Lapis is alone in the garden, looking at the roses, something she has done that often lately. It has been a week since she talked with her mother about the ship, but Blue Diamond still doesn't want to give Lapis one. At least she doesn't get angry about the topic anymore, that is what Peridot told the ocean gem.
Talking about Peridot, she is back to her work on the Cluster. Lapis decided to not ask about what this Cluster was, for now. It sounded important to Peridot, so, Lapis decided to ask the technician about it once she completed everything related to that.
"You are back here." A voice that the blue gem knows well asks her.
"I like it here." Lapis stands up to look at the other gem. "I told you that, Peridot."
"Indeed." The green gem smiles and walks towards the blue one. "I wanted to come earlier, but a few things happened…" She makes a frown. "I hope I get this problem solved soon."
"I know you will." Lapis truly smiles, making the other heir smile too, but that is also what makes Peridot remember where Lapis went that day. The technician can't help but start to overreact the situation.
"Is everything alright? Did you go to the court? How was it? Did they ask why you were the only one new to get to the court? Did someone remember you from the other day?" Peridot asks concerned about the other gem.
"Everything went well. They didn't ask me any difficult questions and no one remembers me from the arena." The ocean gem smiles, trying to sound okay.
"I'm glad everything went okay." Peridot sighs, calming down herself.
"You worry too much." Lapis giggles.
"I just don't want you to have a bad first experience." The green gem scratches the back of her head. "I sound overprotective..."
"You know you can't always protect me." Lapis reaches eye to eye with the technician. "But if I ever get hurt, I will be happy to have you by my side." She holds Peridot's hand.
"I will be there."
"What are we gonna do today?" Lapis gets to the reason Peridot was there. "Are you gonna teach me more about those codes in the screens?"
"You got curious about that, didn't you?" Peridot laughs.
"Don't laugh!" Lapis crosses her arms. "They are so hard to understand! Why do they have to be so complicated!?" Lapis holds her hair tight. "Everything is so advanced."
"You will get used to it with more time of practice."
"I hope." Lapis sighs. "I've been practicing by the way."
"That is a good thing." Peridot opens her screen. "Today we will-" The technician stops talking all of sudden. She just makes a frown, looking a lot like Yellow Diamond while doing that.
"What is wrong Peridot?" Lapis asks, but the other gem doesn't answer. "Peridot?"
"It's repaired." Peridot says underneath her breath.
"What?" Lapis looks at her, obviously confused.
"I have to go." Peridot closes her screen. "I'm really sorry, but I have to go. One of my robonoids just gave me a positive sign. I'll finally be able to check the Cluster with a closer look."
"It's okay." Lapis fakes a smile. "Can I go with you?"
"I'm afraid not. Earth is not the safest place in the universe. It can be dangerous."
"E-Earth?" Lapis freezes on her feet. "Is that where you are going?"
"Yes. That is where the Cluster is." Peridot holds Lapis's hand. "I will be careful. Don't worry about me."
But it is not about Peridot that Lapis is worrying about. It is Steven, the one who saved her. If the Cluster that Peridot talks so much about is dangerous, it means that he is in danger.
"Peridot?" Lapis holds both the green gemling's shoulder.
"Y-yes? What is wrong?" Peridot looks at the blue gem.
"Why?!" Lapis freaks out a bit.
"Because I have to do it. Don't worry, I'll be back soon." Peridot makes a confused face. "I know Earth is not the best place, but everything will be alright. I mean, I won't stay there for a long period of time, but I need to go there."
"Peridot…" Lapis takes a deep breath, trying to find a way to make Peridot stay. "If you…" She looks at her hands and realizes that she is still holding Peridot. "Sorry." She let her go.
"Is there something you wanna tell me?" Peridot raises an eyebrow.
"No…" Lapis holds her own arm. "It is just… there are a bunch of humans on Earth…"
"Yes." Peridot places her hands on her waist. "And?"
"Well…" That is when Lapis finds out that she won't be able to stop Peridot from going, but, maybe, making her come back sooner is still something possible. "Can you make a promise?"
"Yes, I guess?"
That is Lapis's chance to definitely make Peridot come back quickly.
"Promise me that if you find a human or anything human related, please, come back home." Lapis reaches eye to eye with the technician.
"A human can't hurt me." Peridot rolls her eyes.
"Please, Peridot." Lapis looks at the floor.
The technician doesn't know the real reason behind Lapis's ask, but she agrees to it, thinking it has something to do with the thousands of years in a mirror.
"I can't believe I'm saying yes to this." Peridot sighs.
"Thank you." Lapis hugs the gem in front of her. "Thank you very much."
