Chapter 2: Stormy Weather: Earth Punishments.
"Good book", Pearl thought as she finished her latest read. Garnet, Amethyst, and Steven were away looking for corrupted gems. Topaz wanted to come only, so it was just Pearl and Aquamarine who was still in Pearl's room.
"Pearl bring her out of your room for a while, she doesn't need to be locked in there like a criminal", Garnet had told Pearl that before they left.
Pearl looked towards her door, "I guess she could come out for a little bit". When she walked into her room she found Aquamarine laying on her side with a pout on her face.
"Are you finally gonna let me free?" Aquamarine asked.
"No", Pearl untied her leash and gave it a tug. "Come on".
Aquamarine activated her wings and took to the sky, "where are you taking me?"
"You'll see", Pearl answered taking her out of her room and into the house.
"You're really gonna let me leave now?"
"No", Pearl answered. "Your gonna stay out here for a while, Garnet didn't want you stuck in my room all day." Pearl led the smaller gem over to the window and tied her there. "Now you can look outside for a while".
"Gee thanks, you took me from one boring room to another!" Aquamarine hissed. "Why is water falling from the sky?"
"It's raining".
"What is rain?"
Pearl walked over and took a seat next to her, "do you see those clouds up there?"
"What are clouds?"
"Do you see those grey things in the sky?" Pearl asked earning a nod from the smaller gem. "Those are called clouds, what they do is basically take the water from the sky and absorbs that water. It then releases that water and it rains".
"Why does it need to rain?"
"This planet uses the rain to feed the plants and give the wildlife something to drink", Pearl explained. "Now Aquamarine can I trust you to stay out here while I run somewhere?"
"You have me tied up", she replied. "I can't go anywhere!" Pearl rolled her eyes as she took the book she had and headed to Beach Cities Library. Her prized student Connie had the idea to get her this library card. Ever since she got it, it was one of the rare places the others could find her relaxing in.
"Stupid pearl", Aquamarine said once she was out of eye range. "Who those crystal gems think they are. Keeping and Aquamarine tied to this stupid leash like some kind of animal. When I get back to homeworld I'll make sure they are all shattered! Right Topaz". Aquamarine turned to look for her large yellow companion but she had forgotten. "Right she is a traitor now…".
Aquamarine and Topaz had been sent on a lot of recovery missions. She was truly the only gem that Aquamarine saw as a kind of friend. "Stupid Topaz why did you leave me! And join them!" Aquamarine sat down and held her knees close to her chest letting out a small sniffle, "I trusted you".
Aquamarine closed her eyes for a couple seconds when she opened them she saw something that put chills down her spine. A massive flash of lightning! That light up the sky, "amazing". Aquamarine thought. Her amazement was changed into fear as a loud boom exploded in the sky making her jump in fear. "What was that!" The sky lite up again with a flash of lightning followed by an even louder boom of thunder. The rain picked up even more as a storm went wild. Flashes of lighting and loud booms of thunder sent Aquamarine in a panic.
"Let me go!" Aquamarine began to shake a bit, "I have to hide! I have to hide the sky is falling to pieces!" Aquamarine was terrified, the world had to be under attack or imploding it just had to be. The bright streaks of light erupted across the sky, and the loud booms shook the sky with its power. Aquamarine took flight and pulled against her leash as hard as she could trying to rip it apart. Finally, the leash broke and she went flying into a wall! Aquamarine let out a whimper but the boom of thunder brought her back to her senses. "Gotta hide!" Aquamarine looked all around the room and finally settled for a spot she assumed was safe. She flew up and into Steven's bed wrapping his covers around herself. The storm was still going strong and every flash and boom made her shake more and more. "Stop it….". A crack of lightning, "stop it…..", a boom of thunder. "Please stop it….". Tears slowly began to spill from her eyes and onto the ground. "TOPAZ!" Aquamarine screamed in terror as the storm grew even stronger. "TOPAZ….. Someone please…". Aquamarine covered her ears. "Make it stop…".
