Chapter Text
It was the start of season nine, Pearl, Gem and Impulse were adventuring together and they saw a woodland mansion in the distance.
“Wow! A woodland mansion! Let’s go in!”
“With iron helmets and stone tools, I’d rather not. Impulse, how bout you go with Gem?”
“I’m sticking with Pearl on this one, sorry Gem”
“Come on guys, it’ll be fun! Plus, we can get totems!”
Pearl sighed, this would not go well. Respawning was not fun, and a woodland mansion is the basic equivalent of death.
Alas, with a begging Gem, the three of them went towards the mansion. Pearl died on the way to the mansion, and managed to recruit an excited Cleo near spawn.
The four of them set their spawn, got their gear out, and headed into the mansion.
The mansion was huge, although not as huge as the hermit’s mega bases last season. But huge enough for four hermits to die around five times each.
At last, the four got out, each holding a sparkly totem, with a satisfied grin on their faces.
Cleo was the first to leave the group, probably excited to show off her new totem to Joe.
Next was Impulse, after promising Pearl and Gem that he would set up his starter base near them. He was going to meet up with Tango and Zedaph, to see where the two of them of setting up.
Pearl and Gem decided that they, along with Impulse, would form a trio, and would set up their starter bases together. But first, they’d have to find a good spot to build.
It wasn’t very long before Pearl saw that Gem was limping.
“Gem, you alright?”
“Yeah, I’m fine.” Her voice lacking her usual enthusiasm.
“Gem, you’re limping.”
“Uh… a pillager shot me in the leg…” Gem trailed off, not wanting to worry Pearl too much.
“And?” Pearl pushed on.
Gem sighed, her friend was not backing off.
“The vindicators gave me a few hits with their axes. Honestly, it doesn’t really hurt that much.” Gem tried to reassure her worried friend.
“Gem, let’s rest under this tree, ok?”
“No no, we don’t need to stop for me. Come on Pearl, let’s quickly head to spawn.”
“Gem, I’m tired too. We can rest for five minutes. Then we can continue going to spawn.”
Gem obeyed Pearl, and gently sat down next to her, careful not to hurt herself more.
Silence filled the air, and the two girls just sat there awkwardly.
Gem looked over at Pearl, and saw that she had her eyes closed. Her hands were glowing.
“Pearl, are you ok?”
Pearl doesn’t respond, instead holds Gem’s hand.
Gem saw the glow, from her hand, starting to spread through her entire body.
“Pearl?” Her voice laced with worry.
“Gem. Calm down. I can’t concentrate.”
Gem’s whole body felt tingly, like she was being poked everywhere. She focused on the glow her body was giving out. A light blue, pastel-like colour surrounded her, calming her down.
Everything around her looked blue, due to the glow, and it looked really magical.
The glow on Pearl’s hand started to fade, and so did the glow surrounding Gem’s body.
Gem’s body didn’t feel tingly anymore, and the pain seemed to fade away. Pearl, on the other hand, was breathing heavily.
“Pearl?” Gem can’t help but feel worried for her friend.
Pearl’s eyes snapped open, and Gem can see the tiredness in her eyes.
“Gem, I’m fine.”
“Don’t mind me being curious, but what did you just do?”
“Um… I just healed you.”
“How?”
“I’d rather not talk about it.” Pearl looked to the ground.
“Ok. Can you walk? We still have to get to spawn.”
“Yeah, I’m good. Let’s go.”
The two made it to spawn and found a nice spot to build their starter bases.
As Gem started on her tree house, Pearl decided to set up her mine.
Pearl mined down to deepslate level and mined a two-by-two box. She blocked off the entrance of the box with cobblestone and let go of the spells she was putting up.
Pearl’s ankle looked twisted. Her back was littered with cuts. Her right foot was bleeding heavily and she knew she needed someone to help clean it up and bandage it.
Pearl could see why Gem was limping. Her ankle couldn’t support any amount of weight, let alone walk. She knew Gem was in pain, but she didn’t expect it to be this much.
Pearl pulled out her communicator and texted the only person who knows her secret.
<Pearlescentmoon>G, help. Mine down to deepslate. Cobblestone
She desperately hoped that Grian would understand the random gibberish she managed to type in her communicator whilst trying to ignore the pains in her back protesting when she sat up to type.
She lay on the cold deepslate floor, looking at her communicator to see Grian’s reply.
<Grian>coming now, hang tight pearl
Despite her pain, she smiled a little bit. Grian would come and help her, all she had to do was wait.
When Grian knew his sister was in need of assistance, he immediately dropped what he was doing and went to find Pearl. After all, she is his sister in everything but blood.
He dug around a bit, and found Pearl’s mine near Gem. He basically rolled down the stairs to deepslate level and broke the cobblestone wall that Pearl was behind.
