"My Pearl"
The moisture lay thick in the heavy jungle air that day, the sound of the flowing creek that fed the basin only interrupted by the occasional call of an exotic bird or climbing monkey. It was at the floor of this wilderness of wildlife that a vibrating hum filled the air. A column of light bursting forth from the ground in a grand cavalcade of energy and the droning song of vibrating crystal revealed two of the Crystal Gems who stood on the slimy, vine, embroiled warp pad.
The muggy atmosphere hit Pearl like a blast of exhaust, causing her to recoil and stifle a sound of disgust as it began to frazzle her hair immediately. Below her stood Steven, hands raised in excitement, a whistle in his mouth. Pearl had to cover her ears, where she would have them, as Steven let forth three loud, rattling tweets.
"Are the whistles really necessary?" Pearl asked once Steven was finished. Steven let the whistle drop from his mouth and fall slack onto the neck chain he wore it on, his hands coming down to grip the straps of his Cheeseburger Backpack.
"Of course they are," he said chipperly, "That way, if we get lost, we can just whistle, and we'll find each other!"
Pearl let out a slight groan, then looked down at the whistle she wore herself. Sure, Steven's explanation had logic behind it, but she couldn't help but feel that he had brought the whistles along so he could play with them. Pearl took the opportunity to check the supplies she had brought: Some rope, a small assortment of papers and writing utensils…a whistle…amongst other things.
"So, how far is the Gem Fortress from here?' Steven asked, disrupting Pearl from her thoughts.
"Oh, uh," Pearl replied. She then concentrated and focused her energy into her gem, conjuring a hologram of the surrounding area from it, "It should be a short walk from here," she said, pointing to her projection, and creating a dotted line from where they were to where they were going. "The Gem Fortress used to be a stronghold of the Homeworld Gems, but they completely abandoned it over five thousand years ago when the war was over. None of us have ever been inside since then," She couldn't help but notice Steven begin to tremble with excitement.
"Steven," Pearl said, dropping the hologram, "You do know we're going in there because we need to salvage whatever we can if more Homeworld gems come looking for us, right?"
"I know," Steven quipped, barely stifling his excitement, "We're gonna explore the cheese out of that temple!"
"The temple doesn't have any cheese," Pearl deadpanned, "We're looking for weapons or things like that."
"We can't let Garnet and Amethyst beat us," Steven declared heroically, "Team Steven, Move out!" At this, he put the whistle back into his mouth and blew. Pearl covered her ears again. Starting in the direction Pearl had indicated, Steven began to blow a march on the whistle; holding such a rhythm one could swear the other army band instruments would join in. Goose-stepping proudly, Steven advanced into the Jungle. Pearl followed closely behind.
After a long walk that was devoid of any of the usual sounds of the jungle thanks to the whistling, Steven emerged into a clearing. This time, the whistle left his mouth from his jaw dropping slack at what he saw.
The huge, distinctly alien structure would seem to have been camouflaged from the dense foliage that was cloying at the walls, a thick, green funk having coated the ancient surface and melding it with the surrounding terrain. Closest to them, there was a wall with an obvious door, held shut by a tangle of vines.
"Okay, stay put, Steven," Pearl said, setting down her small satchel, "I'll figure out how to restore power to the door," She conjured forth a hologram of the schematics for the door's inner workings.
However, so engrossed in her machinations was she that she failed to notice Steven had already walked up to the door.
"Gem Fortress, Gem Fortress," He prosed, "A fortress made of gems, or a gem made of fortresses?"
He observed the area around it and soon spotted a series of grooves that strongly resembled the handprint found on the pedestal in his mother's armory, complete with a diamond over the palm. As Pearl continued to drone on about gem technology he didn't understand, he couldn't help himself.
"Boop!"
The structure trembled in response to Steven touching the handprint. Pearl looked up from her work as the entire jungle began to vibrate underneath them.
"Steven!" She yelled, "What did you do?"
"Uh," Steven said, hand still firmly on the pad.
The two of them could only hold on as the ground shook beneath them, the frightened cries of animals trailing into the distance.
Finally, the trembling subsided. Pearl and Steven remained frozen in place and glanced around. A grinding sound as the doors started to wrench themselves open interrupted their pause. Vines snapped and dragged along the ground as their old hanging place was torn asunder. With a hiss, the doors were fully opened, and the cool, dry breeze of climate control wafted out of the fortress.
