Synthesis (Steven Universe AU)
- Thread starter Mre
- Start date
Thanks! And on that note, hopefully what I'm about to post will live up to your expectations.
Landfall 6.2
Chapter 6: Landfall
Part Two
[Beach City, early morning]
Steven Universe found himself going over his dream in his head as he ate breakfast, wondering what it could mean. As he wrestled with this worry, he decided to try and draw out what he'd seen to make it easier to explain what he'd seen when the door into the temple opened up, a purple curve cutting it in two as Amethyst left her room.
"Hey Steven! What'cha drawing?" The small purple gem asked as she approached him, holding a Pringles can stuffed with a bunch of junk and dripping motor oil.
"Hey Amethyst, I had this weird dream and…" Steven noticed what Amethyst was holding. "... and you shouldn't let that drip all over the floor! You know Pearl doesn't like cleaning oil stains!"
"Yeah yeah, I'll deal with it." Amethyst replied before shoving the whole construct down her throat before letting out a loud belch. "Anyways, you were telling me about your drawing?"
"Heh, yeah I had this weird dream last night, I was on a ship looking down on Earth and there were a bunch of other gems with me, and when I looked down I had pink skin and a weird gem on my stomach, that's this picture here, and I was hoping one of you guys could tell me what sort of gem it was."
Amethyst looked at the picture, frowning as she realized she couldn't recognize the gem Steven had drawn. "Yeah I got nothing, but you said you were like, 100% pink, right?"
"Yeah"
"And, you dreamed that you were looking at Earth from space? Haven't you had dreams where you go into people's heads and junk? What if you did it again, but this time instead of that Lars dude or those weird watermelon Stevens it's one of Pink Diamonds gems here to get revenge on Rose Quartz!" Amethyst leapt to her feet, pulling Steven with her as she ran to the temple door. "Come on, we have to tell Garnet and Pearl!"
"Pearl went on a mission, she left a note saying she'd be back in time to make dinner." Steven told her.
"Fine, then we get Garnet and use her future vision to find Pearl, and then we make a plan." Amethyst said, turning to the temple door and frowning. "Hey, you know how to get into The Burning Room without Garnet letting us in? If she's in the temple she'll be there."
Steven paused for a moment to think before answering. "Oh! The temple has tubes between the rooms, and my room lets me get to them if I ask it, we can use that to get to Garnet's room!" He said, focusing on his power as his gem glew and the pink gem on the top of the door lit up. The two made their way through the temple, desperate to find the unofficial leader of the Crystal Gems. When they made it to Garnet's room, the permafusion was missing.
"Oh this isn't good." Steven said. "What if Garnet went to deal with a monster and the gem I saw is going to attack now that we're all scattered!"
"Hey, calm down, we'll be fine, let's get back into your room and go over your dream, ok?" Amethyst said, trying to calm him down. "We'll be fine, we made it through the last bunch of Homeworld gems trying to mess with us, we'll make it through this one." She said, obviously trying to convince herself as well as Steven.
As the two made their way out, Steven pulled up his phone as Amethyst sat down at the coffee table and went over the pictures. Ugh, I have no idea what I'm doing, Pearl would be able to figure out all of these gems in a few seconds, and then we'd be able to plan, but I have no idea what any of these… ok so that one's an Agate, but I don't know the rest… is that a non-fusion Opal?
"Yeah, it might be a false alarm, but I'm really worried Connie!" She heard Steven say. Looking over, she realized he had called Connie while she had been looking at the drawings. As he finished up, he turned to her with a forced smile on his face.
"Alright, Connie is on her way so we'll be able to use Stevonnie on these guys if they show up, now all we have to do is get Lapis and… Peridot...." He trailed off, looking through the windows as something passed between the rising sun and the beach house. Turning around, Amethyst saw a giant flying green hand with small figures dropping out of it hanging above the temple. We are so fucked. Amethyst thought as she realized the figures were full-sized Quartz gems, each nearly as large as Jasper.
[Low Earth Orbit, an hour earlier]
"So, is everyone clear on the plan?" Pink Diamond asked the members of her inner circle. The gems sitting around the table all nodded, and she felt a sense of relief running through her. Revealing her secret this early had not gone over well, and only her ingrained loyalty to Pink as her Diamond had kept Sway from attacking her, but after a few hours of negotiating and talking, the commander of her personal guard had, provisionally, accepted Pinks explanations. Of course, she was going to ask for a whole lot more before she was truly happy with what was going on, but the fact that she hadn't tried to attack Pink was a good sign that she could be brought around eventually.
"Yes my Diamond, I understand it. However, I need to brief the soldiers under my command, so if you'll excuse me…" Sway stood and left without actually waiting for a response. As she walked out the door, she could hear Pink getting the other gems ready.
Walking down the hallway to where her command was waiting, Sway found herself going over the revelations of the last day. Pink Diamond is the rebel Rose Quartz. The rebellion was her way of trying to protect organic life. And then, while I was suffering, she spent thousands of years here on Earth surrounded by organic, and… She took a moment to calm herself, doing her best to suppress her anger. And she spent those thousands of years fighting the twisted monsters that used to be gems, corrupted by the other Diamonds, before giving up her own form to create a hybrid with a human.
That revelation had been extremely contentious, with that one Fire Opal that had been brought in comparing the thing to cross-species fusion. By the time the arguing had died down, the ship had been hanging in orbit for three hours, but Pink had been convincing in her argument, and as the discussion had dragged on Sway had realized something about her Diamond. It's like she was made to bring organic life and gems together, but there was no one around to explain her purpose to her so she had to discover it on her own, and her mistakes left her stranded on a planet where the only way to achieve her purpose was to die.
Pink would have stridently argued against this interpretation of her actions, especially since it implied that she was still not free of the programming the other Diamonds had made her with, but for Sway it was the comforting lie she needed to truly "understand" her Diamond. The Gem empire instilled the idea that a gem fulfilling their purpose should not be judged by those of lesser rank to them in all its members, and right now Sway was slipping back into that old training, rationalizing Pink's actions as her fulfilling her destiny without proper guidance in a desperate attempt to suppress the seething maelstrom of emotions that threatened to break through at any moment.
Reaching the center of the ship, she found the Quartz soldiers under her command waiting in the large observation room. As she entered, they fell silent, standing to attention under her gaze. Looking over the crowd, she could see the clear division between the Rose Quartz gems of her original command and the various Quartzes from the human zoo her Diamond had assigned to her. Looking at the variety of Amethysts, Jaspers, and even a diminutive Carnelian, she remembered that before they had been assigned to the zoo under the command of one of Blue Diamonds Agates, their original Agate had been lost in the evacuation of Earth. She's likely in a bubble, waiting in storage for a cure for the corruption in the stronghold of her worst enemies. Hopefully I'll be able to return her gems in decent condition.
"Alright, here's the game plan everyone!" She shouted out, projecting her voice so all of them could hear her. "Through a series of events that I will not be relaying, our Diamond learned that a geoweapon was buried in the Earth's crust, putting the planet at risk of destruction. She does not want this planet destroyed, so she came here to do reconnaissance of the planet in preparation for the drilling teams who will remove it. Now, we aren't scouts, we have a different goal: Pink informed me that a handful of rebel gems survived the Diamonds attack on Earth that should have killed all the gems on the planet, and we are going to make sure they do not interfere with our Diamonds plans. Our orders are simple, find and subdue the rebels, then bring them onto the ship for our Diamond to deal with."
She pulled up a small projector screen, showing a satellite image of Beach City and the surrounding countryside, with the Crystal Gems base marked in red. "This is their current base, it is located on the end of a penninsula with a human settlement between it and the mainland. This operation will be conducted in four stages. In the first stage, Platoon 1 Squad 1 and a group of technicians will be dropped off at the Galaxy Warp, not shown on this image, with equipment to gain physical control over the warp pad network and track any movements." She pressed a button, highlighting the roads and paths out of Beach City into the nearby hills with purple while the town itself was covered in a low orange. "Then, the rest of Platoon 1 and all of Platoon 2 will secure entrances and exits from the town to prevent any interference from local humans. In stage three, Platoons 5 and 6 will take the town. All of you have thousands of years of experience with humans from the zoo, use it and keep the locals calm, they will have a history of interacting with the rebels and could cause problems if they see us fighting them." She pressed one more button, putting an outline of the ship directly above the temple. "Finally, Platoon 4 will be under my command as we surround the temple. Our Diamond will enter the rebel base by herself, she was very specific about this and will not be argued with. Platoon 3 will remain in the ship, if any other group has issues Platoon 3 will be dropped to assist."
