A/N: This chapter is like 50% filler 40% plot and only 10% steven sorry guys. Also VOMIT WARNING FOR THIS CHAPTER, try and skim over it if that bothers you! I tried not to write it in too much detail!
"Geodes were probably tough to keep in your gem, huh, Pearl?" Steven asked, draining the last of his hot chocolate and wiping his mouth. Somewhere in their conversation it had started to rain, streaking the window beside Steven's bed and casting strange shadows.
"They certainly were," Pearl agreed. "Picture holding three large eggs that get unbearably hot at inconsistent intervals inside of your gem for a few months."
Steven couldn't even begin to imagine. He shuddered. "That sounds painful."
"Grouped with the fatigue and heat fluxes, it definitely wasn't the nicest experience."
"Did Mom panic like you did?" Steven asked, brow furrowed. "Dad said that when he found out Mom was going to have me he worried about her all the time, so it was probably the same for her, right?"
Pearl smiled wanly, glancing at the rain outside. "I suppose you could say that."
…
The first stage of geode formation was taking its toll on Pearl, as the others had predicted. To prevent a repeat of the previous mission, she had been confined to the temple, and spent most of the days chatting idly to whichever gem was watching over her or sleeping off the headaches that plagued her constantly. That day was just one day of many in this stage, spent without much else besides lounging around in the various fountains in her room and wondering when she'd be able to rid her gem of the geodes causing her so much pain and fatigue. However, it was more eventful than most in this stage of formation.
The rush of water brought her back.
"Earth to Pearl?"
Pearl groaned as she distantly heard Rose's anguished, "Amethyst, leave her be!"
Slowly, Pearl opened her eyes, squinting as Amethyst's face blurred in and out of focus. Carefully Rose helped her to sit up, leaning her body against her.
"I can't. Garnet told me we have to give her food."
"Food?!" Pearl's face contorted in disgust. "That's not happening."
"Uh, sure it is, Garnet said so." Amethyst grinned at her sour expression. "What? You're cooking geodes in there, Pearl! Gotta give them some nutrition!"
"I thought all the energy geodes need comes directly from the gem," Pearl pointed out, but Rose reluctantly stood, pulling Pearl up with her.
"I hate to say it, Pearl, but if you're this weak right now eating might help," she said, supporting Pearl under her arms. "If not the geode, it will give you more energy to function."
"I'm not weak, I can-" Her words caught in her throat as her gem started throb, jostled by the movement. She clutched her head and let out a whimper, staggering back against Rose. "Augh..."
"Geode formation is strenuous on our gems, Pearl," Rose insisted firmly. "Eating will help. I know you don't like it, but you need to get your strength up."
"But-"
"That's an order." Rose's voice softened. "Please? For me?"
Reluctantly she lowered her head affirmatively, and Rose placed a quick kiss on the side of her face before ushering her towards Garnet's room. She hated to use such an authoritative voice on Pearl since she was normally very compliant, but the smaller gem was known for her strong dislike of consuming human food and in this instance it was vital that she found a source of nutrients for the sake of the manifesting geodes.
When they entered Garnet's room they found her laying out various fruits she had picked up on a desk-like surface, no doubt from the island they had been on during the last mission.
"Even if it's only a little, consuming these will replenish some energy for your physical construct," Garnet said simply. Pearl swallowed. Just looking at them made her feel ill.
"Do I really have to do this?" she pleaded, glancing between the gems for signs of mercy. Amethyst sat down at the makeshift table and began to peel a banana.
"Yes, you do," Rose said firmly. "Come on, Pearl, please. It won't be so bad."
"We're doing this because we care about your well being and the possibility of producing fully functional geodes," Garnet stated, handing her a banana. "It's important."
"...Fine, okay," Pearl said reluctantly, sitting down slowly. She watched Amethyst eat and tried to replicate the motions, gagging a few times before swallowing painfully. She shuddered as the banana settled in her stomach.
"Now was that so bad?" Amethyst teased.
"Yes," Pearl grumbled, feeling nauseous. She clapped a hand to her head as a sharp pain twinged through her gem. "Ow..."
