Chapter 7: Jade

"No, Peridot. Let's try it again" said Pearl

Peridot was clearly frustrated, but to Pearl's displeasure, not for not doing right fighting exercises, but because she didn't saw the point on Pearl's way of fighting.

"This way to fight is useless. Fighting on Homeworld isn't more your idea of fancy duels!"

"Well if you don't like this way, I'll make you shut up your mouth. Until you will become more respectful of my way of fighting, you'll have to clean all the Temple rooms. Even Amethyst's"

"But that will take ages!"

"Not my problem"

Two hours later a grumbling Peridot was finishing to clean Pearl's room, when she saw a chest inside the water. She opened it and she saw some of her old robinoids

"Well, I'll definitely need them" she said smirking. But taking them she accidentaly popped a bubble inside the chest that she didn't saw before. The gem inside started to glow and then gained an humanoid form, who immediately retreated. She was a tall and slim gem, with green skin, a green kimono.

"-, we can talk about this!"

"Who are you?" Peridot said

"Who are you, instead? I'm General Jade"

"You're not with Homeworld, right?" said Peridot, holding her mop like a spear.

"No, of course not! What about you?"

"I was an Homeworld gem, but then I got stranded on this planet and I became a Crystal Gem. I'm Peridot, homehow" she answered offering her hand

Jade shook her hand "A Peridot, huh? At my time, peridots were technicians. Has it changed?"

"No, why?"

"If you're a technician, why are cleaning?"

"Well Pearl thought I wasn't respecting her stupid way of fighting, so..."

"Wait, wait, wait! Pearl?"

"Yes, Pearl. Do you know her?"

"Yes, we know each other. She thought that her way of fighting was the best, but..."

"It's like..."

"Trying to defeat the opponent in stupidity" they said at the same time

"So" said Jade "I always said that my fighting style was better than Pearl's. Would you like if I train you. You would show to Pearl that you are better than her!"

"That's not the point! Body to body fighting is useless with the new weapons!"

"My fighting stategy isn't only for body to body fighting. It's about using your most powerful weapon. Your mind. That's use in fight and also out. It's a life philosophy"

And they trained. All Peridot had to do was irritating Pearl and then she prepared herself for the fight. Since the day came.

"Peridot, it's the time for your training..."

"You know what Pearl? I have enough! I bet that I'll defeat you!"

"That's ridicoulous, but I'll teach you a lesson"

Some time later they were in the arena, Steven watching at them, eating popcorns.

"Promise that you won't cry much when i'll defeat you. Steven may feel sad for you" Pearl said.

Peridot didn't say anything, but she moved an hand in a clear meaning signal "Come and try"

Pearl extracted her spear. Peridot didn't do anything. Pearl jumped very high. Peridot didn't do anything. Pearl charged Peridot with all her strength. When Pearl was only a few inches from her, Peridot jumped on the spear and blocked it to the ground. Then she took a small cilinder, who had the same dimensions of a pen. When it was took away from her gem, the cilinder started to grow, becoming as tall as Peridot. Peridot pointed this staff on Pearl's gem.

"I won"

"Very good job, my apprentice" said someone who teleported there during the fight.

"J-Jade?" Pearl said

"What, surprised to see me? We've chatted only yesterday. Whoops, I'm wrong. That was six thousands of years ago and you poofed and bubbled me"

"Who is she, Pearl?" asked an astounded Steven

"I'm general Jade, Steven. Peridot already told me everything about you and I know that you aren't Rose. What a shame. I'd like to revenge on her, but..."

"And why did Pearl bubble you?"

