A clap of thunder rung throughout the night sky, preceding a crimson warp beam that struck the ground, scorching the ground before it vanished. In its place, stood Pearl, Black Onyx's arm slung over her shoulder, the single Hexahedroid hovering above their heads.
Pearl glanced up and down, surveying the area. It was a wide, flat landscape that stretched in every direction. The ground appeared to be covered in some kind green colored coating. If her memory served, Pearl recognized it as grass. Several large rocks laid scattered about the clearing. In the distance, just along the horizon, there was a string of mountains. It appeared that they were completely alone.
"I think we're safe here" Pearl said, turning to Onyx, who lifted up his head to look at her. For a moment the two Gems stared at each other.
Before either one of them could speak, Onyx suddenly convoluted again, his body struck by a violent tremor, as more yellow veins spread across his skin. Pearl set Onyx down to his knees as he was hit by another series of tremors, his body becoming translucent, the outline of his form rippling as it glitched between a state of solid and transparent.
Pearl reached for one of the metal rods that was still embedded into Onyx's shoulder, but just as she made contact, her own fingers disintegrated into thin air.
"Don't touch it!" Onyx snapped, grabbing her wrist and pulling her hand away from the electrical current generate by the rods; her fingers soon regenerated back to normal.
Onyx turned to the Hexahedroid, still hovering above them. "Droid TR7X-6154281903, magnify optical beam and fire on my command"
The Hexahedroid gave a small beep in confirmation before it moved down closer to Onyx, its red eye glowing as it fired a narrow laser beam the rod protruding from his shoulder, piercing through the yellow current of energy surrounding the rod and destroying it. Onyx winced slightly as the red beam briefly hit his shoulder before the Hexahedroid turned it off.
"Careful" Pearl said, cautiously to the Hexahedroid. The little cube turned to Pearl and bobbed up and down, as though trying to imitate a nod. The Hexahedroid then moved down to Onyx's chest, using its beam to destroy another one of the rods, this time avoiding any unnecessary damage to Onyx. The Hexahedroid continued to work it's a way round Onyx's body, destroying each rod one by one, the yellow veins slowly beginning to recede as the destabilization effects were wearing off. Once the final rod had been removed, the electrical current fully disappeared from around Onyx as his body finally stopped its glitching, becoming fully stable once more.
Pearl watched in silence as Onyx returned to normal, his gemstone glowing brightly as his ripped and dirty clothing began to repair itself. Almost absently, Pearl meticulously began to carry up the pieces of the shattered rods off the ground.
"I'll just….throw these away" she said, raising to her feet. Without much concerned about littering, Pearl picked a good spot in the middle of the meadow and tossed the broken pieces of metal into the wind, watching as they scattered over the grass. Pearl then turned back to Onyx as he tried to stand again. Pearl quickly moved to help him, but Onyx merely raised his hand to her as she approached, managing to push himself back to his feet without any assistance.
Gathering himself to full height, Onyx took a deep breath and exhaled. There was another moment of silence as the two Gems stood alone the grassy meadow, save for the Hexahedroid looking down at them as it continued to hover in the air. After a while, Pearl cleared her throat as she made another cautionary glance around the area, making doubly sure they were alone.
The excitement of the last few minutes had dissipated and now everything seemed to have returned to a state of normalcy, if it could have even been called that in the first place. Pearl soon began to feel a bead of sweat on her forehead as the atmosphere suddenly became very tense and was now looking at Onyx with an increasingly sense of worry and unease. She kept expecting him to start bombarding her with any of a million questions about what had happened, about what she had done. Only now did the full weight of what had happened suddenly dawn onto Pearl. She disobeyed her order, summoned her weapon and fought against the Crystal Gems. And Onyx had seen every minute of. Every minute of Pearl doing just about everything a proper Pearl should not do.
What was Onyx going to say to her? Would he be angry? What she was supposed to even say in order to explain herself? Yet, Onyx did ask Pearl anything. In fact, he seemed to be ignoring her entirely, as he was not even looking at her.
Unable keep with the silence any longer, Pearl finally give in and opened her mouth to say something. "So, that was a quite a thing back there" she said, trying to sound as close to conversational as she could manage. "What with the ship blowing up and that big fight with the Crystal Gems and the of us almost getting killed. I mean, woo! Crazy, right?"
