LOG-045.

  My hands moved across the assortment of items I'd laid out on the floor of the Roaming Eye, eyes darting over several of them as I idly munched on another donut like some feral goblin, crouched down as I was.

  "Mm." I swallowed, repressing a slight shiver at the gloriously human sensation. It still hadn't gotten old, even a whole week later.

  The brief bit of pleasure didn't detract from my less than stellar mood however. With work out of the way, I'd been just about ready to laze about for the rest of the evening and night, maybe even go and poke the temple's newest organic guest for my own amusement or something. It was pretty tempting to see just how much I could mess with Pearl and Rose while they both dealt with the startling new existence that was Greg Universe.

  Alas, my own damned mind remained my worst enemy in times of relative peace, my perfect memory constantly reminding me of exactly just how much I had to do if I was going to ensure this entire planet didn't get completely fucked over in just a few decades.

  ...Just a few decades. Now wasn't that a thought?

  Regardless of my newfound perception and understanding of time, I still needed to act. Better to start early and all that, which of course included actually figuring out just where the Cluster was hidden, for when it inevitably came time to get the Crystal Gems on board in terms of properly dealing with it.

  That of course meant either going to the observatory sitting up somewhere on the moon, or accessing a planetside facility with scanners that could penetrate the ground deep enough to locate the slowly forming geoweapon.

  Hence my initial preparations. I wasn't completely sure whether I even could access the moonbase's systems without Diamond level authority, so until I decided I was desperate enough to go to Rose without concrete proof of the crap growing beneath the planetary crust we were all living on and do my best to convince her of its existence, I'd simply have to root around some of the old Imperial sensor stations present on Earth.

  As a direct result of all of that, I'd just been in the middle of returning a small dataslate and one of two destabilizers (conveniently stored on the ship itself, strangely enough. Maybe the Avians had left them there?) into my gemstone when the sound of footsteps steadily plonking up the ramp drew my attention, followed immediately by a familiar enough (by now at least) voice.

  "Yo Veeeee! You in here?!"

  Turning my head, I locked eyes with the temple's resident Quartz (the actual Quartz, to be specific) just as the last destabilizer vanished into my storage space.

  "I'm here, is there something you needed Amethyst?"

  The purple Gem scowled slightly, before walking over and leaning up against one of the consoles, hands going to her face as she groaned dramatically.

  "Ugh, I'm bored! Rose and Pearl have just been hanging out with that Greg guy all day! Sure it was funny at first, but Pearl and him glaring at each other stopped being fun to watch after the first gazzillion times. And Garnet took Vermi out to go meet up with that crazy lady with the cans! Said something about finding a 'telecommunications' device to call her with."

  A lock of her short hair fell in front of her face, quickly blown away by a strong puff of air. "She's just like Pearl sometimes. At least you call it a phone like a normal person."

  My brow quirked slightly as I rose up to my full height. "They're trying to get in touch with Rebecca?"

  At Amethyst's nod, my eyes narrowed slightly in thought. Out of anything Vermilion could have done...well, no. It wasn't completely out of left field, considering just how quickly she'd latched on to the woman during our time as Honey Lemon. Maybe she'd finally gathered up enough courage to finally explore outside of the temple a little? Beyond occasionally staring at me working from outside the Big Donut's windows.

  Stars, it actually sort of felt comforting that she was willing to go ask Garnet to help her get in touch with the woman, now that I thought about it.

  ...Garnet. Hm.

  Shifting in place slightly, I crossed my arms while leaning up against the wall behind me.

  "...Was she looking for me?"

  Shaking her head, the short Gem glanced over at the ramp for a second, frowning.

  "Huh...actually I think she was planning to? Garnet came over to her first though, she said you were gonna be busy with your own thing!"

  ...Fucking future vision. Whatever, it was probably a good sign on both their parts that Garnet and Vermilion were willing to do things together without me present to babysit.

  "Hm. Alright then."

  As I pushed off from my temporary resting spot, Amethyst tracked me, her eyes widening slightly as she apparently noticed some of the other equipment I hadn't gathered back into my storage yet, her head tilting a little as I began to pick them up as well.

  "Oh, so you are busy. Whatcha' doin?"

  Pausing as I let a thick length of rope and an old crowbar I'd found disappear into my gemstone, I thought about what to say.

  "...I was planning to visit a few of the old areas Homeworld developed back before the rebellion. Some of the spires and labs and such. There's...a few things I need to check up on, I think."

  Her blank stare almost drew a sigh before I shook the temptation away, instead turning to face her fully, my hands going to my hips as an idea made itself apparent.

  Some good company probably wouldn't go amiss considering my first planned destination, after all.

  "Say, you're a proper Quartz, right? Amethysts like yourself likely would have been made in the Prime Kindergarten, now that I think about it. Right here on Earth."

