"Violet, we're thinking we might leave this as an open entrance instead of a door. Could you run it by Drini and figure out some measurement and design options, please?"

"Will do!"

"Thanks." Chroma sighed and stretched, looking over the area. They'd gotten past most of the tearing-down type work between existing rooms, adding temporary support pillars in where needed, and today they were going to start work on dismantling the doors lining the remaining wall that stretched the length of the hallway. She wanted to salvage what she could of the tech instead of just ripping it out indiscriminately. "Lavender, there you are," she said, brightening when she saw the other Pearl approaching her. "You were able to find the tools alright?"

"Yeah, Snow set them aside for us yesterday since she knew we needed them."

Chroma smiled. "That's sweet of her. Alright, ready to start doing some of our own scavenging for parts here?"

"Definitely!" Lavender answered enthusiastically. "Where should we start?"

"How about down at the other end? I noticed there was something embedded in the wall and Pearl said it looks like an old backup power generator. I'd like to see if it's still functional."

"Yeah, maybe we can connect it to the main one so we don't lose all our power whenever it decides to be uncooperative."

"Exactly," Chroma agreed. "Here, I've got a couple flashlights we borrowed from Steven—let's get in there and see what we can find before we try to yank it out."

"Alright!"

After tearing away part of the wall and inspecting as much of the generator as they could, the two of them came to the conclusion it was relatively undamaged, despite the fact that it must have been out of use for years and years.

"The power line seems to be intact," Lavender said, tilting her head as she used a handheld scanner to follow it all the way down the wall. "The connection point should be somewhere…oh, got it! Yeah, never mind, it's definitely broken down here."

"Let me see?" Chroma hurried over to look at the screen. "Yeah, that's not pretty. I might be able to use some of the newer stuff to reconnect it, but I don't know if it'll take and I'd feel bad wasting supplies doing it…"

"We could set up a temporary connection like we did that one time when we had to fix one of the doors in the training room."

"Yeah, you're right, let's try that out then. It'll at least tell us if it's compatible with the current system."

Chroma went to retrieve what she needed from the storage room that had been designated for anything she and the others were likely to need for repairs. It took a bit of work, but soon everything was wired up and ready to go.

"Alright, this is the last connection here," she said finally.

"I'll go wait by the generator to see what happens," Lavender volunteered.

"Thanks. If anything weird happens, just yell and I'll disconnect it."

"Will do."

Once Lavender had taken up her position at the other end of the hall, Chroma readied the connection. "Alright, here goes!" she called. "Three, two, one!"

There were a few seconds of silence in which Chroma began to be hopeful, only to be immediately followed by a loud bang over by the generator. She jumped in surprise and yanked the connection apart quickly before rushing over to Lavender to see if she was alright.

"Are you hurt?" Chroma asked anxiously. "Lavender?"

There was some kind of sticky black substance that had burst out from the wall, covering a large portion of the floor. Lavender's front was coated quite thoroughly in it as well, and it was half splattered across the gem on her hip too. There didn't seem to be any damage besides the mess, but Chroma wanted to be sure.

"Lavender, are you alright? Do you need any healing tears?"

Lavender still seemed to be in shock from what had just happened, and it took her a couple seconds to look down at herself and then back up at Chroma, shaking her head.

"Okay, good," she said relieved. "Why don't we—"

She broke off as she saw the tears that began to spill down Lavender's cheeks without warning.

"Hey. Hey, it's alright. I'm sorry it just did that all of a sudden, the unit must have been too old and it overloaded and—it doesn't matter. We'll worry about it later." Chroma began to reach out to her, then quickly withdrew, not sure if Lavender would welcome a hug right now. "Why don't you take five and get cleaned up?" she offered instead, keeping her voice soft. "I'll work on getting the rest of this mess sorted out, and you can come join me when you're ready."

"O-Okay," Lavender agreed shakily, and she took off before Chroma could say anything else.

