(The day of "Mindful Education" and two days after "Buddy's Book")
Amber knew something had been off about these 'fireflies.'
Her assumptions paid off when she flapped her hand back and forth as if to slap a nearby light away, only for said light to not just stay perfectly in place but instantly transfer piecemeal images and sounds through her mind's eye like a torrent! She'd barely noticed herself falling back, let alone Amethyst and Peridot catching her.
Just as she expected. These lights contained memory and only one Gem type could pull this off.
Needless to say, the camping trip wound up cut short.
The trio wasted no time sharing the details with Steven after he returned from hanging out with his dad who'd picked him up from the library earlier, as well as with Pearl and Garnet - Peridot sent a text to the fusion's number (i.e. Kofi's stolen phone) via tablet – who showed up a few minutes after him. Peridot made a mental note to tell Lapis, too, once back at the barn.
"There's no mistaking this," Pearl confirmed once everyone gathered and received the details (almost all of them at least) from the trio, "those were messages sent by Ambers."
"Really?" Steven asked his seat on the couch. "How do you know?"
"Remember," Pearl explained, "they can transmit the data they contain to anyone and anything that can assimilate it, like a computer or another Gem, even if the recipient can't display it." Speaking of which, she projected a simple diagram of an Amber emitting glowing orbs from her gemstone. "As for this method, the Ambers on our side often used it as a means of secretively sending messages to one another."
Amber angled her phone so Steven, Amethyst, and Peridot could see. Rose refamiliarized me way back when during a discussion over signals we could use to communicate more safely. We did the same with the other Ambers afterward. She paused a moment and added, Results varied.
"But…you just said any other Gem could get a hold of an Amber's message and see it, right?" Amethyst pointed out. "Couldn't Homeworld use that against you guys?"
Crossing her arms, Garnet smirked. "That's just it. They never could."
"Our Ambers," Pearl continued with a matching grin, "had the ingenuity to mask their message lights by having them move about the sky like bioluminescent Earth insects." She tapped her chin in thought. "Fireflies, I believe they're called. Homeworld never considers organic life after all."
An awed 'wow' escaped Steven; Peridot and her reasoning were not so easily placated. "That still wouldn't account for the possibility of an enemy Gem – like say a surveying Agate or Peridot – stumbling into one of those lights by accident."
"That's why the Ambers only sent off spoken messages. Not only that, they made sure to use Earth languages other than English, languages only someone well-versed in them could understand."
Peridot lit up in understanding, impressed. "Which meant only certain Crystal Gems could translate them."
"And certain humans too if we needed help translating," Garnet added.
Before Peridot ask again, Pearl beat her to the punch. "As for how the messages found their way to the destinations, the Ambers imprinted memories of the cut and facet engraved in the recipient's gemstone so a message could arrive without mistake or fail."
"Ah," the technician voiced again, "similar to how IP packets sent over a network will have the destination address so that they'll know where to go! Fascinating."
"However, these messages ran the risk of fizzing out the further they went, so sometimes Ambers along the way had to act like amplifiers, which involved notifying each other ahead of time to prevent confusion. That is unless they were close enough to avoid needing to do that altogether – and it would only be logical to assume that's what they did in this case."
Garnet nodded in solemn agreement. "Hence why we should prepare as soon as possible." She directed a firm gaze to Amber. "What exactly did you see?"
Her golden friend shrugged. Just pictures and sounds.
Peridot crossed her arms and hummed. "As did Amethyst and I after we reached out ourselves." On second thought, she tapped her chin and backtracked. "Well not so much pictures as much as moving snippets of whatever the viewers –clearly the Treasure Ambers – were seeing."
Basically, like a movie then. At that thought, Steven turned to the yellow and green Gems, curious. "Sooo what did you guys see?"
The camping trio shared a look and wince at the question, silently debating how to best answer. At last, Amber sighed in solemn reluctance and presented her phone once more. It looked like they were running away from their own.
Heavy silence tinged with concern followed in contrast to the storm of questions raging through everyone's heads until Steven broke it in a worried squeak.
"You mean…like they're scared of them? Shouldn't they be sticking together?"
"With each other yes," Garnet supplied in a grim tone, "with those who aren't Ambers…that might be another story."
Pearl gasped with a hand to her mouth and shot her eyes to the maroon fusion. "You don't think the Corrupted Gems they've been harboring are the cause, do you?"
