"Garnet?"
"Yes, Steven?"
"You know those machines in the Kindergarten? The one that make gems? Which ones came first? Those machines or gems?"
She smiled as she looked over the sea towards the descending sun.
"The gems, Steven, of course."
"Pearl! Garnet! Amethyst! I think there's another spaceship from homeworld that's landed near the barn!"
Pearl immediately rushed over to him, followed by the two other Crystal Gems who were following at a more sedate pace. Steven had interrupted them in the middle of a game of some sort, and Amethyst was halfway through eating a piece of packaging when he burst into the room.
"Oh, Steven! Are you all right? Why didn't you go to Peridot and Lapis? They were closer!"
Steven pouted at this.
"They weren't there. I was just coming back from the barn when I spotted the ship, and it was all empty, so I thought that it would be best if I came here to tell you about it rather than staying there waiting for them."
Garnet reached them, repositioning her glasses higher up on her nose.
"We should go over there and see what they want. I don't think that the Rubies we encountered before have made it back to homeworld yet; it's very strange of them to have sent someone else over without the report being filed. Maybe we're in more trouble than we thought."
A swallowing noise was heard from behind Pearl, who shuddered slightly in disgust and moved out of the way. Amethyst came through, a piece of plastic still hanging out of her mouth. She reached for her chest and pulled out her trademark spiked whip in a short flash of light, grinning all the while, before shouting:
"What are we waiting for then? Let's go and kick some homeworld butt!"
They reached the green, sunbathed hills without encountering anything suspicious on the way. A few feet away from the barn, nearly in the exact same spot as where the Rubies' ship had landed a few weeks previously a new interstellar transportation device sat. If possible, it seemed even smaller than theirs had been, barely even the size of Peridot's escape pod.
"Whoever has travelled all the way from homeworld in this thing must have been extremely cramped," Pearl said as she leaned down to observe the object a little closer. Garnet joined her and added:
"Yeah, I don't think that it could have been any bulky gem like Jasper or another warrior Quartz either. Definitely closer to Peridot's size."
Amethyst chuckled into her hand at this.
"Pffrt… Imagine how mad she would be if she were here now! She would be screeching and wiggling and looking even sillier than usual...!"
Pearl looked at her, a little irritated.
"Stop changing the subject. Weren't you the one which wanted to "kick some homeworld butt", as I recall?"
Amethyst's laughter turned instantly into a belligerent snort, eager for a fight.
Garnet raised a pacifying hand, but the effect was ruined by the fact that they were already covered in her heavy gauntlets. Amethyst completely ignored her and continued onwards with her spiel:
"I was getting bored anyway. We're all out of polystyrene back at the Temple, and if I start on the fridge again, it will have to be pizzas until we get more food back in again."
"Yeah, pizzas are OK for a few nights in a row, but I don't want to eat so much that I go off them. What will my twenties be like without takeaways?" added Steven, with genuine worry in his voice.
Amethyst looked at him with wide eyes.
"Steven, you are so wise."
Pearl got up and dusted her hands off.
"See? What was I saying? You keep going off subject. We couldn't possibly let you go off alone or with Steven. If we split up, you will need a responsible Gem to accompany you…"
"Steven and Amethyst, go take a look on the beach and around town. Pearl and I will do the rest. If anybody finds Lapis or Peridot, inform them of the situation," Garnet ordered. Was that a mischievous smile on her lips?
Pearl's disgruntled look was well worth it anyway, a good laugh to have before they headed off on their respective courses. Wherever this rogue Gem was hiding, Steven was sure that they were no match for them. How could she be? They were the Crystal Gems after all.
The day was particularly hot, sapping Steven's energy faster than he would have liked. He was used to this sort of weather, but all the running around with the Gems really was taking a toll on his system. Amethyst did not feel the sun's murderous rays, it seemed, as she cantered ahead of him on the blond sand. Finally, he decided that a rest was in order, and sat in order to spare his parched throat from further harm. Amethyst continued forth for a few more feet before stopping and walking over to the boy seated in the sand.
