Author's Note: This fic is paired with, and directly follows, 'The Petal Thing', which can be found on my profile. Both were co-written by LadyRavenEye.
The One Good Thing
Go help the little amethyst, Rose Quartz had urged, as if they didn't have the fallout from a war to manage, as if Pearl didn't have better things to do than take care of a half-feral runt. It will be fun!
Rose Quartz thought everything was fun. And easy. If she were the one trying to teach the Kindergartener to summon her weapon, doubtless Amethyst would have already accomplished it. At the very least, she wouldn't have just-given up.
Once a quartz, always a quartz, Pearl thought moodily. Taking things like that for granted. When I was learning how to summon my weapon, I didn't rest for days until I had mastered it-
Pearl remembered that there had been decades of wheedling from Rose Quartz (back then, still Pink Diamond), before she would even agree to try and summon a weapon. Hearing her own words flung at her ("I don't have a weapon!") had soured her mood, that was all. She would strive to be more patient with the young Gem in the future.
Speaking of, Amethyst was lagging far behind. Pearl paused her own graceful strides, waiting in the twilight for the Kindergartener to catch up. She had been so excited on the way out here, bounding and scrambling and leaping, but now she was dragging her feet. Pearl felt another stab of guilt at her unkind thoughts.
The truth was, Rose Quartz was hoping that this overcooked Amethyst would be the key to handling the troubling amount of malformed Gems left over from Yellow Diamond's massive war-ending blast. Most Gems, rebels and Homeworld alike, had been shattered but some-well, they were calling them "corrupted," which Pearl thought was rather charitable. They were monsters, and some of them were too difficult for Pearl, Garnet, Rose, or even their fusions to handle.
It was no longer a secret that the Crystal Gems' best weapon had been fusion-not the largest or the most powerful ones of same Gem types, as was favored by Homeworld-but the ones bound together with love and trust, irrespective of caste or classification. The Crystal Gems had still been outnumbered in most every battle, but with fusion and Rose Quartz's healing tears, they had held their own. Pearl seemed to be the only one in their little group of remaining rebels to think that they had won-but they were the last four intact, uncorrupted Gems left on Earth, so what the Stars else should she call it? Besides, Rose Quartz lived. That was victory enough for her.
Pearl supposed it was five Gems now, with Amethyst (still lagging, really, she may be a runt but no Gem was that slow). Not for the first time, Pearl doubted Rose's belief in the legend which told of an ancient goddess fusion comprised of five balanced Gems. Unstable, she was a raging storm, unstoppable and terrible. Stability shouldn't, however, be a problem for the Crystal Gems-Ruby and Sapphire were spending more time as Garnet these days than not, and naturally Rose and Pearl had been in sync from the moment they met-all they needed was their heart.
Pearl peered impatiently into the shadows of approaching nightfall. Amethyst was still quite far behind her. Pearl was trying very hard not to be offended that some fresh-from-the-ground Gem might get to fuse with Rose someday (someday soon, if Sapphire's future vision was correct, and it usually was). A quartz that couldn't even summon a weapon, how could she be expected to fuse with the mighty Pink Diamond-
That's when Pearl felt a whip wrap around her body from the shadows, pinning her arms to her sides. Muscled forearms enveloped her entire head, scrunching her nose painfully and preventing her from crying out.
"This is the pearl? This-defect, you sure?"
"Yeah, that's her pearl. Hold her tight, don't be fooled. I heard she can summon a weapon.
Pearl thrashed. She couldn't summon her weapon while her Gem was being covered, and the panic she felt was preventing her from shapeshifting. One of her wild kicks connected with a satisfying thump against the physical form of another Gem. The grip around her head loosened.
"Help-!" Pearl's cry was cut short by a pair of purple hands wrapping around her neck from behind. The other Gem, a citrine who as as broad as she was tall, and matched Pearl for height, panted off to the side with her arms around her middle. Even with the direness of the situation, Pearl felt a savage pride at the hurt she had caused the Homeworld Gem.
(Wait, Homeworld Gem? Here, on Earth? Uncorrupted-?)
