Blue watched patiently as Yellow crouched beside Peridot, trying to recover some of the information from the ship's database that had been scrambled in the transfer.
"You're wrong."
Yellow clicked her tongue irritably. "Excuse me?"
"You're doing it wrong." Peridot pulled the device out of her hands. "That won't interface with the systems; you have to recalibrate it to the correct frequency."
"I was about to do that!" she said defensively, reaching to take it back.
"No, you weren't. I'll show you how it's done."
"That's completely unnecessary."
"Your so-called 'help' is unnecessary," Peridot muttered.
"You're the one that asked for it," Yellow retorted, glaring at the shorter gem.
"Yes, and I'm regretting it immensely. I can do this part just fine on my—"
"Blue, Yellow," Pearl called, poking her head into the barn. "Are you ready to begin?"
Blue jumped up from where she was sitting, eager to get Yellow away from Peridot before their argument had a chance to escalate any further. "Yes, we are!" She rushed over to Yellow and hauled her up by the arm. "Let's go," she insisted, pulling her away. "Excuse us," she added to Peridot as they headed for the door.
"Actually, Peridot can come along too," Pearl said, hovering by the exit.
"I'm in the middle of—fine," Peridot huffed. "I'll meet you there."
"Alright." She beckoned Yellow and Blue outside and began leading the way back to the house. Steven gave them a quick greeting on his way in, staying to visit Peridot for a few minutes.
"You don't have to drag me," Yellow hissed as they started walking, tugging her arm away from Blue.
"Well, I wanted to get you out of there," Blue said under her breath. "You can't pick fights with the Crystal Gems; we just arrived and they're not going to trust us if you don't try and get along with them."
"I am trying. That one just thinks she knows everything."
"So do you."
"Excuse me?"
"Sorry," Blue said, not looking apologetic in the least. She shrugged. "Just be civil, alright? I know she's still fresh off Homeworld compared to the rest of them, but that doesn't mean we should agitate the situation by being rude in return."
"Fine, I won't," Yellow replied, scowling. "But we don't need them to like us, we just need them to help us."
"I'm pretty sure those two things go hand-in-hand," she countered. "Why wouldn't you try to—"
"I'll make an effort, alright? Now can we just focus on training?" Yellow interrupted.
"Sure," Blue murmured, puzzled. She slipped a hand into Yellow's and squeezed her fingers tightly, her eyes bright with anticipation. "It's exciting."
"Yeah." Yellow looked down at their joined hands as they continued walking. She was sure her own twitchy fingers, aching to hold a weapon, were a dead giveaway that she was just as enthusiastic as Blue was.
"We're actually going to do it." Blue raised her hand like she was holding a sword, swishing it across her body a couple times dramatically. "Just like the renegade—I mean, just like Pearl. Do you think it'll be hard?"
"Well, your form isn't bad."
Blue squeaked as she realized Pearl had turned around to look at her, face ablaze in dark blue.
"I don't expect it'll be easy, but I think you'll pick up the basics fairly quickly. You have excellent posture," Pearl said, hiding a smile, "though the flourishes won't really be necessary."
Yellow snickered as Blue's fingers curled into a death grip and this time she led Blue along as they started walking again. It was strange to see her become this blushing, quiet mess whenever Pearl so much as looked at her. It showed she was just as new to this as Yellow was, and something about that was reassuring, even if it was also somewhat frustrating. At the very least, it was nice to be reminded that even if Blue was noticeably more skilled at getting along with people, she still struggled with some things. Earth was new to her as well. She was daring and excited about everything they encountered—with that same quiet anticipation she'd had on Homeworld, just with a little more space to express it.
Earth was good for her, Yellow thought. Hopefully it would be good for both of them, and hopefully it would be good for the Pearls they'd left behind too.
Soon, the two of them were being led into Pearl's room in the temple, watching the moving water fall peacefully around them.
"It's beautiful," Blue said, not quite meeting Pearl's eyes, her embarrassment still fresh in her mind.
"Thank you, I designed it myself." Pearl paused, standing on her toes, directly on the surface of the water. "Have either of you summoned a weapon from your gem before?" she asked.
They both shook their heads.
