Fresh From Homeworld

Ranked Higher Than Ourselves

     Howlite And Chrysoberyl dashed out the door only to almost trip over the gems of Howlite's amethyst, ruby, and pearl. Howlite cried out in alarm.
     "No! She's left my gems behind!"
     Chrysoberyl looked at her in confusion. "Isn't that a good thing?"
     Howlite shot her a shocked, nervous stare. "No, that's not a good thing! No outcomes of this could be a good thing! If we leave them, they will most certainly be shattered for treason, and if I take them with me, they might rebel against me!"
     "You have to make a decision!" Chrysoberyl shot back guiltily. "If you leave them, and they really don't know anything, maybe they'll be clueless enough that the court gems will believe their cases. Whatever your decision, we can't take all of your gems. These are the only ones close enough. We have to leave now!"
     "The risk is too high either way!" Howlite fretted, her body shaking. She bit her bottom lip and looked to Chrysoberyl in her fear.
     Chrysoberyl realized that she could bubble the gems, but that would just cause them to be sent back to Merlinite. Then she realized, if she could do that, what was preventing her from sending written messages to Merlinite? Though she couldn't use her ability then, it would most definitely be useful in the future.
     "Fine! I'm taking them!" Howlite decided, taking her three gems up in her hands. "Let's get out of here! Follow me!"
The two reached the landing of White Diamond's court, praying that the only gems there would not know of anything and would be of lower class to Howlite, so they couldn't question her.
Thankfully, the only gems there were a couple of operating peridots who saluted Howlite when she and Chrysoberyl (shapeshifted as her ruby and hiding the amethyst, pearl, and ruby gemstones) entered the landing area.
The peridots asked Howlite if they needed to assist her, but she politely declined, gesturing to Chrysoberyl, saying she already had a ruby to pilot her top-secret mission.
     As soon as the two boarded the slimmest, fastest ship Howlite had access to in the landing strip, they took off.
Chrysoberyl kept quiet as she watched Howlite quickly maneuver the controls. "Disable tracking," Howlite commanded the control panel of the ship. "Enable hyper-thrusters and light speeds. Disable contact systems." Her fingers flew across the multiple keyboards.
     She declared many more commands, her hands working in sync with her words. Finally, her speaking ceased, and she lifted her fingers from the motherboard of the ship. "Now, we wait."
     "Wait..." Chrysoberyl murmured nervously, "for what, exactly?"
     "Getting far, far away from here," Howlite explained.
     Chrysoberyl understood, but couldn't keep her face from falling. "What's the point of running? I'm sick of this! I'm sick of everything!"
"Did you tell the tiger's eye that the Crystal Gems are still alive on earth?" Howlite asked, concern lacing her gaze. "If not, we can find refuge there. We won't really be running. We'll be doing something."
"I told her that I was joining the Rebellion, the Crystal Gems," Chrysoberyl explained, gripping the hems of her top. "You don't think that would have implied that there still were gems on earth?"
"No, I don't think so," Howlite replied, much to Chrysoberyl's relief. "The Crystal Gems didn't just go to earth. Many stayed on Homeworld or went to other colonies. Plus, remember that report you said that Peridot on earth just sent that informed Homeworld gems that the Crystal Gems on the earth were no more?" Chrysoberyl nodded thoughtfully, her hands moving to grip the diamond cut tights around her calves.
The two stayed in solemn silence for a long while until, before she knew it, Chrysoberyl began to cry.
Howlite turned, surprised at the uncommon emotion that Chrysoberyl was portraying. "What is the matter? What are you doing?"
Chrysoberyl sniffled, drying the tears streaming down her cheeks with the inside of her wrist. "I miss Homeworld," she choked out. "How terrible is that?" She let out a hollow, humorless laugh. "I miss my diamond, and my gems, and- and I miss how carefree we all were, how happy and negligent we all were!" Chrysoberyl held back a distraught sob, tracing her fingers over her flawless gemstone. "I can never go back to that- I've messed up everything I've tried to do since then. I'm the cause of so many terrible things, and so many good things that will never be. Everything I try to do turns out awfully wrong, and now I'm more alone than I've ever been in my entire life..."
Howlite blinked at her with sympathy in her eyes. "And what about Merlinite?"
"What about her?" Chrysoberyl looked up with bloodshot eyes. "I'm never going to see her again. What does it matter, anyway? I barely knew her for more than ten earth rotations."
"And you're seriously thinking about leaving her to be the only Crystal Gem left on Homeworld?" Howlite crossed her arms.
"Well, what else can I do?!" Chrysoberyl shouted, abruptly standing up. "I can't go back! Every gem on Homeworld and every colony will be searching for a chartreuse, shapeshifted chrysoberyl! I can't go back to earth- I already declared that my mission is on Homeworld and the surrounding colonies! Gems need to defy this class system now more than ever! If only they could realize how awful it is..."
     "Well, it looks like that's what we're gonna have to to," Howlite replied with a determined nod. "It seems now that we only have one gem among us who is ranked higher than ourselves at this point."
     Chrysoberyl looked at her with shock. "You don't mean we're really...?"
     "Yes, I do," Howlite made up her mind. "Let's find a safe way to contact this Merlinite."