Wow, I've been really slacking off. Good news is I'm not dead yet! In fact I've been working on obtaining an internship at Cartoon Network with my professors. In case you haven't seen it yet, SPOILER ALERT! So here we go *I DO NOT OWN POKEMON OR STEVEN UNIVERSE*
As Serena and Clemont looked down in shame from their seats on the couch, Jamie paced back and forth in front of them.
"So let me get this straight, you both found out that Lapis is pregnant with Ash's child. And instead of telling him, you've both chose to keep him in the dark."
"No!" Serena finally spoke up. "I thought we've been over this, we've decided to tell him, but we just need to know the best way to. We just don't know how to tell him."
"Well if this were a script, I would've just kept him in the dark for a little bit longer to build suspense. However, Ash is one of my closest friends. Hell, he's the reason why I have you guys in my life." Jamie said sitting on the sofa next to Serena and wrapping his arm supportively around her. "Just go to the Temple and tell him."
"And tell him what?" she asked him with a voice crack, "Sorry to bother you Ash, but I was stalking your beloved the night she abandoned you, found out you knocked her up, and if she has your kid she's gonna die."
"Don't say "if"." Clemont warned her, "that would just freak him out even more."
"No offense Clemont, but you look even more freaked out than anyone ever could right now." Jamie reminded the nervous wreck of the trainer. "Just tell Ash by tonight, or I'll tell him for you."
"Hold still Pikachu, this won't take much longer." Ash told the pokemon laying on the kitchen counter.
"Hey Ash," James announced walking into the kitchen "I'm going to-WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?" he exclaimed once he saw what he was doing. Pikachu was laying on his back on top of the kitchen counter, and Ash was putting a diaper on him.
"I, uh," he stuttered in an attempt at trying to explain the bizarre sight without revealing Lapis's pregnancy. "Pikachu's been having "accidents" lately."
James just stared at him and without a word, walked out the door.
He sighed in relief. Since the previous night's encounter there was a lot of tension amongst them as both Ash and Steven tried to come to term with what they discovered about Lapis and Pearl.
"PIKA-CHUUUUUU!" the pokemon screeched in pain as he released an electric shock in response to Ash having poked him with the pin.
"Alright, maybe we can try later." he coughed through the pain. He then turned his attention to Steven on the couch. "You sure about asking her?"
Steven sighed. "I have to Ash. What if she really did shatter Pink Diamond? What if this is all because of her? What if they've been lying to me, to us, all this time?"
Before Ash could answer, the door opened and Amethyst and Pearl entered.
"I can't believe you've had your phone for a month and haven't used it like at all!" Amethyst playfully scolded her.
"That's not true! I use it to tell the time."
"Sigh," she spoke aloud in annoyance. "Come here P." she then said sitting at the bar in the kitchen and snatching the cell phone from Pearl's hands. "Let's change your wallpaper." she then said taking a selfie.
"PEARL CAN I ASK YOU-" Steven exclaimed as Amethyst began explaining how texting works.
"Hold on Steveo." Amethyst interrupted him "I'm in the middle of a demonstration here. So anyway, you can type anything you want…"
A vibrating sound came from Steven's pocket and he saw Pearl had texted him. Ash then felt a similar vibration in his pocket to see she had texted him as well.
"Dear Ash, hello. Love Pearl." it read.
"You should really get a case for that thing." Amethyst told her.
"I do." she answered in a matter of fact manner summoning a suitcase from her gem. Remembering that was exactly how he met Lapis, Ash felt his heart drop a little.
"Okay, I have a whole bunch of actual phone cases in my room." Amethyst said getting up. "Don't go and throw that thing against a rock or anything until I'm back."
After Amethyst left to her room, Steven took his chance and nervously approached Pearl.
"Pearl?"
"What is it Steven?"
Steven hesitated before looking up at Ash, who nodded to encourage him to ask the all too difficult question.
"You remember how Mom shattered Pink Diamond? Well, I was just wondering, if maybe, you shattered Pink Diamond?"
The silence that followed was so great you could hear a pin drop. Ash looked at Pearl and saw an shocked, thousand yard stare in her eyes.
"I-I-" she stammered while dropping her phone and covered her mouth with her hands.
"It's okay." Steven hastily but determinedly responded "You can tell us."
Pearl looked as if she was fighting to say something, so much so she was shaking.
"Why can't you just talk to us about this?"
Just as Ash thought that Pearl was about to tell them what she was fighting to tell them internally, Amethyst returned.
"I, got the, phone case" she announced noticing the tension.
Pearl uncovered her mouth with an enormous fake smile, "Ah yes! The phone case, thank you Amethyst!" she quickly bent over and snatched her phone from the floor and placed it inside her gem. "Whoops, so clumsy. It's probably safer I just keep it in here." she then stood up and awkwardly marched towards her room.
"Wait come on!" Amethyst protested "Just put it in this! Then you can put it in your head!" but her pleas fell on deaf ears and Pearl hid inside her room. "What was that?"