Pearl was on her way back to the house, she got at least halfway there before the storm went crazy on her. She ran as fast as she legs could carry her and up the stairs and into the house. "Aquamarine I'm back", Pearl called out. She walked into the bathroom and grabbed a towel and started to dry off. "Aquamarine…". Pearl called out again. She looked at the spot where she left her and let out a gasp, "dang it!" Pearl picked up the broken leash, "these things are so weak!" Pearl realized quickly Aquamarine only could have gone two places, outside or to the warp pad. She took maybe 3 steps before the sound of sniffling stopped her in her tracks. She turned her attention up to Steven's bed and could make out a figure under the covers.
"Aquamarine?" Pearl questioned as she placed a hand on the figure.
"AH!" Aquamarine shouted she popped her head out of the covers and spun and face Pearl.
Pearl could make out red puffy eyes, "where are you crying?"
"No!" Aquamarine activated her wings and flew into the air. "I was just expecting this device". Aquamarine lied and pointed at Steven's bed.
"You were expecting the bed?" Pearl asked as she raised her eyebrow.
"Yes…. a gem of my caliber needed to make sure that this", the loudest crack of lightning and the loudest boom of thunder sounded sending Aquamarine in panic. Pearl was stunned as the small blue gem flew into her chest knocking them both off the loft and onto the ground below.
"Ow… Aquamarine what are you…..", Pearl's harsh tone was replaced with a look of concern as Aquamarine held her head against her stomach. "What's wrong?"
"What are you doing!" Aquamarine thought to herself. "Get up stop embarrassing yourself!" She couldn't….. She was too scared right now. "The lights and the booms….. What is going on!?"
Pearl gently placed her hand on her back, "don't worry."
"How can you say that!" Aquamarine shouted, "the world is imploding we have to leave now!"
"The world isn't imploding Aquamarine, this is just how the weather on earth sometimes works". Pearl told her.
"I don't like i…". Another loud boom of thunder sent Aquamarine into a panic. "Make it stop make it stop! MAKE IT STOP!"
"Calm down okay". Pearl ran a hand through her blue hair, "just calm down, everything is gonna be okay." Pearl stood to her feet with Aquamarine resting in her arms. "Look why don't we just take our focus off the storm for a while okay?" Pearl walked over to the couch and took a seat. "We just need to take your focus off the storm and on something else".
"Like what?" Aquamarine said pitifully.
"How about a book?"
"I can't read this worlds writing!"
"Who said you were reading it", Pearl reached into her gem and pulled out the book she was gonna return to the library. Stephen King's Under the Dome. Aquamarine jumped again as thunder boomed once again. "Don't listen to the thunder. Don't focus on the cracks of lightning".
"Is that what it's called thunder and lightning?"
"Yes", Pearl answered. "Just focus on my words and calm down".
"Get up off her lap!" Aquamarine mentally shook her head no, "Do something hit her, do something!" She shook her head again. As she listened to Pearl's words, she slowly but surely began to calm down a bit. "Why? Why am I an Aquamarine seeking this…. From a Pearl? Why?"
It was an hour before the rest of the crystal gems came back. "We're home!" Steven called out.
Aquamarine immediately shot off of Pearl's lap. "Yo, you let little blue off her leash?" Amethyst noticed.
"Well she broke off it", Pearl answered as she placed the book back into her gem.
"Hey Aquamarine", Topaz spoke gently.
"What Topaz, are you enjoying being traitor!" Aquamarine spat.
"Aquamarine don't be like that", Steven spoke up.
"Shut it you Steven!" she snapped.
"Aquamarine calm down!" Garnet said.
"NO!" Aquamarine shouted as she turned back towards the larger yellow gem. "You don't ever speak to me again! I thought you were a friend! I assumed you would always be loyal to me like I have been to you! But your choice to join up with these Crystal Gems, and for what reason!"
"So we could be together forever", Topaz answered.
"What do you mean?"
"Aquamarine you know me and Topaz care about each other, but we always have to go on these missions and there is always someone in between us! I'm always pretending I'm fine with it. I have too… but here on earth…. I and Topaz can be together forever in peace", Topaz reached up and wiped a tear from her eye. "Aquamarine please you have to understand how I feel….. Right?"
"If that is how you really feel…..", Aquamarine looked away from the larger fusion. "Than you are of no use to me."
"Aquamarine don't". Topaz begged.
"Shut up! I hate you I never wanna see you again! I hope your shatter….. OW!" Aquamarine let out a sharp pained yelp as Pearl grabbed her ear.
