After meditating, Amethyst opens the door to exit her quarters. She enters a hallway filled with doors all identical to hers. She has never entered any other door besides hers, but she knows what's in them. At the end of the hallway there was a warp pad.
As she walks down the hallway to the warp pad a violet light shines from one of the doors in front of her, the door opens, from the room a hulking gem comes out with difficulty, they glance at each other, Amethyst frowns, the giant gem moves towards her, she stops a few steps from her. Amethyst looks at the gem that is three times her size, the gem stares back.
They stare at each other's eyes for a moment, before they can no longer hold their giggles; those soon turn into a drowned laugher.
"MINI ME!" shouts the gem.
"GIANTHYST! HIGH FIVE!"
"LOWFIVE!" Amethyst jumps while the bigger amethyst lowers herself has much as she can, their hands clash in the most epic high/low five in homeworld history.
After the exchange both walk down the hallway to the warp pad while making small conversation.
"So, what were you assigned to do today?" Amethyst asks
The bigger Amethyst crosses her arms behind her head "Escort, for one of our diamond's pearls" she said lazily.
"Nice…do you know what she's supposed to do?"
"Beats me, aren't pearls supposed to just…stand around and look nice and that stuff?"
Amethyst rolls her eyes at her friend's comment "heh…well I can tell you by experience they can do much more that that"
The gem walking in front of Amethyst laughs at her response "Oh yeah, I bet you do, with your very own fancy pearl beside you" Amethyst blushes at this. "Seriously what did you do to receive her?"
"I told you already…"Amethyst looks to the side.
"Yeah, you defeated a few rebels on the planet you were made, all by yourself. But you never give me the details! Did they had some sort of secret weapon that could have destroyed homeworld?"The giant gem asked excited.
Amethyst laughed to herself, she will never stop guessing "Oh yeah totally, the rebels could have had homeworld under their rebellious hands, but they didn't see me coming!" she said while making fighting moves
"Wow! Really?" asked the giant gem with stars in her eyes.
Amethyst snorts "No you knucklehead, man your guesses are starting to become more and more ridiculous" they both laughed at how silly the guess was.
"Any way, what were you assigned to do this cycle?"
Amethyst groans in frustration "ugh, office work"
"Jeez,sorry ame…stars that assignment is the worst"
Amethyst sighed "Yeah…sucks."
They both made it to the warp pad. They warped to a platform similar to the galaxy warp, surrounding the platform there are giant buildings with no visible entrance and very few windows. The platform was filled with gems, some taller other smaller with a big variety of colors, all of them either standing in line to get on a warp pad or getting out.
"Well…I better go now; I don't want to let the pearl waiting to much…hehe she could complain to Blue Diamond."
"You sure it's not that you want to check her out?" teased Amethyst.
The bigger amethyst lightly punched Amethyst in the arm while blushing, "Don't say that out loud" they both laughed.
"Hey, after our turn, wanna go to the arena?" asked the bigger amethyst.
"You want to fight me?" Amethyst smirked back at the other gem.
"HA you wish, maybe see who's is fighting, we could find some snacks."
Amethyst thinks about the offer, snacks do sound tempting.
"Sure! If nothing new comes out."
The friend's wave at each other as the bigger gem makes her way to a warp pad; Amethyst does the same and warps herself to her assignment.
As she made her way across the hallway, the pearl happily sighed, her amethyst was in a good mood this cycle. She feels relieved, maybe her hard work making her feel comfortable is finally paying off; she finally is comfortable with her new life, maybe has realized she doesn't have to feel so guilty about those gems, she made the right choice after all.
After warping to the platform, she sees a group of pearls in formation. They look at her with mixed expressions, some with disgust; most likely they belong to a gem that dislikes her amethyst for her…form. Others look at her with complete indifference; they don't know her or her owner, and very few look at her with a worried expression on their faces. She knows those pearls. She shares the same living building. The truth is, she hasn't seen them in a few cycles and when a pearl is not seen for that long, it usually means she won't be seen again. She smiles at those pearls while she walks towards the group, silently signaling to them that she is ok. They smile back at her, since it is frowned upon for a pearl to speak out loud in public especially without her owner. She joins the formation and they walk towards a warp pad in group of pearls warped to different places around the moon, in each place they warped,a pearl left the group. Finally, they warped to the pearl's destination, waiting for her was blue peridot, the other pearls warped themselves away, leaving the pearl alone with BP, she smiles at the technician, knowing very well she would blush "just follow me" she said.
