Yellow spent all morning working on the warp pad, which was getting closer and closer to being finished. The majority of the work left now involved keeping it from interacting with Homeworld's own warp pad system so that no outsiders would be able to warp themselves straight into the middle of the rebellion. They only needed to be able to warp long-distance to Earth and back; anything else would be too dangerous.

Lavender was away and Pearl had been absent for most of today as well, off in the forge with Azalea and Crimson to discuss the rebellion's weaponry. It didn't affect the progress of their work too badly, since Pearl didn't have enough recent knowledge of Homeworld's warp systems to be useful, but Yellow did find that she missed her company. The rebellion had been keeping all of them busy and that was fine, preferable even, but it lacked some of the comfortable familiarity that she and Blue had developed when they were just with the Crystal Gems.

Yellow had quickly gotten used to Chroma and Lavender though. They were a bit touchy sometimes, or perhaps just a bit too aware of the gap in status between Diamonds' Pearls and themselves, so there were plenty of missteps. But they never got angry about any unintentional insults, and they'd just go quiet until Yellow worked out what she'd done wrong and apologized, and then it was back to discussing the work ahead of them.

Chroma in particular turned out to be fun to work with, and Yellow enjoyed seeing her methods of assembling odd parts into incongruous but functioning wholes. They never made any sense, as she was quick to point out, but somehow they always ended up working in the end.

The Pearl in question had disappeared a few minutes ago after receiving a message from Ory but now she returned, another gem trailing just a couple steps behind her.

"Have you met Tin?" Chroma asked as they walked over.

"Yeah, we know each other!" Tin answered before Yellow had a chance. "We met in training not too long ago."

Yellow nodded. She hadn't noticed before, but now that Tin was standing and moving, she could see that she heavily favored her right leg, courtesy of her cracked gem most likely. "Hello," she offered, not wanting to stare too much.

"Hi!" Tin smiled brightly. "Is it okay if I sit and watch for a little while?"

"Watch?" she repeated.

"Mm-hm. I'm following different gems around so I can figure out what job I want to have. Mercury's already decided she wants to be a tactician, so I want to pick soon too!"

"Oh, okay." Yellow hadn't put much thought into it, but that was a smart way to help Pearls find a job that suited them. Most probably had no idea what they wanted when they first acquired their freedom. "Yeah, you can watch."

"Thanks!" Tin lowered herself carefully to the floor beside Yellow, eyes darting over the warp core in front of her.

"So you don't want to do the same thing as Mercury?" Yellow asked.

"Not really," she laughed. "I mean, we're different gems. Tactical stuff is gonna be fun for her, but for me it's just...well, don't tell her and Cyan, but it's a little boring being cooped up in one room like that."

"I'm not sure this is going to be a fit for you either then," Chroma said, settling on Tin's other side. "We definitely get around base more, but there's still a lot of being cooped up in one room while we fix things."

"Yeah, but it's different," Tin replied. "You're interacting a lot more! Like, if something breaks, everybody's like 'Let's go find Chroma' and it's cool."

A small smile found its way to her lips. "Yeah, it is kinda cool," Chroma murmured. "Oh, but it's not just me," she added quickly. "There's Yellow and Lavender too."

"Of course," she agreed. "You're just who everybody thinks of first, that's all! You've been here the longest of the three of you, right?"

"Yeah." She pushed a few spare parts they weren't using in Tin's direction. "Here. You can play around with these a bit if you want, or just watch."

"I'll try both," Tin said agreeably. "Thanks."

"Sure."

Yellow wasn't sure what to expect from their guest, but Tin was actually pretty quiet, observing keenly from the spot she'd chosen and only interrupting intermittently to ask the two of them questions—ones that were generally only partially relevant to the task at hand.

"What do you like most about this?"

"About building a warp pad?" Yellow asked.

"No," Tin laughed, "your whole job."

"Oh." Yellow paused for a moment. "I don't know, I just like it. It makes sense."

