It's brutal.
Homeworld doesn't hold back. They easily outnumber the Crystal Gems, not that it matters much. They're much more skilled, bigger, and their strategy is better.
But they don't have Rose Quartz as their leader.
Rose stays with them on the battlefield until Yellow Diamond reveal herself, shouting encouragements and healing as she goes. Pearl catches her eye and she gives her a knowing, loving smile, before she's swallowed up by the crowd and Pearl has to go back to focusing on fighting.
The battle wages on for what seems like hours, Pearl getting more and more worried as she sees less and less Crystal Gems around her and more Homeworld gems. She's tired and all she wants to do is curl up in a ball until it's all over. She's needs to be brave, for Rose.
But as she begins to pull her spear out of her gem for what must be the fiftieth time, she's knocked onto the ground with dozens of other gems by a powerful blast. Once the shock has worn off she scrambles to her feet, looking around frantically to see what it was.
A wide grin spreads across her face as she sees Rose, standing alone, sword and shield in hand with no Yellow Diamond in sight. Pearl drops her spear and runs towards her, practically leaping into her arms.
Rose hugs her tight, spinning her around. "We did it!" she cries, "She going back to Homeworld and she's never coming back. None of them are!"
But before Pearl can reply she hears a voice behind them. Rose looks up and her face darkens.
"Is something wrong, Garnet?" she asks, frowning. Garnet was Sapphire and Ruby fused together, and she had inherited Sapphire's future vision. She had gotten particularly close to Rose and Pearl over the course of the war, since Ruby and Sapphire decided they'd like to stay fused and Rose was the only one to encourage it.
"Something doesn't seem… right…" Garnet mumbles, looking up towards Yellow Diamond's ship as it begins to take off. Rose looks too, and then they both stare at each other in horror.
Before Pearl can ask what's wrong both Garnet and Rose grab her and pull her to the ground, Rose quickly covering all three of them with her shield. Another huge blast hits them, bigger than before and powerful enough to send the gems and weapons that were on the battlefield flying. It's enough to make Pearl feel like she's about to retreat into her gem.
After everything goes quiet and Yellow Diamond's ship has left, Rose slowly sits up, putting her shield down. Garnet has unfused, and Pearl stays curled up on the ground in shock, ears ringing. None of them say anything for a few minutes.
The ground is completely void of life, the blast turning it into a barren wasteland much like that of the kindergartens'. Most of gems that once littered the ground are gone, save for those that glimmer on the ground in the setting sun.
"What… was that…" Ruby asks, dumbfounded.
"I have no idea," Rose says, standing up looking dazed. She bends down to pick up a gem, her eyes becoming watery as she prepares to heal it, but no tears fall. Instead she stares at, shaking her head.
"What's wrong?" Pearl stands up and runs to her, clasping Rose's shaking hands.
"She's not cracked s-she's… Look…" Rose shows her the green gem- Aventurine, if Pearl remembers right. There's no crack, but the stone is misshapen and clearly deformed.
Rose traps the gem between her palms and forms a pink bubble around it, before it disappears in her hands. She looks around her, picking up a handful of other gems and shaking her head. "They're… corrupted. That blast corrupted them."
"Corrupted?" Pearl repeats, looking at the gems around her feet. She remember learning about corrupted gems when she was very young, but she was always told it was something rare, and that she didn't need to worry about it.
"Can't you heal them?"
Rose shakes her head sadly, "I haven't seen a corrupted gem since… since before you were born, Pearl. All I can do is bubble them for now," she explains, forming that same pink ball around the other gems she picked up, and letting it disappear.
"Where are you sending them?"
"There's a cave… it's near that beach I showed you before the war. I was planning on using it as a base if we ever ended up fighting near there, so I built a warp. But now I suppose… We'll just have to leave these here. Do you know how to bubble things? I can't imagine they'd take it off the syllabus..."
"Uh," Pearl kneels to pick up a gem, "I-I think so?" She holds it between her hands and watches as a peach-coloured bubble forms around it.
