Chapter One

A Fateful Meeting

It wasn't easy for Rose Quartz to convince other Gems that Homeworld was doing something sinister to the planet. It was something that Homeworld has done before, but this was different.

The other planets were devoid of sentient life, or the sentient life that was on the planet was just coming into being.

There was something different about this planet, and Rose knew it. Life was well on its way, and there was something that this planet had that no other planet had.

Humans.

Humans were something that no Gem had ever seen before. A sentient form of being that could walk, talk, think, dream, and love. Rose knew that they had to be protected somehow. Maybe they could be a protected species, all set up on one large landmass while Gems inhabited another.

Rose knew that couldn't work because of how these new machines worked. These Injectors, as they were called, drained the life force of the planet to create new Gems.

If one large landmass on the planet was dead anyway, the Diamonds would want to take the rest of the planet as well. Rose would have tried to have them reconsider, but the Diamonds were as stubborn as they were powerful.

"What are we to do…?" Rose asked to nobody in particular.

A knock on her door brought Rose out of her daze as she stood up to answer it.

It was two Gems, one was Emerald, a Gem who would often deliver news from Homeworld, and the other was a Gem that Rose had never seen before.

She had pale white skin to match the gem on her forehead, orange hair to match contrast the light blue dress she was wearing on her slim figure.

"Pink Diamond, this here is a Pearl, straight from Homeworld," Emerald said nonchalantly. She continued, "The Diamonds figured you could use the extra hands."

Rose hated being called Pink Diamond. She received the title thousands of years ago when she managed to broker a deal between the Gems and the Alloys, a race of beings that was considered a threat to the Gems. Although Rose had such a prestigious title, she only used it when it was necessary.

"Thank you Emerald, please send my regards to the Diamonds," Rose said in her official tone of voice.

Emerald bowed and left the room, leaving Rose with the Pearl.

"Hello Pink Diamond, my name is Pearl and I am here to assist you in any way possible," Pearl said in a soft voice, almost a whisper.

"There's no need to be so formal Pearl, please call me Rose Quartz, or Rose if you're more comfortable with that," Rose said cheerily.

Pearl looked befuddled. She was told to be formal, respectful, and to always address Pink Diamond as such.

"As you wish Pin…Rose Quartz," Pearl responded.

Rose chuckled. She had heard that Pearls were formal, but this was the first time Rose saw one in action.

"Well I am glad to have you here Pearl," Rose said sweetly.

"T-t-thank you for having me," Pearl stammered before moving into an awkward bow. She has never received any sort of appreciation before, so this was new to her.

Rose looked quizzically at Pearl, but before she could say anything there was a frantic knock at the door.

Before any of the two could answer, the door flung open and there were two worker Gems, Aquamarine and Topaz, with worried looks on their faces.

"What's wrong?" Rose asked as calmly as she could.

"Alloys…ambushed…excavation team…help…" Topaz managed to stammer.

Rose was visibly disturbed by this and quickly left the room. Pearl tried her best to keep up, but she was quickly outpaced by Rose.

"I'll just wait here then…" Pearl said in a defeated tone.

Rose had heard Pearl, and knew that Pearl should stay. However, Rose couldn't help but feel sorry for Pearl. Rose made the mental note to apologize to Pearl when she came back.

Right now there were more pressing matters to deal with.

(Line Break)

Ruby was doing her job. She was part of a team of excavators to find the best places where the Injectors could start doing their job. Ruby hated every second of her job, but she knew that she couldn't speak out. Apparently there was a Diamond running the whole operation, so she knew that she had no chance getting her voice heard.

So she did her job as usual, punching the ground seeing if it was stable enough for the Injectors to do whatever it was they did. Ruby didn't ask what the Injectors did and quite frankly she didn't care.

Ruby was getting ready to punch the ground when she heard an odd noise. She looked at a nearby member of the excavation team, Talc, and asked, "Hey, did you hear something?"

Talc responded, "No I didn't Ruby, why?"

"I know I heard something…"Ruby said, slightly annoyed at Talc's tone.

"You sure it wasn't one of those…flying creature you saw last time?" Talc asked, slightly teasing Ruby about yesterday's incident that caused a whole day of delayed work.

"No, it wasn't one of those flying things, it's…something else," Ruby said, doing her best to keep from yelling at Talc.

Ruby saw something flying toward the group and she instinctively yelled, "DUCK!" as she dropped to the ground.

Before the rest of the team could react, Talc vanished into her gem. A large metallic blade stuck to the ground where Talc was, and it was a blade that every Gem on the team recognized.

It was an Alloy blade.

The team saw that there was a chain attached to the blade and the chain led a large, silver, and armored Alloy.

"Where is the Diamond?!" the Alloy yelled at the Gems.

None of the Gems had the courage to say anything. Ruby knew what she was about to do was stupid, but she needed to keep the attention of the Alloy on her so the others could escape.

"Why should we tell you!?" Ruby yelled in response.

The Alloy looked at Ruby, almost seeming to smile.

"You've got guts Gem," the Alloy said, raising a second blade, "but guts won't save you!" the Alloy said, swinging the second blade towards Ruby. Thinking quickly, Ruby rolled out of the way, narrowly avoiding the blade.

Ruby yelled at the team, "Go, I'll hold him off!"

The team didn't hesitate and ran as fast as they could, somehow managing to grab Talc's gem on the way.

Ruby knew she couldn't last long without some help. Until help came, Ruby needed to figure out a way to keep the Alloy's attention.

(Line Break)

Rose used the nearest warp pad to get to the excavation team. She saw what was left of the team and asked where the others were.

"Talc is in her gem and Ruby is holding the Alloy off!" a member of the team, Beryl, said.

