Half a cycle. Half a cycle before Pink picked her up. "How about now?"
Pearl blinked while being held in her diamonds arms. She didn't know where she was allowed to put her own hands, in such a situation. Keeping her arms, therefore, relaxed, looking in front of her, directly into diamond shaped pupils. Pink diamond was holding her on eye level. Pearl questioned carefully.
"Now?"
"Yes!"
Pearl blinked again. She had an inkling what the diamond wanted.
"I could start preparing it, my diamond." Pearl offered for her diamond.
It made Pearl smile a bit just thinking about it. It only took half a cycle, in which her diamond repeated some of the things Pearl said. Immensely enjoying the report she gave. Ever so often Pink would be stopping, eyes shifting from excitement to looking as if in doubt. The brief moment of something that bothered her. The moments passed and Pink would bounce back to talking about the report, going back to being a bundle of movement.
Pearl wasn't sure what exactly was on Pink mind, it had to do with White diamond. It had to do with the reason she was given to her, to begin with. With a single command. Make her happy. So much she knew… and the ...report… she had to find a better word for that, it helped her diamond, it distracted her in a good way.
"Great, start preparing it!" He diamond ordered and Pearl nodded, waiting for her diamond to put her down. The sensation of the order cursing through her gemstone, the eagerness to please her. Her very hands moved on their own, about to try to pray Pearl out of pink diamonds grip. Yet, Pearl could not touch her diamond. It was so not allowed... not in that way. The push of following the order weakening as it was contradicted with Pinks actions.
She waited for Pink diamond to put her down on her own as moment after moment ticked by.
Pink didn't.
The sensation of the spoken order vanishing.
"You need to let me go, my diamond… so I could..." Pink let a small of course as she put Pearl down and with that Pearl turned to leave the room.
"Where are you going?" Her diamond questioned just as the pink door opened for Pearl.
"To prepare the report about the renegade pearl, my diamond… " Pearl calmly answered, turning to look at the pink gem.
Her diamond made the motion as if to stand up, but stopped herself. About to say something, but the words never leaving her. Pearl watched as the PInk gem looked out the balcony and towards the white diamond ship. She looked far away to Pearl... even if they both were in the same room.
"Right...how long will it take?" Her words sounded off, empty yet not empty... FIlled with something...heavy.
One-fourth of a cycle should be just enough.
"Four cycles." Pearl blinked, the words just slipped from her lips… She didn't mean to say that, that was so much more time… She could make a report from another training in much less time...
The thin Jasper words echoed in her memory.
Greedy.
"Ok." Pink diamond nodded, her eyes locked at the ship of White diamond as if awaiting something to happen... "Not like I have anything to do in the next four cycles, right. " She chuckled. It didn't sound like a good happy sound... and Pearl felt something in her light projection off. Like something was pushing right where her chest was. Making it feel too small, restricted… like something clamped on it.
She took the moment to remember the feeling for the future. It was not a good one either.
"...My diamond..." Pearl stepped deeper into the room, unsure what she wanted to do… but Pink waved her hand stopping her.
"Don't." The gem authority took a deep breath, looking slower as she finally looked back at Pearl.
"I want it to be good… If it means… a few cycles. It is worthy. " A clap followed her words. Dismissing Pearl.
So Pearl was once more about to do things she didn't exactly tell her diamond she would be doing…
Half a cycle she was on a mission to find black material. It was actually harder to find a completely black cloth than she ever imagined… Then again… when did she imagine things before the renegade reports?... None came to mind.
Either way, she finally obtained them In the shipyard, after collecting a bunch of cloth that was all too bright. She still stored them in her gem.
A newer gem cut Nephrite helped her. She found it a high honour to do Pink diamonds wishes, carried out by her Pearl. Well, PInk didn't explicitly ask for a black material... but she did ask for renegade reports and this was needed for it.
It was as a direct order from PInk Diamond... Close enough it would be assumed by the other gems without her having to explain anything. The black material stored in her gem together with a white visor, to serve as the white eyes, Pearl found herself returning to pink palace…
She stopped in the hallway leading to Pinks room. Her feet took her back. Pearl had no place where she could make the outfit… she couldn't return to pink before she was done…
Thinking of trying to just make the outfit in the hallway caused Pearl to realise a second problem….
She never made an outfit before. The pebbles would make such things... even her dress she had on at the very moment was made by the pebbles... Her diamond wanted her to have some more colours to her...
Several long moments of just standing in the hallways pearl sighed. In the end, she was just a Pearl.
A capable Pearl.
Still just a Pearl... She could still try. With a bit of help, it could work.
She knocked on the wall right beside her diamond room.
She waited.
Again.
She knocked on the wall right beside her diamond room.
She waited.
Again.
She knocked on the wall right beside her diamond room.
She waited.
Again.
She knocked on the wall right beside her diamond room.
She didn't wait long this time as a pebble shyly cut a hole in the wall to peek at her.
"... Do you want to help me play a game that will make pink happy?"
Another half of the cycle later, Pearl looked around the small room the pebbles made for her. A place for a Pearl. It was absurd and insane. Raising her hand over the head she could touch the ceiling. It was big enough for her to make three steps or comfortably lay down and stretch… A small place reminded her nearly of a box.
It had a table, where the pebbles showed her how they sewed. They were happy to show her how the game of sewing is played.