Steven sighed in annoyance before Ash placed his hand on his shoulder. "We'll try again later, maybe she'll be ready to talk after she's thought it over. Come on, let's get you some bits."
The late afternoon sun glowed down on the two boys as Steven depressingly ate his fry bits while Ash gingerly sipped his soda. Before Ash could try and cheer him up, Steven's phone buzzed, as did his own.
"I want to tell you but I can't." Pearl's text message read, finished with an emoji of a monkey with its hands over its mouth.
Before Ash could respond, Steven was already halfway back to the Temple.
"Pearl I'm ready to talk!" he called out as he threw the door open, Ash struggling to catch his breath right behind him.
"What?" Pearl asked from her seat at the bar.
"We got your text." Ash explained showing her both his and Steven's phones "I want to tell you but I can't."
"With a monkey emoji?"
Pearl looked at them both shocked and confused. "Boys, I didn't send either of you that. I haven't used my phone since I put it away earlier."
"Well, maybe you butt dialed us? With your gem?"
She shook her head in disagreement "No that's impossible. Hang on, I'll pull it out and we'll get to the bottom of this." She reached towards her gem which began to glow, pulling out not her phone, but instead a TV remote. She looked embarrassed before reaching in again and pulling out her violin.
"You sure you remembered where you put it?" Ash asked her as she pulled a stack of money and let it drop to her feet, groaning in annoyance.
"I know it's in there somewhere!" she called out as both Steven and Ash's phones vibrated after receiving another text from Pearl. This time it was a pink flower emoji.
"You just sent us another one!" Steven exclaimed showing her.
Pearl began looking more worried than annoyed now. After she took a deep breath, she looked both boys straight in the eyes with a stern look. "Boys, I need you to go inside my gem and find my phone."
"What?" they both asked in unison.
"Is it stuck in there or something?" Steven asked.
Pearl nodded. "There are certain things I can't tell you, but I can tell you I need my phone. Please, I can bring you both out once you find what you're looking for."
"Your phone?"
"Exactly, I'll keep Steven's phone, text me when you find it."
"Wait," Ash stopped her. "Humans can fit inside a gem?"
"Of course you can." Pearl informed him. "Didn't you do this with Lapis?"
As he blushed in embarrassment, Steven took Ash's hand, and they both stepped inside Pearl's head. Instantly, he was nearly blinded by a white light before landing with a thud.
Once he regained his sight, he saw both he and Steven were now standing in an open space illuminated by another white light, accompanied by-
"Pearl?"
Pearl turned around and looked surprised by their presence. "Oh boys!" she said picking Steven up by his armpits. "Now where should I put you?" she swiped her hand across the space behind her and a variety of spears suspended in the air. "Certainly not with the spears." She swiped again to be a variety of objects "Human paraphernalia? Personal items? Let's just go alphabetical and then I will move onto you Ash. Let's see S...S-t…"
"Wait!" Steven protested, wiggling his way out from her grip and running back towards Ash and Pikachu. "No don't file us! You sent us in here for your cellphone!"
"My phone? Okay, let's see." She went over towards the wall of items and began talking to herself while looking.
"I had no idea this was what the inside of a gem looked." Ash whispered to Steven.
"It's like the little voice in your head."
"It should be right here!" the Pearl exclaimed in annoyance pointing towards an empty spot in the wall. "Unless some other me took it."
They looked at each other in surprise. "There's more of you in here?"
"Oh no, not here." Pearl scoffed. "I made sure of that. I am very good at compartmentalizing things. That's why I get to be surface, and they have to be put away." Something about the last thing she said sent an uncomfortable shiver down Ash's spine.
"Well, if one of those Pearls has the phone could you tell us where to find her?" Steven asked.
The storage Pearl looked at them nervously. ""Oh, you don't want to go back where they are. It's a mess. Let's just stay here, where everything is alphabetized!"
"Come on Pearl, we can handle it." Ash protested her plea.
She sighed. "Alright. Don't say I didn't warn you." She knelt down and the three of them floated into her glowing gem. Ash again felt the uncomfortably bright light invade his eyes before again landing on the ground. This time, the world around them was a deep pink tint. Ash recognized the Temple on the beach.
"This doesn't look like a mess," Steven said out loud. "This looks like, the past."
A distraught sobbing came from behind them. Turning around, they saw Pearl on her knees crying behind a rock.
"Oh that kind of mess." Ash retorted.
"Uh, hey Pearl, inside Pearl, inside Pearl's pearl." Steven called out to her, "Are you upset about the missing phone situation too?"
The sobbing Pearl looked up sniffling. "No, it's Rose. What was she thinking? She can't have a baby!"
Steven looked at her a little insulted while Ash looked at her with sympathy. He was honesty just beginning to forget his situation with Lapis, but seeing Pearl now in the exact situation he was in brought back some of the pain.
"What am I going to do when she disappears? I'm going to lose her! Just like I lost my, what was it you said?"
"Your cellphone?"
