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"One super sneaky White just for you, boss," Caddy declared as she tugged White into the common room.

"That's still just a hat, Cadmium."

"It's an adorable hat."

"And I changed my leotard too," White pointed out, gesturing to the plain outfit she now sported.

"I suppose it'll do," Crimson said, amused. "We're not likely to run into anything except robonoids out there anyway. Are you all set to go?"

White nodded. "Where's everyone else?"

"Well, Chroma's tending to a small electrical issue that came up—she'll be here any minute. And Violet's already here."

"Oh, sorry," White said, finally noticing the purple Pearl sitting in a nearby chair. "You're doing a good job at being super sneaky too."

Violet glanced down at her clothes in confusion, which were entirely unchanged. "Thanks?"

"You're welcome!"

Caddy gave both of them an encouraging pat on the shoulder. "I can go check on Chroma if you want," she offered Crimson.

"No need, I'm here." Chroma hurried in behind them. "Sorry about that. Lavender's got it covered from here."

"You sure?" Crimson checked. "It's not like we're on a tight schedule for this one."

"I'm sure. Besides, it'll do her good not to have me here as a safety net," she added fondly.

"Alright, we're all set then."

"Yeah! Fingers crossed for some robonoids!"

"You want robonoids to find us?" Violet asked Chroma uncertainly.

"I mean, it'd be great to get my hands on all those parts…"

"Oh. Well, usually at least one finds me when I'm scavenging."

"Really? And you haven't brought them back before?"

"I wasn't sure if it was safe…and they're kind of ruined once ya smash them with a shovel."

"That's okay!"

"Okay," Violet laughed. "I'll try to bring 'em home from now on."

The four of them spread out over a small area once they arrived at the Kindergarten, about a mile off to the side from where Crimson usually cut through the place. The surroundings were new to her, but it looked largely the same as everything else.

"Look over here!" Chroma called excitedly after a few minutes, waving an arm in the air.

"What is it?" Crimson asked, turning to head in her direction.

"There's got to be like fifty robonoids here, look! I don't know what's happened to them, maybe they malfunctioned and crashed? Their sensors should've been able to detect the landscape, so…hmm…" She nudged one carefully with her foot. "They seem to be inactive, but I'll check them all before we start picking them up. I hope we can take them all! Violet, can you help me carry these?"

"Sure. We can use my shovel to test them too."

"Thanks! Oh my stars, I can't believe this is real!"

"Hey, there's some more down here," White called. She was standing at the edge of what seemed to be a long, deep ravine. "You want these too, Chroma?"

"Yes, please!"

"On it." White leaped down without a second thought, startling Crimson.

"White, you can't just—are you alright?" She ran to look down at where White had fallen, only to see the other gem giving her a thumbs up. "I'm coming down to help, I don't want you down there on your own! We don't know how dangerous this place is."

"Alright!"

Crimson jumped down as well, landing steady on her feet beside White. "Wow, there's quite a few down here, you're right."

"Did you two just jump off a cliff?" Chroma called down, her head peeking over from the top of the ravine. "Oh, more robonoids!"

"Yeah, we're fine, thanks," Crimson laughed.

"Should we come down too?" Violet asked apprehensively, joining Chroma. "And can I dig my way down instead?"

"No, no, we need to stay up here to finish collecting all these," Chroma told her before addressing the other two again. "Be careful down there, alright?"

"We will!" Crimson scanned their surroundings once more. "Okay, you go that way, I'll go this way," she decided, pointing. "Watch out, we don't know if these are all completely deactivated. If it shows any signs of life, leave it be."

"Okay," White said agreeably.

Crimson headed off in her own direction, only to catch sight of a lighter color hidden amongst the craggy sides of the ravine. Was that…another gem? It was, she realized as she took a few steps closer, hand beginning to reach to her shoulder in case she needed to pull out one of the weapons she brought along.

But just as she got close enough to get a clear view, another figure ran in front of her, light glowing bright as a summoned weapon arced across the stranger's body and then flashed towards Crimson before it had even finished forming.

Crimson dodged out of the way instinctively, years of practice kicking in before she had a chance to process what she needed to do. She jumped back another few paces and grabbed a sword from her gem, hoping to get a better read on her opponent in those few seconds, but the other gem was already running towards her.

She parried the sword that was aimed at her chest and brought her free hand up to strike at her opponent's wrist, in the hopes that she might could disarm her if—okay, that was far too easy.

