Chorus

Chapter Twelve

Note: I haven't seen any of the newer episodes, although I've gotten a lot of messages asking me to watch the latest one. I'll get around to it at some point, hopefully this week. I finally have some downtime and when I haven't written anything in a while, I get a bit antsy.

…..

The whole time Steven argued with Garnet, Orthoclase was watching from her chair with a mildly amused half-grin. Amethyst was uncharacteristically subdued, she idled by the door, looking like she desperately wanted to leave.

"We can't leave," Steven growled for what felt like the hundredth time. "We're so close to finding her..."

"Every second we spend here puts us in danger," Garnet hissed back (again). "You've compromised us...I understand what you;re trying to do..."

"Then why can't you understand we have to stay? We worked so hard to put this together!"

"All right," Orthoclase finally interjected. "As much fun as it's been to see you hash this out all cycle, I can't let you waste any more of my time."

"Stay out of this," Garnet told her sternly. "It has nothing to do with you."

"Like slag it doesn't," Orthoclase laughed mockingly. "The pebble here put my entire operation at risk and cost me a few thousand credits' worth of jobs. Not to mention what he's done to my pearl..."

Alarmed, Steven glanced over at Ginger, but she didn't look any different than she normally did.

"If you drag him away now, it was all for nothing. And I have been assured that if there's any chance your missing pearl can be found, this is about the only way to do it safely. Right?"

She turned her head towards Ginger, who nodded.

"You've made it here, there's been nothing on the bulletins about a rogue Amethyst and a fusion wandering around Homeworld. Not yet anyway..." she continued. "Most bulletins are still concentrating on those Jaspers that got shattered, so this is about the safest time to go wandering around Homeworld. Why not stay and lend us an extra hand or two?"

"Maybe...if we..." Amethyst spoke up, hesitantly.

"NO," Garnet ground out. "Our decision is final. We are going."

That awful sick feeling rose in Steven's stomach. Even Amethyst looked distraught, and stern as she was Garnet was clearly upset.

All those pearls...we dragged them away for nothing...

"Orthoclase brought you here," Ginger spoke up, rising to her feet. "She had me cover you with nanobytes to conceal your identities. If you wish to leave Homeworld, we cannot stop you, but we also cannot help you leave."

Orthoclase's half-grin grew into a full, exceptionally pleased one.

"You won't make it past the checkpoints without us," Ginger continued in that flat monotone. "Even if you unfuse, a Ruby outside working hours and a Sapphire outside the cloisters will be instantly clocked. The Amethyst has a slightly better chance, but she's not registered to a squad and is therefore illegally squatting."

Garnet's mouth opened and closed, without words. Fear filled Amethyst's face, but there was a hint of something else in her posture. Relief.

"She's right," Orthoclase sighed. "I can't say I'd be much obliged to help you, especially since you barged into my workshop and started ordering every gem around. Maybe it's in your best interests to let us keep going."

Defeated, Garnet struggled for words a few more times, before she gave up and stormed away towards the back of the workshop. Steven started to go after her, but Amethyst stopped him.

"Give her a few minutes," she said, sounding exhausted. "I'll talk to her in a bit."

"Okay," Steven sighed. "Sorry. I just...I wanted to..."

"I know," Amethyst cut in. "I understand what you were trying to do, just...did you really have to do it like this? Did you even think about how worried we'd be?"

"I did, I really did," he assured her. "But it seemed like we weren't any closer to finding Pearl, and then the offcolour pearl said she knew someone who could help, so it seemed like a good idea. I didn't expect it to take this long, but..."

"Steven," Amethyst cut in again. "How long do you think you've been gone?"

"Hm? I dunno...a few weeks?"

"It's been three months."

He nearly choked on his own breath. Three months?

How is that even possible?

"Time moves differently here," Amethyst explained. "Everyone in Beach City was pretty frantic. We tried to explain that you were probably offworld, but they had search parties and everything. Your Dad was on TV..."

"I'm sorry," Steven said, though it felt like he could never say it enough now. "I didn't mean to...I mean, I didn't want..."

"I know. It's fine," she cut across him once more. "We'll handle that when we get back. Don't worry about it. Now, tell me about this plan you've been working on."

…..

Towards the end of telling Amethyst all about the chorus, the pearls he'd met and all the other gems he'd come across in the last three months, Ginger emerged from one of the back rooms of the workshop and placed a beaker of that murky stuff in front of him without a word. He knocked it back, while Amethyst watched with a single raised eyebrow.

