Fossils (SU AU)

[Chairtastic]

As of me writing this, I have only Mobile data internet. Expect updates across the board to be slow at best.

Summary: Fossilization is the process by which organic structures are replaced by minerals, typically silica. While typically true, the process doesn't require the organic to have died to be completed.

Fossils -- Chapter One, A toy for Blue Diamond

The first time Blue Diamond had come to Pink's zoo, she had cried so much, she could barely function. It had been all she could do to place a loyal and decorated agate in charge of the facility to get things functioning again. But her duties required her to leave, eventually.

The second time Blue Diamond had come to Pink's zoo was to an extensive list of repairs, upgrades, and clarifications that needed to be authorized by her since resources were precious until she or Yellow could secure a new colony. White's new colony would provide a buffer, but it was a stop-gap measure. Blue Diamond, eager to be alone to mourn, authorized the agate to requisition everything she needed. The zoo would come second only to Blue's next colony in terms of resource priority.

In the time between her second and third visits to the zoo, she had reports of questionable materials shipped to the zoo. Specifically, the shards of shattered gems which had not been requisitioned by Yellow for her experiments. While worrying, her Pearl confirmed via the agate that the shards were necessary for the zoo's overall mission. Then there came a pressing need for more humans for the zoo – some catastrophe had reduced their total population below the viable self-sustaining threshold. Roaming Eyes were assigned to the zoo pursuant to human capture efforts.

She waited a thousand years or so before she returned to the zoo, and when she did she found her agate commander ecstatic with news. Blue Diamond had never heard an agate so excited before. An audience was requested and approved.

–

Holly-Blue Agate checked herself in the reflective surface of one of the exterior viewing windows. Her banded hair buns were perfect, her cape of office was immaculate, and to her eyes the commanding presence an agate should possess – fearsome, in-control, a hair's breadth from apocalyptic fury – was in place. A shame the pink lights in the audience section of the facility discolored her skin so, she looked almost purple – like those wretched amethysts!

Four of those Earth-grown clods were stationed around the specialty humans bred per Pink Diamond's operational plan. Quartz soldiers, big and as strong as Holly-Blue but of a more rambunctious disposition. Before Pink Diamond's secret purpose for the zoo had been discovered, it had taken all her patience to deal with them.

But it would be worth it, Holly-Blue told herself as she took up her position and marched the formation down to the audience chamber. To see Blue Diamond's face light up when Pink's dream had been fulfilled! The humans were more well-behaved than the amethysts, honestly. Holly-Blue didn't have to worry about them.

The Diamond's audience chamber was utterly massive – the entire pinnacle of the station was required to house gems of such majesty and literal size as the diamonds. Pink Diamond had envisioned all four diamonds at once in the room, and had allocated space accordingly. It was lined with pink pillars twisted in organic shapes per Pink's design aesthetic, which all worked toward the viewing windows which had the diamond's reclining cushion nearby. The ceiling was positively covered in bubbled gems – rose quartzes, Pink's daring first original gem type which unfortunately turned traitor. Blue Diamond mercifully bound them forever, rather than shatter them.

Per protocol, Holly-Blue and her accompaniment stopped on the insignia of the Diamond Authority per Era One, and saluted. Once she had saluted, Holly-Blue bowed at the waist and began the official greetings. "My diamond," she spoke lovingly, "my lustrous, gleaming, perfectly perfect diamond."

Holly-Blue looked at her when she stood up from her bow. A shawl and dress of deep navy, skin as blue as Holly-Blue's own white hair that perfectly framed Blue Diamond's gem in her torso, and an imperious expression on her regal face. Nearby her waify and demure pearl stood ready to obey her diamond's orders. "You may proceed," Blue Diamond commanded in her whisper voice. "Hasten to explain why these humans are outside of the containment unit."

"Three thousand years ago, when this facility was first created, it functioned purely as a zoo. The containment and furtherance of an oddity among organic life." Holly-Blue had practiced her speech literally thousands of times, there was nothing that could shake her from its delivery. "But Pink Diamond saw something more. She saw an avenue for an entirely new category of gem production!" Holly-Blue clapped her hands twice, and the amethyst guards moved out of formation to line up without breaking their salute.

Three adult human specimens remained in their formation, with their hands arranged in the diamond salute. They were presented in the standard uniform for human specimens, a blue vest, long white loincloth that wrapped from mid-chest to the waist then hung down, a brown belt, and communication earrings. The only distinction was that the humans each had a polished surface on their bodies, which caught Blue Diamond's attention post-haste.

The magnificent gem matriarch sat up on her cushion. Even crouched as she was, she was over ten meters tall. She squinted her eyes to see the humans better, and her expression was unreadable. "What… have you done?"

This wasn't expected, Blue was supposed to be overjoyed. Holly-Blue felt sweat creep along her brow and struggled to keep her cool. "Um. Completed Pink Diamond's mission for the zoo, my diamond."

Blue Diamond's eyes, each as large as Holly-Blue Agate was tall, turned to the commander with clearly a less than stellar mood. "What mission?"

Holly-Blue hadn't imagined Blue wouldn't know the mission, she'd assumed that was why Blue Diamond had bothered to keep the zoo operational. But that was fine, Holly-Blue had just done her a service in ignorance rather than met her diamond's expectations. Holly-Blue cleared her throat and tried to regain her composure. "Pink Diamond's note on humans indicated she wished for them to be preserved, but that her fellow diamonds – you, of course – wanted the Earth to only exist for gem life. So she looked for a way to turn humans into gems." Holly-Blue indicated the humans, and tried to smile. "We have completed that objective!"

Holly-Blue clapped her hands again, and the three humans stepped forward, then bent to show their diamond the gem that had become the core of their being.

"In lieu of actual categorization data, we have referred to them as fossils, my diamond. Organic matter that has been replaced with mineral – "

"I am familiar with the meaning of the word," Blue Diamond quietly interrupted. "Who authorized you to go ahead with these experiments? You're an agate, not a kindergartener, or a gem theorist."

Chastised, Holly-Blue bent at the waist in another bow. "I'm terribly sorry my diamond." She rose again and hastily gestured to the humans. "But… you authorized my actions. Your orders were to 'continue Pink Diamond's efforts', and this is one of the duties that entailed." Holly-Blue watched in trepidation as Blue Diamond glared at her.

Eventually, her matriarch sighed and lessened her severe expression. "I did, didn't I? Poor wording on my part. Proceed."

"I have gathered the best of the three varieties we have been able to produce."

A blonde female with poofy hair and fair skin was the first Holly-Blue indicated. She had a curved gem of golden-yellow which seemed to contain bubbles within it in the middle of her sternum. "Here, we have an Amber." An androgynous dark skinned male with similarly dark hair in thick cords was the next to be indicated. His gem was above his eyes, colored orange and red that was broken up by lines of black; it looked as though his gem had been shattered and repaired. "This is an agatized bone, which we simply refer to as a Fossil." The third was another androgynous male that was darker than the female but lighter than the other male, with poofy black hair, a peculiar curve to his upper lip, and hair which grew around his gem. His gem was striking in shape and color, lower on his chest than the female's, such that his wrap almost covered it. A spiral-shaped gemstone that had a white background and a plethora of colors that changed as the lighting shifted. "And this is a variety of opal, we called it an Ammonite."

Blue Diamond looked perturbed and at a loss for this development, but offered no praise or criticism. After a moment, she took a deep breath and focused her gaze again on Holly-Blue Agate. "This is what you requisitioned the gem shards for, is it?"

Holly-Blue knew she wouldn't like that line of dialogue and scrambled for a way to spin it to be palatable. "Um. Yes, my diamond. See, Pink Diamond observed how humans were able to consume minerals and break them down for metabolic functions. She theorized that the same would be true of gem shards. After about thirty generations of consuming gem shards with their food, we saw the first generation of these human gems emerge."

"You say this was in her notes – I will see for myself." Blue Diamond was furious, but wouldn't raise her voice. "Pearl, access the station's computer and bring me Pink's notes."

