Pink Diamond's seat of power differed from her colonies or even Homeworld itself. A ship couldn't land on the planet and request an audience with the Pink Stars or Pink Diamond herself. New Homeworld only allowed so many visitors to its surface at one time, and even then, only under strict guidelines with the proper documentation. They had to stop and orbit the Moon Base while Rose Quartz explained why she and Pearl were showing up in an unauthorized ship.
But that was none of Pearl's business, and she was sure that her mom could handle it. She slipped out of the bridge as quietly as she could, then ran full speed down the halls of Emerald's ship to the Look Out to get her first actual glimpse of her new home.
New Homeworld had Emerald's color scheme, green and blue, with a pale white moon to complement it. It was a small planet, cozy one could say, where at least Pearl wouldn't have to wear limb-enhancers to keep her mass in check. It explained why organic-gems only lived on certain sized planets. They were sent to places that matched their own Homeworld. Pearl pressed herself against the glass. She couldn't wait to get down there.
Their ship was allowed to land after an hour. Emerald docked her ship and set about refueling for the next leg of her journey while Rose set her tracker with the coordinates of the Pink Stars base.
"Amazing they don't let ships dock on the base," Emerald said as idly watched the screen on her ship.
"Pink Diamond likes to preserve as much of New Homeworld as possible," Rose said, checking her tracker. "She didn't even put in roads from the ship docks to the bases."
"Hence the trackers," Emerald muttered. Her eyes turned on Pearl as she sighed. "I wish I could go with you, little Pearl."
"O-oh?" Pearl said with a force pleasant smile.
"I wanted to see If I could glimpse Pink Diamond again," Emerald whined.
Pearl gasped. "You… you've seen Pink Diamond?!"
"Really?" Rose said. "When? Where?"
"It was years ago," Emerald admitted. "Before Era 3. She was amazing. Beautiful and sparkling. She had an organic-gem by her side, an ametrine, I think. And all three of the Pink Stars were there! She had a guard of organic- and natural-gems. And musicians, dancers, and jugglers! It was breathtaking. And she sang while the ametrine played the guitar. Then, she welcomed us to New Homeworld!"
Pearl leaned in, eyes wide, back teeth pressed together to keep her mouth from hanging open. She'd never heard of a Diamond acting like that before. It sounded so magical.
"I was hoping," Emerald went on, more dejectedly, "to see her, or talk to one of the Pink Stars and find out why she has gone away. Where she is. What she's doing. I just…"
"She's our Diamond," Rose said solemnly. "It's only natural for us to feel lost without her. But!" Rose straightened up. "She's calling for an organic-pearl. A member… Well, all I can say is my daughter's designation as a pearl and her assignment here was no accident. I think Pink Diamond is ready to come back to us."
Emerald gave a small, hopeful smile. "I hope so. What are gems without their Diamond?"
#
Pearl's first breath of air on New Homeworld was an assault of odors. Wet soil, damp air, rotting leaves, furry animals, and far off the smell of salt pressing on them heavily, the air was almost alive with scent, a far cry from the clean neutral air of a colony town. Pearl pressed her lips together to stifle a little cough. Emerald gagged openly.
"Stars!" she said. "I forgot how pungent the air here is! There's nowhere like New Homeworld."
Rose Quartz coughed a bit as well. "There's air filters on base," she said. "We should get going."
"I'm going to head out as soon as I'm fueled up," Emerald said, her face still twisted in semi-disgust. "But, I'm in this sector often, so I'll be checking in on you, Little Pearl. Make us proud."
"Yes, Ma'am." Pearl said.
Emerald kissed her on the head, then retreated inside her ship.
Rose Quartz gently touched Pearl's shoulder and nodded towards the woods. "Let's go," she said. "We've got some walking to do."
#
The wilderness of New Homeworld was nothing like the parks on Centuri. While Rose led them through the dense flora, Pearl kept in her wake but explored as much as she could. She walked in a wide looping zigzag behind Rose, stopping every so often to take pictures or look up with species of plant or animal she was looking at. It wasn't long though before Pearl spotted something she recognized.
Off to the side she saw a small bush blooming with the same blush colored flowers that adorned every hospital, ambulance, and medical center: roses.
