Pearl works with Garnet and Amethyst to find the mysteries of the Alpha Kindergarten
Pearl would constantly fret over Steven's well being and she wouldn't settle for the chance where he'd be in immediate danger. It's not like she didn't trust Snow, but events had made Pearl wary of Steven's progression on the whole. Humans were weird on their state of process and development. In the thousands of years they'd spent protecting them and the Earth...it was clear they still had a lot to learn.
She'd gone with Garnet and Amethyst to this so called, Alpha Kindergarten...or what ever that meant. She wanted to find out more of this mysterious place and what kind of gems grew here.
"Have you heard of any secretive Kindergartens like this before?" Amethyst asked.
"Not to my knowledge." Pearl answered.
"They wouldn't let any other gem, let alone anyone that wasn't a Diamond, create their own private Kindergartens. Each facet had to be recorded for each colony that belonged to their respective Diamond. How this Milky Quartz got away with creating not one, but two? I have no idea...but she was obviously up to no good."
There was something missing from the picture, Pearl was sure. As they had left the Elevator, they were met with a large underground valley. Made of dirt and donned with gem holes on the rock walls and a steel catwalk with barriers that sat in the middle and seemed to stretch long enough. The area held a chill to it and it had the occasional console that must have been for the differed group sections, most likely to note down who and what had been in them. Light poured from special lamps that gave off an artificial light that was meant to help with gem development.
She'd checked the various types and identification numbers as she typed away. More Quartzes.
"She was totally the rebellious type." Commented Amethyst.
"Imagine creating your own private army."
Every gem had belonged to the Diamonds. But the codes and numbers didn't match up to standards Homeworld used. The word prototype was used over and over.
"Snow did say they lost a lot of gems on the Lillim's planet." Said Garnet.
"Yes, but gems are supposed to come out as they are. Not this...test type gem." Pearl noted, then she noticed Amethyst's scowl.
"Uhhh...I mean, well, as you know we're designed for a specific purpose and are meant to be for that purpose when we pop out. I can't imagine creating a gem who's only purpose is to be a test subject."
It would be a short-lived life, if that. They'd be shattered once their purpose had been fulfilled.
"A Gems potential, wasted and left as an afterthought. Cruel and unnecessary." Said Garnet.
Amethyst herself jumped to each of the holes that were of varying sizes. She rubbed her hand the surface, like she tried to imagine the type of gem that came out of it. It made Pearl wonder what happened to them all. Each of the consoles were the same for each bracket, with the only difference being the gem ids between them. The dates were after the Gem War, so this area was well off after the Diamonds attacked the planet, but production continued afterwards. Yet, nobody, absolutely nobody knew.
There was another room at the eventual end that appeared to be a processing room. More grey and white walls and floors and tall spiked flowers that grew out of the square holes in the walls. Pearl identified them as gladiolus flowers. She walked over to a nearby terminal to get a pinpoint on where they were. The Alpha Kindergarten was created as a circle around the whole complex in four quadrants with processing rooms in between them. The outer most doors leading to a path lead them up to a specific room, where they would stay until ordered out for their duties. It was common for freshly popped out gems to go out on their first set of orders, but for this. It looked like Milky had waited for something. That's if they weren't destroyed before they could see the first real light.
But the text indicated well over a thousand gems were grown on this level...and only two hundred and eighty two of them were deemed success. A dark feeling overcame her, with the visions of shattered gems scattered all around, prompted her to freeze.
"Man...I thought I had it bad." Said Amethyst.
"You indeed were lucky." Said Garnet, who agreed.
"If this was White Diamond's special project, she would have...well...you know the rest."
The thought of being killed as soon as you didn't meet their standards...it was horrible.
That they were once considered defective in all senses of the word. Amethyst, who popped out too late, Garnet, considered a 'tainted' fusion and Pearl herself, with her line of thinking way out of line with Pearls like herself.
She felt a chill nearby, which was odd. She rarely felt chills. But as she turned to Garnet, she could see her look of concern.
"We better move." Said Garnet.
"I don't think we're alone here."
Their next destination was the aforementioned specific room, aka the Waiting Room that was on the left most door. This room was filled with tables and chairs and more of the white gladiolus flowers that decorated the walls. The area had been abandoned entirely but was oddly neat and clean. The three checked the room around them, to find anything of value or of note. Amethyst transformed into her owl form and flew around, only to find a small, black ball on top of one of the shelves. She picked it up and handed it to Pearl.
It was a Thought Marker.
"Someone left us a present!" Amethyst commented, as she went back to her default form.
Well, not for them obviously. Pearl projected light from her gem onto the sphere, as it lit up and floated in the air. A Snow Quartz appeared, although it was neither their Snow or Milky. This one's gem was on the back of her left forearm and her hair was quite bushy. It wasn't locked to be opened by a specific gem either, it seemed.