"Just try to eat some more, I promise you'll feel better," Rose said gently, patting the top of her head lightly. She turned to Garnet. "I looked over the gem we found, but something is strange about it."
"How do you mean?" Garnet asked.
"Well, the gem was a topaz, right? Topaz gems were usually used as smugglers for gem artifacts, which explains why we found the presence on the chain of the onyx. What I don't understand is what the topaz was doing on that island. We were the side using smugglers to recover artifacts from the Homeworld troops, so who was that gem and why was she there?"
"She could have gone rogue," Garnet pointed out. "It's not like gems haven't before."
"Well, maybe... but what would she be doing? Smugglers weren't needed after the war, so if she were working for us or for the Homeworld troops, she would have given up. If she wasn't working for either... well... what else would she be doing? It's not like pawning off gem artifacts to humans would make any difference. What would this gem be needing human money for?"
Pearl sat straighter suddenly, recalling the sight she had seen during the fight against the corrupted topaz. "No, I don't think it was! When I was in the ditch, I saw... lots of chains? There were – were definitely a lot of chains and other scraps of metal that gems could have been forged to. And a whole pile of gems. Some were cracked or broken, I couldn't tell the condition of some-"
"You saw all of this?" Rose knelt down beside her. "Why didn't you say anything?"
"I was so disorientated," Pearl confessed, cheeks flushing in shame. "My head was all over the place, I wasn't sure if what I saw was even real... and then after the incident when you told me about the geodes I was so shocked it completely slipped my mind. I couldn't even remember it until just now."
She attempted to conjure a visual of the pile, but as she began to project it from her gem she grunted in pain and it abruptly dissolved. "Sorry, I-"
"Don't worry about it," Rose said, squeezing her arm. "We'll put you back to your room once you've eaten and then Garnet and I will head out."
"What about me?" Amethyst cried indignantly. Rose reached over to ruffle her hair.
"My sweet Amethyst, it's your job to watch over Pearl now, until we return. Garnet and I were heading out anyway to recover a gem from a dying mountain, so this will be a quick detour, just to make sure the gem pile is in a stable condition for us to bubble and contain the gems."
"But I can be useful too," Amethyst whined. "All Pearl does is sleep and complain."
"I do not," Pearl shot back. Amethyst responded by shoving another peeled banana into Pearl's mouth.
"Please look out for each other," Rose said with a smile. "I would really appreciate it if you took over watch for me while I'm out, Amethyst."
Amethyst pouted, folding her arms and looking away. "...I guess someone has to do it," she grumbled, and Rose beamed, ignoring Pearl's outraged, "If you don't want to that's fine, I don't need a babysitter anyway!"
"The sooner we head out, the better," Garnet reminded Rose. With a quick nod, Rose turned back to Pearl with a serene smile.
"I'm not leaving until you've eaten the rest of that fruit, so you should probably get a move on, my Pearl."
By the time she had finished she felt uncomfortably full. Her physical form, not used to the prospect of storing copious amounts of food, protruded slightly, much to her embarrassment. Rose, however, seemed delighted.
"I know that was hard for you, but I really do think it will help you regain some of your energy," she beamed. The small peck on her cheek was the only reward for eating that Pearl was willing to accept at this point.
"I hope so," she grumbled. She stood upright by herself, no longer feeling as dizzy as before, and dusted off her legs. "I'm going back to my room then, if I can't be of any help on the mission."
"You'll be back with us in no time, Pearl," Rose said cheerfully, as the others rose to their feet. Rose and Garnet continued on to the warp pad while Pearl selected her room and stepped back inside, casting an anxious glance over to the others.
"Go on, you'll be fine," Rose prompted softly, offering her a reassuring smile. Pearl nodded back uncertainly, before the door shut behind her, sealing her in.
"I'll check on you later," Amethyst's voice rang dimly through the door, and Pearl exhaled before hopping up to a taller fountain to rest.
…
"So you weren't allowed to go out on missions? That sucks," Steven sympathised, showing his disdain openly. Pearl laughed.
