"Are you all ready to go? Is there anything else you need me to do?"

Pearl had been fussing about for the last hour or so, checking and rechecking their plans. Yellow was getting mildly irritated at this point, but Chroma seemed to be enjoying it, asking Pearl questions and answering hers. Cyan too, though now her interest had been drawn elsewhere.

"We're fine, Pearl," Blue said cheerfully as she let Steven play with her recently-shapeshifted shorter hairstyle. "Right, Garnet? Or is it cheating to use your future vision?"

"Future vision is never cheating," the fusion answered, tilting her visor down briefly to wink at her. "But you'll do best today if you don't get caught up in too many possibilities."

"See? We'll be fine! And it's our first mission, so we'll definitely be at the top of our game!"

"Alright, alright. I just want to be sure you're prepared. I wish I could go with you."

"Yeah, shame you got grounded," Amethyst teased.

"I'm not grounded!" she said indignantly. "My gem is just too recognizable!"

"Well, if you can't go anywhere, that seems pretty grounded to me." She gave Pearl a friendly poke. "But hey, at least we're all grounded together."

"True enough."

"What's grounded?" Cyan asked distractedly as she ran one last check on the communicators. "Chroma, can you hear me?"

"Loud and clear."

"Grounded is when you get in trouble and you don't get to go do fun things," Steven volunteered.

"Ah."

"It's not a bad thing," he added when he saw her expression. "Or, well, it's bad, but it's not mean. Does that make sense?"

"I think so," Cyan replied.

He nodded seriously, then turned his attention to Blue again, letting her hair flop back down into place. "Shouldn't Yellow change her hair too?"

"I will," Yellow said. "I'll do it right before we go, it's annoying."

"This is right before you go, Yellow," Pearl pointed out.

Yellow rolled her eyes and shifted her hair longer, simultaneously switching out her clothes for a simple leotard as Blue had done. "There."

"Come here," Blue said, beckoning her over and then ruffling Yellow's hair energetically. "There. Now it's perfect."

"Now it's a mess!"

"And Yellow Diamond's old Pearl wouldn't be caught dead with messy hair," she laughed. "Stop trying to fix it."

"I'll help!" Steven volunteered, and Yellow reluctantly let him mess up her hair some more.

"You guys sure you're all set to go?" Amethyst asked, coming over and using the bed as a stepstool so she could join in as well.

"We're fine," Yellow insisted, pushing her away.

"Okay, okay. Come back safe, alright?" There was genuine worry in Amethyst's voice, Yellow realized, even if it was overshadowed by Pearl's more obvious fretting.

"We'll be fine," she repeated.

"We know you can handle it." Garnet placed a hand lightly on her head. "But it doesn't mean we won't worry about you."

"Thanks," Yellow said, irritation soothed somewhat. For the three of them, even being on Homeworld must seem a much bigger danger than anything they'd faced on Earth in recent years.

"You're welcome," Garnet replied, giving Yellow's hair an extra tousle for good measure and smiling when the Pearl ducked out from under her hand, scowling.

"Does anyone else want a turn or are we done?" she muttered.

"Pass," Chroma said with a grin. "How about you, Pearl?"

"Well, I'm not sure it's necessary to make such a mess of things."

"Thank you," Yellow said.

"But since it's already been done…" Pearl stepped forward smartly and removed the clips now hanging from Yellow's hair, only adding to the chaotic arrangement as she gently tugged them away from unruly strands. "There's not much need for these."

"The voice of reason," she said sarcastically, accepting the clips back when Pearl held them out so she could store them inside her gem. Yellow darted her other hand out as she did, aiming to mess up Pearl's hair in retaliation, only to have her wrist caught immediately.

"No thank you," Pearl said firmly, lifting her chin slightly. "You'll have to be quicker than that."

"I will be next time."

"You can certainly try." She smiled a little, grip slackening.

"Hmph." Yellow tugged her arm away and crossed it over her chest with the other. "You'll see when I get back."

"It'll be an excellent way to assess your progress." Pearl paused, growing serious again. "Today—Do be careful out there."