"Of course, my diamond," the demure pearl responded and moved to the nearest control panel. From the gemstone in her chest, she projected images from Pink Diamond's personal notes. Stills of the Earth, observations on humans eating. And then the theories. Holly-Blue watched as her diamond's demeanor melted from upset to despondent. The diamond's power swept through the room, and her grief over Pink Diamond drove all gems present to share in her tears.

Even the humans.

"That's enough, Pearl," Blue Diamond dismissed her attendant. The titanic woman reclined again on her cushion and looked upon the group of gems. "Tell me their capabilities, Agate, so that I can assign them purposes within the empire." The diamond shed more tears which were felt by the rest of the gems. "And… thank you, for finishing Pink's work. You will be awarded a personal pearl for your efforts."

Holly-Blue was beyond pleased that her diamond had turned around on the subject so quickly, and launched into her speech about the fossils and their powers. She carefully used her grand gestures to wipe the sweat from her brow so no one could see how nervous she'd been. "Well, starting with the ambers, they have a hard upper limit on how hot a temperature they can endure…."

–

Blue Diamond's control room on Homeworld was more detailed than Yellow or White's. She had a lounging couch that could adjust its orientation, three waterfalls that emerged from detailed murals of her fellow diamonds and filled in recessed paths in the floor of a mural of herself in the same style. There she could deal with simple bureaucratic matters, which included the admittance of new gems to the rosters. It felt like only yesterday that Blue had shown Pink how to add her rose quartzes to the lists of gemkind.

Not long after she submitted the forms to have the new 'fossil' category gems added to the rosters to White and Yellow, Blue Diamond's diamond-line communicator lit up with an incoming call.

"Greetings," her pearl said with a curtsey of her lace dress, "this is the Blue Diamond control room. Blue Diamond will be with you in but a moment."

Blue had expected Yellow to call her, but mere minutes after the documentation was submitted? The artistically-inclined diamond sighed and got ready to rise from her lounging couch. However, the subject of the call made Blue freeze in place.

"Oh, have I called at a bad time?" The coy voice of White Diamond oozed sweetness through the communicator. "I guess I'll just call back, when Blue isn't so busy – "

"No!" Blue launched herself from her couch and reached down for the communicator. "I'm sorry, White. I'm too used to dealing with emeralds and moissanites who think every slight delay is an emergency." Blue hastily fixed her hair and pulled down her shawl so the absolute ruler of Homeworld could see her clearly.

White was like looking into a star. Radiant, blinding, and hazardous. Her jagged, pointed hair that shined with blazing light, her outstretched arms held in place for literal centuries, the interplay of her namesake color with its pitch opposite in her lips, eyes, and wardrobe. White barely reacted to Blue's sudden appearance. "Ah, you do have time for me? How wonderful." The diamond of diamonds barely moved when she spoke – she barely moved at all. It was eerie to see White like that, as all four diamonds had once been a happy family.

When Pink was still there, anyway.

"I've noticed you had a new category of gem added. You haven't had a new colony started and failed to report it, have you?" White layered her coy tone upon itself as she narrowed down on what she thought was a 'gotcha' moment.

"Not at all, White," Blue responded emphatically. "One of Pink's orphaned projects has completed. We've found a way to convert the shards of shattered gems into entirely new ones by using organics." For a moment, Blue dared hope White would be reasonable about the whole thing. "I could send you the data, it's so very exciting. Finally having something to do with those shards, a relief for our storage space."

White's expression didn't change from her serene smile, and she didn't speak for a good minute. For sixty seconds, Blue was made to hold the projection in absolute silence while White played some power game with her. "I see. Our Pink is just so clever, isn't she?"

That comment made Blue's smile waver just a little bit. White had been with her and Yellow to blast the Earth in retaliation of Pink's demise. Why had White referred to Pink in the present tense? Was it possible that as Blue openly mourned, and Yellow had taken to emotional suppression, White had gone into full denial?

White continued to speak, as Blue pondered. "Well, we'll have to refine the process. Get these new gems to uniform consistency. I see that only one of the gems in this category are totally unique, the agatized and opalized bone will need to be worked until they conform to their parent roles. Are you listening, Blue?"

"Of course, White. I am dedicating as many resources as I can spare for the project and – "

"You will of course need to begin construction of new zoos to house more humans for conversion to gems. Yellow won't mind a few of her peridots being diverted to oversee the production of these new gems, and refinement of the process. Kindergartners should have insight on improvements."

Blue's smile returned. She could hardly believed White had taken it so well. "Of course, White. Do you… agree with the roles I've set for the fossils?"

"They seem a perfect fit for those roles. The ambers will fill the role Pink's rose quartzes were meant to occupy nicely. On a related note – do go ahead and deal those rose quartzes, won't you Blue? Either shatter them or get them out of those bubbles – I don't care which." White blinked, the most her face had moved in perhaps thousands of years. "Depending on how effective Pink's method is, I might need to talk with Yellow about those shards she used to make that geo-weapon."

–

"A whole conversation? She called you and had a dialogue? Like old times?"

Blue nodded and reclined against the titanic bench of Yellow's extraction chamber. "I know, it was so bizarre. I could hardly believe it."

Across from her, Yellow Diamond scowled. Yellow cut an imposing figure – she looked like any surface she touched would be cut from the meeting. Yellow was sharp in almost every sense of the word. Around them clouds of steam rose as the two diamonds extracted minute portions of themselves for future gem production. Once, it had been Blue's lavish baths which had been their extraction site; now, only Blue and Yellow partook.

"I can't believe this," Yellow groused. She leaned forward and rested her arms on her knees. "I've done everything expected of me, and I haven't gotten a word from her in thousands of years. Yet you get a full conversation over something Pink did." The titanic gem clenched her fist so hard gaseous molecules nearby began to ionize.

Blue frowned, stood, and crossed the extraction chamber to sit beside her fellow diamond. The twin stones often found themselves in that position. "Maybe that's for the best." Blue held up her hand to stall Yellow when the sharp stone looked at her with disbelief. "I think there might be something… wrong with White."

"What?"

Blue looked side to side, a sudden burst of paranoia that a gem from White's court was spying on them had crept into her mind. "When White talked about Pink it was in the present tense. Like Pink was still… with us." The artistic gem met the militaristic gem's eyes. "I think she might have taken Pink's shattering harder even than me. You know how tough White was on her…."

"White isn't the type to deny reality… what am I saying, of course she is," Yellow shifted her tone mid-sentence as she paused to think about it. "Hmm. Maybe we need to request an audience with her." They both knew it would likely take thousands of years for them to even get a moment of their fellow matriarch's time – after they had all but demanded White join them in retaliation against the Earth, White had been distinctly annoyed with them. "In the meantime, there's the issue these 'fossils' represent." Yellow looked at Blue plaintively. "I don't care for organic life, that's been clear for eons. But all that's been done to these things is that now they are pseudo-gems who do jobs other gems already do. Gems which do it better than they ever will, because it was what they were made for. Forcing these creatures into a life they aren't cut out for, and will never excel at is cruel, Blue."

"So was destroying their planet," Blue said back. She wanted to be icy about it, but on some level she agreed with Yellow. The ambers were in their own niche, they would do… adequate. But the agatized and opalized bones would always be second-tier gems. They would exist to bolster proper gems, but never to be those who were bolstered. "Yet it was done anyway. Now we know organic gems are possible – it opens new avenues for research. Technology to replicate the healing ability in those ambers is vitally needed. We have how many cracked gems in bubbles, again?"

Yellow sighed and willed her extracted power to the drain in the center of the floor. "You're right. I need to put together teams for that, and dedicate resources to producing new peridots to replace the ones requisitioned for your zoos. It was nice to see you, Blue." Then she calmly walked from the extraction chamber and didn't look back.

Blue thought, for a brief moment, about how easy it would be to grab onto Yellow and demand that she stay just a bit longer. Their schedules were so busy, it would be a decade before they could see each other again. But White expected her orders carried out.

Which meant Blue also had to go to the zoo and shatter all of Pink's rose quartzes. One less thing to remember Pink by – the thought of it made Blue cry a little, alone in Yellow's extraction chamber.

While she bemoaned the situation, a thought came to Blue. Perhaps she could solve the problem of the rose quartzes with the increased volume of humans she would be collecting. The titanic woman willed the last of her power into the extractors, and the steam with it. Then she rose and made her way to her ship.