"Quiet!" snarled the Gem who was all but strangling Pearl. "Or I'll smash your dirty pearl faster than you can say 'Pink Diamond is a traitor to Homeworld.'"
"Oh, yes, that's an excellent taunt, very succinct-" said Pearl in a raspy garble. Stupid, stupid, to provoke these stronger Gems, but she couldn't think right now, and besides, how dare these goons speak ill of Rose Quartz-
The Gem behind her shook Pearl, then threw her to the ground. Her arms were still pinned to her sides and she hit the earth with a painful whump, skittering across the ground like a stone across water.
The citrine had recovered from Pearl's kick and both she and the other Gem were approaching Pearl where she lay. She was muscled and tall, almost as tall as Rose, and even in the dim moonlight there was no mistaking that distinctive purple coloring. An amethyst.
Amethyst-
Pearl shut her eyes. If she was crushed, or tortured at the hands of Homeworld, well. She had lived a long, full life. She had seen galaxies and fused with a Diamond and fought in a great rebellion and won a war. But Amethyst, out of the ground centuries after her sisters, found gamboling about that awful Kindergarten after being alone for who knew how long, small and sweet and only occasionally obnoxious- Pearl hoped more than anything that she stayed well away from this mess.
"So, what now?" That was the citrine.
"We take her to the traitor and we threaten to crush her pearl if she won't send us back to Homeworld."
"The warp is busted! How do you expect her to manage that?"
"She's a diamond! She can figure it out!"
"A diamond who smashed her own soldiers and ours to win a war to protect this Gem forsaken planet! She ain't gonna give that up for some ruddy pearl."
Pearl considered correcting them on these points, but decided silence was a better course of action.
"What do you know about it, you clod?"
"Don't call me a clod, clod!"
There was a sound of a fist connecting with a physical form, followed by the unmistakeable sounds of two Gems hitting the dirt and squabbling with each other. Pearl felt the whip wrapped around her body fade into nonexistence. She risked opening her eyes. The Homeworld Gems were grunting and wrestling, and most importantly, paying her no mind. Fools.
Pearl leapt to her feet, already feeling her Gem glow warm. She concentrated on the rhythms within, and pulled out her weapon. She twirled it rapidly in her hands, feeling it lengthen as she did so, and stopped it perfectly so that the moonlight glinted off its end, pointed at the other Gems.
"In the name of Rose Quartz, I will punish you!"
The citrine and the amethyst stopped brawling, still entwined and on the ground, mouths agape. Then, they began to laugh. Pearl felt her face grow hot, but she ignored it, and leapt forward. She brought her spear slicing down, and the other Gems pulled apart and rolled out of the way only just in time.
Pearl backed up, spear still out. The laughter had stopped. Now, their expressions were wary.
They eyed each other. It was an uneasy situation. They'd lost the element of surprise which had allowed them to take her down in the first place, but Pearl was still smaller, physically weaker, and outnumbered. They had underestimated her before- they wouldn't do so again.
(Probably. Pearl had found that prejudice could be a very enduring indeed, something that she had often used to her advantage).
The citrine's gem flashed; so did the amethyst's, a moment later. Pearl ducked and dodged, rolling out of the way as the citrine's voulge came slashing down towards her. The polearm hit nothing but dirt. Pearl spun around, and kicked the citrine once in the face, then jumped out of range of a follow-up attack, slicing off the ends of the amethyst's whip.
The enemy amethyst growled. Then she ran at Pearl, turning into a spinning energy ball mid-roll. She accelerated, a whirling blur of momentum that could poof Pearl with a single pummel. Pearl was familiar with that particular trick, so she stepped easily out of the way at the last moment.
That move, however, turned out to be exactly what the citrine had expected. She'd come up to flank her, and was already bearing down. She and the amethyst aren't complete fools then, Pearl thought, as she was forced to block the citrine's blade with her spear. She managed it; but the citrine was larger and heavier than her, and she grunted under the force of the blow.
Pearl dug her feet into the ground and pushed back. With a thrust of her spear, she gave herself enough of an opening to dodge away from the citrine. The citrine's eyes flashed; she swiped at Pearl again, grazing the top of her head. A little further down, and the blade could have hit her directly in the Gem.
