-I own nothing from Steven Universe. If I did, I'd have some neat ideas...-
Jet's black wings flapped hard, and she flew fast. In the distance the outline of Precursor ruins drew closer and closer. She knew she should calm down, but she couldn't help it. What an emotional dune sea this was: Lapis Lazuli, a gem who had vanished a long time ago, was actually alive! Only for Jet to hear that she was would do something like this? No, no this couldn't be real, she just had to find out!
The ruins themselves were made of weathered stone and granite. From the aerial view she had it looked like a massive stone labyrinth. A few holes in the ground here and there marked secret entryways. The entire ruin was a crumbling mess, barely holding its structural strength together. Their insides had been picked clean of their hidden treasures, and taken by the Diamond Authority long ago. Now the flowing sands from outside had nearly swallowed the entire ruin whole. All along the walls were marked with writings of an indecipherable language.
And inside an exposed, boxed section of these walls was where she saw her: Lapis Lazuli, a blue speck among the white sand. She looked like she was panting slightly. With a tightened mouth, Jet swooped in, heading for the space opposite where Lapis stood.
Lapis Lazuli in her frightened and anxious state of mind hadn't heard anyone nearby. She hoped she had escaped them all. That is until she heard the sound of wings flapping in the air. Eyes widening, she turned around and looked up, seeing someone she hadn't seen in hundreds of years. Jet, with her wings flapping hovered in mid-air above the ground looking down at her. With that helmet exposing only half of her face, she couldn't quite tell what she was feeling.
"Lapis," she called out.
"Jet?" Lapis said, and stepped closer. Jet finally touched down and her wings shrunk back into her gem.
"It has been a long time, old friend... too long," Jet said, barely keeping her voice together.
"It really has," Lapis said. She then tried to step forward for an embrace, but Jet surprised her by raising her clenched fists.
"How could you..." Jet said with slow anger, "After all this time, how could you suddenly turn your back on me!?"
"Jet? What are you-"
"Don't play stupid!" Jet interrupted, "Emerald told me what happened; how you contacted the Earth gems through the Wailing Stones!"
"I..."
"We were friends! We were the most recognized gems on Crystarra! Was it all nothing to you?!" Lapis bowed her head to keep her face hidden, and clenched her fists.
"Is that it...?"
"What?"
"Is that really the first thing you say to me? We've been apart for so long, and the first thing you do is accuse me of betrayal? Do you not even care that I've returned?"
"Lapis..." Jet could not believe the words coming out of her once-friend's mouth, "Of course I care. All this time I thought you were destroyed, shattered! Now I find only just recently find that you're alive-"
"I was not shattered!" Lapis snapped, "For the past hundred years or so I was trapped in a mirror! And who should release me? A human... a human boy who talked to me and helped me escape! No one else did that... not even my fellow gems..."
"How were you put in a mirror? Why?"
"Gems put me there in the first place!" Lapis exclaimed, "Ever since my gem first cracked and my powers weakened, and they noticed it too. Probably thought a weakened gem like me wouldn't be missed... It got me thinking really hard... this isn't a group I want to follow anymore."
"Lapis... you really can't believe that. We would never do something like-"
"But they have Jet; it's clear that they can and will. I don't forget the great times you and I have had, but..."
"No... no Lapis," Jet pleaded, stepping closer to the blue gem, "I-I can help give you another chance, make a plea to Diamond to forgive you! Please Lapis Lazuli, I don't want to destroy you!" Lapis stood silent, but she turned her head away with a face that promised anything but agreement. Jet's mood suddenly got darker.
"The Diamond Authority accepted you as their own." She raised her hand over her shoulder to summon her weapon.
"I met you and we became hard and fast friends." She brought the battleaxe down in and held it at her side.
"We taught each other everything we knew of Liquid-Kinetics!" She gripped the weapon with both hands.
"We watched each other's backs, on and off the field of battle!" She pointed the tip end accusingly at the blue gem.