"We will." It was Blue who spoke, before Yellow got a chance, coming over and giving Pearl a quick hug. It didn't seem to bother her at all that Pearl was too surprised to get her arms up in time to return it. "We promise."

"Alright…"

"See you soon?"

"Yes. Yes, I'll see you soon." Pearl gave the two of them a more confident, if still anxious, smile.

The other Crystal Gems hurried to bid them good luck too, and Yellow and Blue were crammed into an unceremonious group hug before everyone headed out, leaving only the Pearls taking part in the mission—Cyan, Chroma, Azalea, Blue, and Yellow.

"You all feel prepared?" Cyan checked one last time. "Nothing new you've thought of since we last met?"

She was met with a small chorus of nos.

"Okay, in that case…um, I guess we're all set. You can head out as soon as you're ready."

There was no reason any of them could find to delay their departure, so the four Pearls started for the base's exit.

Blue's hand settled firm into Yellow's for the short walk there, then squeezed it tight once as they stepped outside and let go.

The two of them continued to walk side by side as they made their way in toward central Homeworld to get to the tunnels. It was a strange sort of nostalgia, being next to Blue on this planet, sharing audacious plans of something their Diamonds wouldn't have dreamed possible. Yellow wasn't sure she liked it, but the familiarity gave her confidence.

It wasn't until Chroma led them to the nearest underground entrance that they felt safe to talk, though they kept it in soft voices to be careful.

"Hey, Azalea," Chroma said, her fluffy manually-ponytailed hair bouncing gently against her back as she made her pace a friendly match for the blacksmith's.

"Hey," she answered quietly.

"Is this your first time out?"

Azalea shook her head. "I, um…gather materials…for the forge…"

"Oh, of course, sorry." She shook her head, smiling. "Scavenging missions can be pretty fun, maybe we can go together sometime."

"Yeah…"

The conversation seemed about ready to come to a standstill, but then Blue jumped in, jogging a couple steps to catch up to them. "So have you had a chance to meet the new Pearl yet?"

"Yeah, Viri introduced us," Azalea said softly.

"Lucky, I haven't yet. How is she?"

"I…think she's doing okay."

"That's great!"

Azalea nodded.

"Does she have a name yet?"

"Mm-hm. Drini."

"Drini?" Blue repeated curiously.

She nodded again.

"That's different," Chroma commented, sounding pleased.

"What's a Drini? Does it mean something?" Yellow asked from behind her.

Azalea jumped, a little startled, and then shrugged shyly. "Seemed rude to ask…" she murmured almost inaudibly.

"Well, it's a nice name, whatever it means," Blue decided. "Does everyone pick something out for themselves so quickly or…?"

"Some of us do, some of us don't," Chroma answered. "I chose mine pretty much right after Crimson and Silver took me in. And you chose yours pretty fast too, right, Azalea?"

"Yeah."

"Thought so. Not everybody does though, and we try not to make anyone feel pressured to choose faster. I think we have…one or two Pearls right now that don't have names yet? Not counting the dissipated projector Pearls, of course."

Blue nodded. "That makes sense. If you don't mind me asking, how did you two pick your names? They're both really pretty."

That earned her two blushes—or one blush from Azalea and one reaction that probably indicated a blush from Chroma, since her dark skin didn't seem to ever visibly gain color.

"Thanks," Chroma said as Azalea echoed the same. She waited patiently for the other Pearl to answer first.

"I, um, just looked at different words," Azalea offered. "From the bits of information about Earth in the files…"

"That's how most of us do it," Chroma added, smiling reassuringly at the pink Pearl. "Aura and Millie have a list of possibilities going, to make it easier for the newer recruits to pick something. Most everyone picks colors and flowers, though there are exceptions here and there. I guess I kind of am myself."

"'Chroma' is a little different," Blue agreed. "But it's still a color thing, right?"

"Yeah." She brightened. "It's, ah, sort of an intentional misnomer? I used to get called 'dull' because I was pretty bad at reforming with anything colorful or interesting on."

"But you have all this nice color on now!" Blue protested, touching the arm of her dress lightly where the silver and gold bands circled it.

