LOG-142.
LOG-142.
There was too much to go over.
What had been done to me?
How had it been done to me?
Why had it been done to me?
How long had I been relegated to being little more than a puppet?
What was going to happen now? What was I going to do?
Questions. So, so many questions. Too many to answer at once. So I’d shoved them into the back of my mind, plastered on a calm expression, and followed along behind the chatty Moissanite leading me through some kind of laboratory, the White Court Gem babbling all the while in response to what questions I could ask her.
“-and so upon inspecting some of your underlying code, our Diamond grew intrigued!”
Withholding a flinch at the knowledge that yet another violation had been visited upon my person while I’d been…absent, I ignored the sheer terror attached to the thought of White fucking Diamond inspecting the interior of my gemstone’s makeup like some kind of…of idle curiosity or something, instead focusing on asking what questions I could.
“Intrigued by what?”
Alpha glanced at me out of the corner of her eye, even as we passed a pair of pale Peridots who snapped around to face us as we passed by, their notably unenhanced limbs twisting in interesting ways to complete the salutes they shot our way.
“Your seemingly eidetic memory, of course!”
Another bite of terror. Another repressed flinch. If these Gems had wanted me dead, or worse, they likely wouldn’t be taking me on a long walk like this. Or even have released me from White’s control.
“I see…and what were her findings?”
The shudder that wracked my lightform was nigh imperceptible as I helplessly failed to stop the recollection of my body steadily turning white, skin and clothing bleaching as my autonomy was forcefully ripped away from me.
“Well to fully understand that, I’ll need to give you some context first! But worry not, we have a bit of a walk ahead of us. These facilities are intentionally isolated deep within Homeworld’s surface for security purposes. Anyway, Gems.”
If she had been able to…to see that I processed memories differently than other Gems…had White seen said memories?
“Each Gem, as a rule, has a little…I suppose the general term would be a reality pocket. One containing nothing but information. Memories, programming, all sorts of important things like that, and all carefully contained inside of said aforementioned Gem’s…well, gemstone!”
How much of me had been compromised?
“Of course these start off quite small, but the benefit of being an information-only dimension is that these reality pockets can be expanded with relative ease. As a given Gem continues to live, at least some of the energy she generates is used to do that.”
How much did the Empire know?
“The problem is thatthis unfortunately isn’t a perfect process. A Gem’s senses and processing ability generate more information than they can readily store, thus resulting in an imperfect memory. Things that are learned get put in there forever, but she does have to devote time, specifically to learning!”
How long would I have to wait until I could even tell how much they knew?
“Castes of course vary on how quickly the whole process occurs. Rubies are some of the slowest, Diamonds are the fastest, but they also have better senses and high processing ability, which is actually counterproductive.”
My thoughts went away from my still somewhat panicked questioning as I blinked at the blunt statement from the rambling Moissanite, warily glancing around to see if any overly loyal Gem would begin yelling at the borderline rebellious statement.
A Diamond being anything but flawless?
Scandalous.
“White Diamond, our Diamond, probably has the best actual memory of any Gem, on account of being the best-built, but even she can’t store everything. Instead, her Illustriousness has the ability to choose what she devotes to storage! If she wants to learn, she memorises the information instantly. If she doesn’t, she just discards it!”
My counterpart glanced at me again, grinning.
“This is where we get to the fascinating exploration of your existence, by the way.”
—
“Now of course my own direct involvement in your study was limited, as our Diamond chose to honour you by personally leading the project. What I did get access to was some of the data brought up in regards to your brief time as an active Gem, namely the before and after effects of your emergence, alongside her own personal notes on the subject.”
More white hallways. Endless, it felt like. Sometimes there would be labs with Gems in them. Other times what just looked like empty chambers of what must have been stone.
I took the time to do the first thing that made sense, namely checking my storage space. And to my surprise…
It was untouched. All of my supplies and mementos. The Rose Quartz bubble wall. Sodalite, sitting in her corner…all untouched. It was hopefully a point in favour of my captors having been stupid enough to have not bothered checking such a thing, which, if I was lucky, meant I wasn’t being strung along, and possibly even had a chance of getting out of here.
…Or, it could mean that a Pearl’s inner storage simply couldn’t be reached by anyone, except for the Pearl herself. I just didn’t know, and I couldn’t be sure at the moment. Something to examine in the future, if I managed to get out of here.
More hallways. More checkpoints.
And all the while, all I had to fill the silence were my own thoughts.
“The major thing is the fact that you are, simply put, personally responsible for significant, sweeping bonuses to a notable chunk of the Empire. First with your public singing career and then during your brief tenure of service beneath Yellow Diamond. Stars, you managed to increase her efficiency and recorded productivity more than her original Pearl ever did!”
Oh, and Moissanite Alpha, of course-wait, what?
“But I’m getting ahead of myself, the details in this case no longer matter. The important part is that our Diamond saw all of this data and came to a simple conclusion. You, my dear, are the best Pearl to ever Pearl! Well, former Pearl now. Units 1A and 1B had tens of thousands of solar cycles and couldn’t do this. 1C isn’t even worth mentioning, and 1D failed so badly that Pink…well, we all know what happened there.”