Rose lets out a sigh of relief and takes the bubble off Pearl to teleport it herself. "We'll deal with the rest later," she says, looking over towards Ruby and Sapphire and covering her face with her hands.
They're holding each other, which is nothing new, but Sapphire's crying. Pearl can hear it from here and it sends a chill down her spine. She's seen Ruby cry. She's seen Ruby do a lot of emotional things, but Sapphire never cried. When she wasn't Garnet she stayed off in the corner, hair covering her face, her voice always being steady and even.
Rose goes back over to them and Pearl follows, watching awkwardly as Rose wraps her arms around Sapphire and pats her back. "Don't cry, sweetheart," Rose says, stroking her hair, "It's not your fault at all. Even you couldn't have seen this coming."
Rose continues whispering words of comfort to Sapphire as Pearl sits down next to Ruby, pulling her knees to her chest with one hand and feeling the dusty ground with the other, sniffling dejectedly. She feels Ruby rest her own hand on hers and turns her head to look at her. They're both crying. They're all crying, and it's almost comforting, definitely more comforting than the eery silence of the former battlefield
They stay there for a long time, doing their best to comfort each other, until they decide to stand and finish bubbling the rest of the gems. It takes them all night, and they spend most of the next day finishing the job, but it's something to do. It's something to distract them from the sheer horror of their current situation, and it makes Pearl feel like she's doing something productive.
The blast sent the rest of the gems flying, and they're no where to be found. Rose says they can wait, they've done all they can for now.
She takes them to cave she was talking about, right by the sea just like she said. She says this can be their new base, as they work on finding the rest of the corrupted gems.
Time starts to go by very fast. They spend most of their time looking for the other corrupted gems, who have regenerated now, regenerated into monsters that they have to fight and keep contained. It hurts seeing gems that they fought with, their friends, be turned into such horrific, unrecognisable creatures, but it hurts more having to attack them.
Ruby and Sapphire stayed unfused for a while, and Pearl can't understand why. They used to always go on about how great fusion was, and how they never wanted to be apart, but Rose just gives them that knowing smile of hers and tells Pearl they have their reasons.
Pearl had thought that after the war, her and Rose would become closer. With no Homeworld to worry about, her and Rose would have more time to be together. But it's not like that. Rose spends most of her time by herself, kindly asking the others to give her some time to herself. Pearl understands that she needs to time to get over what happened, they all do, but without Rose she's alone. Ruby and Sapphire are too interested in each other to be good company, and any time they do talk to Pearl, she feels like they do it out of pity.
She hates watching them being so affectionate, always holding hands or snuggling up to each other, whispering things to each other and laughing. She didn't care that it was them, or that she was being left out, she just wished that was her and Rose. She couldn't wait for them to fuse again so they'd stop torturing her.
But when they do fuse, Pearl almost misses Sapphire's singing and Ruby's outbursts and their stupid laughing, because Garnet is so quiet, and it makes everything else seem so quiet and lonely. Rose still spends most of her time by herself, checking up on the bubbled gems and warping to other areas to restore plant life or talk to humans.
Pearl spends most of her time alone, walking around aimlessly, practicing her dancing and creating better holograms with her gem, or sitting on the beach, dipping her hands and feet in the ocean. The water still comforts her, especially the ocean, seeing as that's where she was made.
One night Rose joins her, sitting beside her on the sand as she gazes at the sky while the sun sets. Even though some things on Earth were dull and boring to her, she had to admit the sunset was one of the most beautiful things she'd ever seen. There was nothing like it on Homeworld.
"It's perfect, isn't it?" Rose says, gesturing towards the sky.
Pearl hums in response and says nothing more.
"Is everything alright, Pearl?" Rose asks, scooting closer to her.
"It's been lonely around here when you're gone," Pearl mumbles, "And now that Garnet's back… It just feel so quiet and dead around here."
"I know, but there's things that I have to do before I can just settle down. I promise I'll be around more sooner. Does Garnet talk to you?"
