Synthesis (Steven Universe AU)
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Aftermath 10.5
Chapter 10: Aftermath
Part 5
For Steven Universe, spending time at the barn with Lapis and Peridot was just the break he needed. They didn't worry about him the way the Crystal Gems or his dad did, if something in one of their shows made him tense up and have a minor freak out, they didn't stop everything and demand to know what was wrong, instead just responding with soft reassuring touches, letting him know they were there for him without making a massive scene about it. It was nice, knowing that he could show that he was hurting without having everyone stop what they were doing and demand painful answers from him, and as the hours slipped away he felt his earlier stress slowly fade away. However, at the back of his mind he knew this wouldn't last forever. His mom had heard about his freakout, and she wanted to talk to him, and everyone else wasn't going to just leave him alone. He couldn't stay in the barn forever.
The first day passed quickly, with the trio binge watching shows and making small talk long into the night, Steven falling asleep under a spare blanket the two had found, with Peridot insisting on remaining near him to "observe his sleep cycle" for her research into hybrids for his mom. The mention of his mom, of the stress and changes in his life that had happened as a result of her arrival, caused Steven to shudder, his body briefly glowing pink. Peridot had then freaked out…
"Steven! Don't do that again until I get you hooked up! I've devised a set of monitoring equipment that-"
"Peridot." Lapis cut her off with a hand on her shoulder, looking down at the small green gem and giving a small shake of her head.
"I… I just need to sleep. It's been a long day, a lot has happened… I'll be better in the morning." Steven said, hoping that would reassure the pair.
"Well then, if you need us we'll be rewatching Camp Pining Hearts. Those new shows are good, but they will never surpass the beauty that is CPH!" Peridot exclaimed, giving up on her plan to observe him as he sleeped as she turned to head back out of the barn to their tv-watching perch as Lapis gave him a soft smile.
"Steven, I know it hurts to talk about what happened, but it will never stop hurting if you talk to someone. Believe me, I tried." She says, giving him a small pat on the shoulder before standing up and walking after Peridot. After she left, Steven heard the familiar sounds of a cheesy canadian tv show that could never figure out if it was a comedy or a drama, and as Peridot burst out laughing at a scene she'd likely seen a dozen times before, he closed his eyes and went to sleep.
-----
He slept soundly that night, a deep sleep that showed just how tiring the long day of emotions and talks had been, sleeping well past dawn and through Peridot's early morning attempt to be a one gem band. However, what did wake him up was the sounds of yelling. Specifically Connie yelling.
Leaping to his feet, he began to panic, wondering what was going on and why he had heard Connie yell. When he heard it again, he rushed forward, heart pounding as his adrenaline sent him into overdrive. Exiting the barn, he looked around, terror gripping him as he looked around and found Connie…
Sitting on the back of Lion, holding his mom's sword to a small purple gem as Lapis and Peridot yelled at them both.
"Who are you and what are you doing here?" Lapis asked, a hand of water rising high into the sky as she glared at the pair of intruders, while Peridot was lifting a large metal baseball bat with her powers.
"Lapis! Lapis it's just Connie, I told you about her, right?" Steven says, panicking at the sight of two of his friends so close to violence. "Although I don't know who that is…" he said as he studied the small purple gem.
"I found her spying on the barn, and when I asked her what she was doing here she said she was 'observing the hybrid', so I told her not to stalk you and she refused and I… might have overreacted by pulling out the sword." Connie said, a blush on her face as she sheathed the pink blade.
"I fail to see what was so egregious about my actions, I was simply doing as My Diamond commanded." The purple gem replied, acting as if everyone else were the crazy ones in this situation.
"Your Dia- mom sent you here, didn't she?" Steven asked, a hurt expression on his face at the confirmation that even after all that, his problems were still waiting for him. His mom wasn't going to go away and let him handle this on his own, no one was, no matter how long he sat around in the barn watching cheesy cartoons and pretending they didn't exist. It was a bit of a revelation, one made all the worse when he realized why Connie was likely there. "And… you came to check on me… didn't you?" he asked her.
Connie shook her head. "I was going to call you, but then Lion kept pushing me until I got on his back, and then I was here and I found her skulking around." As she spoke, she pointed at the small purple gem, who still had not introduced herself, while Lion walked up to Steven, nuzzling against him as if he was worried the young boy was sick.
This of course, did not help Steven feel any better. So Lion grabbed Connie and made her come with him to see me. Great. He leaves us alone for days after Mom shows up and now he's concerned about how I feel? He thinks to himself as he looks up at Connie. "Well, he brought you here. You should introduce yourself to Peridot and Lapis, I'll talk to her" he gestured at the purple gem "and catch up in a bit, alright?"
"Steven… alright, but I want to know why you're acting so weird." She said as she slid off Lions back, a small look of concern on her face as she walked over to the barn pair. As she did, Steven turned to face his second and much less welcome uninvited guest.
"So, are you here to check on me? I don't need everyone worrying about me all the time, I'm not going to break if you leave me alone!" He nearly yelled, stress and emotions causing him to lash out before he realized what he'd said. "I'm sorry, that was rude."
"Compared to the greeting many quartzes have given me, it was warm and friendly" the small gem responds without denying his statement. "I am Iolite, chief investigator for Pink Diamond." She introduced herself professionally.
"Right, I'm Steven, but you probably already knew that. So, my mom sent you to look after me, huh?" Steven asked, calming himself down and pushing the anger and other emotions away where they wouldn't hurt.
"Actually, I volunteered to remain on Earth after her visit yesterday. I did this in the hopes of learning more about you and humanity, as I am intrigued by the research the Peridot and human experts will be conducting on you, and I wish to learn more about humanity to determine why a Diamond would go to such lengths to defend them."
Steven blinked at her words, surprised that she was just laying out her reasons like that for him. "Well that's… that's good to hear! I can show you a lot of stuff about Earth, and humans!" He said, his tension slowly sliding away as he found a new someone to help.
"That will not be necessary, I am capable of performing an investigation on my own without assistance, although I thank you for your offer, it was most kind." Iolite replied with a small nod. "However, I am concerned for your wellbeing, it will be difficult to study you if you are injured or unavailable as a result of the emotional issues you are having."
At those words, Steven suppressed a grimace. "Right, yeah I understand. I don't know a lot about how gems handle emotional stuff, but right now I just need some space and some time, alright? I'll be around for the study stuff, and if you want to come in and watch some TV shows with us, we can introduce you to human culture that way." He suggested, clearly trying to deflect the topic from his own emotional issues to Iolites stated interest in humanity.
Iolite nodded, seeming to take him at his word as she replied "that is reasonable" as he lead the way up towards the barn where Connie, Peridot, and Lapis were waiting.
"Hey guys! This is Iolite, she's here to learn about humans and Earth, and I figured that since you're learning about humans through TV shows, she could join you!" He said, not noticing as Connie winced.
"That sounds like a great idea Steven!" Peridot said as she grabbed Iolite and pulled her into the barn. "Now, there are several important things to note about humans, the primary one being their obsession with pair-bonding rituals…"
As Steven heard her voice fade as the pair slipped inside, he turned to Connie. "That… that's probably fine, right? I mean, she was just talking about dating and stuff, how bad can it be?"
"Pretty bad." Lapis said as she leaned against the side of the barn. "Peridot once wanted to recreate one of those date night things we saw on CPH with me, that's where the scorch marks came from."
"What scorch marks?" Steven asked in confusion.
Lapis blinked a couple of times. "Oh… you didn't see those? Well… anyway, it's good to meet you Connie!"
"We already introduced ourselves…" Connie said, concerned about how a pair of gems with metal and water powers could scorch something.
"Yeah, we did, didn't we?" Lapis asks with a chuckle. "Good times, good times…"
Steven and Connie both stare at her, confused and a little wary, and she sighs. "Look, I'm not… good at this. Making friends, talking to an Iolite… it's bringing back some bad memories of my time in Blue Diamonds court, and I'd rather just stay out here for a while with you two." She confessed.
Connie nodded at her. "That's fine, I just wanted to talk to Steven for a bit." She says as Lion steps up to Lapis, bumping into her and sniffing.
"Whoa, what is he doing?
"Oh, that's just his way of saying hello! He doesn't bite or talk or anything, just don't freak out and you'll be fine." Steven said.
Lapis gave him a small nod as she patted the lion, unsure what she should do. As she navigated the intricacies of interacting with a giant cat, Connie stepped towards Steven. "So… what's going on? Why did Lion freak out and bring me here?"
Steven bit his lip and sat down, not wanting to talk but knowing there was no way out of this. "I… I've been having a rough time lately. Dad and the gems are acting all weird, and I just couldn't handle it. It's just… why are they getting so worked up about me? So I get hurt a bit on missions, that's part of being a Crystal Gem! And then they want to talk about my feelings, even though I'm going to see a therapist about those, and they keep acting like I'm about to explode and they never just leave me alone…"
As Steven spoke, his fists clenched as tears slid down his face, the emotions he had been feeling sliding out. "Everyone should be happy now that Mom's back but instead they're freaking out about it and Amethyst hasn't been home for more than a few minutes since and even though Ruby and Sapphire say they made up they still aren't forming Garnet and-"
"Steven?" Connie asked, concern in her voice as she looked at him. Looking at her for a moment, Steven was puzzled by her expression… until he looked down. His hands, feet, and every other piece of exposed skin were glowing bright pink. He freaked out, his body going back to normal, but the damage was done.
"And that happened. It happened when I was talking to Amethyst, and now it's happening again…" he trailed off as he looked up at her.
"Steven…" she rested her hand on his shoulder. "I'll help you if I can, but… I don't really know much about glowing people." She admitted, the statement bringing a small laugh through Steven's stress.
"Heh, I know Connie." He said with a sigh "There's probably only one person in the galaxy who could help me right now, but I don't know if I want to talk to her right now. Not when I'm still dealing with these incidents." He sat down, head in his hands. "Mom coming back… well I had this vision of how it would go, and everyone was going to be happy about it, but now that's not happening, and I'm making it worse by freaking out all the time and… and it just is a giant mess."
"Well…" Connie said, bracing herself and looking at him. "I know it's not perfect, but running away from everyone who cares about you won't solve anything either. That doesn't mean you have to run back to them, just that if you want to deal with your problems maybe you should run sideways, not away or towards them…" she saw him looking at her, a confused look on his face. "Look, I'm not good at emotional speeches. If this was a problem I could stab I'd be already stabbing it, but it isn't."
Steven nodded at her, a sense of determination falling over him. "I understand Connie. I think you had a decent idea."
"I did? Because I was just trying to sound deep like you do."
"Yeah, you did. I've been avoiding my problems, and they're still there, but I shouldn't run back into them and fix them all at once, I should find one and fix it!" Steven sounded excited, looking over at Lion, while Connie nodded.
"Right! You can solve a couple problems at a time, break it down into small tasks that you can do piece by piece. So, what's the first piece?" She asked with a grin as he stood up.
Steven waved down Lion, who came over with Lapis laying on his back. "He's very soft." She said, lounging on his back without a care in the world, her own actions almost like a cat.
"Awww, Lion made a friend!" Steven said with a grin before he got serious again. "Lapis, I don't want to be rude, but I kind of need Lion to take me to the Galaxy Warp."
"Wait, Steven, are you going to your moms colony? Is that really the best idea?" Connie asked.
"If I work why I'm freaking out and glowing pink, then I can handle the rest of my problems without making everyone worry about me! It's like you said, one piece at a time." He said as Lapis lifted off Lions back, landing right next to Steven as Connie blinked in surprise.
"Steven, maybe you shouldn't warp into the middle of a homeworld colony, maybe just send her a message that you want to talk?" Connie suggested as Lapis tensed.
"Yeah, Steven just… be careful, alright?" Lapis asked, giving him a look of concern.
Steven looked between the two of them for a moment before sighing. "Yeah, I won't just go through to her colony… but I do need to talk to her. I'll tell you how it went when I get back!" He said before leaning in to tell Lion "to the Galaxy Warp!"
-----
Paperwork was invented to punish gems who thought they were worthy of ruling.
That was Pink Diamond's conclusion as she sat on her throne. Her projects were slowed to the point of no real progress, her colony was beset with minor problems, and the massive amount of effort that went into building the colony was exhausting for her to deal with. And so when a Rose Quartz with long light pink hair and a laid back attitude lazily jogged up the stairs and informed Sway that "the hybrid, Steven, is at the Galaxy Warp, he wants to talk to Pink." she had leapt from her seat before she finished talking.
"Great! I'll be right back!" She said, running off as Sway put her head in her hands, muttering a comment under her breath about how it was getting easier by the day to view her Diamond as just another gem, an impulsive one at that.
Leaving her spire, Pink stepped out into the cool mountain air, relief on her face as she walked towards the warp pad. With a smile, she passed the guards, stepping onto the pad and becoming engulfed in a stream of light as she was shunted through space, traveling a vast distance to her destination. At the other end, she stepped out onto the cool stone, the waves of Earth's oceans crashing against the platform as she looked around. Right next to a little console for messaging between pads, Steven was standing with…
"Oh, Leon! You're still here!" She said with surprise as she looked over the large pink lion. He stepped up to her, nuzzling her gently as he did, letting her run her hand along his neck, giving him some scratches on the chin. After a few moments, she stopped and looked up at Steven, and something about his expression caused her to pause. He was conflicted, his stance shifting from side to side as he tried to think of what to say. It was a position she was very familiar with. Walking over to him, she kneeled down to be on his level and looked him in the eye.
"Steven, what's wrong?" She asked gently, and there on the platform in the Atlantic, with the waves crashing in the background, she watched as he seemed to brace himself for what he was about to say.
"It's complicated, and it hurts to talk about, but I have to talk about it or it will never stop hurting." Steven said, repeating Lapis's words nearly verbatim as he looked at her. "Do you have a couple hours?"
Pink nodded, confident that she could make up the work she was missing when she got back. "Of course." She told him, and as if on cue the dam broke. Steven looked at her with pain on his face and asked one question, a question that had no good answers, only painful truths and comforting lies.
"Why did you have me?"
-----
Authors notes:
Alright, and here we go, around three hours before midnight I got the friday update in! This is the second to last chapter in Aftermath, and next week we will see Pink and Steven talk this out in a mature, respectable manner...
Maybe
I might decide to throw in an interlude, leave the story hanging on that cliff for a little while, just to see how it goes.
In all seriousness, thank you to everyone who has left likes, commented on, edited the TvTropes page, or in any other way given me a sign that you liked reading this story. You're why I keep writing.
Part 5
For Steven Universe, spending time at the barn with Lapis and Peridot was just the break he needed. They didn't worry about him the way the Crystal Gems or his dad did, if something in one of their shows made him tense up and have a minor freak out, they didn't stop everything and demand to know what was wrong, instead just responding with soft reassuring touches, letting him know they were there for him without making a massive scene about it. It was nice, knowing that he could show that he was hurting without having everyone stop what they were doing and demand painful answers from him, and as the hours slipped away he felt his earlier stress slowly fade away. However, at the back of his mind he knew this wouldn't last forever. His mom had heard about his freakout, and she wanted to talk to him, and everyone else wasn't going to just leave him alone. He couldn't stay in the barn forever.
The first day passed quickly, with the trio binge watching shows and making small talk long into the night, Steven falling asleep under a spare blanket the two had found, with Peridot insisting on remaining near him to "observe his sleep cycle" for her research into hybrids for his mom. The mention of his mom, of the stress and changes in his life that had happened as a result of her arrival, caused Steven to shudder, his body briefly glowing pink. Peridot had then freaked out…
"Steven! Don't do that again until I get you hooked up! I've devised a set of monitoring equipment that-"
"Peridot." Lapis cut her off with a hand on her shoulder, looking down at the small green gem and giving a small shake of her head.
"I… I just need to sleep. It's been a long day, a lot has happened… I'll be better in the morning." Steven said, hoping that would reassure the pair.
"Well then, if you need us we'll be rewatching Camp Pining Hearts. Those new shows are good, but they will never surpass the beauty that is CPH!" Peridot exclaimed, giving up on her plan to observe him as he sleeped as she turned to head back out of the barn to their tv-watching perch as Lapis gave him a soft smile.
"Steven, I know it hurts to talk about what happened, but it will never stop hurting if you talk to someone. Believe me, I tried." She says, giving him a small pat on the shoulder before standing up and walking after Peridot. After she left, Steven heard the familiar sounds of a cheesy canadian tv show that could never figure out if it was a comedy or a drama, and as Peridot burst out laughing at a scene she'd likely seen a dozen times before, he closed his eyes and went to sleep.
-----
He slept soundly that night, a deep sleep that showed just how tiring the long day of emotions and talks had been, sleeping well past dawn and through Peridot's early morning attempt to be a one gem band. However, what did wake him up was the sounds of yelling. Specifically Connie yelling.
Leaping to his feet, he began to panic, wondering what was going on and why he had heard Connie yell. When he heard it again, he rushed forward, heart pounding as his adrenaline sent him into overdrive. Exiting the barn, he looked around, terror gripping him as he looked around and found Connie…
Sitting on the back of Lion, holding his mom's sword to a small purple gem as Lapis and Peridot yelled at them both.
"Who are you and what are you doing here?" Lapis asked, a hand of water rising high into the sky as she glared at the pair of intruders, while Peridot was lifting a large metal baseball bat with her powers.
"Lapis! Lapis it's just Connie, I told you about her, right?" Steven says, panicking at the sight of two of his friends so close to violence. "Although I don't know who that is…" he said as he studied the small purple gem.
"I found her spying on the barn, and when I asked her what she was doing here she said she was 'observing the hybrid', so I told her not to stalk you and she refused and I… might have overreacted by pulling out the sword." Connie said, a blush on her face as she sheathed the pink blade.
"I fail to see what was so egregious about my actions, I was simply doing as My Diamond commanded." The purple gem replied, acting as if everyone else were the crazy ones in this situation.
"Your Dia- mom sent you here, didn't she?" Steven asked, a hurt expression on his face at the confirmation that even after all that, his problems were still waiting for him. His mom wasn't going to go away and let him handle this on his own, no one was, no matter how long he sat around in the barn watching cheesy cartoons and pretending they didn't exist. It was a bit of a revelation, one made all the worse when he realized why Connie was likely there. "And… you came to check on me… didn't you?" he asked her.
Connie shook her head. "I was going to call you, but then Lion kept pushing me until I got on his back, and then I was here and I found her skulking around." As she spoke, she pointed at the small purple gem, who still had not introduced herself, while Lion walked up to Steven, nuzzling against him as if he was worried the young boy was sick.
This of course, did not help Steven feel any better. So Lion grabbed Connie and made her come with him to see me. Great. He leaves us alone for days after Mom shows up and now he's concerned about how I feel? He thinks to himself as he looks up at Connie. "Well, he brought you here. You should introduce yourself to Peridot and Lapis, I'll talk to her" he gestured at the purple gem "and catch up in a bit, alright?"
"Steven… alright, but I want to know why you're acting so weird." She said as she slid off Lions back, a small look of concern on her face as she walked over to the barn pair. As she did, Steven turned to face his second and much less welcome uninvited guest.
"So, are you here to check on me? I don't need everyone worrying about me all the time, I'm not going to break if you leave me alone!" He nearly yelled, stress and emotions causing him to lash out before he realized what he'd said. "I'm sorry, that was rude."
"Compared to the greeting many quartzes have given me, it was warm and friendly" the small gem responds without denying his statement. "I am Iolite, chief investigator for Pink Diamond." She introduced herself professionally.
"Right, I'm Steven, but you probably already knew that. So, my mom sent you to look after me, huh?" Steven asked, calming himself down and pushing the anger and other emotions away where they wouldn't hurt.
"Actually, I volunteered to remain on Earth after her visit yesterday. I did this in the hopes of learning more about you and humanity, as I am intrigued by the research the Peridot and human experts will be conducting on you, and I wish to learn more about humanity to determine why a Diamond would go to such lengths to defend them."
Steven blinked at her words, surprised that she was just laying out her reasons like that for him. "Well that's… that's good to hear! I can show you a lot of stuff about Earth, and humans!" He said, his tension slowly sliding away as he found a new someone to help.
"That will not be necessary, I am capable of performing an investigation on my own without assistance, although I thank you for your offer, it was most kind." Iolite replied with a small nod. "However, I am concerned for your wellbeing, it will be difficult to study you if you are injured or unavailable as a result of the emotional issues you are having."
At those words, Steven suppressed a grimace. "Right, yeah I understand. I don't know a lot about how gems handle emotional stuff, but right now I just need some space and some time, alright? I'll be around for the study stuff, and if you want to come in and watch some TV shows with us, we can introduce you to human culture that way." He suggested, clearly trying to deflect the topic from his own emotional issues to Iolites stated interest in humanity.
Iolite nodded, seeming to take him at his word as she replied "that is reasonable" as he lead the way up towards the barn where Connie, Peridot, and Lapis were waiting.
"Hey guys! This is Iolite, she's here to learn about humans and Earth, and I figured that since you're learning about humans through TV shows, she could join you!" He said, not noticing as Connie winced.
"That sounds like a great idea Steven!" Peridot said as she grabbed Iolite and pulled her into the barn. "Now, there are several important things to note about humans, the primary one being their obsession with pair-bonding rituals…"
As Steven heard her voice fade as the pair slipped inside, he turned to Connie. "That… that's probably fine, right? I mean, she was just talking about dating and stuff, how bad can it be?"
"Pretty bad." Lapis said as she leaned against the side of the barn. "Peridot once wanted to recreate one of those date night things we saw on CPH with me, that's where the scorch marks came from."
"What scorch marks?" Steven asked in confusion.
Lapis blinked a couple of times. "Oh… you didn't see those? Well… anyway, it's good to meet you Connie!"
"We already introduced ourselves…" Connie said, concerned about how a pair of gems with metal and water powers could scorch something.
"Yeah, we did, didn't we?" Lapis asks with a chuckle. "Good times, good times…"
Steven and Connie both stare at her, confused and a little wary, and she sighs. "Look, I'm not… good at this. Making friends, talking to an Iolite… it's bringing back some bad memories of my time in Blue Diamonds court, and I'd rather just stay out here for a while with you two." She confessed.
Connie nodded at her. "That's fine, I just wanted to talk to Steven for a bit." She says as Lion steps up to Lapis, bumping into her and sniffing.
"Whoa, what is he doing?
"Oh, that's just his way of saying hello! He doesn't bite or talk or anything, just don't freak out and you'll be fine." Steven said.
Lapis gave him a small nod as she patted the lion, unsure what she should do. As she navigated the intricacies of interacting with a giant cat, Connie stepped towards Steven. "So… what's going on? Why did Lion freak out and bring me here?"
Steven bit his lip and sat down, not wanting to talk but knowing there was no way out of this. "I… I've been having a rough time lately. Dad and the gems are acting all weird, and I just couldn't handle it. It's just… why are they getting so worked up about me? So I get hurt a bit on missions, that's part of being a Crystal Gem! And then they want to talk about my feelings, even though I'm going to see a therapist about those, and they keep acting like I'm about to explode and they never just leave me alone…"
As Steven spoke, his fists clenched as tears slid down his face, the emotions he had been feeling sliding out. "Everyone should be happy now that Mom's back but instead they're freaking out about it and Amethyst hasn't been home for more than a few minutes since and even though Ruby and Sapphire say they made up they still aren't forming Garnet and-"
"Steven?" Connie asked, concern in her voice as she looked at him. Looking at her for a moment, Steven was puzzled by her expression… until he looked down. His hands, feet, and every other piece of exposed skin were glowing bright pink. He freaked out, his body going back to normal, but the damage was done.
"And that happened. It happened when I was talking to Amethyst, and now it's happening again…" he trailed off as he looked up at her.
"Steven…" she rested her hand on his shoulder. "I'll help you if I can, but… I don't really know much about glowing people." She admitted, the statement bringing a small laugh through Steven's stress.
"Heh, I know Connie." He said with a sigh "There's probably only one person in the galaxy who could help me right now, but I don't know if I want to talk to her right now. Not when I'm still dealing with these incidents." He sat down, head in his hands. "Mom coming back… well I had this vision of how it would go, and everyone was going to be happy about it, but now that's not happening, and I'm making it worse by freaking out all the time and… and it just is a giant mess."
"Well…" Connie said, bracing herself and looking at him. "I know it's not perfect, but running away from everyone who cares about you won't solve anything either. That doesn't mean you have to run back to them, just that if you want to deal with your problems maybe you should run sideways, not away or towards them…" she saw him looking at her, a confused look on his face. "Look, I'm not good at emotional speeches. If this was a problem I could stab I'd be already stabbing it, but it isn't."
Steven nodded at her, a sense of determination falling over him. "I understand Connie. I think you had a decent idea."
"I did? Because I was just trying to sound deep like you do."
"Yeah, you did. I've been avoiding my problems, and they're still there, but I shouldn't run back into them and fix them all at once, I should find one and fix it!" Steven sounded excited, looking over at Lion, while Connie nodded.
"Right! You can solve a couple problems at a time, break it down into small tasks that you can do piece by piece. So, what's the first piece?" She asked with a grin as he stood up.
Steven waved down Lion, who came over with Lapis laying on his back. "He's very soft." She said, lounging on his back without a care in the world, her own actions almost like a cat.
"Awww, Lion made a friend!" Steven said with a grin before he got serious again. "Lapis, I don't want to be rude, but I kind of need Lion to take me to the Galaxy Warp."
"Wait, Steven, are you going to your moms colony? Is that really the best idea?" Connie asked.
"If I work why I'm freaking out and glowing pink, then I can handle the rest of my problems without making everyone worry about me! It's like you said, one piece at a time." He said as Lapis lifted off Lions back, landing right next to Steven as Connie blinked in surprise.
"Steven, maybe you shouldn't warp into the middle of a homeworld colony, maybe just send her a message that you want to talk?" Connie suggested as Lapis tensed.
"Yeah, Steven just… be careful, alright?" Lapis asked, giving him a look of concern.
Steven looked between the two of them for a moment before sighing. "Yeah, I won't just go through to her colony… but I do need to talk to her. I'll tell you how it went when I get back!" He said before leaning in to tell Lion "to the Galaxy Warp!"
-----
Paperwork was invented to punish gems who thought they were worthy of ruling.
That was Pink Diamond's conclusion as she sat on her throne. Her projects were slowed to the point of no real progress, her colony was beset with minor problems, and the massive amount of effort that went into building the colony was exhausting for her to deal with. And so when a Rose Quartz with long light pink hair and a laid back attitude lazily jogged up the stairs and informed Sway that "the hybrid, Steven, is at the Galaxy Warp, he wants to talk to Pink." she had leapt from her seat before she finished talking.
"Great! I'll be right back!" She said, running off as Sway put her head in her hands, muttering a comment under her breath about how it was getting easier by the day to view her Diamond as just another gem, an impulsive one at that.
Leaving her spire, Pink stepped out into the cool mountain air, relief on her face as she walked towards the warp pad. With a smile, she passed the guards, stepping onto the pad and becoming engulfed in a stream of light as she was shunted through space, traveling a vast distance to her destination. At the other end, she stepped out onto the cool stone, the waves of Earth's oceans crashing against the platform as she looked around. Right next to a little console for messaging between pads, Steven was standing with…
"Oh, Leon! You're still here!" She said with surprise as she looked over the large pink lion. He stepped up to her, nuzzling her gently as he did, letting her run her hand along his neck, giving him some scratches on the chin. After a few moments, she stopped and looked up at Steven, and something about his expression caused her to pause. He was conflicted, his stance shifting from side to side as he tried to think of what to say. It was a position she was very familiar with. Walking over to him, she kneeled down to be on his level and looked him in the eye.
"Steven, what's wrong?" She asked gently, and there on the platform in the Atlantic, with the waves crashing in the background, she watched as he seemed to brace himself for what he was about to say.
"It's complicated, and it hurts to talk about, but I have to talk about it or it will never stop hurting." Steven said, repeating Lapis's words nearly verbatim as he looked at her. "Do you have a couple hours?"
Pink nodded, confident that she could make up the work she was missing when she got back. "Of course." She told him, and as if on cue the dam broke. Steven looked at her with pain on his face and asked one question, a question that had no good answers, only painful truths and comforting lies.
"Why did you have me?"
-----
Authors notes:
Alright, and here we go, around three hours before midnight I got the friday update in! This is the second to last chapter in Aftermath, and next week we will see Pink and Steven talk this out in a mature, respectable manner...
Maybe
I might decide to throw in an interlude, leave the story hanging on that cliff for a little while, just to see how it goes.
In all seriousness, thank you to everyone who has left likes, commented on, edited the TvTropes page, or in any other way given me a sign that you liked reading this story. You're why I keep writing.
Aftermath 10.6
Chapter 10: Aftermath
Part 6
"Why did you have me?" Steven asked, looking up at his mother with pain in his eyes. Around them, the ocean was a low roar, waves crashing against the platform, only the two of them and Lion on the stone structure to hear what came next. Pink sighed, looking at Steven with pursed lips as she considered what to say.
"Steven, I already told you-"
"You were sad and wanted out, but that can't be the real reason!" He said, tears in his eyes. "You left so much unfinished and hurt the Crystal Gems and Dad… you had to have more of a reason!"
"Steven…"
"Because they were hurt! You loved them and you hurt them just so your own pain would stop, but that's not who you are! You're not the sort of person who'd do that, Pearl and Garnet knew you for thousands of years and they would have told me if that's who you were!" At this point the coherence of Steven's argument was dropping like a rock, and the tears were flowing in a steady stream as an inner bundle of emotions he had held onto and built up over the last few days poured out. "You had to have a reason, I can't have just been born for that! There has to be something more!"
Pink placed her hand on his shoulder, tears forming in her own eyes as she heard his words, the thoughts that in another timeline would cause him to become obsessed with his "magical destiny" and pour over every clue possible about why he had been born forming a rambling narrative as he tried desperately to beg for a deeper meaning, even as her own expression told him there was none to be found. "Steven…" she trailed off, her words failing her as she tried to explain, until finally all that came out was "I'm sorry."
Steven felt something inside him crack at those words, and he said nothing as he leaned forward and onto his knees. "What's the point of all this? I'm not a normal human, I'm not a normal gem, my mom only had me because she was depressed and now-" he was cut off as Pinks grip on him tightened, his words striking something deep inside. Looking down at him, her face was a mess of feelings as she opened her mouth.
"The point is whatever you want it to be. I don't have the right to tell you what the point of your life is Steven, I know how much it hurts to live for a purpose someone else gave you."
"Well maybe I want that! Maybe I want a purpose other than 'mom wanted to kill herself and I was a good excuse'!"
With those words everything went still. Pink had danced around saying it explicitly like that the last time they'd talked, and in fact she'd avoided it even to herself a lot of the time, but as the words left Stevens mouth she knew that wasn't an option anymore. Looking at him, she could tell he was bracing himself for a response, his body tense as he knew he'd crossed a line… and sighed. "Steven, I'm sorry, but I can't give you what you want. You're completely right that that's why I had you," she admitted, shock on his face as she talked "but I don't have the right to tell you what your purpose in life is."
Sitting down, she crossed her legs as drops of seawater sprayed onto her form, the wind picking up as clouds darkened the sky. "I'm sorry you're hurting Steven, but I can't make that pain go away just by telling you what you should do."
Steven nodded at her, joining her on the platform. "I know. I just… I hoped that you would have something, some answer that would make this better. I spent so long living in your shadow, and then everything happened with the gems and Dad and… nothing makes sense anymore!" He was breaking down, tears in his eyes as he stared at her. "Before you came back, I wanted to be a Crystal Gem, and I could work on getting better at being a Crystal Gem, and then it was all about helping corrupted gems, and then it was The Cluster and then Lapis and Jasper happened, and no matter what it was I knew what I needed to do. Now I have no idea what I'm supposed to do with my life!"
Staring down at her son, Pink Diamond felt her heart break as he curled in on himself, his body seeming to deflate and shrink with every word as if he was deflating. I did this. If I had been smarter, been clearer in the video I left him, explained things to the Crystal Gems and Greg before I left… but it's too late to worry about that now, now I need to move forward. She thought to herself, an attitude that had become her primary way of pushing through the pain of her past inch by inch and day by day as she braced to reply. "Steven… I want to help you. I can help you find your purpose, I can give you support as you look for meaning in your life, but any purpose I assign to you, any meaning I command you to have… it would be empty purpose, and it might take a day, a week, even a century, but you'll grow to hate it, and me for giving it to you. Believe me, I have been there."
At his mother's words, Steven looked up, rain starting to fall onto them as he met her eyes, gazing into them and seeing the pain in them. With a deep breath, his body seemed to inflate again, growing in a way that reminded Pink of shapeshifting as he took in her words.
"Mom… we need to talk." He said, and she could not have been prouder. She knew from hard experience that asking for help was painful, she had avoided it for literal millenia, and the fact that her son was able to open up and ask her filled her with pride.
Sitting back, she pulled him into a hug on her lap, holding him close to her as the rain kept falling around them. "And I'm here to help you. I might not be able to be around all the time… or even most of the time, but when I am around I will help you as much as I can." She reassured him, holding her son close to her as they sat together. "What do you need help with?"
Steven began to talk…
… and did not stop for nearly two hours.
"I just don't understand what I'm supposed to do to make them feel better, it's like no matter what I do they will never be happy when I say I'm fine, like I don't know how I feel about this stuff. And yeah, getting hurt stinks, and I'd like to do it less… but why do they have to act like I'm about to break all the time?"
"Maybe they're worried about you? It's not exactly easy for me to hear, if I'm being honest hearing that your… it's called a skeleton, right? That your skeleton was covered in fractures is very worrying."
"But why? I'll work harder to not get hit, but it's not like it even hurts that much any more!"
"Steven, if Amethyst had a bunch of cracks on her gem and told you that getting new ones didn't hurt any more would you feel better?"
"No… but it's different, bones and gems aren't the same…"
"Well… you know how when you have some issues where you know something is true but your emotions act up anyway?"
"... yeah…"
"So… if you're a Diamond, and you have to make new gems for your colony all the time, and gems come out of the ground knowing their purpose…"
"I hate it. I hate myself every time I bring a new gem into this world, knowing they are just going to have their heads filled with Homeworlds lies and work."
"Is that why you didn't want to tell me what my purpose would be, or even leave me with a note telling me what I needed to do?" Steven asked, and his mother didn't even need to say anything for him to know that he had hit the nail on the head. "I'm sorry for pushing you like that."
"It's fine Steven, you couldn't know." She replied softly, regret filling her face as she looked over the ocean, Steven holding her closer. "Let's move on to something a bit… less depressing."
"Alright."
-----
When Pink Diamond stood up, her feet placed on the slick stone of the Galaxy Warp, she felt cleaner. For the first time ever she actually felt a sense of connection to her son, a bond based on the emotional connection of sitting in the rain and talking about their feelings for hours, and she was confident that no matter what happened in the future, Steven would not repeat her mistakes in dealing with her trauma. As she gave him a smile, she saw Steven walk over to Lion, a smile on his face as he waved to her before disappearing in roar. With that, her little trip to Earth ended and she stood on the pad and returned to her role as Diamond.
Her day after that was chaos, her schedule torn to shreds by her trip away to Earth, but in the back of her mind she knew that whatever else happened, she had already done the most important task of the day. Week, likely even year. Sure, it wasn't on any schedule, and none of the other Diamonds would think highly of her for saying it was more important than the running of her colony… but if she cared about their opinions she would be a completely different person, and not in a good way.
-----
Back on Earth, Steven arrived back in the barn, slumped over Lions back. He felt exhausted, but in a good way, as if the hours of talking had lifted a heavy weight from his body. As the portal dissipated and Lion slumped to the ground, stretching out and yawning, he noticed Connie come out of the barn. "Steven! You're back…" she said as she approached, taking in his body language as she braced for the worst. "How did the talk with your mom go?"
Steven looked at her, a small smile on his face. "It was good. I think I'll wait until tomorrow to talk to everyone else though, it's a lot harder to talk about feelings when they're mine." He said as he slid off of Lion, landing on the ground as Connie nodded at him.
"Yeah… is that the first time you've been the person being helped instead of the helper?" She asked as the pair began to walk back towards the barn.
"Not the first time, just the first time for something really big like this." Steven is saying as the barn doors open, revealing a strange sight. Because of rain, the television had been relocated into the barn, where a viewing area had been setup, mainly a clear space in between all the meep morps, and for some reason Iolite and Peridot were sitting in front of the screen, whispering quietly to each other as they rewound and played back one scene of CPH over and over again. "What's going on?"
"They got into an argument about how Pierre really feels about Percy." Lapis said as she dropped down from her perch in the loft. "Peridot is convinced he secretly has feelings for him he's hiding for some reason."
"But when I explained that these are actors and they're working off a script, Iolite got convinced that the signs Peridot was pointing out was the actor letting his own feelings for Percy's actor slip through in his performance." Connie explained. "They've been at it for about half an hour now, Iolite got really interested in television once I explained the whole concept to her, she called it 'a source of insight into how humans wish the world to be and critiques of their own current way of life', which sounds deep and mysterious but then she decided to start by watching CPH which… well it's not very good at social commentary or any of the other stuff she said she was looking for."
"It's funny though." Lapis said as she watched Peridot begin to rapidly explain the intricacies of plot points she had graphed throughout the several seasons of the show, causing Iolite to demand to see the rest so she was not arguing with incomplete data.
Steven and Connie looked at each other as they sat down nearby, watching the two short gems watch TV as Steven considered Lapis's words. The taller blue gem was clearly not actually watching the show, instead focused on watching Peridot as she began the next episode, a soft smile on her face as the green gem talked over the theme song with her theories of the show.
However, he had not been lying when he said he was exhausted, and instead of trying some scheme to find out the truth and perhaps get the two into a relationship, instead he sat on the ground with Connie, who gave him a pat on the shoulder as she leaned in close.
"Are you sure everything went ok? After what happened-"
He cut her off by turning to look at her, no fake smile covering his true emotions the way it had so often in the past. "It's fine Connie, I'm fine. Mom and me talked, and we both learned a lot about each other." He sighed and leaned back. "She's… she's hurt, kind of like I am but also in different ways, and we were able to help each other feel a bit better. But that doesn't mean I feel good. Right now it's like I'm drained, my emotions just aren't working right because they've been so overused recently, and I haven't actually solved anything other than my feelings towards mom, kind of, so that's still there, and I still have to talk to Dad and Pearl and Amethyst and Ruby and Sapphire…"
Connie nodded at him as he trailed off. "Well, my mom says that if you're better when you go to sleep than you were when you woke up, you had a good day. So… was today a good day for you?"
Steven Universe is exhausted, emotionally drained, soaking wet from the rain and sea spray, and laying on the ground in a barn as an old TV plays a cheesy teen drama. Despite that, the answer is so obvious to him that he does not even hesitate for a moment.
"Yeah, today was a good day." He says, a genuine look of relief on his face as he did. "Just need to have a few dozen more like it, and I'll be ok."
Connie was able to stay for another couple of hours before she had to go face the music, apparently Lion had picked her up from lunch at school, and her parents had been flooded with calls from "concerned parents" over the videos going around of a massive pink lion appearing from nowhere to pick their daughter up from school. As she left on Lion, Steven looked out over the hills, the setting sun coating the land with colors, and smiled. Today really was a good day.
-----
Authors Notes:
Alright, this one was actually a bit hard for me to write. I have my own issues that I will not get into here, but one aspect of Steven's arc in Future that really stood out to me was the way he felt like he had a hard time telling anyone about his problems, and that resonated with me, and I wanted to show in this fic that getting over that mental block is a first step on the road to healing, but I actually had an annoying tendency to project so many of my own experiences onto Steven that when I re-read it I realized he was acting out of character, so that segment got a lot of edits and re-writes.
Anyway, right now I'm hitting a bit of a conundrum in my plans for this fic: as it is, I need a timeskip to make my outline work, and the big question is how long should it be? We have a chapter or two to show Steven starting to meet with his therapist and talk to his family, but after that the plan is a minimum of a couple months timeskip to summer, when he starts summer schooling and actually begins to live like a normal kid... well as normal as he can be. However, Pink is being slowly pushed down in importance by the focus on Steven in the recent chapters, and she won't be coming back into focus until her research has a breakthrough, and that leaves me with two options for what to do after the next arc, where Steven gets to deal with the joys of social services, therapists, and schools:
1) Pink has a breakthrough sometime this year, which leaves us with a Steven who is still the same age he was in the original five seasons
2) Pinks research takes longer, putting us near Future in terms of age.
The second one is more and less appealing at the same time, since it both gives me plenty of time in the skip to have characters do things off camera... but also because it means I have the characters do a lot of stuff off camera. Anyways, I'd like to hear some opinions on that, as well as any other feedback you have based on this chapter or the story as a whole.
Part 6
"Why did you have me?" Steven asked, looking up at his mother with pain in his eyes. Around them, the ocean was a low roar, waves crashing against the platform, only the two of them and Lion on the stone structure to hear what came next. Pink sighed, looking at Steven with pursed lips as she considered what to say.
