"This is it," Crimson said as they approached base. She discreetly tapped in her security code to open the door and gestured for them all to go ahead. Belatedly, she realized the small Pearl might need help navigating a new place, but she'd had her hand placed on the coin Pearl's arm on the walk there, and she kept it there now too.

"Finally," White sighed, taking off her hat and shaking out her hair as she relaxed her shift back to her normal outfit. "Gem gets a little stuffy in there."

There was a sudden gasp from the coin Pearl. "Th-That's White Diamond's Pearl!"

White blinked. "Yes?"

"You stole White Diamond's Pearl?" she asked incredulously, looking around at the rest of the group with a newfound sense of horrified amazement. "Do you have a death wish?!"

She shook her head calmly. "No, Caddy says those make kissing more difficult. Oh, but she'll be happy the disguise worked. I'll have to tell her."

"What?" She stared at White, clearly not sure what to make of the gem in front of her. "I don't even know what you would be tried for first, this is entirely unprecedented…"

She glanced over at Crimson. "…Do you want to tell her there's actually five of us here or can I?"

"What do you mean five?"

Before Crimson could try to step in, Caddy poked her head out of the common room. "Welcome back! Did somebody say they were stealing White?"

"You—You're—" The coin Pearl took a step back, her face paling when she caught sight of Sky joining Caddy in the doorway as well. "Oh stars, did you steal all the Diamonds' Pearls? You…You are Blue Diamond's, I'm assuming?"

Sky nodded, glancing over at Crimson inquisitively.

"We found them when we were out scavenging," she said with a small smile and a shrug. "They'd been stuck in a ravine for a long time."

"She was stuck in a ravine but she recognizes White?"

"I've never seen her, but it's easy to tell," the coin Pearl said faintly. "White Diamond thinks she's being original, but there's a pattern to her choices if you know where to look. I didn't expect Blue Diamond to replace her Pearl though…"

"Technically all three of us are replacements," Caddy said, throwing an arm around Sky's shoulders. "I'm new too, so if you knew YD's Pearl, you're probably thinking of Yellow! Want me to get her? She and Blue are back there too."

"Why don't we give them a minute to take everything in first?" Crimson said hastily.

"Okay!" Caddy said easily. She gave Sky's shoulder a little squeeze and then moved closer to get a better look at the two new Pearls.

"What's a Diamond's Pearl?" the small Pearl asked, her head turning as she followed the sound of Caddy's footsteps. "Are you not little circle gems after all?"

"Nah, we are," White said.

"Do you…not know who the Diamonds are?" Sky asked curiously.

"I've never met any Diamonds," the small Pearl answered matter-of-factly. "I know who they are though. She told me." She patted her friend's arm lightly.

"Oh." Sky looked between the two of them, puzzled. "Well, um, Diamond's Pearls aren't really that different from other little circle gems, we're just…"

"Fancier," Chroma supplied.

"Ohh!" The small Pearl smiled. "Is that why White is so fluffy? Does that mean you're a Diamond's Pearl too?"

"Um, no," she laughed, taken aback. "It's a little more complicated than just the level of fluffiness."

"But that's boring to talk about," Caddy said quickly. "Tell us about you! How'd you get in a ravine?"

"We fell," the coin Pearl said, clearing her throat. "Separately, I mean. I don't know exactly how long she was there before I got there."

The small Pearl nodded happily, though she didn't offer any elaboration. "And then these little circle gems found us today and helped us get out so we could come here and meet even more new friends."

"Well, that's a new one," Caddy laughed. She came closer, circling around them. "I like your jacket," she told the coin Pearl with a bright smile. "I haven't really tried jackets. Mind if I try yours on?"

"Uh…"

"She means shapeshifting it on," Sky added helpfully when the coin Pearl seemed hesitant.

"Oh," she said faintly. "Sure. Why not?"

