Citrine seemed to have a habit of always being around when you didn't want her there, and then never being around when you were looking for her. Crimson had checked the common room first, then Citrine's room, finding her in neither place. She'd just have to wander the base until she bumped into her then, she decided, because she had no idea where or with whom the other Pearl might spend her time.

Crimson doubted she would find Citrine anywhere else in the living quarters—there weren't any truly unoccupied rooms anymore and she was fairly certain Citrine wasn't close friends with anyone yet, despite being there just as long as some of the others. Instead, she made her way through the entrance area towards the infirmary, poking her head in briefly but finding it empty as expected. Then she circled through the communications room, said hello to Aura and Millie who rather suspiciously scrambled to hide whatever they'd been looking at on the computer, and went around to the meeting rooms that didn't get used very much. She was just leaving when she ran into Viri, who was headed toward the front of the building.

"Hi, Crimson!" the taller Pearl greeted her.

"Hey, Viri." Crimson caught sight of the orange gem she held, cupped carefully in both hands. "Oh stars, is that Citrine? What happened?"

"Oh, no, no, this isn't Citrine, this is the other orange one. Fluffy ponytail, last one not to choose a name besides the projector Pearls?"

"Ah." The one Steven had wanted to help in summoning practice the other day. She frowned, leaning in for a better look at the gem. "She's not cracked, is she?"

"No, just got poofed in training." Viri shrugged. "She got a little too ambitious."

"She does seem the type. Are you going to sit with her?"

"Yeah, unless you need me somewhere else." Viri had made it a habit to stay with any Pearls that had poofed or arrived to them poofed, spending her free time watching over their gems until they returned.

"Not right now," Crimson said. "Actually, I might come join you later, if you don't mind."

"Not at all!" Viri smiled. "It's good to have company, I'm sure she'll appreciate it!"

Crimson wasn't entirely convinced you could tell there was anyone around when you were inside your gem, but she nodded all the same. "I'll see you later then."

"See you!"

She watched Viri continue her careful walk to the infirmary, then swiveled in place to head for the training room instead. Finding Citrine wasn't urgent, and maybe if she moved on to the next things on her to do list, she'd run into her at some point anyway.

The most pressing matter at hand was talking to Pearl about the plans for the rebellion. Crimson had been working with Cyan—and more recently, Mercury—on sketching out some broader strategies. After the discussion they'd had this morning, it seemed like the right time to present their thoughts to the Crystal Gems.

Crimson wondered briefly if their own rebellion should have a name like that, and then dismissed it. She knew "the rebellion" was vague, but she liked calling it that. It sounded down to earth and it got the point across quickly when she was trying to pass the word along to Pearls who were still in service.

As she entered the training room, there was one group of Pearls finishing up practice—presumably where Viri had come from—and then the usual four Pearls working on the warp pad, a low-power force field thrown up between them so that there was no chance of anyone or anything accidentally damaging the work-in-progress warp pad.

"Pearl, are you busy?" Crimson asked, circling around the force field and approaching them. "I had some ideas I wanted to run by you."

"Oh, certainly," Pearl answered, standing up and dusting off her legs, which had gathered small particles of crystalline blue. "I was just educating myself on some of the new technology; they can handle this without me."

"Want us to wait for you?" Chroma asked.

"No, no, go ahead." She smiled, turning to Crimson. "This is about the plans for the rebellion, right?"

"Yeah. Or, well, it's a plan, and I wanted to run it by you, run it by everyone else, and if it passes muster, then it'll be the rebellion's plan."

"That sounds very reasonable." Pearl started towards the exit. "Shall we go to the strategy room to talk?"

"How about my office instead?" Crimson suggested. "Mercury and Cyan are still…adjusting to working together."

"In that case, your office it is," she agreed. "Would you like me to get Garnet and Amethyst too?"

"Sure, that'd be great."

"Alright, I'll meet you there in just a moment then."

Pearl hurried out the opposite door instead, leaving Crimson to walk back down the hall to her office alone. She realized, belatedly, that there were only three chairs in there and turned around, going to borrow one from the next room over. She shoved it inside her office unceremoniously, having to push her desk farther back so she was able to squeeze in all the chairs and leave adequate room to walk in between them.

Crimson gathered up a few papers that had fallen in the process and set them back on top of the messy stack on one corner of her desk. It was only then that she noticed the small note that had been left for her right beside it, written in Sky's neat, swooping handwriting.

