Freshwater rubbed her eyes as the light from the Warp Pad died, her eyes widening in shock when she saw the landscape laid out before her eyes. When Hessonite had said the warp pad took them to the deepest parrots of the Kindergarten, the gem had expected to see a dark, desolate, and hollow shell of a place. Instead, a hustle and bustle of gems was illuminated in a calm yet radiant yellow twinkling from stones that had been embedded into the ceiling of the large cavern they were standing in.
"Welcome to the Resistance." Hessonite said, smirking at the look of shock that was plastered across the gems' faces. "This is where we plan our revolution, make our technology, and even gather to tell war stories. It's not much, but it's home. Now," she said, raising her fingers to her lips and whistling loudly, the sound echoing across the cavern and sending the hustle and bustle of the area to a complete stop, roughly a hundred gems in the area encircling them and looking at the Crystal Gems with blank expressions.
"I present to you - The Crystal Gems." Hessonite exclaimed, raising her sword to the sky above, her uniform riding up slightly to reveal a silver locket with a silver chain hanging from her neck. "As discussed in our last meeting, their role in our plan is essential. We may have spent thousands of years interlocked in battle, but like it or not, our goals are one and the same - stopping Gold Pearl. I don't know what's going to happen after all of this, but if we even stand a slight chance, there is to be no fighting between us. I didn't lose the love of my life just to have this whole operation thrown away by our revolution turning on itself." the gem said, her eyes flashing for a moment. "Have I made myself clear?"
Freshwater looked on in awe as the gems encircling them raised their weapons, letting out an uproarious, "Ma'am, yes Ma'am!" that shook the walls of the cavern.
Hessonite nodded, the fire in her eyes dying as her weapon disappeared in a flash of light and she turned back to the gems, allowing Freshwater to get a glimpse at the silver locket with an 'E' etched into it, its contents clanking gently against the elite's chest. "You're safe here. Every gem here has sworn allegiance to the Resistance and has a reason to keep fighting a battle we know we probably won't win. But we're sure as hell not going down without a fight." she said, the latter half of her sentence being swallowed by a cacophony of battle cries of agreement.
After a few moments, the gem whistled loudly again with a small smile that tugged at her lips. "Alright, alright everyone settle down. Wouldn't want Holly Blue to show up and kill off all the fun." she said, waving her hand dismissively before turning serious again. "Now. Everyone get back to your stations. I'm going to debrief the new recruits." she said, motioning for the gems to follow her as the gems dispersed with a final 'Ma'am! Yes Ma'am!'.
"And here I thought we were going to have to spend an eternity trying to find new recruits." Steven said, his eyes shining with excitement as Hessonite lead them around a corner that lead into a secluded smaller part of the cavern decorated with a table, chairs, and projector.
Hessonite nodded. "Honestly…so did I when I first started the Resistance. Turns out, though, lots of gems wanted to turn on Gold Pearl. They just…didn't have the courage or any idea of how to plan a revolution. Hell, when I first started trying to put this whole thing together, one of the first things I thought was 'How the hell did Rose do this?' " she said, plopping down at the head of the table, Freshwater taking the seat to her left, the rest of the gems grabbing seats around the table as well.
"Thankfully, since I waited a while after Gold Pearl 'recruited' me, so I was able to figure out what gems were the best at their professions, and after talking to each of them, we were able to put together a plan. It was a little stupid in retrospect considering any of those gems could have turned me in. But the thing is, when every gem beneath you follows you not out of devotion but out of fear, none of them actually believe in the values you're pushing." the gem said, reaching into her gem and pulling out a brilliant white Robonoid with speckled black spots on it and watching as it scuttled to the middle of the mahogany table. .
"Now, enough chit chat. Let's get to the debriefing." the gem said, leaning back in her chair and watching as the Robonoid rose into the air, whirring and beeping softly before beaming a projection of a Peridot gem standing in front of a projection screen depicting the words "Debriefing 101"..