"Steven, I already told you-"
"You were sad and wanted out, but that can't be the real reason!" He said, tears in his eyes. "You left so much unfinished and hurt the Crystal Gems and Dad… you had to have more of a reason!"
"Steven…"
"Because they were hurt! You loved them and you hurt them just so your own pain would stop, but that's not who you are! You're not the sort of person who'd do that, Pearl and Garnet knew you for thousands of years and they would have told me if that's who you were!" At this point the coherence of Steven's argument was dropping like a rock, and the tears were flowing in a steady stream as an inner bundle of emotions he had held onto and built up over the last few days poured out. "You had to have a reason, I can't have just been born for that! There has to be something more!"
Pink placed her hand on his shoulder, tears forming in her own eyes as she heard his words, the thoughts that in another timeline would cause him to become obsessed with his "magical destiny" and pour over every clue possible about why he had been born forming a rambling narrative as he tried desperately to beg for a deeper meaning, even as her own expression told him there was none to be found. "Steven…" she trailed off, her words failing her as she tried to explain, until finally all that came out was "I'm sorry."
Steven felt something inside him crack at those words, and he said nothing as he leaned forward and onto his knees. "What's the point of all this? I'm not a normal human, I'm not a normal gem, my mom only had me because she was depressed and now-" he was cut off as Pinks grip on him tightened, his words striking something deep inside. Looking down at him, her face was a mess of feelings as she opened her mouth.
"The point is whatever you want it to be. I don't have the right to tell you what the point of your life is Steven, I know how much it hurts to live for a purpose someone else gave you."
"Well maybe I want that! Maybe I want a purpose other than 'mom wanted to kill herself and I was a good excuse'!"
With those words everything went still. Pink had danced around saying it explicitly like that the last time they'd talked, and in fact she'd avoided it even to herself a lot of the time, but as the words left Stevens mouth she knew that wasn't an option anymore. Looking at him, she could tell he was bracing himself for a response, his body tense as he knew he'd crossed a line… and sighed. "Steven, I'm sorry, but I can't give you what you want. You're completely right that that's why I had you," she admitted, shock on his face as she talked "but I don't have the right to tell you what your purpose in life is."
Sitting down, she crossed her legs as drops of seawater sprayed onto her form, the wind picking up as clouds darkened the sky. "I'm sorry you're hurting Steven, but I can't make that pain go away just by telling you what you should do."
Steven nodded at her, joining her on the platform. "I know. I just… I hoped that you would have something, some answer that would make this better. I spent so long living in your shadow, and then everything happened with the gems and Dad and… nothing makes sense anymore!" He was breaking down, tears in his eyes as he stared at her. "Before you came back, I wanted to be a Crystal Gem, and I could work on getting better at being a Crystal Gem, and then it was all about helping corrupted gems, and then it was The Cluster and then Lapis and Jasper happened, and no matter what it was I knew what I needed to do. Now I have no idea what I'm supposed to do with my life!"
Staring down at her son, Pink Diamond felt her heart break as he curled in on himself, his body seeming to deflate and shrink with every word as if he was deflating. I did this. If I had been smarter, been clearer in the video I left him, explained things to the Crystal Gems and Greg before I left… but it's too late to worry about that now, now I need to move forward. She thought to herself, an attitude that had become her primary way of pushing through the pain of her past inch by inch and day by day as she braced to reply. "Steven… I want to help you. I can help you find your purpose, I can give you support as you look for meaning in your life, but any purpose I assign to you, any meaning I command you to have… it would be empty purpose, and it might take a day, a week, even a century, but you'll grow to hate it, and me for giving it to you. Believe me, I have been there."
At his mother's words, Steven looked up, rain starting to fall onto them as he met her eyes, gazing into them and seeing the pain in them. With a deep breath, his body seemed to inflate again, growing in a way that reminded Pink of shapeshifting as he took in her words.
"Mom… we need to talk." He said, and she could not have been prouder. She knew from hard experience that asking for help was painful, she had avoided it for literal millenia, and the fact that her son was able to open up and ask her filled her with pride.
Sitting back, she pulled him into a hug on her lap, holding him close to her as the rain kept falling around them. "And I'm here to help you. I might not be able to be around all the time… or even most of the time, but when I am around I will help you as much as I can." She reassured him, holding her son close to her as they sat together. "What do you need help with?"
Steven began to talk…
… and did not stop for nearly two hours.
"I just don't understand what I'm supposed to do to make them feel better, it's like no matter what I do they will never be happy when I say I'm fine, like I don't know how I feel about this stuff. And yeah, getting hurt stinks, and I'd like to do it less… but why do they have to act like I'm about to break all the time?"
"Maybe they're worried about you? It's not exactly easy for me to hear, if I'm being honest hearing that your… it's called a skeleton, right? That your skeleton was covered in fractures is very worrying."
"But why? I'll work harder to not get hit, but it's not like it even hurts that much any more!"
"Steven, if Amethyst had a bunch of cracks on her gem and told you that getting new ones didn't hurt any more would you feel better?"
"No… but it's different, bones and gems aren't the same…"
"Well… you know how when you have some issues where you know something is true but your emotions act up anyway?"
"... yeah…"
"So… if you're a Diamond, and you have to make new gems for your colony all the time, and gems come out of the ground knowing their purpose…"
"I hate it. I hate myself every time I bring a new gem into this world, knowing they are just going to have their heads filled with Homeworlds lies and work."
"Is that why you didn't want to tell me what my purpose would be, or even leave me with a note telling me what I needed to do?" Steven asked, and his mother didn't even need to say anything for him to know that he had hit the nail on the head. "I'm sorry for pushing you like that."
"It's fine Steven, you couldn't know." She replied softly, regret filling her face as she looked over the ocean, Steven holding her closer. "Let's move on to something a bit… less depressing."
"Alright."
-----
When Pink Diamond stood up, her feet placed on the slick stone of the Galaxy Warp, she felt cleaner. For the first time ever she actually felt a sense of connection to her son, a bond based on the emotional connection of sitting in the rain and talking about their feelings for hours, and she was confident that no matter what happened in the future, Steven would not repeat her mistakes in dealing with her trauma. As she gave him a smile, she saw Steven walk over to Lion, a smile on his face as he waved to her before disappearing in roar. With that, her little trip to Earth ended and she stood on the pad and returned to her role as Diamond.
Her day after that was chaos, her schedule torn to shreds by her trip away to Earth, but in the back of her mind she knew that whatever else happened, she had already done the most important task of the day. Week, likely even year. Sure, it wasn't on any schedule, and none of the other Diamonds would think highly of her for saying it was more important than the running of her colony… but if she cared about their opinions she would be a completely different person, and not in a good way.
-----
Back on Earth, Steven arrived back in the barn, slumped over Lions back. He felt exhausted, but in a good way, as if the hours of talking had lifted a heavy weight from his body. As the portal dissipated and Lion slumped to the ground, stretching out and yawning, he noticed Connie come out of the barn. "Steven! You're back…" she said as she approached, taking in his body language as she braced for the worst. "How did the talk with your mom go?"
Steven looked at her, a small smile on his face. "It was good. I think I'll wait until tomorrow to talk to everyone else though, it's a lot harder to talk about feelings when they're mine." He said as he slid off of Lion, landing on the ground as Connie nodded at him.
"Yeah… is that the first time you've been the person being helped instead of the helper?" She asked as the pair began to walk back towards the barn.
"Not the first time, just the first time for something really big like this." Steven is saying as the barn doors open, revealing a strange sight. Because of rain, the television had been relocated into the barn, where a viewing area had been setup, mainly a clear space in between all the meep morps, and for some reason Iolite and Peridot were sitting in front of the screen, whispering quietly to each other as they rewound and played back one scene of CPH over and over again. "What's going on?"
"They got into an argument about how Pierre really feels about Percy." Lapis said as she dropped down from her perch in the loft. "Peridot is convinced he secretly has feelings for him he's hiding for some reason."
"But when I explained that these are actors and they're working off a script, Iolite got convinced that the signs Peridot was pointing out was the actor letting his own feelings for Percy's actor slip through in his performance." Connie explained. "They've been at it for about half an hour now, Iolite got really interested in television once I explained the whole concept to her, she called it 'a source of insight into how humans wish the world to be and critiques of their own current way of life', which sounds deep and mysterious but then she decided to start by watching CPH which… well it's not very good at social commentary or any of the other stuff she said she was looking for."
"It's funny though." Lapis said as she watched Peridot begin to rapidly explain the intricacies of plot points she had graphed throughout the several seasons of the show, causing Iolite to demand to see the rest so she was not arguing with incomplete data.
Steven and Connie looked at each other as they sat down nearby, watching the two short gems watch TV as Steven considered Lapis's words. The taller blue gem was clearly not actually watching the show, instead focused on watching Peridot as she began the next episode, a soft smile on her face as the green gem talked over the theme song with her theories of the show.
However, he had not been lying when he said he was exhausted, and instead of trying some scheme to find out the truth and perhaps get the two into a relationship, instead he sat on the ground with Connie, who gave him a pat on the shoulder as she leaned in close.
"Are you sure everything went ok? After what happened-"
He cut her off by turning to look at her, no fake smile covering his true emotions the way it had so often in the past. "It's fine Connie, I'm fine. Mom and me talked, and we both learned a lot about each other." He sighed and leaned back. "She's… she's hurt, kind of like I am but also in different ways, and we were able to help each other feel a bit better. But that doesn't mean I feel good. Right now it's like I'm drained, my emotions just aren't working right because they've been so overused recently, and I haven't actually solved anything other than my feelings towards mom, kind of, so that's still there, and I still have to talk to Dad and Pearl and Amethyst and Ruby and Sapphire…"
Connie nodded at him as he trailed off. "Well, my mom says that if you're better when you go to sleep than you were when you woke up, you had a good day. So… was today a good day for you?"
Steven Universe is exhausted, emotionally drained, soaking wet from the rain and sea spray, and laying on the ground in a barn as an old TV plays a cheesy teen drama. Despite that, the answer is so obvious to him that he does not even hesitate for a moment.
"Yeah, today was a good day." He says, a genuine look of relief on his face as he did. "Just need to have a few dozen more like it, and I'll be ok."
Connie was able to stay for another couple of hours before she had to go face the music, apparently Lion had picked her up from lunch at school, and her parents had been flooded with calls from "concerned parents" over the videos going around of a massive pink lion appearing from nowhere to pick their daughter up from school. As she left on Lion, Steven looked out over the hills, the setting sun coating the land with colors, and smiled. Today really was a good day.
-----
Authors Notes:
Alright, this one was actually a bit hard for me to write. I have my own issues that I will not get into here, but one aspect of Steven's arc in Future that really stood out to me was the way he felt like he had a hard time telling anyone about his problems, and that resonated with me, and I wanted to show in this fic that getting over that mental block is a first step on the road to healing, but I actually had an annoying tendency to project so many of my own experiences onto Steven that when I re-read it I realized he was acting out of character, so that segment got a lot of edits and re-writes.
Anyway, right now I'm hitting a bit of a conundrum in my plans for this fic: as it is, I need a timeskip to make my outline work, and the big question is how long should it be? We have a chapter or two to show Steven starting to meet with his therapist and talk to his family, but after that the plan is a minimum of a couple months timeskip to summer, when he starts summer schooling and actually begins to live like a normal kid... well as normal as he can be. However, Pink is being slowly pushed down in importance by the focus on Steven in the recent chapters, and she won't be coming back into focus until her research has a breakthrough, and that leaves me with two options for what to do after the next arc, where Steven gets to deal with the joys of social services, therapists, and schools:
1) Pink has a breakthrough sometime this year, which leaves us with a Steven who is still the same age he was in the original five seasons
2) Pinks research takes longer, putting us near Future in terms of age.
The second one is more and less appealing at the same time, since it both gives me plenty of time in the skip to have characters do things off camera... but also because it means I have the characters do a lot of stuff off camera. Anyways, I'd like to hear some opinions on that, as well as any other feedback you have based on this chapter or the story as a whole.
Recovery 11.1
Chapter 11: Recovery 1
The next few days were some of the most emotional of Steven's life. After taking time to watch TV at the barn with his friends, and Iolite, who was mainly just hanging out around the screen and asking questions about humanity when she wasn't getting into an argument with Peridot over something only they cared about. Lapis and Steven spent those times chatting, and in those little discussions the pair found themselves barring some harsh truths to each other.
"I just… I want everyone to stop worrying about me, but they have a reason to worry about me, and it's a good one, but I still want them to just trust me when I say I'm fine."
"I understand Steven. Some people" she looked at Peridot, who was currently with Iolite sketching out a list of potential causes for a character blushing on screen "well, they care a lot, and it can be annoying, but you just have to remember that they're bothering you because they care about you."
Steven nodded at her words. "I know, it's just hard to help them feel better if they're always worried about me. I mean, everyone took learning the truth pretty hard, and I want to help them, but I feel like every time I try it's all about me again, and… I don't want to make it all about me, I want to help them, to be useful. I'm Steven Universe! I'm not a burden, I'm the kid everyone likes who helps them with their problems, but now I can't do that without going on and on about my own problems, and I know I need to talk about it but-."
"Hey, Steven? Look at me. Was I a burden?" Lapis asks, leaving Steven stunned by the question.
"N… no! Of course not, you're my friend and I…" Steven trailed off as she nodded at him, a small smile on her face. "But… I took mom away from her job, from keeping us safe from the other Diamonds! She didn't say there was anything wrong, but I can't do that whenever I need to talk to her or things could get really bad!"
"Look, I don't know about all that…" Lapis said with a shrug "... but that's a lot different from what you said before, isn't it? With your mom, you can only talk to her if it's really important, but you have the rest of us, alright?"
Steven nodded, a smile breaking out on his face as he hugged Lapis. "Thanks Lapis. You're the best Beach Summer Fun Buddy ever!"
She responded by holding a hand to her mouth and making a fart sound, reminiscent of how they had spent their first day together running around Beach City. The action was so sudden and such a shift in tone from what had come before that Steven burst out laughing, his body shaking as Lapis joined in, good memories mixing with the crazy emotions to cause the pair to laugh over their inside joke. Iolite soon came over and asked what was so amusing, only to be left hanging as Steven and Lapis continued to laugh.
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The next day was the moment of truth. Flying into town on Lapis's back, Steven asked her to let him down by the carwash. Immediately a cluster of Quartzes started watching them, mainly out of curiosity, and as Lapis glared at them Steven walked up to the van sitting in front of the building. Knocking on the door, he felt the van shake as his dad called "by right out!", and stepped back to wait.
A few moments later, Greg Universe popped open the back doors of his van and stumbled out. "Steven! How are you doing?" He asked as he embraced his son, his hug holding the boy tight.
"I'm… I'm doing better dad, I'm sorry for yelling, and running off, and everything else I did, I just needed some time to figure out what was going on, but I'm feeling better now." Steven explained, leaning into the hug.
"Alright schtu-ball, if you ever need to talk about it, you can always talk to me." Greg replied as he wiped the tears from his eyes.
"Thanks Dad, I think I will." Steven replied as he gently pulled away from the hug. "Do you want to go get lunch? Lapis and Peridot didn't really have a lot of food at the barn…"
"Sure thing! You want fries or Pizza?"
"Fries sound good." Steven said, a nagging pressure in the back of his mind telling him to spill everything as the pair walked down the boardwalk. Sitting on a bench under the early afternoon sun, father and son ate in silence for a few moments before Steven spoke up. "Dad… I don't really know what to say, but I don't want to say nothing to you after all this..."
"That's ok Steven, I've been there. You're handling this a lot better than I handled my problems with my parents, just tell me what you want to tell me and I'll help you out."
"... Are you going to make me stop being a Crystal Gem?"
"What? Steven why would I do that?"
"Because I got hurt when I went on missions with them, and when you saw the X-rays you got all worried and…" Steven trailed off as Greg rested his hand on his son's shoulder.
"Steven, I know being a Crystal Gem means a lot to you, and I'm sorry you thought I would make you stop being one. I just… you're my son, and seeing all of those fractures, each one being a sign of a time you got hurt and I was just sitting around in the van… it worried me, and if I'm being honest I'd sleep a lot better at night if you weren't getting hurt like that, but I'm not going to stop you from following your dream."
Steven sighed, his shoulders slumping as he took in his dad's words. "I know. I'll… I'll work harder on using my shield and bubble in the future and," he took in a deep breath, as if bracing himself "with school and everything, I don't think I'll be able to go on missions during the week anymore, unless it's like, a world ending threat."
Greg swallowed at the prospect of another disaster, but he put on a brave face for his son. "Speaking of school, I was waiting for you to come back to ask this, but I need to schedule a meeting with a social worker to get paperwork figured out before you get enrolled, she said she had someone cancel and has a slot open tomorrow for you if that's fine."
"Yeah dad, that's fine. I should probably focus on like… studying or something? I should ask Connie what kids my age are supposed to know in school." He mused as he finished up his fries. "And Pearl could help… I need to talk to her about this stuff still, but I haven't finished up talking to you."
"Well, what else do you want to say?"
Steven paused, thinking about it. "I… I mean I talked so long with mom and Lapis and even Connie… I feel like I should talk to you about this more, but I just can't think of what I need to say to you. I'm sorry." He placed his head in his hands, feeling like a failure as he tried to put his feelings into words, the weight of the last few days pressing down on him as his dad pulled him in for a hug.
"Steven, you don't have to force yourself to talk about this stuff, just don't force yourself to keep quiet when you do want to talk, alright?" Greg asked.
"Yeah, yeah I can do that." Steven mumbled into his dad's shoulder before pulling back. "So…" he trailed off, looking around to find something to do. "... now what?"
A big smile showed up on Greg's face. "Well, we've actually got a bit of a surprise for you!"
"A surprise? What sort of surprise?"
"Ah ah, that would be telling!" His dad said with a smile as he stood up, Steven following along closely, the pair for all the world appearing like a normal father-son pair walking down the beach. Arriving at the beach house, Steven felt a moment of trepidation as he walked up the stairs, but he knew he had to face the music, and more importantly the gems, for how he'd acted, and maybe soon he'd be able to heal. As the door opened, he was surprised by the amount of activity inside. The only two gems active were Pearl and Bismuth, but somehow they were able to fill the small structure just by themselves, laughing and telling stories as the door opened.
Steven smiled as he walked in, waving at the two gems. "Hey Pearl. Hi Bismuth, what brings you here?"
"Oh, Pearl and I were just catching up on everything that's happened, she's lived a crazy life." The former blacksmith said with a smile.
"Oh, it hasn't been that bad, I've just had a lot more time to do interesting things, I'm sure you'll have plenty of adventures now." Pearl replied. "And Steven, now that you're back, there's something I've been meaning to say…" Steven braced himself as she kneeled down and hugged him, her arms wrapped around his body as he blushed furiously. "You're a good kid, and I'm sorry you felt that you had to run away from me."
He blushed hard, shame on his face as he replied. "Pearl, it's fine. I just needed some time to talk things out with…" he saw Bismuth and bit down on the word mom "... some people who feel the same way."
The large gem nodded at him. "Heard about that. If you want to run away to the forge next time, I won't complain, and I promise it'll be a better visit than last time." She said, trying to make him feel at ease. It did not work, as the memory of the forge, of what had happened last time he was there, flashed through Steven's mind.
"That's…" Steven felt his body tense, his vision filled with the sight of Bismuth holding the breaking point, the lava glowing behind her. He felt people touching him and saying his name, but beyond that he felt his terror, his stress, overrule him for a brief moment.
He came to curled in a ball on the couch, Greg and Pearl sitting near him with their hands on him as Bismuth backed away, shame on her face. For a moment, no one moved or said anything until Steven began to cry. "I'm sorry" he choked out. "I'm sorry I keep freaking out, it keeps happening and I have no idea how to stop it and-" He was cut off as Greg and Pearl both leaned in to hug him.
Which ended up with them smacking into each other. Greg recovered first and said "Steven, it's ok. This is why we're getting you to a therapist, so you can work this out." He said as he embraced his son.
Pearl nodded in agreement as she rubbed her gem, wincing as she did. "Yes, and why we will be looking into how your human half interacts with your gem half, to see why it does the… well, the whole glowing thing." She had a pained look on her face as she considered her next words. "It's something we should have done before you started glowing, but that's the past, and no matter how much you want to change it, it can't be undone." She says with regret, blinking away tears as she moves to hug Steven, carefully avoiding a repeat collision as she works around Greg.
But despite their words, Steven still feels horrible. "I'm sorry" he repeats, staring at Bismuth as she stands before him. She shakes her head at him.
"You don't have anything to be sorry for Steven, I do." She replies. "Back during the war, a lot of us liked to joke about things like that, because if we couldn't laugh about it we'd start crying. But I just said that without checking you'd be fine, and that's on me." Bismuth begins to step back. "In fact, I should probably get going before I say something else like that.'
Steven winces, regret on his face as she turns and walks away. I don't want to push people away from me, I don't want to have them act like I'm delicate and can't handle it… but when I tried to do that, I slipped up and ran away. As the blacksmith vanished in a beam of light and his parental figures reassured him that it was alright, he slumped into the couch, his feelings running wild.
The rest of the day was awkward, with Steven making it clear that he didn't want to burden his family with his problems. "That's what the therapist is for." He said over and over, until finally Greg and Pearl backed off, letting him handle his emotions himself against their better judgement. The next day though it was time for Steven Universe to actually introduce himself to the government.
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Samantha Morgan was a short woman, dark skinned with a fiery temper when a child was hurt, who did her best to keep up with the demands of life as a social worker. Her most recent case had her on the warpath, as she looked over the (sparse and void of much detail) file on her next appointment. Steven Universe was apparently a child who had been born to a Greg Universe and "Rose Quartz" on a beach in Delmarva, with Rose afterwards completely absent from her childs life until 14 years later when she finally checked in and realized her boyfriend had never taken their kid to the doctor or sent him to school. While Samantha gave her some credit for involving social services now, she was this close to summoning a court and getting neglect charges against both parents filed for how they failed their son. And the fact that the boy was already scheduled for a therapist appointment with one David Washington next week, who she was supposed to coordinate with as the social worker on this case, left her worried about the boys state.
All this happened under the surface as she sat in her car, leaving behind her office in the crowded social services building in Sea City to drive out to Beach City, a small town even by the standards of rural Delmarva. A knock on her door distracted her from the file, and she looked up and said "Come in", bracing herself and fighting to get her temper under control.
At the post office, she was able to get confirmation that yes, Steven and Greg Universe did really live out on the tip of the peninsula from the postal worker on duty, confirming that the directions she had been given were true, and deciding against risking her old car in the sand, she gathered her briefcase full of forms and began to walk through the beach, silently thankful that she had worn boots today as she shuddered at the thought of trying to work through the sand in heels. As she walked, she noticed a strange bird, uniformly purple in hue, watching her from above. She frowned at it as it flew ahead, always watching, but pushed it out of her mind. She had a job to do, and strange creatures would not deter her.
Rounding the corner, she came up on a truly breathtaking sight. A massive statue jutted out from the cliffs, worn and degraded with age but still impressive. Sitting in the lap of the multi-armed woman was a small wooden house, and Samantha shook her head as she approached, climbing the wooden stairs to the building and knocking next to the screen door, the sea breeze blowing through the air as she stood on the top step.
"Coming!" She heard from inside, and as she watched a young boy, who could only be Steven unless Greg and Rose had had another child, jumped down from an elevated bed section onto the ground, falling more than twice his height before turning to open the door. "Oh hi! Who are you?"
Samantha gave him a small smile as she tried to ignore that he was far too small for a 14 year old and if he was malnourished his parents had a lot to answer for- "I'm Samantha Morgan, are you Steven Universe?" She asked, and when he nodded she pulled out her card. "Great, I'm the social worker assigned to your case, I'm here to handle all the paperwork and help you get into school. May I come in?" She didn't notice the same purple bird from earlier seem to deflate, as if it had been looking for a reason to attack her before she had revealed she had a reason to be there.
"Sure! Let me call Dad, he's working down at the car wash today, but he knows you're coming. I'm surprised you missed him on the way in." Steven replied as he opened the door for her, stepping aside and letting her enter.
"Well, I was a bit focused on finding this place, you aren't on any maps." Samantha responded as she placed her briefcase on the table and began to pull out the forms as Steven texted away on his phone. "Now that I am here, I wanted to ask you a few questions."
"Ask away!" Steven said with a smile on his face, which actually managed to relieve some of Samantha's worries about the situation.
"Well, to start with, do you and your father live alone? I assume that's his room back there." She gestured to the strange doorway in the back of the house with five gemstones embedded in it, the exact sort of place a man who changed his name to Universe and had a kid with a woman who named herself after a rock would live.
"Oh, no that's where the gems live!" Steven replied, and at the sight of the confusion on her face he began to explain. "They're a bunch of aliens who spent thousands of years with mom and then raised me when… when she couldn't" he bit his lip a bit at those words. "And because it was to dangerous for dad to get involved when I was practicing my gem abilities I inherited from her-" he held out his arm and his stomach started glowing and there was a shield on his arm what the actual- "so Dad has been living in his van, but now that I have my abilities under control we're gonna add a new room for Dad so he can live in the house with us!"
Samantha Morgan had seen a lot of things in her life as a social worker, and not one of them could compare to the magical boy sitting in front of her with a large gem embedded in his stomach that apparently let him summon a shield. Her brain kicked into high gear as her mouth moved a few times, wordlessly trying to ask him the dozens of questions that popped into her mind, until finally she managed to get one out. "Huh?"
Steven's shield dissipated as he rubbed the back of his neck. "It's a bit of a long story…"
"I can make time." She responded, pulling out a notepad and pen. This has got to be the craziest case I have ever or will ever work she thought as Steven began to talk.
"Well, Gems are actually magical rock computers that make solid light bodies, except I'm half gem and half human, and no one really knows how that works but I have a meaty body that I can shapeshift, so that's cool…" He began his explanation as Samantha noted down every word.
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Authors Notes:
Alright, and here we go with the first part of the arc dedicated to Steven integrating into Earth Society. I haven't made a decision on how long the timeskip will be, but from the outline I came up with, in order to fit in all the character development I want before the timeskip it won't happen until late June at the earliest, more likely July.
Also, because we never see Steven's therapist or a social worker helping him get documents in the show, it's time for OC's. Hopefully I don't mangle the process of how social workers do there jobs to badly, I don't have much experience with the system so I'm mainly writing off of what I picked up from basic research, and that could be wrong.
Finally, there is a reference in this chapter, the title is a big hint (Actually why this ones title is non standard). See if you can catch it.
The next few days were some of the most emotional of Steven's life. After taking time to watch TV at the barn with his friends, and Iolite, who was mainly just hanging out around the screen and asking questions about humanity when she wasn't getting into an argument with Peridot over something only they cared about. Lapis and Steven spent those times chatting, and in those little discussions the pair found themselves barring some harsh truths to each other.
"I just… I want everyone to stop worrying about me, but they have a reason to worry about me, and it's a good one, but I still want them to just trust me when I say I'm fine."
"I understand Steven. Some people" she looked at Peridot, who was currently with Iolite sketching out a list of potential causes for a character blushing on screen "well, they care a lot, and it can be annoying, but you just have to remember that they're bothering you because they care about you."
Steven nodded at her words. "I know, it's just hard to help them feel better if they're always worried about me. I mean, everyone took learning the truth pretty hard, and I want to help them, but I feel like every time I try it's all about me again, and… I don't want to make it all about me, I want to help them, to be useful. I'm Steven Universe! I'm not a burden, I'm the kid everyone likes who helps them with their problems, but now I can't do that without going on and on about my own problems, and I know I need to talk about it but-."
"Hey, Steven? Look at me. Was I a burden?" Lapis asks, leaving Steven stunned by the question.
"N… no! Of course not, you're my friend and I…" Steven trailed off as she nodded at him, a small smile on her face. "But… I took mom away from her job, from keeping us safe from the other Diamonds! She didn't say there was anything wrong, but I can't do that whenever I need to talk to her or things could get really bad!"
"Look, I don't know about all that…" Lapis said with a shrug "... but that's a lot different from what you said before, isn't it? With your mom, you can only talk to her if it's really important, but you have the rest of us, alright?"
Steven nodded, a smile breaking out on his face as he hugged Lapis. "Thanks Lapis. You're the best Beach Summer Fun Buddy ever!"
She responded by holding a hand to her mouth and making a fart sound, reminiscent of how they had spent their first day together running around Beach City. The action was so sudden and such a shift in tone from what had come before that Steven burst out laughing, his body shaking as Lapis joined in, good memories mixing with the crazy emotions to cause the pair to laugh over their inside joke. Iolite soon came over and asked what was so amusing, only to be left hanging as Steven and Lapis continued to laugh.
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The next day was the moment of truth. Flying into town on Lapis's back, Steven asked her to let him down by the carwash. Immediately a cluster of Quartzes started watching them, mainly out of curiosity, and as Lapis glared at them Steven walked up to the van sitting in front of the building. Knocking on the door, he felt the van shake as his dad called "by right out!", and stepped back to wait.
A few moments later, Greg Universe popped open the back doors of his van and stumbled out. "Steven! How are you doing?" He asked as he embraced his son, his hug holding the boy tight.
"I'm… I'm doing better dad, I'm sorry for yelling, and running off, and everything else I did, I just needed some time to figure out what was going on, but I'm feeling better now." Steven explained, leaning into the hug.
"Alright schtu-ball, if you ever need to talk about it, you can always talk to me." Greg replied as he wiped the tears from his eyes.
"Thanks Dad, I think I will." Steven replied as he gently pulled away from the hug. "Do you want to go get lunch? Lapis and Peridot didn't really have a lot of food at the barn…"
"Sure thing! You want fries or Pizza?"
"Fries sound good." Steven said, a nagging pressure in the back of his mind telling him to spill everything as the pair walked down the boardwalk. Sitting on a bench under the early afternoon sun, father and son ate in silence for a few moments before Steven spoke up. "Dad… I don't really know what to say, but I don't want to say nothing to you after all this..."
"That's ok Steven, I've been there. You're handling this a lot better than I handled my problems with my parents, just tell me what you want to tell me and I'll help you out."
"... Are you going to make me stop being a Crystal Gem?"
"What? Steven why would I do that?"
"Because I got hurt when I went on missions with them, and when you saw the X-rays you got all worried and…" Steven trailed off as Greg rested his hand on his son's shoulder.
"Steven, I know being a Crystal Gem means a lot to you, and I'm sorry you thought I would make you stop being one. I just… you're my son, and seeing all of those fractures, each one being a sign of a time you got hurt and I was just sitting around in the van… it worried me, and if I'm being honest I'd sleep a lot better at night if you weren't getting hurt like that, but I'm not going to stop you from following your dream."
Steven sighed, his shoulders slumping as he took in his dad's words. "I know. I'll… I'll work harder on using my shield and bubble in the future and," he took in a deep breath, as if bracing himself "with school and everything, I don't think I'll be able to go on missions during the week anymore, unless it's like, a world ending threat."
Greg swallowed at the prospect of another disaster, but he put on a brave face for his son. "Speaking of school, I was waiting for you to come back to ask this, but I need to schedule a meeting with a social worker to get paperwork figured out before you get enrolled, she said she had someone cancel and has a slot open tomorrow for you if that's fine."
"Yeah dad, that's fine. I should probably focus on like… studying or something? I should ask Connie what kids my age are supposed to know in school." He mused as he finished up his fries. "And Pearl could help… I need to talk to her about this stuff still, but I haven't finished up talking to you."
"Well, what else do you want to say?"
Steven paused, thinking about it. "I… I mean I talked so long with mom and Lapis and even Connie… I feel like I should talk to you about this more, but I just can't think of what I need to say to you. I'm sorry." He placed his head in his hands, feeling like a failure as he tried to put his feelings into words, the weight of the last few days pressing down on him as his dad pulled him in for a hug.
"Steven, you don't have to force yourself to talk about this stuff, just don't force yourself to keep quiet when you do want to talk, alright?" Greg asked.
"Yeah, yeah I can do that." Steven mumbled into his dad's shoulder before pulling back. "So…" he trailed off, looking around to find something to do. "... now what?"
A big smile showed up on Greg's face. "Well, we've actually got a bit of a surprise for you!"
"A surprise? What sort of surprise?"
"Ah ah, that would be telling!" His dad said with a smile as he stood up, Steven following along closely, the pair for all the world appearing like a normal father-son pair walking down the beach. Arriving at the beach house, Steven felt a moment of trepidation as he walked up the stairs, but he knew he had to face the music, and more importantly the gems, for how he'd acted, and maybe soon he'd be able to heal. As the door opened, he was surprised by the amount of activity inside. The only two gems active were Pearl and Bismuth, but somehow they were able to fill the small structure just by themselves, laughing and telling stories as the door opened.
Steven smiled as he walked in, waving at the two gems. "Hey Pearl. Hi Bismuth, what brings you here?"
"Oh, Pearl and I were just catching up on everything that's happened, she's lived a crazy life." The former blacksmith said with a smile.
"Oh, it hasn't been that bad, I've just had a lot more time to do interesting things, I'm sure you'll have plenty of adventures now." Pearl replied. "And Steven, now that you're back, there's something I've been meaning to say…" Steven braced himself as she kneeled down and hugged him, her arms wrapped around his body as he blushed furiously. "You're a good kid, and I'm sorry you felt that you had to run away from me."
He blushed hard, shame on his face as he replied. "Pearl, it's fine. I just needed some time to talk things out with…" he saw Bismuth and bit down on the word mom "... some people who feel the same way."
The large gem nodded at him. "Heard about that. If you want to run away to the forge next time, I won't complain, and I promise it'll be a better visit than last time." She said, trying to make him feel at ease. It did not work, as the memory of the forge, of what had happened last time he was there, flashed through Steven's mind.
"That's…" Steven felt his body tense, his vision filled with the sight of Bismuth holding the breaking point, the lava glowing behind her. He felt people touching him and saying his name, but beyond that he felt his terror, his stress, overrule him for a brief moment.
He came to curled in a ball on the couch, Greg and Pearl sitting near him with their hands on him as Bismuth backed away, shame on her face. For a moment, no one moved or said anything until Steven began to cry. "I'm sorry" he choked out. "I'm sorry I keep freaking out, it keeps happening and I have no idea how to stop it and-" He was cut off as Greg and Pearl both leaned in to hug him.
Which ended up with them smacking into each other. Greg recovered first and said "Steven, it's ok. This is why we're getting you to a therapist, so you can work this out." He said as he embraced his son.
Pearl nodded in agreement as she rubbed her gem, wincing as she did. "Yes, and why we will be looking into how your human half interacts with your gem half, to see why it does the… well, the whole glowing thing." She had a pained look on her face as she considered her next words. "It's something we should have done before you started glowing, but that's the past, and no matter how much you want to change it, it can't be undone." She says with regret, blinking away tears as she moves to hug Steven, carefully avoiding a repeat collision as she works around Greg.
But despite their words, Steven still feels horrible. "I'm sorry" he repeats, staring at Bismuth as she stands before him. She shakes her head at him.
"You don't have anything to be sorry for Steven, I do." She replies. "Back during the war, a lot of us liked to joke about things like that, because if we couldn't laugh about it we'd start crying. But I just said that without checking you'd be fine, and that's on me." Bismuth begins to step back. "In fact, I should probably get going before I say something else like that.'
Steven winces, regret on his face as she turns and walks away. I don't want to push people away from me, I don't want to have them act like I'm delicate and can't handle it… but when I tried to do that, I slipped up and ran away. As the blacksmith vanished in a beam of light and his parental figures reassured him that it was alright, he slumped into the couch, his feelings running wild.
The rest of the day was awkward, with Steven making it clear that he didn't want to burden his family with his problems. "That's what the therapist is for." He said over and over, until finally Greg and Pearl backed off, letting him handle his emotions himself against their better judgement. The next day though it was time for Steven Universe to actually introduce himself to the government.
-----
Samantha Morgan was a short woman, dark skinned with a fiery temper when a child was hurt, who did her best to keep up with the demands of life as a social worker. Her most recent case had her on the warpath, as she looked over the (sparse and void of much detail) file on her next appointment. Steven Universe was apparently a child who had been born to a Greg Universe and "Rose Quartz" on a beach in Delmarva, with Rose afterwards completely absent from her childs life until 14 years later when she finally checked in and realized her boyfriend had never taken their kid to the doctor or sent him to school. While Samantha gave her some credit for involving social services now, she was this close to summoning a court and getting neglect charges against both parents filed for how they failed their son. And the fact that the boy was already scheduled for a therapist appointment with one David Washington next week, who she was supposed to coordinate with as the social worker on this case, left her worried about the boys state.
All this happened under the surface as she sat in her car, leaving behind her office in the crowded social services building in Sea City to drive out to Beach City, a small town even by the standards of rural Delmarva. A knock on her door distracted her from the file, and she looked up and said "Come in", bracing herself and fighting to get her temper under control.
At the post office, she was able to get confirmation that yes, Steven and Greg Universe did really live out on the tip of the peninsula from the postal worker on duty, confirming that the directions she had been given were true, and deciding against risking her old car in the sand, she gathered her briefcase full of forms and began to walk through the beach, silently thankful that she had worn boots today as she shuddered at the thought of trying to work through the sand in heels. As she walked, she noticed a strange bird, uniformly purple in hue, watching her from above. She frowned at it as it flew ahead, always watching, but pushed it out of her mind. She had a job to do, and strange creatures would not deter her.
Rounding the corner, she came up on a truly breathtaking sight. A massive statue jutted out from the cliffs, worn and degraded with age but still impressive. Sitting in the lap of the multi-armed woman was a small wooden house, and Samantha shook her head as she approached, climbing the wooden stairs to the building and knocking next to the screen door, the sea breeze blowing through the air as she stood on the top step.
"Coming!" She heard from inside, and as she watched a young boy, who could only be Steven unless Greg and Rose had had another child, jumped down from an elevated bed section onto the ground, falling more than twice his height before turning to open the door. "Oh hi! Who are you?"
Samantha gave him a small smile as she tried to ignore that he was far too small for a 14 year old and if he was malnourished his parents had a lot to answer for- "I'm Samantha Morgan, are you Steven Universe?" She asked, and when he nodded she pulled out her card. "Great, I'm the social worker assigned to your case, I'm here to handle all the paperwork and help you get into school. May I come in?" She didn't notice the same purple bird from earlier seem to deflate, as if it had been looking for a reason to attack her before she had revealed she had a reason to be there.
"Sure! Let me call Dad, he's working down at the car wash today, but he knows you're coming. I'm surprised you missed him on the way in." Steven replied as he opened the door for her, stepping aside and letting her enter.
"Well, I was a bit focused on finding this place, you aren't on any maps." Samantha responded as she placed her briefcase on the table and began to pull out the forms as Steven texted away on his phone. "Now that I am here, I wanted to ask you a few questions."
"Ask away!" Steven said with a smile on his face, which actually managed to relieve some of Samantha's worries about the situation.
"Well, to start with, do you and your father live alone? I assume that's his room back there." She gestured to the strange doorway in the back of the house with five gemstones embedded in it, the exact sort of place a man who changed his name to Universe and had a kid with a woman who named herself after a rock would live.
"Oh, no that's where the gems live!" Steven replied, and at the sight of the confusion on her face he began to explain. "They're a bunch of aliens who spent thousands of years with mom and then raised me when… when she couldn't" he bit his lip a bit at those words. "And because it was to dangerous for dad to get involved when I was practicing my gem abilities I inherited from her-" he held out his arm and his stomach started glowing and there was a shield on his arm what the actual- "so Dad has been living in his van, but now that I have my abilities under control we're gonna add a new room for Dad so he can live in the house with us!"
Samantha Morgan had seen a lot of things in her life as a social worker, and not one of them could compare to the magical boy sitting in front of her with a large gem embedded in his stomach that apparently let him summon a shield. Her brain kicked into high gear as her mouth moved a few times, wordlessly trying to ask him the dozens of questions that popped into her mind, until finally she managed to get one out. "Huh?"
Steven's shield dissipated as he rubbed the back of his neck. "It's a bit of a long story…"
"I can make time." She responded, pulling out a notepad and pen. This has got to be the craziest case I have ever or will ever work she thought as Steven began to talk.
"Well, Gems are actually magical rock computers that make solid light bodies, except I'm half gem and half human, and no one really knows how that works but I have a meaty body that I can shapeshift, so that's cool…" He began his explanation as Samantha noted down every word.
-----
Authors Notes:
Alright, and here we go with the first part of the arc dedicated to Steven integrating into Earth Society. I haven't made a decision on how long the timeskip will be, but from the outline I came up with, in order to fit in all the character development I want before the timeskip it won't happen until late June at the earliest, more likely July.
Also, because we never see Steven's therapist or a social worker helping him get documents in the show, it's time for OC's. Hopefully I don't mangle the process of how social workers do there jobs to badly, I don't have much experience with the system so I'm mainly writing off of what I picked up from basic research, and that could be wrong.
Finally, there is a reference in this chapter, the title is a big hint (Actually why this ones title is non standard). See if you can catch it.
