Stevonnie, Snow Quartz and Black Pearl make it to the Security Room at last.
They were so close to the Security Room now. Stevonnie couldn't wait to get this over and done with.
It was bad enough having to endure the things they had seen already. But even Snow Quartz struggled to keep her normal, if not wisdom-armoured manner. She remained quiet, as did Black Pearl.
Were it the sudden burst of Black Pearl willing to poof Snow? Or the fact that she would have done so against someone who would be completely dedicated the service of the Diamonds, that raising a finger against them would warrant a Labradorite to attack her? Was that why Snow had her go with Peridot and Lapis? No, Snow was a good hearted gem. She was coping with the Lillim in the same way they were. By their very nature, Lillim would bring them down further than anything else. Though Black Pearl changed her tune quickly as they came across a tall door and she became very excited as she clasped her hands and smiled with glee.
"Ah finally! We're here!" She said.
She wandered over to the panel next to it and tapped in a few keys.
"Oh finally we can put an end to this chaos!"
The doors opened, revealing a huge amount of monitors that scattered absolutely everywhere. Each monitor was a blue baseless holographic screen projected by four sharp metal room had the well known chill with the hum of tech and swirl of fans that filled out the sounds. All the light had come off the screens that showed off the many rooms of the facility. Black Pearl's change of attitude puzzled them, but she skipped over to the large console in the middle and did her own configurations. Until Snow came around to examine Black Pearl's actions.
"We need to concentrate on getting to the Private Chambers." She reminded her.
"Find the Locks Program, it should get us what we need."
Black Pearl nodded. Meanwhile Stevonnie had their attention to all of the monitors, going from one to the other, to see if there was anything there. They'd hoped to find the others, but with numerous screening, she could only see peopleless rooms as well as the many cameras that had scanned the Kindergartens. Where were the other gems then? The other doors on both sides of the room, looked like they were the alternate entrances they had talked about earlier. Stevonnie wanted to wait for them before they were to proceed.
Though one room did have someone in it. Someone Stevonnie recognized.
"Jasper?" They muttered.
"What's she doing here?"
Jasper kept to herself most of the time if she hadn't been persuaded to come to the Book Club Sessions by Amethyst. But for what ever reason, she was there as well. Stevonnie grew worried for her safety and whether or not she knew what was really going on here.
"Okay unlocked..." Said Black Pearl.
"Hmmm...thats odd."
So where was everyone else?
"What is?" Asked Snow.
"I'm aware that Milky had the odd secret project but...nothing in the layout suggests any hidden rooms mapped about." Black Pearl continued.
Stevonnie zoned out as the two talked about it. Their voices faded into the background as she continued to screen the rooms. There was one figure wrapped in red. They looked at the camera and all Stevonnie could see was black. It was then all of the monitor began to show static, which made Stevonnie jump and bumped into one of the monitors, causing it hook on to a piece of their jacket and tear a bit of the fabric off of it as it briefly hung on to them, before falling off them entirely and shattering on the floor. Each of the displays vanished, one by one as they lost reception.
"Stevonnie what is it?" Asked Snow.
"You alright?"
The visuals returned, as if the reception was brought back to normal. Black Pearl scolded them for being careless.
What ever it was, made Stevonnie incredibly uncomfortable, but they nodded towards Snow anyway. But going back to Black Pearls words made them think of something.
"What if the Private Chambers held the secrets? Maybe hidden doorways or what ever..." They suggested.
Snow and Black Pearl exchanged glances.
"Milky never liked Warp Pads." Black Pearl stated.
"Too much of a security risk, but I wonder..."
The entrance to the Private Chambers were now open, as the three exited the Security Room, to see another elevator that had popped up in front of them. Stevonnie was wary to enter, but for what ever reason Black Pearl was ecstatic, which left Snow slightly exasperated by her cheerful mood. The three entered promptly as they allowed themselves to go down.
It gave Stevonnie time to think about it all. Even Snow Quartz looked like she was busy in her own zone of contemplation. Black Pearl just stood behind them, acting like a Homeworld Pearl as she stood there, with a grin on her face and her hands neatly in front of her.
"I didn't see the other gems on the monitors." Stevonnie told Snow.
The Quartz rose an eyebrow as she looked at them.
"Are you worried about the others?" She asked.
Stevonnie sighed.
"Kinda." They said. Kinda to them meant a lot.
They wouldn't give into doubt. The Crystal Gems were capable warriors and Stevonnie theoretically should have nothing to fear. The Elevator stopped suddenly, as the lights inside flickered as it shook to a halt, almost toppling everyone over. Black Pearl grumbled as she wandered over to the series of buttons on the side of the doors and rapidly tapped them.
"Oh come on...stupid thing..." She complained.
"Hang on, I'll go outside and check for faults. I know this one elevator was incredibly faulty to begin with...Milky was too lazy to get it repaired...I wonder how she coped."
