Authors notes: This my first story on this website so I hope you all enjoy. There is one thing I'd like to ask, please review my story, I want to try and improve my writing wherever possible but I cannot do that without feedback, so please give me some constructive criticism.

Burning.

All she could feel was the burning.

Her gem was formed in a vat of chemicals and minerals, twisted together in such a way to create things like her.

To create Pearls like her.

The Pearl could feel the burning liquids shaping and pressing against her gem, her newly formed conscious slowly being moulded to that of a servant gem.

Eventually, cold metal griped the gleaming white Pearl, lifting her away from the burning pain, liberating her from her troubles as it carried her up and up beyond pain and strife, towards truth and freedom.

This was not true.

Not long after she had been grabbed the pearl was released once again, flung down in to the liquids of pain and torture. This process was repeated again and again, each time searing pain embraced her, each time her form was burnt in to place, each time she was edged closer to a blissful oblivion.

Time was meaningless, this torment was eternal, a cycle of pain and punishment for feeling pain.

The metal claw griped her now painful form of a perfectly round and beautiful Pearl, carrying her away once again. However instead of going up and up to once again be dropped in to a burning abyss, the Pearl was sent off in a different direction, to a different vat.

The Pearl was plunged down, down, down, forcefully submerged in to the new black gooey substance. This liquid was a new experience for the Pearl, instead of pain and suffering she felt calm and peaceful. The liquid was cold and welcoming unlike the searing harsh aggressive chemicals from before.

It felt like the liquid wanted her to be there.

Obey.

It felt like she should be there.

Obey the authority.

It felt like she had to be there.

Obey your owner.

This was the truth.

Pearls are nothing.

This was her life.

You are nothing.

The Goo seeped in to her gem, conforming her mind in to a loyal servant who could not disobey no matter what, as long as the goo remained deep within her gem.

The Pearls conscious was fading, it was all too much. The Pearls gem glowed slightly before diming, signifying her unconscious state to the world around her.

The streets of Homeworld were bustling with activity, Rubies, Amethysts, even the occasional Emerald. Gems of many different types and many different casts all carried on with their daily routine.

Shop after shop lined the commercial district of Homeworld, this area was visited mostly by high class Gems, Onyxes, Tourmalines and the like. Though occasionally you could see a middle class Jasper or Emerald trying not to look out of place in such a high society district.

One of these shops in particular was a lavish spectacle, beautifully polished marble intertwined with strong firm granite pillars topped off with silver-gold metallic strips lining the walls.

This beautiful eccentric and overall successful shop catered to the crème of the high society crop, selling something that everyone wanted but only the rich could really afford to purchase legally.

This shop was a Pearl store.

Pearls were extremely expensive servants who were produced in factories and lined in shops just like this one to be sold to anyone who could afford them.

Pearls have no rights and never disobey an order, making them poplar for menial and basic tasks around the house that the rich consider beneath them.

In this particular store a single Pearl, still without its hologram, lay at the bottom of a rack. This rack held Pearl after Pearl after Pearl, each standing perfectly still unblinking and unmoving, this was also true for the Pearls in the rack behind them and the rack behind them and the rack behind them.

The Pearl whose gem lacked a hologram began to blink, this blinking grew in to a burst of light. That light formed in to yet another perfect Pearl. The Pearl looked straight forward, exactly like all the other Pearls in the shop, gazing mindlessly with no orders to move.

This Pearl was new to store, but due to the knowledge already implanted in its Gem it knew what it had to do, wait for someone to claim her as their Pearl.

All she had to do was wait.

It was a few days since the new Pearl had regenerated in the shop, she watched other Pearls come and go and while she was happy to wait she was beginning to become worried, was she doing something wrong? Why had she not been picked yet?

Since arriving in the store the Pearl had been complete perfect all through the day while the shop was open and she was sure she was mostly perfect during the night.

