Chapter 5: Reunion
"Jade was just like the rest of us. She was a Gem who thought that she had only one purpose in life and that she was bound to it. That was until we intervened. She was on a mission with several other gems to survey the Earth in preparation for construction. We knew of the risk that the information to Homeworld would cause so we shot down her ship. We thought that we had taken care of all who were on board, but it turned out that Jade managed to get escape. From there she wandered, trying to find a way off the planet while also evading us. Like what Peridot did, except we didn't even know she was there.
At first she paid no attention to the planet or anything on it. But as time went on she quickly realized how amazing the Earth was. From the sights there were to see to the variety of creatures that inhabited it. It wasn't before long that she started to change. No longer bound by Homeworld, a new side of her surfaced from her now limitless freedom. If you ask her she'll most likely describe it as being reborn. Soon, she started to forget about going back to Homeworld and wanted to see what else Earth had to offer.
We eventually located her by complete accident. Rose said that one day she found her sleeping alongside a tribe of humans she befriended. Rose didn't even consider capturing her as she could tell Jade had fallen in love with Earth. And after having a small talk with Jade about why the planet needed to be saved, Jade officially became a Crystal Gem.
Then came the day when a Homeworld search group was sent to look for the Gems who went missing on the ship we shot down. When Jade went with them we thought that she had only pretended to be on our side until her rescue. And we worried about all the new information that she would tell Homeworld.
But it turned out to be a good thing that she returned to Homeworld. She helped spread Rose's message and encouraged other Gems to join the rebellion. Soon enough Gems started to sneak away to see the Earth for themselves and become Crystal Gems. Which led to Sunstone joining our side."
"As you already know many gems were captured and or shattered during the war. That left many without those who they've come to see as close friends. Or...more than that. So many gems were left broken, mentally that is, by such loss. But just when gems were starting to give up...Sunstone came along and joined the cause. She too lost many of her friends during the war, but she never let that bother her too much.
"That only means that we have to make whatever time we do have extra special."
That's why she'd always run off with other gems to enjoy the planet we were fighting for, even when we got mad at her for it. It's hard, even to this day, to ever recall a time that she was serious outside of when we were fighting. Every other time she had a smile on her face as she revived some of the hope lost through all the fighting. She had the hands to hold when the one who once held them was gone. The shoulder to cry on for as long as you needed. The patience ears that could listen to a rant that lasted a thousand years. The smile that stood longer than any wall. And eyes that always shined with enthusiasm that told you everything would be okay.
She was a special gem who always found a reason to smile, even on the worst of days. That very smile she was able to pass on to other gems. Along with that, before each battle, she'd spread this message to as many gems as she could.
"If I don't come back, there is still a Sun in the sky that should drive you to smile."
That's how a lot of gems were able to go on after she was shattered."
"This planet is so weird." Agate thought as she continued to look toward the sky.
When first spotting them Agate had tried to be subtle in her observations. As to not give her "companions" any indication that anything on this dirtball interested her. But as more and more continued to go by she eventually gave into her desires and forced their head in their direction. Jade and Sunstone, many times, attempted to question what she was doing. Only to give ultimately give up trying when each attempt was met with no indication that Agate was actually listening. So with the risk of them falling over at any moment high, they walked in silence.
The silence was inwardly appreciated as Agate strained every last bit of thought trying to figure out what exactly she was seeing. As far as she knew or, at the time of the war cared, the Earth was solely inhabited by humans. Yet every few minutes she would see these other creatures flying high above in the air. Somehow they were able to execute a motion similar to a gem's water wings despite being organic life. At first she was sure that they weren't even organic at all, but instead some miniature piloted ship with a questionable motive of flight. It wasn't until many of them made a strange honking noise, which Sunstone labeled as "cute", that made her turn away from that idea. And even then they flew in patterns that said otherwise. In an almost perfect bent formation that was sometimes broken, only to be reformed again soon after.
Then there were these creatures that preferred to fly a set distance from another. Agate had even mentally counted and, indeed, the creatures would fly the same distance apart from each other. What made it even stranger was that none of them had to perform the repetitive task of the up and down motions to stay in the air. It was all so odd, and yet at the same time fascinating.
