Lapis was terrified. The Crystal gems had found her, she had thought she could trust her human friends. But here she was, betrayed. Steven tried to run away, but the pearl caught up to him easily.
"Get off of me!" Steven yelled, but Lapis was pulled from his hands, screaming as she went.
"Ruby, get Kofi. We need to get the children to safety." The pearl said.
"Behave." Ruby said to Jenny and Buck, she took off running and shortly came back with Jenny's father and grandmother
"Take the children," the pearl said to them, "we need them to be safe."
"What's going on?" Nanefua asked. "Do you need help?"
"No." The pearl said. "She can't hurt us. Just take care of the children. Bring them to their parents."
She, they were talking about her. They were going to shatter her. What a miserable life, she'd been so young when she was sent to this planet, trapped in a war that had nothing to do with her. Trapped at the galaxy warp for thousands of years, in that stupid Pearl for some time she didn't know. Only to make friends, to ask to be freed…and now she was going to be shattered.
The humans were brought away. Kofi saying he would call their parents when they got home.
She was left with the crystal gems. Rebel traitors. They would bring her to The Rose Quartz, and she would be destroyed. They were walking. The pearl was holding her, she didn't know where they were going.
"What do we do?" The ruby asked.
"I don't know." The pearl said. "She's badly hurt. I don't want to take her out like this. I can't tell how deep the cracks go. The children are right. We could shatter her by mistake."
By mistake? Why were they worried about that if they were just going to shatter her afterwards? Would she be interrogated again? She didn't know anything! Why didn't anyone understand that!
"There weren't any lapises on the crystal gems." The ruby said.
"I know." The pearl responded. "But Rose believed all life was precious…all gems deserve to be free. We can't keep her caged…it's not right."
The ruby kicked the ground. "I don't want to put the kids in danger…but you're right. We've lost so many…I can't turn my back on one. But what do we do? If she attacks us. We can't fight her, we can't win."
"She could destroy us all." The pearl said simply.
They…they were afraid of her? She was their prisoner. There was nothing she could do. They could shatter her in a minute…but, it sounded like they were talking about…letting her go.
"We'll have to try to talk to her…explain everything. Rose got so many gems on her side. Surely, we can convince one gem?" The pearl said.
"Been a long time since we could talk to a gem." The ruby said. "Be a nice change. I miss those days."
"Me too." The pearl said.
Play along, thought Lapis, whatever they want. They might free you if you play along, a loose pearl and ruby, they couldn't do much on their own. As long as their master didn't arrive, she might escape from this. Rose...did the pearl belong to The Rose Quartz? She didn't think they owned pearls. But it's what it sounded like.
Perhaps she could get her friends back and they could go somewhere. Far far away from here.
The gems had reached a stone craven and stopped. "Lapis. I know you can hear us." The pearl said. "Please understand, what you have been told about us is a lie. We are the Crystal gems. But we do not seek to destroy homeworld. We only wanted freedom for the gems who wanted it. This world...it's beautiful. It changes and it grows...and it heals. You can heal here…things will get better."
The ruby spoke "things really do get better…even if you thought they never could…even if for the first time in thousands of years you couldn't see the next step. There is one. And then there's another. And then there's a door, and maybe you never would have seen it if you were always looking ahead…maybe...maybe the door was to the side."
"Maybe. I just want to be free. I don't care where." Lapis said. Was that right? Was it convincing enough?
"The children you were talking to." The pearl continued "They are very dear to us. And if Homeworld returns to this world…they will all lose their lives, if you care about them at all…please hear us out after we heal you."
"What?" The ruby asked. "We're going to heal her now?"
Heal her? By the diamonds, how were they going to do that? Were they lying? But what would the point be?
"I don't want the humans to be hurt." Lapis said. Hoping to convince them…and...she didn't. She liked the humans.
"We have to, Ruby. She won't listen to us until we do." The pearl took the ruby hand, and they held tightly to each other as they stepped on the warp pad.
"Oh no. I can't believe we've let it get overgrown!" The pearl screamed.
"It's okay, Pearl. They are just plants." The ruby said, pulling her off the warp pad and guiding her through them. She burned them away with her touch and they recoiled from her.
"Careful!" The pearl said.
"I'm being careful." The ruby grumbled back.
The pearl held the mirror close to her, away from the plants. The ruby led them through the tangled vines. To a fountain of The Rose Quartz crying from closed eyes.
Trickles of water ran from her eyes. "The fountain must be damaged." The pearl muttered.
"We'll fix it." The ruby replied.