It wasn't the greatest plan, but it was the best Sway had come up with what she had available. Hopefully things wouldn't go horribly wrong. Already there was an outcry as the gems in front of her realized that their Diamond was planning to enter a base full of rebels alone. Thankfully, Pink arrived in the chamber soon afterwards and started explaining that she wouldn't be in any danger and telling them that she knew the rebels wouldn't harm her without explaining how she knew. After a few moments, the ship shuddered as it entered the atmosphere, and the gems of Pink Diamonds personal guard moved out.
The drop off at the Galaxy Warp went smoothly, and as the ship turned and flew towards the objective Pink and Sway listened in as the technicians reported heir progress. Minutes before the final approach, they heard from the Peridot in charge that they could track all uses of the system, but were unable to lock out any warp pads without making substantial repairs to the degraded systems. Pink said that was enough, and the ship moved in, the Rose Quartzes of platoons 1 and 2 jumping from high up and steering themselves towards their objectives, while the Amethysts and off-colors of 5 and 6 were dropped off with a low pass that brought the ship to a near hover over the center of town, the gems inside jumping only 30 feet onto rooftops below before fanning out from their landing zone to patrol the town. Finally, the ship circled the hill the temple was built into, and Sway watched as her Diamond leapt down, aiming for the wooden deck in front of a strange human structure built into the gem temple.
Pink Diamond took a deep breath as she stood at the top of the steps, looking back over the ocean seeing the collection of pink gems forming up around the building. The smell of the ocean brought back memories of the years spent at this place, happy times spent pulling what enjoyment she could from the life around her as she struggled to control her guilt over her actions… Alright, that's enough of that, she thought, cutting off her train of thought before it could get much worse. Full of determination, she turned and walked towards the door, covering the distance in only a few steps. Here goes nothing, she thought, knocking on the door.
At first there was no response, and Pink was worried something had gone wrong. Did they move out after Yellows expedition found them? It did have this listed as their base of operations… Before she could finish that thought, she heard movement and a familiar voice from inside.
"Steven, what are you doing!?" Amethysts voice asked just a moment before a small human boy with dark hair, a pink shirt with a yellow star on it leaving his stomach and the large pink gem on it uncovered walked up to the screen door and looked at her. Pink felt her eyes begin to water as she looked the small hybrid in the eyes for the first time.
"Hello Steven." She said, a smile on her face. "May I come in?"
"Uhm…" Steven responded, looking up at her with confusion in his eyes. "If you're here to take over the Earth or something, I'm going to have to ask you to leave." He answered, putting on his best brave face as Pink felt her heart melt.
"Don't worry, I'm actually here to help save you, and the Earth." She told him. "It's kind of important, can I come in to explain?"
"Wait, what!?" Amethyst shrieked. "You show up in a massive homeworld ship, surrounded by guards, and you say you're here to save the Earth? Homeworld doesn't do that, what's your game?" She asked accusingly.
"Amethyst, be nice! She's ready to talk about it, we don't have to fight like we did with Jasper and the Rubies." Steven answered, undoing the door and letting Pink in.
Amethyst was obviously not very happy with the way she had been brushed off, and she pulled Steven close as Pink entered the house. "Dude, what the heck are you doing? It's obviously some sort of trick!"
"But maybe it's not a trick, maybe for once one of the gems that's come to Earth is willing to just sit down and talk instead of turning everything into a big fight." Steven answered, hope in his voice as he watched Pink, who was wondering if she should tell them she could hear everything they were saying.
The trio sat down at the small couch, and pink decided to focus on getting them to trust her. I can explain the rest when Garnet and Pearl get back. "Alright, I know this sounds crazy, but I'm from homeworld and I'm here to help save this planet. Right now there is a massive collection of gem shards in the Earth's crust, if it links up and creates a solid form it will then fight its way out of the planet, shattering the crust and killing all life on Earth. I have heavy equipment coming to help get rid of it but it might not be in time, so I need you and all the other Crystal Gems to come with me on my ship. There will be more ships coming for the humans and as much of the wildlife as we can load up, … what's with that look?"
Steven and Amethyst were staring at her, and for a moment Pink thought she had messed something up, but then Steven spoke up. "We know about The Cluster, and we kind of sort of already took care of it when it started to emerge last summer." He told her, not really looking at her. "Sorry you came all this way, but the Earth is safe, that's good, right?" He asked, but he saw the look on her face and fell silent.
"Ok seriously, what is even going on on Homeworld?" Amethyst asked loudly. "First Yellow Diamond tries to blow Peridot sky-high for trying to save Earth from The Cluster, and now pinky here shows up trying to do the exact same thing, and offering to save us? I mean seriously… OW!" She was cut off when Steven elbowed her in the stomach, shaking his head and pointing silently at Pink, who was in the middle of a breakdown.
They already took care of it. The Earth was nearly destroyed and I was busy ignoring all the reports about it. I could have shown up to find a bunch of rocks and a geoweapon where Earth should have been, and it's all my fault. If it wasn't for dumb luck I would have failed, everyone would be dead, and the rebellion would have been just a massive waste of time that killed millions of gems. She found herself staring off into the distance, with Amethyst and Steven watching her, until a bright light came up from the warp pad.
"...don't understand why your future vision isn't working, do you know what…" Pearl trailed off, staring at the large pink gem sitting on the couch next to Steven in shock. Steven got up quickly and put himself between Pink and Garnet and Pearl.
"It's ok, she's just here to talk, she doesn't want to fight or anything!" He said, trying to reassure the two. Garnet took another moment to process what was going on before she responded.
"Steven, that's Pink Diamond, there is no reason for her to be here that ends well for us." The fusion said, staring down Pink. Steven and Amethysts cries of alarm were completely ignored by Pink, who found herself staring directly into Pearls eyes. Thousands of years of memories burst to the forefront of both gems minds, and to Pinks horror she saw Pearl holding her hands over her mouth, the pose she had held them in when she gave her last order as a Diamond.
The pain and suffering in Pearl's eyes was too much for Pink to bear, and she felt tears coming to her own eyes even as Garnet moved to protect Pearl and Steven and Amethyst took up positions to her sides. Pink tore her gaze away from Pearl, looking Garnet in the eyes.
"I'm not here to fight you." She said softly, doing her best to avoid the commanding tones of Pink Diamond in favor of the softer voice of Rose Quartz. The effect was immediate, and Garnet rocked back in surprise, staring at her in confusion. Steven and Amethyst were no better, hearing her voice had caused them both to lower their guards. Pink sighed, hunching over in shame, a pose that she was sure Blue would have called "unsuiting of your position."
"I know it's a lot to ask, but I need you to listen to me." She told the Crystal Gems.
Garnet dismissed her weapons, but kept her fists clenched at her sides. "Start talking." She said through gritted teeth, and Pink did.
Authors Notes:
Hi everyone! Two notes today.
One: I know I've been hinting in comments that this would be a bit more action packed of a reunion, but the image of Pink standing at the door and knocking came into my head and wouldn't let go, so I redid that whole chunk of the chapter. I feel like this chapter has some issues because of the rewrite, so if you see any issues let me know.
Two: Next week is Thanksgiving here in the USA, and I will be taking a week off. I'll be building up a backlog of chapters so I don't end up rewriting the day of anymore, but this is the last content I will post for two weeks.
As always, let me know what you thought about this chapter!
Part Two
[Beach City, early morning]
Steven Universe found himself going over his dream in his head as he ate breakfast, wondering what it could mean. As he wrestled with this worry, he decided to try and draw out what he'd seen to make it easier to explain what he'd seen when the door into the temple opened up, a purple curve cutting it in two as Amethyst left her room.
"Hey Steven! What'cha drawing?" The small purple gem asked as she approached him, holding a Pringles can stuffed with a bunch of junk and dripping motor oil.
"Hey Amethyst, I had this weird dream and…" Steven noticed what Amethyst was holding. "... and you shouldn't let that drip all over the floor! You know Pearl doesn't like cleaning oil stains!"