Amethyst warped by herself to the front of a building, and walked up the stairs that lead to a single door. The door opens as she steps in. Crossing the door there was a huge room filled with work cubicles , each cubicle had a Blue Peridot working in them. As she made her way across the cubicles,some peridots looked at her, but did not comment on her presence. Amethyst hears an anguished groan in the far back of the cubicles,she smiles knowing who it is.
She walks towards the whimpers and finds her pearl,simply standing up straight, smiling down at a very flustered technician "oh thank the stars FINALLY!" the gem screams.
Amethyst snorts at the technicians outburst, she looks at her pearl. That smile of hers, that was the first thing that she noticed made her didn't want to even see her when she first "got her." It made her feel sick, even worse than she felt already, but the pearl was stubborn. She insisted on staying,and refused to leave her side. For what reason, she doesn't know, but she is glad she stayed.
The pearl looks at amethyst "Greetings, my brave warrior."
"Hey apple~, i see you are having fun with berrydot"
"THAT IS NOT...negative, your pearl is interfering with my duties, please take her to your office...you two will be late" stated the technician.
"Awww...you care about us!" teased Amethyst, now sharing her pearls mischievous smile.
Blue Peridot hid her face behind her screen "That is a bold statement."
"Bold? Not wrong?" asked Amethyst.
"JUST GET GOING TO YOUR ASSIGNMENT!" screamed blue peridot.
Both amethyst and her pearl leave the cubicle, but they notice they are being watched by the other blue peridot's.
A wicked thought crosses amethyst head, she smiles to the idea.
She puts her fingers on her lips and looks back at blue peridot "OH! BERRY! YOU ARE AN AMAZING KISSER!" Amethyst moans out loud, suprising everyone in the room, even her pearl.
"EXCUSE ME?!" Berrydot shouts
"Ungh, and the way you handle us! Oh!...right apple?" Amethyst looks at her pearl, expecting her to play along.
"Indeed...you are such a BEAST!" said apple, barely holding her laughter.
Both of them then leave for Amethysts office, leaving a jaw dropped berrydot and a bunch of other technicians whispering amongst each other.
Finally Amethyst and her pearl made it to the door of her office, just a room from the cubicle room. Apple was about to open the door for amethyst,like she always does.
"Wait!" Amethyst interrupts her. The pearl looked at her owner in suprise "Yes?"
"L-let me do it." Amethyst shuttered,looking at her pearl straight in the eyes.
Apple smiled softly, her amethyst was doing a great effort to move on. She can't help but feel it's because of her. "Of course." she moved aside and bows slightly to her owner.
Amethyst smiles at her, she wants to tell her not to lower her head at her, but she knows she can't force too far these homeworld rules. She just took a risk with that joke, but she needed to feel in control for a moment. If she was going to do this she needed that.
Her gem glows and the door opens.
The room was dark, but soon it illuminated with artificial light that made path towards a chair at the center of the room,which was mostly empty, just the chair at the center,facing the front wall.
Amethyst approaches the chair,fighting her instinct to run away. She needs to do this,if she wants to reach her goal,she needs to make this her routine. She stops in front the chair, taking a deep breath, the room's air was cold
She takes the chair and spins it towards her, the gems encompassed in the arms shine with the dim light of the room , amethyst looks at them, pearl, ruby and sapphire (garnet), peridot, lapis. The gems of her former comrades, her former friends,her family, the gems she betrayed in order to save her home and in away, to also save them too. This is what amethyst tells herself, if she didnt joined homeworld there wouldn't be an earth to save and her friends and herself would have been shattered just before earth was destroyed.
Amethyst takes a deep breath and looks at apple, she was seated beside her feet, she smiles at her, apples smiles back, and amethyst takes a seat.
Her left hand goes down the chair's arm and softly touches her former mentor, pearl. This is something she has done ever since she got the damn chair, part of her wants pearl to be capable to feel the touch so that she knows she wasn't left alone, that she is protecting them, but she also thinks if they can actually feel, like lapis when she was in the mirror, she thinks that pearl probably would want her dead, and she wouldn't blame her. Her biggest hope for them is that one day she might be influential enough to request her diamond for their release and pardon regardless of their justified hatred towards her. That won't come if she slacks on the job.
"Ready apple?" she asks her pearl
"Always" she eagerly responds.
A bright monitor appears in front of amethyst, she cracks her knuckles and she and apple start their assignments. These consist of apple waiting on amethysts commands and amethyst writing reports on her assignments on the streets. Every patrol mission to that time she had to break a fight out between rubies in the middle of the warp pads platform.
Yes, she has to admit she has had fun several times since she arrived and she has made friends which was something she didn't expect, and yet...