"Mom!" Pearl whisper-shouted. "Mom, roses!" Pearl trotted up to the bush and crouched down next to it. She'd seen rose bushes back home on Centuri. They were the symbol of the medical community for obvious reasons, and popular in gardens and parks as rose quartzes were the gem-type specially made by Pink Diamond.
Pearl reached out and touched the petals of the lower roses. The smile faded from her face as she noticed the ground under the bush. She moved the branches aside to find a strange print in the dirt. It didn't look like a gem footprint or any animal footprint Connie knew.
"Mom. Look at this." Pearl turned around and shouted. "Mom!"
Silence answered her.
"Mom?!"
Frowning, Pearl took a picture of the print, then got up and trotted back to where she last saw her mom.
"Mom?!"
Pearl walked forwards a few yards, then stopped and walked backwards a few yards. After a few seconds of standing still, she took a deep breath, pressed her back teeth together and breathed out slowly through her nose. After centering herself, Pearl looked back at her camera. Since she didn't know the way forward, the simplest answer was to find her way back. She could use her pictures to retrace her steps and go back to Emerald's ship's. Then she could call either her mom or the Pink Stars base and have someone come and collect her.
#
It was an arduous walk, having to retrace her meandering trailing backwards through the woods. She wished several times she had followed her mom without running all over the place. But the sun was out, and the animals were chittering in the trees. It was a nice day for a walk, even if it took twice as long to get back to where she started. However, she did finally make it and the trees opened into a clearing where Emerald's ship was docked. A sigh of relief formed in Pearl's chest, but before she could breathe out, the engines on Emerald's ship came to life and lifted it off the ground.
A squeak left Pearl's mouth as her jaw dropped. Emerald's ship hovered for a moment, wobbling in midair, probably running through last-minute diagnostics. The realization that she was losing precious second hit Pearl, and she screamed.
"No! Emerald! Emerald!" Running forward, Pearl started waving her arms above her head frantically. "Emerald wait! Down here! Don't leave!"
But her cries were drowned out by the roaring of the ship. The stabilizers tucked in; the ship rose higher despite Pearl's yelling, and in the blink of light, it was gone.
"Oh, no!" Pearl huffed and collapsed on the ground. "Hell," she cursed. "Hell, hell, hell." Pearl sighed heavily and rubbed the back of her neck while she thought.
The safest place was probably right where she was. And maybe the docking station had some way of contacting the base. Naturally, the peridots might need to contact the base while doing repairs. But it was getting late, getting dark. Pearl looked around. Sure enough, there were some terminals off to the side that stood under some overhangs behind a screen. It didn't look overly secure, but it would do for the night.
Getting up, Pearl walked over to the terminal and began examining the door. She waved herself at the door, hoping it would just open, but it did no such thing. It probably needed an access pass from a peridot or nephrite. Pearl was just about to think about how she could bypass the door security system and explain that away in the morning when she heard a growl in the trees behind the terminal.
Pearl froze and listened. The growling continued and seemed to get closer. With slow movements, Pearl edged to the side of the terminal and peeked around the side. She could see nothing but trees behind the terminal, but the growling was getting louder. Putting on a burst of speed, she turned and quietly ran across the front of the terminal so she could peek around the other side. There she saw nothing but trees as well. Forgetting about getting in trouble, Pearl went back to the door and searched through her gem for something to open it.
She found a mini override device from her technical class, which she grabbed, but fumbled in her hand out of fear and dropped. The growling was getting louder, and her hands were shaking. Pearl snatched the override device up from the ground, turned it on and began work on the door.
"Come on," she whispered. "Come on! Hell!"
The lock deactivated, and the door slid open.
"Stars, yes!" Pearl screamed. At the same time, something jumped on the top of the terminal.
Pearl looked up. The creature was more negative space than solid mass, but it was big and growling. Pearl had a choice and not a lot of time to make it. She glanced at the terminal to see it buckling under the weight of the creature. With that knowledge Pearl dropped the override device, ducked around the side of the terminal and ran into the woods.
She ducked behind bushes, turned when she was behind trees, climbed when she could, anything to make herself harder to follow. She was putting distance between herself and the creature, but it was still pursuing her. Finally, Pearl found herself up against a rock wall, set into which was a slim opening, more of a crack in the rocks than a cave entrance, but it was better than nothing. She ran up to it and pushed her way inside.
