Jasper was used to lingering at the sides with a distinct sense of irrelevance as she watched her gems socializing. Other jaspers tended to be introverted as well, but they were more prone to being swept along in the effulgent passions of the citrines or the vivacity of the carnelians. Jasper couldn't afford that. So she watched as her surrender dissipated tensions with a greater sense of uselessness than usual. The pink gem dismissed her shield and threw aside the dart point, and the dark red one let Carnelian go to better support Mouse's flicking form. The purple one whose gem shared the same number of facets and orientation as the citrines dropped her rope and it dissipated, releasing her gems. The pale gem released Twig. The pink gem offered a hand to help her up, which she sneered at with all the rancor of wounded pride and disregarded as she got to her feet. Damned if she was going to accept help now.

"I'll heal your citrine and then we'll talk." The pink gem flashed her a reassuring half-smile. Jasper glowered, but otherwise did nothing to stop her.

The purple gem introduced herself as Amethyst to Carnelian and the tiny jasper, Sage. Her grin was very nearly face-splitting as she compared her height to Carnelian, who was just a little taller, and Sage, who was shorter. She turned to wave vigorously at the tall, pale stranger. "Pearl! Look! We're all about the same size!"

"That's wonderful," Pearl replied, her voice almost indulgent. Her attention returned to Twig when Amethyst's returned to her fellow runts, and she resumed a lecture on where Twig had gone wrong in their fight. Twig simply watched and nodded along with the air of long, quiet suffering that Jasper sometimes took. Jasper might almost be sympathetic, if the skinny jasper wasn't prone to doing the same damn lecturing thing to her.

Her attention turned to Mouse, held in the dark red gem's arms. The pink gem loomed over Mouse to examine her gem. Was there damage to it? In the fourteen hundred years they'd been out of the ground, none of them had managed to injure their gems. But then, none of them had been this outclassed in a fight.

"Hello, citrine. I'm Rose Quartz," the pink gem began in a gentle, delicate voice. Her fingers brushed the thick, honey-gold hair out of Mouse's face. "Can you tell me about yourself?"

Mouse's form jittered and flickered, and she looked too far gone to answer. Jasper grimaced and stepped forward to speak for her. "Her name is Mouse because she was dared to eat one and refused. It was her pet until it died. Gets into trouble gambling with the carnelians."

Rose Quartz smiled, and her thick black lashes fluttered as her eyes seemed to fill with tears on command. "She sounds wonderful." The tears fell, thick and gleaming in the too-bright sunlight, on the cracked gem in Mouse's chest. The cloudy yellow gem glinted, shimmered, and the deep fissures diminished until the gem shone like new. Mouse's form stabilized and she pulled away from the red gem as soon as she could get her bearings.

"You punched my gem!" Mouse's voice rang in the canyon, loud and indignant. "Who does that?"

The red gem simply shrugged. "Miscalculation. Sorry 'bout that."

Undeterred, Mouse took a deep breath in preparation for one of her usual diatribes and Jasper immediately ignored her. She shrugged her cloak back on and turned her attention to Rose Quartz, who stood just slightly shorter than her. Still, she came closer to Jasper's height than anyone else and that made her their leader. "Tell your gems to lay off of Mother and we'll talk."

"Of course." Rose Quartz straightened and turned towards Pearl. As if sensing a need for her presence, Pearl abandoned Twig and practically glided across the canyon floor with all the airs of one who knew exactly who and what she was. Jasper was almost envious. "Pearl, we're going to discuss this. Let's leave the corrupted gem alone for now."

Pearl's voice, when turned to Rose Quartz, was fond. Something about her softened. It took Jasper a moment to figure out what was up. Pair bonding was something more frequent among people than her gems, but it wasn't unusual. After all, Aster and Dandelion were practically wives at this point. "As you wish."