Crimson kicked the sword away, not in the mood to question it, and leveled her own sword at the gem in front of her. "Don't move." Then, baffled, she realized this gem wasn't bigger than her, wasn't some worker they'd stumbled across. "You're a Pearl." A Pearl that seemed to be missing her left arm, now that she had a better look. She was a shoulder gem like Crimson was, on that same missing arm, but the surface seemed…flat? Her attire also seemed somewhat odd for a Pearl—unless fashion trends had changed recently without Crimson noticing, Pearls didn't usually wear loose pants and boxy jackets.

Brown eyes flicked up and down Crimson, then between their swords, like she was trying to decide if she could make a run for the weapon.

"What are you doing here?" Crimson asked. "And why do you have a sword?"

"I could ask you the same thing."

"You could," she agreed. "How about we put the weapons away and talk?"

"About what?"

"About…what you're doing here? And if you need help?" Crimson tried. "My name is Crimson. We're not going to hurt you. There's four of us—two down here, two up there." She nodded towards the top of the cliff. "We're just here looking for supplies. That's it. We didn't know there was anybody else here."

"She's telling the truth." A new voice came from behind the brown Pearl, and a small white gem stepped out from their previous hiding place. She had short curly hair with long bangs that covered her eyes, and she wore a plain white leotard and stockings, accented by a small train that flowed out behind her and added a soft green to her otherwise neutral colors. "It's okay."

"…Okay." The brown Pearl met Crimson's gaze evenly. "Put the sword down then."

"Alright." Crimson slowly lowered her sword, though she kept it in hand in case either of the Pearls made any sudden moves. "White?" she asked, not taking her eyes off the new Pearls.

"I'm here," she answered easily, walking up behind her. "I was going to help, but there wasn't really much to do."

"Fair enough," Crimson said with a small smile.

"Hello," White added towards the other Pearls. "What happened to your—"

"White," Crimson hissed, elbowing her in the side. "Use your manners, please."

"—owners?" she redirected awkwardly. "Did you run away together?"

"No," the brown Pearl answered.

"Sort of," the white one countered cheerfully. "She ran here and found me after I wished for a friend."

"After…?" Crimson looked between the two of them, not sure what to make of this. "Okay. Are either of you injured from falling? We can heal you if you are."

"Heal us with what exactly?" the brown Pearl asked.

"…Do you know who Rose Quartz was? The Rose Quartz who led a rebellion, I mean?"

She nodded warily.

"We have healing tears from her." Crimson pulled out one of the small vials she's begun to carry in her gem whenever she left base. "Here, you can take this."

"We're not injured," the Pearl said, shaking her head.

"Well, take it anyway. As a gesture of friendship. It's alright, we've got plenty more where we came from."

"You're offering up a lot of incriminating evidence," she commented, though she did reach out to take the vial, looking it over briefly and uncapping it to tip one drop out on the ground. The patchy earth began to "heal" instantly, and she slipped the vial into her gem.

"Evidence?"

"Though I suppose it's a valid way to establish some trust in this particular circumstance," she added. She wasn't quite smiling, but something in her posture had relaxed slightly.

"Thank you for the tears," the smaller Pearl added warmly. Her eyes were hidden by her long bangs, but her lips curved into what could only be a genuine smile. "And for not hurting us with your sword earlier."

"No problem," Crimson answered awkwardly.

"If you don't mind me asking," the brown Pearl said, "what are you planning to do with…your supplies?" She gestured to the nearest robonoid.

"We're trying to build something for a friend, and Chroma—one of the Pearls up there—thinks they could be useful. That is, if you don't mind us taking them."

"It's fine. So there's more of—"

"Hey!" Chroma called from up above them, interrupting. "Are you okay down there?"

"We're fine!" Crimson answered. "There's two Pearls here!"

"I can see them! Is that one a coin Pearl?"

"A what?"

"You know, like Zircons have."

"I've never met a Zircon," White mused to herself.

"Actually, I haven't either," Crimson said. "I've just seen them in passing. They have Pearls?" she called up to Chroma.

"Yeah, they're usually missing limbs and things because of their gem placement. They never really leave the Court Sphere though. How'd she get out here?"

"What do you mean?" Crimson glanced over at the brown Pearl. "Didn't she just run like the rest of us?"

"No! I mean, maybe, but I want to know how she got out if she is one!"

The brown Pearl was beginning to look uncomfortable, but she nodded. "I am."

Crimson nodded uncertainly. "And are you a coin Pearl too then?" she asked the smaller Pearl.