Pearl half-heartedly waved her hands in the air, hoping to add some levity, but to no avail. Onyx made no indication that he heard Pearl. Instead, he stared down at his right hand and flexed his fingers as he tried to form a fist.
"I mean, I can hardly believe how unbelievable all that was" Pearl said. Her eyes widened as she felt her throat beginning to constrict. "So, very, very, very impossibly, astonishingly, terrifyingly, unbelievable." Pearl gulped again, feeling the strength giving away in her legs and her mind slowly becoming overwhelmed with pure shock, as she became only partially aware of her words as she spoke.
"I wouldn't even know how to begin to….talk about it…"
Pearl was abruptly snapped out of her daze and yelped loudly raising her palms up in a feeble gesture of defense as Onyx suddenly thrust his right arm forward, creating a small gust of from the force of his punch. Onyx pulled his arm back and stared at his fist. He then repeated this act a few times, alternating between each arm as though he was striking at an invisible enemy before lowering his arms, staring down at his hands once again.
Pearl now felt even more anxious and confused, having no idea what Onyx was doing, and did have the courage to try and ask him. She only watched as Onyx walked away from her, moving toward one of the nearby boulders resting in the wide bed of grass.
Onyx reached down and gripped the underside of the boulder, lifting the massive rock above his head with no discernable effort. Squaring his legs, Onyx threw the boulder directly upward with a single, powerful heave. Onyx remained where he was, his eyes turned upwards to the sky, watching and waiting as the boulder soon came hurtling back down toward him. Pearl looked on with some concern as boulder was about to hit Onyx, and briefly considered yelling out some kind of warning, but in the split second before the rock made contact, there was a flash of light and gust of wind, followed by two distinct thudding sounds as two halves of the boulder crashed into the ground on either side of Onyx, his sword pointed upward to the sky.
"Um, well done, my Onyx?" Pearl said, with another nervous smile, hoping that perhaps Onyx would respond to a compliment. But Onyx did not seem to be looking for praise as he was now too busy staring at his sword.
"Slow" he said, finally.
"What?" Pearl said, confused.
"My speed" Onyx said. "It's slower than what I was expecting. That last battle seemed to have taken a toll on me". Onyx clenched his fist and briefly flexed his arm. "My strength doesn't seem to be the same either"
Pearl glanced down to the two pieces of the boulder that Onyx had just split apart in the blink of eye and decided to take Onyx word for it that he was too slow.
"Well, I'm sure if you give it some time, you will back to your normal self" she said, cheerfully. "Perhaps if you tried again on another rock?"
Pearl walked over to another adjacent boulder, now feeling much more relieved and perhaps even a little happier, now that she had this opportunity to offer a helpful, unassuming suggestion. Pearl looked over the boulder with a critical eye, deeming it to be good enough value
"This looks like a good one" she said, patting her hand against the solid rock.
No sooner had Pearl touched the side of the boulder, a loud rumbling noise, like a deep guttural growl, emanated from underneath the rock. The boulder then started to shake, clouds of dust falling off it as it rose up from out of the ground, standing on a pair of legs underneath it. A dozen cracks appeared along the surface of the rock which then spilt open into a series of jagged, pointed spikes. As the boulder rose up to full height, it unfurled, revealing a broad-shouldered torso and a pair of massive arms, each one with razor sharps claws in the place of hands. In the center of its chest, was a small, brown colored, rectangular shaped gemstone. At the top of the torso was a round shaped head, with a pair of pointed horns on the either side. Its mouth appeared to be nothing but two rows of sharp teeth, and its eyes were nothing but narrow blots of pure blackness, with no iris or pupils visible.
The creature lowered its head down to Pearl, who just stared back it, unresponsive, having gone completely still in a state of dumb shock at what had just occurred. The creature opened its mouth and released a ferocious roar, which was enough to snap Pearl back to her senses as she stumbled backwards from the creature.
As if acting on some kind of signal, four more of the boulders that were lying across the meadow sprang up to life, each one transforming into the same spike covered creature as the first. All four of the creatures slowly began to converge around Onyx and Pearl, surrounding them on all sides.
