Pearl

Garnet

The Fusion was very curious. The whole way back to Bismuth's base, she fired question after question at Pearl and Rose about the rebellion. Rose answered them patiently, laughing sometimes when the Fusion asked an obvious question.

"I have a question for you now," Rose smiled after hours of answering inquiries. "What's your name?" The Fusion raised it's eyebrows.

"I'm two people. I have two names. I'm Ruby and Sapphire." Rose giggled.

"You're not two people anymore, though. You're a fusion. You're two in one!" The Fusion furrowed its brow.

"I- I guess you're right. But... I don't know what my name should be." The Fusion turned her magenta face to the sky.

"Well, what feels right?," asked Rose, and she looked at the Fusion. The Fusion looked at the red gems on her hands and then looked up again at Rose's smiling face.

"I- I guess a Ruby and- and a Sapphire would make a..." The Fusion thought hard. "A- a Garnet?" Rose laughed.

"That sounds like completely you! I love it! What do you think, Pearl?" Pearl turned her head to the Fusion, now dubbed Garnet, and nodded serenely. Her mouth formed a smile, but her eyes stayed cold as ice. Garnet grinned back, but upon looking at Pearl's eyes, stopped abruptly.

Pearl didn't know just how much she liked Garnet, just like how she didn't know just how much she liked Bismuth. Garnet, with her wide eyes and curios deminor looked like an innocent child, yet Pearl couldn't bring herself to like Garnet as much as she liked Rose. But then again, she did like Rose in a completely different way...

"So what can you do, Garnet?," asked Pearl with a forcefully happy voice.

"Well...," said Garnet in an unsure voice. "Well... I guess I have Sapphire's Future Vision, and I guess Ruby's strength and her Gauntlets-"

"Gauntlets?," asked Rose curiously. "You can summon Gauntlets?"

"Yes, I believe so," said Garnet. "Why? It's common for Rubies to be able to summon a weapon." Rose nodded.

"Well, me and Pearl can do it too.

"You can summon Gauntlets?," asked Garnet incredulously. Rose giggle.

"No, silly! We can summon weapons too! But not Gauntlets." Garnet's eyes widened.

"Wow, I- well, I guess you're a Quartz, so you should be able to, but the Pearl-"

"Excuse me?," asked Pearl sharply. Garnet turned her head quickly to Pearl. "What do you mean? Are you saying just because I'm a Pearl it means I can't summon a weapon?"

"I- no of course not!," stammered Garnet. "I- I just didn't think, because you're a Pearl-" Garnet faltered under Pearl's furious gaze.

"Yes, I'm a Pearl, and yes, I can summon a weapon, and no, I'm not inferior to you!" Dropping her swords, Pearl did a pirouette, felt her gem glow, and pulled her bluish-white spear from it.

Trying to hide her surprise and glee at summoning her weapon so easily, Pearl spun it around swung the tip so it millimeters from Garnet's nose.

"Well, Garnet?, she asked wapishly. "Can you summon your weapon on the spot?" Garnet gulped but looked determined. Pearl pulled her spear to her side and watched as Garnet closed her eyes, put her hands around the back of her afro, and pulled the down, gracing her hips. Her hands glowed as she pulled her arms back, then with a flash of light her gauntlets appeared.

Pearl stifled a gasp. The Gauntlets seemed to have been summoned effortlessly, and were smooth and shiny. Pearl kept up her salty expression though.

"Well then, I guess you can. But can you do this?" Swinging her spear around and with a swift slice, she cut a thick tree branch in half.

"I can do this," said Garnet, and with a mighty punch, she slammed her fist into a tree. The tree splintered with a huge boom and fell to the forest ground. Garnet smirked.

"Impressive," said Pearl with a touch of impatience. "But I can do that too- and more." Dashing forward, Pearl swung her spear and chopped three trees cleanly through the middle in one stroke. She smiled in a taunting way as Garnet's jaw dropped. "Beat that." Garnet shook her head to rid the shock and swung her gauntlets back.

Swinging them forward, she slammed her gauntlets together. A sonic boom issued from her hands and broke apart five trees on either side of the path. Pearl was getting seriously annoyed now.

"Well, that was nice, but can you do this-"

"Okay, that's enough you two," came Rose's laughing voice. Pearl's spear vanished, and Garnet's gauntlets disappeared on glittering dust. "We don't want to scare anyone." Garnet looked confused.

"Why?"

"Ladies, we have arrived at Bismuth's Base."