"Yeah yeah, I'll deal with it." Amethyst replied before shoving the whole construct down her throat before letting out a loud belch. "Anyways, you were telling me about your drawing?"
"Heh, yeah I had this weird dream last night, I was on a ship looking down on Earth and there were a bunch of other gems with me, and when I looked down I had pink skin and a weird gem on my stomach, that's this picture here, and I was hoping one of you guys could tell me what sort of gem it was."
Amethyst looked at the picture, frowning as she realized she couldn't recognize the gem Steven had drawn. "Yeah I got nothing, but you said you were like, 100% pink, right?"
"Yeah"
"And, you dreamed that you were looking at Earth from space? Haven't you had dreams where you go into people's heads and junk? What if you did it again, but this time instead of that Lars dude or those weird watermelon Stevens it's one of Pink Diamonds gems here to get revenge on Rose Quartz!" Amethyst leapt to her feet, pulling Steven with her as she ran to the temple door. "Come on, we have to tell Garnet and Pearl!"
"Pearl went on a mission, she left a note saying she'd be back in time to make dinner." Steven told her.
"Fine, then we get Garnet and use her future vision to find Pearl, and then we make a plan." Amethyst said, turning to the temple door and frowning. "Hey, you know how to get into The Burning Room without Garnet letting us in? If she's in the temple she'll be there."
Steven paused for a moment to think before answering. "Oh! The temple has tubes between the rooms, and my room lets me get to them if I ask it, we can use that to get to Garnet's room!" He said, focusing on his power as his gem glew and the pink gem on the top of the door lit up. The two made their way through the temple, desperate to find the unofficial leader of the Crystal Gems. When they made it to Garnet's room, the permafusion was missing.
"Oh this isn't good." Steven said. "What if Garnet went to deal with a monster and the gem I saw is going to attack now that we're all scattered!"
"Hey, calm down, we'll be fine, let's get back into your room and go over your dream, ok?" Amethyst said, trying to calm him down. "We'll be fine, we made it through the last bunch of Homeworld gems trying to mess with us, we'll make it through this one." She said, obviously trying to convince herself as well as Steven.
As the two made their way out, Steven pulled up his phone as Amethyst sat down at the coffee table and went over the pictures. Ugh, I have no idea what I'm doing, Pearl would be able to figure out all of these gems in a few seconds, and then we'd be able to plan, but I have no idea what any of these… ok so that one's an Agate, but I don't know the rest… is that a non-fusion Opal?
"Yeah, it might be a false alarm, but I'm really worried Connie!" She heard Steven say. Looking over, she realized he had called Connie while she had been looking at the drawings. As he finished up, he turned to her with a forced smile on his face.
"Alright, Connie is on her way so we'll be able to use Stevonnie on these guys if they show up, now all we have to do is get Lapis and… Peridot...." He trailed off, looking through the windows as something passed between the rising sun and the beach house. Turning around, Amethyst saw a giant flying green hand with small figures dropping out of it hanging above the temple. We are so fucked. Amethyst thought as she realized the figures were full-sized Quartz gems, each nearly as large as Jasper.
[Low Earth Orbit, an hour earlier]
"So, is everyone clear on the plan?" Pink Diamond asked the members of her inner circle. The gems sitting around the table all nodded, and she felt a sense of relief running through her. Revealing her secret this early had not gone over well, and only her ingrained loyalty to Pink as her Diamond had kept Sway from attacking her, but after a few hours of negotiating and talking, the commander of her personal guard had, provisionally, accepted Pinks explanations. Of course, she was going to ask for a whole lot more before she was truly happy with what was going on, but the fact that she hadn't tried to attack Pink was a good sign that she could be brought around eventually.
"Yes my Diamond, I understand it. However, I need to brief the soldiers under my command, so if you'll excuse me…" Sway stood and left without actually waiting for a response. As she walked out the door, she could hear Pink getting the other gems ready.
Walking down the hallway to where her command was waiting, Sway found herself going over the revelations of the last day. Pink Diamond is the rebel Rose Quartz. The rebellion was her way of trying to protect organic life. And then, while I was suffering, she spent thousands of years here on Earth surrounded by organic, and… She took a moment to calm herself, doing her best to suppress her anger. And she spent those thousands of years fighting the twisted monsters that used to be gems, corrupted by the other Diamonds, before giving up her own form to create a hybrid with a human.
That revelation had been extremely contentious, with that one Fire Opal that had been brought in comparing the thing to cross-species fusion. By the time the arguing had died down, the ship had been hanging in orbit for three hours, but Pink had been convincing in her argument, and as the discussion had dragged on Sway had realized something about her Diamond. It's like she was made to bring organic life and gems together, but there was no one around to explain her purpose to her so she had to discover it on her own, and her mistakes left her stranded on a planet where the only way to achieve her purpose was to die.
Pink would have stridently argued against this interpretation of her actions, especially since it implied that she was still not free of the programming the other Diamonds had made her with, but for Sway it was the comforting lie she needed to truly "understand" her Diamond. The Gem empire instilled the idea that a gem fulfilling their purpose should not be judged by those of lesser rank to them in all its members, and right now Sway was slipping back into that old training, rationalizing Pink's actions as her fulfilling her destiny without proper guidance in a desperate attempt to suppress the seething maelstrom of emotions that threatened to break through at any moment.
Reaching the center of the ship, she found the Quartz soldiers under her command waiting in the large observation room. As she entered, they fell silent, standing to attention under her gaze. Looking over the crowd, she could see the clear division between the Rose Quartz gems of her original command and the various Quartzes from the human zoo her Diamond had assigned to her. Looking at the variety of Amethysts, Jaspers, and even a diminutive Carnelian, she remembered that before they had been assigned to the zoo under the command of one of Blue Diamonds Agates, their original Agate had been lost in the evacuation of Earth. She's likely in a bubble, waiting in storage for a cure for the corruption in the stronghold of her worst enemies. Hopefully I'll be able to return her gems in decent condition.
"Alright, here's the game plan everyone!" She shouted out, projecting her voice so all of them could hear her. "Through a series of events that I will not be relaying, our Diamond learned that a geoweapon was buried in the Earth's crust, putting the planet at risk of destruction. She does not want this planet destroyed, so she came here to do reconnaissance of the planet in preparation for the drilling teams who will remove it. Now, we aren't scouts, we have a different goal: Pink informed me that a handful of rebel gems survived the Diamonds attack on Earth that should have killed all the gems on the planet, and we are going to make sure they do not interfere with our Diamonds plans. Our orders are simple, find and subdue the rebels, then bring them onto the ship for our Diamond to deal with."
She pulled up a small projector screen, showing a satellite image of Beach City and the surrounding countryside, with the Crystal Gems base marked in red. "This is their current base, it is located on the end of a penninsula with a human settlement between it and the mainland. This operation will be conducted in four stages. In the first stage, Platoon 1 Squad 1 and a group of technicians will be dropped off at the Galaxy Warp, not shown on this image, with equipment to gain physical control over the warp pad network and track any movements." She pressed a button, highlighting the roads and paths out of Beach City into the nearby hills with purple while the town itself was covered in a low orange. "Then, the rest of Platoon 1 and all of Platoon 2 will secure entrances and exits from the town to prevent any interference from local humans. In stage three, Platoons 5 and 6 will take the town. All of you have thousands of years of experience with humans from the zoo, use it and keep the locals calm, they will have a history of interacting with the rebels and could cause problems if they see us fighting them." She pressed one more button, putting an outline of the ship directly above the temple. "Finally, Platoon 4 will be under my command as we surround the temple. Our Diamond will enter the rebel base by herself, she was very specific about this and will not be argued with. Platoon 3 will remain in the ship, if any other group has issues Platoon 3 will be dropped to assist."
It wasn't the greatest plan, but it was the best Sway had come up with what she had available. Hopefully things wouldn't go horribly wrong. Already there was an outcry as the gems in front of her realized that their Diamond was planning to enter a base full of rebels alone. Thankfully, Pink arrived in the chamber soon afterwards and started explaining that she wouldn't be in any danger and telling them that she knew the rebels wouldn't harm her without explaining how she knew. After a few moments, the ship shuddered as it entered the atmosphere, and the gems of Pink Diamonds personal guard moved out.