"Uh," Steven continued. He quickly regained his composure, "I was opening the door! Door is now open!" He said, putting his hands proudly on his hips.
Pearl was fixated on the open door, however, "This place shouldn't have power like this," she said as she approached. The inside of the entryway was dimly lit and barely a few feet could be seen within.
The two of them slowly proceeded down the hallway. For as small as the entrance had been, the actual interior was spacious as it slowly descended underground, more of the fortress's interior coming to light that was revealed by its outside space.
Eventually, the floor leveled off and the two Crystal Gems found themselves at a small hub, splitting off in several directions. They were met with only the sound of a hollow corridor, the light thrumb of the lights reverberating quietly throughout.
However, one thing that was unmistakable was that the inside of this place didn't reflect the outside at all. It was clean. The floor reflected the ambient light like it had just gotten a fresh coat of wax, and not a spec of the thick jungle funk that clung to the outside could be seen on the inside.
It was way too clean.
"We should be careful, Steven," Pearl said as she drew her weapon out of her gem, "No telling what could be in here." She glanced around nervously, eying each passageway as she went.
"We should split up!" Steven said, "We can cover more ground that way!"
"Steven," Pearl chided, "That is a really bad idea! What if one of us gets in trouble?"
With stars in his eyes and smiling from cheek to cheek, Steven lifted his whistle, pointing at it enthusiastically while suggestively wiggling his eyebrows.
"Ugh, fine," Pearl said, "Just be careful."
"Right!" Steven said with a salute, his shield apparating onto his raised arm, "If I get in trouble, I'll just whistle!"
Sighing, Pearl activated her gem to provide her extra visibility in the dim light. She then began to carefully proceed down the central corridor.
Steeling his resolve, Steven inhaled deeply, stuck the whistle in his mouth, and started down the hallway to the right of the main corridor. The glow of his shield easily overpowered the dim light that was there, but its diffuse pattern still made it hard to see what was ahead of him.
"Fortresses made of gems made of fortresses," Steven muttered through the quiet rumbling of his whistle to keep himself calm. He would never admit it, but he was quietly starting to regret his decision to split up with Pearl. The corridor simply went corner after corner and neither a room nor a door was in sight.
As Steven rounded yet another corner, he found himself suddenly facing a shadowy figure. Steven let out a shout and fell to the ground, the whistle falling out of his mouth as it went. Steven trembled and held up his shield as the figure turned towards him.
The figure, apparently as surprised as he was, didn't move from its spot, instead opting to hold a long, spear-like object close to its body. With the rush fading, Steven was able to more properly process the nature of the stranger in the dim light. He couldn't help but shake the feeling that the figure's noodley posture, swept-back hair and big, birdlike nose were familiar.
"Pearl!" Steven yelled angrily, sitting up, "Don't scare me like that!"
"I'm sorry," Pearl respond. She then slowly raised her hands, her arms wrapped around her weapon, and clapped her hands twice.
With a shock, the light in the corridor went up by several orders of magnitude, more properly fitting of a place where Gems would live.
However, this only served to completely erase the calm Steven had felt before. Though the Gem before him was most definitely Pearl, her leotard and pants were purely functional, lacking any sort of skirt or frill, and bearing a diamond embleb on the chest. The tool she held in her hand was clearly a gem instrument, but rather than a spear, it formed a broom. The biggest tell that something was off, however, was the fact that her hair, her irises, and the gem on her forehead were all jet black.
Steven let out another frightened yelp and fell away from this Black Pearl. However, the Black Pearl seemed delighted to see him.
"Oh my goodness," The Black Pearl said in a manner that was unmistakably Pearl, "A visitor! We haven't had any visitors in such a long time." She knelt down towards the trembling Steven and squinted to get a better look at him, as well as the gem on his bellybutton, which had been exposed in the kerfuffle, "You're name is Quartz, then?"
Steven was too scared to answer.
"Steven!?" the other Pearl's voice called from behind him. Like the arriving cavalry, Pearl came skidding around the corner with her spear at the ready,, "Did something happe-". And then Pearl froze, the image of the Black Pearl at least as surprising to her as it was to Steven.
"Oh," The Black Pearl continued jubilantly, clasping her hands together, "And you've brought your faithful retainer as well! Oh, the master will be so happy to meet you!"
Pearl's normally bluish tint turned a shade greener. Her spear dropped to the ground as she covered her mouth with one hand and clutched her stomach with the other as she began to break out in a cold sweat.
