The stretched, metallic surfaces of the walls reflected over a thousand muttering figures huddled together in front of a hologrammed figure, giving a lecture from an image behind her as her lessers observed. Massive skylights from above filtered light in from Homeworld's dying sun, and ships appeared just to disappear again on the other side of the sky. Just as it was every day, the air tasted lifeless and dry.
Everything-and everyone-on that planet seemed in a constant state of dying those days. Extinction watched over their shoulders like a hulking shadow, with gems getting shattered every day from overcrowding. Even the conference hall they all stood in, with its towering ceilings and state-of-the-art technology, didn't seem enough. It was never enough.
Ruby looked up from the creases in her uniform just as somebody forced their way past her and wormed through the stiff crowds ahead. Even though they were all supposed to be focused on the lecture, numerous voices could be heard talking quietly amongst themselves.
"...lucky they found a new planet," one said to the right of Ruby.
"...indigenous life forms..."
"...be big enough to support all of..."
Turning her attention away from the talk and back to her fidgeting hands, Ruby cast her thoughts back to the future she was so blind to.
For a long time, when she was a younger gem, Ruby thought that joining the Authority would make her existence better; with a title and a purpose, maybe the other gems wouldn't look down upon her so much. They always seemed to think that she was much more worthless than she really was. She wanted to show them-but it made no difference.
The pink insignia stamped on her chest made no more of a difference than a yellow one stamped on a boulder. Being part of the Pink Diamond division was more than most gems would ever dream of, but that only seemed to make the others laugh harder. It made Ruby wonder whether it was just a sick joke or a mistake she was assigned there.
Nonetheless, there she was, not even bothering to try listening to the address over the excited talk of the new planet that had been discovered.
A dark cyan gem, someone whom Ruby did not recognize, stepped into view after bumping Ruby out of the way and keened her thin neck downwards, casting her an indifferent glance before continuing forward.
The familiar feeling of anger and heat boiling up in her throat, Ruby thought briefly about running after that gem and kicking her in the shins, but was stopped by another nudge from behind.
"You're Pink Diamond's Ruby, right?" asked the other gem in a steely voice. "You were called out to Conference B."
Ruby drew a blank. "Conference...B?"
"Yes, Conference B. Even the most incompetent gems are aware of its location, as they should be. " The gem rolled her eyes towards the ceiling and pushed Ruby back with her hand, muttering "defective," as she migrated towards a flood of gems headed towards an unknown destination.
Most other gems surrounding Ruby were at least twice her height, which made navigation in the crowded hall difficult. She pushed her way between gems that pushed back, trying not to let her temperature get too high so she doesn't get sent to isolation again.
A shoulder bumped into hers, and she was just about to shuffle out of the way before she realized-it was a shoulder and not a knee or hip.
Ruby turned just as a quiet voice said, "Excuse me," and a head of blue hair rushed by.
Somebody apologized?
She squinted forwards, curious for only a moment before dismissing it and following the rest of Pink Diamond's division out of the main hall.
Conference room B, the room every gem should supposedly know about, was nothing like Ruby expected. It was plagued by stagnant air and grey, lifeless decor that failed to provide any sort of an encouraging or even engaging atmosphere. The walls were smooth and rounded like a dome, and tiny fragments of light poured down from skylights onto the small drab collection of gathered gems.
The only color that stood out from the boring decor was the bright pink flags hung up near the far end, where a hologram stood several feet above their heads.
With a strained sigh, Ruby stomped her way inside. Granted it was easier to maneuver inside the spacious conference room, Ruby made it a point to shove past legs and push aside bodies to get to the very front of the congregation.
Every gem knew what the Diamonds looked like, and although none of them had ever seen one in person, just standing under one of their holograms made Ruby feel even smaller and less significant.
"Hello." The hologram smiled down at them with an unfamiliar warmth that made Ruby uncomfortable. "Gems, as you may have heard, there has been an exciting development in our search for compatible planets."
A quiet murmur rippled through the crowd.
"Several years ago, Green Diamond commissioned a scout trip to the fairly young colony planet located in the Crystal System, formally known as Earth. We continued to receive positive reports up until last year, when all communication linked seemed to be severed and lost. This is why I have deviated you all from your daily training."
Ruby, who was often prone to ignoring what superior gems said, actually shut out the murmur around her and focused completely on what Pink Diamond had to say.