Rose Quartz's eyes glittered with something unnameable as she smiled at Pearl. She lingered long enough to blink it away before turning to Jasper. "Do you have a place where we can be alone?"

Out of the corner of her eye, Jasper could see Carnelian perk up in curiosity. She grunted and pitched her voice with that edge that got attention. "Twig!"

The skinny jasper waved; they didn't need much else to communicate, not anymore. She knew her role as Jasper's second well enough and knew that she would be expected to discourage curious gems from following her. Jasper started towards the north exit, and then she was blocked by the red gem. How she managed to get past Mouse, Jasper didn't know and didn't really care. The red gem gave a respectful nod.

"The corrupted one has a gem." There was a question there somewhere and it hung in the air, awkward and unvoiced.

Jasper's eyes narrowed at what sounded like an order. Just who did the red gem think she was? Yet, she just wanted to get this over with so she could find Mother. "It's a round gem. Pale. Like Pearl's, but sort of… sage-green. Set on top of her left hand."

The red gem turned her face to Rose Quartz. It was hard to tell what she was thinking with her eyes covered the way they were. "It's the informant. The Kindergartener."

Jasper's brow furled as she watched Rose Quartz's face fall into something that looked so old and tired, and her voice sounded almost fragile. "Oh. I'd hoped… Just maybe…" Her plump lips pressed into a thin line as the snow-white material of her dress bunched in her fists. "Thank you, Garnet. Jasper, would you lead the way?"

Jasper jerked her head towards the north entrance, and Rose Quartz followed her out. They headed east, away from the great house, and Rose Quartz easily matched her stride even as they ascended the hill that led to Jasper's favorite vantage point. Finally meeting someone who was a match for her, and better than her at fighting, was disconcerting. More disconcerting was that Rose Quartz seemed to feel no need to prove herself or rub in her victory. And the strangers seemed to know Mother. Sort of. It wasn't until Jasper reached the white dolomite butte sticking out from the sandstone like a beacon that she stopped and asked.

"How do you know Mother? What's corruption? Where did you come from? How are you that much better than us? What—"

Rose Quartz looked perplexed at first, then amused. She chuckled lightly, with a warmth that only made it harder to resent her swooping in and thoroughly trouncing Jasper the way she did. "Give me time to answer! Please."

Rather than reply immediately, Jasper folded her arms and leaned back against the butte's cliff. The elevation allowed her a view of the river valley, the cracks of the canyon she was made in, and the circular great house mounted on the hill on the other side of the valley. Climbing to the top gave her a better view, but generally she didn't feel like making the effort. When she really wanted to be alone, she would decompress out here. "I've got time."

"Did humans make that building?" Rose Quartz asked suddenly, her eyes on the great house. It was a distraction, and Jasper narrowed her eyes in disgust at how blatant it was.

She would let it pass, for now. "We did. The builders visited the southern people to learn how to make it. That has nothing to do with my questions."

The pink gem chuckled lightly. "Sorry. I want to know everything about you and your gems! But you deserve answers.

"Before you must have emerged, there was a war." Rose Quartz's dark eyes had that distant look that was common with the more pensive citrines. "The one you call Mother was one of our informants. I didn't know her well… She was shy, and I think quartzes scared her. She bonded more quickly with Garnet and Snowflake when she was around, and that wasn't very often. Pearls—that's her gem—are always complicated, and I don't think any of us knew what to do with someone with her… history. Most pearls don't… It doesn't matter. Towards the end of the war, we started suspecting that she was withholding some information from us. We never said anything, of course, because our movement was about choices and it seemed that she made hers. When H—the other faction pulled out and set off the corruption, we just thought that she'd gone with them. But this?" Rose Quartz gestured at the canyon, and at the great house on the other side of it. "We had no idea."

Jasper cocked a dark eyebrow. Rose Quartz was obviously meandering, but there was still a lot of information dropped where she paused and deviated. There were implications that Jasper would have to ponder later, or share with the thinkers in the hopes that they could decode them. "About what?"