During the night the Pearls were almost as motionless and thoughtless as the day, but some of the pearls walked around at night, motioning small gestures to the other pearls who stayed still. After a while Pearl discovered that these minuscule movements were a form of communication between pearls, so they could talk to each other without speaking.

Which was good because speaking without being spoken to was against the rules.

After all the Pearls learned how to signal each other they discovered there wasn't much to talk about. None of the Pearls had ever had an owner meaning they had never left the shop. This only made Pearl want to have an owner even more, after all.

Obey your owner.

You are nothing.

It was all a Pearl lived for.

This was the day.

Pearl had been purchased by an Emerald.

While Emeralds were not exactly the highest on the social ladder it was still not unheard of for some to make a lot of money, allowing them to clime an otherwise rigid and vicious cast system, after all money is power.

Still Pearl thought it could defiantly have been allot worst, even if it was clear from the start that from the way Emerald dressed her that she was only wanted as a status symbol, it was still fine. Pearl knew it could be worse, Pearl also knew that her option did not mater, only her owner's opinion mattered.

Things however only got worse as time went on, as soon as pearl arrived at her owner's house she was immediately put to work preparing, for as Emerald put it. "The most important night of my life so far." Pearl did not mind though, the work was not hard and she knew it was right for her to serve her owner.

Of course preparations meant that there would be a party and there was a party, many high class gems gathered to 'Welcome the new gem to the top of the social world'.

Pearl was not treated well.

She rushed back and forth across the room carrying drinks, cleaning any mess and generally being at the mercy of the gems around her. She was pushed shoved poked prodded slapped and kicked all through the night.

Then a party was thrown the next day.

And the next day.

And the next day.

Pearl became more battered and broken as time went on, every party more extreme than the last, every guest looking for something like her that they could take out there anger on.

As time went by Pearl started to make more and more mistakes, only little things like forgetting to hang up some Jaspers coat, but it made her owner furious, she constantly talked about how easy it would be to replace her to which Pearl could only smile and nod and continue on like nothing happened.

Even though her thoughts were restricted by the goo in her gem pearl couldn't help but think to herself.

"Is this what life is like for all pearls?"

She desperately hoped the answer was no.

Pearl knew it would not be so long until she was replaced and either sold on or terminated. It would happen soon, she could feel herself getting weaker every day.

On the seven day there was another party.

Pearl stumbled quickly and lightly through the seething mass that was the party goers, she was balancing two silver trays lined with expensive exotic drinks, really she shouldn't of been carrying that many but with all the commands she was getting she didn't have a choice.

It happened all far too quickly.

Her owner in one swift movement tripped her up.

She flew across the room, the drinks she was carrying did the same.

The drinks splattered all over a very fancy and important looking tourmaline.

"AAHHH! How dare you! You miserable Pearl!" The Tourmaline slapped Pearl across the face.

"Do not fret Tourmaline." Emerald appeared, a dark smile on her face. "This Pearl has clearly become defective, I will make sure to replace her immediately."

Pearl however could hear something that tourmaline could not hear, Emerald whispering beneath her breath. "Plus if I can claim the Pearls defective I can use my insurance to purchase one of the new Pearls from the new line."

This news shocked Pearl, her owner wanted to get rid of her, to destroy her… Pearl wanted to feel angry, Pearl wanted to scream, and Pearl wanted to cry. But Pearl was a Pearl and [earls can't feel anything.

The one thing Pearl did feel was the shock of a destabiliser stabbing her in the back, forcing her to release her physical form and return to her gem.

The halls were dark.

Not in the lack of lighting sense of the word dark, but the ominous and foreboding sense of the word dark. It was like walking the path of the condemned, a path that many had walked before.

When Pearls were either broken or deemed defective they are taken to a special facility where they were 'redeemed'. In reality their gems were burnt down to their base components and reused to make more pearls.

Emeralds Pearl walked down this path in this dark facility, the path many Pearls had walked down never to return. She was flanked by a Ruby and an Amethyst each keeping an eye on the 'defective' Pearl, still there was nothing she could do, she had to follow orders.