"It did. It was for the best, though. If my gem had acted out again in the middle of a mission I could be a real threat to the mission objective. Hindering the team is the last thing I would want to do, and your mother was already insistent that I rest."
"It wasn't until recently that you'd ever slept, though," Steven pointed out, memories of the slumber party resurfacing. He tried to ignore the nagging memory of the dream, and the way that she had her arms clasped around his mother, how her eyes shone. He willed the thought away and focused at the task at hand. "Why did you not know how to sleep if you were constantly sleeping while the geodes were growing?"
"It wasn't a controlled action," Pearl began, fiddling with her hands. "Manifesting geodes wears on a gem, and sleep just... comes naturally. Often I would fall asleep unintentionally, without much warning. Even though the search for Lapis and Jasper left me tired, it wasn't anything like when I was harbouring geodes, and I couldn't seem to figure out how to make myself do it."
"If it was really that tiring for you, I bet Mom was worried about you all the time! Since you were always trying to protect her, and stuff!"
"That's right. Garnet and Amethyst were also keeping watch over me, but your mother in particular... felt obligated to." She closed her eyes, allowing a small smile to cross her face. "It was nice though, I suppose."
…
"What are we thinking, Garnet?"
"Well, Pearl was definitely onto something."
Rose hopped down and examined their surroundings. Pearl had been right. Rings littered the floor, chains had been strewn around protrusions in the walls, and gems remained scattered in a disorganised pile towards the back of the cavern.
"Oh, my," she breathed.
"It looks like a hoarder." Garnet folded her arms, taking in the sight for a few moments. "It looks like a lot of the gems have been badly damaged. Damaged beyond reforming, anyway. We should bubble the gems we can find and fix a time to scan the island for any reformed gems." She took a few steps forward, bubbling a cracked emerald on the floor with a grim expression.
"You mean we can't just do it now?" Rose asked incredulously, joining Garnet in collecting the remaining gems. "If they've reformed they could be causing trouble for the locals."
"Taking care of the Mountain of Decay is the priority," Garnet said simply. "It doesn't have much time left. If that gem takes the remaining life force from that mountain it will only move onto another, and it'll be a lot harder to retrieve."
"But still..." Rose stared at the mound of gems and chains helplessly. There were so many. Who knew how many gems had reformed since they had taken out the topaz gem?
"We should be successful," Garnet said, "if we hurry now. Most futures present a victory in which we manage to salvage the mountain if we go there immediately."
But how many humans will be hurt if we leave now?
She let the question hang, and continued to help bubble the gems in front of them.
"We'll sort it out, I promise," Garnet said quietly, as they made their way back to the warp pad. "We can contain them before they cause any severe damage."
"If you're sure," Rose muttered.
The second half of the mission was simple. Retrieving the gem powering the Mountain of Decay was their top priority, and for that they needed Rose. Although unwilling to leave Pearl unattended for an extended period of time, Rose knew that the sooner they bubbled the gem the easier it would be to salvage what was left of the mountain. If the gem was getting its energy from the minerals in the mountain the easiest way to restore the mountain to its former state would be to shatter the gem – but if there was any chance of healing the gems and Rose allowed one to die needlessly, what kind of leader would that make her? Humanity was a beautiful thing, something that had taught her to value life, and the last thing Rose wanted to do was destroy a gem that could one day live again.
Garnet, on the other hand, was more concerned with dealing with the threat than whether or not the gem was destroyed. Truthfully, she didn't hold much faith in the idea that the corrupted gems could be healed; it was more wishful thinking than anything else.
She would have voiced these concerns aloud, but Rose's mind wasn't engaged in the mission. Her movements were slower, her gaze distant.
"You're thinking about Pearl," she said aloud, and Rose closed her eyes.
"I suppose I am. I feel responsible for her weakened state, Garnet. I know she doesn't blame me but she has every right to. I betrayed her."
"Creating the geode wasn't intentional," Garnet stated, resting a hand on Rose's shoulder. "Pearl knows that."