"Yeah, I've gotten a little better." She looked pleased. "Anyway, I was tired of having gems label me that way, so I picked Chroma. Intensity of color."

"Ooh, I like it even more now!"

Chroma laughed. "Thanks." She looked around as they reached a split in the tunnel. "Left here."

"Should we check in with Cyan?" Yellow asked as they turned.

"Yeah, best to be safe." Chroma touched the communicator that she'd placed opposite the gem on her forehead, covered by her hair. "Cyan?"

The device didn't allow for anyone else to hear the response, but there must have been one immediately because Chroma spoke again.

"Yeah, no trouble. We're under Facet Six now, on our way to Five." A small pause. "Yeah, thanks. Um, we just figured we should check in. If you want us to do that." She waited, then nodded before realizing the gesture went unseen. "Right, no problem. Talk to you soon." Chroma switched the communicator off again. "Okay, she just said to check in when we get there and again when we leave."

"Alright!" Blue said cheerfully. "How far do we have to go now?"

"A decent amount, but we can speed up our pace if you like. Maybe not running, just in case, but we can walk faster."

"Sounds good to me."

"Yeah, let's go," Yellow agreed. Traveling in the tunnels was eerily calm, dulling her alertness to her surroundings only to have it spike back up again when she caught her attention slipping. She didn't want to be taken by surprise somehow.

She sped up alongside the others, initially staying beside Blue but then walking slightly behind her when Chroma wanted to ask her a few technical questions. Blue just smiled and fell into step beside Azalea instead, trying to strike up a conversation—unsuccessfully, it seemed.

Yellow didn't think her conversation with Chroma was going all that much better. They might have similar interests, but over the past few days she had quickly learned that while Chroma's work was surprisingly good, she didn't know the names of most pieces of equipment. Yellow spent most of her time trying to figure out what "the round thing that connects to the spinny part" or "the bit that always breaks" meant.

"It does always break," Chroma pointed out when Yellow told her the right name.

"It does," Yellow agreed reluctantly. "There's a reason Homeworld came up with a better version."

"Well, unless White happens to steal the better kind, we're stuck with the breaking ones."

"Is White the only Pearl who steals things?" Yellow asked curiously. "You never talk about anyone else bringing supplies."

"White's the most…prolific, but no, she's not the only one. Caddy and Sky do on occasion, and a handful of other Pearls who aren't likely to get caught—but it's tricky."

"You can't steal anything that gems will take notice of, so it's all old."

"Exactly." Chroma shrugged. "But it's better than nothing. Between that and the scavenging missions in all the deserted areas around here, we're on our way to having a steady supply of basic components to work with."

Yellow nodded.

"This should be it up here," Chroma added, pointing up to the next trapdoor.

"This one?" Blue turned to look over her shoulder. "Okay. I can go up first and make sure it's safe."

"I can go," Azalea offered quietly.

"No, no, I don't mind! Can you just give me a leg up?"

Azalea did, and Blue was able to clamber up out of the tunnels easily.

"All clear," she reported a few seconds later, and the other three hurried to join her. Oddly, the door seemed to have led straight to a narrow alley squished between two large buildings.

"They renovated this area a lot," Chroma commented, and Yellow's mind flicked back to some of the reports she'd filed about that in her time with Yellow Diamond. "The exits have a tendency to be in places that used to be easily accessible and aren't anymore."

"Makes sense." Blue fussed with her shortened hair a bit, checked her leotard, and then peeked out to where they could hear the chatter of passing gems. "Okay," she said, retreating back to where the others are. "Let's go in pairs, I guess?"

"Okay." Yellow went with Azalea, leaving Chroma and Blue to follow after a slight delay. Two Pearls together wouldn't raise any suspicions, but four might draw more attention than they wanted.

"Right up here," Yellow said under her breath, and Azalea turned neatly as requested without any hesitation. "Second building."

The place in question was nondescript on the outside but sleek and freshly remodeled within, filled with the most streamlined technology. It was largely automatic, monitoring warp signals all over the planet and to every colony planet. If a problem was detected in one of them, then a Peridot would be sent over to deal with it, but otherwise they shouldn't have to worry about company.