The drop off at the Galaxy Warp went smoothly, and as the ship turned and flew towards the objective Pink and Sway listened in as the technicians reported heir progress. Minutes before the final approach, they heard from the Peridot in charge that they could track all uses of the system, but were unable to lock out any warp pads without making substantial repairs to the degraded systems. Pink said that was enough, and the ship moved in, the Rose Quartzes of platoons 1 and 2 jumping from high up and steering themselves towards their objectives, while the Amethysts and off-colors of 5 and 6 were dropped off with a low pass that brought the ship to a near hover over the center of town, the gems inside jumping only 30 feet onto rooftops below before fanning out from their landing zone to patrol the town. Finally, the ship circled the hill the temple was built into, and Sway watched as her Diamond leapt down, aiming for the wooden deck in front of a strange human structure built into the gem temple.
Pink Diamond took a deep breath as she stood at the top of the steps, looking back over the ocean seeing the collection of pink gems forming up around the building. The smell of the ocean brought back memories of the years spent at this place, happy times spent pulling what enjoyment she could from the life around her as she struggled to control her guilt over her actions… Alright, that's enough of that, she thought, cutting off her train of thought before it could get much worse. Full of determination, she turned and walked towards the door, covering the distance in only a few steps. Here goes nothing, she thought, knocking on the door.
At first there was no response, and Pink was worried something had gone wrong. Did they move out after Yellows expedition found them? It did have this listed as their base of operations… Before she could finish that thought, she heard movement and a familiar voice from inside.
"Steven, what are you doing!?" Amethysts voice asked just a moment before a small human boy with dark hair, a pink shirt with a yellow star on it leaving his stomach and the large pink gem on it uncovered walked up to the screen door and looked at her. Pink felt her eyes begin to water as she looked the small hybrid in the eyes for the first time.
"Hello Steven." She said, a smile on her face. "May I come in?"
"Uhm…" Steven responded, looking up at her with confusion in his eyes. "If you're here to take over the Earth or something, I'm going to have to ask you to leave." He answered, putting on his best brave face as Pink felt her heart melt.
"Don't worry, I'm actually here to help save you, and the Earth." She told him. "It's kind of important, can I come in to explain?"
"Wait, what!?" Amethyst shrieked. "You show up in a massive homeworld ship, surrounded by guards, and you say you're here to save the Earth? Homeworld doesn't do that, what's your game?" She asked accusingly.
"Amethyst, be nice! She's ready to talk about it, we don't have to fight like we did with Jasper and the Rubies." Steven answered, undoing the door and letting Pink in.
Amethyst was obviously not very happy with the way she had been brushed off, and she pulled Steven close as Pink entered the house. "Dude, what the heck are you doing? It's obviously some sort of trick!"
"But maybe it's not a trick, maybe for once one of the gems that's come to Earth is willing to just sit down and talk instead of turning everything into a big fight." Steven answered, hope in his voice as he watched Pink, who was wondering if she should tell them she could hear everything they were saying.
The trio sat down at the small couch, and pink decided to focus on getting them to trust her. I can explain the rest when Garnet and Pearl get back. "Alright, I know this sounds crazy, but I'm from homeworld and I'm here to help save this planet. Right now there is a massive collection of gem shards in the Earth's crust, if it links up and creates a solid form it will then fight its way out of the planet, shattering the crust and killing all life on Earth. I have heavy equipment coming to help get rid of it but it might not be in time, so I need you and all the other Crystal Gems to come with me on my ship. There will be more ships coming for the humans and as much of the wildlife as we can load up, … what's with that look?"
Steven and Amethyst were staring at her, and for a moment Pink thought she had messed something up, but then Steven spoke up. "We know about The Cluster, and we kind of sort of already took care of it when it started to emerge last summer." He told her, not really looking at her. "Sorry you came all this way, but the Earth is safe, that's good, right?" He asked, but he saw the look on her face and fell silent.
"Ok seriously, what is even going on on Homeworld?" Amethyst asked loudly. "First Yellow Diamond tries to blow Peridot sky-high for trying to save Earth from The Cluster, and now pinky here shows up trying to do the exact same thing, and offering to save us? I mean seriously… OW!" She was cut off when Steven elbowed her in the stomach, shaking his head and pointing silently at Pink, who was in the middle of a breakdown.
They already took care of it. The Earth was nearly destroyed and I was busy ignoring all the reports about it. I could have shown up to find a bunch of rocks and a geoweapon where Earth should have been, and it's all my fault. If it wasn't for dumb luck I would have failed, everyone would be dead, and the rebellion would have been just a massive waste of time that killed millions of gems. She found herself staring off into the distance, with Amethyst and Steven watching her, until a bright light came up from the warp pad.
"...don't understand why your future vision isn't working, do you know what…" Pearl trailed off, staring at the large pink gem sitting on the couch next to Steven in shock. Steven got up quickly and put himself between Pink and Garnet and Pearl.
"It's ok, she's just here to talk, she doesn't want to fight or anything!" He said, trying to reassure the two. Garnet took another moment to process what was going on before she responded.
"Steven, that's Pink Diamond, there is no reason for her to be here that ends well for us." The fusion said, staring down Pink. Steven and Amethysts cries of alarm were completely ignored by Pink, who found herself staring directly into Pearls eyes. Thousands of years of memories burst to the forefront of both gems minds, and to Pinks horror she saw Pearl holding her hands over her mouth, the pose she had held them in when she gave her last order as a Diamond.
The pain and suffering in Pearl's eyes was too much for Pink to bear, and she felt tears coming to her own eyes even as Garnet moved to protect Pearl and Steven and Amethyst took up positions to her sides. Pink tore her gaze away from Pearl, looking Garnet in the eyes.
"I'm not here to fight you." She said softly, doing her best to avoid the commanding tones of Pink Diamond in favor of the softer voice of Rose Quartz. The effect was immediate, and Garnet rocked back in surprise, staring at her in confusion. Steven and Amethyst were no better, hearing her voice had caused them both to lower their guards. Pink sighed, hunching over in shame, a pose that she was sure Blue would have called "unsuiting of your position."
"I know it's a lot to ask, but I need you to listen to me." She told the Crystal Gems.
Garnet dismissed her weapons, but kept her fists clenched at her sides. "Start talking." She said through gritted teeth, and Pink did.
Authors Notes:
Hi everyone! Two notes today.
One: I know I've been hinting in comments that this would be a bit more action packed of a reunion, but the image of Pink standing at the door and knocking came into my head and wouldn't let go, so I redid that whole chunk of the chapter. I feel like this chapter has some issues because of the rewrite, so if you see any issues let me know.
Two: Next week is Thanksgiving here in the USA, and I will be taking a week off. I'll be building up a backlog of chapters so I don't end up rewriting the day of anymore, but this is the last content I will post for two weeks.
As always, let me know what you thought about this chapter!
Damn it! You monster! Cutting off right before we get to see Garnet, Steven and Amethyst's reactions.
I totally didn't plan it that way, but with the rewrite I had to scrap my ideas for how that conversation would go, so i didn't include it in this weeks update. And I actually wasn't planning on taking a week off until I did the rewrite and realized "I need to stop rewriting half the chapter the day I plan to submit it."
TheBleachDoctor
Secretly a Cat
- Location
- The Plane of Infinite Kittens
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Pink, at least tell Pearl she can speak now. 
- Location
- USA
One thing I have never understood about Steven Universe is why the local governments just dont seem to care about the alien invasions.
You would think that after the first time a gem ship landed there Beach City would be crawling with GIs. If not earlier like when the Red Eye attacked.
You would think that after the first time a gem ship landed there Beach City would be crawling with GIs. If not earlier like when the Red Eye attacked.
I'm actually debating covering that in this story.
On one hand, if I don't cover it I can say "the government doesn't get involved because canon says they don't" but that's a weak excuse, but if I do cover it then we run into the issue where whatever excuse I come up with has to make sense.
- Location
- USA
I mean, if you want to take the events of Steven universe completely seriously. You have to take into account Lapis destroying both the global economy and the entire ecosystem in less than a day.
Let alone the mass panic that the Red Eye would have caused.
TheBleachDoctor
Secretly a Cat
- Location
- The Plane of Infinite Kittens
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Well, it could just be sheer disbelief. The stories of Beach City lost in the endless sea of conspiracy theories.