"But a geode is created when gems both feel a strong emotion towards each other," Rose pointed out, sighing. "I've betrayed her trust. It was me who told her all those years ago that we couldn't be so intimate anymore. I tried to be gentle, but I know it really hurt her. And now, due to my carelessness geodes are forming in her gem and she has hope that things will go back to how they once were. I've completely undone any independence Pearl had."
Garnet shook her head. "You can't say that for certain, Rose. Pearl is a lot stronger than we accredit her for. She may feel obligated to you, but ultimately it is her choice to follow you... whether you love her the way she loves you or not." Garnet squeezed Rose's shoulder. "But I think you already know that."
Rose lowered her head. "I don't mean to lead her on. I just didn't want her to get too attached to me. I mean, back during the rebellion, you remember how often she would put her life on the line for me. I couldn't let that continue – but I guess in my mind she is still my Pearl, even if I was the one who put a stop to things."
A monstrous growl interrupted their conversation and Garnet's hand dropped to her side. Without another word she continued to climb the mountain, and Rose followed suit, pushing the conversation to the back of her mind. The rocks were unstable; some would crumble, while others were slippery to touch and proved as poor grips while climbing. The rotting plant life sprouting from cracks in the mountain was oozing with crystal brain fungi. If the state of decay was this bad already, Rose couldn't anticipate how dead the top of the mountain would prove to be.
"We have to take it out, Rose. Once we bubble it, try to heal the mountain."
Rose opened her mouth to speak, but was cut off as she felt a wetness on her hand, shortly followed by a more consistent downpour.
"Nothing like rain to make this climb easier," she laughed, hastily speeding up as the rocks became more difficult to grip on to. Garnet was already at the top, so she gritted her teeth and pushed ahead, arriving at the peak a few moments later. Wiping her grime-covered hands on her dress, she summoned her sword and stood her ground as the corrupted gem approached them, it's speed agonisingly slow, as if purposely drawn out for suspense.
It's body was built of rotting plants, dead grass, crystal brain fungi growing on parts of its body in clusters like patches of fur. It had no mouth, but two gaping holes for eyes, which stared blankly at Garnet and Rose as they summoned their weapons and poised themselves. Its eyes crinkled slightly, as though turning up in an eerie smile. They couldn't even begin to tell where its gem was.
Garnet made the first move, darting across the terrain in the blink of an eye and drawing back her left gauntlet, before surging it forward into the head of the beast. It howled, summoning more dead grass from the surface of the mountain to replace the side of the head it had lost, effectively ducking as Garnet went to swipe at it again.
It was Rose's turn. She charged ahead, sword raised, and neatly decapitated the monster in question, wiping the debris from her sword as the head toppled to the side. For a few seconds the body stood limp, and Rose considered whether the gem had been residing in the head rather than the torso; her thoughts wandered back to Pearl, lying alone in her room, the gem embedded in her forehead pulsing in pain, and briefly worried that Amethyst wouldn't be keeping a proper watch over her like she had promised.
"Rose!"
Garnet's raised voice caused Rose to dodge in time to miss the slew of crystal brain fungi being thrown at her sluggishly, and she shook her head.
"Sorry, Garnet, I-"
"Come on," Garnet urged, "we have to take care of the problem at hand."
Garnet code for Stop worrying about Pearl, it isn't helping anyone.
"Right." Rose brought her sword out again, instead aiming for the arms. The monster once again cried out in protest as its arms crumbled upon removal, dead grass and mud falling to the ground. It was harder to navigate in the rain, and Rose found her bare feet sinking into the mud wasn't as glorious a sensation as it used to be – the life signs from this mountain were weak and dying, and being unable to feel the life stirring around her put her at great unease.
Garnet swung her gauntlets again, taking out the legs. The creature whined and growled, but Garnet wasted no time in punching three defining holes in the torso. This, it appeared, was the breaking point of the gem, and a small white mushroom cloud of light alerted her to the small gem resting in the chest of the beast, caked in mud. She bubbled it quickly and sent it off, not recognising it as a gem of their own army. Rose appeared dismayed.
