Lavender looked at both Carnleian and Smoke with big eyes, trying her hardest to look any other way than on the verge of guilty tears. "B-but i-i-if I hadn't... I-if I hadn't ignored orders..."
Rose shook her head. "No. It's not like that. It was my decision to leap into the fusion and it was Blue's decision to catch me and fuse with me; you couldn't have known this would happen when you ignored orders. You were just having a little harmless fun, Lav. This isn't your fault."
Smoke couldn't fight the urge to give her another hug. "It's the fault of the Gems in charge, who give orders and think that we can't act or think on our own. Not your fault. Never your fault."
"I probably should go," Spinel mused, dropping her large pack from her shoulders to the ground. "Since I'm assuming none of the rest of you have infiltrated anything a day in your lives." She set the hard case down next to it. "If something should happen to me, be sure Rose Quartz gets these."
Lavender takes a shaky breath, hugging Smoke back. "Th-thank you guys..." At Spinel's words she looks up. "R-r-rose Quartz?"
The little pink Pearl didn't respond beyond frowning and humming a bit. "That's fine," Gray said. "We'll find something." It had been quite the stretch to expect a Pearl meant for display to know where her owner kept her shuttle. They'd been wandering for a while - the house was big, and slightly labyrinthine. But eventually, they found the door, and Gray let them out as quietly as she could, left hand on the panel, right hand shepherding the pink Pearl out - tentatively, not knowing if it might be alarmed, but it was not, and her gem flashed briefly with relief. That could have been bad. Now outside, Gray could see that Coral lived in a very aristocratic neighbourhood: the houses were all huge, and perfectly kept, and nary a shuttle in sight. It was too pretty. Gray frowned, and led the pink Pearl down the lane, trying to search as unobtrusively as possible. If anyone saw them ... she had no idea what she'd say. Finally, she spotted a tiny little shuttle tucked in behind a porch, almost invisible. She realized then that this must be a very old-fashioned neighbourhood, populated with Gems who were of the opinion that vehicles were for space travel and those too impatient to walk like a normal Gem. She crept around the porch, still keeping an eye out, and looked at the shuttle. It truly was tiny - possibly a servants' shuttle, for deliveries? It seemed too small for any Gem of high caste. She and the other Pearl would fit, but it would be tight. She tried the door, palming the side panel. Locked. Didn't even flash red at her. Shards. Her key was only meant to run Onyx's vehicles and unlock doors in her house, but...the door at Coral's house had opened without incident, and surely she would have had some sort of alarm? Gray frowned, and figured it was worth a shot. She summoned her key, drawing it up with her right hand out of the palm of her left hand, and made to put it in the panel. To her astonishment, a keyhole opened in the panel, and her key fit and turned and the door opened. Gray blinked, then hurried the other Pearl in and hopped in herself. This shuttle was nowhere near new enough to have driver-controlled window tinting, so she'd have to be careful. But then, this neighbourhood looked truly deserted, so maybe they'd get lucky. Gray flew down as many back alleys as she could on her way to the old shipyard. When she zipped under the door, she was puzzled to see it being held open by a spade, instead of the usual large statue. She saw the flashes of battle, and skirted it carefully, high up - thank the Diamonds this shuttle was at least quiet - and when she saw Red Topaz's gem fall to the ground, she landed on the other side of a larger ship and brought the little pink Pearl with her as she approached the group. They made it within earshot just as Rose Quartz was mentioned. Gray frowned deeply. This had gone from disobedience to all-out rebellion awfully fast.
"Wait." Rita said excitedly, "If you know Rose Quartz do you know her Pearl?" Sure she could be terrified at the thought she had somehow managed to find herself in the presence of rebels but that Pearl was too amazing to ignore.
Smoke didn't say anything, but she perked up at the mention of that incredible Pearl. They'd managed to end up with someone who (maybe) knew her? That was amazing! She wondered, briefly, if this meant that they were part of the rebellion, but shut it down. That sort of thing could come later, once everyone was safe.
Gold glanced up from the ground as Smoke and Baroque Pearl walked over, and she couldn't help herself when she saw the pink pearl--her jaw dropped and her eyes widened in shock. The pink Pearl had...no...arms?? Gold had never seen such a thing before, and she couldn't fathom why this could be. Or who the two Pearls were, for that matter. So she turned to Lavender and asked, "Who are they?" as she pointed to the two Pearls who'd walked up to the group.