"I trusted you, you trusted me! AND THIS IS HOW YOU REPAY YOUR FRIEND!?" Jet's teeth were openly barred as she now raised the weapon above her head. Lapis quickly summoned her water wings shielded in front of her on instinct. She flinched her arms in front of her, closed her eyes, and waited for death.
*THUD*
Lapis heard the impact, but when she opened her eyes, she found she was still standing.
Looking at her side, Jet had brought down her battleaxe a few inches to Lapis' left side, where one bladed side was now buried in the thickened ground. Looking at its owner, she saw in a rare display that her visor was retracted and her eyes were exposed, full of tears. The white glowing eyes looked back at her. Lapis put her arms down and relaxed her water wings.
"I give you a chance now, Lapis Lazuli," Jet spoke, "Leave this planet; leave now and never return. Be thankful I'm giving you a chance... because the next time we meet... my blade won't miss..."
Lapis stood in shocked silence as the message slowly went through. Finally, with one last look at her, she turned to face the sky, flapped her wings hard, and returned to space once again. Jet removed her ax from the ground and watched her fly away. When she could no longer be seen from where she was, Jet wiped her eyes and returned her visor back over them. She then took flight again back to the Citadel, thinking of how she would explain this later.
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"I'm even amazed we escaped quick enough without that Star destroying us!" Zircon was explaining. She and Peridot were seated at Diamond's council table along with Emerald and Diamond herself. This time however Diamond's skin was light blue in color, but her eyes were the same dark purple.
She wasn't taking this news in her usual witty strides either. She listened as Zircon and Peridot explained to her what had happened, and she grew more and more tense. Emerald listened as well with a careful face of calm, but inside her mind was just as troubled.
"Did the blast take out them by chance?" Diamond asked.
"No Mistress," Peridot replied, "They warped away in two groups of three, both of them escaped."
"I see..." she leaned back in her chair.
"My lady," Emerald said, "This news is indeed troubling, but we must not do anything rash or careless."
"What would you have me do then?" Diamond said, "Sit around and do nothing while those Earth gems taunt us with their very existence?!"
"I-I did not mean it like that," Emerald said, waving her hands in front of her, "I'm just saying that we need a clear plan is all!" Diamond calmed down slightly and sighed.
"And where is Jet? Why is she not with you?"
"Well ma'am," Zircon replied, "she said she had to take care of... something, and told us to report this without her."
"What is she doing?"
"Actually she wouldn't tell me... just that it was personal."
"My lady," Emerald interjected, "Jet is off on a small, menial task that had just came up. It shouldn't have taken her long." Emerald took a quiet, deep breath, wondering if the cover she just gave was in fact the right thing to do.
Just then though, the council chamber doors opened wide, revealing the black gem herself. Her lips were pursed a little tightly as she walked closer to the table. Because there were only four chairs though, she simply stood close enough.
"Jet? You've returned?" Diamond asked.
"I have."
"... Well then, your comrades here have just filled me in on a most disturbing tale, one that involves gems we thought were destroyed on Earth still in fact residing there. Can you either confirm or deny this?"
"There is no denying it," Jet replied, "I stood witness to at least six gems that appeared using the Galaxy Warp's Earth pad."
"Indeed, two of these being two halves of Spodumene?" Jet gave a small grunt and nodded.
"I've also been informed that one of these gems is in fact a... human, that used the gem powers of Rose Quartz, is that right?"
"Oh yes, that's correct as well," Jet said. Diamond sat silent for a moment. Everyone watched her anxiously, waiting for anything. Finally, Diamond stood from her chair.
"The situation at hand is clear," she spoke professionally, "Gems aligned with Rose Quartz's heretical 'Stars' faction are alive and on Earth. They are still to this day an affront to us, and bring dishonor to the name of gems. Our new priority will be their destruction, by any means necessary. The destruction of the Earth will be secondary, but not a task to be ignored either."