"Greetings, Crystal Gems. I am Peridot Facet 3G2I Cut 6IG. Allow me to be among the first to welcome you to the Subterranean." the gem said, Freshwater immediately recognizing the gem's voice as the same Peridot who had 'kicked them out' of the facility. "This is where we lay the groundwork to stop Gold Pearl and hopefully begin the journey of putting our lives together. None of us know what that new world will look like, but we know it has to be better than whatever the hell the Diamonds were planning to do with Era 3. Before we can even think about rebuilding, though, we need to demolish." the gem said, reaching into her pocket and pulling out a remote for the projection slide behind her with a small smirk. "And we have just the plan to do it."
Freshwater and the gem exchanged a look. "Did she say…demolish? She doesn't mean shattering does she?" Steven asked, instinctively looking to Garnet for comfort, the fusion in question unable to meet his gaze as she bit her lower lip and turned her attention back to the projection.
"As you know, in order for a gem to truly thrive, they need good growing conditions - good cook time, healthy amount of nutrients, you know the drill. Over the past few milenia, simply put, Homeworld's resources have been depleted. Most of the ground here is absolutely atrocious to the point that even getting a defective gem to emerge was damn near impossible. The Catch-22 to that, however, is what few pockets of soil that do remain are extremely healthy. Like…would definitely create the perfect gem type no matter what kind of gem you wanted to grow there." the Peridot explained, pacing back and forth.
"If Gold Pearl were to insert her injectors into those pockets of healthy soil, it would be the end for us. The gem that would emerge would not only possess the powers of Gold Pearl - they would be loyal to her. See, the gems that Gold Pearl is trying to create….they aren't like us." Peridot said, using the remote to change to the next slide depicting a gem holding another Peridot holding a test tube up to the camera, the text at the top reading "Adequil" next to a written order from Gold Pearl reading "do not add a single drop of Adequil to the gem substances going into the Injectors.".
"When the Diamonds made us, they didn't just want drones doing all of the work for them - they wanted something that was truly living. Beings that could not only do the tasks you wanted them to do, but had the capabilities to worship you for bringing them into the world. That's where Adequil comes in. This substance is essentially what allows gems to have a personality in the first place by giving you the power to feel emotions and make decisions for yourselves rather than someone inputting a few codes and letting you do your thing. By taking away a gem's Adequil - you take away what makes them, them." Peridot explained with a shudder.
"By taking away a gem's Adequil, they are essentially a husk. Easily controlled. If you tell them to do something, they'll do it without question. They have no morals because they can't form morals. They don't care about anything and will follow whoever is in control without thinking about themselves - and they will never change because they don't even possess the concept of understanding right and wrong."
The gem paused for a moment, allowing her words to sink in before continuing. "So. That brings us to our next question - how do you control an army of gems who essentially need to be ordered around 24/7? Well, unfortunately, Gold Pearl has that all figured out." She said bitterly, clicking the remote again to show a drawing of an all too familiar and ferocious looking black smoky figure staring down menacingly into the camera that made even Hessonite squirm slightly in her chair.
"Frankly, Gold Pearl being in charge is 10 times worse than if the Diamonds had taken over. Had it just been them, they would probably need to spend more time figuring out what they needed to add/take away so gems could still act on their own - but not have the ability to rebel. Gold Pearl, as I'm sure you all are aware, however is…different. You see, while many are aware of the many things that affect how a gem is when they emerge, few know about the Light/Darkness ratio. See, beforehand, we always used healthy lighting because it always worked. We never saw a need to experiment with the light exposure because we figured that would just be a waste and that nothing good could come from it. That was….until the Diamonds started the Perfect Pearl experiment."
Freshwater felt her blood run cold as the gem flipped to the next slide which depicted a picture of the wall of seemingly endless Pearl-shaped exit holes. "Defect, I really must thank you for exposing the Project. As soon as I heard about it, I started trying to hack into the Diamonds network to go out of my way to prove everyone was wrong. I combed through endless reports, broke so many rules when it comes to cybersecurity, and risked my life because I figured if I was shattered, it would be worth it to prove you wrong." the Peridot's shoulders sagged as she continued somberly.