There was a small pause, and then she shook her head, smiling. "She says I'm 'baroque.' What about you? Are you the little round gems that she was telling me about?"

Crimson laughed a little, nodding as she turned to give the Pearl a clearer view of her gem. "I am. All of us here have little round gems."

"Ohh, you were right, there's so many of them," she exclaimed, sounding pleased as she addressed the coin Pearl.

"She'll get along with Viri," White said to Crimson.

"Is she a little circle gem too?" the small Pearl asked curiously.

"Not even close," Crimson said with a smile.

"So what did they say?" Chroma called.

"Why don't you come down here so we don't have to shout?"

"Because unlike you and White, I actually asked Violet if she had any rope on her and the answer is no!"

Crimson groaned.

"It's fine, we'll figure something out," White declared easily.

"Anyway, can you at least gather up the robonoids down there while we find a way to get you back up?" Chroma asked.

"There's, uh, kind of a lot," Crimson said.

"I know, it's amazing!"

"Right," she sighed. "White, maybe you can work on that while I talk to these two?"

"Sure."

"Thanks. So just out of curiosity, how are neither of you injured with all these robonoids down here? Or were they here when you got here?" Crimson asked.

"Yeah, you did a great job smashing them," White said as she started picking one up.

"Smashing what?" the small Pearl asked.

"Your shooting stars," the coin Pearl answered.

"Ohhh. We didn't smash them, they fall on their own!"

"I don't think they're meant to," Crimson murmured. Maybe there was something in this area that threw off their sensors?

The small Pearl just smiled, tilting her head in confusion.

"So…you two have been stuck here?" she tried. "How long?"

"Long," the coin Pearl said bluntly. "Why?"

"Well, I was going to ask if you wanted us to get you out of here."

She looked at Crimson, looked up at the top of the ravine, and then back to Crimson.

"They'll get us back out," Crimson said, face beginning to warm. "If nothing else, they can go back for some rope, it just might take a little while."

"Back where?"

"Where we came from. We have a place in Facet Eleven."

"In Eleven…" She glanced over at the smaller Pearl briefly.

"Yeah. There's plenty of room, it you'd be interested in joining us. It's as safe a place as you'll find."

"Alright."

She couldn't quite tell if that was an answer or just an acknowledgement, but the smaller Pearl smiled and hurried forward to stand beside the coin Pearl. "That's wonderful! We'd love to come with you."

"Yeah? Sounds good."

There was the sound of muffled clanging above them, and Crimson looked up.

"We're trying to get a rockslide going," Chroma answered before she could say anything. "To give us something we can actually climb besides a sheer wall."

"Thanks! If it doesn't work out by the time we've gathered everything up, head back to base for some rope, alright? The four of us should be…relatively safe down here at least."

"Got it!"

"We can help," the small Pearl offered, kneeling down on the ground and beginning to carefully gather up the robonoids within arm's reach. "So you said your names were Crimson and…White, right?"

"Right." Crimson was startled by the brief glimpse she got of the Pearl's gem—also green—as she shifted her bangs aside briefly to begin putting things inside. It reminded her of Chroma's in placement, though lower on the forehead. And while baroque, her gem wasn't as spread out as Viri's or Nutmeg's. Instead, it maintained a somewhat round shape, with smaller pieces bubbling out in various places. Her gem and eyes were hidden again soon though, and Crimson averted her eyes in case she was uncomfortable with it being looked at. "Thank you for helping," she said politely.

"You're welcome." The coin Pearl had begun to pass her more pieces, and she started adding those to her gem as well. "I can't wait to meet your other friends. What are their names?"

"Chroma and Violet. Chroma's the one who was talking to us earlier, and Violet's the one who's probably doing most of the digging."

"I hope she's able to make a path down soon," she said with a nod.

"Yeah, me too. I'm glad we stumbled across you two. I'm sorry I didn't explore this place sooner—I cut through it all the time, just quite a ways in that direction over there." She pointed. "I didn't want to linger too long with all the robonoids around. I've started to learn their patterns now though."

"You come through here often?" the coin Pearl asked curiously. "I thought you were a runaway."

"I am. But I go out to speak with other Pearls, in case they'd like to run away too."

"Ah."

"Hey," White said, rejoining them. "How far that way do you want me to go? This crack in the ground seems pretty long."

"Let's see how the other two are doing first," Crimson said. "I think we've got most of the ones on this side. Chroma!"

"Yeah? We're not really having much luck with—whoa!"