Sorry I missed you! I'll come by again as soon as I can. Caddy said summoning practice was really cool, I wish I could have been there too. My Diamond's keeping me close still but I think it's more to spite White Diamond than it is anything else. But I'm sure Aura's already given you my report, so I won't waste any more paper talking about Diamonds. Just wanted to say hi and tell you to keep procrastinating cleaning up in here so we can do that together! (I can't tell if that sounds rebellious or just silly, but I really do enjoy it) Anyway, I hope everything is going well with training and the warp pad and everything. I know it's a lot to keep track of, so make sure you take care of yourself please. See you soon.

Crimson smiled down at the note, reading it once more before putting it away in her gem. No sooner had she done so than the Crystal Gems appeared in the doorway.

"Hi, come in," she greeted them. "Sorry it's a bit of a tight squeeze."

"No problem." Amethyst plopped down comfortably on the middle chair, Pearl and Garnet taking seats on either side of her. "What's up?"

"I was hoping to get your advice on rebellion strategy and whatnot."

"Ooh, cool. I've never gotten to help plan a rebellion before!"

"Then I guess we're on the same page," Crimson laughed.

"Pearl and Garnet know what they're doin' though."

She nodded. "Actually, before we get into everything else, I wanted to apologize, Garnet. I heard Citrine said some things she shouldn't have."

"There's no need for you to apologize," Garnet reassured her.

"No, really. You're our guest and she shouldn't be...criticizing your existence as a fusion."

"I hope we're a little more than guests by now," she answered with a small smile.

Crimson returned it, running a nervous hand over the gem in her shoulder. "Our friend then," she amended. "Sorry, I'm still not quite used to being on equal ground with other gems."

"That's understandable."

"Anyway, guest or friend, she shouldn't have said it. I'll talk to her again later, see if I can get through to her this time."

"It's not on you if Citrine's being a pain though," Amethyst pointed out.

"Very true," Pearl agreed. "Anyway, why don't you tell us about the plan you have so far?"

"Right." Crimson cleared her throat. "This is more of a general sort of plan, not specifics, so..."

She nodded, smiling. "You don't need too many specifics this early on."

"Things change that you won't be able to plan for," Garnet said calmly. "And if you plan everything, you'll feel completely derailed when that happens."

"Yeah, exactly," Crimson said appreciatively. "So I came up with some general stages that I thought might be best. We'll focus on recruitment first, Pearls and other gem types if we can later. Once we're stronger in number, we can start trying to disrupt the way Homeworld is running as much as possible without physically starting fights. I assume that process would take quite a while to do effectively, and the results would affect what comes next, but...if or when we get to it, stage three would be going on a more blatant offensive."

"Postponing true confrontations as long as possible," Pearl said approvingly. "That's good."

"You think?"

"I think it's an excellent starting point."

"And the specifics are something you should get lots of input on," Garnet added. "There are going to be some things other gems will think of that we won't, or vice versa."

"Yeah," Crimson agreed, relieved to hear they were on the right track.

"So right now, we just wanna recruit as many gems as we can, huh?" Amethyst asked.

She nodded. "I mean, I'm not sure I like calling it recruitment when so much of it is getting Pearls to safety, but you know. We need to grow our numbers, but we also want to make sure to help as many gems as we can."

"Both are important," Pearl agreed. "And you're going to continue bringing everyone here?"

"Yes, if that's what they choose. I've been talking to a few other Pearls about expanding the building so we can have more rooms for newer rebels. We're running out of space right now if we want to keep the storage rooms open."

"Won't somebody notice if you're doing construction work?" Amethyst asked curiously.

"Oh, not expanding outward," Crimson said, pointing to the floor. "Expanding down. Silver's owner was actually planning similar renovations before she shattered, so we're pretty sure it's possible."

"So you'd focus on fortifying the base and its supplies," Garnet said, "to give the rebellion a sturdy foundation."

"Right."

"I think that's good," Pearl said, "but in regards to having an increasing number of Pearls going missing as this happens..."

"I know, I'm not sure how to handle that," Crimson admitted. "It's not as if we can have everyone leave their owners at once—stars, some Pearls may not want to leave their owners for something so dangerous—but it's going to keep getting more dangerous for the ones that stay once gems really take notice."

"It may be unavoidable," Pearl sighed.

"There is one possibility that might work," Garnet said.

"What's that?"

"A show of force. If we can impress upon the Diamonds that you're a threat that needs to be recognized, then they're more likely to want to deal with you themselves."

