Fear struck Steven in the heart like an icy knife. He shook his head and attempted to back away. "Yellow Diamond..."

The darkness began to recede and Steven realized he was in a large room. It was empty other then the wiring threading though and several large screens. There was a control panel that looked similar to Peridot's, but it spanned through the entire room and stretched around. There were millions of buttons. Steven couldn't even understand how anyone could remember so many different buttons. There were doors, but they were all closed and coded.

"Welcome, Quartz." The woman stood, tall and towering. She was taller then Jasper, taller then Opal. She looked large enough to be a fusion herself. Her golden eyes were as cold as ice, the fanged grin on her face pointed and satiated. "It's nice to finally meet you face to face!"

"F-face to face?" Steven stammered. He stepped back again, struggling to put some distance between them, but he was blocked by the edge of the metal panel.

"You're on Homeworld, child." Her smile grew and the pit of terror in Steven's stomach hardened. His heart pounded. Homeworld, he was on Homeworld. He possibly stood where countless gems had fallen and died and been executed. And he could almost picture the glimmering shards in his mind. The shards scattered across the floor in his vision. And Steven didn't know if he was picturing them in the dream or if he was peering into the past.

Yellow Diamond watched the peculiar creature as he spun from one direction to the next, looking at the floor and whimpering like it was covered in poisonous snakes. Her eyes glinted but outwardly she maintained a soothing smile. "Calm down now boy. I'm not going to hurt you."

"I don't believe you!" Steven cried. "You hurt everyone! That's all you do is cause pain! You threatened me and my family! You said you were going to rip my gem out of my stomach!"

"Ah yes." Yellow Diamond waved a clawed hand in the air as if that was nothing at all. "It seems we've gotten off on the wrong foot, I apologize for that. My brash temper gets the best of me at times. Same with your dear Jasper!"

The child gave a low growl and his pudgy fists balled up in fury. "You don't have any right to talk about Jasper! Ever! And I'm not going to listen to anything you have to tell me!" He already began storming away, searching for an exit somewhere in the labyrinth of technology.

"That's fine, because I'm not going to say anything. I'm going to show you something." The boy didn't turn to her and a smile snaked across the woman's lips. "Don't you want to know more about your mother?" The boy paused dead in his tracks and froze in mid-stride. The fierce look on his face slowly faded to one of uncertainty and secret desire.

"A...anything I wanna know about my Mom the gems can tell me. I don't need to hear anything from you!"

Yellow Diamond chuckled. "Your family can't tell you everything. Despite their eternal obsession for her none of them were there at the very beginning. I was. I knew your mother more then your family ever did. Far before your Pearl, your...Garnet, your Jasper, your Peridot...and certainly long before your Amethyst. I know things that none of the Crystal Gems do." The boy kept staring at her and Yellow Diamond shrugged. "But..if you really don't care..."

Steven watched as the large gem hovered her hands in the air. She waved her fingers around, and different paths of light followed each digit as she entered some sort of combination and unlocked the master door. Pretending to walk off Yellow Diamond moved to shut the large door, and Steven ran forward.

"Wait!" he exclaimed, holding up a hand. The slender gem looked down at him. "Wh...what all do you know about my mom?" he finally mumbled in resignation.

Golden eyes flared with glee as the royal gem slithered her tongue around the inside of her lips like a satisfied cat. She gave the child a sweet smile and bent over slightly to him, draping an arm over his shoulder and guiding him along. "Follow me."

Steven's arms stayed to his sides, stiff like a statue and paralysed in fear. He couldn't even pull away from her, too traumatized to even move. Her touch was as cold and terrifying as he ever imagined it would be.

They entered a long tunnel. It was dark, desolate, and seemed never ending. Steven half wondered if Yellow Diamond took him here to murder him without witnesses, and then he wondered if he was even able to die in these things.

Yellow Diamond raised a hand and suddenly, the tunnel filled with light. Several circular platforms lit up, each a different color. The gem swiped her hand through the air, across another invisible screen, and Steven heard a low hum, like the start of an engine.

"Step forth," Yellow Diamond ordered and stepped onto one of the green platforms. Steven reluctantly obeyed, but he didn't expect what happened next. The glowing disc shot into the air as if it weighed nothing, and Steven yelped and hugged the woman's leg, tightly. Yellow Diamond gave a light and airy chuckle.