"Come with me now!" Pearl hissed as she dragged the bratty gem towards her room.
"Let me go now you stupid pearl!" Aquamarine hissed as she was dragged back into Pearl's room. Pearl let go of her ear and Aquamarine flew up into only for Pearl to grab her arm.
"What is your problem!" Pearl demanded.
"You crystal gems don't understand a single thing do you!" Aquamarine let out a yelp as Pearl pulled her to the ground.
"We understand that Topaz wants to stay somewhere where she together every day!" Pearl answered.
"Who cares about being together, we are elith gems. The best of the best, we have gone on more missions together. We caught more gems together! We were a team and she threw that all away, those two threw it all away. That's the problem with those fusions, eventually, they are just gonna get sentimental." Aquamarine stated. "But you crystal gems wouldn't get that, would you! Since your lives have been so so easy since you're stupid war!"
"Shut your mouth", Pearl said darkly. "You have no idea what we lost during that war!"
"A war you started, and a war you lost you stupid Pearl!" Aquamarine spat.
"Wasn't it this stupid pearl who held you in her arms, and read you a book to calm you down! Or did that mean nothing to you!" Pearl shouted. "I didn't have to do that, and I hope that you would appreciate that!"
"I did appreciate that you bell-end!" Aquamarine admitted.
"Then why don't you act like it." Pearl question.
"Because I don't have too." Aquamarine snatched her arm out of Pearl's grip and flew to the top of the center waterfall and pulled out one of her Pearls blades. "I won't ask you again, let me leave now!" Aquamarine demanded.
Pearl thought back to this morning, a small conversation she had with Garnet.
"No matter how much she asks, we cannot let her leave", Garnet said.
"Garnet we can't keep someone so bullheaded, so stubborn, and so much of a brat here with us." Pearl pointed out.
Garnet let out a small chuckle, "Rose kept you Pearl."
Pearl cheeks turned a bright blue color as she looked away from her, "be quiet!"
Garnet placed a hand on her friends back, "you trust me right?"
"Of course I do".
"Then believe me when I say that we can help her, homeworld isn't and hasn't been perfect. She can talk big and brag about how high of a gem she is. Be in the end she is scared of the diamonds and what will happen if she fails a mission. That way she acts so perfect. Give her time, and don't hurt her".
"Easy for you to say", Pearl thought as she slowly walked towards Aquamarine. "Aquamarine last chance gives me the sword, let's just talk ok".
"Talk about what. Talk about how easy your life has been since the war. How you get to stay on this planet with this filthy organics. This horrid world with weird lightning and scary thunder!" Aquamarine screamed.
"My life hasn't been easy since the war Aquamarine! You have no right to say that. You weren't there!"
"But everyone on homeworlds knows about the failed rebellion that the foolish Rose Quartz tried to do. The rose who shattered a diamond and ended up getting every gem but you a defective pearl and a fusion destroyed!" Pearl felt her hand slowly begin to tighten into a fist at her worlds.
"Shut your mouth now!" Aquamarine narrowed her eyes as she glared at Pearl.
Aquamarine let out a yell as she dived towards Pearl swinging her sword like a mad gem, "you don't know me you stupid pearl!" Each slash she attempted missed terribly with Pearl barley having to move her head at all. "Stop moving!"
Pearl smirked as she caught Aquamarine hand with one hand and disarmed her in seconds, she grabbed her arms and pinned them to her sides. Her smirked turned into a scolding glare, "enough of this little gem!"
"Don't call me little!"
"On the contrary, you are only at least 100 years old, that is what you said. And I am well over 5500 years old!"
"Your point being!" Aquamarine grew a bit scared as Pearl's glare didn't let up in the slightest.
"Mrs. Maheswaran how have you raised Connie into the most perfect child?" Pearl questioned. Strangely to her, Mrs. Maheswaran had invited Pearl out for a conversation.
"It's isn't as easy as it seems." Dr. Priyanka chuckled a bit. "For a while, she was a bit of a handful. However, I just remembered what my mother told me. A firm hand will always defeat a bad attitude".
"I don't follow", Pearl said.
"Do your people not have children?" Dr. Priyanka asked.
"No ma'am", Pearl gives her a brief history on how gems are made. "Once we come out of the ground we already know our purpose".
"I see. Well, the basic thing I mean is ….