The first creature sniffed at the air and took a step toward Pearl. Onyx quickly ran in front of her, brandishing his sword at the beast as he took up a fighting stance, standing between it and Pearl. Reacting on instinct, Pearl raised her hand to her gemstone, preparing to summon her weapon. But just as her gemstone began to glow, Onyx threw a single, curious glance over his shoulder to Pearl. Meeting Onyx eye for just a moment, Pearl immediately lost all her nerve and dropped her hands down her sides, her entire body going as straight as a board as she stood perfectly still.
Onyx did not pause to question Pearl on her behavior as he was forced to turn back to face the creature, blocking the oncoming swipe of its claws with his sword. Onyx then pushed the creature's arm away and then swung his sword low, slicing the creature clean in half in its mid-section.
For a moment creature's the disembodied upper torso hovered in the air above its pair of leg before halves of the creature suddenly exploded into a puff of brown colored smoke. The gemstone that was embedded in the beast chest fell down to the ground.
Onyx gave a curious look at the gemstone, but then quickly wheeled around as another one of the creatures came charging at Pearl from behind. Pearl made no attempt to move, could only turn around in time to see the creature's fang preparing to sink into her, before she was roughly pushed aside by Onyx. The creature's fangs sunk into Onyx outstretched arm and he winched with pain.
The beast kept hold of Onyx arm within its jaw as another one of the creatures charged forward and turned its back to Onyx, firing the jagged spikes from its back like volley of arrows. Onyx raised his sword in his free hand, using it as a shield to block the oncoming spikes, while his other arm was still trapped the beast jaw.
From the other side of the meadow, there came a high-pitched whirling noise, which sounded close to an actual scream as the Hexahedroid was now flying at full speed, being relentlessly chased around in a circle by one of the creatures, which was champing its teeth as it tried to catch the tiny robot in its mouth.
Pearl glanced back and forth between incapacitated Onyx and the Hexahedroid. She knew that she needed to do something, just as she had done earlier. But something was wrong. That same burning, impulse that had spurred her into action when she saved Onyx from the Crystal Gems was no longer present. Right now, Pearl could not feel any sense of confidence or strength. She felt nothing, but terror, indecision and a horrible feeling of uselessness.
Before Pearl could come to any conclusion on what she should she do, she was confronted by another one the creatures. Pearl had no chance to run or defend herself as the beast raised its clawed hand, preparing to cut her to pieces. Then, in the split second before the beast attacked, a black colored broadsword was lodged into its chest, knocking the monster down to the ground before it poofed into the air.
Pearl turned back to see Onyx's outstretched arm in the air, having thrown his sword to save her. Now that his other hand was free, Onyx slammed his palm to the ground. A dark pulse of energy rippling across the surface of the grass, forming a perfect ring that spread out for almost a hundred yards, encompassing them all.
Pearl suddenly felt her body becoming extremely heavy, as though something was pressing down hard her shoulders, the increased sensation of weight forcing to drop to her knees. She recognized this power at once. This was Onyx's signature ability to manipulate gravity, though she was the first time she ever the affect for herself and now she could understand clearly why this was considered one of Onyx most formidable powers.
At the same time, all three of the remaining creatures were hit by the same effect, all of them now beginning to struggle in order to remain upright. The one that had been chasing the Hexahedroid suddenly toppled to the ground with a crash, while the cube itself remained airborne, seemingly unaffected by Onyx's power.
The creature holding Onyx in place lowered its head it came closer to the ground, loosening its jaw enough for Onyx to break free. Onyx then wasted no time before delivering a powerful uppercut under the creature's chin, which was enough force to poof the creature, its gemstone dropping to the ground. Moving swiftly as though he was gliding over the meadow, Onyx grabbed his sword that lying next to Pearl and without any break in momentum, he cut straight through the two remaining beasts, each one evaporating into vapor, leaving nothing but a gemstone behind.
Onyx kneeled down and placed his open palm hand on the ground again. Another pulse travelled along the surface of the grass; the ring of energy disappeared from around the meadow and Pearl felt the extreme weight leave her body, allowing her to stand again. She watched as Onyx remained on his knee, taking several deep breaths as though that brief excursion had left exhausted. A moment later, the Hexahedroid zoomed over to Pearl's side, nuzzle close to her face.
"The Hexahedroid appears undamaged" she said, somewhat irritated as the robot continued to smother her, before she ushered it away, taking its odd behavior as sign it was perfectly fine. Pearl then glanced down to the five incapacitated gemstones, lying scattered around the meadow. "What were those things. Were they…Gems?"