"The…master?" Steven asked, turning away from Pearl's distressing scene for a moment.
"Oh, she isn't here right now," The Black Pearl replied, "But I'm sure she'll be back any moment. If you could just sit down over here."
The Black Pearl started down the hallway in the direction Steven had come. As Steven followed, he passed by Pearl. Looking up at the rattled woman, Steven offered her his hand. Pearl weakly lifted her hand from her stomach and accepted it.
Steven led Pearl along as the Black Pearl led them back to the hub where they had entered. Despite the brightened exterior, the place had become even more foreboding than when it was in low light, the spit-shine polished hues of greens and grays throughout the hallways and the flawlessly arranged accoutrements that had been previously hidden by the shadows giving a stark order to everything.
Upon reaching the center of the hub, The Black Pearl again clapped her hands twice. This time, several sections of the floor began to shift upwards, raising angular columns of rock into the air, forming the seats and backs of tall, monolith-like chairs; one for Pearl and a shorter one for Steven.
"Please, take a seat," The Black Pearl gestured pleasantly as a third rock slowly rose in front of the chairs, roughly the size and height of a coffee table.
Pearl seemed all too happy to oblige, letting out a groan as she sat down on the taller chair, her elbows resting on her knees as her hands gently overlapped, eyes aimed straight at the floor.
Tight-lipped, Steven removed his cheeseburger backpack and set it on the table. He then sat on his smaller chair, which was right next to Pearl's.
"Excellent," The Black Pearl said, sounding as Pearl-y as ever, "Now, if you just wait here, I'm sure the Master will return shortly to see you," Without skipping a beat, the Black Pearl resumed her duties, humming a little tune as she swept around the base of the table with her gem broom, lightly adjusting the cheeseburger backpack as she went, before turning down a different hallway to tend to things elsewhere.
Steven's eyes were locked askance to Pearl, who remained silent. As time went by, Pearl clasped her hands, then unclasped them. She rotated her toes inwards, then back outwards again. She remained focused on the floor, then tilted her head back to stare at the ceiling, then some time later lolled her head back down to stare at the floor. This went on for a while.
Finally, she noticed that Steven had been watching her. With a startle, Pearl assumed a more appropriate position, with her legs shut and her hands on her knees with a straightened back. She put on a brave face for Steven, but the beads of sweat on her brow and the green tinge to her face betrayed what she was thinking.
"Soooo…" Pearl said, "I'm guessing you're wanting to know why that gem looks exactly like me."
There was a pause.
"And sounds exactly like me," She continued, her posture slumping down.
Steven remained silent, though his lips tightened again.
"And…acts exactly like me," Pearl said, returning to her previously slouched posture.
"Well," Steven finally strained out. Pearl sat back at attention. "She said you were a retainer," he continued, "I thought that was the thing you got after you had braces," He tugged on the sides of his mouth with his fingers as he said this, exposing his teeth.
Pearl managed a chuckle out of this,
"Well," Pearl said after clearing her throat, "In this sense, a retainer is more like someone who follows you around and takes care of you,"
"You mean like a mom?" Steven asked.
Pearl slumped a bit again, "No, Steven, a retainer's job is more like a..." She paused at the word she was about to say, "Well, they do things for whoever they follow," She started to count off with her fingers, "Like cleaning things, performing light maintenance, helping with basic knowledge, and other things like that," She took a deep breath, her tone growing more somber, "That's what Pearls are; they're retainers for other gems, helping them with the duties they might be too busy to perform themselves, never leaving their side," She let her legs relax again, letting her elbows rest on her knees and weaving her fingers together, "And I was your mother's…" Pearl's voice stuttered as she spoke as she tried to contain her emotions.
It was at that moment that Steven put his hand on top of Pearl's. A small leap of joy entered Pearl's heart at the gesture.
"Steven," she said happily, turning to him. However, Steven was looking away from her and instead towards the hallways, "Is something wrong?" Pearl took a more serious tone.
"It's just," Steven replied, "I haven't seen anybody else here."
The realization suddenly struck Pearl, as well. Despite the fortress they were in being meant to hold hundreds, if not thousands of gem troops, had they not detected a single other sign of life. Something was off.
"It can't be," Pearl muttered, grabbing her chin. She rose from her seat, "Steven," she said resolutely, "We're going to find that Pearl."
