Welcome back! A quick note: an earlier chapter has been renamed as I felt the title fit this chapter better. I also want to thank any and all who have left me a review thus far! I haven't been keeping track of whom I have replied to, so I apologize for that but I really appreciate the show of support. Please enjoy!

Caustic

Waking up was less like an abrupt bang and more like wading through thick sludge. It took ages before she remembered that she existed and longer still to remember how to exist, but she managed.

Pearl let her eyes flutter open to light filtering in above her through the skylight. She watched the particles of dust dance in the rays, and she exhaled deeply. A weight that had been on her chest had been removed, and it felt so freeing to breathe again. She closed her eyes and relished in the feeling of breathing without the excessive labor she'd grown accustomed to. Her chest felt light, as did the rest of her body.

It took several long minutes before Pearl realized something was amiss. By no means had her last trip been successful or particularly wonderful, and actually was quite the opposite. She had been basically unable to reach her headspace, instead dulling her senses and lying in numb, paralyzing silence. Iolite was a wisp of a thought on her mind, unlike the life-like image she had desired. Thinking about Iolite was starting to cause pain in her chest, like it had before the acid. 'The acid…'

Pearl's eyes shot wide open and she brought a frantic hand to her forehead. She ran her fingertips carefully over her gem, seeking out the many tiny cracks and fractures she'd memorized on it, but she was bewildered when she found none of them. She rushed to the mirrors in Rose Quartz's bathing room on feet too swift and light for comfort and stared at herself. A gasp caught itself in her throat.

She traced her gem and her filled-in cheekbones, jawline and other sharp ends that had looked so gaunt just the night before. She looked soft and new again, and her gem did as well. She could find no evidence that it had even been touched before. Every joint felt well stretched, every jagged edge smoothed over, and every bump and bruise dispelled. Pearl was at a loss for words.

'Then this means…' Pearl brought a hand over her trembling lips as she felt her stomach flip. She tore her gaze away from the mirror took hesitant steps back to the couch she had been gently laid across in a way she could not have done herself. The blanket that had been mysteriously pulled over her was lying in a crumpled heap by the coffee table. Rose Quartz had definitely been here.

With a pain she could hardly process that collapsed in her chest, Pearl realized that the only way she could have been saved with so much success was from the unique healing powers of Rose Quartz. She sat down and hunched over her own lap. Anxiety made every molecule of her body seem to vibrate. Rose had healed her, which meant she had seen the scars on her gem. She had seen the damage up close, in its entirety. She knew.

In her panic she hadn't noticed the small glass bottle she'd used the night before standing empty on the coffee table. It was propped against the book that Rose had read aloud to her the night she had healed her feet. A tiny piece of paper tucked out from underneath it. Pearl gripped its corner and carefully tugged it out. In beautiful golden calligraphy, Rose had left her a note.

'I will be ready to listen, when you are ready to talk.'

Pearl felt hot tears begin to flow freely and she allowed little jarring sobs to shake her body. 'I don't deserve this,' she thought to herself. 'She cares for me so much, and I do nothing but take advantage of it.' She touched her gem again and shivered at the cold contact. There was no denying that Rose knew everything, but she had still left a note and made it clear she wouldn't push her for information. Pearl knew deep in her heart she didn't deserve such patience and kindness, and it stung. She felt her self-hatred wound her like a knife.

With her gem healed and the constant ache that the acid had caused ebbed, Pearl didn't know how to feel. She picked up the empty bottle, rolling it between her fingers and over her palms. She didn't feel like she needed the oxalic acid anymore. She wasn't just clean in theory, she felt clean. Her thumbs spread flat the bottle's curled label, over and over again as it sprung back out each time.

With this sudden health came a sort of emptiness in her heart that she didn't understand. After several minutes spent staring into the bottle's warped hand-blown glass, she decided that it was loneliness. No acid meant that there was no need to return to the Home, to see Mother or the twins anymore. No acid meant no more Iolite, who haunted her waking dreams. It meant she had to start all over. With a strange fearful eagerness, she thought maybe she was okay with that.

Rose Quartz, in both abstract and literal ways, had truly begun to heal her. Thinking of her name brought warmness to her chest like nothing else. Her pink curls, not purple, dancing behind broad shoulders she had to look up to instead of down at. Pearl could picture both of them in her mind perfectly, placing them on their own pedestals in spotlights. They were so different, Iolite and Rose, but they were similar in just enough ways that it surprised her. Iolite was laughter, lilacs, and freedom; Rose Quartz was a cherry wood fire, freshly cut flowers, and the indefinable scent of comfort.

Although Pearl wanted to reach for Iolite first in the stage she had made up in her head, she knew enough to turn her spotlight off. Iolite was unavailable, forever. Iolite had died by her own hand. She had felt her shatter under her spear. Pearl shook as she relived it, but she refused to force it down. The realities were ones she'd been ignoring too long, and she needed to acknowledge them at face value. Iolite was gone and she was going to stay gone, and although the oxalic acid had given her time to work through her own thoughts, the Iolite she'd known in her headspace was not the gem she had fallen for. Truthfully, Pearl wasn't sure that she'd really fallen in love with the real Iolite and perhaps had just been enamored with the projection she'd subconsciously created. She squeezed the bottle tightly. It was an uncomfortable mystery, for now.

