Amethyst groaned and wiped the damp leaves from her face as she sat up, her light lavender hair full of loose twigs and leaves. "Uhhh... Is everyone okay?"
Connie rolled over and rubbed her forehead, brushing a few stray strands of her short brown hair away from her face. "Yeah, I think I'm okay... Steven?"
The boy scrambled out of a bush with a grunt. "I'm okay... What happened? Where's Pearl?"
A rustle of branches from above drew their attention, and they looked up to spot Pearl dropping down through the branches. "Are you all okay?" she rushed to each one, checking them over and rubbing dirt from their faces.
"Yeah, I think we're all okay... What was that thing anyway?"
"Shrug City, kiddo." Amethyst started pulling the debris from her hair.
Pearl looked thoughtful. "I'm... not entirely sure, to be honest. I've never encountered anything like that before. But, it doesn't seem to have sent us to another location. We're still in the same place, just at the bottom of that cliff."
Steven looked around. "Hey, where's Garnet? And Bismuth?"
Pearl looked around, her light blue eyes trailing up towards the cliff-face with concern, as she listened for the sounds of her two oldest friends calling for them. "I... have no idea. Perhaps they're too busy fighting that creature? But, there's an easy way back up to the top of the cliff via a short walk that way." she briefly pointed to her left. "We can climb back up and meet them at the warp pad."
Amethyst shrugged. "Eh, sounds like a plan."
Pearl nodded, and as the group started walking, she glanced at towards the top of the cliff. "I just hope they're both okay..."
As the group entered a clearing, Pearl gasped. "No... it can't be... This is impossible..."
"Whoa... is that...?" Connie stared, almost as starry-eyed as Steven as they stared at the spaceship sitting in a clearing.
A rustling noise reached them through the trees, and in a quick flash of movement, Pearl turned, grabbed the three and pulled them all into a nearby hollow tree trunk. Her hands jammed onto Steven and Amethyst's mouths, with Connie nestled into the crook of her arm. "Quiet!" she hissed.
"The battle went well this time, but we should get back before the next scheduled check-in."
"Ugh... Yellow is such a pain..."
Their gasps were muffled as Pearl and Rose Quartz walked into view. "Mum?" Steven whispered through Pearls thin fingers.
The other Pearl stopped and looked around. "I'm sure she's just concerned, what with those terrible, dangerous rebels around every corner..." she grinned cheekily.
Rose Quartz laughed. "Oh yeah. I've heard about them. Especially that terrifying rogue pearl. You know, they say that she breathes fire and fights a squad of quartzes every day for fun." she winked.
Pearl chuckled. "That... actually does sound like fun."
"Pearl, no."
"Pearl, yes." she responded with a laugh.
"Peeeaarrrlllll..." Rose groaned. "What did I say about being crazy?"
Pearl shrugged. "Not before noon? I don't know, I wasn't paying attention..." she waved a hand dismissively and walked towards the ship, the bright pink diamond emblem on the side glinting slightly in the sunlight diffused through the trees.
Rose crossed her arms and huffed as Pearl tapped the side of the ship, the door suddenly sliding open. "Oh, you." she said, fondness in her voice.
Steven felt something pressed into his shoulder and glanced back at Pearl to see her eyes wide and mouth buried into his shirt as she shook. "Pearl?" he mumbled, her hand still clamped on his mouth.
Amethyst and Connie glanced back at Pearl with concern for a moment, their eyes quickly returning to the impossible scene before them.
"We really do need to get back now though. I can't even imagine how much paperwork is waiting for us..." Pearl called, her form shimmering as she phased her battle clothes away in exchange for her pink diamond dress.
Rose sighed. "Oh, alright then... Paperwork... yay..." she groaned. She started glowing and shifting until Pink Diamond was standing before them. "No rest for the wicked, I suppose..."
"No, my Diamond." Pearl bowed slightly and gave the diamond salute as Pink Diamond entered the ship, bending over to fit through the door. "Certainly not for the likes of us." she added as she entered behind the larger gem, the door sliding shut behind her.
The group crouched in the hollow tree trunk watched as the ship raised up from the ground and wheeled away towards the faintly glowing moon on the horizon.
Pearl hands slid away, and they turned to see her curled up with a sob. "I wanted to scream at them... at us... warn them... about the Corruption..." she whispered, her head buried in her knees as her hands worked themselves into her short peach-coloured hair. "We were such idiots..."
Amethyst stood and started towards the clearing, but Pearl's arm whipped out to haul her back. "Hey!" Amethyst grunted. "What gives?!"
