Chapter Text
Pearl could only stare blankly at the shards that covered the ground before her. Somewhere she could vaguely hear screams and chaos in the background. Gems yelling at each other, barking orders, she could even hear what she thought was a Ruby trying to comfort her. But nothing mattered to her. Not now.
Not now her Diamond was shattered.
She could only focus on the shards, the bright pink shards and couldn’t help but think about another pink gem. A pink gem that she had trusted. That she had given information to. One who claimed to just want to talk. And now there were just shards. The chaos surrounding her was dying down and she didn’t know how long she had been sitting there, didn’t even care actually.
Eventually everything went quiet before she heard a wail from somewhere behind her, along with a wave of sadness. She couldn’t really hear what was being said. She could only stare at the shards. Then suddenly someone was touching her. Out of the corners of eyes she could see it was Yellow’s and Blue’s Pearl. The both of them were shaking her, trying to make her react. Their voices sounded like they were underwater. “Pearl? Pearl! What happened?”
“Enough!”
She felt her herself being picked up. Her eyes stayed on the shards. But she vaguely realized that she was being inspected by Yellow Diamond. She was laid out in the Diamond’s hand, being gently cradled. A huff escaped the Diamond. (Not the right Diamond.) “She won’t be able to tell us anything.” Blue Diamond approached and gently poked her; a sigh left the Diamonds lips. “Broken… Poor thing…” Yellow Diamond seemed to stare into the distance. “It would be kinder to leave her.”
It was only after a while that she was put down in the same position. She felt one of the Diamonds softly pat her head. Her fellow Pearls hugged her tightly, their arms trembling and she felt tears staining her uniform. And then they left.
It was quiet now. Just her and the shards and her guilt. She still did not manage to move. Not even her eyes. They remained fixated and everything was just numb. She felt just numb. These years she went around as a renegade Pearl suddenly didn’t matter anymore. The crush she had on Rose didn’t matter. Not when her Diamond was gone, not when the one person who gave her freedom was gone.
Pink had given her everything, without asking for anything in return. She tried so hard to change the other Diamonds minds, she tried so so hard. And now everything was for nothing. Her Diamond was gone and she was left. Her head felt heavy, as if stuffed with cotton. Everything was just slow. A chill ran trough her and she shuddered. These had been happening for a while now. Gems weren’t supposed to feel cold, but she certainly felt the chill. Sometimes her sight even flickered. Pink overlapping her vision.
Her head hurt and the pain was only becoming worse. Maybe this was the punishment for failing her Diamond. The pain was almost searing now and she couldn’t even see the shards anymore through the pain. Everything simply hurt. Her gem radiated agony, she felt like one of those big mammals with trunks was trying to worm their way into it.
Then suddenly the pain stopped. Everything was quiet and she could finally breath again. Her head still felt oddly full. Then she noticed the quietness. While at first, she relished in the sudden silence, now she became suspicious. Earth was after all quite a loud planet, with the wind rustling and the birds singing, but everything was quiet.
Suddenly her head snapped up at a sound she did not hear. A bright light was appearing in the sky. Pearl did not know what it was, only that it was terrible. She could feel the rage, the pure and overpowering hatred of the light. And it was descending upon her.
Something inside her snapped. But… It was not her. She felt her arm raise, but it was not her. She felt her mouth open, but the voice was not hers. “NO!” A shield appeared before her. A bright pink diamond shield, just as the light was coming down. The light was filled with malice, she could feel it burn her skin, but weirdly enough she also felt deep despair and sadness. Or did she?
As soon as the light came, it also disappeared. The shield also vanished and just as suddenly she could move her arm again. She slowly brought it back to her body and grasped it with her other hand. Slowly brushing across it. She had a feeling she was not alone.
“Pink?”
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We… are the Crystal Gems!
We’ll always save the day!
And if you think we can’t,
We’ll always find a way!
That’s why the people of this world believe in
Garnet, Amethyst, and Steven!
Steven sat alone in his room, staring at the ceiling. He was alone, again. His room was a mess around him, but he couldn’t muster up the enthusiasm to clean. Sometimes Garnet helped him, but she was always busy, Amethyst didn’t really care about cleaning and his dad didn’t come around the beach house. So his room was a mess and he felt like a mess.
Having enough of simply staring at nothing, he got up and began just wandering down the beach. The gems wouldn’t be home for a long time and he wondered how far he could walk down beach. Maybe he would find something cool!
So now it was dark, he was cold, probably miles away from the beach house, and he was hungry. He held his tummy as it rumbled. He was really hungry. In fact, he was even imagining the smell of roasting hot dogs. The sweet greasy smell of a hotdog over a fire. Except he was not imagining it.