In her mind's eye then stood the graceful, loving Rose Quartz that had stirred so many emotions in her since their meeting that her head spun just thinking about it. Rose was a living miracle. She was Pearl's enduring last chance, over and over again pulling her from the darkness with the same patient smile on her plump lips. Unlike Iolite, Pearl could say with certainty that she was smitten with her. She was the last thing that ever made Pearl feel a flicker of self-worth from time to time. She would be her salvation once again. Pearl hoped with all her being that Rose wouldn't grow tired of that.

Pearl wiped her cheeks dry and breathed deeply before standing on surprisingly stable legs. She froze, and with a small smile, she left the bottle on the table where Rose had left it and instead reached for her neglected ballet slippers. She pulled them on slowly to relish in the feeling. She stood again and rolled en pointe with relative ease. She cried openly out of both sadness and relief. With a gentle sigh, she began to step across the floor and perform her favorite poses, not bothering to warm up. For the moment, she didn't care for technicalities. She allowed herself to feel free in her movements, and she hummed her own accompaniment for just one hours-long moment.

In a sort of sick desire for closure, Pearl decided to visit the Home one last time to say goodbye to her found friends. The Home brought too many difficult memories to justify returning beyond that, even though it made her heart heavy to think of not seeing the twins again. Maybe they could meet outside of the cold and dusty hangout, but she doubted that. Pearls struggled enough to escape there, and there was no other place they could stay without being caught. Pearl understood that without an owner at their side, pearls were not permitted to be in public. It was frustrating, to say the least.

Pearl sighed and crawled through the crack to her getaway for what was hopefully the last time. Just being near the place made her weary. When she entered, she noticed all the pearls crowded around one corner. Curiosity wormed into her heart. She stepped quietly up to the crowd to investigate.

In the center of the tight circle lay Livewire, who was shaking uncontrollably and muttering under her breath. Her eyes were distant, and every so often her form was glitching in a show of staticky light. Her gem was cracked almost straight through the middle vertically. It was about to snap in two. Pearl realized that Livewire was dying.

A new stream of tears revived old tracks down Livewire's sunken in cheeks while she spoke incoherently, her words jumbled by how violently she shook. She was distant in mind, and soon would be in body. She had no more than a handful of minutes left. Pearl stood in stunned silence, unable to look away.

Suddenly, she gasped as a surprisingly firm grip took hold of her forearm. She looked down and connected the limb to Livewire, who was looking at her with clearer eyes than before. Pearl felt her hair bristle with a rush of fear. She looked truly scary. She looked desperate.

In a flash of pale blue light, Livewire projected an image in front of Pearl's face. She blinked to focus on it. In the image she could faintly recognize Livewire, but it didn't look like her as far as her memory served her. She stood alone in a blurry background, a vague expression of fear on her face. Pearl felt a shift in the room as the other pearls around her stepped back and gave them an attempt at privacy. She allowed herself to pay attention, knowing full well that it could be the last thing Livewire ever did. Pearl wanted to respect that above all else.

Pearl model F15C270 stood alone in the rain but she paid it no mind as it soaked her to the bone. She stood alone, frozen in place and at a complete loss for what to do. She stood alone and scared.

The distant sound of sirens was the only thing that encouraged her to move. She sprinted, eyes darting to every nook and corner she could spot to find somewhere, anywhere, to hide.

Truth be told, F15C270 had no idea where she could find sanctuary. She had never seen the outdoors. Her owner had kept her chained to her mansion by spoken command, which she could never break as a curse all pearls shared. Now that her owner had been gravely injured and retreated to her gem, she had no figurative chains. To escape the robber that had disabled her owner, she had darted out of the mansion into a world she didn't understand. It led her here, where she panted in a chilled rainfall desperate for options. The sirens told her that the authorities were looking for her. They knew her owner had a pearl, and did not find evidence of her at the crime scene. She would be caught and she would be forced to continue her choked life as a slave, or killed. She didn't think she could handle another second of that life, and so she continued to run.

She dashed from alley to alley and listened as the sirens grew further and further away until she felt safe to stop and take shaky gasps of air. "Hey," a voice rang out, and F15C270 squeaked and fell into a defensive stance. The voice chuckled. "I won't hurt you," it said softly.

"D-do you promise?" F15C270 asked. She felt embarrassed for her stuttering. She was cold and scared. Looking around all sides of her position had revealed no one. This mysterious voice was her only hope. The sirens were starting to get closer again.

"Come with me." A gem stepped out of the alley to her left, startling her. She took an instinctual step back away from her. The gem looked inviting enough; she had a colorful scarf around her forehead that matched a coat that covered her entire body, and she had a warm smile. She held a hand outstretched.

After hesitating in numbed silence, F15C270 took the hand and was whisked away with a complete stranger. They ran in silence together, forming a quiet bond that F15C270 could not describe in words. They reached a particularly dark alleyway and the mysterious gem stopped in front of a large crack in a brick wall, weathered from years of disrepair. "You need to crawl inside here."

