p style="max-width: 100%; color: #b0b0b0; font-family: Athelas; font-size: 20px;"em style="max-width: 100%;"Every command from your master must be followed, no matter how grueling or humiliating./em/pp style="max-width: 100%; color: #b0b0b0; font-family: Athelas; font-size: 20px;"em style="max-width: 100%;"Do not listen to anyone else's command, unless instructed./em/pp style="max-width: 100%; color: #b0b0b0; font-family: Athelas; font-size: 20px;"em style="max-width: 100%;"Do not pay attention to other occupations; you could never be capable of doing it./em/pp style="max-width: 100%; color: #b0b0b0; font-family: Athelas; font-size: 20px;"Every Pearl must learn of their value: they are common, they are expendable. Their master em style="max-width: 100%;"will not/em hesitate to shatter them. They shouldn't expect to live long, because perfection can always be improved and renovated. This was a rule that all pearls had to follow or risk being shattered./pp style="max-width: 100%; color: #b0b0b0; font-family: Athelas; font-size: 20px;"span style="background-color: #121212;"Blue might be harmless, but she swore allegiance to Blue Diamond. And no one knew better than Pearl herself; Gems like her can never break their promises to their Diamonds. And she wasn't talking about the entire Pearl-class; she was talking about every Homeworld Gem out there./span/pp style="max-width: 100%; color: #b0b0b0; font-family: Athelas; font-size: 20px;" /pp style="max-width: 100%; color: #b0b0b0; font-family: Athelas; font-size: 20px;"span style="background-color: #121212;"Yellow was left behind and left to sucomme to her fate /span/pp style="max-width: 100%; color: #b0b0b0; font-family: Athelas; font-size: 20px;" /pp style="max-width: 100%; color: #b0b0b0; font-family: Athelas; font-size: 20px;"span style="background-color: #121212;"white chose to to escape and find her path with rose quartz/span/pp style="max-width: 100%; color: #b0b0b0; font-family: Athelas; font-size: 20px;" /pp style="max-width: 100%; color: #b0b0b0; font-family: Athelas; font-size: 20px;"span style="background-color: #121212;"These are there stories/span/pp style="max-width: 100%; color: #b0b0b0; font-family: Athelas; font-size: 20px;" /pp style="max-width: 100%; color: #b0b0b0; font-family: Athelas; font-size: 20px;" /pp style="max-width: 100%; color: #1b1b1b; font-family: Athelas; font-size: 20px;"Yellow couldn't help but shrink back a little when she saw the floating shards resting inside the translucent bubble. It was almost like she could feel her own gemstone crumbling to pieces, despite being perfectly intact on her chest. She just couldn't imagine how it must've felt to be shattered, your entire being splintering apart and collapsing into dust until you completely vanished./pp style="max-width: 100%; color: #1b1b1b; font-family: Athelas; font-size: 20px;"She felt so stupid to be so squeamish. She had seen several of her old master's subordinates get shattered before, the small bits of them collected into bubbles and yet their tiny semblance of a ghostly presence remaining in the air./pp style="max-width: 100%; color: #1b1b1b; font-family: Athelas; font-size: 20px;"Pearl must've visited this Gem's bubble a million times./pp style="max-width: 100%; color: #1b1b1b; font-family: Athelas; font-size: 20px;"Homeworld hardly had set up any memorials for the deceased. Almost ninety-five percent of the time, the shattered Gems simply faded into obscurity as they were bubbled, and it would be seen as foolish and impractical to grieve them, especially if they were painfully common. Those who died because of great treachery or failure were deeply scorned upon the moment after they are executed and become the next couple of years' great topic of free discussion until once again, obscurity overtakes them./pp style="max-width: 100%; color: #1b1b1b; font-family: Athelas; font-size: 20px;"You couldn't even be bothered with if you were a Pearl and died. Most likely, it was because you were both outdated and severely needed a replacement, or you became unsatisfactory after a minor failure or transgression. Rarely, one died without their master's intention since most Pearls were ordered to follow their owner with absolute concentration. But if one did, their owner could simply purchase a new one and perhaps be used as an example of what their replacement should never be. After all, nothing is more foolish than getting yourself killed