"I suppose you're unaccustomed to this use of transportation. Look around you, child. Welcome...to Homeworld." The dark tunnel suddenly broke open as they hovered into the air. The stars had never seemed so close before, or so beautiful. Each one glittered the sky, more beautiful then the last. Steven was in complete awe at the spectacle. He watched as stars and ships flew through the air.

"This is your mother's home planet. This is where you are originally from, Quartz Child. Magnificent, isn't it?"

He stood against Yellow Diamond's leg for leverage, and slowly, he turned around on the disk, taking in the sights around him. It was overwhelming, amazing. Shuttles passed them and all around Steven could see floating platforms. They took over the sky like a bunch of remote controlled frisbees. "Whoa, gems!" He pointed around, grinning. Other gems, hundreds of them even were travelling through the planet.

Steven got down on his hands and knees, kneeling eagerly over the sides of the transparent discs and looking around. There were space ships, odd shaped domes. There wasn't one building on this planet that resembled a house you'd see on earth. There were buildings, structures, cages. Steven had his eyes glued to a certain facility, with a large assortment of different sized tubes and holes. It reminded him of Kindergarden.

"Is that where gems are harvested?" the boy asked, eyes widening. There were mines, and large intimidating contraptions that resembled some sort of digging machine. It was like a diamond mine on earth, and there were so many different caves, jagged and gaping.

Yellow Diamond smiled. "You're quite right, child! That is where gems are made and harvested. Your very...family, was founded in one of them."

Steven's eyes roved the sky as they flew, and slowly, his excitement waned out when he saw another building. A factory. It pumped smoke into the air, but there was more then the smell of fire. The scent was...almost metallic. It put an awful taste in his mouth and terror into his stomach. He looked closer. They were high up enough that Steven couldn't make out any faces, or their expressions, but he noticed one line of marching gems. They were being...escorted, towards the factory. There was one way in...but Steven didn't see anyone coming out of the building. There was no exit.

"...What is that?" His throat tightened and the nausea worsened when he kept watching. One of the gems broke away from the line formation and suddenly in a swift movement from the guards they were reverted back to their stone forms...and carelessly chucked into one of the pipes leading to the smoke. He trembled. "Is that..."

Yellow Diamond suddenly grabbed him by the wrist and pushed him out in front of her as the lift came to a stop in the air. "We're here."

"Th...there's nothing here." Yellow Diamond suddenly summoned an unseen keypad from the lift and punched in a code combination. She slid her fingers over the screen. It beeped, and suddenly, like the flicker of a tv signal an entrance cracked open in the sky.

The lift passed into darkness and the rest of the planet disappeared into a void. Steven could only catch a glimpse of the smoke before it disappeared from view and Yellow Diamond had grabbed his shoulder to get his attention again.

"Welcome, Quartz Child to The Chambers Of Time..." Yellow Diamond stepped back and let the curious boy come forward. The walls reminded him of the rooms back in the temple. This cave was the only thing somewhat primitive in this technology-run world.

"You are currently standing in what used to be the harvesting grounds for the Rose Quartz gems. Hundreds of Rose Quartz have been harvested here, your mother included. Your mother was why this place was created, in her name. Well...in Pink Diamond's name."

Steven spun around and stared at the large gem. He couldn't believe what he just heard. "My mother...was a...a Diamond?" How could it be? How could the loving mother, the embodiment of goodness and purity, ever hold the same name as this wicked soul?

"She was," Yellow Diamond said with a nod. "Well somewhat. She was high up enough that she was nicknamed a Diamond, but she wasn't quite up into the authority yet. There was her, myself, Blue, and the Superior of us all, White Diamond. Sisters of time, of the entire Empire Of Homeworld. Rose was not a harvested diamond but from the moment of her harvest White Diamond knew she was special."

Yellow Diamond moved across the cave floor and towards a panel in the room. Steven recognized it. It was very similar to what was in his mother's armory. "She had an ability that no other gem did. ...She could heal. You see, child, gems are formed with different abilities depending on the class they're in. Healers are very rare to come by...you might say, as rare as a diamond..." She snickered at her own joke. "Your mother was a valuable asset just from that alone."