"I knew only that she was… with a Kindergartener. Garnet might know more. They built your Kindergarten and the informant never said a thing to us about it." Rose Quartz's lips curled into a lopsided smile as her eyes returned to glance quickly at the green-brown rhombus on Jasper's uniform. "I think she would like being called your mother. It must be wonderful to be able to create new life."

"So she doesn't know?"

The smile faded and pursed into a line of bitter contemplation. "The other faction thought to defeat us with corruption. It's like… I'm not sure how to describe it. It scrambles gems and they're not themselves anymore. I don't think they remember what they're supposed to look like. Your 'Mother' should look a bit like Pearl, but… you see how she is now. We tried to heal them and nothing seems to work. It's kinder to just contain them until we can figure something out."

She didn't know a single thing about gems. Not really, and certainly nothing they were able to figure out on their own. Mostly what they learned about themselves was through accident. But she knew that Mother was harmless and preferred to keep to herself. It struck Jasper as unnecessarily cruel to attack and contain her, whatever that meant. "You're not containing Mother. She was here before us. She was here to watch us come out. She's staying the way she is."

"If that's what you want." Rose Quartz's voice was soft in its concession, but there was a hint of disapproval somewhere in there that Jasper was quick to recognize. "What of the other corrupted gems you'll come across in time? They won't all be as easy to handle as yours. They've been known to attack humans, and humans aren't as resilient as gems."

Jasper's answer was brusque; she made a mental note to consult the other gems. "We'll figure it out."

"When you do, let us know. I'd like for us to be friends." The smile returned. "May we come back? Amethyst would appreciate getting to know other quartzes like her."

"We couldn't stop you the first time." She let the implication hang in the air. Admitting to being outclassed rankled, and she wasn't prepared to extend the hand of friendship quite yet.

Rose Quartz's dark eyes twinkled in suppressed amusement; she was likely amply familiar with pride like Jasper's. "We'll know better next time. I promise. Shall we return?"

Jasper shrugged and led the way back. Once back in the canyon, Rose Quartz gathered up her gems and they disappeared in their beam of light. Jasper ignored the excited questions sent her way, let Twig shoo the curious gems away, and looked around for Mother.

By evening, Jasper found the corrupted gem cowering in the far back of Twig's hole, curled up in as tight a ball as she could manage and shaking so badly that Jasper thought she might dislodge her feathers. She rapped lightly on the rim of the hole to get the terrified gem's attention and spoke as gently as she could manage. "They're gone. You can come out now."

The pale green head lifted from where it hid under a wing to blink too-large eyes at her, and the shaking slowly abated. Jasper supposed there was a bit of a resemblance between the corrupted gem and Pearl. She pulled away to give Mother room to leave the safety of the hole, if she wanted. A few minutes later, Jasper sat with her back against the sandstone wall, waiting. No point in rushing her, after all. There was time enough to brief the other gems, and the crafters would be returning from the river soon enough to distract them anyway.

Mother came out when the sun set and settled into the space between Jasper's side and the sandstone wall. Her crest was still pressed tightly against her head, but she wasn't shaking anymore. That was something. Jasper made no move to pat her, or do anything that might be interpreted as a threat. "No one is going to hurt you. Not on my watch."

There was no vocal response. There never was. But Mother's chin settled on Jasper's knee as she relaxed, and Jasper's hand took its usual place on her back. Jasper would have to figure out what to do about the strange gems and how they fit in her world, but there was time.

.*.

The entrance to their temple was partially illuminated by the reflection of the bright mid-afternoon sun on the waves when Rose returned with her gems, and the thick snow that accumulated over the day had an almost golden glow where it was exposed to the wave-reflected sunlight. Her face nearly ached with the width of her grin, and she was sure her eyes were dancing. What a marvel it was, to find other gems who had escaped corruption! Gems who were fortunate enough to escape Homeworld's indoctrination and the standard Kindergarten programming! She had wanted to question the big jasper about everything they had experienced, but it was too soon and she certainly didn't want to overwhelm her. But they had time.

