Chapter Text
It began with a gem who was molded to be the molder. She would rise from the ashes of a dying planet to become what she would already know to become. She emerged from the surface, a purpose to be fulfilled, a plan to be set in motion…
A duty to be done.
From the very beginning, there were obvious questions set in place. She knew better than to ask them, so she never gave it another thought. She simply carried on with her duties and always had done what she was expected to do; mold.
She had enjoyed spending her spare time smithing weapons for gem elites, which, for her, seemed like more of a hobby because when she tried offering to make weapons to equip them with, in the event that they needed them, she was considered too “fresh from the hole”, as the elites would say, for them to even dare accept any weapons she would offer them. When she wasn’t doing that, however, she and other gems like her, would build spyres and temples for the gem elites and would soon begin to help construct gem colonies, much like the one she had emerged from.
Building weapons was much easier and more laid-back for her than building temples and spyres, but she knew she couldn’t continue to defy the orders of her Diamond leaders to continue to work on something she found much more entertaining and effortless, especially when no one else was asking her to. She always did what she was told. After a while, however, she was starting to grow weary of this.
Then, one day, she and her group of Bismuths had just finished building what was her first arena. Once they were done, they took their “leave” which usually just meant they went back to building spyres and temples until the next big project came along. Although gems like her were granted little to no downtime whatsoever, she felt instant relief in returning to her former duties.
She was mischievous in the sense that she would crack wise with a joke or two to keep the atmosphere nice and lively, every once in a while. None of her fellow gem workers, however, seemed too enthralled by it. They knew better than to play into the mischief, especially while on the job. This made her feel like she didn’t belong, an outcast in a community where they were all supposed to be exactly the same in every conceivable way.
Time was endless and this particular work season had seemed to extend for a few hundred years or so, until one fateful day when their testing period had finally come to a conclusion and she and her fellow Bismuth workers were finally ready to move up in their duties as Bismuths.
She and the rest of her group had gone through a series of training, building colonies for lesser planets, in preparation for a project that was going to be the greatest and most important job they were ever given; building a colony on Pink Diamond’s very first planet.
They were to leave Homeworld for the first time to build their very first colony on Earth.
The group had already been building various buildings above Earth’s surface, but this was the first time they were going underground, at least on this planet.
As excited as she and all the other Bismuths were to finally be doing something different again, she couldn’t help but realize that this job wasn’t any different from all the rest. She and her group had constructed colonies on various other planets before, so Earth was no different. The only thing that made any difference about it was that this time, it was Pink Diamond’s planet, which made absolutely no difference to the work itself, if only the leader who was going to be giving the orders. Even so, there was nothing she could do about it and, even though she found herself beginning to question things, it wasn’t in her place to ask those questions.
They had all arrived immediately knowing what they had to do and how they were going to do it. The work had gone on for decades, all to prepare for the arrival of the gems who would emerge from these holes. Everything seemed to be going on exactly as it always had before, but something was about to happen that would shift the predictable and steady balance in this Bismuth’s world.
She had no way of knowing what was to come. Something had happened one day that had steered her from her usual work flow, something entirely unexpected.
After a couple of centuries had gone by and the gems planted in the ground began emerging from their holes, Bismuth and her group were preparing to finalize the good work they had done and go straight back to Homeworld to be assigned their next project. A Sapphire was assigned to them to let them know when the Diamonds would be expecting them to return. The workers did not know exactly why they needed a Sapphire for that since they had the technology to contact their leaders, directly, but they all just figured the Diamonds did not like to be kept waiting and that it would be a better idea for their loyal gems to return to them before they’d even know it.
When the time was finally approaching, the Sapphire had begun to inform them in a way that they were certainly not used to hearing.
“May I have all of your attention, Bismuths,” announced the Sapphire. “I have a prediction.”
Like clockwork, all the Bismuths stopped chatting amongst themselves and turned their attention to her, once they heard the key word, “prediction”.
“I predict that the rebel Rose Quartz and Pearl gems will strike right above us,” she said, attempting to hide the shakiness, rising in her throat, “upon Blue Diamond’s court.”
