Violet Pearl

Pearl had thought that being a runaway— an outcast, an outlaw, a rebel— would be exciting. A life filled with danger, Quartz soldiers waiting behind every corner, the threat of being shattered constantly hanging over her head.

Mostly, though, it was just boring.

Oh, the initial escape had been exciting, certainly. Also terrifying and painful. Pearl had been thankful when it was finally over, and she'd found safety at last.

She'd been thankful at first. Now, after eight Cycles stuck in a cramped, hidden room, she wouldn't mind a little bit of terror, just to break up the monotony.

"This is only temporary," the Ruby who'd brought her to this place had said. "We're gonna move you somewhere bigger, with other fugitives, as soon as we can."

Some time later— Pearl hadn't known how long, since there weren't any clocks or computers with which to judge time in the room— the Ruby had returned again, with the same promise. She'd also come with a broken old computer terminal. "Can you try fixing it?"

Pearl hadn't known the first thing about computers, and she certainly hadn't been built for fixing them, but it was something to do, so she'd done her best.

Stubborn determination (and sheer boredom) had won out over skill, because Pearl had managed to get the terminal working by the time someone else had visited her. Not the Ruby again— that time it had been a Pink Tourmaline.

Pearl had not been expecting the Ruby. So when a stranger had appeared in the doorway— huge and hulking— she'd been certain she'd been discovered. Preparing to make a run for it, Pearl had thrown a punch.

The Tourlamine had managed to raise up her hands in a hasty salute, giving Pearl just enough time to hold back her punch. Not that it would have done much damage, anyway; Pink Tourlamine had just laughed at her attempt of self-defence. The laughter had gave way to a low whistle of approval when she'd seen the now-functional terminal. "You actually got that piece of shale working?"

"Yes," Pearl had said. "Are you getting me out of here?"

"Eventually. Too dangerous, right now."

"It'll always be too dangerous."

"True," Tourmaline had admitted, but she hadn't budged. No escape, not yet.

Pearl could have screamed with frustration. She hated the waiting. She'd always hated the waiting. The standing around, the doing nothing. Her impatience was what had got her Master to turn on her in the first place.

Even though an escape remained too dangerous, the Tourmaline and the Ruby continued to visit Pearl regularly, providing her welcome breaks from the monotony of hiding. Always she brought something with Pearl to fiddle with. Twisted circuitry, fried comm links, ancient datachips, dented flask robonoids. Pearl experimented, and prodded, and did her best to get them into some kind of working order. Tourmaline would take them away on her next visit, to go and find a use for them.

After a good thirty Cycles Pink Tourmaline appeared again, dumping a whole bundle of green things on the floor. Pearl poked at them. The pile shifted, as she recognised them as a set of limb enhancers. She picked up one of the pieces— a forearm, by the looks of it. "These busted too?"

"Nope. Fully functional. Fresh off the assembly line."

"Then why've you given them to me?"

"They're your ticket out of here. Put these things on, with a robe and a hood— well, you sure won't look like a pearl anymore. 'Course, only if you can learn to walk in them."

Pearl scowled at the Tourmaline, then stared critically at the limb she was holding. She shoved her arm right into the hole at one end and—

— vision, hearing, feeling, all of it was lost, and new senses screamed in, raw electricity and data and code and—

"Pearl! Pearl!" something was shouting. Something was shaking her. Pearl blinked, and realised both those things were Pink Tourmaline. "You still in there?"

There were still a million new things pouring into her mind, but Pearl was catching up with them, and coming back to herself. "Y— yeah. Woah."

She could… she could see things. No, not see, this wasn't sight… but she could feel it, an entire database of information, records and reports and predictions and projections and time-tables and a million other things, if only she could sort through it all, if only she could find a way to access it….

Tourmaline was staring at her in open distress. "You're fried! Cracked! No way this'll work…"

Pearl focused, and tried to lift her arm. It didn't work at first— it was far longer and heavier than she was used to— but after a few attempts, she finally managed to raise it up above her head. Then she cast a look to the floor, and focused on a few small green sticks laying in the pile. She sorted through the data streaming through her find, and found the sets that corresponded to these particular items. She twitched the data. One of the touch stumps twitched too.

Delicately, she tweaked at the numbers. Slowly at first, then faster, the tump stumps rose into the air.

Tourmaline was still ranting, worrying, panicking. Pearl ignored her. She was too busy focusing on the touch stumps. Pearl considered them, and made them turn in a lazy circle. Then she picked one, and with a flick of her mind, sent it off to bump Tourmaline in the head.

Tourmaline made to bat it away irritably, then froze. Pearl smiled with immense satisfaction.

"I think this'll work just fine," said Pearl.

oOoOo

Author's Note: look i kinda hope that Peri gets her limb enhancers back someday they're really cool