"That's a long story. A long time ago, thousands of years before the War, I was one of the most important gems on Homeworld. One day my ex-Diamond, White Diamond, decided that three diamonds weren't enough to rule the empire. So a new Diamond was implanted in the Diamond's Kindergarten and a hundred of years later she emerged. Earlier than the predicions said. And so there was a problem, something nobody expected. Instead of being a red and of normal diamond's size, the new Diamond was pink and small. She was an off-color. Underdone. Defective. And a Diamond. For thousands of years every gem knew that Diamonds were perfect and only thinking the opposite was something impossible. But Pink Diamond was the living proof that even a Diamond can be defective. White Diamond wanted to shatter her immediately, but Yellow and Blue were fascinated by the new Diamond, they cared about her, and they put their foot down to save her. I also cared about her and I trasfered myself to the service of Pink Diamond. I became her tutor, the gem who teached her everything. But for her I was something more. She was one of the kindest gems I've ever known. She respected every kind of gem, even Pearls. For her i was a confident, a friend. Then the colonization of the Earth began. I joined the revolution of a certain Rose Quartz, because I was fascinated of organic life. I didn't want a war, but Rose started one. She was a soldier. She said lots of things about not being conditionated from Homeworld conditionating, but she wanted all and now. So she started a war, as the good soldier she were. Many gem get shattered. Rose tried to not shatter gems, but when your life is on the table is kill or being killed. I had enough. I tried to convince Rose to accept a compromise, but she was an extrremiste. It was all or nothing, for her. But I decided that all the gem who wanted to stop the war could do a treaty with Homeworld. Rose forces would be too weak without us. So I proposed the idea to Pink. She accepted and we met in a secret place to talk about the terms of the treaty. But when Pink stepped out of her palanquin, Rose exited from nowhere and shattered her with her sword. The last thing I saw of my beloved Pink was her betrayed look. She thought that I, maybe one of the gems who most cared about her, had betrayed her. And that was her last thought. I was destroyed. I escaped. I started a revolution to avenge Pink, but Pearl ambushed me and you know the rest of the story. If I can have my revenge on Rose... Peridot, shatter her."

"What?" said Peridot

"I said shatter her. She don't deserve anymore to live"

"No"

"What?"

"I said no. I can understand your point of wiew, but it isn't right to hurt others and that won't help you feel better. So no" and with that Peridot throwed away her staff

"So it's true. When you want to do a thing well" she extracted a green katana from her gem "you have to do it yourself!" Jade said charging Pearl who sayed still and seemed like offering her gem to Jade's blade

"NO!" both Peridot and Steven screamed, but as Steven was too far to actually help, Peridot pushed Pearl, saving her from the deadly blow. When Jade looked back for the next attack, she didn't saw neither Pearl or Peridot. In their place stood Calcite. The fusion had four harms and a green and black tailleur with a star on her chest. She had a visor, more rounded than Peridot's one, that covered Pearl's and Peridot's gems and four pairs of eyes. She had Pearl's pointy nose and same haircut, but the hair's color was indeed Peridot's. The fusion was staring amazed and in disbelief, looking at her two pairs of hands.

"So it's how it feels. It's... Amazing" Calcite said, before being charged by Jade "Oh, not this time!" the fusion said while she caught Jade and she throwed her on a pillar. Then Calcite unfused

"Seems like you've won. Now I suppose you will bubble me and close me in your room for the next thousands of years" Jade said

"No, Jade. Recently i understood that not everything Rose did was right and that me bubbling you was the worst thing i could you. When you charged me before, I didn't do anything, because I thought you were right! I would have supported you, like a friend is supposed to do, but I obeyed blindly to Rose. Yes we had our differences, but we trusted each other. I'm really sorry about I did, about what Rose did. What if we can forget all and be friends again" Pearl said to Jade giving her her hand. Jade looked at her smile, at Steven's and Peridot's smiles. Smiles of acceptance, like she hasn't tried to kill Pearl some minutes earlier. But she wasn't ready.

"I need time to think" and she walked to the warp pad. The last thing they could hear before Jade walked away was a muttered "Thank you"

A/N

If you want to see the image that I visualized when I thought of Calcite, here's the link art/Fan-Fusion-Pearl-x-Peridot-584987023

I'm pretty bad at descriptions