Thank stars Homeworld wasn't as attached to the ideas of windows as humans were, or it would have made things more difficult. Yellow hurried to the largest screen that stretched over the far wall and got a head start on disabling alarms, in case they were unlucky enough to have chosen one of those times when a warp pad was going to malfunction.

She had just finished doing that when Chroma joined her, and she spared her a quick nod.

Chroma returned it, speaking briefly to Cyan through her communicator. "We've just arrived, no problems. Get back to you soon."

Yellow glanced back to see that Blue and Azalea were quietly stationed on either side of the door, which they'd set to stay only the tiniest sliver open to allow them a view of the street outside.

Alright, time to get to work.

The first step was to find a warp pad that they could trick the system into thinking they were using when their own warp pad activated. She entered into the map view and zoomed in on Facet Eleven, looking at the usage numbers on every warp pad relatively near the base. They were all low, considering that the place was getting more and more deserted, but there were two along the inner edges that might do nicely.

"What do you think?" Yellow asked Chroma.

"Hmm…" She thought for a moment, then pointed. "This one? I think they'd both work, but for long-term use it's probably better to go with the one closer to Blue Diamond's sector. That's more likely to see regular activity."

"That's what I was thinking too." Yellow selected it, then accessed the details of that warp.

A few more careful minutes got her to what she needed, and she tapped in a line of code, double-checked it, and then continued a bit further.

"How's it going?" Blue asked, careful not to raise her voice despite the distance between them.

"Good so far. It's more about if it'll accept—" Yellow groaned as she inserted the new data and immediately got an error message. "It won't. Hold on. Let me try a different way."

"No one's coming?" Chroma checked.

"No one," Blue confirmed, Azalea nodding in agreement.

"Okay."

The second way took longer and was circuitous enough that Yellow had to redo a few things along the way, but she felt pretty confident that this would work.

"Alright, can you check this?" Yellow asked Chroma.

"It's not exactly my area of—"

"I know, but it still helps."

"Okay." Chroma's eyes flitted back and forth across the screen, then pointed. "Is this bit…?"

"Got it." Yellow would have felt embarrassed about the mistake but they were on a time crunch—every second they stayed was another that someone might come by and find them. She fixed the error and waited for Chroma to finish reading the rest.

"I think you're good," Chroma said.

"Alright. Let me just—"

"Excuse me," Azalea interrupted nervously. "Um, that screen over there just lit up."

Chroma and Yellow turned simultaneously to look.

"It's asking for gem identification," Yellow said immediately. "Someone's coming."

"It wants ID for what we did? Or—"

"No, it can't be, I haven't finished. It's something else, maybe a system update, I don't know. We'd better hope it's something routine." Yellow hurriedly looked over the code one last time before sending it off to slip inside the program neatly out of sight. "Alright, done, we're good. Let's hide."

"Hide?" Chroma turned towards the door. "But—"

"We don't know how long it'll take them to get here, and we don't want anyone to notice us leaving."

"Yeah, we'll have to wait them out," Blue said, gently ushering her towards the maintenance tunnel. She shapeshifted quickly into a smaller form, turning into a cat like Amethyst did sometimes. "It's okay, we'll be fine as long as we stay quiet. Can you let Cyan know?"

She nodded, hand trembling slightly as she touched the communicator. "Cyan, someone's coming, we won't be able to respond for a while. I'm handing you off to Yellow."

"Wait, what? Chroma—" Cyan's voice was audible as Chroma yanked the communicator off.

"What are you doing?" Yellow demanded, not taking it.

"Chroma, what's going on?" Cyan asked anxiously. "Talk to me, please."

"Yellow, take it," Chroma insisted. "I'm sorry, we have to split up."

"What are you talking about? You just have to get in the—"

"I can't shapeshift, okay? Take it!"

"Chroma, what are you—" Chroma pressed her thumb hard to the device, cutting off Cyan's voice.