Rose was pointed in the direction of where the fight was and ran as fast as she could to get there. As she approached the fight, Rose saw that Ruby was surprisingly holding her own.

Ruby had the advantage of being much smaller than the Alloy, as well as being quicker than the Alloy's weapons.

The Alloy looked up and saw Rose approaching the fight. Before the Alloy could say anything, Ruby ran at him, with her fist raised to attack. The Alloy effortlessly tossed her smacked Ruby aside, and with his attention on Ruby, Rose had the best opportunity to strike.

She drew out her sword and in a single swipe, took down the Alloy warrior. In a puff of smoke all that was left behind was an odd pyramid shaped object. Rose quickly encased the pyramid in a bubble and transported it away, and then immediately went to check on Ruby.

"Are you ok?" Rose asked with genuine concern.

"I'm fine…" Ruby said, obviously hiding something from Rose.

"Are you sure?" Rose asked, still with a look of worry on her face.

Ruby took one look at Rose and before she could try and lie, Ruby saw that Rose was beginning to cry.

"Don't worry about me!" Ruby said, trying to fix the situation, "I just cracked my gem a little during the fight, no big deal, I can get it fixed no…"

Before Ruby could say anything more, Rose gently grabbed Ruby's left hand and saw that Ruby was indeed correct in that her gem was broken. Rose's tears soon began to flow even more and started to hit the gem.

Ruby wasn't sure what was going on, but by the time Rose stood up and wiped the tears off of her face, Ruby noticed that her gem wasn't cracked anymore.

"Wha-?" Ruby began to question, but was interrupted by the return of the excavation team. They all began to kneel in front of Rose, and that was when Ruby began to look closely at her savior.

Extremely tall, massive pink hair, and a look of surprise when she noticed the kneeling Gems. Ruby looked at the sword Rose wielded and noticed on the pommel of the sword was an insignia. The insignia used to signify a Diamond.

Ruby quickly began to kneel as well, but was stopped by Rose, "There is no need to kneel, please stand up."

The Gems slowly began to rise and Rose looked at Ruby, who quickly became flustered.

"Thank you for helping me Pink Diamond!" Ruby said quickly.

"Please, there is no need to call me Pink Diamond," Rose said, "You can call me Rose Quartz, or Rose if you want."

Ruby had no idea what to say next. Normally she would start running her mouth, but she was in the presence of a Diamond, someone who she had wanted to speak her mind to about leaving her job, but now that she was here she couldn't find the words.

"Are the Alloys going to invade us?" Beryl cautiously asked, now looking around for any more signs of Alloys.

"Not likely, it seemed like this one was a rebel of some sort," Rose said, "An average Alloy soldier wouldn't have been so easily distracted."

Ruby was about to say something, but not before Rose said, "However Ruby here did most of the work taking care of the Alloy, I was just here for the finishing blow."

Ruby was stunned. On any other day a stronger Gem would have taken all of the credit for defeating the Alloy, but someone who was a Diamond giving her most of the credit.

"Ruby?" Rose asked, bring Ruby back to reality.

"Yes?" Ruby replied.

"How would you like to come with me, after all we can't have your gem cracking again anytime soon right?" Rose said warmly.

Ruby normally would have had too much pride to leave her job, but something felt different. Rose was someone who Ruby felt like she could trust. All Ruby did was nod her head and Rose smiled in a way that made every Gem around her feel comfortable.

(Line Break)

Pearl finished reorganizing the temple that she now called home for the third time, making sure that everything was perfect for Rose.

Just as she placed the finishing touches she heard the sound of the warp pad and began to run toward it. Before she could say "Welcome back," she noticed that Rose wasn't alone. She was accompanied by a small red Gem with red ribbon tied around her head.

"Um, hello," Pearl began, "My name is Pearl, servant of Rose Quartz, how may assist you, um…?"

"Ruby…" Ruby muttered not making eye contact. Rose on the other hand looked at Pearl with a questioning look.

"Servant?" Rose asked, "I don't think of you as a servant."

Pearl didn't know how to answer. Her whole existence was to be a servant to higher class Gems. If she wasn't a servant then what was she?

"You're more of an assistant I suppose, although that really isn't the best term either," Rose said, trying to figure out a better word for Pearl.

Before anyone else could answer the warp pad immediately activated, with Emerald being warped in, looking worried.

"Pink Diamond, you are requested to return to Homeworld quickly," Emerald said, looking as if her life depended on it.

"I can't right now, I have important matters to attend to," Rose said, gesturing to Ruby, who has said nothing for quite some time.

"Please Pink Diamond, the…other Diamonds are asking for you," Emerald said, almost begging Rose.

"Very well," Rose said in her official tone as she turned to Pearl, "Pearl?"

"Yes?" Pearl responded.

"Please make sure that Ruby is comfortable here," Rose said, almost sounding like she was giving an order rather than a request.

"I will make sure Ruby is as comfortable as possible until you return," Pearl said, kneeling all the while.

Rose offered her hand to pick up Pearl, to which Pearl was hesitant to take, but did so. Rose accompanied Emerald to the warp pad and the two were off.

(Line Break)

And that was the first chapter of The War for Earth. It feels pretty good to be back in the writing game after taking so many breaks. This will be on the Seasoned Writing account rather than my older one, to see how well making a new account works for me. Getting back into the swing of things is going to be rough, but I think I can do it.

Oh and just so you know, this story is an AU story, since I highly doubt a faction called Alloys exist. Plus this is all pretty much my headcanon so don't take any of this as truth. This is what I think the show could be like in the time leading up to the current Steven Universe timeline. I wanted to explore one possibility on how the Crystal Gems met, formed and were like until they met Greg.

Preview for the next chapter: The Diamonds and Sapphire make an appearance.

So please read and review on what you think of the story so far.

Peace.