"Yes, I figured that would be the case." She leapt nimbly to the top of one of the water towers and extracted a collection of swords from it. "It will take time, so for now you can learn with these." Pearl tossed one to Blue and she barely caught it, surprised by the ease with which she could hold the blade. The next went to Yellow, who swung it experimentally, fascinated. Pearl jumped back down, holding two more swords. "They're dulled, so you can't do too much damage with them unless you really try. Anyway, I'm training Peridot as well, but she'll practice alone today while I get a feel for your skill sets. Come, we'll go to the Sky Arena."
The Sky Arena was a name Blue hadn't heard in some time, but the combination of that and the two swords in Pearl's hands was enough to make her feel alive with the memories that had become an integral part of her existence.
The two of them followed Pearl back out of the temple and stepped onto the warp pad with her, arriving instantly at their destination.
"Oh, excellent, you're already here," Pearl said when she caught sight of Peridot, who was waiting along the wall near the entrance. She handed a sword over to her. "You'll be practicing with one of my holograms today while I get these two started."
"Alright," Peridot said, some reluctance in her tone as she watched Pearl's gem begin to glow, summoning a holo-Pearl.
"At least an hour of summoning practice as well," Pearl added.
"Obviously," she replied. "You don't have to remind me every time, you know."
"It's to hold you accountable."
"I'm plenty accountable on my own!"
"Yes, I'm sure you are," Pearl agreed dismissively. "Anyway, let me know if you need anything." She strode to the center of the arena, beckoning for Blue and Yellow to follow her.
"What do we do first?" Yellow asked, both hands gripping the hilt of her sword.
"First, you're going to set those aside—store them in your gems for now."
They exchanged a curious look, but did as they were told.
"We're going to begin by testing your current abilities, so I know what we're working with." She pointed to the edge of the arena. "Start there, and run to the opposite side of the arena as fast as you can. Ten times back and forth, if you would."
"Okay," Blue agreed nervously as they both headed towards the edge. She stretched her arms and legs out, readying herself.
"Whenever you're ready," Pearl called, taking a few paces back so she wouldn't be in their way.
"On three?" Yellow asked.
Blue nodded, resting one hand against a crumbling pillar. "One, two, three."
The two of them took off across the arena, very nearly even with each other, though Yellow was a step ahead by the time they reached the opposite edge and turned around. Blue touched the steps as she spun around in one graceful motion, while Yellow stopped abruptly and turned on her heel, putting them on equal ground after a few paces.
Reaching their starting point was a bit jarring for both of them, as running towards an unprotected edge wasn't particularly reassuring, but they both slid to a stop, fingertips pressing briefly against the cold stone floor before they rocketed back across to the other side. The next handful of laps went by quickly, Yellow maintaining a slight lead most of the time but never more than two paces ahead.
They were returning to their original starting point, breathless and high on the rush of wind against their faces, when they skidded to a halt, Blue's eyes going wide as she went dangerously close to the edge. Yellow grabbed the back of her shirt to steady her, but she quickly regained her composure and straightened up, looking pale.
"Are you alright?" Pearl asked, already headed over.
"Y-Yes, I'm fine!" Blue said quickly, ducking her head. "I just didn't slow down enough; it was a silly mistake."
"If you're sure," she said, quick to move on in some attempt to allow the other Pearl to save face. "Regardless, that was a good start for both of you. May I make some suggestions?"
Yellow nodded quickly.
"Alright. First of all, Yellow, you have excellent form; you don't waste movement on anything superfluous, and that's going to be important when you're handling a sword. However, you could do better with the turns—Blue is a perfect example of how to use your existing momentum instead of stopping and starting. That said, Blue, you could probably use a little of Yellow's precision so that you're able to move more efficiently." Pearl smiled, clapping her hands together. "Let's move on."
"To what?" Yellow asked.
"Endurance." She pointed to the stair-step seats where the audience would once have sat. "Up and down, as many times as you can."
"We're Pearls," she countered. "We're not going to have much endurance from standing around and—"
"No excuses." Pearl crossed her arms. "I know full well what Homeworld believes Pearls capable of, and I do not need it repeated back to me for the millionth time. You can either give up on training now, or you can go and prove that you can think for yourself."
Yellow's jaw set decisively and she walked over to the bottom of the stairs, waiting for Blue to join her.
The other Pearl came up beside her a moment later, smiling as she adjusted the clips in her hair so that they were pulled back even farther. "Ready?"
