Pearl sounds angry.
"He's not a full gem- you can't hit him! He's weaker and we don't kn- a-and he can't regenerate."
Steven groans, pushing himself up with his hands. It's hard, with the shackles, but Pearl nudges him with her knee to help. She can't touch him with her hands, bound as they are behind her back, but when he sits, she inches next to him so he can lean on her.
"He can't regenerate? Interesting," Yellow Diamond hums, "why don't you tell me more things he can't do."
Pearl looks anxiously at Steven, clearly afraid they're going to harm him. She doesn't want them to know he's the key to making her talk, but she's aware she's not in a winning situation no matter what she does.
"We- we think he ages, but more slowly than humans," she says, a theory Steven has never heard from her, "and he needs to eat, and sleep. You need to be giving him food. And a bed."
"I need to?" Yellow Diamond repeats.
"If you want him alive for... Whatever you're keeping us alive for."
"Information," she replies, tiredly, "which you've all been terrible at, by the way."
"All?" Pearl asks, looking hopeful.
Steven realizes she doesn't have any idea who is still alive.
"Amethyst is with others like her, and I don't know about Ruby, but they broke Sapphire," Steven informs her, loudly enough for Yellow Diamond to hear, so she doesn't think they're whispering about her.
It's easier for Steven to use the foreign gems' names, so he doesn't have to think about who they are, but Garnet comes to mind anyway.
Pearl sucks in a sharp breath, eyes widening. She looks pained, more than when she limped in, more than when the citrine hit her.
"They're Garnet?" He asks, wanting confirmation from someone he actually knows.
Pearl nods, distraught.
"Enough chat," Yellow Diamond cuts in, "why don't you tell me about his gem abilities, next."
...
"Your job is to make sure I don't get killed by anything crazy on Earth," Peridot informs the citrine following behind her, "your job is not to interfere in my mission and make me turn the ship around when I haven't even collected data on the cluster yet and I didn't want to deal with-"
She shoots a wary glance at her escorts, worried they're not included in the gems that can know about her work. Citrines are Yellow Diamond's personal guards, but she doesn't want to risk any break-worthy mistakes.
Peridot decides to not elaborate further. They get the idea, she hopes.
Their ship landed 20 minutes ago, on the same beach from before. There's a clear mark still from where she fired a barrage at the 'Crystal Gems', but the damage is relatively small. The wooden housing structure still stands, set into the large gem statue.
It looks rather like some of the monuments they have of the Diamonds, only this one is a decrepit statue of what appears to be a multi-gem fusion. She can count at least three gems on it, but arms are missing and the front is covered by the house, so she reasons there could be more.
She's supposed to check on the cluster, but the Crystal Gem's base seems as good a place to start as any to make sure they don't have anything that might interfere with her job again. She'll just take a quick look around.
"What were your orders? Tell me specifically," she orders.
The citrines look a little displeased that they've been assigned rank below a Peridot, but one speaks anyway, "we are to 'protect the peridot on her mission and only interfere if she is in significant danger that will affect her job'."
"Anything about... clearance? Uh," Peridot tries to word Yellow Diamond's orders in a vague enough way that they'll understand without her giving away any of the weird secrecy surrounding the earth traitors, "Yellow Diamond didn't mention to you that she was sending you because of your... clearance?"
They shake their heads, no.
Peridot sighs. There's unlikely to be a risk on Earth greater than the wrath she'll encounter if she disobeys the direct orders of her Diamond.
"Okay, stay here. I have something to do before we check on the cluster," Peridot tells them, adding, "it's related to my orders."
She climbs the hill to their base alone, checking her screen for the presence of any nearby gems. Nothing comes up, apart from the two who accompanied her.
Relaxing somewhat, Peridot swings open the door.
She's met by a punch.
Peridot stumbles, crashing into a small table before falling hard onto the floor.
"Don't yell, or I'll kill ya," the human threatens.
It's wide, with long hair and a deep voice. It's also brandishing a short blade, which finds its way to Peridot's midsection, pressing uncomfortably into her solarplexus. The human's sat on her legs, so she can't even inch away.
"Don't hurt me!" she squeaks.
Peridot considers using her arm to shoot, but it would take less time for it to stab her than it would for her to figure out and then charge her blaster. Alternatively, she could club the human, but it seemed heavy, and all it would have to do would be to lean forward and she'd be smoke. Then she'd be helpless to stop it from breaking her.
"Where's my fucking son?" the human demands, fire in its eyes.
"Sun?" Peridot repeats, pointing a digit upwards.
The human's gaze shifts up for a second before resting on her again, puzzled.
"Steven- my son. He's small, he has dark brown hair. He's kind and good and he disappeared after your ship landed here several days ago!"
The human's crying. Much like the one they took back to Homeworld was often doing.
"He..." Peridot says- perhaps this is a human way of calling each other- this one might be a he, as well, "is back on Homeworld."
Peridot wonders if the human can even see with all that water coming out of his eyes and dripping onto her. Maybe she should club him now.
A large pink movement out of the corner of her eye shuts that thought down in a second. She hisses in pain as her startled flinch causes the tip of the knife to stick her a little.
"Can I have him back?" he asks, quietly, "Please?"
"Uhh," Peridot is a little uncomfortable with the emotional, sentient alien sitting on her, "it's out of my hands. I'm just here to check on something."
The next hit cracks her visor. He refrains from hitting her gem, but she has to close an eye in the hopes shards of glass won't get in.
"It's still! out of my hands," she says, correcting her volume half-way so he doesn't stab her and take the warp out to a new location where her guards can't find them.
The pink thing has moved closer, opening its mouth to reveal a set of wide, sharp teeth, which she inspects, terrified, through one eye.
"Whose hands is it in?" the human asks, "What will put it in your hands?"
"My leader, Yellow Diamond," she explains, "but you can't get him from her. Listen, I don't know what she wants with the Quartz Human or his 'Crystal Gems', but if you want to live out the rest of your human existence, I would give up on getting him back."
They find themselves at a stalemate. She still can't really fight back, but if the human has no other option than to kill her or risk her yells, then that's what he's going to do anyway.
Peridot makes up her mind.
She yells as loud as she can- and ends up with a knife through the abdomen.