Smoke turned to look at the newcomers. "Gray, you're here! I'm glad. And who's your friend?" Smoke had to wonder about the new addition's lack of arms. Normally a Pearl with that sort of flaw would have been crushed, unless... But no one would intentionally request something like that, would they? There were limits to how absurd a Pearl request could get, weren't there?
"Oh that's Gray Pearl and... Uh... Gray? W-who is that?" Oh stars. She wasn't sure how to react. Weren't Pearls that couldn't materialize their limbs completely shattered immediately normally?
Gray nodded at Smoke and Lavender. "I'm glad to see you two are safe. You as well, Rita." She looked at the yellow Pearl. "I am Gray Pearl. You look like a Gold Pearl to me - how did you become involved with us?" Turning to the little pink Pearl, she said, "This is ... a Pearl. I don't know if she has a further designation. She said was designed like this by her mistress - a Coral if I remember correctly." She turned back to the larger group. "I ... " She took a slow breath. Up until a while ago her only crime was participating in an unauthorized fusion. That was no longer the case, and she suspected it would be best to share this with her compatriots. "I crashed Onyx's shuttle into Coral's house. When I woke up, I found I had knocked over her ... display case. I didn't think it would be right to leave her behind." "Oh," she added, looking to the non-Pearl Gems, "speaking of Onyx, she disincorporated when we crashed." Gray fished Onyx's gem out of her belt and held it up. "I don't know how to contain gems. Can one of you do so?"
Gold gaped as Gray explained that the other Pearl had been deliberately made without arms and forced to be in a display case. She hadn't thought anyone would be that cruel, but...Diamonds. That was just....awful. Completely awful, horrible beyond words. What kind of Gem made a deliberately deformed Pearl and forced them to stand in a display case? Diamonds! Shaking herself a bit, she registered the rest of what Gray had said. Oh, fantastic, another renegade Pearl who'd deliberately done something wrong! Crashing their owner's car and poofing their owner, fantastic!! Sighing, Gold explained, "My owner, Amber, went after the rest of everyone here, and I got in the way, and she poofed me, and then she ran off, so one of the other non-Pearl Gems picked me up and took me with everyone else. And then...and then Hematite crushed Amber...." Her face fell as she mentioned this, suddenly reminded that she didn't have an owner anymore, and was now suddenly being forced to be independent. And with that, she shut up, and sat down on the ground and pulled her knees to her chest, struggling once again to comprehend the thought that she had to be independent now. Diamonds...she couldn't possibly do that, she wasn't good at anything, she wasn't good for anything, she...ugh! This was all her fault for getting in the way of Amber to begin with...
Carnelian saw Gold fold in on herself again and suspected it didn't have anything to do with the new arrivals. She was shocked too, but the armless Pearl seemed to be able to handle herself to some extent. She walked over to Gold and gently put a hand on her shoulder, ready to draw back if she reacted poorly.
Gold nearly jumped out of her skin when Carnelian touched her, and then without warning, burst into tears. The last shock of being touched had been enough to push her over the edge from scared and upset but keeping it in to outright sobbing. Diamonds, Amber always hated crying, and now it was like she couldn't stop crying! One half day without Amber and she was already a mess! How in the stars was she supposed to manage herself without Amber there??
Gray regarded Gold levelly. She had never had time for dramatics - a trait which, oddly enough, Onyx had not shared. "So your mistress disincorporated you and then abandoned you? She seems to have had about the same amount of care for you as Coral had for this Pearl." She looked back at the others. "Why were you talking about Rose Quartz? Is there a plan? We can't just hide in this shipyard, there are too many of us."
Carnelian withdrew her hand immediately when the other Gem burst into tears. "I-I'm so sorry! Do you not want anyone to touch you?"
Gold sniffled and tried to stop crying, scrubbing at her eyes until the tears finally stopped, at which point she turned to answer Carnelian. "N-no, oh, stars, I, um, it's fine! It's just--I--you're a higher rank Gem and it was a little shocking, and I, um, I'm sorry!" Gold exclaimed. Then she registered what Gray had said, and tensed. She turned to look at Gray. "Excuse me, but Amber was fine, and it was entirely my fault!" How dare Gray suggest that Amber was supposed to care about her--she was just a Pearl! Pearls didn't exist to be cared about, Amber was just behaving as was normal.
Gray looked back at Gold, unbothered. "You didn't answer my other question. Why did you get in her way in the first place?" She had other fallacies she wanted to point out in Gold's statements, but she had the feeling that unless she went one point at a time, Gold would get derailed awfully quickly.
Carnelian smiled. "I'm not much higher in rank than a Pearl. And I promise that none of this is your fault."