when you knew deeply that threats to your life were almost everywhere./pp style="max-width: 100%; color: #1b1b1b; font-family: Athelas; font-size: 20px;"Actually still being significant after death was something almost unbelievable. Carrying a legacy was solely reserved for the upmost satisfactory elites, those who have accomplished so greatly that their Diamonds considered them ranked nearly at the same level as them. So being able to have your name printed in history recordings was absolutely incredible. Being remembered was a gift, and being remembered after death is a star-forsaken miracle./pp style="max-width: 100%; color: #1b1b1b; font-family: Athelas; font-size: 20px;"So how could a Pearl ever be worthy of such a title, of such a memorial?/pp style="max-width: 100%; color: #1b1b1b; font-family: Athelas; font-size: 20px;""She was a renegade Pearl, too?" Yellow asked softly, almost inaudible since she could neither believe that Blue was important to be given a name after death and that she was so close to what Gems considered a corpse./pp style="max-width: 100%; color: #1b1b1b; font-family: Athelas; font-size: 20px;""Almost, if she had the chance," Pearl answered solemnly. Her pale eyes were fixated onto the bubble, like shifting her gaze for even a moment might disgrace Blue's name. "She could've been a lot of things if she was able to survive, but for now, we shall know her as a great martyr. She saved my life."/pp style="max-width: 100%; color: #1b1b1b; font-family: Athelas; font-size: 20px;""B-but you are the infamous Renegade," Yellow cried, absolutely flabbergasted. "You have a spear at your disposal and great knowledge of both combat and strategy! What sort of thing must've happened if you needed to be rescued?"/pp style="max-width: 100%; color: #1b1b1b; font-family: Athelas; font-size: 20px;"Pearl clasped her fingers together tightly before continuing. "I was captured by Blue Diamond once," she stated bluntly./pp style="max-width: 100%; color: #1b1b1b; font-family: Athelas; font-size: 20px;"Yellow's eyes widened greatly. After a moment of wilting silence, she asked, "What would that be for?"/pp style="max-width: 100%; color: #1b1b1b; font-family: Athelas; font-size: 20px;""Being the second-in-command of Rose Quartz had already put me in an vulnerable position in the Diamond Authority's eyes and what angered them even further was the fact that I was a Pearl at the same time. They believed that I could valuable in some form, either for information or perhaps ransom for Rose. Either way, they poofed me during a raid and seized my gemstone while I was dormant," Pearl replied softly./pp style="max-width: 100%; color: #1b1b1b; font-family: Athelas; font-size: 20px;"Yellow had to bite her lip to keep herself in check. Never had she realized that such things occur during war. Most things that threaten Homeworld now could never rival them the way the rise of the Crystal Gems did. Yellow had never been alive to witness any of that war, but she could sometimes read snatches of ancient reports from Era 1. But now, she realized that all of those were written by very unreliable sources, or at least extremely biased ones. No one ever bothered to list the casualties the Crystal Gems suffered since they were the enemy. But Yellow couldn't believe that they could forget that there was a second rebellious Pearl besides the one standing in front of her right now./pp style="max-width: 100%; color: #1b1b1b; font-family: Athelas; font-size: 20px;""When I got locked up, I was considered difficult to guard and Blue Diamond requested a more personal approach to calm me down and keep the base quiet," Pearl continued, remaining so uncharacteristically stoic, now upholding the image one would suspect from a war veteran. "She sent her own Pearl to keep me in check."