Pearl sighed with a blindfold over her eyes that prevented her from seeing her surroundings while she was guided by an energetic Nora. She did not know how she let herself be talked into this, but in the end, it was what it was; at least she was not next to that... human who got on her nerves so much with that attitude and deliberate actions, let alone how he possessed powers.
Despite not being able to see at the moment, she could tell that the place they were heading to seemed peaceful, if the lull of the wind along with the smell of fresh grass were any indicator, but Pearl could no longer stay with the doubt, so she asked.
"Where are we go—" she started to speak but was interrupted by the energetic voice of Nora at her side, who quickly removed the blindfold.
"We have reached our destination" she said while Pearl quickly adjusted to the daylight. "The barn" she finished as she stepped further in front of where she was, spreading her arms pleasantly.
And they were not alone there. Greg was in a chair next to his van, which had a large cloth spread out where large metal parts were seen half-disassembled and scattered like strangely clean junk next to a large conical frame of riveted metal held by several metal beams. Next to Nora was a large chalkboard with what looked like some simplified diagrams of what seemed to be a type of ship? Filled with some equally simplified formulas regarding some fluid mechanics and angles? Next to the chalkboard, a table stretched out with several dozen hardware tools, from the largest wrenches to the truly fine drill bits or punches thinner in size than she could see.
Pearl really did not know what she was looking at, so she had to ask, although she had a vague, very vague idea of it all.
"What is all this?" she finished, a bit disconcerted, while Nora pointed her hand toward the chalkboard with a joyful look as she explained.
"We are building a spaceship" Nora said while closing her eyes in a truly brief smile, and Pearl had to dislocate her mind at the absurdity of what Nora had just said, as if it were the most serious nonsense in the world, so she questioned again.
"Wh—" she tried to say, but Nora responded again before she could even properly formulate her sentence.
"We are building a spaceship" she said with the same tone and joyful smile before continuing with what she was saying, and Pearl almost sighed by mere reflex even though as a gem she did not really require it. "And we hope that you, one of the smartest gems I know, would help us with that task." Well, now was the moment when she would have given a sincere answer to Nora where she kindly refused, but she could not help saying "Nor—Of course... it would be a pleasure to help you" unconsciously as she saw how Nora seemed to really want her to accept that, and for a moment she saw the form of Rose Quartz superimposed on Nora herself, which made her almost subconsciously say yes to anything she asked of her.
Pearl sighed again, already losing count, as she nodded and looked at the diagrams on the chalkboard. Strangely, to her surprise, they were actually functional despite being clearly summarized without any form that supported how they worked. She looked at them for a moment until she was pulled away by the voice of someone she did NOT want to hear.
"Hey Nora, where do I leave this plane turbine?" said the clearly masculine voice that could only belong to one person, someone she knew very well. She turned slowly to see him there, comically holding a turbine from what could have been a commercial airplane over his shoulder, while Nora was at his side indicating where to leave the object that clearly weighed several tons next to the half-finished conical structure she saw before.
Nora looked at her while she stood there as if paralyzed watching them. Then she gave her that innocent tilt of the head, which made her return to reality, taking a step back almost by mere instinct, wanting to leave the place, but that same look from Nora was enough so that she could not flee.
"I hope it does not bother you too much that I asked Adrian for help with this" Nora said while she was a bit unsure how to keep talking to her, and she did not doubt that her face at this moment was an indecorous expression improper of her person. "But he was one of the few people who could help us with the construction of the ship" Nora finished while waiting for her answer.
She almost sighed, an almost that she was very tempted to make a reality but contained while giving an affirmative answer to Nora, taking on the maternal role she had taken so much since it had been her turn to care for her, but she knew it was not entirely convincing because of the overflowing frustration in her voice.
"It will not be a problem" she said while one of her hands clenched from the strength she was applying due to the contained frustration. Nora seemed to inspect her for a moment before nodding.
...
Adrian looked with a raised eyebrow as Pearl moved away from him as if she had received the touch of The Grandfather on him, every damn time she passed his side to place something or simply every time he added more formulas to the design on the chalkboard.
Formulas that she took the trouble to correct without taking into account the properties of the metal they were using for the ship's chassis, something that got on his nerves a bit enough to annoy him, but not enough for him to do anything other than snort.
He even tried to tell her that, but as soon as he approached, she fled from him like a soul claimed by the chaos gods. So, at a stalemate where he had to correct everything because even leaving a damn written note on the chalkboard was answered with a witty phrase elegant enough to pass for constructive criticism when in the end it was an overly well-written passive-aggressive note.
Well, within the first minute of seeing how this was unfolding, he could notice that this was only Nora's stratagem to resolve the problems between them. You know, he applauded how his girlfriend learned from the subtle tricks of manipulation, but she still needed to learn to be three steps ahead of others because, plot twist, he was using this scenario to complete his own stratagem to solve the problem with Pearl—one somewhat different from what Nora could devise by pretending they were living together on this project. No, no, what he had planned was something that would not only get directly into the problem between Pearl and him, but also with the source of the abandonment problems, low self-esteem, and other things she had. This scenario planned by his lovely girlfriend would only accelerate things for him.