There was a sudden cascade of rock from above, stirring up dust and dirt all around them. Crimson quickly backpedaled to put a wider distance between herself and the rockfall, guiding the other three back behind her just in case there was more than they'd anticipated.

"We got it!" Violet said triumphantly. "Is that enough to help you climb out?"

Crimson looked it over. It had made a sort of slope, albeit still a steep slope. She hopped up onto the rocks and climbed up about halfway before she was confident that they could make it. "This is good!" she called up, then let herself skid back to the bottom.

"I'm coming down then!" Chroma decided. Before Crimson could say anything, she was jumping down into the ravine just as Crimson and White had earlier, landing on her feet and throwing a hand out for balance when she wobbled on impact.

"Alright?" Crimson checked.

"Yeah, thanks." She straightened up, turning to face the other two, and Crimson tried not to smile when she saw how heavily splattered in robonoid fluid Chroma had managed to get. "Hi, I'm Chroma. It's good to meet you."

"It's nice to meet you too!" the small Pearl answered cheerfully, turning in her direction.

"Nice to meet you," the coin Pearl agreed. She looked uncomfortable when Chroma's eyes found her gem shoulder, but her gaze was averted quickly once she noticed.

"Sorry, I've never met a coin Pearl before, that's all." Chroma smiled. "I'm glad you made it out, however you managed it."

"…Thanks."

"Can I ask how you found this place? We're pretty far from the Court Sphere."

"Well, I did have a vague idea of which direction to go but… I hope you don't get tired of hearing 'Thanks to this Pearl, most likely.' Because that's honestly my best explanation for a lot of things these days."

"I wished for a friend and she appeared from up where the stars come from!" the small Pearl added as she was gestured to.

"Example A."

"That's…nice?" Chroma answered tentatively. "That you had each other, even if you were stuck."

The small Pearl nodded happily.

"Anyway, thank you for helping us gather everything up."

"You're welcome! Thank you for making us a way out."

"Speaking of," Crimson chimed in. "I think we've got pretty much everything we can now. Shall we get you out of here?"

"Okay!" She turned in Crimson's direction. "If you let me hold onto one of you, I should be able to follow you up. Or you could carry us," she added. "If you're good at climbing. You sounded like you were pretty good at it earlier!"

"If I'm…wait, you want us to carry you?"

"I think that would be safest. We've never climbed anything before, and it seems like you want to get back to your home as soon as you can with all the shooting stars."

"Well, yes, I guess so…"

"You can carry me too," White suggested hopefully.

"Not happening. You're going to be doing the carrying; you could use the extra training."

"Fiiine. I call this one." She pointed to the small Pearl.

"And I'll take you?" Crimson suggested to the coin Pearl.

She nodded, her eyes flicking over to White, who had knelt down for her passenger to climb on. "She's waiting for you," she murmured to the small Pearl. "About four steps in front of you."

"Thanks," she answered easily. One hand picked up her train as she walked, and the other reached out ahead of her to bump gently into White's back. "There you are."

White twisted around, looking confused. "Can you not see me?"

"I can't see anything!"

"At all?"

She nodded. "My eyes don't do that."

"Oh," Crimson said, a bit startled by the new piece of information. "Sorry, I should've noticed, I just wasn't expecting that."

"And it's not something she needs healing tears for," the coin Pearl interjected quickly.

"No, no, I understand. We have a gem kind of like you back home actually, who just came to live with us." She assumed this had to be something vaguely related to how Nutmeg's gem functioned. There was no way of knowing for sure, not when there were so few baroque Pearls to look to as examples, but between this Pearl, Nutmeg, and Viri...

Actually, now that she thought about it, was this one of the gems Viri had lived with? It had been a while, and she'd only seen them once, but she knew there had been a couple smaller Pearls there.

"You don't happen to know Viridian, do you?" Crimson checked.

The small Pearl tilted her head. "Viridian? Is she the fifth gem who's with you? You didn't mention her name before."

"No, the gem up there is Violet. Viridian's tall? Taller than Pearls like me or your friend. Her gem's in the center of her chest, and it's baroque like yours, just bigger?"

"I've never met anyone like that, sorry," she said with a little shrug. "It's just been us two."

"Oh, that's alright, I was just curious. She's a friend of ours, and she came from a place with quite a few baroque Pearls. I thought you might have run away from there too."

"Nope! I'd love to meet more of your friends though."

"You'll definitely have a chance to do that." Crimson smiled. "But first, let's get you out of this ravine?"

