Negotiation
For a long time, there is nothing. Not darkness. Not thought. Not even time.
Then there is light.
Blue Diamond is that light, radiant, brilliant, blinding, filling the entire world. She coalesces. Senses return as her body solidifies. She she straightens, stretches—
— and immediately hits her head.
It does not particularly hurt, but she rubs at it reflexively. She looks around. The chamber she is in is small, much too small for any Diamond. Cramped. She can barely manage three steps, can barely move her arms. There is no exit.
It is completely plain of decoration or furnishing, aside from a single chair built into a wall. It is just her size.
She understands immediately.
She has been captured.
Her gem flares with angry light. She pounds on the wall with all her strength, freezes the air, flings out blasts of energy.
None of it does anything. Her attacks bounce off the walls, the floor, the ceiling without leaving a single mark.
Her eyes burn, filled with fear and grief and impotent rage, but she does not cry.
With nothing else to do, she sits down. Keeps her back straight. Her shoulders square. Her head high.
She waits.
It does not take long.
Halfway up the wall in front of her, a platform appears and a door opens. It, too, is small. If she were to try, the only part of Blue Diamond that could fit would be her finger.
Through this doorway enters a Pearl.
Her Pearl.
"You," Blue Diamond says.
"Me," the Pearl agrees.
One moment Blue Diamond had been in her war council, organizing her generals and deploying troops. Then there had been darkness— a piercing pain— a blade so quick she could not even scream before her body had been destroyed—
nothingness—
— and then she had regenerated here.
She should have seen this coming. She should have realized, after the trial of Rose Quartz. The Zircon defender had been correct. The only Gem who could successfully orchestrate an attack on a Diamond was someone close to them. Someone like a Pearl.
She should have realized. She should have prevented it. She should have. But…
"I trusted you."
The Pearl raises her head, and for the first time in millennia, meets Blue Diamond in the eyes.
"I trusted you!" Blue Diamonds screams.
"I know," the Pearl says.
Blue Diamond stares, trying to make sense of it all. "But why?" she demands. "Why? I was a good Master, was I not? I kept you safe, I treated you kindly…"
And the Pearl laughs.
"Kindly?" she echoes. "You did not shatter me, I suppose. Or Harvest me, or hurt me. No, you just had me stand there. Hold things, open doors for you, sing for you, dance for you. Had me suffer through every single one of your ridiculous emotional breakdowns…"
Blue Diamond wants nothing more than to reach out and crush the Pearl then and there.
But she can't. Even if she lunged across the room, by that time the Pearl could simply step backwards, through the tiny door and out of reach.
The Pearl knows this too, and smiles.
Blue Diamond's eyes blur, but still she does not allow her tears to fall. "Petty revenge. So that is why you allowed yourself to be corrupted. Why you betrayed me to the rebels…"
"You still do not understand." It is astonishing how the Pearl's soft voice carries in the massive chamber. "I didn't betray you to the rebels. I was their leader, their organiser. And I still am."
There is a long, cold silence.
"Tell my why you have come," Blue Diamond finally demands.
"To negotiate."
The Diamond narrows her eyes. "For what?"
"For White Diamond and Yellow Diamond."
"Liar. They are not in your custody."
They could not be. It is not possible. This Pearl may have successfully taken out one Diamond through subterfuge, but she and her insurgents could not have felled Yellow and White as well. They are too intelligent, too well guarded, too powerful, too brilliant.
The Pearl claps.
Instantly, a portion of the wall before Blue Diamond transforms into a screen. It presents the image of two bubbles. The first is pink, and it holds the distinctive shape of a diamond's gem. So does the other bubble, though this one is a clear, translucent white, perfectly displaying the chipped and marred facets of Yellow Diamond's gem in full color.
Something within Blue Diamond seizes. "Liar!" she repeats. "This is a fabrication— holograms, or digital effects—"
"No fabrication. We can verify this is a live feed," the Pearl says. A figure appears on the screen— or rather, the figure had always been there. Blue Diamond simply had not noticed her. This figure is not a Pearl, surprisingly enough. Or not entirely. She is one of those disgraceful mixed fusions.
"This is Rhodonite," the Pearl says. As if in response, the fusion on screen raises as hand, but that could have been scripted. Again, the Pearl had anticipated such a reaction from Blue Diamond. She says, "Rhodonite has agreed to respond to requests you make, to help demonstrate that this is not a trick."
