Pretty long chapter, not sure if I'm happy with it though
"No no no, I know you can do better than that, you're not showing your full potential, now let's go again." Pearl was getting increasingly frustrated with Aqua, but there was something bothering the gem, her mind was too focused on Lapis for some reason.
"I'm sorry Pearl, I just, I don't know can we take a break or something?" Pearl groaned in frustration, "Fine, but I expect you to be ready and here in an hour." Aqua agreed, maybe she could talk to Rose Quartz, Rose was always pretty good when it came to guidance, and she really needed to get away from Pearl, she was way too strict for the carefree gem. Aqua walked up on the warp pad, directing herself to Rose's mansion.
The warp pad inside of Rose's home beamed as Aqua arrived, Rose's mansion was enormous, it could probably fit 100 of Lapis' and Aqua's facilities inside. The floor inside was a gleaming, spotless, beautiful white marble with etchings of roses and other flowers embedded in it, pink marble pillars held the enormous house up, the pillars had actual rose vines wrapped around it, all the way to the ceiling, Rose also had a beautiful white gold staircase the spiraled around the pillars, leading all the way to the 4th floor of the building.
The walls were decorated with pink, gold framed pictures of Rose Quartz, some with her and the D. A, pictures of high ranking gems that Aqua never seen in person, there was even some of Rose and Pearl. Various shots of Earth were also framed alongside everything else, pictures of random countries and nature, gardens, oceans, streams, animals, anything you could possible imagine, but the largest photo out of any there was a picture of a group of humans with Rose Quartz in the middle, looking very out of place I might add, it stood in the middle of the entrance and basically dwarfed all the other pictures, Rose looked so happy and content in the picture, happier than she was at Homeworld.
Aqua looked at the beauty of the planet Rose loved so much, Earth was such an impeccably beautiful place, so innocent and frail, but her planet was destroying this place, building Kindergartens that literally sucked the life out of Earth, and for what, just because they could, it wasn't right, none of what Homeworld was doing was right. That's why Aqua agreed to join forces with Rose, she believed in Earth, she couldn't stand back and watch Homeworld destroy this place and all of the innocent lives that inhabited it, she just couldn't keep on pretending everything was alright, she wasn't like Lapis.
Lapis never believed in Earth, she didn't care what Homeworld did to it, or why they did it, in Lapis' eyes there was a reason for it, in Lapis' eyes Homeworld was always right. Aqua tried to show her the beauty, the innocence, everything that made Earth wonderful, but it's like Homeworld brain washed her into believing that destroying innocent lives was okay, but Aqua saw right through it, they don't care about gems, they just want more soldiers, more lives to protect them, if it wasn't for Rose she would've been shattered a long time ago because she had "no use" to them. "Well I thought all gems lives mattered, what a load of junk."
Aqua continued her search for Rose, hoping not to get lost in the huge home as she ventured around. Her gem was glowing slightly, she had no idea if it was from her or Lapis but that didn't matter right now, what mattered was finding Rose so she could get back to Pearl in time. She continued on, her boots thudding softly on the marble floors, then, as she was walking up the staircase, Aqua heard what sounded like two voices, one belonging to Rose and another to somebody else.
Curiosity got the best of her and she found herself shape shifting into a weird looking, blue, one eyed, kitten with a gem on it's face. She crept stealthily to where the hushed voices were coming from, her sensitive ears picking up their exact location.
"Rose I have to go, if I'm not at the stadium Topaz will get suspicious, and we can't afford anymore suspicions you know this." The voice sounded unnaturally calm and distressed at the same time.
"I know but I have to make sure you're safe Sapphire, I didn't want to bring you into this mess, but I did and now I don't know what might happen to you. You got people who care about you, Ruby would be heart broken if anything were to happen, you're one of my closest friends, I'm sorry I got you involved."
The blue gem, Sapphire, smiled, "I knew the risks when I agreed to help you Rose, nothing is going to change my mind, not even the countless possible futures I see, not even Ruby could stop me, I'll keep them distracted with the war talk while you get more gems to help, they won't know about your involvement, I'll make sure of it, even if I am found out."
Rose placed her hands on Sapphire's shoulder's, bringing her in for a hug. "Please just be careful, both of you mean so much to me." Sapphire fell into the hug, enjoying the comfort of the larger gem.
"By the way, it seems that we aren't alone." Sapphire raised her hushed voice and looked towards Aqua's hiding spot, Aqua returned to her original form, her gem glowing bright with embarrassment. "I'm so sorry Rose, I just heard voices and got curious, you know curiosity killed the cat and all that, he he." Aqua laughed nervously, hoping that curiosity wouldn't really kill the cat this time.
Rose approached the gem, her face was unreadable, showing absolutely no emotion. Sapphire stood behind, wondering what Rose would do or say to the gem, as there was countless possible futures of what could happen. Rose stood directly in front of her and raised her hand.
Aqua closed her eye, waiting for the sharp slap to come, she was surprised, however, to instead feel a gentle caress on the cheek.