Steven pressed his hand on the panel and his gem started to glow and projected several different images on the wall. All of his mother. His mother's harvest, his mother in a small throne, in armor with a diamond cut around her stomach. His mother on the battle field... He teared up.

"Healers back then were almost unheard of, and although we've always had a good care facility we never had the ability to perform the miracles your mother could. Rose was treasured by White Diamond for her abilities. Rose Quartz was promoted up into the Diamond Authority. Technically. She was White Diamond's adviser and healer, until White Diamond was shattered."

Steven's eyes widened. "Shattered? When? Why? In the war?"

Yellow shook her head sadly...but there was something fake in her eyes. "No, it was terrible though. Truly terrible. White Diamond was a substantial ruler, but apparently not enough to keep Rose loyal." She sneered.

"I don't understand it." Steven shook his head. "If Mom and White were buddy-buddy then why did she come to earth?"

"Your mother was put in charge of the next invasion. She was supposed to lead it. It was her first invasion actually. Up until then she had stayed on Homeworld as the healer. She fell in love with your inferior planet and that was it. She wouldn't touch it. She refused to allow White to take her forces there. A gem had never turned on their planet before, but Rose started a new revolution. One by one other gems followed her until she had gathered an army of thousands. All of them were known as..." She paused and looked down at the boy. "The Crystal Gems..."

Steven's mind flashed. The shards, the cluster, the projections of memories he had seen of the war... "And...and they all died. All of them but...my family."

Yellow Diamond curbed the sickening smile threatening to spread across her face. "Yes, they did. Many of Homeworld's did as well. And it was even more difficult for Homeworld since we no longer had our healer. Many more of us died then the ones on your planet. White had no idea how to heal them."

The large gem walked around him in a slow circle and Steven lifted his shirt, gazing morosely at the quartz on his belly. He felt a deep sense of guilt for Homeworld. If he had been there...if she had been there, they could have saved so many.

"Luckily...when I came into power, I devised a simple solution to our broken gem problem. And as a matter of fact, we passed it on our way here." Steven didn't even need to think twice on that one. He knew she was talking about the smoke, and the pipes. He knew it smelled metallic.

"No..." he whimpered.

"We can harvest gems by the hundreds. Why bother to waste time and energy and finances on trying to heal the weak when we can recycle them and build stronger?"

"Bu—but they're gems!" Steven cried. "They're people! You can't just kill people and act like it's nothing! They're gems! They're not just supposed to be your toys and you—you replace them when they're broken!"

"Oh but it's easier that way. It saves precious time, and with all of the fusion experiments it creates stronger weapons. But that's where you come in..." She turned, and suddenly, she was right there in front of him, eyeing him with hunger. "I need you."

Lapis had gone back to her room, and Jasper, Connie, and Peridot stayed awake. Steven as far as they knew was sleeping peacefully in his bed. And it was all calm, and tranquil. They couldn't possibly imagine what he was going through in his mind right now.

"I think so far this Asteroid game is my favorite," Jasper said as she mashed at buttons and grinned as she exploded Peridot's ship, and the smaller gem hissed angrily and tried to keep from screeching.

"I love them all," Connie grinned. "I love playing them with Steven, because I don't get much of a chance to play them on my own. My parents frown upon video games."

"How could they disapprove of something so...entertaining?" Peridot asked in disbelief as her pixelated ship came back to life and she sent a torrent of missiles into Jasper, cackling as she got sweet revenge. "Granted it's nothing compared to the tech of Homeworld—and even if it was we certainly don't use it for fun—but it still is...fun!"

"Yeah." Connie shrugged. "But it's not academics so according to them it's not something I should be focused on too much."

"Academics..." Jasper wrinkled her face. "See I don't get that crap. In Homeworld we didn't have that. Of course we didn't have fun either. We had...nothing, really. We did what our Superiors told us to and...that was it. Gems were usually born with the knowledge that we needed. It was manufactured into us. There were different classes of course, and they all specialized in something. But..." She shook her head. "No playgrounds, no...what do you call it—canon ball wars—no...well, freedom."

Connie looked at the two gems. The light from the tv illuminated the sadness on both gems' faces. "How did you live like that? Why would you...want to live like that?"