Pearl looked terrible. Blood was everywhere. Grian looked in his inventory and pulled out some wool. He helped Pearl stop some of the bleeding by holding the wool on the wound.
“Pearl, what happened?” Grian can’t help but ask.
“Well, you see…” Pearl goes on and explains everything to Grian.
“Gem was hurt and she was in so much pain that I didn’t think she would make it to spawn so I ‘healed’ her. Then I had to put a numbing spell as well as a concealment spell to hide and numb the pain. I didn’t think it would be this bad.” Pearl paused when Grian removed the wool and pressed some fresh wool onto the wounds. “I told her I healed her but actually I just casted a spell to swap our health bar. Gotta find some use out of being a Watcher.”
Grian didn’t know what to say. What do you say if your sister got hurt because she was being noble? Instead, he focused on the wounds.
“Pearl, you’re really hurt. Either we find some healing potions, which will probably take some time, or we can force a respawn.”
Pearl already had the answer. “Respawn please, I don’t think I can stand being in this much pain for much longer. I told Gem I was caving. Can you lure a zombie to kill me or something?”
Ah Pearl, always thinks of others before herself. Of course she’d be worried that Gem would worry. “Ok, I’ll go get a zombie. You stay put, ok?”
Pearl nodded. Grian turned around and walked into a cave soon after. He saw a zombie and brought it to Pearl. There the zombie killed her.
Pearlescentmoon was slain by a Zombie.
<Tango>Oh no
<GeminiTay>pearl, you ok?
Pearl stood up from the bed and her ankle was no longer twisted. All the scars on her back are gone. Pearl sighed a breath of relief and look at her communicator.
<Pearlescentmoon>all good, just got into a bit of a pickle in the caves.
Just then she heard someone shouting her name.
“Pearl! Pearl!” Gem was running towards her.
“Gem! What's up?”
“Well, I saw your death message and figured I’d give you some of the gear I got from the skeleton spawner I found.”
“That’s really sweet of you, Gem. But-“ She was cut off by a panting Grian.
“Pearl-“ Grian heaved. “Your gear.” He said as he gave Pearl her armor and tools. “You should really put down some stairs.”
Pearl laughed while Gem looked confused.
“Grian, why were you in Pearl’s mine?” She asked.
“Oh um… well…” Grian can’t think of an excuse.
Pearl cut in, ”I was just showing him some of the caves I found. He told me that he hasn’t seen any of the new caves yet. I wouldn’t want my brother to miss out.”
Gem looked as if she wanted to say something, but the setting sun caught her eye. “It’s getting late, I better go back to my treehouse. Pearl, you up for a sleepover?”
“Anytime, Gem! You wanna ask Impulse to come too?”
“Yeah! Grian, you coming?”
“No thank you. I promised Scar to help him with something.”
“Gem, you go find Impulse, I’m gonna go get some Giga Pies.”
“Ok, see you later, Pearl!”
As Gem flew away to find Impulse, Pearl sighed.
“Hey G, mind me borrowing some diamonds?”
As Grian reached for the diamonds in his inventory, he said, “You know you can’t hide it forever.” He handed the two diamonds he had to Pearl, “They’ll have to know one day.”
“Grian, they can’t know. No one can. It’ll put them in danger. The watchers will kill them.”
Grian knew that wasn’t the reason Pearl was hiding her watcher side. Grian knew Pearl. How could he not? They’ve been friends for who knows how long.
“You know Gem and Impulse don’t care anything about danger, right?”
“Yeah, but Gri-“
Grian confronted her, “You’re scared that they’ll hate you. You’re scared that they won’t want to be friends with you.”
Pearl froze and dropped the diamonds. She stammered, “N-no…”
“Pearl…”
“Grian..” She turned to face him. “They’re my only friends. They can’t know.” She said as tears streamed down her cheeks.
Grian stepped forward to give Pearl a hug. He whispered in her ear, “I’m your friend too.”
Pearl laughed. “Well, sometimes things get a little boring with you.”
“Pearlescentmoon, are you complaining that you haven’t been pranked enough?” Grian joked with her.
“There will never be enough pranks, Mr Prankster.”
The two laughed, until Pearl looked at her communicator and saw the time.
“Ahh! I’m gonna be late!” She said as she was about to run off.
“Pearl!” Grian shouted.
“Yes?”
“I’ll always be here if you need me.” He said while giving her the diamonds she dropped. “I won’t tell them, but you’re going to have to tell them, sooner or later. A good friendship has trust. No secrets and no lies.”
Pearl looked at the diamonds. “I promise I’ll tell them. I’ll tell them when I’m ready.” She said. She looked at Grian, “Well, I’ll see you around, brother.” She turned around and ran off.
Grian watched as the shadow of her sister faded into the forest. He smiled to himself.
You better keep your promise, sister.