"I didn't even realize we could stand up for each other." Rita said excitedly. "Like you taking Rose before they could hurt her! Oh my goodness it was so awesome. I had to follow you after that."
Rose finally began to reform, having felt she'd put enough thought into her regeneration. She began to come back, reforming with pale pink armbands, her standard pink fingerless gloves, a crop top with a sweetheart neckline, a pale pink band on the top of the neckline, and the rest a pretty light salmon color, her light pink ribbon wrapped around her midriff with a bow in the back tying it off, ribbons flowing down from the bow, and her white ballet slippers, along with pale peach knee-length leggings and a light purple see-through skirt. But...hmmm. Not quite complete. As she thought, she decided upon two additions: light gray, see-through ribbons wrapped around her legs in a criss-cross style, and white sheer leg warmers. Perfect! Rose reformed fully, and her first thought was: where was Almandine? Why hadn't she reformed yet, and why wasn't she waiting to poof Rose for regenerating with freckles? Rose persisted in regenerating with freckles each time she was poofed, either by Almandine or someone else, and Almandine always immediately poofed her after snapping that freckles weren't pretty or dignified. Her second thought was: where the heck were they? It wasn't very bright, and it didn't seem very new or clean, and... Wait, who were those other Gems? Oh shards. Oh no. Were they here to poof and break all of them? Rose panicked, and immediately sought safety, promptly diving behind Lavender, the first other Pearl she laid eyes on, and then quietly whispered, "Wh-who are they? They're not gonna hurt us, are they?" She peeped out from around Lavender, eyes wide and anxious, having not even yet noticed Gold.
Gray was puzzled by the trapped Pearl's strange voice. She had never heard anyone speak like that. And clearly she was not used to talking. She wondered if the Pearl had just been left here, if the owner of the house had moved away... "Yes, I'm a Pearl. A Gray Pearl. I'm glad you're not hurt." Gray heaved, and budged the case a bit. This was going to take all her strength. She wished one of the other Pearls was here so she could fuse with them. Gray squatted low, breathing deeply, and settled her fingers under the edge of the case. She wanted to flip it over, if she could. She closed her eyes and thought about being fused, thought about the graceful strength of the renegade Pearl, and she lifted with all her might-- and the case flipped over and off the trapped Pearl... Whom Gray could now see... She had no arms. Gray blinked. Partial disincorporation? That wasn't possible... She reached out to help the pink Pearl sit up, maybe stand if she wanted. "Are you sure you're okay? You have no arms..."
Lavender meeped a bit, surprised, then turned around and hugged Rose tightly. "No one will hurt us Rose! We ran away! These fine gems here helped us escape after I stole you away. I'm sorry I didn't ask you first but they were going to break you and..." She trailed off, burying her fac in Rose's shoulder.
Rose froze a bit when Lavender hugged her, and then hugged Lavender back, relaxing a bit when she heard that no one was going to hurt them. "It's fine!! Thank you for saving me," Rose said as she pulled away, her tone a bit shy. "I...I mean it, thank you."
Citrine felt her eyes widen like stars when she saw the slender warrior that Lavender projected, standing tall and proud and straight as the swords she held in each hand. Shards and fractures, she hadn't even known gems could be that kind of cool. "Holy stars, she's amazing! Who-?" And she meant who, not what - she was a Pearl as clearly as the scared and defiant Gold, Lavender, Smoke and Seafoam were. Citrine felt a spike of guilt at the thought of the one who hadn't made it, and had opened her mouth to tell Seafoam about her friend when Rose chose that moment to both re-incorporate and panic. She took a step towards her, hands out in a universal gesture of 'look, no weapons, I'm not gonna hurt you'. "Hey, yeah, it's okay! After you were poofed your friend there snatched you out right from under Yellow Diamond's nose! It was so awesome!" Hematite glanced at her, then added, "You are safe here, for as long as you like. You need not bow to the whims of other gems ever again." "Yeah, and if anyone tries to make you I'll crack 'em!" the Quartz added, perhaps a bit too enthusiastically.
Lavender smiles gently. "I could never leave you behind. We're gonna stick together, all of us! No one gets to tell us what to do anymore."
Rose smiled and giggled a bit at Citrine's last words, then looked at Lavender. "Yeah! We get to do what we want from now on!" But really, Rose thought, it was incredibly brave for Lavender to have done what she did, and just...wow. Gosh. Rose was amazed, honestly, by Lavender's apparent courage. Rose smiled a bit, and then shook herself and slowly approached Citrine. "It's, um, nice to meet you!" She glanced around at everyone, noticing Gold for the first time. "Who's this? And Rita, where's Maggi?"