–

The Left Arm of Authority wrapped itself around the zoo, and Blue Diamond disembarked from it to the station. A Hand of of Authority was already in a parking orbit when she had arrived – the peridots White had demanded of Yellow had arrived ahead of her. Blue Diamond let her pearl go ahead of her to announce her arrival and to prepare the way. Specifically, she wanted to talk with her agate and the peridot commander.

When she arrived in the landing area, the amethyst guards were in formation and saluting her already. Blue barely acknowledged them and walked through the pink room to the hallway. She stopped when she heard something crack under her feet. Blue looked down and saw that one of the immense floor tiles for the base had been broken by her weight. As she looked at it, there were more minor cracks in the tiles around the broken one. She looked around, as if for the first time, and saw that the facility had signs of wear and tear all around. Even the atmosphere seals on the windows were in need of repairs.

Oh how Pink would despair to see her zoo like this, Blue thought to herself and felt tears rolling down her face. Barely five minutes, and she was already crying. Blue Diamond steeled herself and forced herself to ignore the dozens of minor imperfections as she approached the audience chamber. While the peridots were at work, she would have them complete repairs.

Not long after the diamond made herself at home on the titanic cushion, her pearl returned with two agates. One was Blue's own Holly-Blue, the other was the commander of Yellow's loaned peridots. A taciturn quartz similar to Holly-Blue except that her hair was jagged and sharp, like Yellow Diamond's, and she had her gem placed where her left eye should have been. They saluted her, and waited for Blue Diamond to speak.

With tearful tenderness, Blue reached up and drew down one bubbled rose quartz gem. Relative to her, the bubble was the size of a marble. The bubble was one of Pink's, she had personally locked away the rose quartz cut after the infamous rebel had shown her colors. "Tell me," she said at last. "How much of the personality from the shards used in your process remains?"

Holly-Blue Agate broke her salute to bow and responded with glee. "Almost none, my diamond. We've tracked some memories containing complex information, but an intact personality has never manifested."

Blue tilted her head back, as if she didn't believe the agate. It was a trick Blue had developed millions of years ago. In silence, she would stare at a gem with a look of displeasure on her face. If they lied, or had misrepresented information, the pressure would squeeze the truth from them. But Holly-Blue Agate remained firm in her statement, if suitably terrified of Blue's displeasure. "I see. Good. Approach."

The two agates advanced to the base of the stairs which would lead to Blue Diamond's seat, and accepted the bubbled rose quartz when it was presented to them.

"I want you to incorporate these… things," she tried to be angry but a sudden wave of grief over the congealed memories of Rose Quartz and Pink drove her to cry instead, "and add them into the process. Try to use them whole first, and if it cannot be done shatter them to use them in the original way."

"Of course, my diamond."

"With clarity and purpose, Blue Diamond," Yellow's agate added, still in her salute.

"Furthermore, this station is in desperate need of modernization and repair," Blue pulled up her shawl so that her weeping eyes were hidden from the agates. They could still tell as they shed tears of their own in response. "Keep as much of the original structure and systems as possible. With the other zoos to follow, it is fine to make them cutting edge, but this zoo has history. Preserve it."

"With vigor and dedication, Blue Diamond." The yellow agate bowed deep to indicate her acceptance of the order.

"That will be all."

Blue turned away from the agates as they bowed and turned their backs on her to leave. Time seemed to slip away from Blue as she sat in the audience chamber with her Pearl. Every time she looked up, there were fewer and fewer rose quartz gems in the room. Until there were none. One of Pink's treasured possessions, the gems she had been so proud of, gone. One way or another.

Her pearl, ever gentle, acquired Blue Diamond's attention with a doeful 'my diamond', and saluted her when the matriarch regarded her. "Your red-eye has found a new colony site." She said nothing more, and left the decision of what to do with the information.

Blue Diamond wiped away her tears, and looked up at the vacant space where once there were rose quartzes. "I suppose I could just pass it off to White, Yellow, or one of my aquamarines. Let them deal with it while I… stay here."

"Also, there is a status update on your fossilized human program. Your agate wishes to present her findings to you at your earliest convenience."

Blue sighed. Trivialities, she assumed. "Fine. Send her in, when she's ready."

She slipped out of time again in her mourning, and when she came back to reality, her agate and a human from the containment unit were saluting her.

"My diamond," Holly-Blue Agate said, beside herself with excitement. "We've had a massive breakthrough in the mandate you made regarding the rose quartz hybrids." The terrifying commander clapped her hands and the human stepped forward. It was a male, with strong similarities to the ammonite hybrid that had once been presented to her. "We were not making any progress with combining the human and whole rose quartz gems, there will be a plethora of reports on the topic submitted to you for review shortly. We were all ready to begin shattering them, but an idea occurred to me. Perhaps we could combine our fossilization methods with the fusion experiments conducted by Yellow Diamond?"

Blue Diamond's brow arched dangerously, as she visually instructed the agate to get to the point.

"Er, yes," Holly-Blue stumbled verbally for a moment. "The conclusion being, we were able to succeed! May I present, the fourth gem in the fossil category: Jet!" She gestured to the human, with a near-manic smile. "Currently this is the only extant gem."

"I see," Blue Diamond said and looked at the human-gem hybrid with greater interest. "Why does it look similar to the ammonite you showed me?"

"The human base used for this hybrid is related to the base which was used in that particular ammonite."

"Related in what way?"

Holly-Blue Agate began to visibly sweat at the topic, while the human giggled. Hastily the agate turned and glared daggers at the human. "Humans reproduce via cellular division with components drawn from two or more parents. Similar to how gems require extractions from multiple diamonds to properly form. If you would like specifics on how the two human bases relate to one another – "

"Include it in the report," Blue Diamond dismissed with a wave of her hand. So large was she, that the gesture created a sudden strong wind. "Let me see its gemstone."

The human turned around and adjusted its jacket so that its shoulders were exposed to her and lifted its hair. There, between the shoulder blades, was the gemstone. Five facets with a pentagon at the center, like the rose quartz base, but blackened. Rose quartzes were typically soft pink and luminous, but this 'jet' was dark and yet reflective. Blue Diamond squinted a bit, to see finer details, and then directed her gaze to the agate. "And nothing of the original gem remains?"

"Memories, at most, my diamond."

"Hmm." Blue looked at the human, and imperiously arched a brow. "Tell me, human. How does it feel? The gemstone in your back?"

"It makes me feel light, my diamond," the human hybrid said in a gleeful tone. "Like I could jump and just float all day long." He turned his head and grinned at her, with a wide smile the likes of which Blue hadn't seen since Pink.

All at once, Blue Diamond was fascinated. The human could speak, in articulated sentences! It was able to grasp the concept that it belonged to her, and could find simple joy in that. But that smile combined with the ruddy skin tone, and its poofy hair immediately made her think of Pink. For just a moment, Pink's silhouette was imposed over the jet's. When the jet's tears caught her eye, Blue realized she was crying too and hastily covered her eyes. "Agate," she said after a moment. "Prepare a copy of the daily routine and care requirements for humans." She reached out her hand and held it out for the human to walk onto, like it was a pet. The hybrid glanced at Holly-Blue before it lept into Blue Diamond's hand and hugged her thumb with vigor. "I like this one. I would keep it with me for a while."

"My diamond," Holly-Blue protested. "We haven't properly tracked what a jet's powers will manifest as. This one doesn't even have the requisite control to generate a bubble!"

"Then I will document it myself, and see that you're informed." Blue smiled sweetly at her new pet as she brought it up to her face. Instantly the human released her thumb to hug her cheek. She laughed ever so slightly from the 'cheek' of the display. It was just like how Pink would greet her after she returned from a colony. Blue's gazed was less warm when it fell on Holly-Blue Agate. "Once my ship has everything needed for a human, I will be going off to oversee a new colony site. A portion of the resources will be diverted here to expand production of these hybrids. That will be all."

Defeated, Holly-Blue bowed and backed away. "Yes, my diamond. Of course, my diamond."

