Having a pearl at her beck and call only served to put more eyes on Jasper whenever she went out, regardless of whether she actually had PB doing anything. One of those pairs of eyes, of course, was PB's own. She was always staring and Jasper could feel her trying to take cues from Jasper's body language. To an outsider it must have looked like an admirable bit of attentiveness to her gem, but PB was so stiff that unless Jasper gave her an express assignment she was in the way.

The only reason she didn't leave her pearl at home was that, even working from memory alone, PB had an uncanny mind for detail. As Jasper began the tedious process of interviewing refugees to figure out what had happened to their missing gems, she found that PB took exceptionally thorough notes when armed with a screen. With detailed records of all of her interviews at her disposal, Jasper's search for Homeworld's countless missing gems was actually feasible.

She was put under the supervision of a stern Plume Agate who largely oversaw the direction of her work. A few weeks into her investigations, Plume Agate took her to meet with a starstruck Imperial Topaz.

"I'd be happy to go over my records with you, of course," the Topaz was saying, "But you have to understand… Gem shard identification is hardly a precise science. We've requisitioned a number of Kindergarteners to help ID the remains that we have but it's still looking quite bleak."

Jasper kneaded her brow with a low growl. "Fine. Show me what you do have, we can cross-reference it with my own research. That should turn up something."

Before Imperial Topaz led Jasper away to the shard cache where her physical reports were, Plume Agate pulled Jasper aside for a quick word. "Be on your best behavior in there," she warned, "I'll hear about it if you do anything… out of turn."

"I'm treating this assignment very seriously," Jasper assured her and followed Imperial Topaz down an enclosed walkway that sloped into the ground. PB followed, uninvited but unimpeded.

They stopped before the great door to the vault as the Topaz's hand hovered over the touchpad. "I should warn you, it's not pretty in here. I-it's too much for most gems." Her gaze wavered over Jasper and PB.

"I'm not most gems," Jasper growled. "Open it, we have work to do." The idea that a battle hardened quartz such as herself would be squeamish in the presence of shattered gems was, simply put, an insult.

The shard cache was comprised of a single circular room. Shining workstations surrounded beams of soft, green light that held groups of gem shards in stasis. On the walls were large interstellar murals depicting gem life and death in a myriad of colors and precious stones. Other Topazes and a few Kindergarteners huddled around the workstations, deep in their own investigations, and their hushed voices filled the vault with eerie whispers. It was a somber and chilling sight.

"Here we do our best to identify the shards found on the battlefield before returning them to the ground," Topaz explained, all business as she led them to the central workspace where a huge mass of gem shards lay suspended in light. PB peeked out at the room from Jasper's elbow, face pale and eyes wide. "Our list of confirmed identities is, lamentably, short."

Topaz pulled the list up from the central archive and stepped aside to allow Jasper to look. It comprised of less than a dozen names.

"Seriously?" Jasper scoffed, "This is it?"

Topaz only nodded.

Jasper clenched her jaw. "Fine, show me what else you have. Pearl!"

At her back, PB snapped out of the daze she had fallen into at the sight of the hundreds of gem shards before her and for a moment she only stared at Jasper in bewilderment. When she did take the hint and moved forward to transfer the information on the screen to her tablet, Jasper put a hand on her narrow back and hissed "Don't embarrass me here." She waited just long enough for her Pearl to respond with a soft sound of acknowledgement before turning to allow Topaz to lead her around.

The gem shards were indexed by where they were retrieved and then by type. They spent a fair amount of time cross referencing Topaz's index with Jasper's accounts of the last known locales of missing gems. Pearl quietly directed Jasper's attention to the relevant entries and Jasper, in turn, ignored the smug energy coming off of her.

Even after commandeering the expertise of the kindergarteners, they were there for hours with little progress. Eventually, she had to step away just so she didn't have to keep looking at the sheer futility of it all. The more time she spent on this dead-end assignment, the clearer it became that more likely than not Homeworld would never recover even a fraction of their lost and shattered.

PB appeared at her side with her tablet clutched against her chest like a shield. "Is there anything I can get you?" she asked, barely audible.

Jasper's jaw tightened and she bared her teeth in irritation. "Yeah, how about some space?" she growled.

The Pearl stiffened as if Jasper had turned her to ice. Behind them, Topaz and her associates politely ignored the uncomfortable tension building around Jasper and spoke quietly among themselves. PB backed away from Jasper to stand adrift on her own and silently fixed her eyes on the portable screen, presumably to busy herself organizing and cross-referencing the new data.

The hum of the light fields dulled the other sounds in the room, a constant numbing buzz that sent chills through Jasper's form if she got too close. With a deep sigh, she leaned heavily against a console.

There was a loud creak as the entire workstation shifted suddenly under Jasper's weight and the field of light flickered precariously.

"No, be careful!" Topaz shouted and came running from across the vault as Jasper jumped away from the console.

It was too late. The workstation fell back into place with a crash and with its base interfered with, the light field failed and a hundred gem shards crashed to the floor.

"Oh, stars, grab them!" Topaz yelled and dropped to her knees to scoop up an armful of gem shards that had already begun to shiver toward any sort of cover. The vault erupted into chaos. The other gems dove to the floor to catch the shards that had fallen nearest to them, Jasper scooped up an entire handful and slammed her foot down in front of a crevice in the machinery to keep others from scurrying underneath.