/pp style="max-width: 100%; color: #1b1b1b; font-family: Athelas; font-size: 20px;"All Yellow knew at this point was to keep quiet and let Pearl spill out her tale./pp style="max-width: 100%; color: #1b1b1b; font-family: Athelas; font-size: 20px;""She was at first just as scared as everyone else was and even a little pretentious, thinking all my ideals were completely unbelievable," she explained in a carefully even tone. "But I couldn't blame her since the idea back then was supposedly only in crazy fabricated tales. She always attempted to be civil with me, no matter how difficult or hysterical I was and during my imprisonment; I came to solely rely on her for companionship to combat the suffocating loneliness I faced./pp style="max-width: 100%; color: #1b1b1b; font-family: Athelas; font-size: 20px;""She was remarkably kind-hearted, almost was as lovely and innocent as Steven is. She simply possessed the kind of compassion and nurturing that was incredibly rare and even nonexistent during a time of war and bloodshed. Despite still being adamant about being the pristine Pearl her master expected her to be, she was patient and listened to everything I said and even took it into consideration as she was repeatedly mistreated by her Diamond./pp style="max-width: 100%; color: #1b1b1b; font-family: Athelas; font-size: 20px;""But she certainly wasn't perfect. One of the things she feared most at first was death, which was completely natural for Pearls like us."/pp style="max-width: 100%; color: #1b1b1b; font-family: Athelas; font-size: 20px;"Yellow nodded furtively. She understood the fear of death deeply. When anything and everything could lead to you being executed and absolutely no harm would befall upon those who harmed you, you learned to be wary and sometimes outright paranoid. That was what happened when you lived underneath the Diamond Authority./pp style="max-width: 100%; color: #1b1b1b; font-family: Athelas; font-size: 20px;""She begged me to change my ideals about the protector of Rose Quartz for my own sake, not understanding how we Crystal Gems honored the dead and would gladly sacrifice ourselves for each other in times of harm. At the time, she could hardly be considered a heroine./pp style="max-width: 100%; color: #1b1b1b; font-family: Athelas; font-size: 20px;""But then several Quartzes threatened her life and thought of her as defective like me and intended to punish her for something as petty as that. That was when she first rebelled and refused to die at their hands. She managed to flee and even cracked one of their gemstones./pp style="max-width: 100%; color: #1b1b1b; font-family: Athelas; font-size: 20px;""But even after experiencing the thrill of defiance, she still couldn't understand my insistence of being loyal to Rose Quartz. She still begged me to preserve my own life above all else. Back then, I might've called that selfish, but now I believe that was simply the way she lived, since all she knew was serving her Diamond and had no one and nothing to protect in her life besides herself, and expected everyone else to uphold that kind of philosophy."/pp style="max-width: 100%; color: #1b1b1b; font-family: Athelas; font-size: 20px;""If she was so stubborn about keeping herself alive, then how did she die?" Yellow asked tentatively./pp style="max-width: 100%; color: #1b1b1b; font-family: Athelas; font-size: 20px;""It was during my imprisonment that I learned to summon my signature spear," Pearl said proudly despite the obvious melancholy in her voice. "It was an absolute miracle and I certainly didn't hesitate to use to aid me in my escape. But right when I was about to escape, Blue stopped me . . . and then begged me to bring her along as well. She wanted to be a Crystal Gem so her life could be worthy of preserving because of honor instead of fear like before./pp style="max-width: 100%; color: #1b1b1b; font-family: Athelas; font-size: 20px;""I remember the last time I saw her. We had gotten cornered and my gemstone was cracked, leaving me completely defenseless. But Blue offered to protect me and summoned a spear just like mine. It was incredible, seeing someone else accomplish all the things I was able to accomplish./pp style="max-width: 100%; color: #1b1b1b; font-family: Athelas; font-size: 20px;""After I escaped, I waited so long for her to return to me. I wanted to show her so many things, introduce her to so many Gems, and especially introduce her to Rose Quartz. So many things she was never able to see. I discovered her shards when a troop returned from a raid."/pp style="max-width: 100%; color: #1b1b1b; font-family: Athelas; font-size: 20px;"Yellow's response broke the somber silence that followed. "At least she was able to face what she had always feared in the first place. And now she is the first Pearl to be valued even after death."/pp style="max-width: 100%; color: #1b1b1b; font-family: Athelas; font-size: 20px;""But Homeworld never even to bother to record her in their star-forsaken reports," Pearl said as she suddenly gritted her teeth in seething anger. "We Crystal Gems are the only ones to ever know of her story, of her sacrifice, of everything she wasn't able to see or experience."