1001 Nights in Their Garden

The Sixth Day- Cherry 2.0

Part IV- Pearl's Reflections

I am a Pearl, one of thousands of servants born to serve with single minded devotion. My Bismuth has taken me to this horrid nightmare, though I know not why. They tell me that this new one is me from long ago, but in seeing her I feel a stabbing pain that threatens to tear me apart from the inside out.

The Spinel in the memory brightened as she saw the Pink Diamond. She jumped onto the new Pearl, "Yippee a new friend!"

"My Diamond, help!" The new Pearl squealed.

Pink was amused, "It just means she likes you, Spinel come here."

She hopped away in a chaotic flash saluting, "My Diamond."

"This is my new Pearl, she'll be with me from now on."

"Oh?" Spinel lifted her head, and twisted it, looking as though she was searching for something lost. "So where's the othah one?" No doubt she was looking for that friend of hers, the one for which I was an intended "replacement".

"She… is gone." The Diamond said.

"And good riddance if you ask me, I am far more qualified to serve my Diamond." The Pearl said this and I had quite forgotten my composure. It all seemed so familiar, too familiar. I felt something warm on my shoulder. My Bismuth was looking worried, she wiped something from my eye, a tear.

The shorter one, the Steven had run over and was hugging me. My Bismuth said, "We're here for you."

"No. No. That's completely improper. I am to look after your well-being, that is the purpose of my…" She was distracted by the unfolding drama.

Her Diamond's face was cold and seethed with anger. The Spinel paid her no heed and continued to move about in a jovial manner. Then she snapped, a dome appeared around the Spinel and slowly closed in. Spinel had a look on her face of sheer terror. Her body bounced off of the sides of the dome. "That Pearl is gone… broken… worthless, she was just a distraction just like you."

The Spinel shivered, "I'm so sorry Pink, I just wanted to."

Even the Steven looked worried as he tried to comfort his Spinel. I turned back to look at this vision of the past as the dome grew spikes and started to draw in. What followed was disturbing. "You all think I'm a joke don't you! You and Blue and Pink, and and…"

That poor Spinel, to have been put through so much, but I still couldn't see what I had done to anger her so. "Please I only wanna be your friend." She cried, trying to understand why the Diamond who meant so much to her could be so cruel. Just as the spikes were about to drive themselves home, the whole thing vanished.

Pink Diamond ran to Spinel and embraced her. "Spinel I am so sorry." She sighed, "What's gotten into me? I feel like I'm losing my mind." She started to cry, "I'll be shattered before I ever cause you harm again." With that her memory faded into darkness.

A spotlight illuminated the Spinel who brought us here. The Steven was still holding her close, she whispered something to him that I couldn't make out. Even my Bismuth was now focusing wholly on her. Not that it made me jealous! She pulled away from the hybrid.

"After that she doted on me and would come to play all the time." Spinel said, though not happily.

"Be that as it may, why do you hate me?" I asked.

She cast me a dark, cold, look, that seemed utterly at odds with her appearance. Deadpan she said, "I neveh blamed ya for not caring for the sort of games I liked to play." In the background, versions of us played out memories in dumb show. "Not once. I neveh even blamed ya for dragging her to meetings, dances, and the like, for leaving me alone." Now the scenery changed to a bright, sunny day in the garden from before. Only one gem could be seen.

The gem was happy and seemed to be playing with no one in particular. She was bright pink and had four eyes and four arms. I remembered the disgust, and the jealously I felt. How I felt dismayed that they would do something so forbidden and personal. "She should've fused with me." All the memories came flooding back at once.

It was like being carried away by a flood as everything came back to me. The hope, the war, all the death destruction, treachery, and love I had experienced suddenly came back to me. I was me again, with all the burdens that I had taken with me through the centuries of my existence.

Spinel glared through clenched teeth, in a sort of mad grin that reminded me of nothing so much as a crescent moon. "I might've known that'd do it. When will I learn?" She ran off with Steven following close behind.

"Waite up Spinel," he said, and then he was gone.

"You're back?" Bismuth asked.

"Eh, yes, what'd I miss?"

She picked me up and lifted me over her head. "You're back!"

I looked down at Bismuth's smiling face. She had been like this as long as I could remember, cheerful in battle cheerful in defeat. "Hehe, can you put me down?"

She looked at me quizzically, "Wait who own's you?"

I was worried she'd throw me through the roof of the workshop when I said, "No one own's me!"

She put me down and I started to frown. Spinel. I'm going to make things right with you, Pink loved you so much, and I- well staging Pink Diamond's death wasn't the only unforgivable thing I did. I had a reason to carry that secret with me. Cherry Topaz, I hated them, and let my jealousy rule me. I doubt she even knows to what extent I earned her hatred.

Author's Note: Thanks so much for reading, the Cherry 2.0 Arc is still going on, but next week's chapter will be getting back to the original formula, and hopefully wrapping up the "Promises" story.

Next Time- The Sixth Night: Promises III