Fade Out
Chapter Eight
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Apologies for the long wait on this chapter, I'm working hard to get caught up on all my multiple chapter fics but with two international trips coming up and more jobs on offer I'm very busy so updates are a touch sporadic. Please keep the reviews coming, they generally grab that last little bit of motivation in me to update when I have free time. Doesn't even have to be a good review, I can spite write!
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Courage had worked most of her lifespan trying to get to the level where she could meet the pearls.
Once she was finally there, she wanted to be anywhere else.
From below, they had looked perfect, stunningly beautiful and pristine surrounded by the dust and decay of the outside. When Pyrite took them out of the vault to display them to Courage, she towered over them and noted with dismay that although they were no less beautiful, they had been damaged.
"Quite a sight, aren't they?" Pyrite leered, slapping Courage's bicep amiably. "Pick whichever one you want, you have a whole cycle."
How could she pick one? The little purple one was trembling, half-hiding behind the blue one. The pink one's eyes darted around the room, not settling on anything for more than a parsec. The black and white ones had one arm around the other's waist, staring down at the floor. And the blue one...
The blue one was staring directly at Courage with clear disgust. Small and brittle as she was, and vulnerable half-dressed and locked away as she was presented, she had a formidable dignity. She was the only pearl who didn't seem afraid.
"That one, please," Courage asked meekly, pointing to the blue pearl. She didn't miss that barely-there sigh of relief from the others.
"Good choice, that one's my favourite too," Pyrite cackled, grabbing the blue pearl's arm and dragging her into a room across from the vault.
Courage followed them into the small chamber. It was barely a room, not much more than a cell. The only furnishings were a wide, decrepit rest pod and an old isotope lamp. Courage gulped looking at the rest pod; it was clear why it was the only piece of furniture.
"Have fun," Pyrite shot off carelessly, closing over the door and locking it.
The blue pearl sat gingerly on the edge of the rest pod. Courage lingered near the door, uncomfortable and edgy. The pearl wouldn't even look at her as she reached for the knot holding her skirt together.
"N-no, you don't have to," Courage stammered, flinching back as the pearl shot her a hard look.
"Where do you want me, then?" the pearl asked. Her tone could have cut glass.
"Nowhere," Courage replied, shaking her head. "I don't know...I'm sorry..."
The pearl's expression softened, just a little, and she tilted her head quizzically.
"Why did you ask for me then?"
"I don't really know," Courage sighed. "I thought...I thought it would be different..."
"Different?"
"I just wanted to talk to you for a little while. I didn't want anything else."
The pearl's body relaxed, she exhaled heavily. She crossed her legs, beckoned for Courage to sit with her on the pod. Courage sat down as carefully as she could manage, never feeling so large and clumsy as in the company of a creature so petite and graceful.
"Nobody comes up here to talk to us," the pearl told her, sternly but not unkindly. "Pyrite doesn't keep us around for our conversational skills. What did you think was going to happen?"
"I didn't think," Courage answered. "I just...did. For long enough that I was allowed up here."
"She trusts you," the pearl said, eyes narrowed. "You're loyal. Or she wouldn't let you up here."
"I didn't set out to please her," said Courage. "It just happened that way."
"How old are you?"
"270 orbits."
The pearl sighed, looked away. Courage knew she was probably the youngest general Pyrite had ever brought up to the pearl vault.
"Let me advise you then; don't let on that you didn't use me the way she expected you to," the pearl told her. "If she finds out you came up here just to talk, she'll have you shattered. If she brings you up here again, choose one of the others. She doesn't like it when the generals play favourites."
"I'm sorry," Courage said helplessly, clenching her giant hands. "I'm so sorry."
"Not your doing," the pearl said flippantly, tossing her long curls over one shoulder. "But it would be best for both of us to pretend you're just like them."
They talked through to the dawn of the next cycle, and Courage just about got a name out of her towards the end; Treasure. When they heard Pyrite's footsteps approaching the vault, Treasure retied her flimsy bodice and skirt to make herself look used; Courage's stomach dropped watching her do this with weary practiced ease.
The next time she was brought to the vault, she picked Mercy, and spent most of that cycle trying to get her to stop rocking on the spot. When she picked Sweetness, she couldn't get a single word out of her. Light was just as mute, except sometimes Light nodded or shook her head to questions. She had more success with Gift, who was happy to talk but only about nonsense subjects. After every session the pearls readjusted their clothes to make it look as though Courage had taken full advantage.
She started bringing things with her to the vault, objects from her collection. Gift and Mercy were the most taken with these little trinkets, and the stories Courage had to go with them. They got a smile at most out of Sweetness and Light, which was a triumph in itself. Treasure mostly ignored them in favour of serious conversation; what general had been shattered recently, water cells drying up in the east, bits of talk overheard in the vault and on the road.
Courage entertained the idea of breaking them out. They were starting to react to her presence with palpable relief, and that wouldn't go unnoticed by Pyrite for long. She and Treasure talked about hypothetical plans, what they would do, where they would go, who they could trust, all the while thinking it was a pipe dream, that it would never happen.
