The warp pad from Belogradchik Fortress, Bulgaria, suddenly glows and Emerald appears on it. The warp pad is on one of those big rocks upstairs the fortress, so, Emerald needed to fly to reach the ground with safety.
"Beautiful!" She looks around the place. "I wonder how it looks like in a sunny day." She takes the map from her pocket. "Well, it says here that there is a chamber somewhere between those rocks…" She looks at them. "It won't be easy. Please let it be opened with technology." She walks towards the rocks and then starts to touch the rock wall "Nothing." She punches the wall. "No." She rolls her eyes and takes the map again. "I need instructions!" The gemling shouts, looking for something that could help her and that is when she reads something that made her mad. "It can be opened only by gems directly related to the Diamond Authority by saying 'yes my diamond'. Great!" She says and a door starts to open in the middle of the rock.
"That was weird... " Emerald walks inside. Once she takes a first step into the cave, the lights turn on and the door closes. The green gemling looks at the stairs in front of her.
"Today is my lucky day!" She smiles, going downstairs and at her third step she falls down and rolls down the stairs. "Ouch..." She places her hand on her head. "Okay, not that lucky." Emerald stands up. "It is cold here too." She crosses her arms and continues her walk.
A few steps later, she enters a room full of doors.
"Alright. A few doors... Where do I even begin?" She stops in front of one of the doors. "There is something written..." She moves her hand on the dusty stone, removing the dust from it. "Gem language." She looks closer and tries to read it. "Yellow Diamond's Room... interesting. And Pearl said that it would be useless to teach me the language." She looks around to find a way to open the door.
"Oh no." Emerald looks at a hand reader, next to the door. "Are you joking me or what? Why do you need one like this all the time?" She taps her feet on the ground in anger and looks again at the reader. "Well..." Emerald slowly places her hand on the reader.
What Emerald didn't know is that the readers on the diamond base were made to identify gems DNA and not their hands. The Diamonds liked to hide their secrets carefully, so, only someone with their DNA could open their doors.
In a flash, the door started open.
"Wow..." Emerald walks into the yellow room.
There is a computer next to the right wall, a bed in the left and a table in front of the bed. Emerald walks towards the table and starts to investigate Yellow Diamond's stuff.
There are a lot of letters on her table and some pictures as well. "I always knew that the humans were not the ones who invented the photographs." She smiles.
"They might be Yellow Diamond and White Diamond." Emerald looks at them in the photos. "They look cute together." She touches their faces. "And... they kinda look familiar... her hair… when I was a baby, my hair was like hers." Emerald takes one of the pictures and puts it with the photographs of the gems that she found in the barn.
"Yellow Diamond didn't leave much she did have a bed even though we don't have to sleep." She opens the door and walks to the next, which is Blue Diamond's room.
"Her room is totally blue! Beautiful!" Emerald shouts with stars on her eyes. "Mom would love this place!" She looks around the place.
Blue Diamond's room is similar to Yellow Diamond's room, but her room is blue. On the table, there are some drawings and a silver flute.
"It looks like she knew how to play the flute..." Emerald tries to play the instrument, but it didn't sound really nice, making her laugh.
"Blue Diamond sure likes art." She looks at the drawings. "They are beautiful and delicate..." She looks at them one more time. "But, they kinda look sad." She sighs. "I thought this place would be scary, but it's actually normal. Like a house" She leaves Blue's room and looks at the next door, which is Pink Diamond's room.
The gemling goes inside of the pink room, but she didn't find much.
There is only the furniture, the same from the other rooms and a photograph of Blue and Pink Diamond on the floor, which Emerald picks up. "Why would Rose…" The gemling looks at Pink's smile. "She looks happy… how much longer did they stay here?" Emerald looks at the dusty place and then leaves to another room, putting away the picture with the other pictures she has. "Pink Diamond..."
She walks into White Diamond's room, which distracts her from Pink.
"This is what I call a huge computer!" Emerald smiles. White Diamond's room has a small and fancy bed next to the right wall, a huge computer in front of the middle wall, a sword collection next to the left wall and a small box on the bed.
"Man... This place is the best!" Emerald's eyes glow. "Mama would love this computer and this sword collection... Pearl would definitely love it!" She walks towards the bed and holds the small box on her hands.
"For Yellow..." She tries to open the little box, but she doesn't succeed. "It is locked! I really wanted to see this one." She lies down on White's bed.
"This place has a lot of memories from them." She looks at the box again. "The gems said they are bad, but it doesn't feel like it..."
While Emerald stops to rethink about the diamonds, before looking into the rest of the place, there is a fight going on at the beach house.