It seemed to be the only explanation, but they were unlike any Gems Pearl had ever seen before. Even Off-Color Gems never appeared to be this abnormal or even dangerous. What could possibly alter a Gem to such a monstrous degree?
"We are too exposed here" Onyx said abruptly, his eyes scanning out over the landscape, no doubt looking for any more signs of an attack. "We need a more defensible position".
Onyx gaze settled on the mountain range out on the horizon. "There" he said, pointing to the mountains. "We should get moving"
"It does appear quite a distance" Pearl said, thoughtfully, as she stood next to Onyx, placing her hand over her chin as she appeared to study the mountains. "We could send the Hexahedroid to scout the terrain ahead of us and once it scans a suitable location, it could warp us there immediately. Then again, that would leave us to wait here in the open. And we obviously can't risk the droid being destroyed or running out of power before it reaches a safe location, so going on foot seems to be our best option"
A few seconds after she had finished talking, Pearl widened her eyes, having not even been aware she was speaking out loud without any permission and soon realized that Onyx was looking directly at her, listening to every word she had said.
"Um, but I'm sure you already thought of all that my Onyx!" Pearl said quickly, throwing her hands up at once. She let out another nervous, high-pitched laugh. "Listen to me, rambling on about things I know nothing about it. I'm sure I must sound insane!"
However, Onyx simply turned back to face the mountains. "No, that was accurate summation of our present situation. The best course of action would be us for walk. Let's go"
Without another word, Onyx strode forward in the direction of the mountain. Without waiting for kind of invitation, Pearl followed after him, the Hexahedroid floating behind her.
They walked for what may have been hours, the outline of the mountain range remaining fixed in front of them, gradually growing larger the closer they came to it. Onyx remained in front, while Pearl walked no more than five feet behind him at all times, with the Hexahedroid taking up the rear. Eventually they had left the grassy meadow and the terrain became rocky and barren. As they approached the base of the mountain, the ground began to incline upwards, growing steeper the further they went uphill. After trekking for nearly an hour the ground soon leveled off again as they found a path, sticking out along the cliffside, that lead through the mountains.
All the while as they walked, Pearl continued to wonder when Onyx was going to ask her how she had defied his orders, trying to think of all the possible ways she could explain herself in that manner that would convince Onyx that nothing about her was out of the ordinary. She kept looking at him, expecting him to say something to her at any moment, yet he remained silent and distance, keeping his eyes forward at all times. Pearl hated this perpetual silence nearly as much as she hated the idea of having to talking to Onyx. Was he ever going to question her? Maybe he was too preoccupied with their current situation and wanted to remain focused? Maybe he forgot about the previous event entirely? Or maybe he was just waiting until they found somewhere safe before he began to question her? And what was going to happen then? No matter how much Pearl may have wanted to, it was impossible to tell Onyx the truth.
Pearl was so wrapped in her own thoughts that she paid no attention to the ground in front of her, walking too close to the edge of the path and wasn't prepared when a section of the ground broke underneath her foot, causing her to slip off the edge. Pearl let out a startled cry as she fell over the cliffside, but then came to an immediate halt as Onyx caught her by her wrist, pulling her back onto the path.
Pearl let out a shaky breath as she fidgetingly brushing some of the dust off her skirt, quickly trying to recompose herself. "Oh, um, thank you, my Onyx, I must not have seen-"
"This terrain is treacherous." Onyx said, coldly, already turning away from her and resuming walking. "You need to be more careful".
Pearl lowered her head and resumed walking, keeping mind of where she was going, keeping as far away from the edge of the cliff as possible.
Eventually after another hour of walking, they found the entrance to cave etched along the mountain side. After taking a moment to examine the entrance, Onyx entered the cave, followed by Pearl and the Hexahedroid.
Though the entrance was not that big, the cave itself was quite large, going in for several miles deep into the mountain. Sections of the walls were covered in some kind of strange, spongy substance which glowed bright blue, offering them illumination in the otherwise darkened cave. Dozens of stalactites hung from the ceiling, as well as some stalagmites sprouting up from the floor of the cave.
Onyx spent several long minutes looking over the cave, clearly trying to appraise its value, while Pearl stayed quiet, determined not to say anything else out of turn or do anything else that might get her into any more trouble. The Hexahedroid wandered over to a corner of the cave to a nearby stalactite, its red eye fixated on a drop of water slowly trickling down from the tip of the rock and landing on the stalagmite that was forming underneath.