Eventually the Ruby and the Amethyst started to talk to each other.

"ggrrrhhh, being this close to a defective Pearl gives me the creeps" The Ruby growled

"Hah!" The Amethyst laughed. "You, afraid of a weak little Pearl? There weak flimsy and harmless, they wouldn't hurt you even if they could try."

The Ruby's expression morphed in to a deep frown. "If you saw the Pearl I've heard of you'd be running for the hills, or maybe you remember what little's been said of the Rose rebellion?"

Suddenly the Amethyst turned and shoved the ruby. "You idiot!" the Amethyst yelled "Were not supposed to talk about the Rose rebellion, I don't care if her defective Pearl could take down a Jasper, the rebellion was over four thousand years ago, it doesn't matter."

Pearl listened intently, a defective Pearl who could fight? Could Pearls become more than servants? Unfortunately the goo in Pearls gem stopped that train of thought almost immediately.

Eventually after a long walk through the complex, Pearl stood before the door to the Pearl redemption chamber. The sound of grounding gears filled the room as the heavy metal door slowly slid open to reveal…

A Sapphire.

The Ruby looked shocked for a moment while the amethyst glared at the smaller blue gem. "What is a gem like you doing here?" Amethyst growled.

Sapphire simply looked up at amethyst and spoke. "I am above you, I will go where ever I want to go." Sapphire simply floated past both the Ruby and the Amethyst, surprisingly stopping right next to Pearl.

"Listen Pearl." The Sapphire whispered in a soft voice. "Stay strong, you have long road ahead of you, if you want to live then you must stand beneath the red light."

Pearl was shocked but before she could even think of doing or saying anything the Sapphire simply floated away, down the corridor back towards the light.

The Amethyst grumbled under her breath before grabbing Pearl and shoving her into the chamber.

"Alright we've wasted enough time." The Amethyst grumbled. "Now get in here and where's that blasted Peridot? She's supposed to have the machines up and running by now."

The Pearl redemption chamber was a circular room with a large circular capsule in the middle, used to hold the pearls while they were 'redeemed'. What caught Pearls attention however was a bright red light coming from a machine on the ceiling.

The Ruby quickly left to look for the Peridot who should have been running the machines, while the Amethyst quickly took the opportunity to take break slouching down on the floor with a tired look on her face.

Pearl remembered the Sapphires words, since no one was ordering her around right now she decide to quietly make her way to the area bathed in the red light.

Just after Pearl reached the red light the Amethyst realised what she was doing. "Hey no one ordered you to move! Get bac-"

*sssssssssssssssss*

A hissing sound filled the room "What in diamonds name is that?" The Amethyst searched the room aggressively. "I hope that Peridot gets here soon, I don't wanna be here in this creepy place a second longe-"

*KA-BOOM!*

The room erupted in a ball flame.

Pearl was thrown violently asunder, launched straight through the ruptured chamber walls. The pain was so great she felt as if her gemstone was being torn from her body.

Pearl should have been dead.

Instead of being dead however pearl fell.

She fell deep in to the plants crust.

To a place untouched by gem kind for thousands of years.

A place forgotten by time itself, untouched and unknown covered by a veil of secrets that none had broken until this point.

Which makes sense since the Pearl redemption facility had been built over the crevice that Pearl was falling down.

Eventually Pearl landed at the bottom of the crevice, but instead of landing on cold hard ground she landed on something… soft.

Pearl landed on what she could only describe as a sponge like substance, it felt cold yet comfortable and welcoming to her.

Till Pearl felt a pull from inside her gem. It felt like something core to her gem was being pulled away from her.

Slowly a black goo like liquid ebbed away from Pearls gem, the same goo that controlled her and all Pearls for all this time.

After so long of being forced to do what others wanted her to do, the fog from Pearls mind was finally lifted. She felt a way that no pearl had felt for over four thousand years.

Pearl should have been dead, fallen like the many before her.

Instead Pearl felt free.

Free from a mental cage.

Finally free in at least one way for the first time.