Chapter Text
Everything was normal. The sounds of metal banging, wires being torn and pieces being heated and attached together were all that Petalite had seen, every day, for many years since she was created. It was all she knew and all she could wish for; what else was there, anyway? Differently from some other Gems (and she had only ever heard about them, she did not associate with that type), she preferred to live in the safety that was Homeworld's system than create a ruckus only to fail later. Pathetic.
Despite everything, she had always had a feeling inside of her that she deserved better. Better than being just another Petalite among hundreds, and being stuck on that same colony doing simple jobs like what she did every day. The other Petalites were what she could only describe as undignified and primitive, and she was yet to see one whose intellect matched hers. If only she could actually contact a superior and prove all her potential, what could she reach? High status, respect, admiration, a better rank... she knew that the Diamonds would deem her as a valuable ally to have around. Perhaps she would even be allowed to live in the palace, and give orders too!
"Hey, you! If you're going to stand still doing nothing, go do that somewhere else other than in my way!" another Petalite exclaimed from behind her, then quickly shoved her to the side and walked away.
Petalite stared down, at the equipment that had fallen from her hands to the ground, and glared at her comrade as she walked away. That kind of thing was exactly what she was talking about; all these others were too absorbed on their own head to actually realize how stupid they actually were. But honestly, Petalite did not blame them; there would be no intelligent people without dumb people like them. She did not blame them, but that didn't stop her from despising them.
"Stupid pebble," she murmured, crouching down to pick up everything.
After getting what she needed, Petalite walked over to one of the many tables spread around the place and dropped everything over it. However, before she could even start examining the pieces, a loud noise broke out; turning around, she was met with the other Petalites staring dumbfounded at the sky, some even having dropped the items they were carrying. Looking up, Petalite took sight of a huge structure coming down towards them all, slowly. A spaceship? It couldn't be anything from Homeworld, they would have taken the warp pad.
"What in the universe is that?" Petalite asked, walking away from the table, to where most of the others were.
"Oh... my... stars..." the one next to her whispered, clutching her face with her hands and staring cross eyed at the thing. "What's happening?! What's going to happen to us?!"
"Everyone, everyone, stay calm! No need to be afraid, it'll only make everything worse!" another Petalite, their Commander, yelled, jumping and raising her arms up on the air. "If any trouble starts, we can just request aid! And plus, we have a warp pad in case of any emergencies! So, let's not panic, and let's examine the situation first!"
The announcement didn't help as much, and soon there were Petalites screaming and crying about the end of the colony. As nervous as she felt, on the verge of a panic attack, Petalite managed to keep a calm facade, for whatever reason. She just felt that if she panicked, it would all feel worse.
The ship finally landed after seconds that felt like years, and then all of a sudden, all the Gems froze and silence reigned among them. Dust rose, temporarily blinding them, but they could still make out two figures getting out of the open door of the ship. Petalites were naturally small, and so, both figures were much taller than them, but one of them was a giant even if compared to a regular-sized Gem. Only after the vision was clear once again, the Petalites were able to make out the features of the two invaders.
"W-w-who a-are y-you and w-what are you d-doing h-here?!" the Commander yelled, her own body trembling.
"I guess something like this is what you'd expect from a colony full of Petalites," said the bulkier one, Chromite, ignoring the questions while looking around her.
"Don't forget your assignment. Focus." said the other Gem, Albite, blankly scanning all of them with her eyes. "Poof and bubble as many as you can, and send them back to the mother ship."
"Petalites... RETREAT!!!" the Commander shrieked in fear, and all the Petalites started running towards the warp pad at once.
"Ooh, I'm not going to let my prey escape so fast!" Chromite replied with a wicked smile on her face, summoning a double axe and throwing it on the warp pad, instantly breaking it.
The Commander stopped on her tracks and turned around, pure terror spread on her entire face.
"Th-they... they destroyed the warp pad!" she exclaimed, sweat falling from her face in large drops.
"And that's a preview of what I'm going to do to each one of you soon," Chromite said, seizing the cable of her weapon.
That was enough for chaos to spread around all of them. That same second, all the Gems started running in all directions, screaming and crying and begging, and Petalite could barely think straight with everything that was going on around her. All she could do was run, try to look for some place to hide and organize everything she needed to save herself; among all the confusion, she took sight of a boulder standing against a rock mountain and pushed her way towards it. There was a small space between the boulder and the wall, just enough for her to crawl into it, so she didn't even think and jumped into it. There were already many Petalites on that same spot, but there was still enough space for her.
After some time, she wasn't sure how much, everything became silent. It scared Petalite, the anticipation. She expected them to find them out at any moment now, and for every second they didn't, she was both grateful and terrified of the next one to come, and it was a vicious spiral. Was she having a panic attack? She wasn't sure. She looked around herself at the other Petalites, trying to get distracted. One of them was biting her own fingers in distress, another one was crying silently, being hugged by another who was whispering something to her; the Commander was there two, sitting down and glaring at the ground, with another Petalite by her side.