"This should be suitable base of operations for the time being." Onyx said, finally. He made his way back toward the entrance of the cave. "I'm going to head and scout the rest of the terrain". Pearl followed after him, but Onyx raised his hand to stop her.
"Pearl, wait here and do not move until I return"
"Yes, my Onyx" Pearl said, giving him a gracious bow.
Onyx paused, looking at her carefully. "Be sure that you understand me, Pearl. I am giving you a clear order to not to move from this spot until I say otherwise. Do you understand?"
"Y-yes. I understand, my Onyx." Pearl replied, lowering her head again. Appearing to be satisfied, Onyx walked out of the cave and out of sight.
Now alone, aside from the Hexahedroid, which was now watching the water drop transition between the stalactite and stalagmite, Pearl let out a small sigh, before she straightened her back and folded her hands down to her waist, holding that posture without flaw. She stood there, elegant, posed and beautiful, a perfect little figurine. This was good. This was her natural state.
After a short while, the Hexahedroid finally took its red eye off the dripping water and looked over to Pearl. The cube hovered next to her, its red eye peering close to her face, beeping three times in a row, as though it was trying to say something. Pearl made brief glance toward the Hexahedroid but lowered her head again.
"This is ok" she whispered. "I don't need to move. Or do anything. I don't need to worry about fighting or talking or anything important. I just need to stand still, be quiet and follow orders. That's all. Just do as I am told, and nothing will go wrong"
The Hexahedroid stared at Pearl and let a low, melancholy sounding beep noise. Suddenly, the Hexahedroid's eye widened fully and it began to beep very loudly, frantically bobbing itself from side to side.
Pearl watched the little cube with a confused expression, having no idea what it was doing and briefly wondering if it was malfunctioning. But then everything became quite when Pearl felt a huge tremor that shook the cave, followed by a warm and foul-smelling breeze blowing onto the back of her neck.
Moving her neck very, very slowly, Pearl turned her head around just enough to see the snarling face of a spike covered monster standing right behind her, identical to the ones that they had encountered earlier.
Pearl snapped her head forward again, looking terrified as sweat rolled down her forehead. She did not scream or run, despite the overwhelming desire to do so. She remained frozen in place, the same thought repeating in her mind over and over again.
"Do not move. Do not move Do not move!"
The monster did not immediately attack. Instead it began to circle around Pearl as though she was some object worthy of interest or study.
The Hexahedroid continued its frantic beeping, now literally pushing itself into Pearl's side as if trying to get her to move, practically ramming her. But no matter how hard the cube pushed, Pearl would not budge. She could not move. She couldn't disobey her order. She had to stay still, and she knew it would it be fine. This had to be fine.
The beast now stood directly in front of Pearl, dwarfing her in size. It let out a deep and dangerous sounding growl, clearly beginning to lose any form of restraint it may have possessed. Pearl stared into the beast cold and merciless eyes, realizing that it was seconds away from ripping her to shreds, she felt it again. The same intense feeling of strength that she not felt for thousands of years. The feeling of rebelling. But then her mind turned to Onyx and what he had told her to do. Pearl told herself that he wouldn't be much longer. He'd be back any second. And even if he wasn't, she still supposed to remain still. Those were her orders.
After spending another minute grunting and sniffing at the air, the beast finally lost patience, letting out a massive bellow which shook the cave, raised its clawed hand above Pearl, preparing to strike.
Just before it could attack, the Hexahedroid zoomed in between Pearl and the beast, firing a red beam from its eye, hitting the creature directly in its face. The beast let out a small cry and shook its head as if had been stung. The Hexahedroid fired again into the beast's shoulder. The beast roared at the little robot and swiped it at with its claws, as became the full focus of its wraith. The Hexahedroid dodged the beast's oncoming claws and fired its beam again while hovered back further into the cave, leading the beast away from where Pearl was standing. Pearl watched with fear and suspense as the beast tried to catch the Hexahedroid, which continued to evade the beast's grasp, firing back it with its red beam, although this seemed to leave no lasting damage on the monster.
Suddenly, the red beam faded in mid-air, sparks flying out from the Hexahedroid's eye as the robot momentarily dipped in the air, struggling to remain airborne. This was enough of an opening as the beast struck the cube with its back hand, sending it crashing into the wall of the cave.
