Never thought I would this would get this far. Please note that I post chapters before they are done, so come back and see updates. Yes I am a horrible person for not updating recently, please bear with me.
Diamond and Blue Diamond are the first to arrive at the council chambers
The two diamonds sat at the massive round table. "Are you ready?" Blue Diamond asked.
"Not like I have much of a choice at this point." Diamond replied.
"I guess not," she said. She turned to him, "you've already seen some of the changes here, but there is still much you are still unaware of."
"Like what? If there is something you are not telling me I need to know now."
"Liste-" she was cut short by the large doors at the entrance sliding up.
"Who dares disturb me? This had better be pretty damn good." Yellow Diamond yelled as she stormed in. She walked into the vast room and froze in her tracks, looking at Diamond. "You're dead..." she gasped, hardly getting the words out.
"Clearly." Diamond said, sarcastically looking over his arms and hands.
"What is going on here? How is this possible?" she asked, slowly sinking into her seat.
"I have my ways, but for now, let's wait until the others arrive." Yellow Diamond nodded slightly, still confused by what she saw. Not much later after that the door once again sounded as it slid open. Pink Diamond walked silently down the short hall and turned the corner into the room with the rest.
"Do my eyes deceive me or does a dead man sit in that chair?" she said with a half smirk.
"Miss me?" Diamond replied sarcastically.
"Yeah, I guess I did." she said, her smile becoming more genuine. She took her seat between Blue and Yellow Diamond. A peridot walked in, saluting the Diamonds.
"Forgive me council, I come with information for you." She said.
"Something is different here..." Diamond thought to himself. He knew that there were many copies of the more common gems, but something was different even compared to the last peridot he had met. The last one was short, almost as if she wasn't made correctly, but now this peridot was much larger, but it was not her body that made her tall. It was her enhancements.
"Proceed." Yellow Diamond said, now fully recomposed.
"Our Red Eye has reported back." Peridot began.
"The Earth one?" Pink Diamond interjected.
"No, my Diamond, the other."
"Continue."
"It has confirmed gems remaining, we believe them to be the remaining opposition."
"Survivor count?" Yellow Diamond said inquisitively.
"My apologies, we are not sure, the scanners were heavily damaged in the process." Peridot said, fear tracing her voice.
"Who was in charge of this mission?"
"I was, my Diamond, I was to search for remaining gems and activate the kindergarten if able."
"Your failure is not acceptable." Yellow Diamond said, slowly standing up. Diamond suddenly noticed the diamond shape cut out of the navel of the Peridot's uniform.
"They still assign gems to my command? Good to know." Diamond thought to himself. Instead of it being a clear piece of uniform he had opted for his subordinates to simply have the area of uniform removed.
"Please, I won't fail you again, we just were not expecting that much resistance when we-" Peridot pleaded, taking a step back in fear.
"Silence!" Yellow Diamond yelled, "You have failed a simple mission, there is no excuse for this!"
"Actually," Diamond said, getting to his feet, "this peridot is clearly under my authority, and I will be the decider of what happens to her." Yellow Diamond shot him a look that could burn.
"Very well. Have failure on your side, just like in the war." She said, taking her seat. Diamond took the name and specifics of the peridot on his portable watch screen.
"Dismissed, I will call for you when I have time." He said, sending the Peridot away.
"Th-thank you, my Diamond." she stuttered as she briskly walked away.
"You should have put her down right then and there." Yellow Diamond said.
"That's not your call to make." He replied sharply.
"Enough bickering." Came a voice from across the room. In walked white Diamond. "It really does get annoying." She scanned the table as she approached her chair, "There are more of us than usual." She said as her eyes landed on Diamond.
"It's only been a few thousand years, this is still usual for us." Diamond replied slyly.
"So," she said sliding into her seat, "as good as it is to see you alive and well, I take it there is more to calling us here than telling us you weren't killed."
"Of course. I may be a Diamond but I am not that narcissistic."
"Well, you certainly have my attention." She chuckled.
"I want to end the cluster that is in the Earth." He said, his tone suddenly shifting.
"Tell me you were not listening to that failure of a Peridot that I sent to Earth." Yellow Diamond said with a sigh.
"No, but when you spend as much time there as I did you learn things." He replied. "Now the Peridot that was in here a moment ago had mechanical enhancements. We were short on resources when we went to Earth in the first place and now I can only assume this problem has gotten worse."
"True, but the Earth-" Yellow Diamond began. She was cut off by White Diamond who held up her hand.
"Let him speak." She said.
"Right, sorry." Yellow Diamond said quietly.
"The Earth is something all it's own. It's life has become something fascinating. Beyond that, there are things there that we had no idea of here." Diamond continued.
"Such as?" Pink Diamond asked.
"Well when we went we found what they refer to as water. What we have discovered recently is that some gems can control this." Diamond replied.
"Examples?" White Diamond said, intrigued.
"Sapphires, they can control it in it's solid form, known as ice. Lapis Lazulis can to my knowledge control it in all forms." Diamond explained.
"Lazulis are mere trophy gems, I have one instead of a Pearl." Pink Diamond interjected.
"I am not saying to make them soldiers, that is far from what I want. What I want to say is that we have abilities there that we had no idea we could even do. If we set a relay position there we can further study these without harming it, as well as use it for a stop as we explore." Diamond said.
"Now even if we were to go with this, and I am not saying we should," Yellow Diamond began, "Do you have any idea what it takes to stop a cluster once it is in place?"
"I do, you may remember I was there last time we stopped one." Diamond replied.
"We have only done it once, and it was far less progressed than this one."
"I still believe it will work."
"You are proposing the entire council go to the Earth, the place where so many of our subjects were killed, and spare it?" White Diamond asked.
"Yes, we would all have to be there to stop it." Diamond said. "I know how major of a decision this is, so I want us to come back to this in a few days after we have had time to truly think it over. That is all I have."
"Very well," Blue Diamond said, "I second that we reconvene in a three days to vote. All in favor?"
"Aye." They all replied.
"Very well, then we are dismissed." Blue Diamond said. They all got to their feet and saluted. They all went their separate ways, Diamond returning with Blue Diamond. They looked at one another as they began to walk and nodded to one another, the balance would return.