Characters created by: Rebecca Sugar
Chapter 25: Truce
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Shore Of Temple Ruins
Steven, Connie, and the Gems were surrounded by soldiers. Steven held Yellow Diamond's shards in his open hand. The American commander spoke.
"So, this is the tyrant herself?"
Steven frowned.
"All that's left of her, that is."
He looked at the shards.
"I didn't mean to crack her gem, I just wanted her to surrender."
The commander put his hand on Steven's shoulder.
"Don't be so down, kid. You've proven yourself as a war hero, and have done a great service to your country. You should help us win wars more often."
Steven felt a bit offended. He brushed off the commander's hand and walked away. The commander was confused.
"Weird, that always gets people confident."
Amethyst ran to Steven.
"Steven, you were awesome! You totally mastered your powers!"
The others walked to him.
"Yes, and we're very proud of you." said Pearl.
Steven sighed.
"Thanks, you guys, I'm just not in the mood for celebration yet. Yellow Diamond's dead, and it's my fault."
The Gems looked to each other. Connie put his hand on his shoulder.
"Hey, if it makes you feel any better, I was the one who dealt the final blow on her, not you."
Steven was still depressed.
"That doesn't matter."
Suddenly, a thought came to Steven.
"Wait… Now that Yellow Diamond is dead, and her army destroyed, the rest of Homeworld might come for Earth! Unless…"
Steven thought. He had an idea.
"I got it!"
Steven turned and disappeared in the crowd of soldiers. The Gems followed. Steven sighted a surviving Gem soldier, with handcuffs on, and two soldiers next to her. He spoke to one of the soldiers.
"Excuse me, but may I talk to that Gem or a second?"
The two soldiers turned to each other and back to him.
"Look, kid," said one of the soldiers, "I don't think you'd want to-"
Then, their commander came up to them.
"Ahem. This "kid" can have whatever he wants after all that he's done in this war."
The soldiers complied.
"Uh, sir, yes sir." said one of them.
The soldiers pushed the handcuffed Gem forward to Steven. He looked to her. They were around the same size.
"Come with me." said Steven.
The two walked side by side up the ruins of the temple, with the other Gems and the army following from behind. They stepped up to the main Warp Pad. It glowed, and Steven and the others all warped.
Galaxy Warp-Present Time
The warp pad glowed, revealing Steven and the Gems, along with the handcuffed Gem. They walked up to the repaired Homeworld Warp. Steven turned to the handcuffed Gem. He put his hands on her handcuffs. Suddenly, the handcuffs cracked and glowed. They broke into pieces, releasing the Gems' hands. She looked to him in confusion.
"Why have you released me?"
Steven spoke.
"Because, I want you to go to Blue and White Diamond, and tell them the Crystal Gems are coming to Homeworld for a truce, and they've brought back someone they know."
The Gem nodded.
"Y-Y-Yes."
The Gem ran up to the Homeworld Warp and warped away. The Gems stepped up to Steven.
"Steven, what are you doing?!" said Pearl.
"Are you crazy?!" said Amethyst, "Letting her go back to Homeworld?!"
"Don't worry, guys." said Steven, "I'm confident she'll arrange for us to meet with Blue and White Diamond peacefully to work out a truce to end this horrible conflict once and for all."
Pearl put her hand on her forehead.
"*Sigh*. This better work."
Twenty Minutes Later
The Homeworld Warp pad glowed, catching their attention. The same Gem soldier stepped down from it.
"Blue and White Diamond have agreed to meet with you."
"Alright, thank you." said Steven.
He turned to the others.
"Let's go."
The group stepped up to the Homeworld Warp, along with the Gem soldier, and warped.
Gem Homeworld-Present Time
Light years away from Earth was the Gem Homeworld, a gray rocky planet, with giant structures dominating the surface. The planet was twice the size of Earth, and the fourth planet from its parent star. In the capitol square, the warp center, which branched off for a long ways, was surrounded by Gem soldiers. In the midst of the crowd towered the last two remaining Diamonds of Homeworld, Blue and White Diamond. Then, the biggest warp in the very center of the warps glowed, revealing Steven and the Crystal Gems. The Gem soldier behind them ran off into the crowd of her own kind. The Gems looked around at the Gems surrounding them. Steven saw in front of them Blue and White Diamond. Blue Diamond, wearing her blue cloak, spoke.
"So, this is all that's left of the Crystal Gems. Just a tiny number…"
Steven took a deep breath before he spoke.
"You must be Blue Diamond."
He gazed over to White Diamond.
"And you White Diamond."
Blue Diamond spoke again.
"And what are you supposed to be?"
"My name is Steven Universe, I am the son of Rose Quartz."
Blue and White Diamond expressed faces of disbelief. There was a choir of gasps in the crowd of Gem soldiers.
"A human and Gem hybrid?" said Blue Diamond, "It can't be. How is it even possible?"