"I can't," she repeated, pressing it into Yellow's hand hurriedly. "Stay down there," she insisted when Blue and Azalea started to come back up from the hiding place.

"What do you mean you can't?" Yellow asked.

"I mean I can't," Chroma said, voice quick but shaky. "Or I can, sort of, but I'm not good at it—"

"What does it matter if you're good at it?" Yellow hissed. "Nobody cares what you look like, just get in there!"

"I can't. I can't change sizes and stuff. Go without me, I'll find somewhere to hide."

"That's ridiculous!"

"I'll meet up with you later."

"Like hell you will," Yellow snapped, grabbing the communicator from Chroma's hand and tossing it down to Blue. "You two stay quiet unless things get bad. Chroma, you can at least shapeshift clothes, right?"

"Y-Yeah, usually, but—"

"Good. Make it something plain like you said you wore before." She shapeshifted herself as she spoke, bringing back her old uniform. "Now, Chroma!"

She flinched, closing her eyes to try and concentrate. It was always harder to do when she was stressed, but there wasn't a choice. She rapidly worked through getting rid of the silver and gold accents on her dress one at a time, knowing she'd do better that way. Soon she was left in just black, and Yellow wasted no time in grabbing her arm and hauling her forward to the door. A glance out showed her someone was already approaching.

"How does Cadmium act when she's on duty?" she whispered urgently.

"I don't know, I only see her on base. Just—Just normal Pearl behavior, I figured. She can be serious when she needs to be."

"Fine. Don't say a word." Yellow straightened her shoulders and drew in a deep breath, settling a hand on Chroma's arm just as the doors opened to reveal a Peridot.

"Oh! What are you doing here?" The gem seemed more surprised than accusatory, which Yellow was grateful for. It was already kind of unnerving not to be looking down like she'd gotten used to with Peridot, the Crystal Gem.

"My Diamond ordered me to escort this Pearl to harvesting."

"Well, yes, I suppose I can see why," she said, giving Chroma a careless once-over. "But what are you doing here? Did she try to run?"

"Precisely," Yellow agreed, quickly accepting the offered explanation—which she'd been going to use anyway. She could feel Chroma trembling minutely as she tightened her grip on her arm. "My Diamond hoped to make use of her despite her flaws but she's proven too troublesome, as you can see. I apologize for the inconvenience, we won't delay you any longer."

"Yes, alright."

Yellow almost couldn't believe it had been that easy as she tugged Chroma out the door. Gems rarely questioned Diamonds' Pearls, but still…

She kept pulling Chroma along until they were a fair distance away, then ducked into the narrow space that held the tunnel entrance. "Okay, let's wait here," she said under her breath as she opened it up.

Chroma nodded, following her in. Once they were safely inside, she slumped against the tunnel wall and slid down, her long hair bunching up behind her until she reached the bottom and let her head fall forward to rest on her knees.

Yellow didn't know what she was supposed to say, if anything. "I didn't have much time to think up an excuse, so I went with the obvious choice," she offered quietly after a few minutes of silence.

"What?" Chroma lifted her head to look at Yellow, her dark eyes surprisingly dry despite the emotion in them. "No, it's fine," she said, waving away the unspoken apology. "I'm not going to complain about that when it's my own fault I…"

Yellow waited.

"Anyway," Chroma murmured, hugging her legs in closer to her chest, "you didn't have to do that. Thank you."

"Of course I had to do it," Yellow said brusquely. "But you're welcome."

She nodded, just as her form seemed to decide it had had enough and changed back to her usual outfit, silver and gold glittering softly as it reappeared. "I should have said something sooner. About the shapeshifting."

"Why didn't you?" she asked, then worried that the question might have come out too harsh.

Chroma just shrugged, not looking at her. "Just got embarrassed," she whispered. "Not used to being with all you fancy Pearls."

Yellow blinked. "You're dating fancy Pearls, aren't you?"

"Huh?" She looked startled.

"Silver's fancy and Aura at least looks the part."

"They're different though."

"How?"

"I don't know, I guess because I know them better."

"Fair enough." Yellow watched her for a moment. "It's fine. Just be more careful."

