Chương 62: LOG-058.

"Oooh..." Awareness returned to me as a tired groan sounded out somewhere to my right.

"Buh." Blinking several times, I stared up at the mass of darkness above me even as I tried to get into a more comfortable position, my lightform very much protesting the act. Alas, the various pinpricks of what was likely multiple gemstone shards stabbing into my back (and wasn't that a thought?) swiftly dissuaded me from the temptation of resting, even if just for a moment. Instead, I slowly (and somewhat painfully) rolled over onto my stomach, pushing myself to my feet.

The first thing I saw after brushing my hair back to its place away from my eyes was Rose. She was doing... something. Kneeling down atop the surface of corpses below us with her eyes closed, her palms flat against several shards with what seemed to be a pink glow emanating around them. Wacky.

"Hmm..." Blinking again, I brought a hand up to rub at the side of my head, turning to take in the source of the sound. My eyes widened at a still prone Pearl, the renegade seemingly feeling around blindly with a hand for somewhere to stand.... Fuck. Hesitantly taking several steps forward, I picked out a relatively flat spot and kneeled down.

"Pearl, open your eyes please." An incoherent mumble was her response, but shortly afterwards she followed the request, eyelids dragging themselves open to expose a pair of exhausted looking cyan orbs. Repressing a groan as they focused on me with an alarming intensity, I gestured behind me.

"Rose is doing a thing. Let's... let's get you up, alright?" There was another moment of hesitation, from both ends, before I finally reached out, her own hand interlocking with mine as I pulled her towards me. If we were a little quick to disengage once she was back on her feet, well-"That was..." Glancing at my counterpart out of the corner of my eye, I nodded numbly. For just a second, it felt as if I was swaying, before I managed to hastily right myself once more, preventing an unfortunate fall.

"Mhm." A second passed, before the urge to let loose a giggle made itself apparent. The sound drew her attention back to me, even as I bent over, hands resting atop my knees.

"Wow... we are... we're pushy." A cerulean wave spread across her cheeks, the embrassed blush quickly followed up by an uncomfortable expression as she began to stretch out her lightform. After the first set of motions, I began to do so as well. It didn't feel like I was worn out or anything but... the multiple attempts to defuse (and subsequent shutdowns of said attempts) had definitely strained the both of us a fair bit.

The last time I had truly felt tired was when I'd finally managed to escape with Vermilion, so it still remained a somewhat novel experience in this body, to say the very least.

"I think pushy is a bit of an understatement. It almost reminds me of Sugilite, even if we were far more focused than that particular brute." She blinked at her own statement, eyes widening.

"Stars, none of that was remotely alright." Letting loose a sigh, I pushed my ruffled dress back into something resembling order and nodded." Definitely not any definition of healthy. Ah... no offence, but... I think we should avoid fusing for a while. Maybe ever, if it's all the same to you." A soft mumble drew my attention to Rose, the faux Quartz seemingly in her own world at the moment.

Turning back, I was introduced to the ever so wonderful sight of Pearl pinning me with a stare that could have given a Jasper pause.

"On that I think we can agree. I'm concerned about much more than Harlequin's... independence, however." Fucking damn it. Alright. Okay. The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. Her expression turned startled as I gave her a polite smile, nodding.

"Alright, we can-""Stop that!" Quirking an eyebrow, I tilted my head questioningly.

"Stop what?" Something in me tensed as Pearl's hands slowly balled into fists, trembling at her sides as she glared at me with a strange emotion in her gaze.

"Stop... stop pretending. Stop putting on a mask, Viridian."... Hooo boy. My silence apparently was enough to get her to backtrack, face and voice taking on a slightly panicked tone.

"Y-you don't have to. We've both done it. Both been doing it, while fused or otherwise. I just...!" I shifted in place as the Crystal Gem took a deep breath, unclenching her hands.

"I saw things. I mean-we both did of course when-when Harlequin was working but you..." She turned to glance at Rose, voice taking on a hint of wonder.

"You knew..." My mouth opened as I tried to force something out.

"I..." The renegade turned back towards me, a dangerous glint in her eyes.

"You knew about Rose! You-you hid it from Harlequin. Distracted her by using me but... but I saw."... Stars fucking damn it. I can't with this shit. I'm exhausted. Soon enough, my smile cracked and shattered, overtaken by a severe frown as I brought my hand back up to cradle my head.

"I-yes. Yes I knew. What about it?" It was apparently the wrong thing to say, Pearl's expression turning visibly angry.

"What about it? What about it!? How!? How could you possibly know-" The words blurted out of my mouth before I could stop them, weary mind already racing.

"I saw the future." Regardless of my mistake, she blinked, head tilting in a parody of my own.