When five minutes had come and gone, along with ten minutes and fifteen minutes and nearly twenty, Chroma began to worry. Lavender really shouldn't need so long to clean off and compose herself—unless maybe there was something else weighing on her besides that? She'd seemed like her normal self earlier, but maybe Chroma had just been oblivious since she'd been focusing so much on the renovations?

And either way, did Lavender want Chroma to come find her? She didn't know. Her instinct was certainly to say yes, to get up and go searching, but if Lavender turned out to want privacy—or to be with her closest friends instead—then she might end up doing more harm than good.

But wouldn't it feel ten times worse if Lavender wanted someone to find her and no one came at all?

Determinedly, Chroma stood up, wiping off her arms and legs manually and making sure all their tools were safely out of the way before starting out to look for Lavender.

The other Pearl wasn't in her room, she discovered—or if she was, she wasn't answering the door. The latter seemed most likely, but Chroma figured it was worth checking the rest of the base anyway.

As she suspected, she didn't find Lavender in the training room or the common room or any of the other obvious places. Even Millie didn't seem to have any idea where she'd gone, though she looked concerned when she heard she was missing. Chroma figured it was worth checking the storage rooms as one last option, since Lavender frequented there often enough to visit Snow, and started down that way.

Sure enough, the fifth room she tried revealed a distraught purple Pearl sitting in the center of the room, still only half-clean at best with her leotard heavily stained and a mess of duplicated towels all around her.

"Lavender?" Chroma crossed the room quickly and knelt down a little in front of her. "What's going on? Are you alright?"

"I-I'm sorry," Lavender stammered, eyes teary as she glanced up at Chroma. "I didn't mean to delay our work. I know I've been too long, but it won't come out and—"

"Don't worry about that," she said. "It's nothing that can't wait."

She looked down again, halfheartedly continuing to scrub at her leotard as tears dripped down her nose.

"Really," Chroma told her, reaching out to touch the back of Lavender's hand, stilling it. "I'm not upset with you, and no one else will be either."

"I know, but…" Lavender's fingers clenched around the towel. "But it won't come out."

"Of course it will," she said encouragingly. "Maybe not with a towel, I'll admit, but it'll come out."

"It won't."

"It will," Chroma insisted gently. "It might take a few tries, but I'm sure you'll be able to shift it off."

Lavender shook her head, looking so despondent that Chroma didn't have the heart to keep arguing with her. "You don't know anything else that'll get this out?" she cried. "Besides shapeshifting?"

"Well, I don't know that you should give up on trying it just yet," Chroma said. She scooted over to sit beside Lavender instead of in front of her, one hand falling lightly on her back. "But I'm sure we can find some other solutions if needed. Someone I know is quite skilled at coming up with ways to take things apart."

Lavender managed a small, fleeting smile.

"But I get the feeling these aren't the best solution," Chroma added, gently placing her hand over the towel Lavender was holding. "How about we put them away and you take a few minutes to try and calm down? I know I'm not really in any position to be giving advice, but shapeshifting's definitely harder to do when you're stressed."

"I-It's not about that."

"Well, either way," she said easily.

Lavender reluctantly lowered the towel to her lap, going still but refusing to relinquish the tight grip she had on it.

"There we go." Chroma rubbed her back softly, then began picking up some of the discarded, dirty towels and folding them into neat squares. "Would you like me to go get Millie and Snow?"

"What?"

"Millie and Snow," she repeated. "I thought you might feel better if you had some friends with you."

Lavender shook her head. "You're a friend too."

Chroma smiled warmly. "Yes, but the more the merrier."

"Maybe later," she murmured.

"Okay."

Once Chroma had finished clearing up all the rest of the towels, she settled comfortably beside her again. There were still tears dripping steadily from Lavender's eyes, and her knuckles were pale where she was clinging to the towel, but at the very least her breathing seemed a little steadier.

"I'm sorry for all the mess," Chroma apologized. "If I'd known it was going to do that…"

"It's not your fault."

"Still."

Lavender swiped at her eyes, lower lip caught in her teeth.