"I'm coming with you!" Lapis taps her foot with anger on the ground.
Everybody is watching Peridot and Lapis, who have been arguing since Peridot decided to leave Lapis at home with Topaz, Steven, Connie and Amethyst.
"You are not. You're gonna stay here!" Peridot crosses her arms. "And I'm not changing my mind."
"You are not the boss of me." She walks towards the warp pad. "And I'm not gonna stay here! I'm gonna go and help to find our daughter! I'm not gonna sit on that couch and wait for you all to come back!"
"Lapis!" Peridot uses her metal powers to control a chair and make it go towards Lapis, making the blue gem sit on it without her agreement. The technician then places the chair, with Lapis on it, next to the sofa.
"Wow, Peridot has metal powers!" Topaz says with stars on the eyes.
"You're not telling Emerald about it, little boy." Peridot says before walking towards Lapis, who looks at her face distorted with rage.
"Laz, please, understand. It's not good for you to come with us." Peridot kneels in front of Lapis.
"I-I don't care Peridot. I just wanna be there for my little girl." Lapis starts to cry all over again.
"But you need to be here for our other little gem." Peridot places her hand on Lapis's stomach.
"I know, but I need to go with you. I feel it, please, Peridot. I need to do it" Lapis wipes out her tears.
"It is not fair. How can I say no with you crying like this?" Peridot places her hand on her hair. "I'm gonna regret this." Peridot stands up and looks at the others. "Garnet, we are ready to go."
"Alright... Let's go team!" Garnet while Pearl and Jasper walk towards the warp pad.
"Thanks, Peridot." Lapis says underneath her breath, while her wife helps her to stand up.
"Just try to keep calm." Peridot looks at her wife with a smile and then walks towards the warp pad. Lapis starts to follow Peridot, but then she stops when she feels that pain inside of her belly again, tearing her apart.
"Not now, my dear. Please, just let me help them find your sister..." Lapis whispers to herself, placing one of her hands on her belly.
"Lapis? Are you okay?" Peridot looks at her from the warp pad, clearly worried.
"Of course I am. I was just thinking..." She continues her walk, trying to look as natural as possible.
Before they activate the warp pad, Garnet kisses her son on the forehead.
"Be nice." Garnet places her hand on her son's head.
"Okay, mom." He smiles and Garnet smiles back before activating the warp pad and warp away.
"Why did you do this, Eme?" He says underneath his breath, while walking towards Steven.
Meanwhile, Emerald already reached the communication room at the diamonds' place. She doesn't touch anything because of what happened last time, when she accidentally sent a message to the Diamond Authority, but she does look around, wishing she could be able to open some of the records without any risk.
Once she leaves the communication room, she finds another door, which looks not as old as the other ones.
"This one is different" Emerald blows the dust from the door. "Lapis Lazuli?" She reads it really slow to be sure she got that right. "Lapis Lazuli Diamond?!" The kid sighs. "What is going on here?"
Emerald doesn't realize that there are a few lapis lazulis back on Homeworld, just like pearls, rubies and all the other gems, however, she was right, that was her mom's room.
She enters the aqua blue room and finds a small bed, with whales drawn on the wall and a lot of pictures of a small Lapis Lazuli and Blue Diamond. Next to ones of the whales there is a tiny hand painted in the middle of other two big hands. Emerald walks closer to the wall and takes one of the photos, which is of Lapis when she was ten years old.
"She looks like mom. Her clothes, hair... and gem… No way." Emerald takes a step back and then looks at a picture of Blue, Pink and a baby. "Mom is Pink and Blue Diamond's daughter." She kneels on the floor, looking at the picture on her hands.
"Why she keeps hiding things from me?" Emerald punches the floor. "I don't know anything! I don't even know my own family! I don't know what happened. I don't know who my mother was!" She sits on the floor. "I am only 4 years old, but I am capable of understanding all this mess... they know that!" She looks at her hands. "I am capable of…"
Meanwhile, back at the barn, Peridot feels that something is totally not right, making her get even more worried.
"Emerald!" Peridot shouts around the barn and that is when she finds her tablet, turned on, right on the couch. "Eme…" She gets the tablet and runs towards the rest of the group. They are all looking at Garnet, who is telling them something important.
"Guys! Guys!" Peridot shouts, making everyone look at her.
"I found something." She shows a picture of the green gemling on the tablet. "She was here! Look at this picture! It is from today and from a few hours ago. She cannot be far away. Emerald doesn't know how to use the warp system, so, let's go."
"Peridot, Garnet... found her." Lapis places a hand on her wife's shoulder.
"And where is she?" Peridot looks at Garnet.
