Blue and Yellow returned to the house together, only to be reminded upon arrival that it was rather late and Steven wasn't awake, so they knocked lightly on the temple door instead.
A few seconds later, Pearl's door slid open and she peered out worriedly for a moment before taking in the two gems before her, face brightening. "Come in," she whispered, beckoning them through the door. She clasped Blue's hands in her own as soon as the door was shut. "Welcome back! It's so good to see you. How are you feeling?"
"I'm good, thanks," Blue replied with a smile.
"That's wonderful." Pearl turned to Yellow. "No abnormalities when she was reforming?" she checked.
"Not that I could see," she answered.
"Really, I don't know why you two are so worried," Blue laughed. "It happens."
"Yes, but it doesn't usually happen quite like that." Pearl let go and walked in a quick circle around her. "You certainly seem alright, though. Would you let me run a few tests on your gem later?"
"Tests?" she repeated uneasily, taking a small step back.
"Nothing invasive, just a couple scans to be sure there's no damage."
"Oh. Yes, that would be alright." Blue fidgeted in place. "After that, can I get back to training right away? I've been gone for a while and I don't want to lose my progress."
"I don't see any reason not to resume in the morning," she returned with a quick smile. "Yellow's been doing very well; you'll have some catching up to do."
She turned to Yellow, eyes bright. "You haven't summoned yet, have you?"
"What? No, but I'm practicing."
"Oh, good, I didn't want to miss that!"
Her face flushed a warm gold at Blue's enthusiasm. "Well, you haven't," she said awkwardly.
To her relief, they were immediately interrupted by the arrival of Garnet and Amethyst.
"Hey, you're back!" Amethyst exclaimed, running over to give Blue a quick hug around the waist. "I like the hair."
"Thanks," she replied, blushing. "It was bothering me."
"This suits you better," Garnet agreed, placing a hand on Blue's shoulder. "Glad to have you back."
"Sorry I was gone so long," Blue said apologetically.
"What are you talking about?" Amethyst laughed. "You beat Pearl's fastest time by a mile."
"Pearls aren't made to regenerate quickly," Pearl huffed. "And you never saw me during the war! One time I managed to come back within three days."
"And you were exhausted for three more because you didn't take your time," Garnet pointed out, not unkindly.
"Well…yes," she admitted. "I'm just saying it's possible for me to do it faster. Anyway, good job, Blue. Steven will be pleased to see you when he wakes up too."
She nodded shyly, not really sure what to do with all the attention.
"Have you met Lapis yet?" Amethyst asked.
"No. Or, um, yes, but…not here." Blue shrugged. "I've seen in her in court a few times, though I never spoke to her myself. She's your ally now?"
"I don't know if I'd go that far," Pearl replied, "but she's Steven's ally, at least."
"Oh. That's good; Lapis Lazulis can be pretty powerful gems."
"She's not using her abilities much right now," Yellow said, "just hanging around the barn and flying off with Steven every now and then."
"She's what?" Pearl asked shrilly.
"It's fine, she's taking good care of him," Garnet said calmly.
"She could at least ask first."
Blue laughed uneasily. "Well, she seemed…kind of friendly from what I saw of her," she said.
Yellow shrugged in agreement.
"And Jasper?" Blue asked.
Amethyst laughed. "Definitely not friendly."
"Steven's been trying to talk to her," Pearl said with a frown, "but I'm not sure we've made much progress."
Blue nodded, glancing briefly to Yellow and noting her stony expression before changing the subject. "Well, um, perhaps you could catch me up on things once Steven's awake? Yellow and I were going to go back out to the barn tonight so she can show me the ship."
Pearl smiled. "I think that can be arranged. Come by in the morning whenever you'd like."
Blue nodded, gratefully accepting the extra hugs she received from all of them before saying a quick goodbye and exiting with Yellow in tow.
"Since when do we have plans?" Yellow asked, raising her eyebrows.
"What, you don't want to show me what you've been working on?"
"I'd rather not walk in on another roommate argument, if it's all the same to you."
Blue laughed and shook her head. "Okay, later then. It was just supposed to be an excuse to go stargazing with you again, you know."
"No thanks."
"Stars, you're hard to please," she teased Yellow. "What would you like to do?"
"I don't know," she said. "I suppose stargazing is fine for a little while. Can I bring something to do?"
"Sure," Blue agreed with a quick smile. "That works for me. So we should go by the barn?"
"If you've still got all those spare parts in your gem, then no."
"Oh, of course," she replied. "Sorry, I guess that was kind of inconvenient when I wasn't here."