Queshire
Wants a pink flamingo for their lawn.
- Pronouns
- They/Them
I think you need to consider history too. For them corrupted gems have been around for basically the entire length of history. There be monsters out there. Avoiding magic stuff could be ingrained in the entire collective social common sense.
- Location
- USA
That I can understand. Attacks from gem beasts would be a fact of life for hummanity in SU, just another part of living on earth.
I imagine that it would have lead to the first standing militaries arising much earlier than IRL as a counter to them, and that concept evolving with hummanity. By the modern era that means either attack helicopters and tanks being posted in small numbers across the countryside or dedicated Anti-Gem task forces attached to local police forces.
But even so, Gem Beasts crawling out of the forests and deserts is something hummanity still associates with life on EARTH. Confirmed Gem stuff coming from outer space is still just as big of a deal as normal aliens would be IRL. So any sign of a Gem starship on NASA telescopes is going to make the worlds governments sit up and take notice.
It isnt just random attacks anymore, it's a threat of an organized invasion.
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TheBleachDoctor
Secretly a Cat
- Location
- The Plane of Infinite Kittens
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Also, Russia is gone. That's a pretty big historical difference.
- Location
- USA
Im sure russia still exists. It might not own siberia though due to the massive hole in the middle of it stopping their expansion.
TheBleachDoctor
Secretly a Cat
- Location
- The Plane of Infinite Kittens
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Don't get into a land war in Asia, they don't have a lot of it.
See, this is what I mean. The first post is a good explanation of why the Crystal Gems aren't bothered when they do their own thing, but once the spaceships show up there needs to be some other reason that no one freaks out, and with how blatant Pinks excursion is in the last chapter she's likely going to shatter whatever reason that is, unless I very carefully make zero mention of it and just rely on suspension of disbelief the way the show does.
There's a lot of human history that gets changed by the Siberian Sea, most prominently the Mongols, but the changes to Africa/South America would be realistically even larger, opening the Med up to the Atlantic and creating a chain of islands strung between Africa and South America close enough together for particularly brave groups to cross between them, which basically completely upends the Columbian exchange, causing it to happen thousands of years early with those islands as a major route.
However, this is a fanfic for a kids show, so I'm not going to write out how those physical changes should render the current world unrecognizable with how far back the POD was.
My best effort at mapping locations onto the SU map puts Yekaterinburg as a coastal city - so basically all of European Russia is still there.
Queshire
Wants a pink flamingo for their lawn.
- Pronouns
- They/Them
Ehhhhh..... Considering weird gem stuff includes such examples as a tower in the middle of an eternal whirlpool in the open ocean, strawberries growing bigger than a person amid ancient forgotten weapons and a pink lion I just don't think a hand from the sky stands out more than the usual.
That's fair, I already was leaning towards ignoring the government the way the show does, and I can't really think of a good way to integrate the government as a subplot as long as Pink is only visiting Beach City and not trying to assert her legal claim to the planet.
- Location
- USA
Ok think of it in this context. There are two possible explanations for gem structures on earth to uneducated humans.
The first, is that it was all the result of some lost ancient human civilization, or maybe even another sentient species that went extinct at some point. Their technology is far beyond anything you are able to explain with your understanding of science. Regardless, everyone involved is almost certainly dead, and therefore not a threat. You are free to study and exploit it as you see fit. And Gem monsters are similarly leftovers, or some as yet unknown natural
The second explanation is, of course, aliens. Earth was at some point visited by agents of a completely unknown government who left behind dozens of impossibly advanced structures. And you now have to question what happened to them. Why did they leave? Why did they come here in the first place? Why did they leave all of these battlefields and structures behind? Did they drive themselves to extinction? And most importantly, What happens to my country if they decide they want their planet back?
Letting the Gems do their thing on planet shouldnt be much of an issue, they kill the gem monsters that threaten your citizens. And in the meantime you just deploy helicopters whenever they arent fast enough. But when things start coming from space? When a WARSHIP attacks an American city? The government cant NOT get involved without looking like it cant protect it's own people.
Especially after a narrowly avoided extinction event and the ocean incident.
Confrontation 7.1
Chapter 7: Confrontation
Part 1
[Pink Diamond's Perspective]
Pink Diamond surveyed the room in front of her. The Crystal Gems and Steven were gathered around the warp pad near the tunnel entrance, and all but Pearl had their weapons out, even though only Garnet and Amethyst truly looked ready for a fight.
"I can explain everything, but right now I need everyone to put their weapons away." She told them.
"How about you stop hurting Pearl first, and then maybe we can talk!" Amethyst said accusingly, one hand gesturing to Pearl, who was currently holding her hands over her mouth as tears ran down her face.
"Amethyst, she didn't do anything to Pearl, we would have seen it if she'd hurt her." Steven said, looking over the pink shield that outright hurt Pink to look at, memories of her past coming back to haunt her.
Pink raised her hands to show that she wasn't armed. "I didn't hurt her today, but I am the reason she is hurting. She has a command from me that she does not want to obey, and I can undo it if you trust me."
"Trust you!? You're a Diamond! An undead, zombie Diamond here to destroy the Earth!" Amethyst yelled at her.
"Amethyst, she wanted to stop The Cluster"
"Yeah, so she could restart the Kindergarten and build an army to conquer more planets!"
"Enough!" Garnet interrupted the bickering, her gaze locked on Pink with a stare that was withering even with her glasses. "You will remove the command from Pearl, and then you will explain how and why you are here." She said, clearly not happy about the situation.
Amethyst looked at her in shock. "Wait, you're trusting her? Is your future vision broken? That's Pink Diamond!" She said, gesturing wildly with her whip.
Garnet said nothing, simply staring down Pink, who nodded her agreement. "Pearl, as your Diamond, I hereby command you to stop following any order you do not wish to follow, including any that I have given or will give to you." She said, the words she had spent hours stressing over finally undoing one of her worst mistakes. I'm sorry I hurt you Pearl, but now no one can ever hurt you like that again, not even me… I hope.
As her words reached Pearl, the pale gem stiffened before her whole body relaxed. Tears still flowing freely down her face, her hands gently fell to the side as she looked Pink in the eyes. "I missed you so much…" Pearl whispered.
Three things happened after she said that. First, Amethyst whirled on her, shock and horror on her face. Secondly, Garnet shifted her weight around so her right arm had a clear shot at Pearl while keeping Pink solidly in her view. And finally Steven, shocked and confused by this strange pink gem talking like his mom and the way Pearl was talking to her, had enough.
"Would someone just tell me what's going on!?" He yelled, frustration in his voice. "What did you order Pearl to do, how does she know you?" His voice cracked, emotion running through it as tears filled his eyes. Pink and Pearl made eye contact, and in the span of a couple seconds held the sort of nonverbal conversation only possible between two people who knew each other for a very long time. Sighing, Pink hung her head, sat down, and began to explain.
"It all started back when I started the colony on Earth." She began. "I was visiting the Prime Kindergarten when Pearl took me to see the rest of the planet, and I saw what was happening. I stood at the edge, and I saw the difference between the Earth as it was, full of life and beauty, and the Earth that would be if I didn't stop the colony. I went to the other Diamonds and asked them to let me stop the colony, but they refused and told me to follow procedure…"
"Yeah right, you came down, saw a bunch of trees and birds and decided 'hey, I don't want to kill this planet anymore!' You expect us to believe that?" Amethyst asked sarcastically. Pink nodded her head.
"I met a few humans too, but yes that is pretty much what happened." Pink answered. Amethyst looked surprised by the answer, but before she could say anything Steven put his hand on her shoulder to calm her down and Pink continued. "After I failed to convince the other Diamonds, I decided that if they wouldn't respect me as a Diamond, then maybe they would respect me as a rebel."
With those words, her form began to glow. She lost height and gained width, trading her tall thin body for the shorter (but still taller than anyone else in the room) and thicker body of a Quartz soldier. To be specific, a Rose Quartz soldier. As she shrank, her gem rotated, the point sliding into her form until only the base was left pointing out. As the transformation finished, she opened her eyes and looked onto the shocked faces of the gems who had been her family for thousands of years.
"I'm sorry." She said, her voice full of sorrow.