Gasps were heard coming from all around. While all the other workers appeared to be worried, astonishment was seen in Bismuth’s eyes. She had heard of these new rebel gems who had come to put a stop to all their years of hard work and was told to be wary of them, but she had never known that one of them was a Pearl. It was unlike a Pearl to question any orders, let alone defy them. If it was one thing they were made to do more than anyone or anything else, it was to follow orders. The mere concept of a Pearl joining a rebellion was foreign to her and unheard of by all gemkind…
… and, rather than strike fear, this intrigued her.
It was more than she could imagine; Pearls, training to battle against each other, using the weapons they were equipped with, weapons that she could equip them with. If she worked on them enough, she could create tremendous upgrades that could overpower the rebels who would never see it coming. This was her shot. She could create a whole new job that she and her compatriots could do, instead, and actually have the Diamonds’ blessing to do it! She would be respected by the elites who had ridiculed her before. She would finally get to do what she wanted.
“Because of this unfortuitous event,” continued the Sapphire, “your departure will seem to be delayed, for the time being. My Diamonds will want to make sure we do not run into any casualties along our journey back to Homeworld and, therefore, will not be departing any time in the near future. Please take this extra time to finalize the emergence of all gems colonized thus far and prepare for ultimate departure. You may preoccupy yourselves in the time leftover.”
One of the workers tossed a fist up in the air, shouting, “Alright! Break time!” The rest of the workers cheered on as this was their first ever official downtime from working since the day they had emerged whereas Bismuth lit up. This was her chance.
She fled from the site to search for an empty part of the colony where she would begin to mine for supplies to use for her newly realized project.
After many days of mining and digging, she would nearly reach the Earth’s core before she finally came up on some lava that would help her mold the weapons she would create from various materials she had dug up and some supplies she had brought with her. At the end of each day, she would return to her group to stay caught up on the status of their departure and to lower suspicions about her project until it was ready to be revealed.
Weeks had gone by this way. Departure was at a complete halt after learning what had happened as the ambush of the rebel gems had come to pass. The Sapphire kept insisting that they all stay put until she could predict when it would be safe for them to depart. None of the workers would question this in light of their extended leisure time and this was only working in our Bismuth’s favor as she got closer and closer to finishing her project.
Then, one day, she was nearing the completion of her prototype weapon. She had gotten so close to finishing, she was determined to keep going until she was done, losing track of time.
Suddenly, as she was just getting started on the finishing touches, she heard an unfamiliar sound coming from the surface.
Bismuth took a quick gasp, startled by this noise, until she saw one of her fellow gem workers emerge from the shadows.
“Oh!” she exclaimed in relief, slapping a palm to her forehead. “It’s just you.” As much of an outcast as she had felt in her work environment, there was this special sibling-like kind of bond that all like gems seemed to share and Bismuth did not feel threatened by her sister gems and couldn’t help her excitement for her project that was nearing fruition.
She approached her fellow worker and wrapped an arm around her. “I’m just about done with it. You gotta check this out.” She pulled her fellow worker closer to her experiment.
While our Bismuth was delighted to finally reveal her near-completed project, her fellow worker seemed very timid upon this revelation. She moved her gaze across the entirety of what appeared to be some kind of a makeshift forge. In one corner, there were three buckets filled with various materials and supplies. In another, there was a pile of broken weapons. In the middle of it, lay a block of stone with a smooth surface. Laying above the stone was what appeared to be some kind of weapon in the making. Finally, behind that, in the far back, was a pool of lava that lit up the entire room. The fellow worker’s eyes widened at the sight of it.
The fellow worker was given no room to speak as our Bismuth proceeded to give her the break down.
“Like it?” asked our Bismuth, unable to diminish her smile. “I've been working on it for a while now. This is gonna be the very thing that will change our lives for the better!”
Bismuth gestured to the center of the large stone that held what had become her most proud creation, yet.
“I call it ‘The Upgrade’.” She paused for dramatic effect. In this pause, the fellow worker took the opportunity to state the obvious. “Looks… a lot like a-”
“-A weapon made for a Pearl, right?” Bismuth stifled an excitable squeal. “Now, I know what you’re thinking. This is probably- oh, Stars, probably ? More like definitely the craziest idea on Earth, but - and hear me out on this - what if this is exactly what will end the Rebellion, once and for all?”
