Note: Fair warning: This is a terrible darkfic. zircontulip on Tumblr posted a fantastic design (you can find the link on the AO3 version of this fic) and I was so inspired that I just had to run with it. While I take some cues from her fantastic descriptions, I do go my own way for some things.

Warnings: Implied rape and torture (not at the same time), medicinal drug use. Dark AU. This is pretty much pure indulgence

It was shortly after sunset when Pearl returned to the temple in a car she had built herself, because she certainly couldn't trust this task to any of the others. While she despised having to venture into human territory, she had a son to raise and needed to keep that fragile human side of him alive. Who knew what would happen if he were to die? It might bring Rose Quartz back. She grimaced as she stepped out of the car and hollered for Amethyst. Their little runt of a soldier, whose only use seemed to be to follow orders. It was a tendency that Pearl was grateful to have outgrown, and no thanks to—

Ugh, it always went back to Rose.

Amethyst, thankfully, showed up at her elbow with an insipid grin and some lost tourist's stolen jewelry in her hands. The humans were getting bolder if they were coming close enough for Amethyst to start rummaging around their things. Really, Pearl would have thought that the humans would learn to stay away after what happened to Ocean City. Then Amethyst derailed her train of thought by sticking the fist full of gold in her face. An offering made in the hope of remaining on her good side, like so many that Amethyst had given her before. Pearl gave her a thin smile and stored the golden baubles in her gem. "Thank you. Why don't you take the groceries up to the house?"

The stunted soldier's grin widened and she busied herself with trying to carry as many bags as she could. Pearl went on ahead with medicine in hand, unconcerned with locking up the car. The humans did not risk coming this close to the temple, not yet. Beach Town's older denizens still remembered when their own would disappear if they got too close. Rose had adored humans, after all, and would experiment on whichever human had caught her eye until Pearl was called to clear away the bones. Thank the universe for Rose's critical miscalculation in her final experiment. Mr. Universe, rather. It amused Pearl to think that her former mistress' downfall had been at the hands of one of her toys, and he hadn't even done much more than serve as a plaything until Rose tired of him.

As she ascended the steps to Steven's room, Pearl reviewed her options. Sleep was a necessary part of the human condition, but recently Rose's consciousness began stirring in Steven's gem and made itself known at a time when her son's defenses were down. At first Pearl had paid it little heed, convinced that Steven would be the stronger of the two, but Pearl had to intervene when he started sleepwalking and held a knife to his throat. That she'd had the presence of mind to check up on him during the night and catch him before the knife broke skin was a minor miracle.

Steven was safest during REM atonia and, as far as Pearl could tell, most at danger when he was somewhere in the middle of slow wave sleep. Pearl had done extensive research on the subject, but all she learned was that Steven needed all of his stages of sleep. After the first sleepwalking event, Pearl had initially attempted to wake him up before he could reach that stage, but lack of sleep proved terribly taxing on his cognitive function. Her son had struggled bravely to cope with it, but she had to do something once he started hallucinating. So he finally agreed to let her experiment. Benzodiazepines would shorten the time he spent in slow wave sleep, while gamma-hydroxybutyric acid would extend it. She would have to experiment with the dosage, but surely something would help. If all else failed, she would continue watching him as he slept. She loved Rose, despite everything her mistress had put her through, but Rose should never come back.

When she entered Steven's room, she found him leaning over his planning board, a flat table that she had a projector permanently aimed at to give the illusion of terrain. He stared listlessly at the figures on the board, the extent of his exhaustion ruining his posture. They'd originally built the room as a temporary measure until he was ready to take over Rose's, but at this point he had little interest in any sort of move.

Pearl sank on the couch by his side and he flashed her a brief, tired smile as her arm looped around his shoulders. Sometimes he reminded her of Rose, when Rose deigned to be kind to her playthings, but he was rapidly becoming his own person. "Do I really have to sleep?" His voice was so small.

"Of course you do. It'll be easier to resist her when you're stronger. Your body needs that rest to grow." She squeezed him into a brief hug. "I'll make sure nothing happens, all right?"

"Okay, Mom." She had the presence of mind not to gloat overtly at that. This was something Rose would never have: someone who called her "mother" and wasn't one of her brainwashed worshippers who thought she was the Mother Goddess incarnate. Someone who loved her for herself, not for ideology or because they had no choice in the matter. For a defective pearl like her, there was no greater treasure in the universe. "I'll go get ready for bed."

Steven left her with a quick hug, and she took the time to unpack and sort through the medicine bottles. A desperate pharmacy technician sold them to her for perhaps more than they were worth, but money ultimately meant nothing to gems. Not the type they could find on Earth, anyway. And that thought led her towards a subject she did her best to avoid.

