Space Rocks
Garnet looked down at her friend pearl, this was cutting the ice a bit thin. Steven told Garnet about Pearl's late night activities, they had really started to bother him after the third time he woke up to find the petite woman staring down on him.
"I told you Garnet," Pearl began. "I was just keeping an eye on him! That's it!" She didn't make eye contact with Garnet as she said this, but already Garnet knew she was lying. She always knew.
"Pearl," Garnet started. She paused, and put her hand on Pearl's shoulder. "I know that you know, we've been over this more times than I care to remember. Rose is gone. Maybe for a while, maybe forever." Pearl tensed up as she heard the words, but Garnet pressed on. "I know that you're entertaining the idea that when or even if Steven's biological body dies, she'll come back. But what if she doesn't come back? Steven's all we have Pearl, and Rose would want us to take his life seriously."
At this. Pearl stood up, outrage etched deeply on every part of her face. "I do take him seriously!" She yelled. "Don't you dare say I don't! I take care of Steven because...!"
"Because Rose asked us to." Garnet finished. She stared at Pearl though her glasses fixedly.
"You're a damn hypocrite." Pearl said softy, her voice full of cold fury. "Of course, you've got each other. You've never lost anyone."
Pearl hardly had time to finish the train of thought leading up to that sentence. A punch from Garnet stopped an inch from her face. Pearl flinched in anticipation, but Garnet withdrew her hand and instead drove it right through the adjacent wall.
Garnet's face was unreadable, she removed her fist from the wall, wooden chips falling on the couch. She then turned to the wooden table, lifting it causing all of the objects atop to fall violently to the floor, a few breaking. A sharp headbutt split it in two, she them smashed both of the pieces together causing shards of wood to go bolting across the room.
"Garnet!" Pearl yelled, but her words didn't seem to register with the tall gem.
"She's taken it too far this time. I agree, but this isn't the time to be fighting amongst ourselves. We aren't fighting amongst ourselves, we're fighting HER." Garnet said, having a heated debate with herself in hushed tones. She lifted her head suddenly, and looked at Pearl. "This isn't over, I need some time alone." She jumped, landing a graceful back-flip onto the telepad, and teleported away.
Pearl was visibly shaken. If they hadn't spent the least thousands of years together, that might have been her instead of the table. Just before she could begin to wonder what set her friend off, she spotted someone peeping thought the door, someone she thought she'd never see again.
He was dark in completion, his hair black with a bobbed hairstyle and skin dark gray. He wore a White T shirt under a dark gray denim vest, a dark blue duffel bag thrown over his shoulders.
"SHALE!" Pearl screamed at the height of her voice. He drew her spear from her gem, and dashed at the door.
"What's going on?" asked Steven, who had escorted the man to his home.
He stepped to the side as Pearl burst thought the door, and flew off the balcony. She chucked her spear at him as she fell, which narrowly missed his head as he ducked. "I knew this would happen. Steven, tell her I'm not who she thinks I am." He explained.
Pearl launched herself back up towards the house. "Steven, get away from that traitor!" She yelled mid-flight. She had another spear and thrust it toward him, but Steven blocked her strike with his shield. "Steven..."
"I'm not Shale." He said. Pearl looked perplexed. "Let me explain, if I may come in?" He made a sweeping gesture with his hand towards the shattered remains of the hole where the door used to be.
Pearl considered him for a moment, and using her spear gestured him into the house. As they walked in, Amethyst and Peridot came from the Temple door looking alarmed.
"Yo P, what's with all the racket? We fighting?" She threw her head from left to right, looking for enemies, and spotted the man behind Steven. "Did he do all this?" She asked, kicking a shard of broken table from underfoot and tilting her head.
"Did you have Peridot in the Temple?!" Pearl asked, flabbergasted. She thought to herself this day couldn't get any worse.
"P. You must be Pearl. I'm Rey, Shale was my mother." He fumbled in the duffel bag and handed Pearl a triangular object, made of Obsidian-like black stone. "She told me to give this to you, like 300 years ago. I couldn't figure out how to activate it though."
"No, you wouldn't. This is a targeted communications device. It's how we sent secret information during the gem war. ALSO WHAT? YOUR MOTHER?" Pearl asked. "So you're half-human?"
"Nah, I don't know the details but some way she sacrificed herself to give birth to me, so that I could give you that." Rey explained. "A coward to the very end." He reached into the bag, and took out an ancient piece of paper that's been laminated.
'Son, I am Shale. I am your mother, and you. We are both a different species from the humans you are around, I asked your caretaker to give you this when you turn twenty years of age. We are a race called 'Gems' and this planet was to be a Gem planet, completely lifeless and hollow. I was once a member of a resistance, but I have done something terrible to them, and I've been on the run for thousands of years, and I can't go back to them, or our home world. I'm done running, you are being born for two reasons. The first is, the only sentence for my crimes is destruction and you will be my end. Second is to deliver this message to any remaining 'crystal gems' on earth, Pearl especially if you meet her. I give you this task, because I lack the bravery to do it on my own. Good luck.'
Rey finished reading the paper aloud. Everyone in the room was at a loss for words. After a moments silence, Amethyst spoke.
"You said that was 300 years ago, why did it take you so long?" She asked. "I mean, we've been here forever."
"What would you do, if you found out your whole life uptil now was just some lie? That you were only a glorified messenger pigeon?" Rey snapped "The woman who raised me those twenty years told me she loved me like her own son. Shale never said it once, even in this letter. I mean 'Good luck'?" He said, his voice rising.
"That's so sad," Said Steven, tearing up a little. Rey coughed into his hands embarrassed, he didn't mean for that to get so emotional.
"So yeah, for around 300 years I refused to carry out this mission, searching for a goal to call my own. I grew up in the far east, I helped build a great wall there. I traveled overseas climbed the highest mountains with ease, and eventually decided I don't want to be like her, always running away. I told myself I'd give you this message, and get on with my life."
"What'll you do now?" Amethyst asked. "We should ask Garnet!" She started shaking her fists. "Yeah, Yeah! Garnet will know what to do."
"I know what I'm going to do," Rey said. "It's the only option left for me really."
"Leave?" Pearl asked, a little optimistically. She wanted to be done with him, so she could chew out Amethyst, so she could get back to dealing with Garnet in peace. She stared at the device in her hand. 'What kind of message could that traitor have for me?' She held the object up to neck height and uttered "Pearl."
The device fell to the ground as Pearl dropped it, and as it hit the wooden floor a huge hologram burst forward. The hologram was of a woman who did not look unlike Rey, bobbed gray hair and gray skin. She wore a short plain dress and looked incredibly sad. "Pearl, if you are hearing this then thank the stars you survived the war. I know I could never apologies enough for my cowardice, but you must understand that Shale's are the weakest gems, outdated relics of our race. So many gems were broken because of me, I could not bear to live! So, I'm forcing myself into a regeneration state and I'm going to wipe my memory, and personality. Give someone else the chance to face you in my stead and let you know that no matter how much you despise me, you cannot hate me anymore than I hate myself. I give you my other self, in hopes that they are a braver gem than I." And the hologram dissipated and the tiny black triangle 'popped' and fizzed away into dust.
The room was silent, everyone stared at the singed part of floor where the hologram had been. After a moment Rey broke the silence. "What did she even do?" He asked, feeling for the first time sympathetic to the gem he once was. She died hating herself, and no matter how much he hated her for not being there, and not explaining anything he wouldn't wish that on anyone.
Pearl heaved a heavy sigh. "If you're feeling bad for her, don't. Once you hear what she did to us, you'll understand why she didn't even come crawling back."