"Okay!" She didn't press for a better answer, just watched intently as Yellow got back to work. "What about you, Chroma?"

She glanced up, smiling. "I just like that I can do something that's useful and fun at the same time."

Tin nodded, then winced at the movement and pressed a hand to her gem. "That's really cool."

"I bet you'll find something like that too," Chroma said.

"I hope so!"

After a while of watching Yellow and Chroma work, Tin was starting to get bored. They weren't bad company—if anything, they both reminded her a tiny bit of Mercury in different ways—but she couldn't follow their conversations very well once they got technical. Tin distracted herself by examining the pieces Chroma had pushed her direction, leftover bits from things they were grafting onto the warp core.

"Hello," came a new voice, and Tin looked up to see Blue walking over. "Mind if I distract you for a little while?" she asked, going up behind Yellow and placing her hands on her shoulders, leaning forward to see what she was working on without risking jostling her hands too much.

"Sure." Yellow brightened a little, pleased when Blue took a seat beside her a moment later. "Where have you been?"

"Just getting a little extra sleep," Blue answered easily. "How's the warp pad?"

"Getting there."

"And you're helping now too, Tin?" she asked.

"Just watching," she answered cheerfully. "Figuring out what I want my job to be. It's...probably not this, sorry, guys."

"That's alright," Chroma laughed kindly. "There are plenty of other choices; I'm sure one of them will suit you."

"Mm-hm, I've got a whole day lined up!"

"Yeah? Who's next on the list?"

"Video reconnaissance with Tangerine in comms."

"Is that what she calls it?" Chroma chuckled.

"No, that's just what I'm calling it! It sounds nicer than plain old surveillance."

"Well, video reconnaissance will be nice and calm," she said, amused. "Anyone else?"

"Aura and Millie too, since they'll be right there," Tin continued. "And after that, hmm, I think it was Snow?"

"Ah, Snow's out today," Chroma said. "Actually, Millie is too. Silver went with them and Lavender on a rescue mission. Speaking of..." She set the equipment she was working on down carefully. "I'm going to go check in with Aura and see how things are going."

"Oh, okay, see you later then!"

"See you." Chroma offered a small wave to her and the others before heading off in the direction of the communications room.

"I was wondering why she seemed distracted," Yellow muttered.

"I hope it all goes well," Blue said, squeezing Yellow's arm reassuringly. "Do you need me to help with something while Chroma's gone?"

"No, that's alright," she answered with a smirk. "You two entertain yourselves, I can handle this."

"Okay," she laughed. "So, um, is there anything standing out to you so far?" she asked Tin.

"Not really," Tin said, shrugging. "Everybody's been really helpful though!"

"That's good." Blue fidgeted a bit with the translucent material on the bottom of her shirt.

"What about you?"

"Huh?"

"What's your job?" Tin asked.

"Oh." Blue smiled faintly. "I guess helping with training and stuff mostly."

"That's really cool," she said. "You get to do what you've always dreamed about doing, you know?" She gestured to Blue's gem. "I mean, I'm guessing that's what you dreamed about doing?"

"Yeah, it is," she murmured thoughtfully, touching her gem. "That and meeting Pearl," she added lightly, "but I already got to do that too."

"Yeah," Tin laughed.

"There wasn't anything you wanted to do while you were in service?" Blue asked curiously. "I mean, not that there has to be something..."

"I mostly just wanted to stay with Mercury," she answered honestly. "And join the rebellion. But, well, that's taken care of now, so I guess I met all my goals too." She laughed. "We'll have to figure out some new ones, huh?"

Blue couldn't quite tell if she meant her and Mercury or her and Blue, so she just nodded.

"Although..." Tin mused. "I enjoyed parts of my job as a Pearl. Our owners weren't bad gems."

"Not all of them are," Blue agreed. She'd seen plenty of Pearls over the years and some of their situations were far better than others, even though they shared the awful commonality of being owned.

