Pearl stared up at the place she knew Homeworld was. Where she knew Freshwater was. While there was plenty to distract her throughout the day such as Bismuth being unbubbled, the small dispute that seemed to be going on between B9 and Jet, and even simply taking care of the humans, she still found her mind wandering to the gem who had taken White's attack for her. The pale gem prayed that White hadn't recognized her, but she honestly couldn't have been sure. Pearls were plentiful and replaceable on Homeworld, and it was possible that by this point all Pearls were the same.

Or, at least, that's what Pearl told herself to keep the creeping terror at bay.

The Pearl found her mind wandering back to what Bismuth had said in the forge. Maybe the gem had been right? Maybe Freshwater was still alive up there? Pearl sighed, hanging her head. She wasn't sure whether she preferred the Pearl fighting for her freedom or relenting to the reign of the Diamonds.

As much as Pearl wanted to think freshwater would try to fight back, she couldn't help thinking of how the gem had betrayed them. Granted, she wasn't necessarily angry about it anymore, but it still stung. She honestly couldn't really blame Freshwater for the little stunt she'd pulled so long ago. After all, she was like Lapis Lazui in the sheer desperation she had to get to Homeworld and serve under the Authority. As she had come to the conclusion long ago, this Pearl was perfect. Perfect to a fault, in fact. And now that she was probably fighting with White Diamond – although it be against her will – she knew they were all in deep trouble.

Pearl sighed, allowing her back to slouch. "Freshwater….you idiot." She whispered, putting her head in her hands and feeling the familiar sadness night-time brought sweep over her again as she made her way inside. Garnet sat on the couch and watched her, silent as ever. For a moment, the gems held each other's gaze before Garnet slid over, patting the spot next to her. Pearl started to step towards her, but shook her head before rushing to the solitude of her own room.

She needed time. She needed space. She needed to grieve. And right now, the sanctitude of her room was where she achieved all of these things.

…

"So, let me get this straight, these hunks of junk are supposed to scan for Off-Colored gems?" Freshwater said, using her foot to shift one of the objects on its back. Dead. Hessonite nodded. "Yes. According to Emerald, one of the many Peridots under her command made it." Freshwater rolled her eyes at the hint of jealousy in the gem's voice. What was the point in having a lot of gems if you could barely get them to bend at your will?

"So, are we guarding you or are you leading us?" Hesssonite asked sarcastically, coming to stand at Freshwater's shoulder and look down at the cracked and dead machine. Freshwater snorted. "Yes." She said simply, getting down on her hands and knees to closely inspect the thing. "So, what's wrong with it?" she asked, knocking on it lightly. It wasn't cracked or broken. Just inactive. Hessonite shrugged. "I suppose there just aren't any- Watch out!"

The elite quickly rushed forward and scooped Freshwater into her arms as the machine began to whir for a moment before rising into the sky shakily. "Stay here." Hessonite muttered, putting the gem down and summoning her weapon.

Freshwater did as she was told, watching as the gem leapt into the air and swung her weapon full force at the thing, watching as it soared into one of the many pillars in the Kindergarten, crashing to the ground. Hessonite paused, her weapon still at the ready. After a few moments silence, she lowered it. "That was….odd." she muttered, pulling up her reports with her gems and quickly scanning it with her eyes. "Says here this these things only lock on Off-Colors." She muttered, putting the reports back down and glancing down at Freshwater.

"You aren't…." The Hessonite started to ask, but flash of red hot anger on Freshwater's face made the gem immediately re-consider this question. "No, of course you're not. Not a gem serving the Diamonds." She muttered, following Freshwater deeper into the Kindergarten. "Exactly." Freshwater said coldly. "Me. Defective." She shook her head. "Man what next, fusion with humans?" she felt a shudder run down her back at the memory of her dreams. "Don't humor me."

…..

"Hey, H11, do ya think we could start a band or something?" Johnathon asked curiously, strumming one of the small child sized guitars Greg had been letting him use. "H11 snickered. "I dunno, maybe? What's even the point of going to a band?" the girl asked, stretching and glancing at Johnathon curiously. "Well, I dunno. Just for fun I guess. Mr. Universe says we should try it out. He says lessons will be free for us since we're kids."

"I dunno if D13 wants to play the guitar." H11 said with a small frown. D13 shook his head with a small shrug. "Oh, no that's okay!" Johnathon said. "Mr. Universe says he can hook us up with different people and instructors." H11 cocked her head to the side. "What about that green stuff?"

Johnathon's brow furrowed. "Green stuff? What green stuff?"

"You know." H11 said, slightly frustrated. "That green paper stuff. The stuff Mr. Universe gets when he finishes a car wash? The stuff he is talking about giving Y6 and J10 some of so we can get our own place here in Beach City."