"I keep forgetting that your little human body needs rest from time to time. It's funny that you need to recuperate energy like that."
"Well, it's more the sun that's getting at me right now. Do you gems feel heat and cold?"
Amethyst kicked back and stared up at the cloudless blue sky before answering.
"Nah, not really, unless it's really, really hot, like lava, but even some Gems don't feel that, like Bismuth."
The mentioning of the Crystal Gems' former blacksmith sparked a painful silence between them, only broken by the waves gently clashing with dry land. Steven got up, beat off the sand stuck to his clothes and offered a hand up to his friend. They walked along the beach more slowly than before, taking their time to look out to sea in case the Gem they were looking for depended on bodies of water.
They soon found themselves in front of the Temple. Steven had to leave Amethyst out front at this point to get a bottle of water. It really was a hot day.
"Fine, little dude! Just try not to get into trouble on my watch, OK? Otherwise Pearl will poof me. I'm gonna have a look around the sides, make sure she isn't hiding near the buildings."
She trotted off to her task. Steven sighed when he entered the house. It was so much cooler inside than in the full sun. He walked up to the fridge and pulled out some ice, and froze. He was not alone.
He slowly turned around, and looked up at one of the large wooden beams holding up the house. She was partly disguised by the shadows cast by the higher rafters but the shape was unmistakable. It was the Gem they were looking for.
"Amethyst!"
The purple Gem was immediately alerted by the cry coming from the house. She slammed through the doors, cursing under her breath after having run all the way around the huge Gem statue in cheetah form. Her whip ready in hand, she then struck out at the dark-coloured being that had forced Steven to use his bubble shield.
Her opponent dodged the strike as it came towards them, and then the next, and the next, as Amethyst let her blows come down in a formidable onslaught. Steven was left alone long enough for him to get up and attempt to hit the dark Gem in the back of the head with his smaller shield, but he was just as unsuccessful as she was.
"Steven! Go and find the others and tell them to get back here quick!"
This small lapse in concentration allowed the dark Gem enough time to try and slash through Amethyst's guard with the long blades attached to her arms. Steven sprinted to the door, only looking back to see Amethyst managing to take control again when she pulled out a second whip from her chest.
The boy jogged along to the top of the hill near the house, a higher place from where he could easily see Garnet against the pale palette of Beach City. He spotted them as he got to the top; they were fortunately just at the bottom of the hill, on its other side. He ran down it, waving his arms in the air as he did so, catching their intention (as well as his breath) as he reached them.
"Steven, what's the matter?"
"Get...hff...the...hff..."
"Steven, please, I can't understand you," urged Pearl.
Finally, he took a great breath and said all in one go:
"Please go to the Temple quick Amethyst needs help and… "
Not bothering to wait for the end of the story, Garnet hoisted Steven up into a piggy-back and they all sprinted to the rescue.
As they rounded the hill to get to the entrance, Pearl put on an extra burst of speed and ran past them, heading straight for the entrance. Her spear in hand, she surged into the battle.
A deafening crash coming from the small wooden house made Steven cringe. He did not want to know in which state his TV would be when he would have to go back in there. At least Amethyst seemed all right, flashes of violet glimpsed through broken windows informing everybody that she was still fighting strong. The colour white was added to the mix as well, when Pearl finally joined the fray.
Garnet kept the boy on her shoulders, and approached the broken doorframe to peer through the threshold at their new homeworld opponent.
She was incredibly fast and agile, more so even than Pearl. The long greenish-black blades attached to her arms clashed furiously with whichever weapon was raised to block the attacks, sending red sparks off in all directions when it happened to be metallic. Steven was amazed by her fighting style: she went for savage blows and thrusts, added to a great agility, and the fact that she often used the environment around her to her advantage, bounding off the walls at incredible speeds.
Finally, despite the fact that she was an exceptional fighter, even she was overwhelmed by the two seasoned Gem warriors. A chair leg thrown by Amethyst hit the unruly being in the head, disorientating her enough to bring her downfall. Seconds later, she sat on the floor trussed up in a purple whip.
