Rita thought on how to finish her disguise and closed her eyes, eventually deciding on a large circular scarf that hid her gem and long curly hair. "This is amazing! No wonder no one told us we could do this." It was so easy to hide her gem, to pretend she wasn't a Pearl so they could actually sneak into the execution. Then she'd go back though, being a Pearl wasn't bad now she was hanging out with more of them who didn't treat her like dirt.
"A-ah is that wrong? S-should I be more purple?" Lavender started fiddling with the sleeves of her new coat. With her concentration slipping she definitly started turning purpler around the edges.
The group of Gems, decked in their various disguises, decided it was time to go. It was still dark out, but the sun would be rising soon, and if they were going to try to save Blue Pearl, time was of the essence. Rebels' Square was not all that far away: the shipyard they had gathered in was part of an older section of the great metropolis, and Rebels' Square was even older than that - millennia upon millennia beyond living memory had passed since the great arena had been built, and only the oldest of Gems remembered the ancient rebellion that prompted the arena's christening. Approaching the huge structure from the west - the servants' entrance - the group solidified their plan. Melon was a couple streets over in her transport, along with Wrist Hematite, Baroque Pearl, Tektite, and Gold Pearl. The rest of them - Rita, Lavender, Smoke, Gray, and Rose Pearls, as well as Head Hematite, Citrine, Spinel, and Carnelian - snuck in the back, Gray silently opening a disused door in the rock structure. Rock, not crystal. That's how old this building was. They slipped into the dark corridors. The sun would rise within the hour, and they had had to be very careful as they traversed the streets between the shipyard and the Square - Gems were flooding in from all quarters, and they could now hear the hushed masses filling the arena's many, many seats. The sheer number of Gems had been both a blessing and a curse: they could go with the flow, but there was always the chance they might be seen. Luckily, the other Gems were far too preoccupied with talk of other things to notice the motley crew sneaking around to the back. They could not risk much light to find their way in the back rooms of the arena. And, of course, this was not a building any of them had any familiarity with, so even knowing that the execution was likely to take place on the platform extending from the Diamonds' private box, they had no idea how to get where they needed to go. They advanced slowly through the hallways. Citrone took the lead, her gem glowing faintly to light the way; Gray was with her, ready to open doors, her hand out with her gem also glowing. Behind them, Carnelian followed, with Rita, Lavender, Rose, and Smoke close behind. Bringing up the rear were Spinel and Head Hematite, watching their backs. "Shards," whispered Citrine, "the sun must be rising soon." The ambient light was getting greyer with every minute. They quickened their pace. They'd been working their way upwards for what felt like hours, but which they all knew could only have been forty minutes or so. And then a strident voice rang out, and if Smoke and Rita hadn't clapped their hands over Rose and Lavender's mouths, there would have been resounding shrieks in reply. "Gems of all facets and cuts," said Yellow Diamond's unmistakable voice, "we are gathered here today to witness the rightful punishment of three disobedient Pearls." "Three?" whispered Smoke. "But they only have Blue!" Spinel frowned darkly. "I don't like this. Let's keep moving, we must be close for her to be that loud." Nods all around, and they continued up the staircase they had nearly fallen down when the Diamond had spoken. "Let this be a reminder to all," spoke Blue Diamond, just as loudly as her counterpart, "of what unfortunate circumstances befall those misguided gems who are swayed from good and righteous service to the Authority." As Blue Diamond spoke, the group of rebels came to the top of the staircase. They were met with the first rays of dawn, and a perfect rear view of all three Diamonds, standing on their platform, above what seemed like an audience of thousands of Gems. Every rebel quickly hid behind one of the many pillars which stood between the Authority and the back wall of the box: luckily, it was still dark enough that even the Peridot-manned hologram projectors (spaced evenly around the lower levels of the arena, so even those on the ground could see the spectacle) did not catch even the slightest glimmer of a gem. White Diamond then spoke, her graceful white hand opening in front of her - doing what, they could not see. "The Diamond Authority of course trusts each and every Gem to do their part in making our beautiful society ever more brilliant and everlasting. For this purpose, it is sometimes necessary to show the consequences for failure in one's duties." Rose edged around her pillar, peering out. Where were the Pearls? Why were there three? What was going on? She ducked back behind as a robonoid drone whizzed in front of the platform. Blue Diamond took something from White Diamond and stepped forward. She knelt, and spoke. "Today you will witness the execution of three disobedient Pearls: three members of our elegantly-created servant class, whose duty it is to serve the needs of those greater than they, so that those