Pearl shook her head. "We need to stay here for a bit longer. Whenever we returned to the Moon Base, we always checked a few things using the observation orb. We made sure there wasn't anyone around to see Rose turn back into Pink Diamond, for starters. Then we checked to make sure the other Crystal Gems were still safe at camp, and then a quick scan to make sure there wasn't any loyalists moving in for an ambush or harming any known human settlements. Only then did we return to our actual duties." she sighed. "If you step out now, they'll come back to make sure you don't tell anyone the secret. You'll be..." she shrugged. "Well, I'm not actually sure. We never had to deal with anyone who might have seen the truth... But I was fairly axe-crazy during the war. Especially when Rose's true identity was involved. I really don't want to have to fight myself to stop her from bubbling you."
Amethyst paused. "Oh. Uh... Okay... That's a good point..."
"Besides..." Pearl sighed. "I think we'd have a hard time explaining why there's two of me and why Steven has Pink in his belly. Not to mention the damage to the timeline..."
Connie glanced over. "So, you think we're in the past then?"
Pearl rubbed her temples. "I'm... not sure. It's a distinct possibility. The other option is that we've somehow been transported into my memories. If that is the case, then it's only a small mercy that it wasn't a more traumatic one..." she muttered. "But, it's increasingly likely that this is the past. My memories would have shifted us either to another event, or to the Moon Base to witness what happened next. The fact that we're still here in this forest, long after I left, mostly rules out that option..." she looked out towards the clearing, her head dropping back to the trunk behind her as her fingers twisted nervously.
"I do remember that conversation. It was almost five hundred years after Garnet joined us, but before Pink became Rose permanently. Right now, we'd be checking the orb. In a few minutes, we'd returned to the main control room to receive a communication from Yellow Diamond, confirming that the colony's going well, despite the fact that the rebels are taking ground, blahblahblah..." she rolled her eyes. "The usual garbage we spouted to prevent them from coming and taking over the colony themselves... Then we had several days' worth of paperwork to catch up on, mostly about the various ongoing construction projects around the planets. At the same time, we'd be looking out for anything we could later sabotage as Crystal Gems without too much risk of capture. It was a risky game we played... We were so stupid..." she closed her eyes sadly.
"So, what now?" Amethyst prompted after a while.
Pearl opened her mouth, but whatever she was about to say was halted by a loud rumbling noise. Her eyes snapped open.
"Err... Sorry guys..." Steven grinned sheepishly, holding his stomach. "I'm hungry..."
Connie nodded. "Yeah, I could eat."
Pearl glanced outside. "Hmm... I do know of a human settlement nearby. Traditional courtesy would cause them to extend any dinner plans to you. Granted, it wouldn't be anything you're used to, and I have no idea how any of it would affect you, but... At least it'll calm those beasts in your bellies." she smirked as Connie's stomach gave a growl.
The young girl blushed deeply. "Yes, it is a hungry beast, and requires regular sacrifices."
"Feed meee!" Steven mock-growled as he held his belly, jiggling it slightly.
Amethyst snorted. "Quick, before the beasts devour us all!"
Pearl started to crawl out of the tree trunk. "Calm down, we have a short hike ahead of us first."
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The group stood on the hill and looked down on the small settlement of roundhouses ahead. The sounds of laughter, barking dogs and chatter rose up towards them, and the smell of cooking meat billowed on the smoke, enticing them further.
"Okay kids, before we go down, a couple of details." Pearl snapped her fingers, drawing their attention. "Firstly, this particular group has some... ideas, or traditions, that will affect you two." she pointed at Steven and Connie. "They don't allow unrelated men and women to travel together, unless they're married. You're not going to pass as siblings, so for the duration of our stay here, if anyone asks me, I'll need to claim that you're married."
The two young teens blushed deeply, glancing at each other and looking away as Amethyst sniggered. "Wooo, lovebirds..."
Pearl hid a smile behind her hand. "Now, I'm the only one here who can actually understand their language, so I'll just tell them that you come from a land across the sea, which will explain your clothes, language and anything that confuses them."
Pearl paused for a moment and looked down at herself. "Hmm... Speaking of clothing... I should probably change into something they've seen me in before..." She shimmered and phased her clothes into what looked like brown skins with a star-shaped patch of white fur over the right shoulder. Another quick shimmer, and dotted tattoos spiralled around her arms, creating an animal-like image on her upper right arm and a dotted star on her left. Pearl looked back down at herself. "Okay, that should do it."
"Whoa!" Steven's eyes sparkled with wonder.
Connie moved to get a better look at the tattoos. "Does this one mean anything? Or is it just decoration?" she asked, pointing at Pearl's right arm.
Pearl glanced at it. "Oh, yes. They only gave this one to a hunter who had fought a sabre-tooth and survived."