"My cellphone!" she exclaimed sobbing again.
Seeing how upset this Pearl was, Pikachu walked over and hugged her. Seeing the comforting act, Pearl stopped sobbing for a minute and returned the hug.
"It's going to be okay," Steven told her. "That's why you sent us here. We wanna help you find it."
Now feeling a bit better and more open from Pikachu's hug, Pearl looked directly at them "I think I know where it is. It's probably where I lost everything else." Her gem began to glow again, and Ash prepared himself for the awful light again. This time, everything was red in color, explosions rattled their ears when they realized they were on a battlefield.
"Better not turn out her phone was in her pocket." Steven began ranting in frustration. "Or she left it on the dresser or dropped it in the toilet."
"Aw come on bud, what would Pearl be doing on the toilet?" Ash joked to him trying to lighten the mood.
"Seems about as likely as her putting it in her putting it in her repressed war memories!" Steven answered approaching a traumatized looking Pearl on her knees. "Pearl? I mean, Pearl inside Pearl, inside Pearl's pearl Pearl? Is this really about your phone or what?"
"We were the only ones left." she quietly answered as another explosion erupted behind them.
"Homeworld, they were all leaving. We thought we'd won. There was a bright light and everyone was-why did I do it?"
"What do you mean?" Steven demanded "Just tell us!"
The traumatized Pearl shook her head, grabbing them by the arms and bringing them into her gem. This time they were outside another familiar sight. Pink Diamond's palanquin lay wrecked in front of them as well as several jagged pieces of a pink diamond. In front of the wreckage surrounded by a thick cloud of dust was none other than Rose Quartz holding the sword Bismuth made .
"Mom?" Steven asked confused.
"I thought these were Pearl's memories." Ash though aloud. "Rose, what are you doing here?" He then began looking around to see if Arceus was there as well. To his confusion, the mythical pokemon was nowhere to be found.
Rose then looked up to them, to their shock, the eyes no thick with tears, belonged to Pearl and a large pearl was embedded into her forehead. "Rose", then looked around nervously, as a scream from a gem Ash knew all too well came from the distance.
"I knew it was you!" Steven screamed with hurt and betrayal in his voice. "I knew it was you who shattered her!"
"Rose" continued to stare as she opened her fist. Confusingly, resting in the palm of her hands was a single pink diamond, left completely in tact.
"Pink Diamond? But, I don't understand."
"Rose's" gem glowed once more, and now they were standing in an enormous throne. They stood up and saw to their astonishment, they were standing inside the Palanquin.
"And then we'll be done. It's going to be easy!" They heard the hushed voice of Rose Quartz coming just outside.
Assuming she was talking to Arceus, Ash and Steven ran out to see her not speaking to the creator pokemon, but Pearl.
"There's got to be another way. I mean, maybe-"
"Blue and Yellow don't care. They never have. This is Pink Diamond's colony. We can end it all right here, right now." Rose told her. Ash then realized Pearl was clutching Rose's sword.
"You know this is crazy right? Your status, my purpose. None of it will matter anymore. This will change everything."
Rose smiled like a little kid. "I know! Isn't it exciting?"
Pearl sighed and blushed "It is."
"We can leave our old lives behind! If this is really my world, I want to give it to the Crystal Gems, to Arceus as well. I want to live here with human beings! I want to help fulfill Arceus's prophecy! I wanna live here with you! We'll both finally be free!" Rose continued on.
Pearl smilled, "Okay, I'm ready."
Rose squealed in delight.
"I can't believe I'm going to do this."
"I can't exactly shatter myself." She said hugging Pearl as if to say goodbye. She then began to glow, taking the exact form of Pink Diamond. Both Ash and Steven gasped in shock at the realization Rose Quartz was in fact Pink Diamond. She lifted a pile of dirt and squeezed it until it resembled her gem. "Convincing?" she asked Pearl.
"Very much so, my Diamond."
"Soon it will just be Rose." she swallowed the pieces of the fake diamond as Pearl began to unsheathe the sword. "Wait, there's one last thing I need to do."
"Yes?" Pearl asked.
"No one can ever find out we ever did this. I never want to look back. So, for my last order to you as a Diamond, please, let's never speak of this again. No one can know." Pink Diamond took her place for the staged assassination as Pearl turned to face them.
"Sorry I made you come all this way." she told the two handing Steven her phone. She then shapeshifted into Rose. After yet another flash, they found themselves back in the Temple.
Pearl looked down at them silently crying. "I wanted to tell you for so long."
Pikachu leapt onto Ash's shoulder as he tried to comfort Steven.
"Mom was Pink Diamond." he said out loud.
"Whaaaaaaat?" Amethyst exclaimed loudly behind them just as equally shocked. Ash looked to see not only were Amethyst and Garnet shocked, but Gary and James as well. Just before things could get anymore chaotic, the front door flew open and Serena barged into the house.
"Ash, Lapis is pregnant!"
"Whaaaaaaaat?" Amethyst again screamed.