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“Welcome to Earth,” a calm, female voice said over the speakers.
“If this is your first visit, please feel free to look over the informative pamphlets in front of you. There’s a whole lot about Earth you don’t know! Such as, did you know that bats sleep during the day and search for food during the night? Wow!”
“Heh, they change the fun fact every time,” a Jasper pointed out to the Topaz sitting next to her, “I wonder what the other ones are.”
“What’s sleep?” the Zircon asked in return.
The Gems were on one of many ships heading for Earth since it was opened up for Homeworld Gems of all kinds to escape the harsh conditions of the Empire. An informative video played on each one before reaching Earth, to prepare Gems for what was to come.
“On Earth, you can be whoever you want to be. While it is still ultimately under Homeworld’s jurisdiction, the ownership was passed from Pink Diamond to her son, Steven Quartz Universe, who believes that all Gems should have place where they can be themselves. So whoever you are, you’re good!”
“I hear he had to fight to keep that line in,” a Zircon whispered to another Zircon, “The propaganda ministry was very much against it.”
“If you’re planning on emigrating to Earth either permanently or semi-permanently, make sure to visit the appropriate information booths in the hangar bay of Pink Station One. Now please, prepare for docking.”
Pink Station One, formerly the Human Zoo and officially the Lars Barriga Memorial Space Station (a name which amused Steven to no end), was the first stop for Gems arriving on Earth since the ban was lifted.
Many of the former Zoo spaces were being converted into a museum about Pink Diamond, Rose Quartz and the Rebellion (though at the moment Pink’s chamber was the only room available to the public), but the main hangar bay had been converted into an central atrium, kind of like a train station. There were information booths lining one side of the hangar, labeled stuff like “Here to Stay?” “Just Visiting?” “Interested in History?” and “Need Help?”
Once the ship landed in the hangar, all the Gems got off at once. All except for one.
A Pearl, specifically a Black Pearl, was the last one left on board, hiding behind her seat the whole trip.
“Hey, you better get off, they’re about to start loading for the next trip,” an Amethyst Guard doing a routine search told her.
Black Pearl immediately got up and left, almost terrified of the Amethyst.
The Amethyst got out her communicator and said, “Hey, uh, this is Ames-8XG. We got a possible Code P in the hangar. She just left Transport 197A and appears to be lost.”
It was luck that Steven had been visiting the station that day, to check up on progress of the museum and see the members of the Famethyst who decided to stay stationed there. He heard 8XG’s call over the radio. A “Code P” was a term used by security to refer to Pearls fleeing their owners. Outside of the Crystal System, the Pearls would be taken back to said owners without question, but under Steven’s authority, they were to be handled with great care and respect.
Black Pearl found herself drowning in the crowd of the hangar bay. Not actually drowning of course, but the lights were too bright, the sounds were too loud, and she felt like she was losing whatever control she had left in her meager existence.
“Why did I do this? Why did I leave? Shards, I should have just stayed with Obsidian. She would be better than this?”
“Do you need any help?” Steven asked, tapping her on the shoulder.
He was wearing his hoodie, hood up, so no one would notice that it was him (or rather, everyone knew it was him, they just knew that the hoodie meant he didn’t want to be disturbed). Black Pearl immediately froze in his presence.
“M-my, uh…” she tried to say before Steven made the “shush” symbol with his finger over his lips.
“Come with me,” he said.
---
Steven led her into one of the former Zoo enclosures, which had its main lights turned down, only being lit by the moon through the big skylight up top.
“Can I get you anything?” Steven asked, “Is this better?”
Black Pearl felt comfortable enough to nod.
Bismuths had already begun stripping the enclosure of its grass and trees (only a select few enclosures would remain preserved after the conversion was over), but today was their day off so there wasn’t any work being done. The room was quiet and calm.
“Yeah, it’s pretty noisy out there,” Steven remarked, “In here it’s much better.”
Black Pearl still didn’t say anything.
“Have you been to Earth before?”
She shook her head.
“What brings you ‘round these parts, if you don’t mind me asking?”
Steven felt Black Pearl tense up.
“Hey, hey, you don’t have to say anything you don’t want to,” he reassured her.
