Guess who finally kicked their Writers Block! Enjoy!

"So let me get this straight, you and White Pearl aren't the same." Hessonite said, glancing around herself a the bright white bubble that enclosed them. Freshwater sighed and rolled her eyes. "For the last time, Hessonite, no. We aren't." she said. "Well, what happened to her? You two serve the same Diamond-"

"I serve all the Diamonds." Freshwater interrupted, a hint of smugnesss in her voice. "Rrriigghhtt." Hessonite said, suppressing the urge to roll her eyes. "You serve all the Diamonds. But you're nothing like any of their Pearls. Isn't that weird to you?" she asked as the bubble reopend and deposited them in Homeworld's square amongst the hustle and bustle of many a gem.

"No?" Freshwater said, looking up at Hessonite. "I was made to serve them all. They were made to serve a singular Diamond. Anyhow, I had all of my flaws perfected. Or rather, all of the things that caused my flaws taken. That isn't to say that the other Pearls are not perfect for their Diamonds, of course, but I have to fit the criteria to be good for all of them. So of course I'm different." She explained. "Now, if you're done with your little QnA, you should probably give your report." Freshwater said, making her way into the crowd and not waiting for Hessonite's response. She was glad to be back on Homeworld's grounds. While she had technically never left, the Kindergarten felt like another place entirely.

When the gem reached her place of residence, she heaved a sigh of relief, opening the door and stepping in.

"Long couple of days?"

Freshwater jumped when she heard the soft voice from the couch. "Blue. Hello." She said, closing the door behind her. The Pearl chuckled lightly. "Sorry I scared you." She said, not taking her eyes off of her small tablet. "Drawing again?" Freshwater asked, arching an eyebrow. She didn't understand how the Pearl did this whenever she had what little free time Her Diamond gave her. It just seemed so….pointless.

"Yes." The Pearl said, a soft smile etching itself into her features. "Yellow, stop falling asleep." She said, a hint of irritation in her voice as she glanced over at her Yellow counterpart who was laying on the couch in front of her. "I can't help it. You're taking forever, and have me in an extremely comfortable position." She said, opening her eyes and nodding in acknowledgement at Freshwater, who did the same.

"You took long enough." She said with a small smirk. "Sure was." Freshwater said, stretching. "Now if you'll excuse me, I have a report to write."

"Let us know if you need anything." Blue said. Her Yellow counterpoint snickered. "She won't."

Freshwater rolled her eyes but repressed a small smile as she resided to her quarters. She was still getting used to Yellow and Blue. Unlike White Pearl, the gems appeared to have some sort of connection, often talking about their missions in the open with each other. Freshwater didn't approve of this, but didn't find it too weird considering their missions often aligned with one another. Despite the fact that this friendship appeared to have been put in place long before she had joined the crew, the gems didn't shy away from trying to include the Pearl in conversation. Freshwater rarely ever went into too much detail, but part of her did appreciate the offer.

The Pearls weren't Perfect, but Freshwater hadn't expected them to be. They were made to serve one Diamond, and it was apparent that in their Diamonds eyes they were good enough to serve them. And frankly, they worked hard, even in terms of Blue's drawings. They weren't sloppily done, and the gem would often be up all night finishing them. She didn't want her Diamond to just have some garbage she had grown together in the blink of an eye. A useless actic to her, but the Pearl wasn't made for her. She was made for Blue.

Freshwater sat at her desk and pulled up her screen, pushing her thoughts way and focusing her attention on her recent mission as she began to crank out the details of her report. These never took long – after all, her memory was perfect. She remembered everything from when White first showed her to Yellow and Blue to last night in extremely vivid detail, even down to some of her most random dreams. She spent a lot more time double and triple checking her work and tweaking it to perfection than she did actually remembering the days events.