"Bulgaria..." Garnet takes a deep breath.
"WHAT?!" Peridot freaks out. "How?"
Lapis looks at her foot and then at Peridot. "She learned it... with one of Garnet's maps."
"She stole a map?!"
"Topaz gave it to her..." Garnet crosses her arms.
"Oh my stars..." Peridot places her hand on her hair.
"We should go." Garnet starts to walk towards the warp pad.
"Yes." Pearl walks right next to Garnet.
Once they get to the diamond's fortress, Garnet stops right in front of two rocks.
"She is inside." Garnet poits at rockd.
"Inside you say?" Pearl looks at Garnet, raising an eyebrow.
Lapis looks at the rocks and suddenly a flashback comes to her mind.
"Peridot?" She whispers, pushing her wife away from the others.
"What?" Peridot whispers back.
"I know this place…" She says so only they can hear.
"Do you?"
"Yes… I stayed here during the war until the day I was trapped on that mirror by Yellow Diamond. I used to visit this place after my mother was shattered. I don't remember exactly, but I remember something important… only the diamonds or someone related to them, like us or their pearls, can open the entrance by saying 'yes my diamond'." Lapis whispers.
"But how Emerald found out about this place?" Peridot looks at Lapis confused.
"I have no idea, but how are we gonna open this without showing them the truth?" Lapis asks.
Peridot looks at Garnet, who is talking about ways to get inside.
"I know how…" Peridot walks towards the rest of the group.
"Hey guys, so, this is an old system and, luckily, I know how to open it! Stay away this can get dangerous!" Peridot says, walking towards the rock wall.
Lapis looks at her and rolls her eyes. "Oh my stars Peri. You don't know how to act casual…" She crosses her arms, while Peridot touches the wall, pretending that she is typing on something.
"Yes my diamond…" Peridot whispers looking at the floor.
She walks back towards Lapis and wait a few seconds until the door opens.
"Good job, Peridot." Garnet says walking towards the inside.
They start to go downstairs Pearl and Garnet leading the way. Peridot is right behind them with Lapis and Jasper right. The blue gem is kind of distraught, remembering her past. All that stress makes her pain comes back, forcing her to stop. She silently rests her back against the wall.
"What is the problem, Lapis?" Jasper looks at her.
"Nothing…" Lapis looks at the next step of the stairs and keeps walking.
"Come on. You can't lie to me. I know you." Jasper looks at the blue gem, who stopped again.
"Don't remind me of that. It is not something easy to forget." Lapis crosses her arms, but she regrets that when the pain comes back.
"I didn't mean to make you remember that…" Jasper shakes her head. " I was just trying to talk to you. I know that our past is… complicated."
"Sure it is." Lapis makes a frown
"But, with all those things aside, you were the one who talked to me and who believed in me to be a Crystal gem, so, let me help you."
"You know, the past is not something I wanna talk about now…" Lapis palaces a hand on her belly, trying to hold herself together.
"Do you remember this place?" Jasper suddenly asks, making Lapis look at her eyes, shocked.
"How do you know? Were you spying on us?!"
"No. Of course not. I was important back on Homeworld, you know. I was the one who trained Peridot when she was a kid." They look at the green gem, who is talking with Pearl. "But she will not remember me, not after what Yellow Diamond did to her. I always knew about your real identity. Why do you think they chose me to be your scout? I was there when both of you were born … I am old you know…" Jasper reach eye to eye with the shocked gem next to her.
"Why didn't you tell us?"
"You never asked me and I didn't have a reason to tell you. But you never asked yourself why your wife is powerful like that."
"But… why Peridot was never able to use her power before?" Lapis asks.
"Because that was the only way for her to pretend that she was an era two, but she doesn't remember about that because her memory was erased. She doesn't remember half of her life…" Jasper lowers her head.
"What?! You mean that Peridot doesn't know about her own life?"
"Yes. Back when she had her memories…" Jasper thinks about what she is going to say. She can't tell Lapis that her memories were erased too or things could go down hill. "Peridot knew about you being an heir and she also knew about her powers. She knew that she was not an era two peridot. She still remembers that she used to lie about her identity, but she forgot that being powerless like an era 2 Peridot was a lie too. The truth is that Yellow Diamond erased most of her memories about being an heir."
"Why would she do that?" Lapis looks at her wife again.
"We can talk about that later some other time."Jasper says when she realizes that they are almost at the end of the stairs. "Just, don't tell her, Lapis. It will not be easy for her to fight her parents if she starts to question what she is or was." Jasper whispers. "It could trigger something. I don't know."
Lapis nods. "Don't worry. I won't, can I tell her about you?"