"I can barely feel the life of this mountain at all," she despaired. "I don't know if my tears can save such a huge terrain."
Garnet reached out and squeezed her shoulder, and Rose sank to her knees, reaching to run her fingers through mud, through dead grass, through fungi and brittle leaves and crumbling rocks.
"I'm sorry," she uttered, tears filling her eyes. "If we had reached you sooner..."
As the first two tears dripped into the surface, there was a definite change; the grass began to green again, the fungi began to shrivel.
"A few more should do it," commented Garnet, and Rose nodded, allowing for her eyes to overflow once more. As the mountain began to clean itself and Garnet turned to head back to the warp pad, Rose reached down and summoned two figures of mud and grass, coming up to her thighs. They stood attentively, awaiting orders. She crouched down and placed her hands on their shoulders.
"I need you to watch over this mountain for me, okay?" she asked sweetly. "I can't always be here to make sure it stays healthy and safe, which is why I'm entrusting the two of you with that job. Is that clear?"
They nodded stoically and saluted her as she gave them a small wave in response, following Garnet down the mountain.
"We reek," Garnet muttered as Rose caught up, and she hesitantly brought her arm to her nose.
"Yeesh, we do. I'm guessing that came from the decaying make-up of that monster, huh?" She grinned. "At least Amethyst will still love us no matter what we smell like."
Garnet allowed for a tiny smile to cross her face.
"Yeah."
…
Pearl swayed uneasily, nauseous from the dizziness plaguing her. The food she had consumed earlier had done little else beside sit churning in her stomach, and she knew she had to expel it before there was any hope of her sleeping. Rose and Garnet had gone out on a mission, and while Amethyst was supposed to be keeping watch over her she'd grown tired of it, telling Pearl to holler down the waterfall if she needed anything. Ha. Like she could tell Amethyst how awful the food was making her body feel; Amethyst loved eating the most out of the gems so she would only laugh and tell Pearl to stop making a big deal out of it.
She didn't want to throw up in the temple, though; no, that'd be awful, and if the gems found out about it they'd know she wasn't eating properly. It wasn't her fault human food made her sick.
She willed the nauseating dizziness back long enough to step off the waterfall, leaning against the wall for support. Slowly she edged over to the door and left the temple, holding onto her gem and wondering how much more of this she could take. Unfortunately geodes had a habit of clinging to the inside of a gem until they were ready themselves to be born, so she had no hope of extracting them early and returning to her normal routine.
(Not like she could do that anyway, she noted, mad at herself for even considering such a thing. If she ever did that to Rose... she couldn't risk pushing them even further apart.)
She crept to the edge of the cave, the walls slimy to touch, the sand damp from the tide. If she just threw up in the water the evidence would get washed away, wouldn't it? The others wouldn't have to know.
Gingerly she found a secluded spot on the beach, hidden from view from the temple, and she knelt down, waves of sickness sweeping over her but never amounting to anything. As a particularly strong wave of nausea washed over her Pearl prepared herself to heave but all that came up was a hiccup, gas, a burp. She groaned.
She wasn't sure how long she sat in the cold sand waiting for the heavy nausea in her stomach to spill out, but finally she heaved, and began to vomit. She could only hope that once it was out the queasiness would subside and she'd be able to finally sleep.
Disgusting, nasty stuff. She shuddered and waited until the last of it was out before rising shakily to her feet, hoping that Amethyst hadn't checked in on her yet. Knowing Amethyst, she'd be okay, but there was still a nagging worry that she'd tell Rose about her leaving the temple anyway.
She was about to open her door when the warp sounded.
"Pearl? What are you doing out here?"
Pearl turned to say something, but – oh, heavens. The smell. Her stomach roiled.
"I-" Oh, no, no, no. She leaned back against the temple door to steady herself. Rose and Garnet were looking at her strangely. She couldn't-
"The smell," she choked out, beginning to heave again. They exchanged confused glances, before she coughed up the last of the fruit unsettling her stomach.
"Rose, bubble us," Garnet said sharply, and Rose obliged, stunned.