None of them could return to Homeworld. She was a defective pearl without a mistress, and her value would be reduced even after they rehabilitated her. At best, she would likely be sold to some low-ranking general or end up as part of an entertainment troupe. Amethyst, as a runt who fell far short of Kindergarten standards, would be crushed and recycled. Garnet wouldn't even know why she would be crushed, having forgotten what she was over the thousands of years since Ruby and Sapphire became subsumed within her, but her very existence was too much of an affront to public decency for Homeworld to simply let it go. And Steven… He would likely be destroyed as well, if only in retaliation for Rose's rebellion. No, Earth was the only place for them.

Amethyst took the silence as invitation to enter the room and begin packing away the groceries. She rarely spoke, and only to respond to direct questions. Which served Pearl just as well, for she reserved her words for Steven. However, there was the other issue to be addressed.

"Amethyst," she began in a clipped tone that usually made the smaller gem stand at attention. Was it leftover quartz programming? She had no idea. "Where's Garnet?"

Rather than answer her verbally, Amethyst sprouted two extra arms and mimicked the act of painting for a moment before returning to her task. Pearl gave a huff in response, though she really should be grateful that Garnet would be occupied for hours. Steven didn't need another fight breaking out between them when he needed sleep.

They had been friends, once, before Ruby and Sapphire retreated into themselves and never returned. Initially, Pearl had been generous because she sympathized with their need to seek comfort together during Rose's darkest moments, but she'd allowed thousands of years to pass before she managed to ask Garnet about them. Garnet had stared at her uncomprehendingly and Pearl's core ached with the realization that they were gone. Rose had dismissed it, of course, and said that it was only to be expected of a fusion who stayed together for so long. The ache and longing for her lost friends grew into resentment for the fusion that absorbed their personalities until nothing remained. While Garnet didn't understand the source of her resentment, she reacted in kind. If Steven didn't need them to cooperate during missions, they would be quite happy to pretend the other didn't exist.

Pearl gave an elegant shrug and tried not to look too pleased. "Just as well. Tell her not to come into Steven's room for at least ten hours. He needs his rest and she should respect that. I'll be keeping watch." Steven was the one thing they could all agree on, even if he was their de facto leader at such a young age.

Silently, without so much a gesture of farewell, Amethyst scurried off to the inner sanctum of the temple. Pearl took the time to fill a glass with water and sort out Steven's medicine. A child's dose of diazepam to start with, then she could try raising the dosage if he needed it. She set the glass and medicine on his nightstand and busied herself with straightening out his closet. It wasn't long before he slipped into bed with a pair of pajamas she'd ended up stitching herself. Someone had to take care of him, after all.

"Guess I am pretty tired," Steven muttered as she pulled up the sheets around him and settled by his side. "I can't even concentrate anymore. Every time I close my eyes, she's there."

She patted his hair with a hand in reassurance. Steven didn't tell them much of what he dreamed, but Pearl could hazard a guess. Rose had done an eon or so of experiments on humans, much of which were done simply because something had broke in her long ago and she used humans to fill the void. To Rose, they had been pets, experimental subjects, and lovers. Sometimes all at the same time. Worse was when she made Pearl watch and relished her discomfort. As disgusting as some of the experiments were, Pearl hoped that Rose would never share with her son what she had done to Pearl when she got bored with humans. "I got you some diazepam and other sleeping aids. They're supposed to be able to induce anterograde amnesia as a side-effect."

"Couldn't hurt." Steven took the pill and knocked it back with a mouthful of water. He laid back down and let Pearl tuck him in, and a sudden flash of anxiety crossed his face. "Mom, you'll stop me if she takes over, right?"

"Of course, Steven. Go to sleep."

He flashed her a rare, if exhausted, smile. It wasn't long before he nodded off.

Time went quickly for gems once they detached themselves from the timekeeping of organics. When Pearl remembered to detach herself, which she often didn't, Rose's favorite pets grew old and died before she realized it, and then Rose would start feeling guilty and run back to her. At least, before something happened to her that eliminated that guilt. When did Rose start festering? A few thousand years wasn't very long, not for them. Rose had disappeared sometime after the war, leaving Pearl to follow Ruby and Sapphire (and later Garnet) around like a lost puppy. Rose came back changed and confided in her that humans were the key, though Pearl didn't understand. Gems did not injure easily and could retreat to their gems when the mass of their projected forms were damaged, ensuring that healers were few and far between. But humans ailed and aged and birthed and died. Perhaps they gave Rose a purpose. She fed on their needs and adoration, took a few as lovers. Pearl resented them, at least back then. Then Rose began experimenting with them in ways that grew increasingly horrific. Garnet, Pearl, and the amethyst they had recently adopted, had tried to intervene, but Rose fed them the same lies about the good of human and gemkind and the necessity of sacrifices. At some point, they had uncovered Rose's fusion experiments and something in Garnet died. Ruby and Sapphire would never return. Amethyst went mute shortly afterwards. Pearl did her duty, as expected. No matter the nature of Rose's increasingly perverse orders, Pearl had no choice but to do her duty.