"It will come out," she reassured her. "Some things are more stubborn than others, but they always come out in the end."

"I don't know…"

"It will." Chroma rubbed small circles into her back. "You don't have anything to be ashamed of either. I have plenty of trouble with my own shapeshifting and there hasn't been any gem here that's criticized me for it. And I'm happy to wait with you until you feel up to trying again."

"I-I can't. And how—what do you mean you have trouble shapeshifting?" Lavender asked shakily.

"My gem…?" Chroma gestured to her forehead.

"No, I know it's…" She shook her head. "But your outfit's so intricate."

"And believe me, it was a lot of work when I was reforming. But if you asked me to shift on more of this," she said, pointing to the silver and gold, "I wouldn't be able to."

Lavender still looked a little skeptical.

"Really. I wouldn't pretend just to make you feel better." Chroma smiled faintly. "You could ask Silver if you don't believe me."

"I-I don't think that's necessary," she laughed quietly, cheeks flushed. "Sorry. I do believe you, I just didn't think…"

"It's alright."

She dipped her head slightly, falling silent aside from small sniffles.

"Shapeshifting dirt and stuff off is one of the easiest things though," Chroma said softly, "because you're just turning things back to their original state."

"It doesn't matter," Lavender whispered. "It still won't work."

"You've just got to keep at it."

She shook her head. "My gem's dull."

Chroma flinched, not having expected to hear that. It was all too reminiscent of things she'd been called while she was in service. "You shouldn't say that about yourself!"

"What? No, look." Lavender twisted slightly, angling her hip up so Chroma could see her gem better.

And then she realized with a start that Lavender had meant literally dull. The surface of her gem didn't have the same smooth shine that Chroma was used to seeing—on both other Pearls and herself. Instead it was scuffed all over, clearly damaged by someone or something. "Oh stars," she breathed. "It's… Is that permanent then? Healing tears wouldn't do anything?"

"No."

"So you really can't shapeshift," Chroma murmured, stunned.

"Not at all," she whispered. "You hadn't noticed it?"

Chroma shook her head. "I had no idea, I'm sorry. I don't—I try not to stare at people's gems, because it always something that bothered me personally. I should have paid better attention though."

"It's okay."

"That probably interferes with a lot of your gem's abilities, huh?"

Lavender nodded, a small sob escaping her. "I can't get it clean again, even though it's one of the easiest things to do, and I don't want to be stuck like this—"

"You're not. You're not, Lavender, it'll be okay." Chroma gathered the other Pearl up close, wrapping her arms around her carefully. "You're okay."

"You—You shouldn't, you'll get dirty too," she protested.

"It's alright, nothing shows on black!" she said lightly. "Besides, I have to make up for all the hugs I wish I'd given you before. I'm sorry for not noticing. I would have tried to find some way to help you avoid being in this kind of situation in the first place."

"I don't think there's anything you could do anyway."

"That's not true. If there's one thing I know, it's that there's workarounds for nearly everything. Now shh, just breathe for a minute."

She did, breaths coming quick and unsteady at first before beginning to slow to match Chroma's.

"There you go," she murmured. "You're okay." Chroma squeezed her a little tighter, then loosened her grip so that Lavender could lean comfortably against her. "For starters, I bet we could find a shirt or an apron to cover you up when we're working. Then your real clothes would be less likely to need cleaning."

Lavender was quiet for a moment, then nodded slowly. "That'd be nice…"

"Yeah. I might try it myself too."

"Thanks."

"Earth has a lot of clothes," Chroma continued conversationally, hoping to ease Lavender into a lighter topic. "A lot of everything, really. I was almost worried Aura would run off and start her own rebellion there instead."

She heard a soft breath of laughter and smiled to herself as she tucked a stray piece of Lavender's hair back into her bun.

"But it's nice, having so many choices."

"Mm."

"I'd offer to take you to pick something out, but I…kind of blew all my money already."

"It's okay," Lavender said. "You did bring back a lot of cool stuff."