"The Diamond Authority has thought it imperative to send forth two expeditions to set up Kindergartens in prime Earth locations. Before assigning squadrons, however-" Pink Diamond broke her calm facade for only a second, and an expression of guilt wavered her brow for just a moment. "However, we decided that in order to assure the safety of our troops, a preliminary scouting mission of a select group of gems are required to go to Earth and attempt contact with the first scout ship. They will be required to record their findings as well as collect a sample of the planet's soil and report back to the Mothership, stationed in orbit around their sun, before the secondary expeditions of colonization are sent.
Ruby, though unaccustomed to Pink Diamond's heavy use of vocabulary, had a sickening feeling she knew exactly what the Diamonds were asking of them.
"We want to send the scouting mission out as soon as possible in order to restart gem production. Gems have already been assigned for this mission, and they are as follows..."
Standing motionless at the front of the group, she waited with baited breath for what could be either her chance at proving herself or forced suicide. She didn't think of the dangers, she didn't think of her possible demise. All she could see was the faces of all those gems who had doubted her or pushed her around, and her coming home to them bowing at her feet.
'Just give me this one chance,' she pleaded, 'just let me show how useful I can be.'
"...Sapphire, Celestine, and Ruby, please report to Docking Station 15 for immediate departure."
Gems all around rose their eyebrows in surprise, mumbling things like ""Immediately?" and "Why them?" The others simply looked as though they had just been handed a death sentence.
The only gem that seemed to be even remotely pleased with the verdict was the small red gem in the front.
"No...way. She actually said Ruby! Me! On a mission? Outside of Homeworld…?" The excitement in her voice was only matched by the volume in which she expressed it. "This is it! This is my chance!"
She only stopped dancing when she noticed another gem a little ways off, standing with strict posture and an emotionless face away from the others. As Ruby watched, she saw a much taller gem turn to the one standing by herself, and said, "Have fun, Sapphire," audibly with a smirk.
All the blue gem did was turn away.
Does she think she's above this? Ruby wondered, feeling immediately defensive. That gem-that little blue gem was chosen for a higher purpose; a purpose meant to benefit all of gem-kind. She should be proud; it might be the only chance of redemption for the smaller, "useless" gems like them. It could be a chance to be great; being one of the first gems on a new planet that could be hope for their future was a chance very few gems got.
That Sapphire seemed to think she didn't apply to any of it.
Maybe it was the way the blue gem turned her head away the made Ruby mad, reminding her of all those gems who had turned their noses up in the air at her. Whatever the trigger, there was no stopping the pressure building inside her.
Anger bubbled in Ruby's throat as her legs subconsciously carried her towards the small blue shadow in the back of the room. She didn't know what she was going to do exactly, but what she did know was that she was going to knock that pretty little gem off her pedestal of ignorance.
Preferably in a way that didn't completely ruin her chance of glory.
"Hey, you." She growled loudly as she stomped towards the gem known as Sapphire, "Who do you think you are? How dare you act all...all...high and mighty about this? What? You think you're better than everyone?"
Sapphire's only movement was an indifferent turn of her head. "Well, I'm certainly quieter than some."
The stone under Ruby's feet popped and her whole body grew several hundred degrees hotter in less than two seconds.
"What?" she shrieked, drawing even more attention to herself. "So suddenly you're so much better than me? You got assigned to this mission too, you know."
"It's not going to work," Sapphire responded, almost as if to herself, and she walked away calmly, without another word.
"It's not going to-?" Ruby's vision blacked out for a moment from rage-Pink Diamond was the ultimate strategist of the Diamonds-until the stern voice of Pink Diamond brought her back to the reasonable temperature of molten magma.
"All assigned gems, please report to your stations," the Diamond repeated sternly, as though talking to more than just one gem-but only one scout gem hadn't left for the docking station.
Grumbling to herself, Ruby shoved past a few snickering gems and left.
Ruby hadn't flown much in her short existence. Although she and the small group of other gems had been on the transport ship for several Earth years, the time passed quickly with little interactions amongst themselves. The only excitement they saw during their whole trip was at the very end, when the hulking shape of a Homeworld mothership came into view, accompanied by a tiny blue spot orbiting some odd light years away. The conclusion of their journey was welcomed, and Ruby knew she would never get used to knowing that there wasn't ground beneath her feet.