"Ready."
They nodded to each other and then took off simultaneously. Running up stairs was noticeably more of a strain on their legs than the normal running had been, but they were gems and that did come with some amount of strength even if they never had cause to use it before now.
After reaching the top, Blue took the steps two at a time going down, speeding up the process.
"Yes, excellent, you're welcome to use any method," Pearl called as she reached the bottom and immediately spun to ascend once more.
She grinned and skipped steps easily as she ran back up, hands grazing a step every now and then to steady herself.
Meanwhile, Yellow was just reaching the bottom after a standard up-and-down. "There's no guidelines as long as we go up and down all the way?" she asked, pausing only for a split second.
"That's correct," Pearl replied.
Yellow smirked and took off up the stairs two at a time like Blue had, stopping at the top and propelling herself forwards and upwards as hard as she could, somersaulting mid-air and landing unsteadily on the first step. She flung her arms out to either side to balance and then stepped down briskly before starting back up to the top.
"Fancy," Blue teased as they passed one another. She hit the bottom and sprung forward, flipping herself up the stairs with her hands landing securely on the steps and the momentum carrying her feet forward. Once she reached the top, she ricocheted into backflips easily, getting to the base about the same time as Yellow.
"It's not a contest," Pearl called after them, laughing as she sat down off to the side, keeping a count of their repetitions in her head.
She watched as Blue leapt from the top step, legs extended gracefully like she was dancing, toes pointed, familiar outfit fluttering as she fell through the air and landed easily at the bottom of the steps. Meanwhile, Yellow stuck with the efficiency she seemed most comfortable with, all forward momentum and increasingly steady landings with both feet coming down hard.
They both seemed to tire after about fifty repetitions and she could see that it was much more of an effort for them to keep using that quick burst of energy to jump every time. They seemed to form an unspoken agreement around number sixty-four to stop and switch to just running up and down the stairs normally.
Their legs were starting to tremble from the exertion as they hit a hundred, but they made it to precisely one hundred fifty each. Yellow, finishing second, stumbled down the last couple of steps and into Blue's outstretched arms, completely out of breath.
"Excellent work," Pearl said kindly as they helped each other over to the lowest step to sit down. "You can rest for a few minutes."
"How many can you do?" Yellow asked, lifting her head to meet her eyes with a challenging stare.
"Right now? Likely several thousand." A proud smile stretched across her face at the look of astonishment she received. "When I started? I might have managed a hundred at a stretch. You'll get there," she added. "I plan to have both of you well prepared by the time Homeworld gets anywhere near this planet."
"Thank you so much for training us," Blue said gratefully, leaning her elbows on her knees to rest. "It's an honor."
"Oh, yes, you're welcome," Pearl said, looking aside. "I'll do the best I can. Excuse me for just a moment." She smiled politely and stood up, walking in her other student's direction. "Peridot, what have I told you about your stance?" she called as she approached.
"I don't know, I lost track after 'it's an unbalanced mess' and something about being just as bad as Amethyst!" Peridot shouted back. She ducked under the holo-Pearl's arm and thrust the sword up through its back, making it dissipate. "Ha!"
"That's not going to work if they knock you off your feet first."
"Ugh." Peridot waved the sword wildly in the air. "My stance would be fine if I didn't have to swing this thing around!"
"That's the whole point," Pearl said exasperatedly, stopping just in front of her. "And your stance is not fine; you still walk like you're wearing enhancers." She nudged Peridot's foot with the flat side of her own sword.
"You keep telling me to keep my stance wide," she protested, pulling her foot away from the weapon.
"Yes, wide, not sloppy." She stored her sword away smoothly. "Stand like you normally would."
Peridot did so.
"Now try and stay upright." Pearl pushed her shoulder.
"Hey!" She stumbled backwards. She braced herself for the next small push, barely managing to keep her balance. "What's your poi—don't do that!" she shrieked as Pearl circled around behind her and pressed against the middle of her back. Peridot fell forward and spun around on the floor, sword clattering loudly against the stone and eyes wide.
Pearl raised her hands quickly. "Sorry." She offered Peridot a hand up, which was accepted with a small scowl. "I won't do that again without warning. My point is that when you stand like this," she said, spreading her legs and turning her feet outward to mirror Peridot, "it doesn't take much to knock you off balance. Your enhancers' weight and surface area allowed for more support, but you don't have that at the moment."