"And that's a good thing?" Crimson asked apprehensively. "We definitely can't stand up to them right now..."

"It's a good thing because it means they won't want the embarrassment of letting the rest of Homeworld know a bunch of Pearls are causing trouble."

"Oh," Crimson breathed. "So other gems wouldn't have any real provocation to get rid of or harm their own Pearls."

Garnet nodded. "It would at least buy you time in that regard. As for the Diamonds themselves, that might not be so easy. I don't know how they'd react these days."

Crimson frowned. "Blue Diamond and Yellow Diamond are somewhat predictable, it's White Diamond that would worry me the most. She might cause large scale harm if we provoke her." She paused, then added, "And I'd for sure want Sky and Caddy pulled out before we make any kind of move to antagonize the Diamonds; they wouldn't be safe."

"Their disappearance might actually work in our favor," Pearl mused. "Our success would depend primarily on the Diamonds' reactions, and that would certainly get their attention. It's just a matter of what happens after that."

"I can talk to White and get her input. She'd have the best insight."

"Sounds good."

"But it's not like they know where you are," Amethyst pointed out. "Before they can do anything to the rebellion, they have to find it. So all we've gotta do is make sure they never find you."

"Well, there are other concerns, still including how it would affect Pearls who aren't here," Pearl said hesitantly, "but yes, that would be the main point of order. If we make sure to set up protections around the base, and take precautions when coming and going…"

"And we'll have the warp pad," Crimson said. "If all else fails, we can leave the building deserted, make them think we've moved somewhere else."

"What about the warp pad itself?"

"Is there a way to disguise it?"

Pearl considered it. "Yes, that's probably doable. But in event this place is discovered, we'd need to destroy the warp pad altogether. It wouldn't be safe to return."

"Ah, yeah, that's true. It just seems like a shame after all the work you've put into it."

"Well, if it comes to that, it will certainly have served its purpose." Pearl shrugged. "Regardless, you're right, we do have one solid backup plan for sure. And hopefully we'll have time to improve on that, gather enough supplies to store both here and on Earth in case of an emergency."

"Yeah. Okay, so I'll work with the Diamonds' Pearls and Cyan to figure out some options," Crimson said determinedly. "Oh, and Mercury, of course. It'll be good to see how the two of them do working together on something like this."

Garnet nodded. "Feel free to come to us anytime too."

"Thanks, I will. We're still really new to this, so it's good to have you here."

Pearl smiled. "We'll keep doing our best to help."

"And hey," Amethyst said, "you don't have to keep thinking of us like visitors. Even if we're not gonna stay here full-time, we want to be part of the rebellion. We're not just going to ditch you as soon as we get back to Earth."

"Oh! We'd be honored," Crimson said. "Not that I thought you were going to ditch us, but I wasn't sure how involved you wanted to be after this."

"We'd like to stay involved," Garnet assured her. "We have our responsibilities on Earth, but if you need us, we'll make sure to be here."

"Definitely," Pearl agreed. "We want to stand with you."

"Thank you."

Viri had been sitting with the poofed Pearl for a good couple hours before Crimson poked her head in.

"Hey," she greeted her. "Sorry I took so long, it's been a busy day."

"That's alright!" Viri answered easily, patting the seat beside her to encourage Crimson to join her. "You didn't miss anything."

Crimson laughed. "No, I guess not."

"Did it go well?"

"Yeah, pretty good actually."

"That's great!"

Crimson nodded. "How's your day been?"

"Kinda so-so," Viri admitted, though she kept a genuine smile on her face. "I mean, it's never really a good day when a friend-to-be gets poofed."

"True," she agreed, smiling a little at the friend-to-be label. "And...you and Azalea have been having some problems too, right?" she asked hesitantly. "I don't mean to pry, I just heard some gems talking about it."

"I don't mind," she said. "We're not having problems, we just broke up."

"Oh, I'm sorry."

Viri shook her head. "It's okay. We enjoyed being a couple for a while, but it wasn't working out, you know?"

"Not really," Crimson said honestly. "But I'm glad it didn't end badly."

"Thanks!" She smiled wistfully. "I'm sure things will work out for both of us. She's a really sweet gem."

"Mm-hm." Crimson wasn't really sure what else she could add to the conversation, so she redirected her attention to the gem that had been placed carefully atop a cushion on a nearby table. "So do you...know her well?"