"Droid TR7X-6154281903!" Pearl cried, only realizing now how tedious it was to say that.
The beast now lumbered its way toward the downed robot. The Hexahedroid beeped helplessly and rattled on the ground as it tried to take off, but failed, either too damaged to move or having used up too much its power in the fight.
Pearl watched as the beast raised its arm in the air, preparing to crush the little robot. Pearl couldn't let that happen. She had to stop this from happening. She had to do something. She was going to do something.
She felt it again.
Releasing a loud and terrifying battle cry, Pearl leapt through the air, landing in between the beast and the Hexahedroid, summoning her spear from within her gemstone. She moved into a fighting stance and tightened her grip on her spear, staring down the snarling beast without any hint of fear. She was not backing down. Not this time. She was going to fight this monster and she was going to win.
Pearl made the first move and ran headlong at the monster. The beast bellowed once again and swung its clawed hand at Pearl, who arched her body backwards, avoiding the attack as she slide on her knees underneath the beast, right between its legs, while slicing at once of its ankles. The beast toppled down to its belly just as Pearl emerged on the other side of it.
As beast pushed itself up, the spikes on its back began to rattle and second later they fired out from the beast back like a volley of arrows. Pearl spun her spear between her hands, deflecting the oncoming spikes, but missed one as it nicked her across the leg, forcing to take a knee due to the pain.
The beast had now risen back to full height. It reached behind its back, grasping at one of the spikes, In an almost sickening fashion, the beast pulled the spike out from its back, as it extended in length and width, before it was plucked out, the tip of it forming as a thick stub, resembling a massive club. Now armed with a weapon, the beast swung its club at Pearl, who barely managed to jump back in time due to thanks to the beast's increased range of attack.
The beast raised the club and slammed it down on Pearl, who caught it the blow with the center of her spear. The beast's strength pushed Pearl down to her knee, but after a moment Pearl rose to her feet, pushing back against the beast with all her strength. With another strong battle cry and burst of energy, Pearl threw the beast off her, sending it tumbling back at least ten feet from her.
Now separated, Pearl and the beast circled one another, both waiting for the other one to attack. The cave had gone almost silent aside from a gust of wind from the entrance and the dripping of water from the nearby stalactite.
Hearing this drip of water, Pearl turned back to the stalactite and stalagmite behind her, struck by a sudden wave of inspiration. Quickly formulating a plan, Pearl performed an impressive backflip through the air and landed on the tip of the stalagmite, balancing herself perfectly. She remained on the stalagmite, keeping her eyes fixed on the beast in front of her.
The beast titled its head at Pearl curiously, before it charged forward and swung its club, shattering the stalagmite, but missed Pearl as she launched herself upwards. Turning around in the air, she landed on the opposing stalactite and was now the perfect position to strike, sitting directly above the creature's exposed back. Having made her opening, Pearl kicked her feet off the tip of stalactite, her spear aimed at beast's back as she came down upon like a bolt of lighting
However, it seemed the beast could somehow sense the approaching danger and in the precious few moments before Pearl made contact, the dozen spikes on the creatures shot upwards, each one becoming the length of Pearl's own spear and twice as thick, acting as wall of needles ready to skewer anything that tried to pass through it.
But despite her opponent's desperate counteract, Pearl did not waver, keeping herself on target. Carefully weaving and bending her body at the right angles, she slipped through the narrow gap between the spikes, landing and thrusting her spear into the exposed section of the beast's back. The beast let out a painful groan and wobbled on its feet before it poofed into a cloud of vapor. A small, brown gemstone landed down to the ground alongside Pearl.
For a moment, Pearl felt a strange mixture of disbelief and accomplishment. She had done it. She had won, yet a small part of her was trying to tell her it didn't happen, trying to downplay the significance of what she had done. But this conflicting sense of victory was impeded when she heard a low, beeping noise on the other side of the cave. Recognizing the noise at once, Pearl rushed over to the Hexahedroid that lay on the cave floor and picked it up into her arms.
"Are you alright?" she asked, with concern.
The Hexahedroid released a quick series of beeps, before it floated up out of Pearl's arms, blinking at her with its red eye.