"Alright!" Steven said, raising his whistle.
Pearl stopped him by taking his hand, "Together this time," she stated firmly. Steven chuckled nervously.
The two moved quietly down the hall the Black Pearl had walked down some time ago, carefully peering around every corner before proceeding.
Upon rounding a corner too quickly, Pearl had to grab Steven by the collar as he had skidded too far around. They could hear the telltale humming of the Black Pearl nearby, and they slowly peered around the corner when it was clear that the tune hadn't ceased. They saw that the Black Pearl had gone back to her work sweeping the floor. She seemed engrossed in her work in tidying the place. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary.
Soon, however, the Black Pearl's humming had trailed off and she stopped sweeping. She glanced around at the one-hundred-percent dust-free floor. She continued to pour over the floors and the walls and the state of utter perfection she had left them in, then up at the spotless ceilings and again at the opposite, pristine wall.
Pearl and Steven quickly pulled back behind cover as the Black Pearl began to glance in their direction, Pearl's hand instinctively covering Steven's mouth. The two waited with their breath held, hoping they hadn't been seen.
Then they heard hyperventilating. Concerned, the two of them peered back out from around the corner to see the Black Pearl scanning the floors and walls again, this time far more frantically. Her arms trembled with how tightly she held the broomstick. She glanced at seemingly random places on the pristine floor, eying locations where there was still no lingering dust, her breath becoming more and more ragged each passing.
Until her eyes fell upon an ornate, angular vase sitting in a nook in the wall. Immediately, her ragged breathing halted. She gripped the broom meekly and slowly approached the vase. She glanced back and forth in an almost cliché gesture to make sure nobody was looking before she started an innocent whistling as she moved her broom again, sweeping over a place she had already gone over, then twisting the broom in a way that it collided with the vase, causing it to shatter on the ground.
"Oh goodness," The Black Pearl said, cupping her face with her hand, seemingly delighted at the accident, "What a mess! I'll have to clean it up right away!" Bringing her broom to bear, the humming she was making before returned as she began sweeping the vase fragments up.
"Pearl?" Steven whispered, "Why did she just do that?"
"I knew it!" Pearl said at full volume, to Steven's surprise. She stood up and walked brazenly around the corner towards the Black Pearl, who was twice as shocked as Steven was. Panicking, the Black Pearl put herself between the mess and the advancing Pearl.
"Uh, Is there a problem, Ms. Pearl?" The Black Pearl said, glancing down at the mess to see if she had concealed it, "I'm sure the master will be here to see you shortly, if you could wait back where I left you."
"I saw what you did!" Pearl replied, jabbing her finger into the Black Pearl's chest accusingly.
The Black Pearl's panic increased, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" She wailed, "Please, please don't tell the master about this!" she begged.
"That's not going to be a problem," Pearl said, her harsh tone remaining strong, "How long has it been since the master was last here? How many millennia?!"
"It hasn't been that long," The Black Pearl replied meekly, shrinking her posture.
"Even assuming she's still alive, she and all of the Homeworld Gems left this place over five thousand years ago!" Pearl yelled, some waver beginning to appear in her voice, "Your master is never coming back!" She grabbed the broom and tried to wrest it from the Black Pearl's grip, "You don't have to do this anymore!"
The Black Pearl immediately began to resist, but their completely identical bodies meant that neither of them made any progress, "No, you're wrong!" She said, "The master will come back! I have to make sure this place is ready for her!" The broom, gem construct though it may have been, began to strain in the tussle.
Just then, the Black Pearl looked down. She glanced at the star on Pearls tunic, "Wait a minute," She said, her previously demure face taking on an angry posture, "Now I know who you are!" Pearl was caught by surprise as the Black Pearl suddenly put her weight into the broom she had been pulling and forced Pearl several steps back, "You're wearing the symbol of the rebels!" The Black Pearl yelled, "This is all some sort of trick!"
Pearl regained her footing and began pushing back against the Black Pearl; the tug of war had turned into a stalemate of a different kind as the two pushed with all of their strength and a struggle for dominance.
"You guys, stop it!" Steven couldn't watch this anymore, running out and towards the doppelgangers.
"HELP!" The Black Pearl yelled at the top of her lungs in no direction in particular, "The rebels! The rebels are here!" She then drew her weight back in an attempt to topple Pearl over.