"Oh!" She shook her head. "No. I've tried to talk to her, but she always seemed really uncomfortable so I didn't want to pressure her."

"Yeah," Crimson agreed quietly. "She hasn't really adjusted to being here. I'm a little worried about her."

Viri nodded, stretching a little. "Where's she from?"

Crimson gave her a pointed look that said It's not our place.

She was right. Viri smiled faintly, changing her question. "She got rescued from shattering?"

"Yeah."

"Do you think she talks to anyone else? I hardly ever see her."

"She's been staying in her room most of the time, from what I can tell," Crimson replied. "Sil says she never misses a day of training, but after that she must go straight back to her quarters." She grimaced. "I get the feeling she took the training as an order instead of a suggestion."

"A lot of us do, I think. Occupational hazard." Viri smiled. "It wears off though."

"Usually," she agreed. "It just seems like there should be some way to make her feel more at home here."

"Well, I'm hoping this is a start."

"Yeah, I hope so too." Crimson paused. "Do you like doing this alone? Or would it be okay if I came by to sit with her sometimes?"

"That would be great," Viri said, leaning forward earnestly. "If you have the time."

"I'm busy, but probably not as busy as everyone thinks," she laughed. "I have time."

"Then I think she'd appreciate the company. And me too."

Crimson smiled and scooted back to lean against the cushions, feet a few inches off the ground since the seat had been made to accommodate bigger gems and not Pearls.

Viri smiled back, and it was easy to fall into comfortable conversation about the more lighthearted goings-on around base, staying with the nameless Pearl for as long as they could before they had to get back to their usual routines.

The Pearl they had been waiting for came back during one of Crimson's semi-daily visits, dropping to the floor gracelessly and stumbling straight into Viri's hurriedly outstretched arms.

"Whoa, careful there," she said with a faint smile, setting the smaller Pearl upright.

"Welcome back," Crimson added. "How are you feeling?"

She looked between them with wide, startled eyes. "I-I'm sorry I dissipated!"

"What? No, no, no," Crimson said hastily. "Don't worry about that, it happens to everyone."

"You're…not mad at me?"

"No, of course not. Accidents happen."

"Then why are you here?" She said it so plainly it took both of them by surprise.

"What do you mean?" Viri asked cautiously.

"I thought you were here to reprimand me for neglecting my duties." She shrugged uncomfortably. "Why else?"

"Oh stars," Crimson murmured. "No, that's not what this is."

"We just wanted to make sure you were alright," Viri said earnestly.

"But I…" She looked utterly lost. "I haven't been useful to you all this time…"

"You don't have to be," Viri said gently.

Somehow this seemed to upset her even more. "But I want to be," she whispered, tears welling in her eyes. "I want to be useful to someone."

"But you're free now, you don't have to—"

"Viri." Crimson's hand fell lightly on her back, making her pause. She gestured for the nameless Pearl to sit down, which she did, back rigid and dress crumpling up around her legs. "I understand the feeling," Crimson said softly, fingers curling into the edge of her shorts. "You start thinking you're a failure when you can't serve, when you can't fulfill the one purpose Pearls are given. It's hard."

The other Pearl didn't respond, just ducked her head slightly like she wanted to hide.

"I don't know what your old life was like," she continued, "and I don't know what led to her giving you up for shattering, but I promise you things are not like that here. We didn't rescue you because we just needed another pair of hands. We did it because everyone deserves a chance at freedom, and we'd be remiss not to save you when it was within our power."

The Pearl sniffled, lip wobbly as she turned her head away. "She didn't," she whispered.

"Didn't what?"

"She didn't give me up. She went missing for a long time, and I was stupid and went outside to see if there was any news and Yellow Diamond said I might as well be shattered and my Quartz could get a new Pearl if she returned."

"I'm sorry," Crimson murmured.

"It's okay," she said, painful laughter cracking her voice. "It's not like she was going to miss me anyway. I n-never made her happy at all, no matter how hard I tried."

Viri wanted to say or do something to help, but she was no good with this sort of thing. She didn't understand it, couldn't process how it would feel when she herself had never had to do anything other than exist in order to please her owner, to be wanted.

But Crimson, at least, knew what to do as she sat there taking in the wilted Pearl beside them. "Is that why you've been staying in your room all the time?" she asked gently. "You were afraid to disappoint us?"

She nodded weakly. "It feels the same," she whispered.

"The same as what?"