An hour later, Freshwater's eyes were drooping closed slowly, and the gem groaned, pushing herself away from her desk and standing. Sleeping was such a waste of time, but she found she needed it. Rare was the chance that White allowed her to rest, as she was always on the go. Sometimes Blue and Yellow Diamond had her complete tasks, of course, but those tasks were a lot easier to complete, but still gave her great satisfaction. Cleaning the extraction chambers, dusting the court's chairs, sitting in on a small trial or two. White's missions, though, were usually time consuming, and were jobs that she would sometimes think of as being better fit for a Quartz or Amethyst guard. She never questioned this, though. Orders were orders, and they had to be completed.

Freshwater walked around for a while before sitting back at her desk. The last place she had lef off, she was explaining was the sleeping arrangements of the Off-Colors. The next thing that had happened was – The gem's blood ran cold as her fingers hovered over the screen. Oh yeah. The visions.

Did White and the others even need to know about those? They didn't seem to have anything to do with her mission – collect the Off-Colors and bring them back. She had further explored the Kindergarten and had learned more information than she needed to know. Those images and visions had nothing to do with the Off-Colors, so why waist White's precious time with tellingng her about them?

Shaking her head, Freshwater decided to only state that she had bubbled a handful of shattered gems. She didn't mentioned what type, as they only really mattered to her, not to White. She also figured White already knew about them. After all, they had been on Homeworld and it wasn't like tons of gems being shattered on the Home planet would go unnoticed or undocumented. She then closed her report off by telling the Diamonds about their success in bringing the Off-Colors to Homeworld's surface before submitting her report and collapsing on the bed, exhausted.

For what felt like an eternity, Freshwater stared up at the ceiling, tossing and turning as she waited for sleep to overcome her. What was going on? The gem could usually easily sleep into sleep cycles, and her body was begging her to. Her mind, however, was completely awake, and only had one thing running through it – the visions in the Kindergarten.

Try as she might, Freshwater couldn't stop thinking about it. Images of the Agate poofing pearl after pearl after pearl flashed across her mind. They were all deemed imperfect for one reason or another, and thus went unused. That, however, didn't explain why she didn't receive the same treatment. As White had said, she had had her flaws fixed, whatever that meant.

Why hadn't the other Pearls received the same treatment? Why had White decided to spare her from whatever fate the pearls had suffered? What had triggered whatever vision she had seen in the Kindergarten? What made her stand out?

What was White hiding from he-

"Did you finish your report?"

Freshwater sat bolt upright in bed, clutching her fast beating heart. Looking to the doorway, she stiffened slightly. "Yes, White. I did. I just sent the information in to your Diamond." She said, leaning over and flicking on the lamp. White Pearl always creeped her out, even if she was just standing there.

"That's good." The Pearl said, her ever present smile not faltering from her face. Freshwater nodded awkwardly and stood. "I assume White Diamond sent you to get me?" she said, climbing out of her bed. "No. White Diamond has requested the bubbles from the Kindergarten."

Freshwater frowned. "You mean the Off-Colors? Hessonite has th-"

"No." the Pearl said flatly, making Freshwater jump flinch slightly. "The other Pearls. From deeper inside the Kidnergarten. The ones you mentioned in your report?" the Pearl said, a hint of White's irritation present in her voice. Freshwater looked even more confused. "But…I bubbled them. I assumed they went to White?" she said, confused.

After a beat of uncomfortable silence, White Pearl frowned. "White Diamond has requested your presence." She finally said flatly. "She requests you get a good night's sleep so you can be on the top of your game tomorrow." She finally said beore drifting out of the room.

….

"And they just…appeared in your room?" Amethyst said, dumbfounded. The pale gem nodded curtly, tension still etched in her face. Though she and the shorter gem were on speaking terms, Amethyst's comments about Freshwater still rang in her head.

