The Great Spiral Temple

Homeworld

Even against the backdrop of stars, the flickering of the new lights was noticed immediately by the crowd of Gems below. Flickering progressed to an excited swirling, and Yellow Diamond involuntarily crossed her arms in front of her chest. Blue Diamond laid a gentle hand on her counterpart's back, she didn't share the yellow Gem's tension, but it was easy to empathise with her.

By now the frenzied rotation in the sky had expanded into a circle of light, wide enough to admit the immense hand that was already forcing its way into Homeworld's atmosphere. Almost invisible in the light, sharp white fingertips pierced through the luminous gateway in rapid succession, naturally followed by the rest of the digit they were attached to. The fingers, thumb, wrist, and then the rest of the forearm came into view until finally the ship escaped the spatial fissure, which dissipated without ceremony.

The craft adjusted its flight angle and began the descent to the planet's surface, making a slow half-rotation in mid-air that gave the impression of some offering being made to the Diamonds and their Gems. The faintest hum of the ship's engine grew audible in the night's silence as it approached, soon accompanied by the airy sound of the breeze generated by the ship's proximity to the ground.

With quiet grace the tip of the arm-ship's middle finger landed on the ground some distance from where the Diamonds were standing. The rest of the arm then fell neatly onto the surface behind with a softness that seemed at odds with the ship's considerable mass.

From an aperture in the centre of the ship's palm rose a single group of Gems, soldiers, as with their broad shoulders and imposing height they could be nothing else. The multicoloured group wasted no time in splitting into two subsections and hurrying the rest of the way down the palm, down the ramp that was the middle finger, and into two forward facing columns. The aperture opened a second time and out of it floated a large, angular object that upon reaching its full height, crawled over the ship's hull to take its place behind the soldiers.

"Oh my…" Blue Diamond said quietly when the palanquin and its guard drew nearer. It had been totally redesigned since she had last seen it: the decorative panels and entrance veil had been replaced with solid white walls, its decorative ornament swapped with a tiny communication tower further back, and a high-power laser turret mounted closer to the front. Yellow Diamond smiled at the modifications.

When they were close enough the white Gem at the front of the right column fired off an order that brought the procession to a dead stop. At the leader's next command the two columns of soldiers turned sharply to face each other, ending the manoeuvre with a simultaneous stamp of their boots on the ground. The front-facing wall of the palanquin glowed briefly before disappearing altogether, and from inside the structure came a pearl, snow-white from head to toe, almost luminous against her surroundings.

"Welcoming Her Imperial Majesty the radiant White Diamond, and her sapphire, Her Grand Clarity Sapphire Cut 1AE!" the pearl announced confidently.

A monumental figure emerged from the palanquin. She stooped slightly so as not to catch herself on the vehicle's door as she exited, and drew up to her full height once she had cleared the obstacle. True to her title, light seemed to radiate from every aspect of the largest diamond, from her pale skin, to the sparkling stone in her forehead, to the subtle iridescence of her gown and heels. 'It's good to be back.' she thought, surveying her home world's surface for the first time in a long time. She would have smiled, but knowing that she would have to leave much sooner than she wanted to took some of the joy out of being there.

Yellow and Blue Diamond waited in silence as she glided towards them, down the stairs and between her lines of guards, her sapphire and pearl in tow. Yellow Diamond straightened her posture slightly and moved her arms so that they crossed behind her instead. Then she was upon them.

"White, it's so good to see you! We doubted if you'd even be able to come." Blue Diamond said as she hugged the taller Gem, either unwilling or unable to contain her excitement at White's return.

"It's good to see you too, Blue." White replied as she put her arms around the other diamond. "And you needn't have worried, nothing could've made me miss this."

The pair broke their embrace and White turned to Yellow Diamond:

"White." Yellow acknowledged her with a polite nod.

"Yellow." White responded in kind. She looked into the other Gem's yellow eyes, placing a hand on her shoulder as she thought of the best move to make next. In the end she decided against hugging Yellow as well, but gave her shoulder an affectionate squeeze. "I've missed you both."

"We've missed you too." Blue quickly answered for herself and Yellow, who said nothing. "You've been gone longer than we— I expected… You could always come back to the Crystal System, if the danger out there is too great… We can help you."

White smiled, Blue was always so caring. "Thank you, Blue. I admit that operations could be going better, but a few exotics are nothing that I can't handle." she reassured her. Yellow turned her head away.

"But this is supposed to be a celebration. We can discuss these things later, right now, we have a new diamond to receive. Shall we?" White suggested.

"She's not coming with us, is she?" Yellow suddenly demanded, gesturing to the smallest member of their party.

The white sapphire was unmissable, possessing no eyes (such was the placement of her gem) and dressed in an ornate black jumpsuit more fitting for a lower ranking Gem. It was obvious to Yellow that she was special in some way, White wouldn't have brought her otherwise. What annoyed her was the fact that White had been gone for so long, and now that she was back she had brought this intruder into their business. The pearls were a given, a necessity, but sapphires were not… bringing the tiny Gem along detracted from the already short time the three of them would have together.

"Sapphire has served me admirably through the very direst of situations. Her personal qualities go far beyond those one observes in the ordinary sapphire, and she exceeds my expectations of her time and again. She is to be present at this momentous occasion."

"My Diamond." the sapphire said with a respectful bow when Yellow glanced at her once more.

"...If she must." Yellow said to White before moving in the direction of the crater.