"Yay! Thanks." Caddy shifted into it immediately. She rolled her shoulders a couple times, trying to get used to the feel. "Hmm…leaning a little too Yellow Diamond-y with these shoulders, but the rest of it's cool. What do you think, White?" she asked, turning to give her a flirtatious wink.

White shrugged. "It's fine, I guess."

The noncommittal response seemed to put a damper on Caddy's enthusiasm. "Well, I'll keep it on a little longer to see what I think about it," she decided, tugging at one sleeve.

"What's all the noise out here?" Yellow asked, coming out to join them. "Oh, good, you're…back." Her eyes settled on the two newcomers.

"Hello," Blue added, hurrying to catch up with her. "How'd the scavenging go? Did you find anything good?"

"We did!" Chroma exclaimed. "Yellow, you're not going to believe what we found!"

Yellow did a double take when she saw how sticky Chroma's hair was, then raised an eyebrow as she tilted her head towards the new Pearls. "I am literally looking right at them."

"Oh, right, we also found these two Pearls!" Chroma gestured for Violet to hand over one of the robonoids in her gem. "But look at these!"

"Wait, the supplies are what you thought I wouldn't believe?"

"There were so many robonoids!"

"Why? Where?" Yellow asked, baffled. She took one from Chroma to examine it. "I thought you went to a Kindergarten."

"We did," Crimson said. "I'm honestly not sure what happened with these. Would you two mind taking a closer look at them right away? And maybe ask Pearl if she has any ideas too? I think she said she'd be by later today."

"Will do!" Chroma said happily. "Let me go get something for everybody to put them in."

"Thanks." Crimson hesitated, turning to project out of sight of the two new Pearls. "Come tell me if anything seems off, okay?"

Chroma blinked, reining in her excitement, and gave her a serious nod. "Okay," she mouthed silently.

"I don't get it," Yellow mused as she slowly rifled through the collection of broken robonoids. "They were all crashed in the same area?"

Chroma nodded. "I can't make sense of it either. Some of these are really old, some of them are really new…"

"So either there's been something or someone making them crash there for thousands of years or…well, somebody put them there."

"That's what I thought too, but all the evidence seemed to point to them genuinely crashing, for whatever reason." Chroma projected an image of a few of the fallen robonoids near the ravine. "See? You can tell it impacted the ground, and some of the more damaged ones, their fluid had long since drained out and settled into the ground."

"Hmm…" Yellow turned one over in her hand. "You could fake the crashing, but not the second part. It'd have to be some kind of long-term plan, which would mean it'd predate the rebellion and would be intended for something else… No, I think something had to make them genuinely break down there."

"Either physically or technologically," Chroma agreed with a nod, the projection flickering out.

"Do you think those new Pearls have something to do with it?"

"I don't know," she said honestly. "The little white and green one, she called them 'shooting stars'? So I'm not sure she understands exactly what they are. The coin Pearl…it's certainly strange for her to have made it out of the Court Sphere, but you could say that about a lot of Pearls' circumstances here. I suppose it's possible she's carrying some piece of court evidence in her gem that either intentionally or unintentionally worked to disable the robonoids and protect the two of them?"

"But some of these must be as old as Era 1," Yellow said, gingerly picking up a barely-held-together robonoid. "Look at this thing, it's barely even recognizable."

"True." Chroma poked at it carefully. "I've certainly never seen one like this. And I checked with Crimson and Violet since they go out a lot—all the robonoids that patrol around that area are the newer ones."

"So the coin Pearl would have to be lying about how long she's been there if this theory's true."

"Or the other Pearl knows more than she's letting on about why this was happening." Chroma sighed. "I don't know. Let's ask the Crystal Gems if they can get a better read on the two of them? I don't want to be overly suspicious, but there's something here that doesn't add up."

"Agreed," Yellow said. "I'll go by and talk to them now, so they can know to be paying attention to that sort of thing."

"Okay, sounds good. I'll stay here and keep an eye on all these."

"Thanks. Be right back."

"Garnet!" Yellow called. The fusion had just walked into her room in the temple when Yellow warped over.