Now that she was more or less still, Steven could see her features more clearly. Her hair was short, with longer strands held together with little red ties. She had skin that was of a very dark green hue, nearly black, her eyes contrasting sharply with this by being bright red. She also seemed pretty short, about Amethyst's size, but with a frame closer to Pearl's, or Peridot's. One of the most surprising things to Steven was her clothing, very simple even by normal Gem standards. The other particularity that astonished him was that he couldn't see her Gem anywhere. Not on the forehead, chest, or hands, not on her legs... It must be on her right arm, the one she stubbornly kept out of sight.
"Well, well, well. What is homeworld doing sending you over here then?" Amethyst said snarkily to the wiggling dark Gem.
"Amethyst! Stop that! Let's start simple." Garnet crouched down to her prisoner's eye level, managing to capture her attention using only her gaze.
"Please give me your name."
She remained silent for a few seconds, before a low growl escaped her lips. Steven half expected her to bark, or even roar like Lion, but she simply kept to the low growl, revealing slightly pointed fangs.
Pearl had walked around her, trying to get a glimpse at the covered right arm. A sleeve of her dress covered the whole higher part, and she held it down viciously with her left hand. Ignoring the snarl she received when she started doing so, Pearl picked at the fingers, wrenching them out of the fabric one by one.
Amethyst seemed to lose interest now that the fight was over. She went over to the fridge for a snack, letting Garnet take responsibility of her whip, which was still wrapped around the unfortunate prisoner.
The last of the fingers came free and the fabric was pulled up to reveal what the Gem was so desperate on hiding. A large stone was set into the flesh, just like any other Gem's would, but it was so different in so many ways that if Steven didn't know better, he would have said that it was cracked.
But it wasn't.
It was rough, and resembled a piece of charcoal emerging from her flesh, in no way like his own or any other Gems'.
"You're uncut," Pearl said, shocked.
"Yeah, no joke."
These were the first words uttered by their prisoner, and they surprised everyone with how lightly and uncertainly they were said, as if it was not a rude remark, more a trembling plea. She had lost all of her savage confidence with the unveiling of her secret. Her eyes darted to the ground when she met Garnet's glasses again.
The red Gem ghosted fingers in front of her face, revealing her three eyes, then gently took the smaller Gem's chin in her fingers and lifted her gaze to hers.
"Please," she asked softly, "give me a name I can use instead of "the prisoner" or "the homeworld Gem"."
She fidgeted a little more under the gaze, before saying in a whisper:
"Pleonaste."
"Pleonaste, you say? You're a Spinel, then?" she added in the same tone.
She remained quiet at this.
Garnet finally sat down completely, folding her legs and letting her hands fall away from the Gem's chin.
"We don't mean you any harm; we just need to know you a little better. It's for our own safety; we only want to protect our home."
Pleonaste locked her large, blood-red eyes with Garnet's openly honest ones. She revealed so much more of herself through those three orbs than through any other means. It was amazing.
"I...is this really your home? You ma…managed to make a home, a purpose for your existence, so far fr…from homeworld?"
"Yes."
The Spinel looked at her with a slightly perplexed expression on her face.
"You're uncut, you should know what it means to be unattached."
At this, she shrunk back on herself, somehow scared by Garnet's comment. Steven made use of this occasion and went over to the violet Qwartz, who was sitting on the counter in the kitchen area munching on a leftover piece of cardboard. He poked her arm to get her attention.
"Amethyst, what is an uncut Gem?"
She just shrugged at him. She apparently knew no more than he did on the subject. Pearl, however, had overheard the question, and had grabbed both of them by their upper arm before they had time to react. She dragged them into the relatively un-wrecked bathroom. The tall woman made sure to lock the door securely once they were inside, pulling the bolt tightly shut.
She turned back towards them, and Steven nearly let his gasp escape him when he saw the expression on her face. She looked worried, but worst yet, tears were threatening to spill over from her pale eyes.