"It's a strong possibility." Especially if Jasper's relentless collection efforts had stirred enough trouble to warrant a rift of opinion. "If they are coming for the reason we believe, we'll need to prioritize the safety of both Beach City and, if such is the case, the new Corrupted Gems."
Steven hopped off the couch. "What about the Ambers? Shouldn't we help them settle things with each other?"
Uncomfortable gazes passed between everyone else, only this time with something even heavier. At last, Pearl shook her head. "We're still not completely sure of their situation, so it's likely our interference would just complicate things. They've avoided us whenever we showed up at their forest after all."
Okay, understandable. Still, though, Steven felt they could at least do something to help. He turned to Amber next, face twisted in desperate compassion. "Don't you think we should help them? I mean…"
As the boy trailed off at a lost for what to say for a convincing argument, Amber blinked in surprise at being addressed for a course of action, but the molehog regathered her wits and sighed. Homeworld rears its Ambers to fear not just isolation but everything around them. Even those of us born on Earth couldn't fully escape that conditioning.
That last sentence sparked a memory in the young hybrid. "Oh right! Amethyst mentioned you being from Earth during your pep talk, right?" After the beach fight with Jasper in fact. At Amber's curious look, he chuckled with a bashful rub at his nape. "She said that part pretty loud."
Amber nodded. Add in how those of us with the Crystal Gems had our feelings downplayed and the baggage of losing and having to regain our sense of self thanks to corruption and who knows what else your mother did…
Enough said. Steven got the message, evident when he hung his head in morose thought. Was this another of his mother's crimes he'd have to deal with? A familiar triangle-faceted palm pressed into his curly black locks in a gesture of comfort.
"Ambers are tougher and braver than others credit them to be. These ones are willing to bring their friends all the way here, even if doing so means defying their own. All we can do is put their worries to rest by doing what we can for the Gems they bring to us."
Even the most stubborn optimist could see through Garnet's confident front. Things never went simple or clean wherever the Crystal Gems wound up involved. Still, the seriousness of this situation lied nowhere near the cataclysmic nightmares they'd endured before (yet) so Steven took comfort in that thought and smiled regardless.
Seconding that emotion, Amethyst sat up. "I guess they're gonna send Sparky some more of those twinkle-messages so that we'll know when and where to pick up their buds then? Cuz it ain't like those Ambers can just stroll up and just knock on our door in broad daylight."
Good point.
Steven realized another one as he pursed his lips in thought. "There's still one thing I don't get. If the Ambers don't trust us and don't want the other Gems around them anymore, why contact us then?" A tap on the shoulder directed his attention back to Amber.
Remember the electrical storms I caused at Prime to get your attention?
Peering the text over Steven's shoulder, Garnet hummed to herself. "Yes. The fight between you and Lilac." Everyone sans Pearl and Amber cast confused gazes at her. "The Corrupted Gem Pearl and Amethyst found at the Prime Kindergarten, right before we all went to see Amber."
The golden Gem nodded. Lilac and I had history together; plus, I had good authority from Rose that she had recovered enough coherence to follow plans. In short, she was my safest bet at my plan working out smoothly.
"Only one problem: she was with the Treasure Ambers, wasn't she?"
Got it in one, Garnet. Amber nodded with a frown. Most of my sisters weren't in the mood for explanations – nor have 'you do you' in their vocabulary.
Most? Noting everyone's confusion, Amber took a breath to brace herself. After my fallout with Rose, I grew worried about how the Gems under my fellow Ambers' care were faring. When I finally managed to sneak in and asked the Corrupted Gems, I discovered my sisters at Treasure fell into a dispute amongst each other that apparently started after Rose visited by herself.
Oh dear, Steven did not like the sound of that. "Does that mean the other Ambers been mistreating them since then?" he asked in a timid tone. Amber's hesitant shrug did not help.
Maybe, maybe not. According to Lily, most of the Ambers had been distancing themselves from her and them for a while now. They said they're worried about getting kicked out.
'Kicked out'? Pearl and Garnet shared an apprehensive look at the wording.
"Hang on," Peridot piped up, "then you two could have only been chased down if some of the other Ambers had been assisting you in the first place, which frankly doesn't make sense. Why not let you and your friend run off anyway and make it easier for everybody?"
To the technician's surprise, her question earned a scoff from Amber.
If they had been helping, Lily and I wouldn't have been running into their family disputes left and right, let alone getting dragged into them! Turns out what inspired last night's lightshow wasn't the minority's first attempt at moving their guests someplace else.