The fusion nods.
Blue Diamond considers her words carefully before ordering, "Salute."
The fusion hesitates, biting her lip and crossing one set of arms. Finally, the the other set salutes— but not in the traditional manner of deference to the Diamonds. Instead she cups her hands before her chest in the shape of a circle.
Blue Diamond scowls, but gives more instructions, and the fusion follows them. She even interacts with the bubbled diamonds. Walking around around behind them, holding them, pushing them through the air. Always taking great care not to pop them, releasing them from their imprisonment.
Their appearance seems real, but Blue Diamond is not convinced. "I will see them in person."
"You know very well we cannot allow that," the Pearl says.
'Not allow'.
Not allow!
As if a Pearl could allow anything!
As if she could stand there, before Her Luminance, and try to order her, control her, threaten her— to hold her fellow Diamonds hostage—
The Diamonds, the Diamonds! Their images still float on screen. Blue Diamond cannot tear her eyes away. To see them captured is bad enough, but Yellow— her condition is terrible. Jagged cracks like lightning running through her facets, one of the tips so damaged that it looks as though it could fall off at any moment.
A vision rears up in her mind of Yellow disintegrating, her shards strewn across the ground. White soon joins them, and there they all are— yellow and pink and white— all of them broken.
Not again, not again, not again.
Blue Diamond sobs.
The wave of light is blinding, the sound deafening, and no one could escape it. There is some satisfaction to be found in the streams of tears that roll down the Pearl's face.
The light fades, and the Pearl briskly wipes the tears away.
"That is the difference between you and I," the Pearl says. "When you are sad, you cry and wail about the unfairness of it all. When I am sad, I do not cry. I get things done.
"So," she continues, after giving a moment for her words to sink in. "I will give you a chance to do something about this situation. I can offer you the promise that neither Diamond will come to further harm. I can even have Yellow Diamond healed."
"Healed?" Blue Diamond spits, and she's about to say there is no such thing. But then she recalls the small, stunted form of the being who'd been brought before her for trial, what felt like so long ago. "Rose Quartz."
"Indeed," the Pearl says.
Rose Quartz is to blame for all this. Of course she has spread dissent on Homeworld; of course treason and rebellion flourished in her presence.
Nonetheless, Rose Quartz's healing abilities are legendary. They were the only reason she'd ever been able to oppose Homeworld forces in the first place. If anyone is capable of saving Yellow, it is her.
But would a Diamond shatterer ever heal a Diamond?
Perhaps not.
But perhaps she would, if it suits her agenda.
And Blue can not bear to lose another.
"What do you demand of me?" Blue Diamond asks.
"Your support," the Pearl says. "Not all Gems have taken well to the regime change, as I am sure you can imagine. We wish to quell the riots as swiftly and peacefully as we can. You word would go a long way towards this. You can convince your loyalists to accept reality. Set an example for them."
Blue Diamond does not speak, does not move.
The Pearl waits before continuing, "You would be doing them a service. Surely you see that. They do not deserve to die in pointless fighting."
Dimly, Blue Diamond can imagine what is happening. The violence, the screams, the chaos of civil war.
So what if Gems are shattered in it? A tragedy, certainly, but a necessary one, if it sets all this right. Gems are created to serve the Diamonds, and in turn, the Diamonds lead them to glory.
This would not be glory. This would be betrayal. Betrayal of their order, of their ideas. Of the very society they had built.
… but White. But Yellow.
Blue Diamond closes her eyes.
"Very well." Her voice is hollow. "I will do as you demand."
"Lovely," the Pearl says. "We appreciate your cooperation. It will be rewarded. Continue in this vein, and perhaps one day we will even give you the chance to speak with your fellow Diamonds again."
Blue Diamond does not respond, does not open her eyes.
The Pearl pretends not to notice. "One of my compatriots will be by shortly with a script. You would do well to familiarize yourself with it. And perhaps to compose yourself." A pause. "That will be all."
The Pearl turns around and exits the cell, the door closing behind her.
And Blue Diamond is left alone.
oOoOo
Author's Note: And as promised, the first of the Little Rebellion sequels! (Well... most of them will be sequels. There might be some... not prequels, but more 'stories that gave more focus to what other characters did during the revolution proper'. We'll see.)
Big thanks to everyone who helped edit this one, and to everyone who left such lovely, encouraging comments on LR.