"Curiosity is a natural reaction Aquamarine, we all feel the desire for it, but please, next time I ask that you wait until I'm done conversing, in situations like ours the less you know, the safer you are."
Aqua just nodded her head vigorously, relieved she didn't get punished, and stood up as quickly as she could. "Well I should go back Pearl's waiting for me." As she turned to leave however, Sapphire grabbed her arm with surprising strength.
"Before you go, I must advise you to be very careful, I see several possible futures, and not many come to a pleasant end, the one you care for may be in danger if you are reckless, what you do or say can destroy you both, trust me, it'll be safer to keep her in the dark, ignorance is bliss right?" Sapphire let go of Aqua and said her good byes to Rose, leaving an awkward silence between the two.
Rose broke the silence, "I'm sorry but I should get back to work, have fun with Pearl." She then turned and left, not noticing Aqua rolling her eyes, "Oh yeah, Pearl's just a bucket of fun, bossy, demanding, wonderful fun."
"What took you so long, you barely made it back in time, we have so much to do!" Aqua just walked to Pearl, putting on her armor in the process, "Yep, so much fun." Her armor was pretty simple, it covered mostly her torso area, it was very lightweight, which what was expected of practice armor, and was all dark blue, with a white diamond in the center.
"Okay now, if you would can you please summon your weapon?" Aqua nodded, her gem glowed brightly for a moment as she pulled a spiked war hammer out of it, the handle was a deep blue and fit perfectly in her hands, her gemstone was on the bottom, so it wouldn't effect her grip, the metal part of the hammer was spiked on each end with little etchings of fish and other random ocean life.
Pearl summoned her weapon, a blue spear with a white handle, and prepared for their practice. "Aren't you going to put on armor or something?" Pearl chuckled at Aqua, something that usually makes her feel like she said something stupid, "No, trust me you're the only one who's going to need any protection."
Before they could start however Aqua's gem started glowing bright, brighter than it ever glowed before. "Ugh can you put that thing out, I don't know about you but my time isn't exactly unlimited, I have other things to do." Aqua looked at her with a, like what, cleaning and obsessing over your leader, face.
"Something's not right, it's never glowed like this before, I think my friend might be in trouble or something, I have to go." Pearl looked at her, dumbstruck, "You can't just leave, we have a lot to do, besides even if she is in trouble what could you really do about it?" Aqua thought over Pearl's words, she really wouldn't be able to do anything, the D. A would punish them both.
"Yeah, you're right, let's just get this over with." Aqua launched at Pearl recklessly, not getting anywhere near her, instead she ended up in a pile of broken equipment. Pearl groaned, shaking her head, "We have so much work to do."
...
Practice continued on for awhile, some progress was made, Aqua learned how to control her weapon better and used actually technique instead of reckless launching, but through all the practice it seemed as though Aqua's gem never stopped glowing, which proved to be quite distracting as they moved on to sword practice.
Pearl was getting increasingly frustrated at the gem's distraction, she was messing up simple things she knew that Aqua was beyond exceptional at, her hits weren't hitting, she wasn't blocking well, and it seemed she was focused on her glowing gem throughout practice.
"Are you even focusing right now? You won't last one second in battle if you can't focus on level 4 sparring practice, now come on let's go again." Aqua didn't want to go again, she wanted to go home to Lapis, but she just picked up her sword, not saying a word and charged at Pearl. The swords clanged on each other, Pearl was slightly taken aback by Aqua's sudden force, but she composed herself quickly.
Aqua circled the gem, trying to find an opening in Pearl's defense, she found none yet, but she still took jabs here and there, hoping one would hit Pearl.
Aqua saw an opening and used a technique Pearl taught her before, she swept Pearl's legs, throwing her off balance and heading towards the ground. Pearl hit the ground with a thud, leaving Aqua to tower over her, she pointed her sword towards Pearl but she didn't strike her. "I win."
Pearl actually smiled as the other gem helped her to her feet. "I suppose you did, good work, you're now at level 5. Now, you are dismissed for the day, but I expect you to be back tomorrow, without distractions please." Aqua took off her armor and nodded, she was getting ready to leave when Pearl warned her. "Be careful by the way, Rose Quartz said the Diamond Authority was running patrols now." Again, Aqua nodded and left, trying to hurry back to Lapis.
It was late as she left, but she ran as fast as she could, she really didn't want to get caught by the D. A. It was pretty quiet, maybe too quiet actually, as Aqua was becoming more and more nervous her gem glowed even brighter. "Crap, not a good time gem come on shut off." While she was trying to dim the gem, she heard what sounded like thumping footsteps, she froze, hoping the gem was dim enough to not be noticed, and just as she thought it was safe, she felt a rather large hand on her shoulder.
Aqua looked up to see bright orange, cat like eyes and a bright white mane of hair, a large fang like smile was slathered on her face as she looked down upon the smaller gem. "Well hello night light, I bet you're happy to see me."