What the fuck? I’d actively been sabotaging things! How the fuck had I helped! Were they tricking me? Was this some kind of…of long con…sleeper agent play or something?! And who were…no, those codes probably correlated to the Diamonds’ Pearls, now that I thought about it…
Whether ignorant of my internal thoughts or simply uncaring, Alpha guided me into what I could only describe as some kind of impossibly high tech, diagonal elevator, placing her hand against a panel even as she continued to smile at me.
“The Diamonds’ own personal Pearls are dull in comparison, and every other Pearl is just worse from there. You’re not even a hundred solar cycles old and you’re perfect.”
Perfect. Always about perfection with these…these lunatics.
Stifling the response I wanted to so desperately answer with, I instead tilted my head slightly, an inquisitive note in the tone of my voice.
“So I performed better than the average Pearl. You still haven’t gotten to how.”
The Moissanite scoffed in response to that, waving a hand at me as…well, nothing happened. According to what few indicators were present on the panel, we were moving. But even if we were, I couldn’t actually feel anything. No inertia. No sense of gravity. Nothing.
“I’m getting to it, you’ll remember every detail anyway, may as well give you the full story. Now! With all of this in mind, and you’ll enjoy this part, White Diamond went looking into just how you do what you do. Your gemstone was examined first of course, but…well it wasn’t really anything worth writing home about. No offense.”
“...None taken.”
“Right. Anyway, the next step was scanning through your metaphysical setup. That’s where she immediately came across the unusual memory pipeline you’ve got going on.”
I froze as Alpha leaned over, planting a hand on my shoulder with a manic gleam in her eyes, heedless of the fact that I was heavily considering stabbing her at this point.
“I have never seen our creator so pleased. I’ve read the notes, and I know how she writes when she’s pleased with a development. Your entire mental setup? According to White, it looks like your memory sorting mechanism has an emergent optimisation algorithm built into the very core of it!”
Her grin grew wider, past something that would have been possible with a human mouth.
“It’s the best possible thing a Pearl could have, the entire line of Gems are meant to be assistants, after all, and this setup produced one that can eventually assist with anything. It’s…well, it’s almost definitely some kind of freak accident, but it’s revolutionary! The biggest thing in crystalline lifeform studies in…in ever!”
You could be reading stolen content. Head to NovelFire for the genuine story.
So…my memories were sorted differently than usual, and being able to recall them with perfect clarity made me the perfect slave in White’s eyes, one capable of mastering any skill.
Lovely. At least Alpha seemed positively stoked about the whole thing.
“Of course our Diamond did the sensible thing and made a copy of your code first, that was one of the main parts of the code transfer-”
The what?
“-process. But then she leaned into her scientific side and asked just how far this could keep going. How far you could keep going. Accident or not, you were a new, superior form of Pearl, and getting a few new prototypes with your setup could provide invaluable insights.”
Abruptly, the doors to the elevator opened back up, this time revealing a slightly more aesthetically modern hallway, this one coated in shining crystalline panels rather than the borderline crude looking stonework from before.
“The best part was that we effectively had everything on hand to ensure this. Little known fact, but one that you’re privy to now, Pearls can be made into Nacres!”
No fucking duh was what I wanted to say, but instead I just kept my mouth shut and began to follow Alpha out of the elevator, locking eyes with a pair of Quartzes (both just as white as the panelling surrounding them) who silently stared at us until we turned a corner, moving down another hallway.
“Suffice to say, if you live up to our Diamond’s expectations, you’ll make Pearls as good as yourself! So…you know, a bit of pressure there. Though I’m sure you’ll do well!”
Glaring at the back of the Moissanite’s head as she continued to lead me to…wherever we were going, I resisted the urge to growl, and performed admirably in not lunging for her exposed lightform.
“How was I…upgraded?”
Alpha’s voice, somehow, managed to grow even more excited in response to the question, the Gem turning back to glance at me even as we passed through yet another checkpoint.
“Oh! A good question, I actually had some direct involvement in this!”
When she’d said we had a walk ahead of us, I wasn’t expecting something that would take the better part of five hours!
“So, first step! We split your gemstone into its constituent molecules! The smallest possible size it could go while still retaining an identity as a gemstone.”
Oh Stars what the fuck.
“The next step was taking some of Pink Diamond’s essence that we still had in storage prior to the, ah, rebellion, before mixing it with the other three types of Diamond essences at a ratio of seventy five percent Pink, with the the remainder split between Yellow, Blue, White, and a specific mineral solution we use for inducing growth in Pearls, prior to their transformations into Nacres!”
I had literally been taken apart and rebuilt. What the FUCK.
“The molecular dust then reintegrated with itself while also incorporating Pink’s essence, thus bringing you up to Era One standards. From there, it was a simple matter for our Diamond to guide along your growth into a suitable format for what she desired, namely a new, better Nacre to oversee the Reef and bring in a new paradigm of Pearl production!”