She sat down delicately on the toilet seat, folded her hands in her lap, and parted her lips, ready to start speaking. She stayed like that for a few seconds, unmoving, no sound escaping her. Suddenly, she broke down.
"I can't do this! Oh Rose, please help me!"
She was out of the room before any of the younger Crystal Gems could come over to comfort her, leaving a trail of small wet droplets on the way out to the front door.
Peridot was really enjoying herself. This dairy product humans called "ice cream" was actually quite refreshing. She hadn't noticed the heat before she had tasted it, it's true, but it was still a nice experience. That was what she was here for, anyway. To experience, experiment things. Lapis had started out her little trip into town with her, but had decided to stay at the harbour, gazing out towards the sea. She hadn't replied to her when she asked her if she wanted to go and see Steven, too lost in her own thoughts, so she had shrugged it off and had continued on to her next destination.
She was now licking the last bits of vanilla-tasting mush off her fingers, just next to the wooden stairs leading up to the Temple door. She looked up, and froze when she saw the place had visibly been trashed, the front door no more than a gaping hole open to the elements. She shook herself off, what she refused to identify as worry creeping up on her. However, when she was halfway up the steps, she was bowled over by a Gem hurrying in the opposite direction. They both tumbled down the stairs together, and landed in a lump at the bottom.
It was only at this stage, just as she was ready to set the "cursing and shouting" plan into action, that she saw that the white Gem was practically bawling all over her.
Peridot was, admittedly, not very good with feelings, and even less with other's. There wasn't a single person in the damn Gem community on this planet that she hadn't disappointed in one way or another, and most of the time, without even meaning to. She had therefore become as careful as she could be about this sort of thing, and applied the rules like "filters" and "consideration" that Steven had been diligently been teaching her.
In this case though, she was unsure of what to do. Should she slap her to snap her out of it? Should she "comfort" her (whatever that meant)?
The distraught Gem looked up to her, a watery smile on her face.
"Rose, this is the person you wished to send me. Well, I'll work with that. Thank you."
Peridot was now really confused. Pearl was sobbing into her shoulder, getting it all wet, and she was leaning into her, which was really uncomfortable. What on earth was she talking about?
"Pearl ! We're really sorry! Where are you?"
Amethyst's head peeked over the balcony, and looked down.
"Steven! She's here, she's with Peridot, it's ok!"
"Oh, thank goodness! Stay there, we're coming down!"
Pearl looked back up to Peridot again, and said:
"Help me, please?"
"Er, of course?"
What am I getting myself into? Thought Peridot as Pearl's head dropped back down on her shoulder to cry herself dry.
They were sat in the shade of the Temple, in the place where the sand wasn't heated to scalding point. Peridot and Pearl faced Amethyst and Steven, whom they had only just managed to detach from his rib breaking-hug he had given to the crying Gem.
The green Gem was still completely oblivious to what was going on, and was waiting for some hint of what her purpose here was. She glanced from Pearl, who was looking at her expectantly, to the two other Gems facing her.
"So, er, what's happening here?"
Pearl sighed and looked down at her hands. Abandoning that informant, she again turned her pleading stare to the younger people. To her relief, Amethyst got her drift.
"Well, this homeworld Gem landed next to your barn…"
"Wait, next to the barn? But Lapis doesn't know! And…"
"She'll be fine, it was just the one Gem, and she was alone, so it's ok. Garnet's with her for now, holding her safe," Steven interrupted before she worked herself into a state of panic.
"All right, everything's fine then," she said, calming her rapid breathing. "What next, then?"
"She got into the Temple and attacked Steven and destroyed stuff, but I got in there and fought her before she had a chance to hurt him," resumed Amethyst. "She's a really tough fighter. No match for us though, me and Pearl caught her, but she was really weird, like, wild and snappy. She went all quiet and timid though when Pearl saw her Gem, and Steven asked what an uncut Gem was, and I didn't know, so…" she paused. "Well, that's it, I guess."
Peridot looked at Pearl pityingly, then up at the Temple with the same expression.