"Yes."
"Can we talk more about the memory thing later?"
"Maybe after the baby is born."
"Thank you." Lapis walks towards Peridot.
"Hey." Peridot looks at the blue gem.
"Hi." Lapis holds her wife's hand.
"Talking with Jasper?"
"Yes. It happens that she knows about us."
"What?!"
"I will explain everything later."
Garnet stop in front of one of the doors, trying to find out the correct one. A few seconds later, she looks at the gems behind her.
"She is there." She points at the last door.
"I will open it!" Pearl places her hand on the reader since she is closer to the door.
Pearl waits a minute, but it doesn't work.
"It is not working…" Pearl looks at her hand and that is when Lapis looks at Peridot and Jasper.
"Here, let me try." Lapis walks towards the door and places her hand on the reader, giving a smile at Pearl, who reads the name on the door.
When it opens, they find a gemling sit on the ground.
"Emerald!" Lapis and Peridot scream, running towards their daughter.
"Are you okay?" Peridot asks, checking out her gem.
"What are you doing here?" Lapis places her hands on her kid's shoulders.
They wait a few minutes, but Emerald doesn't answer.
"Emerald?" Peridot looks at her kid.
"Why?" The gemling stands up.
"Why what?" Peridot gives her a confused look.
"Why don't you finally tell me?" The kid looks at Lapis, who grabs the picture that is next to her daughter's foot.
"Tell what?" Peridot asks.
"That she is a monster!" Emerald shouts, pointing at Lapis.
Everybody look at Emerald, shocked.
"W-what?" Lapis asks, worried about the answer.
"You are the heir of them." Emerald points at a picture on the wall.
"I- I am not like them…" Lapis starts to freak out.
"How can you know that?" Emerald shouts.
"Emerald, listen… I know this is a little bit confusing, but your mom is not like her parents. She is not a monster." Peridot looks into her kid's eyes.
"Why do you trust her?"
"Because I know her."
"Did you know about this."
Peridot takes a deep breath. "Yes."
"For how much longer?"
"Since I told you my story." Peridot closes her eyes.
"She lied to you when you met. Why do you trust her?"
"B-because…" She looks at Garnet and Pearl. "Because I lied too. I didn't tell anyone that I am also an heir. The daughter of Yellow and White Diamond…" Peridot lowers her head.
"What?" Pearl asks, surprised.
"I am sorry guys…" Peridot apologises to Garnet and Pearl.
"Listen, Emerald…" Jasper gets in the middle of the conversation. "You can't put the blame on your parents. I know you are mad, but it is not their fault to be who they are."
"We didn't choose to be what we are. But that does not change the fact that we love you, Emerald."
"We are family. Our past is not what matters, but what we chose to be here on Earth." Garnet says.
"Eme, we are a part of this family and of the diamond family, but that is not important to either of us. We don't even call ourselves by our real name." Peridot places a hand on her daughter's cheek.
"That is true. You know, Lapis Lazuli Diamond and Peridot Diamond are not cool names." Lapis smiles.
"But how-" Emerald tries to ask more about this story when, suddenly, Lapis closes her eyes, while holding her belly.
"Lapis!" Everybody screams.
"Mom!" Emerald tries to hold Lapis, when Jasper picks her up and leaves the room.
"I want to be with her." Emerald tells Jasper.
"You can't do anything about it."
"Lapis, I told you shouldn't have came with us." Peridot places Lapis's head against her chest and makes her sit on her legs.
"I know, but-" Lapis makes a grimace. "I needed to find her." Lapis starts to cry in pain. "It hurts."
"Did this start just now?"
"No. I was feeling this pain back at home." She takes a deep breath when the pain comes back.
"You should have told me."
"If I had told you, you wouldn't let come with you." Lapis tries to catch her breath.
Peridot takes a deep breath. Okay, you are right. Now, just close your eyes and focus on my voice…" Peridot places her limb enhancer hand on her wife's belly, making it warm. "I never thought that this would be how we would tell them about our past." Peridot looks at the room. "This place looks fancy. Is that you?" Peridot points at the picture on Lapis's hand.
"Yes. Blue Diamond took this picture. She was supposed to be on a war meeting, but instead of that, she was with me."
"I bet Yellow Diamond got mad."
"Yeah." Lapis tries to smile. "She did. She actually started to yell all over this place."
"She has this yelling side of her." Peridot rubs her cheek on her wife's cheek.
"It hurt, you know, when she called me a monster. Just like so many others did before…"
"You are not a monster." Peridot kisses Lapis's cheek.
"Sometimes, when I have nightmares about my past, I think I am."