"Okay." Peridot softly laughs.
"I will let you go now." Lapis gets her arms off Peridot.
"Thanks. I guess I will see you soon." Peridot waves, running towards the floor where their rooms are.
"Please, don't find him." Lapis whispers to herself, while watching the other heir run.
Once Peridot changes into her 5XG's limb enhancers, she runs towards the central warp pad.
The green gemling can't believe she is finally going to Earth. Yes, she should have reported to the diamonds about this, but she is not gonna wait for them to make a decision. They would take a lot of time to get to an agreement and this is a rare opportunity. Peridot decides that she can deal with them later after she does what has to be done.
The heir steps on the warp pad and activates it, warping herself to the place where it happened. The gem war.
When the warp deactivates, she can't believe she is really there. It looks like Homeworld's sky, but the ground had a lot of water around, unlike on Homeworld. Peridot looks around and gently stomps the Homeworld warp pad.
"Hmmm." The green gemling watches her surroundings, looking for anything unusual while opening her screen. "Log date 3 1 2. This is Peridot, performing Earth hub maintenance check." She makes a bored face, she knows the diamonds are receiving that report on that exact moment and they are probably not happy with it. She never mentioned to them she planned to go to Earth. Once they receive this, they will come after her, for sure.
Peridot's thoughts about the diamonds are interrupted once one of her robonoids crawls up on to her shoulder, making her continue the report. "Warp repair was a success. All 79 flask robonoids deployed and accounted for. Preparing to locate and manually reactivate Kindergar-" Peridot hears something trying to crawl up her foot. It is a robonoid again, but this one is unusually damaged. It even lies down and rolls back and forth. "I guess just 78 are in good conditions." She reports while stepping on the damaged robonoid, until it pops. "Not even gonna ask what damaged this one " The technician rolls her eyes.
"Fine, now to access the domestic warp." She walks down the stairs and starts to look around the place. She can hear the water and some other noises too. "It really isn't like Homeworld."
Once she looks around, she wishes she didn't do it in the first place.
"No way…" She sighs and decides to get a closer look to a weird thing she found, picking it up once she realizes it's not dangerous. The strange icon that was stuck on the warp pad is sticky and looks weird too.
"Don't tell me…" The gem looks around again. She never thought a human icon would be on a warp pad. She didn't even get to see more of the planet.
However, she did make a promise to Lapis and she wouldn't go back on her word. Peridot won't be able to look at Lapis again if she breaks a promise like that.
Sometimes, the technician regrets her decisions really bad, just like on that exact moment.
Peridot looks at the weird icon and then at her screen again. She couldn't do anything else but get back home if she wanted to keep her promise. "This site may have been compromised." She sighs, walking back to the Homeworld warp pad and placing a device to deactivate the robonoids on the ground. She looks at the water one more time before leaving the planet.
"Stupid promise." Peridot makes a frown and closes her screen while warping herself back.
Once she gets back to Homeworld, there are four gems waiting for her. The diamonds and Lazuli.
"Hi." Peridot waves with a smile, but no one says a thing. The things she gets are crossed arms and angry looks, except for Lapis, who is glad to see her back so soon.
"What were you doing there?" Yellow Diamond steps forward.
"Checking the Cluster?" The green gem steps back.
"All by your own?!" Yellow taps her foot on the ground.
"Well…"
"Without even telling us you were going there!" Yellow shouts.
"What did you have in mind?!" Blue Diamond overreacts.
"I was doing my job." Peridot tries to defend herself.
"Weren't you supposed to be teaching Lapis? Wasn't that you job today?" White Diamond raises an eyebrow. "You committed, didn't you? We went to see your teaching and all we found was Lapis sit on that garden. Next time I saw, you were reporting from Earth!"
Peridot looks at the ocean gem, who looks away from the technician. Lapis doesn't want Peridot to feel guilty, but looking away doesn't work at all to make not blame herself. They were right, Peridot left Lapis behind.
"You didn't tell us you were going there and you went all alone. What if something happened to you?!" Yellow Diamond stares at her daughter.
"I was going to be okay." Peridot crosses her arms.
"How can you be so sure?" White steps forward.
"Because believe in myself." The green gem steps forward too.
"Like if that could save you." Yellow Diamond rolls her eyes.
"I am sure-"
"You are not going back to Earth." White crosses his arms again. "Not like this."
"But I have to check the Cluster!"
"Do everything you can from here. If that doesn't work, you can go back to Earth. But definitely not alone." He looks at Yellow.
"That is okay with me. If you go with your crew."