"Well, none of that is surprising, really. Good thing I'm here, I'm probably the best person to ask, it's part of Gem history. Do you really want to hear this? I mean, it's not very pleasant," she said, adding as an afterthought, "Pearl, you can go back to the Temple, if you want."
She finally looked up from her hands, a slightly more determined look on her otherwise utterly miserable face. "No, I…I brought this upon myself. And besides, you'll probably get half of the facts wrong."
Peridot suppressed her rage with a single deep breath, closing her eyes. It was not the moment to blow up on someone. Keeping them closed, she then started her explanation:
"You all remember those injectors in the Kindergartens? How they are the ones that put the stuff into the soil that creates us? Well, they were created by Gems. It sounds like a paradox, but it is not. Before that, Gems were created spontaneously in the crust of our planet, homeworld. Gems were a lot like we are now, that is physically. But they were not the same. Their needs were more basic, they were less territorial, and were generally considered less intelligent."
"But what changed, then?" interrupted Steven.
Peridot sneaked a peak from under her closed eyelids, and sighed at the boy who now had stars in his pupils. He obviously didn't know how creepy she found that.
"Pearls appeared."
She could hear Pearl stiffen next to her, and unease settle on their little group.
"Pearls are the only Gems which haven't changed since those times. They were exactly the same as they are now, their Gems perfect and flawless. They invented things. They are the ones which formed the early Gem society, the first technologies. They also invented the injectors."
"The Pearls are by nature calm and peaceful Gems, if not a bit pretentious. I don't think that there was any malicious intent behind these machines, and I don't think they wanted to harm the other early Gems which resided on the planet. But after the first new Gems started to appear, they quickly took over and shattered or suppressed the early Gems. The Pearls got suppressed as well, and were forced into the roles they have today, pretty little servants. That's why most of them willingly accept this role. They feel guilty. "
"But what does that have to do with uncut Gems?"
This time, it was Amethyst's voice which stopped her narration. She didn't even bother to huff at her. She needed to get this over with quickly, but smoothly enough so that Pearl didn't feel the need to add anything.
"I was getting to that. The main difference between these early Gems and the new ones was their Gems. The new ones, of which we are the example, have smooth and elegant Gem stones. Early Gems have rough and uneven Gemstones, and are therefore known as uncut Gems."
"Ooh…"
"That explains it then. So Pleonaste is really old! But why is she here then?"
"I don't think that she's much older than us. Early Gems were pretty rare on homeworld, but even with the development of Kindergartens, they would emerge occasionally. As I said before, I don't think there are many pre-new Gem developed uncut Gems, they were practically wiped out, so I think she is one of the most recent ones."
Peridot opened her eyes, and saw that she was pinned down by three different gazes. She got up and dusted herself off.
"Well, I'm done. I'll just be…"
She felt a small weight on her gravity connector, er, foot, as she got ready to leave. It was Pearl, still looking up at her pleadingly.
"Please, c…can you finish? Th…that's not all. Please, I…I don't think I can manage it by myself."
Peridot sighed again, and sat back down. She didn't really want to go through this part. It was uncomfortable. But she couldn't leave the already guilt-ridden Pearl to do it. And she wasn't falling for that puppy stare. At all.
"All right. In Gems' modern society, uncut Gems are rare. They are known to be skilled in a lot of things, such as artistic stuff. These skills were mostly lost in homeworld, even though the crystal Gems here seem to have recovered some of these skills though, so it might not just be that. Anyway, they are also known as exceptional fighters, and most important of all, they can listen to the earth."
"They have always been the best at finding good places for Kindergartens. Even though since then, we have developed some technologies that can replace them, nothing quite equals their skill. For example, Amethyst's Kindergarten was found by one of Pink Diamond's three prize uncut Gems. This makes them very valuable, and they are often bought by aristocracy for this purpose."
"B…B…Bought?" Steven's shocked voice spoke in a stutter unnatural to him.