"Ginger made it for me," he explained. "I didn't bring enough food..."

"She made it?"

"Yeah, she's really nice," Steven said. "She doesn't talk much...actually, none of the pearls talk much."

"Okay," Amethyst shrugged. "Why is she called Ginger? I thought gems just called their pearls Pearl."

"Oh, I started calling her that. 'Cos Pearl is Pearl, right? I thought it would get confusing. She doesn't mind. I had to name all the other ones too..."

"Just how many are there?" Amethyst asked. Her expression was hard to make sense of...disgust? Apprehension?

"Well, we needed fifty...so at first we just had Ginger, then we got the Disney pearls," he said, counting on his fingers. "And we picked up Bunny at the Jasper barracks, so that makes eight. Oh, and Alice at the Lapis' mansion, Blinky and Murder Pearl...I don't know if Murder Pearl's going to be in the chorus though..."

"Murder Pearl?" Amethyst questioned with a wince.

"Yeah, I didn't really name her," he admitted. "But it's okay, as long as Ginger's around she won't hurt anyone unless she's ordered to. Oh, and then we had to go steal a whole load of pearls from the processing plant, and we got...forty-two, I think?"

"Did you name all of those ones, too?"

"Yep! There's Fern and Belle and Wisteria and Blackberry and Minnie and Daisy...they're seed pearls, they're like this tall...and Willow and...

"Steven," Amethyst interjected. "I was kidding. You really named them all?"

"Well, yeah," he shrugged bashfully.

"Okay. So then, this Orthoclase...she seems all right?"

"Yes! I mean, I would never have gotten this far without her."

"She's a criminal, you know that, right?" Amethyst continued. "I mean, I've never been on Homeworld but even I can tell she's mixed up in some really deep stuff. What made you trust her?"

"She had no reason to help me," Steven explained. "She did it because Ginger wanted to. And I mean, I know what she does is against the law but sometimes she does it for good reasons..."

"Fine," Amethyst sighed. "If you think she can be trusted, we'll do what she wants us to. I just hope you're right."

…..

Whatever was going through Garnet's mind, Steven didn't find out. She was probably too upset to talk to him right now, which was understandable but still stung a bit. Amethyst went with him and Ginger to Lapis' mansion to check in on the chorus pearls.

Even through the nanobytes, Steven saw Amethyst wince when Ginger's jaw was cracked at the checkpoint.

"What, do they think you're smuggling valuables down your throat?" she laughed when Ginger was released. "How much can you even fit down there?"

She trailed off awkwardly when Ginger didn't respond to her joking.

"Pearls won't open their mouths on command," Steven whispered to her. "That's why they have to use the forceps."

"That's messed up," Amethyst muttered.

It was barely scratching the surface of messed up, but Steven decided to leave it at that.

Alice answered the door for them, and Steven found himself scanning her for signs that she was upset. He'd been worrying ever since they left the cycle before that he had inadvertently ruined her life, but if he had he couldn't see it in her facial expression or her posture.

But that's no help at all. They're too good at hiding things.

A silvery melody rang through the air as they were brought into the main chamber. It sounded like a small orchestra playing flutes, violin and piano in unison but he knew now that it was the work of one instrument, and one gem.

Dowager Lapis sat at her beloved symphonaria, idly playing with one hand while instructing the seed pearl standing on her toes on the little stage.

"Don't think of yourself as a string," she scolded but gently. "You little ones are pipes. You are full of air, bring the air out. Try again!"

"That's Tinkerbell," Steven whispered to Amethyst, pointing at the seed pearl. "And that's the Lapis I was telling you about. I fixed her gem for her so she can play again."

Indeed, the Dowager Lapis had up until then reminded him of a woman in her late eighties, an aging patrician. Suddenly it seemed like the years had fallen off of her. Tinkerbell did as she was told, rapidly spinning on her toes while singing a vibrato scale.

"Much better, but your breath control still needs work," Lapis told her, then beckoned to Alice. "Show her how it's done, please."

Alice climbed into the toe stance and repeated the move, but where Tinkerbell's voice had wobbled in places Alice's came out perfectly smooth.

"Excellent," the Dowager enthused.

It was only then that she noticed she had company.

"Please take over," she instructed Alice, rising to her feet.

Alice seamlessly took up her place and her fingers flew effortlessly across the instrument. Steven breathed a sigh of relief. Maybe he hadn't ruined Alice's life after all.