"Yeah. It's kind of weird saying that here though. I haven't heard lots of details, but most of the Pearls here seem to really hate their owners."

"Well..." Blue said thoughtfully. "If you've had an outright bad owner, it's probably easier to make the decision to run."

"Good point." Tin looked around. "It's pretty amazing there's even this many."

"It is," she said, smiling. "It's more than I expected. I mean, not just numbers either. I thought the rebellion would be only Pearls who'd seen my projections, but it's not. I'd never even spoken to the majority of them before I came here."

"They spread the word on their own?"

"They must have."

Tin looked awed by that detail, pressing a hand carefully to the gem on the side of her head. "I wish I could have helped tell other Pearls too."

"I wish I could have told more," Blue said wistfully.

"You told hundreds, if not thousands," Yellow cut in, raising her eyebrows. "I think you've done more than your share."

"Still, I loved getting to do it." She shrugged. "And I'm glad Crimson and the others can take up that role and keep it going. It's just a little sad, not being able to be a part of it anymore."

Tin hummed sympathetically. "But we'll have new stories to tell each other now," she added. "That'll be a good thing."

"Definitely."

"That's actually what I used to do," Tin volunteered easily. "Tell stories. That was the fun part of being Topaz's, although Mercury always had to make sure I was careful about not getting too creative and stuff."

"Maybe that can be something you do here then," Blue pointed out. "I mean, I don't know if that's a job, but it's at least something you enjoy."

"Yeah!" She brightened. "That's a great idea, thanks."

"Oh, I'm sure you would have come up with it on your own."

"Maybe, maybe not!" Tin pointed to her cracked gem, smiling. "I'm not sure which bits of me have gone missing yet."

Blue laughed uneasily.

"Sorry, was that too dark? Mercury keeps telling me I shouldn't joke about it."

"No, it's alright, I was just surprised."

"Mm." Tin frowned, running her finger over the crack. "I figure it's there, so I might as well accept it, right? I don't want to make things all awkward by pretending that it's not."

"I think it's just difficult to get used to seeing someone's gem cracked without it being..."

"Fixable?"

"Yeah."

Tin shrugged. "It's difficult for me too, but I don't want to be sad about it all the time. We're both alive, we're both here, and that's what's most important to me. The happy stuff definitely outweighs the sad."

"That seems like a good way to look at it," Blue agreed. She looked around. "Where is Mercury, by the way? This is the first time I've seen you apart."

"Oh, she's with Cyan!" Tin said cheerfully. "She's going to be a strategist too, so she's learning how all that works."

Blue nodded uncertainly.

"Speaking of Mercury, can I ask you something?"

"Um, sure," she agreed, not sure what to expect.

"Do you think it's okay to ask Garnet for fusion advice?"

"For...?" Blue took a moment to process the question, trying to make sense of it. "Yeah, I'm sure she'd be happy to answer questions."

"Great! We've never met any other fusions besides Topaz and we can't really have a conversation about that kind of thing with her."

"Well, Garnet's practically a fusion expert," Blue laughed. "What kind of things did you want advice on?"

"Hmm, mostly just if it's safe to fuse when my gem's like this. I know it hurt Mercury when I got cracked, but I'm not sure if it'll hurt her if I'm just cracked to begin with."

"You've fused?" Yellow asked, looking up.

"Once!" Tin answered enthusiastically. "It was amazing!"

"Yeah?" Blue smiled. "So we're not the only ones then," she said to Yellow.

"You've fused too?" Tin asked.

Yellow nodded. "We haven't since we've been here," she said, "since we thought it'd be pretty new to everyone and we didn't want to scare them."

"But fusion's not scary at all," Tin said earnestly. "If I knew it was okay to, I'd be doing it all the time. Well, if Mercury wanted to, of course."

Blue laughed. "Yeah, you're right, but I thought it might get overwhelming having so many new things starting to happen at once."

