Yellow's work is long, and she feels more tired than she has ever been. She memorizes diagrams to distract herself as she files things away, but finds no satisfaction in it.
She tries to understand Blue's rationale and fails. She tries again. She wants to stop trying, but it is all she can focus on. Perhaps something inside of Blue really is defective, after all this time she has spent spreading stories about renegade Pearls in hopes of making a difference. Or perhaps…perhaps this really is her twisted way of honoring the ones that have been shattered. Perhaps it is not a rationale so much as a feeling.
It doesn't matter, she tells herself. They won't speak again.
It is later, much later, when she processes the new information. Earth, again. Her Diamond has some kind of preoccupation with the planet, one that seems almost irrational, but she is Yellow Diamond and she is not supposed to be irrational. When Yellow sees the latest reports, she has to look twice before she believes it.
Another Red Eye had been sent, to catalogue what was happening on that far away planet, and while this one had been destroyed as well, it had managed to transmit a fair amount of information back to Homeworld before it went offline.
Information that contained evidence of, amongst other things, a Pearl.
Blue's Pearl, the Pearl she tells stories about and seems to worship.
She stares at the image—Yellow Diamond has stepped out briefly and she's alone in the control room. The Pearl's gem is imperfect, an oval centered on her forehead and not the circle most Pearls have. There is a spear in her hand. She is different from the projections, but she is unmistakable.
Before she knows it, she is memorizing all the information in the file. Before she knows it, she is erasing every trace of its existence. Before she knows it, she has betrayed her Diamond.
Her rest cycle is soon, she tells herself, looking at the date in the corner of the screen. Her rest cycle is soon, and it is all she can think about. She mindlessly sorts the other files, the unimportant ones, because none of those contain the Pearl.
As soon as the time comes, she is rushing out of the control room, finding it hard, for the first time, to keep the even controlled pace of a Pearl. Thankfully the hallways are near empty and the only ones she passes are Pearls headed to the same destination.
She finds Blue immediately and makes the tiniest gesture telling her to join Yellow in their usual location. She doesn't respond.
Yellow gestures again, then makes their small, understood sign for emergency.
That gets her moving. They settle beside one another and do not make eye contact. They do not speak until the lights have been dimmed for some time and most of the other Pearls are resting.
Then, suddenly, Blue's fingers are clinging to hers, trembling against her skin. "Tell me."
Yellow wants to push her away, feeling sick and wrong and defective. She has failed as the Pearl she was made to be, and she does not know where that leaves her. She is a fool, she thinks. She is such a fool, and all she can think to do is run back to this Pearl she doesn't understand.
"Please."
Yellow turns her hand and grips Blue's tightly. She wants to answer, wants to blurt out what she's seen, but first she has to know, has to get all of the dark things out of the space between them. "I need you to explain properly about…about the…"
She nods, just barely, and steadies their hands. "It's a ritual."
"A ritual?"
"On…On some planets, like Earth, there is a tradition the organic inhabitants often have for their dead. They hold ceremonies, and they put them in the ground…put up something to remember them by…" She hesitates. "I can never get away long enough to do something like that, but one day…one day I will. I'll make sure they are destroyed together, and I'll mark the place where I do it so they're not forgotten." She leans forward so that they are nearly nose to nose. "I know it's strange, and I shouldn't have startled you like that. I just want you to understand. I'm sorry."
Yellow is not used to apologies, but this one settles into her skin peacefully like warmth. She understands a bit more now—not completely, she doesn't think she'll ever understand completely—but she can see there is no malice in the strangeness and Blue is the same Blue she always has been. "I'm sorry too," she replies honestly, and she wants to say more but her head is still spinning with everything that has just happened. If she had her way, she would have much preferred being able to discuss their last conversation and sort through things, but she is a Pearl who does not have that luxury right now, not when there are bigger problems to be dealt with.
She can feel Blue's eyes on her, even though she can't see them, and she can tell she knows there are more than just apologies that they need to share. "…Thank you. But that wasn't an emergency."
"I found her," she whispers hurriedly. She cups her hands around her gem, blocking the light from the rest of the room. Small images of the file flash up, and she zooms in on the Pearl with a spear and a determined smile.
Blue stares, unmoving. The beginnings of tears start to drip from under her long bangs. "How?" she whispers finally.
"I don't know. There are others. An Amethyst, some kind of fusion, and another one I don't recognize. That Peridot is with them too." Yellow shuts the projection off.
"Oh my stars, she's—she's alive." Feverish laughter tries to escape her throat, and she manages to force it back. "After all this time. I-I never thought…"
"I deleted the file," Yellow says, because she doesn't have the time or the patience right now to deal with emotions.