"I will." She hesitated. "Thanks again."

She nodded stiffly, then knelt down beside her in an attempt to relax as well, if only just a little. "So why do you wear such a complicated outfit if you're bad at that kind of thing? It would take you a long time to reform, wouldn't it?"

"Oh…well, yeah, it did the first time anyway. Haven't had to do it again yet." Chroma pressed a hand to the belt-like design at her waist, smiling shakily. "I was going to do something simpler—with their colors, I mean. But I don't know, I guess I wanted to prove I could do more. It felt right."

Yellow nodded uncertainly.

"And it's a reminder that they've always encouraged me to…to accept myself. Which I guess I didn't do so great at today, but—"

"No, that makes sense." She touched her hair, where she usually wore the hair clips Steven had given her. Those were, in a way, a reminder of her freedom, right? The first thing she'd owned.

"Thanks." Chroma bit her lip, eyes drifting downward as the two of them lapsed into silence.

"We should give it a while longer," Yellow said, gesturing above them.

"Yeah, that's probably safest."

They spent the next ten minutes in relative quiet, Chroma's fingers playing with the hem of her skirt while Yellow sat perfectly still.

"You know," Chroma said after a while, a hint of a smirk appearing on her face, "I'd like to see you do a real Caddy impression sometime."

Yellow clicked her tongue. "Not happening."

"Oh, come on, it'd be funny."

"It'd be terrible."

"Exactly."

Yellow couldn't help but laugh along with her.

"You think it's safe to go back now?" Chroma asked.

"Probably. You wait here, I'll go."

"Okay, be careful."

Yellow inclined her head slightly before standing and climbing back out.

It didn't take her long to return to the building they'd come from, and a quick check showed no activity inside so she hurried in and shut the door once more. "Let's go," she whispered, knocking lightly on the entrance to the other two Pearls' hiding spot.

"Oh, thank the stars," Blue breathed as she came out, not quite finished shapeshifting back into her disguised form as she latched onto Yellow in a brief hug. "I'm glad you're safe. And Chroma?"

"She's safe too, she's waiting in the tunnel."

Blue turned to help Azalea out, smiling reassuringly at the pink Pearl as she joined them. "Ready to go?"

"Mm-hm."

"Okay."

Chroma had stayed exactly where Yellow left her and looked relieved to see everyone, quickly standing so they could begin their journey back. "Sorry," she murmured to Blue and Azalea.

"It's okay," Azalea whispered back.

Blue nodded, sharing a brief smile with Chroma. "Yeah. We'll make sure to remember next time."

"But—"

"We shouldn't have assumed," she interrupted. "Even if you didn't say anything."

"No, that's not on you."

"Either way, it would have been better if one of us had asked directly," she said gently.

"…I guess."

"My gem's not exactly normal either," Blue added.

"It's not?"

She shook her head. "So I should have said something too."

"Yours didn't affect the mission."

"No, but it's not totally impossible that it could have."

"Why didn't you say?" Chroma asked hesitantly.

"I don't know." She shrugged. "Just one of those Pearl things that gets ingrained in you, I suppose. Wanting to live up to somebody's expectations."

"Yeah."

The four of them were met at the door by a surprisingly large group of gems—Crimson and Cyan nearest the door, and then the Crystal Gems and a few other Pearls scattered around to congratulate them.

Chroma's eyes flicked up only briefly, searching for the two familiar faces she wanted to see but not finding them. That was fine, she told herself, she hadn't expected them to drop everything and wait for her, but…it would have been nice to see them.

"Good job," Crimson said, startling her with a gentle hand on her shoulder.

Chroma wasn't sure anything about her performance today merited a good job. "Thanks," she managed anyway, smiling at Crimson. Her throat was tight as she tried to avoid Cyan's eye.

"Welcome back," the gem in question said. "I'd like us all to go back to the strategy room together, if that's alright."

"Sure." Chroma hurried off in that direction, the other Pearls following close behind her.

She took the chair farthest from where Cyan usually sat, letting Blue, Yellow, and Azalea fill in the gaps. It was hard to focus on much of anything when Cyan started talking, so she kept her eyes glued to the table, waiting to hear her name.