As the fellow worker opened her mouth, lifting a finger in attempts to speak out her own opinion on the subject, Bismuth went on.
“Think about it! This could actually work ! There’s all this talk about an “uprising Rebellion” right? So who do you think are gonna be the first ones to join in on it?”
The fellow worker, once again, tried to say something and, once again, was immediately interrupted.
“Exactly! Pearls .” She swooped around to face her fellow worker and placed both hands on her shoulders. “Riddle me this: a Pearl was one of the very first to join, right? Of course, it was a Pearl! Pearls are literally made to follow orders. Don’t you think after this starts to spread that more Pearl’s are bound to come running?”
The fellow worker could only let an “I-” escape her before Bismuth gave one strong pat to her back.
“Once I finish this baby,” she continued, picking up the weapon from its smooth stone slab before making her way toward one of the buckets, “I can show it to the Diamonds and they’ll have to agree with me.” She picked up a handful of dirt from one of the buckets and proceeded to dip her hand, as well as the other hand that carried the unfinished weapon, in the lava and as she spoke the next words, the fellow worker saw a fire in her eyes that became more prominent with the glow of the boiling lava that was illuminating her face. She had never before seen this in any other gem, much less one of her fellow Bismuths.
“They’ll know that the only way to defeat an exceptionally battle-trained Pearl, one of Homeworld’s smartest and clever gems ever created, is to fight fire…” She took both hands from the lava to reveal the prototype weapon that had finally been completed. “... with fire.”
The fellow gem fell silent as she gazed, apprehensively, at the finalized prototype.
Bismuth raised the weapon high. “With this, we can finally move ourselves up in the game . No more boring temples or spyres and especially , no more overtiring colonies. We would be respected by our leaders and beloved by all gemkind.”
Bismuth lowered the weapon, holding it perfectly balanced in both hands as she stared pensively upon it, smiling, until she heard the discouraging words that were finally spoken by her fellow worker.
“It’s not going to work,” said the fellow worker, lowly.
Bismuth looked up with a furrowed brow, discarding what she heard by arguing, “Yes, it will. I just told you how. If a Pearl rebels, there’s bound to be more Pearls to- ”
“It would never work,” the fellow worker had reiterated, raising her voice. She, then, sighed and continued, lowering her voice, “because the Sapphire has already predicted it.”
Bismuth was struck by this statement for a moment, then immediately shook her head, collecting herself as she scoffed in denial, “And you’re gonna take her word for it? You know those predictions aren’t always that accurate. Take a look at what happened just weeks ago up in Blue Diamond’s court! I believe-”
“It’s not worth the risk, Bismuth!”
The room fell silent, once again. Gems were never known to call each other by their race. If anything at all, they usually referred to each other by their gem cut. The fact that the fellow worker had referred to her own kind that way, meant that this was certainly not a matter to be taken lightly.
The fellow gem continued, “If the Diamonds ever were to find out about this, they wouldn’t just so easily jump on board with what you’re trying to do here. All you would be doing is creating stronger weapons for them to, ultimately, counter with even stronger weapons. The Diamonds would never approve and you would be considered a defective and be shattered for defying the orders that were assigned to you.”
Bismuth took these words she had been told and considered the consequences, dishearteningly. Suddenly, she found herself questioning something, once again, and, for the first time, finally spoke up to ask it.
“How did you even know where to find me?”
“The Sapphire,” the fellow worker admitted, lowering her gaze to the ground with a horrendously concerned look on her face. “She saw you, here, working on your weapon. She saw every way you took to come here and build this place. She saw you finishing your weapon and showing it off to our fellow Bismuth workers. She saw you being taken away to be broken. You never make it to the Diamonds and nobody else gives it a second thought.”
The fellow worker looked back up to the gem whose form mirrored her own. Her expression softened to that of genuine concern for her sister gem as she became the one to lean over and put a reassuring hand on our Bismuth’s shoulder.
“I’m warning you,” she said, sternly, “from one Bismuth to another….” she inhaled through her nose, then, hesitantly, said, “... and as a friend: You can’t afford to go through with this. None of us can. The Sapphire will be able to predict all the possibilities of each and every move you make. With a power like that, there’s no way to sneak or work around this. Understand this: No matter what you say or do, every path foreseen leads you to your doom.”