The jet waved at her as she left. "Goodbye, Holly-Blue! I'll miss you!"

---

 

[Katillno]

This is well written a very interesting concept and the characterization felt on point can't wait for more.

 

[Vaalintine]

You know, when I first started seeing SU stories on here I thought they were yours, because they kept appearing after you got this idea. Coincidence? I think not.

 

[Mre]

Interesting story so far, looking forward to more.

 

[AMomentForCthulh]

Ohhh, this will be FUN

 

[SmashQueen]

Horrifying and intriguing. The human zoo was already a messed up concept in canon. Combining that with ideas on how to make a Gem/human hybrid but twisted to put emphasis on Gems just makes it worse.

The consequences of all of this once Gems come to Earth are going to be interesting.

 

[Chairtastic]

Chapter Two -- Fossil Record

Blue Diamond scrolled through the care instructions and routine that the humans in Pink's zoo went through and her mind boggled. So many things could go wrong with the care of a human. They were a social species, so being kept in isolation for prolonged periods would drive them insane; they required daily ingestion of nutrients and liquids because their gem wasn't connected well enough to supplant those needs; and humans needed daily play periods or, again, they would go insane.

Perhaps, she reflected, she hadn't anticipated how cruel trying to adapt such beings to life in the gem empire would be. Perhaps, she reflected and let tears bubble at the corners of her eyes, if all this had been known earlier, Pink wouldn't have spent so much time to try and save humanity. Blue Diamond sighed and put the Left Arm of Authority in position to pick up colonization equipment from the fabrication plants on Homeworld. Around her ship, Hands of Authority and Roaming Eyes similarly collected equipment which would be vital for her new colony's completion.

She looked over in the control room of her ship, toward where her jet's resting cushion had been placed. There she saw the human-gem hybrid and her pearl, in the act of instruction. Pearl would create a bubble, and let Jet try to create one as well. Blue Diamond watched her jet try to create multiple bubbles and fail, and began to take note of minor imperfections which would help tell it… him apart from other jets as they were produced. The jet had blue-green eyes, and while his hair was poofy like the ammonite's, it didn't defy gravity nearly as much.

While she watched, Jet noticed her attention and grinned at her. That was something Blue Diamond would treasure, Jet's smile. It was big, bright, free of all worry. Like how Pink's had been before… everything.

Blue Diamond went back to work, and spotted some problems with the zoo's categorization systems. The captive humans had a naming convention similar to a gem's, alphanumeric in nature. Technically Jet was known as Jet Aych-Two. But this convention only allowed numbers up to 'ten', which would limit the human population to two-hundred sixty. Wholly insufficient for hybrid production. She sent a message to her agate to sort the matter out at once.

Bureaucracy took time to navigate, which she was made aware of as her pearl and jet would stop working on his bubbling for Jet to sleep, or eat or… something else which required Pearl escort the hybrid out of the room. Every time Blue thought she had been working only a little while, and she could glance over, the hybrid and the pearl were doing something else.

The two of them seemed to get up to such games together – every time Blue looked their way they were up to something silly. Jet hadn't managed a bubble of his own yet, but he had a grand old time on bubbles Pearl made for him. Once, when she looked over, Blue saw Jet rolling around on top of the bubble by walking backward. Another time, he would bounce from one bubble, pop it, and leap onto another bubble which Pearl placed in the air. The skill of his acrobatics made Blue wonder how closely related jets were to opals – the gladiators of gemkind.

On a whim, she waved her hand and encased Jet in a royal blue bubble of her own and drew it to her. "Just a moment, I need to see something," she soothed the human as she called up a robonoid from her throne. Shaped like a triangle, the particular purpose behind the robonoid was to hunt down gems and shatter them. But it also came with an advanced scanner suite. Blue made use of that while she had it examine the jet for composition and structural integrity.

"My diamond," Jet laughed while the scanner looked at his gem through his clothes with a beam of orange light, "it tickles!"

Blue noted that jets could potentially sense when they were being scanned. There was no record of it in regards to other fossils, so perhaps it was unique. She muttered to herself while she examined the composition. "Not a true mineral, odd. Mostly carbon with impurities of sulfur and iron. Internal structure suggests brittleness, so likely not a front-line soldier." Blue sighed and supported her head with her free hand. "It would be so much easier if more of the rose quartz used to make you survived, but it can't be helped." If more of the original gem had survived, then Blue would be eternally suspicious of the jets. Rose Quartz had been a legendary threat, as evidenced by her successful revolt and assassination of Pink. The beam intensified as it looked into the gemstone's mystical energies. Blue was distracted by Jet's hysterical laughter in her bubble – it was so precious, so cute.

The display for the mystic scan brought up runes Blue had never seen before in a gem. Only one of them was something she recognized, a pair of wings which emerged from a disc – the indicator for flight-capable gems. Another rune was split in half – empty on one side with only a + near the transition to the other half, which was filled except for an empty – symbol. A third one was a trio of Z's in various sizes. The meanings behind these runes she would have to divine herself.

On a whim, Blue showed Jet the symbols she had found on the mystical scan. "I don't suppose you know what these mean?"

The hybrid ceased his hysterical laughter as the robonoid returned to Blue's throne. Once he had breathed deeply several times, he looked at the runes and squinted. "Um. I will make things turn small?"

Blue looked at the rune again and squinted. "I suppose that could be what that means. We'll find out eventually." With that she burst the bubble which kept Jet aloft and let him fall into her hand. Gracefully, she moved so that Jet could hop to the floor. "Back to learning bubbles, you."

Jet hugged her thumb again, then bounded off to her pearl.

Blue looked back at the details on Jet's gemstone while she waited for the equipment to finish loading. It was funny – from the records she was looking at, the mineraloid jet was a precursor to coal, which in turn was a precursor to diamonds. A hybrid was closer to an actual diamond in structure than even moissanites, the 'false diamonds'.

If only Pink had lived to see her hybrids come into existence. She would have adored them. Blue quietly cried to herself at the thought of Pink playing with her human-gem hybrids until it was time to deploy for the new colony site.

–

Pink's zoo had often seen the Left Arm of Authority in orbit, it was a familiar object in the eyes of the gems and humans aboard. However, the day came when the Right Arm of Authority arrived to orbit the station instead. The diamond's personal vessels were colored after them, and while the Left Arm almost always had its hand open, the Right Arm's hand was closed in a fist. Yellow Diamond extended no courtesy of announcement for her arrival, she merely sent ahead her pearl and a cadre of topaz troops to ensure the environment was fit for a diamond.
Yellow Diamond's pearl was attentive, dedicated, and quite vocal in the demands her diamond placed on the facility. Backed up by the blocky, stoic topazes, her commands carried substantial weight.

For the first time since its inception, the zoo bore Yellow Diamond's weight. Literally, and metaphorically, that weight was different than Blue's. Blue Diamond was diffuse, sorrowful, soft. Yellow was none of these; she was honed to a fine edge, sharp, and ready to cut at the first sign of resistance. Tiles in the floor broke under her feet, even though they had just been replaced after Blue Diamond had done the same.

"Bring me one of the agatized bones," she commanded to no one in particular while she advanced to the audience chamber, where Blue had wallowed for so long.

"Of course, my diamond," her pearl responded, and barked orders to the topazes who in turn walked into the hallways of the facility to fulfill the command.

When Yellow arrived, she immediately looked over the room. Much had been done to modernize the facility, however the work was incomplete. The pillars which supported the roof were covered in scaffolding as brawny bismuth gems worked to lay additional power channels within them. A galaxy warp was in the process of being installed, sized up for a diamond to use. All the workers stopped to look, and salute, at Yellow Diamond as she entered.

"Did I tell any of you to stop working? Then get back to work," she growled as she traversed the room and stood near the diamond-sized cushion which had been Pink's idea of a throne. The military commander stood with her hands clasped behind her, and looked out the window at the gas giant which the zoo orbited. Having a diamond in proximity made the workers work harder, for fear that any mistake would be sufficient cause for Yellow to shatter them. She didn't need to do anything, the investment she'd made in her public image millions of years ago continued to pay dividends.