- Location
- USA
Ya know, I kinda wonder how much of the human side of his history Steven actually got in canon. I get that the Gems probably saw a good bit of it first hand, but that's still gonna leave a lot of major gaps.
Especially since they chose to settle in North America. It's entirely possible that ths Gems just entirely missed out on major empires rising and falling.
Especially since they chose to settle in North America. It's entirely possible that ths Gems just entirely missed out on major empires rising and falling.
- Location
- usa
Kinda what to see more of the social worker hearing the madness
Recover 11.2
Chapter 11: Recovery
Part 2
"So after Dad grounded me, Pearl went and finished the spaceship without us knowing, then she woke me up and took me in it to see the stars! The ship didn't make it that far though, it started falling apart while we were still low enough to breath, so we were below where planes fly, and then I had to convince Pearl to bail because she was so upset and wanted to show me space but I said 'you need to learn when to bail' and we ejected a few seconds before it blew up!" Steven recounted to Samantha as the stunned social worker silently prayed to any deity that was listening that the boy simply had a very, very active imagination. However, considering the fact that he was able to summon a hardlight shield on his arm, she was writing everything down just in case. Outside, she heard footsteps climbing the stairs, and as the door opened she watched Steven wave "Hi Dad!" at the man entering the house.
Her first impression of Greg Universe was that, as far as his son was concerned, he was a caring, supportive father who was making the best out of a complex situation. Her first look at the man as he waved back and greeted his son with a corny nickname seemed to confirm that, and she pushed aside any concerns about his appearance by reminding herself that he ran a car wash, of course he wasn't going to be wearing a suit or anything fancy with that line of work. Standing up, she extended a hand to him. "Hello, my name is Samantha Morgan, it is a pleasure to meet you." She introduced herself.
"Greg Universe." He replied as he shook her hand. "So, you're here to help with all the paperwork and stuff?"
"Not all the paperwork, we don't have that many hours in a day." She replied as she pulled out her briefcase and handed him the first stack of forms. "This all needs to be completed today, and then I'll take it back to my office and file it, then there will be more forms that need to be filed and more waiting for the bureaucracy and if we're lucky this will only take a few weeks but if not… well this situation is sort of unprecedented." She admitted as he took a look at the stack of paper and gulped, thinking to herself better you than me as he sat down and took a pen. "Additionally, given the… unique circumstances of your sons heritage, I was wondering if perhaps you could clarify a few areas of concern."
"Sure, what sort of concern?"
She sighed, bracing herself for him to laugh and tell her that his son just had an overactive imagination. "Did one of your sons… guardians" she had no idea what the "crystal gems" really were in this family, but that seemed appropriate "did she really build a spaceship and take your son on it, only for them to abandon it moments before it exploded?"
As she asked, she watched as his face fell, and her hope was dashed. "Yeah… that wasn't a fun night." Greg admitted as he rubbed the back of his neck. "I thought something really bad had happened before I saw the parachute, but they made it down ok, and I was even able to get the pieces of my van back! … eventually. Had to get new tires though, those were a lost cause." He told her as she looked on in slack jawed amazement, and Steven blushed at the comments.
After a few moments of silence, Samantha slumped forward with a sigh. I am not in any way equipped to handle this. She thought as she looked up at the two of them, both looking at her with a concerned expression. "Well, while that level of recklessness is… concerning, I take it that she is still on good terms, and if you wish to let things be, then I will accept that. Moving on, we have a lot more paperwork to fill out and we need to make an appointment for Steven to take a placement test so we know what level his education is at before he begins attending school." Samantha says, focusing on the familiar aspects of her job and pushing aside all her concerns about magic and aliens. This is a child, he might be half-alien, but he's also half-human, and that means you need to help him. Focus on doing your job, the other stuff is above your pay grade… and no one will believe your reports so you need evidence.
"Alright, well I'll get started on this paperwork, and other than his therapist appointment on Monday our schedule is clear all next week, so anytime then is fine." Greg answered as he pulled up the paperwork, a look of apprehension on his face as he began to work.
"Alright, I'll make a note of that and email when the school gets back to me. Now, while you work on that paperwork, do you mind if I ask Steven a few questions about his life?" She asked, which Greg nodded in response to as he began to work through the first sheet. Turning to Steven, Samantha took a deep breath as she prepared for the standard questions. "Alright Steven, so can you tell me a bit about your life? Do you have any friends, people you hang out with outside your family?" Start simple, sound things out and get a picture of the whole life and not just a few incidents.
"Oh yeah! There's Connie, Lapis, Peridot, Lars, Sadie, Onion… lots of people, humans and gems!" Steven responds, listing them all off one by one. "Connie even comes over a lot to help with gems stuff, she's really good at using a sword, and she introduced me to this really cool book series called the spirit morph saga, we talk about it all the time!"
Samantha nodded at him, a smile on her face as she internally decided to push past the mention of swords and get on with the questioning. "Well, that does sound good. It's nice to know you have a network of friends who can help you out if things go wrong, we all need someone like that in our lives. Would you say you have a decent support network?" At the confused look on his face, she clarified "if you were to have problems, emotional or otherwise, would you trust your friends to help you with them?"
Steven seems to tense up a bit at the question, his face going a bit red as he blushes. "Well… yeah, I actually just got back from staying over with Lapis and Peridot for a day after…" he looked at Greg, who shrugged as if to tell him it was his call "... after I had a bit of a breakdown and didn't want to be at home for a while. It's fine now though, I'm fine." He said, trying to reassure himself just as much as Samantha, who looked at him with concern.
With a sigh, she looked Steven in the eye. So much for hoping he'd just be a well-adjusted kid once the alien stuff was taken away. She thought as she saw how embarrassed he was for bringing that up, sighing as she put her notepad down. "Well, staying over at a friends place after a breakdown is… well it's not ideal, but it's nowhere near the worst story I've ever heard."
This seems to reassure him, his smile returns to his face as he thanks her. "Thanks… but yeah, Lapis and Peridot live out in the country in an old barn, it's not the warmest place to be in winter but it's spring now and they're gems so they don't really care that much about temperature." Steven explains to the social worker. "It's actually the same barn we used to build the rocket, and then there was the time that Peridot broke it with her giant mech to try and call Yellow Diamond… a lot of stuff has happened at that barn."
Samantha blinked for a few moments before asking "I'm sorry, what? You said Peridot was your friend, right? Why did she break the barn to call this… Yellow Diamond?"
"Oh… that was back when she was evil and loyal to Homeworld, but she's on our side now."
"I'm sorry… what?" Samantha was trying to process everything she was hearing.
"Well, the gems on Homeworld and their empire are loyal to the Diamonds, who rule over everything, but the Crystal Gems rebelled against the Diamonds to stop them from sucking the earth dry to build a colony for Pink Diamond. But they were only able to keep the Diamonds off of Earth, and the diamonds used a big beam to turn every gem on earth into corrupted versions of themselves except for Mom, Pearl, and Garnet because they hid behind moms shield, and Amethyst because she hadn't come out of the ground yet." Alright, this can't be true… his father is waving at him to stop, like it's a big dangerous secret oh my god- "And then they spent the next few thousand years gathering up all the corrupted gems so they wouldn't hurt themselves, and then mom had me and the Diamonds found out about Earth but Pink doesn't want to destroy it but she is worried about the other Diamonds so I'm a secret!"
Samantha stared at Steven, her eyes not even blinking with how stunned she was by what he had said. I… there is a lot to unpack there, and I am nowhere near high enough on the totem pole to even begin going over it. She thought to herself as she took in everything he said. Off to the side, she could make out his father whispering in his ear, and she realized she was having a minor incident as she gripped the notepad and pen so hard her knuckles turned white. Taking deep breaths in and out, she slowly released the tension in her body and turned towards Steven. "That… that is an interesting story Steven. I don't think I'll be able to write most of it down though, my bosses would never believe me." And if they did, then this poor kids life gets turned upside down. On the other hand, if there is an alien empire out there that could threaten Earth and I don't tell someone… as soon as I finish for the day I'm hitting the top shelf hard, this is not the sort of moral quandary I am trained to handle.
"Well if they don't believe you, then just send them out here and the gems can explain it to them! ...Unless that means the guys in black suits show up…" He trails off thoughtfully as Greg gives her a shrug, clearly aware that his son is putting her in a difficult position the longer he talks.
"You know, this paperwork is a bit complicated, could I get some help?" Greg asks, giving Samantha an out.
"Ah, yes of course." She replies, moving over swiftly and mechanically, her mind on autopilot as she reels from the revelation. "What seems to be the problem?"
"Well, I don't really know what I'm supposed to do here…"
As Samantha looked at the form, she realized that the answer was super basic and there was no way a man who raised a son like Steven could be stupid enough to not understand it. With a smile, she answered "well, that's a pretty tricky one, let's go through it step by step. Did you get Steven a social security number? No? Alright, then our next step is to go over here to this box… I don't suppose his mother ever acquired a social security number or any other form of documentation? Yeah, that's what I thought. Now, we need to fill out this form to tell the people running Social Security to give Steven a number…"
She continued to work through the paperwork step by step, her mind calming down as she went through the documents, the rote actions nice and simple, keeping her attention focused on something other than her internal freakout about how to best handle the situation with Steven.
-----
Far away from the small house where a beleaguered social worker was trying to fit gems and a hybrid into her worldview, Pink Diamond sat in her throne, working on a long term plan to shift the worldviews of thousands of gems. Of course, this was hampered by the incredibly chaotic nature of her colony. The hastily assembled staff that ran the various construction efforts and research stations from their Diamonds spire palace had at first attempted to slip back into old, barely remembered habits from their years at the Lunar Sea Spire on Earth, but the loss of many gems in the evacuation and over the years since their scattering to the Yellow and Blue courts made that difficult, while their Diamonds whimsical command that her Spinel help teach those members of her court how to have fun and her elevation of a Fire Opal who made it clear that she disdained the power plays of the Spire pre-scattering left the status quo shattered before it even fully emerged. As a result, when Fire Opal Cut 6C3 entered a room, everyone paid attention to what she did. For the orange gem, who mainly wanted to just get on with her life and not turn any heads, this was annoying.
The two places in the colony that she did not feel the eyes of her colleagues peering onto her form were the small work station she shared with Iolite and the throne room of her Diamond when she was not hearing petitioners. However, the rest of the gems in the spire easily found out where that workstation was, frustrating her attempts to work by constantly showing up and asking her questions, spending precious time that could be used trying to get the colony in order trying to play politics with her. Which is why she currently sat in her Diamonds throne room, working on paperwork on a tablet as Pink sat on her throne, the two gems sitting in blissful silence…
Until a pink blur bounced up the stairs and beelined for Pink Diamond. As 6C3 watched, Spinel performed some strange method of movement that a human would compare to a slinky moving down stairs as she crossed the distance to the throne. Standing upright in front of Pink Diamond, Spinel gave a big grin and said "Hey Pink! How's it going today?"
No matter how many times she watched the other gem act like this to their Diamond, 6C3 still felt a momentary twinge as her instincts screamed that this was not an appropriate way to speak to a Diamond, but Pink insisted that she preferred that form of casual address, and instead of lashing out the way many of the other Diamonds would, she simply looked up with a soft smile. "Well, it's not any worse than yesterday. Not any better either…"
"Well that's not true at all! I've got a lot of good news for you. Remember that Tourmaline I was telling you about a few days ago? I think I finally broke through to her." Spinel replied, telling their Diamond about her ongoing quest to make the gems of the Pink Court into decent people, one at a time if need be. 6C3 wished her luck and was thankful that was not her job as the pink jester gem continued to talk. "She was having some trouble with those silly little games they play, the ones with all the rumors and the dramatic reveals that someone you thought was on your side isn't actually, and I broke it up because really, they were getting waaay to worked up about who gets the blame for a report being filed wrong, and she was super grateful for it, which I don't get because it's not like anything bad would happen to her if I hadn't."
The way Spinel says that so dismissively shows that, even if she has spent a lot of time with the gems of the court, she still doesn't understand them. 6C3 lets out a small sigh, which draws the attention of the pink gem to her. "Oh hey se- no, not going there. Didn't see you there. You know why all those gems always act like everything is such a big deal?"
6C3 nodded, unpleasant memories flooding back to her. "Yes." She answered, but when Spinel, and even worse her Diamond kept looking at her expectantly she cracked and began to explain. "It's because nothing they do has actual real consequences, so they act like the minor inconveniences of being kicked out of a social circle or being temporarily reassigned to a task that no one wants to do but needs doing is the end of the world, and they play all these stupid mind games where every conversation is a minefield, anyone could turn on you at any time, and the only people you can trust are the ones you have blackmail on because that's what they think of as fun. Everyone knows our Diamond won't shatter anyone, everyone knows there's only one colony in her court so we can't get reassigned to some backwaters like in Yellow or Blue's courts, so why not just have a bit of fun?" She said, a biting tone in her voice as bad memories came up. "They enjoy it, and if you don't enjoy it well to bad, you're in the same court as them and they will drag you down to their level, because if you try to not play the game that makes you a target, you think your better than them, you're a layabout who won't get with the program, a lazy half-cooked pebble that should have been left in the ground because no one wants a Fire Opal in the middle of a rebellion-"
She was cut off by the sudden sensation of someone grasping her shoulder. Looking up, she saw Spinel had reached out and held onto her as Pink Diamond stared at her with concern. She blushed under the attention, internally freaking out as she realized that she had gone and burdened her Diamond with her problems in a way that no gem ever should. But neither of the pink gems looking at her seemed to care as Spinel began to reassure her "Hey, hey it's alright. Sorry for bringing it up, I didn't know."
"I should have done something." Pink whispered quietly enough that 6C3 got the feeling that she wasn't supposed to hear that. "I knew the gems in my court had problems, and I knew I had the power to make them stop but… but I did nothing."
Spinel looked between the two and sighed, shaking her head as she stretched an arm out and smacked Pink Diamond upside the head like she was a disobedient Quartz. 6C3 was stunned at the sight, while Spinel just began to speak. "Alright, enough. 6C3, I'm sorry for bringing up bad memories, but you're not lazy or half-cooked, so ignore those stuck up gems until I can work my magic and make them better people. Pink, enough of the 'oh no I failed and everything sucks' stuff! Seriously, if you keep looking back at how bad things were and acting like all you had to do was make a few different decisions to fix everything then you'll never move on. Can you imagine if I spent every day thinking about how my life would have been if I'd just not listened to one little request from My Diamond?"
The room went quiet, and 6C3 found herself wanting to be anywhere but there. Maybe dealing with the other gems in the court won't be so bad, Spinel is reforming them and I can pull out the "our Diamond has personally assigned me to this task, stop distracting me" card on anyone who annoys me… on the other hand, watching someone mouth off to a Diamond and live is fascinating. "So…" she said, instantly regretting it as all eyes turned to her. "Is this… normal, with you two?"
Spinel nods before Pink can say anything. "You mean me keeping her from sitting around whining about how everything sucks? Yeah, it is."
"I do not whine!"
"Yeah, because I'm here to stop you!"
"Spinel that is wildly untrue, just because I take a moment to reflect on my past mistakes so I don't repeat them doesn't mean I'm whining."
"See, there she goes, whine whine whine." Spinel says cheekily, causing Pink Diamond, the gem that literally everyone in the court once looked up to as a nearly divine being, huffs and crosses her arms, going back to work and not even trying to respond. Spinel laughs a bit more before heading off, but once she leaves 6C3 realizes something: Pink seemed much less depressed after that talk despite how upset she seemed when Spinel was needling her. Now instead of slouching and sighing as she worked, she attacked her work with strong posture and a powerful gaze. Hmm, I guess Spinel knows what she's doing 6C3 mused as she returned to her own work.
-----
Amethyst frowned as she looked into the beach house, watching as Greg and Steven explained everything to this weird human. Pearl had explained the whole thing to her a while back, that humans had a whole complicated government thing set up and that they needed to get everything done right to get Steven into school so he could "experience the human half of his heritage". Hearing that had been hard for her, because as far as she'd been able to tell Steven had experienced plenty of the human parts of his heritage. After all, he went and hung out in town with those kids, he watched human shows and played human games all the time, it's not like they kept him locked up in the temple the way Pearl had really wanted to back in the very beginning.
But it turns out that wasn't good enough, and now Steven had to go to school because otherwise he'd never be able to get a job or some other lame stuff like that, like anyone would want one of those. The only good things about jobs were that they gave you money so you could buy cool stuff, but Steven's mom owned a planet and his dad had millions of dollars, so why did that even matter? Pearl hadn't given her a good answer to that question, and Amethyst was starting to think that she didn't know the answer either, but she was going along with it because that's what the humans said Steven had to do.
Amethyst had always been more interested in humans than Pearl or Garnet, but as she watched she found herself wondering just how much she really knew about them. From what the social worker was saying, Greg and Steven lived "highly irregular lives", and as she described the sort of changes she recommended all Amethyst could hear was "Be boring, don't have any fun, spend hours upon hours learning boring stuff so you can go work a boring life and leave everyone who cared about you behind."
"Yeah, because the life he was living before was so much better, huh Amethyst?" She asked herself quietly. "Breaks his body and just keeps going because it instantly healed, and what do you do? Nothing, because he always gets back up and his gem is fine. Now his brain is hurt and he needs to go see a brain doctor or whatever because you didn't notice anything wrong."
Amethyst took a few deep breaths, getting her feelings under control as she looked over at the house. The social worker, Samantha or whatever, was talking to Steven and Greg about "study plans" so Steven could be ready when it's time for him to go to school. With a sigh, she flew away, heading back into town.
Landing along the boardwalk, she turned back to normal in front of Skinny, a Jasper who had spent a few thousand years chilling around the zoo because she was only barely on the right side of being off color. "Hey Amethyst, everything cool with that new human?"
Amethyst paused for a moment before she nodded. "Yeah, she doesn't look like she's gonna cause any trouble. Just stopping by to do some human stuff."
"Alright." Skinny replied, and for a brief moment there was silence as Amethyst contemplated how much this whole "maturity" thing sucked, she had to like, think through her actions before doing them, and not just go with the flow… well not as much, it probably wasn't physically possible for her to stop doing it all the time. Her musings were interrupted when Skinny elbowed her. "Hey, looks like squad 2 is getting ready for another game of volleyball. You want to go join in?"
Amethyst smiled, her concerns going away as she contemplated a round of, incredibly violent, Quartz volleyball. "Yeah, let's get the rest of the shorties and off-colors together, we'll kick their butts!" She said with a grin as she leaped to her feet. I'll go talk with Steven when that social worker leaves, but right now it's time for fun!
-----
Far away from Earth, so far that light would take years to cross the distance, a cluster of Bismuths huddled together in their barracks, whispering to each other in the darkness.
"You're joking." One of them said, a look of shock on her face.
"No, I'm serious! I heard it from 9AL, she was on the construction team at the shipyard when Pink was talking to the designer, and Pink said that she didn't want another leg ship, she wanted something sleeker, not based on body parts at all, and then she said that she was going to be importing some designs she liked from the organics on Earth for the ship and the rest of her colony buildings!" Those last words were emphasized because they were the ones that mattered the most to the gems in the room, who worked day and night to build the structures of their Diamonds court.
"That's… the ship thing alright, it's just a ship, but we've been building structures the same way literally our entire lives! Does she expect us to just go and learn how to do everything from scratch?" Another one spoke up, so focused on her own concerns that she didn't stop to think that the gems building ships for their Diamond would feel the same way about new ship designs.
"She says she wants a 'new direction' for Era 3, to go with the rest of her plans for this era." Came the reply from the one who had spoken before.
At that, the room went silent with contemplative thought. That their Diamond had plans for handling her court differently this time around was well known, every gem who'd had to hear an upper crust snob complain about her Spinel getting involved in their business or that their Diamond was increasingly letting more and more gems 'stray from their intended purposes' knew that the winds of change were blowing, but where the snobs resisted and tried to cling to their comfortable lives, many of the lower ranked gems were eager to see what happened next, especially after their Diamond decreed that all cracked gems be brought to her for healing.
Breaking the silence, one of the many gems, anonymous through their similar voices and the shadows of the barracks, spoke up. "What are the odds the 'new direction' actually changes something other than architecture?"
"Shhhh!" Every gem in the room said at once, a bunch of random noises made as they scanned the entrance way for any sign of eavesdroppers. When nothing happened after several long moments, the first Bismuth spoke up again. "None of that, alright? You keep stuff like that to yourself, because even if Pink is being nicer now, we all remember what happened to anyone the upper crusts caught saying things like that last time. Just keep any thoughts like that to yourself. Now come on, we've got a lot of work to do, and the rest cycle is just about over."
With that, the Bismuths went back to work, building Pink Diamonds second colony. None of them talked about the rebellious thoughts that were starting to spread, but none of them needed to. Everyone could tell things were changing, the only question was what their society would look like in the end.
-----
Authors notes:
Good morning people! Inspiration hit me while writing this chapter, so it was actually mostly completed by Monday this week, which gave me time to add on to it and show a bit of the behind the scenes stuff that's happening, showing Amethysts feelings and the way the ordinary gems in Pinks court are reacting to this stuff.
Anyway, I hope you all enjoy reading this chapter as much as I enjoyed writing it. Any and all feedback is appreciated!
Part 2
"So after Dad grounded me, Pearl went and finished the spaceship without us knowing, then she woke me up and took me in it to see the stars! The ship didn't make it that far though, it started falling apart while we were still low enough to breath, so we were below where planes fly, and then I had to convince Pearl to bail because she was so upset and wanted to show me space but I said 'you need to learn when to bail' and we ejected a few seconds before it blew up!" Steven recounted to Samantha as the stunned social worker silently prayed to any deity that was listening that the boy simply had a very, very active imagination. However, considering the fact that he was able to summon a hardlight shield on his arm, she was writing everything down just in case. Outside, she heard footsteps climbing the stairs, and as the door opened she watched Steven wave "Hi Dad!" at the man entering the house.
Her first impression of Greg Universe was that, as far as his son was concerned, he was a caring, supportive father who was making the best out of a complex situation. Her first look at the man as he waved back and greeted his son with a corny nickname seemed to confirm that, and she pushed aside any concerns about his appearance by reminding herself that he ran a car wash, of course he wasn't going to be wearing a suit or anything fancy with that line of work. Standing up, she extended a hand to him. "Hello, my name is Samantha Morgan, it is a pleasure to meet you." She introduced herself.
"Greg Universe." He replied as he shook her hand. "So, you're here to help with all the paperwork and stuff?"
"Not all the paperwork, we don't have that many hours in a day." She replied as she pulled out her briefcase and handed him the first stack of forms. "This all needs to be completed today, and then I'll take it back to my office and file it, then there will be more forms that need to be filed and more waiting for the bureaucracy and if we're lucky this will only take a few weeks but if not… well this situation is sort of unprecedented." She admitted as he took a look at the stack of paper and gulped, thinking to herself better you than me as he sat down and took a pen. "Additionally, given the… unique circumstances of your sons heritage, I was wondering if perhaps you could clarify a few areas of concern."
"Sure, what sort of concern?"
She sighed, bracing herself for him to laugh and tell her that his son just had an overactive imagination. "Did one of your sons… guardians" she had no idea what the "crystal gems" really were in this family, but that seemed appropriate "did she really build a spaceship and take your son on it, only for them to abandon it moments before it exploded?"
As she asked, she watched as his face fell, and her hope was dashed. "Yeah… that wasn't a fun night." Greg admitted as he rubbed the back of his neck. "I thought something really bad had happened before I saw the parachute, but they made it down ok, and I was even able to get the pieces of my van back! … eventually. Had to get new tires though, those were a lost cause." He told her as she looked on in slack jawed amazement, and Steven blushed at the comments.
After a few moments of silence, Samantha slumped forward with a sigh. I am not in any way equipped to handle this. She thought as she looked up at the two of them, both looking at her with a concerned expression. "Well, while that level of recklessness is… concerning, I take it that she is still on good terms, and if you wish to let things be, then I will accept that. Moving on, we have a lot more paperwork to fill out and we need to make an appointment for Steven to take a placement test so we know what level his education is at before he begins attending school." Samantha says, focusing on the familiar aspects of her job and pushing aside all her concerns about magic and aliens. This is a child, he might be half-alien, but he's also half-human, and that means you need to help him. Focus on doing your job, the other stuff is above your pay grade… and no one will believe your reports so you need evidence.
"Alright, well I'll get started on this paperwork, and other than his therapist appointment on Monday our schedule is clear all next week, so anytime then is fine." Greg answered as he pulled up the paperwork, a look of apprehension on his face as he began to work.
"Alright, I'll make a note of that and email when the school gets back to me. Now, while you work on that paperwork, do you mind if I ask Steven a few questions about his life?" She asked, which Greg nodded in response to as he began to work through the first sheet. Turning to Steven, Samantha took a deep breath as she prepared for the standard questions. "Alright Steven, so can you tell me a bit about your life? Do you have any friends, people you hang out with outside your family?" Start simple, sound things out and get a picture of the whole life and not just a few incidents.
"Oh yeah! There's Connie, Lapis, Peridot, Lars, Sadie, Onion… lots of people, humans and gems!" Steven responds, listing them all off one by one. "Connie even comes over a lot to help with gems stuff, she's really good at using a sword, and she introduced me to this really cool book series called the spirit morph saga, we talk about it all the time!"
Samantha nodded at him, a smile on her face as she internally decided to push past the mention of swords and get on with the questioning. "Well, that does sound good. It's nice to know you have a network of friends who can help you out if things go wrong, we all need someone like that in our lives. Would you say you have a decent support network?" At the confused look on his face, she clarified "if you were to have problems, emotional or otherwise, would you trust your friends to help you with them?"
Steven seems to tense up a bit at the question, his face going a bit red as he blushes. "Well… yeah, I actually just got back from staying over with Lapis and Peridot for a day after…" he looked at Greg, who shrugged as if to tell him it was his call "... after I had a bit of a breakdown and didn't want to be at home for a while. It's fine now though, I'm fine." He said, trying to reassure himself just as much as Samantha, who looked at him with concern.
With a sigh, she looked Steven in the eye. So much for hoping he'd just be a well-adjusted kid once the alien stuff was taken away. She thought as she saw how embarrassed he was for bringing that up, sighing as she put her notepad down. "Well, staying over at a friends place after a breakdown is… well it's not ideal, but it's nowhere near the worst story I've ever heard."
This seems to reassure him, his smile returns to his face as he thanks her. "Thanks… but yeah, Lapis and Peridot live out in the country in an old barn, it's not the warmest place to be in winter but it's spring now and they're gems so they don't really care that much about temperature." Steven explains to the social worker. "It's actually the same barn we used to build the rocket, and then there was the time that Peridot broke it with her giant mech to try and call Yellow Diamond… a lot of stuff has happened at that barn."
Samantha blinked for a few moments before asking "I'm sorry, what? You said Peridot was your friend, right? Why did she break the barn to call this… Yellow Diamond?"
"Oh… that was back when she was evil and loyal to Homeworld, but she's on our side now."
"I'm sorry… what?" Samantha was trying to process everything she was hearing.
"Well, the gems on Homeworld and their empire are loyal to the Diamonds, who rule over everything, but the Crystal Gems rebelled against the Diamonds to stop them from sucking the earth dry to build a colony for Pink Diamond. But they were only able to keep the Diamonds off of Earth, and the diamonds used a big beam to turn every gem on earth into corrupted versions of themselves except for Mom, Pearl, and Garnet because they hid behind moms shield, and Amethyst because she hadn't come out of the ground yet." Alright, this can't be true… his father is waving at him to stop, like it's a big dangerous secret oh my god- "And then they spent the next few thousand years gathering up all the corrupted gems so they wouldn't hurt themselves, and then mom had me and the Diamonds found out about Earth but Pink doesn't want to destroy it but she is worried about the other Diamonds so I'm a secret!"
Samantha stared at Steven, her eyes not even blinking with how stunned she was by what he had said. I… there is a lot to unpack there, and I am nowhere near high enough on the totem pole to even begin going over it. She thought to herself as she took in everything he said. Off to the side, she could make out his father whispering in his ear, and she realized she was having a minor incident as she gripped the notepad and pen so hard her knuckles turned white. Taking deep breaths in and out, she slowly released the tension in her body and turned towards Steven. "That… that is an interesting story Steven. I don't think I'll be able to write most of it down though, my bosses would never believe me." And if they did, then this poor kids life gets turned upside down. On the other hand, if there is an alien empire out there that could threaten Earth and I don't tell someone… as soon as I finish for the day I'm hitting the top shelf hard, this is not the sort of moral quandary I am trained to handle.
"Well if they don't believe you, then just send them out here and the gems can explain it to them! ...Unless that means the guys in black suits show up…" He trails off thoughtfully as Greg gives her a shrug, clearly aware that his son is putting her in a difficult position the longer he talks.
"You know, this paperwork is a bit complicated, could I get some help?" Greg asks, giving Samantha an out.
"Ah, yes of course." She replies, moving over swiftly and mechanically, her mind on autopilot as she reels from the revelation. "What seems to be the problem?"
"Well, I don't really know what I'm supposed to do here…"
As Samantha looked at the form, she realized that the answer was super basic and there was no way a man who raised a son like Steven could be stupid enough to not understand it. With a smile, she answered "well, that's a pretty tricky one, let's go through it step by step. Did you get Steven a social security number? No? Alright, then our next step is to go over here to this box… I don't suppose his mother ever acquired a social security number or any other form of documentation? Yeah, that's what I thought. Now, we need to fill out this form to tell the people running Social Security to give Steven a number…"
She continued to work through the paperwork step by step, her mind calming down as she went through the documents, the rote actions nice and simple, keeping her attention focused on something other than her internal freakout about how to best handle the situation with Steven.
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Far away from the small house where a beleaguered social worker was trying to fit gems and a hybrid into her worldview, Pink Diamond sat in her throne, working on a long term plan to shift the worldviews of thousands of gems. Of course, this was hampered by the incredibly chaotic nature of her colony. The hastily assembled staff that ran the various construction efforts and research stations from their Diamonds spire palace had at first attempted to slip back into old, barely remembered habits from their years at the Lunar Sea Spire on Earth, but the loss of many gems in the evacuation and over the years since their scattering to the Yellow and Blue courts made that difficult, while their Diamonds whimsical command that her Spinel help teach those members of her court how to have fun and her elevation of a Fire Opal who made it clear that she disdained the power plays of the Spire pre-scattering left the status quo shattered before it even fully emerged. As a result, when Fire Opal Cut 6C3 entered a room, everyone paid attention to what she did. For the orange gem, who mainly wanted to just get on with her life and not turn any heads, this was annoying.
The two places in the colony that she did not feel the eyes of her colleagues peering onto her form were the small work station she shared with Iolite and the throne room of her Diamond when she was not hearing petitioners. However, the rest of the gems in the spire easily found out where that workstation was, frustrating her attempts to work by constantly showing up and asking her questions, spending precious time that could be used trying to get the colony in order trying to play politics with her. Which is why she currently sat in her Diamonds throne room, working on paperwork on a tablet as Pink sat on her throne, the two gems sitting in blissful silence…
Until a pink blur bounced up the stairs and beelined for Pink Diamond. As 6C3 watched, Spinel performed some strange method of movement that a human would compare to a slinky moving down stairs as she crossed the distance to the throne. Standing upright in front of Pink Diamond, Spinel gave a big grin and said "Hey Pink! How's it going today?"
No matter how many times she watched the other gem act like this to their Diamond, 6C3 still felt a momentary twinge as her instincts screamed that this was not an appropriate way to speak to a Diamond, but Pink insisted that she preferred that form of casual address, and instead of lashing out the way many of the other Diamonds would, she simply looked up with a soft smile. "Well, it's not any worse than yesterday. Not any better either…"
"Well that's not true at all! I've got a lot of good news for you. Remember that Tourmaline I was telling you about a few days ago? I think I finally broke through to her." Spinel replied, telling their Diamond about her ongoing quest to make the gems of the Pink Court into decent people, one at a time if need be. 6C3 wished her luck and was thankful that was not her job as the pink jester gem continued to talk. "She was having some trouble with those silly little games they play, the ones with all the rumors and the dramatic reveals that someone you thought was on your side isn't actually, and I broke it up because really, they were getting waaay to worked up about who gets the blame for a report being filed wrong, and she was super grateful for it, which I don't get because it's not like anything bad would happen to her if I hadn't."
The way Spinel says that so dismissively shows that, even if she has spent a lot of time with the gems of the court, she still doesn't understand them. 6C3 lets out a small sigh, which draws the attention of the pink gem to her. "Oh hey se- no, not going there. Didn't see you there. You know why all those gems always act like everything is such a big deal?"
6C3 nodded, unpleasant memories flooding back to her. "Yes." She answered, but when Spinel, and even worse her Diamond kept looking at her expectantly she cracked and began to explain. "It's because nothing they do has actual real consequences, so they act like the minor inconveniences of being kicked out of a social circle or being temporarily reassigned to a task that no one wants to do but needs doing is the end of the world, and they play all these stupid mind games where every conversation is a minefield, anyone could turn on you at any time, and the only people you can trust are the ones you have blackmail on because that's what they think of as fun. Everyone knows our Diamond won't shatter anyone, everyone knows there's only one colony in her court so we can't get reassigned to some backwaters like in Yellow or Blue's courts, so why not just have a bit of fun?" She said, a biting tone in her voice as bad memories came up. "They enjoy it, and if you don't enjoy it well to bad, you're in the same court as them and they will drag you down to their level, because if you try to not play the game that makes you a target, you think your better than them, you're a layabout who won't get with the program, a lazy half-cooked pebble that should have been left in the ground because no one wants a Fire Opal in the middle of a rebellion-"
She was cut off by the sudden sensation of someone grasping her shoulder. Looking up, she saw Spinel had reached out and held onto her as Pink Diamond stared at her with concern. She blushed under the attention, internally freaking out as she realized that she had gone and burdened her Diamond with her problems in a way that no gem ever should. But neither of the pink gems looking at her seemed to care as Spinel began to reassure her "Hey, hey it's alright. Sorry for bringing it up, I didn't know."
"I should have done something." Pink whispered quietly enough that 6C3 got the feeling that she wasn't supposed to hear that. "I knew the gems in my court had problems, and I knew I had the power to make them stop but… but I did nothing."
Spinel looked between the two and sighed, shaking her head as she stretched an arm out and smacked Pink Diamond upside the head like she was a disobedient Quartz. 6C3 was stunned at the sight, while Spinel just began to speak. "Alright, enough. 6C3, I'm sorry for bringing up bad memories, but you're not lazy or half-cooked, so ignore those stuck up gems until I can work my magic and make them better people. Pink, enough of the 'oh no I failed and everything sucks' stuff! Seriously, if you keep looking back at how bad things were and acting like all you had to do was make a few different decisions to fix everything then you'll never move on. Can you imagine if I spent every day thinking about how my life would have been if I'd just not listened to one little request from My Diamond?"
The room went quiet, and 6C3 found herself wanting to be anywhere but there. Maybe dealing with the other gems in the court won't be so bad, Spinel is reforming them and I can pull out the "our Diamond has personally assigned me to this task, stop distracting me" card on anyone who annoys me… on the other hand, watching someone mouth off to a Diamond and live is fascinating. "So…" she said, instantly regretting it as all eyes turned to her. "Is this… normal, with you two?"
Spinel nods before Pink can say anything. "You mean me keeping her from sitting around whining about how everything sucks? Yeah, it is."
"I do not whine!"
"Yeah, because I'm here to stop you!"
"Spinel that is wildly untrue, just because I take a moment to reflect on my past mistakes so I don't repeat them doesn't mean I'm whining."
"See, there she goes, whine whine whine." Spinel says cheekily, causing Pink Diamond, the gem that literally everyone in the court once looked up to as a nearly divine being, huffs and crosses her arms, going back to work and not even trying to respond. Spinel laughs a bit more before heading off, but once she leaves 6C3 realizes something: Pink seemed much less depressed after that talk despite how upset she seemed when Spinel was needling her. Now instead of slouching and sighing as she worked, she attacked her work with strong posture and a powerful gaze. Hmm, I guess Spinel knows what she's doing 6C3 mused as she returned to her own work.
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Amethyst frowned as she looked into the beach house, watching as Greg and Steven explained everything to this weird human. Pearl had explained the whole thing to her a while back, that humans had a whole complicated government thing set up and that they needed to get everything done right to get Steven into school so he could "experience the human half of his heritage". Hearing that had been hard for her, because as far as she'd been able to tell Steven had experienced plenty of the human parts of his heritage. After all, he went and hung out in town with those kids, he watched human shows and played human games all the time, it's not like they kept him locked up in the temple the way Pearl had really wanted to back in the very beginning.
But it turns out that wasn't good enough, and now Steven had to go to school because otherwise he'd never be able to get a job or some other lame stuff like that, like anyone would want one of those. The only good things about jobs were that they gave you money so you could buy cool stuff, but Steven's mom owned a planet and his dad had millions of dollars, so why did that even matter? Pearl hadn't given her a good answer to that question, and Amethyst was starting to think that she didn't know the answer either, but she was going along with it because that's what the humans said Steven had to do.
Amethyst had always been more interested in humans than Pearl or Garnet, but as she watched she found herself wondering just how much she really knew about them. From what the social worker was saying, Greg and Steven lived "highly irregular lives", and as she described the sort of changes she recommended all Amethyst could hear was "Be boring, don't have any fun, spend hours upon hours learning boring stuff so you can go work a boring life and leave everyone who cared about you behind."
"Yeah, because the life he was living before was so much better, huh Amethyst?" She asked herself quietly. "Breaks his body and just keeps going because it instantly healed, and what do you do? Nothing, because he always gets back up and his gem is fine. Now his brain is hurt and he needs to go see a brain doctor or whatever because you didn't notice anything wrong."
Amethyst took a few deep breaths, getting her feelings under control as she looked over at the house. The social worker, Samantha or whatever, was talking to Steven and Greg about "study plans" so Steven could be ready when it's time for him to go to school. With a sigh, she flew away, heading back into town.
Landing along the boardwalk, she turned back to normal in front of Skinny, a Jasper who had spent a few thousand years chilling around the zoo because she was only barely on the right side of being off color. "Hey Amethyst, everything cool with that new human?"
Amethyst paused for a moment before she nodded. "Yeah, she doesn't look like she's gonna cause any trouble. Just stopping by to do some human stuff."
"Alright." Skinny replied, and for a brief moment there was silence as Amethyst contemplated how much this whole "maturity" thing sucked, she had to like, think through her actions before doing them, and not just go with the flow… well not as much, it probably wasn't physically possible for her to stop doing it all the time. Her musings were interrupted when Skinny elbowed her. "Hey, looks like squad 2 is getting ready for another game of volleyball. You want to go join in?"
Amethyst smiled, her concerns going away as she contemplated a round of, incredibly violent, Quartz volleyball. "Yeah, let's get the rest of the shorties and off-colors together, we'll kick their butts!" She said with a grin as she leaped to her feet. I'll go talk with Steven when that social worker leaves, but right now it's time for fun!
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Far away from Earth, so far that light would take years to cross the distance, a cluster of Bismuths huddled together in their barracks, whispering to each other in the darkness.
"You're joking." One of them said, a look of shock on her face.
"No, I'm serious! I heard it from 9AL, she was on the construction team at the shipyard when Pink was talking to the designer, and Pink said that she didn't want another leg ship, she wanted something sleeker, not based on body parts at all, and then she said that she was going to be importing some designs she liked from the organics on Earth for the ship and the rest of her colony buildings!" Those last words were emphasized because they were the ones that mattered the most to the gems in the room, who worked day and night to build the structures of their Diamonds court.
"That's… the ship thing alright, it's just a ship, but we've been building structures the same way literally our entire lives! Does she expect us to just go and learn how to do everything from scratch?" Another one spoke up, so focused on her own concerns that she didn't stop to think that the gems building ships for their Diamond would feel the same way about new ship designs.
"She says she wants a 'new direction' for Era 3, to go with the rest of her plans for this era." Came the reply from the one who had spoken before.
At that, the room went silent with contemplative thought. That their Diamond had plans for handling her court differently this time around was well known, every gem who'd had to hear an upper crust snob complain about her Spinel getting involved in their business or that their Diamond was increasingly letting more and more gems 'stray from their intended purposes' knew that the winds of change were blowing, but where the snobs resisted and tried to cling to their comfortable lives, many of the lower ranked gems were eager to see what happened next, especially after their Diamond decreed that all cracked gems be brought to her for healing.
Breaking the silence, one of the many gems, anonymous through their similar voices and the shadows of the barracks, spoke up. "What are the odds the 'new direction' actually changes something other than architecture?"
"Shhhh!" Every gem in the room said at once, a bunch of random noises made as they scanned the entrance way for any sign of eavesdroppers. When nothing happened after several long moments, the first Bismuth spoke up again. "None of that, alright? You keep stuff like that to yourself, because even if Pink is being nicer now, we all remember what happened to anyone the upper crusts caught saying things like that last time. Just keep any thoughts like that to yourself. Now come on, we've got a lot of work to do, and the rest cycle is just about over."