"Right? That store was a paradise," she said wistfully. "Anyway, I don't have the money for anything more, but I'll ask Steven if he has any suggestions that could work in the interim until you can get something yourself."

"I've actually got some money," Lavender countered. "I don't know if it's enough, but I've still got most of what Greg gave us."

"Oh, that's great then! We'll definitely go find something together. Maybe tomorrow?"

"That soon?"

"The sooner, the better, right? You ought to be able to work comfortably."

"Thanks," she said, touched.

"Oh, and speaking of Earth," Chroma said suddenly, "what about using water to get that stuff off?"

"Water?" Lavender sat up, glancing down at her leotard. "That—That might be worth trying, yeah."

Chroma nodded, smiling.

"All the pipes and stuff aren't in yet, but Steven brought some water he could use while he was staying here," Lavender mused.

"Was that kept in here?"

"No, Snow never talked about storing it, so Pearl must have kept it with her."

"I'll go ask then," Chroma decided. "Is there anything else you'd like me to bring you?"

"I can go with…"

"You can, but you don't need to. I assume from the way you must have been sneaking away to clean off prior to this that you'd rather not have everyone see you."

Lavender blushed. "Yeah."

"Then you can just wait here. Hopefully this'll only take a few minutes. Is it alright if I flag down Ory or someone to help carry things?"

She nodded. "Thank you."

"No problem."

To Chroma's surprise, she found Millie loitering in the hallway outside.

"How's Lavy?" she asked as soon as the door was closed again.

"She'll be fine," Chroma replied. "I'm going to go get some water to help her clean up, would you like to come with me?"

"Of course." Millie started down the hall without hesitation, a few steps ahead of Chroma. "Pearl has it?"

"I think so."

"Alright."

Chroma sped up, trying to keep pace with her. "Lavender's alright," she reassured her. "At most, I think she'd just appreciate your support when she tells you the details."

"She has it." Millie hesitated. "Does she want to tell us the details?"

"If I had to guess, she seemed willing. I can ask when we go back."

She nodded. "Thank you," she added belatedly.

"You're welcome. And thank you for coming along for, well, either heavy lifting or letting me impose on your gem space for a few minutes."

Millie shrugged. "Gem space is fine," she answered, fingertips brushing the base of her throat. "It may not be the most comfortable thing, but there's no reason to wear ourselves out hauling something like that across base manually."

"Is it uncomfortable?" Chroma asked, startled. She was so accustomed to Aura moving things in and out of her gem constantly that she'd never considered the possibility.

"It's more the putting in and taking out that can be strange, but I suppose that depends on gem placement too." Her eyes flicked to the gem on Chroma's head but didn't linger there too long. "Don't worry about it."

Chroma nodded, not quite sure what she was referring to but appreciating the words either way.

It didn't take the two of them long to get some water from Pearl—several large containers of it plus a large plastic round thing Pearl called a swimming pool and a small bar of soap. Millie stored it all in her gem carefully and then they made their way back to the storage room where Lavender was waiting.

"I'll just check with her really quick," Chroma said, pointing to the door.

"Okay, I'll wait here."

She swiped the touchpad to open the door and stepped inside, finding Lavender in the same spot she'd left her but looking significantly better than when Chroma had first found her. "We've got the water," Chroma said, giving her a thumbs up. "Millie helped me bring it over, is it alright if she comes in?"

"O-Oh! Yeah, sure."

Chroma beckoned Millie inside. "Come on in!"

"Thanks." Millie stepped inside and closed the door behind her, saying hello to Lavender before beginning to remove everything from her gem. She remained quiet as she listened to Lavender's brief explanation of what was going on, then offered a soft, genuine smile. "That's alright, I'm sure this will take care of it." She set down the final container. "There, that's everything."

Chroma moved to open up the water, tipping it out as carefully as she could into the small swimming pool. Lavender quickly got up to help her, intrigued by the little setup.

"And here's the soap," Chroma said, handing over the small box she'd carried. "I'll replicate some washcloths and towels for you and then leave you to it?"