"I'm aware," Peridot said dryly.
"So, in order to fix that, you're going to have to monitor the way you move and adjust accordingly so that you can learn to do so in a more natural manner."
Peridot narrowed her eyes. "You're saying I need to learn how to walk?"
"Yes, essentially."
She looked like she was trying very hard not to get worked up. "Pearl, the unnatural part of this isn't my stance, it's that I don't have my enhancers. Once I manage to make some replacements—"
"Even when you make replacements, you would benefit from being able to fight both with and without your enhancers. It doesn't matter whether that's with a sword or some other weapon, but you'll need to adjust your form either way."
"I'm sick of swords," Peridot admitted.
"I can tell," Pearl said, looking amused. "Perhaps you could try out some other options with Amethyst and Garnet."
She frowned slightly, giving Pearl a puzzled look. "…You're taking the idea surprisingly well."
"Why wouldn't I?"
"I don't know, I thought you might start crying if I said I didn't like it."
"I wouldn't cry over something like that," Pearl replied indignantly.
"I'm never quite sure what you'll cry over," Peridot said with a shrug. "You also punched me in the face once, and I wasn't sure what level of severity would merit a similar response."
"Seeing as you're no longer insulting me as an individual and assuming I'm worthless as anything other than decoration, I think you're safe. Punching isn't usually my go-to response."
"Yes, I'm aware of that. The crying was the bigger concern."
Pearl laughed and shook her head. "Peridot, I was well aware when we started that this wouldn't ever be your first choice of weapon. It was just meant to help you get started, and it has. You've come a long way."
The smaller gem blushed, averting her eyes. "Er…thanks."
Pearl nodded. "If you'd like to head back to the temple to work on summoning now, you're welcome to. I'll be here a while longer if you need me."
"Okay," she agreed. She bowed, and Pearl did the same before Peridot straightened up and went back out to the warp pad.
"Alright." Pearl walked back towards the center of arena, motioning for Blue and Yellow to join her. "Are you ready to try out the swords?"
They nodded, looking more refreshed than they had previously. Blue brought a hand to her gem and removed her sword carefully, Yellow doing the same.
"Excellent," Pearl said. "First, we'll begin work on your stance." She settled easily into the correct posture, her own sword raised. "This is a one-handed sword—it's light and should be fairly easy for beginners." She swept it through the air to demonstrate. "For now, don't worry about the sword itself, just focus on how to stand and move."
"Like what 5XG was doing?" Yellow asked.
"Like…oh, you mean Peridot. Yes, it's the same idea." Pearl stood up straight. "Let's give this a try," she said, moving to stand in front of them. "Stance wide, body lowered. Be light on your feet, but make sure you have a steady center of gravity."
They both moved quickly to follow her instructions.
"Yes, alright," she said, circling them. "Blue, that's too low, you won't be able to fight like that. Yellow, lower. You're not standing at attention, you're in the middle of a battle."
Yellow adjusted her stance, trying to force some of the rigidity out of her posture and not really succeeding. Beside her, Blue was readily fixing her stance into something more polished and poised.
"No, no, not like that." It was unclear who she was talking to, so they both turned to her. She approached Yellow. "Blue, you can stand down for a moment. May I?" she asked, extending one hand.
Yellow nodded, letting Pearl guide her carefully into the right stance.
"Bring your legs more—yes. And your arms need to be here, not so close to your sides. Sword out, not straight up. Loosen your wrists a little; you need mobility. Face front. Eyes up. Yes. Good." Pearl stepped back, nodding in approval, and circled around to the front. "Try to parry my sword as best you can. I won't aim to cause any damage; we're just getting you used to the movement."
"Alright," Yellow agreed, readying herself.
The first blow glanced off the edge of her sword and she had to twist her arms just to get that much. The second drove her back, and she stumbled over the unusual placement of her own feet.
"Again," Pearl declared, giving her only a few seconds to adjust her stance before coming at her again. "Don't overthink it, you won't have time to anticipate everything. Move. Yes, that's better. Remember, efficient movement, you don't need to swing your arms so much. Don't stop it short though, follow through. Yes, good." Pearl aimed one last strike towards Yellow's chest, and her arm snapped up quickly in defense, sword getting a little too close to her own face but blocking Pearl's with a small clang. "Excellent. Blue, your turn."
