Steven sighed as he curled up in bed. The new gems were sitting around in a circle downstairs. Amethyst volunteered to watch them. The Crystal Gems were on guard around them; after the whole Navy thing. But Steven isn't worried. They don't seem like the backstabbing kind. But, then, neither was Navy…
It was all too complicated to worry about right now. He decides to ignore the feeling until tomorrow morning as he crawls under his blankets and sleeps.
"So, uh, what'cha guys doing, anyway?" Amethyst asked from her spot on the couch. Cat was sitting next to her, coloring with some crayons Steven gave her earlier. The rest of the group was sitting around a in a circle, their hands clasped. "I thought you guys weren't talking?"
"It would be harmful to the mission for our crew to be in shambles." Lavender said curtly, her eyes on the floor in the middle of them. "For our Diamond, we are doing our best to fix the problem before it taints us all."
Amethyst sat up, blinking in surprise. She thinks back to when Pearl had made Garnet mad and the two didn't speak for weeks. Her mind even supplied countless times when she was mad and didn't talk to anyone. The Crystal Gems had fought multiple times, and got hurt because of it. But these Homeworld gems, that are on their first mission together, understand problem solving better than them? Well, this got her interest.
"I'm going to connect Lavender's mind with Topaz's in order for her to understand what we had gone through and why we couldn't tell her." Aventurine said calmly.
Amethyst tilted her head, "Uh, why don't you just fuse?"
Lavender immediately pulled her hands back, like she'd been burned. Her body shook and her voice was tight as she said, "I'd rather not."
"Okay…" Amethyst watched as they slowly coaxed Lavender to take their hands again and they all grew quiet. For a moment, nothing happened. But then, all of their gems started to glow and a sudden wind whipped around the room. Amethyst watched as they shivered, their muscles tightening and contracting uselessly. Cat Eye was watching with a wide stare, her hands stilling. Steven made a whimpered noise from is bed.
"Next batch, fresh from the ground." A muscled gem said as she tipped over a box of gems. The room was dark, except for the small lava river that circled around the workshop. There were two gems that greeted the muscled one.
Where am I? Steven thought as he looked around. He had no recollection of this place.
"There's so few." A gem that Steven didn't know the name of said. Silently, echoed in his mind, the name was supplied. Prehnite. A very smart technician gem; high class.
"What part of rations do you not understand?" The muscled gem muttered, but immediately saluted the Prehnite and muttered, "Ma'am."
"Dismissed." Prehnite hissed, waving her hand, and the muscle gem left. "How do they expect me to find a solution when I have nothing to test? I need more gems!"
The other gem, a Bismuth, shrugged, "I dunno. But we are getting closer. The gems stayed alive last time."
"Hmm. Yes, the Topazes." Prehnite pulled up a screen to check her data. "But, on the account of their size, they're all too small. Not as small as the Earth-made gems, of course, but they are not up to my Diamond's standards."
"And there's the regeneration thing." Bismuth added.
"Yes, that too." Prehnite mumbled, "I've never seen a gem refuse to regenerate before."
Regeneration? Steven made careful steps closer, looking at the pile of gems that was on the floor.
"Very well. Let's get started." Prehnite said, picking up a smooth looking grey gem. She placed it on a table and clamped it in place. Then, Bismuth moved forward, shifting her hand into a type of saw. Steven watched in horror, listening to the screams of anguish coming from the gem as it was cut apart.
"Stop!" Steven yelled, "You're going to shatter her!"
But the gems weren't listening, the high-pitched screams were suddenly silenced as the gem was cut clean apart. Bismuth then took both of the pieces and dunked them in the lava; cauterizing the two cut sides. The two pieces were placed back on the table and Prehnite came forward, squeezing drops of something onto the two pieces.
Steven watched as the two sides of the same gem tried to reform. It's crying brought tears to Steven's eyes as the two forms shifted, attempting to make something out of nothing. A being with half a body, gasping and grasping desperately for it's other half.