Time moves and she writes and writes and writes...the borderline deadly boredom she is feeling right now is consuming her more and more with each hour that passes...she is not sure how many have passed actually, amethyst hasn't learned how to read time on the moon's clocks yet and homeworld's moon doesn't exactly have a day/night cycle. It's more a deep space/homeworld surface cycle.
"Uuuuuuugh" she groans "aaaaapple...how much until the end of this tourture?"
"We are 6.75 fractions on the cycle. your turn will end in 1.25 more fractions"said apple calmly from her seat on the floor. She smiles slickly has she turns to face amethyst, "After that you will have 2.0 fractions of cycle for whatever you wish." amethyst smiles deviously back at her, but shakes her head.
"Naw, gianthyst wants to go to the arena today...wanna come?"
The pearl's eyes go wide at the invitation, she looks down at the floor,her hands rising to her chest, she plays with the collar of her dress "m...m...my amethyst...may i ask that you rephrase your sentence, please?"
The mood of the room has changed, amethyst turns in her chair, leaving her monitor unattended to face apple fully "Hey...are you alright?"
"Oh...affirmative! I just need a different approach to your request" she laughed weakly.
"Ok...rephrase it how?"
"Like a command, please."
Amethyst is taken back by apple's response, this something new. "apple,why would i need to order you to hang out with me? ...i mean other times haven't seem like a problem." stated amethyst.
"well, other times were not optional decisions." apple's gem shines and out of it came a bottle with motor oil, she pours a glass to amethyst and hands it over to her. "What I mean is… i'm not allowed to make decisions on my own."
Amethyst's eyes go wide hearing how calmly apple told her this. "wha.." her response is interrupted by darkness that overtakes the room. Both amethyst and apple rise from their seat. "What the..who turned out the lights?"amethyst asked.
"I do not know the answer to that...would you wish for me to inquire what is happening?"
"No apple, i needed to stretch my legs anyway." amethyst's gem shined in the darkness as she makes her way to the door. Before she opens it she turns around and looks back at apple. Concern and sadness evident in her voice "Hey. We need to continue this talk... ok?
apple frowned in confusion at amethyst's statement "Alright?" she smiled softly at her. Amethyst smiled back and left the office.
Amethyst's mind wasn't focused while she walked across the hallway towards the cubicle room. "Other times were not optional decisions." That phrase there bothered amethyst the most, when she met apple for the first time she had screamed at her to leave her alone, and yes she did leave,but every day she would be right at her side in her office and she never until now had acted this way before. Maybe she was just nervous?
Amethyst thoughts were interrupted when she entered the cubicle room. The blue peridots were in total chaos. It was just like a middle school class during a power outage. Not that amethyst would know how that looks seeing as she has never set foot in a school.
In an attempt to bring some order, amethyst clears her throat to call the attention to her. This has no affect, so she goes with something more her style. She shapeshifts into a giant bull horn and makes a screeching sound causing all the technicians to look at her, better.
"Alright everyone calm down ok? Do any of you know what's going on?" she asks the blue peridots. She receives silence in response. The technicians look at each other not knowing what to say.
"Has this ever happened before, like...ever?" amethyst tries again.
"Negative... it is extremely unusual." One of the blue peridots approaches with a neutral expression on her face.
"Is that you berry?" amethyst smirks at the technician.
"It's facet 789 cut 4" she says between her teeth, amethyst snickers.
"So what is protocol?" she asks.
"The quartz in charge must select a technician to investigate the proper diagnosis and perform repairs. After that a full report must be filled." blue peridot responds.
"Alright! let's get rolling, facet 789 cut 4" said amethyst while walking between the other technicians towards the warp pad, berry dot following.
Both teleport to the energy room, at the basement of the building, which,like the other buildings, is connected to the moon's core."follow me,the energy core is not too far from here" blue peridot says as she activates her scanner,she walks seemingly blindly towards the darkness.
"alright" amethyst shrugs,using her light to follow berrydot toards the energy core.
"so...any idea of what caused the black out?"
"Irrelevant, i do not posess enough data to formulate a proper theory."
"Yeah but...can't you take a guess?"amethyst asks clearly trying to make conversation.
"I would rather not" berrydot cuts her off coldly.
"Whatevs" amethyst scuffs. Soon after they made it to the moon's core. A giant cavern ,glowing with an orange light from below, thousands of giant cables joining together at the center of the room. blue peridot inspects the connections for the building.
"Hmm..the energy connectors seem to be in optimal state," she looks at the cables that surround the cavern-like walls. "The core has the optimal colors," she says as she looks at the floor. She finally notices something at the center of the room "Wait a moment…that's it, the primal connection was cut at the base of the input connection." she walks toward said connection to take a closer look. "This is...odd...really strange, Amethyst take a look at this." she indicates amethyst to come closer.