They only spent a moment on the mothership before they switched ships to head from the mothership to Earth. Ruby heard many gems talking on the mothership about the first scout mission, and the mysterious way it vanished. The way they talked, it sounded like nobody knew what could've possibly happened to them, so it was a possibility it could happen to this scout mission as well. All they had to do was stay alive for a few Earth years before returning to the mothership with their recorded findings and a sample of Earth's soil for mineral analysis. It was a frightening prospect, not returning at all, but Ruby couldn't bring herself to be scared-even if it was a suicide mission.
It could've been that her mind was completely deviated from the mission at hand, and the reasonable fear of death was replaced by aggravation.
She was going to show all these gems, even that stuffy Sapphire, that she could do this. If she succeeded, she could be accepted. If she didn't...well, it wouldn't make a difference if she didn't.
Ruby was going to show them all that she wasn't weak no matter what.
Earth was nothing like Ruby ever dreamed.
It was an explosion of color and life and energy, from the smallest organism to the largest.
The oceans were deeper than the blue sky was wide, and the mountains disappeared into the rich atmosphere. Plants sprung up from every inch of the soil, creating canopies of dancing light and beds of the softest green matter.
Of course, Ruby had never seen these things before in her lifetime, but she'd heard stories of planets far away that had such features like Earth. They were few and far between, only appearing when the universe itself allowed the strange anomaly to form in its cold, lifeless expansion. Unfortunately, these rare buds of life were the only way gems could grow. Without them, their whole entire existence was lost.
Compared to Homeworld, Earth was a haven. It was life beyond what any of the gems imagined, bursting and singing with the force that Homeworld had spent eons searching for.
This is perfect, thought Ruby. The planet is even larger than anyone could have hoped for! With space like this, Homeworld could grow bigger, better gems. She pushed back the thought of what would happen to lesser gems like her when the new generations of gems were born.
All that mattered was the mission, and Ruby was determined to do right by her species.
"Right," she said to herself, stepping off the ship and cracking her knuckles. "Let's do this."
"Log date 832, day 486 on this "Earth," and an unknown type of enemy has been pursuing what's left of us for almost a full rotation around the sun..."
Ruby, along with three other gems, were standing at the peak of a rocky outcrop overlooking a swath of jungle. To her right, Purple Agate was filling out a mandatory video log as the remaining gems stood their guard against the elements. None of them felt the cold rain like the humans apparently did, but it wasn't the rain that they were guarding against.
The landing squad, when they first landed, comprised of several dozens of gems, all of which were driven by violent passion and eagerness to succeed. Now, nearing the end of the timed test of the planet, only four gems remained unbroken; Ruby, Sapphire, Purple Agate, and Fire Agate. The rest had been crushed by a constant swarm of mysterious monsters that had never been mentioned in any of the Earth lectures.
The monsters, strange in form and powers, always traveled in a group and managed to track the remaining gems no matter the distance covered. They were swift, they were destructive, and they were definitely not from Earth.
Even though the agates and the two smaller gems had to rely on each other's strength and abilities to keep them out of the reach of the monsters, they rarely spoke to one another. It was difficult to make small talk when they were under the constant threat of a potentially fatal ambush, but even when they were safe to breathe a tiny sigh of relief, they made no effort to converse with one another.
The only time the four held any semblance of a conversation is when Fire Agate briefly mentioned how much the monsters reminded her of gems, and how similar their powers were to some of their comrades whom they had lost. With a forceful reproach and some vicious name calling, Purple Agate shot down Fire Agate's comment and dismissed any possible connection between the two. "Ludicrous", she had said, "twisted fantasies of a mindless, insignificant pebble."
Just as quickly as it started, the intermingling ceased and silence reigned.
The rain had been falling for several weeks; valleys turned to lakes, and open bases turned into muddy caves where some of the less Earth-proof technology could be without getting damaged.
Ruby knew that the rain disrupted visibility and made their job harder. She often wanted to ask a fellow gem why they wanted to inhabit such an annoying planet, but she always kept her silence.
Right then was one of those moments. The agates were pacing to themselves and entering data into their logbooks, and Sapphire stood motionless in the rain. Although Ruby could not see any eyes through the hair she kept covering her face, she knew that they must've been fixed somewhere out into the scattered darkness beyond their base. It was hard for Ruby not to say something, but she said nothing.
