Chapter 3
Milky way Galaxy
1800s
Era 2
Silence has been something specially desired by the so called Black Onyx. With permission from Emerald and the respective Diamonds, she manage to have one temporary room for work. This particular room didn't have much of anything in it except for a single panel and a seat. There's no light source except for the one given off by the panel, this resulted in a darkness consuming the edges of the room.
Black didn't have any use for the panels or the seat, in fact she didn't quite remember requesting them in the first place. It didn't matter. She sat down right at the corner and starred at the darkness, in ever silence. These short moments when she had no work often felt like the most torturous; with nothing to do, people think and when they think, they figure out themselves. Thoughts leads to memories, and having memories that felt like shattered glass glued together didn't quite help the process either.
"Pink Diamond, Pink Diamond, you ready for your first lesson?" Yellow Diamond asked. She stood tall like a giant, with the yellow pointy helmet that fitted her glow.
"Absolutely, so what's the lesson? Navigation? Oh wait, we're going to learn how to command armies to get colonies." Pink Diamond responded, being no taller then 6'2, this pink gem didn't quite look like a Diamond.
"Not yet, first you need to learn to control your fire. So two thousand demi-pliés while your hands are at a stable fire."
"Awe… that sounds boring."
"Three thousand," Yellow Diamond added.
Pink Diamond sighed and went into position, she slowly bent her knees according to proper form while her back remained straight. Then, her hands slowly went ablaze a reddish fire. She would move in and out the form for a couple of minutes while Yellow Diamond did her work.
Around the five-hundredth one, Pink Diamond began to gaze at the around at special detail. She looked around the area then looked carefully at what Yellow Diamond was doing. She couldn't quite make out what was on the screen while still being in proper form but Pink Diamond did her best to.
"Stay in form!" Yellow Diamond outburst.
Pink Diamond then looked at her guardian in surprise, she slipped midway into the form and a couple of fire balls flew right into the screen. No damage was done, this time.
"Sorry," Pink Diamond said, she stood back up straight.
"You are luck this was just practice. Slips up like that can cost you your colony, your life and even our lives. Slip ups like that will not be tolerated by the Diamonds, how can you expect Blue Diamond would feel if slip ups gets your gem cracked, or worse, shattered?" Yellow Diamond lectured.
Black Onyx continued to look right at the dark corner. She did recently discovered that the dark made her see a little more, though she didn't always like what was seen. It was oddly addicting to look at the vast darkness despite how much it sucked.
"Black Onyx, Emerald would like to inform you that they've tracked down the insurgents."
"Okay."
Water Planet
1800s
Era 2
After their escape, the Gems exchanged laughter while they attempted to lighten up the mood for themselves. Moonstone and Peridot would chat away, talking about their specific adventures and other funny stories with everyone while Zircon and Pink Pearl simply listened to them. The chatter went on for quite a while until Peridot realized that others should have a chance to speak.
"Hey Pearl, you've been pretty silent," Peridot commented, after she made the observation, "anything on your mind?"
"Actually, I'll like to know about you guys." Pearl responded.
The three Gems looked at each other for a moment, as if they all had the exact same thought. Who exactly they were, Pearl really couldn't tell but they seemed to be relatively good at what they do.
"For each one of us, it's a long story. Back in HomeWorld, I would keep record of all trial cases and insure the proper evidence was where it needed to be. It's an important job to make sure the justice system moves smoothy." Zircon said, she smiled and looked up to the sky.
"Awesome, so like what happened?" Pearl asked.
"Well, after looking through some of the older files, I realized a slight inconsistency in the story of Pink Diamond's shattering and Rose Quartz. The overall data didn't seem to add up so I informed my superiors. Long story short, I was accused of being a rebel sympathizer. A couple more long stories and I found Peridot, we escaped together."
Pearl nodded; she assumed that the other Gems had similar. Peridot also found the inconstancy in the official story, she wasn't caught but upon meeting Zircon, they both agreed to escape. Then there's Moonstone, despite being the most talkative, she didn't quite say anything about her own past.
"What's your story? We're just asking cause we're curious, we're not forcing you or anything." Moonstone said.
"My story… I was the Pearl of a very important Gem on the planet Earth. But, after a big disagreement with my formal owner, I wondered off in some kind of caves. When I finally returned to where I last saw my owner, she was already shattered," Pearl told them, "without an actual owner, I remained on Earth for hundreds of years, but I was free."
"Well, how do you survive the Diamond attack?" Moonstone asked.
Before Pearl could answer, the ship finally descended into the planet. There was a single, vast ocean that completely covered most of the land, leaving a couple of islands here and there. There wasn't any sort of life, except for a couple of moss and fungi on the land, but the ocean had large fish. With a lack of land, this planet couldn't be used by HomeWorld.
When Peal hopped off the ship, she immediately frowned from the amount of mud that was getting on her slippers. There was no sand on this island, but waterlogged soil and very hard rocks.
"Ew…" Pearl commented, while she walked away from the mud.
"Yeah, you'll get used to it. It took me a couple of months for me to," Moonstone said to her, "follow us."
Pearl followed just as she was told to. Just instinctively, she made sure to walk just behind the other Gems at a short distance. The more they walked, Pearl noticed what appeared to be bits of old Gem technology, mixed with a couple of newer models. Some Gem Destabilizers for instance were neatly placed on the holders around the area, and a couple of ships appeared to be in line.
"Wow, another rebellion?" Pearl asked the Gems.