Blue quickly settled back into the proper stance, sword aloft.
"That's very nearly right," Pearl said approvingly, waiting for Blue's small nod of assent before taking her arm. "Hold it here; you can put more strength behind it that way. Good." She drew her sword again. "Ready?"
"Yes." She prepared herself for the first strike, but was still taken aback when it clanged off her sword harmlessly. Determined to do better with the next one, she readied herself again, moving back and forth as Pearl had demonstrated.
"Oh, yes, you've got it." She looked pleasantly surprised when Blue managed to block the next one with a steady hand. "Put some more strength behind it. Yes. Yes. Don't let your wrists bend so much, you'll end up breaking something. That's better. One more. Good."
Blue dropped her stance, a pleasant ache in her arms from wielding the sword.
"We have quite a lot of work to do, but that's a good start. Let's practice without the swords for the rest of the afternoon; you need to build stamina and better your reaction time."
Pearl set them to something she called "drills", which generally consisted of things like the stair-stepping that looked easy but weren't, especially when instructed to do them for a full hour apiece. Blue had never felt so tired by the end of it, unused to all the constant movement. Yellow fared no better, and both were relieved when Pearl declared it was time to stop.
"You both show real promise," Pearl said proudly, waving them towards the steps to sit down and joining them this time. "You'll progress quickly. Blue, your form was nearly perfect earlier; I was surprised."
"Oh," Blue said, laughing awkwardly. "I, um, learned from the best? I was just copying what you did." She tapped her gem lightly. "I've watched it thousands of times and it stuck, even though I couldn't really practice it myself."
"Ah." Pearl stared down at her hands for a moment. "Well, it was quite remarkable regardless," she said in a rush. "Yellow, you caught on fairly quickly as well."
"Thanks," she said flatly.
"May I make some suggestions?"
"Please," Blue said eagerly. "We want to learn everything we can from you."
Pearl nodded. "In all honesty, I would suggest practicing techniques aside from swordsmanship as a sort of supplement to these lessons. It will help you develop a more rounded skill set."
"But if we want to master a sword, we should spend the majority of our time on that," Yellow countered, brow creasing.
"No. Hear me out," she said, holding up a hand before Yellow could say anything else. "Pearls are attracted to structure—that's just a part of how we're made—and later that's going to be an asset, but right now it's an obstacle. You need to find your individual strengths, and to do that you'll need to try out various techniques until you find one that suits you."
"But if this technique is the one we want to learn…" Blue began.
"You don't know that yet," Pearl said quickly. "I realize that idea seems the most familiar to you, but you can't copy someone else's technique and expect it to work the same for you."
She gulped, nodding. "I-I'm sorry. I shouldn't have presumed…"
"It's fine," she said briskly. "It may well be that a sword would suit you best, but I don't want you to think that's the only option." She gave Blue a small smile. "Try a few others just in case, alright?"
"I will," Blue agreed, looking relieved.
"Me too," Yellow echoed. "You make a good point. Will you be showing us any of these alternate techniques?"
"A few, perhaps. I've tried my hand at a number of things over the years," Pearl said, "but I'd also recommend going to Garnet and Amethyst. They specialize in areas I don't, and they can give some solid pointers to help you improve in general."
"They wouldn't mind?" Yellow asked, surprised.
"Certainly not," she replied. "They volunteered their help before I even thought to bring it up. You're welcome to train with any of us, whenever you please—given that there are no extenuating circumstances." She smiled encouragingly. "If you're comfortable with the idea, you're free to ask anyone. Steven would be overjoyed to help you too, though he does tend toward somewhat strange human methods of training."
"That sounds great," Blue said. "Thank you so much."
"Thank you," Yellow added, dipping her head slightly.
"You're welcome." Pearl stood up, offering each of them a hand up. "Shall we head back to the temple?"
Blue nodded, her fingers twitching with nervousness and exhaustion as Pearl pulled her to her feet. It was so much, and so wonderful.
Earth. Pearl. Fighting.
She wasn't sure how she'd gotten so lucky as to live to see this day but she'd make the most of it, for everyone's sake.