They walked to the edge of the fountain. Lapis saw no other gems, no gem tech…were they planning on healing her here?
"Please hear us out after we release you. We can't make you stay if you don't want to. We can't fight you. I'm just a pearl. I can't fight anyone."
The ruby smiled in amusement at the thought of a pearl fighting.
"I'll hear you out." Lapis promised.
"Are you sure, Ruby?" Pearl asked.
"Yeah. You?" Ruby said. The pearl nodded and lowered the mirror into the water…and Lapis felt her gem healing. Fixing, almost instantly…she was shocked to the center of her gem. They had actually healed her. Why? What did they get out of it?
The pearl lifted her from the water. Flipping the mirror over, she pulled her gem out and Lapis reformed. She landed on the ground "…You let me out." She said, disbelieving.
"We said we would." Said the pearl reaching out her hand.
She looked at the pearls hand…a lapis shouldn't touch another gem's pearl without good reason. Still, she didn't want to offend- the pearl dropped it awkwardly "right." She said "of course not."
Lapis felt awkward for a second. She gave the pearl a slightly apologetic smile, she didn't think that broke any etiquette rules.
Lapis could feel the ground under her feet. She smiled. There was a light breeze, and she could smell the earthy scent of the garden. Senses that had been lost to her for thousands of years, she spread her wings and watched the gems eyes widen in alarm. "I'm not leaving." She said. "Not before I've said goodbye to the humans."
They nodded. "Do you want me to deal with the clog?" She asked the ruby. "There's something blocking the water flow in the pipes."
"Yes, please," the ruby said.
Lapis flicked her hand. Dislodging the block and water flowed freely once again. "No problem." She said. "Where is your assignment anyway?"
"Oh…I haven't followed those for a long time." The ruby said.
"Right…Crystal gem." Lapis said, this was going to be hard to get used to.
"Yeah…" the ruby said.
"Well…who does she belong to?"
"No one." The pearl snapped, "I'm a crystal gem too."
The ruby shot an annoyed look at the defective pearl, Lapis wondered what that was about. Won't they both crystal gems? Lapis didn't pretend to understand them. The talkative pearl and the gentle ruby.
Ruby reached out her hand to Lapis and this time Lapis took it. They had freed her; she could try not to offend them and listen to their speech. Walking back to the warp pad with her. The pearl made an annoyed noise and fell behind them, a few feet behind lapis, clearly she still followed some of a pearl's duties.
The warped back to the stone cavern and Lapis looked at the ruby "alright. So…I'm listening."
The ruby looked at the pearl. "Come in here." The pearl said, opening the door and walking in. Lapis followed her and found a room…with thousands of bubbled gems in it. Her mouth dropped open. "What...what have you done?" She asked.
"Do you think we did this?" The pearl asked. "We just freed you."
It was true…Lapis had been freed…they had done that…she paused, reigning in her terror and anger. "So…what happened then?"
"They are corrupted. Most of them are crystal gems. But many were homeworld gems…this is what they did at the end of the war. We lost everything. They don't recognize us…they can't think, they attack blindly… is the only way they are safe."
"It's all we can do for them." The ruby added sadly.
"We can't stop you from leaving…but this is the sort of mercy homeworld gives."
"I'm not one of you!" Lapis said. "They have no reason to do this to me!"
"They didn't wait for their troops to leave." The pearl pointed out.
Lapis remembered…this had to be when it happened when she was broken. "What about you! You didn't free me, you just shoved me away into storage!"
"We had no reason to believe you weren't shattered. You looked like every other lapis mirror…we thought you were gone…I am sorry." She looked genuine.
"We…have gotten so used to corrupted gems, we stopped thinking any could have survived a long time ago." The ruby said.
Lapis sat down at the edge of the lava pool staring up at the field of bubbled gems. "…homeworld…destroyed their own."
"Yes." The pearl sat down next to her. "Much of their own army."
"Why? What would make them?"
The pearl looked down, a hand coming up to cover her mouth.
The ruby stared at her for a second and then turned to Lapis. "Pink Diamond. She was destroyed."
"Oh…you…"
"Rose Quartz did." The ruby replied.
"Where is she?" Lapis looked around nervously.
"Gone." The ruby said. "Steven is her son. He has her gem."
Lapis blinked in confusion. But there was no point in asking a ruby to explain, she was sure she didn't understand it, and she'd already been rude enough to them.
Lapis wrapped her arms around herself. Staring at the room of gems. "I miss home." She said.
"I know." The pearl said, "I do too."
"You can stay with us." The ruby offered. "We will be your friends."