"I think that's what makes it exciting," Tin said, "but that's fair. I guess I'm only used to the idea since our owners fused pretty frequently." She rocked forward a little. "Could you tell me about your fusion too? Give us some advice?"

"Sure, if we can."

"Thanks!" She got up carefully, pausing a moment to make sure she kept her balance. "I'm going to run and get Mercury, I'll be right back!"

"Okay!"

Tin hurried back in the direction of the strategy room, not sure if she'd find Mercury there or somewhere else on base. Located on the far end of one of the two long hallways that led through the private quarters, it was about twice the size of the room Tin and Mercury—and everyone else—stayed in. Currently there wasn't much in it, just a large table with papers spread all over it as Cyan tried to get all her information organized. The arrangement seemed to have gotten slightly messier since Tin had last seen it earlier that day, and she smiled when she caught sight of Mercury's distinctive, scribbly handwriting on some of the documents.

Still, the two tacticians were nowhere to be seen, so Tin cut through a smaller hallway to go by their room and see if she could find Mercury there. Or Cyan, since it had turned out she and Tangerine lived right next door.

Sure enough, she found them both in the hallway, standing just outside Mercury and Tin's door, Mercury scowling as Cyan seemed to be finishing up some kind of an explanation.

"Good timing!" Tin called, hurrying over to them. "Are you all done?"

"Just about," Cyan said. "I wanted to let Mercury know where she can find me. This room is mine and Tangerine's." She pointed to the door immediately to the right of Mercury and Tin's, then to the one on the left. "And this one is mine too. You can usually find me in one of them if I'm not in the strategy room or the common room."

Mercury narrowed her eyes. "Why do you have two rooms?"

"Sometimes I get stressed."

"Sometimes?" she scoffed. "I'm always stressed."

"I can tell," Cyan said dryly. "Though I thought you were also the one who made a big fuss about not wanting you and Tin to be separated."

"I was."

"So you don't actually want another room."

"Of course not. It's the principle of the thing."

Cyan rolled her eye. "Anyway, that's where I'll be if you need me. Any more questions?"

Mercury considered it for a moment. "No, that's it."

"Okay. I'll see you later so we can get started on those plans I mentioned before."

"Sure." She looked to Tin. "Did you need me for something? Is everything okay?"

"Yes to both!" Tin began leading her down the hallway by one hand, to take her over to the common room.

"You're welcome!" Cyan called after them.

Mercury didn't reply, just lifted her free hand in a lazy sort of wave.

"Thanks!" Tin answered for her, exchanging a grin with Cyan. "She had a great time!"

"Tin!"

"What? You did, didn't you?"

"Well…"

Tin laughed, tugging her along faster.

"Anyway, where are we going?" Mercury asked. "And slow down, you shouldn't be overexerting yourself until we're sure your gem can handle it."

"It's okay, my gem's feeling pretty good today!" Tin told her, though she slowed her pace a little anyway. "And we're going to talk to Blue and Yellow."

"Blue and Yellow? What for?"

"To talk about fusion. Did you know they've fused too?"

Mercury shook her head.

"They have!" She pulled at Mercury's arm. "Maybe they'll be able to help us."

"You think?"

"Well, we won't know until we ask," Tin said seriously. "Can we ask? I really want to know if it's safe for us to fuse again."

Mercury nodded without hesitation. "I want to know too," she murmured. "What about the other fusion?" she asked.

"Oh, Garnet? Yeah, they said it's okay to ask her too. But talking to other Pearls about it just seems..."

"Safer."

"Yeah. Even if there's nothing to be afraid of here."

"Mm." Mercury squeezed Tin's hand a little. "Alright, Blue and Yellow first, and then if we need to, we'll talk to Garnet too."

"Sounds good."

The two of them headed back into the common room, where the other two Pearls were waiting.

"We're back!" Tin announced. "Are you at a good stopping point or should we wait?"

"This is fine, thanks, Mercury," Yellow answered, setting her work aside.

"I'm Tin," she pointed out, smiling.