"They actually appeared while I was sharpening my swords." She explained, handing one of the many bubbled gems to Garnet. The fusion hesitated but took it, holding it up to her face. "Gem shards." She muttered. "The bubbles don't look very strong." Amethyst pointed out, lightly poking the bubble and yelping when it popped. Almost instinctively, the fusion rebubbled the shards and let them float upward to join the other bubbles in the heart of the temple.

"We also don't shatter gems, so it couldn't have been any of us." Pearl pointed out as well, pursing her lips as she crossed her arms in front of her chest. Their leader remained silent, stroking her chin. "Yeah yeah all of that is weird, but why did the bubble show up in your room?" Amethyst asked, arching an eyebrow.

"I'm not su-" the pale gem's statement was cut short by a small 'pop' next to her ear, all eyes turning to see a small bubble floating right above her head. Inside were more gem shards of different colors. "I don't think it's your room." Garnet said, glancing from the bubbled gem above Pearl's head to the ones on the floor.

"You don't think this has something to do with…" Pearl asked, her voice trailing off as she hesitantly took the bubble in her hands.

"It doesn't matter." Garnet said flatly, unbubbling one of the gemstones and rebubbling it in her own more secure one. "For now, let's just put these in a safer bubble and leave them here." Amethyst nodded in agreement before stooping next to Pearl and begging the long process of unbubbling each of the many gems at Pearl's feet.

Pearl stared down at the bubble in her own hands, a dull ache in her heart. She understood that her teammates were upset with Freshwater, but she couldn't find herself harboring the same emotions. Of course she was hurt, but she was also worried. Even if the bubbled gems weren't from Freshwater, it meant something awful had happened and left many gems shattered.

"So….we're just going to leave them here?" Pearl said, looking up at the fusion, who stiffened. "Yes." Garnet said, taking the bubble from Pearl's hands. "We have enough going on on Earth to be worried about whatever is going on on Homeworld."

"But what about –"

"She made her choice to stay on Homeworld." Amethyst snapped, anger temporarily getting the best of her. "I understand that everyone makes mistakes, but that gem almost cost us our lives. Almost cost Steven his life. She almost single handedly took away the only family I've ever h-"

"Garnet put a hand on Amethyst's shoulder and the purple gem immediately fell silent, glaring at the ground. After a tense moment, the fusion finally opened her mouth to speak, but before she could do so, the Temple Door flew open and Steven ran inside, holding something in his hands as tears streamed down his face.

A chorus of "Steven!"s echoed around the room and Garnet quickly rushed forward and picked him up, Amethyst at his side. Pearl hurriedly rebubbled the gems that were left before turning around and going to check as well.

Garnet and Amethyst were trying to comfort the boy, but it was proving extremely difficult as he just held the bubbled gem and tried to explain what had happened. Even if he had managed to make any amount of sense, it wouldn't have mattered as the gems were oo fixated on the bubbled Bismuth in his hands.

…

B9 groaned and pushed herself to a sitting position, blinking to try to get her eyes to adjust, a task that proved rather difficult due when the bright rays of the sun kept bouncing off of the rocks of the Beta Kin-. The Bismuth stopped dead in her tracks and put a hand to her head. "What was she doing in the Beta Kindergarten? The last thing she remembered before blacking out was her fight with –

The gem growled under her breath, startling herself as the sound almost sounded animalistic. Bismuth. That good for nothing gem had turned on her! Had listened to her story, the pain and heartache shattering brought – and she had the nerve to show her the Breaking Point?! Pushing herself to her feet, the gem forced herself to walk, feeling awkward and dizzy on her feet. "What is wrong with me?" the gem thought aloud, returning her hand to the side of her head and rubbing it gingerly, trying to ignore the way her speech slurred and how her tongue felt too big for her mouth. The gem couldn't quite describe it, but she just felt….off. Her memory was splotchy, and she couldn't even remember why she had come out here. Maybe she could at least find a warp pad? Get back to the barn and let Jet know what had happened? The two of them weren't on the friendliest of terms, but she didn't want her to trust those….those….

