The silence, fallen while the gems debate how to get back to the warp pad, is broken by a Beryl.
Specifically, Beryl Facet 34F, Cut 7XY. Followed closely by her pearl. They walk obliviously around the corner, directly into the path of the rebels.
The pearl's gaze zones immediately in on Steven, the weird gem her Beryl ordered her to serve temporarily.
"Wh-?" Beryl says, cut short by three gems pouncing on her at once, quickly silencing her; they toss her gem to Ruby to bubble.
The pearl is silenced a little less violently, as Amethyst shifts to clamp a hand over her mouth.
She pulls the pearl away from the gem beside her, who clearly plans on buying her silence more long term with a stabbing.
"Woah!" Steven stage whispers, too anxious to keep his voice down, "That's my friend!"
Ruby, more and more visibly agitated since they've gotten into the tunnels suddenly lunges forwards. She jumps high, grabbing the pearl by the head and twisting her neck around with a sharp crack. Ruby tumbles through the cloud to the floor, expertly catching the pearl to save it from harm.
Steven and Amethyst, both having flinched back in surprise, stare at Ruby with equally horrified expressions.
"New plan," Ruby growls, bubbling the pearl and pushing her gem into Lion's mane with the others, "there's too many of us. If you're coming to Earth, you're going in Lion."
"We're what?" Chalcedony splutters.
"Lion got here by himself," Ruby says, "the best plan is for him to leave almost by himself. Crystal Gems only, to protect Steven. We can't bubble him."
"Do any of you know anything about Earth, in current terms?" Pearl asks; she intends to ask about the weapon Yellow Diamond mentioned to her- information she's already passed onto Ruby and Amethyst- but it comes off to the others as reasoning why they should be bubbled.
No one confirms that they do, and Pearl shares a nervous look with Amethyst.
The rebels gather in their own clump to talk among themselves.
"Gotta catch us a Peridot..." Amethyst mutters.
"There will be records on Earth," Pearl assures her, "I have ideas. Bad as it is, it's better on Earth than here. We can shut it down- Hey! Where are you going?"
All heads turn towards Ruby, who has made her way almost around the corner.
"I have business," she says, "leave without me if you need to."
Ruby disappears into the next hall.
Pearl's jaw drops, but mostly, she looks livid that Ruby is running off alone.
"Bubble everyone but Steven, Amethyst, and Chalcedony," she announces, "leave without us, we'll catch up."
"Pearl!" Amethyst protests.
"I know where she's going," Pearl sighs, "We'll be quick."
...
Ruby speaks to Pearl before she even turns around, recognizing her weird gait- soft as ever on one foot, hard on the other, due to her injured leg.
"You can't stop me,"
"I know where they'll be keeping her..." she stops before adding 'shards'- Ruby knows what she's going to find without Pearl having to say it.
Ruby turns, slowly. Tears fill her eyes, touched that her friend is letting her carry out such a useless errand.
"I just-" she chokes, "I can't leave her here, with them. They..."
"I know," Pearl says, smoothing a hand softly over Ruby's hair, "it's a bad idea, but I understand. We'll be quick, okay?"
Ruby's shoulders shake tellingly as she turns away, but she manages to stay quiet as they head towards the grate they came from.
Pearl's gem glows as she pulls a sword from the depths, just in case.
Ruby lifts Pearl first. The place is abandoned, for now.
Pearl hopes the rebels do as they're told, or they're going to find themselves with company as well. She hates leaving them, but she doesn't feel right letting her oldest friend go alone.
"There are holding stations near the cells," Ruby murmurs, soft tones due more to the tears in her throat than being sneaky, "for… convenience."
Pearl nods. She's familiar with homeworld's functions. Some pearls see more than any type of gem, running around anywhere they're needed.
They find the warp at last, through a doorway at the end of the corridor of cells.
Ruby takes a deep breath, stepping on. Pearl gently takes her hand, the one not containing her gem, and they warp through.
Ruby and Sapphire's fusion was an odd one to start. Gems of such different classes didn't interact outside of work, much less fall in love and fuse for eternity. As much as many gems reacted with disgust, a great deal more reacted with surprise. Homeworld just couldn't understand the bond they shared.
It seems Homeworld has learned.
There's two large citrines waiting for them.
Pearl finds herself immediately wrenched off the pad, the other citrine moving to block the warp, setting a heavy foot on Ruby's back and drawing her own destabilizer. Pearl reaches towards her fallen sword, but grunts in pain as the citrine slams her heel onto Pearl's wrist, kicking the blade away.
"Heh," one mutters, "Jasper was right."
Pearl draws her spear, quickly swinging it towards the citrine's hand. The gem pulls her arm back, but doesn't anticipate the spear's following energy bolt. Sparking, the destabilizer falls from her grip.
Pearl sits up quickly, slowed marginally by her injuries. She deals a glancing blow to the citrine's stomach, but her spear is grabbed before she has a chance to make it deadly. The citrine summons her own weapon, dropping quickly onto a knee, which lands on Pearl's leg, and slamming the butt of the knife into Pearl's gem.
It cracks, loudly, and she falls onto her back, dazed, eyes glassy and unclear.
"Pearl!" Ruby yells, squirming on the floor.
She shape shifts, stretching an arm out to grab the sword, swiftly reeling her arm back in. The sword sinks through her citrine's leg, and Ruby finds the balance moved enough to throw the gem off of her. The sword remains stuck in her leg, but Ruby doesn't care, she's never been very good with blades anyway, despite Pearl's attempted teachings.
She summons two gauntlets, swiftly and brutally pummeling the surprised citrine into retreating into her gem. Ruby doesn't have time to worry about bubbling it- if the citrine tries to reform in the time it takes her to kill the next one, it will probably be an unsustainable form anyway.
The remaining citrine, in a rush to get Pearl out of the way before she is facing two opponents, even weaker ones, brings her knife down towards Pearl.
"NO!" Ruby yells, rushing the larger gem.
Pearl cries out as the knife is shoved hard through her gut. Ruby was too slow to stop the hit entirely, but the knife goes in at an angle, instead, ending just below the bottom left of her ribcage and not going in completely- some amount of the blade is still visible.
Ruby dodges the first swipe of the gem's second knife, catching the next in the shoulder. Ignoring it, she lands her burning hands on the citrine's shoulders, crawling around to shove her arm somewhere vital.
Not bothering to cool her limbs down first, Ruby picks up her gem and bubbles it, turning full attention towards Pearl.
"Shit, shit, shit." Ruby sobs, looking over the bad state of her friend, unable to even touch her yet.
The pain has brought some clarity back into Pearl's eyes, but the crack in her gem is a bad one, and if she retreats in this state, it's doubtful she'll ever come back. At the very least, not herself.
"Pearl," Ruby sobs, sliding an arm under her neck once she's sure she's cooled.
Pearl huffs, glassy eyes focusing on the red gem.
"We have… Leave."
Ruby nods, quickly running to bubble the other gem so it doesn't surprise them. She returns after a moment, sliding her arm back under Pearl's neck and her other under Pearl's legs.
"No, no. Sapphire."
"I-" Ruby looks up.
There she is.
Or what's left. They must have moved her bubble lower, as a taunt- Sapphire's remains are neatly bubbled only a little ways off. Sniffling, Ruby leaves Pearl to collect her partner, looking at the blue shards for only a moment before the pain is too much.
She hands the bubble over to Pearl, scooping her friend back up, and carries both of them back onto the warp.