"So, they were behind all those electrical storms throughout Delmarva and the neighboring states last month," Pearl surmised.
"And the fact their wards haven't appeared at our doorstep yet means they're mostly likely being stored someplace safe," Garnet added. Only more proof backing Amber's assertion (a vague estimate but better than nothing) and why the Crystals best be prepared for a response soon. She looked back to her quilled companion. "One more question though: how did you two even shake them off?"
For some reason, Amber blushed. The 'how' sort of happened by accident. The 'kick-everyone-but-us-out' Ambers drove us straight into Prime and I was running pretty low on power. One close call led to another and…Lilac and I may have fused without realizing.
Surprise and awe swept through the others! Then again, if Corrupted Gems could fuse with non-Corrupted Gems like Jasper then why not with each other?
Pearl tapped her chin, deeply fascinated by this revelation. "And here I thought all those marks were just from the two of you staging a fight."
That'd been the original plan at least. Fortunately, the other Ambers got so spooked by our fusion's abilities that they scampered off. The molehog ran a hand down her snout. Complicated my plan to get your guys' attention, that's for sure. If everything back in Treasure had stayed hunky-dory, I would have gladly just picked a random Gem closer to Beach City and called it a day.
But nope, she just had to check just to quell her own nagging thoughts. Once again, Amber shook her head. Maybe Amethyst wasn't wrong about her being too nice for her own good. As if on cue, a purple fist connected with her shoulder, prompting the organic rock to look up at her fellow Earth Gem.
"Dude, c'mon. You may not be sayin' it, but I can tell you're beating yourself up over it. They're the ones making a big mess of things by not just agreeing to disagree and doing what works best for everyone."
Wow. Amber didn't think her train of thought had been that obvious. Regardless, she couldn't help but wonder if this development would have still happened, let alone escalated to such an extent, had she stayed away. A soft chubby hand atop her clawed one broke the self-deprecating line of thought and drew her attention to Steven's soft-as-marshmallow smile and empathetic eyes.
"They stuck together a long time before this, right? There's no way they'll let all this get between them. Not forever! I just know they'll fix things up!"
Though the words were genuine, Amber could not overlook the flicker of trepidation flashing across the young boy's eyes – or the way his voice clipped on 'know', as if he were trying to convince himself as well. The molehog had no time to further ponder this detail before Amethyst draped a thick purple arm around her shoulders.
"Heck yeah, man! Now how's about we move past all this gloomy junk and break out the s'mores? We didn't even get to sit back and snack on any durin' the lightshow!"
Of course. Amber shook her head but smiled in good humor while Steven chuckled a little more at ease.
Maybe the young ones were right: perhaps things would turn out just fine.
XXX
Two days later…
Nope, things did not turn out fine at all.
In fact, they were so much the opposite of fine that they warranted immediate surgery, just like the boy at school unfortunate enough to bump into the young girl currently approaching Steven's home.
I can't believe I did that. I cannot believe I did that. Any other day, such thoughts would have sent her surfing a wave of euphoria and pride. Today that wave held only regret and shame. Oceans of regret and shame. So lost in thought, Connie jumped when something soft nudged her arm and shot her head to the left in reflexive panic – only to relax upon seeing a familiar yellow dog, ladybug backpack in tow.
"O-Oh. Hey, didn't see ya there." When the Gem dog gave her a head tilt of curiosity, she waved her off. "I'm okay. School was just a little rough. What about you?"
Amber shuffled her front paws in nervous silence. Connie offered a sympathetic smile and pat on the head in response. "Guess today's been rough on both of us, huh?"
Fair enough, Amber supposed. Waiting for crucial messages could be considered 'rough' in its own way. Mostly she'd been hanging outside (most at times at the Temple, otherwise back home so as not to worry her family), trying hard not to let the what-ifs eat away at her. Overall, she'd been in this weird limbo between wary ritualism and nebulous anxiety.
The gold canine noticed the sword and sheath on the girl's back and gestured her snout to said items.
"Hmm? Oh yeah, I have lessons with Pearl and Steven today." Which she should count herself lucky to still have the privilege to attend after what just happened today, fallout included. "A-Anyway, you going to join in, too?"
Tempting as the idea was, Amber shook her head. The 'why' didn't take long to dawn on Connie. "Oh, that's right. Steven texted me this morning about the situation with the other Ambers. I hope it works out for them." With that, she walked up the steps and knocked on the door, the dog close behind in hopes one of the Crystals were here so they could switch turns and she could take a nap in turn.