"Methinks they shall be ready very soon," Lapis told him, beckoning them to sit on her couches. "Two cycles from now, if not before."

"That's great," Steven gasped. "Have you been working with them?"

"Of course," she replied with an elegant shrug. "I have not played in so long, and it would be rather a waste not to include them in my playing while I have them...you know, I never thought having pearls sing together would make such enchanting music. I may have to invest in some new ones after."

"Or keep some of these ones," Steven suggested. "Wouldn't that be easier?"

Maybe it was a little too obvious that he was trying to ensure the processing plant pearls went to a good home, because Lapis' eyes narrowed at him.

"We shall see," she said. "In any case, you may tell Orthoclase that I have a location for her. There's an old forae seven quadrants from here, it's a pre-war structure. We used to have open-top concerts there before they fell out of fashion. It's quite remote. I'll have my pearl give yours the co-ordinates."

"Wow, that's amazing," he said as Alice projected an image of the forae onto the wall. It looked a bit like a picture of the coliseum he'd seen in a book once.

"Technically, it belongs to an old friend of mine, but she hasn't done anything with it. If I tell her I'm looking to relieve the old glory cycles she'll understand. We may need some security though, it's on disputed topsoil. Lots of criminal interest, if you get my meaning."

"Security we have," Steven agreed, thinking of Murder Pearl and the Jaspers that owed them a favour.

He brought Amethyst down to see the rest of the pearls as Dowager Lapis returned to instructing the seed pearls. As she stared out at them from the stairs, she looked unnerved, uncomfortable.

"Do they always do that?" she hissed to Steven.

"Do what?"

It only occurred to him a moment later that the pearls moved in perfect unison, to the point that even blinking at them was a mass activity. He'd gotten used to it, but he could understand why it spooked Amethyst out.

"I have messaged Orthoclase," Ginger said, joining them on the stairs. "She has told us to stay here. She will join us when she has picked up the equipment we need."

"What equipment?" Steven asked.

"A pylon and some amplifiers for the symphonaria," Ginger explained. "The song needs some structure to climb. It won't take long."

"Okay," Steven said. "Well, while we wait, I can introduce you to all the pearls!"

Amethyst put up some resistance right up until he was introducing her to the nearest pearl, who happened to be Blinky.

"Steven, I think she's asleep," Amethyst hissed, trying to pull away.

"No, she's not, she just doesn't have any eyes," Steven explained.

He completely missed the horrified look on Amethyst's face as Blinky bid her a polite greeting. She managed to hold it together as he brought her around the room, introducing her to every single pearl, but occasionally she had a mild freakout.

"They brought you where?" she sputtered during her introduction to Bunny.

"I was never told the planet's name," Bunny said. "They all called it the flame pit. Everything was on fire."

"Why did they bring you?" Steven asked, as this was the first time he'd heard this story.

"They wanted something to listen to on the way. And on the way back."

Amethyst nearly retched when Daisy explained in graphic detail how seed pearls were created. She had a somewhat manic smile glued to her face when Buttercup enthused about how she was enjoying having her leg back. Steven thought he could detect an unshed tear when Poppy explained that Honeysuckle still couldn't speak even after being healed, but that she could manage a song.

He didn't realize that Murder Pearl was there until Amethyst pointed her out.

"Is that the last of them?" she asked wearily. "Please let that be the last of them?"

"Uh, yeah. That's Murder Pearl."

"Hello, Steven," Murder Pearl said sweetly, with a cordial wave.

"Hi!" he chuckled weakly, very aware that Amethyst was a prime target for Murder Pearl's...leanings. "I thought you were still in your gem?"

"It was decided that I should stay alert for unexpected raids," she explained. Her eyes were fever-bright when she turned them on Amethyst. "Is this a new friend?"

"No, actually this is one of my oldest friends," Steven explained. "She came from my home planet to find me...and Pearl. This is Amethyst."

"Murder Pearl, huh?" Amethyst laughed. "How did you get saddled with a name like that?"

She was clearly expecting it to be some sort of stupid joke.

"I am the undefeated champion of the underground fighting rings," Murder Pearl explained smoothly. "I have killed many gems."

Amethyst glanced at Steven, shuffling uncomfortably on his feet, and back at Murder Pearl, waiting for one of them to laugh at this hilarious joke.

"Huh," she said at last. "What kind of gems?"

"Gems like you," Murder Pearl said, and smiled her sweetest smile.