Now the million-dollar question: how to provoke a situation where Pearl gets angry, so he can tell her his truths once and for all without appearing like the villain of the story and without making her break like the fragile crystal her true body and apparently real will are made of.
Then I thought about it and realized there was no easy way to do what I was going to do, so to hell with it, let us play the same villain role they are pigeonholing me into; if that serves to solve it, so be it.
...
Pearl contracted her face into an indecorous expression of anger and annoyance as she watched that... human kiss Nora, wrapping her in an embrace where he directed his gaze at her those eyes black as the void mocking her again. But she could not afford to make a scene more than she was already doing by letting her expressions be seen by Greg, who only drank more deeply from his beer as if he expected something more to happen than watching his daughter's love life.
And the situation went on and on. It was not enough that she was correcting the idiot's mistakes on the ship's formulas on the chalkboard over and over again, but he also had the nerve to tell her that the alloy they were using was calculated in such a strange way. Fine, she had to grudgingly correct herself, not without reprimanding him for not warning her about that from the start, but doing so while being as neat as she could be, for she would not stoop to his level to please him, only for him to respond with the same distorted grace of polite words to end with a "womp womp," leaving his lack of sincerity on display.
No, that was not the worst of the situations presented to her this day. Seeing the displays of affection between those two reminded her more and more of times when Rose still walked beside her. Seeing how in moments they lived together with those smiles on their faces, how Nora looks at him the same way Rose looked at Greg, how he returned the gaze, not just limiting himself to looking at her but touching her as if she were a flower a sea of small flirtations that made Pearl's mind reel, wanting to leave the place but staying because Nora would return to her to see how she was, just like her being so considerate but without realizing the harm it did to her.
But this last action of Adrian's was what broke Pearl's patience. Seeing how that black-eyed gaze widened, mocking her; seeing how his hand contracted in an obscene gesture directed at her while he hugged Nora as the perfect invitation to a mockery, mocking her, being in human terms a damn stone in her shoe.
Pearl was finished putting up with all this. Her grimace became increasingly noticeable as she saw them separate. Adrian approached her to place another of the many refurbished pieces of machinery before looking back at the chalkboard, where there was nothing but formulas and notes of them insulting each other.
"So you are just going to resign yourself there?" he said while still looking at the chalkboard before looking at her... disdainfully? At her? HIM SAYING THAT TO HER?! Her hand contracted by pure instinct, her gem glowed while the human... no, the scum he had at his side continued with his rant with his eyes closed while he turned his back to her to approach the chalkboard. "Really, this flow problem is not that difficult; where is the Pearl who was making corrections to everything?" he said before realizing that a spear was piercing through his stomach.
Pearl came out of her stupor as she saw what was in front of her. The body of that damn human... bleeding a red-amber liquid like burning metal, staining the white and neat color of his clothes. She released her hand from the spear, rationalizing what had just happened as if time had become eternal with Nora's scream running through her mind.
But the worst was that look she was receiving from him. Without any logic, he was still with his back turned, but she saw his gaze fixed on her as if he were facing her, digging into her, judging her actions. She closed her eyes so as not to see that look anymore as she fell onto the grass, but it did not matter how much she closed her eyes, she could still see him; it did not matter how much she looked away, he was still there, bleeding with the spear still piercing him. Nora almost ran to his side, but a couple of words were enough for her run to stop right there.
"I am fine, but it is time to have a serious talk with Pearl"
Adrian grabbed the shaft of the spear with a hand already stained with dripping blood. The sound of metal sliding through his own flesh and broken organs was a wet and gurgling noise that made Greg look away with a grimace, which was understandable, and Nora choked on a sob. Oh, my beautiful rose-colored crystal damsel, this is not something you have to see, but unfortunately, it is the only way I see to help her.
With a wet movement, Adrian pulled out the weapon and threw it to the ground, where Pearl's light weapon dissolved into particles before touching the grass charred by his blood.
He did not close the wound but let his white shirt be soaked in that boiling amber, allowing Pearl to see, through the tear, how his insides tried to recompose themselves without success under the pressure of his own will.
Pearl was on the ground, trembling, trying to escape his gaze a gaze that followed her even with her eyelids pressed shut. Reality had folded like one more game of his in his desires: for her, there was no "back" or "sides," only his bleeding torso in every direction she tried to look.
"Tell me ~oh maiden of that great beautiful rebel rose" he exclaimed, doing his magic act just as he had done with every gem that required it so far, like a rehearsed and melodramatic act while the blood spilled with his movements worthy of a bad stage play.
"Do you think you are the only one who suffers?" he spoke naturally before continuing. "Oh maiden, tell me, are you the only one who mourns her loss? Oh maiden, tell me, are your tears of pain the only ones that matter? Oh maiden, tell me, are you the only one who has felt pain?" he exclaimed while his hand extended outward, throwing his blood like molten metal.
He pointed with a sharp gesture toward her shadow on the grass. She looked at her own shadow like a black sea, silhouettes forming like a rehearsed theater under that so alien voice. She could only look at the shadows while the tears spilled.