"If you aren't feeling well you should lie down," Garnet advised. She sounded a little tired. "Why did you leave in the first place? Go on now, rest in your room. We'll clean up and come see you then."
"Okay," muttered Pearl, trembling, face flushed in shame. She entered the temple quickly, and Rose released the bubble.
"What was that?" she murmured, bewildered.
"The bubble was the only way to keep her from vomiting more. In all other futures she expelled even more from her makeshift stomach, and that wouldn't be pretty."
"Yikes." Rose exhaled. "Maybe forcing her to eat wasn't such a good idea after all. She never has been good at holding food down."
"We should still try to feed her," Garnet said firmly, "but it might be easier to only give her small amounts. Less for her to throw up."
"True," Rose sighed. She sniffed her arm again. "We do smell pretty bad, though. It's no wonder we made her ill."
"It was a bit of an overreaction," Garnet said, and the two of them stifled their laughter before departing to wash.
…
...Naturally, though, Pearl spared Steven the more grotesque details.
"Did Mom and Garnet manage to get all of those gems, though?" Steven asked. "It doesn't sound like they searched the island for as long as you guys usually do."
"They were under pressure to save the mountain," Pearl explained. "Normally the search would have been more thorough, but of course, I was unable to help and Rose insisted Amethyst keep watch over me. If they had brought Amethyst along with them, maybe..."
She trailed off, expression downcast. Steven peered at her in confusion.
"Pearl? What is it?"
"N-Nothing! It's nothing," Pearl said quickly, smoothing back her hair distractedly. "Um, where was I, again?"
"The end of the mission that Mom and Garnet went on! What happened after that?"
Remembering the stench and the sickness that followed, Pearl grimaced. "Er... lets skip forward a few days, all right?"
…
"This is where we'll incubate the geodes," Garnet stated, folding her arms. Rose, Pearl and Amethyst stared.
The Crystal Heart was a place they seldom visited – it was delicate, powering the temple and linking to the high risk areas. It was also rich with energy, hot to touch and therefore an ideal environment for geodes to incubate.
"Is this going to be safe?" Rose asked gingerly. "I mean, it's a good source of energy for the geodes once they are extracted, but what if they overheat?"
"Would it be safer to take power from a scarcely used room instead?" Pearl suggested, glancing over at Garnet.
"This is a scarcely used room, and it has more energy than any other part of the temple," Garnet deadpanned. "The geodes will strengthen well in the Crystal Heart. They will be safe."
"But how will we get them in there?" Amethyst asked, puzzled. "In case you haven't noticed, the heart's solid. If we break it the temple will collapse!"
"We don't have to break it." Garnet's voice was firm. "Look." She pointed, and their gazes followed her finger to land on five small grooves deeply embedded in the side of the heart's chamber.
"Are those holes specifically for storing geodes?" Rose asked in bewilderment. Garnet nodded.
"Gems usually don't produce more than five geodes at a time. The Crystal Heart was designed with gem reproduction in mind, only it hasn't been required for thousands of years."
Pearl frowned. "But how do you know so much about this, Garnet? Did you- I mean, did... did Ruby and Sapphire ever-"
"Yes. Ruby and Sapphire have both carried geodes before."
…
"They had?!" Steven peered at Pearl, searching her face for answers. Pearl bit her lip, offering him a small smile.
"That's probably something you should talk to Garnet about. It isn't my place to tell you the whole story."
From below, Garnet listened in, a faint smile dusting her features as Rose's stunned face flashed in her mind.
…
"They have?!" Rose peered at Garnet, searching her face for answers. "But... they never said anything! When was this?"
"A short time after the First Homeworld War," Garnet murmured, a tiny smile visible on her face.
"That long ago and you didn't mention it to anybody?!" Amethyst exclaimed, incredulous.
Pearl's frown deepened. "So that's how you knew I was..."
"I recognised the signs. They have both carried, so when I realised your body temperature was changing, I knew immediately."
They quietened down for a few moments, before Rose asked quietly, "So what did you – they – do? Did they carry at the same time? I don't think anybody but me had access to the Crystal Heart at that point in the war."
