CHAPTER 33: AN OLD FRIEND
"Pearl, we have to go…" Ruby said as she took hold of Sapphire's hand, both of them smiling to each other as they twirled around for some moments before being engulfed in a bright light and becoming Garnet.
"Come on…" Garnet said placing her hand on Pearl's shoulder, each of the gems passing through the dungeon's door.
"Garnet… are they going to be okay?" Steven asked as he watched Lapis and Black rushing through a corridor and disappearing behind its corner.
"Lapis knows what she's doing, and Black is a powerful warrior, Yellow Diamond's guards have no chance against them…" Garnet reassured placing her hand on the young boy's shoulder.
"Right now, we have to come up with a plan…" Garnet said gesturing to the remaining gems to gather around her.
"What kind of plan could save us from this situation?!" Peridot hissed in a low voice, despite that, it was quite clear that she was panicking.
"Now let's all calm down, Yellow Diamond's guards still haven't noticed we have escaped, so, for now, we're safe…" Garnet said calmly, it was impressive how she managed to remain calm during this kind of situations.
"G, I know you're trying to reassure us, but we are in a Diamond's palace, surrounded by thousands of thousands of Homeworld's gems, we don't stand a chance against them!" Amethyst said as Garnet lowered her head.
"You're right…" Garnet whispered gritting her teeth.
"We don't need to fight." Jet said as everyone looked at her.
"What do you mean?" Pearl asked.
"If we put up a fight, we would never win, they are too many so our only chance is to find a ship that can bring us home… Peridot, do you think you could fly one of those ships?" Jet asked, there was still hope.
"Of course I can… but, Lapis is right, even if it's possible for us to retrieve a ship and escape Homeworld, they would immediately notice our absence, and let's not talk about an unauthorized take off from one of the Homeworld's leaders palace… we can't even escape!" Peridot pulled at her own hair in frustration.
"Stop that! It's no use! They are going to hear us!" Pearl said stopping Peridot from hurting herself.
"Wait a minute… they are going to hear us… of course!" Steven said raising his fists in the air.
"Ehm, what?" Pearl asked as everyone turned towards Steven.
"Don't you remember what Lapis said? That we could run away and that she had something to do… I think she wants to do something that will allow us to escape without the problem of having Homeworld right behind us! We just have to give her time!" Steven said as Garnet kneeled in front of him.
"What do you propose to do?" Garnet asked, displaying a reassuring smile.
"Okay, I know it's dangerous but we have to try, Yellow Diamond's chamber are surely going to be very well guarded, even if Lapis and Black are strong they won't be able to pass unnoticed, unless there was something that caught the attention of all the guards of the palace…" Steven said with a little less confidence.
"Are you suggesting to let the guards spot us so that all of them would follow us and leave Lapis and Black free to do what they have to do?" Garnet asked.
"Well… yes." Steven whispered shyly.
"WHAT?! Are you serious?! They are going to shatter us before we can reach the hangar!" Peridot said, but looking around she noticed she was the only who seemed upset.
"I'm in, if I'm going to die, I want to do it fighting and not escaping…" Jasper said crossing her arms.
"Many times we didn't listen to Steven and his plans, this time it'll be different, Lapis is our only chance to escape this place, we have to empty the upper part of Yellow Diamond's palace so that she'll be able to wander freely." Garnet said as everyone nodded.
"B-but…" Peridot was clearly scared, this until Garnet touched her shoulder.
"Peridot, we don't know this palace, we haven't been on Homeworld for a long time, but you and Jasper surely know it, you have to guide us through these corridors, do you think you can do it?" Garnet asked, Peridot remained silent for a moment, then, fear left and confidence appeared on her face.
"I can do it!" Peridot said, each gem nodded and began to move through the corridor.
"Right now we are in the main corridor to the dungeon's entrance, from here we can reach a circular room that acts as a sentry post, there we'll be able to get noticed and then we'll just have to reach the hangar and hope that Lapis's plan has worked, whatever she's trying to do…" Peridot explained as she formed her holographic interface which showed a map of Yellow Diamond palace's corridors.
"Garnet? D-do you… do you see any future in which we survive? In which at least Steven survives?" Pearl asked as they all began to follow Peridot.
"I can't tell you Pearl…" Garnet said as Pearl's eyes widened in concern.
"W-why?" Pearl asked, her voice trembling.
"Because I choose not to watch…" Garnet replayed as Peridot raised her hand, signaling to stop.
"Alright, here we are, I, I just want to say something before we do this, it might be as well the end of all of us so, I wanted to thank you all, before all of this happened I was just a number here on Homeworld, thanks to Steven and all of you, for the first time in my life I felt like I was… unique… so well, thank you…" Peridot said, slightly blushing.
"You're welcome Peridot…" Steven said smiling at the green gem.
"Aww you're so cute when you blush!" Jasper whispered holding her stomach.
"I'm not blushing!" Peridot replayed angrily.
"Guys, it's not the time for quarrelling, let's distract the guards!" Steven said as all of the gems moved towards the entrance of the circular room.
"I'm going to enjoy the end of those filthy rebels!" A citrine guard said to a blue chalcedony to her left.
"They are finally going to pay for what they have done to my Diamond…" The blue chalcedony hissed through her teeth.
"Hey you clods!" Peridot yelled from the entrance of the room.
"What?! It's impossible! They can't have gotten past the fields!" The citrine said in disbelief as the rebel gems rushed towards one of the exists of the room.
"Alert all of the guards!" The blue chalcedony yelled as she began to chase the gems.
Meanwhile:
"We won't ever make it through those guards, they are ten and we are two gems, one of which can't even fight since we're not even close to a fount of water… what can we do?" Black whispered as she looked at the great door that leaded to Yellow Diamond's apartments, guarded by ten, bulky quartz sentinels.
"I don't know… I didn't expect it to be so well guarded, wait, what's happening?" Lapis asked as she noticed one of the guards raising a rhomboidal device and suddenly screaming to the other guards to follow her, in a second they were all gone.
"Oh my… do you think the others got discovered?" Black asked as Lapis started to move towards through the corridor.
"I think they did it so that we could enter the Yellow Diamond's chambers freely… we have to move, I don't know how much time they have left…" Lapis said as, alongside Black, she pushed the door open.
"What exactly are we looking for?" Black asked as they began to look around the large room.
"A blue mirror, with a gem embedded in its back." Lapis said as suddenly she raised her hand.
"What?" Black whispered quickly summoning her sword.
"Do you hear it?" Lapis asked as Black listen closely and began to hear what sounded like muffled sobs.
"It comes from behind that curtain…" Black said pointing at a large, gold curtain at the end of the room.
Slowly, Lapis and Black began to approach the curtain, neither of them was expecting what was hidden behind it, as Black cut it apart, their mouths fell agape in horror as they stared at the thin, fragile body of a pearl with light blue, short hair which covered her eyes. She was lying on the ground, curled up with her cheeks stained with tears, her suit was torn and her body covered in bruises, around her neck was a metal collar attached to a chain which was fixed to the wall behind her. On a small desk behind the poor thing, was a beautiful blue mirror. Lapis rushed towards the chained pearl and kneeled down.
"Please… please just shatter me… I can't take this anymore… please I'm begging you!" The pearl cried.
"Blue…" Lapis murmured as she softly touched the crying gem's shoulder who raised her gaze towards her.
"L-Lapis?" Blue whispered as she raised her hand and slightly brushed Lapis's cheek.
"It's me Blue, don't be scared…" Lapis said placing her own hand on Blue's one.
"Lapis!" Blue yelled as she tightly embraced the gem, letting her tears fall freely.