Thanks for waiting for so long everyone, I've been busy with some stuff and haven't been able to update when I've been wanting to.

Also as a notice for my last chapter the song that used wasn't mine but in fact a song 'Hidden Potential' from an amazing band known as TWRP, the link that I'm posting lead right to their official song on Youtube. Hope you guys enjoy both the new chapter and the music.

Thanks!

As both triumphant humans stood there as the fairly quick skirmish had ended just moments prior, Matthew was haggard at the suddenness of the calm aftershocks of battle.

Connie however stood there watching her fellow student proudly, knowing what he had been through, the constant backpedaling and his exhausting defence left him taking deep breaths in to relieve his exhausted body.

"That was amazing!" Cheered their now ecstatic teacher, hands clasped as if trying to hold her excitement, Pearl stood on the tip of her toes as she looked over her students from up in the bleachers of this half broken colosseum.

Hearing this both Connie and Matthew stood up and saw the state that Pearl stood in, standing beside her though stood Steven with a similar look of pride and excitement to that of Pearl's.

Seeing the attention was now put solely on them, Connie put her sword to rest on her shoulder as she extended her hand out and gave both gems a proud thumbs up, her confidence souring high Connie wore a wide smile as she soaked in the praise from her two friends.

Matthew however stood in complete contrast to his teammate, instead of accepting or even properly acknowledging his well earned praise, turning away feigning a half smile.

As Matthew stared down to the stone tiled floors, instinctively reaching up to his neck with his hand he began to scratch the back of his neck as he shrunk into an awkward stance.

"Well then, that's should be a wrap for today you two." Pearl cheered as she began to make her way down from the bleachers, as she made her way down to the colosseum floor she continued on towards Connie and congratulated her on her performance.

"Connie you did splendidly, keeping your guard as well maintained as you did was quite impressive, though you really need to keep your footwork more synchronized with the rest of your body, but that's what these training sessions are meant to illuminate for next time." Hearing this Connie beamed at the praise her teacher was giving to her, though keeping in mind the assessment of her fight she knew she had to work hard for next week.

"And Matthew." Trailing away from Connie, Pearl walked towards Matthew with her smile still shining on her face. Matthew taking himself out of his stupor stood to attention as his teacher made her way towards him.

"You were excellent out there, though you had me worried at the start of the exercise you adapted quite well and managed to fend of an exceedingly difficult situation, I have a feeling I'm going to have to change up your training regiments to account for your newly adopted style." She said somewhat jokingly about what she said at the end, but to everyone else there they knew that her jovial expression was actually sincere.

"Th-thank You Pearl, that means a lot coming from you." He stuttered out before bowing in respect to his teacher. Seeing this Connie and Pearl smiled at Matthew's excessive formalness, but as Steven joined in and smiled along Connie, Pearl looked to Matthew with a remembrance, from a time long ago.

"Well anyways, this seems like the perfect time to end today's lessons. After such exemplary results you both deserve much needed rest." Pearl said ecstatically, seeing both of her pupils overcome this test with such flying colours left her feeling both pride and accomplishment in their progress.

Hearing this both Connie and Steven grew excited as this left them an hour before Connie's father would come by and bring her home, knowing that time was of the essence both Steven and Connie rushes up the ran off towards the warp-pad.

"Thank You Pearl!" Connie cheered out as she ran past both Matthew and Pearl stood there as both children ran off to the warp-pad.

"Thanks for your time Pearl, but if we're done for the day I really need to take a shower." Matthew said as he stood there waiting for Pearl to bring him back through the warp pad, but this surprise Pearl stood quietly as she took in a deep thought sigh.

"About that Matthew, I'm sorry but I'm going to have to spend some more time with you, alone." She said with a sympathetic smile, hearing this left Matthew confused and worried.

"What happened? Did I do poorly in the fight? I know that I might have made a few mistakes but I'll do better, I promise!" Matthew pleaded as Pearl was taken back by the dedication that her newest pupil was showing, hearing this however left Pearl uneasy about what she was about to say.

"Oh no no no, your perform was exemplary, everything I said before still stands as is, it's just that their is one thing that keeps catching my attention." Hearing this Matthew felt both relief and worry, this though left him visibly confused. Looking to Pearl, Matthew saw that she was hesitant on telling him what was wrong.

"Pearl, what's wrong?" Hearing this Pearl looked to Matthew, holding a steadfast expression Pearl couldn't help but chuckle to herself.

Seeing this though confused Matthew, the soft reminiscent look Pearl held left him silent as he didn't want to interrupt Pearl in this moment.

"A long time ago, their was a gem that didn't feel like she deserved the praise she received, no matter how much time and effort she put into bettering herself she thought she didn't deserve anything she earned." Hearing this left Matthew transfixed on her words, the story that she was telling him left him curious as to what this was meant for.

"She didn't know how much of an impact her hard work had on her, or her teacher, but even though the strides she took left her teacher wordless and filled with pride she didn't feel like the fruits of her labour's were actually hers." Looking away from the middle distance and instead looking to Matthew with a smile.

"And that gem is seeing a lot of herself in you." After saying this Matthew was left confused for but a moment before realizing what pearl had meant.

"Are you talking about yourself?" Matthew asked in shock, the thought on what Pearl just said left him stupefied.

"But how?" Looking to her student with a feint chuckle Pearl could only nod in confirmation.

"No matter who you look up to, no matter how proficient any one person can become in any skill, they always have to start somewhere. It just so happens that you seem to be having the same issues that I had when I first began to unlock my own potential." Pearl told Matthew in a fairly cheerful tone, after everything she had been through, the countless amount of times that she had been through this same exact conversation never leaving her anything less than amused.

