The small spinel stared up at the two gems who looked to be connected or maybe that was the darkness playing tricks with her eyes. Or so she thought, a red light appeared coming from their red gem which was located on their navel. Spinel could only stare in horror she didn’t know what she was staring at was real. Two gems connected by the hip. Before Spinel opened her mouth about to scream in terror a hand immediately pressed against her mouth silencing her.

“Shh.” The left gem said putting a dingle hand to their mouth looking worried.

“If you make too much noise p, that machine that was following you might find us.” The right gem told her.

Spinel stared at them wanting to speak but her throat felt so dry and raspy talking felt almost impossible for her. That and the years of not using her own voice must’ve taken it’s terrible toll with her. However the small gem still shook as she was scared of seeing something completely different. She didn’t even know what type of them they were.

“Hey it’s okay.” The left one said calmly.

“We won’t hurt you.” The right one spoke.

Spinel looked up and smiled softly at them she didn’t want to be rude but knew that speaking right now wasn’t really an option. She was great fun that they seemed to understand...well a little.

“You're not hurt are you?” The right gem asked.

Spinel shook her head

“C'mon we should go.” The left gem said calmly.

Spinel nodded and followed the two strange red gems down into the depths of the cavern. Spinel was relieved though they seemed to be far away from those scary machines and there seemed to be more emergence holes. Spinel wondered where they were going and honestly wanted to ask since it was probably best that she didn’t follow complete strangers but than again they did save her life so were they honestly strangers?

“We’re the Rutile twins by the way.” The right gem said to the small pink spinel.

“Who are you?” The left twin asked.

Spinel opened her mouth trying to say something p, anything but nothing came out. She tried again hearing something raspy come from her mouth which ended up swindling her into a coughing fit. It hurt. It really did hurt. Spinel could feel a bit of blood get onto her hands as she coughed trying to regain air. Despite not needing any. Both twins panicked a little when seeing her distressful display.

“H-hey! You don’t need to talk if you don’t want to. We understand.” The left twin cried.

Spinel painted softly her coughing dying down and she nodded wiping off the pink blood off of her bottom lip. She had no clue what had happened, she was just trying to speak and then last thing she knew she was coughing out blood. Six thousand years without talking really did mess her up she figured. Spinel shuttered not wanting to dwell on why she was unable to speak and simply followed the two Rutile twins and stopped when she heard a voice.

“I will predict that the Rutile twins will return safely and bring a new gem into our quarters,” a small orange gem chimed.

“We know Padparadscha, it already happened.” Another voice said coming out of their hole they had four arms and four eyes and at first it started Spinel seeing something so different causing her to yelp put in fear which caused the other gem to cry out in fear as well.

“Hey it’s okay, it’s just our friend Rhodonite. She won’t hurt you.” One of the twins said calmly reassuring the frightened spinel.

Spinel on the other hand felt terrible for scaring another gem who most definitely didn’t deserve to get scared. The small gem opened her mouth in attempt to apologize to the gem she spooked but knew that talking would prove to be pointless and she closed her mouth. The small pink gem instead gave the fusion gem an apologetic look to which Rhodonite seemed to acknowledge.

“I-Kts alright I’m sorry if I scared you too.” Rhodonite said and took notice of Spinel’s gem.

“W-wait? Your gem is a perfect cut. I’ve never seen a gem like yours before.” She said calmly.

“Maybe she’s a special gem?” Padparadscha said cheerfully.

“What type of gem?” Rhodonite asked out loud.

Spinel remained quiet as she stared at the two gems and gasped when her eyes caught something lurking around behind the two gems causing her to gasp and back away in fear.

“Oh that’s Fluorite she won’t hurt you.” Padparadscha states calmly.

Spinel nodded but she still seemed afraid of the odd looking gem.

“So what’s your name?” The orange sapphire asked.

Spinel looked down feeling sad for a moment unable to speak.

“She can’t talk.” The left Rutile twin said, placing a hand on her shoulder.

“She can’t?” Came a sad tone from Rhodonite.

“So sad.” Padparadscha said, looking swd.

Spinel looked away ashamed for being unable to speak.

“It’s alright. You don’t need to...if you don’t want to.” Said a slow toned voice from Fluorite.