"That sounds great, thanks."

She handed over the newly made stack of soft fabric with a quick hug a few minutes later and then headed for the door.

Millie made to follow after her too, though she paused when she saw Lavender gingerly step into the pool, gather up some water in cupped hands, and bring it to her gem, repeating the process several times.

"Lavy."

"Hm?"

There was just the tiniest hint of a smile on Millie's lips, though her eyes were serious. "Not like that," she said simply, walking back over. "Sit down and let me show you."

"Oh, okay." Lavender paused, letting the water slip through her fingers. "Thanks."

"You're welcome. Now let's see…" Millie stepped into the water and settled in front of her, easily shifting her own clothes off as she did.

Lavender stifled a gasp, quickly averting her eyes.

"What?" Millie asked defensively. "I-It's perfectly acceptable behavior."

"Maybe five hundred years ago," Lavender muttered.

Millie threw a towel squarely at her face.

"Longer then?" she teased, barely managing to catch it before it slipped into the water.

"Watch it." There was only amusement in her voice as she gazed at Lavender. "And stop looking away; it'll be impossible to clean yourself off like that."

Lavender tentatively moved her gaze to Millie's face, cheeks going dark purple when she accidentally caught sight of the soft curves on the other Pearl's chest as well.

"Oh, yes, these are rather new to me too," she said, glancing down. "I liked how they looked when Aura and I were doing Earth research in our spare time, so I thought I might see how they would suit me. What do you think?"

"Oh! Um, they're…" Lavender turned her gaze away again. "They suit you. Yeah."

"Thanks." Millie picked up a clean washcloth and dunked it into the water, adding some soap before moving closer to Lavender. "You'll want to scrub the fabric itself," she explained, demonstrating briefly on Lavender's shoulder. "It might take a little while, but it should come out with a bit of hard work. And I know you don't shy away from that."

A small, happy smile tugged at Lavender's mouth, her teeth catching one corner of her lower lip.

"Would you like some help or did you want to do it yourself?" The washcloth was half-extended in offering.

"I'd…appreciate the help. And it'll probably go faster that way too, right?"

"Right," Millie agreed, retrieving another cloth so that they could work simultaneously. "I'll start on this side over here," she decided, moving to Lavender's right and beginning to scrub at the side of her leotard.

"Okay, I'll start on this side then." Lavender watched her ministrations for a moment before copying them against a different part of her leotard, keeping her right arm's movements small so she wouldn't smack Millie by accident.

The two of them worked in silence for a few minutes, Millie's own calmness beginning to settle Lavender's nerves.

"You do look nice shifted like that," she spoke up after a little while. "Really. I just wasn't expecting to, um, see it. All the way. I noticed you had them there under your clothes, but that's different."

Millie smiled faintly as she dipped the washcloth back into the water.

"A-Anyway, I didn't want you to get the wrong idea. Especially if it's something you enjoy doing."

She nodded, eyes distant and a little bit misty.

"Millie?"

"Oh!" Millie nearly dropped her washcloth, it glancing off Lavender's gem before she managed to grab it again. "Sorry, sorry," she said quickly.

"Don't worry, I can't really feel it," Lavender reassured her.

"Oh?" She looked a bit surprised. "Well, either way, I'm sorry. And thank you. I hope you find something you enjoy just as much."

"Thanks," Lavender murmured. "But I'll never get to try anything like that."

"The shapeshifting or…?" Millie glanced up at her.

"Both, I suppose." She was all too aware of her own blank chest beneath the leotard Millie was so diligently cleaning with her.

"I don't know about that," she replied matter-of-factly. "Shapeshifting isn't everything."

"Really?" Lavender asked quietly.

"Of course. After all, most of the rebellion could hardly have imagined any of it until they got here, and it never stopped gems like Snow and Prism from being together anyway. Though…perhaps the rebelliousness of it is why it's catching on." Millie smiled, giving a small shrug. "Whatever the case, I'm sure there's a gem out there among the stars for you too."