"Whats wrong b dot?"
"Look at this,the cable was cut clean, normally the connectors suffer heat damage or deterioration for age, but this one was cut clean."
"Someone cut it? Can you fix it?" asked amethyst.
"That is...a plausible theory, but rather odd why would someone do this? THis incident has most likely not been reported yet, you will have to talk with the gems in charge of maintenance...and affirmative I can make a temporary repair." replied the blue gem
"Great! do you need help?"
The technician massages her sinuses with her floating fingers "Honestly, even for a defective such as you it should be reasonable to understand that there are easier ways to get a gem shattered."
"W-what?" responded amethyst, taken back by that response.
blue peridot turns to face amethyst "You heard me, you can request for a new pearl,considering how she acts not even our diamond could deny a change, stars you can shatter her yourself and she won't fight at all, same thing with me! Although in my case you might get a admonition if you don't have a good reason for it."
"What the heck man, I dont want you or Apple shattered! Whats your problem?!"
"My problem? What's yours?! Pulling that 'joke' of yours in front of my coworkers! What were you thinking? CLOD!" blue peridot raises her limb enhancers in rage.
Amethysts frown softens, she breaks eye contact with bp "Come on, it wasn't that bad," she almost murmurs.
"Not that bad? Amethyst...regardless of how defective you are, you are a quartz and you must start acting like it!"
"But-"amethyst tries to talk back but blue peridot interrupts her.
"Whatever your life was as a rebel, that is over now and you need to understand that all gems have a purpose and a reason to be."
"Yeah I heard the whole "You exist solely to serve the diamonds" talk."
"Then why do you act like this?"
"Because I can still do my job berry! yes, i can do my job and at the same time be gross and pull pranks on you! shocker!"
"Yeah you can do that, as a quartz you can do almost whatever you want! Without consequences to yourself, but to other gems"
"Wha-what do you mean?" asked amethyst.
Blue peridot place her fingers on her shoulder, "Amethyst… i'm your supervisor, that means that i must help you integrate to homeworld society, and report your progress to blue diamond, when you call me those "nicknames" and "flirt" in a private room or communication line, I can edit those things out of my report, but when you do them when there are other gems around, i have no other option but report them also, because if i don't there will be a discrepancy and i will get shattered for that."
"You...You've been covering for me?" asked amethyst
"Not only for you, your pearl as well, when you force her into situations like that one i have to report her behavior as well, and to some gems, her behavior it's unallowable.
amethyst looks up at bp eyes "...you do care about us."
blue peridot's eyes go wide as she blushes,she quickly takes her fingers of amethyst shoulder "I-I care about my reports! That is all."
Amethyst chuckles at this "Sure you do...sorry for the prank...i just needed to feel strong or... something."
blue peridot mouth twist into what amethyst thinks was a smile "You quartzes and your insecurities...honestly" she rolls her eyes and her smile grows.
amethyst snorts at her remark,"oh! Says the gem that can't admits she likes an Amethyst and a Pearl" she raises her arm and boops bp nose.
The blue gem steps back to avoid the finger "I DO NOT!" her own giggles interrupt her, she tries to stop herself by placing her finger over her mouth, amethyst notices this and smiles wide "YOU DO! YOU LIKE US!~"she starts dancing in front of the technician, her giggles turn into a long laughter, soon amethyst joins her and both start laughing.
"Oh man, this not fair, apple couldn't see you smile."
blue peridot was about to respond, but she was interrupted by a loud scream, both recognized the voice as apple's. Amethyst immediately ran back to the warp pad, blue peridot hesitated, not sure if she should go too or stay and repair the energy connection.
Amethyst warped back to the room of cubicles, there she saw that all the blue peridots were looking in the direction of her office, she ran past them, not caring who she pushed out of the way. She made her way to the door, she quickly opened it. "Apple!" she screamed in fear.
Apple was on the floor hugging herself. She looked at amethyst, fear clear on her face. She was trembling and sobbing. Amethyst took a few steps towards her, she wanted to ask her what happened, was she ok? What made her scream like that? Apple sobbed a few more times before quieting down.
What she saw made a shiver run down her spine,there was a giant hole in the wall behind her chair, allowing natural light to enter into the dark room. Whatever attacked apple had clearly left the room by making the giant hole in the wall. Her chair, the prison for her former family, now destroyed, their gems missing, besides the remains was the now broken bottle of her motor oil, its remains dripping over the broken glass.
"It was the pearl!" apple sobbed.
Amethyst looks up, around the now broken wall was a message for her.
You Forgot