With that, the Bismuths went back to work, building Pink Diamonds second colony. None of them talked about the rebellious thoughts that were starting to spread, but none of them needed to. Everyone could tell things were changing, the only question was what their society would look like in the end.
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Authors notes:
Good morning people! Inspiration hit me while writing this chapter, so it was actually mostly completed by Monday this week, which gave me time to add on to it and show a bit of the behind the scenes stuff that's happening, showing Amethysts feelings and the way the ordinary gems in Pinks court are reacting to this stuff.
Anyway, I hope you all enjoy reading this chapter as much as I enjoyed writing it. Any and all feedback is appreciated!
- Location
- UK
Bismuths " Didn't fully three quarters of the ones Pink or her pearl personally caught up end up in the Crystal Gem rebellion?"
And that was how their Diamonds dark secret was revealed.
And that was how their Diamonds dark secret was revealed.
Recovery 11.3
Chapter 11: Recovery
Part 3
Steven was nervous. Ever since Samantha had visited and worked on the paperwork with Dad, things at home had sort of gone back to normal, with Amethyst stopping by to visit and show him off to the famethyst, her name for the collection of Quartzes that were now hanging around Beach City. They'd had fun goofing around on the beach, and watching gems learn about human culture was always interesting, but despite that, he still felt like there was something different between him and Amethyst now, something that had been broken by his outburst on the beach a few days ago. His feelings about her and her new family were complicated, and although they were great to hang out with he still felt a bit of resentment for the way they were taking Amethyst from him. But that's why he was at the therapist's office, all the feelings he didn't want to feel would go away once he had a doctor to talk to about them, someone who studied how brains worked. But even with that confidence, he was still nervous as he knocked on the door, his Dad right behind him.
"Come in!" He heard from inside, and he did. Entering the room, he saw a man, average height with short, nearly buzz cut blond hair, sitting at a small desk. "Alright, I'm guessing you're Steven then?" At Stevens nod he smiled. "Good, I'm Doctor Washington, although you can call me David. My normal receptionist is out, so I'll handle the check in paperwork myself. Just take a seat over there and once your father and I finish up the forms it'll be time to start."
Steven nodded, sitting down in the waiting room for a few minutes while his Dad filled out some paperwork, watching intensely. I haven't seen this much paperwork in my whole life! He thought, surprised by just how many forms doing stuff like visiting a doctor or getting signed up for school took. Why do adults make each other fill out all that stuff?
A few minutes later, the forms were finally complete, and his dad stepped over. "Alright Steven, I hope this works out for you." He says, sitting down in a chair in the waiting room as Steven and David enter the therapy room. When the door closes, he slumps forward, his emotions at war between gratitude that Steven was getting the help that he needed and regret that he needed the help in the first place.
Inside, David sat down on a single person seat and gestured at a couch nearby. "Alright Steven, take a seat, lie down, whatever makes you comfortable. Before we begin, I think it would be best if I told you a bit about myself, if that will help you trust me more?" At Stevens nod, he began. "Like I said, my name is David Washington, I spent a few years in the marines before I left and went to school, where I studied psychology and eventually went on to get a doctorate to become a therapist. Now, I heard from your father as we were setting this appointment up that you have seen a bit of violence in your life, and I have a lot of first hand experience with the injuries witnessing violent acts can leave on the mind. You don't have to tell me everything, and anything you do decide to tell me is confidential so it will not leave this room without your permission. With that in mind, would you like to talk about anything?"
"Oh…" Steven replied, unsure of himself. "I… I mean, yeah, Doctor Maheswaran said I might have something called PTSD? Can we talk about that?"
"Of course we can. First, can you tell me why your doctor brought up the possibility of you having PTSD? I read the report that came to me, but I'd like to hear it in your own words if possible."
"Well... I was just talking about some stuff that happened when I was a kid, and when I was talking… it was like I was back there, each time I talked about one of the events it was like it kind of flashed in my mind, and by the time I stopped I was crying."
David nodded, a look of concern on his face. "Alright, that does sound like cause for concern. I do need to ask you more questions though, I can't make a diagnosis off of that alone." Steven nodded and he continued. "Beyond that experience with your doctor, have you experienced anything where something reminded you of a bad time in the past and you felt like you were back there as a result? It's not always full on flashbacks like in movies or TV shows, but even just a brief moment of terror and pain in response to the trigger is enough to dramatically impact someone's life."
"... Yeah, I just had one a few days ago. I was talking with… actually, how much do you know about me? Because none of this will make sense if you think I'm fully human."
The room was silent for a few moments before David responded. "Well, if you aren't fully human, then what are you Steven?"
"I'm half gem." Steven said, summoning the bubble to surround him, lifting up his shirt to show David the glowing stone on his stomach.
This time the silence was one of shock, as the therapist simply looked at him in confusion. Standing up, he poked and prodded the bubble, verifying that it was real and solid. "Wow… I honestly don't know what to say about this Steven, this is… well it's incredible. But I am curious about how this relates to your PTSD."
"Well, as long as I can remember I've been raised by Garnet Amethyst and Pearl, three gem warriors who went off and fought monsters, and I really wanted to be like them, but even though I have my moms powers from the gem, they kept telling me I wasn't ready because I couldn't use them. Then when I was thirteen I finally managed to get my shield to work…" he demonstrated by summoning the shield "... right before a monster attack."
"... a monster attack?"
"Yeah… but it was ok, the only thing that got ruined by the acid were a few floorboards and my cookie cat ice cream freezer. Anyway, after that they finally started letting me go on missions with them, but I messed up a lot. Then Pearl gave me a mirror with a cracked gem in it but it wasn't an ordinary gem, it was a gem like Pearl and Amethyst, and she was stuck, so I let her out and then she took the ocean but I healed her and she gave it back. Then she went to the gem Homeworld and found out they weren't all that nice and got imprisoned and gems from Homeworld came to Earth and I got kidnapped because they thought I was my mom shapeshifted to hide, but their cells were made to keep gems in and I'm only half gem, and then I let the other gems out and we took over their spaceship and it fell out of orbit and crashed on the beach by our house…"
Steven trailed off as David looked at him, an expression of disbelief mixed with shock on his face. After a moment, he replied "If I hadn't seen the videos of a giant green hand floating in the sky myself, I wouldn't believe you. As it is, I'm still a bit shocked, but your story about what happened makes a lot more sense than anything else I've heard about it. Tell me, how affected by this were you?" He asked, doing his best to keep focused on the task at hand instead of his own emotions. "I mean… did you have bad dreams about what happened, do certain things remind you a lot about those events, or something like that?
Steven paused for a moment before nodding his head. "Yeah, I had a few things like that, but then I started hanging out with some cool kids in town and we talked about stuff on a joyride… but then we found an escape pod from the Homeworld ship and I got in and piloted it but then the gems showed up and thought I was one of the Homeworld gems attacking humans… I had to dodge Pearls spear, it was really close to my face…"
David frowned, a look of concern on his face as he listened to Steven's description. "Well, I can tell that was a very upsetting incident for you, being mistaken for an enemy and attacked is rare but still happens in many combat situations, and it's alright to be upset by it."
"But they thought I was one of the bad guys! They couldn't see into the pod, and I was piloting it all wonky so it looked like I was trying to fight."
"Well, someone having a good reason for doing something doesn't mean you can't feel upset by it. It's perfectly normal to feel emotional about things like that, and it's not an attack on them for doing it, it's just how you feel. Do your family members ever make you feel that you can't really talk to them about your feelings Steven?"
"No! They just… they have their own problems, and they're a lot bigger than mine, and I don't want to bother them with stuff like that, it'll only make them feel bad." Steven said, shifting uncomfortably in his seat.
David nodded, starting to get a rough outline of the pattern as Steven continued to talk. "Well, how long do you plan on keeping these feelings hidden from them? Eventually, either they will find out that you kept how you felt from them, or you'll have to keep a secret from them for as long as you know them. Feelings that are kept secret don't go away, you keep repressing them and hoping that one day they'll leave, but in the end, they are a part of you, and they won't stop until you handle them in a constructive manner. You know your family better than I do, so I want you to ask yourself: if they had a choice between you telling them about your problems now, telling them in the future when they've been sitting around and growing inside your mind, or not telling them at all… what do you think they would pick?"
Steven looked at the floor, a thoughtful look on his face as he remembered his outbursts against Amethyst and his breakdown against Bismuth. Looking up, he gave the therapist a nod. "I understand, they don't want me to keep my emotions bottled up. It's just hard, you know? Whenever I talk about how I feel, it's like I'm trying to make everything about me, and I don't want to do that."
"Well Steven, that is another common issue. The key thing to note is that it's ok to make things about you from time to time, it's not healthy to be selfless 100% of the time, you need to look after yourself, and that means caring for yourself mentally. It's ok to make things about you, you are a person with needs and feelings, and that means that every so often you will need the people around you to help you, just like how they sometimes will need you to help them feel better."
Steven gave him a small nod, but deep down he felt conflicted. I'm not supposed to need helping with emotional stuff though, I'm the kid who everyone loves that helps everyone with their emotional problems. "That makes sense… but how do I actually do that? I can't just go home and say 'I need to talk about my feelings.'"
"Why can't you?"
"Because…" Steven paused, trying to find the words. "Because that's not how everyone else talks about their feelings."
"Well, how do they usually talk about their feelings?"
Steven thought about it for a moment before responding. "I guess they just kind of keep them bottled up until something makes them talk about it. Like how Pearl was really upset that mom had kept secrets from her, and I had to chase her across floating rocks and nearly fell off them... but that was fine because I was able to get her to explain why she was so upset that mom didn't tell her everything. Then we talked about it and hugged and she felt better."
David paused, looking at Steven with a strange look on his face. "Steven, are you sure that everything was alright about that? Because I'm not an expert, but when you said you nearly fell off your stomach started glowing."
His words surprised Steven, who blushed a little. "I mean… I kind of did that once a while ago, I don't know why I do it, just that last time I was… kind of in the middle of an argument, and I said something I shouldn't, and then I just had to run away. I started glowing and apparently I ran really fast to, because no one could chase me."
"Well, it sounds like this glow is a sign of inner stress, either from bad memories or a painful emotional situation. I think it would be best if the two of us simply did our best to avoid any topic that causes you to glow like that."
"Alright… can we go back to talking about how I'll tell everyone how I feel?"
"Of course Steven, if you ever feel like there's something you want to say, just say it. I am here to listen to you after all."
"Well… alright, if you say so." Steven said, a cautious smile on his face.
-----
For Greg Universe the waiting room of the therapist's office was one of the most painful places to spend an hour. It felt like failure, like he hadn't taken good care of his son and now some stranger was needed to try and help fix his mistake. After all, if he hadn't been so hung up on his own issues, if he'd insisted that he be a full part of Stevens life from the get go instead of hiding out and letting the gems take care of him, maybe he'd have seen this all coming. And maybe if he had thought for a moment about Steven's future beyond "the gems will take care of it" he would have realized that even with all his money, there likely wasn't any college nearby that would take someone who had never even set foot in a high school.
He let out a sigh as he leaned back, his head resting on the wall. I never thought I was the perfect dad, but man did I mess this up. What was I thinking? He wondered, the only sound in the room the unending clicking of the clock as it slowly counted down the seconds he had left to stew in his own regret. Maybe mom and dad were right about me, if I had just sent Steven to school and just not been as controlling about it as them, maybe he wouldn't need a therapist to help him out.
The door opened, interrupting his thoughts as Steven and his therapist walked out. "Alright Steven, remember the breathing exercises I taught you, and do your best to document any more panic attacks or flashbacks you have. I'll see you in a week!" He said, and Steven waved back with a "See you then!" as he grabbed Greg's hand and led him out the door. The pair were in the Dondai before Greg spoke up.
"So… how did it go?"
"It was good. I got to talk a lot about how I felt about some things, and it was nice to just talk about some of the things that happened with someone who isn't really involved." Steven replied, a flush on his face as he spoke.
"Yeah, that makes sense. Sometimes it can help to talk about your problems with someone who isn't really involved with them, that's totally normal." Greg assured him, trying his best to be supportive of his son. "Did he say anything I should know or is it all confidential stuff?"
Steven considered that for a moment before replying. "Well, he taught me some breathing exercises that he said helps some of his friends who had panic attacks like mine. And he said he doesn't think I'll need brain medicine to help handle my issues, but he wants to take a few more weeks to figure out everything."
"Right, yeah that makes sense." Greg answered, trying to focus on the road as the conversation distracted him. "Is there anything you need me to do to help you out with all this stuff? Like, if you need to talk about anything, or if there's something you want to do…" he trailed off as Steven contemplated his words.
After a few moments, the young teen shook his head. "Can we stop for lunch? I know that's not what you meant, but I just… I'm tired of talking about my feelings for now. Maybe tomorrow."
"Sure thing kiddo, there's that thai place right up ahead, let's get some food there." Greg replied. As the two pulled into the restaurant, Steven let out a sigh of relief as the therapists last words before opening the door ran through his mind:
"It's ok to be a bit selfish sometime. If you don't take care of yourself, you won't be able to help anyone in the future."
-----
On a planet far away, a Pink Lace Agate was demonstrating the truth of those words. Ever since her Diamonds revelation, she had been running herself ragged to avoid the thoughts that were filling her mind, the concerns that made her wonder why she was still loyal to someone who had hurt her so much. She was torn between the love she had felt for her Diamond, love that all gems were filled with from the moment they took form, and the pain of thousands of years caused because that same gem decided to play rebel. She doesn't want gems to follow her blindly, so why do you? Why do you still do as she commands when she has told you that she doesn't want you to obey her just because she's a Diamond? She shook her head, forcing the thoughts away as she does her rounds.
Duty keeps those questions at bay, so long as she was working she could avoid having to think to hard about why she was working. Marching down to the warp pad, she looked over the trio of Rose Quartz gems on duty. The first, 4XF, to see her was incredibly energetic, even for a Quartz, and she leaped to a salute with a massive shout of "Hey Sway! How's it going? No one has come through the pad since the last time you came by, but we've been standing here guarding it the whole time! You'd think that more gems would use it since it goes straight to Pink Diamonds personal spire, and she runs everything, but no one really stops by other than you. Why do you think that happens Rose Quartz?"
The second guard, 4XE, who somehow managed to make a perfect salute while looking lazy the whole time in a way only a Quartz could manage, nodded. "Well it's like… everyone's got their own jobs, you know? And if your job is here, you're working here already, and if your job is somewhere else you're already there." She said, her voice calm and quiet compared to the energetic near yelling of her friend.
Meanwhile, the third guard, 4XG had said nothing, holding her salute as she managed to keep an eye on both her commander and the warp pad at once, a perfect example of a Quartz guard… if it wasn't for the fact that Sway could have sworn she was silently judging her for making these inspections, as if she could somehow tell that the Agate was working herself far past the point where a rest cycle was required.
"Yes, well if everything is in order here, then I believe that this inspection is over. Congratulations, keep up the good work!" Sway said after doing a brief circle of the pad to check for damage or debris before stepping back. Walking further down the path, she pushed her body to the limits by jumping down, clearing most of the distance down the hills as she began her inspections of the guard posts around the perimeter. Those positions weren't technically part of her command, the personal guard of her Diamond was only in the spire itself, but as the senior most Agate she felt a duty to inspect her comrades' work. Also, it kept the intrusive thoughts at bay.
-----
As Sway left, 4XE turned to the other two Rose Quartzes. "So… you both saw that, right?"
"Yeah, you think she's doing ok? We should like, throw a party or something to show her how much we care about her, she's working way too hard." 4XF replied.
"Yeah, totally. What do you think 4XG?"
The quiet gem stood thoughtfully, not responding immediately after hearing the question. The other gems were used to this, they had come out of the ground together and had had plenty of time to get to know all of each others weird quirks. "I think she's worried about something. Something that happened on Earth. She wasn't like this before Pink took us there, and ever since we came back she's been pushing herself."
"Right! She's really worried about whatever happened there, and that's not ok. We should help her out however we can, otherwise she's going to get hurt!"
"Yeah, like… you remember that time 4XA went and stressed herself until she poofed? If that happens to our Agate then everythings going to be a huge mess." 4XE replied, her expression serious despite her lazy posture.
4XG looked out over the valley, remembering that trip to Earth and the strange way their Agate had been acting on the ship before landfall. Something was going on, something that she doubted a show of support from the Quartzes of her command would fix. But it wasn't like it could hurt to try. "Well, next rotation we'll talk to some of the others, try and get them onboard." She said, pulling a cheer from 4XF, who she suspected was always looking for a reason to celebrate. And who knows, maybe she'll be able to get through to Sway.
-----
Deep in the bowels of Homeworld, a small Ruby darted between patrolling Robonids, dodging the bots piercing gazes as she did. Slipping deep underground, through tunnels that were long forgotten by the gems on the surface, she made her way down through the darkness, looking with concern at every shifting shadow or strange sound. After several minutes, she slipped inside one of the oldest Kindergartens on Homeworld, a place that had long since been drained dry to produce vast numbers of gems. In the depths she almost didn't notice as a long slender shadow rose on the wall behind her…
"Ruby!" The Pearl yelled out, sweeping the small red gem off her feet as she leaped forward. "You're back!"
"Hey Pearl! Yeah, and I've got some good news!" Ruby said as she was wrapped up in the thin gems arms, holding her close in a hug.
"Oh, I hope it was worth it. I can't stand it whenever you go up there…"
"I know, I know, but it is worth it! You know that rumor about Pink Diamond being back? Well it's not a rumor, she's actually back! And one of the guards said she heard from someone else that she had a bunch of Off Colors represent her court during a ball!"
Pearl sighed, holding her precious Ruby close. "Ruby, darling, that's great if it's true, but what if it's not? What if it's just another rumor?"
Ruby blushed as she was held close, sighing as she felt a bit embarrassed for getting all worked up over this. "Yeah… you're right. I'll keep listening for more though, in case it's not a rumor."
"Alright Ruby, if that's what you want to do then I'll back you up if you need me to."
"No! Not with how they treat Pearls up there. I won't let them hurt you like that." Ruby said, cupping the pale gems face and leaning forward. As their lips met, for a brief moment the cavern was filled with light, and Rhodonite appeared.
"That's a lot better! I hate splitting up like that… but no one else can slip out except for Flourites components, and I don't want to impose by asking her to split up… ooohhhhh, I hate this place!" She said aloud as she slipped deeper into the dark, away from the bright and dangerous surface and into the safety of the underbelly of Homeworld.
-----
Authors notes
Hey everyone, not much to talk about, this chapter is pretty much a straightforward character piece, low action.
Leave a comment on how you think I'm doing at writing Steven at therapy, that part was the part that left me most concerned, I've never been to therapy and was mostly operating off of what a friend told me about his time seeing a therapist, so idk how good this was.
Beyond that, I'm building up to getting most of the character development done in the next... I think two months? End of July is the plan, and then I will take the month of August off and timeskip to the next part, set in around the same timeframe as Future, maybe off by a year in either direction.
Part 3
Steven was nervous. Ever since Samantha had visited and worked on the paperwork with Dad, things at home had sort of gone back to normal, with Amethyst stopping by to visit and show him off to the famethyst, her name for the collection of Quartzes that were now hanging around Beach City. They'd had fun goofing around on the beach, and watching gems learn about human culture was always interesting, but despite that, he still felt like there was something different between him and Amethyst now, something that had been broken by his outburst on the beach a few days ago. His feelings about her and her new family were complicated, and although they were great to hang out with he still felt a bit of resentment for the way they were taking Amethyst from him. But that's why he was at the therapist's office, all the feelings he didn't want to feel would go away once he had a doctor to talk to about them, someone who studied how brains worked. But even with that confidence, he was still nervous as he knocked on the door, his Dad right behind him.
"Come in!" He heard from inside, and he did. Entering the room, he saw a man, average height with short, nearly buzz cut blond hair, sitting at a small desk. "Alright, I'm guessing you're Steven then?" At Stevens nod he smiled. "Good, I'm Doctor Washington, although you can call me David. My normal receptionist is out, so I'll handle the check in paperwork myself. Just take a seat over there and once your father and I finish up the forms it'll be time to start."
Steven nodded, sitting down in the waiting room for a few minutes while his Dad filled out some paperwork, watching intensely. I haven't seen this much paperwork in my whole life! He thought, surprised by just how many forms doing stuff like visiting a doctor or getting signed up for school took. Why do adults make each other fill out all that stuff?
A few minutes later, the forms were finally complete, and his dad stepped over. "Alright Steven, I hope this works out for you." He says, sitting down in a chair in the waiting room as Steven and David enter the therapy room. When the door closes, he slumps forward, his emotions at war between gratitude that Steven was getting the help that he needed and regret that he needed the help in the first place.
Inside, David sat down on a single person seat and gestured at a couch nearby. "Alright Steven, take a seat, lie down, whatever makes you comfortable. Before we begin, I think it would be best if I told you a bit about myself, if that will help you trust me more?" At Stevens nod, he began. "Like I said, my name is David Washington, I spent a few years in the marines before I left and went to school, where I studied psychology and eventually went on to get a doctorate to become a therapist. Now, I heard from your father as we were setting this appointment up that you have seen a bit of violence in your life, and I have a lot of first hand experience with the injuries witnessing violent acts can leave on the mind. You don't have to tell me everything, and anything you do decide to tell me is confidential so it will not leave this room without your permission. With that in mind, would you like to talk about anything?"
"Oh…" Steven replied, unsure of himself. "I… I mean, yeah, Doctor Maheswaran said I might have something called PTSD? Can we talk about that?"
"Of course we can. First, can you tell me why your doctor brought up the possibility of you having PTSD? I read the report that came to me, but I'd like to hear it in your own words if possible."
"Well... I was just talking about some stuff that happened when I was a kid, and when I was talking… it was like I was back there, each time I talked about one of the events it was like it kind of flashed in my mind, and by the time I stopped I was crying."
David nodded, a look of concern on his face. "Alright, that does sound like cause for concern. I do need to ask you more questions though, I can't make a diagnosis off of that alone." Steven nodded and he continued. "Beyond that experience with your doctor, have you experienced anything where something reminded you of a bad time in the past and you felt like you were back there as a result? It's not always full on flashbacks like in movies or TV shows, but even just a brief moment of terror and pain in response to the trigger is enough to dramatically impact someone's life."
"... Yeah, I just had one a few days ago. I was talking with… actually, how much do you know about me? Because none of this will make sense if you think I'm fully human."
The room was silent for a few moments before David responded. "Well, if you aren't fully human, then what are you Steven?"
"I'm half gem." Steven said, summoning the bubble to surround him, lifting up his shirt to show David the glowing stone on his stomach.
This time the silence was one of shock, as the therapist simply looked at him in confusion. Standing up, he poked and prodded the bubble, verifying that it was real and solid. "Wow… I honestly don't know what to say about this Steven, this is… well it's incredible. But I am curious about how this relates to your PTSD."
"Well, as long as I can remember I've been raised by Garnet Amethyst and Pearl, three gem warriors who went off and fought monsters, and I really wanted to be like them, but even though I have my moms powers from the gem, they kept telling me I wasn't ready because I couldn't use them. Then when I was thirteen I finally managed to get my shield to work…" he demonstrated by summoning the shield "... right before a monster attack."
"... a monster attack?"
"Yeah… but it was ok, the only thing that got ruined by the acid were a few floorboards and my cookie cat ice cream freezer. Anyway, after that they finally started letting me go on missions with them, but I messed up a lot. Then Pearl gave me a mirror with a cracked gem in it but it wasn't an ordinary gem, it was a gem like Pearl and Amethyst, and she was stuck, so I let her out and then she took the ocean but I healed her and she gave it back. Then she went to the gem Homeworld and found out they weren't all that nice and got imprisoned and gems from Homeworld came to Earth and I got kidnapped because they thought I was my mom shapeshifted to hide, but their cells were made to keep gems in and I'm only half gem, and then I let the other gems out and we took over their spaceship and it fell out of orbit and crashed on the beach by our house…"
Steven trailed off as David looked at him, an expression of disbelief mixed with shock on his face. After a moment, he replied "If I hadn't seen the videos of a giant green hand floating in the sky myself, I wouldn't believe you. As it is, I'm still a bit shocked, but your story about what happened makes a lot more sense than anything else I've heard about it. Tell me, how affected by this were you?" He asked, doing his best to keep focused on the task at hand instead of his own emotions. "I mean… did you have bad dreams about what happened, do certain things remind you a lot about those events, or something like that?
Steven paused for a moment before nodding his head. "Yeah, I had a few things like that, but then I started hanging out with some cool kids in town and we talked about stuff on a joyride… but then we found an escape pod from the Homeworld ship and I got in and piloted it but then the gems showed up and thought I was one of the Homeworld gems attacking humans… I had to dodge Pearls spear, it was really close to my face…"
David frowned, a look of concern on his face as he listened to Steven's description. "Well, I can tell that was a very upsetting incident for you, being mistaken for an enemy and attacked is rare but still happens in many combat situations, and it's alright to be upset by it."
"But they thought I was one of the bad guys! They couldn't see into the pod, and I was piloting it all wonky so it looked like I was trying to fight."
"Well, someone having a good reason for doing something doesn't mean you can't feel upset by it. It's perfectly normal to feel emotional about things like that, and it's not an attack on them for doing it, it's just how you feel. Do your family members ever make you feel that you can't really talk to them about your feelings Steven?"
"No! They just… they have their own problems, and they're a lot bigger than mine, and I don't want to bother them with stuff like that, it'll only make them feel bad." Steven said, shifting uncomfortably in his seat.
David nodded, starting to get a rough outline of the pattern as Steven continued to talk. "Well, how long do you plan on keeping these feelings hidden from them? Eventually, either they will find out that you kept how you felt from them, or you'll have to keep a secret from them for as long as you know them. Feelings that are kept secret don't go away, you keep repressing them and hoping that one day they'll leave, but in the end, they are a part of you, and they won't stop until you handle them in a constructive manner. You know your family better than I do, so I want you to ask yourself: if they had a choice between you telling them about your problems now, telling them in the future when they've been sitting around and growing inside your mind, or not telling them at all… what do you think they would pick?"
Steven looked at the floor, a thoughtful look on his face as he remembered his outbursts against Amethyst and his breakdown against Bismuth. Looking up, he gave the therapist a nod. "I understand, they don't want me to keep my emotions bottled up. It's just hard, you know? Whenever I talk about how I feel, it's like I'm trying to make everything about me, and I don't want to do that."
"Well Steven, that is another common issue. The key thing to note is that it's ok to make things about you from time to time, it's not healthy to be selfless 100% of the time, you need to look after yourself, and that means caring for yourself mentally. It's ok to make things about you, you are a person with needs and feelings, and that means that every so often you will need the people around you to help you, just like how they sometimes will need you to help them feel better."
Steven gave him a small nod, but deep down he felt conflicted. I'm not supposed to need helping with emotional stuff though, I'm the kid who everyone loves that helps everyone with their emotional problems. "That makes sense… but how do I actually do that? I can't just go home and say 'I need to talk about my feelings.'"
"Why can't you?"
"Because…" Steven paused, trying to find the words. "Because that's not how everyone else talks about their feelings."
"Well, how do they usually talk about their feelings?"
Steven thought about it for a moment before responding. "I guess they just kind of keep them bottled up until something makes them talk about it. Like how Pearl was really upset that mom had kept secrets from her, and I had to chase her across floating rocks and nearly fell off them... but that was fine because I was able to get her to explain why she was so upset that mom didn't tell her everything. Then we talked about it and hugged and she felt better."
David paused, looking at Steven with a strange look on his face. "Steven, are you sure that everything was alright about that? Because I'm not an expert, but when you said you nearly fell off your stomach started glowing."
His words surprised Steven, who blushed a little. "I mean… I kind of did that once a while ago, I don't know why I do it, just that last time I was… kind of in the middle of an argument, and I said something I shouldn't, and then I just had to run away. I started glowing and apparently I ran really fast to, because no one could chase me."
"Well, it sounds like this glow is a sign of inner stress, either from bad memories or a painful emotional situation. I think it would be best if the two of us simply did our best to avoid any topic that causes you to glow like that."
"Alright… can we go back to talking about how I'll tell everyone how I feel?"
"Of course Steven, if you ever feel like there's something you want to say, just say it. I am here to listen to you after all."
"Well… alright, if you say so." Steven said, a cautious smile on his face.
-----
For Greg Universe the waiting room of the therapist's office was one of the most painful places to spend an hour. It felt like failure, like he hadn't taken good care of his son and now some stranger was needed to try and help fix his mistake. After all, if he hadn't been so hung up on his own issues, if he'd insisted that he be a full part of Stevens life from the get go instead of hiding out and letting the gems take care of him, maybe he'd have seen this all coming. And maybe if he had thought for a moment about Steven's future beyond "the gems will take care of it" he would have realized that even with all his money, there likely wasn't any college nearby that would take someone who had never even set foot in a high school.
He let out a sigh as he leaned back, his head resting on the wall. I never thought I was the perfect dad, but man did I mess this up. What was I thinking? He wondered, the only sound in the room the unending clicking of the clock as it slowly counted down the seconds he had left to stew in his own regret. Maybe mom and dad were right about me, if I had just sent Steven to school and just not been as controlling about it as them, maybe he wouldn't need a therapist to help him out.
The door opened, interrupting his thoughts as Steven and his therapist walked out. "Alright Steven, remember the breathing exercises I taught you, and do your best to document any more panic attacks or flashbacks you have. I'll see you in a week!" He said, and Steven waved back with a "See you then!" as he grabbed Greg's hand and led him out the door. The pair were in the Dondai before Greg spoke up.
"So… how did it go?"
"It was good. I got to talk a lot about how I felt about some things, and it was nice to just talk about some of the things that happened with someone who isn't really involved." Steven replied, a flush on his face as he spoke.
"Yeah, that makes sense. Sometimes it can help to talk about your problems with someone who isn't really involved with them, that's totally normal." Greg assured him, trying his best to be supportive of his son. "Did he say anything I should know or is it all confidential stuff?"
Steven considered that for a moment before replying. "Well, he taught me some breathing exercises that he said helps some of his friends who had panic attacks like mine. And he said he doesn't think I'll need brain medicine to help handle my issues, but he wants to take a few more weeks to figure out everything."
"Right, yeah that makes sense." Greg answered, trying to focus on the road as the conversation distracted him. "Is there anything you need me to do to help you out with all this stuff? Like, if you need to talk about anything, or if there's something you want to do…" he trailed off as Steven contemplated his words.
After a few moments, the young teen shook his head. "Can we stop for lunch? I know that's not what you meant, but I just… I'm tired of talking about my feelings for now. Maybe tomorrow."
"Sure thing kiddo, there's that thai place right up ahead, let's get some food there." Greg replied. As the two pulled into the restaurant, Steven let out a sigh of relief as the therapists last words before opening the door ran through his mind:
"It's ok to be a bit selfish sometime. If you don't take care of yourself, you won't be able to help anyone in the future."
-----
On a planet far away, a Pink Lace Agate was demonstrating the truth of those words. Ever since her Diamonds revelation, she had been running herself ragged to avoid the thoughts that were filling her mind, the concerns that made her wonder why she was still loyal to someone who had hurt her so much. She was torn between the love she had felt for her Diamond, love that all gems were filled with from the moment they took form, and the pain of thousands of years caused because that same gem decided to play rebel. She doesn't want gems to follow her blindly, so why do you? Why do you still do as she commands when she has told you that she doesn't want you to obey her just because she's a Diamond? She shook her head, forcing the thoughts away as she does her rounds.
Duty keeps those questions at bay, so long as she was working she could avoid having to think to hard about why she was working. Marching down to the warp pad, she looked over the trio of Rose Quartz gems on duty. The first, 4XF, to see her was incredibly energetic, even for a Quartz, and she leaped to a salute with a massive shout of "Hey Sway! How's it going? No one has come through the pad since the last time you came by, but we've been standing here guarding it the whole time! You'd think that more gems would use it since it goes straight to Pink Diamonds personal spire, and she runs everything, but no one really stops by other than you. Why do you think that happens Rose Quartz?"
The second guard, 4XE, who somehow managed to make a perfect salute while looking lazy the whole time in a way only a Quartz could manage, nodded. "Well it's like… everyone's got their own jobs, you know? And if your job is here, you're working here already, and if your job is somewhere else you're already there." She said, her voice calm and quiet compared to the energetic near yelling of her friend.
Meanwhile, the third guard, 4XG had said nothing, holding her salute as she managed to keep an eye on both her commander and the warp pad at once, a perfect example of a Quartz guard… if it wasn't for the fact that Sway could have sworn she was silently judging her for making these inspections, as if she could somehow tell that the Agate was working herself far past the point where a rest cycle was required.
"Yes, well if everything is in order here, then I believe that this inspection is over. Congratulations, keep up the good work!" Sway said after doing a brief circle of the pad to check for damage or debris before stepping back. Walking further down the path, she pushed her body to the limits by jumping down, clearing most of the distance down the hills as she began her inspections of the guard posts around the perimeter. Those positions weren't technically part of her command, the personal guard of her Diamond was only in the spire itself, but as the senior most Agate she felt a duty to inspect her comrades' work. Also, it kept the intrusive thoughts at bay.
-----
As Sway left, 4XE turned to the other two Rose Quartzes. "So… you both saw that, right?"
"Yeah, you think she's doing ok? We should like, throw a party or something to show her how much we care about her, she's working way too hard." 4XF replied.
"Yeah, totally. What do you think 4XG?"
The quiet gem stood thoughtfully, not responding immediately after hearing the question. The other gems were used to this, they had come out of the ground together and had had plenty of time to get to know all of each others weird quirks. "I think she's worried about something. Something that happened on Earth. She wasn't like this before Pink took us there, and ever since we came back she's been pushing herself."
"Right! She's really worried about whatever happened there, and that's not ok. We should help her out however we can, otherwise she's going to get hurt!"
"Yeah, like… you remember that time 4XA went and stressed herself until she poofed? If that happens to our Agate then everythings going to be a huge mess." 4XE replied, her expression serious despite her lazy posture.
4XG looked out over the valley, remembering that trip to Earth and the strange way their Agate had been acting on the ship before landfall. Something was going on, something that she doubted a show of support from the Quartzes of her command would fix. But it wasn't like it could hurt to try. "Well, next rotation we'll talk to some of the others, try and get them onboard." She said, pulling a cheer from 4XF, who she suspected was always looking for a reason to celebrate. And who knows, maybe she'll be able to get through to Sway.
-----
Deep in the bowels of Homeworld, a small Ruby darted between patrolling Robonids, dodging the bots piercing gazes as she did. Slipping deep underground, through tunnels that were long forgotten by the gems on the surface, she made her way down through the darkness, looking with concern at every shifting shadow or strange sound. After several minutes, she slipped inside one of the oldest Kindergartens on Homeworld, a place that had long since been drained dry to produce vast numbers of gems. In the depths she almost didn't notice as a long slender shadow rose on the wall behind her…
"Ruby!" The Pearl yelled out, sweeping the small red gem off her feet as she leaped forward. "You're back!"
"Hey Pearl! Yeah, and I've got some good news!" Ruby said as she was wrapped up in the thin gems arms, holding her close in a hug.
"Oh, I hope it was worth it. I can't stand it whenever you go up there…"
"I know, I know, but it is worth it! You know that rumor about Pink Diamond being back? Well it's not a rumor, she's actually back! And one of the guards said she heard from someone else that she had a bunch of Off Colors represent her court during a ball!"
Pearl sighed, holding her precious Ruby close. "Ruby, darling, that's great if it's true, but what if it's not? What if it's just another rumor?"
Ruby blushed as she was held close, sighing as she felt a bit embarrassed for getting all worked up over this. "Yeah… you're right. I'll keep listening for more though, in case it's not a rumor."
"Alright Ruby, if that's what you want to do then I'll back you up if you need me to."
"No! Not with how they treat Pearls up there. I won't let them hurt you like that." Ruby said, cupping the pale gems face and leaning forward. As their lips met, for a brief moment the cavern was filled with light, and Rhodonite appeared.
"That's a lot better! I hate splitting up like that… but no one else can slip out except for Flourites components, and I don't want to impose by asking her to split up… ooohhhhh, I hate this place!" She said aloud as she slipped deeper into the dark, away from the bright and dangerous surface and into the safety of the underbelly of Homeworld.
-----
Authors notes
Hey everyone, not much to talk about, this chapter is pretty much a straightforward character piece, low action.
Leave a comment on how you think I'm doing at writing Steven at therapy, that part was the part that left me most concerned, I've never been to therapy and was mostly operating off of what a friend told me about his time seeing a therapist, so idk how good this was.
Beyond that, I'm building up to getting most of the character development done in the next... I think two months? End of July is the plan, and then I will take the month of August off and timeskip to the next part, set in around the same timeframe as Future, maybe off by a year in either direction.
Recovery 11.4
Chapter 11: Recovery
Part 4
Pink Diamond sat in her throne, something that she found herself doing far too often recently, and sighed as she looked over the two gems in front of her, motioning for them to begin.
"My Diamond" the pink Zircon began "from the moment you made your request to me I made it clear that the command you wished to give went against laws laid down by the Diamond Authority as a whole. However, we have no record of any previous disputes between the commands of a Diamond and the laws of the empire, and as such I have spent the last three weeks scouring all the records I could for any law that might clarify which is to be obeyed." Pink nodded for her to continue, a sinking feeling in her gut. This is the worst part of being a Diamond: I'm powerful enough to see what needs changing and weak enough that I can't just make it happen. She mused as the Zircon steadied herself. "In my professional opinion, as the law is clear that the members of a court are to obey their Diamond, any disputes between a Diamonds ruling and the laws of the empire are matters to be resolved by the Diamond Authority, and the gems of your court should obey you when such disputes arise."
Pink felt conflicted at that sentiment. It would be so much easier if I didn't need to command it, if they understood how horrible the laws of the empire were. But I guess if they understood that, they wouldn't be a part of any court, they'd have joined the rebellion or been shattered for insubordination. "Very well, I thank you for your diligence." She fixed her eyes on the Tourmaline standing next to the Zircon as she spoke. "I do believe that having an official ruling is important to make sure no one decides to bother my fellow Diamonds with concerns about this matter. You are dismissed."
As the Zircon bowed and left the room, Pink kept her gaze fixed on the Tourmaline in front of her. "What am I going to do with you?" She asked, her form slumping in her throne as she looked down at the gem who had attempted to steal a ship to report to Yellow Diamond.
"The laws are clear, unless you're just going to decide that theft is acceptable now the way you did type mixing?" Came the defiant reply, the aristocratic gems bearing showing no sense of remorse. "With all due respect My Diamond, my loyalty is to the Diamond Authority as a whole, and your actions weaken the empire. I have no regrets."
The gem who had once been known as The Rebel Rose Quartz knew defiance when she saw it, and the part of her that valued free will and choices screamed in frustration that this gem had been clear minded enough to see that unwavering loyalty to her was a bad idea but not clear minded enough to see that the other Diamonds were worst. "Tourmaline, Facet 5 Cut 8ET…" she hung her head, shaking it in frustration at the stubborn gem in front of her. "Why? Why are you so convinced that what I am doing is wrong?"
The gem before her replied swiftly. "The separation of types is the foundation for the empire, it prevents cross-type fusions, it ensures the most efficient use of resources, and it dispenses with any uncertainties about who is best suited for what role. Your command last week was a direct assault on this foundation, and the other Diamonds needed to be informed."
It was just making the exemptions I had been giving into official policy, I didn't expect anyone to freak out about it… maybe I haven't been paying enough attention to the mood in my court. Pink shook her head, her stomach churning as she realized that the gem in front of her came so close to unveiling her true intentions and yet decided that they were evil and needed to be stopped. "You're right." She whispered as she stood from her throne, stepping towards the suddenly scared gem. "I am trying to tear that down, but you don't have the full story. The truth is, doing things the traditional way doomed my first colony on Earth. I never agreed with the other Diamonds, but they overruled me, again and again telling me to do things their way, and well… we both know how that ended, don't we?"
The Tourmaline found her voice again after a few moments of silence. "Ye… yes. But that doesn't mean you can just… just throw away thousands of years of tradition based on your whims!"
"Why not? Those traditions are just the whims of the other Diamonds." As the small gem processed that statement, Pink stepped around her, looking out over the wooded valley below the spire her throne room rested atop. "I know what happens when tradition is obeyed, and I refuse to let it happen again. The other Diamonds will try to stop me if they find out, so they cannot learn the truth. I don't want to hurt you."
"What do you…" The Tourmaline trailed off as she saw her Diamonds gem glow, a spiked shield forming on her arm, one that a veteran of the rebellion would recognize as being very close to Rose Quartz's shield.
"Tell me Tourmaline, do you believe me?" Pink asks, turning to look the other gem in the eyes. "I won't ask if you trust me, your actions have already told me you don't, but I just need you to believe me when I say that I don't want to hurt you, but if that's what it takes to keep you from running off and telling the other Diamonds about what I'm doing, I will."