F15C270 turned back. "What do you mean? It's just a crack. Where does it go?"

The gem swung her forward and straight in front of the crack in the wall with a look of frustrated determination. Her eyes were fiery. "You don't have much of a choice now, do you?" She was right- the sirens were getting close again. F15C270 took a deep breath and carefully positioned herself on the side of the crack. She was surprised to find it much larger than she expected. After several seconds of shimmying around and grappling blindly for the pathway, she stumbled into a room that looked virtually untouched. She gasped. The gem stood up gracefully behind her. The sirens were no longer audible.

"We are safe here. No one suspects our location." The gem smiled and unwrapped her headscarf to reveal a spherical pearl on her forehead. F15C270 gasped again in surprise. "You are safe here with me."

F15C270 gaped, taking a sweeping look across the room. It was large and looked like an abandoned parlor virtually untouched by time. She had seen one in a magazine once for home decorating she'd snuck away from her owner. Besides a few patches on the furniture, it looked perfect. "Where am I?" She finally asked.

The pearl put her hands on her hips. "This is my Home. You may call me Mother."

F15C270 spent the next few days acquainting herself with her savior, drinking in every detail she could drag out of her. Mother had apparently escaped her owners and lived as a fugitive ever since finding the Home on her own. The authorities never suspected a thing. She was completely enamored by the audacity of it all.

Mother had been alone until she found F15C270, as it turned out. From what she could tell, it had been lonely. They laughed and played games and enjoyed each other's company for many days, and for once F15C270 didn't feel like a slave. She felt like an equal. She would never go back to that lifestyle. She was okay with being a fugitive with Mother. She liked her.

It was several months later that Mother had asked if she'd like to try the acid. Mother had said it was an enlightening experience that she recommended to anyone, but it seemed to only work for pearls. F15C270 was fascinated, and she wholeheartedly agreed to experiment alongside Mother. She took her first hit and when she returned to her normal consciousness with a new sense of life in her blood, Mother was laughing. "I should call you Livewire, for how lively you were in your trance." The name stuck.

It wouldn't be for several more months that Livewire, formerly known as F15C270, would learn that Mother had always made her go first for a reason.

Livewire grew dependent on the drug quicker than she expected. Mother gave her more and more until she needed help dropping the substance on her gem through the shakiness of her own limbs. Through her haze she barely noticed a few new faces join her at the Home. Had she not been so spaced out from the drug use she may have been jealous. Mother kept feeding her cravings.

"Let's stay together forever, Livewire," Mother had said, which filled Livewire with joy and adoration. She wanted nothing more than to stay at the Home until the end of her days. She knew that the drug was damaging her with each use, but she didn't care. Anything to get away from the guilt she'd sustained from the day she ran away. Being a fugitive wasn't as easy as Mother made it out to be. It weighed on her.

Each day she consumed more and each day more pearls joined the Home. She watched as they trickled in and smiled while she described to them the pleasure of the drug. Mother looked on with satisfaction at her salesmanship. Livewire felt proud of herself.

"More," Livewire mumbled, feeling the anxious withdrawal crawl up her throat. "More please." Mother happily obliged, but Livewire's highs weren't so high anymore. Everything was a blur. She was starting to forget how to walk and how to see straight. She was starting to feel her body deteriorate. She couldn't stop. She was too dependent to stop herself. Mother always looked at her with a pleased expression as she dropped more acid on her gem for her.

"That's it, love," she cooed, "you're doing lovely. The drug is doing lovely things. You're setting a wonderful example, love. You are my most loyal friend." Livewire ate it up with a lazy grin. Days didn't have meaning anymore. Nothing did. She couldn't walk. She could barely talk. All at once, the gravity of the situation hit her, but she could do nothing. She was dying. Mother had put her up to this. Mother had condemned her to death. Mother was killing her. It was too late.

Pearl gaped as Livewire's projection petered out of existence, followed by a momentous glitch that felt like hot air blowing at her face. She was struggling to breathe in a noisy, disturbing fashion, gasps heaving her chest as she gulped for air. This was it.

Pearl didn't have a lot of time to process what she'd seen, and instead trembled slightly with her feet glued to the ground. Livewire's eyes were glassing over. She was losing her final battle. With one last effort she grabbed Pearl's other arm and jerked her forward where Pearl was forced to look straight into her eyes. As unfocused as they were, Pearl still felt them pierce her like arrows. Her shaking stopped for one moment of absolute clarity with a deadly serious expression on her face shiny with sweat. She spoke only one word in a hoarse whisper.

"Run."

Livewire's eyes crossed and her arms went slack as she slumped back into her chair. She sat lifeless for a few prolonged seconds before a horrible crunching sound rang through the Home. A few pearls gasped behind her, but Pearl hardly noticed. She watched as Livewire was enveloped in bright white light that turned into chalky smoke. The cloud raced to the ceiling and plumed over the crowd. On the chair sat any evidence that Livewire had existed at all.

It was a pearl barely recognizable, but a pearl nonetheless, and it was broken cleanly in two corroded pieces. Livewire was gone.

I know I'm awful. Feel free to drop me a review if you've got a moment! Thanks for reading.