A low rumble sounded from the darkness through the sound of rain letting up for the first time in weeks, and all four gems immediately snapped to attention.
"Did you hear that?" Ruby whispered to no one, clenching her hands around her gloves.
"Of course we did," snapped Purple Agate. "And I thi-"
Without letting her finish her sentence, a massive appendage burst into their base, twisting at unnatural angles and dragging the purple gem violently into the rain.
"Oh man." Fire Agate groaned, pulling a dagger out of her gem. "This mission is a disaster. Pink Diamond is going to kill us." Before jumping out into the rain, she paused only briefly to look down on Ruby and Sapphire. "You two should stay up here out of our way. Don't be a nuisance."
Ruby and Sapphire watched as their last colleague vanished.
Ruby was prepared to go down there; her boxing gloves simmered with charged heat, and she had enough anger to take down that entire overgrown monster.
"If you go down there, you'll get killed, too," Sapphire told the other gem sharply, holding her arm out as a barrier.
That made Ruby even angrier. "You're. Not. The boss of me," she growled. "I can go down there and help take out the monster. I'm not weak, Sapphire."
The other gem winced, as though hearing her name spoken with such acidity hurt. "I didn't say you are weak. You will get killed down there if you go, just like the others."
"Not all the others," Ruby replied, and she pointed down the gully to prove Sapphire wrong.
The two agates were locked into battle with the largest, nastiest-looking monster they had encountered yet. Their weapons seemed to make little damage to the monster's skin, which just kept healing. The monster emitted a terrible shriek that was akin to the tortured screams of many.
Although the fight was too far away to hear, Ruby saw one agate yell to the other, and they both tried tripping towards each other past the flailing limbs of the creature.
"Are they going to-?" Ruby looked at Sapphire uncertainly, wondering if they were thinking the same thing.
When Sapphire didn't answer, they just kept watching in silence as the agates's gemstones began to glow. Their fusion dance was uncoordinated with lack of practice and slowed by shame, but they didn't get the chance to finish it.
Ruby jumped out of their base on the cliff ledge, out into the dwindling rainstorm, but she was too late.
The monster swung its fist to the side, crashing Fire Agate's gem into Purple Agate's gem, shattering them into a thousand glittering pieces and making the monster disappear in an explosion. Light flashed on impact, and the shards littered the muddy grass.
Sapphire ran down to meet Ruby at the bottom of the cliff, her boots splashing mud to their knees.
"Ruby, we have to get out of here," she said, lifting her dripping hair from her face. A single blue eye shone at Ruby with unreal, human intensity.
"I-" Ruby wiped her nose. With the threat of the creature gone, the rain got heavier and what little light shone from the moon was gone. "That's it. They're all gone...We weren't strong enough...They weren't strong enough..." Ruby grabbed a fist full of her hair and sank to her knees, her round eyes slowly filling up with tears. "And what did we do? We sat around and watched them go! We're the worthless ones, why wasn't it us...?"
"Ruby..." Sapphire whispered with shaky breath, "Ruby, we have to go..."
"Why? We didn't complete the mission. We have nowhere to go."
Sapphire's tone grew more desperate. "The emergency protocol. If we go back to the ship, we can initiate the emergency protocol and get off this planet. Alive."
"What does it matter? If we left now, the mission would be incomplete...we'd just be shunned by Homeworld gems even more than we are now." Ruby curled her legs up to her chin and buried her face in her knees. "It doesn't matter. We're worthless anyway. We're small, insignificant, and weak.
"No, you're wrong! You do matter, Ruby!" Abandoning all formality, Sapphire raised her voice higher than Ruby thought possible. In her tone, there was a mixture of frustration, fear, and...
Empathy.
"Homeworld has always measured our worth with size and obedience." Kneeling in the rain next to the other gem, Sapphire let her voice soften. Even without looking at her, Ruby knew she was crying. "We may look different, and we may be common gems, but that doesn't mean we're worth any less than others."
"Look at us," Ruby sniffed, wanting to feel angry. "We're only alive because we hid. We were meant to die on this mission. We're nothing special, and the diamonds knew that."
"Maybe the diamonds are wrong."
"The diamonds are never wrong."
"Believe me when I say, Ruby..." With a gentle grip, Sapphire cupped Ruby's hand and rotated her palm upwards. "That's not true."
Scattered rain fell upon a red gem and a blue gem as they lit the unforgiving sky with color.