The Tourmaline looked at her Diamond, eyes darting between the spiked shield and the firm, unyielding gaze, before slowly nodding her head. "I believe you, My Diamond. Forgive me, I should not have questioned you."
"No, question all you like, just don't try to involve the other Diamonds." Pink said, putting away her shield as she returned to her throne. Please let this be the end, I can't keep up the mask for much longer.
"I… of course, My Diamond. I will take my leave now." With that, she slips out of the throne room, and as the door closes behind her Pink places her head in her hands, tears in her eyes. I just threatened someone. It was for a good cause, but it feels horrible, and I can't believe how easy it was. I feel like a monster.
"Hey Pink, you doing ok?"
Pink looked up, surprised to see Spinel right in front of her. "Spinel, what… what are you doing here?"
"Been here for a while, you are not very observant in 'Diamond Mode'."
"What… well, I had a lot to think about."
"Yeah, like how you nearly made that one gem poof herself from fear? That was hardcore, didn't know you had it in you. I'll keep an eye on her, but I don't think she'll be any trouble."
"Great." Came the reply, flat and emotionless.
Spinel turned to look up at Pink, taking a moment to brace herself before opening up. "You're not handling it that well." It wasn't a question.
"No, I'm not." Spinel gestured for her to continue. "It's just… I don't want to rule by fear, I want the gems of my court to think for themselves and understand that things will be better if they don't follow those stupid old rules the other Diamonds gave them. But that Tourmaline, she was thinking for herself and thought in a way I didn't like, so I cracked down on her like Blue or Yellow would, and I feel sick about it."
"Well, if Blue or Yellow showed up here after hearing from her-"
"I know!" Pink shouted. "I know I couldn't let her run off to Homeworld and tell the others, but that doesn't make it easier!" She slumped back in her chair, head in hands. "You know, I used to dream that one day everyone would understand the benefits of being free, and then they could just vote for someone to take over, and I could live on Earth without having to worry about any of this stuff ever again… but if this is how they act when I start easing them into it then-"
"Then it'll take a bit longer." Spinel interrupted her. "Sure, it's not going to be easy, but trust me when I say that with some things, having a dream about what you'll do when it's over is the only thing that can keep you going." Like standing in a garden, dreaming about me coming back. Pink thought, feeling even worse. Spinel must have seen her expression, because the next thing she did was laugh. "Alright, so in my case the dream didn't happen, but it kept me mostly sane, and that's the important part. If you give up on the dream, it's going to be a lot harder to make it to the end."
Pink nodded, her emotions still in turmoil as she did. "Yeah, you're right."
"Now come on, you've got a lot of work to do, so get back to it!" Spinel commanded, pulling a soft laugh from Pink as she went back to the mountain of paperwork that had consumed her free time.
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Steven sat in the Dondai yet again, slumping in the back seat as his Dad drove away from Sea City High and Pearl sat shotgun. The words of the teacher administering his testing rang in his ears. "He's a smart kid, his math scores are incredible for his age, but his scores in history and social studies... He shook his head, slouching even harder as he felt disappointed in himself. In the front seat Pearl read over the papers, muttering to herself as she took in his scores as he slouched. I did horribly, I know it. I didn't know any of the history stuff, and I had no idea what all the words for writing were, and I know the teacher was trying to be nice when she said I could catch up quickly, I saw all the red on those papers-
"Well Steven, it looks like you're ahead of expectations in mathematics! That's good, they say they can put you in a class a year or two ahead of normal when school starts in the fall and you don't need to take any classes on it in the summer." Pearl interrupted his musings. "All these other subjects are just memorization, except for science but that's just applied math! You'll be caught up to all the other kids your age by the end of summer."
"Yeah kiddo, you're really smart!" His dad added, concern on his face as he watched Stevens' expression. "You'll figure all of this out no sweat, and if you don't, then you have a whole bunch of people around to help. You ever need a fancy book or a tutor or something, just let me know and I'll see what I can do."
"Yeah… I guess. Thanks dad." He replied, shifting uncomfortably.
Pearl shared a quick look with his Dad before turning back to him. "Steven, I know we haven't been the best at teaching you about the human side of your life, and that's on us, but it's not the end of the world! You'll be able to handle all of this with no problem!"
"Sure." Steven replied, his neutral answers leaving them both at a loss for what to do. I can't believe there's so much stuff that I didn't know. Why didn't Dad at least try to teach me some of this stuff, or Pearl? And this is just the stuff I need to know to get into High School, would they have just let me go on and not know stuff until I was an adult? Looking up at them, he sighed, releasing the tension. I don't want to talk about it right now. Maybe after my next therapist visit. He thought as the car passed over the hills, the sandy shores of Beach City revealing themselves down below.
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As commander of Pink Diamonds personal guard, one would expect the Pink Lace Agate known as Sway by her troops to be strict and professional. However, looking at her as she stalked through the halls gave an impression more like that of an angry predator, eyes darting around as she searched for anything amiss. However, the gems under her command were professionals, and they left not a single cause for complaint in their actions as she continued her inspection. In the middle of the night, when humans would usually be turning in or already asleep, the shifts changed and a third of her command filed out of the resting alcoves to replace another third, who went to rest.
During the transition, she had the gems coming off shift gathered in a decently sized room in the spire, windows letting in the light of the moon as low lights illuminated the ranks of Rose Quartzes. "Alright, you all pass inspection, if there are no further reports to be made then that is all, now go rest."
"Actually, there is something I need to report." Came the soft voice of 4XG.
"What is it?" Came the testy response from her Agate.
"I believe that the commanding officer of this unit is skipping mandatory rest cycles, to the detriment of her health and the capabilities of this unit."
"I concur!" Came the voice of 4XE, soon followed by an ocean of agreement from the rest of the ranks, leaving Sway feeling disoriented as her mind tried to process what had just happened. What… are they serious?"
"While the concern is appreciated, my health is fine and my mind is sound." She replied, turning to leave… and finding her path blocked off by a wall of Quartzes.
"Have you looked in a mirror recently? Because I think that level of form degradation disagrees with you." Came a voice from the crowd, and a full length mirror that had somehow been hidden from sight popped out and was presented to her. "Come on, you do form inspections, you know what to look for. Now can you honestly tell us that you wouldn't immediately order one of us to rest if we looked like that?"
Sway paused, staring at herself in the mirror. Her forms edges were slightly off, her hair was disheveled, and the subtle glimpse of the hard light flickering in a few locations confirmed it. Hanging her head, she inwardly cursed herself. This is my weakness. I couldn't handle my emotions, so I tried to work through them, and now my command is telling me I need to stop and get some rest. This is disgraceful, I have-
"Hey." She felt a hand rest on hers. "We're worried about you, a lot of things have happened, and we just wanted to make sure you were alright. If you need to rest, you can spend a rest cycle with us." A wave of affirmations rolled through the crowd, and Sway felt herself blush as she realized how concerned they all were for her.
"I… I think I'll take you up on that. Lead the way." She said, and as the swarm of Rose Quartzes lead her into their barracks, she felt her shoulders sag in relief. I can't tell them what's wrong, but maybe if their "rest" cycles are as rowdy as I remember them being I won't be alone with my thoughts the whole time. She thought to herself as a semi-serious fight started over who would get to be closest to the boss.
Laughing at their antics, she felt the stress begin to lessen. Just like the good old days, before the war. The thought was bittersweet, but that was still far better than most thoughts she'd had recently.
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Authors Notes:
Alright, so I am trying to move us along and juggle a few different plot threads at once, and I hope I did a decent job with them. This chapter was fun to work on, although it was a bit slow with not a lot happening. New arc starts next week, with any luck I'll be able to wrap up as many loose ends as possible by the end of July, and then it'll be time for the hiatus and timeskip.
Leaving likes or comments is how I know you liked the story, so don't be shy about either, and I will see you next week.
Part 4
Pink Diamond sat in her throne, something that she found herself doing far too often recently, and sighed as she looked over the two gems in front of her, motioning for them to begin.
"My Diamond" the pink Zircon began "from the moment you made your request to me I made it clear that the command you wished to give went against laws laid down by the Diamond Authority as a whole. However, we have no record of any previous disputes between the commands of a Diamond and the laws of the empire, and as such I have spent the last three weeks scouring all the records I could for any law that might clarify which is to be obeyed." Pink nodded for her to continue, a sinking feeling in her gut. This is the worst part of being a Diamond: I'm powerful enough to see what needs changing and weak enough that I can't just make it happen. She mused as the Zircon steadied herself. "In my professional opinion, as the law is clear that the members of a court are to obey their Diamond, any disputes between a Diamonds ruling and the laws of the empire are matters to be resolved by the Diamond Authority, and the gems of your court should obey you when such disputes arise."
Pink felt conflicted at that sentiment. It would be so much easier if I didn't need to command it, if they understood how horrible the laws of the empire were. But I guess if they understood that, they wouldn't be a part of any court, they'd have joined the rebellion or been shattered for insubordination. "Very well, I thank you for your diligence." She fixed her eyes on the Tourmaline standing next to the Zircon as she spoke. "I do believe that having an official ruling is important to make sure no one decides to bother my fellow Diamonds with concerns about this matter. You are dismissed."
As the Zircon bowed and left the room, Pink kept her gaze fixed on the Tourmaline in front of her. "What am I going to do with you?" She asked, her form slumping in her throne as she looked down at the gem who had attempted to steal a ship to report to Yellow Diamond.
"The laws are clear, unless you're just going to decide that theft is acceptable now the way you did type mixing?" Came the defiant reply, the aristocratic gems bearing showing no sense of remorse. "With all due respect My Diamond, my loyalty is to the Diamond Authority as a whole, and your actions weaken the empire. I have no regrets."
The gem who had once been known as The Rebel Rose Quartz knew defiance when she saw it, and the part of her that valued free will and choices screamed in frustration that this gem had been clear minded enough to see that unwavering loyalty to her was a bad idea but not clear minded enough to see that the other Diamonds were worst. "Tourmaline, Facet 5 Cut 8ET…" she hung her head, shaking it in frustration at the stubborn gem in front of her. "Why? Why are you so convinced that what I am doing is wrong?"
The gem before her replied swiftly. "The separation of types is the foundation for the empire, it prevents cross-type fusions, it ensures the most efficient use of resources, and it dispenses with any uncertainties about who is best suited for what role. Your command last week was a direct assault on this foundation, and the other Diamonds needed to be informed."
It was just making the exemptions I had been giving into official policy, I didn't expect anyone to freak out about it… maybe I haven't been paying enough attention to the mood in my court. Pink shook her head, her stomach churning as she realized that the gem in front of her came so close to unveiling her true intentions and yet decided that they were evil and needed to be stopped. "You're right." She whispered as she stood from her throne, stepping towards the suddenly scared gem. "I am trying to tear that down, but you don't have the full story. The truth is, doing things the traditional way doomed my first colony on Earth. I never agreed with the other Diamonds, but they overruled me, again and again telling me to do things their way, and well… we both know how that ended, don't we?"
The Tourmaline found her voice again after a few moments of silence. "Ye… yes. But that doesn't mean you can just… just throw away thousands of years of tradition based on your whims!"
"Why not? Those traditions are just the whims of the other Diamonds." As the small gem processed that statement, Pink stepped around her, looking out over the wooded valley below the spire her throne room rested atop. "I know what happens when tradition is obeyed, and I refuse to let it happen again. The other Diamonds will try to stop me if they find out, so they cannot learn the truth. I don't want to hurt you."
"What do you…" The Tourmaline trailed off as she saw her Diamonds gem glow, a spiked shield forming on her arm, one that a veteran of the rebellion would recognize as being very close to Rose Quartz's shield.
"Tell me Tourmaline, do you believe me?" Pink asks, turning to look the other gem in the eyes. "I won't ask if you trust me, your actions have already told me you don't, but I just need you to believe me when I say that I don't want to hurt you, but if that's what it takes to keep you from running off and telling the other Diamonds about what I'm doing, I will."
The Tourmaline looked at her Diamond, eyes darting between the spiked shield and the firm, unyielding gaze, before slowly nodding her head. "I believe you, My Diamond. Forgive me, I should not have questioned you."
"No, question all you like, just don't try to involve the other Diamonds." Pink said, putting away her shield as she returned to her throne. Please let this be the end, I can't keep up the mask for much longer.
"I… of course, My Diamond. I will take my leave now." With that, she slips out of the throne room, and as the door closes behind her Pink places her head in her hands, tears in her eyes. I just threatened someone. It was for a good cause, but it feels horrible, and I can't believe how easy it was. I feel like a monster.
"Hey Pink, you doing ok?"
Pink looked up, surprised to see Spinel right in front of her. "Spinel, what… what are you doing here?"
"Been here for a while, you are not very observant in 'Diamond Mode'."
"What… well, I had a lot to think about."
"Yeah, like how you nearly made that one gem poof herself from fear? That was hardcore, didn't know you had it in you. I'll keep an eye on her, but I don't think she'll be any trouble."
"Great." Came the reply, flat and emotionless.
Spinel turned to look up at Pink, taking a moment to brace herself before opening up. "You're not handling it that well." It wasn't a question.
"No, I'm not." Spinel gestured for her to continue. "It's just… I don't want to rule by fear, I want the gems of my court to think for themselves and understand that things will be better if they don't follow those stupid old rules the other Diamonds gave them. But that Tourmaline, she was thinking for herself and thought in a way I didn't like, so I cracked down on her like Blue or Yellow would, and I feel sick about it."
"Well, if Blue or Yellow showed up here after hearing from her-"
"I know!" Pink shouted. "I know I couldn't let her run off to Homeworld and tell the others, but that doesn't make it easier!" She slumped back in her chair, head in hands. "You know, I used to dream that one day everyone would understand the benefits of being free, and then they could just vote for someone to take over, and I could live on Earth without having to worry about any of this stuff ever again… but if this is how they act when I start easing them into it then-"
"Then it'll take a bit longer." Spinel interrupted her. "Sure, it's not going to be easy, but trust me when I say that with some things, having a dream about what you'll do when it's over is the only thing that can keep you going." Like standing in a garden, dreaming about me coming back. Pink thought, feeling even worse. Spinel must have seen her expression, because the next thing she did was laugh. "Alright, so in my case the dream didn't happen, but it kept me mostly sane, and that's the important part. If you give up on the dream, it's going to be a lot harder to make it to the end."
Pink nodded, her emotions still in turmoil as she did. "Yeah, you're right."
"Now come on, you've got a lot of work to do, so get back to it!" Spinel commanded, pulling a soft laugh from Pink as she went back to the mountain of paperwork that had consumed her free time.
-----
Steven sat in the Dondai yet again, slumping in the back seat as his Dad drove away from Sea City High and Pearl sat shotgun. The words of the teacher administering his testing rang in his ears. "He's a smart kid, his math scores are incredible for his age, but his scores in history and social studies... He shook his head, slouching even harder as he felt disappointed in himself. In the front seat Pearl read over the papers, muttering to herself as she took in his scores as he slouched. I did horribly, I know it. I didn't know any of the history stuff, and I had no idea what all the words for writing were, and I know the teacher was trying to be nice when she said I could catch up quickly, I saw all the red on those papers-
"Well Steven, it looks like you're ahead of expectations in mathematics! That's good, they say they can put you in a class a year or two ahead of normal when school starts in the fall and you don't need to take any classes on it in the summer." Pearl interrupted his musings. "All these other subjects are just memorization, except for science but that's just applied math! You'll be caught up to all the other kids your age by the end of summer."
"Yeah kiddo, you're really smart!" His dad added, concern on his face as he watched Stevens' expression. "You'll figure all of this out no sweat, and if you don't, then you have a whole bunch of people around to help. You ever need a fancy book or a tutor or something, just let me know and I'll see what I can do."
"Yeah… I guess. Thanks dad." He replied, shifting uncomfortably.
Pearl shared a quick look with his Dad before turning back to him. "Steven, I know we haven't been the best at teaching you about the human side of your life, and that's on us, but it's not the end of the world! You'll be able to handle all of this with no problem!"
"Sure." Steven replied, his neutral answers leaving them both at a loss for what to do. I can't believe there's so much stuff that I didn't know. Why didn't Dad at least try to teach me some of this stuff, or Pearl? And this is just the stuff I need to know to get into High School, would they have just let me go on and not know stuff until I was an adult? Looking up at them, he sighed, releasing the tension. I don't want to talk about it right now. Maybe after my next therapist visit. He thought as the car passed over the hills, the sandy shores of Beach City revealing themselves down below.
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As commander of Pink Diamonds personal guard, one would expect the Pink Lace Agate known as Sway by her troops to be strict and professional. However, looking at her as she stalked through the halls gave an impression more like that of an angry predator, eyes darting around as she searched for anything amiss. However, the gems under her command were professionals, and they left not a single cause for complaint in their actions as she continued her inspection. In the middle of the night, when humans would usually be turning in or already asleep, the shifts changed and a third of her command filed out of the resting alcoves to replace another third, who went to rest.
During the transition, she had the gems coming off shift gathered in a decently sized room in the spire, windows letting in the light of the moon as low lights illuminated the ranks of Rose Quartzes. "Alright, you all pass inspection, if there are no further reports to be made then that is all, now go rest."
"Actually, there is something I need to report." Came the soft voice of 4XG.
"What is it?" Came the testy response from her Agate.
"I believe that the commanding officer of this unit is skipping mandatory rest cycles, to the detriment of her health and the capabilities of this unit."
"I concur!" Came the voice of 4XE, soon followed by an ocean of agreement from the rest of the ranks, leaving Sway feeling disoriented as her mind tried to process what had just happened. What… are they serious?"
"While the concern is appreciated, my health is fine and my mind is sound." She replied, turning to leave… and finding her path blocked off by a wall of Quartzes.
"Have you looked in a mirror recently? Because I think that level of form degradation disagrees with you." Came a voice from the crowd, and a full length mirror that had somehow been hidden from sight popped out and was presented to her. "Come on, you do form inspections, you know what to look for. Now can you honestly tell us that you wouldn't immediately order one of us to rest if we looked like that?"
Sway paused, staring at herself in the mirror. Her forms edges were slightly off, her hair was disheveled, and the subtle glimpse of the hard light flickering in a few locations confirmed it. Hanging her head, she inwardly cursed herself. This is my weakness. I couldn't handle my emotions, so I tried to work through them, and now my command is telling me I need to stop and get some rest. This is disgraceful, I have-
"Hey." She felt a hand rest on hers. "We're worried about you, a lot of things have happened, and we just wanted to make sure you were alright. If you need to rest, you can spend a rest cycle with us." A wave of affirmations rolled through the crowd, and Sway felt herself blush as she realized how concerned they all were for her.
"I… I think I'll take you up on that. Lead the way." She said, and as the swarm of Rose Quartzes lead her into their barracks, she felt her shoulders sag in relief. I can't tell them what's wrong, but maybe if their "rest" cycles are as rowdy as I remember them being I won't be alone with my thoughts the whole time. She thought to herself as a semi-serious fight started over who would get to be closest to the boss.
Laughing at their antics, she felt the stress begin to lessen. Just like the good old days, before the war. The thought was bittersweet, but that was still far better than most thoughts she'd had recently.
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Authors Notes:
Alright, so I am trying to move us along and juggle a few different plot threads at once, and I hope I did a decent job with them. This chapter was fun to work on, although it was a bit slow with not a lot happening. New arc starts next week, with any luck I'll be able to wrap up as many loose ends as possible by the end of July, and then it'll be time for the hiatus and timeskip.
Leaving likes or comments is how I know you liked the story, so don't be shy about either, and I will see you next week.
serra2
Himouto! Sylvanas-chan
So Pink is facing one of the problems with giving other people freedom, namely that they may decide they are free to disagree, or go to outside sources for help. She is caught between a rock and a hard place in that regard.
I have so many feels for Sway, she has definitely been through the rollercoaster a few times recently.
I have so many feels for Sway, she has definitely been through the rollercoaster a few times recently.
Foundations 12.1
Chapter 12: Foundations
Part 1
As commander of a Diamonds personal guard, I must retain my professionalism at all times. Sway thought, looking over the chaos of a Quartz barracks during a "rest" cycle. While it was true that the vast majority of Rose Quartzes in the room were resting, lounging about in cubbies along the walls reminiscent of the holes in the Kindergarten they came out of, there was always something going on on the floor below. Right now, a particularly boisterous guard was fighting two others at once, punishment for running her mouth and bragging that she wasn't tired from her guard shift and was therefore a better fighter than any other two Quartzes combined. Naturally, her sisters had done their best to dissuade her of that notion by jumping her as soon as her back was to them.
On the other hand, I could get used to relaxing like this. She thought as the bragging gem swore her revenge, her words overly dramatic and full of obviously fake anger as her sisters sat on top of her, pinning her to the floor. Turning to face the Rose Quartz in the pod next to her, 4XF, Sway asked "is this normal rest cycle behavior?"
"Yep!" Came the reply from the cheery gem, who was somehow nearly always excited and full of energy. Except when you lead her into that room to put her in a bubble and leave. A treacherous voice said in her head. Shaking it away, she smiled at the happy Rose Quartz.
"Well, I am honestly amazed I haven't had any signs of cracked gems from these fights, but I guess you all know how to avoid that." She said with a grin.
"Oh yeah, we know all about how to wrestle without hurting the gem, it's really useful because like, have you felt how hard the floors are in here? I never really thought about it before we went to Earth, but that sand stuff on the beach would be so much better for wrestling in because we wouldn't have to worry about cracks as much, but I tried to pick some up and it just went sliding through my fingers, so I don't know how we'd get it here. But like, after I felt that, I was wondering, why are all the floors solid stone or metal? Why not have softer floors for practicing and fighting and stuff?" Came the stream of consciousness that 4XF was known for, causing a smile to form on Sway's face as she took in the words.
"Well, I don't know about sand, but I'll look into getting a padding of some sort for this room. After all, just because we haven't had a crack yet is no reason to not pay attention to safety." She said with a grin, looking down as another fight started, all involved clearly just showing off, with loud speeches that everyone in the room could hear, over-exagerated emotions, and stupid reasons behind the fights, it was more like they were rotating down to put on a show for each other, with the remaining gems relaxing and watching the show fights.
"So, you going to join in?" Came a voice from the other side of her. Looking over, Sway took in the sight of 4XE, the laid back gem grinning as she looked over at her boss. "It's a lot of fun, get to burn off some extra stress, get nice and close to your fellow gems, feel them embracing you on the floor…"
I am reasonably certain that is a sign of inappropriate desires… but who cares, our Diamond tossed those to the side a long time ago. Sway thought, noticing the Rose Quartzes hand resting on her leg. "Well, I don't really think it would be proper, no one would be willing to fight me-" she watched the other gems face fall a bit in disappointment at those words. "So I should probably stay here and watch." Plus with me still technically being in command, even though it feels less like it now than it ever has before, I don't want to deal with the mess me fighting one of you, even in a show fight, would cause. She thought, sitting back to watch the show with the others.
"I should do this more often." She said, drawing surprised looks from the gems around her. "After all, I do need rest cycles the same as you, and as long as everyone knows where I am, they can get me if there's an emergency. But really, I don't think I'm going to miss anything by taking my rest cycles here."
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"So wait, if flammable means it's easy to set it on fire, then why does inflammable mean the same thing?" Steven asked, confusion on his face as he held up the chemistry book.
"Well that's… that's just what the words mean I guess?" Connie replied.
"Then what is the opposite of flammable?"
"Nonflammable."
"Why does nonflammable mean something different than inflammable?" Came the bewildered question from Steven, who was still trying to wrap his head around the concept. Meanwhile Connie just shrugged, a small giggle on her face as she said "you're going to have a very hard time with English class if you keep expecting English to make sense."
Steven just stared at the ground, remembering how bad his test scores had been, causing Connie to frantically scramble as she tried to walk her joking statement back. "But you're making good progress in science! You're really good at remembering things and doing all the math involved, and once you remember all the rules and exceptions you'll be able to handle english just fine!" She reassured him, patting him on the shoulder encouragingly.
"Thanks Connie." He replied, turning back to the annoying book and continuing to read. "I just wish I didn't have to do all of this now, you know? Like, if I did it a little bit at a time like you did, then I wouldn't have to go to summer school, or spend all this time studying. I'd be where a normal kid my age is supposed to be."
Connie noticed the tone in his voice, looking at him with a frown. "Yeah, but we can't exactly do anything about that now, can we? My dad always says you should focus on what you can fix before you spend any time on stuff you can't."
"You're right. It's just…" Steven sighed, his face sliding into his hands. "I kind of wish that the gems hadn't only focused on my gem side, and that Dad had tried to actually get me into a school, but he wanted me to grow up free and stuff and I kind of get why he didn't but it's just… I'm rambling, sorry."
"No, it's ok."
"It's not. I'm trying to open up more about my feelings like my therapist said, and now I ruined our study time by turning it into a mess about my feelings and-" He was cut off as Connie grabbed him, her grip firm on his shoulder.
"Steven, listen to me. You are not ruining anything, I am your friend, and friends listen when friends have problems. I don't want you to hide what you're feeling from me, and if that means a study session turns into a chat about feelings and how you grew up, then that's what it means, alright?"
Steven blinked, blushing hard as he felt her words sink in. "I… thank you, Connie." He said, gratitude in his voice.
"Anytime." She said with certainty before pulling back, releasing her grip on his shoulder "So, you got any other stuff you want to vent about?"
"No, I think I'm good for now."
"Really? Even with all the stuff with your mom?"
Steven took a moment to think before shaking his head. "No, Mom is… she's complicated, and I don't even know where to begin with her. I know you want to help, but I don't think I should try and sort all those feelings out right now. When I want to talk about her, I will."
Connie nodded, concerned that he was keeping his emotions to himself but relieved that he was willing to at least say he would talk about them instead of hiding them. Steven turned back to his studying. He had a long way to go before he was ready for high school, and he was not going to get through it by sitting around and doing nothing. Unbeknownst to him, light years away his mother was also deciding that sitting around and doing nothing wasn't getting things done fast enough, although the scale of her actions was a bit greater than his...
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[Authors Note: This last section is written in the style of a history book because I wanted to practice with alternate writing styles, feedback is appreciated]
The Pink Court, long dead and only recently rebuilt, was very different from any of the other courts of the Diamond Authority. Where the rest of the authority viewed stability and calm as goals in and of themselves, keeping things so unchanging that the gems within could lose track of years or decades, the Pink Court had been in flux from the moment of its refounding, with gems shuffled from position to position to make up for shortages of all gem types, shortages that their Diamond refused to resolve by creating new gems until she could be confident that to do so would not destroy the world they lived on. As a result, many of the gems within it, who had spent thousands of years with mostly the same tasks and responsibilities, found themselves forced to start adapting or fail their returned Diamond.
However, when they stopped to think, to look around and see what exactly their Diamonds orders were doing, several members of the court found themselves realizing that the breakdown of the caste system, the new flexibility demanded by Pink Diamond, the crackdown on overseers who treated their subordinates to harshly… it was all starting to feel a lot like what the rebel Rose Quartz had argued for. Naturally, as loyal members of their Diamonds court, these observant gems verified what was going on with those around them, and when they were certain that they were not simply misunderstanding the situation, this group presented a delegation to their Diamond to inform her of their findings. After all, they reasoned, with many of the courts Iolites lost on Earth at the end of the rebellion and many of the remaining ones assisting the research into sustainable gem production, their Diamond must not be receiving all the information she should be.
And so they arrived at Pink Diamonds throne room, explaining what they had seen, only in the humblest of ways of course. Yout overstretched investigators are doing their best, but there are simply too few of them, even with that Fire Opal and a few others reassigned to assist them. They began, avoiding any hint of insult that could cause their Diamond to dismiss their concerns, knowing the trust she placed in her head Iolite. We simply wished to convey this information to our Diamond, and we are sure that, in your vast wisdom, you will do what is needed to avoid a new rebellion. Came next, sweet words as they tried to sound as though they were only concerned for the wellbeing of the court, even as several privately worried that they would be replaced if other types of gems were capable of doing their tasks.
Their Diamond sat silently on her throne, deep in thought for a long moment as she pondered the words of her loyal subjects, before laying down her verdict: I will not change my policies, these effects are not only expected by me, but they are a sign that my plan is working. She declared to the stunned courtiers and aristocrats, who were shocked at the very idea that a Diamond would say such a thing. My first court was a failure because I attempted to run it the same way Blue and Yellow Diamonds run their courts, and I refuse to follow that path again. These changes are only the first step to my plan.
In truth, Pink Diamond had wanted to avoid telling the truth, but she was not blind to the dissent within her court, she knew that with how stuck in their ways the gems before her were, any lies that would satisfy them would either require her to abandon her attempts to reform or be revealed as lies in a short time, and so she made a decision to reveal as much of the truth as she could safely. While it was possible that this decision was made without enough thought put into the long-term ramifications, as many of the decisions the gem known as both Pink Diamond and Rose Quartz were, once the words escaped her lips there was no returning, even if a Rejuvenator was used on every gem but herself, the loss of all their memories would spark concern amongst the remaining gems in the court, and that was assuming Pink Diamond would ever be ruthless enough to order such a thing.
My Diamond the spokeswoman for the crowd began, clearly flustered. Are you claiming that you are deliberately making this court closer to the ideas espoused by the rebel Rose Quartz? At that, the Rose Quartz gems guarding her throne tensed, their own feelings on their Diamonds secret identity clear as ice. Pink Diamond though simply nodded.
While the actions Rose Quartz took were regrettable, the reasons she fought made sense the longer I look at them. She stood from her throne, pacing around the room as she talked. When I came back, before this court was reassembled, I had time, time where I had no assignments, no responsibilities, and nothing to distract me from my thoughts. In that time, I came to a conclusion: the empire is fragile.
The room was full of stunned gasps at that remark, but with a hand raised Pink quieted them. I don't mean we are weak, the Diamond Authority has weapons that can scour all life from a planet in hours, and our colonies can destroy one even more thoroughly if given enough time, but the truth of the matter is that for all that strength, losing a Diamond, like what happened to me, was enough to harm the empire for thousands of years. You all lived through Era 2, you all saw what the empire had to do to overcome the resource shortages. That only happened because of me, because I was shattered, but it should not have been that bad! She had raised her voice, every gem in the room staring at her with rapt attention. For thousands of years, the empire and every gem in it suffered because we were too strong, too resistant to anything that could even try to make us change, and instead of looking for solutions the other Diamonds simply sat back and accepted it! Yellow, Blue, White… all three of them combined and they never looked for a solution! Rose Quartz might have been a rebel, and her rebellion might have cost this court dearly, but at least she didn't sit around and do nothing to respond to a crisis! I am going to prepare my court for the future, and if that means being less like the other Diamonds and more like Rose Quartz than that is what I will do!
I refuse to pretend that the empire has no flaws the way the other Diamonds do, especially when it comes to the creation of new gems: we have hollowed out planet after planet across galaxies, always pushing outwards in our need for more gems to meet the needs of the expanding empire, but we cannot keep that up forever! The other Diamonds refuse to acknowledge that a change is needed, but I am not them! I was made with powers to heal both gems and organics, while Blue and Yellows powers work only on gems. That is a sign, a sign that I ignored for too long. I will take the best aspects of gems and the best aspects of organics and bring them together, to create something as strong as the empire that can adapt well enough to not spend thousands of years in a resource crisis without doing anything about it!
As her last words hung in the air, the throne room was dead silent, with none of the assembled guards or aristocrats making a sound. Pinks Spinel, who had taken up a role more akin to an advisor than a jester, was nervously sitting in the corner, an expression on her face halfway between dread and joy as she watched Pink speak, joy for the way her friend finally stopped hiding the truth of her plans, dread for what could happen if the assembled gems took her statement the wrong way.
But her dread was misplaced. Pushing her way to the front from the middle of the crowd, a familiar looking Tourmaline fell to a knee in front of her Diamond. With tears in her eyes, she declared I am sorry My Diamond. I am sorry for ever doubting you.
With that, it was like a spell was broken, and the gems of the delegation all joined the Tourmaline on one knee. Not all were convinced, in fact many of them were convinced that this experiment would blow up on the court and lead to another rebellion, but to speak out against their Diamonds publicly stated goals, in her throne room? That was unthinkable, and so they kneeled, resolving to themselves that they would watch and see what their Diamond did.
However, one group of gems present had no doubts. The Rose Quartz line of gems was designed by Pink Diamond, and the members of her personal guard were all honored by the position, so when their Diamond finished her speech and the aristocrats began to kneel, Pinks excitement, the enthusiasm she felt as she stood and explained her goals, her problems with the current system, and most importantly her powers over organic life that they had been given by her, they felt that energy as well, breaking out in cheers and applause at their Diamonds words. As the aristocrats left the room, they carried with them both word of their Diamonds speech, and the news that her personal guard was as loyal as could be. While many in the spire were concerned by this, terrified of what it could mean for their future, just as many heard their Diamonds words, her condemnation of stagnation, and emphasized. After all, they had lived through the thousands of years of Era 2, and the frustration she felt was all too familiar for them. For these gems, the response to Pink's speech was simple: It's about time someone said it.
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Authors Notes:
Alright, that was a chapter! I wrote the entire ending sequence at once in a weird sort of fugue state, going with what felt right, and I think it's a good way to wrap up a good chunk of the issues at Pinks court and put the endgame for this fic in motion.
As always, any and all feedback, in the form of comments or likes, is appreciated!
Part 1
As commander of a Diamonds personal guard, I must retain my professionalism at all times. Sway thought, looking over the chaos of a Quartz barracks during a "rest" cycle. While it was true that the vast majority of Rose Quartzes in the room were resting, lounging about in cubbies along the walls reminiscent of the holes in the Kindergarten they came out of, there was always something going on on the floor below. Right now, a particularly boisterous guard was fighting two others at once, punishment for running her mouth and bragging that she wasn't tired from her guard shift and was therefore a better fighter than any other two Quartzes combined. Naturally, her sisters had done their best to dissuade her of that notion by jumping her as soon as her back was to them.
On the other hand, I could get used to relaxing like this. She thought as the bragging gem swore her revenge, her words overly dramatic and full of obviously fake anger as her sisters sat on top of her, pinning her to the floor. Turning to face the Rose Quartz in the pod next to her, 4XF, Sway asked "is this normal rest cycle behavior?"
"Yep!" Came the reply from the cheery gem, who was somehow nearly always excited and full of energy. Except when you lead her into that room to put her in a bubble and leave. A treacherous voice said in her head. Shaking it away, she smiled at the happy Rose Quartz.
"Well, I am honestly amazed I haven't had any signs of cracked gems from these fights, but I guess you all know how to avoid that." She said with a grin.
"Oh yeah, we know all about how to wrestle without hurting the gem, it's really useful because like, have you felt how hard the floors are in here? I never really thought about it before we went to Earth, but that sand stuff on the beach would be so much better for wrestling in because we wouldn't have to worry about cracks as much, but I tried to pick some up and it just went sliding through my fingers, so I don't know how we'd get it here. But like, after I felt that, I was wondering, why are all the floors solid stone or metal? Why not have softer floors for practicing and fighting and stuff?" Came the stream of consciousness that 4XF was known for, causing a smile to form on Sway's face as she took in the words.
"Well, I don't know about sand, but I'll look into getting a padding of some sort for this room. After all, just because we haven't had a crack yet is no reason to not pay attention to safety." She said with a grin, looking down as another fight started, all involved clearly just showing off, with loud speeches that everyone in the room could hear, over-exagerated emotions, and stupid reasons behind the fights, it was more like they were rotating down to put on a show for each other, with the remaining gems relaxing and watching the show fights.
"So, you going to join in?" Came a voice from the other side of her. Looking over, Sway took in the sight of 4XE, the laid back gem grinning as she looked over at her boss. "It's a lot of fun, get to burn off some extra stress, get nice and close to your fellow gems, feel them embracing you on the floor…"
I am reasonably certain that is a sign of inappropriate desires… but who cares, our Diamond tossed those to the side a long time ago. Sway thought, noticing the Rose Quartzes hand resting on her leg. "Well, I don't really think it would be proper, no one would be willing to fight me-" she watched the other gems face fall a bit in disappointment at those words. "So I should probably stay here and watch." Plus with me still technically being in command, even though it feels less like it now than it ever has before, I don't want to deal with the mess me fighting one of you, even in a show fight, would cause. She thought, sitting back to watch the show with the others.
"I should do this more often." She said, drawing surprised looks from the gems around her. "After all, I do need rest cycles the same as you, and as long as everyone knows where I am, they can get me if there's an emergency. But really, I don't think I'm going to miss anything by taking my rest cycles here."
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"So wait, if flammable means it's easy to set it on fire, then why does inflammable mean the same thing?" Steven asked, confusion on his face as he held up the chemistry book.
"Well that's… that's just what the words mean I guess?" Connie replied.
"Then what is the opposite of flammable?"
"Nonflammable."
"Why does nonflammable mean something different than inflammable?" Came the bewildered question from Steven, who was still trying to wrap his head around the concept. Meanwhile Connie just shrugged, a small giggle on her face as she said "you're going to have a very hard time with English class if you keep expecting English to make sense."
Steven just stared at the ground, remembering how bad his test scores had been, causing Connie to frantically scramble as she tried to walk her joking statement back. "But you're making good progress in science! You're really good at remembering things and doing all the math involved, and once you remember all the rules and exceptions you'll be able to handle english just fine!" She reassured him, patting him on the shoulder encouragingly.
"Thanks Connie." He replied, turning back to the annoying book and continuing to read. "I just wish I didn't have to do all of this now, you know? Like, if I did it a little bit at a time like you did, then I wouldn't have to go to summer school, or spend all this time studying. I'd be where a normal kid my age is supposed to be."
Connie noticed the tone in his voice, looking at him with a frown. "Yeah, but we can't exactly do anything about that now, can we? My dad always says you should focus on what you can fix before you spend any time on stuff you can't."
"You're right. It's just…" Steven sighed, his face sliding into his hands. "I kind of wish that the gems hadn't only focused on my gem side, and that Dad had tried to actually get me into a school, but he wanted me to grow up free and stuff and I kind of get why he didn't but it's just… I'm rambling, sorry."
"No, it's ok."
"It's not. I'm trying to open up more about my feelings like my therapist said, and now I ruined our study time by turning it into a mess about my feelings and-" He was cut off as Connie grabbed him, her grip firm on his shoulder.
"Steven, listen to me. You are not ruining anything, I am your friend, and friends listen when friends have problems. I don't want you to hide what you're feeling from me, and if that means a study session turns into a chat about feelings and how you grew up, then that's what it means, alright?"
Steven blinked, blushing hard as he felt her words sink in. "I… thank you, Connie." He said, gratitude in his voice.
"Anytime." She said with certainty before pulling back, releasing her grip on his shoulder "So, you got any other stuff you want to vent about?"
"No, I think I'm good for now."
"Really? Even with all the stuff with your mom?"
Steven took a moment to think before shaking his head. "No, Mom is… she's complicated, and I don't even know where to begin with her. I know you want to help, but I don't think I should try and sort all those feelings out right now. When I want to talk about her, I will."
Connie nodded, concerned that he was keeping his emotions to himself but relieved that he was willing to at least say he would talk about them instead of hiding them. Steven turned back to his studying. He had a long way to go before he was ready for high school, and he was not going to get through it by sitting around and doing nothing. Unbeknownst to him, light years away his mother was also deciding that sitting around and doing nothing wasn't getting things done fast enough, although the scale of her actions was a bit greater than his...
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[Authors Note: This last section is written in the style of a history book because I wanted to practice with alternate writing styles, feedback is appreciated]
The Pink Court, long dead and only recently rebuilt, was very different from any of the other courts of the Diamond Authority. Where the rest of the authority viewed stability and calm as goals in and of themselves, keeping things so unchanging that the gems within could lose track of years or decades, the Pink Court had been in flux from the moment of its refounding, with gems shuffled from position to position to make up for shortages of all gem types, shortages that their Diamond refused to resolve by creating new gems until she could be confident that to do so would not destroy the world they lived on. As a result, many of the gems within it, who had spent thousands of years with mostly the same tasks and responsibilities, found themselves forced to start adapting or fail their returned Diamond.
However, when they stopped to think, to look around and see what exactly their Diamonds orders were doing, several members of the court found themselves realizing that the breakdown of the caste system, the new flexibility demanded by Pink Diamond, the crackdown on overseers who treated their subordinates to harshly… it was all starting to feel a lot like what the rebel Rose Quartz had argued for. Naturally, as loyal members of their Diamonds court, these observant gems verified what was going on with those around them, and when they were certain that they were not simply misunderstanding the situation, this group presented a delegation to their Diamond to inform her of their findings. After all, they reasoned, with many of the courts Iolites lost on Earth at the end of the rebellion and many of the remaining ones assisting the research into sustainable gem production, their Diamond must not be receiving all the information she should be.
