In the gray, lifeless chasms of the Prime Kindergarten that once housed an army of quartz soldiers was the son of gem and human, Steven Universe, standing face to communication screen with one of Homeworld's great leaders, Blue Diamond.
"Now..." Blue Diamond said, with seriousness in her voice. "Tell me what really happened to Pink Diamond."
In the sidelines, both Zircon and Aquamarine were surprised and confused to hear this. They weren't told about this being the objective.
Steven, on the other hand, was rather relieved but also nervous at the same time. "It's a long story but if you let me, I'll tell you what I know." Steven said.
Peridot felt the same way, as she gave Steven's hand a comforting squeeze.
Blue Diamond thought for a moment before calling her Pearl to her armrest. In any such confrontation between a diamond and her gems (or any other in this case), it was important to have the diamond's pearl as an eyewitness. When Blue Pearl was situated in a proper place, Blue Diamond spoke, "You may begin."
Steven took in a quick breath, "First, I want to clear the air about who I am. My name is Steven, Steven Quartz Universe. I'm actually half human from my dad but my mom was a gem." Out of habit, he lifted his shirt slightly to show his gem.
Even though this was the second time she had seen the gem on his stomach, Blue Diamond looked at the gem intently. It did look like a rose quartz and yet it seemed different somehow... but she tried to block these thoughts for the moment.
"You're a hybrid of gem and human?" the diamond questioned. "How is that possible?"
"It's because my mom, Rose Quartz, met and loved a human named Greg Universe. My dad."
"What?" Aquamarine squeaked. But she quieted down, not wanting to get the death glare from her diamond... again.
Ignoring the water gem, Steven continued. "At some point, Rose decided to have Greg's... um..." he thought that the words 'child' or 'kid' might only confuse the diamond more.
Noticing his struggle, Peridot helped him out by whispering in his ear.
"Offspring!" Steven said enthusiastically.
Peridot moved away after that but still stood next to Steven.
"But-... she had to give up her physical form to have me. So when I was born, Rose Quartz became half of me. I have her gem and her powers but I don't have her memories." He then lowered his shirt, covering his gem.
Blue Diamond listened but she was having trouble believing in it. Although she wanted to continue and said. "I see, if what you say is true then that means you weren't really there when Pink died. Why did you insist otherwise during the trial?"
"Because...*sigh*, because I wanted to finish what my mom started. Rose made mistakes that hurt a lot of gems, gems like you and Yellow, and I thought if I turned myself in and just let you do whatever... I thought it would make things right."
Blue Diamond was astonished by this but then she became cross, "You thought sacrificing yourself would make things right? Make me and Yellow feel happy?!"
"Well, happy is a stron–"
"Shattering gems does not make me happy!" Blue Diamond interjected. She glared at him but upon noticing the surprise expression on Steven's face, the diamond calmed herself slightly and said. "I don't know what you have been told about diamonds, Steven, but contrary to popular belief, diamonds do not just shatter gems left and right. Shattering is a very serious matter, especially since creating more gems now is very taxing on our resources. As you may have noticed with the Aquamarine and the Peridot standing next to you, we've had to make due with very little."
Steven briefly glanced Aquamarine and thought. 'Huh, so they're not really that small. I mean, she's mean, but having a bunch of cute little fairies like that actually seems kind of nice.' When Aquamarine's eye met with Steven, she stuck her tongue out at him. Steven looked away, 'Well, unless they're all like her.'
Blue Diamond continued. "I didn't want to shatter you... not right away. I wanted to be certain that my aquamarine really did have Rose Quartz because I wanted answers. I wanted to know why or how any gem could be so devious as to shatter her own diamond. Pink wasn't even that well experienced and yet she was taken away by y-... Your mother's hands." She squinted her eyes briefly. "Or at least that's what I believed until I had the "diamond shards" tested by one of my personal kindergarten technicians and after observing the results myself, my gem nearly fractured itself. Though I suppose it's only reasonable to be shocked after witnessing the remains of a fallen loved one decompose into the mud before their very eyes!"
Steven's widen, "It turned back into mud?" he asked. Just then, Steven felt a sharp pain in his stomach and it made him wince, but it was brief and he shook it off.
"Yes," Blue answered, not noticing Steven's wince. "It was confirmed that the substance was in fact soil from the planet earth and I can only assume that this was part of the staged shattering you spoke of before."