A sense of relief washed over Pearl. The Hexahedroid appeared to be intact. Though she recognized it as a machine, she couldn't help but feel happy the little robot survived, particularly after the way it had tried to defend her. The Hexahedroid seemed happy as well as it nuzzled up close to Pearl, who unlike before, felt comfortable enough to return the gesture this time.
"I won" Pearl whispered, turning her head back to the gemstone lying on the cave floor. "I can hardly believe it. I was-" A broad smile broke across Pearl's face as she grabbed the Hexahedroid with both hands, practically pressed her face up to its red eye. "I was amazing! I mean, did you see me back there?!"
As though taking that as an actual question, the Hexahedroid pulled away from Pearl and released a holographic screen projection from its eye; despite being knocked down, it managed to capture the entire fight between Pearl and the monster from its point of view, playing back the highlights over and over again. As Pearl watched the images of her battle play out, seeing what she had accomplished, feeling something beginning to bubble up inside of her. Something that she could hold back no longer.
"YAHOO! Yeah! Woo! I am the best Pearl there is!" Pearl cheered joyous, her voice echoing throughout the cave, feeling happier than she ever felt in a long time, throwing her arms in the air as she leapt up and down across the cave. The Hexahedroid soon joined her in celebrating, making a beeping noise that sounded close to trumpet, while doing loop de loops in the air
Pearl didn't how long she had cheered for; it may have been years and she would not notice as continue to bound in the air. All that matter to her was this feeling. She felt incredible, she felt invincible, she felt powerful, she felt accomplished, she felt strong. She felt…normal.
As that until she finally opened her eyes again and saw none other than Black Onyx standing, arm crossed right in front of her.
Pearl stopped her cheering, her smile dropping faster than a meteor, her arms still raised in the air. The Hexahedroid continued to beep loudly in celebration, before abruptly stopping when it saw Onyx as well. The cube then quickly zoomed behind Pearl, losing any resemblance of courage it may have had now that Onyx had returned.
Pearl glanced to the spear in her hand and quickly hid it behind her back, offering Onyx a nervous smile and chuckle as he stared down at her.
"Unless I'm mistaken, which I am not," he said, calmly. "I gave you an explicit order not to move until I said otherwise, didn't I?"
Pearl gulped, her body trembling as she was compelled to answer. "Y-yes!"
"And I believe you did the exact same thing in the battle against the Crystal Gems?"
"I did!" Pearl said, shutting her eyes, wishing with all her might she was somewhere else.
"So, it appears that you can disobey my orders if you feel you have to" Onyx said.
Pearl let a tiny whimper, expecting any number of horrible things to happen as Onyx stepped closer to her, his almond shaped eyes boring into her.
"That is….quite a relief"
Pearl stopped her shaking and opened her eyes again, her sense of terror vaporing at once as her mind went completely blank at that response. "Wha?"
"I feel relief now that I know for certain you can go against my orders." Onyx explained.
"You feel…relieved that I can do that?" Pearl said, her disbelief now being pushed to a breaking point. Admittedly, she had not be entirely sure how Onyx would react, but at best she assumed he would write off her as being defective and intend to have her replaced.
"Clarification is the keystone of security" Onyx said, placing his arms behind his back. "I couldn't understand how you did what you did before, when you saved me from the Crystal Gems. At first, I thought that perhaps I miscommunicated my previous order somehow. I needed to perform this test to uncover the truth and put my mind at ease"
"Test?" Pearl said, still feeling confused.
"Shortly after I left, I found one of those creatures nearby and intentionally lure it here. I purposely gave you an order to see how you would respond if the creature were to attack you"
"You wanted it to attack me?" Pearl said, unable to hold back a mild note of indignation in her voice.
"I wanted to see what you would do." Onyx replied as calm as ever. "I was waiting outside, watching the entire time. If I felt that things were going too far, or if you did not fight back, I was prepared to intervene."
"So, you knew I would win?" Pearl asked.
Onyx raised an eyebrow at Pearl. "If I knew that, I wouldn't have needed to test you. But it was necessary in order to obtain a firm grasp of your capabilities. From what I have seen, you possess extraordinary combat skills, unflinching composure in the heat of battle and keen mind for strategy. And you are capable of circumventing my orders when the situation requires it."