For several moments, no one spoke, everyone staring at her in silence until Garnet started physically shaking. "Rose… you" She split apart in a flash of light, a small blue form rushing forward.
"You lied to us!" Sapphire yelled, landing her flying punch directly on Pinks face. "All those years, we never looked into who you were because we trusted you!"
"Sapphire wait!" Ruby shouted.
"All those years… was any of it real? Did you ever tell us the truth?" Sapphire ignored Ruby, grabbing onto Pinks collar and screaming in her face. Pink gently raised her arms and forced her out of fist range, only for sapphire to start to freeze her arm. Dropping the small blue cyclops, Pink leaped up, shaking her arm to clear off the ice as Steven and Ruby rushed forward.
"Sapphire, it's still Rose! She's still the gem who told us that it was ok to be Garnet, that we didn't have to unfuse." Ruby said, trying to keep her lover calm.
"She told us to never question who we were, and we didn't. We never questioned anything she told us!" Sapphire yelled.
"She fooled everyone, we couldn't have known any better."
"No, you couldn't have known any better!" Sapphire snapped, whirling on Ruby. "You never know what's going on, that's what I'm for."
Pink frowned, shocked at what she was hearing. "Sapphire, Ruby's right, none of Homeworlds Sapphires ever figured me out either." Or if they did they kept their mouths shut.
Sapphire fixed her glare on Pink. "You shut up." She said, her voice cold with rage. "You played with us for thousands of years, and then you faked your death and left us so you could go back to being a Diamond."
Pink jerked back as if hit, but before she could respond Sapphire turned and dashed onto the warp pad, disappearing in a flash of light. Pink heard the communicator tell her where Sapphire had gone and turned it off before turning to Ruby, who was kneeling on the ground crying. "I'm so sorry Ruby, she shouldn't have hurt you because of what I did."
The small red gem flinched at her words, looking at her with tear soaked eyes for a moment before hanging her head and continuing to cry. Pink had a sinking feeling in her gut as she comforted the small red gem. "It's ok, she's angry at me, not you. Once she calms down I can explain everything."
Amethyst had the decency of allowing a solid thirty seconds of awkward crying to pass before she exploded. "Hey, so Rose, Pink, whatever, I've got a question: how are you alive? Sapphire had a point there, even though she was kind of a bi…"
"Amethyst, language!" Pearl snapped as Ruby sobbed even harder.
"It's true isn't it?" Amethyst responded, but as the two gems started to argue Pink's thoughts wandered. This is not how I intended for any of this to go, I need to go talk to Sapphire alone, but can I leave everyone else alone here while I do that? Pearl looks like she's about to break down, and Amethyst is gaze rested on Steven, who had lifted up his shirt and was staring at the gem on his stomach, tears flowing freely down his face. Pink moved forward, kneeling down and putting her hand on his shoulder, which caused him to jerk into motion, staring her in the eyes.
"Steven, I know this is a lot to take in right now, but I want you to know something." She tapped his gem. "That gem, your gem, is the original Pink Diamond gem. Mine is a copy that a machine put me into after I gave up my form to have you." In the background, she could hear Amethyst go "whaaaaaaaaaat?" which she tried to ignore as Steven mumbled to her. "I'm sorry, what was that?" She asked, leaning in closer to try and hear him better.
"Why did you leave them?" He asked, and Pink again felt like she had been assaulted by words. "Why did you have me? You left the gems, and dad, and everyone who cared about you behind, and then I had to deal with Jasper, and The Cluster, and all those corrupted gems and…" He trailed off as she sat there, stunned by his question, before a wave of resolve came over her. She reached forward, wrapping her arms around him in a large hug.
"You never should have had to deal with those things, I thought the Earth was calm enough for you to live a long happy life, without all my regrets weighing you down, but I was wrong, and you got hurt because of that. I promise, once I explain myself to Ruby and Sapphire, you will never have to handle my mistakes ever again." She promised, praying to any deity that might be out there that she would be able to keep that promise.
Steven seemed shocked by this, and Amethyst looked like she was torn between joining in and attacking Pink. Meanwhile, Pearl was barely holding herself together off to the side. Pink took this in and stood up. "I should go talk to Ruby and Sapphire." She said, standing up and walking towards the temple. Turning back, she gave the others a soft smile. "I'll be right back, and then we can actually have a real reunion, one without screaming and yelling."
Amethyst scoffed, muttering "yeah right, not after that bombshell." Pink frowned and looked at Steven, realizing there was still one more person who should be here for the reunion.
"Steven, why don't you go get Greg? I'll tell the guards to let you through, and then I can explain this to both of you at once." She asked, and Steven gave only a small nod before turning and heading out the door. Pink reached up and activated her communicator. "Sway, Ste… the hybrid is leaving the house to head into town. Let him and any other gem that comes out of the temple go, but keep them inside the town and under guard at all times, the initial contact went well enough that I believe you can stand your troops down from combat ready to standard guard protocols. I'm going into the temple to continue negotiations."
"Acknowledged My Diamond." Came the voice from the other end. Pink winced at the sound, realizing she still had to calm Sway down after the revelations earlier. She was going to ask Pearl if she wanted to come with, but she knew from long experience that the pale gem was barely holding it together, and she knew she was the cause. It would be better for everyone if she left them alone, then they would have time away from her to deal with these issues. Turning, she walked onto the warp pad and followed Sapphire to a place she knew quite well, a place she'd spent days at a time weeping over everything she'd done wrong and all the gems who would never get a chance to live a free life because of her mistake.
[Steven's Perspective]
Steven didn't know what to think. Mom was back, and she was a Diamond, and she'd forced Pearl to keep it a secret and Garnet unfused and…
"Hey Steven!" he heard Amethyst shout as she ran after him. "Wait up!"
When she caught up to him, she put her hand on his shoulder and leaned in close. "Hey, your mom went after Sapphire and Pearl and Ruby are sitting on the floor crying together and it was creeping me out, so I figured I'd come with you to tell Greg. You know, if that's ok with you." She said, eyes darting between the Rose Quartzes that were not even trying to be subtle as they followed them.
Steven narrowed his eyes, Amethyst was acting almost normal, and after what just happened… "Amethyst are you ok?" He asked, concern in his voice.
"Whaaa? Psshhh, yeah I'm ok!" She said, over-exaggerating as she waved off his question. "I mean she's your mom and all, it's not like I was around for the war or any of the bad stuff that happened." She insisted, and Steven could tell that she desperately wanted that to be true.
"The big question is if you're ok dude. Like I said, she's your mom, and this is kind of heavy stuff, but you know Greg, we'll just head over there, you'll talk to him about whatever problem you have, and he'll give us some advice to get over this whole freaky business." Amethyst said as It's a Wash came into view. Steven would have called her out on the "us" at the end of her last sentence, but she did have a point about his dad. Maybe talking to him could help Steven get his feelings under control, and then they could head back to the beach house and help everyone else out.
"Hey Greg!" Amethyst yelled as she ran up to the car wash. "You here man?"
"Amethyst, Steven, you're both safe!" Greg shouted in surprise. "Quick, get in the van, the next patrol will be around any minute!" He gestured towards the van, which had been parked around back away from casual observers, and as the trio climbed in Steven spoke up.
"Dad, something big happened."
"Yeah! Homeworld's invading again, and this time you didn't even get any warning like with Peridot! This is big, Vidalia says they locked down all the roads out of town, but I've got an old map of hiking trails around here, if the rest of the gems can make it here we can get you all out and then… I don't know, call in the army or something."
"Dad, we don't need to call in the army, it's not an invasion, it's…"
Steven was interrupted by banging on the back of the van. "Hey, our Diamond told us to keep an eye on you, so open a window or something!"
Amethyst mouthed "be cool" at them and walked out the back. "Hey guys, don't worry about the humans, I'm watching them, you can go do, uhhh, patrol, things." She told a trio of Amethyst soldiers who were standing outside.
There was a beat of silence before they started laughing. "Patrol things?" One of them shouted as she nearly doubled over laughing.
Steven turned to Greg, trying to take advantage of the distraction. "Dad, there's something really important you need to know!"
"What is it Steven?" Greg asked, eyes focused on the scene outside as Amethyst failed to convince the other Amethysts to leave and the other Amethysts laughed at her increasingly unlikely stories.
