Once they were safely through the vortex and inside the Lunar Sea Spire, Pearl took a moment to look around using her gem for light. It drained her energy to light up her gem, and she knew should only use the ability in emergencies, but she'd grown stronger and figured they wouldn't be there long.
The Spire must have looked grand once. The ceiling was high, and the staircase had something left of its magnificence. But now the Spire was crumbling, the walls cracked and covered in plant-life and slime. Things were crawling in the dark that Pearl couldn't identify. Whatever was left of the carpet was eaten away but creatures or time or rotted away by water. Everything was dark and oppressive.
"Oh," Rainbow Pearl moaned. "I thought things were bad last time! It's a disaster down here."
"I mean, I never saw this place in its glory days, but it does look like the bottom of a pit down here," Amethyst muttered.
"That's saying something, if you don't like it," Pearl muttered. "I've seen your room."
"Hey!" Amethyst shouted. "My room's not this bad! There's not–eee!" Amethyst shook her foot and something black with too many legs went flying off it. "There's nothing crawling in my room! Guys! Let's get to the top of this place and go home!"
They started walking in a group, keeping away from the walls and dark corners.
"So, what was this place like last time you were here?" Pearl asked.
"Pretty bad," Rainbow Pearl answered. "But dry. Mostly just crumbling. Things knocked over. In ruins. It would have been restored by the Sea Goddess statue, but…"
"But?" Pearl asked.
"There was a mix-up," Rainbow Pearl sighed. "And now the Spire is down here. In a few hundred years, the Spire will rise to the surface and when the sun is in the right position like it is today, we'll place the statue and restore the Spire to its former glory. Until then, this place makes a great training ground."
"How did Pink Diamond feel about this place?" Pearl muttered, almost afraid to ask, but dying to know.
"Oh, Pink Diamond was so excited to come here. She got Cheeseburger Backpack just for the occasion."
"She used a sweater to launch herself over the vortex and onto the Spire," Amethyst said.
Rainbow Pearl laughed nervously. "Yes, she was always very… headstrong."
Pearl laughed. "I get why you asked for a sweater, then. I guess she figured a grappling hook would be easier the second time."
"Yea," Rainbow Pearl said, and then said something so low that Pearl couldn't hear it.
"What'd you say?" Pearl asked.
"She," Rainbow Pearl said. "I said, she sure has grown up."
"Oh. Yea." Pearl smiled a sweet pearl-like smile.
"Hold on, Stars," Garnet said, stopping at the threshold of a door.
"Garnet?" Rainbow Pearl muttered.
"Pearl. Connie. Shine your light in there."
Rainbow Pearl and Pearl did so, only to have the light bounce off dozens of crystals, which skittered around for a moment before settling.
Amethyst groaned. "Crystal shrimp! No!"
"What are they?" Pearl asked, eyeing them.
"Nasty little things," Rainbow Pearl huffed. "They can easily swarm us and force a retreat. And they're too hard and small to hit properly. You end up just smashing them harmlessly into the floors and walls if you can manage to hit them. We need to get around them. Or better yet, cause a distraction. And I have the perfect plan!"
"Um!" Amethyst cut in with a head tilt and a smile. "Isn't Lil' P supposed to make plans today?"
"Oh! Right." Rainbow Pearl turned to Pearl, smiling. "Connie?"
Pearl blushed and kneeled, taking off her backpack. Just under where the grappling hook had been was a note. She'd seen it before but had noticed the word "distractions." It seemed that now was the time to read that note. She pulled the note from the bag and read it aloud.
"Distractions work better than fighting sometimes. To deal with Crystal Shrimp, open two jars at a time, throw one to each side and advance. Six jars in total."
Pearl put the note in her gem, then reached for the first two jars. They were clear with metal tops and filled with brown sludge that was streaked with red, yellow, and orange, and had bubbles of what looked like grease.
"Is that taco meat?" Amethyst asked. She took the jars from Pearl and opened one. "Oooooh, yea. That's taco meat."
The crystal shrimp began to stir.
"Amethyst! Close that. They're starting to come this way!" Rainbow Pearl reached for the lid and jar.
"No!" Pearl said. "Throw them into the sides of the room. Pearl here, take two. Garnet, you take the last two. You guys know their behavior better than me. You'll know where to throw them."
"Get ready to run, Stars," Garnet said and strode into the with two open jars of taco meat.
#
The lounge which the crystal shrimp inhabited was a round room as wide as the Spire, with one door in the center of the front wall, and another in the center of the back wall. There were chairs and couches littered around the room, behind which the Stars could throw the jars. Two of the room's curved walls were transparent and gave a view of the swirling vortex that surrounded the Spire. The six jars of taco meat easily cleared a path through the room. On the other side of the room, a set of stairs wound up into the darkness. They took the stairwell to the next floor before stopping.
"What was that room?" Pearl asked as she caught her breath.
"Just the mid-level lounge," Rainbow Pearl answered. She was peeking around the corner, down the stairs, back the way they'd come.
"We should keep moving," Garnet said.
They took up a diamond formation. Amethyst was in the front. Pearl and Rainbow Pearl were behind her and closer to the walls, shining their lights forward down the hall. Garnet brought up the center rear.
The Spire was dark and silent in the top half. The Stars took it one floor at a time, checking side rooms for anything suspicious. There was rotting and crumbling furniture. The walls and floors were damaged. Things were crawling in the corners where the lights didn't reach, though thankfully none of them were crystal shrimp. But other than dim, damp darkness, there was nothing to be found.
At last, they came to top the Spire. It was bare but lit from the sun. The top of the vortex closed above them, a swirling mass of water above their heads, head up impossibly by magic. It made Connie uneasy.
"So we're here," Connie said. "Do we place the statue now?"
