Red shed a few tears at the tulip she found in her drawers. All the clips were there, from a very long time ago, when either gem had stopped wearing them. One day, Red had removed her poppy and placed it in here. The clip looked worn out and she hadn't wanted to break a gift from her Diamond, so the noble stowed it away for a few centuries.

Despite the discoloring on the metal parts, each flower was in fine condition and the clasp was still in working order.

Red's fingers lingered delicately over the tulip, until she swallowed the rest of her saline and placed it back into the drawer. But she pulled the poppy out and moved from her office back into the main room where Pearl was cleaning the floor.

Upon spotting her master, she stood straight up and said: "Greetings, Madame Red Beryl. Are you heading out?" From the servant's brain waves, Red found a bit of surprise at the left-over trauma in her mistress's eyes.

"Yes, Pearl. I am." But before she did, those crimson hands took the poppy and pinned it in Pearl's strawberry hair. "I'll see you when I return. Remember to practice your reading. I've set a few passages aside for you. We'll go over them when I come back."

She did look cute, with a flower in her hair.

"Oh, Yes Ma'am. Of course—" Pale hands went searching for whatever it was that had been placed on her head. They felt the petals and her face washed with color. "Do you want for me to have this, Madame?"

"Yes, Pearl." Her voice faltered. "You can move it to a different location if you prefer. Have a good day."

"Thank you, Ma'am! I will!"

The servant was sparkling again, and her master left her because if she remained any longer, she would be late.

Today, Red had called in her former martial arts instructor. As she scrolled through her messages, she considered what exactly she wanted to say.

The decision to have this meeting was nearly impulsive, but there was no doubt that Red would find the right words.

Golden eyes were drawn to a written message from Yellow Diamond.

Red,

I've invited both Goshenite and White Diamond to our celebration. Blue declined to come. Please dress nicely. You know how she is.

—Yellow Diamond

The noble replied:

My Diamond,

Thank you graciously for inviting them. I look forward to our time together, and I'll be sure to wear my finest outfit. However, I do have one question: would it be alright if I brought my Pearl?

I hope this note finds you doing well,

—Red Beryl

A few moments passed in silence, and Yellow Diamond's reply came in at the top of Red's messages.

You're welcome to bring your Pearl, but there won't be much for her to do. I haven't left my control room for a series of shifts, but given the situation, I'm doing about as well as I can. Thank you.

—Yellow Diamond.

Red was just about to answer, when her office doors opened and Jasper 6F4L Cut 6XP took a few steps in and gave a salute with her arms crossed over her chest.

"Good morning, Madame."

"Good morning, Jasper. Take a seat."

It was her—with the same spot over her left eye and all the matching stripes. Even still, no memories nor emotions arose when the warrior's golden eyes brushed past Red's features; though she did recall seeing the noble in the hallway, briefly.

Red began: "You were my martial arts instructor, but I can tell that you don't remember that at all."

The one in the chair, whose hips—like many quartz's—nearly bound her to it, wore a cloud of anxious confusion. (You were never in good shape if you were called into Red Beryl's office.) "Are you certain it wasn't another Jasper? There are at least a few others that look like me."

"No—I thought the same thing. But I checked my grade reports and your background; you were definitely my instructor. Look—" Red turned the screen around so her guest could see. "This is your number, and here it is on my reports." She pointed with a sharp, crimson finger. "Jasper 6F4L Cut 6XP. You're certainly not here on someone else's behalf. I know it's you. Why don't you remember me?"

The soldier stared at her number, but couldn't place Red anywhere in her memories at any time, at all. Dumbfounded, she answered: "I don't know, Madame. Maybe there's a mistake in the system—"

"I know it was you! We worked together for hundreds of years! You can't tell me otherwise!"

"Then I don't know what to tell you at all! I'm sorry, Ma'am—" She hadn't meant to lose her cool. "Perhaps you should take this up with Yellow Diamond. You two probably talk all the time, right? I'm sure she knows what's going on."

Through the tense air, they stared into one another's eyes.

"I suspect that she's responsible for this, but I really don't want to believe that."

The striped gem's thick brows furrowed.