As much as Jade appreciated Agate not using their mouth to scream, the alternative wasn't as preferred. Her eye was starting to hurt from straining to look forward. And if they actually had a heart, it would have stopped in the several times Jade felt her foot slip on the edge of the cliff they were passing. She tried on several occasions to move their head back down. Only to end up in a fierce tug of war with Agate, who refused to lose. It really made Jade wonder what exactly had completely engulfed Agate's attention. But the fear of falling off a cliff from their lack of awareness weighed more on the scale of importance to her.
"Um...Agate?" Jade asked, though half expecting no reply as before.
To her surprise Agate unexpectedly, as well as unnervingly, replied in a calm tone.
"Yeah?"
"...Is there any reason why you're not letting us look where we're going?"
Agate's eye went wide, and her mind worked double time to weave an excuse together.
"I...uh...r-refuse to look at this dirtball any longer!"
Jade seemed to buy into the lie as her eye rolled once more.
"Really Agate, that's just-"
Their mouth was forced shut, leaving the remainder of Jade's words muffled. When Jade tried to reopen their mouth Sunstone's finger indicated for them to be silent. When all was quiet their head tilted slightly to a noise all three were now able to hear more clearly. In the distance they could just barely hear a sound similar to a gem being poofed. Following that was a snide laughter along with an equally snarky yell of "Not this time!"
"What in the name of the Diamond's-"
With the focus deviated from the sky they were able to look down into the ravine and see two gems. One looked to be an Amethyst, but was strangely the size of an Ruby. The other was a Pearl dressed rather fancy for her gem's standards. Squinting they were able just barely able to see the Pearl's gem placement along with the confident smile not many of her gemstone had.
"Is that...Pearl?!" Jade asked in disbelief.
A grin, stemming mostly from Sunstone, grew on their face.
"She's okay? That's so great!"
A soft chuckle started coming from them, and Jade and Sunstone wondered why their smile started to twist maliciously.
"Agate?"
Their gem started to glow and Agate held her hand over it.
"How long I've waited for this chance..."
Jade quickly put the pieces together and her eyes gained a look of horror.
"Agate no!"
She and Sunstone grabbed Agate's wrist and forced it away before she could grab the chain of her weapon. Expectantly Agate resisted, and it took Jade and Sunstone's combined strength to keep her hand away.
"Let go of me traitors!" she commanded.
They still refused, and their one gem fight started forcing them into yanks and twirls. That proved near fatal when Agate's foot slipped off the edge. With nothing in reach to grab they each screamed as they fell. Just when they thought that they were gonna be sent back to square one, a piece of luck was finally sent their way. Their back hit the ground and they just missed the rock below, their feet resting on the boulder while they recovered from impact.
Amethyst jumped and her eyes widened at the sound of the fall. Looking over to the origin she spotted a pair of legs and an arm sticking out from behind a rock. Smirking, and with a snap, her whip shot out toward the rock.
Several groans came out of their mouth along with "Ow's" laced into it. Agate rubbed the side of their head while Jade tried to get proper grounding with their arm.
"Is everyone okay?"
Agate opened her eye just to glare at the question. "We share a body. I think we'd all know if one of us got hurt."
"Still I like to-"
Suddenly the rope of the whip tightly wrapped around them, pinning Jade and Sunstone's arm to their waist.
"What the-?"
Was all Jade had the chance to say before they were snatched from behind the rock.
"Coming your way P!"
Pearl spun around and held out her spear, ready for whatever monster that was being launched toward her. Screams once more broke out and scared off the nearby birds. Said screams would have been silenced if not for Agate's foot going up at the last moment and kicking the spear out of Pearl's hand. No longer having the spear as her barrier Pearl dodged just in time to avoid collision. Their body hit the ground and slid until Amethyst's whip yanked them to a stop.
Their eyes reopened with their irises shrunken from the trauma. Driven further by the spear that plunged blade first into the ground just a few inches away from them. With her mind still attempting to get back on track Jade just said the only thing her thoughts were able to produce.
"Nice reflex."
"Thanks." Agate replied, still too in shock to give any other answer.
The shadow's of Pearl and Amethyst fell over them. Agate, being the first to truly snap back into reality, was the only one to notice.
"What in the...?" Pearl started to say, but was unable to finish with how puzzled she was.
Amethyst, on the other hand, was only slightly fazed at the mutant laying in front of her.