At their stunned faces, she added. "There was a little boy, the tiger was going to kill him, I just... reacted..." she shrugged. "Afterwards, someone sat me down and gave me this. I just phased it away and back when I needed to."
Pearl looked back at the settlement and sighed. "One last detail... These people usually avoid drinking the river water, due to contaminates. Of course, they didn't understand that it was because they used rivers as open sewers..." she frowned. "And they barely understand that boiling the water made them less likely to get sick. So, they generally used it to brew beer. That will be the only drink available for you to have. And they'll think it's strange if you don't partake... Under normal circumstances, you're far too young. But there really isn't much other choice. I do have some bottled water stored in my gem for emergencies, yes, but it's a limited amount, and there's no way of knowing how long we're going to be stranded... So partaking in the local brew may be unavoidable. I can only advise you to sip small amounts, and only when necessary."
Steven and Connie nodded. "This is definitely something I won't be telling my parents about later..." Connie sighed.
Pearl nodded. "Yes, I would appreciate if you didn't let them know that I've put you into a situation where you have to drink alcohol..."
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The group held back as Pearl was greeted warmly, watching as she spoke and laughed with them like old friends. After a short time, she turned back to them, waving them over. "Okay, I've explained that we're travelling together, and that you two are a couple who got separated from your tribe. They've invited us to join them. It seems that venison is on the menu tonight, along with various tubers, nuts and fire-roasted apples, apparently. I hope that's okay with both of you."
Connie's stomach growled loudly.
"Well, someone likes the sound of that." Amethyst smirked.
Connie blushed. "I haven't eaten since breakfast... Everything sounds good right now..."
"Huh. So that's what beer tastes like..." Connie mused after a small sip from the wooden bowl.
Pearl glanced over. "Well, the recipe and method of brewing it has changed a lot over the millennia... So, I doubt it's exactly like the modern drink you won't be allowed to have for many years... But at this point in time, yes. That is how is tastes."
Steven giggled. "It makes my nose tingle."
"Don't have too much, or everything will tingle." Amethyst smirked, reaching over and taking the bowl, placing it on the ground in front of him. "Eat some more meat." she added, shoving a chunk of roasted meat into his hands.
"Ooh, hothothot..." he hissed, juggling it slightly before taking a large bite, juices dripping down his arms.
"That kinda looks like a yam..." Connie pointed at the oddly-shaped roasted object before her.
Pearl nodded. "Yes, it's a very similar tuber. Mind, it'll likely taste different to yam; humans have developed entirely new species over time of course; but it's still the essentially the same thing. And those are... oh yes, roasted acorns. Rose claimed they tasted like mashed yam... But I rarely take food advice from someone who eats buttercup, honeysuckle and daffodil flowers..." she frowned as she shivered with disgust. "And those aren't even the weirdest things I saw her eat..."
A heavily pregnant woman across the group suddenly grimaced and clutched the arm of the man next to her. She was quickly rushed away into a roundhouse by two other women.
Pearl nodded. "Well, that answers that then."
Connie and Steven glanced at each other. "Uh, what do you mean?" they said, almost in unison.
Pearl looked back. "Oh. Well, the first time around, I returned to this group to learn that Serachi... that woman, had successfully had her baby two weeks previously. What struck me as odd was the fact that they claimed that I was here at the time."
Amethyst grabbed a handful of acorns and started popping them into her mouth. "I'm guessing you weren't?"
Pearl nodded. "Correct. I was dealing with a backlog of paperwork at the time. But the strangest part of it is this; they said that I was here with a boy, a girl and a purple gem."
Amethyst choked slightly on an acorn, and Pearl reached out and gave her a quick thump on the back. "Wait... wait?!" she exclaimed, after downing some beer.
Pearl shrugged. "That's what I thought at the time. I was quite confused, obviously, but I figured that maybe some other pearl had visited with her owner, and they just... mistook her for me. To be fair, it's an easy mistake to make if you don't know that there are hundreds of pearls..."
Connie took another sip thoughtfully. "So... what does this mean? What did it answer?"
"Well, for starters, that conversation finally makes sense to me. It only took fifty-two hundred years..." she muttered. "But, it was me. And you three. We're apparently in a stable time-loop. Chances are, whatever we do whilst we're here will either be inconsequential and have no impact on future events; or was supposed to happen, like coming to this particular settlement and joining their meal. We'd have to really be trying hard to damage the timeline. Like... steal a ship, go to the Moon Base and talk Pink out of faking her own shattering. Something important like that could... well..." she paused for a moment, deep in thought.