Black Pearl summoned all the strength she had left and spoke, in a quiet, little voice.
“My Diamond, I...I want to be free…”
Steven sat down next to her on the fake grass.
“Don’t worry, we’ll take care of you.”
“I left everything behind… ” she started to sob, “I can’t go back…”
“Did you have friends?”
Black Pearl looked at him as if the word was the most alien thing in the universe.
“Well, you can make some on Earth. You can start a whole new life. There are other Pearls just like you who’ve done just that.”
“R-really?”
“Yeah! We’re gonna make sure you get taken care of.”
The smallest trace of a smile showed itself on Black Pearl’s face.
“I’ll be right back.”
Steven went over to a wall panel and spoke into it.
“Hey 8XA, it’s Steven. Could you send me Rhodonite and a Zircon with the paperwork for a Code P transfer? I’m in Enclosure 5. Thanks.”
---
“And you’re all set for resettlement,” Moon Zircon said as Black Pearl signed the last holo-form, “Welcome to Earth.”
“Thank you, My Diamond,” Black Pearl said, making the Diamond salute.
“Oh no,” Steven said with a chuckle, “We don’t do that around here. And it’s Steven.”
“Then...thank you, Steven.”
A small tear dripped down Black Pearl’s cheek as she was led away by Rhodonite and the Zircon. Steven couldn’t help but smile.
Steven knew it was hard for Pearls to get even this far. The road from servitude, to escape, to getting aboard an Earth transport, to actually adjusting to Earth was a long and difficult process. Despite the Diamonds being on good terms with him, they still made it hard for Pearls to find their freedom. The news about Earth, despite being fairly public, was still kept away from Pearls at every turn.
Pearls had to have a whole separate process of emigrating to Earth, purely because of the system Homeworld built for them. Pearls didn’t have identification, for example. While Gems like Amethysts and Rubies had their Kindergarten ID Suffixes, Pearls were only identified by who owned them, and when they fled their owners, well, getting them set up on their own was tricky.
He brought it up to Pearl on his next trip to Homeworld.
“I just don’t know what to do for them,” he told her, “I wish I could just…”
“Free all of them?”
“...Yeah.”
Pearl sat down next to Steven. They were in Steven’s (formerly Pink’s) private room on the Leg Ship. Peridot was flying the ship in her absence.
“I wish it were that easy,” Pearl said, “But I also almost wish it were more difficult.”
“What?”
“Pearls aren’t exactly a cornerstone of Gem Society,” Pearl went on as she looked wistfully out the window, “We’re...trinkets. Fancy status symbols that nobody really needs but everyone wants. The Diamonds need Quartzes to guard them, they need Bismuths build for them. They’re the ones that make the galaxy go ‘round. Compared to freeing all of them, freeing us is a– what’s the phrase? Cake walk? –Sure, Gems are certainly going to be upset that Pearls no longer belong to them, but the Empire will go on without us. We’re just...not important.”
Steven wrapped Pearl in a hug.
“You’re pretty important to me.”
Pearl smiled. Steven always did know how to make people feel better.
“You know what the problem is?” Steven began.
“What?”
“Gems don’t have anywhere to go if they’re mistreated. There are probably, what, hundreds of Pearls all wanting to be free, but they don’t know what free is so they just stick with it. Only, like, one percent of that actually make an effort to escape, and even less than that make it Earth at all! I’ve been wanting to make change, but Blue and Yellow don’t listen! It’s like they’re-”
“Sabotaging you?” Pearl interrupted.
“Well, I wouldn’t go that far,” Steven replied, trying to brush it off.
“I think you should!” Pearl said as she stood up, “They’re deliberately trying to stop you from making changes. Isn’t that why you agreed to join them in the first place? To make changes?”
“Well I…”
Steven realized that what she was saying was right. Ever since he got in, the Diamonds were blocking every resolution he brought forward. He didn’t put it past them. After all, everyone had their biases. But in the two meetings he had with them so far, he fought them all he could on stuff like Kindergartens and fusions and they didn’t budge beyond letting Earth get set up as a safe haven for wayward Gems (which is what it had been for a while, now it was simply official). Steven himself just wasn’t enough.
That’s when he got an idea.
