Lapis and Peridot

[still Lapis' POV]

It seemed like ages that I was sitting there lamenting my very existence, letting a few tears slip down my face. Gems didn't technically need to cry – or eat, or sleep, or breathe. I wouldn't eat (the idea of eating food was extremely strange. You put something in your mouth, mash it up, and swallow it, where it gets digested and then... Ick. No, I wouldn't eat. And breathing was pointless, although I did it anyway sometimes. But I did like sleeping, when I didn't have nightmares; it was a great way to rest... and there was something strangely comforting about letting myself cry.

Clank. Clank. Clank. Were those footsteps? The metallic clangs came nearer and before long my eyes confirmed what I had suspected: it was Peridot, rather tall in her green suit and weird metal arm and leg-things. I myself must have looked a pathetic sight to her, sitting in the corner and depending on the wall to keep me upright. My legs were out in front of me, dress torn near the edges because of Jasper's rough treatment of me. Eyes half closed and face tear-streaked, arms laid out beside me... I had barely moved since she left with Jasper. I couldn't, actually. My whole body hurt too much. Being held up by my wrist, kicked in the ribs, and held against the wall in a chokehold was not exactly the best feeling, but it wasn't half as bad as the pain that came after it all.

Peridot arrived at my cell and for a while she just stood there quietly, taking in my appearance. I couldn't help but wonder what she was thinking. Probably pondering what she was going to do with me, or what questions she would ask... or maybe she wasn't even thinking about me... maybe she was just staring into space. I turned my gaze away from her and went back to my lonesome ponderings. A tear dripped off my chin, landing on my dress and making a faint darker spot. It was Peridot who broke the silence.

"Are you hurt?"

It took a moment for her question to be understood. Once it was, my head snapped up and my eyes turned to her. Did she just ask what I thought she did? I scarcely knew what to say. Wasn't it obvious that I was in pain? I settled with the simplest response: "Yes."

Peridot blinked at me, and I stared back at her. It was like a waiting contest: who would break the silence? It was, of course, Peridot. I myself had no reason to speak. Was I imagining it, or did Peridot's voice seem a little softer than her usual emotionless speech?

"Is the pain distracting, or can you ignore it?"

I grumbled under my breath, "It's kinda hard to ignore when it hurts every time I move..."

"Can you repeat that at a higher volume?"

"No, I can't really ignore the pain that shoots through my hand every time I move a muscle." I tried to keep the sarcasm out of my voice, but I don't think I succeeded.

Peridot looked a little miffed at that. "Very well. I will bring you something that will slightly speed your healing process. Or if you like, you may retreat into your gem, on the condition that you come out as soon as you are physically healed."

"I'll retreat into my gem," I responded, not wanting to seem dependent on technology of any sorts. I rather wanted to prove to Peridot that my 'old-fashioned' ways were better than her newfangled technologies. "I won't stay in my gem unnecessarily, I promise. But–" and for a moment, I let my desperation shine through– "please keep the big orange brute away from my gem. She might shatter me, either by accident or on purpose."

"I won't let Jasper near you. You have my word." Peridot nodded slightly and then, after a second's hesitation, spoke again. "Shall I get a destabilizer, to speed up the process of retreating to your gem?"

I shuddered at the thought. Those gem destabilizer forcefully poofed gems and separated fusions. I did not want to be anywhere near one of those; the first and only– and hopefully last– time I had seen one of those was when it was used to capture me when I arrived on Homeworld, and the experience of being electrically forced into my gem was not something I wanted to repeat. "No!" Was that too forceful? "I mean, please don't. I– I can do it on my own." I buried my head in my arms and concentrated.

For a gem to retreat to their gem without hurting themselves was possible, but it was rather difficult and risky. I hesitated for a moment, then decided that I would hurt myself slightly and force myself to poof by taking all the pain in my body and using that against myself. Well, here goes. The best course of action was probably to just...

[Peridot's POV]

I stood in silence, watching the blue gem as she tried to decide how best to, how did she put it, "poof" herself. Despite all my efforts to organize my mind, unwanted thoughts kept fighting their way into my attention: I felt sorry for Lazuli. I wanted to protect her. No matter how many times I told myself that I couldn't allow myself to think those thoughts, they kept popping up in my mind, like malware on a old-fashioned computer – the newer ones had automatic methods to deal with bad programs and computer viruses, many of the methods designed by Peridots like myself. I was one among many Peridots, and we were the technicians of Homeworld. But this Lapis Lazuli gem was, to my knowledge, unique; although there had been several once, that had been a long time ago, and according to my research she was the one one left.

What Lazuli did next shocked me so much that I lost control over my neutral expression. I could feel my eyes widen drastically and my mouth fall open; my whole body seemed to give a jolt of shock. The slim gem had lifted her broken wrist and shaken it, hard. The expression on her face was one of pure agony, and although I had seen other faces with that expression on them before (mostly prisoners, as I was one of the main workers for Yellow Diamond and occasionally I was called in to perform digital checks on the hurt and beaten gems), Lazuli's face seemed to stick in my mind. There was a tiny, almost inaudible gasp from Lazuli's slightly parted lips –

And then she was gone, and all that was lying on the floor of the cell was a small, teardrop-shaped blue gem.