Alternatively: AU where the war ends earlier and the Beta Kindergarten gems survive.
It doesn't take much to alter history. A pile of pebbles built up over the course of years can divert a stream as surely as a boulder hurled in a fit of volcanic explosion. One decision can change everything.
While it was generally unlikely that the lower echelons of Homeworld society might acquire their own pearls, it wasn't completely unheard of. The suggestion that one might acquire a pearl through exceptional service to the Diamond Authority was a driving motivation for many, from the lowest ruby soldiers to ambitious quartzes. That the pearls gifted to such gems were often second-hand was beside the point.
Peridot Facet-1F Cut-2AA was well aware of her good fortune of having acquired her pearl that way. She had overseen the installation of over five hundred Kindergartens spread out over Blue Diamond's later colonies, all as perfect and productive as gemetically possible. For her service and obedience she was rewarded her own quarters and a pearl that had once belonged to a grandidierite (and a pink zircon before that, and originally belonged to a trapiche emerald). While the string of previous owners had initially been off-putting, Peridot found that the pearl lived entirely up to expectation. It was pretty, quiet, and did exactly what it was told. Sometimes it even acted on its own in anticipation of Peridot's needs, which she appreciated. She had certainly never considered purchasing a pearl before she was gifted with one, but she better understood the appeal by then.
She didn't really do a lot with her pearl, not the things she had heard that other owners did, but that didn't seem to matter so much. Peridot took the pearl with her on each assignment, and with each assignment she relied more and more on its presence. She could call for any number of tools and the pearl would be at her elbow in a second with what she needed. When she needed to vent, the pearl was there to listen sympathetically and nod in agreement every time Peridot needed vindication. When she was stressed, the pearl hummed soothingly as it massaged the space around the gem at the nape of her neck. Any misgivings she had about the pearl's history of ownership disappeared by the time the first colony was selected for Pink Diamond.
Blue Diamond recommended Peridot's services to Pink Diamond for her first colony, which was the highest honor Peridot had ever been given by the Diamond she was made for. She was summarily given command of the propagation and Kindergarten development side of colonization and worked alongside an emerald who handled higher-grade personnel management. They made for an efficient team. Peridot began the Prime Kindergarten in short order.
The Prime Kindergarten was established in a chasm carved into folded belts of crystalline metamorphic and igneous rocks, belts which were extraordinarily high in the fine quality silicates needed for quartz production. Their ages, ranging from over a billion years to over three hundred million years, were ideal. Everything else that was worthless had already eroded away, leaving her with grounds ripe for a Kindergarten. Still, she petitioned to Pink Diamond for additional crew to even out the chasm's walls and received them, and set them to work in short order. Not a shipment went awry or a task went off schedule. Only when the excavation of the Kindergarten walls was finished and the first batch of gems was incubating did Peridot allow herself to rest and enjoy the company of her pearl. She only extricated herself long enough to do status checks, double-check the programming for the injectors, and ensure that the injection materials were properly formulated. Occasionally she deigned to report to Emerald.
Naturally, because the universe loves chaos, a group of unproductive malcontents then made themselves a problem.
It began barely a couple of hundred solar years after she put the first batch of Kindergarten gems in the ground, set up the underground command post, established the temporary camp for the anorthite crews that handled manual labor, and sent the early-emerging rose quartzes to training. The radiation from incubating gems was doing a glorious job of deforestation in and around the Kindergarten, and all the anorthite crews needed to do was clear out the dead organics and soon enough the chasm and nearby areas were barren. She'd paid attention to the construction reports from various bismuth teams to the Diamonds, but that was a matter of minor professional interest.
What piqued her curiosity was the first major report of sabotage at one of the spires under construction; supposedly a bismuth had joined the growing band of useless rabble-rousers and destroyed her own work. Peridot had snorted in disgust at the absurdity of ruining one's own hard work and returned to analyzing her readouts, and her pearl was ever at her side in case she ever needed anything. When she found the time to dwell on current events, she had questioned loudly about what the malcontents could possibly be thinking, exploded in indignation over the loss of labor hours and materials, vented over the irrationality of anyone who would dare question the way things have always been, and her pearl nodded along with her.
Then, sometime during the progression of colonization, something peculiar happened. As Pink Diamond was still a new Diamond and this was her first colony, Peridot expected that she would have a more hands-on role in the colonization efforts. She hadn't expected to have her reports redirected to Blue Diamond, or to be summoned to report to her Diamond in person.
Peridot arrived at the Sea Shrine with her pearl shadowing her footsteps, her curiosity piqued perhaps beyond what would have been proper. When she stepped off the warp pad, she was acutely aware of the amethyst guards and their commanding agate surrounding the warp pad within easy striking distance.
There was something off about the guards. Like she was under suspicion. Yet, when she paused to follow the line of their stares, it wasn't her they were watching. They eyed her pearl with nothing but distrust, which almost seemed to weigh on its slight shoulders. Her pearl's short green hair hung almost defensively over its down-turned face as it hugged Peridot's tablet close. As if that would protect it should one of the guards attack it. Only belatedly did Peridot realize that there had been mention of a pearl among the malcontents. It never seemed worth noticing.