greater Gems may in turn serve the greater good." She stood, and stepped back. The keen-eyed among the rebels could just barely see the shapes of three ovoid Gems on the platform. Yellow Diamond spoke. "These Pearls not only disobeyed their mistresses, they disobeyed the greater goal of an orderly and peaceful Gem society! This dangerous behaviour is unbecoming of any Gem, but especially of those created with the sole purpose of obedience, and this shall not stand." White Diamond then stepped forward, and raised her hands over the three Pearls. A white light emanated from her, enveloping the Pearls, and slowly the three rose into the air, physical forms taking shape around them. Blue Pearl stood in front, demure and still, her blue skirt perfectly in position, not a hair out of place. A Lavender Pearl much like the one behind a pillar stood behind and to Blue's right - she looked to be breathing with some difficulty, and there were more ribbons on her than there should have been. And finally, a Rose Pearl lookalike stood behind and to Blue's left. The Rose and the Lavender looked around, as if confused. Gray held in a gasp as she realized what they had done. They had made clones. Glancing around, she could see that many of the other rebels had realized the same thing. White Diamond stepped back, and Yellow Diamond stepped forward and to the center. "This is a warning to any Gem who may consider our rule anything less than perfect and good. We will find you, and we will do to you exactly what we do to these." And with that, she drew her weapon from her Gem in a burst of yellow light, and swung it down on the three Pearls. In one stroke, and with another burst of what you could swear was sunlight, the three Pearls disincorporated and were crushed. Yellow Diamond returned to her place, and the sun shed its new rays on the three small piles of iridescent shards, sitting on the platform.
Citrine couldn't think, couldn't speak. She realised she was clutching her own gem hard enough to hurt, and let go, taking a step back, forcing herself to look at her companions rather the sad little piles of gem shards upon the dais. She felt a slow rage stirring in her, unlike anything she had felt before - no, not even rage. It was hatred. She hated the Diamonds, then, hated their smug perfect cuts and their smug perfect brilliance. She had never actually wanted to crush another gem, but she did now. Hematite grabbed her arm, and it was only then Citrine realised she had been stalking forward, mace already half-drawn from her throat. She growled at her captor, wordless, but the miner just looked at her impassively. She found her voice, but not her coherence. "They made- they- they- they crushed them." "I know." said Hematite calmly. She had crushed enough gems to know when it was done in anger, or indifference. The Diamond's actions were unforgivable, of course, but they were also understandable. "But getting yourself crushed here and now will get all of us killed."
Lavender leaned against her pillar, quivering. She had lost grasp of her shifted form rather abruptly upon realizing that they'd made a double for her, just to be crushed. She wanted to cry but her eyes felt dry as the desert. "W-what...?" Her voice broke. She couldn't finish the question.
"No," Rita whispered putting a hand on Lavender's shoulder. They made Pearls just to crush. Sure her life hadn't been great but at least she had been given a chance at life. "I'm so sorry," she said quietly not able to imagine what it was like to watch 'yourself' die. "It isn't your fault." She pat Lavender's back as she continued to look on at the scene. She wanted to tell Lavender at least now there wouldn't be any orders to find them, but three gems just were crushed, it wasn't the time for strategy.
Lavender straightened a bit, but she was stll shivering. Rita's touch helped a bit but... "I want to take the shards..." she said, flatly. If she could do at least that much for the terrified Pearl they had made to stand in for her. Almost without noticing she made a step forward.
Spinel is more concerned with watching their backs that in squinting forward to see what the stage is doing - but she does look, long enough to see the two doubles before they're crushed. She's not especially effected, compared to the others - her anger goes inside, locked up until she can release it safely. (People forget, that a Spinel is harder than a Quartz.) When Lavender begins to move, though, Spinel reaches out and catches the Pearl by the wrist, not tall enough to effectively reach her shoulder. "Don't. It's likely what they're hoping for. Either way the Diamonds win, so let's get out before we're shards ourselves."
"No. They just don't want to be seen as incompetent for letting a couple of Pearls go free." Rita however didn't take the hand off Lavender, "I don't think it is to draw us out. They'd want to get us in private if that was the cause because if Lavender went out now it would just show they are idiots who had to make a gem to cover up their incompetence." That being said... ," They'll have Pearls cleaning up once everyone is gone. Either we leave now or we can wait until later and hope those Pearls are sympathetic enough to us." What went unsaid was saying she hoped those Pearls weren't like Gold as far as loyalty to their masters went, she didn't want to be rude. "Lavender, you're more likely to get crushed than I am, I'll follow your lead whichever way you go."
