Attention audience, this is an intermission. Grab your snacks, go to the bathroom, and check back in the theater for Act II in a few minutes.
(A flashback chapter set in the 2400s. Rose isn't being told the full story of everyone's past.)
Ambience:
Birth of the gemlings - Air à Danser - Penguin Cafe Orchestra
"They're hatching! They're hatching!"
That was all Pearl has to scream, completely uncharacteristically of her, for the Crystal Gem family to gather around the coffee table, where a basket filled with blankets and a heating lamp have been nursing two fertilized geodes—The only two there were.
Truth be told, two gemlings out of a brood of nine— and out of around thirty geodes, spanned across three broods— would've been considered a miserable fertility rate in Homeworld. It was precisely because of the drop in conception after the rebellion started that they'd developed the tech to make Kindergartens and asked gems to please stop spawning youth on their own.
But Pearl and Amethyst had tried thrice, their hopes going up along their sex life when the heat times started. And those were lucky— those three times were the sole three in which Amethyst's seed had ever made something. Pearl had tried being the giver and not the carrier, as well. It hadn't resulted in anything, not even once— As if Amethyst was simply not designed to carry gemlings.
Sometimes, Pearl wondered why they were so ineffective when it came to making children. Amethyst was literally made of a synthethized version of the very seed she'd been implanting into her with every heat. Maybe it was because she was a kindergarten gem? Maybe since she'd been a runt or gestated for too long, that had also rendered her sterile? It couldn't be easy for two defective gems to multiply…
Though, she still doesn't think putting all the blame in her mate and her fertilization skills is fair. She knows her gem is oval instead of round, the main motive behind the disobedience to her programming that had made her re-coded to serve Rose Quartz back in the day, and she'd also been told that an imperfect gem could mean problems in her physical form throughout all of her lifespan; and then there was he amount of times she'd regenerated during the first war— Really, it was like life had made them both so they could not have any children.
Given her poor history with gemlings, she'd outwardly cried in happiness when, while laying the third failed batch of progeny, she'd felt a particular geode that refused to slide off easily. Unfertilized geodes didn't pass an inch and a half of diameter, and slid out with no major problems, but this one had proven quite hard and painful to push.
Amethyst, who was always there to check on their dead offspring—regardless of how much Pearl told her not to, to spare her some of the suffering—had looked at her with what seemed to be a glimmer of hope, and she'd ran for Peridot, begging her to scan her partner's abdomen for any signs of life.
Peridot herself couldn't hold back a holy shit when, while using the flat surface of her hand to improv an ultrasound, she'd picked up signs of life. Two geodes—Just two. The rest of them were dead as always; Pearl still cried of joy until her eyes stung.
They'd summoned the rest of the team to accompany Pearl during laying those particular two that were still alive—except Steven, to her request and much to his dismay—. None of them could claim ever being in the situation, but knowledge pieced together and a scan through Peridot's databases on gem reproduction seemed enough to help the eventual mother out.
Out of due respect, Amethyst had been the one to pick up the marble-sized, unfertilized geodes, incinerating them in the burning room. She preferred her mate bask in the joy of their future children. They'd be so lucky, too—One for each of them; one that looked like a massively oversized pearl, vaguely tinted teal, to signal who it was birthed by, and another with a vibrant purple shell, denouncing who had concieved it from miles away.
And now, Pearl thinks, seeing the two geodes squirm in the basket, they're finally hatching. There it is: The very confirmation they're alive. She's been dreaming, both consciously and subconsciously, about what the little spawn will look like. Will either of them inherit her schnozz? What about Amethyst's lips? She wonders if the tiny amethyst will turn out to be more hair than gem, just like her mother. Where will their gems be?
She notices a crack on the purple shell, the glossy surface breaking. Steven is kneeling next to the table, documenting every moment with a camera. "Oh, I see a hand, I see a hand! Tiny gem hand!"