"We can't just sit here doing nothing. They won't leave any soon." said the Gem sitting next to the Commander.
"It's the best choice of action currently, so it's what we'll do. Stay safe until aid arrives." replied the Commander.
"But that makes no sense! How is aid going to come? They can't know what's going on here, and even if they did, the warp pad is broken and it'd take them a long time to arrive!"
"Way better than running out and getting ourselves killed or worse!"
Petalite peeked out. The two Gems were still patrolling the place, looking for more Petalites. Albite summoned her own weapon, a spear.
"Oh, no need for that, really," Chromite said, snickering. "Those Petalite Gems are made to be only annoying noisy brats. They can't fight to save their own lives."
At that exact moment, a Petalite ran away from her hiding spot, running towards them and screaming; her only weapon was a simple tool, and tears flew from her eyes as she ran. But just as she approached the two, Chromite re-summoned her double axe and hit the Petalite on the face, knocking her back and making her drop the weapon. As she hit the floor with a loud thud sound, her physical form dissipated, leaving only shattered shards behind.
"We weren't supposed to shatter them!" Albite told Chromite, glaring at her. "The mission was clear: poof and bubble them, so we can use their gemstones later! How do you expect us to power anything with shards?!"
Petalite froze, and tears threatened to spill from her eyes. Was this what her life was going to be reduced to? A power source? No, she deserved much more! She was supposed to have power, not be used as an object! Her existence wasn't going to go to waste, she wouldn't let it... but what could she do?
"Hey, calm down. Shattering a few is alright, we got much more. I'd say that with how many there are here, we'll fill the whole jail... so there's no need to get so worried." Chromite replied.
"...Was that accidental?"
Chromite stared at the gem shards in front of her.
"Not really. I just got really annoyed by that punk trying to challenge me, and I remembered how much I could hurt her... so I just did. You know she deserved it. It was satisfying."
Albite didn't reply, and two other petalites ran towards the both of them, one from each side. Before they could begin to attack, Chromite seized one by the neck with one hand, and Albite grabbed the other one by the chest with her two hands. The Petalites groaned and screamed, extending their short limbs in pointless hopes to punch or kick the intruders. Soon after they were poofed, their gems bubbled and sent to somewhere else.
"See? They're totally harmless... too weak to do anything." Chromite said. "We just need to find out where are the other ones and it'll be over."
Petalite recoiled back into the hideout, out of view. Her body felt numb, and she wasn't even sure how she managed to still hear what the others were saying around her.
"I'm... I'm so scared..." the petalite who was crying choked out among sobs, burying her head on her partner's chest. "This can't be happening... why is this happening to us? I don't want this... I'm just so scared... I don't want to die..." Whatever words she said after that were muffled.
"Come on... I'm telling you, if we stay here, they're going to find us and we won't be able to do anything!" the Petalite near the Commander said, annoyed. The Commander turned towards her with a glare.
"Well, didn't you see what they just did? They're way stronger! Petalites weren't made to fight! We'll just end up dying faster!"
"Yeah, if we just stay like this, we definitely will! That's why we have to get stronger... we'll need to fuse together, all of us."
It was a nightmare, Petalite concluded. Everything about it.
"Are you insane?!" the Commander screeched, trying to keep her voice low. "We aren't allowed to fuse, and you know that! What's with that idea?"
"We can't, but this is a critical situation, a real emergency! We can't contact aid and we can't escape, so we need to fight! And the only way we can win is if we put all our strength together!"
"I'm your Commander, and I say no! That's my final answer, and you'll obey!"
"Ooh, what a great Commander that you are! Leading the whole group to death! I appreciate it a lot, thank you."
"That's enough! Facet 2K4E Cut 6XN, you're getting out of line! After this is all over, I'll personally contact your superiors about this!"
"After this is all over, with your plan... ha. Can't contact them if you're dead."
The quarrel kept getting louder and louder with each response. Petalite just wanted them to shut up, her head felt as if it were going to explode right then and there. The two Petalites started to fight physically, slapping each other and hitting each other on the eyes (it wasn't that uncommon for that to happen) and groaning, making lots of noise. The rebellious Petalite then pushed the Commander down, and alongside the thud, she let out a surprised "Ow!".
"There, I've just dethroned you! I'm the Commander now! Hahaha!" she said while letting out guffaws of pleasure.
"Oh, you little...!"
Getting up from the ground, the (ex?)Commander grabbed the other Petalite's uniform and began shaking her rapidly; the other didn't wait too long before starting to retaliate, this time by pushing her hand against the Commander's face and cheek, obscuring her view. She blindly threw a punch, hitting the other.
