Chapter 3

Pain tore through her legs as Pearl slowly regained consensuses. She couldn't see anything as a thick burlap sack was covering her face.
Her body hurt and she could feel the ground moving beneath her mangled legs. She was being dragged by her arms, to where she did not know.
The sound of wind and thunder was becoming louder and she could smell rain. She was being dragged outside of the Obelisk.
The smooth, polished floor of the Obelisk was soon replaced with thick mud and jagged rocks. Rain drenched her and the wind chilled her. She could smell smoke, gunpowder, gasoline, and stench of death. Suddenly, who ever was dragging her threw her forward. Her legs buckled under her own weight and she fell face first into a puddle of water.

"Show her what she did," a gruff, angry voice growled. "Show her what she turned us into!"

Pearl felt something grab her and pulled the mud drenched burlap sack from over her head.
Staring back at her were countless soldiers, their eyes filled with a burning rage and betrayal. They looked more frightening than the monsters she used to protect them from. Some were wounded, some were old, some looked far too young to be even fighting. All of their eyes were locked on her, their terrifying empty eyes.
Eyes that had seen so much death, that it didn't even phase them anymore. Standing among them were their machines of war.
Those cold, soulless engines of metal had their red disc like eyes glaring down at her. The skies were filled with Condors as the storm raged harmlessly against them. Like ancient predatory birds, their wings cast shadows down on the war torn fields.

"This...wasn't supposed to-"

"Stand up," Connie ordered coldly. "Face your victims with some dignity."

Pearl tried to stand, but her legs were so mangled she couldn't. It wasn't supposed to have ended like this.

"You two Anvils, bring the other two forward!" Connie ordered to Anvils from the crowd.

"Affirmative!"

The Anvils waded through the crowd and tossed two figures out before Pearl.

"Garnet, Amethyst!" Pearl cried out as she saw their unconscious bodies crumple before her.

"We-we did what you asked..." Amethyst spoke weakly. "S-s-so why isn't there peace?"

Garnet said nothing, the once proud gem was now a shadow of her former glory. For her, this was the end of the line.

"Those two are the ones that destroyed Paris!"

"The fat one killed my brothers!"

"The red one took my wife and children from me!"

This isn't real, Pearl kept telling herself. None of this was supposed to happen.

"You recognize them, don't you?!" Connie yelled into the crowd.

They all roared angrily, raising their weapons high in the air.

"The protectors of humanity, the ones who always save the day, the Crystal Gems!"

Amethyst coughed and looked up at Pearl. Her eyes were darkened, she hardly even looked like herself.

"You said their would be peace..."

"We have all lost friends, family, loved ones, even home nations because of them!" Connie yelled at the top of her lungs.

"You don't understand!" Pearl cried out. "We only wanted to protect you!"

Pearl's plea earned her rifle butt the the forehead.

"Protect?" Connie hissed. "Protect?! Protect us from what?! You started this war, you ruined this planet, and now you claim to be our protectors?!"

"We had to do something!" Pearl cried back defensively. "You wouldn't listen!"

"Why?!" Connie spat angrily. "Why did you do this to us?"

Pearl was silent. None of this was supposed to have happened.

"You humans...you're so brilliant, so courageous, but so self destructive!" Pearl screamed furiously. "All you do is kill each other! When one of you goes on a rampage, you don't care who gets caught in the cross fire! We just wanted to protect you from your selves!"

Hot, angry tears flowed down her cheeks as she remembered what started all of this.

It was a hot summer morning in Beach city. Steven was playing at the arcade with Connie and Peedee.
As they played the various games and counted their tickets, two men in ski masks rushed into the arcade.
They walked up to the register and pulled out their hidden hand guns.
They ordered the cashier to hand over the money. The cashier was hesitant and was shot in the forehead.
While the two robbers were busy stashing their money, Connie, Peedee, and Steven all ran out the front.
The unhinged robbers saw them running and started shooting at them. By the time the police and the gems arrived on the scene, it was too late.
Pearl remembered holding Steven's lifeless body in her arms. A bullet had gone through his back and shattered his gem. There was nothing they could do, but grieve. But as Pearl gazed into the glassy eyes of Steven, an insane resolve came to her. If humans could not stop killing each other, then they would have to be forced to. Garnet and Amethyst thought Pearl was crazy, that is until they were laughed out of the United Nations.
Pearl had begged the world powers to lay down their arms and finally stop the bloodshed. They laughed or hurled insults at them as they refused to de-arm their nations. The gems, stricken with grief and humiliated before the whole world had finally snapped.
Within the temple, they planned to use gem technology to invade the nations of the world. Their goal was to intimidate the nations of the world into surrendering over to them. They wanted to do it as quickly and as bloodlessly as they could. But the gems forgot who they were dealing with.
Humans don't respond peacefully to mere shows of force. Soon, everything began to spiral out of control.
As the body count rose into the millions, the gems began to assure themselves that it was for humanity's own good.
Their lies began to warp their views of the world they once protected, as their armies tore it apart at the seams.
After all, what is a few human lives compared to the rest of the world?

Pearl kneeled with an angry glare in her eyes. She still believed what she had done was for the greater good, blinded to all the destruction the war had caused.

Connie flipped the safety off of her rifle.

"Line them up!"

One by one, the three fallen gems were kneeled before her. The rain was still falling as hard as ever, and the mud was thick.

"Garnet, you're first," Connie said with no hint of emotion.

Garnet felt an Anvil's foot smashed down onto her back. The Anvil pried her arms in front of her. Garnet showed no emotion as Connie leveled her rifle.

Two shots rang out.

Garnets gemstones shattered.

The crowd cheered heartily, the first of their tyrants was dead.

"Amethyst, it's your turn."

The Anvil grabbed her and held her in place.

"Pearl, y-you said that this would bring peace," Amethyst stated confused as to what was happening. "Why isn't it working?"

Amethyst never got her answer.

Another gun shot rang out.

Amethyst stared up at Connie as if asking "why?" as her body faded from existence.

"And then there was one," Connie sighed.

She looked over at the terrified gem. She needed to pay for she had done. A bullet to her gemstone was too good for her.
Connie dropped her rifle and pulled out a hammer and chisel.

"You know what, Pearl, I used to really look up to you," Connie sighed tiredly. "You, the gems, Steven...it was all so amazing."

Pearl flinched as Connie rested the tip of the chisel against her gemstone.

"But if there was one thing this whole craziness has taught me," she stated coldly as she readied the hammer.

"It's that, everyone makes mistakes."

Connie slammed the hammer down onto the chisel and cracked into Pearl's gemstone. She screamed in agony as Connie hammered again and again.

"Goodbye, Pearl."

Pearl awoke with a bloodcurdling scream. Her heart was pounding and she was covered in cold sweat. She ran her hand over her forehead, taking short shallow breaths.

"J-just a dream?" she asked herself.

She called out for Garnet and Amethyst, but they were still on a mission.

"Pearl, I heard screaming, is everything alright?"

Pearl turned around and saw Steven standing in the door way. She felt dizzy, like she had been hit on the head.

"Yeah, I'm fine, just a bad dream," she sighed shaking her head.

"Are you okay?" Steven asked concerned.

"Yeah, just shaken up," Pearl responded. "What are you up to?"

Steven smiled and held up a bag full of quarters.

"I'm going to the arcade!" he exclaimed happily. "Wanna come?"

Pearl paused for a moment. Something felt familiar about this, but she couldn't remember what it was.

She smiled and put her hand on his shoulder.

"Sure, who knows, you might need someone to protect you."

Well that was fun. I want to thank Scraps the Fool for inspiring me to write this.