Steven nodded and answered. "Yes. They needed fake shards to make it believable."
"Tell me who they are!" Blue Diamond demanded. "How did you make those shards? How did you get so close to Pink? And why would you need to stage her death in the first place?"
As Blue Diamond asked these questions, Steven felt the sharp pain again, but he did his best to ignore it saying. "Because..." he briefly looked back at Peridot, who gave him a nod. He continued. "Because... Rose Quartz and Pink Diamond-... Pink Dia- Ow!" he gave a short cry as the pain worsened.
"What is the matter with you?" the diamond asked. "What are you trying to say?"
"Tell her, tell her..." Zircon silently repeated.
Steven fell to his knees from the pain.
"Steven?" Peridot said as she knelt next to Steven. "What's wrong? Are you experiencing cramps again?"
"No, I don't understand..." Steven said, his forehead began to sweat as well... but that wasn't as alarming as his gem starting to glow.
"Steven? Steven?" Peridot repeated.
Steven's eyes began to water, he didn't know why his stomach was hurting so much right now. Was it something he ate? No, the only other time he felt like this was when he and Peridot were drilling into the Cluster. It was his gem doing this. He realized that Pink might be responsible... but why? Last time it was to get into the Cluster's mind but why now? To keep him from talking? Maybe. It would be a cruel thing to do on her part but given how she prevented Pearl from telling anyone the truth, it wasn't too hard to believe in his mind. But Steven was not going to let his mother stop him from talking if he could help it. He slowly rose back to his feet, wiped away his tears and still held on to his gem.
"Rose, if you won't talk to me like this the-" but she was interrupted by Steven, who looked her in the eye and yelled.
"Rose Quartz was actually PINK DIAMOND!"
Steven's voice briefly echoed in the kindergarten and then there was a deathly silence. After his proclamation, the pain started to lessen and then a curious cold feeling ran down his spine as the light faded from his gem. "I'm sorry mom," Steven whispered to his gem softly.
When he straightened up and looked around, he saw the different expressions of the blue gems. A small bead of sweat could be seen on Zircon as she gave off the familiar look of fear, even Aquamarine looked surprised, and as for Blue Diamond. She had a look of shock but that soon changed as she furrowed her brows.
"Pink Diamond and Rose Quartz were the same gems?" Blue Diamond questioned.
"Yes," Steven answered, "I know how it sounds but I swear it's true. Pink Diamond made up Rose Quar-"
"Enough!" the diamond ordered.
Steven was silenced.
Then the diamond spoke, in an ominous tone. "You dare to imply that a diamond would impersonate a lesser gem and form a resistance army to go against her Homeworld. You are crueler than I could have imagined."
"I'm telling you the truth; Rose Quartz didn't shatter Pink Diamond because they were the same person." Steven objected insistently.
"But that's impossible, I knew Pink better than anyone else. I was there when she emerged from the grounds of the Homeworld planet, I did everything I could to prepare her for her position as a monarch in our society. She would never do anything to betray her Homeworld, she would never betray our order, she would never betray me!"
Steven was taken aback by the diamond's anger, but he could also see the tears forming in the corner of her eyes. He said, "But she did Blue Diamond. I'm sure Pink didn't mean to hurt you but she wanted to protect this planet so much because it gave her something. Something precious."
Blue Diamond raised an eyebrow at that. "And what might that be?"
Steven took a moment to think. What did the earth offer Pink Diamond? And then he said.
"The earth... it showed Pink that there was more to life than just being another diamond in the system. I think when Pink saw what the earth and its people were like, she wanted to... experience it for herself. On earth, no one is assigned to just one job forever, no one's life is set in stone. And even if someone were to set a path for you, you don't have to follow it because you can choose your own path. Pink wanted to be free to make her own choice, to set her own path, she wanted to live."
"She did live, she lived to be a diamond; to conquer planets and rule over lesser gems."
"But that isn't what she wanted. She didn't want to destroy worlds and look down on other gems. Pink wanted to live freely on earth, where she could be who she wants to be and share that dream with other gems, and the earth gave her that. She wanted to let you know how she felt but you wouldn't let her. Pink tried to tell you but you only shut her up and told her to just smile and wave and everything will work itself out so long as she was around."
Blue Diamond gave an alarmed expression. "How do you know about that?" she asked.