"We can't," Rainbow Pearl said sadly, producing the Moon Goddess Statue from her gem. "The Statue absorbs energy from the sun. And down here and the sunlight is too diluted to charge it."
"Um, shouldn't a Moon Goddess Statue get its energy from the moon?" Amethyst suggested.
"Not necessarily," Pearl said, walking over to the altar. "Moons light up because they reflect light from the sun at the planet. Maybe the Statue works the same way."
"Very good, Connie!" Rainbow Pearl exclaimed.
"But how will the temple be restored if the Statue can't be recharged down here?" Pearl asked.
Rainbow Pearl groaned. "Well, eventually the Spire will gain enough ambient energy to rise to the surface. Then we just have to wait for another day when the temple allows people in, then we can restore it."
"But that would take… hundreds or thousands of years! We should do it now!"
"Yea!" Amethyst agreed. "I don't want to come back here. But how do we do it?"
Pearl frowned for a moment and touched the altar. It was smooth rock, probably hewn from a single piece and chiseled down. The benches at the park on Centuri had been the same. Pearl had created a weak laser on that bench one summer and accidently burned a hole in her good dance dress.
Gasping, Pearl whirled around. "Amethyst! Can you hold me up?"
"Pss! Ye-ah! Commere." Amethyst trotted towards Pearl and hoisted her up onto her shoulders without a pause.
"Great!" Pearl giggled. "Pearl, do you have a magnifying glass? We're going to undilute the sunshine and activate the Moon Goddess Statue!"
"W-what? Well, I think so." Rainbow Pearl's gem lit up, and after a moment she produced two big magnifying glasses. "Will these work?"
"Perfect!" Pearl shouted. "Now I'll—"
Garnet took the glasses in her gauntleted hands. "In case," she said with a small smile. Garnet walked up to the altar and placed the glasses over each other. Then she looked at Pearl.
"Good," Pearl said with a nod. "Right. Now, the sun is going to bend when it comes through each lens. So I'll have to align each glass to get the strongest light beam, then align both glasses together to move that light beam to the center of the altar." Pearl looked at Rainbow Pearl. "When it's in the right place, you can place the Statute."
Rainbow Pearl nodded.
"Everybody ready?" Pearl asked.
The Stars nodded.
Pearl began adjusting Garnet's hands, paying attention to the beams of light coming through the lenses. She had Amethyst raise and lower her, depending on if she needed to be higher or lower than the lenses. When she finally got the alignment right Pearl, let go of Garnet.
"Now," she whispered; afraid her breath may change the course of the light.
Rainbow Pearl hurried forward, slipped the Statue under the magnifying glasses.
At first, there was no reaction. Seconds ticked by. No one moved.
"Did it work?" Amethyst asked.
Then, as if to answer her question, the Statue lit up. The light from the Statue traveled in neat lines across the top of the altar, then down the sides, then across the floor.
"Garnet, hold the magnifying glasses steady!" Rainbow Pearl shouted as the lines of light stretched out farther and farther.
"We should tie ourselves down!" Pearl suggested, grabbing the altar.
"I got it!" Amethyst shouted. The floor shook as she manifested her whip and flung it out. The whip tangled around them and Amethyst tied the end into a knot.
"Holo-Pearls, go!" Rainbow Pearl shouted. Four transparent pearls shot from her gem, each with a spear in hand. They turned their spears point down and slammed them into the mass of whip that wrapped up the Stars, anchoring them to the floor, which was just as well, because the Spire was rising.
Like a spaceship moving from orbit to deep space, the Spire sped upwards, upwards, upwards. Pearl had a moment of bravery and looked up, expecting to see the top of the vortex about to crash over them. But the vortex was rising with them. The whole vortex and Spire and everything was shooting up through the water. There was some part of Pearl that wanted to watch their ascent, but they were going too fast. The water and air stung her face and eyes, so she shut them and lowered her head. They sped up.
Pearl heard Amethyst and Rainbow Pearl shouting. And a groaning sound that might have been Garnet. She clenched her back teeth to keep from screaming. It felt like she was having a panic attack, trying not to scream, tears in her eyes. But she was not panicking; she was rocking upwards at incredible speed tied to an ancient structure. And she was in incredible pain, especially in her hands.
As they rose higher and higher, there was a crash like something hitting the surface of the water and a bright light surrounded them. Pearl was certain she was going to pass out. A whimper left her that she felt more than heard. The Spire slowed, slowed. Then it stopped. Pearl opened her eyes and found she was shaking. The other Stars were looking around, breathless.
"We… did it," Rainbow Pearl murmured. "We did it!"
Amethyst's whip disappeared, as did the Holo-Pearls, and Rainbow Pearl hugged Pearl, trapping her arms to her sides and whirling her around. "You did it, Connie! What a masterpiece! That was brilliant! I'm going to tell Pink Diamond that you–Connie?"
Pearl found herself set on her feet, but her knees buckled. She looked up at Rainbow Pearl to find red streaks staining her clothes.
"Garnet! She's bleeding!" Rainbow Pearl yelled.
"We can take her to the hospital!" Amethyst said. She was hopping from foot to foot in Pearl's peripheral vision. "Oh man! My whip did this. Look at her hands! We gotta go!"
Pearl's hazy vision wandered down to her half-closed hands, but upon seeing them, she looked elsewhere. Then her eyes closed. Pearl could still see. Her vision was rounded, like looking through a telescope. And it was low. It took Pearl a moment to realize she was seeing from inside her gem.
"Stars!" Garnet said. "We'll take her to Pink Diamond!"
A pang of excitement shot through Pearl. She was being brought to Pink Diamond! She wanted to see her so badly. But she was so tired. And she was getting pulled deeper into her gem as if it was telling her to rest. Maybe she should. Pink Diamond would take care of everything.
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