"Hi, Yellow," she replied, unsurprised. She came back through the door before it could try to close. "You want to talk to us."

"I do," she confirmed with a nod. "Before you come visit base."

"Sure. Let's sit down."

"Thanks." Yellow sat down, shoulders rigid. "There are a couple of new Pearls that joined today, and there's…" She frowned slightly. "There's something unusual about how they were found. I don't want to be too specific and influence your opinion. But we were hoping you might be able to tell us if there's anything to be concerned about. We don't know if the unusual part is connected to them or if it's something else entirely."

"I'd be happy to help, but what I see—it's not one single future, Yellow. It's lots of different possible paths…and to some extent, it depends on my own knowledge."

She nodded. "That's fine. It's the best we've got. And if Pearl or Amethyst think there's anything weird, that'd be good to know too."

"We can definitely do that." Garnet gave Yellow a gentle pat on the shoulder. "You can go ahead and head back. I'll get everyone else together and we'll be right behind you."

"Okay."

"Thanks for coming by," Crimson greeted the Crystal Gems as they stepped off of the warp pad. "Let me introduce you to our new gems. You two, this is Pearl, Amethyst, and Garnet."

"Hello!" the small Pearl greeted them happily. "Do you not have names yet? We don't either."

"Oh, no, we're just accustomed to being referred to by gem type," Pearl explained, "so we adopted those as our names."

"Oh, okay!"

"A Garnet," the coin Pearl murmured, clearly taken aback. "Though I suppose once you've stolen this many Diamonds' Pearls, an illegal fusion is nothing."

At the mention of Garnet, Pearl and Amethyst glanced over at their companion.

"Um, Garnet?" Pearl asked. "Garnet, why are you smiling?"

Garnet's hands were pressed together in delight, a wide smile on her lips.

"Yo, Garnet?" Amethyst tried, poking her in the side when she didn't answer right away.

She just shook her head, batting Amethyst's hand away lightly before going straight over to the small Pearl. "Look at you!"

"Me?"

"Both of you!" She slipped her hands under the small Pearl's arms and picked her up, making the coin Pearl look increasingly concerned about her friend's safety. "I'm so happy you're here."

"Uh…" Yellow exchanged a look with Pearl. "I don't remember her being this excited to meet anybody else."

Pearl shrugged. "She did always love meeting fellow 'off-colors.'"

"If you say so."

"I'll be right back," Garnet told the small Pearl, setting her down next to her friend. "Just a minute. Yellow."

She blinked as her name was called, then hurried to follow Garnet out of the training room and down the currently deserted hall that went through the storage rooms.

"You don't need to worry about them," Garnet said, keeping her voice low.

"…Are you sure?"

"I'm rarely this sure about anything. Trust me."

"I do, but this seems—"

Garnet shook her head. "I'm not saying there isn't anything 'unusual' about them, but it's not anything you need to worry about. They'll be just fine as long as they're together."

"Alright," Yellow said slowly. "Well, that means Chroma and I have some robonoid investigating we need to do. Can you send Pearl out when you go back in?"

"Happy to." Garnet smiled, tilting her visor down just a tiny bit to look at her. "Have fun."

"I'll try. Thanks for the help."

"Thank you."

After talking to the Crystal Gems for a while, Crimson took the two new Pearls over to the little lounge area near her office. Just as they were getting seated, Silver and Aura approached from the other direction.

"Oh, someone new?" The small Pearl turned her head as she heard them. "Hello."

"Hello!"

"Hi! Welcome to base. We heard there were some new Pearls, so we thought we'd come show you around."

Silver had only just projected the last part of the sentence before the small Pearl spoke up. "Do you have a name too?"

"Um…" Aura glanced between them, her brow furrowing.

"She's not ignoring you," the coin Pearl told Silver. "She can't see."

"She can't?"

There was a moment, just a few brief seconds, where Crimson saw pain flicker across Silver's face. She wished she'd thought to warn her somehow, tell her that—at least with this one Pearl—she would be truly unheard for the first time in years.