"You..." Ruby's voice trailed away with the soothing rhythm of the falling water, her eyes lost in the gleam of their two matching gems. They sat by each other in silence for what seemed like a thousand years. In reality, the silence was only a few seconds long, but in those fleeting moments, their gems felt like one.
With a slow, bright flash and a recognizable shriek, a shape formed out of the messy wreckage of the agates. Grotesque appendages stretched from the torso and a gaping, screaming mouth opened its jaws. It took a second to gather its surrounds before spotting a nearby couple of runt gems kneeling in the mud.
Sapphire looked up before the other gem did. "Ruby," she warned, letting go of her hand and standing. "It's back. I don't know how, but-"
"Fuse with me."
When Ruby stood, too, she saw the emotion in her friend's face turn from concern to shock.
"...Maybe we shouldn't-"
"Shouldn't what, Sapphire?" Feeling the familiar warmth of her fire creeping back up her stomach, Ruby shoved back the feelings inside of her to focus on the danger. This fire, however, was new; anger and mistrust had always been her drive, but she felt that maybe something else was worth fighting for, too. "Fuse with me."
When she heard the other gem's newfound ferocity, Sapphire's fringe fell back into her face. "...Ruby," she started hesitantly, backing a step away, "you know that Homeworld doesn't-"
"Homeworld isn't here, sweetheart." With an obnoxious crunch of her knuckles, she stared down the oncoming mass of appendages. "Either we move it or lose it."
After a short pause, Sapphire laughed incredulously. "I can't believe we're going to do this." With the shrieks getting louder, her tone grew forced and nervous. "I hope this works..."
The world began in a flash of light.
I can't see. Why can't I see?
No. It was just the rain. It had started up again, heavier than before. So heavy that it blocked out Ruby and Sapphire's vision.
My vision.
Through the sheets of water, a shadow lumbered closer to me, but it wasn't as big as before. And the ground-it was much farther away. I'm tall. Electricity buzzed in my hands, and when I looked down, two dark gems shone upwards into my eyes. Garnet. I was-
Suddenly, a wave of color rushed into view.
A place I had never been before blocked my vision and I saw clouds. It looked like an arena. There was a Pearl standing there with a sword and her hand and then-
The shadow broke the unfamiliar vision. It lumbered over me in an offensive stance, blocking my body from the falling rain. It was smaller then than it was when I was unfused.
My first instinct was to punch a hole in it. My weapons appeared over my hands as gauntlets of some kind, heavy and powerful and full of electricity.
I pulled back my arm to throw a punch-
Ruby and Sapphire were running towards each other. Green light pulsed up from the floor as the two slam together in a flurry of happy tears and relief. They had their arms around one another, laughing and twirling each other around. There was another gem in the background, but it didn't look like any she had ever-
The world shifted back to rain and the thunderous roars of a monster. My body was pinned against a tree, splinters of wood shoving their way into my hair and spine. The monster stood a ways off, injured but unrelenting, it's arms stretched far enough to wrap around my waist and twist as hard as it could in attempt to rip me apart.
I was pleasantly surprised at the durability of my physical form.
Pink Diamond stood next to Ruby and Sapphire, talking to them indistinctly. She made no indication of formality, as she spoke to them with the same warmth she might regard a very dear friend. She smiled, reaching out her hands to the both of them. Ruby and Sapphire glanced at each other in consideration-
When I blinked, I was on my hands and knees in the mud, water running down my shoulders. A disfigured gem shard lie half-buried in the earth between my hands, pulsing dully.
Was that...the monster?
I stood, the gem pinched delicately between my fingers. It was a gem, not a monster. Yet somehow...
As Ruby and Sapphire had seen very few times in their lives, the gem suddenly flickered on and jerked out of my hand, just like how gems did when they reformed.
Was this one of the Agates?
Its physical form began to take the shape of an average quartz-type gem before it suddenly flickered and made a tortured shriek, the outline of the gem twisting and distorting to the familiar shape of the monster.
The monsters that had been hunting us the whole time were gems.
But how?
It was time to go.
There were a lot of questions I had-everything had gone by so quickly, and I understood very little as being a fusion was new to me. Although I had only existed a short time, I understood that I was strong, and I understood that I was fast.
So I ran.