"But…I was the one who was proven wrong. I didn't know what to do, so I started just saving whatever I could from that file and erasing my tracks. I didn't know who to trust, so when The Ball happened I just let it happen. I let myself be poofed because I knew the Peridots wold be spared andI vowed to use what I knew to put a stop to all of this." the gem explained, turning back to the gems as she continued. "As previously stated…I was proven wrong. Not just about the Diamond's plan - but I was proven wrong about even the most basic components of gem creation. You see, throughout the endless Perfect Pearl experiments, there were a lot of mistakes. And I mean a lot of them." Peridot explained." she said, turning back to the screen. "Too much cook time, too little cook time, not enough nutrients, too much nutrients," the gem explained, the screen depicting a different Pearl with every abnormality. "So many things went wrong that taught us nothing we didn't already know. Well….that was until a certain gem taught us about something the Diamonds have deemed -"
Freshwater let out a gasp when the gem clicked the button a final time, showing a fresh out of the ground Freshwater staring up at the camera with a combination of fear and confusion, the text at the top depicting the phrase "L:D Ratio."
"I don't know what the hell that Agate and Peridot were doing when they made you, Defect, but let's just say whatever it was taught us something huge about gem creation. Your physical appearance was cased by a severe lack of nutrients along with benign a straight up rush-job by those idiots." the gem explained, turning back to the projection to stare in awe. "But internally…Defect, there is something huge going on with you. Inwardly, you're perfect, but outwardly…." the gem's voice trailed off, a faint blush coming to her face as she continued. "The Diamonds didn't get it, Holly Blue didn't get it. Hell, I didn't get it when I was snooping through your report. Nobody could figure out what had happened, so they figured they would observe your growing conditions - and that's where we found out about something The Diamonds call the Lightness to Darkness ratio. When The Diamonds brought you back to Homeworld, they put your body through experiment after experiment, trying to figure out what made you tick. Why you were so damn complicated. And then they stumbled on your lighting conditions and that changed everything." Peridot explained.
"You see, when gems are created, they are made with a healthy balance of light and darkness. As you all know, our forms are made out of this combination, so we never thought to change anything about it. As the old saying goes, 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it', right? Before the Defect emerged, we never thought to even mess with that because it seemed like we would be wasting way too much time and resources. Since you, Defect, were pretty much a rush job of awful decisions, it shouldn't surprise you that they somehow also fucked up the lighting conditions." Peridot explained. "See, the Agate and Peridot in charge of your creation rushed creating you so badly that they overloaded your form with light. This severe amount of light had an…unforeseen effect that I have only recently began to understand. You see, this amount of light means you were able to achieve the perfection the Diamonds wanted. You can fulfill every order you're given, because you possess the powers of every gem in existence. Because of your other growing conditions, however, you cannot physically turn into those gems, if that makes sense. Internally, the change is happening - it's just not showing on the outside." The Peridot explained, clicking to the next slide with two pictures - a dented air duct and a sedated Freshwater. Clicking to the next slide, Freshwater and the others watched in awe as a video from the ship Freshwater had been on plaid, showing the gem ramming into the air duct before Jasper and Peridot came in and tried to stop her to no avail.
"Woah dude. I knew you could take a hit, but that's insane." Amethyst breathed, the gems gasping in shock as Freshwater didn't even flinch when Jasper stuck her with a gem destabilizer.
"Holly Blue and the others were shocked, to say the least." Peridot said, pausing the video before laughing. "But, not as shocked as when you stepped in to defend your friend, there." she said, hitting the next slide button and pressing play, the gems astonishment growing as they watched Freshwater fling herself at Holly Blue Agate, her blade coming deafeningly close to the Agate with every swing before she was thrown into the air and across the Zoo room.
"You may have needed more practice then to defeat Holly Blue, but your form was there. Your dexterity was there. The loyalty of a Pearl, strength of a Quartz soldier, and even the sheer stubbornness of an Amethyst - it's all there." she said, pausing the video to stare into the camera once more, the room lapsing into tense silence before the gem continued.
