For Her

The Makers

Rose swung her sword but the gem kept retreating. She grew more and more angry until she eventually poofed it. Immediately, she began fighting another fused gem made of two Jades. It calmly swiped the air with a scythe, missing Rose again and again. Rose drew her shield and slammed the scythe into the gem. It poofed and two gems fell. Garnet left her own fight to bubble the three gems that Rose had slain. She had to immediately return to fighting as gems attacked her, screaming, "Sick," and "Insane."

Pearl joined them and fought two of the gems off of Garnet, who was being swallowed by a mob. Rose scanned the battlefield, when one of the Crystal Gems' newest recruits caught her eye. She had just become a cloud and her attacker grabbed her gem out of the air. Rose screamed. The two weren't close or anything. Rose just couldn't stand her failure costing other gems their lives.

Her scream drew on a crowd of attacking gems. Garnet and Rose were covered and Pearl was hardly noticed. Though this was an advantage, as Pearl could easily jab the attackers from behind, Pearl couldn't help but feel left out.

By the end of the battle, Pearl and Ruby were poofed and all the Crystal Gems had escaped by warp, leaving Homeworld no choice but to stop fighting. Rose brought them to a cave she'd discovered on the island. It rained for one week. Ruby came back. It was humid and sunny for one week. Pearl came back.

Once Garnet was together again and Pearl had been informed of their location and timeframe, Pearl asked what she'd wondered on the battlefield.

"Why weren't they attacking me the same way they were attacking you?"

Garnet and Rose shared a look.

"Well," Rose said cautiously, "I am the leader of the rebellion, and Garnet is unnatural in their eyes."

"I'm unnatural, too! Pearls are supposed to belong to other gems!"

"I think what the Homeworld fighters might think," Garnet said, "is that you belong to Rose Quartz."

"What?!"

"Pearl, it makes sense. I understand that it is your choice to serve me but it's coincidentally also what you were made to do."

"I wasn't made to fight!"

"You were made to serve. Even if half of the Pearl's job description is 'be a pretty little object,' the other half is still 'serve,'" Rose explained.

"And Rose Quartz gems are meant to fight, so aren't you basically filling in your job description?" Pearl rhetorically argued.

"Quartzes are supposed to conquer, not rebel." Pearl became frustrated.

"Should I just stop doing what you say, then?" She said sassily.

"Pearl, we're already insurgents. We don't need you to rebel against our rebellion," Rose said calmly. There was a pause for a few moments.

"When you say, 'my Pearl,' you don't mean it lik–"

"Of course not, my Pearl." That didn't seem to put Pearl's mind at ease one bit. She sat in the dirt on the island with a distressed expression that she couldn't control. "What can I do?" Rose asked.

Pearl didn't answer. Instead, she initiated an experiment. She found the warp deep in the forest of the island and hid in the temple which luckily wasn't being surveilled. She entered her room and stayed there until she heard the screams of war begin again. Once she did, she exited her room and warped to the island. It was empty. She stayed there until it was no longer empty. She heard the warp pad activate and then Rose calling her name. Rose eventually got far enough away from the warp pad that Pearl used it without Rose hearing her. She warped to a mountain she'd taken a liking to, and sat in the snow beside the warp and waited for Rose to find her. Two days later, she did.

"Pearl!" Rose barked.

"Rose?"

"What do you think you're doing?! There's a war to fight and I've been looking for you for the past three days!"

"Why?"

"Why have I been looking for you?"

"Yes."

"Because you've been missing! You can't just leave out of nowhere without telling me!" Rose reprimanded, her volume raising.

"Yes I can. I'm a Crystal Gem. I'm free."

"We're all free, Pearl, that's what we're trying to tell Homeworld."

"But you don't OWN me," Pearl looked up, irritated that Rose didn't understand what she'd just done.

"Of course I don't."

"Yet you're here ordering me to come back and fight your war."

"You care about it, don't you? The war? Being my knight?"

"Not as much as I care about freedom. It took me so long to realize I didn't need a master. And now I've made you my new master. All over again, I'm becoming what the makers wanted me to be. It's so hard to escape it. You must know."

"What do you mean?"

"You're so gentle. Quartzes aren't gentle. They're frightening and powerful. You raise flowers like the humans raise their children. You escaped your intention so easily."

"Then why did I start a war?" Rose sat beside Pearl, who was clearly uncomfortable with Rose being close to her at that time. "It's for a different cause, I suppose, but I'm still the reason for hundreds of deaths like any other Quartz. Even more, really."

"Does it feel good?" Pearl asked.

"Being responsible for death?"

"Being the one in power," Pearl corrected.

"Yes."

"It doesn't feel good to be out of power. Even if it's our purpose. In all my time on Homeworld, I never met a happy Pearl. It's occurred to many to rebel, but we're mostly too weak. I think the makers allowed us to imagine rebellion to torture us."

"That's horrible."

"I often wonder how you thought up the rebellion."

"I came to Earth to destroy it, and the humans asked me why. I couldn't answer them, so I realized there was no reason."

"How simple. I get why you're so interested in them, then. Humans changed everything." Neither of them spoke for awhile.

"If we lose the current battle, they're going to activate the Kindergarten," Rose mentioned. Pearl jumped up, and they both warped back and won that battle. Unfortunately, Homeworld doesn't keep their promises. That night, the Kindergarten was activated.