Beside the table was a hatch of the crawlspace way that leads out of the palace. Stopping just under a massive pipeline carrying the water needed for the extractions. On the other side was the wall that separates the box room for a Pearl, from her diamond personal room. The door towards the hallway was well hidden.
The pebbles wanted to make the outfit for her, to play the sewing game for her.
The renegade wouldn't have pebbles to make her the outfit.
Under the instructing and watchful eyes of the pebbles, Pearl made the outfit with her own two hands. It was oddly satisfying. No wonder Bismuths and Peridots would always try to show off what they made…Pearl felt pride how well the outfit looked, how well she made it look. Like when she would feel pride when she danced especially well for the diamonds. Putting it on was even more satisfying.
Pulling the hood over her head and face, Pearl felt the white visor parts slip over her eyes and her gem in position. Hiding her own. All was hidden. The Visor made her pearl look even whiter, but it didn't obstruct any summoning she tried. She was not limited in any way.
Crawling through the freshly made tunnel was… mind-numbing exciting. Leaving it and being in the shadow of the massive water pipe, was amazing. Looking at the world from a position she never did before. Looking at the world but not being part of its rules.
Pearl was quickly learning to stay in the shadows, where no gems will notice her. To stay high where she can look down on the gems doing their tasks. To walk the streets that cargo was transported because no gem was around those.
Slipping into the kindergarten was already something she could tell pink.
She chuckled, her voice echoing against the long maze-like corridors. She stopped, just listening to the dying echo and the silence that followed. Nothingness. Did the void between the stars like this?
Looking at her own hands she noticed how… well, they appear to melt into the darkness.
Would it make it harder to fight her, when she was hard to spot? She was excited to try it with the thin Jasper.
Pearl found the thin Jasper…
She found her shards in front of the hole in which her weapons were stored.
She blinked.
Beside the shards in the dust gem speak was written.
Pearl felt her knees hit the floor as her eyes read over the words written by some hand that was not used to write.
"Sorry about the lie. I felt I was left with only several moments. Didn't want you to see me shatter. Didn't want you to think a hit from you shattered me. Either. So I send ya away and write this. Sorry for breaking the deal. I Know you will figure it out, Renegade Pearl. Jas "
Pearl read the words aloud to no one. Her voice precise and calmly speaking the words out as she was reading them.
Wet.
Her cheeks were wet, because of her eyes… She… was crying…
Did Pearls cry?
Every gem hit by Blue diamond would cry.
There was no Blue diamond around.
This crying belonged only to her.
It hurt, in an odd way. Nothing like being punched in the face or hit by an axe. Pearl knew… no, no… Pearl was someone other. Renegade knew she was sad for the loss… a loss she never considered. All gems could be replaced. A new gem would simply fill in their post… but here… no replacement existed. No gem will simply fill the thin Jasper position in the old kindergarten.
Every gem was not replaceable…
Every gem...mattered.
Never before did she thought that anyone besides the diamonds was precious. She should have come earlier. She should have thought about the crack more. The Jasper was cracking… and she never even once considered that the training may …. Make her fall apart faster...
Make the little time she had shorter.
Why?
Why did it never crossed her mind?
Scream.
A scream ripped through the maze-like hallways of the old kindergarten.
For the first time, Pearl breathed in the air, tasting the cold and stale...
Her fingers slowly gently picked one of the shards.
She didn't even return to the palace when this shard fell to the ground.
Alone.
Renegade picked all the shards and watched them.
She stood up. Looking around she stored the weapons in her gem as well. Turning away from the message she went deeper into the corridors of the kindergarten.
Renegade was looking for something, at that moment she wasn't quite sure herself for what. Something was driving her. A...a need. Pearls don't have needs besides the need to serve...
Was she trying to serve the shards?
She was going deeper and deeper. Till she saw it.
A wide open room, a bigger opening, with a sole pillar in the middle. Right there, in the bottom of the pillar a hole with the right height and nearly the right wideness.
She knew it wasn't the thin Jasper hole but… It fitted her. Moving carefully, she crawled into it, all the way to the back wall.
She shifted all the shards into one hand and started to use the other to dig a small hole.
Renegade pearl was feeling the dirt and dust rubbing against her black glove. She removed the glove and felt the dirt now getting stuck under her fingers. That felt better. Fitted more.
She placed the shards carefully in it, trying to arrange them back into the shape of the thin Jasper gem. With the last shard placed into its rightful spot, Renegade gently covered it with the dirt. It felt right. Right here she could be close to her…
Ax was the weapon Pearl trained with next. Again and again, trying to be better.
Swinging the axe, and imagining all the times showing an opening would have to get her kicked to the floor. She jumped, dodged, throwing herself left and right as she tried to swing the weapon as hard as possible.
Again and again.
Pushing herself.
Not stopping.
Unable to stop, fighting a fight with things that were not there. Slashing them, again.
Tired.
She knew what she had to do, all records for gems made were kept. Storing it into the gem archive. The thin Jasper told her her gem cut… and her partner's gem cut. The deal could still be completed in some way.
Pearl knew if she requests information in Pinks name she would get them… but… the Renegade could not just say Pink diamond wishes for... and get it. She would have to break in the archive and obtain them on her own. With her own two hands. This was something she had to do. On her own.
With a goal in mind, she only had two cycles left to complete it.
"Thank you. I will be back." She said aloud, giving a wave to the hole she buried the thin Jasper shards in.
She will figure it out.
She will.