"If this is Yellow Diamond's doing…I don't know what that would mean. I'm afraid that she's hiding something from me, and I don't necessarily want to find out, but in a way I have to. Not knowing would kill me."

Jasper crossed her large fingers over her lap. "I'm sure if it was her doing, Madame, it would be for the best. Yellow Diamond always makes the wisest decisions; that's why she's in charge."

Red Beryl moved her intense glare into the floor, where she caused a small fire.

"Let me touch your gem."

"Ma'am!"

"Don't you want to know if your memories were erased? I can tell! I demand you allow me to touch you!"

The soldier stood up, rocking the chair with her motion and took a step to go, but Red held up her hand and froze Jasper's limbs exactly where they were. She struggled and gasped for breath, expelling singular letters of profane insults. But even mustering every drop of motivation inside her body couldn't shake off the paralysis.

"I'm—" telling Yellow Diamond about this.

"Shut your mouth." Red stood before her. "If you say so much as one word to her, I'll find you and scramble your brains. You'll never speak again. I'll make it so every thought you have is astonishingly clear, but your mouth cannot make words and your big, clumsy hands cannot write. And Yellow Diamond will shatter you, because you'll be useless to her. They'll assume you've gone stupid; that you've lost your damn mind and they'll feel so sorry for you. But you'll still die. And you'll be utterly aware up until the moment when Yellow Diamond stomps you to chalk with the heel of her boot. Is that what you want?! I can make that happen for you if you're so thirsty for death!"

Jasper had begun to cry. Her body itched and writhed in insanity because she so desperately wanted to move, but couldn't. Somehow, her body knew this sensation, her muscles remembered feeling this way before, but where and when were shrouded in a static blanket of black mystery.

"Are you still going to tell Yellow Diamond?"

"N—N—" Gasping. "N—" No. No. No. No. No. Nonono.

"Good."

Red put her palm right over Jasper's gem and received a survey of her entire life, from when she emerged and made friends with her warrior sisters and watched them die over and over and over again, almost losing her life a few times herself. Once Red had hit the most recent experiences, there was a big blank space where about 500 years were missing. Where a dense blackness with loud static and deafening ringing sat instead. The moments just cut, from one to another on each side of the void, with little coherency in between.

But Jasper didn't care.

She was happy in her day to day life. She and the other Quartzes would communicate in the here and the now. She did not need those moments. Their absence was hardly considered or even all that bothersome.

Red tried to look inside the static for traces of herself, but there were merely small instances of yellow lighting and a shit load of pain inside Jasper's nerves.

The soldier was beginning to foam at the mouth.

And Red's eyes bled but she went through it all—until this morning—when her unfortunate guest was telling her friends, a Carnelian, an Amethyst, and another Jasper about being called in to the very office she stood inside now. They made fun of her.

'Ooh! You're in trouble!'

Red Beryl let her go. That large body fell to the ground, heaving in breath with the sensation that she had been asphyxiated.

"You—"

Gasp.

"Bitch!"

A little blood came from her mouth onto the floor.

"We could have done it the easy way, but everyone always prefers doing things the hard way, as if I'm lying to them. I've never lied to anyone, probably not even once." Red pulled a handkerchief from her desk and sopped up the blood around her lashes. "It hurts me too; maybe even more than it hurts you. I'm sure to have a headache later, so thank you for that."

Jasper was still crying. Her pain stretched out like an explosion around her.

The blast covered Red's skin.

"Here. Don't leave your blood, spit, and tears all over my –formerly—clean floor. Wipe it up. You're dismissed." The cloth landed just before the soldier.

With a sharp cry, Jasper's body pulled in another breath. "I'm glad I don't remember working with you!" Her golden eyes met Red's. "I'm sure it was awful!"

"What are you saying? You're part of the reason I can use my powers so well. We had plenty of wonderful times together. It's a shame you can't recall them. Perhaps you would have known better." The aristocrat reclaimed her seat. More blood and pain has accumulated around her eyes. In fact, her nose began to leak as well, a dark red syrup that she collected in the palm of her hand.

Both parties ended up almost entirely still, to accommodate the agony. Neither of them moved for quite a long time, together in pain.

Eventually, Jasper wiper up her mess on the floor and went away.