She jumped up to grab the handles near the top panel and punched the lid open as she jumped outside of the elevator to do some repairs.
In the mean time Snow sat down and ushered Stevonnie to sit next to her as the two crossed their legs. Stevonnie stared at the gem who stared back, then nodded her head and closed her eyes. Stevonnie did the same.
The darkness soon faded as the realm turned white, then faded into a light pink. Pansies decorated themselves around them, in colours of light blue, lavender, blue white and pink that surrounded gigantic white stone figures of Snow and Stevonnie that looked like their eyes were closed. There was an instance of calm that surrounded them; a faculty of peaceful thoughts and freedom. Why Snow Quartz had transported them was beyond Stevonnie's understanding.
"It's okay." Said Snow as she appeared in front of them. She was sitting down the same way she was before.
"I'm just tapping into your local aura so we can speak in private."
Stevonnie was amazed at the beauty of this place.
"But I also wanted to make sure of something. That we both weren't infected. Or else this place would be riddled in darkness."
Thank goodness for that. Not that Stevonnie didn't believe that they were infected, knowing that how the Lillim worked made them even more paranoid about the concept.
"But from what I can gather about what we've seen so far, I wanted to believe so badly that Milky had good intentions. But now, I'm torn."
It was hard to understand what Milky was trying to achieve in the first place. The Outpost was created as an observation point, not a weird museum of sorts. Though it was cool to see of the stuff they collected, none of it felt right.
"What would have Milky done with the Sealed Cores you told us about?" Stevonnie questioned.
Snow sighed.
"That's the thing. The only real way to defeat the Lillim was to seal them. But we have no Sealed Cores...no spare or any that were created after the war had ended." She explained.
Milky was the only one who had them? Or at best, distributed them among the Quartz soldiers?
"You don't know where she got them from?" Stevonnie continued.
Snow blinked as she looked at the blue white flowers around her statue.
"No. I'd assumed they were another piece of Gem technology. But she'd kept them to herself." Said Snow.
Milky had the true counter to their problem, yet she selfishly kept the weapons to herself. So how did she get her hands on them?
Snow explained the perils of being on the Lillim's home planet. The Sealed Cores were indeed equally distributed to all the combat ready Snow Quartzes. Small, yellow crystals at their purest form. Snow claimed it was her fault that she never bothered to ask her about them. It wasn't.
"The Lillim had been defeated. There would be no need for them anymore." Stevonnie assumed.
The despair that twisted Snow's face almost tore Stevonnie apart. In the metaphorical sense.
"Foolish." Snow cried out.
"Foolish of us to think like that. But...no...that's not the problem."
War was ugly this way. Steven would believe that there always could've been more that they could have done. For all the people he'd been forced to hurt, he'd give anything to take it back. If he'd known better, the issues would have gotten solved in much less time. But Connie forced him to think from another perspective. Would it have been better know to begin with, even to take into consideration of all the hurt that could have been avoided, or to let them pass because it was meant to happen. He'd could get stuck in the same type of loop as Snow. They certainly could have done more. But would that make the outcome better or worse? He'd have to think about his own pain, know that it's there and move on. He knew that already. But he hadn't been the same since White Diamond and within their small fractions of time spent together afterwards, he'd voice this to Connie in secret; too many what if scenarios that piled up in his psyche as well as the nightmares that plagued him on some nights. He never told any of the gems about this.
He'd shared Connie's burdens because the weight of their pain could be balanced easier as Stevonnie. Her pain was his pain and vice versa. They'd share it evenly.
"The Security detail I checked while Black Pearl was unlocking access to the chambers had some troubling records of Milky last records were of her...being inactive." Snow continued, concerned.
Stevonnie wondered if that meant being poofed.
"I'm sure we'll find something in her chambers." Stevonnie assured her.
Snow nodded in confidence.
"I'll have no doubt about that. Not to mention Black Pearl said Milky had secret pro- WOAHHHH!"
All of the sudden they were jerked out of their mental space as the elevator suddenly moved with a screeching grind. They moved too fast. They were falling.
"PEARL!" Snow screamed.
No reply.
Snow jumped out of the open panel to see that Black Pearl had not only vanished, but a swarm of Lillim were on their way that nearly overwhelmed Snow entirely. In her panic, Snow closed the panel quickly as she stared at the stunned Stevonnie. Snow took one look at them and wrapped her self around them. Stevonnie wanted to created a shield or a bubble but the screeches and the static made it incredibly hard to concentrate in doing so. Within themselves, Steven and Connie took what was left of their concentration to stick together as Snow held them close. They couldn't die here and they couldn't die now. They couldn't use any of their floating abilities or anything! What was going on?
"BRACE FOR IMPACT!" Yelled Snow.
The noises faded into the sweet music of silence.