/pp style="max-width: 100%; color: #1b1b1b; font-family: Athelas; font-size: 20px;""But I know now," Yellow whispered meekly. "And I'm alive right now. And I'll be able to see all things she missed out on. And now you won't have to be the only renegade Pearl. Because as long as I'm able to stand here with you, I'll make sure to make myself worthy of living just like she did."/pp style="max-width: 100%; color: #1b1b1b; font-family: Athelas; font-size: 20px;"Tears began to spring forth from the corners of Pearl's eyes and Yellow was afraid she might start crying, because if she did, Yellow would be absolutely helpless to stop herself from crying as well./pp style="max-width: 100%; color: #1b1b1b; font-family: Athelas; font-size: 20px;"After some more obligatory silence for mourning, Yellow suddenly felt a pair of bony arms wrap around her shoulders and pull her forward. Despite knowing how much she despised physical contact, Yellow tried her best to return the hug, awkwardly entwining her arms around Pearl's waist and carefully balancing her chin on her shoulder so her mouth wouldn't get smothered by her peachy hair./pp style="max-width: 100%; color: #1b1b1b; font-family: Athelas; font-size: 20px;"The warmth they shared was incredibly unfamiliar to Yellow. But it also felt right somehow, despite the obvious awkwardness of it./pp style="max-width: 100%; color: #1b1b1b; font-family: Athelas; font-size: 20px;"Pearl really needed this, she could tell. And Yellow actually felt happy being able to provide it for her./pp style="max-width: 100%; color: #b0b0b0; font-family: Athelas; font-size: 20px;" /pp style="max-width: 100%; color: #1b1b1b; font-family: Athelas; font-size: 20px;"Yellow realized how much she missed being needed until now./pp style="max-width: 100%; color: #1b1b1b; font-family: Athelas; font-size: 20px;" /pp style="max-width: 100%; color: #1b1b1b; font-family: Athelas; font-size: 20px;"Blue span style="background-color: #fbfbfb;"Pearl collapsed onto the solid earth with a loud /spanem style="max-width: 100%;"smack/emspan style="background-color: #fbfbfb;". Searing pain crackled right through her like an electric shock. She knew that feeling all too well. When her hand fluttered over her gemstone, instead of feeling a smooth surface, her fingers ran over a rough crack. Horror struck through her as she realized she was surrounded and outnumbered. /span/pp style="max-width: 100%; color: #1b1b1b; font-family: Athelas; font-size: 20px;" /pp style="max-width: 100%; color: #1b1b1b; font-family: Athelas; font-size: 20px;"The older Pearl was now pressing her face against the cool crystal of the windows that overlooked the unfinished colony they had settled on. Her lips were mushed against the cold clear surface and her eyes darted around curiously, like she was as clueless as a newborn Gem. What really disturbed White was that she herself behaved that way when she first emerged and this other Pearl was perhaps centuries older than her!/pp style="max-width: 100%; color: #1b1b1b; font-family: Athelas; font-size: 20px;"White Diamond's guards only rolled their eyes when they witnessed Pink Pearl's strangeness. Rose had walked up to her master's Pearl and smiled at how much funs she was having./pp style="max-width: 100%; color: #1b1b1b; font-family: Athelas; font-size: 20px;"Meanwhile, White was staring at the bizarre scene with the most confused expression./pp style="max-width: 100%; color: #1b1b1b; font-family: Athelas; font-size: 20px;""What the stars could she possibly be looking at?" White muttered to herself./pp style="max-width: 100%; color: #1b1b1b; font-family: Athelas; font-size: 20px;" /pp style="max-width: 100%; color: #1b1b1b; font-family: Athelas; font-size: 20px;"White pearl took a quick glance at the Diamond Authority-emblazoned door, still sealed shut as always. If she stepped close enough, she could hear the two Diamonds voices overlapping each other. They were still busy. And according to the bored blank stares of the two Smoky Quartzes standing by the door, so were White Diamond's bodyguards. They couldn't possibly care less if she moved away from her spot./pp style="max-width: 100%; color: #1b1b1b; font-family: Athelas; font-size: 20px;" /pp style="max-width: 100%; color: #1b1b1b; font-family: Athelas; font-size: 20px;" /p Fin
id 9976368