Johnathon's eyes widened. "Oh, Earth currency!" H11 nodded. Johnathon shrugged. "Mr. Universe says he has plenty of that. He says he's just having Y6 and J10 work for him so they can learn how to make money and not just spend it all." The boy's tongue stuck out of his mouth as he strummed a note on the guitar, grinning to himself. "Finally. That fingering has been giving me all kinds of trouble to learn." He muttered to himself, not daring to move his hands lest he forget how to strum it again.

H11 and D13 exchanged a look. "Well, what other instruments are there?" she asked curiously. Johnathon reluctantly put the guitar down and picked up a book on the shelf. "Tons." He said, picking it up and motioning for D13 and H11 to follow him. "First, though, let us use some of our Earth currency and get food. Steven says there's a ncie place here called the Big Donut that is nice."

"How do you adjust so easily to this place?" H11 asked, looking around at all the hustle and bustle of Beach City. Johnathon shrugged. "I dunno? I've always been the one to just kind of go with the flo—"

The boy yelped when D13 yanked him back and away from the road as a bright yellow car rounded a corner and sped onto the street Johnathon was about to walk onto.

There was a loud screech, and the small trio of kids covered their faces as there was a loud bang followed by dead silence. Johnathon was the first one to open is eyes, his heart dropping when he saw a boy with tanned skin climbing out of a destroyed…what was that? It was a big yellow machine that had wrapped itself around a pole, and the pole appeared undamaged. The human that had been inside, however, did not look pleased as he stormed over towards the kids, brushing his jet black hair out of his eyes and fixing them with a sneer.

"What the hell did you do to my car?! Do you have any idea how expensive that thing is you little brat?"

Johnathon stood, shocked, looking at H11 and D13, who looked just as shocked as he was. "Your…car?" H11 said, cocking his head to the side, confused. The taler human groaned and put his face in his hands. "Yes, you idiots, my car. What are you, from off planet or something?" he snapped. The kids exchanged a look and nodded. "Yes, actually." Johnathon said. This response only seemed to have fueled Kevin's anger as he opened his mouth to light into the kids. Before he could, though, the door to the Big Donut swung open and a girl with bleach blonde hair and a purple shirt with the Big Donut Logo on it charged out with a broom, Lars following behind her, looking like he'd just woken up.

"Hey! Leave the kids alone!" She snapped,

"Leave the kids alone? Sadie, did you see what those little gremlins did to my car? My parents are gonna kill me for this!"

"Well, maybe if you hadn't have come speeding down here like some sort of maniac, they would have seen you coming."

D13, H11, and Johnathon all look equally confused and uncomfortable as they watched Sadie and Kevin go back and forth for a few minutes before the teen sulked off to go call his parents.

"What's a car?" H11 whispered to D13, who shrugged.

"I don't know, but apparently it was very important to him." Johnathon whispered back.

H11's eyes widened. "We broke something that was important to someone? That makes me feel bad. Maybe we can make it up to him some-"

"Of course you brats are going to make it up to me." The boy snarled, making H11 and Johnathon jump. D13 flinched and sneered, but H11 put a hand on his shoulder, steadying him.

"No, they're not." Sadie said, stepping in front of the trio. "Their parents, maybe, but not them." Kevin looked up at the boy who had followed Sadie out, asking him to back him up. "Lars. C'mon man, back me up." He pleaded. Lars scoffed. "Don't look at me, dude. This doesn't have anything to do with me." He said, reaching into his pocket and pulling out a small rectangle with a screen on it and starting to tap on it. "Good luck suing a bunch of kids, though." He said, shrugging and nodding at the trio.

Kevin scowled at Sadie, then at Lars, before sighing, exasperated, ad pulling out a piece of paper and a pencil. "What's your parents phone number?" he snapped. The kids exchanged a look awkwardly. "We don't exactly…..have parents?" H11 said awkwardly, shrugging. Kevin sighed and pinched his nose with one hand. "Great, so it's me against three orphans. Chicks don't freaking dig that, man." He muttered, appearing to talk moreso to himself than to anyone else.

"Why does he want the approval of small earth animals?" H11 asked.

D13 and Johnathon shrugged.

"Fine. I'll take care of this with Mayor Dewey, and he'll sort this mes out." Kevin muttered, scribbling something down before handing it to Sadie. "Here's my number. I'll be calling to sort this out soon, and I'll be back."

And with that, the boy, scowled at each of the kids before sauntering off, shoving his hands into his pockets and grumbling under his breath.

