The air on Homeworld blew cold that day, pushing the soft clouds along the rose canvas of the sky. White watched over the scene from her chambers, a few steps from her window, attention clinging to the statue of herself in the distance.
Blue had pulled her out and placed Yellow's stone in. Now the Diamond in her forehead held the incorrect color and it was her electricity that powered Homeworld, instead of White Diamond's light.
It took several minutes for White to return. After having been trapped within her own head for thousands of years, she lagged with a fogginess one might experience when coming out of a coma, and Blue Diamond, with her hand atop the eldest empress', said simply, "It was Yellow. She shattered Pink." She spoke with tears ebbing at the corners of her eyes, and White embraced her, also expressing streams that flowed on for several long minutes.
And everything, in what ways it could, returned to the new version of normal, still with only two Diamonds instead of four. White ruled again, and had her gem polished; she took several long lava baths and greeted her subjects, who returned to her with tears in their eyes. Nearly all of them came to weeping upon seeing her. Merely viewing her flipped the switch of their stability and they were left trying to hold the tears inside their ducts.
White caught her reflection in the window briefly, sparkling consistently in the light of her room. In the distance, she found her statue. Looking at it, her eyes weighed as heavy. Everything that had happened—the parts she was both unconscious and unconscious for—coagulated into a dense, black, incomprehensible ball that weighed at the bottom of her throat. Even attempting to take it apart was like dismantling a puzzle within a puzzle, but where both halves are entirely intertwined. Touching even one piece effected the entire enigma, so White gave up and let it sit as she regarded Yellow's gem in the distance, her finger tips pressed to the cool glass of her window.
Despite the knots in her stomach, White's clothing flowed airily around her. By her Pearl's suggestion, she wore the leisurely attire of an empress on her day off. Her gown frothed and flowed like ocean lace and she shone, unconsciously, with all the beads they had suggested she wear.
"My Diamond," one of her Pearls poked her head out from behind the side of the door. "Blue Diamond has come to see you."
The eldest empress took a moment to respond, "Please send her in."
"Yes, ma'am."
Well in the background, the main chamber doors opened with a few mechanical whirrs and a gasp when both sides came apart. Whispered words emerged around it, but died down so quickly that White didn't break her focus from the scene before her. Long seconds of silence passed, even without the movement of Blue Diamond's cloak, and White finally turned around.
"Blue? Have you entered?"
"I have." Another silent pause ensued.
"You're welcome to come in." Her attention didn't shift, and she added, "I'm descent."
"Oh, yes. I'm coming!" The air around Blue's speech contained the sound of moving lips and what sounded like voiceless laughter, causing White to turn around entirely and raise one of her fine brows.
"Blue? What are you doing over there?"
Finally, the whispering drew White from her room and standing near the entrance of her apartments was Blue Diamond, but standing slightly behind her stood a few flashes of vibrant Pink.
They looked directly at one another, all three of them freezing completely upon White's arrival. The eldest Diamond drew in a breath and locked it inside her chest, shaking.
Standing before her was the Diamond she had watched emerge thousands of years ago, partially hiding behind Blue's cloak. Her cheeks retained their rosy hue, just as they had since the first day, framed by a head of wild and silly hair. Her expression beamed with a crooked smile she tried to contain, but still, Pink allowed it to spread across the furthest corners of her face as she laughed her eyes closed. She, too, produced a bottle's worth of tears and they flowed from her, causing her rose face to grow even rosier.
White watched as Pink choked. She had set her palm upon her chest and could hardly breathe herself, savagely paralyzed by the sight before her. Every particle of her stopped, and she struggled to fill her lungs, even though the tears came for a solid seven seconds before both ran forward and captured one another.
White squeezed Pink so hard she almost popped, but Instead of exploding into a rain of sugar and glitter, she remained securely in White's arms, sweet laughter echoing around the walls of the room. It increased in bursts every time White kissed her cheeks, or her forehead, and once even her lips. The goddess had ceased aiming and captured whatever parts of Pink she could, as if stopping would cause her to crumble away.
"Is it really you?" White stopped kissing her for a moment to hold either side of her warm face and study it a short distance away. Even though the tears ruined her vision, she could still make out her funny expression. Pink had hoisted her brows and puckered her lips, releasing a few beads of sweat beneath White's blurred scrutiny. "How in the world did you come back? I thought—"
"Rose Quartz healed me. I can remember where I stopped existing, and then…" She blinked, "and then it began, and Blue was there. I can't believe it either." The tears came more furiously and bent her mouth around an even larger crooked smile. White clutched her close again with one of her hands settling upon the younger Diamond's back and the other trapped around her waist like a seatbelt. There was hardly a molecule of space between them. Despite the pressure, Pink wrapped her arms around White and rubbed their cheeks together, even if both had been soaked by tears.
"You're never leaving this planet again."
"Oh, come on. Please?"
"Absolutely not."
"But, White—" she inhaled and pushed more tears out. "How will I be able to do my job if I can't leave? What if you have a party somewhere else?" She laughed and cried. "I'll get so bored."
"I don't care. You're going to stay right here, where I can see you." White caught a glimpse of Blue, who had consumed herself with wiping up her tears. White opened the arm that had landed along Pink's back for her, and when she took a few steps forward, folded her inside the embrace until she held both of the other Diamonds and they held her.
The three of them remained that way for an indiscernible amount of time, eventually separating without words as twilight laced its darkness into the sky. In the coming night, the gem implanted into the statue's head glowed faintly, and the three of them regarded the odd glimmer beneath the electricity she made.
White took Pink's hand and then Blue's.
"Can I talk to her? Maybe not right now, but…"
The eldest empress squeezed both sets of fingers. "Maybe so, but let's wait a while. There is already so much…"
Blue Diamond regarded the floor and Pink completed the circle by weaving their digits together.
"Yeah, maybe after a while."
Night finally fell, and each of the Diamonds eventually went her own way. They would reunite again, beneath another morning sky, beneath a different beam of sun, and beneath another Diamond's power. Where one unhappiness left a wound, an overwhelming joy filled and repaired it. Even though some bitterness hung around in the dried blood and the scars, all four of them made at least one step closer to being whole again.