Steven thought for a moment and said. "I was on the moon base a while ago and when I was up there, I had a vision from the past. You, Pink and Yellow Diamond were there and you told Pink, "As long as you are there to rule, this colony will be completed.". That was the last thing I heard you say to her and then you and Yellow Diamond left."
Blue Diamond shuddered, then she looked away and grasped onto of her armrest. Steven began to worry about Blue and when he saw her shaking, he called out her name attentively. At first, the diamond gave no indication that she heard him.
But then she spoke in a solemn voice, "That was the last conversation I had with her before she was... taken away from me. Looking back now, Pink always wanted to have a colony of her own and to be considered equal among her fellow diamonds..." She turned to face the communication screen. "But after we gave her the earth, suddenly, it was as if she wasn't even trying to do her job properly. Of course, I expected Pink to have a few setbacks for her first time but as time went on she just came up with one excuse after another."
'I know, I saw it.' Steven thought.
"When I heard about the rebellion, I didn't think she would actually get hurt. I never heard of Rose Quartz and Pink Diamond being in the same place at the same time until eyewitnesses gave their testimonies. They claimed that they had seen Rose Quartz use her sword to shatter Pink's gem. How do you account for that?"
Steven was about to explain but he stopped himself. 'I shouldn't be telling her about Pearl. Should I?' and then he said aloud, "A gem that Pink trusted helped her by shapeshifting herself to look like Rose Quartz and use the sword. They used Rose's sword because it can't destroy gemstones, only their physical forms. So even though it looked like Pink's gem was shattered, the real gem was just taken and kept hidden by the fake."
The blue zircon was stunned and she slowly sunk to the dusty ground of the kindergarten. 'So that's how she did it.' Zircon thought.
"But how were the fake shards created?" Blue Diamond asked.
"Pink Diamond did that," he answered. Steven then stooped down and gathered some dirt in his hands. "I saw this in another vision." And then Steven closed his hand, blew into it, tried to tighten his fist... but when he opened his hand again, the dirt was still there. Steven tried to think, he remembered how there was a cracking sound when Pink did it... but that would hardly help him, his fingers were always so quiet. He grew nervous but when he tried again it was the same result and he saw the impatient look on the diamonds face.
Aquamarine rolled her eyes. 'This is getting ridiculous.' She thought.
For a third time, Steven did the routine and this time there was a subtle crackling sound and when he opened his hand, there were pink shards of glass.
Curious, Peridot carefully picked up a piece and examined it closely. "Hmm, I can definitely see how this could fool other gems."
As for Blue Diamond, seeing the shards seem to stir a feeling within her. "Perhaps..."
Just then Aquamarine swooped in between Steven and the communication screen. "If I may interject my diamond," she said politely.
"I would prefer if you didn't, Aquamarine." Blue Diamond said with disdain. "I may not enjoy shattering gems but that doesn't mean I won't if given the choice."
"And I understand completely, my diamond, but I simply wish to point out that we cannot truly count this 'little trick' as definitive proof that Rose Quartz was indeed Pink Diamond in disguise. For all we know, this Rose could just be harvesting the real Pink Diamond away somewhere in case a ransom is needed."
"No!" Steven protested, shaking his head. But deep down he knew Aquamarine was right, this doesn't prove anything.
Peridot stepped forward, "Steven would never do such a thing."
'Well, if that 'little trick' won't work,' Steven thought. 'then maybe this will.' For this next part, he tried to relax.
Blue Diamond's expression became more menacing. "You will do well to hold your tongue while I am conversing with this..." she took a quick glance at Steven, "What is this?"
Peridot turned around and saw Steven's body starting to glow faintly. "Steven? Are you..." she asked.
"It's okay Peridot... It's okay." Steven said with a small smile. He relaxed but at the same time, he concentrated.
The other gems observed as Steven's upper body seem to stretch out beyond any human capability... but for gems, it was basic shapeshifting. Steven winced but kept going until his gem was in plain sight and then slowly, very slowly, his gem rotated downward. The gem moved until its pavilion depth could be seen and then finally the culet. From the eyes of Blue Diamond, it all became clear, this WAS Pink Diamond's gem. The diamond had to hold back a scream by covering her hands over her lips and her eyes went wider than ever. In fact, all of the other gems eyes went wide from the shock, even Blue Pearl, if you could see under her hair.