"Yes, bought. But the cruellest thing is that they are often mistreated, despite their worth, and are forced to participate in something as contradictory to their nature as fighting. Like most Pearls, they are of a delicate nature, but added to that is their strong timidity, and like them, they are also considered as inferior beings. And being ancestral Gems, they have no defined purpose, like Qwartz warriors or Ruby soldiers and such."
"And you said her name is Pleonaste? That's even sadder, actually. Spinels are usually seen as pretty high-class, and are the ones most likely to own an uncut Gem. Pretty ironic, hey?"
A pained laughter escaped her. When she still lived on homeworld, she would not have had second thoughts about seeing some aristocrat dragging their uncut Gem around on the end of a leash, but it just seemed so wrong now. This planet was definitely corrupting her.
A hand, no, manipulator, fell on her shoulder, and she stiffened her entire form as she realised that it was Pearl. Why did she do that? And why are my cheeks wet?
She dragged a hand across them, just to make sure.
Ha. I can't believe it. Emotions, huh. This is what they feel like.
The sun was setting over a calm sea, like that one time, months ago, when Steven asked Garnet about the injectors. Her words were now filled with a new meaning, to him, and he was unsure whether he would have preferred to stay in the dark about it, after all. It didn't matter now, he knew.
The four Gems pushed open the door, which had been repaired while they were out, and emerged into the main room, which had been restored to its previous state. It was strange seeing it like this, perfectly clean and tidy knowing there had been a full-blown battle in it only hours prior.
Sitting at the counter were Garnet and Pleonaste, who looked at them warily and subconsciously tried to hide behind the fused Gem when they entered. Garnet smiled at them and fist-bumped Steven when he came up to greet her, then gestured to pilled boxes of pizza and the freshly baked cookies in front of her.
"I'm sorry Steven, you'll just have to eat the cookies if you don't want to go off pizza too quickly."
"Really, Garnet, you should be taking better care of me. Do you want me to only live off healthy foods for the rest of my life?" he replied happily, tearing into the round piece of pastry covered in dead animal matter and extract (description of a pizza courtesy of Peridot).
Amethyst sat down opposite to him, eating the box with the pizza still in it. She sighed contently, before quickly passing out in a snoring mass on the countertop.
Pearl came over to them, hesitantly, her eyes still ringed red. She sat down opposite Pleonaste, who flinched slightly at this, but didn't comment on it. Steven made sure to eat quietly, interest switching to the two different, yet in many ways similar Gems.
Pearl was obviously trying to work up the courage to say something to the timid person in front of her, but every time she raised her eyes and parted her lips to speak, her eyes drifted to the little piece of Gem stone that peaked out from underneath her dress sleeve, and she would have her eyes dart back to her hands. This cycle continued for a while, enough time for Steven to fill himself to the brim with sweet and savoury treats. Finally, Pearl in one out-of-cycle way, looked in the direction of Amethyst, who had woken up meanwhile and had struck up a conversation with Peridot, who was poking at her cold pizza while she listened to Amethyst's inconsistent ramblings.
However, when she caught Pearl's gaze, she gave her a smile and a discreet thumbs-up. This seemed to decide her, and with a frown on her face, she raised her head and locked eyes with Pleonaste.
"I apologise. For everything we have done. For all the bad things us Pearls have brought upon your kind in the past. I know there is nothing that I can do to right this wrong, but please, don't hold it against us, not against the Crystal Gems, anyway."
Then she bowed to her, in her own old-fashioned way. Pleonaste had looked uncomfortable during the whole speech, and resorted to looking up to Garnet for guidance. She smiled softly and nodded at her, which likewise to Amethyst's encouragement, left her determined to say what she needed to say.
"I… It doe…doesn't ma…matter. Er… Garnet to…told me a…about wha…what you do, th…the Crystal Ge…Gems, I mean. And… Well… I find it ad…admirable. And I know tha…that Pearls aren't th…that bad. On home…homeworld, the on…only person who was frien….friendly to me was a Pearl, so… It's all right. I for…forgive you."