And so they arrived at Pink Diamonds throne room, explaining what they had seen, only in the humblest of ways of course. Yout overstretched investigators are doing their best, but there are simply too few of them, even with that Fire Opal and a few others reassigned to assist them. They began, avoiding any hint of insult that could cause their Diamond to dismiss their concerns, knowing the trust she placed in her head Iolite. We simply wished to convey this information to our Diamond, and we are sure that, in your vast wisdom, you will do what is needed to avoid a new rebellion. Came next, sweet words as they tried to sound as though they were only concerned for the wellbeing of the court, even as several privately worried that they would be replaced if other types of gems were capable of doing their tasks.
Their Diamond sat silently on her throne, deep in thought for a long moment as she pondered the words of her loyal subjects, before laying down her verdict: I will not change my policies, these effects are not only expected by me, but they are a sign that my plan is working. She declared to the stunned courtiers and aristocrats, who were shocked at the very idea that a Diamond would say such a thing. My first court was a failure because I attempted to run it the same way Blue and Yellow Diamonds run their courts, and I refuse to follow that path again. These changes are only the first step to my plan.
In truth, Pink Diamond had wanted to avoid telling the truth, but she was not blind to the dissent within her court, she knew that with how stuck in their ways the gems before her were, any lies that would satisfy them would either require her to abandon her attempts to reform or be revealed as lies in a short time, and so she made a decision to reveal as much of the truth as she could safely. While it was possible that this decision was made without enough thought put into the long-term ramifications, as many of the decisions the gem known as both Pink Diamond and Rose Quartz were, once the words escaped her lips there was no returning, even if a Rejuvenator was used on every gem but herself, the loss of all their memories would spark concern amongst the remaining gems in the court, and that was assuming Pink Diamond would ever be ruthless enough to order such a thing.
My Diamond the spokeswoman for the crowd began, clearly flustered. Are you claiming that you are deliberately making this court closer to the ideas espoused by the rebel Rose Quartz? At that, the Rose Quartz gems guarding her throne tensed, their own feelings on their Diamonds secret identity clear as ice. Pink Diamond though simply nodded.
While the actions Rose Quartz took were regrettable, the reasons she fought made sense the longer I look at them. She stood from her throne, pacing around the room as she talked. When I came back, before this court was reassembled, I had time, time where I had no assignments, no responsibilities, and nothing to distract me from my thoughts. In that time, I came to a conclusion: the empire is fragile.
The room was full of stunned gasps at that remark, but with a hand raised Pink quieted them. I don't mean we are weak, the Diamond Authority has weapons that can scour all life from a planet in hours, and our colonies can destroy one even more thoroughly if given enough time, but the truth of the matter is that for all that strength, losing a Diamond, like what happened to me, was enough to harm the empire for thousands of years. You all lived through Era 2, you all saw what the empire had to do to overcome the resource shortages. That only happened because of me, because I was shattered, but it should not have been that bad! She had raised her voice, every gem in the room staring at her with rapt attention. For thousands of years, the empire and every gem in it suffered because we were too strong, too resistant to anything that could even try to make us change, and instead of looking for solutions the other Diamonds simply sat back and accepted it! Yellow, Blue, White… all three of them combined and they never looked for a solution! Rose Quartz might have been a rebel, and her rebellion might have cost this court dearly, but at least she didn't sit around and do nothing to respond to a crisis! I am going to prepare my court for the future, and if that means being less like the other Diamonds and more like Rose Quartz than that is what I will do!
I refuse to pretend that the empire has no flaws the way the other Diamonds do, especially when it comes to the creation of new gems: we have hollowed out planet after planet across galaxies, always pushing outwards in our need for more gems to meet the needs of the expanding empire, but we cannot keep that up forever! The other Diamonds refuse to acknowledge that a change is needed, but I am not them! I was made with powers to heal both gems and organics, while Blue and Yellows powers work only on gems. That is a sign, a sign that I ignored for too long. I will take the best aspects of gems and the best aspects of organics and bring them together, to create something as strong as the empire that can adapt well enough to not spend thousands of years in a resource crisis without doing anything about it!
As her last words hung in the air, the throne room was dead silent, with none of the assembled guards or aristocrats making a sound. Pinks Spinel, who had taken up a role more akin to an advisor than a jester, was nervously sitting in the corner, an expression on her face halfway between dread and joy as she watched Pink speak, joy for the way her friend finally stopped hiding the truth of her plans, dread for what could happen if the assembled gems took her statement the wrong way.
But her dread was misplaced. Pushing her way to the front from the middle of the crowd, a familiar looking Tourmaline fell to a knee in front of her Diamond. With tears in her eyes, she declared I am sorry My Diamond. I am sorry for ever doubting you.
With that, it was like a spell was broken, and the gems of the delegation all joined the Tourmaline on one knee. Not all were convinced, in fact many of them were convinced that this experiment would blow up on the court and lead to another rebellion, but to speak out against their Diamonds publicly stated goals, in her throne room? That was unthinkable, and so they kneeled, resolving to themselves that they would watch and see what their Diamond did.
However, one group of gems present had no doubts. The Rose Quartz line of gems was designed by Pink Diamond, and the members of her personal guard were all honored by the position, so when their Diamond finished her speech and the aristocrats began to kneel, Pinks excitement, the enthusiasm she felt as she stood and explained her goals, her problems with the current system, and most importantly her powers over organic life that they had been given by her, they felt that energy as well, breaking out in cheers and applause at their Diamonds words. As the aristocrats left the room, they carried with them both word of their Diamonds speech, and the news that her personal guard was as loyal as could be. While many in the spire were concerned by this, terrified of what it could mean for their future, just as many heard their Diamonds words, her condemnation of stagnation, and emphasized. After all, they had lived through the thousands of years of Era 2, and the frustration she felt was all too familiar for them. For these gems, the response to Pink's speech was simple: It's about time someone said it.
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Authors Notes:
Alright, that was a chapter! I wrote the entire ending sequence at once in a weird sort of fugue state, going with what felt right, and I think it's a good way to wrap up a good chunk of the issues at Pinks court and put the endgame for this fic in motion.
As always, any and all feedback, in the form of comments or likes, is appreciated!
TheBleachDoctor
Secretly a Cat
- Location
- The Plane of Infinite Kittens
- Pronouns
- She/Her
I liked how you wrote the last segment. Feels right for the situation.
Foundations 12.2
Thanks! I am glad I got a positive response for that on every site I post this fic on, it's always a good feeling when something I've never done before works out. And now without further ado...
Chapter 12: Foundations
Part two
The aftermath of Pink Diamonds announcement left her court scrambling. For many of them, their entire worlds had been shifted upside down with the news, the revelation that their Diamond was outright denouncing, if in not as many words, the commands of her fellow Diamonds and the traditions of the empire in the name of her ideas was revolutionary, and for a society as long lived and stable as theirs, revolutionary ideas were rarely welcomed. However, as a series of commands came down gutting the caste system, declaring that any roles short of gems would accept any volunteers of any cut that were willing to work, cutting down the ability of overseers to punish their workers, and ending any official punishments for cross-type relations, up to and including fusion, the court broiled over into chaos. For a certain Pink Lace Agate, who had just had a decent rest cycle for the first time in more than a week, this chaos was not very welcome.
"My Diamond." Sway said through gritted teeth. "With all due respect, if you are going to make massive changes to the way this court is governed and the laws I have to enforce, is it too much to ask that you give me a bit of warning before announcing them?" The Agate paced from side to side in the throne room. "I don't mean to criticize, but…"
"No, go ahead, criticize all you want." Spinel interrupted her from her perch on the edge of the throne. "She wants every gem to think for themselves and speak their mind, which means she gets to sit there and listen to every little argument instead of going 'I'm a Diamond, do what I say' every time someone disagrees with her."
"Thank you Spinel." Pink said, slumped in her throne with her head in her hands. "I really appreciate the support."
"Awww, was that sarcasm? It was pretty good for a first try, but now's not the time for jokes, there's an Agate here waiting for answers."
"Yes, I am still present, and as I was saying before I was rudely interrupted" Sway shot a glare at Spinel. "I have many, many concerns about what just happened, and if I am being honest I don't think you put enough thought into what comes next. If you're going to go around and demand changes, the least you could do is make sure I'm ready for them instead of being caught off guard by whatever idea pops into your head!"
"I already explained why I did it, and I stand by that decision!" Pink replied. "I am responsible for every gem on this colony, every gem that is punished harshly because I delayed my reforms is my fault, and I wasn't going to wait any longer, not when the slow way got a crowd of angry aristocrats in my throne room complaining, something that it was supposed to prevent! The current method wasn't working, so I made my choice."
"Well great. That's great, wonderful, amazing!" Sway shouted in exasperation. "And I'll just sit around and do my job, constantly looking over my shoulder for my Diamonds' next impulsive demand to come down, and then I can try to explain the new rules to aristocrats who think 'oh, she's commander of Pinks personal guard, she knows what's going on' and I have to do my best to come up with a load of nice sounding words that mean nothing without just smacking them out of my way and running!"
The throne room was silent for a moment as the trio of Pink gems looked at each other. Pink moved first, hanging her head and sighing. "I am sorry about that, I didn't mean to just dump all of this on you… you've had to deal with a lot because of me, haven't you?"
"Yes, you could say that." Came the response. Only a few thousand years as the failure who let her Diamond get shattered, no big deal. "And before you start apologizing and going on and on about how sorry you are… I already know you think you were doing the right thing, there's nothing I can do to change your mind, so can we just skip the self pity thing this time, have you promise to do better, and then not talk to each other outside of what's necessary for appearances until the next time you cause problems for me?" She looks around, taking in the surprise on Pinks face. "What?"
"Wow, what brought this on? I thought you were the obedient little soldier, so when did you decide to stand up for yourself?" Spinel asked, genuinely interested despite the way her words rubbed Sway the wrong way.
"When I spent several hours not caring about you, staying with gems I can trust to not mess up my life at a whim." Her words cut deep as she lets loose with everything that was keeping her from resting, every painful thought that buried its way into her mind. "I was made to serve you, and to keep you safe, but the longer I have to actually deal with you, as a person and not a distant figure giving me commands, or a vague memory of something greater… you're not what I wanted you to be."
"Well I'm sorry, but I had to-"
"Yes, I know, you've explained it all to me before, and…" She sighed, gathering her thoughts as she looked up at the Diamond she had once loved. "... and I'm tired. I'm tired of being one of the gems entrusted with the biggest secret in the empire, I'm tired of dealing with the feeling of disappointment every time my programming builds you up to be some amazing person and then reality comes crashing in… and most of all, I'm tired of hearing you talk on and on about how you are sorry for how your actions hurt me, and you'll do better next time."
"So what do you want?" Spinel asked, her words cutting through the Agates diatribe with surgical precision. Freezing in the middle of her pacing, Sway pondered the question, a question that she had never truly pondered before, and found an answer.
"I want to go away." She said quietly, as if she couldn't believe what she was saying. "I want to take every Rose Quartz under my command and leave, to go find a beach where they can all wrestle and play without worrying about smacking a gem wrong and cracking, and know that I never have to go back to this life." There were tears in her eyes as she spoke. "How wrong is that, an Agate custom made for a Diamond wanting to abandon her duties and wrestle with Quartzes on a beach?"
"It's not wrong at all." Came the soft voice of Pink Diamond… no, she might still be wearing Pink Diamonds form, but her actions, the gentle touch of her hand on Sway's shoulder, the caring expression… right now, she was a Rose Quartz in a Diamond's body. "In fact, I think it's a lovely dream. I don't know when it will be possible, but I promise you, I will make sure you get what you want."
Sway looked up at her, feeling as if her eyes were opened by the revelation she had just had. Rose Quartz, because that was who was speaking to her through Pink Diamonds mouth, was giving her a look of kindness even after her harsh words and desire to leave. Their eyes met, and there was none of the normal feelings of awe and love every gem was told and programmed to feel for their Diamond. Wordlessly, the two looked at each other until, with a nod of understanding and an about face that would impress even the strictest drill sergeant, Sway turned and left, calling back "I'll try to keep the spire under control, if one of the other Diamonds show up I'll let you know" as she left.
-----
In a small red barn on Earth, while the Pink Court adapted to its changes, Peridot was being her usual self.
"Alright you Clods! I can't have you crowding my workspace, it was only due to my genius that made it possible to turn a bunch of human electronics into the sensors needed for this operation, and-"
"Peridot, why do I need to hold this pose?" Steven interrupted from the machine, his hands held together above his head as his feet were wide apart, looking incredibly uncomfortable as he did so.
"Because that is what I calculated would give me the clearest results from the scan! This is all basic science Steven, I know what I'm doing."
"This doesn't look like science at all!" Doctor Maheswaran exclaimed. "Why couldn't we have done this at the hospital?"
"Because your human repair center does not have the equipment to analyse gems, which we need to figure out what is going on with Stevens gem!" Came the reply from Peridot. "Now Steven, this might tickle a little…"
A burst of light stroked his stomach, washing over his gem for a brief moment before he broke down laughing, collapsing onto the floor of the barn. Peridot and Doctor Maheswaran rushed forward to try and help, but by the time they did he was already starting to recover.
"Oooowwwwww… can we try a different test?"
Peridot wilted under the doctors glare, muttering "well if you're fine with a 1.7% reduction in efficiency, we can get a chair."
"Yes, let's do that." Came the reply as Steven slowly stood himself back up, and as soon as Peridot provided a chair they began again.
-----
Fire Opal 6C3 was a very happy gem. She was watching the old order she so hated collapse around her, the petty squabbles of the Pink Court brought to an end by a tidal wave of reforms that swept away the old guards idiotic long term power games. Many gems were celebrating, mostly the ones that were only playing the game because they had to, or were currently losing it, or were actually genuinely moved by their Diamonds speech, but despite the broad support, many of the gems who were losing out to the new decrees that came down by the day were less than pleased. What made them even less pleased was the fact that they didn't exactly have the numbers to do anything more than stand around and talk about how dangerous all these changes were.
This was all good, and she enjoyed it immensely, but despite all the good news, she could not help but feel a bit strange as she walked into the work space she shared with Iolite, the small purple gem already working on analysing a barrage of reports from across the colony, trying to identify any problem areas before they got bad. Looking at the small purple gem, she felt the same feelings that had been popping up ever since she had heard of the Ruby and Sapphire permafusion on earth. Shaking her head to clear those thoughts away, she sat down in her station and began to work.
The two sat in silence for a while until Iolite wheeled around, fixing her with a gaze. "You know, our Diamond doesn't really like cut and facet numbers, she prefers names."
6C3 blinked at the surprising topic. "Alright…?"
"And there are seven Iolites in this colony. While our Diamond has grown used to just calling me Iolite, I feel that referring to one member of a cut by the name of the cut is insulting to all other members of the cut, and I have been attempting to determine a way to handle this."
"Well… why can't you all be Iolite?" Came the response. "I mean… don't humans have two or three names? Why not have one name be Iolite and have different second or third names?"
Iolite looked over at her, pondering the suggestion for a moment before nodding. "That could work. While we're on the topic, have you considered an actual name?"
"Well… not really, this is the first I've heard of our Diamond demanding them."
"Oh, she's not demanding anything, I simply deduced from the way she pauses whenever she uses an identification number as well as a few other observations, and upon some introspection I decided it was a good idea. If you don't agree, that's alright."
6C3 paused for a moment, trying to think. What would I name myself, out of all the words in existence… "I don't really know what I'd call myself if I'm being honest."
"Well… perhaps something to do with fire?"
6C3 shook her head, shooting that idea down instantly. "No, that just doesn't feel right."
"Well… you know, your little impurities in your gem are very striking, maybe something like… Aurora?"
She noticed the impurities… and she likes them? They nearly got me shattered when I emerged, and she likes them!? And Aurora… isn't that the bright lights in polar regions? They are beautiful… is she calling me beautiful? Is-
Her thoughts were cut off by the flashing of a Diamond communicator, and she turned to look at Iolite with confusion.
"Pink is busy, and doesn't have a Pearl, so me and Spinel take turns watching it." Is all the explanation she gives before she answers the call.
The form of Yellow Diamond fills the air as the communicator screen forms. "You're not Pink."
"Your lustrousness is correct, I am Iolite Facet-"
"Never mind that, inform Pink that I must speak to her in private. My ship is already being prepared for launch, I expect her to be ready by the time I arrive." With that, the call ended, leaving the two gems standing awkwardly in the room. For Aurora, who found she was beginning to like her new name, the news of another Diamonds pending arrival had ruined her good mood, and as she thought of how disheveled the court was in the middle of the reforms…
"We need to tell our Diamond now!" They both said at once, leaping to their feet and running through the halls, one moving up the spire, the other down.
At the time, Pink Diamond was on level six, resolving a dispute between a pair of gems who were bickering over her exact meaning in the decrees. Aurora arrived in a panic, nearly shoving the two other Gems out of the way as she announced "My Diamond, Yellow Diamond is on her way, she claims that she must speak with you in private!"
The room went deathly quiet, and for the briefest moment a flicker of fear showed up on Pinks face before being washed away by determination. "Then we'll prepare for her arrival. Spread the word, everyone is to be on their best behavior, anyone who can't is to be kept out of the spire until she's gone. When she arrives, escort her to my throne room immediately!"
As her Diamond barked commands, the Fire Opal who had just found her name found herself worried. The threat of the other Diamonds learning of Pinks actions was no longer hypothetical, even if all the troublemakers were shooed away before Yellow arrived, keeping Pinks actions a secret…
Well, now we see if Our Diamond has a good plan.
-----
Authors Notes:
So, a day late on this one, and I have an excuse! Yesterday was pretty much the perfect storm, I had two phone interviews in my job hunt and then helped my mother socialize her new kitten, so by the time all that was done I was not really in the mood for writing and editing.
With that said, because this chapter and the one before it didn't get as far as I thought, I have an announcement: the hiatus will begin after I post a chapter on the third of July, which should be the last chapter before the timeskip as well, instead of on the 26th of June as planned. I have a document with a mess of plotlines that I need to wrap up in two chapters, but I feel like I missed some, so if there's something you remember from an early chapter that hasn't been mentioned since, let me know and I'll see if I can tie up that loose end.
Beyond that, I hope you all enjoy this chapter, your comments and likes sustain my drive to update on a regular basis.
Also, check out the TvTropes page for this story!
Foundations 12.3
Chapter 12: Foundations
Part 3
"My Diamond? Yellow Diamond has arrived." The Rose Quartz gem says as the door opens, the imposing form of Yellow Diamond standing just outside, waiting to be announced as protocol dictated. Pink smiled, stating "I see. Let her in and leave us, this is a discussion between Diamonds, do not allow any to interfere unless it is a true emergency." with a degree of outward calm. On the inside however, she was much less happy.
Oh this is bad, this is very very bad, why is she here, what am I going to tell her if she asks questions? Could she have learned about my reforms, or worse my speech? Is this going to turn into a fight? Can I take Yellow on in a fight? How many gems did she bring with her, what sort of weapons do those ships even carry? It's been thousands of years since I even stepped foot in one. what-
"Pink." Yellows' voice interrupts her panicked thoughts. "It's been a while, I am glad to see your colony is progressing nicely, despite the setbacks and the resources given over to your tests."
Pink swallowed, forcing her nervousness down as she answered "Well, I have plenty of devoted gems in my court, and this time I am much more active in the management of this colony than I was back on Earth." And not in ways you'd be very happy to hear about… "So, what did you need to talk about Yellow?"
The larger Diamond sighed as she took a seat near Pinks' throne, simply sitting on the throneroom floor as Pink looked on in shock. I've never looked down on Yellow like this before… she thought as she realized that with the thrones elevation her head was above that of the other Diamond.
"Oh, this and that, normal issues involving running an empire, minor things like that." Yellow leaned back as she spoke. "To tell you the truth, I mainly stopped by as an excuse to get off Homeworld, Blue has been… difficult to deal with. She's not a weepy mess who refuses to do any work to help run the empire, but honestly the way she's been acting… she's always been stubborn, but it feels like she's trying to roll back the clock to Era 1 now that you're back, and we keep getting into arguments about things like court protocol and the like. It's all minor issues, we haven't broken the unity of the Diamond Authority to the rest of Homeworld, but it's exhausting to deal with."
Pink stared blankly for a moment as Yellow laughed, a deep, full bellied sound that had little humor and a lot of relief in it. "Oh it feels good to say it out loud, if I tried to tell Blue that she would get all upset, she's obsessed with taking us back to the past and telling her things have changed sets her off, and White… well, I don't talk to White about anything nowadays, she never has time to see me! It's like she's off in her own little world in that headship of hers." Yellow continued to ramble, frustration bleeding through as she vented.
"Well that's… not a very good sign." Pink replied, trying to not let it show just how happy she was that White wasn't even talking to other Diamonds. "Do you think something is wrong with White?"
Yellows' head snapped around at those words, and for a moment Pink was convinced she'd said something wrong, only for Yellow to reply "Well, if there is something wrong with her, it's been wrong ever since we heard about your shattering. She hasn't come out of her ship, hasn't been willing to give us audiences unless it's necessary… it's been difficult to run the empire without her."
Pink nodded at that. "Well, if she's not going to put in the work to help run the empire… why does she get to tell the rest of us how to run it?" That's a dangerous question, but I think Yellow might be sympathetic…
For a moment there was silence as the two Diamonds stared at each other, and Pink worried that something had gone horribly wrong before the faintest smile began to form on Yellows' face. "Well, that is a good question. The truth is, White rules Homeworld because she is the most powerful Diamond, the only gem older than me and Blue. Removing her… well, it wouldn't do much, but it would change the entire empire if they saw a Diamond removed from power. So, we put up with her and Blue, put on a show of unity for the rest of the empire, and do our best to fix their messes behind the scenes."
"We?" Pink asked, surprised.
"Well, we Diamonds have to stick together after all." Yellow said, causing a feeling of revulsion to form in Pinks stomach.
"Stick together? So we can keep making the same mistakes over and over again?" She asked, the words slipping from her mouth before she could stop them. Yellow said nothing, only raising an eyebrow at her while gesturing go on with her hand. With a sigh, Pink continued "Blue is obsessed with bringing back Era one, which ended with me shattered and the empire not capable of recovering from that, White is not involved with running the empire at all, and you are making minor fixes that don't actually change the massive gaping holes in the system. Me being shattered should not have damaged the empire for thousands of years, and even more than that it shouldn't have happened in the first place!"
Yellow simply stared at her before nodding. "You're right." At Pinks' surprised response, she continued "And that is the second reason I came here today. The empire needs gems who are willing to put in the hard work of running it, who can see the problems with the system and fix them before they get bad. Blue is too attached to the past, White is too aloof to notice the modern issues with the empire… I think that between us, we can make a bit of progress, especially with your more… ambitious, proposals."
"What… what do you mean?" Pink asked, the rising hope that had filled her dropping down at that last sentence.
"Well, keeping planets around, research into organic life… if even one of those works, you're going to make some big changes to all gemkind, and I want to make sure that those changes are utilized for the full benefit of the empire." Yellow replied, giving her a cautious look. "If you have any other experiments that you have going on that could change the empire, you should let me know."
My reaction gave it away, it must have. Pink thought with panic in her mind. This is bad, but it could be good… how much can I tell her… "Well… my court has a few shortages of many different types of gems, so I have been experimenting with things like a Fire Opal helping an Iolites work, or Quartzes assisting with construction work, things like that. It's been a success so far, my court has gained a lot of efficiency from cross training gems to perform other tasks."
The other Diamond didn't seem all that surprised by that response, nodding slowly. "A logical response to labor shortages… I would like to review the results of that experiment, efficiency gains would be useful going forward, even with the resource shortage being reduced by your return…" She trailed off thoughtful as she pondered the implications.
"Well, I have a few studies…" Pink responded, pulling up the documents on her control screen as she felt relief run through her. Just need to keep her happy with my results so far… she thought as she began to present the results to the other Diamond, the fear of Yellow shutting her down slowly retreating to the back of the mind, even if it wasn't possible to get rid of it entirely.
-----
As Yellow Diamonds' ship flew away from Pink Diamonds' colony, the throneroom of Pinks' court was full of a small council of the few gems that knew the entire truth behind their Diamonds actions. Pink herself was slumped against her throne as the others arrived, with her head in her hands as the door closed.
"So…" Spinel began, looking up at the throne as she began to talk. "What's the word boss, are we in trouble?"
Pink sighed, a mixture of relief and anger in her voice as she replied. "Well, we are not in trouble… but Yellow is still frustrating." She leaned forward, lines on her face as she explained. "She's still the same person she used to be, even if she's willing to talk bad about Blue and White and criticize their way of running the empire, so I don't think she'll be all that happy if she learns the entire truth. But as long as I can convince her the experiments are working, I think we'll be fine for now."
The assembled gems digested that, nodding slowly as Pink watched the giant yellow arm disappear from the skyline. Well, that could have gone a lot better… but it also could have gone a lot worse. At least now I can sort of count on Yellow to not interfere as long as I don't push too hard too fast… she shook her head, pushing those thoughts from her mind as she stood up. No time to think of all that now, I have a job to do, and now that I have Yellows' sort of approval, it's time to really get to work. "If there's nothing else, I do have to get to work handling petitioners, there are quite a lot of them today, I wonder why…" she said dryly, imagining just how large the crowd outside must have gotten now that the aristocrats knew Yellow was gone.
How did that one song go? "Ain't no rest for the wicked until we close our eyes for good." Boy is that true.
"Alright everyone, we've got a lot of work to do!" She said, shaking off her thoughts as she strode for the door, confidence filling her movements as she pushed her doubts to the side.
-----
The days and weeks afterwards, as her court began to react to and adapt to the new rules they were living under, were a blur. One crisis after another, argument after argument to resolve… crisis management was the only thing Pink Diamond did in those long, sleepless days, but as weeks became months, she watched as her court began to shift, slowly but surely as attitudes that had been entrenched for thousands of years faded away. Old bigotries and beliefs did not vanish overnight, gems are much like humans in that regard, but they no longer had any official impact on law and policy in the Pink Court. Of course, not everyone was happy about this, but the announcement that Yellow Diamond had been informed of and approved of the new experiments took the wind from the sails of those who wished to fight back or otherwise undo the reforms, since as far as they knew, half the Diamond Authority approved of these changes.
Pink hated lying like that, and knew if the lie was ever uncovered her court would be a bit of a mess, and if Yellow found out… well, it was best to not spend too much time worrying about such things, there was a lot of work to be done. Fortunately for Pink, the gems working for her were very good at what they did.
-----
Spinel spent those days wandering the spire and colony, making friends and listening in on the words and thoughts of the court with her admittedly incredibly powerful abilities. The information she brought back was often delivered bluntly and without reverence for Pinks station, an example that the rest of the gems in her court noticed and began slowly mimicking, unnecessary flattery falling away as the days went by, leaving Pink overjoyed as she found the hated trappings of being a Diamond falling away. One of those days, Spinel was giving a sort of public report in front of the court, smiling as she reported the mood of various departments in the spire, when Pink had a thought strike her.
Spinels are viewed as jesters or fools, and there's the human expression of someone being worth their weight in gold that definitely applies to her… She let out a small giggle at the mental image of Spinel shifted into the form of a Pyrite, remembering that ancient fight she had with Blue. Spinel paused at that, waiting to see why her Diamond had laughed as the entire court focused their gaze on the throne. Pushing the thought aside, she waved for Spinel to continue. After the court cleared out, the smaller pink gem slid up to the throne and asked "so what was that laughing about?"
"Well, you are the court jester, or fool, and you've been doing so many amazing things for me in the last few months, and I was thinking that humans associate value with gold, so that makes you Fools Gold." Pink said, causing Spinel to place her head in her hands.
"Pink, please tell me that you were better at flirting back on Earth, because if not I need to examine the human and the Pearl that fell in love with you."
"WHAT! No, that wasn't flirting, that was…" Pink trailed off as she watched Spinel fall on the ground laughing. "Oh, ha ha ha, very funny."
"It is!"
"Well that's what I get for trying to compliment you, I'll make sure to never do it again." Pink said playfully.
"Nah, you'll do it again, I'm too amazing for you to not compliment from time to time just out of respect for my skills." Spinel told her as the screen in front of Pinks' throne began to blink with an alert. Standing up, the jester gem she walked towards the door. "But that's for another time, right now I have work to do, and so do you."
"Yes yes, alright. Get going so I can get some work done in peace." Pink responded driely, her tone making it clear how little she wanted to address whatever new problem had popped up this time even as she reached over to press the button to answer the call. No rest for the wicked indeed.
-----
For the newly christened Aurora, who was still getting used to not being Fire Opal 6C3, those days were both amazing and painful. Amazing in that she watched the entire self-serving eternal game of politics in the Pink Court, which had started to reassert itself within hours of the court reassembling, collapse as the reforms broke the stasis that it relied on, and the constant eye of their Diamond prevented a new stasis from emerging. However, there was a lot of work to be done, and as one of the gems Pink Diamond trusted, she found herself adding a lot of "extra" work to her regular duties.
Which is why she found herself in a human structure known as a "hospital" and conversing with a Peridot and a human "Doctor", which as far as she could tell was their equivalent of technicians? It was all very confusing, and normally Iolite would be handling this work, but the short purple gem had been busy and asked Aurora to handle the task… and the weird feeling in her gem that happened whenever Iolite talked to her had overridden her common sense and caused her to agree, leaving her sitting awkwardly next to the hybrid "Steven" as the two people who actually knew what they were talking about debated about…
"What do you mean it's not possible, you saw him do it!"
"That doesn't mean violating Conservation of Mass is the only explanation! There has to be an answer that doesn't violate fundamental laws of physics."
"Oh, like the same fundamental laws that have you humans convinced that a faster than light ship can also serve as a time machine?"
"I am not getting into an argument about physics, I am not a physicist, if you want to debate with one of them I would be more than happy to ship you off to Harvard for a few weeks."
"REALLY?!"
… stuff. They were arguing about stuff, and now the Peridot was hugging the human, who clearly did not intend for that reaction. Sitting back, Aurora reached over to Steven in an attempt to gain his attention. Resting her hand on his shoulder, she asked "do you know how long this will take?"
Steven flinched as he turned and saw her orange hand, focusing on her face as he pushed the reaction down in a manner very similar to his mothers. Well, I am curious about what caused that reaction, but it is fascinating to see this "family resemblance" phenomenon in person. "My apologies" Aurora stated "I did not mean to startle you."
"No, it's fine, you didn't do anything wrong I just…" Steven looked over at the pair of "experts" who were currently debating something involving energy to mass conversion before lowering his voice and whispering "I've just had a bad experience with a Jasper, and when you grabbed me and I saw your arm for a moment I thought you were her."
Aurora looked down at her arm. While the tone of orange was within the standard for a Jasper, it was much thinner than the limbs on those gems tended to be, although given the skinny one she had seen as part of the group detached to "guard" Beach City, she supposed it was possible for one of them to be the size of her. "I see. My apologies for bringing up a bad memory."
"It's fine, really." Steven said before shaking his head. "Well, no it's not fine, she tried to kill me and Amethyst, and she was doing that all because she was convinced I was Mom and blamed me for Pink Diamond shattering, and she went and got corrupted less than a year before you guys came by and told us the truth, so now she's stuck in a bubble and will never knew what actually happened unless we can cure corruption… I'm rambling, sorry, my therapist tells me I need to stop keeping my feelings bottled up so I sometimes just start talking and don't stop."
Aurora nods at that. "Well, that is just one more reason to focus on curing corruption, even if it is taking a long time. I read the reports on your attempts to cure the Nephrite, your success was admirable." Using the tears of a Diamond… the same fluids used to help make new gems. It had a partial success, as if there were other parts missing… how did no one realize this before? She thought in shock, staring at the bland tile of the room as her mind raced. It must have been lost under the mountain of other problems…
"Hey, you ok?" Steven asked, bringing her back to the present. Aurora blinked as she realized the entire room was looking at her, the Peridot and Doctor both pausing their debate to look at her.
"I… I believe I might have a theory for a cure for corruption." She said hesitantly, watching as both Steven and Peridot stared at her, while the Doctor looked confused for a moment before realization hit. "It's only a theory, we should not end this meeting and your important discussion for it."
Doctor Maheswaran snorts a little at that. "Well that's one way to describe what we were talking about. We need to do a bit of setup to prepare for a more exhaustive look at shapeshifting during the next visit here anyway, so I think this is a good time for us to end for today. You three go on, I still have the rest of my shift today." She said, shooing the pair of gems and Steven out of the office and into the waiting area, where the adult human male known as "Greg" was waiting for them. As soon as the door closed, Steven and Peridot looked at Aurora, barely paying attention to Greg.
"So… did something happen?" The only pure human in the room asked.
"I believe it would be best if I explained this as we moved towards the conveyance vehicle." Aurora responded.
-----
"... and that's why I believe that the mixture of fluids from all four Diamonds is likely to produce positive results in the curing of corruption." Aurora finished, leaving the Dondai silent except for the sounds of the road and engine as they drove towards Beach City.
"But wait, wouldn't Mom have tried that already? That's the stuff in injectors, and both Kindergartens are loaded with those." Steven pointed out from the seat that, for some arcane reason, was named after a type of chemical-based projectile weaponry.
"Hmmm, well in theory, however it is commonly understood among technicians that injector fluid goes bad after a couple centuries, perhaps by the time she and the other survivors were able to reach the kindergarten it had gone bad?" Peridot pointed out. "It could explain why she hasn't tried it again, she might not know about the degradation and think that she already tried using perfectly good Diamond fluids."
"Alright, I'm going to be honest I'm kind of getting grossed out by all the talk of fluids." Greg said from the driver's seat."
"Sorry Dad." Steven replied. "But it's a good point, and if they're right… then we could cure everyone." His voice was full of wonder as visions of the sea of bubbles in the burning room filled it, imagining what it will be like when that room is finally, finally, empty for good. "We have to try."
"Agreed." Aurora said. "I will inform Pink Diamond upon my return of this theory, she is likely to at least provide us the resources to test the theory."
Steven nodded, barely paying attention anymore as he looked out over the rolling hills of Delmarva, a smile on his face. They're finally going to be free. After thousands of years, all that they went through while corrupted… they'll all be free.
-----
Authors Notes:
And now you see why I said I needed one more update before I felt comfortable starting the hiatus. Can you imagine how annoying it would be if I just wrote that ending part then said "Alright, see you in a month!"? Although cliffhangers do work if used sparingly... nah, I'm not going to be that cruel.
Anyways, comments and likes are always appreciated, so give all that you are willing to give.
Part 3
"My Diamond? Yellow Diamond has arrived." The Rose Quartz gem says as the door opens, the imposing form of Yellow Diamond standing just outside, waiting to be announced as protocol dictated. Pink smiled, stating "I see. Let her in and leave us, this is a discussion between Diamonds, do not allow any to interfere unless it is a true emergency." with a degree of outward calm. On the inside however, she was much less happy.
Oh this is bad, this is very very bad, why is she here, what am I going to tell her if she asks questions? Could she have learned about my reforms, or worse my speech? Is this going to turn into a fight? Can I take Yellow on in a fight? How many gems did she bring with her, what sort of weapons do those ships even carry? It's been thousands of years since I even stepped foot in one. what-
"Pink." Yellows' voice interrupts her panicked thoughts. "It's been a while, I am glad to see your colony is progressing nicely, despite the setbacks and the resources given over to your tests."
Pink swallowed, forcing her nervousness down as she answered "Well, I have plenty of devoted gems in my court, and this time I am much more active in the management of this colony than I was back on Earth." And not in ways you'd be very happy to hear about… "So, what did you need to talk about Yellow?"
The larger Diamond sighed as she took a seat near Pinks' throne, simply sitting on the throneroom floor as Pink looked on in shock. I've never looked down on Yellow like this before… she thought as she realized that with the thrones elevation her head was above that of the other Diamond.
"Oh, this and that, normal issues involving running an empire, minor things like that." Yellow leaned back as she spoke. "To tell you the truth, I mainly stopped by as an excuse to get off Homeworld, Blue has been… difficult to deal with. She's not a weepy mess who refuses to do any work to help run the empire, but honestly the way she's been acting… she's always been stubborn, but it feels like she's trying to roll back the clock to Era 1 now that you're back, and we keep getting into arguments about things like court protocol and the like. It's all minor issues, we haven't broken the unity of the Diamond Authority to the rest of Homeworld, but it's exhausting to deal with."
Pink stared blankly for a moment as Yellow laughed, a deep, full bellied sound that had little humor and a lot of relief in it. "Oh it feels good to say it out loud, if I tried to tell Blue that she would get all upset, she's obsessed with taking us back to the past and telling her things have changed sets her off, and White… well, I don't talk to White about anything nowadays, she never has time to see me! It's like she's off in her own little world in that headship of hers." Yellow continued to ramble, frustration bleeding through as she vented.
"Well that's… not a very good sign." Pink replied, trying to not let it show just how happy she was that White wasn't even talking to other Diamonds. "Do you think something is wrong with White?"
Yellows' head snapped around at those words, and for a moment Pink was convinced she'd said something wrong, only for Yellow to reply "Well, if there is something wrong with her, it's been wrong ever since we heard about your shattering. She hasn't come out of her ship, hasn't been willing to give us audiences unless it's necessary… it's been difficult to run the empire without her."
Pink nodded at that. "Well, if she's not going to put in the work to help run the empire… why does she get to tell the rest of us how to run it?" That's a dangerous question, but I think Yellow might be sympathetic…
For a moment there was silence as the two Diamonds stared at each other, and Pink worried that something had gone horribly wrong before the faintest smile began to form on Yellows' face. "Well, that is a good question. The truth is, White rules Homeworld because she is the most powerful Diamond, the only gem older than me and Blue. Removing her… well, it wouldn't do much, but it would change the entire empire if they saw a Diamond removed from power. So, we put up with her and Blue, put on a show of unity for the rest of the empire, and do our best to fix their messes behind the scenes."
"We?" Pink asked, surprised.
"Well, we Diamonds have to stick together after all." Yellow said, causing a feeling of revulsion to form in Pinks stomach.
"Stick together? So we can keep making the same mistakes over and over again?" She asked, the words slipping from her mouth before she could stop them. Yellow said nothing, only raising an eyebrow at her while gesturing go on with her hand. With a sigh, Pink continued "Blue is obsessed with bringing back Era one, which ended with me shattered and the empire not capable of recovering from that, White is not involved with running the empire at all, and you are making minor fixes that don't actually change the massive gaping holes in the system. Me being shattered should not have damaged the empire for thousands of years, and even more than that it shouldn't have happened in the first place!"
Yellow simply stared at her before nodding. "You're right." At Pinks' surprised response, she continued "And that is the second reason I came here today. The empire needs gems who are willing to put in the hard work of running it, who can see the problems with the system and fix them before they get bad. Blue is too attached to the past, White is too aloof to notice the modern issues with the empire… I think that between us, we can make a bit of progress, especially with your more… ambitious, proposals."
"What… what do you mean?" Pink asked, the rising hope that had filled her dropping down at that last sentence.
"Well, keeping planets around, research into organic life… if even one of those works, you're going to make some big changes to all gemkind, and I want to make sure that those changes are utilized for the full benefit of the empire." Yellow replied, giving her a cautious look. "If you have any other experiments that you have going on that could change the empire, you should let me know."
My reaction gave it away, it must have. Pink thought with panic in her mind. This is bad, but it could be good… how much can I tell her… "Well… my court has a few shortages of many different types of gems, so I have been experimenting with things like a Fire Opal helping an Iolites work, or Quartzes assisting with construction work, things like that. It's been a success so far, my court has gained a lot of efficiency from cross training gems to perform other tasks."
The other Diamond didn't seem all that surprised by that response, nodding slowly. "A logical response to labor shortages… I would like to review the results of that experiment, efficiency gains would be useful going forward, even with the resource shortage being reduced by your return…" She trailed off thoughtful as she pondered the implications.
"Well, I have a few studies…" Pink responded, pulling up the documents on her control screen as she felt relief run through her. Just need to keep her happy with my results so far… she thought as she began to present the results to the other Diamond, the fear of Yellow shutting her down slowly retreating to the back of the mind, even if it wasn't possible to get rid of it entirely.
-----
As Yellow Diamonds' ship flew away from Pink Diamonds' colony, the throneroom of Pinks' court was full of a small council of the few gems that knew the entire truth behind their Diamonds actions. Pink herself was slumped against her throne as the others arrived, with her head in her hands as the door closed.
"So…" Spinel began, looking up at the throne as she began to talk. "What's the word boss, are we in trouble?"
Pink sighed, a mixture of relief and anger in her voice as she replied. "Well, we are not in trouble… but Yellow is still frustrating." She leaned forward, lines on her face as she explained. "She's still the same person she used to be, even if she's willing to talk bad about Blue and White and criticize their way of running the empire, so I don't think she'll be all that happy if she learns the entire truth. But as long as I can convince her the experiments are working, I think we'll be fine for now."
The assembled gems digested that, nodding slowly as Pink watched the giant yellow arm disappear from the skyline. Well, that could have gone a lot better… but it also could have gone a lot worse. At least now I can sort of count on Yellow to not interfere as long as I don't push too hard too fast… she shook her head, pushing those thoughts from her mind as she stood up. No time to think of all that now, I have a job to do, and now that I have Yellows' sort of approval, it's time to really get to work. "If there's nothing else, I do have to get to work handling petitioners, there are quite a lot of them today, I wonder why…" she said dryly, imagining just how large the crowd outside must have gotten now that the aristocrats knew Yellow was gone.