Soon though, the strain became too much for Steven and unstretched himself but not before his gem went back to its rose quartz position. He looked up at the communicator screen with hopeful yet nervous eyes.
Blue Diamond's eyes became watery again and she said, in a slow, remorseful voice, "It's true. You truly are Pink..."
Steven shook his head. "No... Pink gave up her physical form to have me. I'm her son, Steven."
"But you have her gem. You must be..."
Steven shook his head again, "Steven." He repeated desperately.
A thousand thoughts rushed in Blue Diamond's head as she looked at the boy. Then she blinked her tears away and said in an orderly manner.
"Zircon, Aquamarine."
Upon hearing their diamond's command, the blue gems shook off their fear and shock, moved in front of Steven to face the screen and saluted.
"Yes my diamond." Zircon and Aquamarine said in unison.
"You are to take Steven and his Peridot off the planet earth, take them to the Moon Base and wait there till I arrive. Diamond out." and the communicator screen shrunk and turned off.
"Blue wait!" Steven cried out.
Homeworld, Blue Diamond's Private Quarters
She heard a faint cry from Steven but the rest of it went unheard as Blue Diamond closed the communicator. However, for a moment the diamond did not move except when she placed her hands over her own gem.
"Pink didn't really shatter..." the diamond said to herself. "She's alive."
Normally her days were filled with feelings of sadness, guilt, and loneliness...but seeing that gem again, that bright pink diamond gem gave Blue a feeling she thought she would never feel again; Hope. It bubbled inside her and although she didn't notice it yet, the ghost of a smile was forming on her lips, ready to come back to life.
"I must go right away," Blue Diamond said standing up again. "Pearl, the door."
"Yes my diamond," Blue Pearl answered as she quickly ran for the door to open on her diamond's command.
After putting away the communicator, Blue made her way to the door which soon opened, "Have the ship prepared at once, we-"
"And where will you go, Blue?" Came a stern, authoritative voice.
Blue Diamond froze in place as she was now faced to face with her sister diamond; Yellow.
"Y-Yellow." Blue stuttered for a moment, "What are you doing here?"
"I think you know why." Yellow Diamond said as she stepped in.
The door was closed behind her by her pearl, Yellow Pearl, who then stood next to Blue Pearl and smiled in her usual snooty fashion. Blue Pearl, however, was less than thrilled and she rolled her eyes under her bangs.
"I can't stay, Yellow," Blue Diamond insisted. "Just leave me alone to my duties."
"Well, I'm relieved that you're doing your job, Blue, but I cannot help but feel the need to make sure you're not continuously letting your emotions cloud your judgment."
"I don't know what you're talking about."
Yellow took hold of Blue by the shoulder. "Pink's shards. Where are they? I know you took them and I'm worried you might tamper with them."
Blue's eyes widen in realization, then she jerked away from Yellow and avoided eye contact with her. "Pink's shards?"
"You know what happened last time and you know what will happen if White finds out. Now, where are they?"
It was good that Yellow couldn't see Blue's eyes, lest she see them shift, "I-I don't have them with me. They're... in my ship."
"Why?" Yellow Diamond questioned.
Once she found a way to calm herself, Blue turned and faced Yellow, saying. "I wanted to take Pink back with me on the ship to see the planet Earth...- At a distance."
Yellow shook her head and pinched the bridge of her nose. "Blue, this is what I'm talking about. You were so convinced that Pink's shards still had a conciseness that you wanted to keep them for yourself. That's not healthy and you know it."
"This isn't like that. I just want to go somewhere."
"With the shards?"
"Yes! I will return with Pink as soon as I can. If you want to stop me, you'll have to kill me first. Otherwise get out of my way." Blue made her way to the door again, surprising Yellow with how direct she was acting. But before she left, Blue turned and said, "I expect you out of my quarters by the time I get back." And then she left with her pearl.
However Yellow did not move, though Blue was gone, Yellow eyed the doorway with suspicion. 'She's hiding something from me.'
"Pearl," Yellow Diamond said.
Yellow Pearl flinched, "Ye-es, my diamond."
"Set an alert to one of my pilot gems to set a tracker on Blue Diamond's ship immediately. Whatever she's doing, will not be kept secret from me."
Author's Note: Finally got that done, now onto the episodes for inspiration. Don't forget to leave a comment and tell me what you think.