calm down, her Pearl joining in.
"I'm sorry to interrupt but I have no idea what you're talking about." Abnu inserted, trying not to be rude.
"Oh! Of course." Pink began.
"Why don't I go take care of the other Diamonds while Pearl shows you our hidden base? I'd love to be there myself but, you know, I am a Diamond after all. The... worst, diamond."
She sighed before swiftly walking towards a nearby warp pad and vanishing.
"So you're Pearl?" Abnu asked quizzically.
"Um, yes. You've heard of me?"
"I've heard of Pink Diamond's Pearl before. Those Jaspers that came through here were talking about the two of you, and about Rose Quartz." He looked up to the sky in deep thought.
"You don't know that much, do you?" Pearl asked.
"Not really. I haven't had much interactions with any other lifeforms."
"Well I'm sure Rose will fill you in on the details at some point. You should get together any belongings you have. IF you have any, that is."
"Oh are you kidding? I've got plenty! Oh this is so amazing."
He said this as he was climbing back up to the hole he had come out of earlier. He threw a few pieces of junk he had collected down to Pearl. All but one, that is. A single piece of paper. It showed a drawing of a town on a beach, with the words: "Abnu" in black. When he met back up with Pearl she inspected the scrap paper.
"What is that?" She asked, picking up Abnu's items.
"Oh. I'm not sure. It was the first thing I found when I emerged." He felt the piece of gritty paper in his hands.
Pearl didn't know what to think of Abnu. From Rose's stories she had gathered that Abnu meant "stone" in human language. Fitting for a gem she supposed. He seemed nice enough, although she couldn't help but be jealous. From the small amount of interaction Abnu had with Rose she had seemed enthralled with him. They began walking towards the warp pad together.
"How come you haven't left yet, may I ask."
"I don't know, I guess. I've walked around, but not much. Everything outside of the Kindergarten seems so barren that I guess I assumed the rest of the planet was like that."
He was right. The Prime Kindergarten and everything around it for miles was flat purple ground, save for a few odd bumps. The ground was cracked and the air was dark and dry. It wasn't the happiest of places to call home.
When they arrived on the warp pad Abnu looked at it.
"I guess this means you haven't used a warp pad before?" Pearl questioned, slightly annoyed.
"No. I had no idea that's what this is."
Pearl jumped up onto the smooth blue stone and waited for Abnu to do the same. Pearl warped them into a cave. Inside the cave were bright shards of reflective rock jutting out of random parts of the cave. Abnu ran towards the cave entrance and was blinded by the harsh sunlight. After his eyes took a moment to adjust he found himself on a bright sandy beach. He crouched down and his hands sift through the warm sand. He walked forward and let the gentle waves hug his bare feet. He turned back to Pearl who was buried her head in some sort of tall, weaved basket. Abnu ran back to her to inspect what she was doing.
"So what are you doing now?" He asked.
"I'm getting my swords to prepare for the attack."
"Oh, right. Soooo who are we attacking again?"
"We aren't attacking anyone." Pearl pulled out her two swords and practiced a few jabs.
"Pink and I are attacking the Cloud Arena, which is where Blue will be later this daylight cycle."
"That sounds cool and I but why can't I come?" Abnu sat down next to Pearl and she spawned a hologram version of herself.
"Well, you don't seem to have any powers or fighting capabilities. With... small amounts of due respect, you won't be much help with this mission. Plus, we don't want to upset the Diamonds even more with the likes of you running around."
Suddenly Rose warped in looking sad.
"What's wrong, Rose?" Pearl asked, concerned.
Suddenly Rose punched the wall as hard as she could, shaking the entire hillside it was carved into.
"Blue has "business" to attend to, so she nor her court will be here until tomorrow's day cycle! Can you believe her? She doesn't even care enough to come to Earth anyways! We can't drive away people who aren't here!" Pink sat down to yet again calm herself.
"Oh my stars this is perfect!" Abnu explained.
Pearl looked at him with contempt.
"What?" Pink asked with hope in her voice.
"I can spend the extra time trying to figure out what my powers are, and then I can come with you!"
Pearl sighed and walked towards the hybrid, putting her hands on his shoulders.
"Look, Abnu. Rose and I appreciate your enthusiasm bu-" Pearl was cut off by Rose.
"Pearl, don't be rude. That's not how I feel at all. If you want to come with us then you can. As long as you have some way of defending yourself." Rose stood up and walked outside, the other two close behind.
"And you'll stick it to Blue being, y'know, a hybrid and all."
"Rose!" Pearl exclaimed.
"Don't you think it'd be a bit risky bringing him?"
"Isn't it dangerous for us to be going to Blue Diamond's court and destroying as many gems as we can?" Rose retorted.
Pearl stopped talking as Rose turned to Abnu.
"Now, just try doing something. Reach deep into your gemstone and pull something out."
Abnu wasn't entirely sure what that meant but he tried his hardest to heed her advice regardless. He focused and focused yet nothing happened. Rose kept giving him different kinds of advice yet nothing seemed to work. She was getting tired.
"Maybe you have *yawn* super strength or something. A lot of gems do." She suggested, now laying on the beach.
It was deep into the night, and Abnu was using nothing but the brightness of the Earth's moon to guide him. The way the moonlight reflected off of the soft waves was fascinating to him, and he often found himself distracted by it. He bent down and tried his hardest to pick up a nearby boulder however that, too, failed. Rose was so exhausted she tried sleeping, something she had picked up from some of the humans she had met. Pearl would never do such a thing, so she just watched.
Abnu eventually gave up on the whole boulder idea and pouted back towards Pearl.
"Maybe I don't have powers. I'm the most worthless gem ever made." He sighed.
Rose slowly opened her eyes and got up from the ground. She walked towards him and put her hands on his shoulders, much like Pearl had earlier.
"You can only be what you aspire to be. You can only feel how you want to feel. You can't let anyone or anything make you feel like garbage."
Abnu looked deep into Rose's eyes before nodding.
"Yeah! I'll keep working until I get my powers!" He stretched his arm up into the air, making Rose fly high into the sky. Pearl ran over to him.
"WHAT'D YOU DO?"
"I... I don't know! Is that my power? I can move things?"
He reached his arm out and attempted to move the boulder from earlier, however to no avail. Rose gracefully floated back down to the ground and hugged Abnu tightly.
"YOU DID IT! Try it again! But on Pearl this time."
"Why me?"
Abnu focused his attention and moved his hand to the right. Pearl's gemstone glowed before she was violently thrown to the right, however stopped where Abnu's hand is pointing.
"So you can grab onto gem's gemstones? That's, AMAZING!" Rose exclaimed, hugging Abnu yet again.
"So, you think we're ready for tomorrow?" Pearl asked.
"Definitely." Rose exclaimed at the top of her lungs.