A Captured Butterfly

Chapter Two

Pearls eyes drifted open for the second time that day, scanning her new surroundings. She was in some sort of control room, a large window covering one wall with a panel stretching around the bottom, and a doorway on the opposite wall. Both Peridot and Jasper were piloting the ship, hands pressed against the panel and eyes shot forward into space.

The slender gem quickly found that her arms were secured so tightly that it hurt. Her mouth was gagged, making it impossible to speak. She was sitting in a chair, wrists tied to the armrests and ankles tied to the legs. A sharp pain had filled her ribs when she had tried to breathe. "Did you wake up from your nap, you clod?" A voice snickered. Pearl scrunched up her nose, trying to turn her head in the opposite direction, but found her neck was tied to the back of the chair.

"You really went down easy." Peridot continued to taunt, poking Pearls nose with one of her robotic fingers. Pearl mumbled something through her gag, only identifiable as a series of muffled noises. Peridot gave her one final smile before heading back to she control panel, her eyes filling with code as she touched the panel.

   But Pearl wasn't down yet. She yanked on the ropes tying her wrists, only to make her arms start bleeding. She had gotten the same result with her ankles. Still determined to escape, she tried to move the gag forced into her mouth, yet got the same result of nothing when her tongue slipped around on the ball. She truly wasn't getting out.

   The rope tying Pearls wrists to the armrests of the chair had began to dig into her delicate skin, leaving visible red marks. It had seemed that the more she struggled, the tighter they got. Pearl closed her eyes and let her head droop in defeat. Maybe Lapis was right. Maybe if she just obeyed their orders they'd go easy on her.

The sound of a door swinging open interrupted Pearls thoughts. She opened her eyes to see a figure- no, 3 figures- standing in the doorway. The kidnapped gem did a happy dance in her mind, on the outside it only visible as more struggling.

Both gems steering the ship were also alerted at the sound, leaving their posts and getting into a fighting stance. "Well ,well, well. What have we here, a bunch of rebels?" Jasper gritted her teeth, eyes locked on Garnet. "How did you get out?" He demanded to know, gesturing something to Peridot, who nodded and looked to Pearl.

"A secret way that we'll never tell you!" Steven taunted back, pulling down an eyelid with one finger and sticking his tongue out at the same time. Jasper sneered, clicking a gem destabilizer on. At the same time, Peridot ran towards Pearl, her robotic fingers spinning like a saw. Before the other Crystal Gems could react, she had the weapon held up less than an inch away from Pearls gem, ready to shatter her when Jasper gave the signal.

The 3 gems standing in the doorway gasped. Jasper chuckled, taking long strides toward the doorway. "You move a muscle, as she gets it." He grinned, raising his gem destabilizer. Pearl backed up the inch that she could, which proved ineffective when Peridot brought the weapon closer to Pearl.

   Garnet, Amethyst and Steven were dead still. They all knew that Jasper wasn't joking, that Peridot would do it, and that Pearl was as helpless as a butterfly. The poor gem had tears streaming down her face, wrists and ankles bleeding as well as her ribs. A gag had been forced into the petit girls mouth, then strapped in.

"So." Jasper chuckled. "Who'll it be? You or her?"