"Rose!" Amethyst's voice was a mass of excited glee and anticipation, and she hopped off the warp pad and spun on her heel in front of the temple door. Her grin was nearly as large as Rose's. "When are we going back?"

Rose couldn't help but laugh; Amethyst's unfettered enthusiasm was always a delight. In her darkest moments, when she remembered who she really was, Amethyst always managed to bolster her spirits. "Soon, hopefully!"

Amethyst's indigo eyes twinkled as she spoke, and she practically thrummed with energy. "Great! Did you see? There were so many short gems like me! And Carnelian says the tiger's eyes are all short! And they collect stuff, too!"

"That's wonderful!" A little part of Rose missed having a hoard, someplace to store her distractions, but her room couldn't contain things while also projecting whatever she wished. Maybe… "Maybe you could share something of yours with them?"

"Yeah! I'm gonna look for my favorite flat thing!" With that, Amethyst darted into her room. The door closed behind her as Pearl's hand fell on Rose's arm. She moved to lace her fingers with Pearl's, and a silence fell on the veterans as they mulled over the day's events.

Garnet spoke up minutes later, and her face was unreadable. "This changes things."

Pearl's fingers tightened against hers, and Rose patted them with her free hand. She could only imagine what might be going through her beloved's mind, and none of it was good. She glanced down with as reassuring a smile as she could manage.

"They came out after the war. They had to, or they'd be corrupted, too." Pearl glanced up, and still she was worried. "They don't know anything about the pearl who made them, but you saw how protective they are about her."

"She never said anything to us about that second Kindergarten," Pearl murmured. She looked guilty, as if corruption was her fault. She always took things personally. Rose untangled their fingers to pull her close, offering silent support should she need it. "I—I should have gotten to know her better, but there just wasn't time, and she was so much older than me and I didn't know what to do with her…"

Pearls didn't last that long, Rose recalled. Not without being deeply traumatized. None of them knew what to do about the little green pearl who talked rarely and looked like she wanted to hide half the time whenever a large gem would so much as glance at her. And she'd been through, what was it? Three or four owners? Rose could barely fathom what Pearl went through, and Pearl hadn't been… recycled like that. Perhaps it was kinder to let this one corrupted gem be with quartzes who clearly loved her enough to fight for her.

"She isn't our fault," Garnet said suddenly, with the kind of solid resolution that grounded them. Rose flashed her a quick, grateful smile as she cuddled Pearl close. Pearl only put up a token resistance, and likely as a response to her bald attempt at reassurance.

Rose followed up on the lead quickly. "The corruption was the Diamonds' fault. Everything we did was for the greater good." Pink Diamond, you desperately sad little idiot, the small speck of self-doubt that she tried to ignore whispered. Bismuth. You killed yourself and look what happened because you were just too dull to find another way. She forced herself to think of better things. "And we have new gems to get to know! Isn't that great?"

"I suppose they'll need training," Pearl said at last, dryly. She sighed in response to Rose's sudden grin. "And you'll want me to do it."

"They deserve the best," Rose admitted. Then, with a teasing gleam in her eye, she swept up Pearl and Garnet in her arms and strode over to the temple door. "But first, cuddle time!"

"Rose—!"

Garnet glanced at Pearl and made a passable effort at shrugging. "Shh, let her have this."

Pearl gave up on mock-indignity and relaxed as Rose carried them both off to her room. Anything complicated and stressful could wait. Now she just wanted to celebrate the fact that she had so many gems who survived and were uncorrupted. Gems she could guide and appreciate. Gems who adopted human ways because it was all they knew and all they needed to know, and who could direct their own futures because they didn't have Homeworld to stifle them the way it had her.

The least Rose could do was help them, come what may.