Her head jerks up. "What?"
"I just…I deleted it," she repeats. "If Yellow Diamond saw, she would have…"
"Yellow, no, why would you risk—"
"I'm cracked anyway," she whispers. "I'm going to be shattered soon, I can tell, things have changed. She's just looking for an excuse." The reassurances do not calm either of them, and she feels herself trembling.
"But you…"
"At—At least this way they won't go after her, right? For a little while?"
"You're insane," Blue says, looking conflicted. She grabs at both of her hands and holds them in a death grip. "You know you have to be more careful than that, you've always known that. Why?"
Yellow doesn't know. She hasn't known anything since Blue showed her that first projection, just that nothing she knows about Pearls and about herself is real.
"We have to get out of here."
She freezes, having expected to hear some kind of goodbye. Instead, she is receiving something else entirely. "What?"
"I said we have to get out."
"What?"
"Shh." Blue inches closer. "If we can get to Earth, maybe she can help us. All of us."
"You're the insane one; there's no way we could get to Earth, it's galaxies away!"
"But we could try."
"Even if we get there, there's no guarantee she can do anything—"
"Then we'll find another way, if she can't." Blue watches her closely from under her bangs. "Please. We have nothing to lose anymore."
"I thought you wanted to keep telling Pearls about her."
"I thought you said that hope is no good without action behind it." She smiles faintly. "You were right. So let's do something. Together."
"Blue—"
"I have dreamed for millennia about getting even one chance to see her again. If I can do that, and if I can do anything for Pearls…" She touches her gem lightly. "That's what I'm for."
A Pearl, deciding her own purpose. Yellow finds herself smiling, and doesn't understand it all because she ought to be scared or upset or resigned to her own fate. Instead, she is looking at a Pearl that has overturned every assumption she has ever made about her own kind. A Pearl who is offering her a chance in return for the dangerous favor she had done without thinking. She doesn't regret it at all.
She is shattered, and she is free, and whatever she chooses—she can choose now—will be worth it.
And, even from the beginning, there has never been any doubt that she will choose this.
She looks at the Pearl that once terrified her—still does, in some ways—and sees the urgency on her face and the anxiety in her tightly-wrapped fingers and the care in all of it. She is a Pearl, only a Pearl, always a Pearl, but there is someone who cares and who does not want to see her die.
She answers the only way she knows how, with a straight back and stiff shoulders and every ounce of pride she can muster.
"Yes."
They plan quickly. They will need a ship, they will need to avoid whatever forces are sent after them, they will need to provide evidence of their destruction so that the Pearls here will not be punished for their actions.
Yellow finds the ship that will be best suited for their escape—a large one, to grab attention, but more importantly one that holds a sizeable escape pod, able to function on its own.
Blue leaves the planning to her and stands, hands fluttering above her head to get every Pearl's attention. They look up at her, startled.
She doesn't dare raise her voice loud enough for all of them to hear, so she communicates in simple gestures and projections. Points to herself and Yellow, shows them a picture of a ship taking off, a brief flicker of Earth and then holds on a picture of the renegade Pearl.
Most of them know this image, and it brings a light to their eyes. For the ones that do not know, she plays the memory over, letting it flicker onto the wall as she carefully shields the light from going towards the door.
Blue touches Yellow's arm when it is finished and gestures for her to show them the more recent image of the renegade Pearl, which she does in haste.
She has never seen a group of Pearls look so present, buzzing with energy in the almost perfect silence of the room.
Blue gets their attention again, points to the two of them and the renegade, shows the ship again, and then Homeworld. They will come back, she tells them, her hands clenched in excitement. She mouths "rebellion" and motions to the room at large.
There are too many silent reactions to take in, and Yellow pulls Blue back down to the ground to whisper her plan into her ear. Blue nods, then holds out her hand, waits for Yellow to slide her cold fingers over her own, before holding out the other to the Pearl on her left.
The Pearl stares at it for a moment, then touches her gem lightly before her fingers find their way to Blue's. I will stand with you, her eyes say. She holds out a hand to the next Pearl.
Gradually, each and every one does the same, wordlessly pledging loyalty to a rebellion they had never expected to be a part of. A circle of Pearls that weaves imperfectly back and forth around the room, connected.
Yellow is smiling again, holding hands with Blue and the other Pearl she always sits with, who looks strong and unshaken for once. They are all strong in this moment—they are together. They are all alive and brave and a little bit reckless.
They are all Pearls.