{PROLOGUE}

The Gems simply went about their business, doing their jobs, whether it be teaching newborn Gems, or those who worked directly under the Diamond Authority. While the low rank Gems did away at their work without a second thought, their was much more going on inside the walls of Yellow Diamond's Fortress, which, for you earth humans, can consider the Whitehouse of the Homeworld, where the leader/dictator, Yellow Diamond, made all of the decisions. She was the one who would send Gems to other planets, to exterminate the life there, build Kindergartens, and harvest Gems. She was the one who presided over any and all Govermental decisons, and she is the one who will gladly shatter your Gem to mere dust, should you disobey, fail orders too many times, and, the most common, if you are defective, or are succumbing to corruption. It doesn't matter how high rank you are, or even if you have a stable relationship with Yellow Diamond, if you show any, ANY signs of corruption, you are shattered. There is no other way.

There is no cure for corruption.

As for defects and disobeyers, they shall be publicly shattered as an example to all Gems what fate shall befall them should they go rouge.

...Or, should Yellow Diamond still find use of their powers, they shall be tortured in the most horrific ways possible, until they re-swear their alliegance to the Diamond Authority.

The most famous example of treason would be Rose Quartz.
She was a Gem known by nearly every Gem in existence. She used to be one of the most kind, caring, and considerate Gems who ever lived.

But not all good things last forever. When the Homeworld stumbled onto a little blue planet, which was full of life, full of thriving creatures known as humans, Rose turned against Homeworld and built an army to protect the little blue planet from harm.

That planet, as you should know, is known as Earth.

The war lasted centuries, and many Gems perished on both sides. The Homeworld was confident that they would prevail, and take Earth as it's own, they had even managed to construct a Kindergarten there, but were never able to activate it.

Despite their bigger numbers, Rose's Army had succeeded in the war, forcing the Homeworld to retreat, and, due to the thousands of Gems that perished, were forced to wait over the centuries as the other Kindergartens they had established on other planets to restore their society.

The Homeworld soon recovered, and as the centuries went on, they had become more powerful than they had ever been before.

Technology advanced, Gems became smarter and smarter, and the Homeworld soon changed into a place that Gems from long ago would probably not even recognize the place.

But there was still one thing that hadn't changed: Treason means death or torture. And it would always be that way.

Gems would even be shattered at birth if the showed any signs of defectivness. There were Gems who would visit Kindergartens to collect fully formed Gems and bring them back to Homeworld, or, in the case they are defective or corrupted in any way...

Shattered.

However, there was one Gem who didn't exactly do their job as instructed.

And he was a defective Gem.

Not defected in the sense of treason, but in the sense of structure.

And his name is Mike.

While his Gemstone is actually Hematite, he prefers to go by Mike, for reasons nobody really knows.
But he is flawed. Most Hematite Gems like him have the useful ability to copy themselves an almost limitless amount of times, which can be very useful in combat situations, or even be used for more efficient work.
But Mike's Gem wasn't harvested correctly, and as a result, Mike, instead of his ability developing correctly, he developed a split personality.

It's sort of like how some Gems switch control when fused together.

His default personality was kind and considerate, but could also be a little reckless and careless, but will usually follow orders without question.

His other personality, however, didn't really care very much about anything, and just lazily lounges around, and only cares about doing missions if he finds any enjoyment factor in it. He didn't care about anybody but himself, and even hates Yellow Diamond. Not because of her harsh dictatorship, but because he finds her boring. Of course, he doesn't say it out loud, because that would result in instant shattering.

However, he is much better in combat then Mike is. Not because of superior strength, but because he finds so much more enjoyment in fighting, while Mike doesn't like to severly hurt people unless he has to, or if it's just training.

But that's all the backstory and history you need to know.

This is Mike: The New Crystal Gem.

It was a slow, uneventful day on the Gem Homeworld, as Mike boringly typed away on his screen, going through the records of newborn Gems.
What Gem they are, what learning program they'll be submitted to, and whether or not they're corrupted or not.

His work however, was interrupted by an incoming transmission from Yellow Diamond herself. Mike was relatively surprised by this.

What could Yellow Diamond want with him? She only ever directly contacted a Gem under special circumstances.

He quickly rubbed the drowsiness from his eyes. Not from lack of sleep of course, but because he has been very overworked lately.

He pressed the 'Accept' button on the transmission, and immediatly Yellow Diamond popped up on the screen, her eerie yellow glow brightening the relatively dark room. Mike straightened up, and proceeded to salute his leader.

"Yellow Diamond." He said with slight enthusiasm.

"Hematite. I must speak with you face to face. Meet me in my quarters immediatly. Do NOT make me wait long." She stated in a stone cold voice that would send shivers down the spine of any Gem. And this was not a request. This was an order.

Mike flinched at the tone of her voice. Agitation. "Yes, My Lord." He replied, no questions asked. She was angry.

Yellow Diamond promptly cut the communication without any further words.

Mike then silently de-activated the screen. What could she want? Was he being punished for his work not being good enough?
Had his split personality finally crossed the line? Yellow Diamond hasn't been this angry in a long time.

He quickly got up from his workplace and hurried out. He did NOT want to keep Yellow Diamond waiting when she was angry.