Garnet looked down, a hint of embarrassment on her face. "They didn't carry at the same time... Ruby carried first, and neither her nor Sapphire realised what was happening. Ruby hid it for a while, until Sapphire noticed her pain, but neither understood that it was a geode until it was time to extract it. On some level both assumed it was a form of gem corruption, so they didn't tell you." She paused. "Only one geode was born from Ruby – a tiny sapphire geode – and neither knew what to do with it. It never had enough energy to hold a physical form because they had no idea that it required incubation after being extracted."
Rose's eyes were shining with unshed tears, and she reached to squeeze Garnet's hand. Garnet continued, although looked a little more sheepish than before.
"Thirty years or so passed and the two rarely talked about it again, but after unfusing one time... Sapphire began to feel fatigued, too. It didn't take them long to figure out why, since they had already seen it before. Then, during a mission, they heard Citrine talking about geode formation and she answered some of their questions about what happens afterwards. A few months later, Sapphire extracted three geodes – two rubies and a sapphire." Garnet looked away from Rose. "They panicked. They didn't want to lose these geodes too, so... She slipped into the Crystal Heart while you were gone. But even so, it amounted to nothing. She checked on them a while later and there were no signs of life."
Rose found herself crying. "Why didn't you tell me at the time? I would have done all I could."
"You were under a lot of pressure. More and more of our friends were corrupting, and Blue Diamond was launching preparations for her final battle. Ruby and Sapphire would have created an uproar in the resistance... since it's rare that gems make physical contact so intimately. Learning that Sapphire was carrying would have only slowed things down."
Pearl's fists clenched and she glanced down. "...Do you know why they could never form?"
"No," Garnet said firmly. "My best guess is that both Ruby and Sapphire were too small to bear geodes with enough strength to survive. Together we are strong, but apart... the physical forms are a lot weaker. In the end it was probably for the best, since taking care of gemlings during such hard times would have proved impossible."
The three gathered around Garnet slowly, reaching out tentatively to wrap their arms around her.
"Is that why you fused for good?" Amethyst asked. "Were you lonely?"
Garnet shrugged.
"I suppose I'm the closest thing to a gemling they could ever hope to have. They took comfort in that."
…
"Why can't Garnet make geodes?" Steven questioned. "If she's made up of both Ruby and Sapphire, shouldn't that make it easier?"
"Gems can't fuse while they're manifesting geodes, Steven," Pearl informed him. "From what we know about geode formation, the chemical imbalance would most likely corrupt the geodes, which could be problematic for the host since the infection could spread. It would be unreasonable for Garnet to endure that."
"That's so sad," Steven murmured, and his eyes dimmed. "Poor Garnet."
Pearl pulled Steven into a one-armed hug.
"Garnet may not be able to have Ruby and Sapphire's geodes," she said softly, "but she has the greatest gift of all."
"Gauntlets?" guessed Steven. She chuckled lightly at his answer.
"She has you, Steven."
…
"How are you feeling, my Pearl?" Rose asked quietly. The two were sat in Pearl's room, legs dangling over the edge of a particularly tall fountain. Pearl's head was resting in Rose's lap, the warm solidity of Rose's gem digging ever so slightly into the back of her head. Rose was stroking her hair softly, rubbing her thumb over the coolest part of Pearl's gem.
"Fine, as usual," Pearl murmured in response, at bliss in Rose's arms. "...I apologise, for the other day. After you came back from the mission, I... made quite a scene."
"There's no need. We should have known it would end that way. We'll moderate your food intake from now on, my dear, don't you worry."
They lapsed into a comfortable silence again, and Pearl closed her eyes, focusing on the light sensation of Rose's curls ghosting her back, the way Rose would lean down and peck her cheeks every now and then. It was casual, just like Rose wanted it to be. Pearl could live with that.
"I'm sorry you're in this situation, Pearl."
"Why are you apologising?" Pearl asked without opening her eyes. "We're both responsible for this incident, right?"
"It's still a burden on your gem and body, though. I wish I could lighten that weight, even a little."