She didn't.

Cyan just congratulated them on their success, asked them each to write a small summary of the mission for her to review, and dismissed them to go rest or do whatever else they wanted to do.

Chroma rose belatedly to join them in leaving, her legs unsteady with nerves.

"Chroma," Cyan called, making her freeze in place. "A word, please?"

"…Sure." Her eyes darted to the door before she slowly moved back towards Cyan, standing next to a chair rather than sitting, not sure which was better.

Cyan waited for the rest of the Pearls to file out and then made a point of closing the door before sitting down again and turning to speak to Chroma. "We need to talk about what happened out there."

"I'm sorry I screwed up."

"No," Cyan said firmly, "I want to talk, not have you apologize because I asked you to do something you're physically incapable of."

Chroma flinched, holding on tight to the back of the chair.

"Listen," she said more softly, "I respect you a great deal and I know you always give your best. But I need to know what your best is, Chroma. If you don't tell me your limits, I can't protect you."

She nodded slowly, not looking at Cyan.

"I need you to tell me when you can't do things. It's important."

"Got it." She felt mortified. "Sorry."

"It's okay."

"My shapeshifting is awful," Chroma said quietly. "I can't store things in my gem. Can't really use it as a light either, but that's because of the color. I don't have quite as much raw strength as a standard Pearl, and my reflexes are decent but nothing spectacular. And I don't know if I'd ever be able to summon or not."

"Chroma—"

"That's all I can think of."

"Chroma, I wasn't asking you to tell me what you're bad at," Cyan said guiltily. "I mean, I was, but…" She took a deep breath. "Tell me your strengths now."

"What?"

"Your strengths. I have to know how I can best utilize them, right?"

"Oh. I'm…good at fixing things?"

"That's one."

Chroma bit her lip. "I think I'm best with ranged weapons, but I'm getting better at hand-to-hand too. And, um, Silver and I fight well together as a team."

Cyan nodded.

"I work hard. And if you give me time to practice something, then I usually perform really well."

"There we go," she said with a smile. "Perfect. Now if I could just get everyone to do that…"

"Everyone?"

"Yeah," Cyan answered with a shrug. "I always feel like I'm guessing. Nobody ever speaks up or asks me to change anything."

"You…weren't just calling me out then?"

"Oh! No, of course not. I mean, yes, for everything that happened today, but not—I'm sorry. I went about this all wrong, didn't I?" She dropped her head to the table. "I wasn't picking on you because of your gem, I swear. I'm just so tired of nobody questioning me. I feel like someone's going to get seriously hurt and it all could be avoided if they'd just say 'hey, I don't really feel confident about doing that' or 'can you go over that again' or 'maybe we could try this instead.' Especially now I'm starting to plan more dangerous stuff like this."

Chroma nodded, eyes softening sympathetically. "It's okay. And I don't think it's your fault that they don't. We're just not used to saying no. Or…having any say in what we're told to do." She hesitated. "Silver and Crimson and I, we've had time to get used to some of that, so—so if we're not saying anything, it's usually because we agree. Or in my case, I just get too self-conscious to say anything. The others haven't had the same amount of adjustment period though."

"I know." Cyan turned her head to look up at her. "And I know we can't rush that, but I need to do something about it before—well, before today happens again, but worse."

"Would you like me to help?" Chroma offered. "I can talk to some of them one on one and see how it goes. Maybe it'd work better coming from someone who's not giving the 'orders'?"

"That would be great," she replied. "Thank you."

"No problem." She smiled warmly, placing her hand briefly over the other Pearl's. "You're doing a good job, Cyan."

"Thanks."

To Chroma's surprise, she found Silver and Aura waiting just outside the door, not giving her any time to begin ruminating on the day's events.

"Hi," Aura greeted her with a hug. "Cyan thought you might like us to be here when you finished."

Oh, Chroma thought, leaning briefly into Aura's warm touch. Thanks, Cyan.

"That okay?" Silver asked with a smile as Chroma and Aura parted.