The sounds of work kept her distracted, anyway. She was rarely still, rarely in one place long enough to think about Pink and what had happened to her. Work and other's work would keep those thoughts at bay for a little while.

She turned when the doors to the audience chamber opened again. Her topazes brought a human with them, lifted off the ground in case she became defiant. Zoomans, as the subspecies became known, were more docile than wild humans so such measures were wholly unnecessary. Yellow examined the human as her topazes put it down and backed away. Dark-skinned, hair in black cords, Yellow assumed it to be female, and it had its gem on its right thigh. As soon as it was released, the human saluted her and bowed at the waist. No visible diamond insignia to designate which court it belonged to – that was something Blue needed to fix.

"Fossil," Yellow barked imperiously. "As an agate-derivative, you are charged with maintaining order in the ranks and ensuring orders are carried out. Do you understand?"

"I-I think so, my diamond," the human hybrid answered with hesitation.

"Already you've failed at that mission objective – you ignorantly say I'm your diamond when I'm not. You belong to Blue Diamond, though it looks like I'll have to get involved in working your cut of gem myself." The diamond of war crossed the gap between her position and the fossil's in mere moments. "An agate needs to be terrifying, not meek. An agate needs to inspire, to lead from the front, and to know when to crack the whip. I look at you and I see literally none of those qualities – would you care to explain yourself?"

"I… I don't know how to do those things," the human responded as if she were about to cry of all things. "Holly-Blue hasn't taught us any of them yet."

"So you pass your deficiency off onto your agate? Ugh, you've been coddled too long. Just like what happened with Pink, well it won't happen this time." Yellow paced along the width of the audience chamber and pinched the bridge of her nose. "If Blue's being so negligent that her own gems don't know their duties, I'll have to fill in." More to herself than anyone else, the diamond muttered, "at least the ambers don't have a mold to fit yet."

At least the fossil hadn't broken the salute yet, so she'd done nothing worth actual punishment or Yellow's hands would be tied. The diamond found the situation the hybrids were in to be needlessly cruel – gem society was built upon unrelenting pressure which organics didn't have the traits to survive. But they'd been thrust into it, so Yellow would see they got the best possible chance to adapt. To that end, she had an idea. "Pearl," she called. The servant caste gem stepped into her line of view and saluted elegantly. "Summon Jasper facet nine, cut twelve-gee-eye. Send some amethysts in one of this station's Roaming Eyes."

"At once, my diamond." Her pearl enthusiastically left to fulfill the orders, and turned her nose up at the human as she passed.

"As for this one," Yellow pointed at the human, then flicked her finger toward her topazes. "Return it to where you found it. But keep tabs on it and the other fossils. We'll need to whip them into shape."

One of her topazes glanced at the other, and then raised her hand.

Yellow Diamond sighed through her nose, and all but growled. "What?"

"One of the ammonites is off-station, my diamond," the topaz informed her with dutiful deference. "According to the station's agate, they use the ammonites' hypnotic voice to lure new humans in for capture to bolster the population."

While opals were primarily meant for entertaining combat, their hypnotic voices were useful in colonization efforts to corral organics. Yellow Diamond couldn't fault the decision, and simply folded her hands behind her back. "I see. Ensure that it is returned to the confinement area when its mission is complete."

Her topazes bowed at the waist, picked up the emotionally unstable fossil, and carried her from Yellow Diamond's presence. Yellow turned her back on the poor organic as it was carried off. She didn't want to look at what necessary cruelty had wrought. She clenched her hands behind her back and strode back to her original position. It had been cruel of Pink to try and make the humans into something they weren't. And it had been negligently cruel of Blue to allow it to proceed. And now it was cruel of Yellow that she had to do what neither of the other diamonds involved had been willing to do – put in the work to make this mess work. It would have been better if Pink had just stifled the humans when she could and end their suffering quickly. It would have been better if Blue had just left the Earth alone and let the cluster deal with it. And it would have been better if Yellow hadn't ever given the Earth to Pink to begin with.

She clenched her hands again, and small amounts of her electric aura flared along her body. "Has it become necessary for me to repeat myself?" She spoke to the workers who had slowed their tasks to a near crawl to watch Yellow speak with the agatized bone. They got back to work, a bit faster than their original speed.

–

Peridot Five-X-G had come out of her hole, been assigned her limb-enhancers, and given her orders. Go to the docking station for Roaming Eyes in Facet Twenty-Four and perform routine maintenance. It was a quick job, clean out garbage data, replace some damaged parts; all in all it only took fourteen years of work to get done.

But then a new assignment came almost the instant she reported her task completed. If she'd been a moment later, then she wouldn't have been available for it. And what a job it was! She was to be part of a research team to duplicate the abilities of a new gem's powers technologically. Peridot was to report to the Hand of Authority docking bay in Facet Nineteen, where the other research team members would be present.

All research was to be done on an abandoned colony site of Yellow Diamond's. Such a remote location would ensure that the research team's mandate didn't interfere with the production of new gems in the cabochon, and keep it out of the diamonds' personal business.

The docking bay was filled with Hands of Authority, massive gem warships styled after Yellow Diamond's own ship, a right hand. Behind the diamond's own vessels, the Hands of Authority were the mightiest ships in the gem fleet; often they would serve as flagship command vessels for emeralds to command. As far as Peridot knew, Blue Diamond had no equivalent to the Hand of Authority in her fleet, and neither did White Diamond. Not that it was necessary for them to do so, Yellow had more than enough to spare.

When she arrived, she was the ninth peridot to do so, and fell in line along her fellows without question. Like her, they were all a pleasant shade of green with yellow hair in various sharp configurations and most had limb enhancers. To Peridot's embarrassment, she saw two Era-One peridots in the line as well. They didn't need limb enhancers to meet their height and limb length requirements. Naturally, they would be the project leads. Not her. Never her.

Once all twenty peridots assigned to the project were gathered, their commander made her entrance. Diminutive in height, a yellow sapphire flanked by four ruby guards made their way to the front of the line of peridots. The yellow sapphire had her circular gem with the triangular cut placed on her back, her hair was sharp and covered her cyclopean eye with jagged bangs, and her dress evoked imagery of electricity.

"You were all fated to be on this mission," the sapphire said with gentle firmness. "None of you are more or less important than the others. Our diamond expects us not to let doubt or petty squabbles get in our way." She barely looked at the peridots while she talked. "I know exactly whom among you will disappoint our diamond, but there is always a chance I'll be wrong. Prove me wrong. Let's get to work."

The sapphire, and her guards, led the way to the loading ramp of a Hand, where Peridot saw the principle cargo were bubbled gems. Cracked bubbled gems.

"Our diamond has commanded us to study the new gem type in Blue Diamond's court, called amber. They possess the power to heal and repair gems and technology. Our diamond desires this power for all gemkind. You will see her will done." The sapphire stopped and turned to regard the first peridot in the line behind her. "Or you will pay the price."

When they arrived to a work area inside the Hand, they saw what could only be the new gem 'Amber' resting on an a branched pseudo-organic structure in the middle of the work area. Tables with bubbled cracked gems and pebbles on standby surrounded the perimeter. There were two of the ambers, and they were radically different. One looked rather like a quartz soldier, with a bulky and muscular build, ruddy skin, and brown hair that flipped upward in spikes as it grew off the main mass. The other was more curved, with fair skin and yellow hair that combined the 'downward volume' typical in Blue Diamond's gems. Respectively, their gems were at the base of the throat, and dead-center of their chest. Peridot couldn't fathom why they were so wildly different – was one an off-color?

"These are the two ambers our diamond has provided us for our research purposes. The rubies which oversee my safety have been trained in their care – you will differ to them in such matters. Remember – document everything." The yellow sapphire nodded, and left for the deeper areas of the ship. Three of her rubies stayed behind, and took up positions around the ambers' strange seat.

Peridot realized they had been ordered to get to work right away, before the other peridots, and scurried to a work station. At the station she picked, there was an opaque purple bubble which contained a badly cracked ruby. Peridot easily set her limb-enhancers to record mystographical information and carried the bubbled gem to the ambers. The rubies didn't stop her, so she assumed she was in the right. Peridot held the bubbled gem up to the ambers but they looked at her like she was the odd one.