"More of a refuge, we're not fighting any wars. Most Gems here are either off colored, former Crystal Gems who made it off Earth, or formerly Pink Diamond's Gems," Zircon answered her, "the leader was once a Crystal Gem."
Of course their leader is a former Crystal Gem, only Gems who listened to Rose Quartz would organize something like this. Yet, Pearl wondered just how some of Crystal Gems managed to escape the Diamond attack, and get off Earth. Well, if some Gems got their hands on a couple of ships, perhaps they could have used those to escape.
She continued to follow their lead until they arrived at some sort of base in a cave. There were a few gems, most of them were various kinds of Quartz. Right at the very back was the smallest Gem among them all, an Aquamarine. She's probably the leader.
"Oh my stars, what's this?" the Aquamarine questioned, while she flew down from her desk.
This particular Gem was short, barely reaching up to Pearl's knees, she had a light blue skin tone along with a business suit of some sort. Her Gem was by her ear and her bow around her hair. Aquamarines were always the best dressed Gems.
"I assume my amazing plan worked perfectly?" Aquamarine added. "Sine you managed to find more Gems."
"What did I teach you about boasting?" another Gem asked, this one was an especially short Agate, perhaps she was overcooked?
"Right, good leaders are encouragers, not boasters."
An Aquamarine who is trying to not be boastful?"
"Yeah, things went just fine. This is Pink Pearl, you know, since she has a Pinkish color and stuff." Moonstone said.
"Pearls, I'm not sure, they're usually loyal to their owners in the subconscious level. Even after hundreds of years." Agate responded, and Aquamarine nodded.
"Well, my last owner was shattered hundreds of years ago, so there's no more loyalty. If I mad add, I much prefer to live alone, so I wouldn't be much of a bother."
"That's fine, there's tons of uninhabited islands all over this planet." Aquamarine said, "Just remember to attend the monthly get togethers."
Monthly get togethers, yet that's something a past follower of Rose Quartz would have in mind. Pink Pearl often remembered hearing Rose Quartz talk about the amount of special parties, just like what the humans did to commemorate a victory. Usually, she'll tell the other Crystal Gems it to boost their moral before a battle.
"Okay, I'm fine with monthly get togethers." Pearl then stated. Then, a random thing came across her mind.
"Hey, I don't mean to interrupt, but well, we got a little problem I think I should say." Peridot said, she appeared rather nervous like she broke something.
"Okay Peridot, what did you do?" Agate said, she looked at Peridot like she just broke something.
Peridot stumbled for a moment, not because she was afraid of the other Gems, but more because of her own mistake. This Peridot has been known to be a little forgetful, especially at anxious moments.
"I think our ship was tracked. Sorry" Peridot said as quickly as possible.
OWCH!
Aquamarine hit Peridot with her own wand at that instant, it wasn't very forceful but the impact was painful.
"I can't believe you mess up! I know I should have written a note to remind you to not make sure that happens." Aquamarine complained.
"I said I was sorry… OWCH!"
"Oh geez, we'll have to evacuate the entire planet," Moonstone spoke out, she walked around in circles.
A couple of Gems heard what Peridot said, and within an instant everyone was running in circles, panicking. Aquamarine sighed for a moment while she saw the tall, tough Quartz acting as if they are children. It's not to say that Aquamarine wasn't afraid, she herself felt anxious about the situation, but she also knew that panicking wouldn't solve anything.
"Wait, does HomeWorld know about this refuge?" Pearl then asked.
"No, we've been under the radar for a few hundred years." Zircon answered.
"Well, then they would only send enough to capture just the four of us. I have a plan for a trap." Pearl said.
Aquamarine then used her wand to freeze every panicking Gem within the general option, just to provide some silence.
"Go on sweetie," Aquamarine said.
Pearl took a deep breath and began to explain her plan to the Gems. First all the other Gems, along with all their stuff would have to be hidden in the caves, if HomeWorld saw them then they might send more Gems. Once all the signs of a Gem occupation was hidden, the real traps would be done. Peridot programmed her ship to fly into deep space on its own with just a remote while Moonstone and Zircon began to set up a small camp.
The idea was simple, the HomeWorld Gems would find them only to see a small camp. From that, they'll assume that they've found them. If there's about three to ten Gems as assumed, then Pearl would get them to fall into the pits they made. This wouldn't stop them of course, but it would give the Gems the opportunity to hide somewhere while Peridot remotely activated the ship to fly off. If everything goes well, then the HomeWorld Gems would assume they're attempting to get away so they'll follow the empty ship to wherever it led them.
"Ehh, I'm still not confident that this plan would work," Agate admitted, she was just in the process of getting all the other Gems into the respective caves.
"Usually, my traps work, if everything goes well, they'll chase the empty ship and leave this planet alone." Pearl responded.
"And what if they realized the ship's empty?" A random Jasper questioned.
"Not to worry, I built in a weak spot in the ship, once they fire at it, the entire ship would explode into pieces, they'll think that everyone onboard was shattered." Peridot said, rather proudly. Tech is her speciality after all.
"Cleaver," Aquamarine commended while she flew into the caver, "if anything happens, I and Agate will come up to help."
Pearl took a deep breath and frowned for a bit, her plan had no base on who the enemy might be, and there were endless problems that could be taken into consideration. However, it was the best she could come up with at such short notice.
"Okay, let's get ready," Pearl said, while she sat down beside the fire place.
Moonstone, Peridot and Zircon sat down by the fire place right beside Pearl while they waited. Based on Moonstone's predictions, HomeWorld should be arriving at any moment now.