Lavender didn't know what to say to that, but she nodded gratefully.

"Move your arm a little bit?"

"Oh, yeah, sorry." She lifted her arm out of the way. "Thanks."

After a while of working quietly, Lavender was relieved to see that everything was beginning to come off her leotard.

"Seems to be doing the job," Millie commented as she splashed Lavender with a bit of water to wash away soap suds on the part she'd just finished.

"It is." She smiled, touching the fabric and finding no trace of stickiness left. "Speaking of jobs, I'm not keeping you from yours, am I?"

"Aura's got it covered. Besides, nothing's happening today besides renovations."

"Ah."

"Snow and Prism took the day to themselves," Millie continued conversationally, "so Aura and I spent the morning finding distractions for Quinacridone so she wouldn't go picking a silly fight over inventory lists and the like."

"Did it work?"

"Mm-hm. She's picked up a fascination with human currency, so we didn't even have to try very hard. Aura just let her use the comms computer for her research."

"Which gives you two an excuse to take a tea break?"

"Precisely," Millie said, a smirk playing on her lips. Then she paused, something occurring to her. "Oh! I just realized, your shapeshifting is the reason it takes you so long to make it through half a teacup."

"Guilty as charged."

"And here I thought it was an endearing eccentricity."

Lavender blushed. "No, that's just how much my form can…process, I guess?"

Millie nodded, curious but not questioning any further.

"I do enjoy drinking it," she added quickly.

"That I could tell."

"Good."

Lavender got back to cleaning her leotard, happy to see the worst of the stains were gone already. It took the two of them another fifteen minutes or so to be sure all the mess was gone and Lavender's clothes were spotless, but it passed quickly with Millie as company.

"Alright, spin around slowly so I can make sure we didn't miss any," Millie declared, standing up.

Lavender followed suit, turning carefully.

"Yes, much better." Millie stepped daintily out of the pool and picked up two towels so that they could dry off, shapeshifting her own leotard back on as soon as she was satisfied with the result. "There we go."

"What should we do about the water?" Lavender asked.

"Oh, hmm…" She considered it for a moment. "I suppose we can tip it back into the containers for the time being? I'm sure Snow won't mind us leaving it for a bit until we figure out where to dispose of it."

"She probably will mind, but I won't tell if you won't."

"Deal."

They managed to transfer the water back to the containers without too much spillage, and Lavender shoved everything off to the side of the room so it wouldn't be in the way.

"I guess that's it then," she said, hand resting on her hip just above her gem. "Thank you for all the help. I'd better go see what else needs to be done this afternoon."

"Wait a moment," Millie said, stopping her with the light touch of a hand on her elbow. "Sit back down."

Lavender obeyed, settling crisscross on the floor once again. She watched as Millie reached to her gem to retrieve an ornate glass vial that was only about a third of the way full of a clear substance Lavender didn't recognize. Right after it followed a beautiful silk cloth, onto which Millie tipped a little of the vial's contents. "What's that?"

"A body oil," she answered, sweeping the silk over Lavender's arms with care. "We used it as a special ornamentation, back in the day, and I managed to hang onto some."

"A-Are you sure you want to use it now?" Lavender stammered, glancing back at the vial.

"I'm sure."

"Okay. Thank you." Lavender was touched by the gesture, watching as Millie continued applying the oil to her, leaving her skin feeling soft and refreshingly clean—a relief after the afternoon's ordeal. "It's really lovely."

"It is," she agreed softly. "I'll have to see what sorts of perfumes Earth has soon."

Lavender nodded. "Maybe all three of us could go," she suggested.

"That sounds perfect." Millie smiled, hands slipping away once she'd finished and going to put the vial back into her gem.

"Then we'll figure out a day that works for all of us," she said happily.

"Alright. And we're still meeting up to spend time with Prism this evening, right?"

"Definitely. I'll, uh, find something a little less messy to work on until then."

"Yes, good plan," she laughed. "I'll see you later."

"See you later."