"Crystal gems." B9 said, her voice a low growl. Diamonds, was her throat dry. She noted, her tongue darting around the inside of her mouth and running over canine like sharp teeth. Continuing her journey, the gem came to a halt in front of a gem injector that had been cast aside, leaving a gaping hole down below. Curiously, the gem took a few steps forward, an extremely strong aroma wafting into her nostrils.

Someone had been here. Recently.

B9 blinked at the thought. She wasn't sure how the smell alone had told her this, but she knew. Noting this, the gem put her hand to her chest to pull out her weapon, but nothing happened. Cursing the Bismuth that had done this, she cautiously made her way down the steep slope, enjoying the way the feeling of being down below in the darkness instead of above where the burning Beta Kindergarten made her feel like she was melting.

As the gem continued her descent, she began to feel a warm feeling in her chest. She knew this place from somewhere, but couldn't place it. Well, if she couldn't remember it, why was it important?

This thought made the gem stop again. Looking over her shoulder, she contemplated going back up to the surface but quickly changed her mind when she remembered the scorching heat. She'd just poke around for a moment and then head back up.

When she finally reached the bottom of the slope, B9 shielded her eyes as the area around her lit up, bathing the area in a dim green light, and was an extremely….underwhelming experience. "Canisters?" the gem murmured to herself, putting her hand on one of the many grey things that appeared to have been attached to the wall.

Maybe she should open i-

B9 froze. There it was again. That weird smell.

Backing away from the canister, B9 peered at the injector slope. After a moment, the gem started to hear the sound of slow, yet heavy footsteps coming downwards. B9 swore under her breath and started to look from somewhere to hide, accidentally knocking over a canister behind her. The canister! Yes, she could hide in there!

B9 turned to quickly take refuse in the place, but froze when she saw the two brightly colored orange gem shards topple over and onto the ground, her breath catching in her chest. "That's why I remember this place." She whispered, feeling the memories rush back and flash before her eyes.

(Flashback)

B9 stared down at the bubbled gem shards, trying to force herself to send them away to the Cluster. She couldn't do this. Not to Buckstar. To any other rebel, sure. She'd done it time and time again, telling herself that these were no longer gems, that the diamonds had long since one away with them. But this? This was different. She had known this gem. She'd felt something for this gem that she had never felt before.

Buckstar was an idiot, a traitor, a rebel. B9 claimed to hate her, cursed her name to everyone who would listen. But she just couldn't bring herself to do it. She'd rather have her leader broken into a million pieces rather than have her continue to suffer like this – tied to a million other poor souls. This was why she never liked poofing gems. Every gem she ever bubbled was sent to that cursed place. It was the only reason she needed to bubble gems, so the Diamonds didn't see an issue with this.

But with Buckstar? She just couldn't do it.

Sighing, the gem unbubbled the shards and held them to her chest, tears rolling down her cheeks as she sunk to her knees in the room she was currently standing in. When she had composed herself, she glanced over at an empty container and narrowed her eyes as she put the broken shards inside securely and turned to her computer to give her report, her heart thudding in her chest as she prepared to lie through her teeth.

(End Flashback)

"The latest gem has been put into the cluster." B9 muttered, picking up the gem shards. "You will also be pleased to hear, My Diamond, that your mission is complete. The Cluster has all of its necessary gems and will be ready to explode in a few millennia. No further gems are necessary for this project, and any other gems added will only weaken the hold. I look forward to my next mission. B9 over and out." She remembered the report well. It had been the only time she had lied in a report, and she could still taste the guilt. Nothing had been true in that report. The Cluster was nowhere close to being ready, so when it finally did implode it probably wouldn't even take out the Earth. It probably wouldn't even look like a force not to be reckoned with.

Staring down at the gem shards, B9 felt a single tear roll down her face. At least she had done something less than morally grey in her life. The gem chuckled at the thought and raised the shattered gemstone to her gem to put it away, not wanting anything bad to happen to them. Frowning, the gem poked at her gemstone her eyes narrowing in confusion when it didn't light up.