"Sorry Garnet you said don't hurt her, but what I am going to do isn't going to permanently harm her. And she won't need to reform". Pearl carried the smaller gem over to one of her smaller fountains and took a seat on the edge.
"What are you going to do to me, poor me, and then throw me away like a piece of trash!" Aquamarine screamed.
"No! I am gonna do but a respected mother of my prized student used to do to her daughter. Your bad attitude is going to be broken by a firm hand!"
"So are gonna poof me!" Aquamarine desperately tried to wiggle out of Pearl's grip.
"No, I'm not". Pearl answered. Dr. Priyanka voice echoed in her head.
"Step one take her over my lap", Pearl thought as she laid the bratty gem across her lap.
"Step two placed on hand on her back and keep her pinned".
"What are you doing! Let me up this instant!" Aquamarine demanded.
"Step three remove any unnecessary clothing from my target", Pearl lifted up Aquamarine skirt exposing a small yet round blue bottom.
Aquamarine cheeks turned a bright blue color, "HEY WHAT ARE YOU DOING LEFT THAT BACK UP NOW!"
"Step 4 bring the hand down hard not to fast, find a rhythm that works for me", Pearl lifted her hand up past her shoulder and planted a stinging swat across Aquamarine bottom.
"What are you ow! Hey! Ow, what are you doing! Stop it!" Aquamarine let out small yelps and groans of discomfort.
"I am done with your disrespect!" One swat. "I am done with your mouth!" 3 harder swats. "If you are gonna choose to act like a naughty little child. I am gonna treat you like one." Pearl remarked on planting more and more hard swats across her bottom.
"Let me GO!" Pearl shook her head.
"No, you have been asking for this ever since we meet!" Aquamarine wiggled and squirmed across her lap and kicked her small legs with all her might. Aquamarine wasn't thinking right. If she was would have activated her wings and tried to fly off her lap. This was different from other punishment on earth, usually if a gem failed to bad. There were just taken away and put into hard labor until their debt was paid. Or the easier option is broken not shattered just plain broken into submission. But this was different from anything Aquamarine had seen or even heard about. This was simply targeting one place on her body over and over slowly growing faster and slightly harder. It was hurting and it was humiliating, no one had ever taken up her skirt like this. "Alright, you win!" Aquamarine shouted. "You win stupid pearl!"
"This isn't about winning or losing", Pearl remarked. "This is about teaching you a lesson."
Pearl was a tiny (tiny) bit nervous at first, but as the swats landed she grew more confident in what she was doing. "They may scream and squirm and tell you they are sorry, but stay strong and relaxed/" Pearl repeated Mrs. Priyanka words over and over following her description of what to do to a tie.
"Don't cry!" After a minute (4 years to Aquamarine) this was all Aquamarine was telling herself. "Don't you dare cry in front of this pearl, you already embarrassed yourself once today seeking her comfort. But if you cry now….. It is over!"
"Aquamarine, I am not doing this to mean little lady. I am doing this because your attitude towards everyone here is horrid. I hope I won't have to do this again!" Pearl answered as she began to bring this punishment to close. Planting ten hard swats across her bottom and finally stopped.
"Pearl I doubt you will ever do that, but there is one last important part to this punishment." Pearl lifted Aquamarine to a sitting position on her lap and hugged her close. "Forgiveness."
"W-what a-are you doing now?" Aquamarine questioned.
"Hugging you", Pearl answered as she ran her hand across her back.
"W-why?" Aquamarine questioned.
"Because that is how you end this punishment," Pearl answered as she looked at the smaller gem in her eyes. "Listen to me Aquamarine as long as you are here. You will respect me, and the others in this house. Or this will happen again am I clear!"
"Yes", Aquamarine answered as tears fell from her eyes. "I can't go back home can I?"
"There is no way back to the homeworld, even if we could get you back you know what would happen", Aquamarine sadly nodded her head. "This world isn't that bad".
I doubt it!
A/N: That is chapter 2 thank you all for reading and let me know how you like the chapter.
This is something I am gonna start doing after each chapter, I am gonna list 3 different names for chapters and you will have to guess which one is the real name of the chapter.
Chapter 3: Exploring Earth.
Chapter 3: Nightmares and Daydreams.
Chapter 3: Talking with Topaz: Sorry….
