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The perimeter check around the rebel base always seemed so much longer when the weather was bad, and storms like this were by far the worst. The rain alone was annoying enough – cold, wet, and rendering everything around it soggy and more prone to creating a mess than usual. It decreased visibility too, making the usually colorful landscape appear murky and gray.
But it didn’t stop there.
No, this annoying Earth phenomenon occasionally came with extra surprises – loud noises and blinding flashes of light that wore on Pearl’s already frayed nerves, causing her to react as if she were on the field of battle.
“Oh Pearl, there’s no danger!” Rose had laughed the first time she witnessed this. “Those sounds come from the sky, they can’t hurt you.”
While the reassurance had been appreciated, it’d also served to make Pearl feel silly, especially for acting so ridiculous in front of Rose. She was supposed to be a warrior! Not some scared little Gem who acted like she was made yesterday!
Crash!
With a small yelp, Pearl tensed, moving into a fighting stance almost without thinking. As soon as she realized what had happened though, she glared up at the sky. It was only thunder, and she’d completely over-reacted to it. At least Rose didn’t see her this time.
“Pearl.”
The soft voice that usually brought her such comfort came as a very unpleasant surprise this time, and she could feel her cheeks begin to flush a pale blue. Of course, of course Rose was there.
“R-Rose!” Pearl stammered, whirling around and desperately trying to save face. “What are you doing here?” She couldn’t imagine why the rebellion’s leader would be off on an unnecessary walk when the weather was this dreadful. Did Rose think she was incapable of handling it herself…because of the storm?
“Oh, I just thought I’d join you today. Garnet has everything under control back at the base, and I rarely get to enjoy the weather when it’s like this.”
Pearl stared back at the taller Gem, completely confounded by her words. On a warm sunny day she could understand such a desire, but this? Rose’s pink curls were already sagging bit under the weight of the water pouring down from the sky, and yet there she stood, smiling as if there were no place she’d rather be.
“Would you mind if I walked with you?”
“Oh, no of course not, please…”
Spending time with Rose was always a welcome thing for Pearl, but as they continued on side by side, she couldn’t’ stop glancing up at the Quartz. The rain was coming down in sheets now, drowning out all other noise aside from the thunder that clapped after every other flash from the sky. But Rose just kept smiling through it all, glancing around as if she were seeing something Pearl could not. What did she enjoy about this?!
“Ack…!”
Pearl had been so distracted by Rose that she stepped right into a deep puddle of water, her foot sinking down into the mud at the bottom with a sickening squelch. With an absolutely revolted expression, she hastily dipped her foot back into the water of the puddle to try and clean it off, and in the process splashed some of that water towards Rose. The moment she realized this, Pearl’s eyes widened, and she turned anxiously toward her companion.
“Rose! I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to–”
Pearl stopped mid-sentence, interrupted by that soft, musical laugh.
“It’s fine Pearl, this is why I came along.”
Pearl stared, even more puzzled than before, momentarily at a loss for words as the Quartz smiled back at her. After a moment or two though, Pearl’s bewilderment changed to annoyance, finally causing her to blurt out what she’d been wondering this whole time.
“This?! What about this appeals to you? It’s raining Rose, it’s cold and wet and disgusting, why would you ever want to be here? You can barely see a thing when it’s like this, I can barely hear you over the rain! It’s one of the worst–”
This time she was cut off not by Rose’s laugh, but by a gentle hand on her shoulder. The larger Gem smiled down at her patiently, a look that made it impossible for Pearl to stay upset for long. In fact, she suddenly felt embarrassed about her little outburst.
“I’m…I’m sorry I–“
“No. There’s no need to apologize.” A large pink hand moved down to one of Pearl’s own pale ones, dwarfing it as she took hold. “Pearl, have you ever taken time to listen to the rain?”
“Listen?” Pearl repeated, unsure of what this was supposed to mean. Rain sounded like exactly what it was, water falling from the sky. What was there to listen to?
“Close your eyes” Rose instructed. “Take a moment to focus on the sounds around you.”
Pearl did as she was told. The rain had calmed a bit now, though it was still falling steadily. The thunder was largely a distant rumble, melding with the sound of the rain itself almost perfectly. Actually, the sound of the rain was almost relaxing when taken in isolation from its source. A distant clap of thunder did make Pearl tense a bit again, but then she felt Rose give her hand a small squeeze.
“It’s just a crescendo.”
Pearl’s eyes flew open at these words, looking up at Rose with complete confusion. Was she talking about music? Song and dance were two things Pearl knew something about even before she met Rose, but why was she bringing it up now? As if reading her mind, Rose let out another soft laugh, and gestured around them.
“Think of it like a song, a melody the planet is singing to all its inhabitants,” she explained.
Pearl blinked. “But it’s not! Music isn’t just some collection of noises produced by random events on a planet, it’s controlled, methodical…”
“Is this not methodical? Listen again to thunder. It sounds in time with the light from the sky, all before cycling back to the sound of the rain falling on the planet’s surface. It’s not traditional, but it definitely has a pattern.”
She was right. Although it shifted and changed slightly with each round (just like everything else on this planet), there was some element of timing to how each sound entered and exited the mix.
“But…music isn’t something you can just find! It has a purpose, it’s created and played for a reason! You don’t just come across it, you make it, you dance to it…!”
“Then let’s dance!” Rose interjected rather enthusiastically. Although she was already hand in hand with Pearl, the Quartz didn’t move without getting a response first.
Pearl hesitated.