"Just a bit," Yellow said with a smirk. "Come on then, let's go."
Blue's plans for training were promptly thrown out the window when Steven woke up and saw she was back.
"We have to celebrate," he said, already halfway to the kitchen after throwing on some daytime clothes. "With a tea party! Yellow likes tea, did she tell you?"
"She didn't, actually," she replied, eyes sparkling with mischief as she turned to the other Pearl.
"I would have eventually! You've barely been back half a day."
"Mm-hm," Blue hummed, a teasing lilt in her voice. "Eventually." She gave Yellow a little nudge. "I'll try some since you like it."
"It'll be fun!" Steven agreed. "And I bought you some more lollipops too as a welcome back present." He pulled a bag from the cabinet.
"Oh, thank you!"
Garnet, Amethyst, Pearl, Yellow, Blue, and Steven all sat around the kitchen, a little squashed together. Pearl—to Blue's surprise—made the tea, saying she enjoyed the preparation despite the fact that she didn't drink it.
Steven, meanwhile, had Garnet and Amethyst assist him with arranging the snacks onto fancy little plates, which mostly ended up a contest of whether he and Garnet could prepare and deliver the food faster than Amethyst could eat it.
Yellow wasn't really sure what the point was, when Amethyst was likely going to be doing the majority of the eating anyway, but they seemed to be having fun so she didn't say anything.
"I don't know about this," Blue mused after her first sip of tea. "It's kind of bland."
"You can add sugar and junk," Amethyst said helpfully, shoving the sugar bowl across the table.
"Yeah, and milk," Steven offered, handing that over as well.
"Oh, alright." Blue helped herself to a spoonful of sugar and a bit of milk and then took another sip. Wrinkling her nose, she added more sugar, tried it again, and continued this little ritual until Yellow was fairly sure there was more sugar than tea in the cup. "You're right," she said brightly, turning to Yellow. "This is good."
"I don't think that's tea anymore," she said dryly, warming her hands on her own half-empty cup.
"Aww, sure it is," Amethyst said. "That's nowhere near the weirdest way I've had tea."
"Don't ask," Garnet advised them. "Pearl still has nightmares about the clean-up."
"You can't have nightmares if you don't sleep," Pearl said. She narrowed her eyes at Amethyst. "Please do not recreate what happened."
"Okay, okay," she laughed.
"Anyway," Blue said, lifting her chin dramatically as she spoke, "I am a free Pearl and I can do whatever I like with my tea, thank you."
"I'm sure your Diamond will feel very threatened by that," Yellow returned with a smirk.
"I know."
The six of them sat around talking for the rest of the morning, Blue more than content to sit with them and enjoy everyone's company. It was such a nice change from her other regenerations—not rushed back to be inspected by her Diamond or be pushed into her usual duties. Just welcomed back, like they'd missed her. That was new.
After a while, their little party began to break up, Garnet and Amethyst heading out while Pearl stayed behind with the others, happily recounting a story from sometime between the end of the war and the beginning of Steven—Yellow didn't really know when exactly.
When Pearl finally wrapped it up and pretended to sip at her tea again and Blue got up to get some more sugar from the kitchen, Steven leaned over to Yellow.
"Hey, can I ask you something?" he said curiously, looking a little nervous.
"Yeah."
He hesitated, not quite meeting her eyes. "What did you mean about Jasper's Diamond the other day?"
"Pink Diamond?" she asked, surprised.
Pearl's untouched cup of tea clattered on its saucer, barely keeping from spilling. "Excuse me?" she said loudly.
"Pink Diamond?" Steven asked simultaneously. "I thought she worked for Yellow Diamond."
"Well, sure, she does now. But she used to be one of Pink Diamond's soldiers, just like—"
"That's enough," Pearl interrupted sharply. "Yellow, may I speak with you outside?"
Yellow snapped her mouth shut; it was more than apparent that she'd crossed some line she hadn't known existed. She nodded curtly, standing.
"Um, Pearl—"
"We'll be right back, Steven."
He nodded, mouthing a quick "sorry" to Yellow when they made eye contact, though he looked as confused as she was.
Pearl led the way out, and Yellow was about to ask what was going on when she turned abruptly towards her. "What were you thinking?" she asked, voice low and not-quite-angry.
"…About what?" Yellow asked in return.
"About—" Pearl stopped and pointedly pulled Yellow a little farther away from the door before continuing. "About telling Steven what happened to Pink Diamond!"
"What?" Yellow said blankly.
"You can't just go around telling him things like that," she hissed. "He didn't know, and it's not your place."
"My place?" she repeated, narrowing her eyes.