Steven looked at the gems outside and leaned in close. "Mom is alive." He whispered.
Greg's eyes went wide. "You're sure?" He asked, hope in his voice.
"Yeah, but it's kind of complicated."
"Steven, when I dated your mom our whole relationship was complicated. Whatever it is, we can figure it out." Greg said, tears in his eyes. "But if you're sure it's really her, then…"
"Come on dad, let's go see mom." Steven said, and the two Universe men left the van.
"Amethyst, are you coming?" Steven asked.
Amethyst kind of froze mid sentence, conflicted emotions running across her face before her carefree attitude slipped back on like a mask. "Nah dude, this is like, personal emotional gunk for you and Greg, I'll stay out of your hair."
Steven frowned. "Amethyst…"
Greg put his hand on his son's shoulder. "Steven, if Amethyst says she doesn't want to get involved, you shouldn't push her."
"Yeah, you're right." Steven said, turning back towards the temple. "Let's go see mom."
Authors Notes:
So, I'm going to be honest, with the chaos of Thanksgiving break I wasn't able to do as much writing as I planned, and exams are next week so I didn't have as much free time as I planned.
I feel like this is one of my weaker chapters. I tried to edit it, but I never really got rid of the issues I had with it, so I'm going to ask that anyone who has any suggestions for improvement let me know, I will take them into consideration and polish this draft up into a final version sometime tonight after I've taken some time to sit down and go over it properly.
EDIT: As of right now I'm calling this a final draft, no one has raised any major issues either here or on SB, so I did one last run through for typos and called it good.
I am now looking for a Beta writer/editor. I'm aiming to produce 2.5-4k words per week in this fic, and I'll link you the google doc for each chapter once I'm done with the rough draft. I'll do my best to get the rough draft done Thursday for a Friday/Saturday publish. If you are willing to help me out, PM me.
As always, thank all of you for being such great readers.
Part 1
[Pink Diamond's Perspective]
Pink Diamond surveyed the room in front of her. The Crystal Gems and Steven were gathered around the warp pad near the tunnel entrance, and all but Pearl had their weapons out, even though only Garnet and Amethyst truly looked ready for a fight.
"I can explain everything, but right now I need everyone to put their weapons away." She told them.
"How about you stop hurting Pearl first, and then maybe we can talk!" Amethyst said accusingly, one hand gesturing to Pearl, who was currently holding her hands over her mouth as tears ran down her face.
"Amethyst, she didn't do anything to Pearl, we would have seen it if she'd hurt her." Steven said, looking over the pink shield that outright hurt Pink to look at, memories of her past coming back to haunt her.
Pink raised her hands to show that she wasn't armed. "I didn't hurt her today, but I am the reason she is hurting. She has a command from me that she does not want to obey, and I can undo it if you trust me."
"Trust you!? You're a Diamond! An undead, zombie Diamond here to destroy the Earth!" Amethyst yelled at her.
"Amethyst, she wanted to stop The Cluster"
"Yeah, so she could restart the Kindergarten and build an army to conquer more planets!"
"Enough!" Garnet interrupted the bickering, her gaze locked on Pink with a stare that was withering even with her glasses. "You will remove the command from Pearl, and then you will explain how and why you are here." She said, clearly not happy about the situation.
Amethyst looked at her in shock. "Wait, you're trusting her? Is your future vision broken? That's Pink Diamond!" She said, gesturing wildly with her whip.
Garnet said nothing, simply staring down Pink, who nodded her agreement. "Pearl, as your Diamond, I hereby command you to stop following any order you do not wish to follow, including any that I have given or will give to you." She said, the words she had spent hours stressing over finally undoing one of her worst mistakes. I'm sorry I hurt you Pearl, but now no one can ever hurt you like that again, not even me… I hope.
As her words reached Pearl, the pale gem stiffened before her whole body relaxed. Tears still flowing freely down her face, her hands gently fell to the side as she looked Pink in the eyes. "I missed you so much…" Pearl whispered.
Three things happened after she said that. First, Amethyst whirled on her, shock and horror on her face. Secondly, Garnet shifted her weight around so her right arm had a clear shot at Pearl while keeping Pink solidly in her view. And finally Steven, shocked and confused by this strange pink gem talking like his mom and the way Pearl was talking to her, had enough.
"Would someone just tell me what's going on!?" He yelled, frustration in his voice. "What did you order Pearl to do, how does she know you?" His voice cracked, emotion running through it as tears filled his eyes. Pink and Pearl made eye contact, and in the span of a couple seconds held the sort of nonverbal conversation only possible between two people who knew each other for a very long time. Sighing, Pink hung her head, sat down, and began to explain.
"It all started back when I started the colony on Earth." She began. "I was visiting the Prime Kindergarten when Pearl took me to see the rest of the planet, and I saw what was happening. I stood at the edge, and I saw the difference between the Earth as it was, full of life and beauty, and the Earth that would be if I didn't stop the colony. I went to the other Diamonds and asked them to let me stop the colony, but they refused and told me to follow procedure…"
"Yeah right, you came down, saw a bunch of trees and birds and decided 'hey, I don't want to kill this planet anymore!' You expect us to believe that?" Amethyst asked sarcastically. Pink nodded her head.
"I met a few humans too, but yes that is pretty much what happened." Pink answered. Amethyst looked surprised by the answer, but before she could say anything Steven put his hand on her shoulder to calm her down and Pink continued. "After I failed to convince the other Diamonds, I decided that if they wouldn't respect me as a Diamond, then maybe they would respect me as a rebel."
With those words, her form began to glow. She lost height and gained width, trading her tall thin body for the shorter (but still taller than anyone else in the room) and thicker body of a Quartz soldier. To be specific, a Rose Quartz soldier. As she shrank, her gem rotated, the point sliding into her form until only the base was left pointing out. As the transformation finished, she opened her eyes and looked onto the shocked faces of the gems who had been her family for thousands of years.
"I'm sorry." She said, her voice full of sorrow.
For several moments, no one spoke, everyone staring at her in silence until Garnet started physically shaking. "Rose… you" She split apart in a flash of light, a small blue form rushing forward.
"You lied to us!" Sapphire yelled, landing her flying punch directly on Pinks face. "All those years, we never looked into who you were because we trusted you!"
"Sapphire wait!" Ruby shouted.
"All those years… was any of it real? Did you ever tell us the truth?" Sapphire ignored Ruby, grabbing onto Pinks collar and screaming in her face. Pink gently raised her arms and forced her out of fist range, only for sapphire to start to freeze her arm. Dropping the small blue cyclops, Pink leaped up, shaking her arm to clear off the ice as Steven and Ruby rushed forward.
"Sapphire, it's still Rose! She's still the gem who told us that it was ok to be Garnet, that we didn't have to unfuse." Ruby said, trying to keep her lover calm.
"She told us to never question who we were, and we didn't. We never questioned anything she told us!" Sapphire yelled.
"She fooled everyone, we couldn't have known any better."
"No, you couldn't have known any better!" Sapphire snapped, whirling on Ruby. "You never know what's going on, that's what I'm for."
Pink frowned, shocked at what she was hearing. "Sapphire, Ruby's right, none of Homeworlds Sapphires ever figured me out either." Or if they did they kept their mouths shut.
Sapphire fixed her glare on Pink. "You shut up." She said, her voice cold with rage. "You played with us for thousands of years, and then you faked your death and left us so you could go back to being a Diamond."
Pink jerked back as if hit, but before she could respond Sapphire turned and dashed onto the warp pad, disappearing in a flash of light. Pink heard the communicator tell her where Sapphire had gone and turned it off before turning to Ruby, who was kneeling on the ground crying. "I'm so sorry Ruby, she shouldn't have hurt you because of what I did."
The small red gem flinched at her words, looking at her with tear soaked eyes for a moment before hanging her head and continuing to cry. Pink had a sinking feeling in her gut as she comforted the small red gem. "It's ok, she's angry at me, not you. Once she calms down I can explain everything."
Amethyst had the decency of allowing a solid thirty seconds of awkward crying to pass before she exploded. "Hey, so Rose, Pink, whatever, I've got a question: how are you alive? Sapphire had a point there, even though she was kind of a bi…"
"Amethyst, language!" Pearl snapped as Ruby sobbed even harder.