"Corrupted gems can't use their gemstones."

B9 jumped and whirled around, clutching the shattered gem to her chest as she stared up at the gem standing at the bottom of the slope. As she took a step into the dimly lit area, B9 instinctively took a step back, feeling a low growl rumble in her throat. This was the gem she had been smelling earlier. She knew it, and for some reason it made her skin crawl.

The built gem barked a laugh as they stepped into the light, pushing their white mane out of their face. "You think I'm scared of you, runt? You're too far gone to scare me." B9 stayed silent, lookin the gem up and down. She was considerably bigger than B9 and had bright orange skin with amber eyes, a bright orange gemstone on her nose.

"I don't want any trouble." B9 said, stepping to the right and feeling her heart skip a beat when the gem stepped in front of her path. "Good choice." She said, rushing the gem and grabbing her by the scruff of the neck, holding her high above her with a malicious grin.

B9 gasped as she instinctively dropped the gem shards and grabbed the bigger gem's arm, trying to slap it away. "Let go!" she snarled, kicking the gem swiftly in the chest. The gem holding her looked down at the gem shards and back up at B9. "You're really protecting these?" she said, her shit-eating grin not leaving her face. "Kid. Let me level with you for a second." She said, bringing her fist close to her face so she could look the gem in the eye. "Whoever you're trying to protect." She said, her foot raising above the pile. "Is gone. That's what shattering is. You Crystal Chumps should know that." She said, fire in her eyes.

"Stop!" B9 snapped, terror immediately replacing her anger as the gem's foot started to come down on the gem shards. "Th-That's all I have left of her!" she pleaded, squirming. "B-Besides I'm not a Crystal Gem. I…I don't have the star."

"Just because you don't have the star doesn't mean you aren't a crystal Gem." The gem snarled. "Traitors exist everywhere in the Authority. And at least you still have shards. The Auhority didn't even get that thanks to you losers." She snarled, tossing B9 like a ragdoll and watching as she crashed into a wall of containers, her vision going black for a moment.

"Like I said, you're too far gone." B9 groaned and picked her head up, feeling her head swim again as her form distorted. Bringing a hand to her gem, she raised an eyebrown when she realized it was still fully intact. "Your gem is fine. You're corrupted, idiot. Pretty soon you'll join my army." B9 raised her eyes to argue, but immediately fell silent when she saw Jasper holding the gem shards in a clenched fist. "And you call yourself a Bismuth. Man, you're clearly the runt of the litter then."

B9 growled again and picked herself up, feeling hot anger start to coarse through her, making her vision blur momentarily. "This planet ruins everything. I've seen so many gems like you. Attatched to one another, and as soon as they lose whoever they care about," the gem glared as she closed her fist and a soft crunching sound was heard.

"They snap." She said, opening her hands and watching as what was left of the gem shards fell o the ground, now just a mound of dust.

For a moment, all was deathly quiet as B9 stared in shock, feeling the hot anger start to bubble up inside her and start to boil over. She couldn't do this. She didn't even have a weapon. She should jus turn back while she had her life and make a run for i-

"Gem probably wasn't much of anythi8ng either. Not even good enough for the Authority."

B9 launched herself at the gem, a beast-like roar ripping through her body as she felt herself slip into a blind rage, the blood rushing to her head as she blacked out in a rage.

…...

"And she was planning on using it on a gem?!" Pearl exclaimed, bewildered. "Dude, that's like the number one rule of the Crystal Gems. No shattering." Amethyst said, equally shocked. Steven nodded, wiping the tears from his face as he sat in the fusion's lap.

"I think the corruption kind of threw her off before she could do anything about it." He said, shoving his hands into his pockets. "That's…bittersweet." Peridot said from her spot on her hovering trash can. "At least she got away?" she said, glancing up at Jet, who just looked confused.