"Yes, your—" Pearl finally seemed to process the words and pressed a weary hand to her gem. "You know what I mean. You've only been here a few months, that's all."
"Oh, please," Yellow snapped, now boiling with embarrassed indignation. "Don't treat me like I'm incompetent for making the reasonable assumption that Steven knows his own history. Why wouldn't he know? After all, it was Rose Quartz that—"
"Keep your voice down," Pearl hissed.
"What for?" Yellow stared her down. "He should know."
"That's not your decision to make."
"Well, it's not yours either!"
"Stars, please tell me you didn't say anything about Rose being responsible, because—"
"What's going on out here?" Blue interrupted, leaning halfway out the door to squint at them in the bright sun.
"As far as I understand it, Pearl's angry with me because I told Steven something that's common knowledge," Yellow replied, crossing her arms.
"I'm not angry, I'm just trying to make a point!" Pearl interjected. "It may be common knowledge on Homeworld, but—"
"But here it's supposedly different," Yellow interrupted scathingly. "Because clearly withholding information from gems is what makes you more noble than Homeworld."
"I resent that implication!"
"Good."
"Okay," Blue said, closing the door firmly behind her. "Could you both stop arguing for a minute and explain what happened, please?"
Pearl took a deep breath, purposefully breaking eye contact with Yellow and curling her hands around the railing. "Yellow apparently mentioned Pink Diamond to Steven or in front of Steven, and I was attempting to tell her that Steven wasn't ready to hear all of that information. Moreover, as his guardians, it's our job to present him with the details, not yours. It wasn't meant to turn into an argument."
Yellow scowled, taking a step away from Pearl and towards Blue defensively. "My apologies for not taking kindly to being put in my place, Renegade."
"I told you, I didn't mean it like that."
"Well, say what you mean then! If you had just told him in the first place, this wouldn't be a problem."
"If you hadn't said anything, this wouldn't be a problem."
"Oh, so it's my fault that you've conveniently avoided that part of the Crystal Gems' history—"
"Would you both stop already?" Blue interrupted loudly.
Yellow broke off abruptly, glaring at Pearl.
"Yellow," Blue said pointedly, "what did you tell Steven?"
"I didn't tell him anything," she replied darkly. "I was talking to Jasper and he happened to be present."
"You were talking to Jasper about Pink Diamond being shattered?" Blue asked, raising her eyebrows. "I don't even know the gem and I know that's a terrible idea."
"She had it coming," Yellow muttered. "She was being a—a clod. Worse than a clod."
"What did she say?" Pearl asked, narrowing her eyes.
"Nonsense. Quartz posturing. Still wants to believe Steven is the rebel leader that killed her Diamond. Thinks the Crystal Gems are a joke these days, et cetera, et cetera."
"Much as I hate to say it, that's to be expected," Pearl sighed. "She isn't going to immediately accept everything the way Steven wants her to."
"Well, she can keep her mouth shut while she's not accepting it," Yellow said darkly. "I may not be Steven's 'guardian' or whatever, but I'm not blind. She's messing with his head."
"What do you mean?" she asked sharply.
"I mean you need to put her in her place before she starts treating him like a worthless trinket as well."
Blue's hand slipped over her wrist, gliding down to settle between Yellow's tense fingers. "You aren't worthless," she murmured.
Pearl sighed, eyes softening. "No, you aren't," she agreed. "I'm sorry. I know how…taxing it can be to talk to Jasper. To be honest, I've only seen her twice since she's been here, and she was only conscious one of those times." She gave Yellow a quick, hopeful smile. "I appreciate you trying to protect Steven from all of that."
She nodded.
"But we haven't taken the time to tell him about Pink Diamond yet," she continued. "And that…that's my job. Mine and Garnet's and Amethyst's. Rose left that responsibility to us."
"I understand," Yellow said reluctantly.
"And that conversation will happen soon. It has to, now that so much of the past is…relevant. But please let us be the ones to do it."
"Alright," she agreed, relaxing minutely. "I won't say anything until you've spoken to him."
"Me neither," Blue added.
"I appreciate it." Pearl took a hesitant step forward, placing a hand on either of their shoulders. "I think the best thing to do is work hard and show Jasper some solid proof that we're not just accessories. How does that sound?"
"Good," Blue replied with a smile.
"Yeah."
And it felt odd to Yellow, exchanging heated words with someone and not walking away with the same anger or hurt she would have been left with on Homeworld. Pearl didn't seem to be holding any sort of grudge; she just gave Yellow an awkward, sort of reassuring pat on the shoulder and walked back inside.
