Rose and Pearl stood there, taking it all in. An inactive Kindergarten looked no better than an active one. Grey spread as far as their eyes could see, their view speckled by the injectors' red tops only here and there. Neither a single spot of green to be seen nor the tweet of a wandering bird to be heard. They had won the war, but Earth had lost this one battle.
"Ok, let's get this over with." Pearl said, followed by a sigh. She was the first to hop off the warp pad. She looked around, a hand over her eyes, scanning the horizon for anything unusual. Rose soon joined her.
"Is this the last one?" Rose was looking down the ravine, to the plains below. There wasn't anything out of the ordinary. Just more grey.
"It should be." Pearl was never completely certain. They were never able to find the Authority's plans for this planet, and they never did gather enough info from their foes. Garnet wasn't able to tell them either. But they had checked each warp, seen where they led. They were confident they had seen it all.
"Shall we go, then?" Rose grabbed Pearl and jumped off the edge of the ravine, softly landing below.
It was looking exactly like the other Kindergartens they had seen - cold, lifeless, empty. The Injectors, those parasitic monstrosities the Homeworld took so much pride in, towered over the two Gems. They always searched through them one at a time, should one still be active.
"It's dead." Pearl jumped off from the machine's core and stood next to Rose. She searched around for the next Injector while the larger Gem looked at the view behind them. Dozens if not hundreds of Injectors littered the landscape. Some were still clinging to the ravines' walls.
"Pearl," Rose called. "We can't possibly check all of these individually."
"Why not?" The question seemed a bit silly to Pearl. They had done it before albeit with a smaller number of machines. Still, they were more than capable of doing so, now that the war was over. "We have all the time in the world."
"Well, sure," Rose hovered closer to the other. "But don't you want to see what else is out there?" Her eyes glimmered with that particular curiosity of hers.
"I've seen... a lot of what is out there." Pearl turned around, forcing herself not to face Rose. She knew she'd give in if she kept looking at her like that. They had a mission to complete. Rose should know better.
"But you haven't seen everything yet!" She giggled, her voice like honey.
"Rose, we-" A familiar noise interrupted Pearl. A bird squawking. Both Gems looked straight into the other, one shocked and the other thrilled. Rose zapped towards the sound. "Rose!" she groaned.
Pearl couldn't keep up with her. Rose had leapt towards the loud noise, and now she was nowhere in sight. But the bird kept screeching, louder and louder. Pearl followed its sound while calling out for the other. She only stopped once she spotted a tuft of pink hair peeking from behind another ravine. Rose was hiding behind a large rock, watching something. Pearl finally joined her and hid beside her. "Rose, what ar-"
"Shh," Rose's stubby finger shushed her. "Look." She then pointed forward.
In front of the pinkish finger was none other than a small falcon, picking something apart with its beak. This wouldn't have been quite as shocking if they were in another place, and if the bird hadn't been purple. As far as they knew, there weren't many purple animals on Earth. But it was unmistakably a bird.
"Should we try and catch it?" Rose whispered, barely containing her excitement.
"What for?" Pearl looked at her, baffled. It wasn't worth the effort. At all.
"The humans would like it!" Rose smiled.
Pearl's confusion turned into something else. "I'm sure they would, but we need to check the Injectors," she paused, thinking of a way to reason with an inattentive Rose. "They would probably appreciate that more."
"Oh no," Rose stood up straight. Pearl kept rambling until Rose pointed it out. "Look."
The falcon was looking straight at them, eyes open wide and a glittering gem on its chest. That was no ordinary bird.
"Oh my stars," Pearl finally let out, a hand covering her open mouth. "How is this possible?"
"We need to catch it." Rose's tone was shades darker than before.
The bird finally processed the two Gems and flew off. Rose immediately followed behind it, leaping into the air to catch it, but it was far too quick for her. Pearl ran behind her, throwing spears at it as fast as she could. But it was pointless. The bird was too fast for them to follow and too small to hit. Rose and Pearl fell dead on their tracks. They had to come up with a better plan.
The bird landed a few meters away from them. It watched them, somehow teasing the two. Rose and Pearl eyed it. Pearl was getting more and more aggravated, while Rose just kept getting more excited.
"So, how are we going to do this?" Pearl asked furiously.
Rose giggled. It had been a while since she had seen Pearl so passionate about something. "Well," she shrugged her shoulders. "It's looking straight us, and it'll probably fly off as soon as we move."
Pearl nodded. "Right." She leaned closer to the pink gem.
"So," Rose crossed her arms, thinking. "You can get up there," she pointed at the ravine right beside them. "While I distract it," she paused, going over her plan. "And then you jump at it when the time is right!"
Pearl took a second to process it all. "Let's do it." Her eyes burned with resolve.
The two nodded at each other and began to put their plan into practice. Pearl threw three spears at the ravine and climbed them with ease. Once she reached the top, she nodded at Rose, signaling her to lunge at the bird. Rose hovered towards the bird, as Pearl followed her up above. The falcon, which was cleaning its feathers, only noticed the pink gem when it was too late. Rose was already right behind it and Pearl had already jumped off. In a split second, it found itself under the two.
"I got it!" Pearl screeched, a large smug beaming on her face. The bird struggled in her slim hands. "You're not going anywhere now!"
The falcon turned its small head towards Pearl and somehow frowned at her. In that single moment of confusion, the tiny falcon morphed into a snake and slid away from the two. Pearl tried to follow after it but stopped once the animal showed its true form. A small purple humanoid materialized in front of them. She was on her fours, growling at the two, ready to attack.
"Oh no," was all Pearl could muster. "Oh no."
"Pearl..." Rose stood back, equally as astonished. "Step back." Rose knew what the purple gem was. She was just like her.
Pearl followed suit, while materializing a spear on her right hand. The tiny gem watched them as they watched her.
"What do we do now?" Pearl created another spear. "We can't let her stay here."
Rose had nothing to say.
"Rose," Pearl wouldn't take her eyes off of her. "Tell me what to do."
The other gem took notice of Pearl's intentions. She grabbed several rocks and threw them at her, one at a time. Only one or two hit.
"Stop that, you little twerp!" Pearl was about to strike back when Rose suddenly stopped her.
"No," Rose didn't let go of Pearl's arm. "We can't."
"Rose, she's..." Pearl let down her weapons and sighed. There was no point in arguing with Rose. "Alright." The other gem threw another rock at her. Pearl sighed again.
As Rose approached the little gem, the other scurried away as quickly as possible. Her incessant growling turned into intermittent whimpers.
"I won't hurt you," Rose offered her a warm smile and a gentle hand. "It's OK."
The tiny gem approached Rose cautiously, and smelled her hand. Pearl glared at her from the back. If she tried anything, she wouldn't last long.
"I'm Rose," she finally said. "And you're Amethyst."
"Amethyst?" the tiny gem asked, her voice coarse from the lack of use.
"Yes!" Rose couldn't be more excited. "Would you like to join us?"
Amethyst looked at Pearl, who hadn't stopped eyeing her.
"Don't worry, she won't hurt you," Rose giggled. "I promise."
Amethyst looked at Rose again, pondering. She smelled her hand again before climbing on to it. Pearl jumped up.
"It's fine," Rose laughed as Amethyst hid between her pink locks. "I guess we're keeping her."
"I want you to know I'm fully against this." Pearl crossed her arms, as Rose approached her.
"I know." Rose looked at the two Gems. They couldn't be more different. "She'll grow on you."