"That sounds wonderful to me." She carefully climbed onto White's back, latching her arms loosely around her neck. "Like this?"

"Yep, that'll work." White stood up, hands moving to help support the other Pearl's legs for a moment before she let go again. "Wait, I'll need to be able to grab onto stuff to climb. So hold on tight, okay?"

"Okay."

She waited patiently for the coin Pearl to get onto Crimson's back as well, and then the five of them began making their way back up. It was definitely more of a challenge than climbing alone, Crimson realized, but they still scaled the debris at a quick pace, and Violet pulled each of them up to the top a few minutes later.

"Thank you for the ride! You're all fluffy and soft," the small Pearl said, patting White's hair where it had slipped out when her hat became askew when climbing.

"Thanks, but you should go meet an even fluffier Pearl," White said, pulling Chroma over to stand in front of her. "Here."

"White, I'm covered in—"

Before Chroma could finish, the smaller Pearl's hands had already found her hair, and she laughed as her fingers met with the robonoid fluid that was currently coating large patches of Chroma's hair. "You're fluffy and sticky!"

"Usually just fluffy," she laughed, embarrassed. "Here, let me find you something to wipe it off with…"

"As we walk," Crimson said, motioning for everyone to get moving. "We've been here a while, and I don't want to tempt fate, especially not with all those robonoids around. Let's get back to base."

"Base?" the coin Pearl asked curiously. "You have a base?"

"Um, yes?" Crimson answered. "Our base of operations for the rebellion? Well, we call it a base, but it's also our home."

"Rebellion?"

"Did we really not say that's where we're from?"

"No."

"Oh. Well, we are. The four of us are all from the rebellion."

"Which one?"

"…What?" Crimson asked, puzzled.

"Which rebellion?" she repeated. "There was the uprising in Facet 17 a few years ago, or Yellow Diamond's colony that attempted to cut ties to Homeworld, or the rebels who conspired to shatter—"

"Oh! No, we're not—we're probably not any of the ones you've heard about in court. We're fairly new still."

"Oh, alright. So there's another one."

"Although," Crimson added as an afterthought, "if you've heard of the Crystal Gems on Earth…?"

No recognition seemed to register on the coin Pearl's face.

"Rose Quartz, like we mentioned before? Her rebellion back when she shattered Pink Diamond?"

"Oh, that." She looked rather skeptical of what was coming next. "Yes."

"We're…affiliated with them, in a way. The few surviving members who are left, including the infamous renegade Pearl, they've been helping us out."

"I'd really prefer it if you didn't try to posture. We need to know where exactly it is you're offering to take us."

"No, she's not bluffing," the other Pearl said, placing a hand lightly on her friend's arm. "They really do know the 'Crystal Gems,' whoever they are."

"Really?"

"Mm-hm!"

"Alright then." She looked Crimson over. "But you're a new rebellion, you said. How many of you are there?"

"Hmm, about thirty or so? And you really are welcome to join us. We'd give you a safe place to stay, regardless of whether you're interested in being part of the actual rebellion."

She nodded slowly. "How are your defenses?"

"As solid as we can make them, though we rely mainly on technology to be our lookout right now. Chroma can fill you in on that if you're interested. She's our expert."

"I don't know about expert," she said, embarrassed. "But yeah, I can tell you about it. And show you when we get there, if that makes you feel better."

"Yes, please."

The coin Pearl refocused her questions on Chroma, letting Crimson relax a little, and fall into step beside White instead. "Hey, good job today."

"Huh? Oh, thanks." She seemed a little surprised by the praise. "I thought you were mad that I jumped off a cliff."

"Not mad, but please don't make a habit of it," she laughed. "It's fine. It's probably best that you did on this particular occasion, or we wouldn't have found these two."

"True." White hesitated. "This place creeps me out."

"Kindergartens are like that," Crimson agreed. "I always feel like there's gems watching me if I stay too long. Too many hiding places around, you know?"

"Yeah…" She looked like she wanted to say more, but then she shook her head. "Like how Ory was watching you?"

"Exactly," she said, smiling. "Ory told you about that?"

"Mm-hm, we're friends now."

"I didn't realize."

"Well, she likes talking to Caddy and blushing, so we have a lot in common."

"Uh huh." Crimson couldn't recall ever seeing White blush, but she certainly wasn't going to discourage White getting along with more gems. "Well, let's hurry home so you can tell her and Caddy about today's adventure then."

"Okay!"