However, Pearl masterfully stepped into the move and managed to not only keep her footing, but press her attack as well. "Nobody's coming, Pearl," She yelled, "There hasn't been anybody else here for thousands of years and there never will be anybody else again!"
"That's a lie!" the Black Pearl yelled, "The Master has to come back!" Her voice began to crack. Though her strength remained the same, the tears she had been restraining were beginning to leak out, "My Master is a great gem! She's the greatest gem who ever lived!" Her tears started to become torrents, "She wouldn't just…" Her hysterics were growing out of control, "She wouldn't just abandon me here!"
Pearl's eyes widened.
The sound of loud whistling pierced the hallway, throwing off both women. They turned to see Steven, who was unleashing every ounce of breath he had into his whistle, blowing until his cheeks turned blue. The shocked Pearls watched as Steven caught his breath after finally getting their attention.
"Pearl, that's enough!" Steven yelled once he had the chance. Pearl looked at Steven, realizing that, in the moment, she was panting as hard as he was. She turned to face the Black Pearl.
"She wouldn't leave me behind," the Black Pearl squeaked. Pearl now saw how the woman she had been fighting had been reduced to; a blubbering mess, covered in tears with her nose running, having fallen to her knees. It was pathetic, and the sight triggered an endless stream of emotions out of Pearl: feelings of envy, of rage, of frustration, of pity, of empathy.
Without saying a word, Pearl released her grip on the Black Pearl's broom, turned, and began walking away as quickly as she could.
"Ah!" Steven said as Pearl whizzed past him, "Pearl, wait!" Steven turned to look at the Black Pearl one more time. Sniffling, the Black Pearl knelt onto the ground and, gripping the base of the broom's brush, resumed cleaning the broken vase which had been scattered across the floor in the encounter.
Steven knew he couldn't let Pearl get ahead of him and, regretfully, he turned and followed her. Pearl was already clear out of the ruins and by the warp pad by the time he reached her. She was standing there stock still, inches from the pad, with her back turned to Steven. Steven slowed his approach once he got closer, but Pearl remained silent.
"Pearl?" Steven asked.
Suddenly, Pearl whirled around and grabbed Steven by his shoulders.
"A servant, Steven!" She said, her face nearly as tearful as the Black Pearl they had left behind, "A retainer is a servant! Pearls are mass-produced gems who are mentally programmed to think of the gem they're assigned to serve as the greatest gem who ever lived!" She sniffled, "And I was manufactured to be you mother's…"
Steven's eyes widened, and he began to feel guilty, himself.
Pearl quickly noticed this on Steven's face, "No, no, Steven!" She said as she knelt down, one of her hands coming up to tenderly cup Steven on the cheek, "Your mother wasn't that way! She was the one who encouraged me to be more outspoken, to pursue my own interests and forge my own path. She was everything I could ever ask for."
"And yet," she continued, glancing to the side, "and yet every time I experience the feelings I have towards your mother, I wonder if they're my own feelings, or just my…programming." Pearl turned wistful, "Amethyst never had to feel this way; she never had to deal with why she was created…"
This time, It was Steven's turn to comfort Pearl with a hand on her face, "I know I never got to meet her," Steven said, "But I'm sure my mom would never want you to feel like you have to feel that way about her. If my mom everything I've heard about, I think I'd like her the same way you do."
Pearl's eyes widened, as if to open the floodgates. She reached around and embraced Steven, stifling her sobbing as best as she could.
The warp panel in Steven's House let up a beam of light as the two returned home. Waiting patiently on the couch was Garnet, who was cleaning her hands with a towel. Waiting not so patiently, lying awkwardly on the kitchen counter was Amethyst, who was kicking her dangling legs in the air.
"We're back!" Steven announced gleefully.
"Did you two find anything?" Pearl asked.
"Pfft, yeah," a miffed Amethyst replied, "Miles and miles of nothing but boring ol' daffodils."
"The homeworld covered their tracks well," Garnet responded in her usually stoic tone, "Everything we found was in such bad shape, they must have destroyed it all before they fled for the homeworld."
"Oh, that's unfortunate," Pearl replied.
Garnet continued to stare at Pearl and Steven.
"Is there something wrong?" Pearl asked.
"What about you two?" Garnet asked.
"Huh?" Pearl replied.
"Did the two of you find anything in the Gem Fortress?"
Pearl and Steven's smiles faded somewhat and the two of them faced each other. Quickly, the two of them nodded resolutely to each other, then turned to Garnet.
"No."