"Greg, you brought Sour Cream!" Rose squealed. "How did you convince Vidalia to let you babysit again?"

"I do for free," Greg shrugged. "It's a pretty sweet option for her, and I get to be a bit more responsible." Rose gazed at the tiny human in Greg's arms, fascinated by the steady breathing the nostrils effortlessly helped perform.

"I love babies," she cooed. "I always wanted to keep one."

"Keep one?"

"Like, raise it. It's like a plant. All they need is a little food and love."

"Diapers, too."

"Pardon?"

"Pardon, my Diamond?" Pearl coughed, a puzzled look spreading across her face.

"I'm going to get my own human," Pink Diamond repeated.

"As in, keep one?" Pearl gaped. "Here on this moon? You know you can use the observatory below us, right?"

"I don't want to just see organics," Pink elaborated, "I want to touch one. Take care of one. I wanna little one, so it grows into a big one."

"PEARL, THE HUMAN'S NOT MOVING. DID YOU BREAK IT?"

"DON'T LOOK AT ME! IT JUST SAID IT WAS THIRSTY AND I DON'T KNOW WHAT THAT MEANS."

"Remember to give Sour Cream his milk, Greg," Rose said gravely.

"But he's not hungr-"

"Then do it when he is."

"I'm sorry Bismuth, but it's not right," Rose said sternly.

Bismuth couldn't decide if she was more frustrated or confused. "What the Diamonds are doing isn't right! Look, I'll compromise: If we shatter just the four of them, the rest of the gems won't have to be told what to with their lives. Everyone will be free to change!"

"Someone can't change," Rose countered, "if that someone has already been shattered."

"But I don't want to change the Diamonds, I want to shatter them! I don't get it Rose, you've been all about how much the Diamonds have been controlling you too much; why are you defending them?"

"Blue, I need you to send back your reinforcements," Pink Diamond said stoically.

A perplexed blue face stared back at her from the screen. "May I ask why?"

"Because it's my planet and I can handle it myself," Pink huffed. "I'm starting feel guilty about wasting your resources wiping out the organics from my own colony."

"Nonsense," Blue smiled sweetly. "I would never consider helping you a waste. You can conquer this planet the same way any other one of us can. And if you need our assistance for your first time, there's no shame in that."

"And what if I don't want to conquer a planet like you?" Pink snapped. "Earth can be a new kind of colony, one where I could grow gems and organics."

Blue looked at Pink like she just grew a second head. "I think Yellow needs to be a part of this talk."

"Pearlpearlpearlpearlpearlpearl!" Pink Diamond jittered.

"Yes, my Diamond?"

"What if we had a second Earth where humans could live in space?"

"Isn't Earth already in space?"

"Yeah, but this second Earth would be tinier, and it would have all that all that air and food and junk that humans need, only they wouldn't have to farm and hunt for it."

Pearl fought her gag reflex at the thought of the newly-discovered organic digestive system. "I'm following."

"Pearl, I have made a mistake," Pink Diamond admitted, standing in the observation room of her zoo.

"I'll say," Pearl grimace, holding her nose. "Why do humans create so much feces? I can smell it from here!"

"No, I mean we need more zoos, and not just for humans. Earth's biodiversity is too awesome. Nothing is born with a purpose, but everything helps something else in a different way-"

"Are you going to go off about the water cycle again?"

"Nothing can be taken away from my planet, Pearl," Pink breathed, slumping in her seat. "It's too complex; nothing on it exists in a vacuum. Every change we make to it hurts it. I can't bring myself to terraform it. Nobody can recreate it. The other Diamonds are blind to-"

Pearl cleared her throat. "My Diamond, can I offer a suggestion?"

"The answer will never be no."

"Find a different way to play with humans than the zoo. It's clearly making you miserable."

She was overcooked. She shapeshifted. She talked a mile a minute.

Rose didn't know that she wanted Amethyst, but once they met, Rose wanted her like chocolate.

Pearl understood. She was grossed out, but she understood.

Amethyst was the daughter that didn't die.

Now, as for Steven, Pearl needed some getting used to.

"Pearl, could you do me a solid?" Rose spoke, cross-legged on the grass.

"I would die for you, but go on."

"See, that's the thiiing," Rose squeaked. "When I'm Pink Diamond, it's just kind of normal for you to literally dedicate your life for me, but when I'm Rose, we just know each other. Other gems are starting to talk."

"But Rose Quartz still doesn't deserve to fall on the battlefield."

"Ugh, Pearl!" Rose scoffed. "I'm not going to be shattered. You could just defend someone else by that logic. Between me and another gem, I'm the one that'll be harder to crack."

"What if you reform as Pink Diamond by accident?" Pearl countered.

"Just defend one the human soldiers," Rose dismissed. "They die way easier, and they're attacked way less. It's safer for them, and it's safer for you."

Pearl met Rose's gaze as directly as possible. "With all due respect, you've given me an order I can never abide. Both Pink Diamond and Rose Quartz are worth more than any human alive."

"You sound more like a Diamond than I ever did," Rose muttered coldly.

"Pearlpearlpearlpearlpearl!" Pink Diamond hollered.

"Yes, my Diamond?"

"I've done it! It took centuries, but I've finally done it!"

Pearl gasped. "You don't mean?"

Pink nodded so rapidly, she was vibrating. "I've got my own planet. We get to fly there in my own fleet, I get to build my own cities, I get to set up the kindergartens, and get this: I need to raise an army (MY OWN ARMY, PEARLLLL) and I need ideas for a new strain of quartz. What do you have for me?"

"Me?" Pearl parroted, flabbergasted. "I don't think it's my place to aid you on such an-"

"Pearl, up until an hour ago, it wasn't my place either. I've only got 749 years, 3 months, 15 days, 6 hours, 8 minutes and 59 seconds until I land on my new planet and start making quartzes, and I am totally stumped on what my army is going to look like. Time is of the essence! I. Need. Your. Help."

The words were like music to Pearl. "Well, if you want my personal opinion, warm colors are quite fetching for the skin and hair. Pink, maybe?"

"Stop teasing me," Pink blushed, fidgeting with a stray curl of her hair.

"Pink is an excellent choice!" Pearl doubled down.

"This will be perfectly fine," Pearl reassured Greg. "Just a pop over to the nearest star system. I'll give him back in fifty years."

Over Steven and Greg panicking, Pearl checked her mental list of all the games gems used to pass the time during the old starship trips. A third of them would be difficult to play with the cockpit so small, but necessity was the mother of invention. They could find some space junk to substitute the missing pieces of her Quantum Light Chess set, right?

"My Diamond? My Diamond! ROSE, SPEAK TO ME."

Pink Diamond practically jumped out of her seat. "Pearl, could you keep it down? I'm trying to do an organic meditation technique."

"That did not look like meditating," Pearl said, shaking an accusatory finger at Pink. "It looked like you lost the energy to even sit up straight."

"That's pretty much the idea behind it. It's called sleep."

"Well, I don't like it," Pearl grumbled. "Somebody could seriously sneak up on you like that."

"Well, that went better than expected," Rose laughed. "For my fellow quartzes to go on strike so quickly, I must have been a really bad Diamond."

"Well, I think you're-"

"It was a joke, Pearl."

"Well, I think," Pearl reiterated stubbornly, "that despite what the other Diamonds told you, you're handling this colony beautifully. It's just not the way any of them have done before. Speaking of which, what happens now? Declaring a war on yourself?"

"It's the best way for my gems to see what I've seen," Rose beamed. "Do you know how to use a sword?"

"No. How about you?"

"Only what I've watched from humans."

"Good enough. Teach me that."