How did that one song go? "Ain't no rest for the wicked until we close our eyes for good." Boy is that true.
"Alright everyone, we've got a lot of work to do!" She said, shaking off her thoughts as she strode for the door, confidence filling her movements as she pushed her doubts to the side.
-----
The days and weeks afterwards, as her court began to react to and adapt to the new rules they were living under, were a blur. One crisis after another, argument after argument to resolve… crisis management was the only thing Pink Diamond did in those long, sleepless days, but as weeks became months, she watched as her court began to shift, slowly but surely as attitudes that had been entrenched for thousands of years faded away. Old bigotries and beliefs did not vanish overnight, gems are much like humans in that regard, but they no longer had any official impact on law and policy in the Pink Court. Of course, not everyone was happy about this, but the announcement that Yellow Diamond had been informed of and approved of the new experiments took the wind from the sails of those who wished to fight back or otherwise undo the reforms, since as far as they knew, half the Diamond Authority approved of these changes.
Pink hated lying like that, and knew if the lie was ever uncovered her court would be a bit of a mess, and if Yellow found out… well, it was best to not spend too much time worrying about such things, there was a lot of work to be done. Fortunately for Pink, the gems working for her were very good at what they did.
-----
Spinel spent those days wandering the spire and colony, making friends and listening in on the words and thoughts of the court with her admittedly incredibly powerful abilities. The information she brought back was often delivered bluntly and without reverence for Pinks station, an example that the rest of the gems in her court noticed and began slowly mimicking, unnecessary flattery falling away as the days went by, leaving Pink overjoyed as she found the hated trappings of being a Diamond falling away. One of those days, Spinel was giving a sort of public report in front of the court, smiling as she reported the mood of various departments in the spire, when Pink had a thought strike her.
Spinels are viewed as jesters or fools, and there's the human expression of someone being worth their weight in gold that definitely applies to her… She let out a small giggle at the mental image of Spinel shifted into the form of a Pyrite, remembering that ancient fight she had with Blue. Spinel paused at that, waiting to see why her Diamond had laughed as the entire court focused their gaze on the throne. Pushing the thought aside, she waved for Spinel to continue. After the court cleared out, the smaller pink gem slid up to the throne and asked "so what was that laughing about?"
"Well, you are the court jester, or fool, and you've been doing so many amazing things for me in the last few months, and I was thinking that humans associate value with gold, so that makes you Fools Gold." Pink said, causing Spinel to place her head in her hands.
"Pink, please tell me that you were better at flirting back on Earth, because if not I need to examine the human and the Pearl that fell in love with you."
"WHAT! No, that wasn't flirting, that was…" Pink trailed off as she watched Spinel fall on the ground laughing. "Oh, ha ha ha, very funny."
"It is!"
"Well that's what I get for trying to compliment you, I'll make sure to never do it again." Pink said playfully.
"Nah, you'll do it again, I'm too amazing for you to not compliment from time to time just out of respect for my skills." Spinel told her as the screen in front of Pinks' throne began to blink with an alert. Standing up, the jester gem she walked towards the door. "But that's for another time, right now I have work to do, and so do you."
"Yes yes, alright. Get going so I can get some work done in peace." Pink responded driely, her tone making it clear how little she wanted to address whatever new problem had popped up this time even as she reached over to press the button to answer the call. No rest for the wicked indeed.
-----
For the newly christened Aurora, who was still getting used to not being Fire Opal 6C3, those days were both amazing and painful. Amazing in that she watched the entire self-serving eternal game of politics in the Pink Court, which had started to reassert itself within hours of the court reassembling, collapse as the reforms broke the stasis that it relied on, and the constant eye of their Diamond prevented a new stasis from emerging. However, there was a lot of work to be done, and as one of the gems Pink Diamond trusted, she found herself adding a lot of "extra" work to her regular duties.
Which is why she found herself in a human structure known as a "hospital" and conversing with a Peridot and a human "Doctor", which as far as she could tell was their equivalent of technicians? It was all very confusing, and normally Iolite would be handling this work, but the short purple gem had been busy and asked Aurora to handle the task… and the weird feeling in her gem that happened whenever Iolite talked to her had overridden her common sense and caused her to agree, leaving her sitting awkwardly next to the hybrid "Steven" as the two people who actually knew what they were talking about debated about…
"What do you mean it's not possible, you saw him do it!"
"That doesn't mean violating Conservation of Mass is the only explanation! There has to be an answer that doesn't violate fundamental laws of physics."
"Oh, like the same fundamental laws that have you humans convinced that a faster than light ship can also serve as a time machine?"
"I am not getting into an argument about physics, I am not a physicist, if you want to debate with one of them I would be more than happy to ship you off to Harvard for a few weeks."
"REALLY?!"
… stuff. They were arguing about stuff, and now the Peridot was hugging the human, who clearly did not intend for that reaction. Sitting back, Aurora reached over to Steven in an attempt to gain his attention. Resting her hand on his shoulder, she asked "do you know how long this will take?"
Steven flinched as he turned and saw her orange hand, focusing on her face as he pushed the reaction down in a manner very similar to his mothers. Well, I am curious about what caused that reaction, but it is fascinating to see this "family resemblance" phenomenon in person. "My apologies" Aurora stated "I did not mean to startle you."
"No, it's fine, you didn't do anything wrong I just…" Steven looked over at the pair of "experts" who were currently debating something involving energy to mass conversion before lowering his voice and whispering "I've just had a bad experience with a Jasper, and when you grabbed me and I saw your arm for a moment I thought you were her."
Aurora looked down at her arm. While the tone of orange was within the standard for a Jasper, it was much thinner than the limbs on those gems tended to be, although given the skinny one she had seen as part of the group detached to "guard" Beach City, she supposed it was possible for one of them to be the size of her. "I see. My apologies for bringing up a bad memory."
"It's fine, really." Steven said before shaking his head. "Well, no it's not fine, she tried to kill me and Amethyst, and she was doing that all because she was convinced I was Mom and blamed me for Pink Diamond shattering, and she went and got corrupted less than a year before you guys came by and told us the truth, so now she's stuck in a bubble and will never knew what actually happened unless we can cure corruption… I'm rambling, sorry, my therapist tells me I need to stop keeping my feelings bottled up so I sometimes just start talking and don't stop."
Aurora nods at that. "Well, that is just one more reason to focus on curing corruption, even if it is taking a long time. I read the reports on your attempts to cure the Nephrite, your success was admirable." Using the tears of a Diamond… the same fluids used to help make new gems. It had a partial success, as if there were other parts missing… how did no one realize this before? She thought in shock, staring at the bland tile of the room as her mind raced. It must have been lost under the mountain of other problems…
"Hey, you ok?" Steven asked, bringing her back to the present. Aurora blinked as she realized the entire room was looking at her, the Peridot and Doctor both pausing their debate to look at her.
"I… I believe I might have a theory for a cure for corruption." She said hesitantly, watching as both Steven and Peridot stared at her, while the Doctor looked confused for a moment before realization hit. "It's only a theory, we should not end this meeting and your important discussion for it."
Doctor Maheswaran snorts a little at that. "Well that's one way to describe what we were talking about. We need to do a bit of setup to prepare for a more exhaustive look at shapeshifting during the next visit here anyway, so I think this is a good time for us to end for today. You three go on, I still have the rest of my shift today." She said, shooing the pair of gems and Steven out of the office and into the waiting area, where the adult human male known as "Greg" was waiting for them. As soon as the door closed, Steven and Peridot looked at Aurora, barely paying attention to Greg.
"So… did something happen?" The only pure human in the room asked.
"I believe it would be best if I explained this as we moved towards the conveyance vehicle." Aurora responded.
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"... and that's why I believe that the mixture of fluids from all four Diamonds is likely to produce positive results in the curing of corruption." Aurora finished, leaving the Dondai silent except for the sounds of the road and engine as they drove towards Beach City.
"But wait, wouldn't Mom have tried that already? That's the stuff in injectors, and both Kindergartens are loaded with those." Steven pointed out from the seat that, for some arcane reason, was named after a type of chemical-based projectile weaponry.
"Hmmm, well in theory, however it is commonly understood among technicians that injector fluid goes bad after a couple centuries, perhaps by the time she and the other survivors were able to reach the kindergarten it had gone bad?" Peridot pointed out. "It could explain why she hasn't tried it again, she might not know about the degradation and think that she already tried using perfectly good Diamond fluids."
"Alright, I'm going to be honest I'm kind of getting grossed out by all the talk of fluids." Greg said from the driver's seat."
"Sorry Dad." Steven replied. "But it's a good point, and if they're right… then we could cure everyone." His voice was full of wonder as visions of the sea of bubbles in the burning room filled it, imagining what it will be like when that room is finally, finally, empty for good. "We have to try."
"Agreed." Aurora said. "I will inform Pink Diamond upon my return of this theory, she is likely to at least provide us the resources to test the theory."
Steven nodded, barely paying attention anymore as he looked out over the rolling hills of Delmarva, a smile on his face. They're finally going to be free. After thousands of years, all that they went through while corrupted… they'll all be free.
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Authors Notes:
And now you see why I said I needed one more update before I felt comfortable starting the hiatus. Can you imagine how annoying it would be if I just wrote that ending part then said "Alright, see you in a month!"? Although cliffhangers do work if used sparingly... nah, I'm not going to be that cruel.
Anyways, comments and likes are always appreciated, so give all that you are willing to give.
I noticed a flash reference
Foundations 12.4
Chapter 12: Foundations
Part 4
The end of corruption happened on a normal, sunny day. The Crystal Gems sat in the Strawberry Fields, a small plastic tub of water setup around a hundred paces from the warp pad as they waited. In a flash of light three new arrivals joined them: Iolite, Aurora, and Pink Diamond. The two groups met, Pink holding out four vials, each the color of one of the Diamonds, while Steven held in his hands a small purple bubble, with a single, almost shard-like gem inside. "Alright, we're ready." He said, looking up at his Mom, conflicted emotions running through him like wildfire.
She looked down at him with a soft smile. "That's the one? The Jasper who blamed you for what happened to me?"
Steven nodded. "She spent thousands of years angry because of a lie, if this works then… then maybe she can start healing."
That was enough for her, and she nodded before pulling out the containers, putting drop after drop into the tub until the water was a mix of vibrant colors. Steven stepped forward to put the bubble in, and Pink turned to say "Everyone else should step back, if this doesn't work I can handle it myself, and if it does… then I need to handle this myself." At her words, everyone else stepped back, even Steven, and watched as the bubble floated on the surface of the tub for just a moment before popping and sinking to the bottom. After a moment, in a flash of light the towering form of Jasper burst from the water, shattering the cheap plastic of the tub as her form took shape, nearly identical to her pre-corruption self except with a pair of horns and some minor discoloration.
She looked around, confusion and anger on her face as the memories of her last moments before being corrupted struck her, and whirling around she paused at the sight of Pink Diamond standing above her. The shock seemed to physically knock her back, leaving her on her butt as she stared, frozen at the form of the Diamond she had given everything to serve and avenge. "My Diamond… I thought, I saw you… you're not shattered?"
"No, I never was." Pink replied, tears dripping down her face as thousands of years of regret washed over her. She's been hurt because of me.
"My Diamond…?"
"I owe you so much more than an apology for what happened to you, but for now it's what I can give you." Looking at the confused Quartz, she shook her head. "Look at me, you probably think I'm talking nonsense right now. You'd think after all this time I'd get better at explaining this." Pink Diamond stepped back and a brilliant display of light left Rose Quartz standing in the field.
No one spoke as Jasper looked at her with shock and disbelief, frozen in place by what she had just seen, until her mouth began to twitch. "Rose Quartz… was Pink Diamond." She muttered numbly.
Slumping to the ground, her frame shook with rage for a brief moment before her head shot up, looking Rose in the eye and demanding "So what does that mean? What was the point of all of that? Was I made to fight a war that wasn't even real!?"
"The war was real, but it wasn't necessary. It happened because I couldn't think of any other way to change the other Diamonds minds about Earth, so I… might have gone too far." Rose replied softly, watching as the powerful Quartz shook like a vulnerable child, her worldview shattered by the revelation.
"You did." Jasper replied, bringing herself to her feet. "You did all of that, created me, started a war… to win an argument about this pathetic clump of dirt and rock." She said as she glared at Rose, their two forms near evenly sized. Taking a step forward, Jasper continued to rant. "What do you all see in this planet? I was made here and I've hated it since the moment I came out of the ground, and you all act like it's worth throwing away everything for! It even ensnared a Diamond!"
Each step brought her closer to Rose, the gem who was at once the hated enemy and the object of her supreme devotion. Closing the distance, she stood there, waiting for a reply, for any sort of answer to her rage and pain. Rose sighed, regret on her features as she replied "I know it sounds crazy, and I know you might never agree with me, but I do think the Earth is worth protecting. I'm sorry I hurt so many people to do it, but if I had to do it again I wouldn't change my goals, only my methods."
Jasper listened as she spoke, rage growing within her with every sentence, and when Rose made her declaration she let out a scream of anger and threw a punch, the strike wild and uncontrolled, with none of the millenia of skill behind it. It was a strike of pure emotion, and it was no surprise to anyone, even Jasper, when Rose caught it in the palm of her hand. The two stared at each other for a moment, tears forming in Jaspers and, to the Perfect Quartzs' surprise, Roses' eyes. For a moment they were locked in the embrace, powerful forms struggling against each other before Jasper yielded, stepping back with a look of defeat and pain on her face.
"I imagined what it would be like to see you again… but I never could have imagined this." She said, turning her back to Rose and stomping off. "Fighting you wouldn't even be fun."
For Amethyst, who had seen how Jasper enjoyed combat, those words and the larger gems stance struck a chord deep inside her. Stepping forward, she put a hand on Stevens' chest as if to tell him "I got this" before moving to intercept Jasper as she trudged away. Stepping up beside the taller gem, she looked up and said "Hey, come on, you don't really want to be alone right now, do you?"
Jasper blinked in surprise, looking down at Amethyst as if seeing her for the first time. "Why are you being nice to me?" She whispered, her voice even hoarser than normal.
"Because I know what you're feeling right now." Came the response, causing Rose to flinch as she heard it. "We didn't know the truth either."
Jasper stared at her for a moment, as if searching for any sign of falsehood, before sighing and nodding. "Sure, stay if you want, but I'm not going to listen to her anymore." She said, sitting down on the ground and refusing to move.
Rose felt a wave of guilt run through her at the sight, but Amethysts' confident wave convinced her to not step forward. Holding up the vials of Diamond juice, she handed them over to Steven and said "I better head back and get the rest of the fluids, we'll need a lot of them to cure everyone. I'll meet you all at the fountain as soon as I get everything we need." She said, turning and heading back towards the warp pad, more disturbed by how easy it was getting to be hated for her actions than anything else. I hate that I'm getting used to this. I shouldn't be, but I have done it so much that it just doesn't hit as hard as it used to.
-----
When Pink returned with the fluids, they gathered the gems from the burning room and took them all to the fountain, a constant stream of gems into the colorful waters that essence of all four Diamonds mixed together in. Placing bubble after bubble inside, the pool was soon filled with cheers and happiness, as gems whose last memories had been of the pain and confusion of being corrupted realized that they were back to almost normal, spontaneous celebrations breaking out that crossed the dividing lines between Homeworld Loyalist and Crystal Gems.
Steven was having the time of his life meeting all these new gems. Nephrite had gently informed him that her name wasn't "Centipeedle", but she had been so happy to be uncorrupted now, and the sight of her reunited with her crew after thousands of years was just so adorable and sweet and-
"Steven!" Bismuths' voice cut through the din. "I need to use the pool, I found Biggs!" She said happily, holding a pink bubble with a very familiar orange mottled gem inside. He felt a flash of regret at that, remembering the day she had been forced by Jasper to attack him and Amethyst on the beach…
"Hey, you doing alright little guy?" Bismuth asked, a look of concern on her face.
"Yeah, just… remembering."
A look of comprehension crossed Bismuths' features. "Ah, this isn't one of… one of your moms, is it? Was she… did she hurt you?"
Steven could tell that Bismuth was conflicted, her reunion with an old friend ruined by his feelings because he just had to bring it up to make her sad and- No, it's fine, making someone else sad by being honest about my feelings is not the end of the world. He thought to himself, hoping that if he repeated it enough he would start to believe it, the fake it till you make it strategy his therapist had taught. Looking up at Bismuth, he shook his head. "She didn't hurt me, the Jasper that was trying to use her as a weapon did, but not her. Now let's get her out of there and healed up, she's missed a lot in the last few thousand years." He said as he picked up the bubble, gently lowering it into the fountain water.
Beside him, Bismuth tensed as the bubble popped and the gem disappeared below the surface, but only a moment later a glow shone through the liquid and a large gem leapt to her feet, looking around in confusion for a brief moment before Bismuth tackled her, yelling with joy. Stepping back, Steven looked around the pool, watching as gems large and small were swept up in the atmosphere, an impromptu pool party breaking out through the fountain, with Pearl far too happy to care about the roughhousing.
Ruby and Sapphire were still unfused before the wedding, taking time to live as their own gems while Steven kept trying to find time to plan it. He had tried to convince them to design their own wedding, but neither had budged, saying they would not replace their wedding planner and that he could take all the time he needed. Now that the Crystal Gems who weren't shattered were popping out of the pool like spring daisies, he realized he might need more chairs for the beachfront wedding he was planning. As he thought about that, he watched them chat with old friends, a small crowd surrounding them as they told stories that, from the way flames kept bursting from Rubys' feet, were incredibly exciting.
On the other side of the pool, his moms group mostly kept to themselves, mom as Pink Diamond assuring Crystal Gems that she had no intention of starting the war again, and keeping the Homeworld Gems from causing any trouble, even though it seemed none of them were in the mood for that. The Pink Agate that commanded her personal guard, Sway, was in the pool, carrying another Pink Lace Agate out of the water over her head before delivering her to a crowd of happy Quartzes, who promptly swarmed their returned Agate and dunked her under the water, rank forgotten as they celebrated with playful violence. Of course, Sway was unable to get away from the crowd before one nabbed her, sending her faceplanting into the pool and causing a cry of alarm to come from the Rose Quartzes along the edge. For a moment, Steven was worried things would escalate, but it seems even the guards had been infected with the celebratory atmosphere, jumping into the water to fight over their Agate with the other Quartzes, who soon rallied against them in a play battle that thankfully seemed confined to that part of the pool for now.
Iolite stood at the side of the pool, conversing quietly with a cluster of other Iolites, the small inquisitive gems chatting earnestly about something or another as Aurora looked at the cluster with a strange look. It was almost like that look Connie had gotten when he joked about using the cloud room to make duplicates of himself for more hugs. But why would Aurora be making that look…? He pondered for a moment before a pink blur caught his attention.
Spinel was having the time of her life, bouncing around the pool and chatting with everyone, welcoming them all back as she did. She was moving around with ease and grace, finding gems that were all alone for any reason and talking to them, taking only a few moments before finding a group or other loner and placing them together, making sure no one was left out. If he had to guess, Steven would say at least a third of the party atmosphere came from Spinel working her magic, making others make friends and cementing herself as "the weird Spinel who introduced me to my new friends" for dozens of gems. If she wasn't on their side, he might have been worried about that, but before he could consider it more she came to a stop… right in front of Pearl.
Pink also noticed when Spinel and Pearl met, and she felt a shiver run down her spine. Spinel had never seemed to hold Pinks decisions against Pearl, but even still the sight of them meeting concerned her. As she watched though, the two seemed to simply be talking conversationally, Spinel using her shapeshifting to place three or more bubbles in the fountain at a time, dramatically increasing the process as she talked with Pearl, who for her part was so overwhelmed with happiness that she seemed to barely be paying attention to the other gem. After a few moments, Spinel laughed and patted Pearl on the back, sending the thin gem sprawling into the water before grabbing her and apologizing, still laughing the entire time.
Sitting back, Pink looked over the fountain and took in the sights, watching as the corruption that had tormented so many gems for so long was washed away. It wasn't enough to remove the regret, Amethyst slipping in part way through saying that Jasper was sitting in a cave and smacked her to get her to leave was only the second most blatant reminder of her mistakes, the massive statue of Rose Quartz crying in the center of the fountain being number one. But despite the regret, looking around at the crowd of celebrating gems put a smile on her face, and Pink could honestly say for the first time since she had woken up all those months ago confused and alone in a strange station that her life was good.
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And that is that. 43 updates, more than 130,000 words, and a lot of learning about my own strengths and weaknesses as a writer later, I have finally reached the timeskip to future.
The hiatus will last four weeks, giving me plenty of time to mentally recharge, plot out the post-timeskip story, and maybe write an interlude about Steven going to school or something slice-of-life like that. However, that brings me to an announcement I want to make: once I return from the hiatus, I will update once every two weeks instead of once every week.
My reasons for this are simple: I have way to many story ideas in my head, and the last time I tried to keep this story on a weekly updating schedule while writing a second one I burned out, so because I have a still in progress fic that left off just as things were getting good and a google drive with 4 different first chapters for various other ideas, I decided that I would reduce the update schedule here to give myself the free time to write other things without burning out.
Sometime in the next month or so I might post a snippet collection of those first chapters, see what people think of the ideas, and if I do I'll link it in the author notes of the next update after the hiatus.
Thank you to everyone who has followed me so far, whether you've been here from the very beginning or just stumbled across my silly little story a while ago, you are all great and I am glad you enjoyed reading what I write for you. See you all again after the break.
Part 4
The end of corruption happened on a normal, sunny day. The Crystal Gems sat in the Strawberry Fields, a small plastic tub of water setup around a hundred paces from the warp pad as they waited. In a flash of light three new arrivals joined them: Iolite, Aurora, and Pink Diamond. The two groups met, Pink holding out four vials, each the color of one of the Diamonds, while Steven held in his hands a small purple bubble, with a single, almost shard-like gem inside. "Alright, we're ready." He said, looking up at his Mom, conflicted emotions running through him like wildfire.
She looked down at him with a soft smile. "That's the one? The Jasper who blamed you for what happened to me?"
Steven nodded. "She spent thousands of years angry because of a lie, if this works then… then maybe she can start healing."
That was enough for her, and she nodded before pulling out the containers, putting drop after drop into the tub until the water was a mix of vibrant colors. Steven stepped forward to put the bubble in, and Pink turned to say "Everyone else should step back, if this doesn't work I can handle it myself, and if it does… then I need to handle this myself." At her words, everyone else stepped back, even Steven, and watched as the bubble floated on the surface of the tub for just a moment before popping and sinking to the bottom. After a moment, in a flash of light the towering form of Jasper burst from the water, shattering the cheap plastic of the tub as her form took shape, nearly identical to her pre-corruption self except with a pair of horns and some minor discoloration.
She looked around, confusion and anger on her face as the memories of her last moments before being corrupted struck her, and whirling around she paused at the sight of Pink Diamond standing above her. The shock seemed to physically knock her back, leaving her on her butt as she stared, frozen at the form of the Diamond she had given everything to serve and avenge. "My Diamond… I thought, I saw you… you're not shattered?"
"No, I never was." Pink replied, tears dripping down her face as thousands of years of regret washed over her. She's been hurt because of me.
"My Diamond…?"
"I owe you so much more than an apology for what happened to you, but for now it's what I can give you." Looking at the confused Quartz, she shook her head. "Look at me, you probably think I'm talking nonsense right now. You'd think after all this time I'd get better at explaining this." Pink Diamond stepped back and a brilliant display of light left Rose Quartz standing in the field.
No one spoke as Jasper looked at her with shock and disbelief, frozen in place by what she had just seen, until her mouth began to twitch. "Rose Quartz… was Pink Diamond." She muttered numbly.
Slumping to the ground, her frame shook with rage for a brief moment before her head shot up, looking Rose in the eye and demanding "So what does that mean? What was the point of all of that? Was I made to fight a war that wasn't even real!?"
"The war was real, but it wasn't necessary. It happened because I couldn't think of any other way to change the other Diamonds minds about Earth, so I… might have gone too far." Rose replied softly, watching as the powerful Quartz shook like a vulnerable child, her worldview shattered by the revelation.
"You did." Jasper replied, bringing herself to her feet. "You did all of that, created me, started a war… to win an argument about this pathetic clump of dirt and rock." She said as she glared at Rose, their two forms near evenly sized. Taking a step forward, Jasper continued to rant. "What do you all see in this planet? I was made here and I've hated it since the moment I came out of the ground, and you all act like it's worth throwing away everything for! It even ensnared a Diamond!"
Each step brought her closer to Rose, the gem who was at once the hated enemy and the object of her supreme devotion. Closing the distance, she stood there, waiting for a reply, for any sort of answer to her rage and pain. Rose sighed, regret on her features as she replied "I know it sounds crazy, and I know you might never agree with me, but I do think the Earth is worth protecting. I'm sorry I hurt so many people to do it, but if I had to do it again I wouldn't change my goals, only my methods."
Jasper listened as she spoke, rage growing within her with every sentence, and when Rose made her declaration she let out a scream of anger and threw a punch, the strike wild and uncontrolled, with none of the millenia of skill behind it. It was a strike of pure emotion, and it was no surprise to anyone, even Jasper, when Rose caught it in the palm of her hand. The two stared at each other for a moment, tears forming in Jaspers and, to the Perfect Quartzs' surprise, Roses' eyes. For a moment they were locked in the embrace, powerful forms struggling against each other before Jasper yielded, stepping back with a look of defeat and pain on her face.
"I imagined what it would be like to see you again… but I never could have imagined this." She said, turning her back to Rose and stomping off. "Fighting you wouldn't even be fun."
For Amethyst, who had seen how Jasper enjoyed combat, those words and the larger gems stance struck a chord deep inside her. Stepping forward, she put a hand on Stevens' chest as if to tell him "I got this" before moving to intercept Jasper as she trudged away. Stepping up beside the taller gem, she looked up and said "Hey, come on, you don't really want to be alone right now, do you?"
Jasper blinked in surprise, looking down at Amethyst as if seeing her for the first time. "Why are you being nice to me?" She whispered, her voice even hoarser than normal.
"Because I know what you're feeling right now." Came the response, causing Rose to flinch as she heard it. "We didn't know the truth either."
Jasper stared at her for a moment, as if searching for any sign of falsehood, before sighing and nodding. "Sure, stay if you want, but I'm not going to listen to her anymore." She said, sitting down on the ground and refusing to move.
Rose felt a wave of guilt run through her at the sight, but Amethysts' confident wave convinced her to not step forward. Holding up the vials of Diamond juice, she handed them over to Steven and said "I better head back and get the rest of the fluids, we'll need a lot of them to cure everyone. I'll meet you all at the fountain as soon as I get everything we need." She said, turning and heading back towards the warp pad, more disturbed by how easy it was getting to be hated for her actions than anything else. I hate that I'm getting used to this. I shouldn't be, but I have done it so much that it just doesn't hit as hard as it used to.
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When Pink returned with the fluids, they gathered the gems from the burning room and took them all to the fountain, a constant stream of gems into the colorful waters that essence of all four Diamonds mixed together in. Placing bubble after bubble inside, the pool was soon filled with cheers and happiness, as gems whose last memories had been of the pain and confusion of being corrupted realized that they were back to almost normal, spontaneous celebrations breaking out that crossed the dividing lines between Homeworld Loyalist and Crystal Gems.
Steven was having the time of his life meeting all these new gems. Nephrite had gently informed him that her name wasn't "Centipeedle", but she had been so happy to be uncorrupted now, and the sight of her reunited with her crew after thousands of years was just so adorable and sweet and-
"Steven!" Bismuths' voice cut through the din. "I need to use the pool, I found Biggs!" She said happily, holding a pink bubble with a very familiar orange mottled gem inside. He felt a flash of regret at that, remembering the day she had been forced by Jasper to attack him and Amethyst on the beach…
"Hey, you doing alright little guy?" Bismuth asked, a look of concern on her face.
"Yeah, just… remembering."
A look of comprehension crossed Bismuths' features. "Ah, this isn't one of… one of your moms, is it? Was she… did she hurt you?"
Steven could tell that Bismuth was conflicted, her reunion with an old friend ruined by his feelings because he just had to bring it up to make her sad and- No, it's fine, making someone else sad by being honest about my feelings is not the end of the world. He thought to himself, hoping that if he repeated it enough he would start to believe it, the fake it till you make it strategy his therapist had taught. Looking up at Bismuth, he shook his head. "She didn't hurt me, the Jasper that was trying to use her as a weapon did, but not her. Now let's get her out of there and healed up, she's missed a lot in the last few thousand years." He said as he picked up the bubble, gently lowering it into the fountain water.
Beside him, Bismuth tensed as the bubble popped and the gem disappeared below the surface, but only a moment later a glow shone through the liquid and a large gem leapt to her feet, looking around in confusion for a brief moment before Bismuth tackled her, yelling with joy. Stepping back, Steven looked around the pool, watching as gems large and small were swept up in the atmosphere, an impromptu pool party breaking out through the fountain, with Pearl far too happy to care about the roughhousing.
Ruby and Sapphire were still unfused before the wedding, taking time to live as their own gems while Steven kept trying to find time to plan it. He had tried to convince them to design their own wedding, but neither had budged, saying they would not replace their wedding planner and that he could take all the time he needed. Now that the Crystal Gems who weren't shattered were popping out of the pool like spring daisies, he realized he might need more chairs for the beachfront wedding he was planning. As he thought about that, he watched them chat with old friends, a small crowd surrounding them as they told stories that, from the way flames kept bursting from Rubys' feet, were incredibly exciting.
On the other side of the pool, his moms group mostly kept to themselves, mom as Pink Diamond assuring Crystal Gems that she had no intention of starting the war again, and keeping the Homeworld Gems from causing any trouble, even though it seemed none of them were in the mood for that. The Pink Agate that commanded her personal guard, Sway, was in the pool, carrying another Pink Lace Agate out of the water over her head before delivering her to a crowd of happy Quartzes, who promptly swarmed their returned Agate and dunked her under the water, rank forgotten as they celebrated with playful violence. Of course, Sway was unable to get away from the crowd before one nabbed her, sending her faceplanting into the pool and causing a cry of alarm to come from the Rose Quartzes along the edge. For a moment, Steven was worried things would escalate, but it seems even the guards had been infected with the celebratory atmosphere, jumping into the water to fight over their Agate with the other Quartzes, who soon rallied against them in a play battle that thankfully seemed confined to that part of the pool for now.
Iolite stood at the side of the pool, conversing quietly with a cluster of other Iolites, the small inquisitive gems chatting earnestly about something or another as Aurora looked at the cluster with a strange look. It was almost like that look Connie had gotten when he joked about using the cloud room to make duplicates of himself for more hugs. But why would Aurora be making that look…? He pondered for a moment before a pink blur caught his attention.
Spinel was having the time of her life, bouncing around the pool and chatting with everyone, welcoming them all back as she did. She was moving around with ease and grace, finding gems that were all alone for any reason and talking to them, taking only a few moments before finding a group or other loner and placing them together, making sure no one was left out. If he had to guess, Steven would say at least a third of the party atmosphere came from Spinel working her magic, making others make friends and cementing herself as "the weird Spinel who introduced me to my new friends" for dozens of gems. If she wasn't on their side, he might have been worried about that, but before he could consider it more she came to a stop… right in front of Pearl.
Pink also noticed when Spinel and Pearl met, and she felt a shiver run down her spine. Spinel had never seemed to hold Pinks decisions against Pearl, but even still the sight of them meeting concerned her. As she watched though, the two seemed to simply be talking conversationally, Spinel using her shapeshifting to place three or more bubbles in the fountain at a time, dramatically increasing the process as she talked with Pearl, who for her part was so overwhelmed with happiness that she seemed to barely be paying attention to the other gem. After a few moments, Spinel laughed and patted Pearl on the back, sending the thin gem sprawling into the water before grabbing her and apologizing, still laughing the entire time.
Sitting back, Pink looked over the fountain and took in the sights, watching as the corruption that had tormented so many gems for so long was washed away. It wasn't enough to remove the regret, Amethyst slipping in part way through saying that Jasper was sitting in a cave and smacked her to get her to leave was only the second most blatant reminder of her mistakes, the massive statue of Rose Quartz crying in the center of the fountain being number one. But despite the regret, looking around at the crowd of celebrating gems put a smile on her face, and Pink could honestly say for the first time since she had woken up all those months ago confused and alone in a strange station that her life was good.
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And that is that. 43 updates, more than 130,000 words, and a lot of learning about my own strengths and weaknesses as a writer later, I have finally reached the timeskip to future.
The hiatus will last four weeks, giving me plenty of time to mentally recharge, plot out the post-timeskip story, and maybe write an interlude about Steven going to school or something slice-of-life like that. However, that brings me to an announcement I want to make: once I return from the hiatus, I will update once every two weeks instead of once every week.
My reasons for this are simple: I have way to many story ideas in my head, and the last time I tried to keep this story on a weekly updating schedule while writing a second one I burned out, so because I have a still in progress fic that left off just as things were getting good and a google drive with 4 different first chapters for various other ideas, I decided that I would reduce the update schedule here to give myself the free time to write other things without burning out.
Sometime in the next month or so I might post a snippet collection of those first chapters, see what people think of the ideas, and if I do I'll link it in the author notes of the next update after the hiatus.
Thank you to everyone who has followed me so far, whether you've been here from the very beginning or just stumbled across my silly little story a while ago, you are all great and I am glad you enjoyed reading what I write for you. See you all again after the break.
TheBleachDoctor
Secretly a Cat
- Location
- The Plane of Infinite Kittens
- Pronouns
- She/Her
I eagerly await your take on Future! I guess Lars was spared a Pink fate in this.
Catching Up 2.1.1
Book Two Start
Chapter 1: Catching Up
Part One
Rose Quartz laid back on the beach, her eyes closed as she took in the sounds of the ocean waves and the feeling of the sand beneath her, a wide smile on her face as she relaxed. She had so few opportunities to do this nowadays, to slip into the form that, despite all her time as Pink Diamond, still felt like her true self and just… slip away from her life, her responsibilities. She couldn't make a habit of it, and she always made sure a select few knew where she was when she did, but when the stress of living as a Diamond got to her, she found a way to come here, to a familiar beach beside a solid stone hand buried in the sand.
"Rose." Pearls voice cut through her solitude as the thin gem silently walked towards her. "I figured I should let you know, Bismuth will be coming by around an hour after sunrise, and I know you two are… improving, but…" She shrugged.
With a sigh, Rose pulled herself to her feet, a pang of regret running through her. It was nice while it lasted… I am not in the mood for another confrontation with Bismuth. The two gems had, over the last year and a half, spoken a little over once a month. Last months discussion had even ended before any voices were raised, which Pearl viewed as a sign of improvement, but Rose was in no rush to see if they could do the same today. Facing Pearl with a smile, she replied "Well, I think I've spent long enough relaxing here, it's time to get back to work."
"Yes well, unfortunately life does seem rather busy nowadays, doesn't it?" Pearl responded as she set off towards the beach house, her slender form drawing Rose's eye as she walked behind. Ahead of them loomed the large form of obsidian, made so long ago when they all had shared a common purpose… but there's no point regretting it now, you have millenia to make it up to them… if you can.
Shaking away the intrusive thoughts, Rose looked over the expanded house nestled in the lap of the temple, two stories of timber contrasting against the mossy stone with a glass dome at the top holding the relocated warp pad. Walking up the stairs, Rose could hear movement inside despite the early hour, and as the pair slipped inside she was greeted with a sight that made her heart break.
Steven was sitting at the table, a groggy expression on his face as he ate a bowl of cereal, a backpack loaded with books and other school supplies sitting on the floor next to his chair. As the door opened, he looked up, surprise on his face. "Mom? I thought you left last night after dinner."
"I should have, but… I just had a hard time leaving, going back to pretending to be someone else… so I spent a night out in the sand." She replied, guilt washing over her as she thought of all the responsibilities she was dodging just to stay on Earth a little while longer…
"Mom, it's fine, everyone needs breaks, even my therapist takes vacations." Steven replies, snapping her out of her thoughts. "You deserve to be happy too, that's one of the big things I learned in therapy."
"Steven is right Rose, one night to relax isn't the end of the world." Pearl said as she cleaned one of the swords from her collection, the sharp point gleaming in the light of the kitchen.
"I… you're right, you both are." Rose replied, shaking her head as she walked towards the stairs. "What would I do without you two?"
"Get the same advice from Dad?" "Have the multiple members of your court who know the truth tell you the same thing?" Pearl and Steven said together, pausing to share a grin.
Throwing up her hands, Rose said "Fine, fine, you win! I won't try to compliment you any more!" She chuckled, turning towards the stairs to the new warp pad chamber… only to be stopped as she ran into a solid wall of pink fur.
"Lion! There you are, ready to take me to school? Come on, I know Mister Hawthorne has those jumbo treats you like a lot today, he gets a new case every thursday." Steven says, hiking up his backpack and walking towards Lion, who licked his lips at the mention of treats. Hiking himself up on top of the large cat, he looked over to the room. "Bye mom! Bye Pearl, have a good day at Little Homeschool!"
Rose chuckled and shook her head. "I still can't believe you let him name it." She told Pearl.
"Well, it is an amusing play on words, and around half of the student body views the reference in a positive light. On that note, it seems the integration of former Homeworld loyalists into the 'Society of the Future!' is taking place nicely." Pearl replied.
Rose nods as she heads up the stairs, reaching the warp pad as Pearl follows beside her, still cleaning her sword. "Why do you always say it like that? 'The Society of the Future!'" Rose said, putting great emphasis on the words. "I've heard you do it for months now, and I tried to figure out why, but I'm still nowhere near figuring it out."
Pearl stifled a laugh as she put the sword away in her gem. "Oh, it was Connie and Steven's idea. They have insisted that I emphasise certain phrases because it 'makes them sound more epic'. I've mainly been doing it to humor them, but I must admit it has some appeal."
Rose let out a soft laugh, regret tinging her voice. If I was here more I'd have been able to see that… she thought, a soft sigh as she was forced to face the fact that she could only be in one place at once. And speaking of that… "I think it's time for me to get changed and head back. I'll try to swing by… in a month. Hopefully." And with that, light engulfed her form, and Rose Quartz once again took on the shape of Pink Diamond. Pearl, to her credit, seemed to take the transformation much better than Rose/Pink did.
"I look forward to it." The slender gem responded as Pink Diamond stepped onto the pad, disappearing in a flash of light.
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Back at her colony, Pink found herself walking through a collection of buildings that, despite being clearly built by gems, would send any Homeworld architect into a fit with how many rules of the trade had been broken. The reforms to her court, although nowhere near as extensive as the freedom given to the small colony on Earth, were a widespread success, and the builders, artists, and other creative gems of her court had taken to it with gusto. As she stepped out of the warp pad, a trio of Rose Quartzes (Actual Rose Quartzes a voice whispered in her mind, causing her to force it down and continue walking) formed up behind her, casually walking along like they were out for a stroll, their eyes sweeping their surroundings as they played up the stereotype of Quartzes being lazy slackers. It was a disguise that many gems believed wholeheartedly, and Pink almost wished someone would try to attack her one day, just so she could see the look on their face as the "lazy quartzes" jumped into action.
The small group walked along a wide road carved in the side of a mountain between the warp pad and the spire, with Pink taking a moment to look out over the massive construction efforts going on around her. Her spire sat in a dip below two peaks, with the massive glass domed top rising a few stories above them. On the slopes to either side of the spire a massive network of roads had divided the mountainside into plots of land, where builders had constructed experimental buildings of all styles and colors, experimenting and bending or breaking every rule of gem architecture in the process. The result, somehow, was actually pleasing to look at, an expression of freedom and ingenuity that did not fully abandon the core of what made a gem a gem.
The greatest change however, was not in architecture, but in attitude. As she walked up the road to the spire, Pink was not greeted with bows and salutes, with all other gems turning towards her respectfully as she passed by. Oh, there were salutes, and the crowds did part for her without her saying a word, but it was a start. She felt herself flush with embarrassment the way she always did when crowds of gems she didn't know praised her, but at this point she was finally reaching the point where she was, if not used to it, then not in the mood to stop it either. Stepping into the spire, she watched as the gems of her court mixed around, discussing the business of the day with a sort of excited energy, the old caste barriers destroyed as gems that previously never would have been in those roles took to their new work with enthusiasm, with previously homogenous clusters of gems broken up in a wide variety of colors and shapes as they went about their days.
The aristocratic core of her court had gone through a bit of a rough patch when the reforms were introduced, but constant pressure from their Diamond, as well as the implied support of the other Diamonds for this "test" that Pink had been running, had smoothed over many ruffled feathers. Combined with the massive shifting of new gems into the court, as Rubies worked alongside Opals and Bismuths worked alongside Tourmalines, the hardliners found themselves increasingly isolated in the spire that many of them had viewed as a symbol of their superiority to the rest of the gems in the colony.