"The future." A statement, rather than a question. Great. I raised my hands, shrugging slightly.

"The future. Or... a future. I... I knew about the Cluster. The corrupted Gems. About Rose -" She flinched at the name. Fucking lovely.

"-about your gag order. About how she's going to fall for Greg, and hard. About-about Pink." Another flinch, her hands briefly going up towards her mouth before she slowly, very deliberately stopped them, glancing down at her twitching digits. I continued. It was like a dam had broken, water rushing out quicker then I could stop it.

"There's a Lapis Lazuli inside of your gemstone, you know? In a mirror." Another widening of the eyes, even further than before. I resisted the urge to snarl at myself, merely scowling instead as I realized just how... idiotic I'd been while going about this. Stupid. Imbecilic. Fucking moron.

"She's cracked and slotted into it, probably looks more like an inanimate power unit than anything else. Been stuck in there for five thousand or so years. Really can't miss her." Fuck, I'm so tired. Is this normal? Can Gems get tired out? Another giggle escaped my mouth as my other hand went up to try and sort out my hair. It had somehow become a mess at some point, and it was annoying me.

"Stars... it could have been so easy. You know I didn't tell any of you because-because I thought you wouldn't believe me? How silly is that? I figured I'd end up labelled crazy, or-or get called a spy and bubbled, maybe. But... I could have just proved it, huh? Proved I was on the level." The thought of being bubbled made my own eyes widen once more, even as I chanced a look at a seemingly still occupied Rose before twisting back to stare at an increasingly lost looking Pearl.

"Bismuth's alive, by the way. She... she's been bubbled since before the rebellion was halted in its tracks. We could find her-""How?!" Her voice was shrill, splitting through the air and echoing around us. I flinched, glancing at Rose out of the corner of my eye even as Pearl's hands rose up to pull at her hair, eyes darting over my form.

"Not even a Star Sapphire could pull that much information out of thin air! How could you possibly know-" It could be so easy. You were a cartoon to me. I watched you for entertainment back when I was a human being. Boom, done. The Crystal Gems had surely encountered weirder things, right? This universe was a strange one, filled with wacky shit. But... I didn't want to say that. It was stupid and unreasonable and so much more, but... wasn't I entitled to keeping something to myself for fuck's sake?

In the end, it happened before I could comprehend what I was doing. My lightform moved forward, even as I clapped my hand over her mouth, glaring at the bewildered rebel.

"I'm allowed to have secrets, Pearl. And so are you! Harlequin... Harlequin violated that, even if... even if she was trying to do what we both sort of wanted, in the end." Pulling my hand back quickly, I hesitated, before bowing my head slightly.

"I shouldn't know what I do, by all rights I shouldn't, but I do. Now... you know that I know. So how about this..." Spreading my arms wide, I let out a smile. A real one, this time. Maybe a bit desperate near the edges, but oh well, they can't all be perfect.

"I might have certain details wrong. Things change, after all. But I can tell you things if you just let me have this. Just let me keep that one bit of information to myself. How about it?" In a mirror to my previous posture, Pearl hesitated right back, the renegade's wariness visibly conflicting with her own naked, abject curiosity.

"Like... like wha-" She cut herself off, eyes narrowing as she stepped forward, foot carefully settling down next to a particularly sharp Chalcedony and bringing her pointed nose dangerously close to my own.

"Bismuth. Her first. You-you said Bismuth is alive. How? Where? Where is she?" We both stiffened as a particularly bright glow emanated from the Diamond just a few feet away from us, the giant mass of forcibly fused shards glittering beneath our lightforms in response to whatever Rose had just done. Biting my lip, I gestured to the rebel leader, Pearl following my hand with her eyes.

"We'll talk later. In private. Bismuth is... complicated. But-I'll tell you what I know, and then you can decide what you want, alright?" The pale Gem faltered, fingers drumming against her thigh as she apparently thought about my offer.

"... In exchange, I don't question how you know about all this?" It made no sense, but yet part of me felt immensely satisfied as I nodded at my Era One counterpart.

"Yes. There's... there's a lot of things we're going to need to talk about. Later, though. Looks like Rose really was what we needed. I'm pretty sure I can see bubbles forming on some of the shards."

And they were, some of them pink, but others clad in different hues and colours as well, all slowly manifesting into existence over each and every fragmented piece making up the slumbering monstrosity we were standing on, only picking up speed as more and more of the gemstones comprising the cluster began to light up and glitter with life. Hmph. That was one problem solved, at least. Once I found a way to pacify Pearl, I was gonna sleep for a week after all this. I'd need to send out a notice at work-wait.

Just how long had we even been gone?... Shit.