She didn't hurt anymore. That was one of the first things Domina had noticed when she came out of her gem. Her knees didn't pop or creak when she crouched, her elbow didn't hurt when she manipulated her screens and her ankle didn't ache when the local air pressure was too high.
It was unnerving.
She didn't have a good sense of time anymore, there were no more body rhythms that she had to keep in order to break up the day.
She still had to sleep though, once every few weeks, and when she did... the dreams were odd, like they weren't from her own head. And she did not like the implications of where they were coming from.
But in the early days, those first few months back on Homeworld, she barely had time to get the little amount of sleep she did need, let alone contemplate that some parts of her mother might still linger.
The headship had been destroyed hours before the New Rebellion's assault on the citadel, taking several buildings out with it and damaging countless gems. Thank the stars they had the Crystal Gems on their side now, Steven's healing spit and Rose Quartz's fountain saved dozens. The rebuilding work took months, during which time Domina stayed in the citadel, which was in marginally better condition than the rest of Homeworld.
And yet there was still more to do.
The Colonization fleet had to return to Homeworld for the first time in nearly eight thousand years, and Domina finally saw the full effects of the rebellion Blue Diamond had led on her home. And none of that helped in her dealings with the diamond.
The New Rebellion needed incorporated into Homeworld's ruling class, the same ruling class that needed desperately reworked. It took months to establish a council to keep the diamonds in check, to make sure that average gems didn't get lost amongst the empire. And even two years later it was a point of contention among the three diamonds.
Laws needed rewritten,and while gems did show up to observe their meetings regarding the laws, that did occasionally complicate things. And it definitely didn't stop any arguments. If anything, it brought more gems into the conversations. Which was what Domina had intended. What she hadn't intended was all of said gems to approach her. Sure she was the all powerful White Diamond, but Yellow's intimidating reputation still chased gems away and Blue Diamond flat out refused to interact with any gem lower that a garnet. Not many gems even considered speaking to the pearls.
In fact the only thing that was still the same was Stevima. Every few months, Domina got a brief reprieve on Earth while they uncorrupted gems. Stevima acted like nothing was different, though they joked about the change in their fusing. De-corrupting gems got easier, though their upper limit for restoring them was 2-3 gems at a time. It did mean that Domina left the beach house in usually an elated state, maybe with gems that elected to return with her to Homeworld. Though, even on Earth, everything she had formerly enjoyed about the planet was muted through her new hard light body.
There was one upside though.
"Now this is what I really wanted to show you," Forest said as she walked Domina through one of the hangars in Homeworld's engineering district. Domina was here on an 'inspection' officially, though this was Yellow's responsibility, not hers. The pearl's new cape provided minimal drag as she dashed forward to one particular ship.
"Is this that project going off the Sun Incinerator data?" Domina asked. Forest flinched a bit at the mention of the ship her emerald had previously been in charge of.
"Somewhat," She said, opening the ship. Domina followed her inside. The ship was pristine, and as per usual, much bigger on the inside. "This is mostly a byproduct of the ongoing project to overhaul our outpost station designs. This ship is fast, but also self sustaining, with a quark based gravity engine, combining the improvements the other diamond made to the antimatter converter back in Era 1."
"That Yellow made?" Domina asked, mildly amused, "You do know that there is a Blue Diamond as well." Forest made an unimpressed noise and ducked into a maintenance panel, Domina sighed and crawled in after her. "Also, you are allowed to use the doors, Forest."
"I don't tell you how to do your job, Diamond." Forest said, sliding into the engine control room.
"Point taken." Domina did have admit that this was faster than going through the ship the conventional way.
"And all that I mentioned is housed here and running on the same platform as the reformation orbs, thanks to Yellow's contributions to the field." Forest finished. Domina blinked.
"That's amazing..." She said, inspecting the engine carefully. She pulled up a diagnostic pad and scrolled through the information. "Could we apply it to the fleet vessels? The amount of times we were delayed due to a break in a minor part." Forest laughed.
"Domina, what do you think this is?" Forest asked. She leaned forward and manipulated the diagnostic panel to show a schematic and there was the whole were the bays for the injectors, analyzation equipment, room for enough gems to set up an outpost on a planet, and room for plenty of drop ship pods.
"Oh my stars." Domina said, her face slowly widening to a smile.
"And it's ready for deployment as soon as Moss Agate signs off on it." Forest said, her voice going smug. "I assume that letting White Diamond test fly it would improve its chances of being accepted." Domina's smile faded immediately.
"I... can't fly this, Forest, The control panels designed and produced after era 2 only interface with hard light." Domina said. Forest blinked at her.
"Did... I misinterpret the new nature of your form?" The pearl asked, tentatively poking the Diamonds arm. "Are you organic still?"
"No, I'm hard-" Domina cut herself off, and her eyes went wide. And then Forest's cape wrapped around her as the door wooshed open and the air sped Domina along to the flight deck. Forest sighed and straightened her appearance modifiers, muttering.
"Diamonds."