Spinel looked up junking from what she saw but smiled and tried not to get so spooked by the gem she was seeing. Spinel was grateful. These gems, they understood her situation.

“We shouldn’t waste too much time Lars is waiting for us.” Rhodonite said.

“Right.” Both twins said in union.

“I will predict that captain Lars will be waiting for us to leave.” Padparadscha chimed.

Everyone began heading down another secret tunnel of the underground of Homeworld and . It was so strange Spinel could see so many holes of where gems had emerged from. Who knew that there were underground tunnels and kindergartens down here. Spinel could see from the other side of the tunnel that there was a spaceship waiting for them. There standing near the ship was a tall pink thing that Spinel couldn’t seem to recognize. They didn’t appear to be a gem that the small spinel had seen before, granted she never saw any gems ever since she was placed in the garden, but the tall pink creature didn’t seem to even look like a gem nor have one. So this must be Kars as the other gems called him

The pink captain looked to be wearing a cape and some gloves having a captain like appearance. His eyes scanned the small pink gem and he looked at the two Rutile twins as they spoke explaining the situation.

“We found her in the caverns.” The left twin said.

“We wanted to bring her along with us.” The right twin replied.

Lars as stared at the small pink gem and listened as the small orange sapphire spoke up.

“Can she come?” Padparadscha asked sweetly. Lars remained quiet which scared the small gem as she desperately needed needed to get out of Homeworld, she was deathly afraid of being shattered for her crimes of what she had done, she didn’t think she could fathom what they might do to her when they find her.

“She can come.” Came a calm voice p.

Spinel sighed relived on hearing that but looked up as he spoke again.

“I will ask, what’s a gem like you doing all the way here?” He asked her gesturing to her perfect cut gem.

Spinel stared at the pink human and looked down knowing of what would come next.

“She cannot talk.” Florite said slowly.

Lars nodded and stared at the small pink gem sensing her frustration.

The pink teen closed his eyes and sighed. They needed to get moving.

“C'mon let’s go. I don’t want anyone to find us.” Lars replied, turning to head into the ship.

Spinel jumped at the mention of being found, if she was caught she would have to find somewhere else to hide, or worse. She followed the gems inside the ship and watched as the ship's doors closed; this was it. She would leave Homeworld for good. In all honestly it did make her feel very sad thinking about how she’ll never be able to see her diamond again, how she’ll never be able to play in the garden like they used to or how she’ll never be able to see her beloved friend Pearl again. Spinel could feel her eyes water but she sucked in a breath. No, she couldn’t think of going back now. There was nothing there for her anymore. There were no games, no friends, and no joy. Just the dying garden and she didn’t want to got there anymore. Spinel shuttered, wiping her wet eyes. No she didn’t want to stay in that scary garden any longer it made her gem ache and her mind spiral downwards into not so nice thoughts.

Spinel stared out of the windows and watched as they flew out in one of the cave’s openings and into the sky and away from the machine-like planet. Spinel looked at the world below her staring at the white, yellow, blue and pink buildings and towers. It was so bizarre to see. All those years spent in the garden and only now was she seeing Homeworld. It both frustrated and saddened Spinel, but she tried to not think about it too much. She didn’t want to start crying all over again like a big baby.

‘Like a big crybaby that you were a useless whiny baby that Pink hated,’ her mind hissed.

Spinel teared her eyes away from the window when the pink boy spoke up.

“Since you're here now, can you tell us who you are? Or how you ended with the Rutile twins?” Lars asked her.

Spinel looked at him, opened her mouth and closed her mouth as she looked down, unable to speak. She gently tapped her throat and shook her head as if to tell him her unfortunate situation.

“Ah right forget, my bad.” The pink teen said and dug around for something.

Spinel looked away for a brief moment but gasped softly when this nice thing other than a gem handed her a pad of somwesort and a thin object.

“Can you write?” Lars asked her.

Spinel stared confused tilting her head. The young captain sighed . Right aliens he forgot. Yet he was determined to get any information about this gem.

“Well as you can guess I’m Lars. I’m captain of this ship.” The young teen said.