The scout ship was not nearby the valley underneath our base, but being chased by a gem monster was a good incentive to run through the night. I ran until the clouds in the sky dried up and the sun broke over the horizon.
Strange scenes kept cutting through my view of the Earth around me, and I saw many things I couldn't decipher. It flashed and stung the back of my head, but after a long while I was able to shut out the disturbance for the most part.
Finally, the shiny grey surface of the ship appeared on the horizon like a miniature sun, the well-built vessel obviously not fazed by the comings and goings of time. I wasn't sure if I was actually seeing the ship on the horizon or if it was another vision, but the approaching howls of the pursuing abomination made it clear that this was indeed happening in real time.
It had not let up in its hunt, and we were in dangerous proximity to the ship. A tiny image of the ship burning had blurred my vision for a moment before fazing back to reality.
The message was clear.
With a quick twirl on my heel, I faced my pursuer with weapons out and a ready stance.
When my fist hit the distorted, howling center of the gem creature, a burst of electricity discharged like an explosion. The monster immediately burst, but I knew that would only keep the monster at bay for a short period. Just enough time to get to the ship.
I had barely managed to activate the lowering hatch of the ship before the gem began to reform behind me. The visions ceased altogether and an angry panic set in my gut like a stone. I tried to ignore the monster's screams as it drew closer, as well as the surprising appearance of guilt as I stepped the quiet ship alone.
All that I heard was ghostly echoes of sleeping machinery, but even in the brief stillness of the moment, I knew we only had one option if we wanted to get out of their situation alive. In my head I saw the ship taking off and leaving the colorful planet, so I did what Homeworld forbade us to do; I crammed my fist into the emergency departure button, leaving everything behind.
The base. The agates. The monsters.
"Those monsters were gems," I said quietly, and the second the words left my lips, my body rippled.
The two smaller gems flew sideways across the cold floor, dazed for only a second.
"They were gems, Sapphire!"
Ruby sprang onto her feet, pacing uncontrollably. Her head was so full it almost hurt.
"Gems, Sapphire, gems! How could that be possible? Does Green Diamond know about them?" she stuttered, grabbing at her hair. "Were they the last scouting group?" Her eyes searched the ship, looking for anything that could answer her questions. They finally fell upon Sapphire, who was sitting on the floor looking at the opposite wall with an expressionless face.
Ruby made a noise with her throat, and her frantic confusion turned into wonder.
"What...was that?" she whispered, taking a tentative step closer to the other gem. "Our fusion. We were-"
"We were Garnet," Sapphire interrupted calmly.
"We were awesome! We had so much strength and we punched that thing-that gem right in its face! Poof!" Ruby paused again, rubbing her sore eyes with balled up fists. "My eyes are still a little blurry... All those visions were really confusing...what were those, Sapphire?"
"What do you think they were, Ruby?"
"I..." The little red gem was suddenly aware of their separation, the familiar disconnected feeling they had shared before they had formed Garnet. They were no longer one, but Ruby felt still attached. "I don't know..." She rubbed the back of her neck awkwardly before finishing her thought. "But I do know you aren't supposed to do that, whatever it was. Sapphires aren't supposed to be all vision-y. Do the Diamonds know?"
"No," Sapphire answered. "If they did, I don't think they would let me live."
An answer like that was so blunt, Ruby blinked in shock. Nobody ever spoke about the Diamonds like that, especially when they could be listening.
When the silence hung between them, it was unlike the silences before, when they would go ages without a single word.
That time it was awkward, and Ruby wanted to fill it up with questions.
"What..." she started tentatively, and she sat down on the floor adjacent to the other gem. "...What was it?"
As though considering whether or not to explain, Sapphire turned her head only a fraction in the silence before responding.
"Future vision," she said. "Sometimes I see what lies ahead, and what could lie ahead."
So... Ruby frowned, thinking hard, but the guarded way the other gem sat was enough to make her realize that she'd asked enough questions.
There was one thing, though, that she needed to say.
"If it makes you feel any better," Ruby stood again, rubbing one of her arms, "I promise I won't tell anyone."
Sapphire glanced up at Ruby with a shining blue eye, and for a moment, her stoic gaze wavered into something akin to gratitude. A smile broke her icy disposition, and it was more genuine than anything Ruby had ever seen on Homeworld.
They both turned their eyes to the projection in the quiet hold, which held an image of the Earth fading slowly as they left orbit.