"What's corruption?" the Onyx gem asked.

The Crystal Gems exchanged a look before Pearl cleared her throat and spoke. "Well…truthfully we don't have a cler understanding of how it works." The gem admitted. "All we know is that long ago, this planet was attacked by all three of the Diamonds, and anyone who was unfortunate enough to be in the fire was turned into some type of monster and left to roam earth. That's one of the reason we formed the Crystal Gems – to seek out Gems who had been hit by the blast and bubble them until we find a way to heal them."

"That is if they can be healed." Amethyst added, ignoring the disapproving daggers Pearl was shooting at her.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, you are not poofing my teammate." Jet said, narrowing her eyes at Pearl, who snorted. "Oh, don't pretend the two of you weren't contemplating doing worse to Fresh-"

"Enough." Garnet snapped, effectively cutting the argument short before it even began. The fusion was suddenly painfully aware of one of the advantages to having a small crew – relationship difficulty. As much as their additions to the crew were welcomed, trying to keep gems from butting heads every day was growing tedious. With the rising tension between Amethyst and Pearl, and B9 and Jet, her Ruby was rearing it's head more often than not.

"So let me get this straight. You unbubbled a Bismuth gem." Lapis said in a deadpan voice, her mind automatically flashing back to her being trapped in the mirror. "Well, in Steven's defense it may not have been the same Bismuth." Peridot put in, trying to ease the tension as well.

"Somehow I doubt that. This Bismuth sounds pretty ruthless, as was the one who put me in the mirror."

"She's not ruthless." Steven said sheepishly. "Just-"

"Steven, she attacked you and tried to shatter a gem. All in the same day." Lapis pointed out. "She was also going to shatter a Diamond, which would be half of the Authority gone." Jet said, her face turning cold. "Diamonds name, Crystal Gems, are you looking for another war? The blood of one Diamonds on your hand not good e-"

"Enough!" Garnet snapped, slamming her fist on the table and making Steven jump. "Sorry Steven." She muttered before growing angry again. "We don't have time to sit around and bicker. Gems." She said, turning to Amethyst and Pearl, who had turned away from the group and had a hand clamped over her mouth.

"Let's go take care of this corrupted gem."

"I'm coming too." Jet said, standing. Garnet opened her mouth to argue, but Steven put a hand on her leg. "Maybe she can talk to her? The last time I saw her she wasn't all the way gone yet." He said, flashing his puppy dog eyes at the fusion, who glared at the ground before looking up at Jet. "Fine. But I can't promise it'll work." She said, heading to the warp pad. "Alright. Pearl, Amethyst, Steven, and Jet – "

"Whoa, hold on a sec you can't expect to split up the barn mates, right Lapis?" Peridot said, floating over to the Warp Pad. Lapis nodded and walked over to Jet, putting a hand on her shoulder. "Agreed. And I honestly don't' trust you guys alone with all this pent up tension. I'll fly Jet over to the Kindergarten and we'll meet you there." She said, not waiting for the fusion's okay as she picked Jet up and ran out the door, launching herself into the air.

"Hey, at least there's safety in numbers?" Peridot said with an awkward shrug, flashing Steven an equally awkward smile that dropped as soon as she saw the fusion's irritated face. "Uh, anyway, to the Beta Kindergarten!" Steven said, returning Peridot's awkward smile as they warped out.

…...

Jasper watched as the canine-like creature paced back and forth in their cage, whistling lowly. "Not going to lie kid, you've got more fight in you than I thought." She said, smiling as the beast hurled themselves at the cage bars with a thunderous roar. About as tall as Jasper, the being was enough to make even the fusion think twice about messing with her and her army. "Yeah you're definitely my new favorite. I may need to train you a bit, but after that, we'll be unstoppable." She said with a grin, stepping back to admire her handiwork. It had taken a while and had been a long and grueling process, but she had done it.

She'd made an army.