"Of course it is. Thank you." Chroma reached for her next but was instead scooped up smoothly off her feet and into Silver's arms.

"You're welcome. Whose room would you like to go to?"

Chroma smiled a little. It wasn't as if it really mattered—in actuality, all three were shared and they ought to find a more space-efficient arrangement—but she appreciated having the choice. "Yours?"

"Mine it is." Silver started down the hall, Aura keeping pace easily alongside her and letting her hand rest lightly atop Chroma's head. When they reached the door of Silver's room, the golden Pearl entered the passcode effortlessly and hurried in ahead of them to gather the scattered pillows together at the head of the bed.

Chroma found herself gently set down against them, and Aura and Silver were beside her only seconds later. Aura traced the gold and silver at her neck, then settled her hand gently in the center of her chest while Silver placed little kisses in a row alongside Chroma's gem.

"You doing okay?"

She nodded automatically, then made herself stop. But…on second thought, she was doing okay. It certainly hadn't been a good day, but she'd gotten through it. Yellow had helped her, even tried to comfort her in her own way. Blue and Azalea too. And her conversation with Cyan hadn't been anywhere near as terrible as she'd expected it to be. "I think so," she answered slowly. "Not great, but okay. I'm sorry I…"

"We know," Aura said softly. "Just please don't—don't hide things like that when it's important. I know it's hard to share it with gems you don't know very well yet, but…"

"But we need you to be safe," Silver finished, stroking through her hair. "That's the most important thing. Okay?"

"Yeah." Her throat felt tight. "I'm sorry I made you worry."

"It's alright."

"It was a stupid mistake."

"You're allowed a few of those," Silver said, bumping shoulders with her gently. "It's not like the two of us are perfect either."

"Exactly." Aura smiled, leaning in a little. "My mistakes are just confined to the communications room, so it's less noticeable."

Chroma laughed, gem beginning to feel lighter. "I think that's a different kind of mistake."

"Well, maybe, but it still counts." Aura kissed her on the cheek. "It's okay to make them every now and then."

"Thanks." She looked between the other two Pearls. "I won't make the same one twice, I promise."

"We know." Silver wrapped an arm around her firmly. "We trust you. We just figured we should talk about it anyway."

Chroma nodded, touched by the words.

"It isn't too much after already talking to Cyan, is it?"

"No," she said quickly. "No, Cyan was—she was understanding about it. Kind of said the same thing you did, just with less cuddles."

"Which we are more than happy to provide." Silver smiled. "And Cyan seems pretty cool. We should try and get to know her a little better; I feel like we've barely met."

"Well, she has been spending all her free time in the infirmary," Aura said, "but I think Tangy will be out soon, she seems all healed up now. I was thinking of maybe having a small sort of celebration when she leaves actually…"

"That sounds like a great idea," Chroma said. "What kind of celebration though?"

"Oh, well, you know the tea that I've been trying with Steven and Amethyst?"

"You mean the stuff you make every time you have a few minutes to spare?" Silver teased.

Aura blushed. "Yes, that stuff. There's something called a 'tea party' that's just about sitting down with friends and drinking it and talking and…well, it seems nice and calm?"

"Yeah, it sounds like a good idea," Silver reassured her, reaching across Chroma to pull her in for a kiss. "That way it's not too overwhelming."

"Sounds good to me too," Chroma agreed. "And, um, I am trying to work on the…the internal shapeshifting so I can try some with you."

"Oh!" Aura said, surprised. "There's no rush! You don't have to drink tea to be there, so please don't stress about it."

"Okay," she said gratefully. "I want to try it eventually though, since you like it so much."

Aura beamed and hugged her tight. "I'll make you all the best teas when you're ready then!"

"You two are unfairly adorable," Silver projected, hand resting on Chroma's knee. "Come here."

Chroma smiled as she let herself be bundled into a snug embrace between the two of them, tucking her head against Silver's chest. "Thank you."

"You're always welcome. Going to be okay? You need anything?"

"I'll be okay." She let herself be held, just existing peacefully between Aura's tenderness and Silver's steadiness. "I will."