Yeah, fucking sure. Why the hell not. Oh the second I got access to…to something I was going to kill everyone involved with this insanity.
Explosives, I needed so, so many explosives.
“The final touch was adding in some of White Diamond’s own code on top of your already existing infrastructure, that was part of the code transfer as well, mind you, and then adding in a few new protocols for your new role! It all provides the base you’ll need to optimise even further, which should massively speed things along.”
There it was again. Code transfer. White Diamond had…had copy and pasted me, presumably to pick at my underlying programming in her own time. And in turn she’d…what, put a copy of her own programming into my head? Did she have built-in Nacre training or something?
“Of course there’s also the whole slew of changes to your gemstone, but those are mostly just physical upgrades. You’re harder, better, stronger, Stars, you can even think faster. I’d almost be jealous if I didn’t help implement said upgrades! For example, your gauntlets!”
I nearly missed a step at the mention, before shaking aside the latest bit of (by now redundant) shock at having yet another private thing pried loose from my horrifically violated lightform.
“My gauntlets?”
Alpha’s head bobbed up and down in a nod, the Moissanite finally stopping her brisk pace as we settled in front of a massive, almost vault-like door that began to slowly but surely go through an intricate unlocking process in response to…something. Possibly Alpha’s presence.
“Of course! You’ve likely never used them, seeing as you were a Pearl and all, but every Gem has a weapon of sorts they can summon. A redundant addition from when our creator used her own code to create the rest of us.”
Never used…right.
“White Diamond believes it’s a sign that you were naturally intended for this route! And I’m more than inclined to agree. I mean just what are the odds of a Pearl having just the right weapon…well, more like tool, really, that could be repurposed in her new role as a Nacre?”
Were they…were they being genuine about this? What kind of mental gymnastics had that giant, glowing monster of a lightbulb needed to do to come to that kind of conclusion? Surely I was being played somehow, right?
Questions Alpha didn’t seem inclined to answer as she continued speaking.
“However, you’re a perfect product now, personally modified by White Diamond herself! Those gauntlets of yours made for a fine basic design, but we’ve since reuploaded them as custom, bespoke limb enhancers. Legs have been added to the set as well for universal compatibility, but the claws are the important part, they’re made for doing impossibly fine work on Pearl gemstones. I’m sure you’re more than aware of that by now though, new coding and all.”
And I…I was. It had been difficult to tell at first, but it was like my unnatural sense of balance all over again. I knew things. Not like I remembered things, but as if I’d been born all over again, with knowledge directly inserted into my mind upon said rebirth. How to…to lecture. To refine. To…
To oversee.
My epiphany went unnoticed as the white Gem across from me snapped her fingers, light beginning to filter through the doors opening behind her, pale eyes inspecting my form once more.
“Ah, that comes to my last point before I let you go. You’re about the size of the average Nacre already, though likely just a little taller with your limb enhancers equipped. Go ahead and try to summon them now.”
Begrudgingly, and due to no small amount of curiosity on my end, I obeyed the order, feeling around for that familiar sensation-
I blinked as I abruptly gained almost half a foot of height, glancing down to see…
Claws. They were artificial, of course. But the seams and plates of the gauntlets were so subtle that had I not known exactly where to look, I very well might have mistaken the things as my own hands. There were also a pair of sharp looking boots adorning my legs, the likely source of my increased height.
“Perfect! No need to unsummon them, White intended for them to be a permanent fixture, and your new role as a Nacre means you’ll need them more often than not anyway. Now, while I’ve simply adored getting the opportunity to speak with you-”
More like speak at me, you blabbermouth.
“-I do have other tasks I must complete. I’ll be sending a report to our Diamond once we part ways since she’s currently attending to important matters, so for now just head through those doors. There’s an escort that will guide you to the appropriate Warp junction that will get you to the Galaxy Warp. Then you can travel over to the Reef and settle into your new line of work. Exciting, isn’t it?”
My eyes narrowed imperceptibly as I stepped forward and passed the Moissanite, clawed fingers flexing slightly as I locked eyes with another pair of Quartz soldiers, these ones a pale grey compared to the bone white of the ones below.
“Yes…I look forward to seeing what work awaits me.”
A stinging sensation at my eyes was ruthlessly put down before it could escalate.
“Excellent! Goodbye, Nacre Four!”
Repress it. You can cry later when it’s safe. Now is not the time, Viridian.
“...Goodbye, Moissanite Alpha.”
Staring the two visibly nervous shock troopers down, I remained silent as the sound of the doors closing behind me filled the air, until one of them finally broke her salute in response to the massive barrier’s edges thumping together, exposing the white diamond sigil on her chest as she gestured towards the unmistakable skyline I’d come to recognise as belonging to Homeworld.
“Shall we get going, my Nacre?”
Cry later. You need to blend in for now.
“Lead the way.”
Just until I could find a way out of here. Then I would scream into a pillow for a year or so. Probably.
“Yes my Nacre!”
Fuck.