"Hmm... Well, it could create an entirely new timeline, one where the Corruption didn't happen, and the war continued to the point where we simply couldn't fight anymore. Pink and I would undoubtedly be forced to tell the Diamonds the truth at that point, and one of them would take over the colony themselves. The Earth would have become just another of Yellows... or Blues, colonies. The hologram you saw on the Moon Base would be the Earth of that timeline." she nodded at Steven and Amethyst.
Connie looked over. "Uh... what hologram?"
Steven turned to her. "It's really bad. The Earth was going to be hollowed out for resources, with heaps of kindergartens and spires... Only gems could survive it, so humans would be extinct, and everything else that makes the Earth so great too..."
Pearl sighed. "We really are a terrible species."
The group was silent at that.
Pearl spoke up again. "We'd likely never see that timeline, of course. For starters, I'm not so silly as to try to change the past. Even if it was terrible, and a great many wonderful gems were shattered or corrupted..." she paused and sighed. "Everything that has happened, has happened. We can't change that, not matter what. There's no telling what damage that would cause. And even if we did change it, chances are, it'd be pointless from our point of view. Once we figured out how to return home, we'd be placed back into our own timeline, where the Corruption happened. So, any changes wouldn't affect us."
"But wait..." Amethyst raised a hand. "How can we return to our... whatever, if we change it? Wouldn't it disappear?"
Pearl smiled. "No. That would create a paradox. If our timeline doesn't exist, we can't come back and change anything to erase it, so our timeline exists. It's a classic Grandfather Paradox situation."
Connie nodded. "That makes sense."
"Oh yeah! Like in the 'Return to the Past' trilogy!" Steven exclaimed, grinning.
Pearl rolled her eyes. "Those are rather scientifically inaccurate movies, Steven... but in this case, yes, their explanation is good enough. Of course, now we just need to figured out a way to get home."
A short while later...
Connie giggled as Steven flopped over with a snore.
Pearl sighed. "Well, so much for not drinking too much..."
Amethyst stood. "Okay, I can carry him if you wrangle little Miss Gigglepants over there."
"Gigglepants..." Connie snickered. "That's funny. You're funny." she fell over, laughing.
Pearl quickly spoke with one of the women of the settlement. "Okay, we can use that hut over there. Come on, Giggles." she chuckled, placing a hand on Connie's back and gently steering her towards the offered roundhouse.
Behind her, Amethyst picked Steven up carefully. "Don't throw up on me dude, okay?" she muttered to the sleeping boy.
After getting the two settled, Pearl threw a blanket over them. "Connie, go to sleep."
"I don know where dat is..." Connie murmured, drifting off shortly after.
"Yeah, her parents can never know about this..." Amethyst sighed, settling down nearby.
"Agreed." Pearl nodded.
Beach City, modern day:
"Pearl?!" Garnet called out as the light of the warp pad faded. "Steven?" She moved around the empty room, checking the bathroom as Bismuth looked outside. "Amethyst? Connie?"
"No-one out here, Garnet..." she reported back.
Garnet sat on the couch. "Then, we wait."
Bismuth nodded and sat beside her. "Wouldn't be the first time we waited for Pearl to return from a mission."
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"Hello?"
Garnet looked over at the door and sighed when she saw Connie's mother standing there. "Oh. Come in."
"Thank you." Priyanka closed the door behind her and looked around. "I've come to pick up Connie. She's not answering her phone, and I just keep getting an 'Out of Service' message. If her training sessions are going to be going this late, I would prefer prior notice."
Garnet and Bismuth glanced at each other. "Yeah..." Bismuth started, rubbing the back of her neck nervously. "Ya might want to sit down..."
Garnet nodded. "I'll make some tea. Bismuth, you go and get Greg. He should be here for this too..."
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"...And that's it..." Bismuth finished.
Greg sighed. "Ah, geez... And this was how many hours ago?"
Garnet shrugged. "Late this morning... So around six hours or so now..."
Priyanka started pacing. "How can all of you be so calm about this?! Our children are missing!"
Garnet stood and placed a hand on each of Priyanka's shoulders, carefully but firmly steering her towards the couch. "I assure you, I am worried beyond belief. However, Pearl and Amethyst are with them. Pearl is very smart, and never gives up. If they had to go missing with anyone, Pearl is the best choice, because she will not quit until they're all home safely. And Amethyst is savvy enough to get out of trouble almost as quickly as she gets into it. She can shapeshift better than anyone else I know; she won't hesitate to do so to protect those kids. They make a good team, when they bother getting along."
Greg nodded. "Yeah, it could be worse, Priyanka. The kids could be scared and alone. But, you should probably let Doug know what's going on."
Priyanka took out her cell phone and started dialling, moving into the small kitchen area to make the call.
Bismuth sighed. "Now... Which one of us is going to tell the Diamonds what's going on?"