Pearl honestly did not know how to feel about that. She felt the color rise in her cheeks when Onyx praised of her for her performance. The fact praised her at all made her tremendously happy, yet she couldn't help but feel uncomfortable at being through such an elaborate ordeal just for Onyx to gain information. Somehow, talking now felt like it would be a lot less difficult.
"You are without a doubt the most remarkable Pearl I have ever seen" Onyx said, causing another deep blush to appear on Pearl's face, as she was practically gaping at him. "And that is exactly why I need you"
Onyx turned away from Pearl and walked to the entrance of the cave, his hands still folded behind his back as he stared out to horizon, observing the sky slowly became to turn a bright shade of orange hue as the sun was now beginning to raise again.
"We are trapped on dangerous alien world, filled with unknown dangers. I have no idea of what's out there or what our enemies, the Crystal Gems, are planning next. And we have only a limited amount of time before the Cluster emerges, which will wipe out this entire planet, taking us along with it. I need you more than ever, Pearl"
Onyx stared down at his own two hands, clenching them tightly as they began to shake. "I don't know how long it will be until my strength returns, and we cannot afford any liabilities when we are so vulnerable. I need you to be able defend yourself when the time comes. Knowing you can fight for yourself means that I don't have to prioritize your safety"
Onyx turned to face Pearl, looking her directly into her eyes as he spoke. "I believe I can rely on you Pearl. Can you help me?"
Pearl said nothing, and only continued to stare at Onyx, wide eyed. She couldn't believe what she was hearing. Onyx needed her. He wasn't angry or disapproving of what she had done. He wanted to be exactly as she was. He was asking her for his help, almost as though he considered her to be an equal.
"….Pearl?" Onyx said, after a long moment, still waiting for Pearl to answer him.
"Huh?" Pearl quickly shook her head, snapping out of her daze. "Oh, y-yes! Yes absolutely, I…I mean, of course. I am always at your service, my Onyx" Pearl said, giving him a gracious bow
Onyx placed his hand on Pearl's shoulder with a firm grip, prompting her to look up to him as her a brief nod of approval, satisfied by her answer.
"Now as for Droid TR7X-6154281903," Onyx said, turning to the floating cube. "Since it is the only Hexahedroid we have at our disposal, it will be vital for our survival. Once it is fully recharged, I want you to go out and patrol the planet in order to update Droid TR7X-6154281903 database for warp locations"
"You want me to go with it?" Pearl said, surprised. The Hexahedroid chimed happily, already nuzzling Pearl's face again, clearly ecstatic at the news they would be staying together.
"Yes" Onyx said. "You will be its escort. I expect you to defend Droid TR7X-6154281903 from any threats you might encounter. From what I have just witnessed, that should well within your capabilities"
"Umm…" Pearl said, hesitating for a moment.
"Is there something wrong?" Onyx asked
"No, it was just thinking that…" Pearl paused briefly. "Well, Droid TR7X-6154281903 is a bit of a long name to say, so, perhaps we could give the droid a nickname instead?"
"A nickname?" Onyx repeated.
"Yes, it's a way to help make things feel more….distinguishable" Pearl said, smiling rather fondly.
Onyx stared at Pearl for a long moment. "What nickname did you have in mind?"
"Hmm…" Pearl paused and turned to the Hexahedroid, hoping for some burst of inspiration when something finally came to her. "What about…. Peril?"
"Peril?" Onyx said. "Why call it that?"
"Well because we're on a Pearl-ilous mission together!" Pearl smiled broadly while Onyx remained as stiff as ever, before he gave another brief nod of approval.
"Very well then" he said. "Once Peril has fully recharged, I want the two of you to begin scouting the planet and report back to anything that may of use within the hour. If you see the Crystal Gems, do not engage with them. Understood?"
"Yes, my Onyx" Pearl said, giving another respectful bow of her head. Beside her, Peril chimed happily, apparently quite happy with its new name.
"Thank you, Pearl" Onyx said, as he walked past her. "That will be all"
Once she was sure that Onyx was no longer looking at her, Pearl lifted her head and slowly walked toward the entrance of the cave, watching as the rising sun now illuminated the red-stoned valley that stretched out before her.
She didn't know what the future would bring or what challenges she would have to face. All she knew was that she wanted to keep hold of this feeling, this remarkable feeling that told her in irrefutable terms that she could absolutely anything. There was nothing and no one that could stop her. Pearl was never going to let go of this feeling again. No matter what it cost.