"Nah, nah, Peri, you're too tense!" Amethyst insists, "you gotta loosen up!"
Peridot resists the temptation to snap at her friend and takes a deep breath, closing her eyes and letting her shoulders drop. Lifting one hand to her gem, she wills something to materialise under her fingers. But, once again, nothing appears. She lowers her arm with a sigh.
"I think I saw a glow that time!" Steven exclaims excitedly.
"Don't lie, it's not working!" The green gem shouts back. "It's just something else I can't do! I might as well just go back so practicing with this."
She pulls the short dagger that Bismuth made her from the sheath attached to the back of the dungarees she had reformed with and flicks it into the air where it floats above her hand. It's nice, she appreciates the blacksmith making it, and it's a perfectly functional weapon, but it isn't really hers. Everyone else has their own gem weapon. Even Steven - the hybrid - has one! And yet, here she is with nothing.
Ignoring her friends insisting that she give it one more try, she walks down the stone steps to where Lapis and Connie are training under Pearl's supervision - Lapis has taken up sword fighting as a backup, in case a battle breaks out in a dry area.
"Hey, Pearl, can I get a hologram?"
"Of course," Pearl replies, deciding not to mention Peridot's failed weapon summoning attempts and generating a holo-pearl. Steven and Amethyst climb down from the stands to resume their own training as their green friend repeatedly throws her dagger at the hologram, her anger sending the small blade flying way off course. Pulling the dagger back to her hand, she runs back a few metres to dodge the hologram's sword.
"Stupid hologram, stupid dagger, stupid ferrokinesis!" she mutters as the weapon flies off course again, and again, and again, until a particularly aggressive swing of the sword catches it and sends it flying out of the arena like a bat hitting a ball.
"Ah," says Peridot as she watches it disappear into the foliage below, "that's not good."
She turns back to the still-advancing hologram.
"How- How do I turn this thing off?! PEARL?!"
She takes a few more steps back, only a few feet between her and the edge of the ruined arena.
"Um, nice hologram?"
Her attempts to make friends are ignored, however, and she's forced to duck to avoid another swing.
"PEARL CAN YOU TURN THIS THING OFF?!"
She tries to run past it, but it sends her tumbling back with a swift kick, landing barely an inch from the edge. Her friends are running over but they wouldn't get there in time. In an attempt to protect her life force, she curls up and covers her forehead with her hands, hoping that the hologram's blade will miss her gem, and the poofing won't send it over the edge of the arena.
But as her fingers brush the smooth surface, she feels something there. A bright light partly obscures her vision as she instinctively grips it and pulls. What comes out is something she's never handled before, but somehow feels like she's known her whole life. The hologram raises its weapon, and so does she.
A gunshot echoes around the ruins as the hologram freezes. A moment passes.
"Challenger wins! Do you wish to battle again?"
Pearl silently removes the inactive holo-pearl, revealing Peridot lying, frozen in shock, her weedy little arms holding out a black pistol.