The moment Connie knocked and the door in turn opened, both girl and dog stared at Steven – and his 'baldness' – in silence. His cockily delivered "Nice weather today" and leaning posture against the doorframe fell flat as Connie responded with a distracted blank "Yep" and strolled inside right past him, Amber in suit yet eyeing Steven's fashion choice out of curiosity.
Eyes swishing back and forth awkwardly, Steven fancied one last effort at humor. "Sooo Amber, I'm sure you've noticed my latest predicament," he pocketed his hands and leaned sideways towards the yellow Gem with one leg bent and the other sticking out, wearing an expectant smile. "Got any advice?"
Amber blinked behind her canine mop hair and pulled out a cellphone from her backpack. Work on your comedic timing perhaps?
Steven winced but got the message. Admitting the mood at last, he removed the fake scalp and tossed it aside with a wary sigh before approaching Connie, who was silently rummaging through her bag for her training equipment. Rubbing his arm, he bit the bullet. "Everything okay?"
Connie raised her head with a distracted 'hmm' before swiveling around in surprise with a plastered smile. "O-Oh yeah! Everything's fine! You ready for training today?"
"T-Totally! Uh, before we do, are you sure nothing's —"
As fate would dictate, Pearl and Garnet just happened to warp in at that very moment. Amber purposefully stayed silent throughout the rest of everyone's conversation in favor of closely observing the kids' body language. Just as the yellow Gem suspected, Connie wasn't the only one exhibiting evasive behavior. Amber had handled enough children over the centuries to discern Steven's excessive attempts to lighten the mood (and she could fathom a suspicion or two as to why).
Except Steven wasn't her child. She could only hope Garnet and Pearl had caught on as well.
"You're free to join us if you like." Pearl's voice startled Amber back to the physical world. The molehog shuffled nervously at suddenly becoming the center of attention. "It has been a while since our last session together and Garnet and I were just discussing ways to acclimate it more to your comfort. We were hoping to have your input."
Oh! Oh wow.
Amber alternated gazes between the door and her friends. Pearl's offer did sound like it could serve helpful…but what would happen if one of the Treasure Ambers showed up in the meantime? Would they simply leave the Corrupted Gems behind? Would they know where to leave them? What if—
Warmth from a hand inlaid with a square-facet stone drew her attention to Garnet.
"You can wait out here 'til Stevonnie finishes their training if you prefer. We can talk then."
Stevonnie? Ah yes, Steven and Connie's fusion, someone Amber hadn't yet the pleasure of meeting but heard of plenty during her own training sessions. As an enthusiastic nod from Pearl accompanied Garnet's offer, the yellow Gem gave a few moments' thought and then nodded as well in gratitude for her friends' understanding.
However, as she watched Steven and Connie warp away together with their mentors, Amber felt the parental anxiety kick back in. Something happened with Connie earlier at school and was eating away at her – and Amber would willingly bet on her secret stash of marshmallows Steven stood in a similar boat himself, albeit a huger one on account of everything on his shoulders.
At all these thoughts, Amber shuffled her paws nervously again. Perhaps she should wait right by the Pad for them…
The molehog hastily shook her head. No. No, she had a job to do. Besides, Steven and Connie had gotten on just fine before she came along. They could help each other sort out whatever was bothering the other, and on the off-chance they ever asked for her help—
A snack. That's what she needed to take her mind off everything right now, so she reached pivoted towards the door, intent on a quick stop at home to whip up something quick and—
KNOCK! KNOCK!
A few quills jutted off her back at the startling noise! Hardly a second of tense silence followed before the knocks repeated, more urgent this time. Whoever stood behind that door would not wait. Didn't help that Amber in all her shortness couldn't see anybody through the front door's screen…except for what appeared to be green spiked hair.
Wait, that isn't hair, Amber realized in dread. Acting on sheer impulse she wrenched the door open and found herself face to face with a near-identical green version of her corrupted self. The main differences, besides the color, were the windswept spikes and vitiligo – and exhaustion. Sheer, sheer exhaustion that showed in how they swayed, struggling to hold the brown burlap bag that Amber just noticed now in their fanged mouth.
Shocked, she reached a tentative paw. Her fellow Amber collapsed into her and poofed right in her arms, the bag spilling out in turn dozens of iridescent resin-coated gemstones that clattered among the wooden floor. Amber held the cabochon in her paws, utterly gobsmacked.
Well then. Hello, questions continuing to pile up.
Amber took a moment to take everything in and sighed long and tiredly. Relax, she chanted to herself, relax.