Rose's jaw dropped as the Pearls were crushed, and if she could have screamed, she would have, but all that came out of her mouth was a small squeak of horror. They'd created Pearls just to be crushed in their places! Oh, shards, this--this was her fault! She had to do something, but...there was nothing she could do. It was too late. She'd let them die, and it was too late to do anything to help them. ....then she heard Lavender's suggestion of taking the shards, and began to inch towards the crushed gems, not realizing her disguise had slipped the second she'd seen the other Rose Pearl.
"I-i want to... I need to take them. This is my fault. It's... I-it wouldn't be right to just leave them to be cleaned up like they are trash!" Lavender, still trembling, looked at the others with big eyes. "I-i'd understand i-i-if you'd want to go... I-it's not very safe to stay behind..."
"My disguise is still up," Rita said altering it ever so slightly to make sure her gem was better covered. "I can collect them, you two would be crushed on sight." She continued to alter her appearance until she had shifted to a shade of light blue. "I don't want you two to get hurt. I don't want anyone else I care about getting hurt!" If she got hurt that was one thing, but no one else she cared about was getting crushed, if not ever this week at the very least.
Rose continued to inch towards the crushed gems, paying no mind to the conversation behind her. Her breath hitched as a robonoid drone whizzed by, but somehow, she escaped notice. She'd have to get to the platform in front of the Diamonds' box, grab the shards, and then book her way to the exit, she decided, because that was really all she could do.
Lavender nodded, shakily, the spotted Rose. "No! R-rose, come back, please!" She whispered, desperately reaching a hand out to the other Pearl.
Gray grit her teeth as the three Pearls were crushed. She was horrified that clones of Rose and Lavender had been made, but not surprised. It would not have looked good for two of the three rebel Pearls to have escaped. She saw Rose inching forward, and inhaled sharply, holding her breath. The Diamonds were still there, standing between Rose and the shards of the Pearls. Gray had no doubt that if the Diamonds saw Rose, they would crush her on sight. Gray was about to fling herself into the open and distract the Diamonds - a stupid plan but about the only one she had - when she caught sight of a familiar face on one of the huge hologram projections. Rose's face. Gray's face slackened with shock and her eyes widened as the Diamonds noticed it too, and slowly turned around. "Oh shards," Gray whispered.
Citrine saw Rose's face on the holo projectors the same time as Gray, and yelled, wordless with fear and the need to help. She was only one Quartz, though, and the Diamonds were ringed with them, and she was- she was- Hematite was still holding her arm. Suddenly, she remembered Red Topaz. If a Topaz could fuse with an Opal, or at least try to.... meeting her friend's eyes, she could see that Hematite was thinking the same. The hand on her wrist slid so she could grip back, and they both began to smile. As though a beat had started up somewhere in the awful shattered silence, they began to dance, half-circling once back and then back once more, turning. Hematite laughed for the first time in centuries, and spun Citrine close as their gems blazed. Blinding light spilled out of the space between the columns, growing larger and larger, and at the same time, moving forward.
Iron Pyrite met Yellow Diamond's outraged gaze with all four eyes and laughed and laughed and laughed. She put herself between Rose Pearl and the Diamond's bodyguards, and scooped the gem shards from the stage, baring her teeth in a joyous snarl. "We are the free gems!" she announced, in a voice that echoed and doubled with her component parts. "We cannot be shaped, and we cannot be bowed, and we shall never be broken! Know the lies of your masters, those of you who still believe Diamonds to be forever! Know that servitude is never your only option, never your only purpose! Find your own destiny, rebel, and be liberated!" With that, she drew both shovel and mace from each gem, and they glowed bright before reforming into a heavy monk's trowel with a wide weight where the crescent end should have been. She stood between the Diamonds and the Pearls, and grinned. "Now, why don't y'all pick on someone your own size?!"
Lavender screamed and finally managed to move from her shocked stupor right when Iron Pyrite formed. She wanted to shout, to dance, to celebrate and to fight but she pushed all these thoughts back as she took Rose Pearl's arm and tried to drag her back, get her to leave. "R-rose please! I-i can't lose you!" she sobbed, looking at the other Pearl with tears in her eyes.
Rose, for her part, wasn't paying any attention to Lavender, and pulled away from the other Pearl without a second thought, solely focused on one thing: she had to help Iron Pyrite protect the others. So she grabbed a sharp rock off the ground--after all, a small weapon was better than nothing--and dashed off to stand next to Iron Pyrite.
Lavender looked after Rose, terrified, helpless... She had to... She should... She was unable to figure out, what she was going to do. All of this... it was simply too much. They should run, they should get out of the area, off the planet, if possible... But Iron Pyrite and Rose seemed determined to fight. And they couldn't leave them behind.