But that pain was pushed aside as quickly as it had come, practicality forcing it away with a simple request of "Mind interpreting for me, Crimson?"

"Of course," she projected back, hoping that offered some small piece of comfort. "Um," she said, touching the small Pearl lightly on the shoulder. "The gem you can hear is Aura. There's another gem next to her whose name is Silver, and she doesn't have a voice."

"Oh! I'm sorry!" The small Pearl's hand jumped to her mouth. "She's like me?"

"She's…yes. Sort of." Crimson glanced over at Silver. "She uses projections to talk. I'll be reading what she says so you can hear it, if that's alright."

"That would be perfect, thank you. Hello, Silver." The small Pearl smiled tentatively. "Could I go see her up close to say hello?" She held up one hand to show what she meant.

"Yeah, definitely."

Once Crimson had relayed her answer, the small Pearl started to walk forward in Silver's general direction. When she overshot, moving too far to the side, Silver glanced over at the coin Pearl, not sure what to do.

"Stay there, she'll find you." Then, a little softer, "You've gone past her. More to your right."

"Oh! Oops, I'm sorry." She backtracked gracefully and then gathered up her train more securely to try again, her footsteps slower this time. "It's a little harder to find you since you aren't breathing, but I'll…" She trailed off, smile spreading across her lips as Silver began to drum her fingers steadily against her leg. "Thanks! That definitely helps."

Silver nodded, unseen, and continued to tap her fingers until the smaller Pearl's outstretched hand bumped into her side.

"I found you!" she gasped delightedly. "You're really big!"

Silver laughed as the other Pearl felt along her arm and the sturdy muscle that was the result of many years of training. She flexed her bicep and then waved Crimson over with her other hand. "Come over here so we can get a fair comparison for once," she teased.

"I'll pass," she answered, then realized she'd forgotten to read the words for the other Pearl. "Silver wants you to see who feels stronger between the two of us."

"You're just afraid you'll lose." Silver grinned as the smaller Pearl lifted herself up, doing something of a pull-up with Silver's extended arm.

"'You're just afraid you'll lose.' Which no, I am not, thank you very much." She came over to join them. "Here."

The smaller Pearl dropped back down to the floor and reached out her hands to compare the two. "Hmm…" she mused with a playful tilt of her head. "Should I say? Oh, I know! You should have a second opinion so we're doubly sure. We have to study the evidence, right? Come try!" she encouraged the coin Pearl. "And try swinging on Silver's arm too, it's fun!"

"It won't work," the coin Pearl told her. "We're the same height."

"What do you mean the same height? Really?" She reached up to find the top of Silver's head. "Oh, I guess you are! You feel really different from each other, so I thought you were taller."

"We'll get her working out in no time," Silver said, flashing the coin Pearl a quick smile so she knew it wasn't any kind of order. "Oh, you know what? I can show you a tall Pearl!" She picked the small Pearl up easily and started heading for the common room.

"Sil, wait, she can't hear you!" Crimson said, running after them. "I'm sorry, she doesn't mean any harm, she just wanted to introduce you to another friend."

"Oh, that's alright," she answered, though she looked rather disoriented as she was put down in the common room, turning her head this way and that to try and take in all the different sounds around her.

"Sorry," Silver apologized. "I wasn't thinking."

She shook her head quickly. "It's okay! But…"

"This is a lot more noise than she's used to," her friend pointed out.

"Oh, right!" Silver clapped her hands to get everyone's attention, accidentally making the small Pearl jump. "Sorry, again. Hey, everybody, can we quiet down for a bit? Our new recruits aren't used to all this noise yet."

The conversations around them settled down immediately.

"I'm going to go get things ready for them," Aura murmured to Silver. "If you're alright?"

"Yeah, thanks."

"Okay. See you soon."

As Aura slipped out of the room, Viri, who'd been chatting with some friends, made her way over to the group curiously. "Hello," she whispered. "Is it okay to say hi?"