“...I can’t do it alone.”
---
“Sorry, only authorized Gems beyond this point.”
Steven was about to enter the Diamonds’ Public Declaration Room, Pearl in tow. Steven walked past the guard easily, but Pearl was stopped.
“She is authorized!” Steven defended, “I authorized it!”
“Oh, uh, sorry Pink- I mean, Steven. Didn’t know you were together.”
“It’s alright.”
Pearl was then allowed to enter the room, which was a huge, towering chamber, with the Diamonds’ thrones at the very bottom, seats for Elite Gems to sit just above them, and seats for lower-class Gems to sit all the way up in the nosebleed section. The upper seats had yet to be filled yet, but there were hundreds of common Gems waiting to get in and see Steven, and seats were given out on a first-come, first-serve basis (Steven was quite popular with the Gem public, as it turned out.)
Blue and Yellow then arrived and took their seats, their Pearls standing right next to them.
Steven’s throne was actually Pink Diamond’s old throne, but with a ladder added for him to climb up easier. A lawn chair sat atop the throne, for Steven to sit in comfortably. Pearl waited behind Steven’s throne, so the other Diamonds wouldn’t notice.
“Hello Steven, I hope you are well,” Blue Diamond said.
“I’m good. You?”
“Oh, well I guess I am fine.”
“Yellow, how about you?”
“Alright I suppose. I think it’s about time we get started.”
“About that,” Steven said, “I have someone here who I want to address the Authority.”
“Who?” Blue asked.
“...Pearl.”
“A Pearl? ” Yellow questioned, her eyes wide with surprise, “You cannot be serious.”
Lucky for him, Steven had read up on Gem history (or rather, Pearl, knowing Gem language, had read up on it and told him the necessary details).
“If a Diamond has a Gem whom they believe has important information to present to the Authority-”
“-said Gem may as long as the Authority rules in majority,” Yellow recited from memory, “Declaration 5173. I was there when it was signed 7,000 years ago.”
“And it doesn’t specify what kind of Gem can speak, does it?”
It didn’t. There weren’t any safeguards against lower class Gems addressing the chamber because at the time a Diamond even proposing such a thing was laughable. But these were different times indeed.
“Alright,” Yellow began, “let’s put it to a vote. All in favor of letting the Pearl speak?”
Steven’s hand defiantly shot up. Yellow’s remained firmly down. But Blue was hesitant.
Steven sensed this, and gave her his classic “puppy-dog” look.
“Oh, I can’t resist that face,” Blue muttered, putting her hand up.
“Yes! Two-thirds majority!” Steven shouted with excitement, “Best two out of three! 66.6-repeating percent! Woo!”
Blue couldn’t resist a snicker. Not even the Pearls could.
As Yellow sat further down in her seat, resigned to what was about to happen, Gems were allowed to enter the chambers. Today the seats were full-up, and included Gems from the Homeworld Press Corps, who were broadcasting the proceedings live to the entire Empire.
“Before we begin, Steven Universe has someone whom he would like to address the Authority,” Blue said, glancing over at Yellow.
“Yes,” Steven began, “I would like, uh... Pearl to speak. Pearl?”
Pearl stepped out from behind the throne and marched into the center of the room. She was at first nervous, but then she looked over at Steven, who gave her a thumbs up.
“Diamonds,” Pearl addressed the two towering figures, a confident smile stretching across her face.
“Elites, Agates, Sapphires, Gems of all kinds…Pearls...”
She paused for dramatic effect. She could tell Blue and Yellow Pearl were staring at her, along with all the other Pearls in the audience, waiting silently and desperately for what she was about to say.
“I am a Pearl. You know this. You know who I am. The Terrifying Renegade. You may think that I belonged to Pink Diamond, but I belong to nobody...
“And neither does anyone else.”
By the time Pearl was finished with her speech, some Elites in the audience had grabbed their Pearls and left. Some of the ones watching live on the holo-net had been forced to shut off the broadcast by their owners. But a good many more had seen it, and were inspired. In the days that followed, pirated recordings of Pearl’s speech made their way across the galaxy.
And that was how, for the first time in Gem History, a Pearl got to publicly address Homeworld.