"You want us to play with the bubble?" The more quartizine of the two asked – in a gruff, deep voice that barely sounded feminine. "Or with the gem inside?"

"What – " Peridot replied, shocked and confused. "You ambers have healing powers, right? We need you to heal these gems."

The slimmer amber tilted her head at Peridot. "The gem inside is… hurt?"

"Yes!" Peridot was exasperated, and it showed in her tone. "Your cabochon clearly lacks observational skills. This ruby is almost cracked all the way through – if she gets more stress she'll shatter. So yes, she's hurt! Hurt real bad!"

That seemed to activate their duty response, as both ambers began to bark 'hurt!' over and over and frantically grabbed the bubble. After a moment of their struggling, Peridot realized they didn't know how to pop the bubble – and to be fair, neither did she.

One of the rubies coughed and produced her gem weapon, a dinky little bowie knife. Peridot took it with her limb enhancers, popped the bubble with the pointed end, and returned the weapon.

With the cracked ruby in their hands, the two ambers' gems began to glow, and cast the room in a brilliant golden light. The light pulsed as the new gems hummed a tune and a resinous fluid built up around their gemstones which both ambers scooped up and slathered onto the ruby.

Peridot checked her mystographical scan and took note of the results. Harmonics were involved, so the humming was likely important. But there was strange readings which related to time. It messed with her chronometer slightly. When she looked back at the ambers and the ruby, the cracked gem was encased in a solid piece of the resin. As she watched, the cracks in the gemstone began to fill. All the while, the ambers did not stop their humming or their active glow – but their expressions became less panicked as time progressed.

After less than a minute, the encased ruby was restored. Then suddenly the resinous covering exploded off her gem as the ruby's reformation occurred. The small, red, and square gem looked around like she expected to be in a fight, all while Peridot picked up the pieces of the resinous coating for further study.

"Log date One Four-Five Three," Peridot muttered to her log system as she returned to her workstation. "I have begun my study of the healing properties of the amber gem type…."

After Peridot had shown what was expected, the other peridots joined in, and a queue formed for who would next present a gem to the ambers to be healed.

"Is anyone going to tell me what happened?" Asked the healed ruby. No one answered her.

 

[Katillno]

Once again the characterization is awesome really loving the different perspectives and how they're interacting with the world around them also their our peridot?

 

[Vaalintine]

So Moissanite is hypnosis, Amber is healing, Fossil is apparently a combat gem, so what exactly is Jet for?

 

[SmashQueen]

"According to the station's agate, they use the ammonites' hypnotic voice to lure new humans in for capture to bolster the population."

Click to shrink...

...Well isn't that a whole new world of terrifying. Sirens are real. So between this and the emergency last chapter, humans have at least three time periods of being abducted throughout history that we know of (though there's likely more). That's horrible for anyone who was captured, having to go from being independent to being subservient Or Else in a child's version of a paradise and dying as such, know their children would be taken and conditioned to never question their lot in life.

Prior to technological advancements, no one on Earth would be able to connect the dots here, either. However, as it gets closer and closer to modern times, these abductions won't go unnoticed. There will be articles, books of compiled stories, etc. The Crystal Gems, unfortunately, will likely still be in the dark due to their "no interacting with humans" thing. Maybe Greg could hear a thing or two and in turn inform Rose, but that's quite a ways off.

This story keeps getting more and more chilling. I can't imagine how the situation will worsen next chapter. Probably something to do with Yellow or a human's gem cracking.

...Actually, so long as nobody gets the idea to separate human and gem For Science, I don't think it'll hit an eleven on the horror scale yet.

RE: Jet's use: He's brittle and has no use for fighting, so he might just stay as Blue's pet, much like how the jet gemstone has been used as decoration in the past. That or keeping misfortune away from Blue and maybe keep making her happy, a bit like how jet was used in the Roman period. Yes I'm searching wikipedia.

 

[Chairtastic]

So Moissanite is hypnosis, Amber is healing, Fossil is apparently a combat gem, so what exactly is Jet for?

Click to shrink...

Minor correction. Moissanite is a type of gem quality silicon carbide which is used as an alternative to diamond. They rule colonies after the diamonds are done with them.

Ammonites are opals, which are gladitorial fighters with minor use in colonization. Agates are above other quartzes in rank, and are used for squad to base level command roles.

What jet is 'for' is a plot point. But there is some information here.

 

[sleepyforest]

So, a good luck gem or a deflecting/shield gem?

 

[Chairtastic]

Chapter Three - - Doom Senses

The world Blue Diamond's red eye had found was almost entirely water. The most considerable landmass was on the northern magnetic pole, where an icy continent lay. Scattered islands were dotted across the surface, but almost never in archipelagos. Most of the life on the planet was aquatic, which would be perfectly fine for Blue's taste. She could immortalize them in the form of art and architecture which her colony would sport. First things first, the moon base had to be set up.

The Left Arm of Authority was frozen in synchronized orbit around her colony's moon, which itself sported life and would be colonized itself if things went smoothly. The moon was primarily forested, tropical jungles near the equator, which transitioned into temperate deciduous forests and finally taiga near the poles. Trees was the dominant life form on the moon. The moon base for colonization was set up in the space between titanic trees in the deciduous region – its stark white contrasted the dark browns and greens which surrounded it on all sides.

While the base was constructed, Blue watched Jet devour a green-colored synth-fruit produced by the program her agate had provided. He seemed to enjoy the fruit, enough to comment on its taste when his monitor-earrings asked him for feedback. This prompted Blue to look up some information about human diet. Apparently organics were categorized partially by their diet, with the majority of overall organic life using light as their food source – like gems. Humans did so as well, they needed certain ultraviolet light waves to generate what was called 'vitamin d' – however human-gem hybrids had their gems to provide that.

Humans were classified as 'megafauna', organics bigger than the average small gem. Megafauna were sorted by diets of primarily plant life 'herbivorous', other organics 'carnivorous', or both 'omnivorous'. Humans fell into the third category, as they had been observed eating both plant and animal life. However the zoo designers didn't want to replicate organic animals for the humans to eat – so the synth-fruit was developed. Effectively, Zoomans were herbivorous.

Blue was surprised that there was so much information on organic life available, and looked up who had provided it. The answer left her feeling despondent and weeping. Pink had studied the organics, and it was she who had provided all this detailed information – with additions from Holly-Blue Agate. Long after her shattering, it became clear that Pink's ideal place would have been the production of organic gems. But when Pink had been colonizing the Earth, she had only pleas and theories – naturally, Blue and Yellow had dismissed her.

Thousands of years too late, Blue realized Pink was right.

A series of pops drew Blue's attention out of her despondency. She looked up to see Jet bouncing off of one bubble, and flipping up to the next to gain altitude. Blue couldn't tell if they were Pearl's bubbles, or ones which Jet had made, but soon enough the hybrid had gained the ten meters he needed to jump up and hug Blue Diamond's cheek again. He was right in the path of her tears, but didn't seem to mind. Gently, she reached up her hand and lifted him off her face – right away he went to hugging her thumb. "What's gotten into you?"

Her crying had forced Jet to cry as well, and he hugged her thumb like it was all that kept him aloft. "I'm trying to squish the sadness out of you," he said like it explained everything.

Blue blinked as she processed what she'd heard and smiled a little. "Thank you for trying," she told the hybrid gently. "But I think if you squished all the sadness out of me, there'd be nothing left."

Jet relaxed his hug just a little, and looked up at her. "Well… maybe if I squish out a little at a time, you could fill yourself up with something else?"

Curious, Blue Diamond arched a fine brow. "And what would I fill myself up with instead?"

"Things that make you smile!" Even though Blue's tears still forced him to cry, Jet grinned up at her. "Your smile is so pretty – it's the nicest thing I've ever seen!"

"Well that might just be because you haven't seen all that much of the universe yet." With her free hand, she used one finger to gently rub the hybrid's head. "But thank you for the compliment." Surprisingly, she felt a little better. Less stuck in the perpetual cycle of grief she'd been in a moment prior. She put her free hand down, and allowed Pearl to rise onto it. Then she brought both her attendant gems to the loop of hair which passed beneath her gemstone. "How about we see some of what this moon and this colony have in store for us, hmm?" By her will, several scouting robonoids deployed from her ship. Blue Diamond brought their transmissions to her control room through massive projectors. Together the three of them explored the moon without ever having to leave the ship. It was improper for a diamond to wander a forest, so it would likely be the only time Blue got to see it firsthand.