  She blinked in response, a slight gleam entering her eyes.

  "Well yeah but-wait, you know about that stuff?"

  Waving a hand back and forth in a vague motion, I nodded.

  "Sort of. I wasn't exactly a Peridot-" The name almost made part of me twinge in discomfort a second afterwards, thinking of the bubbled shards currently still sitting somewhere within the temple. "-made for Kindergartening, Pearl and all. But I spoke to some of the ship's technicians often enough, and they had a bit of inherent knowledge on the subject."

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  Amethyst's attention remained rapt, up until she noticed I was actively moving towards the ramp.

  "Huh-hey! Woah, wait! Where are you going?"

  Steadily walking down the steps, I listened as the Quartz scrabbled just beyond the Eye's entrance. "To the Kindergarten, of course. It's one of the first locations on my list. Want to come with?"

  As I made my way towards the temple, I couldn't help but let a small smile appear on my face as the shorter Gem scrambled after me.

  "Heck yeah I do! Oh, and can you tell me about some of what you know while we're there? I haven't really gotten the chance to talk to you about it yet and the others never say anything about the place when I ask about it. They always just talk about how terrible and bad the place is."

  Settling down atop the crystalline surface of the Warp pad, I nodded.

  "Sure."

  ---

  I'd occasionally seen imagery of Kindergartens. The Retaliator had even once gone into orbit above an actively developing colony, some of the older Gem production centers clearly visible even from beyond the upper exosphere.

  None of it quite managed to match the utterly dead atmosphere of actually being inside of one though. Anywhere I stepped, the ground remained both hard and brittle, while just about every direction contained endless rows of exit holes indicating the final process of Gems bursting their way out of the ground.

  Fuck, even the air felt stale around here. Almost reminded me of the planet I'd first met Brim on. Before we'd eventually gone our separate ways.

  ...Hopefully the weird Lapis Lazuli had made it out of that fight as well as Vermilion and I did.

  "Soooo this is where I emerged. Pretty snazzy, huh?"

  Standing in place, I stared up at one of the towering injectors, trying to make out the complex looking...stuff contained inside of it as Amethyst stepped up next to me.

  "...Snazzy is one word for it. You must have had one really big Batch, judging just from the sheer size of this place."

  The purple Gem kept pace easily enough as I took a few steps further away from the Warp pad, hesitantly running my thin hand against the edge of one of the exit holes.

  "I guess? I uh...I'm not really sure what that means though, you know?"

  The questioning tone in her voice was apparent, and when I turned back to face her, I could just about make out a hint of desperation colouring her expression, one that she likely hadn't intended to make.

  It was literally impossible for me to forget her issues when it came to her birth, but fucking Hell if she wasn't making the memory come to the forefront of my thoughts.

  ...

  ...Screw it. I could take a few minutes if it meant getting the short Crystal Gem to stop doubting herself so much. Heck, it was probably productive, actually. Like nipping a few potential issues in the bud before they became outright problems.

  Finally letting loose a sigh, I let myself slide down to the ground, patting the ground in front of me in response to the rebel's confused look.

  "Take a seat. I'll...see if I can't explain how Quartzes work. At least from my understanding of things after hanging out with some of them."

  It was almost comical, how quickly her ass hit the dirt, eyes wide and fixated on my lightform.

  "I'm listening."

  Nodding, I let my gemstone light up, a small viridian (heh) screen emerging as if from thin air.

  The hologram was a simple enough thing. Not anything on the level of bullshittery that Pearl could do, but it got the job done. Namely by letting my gemstone project one of my memories into an almost photographic format.

  Amethyst's wide eyes got even bigger as a familiar figure popped up on the screen, form shimmering slightly as I ran my hand across it.

  "This is generally what Quartzes look like. Tall, big, lean and mean looking, even if they're a bunch of goofballs at their core. The Gem you're looking at is a Jasper if we're getting specific. Facet 2I4Q, Cut 7XE. She isn't anything too special, which is why we'll use her as an example. If you ever run into another Quartz, whether they're a Jasper like this one, something else entirely, or even an Amethyst like yourself, they're probably gonna look something like her in terms of overall shape, bar a few exceptions."

  Her gaze remained glued to the image for a few seconds, eyes only blinking when I shifted the screen to another image, one of the cubbies within the Retaliator, several Jaspers either hanging around within them, or standing just outside of the resting areas.

  Waving my hand at the picture, I made sure I had her attention before gesturing to the Kindergarten around us.

  "Quartz soldiers are particularly social when it comes to their Batches. It's programmed in by design, making sure they fight more cohesively as a unit. While there are a few exceptions to that rule, like Citrines, generally you'll never find a Quartz operating on their own. They're like...a human family, if that makes sense. But also beyond that. They're almost perfectly identical Gems, all synched up with each other. Remember that story you told me about your rock pals? That was most likely your programming looking for something to form a unit with."