"No, don't let them fuse!" Prehnite said, and Bismuth moved one of the gems to the other side of the room. "They have to do this on their own. The point is to make more."
The two beings screamed as their light tried to solidify. Steven put his hands over his ears and yelled with them, "Stop it! You're hurting them!"
"Maybe they just need more." Bismuth said, gesturing to the bottle of liquid in Prehnite's hand. "If they were stronger, they wouldn't need each other."
"We have to ration this, too!" Prehnite hissed. "If these two won't do it, then just get more. One of these pieces of crust will corporate!"
"Maybe we just have to cut them differently." Bismuth said, scratching the gem on her thigh. Prehnite looked down at Bismuth's gem, raising an eyebrow at how it's one of the only gems that naturally forms with an indent.
"My Diamond, I think I have an idea." Prehnite said, swinging her arm so the half of the grey gem that was on the table flung against the wall, shattering into pieces. The other half across the room screamed in horror and pain. Steven watched as it shriveled into itself, it's physical form disappearing entirely. Bismuth was clearly confused as she watched Prehnite dig through the pile of gems. "This one will do. Thick form, deep cut. Perfect."
Steven crawled over to the half of the grey gem that was now on the floor. He tried to pick it up, but his hand went right through it. He didn't exist in this world. His heart ached and he wanted to help this poor gem but he didn't know how. Tears were flowing down his face as he turned at the sound of a drill against rock and the screaming of a gem in pain.
"Deeper." Prehnite said, watching from the other side of the table. "Deeper."
"I'm not sure how much this gem can take."
"Did I stutter!? Deeper!"
Bismuth grit her teeth and drilled deep into the gems core, cutting out a circle. She was able to wiggle the chunk out of the gem and now there were two separate grey gems. Two separate screaming voices. They were dunked in the lava and sprayed with the mystery spray. Steven watched as the two grey gems formed very slowly.
"Yes, yes." Prehnite said, "They don't recognize each other. They think their they're own gem!"
Bismuth whistled, long and low as the two figures formed after very long moments.
"Recreation takes them a while, but that's alright." Prehnite said as she typed out the information, "Certainly better than the last batch."
"Speaking of the last batch." Bismuth said as the door behind Steven opened. He turned to see Topaz stumble into the room. "What are you doing in here? This area's off-limits!"
"Ah! S-sorry!" Topaz soluted immediately, "Um, there was an announcement a while ago? When we first were put in the room?"
"Yes, yes, and?" Prehnite said, waiting her hand. She didn't take her eyes off of the twin grey gems.
"It said that when there was only one Topaz left, they were supposed to come tell you?" Topaz looked so small here. Logically, she was the same Topaz that was sitting in his house right now. But how she held herself was almost a complete 180 of the Topaz before him. "Well… um, here I am. The last one."
Prehnite looked up at that. She and Bismuth shared a look. "Why are you the one that survived?"
"I, um, don't know. But all the others are still on the floor…" Topaz pointed behind her with her thumb, "If you want to, uh, heal them?"
"Heal them?" Prehnite asked, "What do you mean."
"Um, make them come back."
Prehnite snorted, "No, that's up to them. They have to regenerate on their own."
Topaz blinked, "How?"
"Every gem knows how to regenerate." Bismuth said, "They'll figure it out."
Topaz didn't look so sure, she rubbed the back of her neck, "But… it's been weeks for some of them. A month for the first."
Prehnite wrote in her notes, "They're not the smartest of gems…"
Bismuth laughed and said, "Alright, go report to Emerald. She'll want to know about the failure of your section."
Topaz nodded slowly and then her eyes shifted over to the gems on the table. "What's wrong with them?"
"What do you mea-aaaaan!" Prehnite ran to stand behind Bismuth, "What is that!?"
"I-I-I DON'T KNOW!" Bismuth shouted, summoning her weapon, "IT'S GOT TO BE A MISTAKE!"
"SHATTER IT! SHATTER IT! SHATTER IT! SHATTER IT!"