Still as selfless as ever. Pearl smiled into Rose's hair.
"I don't mind. It's an honour to carry your geodes, Rose. I'm proud."
"We don't even know yet that there is more than one in there, Pearl. Or that it's a rose quartz geode at all. What if it's a pearl?"
Pearl stayed silent. Rose peered at her, hoping, wondering, before letting the issue go. She'd come around in time, even if it meant waiting until after the first stage of formation.
"Are you worried?"
Rose's voice was solemn, and Pearl tilted her head to glance up at Rose questioningly.
"Worried?"
"About the geodes, I mean." Rose's hand grazed over Pearl's gem, the notion sending warm shivers up Pearl's spine. "After what Garnet told us about Ruby and Sapphire's geodes, I'm worried."
"It's... very unfortunate that they met such a fate," Pearl mumbled, burying her head in Rose's dress. "But that's because they didn't incubate them. Garnet said-"
"No, Ruby's geode-" Rose interrupted, "Ruby's geode wasn't incubated. The ones that Sapphire carried... she stored them in the Crystal Heart, like we're going to. I can't help but wonder..."
Pearl sat up slowly, taking a few moments to steady herself on Rose's shoulder before gracefully rising. Once she had adjusted to standing upright again she found her gem wasn't aching as prominently as before.
"Pearl?" Rose questioned, eyebrows furrowed in confusion. "Where are you going?"
"I just – I need some fresh air," she gabbled. "I mean, I just – I need a little time."
She left it at that. Whether Rose would still be waiting in her room when she returned, she had no idea. Still, she walked away. She needed to clear her head as best she could, anyway.
"Garnet?"
It was late, and Garnet had been sat outside on one of the temple's large hands, watching the roiling ocean crash against the rocks beneath her. It was a dark evening, the sky a deep blue besides small pink clouds in the distance. She had heard the temple door open but had ignored it until her name was called out. Turning around, she was half-expecting to see Rose standing there, with her dress billowing in the breeze, ambling after more advice on where her relationship with Pearl stood. When she saw Pearl standing there instead, it was surprising. But only slightly.
"Pearl," she acknowledged, turning back to stare at the ocean once more as the smaller gem cautiously moved to sit down beside her.
"Garnet... I have to ask you something."
"Go ahead."
Pearl fidgeted with her hands, unsure of how to word her fears.
"It's just... what happened with Ruby and Sapphire..." She exhaled, closing her eyes in an attempt to clear her mind. What with the near constant fatigue and headaches, it was hard to string coherent thoughts together these days. "I mean... you said their geodes never formed properly because their own forms were too weak."
"That's just a theory," Garnet said gently, watching Pearl with an unreadable expression. "Ruby and Sapphire fused a lot before they realised they were manifesting geodes. Whether that contributed to the geodes being unable to fully form... I don't know the answer."
"Right..." Pearl paused for a few moments. "It's just... what I'm trying to say is, do – do you think, because of the nature of my gem, I might also-"
"No, I don't." Garnet squeezed Pearl's shoulder, and Pearl found herself leaning against Garnet instinctively, shivering. "You aren't Ruby or Sapphire, Pearl. Things could turn out differently for you."
"But there's no knowing that for sure!" Pearl cried. "Ruby and Sapphire – they love each other so much, they fit together so perfectly... if they couldn't manifest functional geodes, what are the chances that geodes of both myself and Rose will even form? We aren't compatible. Even Rose knows that..."
Garnet says nothing for a while, allowing Pearl to lean against her as the waves roll beneath their dangling feet.
"I think what you and Rose have is complicated," she said finally. "But you fit together. I can't see far enough ahead to know for sure how things will turn out, but your bond with Rose is stronger than you think, Pearl."
She smoothed a hand over Pearl's gem, noting the pulsing warmth radiating from the centre, before standing up and offering a hand out for the smaller gem to take.
"Thank you," Pearl murmured, lacing her fingers between Garnet's as the two made their way back to the temple. Her words of gratitude were scarcely heard over the churning sea, but Garnet squeezed her hand back nonetheless.