Earth, Yellow thought dismissively, trying to shake off the unease that always came with having done something she wasn't supposed to.
Steven was quick to change the subject to something lighter when they returned, likely sensing he had gotten Yellow into trouble, since he offered her about ten different samples of tea to try and lavished her with positive attention for far longer than she was used to.
He still had questions, they could all tell, but he managed to hold them back for the time being.
When they were all finished, Steven went off to Beach City to meet up with Connie, while Blue, Yellow, and Pearl finished cleaning up.
"So what should we do for the rest of the day?" Blue asked Yellow as she dried the dishes and set them carefully on the counter. "Are you up for sparring? Because I'm itching to get back to training and—"
"Not until Pearl looks at your gem."
She grimaced. "I really don't know what you two are so worried about. I got hurt, I dissipated, and now I'm back."
"You shouldn't have taken more damage than I did when we unfused," Yellow said sharply. "I've talked to Garnet and the others; it's not normal."
"Well…"
"She's right, it isn't," Pearl agreed. "How about you let me take a look, and then you can be free to train as much as you like?"
"Alright," Blue agreed with a small sigh. She was still reluctant to do it, but it was better to get it over with sooner.
When they were done, Pearl slipped back into her room to grab the equipment she needed while the other two waited in the kitchen, Yellow watching Blue pick through the new bag of lollipops in an attempt to find a flavor she hadn't tried yet.
"Alright, here we go," Pearl announced when she returned. "This is just a small scanner, similar to what Kindergarteners use to make sure gems have formed properly. It's completely harmless," she added, "but if for any reason you need me to stop, then tell me."
Blue nodded, unwrapping a "mystery" lollipop and popping it into her mouth. "Okay."
"Alright, hold still."
It took approximately two minutes for the scan to complete, and there was no sign of discomfort at all on Blue's face as she watched the pale white light hit her gem.
"So what flavor is mystery?" Yellow asked while they waited, pointing to the candy wrapper.
"I have no idea, but it's good."
Pearl pulled the scanner back to examine the results, tilting the screen so Blue could see it as well. "Let's see then…yes, standard readings overall, that's good. Now down here, if we get into specifics, we have—oh. That's odd."
"What?" Blue asked, pulling the candy out of her mouth.
"I'm not entirely sure what." She frowned slightly. "I haven't got any data aside from my own to compare it to, so I admit it's hardly a perfect test, but…you show some very different results." She pointed to the area in question. "Particularly in regards to gem structure and hardness. Pearls aren't usually quite this…"
"Maybe it malfunctioned?" Blue suggested as Pearl trailed off, thinking.
She shook her head. "I tested it out on Amethyst and me earlier, since I haven't used it in a while. There were no anomalies there."
"Oh."
"Would it help if you scan me too?" Yellow asked. "With all due respect, your gem isn't exactly standard."
"Yellow," Blue hissed, reprimanding.
"I assume you mean it's not round?" Pearl asked, raising an eyebrow but not looking particularly offended. "As far as I know, that doesn't make any difference. In my day, it was even desired by some gems—something unique for them to own."
"Until a particular renegade got everyone's attention," Blue said apologetically. "We're all made to be perfectly round now. Anything else is a defect." She glanced at Yellow. "It's not actually true though; it's only an aesthetic change. And an awful excuse to get rid of Pearls who don't measure up."
"Oh, sorry," Yellow muttered. "Nobody ever bothers giving Pearls history lessons." She shrugged. "Regardless, more data isn't going to hurt."
"You're right," Pearl agreed. "May I?"
Yellow nodded, lifting her chin as Pearl scanned her gem.
When she had finished, she compared Yellow's data to hers and Blue's. "No," she mused, "your numbers are almost identical to mine. Meanwhile, Blue's is…well…" She showed her the screen. "Look, if we do a side-by-side comparison, we end up with this."
Yellow leaned forward, eyes narrowed. "Oh my stars, Blue, what is that?"
"What are you talking about?"
"This." She grabbed the screen and touched it a few times to pull up a graph. "Pearl and I are here, and you're way out here by Amethyst."
"That's…strange?" Blue tilted her head. "Should I be concerned about that?"
"No, if the information is accurate, that's actually a good thing," Pearl said. "It means your gem is more resilient than ours."
"Oh. Oh. Really?" Blue poked at her gem curiously. "I thought it was going to be another negative side effect from having the other Pearls there."
"It certainly seems that it's not, but I'm afraid that doesn't put us any closer to understanding what happened a few days ago."
"Oh, right." She spun the lollipop stick in her fingers. "So…?"