"There are some things even you Diamonds don't know." said Steven, "You must also not know before you executed Pink Diamond long ago, she passed her powers onto Rose Quartz, which I now inherit."
There was an even louder choir of gasps in the crowd. Some Gems could even be heard whispering.
"He's a Diamond?"
"No. That's insane."
"Oh my stars…"
The Diamonds were once again in disbelief.
"You can't be a Diamond." said Blue Diamond.
"That's impossible!" stated White Diamond.
"That's exactly what Yellow Diamond thought." said Steven.
"Where is Yellow Diamond…?" said White Diamond.
Steven reached into his pocket and took out Yellow Diamond's shards. He threw them onto the crystal sidewalk in front of him. There was no longer just gasping in the crowd of soldiers, but also screaming. Some even ran out of the crowd.
Then, from the crowd emerged Yellow Diamond's own Pearl. She ran to the shards on the ground. She picked them up, welling up with tears.
"M-My Diamond…"
She was down on her knees, sobbing, holding the shards in her hands. Blue and White Diamond were frozen in disbelief.
"H-How?" said Blue Diamond.
"She attacked us, even after I said I did not want to fight. I had no choice but to fight back."
White Diamond was furious. She summoned her weapon, a white mace. She leaped high up into the air, and came speeding down onto Steven. Steven balled his fist and punched White Diamond in the stomach. She went flying into the air. She soon landed in the crowd of Gem soldiers, launching them around. Blue Diamond ran to her and held her arm up. White Diamond got back up.
"He-He really does have Diamond powers."
Blue Diamond sighed and looked to Steven.
"So what do you want, "Steven"...?"
"What I want is for us to stop this cursed conflict with a truce, before more Gems, and Diamonds, get hurt. I would like for us to arrange a truce."
White Diamond looked to her sister.
"We shouldn't do this, Blue. These filthy rebels should pay for all that they've done."
Blue Diamond shook her head.
"No, we need to stop this. Think about it, Yellow Diamond's dead, which means we could get killed too. If we keep this war up, it might just be the end of us. Then who will rule Homeworld?"
White Diamond sighed.
"Fine…"
The two looked down on Steven.
"Alright, "Steven"," said Blue Diamond, "We'll stop this war, as long as you promise to never mess with our kind again, and stay off of Homeworld, for you Crystal Gems will only cause trouble if you're here."
Steven held up his right hand.
"I promise on behalf of the Crystal Gems as a whole that we'll never set foot on Homeworld, and never cause any conflict with Gemkind ever again, so long as Homeworld stays off of Earth."
"We promise to never set foot on Earth again." said Blue Diamond.
Steven smiled.
"Thank you."
Blue Diamond looked to the crowd around them.
"From this day forward, no Gem will ever set foot on Earth again, nor cause any conflict with the human race. If said rules are broken, the Gem or Gems will be sentenced to capital punishment of Gem shattering."
Steven spoke.
"And the human race will never again cause any conflict to Gemkind, or they will be deemed a criminal, and be put on trial."
Steven stepped up to the two towering Diamonds. He reached out his hand.
"Shall we make it official?"
Blue and White Diamond raised an eyebrow.
"What are you doing with your arm?" said Blue Diamond.
"Oh, on Earth, when we reach an agreement, we shake hands."
The two Diamonds looked to each other and rolled their eyes. Blue Diamond leaned down, and her giant hand gripped Steven's. Steven shook her hand. She let go and stood. Now White Diamond leaned down and did the same. Steven said his goodbyes.
"Well, goodbye. I'm glad we could finally end this once and for all."
Steven turned and walked to the Gems. They were walking back to the warp pad, then Steven turned back around.
"Oh and by the way, You have a small group of Rubies on the planet Neptune in our solar system, I think you should go fetch them."
Blue Diamond was not familiar with the name Neptune.
"Which planet is that?"
"It's the big blue planet farthest from our Sun. Bye now."
The Gems warped away.
Galaxy Warp-Present Time
The Gems were back on Earth. They stepped down from the warp pad. Garnet turned back to the warp and smiled.
"Well, now that we agreed there should be no more Gems on Earth."
Garnet summoned one of her gauntlets. It glowed, getting bigger. She lifted it up and shattered the warp. She unsummoned it and walked back to the others.
"Glad this war is finally over."
"Yes." said Steven, "Now it's time to fix everything."
They warped back to the temple ruins, where the human armies stood, waiting for them. The commander spoke.
"So, did they agree to the truce?"
Steven smiled.
"Yes. They agreed to never let any Gems set foot on Earth again as long as we don't cause any trouble to them."
The soldiers smiled and cheered.
"The war is over!"
"We won!"
"USA! USA!"
The commander walked up to the Gems and smiled.
"Thank you for helping us win the war. Now, let's get all the citizens back into the area. We'll also help repair the town."
"Thank you very much." said Steven.
"Yeah!" screamed Amethyst, "We won! Now it's time to party!"