–

Once the base was set up, Blue Diamond went right to work planning the colony. Only minor alterations to the control room were needed for Jet's extended presence. However the hybrid and her Pearl did seem to enjoy playing in the water effects which Blue adorned her bases with. Even though humans were typically a tropical species, they could readily adapt to different climates if the tools to survive were present. That included the water, it seemed – as even though Holly-Blue Agate described their swimming ability as 'poor', Jet would repeatedly take to the water and swim for exercise and enjoyment. Often he would encourage Pearl to join him.

Blue allowed it, provided she was available to see to her duties when called on. Every so often when she checked in on the two of them, Blue would see Pearl teaching Jet how to walk on the surface of the water, or bubbling sections of water and playing with it. Any time she needed her pearl, her servant quickly responded without needing Blue to raise her voice.

It was nice, Blue found, to be working on a colony again. There would be times when she would slip into fits of tears over Pink, but work could draw her out of it, or Jet would do something adorable. She laughed more in the week following her colony's beginning than she had in thousands of years.

At some point, Jet had managed to make bubbles reliably. He would use them for his play periods, or to scale heights he normally wouldn't be able to get to, other such things. As Blue was designing a spire sized adequately for her, she happened to look over and saw Jet in a bubble that floated near her shoulder. She hadn't a clue how long he'd been there, but it had been long enough for the human to go to sleep. The hybrid's sleeping position wasn't ideal, which caused his mouth to loll open and struggle for air during his sleep. It produced enough noise to shake the bubble.

"If you wanted to see what I was up do, you could have just asked to be up here," she scolded the sleeping human as if he were a naughty pet. With one hand, she casually popped the translucent black bubble and caught the still sleeping hybrid. Then she transferred him to the loop of hair below her gemstone and went back to work.

Sleep would naturally detract from any fossil's work performance she thought as she kept working. Even in optimal conditions, the need to eat, sleep, and play would put fossils behind more efficient gems. But if Holly-Blue Agate was correct, they would be able to produce more fossils in the long run via human reproduction. But, per Pink's notes, gems could sleep too. She had tried it, and said that it granted her visions – which the humans called 'dreams'.

Pink only documented one dream – three great women who were joined by a fourth after a meteor fell on Homeworld. The meteor was cracked open, and a pink element was found inside which pebbles worked into someone entirely new. Blue knew the story well – that was how Pink had come to join them – she had lived through it.

Perhaps, when she had free time, she could give sleep a chance. Perhaps her dream would give her some profound insight. Perhaps it would let her see Pink again. A tear fell from her eye, directly onto Jet and woke the hybrid up from the shock.

–

Jaspers were soldiers. Big, orange and red-skinned quartz soldiers made for strength and fighting spirit. They were noted for their determination, resilience, and destructive power. And she was the best jasper ever made. She'd come out of her hole during an attack on her kindergarten, and smashed eighty rebels before the sun set. It wasn't a compliment to say she was the best at what she did, it was a statement of fact.

Yellow Diamond had trusted Jasper to solve her problems for thousands of years. Put her into unwinnable situations, total chaos, and Jasper had resolved the situation masterfully through application of violence. Put her in a fight, and she was an unstoppable force.

But then came the day when Yellow Diamond called on her for something she wasn't made for. Teaching. A Roaming Eye full of Blue Diamond's second-hand amethysts was sent out to pick Jasper up from Yellow Diamond's latest completed colony to 'fix' some of Blue Diamond's agates opals on Yellow Diamond's behalf.

Agates were quartzes too, Jasper had served under hundreds. All they had to do was shout orders, maybe participate in a battle, and crack a whip to keep weaklings in line. Opals were more complex, they were fighters who fought to entertain more important gems. How could something so simple be screwed up? Jasper got her answer as the Roaming Eye emerged from warp space to see a massive sword-shaped space station all of pink crystal.

Ah, that's how, she thought. Put them in charge of humans. What were opals even doing out there?

Unmitigated horror was her reward when she asked those questions of Yellow Diamond. Humans had been fed the shards of shattered gems, and over time absorbed enough of them that they became gems. Jasper didn't let her horror and disgust affect her salute or professional behavior. It was one of the hardest things she'd ever done, especially when Yellow Diamond allowed her to see the monsters. Human in shape, but each had a gemstone that allowed them powers and abilities their kind was too weak to handle. There were four varieties, two of which were unique. Opal derivatives, and agate derivatives were the two versions Yellow Diamond summoned her for. Ammonites and Fossils respectively. Yellow had made Jasper look as unturned humans were carefully fed gem shards to use their inner fluids to dissolve the pieces of fallen gems into slurry and then incorporate it into themselves.

"They should all be destroyed," Jasper muttered as she looked on the scene in a cold sweat.

"I agree," Yellow Diamond quipped. "But they're Blue's. And there are limits to what I am allowed to do with Blue's gems. Which is where you come in." Yellow Diamond turned her head barely enough to look at Jasper, who barely came up past the diamond's ankle. "Your mission is to get these gems into line with their roles – specifically the agates and opals. It will be difficult, but your history of service leads me to believe you will do adequately."

Jasper didn't give voice to the utter vile revulsion she felt at the idea of interacting with the gem-eating monsters she saw through a viewing window. Instead, she pushed that feeling down, with the other hundred-score feelings she couldn't allow herself to process. "I'll start with the agates," she decided after a moment of gathering her thoughts. "They'll help reinforce the training on the opals when we're gone."

"Good. Blue's away to colonize a planet right now, and the galaxy warp between those two points isn't set up yet. I'll check in as my schedule allows." Yellow Diamond folded her hands behind her back. "I don't want this to be a patch-job, jasper. I don't want this done quickly, I want this done correctly. See to it that you don't need to visit here ever again once your task is done."

"Of course, Yellow Diamond." Jasper saluted, and quietly thought to herself. She had to get this right, so she'd never have to deal with those horrible things again.

"Good. Get to work as soon as possible. I have colonies of my own to manage." Yellow Diamond turned away from the viewing window, and walked down the hall toward her ship's docking bay. The thunderous boom of her footsteps faded as she departed, and Jasper felt suddenly alone.

Alone with them. She locked her jaw as she looked at them. They would eat her if they got the chance. Her gemstone was small, it was placed on her face where her nose would be. It would be so easy for them to pop her into their mouths and then… she'd be gone. Worse than being shattered, worse than being a failure. Jasper had fought Rose Quartz. She had fought to avenge Pink Diamond. But Pink Diamond had created the method for these things to come into the world.

For a horrifying moment, Jasper almost thanked Rose Quartz's memory for destroying Pink Diamond, if her diamond had wanted to create animals which saw gems as food.

"Aww look," a passing amethyst said as she looked through the window. "That one's using their strength to juggle other humans in bubbles! That's so cute!"

Jasper could only stare at the amethyst in absolute mystified horror as the lesser quartz cooed over the monster and went back to her duties. Was Jasper the only one who saw the creatures for what they really were?

She took a deep breath, straightened her back, squared her shoulders and set herself on her path. Even if they were monsters, even if she had to acknowledge she was afraid of them, the diamonds expected her to make proper gems out of them. There were agates out there who needed to learn how to be quartz soldiers.

But she would keep a gem destabilizer on her at all times while teaching them. In case any of them looked hungry.

–

"Log Entry Two Five Three Seven," Peridot said to her built-in recorder. She was at a work station while she and other peridots worked on their assigned duties. "The ambers are a borderline defective gem type, I've noticed. They require special circumstances to work, cannot operate at temperature extremes, and require daily maintenance or their mental health will deteriorate." She picked up some fragments of solidified resin she had collected over the course of the work period. "However their unique abilities make pandering to them a necessity. Naturally, this is why Yellow Diamond desires a technological equivalent, so the ambers can be retired and newer – better gems can take their place."