"I'd love to say hi," the small Pearl said. "You don't have to whisper."

"Oh, okay! I'm Viri. It's so wonderful to meet more gems like me."

"Oh, are you the Viri with the big gem?"

"Yep, see?" She pointed proudly to the center of her chest.

"Nope! I can't see anything!"

"Do you need hair clips? I can go get some, wait here!"

"I don't know what those are, but okay!"

"She means she actually can't see," Crimson said quickly. "She's like Nutmeg."

"Ohhh!" There was a slight pause as Viri processed the new information. "We'll have to introduce you two then. Have you given them the tour yet, Silver?"

"Not yet." Her eyes flickered to the small Pearl as she tried to decide how best to go about a tour that couldn't involve actually seeing their home. "Aura's getting their rooms set up, so if one of you guys doesn't mind coming along to read for me…?"

"I'll come along," Crimson said quickly. "It's no trouble. Viri, would you mind getting training started? I don't want things to get too off schedule."

"Sure, no problem! We can get to know each other later, okay?" She gave the new Pearls each a friendly pat on the head. "Bye!"

"Bye!"

Taking the new Pearls on the tour seemed to brighten Silver's mood again, though Crimson could tell she wasn't fully comfortable with having someone else speak for her. She didn't see any way around that though.

But aside from the difference in communication, the tour around base went smoothly, the same as any other. Silver had always loved showing gems around her home, making it their home too.

"Sorry to interrupt," Aura said when she caught up to them about half an hour later, "but would you like to see your rooms now? I got them all set up for you."

"Rooms?" the coin Pearl echoed.

"Mm-hm, one for each of you."

The smaller Pearl's smile faltered, and she hugged her friend close. "Why do we have to split up?"

"Well, you don't have to," Aura said hastily. "It's just, you know, it's good to have a space that's all yours."

"But you can share a room for now if you want," Silver offered. "Whatever makes you most comfortable."

Crimson repeated her words, then added, "Yeah, we usually encourage separate rooms, but we certainly have exceptions. If you want to stay together in one room, we're not going to try and stop you."

The two of them seemed to relax a little.

"We'll do that then," the coin Pearl said firmly.

"Alright! It'll be right over here." Aura moved to lead the way over to the freshly prepared room, Silver close behind her. "So this is your room," she said, showing them inside. "It's just the basics right now, but you can add to it or move it around however it suits you."

The coin Pearl nodded, taking in the room for a moment before beginning to describe it to her friend. "It seems like a nice room. Rectangular in shape. There's some furniture but it's all against the walls, so you don't need to worry about running into anything. There's a big soft-looking platform that sticks out though."

"Hmm?" She seemed intrigued. "A platform?"

"Do you mean the bed?" Aura asked.

"What's a bed?"

"Oh stars, have you never seen—or I guess touched—one?"

They both shook their heads.

"That's okay," she said warmly. "Go try it out, I bet you'll like it. It's a place where you can relax and lay down. And sleep, if you want to."

"Really? Let's try it!" The small Pearl let her friend lead the way and then climbed up onto the bed, bouncing a little as she sat down, hands reaching to feel as much of it as she could. "It's so soft! Just like…the leader gem? Or the sticky one?"

She laughed. "Crimson and Chroma. The sticky one will be less sticky soon, I promise. Anyway, I'll leave you to get settled in."

"Thank you so much," the small Pearl said. "For bringing us here and giving us such a soft room and everything. And can you thank Silver too? I can't tell if she's still here."

"She is," Aura said softly.

"Oh, good! Thank you, Silver. It was really nice of you to show us around. Your home is beautiful."

"You're welcome."

"She says you're welcome," the coin Pearl repeated before adding her own genuine "Thank you." She settled her arm around the small Pearl. "I guess your wish did come true," she said softly to her friend.

Silver smiled warmly and lifted her hand in a casual salute. "I honor your service. Let us know if you need anything."

"Thank you."