The obnoxious sound of a drill being used startled Lapis out of her waking nightmare. She'd been having those ever since Malachite had been torn apart. She felt a sick sense of pleasure knowing she had kept Jasper under control for so long, but disgusted with herself for feeling good about doing something as cruel as keeping someone prisoner. She was no better than the gems who captured her in that mirror millennia ago.
Lapis shook herself from the clinging memories and decided whether having some peace and quiet was worth talking to her. A loud crash from the other side of the barn made Lapis' decision for her. There was no way she could live in this hell-hole if that little gremlin was making noise constant
Lapis floated down from the rafters and silently stood behind the diminutive figure.
Peridot was cackling to herself about whatever new 'invention' she was working on.
"Nyeh-heh-heh! Wait 'til Steven gets a load of this!" Peridot raised her arms triumphantly over her creation. To Lapis, it looked like a cardboard box that had a piece of metal drilled onto the side.
"What are you doing," Lapis said blankly. Peridot jumped and spun around quickly, startled by Lapis' unexpected arrival.
"Oh! Lazuli! What a pleasant surprise, I didn't expect to see you around here!" Peridot said nervously, chuckling awkwardly.
"You didn't answer my question," Lapis said, just as blankly as before. Her ability to be expressionless was disconcerting to all those around her, but especially so to Peridot.
"Oh, well, I um," Peridot stuttered. "I wanted to make Steven a gift, to well, thank him for everything he's done for me." Lapis stared at Peridot, making the latter more and more uncomfortable. The silence seemed to stretch for ages.
"Hear that?" Lapis said pointedly.
"Uh, no," Peridot scoffed. "There's no sounds, of course I don't hear anything. Without any sound nothing can be heard, it's basic physics,"
"You're being too loud making this piece of junk. I doubt Steven would even like it. Quiet down or I'll make you quiet down," As Peridot turned away from her and paid attention to her project, Lapis turned around and prepared to fly back up to her quarters in the loft. Before she could fly up, however, she heard Peridot mutter something.
"Excuse me?" Lapis said with an edge in her voice. "What did you just call me?" Silence. She turned and faced the smaller gem. Peridot continued to pay attention to the box. "I asked you a question." Lapis said dangerously while stepping slowly towards Peridot.
"I think you know what I called you, Lazuli," Peridot said indignantly, turning her head and crossing her arms across her chest.
"Say it to my face," Lapis said icily.
"I called you," Peridot paused, debating whether to say it. Suddenly, her cheeks darkened and her eyes flashed. She looked Lapis in the eyes. "I-I called you a CLOD!" Peridot yelled angrily. Lapis narrowed her eyes. She had heard correctly. She advanced menacingly towards the smaller gem, fists tightly balled up. The room seemed to darken with her anger.
"Where. Do. You. Get. Off. Calling. Your. Superior. A. Clod." She said through gritted teeth, punctuating each step with another fury filled word. Even a commander Peridot didn't have the rank to say those kinds of things to a gem like Lapis.
Peridot stumbled backwards, trying to get away from the angry gem. She visibly swallowed.
"R-rank doesn't matter here," Peridot stuttered out weakly, backing herself against a wall as she tried to get away, all traces of her earlier anger wiped away.
Suddenly, all the moisture in the barn condensed around Lapis. Or perhaps most of it came from the misguided peace gesture that was the pool of water outside. Either way, it came to form a huge sphere of water around Lapis. Peridot looked on in pure terror, falling onto the ground and scooting as far away as she could from the incensed gem.
"You shouldn't even be allowed to speak to me, low-life. A lowly Peridot speaking to a Lapis would be punishable by death on Homeworld. Yellow Diamond may have been unable to do anything about your insubordination, but I can do something about it. You're going to pay," Lapis said furiously, growing louder with each and every word.
Peridot squeaked in fear and made a beeline for the barn door. Lapis was so taken by surprise that she just let Peridot run past her. A beat passed and she walked after Peridot, knowing she would be headed for the warp pad in order to get Steven. As she passed the threshold, Lapis threw the water floating above her towards Peridot. The huge weight of the liquid behemoth knocked the smaller gem down almost instantly. After a few moments, Peridot didn't seem to be getting up, so Lapis lifted the weight off her and walked towards her. Lapis was honestly surprised that Peridot hadn't lost her physical form from that hit.
As Lapis approached her, Peridot groaned and looked up. She was severely disoriented, her vision seemed… wrong in some way. All she could tell was that Lapis was walking towards her in a way that made her fear for the integrity of her gemstone in the near future. She tried to stand up but realized she couldn't, her equilibrium center must have been damaged from the blunt force from the attack. Her mind was cluttered and she knew that if she didn't focus this might be the end for her.
"Wait!" She called out, her voice cracking slightly. Lapis kept approaching. "I know you're better than attacking a defenseless gem!"