When the first generation of quartz soldiers downgraded the rubies from the de facto soldier to mere guards, they replaced the older pewter gems. Those pewters were quietly disposed of, or kept as relics in bubbles. When topazes first emerged, similar fates were imagined for rubies; but the difficulty in producing topazes restricted their implementation.

The resin, peridot found, lost its restorative quality after use. However, it would regain it when the ambers would activate their abilities again. So far her efforts to obtain liquid resin had been thwarted by the amber's cumbersome design. They couldn't produce the resin on their own will, someone had to be 'hurt' to get them to generate it.

At least she had been provided with the full identification codes for the ambers to tell them apart. The big bulky 'male' apparently was Amber En-Seven, and the more petite 'female' was Amber Eye-Five. They were provided in the pair because they had been 'choosened' for each other. Peridot didn't understand the term's context, but from what the rubies had told her it involved the production of additional ambers. The ruby had been hesitant to share details, as it involved apparently unpleasant aspects of Blue Diamond's method for producing the gems. Peridot had learned that for 'breeding' a 'male' and 'female' had to be 'choosened' for good 'trait inheritance'.

"Blue Diamond's kindergartners are maddeningly inefficient, as a side note. Excessive use of made-up words, arcane rituals around gem production, ugh it's just so wasteful." Peridot's detached fingers rubbed her face while she worked with her other limb enhancer. Yellow Diamond was wise to get the matter out of their hands and into hers. Blue Diamond would surely appreciate her help.

"What is 'wasteful'?"

Peridot jumped at the sudden, foreign voice that asked her a question over her shoulder. She looked, and there was Amber Eye-Five, who smiled at her as if she hadn't just ambushed a poor, lovable peridot.

Peridot steeled herself and glared at the defective gem. "Wasteful is what you are," she told the amber viciously. "The way you're produced and your powers work uses up more resources than is needed."

The amber bent forward to rest her hands on her knees, to better look Peridot in the eyes. "What is a 'resources'?"

Peridot was stunned for a solid second or two. She hadn't thought the ambers were so defective their cognitive abilities weren't at gem standard. "Okay," she said, and gestured with her detached fingers. "First order of business. Resource is the singular, resources is the plural."

"What is – "

"Singular means only one, plural means more than one." She talked slow, so the amber could understand her. "Resources are things you use to accomplish a task. A task is something you want to do, or someone else wants you to do. Do you comprehend?"

Eye-Five giggled. "You're full of big words!"

Peridot legitimately considered screaming in frustration for a moment before she considered something: if she could improve the amber's cognitive functions, she could have the amber explain how her powers worked. Trick the defective gem into accelerating her own replacement! Another brilliant plan by the lovable Peridot.

She took a deep breath and met the amber's eyes. "Yes I am. Would you like to be full of big words too?"

The amber nodded enthusiastically, and Peridot smirked at how easy it would be to get the clod to replace herself.

 

[Katillno]

Aw wonder what Jaspers reaction to learning that pink was responsible for this is going to be

 

[AMomentForCthulh]

So Jasper is the sane one in here hum? Because Holy Copulation Christ, eating gem shards is the closest thing to eating a dead person in their biology

Interesting but damn, and ironically is our dear Jasper that reacts as most humans would to the concept

 

[SmashQueen]

Jasper the audience surrogate, getting to the core of the issue here.

Blue is slowly easing away from her grief. Despite the nightmare fuel, at least something good is happening.

I wonder, will the Homeworld gems see Steven as Rose Quartz or a fusion? I'm leaning towards the latter, that they will believe Rose was eaten by a human. The rebel is "dead" but now they have Pink's original gem concept combined with (what they believe) Pink wanted to be done concerning humans. A "perfect" culmination of her ideas you will.

Eugh.

 

[Vaalintine]

I love all the reactions they have to this, its just beautiful.

 

[Trondason]

Aw wonder what Jaspers reaction to learning that pink was responsible for this is going to be

Click to shrink...

We get to see it. Not good.

For a horrifying moment, Jasper almost thanked Rose Quartz's memory for destroying Pink Diamond, if her diamond had wanted to create animals which saw gems as food.

Click to shrink...

So Jasper is the sane one in here hum? Because Holy Copulation Christ, eating gem shards is the closest thing to eating a dead person in their biology

Interesting but damn, and ironically is our dear Jasper that reacts as most humans would to the concept

Click to shrink...

I think most gems see it akin to how trees use dead bodies to grow. AKA, recycling of resources. Jasper seems less upset about "disgracing" the corpses, more about them possible gaining a hunger for the living things.

 

[AMomentForCthulh]

I think most gems see it akin to how trees use dead bodies to grow. AKA, recycling of resources. Jasper seems less upset about "disgracing" the corpses, more about them possible gaining a hunger for the living things.

Click to shrink...

I think thats only half of it, she does describe them as some Nightmare Fuel Gem Eater, as if seeying it made her sick

 

[Trondason]

I think thats only half of it, she does describe them as some Nightmare Fuel Gem Eater, as if seeying it made her sick

Click to shrink...

Well, yeah. Imagine there was some monster that was able to unhinge it's jaw, shove you into your mouth, and you got to dissolve alive in it's stomach as you became part of it. That's pretty dang creepy.

 

[AMomentForCthulh]

Well, yeah. Imagine there was some monster that was able to unhinge it's jaw, shove you into your mouth, and you got to dissolve alive in it's stomach as you became part of it. That's pretty dang creepy.

Click to shrink...

True, true you're friend

 

[Chairtastic]

Well, yeah. Imagine there was some monster that was able to unhinge it's jaw, shove you into your mouth, and you got to dissolve alive in it's stomach as you became part of it. That's pretty dang creepy.

Click to shrink...

I hate to tell you this, but there are places in the web where "that's hot" would be the overwhelming answer to that description.

I love all the reactions they have to this, its just beautiful.

Click to shrink...

It's a nuanced topic! Gotta have multiple viewpoints.

Blue is slowly easing away from her grief. Despite the nightmare fuel, at least something good is happening.

Click to shrink...

Jet is having much the same effect on her that I think Spinel would have. Melting sorrow with laughter.

 

[Trondason]

I hate to tell you this, but there are places in the web where "that's hot" would be the overwhelming answer to that description.

Click to shrink...

Well, yeah. That's just the state of human sexuality. Gems don't got that though.

Jet is having much the same effect on her that I think Spinel would have. Melting sorrow with laughter.

Click to shrink...

Speaking of Spinel, wonder if Blue will ever visit Pink's garden. She spent a lot of time at Pink's Zoo after all, and there'd probably be memories at her Garden.

 

[Syroc]

Good gods, only three chapters in and I already need more of this story. Its fantastic.

 

[sdarian]

You know, if Steven is still going to be a thing and show up later - then it's just going to further 'prove' that this was Pink Diamond's goal all along.

Since even being trapped on Earth with limited resources she was still trying to merge Gem and Organic life together, as she eventually used herself as her capstone/masterpiece to turn into/make Steven. With Steven growing up and gaining/recovering all the things Pink could do as well as possibly bringing new stuff in when he grows up - showing mastery level proof that her method worked so perfectly that it was even able to fully merge a Gem as powerful as a Diamond - thus all gems weaker (everything else) should have no trouble with the procedure.

Her way worked to get full functionality of a Gem/organic hybrid in a single generation, allowing the Gem Empire to convert a full breeding population of each gem type in a single sacrifice/conversion and from then on can allow the humans to breed as normal to create more. (Strangely, they were never able to find any samples of her previous attempts/failures or her notes. She must have hidden them in a secure lab that they haven't found yet as Pink was very fond of hiding stuff)

If/when they find out how Steven can fuse not only with other Gems, but also with other humans who have no connection to Gems at all (and possibly other organic life in general, not just humans (aliens?) - that still needs to be tested), that opens up all kinds of new avenues of research. Possibly also the fusions between gem types would open up new stuff as well, but their attitude towards fusing as a culture puts that in doubt.

Even just having the humans with different types of gems interbreeding later on to 'mix' gem types up to create new or hybrid gems... They could try and tailor custom gems in that manner to either get something new, or to combine traits that they like together into one being...