"Oh," she said, embarrassed as she finally looked up properly. "Right, sorry. You look a lot more alike in my peripheral vision, that's all."

"It's alright!"

"Hi, Mercury," Yellow added.

"Hi," Mercury said quietly as they sat down.

"Hey," Blue greeted her as well. "How was your, um, strategy introduction?"

"Good."

"That's good. I bet Cyan will appreciate having somebody else to help out."

She shrugged awkwardly.

"She definitely will," Tin said, leaning against Mercury's shoulder briefly. "You seem like you'll get along well."

"She spent the whole time trying to make me laugh at her jokes," Mercury complained.

"Did she?"

"She had a ten percent success rate, but I didn't want to give her the satisfaction."

Tin giggled. "You're cute."

Mercury blushed slightly. "Aren't we here to talk about fusion?"

"Yep!" She turned her attention back to Blue and Yellow. "Could you tell us about yours, please?"

"About ours?" Blue asked. "Sure, we'd be happy to, but what exactly do you want to know?"

"Anything you can think of," Tin said earnestly.

"But if you know anything about fusing while one or both gems are injured, that'd be the most helpful," Mercury added quietly.

The other two exchanged a look.

"If you mean gem damage," Yellow said slowly, "we don't have any experience with that."

"And with bodily damage, my gem works a little differently from most anyway," Blue said. "If Green—our fusion—gets her form injured, I take on the majority of that when we unfuse."

"Why?"

"It's...not going to be something that applies to you, I'm positive," she answered, reluctant to share that detail.

"Okay," Mercury said warily. "What about if you're injured when you go into the fusion?"

Blue shook her head. "We've never tried that, sorry."

Mercury and Tin exchanged a brief look.

"If you had to guess?" Tin asked in a small voice.

"I don't know," Yellow said. "I mean, if you're able to hold your form together on your own, I'd think the fusion would be able to as well." She shrugged. "Beyond that, there's no way of telling."

"You'd really probably be better off talking to—oh, Garnet, there you are!" Blue waved her over. "I was just about to say we should find you. Future vision?"

"Maybe," Garnet answered with a little smile, joining the four of them. "Hello, Tin, Mercury."

"Hi," Tin offered, looking a little more nervous now. Mercury moved closer to her.

"You can ask anything you like," she continued. "I'd be happy to help."

"We were mostly wondering how it would work with my gem," she said. "Have you ever...?"

"Hmm..." Garnet tilted her visor down slightly to get a better look at Tin's gem. "I certainly got into some trouble during the rebellion on Earth," she said, "but nothing that severe."

"Yeah," Tin sighed. "I mean, I'm glad you weren't hurt, that's a good thing. I just was hoping somebody would be able to tell us how to deal with it."

"I can tell you what I've experienced," Garnet said. "In the past, if one or both of their gems took damage, Ruby and Sapphire would usually unfuse. My memories of that are a little…blurry, but I do know it was a conscious choice and not a forced one. I could have remained together, but they felt it would be better not to—either to make it easier to hide from enemies until Rose could find them, or so that one could protect the other without risking further damage to the injured gem like they might if I stayed together."

Mercury nodded slowly. "That makes sense. So the damage itself never kept you from staying fused?"

"No. Though of course, it was never anything permanent like Tin's."

"So you can probably fuse!" Blue said, smiling. "That's what we were guessing too," she told Garnet.

"I'm not worried about the likelihood of it so much as what it might do to Tin's gem," Mercury argued.

"Or yours," Tin pointed out. "I don't want it to end up hurting you like it did when I got broken."

"A good point," Garnet agreed.

Mercury looked at her for a long moment, then slowly asked "The future vision Blue mentioned is...precognition? From your Sapphire?"

"That's right." Garnet held up her right hand.

"Oh!" Tin leaned forward a little. "Could you, um, just check the future for us then? If that's okay?"