After Kevin had left, Sadie's tone softened. "Sorry about that." She said sheepishly. "Are you kids alright?" the kids nodded before Johnathon shook his head. "No. I'm hungry." He said, pulling his cap off and allowing his face and hair to be exposed to the sun. Lar's jaw dropped. "Yo, kid, what did you do to your hair" he blurted, both shocked and amused. Sadie shot him a death glare.

Johnathon frowned, cocking his head to the side. "I don't know what you mean?" he said, looking at himself. "This is how I've always looked?" he said, looking at H11 and D13, who looked equally as confused as he was. "Please excuse him." Sadie said, apologizing profusely. "It's just….we've never seen anyone with gyour type of…condition." She said, fumbling for words.

"Uh….Okay?" Johnathon said, still confused. He still didn't seem to have registered how having his skin complexion and hair was odd. Jet had scavenged through Amethyst's room for hats and other things he could use to cover himself up, but all of them were extremely uncomfortable at this time of the year, so he had just resided to staying as a recluse in Greg's van or on the shoreline. Now that this had happened, though, he wasn't so sure…

"Hey, Johnathon?" H11 asked, shaking him slightly. "You okay there, bud?" Sadie asked, still looking like she wanted to crawl into a hole and die, throwing dirty looks at Lars every second she could. "Y-Yeah." Johnathon said, shaking his thoughts and deciding to address them later. "Yeah, yeah I'm good." His eyes lit up immediately. "We were actually wondering if we could buy something from here for breakfast."

Sadie looked like a giant weight had been lifted off of her shoulders as she gave him a broad smile. "Yes, of course. You know what, never mind, it's on the house." She said, beaming and grabbing Lars by the ear, dragging him behind the counter.

"So, what do you guys want?" Sadie asked, ignoring Lars as he muttered something under his breath. Johnathon, H11, and D13 all exchanged a look. "We…don't know?" H11 admitted. "This isn't anything like the food we had in the zoo." She said, glancing at Johnathon. Sadie narrowed her eyes. "The zoo? What are you tal-"

"Hey Lars, hey Sadie!" The trio looked up as Steven came bustling in, looking brighter than usual, which was saying something. "Did you guys see what happened to Kevin's car?" Steven asked, whistling lowly. Sadie rolled her eyes with a small smile. "Morning, Steven. And yes, we did."

Steven sat at his usual spot, looking down at the trio. "You guys didn't have anything tod o with it did you? I wouldn't tell Garnet if you did." He said, shrugging. "Well….kinda?" H11 said, shrugging. "He almost hit them with his car." Lars said bluntly, bagging Steven's usual donut and putting it in front of him. Steven's jaw dropped. "He what?!"

"We're fine." H11 said with a small shrugged. "Was kinda scary, though. Sadie helped us out." She said, smiling gratefully at the older teen. Sadie flushed, embarrassed. "Aw, shucks, I was just doing my job." She said, shrugging. "Yeah, he's apparently going to talk to Mayor Dewey about damages. I don't think he'll do anything major, though, considering that they're kids."

Steven sighed. "Well, that's relieving, I guess." He said, reaching into his pocket and paying Lars. "Oh, speaking of which, what are you guys' names, anyway?" Sadie asked curiously.

"I'm H11, and this is my brother D13." H11 said, flinging her arm around her brother and smiling up at them. "I'm Johnathon." Johnathon said, waving at her and pressing his hands to the glass of donuts, peering inside. "Well, it's nice to meet you three." Sadie said. "What do the D and the H stand for, if you don't mind me asking?" she asked, getting up and going over to the grab a paper to take their orders.

The siblings exchanged a look. "What do you mean what does it stand for?" H11 asked, confused. "Wait, so you have letters and numbers in your actual name?" Lars asked, confused. The siblings shrugged. "I suppose so?" H11 said. "That's all anyone ever called us."

Awkward silence.

"Anyway." Sadie said, forcing a smile. "Steven's been to the Big Donut for as long as I've been working here. What do you recommend?"

Everyone seemed to pounce on the topic switch as Steven picked up the nearest menu and started going throug

….

Bismuth rolled her eyes from the ship's undercarriage, grasping onto the wrench she was using to tighten a loose bolt. She was in the process of preparing the ship for the long journey to pick up another new batch of humans, so they didn't have time for any of this….nonsense.

"Buck, I don't know what Rose has been filling your little head with, but some of us actually have work to get done." B9 said, sensing her companion standing over her to try to distract her from her work.

"I know. I'm just…I/m worried about Jet." Buckstar admitted, crossing her arms and looking away, a hint of sadness in her voice. "She's been a little distant lately, and Skinny said she's concerned that whenever the humans get here we'll be too busy to spend time with her."