She turned to her green gem, "Emerald, what is the status on the dark plasma?"
"My lady, the dark plasma has been safely tested and is ready for field deployment."
"Excellent!" Diamond said, then turned to Peridot, "I want the Dark Plasma loaded onto our new warships once they're ready. You'll have plenty of chance for field testing."
"Yes, Mistress," Peridot replied.
"Also, I still want a status report on the Kindergarten we established on Earth. Something tells me we're going to need it." The olive green gem nodded, and Diamond turned to the orange gem.
"I know you wouldn't want to miss out on this," she said.
"Not at all, Diamond," Zircon replied.
"Well, that being said, I would like you to assemble your old team again. We will definitely need their talents for this." Zircon's eyes perked up at this, and she smiled slightly under her mask.
"Mistress Diamond! Of course! It would be an honor!" she exclaimed.
"Glad to hear it," Diamond said, and now addressed the three gems at once, "Now seeing how you three by the looks of it just returned from battle, take this time to rest and collect yourselves. I will let all know when the time has come. You are dismissed!" With that, everyone got up from the table and walked in various directions.
Diamond, Zircon, and Peridot all left from the council room and went their separate ways. On the other hand, Jet and Emerald lingered behind, making sure they were absolutely alone and out of anyone's earshot. They looked at each other briefly in understanding.
"I... well, I thank you for telling me about this," Jet said quietly.
"Of course Jet, I understand fully how hard it must have been for you."
"It didn't make it any less unfair though," she said, but remembered something Lapis had told her, "That reminds me; when she and I had a chance to talk, she told me that she had been placed in a mirror after her gem had cracked."
"Really?" Emerald said, "Placing gems in inanimate objects is supposed to be taboo. But I hadn't even heard of this since I have never left the Citadel."
"I know, I know," Jet said, "I just hoped you might have had some idea why."
"None, I'm afraid," the green gem replied, "Though I assume that means... the problem has been, taken care of?" Jet hesitated, thinking over her words carefully in her head.
"It has, Lapis Lazuli is gone," she said, hoping Emerald would buy her half-truth. The green gem looked on at her, then nodded lightly.
"Good," she said. The two of them turned opposite directions and left the council room.
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Diamond had a special room to herself in the Citadel. Her own sort of living room. It technically was her living room since she was constantly living in it, in a manner of speaking.
She entered the circular room to find all of her seven pods before her as they always were. Looking inside them through the see-through lids were actual closed-eyed duplicates of her own body, in different colors. There was red, yellow, green, black, purple, white, and an empty pod for where her blue body would rest.
All of the bodies were dressed in identically matching outfits, and all of them had a visible cavity over the left side of their chests. Those spots were where her diamond gem would fit into.
While it was made no secret that she had all these bodies rather than just one, she never told anyone where they were actually kept. Indeed, not even Peridot, who had provided Diamond with the technology needed to keep them physical and even to give the necessary transplant.
She accessed a small control panel and pressed a few buttons. Next to each pod a small column popped up out of the ground. On their tops were clear receptacles that were the size of her diamond gem, and a little robotic manipulation claw. Pressing another set of buttons, all the pods lids slid open as one. As she then walked towards the empty one, she couldn't help but be reminded of her latest meeting.
"Rose Quartz," she said, "How you will always surprise me. You could've been a gem I was proud to call as my friend. But you had to fall from the light of wisdom, didn't you?" She stepped inside the pod, assuming the same position her body counterparts were in.
"It doesn't matter," she said, as the robotic arm on the column close to her whirred to life, "Soon you and your poisonous legacy will be eradicated. For you see, between stars and diamonds..."
Her eyes closed as the robot arm twisted her diamond gem out of her chest and placed it in the receptacle. It quickly shot down the tubing and in a few seconds, reappeared in the column of the yellow body. The robot arm picked it up and placed it in this one's chest cavity. After a few seconds, the body's eyes opened,
"Diamonds ARE forever...!"