…

White Diamond had named the Great Spiral after the circular, concentric depressions that had been mined deep into Homeworld's crust. In anticipation of Yellow and Blue's emergence she had had two long, parallel staircases constructed, beginning on the surface far from the crater's edge and leading straight into the unique, square shaped depression at the bottom.

When the diamonds reached the end of the sloping passageway they waited for the other Gems to join them, unreasonable as it was to expect their attendants to traverse the giant steps of their own staircase.

Of the four walls that made up the enclosure, three of them were dominated by massive, Gem shaped exit holes. It was to the side of the last wall that the party stood.

"Sapphire, how long is there to wait?" Yellow asked the clairvoyant.

"There are but minutes until her arrival, my Diamond." Sapphire answered.

Those minutes passed like seconds and as promised, the ground soon began to tremble. Lose stones were made to dance across the ground by the vibrations, while sand and small rocks dislodged from higher up trickled into the excavation. The earthquake steadily grew in intensity until it became a real concern for the smaller Gems, they exchanged nervous glances as they fought for their balance against the violent shaking. Blue and Yellow had observed emergences before but had never witnessed one in person, and had certainly never heard of shocks of this magnitude accompanying the process… the Gem incubating in the wall was clearly one of great power, and excitement, apprehension, fear and pride fought for control of the middle diamonds' minds.

Then the shaking came to an abrupt stop.

The sudden calm and white-hot glow of the rock marked the final phase of the awakening, and erring on the side of caution, the group took another step away from the centreline of the wall. With her incubation now complete, the new diamond blasted a way out of the crust for herself — the force of the explosion spraying a mixture of molten and solid rock right across the crater.

The new diamond seemed to view gravity as more of a suggestion than a rule, if her leisurely descent to the ground was any indication. She landed as gracefully as a pearl, soundless, save for a quiet hissing as the heat of her formation dispersed, and proceeded to take in her new environment. It wasn't long before she caught sight of… her audience? Yes, she decided that they must be her audience, for they were all watching her…

Blue wanted to hug the little Gem from the second she landed, an urge which only grew stronger when she turned to look at them. If White was to be described as regal and Yellow as commanding, then the newest member of their order could only be described as cute — so very, impossibly cute... She moved to introduce herself and the others to the peculiar diamond, only for White to tell her to wait. So she remained where she was and inevitably, Pink Diamond made her way towards them instead. She strode confidently, the image of poise and purpose despite her diminutive height… exactly what a diamond was expected to be.

When she was close enough White stepped forward to inspect her. The matriarch carefully scrutinised the newcomer, passing around her in a slow circle, watchful for even the smallest of flaws.

"What are you doing?" Pink demanded with a frown.

"Ensuring that you're everything you should be." White answered calmly.

"Well stop. I am everything I should be because I'm a diamond. That means I'm perfect."

"Yes, so far…" White agreed, not pausing from her task. She took a knee in front of Pink and brought her face very close to the smaller diamond's, studying her features.

"Hey!" Pink complained, taking a step backwards. "You need to—!"

"Be quiet." commanded White. "And keep still."

"You keep still! I'm a very important Gem, you can't tell me—!"

"Enough! I've told you to be quiet once already, I'm not going to tell you again…"

Pink scowled in indignation and clenched her fists, but made no further attempts to speak or move. Even when White reached down and ran a fingertip over her gem she remained still.

"Magnificent…" the diamond said in a soft, faraway voice as she traced the digit around the stone's pentagonal outline.

Now thoroughly displeased with the tall, overbearing, possibly unstable Gem that had accosted her, Pink was considering how to make her go away when she removed her hand and looked her in the eye. With an unexpected kindness she said:

"I hope that you won't hold my caution against me, but our perfection is what singles us out as leaders — it must remain undeniable if our authority is to do the same. In your perfection, I welcome you to Homeworld, Pink Diamond."

"If you didn't want me to hold it against you then you should've said that before you started harassing me." Pink declared. "And why do you get to make sure I'm 'everything I should be'?"

"Harassing you? How very droll..." the other diamond mused, chuckling for a moment.

Pink didn't like the sound at all, it managed to be both nonchalant and piercing at the same time, in a way that hinted that she'd failed to grasp something very important…

"Only a diamond is worthy of passing judgement on another diamond, and as I was the first of us to emerge there's no Gem in existence better qualified to make sure of your flawlessness. Had our places been reversed the task would have fallen to you — though equally, Yellow or Blue could have performed it."

For the first time since White had approached her, Pink looked over to the other diamonds: Yellow looked back at her impassively, while Blue offered a small wave. She turned back to White:

"So you're a white diamond?"

"The white diamond. I'm unique, as are you."

"Oh… But wait, if you emerged first then who checked you for flaws?" Pink asked, an authoritative note creeping into her voice.

White smiled.

"Yellow and Blue did when they were in your position. Just as they were told to."

"Are you going to tell me to?" asked Pink expectantly.

"No, but you're welcome to conduct a check of your own, if you doubt my sincerity…"

"That won't be necessary."

She had no doubt about White's sincerity: her immaculate appearance, sparkling gemstone and gentle glow were just the parts that Pink could see, and her demeanour suggested there were many, many more ways in which the Gem before her was perfect. Even if there was an issue to comment on, White's words sounded more like a challenge than any kind of invitation… Besides, the fact that someone had beaten her to it took all the fun out of the idea.

"In that case it's time you met the others. Come." said White, already getting to her feet.

…