"When the Diamonds saw the sheer power you possessed, they made her." the Peridot said, the screen behind her returning to the depiction of Gold Pearl. "They used the same growing conditions they had with you with only two exceptions - a proper dose of injector materials and proper time in the ground. Defect, don't you get it?" The Peridot said, her eyes sparkling excitedly. "You have every power that that gem has - you just need to be able to harness it. And, believe it or not, you have on a few occasions. Just to be sure, though I combed through every frame of this footage because I had a feeling I would find something - and I was right."" she said, clicking her remote again to show various pictures of fights Freshwater had been in, the gems letting out gasps of shock.
"Beautiful, isn't it? Man, I wish I could see your faces." The Peridot said with a laugh, turning to marvel at the various pictures of a smoky, ice white being with a single gemstone of various colors where Freshwater's eye would normally be. "You can do everything that that tyrant can do - but it appears you have to trigger it. I don't know how you keep doing it, but if you figure it out…we might just stand a fighting chance against that monster. After all, you've already fought her off once before if the Diamond's cameras aboard their ship have anything to say about it." the gem said, stepping to the side and clicking the button again and playing a video of Freshwater's fight with Gold Pearl.
Freshwater leaned in and watched, dumbfounded, as she punched Gold Pearl so hard she flew backwards and into the hand of the giant statue. "I….I barely even remember this." Freshwater breathed, watching herself pick up Pearl's gemstone and place it somewhere safe nearby before letting out a battle cry and disappearing into the smoky figure from the picture, holding a brilliant white as she pounced on Gold Pearl.
"I don't know how you trigger your powers, Defect." Peridot said in awe, watching the projection as well. "But if you can do that without training," she said, chuckling as the clip of the fight ended and the gem sank against a nearby tree. "I'm sure you can lay a huge role in putting an end to all of this." she said, turning to the others.
"You see…our plan is simple, but has the chance of everything going very wrong very quickly. Because there are so few pockets of good soil on Homeworld, we only need to plant the gem injectors roughly a foot back from their original positions. Thankfully, Gold Pearl will not be involved in their placement as she deems grunt work 'beneath her.' " she said, rolling her eyes before continuing. "By injecting the planet with the materials from the injector, nothing will form. No gem will have to live for even a moment without an ability to think for themselves. We'll have won." she said, her smile fading.
"But…Gold Pearl will be furious. I'm sure we'll all be shattered, and she'll just move onto another planet. Our efforts won't mean anything." she said, shaking her head disgustedly. "Sure it may take a few thousand years to start over, but she will. I wasn't able to hack into any of Gold Pearl's files except for the ones about her growing conditions…but I highly suspect she has a dangerously low amount of Adequil running through her. She has a personality. A cruel one at that. It's just….so low she only cares to act on orders given to her. She has the freedom to choose and make her own decisions - so she chose to fulfill the Diamond's orders. Her personality was built from the ground up by orders, and because her Adequil levels are so low, she only has the ability to make her own decisions when they align with the desire the Diamonds had for Era 3 and what that world will look like." the gem said, taking a deep breath.
"Look…I know you gems aren't going to like what I have to say considering you haven't actually shattered anyone. But you need to trust me when I say this." Peridot said, turning off the projection.
"Gold Pearl won't change. She can't change. She exists solely to kill all of us and then build the Era 3 the Diamonds want. That gem dreams of nothing but pain and misery for all of us, and in an ideal world, we would be able to change her mind and allow her to grow." she said, her gaze hardening. "But this situation is not ideal. We need to shatter her at the first available opportunity." she said, looking into the camera and sending shiver of fear shooting down Freshwater's spine.
"We can take care of making sure we destroy her resources, but you know what we need from you, Defect. You're the only one who stands even a miniscule chance of doing what needs to be done. I hope you'll do what you know needs to be done." she said, her eyes boring into Freshwater's as she saluted the gems, the Robonoid shutting off and lapsing the room into silence as the lights above slowly returned to their original brightness.
