It went, unlike most of Zircon's shenanigans so far, surprisingly well.

Cranberry Tourmaline listened patiently, with the forehead-gem Raspberry Quartz at her side. Neither spoke. Carefully, Zircon explained her defense — beginning with how Rose Quartz could not have come close to Pink Diamond's Palanquin, how Pink Diamond had been drawn outside by someone she trusted, how it was quite possible that someone else had framed Rose Quartz and covered it up later. Raspberry Quartz bit her lip at this, and Zircon caught Cranberry Tourmaline's hand slipping into Raspberry's under the cover of the desk. Zircon didn't say anything. It was clearly painful to hear this; she couldn't blame them.

When she finished, they were very quiet. Then Cranberry Tourmaline stood up and faced the window. "Raspberry, take her to the recovery bay," she said shortly, clasping her hands behind her.

Zircon felt a little insensitive about asking, but she knew the curiosity would kill her if she didn't. "Will you send the report to Blue Diamond?"

"I'll consider it," she responded distantly. Before Zircon could say any more, Raspberry Quartz hurried her out of Cranberry's office and down the corridors again.

She took Zircon to what seemed to be a recovery bay, which held one poofed raspberry quartz on a pillow and another haplessly attempting to grow back all four limbs. Zircon took a cot at the far end of the room, away from the two so as to discourage stares (the quadriplegic still did).

"Fix yourself up," said Raspberry Quartz tersely. "Don't bother running. I'm staying here."

And stay she did. She took the cot next to Zircon, and tucked her arms behind her curly mass of hair.

So Zircon rested.

The recovery bay was warm and dry, with a slow fan providing soothing white noise. But it took a while to truly relax. First Zircon had to deal with the lingering anxiety that came with rest time, the trained response of having only an hour between cases — well, that was pointless; she had no job. No more cases. She could rest as long as she liked. The absence was numbing, almost as if she was the one missing limbs.

Then there was the anxiety of now. Cranberry Tourmaline wasn't treating her like a prisoner. She had seemed pretty upset by Zircon's defense of Rose Quartz, but it wasn't angry; just sad. Then there was the fact that Cranberry wanted her to recover. Why do that if she was just being carted off to be harvested? No, Cranberry wasn't such a capricious variable. Neither were her quartzes. Blue Diamond, though — now there was a wild card.

But the fan kept humming. The lights dimmed, as if sensing that she was at rest. So the muscles in her shoulders relaxed, and her fists unclenched, and she rested.

After everything stopped aching, which was about a day in, Raspberry Quartz gave her a wet towel to wash off her grime. Then Zircon got to work patching up her outfit. As her energy trickled back, she fixed the jumpsuit strap, patched up the holes, and repaired her tattered pants — and by the end of the third day, she got her headscarf back (praise the stars).

At the beginning of the fourth day, she tried for her jacket and felt it tingling just out of reach.

Today, she was almost alone in the recovery bay. The poofed gem had reformed and the quadriplegic had healed long ago, leaving only the raspberry quartz officer and Zircon. Every once in a while, a poofed or damaged quartz would come in, but she always left the same day. Only Zircon stayed this long. So when the door opened, Zircon didn't even look up, assuming it to be another unlucky quartz. The clack of heels on tile told her otherwise.

"Blue Zircon," said Cranberry Tourmaline.

Startled, Zircon sat up. At some point, Raspberry Quartz had stood and saluted.

"At ease," said Cranberry. Raspberry dropped the salute, but the last thing Zircon wanted to be right now was at ease. Cranberry subtly fingered her shiny bracelets. "How...um…how have you been recovering?"

"Slowly," Zircon replied uncertainly. "I…don't look half-cracked."

Cranberry gave a weak smile. "She's been very cooperative," Raspberry Quartz put in. "She'll be fully recovered by the end of the rotation."

The smile dropped. Cranberry's fingering became anxious fiddling. "Alright. Thank you. But — I — Raspberry, I need to speak with you in private. Now. Leave Zircon here."

Raspberry nodded. As Cranberry rushed out of the room, Raspberry turned and nudged Zircon's chin up, forcing their eyes to meet.

"Stay here, or I'll bash your skull in with your own foot," Raspberry told her, in no uncertain terms. Then she followed Cranberry out.

