Light Plum Pearl
It is quiet.
So quiet. Pearl shivers with it. She wishes she could hear something. The silence is horrible. How long ago was it since she heard the screams, the yells, the fighting? Since it all stopped, so suddenly? She's not sure. She doesn't know why the cacophony stopped. Have the attackers been defeated? Have they fled? Or has everyone in the Temple been shattered? Is she next?
Pearl doesn't know. All she knows is this: no one has come for her. No one has told her what has happened. No one has told her to run.
The last thing anyone told her was not to leave her post, and she's too terrified to disobey.
Then, suddenly, in the silence, a new sound. Footsteps. Fast. Pearl tenses.
Around the corner comes a charging ruby, who freezes the moment she sees her.
The ruby is clutching something to her chest. Something blue. A gemstone. A sapphire? The ruby looks panicked, desperate, afraid. She's crying.
There are dozens of rubies stationed at this Temple. But why would any of them be out of formation? Why would any of them look so panicked? Why would any of them be wearing their standardised belt as a headband? Why would any of them not bear the symbol of the Diamond authority?
A traitor ruby, carrying a sapphire's stone. Pearl's heard the rumours; she knows who the two must be. The Hybrid Fusion, defused.
The ruby is looking right at her, pleading.
It's a preposterous position. It would take only moments for the ruby to burn her to a crisp and crush her form.
But with those moments, Pearl could still scream. Scream for help, sound the alarm, bring every warrior in the Temple down on the rebels' heads.
Pearl knows what she should do. What any loyal Gem should do.
But instead, she clenches her mouth shut, and closes her eyes.
"Thank you," the ruby says, voice raspy. The thunderous sound of footsteps as she retreats and escapes down the hall.
When Pearl opens her eyes again, the ruby and her sapphire are gone.