Gold Pearl, meanwhile, had gone from in shock and shutting down to upset, uncertain, afraid, and now full on angry. And who better to direct her anger at than the very person who'd crushed her one hope, her one lifeline, her one hope of getting out of here without being crushed, the one Gem who always told her what to do? Never mind that she was a Hematite--honestly, in this moment, Gold couldn't care less about that as she looked up, glaring at Hematite. And then she got to her feet and stalked over to Hematite. "You. You crushed Amber, how could you do that?? How could you just--just go ahead and crush her, I needed her! She's the one who tells me what to do and you went and fracking CRUSHED HER AND NOW I DON'T EVEN KNOW WHERE I'M SUPPOSED TO GO ANYMORE! And--and we're all probably going to be crushed now and my one hope of getting out of this alive is DEAD! And it's thanks to you!! How could you DO that, how could you just--just be so THOUGHTLESS?? I relied on her for everything and now she's gone and IT'S YOUR FAULT!" Gold's voice began to rise in pitch and volume the more she talked, cracking on the last word.
Upon landing, Red Topaz disembarked from the shuttle and drew her weapon: a sturdy quarterstaff. After all, in diplomacy, one had to speak softly and carry a big stick. She listened carefully. She thought she could hear talking. She pointed to Black Opal to take the lead, and as they crept forward, she stepped in something that crackled under her feet. She looked down to find the remains of a yellow gem... "The Amber," she said quietly. "Those upstarts. How dare they."
Hearing Gold's shouting Lavender seemed to shrink in on herself, flinching away as if expecting to be hit.
Smoke reached a hand out to Lavender, hoping she could sooth her. Everyone was rather worked up, but if she could calm one person down, it might help the others too. And Rose was back! Now the only one they were waiting on was Maggi.
Lavender leaned into Smoke's touch, thankful. She was still watching Gold vigilantly, her eyebrows knitted. She'd just finished regenerating, gettign poofed again would be... tedious. Besides she wanted to make sure she could help look out for everyone, especially the other Pearls! Rose was still so shaken...
Rose, for her part, backed away from Gold about as far as she could get, trying to place as much distance between the screaming Gem and herself. Yelling, in her experience, was never good, and usually when yelling was coming from Almandine it meant something bad had happened and/or someone was about to get poofed. And Rose really didn't want to get poofed again. She liked this form! As Gold continued to yell, Rose slowly placed her hands over her ears.
Citrine laughed, a little hysterically, but Hematite just looked at the little Pearl, as outsized as a canary facing up to a crow. She let her yell, and let her anger wash over her, bright and hot after what seemed like a lifetime of cold and dark. She did not raise her voice in turn, and did not so much as raise a finger to Gold. "You will not be crushed. You have our oath." She considered this further, then added, "If you need somebody to rely on, then you have many options here. Grieve first, if you require it. Your Amber was no shining gem by my light, but I did not know her well. You are allowed to grieve, and you are allowed to feel whatever you may wish to feel, including anger." Meanwhile, the other Hematite stalked the opal and her arrogant mistress through the stacks of old ship parts. She waited until they had both passed her hiding place, then as silent as stone, swung her spade at the back of Red Topaz's head.
Gold paused to take a breath and then exclaimed, "You can't possibly guarantee that I won't be crushed! You have no idea what's going to happen! And I--I...ugh!" It wasn't, Gold realized, so much that she missed Amber. She never liked Amber; Amber consistently reminded her that she was useless, worthless, less than a Gem, an idiot, silly, and good for just about nothing. And while Gold had accepted this was probably true, hearing it over and over was...difficult to bear. So no, she didn't miss Amber--but without someone telling her what to do, she just felt so....utterly lost. She'd never been independent once in her entire life, and to have it thrust upon her was simply too much to handle. And then, without another word, Gold curled up in a small ball on the ground.
Lavender made a startled noise and rushed to Gold's side. "A-are you okay? Oh shards and fractures, I'm sorry, I'm sorry! Please don't hate us!"
Black Opal lifted her head as the shouting echoed through the hall. She reached down, bubbling the shards of the Amber. It would be used as evidence, and the shards could then be used by the scientific division. She set the bubble floating above her shoulder and drew her weapon, taking a quick, calm pace down towards the sound.