Bismuth felt like her form could retreat into her gem at any moment. She knew there was never a chance for her to change the way things had always been. As much as she could try, she, alone, would never be able to work her away around the fact that she and every other gem in Homeworld were created for one purpose and one purpose only and they had to serve that purpose. They were never meant to do anything else. She was never meant to be anything but what she was supposed to be.
She had formed one more question to ask, though feeling that she already knew the answer.
“Why send you to warn me? Why not just rat me out? Expose me?”
The fellow worker brought her hand back to her side and stood up straight. “She knew you would be wise enough to follow orders.”
This had struck Bismuth right through her form, because she knew it, herself, to be true. She had no choice. The Sapphire didn’t need to use her power to predict that. It was then that she had realized that the Sapphire wasn’t sent to inform them when to depart, but to weed out any other rebellious gems who would dare defy the orders they were given. Homeworld didn’t need Bismuth’s weapons. The rebel gems never would never stand a chance against the Diamonds, either way.
At that point, Bismuth had no longer begun to question things and went on to destroy the makeshift forge, burying it, along with the weapon she had created, deep underneath the Earth’s surface. She was now ready to do what she was made to do and nothing else, ever again.
Making it back to the site with her fellow worker, she immediately noticed the Sapphire who was facing directly toward her, expressionless. Bismuth glared at her, resentfully, as she made her way back to her post. The Sapphire remained expressionless as she followed our Bismuth with her gaze.
A couple more Earth days went by before the Sapphire had finally announced that they were ready for departure. Bismuth and her group began to make preparations, joining her fellow workers as they moved to higher ground where the ship would arrive to collect them.
Hours passed as they waited at the pick-up point. The group of Bismuths began to grow restless, feeling that it was unnecessary to wait so long when they could have just remained in the Kindergarten for a little while longer.
This was giving our Bismuth too much time to think as she laid back, staring up into the sky. She wasn’t used to having so much time to sit and think. Usually, she would be too preoccupied with her work to ponder fantasies of what she now knew to be impossible. Despite everything that had happened and all the questions that were still floating around in her head, she couldn’t wait to leave the Earth and move on to her next assignment.
As she looked up at the empty blue of a bright, cloudless day, she began to feel a tremble in the ground and sensed the change in the atmosphere, signaling that their ride back to Homeworld was finally making its approach. She sat up and watched as her fellow workers were lining up to enter the vast ship upon its landing.
Bismuth lined up with her group, but found herself at a standstill. As soon as the ship touched the ground, she immediately felt a strong sense of hesitation and reluctance in taking another step forward. Her group proceeded to load up while she, at the back of the line, could not bring herself to follow behind them.
“Hey, come on,” shouted the last of her fellow workers to enter the ship, “What are you waiting for? We gotta go!”
Bismuth stood, hesitantly, for a moment, before quickly forming her best excuse for the fact that she had suddenly refused to join her fellow workers in returning to a life of eternal mundane construction.
“Oh, uh… I’ll be right there. I just gotta go do one last scope to make sure we didn’t miss anything.” She began to make her way in the opposite direction of the ship. “Can never be too sure, ya know?”
“She’s lying,” said the Sapphire, passively, from beside the fellow worker.
At that point, Bismuth started sprinting through the open field, as fast as her feet could go.
“I predict she won’t make it far,” said the Sapphire, completely still. “Get her.”
Without the same hesitation shown in their fleeing compatriot, the remaining group of workers ran after the traitorous gem in a disorganized squad.
As she ran for miles through the tall grass, she found herself losing velocity as her, equally matched, colleagues were gaining on her. Ironically enough, she found her theory about the Pearls had come back to haunt her. There was no way around this, no escape, and no turning back.
She combed her way through miles and miles of grass, muttering panicked Gem curses between each breath, fighting the urge to just give in and surrender, knowing the Sapphire wouldn’t have sent the group after her if she knew she wouldn’t ultimately be captured.
It was only a matter of time before they would catch up and Bismuth was falling short of pace as the group was beginning to close in on her.
Then, in one clumsy move, she tripped and fell flat on her stomach. As she heard the approaching footsteps of her colleagues, she raised her forearms from the ground in defeat, already knowing and accepting the inevitability of her fate.