"No matter if your a Gem looking to for some purpose past what was expected of them." Placing a hand on her chest she thought back on centuries past to a more serious point of her life, then as soon as the wincing expression of sorrow shone for just a second it was quickly replaced by a look of support.

"Or if your a human looking to help those around them." Pausing for a moment, Pearl let out a sigh before looking to Matthew once more.

"I can see that your struggling to accept the progress that you've made, whenever you take strides forward in your training you pull yourself back from realizing your full potential."

The steady look that Pearl gave Matthew showed that Pearl wasn't lying, Matthew knew that what she had told him was well known even to him, even if he didn't want to accept the reality of the situation he knew that his acceptance of the situation was moot.

"At the start of this all I noticed that you were hesitant to accept even the slightest compliment, wether it came from myself, Connie, or Steven." Thinking back on the weeks spent training Matthew saw that this was true.

Even back during the first day of his training, a haggard Matthew weakly patted forward trying desperately to finish his dozen laps. Barely making it past his eleventh Matthew collapsed to his knees gasping for air, the thought that he was so close to finishing this set was nagging at him, the thought of failure causing him to doubt himself immeasurably.

Looking down to the sandy beach that he kneeled in left him to feel the heat of the sun baring down on him, the heat held within the individual grains of sand causing him discomfort in his bare knees.

"Get up Matthew!" Shouted Connie, looking up he saw her standing down by the makeshift finish line with both Steven and Pearl.

"You're almost there Matthew! Keep it up!" Cheered Steven, out of the three he was the most rambunctious as he flailed his arms motioning him to the finish line. Seeing this forced Matthew back to his feet, the support that both Connie and Steven were giving him allowing him to steadily get one foot planted firmly back in the sand.

As the cheers continued on Matthew looked up back to the three that stood there, the lack of another voice catching Matthew's attention.

Standing there behind both children stood Pearl, silently looking on as Matthew was about to push forwards. Her silence caught him by surprise, the spiking thought that he must be disappointing pearl caused Matthew to further second guess his choice to even try go along with this crazed idea. He could barely stand and finish the first day of his supposed training, his legs and lungs straining as through the entire day, squats, push ups, jumping jacks, and now the repeated laps along the entire beachhead leading to Stevens home, if he couldn't finish a day why bother to keep going.

Looking back up to Pearl, forcing himself to look to her as he felt ashamed in himself for wasting her time he saw worried look on her face. As Steven and Connie continued to cheer him on she stood there with clear worry, seeing this caused Matthew some confusion, Pearl noticing this was surprised and her face changed to a more encouraging form.

Seeing this caused Matthew to give a light smile, not sure as to even why but the weight he felt on his shoulders became a little lighter, then as soon as Matthew began to make his way back onto his feet he look back to Steven and Connie as they both grew more excited and began to shout out even louder cheers.

"Yeah, you can do it Matthew!"

"Your almost there Matthew, just a little further!"

As Matthew pushed himself up he looked past both Connie and Steven, surprised to see that Pearl, even though she hasn't said a thing so far, held up up her hand and was giving an awkward thumbs up, looking between both Steven and Connie she stood unsure as how to add her own support to their cheering.

Pushing forward Matthew took step after step as he neared the finish line, the cheers from both kids keeping him going as sweat began to pour around his eyes, reaching up with his hand he wiped away the pools of sweat off of his face and continued on.

As he neared the line Matthew looked back to the three of his friends and saw that both Connie and Steven's face were filled with excitement as their friend was about the finish the final lap, while they continued on with their cheers Pearl still stood behind them quietly, but instead of a single thumbs up she was holding both of her thumbs in support of Matthew.

Then as the burning in his legs crept up his body Matthew powered on, fist clenched he inches closer to the line.

"Even back on your first day you were pushed to your limits but, even as you barely made it past the finish line you were hesitant to accept any praise that were given. Even from me this seems excessive, and I'm starting to worry." Hearing this Matthew was taken back at how much care pearl had for him, this though gave Matthew even more reason to doubt himself as he knew he was solely responsible for the situation that he and Pearl were in.

"Matthew." Pearl said as she made her way to Matthew, placing a hand in his shoulder she looked to him with a solemn stare that caught Matthew's full attention.

"Whatever it is, even if it's something that your not entirely sure that you want to tell us about, we will understand. All of this self doubt isn't healthy, and it's only a matter of time before it becomes too great of a burden to carry alone, so please, let us help you carry that weight with you." As a pang of guilt lightly swept across Matthew he winced, pulling himself to look at Pearl though made his shoulders ease as he let out a deep sigh before speaking once more.

"I'm sorry about all of this Pearl, thanks for being so understanding, but..." Trailing off Matthew took a serious look to the distance thinking on what he was about to say, taking a consolidated stance on his next words Matthew looked to Pearl with a trusting look.

"I'll try and stop myself from doing this again, but if I start to doubting myself again I wouldn't mind a hand, if you wouldn't mind of course." With a smile Matthew looked to Pearl for some form of confirmation, then with a look Matthew hasn't yet seen from Pearl, she furled her face into a somewhat aggressive looking look of determination, to Pearl though she knew she had to give this request 100% of her support, she didn't want her pupils to we doing all of the work after all.

"You have my word!" Pearl cheered, the thought that both of her students being so stalwart and more than willing to give their all for her training regiments left her proud in both Matthew and Connie.

"Thanks Pearl, this means a lot to me." Matthew thanked with newfound determination, the look that both Pearl and Matthew shared was one of pure trust, an understanding between the two left each of them knowing that the other would be keeping their word.

"Well then, I'm sure that this about wraps this all up." Pearl said, noticing that Matthew had gotten out of his stump she motioned to her side, then as soon as she did so Matthew stood at attention and walked with Pearl back to the warp pad.

Newfound confidence, pride, and trust following them back home.

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