"My crew doesn't work for Peridot 5XG." The technician makes an angry face.
"So, if the time comes, we will find gems to go with you." Yellow Diamond walks closer to her daughter. "If you leave this planet without our permission again, I will put you in a bubble myself!" She makes an angry face and leaves towards the throne room.
"This ends the topic." White follows Yellow, leaving Blue and Lapis with Peridot.
"What were you thinking, Peridot?" Blue Diamond looks at the green gemling, but not with an angry look like Yellow and White. She looked at her with a concerned face.
"It was a rare opportunity. It took me some time to send a red eye to check the place, send my robonoids to find the warp pad and for them to fix the Homeworld warp... I couldn't wait until the three of you agreed to let me go." Peridot looks away from Blue Diamond.
"Peridot…" Blue makes the technician look at her. "Was that the only reason?"
"Blue Diamond…" Peridot looks at her feet. "I'm sorry."
"For what exactly?" The diamond places her thumb on Peridot's chin, making the gemling rise her head.
The green gem takes a deep breath and closes her eyes. "For leaving Lapis when I know you trusted me to stay with her! For going to a planet I know I shouldn't go alone! For making you worry about me and remember things from the past that hurt you! Sorry!" Peridot shouts, letting everything go. "But…" She rubs her eyes. "I wanted to check the Cluster and know how Earth looks like before… you know."
Blue Diamond caresses Peridot's hair. "Your curiosity always gets in front of your judgement."
"Aren't you mad at me like them?" Peridot holds her own arm.
"Like them? No. But I'm a little bit mad." Blue smiles.
"I knew you would say that." The green gem smiles too.
"Just… don't scare us like that again. You made Yellow freak out a bit."
"I don't know if that was a compliment."
"Definitely not." Blue looks at her daughter, who is watching them talk. Blue knows she wants to talk to Peridot, the diamond is not blind after all. Blue knows they are close, but she pretends to not notice that most of the time.
"I'll see how those two are dealing with your transgression." Blue starts walking away. "You should get back to teaching, now that you are back, Peridot " She waves. "See you two later."
Once Blue Diamond leaves, Lapis just stays where she was the whole time, without saying a word, looking at the floor.
"So, why don't we-" Peridot tries to start a conversation, but she is interrupted by a sudden move coming from the other gem.
"Please don't ever do that again!" Lapis shouts while making fists with her hands.
"What?" Peridot looks at the ocean gem, confused.
"Please, don't leave like that ever again!" Lapis holds back her tears. "I was so scared here! There was no one there with me and I didn't know if you were ever coming back! I remembered everything I lived on that planet and I couldn't believe that I didn't stop you from going! I know this sounds selfish… At first, I didn't want you to go because I was trying to protect something important for me, but, once you were gone, the only thing I could think about was you." Lapis wipes out the tears from her eyes. "I was scared. I thought I would have to live in a Homeworld without you."
Peridot watches the ocean gem while she says everything she wants to say. Sure the technician didn't know what Lapis was trying to protect and she wouldn't ask that now, but Peridot never thought the blue gem would feel so bad because of her actions. Peridot never wanted to make Lapis feel like that.
"There won't be a Homeworld without me." Peridot walks towards Lapis. "I can guarantee." She takes a deep breath. "And I'm sorry. I didn't want you to feel like this."
"It's not your fault. You were doing your job and breaking some rules." Lapis sighs. 'Don't go to Earth alone again." She puts a smile on her face. "Next time, take me with you."
"I'll put your request into consideration." Peridot giggles.
"Did you do everything you had to?" Lapis asks with curiosity.
"No, unfortunately not. I found this." Peridot shows the weird icon to Lapis. "And I promised you I would come back if I founded anything human related."
"You kept your promise…" Lapis takes the icon from Peridot's hand. "Crying Breakfast Friends…" She says underneath her breath.
"What?" Peridot looks at the ocean gem, surprised. "Do you recognize that?"
"Uh… Well… I-" Lapis looks at the green gem. "Y-you know, I stayed on Earth for a long time. I saw lots of human things… from inside the mirror."
"I see." Peridot looks at the sticker. "Humans are weird. I mean, this thing is crying. Why would you want to look at an icon that is crying all the time?" She takes it back and puts on a achieve inside her screen.
"I don't know. Maybe those are some sort of sign to them." Lapis tries to make up a story. She does know what those are. Steven showed her this show when she was inside the mirror, but she never understood why the kid liked that thing.
"Maybe you are right." Peridot starts walking with Lapis right behind her.