B9 bit her lower lip at that, grunting slightly. Unfortunately, her plan to completely ignore her small underling except for when she had been a lot easier said than done. She was just so eager to learn, and never shied away from even the dirtiest of jobs. Her ability to concentrate on one task until she figured it out was something that even she struggled to master. The gem was extremely intelligent and picked things up rather quickly. She was just inexperienced.

Frankly, B9 was a little jealous, as her underling had more skills than she had had at that age.

B9 pushed herself from under the ship and stood so that she and her commander could talk face to face. "Buck." She said, her voice rough but her gaze soft. "I won't let that happen. You know my gem's hard as a Diamond."

Buckstar's icy blue eyes lit up as she laughed. "Not for me and Jet it's not." She teased, giving her teammate a cocky sharp toothed smirk. B9 scoffed and looked away, blushing. She hadn't admitted it even to herself, but this was in fact true. She had been on her best behavior since her little missteps with the Diamonds from a young age, but Jet and B9 had, in fact, made her go soft. Honestly, B9 couldn't even determine why this had happened. Truth be told, she should have been tipped off to how odd her new commander truly was by the name alone.

Buckstar, or Buc as she preferred. What kind of name was that for an Agate? A Fire Agate, at that. In general, an Agate had the physical ability and authority to shatter pretty much whomever they chose, and B9 had heard that Fire Agates were the quickest to jump to this choice. After meeting Buck, however, the Bismuth wasn't so sure.

While the gem had rules, Buck only enforced the ones she thought had the potential of leading to a gem or human getting hurt. Punishments camein the form of stern talking tos, or light teasings. If a gem suffered for an act of stupidity, Buckstar would just shake her haead of fiery red curls and send the gem to the infirmary, eyes shining as if to say "I told you so."

"Aw, come on B9 I was only joking." Buckstar said, laughing and lightly shoving B9 as she picked up the wrench and turned to go back to her work. "It's true though." B9 muttered, hiding her face in her hands. "You two have made me go soft. IF the Diamonds find out about this, they-"

B9 fell silent as her partner took her trembling hands in hers, lowering them. "Babe. Look at me" She said, her voice soft, yet firm. B9 looked up, feeling herself calming down at the sight of her leader's natural blood red face and skin-complexion. "The Diamonds aren't going to find out. Anyway." She said, her gaze softening as she stroked B9's face. "You don't have to act like the big bad gem you front as all the time. I like you better when you're this way. Soft, easygoing. Happy. Understand?"

B9 nodded, closing her eyes and putting her hand on top of her leader's. Moments like these were few and far between for the two gems. They're two different gemstone – more importantly, they're two different rankings. A Bismuth and an Agate. That was about as ridiculous as a Ruby and a Pearl.

But…..that was how things were.

No matter how hard she had tried, the Agate's demeanor had changed her. Made her a lot more humble, tender even, despite the fact that the gem would never admit this.

"This brittle exterior you're keeping up is going to break one day, B9." The Agate said, pulling away and staring deeply into the gem's eyes. "And when it does, I hope that either Jet or myself will be there for you, because you can't keep up this facade forever." B9 nodded. "I know, Buck." She murmured.

"I know."

…

The clanging of hammer on tungsten echoed through the forge as B9 hammered away, tears streaming down her face. She shouldn't have been so hard on Jet then, and she shouldn't be hard on the young Onyx now. Like it or not, she was soft. And in her eyes, it was pathetic. Turing against the Diamonds and leaving a defenseless Pearl in her wake. Oh, nevermind the Pearl wasn't defenseless. The B9 actually owed her very life to her.

Growling, B9 hurled her hammer at the wall and fell to her knees, burying her face in her hands with a sob. After a few moments, she felt someone put a hand on her shoulder. Looking up, the Bismuth wiped her face with her hands, laughing awkwardly when it left a streak of grime and rubble in its wake. "Uh…Hi." She said, coughing the feeling of her raspy voice in her chest as she cleared her throat and coughed.

"Stress building, huh?" Bismuth said, giving the gem a small, knowing smile. B9 looked away but nodded. Another moment's silence passed before the gem gasped when she was picked up from under her arms and hoisted into the air before coming to an awkward stop atop the Bismuth's shoulders. "While I love the idea of a good ol' fashioned stress building session," she said, picking up the small object B9 had been working on and handing it to her. "It's not the most healthy. Let's go take a soak in the pool of lava in Garnet's room. That always cheers me up."

**Hey guys! Sorry this update took so long. I've been really sick, but I'm back and better than ever! I"ve actually created a blog for everything about Freshwater, Pearl, and anything about this fanfiction in general. You can find it on Tumblr titled FReshwater and Pearl Infodump Blog. I'll be posting when I've updated, as well as uploading fanart that I've drawn of not only Freshwater and Pearl, but other people that have joined in on this journey. I hope you'll join me there!**