He closed the door behind him and made a quick sprint down to the Throne-Room. It wasn't exactly respectful to be running down these halls,
but the punishment for that would be nothing compared to what Yellow Diamond would do to him for being late for a summon.

He slowed down to a crawl however when he reached the doors to the Throne-Room, which was guarded by two bulky Gems.

He didn't know their Gemstone, but quite frankly, he didn't care.

When Mike slowly approached the door, the two Gems looked down to him with mild disinterest, before moving out of the way for him.
He walked right up to the door, and slowly and nervously pushed it open, and his anxiety was temporarily put aside at the amazing sight behind the door. The Throne-Room was made entirly made up of a Yellow Crystal, which was fashioned into chandeliers and statues all around the room,
which gave off a beautiful, but slightly ominous glow. Mike stalked down the hall, a pristine yellow carpet under his feet as he walked, before coming to a stop, and bowing down on one knee.

"My Liege." He declared in a loud voice, to the figure that sat high upon their throne.

Yellow Diamond.

"Hematite." The Gem Overlord replied in a slight condescending tone. She knew Mike didn't like being called by his Gem. She knew it annoyed him. But she didn't care. She doesn't care for silly nicknames like Mike.

"You may rise." She stated. Mike looked up at her, before rising back up to both feet.

Yellow Diamond looked down on the lesser Gem. He was relatively short compared to her.
His appearance, like most Gems, was very human-like. He had green eyes, and peach colored skin, unlike his Gem, which was black and smooth, and shined with little white dots all over it, which gave it a similar look to the starry skys of outer space.
His Gem was placed on his upper chest, where he cut a hole in his shirt for it to be seen.

His clothing was... unusual for Gem standards. He wore an almost entire black outfit. He wore an un-zipped shirt which humans seem to refer to as a 'hoodie', as well as black pants and shoes, and perhaps the strangest part of his outfit, was a strange looking black hat that had a black ribbon wrapped around it, which he called, a "Fedora". Yellow Diamond didn't question it however, as clothing wasn't very imporant.
The one part of his outfit that she didn't find odd, however, was his shirt. A red short-sleeved shirt that bore a big Yellow Diamond on it.

"It's an honor to be in your marvelous presence, My Lord." Mike stated.

"Skip the sucking up, Hematite." She snapped. "I have a mission for you. A special mission."

Mike, surprised by the hostility, replied. "A... a 'special' mission, my lord?"

"Yes. I'm sure you're aware that three Gems, Peridot, Jasper, and Lapis Lazuli were sent to Earth, correct?" She asked.

"Yes, Lord. Jasper was escorting... Peridot?" He asked.

"Correct. However, something seems to have gone wrong on their mission." She replied flatly.

"Gone... wrong? What do you mean?" He asked, slightly concerned. He didn't care much for Jasper, but Peridot was one of Mike's colleague's and Lapis Lazuli was a mere victim of Homeworld, taken prisoner after returning after centuries stuck on Earth.

"Well, after they left, communications with them were cut off for some reason, and I recently recieved this transmission from Peridot."

Yellow Diamond then proceeded to bring up a screen in front of her, and Peridot was on the screen, looking worn down for some reason.

She started the transmission.

"This is Peridot, transmitting from all frequencies from abandoned Crystal System on colony Planet Earth. To Yellow Diamond, my mission has been compromised. My escort and informant are gone, and I am now stranded. PLEASE SEND HELP!" She exclaimed before the transmission cut off.

"So you see the problem." Yellow Diamond said. "It seems those fools couldn't even handle a simple escort mission."

"So... they're stranded on Earth?" Mike asked, confused. It seemed unlikely that was the case, considering they had a Gem Warship, which would be indestructible to any Earth weapons.

"So it seems. The point is, I have a mission for you." She stated. "You are to travel to Planet Earth, find those idiots and bring them back here.
You are also to find out why they are stranded there in the first place, and contact me as soon as you find out. Understood?"

Mike was surprised by this mission. Yellow Diamond rarely ever sent Gems to Earth other than Peridot, but she was sending him, of all Gems?

"U...understood, Yellow Diamond." Mike replied.

"Good. You are permitted to use one of the Warships to travel there, as the warp pad is still destroyed. Do not fail me." The Gem replied coldly.

Mike slowly turned his back to the Gem Overlord, and proceeded to head out.
But he stopped first.

"Yellow Diamond?" He asked. "Why send me? There are plenty of way more capable Gems than me out there, but you send me instead. Why?

There was a silence. Mike turned back to Yellow Diamond.

"... Believe me, you were not the first Gem I'd ask, but most of those "capable" Gems are already assigned other tasks.
You were just my only option. Do NOT fail me, defect."

That word stung. It made Mike angry, being called something like that. Being a defective Gem was like being a challenged or deformed human,
and being called one was one of the worst insults you could recieve on Homeworld.

But he didn't say anything. The last thing you wanted to ever do here was talk back to Yellow Diamond.
He simply turned and exited the Throne-Room. He closed the doors, and leaned his body against it.

'Great. That's just goddamn great. I'm supposed to go alone to a Planet and search for three Gems. A whole Planet! Who knows how long that will take? And what if something destroys my ship like Peridot's? Then I'll be stranded too!' Mike thought to himself.

"This is not going to be fun..." He groaned as he headed to the Warships. Indeed, it wouldn't be fun.

Or would it?