When Rose's experiment in creating a gem/human hybrid got out of her control and Steven was born from the flash of light that killed her, Pearl was ecstatic to be freed. She found herself a safe nook in some cave no one else knew about and skewered herself. She'd lengthened her hair once she reformed, because Rose had preferred her hair short. The usual clothes of a pearl like her were abandoned for more practical garb. She'd gone back to the others in the span of a few hours, because someone had to take care of the newborn and raise him to be a proper gem.

The moonlight limned the contours of his chubby face, which looked uncomfortable. Pearl hummed to him and lightly brushed his curls out of his face, which seemed to sooth him. Another few minutes of stillness and she moved to straighten out the toys on his shelves. It kept her occupied for a moment, and she returned to his side shortly afterwards. Then something… changed. Steven stirred and sat up, which he shouldn't be able to with the drug in his system. Pearl steeled herself.

The eyes that looked up at her were Steven's, of course, but there was something ancient and remorseless behind them. Wariness stiffened her body for what may come. Rose had been unpredictable in the past few hundred years. "I had no idea you were so maternal, my Pearl." The voice was Steven's, but it sounded just like Rose. There was a laugh, light and airy. "If only I'd known! I'd have given you all the gemlings you could want."

It took Pearl a moment to gather the wits to respond. That certainly wasn't what she expected. "Our kind stopped reproducing that way since long before the ancestors of your precious humans ventured onto land." Her tone was sharper than necessary. Did a mere eleven years really make her so fearless when it came to Rose? Yet her hands balled into tight fists in her lap, as if in direct defiance of her thoughts. "Pearls were never designed for that."

"It doesn't matter." Steven's hand fell on her narrow thigh with a familiarity that was all Rose, and her courage flagged. Fear for Steven and abhorrence for what Rose was doing with his body and what she was implying soon replaced it. "With my research, I can make it work."

She gathered whatever strength she had left and stood abruptly, causing Steven's hand to fall back on the bed where it belonged. "No! You're gone! Leave Steven and the rest of us alone!"

Rose Quartz glared at her through Steven's eyes. "Stop that at once. Fetch me something to discard this body. I need to return to my experiments." When Pearl refused to move, Rose's voice dropped to that dangerous tone that made her want to cower and beg for mercy. "You are my pearl and—"

"Not anymore!" Pearl felt like she could faint, she was quaking so badly, but somehow she stayed standing. "Steven is my son. He needs me. You never did."

The laugh that followed was a mixture of fondness and condescension that made her bristle; that of a mistress laughing at the antics of her pet. It was galling. Before the rebellion, before whatever corruption had taken hold of her, Rose had encouraged her to be her own gem. A mere pearl became second in command, taught herself engineering and swordplay, and all because Rose Quartz allowed her that freedom. Afterwards, though… "How quaint! Now stop being foolish and fetch me a knife. The experiments must continue."

"No."

"Pearl. Homeworld is waiting for a status report." A deep shock reverberated within her. Something of it must have shown on her face, for a smirk appeared on Steven that didn't belong. "Did you really think Homeworld would leave this world alone without gaining something in return? We lost and were allowed to stay because they needed solutions to gem corruption and breakage more than they needed another Kindergarten."

Were it not for the fact that her body had gone rigid from fear for Steven's safety, Pearl might have panicked. She may just do so once she had time to fully process the implications. But then Steven's body slumped back on the bed and she sank onto the bed by his side. He looked exhausted and Rose's consciousness seemed to be losing ground. "Rose? I'll send the report. Where—?"

"Mom?" It was all Steven this time, and Pearl leaned over to embrace him. The dam she kept on her emotions broke and she started sobbing into his shoulder. His voice was groggy, but he managed to return the hug. "Mom? What..? Was she here?"

It took Pearl several moments to collect herself enough to respond. She pulled away and rubbed viciously at her eyes. Why she made her bodies so human-like in their ability to cry, she had no idea. Perhaps it was what Rose had wanted when she was commissioned and became a fixed part of her programming. Even before her corruption, Rose seemed to enjoy how open Pearl was with her feelings. Maybe she fed on them even then. "It doesn't matter. I'll tell you in the morning."

Steven searched her eyes for something, but said nothing and laid back down. Soon enough, he drifted back to sleep and Pearl began recounting all the places where Rose kept laboratories. Though Pearl remained on alert in case Rose came back, he didn't wake again until morning. By that point, he'd forgotten the episode entirely and couldn't remember a thing he might have dreamed. It was a start.

At some point, Pearl would have to bring up the issue of Homeworld with the other gems. For now, she had her duty.

Note: I... honestly don't know if I'll continue this. I want to! But at the same time, I don't really have a plot in mind beyond what's implied.