Spinel looked at him and smiled kindly at him which drew relief from the young captain. Well at least she understood what he was saying. That was a start.

“I assume you already met the off-colors.” He said.

The small gem stared at him confused.

“He means us.” Rhodonite added.

The small gem turned to face the odd gem and pointed as if to say ‘you guys.’

The Rutile twins nodded the right one speaking.

“Yes, that’s us. We were hiding from the machines you saw.”

“We needed to remain hidden so Homeworld wouldn’t find us.” The left Rutile twin said.

“If they did find us.” The left one said looking away.

“We would be shuttered without question.” The right twin said finishing the sentence for her other half.

Spinel gasped softly pink eyes darting around anxiously.

“It’s okay though, as long as we get to earth and meet with the rest we should be safe.” Lars said, trying to ease the sacred gem.

Spinel looked at the captain of the ship and replayed what he arias. Meet the rest? Did he mean that there were more gems? Gems like the Rutile twins and gems like Padparadscha and Rhodonite? Spinel remained silent thinking to herself. Earth, they were heading to earth? Was he being serious? Spinel snapped out of her daze when she heard the small orange sapphire speak up.

“What about you?” Padparadscha asked Spinel.

Spinel looked down trying to think for a bit, even though she was unable to speak and didn’t understand or know how to write she decided that she could maybe draw something out and try to explain her situation. Lars and the rest of the gems looked on as the small pink spinel began exposing her story in a drawing. First she should probably tell them her name. The little disheveled gem did her best to draw out the garden in space. She drew a large rock with a dome around it and herself surrounded by flowers and all organic matter.

“Is that….where you came..,from?” Florite asked slowly.

Spinel nodded..

“So you came from a garden in space.” One of the Rutile twins said out loud.

Spinel nods again.

“Alright. What else?” Lars asked.

Spinel hummed and began writing in very old gem language her name. At first it didn’t seem like anyone on ship seemed to understand the old text but Fluorite smiled.

“Spinel.” She said slowly yet there was a happy calm feeling in her voice.

“Huh?” One of the twins asked.

“That’s her name.” Florite said calmly.

Everyone on board looked at the small gem and smiled. Happy to know her name finally after some time without her even speaking and Lars smiled kindly at her.

“Welcome aboard Spinel.” He said causing the small gem to giggle happily though tege were some coughs mixed in with it.

Spinel then proceeded to draw her diamond, Pink Diamond.

“That’s your diamond who you served.” Padparadscha chimed cheerfully.

Spinel paused but nodded.

The small pink gem shows them her diamond asking yet not receiving a colony, then after asking so many times she finally gets a colony of her own. Earth. Spinel begins to draw herself and her diamond, both of them smiling and the small gem sucks in a breath trying to steady her hand as it keeps shaking. Spinel proceeds to draw Pink stopping Spinel from coming to earth. Spinel shutters But continues on drawing Pink telling her to wait in the garden. The off colors remain quiet noting her slight distress. Spinel slowly and carefully begins draws out her diamond telling her that this was a game and draws herself standing there with a smile.

The small spinel The begins drawing the garden dying off, the flowers withering the trees dying the garden losing its color becoming pale and disgusting it's once beautiful stature now lay in ruins for all those who are unfortunate to stumble upon it. However that’s when things began getting disturbing as Spinel began drawing the garden in a much heavier darker line with the pencil as she began to eerily and realistically depict what it was like for her. The dying grass in the garden rotted before her eyes. Pillars of the garden crumbled before her, the trees twisting and bark falling off of them while the breaches looked like massive hands ready to snatch anything up in their path. The flowers withered and dead shriveled up into morning but a disgusting disfigured plant and the butterflies no more as they too died alongside the garden. The pounds were nothing more but a sickly looking black goo with dead and dried plants of once water lilies and such. It overall looked dreadful to be in and her details in the drawing was nightmare fuel.

Spinel breathed heavily, her eyes were shaking and she was practically trembling, she she had managed to draw herself standing all alone in the dying garden and as she stared at the drawing she made she could feel an onslaught of tears flooding her eyes and she was unable to hold them back as she felt the, spill down her cheeks. It reminded whist as Lars spoke in a soft and gentle tone.

“She left you behind..” He whispered.