Everything in this world had its place. Peridot knew hers very well. She was a technician and a servant. All peridots were. She was skilled with technology, and while she had a basic knowledge of gem weaponry, she wasn't given one. Why would she? She wasn't built for fighting. She was built for building other gems.

Fiddling with the workings of an old machine that Steven called a 'walkie-talkie,' which sounded like a miserably juvenile name, Peridot heard the familiar sound of ballet slippers tapping against the hardwood floor. "Evening, Pearl," Peridot called from the couch.

"Hello, Peridot," Pearl responded. The two gems didn't exactly trust each other, but they were similar enough that they could be cordial. Additionally, Peridot had been consistently been providing information and assistance in taking down Yellow Diamond after the real purpose of the Cluster was discovered. "What've you got there?"

"Walkie-talkie. Stupid name, but a potentially useful machine for undercover missions. I'm trying to see how it works." She tossed the brown rectangle in her prosthetic fingers effortlessly, most of the hardware being removed from the casing already. "It's bulky as it is. If I can figure out what makes it work, I can probably build smaller, sleeker ones that can be hidden more easily."

Pearl nodded politely from across the room. "Good idea. I'd love to stay and chat," she interrupted herself, indicating that she really didn't love the idea, "but I need to go train. With Connie in school, I haven't had much time to practice my swordfighting."

Peridot looked up, quizzically raising an eyebrow. "You swordfight?"

"Yes, actually!"

Peridot tilted her head to the side, thoroughly confused. She set the walkie-talkie down on the coffee table with the pieces she'd taken out earlier. "But, pearls don't - I mean, they're not supposed to..."

"We're servants," Pearl replied dryly. "I get that. But Rose Quartz taught me that classifying a gem's abilities and worth based solely on how they were made - It's just wrong, Peridot, and I'm not going to allow myself to be weak. I won't." She coughed, calming herself back down from a moment of anger. "In any case, I learned how to summon swords and spears from my gem, and taught myself to fight with those."

"I've... never heard of such a thing." Peridot tried not to scoff and failed. The very idea was laughable. This tiny, sticklike thing? Fighting in a real battle? There was no way she could fight her way out of a paper bag, let alone hundreds of armed military gems.

Pearl cocked an eyebrow. "Are you accusing me of lying?" Her expression was much more unpleasant than her tone. Had Peridot not been looking, she might have thought that Pearl was simply being naive. Her face, however, came with an entirely different message. "Underestimate me. I dare you."

Peridot accepted the challenge. "Not necessarily. But, you must look at this from my perspective," she added with a sly grin. "I've never seen you with a sword in battle, only your spear. So, it's not that I think you're lying, exactly. I just don't have proof." Peridot clacked her metallic palms together, letting her soft fingers play across each other gleefully. "Now, if you could, perhaps, show me this skill.. Then, I might believe you."

Pearl seemed hesitant. She locked her fingers together, examining her nails for just a moment. "Well... I suppose it couldn't hurt if you were to watch." She looked back up. "All right. Come follow me."

Peridot rose from her seat slowly, taking her sweet time. She cracked a few bones in her back with loud, sickening pops. The tools and walkie-talkie fell to the wayside. She could only hope that Amethyst wouldn't eat all her hard work, but even if she did, it wasn't too much of a loss. Earth technology was still pretty archaic. Slowly, she moved forward, following Pearl to the warp pad.

"Brace yourself," Pearl said, but before the sentence had even finished exiting her mouth, Peridot was swept up in the shift in gravity, dangling in midair like a fish caught by its tail. She yelped in terror, trying to "swim" back down. She landed when the two had reached the Sky Arena, flat on her face.

"Ow," she grumbled, rubbing her nose to make sure it hadn't broken.

"You'll get used to that," Pearl told her, walking towards the middle of the arena. Peridot rose to her feet, waiting by the sidelines. This was getting... exciting! She knew that pearls were essentially peridots that were thousands of years old... maybe she could learn a thing or two herself.

"Now, observe."

Peridot bit her lip in anticipation as Pearl drew a white sword from her gem. It was a beam of light that seemed to have been compressed so tightly that it maintained physical form. She made a mental note of that - it could be a useful technique. Pearl then summoned what appeared to be a silvery-blue clone of herself from her gem, bathed in a similar light to the sword. The bright red eyes of the clone were a clever addition, making it easier to track its movements and follow its face.