  I glanced down as Amethyst's hands visibly clenched, the Quartz's voice more of a mumble than anything else.

  "So...I wasn't meant to be alone. I was meant to be part of a group when I got out of the ground."

  Her fists shook slightly, the front of her hair falling over her eyes.

  "I took too long to come out, so I missed everyone leaving...not like they'd even want a runt like me anyway."

  Nodding slowly as I took in her glum expression, I let the hologram blink out of existence.

  "Yes, you were meant to be part of a group. A Batch. If everything had gone according to plan, you likely would have emerged alongside, at the very least, a few dozen other Amethysts. But make no mistake, Rose, Pearl and Garnet are wrong in saying that a Kindergarten is a terrible place. All it does is produce Gems. Sure, it absorbs life around it, but that can probably be managed by just shutting it down for a while. What's terrible is the highly ranked individuals in charge of places like this."

  Her melancholic, angered look shifted into one of hesitation as I stood up, glaring down at her.

  "For a while, you'd all get to run around and test out your lightforms. Get used to the fact that you're now a living, thinking being. Then you all would have been assigned an Agate, your shiny new superior officer. From there, your existence would consist of obeying commands and remaining within a strict hierarchical structure alongside your fellow Amethysts. No lazing about. No wandering off to explore or interact with other Gems or species. Just following orders and doing the tasks assigned to you, and being punished if you act out of line. That's the general case for Gems living within the boundaries of the Empire."

  Turning aside as that hesitant look grew, I instead directed my glare to one of the slightly larger exit holes.

  "But then again, that's more like the best case scenario for a type of Gem produced for the sole purpose of fighting and killing. More likely, you'd spend your entire life being thrown into battle after battle, war after war, winning countless victories for the glory of the Great Diamond Authority until all of you were either shattered or outright ground to dust."

  I took advantage of my newfound ability to produce saliva, even if the glob of liquid I spat out onto the ground disappeared in a flash of light less than a second afterwards.

  "Then? They'd replace both you and your Batch with the next wave, whether from this Kindergarten or an entirely different one. Just another cog in the machine, broken down and cast aside in favour of a new one."

  She was visibly scowling now, angry at the thought.

  "That...that freaking sucks." Good. My message was getting across.

  I just hoped it was the right one.

  Shunting the thought aside and nodding firmly in response to the statement, I tapped a foot against the ground, glancing over at a nearby broken injector.

  "It does. It doesn't matter whether you're a Pearl like me, a Quartz like you or even a Peridot or Rutile like some of the Gems I used to know. Once Homeworld gets a hold of you, they expect you to serve, and to keep serving until you can't. And when that happens? That's when they don't want you anymore."

  I paused, considering her hunched posture now.

  ...Alright, time to tone it back a little.

  Stepping over and leaning down, I let my hand rest itself against Amethyst's back, even as the purple Gem glanced back up at me with shiny eyes.

  "But you're free of that. Look, it...it might sound bad coming from me, especially since we haven't actually known each other for all that long, but you being overcooked is probably the best thing that could have happened to you, considering the circumstances here on Earth. Sure, you're a bit shorter than the average Amethyst, but at least you're free. Call me biased, but I'd rather be defective-"

  My hands went up, making visible finger quotes just to make sure I was being as visibly sarcastic as possible in calling her such a thing. Didn't want the dedicated warrior caste Gem thinking I was insulting her, after all.

  "-by those clods' standards than live as a slave to a completely uncaring Empire. Trust me, you're better off without them and your Batch would be better off without them as well, given half the chance."

  A watery chuckle escaped the Crystal Gem as I finished my rant, even as she fell backwards, back plopping against the dirt.

  "When you put it like that...it almost feels like I was the lucky one."

  I glanced up at the sky, noting just how far along the sun had gotten. Everything was shaded now, and soon enough I'd probably need to project light from my gemstone just to be able to see where I was actually going.

  Sighing again, I let myself sit down next to Amethyst regardless, knees going up to my chest as I pulled out a wrapped packet of beef jerky from my storage, ripping it in two and tossing one half of the meat at the surprised Gem.

  "We all have our ups and downs in life. No one's perfect, and anyone who says they are is almost definitely lying."

  The Quartz chewed on that piece of pseudo-philosophy for a moment, before snorting.

  "Heh, yeah. I guess...I guess that does make me feel a bit better."

  I could try and investigate a way into wherever this Kindergarten's command center was later. For now, I just smiled as the visibly happier Gem stuffed the entire half of her packet down her gullet, plastic and all.

  "...Thanks, Viridian. I'm glad you and Vermi came to Earth."

  ...

  "I'm glad we did too...shorty."

  "...Hey!"

  "Heh."