"Oh the lovers, oh the ice seer and oh her fire knight carrying both as one with the weight of the rebellion's fate" her shadow widened into the shape of Garnet; she saw how she broke, how she had to stay together, how she had to be the tough and strong companion while suddenly pretending to be a leader. "Oh, how cruel the fate of the lovers made by a lie, is it not, maiden?"
Pearl tried to look away but she could not, not anymore, for under his gaze she could not flee for any longer. Nora's gaze shifted while her words were trapped in her throat while Adrian simply put his index finger between his lips in the clear sign of silence. Greg looked more deeply at the beer he had in his hands, but the tremor in his hands was obvious.
"Oh child of the earth, oh failed warrior, oh she who hates who she is for she only sees in herself her defects while the maiden rejoices in her perfection" the shadow changed, showing Amethyst this time, seeing how she shrank before Pearl's actions when she criticized her but internally paled, asking how defective she was. "Oh, how cruel the fate of one who only sees her defects highlighted by others and not her virtues."
Pearl felt the weight of every word, every criticism, as if she herself were the one affected, burning in anguish; more tears spilled down her face. The expression of Nora, unable to move or speak, was what hurt me most seeing how, despite everything, she was there. Greg took another swig as if a single beer would help him lose himself from all this.
"~Oh starlight, oh sprout of rebellion, oh beautiful lady of the stars, trying to fill the place of the rose that withered" he spoke, this time creating the form of Nora who could only close her eyes before everything. Adrian lowered his gaze toward her, becoming more serious. "Oh little light in the sea of the cosmos, guiding with your speech the ice seer, giving courage to the fire knight, showing her own virtues to the failed warrior, that light produced by the fall of the rose that the maiden longed for so much."
Silence. Pearl could not maintain her gaze nor did she want to, but the shadow returned to her, over and over again like a serpent of infinite darkness. Nora almost screamed, but Adrian's gaze, so peaceful and as firm as metal, calmed her with the knot in her throat.
"Oh, the bard of the starlight, he who gave his youth for a love that consumed him until leaving him only as a mere chorus of what he was," the shadow changed to show the figure of Greg, carrying boxes, always smiling at Nora despite the fatigue, always being the support that no one else knew how to give, while thinking of his wife over and over again-how the love left, how it filled with the ever-present worry for his daughter. "Oh bard of the stars, he who without powers or glory, was capable of loving the Rose of the rebellion and staying here to pick up the petals when she withered."
Pearl saw the shadow change, over and over again, while the present Greg took a big sip of the beer that should have run out long ago, but what did logic matter to the being that was still bleeding. Nora could only look at her father with bitterness like one who does not want to see reality but even so like one who accepted it.
"Even me!" he let out a dry laugh that made him spit a bit of that amber fluid before continuing with the theater act.
"~Oh platinum wizard, oh power in exchange for what makes us mortal, oh cruel fate that gave him the choice of his memories or continuing" he spoke while his extended hand stretched into a larger, empty, and fluttering shadow. "Oh being whose name is false, or mere imitation of a person, oh piece of shattered platinum" the shadow enveloped her.
She felt she could not remember anything, that she loved a lady in pink, she did not know why until everything flowed and she felt fear—fear of being like what she had in front of her, with a wide smile.
Nora remained in silence while Adrian spoke, adding another piece to the puzzle he was. Greg was sprawled out looking at the sky, no longer caring about anything; for an instant, the world was as real as the script of a play.
"Oh maiden of suffering, oh maiden, just because you suffer does not mean you have a right to anything in this world; oh maiden, remember it, you do not have the right to make others suffer as you do. Oh maiden of suffering, you are not special because of your pain; oh maiden, what a cruel fate you have been given; oh maiden, you are only a coward who fears admitting the spear of truth: that the pink revolutionary did not love you as you wanted."
Adrian recited his script like a madman while his eyes changed to that platinum tone, just like metal from the stars, just like the gaze of the nameless lord of eras, just like the manipulator behind the curtain, such the hypocrisy of blood-stained metal.
"Oh maiden of heartbreaks, you had millennia to accept it; oh maiden, how cruel is the fate you have been given. Oh maiden, you had so much time, the time the starlight girl has been in this world, to mature and be something more than a shadow. Oh maiden, what a cruel fate you chose. Oh maiden who drowned in false virtues, how cruel is fate."
The song ended like the truths told by a cruel and kind father. Oh, truths hurt; oh, but sweet lies always make the truth bitterer than it should have been. Oh, madness of God.
Adrian extended a hand and, with a flash of distorted reality, forced Pearl to open her eyes, fixing them on the open wound. Extending his bleeding hand in front of everyone, a request for her, a choice.
"Look at me and tell me: Are you going to continue being this broken and pathetic crystal that only reflects a color that is not its own? Or would you change to be a gem that shines on its own?".
Adrian's hand dripped warm blood like a seal waiting to be created. Pearl, with eyes full of sadness—not her own, but the sadness of understanding that she was not the only one who suffers. Then, in an act that would be written in destiny, the maiden of suffering took the hand of the platinum wizard, accepting the first step toward change.