"This is the weirdest looking one yet."
Offended, Agate sat their body up and shouted "Hey! It's not my fault that-"
The moment the other two eyes got a good look at the Gems, Pearl specifically for Jade and Sunstone, Agate's frown was overshadowed by a smile. With each gem taking their turn to put their two cents in on the situation.
"Pearl!"
"It's really you!"
"We'll look what we have here. The defective Pearl and...what's this? Some runt Quartz gem?"
"Agate be nice!" Jade snapped.
"Don't tell me what I can and can't say traitor!" Agate snapped back.
Pearl and Amethyst were now both baffled from their backseat of the back and forth dispute. They looked at each other, Amethyst shrugged, then looked back at the arguing gems. Both noting Sunstone's eye which had yet to look away from them, and now had tears going down it. Then in the small moment between Agate's finishing statement and Jade's turn to speak Sunstone yelled out.
"Pearl it's so great to see you again!"
All eyes were now on Pearl who didn't look too keen on being put in the spotlight.
"Um Pearl, you know it?" Amethyst asked.
"I...don't think so?"
They looked crushed, until Jade realized that Pearl was only skimming over their form without paying attention to detail. There was still a chance and Jade took it.
"Pearl it's me Jade! Look into my..."
Jade made an attempt to point to her eye only to remember it being tied down by the whip.
"A little help?"
Agate's eye rolled and her hand pointed to Jade's eye.
"Thanks" Jade said before holding her eye closer to Agate's finger as she looked up to Pearl.
"Pearl look into my eye and see that it's me! It's Jade!"
Pearl only gave them a nervous smile until it fell when she really stared into Jade's eye. For a moment she could almost see a Jade giving her a teasing smile for what was the last time. Pearl's face fell into shock as her eyes began to fill up with tears.
"Jade?"
They smiled and soon Jade's eye couldn't help but to full up with tears of it's own.
"Yes!"
Pearl got down on her knees and started to reach out to them before stopping half way.
"Jade! I...can't believe it. What happened to you?"
"We're a clustered fusion now." Jade explained, pushing their shoulder out to show off their gem.
Pearl gasped as she saw gemstone on their arm. Instantly noticing the once three gemstones forced to be one.
"W-Who else is in there?"
Sunstone, her tears once again flowing, smiled as she choked her words out.
"When the...sky is grey and...and you're feeling low. Go to the river and find your..."
"Sunstone..." Pearl said along with her.
They nodded. That only widened Pearl's smile and she threw her arms around them. Since their arm was still trapped Jade and Sunstone merely rested their head on Pearl's shoulder.
"I'm so glad that you two are alright! Albeit mostly."
"Good to see you too Pearl."
"Don't touch me you broken display case!" Agate demanded, killing the warm hearted moment.
Pearls eyes widened and she pulled away.
"Who said that?"
"That's Agate. She's the other one in here." Sunstone explained while using their shoulder to wipe away some of the tears.
"Against my will." Agate added.
Jade rolled her eye. "She's...not a Crystal Gem."
Pearl placed her hand over her mouth and stood back up.
"I see..."
A thick layer of awkward was now draped over them all. The silence that accompanied it would have lasted longer if not for Agate speaking up.
"Can you untie us now?"
Amethyst nodded and her whip glowed before disintegrating. She and Pearl watched as the three slowly got onto their hands and knees before sliding their legs under them. Pearl could see the discomfort in their stiff and semi-coordinated movements in something as simple as getting up.
"Garnet's not gonna be happy about this..." she said quietly.
As the three were dusting themselves off Sunstone heard what Pearl said and beamed.
"Garnet's okay too? That's great!"
"It'll be great to see the power couple again!" Jade added.
"More like the disgrace of fusion."
Ignoring that Jade followed up with "And what about Rose? Is she still around too?"
That actually sparked interest into Agate "Yes...where is Rose Quartz?" She asked as she reached for their gem, only for Jade to slap her hand down.
What they got in response confused all three of them. Both Gems stared off into different directions while looks of sustained grief fell upon their faces.
"Yeah...about that..." Amethyst started, but could find no way to finish.
When Pearl looked at them Sunstone became the most worried. She knew that look far too well. The same look that other gems had given her when they lost someone close.
"You...three might want to sit down."