Three Thousand Years Ago


Peridot couldn't tell if the mirror was an object or a person. Sometimes it functioned as a tool, doing her command and sometimes, it began talking to her. It was seriously scaring her. What if Yellow Diamond was lying and the Gem powering the mirror was active? But there was simply no way that one of Homeworld's most noble and prestigious leaders would lie about something as terrible as trapping an active Gem in an object . . . right?

"Help . . . me," a voice called out in Peridot's lab.

The green Gem looked up from her Flask Robonoid prototype and looked around. Nobody else was here. She then saw the mirror on her desk, as if it was beckoning to her. Normally, if one of the gem techs was malfunctioning like this, Peridot would immediately get the Diamonds, but something about the mirror intrigued her.

She picked it up and a series of clips flashed across the mirror, warped and distorted. The first clip was of a Gem battlefield, littered with Gem shards, the second one was of an ocean on a foreign planet, and the final one was a brief, blurred image of a pink Gem, wielding a sword and shield. Suddenly, more random memories were mashed together to make out a sentence.

"Peridot . . . please . . . help . . . me," the mirror spoke through distorted voices, sounding desperate and scared.

Peridot was frightened. Nothing like this ever happened to her. What was she supposed to do?

As if the mirror read her mind, it spoke once again, "Remove . . . my . . . gem."

Peridot flipped the mirror over and stared at the cracked gemstone. If the Gem was active, did Yellow Diamond know? More importantly, if she did know, what was the Gem doing in there? Was it some sort of punishment? Did the Gem deserve to be trapped like this? Were there more active Gems stuck in machines like this?

It's too dangerous, Peridot thought, you have to report this. But when she saw how helpless and desperate the Gem sounded, she placed her hand on the gemstone and began to pull. But it was stuck. Peridot pulled again but the Gem wouldn't budge.

"What are you doing?" a voice screeched and it wasn't the mirror this time. Peridot looked up to see Yellow Diamond standing in the threshold.

The mirror fell silent, as if it was just as scared as Peridot herself.

Yellow Diamond snatched the mirror out of Peridot's hands and stared coldly at her. "I can have you shattered for this."

Peridot suddenly blurted out, "The Gem in there is active! What is it doing in there?!"

"That is none of your business," Yellow Diamond yelled.

Peridot shut up in order not to get punished. She stared at the helpless Gem as Yellow Diamond left with the mirror in her hands.


Present Day

"And the next time I heard about the mirror, the Diamonds used it as a part of an experiment to see if the Homeworld Warp on Earth still worked. They were able to warp it there, but not able to warp it back. I always wondered what would've happened if I was able to free Lazuli three thousand years ago," Peridot says.

"Well, if it makes you feel any better, I freed her last year," Steven replies.

"But she could have been released much earlier if it wasn't for Yellow Diamond," Peridot argues.

"Did you ever see her after she flew back to Homeworld?" Steven asks.

"Hold on, I'm getting to that," Peridot continues.