And indeed, a lilac hand is wriggling its miniature fingers outside of the shell, and Pearl feels she can scream until her vocal chords perish right then and there because this is her daughter and she's alive and look at her.
"Yeah!" Amethyst screams next her in victory. "Strong like her momma!"
And she laughs, staring at the little hands, the litte feet fighting their way out of the shells.
The gemlings are even better than what she had imagined.
The pearl turns out to be a beautiful Mauve Pearl, and her mother had shed tears of joy when she noticed her gemstone was perfectly round. Maybe it had a couple ridges here and there, but no bumps, and it was the appropriate shape for a flawless pearl, not an oval or a figure eight. A tuft of salmon pink hair blooms from her head, but it's nowhere as wild as her sister's. Pearl has noticed Mauve has inhrited the inverse of her sister— Amethyst's button nose and her own thin lips—, but can't make up anything else about how she's been mixed up— She is dangerously small, fitting comfortably in the cup of her hands, and it'll take a while before her mom figures out her body type. Her gemstone, much like Pearl's, rests on her forehead; and to give proper homage to her legacy, she's quite vocal, chirping and emulating the noises around her nonstop, having welcomed the world with a loud squeak.
The amethyst has a gem that's slightly discolored, a pale, delicate purple instead of her parent's spunky one. Au contraire to Mauve Pearl, she's apparently been blessed with both the trademark nose of one parent and the recognizable lips of the other. She's been born much stronger than her sister, her physical form stockier and slightly bigger, but according to Peridot's data, still below the appropriate size. She's indeed more hair than actual gem; a wild cream mane sprouting from her head and spreading everywhere. It's really fluffy, though, so Pearl doesn't mind.
Her gemstone rests in approximately the same spot where Amethyst's is, its shape a hexagonal prism; and much to the surprise of both parents, the few noises she's made have been very akin to those of a kitten, mewling and occasionally purring when Pearl kneads her little head with her fingertips.
They're perfect. Pearl's still up at night admiring them while they rest, even if it's been a kind of tiring day, cleaning them off and collecting the minerals they'll need to feed off of to grow. She may as well be sleeping, but she doesn't care— she wants to admire her young, make sure it's not a dream.
Her thumb gingerly caresses Amethyst Jr.'s cheek, and the gemling stretches in the basket, kneading the blankets slightly with her miniature hands. They're her weakness.
"Yo," she hears, and she turns to find her mate standing on the temple door, half-asleep. "Ever thought of giving the kids some space to chill? They have a lot of growing and other… gemling stuff to do, and they can't while you stalk them."
Pearl laughs, but covers her mouth with her hand, not wishing to awaken them. "I can't. Have you actually looked at them? They're so cute I could gobble them up, and I don't even like eating. It feels like a dream."
"Yes, duh, of course I've looked at my own children. One of them looks like Opal, the other looks like you, only with her mama's fabulous purple skin and actually pretty."
The other rolls her eyes, but she's smiling. "Actually, if you look up close at Mauve, you'll see her skin is lilac—"
"Come on, P. Don't look for more excuses. Just bring the kids into the temple and let 'em rest. Let's go to bed."
"Fiiine," she whines back, gently picking up the basket and unintentionally making her offspring stir inside. "but let them sleep on the bed with us. Yes?"
"Yeah. Can't ever reject a cuddle partner, even less one that's this darn cute."
"I love you all so much," she whispers, being thankful for once she has the long limbs she has— she can have all of them together in one embrace; her mate and the two tiny, tiny gems resting bewteen both. They've snuggled against their parents, finding their body heat far more comforting than just the blankets. Amethyst Jr. Is purring amidst deep breathes.
"We all love you too," Amethyst replies lazily, trying her best to return the hug and not squish the gemlings in the process. "Now rest, babe. Life is going to be hectic now that these two are on the house."
Pearl isn't sure of how she'll manage to sleep this particular night. "I can't wait."
Attention, audience. First calling. Return to the theater. First calling...