"My protection glasses!" she screamed, taking out her now-cracked transparent glasses.
"Hahahaha! You're done for, you can't even work now! You're useless, and you're going to be sha--"
Before the sentence could be finished, a loud noise erupted on the hideout, as the boulder keeping them from view was lifted easily. All the Petalites looked up to see Chromite gazing at them with a sadistic smile, before throwing the rock behind her shoulder. Petalite cowered and recoiled.
"Well, well, well, look what we have here..." Chromite said, eyeing each one of the terrified smaller Gems. "It'd have been way better for you all if you had simply surrendered. Cowardice and weakness disgust me, and that's exactly what I'm seeing right now."
"I... I-I..." the previously bold Petalite stammered, her entire body shaking until her hands were too weak to even keep hold of her glasses.
"It's... it's not cowardice! It's just intelligence, something that you're way too dumb to understand, STUPID!" the Commander screaming, stepping in front of her comrade.
Chromite stayed stunned for one second before finally processing the insult that had just been delivered to her, and, if glares could kill, only their shards would have remained at the spot. Just one second later, all the Petalites were running away in different directions and screaming while being chased by the two Elementals. Petalite wasn't even sure why she was running; there was literally no place to escape to, and running would be just postponing the inevitable. In fact, from what the enemy had just said, it'd make everything worse! But still, she could not stop herself from running.
Suddenly two large and strong hands seized her petite body, almost poofing her on the spot. The first thing she did was struggle, wiggling her limbs in all directions in an attempt to hit her captor at least once and failing.
"You let go of me right now, you brute stupid disgraceful unbefit--"
And then, only her gemstone remained.
"--ting traitorous ridiculous obtuse IDIOT!"
Petalite continued to try and throw punches and kicks on the air, but suddenly lost her balance and fell to the ground. Had she succeeded? Had she escaped? It was her chance to run away and hide! She didn't even bother trying to get up, she just started running forwards on all fours until she collided against something solid and fell back down.
"Ow, ow, ow..." she moaned, holding her head and sitting. And looking up, she saw Chromite's grinning face, sending her back. "Wah! What are you doing here?!"
Petalite looked around her and let out the loudest gasp she had ever produced on her entire life. She was surrounded by bubbles, they were everywhere, but most predominantly on the roof of the huge room they were in. Huge room? How did she get there? Where even was there?
"Oh my stars..." she said quietly, examining the bubbles. Some of them harbored Petalites' gems, like her own, but most of them were occupied by gemstones she didn't recognize. "This isn't my colony... where am I? What's happening?!"
"I assume you remember who I am, little Petalite." Chromite spoke up. "The name's Chromite. Glad to have a proper meeting with you. Well, not really, I lied. Meeting you is just like meeting any other Petalite... you're all conceited melodramatic little brats with high-pitched voices. Have I already mentioned how annoying I think Petalites are?"
The look on her face and the tone of her voice made Petalite gulp. She needed to think of something to get her out of that situation, fast!
"I'd advise you not to treat me badly. Surely my superiors were already informed by the wreck you did on my colony, and they must be searching for my whereabouts right now as we speak." she spoke with the calmest voice and coldest stare she could pull at that situation. "And since they possess high-quality efficient technology, which was made by me by the way, they will track me down soon enough. And when they do, you'll be in... a lot of trouble."
Chromite burst into laughter as soon as she finished speaking. Petalite frowned. What was so funny?
"You must be either crazy or too desperate to even dare say something like that!" she spat out, sending a wave of fear through Petalite's body. "You are hilarious, I'll have to give you that, I guess. I'll probably miss you and your jokes when you're gone... but not too much. If I'm the one to kill you, I'll probably feel the closest thing of guilt I've ever felt for my entire life."
"But I'm not joking! I demand to know what is happening right now!" Petalite shrieked, getting up and accidentally bumping into a bubbled gem.
"Alright, alright. I guess it's fine to tell you what's gonna happen." Chromite snickered. "You're at the base of the Elementals. We're a group of scientists that has been travelling around the space for thousands of years to store as much knowledge as possible. We use everything we know to create many kinds of gadgets, which are all powered by gemstones."
Everything suddenly made sense. Petalite looked around her once again; so all these bubbled Gems were going to be used as power sources? Was she going to suffer the same fate? If she had knew something like this would happen, she would have never complained about staying in the colony! She would go back and gladly be a conformed slave in a heartbeat if she could now.
"Hey, don't make that look... you're making even me feel bad." Chromite said, sarcasm clear on her voice. "Not everything is lost. At least, if you're competent. We can even make you a member of our group if you're worthy. But looking at you, I wouldn't have too much hope. Come on now."