"That's ancient gem tech!" Peridot couldn't help but exclaim. She had only ever heard brief mentions of Holo-Pearls in passing, and had never seen one before. "Cool..."

A slight smirk crossed Pearl's face. "I'm not that old, Peridot."

"Challenger detected!" the Holo-Pearl exclaimed. "Do you wish to engage in combat?" It created its own silvery sword from its gem, drawing it.

Pearl turned to face Holo-Pearl. "I do."

"Challenge accepted! Battle, begin!"

The Holo-Pearl charged at Pearl, instantly aiming for her stomach. Pearl leapt into the air, twisting in such a way that her upper body was still facing the Holo-Pearl. She raised her sword to strike Holo-Pearl's face, but Holo-Pearl parried. Pearl used the momentum to land behind the hologram, thrusting at its back.

Peridot watched the two fight, entranced. The gem technology was impressive, to be sure. Much of modern gem tech was geared towards data collection and weaponry. This - this was something unlike any she had seen. But soon, Peridot found herself tracking not the silver blade of the Holo-Pearl, but the white sword. Pearl was a good fighter. A really good fighter. Every move was so tactical and precise, like she had practiced them a thousand times. She probably had.

And the way she moved... What graceful strides, what powerful, effortless jumps... There was a word to describe it all, but Peridot was lost. She simply stared as Pearl moved. She looked to be dancing in combat, twisting in just the right way every time she moved. It was hypnotic to watch her. There was something to watching someone who had fought against you in the past from a distance. From the sidelines, Peridot suddenly found herself remembering some of the techniques Pearl had used against her in combat and appreciating them. She was skilled.

As the Holo-Pearl jumped into the air, intending to take Pearl down with an aerial strike, Pearl took an opening that Peridot had not seen. Quickly, she rushed underneath the Holo-Pearl. Peridot flinched at first - was the gem intending to run straight into the hologram's blade? But instead, Pearl lifted her sword, catching it just under the projection's neck. With one long, powerful stroke of her arm, Pearl used the momentum of the Holo-Pearl's fall to drag the blade down to its pelvis.

While an ordinary opponent would have spilled their guts from such a brutal move, the Holo-Pearl simply glitched in mid-air. "Challenger wins!" it exclaimed before being summoned back into Pearl's gem.

Pearl bowed at the empty air, dropping her sword to the ground, before turning to face Peridot. "Well?"

Peridot felt stars in her eyes, rushing over to Pearl without a second thought. "That was awesome!" she exclaimed. Her body tingled all over with excitement. "I can't believe you can do all that! You're amazing!"

Pearl flushed a light teal, looking to her left. "Oh, that's nothing, really. Honestly, I thought you would have been bored, since that gem technology is so old."

"But it's nothing I've ever seen before! We don't make stuff like that anymore on Homeworld! Oh, you have to tell me more about it, please!" A goofy grin broke across her face as she continued talking, her head buzzing. "And you should teach me to fight like you, too! I don't have a weapon anymore, and I want to be useful! I can probably learn with just a regular sword from the humans or something, right? It didn't seem like you were doing anything special with yours - I mean, the way you use it is special, but in terms of extraneous abilities, I mean."

Pearl blinked. "Well, aren't you eager?" The corner of her mouth was upturned in a surprised smile.

Peridot flushed. She had come on pretty strong, hadn't she? "If... if that's not a problem, of course. You have things to do, I understand."

"It's not a problem at all," Pearl replied, touching Peridot's shoulder. The touch made her quiver inexplicably. "We'll start training tomorrow. For now, we can get back home and I'll tell you everything I know about Holo-Pearl. How does that sound?"

Peridot simply nodded. "You're... you're very elegant out there, you know." It had come out sputtered and awkward, like a thought that demanded to be spoken but maybe shouldn't have been. Peridot turned dark green and hid her mouth with her hand, looking away slightly.

Pearl raised her eyebrow and had an odd expression on her face that Peridot couldn't name, though it didn't seem that she was upset. "Thank you, Peridot. That's very kind of you to say."

The gem picked up her sword and turned it back into loose light to call it back to her gem, and Peridot felt hot and tingly all over. She wasn't sure exactly what was happening, but she couldn't say she minded.

Must have just been excited to hear about Holo-Pearl. That was the only logical explanation. Of course.