Everyone was screaming and Steven couldn't get a good view of what was happening, he didn't even know what the grey gems formed into, all he knew was that he stepped backwards into the arms of someone solid. He looked up to see the grim face of Lavender, tears falling down her cheeks.
"You weren't supposed to see this, Steven." She said and then everything went black.
The wind was cutting through the house. A storm forming in their very own living room. Aventurine was the only one silent, as Topaz was screaming and Lavender was sobbing. Neither of them had their eyes open, all lost in Topaz's mind. Cat's Eye and Amethyst were running around the room, they started panicking when Steven started crying out in pain.
Amethyst tried to wake Steven, while Cat sat in Aventurine's lap, crying. Nothing they did worked and after ten grueling minutes of this chaos, it all stopped. Abruptly the screaming, wind, and sobbing was silenced. The only sound in the room was Cat's whimpers and Amethyst's panting.
Aventurine was up and moving before Lavender and Topaz even opened their eyes. Aventurine pulled Steven into her lap, shushing the crying child. Cat was with them, her arms wrapped around Steven's middle.
"I am so sorry, I didn't intend to cast my net so far. You weren't supposed to be there. You weren't supposed to see that." Aventurine was whispering, her hands glitching and her voice shaking.
"What did I just see?" Steven asked.
"...Homeworld is a very scary place for some gems, Steven." Aventurine whispered, "Some gems have room for no error. We have to go above and beyond for our Diamonds, or else we go back to that room."
"Is that what what'll happen if we fail this mission?" Lavender asked from down on the floor. There was a long silence, that no one really wanted to answer.
Topaz slowly slid across the floor, she hesitated, but gently pulled Lavender into her lap. "I'm sorry you had to see that. But, I'm sorry for not telling you earlier."
Lavender wrapped her arms around the bigger gem, hiding her face in her chest. "Why would Homeworld do that? Why would our Diamond do that?"
"Resources are running low." Topaz's voice cracked as she said, "We're a resource."
"So, were you…?"
Topaz looked over to Amethyst, Steven, and Cat. "Come with me."
Instead of waiting for Lavender to stand up, the bigger gem simply picked her up and carried her out of the building. Lavender gasped as a little thrill ran down her body. She wrapped her arms around Topaz's neck and watched her face.
Topaz found them a nice spot on beach, far enough away from Steven's house that no one could see them. She set Lavender down on the soft sand and followed in suit.
"You're gem..." Lavender started as she gently traced her fingers against the hard rock, "It looks fine to me."
Topaz shifted uncomfortably, "Yeah, well, I'm a bit rough around the edges."
Lavender wondered what that had to do with anything, until her finger scratched against the uneven circumference near her skin. "Oh."
"They shaved off the outer bits of us all and then forced those to fuse together. There was a Topaz, she was real messed up, that had parts of all of us in her." Topaz said slowly, digging her fingers into the dirt. "She was gone real quick."
"You're the last of your kind." Lavender said, just as quiet. With pain in her eyes, she looked up to Topaz, "You don't have any sisters."
"Hey, don't give me that look." Topaz said, nudging her, "I'm fine, see?"
"My sisters were mean, but they were still my sisters." Lavender whispered, "They didn't like me because I was 'practically a pearl' and so I got special treatment."
Topaz was quiet for a long moment, simply watching the waves. Slowly, sighed, "This is my first mission. Ever."
"Yeah?" Lavender asked. "This the first time I've ever lead a mission."
"You're not doing too bad." Topaz said smiling down at her.
Lavender blushed, but muttered, "I got us trapped her."
"Cat did that."
"Because I forced us to defuse."
"Cuz I insulted you." Topaz said. A beat, and then, "Sorry about that, by the way."
Lavender shrugged, "I'm used to it."
"We're two big messes, aren't we?" Topaz said, a bittersweet smile on her face. Lavender's eyes fell to Topaz's gem. She never noticed the sharp edges around it. She pressed her cheek against it, wrapping her arms around Topaz's bicep.
"Yeah. But I think we can handle it." She said, looking up to the moon.
Tell me what you think!
