Pearl's Diary Entry #XX02

An Attack, the first in almost 5 months. Homeworld sent a fleet of 7 Citrine gems, common soldiers but it made us worry. They didn't say anything about why they were here, they just started using the warp pads and wrecking things. They made some irreparable damage to some warp pads, we can no longer access sections A5, C8, G11, or the Northern Sky towers. Today is a bad day, yet at least we know they're coming and now we can be prepared.

Repairs to the house on the house, on the other hand are going well.

~Pearl

The three entered the room to find Mrs. Maheswaran and her daughter talking to a very awake gem. "Steven!"

"Connie!"

"They're…" Peridot stood at the doorway.

"Awake." Lapis finished coming up behind the smaller gem.

"What happened?" Steven turned to the two humans in the room.

"Well, under normal circumstances I wouldn't be able to tell you due to doctor patient confidentiality," Connie's mother said, "but in this case, with the gem relations and magics, I guess you really should know what's going on." She nodded to her daughter.

Connie nodded back and picked up the clipboard at the bottom of the bed, "At 6:12 a.m. J Doe woke up-"

"Their name is J?" Steven asked.

Mrs. Maheswaran laughed, "No Steven, John Doe and other variations are just what they called unidentified patients until they can find out their real names."

"Anyways, they woke up and didn't move for half an hour, according to cameras, they stared at the room until they decided to fiddle with the things within their range."

"What does that mean?" Lapis asked, leaning against the far wall.

"They played with the blankets and controls for the bed and TV. At 7:31 a.m. patient pushed the 'call nurse' button. She had a couple people fussing over her non-existent vitals until my mom came in at 8." Connie put the chart down.

"Pft, well if they've been awake for 3 earth hours, why haven't you asked their name?" Peridot asked stepping up to the side of the bed. The silent gem just stared back blankly.

"We tried!" Connie exclaimed, "They don't speak, either because they can't or won't. We've just been explaining things to hem about where they are and what things are for the past hour."

"Hm." Steven walked up to the side of the bed, "Hi, I'm Steven." he waved.

The pale gem blinked twice and hesitantly brought up their hand and waved back, then pointed to themselves, then their gem, then Steven's gem.

"Oh that's right, your gem was scraped when they found you. Ummm… Here!" Steven handed them the whiteboard at the bottom of the bed and erased "J Doe".

Taking the black marker in their hand the gem wrote [Hi].

Peridot sat on one of the visitor chairs, going back to her rectangular device.

"What kind of gem are you?" Lapis asked with her arms crossed and eyebrow raised.

The gem on the bed hesitated briefly before writing. [Clear Zircon] There were smudges on the board.

Mrs. Maheswaran picked up the chart and began filling things in, "May I ask if you remember anything before you passed out and were brought here?"

The new gem, now dubbed Clear Zircon hesitated again, [Falling].

"Can you not speak?" Steven asked.

The gem pointed to the scratch on their stone.

"Oh, so you can, but the scratch won't let you?" Steven gave a sad look.

The clear stone nodded.

"Can you remember anything else?" Asked the doctor.

Clear Zircon paused then wrote again, [No].

"Aw, hey can I call you Clear?"

A nod.

"Is their physical body harmed at all?" Peridot spoke up.

"Nope, Mx. Zircon is free to go, as long as they are accompanied by you." Connie stated.

"Again under normal circumstances we would wait for a family member or close friend, but gem business seems like a worthy qualification." Mrs. Maheswaran said putting down her gear.

"Do you wanna come with us, Clear?" Steven asked excitedly.

[Why?] The room was silent for a moment.

"Because… umm… Well, you're one of us! I bet we can get your gem healed too." Steven said leaning in.

"The Crystal gems are sufficient hosts, and it is best to keep gem activity away from prying human eyes." Peridot glanced up at the two human females before continuing her tinkering.

The white skinned gems eyes widened and they took a defensive stance, gripping their whiteboard they shakily wrote, [Crystal Gems?].

"Yeah, why?" Steven asked with a confused expression.

"On Homeworld… You guys are made out to be traitors, a taboo subject." Lapis looked to the floor, "They've probably been told the Crystal Gems are brutes and fiendish criminals, the war here was a huge scar on Homeworld's reputation." Clear slowly nodded at Lapis's statement.

"Oh no! Clear, I promise you we're nothing like that, the Crystal Gem's aren't mean at all, I swear." Steven leaned onto the side of the bed.

Clear picked up the dry erase board, dropped in surprise, [Ok, too innocent?] The second part was aimed at the two gems behind Steven, both nodded.

[Can keep?] Clear pointed at the whiteboard, then to the Maheswarans.

"Oh yes, the hospital has loads of them. You're all free to go." Mrs. Maheswaran said, she let down the bed rails and held out her hand to help Clear Zircon out of the bed. Once out they could see the new gem was a little smaller than Lapis, their hair cascading down their back in a messy manner, they seemed to be wearing a very basic one piece body suit, with basic armor on the legs and arms, as well as a belt with a diamond shape in the middle.

[Bother], Clear pointed to their grayish hair.

"Oh here." Connie handed the gem a scrunchie from her wrist, "Bye, Steven! I'll see you Saturday!" she waved from the other side of the room.

"Bye, Connie! Can't wait for movie night. C'mon guys, let's bring them back to the temple.

Lapis waved and Peridot followed the others out.

Note: Mx. is a gender neutral addressing term, such as Miss, Mrs, or Mr.