Jasper shrugged. "We didn't have a choice, kid. Every day was just about trying to stay on your commander's good side so you don't get shattered, or tortured. Had to shut yourself down if you wanted to survive." She looked over at Peridot and her lips tilted up into a smile. "But...Peri and I broke the rules and found some ways to have fun."

The green gem let out a loud giggle. "Ou, remember when we used to dismantle Commander Topaz's cruiser and fill the engines with gem serpents and watch them overflow into the ship when she turned it on?" Both gems started laughing.

"Heh..." Connie giggled nervously and scratched the back of her neck. "Steven and I pull pranks too sometimes, but...never with snakes. If we did they'd probably be harmless ones. And I can't think of anyone mean enough to do that to. I guess we mostly find different ways to have fun together."

Jasper gave a grunt and pulled out the game disc. "I'm bored with this one," she muttered, picking up Animal Railroads and pushing it into the box. "So what's the deal with you and the brat anyway? When are you actually going to suck it up and do...I don't know, whatever it is you humans do when you like each other..."

Connie's face went beet red and she held her mouth, stunned. "Wh—what do you mean?"

"You know..." Jasper gestured in the air. "I guess there's not much you can do since you're both little larvas. I don't know much about, what's it called...dating, anyway. You don't see that much on Homeworld and what I did see of Ruby and Sapphire was enough to turn me off it." She shuddered. "Ech."

"Dating?!" Connie yelped. "We don't—I don't-!"

"Oh come on," Jasper snorted. "The kid goes red every time he looks at you!" Her eyes met Peridot's briefly and she paused, ignoring the heat that bloomed across her cheeks. "You should see the way his eyes sparkle when he talks about you! It's disgusting!"

"We-!" The child's voice climbed up to a high pitched squeak. "We're just friends! M-maybe best friends... That's all! I don't—Steven couldn't possibly think of me like that..." She hugged herself, face redder.

"But how do you feel?" Peridot asked. Before Connie could respond the green gem's fingers suddenly lit up, and a beam of lime green light passed over the child. Information appeared on her screen and she nodded. "Your heart rate goes up when you talk about him. Did you know that?"

"C-can we please just play Animal Railroads?" Connie fumbled, her hands sweaty on the controller and struggling to even hold it. Jasper surprised her by giving her a friendly nudge.

"Aw come on, nothing to be embarrassed about!" She snickered as the girl hid behind her hair, shrunken into a ball of humiliation. "Lips are sealed. I just think you should tell him sometime. Just..." She made a face. "Don't turn into a couple of gross lovesick puppies like Square Woman."

At that Connie relaxed and laughed. "Deal." She pressed start on the bright neon menu. "Alright first you've got to create a character..."

Yellow Diamond came forward to him and the terrified child backed up desperately as she bent down to his level. "I need you..."

"Wh-what?" Steven whimpered. Sweat poured every passing second the crazed woman looked at him, like a hungry cat stalking a mouse. "What do you need from me? M-my healing powers?"

Yellow Diamond snorted. "Oh please, what would I want of those? No...I need your mind. Your brilliant mind."

"What?"

"You're a product of your mother, you have her gem. And I know deep down you have her mind. Her strength. Her powers. With your help we could accomplish anything. You'd be helping a good cause...you'd be helping your true home prosper." She was so close now that they were face to face. Steven could feel her breath on his face and felt the edges of her hair tickle his cheeks.

"You'd be getting something in return of course." She chuckled. "A lot in return. I'm willing to spare your little family, Jasper and Peridot included...and possibly a few others you deem important to you. You may all return to Homeworld and it will be like the rebellion never happened in the first place. You'll be welcomed home with open arms. You can have anything you wish and live happily ever after. You just need to give me...your planet."

"I-I..." Steven whispered. He felt his body tremble.

"Oh it's after your family is evacuated, don't worry! And if you like I can even try and find a way to lengthen your human family's lifespan to a more significant time. The rest of the world will be ours. Imagine the things we could accomplish, the experiments! The discoveries! It's limitless. And all you have to do...is say yes."

Slender, cold fingers reached out and tilted Steven's head up, eyes wide and excited, mouth turned up gleefully. "What do you say, Quartz?"

Steven stared at her. Wide, black eyes completely frozen to those malicious golden orbs. He had never seen so much evil. He had never felt such an overwhelming hatred. And then, suddenly, he struck her hand, hard. Hard enough that it slammed back into her own face. She recoiled in shock, her yellow cheek now having a single, angry mark across it.