His feet began to pound against the sand as he ran towards the fire in the distance, with a slight figure sitting next to it. Maybe the stranger was friendly! Maybe they would even give him a hotdog!
Somewhere in the back of his mind, his dad was warning him of stranger danger, but he was really hungry! Besides the stranger didn’t look dangerous. It was a bit hard to see in the dark with only the flames to illuminate her, but while she was tall, her limbs were really slender. Her hair looked like a pink fluffy cloud, which he really wanted to touch, and she was wearing a long blue hoodie with a yellow skirt.
Her head had also snapped up at his approach and his eyes gained stars as he looked at hers. They were so cool! One of her eyes was blue without a pupil, while the other was pink but with a black diamond pupil.
“Your eyes are so cool!”
That seemed to take the female aback as she recoiled slightly.
“Thank.. You?” She glanced upwards. “Isn’t it past the usual time human children go to sleep?” Concern seemed to cross her face. But more importantly, he now noticed the gem that was set into her forehead.
“You are a gem! My name is Steven! Whoareyou?Whatisyourname?Doyoulivehere?Wellnothereexactlybutnearby?DoyouknowtheCrystal-“
The female had leaned forward and placed one of her fingers across his mouth, a slight smile on her face. “Nice to meet you, Steven. My name is.. is..” She tilted her head and eyes seemed to flicker. “How do you know of Gems?”
Steven started to pull up his shirt. “Oh, that’s easy. I live with the Crystal Gems! My mom was Rose Quarts, she gave her Gem to me.” That seemed to still her form, literally. After what felt like minutes, he awkwardly cleared his throat. “Can I have the hotdog?”
That seemed to shock her free and she wordlessly handed over the hotdog, which he gratefully devoured. The gem was on the other hand still silently watching him. “I really do believe that humans have a specific time of sleep.”
“Yeah” He tried and failed to suppress a yawn. “Where is your… house?” That seemed to perk him up a little bit. “It is down the beach, that way.” He pointed behind him and sheepishly scratched his neck. “I kind of walked here.”
A hum left the woman’s lips. She unfurled herself, stood up and held out a hand. “Then I believe it is time to return you.” He slipped his hand in hers and they started walking.
“Sooooo, how do you know the Gems?” Their arms were swaying slightly. “I used to know them. However, things got complicated after the war.” “Well, maybe, you can be friends again?” “Hmm, we’ll see.”
He must have become really tired, because the next thing he remembered was being carried and vaguely pointing out his house. He was gently tucked in by the gem and soon fell asleep. When he woke up his room was clean and he could smell breakfast.
Confused he made his way downstairs, only to be greeted by the sight of a full delicious breakfast. He wiped away the drool that was slowly making its way down his chin and looked at the most likely suspect for this grand surprise. The strange gem he met yesterday was cleaning up the kitchen and putting away the tools.
“Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!” He immediately sat himself at the counter and dove in. When he was finally forced to breathe, he slowed down and observed the quietly cleaning gem. Now that it was light, he could make out more details. Her hair was really made of light pink clouds, which framed her face and the gem on her forehead was a white oval. She was not actually wearing a hoody, but a vivid sky-blue denim hoodie jacket, which was now hanging open revealing a hot pink crop top. The skirt was also made of a white tulle with yellow shorts underneath. Her belly button was the only weird thing, because it didn’t seem right? There was sometimes a pink shimmer across her pale skin.
When she saw him looking, her eyes lit up a bit and a smile graced her lips. “I’m sorry for going through your stuff, the mess just…” As she trailed off, he swallowed his bite. “It’s alright! I was going to clean up anyway!” She gave him another smile and he could feel himself puff up, just the slightest bit. “Where are the other Crystal Gems? I looked around but I could see no one around?”
“Oh, the Gems are out on a mission, so it’s just us.” She hummed in response and seemed to hesitate a bit. "Do you want to play a game? I'm really good at juggling?”
That was enough for him rush the rest of his breakfast and they spend the entire morning practicing juggling. The gem gently teaching him and often bursting out in laughter when the balls inevitably fell. It was the most fun he had in a while! It became even better when they had lunch together, she even ate with him! The only weird thing was that her eyes were both pink when it happened.
Then they even spend more time together! Sometimes it seemed like she was evaluating him, but she always smiled afterwards. They played a lot of games and even watched Lonely Blade 3! Her eyes did a weird thing again when they were laying a puzzle, they were both blue. Though he supposed that Gems were shapeshifters and they could easily change their eyes.
He also found out her name! Or not really her name… She seemed really confused while trying to come up with name, she never came further than the letter P. So, he decided to name her Prism. She seemed to like the name enough and even giggled about it. Eventually Prism and him made dinner together and he was once more tucked in by the new Gem.
As he fell asleep, he decided that he liked Prism.