"This is A2-X2C. I don't know if anyone will find this but...this place is creeping me out. I met with A1-J5D who was from the first Quadrant, told me to be quiet or else...she'll punish us. I don't...I don't feel stable. Something isn't right here. Gems are disappearing left and right. A3-T9T smuggled in this Thought Marker, who knows where she got it from. But uh...she suspects the higher ups have been brewing something down below. But it doesn't make any sense. They keep talking about the rumours of the other Kindergarten and the dark experiments down there yet when I talk with J5D she tells me it doesn't exist. My orders are to remain in my given Quadrants Waiting Room, but I've been here for twenty years and not a single order has been issued. I've been waiting patiently...although I did create my own space here. None of the higher ups have noticed. Listen, if you're from the outside, wanting to look in because you were a fool to enter, I have a secret room through my old hole. Look for it, you'll see further notes. I'm trying to find out whats going here. T9T has been feeding me plenty of info because she's been sneakin' around. Good luck out there to anyone who finds this message..."
Because I'll be long gone...
Pearl blinked before the Marker stopped playing. She swore she heard a whisper at the end there, but Garnet and Amethyst didn't seem bothered by it. It must have been here imagination.
"They had no idea what was going on either. They just as in the dark." Said Garnet.
They moved on to the next Quadrant as specified by X2C via another series of doors that lead them to the Second Waiting Room, then through their processing room, where Pearl found out where her hole was. The second quadrant looked nearly identical to the first, but the chill was much worse than the first one. They found her hole much further down he curve on the right hand side. Amethyst was the first to jump in, then Garnet, then Pearl.
They could see the gem writing on the back of it, noting that there were no secrets there. Subtle.
Amethyst pushed against it that revealed a hidden panel and small cave within.
There was a table and etched on the curved walls were diagrams, pictures and paragraphs of text. Some of the were mainly about the other kindergartens and some were like HOPE/DELTA with Pearl having no idea what it meant. On the table was a small, yellow coloured gemstone. Amethyst picked it up and examined it. It started to glow in her hand and Amethyst dropped it, then it stopped glowing.
"What the..." She said, freaked out.
Pearl rolled her eyes.
"Please don't touch it...I'm getting really bad vibes from that thing. I don't think it's a live gem either." Pearl scolded.
Garnet had her eyes on it too.
"Hmmm. it might be one of the prototypes. Look at the inscription on the table." She said as she pointed towards it.
Pearl's eyes were instantly drawn. The word Lemon - A2-X2D was under it.
"The one made after X2C." Said Amethyst.
The gems inactive status concerned her. It'd been sitting here all this time? What was going on?
"A Lemon Quartz gem? Why one be here among the Snow ones?" Pearl wondered.
Garnet turned to look at some of the writing on the walls as she adjusted her visor.
"Maybe someone went potty on it." Amethyst joked.
Not minding Amethyst's immaturity for the moment, she too turned to look at the texts. They stated that Lemon was taken away by Moonstones after she spoke out of line. Then was found by T9T. X2C and her tried to get her out of the gem, but she never did.
"Oh no..." Pearl said, distraught over the idea of never coming out of her gem again. Amethyst peered over to see what Pearl had discovered.
"Moonstones?" The purple gem questioned.
"Moonstones work as Peacekeepers from White's Court." Garnet explained.
"They have an ability to generate a calmness with people. As if deception didn't matter and only keeping quiet did."
Pearl remembered them. They often had massive coats and soft, fake smiles like White herself did. They were also noisy when they could be.
"X2C seemed to have the theory that Moonstones were given charge to wipe a gems slate clean."
If it was what Pearl thought it meant to be...she's heard of Gems being purged plenty of times. More than what she wanted to hear, to her dismay. But this poor Gem. It was useless without it running with a personality. Unless White Diamond had intended to control it for herself, like she did with them and and the other Diamonds. It prompted her to think back to White Diamonds ship and how they never really figured out what had happened between Steven and White while they were controlled.
She never bothered to check. They were just so overwhelmed that the war had finally finished and that their struggle had been worth the while, but...
"It lacks autonomy." Said Pearl.
"No thoughts, no feelings. Just...pure power."
Homeworld had millions of constructs made with existing gems. It was nothing new. But even they had a type of persona behind them. It was more like a simple core of energy. Nothing more.
"What do we do now?" Amethyst asked.
Pearl took one look at the gem and stared it for a long time. She didn't want to leave it alone, even if it lacked a true soul. She wanted to shatter it, but pity prevented her from doing so. She picked it up and simply popped it into her own gem.
"I want to study this for myself." She told the pair.
"I also don't want to leave it in this awful place. What if the Lillim found it?"
Garnet appeared uncomfortable with the idea, but obliged under Pearl's logic. They left the hiding place be for now so they could continue on.