A/N: I'm starting out with the "birth" of each gem, but this will probably move around a lot with regards to the time each story is set. I like writing in this style and I enjoy seeing what can be done with it, so I'm trying my hand at forming one large story out of smaller ones.
First up, Ruby, Sapphire, and a bit of Garnet, who will probably get her own spotlight later on.
ruby
From the moment she's formed, she's doing everything wrong.
She's too small, that she can tell from one look at the rest of the gems popping out of the walls surrounding her. They all look big and strong enough to conquer a planet, and she's, well, tiny.
She tries to fix this, make herself bigger, but she can't. Desperately she squeezes her eyes shut and concentrates hard on growing taller but she can't. Nothing's working and they're starting to move.
The red gems move in a singular mass down the mountainside and towards an array of warp pads. They uniformly snap into place and off they go.
Homeworld is big. Everything is big. Ruby is small. They make her reform, again and again, but she just can't get it right.
She tries to make up for it.
She may be small, but that doesn't mean she isn't smart. She knows what these gems will do to someone weaker than them. So she tries not to make herself an easy target. She's loud and aggressive and angry and violent.
And this is wrong, too.
The higher-up gems whisper about her, say things about her. She's difficult. She's unstable. She's uncontrollable. She's defective.
Defective is an ugly word, and for good reason. It denotes a gem who didn't form right, who can't do her job right, who's useless. Might as well be destroyed so they can start over and try again. If you're labeled defective, you'd better prove yourself.
She tries. And she's not bad at it. She's just as strong as her taller fellows. She can pack as much heat in her fist when sparring as she's supposed to-maybe even more so. This, too, is wrong. It turns out she can't control her fiery powers as well as she should and gets labeled "dangerous". She doesn't know if this is better or worse than defective. Combat gems are supposed to be dangerous, but not to each other. The threat of being shattered constantly hangs over her head.
They give her something to control her. They put shackles on her wrists that direct her heat inwards rather than outwards so every time she tries to use it, she feels an awful burning sensation inside of her hands and up her arms and farther into her body the longer she tries. She quickly learns. If she removed her shackles in battle, she'll be a powerful force for sure.
Life goes on. It's hard. The other rubies treat her like dirt, of course. She's one of the few gems they can regularly abuse and get away with it. It's not like they have contact with anyone lower on the hierarchy. Ruby can't help lashing out, which makes her work up a burst of flame, which makes her shackles hurt her, which keeps her quiet until the next time someone trips her just to watch her get mad.
Life goes on. Until.
sapphire
She doesn't know why the gem to her right is staring at her until she whispers, "Your eye." That gem has two eyes, and so does every other blue gem here. She tries to fix it. There's no time-it shouldn't be this hard. She gives up and materializes hair to cover her eye until she can think of something else.
They're transported to Homeworld in groups of three. This site doesn't just produce sapphires, but aquamarines and lapis lazulis. Blue Diamond's gems are similar enough in form and function to be grouped together. They all have hair and dresses that look like flowing water. Sapphire imagines they must look fascinatingly beautiful channeling their trademark powers. She can't wait to learn.
Some of them are more adept with manipulating ice. It's rare, but she's one of them. Nothing wrong with that, but it's not the only unusual thing about her, she quickly learns. She's fast-faster than even a quartz built for speed and agility. She can levitate short distances, too. And she has future vision.
This is a gift, they say, and after much testing of her abilities they take her to Blue Diamond, who regards her with interest and asks her how it works.
She explains that she doesn't see just one future, but all the possible paths it can take. From there she can choose the most likely outcome and use that to make a decision. She doesn't quite know how best to describe it until she compares it to water, and Blue Diamond's eyes light up.
She becomes the Diamond's oracle, predicting possible results of missions and assisting in battle strategies. She is very important.
Sometimes she wishes she could participate in the action like the other gems she was formed alongside. If her theory that her single eye had something to do with her "gift" is true, then she was one eye away from fighting as a team with the two gems she shared a warp pad with.
Her current situation is less dangerous, of course. It's also less exciting, but Blue Diamond can't risk losing such a valuable gem. She isn't leaving this area.
She is safe. She is protected. She is important. She wants to scream.
Life goes on. Until.
garnet
When they first meet, they're sparring. They each have to have a match with another gem to find out what they're good at, if their fighting styles need work, and if they have any special skills.
Ruby is straining to prove herself. She musters up as much force as she can and throws a punch that scorches her opponent's cheek.
Sapphire is undaunted. She places a cool hand on that spot, waits for an opportunity, and retaliates with a freezing hit that leaves icy trails of blue creeping their way across Ruby's face.
The red gem may be strong, but the blue one somehow starts managing to dodge her every move. She's fast enough to dash out of her way at the last minute, leaps into the air and stays there long enough to float down and catch her by surprise, and seems to know just when and where Ruby's going to swing.
"How are you doing this?" Ruby gasps.
Sapphire shrugs. "I suppose I'm just good."
They don't see each other again for a while. It's not until they start settling into a routine and are finally sure of what their roles are now that the status quo gets interrupted.
It's entirely their own faults, of course. They both made the decision to sneak out and happened upon the same one-way warp pad.
They don't have downtime often, but Ruby realizes her chance to leave without anyone noticing and takes it. The rubies are a boisterous crowd and among all the shouting, laughing, and punching each other no one sees her slip out of the room. Sometimes being small has its advantages. She steals down the long, empty hallways, which seem spooky and ominous without anyone in them, and finds an unoccupied chamber with various familiar structures scattered about.
She can just take any one of these and go. She can escape right now and never be seen again. She'll be free.
She's just savoring the silence of this little place when she hears someone coming.
Ruby darts onto the nearest pad and closes her eyes, hoping by the time whoever's approaching this room notices a warp pad was activated she'll be long gone.
Sapphire couldn't take it anymore. If Blue Diamond was going to leave her alone, she might as well have asked her to escape, right?
She is careful. She makes use of her levitation and much use of her future vision. She avoids closed doors unless there's a zero percent chance they'll be locked. She hears someone coming behind her and begins walking faster and ducks into the nearest recess in the wall.
For an instant, she sees a flash of light.
It's gone before she can figure out where it came from, but she can see it's a warp chamber.
Immediately she dips into her future vision. She can see an overwhelming number of possibilities, based on which warp she takes. There are many in which she dies as soon as she gets where it goes, and more where she isn't killed but no one ever finds her gem. There are a few where she lives, but she can't see much beyond that. And there is one where another gem is already there.
Sapphire has not often used future vision just for herself, but when she has, she's tried her best to not take risks.
She doesn't have much time to make a decision here.
When she meets the wayward Ruby, and when Ruby meets the defecting Sapphire, everything changes. They are free. They are even more trapped. They are constantly under threat of being caught and suffering terrible fates. Garnet's future vision shows her all sorts of dreadful possibilities.
She is strong. She is smart. She can fight. She will get through this.
Life goes on. Until.