She loved to dance, there was no question about that, but dancing with Rose? It wasn’t something she’d done for a while, not since they’d tried (and failed) to fuse shortly after meeting Garnet. She’d been foolish to even think a Pearl could fuse with a Gem like Rose Quartz, but seeing a fusion of a Ruby and a Sapphire made her thing, just maybe…
Of course, her effort was ultimately in vain, no matter how perfect her technique was, no matter how much effort she put into getting it exactly right. She was forced to face the reality that there were some things she just couldn’t do, even if Rose made her forget that sometimes.
“Rose…” Pearl began slowly, averting her gaze. “I can’t–”
“You can dance beautifully” she assured, not even letting her finish the thought. Rose knew that too, didn’t she? She knew what was on her mind, what was holding her back. But maybe…maybe she was alright with that. Maybe she did just want to dance. Lips finally curling into a small smile, Pearl nodded, and the two stepped into position.
It was a little easier to see now, because despite the storm continuing on, a small bit of sunshine was peeking through the clouds, falling onto Rose like a spotlight. It was fitting really – it made her stand out even more against the otherwise dreary lighting being cast on everything. With renewed eagerness, Pearl spun towards her, eager to join her leader in the spotlight for just a little while. But just as she was about to meet her partner’s embrace, another clap of thunder caused her to misstep, plunging her foot into a puddle again and losing her balance entirely. Pearl felt herself falling, and closed her eyes, bracing for impact on the soggy ground.
But it never came.
Instead, she fell into Rose’s arms, and immediately her eyes opened again. She had a brief view of Rose’s radiant smile before her attention was caught by a small wave of water she’d kicked up following close behind. As the spray entered their spotlight though, Pearl was completely caught off-guard by what she saw.
The light reflected off the otherwise clear liquid in an unusual, almost iridescent way. It was hard to pinpoint exactly what colors she was seeing too; one minute the spectrum was vivid and varied enough to rival a Bismuth, and the next, a simpler but equally beautiful palette of pastels. It continued to change every moment it moved, up and until what little water didn’t fall on them exited the spotlight and fell back to the ground, dull and gray again. Despite being drenched as a result of her own clumsiness (something that usually would have frustrated her to no end), Pearl couldn’t help but stare in awe, first at the spot where the water had been, and then up at Rose. The whole thing lasted no more than a few seconds, but in those moments, time almost seemed to have slowed.
Pearl grinned.
With a sweeping movement, Pearl raised a leg high above her head, and using their still connected hands for support, spun back out again into an ornate, precarious pirouette. Rose didn’t miss a beat, keeping in time with her partner’s movements as if the whole thing had been rehearsed from the start. Enchanted by the brief rainbow of color she’d just witnessed, Pearl actively aimed for the puddles when her feet touched the ground, something Rose didn’t seem to mind in the slightest. The more they danced, the more the sounds around them really did start to sound like music, the distant claps of thunder and brief flashes of lightning matching up with each step. At one point Pearl could hear not only Rose’s giggle, but her own laugh joining the symphony as the two soaked Gems swirled and twirled around each other, completely surrounded by a glistening, watery wall of light.
After coming up from one of the many dips, the Gem suddenly began to feel a little unsteady on her feet. She found this odd, but when she was surrounded by such a beautiful rainbow of colors, it was difficult to feel overly anxious. What did it matter if she made a mistake anyway? There was no one else around but them.
After a wobbly save, she spun to face her partner again, but was met with empty space. As odd and unsettling as this should have been, her attention was caught by something even stranger: the colors hadn’t fallen back down this time. Since the rainbows came from the light reflecting off the water kicked up during the dance, any prolonged pause caused it to come to a standstill again. But now, it seemed to just continue on without them, dancing and flowing like it had a mind of its own. She reached out to touch the waves billowing by, almost to reassure herself that this was real, but they didn’t feel wet, nor cold. They felt soft.
And that wasn’t her hand either.
The rainbow colors billowing around her weren’t coming from water, it was her own hair billowing in the wind! But how was that possible? Her hair didn’t look anything like this, it was pink! Not to mention it was short and…no it was long…curly…what? How could she not decide what her own hair looked like?
Slowly, her eyes moved down to her body, only to find that it wasn’t her body. It wasn’t like anything she’d ever seen before. And now that she was focusing on the things around her more attentively, she realized that her entire field of vision was somehow off too. It was wider, more expansive, a whole new perspective entirely. Had the ground always been so far away…?
Curiosity overtaking everything else, the Gem took a few experimental steps forward. Confusion began to melt into intrigue, and finally, a rising excitement.
“We fused.”
The words left her own mouth as a sort of incredulous whisper, and suddenly everything else started to make sense. Things were different because she was taller, her hair was different because it wasn’t hers! She wasn’t Pearl anymore, nor was she Rose.
So who was she?
The Gem stepped forward, moving her form completely into the spotlight that had since grown a bit as the sun peeked through the clouds. She was large like a Quartz, but she’d never seen a Quartz that looked quite like this before. Her hair reflected the light just as the rainwater had, a rainbow of color shifting and changing every second.
“Rainbow Quartz.”
The fusion stepped forward to look into a puddle at her own reflection. She had two sets of eyes now (which probably further explained the disorientation), and a form that was beyond words. The Gem staring back at her was one of the most beautiful things she’d ever laid eyes on, and she was a part of it. Both sets of eyes blinked, first individually, and then in unison. A wide grin spread across her face.
“We fused.”