"I get to be part of this great thing and then…" She gulped. "I don't know. When I was first made and they told me who I was for, I was so p-proud, you know?" Tears began to drip down her face. "I was a gift for a war hero. It seemed like such an honor."

Viri, unable to hold herself back any longer, wrapped an arm loosely around the Pearl's shoulders, startling her. For a moment, it seemed like she might bolt out of the room, but then she just slumped forward wearily, one fist curling near her gem.

"But she didn't want me," she continued dully. "She wasn't cruel to me, and I know I should be grateful for that but… I-I don't know, I think it would have been easier if she hated me. But she didn't. I wasn't anything to her, just a burden." She pressed a hand to her mouth, trying to stifle her sobs. "A-And I was so relieved when I woke up here the first time, when you saved me, you have no idea. But I don't have anything special to contribute and sooner or later…"

"No," Crimson said firmly.

"Wh-What?"

"No. There is no 'sooner or later.' If you're here, you're one of us. If you decide you want to go somewhere else, you're one of us. You don't have to do anything to earn or maintain that. As long as you don't break our trust, and as long as you're willing to keep an open mind about all these new things we're figuring out, you're good. That's all we're ever going to ask of you."

"Yeah," Viri agreed with a small smile. "And I know we don't know each other very well yet, but I'm pretty sure you're not going to have any trouble with that. So you're not disappointing anybody."

The Pearl trembled under her touch, looking up at Viri with an unreadable expression. "I…I'm not?"

She shook her head.

"I can stay?"

"As long as you want to," Crimson said quietly, opening her hand and extending it slightly, smiling when the other Pearl's fingers fell into it cautiously.

"I want to," she said, her voice shaky but determined. "I want to be here and I want to help."

"Then it's an honor to have you with us." Crimson lifted her free hand to her gem in a salute.

"Welcome to the rebellion," Viri said, doing the same.

The Pearl returned the salute, the beginnings of a smile on her teary face. "Thank you."

Viri had expected it to take the Pearl a little while to start coming out of her room on a regular basis, but that wasn't the case at all.

Sure, she was still a little reclusive and she didn't linger around the common room or chat with anybody for long after training, but she kept showing up intermittently throughout Viri's day to check on her. It was odd, since Viri and Crimson had meant to be the ones doing the checking on, but the other Pearl never gave them a chance. Instead, they were the ones on the receiving end of small favors here and there and an unfairly adorable smile.

A couple days into this routine, the Pearl seemed to discover that food was something that existed and presented Viri and Crimson with an intricately laid out pattern of fruit, all three of them sharing it and offering some to any other Pearls passing by as well.

"Have you thought about a name yet?" Viri asked as the Pearl picked out the last slice of apricot from the dish.

"A little, but nothing's really stood out yet." She blushed. "It's kind of hard to pick."

"Well, don't feel like you have to rush," Crimson said. "Or even stick with the first name you choose. Sometimes you have to test it out for a while first and see how it feels."

"There are Pearls who've had more than one?"

"Definitely."

"Okay." She smiled a little. "Thanks. It…seems a little easier, knowing that."

"No problem." Crimson poked her fork into a strawberry. "This is delicious, by the way. Thank you."

"Oh! You're welcome." She glowed with delight. "I can bring you some more tomorrow, if you like. There were some leftovers that didn't fit."

"That sounds great."

Tomorrow turned into two tomorrows, and then three, and then four, until eventually Viri and Crimson had to politely suggest a break from all the fruit. The Pearl laughed a little and apologized, and she started bringing a smaller cup of fruit for herself that she ate while they talked. Crimson still went to check with Pearl that it was alright to be eating it all, just to be sure, but Pearl waved away her worries with a quick "We brought more than Steven could eat; no point in letting it go to waste."

So, somehow, this became the Pearl's little ritual, to the point that Viri and Crimson rarely saw her without fruit in hand, and it was always getting shared with the nearest Pearl who wanted some.

"Whatcha got today?" Viri asked her after one of the regular training sessions.

"Berries. You want some?"

"Thanks." She picked a blueberry off the top and popped it into her mouth, wishing she could see what the other Pearl liked about this stuff so much.

"I think I'm going to take some over to Crimson. Do you want to come?"

"No, sorry, I told Silver and Azalea I'd help out them test out some new weapons today. Maybe we can all meet up later?"

"Okay, good luck." She smiled, already making her way to the door. "See you then."

"See you, Fruit Cup."

The other Pearl stopped for a second, surprised, then grinned, giggling as she waved goodbye and disappeared down the hall.