Entering the throne room at the top of the spire was also completely different than it had been before the reforms. Now, unencumbered by the need to put on the air of being the perfect Diamond, Pink felt free to turn the room into a large greenhouse, exotic plants from both Earth and her new colony world growing throughout the glass dome as stone paths lead from the staircase to her throne in the center, where a small pavilion gave her a place to greet petitioners. Stepping off the throne to join the groups that had come to her for help always gave her a nice feeling, as if she was removing the separation between herself and the gems of her court.
Pink smiled as those memories flowed through her mind, sitting up on her throne with a sigh before pulling up her work station, preparing for another long day of trying to make things just a little bit better. As she did, she noticed a report flagged as URGENT and opened it up.
My Diamond
Following the successful isolation of what exactly is drained from the ground in the creation of a new gem in experiment 27-T, a subsequent round of testing, the 28 series, began to determine if the addition of these materials at the same rate the process drains them through Rose Quartz tears, the growth of select organic life forms, and addition of synthetic chemicals would be sufficient to prevent permanent damage to the planet.
As of this morning, test 28-L concluded following extensive calibration of growth circumstances and the makeup of the added materials. Preliminary analysis indicates no long term damage, however a single test growing a single gem is insufficient data to determine the true effects of the process.
With your permission, I have drawn up a plan for a large-scale test, which will create 100 gems of various types. If this is successful, then we may have finally found a method to produce gems without harming the organic life on a planet permanently.
May we begin final testing?
Pink took a moment to reflect on that note, a bit surprised by it. After all this time, thousands of years of struggling, all the suffering I didn't do enough to stop… and once I put the resources I need into it, we have a promising solution in two years. She mused as she wrote a simple reply.
Yes
-----
Back on Earth, as his mother got to work on running a planet, Steven Universe went to school. The contrast between their daily lives was sharp, and it had taken months for Steven to accept that he didn't have to jump in and help her out with everything, especially after she explained that he would just make things more complicated by raising questions like "Why is the Rose Quartz Hybrid here?"
Of course his life was not exactly "normal" just because he couldn't travel between planets to work on reforming the gem empire, and his arrival at school showed that off amazingly well.
With a roar and a flash of pink light, Lion leaped onto the grass in front of the school, a couple dozen yards from the busses unloading hundreds of teenagers. At this point, two weeks into the school year, the novelty of the pudgy kid with a shiny belly button riding to school on a giant pink lion was wearing off, and the glances and hushed discussion had mostly retreated to about the same level as if Steven was riding to school in a particularly nice car, which suited Steven just fine. He had inherited his mothers discomfort with crowds looking up to him in awe after all.
With Steven still on his back, Lion plodded along the grass to an open classroom window, peeking inside at the teacher behind his desk. "Good morning Mister Hawthorne!" Steven greeted his first period English teacher with a smile.
"Steven! Good to see you, you look like you're having a good day." The balding dark-skinned man replied, pulling out a box of jumbo pet treats as Lion gave him his best sad kitten impression.
"Yeah, Mom stopped by last night, stayed for dinner and everything!"
"It has been a while since your mother stopped by, hasn't it? I suppose you had a good time then?"
"Well… yeah, she has a lot of work, and it's really far away… I'm glad she could stop by though." Steven says as he slides up and into the classroom through the open window, pulling a chuckle from his teacher.
"Steven, you know the principal has told me I need to stop letting you come in through the window like that." He chided as Lion scarfed down the treat. "Just think of the example it is setting for the other students here."
Steven nodded as he stretched out, waving Lion goodbye before the large cat disappeared in another flash of light. "Sorry, it's just so much easier when Lion is already there, and the window is open, and I just don't really think about it that much. I'll try to do better."
"Well, that's all we can ever hope for, isn't it?" came the reply. "Now, you have a while before class starts, I'm sure you don't want to just sit around and chat with me until then, you should go see your friends."
"I think I'll stay, I'll see my friends at lunch, and you look lonely here all alone." Steven said, putting a soft smile on his teachers face.
The rest of his school day passed by without much fanfare, he went to class, turned in homework, spent lunch with Connie, Pedee, and a few others he had met over the last year of school, and at the end of the day him and Connie hopped up on Lion and swung by The Farm, the small patch of land around Lapis and Peridots barn that had become center stage for the gems on Earth. Compared to his mom's colony, The Farm was much less planned, with its buildings taking a lot more inspiration from human designs and only the barest semblance of a grid system laid down by Pearl to keep the paths between buildings rational. Many of the buildings were coated with greenery, Peridot and Lapis's influence on the construction, and the shining metals of most gem construction was replaced with solid stone, brick, or timber.
In the center of it all, surrounded by a well tended garden and with a small pool of water out front, was the barn, Peridot and Lapis's home, and Steven and Connie's destination. Slipping off of Lions back, the two slip inside to a crowded, messy building that somehow still worked, despite the Meep Morps mixing with the advanced imaging equipment Peridot used to analyse him, and the massive gem computer near the back that Peridot mostly used to watch sappy sitcoms and rom-coms when she wasn't 'unveiling the secrets of the mixture of biology and gems!'.
"Oh good, you two are here! I have big news!" The small green gem said, popping up and running to them excitedly.
"Did they release the CPH reboot trailer?!" Steven asked as Connie stifled a giggle.
"No, Bett- actually no it's not better, but it's still good!" Peridot said, grabbing each of them by the hand and dragging them over to the station. "I have received word that Pink Diamond is going to finally begin experiments in sustainable gem production, and once she does that means we will have a source of blank, lifeless gems… perfect for testing my theories on human gem hybrids!" She nearly leaped with joy.
Steven and Connie were both speechless as they heard her talk. For them, the last year since the gems had been uncorrupted en-masse had been simple, routine, their time focusing on "gem stuff" giving way to the concerns of being human teenagers. Now it looked like that was changing, and for better or worst, "gem business" was about to dominate their lives again.
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AN:
And I am back! This story is set after the timeskip I mentioned prior to the hiatus, which was about 15 months or so (from a bit before summer school starts, skipping over a school year to the start of the next one), and I hope I did a good job setting that up.
I'll be exploring a bit of what everyone has been up to with the next update in two weeks, and with a chapter of short (500 words each or so) stories set during the timeskip.
As always, thank you to everyone who leaves likes and/or comments! Feedback is how I know I'm not just rambling into the void and that people actually are reading what I write.
Chapter 1: Catching Up
Part One
Rose Quartz laid back on the beach, her eyes closed as she took in the sounds of the ocean waves and the feeling of the sand beneath her, a wide smile on her face as she relaxed. She had so few opportunities to do this nowadays, to slip into the form that, despite all her time as Pink Diamond, still felt like her true self and just… slip away from her life, her responsibilities. She couldn't make a habit of it, and she always made sure a select few knew where she was when she did, but when the stress of living as a Diamond got to her, she found a way to come here, to a familiar beach beside a solid stone hand buried in the sand.
"Rose." Pearls voice cut through her solitude as the thin gem silently walked towards her. "I figured I should let you know, Bismuth will be coming by around an hour after sunrise, and I know you two are… improving, but…" She shrugged.
With a sigh, Rose pulled herself to her feet, a pang of regret running through her. It was nice while it lasted… I am not in the mood for another confrontation with Bismuth. The two gems had, over the last year and a half, spoken a little over once a month. Last months discussion had even ended before any voices were raised, which Pearl viewed as a sign of improvement, but Rose was in no rush to see if they could do the same today. Facing Pearl with a smile, she replied "Well, I think I've spent long enough relaxing here, it's time to get back to work."
"Yes well, unfortunately life does seem rather busy nowadays, doesn't it?" Pearl responded as she set off towards the beach house, her slender form drawing Rose's eye as she walked behind. Ahead of them loomed the large form of obsidian, made so long ago when they all had shared a common purpose… but there's no point regretting it now, you have millenia to make it up to them… if you can.
Shaking away the intrusive thoughts, Rose looked over the expanded house nestled in the lap of the temple, two stories of timber contrasting against the mossy stone with a glass dome at the top holding the relocated warp pad. Walking up the stairs, Rose could hear movement inside despite the early hour, and as the pair slipped inside she was greeted with a sight that made her heart break.
Steven was sitting at the table, a groggy expression on his face as he ate a bowl of cereal, a backpack loaded with books and other school supplies sitting on the floor next to his chair. As the door opened, he looked up, surprise on his face. "Mom? I thought you left last night after dinner."
"I should have, but… I just had a hard time leaving, going back to pretending to be someone else… so I spent a night out in the sand." She replied, guilt washing over her as she thought of all the responsibilities she was dodging just to stay on Earth a little while longer…
"Mom, it's fine, everyone needs breaks, even my therapist takes vacations." Steven replies, snapping her out of her thoughts. "You deserve to be happy too, that's one of the big things I learned in therapy."
"Steven is right Rose, one night to relax isn't the end of the world." Pearl said as she cleaned one of the swords from her collection, the sharp point gleaming in the light of the kitchen.
"I… you're right, you both are." Rose replied, shaking her head as she walked towards the stairs. "What would I do without you two?"
"Get the same advice from Dad?" "Have the multiple members of your court who know the truth tell you the same thing?" Pearl and Steven said together, pausing to share a grin.
Throwing up her hands, Rose said "Fine, fine, you win! I won't try to compliment you any more!" She chuckled, turning towards the stairs to the new warp pad chamber… only to be stopped as she ran into a solid wall of pink fur.
"Lion! There you are, ready to take me to school? Come on, I know Mister Hawthorne has those jumbo treats you like a lot today, he gets a new case every thursday." Steven says, hiking up his backpack and walking towards Lion, who licked his lips at the mention of treats. Hiking himself up on top of the large cat, he looked over to the room. "Bye mom! Bye Pearl, have a good day at Little Homeschool!"
Rose chuckled and shook her head. "I still can't believe you let him name it." She told Pearl.
"Well, it is an amusing play on words, and around half of the student body views the reference in a positive light. On that note, it seems the integration of former Homeworld loyalists into the 'Society of the Future!' is taking place nicely." Pearl replied.
Rose nods as she heads up the stairs, reaching the warp pad as Pearl follows beside her, still cleaning her sword. "Why do you always say it like that? 'The Society of the Future!'" Rose said, putting great emphasis on the words. "I've heard you do it for months now, and I tried to figure out why, but I'm still nowhere near figuring it out."
Pearl stifled a laugh as she put the sword away in her gem. "Oh, it was Connie and Steven's idea. They have insisted that I emphasise certain phrases because it 'makes them sound more epic'. I've mainly been doing it to humor them, but I must admit it has some appeal."
Rose let out a soft laugh, regret tinging her voice. If I was here more I'd have been able to see that… she thought, a soft sigh as she was forced to face the fact that she could only be in one place at once. And speaking of that… "I think it's time for me to get changed and head back. I'll try to swing by… in a month. Hopefully." And with that, light engulfed her form, and Rose Quartz once again took on the shape of Pink Diamond. Pearl, to her credit, seemed to take the transformation much better than Rose/Pink did.
"I look forward to it." The slender gem responded as Pink Diamond stepped onto the pad, disappearing in a flash of light.
-----
Back at her colony, Pink found herself walking through a collection of buildings that, despite being clearly built by gems, would send any Homeworld architect into a fit with how many rules of the trade had been broken. The reforms to her court, although nowhere near as extensive as the freedom given to the small colony on Earth, were a widespread success, and the builders, artists, and other creative gems of her court had taken to it with gusto. As she stepped out of the warp pad, a trio of Rose Quartzes (Actual Rose Quartzes a voice whispered in her mind, causing her to force it down and continue walking) formed up behind her, casually walking along like they were out for a stroll, their eyes sweeping their surroundings as they played up the stereotype of Quartzes being lazy slackers. It was a disguise that many gems believed wholeheartedly, and Pink almost wished someone would try to attack her one day, just so she could see the look on their face as the "lazy quartzes" jumped into action.
The small group walked along a wide road carved in the side of a mountain between the warp pad and the spire, with Pink taking a moment to look out over the massive construction efforts going on around her. Her spire sat in a dip below two peaks, with the massive glass domed top rising a few stories above them. On the slopes to either side of the spire a massive network of roads had divided the mountainside into plots of land, where builders had constructed experimental buildings of all styles and colors, experimenting and bending or breaking every rule of gem architecture in the process. The result, somehow, was actually pleasing to look at, an expression of freedom and ingenuity that did not fully abandon the core of what made a gem a gem.
The greatest change however, was not in architecture, but in attitude. As she walked up the road to the spire, Pink was not greeted with bows and salutes, with all other gems turning towards her respectfully as she passed by. Oh, there were salutes, and the crowds did part for her without her saying a word, but it was a start. She felt herself flush with embarrassment the way she always did when crowds of gems she didn't know praised her, but at this point she was finally reaching the point where she was, if not used to it, then not in the mood to stop it either. Stepping into the spire, she watched as the gems of her court mixed around, discussing the business of the day with a sort of excited energy, the old caste barriers destroyed as gems that previously never would have been in those roles took to their new work with enthusiasm, with previously homogenous clusters of gems broken up in a wide variety of colors and shapes as they went about their days.
The aristocratic core of her court had gone through a bit of a rough patch when the reforms were introduced, but constant pressure from their Diamond, as well as the implied support of the other Diamonds for this "test" that Pink had been running, had smoothed over many ruffled feathers. Combined with the massive shifting of new gems into the court, as Rubies worked alongside Opals and Bismuths worked alongside Tourmalines, the hardliners found themselves increasingly isolated in the spire that many of them had viewed as a symbol of their superiority to the rest of the gems in the colony.
Entering the throne room at the top of the spire was also completely different than it had been before the reforms. Now, unencumbered by the need to put on the air of being the perfect Diamond, Pink felt free to turn the room into a large greenhouse, exotic plants from both Earth and her new colony world growing throughout the glass dome as stone paths lead from the staircase to her throne in the center, where a small pavilion gave her a place to greet petitioners. Stepping off the throne to join the groups that had come to her for help always gave her a nice feeling, as if she was removing the separation between herself and the gems of her court.
Pink smiled as those memories flowed through her mind, sitting up on her throne with a sigh before pulling up her work station, preparing for another long day of trying to make things just a little bit better. As she did, she noticed a report flagged as URGENT and opened it up.
My Diamond
Following the successful isolation of what exactly is drained from the ground in the creation of a new gem in experiment 27-T, a subsequent round of testing, the 28 series, began to determine if the addition of these materials at the same rate the process drains them through Rose Quartz tears, the growth of select organic life forms, and addition of synthetic chemicals would be sufficient to prevent permanent damage to the planet.
As of this morning, test 28-L concluded following extensive calibration of growth circumstances and the makeup of the added materials. Preliminary analysis indicates no long term damage, however a single test growing a single gem is insufficient data to determine the true effects of the process.
With your permission, I have drawn up a plan for a large-scale test, which will create 100 gems of various types. If this is successful, then we may have finally found a method to produce gems without harming the organic life on a planet permanently.
May we begin final testing?
Pink took a moment to reflect on that note, a bit surprised by it. After all this time, thousands of years of struggling, all the suffering I didn't do enough to stop… and once I put the resources I need into it, we have a promising solution in two years. She mused as she wrote a simple reply.
Yes
-----
Back on Earth, as his mother got to work on running a planet, Steven Universe went to school. The contrast between their daily lives was sharp, and it had taken months for Steven to accept that he didn't have to jump in and help her out with everything, especially after she explained that he would just make things more complicated by raising questions like "Why is the Rose Quartz Hybrid here?"
Of course his life was not exactly "normal" just because he couldn't travel between planets to work on reforming the gem empire, and his arrival at school showed that off amazingly well.
With a roar and a flash of pink light, Lion leaped onto the grass in front of the school, a couple dozen yards from the busses unloading hundreds of teenagers. At this point, two weeks into the school year, the novelty of the pudgy kid with a shiny belly button riding to school on a giant pink lion was wearing off, and the glances and hushed discussion had mostly retreated to about the same level as if Steven was riding to school in a particularly nice car, which suited Steven just fine. He had inherited his mothers discomfort with crowds looking up to him in awe after all.
With Steven still on his back, Lion plodded along the grass to an open classroom window, peeking inside at the teacher behind his desk. "Good morning Mister Hawthorne!" Steven greeted his first period English teacher with a smile.
"Steven! Good to see you, you look like you're having a good day." The balding dark-skinned man replied, pulling out a box of jumbo pet treats as Lion gave him his best sad kitten impression.
"Yeah, Mom stopped by last night, stayed for dinner and everything!"
"It has been a while since your mother stopped by, hasn't it? I suppose you had a good time then?"
"Well… yeah, she has a lot of work, and it's really far away… I'm glad she could stop by though." Steven says as he slides up and into the classroom through the open window, pulling a chuckle from his teacher.
"Steven, you know the principal has told me I need to stop letting you come in through the window like that." He chided as Lion scarfed down the treat. "Just think of the example it is setting for the other students here."
Steven nodded as he stretched out, waving Lion goodbye before the large cat disappeared in another flash of light. "Sorry, it's just so much easier when Lion is already there, and the window is open, and I just don't really think about it that much. I'll try to do better."
"Well, that's all we can ever hope for, isn't it?" came the reply. "Now, you have a while before class starts, I'm sure you don't want to just sit around and chat with me until then, you should go see your friends."
"I think I'll stay, I'll see my friends at lunch, and you look lonely here all alone." Steven said, putting a soft smile on his teachers face.
The rest of his school day passed by without much fanfare, he went to class, turned in homework, spent lunch with Connie, Pedee, and a few others he had met over the last year of school, and at the end of the day him and Connie hopped up on Lion and swung by The Farm, the small patch of land around Lapis and Peridots barn that had become center stage for the gems on Earth. Compared to his mom's colony, The Farm was much less planned, with its buildings taking a lot more inspiration from human designs and only the barest semblance of a grid system laid down by Pearl to keep the paths between buildings rational. Many of the buildings were coated with greenery, Peridot and Lapis's influence on the construction, and the shining metals of most gem construction was replaced with solid stone, brick, or timber.
In the center of it all, surrounded by a well tended garden and with a small pool of water out front, was the barn, Peridot and Lapis's home, and Steven and Connie's destination. Slipping off of Lions back, the two slip inside to a crowded, messy building that somehow still worked, despite the Meep Morps mixing with the advanced imaging equipment Peridot used to analyse him, and the massive gem computer near the back that Peridot mostly used to watch sappy sitcoms and rom-coms when she wasn't 'unveiling the secrets of the mixture of biology and gems!'.
"Oh good, you two are here! I have big news!" The small green gem said, popping up and running to them excitedly.
"Did they release the CPH reboot trailer?!" Steven asked as Connie stifled a giggle.
"No, Bett- actually no it's not better, but it's still good!" Peridot said, grabbing each of them by the hand and dragging them over to the station. "I have received word that Pink Diamond is going to finally begin experiments in sustainable gem production, and once she does that means we will have a source of blank, lifeless gems… perfect for testing my theories on human gem hybrids!" She nearly leaped with joy.
Steven and Connie were both speechless as they heard her talk. For them, the last year since the gems had been uncorrupted en-masse had been simple, routine, their time focusing on "gem stuff" giving way to the concerns of being human teenagers. Now it looked like that was changing, and for better or worst, "gem business" was about to dominate their lives again.
-----
AN:
And I am back! This story is set after the timeskip I mentioned prior to the hiatus, which was about 15 months or so (from a bit before summer school starts, skipping over a school year to the start of the next one), and I hope I did a good job setting that up.
I'll be exploring a bit of what everyone has been up to with the next update in two weeks, and with a chapter of short (500 words each or so) stories set during the timeskip.
As always, thank you to everyone who leaves likes and/or comments! Feedback is how I know I'm not just rambling into the void and that people actually are reading what I write.
It's nice that you started this chapter with Pink taking a break, cause she deserves it; in truth, her life must be pretty tiring. Still, it's amazing she now has the chance to bask on the results of her accomplishments because, despite still having work to do, now she knows she can make things better instead of wallowing in her own guilt. I hope to see more of that, even if new obstacles come her way, I want her to look back and see everything she has accomplished; and obviously I'll be wishing for an end where she can feel like she can finally rest and enjoy the fruit of her efforts alongside the people she loves. But obviously, it has to be earned.
In regards to Steven, I'm glad that he had the chance to experience a normal teenagehood. Despite the fact he now has to get involved again in gem matters, he has now a support network and the knoweledge that he can ask for help, I hope to see more that, he and his friends working together to make a better future, but also supporting each other. I really hope he's able to balance gem matters with school, but even if he doesn't, I expect him to have the chance to enroll again once all of this is over.
I'm conflicted, I want to see more of the diamonds, and their opinion on everything Pink has accomplished, I want them to like it, even if it takes a while and a bunch of conflict to make them see the goodness in it... but at the same time I don't want Pink to go through that. (Still, while the diamonds are evil, and they used to not give Pink's ideas any consideration, many of the awful interactions they have had on this fic were on Pink. She's just too antagonistic towards them... and I get it, I don't expect her to forgive the diamonds, but Pink's inability to be civil towards them sometimes is counterproductive to her goals.)
In regards to Steven, I'm glad that he had the chance to experience a normal teenagehood. Despite the fact he now has to get involved again in gem matters, he has now a support network and the knoweledge that he can ask for help, I hope to see more that, he and his friends working together to make a better future, but also supporting each other. I really hope he's able to balance gem matters with school, but even if he doesn't, I expect him to have the chance to enroll again once all of this is over.
I'm conflicted, I want to see more of the diamonds, and their opinion on everything Pink has accomplished, I want them to like it, even if it takes a while and a bunch of conflict to make them see the goodness in it... but at the same time I don't want Pink to go through that. (Still, while the diamonds are evil, and they used to not give Pink's ideas any consideration, many of the awful interactions they have had on this fic were on Pink. She's just too antagonistic towards them... and I get it, I don't expect her to forgive the diamonds, but Pink's inability to be civil towards them sometimes is counterproductive to her goals.)
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Catching Up 2.1.2
Book 2, Chapter 1: Catching Up
Part 2
For the last year or so, Pink Diamond had been able to fall into a bit of a routine, slowly transforming her court into something resembling the Crystal Gems in their prime even as the actual Crystal Gems on Earth slowly integrated former comrades and enemies into the new society being constructed there. Sure, keeping the more objectionable parts of her agenda hidden from her fellow Diamonds, and hiding from her court that she didn't have their approval for her more radical changes, had taken up a bit of her time… well, a lot of her time, but it had gotten easier with practice.
Now though, that all had been thrown into disarray. Now her colony was finally producing new gems, her methods had been successful, and the research into human gem hybrids was gathering steam, and the most recent discussion she had had with Blue and Yellow Diamond had left her on edge.
"We are pleased to hear that your experiment has succeeded Pink" Yellow told her with a grin.
"Yes, and I do look forward to seeing all the new architecture you were experimenting with for your capital, it sounds lovely." Blue added in that tone that made it hard to tell if she was sincere or if she just wanted another opportunity to treat Pink like a baby.
Shaking her head, Pink snapped back to reality and sighed. Blue and Yellow… might accept what i have done, if only because undoing it would mean war with my court… but White? White has made her laws clear, she refuses to budge from her ideal of perfection, and as long as she does then nothing I have built will be safe.
Standing in the garden that surrounded her throne, the glass dome overhead focusing the light of the rising sun into the small patch of color at the peak of her spire, she considered her options very, very carefully. Keeping the changes hidden while I build up strength is going to be difficult, and if I am not on my guard all the time then White will discover me… but I don't have the power to force her to back off right now.
"Still thinkin' about Diamond stuff?" Spinel's voice cut through her thoughts. "I mean, you've got a nice pose goin on, and that's your thinking face you're wearing, so I'm assuming it's something serious." The smaller pink gem said as she lounged on a bed of vines between a pair of trees brought in from the tropical part of this colony.
"My 'thinking face'?" Pink asked with a grin as she looked over at her companion. "And yes, I am. I still have no idea how I'm going to handle the other Diamonds… secrets always get out, and when this one does, it's going to literally turn the entire empire upside down." She sighed, looking out over the random, barely planned cluster of buildings along the mountain by the spire, the fruits of a years labor by gems working based on what they wanted instead of what they were told to do, a setup that could all come tumbling down if the other Diamonds decided to end her experiment.
"Huh… you should put on that thinking face more often, you're pretty good at using it when you bother to give it a shot." Spinel noted with a grin, stretching one arm out to grab a branch and pull herself out of the vines, landing on the ground nearby as casually as if she was made of rubber. "Why not just stab them?"
Pink looked over at Spinel, convinced that the other gem was just joking… until she saw her face. "What? I can't… how would stabbing the other Diamonds solve anything?" She asked, confusion on her face as she looked over the smaller gem, seeing no signs of humor.
Spinel just shrugged. "What, their forms go poof, you take their gems, then you tell their courts to do things your way, and because you're the only Diamond around you get your way. One two three, you win."
"First off," Pink stumbled for the words to respond "how am I supposed to get close enough to any of them to 'just stab them'? Second, what am I supposed to do if their courts decide to disagree with me? If Yellows court launched an attack to retrieve her, we wouldn't be able to fight them off, anymore than if they came here under her orders to put us back in line with the empires laws. Heck, even Blue's guards would be able to overrun us and White… alright I don't actually think White has any guards or court… but that just brings up the problem of how the heck I am supposed to take out White, by myself?"
Spinel listened and nodded along to all her points. "Well, it'll be better than standing here worrying about what will happen when they find out. Trust me, standing around and worrying while other gems do whatever they want is not a situation you want to be in."
The mention of her abandonment in The Garden caused Pink nearly physical pain, regret nearly two years old swelling to the surface as she felt her former best friend's words cut deep. "I… I understand, but doing something just for the sake of doing something is also a very, very bad idea. If we don't act carefully, we could end up hurting ourselves." She turned and began to walk down the stairs, determination on her face. "But you are right, we need to do something, and I'm going to go figure out what."
As Pink stepped out of the throne room, Spinel's face twitched, a smile forming on her features. "Atta girl." She said, slipping down the stairs after her.
-----
Downstairs, the Mountain Spire was a hub of bustling activity, with Pink Diamond standing head and shoulders above the rest, making it very easy for anyone to see her coming even if the crowd parting respectfully wasn't enough of a clue. For the Pink Courts chief investigators, who despite the title spent very little of their time investigating anything, a visit from the boss was a normal part of their work day.
Iolite focused on her work, giving her Diamond a respectful nod as the only way of acknowledging her existence as she compiled reports and data from the various studies of the one human-gem hybrid in existence. Despite biological research not being her purpose, she had quickly turned into Pinks go-to source for researching Steven, successfully transferring her skills at analyzing data from her time as an investigator of supply shortages and corruption in the court to the ability to compile and make sense of the data produced by the local Peridot and the human doctor that she had roped into the project.
Meanwhile, her assistant and partner, a Fire Opal named Aurora, greeted Spinel with a smile that the jester returned, the two quickly striking up a conversation on the changes they had seen in the court since the news of the success of the sustainable gem experiments had broken.
"I think a lot of gems are waiting to see just how this whole process is going to affect the internal dynamics of the court. We just managed to get settled down from the end of the caste system and gems starting to mix, and now the status quo is going to get blown up by a whole bunch of new gems. Everyone is just waiting to see how this is going to play out." Aurora confided.
"Well, sounds like a lot of gems need to learn a lesson in being open minded. They shouldn't be all cautious about new gems, they should be excited! New people to meet, new friends to make… honestly, I thought they learned this lesson already."
"Well, it's not like we're seeing the hostility we saw toward ending the caste system…" The two gems conversation petered out of Pinks focus as Iolite finished her work, closing her workstation and turning to the much, much taller Diamond.
"Hello, what brings you down here?" She asked, her tone professional even as she eschewed the traditional greetings of a gem to their Diamond, a sign of both the successes of the reforms and the respect the two had for each other.
"Well, I have a bit of a problem…" Pink looked around, making sure they weren't overheard before leaning in. "If we have another surprise visit from another Diamond, say because they heard about the experiments success, how quickly can we hide the most obvious violations of Diamond Authority laws, and how can we do that without letting on that the other Diamonds don't know exactly how far I pushed their 'you can conduct your experiments with your colony' approval?"
Iolite simply looked at her and sighed. "Those are very good questions to ask, questions I have asked myself regularly."
Pink frowned at those words. "Well… what answers have you come up with?"
"For the first, the court could reach a state that resembles partial obedience to the caste system, at least to the point of manual labor gems being separate from aristocratic gems who are separate from technical gems, in a matter of three hours or less, and assuming unimpaired access to the warp network and a visit focused on a single location on the colony, that location can be made presentable in a half hour, give or take a few minutes. For the second… it would be difficult. We could always spin a story that, while they approve your actions in a theoretical sense, they wish for a more traditional environment while visiting, however at this point, with the old caste system crushed and the old guard accepting of reality, the bigger concern is that such an action could cause fear that the other Diamonds will attempt to re-create the caste system, and at that point…" Iolite shook her head. "Fearful gems make mistakes, they do things that are hard to predict, and they can convince themselves that some truly dangerous actions are necessary to defeat whatever is scaring them. Fear could cause far more problems than a reactionary backlash."
Pink sighed, taking in the analysis with a heavy heart. Alright, that fits with some of my worst fears about how this could all come crumbling down she thought with a sigh, exhausted as she realized how likely it was that everything she had worked for would crumble down around her ears, swept away by the other Diamonds reaction or-
"However, in my personal opinion as long as you show the same level of leadership you have so far the odds of the gems of this court truly doing something foolish enough to bring in unwanted attention is minimal." The small purple gem finalizes. "The situation is more secure than it appears, as between the gems here and on Earth, if a recreation of the Crystal Gem revolt was necessary victory would be much more likely, especially given our access to faster than light vessels to allow us multiple fronts, Aurora has in been modeling potential strategies in her spare time, it appears to be a passion of some sorts for her."
Pink turned over to the orange Fire Opal just in time to catch the end of her panicked waving for her comrade to shut up. Seeing her Diamonds gaze on her, the other gem drew herself up and added "well, technically it's just a thought exercise, but if I'm being honest ever since the war and learning that I should have been a Quartz if it wasn't for some incompetent technician I've been interested in this sort of thing, so…" she trailed off as Pink nodded.
"I see. Thank you for your willingness to help plan for the worst possible outcome, but I well and truly hope that it is not necessary. War is a terrible, terrible thing." Turning back to Iolite, Pink looked over the small gem and sighed. "And thank you for your help. I have a lot to think about now." With that, she turned and began to walk away, her mind racing as she considered all her options.
Well, one thing's for sure: between getting these new gems integrated into the court, figuring out how to handle any "inspections" from the other Diamonds, and handling anything else that might show up… I am glad I spent a long time on Earth the last time I visited. It might be the last time I get to go there for a while.
-----
AN:
So, bit of a shorter chapter today, and no Steven section.
This chapter honestly is mostly setup for the future, so I don't expect that great a response from it, but hey without setup plotlines feel short and rushed, so it's got to be written.
Anyway, thank you to everyone who reads this story, I appreciate you all!
Part 2
For the last year or so, Pink Diamond had been able to fall into a bit of a routine, slowly transforming her court into something resembling the Crystal Gems in their prime even as the actual Crystal Gems on Earth slowly integrated former comrades and enemies into the new society being constructed there. Sure, keeping the more objectionable parts of her agenda hidden from her fellow Diamonds, and hiding from her court that she didn't have their approval for her more radical changes, had taken up a bit of her time… well, a lot of her time, but it had gotten easier with practice.
Now though, that all had been thrown into disarray. Now her colony was finally producing new gems, her methods had been successful, and the research into human gem hybrids was gathering steam, and the most recent discussion she had had with Blue and Yellow Diamond had left her on edge.
"We are pleased to hear that your experiment has succeeded Pink" Yellow told her with a grin.
"Yes, and I do look forward to seeing all the new architecture you were experimenting with for your capital, it sounds lovely." Blue added in that tone that made it hard to tell if she was sincere or if she just wanted another opportunity to treat Pink like a baby.
Shaking her head, Pink snapped back to reality and sighed. Blue and Yellow… might accept what i have done, if only because undoing it would mean war with my court… but White? White has made her laws clear, she refuses to budge from her ideal of perfection, and as long as she does then nothing I have built will be safe.
Standing in the garden that surrounded her throne, the glass dome overhead focusing the light of the rising sun into the small patch of color at the peak of her spire, she considered her options very, very carefully. Keeping the changes hidden while I build up strength is going to be difficult, and if I am not on my guard all the time then White will discover me… but I don't have the power to force her to back off right now.
"Still thinkin' about Diamond stuff?" Spinel's voice cut through her thoughts. "I mean, you've got a nice pose goin on, and that's your thinking face you're wearing, so I'm assuming it's something serious." The smaller pink gem said as she lounged on a bed of vines between a pair of trees brought in from the tropical part of this colony.
"My 'thinking face'?" Pink asked with a grin as she looked over at her companion. "And yes, I am. I still have no idea how I'm going to handle the other Diamonds… secrets always get out, and when this one does, it's going to literally turn the entire empire upside down." She sighed, looking out over the random, barely planned cluster of buildings along the mountain by the spire, the fruits of a years labor by gems working based on what they wanted instead of what they were told to do, a setup that could all come tumbling down if the other Diamonds decided to end her experiment.
"Huh… you should put on that thinking face more often, you're pretty good at using it when you bother to give it a shot." Spinel noted with a grin, stretching one arm out to grab a branch and pull herself out of the vines, landing on the ground nearby as casually as if she was made of rubber. "Why not just stab them?"
Pink looked over at Spinel, convinced that the other gem was just joking… until she saw her face. "What? I can't… how would stabbing the other Diamonds solve anything?" She asked, confusion on her face as she looked over the smaller gem, seeing no signs of humor.
Spinel just shrugged. "What, their forms go poof, you take their gems, then you tell their courts to do things your way, and because you're the only Diamond around you get your way. One two three, you win."
"First off," Pink stumbled for the words to respond "how am I supposed to get close enough to any of them to 'just stab them'? Second, what am I supposed to do if their courts decide to disagree with me? If Yellows court launched an attack to retrieve her, we wouldn't be able to fight them off, anymore than if they came here under her orders to put us back in line with the empires laws. Heck, even Blue's guards would be able to overrun us and White… alright I don't actually think White has any guards or court… but that just brings up the problem of how the heck I am supposed to take out White, by myself?"
Spinel listened and nodded along to all her points. "Well, it'll be better than standing here worrying about what will happen when they find out. Trust me, standing around and worrying while other gems do whatever they want is not a situation you want to be in."
The mention of her abandonment in The Garden caused Pink nearly physical pain, regret nearly two years old swelling to the surface as she felt her former best friend's words cut deep. "I… I understand, but doing something just for the sake of doing something is also a very, very bad idea. If we don't act carefully, we could end up hurting ourselves." She turned and began to walk down the stairs, determination on her face. "But you are right, we need to do something, and I'm going to go figure out what."
As Pink stepped out of the throne room, Spinel's face twitched, a smile forming on her features. "Atta girl." She said, slipping down the stairs after her.
-----
Downstairs, the Mountain Spire was a hub of bustling activity, with Pink Diamond standing head and shoulders above the rest, making it very easy for anyone to see her coming even if the crowd parting respectfully wasn't enough of a clue. For the Pink Courts chief investigators, who despite the title spent very little of their time investigating anything, a visit from the boss was a normal part of their work day.
Iolite focused on her work, giving her Diamond a respectful nod as the only way of acknowledging her existence as she compiled reports and data from the various studies of the one human-gem hybrid in existence. Despite biological research not being her purpose, she had quickly turned into Pinks go-to source for researching Steven, successfully transferring her skills at analyzing data from her time as an investigator of supply shortages and corruption in the court to the ability to compile and make sense of the data produced by the local Peridot and the human doctor that she had roped into the project.
Meanwhile, her assistant and partner, a Fire Opal named Aurora, greeted Spinel with a smile that the jester returned, the two quickly striking up a conversation on the changes they had seen in the court since the news of the success of the sustainable gem experiments had broken.
"I think a lot of gems are waiting to see just how this whole process is going to affect the internal dynamics of the court. We just managed to get settled down from the end of the caste system and gems starting to mix, and now the status quo is going to get blown up by a whole bunch of new gems. Everyone is just waiting to see how this is going to play out." Aurora confided.
"Well, sounds like a lot of gems need to learn a lesson in being open minded. They shouldn't be all cautious about new gems, they should be excited! New people to meet, new friends to make… honestly, I thought they learned this lesson already."
"Well, it's not like we're seeing the hostility we saw toward ending the caste system…" The two gems conversation petered out of Pinks focus as Iolite finished her work, closing her workstation and turning to the much, much taller Diamond.
"Hello, what brings you down here?" She asked, her tone professional even as she eschewed the traditional greetings of a gem to their Diamond, a sign of both the successes of the reforms and the respect the two had for each other.
"Well, I have a bit of a problem…" Pink looked around, making sure they weren't overheard before leaning in. "If we have another surprise visit from another Diamond, say because they heard about the experiments success, how quickly can we hide the most obvious violations of Diamond Authority laws, and how can we do that without letting on that the other Diamonds don't know exactly how far I pushed their 'you can conduct your experiments with your colony' approval?"
Iolite simply looked at her and sighed. "Those are very good questions to ask, questions I have asked myself regularly."
Pink frowned at those words. "Well… what answers have you come up with?"
"For the first, the court could reach a state that resembles partial obedience to the caste system, at least to the point of manual labor gems being separate from aristocratic gems who are separate from technical gems, in a matter of three hours or less, and assuming unimpaired access to the warp network and a visit focused on a single location on the colony, that location can be made presentable in a half hour, give or take a few minutes. For the second… it would be difficult. We could always spin a story that, while they approve your actions in a theoretical sense, they wish for a more traditional environment while visiting, however at this point, with the old caste system crushed and the old guard accepting of reality, the bigger concern is that such an action could cause fear that the other Diamonds will attempt to re-create the caste system, and at that point…" Iolite shook her head. "Fearful gems make mistakes, they do things that are hard to predict, and they can convince themselves that some truly dangerous actions are necessary to defeat whatever is scaring them. Fear could cause far more problems than a reactionary backlash."
Pink sighed, taking in the analysis with a heavy heart. Alright, that fits with some of my worst fears about how this could all come crumbling down she thought with a sigh, exhausted as she realized how likely it was that everything she had worked for would crumble down around her ears, swept away by the other Diamonds reaction or-
"However, in my personal opinion as long as you show the same level of leadership you have so far the odds of the gems of this court truly doing something foolish enough to bring in unwanted attention is minimal." The small purple gem finalizes. "The situation is more secure than it appears, as between the gems here and on Earth, if a recreation of the Crystal Gem revolt was necessary victory would be much more likely, especially given our access to faster than light vessels to allow us multiple fronts, Aurora has in been modeling potential strategies in her spare time, it appears to be a passion of some sorts for her."
Pink turned over to the orange Fire Opal just in time to catch the end of her panicked waving for her comrade to shut up. Seeing her Diamonds gaze on her, the other gem drew herself up and added "well, technically it's just a thought exercise, but if I'm being honest ever since the war and learning that I should have been a Quartz if it wasn't for some incompetent technician I've been interested in this sort of thing, so…" she trailed off as Pink nodded.
"I see. Thank you for your willingness to help plan for the worst possible outcome, but I well and truly hope that it is not necessary. War is a terrible, terrible thing." Turning back to Iolite, Pink looked over the small gem and sighed. "And thank you for your help. I have a lot to think about now." With that, she turned and began to walk away, her mind racing as she considered all her options.
Well, one thing's for sure: between getting these new gems integrated into the court, figuring out how to handle any "inspections" from the other Diamonds, and handling anything else that might show up… I am glad I spent a long time on Earth the last time I visited. It might be the last time I get to go there for a while.
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AN:
So, bit of a shorter chapter today, and no Steven section.
This chapter honestly is mostly setup for the future, so I don't expect that great a response from it, but hey without setup plotlines feel short and rushed, so it's got to be written.
Anyway, thank you to everyone who reads this story, I appreciate you all!
Yeah... White seems to be the less open to change of all the diamonds, but Spinel's idea has some merit in the fact that, if Pink manages to convince Yellow and Blue to turn on White they would have a shot at taking over the empire without much revolt... but Pink wouldn't think of that cause she belives they want the same things as White; and even if Pink knew they're also unhappy with they way things are, Yellow and Blue are as scared of White as her...
Wow, it's incredible how Lolite and Aurora have thought about the possibility of war as a way to defend Pink's reforms, it shows how much gems have taken to them that they'll be willing to face the empire in such a way. I didn't even realize that, as things stand now, if Pink decides to go that path she'll have a lot of resources at her diposal; but I like how she very much would prefer not to.
Wow, it's incredible how Lolite and Aurora have thought about the possibility of war as a way to defend Pink's reforms, it shows how much gems have taken to them that they'll be willing to face the empire in such a way. I didn't even realize that, as things stand now, if Pink decides to go that path she'll have a lot of resources at her diposal; but I like how she very much would prefer not to.