Then Courage arrived at the vault for her regular session and found that Treasure wasn't there.
"She's regenerating," Gift told her in the safety of the locked room. "Sneaks was too rough."
That was the last straw.
…..
The Crystal Gems were doing their whole 'talk-quietly-in-the-corner-to-spare-Steven's-feelings bit, while the pearls huddled in the shadow of what was left of the rig, hands fluttering at breakneck speed.
It didn't annoy him this time; something in the air had changed. The pearls seemed hopeful and not just desperate. Pearl had accepted Amethyst's apology with good grace and they were actually smiling. And Courage, whose face had been fixed statue-like in an expression of stoicism, was sitting on a rock looking at her hands, gentle puzzlement etched across her features.
Suddenly, the pearls all got up in one fluid movement, like they were all one entity, and marched over to the Crystal Gems.
"We want to try fusing," Treasure said. It came out almost as a command, and the other pearls nodded.
"Are you sure?" Pearl asked them, frowning, scratching at the centre of her gem.
"Very sure," Treasure answered. "We didn't think pearls could fuse. Now that we know you can, there's no reason why we shouldn't be able."
"There is one reason," said Pearl. Her eyes darted nervously to Garnet, Amethyst and back. "I've been fusing for a long time and I'm used to it, but my spike was removed. If you try to fuse with it in, I'm not sure what'll happen..."
Spike?
"Spike?" Amethyst echoed Steven's thoughts.
"Our spikes were removed too," Gift piped up.
"Pyrite needed the extra charge from them so she had them taken out," Treasure explained.
"Oh," Pearl said. She looked oddly relieved. "Well then, there's probably nothing stopping you..."
"You can't just fuse with anyone," Garnet told them. "You need to have a close connection with the other gem, otherwise your fusion will be unstable. It could slow us down..."
"We volunteer!" Sweetness and Light said suddenly, each raising the arm that wasn't wrapped around the others' waist.
"...oh, right then. Well, to start, you get into position..."
Garnet took them through the fusing process in painfully thorough detail, but all it really took was two spins and the pearls vanished into each other, leaving a new gem in their place.
She...didn't look all that different really. Her skin was mottled with swirls of Light's white palette seeping into Sweetness' rich dark tone, her hair was burnished to pale pink with darkened tips. She had four eyes and four arms. Other than that, she wasn't much bigger than either of her unfused entities. If it hadn't been for the extra parts, she would have looked like just a normal pearl.
She was grinning, a touch madly. She wrapped all four of her arms around herself and closed her eyes.
"What's it like?" Mercy asked meekly from behind Treasure.
"Warm," the new fused pearl sighed. "We like it."
A crackling noise in the distance brought them all back to high alert.
"They're catching up again," Courage said. "We can't waste any more time, we have to get moving."
The pearls scrambled into the rig, the fusion pearl curled up on the far side giggling softly to herself.
"We're not far away now," Treasure said, beaming the map onto the roof of the rig. "If we can make it past the next outcropping we'll be safe..."
The rig shuddered; the ground underneath them was rough and getting rougher. Steven's teeth rattled so hard his jaw hurt. He peered back at the advancing troops. There were definitely fewer of them now, only a handful had squeezed past the rocks Opal had torn down.
The engine of the rig smelled of burning sulphur. They had stopped to let it cool, but not for long enough. The gears screamed and roared with every push over the harsh terrain. The only thing that quelled the rising panic in Steven was to think that the gems chasing them had vehicles that were under just as much strain.
The rig jumped a gorge and crashed onto the ground, so hard they all rammed their heads off of the roof. Courage gripped the wheel so hard Steven could see the metal buckling.
"She's burning too much fuel," Treasure said suddenly. Steven thought she was talking about Courage, but she was looking back at Pyrite.
Looking back himself was a mistake. Pyrite's vehicle was shrouded in smoke and flame, like something straight from hell. Her teeth were clenched in an unholy grimace. He knew, just looking at her, that it was no longer a recovery mission. Pyrite wanted them all dead.
A cable and hook clattered against the side of the rig, cutting through the door and pulling it off its hinges. The pearls crammed over to one side away from the gaping hole torn into the rig, but it was no good. When the second hook lurched towards the rig, it pierced Treasure's calf and ripped her clean out of the rig into the sand.
They had no time to stop, no time to go back for her, no time to do anything but watch in mute horror as Treasure sprawled in the sand, covering her head against the oncoming truck.
It all happened in a matter of seconds; Courage let go of the wheel, threw herself out of the rig, galloped the few yards across to Treasure and scooped her up in one arm.
It was no dance. Not even close.
But all the same, their forms melted into each other, burst into waves of colour and texture and reformed, larger and stronger and more graceful than ever. The newly-formed fusion raised its fist and brought it down full force on Pyrite's rig. The resulting explosion was so fierce Steven could feel the heat of it from the rig.
When the smoke cleared, and as Garnet managed to bring the suffering rig to a stop, Pyrite's forces watched the fusion drop the Everlast's gem onto the ground and grind it into nothing under her feet.