"It's true isn't it?" Amethyst responded, but as the two gems started to argue Pink's thoughts wandered. This is not how I intended for any of this to go, I need to go talk to Sapphire alone, but can I leave everyone else alone here while I do that? Pearl looks like she's about to break down, and Amethyst is gaze rested on Steven, who had lifted up his shirt and was staring at the gem on his stomach, tears flowing freely down his face. Pink moved forward, kneeling down and putting her hand on his shoulder, which caused him to jerk into motion, staring her in the eyes.
"Steven, I know this is a lot to take in right now, but I want you to know something." She tapped his gem. "That gem, your gem, is the original Pink Diamond gem. Mine is a copy that a machine put me into after I gave up my form to have you." In the background, she could hear Amethyst go "whaaaaaaaaaat?" which she tried to ignore as Steven mumbled to her. "I'm sorry, what was that?" She asked, leaning in closer to try and hear him better.
"Why did you leave them?" He asked, and Pink again felt like she had been assaulted by words. "Why did you have me? You left the gems, and dad, and everyone who cared about you behind, and then I had to deal with Jasper, and The Cluster, and all those corrupted gems and…" He trailed off as she sat there, stunned by his question, before a wave of resolve came over her. She reached forward, wrapping her arms around him in a large hug.
"You never should have had to deal with those things, I thought the Earth was calm enough for you to live a long happy life, without all my regrets weighing you down, but I was wrong, and you got hurt because of that. I promise, once I explain myself to Ruby and Sapphire, you will never have to handle my mistakes ever again." She promised, praying to any deity that might be out there that she would be able to keep that promise.
Steven seemed shocked by this, and Amethyst looked like she was torn between joining in and attacking Pink. Meanwhile, Pearl was barely holding herself together off to the side. Pink took this in and stood up. "I should go talk to Ruby and Sapphire." She said, standing up and walking towards the temple. Turning back, she gave the others a soft smile. "I'll be right back, and then we can actually have a real reunion, one without screaming and yelling."
Amethyst scoffed, muttering "yeah right, not after that bombshell." Pink frowned and looked at Steven, realizing there was still one more person who should be here for the reunion.
"Steven, why don't you go get Greg? I'll tell the guards to let you through, and then I can explain this to both of you at once." She asked, and Steven gave only a small nod before turning and heading out the door. Pink reached up and activated her communicator. "Sway, Ste… the hybrid is leaving the house to head into town. Let him and any other gem that comes out of the temple go, but keep them inside the town and under guard at all times, the initial contact went well enough that I believe you can stand your troops down from combat ready to standard guard protocols. I'm going into the temple to continue negotiations."
"Acknowledged My Diamond." Came the voice from the other end. Pink winced at the sound, realizing she still had to calm Sway down after the revelations earlier. She was going to ask Pearl if she wanted to come with, but she knew from long experience that the pale gem was barely holding it together, and she knew she was the cause. It would be better for everyone if she left them alone, then they would have time away from her to deal with these issues. Turning, she walked onto the warp pad and followed Sapphire to a place she knew quite well, a place she'd spent days at a time weeping over everything she'd done wrong and all the gems who would never get a chance to live a free life because of her mistake.
[Steven's Perspective]
Steven didn't know what to think. Mom was back, and she was a Diamond, and she'd forced Pearl to keep it a secret and Garnet unfused and…
"Hey Steven!" he heard Amethyst shout as she ran after him. "Wait up!"
When she caught up to him, she put her hand on his shoulder and leaned in close. "Hey, your mom went after Sapphire and Pearl and Ruby are sitting on the floor crying together and it was creeping me out, so I figured I'd come with you to tell Greg. You know, if that's ok with you." She said, eyes darting between the Rose Quartzes that were not even trying to be subtle as they followed them.
Steven narrowed his eyes, Amethyst was acting almost normal, and after what just happened… "Amethyst are you ok?" He asked, concern in his voice.
"Whaaa? Psshhh, yeah I'm ok!" She said, over-exaggerating as she waved off his question. "I mean she's your mom and all, it's not like I was around for the war or any of the bad stuff that happened." She insisted, and Steven could tell that she desperately wanted that to be true.
"The big question is if you're ok dude. Like I said, she's your mom, and this is kind of heavy stuff, but you know Greg, we'll just head over there, you'll talk to him about whatever problem you have, and he'll give us some advice to get over this whole freaky business." Amethyst said as It's a Wash came into view. Steven would have called her out on the "us" at the end of her last sentence, but she did have a point about his dad. Maybe talking to him could help Steven get his feelings under control, and then they could head back to the beach house and help everyone else out.
"Hey Greg!" Amethyst yelled as she ran up to the car wash. "You here man?"
"Amethyst, Steven, you're both safe!" Greg shouted in surprise. "Quick, get in the van, the next patrol will be around any minute!" He gestured towards the van, which had been parked around back away from casual observers, and as the trio climbed in Steven spoke up.
"Dad, something big happened."
"Yeah! Homeworld's invading again, and this time you didn't even get any warning like with Peridot! This is big, Vidalia says they locked down all the roads out of town, but I've got an old map of hiking trails around here, if the rest of the gems can make it here we can get you all out and then… I don't know, call in the army or something."
"Dad, we don't need to call in the army, it's not an invasion, it's…"
Steven was interrupted by banging on the back of the van. "Hey, our Diamond told us to keep an eye on you, so open a window or something!"
Amethyst mouthed "be cool" at them and walked out the back. "Hey guys, don't worry about the humans, I'm watching them, you can go do, uhhh, patrol, things." She told a trio of Amethyst soldiers who were standing outside.
There was a beat of silence before they started laughing. "Patrol things?" One of them shouted as she nearly doubled over laughing.
Steven turned to Greg, trying to take advantage of the distraction. "Dad, there's something really important you need to know!"
"What is it Steven?" Greg asked, eyes focused on the scene outside as Amethyst failed to convince the other Amethysts to leave and the other Amethysts laughed at her increasingly unlikely stories.
Steven looked at the gems outside and leaned in close. "Mom is alive." He whispered.
Greg's eyes went wide. "You're sure?" He asked, hope in his voice.
"Yeah, but it's kind of complicated."
"Steven, when I dated your mom our whole relationship was complicated. Whatever it is, we can figure it out." Greg said, tears in his eyes. "But if you're sure it's really her, then…"
"Come on dad, let's go see mom." Steven said, and the two Universe men left the van.
"Amethyst, are you coming?" Steven asked.
Amethyst kind of froze mid sentence, conflicted emotions running across her face before her carefree attitude slipped back on like a mask. "Nah dude, this is like, personal emotional gunk for you and Greg, I'll stay out of your hair."
Steven frowned. "Amethyst…"
Greg put his hand on his son's shoulder. "Steven, if Amethyst says she doesn't want to get involved, you shouldn't push her."
"Yeah, you're right." Steven said, turning back towards the temple. "Let's go see mom."
Authors Notes:
So, I'm going to be honest, with the chaos of Thanksgiving break I wasn't able to do as much writing as I planned, and exams are next week so I didn't have as much free time as I planned.
I feel like this is one of my weaker chapters. I tried to edit it, but I never really got rid of the issues I had with it, so I'm going to ask that anyone who has any suggestions for improvement let me know, I will take them into consideration and polish this draft up into a final version sometime tonight after I've taken some time to sit down and go over it properly.
EDIT: As of right now I'm calling this a final draft, no one has raised any major issues either here or on SB, so I did one last run through for typos and called it good.
I am now looking for a Beta writer/editor. I'm aiming to produce 2.5-4k words per week in this fic, and I'll link you the google doc for each chapter once I'm done with the rough draft. I'll do my best to get the rough draft done Thursday for a Friday/Saturday publish. If you are willing to help me out, PM me.
As always, thank all of you for being such great readers.
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Queshire
Wants a pink flamingo for their lawn.
- Pronouns
- They/Them
Hrm.... How about delaying Garnet's reaction a bit? Say that Steven gets sent to get Greg first & Amethyst tags along to avoid the awkward, but Garnet manages to hold it together long enough that they unfuse when Steven gets back or something?
TheBleachDoctor
Secretly a Cat
- Location
- The Plane of Infinite Kittens
- Pronouns
- She/Her
I like how Greg had an escape plan all ready to go.