"Well, Freshwater? What do you say? I received an update a few minutes ago that everything should be up and ready to go in as soon as two rotations. Just in time for the Great Rebirth as Gold Pearl is calling it." Hessonite said, the gem in question turning back to the elite at the head of the table, her heart pounding loudly in her chest.
Freshwater glanced at the rest of her crew. "Guys….I know you guys stand for never shattering, but-"
"This is a very extreme circumstance." Garnet said, pulling off her glasses so the gems could see how deathly serious she was. "I spent a mere 30 seconds looking into futures where Gold Pearl was allowed to live, and each future was worse than the last. Futures where gems couldn't think for themselves, futures where resistances formed and were stomped out easily, futures without freedom, without hope…" the gem took a deep breath before continuing shakily. "Futures without love. Without empathy. Futures where gems lived long lives without ever feeling anything for other gems. And these futures not only effected Homeworld - they extended to every other planet Gold Pearl conquered - including Earth."
The room fell into silence again as Steven spoke up, his voice small and terrified. "Is…there any other way?"
Amethyst put a hand on his shoulder, unable to bring herself to look him in the eye. "I…I don't think so, Steven." she said, looking over at Freshwater. "But…at the end of the day, it's Freshwater's decision."
The gem in question turned back to Hessonite, glimpsing the small silver locket dangling from the gem's neck melancholically as she held the gem's gaze. Freshwater clasped the ring dangling from her own neck before meeting the gem's eyes, a pang of anger hitting her like a flood as she realized what might be in the contents of that very locket, Hessonite's words coming back to her.
I didn't lose the love of my life just to have this whole operation thrown away by our revolution turning on itself.
Freshwater grit her teeth, and stood slowly, her fists shaking angrily as she turned from the others and clutched Pearl's engagement ring.
"So many gems had been slaughtered for ideals none of them believed in." the gem said in a steady, low, furious voice. "And I'll be damned if I let that continue to happen. I won't rest until Gold Pearl's gem shards in my hand." she said, turning around to the others and looking down at Hessonite, whose mouth was agape.
Shaking off the shock, Hessonite chuckled and stood. "That's the spirit, Freshwater." she said, standing and making her way over to the gem, placenta hand on her shoulder. "But you might want to save your energy for now." she said, pulling out a mirror from her gem and holding it out to Freshwater, who gasped at the brilliant pair of rainbow gemstones on her eye.
Freshwater laughed awkwardly. "Yeah, sorry." she said, blushing when a pillar of black smoke emitted from her mouth. Taking a deep breath, the gem gently squeezed the engagement ring and felt a deep calm come over her.
"So your powers are tied to your emotions. A little cliche if you ask me, but interesting." Hessonite said, playfully punching the gem in the arm. "It appears so." Freshwater said with a small chuckle.
"So…what now?" Steven asked, glancing up at Garnet.
"Well," Amethyst said, standing as well. "Considering last time this happened Freshwater needed to take a day long recovery nap, we should probably get her back…'home'." Amethyst said, putting air quotes around the word. "After all, Freshwater has to meet with Gold Pearl tomorrow, and meanwhile me and Garnet can lay low and help with finishing touches whenever we can."
A shadow crossed over Hessonite's face at the mention of Gold Pearl befor the gem nodde. "Good idea. I wouldn't want Gold Pearl to go snooping around for Freshwater. Best to keep her occupied." she said, motioning to a far corner in the room. "Feel free to use the Warp pad. The one here leads to a Warp Pad ina small wooded area right outside your home. I doubt your friend here can walk back." she said, chuckling as Garnet swiftly picked up Freshwater, whose head immediately lulled onto the fusion's shoulder, eyes closed in a deep sleep.
Steven took Garnet's other hand for comfort as the gems made their way to the Warp Pad. "Oh, and gems?" Hessonite called, stopping the gems in their tracks. "Try not to blow our cover that badly again, okay?" she said with a small smirk.
Amethyst rolled her eyes while Steven blushed and stammered. "Yeah, of course Hessonite. Sorry about that." he said sheepishly, waving as the gems disappeared in a flash of light.