Lapis chuckled darkly. A defenseless gem. As if. This was coming from the cruel jailer who took her back to this miserable planet and was indirectly responsible for her long months of torturous existence as Malachite. (There was no way any rank other than a Captain or a Commander could have received the responsibility of two high level kindergartens.) She approached Peridot and stood over her quivering form.
"You can't manipulate me now, Peridot. I have the upper hand here. No Jasper to come rescue you. Just me against you," Lapis suddenly grabbed Peridot by the arm and yanked her into a standing position. She could see that Peridot's visor was cracked. She let go of her arm, but Peridot almost immediately crumbled back to the ground, after a few shaky seconds of trying to balance.
"Stop faking it, it's not going to work," Lapis said angrily, yanking Peridot back up.
Peridot was near tears.
"I'm not faking it! My equilibrium center must have been damaged from the hit!" Peridot was near tears as Lapis held her slightly off the ground. Lapis narrowed her eyes. The little gremlin was dedicated to her ruse.
"Then you should have poofed. It looks like they're making gems much more resistant to damage nowadays. I'm surprised you were able to keep enough of your sanity after being hit that hard, let alone still have a form," Lapis said.
"More resistant to damage? What are you talking about? My visor is cracked, I can't see and I can't balance! The diamonds started skimping on nearly all gems to keep material usage down! I'm a barely functioning gem, why do you think I had limb enhancers? I don't even have any powers! They repressed most gem's ability to poof from nearly all forms of damage, too! I have to be nearly killed before I'm able to retreat!" Peridot babbled fearfully.
"What?" Lapis said, surprised. She didn't doubt what Peridot was saying, even when she had been created she knew that the Diamonds were always looking for ways to cut corners, especially for foot soldier gems. "They let a Peridot like you have their own ship? Check on Kindergartens? Go to earth?" Lapis was mostly asking these questions to herself, and Peridot could tell as she kept her mouth shut while Lapis thought out loud.
Lapis' preconceived notions of her new roommate were suddenly brought into question. She had thought that she was being forced to live with someone who had a direct choice to keep her locked up, to question her, to kidnap her. But now, that didn't make any sense. A less than functional Peridot, one with no powers no less, was just following orders in everything they did. She let go of Peridot, who promptly fell back to the ground and groaned. Lapis started pacing in front of Peridot.
Thoughts were racing through Lapis' mind. After all this time, Peridot wasn't a commander like she had thought. She wasn't the one who chose to bring Jasper to earth, to keep Lapis in that horrible cell for the excruciatingly long journey back to Earth.
Lapis stopped in her tracks and looked at Peridot, who was trying to make herself smaller, so she'd be less of a target.
"You're not a captain? Or a commander?" Lapis asked quietly.
Peridot scoffed, some fear drained from her at such a ridiculous question.
"No way! I am a runt among runts! The diamonds tested a new method to use even less materials than with any other Peridot within my facet," Peridot suddenly sobered up. "Please don't hurt me," She said, clasping her hands together in a pleading gesture.
"All this time I thought you… I thought you were the one who ordered all of this to happen to me," Lapis said, looking away from Peridot's questioning face. Peridot suddenly understood where all of Lapis' anger came from.
"I was just following orders! I promise!" Peridot said loudly. "I was doing what Yellow Diamond commanded!"
"A diamond commanded you, huh," Lapis muttered. She turned away from Peridot and started walking.
"Wait!" Peridot called desperately. "I can't move; I need your help!"
"I'm going to go get Steven," Lapis said. While her tone was still sort of chilly, it had a hint of something Peridot wasn't used to hearing from her. Compassion. Lapis knew all about following orders, having to obey someone besides oneself.
Peridot laid down and tried not to focus on the pain while she waited for Lapis to return with Steven.
Steven made quick work of healing Peridot. He wanted to stay and help work out their problems, but he mentioned he and Connie had to go on a mission as soon as he was finished. Peridot and Lapis said goodbye to the young gem as he walked back to the warp pad.
After Steven warped away, Peridot was nervous to talk to Lapis. While she was being healed, Lapis was even more distant than usual. However, instead of the usual anger that emanated from Lapis, there was nothing. It was nerve-wracking. After a few moments of deafening silence, the small gem finally worked up the courage to say what she wanted to.
"Lazuli?" She said in a small voice to the intimidating figure.
Lapis turned slightly and stared blankly at her. Peridot gulped and took a deep breath.
"Lazuli, I'd like to thank you for getting Steven to heal me. I know it must have been hard for you to do that considering your feelings towards me, I will try and keep quiet in order to not bother you," Peridot quickly turned around after blurting that out. She marched back towards her side of the barn when she heard Lapis call her name quietly. Peridot turned around questioningly.
"Peridot? You can call me Lapis. I like being called that," without another word, Lapis flew up into the rafters and turned away from Peridot.
It was such a simple sentence, but it left Peridot grinning. Perhaps this was the progress she'd been hoping for since Lapis had moved in.
Authors Note:
Thank you for reading! I had a lot of fun writing this. I'd also like to thank Nando53rd for encouraging me to write this and helping me improve it.