"Peridot, you know, I was wondering, this Cluster… is it dangerous?" Lapis tries to get the answer she has been wondering about a lot
"It is not dangerous." Peridot smiles. "Not for us, far away from it."
Those words make Lapis's legs stop from moving. "W-what do you mean?" She asks worried.
"It's a geo-weapon. In other words, it will tear apart the Earth." She takes a deep breath. "One more reason why I wanted to see the planet." She turns to look at Lapis, but the gem is not behind her. She is a few steps back, looking at her shocked.
"What is wrong, Lapis?" Peridot asks concerned.
"Peridot…" Lapis freaks out. She has to save him. "Peridot we have to stop the Cluster!"
"W-what?!" Peridot shakes her head, really confused.
"Let's go." Lapis flies them to the central warp pad the faster she can, but once she tries to activate it, the warp doesn't work. "Why isn't it working?!"
"Lapis!" Peridot holds both the other gem's arms. "What are you doing?"
"We have to stop that weapon! Now!" Lapis tries to get away from Peridot.
"Why? I thought you would be the first to be happy to see that planet destroyed." Peridot makes a confused face.
"No. You don't understand! The human that saved me. I have to save him."
"All of this for just a human?" Peridot rolls her eyes. "Are you kidding?!"
"He's not just a human. Peridot, please, trust me. We have to save him." Lapis starts to cry again.
"Wait. You don't have to cry." Peridot tries to activate the warp again, but it doesn't work either. "What? What is happening?" She taps her foot on the warp pad. "But how is it possible? I just fixed this thing. There were not any life forms around when I was there…" The green gem stares at the blue one.
"Peridot?"
"I don't know what this means and don't think I don't know you are hiding something. I'll ignore that, for now." Peridot sighs. "I'll see what I can do for you and this human. If you are begging for me to stop the Cluster, it probably involves something important that you are not ready to tell." The green gem opens her screen. "I will get some plug robonoids ready to travel." She looks at Lapis, who nods in agreement. "They said I can't go there, but they didn't cancel my mission." Peridot closes her eyes. "I can't destroy the Cluster or stop it, but I can help your friend somehow."
"Thank you for doing it for me. I don't know if I will ever be able to thank you enough for this." Lapis hugs Peridot's neck from the back, making the other gem get embarrassed a little bit.
"O-okay." The green gem clears her throat.
"I ask too much from you." Lapis places her chin on Peridot's shoulder. "Not every gem would ignore their mission to help someone else. Someone trying to protect a human, like I am doing."
"They always said I was different from other gems…" Peridot smiles. "And humans are and always were complicated things for gems because we can't understand them properly. Rose Quartz was so fascinated by them that she started a war to protect the humans and their planet."
"Do you think I am like her?" Lapis sounds scared.
"No. This human helped you and he is not a normal human as well, you said that yourself. We will save this special human and get done with this subject. Maybe we can put him in the zoo. He will be safe from the Cluster there." Peridot looks at the ocean gem. "What do you think about that?"
"It sounds like a good idea. Thanks for doing this for me." Lapis holds Peridot closer. "You are the best gem."
"I'm not. Definitely not the best gem." Peridot smiles.
"From my point of view, you are."
"Lazuli, don't compliment me because I'm helping you out." Peridot makes a frown.
"I'm not saying that because you are helping me. I'm saying that because it's true." She takes a deep breath. "I'm not the only one who thinks that. My mom, for example, I never saw her talking with someone like she talks to you."
"She knows me since I was a kid, I guess its understandable to see her acting like that around me."
"It is not. I guarantee." Lapis smiles.
They stay in silence on that position for some time while Peridot gets the plug robonoids ready.
"They are all in good conditions and ready to go." Peridot looks at Lapis. "Should I send them now?"
"I think you should wait. Something inactivated the warp system from Earth, if it destroys the robonoids, they won't be of any use."
"You are right." The technician takes a deep breath. "I still can't understand how the warp was deactivated so quickly… anyway, once I send the plug robonoids, I'll be able to check the progress of the Cluster and have more specific data. With this data we will know the best time to go without any potential danger. We will be able to get in and out of Earth. We will go there get the human and leave the Cluster to grow."
"It sounds like a good plan." Lapis gets her arms off Peridot.
"I know right? And all of that without the diamonds finding out." Peridot puts a big smile on her face.
"Just, don't say that out loud." Lapis gives her a soft smile. "Someone can hear you."
"Well, this time I'll listen to that advice." Peridot closes her screen. "Let's save the human, Lazuli."
A.n.: Hello!
We are getting where I've been waiting years to write (literally years)
I'm so excited!
Sorry about typos or grammar mistakes.
See you in the next chapter!