"Wait," Yellow said suddenly. "Maybe it is another side effect."
"But—"
"A positive side effect," she clarified. "If we assume that what we just found is a result of having the other Pearls in your gem—which is the most likely cause, even if we don't have any solid evidence to back up that assumption—then we know that it wasn't a one-way transfer of strength like we'd thought."
"Which makes sense," Pearl declared. "Gem formation isn't exactly my area of expertise, but Rose and I studied it a fair bit during the war when we saw the results of the Beta Kindergarten. Gems normally pull in the nutrients needed from the planet to make themselves complete. Even if they aren't able to form in the way they're meant to, the gem tries to compensate however it can. That's true throughout a gem's life—and we use the time when we're inactive during regeneration to gather enough energy to return."
"And shards," Yellow said pointedly, "are essentially inactive gems. They might not have been able to reform, but they were trying with whatever resources they had."
"Me," Blue concluded softly. "That's why my strength and my eyesight were affected."
Pearl nodded. "But the second part of that theory would be that your own gem compensated too. It was weakened, so it tried to pull back some of that energy."
"Right," Yellow agreed. "It was trying to keep some kind of balance—it just ended up manifesting in other areas."
"I think I get it," Blue said, glancing down at her gem again. "I guess I never noticed before because my gem structure doesn't really matter most of the time."
"Yeah."
"…You don't think it hurt them, did it?"
Yellow shrugged uncomfortably. "I don't know."
Blue nodded, lowering her eyes.
They fell quiet for a few minutes, until Blue's head shot up.
"We exchanged energy—me and the others. That's why I took more damage."
"What?" Yellow asked, confused.
"We keep looking at Green as a two-gem fusion, but she's not." Blue laced her fingers together anxiously. "Our gems didn't know what to do when she unfused because I have extra…stuff. From the other Pearls."
Pearl's eyes lit up with realization. "They think you're more than one gem," she finished, "because you have residual traces from all the others. And it distributes the damage accordingly."
"Yeah, that," Blue said in a muted voice.
"It makes sense," Yellow agreed reluctantly, "but it's still just a theory."
"It's the best we've got," Blue said. "And it's always going to be just a theory, isn't it? I'll never really know for sure."
Yellow nodded. "I mean, you could test it out with various fusions, but…"
"No." Blue shook her head. "I don't want to do that."
"I know."
"This isn't inherently bad," Pearl tried to reassure Blue. "Your gem is stronger for it—harder to crack than the average Pearl. You just have to be careful; your fusions won't be able to take as many hits as most without it affecting you."
"I…yeah," she said faintly. "I…um…I think I'm just going to sit down for a moment."
Yellow immediately set the device in her hands aside and went to sit next to Blue instead.
"I'm sorry," Blue murmured, staring down at her knees.
"For what?" Yellow asked. "You didn't do anything."
"But I did. And I dragged Green into this too, and..." She shook her head. "I'm sorry. I'll understand if you don't want to fuse with me anymore."
"Don't be such a pebble, Blue, of course I'll fuse with you," she said briskly.
"You will?"
"As long as we're not putting Green in a position where that happens again, sure. She'll just have to learn how to fight more defensively."
"Oh," Blue breathed. "Thank you. I'd like that."
Yellow nodded.
"…Give me a day or two? I need some time to process this."
"Okay."
Blue smiled and reached over, letting her hand rest briefly beside Yellow's gem, not quite touching. "Alright. So, um, I guess this means I'm cleared for training?" she asked, glancing over at Pearl.
"Oh, yes, I don't see why not," Pearl said quickly. "Do take care though."
"I will."
"Did you want to train now?" she asked. "It might help take your mind off things."
"Yeah, I think that would be good." Blue stood, offering Yellow a hand. "Want to show me what you've been working on?"
"Sure," she said, letting Blue pull her to her feet. "Sounds good."
Blue looked a bit distant, but she smiled and led the way to the warp pad, one hand clasped in front of her gem.
"Alright?" Yellow asked quietly as she joined her.
"I will be." She let her hand fall back to her side, a small smile curving her lips. "Believe it or not, this isn't the most life-changing revelation I've ever had."
Yellow and Pearl laughed, and Blue felt a little better.
She could handle this. She'd been able to deal with things bigger than a few gem abnormalities before, and she wasn't going to let this distract her from their larger goal.
And, honestly, she couldn't complain about the aftereffects left by the gems she'd salvaged. Even if she had known beforehand, it wouldn't have changed what she did.
Pearls had a strong sense of duty, after all, and Blue was just happy she was free to choose those duties now.