Fear
Pearl wasn’t with her Diamond for more than a few months before she ended up sitting in the Reef, her back against the wall and sobbing incoherently from the pain, and a sob morphs into a muffled scream into her hand as her whole body glitches, nearly losing it’s shape, and the feeling like she’s coming apart even worse, and she clasps a hand over her cracked gem, desperately trying to make sure it stays together.
“Get up.”
Pearl’s vision is blurry as she tries to look up at the other gem, and she blinks a few times, shifting the position of her hand over her gem to try to see her better.
“Get up.” She reaches down, grabbing Pearl’s wrist and pulling her up forcefully.
“I-I’m sorry, the,” She gasps between sobs. “Overhead- she- she told me to- she told me to wait here-”
“Yes, yes, Shell. I’ll fix you right up, you’re fine. I didn’t expect to see you again so soon, but you’re fine.”
“See me again…?” She mumbles faintly, letting herself get tugged along, as unsteady and unstable as she is.
“You wouldn’t remember, but I’m the one who made you. Stand there.” She positions Pearl in the middle of a room, and then steps back. “And take your hand off your gem.”
Pearl reluctantly does as she’s told, and it is relatively quick and mostly painless and… her gem is good as new. She runs her fingertips across the perfectly smooth stone, letting out a sigh of relief that the pain and instability is gone, but it’s hard to stop crying.
The other gem gently takes her hands and guides out of the room to sit down, and just quietly lets her get the tears out before saying anything.
“Alright. Tell me what happened, so we can work to prevent it from happening again.”
“I don’t know! I was just- I was just trying to do what she asked! And I- I don’t know… did I do something wrong… she gets so angry with me for the tiniest mistake, and this time she just- she just…”
It was in an instant, that massive hand sweeping her aside with such force that she went flying back, slamming hard into the wall, and for a second it felt like her world ended as deep cracks spread through her gem, and she hit the ground.
“… Oh dear. It’s my fault, really.” She gently takes both of Pearl’s hands in hers, squeezing them gently. “I made you wrong, and our Diamond has very high standards, you see. Just do your best, alright? And remember this. Be afraid of her, it might be your best chance to live.”
“… You… want me to be afraid?” Pearl stares at their hands, blinking slowly. She is afraid. White Diamond is terrifying, and especially so after that. But being afraid is terrible in it’s own right, and…
“Yes. I know, that’s stressful, and you don’t want to go through with it, but the alternative is that she shatters you some day. If you’re afraid you’ll remember why it’s so important to toe the line.”
“… If you made me wrong, why did you give me to her?”
“Oh, well…” Nacre sighs. “I didn’t want to. I would have spared you the misery, but that would require telling our Diamond that her custom pearl would have been delayed by my error and… and she would not have been happy.”
“Would… Would she have hurt you like… like that?” Pearl wouldn’t wish that upon anyone, and especially not this other gem who’s being so… nice to her. She seems to actually care about Pearl…
“It’s definitely a possibility. Do you understand why I had to give you to her? I really didn’t want to…”
Pearl nods slightly, which gets a soft smile from the other gem, who squeezes her hands again.
“Dearie, I’m going to do my best to help you through this, but you have to be careful. Just remember how that felt, and do everything you can to stop it from happening again. Hold onto that fear. It’s going to save your life.”
Pearl nods again, but she feels uneasy about it, despite the reasoning presented. Is… Is being afraid all the time… is that… Is it worth it?