It was the last time Zircon would see them safe. But she didn't know that until her window shattered four hours later.

She had been reclining on her cot, trying to reach for her jacket, and wondering absentmindedly when Cranberry and Raspberry were going to be done speaking. She'd almost gotten the jacket and had no answers for the question.

Then, there was a sound so close and loud that she actually fell off the platform — a window near the ceiling exploded, as if someone had thrown a boulder through it. Except instead of a boulder, it was a pink-and-orange blur.

Zircon stared in abject horror at the thing that landed face-first on the floor, amidst a shower of glass shards. No...no, it was two things. The larger one, a skinny pink being (a pearl?), had a smaller, poofy orange one on its back. The orange one stood up first.

A sapphire?

"Lars! I'm certain you'll make the jump. We will infiltrate the tourmaline's facility mostly unharmed!" said the sapphire brightly. The pink being groaned.

"Thanks, Pad," it grumbled, pushing itself up. Alright, there was no way that was a pearl. In fact, it almost sounded like…

The thing turned around, and their gazes locked.

"What the — " it yelped. Before Zircon could act, it reached to its — to its hair? — and pulled out an oddly-shaped metal club.

"You're the human!" Zircon cried.

The only problem being its coloration. From what she could remember, the human had been an odd shade of orange. This "Lars" was pink. But it didn't deny it, just glared.

"Yeah, I'm 'the human' — and you're that blue moon lawyer-thing! Oh, just so you know, you pissed off those Diamond ladies and almost got me and Steven killed."

Blue moon lawyer-thing? Steven? Pissed off? Zircon wasn't sure what "pissed" was, but the meaning was clear enough. "I — what are you doing here?"

Before the Lars could answer, the sapphire gasped. "Oh no! When we break through the window, we will find an old enemy of Lars!"

"What — I'm not an enemy!"

"Really?" asked the sapphire, perfectly sincere. Then the Lars lowered its club and put its hand on her shoulder.

"Pad, we have to go," it told the sapphire. "We're not here for her. Get on my back."

As disconnected as the sapphire seemed, she understood the Lars' command, and when Lars knelt, she held on tight to its back and they set off to the door. But only as they disappeared into the corridor, a realization hit Zircon.

"Wait!" she yelped. "I need to know what happened to — "

She never finished. Right before she burst out into the corridor, a horde of raspberry quartzes stampeded past — close enough that Zircon felt the wind. The head Raspberry Quartz's words came back in sudden clarity: "Stay here, or I'll bash your skull in with your own feet."

So she sat. She picked a different recovery cot, as her original one was covered in glass shards. It was probably for the best…the trained patrol quartzes probably had a better chance of finding two intruders than Zircon did. As soon as Cranberry Tourmaline and Raspberry Quartz returned, Zircon could ask to see and interrogate the Lars creature —

That was when the door opened again. It was neither Cranberry nor Raspberry — for that matter, the quartzes who entered weren't even pink. They were blue quartzes. Aqua aura quartzes, imperial soldiers, closest to Blue Diamond, each wearing a mirrored gold visor. Some scattered throughout the recovery bay, overturning cots and gutting supply cabinets; two headed straight for Zircon.

"Wait, what are you doing?" was all Zircon could get out. Two aqua quartzes grabbed her arms and pulled her off her cot. "I — ah — I have been granted asylum by Blue Diamond, I demand that you let me speak to this facility's tourmaline — "

"Cranberry Tourmaline has been deemed unsuitable for service. We'll be your escorts from now on."

Zircon wasn't sure which one had spoken. But the voice was laced with ice, and sent a chill down Zircon's spine.

She wanted to ask if it had anything to do with Rose Quartz's pink human and the orange sapphire…or the conversation Cranberry had pulled Raspberry Quartz out for. She had seemed unusually on-edge, as if someone had just found out a terrible secret…

Zircon wanted to ask so many questions. It was, like she'd told Yellow Zircon, written in her gem, and it had never been so pertinent until now. Things were fitting together, just out of reach…just outside protocol.

It occurred to her like a chill down the spine: perhaps, to get what she wanted, she could no longer play by the rules.


aaaand there goes the berry team again

they will be back! as will lars and paddy! EVERYONE IS COMING BACK!

(except shadow agate)
(maybe. who knows)