"No! NEVER! I'll never side with you! I would rather DIE then have anything to DO with you! You're evil, you're a monster! And I will NEVER stop fighting you! And I will never—EVER LET YOU TOUCH MY PLANET!"

Suddenly his gem flashed a blinding light, as brief as a flash of lightning, but it pulsed with a sudden wave of rage that sent Yellow Diamond stumbling back onto the ground as the child towered over her.

"I'll never do anything you say! I'm GLAD Mom turned on you! And I'm glad that Jasper, Peridot and Lapis did too! And I'm never going to stop trying to tear you down and get those gems AWAY from you! 'Cause you're not a gem, Yellow Diamond! Y-you're lower then the dirt we find on earth!"

Yellow Diamond's eyes narrowed into the most malicious, and vengeful daggers he had ever seen. Her lips pulled back as she snarled and suddenly yanked the boy up by his shirt collar. Steven cried out in agony as her claws ripped through his shirt, and into his skin.

"If that's the way you want it, you little parasite..." She sneered. "Then I won't stop until I've drained all of the blood in your little fleshy form, and emptied your planet of human life. You're going to regret ever crossing me. You're going to be begging for that deal when you watch me slowly crush the hearts of everyone you ever loved..."

"Is there any killing in this?"

"No. But you get to water flowers and build homes." Jasper gagged but Connie scrolled through the options of the animals. "I'm an elephant!"

"I'm a..." Jasper blinked as she stumbled upon a furry, gray menacing looking creature with a bushy tail and pointed ears. "...Wolf? Oh, I've got fangs!...Cool!" She scrolled through the accessories options and snickered at a pair of large glasses. "Hey Dork, I found something perfect for you."

"Oh shut up, Jasper." The light playful squabbling and beeping buttons was interrupted by a shrill cry behind them, making all three turn sharply. "No, you can't do that! Please!"

"What the hell?" Jasper stood up instantly, eyes wide as Steven started to sob and thrash in his bed. "What's wrong with him? What's going on?!" She remembered what Steven said, about the night-fright humans got. "Is he having one of those frightening sleep visions?"

Connie climbed onto the bed, frazzled herself. "I—I don't know! Steven, it's us! Wake up!" She gently shook him but the child didn't rouse. So Jasper tried next, scooping up the kid into her arms and jiggling him roughly.

"Snap out of it, idiot! You're fine! You're okay!" When that didn't work she tried to be more soothing. "Uhhh...we're here. No one is gonna hurt you." The rough jostling became more of a rocking motion and that seemed to calm the boy. His hysterics dwindled so Jasper kept holding him. Peridot and Connie held their breath. "...I think it worked."

She was just about to lay Steven back down when suddenly, underneath the pink fabric of his pajamas, his gem glowed. That was especially strange since the kid wasn't even conscious enough to do anything, let alone activate his gem. "What the..."

The glow became blinding before it produced a ray of light and projected an image into the air. She nearly dropped the boy and stepped back from the projection, stunned and horrified by what she saw. "No..."

There was Yellow Diamond and she was tightly gripping Steven by his shirt collar as the helpless child struggled and whimpered. As if the large gem could sense their presence, she turned and stared at them. Yellow, icy eyes glared into Jasper's soul.

"I don't know if you're there, Crystal Gems—or you, especially Jasper. But your time is running out. You'll pay, General," she spat with hate. "For turning on your colony. And this precious little larva you all gave yourself up for will be the first thing I tear limb from limb in front of your very eyes. After all...I always did wonder how much blood a human child has gained since the last survey. Until we meet again, gems. Trust me...I look forward to it."

The screen vanished and all the group was left with was a panicked child that had awoken and started bawling into Jasper's chest, and the silence and terror that stretched around them.

(A/N: Shit going down again. Man I love YD. Crazy wonderful bitch she is. I've gotten a lot of private messages about this fic and I'm overwhelmed at the love it's received. You're all so wonderful. I have a clear cut path of where this is going to go and how it's going to end but I'm welcoming any suggestions any f my readers have. Who knows, it might end up in it~ Also, I'm on vacation so updates will be spotty.)