The group started to surround her, pointing sharp spheres all over her that were formed from their hands. Suddenly, in the same moment she had lifted herself up off the ground, she felt a hand grab her arm that was not one of her colleagues and was pulled into the embrace of the Rose Quartz rebel who immediately formed a protective bubble around them. The Bismuth workers had attempted to stab into the bubble with their pickaxe hands, but the bubble did not show any signs of damage.
With a sly grin, the rebel quartz had turned her gaze to Bismuth and said to her, “Are you ready for this?” With one swift gesture from the quartz, spikes began to form from all around the bubble, pushing back the army of Bismuth workers to allow enough room for the bubbled gems to escape.
“Hold on,” said the quartz before throwing out open palms to the ground, causing the bubble to rise into the air, throwing the two gems far away from the perplexed army of Bismuth workers.
Bismuth screamed the whole way through, until the bubble hit the ground in a huge thud, disappearing in a pop. She groaned as she tried picking herself up.
“Not one of my finest landings,” said the rebel quartz, rubbing at her temple, proceeding to assist in bringing our Bismuth up from the ground.
“Hello,” greeted the quartz, extending out her hand in a welcoming gesture. “I’m Rose.”
“Bismuth,” she introduced herself as she, reluctantly, returned the gesture.
“That was quite the chase you were running from, back there, Bismuth. It’s a relief I was able to get you out of there before they got you.”
“Yeah…” Bismuth rubbed at her hip, trailing off. “How did you even know I was in trouble? Why did you save me ?” Just like that, Bismuth was back to asking her questions that were overlapping each other, more frequently than ever before. Why had the rebel quartz rescued her? She had a hand in the colonization of gems on Earth. She was against everything the rebel gems had been fighting against. Why was she , of all other gems worthy enough to be spared? She felt it sinful, alone, just to have so many questions to ask when she should have known better than that, by now. She was so overwhelmed with questions that she could only stick with the two she had asked as she felt her head spinning in befuddlement.
“Crazy, right?” Rose had responded, running her fingers through her curls. “Just when I started to think it was just us three!”
“Yeah but- … Wait. Three ?” Before Bismuth could ask another one of her multiplying questions, she was taken aback by what Rose had said.
“Garnet is relatively new to the team. Can you believe it? A fusion of two completely different gems! It was more than any of us could imagine.”
Bismuth’s eyes widened in what she had realized and could not come to believe, herself. “Hold on. You mean to tell me that the Ruby and Sapphire that had fused in Blue Diamond’s court ... is with you?!”
Rose nodded with stars in her eyes, in pure elation.
“And they’re still fused?”
“Yes!” she squealed. “Garnet helped me find you. She saw you running from your fellow working gems, running away from Homeworld! She knew where you were going to be, so I made sure I was going to be there, too, to save you. Us rebel gems gotta stick together, right?”
Bismuth fell to her knees, laughing so hard that tears began forming in her eyes. “I am so shattered.” She continued to laugh, accepting her inevitable fate at this point as she was suddenly reminded of the Sapphire back at the ship who was probably predicting her next move, already. She was officially a rebel gem and there was no turning back.
“Only if you go back,” said Rose, “but as long as you’re with us, that’s never going to happen.”
Bismuth ceased her laughter and paused for a moment to think, something she had found herself doing as frequently as questioning things. Now, she was questioning everything.
She stood up to face Rose, having one more question to ask.
“Does this mean I’m one of you guys, now?”
Rose took Bismuth’s hand with both of hers and said, “This means you’re free now; free to be your own gem and make your own choices. You now have the freedom to do all the things you want to do. You will never have to answer to anyone ever again.”
Bismuth couldn’t help but chuckle at what Rose had said. “Now, wouldn’t that be nice? Not having to spend an eternity building spyres and temples and arenas.” She found herself thinking out loud and was stunned after hearing what Rose had then said.
“What do you want to build, Bismuth?”
Suddenly, it had all become clear to her now. This was her chance. This was what was going to change her life for the better. No one had ever asked her what she wanted. She always had to play by the rules and never step out of line, but now the line was broken and she stepped out of it. She was going to build what she wanted from now on...
… and she was going to be a Crystal Gem, doing it.