"Fill the other light holds," Topaz was saying, "Be quick, we need to catch all of them!" Jasper followed her direction and shoved her handful of gem shards into one of the still functioning light holds and prepared to go after another cluster of the things. In the midst of the chaos, PB stood still as a statue until Topaz grabbed her by the front of her capelet and shoved her toward a couple of shards that had wandered away from the main group, screaming as she did so for the Pearl to make herself useful.

Jasper had little time to feel anger at the scene as PB stumbled after the stray gem shards and struggled to keep them clasped in her hands. The commotion slowly died down, but not before the cache door opened and Plume Agate entered. She immediately balked at the chaos in the room but Imperial Topaz quickly shouted over her to shut the doors and directed her to drop to her knees and help.

they were all panting and groping around under the machinery for gem shards. "Is that all of them, did you check everywhere?" Topaz kept asking, her voice quickly grating against Jasper's nerves. She was about to snap at the other gem when there was a flash of light and a crunching noise.

Everyone in the room froze as the console Jasper had disrupted shuddered. An arm of coiled wire shot out from the machine and shoved Jasper against the wall with a sickening crash. Instinctively, she brought both fists down hard on the arm with such force that the wire and metal splintered and she fell to the ground. The other gems in the room were panicking and shrieked as the shard-possessed console pushed itself up off the ground, its panels cracking and glowing like eyes.

Jasper grabbed and twisted the mechanical arm to keep the beast from taking a swing at the room full of technicians. "Everyone who's never fought before get out!" she hollered. All but a few technicians ran for the door. The rest turned to Plume Agate and Topaz for direction. Jasper's attention was taken momentarily by PB shakily backing herself into a corner. With a flick of its arm, the console beast sent her sprawling across the room with a grunt. Around her, blasters were drawn and aimed at the beast.

It gave Jasper time to scramble toward PB. Her Pearl was frozen, paralyzed in the face of a danger she'd never seen before. Jasper grabbed her and shoved her toward the door. "Get out of here," she hissed, "Go home."

"B-but—"

"Now!" She dragged PB to the door and shoved her out into the hallway herself. "Before you get in the way."

The door shut behind her and Jasper was more than happy to assume that PB had obeyed. At the moment, there was no time for anything but assumptions. Plume Agate was having the kindergarteners fan out with their blasters to keep the console beast from moving around the room and causing more damage. She glanced at Jasper still near the door and snarled "Get back in there! Make yourself useful, Beta!"

Jasper set her jaw and rushed at the beast. Plume Agate pulled a whip from the gem on her chest and cracked it at the beast, catching the wiry arm of the living console and pulling the beast off-balance. Jasper summoned her helmet with a flash of light and dove under the legs of the console. She punched through the metal plating and peered inside as the thing tried to throw her off again. The glow of the lights inside made it hard to pick out the gem shards' own light and she had to squint to make them out even with her eyes covered by a visor.

There were four shards controlling the lifeless metal and wire in tandem like some freakish fusion.

Jasper plunged her hand through the hole she had made to grab at the shards. The entire console shuddered when she ripped them out. Metal creaked and bolts fell from the beast. The entire construction collapsed to the ground before Jasper could roll free and she hit the ground beneath a mountain of rubble with a loud grunt. The other gems jumped back to avoid the crash.

A moment of stillness followed as they all waited to be sure it was over. Jasper lifted herself off the ground and shrugged off the broken machinery. The stone tile was cracked and dented where she had landed. The look on Plume Agate and Imperial Topaz's faces were drawn with barely concealed rage. Imperial Topaz came forward with an upturned palm to receive the gem shards. Her hand folded into a tight fist as soon as Jasper dropped them into her palm.

"As if we needed another mess to clean up," the Topaz griped to Plume Agate, a disgusted look on her face. "I guess all Betas are the same." Jasper sneered at the comment, but the Agate's sharp look silenced any retort before she could think of one. Instead, she picked herself up and dusted off debris. The cache was a mess, but she wasn't hurt. No one was.

It was clearer than before that Jasper – a Beta quartz of all things – didn't belong there sifting through the remains of Homeworld's army. She moved to start clearing the debris. "Let me help, uh…"

"No!" Imperial Topaz cut her off, spinning back around with her fist still clenched tight around the gem shards. To Jasper's surprise, she shook a finger at Plume Agate. "I've had enough 'help' from Yellow Diamond's pity case. If she's sent here again, your gem is the one I'm coming for, Agate. This is a sacred place, get her out of here."

Amid a flurry of simpering apologies, Plume Agate ushered Jasper out of the room, leaving others to clean up the mess. She did not even stop to banish her whip and kept it wound tightly in her hand. Jasper tensed for a dressing down but as soon as the door to the shard cache shut behind them Plume Agate turned toward Jasper and slapped her across the face with the coiled whip hard enough to make her stagger.

"You worthless, cobbled-together chunk of sand," Plume Agate hissed, punctuating each insult with another blow.

Jasper braced herself and crossed her arms over her chest in a salute. "It was an accident," she grimaced.

"Oh, you Earth gems are full of excuses." Plume Agate grabbed the front of Jasper's uniform and shoved her back several paces. "You're an embarrassment to Pink Diamond's legacy! Those gems gave their lives on Earth. They're the only reason you're standing here."

"I'm sorry, Plume Agate," Jasper insisted, arms still crossed. The side of her face stung so bad it made her eyes water.

Her Agate scoffed. "Not yet, Beta. But you will be," she said, her eyes dark with fury. She wrenched Jasper's arm and forced her down the corridor. "Walk. You're in for a dizzying debriefing."