Still, if there was something her age and rank allowed her, it was the capacity to challenge larger gems than her. She turned towards the agate and, in as loud a voice as she could muster shy of a scream, said, "If my pearl is guilty of anything, tell me and I'll discipline it myself. Otherwise, stop staring!" Agate grunted and sneered, but the slightest nod from her had the entire contingent looking away just long enough for Peridot to grab her pearl's wrist and drag it with her along the corridor towards Blue Diamond's palanquin.
Peridot supposed the view from the sea floor could be impressive, but her Diamond commanded her attention first and foremost. Blue Diamond waited, seated in her throne in the palanquin, with her pearl ever a silent presence at her side. Peridot saluted and her pearl bowed low behind her. "My Diamond, Peridot Facet-1F Cut-2AA here to report on the progress of the Prime Kindergarten in Facet—"
Blue Diamond did not bother to pull back the hood from her face, or even make a motion of acknowledgement. Words were all she ever needed. "I've read your reports. Your work is, as always, exemplary."
Warm pleasure seemed to flush from Peridot's gem to her extremities at the praise, and she chuckled self-consciously. "My Diamond is too generous."
"I did not call you here for another report." The hood moved just enough for the icy gaze of one cold eye to fall on the pearl behind Peridot. To its credit, her pearl didn't flinch this time. "Can you trust it?"
"Your gift is the most precious thing to me, my Diamond. My pearl never leaves my side," Peridot stated. It wasn't entirely true, and she did entrust her pearl with minor duties that required them to be apart, but it was hardly worth questioning when her pearl always returned on time and with every errand completed. Still… "The few times it does, it is carefully monitored. My pearl is not so undisciplined as to turn rebellious, I can assure you. I have been a good mistress to it and it wants for nothing."
Blue Diamond did not look entirely satisfied, but she pressed on. "I trust you've been watching the news feeds."
"When I get the opportunity, my Diamond. Are you concerned about this band of malcontents?" It was hardly the first attempt at rebellion, and it wouldn't be the last. Blue Diamond had, after all, quashed several over the millennia. Still, as this was Pink Diamond's first colony, she supposed Blue Diamond might have been concerned for the youngest Diamond.
"Some events went unreported to keep things on schedule." Blue Diamond hands settled back on the armrests, and she looked to be deciding just how much to tell her. "They are simply sabotaging new construction projects and destroying the guards' forms so far, but we both know how these things run. A member of my court has already been lost in the effort to settle things peacefully with them." Peridot's breath caught in surprise; that hadn't been in any of the news reports. If her Diamond noticed, she didn't address the interruption. "You will begin another Kindergarten. Just in case."
Peridot mentally ran the figures and tried not to panic. The injection mixtures were already formulated to take absolute advantage of the geological pressure and chemical makeup of the silicate belts in the first Kindergarten. She would have to scramble to properly survey the next site and figure out the right formulas for that particular setting and order new supplies. With a rebellion going on, the supply lines would surely be targeted, which meant that she would have to figure out how to spread out what materials she did have and hope for the rest. She took in a breath to steady herself. "Do you have a site in mind, my Diamond?"
"No. You operate well under unusual circumstances. Find somewhere suitable and secret enough to go unnoticed. The Beta site does not need to be perfect. So long as there are bodies available to fight, how closely they adhere to your standards is irrelevant. Do what you can with what materials we can spare." Blue Diamond paused to pull the hood back over her eyes. "Official channels will not be secure. Instead of filing your supply requisition forms through those channels, send them to Morganite Facet-1C Cut-8BA. She will coordinate with you to deliver your supplies directly."
"Yes, my Diamond," Peridot replied without missing a beat, though her misgivings over this entire proposal were growing with each second. There were so many things that could go wrong.
The earliest attempt at rebellion in her lifetime occurred when she was only a few thousand years out of the ground, and it had taken hold in one of White Diamond's colonies. The rebels had cut off the Kindergartens to cripple Homeworld's ability to use brute force against them. They had more Kindergartens to go against and a traitor in their midst, and ultimately they lost and were shattered for their troubles. Her perfect Kindergarten could become a target, and she would need another to offset any damage to its productivity. "Your wisdom is as flawless as you are."
There was no indication that Blue Diamond heard the praise. Not that there ever was. "A personal meeting has been arranged for you and Morganite. My pearl will give you her contact information, along with some files that may be of some use to you. Thank you for your service, Peridot."
Recognizing the dismissal for what it was, Peridot tamped down the wellspring of new questions and saluted. She would figure out what to do with all her questions in time.
Notes: This fic would not exist without the theories bouncing around tumblr, especially jaspurr and every theorist on the #jasper or #su jasper tag. Y'all are great and I appreciate reading you even though I don't comment. What I do own? The plot, the OCs, the fact that Peridot's job is a lot like several aspects of mine, my aborted stint in geology as a college major (I graduated with geography and archaeology instead), and any and all research related to the pre-Columbian American Southwest (which itself owes everything to what First Nations people are willing to share). Some of the archaeological sites I've been to will appear in later parts, and I may even throw in travel photos for illustration.
This is a 5-part series, and Implantation has five chapters planned. The number of chapters in the other parts will vary.