"She's hard to talk to. I do like her it's just… She's a lot like Sapphire when it comes to talking. It was a lot less quiet when they were unfused."
Rose laughs softly, "They aren't used to being fused in an everyday setting, I suppose. I don't think they fused until the war. But they are very cute together unfused, aren't they?"
Pearl nods grimly. She looks at the sea as it drifts in and out, wondering what it would be like if her and Rose fused. She'd never fused before, but she knew how to do it. She'd watched Ruby and Sapphire, and plenty of other gems do it before, and her and Rose did have a close, special connection. Would their fusion be like Garnet? Almost perfect? Maybe even better.
"Rose, um, what's it like to fuse?" she asks vaguely, trying to sound casual.
Rose seems taken aback by her question, and pauses before answering. "Ah well… did you not practice fusion before you met me? It was still part of the syllabus back then, if I remember correctly."
Pearl shakes her head, "I saw demonstrations and picked up on the dancing but I was never allowed to fuse because I was…"
Rose nods understandingly. "Well, it's hard to explain. I myself haven't done it for a very long time…" She chuckles and then trails off, "But if you want, we could try it now."
Pearl turns to stare at her, eyes wide. "Really?"
"If you want to, we can try! I'm not sure how it will turn out though," Rose says as she stands up and holds her hand out to Pearl. "Don't be too disappointed if we don't. We're both out of practice!"
Pearl takes it, unable to stop herself from smiling. She almost can't believe it's happening. She doesn't even care if it doesn't work. She manages to calm herself down enough to remember what she learned about fusion on Homeworld, standing a few feet away from Rose, facing her.
Rose starts dancing towards her with an infectious grin on her face. Pearl follows, smirking as she twirls her way towards her and lets Rose take her hand and spin her around. Rose holds her close, dipping her, then pulling her up again. Pearl feels her gem start to glow, but she can't focus on it because Rose is holding her so close and she's so soft and she can feel her breath on her face and swears it feels like heaven. Pearl stares up at her, knotting her hands in her curls before closing her eyes and pulling herself to connect her lips with Rose's.
Kissing wasn't something gems did. It was a human tradition, but gems picked up on it and started doing it themselves. Pearl didn't understand the appeal at first, especially when she saw how into it some gems got, but the more she watched the more fascinated she got. And now here she was, kissing Rose, and it feels amazing.
She isn't sure what to do, so she just presses her lips against Rose's, feeling her heart melt at how soft they are. Rose stays completely still, and when Pearl opens her eyes and pulls away she sees Rose staring down at her.
"Pearl?" she whispers.
Pearl feels her face heat up and she quickly lets go of Rose, turning away from her and hiding her face. "I'm so sorry," she mumbles, "I don't know why I did that."
"It's… okay," Rose clears her throat, "Pearl... do you love me?"
Pearl is quite for a moment, waiting for herself to calm down before she can answer. She doesn't look at Rose when she says, "Yes."
She hears Rose sigh and feels her breath against her back and swears it feels a dagger.
"Rose… do you love me?" she asks, her voice quiet. She feels like she already knows the answer, and she wishes she didn't.
"I care about you very, very much, and I do love you Pearl, but not like that. I'm so sorry…" Rose hugs her from behind, "We can still be together, just not like that. I know this is hard-"
"It's okay," Pearl says flatly, not wanting her voice to crack or waver. "I'm fine."
"Really? Because I understand if you-"
"I'm fine," Pearl repeats more firmly, shaking Rose's arms off her as she starts walking away.
Rose calls her, but she ignores her and keeps walking down the beach, until she can't see their base when she looks back. Rose didn't follow her and she's not sure if that makes her happy or sad.
She sits down on the sand and covers her face with her hands, tugging at her hair as she starts to sob. She know it isn't fair to be angry at Rose, but she can't help it. It's not fair that Rose doesn't love her back after everything she did for her, out of love. She stayed on this stupid planet, she fought in a war, all for her and she gets nothing in return. She lays down and screams into her hands, hating herself for letting it hurt this much.
She stays there crying for the whole night.