Petalite fearfully obeyed, and followed Chromite out of the room and throughout the spaceship. It was a humongous place, with lots of corridors and many other Gems of all kinds. Eventually they arrived on a room with a tight corridor and lots of cells full of Gems, mainly the Petalites from the colony, on both sides; the two of them stopped in front of an empty cell and Chromite placed her hand on a detector, making the tinted glass door in front retreat upwards, opening the cell.
"Go on inside. Someone will come to get you later. Probably."
She flinched in hesitation, but walked inside the cell. The walls, ceiling and floor were all plain white, and there was nothing inside. Such bad taste. Then Chromite stepped away from the detector, making the glass come down again, trapping Petalite inside. Without saying anything else, she left, leaving Petalite alone with her thoughts. She lied down on the cold floor, facing away from the glass and onto the blank wall. So they were kidnapping Gems to use them as power sources for their weapons? But if she proved herself valuable, they could let her be free and alive?
What if she failed? No, failing was out of question. She couldn't fail. She deserved better. Better than anything that had ever been offered to her. Now, everything she needed to do was focus on proving herself as an useful ally for these "Elementals" and staying alive; she could think of her next steps after that. That was, if they even came to check on her... all she could do was wait and hope. After a long time, probably hours, Petalite finally heard a voice coming from outside.
"Excuse me."
She jumped up and turned towards the glass, to be met with the sight of a tall and slender Gem standing there, her hands behind her back. Surely it was a Pearl, Petalite recognized it by her long beak-like nose. Finally, someone had come for her, to get her out! The constant anxiety clutching Petalite's chest turned into relief, and then the relief evolved into rage.
"Hey, you Pearl! Get me out of here right away! The waiting system of these 'Elementals' is unacceptable! Take me to your owner right now, I swear that the moment I see her, I'll tell her certain things that will make her regret everything she has ever done!" she screamed, pressing her entire body against the colored glass.
"Of course. I was just about to do that." the Pearl said with no reaction to Petalite's tantrum, which annoyed her further. She then placed her hand on the detector near the cell, opening it, and Petalite stepped out, wary of her surroundings. "Please, follow me."
Petalite followed the Pearl throughout the ship, and the two eventually ended up on a corridor which was empty save for a single door on the middle, and the Pearl started opening the door. Excitement filled Petalite's body; in only a few seconds, she would be able to voice all her complaints and feelings, she would set her anger free! Without even waiting, she entered the room, and then froze on the spot. That room had a much colder and more ominous atmosphere than the rest of the ship; dispirited, Petalite cringed, noticing another Gem already present. She was one of the only things in the room, alongside a long plain white table and two chairs on both its sides, one of which was being occupied by the Gem. Just like the cell, everything was white...
"I appreciate you bring her here. You may go now, Pearl, that will be all." the Gem said before clapping twice, and the Pearl bowed and left the room. She then turned to Petalite, and her stare made the Gem gulp. "You can approach me. There's no need to be scared."
Hesitantly, Petalite walked forwards and sat on the chair in front of her (it was too tall, she had to climb it). She felt a crushing pressure above her, forcing her to hunch down and stare at her feet kicking back and forth, as though that was the most interesting thing in the universe. But she didn't dare look up and meet that Gem's gaze again.
"Well, you can start speaking. Let's not wait this long." the Gem said calmly.
"Oh, I... u-um, I don't h-have anything to say." Petalite choked out, her voice tinier than ever.
"No? That's a surprise. Back at the prison you claimed you would say something that would make me regret everything I have ever done... something about our systems being inadequate."
Petalite felt sweat creeping on her back. She had just ruined everything.
"H-hahaha... that was just a bluff..." she stammered, laughing out of nervousness. "I-I'm sorry... please, don't kill me or use me as a power source... please, I beg you! I don't want to die!"
"Don't you worry about that, we won't do that... we'll still give you a chance to prove yourself. I know you're in a foreign situation and you're scared, but we aren't the evil monsters you think we are... we don't do all of this just for pleasure. We do it because it's what we have to do."
Petalite simply stared at her, unconvinced. The Gem let out a small sigh and then a chuckle.
"Oh, where are my manners? Call me Iolite. I'm one of the Commanders of our group. Pleased to meet you in person, Petalite."
Hearing her name leave Iolite's lips made her feel uneasy. It was like it didn't belong there; Petalite felt shivers crawling down her skin, but did her best not to let her feelings show through. She didn't want to be there.
"So, um... Iolite... how is this test thing going to work?"
"Right, the test. It will be very simple... I'm sure that you've already been through worse. It'll be an evaluation to measure your abilities in many different areas, such an intelligence and strength. Then, after that, based on your performance, we'll check and see whether or not you are deserving to be one of our members. Do you accept it?"
Did she even have a choice? Victory wasn't guaranteed, but at least she had a chance. If she refused, she would be dead or worse.
Everything was so normal earlier that day... why did everything had to change?
"Y-yes. I accept it."
"Good. In this case... let the tests begin."