Inside, the cave was surprisingly more spacious than the opening implied. Pearl moved farther inside and behind another rock just in time to avoid the creature catching up to her and trying to push its paw into the opening. Pearl sat down and sighed.
The light in the cave faded into darkness, and Pearl closed her eyes and fell asleep. She woke before the light came back. The creature was still growling and scratching at the cave opening. Pearl felt herself slump further against the cave wall and closed her eyes. The daylight crept back into the cave, filtering through Pearl's lids and urging her to move. She opened her eyes and got up.
The cave was even lighter than it should have been with the light coming from the cave entrance. Pearl wandered towards the back of the cave to find the source of the light, but the creature roared and clawed at the entrance again, reclaiming her attention.
"Hell," Pearl muttered and turned toward the creature. "Hell!"
It wasn't fair. It wasn't fair that she was stuck here. What was the point of her training? What was the point of her standing out and being so strange and off-color if she was going to be trapped and helpless at the first sign of trouble? Was it that in the end she was just a pearl after all? Wasn't she supposed to be a Pink Star now? It wasn't fair!
Pearl clenched her teeth together and shut her eyes. She wasn't going to cry or scream. She wasn't going to shatter. She didn't want to be helpless!
Her gem reached out for her; its energy wrapped around her, fed off her emotions, gave her comfort and reassurance. Pearl felt it in her bones, in her tears, in the scream she was holding back. Then there was something in her gem, something just at her fingertips. She reached for it, hand open, stretching with all her might. It was just out of her reach, but she strained, a few tears slipping past her shut eyelids as she reached.
"Please," she muttered. "Please!"
Her fingers slipped around the item, and she pulled it out of her gem. It was different from other items she'd pulled out of her gem. Pearl knew right away; it wasn't organic. It was a natural gem object. She looked at it. It was a sword. Pearl had a sword.
She breathed out slowly. The creature seemed to sense something was happening. It roared furiously and started clawing at the rock at the entrance, pulling bits of stone away from it. Pearl frowned, sick of the creature having the upper hand. She strode forward, took a stance just outside the reach of the reach, slashed it across its forearm. The creature roared and withdrew its arm. Pearl didn't let up. She slipped through the crack quickly–it was wider than it had been the night before, but still a tight fit–sword arm first, slashing before her second set of limbs were even free. The creature growled but had no choice but to back up.
When Pearl was free of the rock, she crouched and pointed her sword at the creature. Now things were even, and Pearl was done running. She frowned and looked at the beast down the blade of her new sword.
Just as Pearl breathed out, ready to attack, something grabbed the creature from behind. Pearl was just able to see what it was, a purple, studded whip. It yanked the best back, top over bottom. Behind it, holding the whip, was a little amethyst. She was in long pants with a double shirt that hung off her shoulder fashionably. She looked almost off-color, yet she handled her whip with deadly precision, and a devil-may-care smirk.
"Go, guys," Amethyst shouted.
From behind her, two more gems came charging forward. One was a pearl, glittering in shades of pink, strips of blue and touches of yellow. Pearl held a spear in one hand, took a running jump and launched the spear at the creature with deadly accuracy and breathtaking grace.
Lastly, was a gem Connie couldn't recognize right away. She was incredible; big, like a normal-sized quartz soldier. And she was extremely strong; she picked up the beast and threw it vertically above her head. Her weapon was amazing, two massive gauntlets, with which she punch the creature as it fell towards her head. She looked very cool as the creature's form gave way into smoke and fell like mist on her.
She had curly hair around her head like a ruby, but much longer and fluffier, as if the hair had some other influence. Her face was covered with a visor. She was a busty gem, like many in Pink's court, and had a narrow waist with wide motherly hips, like Pink Diamond herself, and rose quartzes. There was somehow more to her than she appeared, and Pearl couldn't put her finger on what it was.
The mystery gem opened her hand, and a single gem dropped into it.
"Alright Stars," the mystery gem said. Her voice was husky and soothing. "Good work."
"Garnet look!" the group's Pearl said. "There she is! She's fine! Oh, and she has a sword!"
"Hey, Lil' P!" Amethyst shouted. "Nice sword you got there!"
"Pearl CN-NI," The strange gem said, walking up to Pearl. "We've been looking for you. I'm Garnet. This is Rainbow Pearl and Amethyst. We're the Pink Stars."
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