Pearl kept her eyes on the citrine's torso, knowing that's where the hint at her next move would come from. It was only as she felt the whip wrap around her physical form again that she remembered the other Gem. Pearl went crashing into the dirt, and her spear skittered away and faded into the night.
The citrine vanished her own weapon. The two burly Gems approached and hovered over Pearl. They still seemed wary.
"Defect," the amethyst finally spat at her.
"Don't call her that!"
NO-
Purple light flashed somewhere off to Pearl's right. There was a night-rending crack, and Pearl saw the citrine's arms snap to her sides and her eyes bulge and then-she was gone in a burst of orange-yellow. As it faded, Pearl saw two things on the ground: the citrine's Gem, and a whip much like the one currently wrapped around her own physical form.
The whip slithered away and Pearl followed it with her eyes. She had known of course, but seeing Amethyst there, fury in her eyes, made her anxiety spike even higher.
Before Pearl could shriek at Amethyst to run, the other amethyst grabbed at the handle of the whip around Pearl and yanked. Pearl went flipping around and up into the air-her programming kicked in and she found a graceful equilibrium-but she wasn't fast enough getting onto her feet and now the two quartz Gems were circling each other.
In different circumstances it might have been laughable-the runt vs the grunt, like a warped mirror image. As it was, Pearl felt only dread.
"P!" said Amethyst, dodging as the other Gem roared and snapped her whip. "Little help?"
"Oh!" said Pearl. She summoned her own weapon as fast as she could and leapt to Amethyst's side.
In the face of two to one odds, the amethyst dropped her whip and ran. Amethyst made to follow, but Pearl put a hand on her shoulder.
"Would you like to see something cool?"
Amethyst nodded vigorously. Pearl concentrated on the energy in her weapon, and fired three blasts at the retreating Homeworld Gem. At the last, her physical form went up in a burst of lilac smoke.
"Whoa!" said Amethyst. Pearl smiled fondly down at her. "Can I do that?"
"It looks like we'll find out!" said Pearl. She twirled her spear into nonexistence. "May I?"
It was hard to tell in the dark, but Pearl thought Amethyst was blushing. She offered Pearl her weapon, handle first. Pearl brought it up to her nose and examined it closely. It was a whip, just like all amethysts, but there were differences-it wasn't plain and unadorned like Homeworld soldiers'. The rope itself was covered in small, sharp purple extrusions, almost resembling a plant's thorns. And the weapon's pommel- it was shaped like the five-pointed star of Rose's Rebellion.
"Oh, Amethyst," she said. "It's beautiful."
"It's not so bad," said Amethyst, scuffing a foot on the ground. "Why didn't you tell me?"
"Tell you what?" Pearl said. She gave the whip back to Amethyst, and walked over to the citrine's gem, still in the dirt.
"That I shouldn't… try so hard."
"What do you mean?" Pearl bubbled the citrine and sent her back to the cave.
"I needed my weapon. And I got it. It was easy."
Pearl bit back a retort, opting instead to ruffle Amethyst's short hair.
"You did very well, Amethyst. Let's go get the-ah, other Gem."
As they made their way toward her, Amethyst was quiet. Pearl found the purple Gem and quickly bubbled and disposed of it.
"Shouldn't we tell Rose there are other survivors?" Amethyst said.
"What?" said Pearl.
"You said there weren't any Gems left, 'cept you and Rose and Sapphire and Ruby. But there were," Amethyst said. She paused. "They looked like me."
"Yes, well!" Pearl said. She hoped her barking laugh sounded less fake to Amethyst than it did to herself. "Rose wants all hostile Gems bubbled! This probably qualifies, don't you think?"
"Yeah… yeah, I guess so."
"I'm very proud of you, Amethyst. Rose will be too, I'm sure of it."
Amethyst beamed up at Pearl, and Pearl smiled back. She thought it was a really lovely moment, until-
"Race you back to the cave!"
With a roll of her eyes and a sigh of exasperation, Pearl took off after Amethyst. She didn't try too hard to catch up- Amethyst deserved a win.