"I can, but it's not always good to know what's coming," she warned them. "That in itself can change the outcome or the path to that outcome."

"We only want to know if it's safe for the two of us to fuse," Mercury said determinedly. "That's not going to do us any harm unless you're wrong."

Tin elbowed her in the side.

"What? It's true."

"It is," Garnet laughed, not offended. "Alright, I can take a look for you. Wait a moment."

Tin smiled and settled back, ready to wait. "Thanks, Garnet."

To their surprise, it was only a few seconds before Garnet spoke again. "I don't see any futures where your fusing negatively affects either of you."

"Really?"

She nodded. "There are...variations, but I can't discern any lasting harm in any of those scenarios. I'd just recommend you play it safe and don't rush things."

"We won't," Mercury said seriously, though she was fighting to keep the smile off her face. "Thank you."

"No problem." Garnet smiled. "Anything else I can help with?"

"That's all we needed."

"No, come on, Mercury, we should ask more questions!" Tin encouraged her. "It'll be fun hearing about an all-the-time fusion. That's what our Topazes wanted to be," she added to Garnet. "But Homeworld doesn't allow that kind of thing. What's it like? How did you decide to stay like this?"

"That's a pretty long story."

"I like long stories!"

"So do I," Mercury said begrudgingly, giving Tin a fond smile. "If you don't mind sharing it."

"Not at all."

It wasn't long before a small crowd had gathered around Garnet, respectfully taking up places on the floor in silence as she recounted how Ruby and Sapphire first met, and how they first fused.

"That's amazing," Tin whispered as Garnet finished. "It's such a beautiful story..."

Mercury nodded, a small smile on her lips when she saw how enthralled Tin was.

"Really?" another Pearl asked skeptically, making all heads turn toward her. Tin recognized her as Citrine, who she only knew by her reputation as a troublemaker—and not the kind of troublemaker the rebellion appreciated. "They were just being stupid and impulsive, weren't they? They didn't even know each other."

"So?" Tin asked, a little irritated to have her immersion in the story broken. "It's okay to be impulsive when you're in love."

"It could have just as easily ended with them shattered," Citrine said, shrugging. "I don't see what you find so great about that."

"It's great because it didn't end that way," Tin pointed out. "They survived and they got to stay fused and fight for what they believed in. I think it's really inspiring."

"Well, do what you like, but I hope you don't expect the rest of us to behave the same way. Though, I mean, not all of us have identical copies of ourselves to fall in love with the instant we're made."

Tin's eyes went wide, then grew dark. "Mercury is not a copy of me, and I'm not a copy of her either."

"Well, not anymore," Citrine muttered.

"What's the matter with you?" Mercury snapped, positioning herself in front of Tin protectively. "If you think we're all so stupid, then leave. Nobody's making you listen."

Citrine flinched at the ferocity in her tone, but she didn't say anything.

"We don't even know you. Stop running your mouth about things you don't understand."

The orange Pearl glared at her for a few seconds, then abruptly stood up and left the common room.

"Are you alright?" Mercury asked Tin quietly when she was gone.

"I'm fine," she reassured her. "Like you said, she's just running her mouth."

"Yeah..."

"I'm sorry," Chroma offered. "I've been trying to tell her to stop acting like that, but she doesn't listen to me and she doesn't really listen to Crimson either, so..."

"No, it's okay, you're not responsible for her," Tin said easily, already slipping back into the natural smile that she always wore.

"She'll come around," Garnet added, voice calm and steady.

"I hope so," Chroma murmured.

"You shouldn't dwell on it," she said. "Let me tell you one more story before we go to training."

Tin brightened. "Really?"

"It's a shorter one, but I think you'll enjoy it."

"Definitely!" she said eagerly.

Mercury still looked a little on edge from the confrontation, but she nodded too, letting Tin lean against her comfortably as Garnet began speaking again. "Your gem?" she checked softly. "That's alright too?"

"Shh," Tin whispered back. "It's alright, I promise."

"Okay."