Pearl relaxed her strained stance at these words, looking up again with tears in her eyes, but they were accompanied by a softer look, more relaxed. It took a second for Steven to decipher it, but he finally recognised it: it was relief.
Later on that night, Lapis burst into the Gem living room where they were all having a big sleepover on the floor.
"Peridot! Thank goodness you're here! I've been looking all over for you, and there's a ship outside the barn again, we need to find the Gem who flew here! And…"
She trailed off when she saw the unknown shape huddled amongst the mass of blankets, trying in vain to hide herself from the intruding blue Gem.
"Shush, Lapis, you're scaring her. It's all right; you can come over here and join us if you want! Yay, mega sleepover! Shame Connie isn't here, though, maybe we should go and get her," Steven said all in one go, bombarding the poor frantic Lapis with information she could not quite process. Instead of demanding a more concrete explanation, she simply shrugged it off and went over to where they were all spread out on the floor, joining Peridot's side. Sometimes it was easier to let the explanations come to you rather than drag them towards oneself, especially with Steven around.
Pleonaste stayed with them for a few days. She never mentioned why she had been sent to earth, which mission she had been given. She was very quiet, a bit like Lapis, but she tended to dwell on things less than she did. She would often spend hours walking, be it through Beach City or in the surrounding areas. She also enjoyed music a lot, which was very fortunate with Steven and his father around.
A week later though, Steven woke up to a piece of paper scrawled over with indecipherable Gem language stuck to his forehead, which he had to get Pearl to translate for him.
"I've spent the best time in my existence with you, thank you for freeing me, my body as much as my soul. Yet I feel like I wish to discover more places, maybe get closer to this human "music", or to a place where I can listen to this planet's music better," read Pearl, all the other Gems gathered around her as she did so.
"It doesn't actually say "music", the last character means "vibration" or "hum", I think. It's an old word, so I can't translate it exactly."
Steven had tears brimming over his eyes, yet stars still shone in them. Peridot took a cautious step away from him.
"That's so beautiful! So she was actually really happy all this time! And she's following her dreams!"
Peridot snorted in her usual irritated way, but she was disguising a sob herself. That Spinel was the only one who would actually listen with interest to her hour-long rants and theories on Camp Pining Hearts. She would even listen to her bad fanfictions on them, for crying out loud! Even Lapis got bored after a while.
"Yeah, well, she didn't say what she was doing here in the first place. Who knows? It could have been an act all along."
A silence followed this. It was interrupted though by a flash off a rather large pair of sunglasses as they were being adjusted, and a certain red Gem's smug expression.
"Well I do. While you were all presenting a sad excuse for a fan theory back there on that day the pod landed, I was having a serious conversation with a certain Gem here at the Temple."
"It turns out that for some reason, homeworld wants to know if it would be feasible to establish new Kindergartens here. Her secondary objective was to get rid of us, of course, but that was her main mission."
"Wait a minute! So I was right! We just let her escape, and now she can just saunter off back to homeworld with all our information in her pocket! For Diamond's sake, we haven't even moved the pod from where it's still lying next to the barn. She's even got her ticket back!"
Garnet gave her a Stern Gaze™, before continuing on her explanation.
"She also let me in on the fact that she had indeed been given appalling treatment back on homeworld, and as long as she could stay in hiding away from them, she would not give them any information willingly."
Peridot huffed at this, and Lapis stiffened.
"Reminds you of someone?" she asked sarcastically.
"Look, don't blame the author, they aren't the best at thinking up new characters and things like that," she replied, puzzling everyone apart from Garnet, who smiled at her knowingly.
"I mean, they just wanted to prove a point, that's all."
"All right, I'm out of here, too much weirdness for one day," concluded Amethyst, cutting off the conversation with the bang of the front door against the wooden wall.
"Garnet?"
"Yes, Steven?"
"Do you think we'll ever see Pleonaste again?"
She smiled as she looked over the sea towards the descending sun, towards where she knew the River City Philharmonic Orchestra played every night their sweet melodies.
"Yes, Steven, of course."