She silently gathered resin inside her throat and spat it onto the other amber, issuing a silent apology before rolling it around in her hands to cover it completely in the substance. After setting it on the coffee table, she got to work regathering the other gemstones into the bag, trying her best not to think about the implications of the timing.
Her stupid brain drifted to the implications anyway. A frustrated sigh escaped before she shapeshifted back into her 'regular' form (nobody else would be visiting today so no reason to keep up the disguise) and sagged into the couch.
Well at least she had time to figure out how to best break what just happened to the others.
TWING!
Or not. Amber swiveled around at the Warp Pad's activation. Their training couldn't have finished already – and apparently it never did for when Garnet appeared with the kids, Connie appeared ready to run away and Steven to chase after her should his friend choose so. Thinking fast, the molehog snatched the other Amber and hastily stuffed it into the bag, which she then proceeded to toss behind the side of the couch facing away from the Pad, before the others could notice.
It wouldn't do to add this development on top of all the worries already burdening these kids.
No luck with Garnet. The fusion looked up and fixed a significant gaze on the shorter rock. "Amber, could you wait for me a little longer? I need a talk with Connie and Steven first."
Translation: these two need a lesson on emotional honesty in their relationship (Fusion 101) and avoid crumbling apart like a cookie in milk. The yellow Gem nodded without question, although still fixed a concerned gaze as the trio passed her on their way outside.
Thankfully for the molehog, Pearl arrived not long after with sword in hand and unease in expression, leaving little time for any further anxieties to take over.
"Amber! Garnet told me there won't time left for the lesson today after her conversation with Stevonnie, so I figured why not invest the lost time in you instead?" She noticed her friend's on-edge state and hastily amended. "That is, as long you feel ready for it!"
In truth, the offer sounded like what Amber needed to take her mind off recent events. The molehog just about told Pearl exactly that until a sound caught her ear: singing? Subconsciously, Amber moved to approach the sound until a lithe pale hand took her shoulder.
"Ah…it'd be best to leave them for now. These sorts of talks work best without interference – that is of course unless you'd like to wait for a turn."
Oh right. Garnet's counseling sessions. I had no intentions of doing that. It's just been such a while since I experienced something similar with Garnet, I suppose I just wanted to be reacquainted with the process.
Pearl pulled back with a surprised yet understanding smile. "Oh! Well like I said, you're free to wait your turn if you'd like. In fact, that was part of what she and I wanted to discuss with you. Honestly, I'm surprised you two hadn't done one sooner."
Consider the feeling shared. Looking back, Amber wondered if she should feel foolish for not taking the offer before now. Garnet suggested it once, giving me what she's giving Stevonnie right now, but I already meditate on a regular basis. Even now in between her lookout vigils. Besides, I'd always been under the assumption these sorts of talks worked best for fusions.
Fair enough, Pearl mused with a chuckle. "Can't really blame you for thinking that. On the contrary, I have good authority from Garnet that these talks can work for singular Gems, too!"
To say the offer tempted Amber would be an understatement. The urge to procrastinate, put off dropping the bombshell literally right next to them, weighed heavy as though the molehog were carrying an entire asteroid bareback. Just a bit longer in peace. Just…
…think of just…flexibility, love, and trust
And cue the irony-laced facepalm. Damn it, Garnet and Stevonnie. Of all the times for an inadvertent guilt trip, ugh! Amber emitted a frustrated huff before reluctantly facing Pearl once more, dark eyes glancing the top of that accursed gemstone-filled bag for a hot second. Might as well rip the bandage sooner than later.
Actually. There's one little thing you should probably know about first.
XXX
Steven gets a turn at the trauma train the next day because hey there hidden mental scarring. Connie (a la Stevonnie) winds up along for the ride because Fate is a lady mutt.
Understandably the news has to take a backseat for now: 1) because Amber, Garnet (who figured Amber's news cuz Garnet), and Pearl (now properly notified) are still recovering from their nonexistent heart-attacks and 2) because, well, bringing up the topic of possibly confronting a group of incensed mentally wounded rocks doesn't seem like an appropriate follow-up to seeing your kids literally walk off a cliff.
At the least, Stevonnie seemed pretty put-together – literally and metaphorically – after the three Gems dashed down (read: Garnet leaping off the side carrying Pearl and Amber bridal style) to the pastures far below to assess any mind-wrenching damage to their ward.
Yeah, maybe telling the kids could wait until tomorrow.