"Diamond? Mistress Diamond? Please, you need to tell us more."
The surrounding ray field briefly deactivated to allow three of Chrysoprase's gem healer subordinates to leave. Chrysoprase had their healing applied nonstop, but simply by the sounds of Blue Diamond's growing discomfort, hardly any progress was being made.
"Please, stop!" Blue Diamond continued to protest, "No more! It hurts to... think, to... all over!" She had assumed her now normal position in the center of the cell, on both knees and clutching her head in both hands. The other three gem healers, a trio of identical blue gems, watched on in complete disbelief to see their once-sovereign reduced to a trembling mess.
"This is starting to seriously frustrate even me..." Chrysoprase crossed her arms, agitation in her voice was thick, "We have applied the healing arts many times in different quantities, yet the taint in Blue Diamond still persists!" She looked at Emerald, "You ask for the impossible, Emerald: there is no 'curing' a gem tainted by Dark Plasma, and Mistress Diamond here is simply no exception!"
"Chrysoprase..." Emerald said, though the futility still crept into her voice, "You're not truly suggesting that this is all hopeless?"
"Emerald, please, even you should recognize a hopeless cause when you see it..."
"Is that really what you would describe Diamond? Of all gems?" Emerald's outstretched hand indicated to the still cowering blue gem, who by now had lowered her hands from her ears just a little. Chrysoprase paused for a moment then sighed.
"I am not denying that Diamond was the most... special of all us gems," she said, "But... we simply need to face facts here, both past and present: 'we' are now the Galactic Gem Society, the new government in place of the Diamond Authority. Why?" She herself pointed to Blue Diamond, "Because it was assumed that she had fallen in battle!"
"Until that was discovered to be a falsehood, correct?" Emerald cut in.
"Be that as it may, in its place we find that she has in fact committed a criminal act to our planet's energy fonts that nearly costed us our very way of living! Even if she were to somehow be cured of her taint of dark plasma, what do think would be next for her? You think we'd let this go unpunished? Do you think she'd even be fit to return to her role of gem leader?" Emerald's words slowly died in her throat with each point the gem healer made.
"We are the council," she said, "Surely we can find it in ourselves for pardon..." Their eyes met, exchanging looks of differing sympathy. Chrysoprase lightly shook her head as she turned away.
"Sapphires, let us leave, there are more pressing cases at the infirmaries..." She slowly but firmly departed from the holding room, the three sapphires following behind her. Emerald made no sign to move herself, her mind pondering over the brutal truth of words that Chrysoprase had told her.
"She's... not wrong... you know..." a voice behind her spoke. Emerald snapped her head around suddenly to Diamond, still on her knees in the center of the cell but arms limp at her sides.
"Diamond?"
"What Chrysoprase said... it's not... wrong..." The blue gem stared back at her, eyes still holding pain, but with a little more restraint this time. Emerald opened her mouth to reply, until a passive glance reminded her that the two Holly Blue Agate guards were still present.
"Guards... leave me for a moment," she said after thought. The two exchanged a look between each other, but nonetheless did as Emerald ordered and exited the holding room, "Diamond... Mistress Diamond, surely you don't think that? It might just be the dark plasma clouding your judgement-"
"No Emerald," Diamond interrupted, "It's precisely dark plasma... that I now see much clearly... You cannot possibly imagine... the pain!" Her eyes winced and her body shivered and trembled at the mention.
"Diamond..." Emerald suddenly found herself asking, "What exactly has happened to you?"
"Power..." Diamond struggled to answer, "That's what dark plasma... initially promised... while others were weak to it... I alone endured..." Her eyes, once filled with pain, now began to show wonder, "But only now do I see... nothing this... powerful... comes without cost..." She rubbed her hands over her arms as if shivering, "Master... White and Yellow Diamonds, and myself... We were... pain-conditioned...to- Oh by Geode, the PAIN!" Blue Diamond suddenly screamed, causing Emerald to jump back in surprise. Diamond's hands moved back to clutching her head as she bent forward again.
"D-Diamond! Mistress Diamond!" Emerald held her hands up, "A-Are you alright?!"
"It calls to me!" Diamond spoke through gritted teeth, "Even now, I feel it calling to me... so much pain...!" Emerald thought to herself frantically; she had to calm the blue gem down somehow, but what could she say...?
"Mistress Diamond! Listen to me!" she ordered softly but firmly, "If there's any chance at all for you... you have to tell me: how can Malganon be stopped? Can it be destroyed? What can we do?" She watched as Blue Diamond appeared to force her twitching eyes and head to be still long enough to look back at her.
"The Mast-... Malganon... is all-powerful..." she said, "Existed since time unrecorded... Seeks to extend its reach... have all... bear its mark!" Her voice was clearly breaking with every word.
"Its mark, as in corrupt?" Emerald said, "Diamond! Malganon just seeks to corrupt all?"
"What it can't corrupt... it seeks to eradicate!" Screams dominated most of her speech by now, and her thrashing became far more aggressive. She threw herself at the walls of the ray field again and again, hardly caring each time that she was zapped.
"This is enough; Agates! Blue Agates, get in here!" Instantly as she spoke the door opened, and the two blue guards rushed in, "Reapply the restraints! Quickly!" One of the guards quickly tapped on the nearby control pad, and within seconds Blue Diamond was properly immobilized via the restraints that shot out from the cell floor. Emerald took a deep sigh; Blue Diamond still fussed in agony, but at least she was no longer harming herself in the process.
"By all the stars..." she said, then spoke to the guards, "Keep vigil over her, and let me know if anything changes,."
"Yes Emerald," the other Blue Agate responded, "However just now, before we came to your call, we had received word to summon for you."
"Who summoned for me?"
"Chrysoprase did," the other Agate said, "She said to meet her in the main council chambers." Emerald's eyes narrowed, but she nodded and left the room all the same.
She walked with a quickened pace through the hallway. As she did, she glanced out of the surrounding windows; repairs of structures and facilities were making strong headway. Evident electrical burns and scoring had been cleared up by now and were not only being repaired, but retrofitted with lightning conductors as well. Whatever was necessary, to prevent a similar catastrophe from happening again at any point in the future. In spite of the hard feeling Emerald had just moments ago, just gazing out at her fellow gems hard at work was enough to fill her with... relief.
Finally, Emerald reached the council room and entered. Chrysoprase was standing on one side of the council's table when she looked up and noticed her.
"Chrysoprase," Emerald said as she approached the table, "I was told you summoned for me?"
"Yes Emerald, that I did..."
"Perhaps you've reconsidered helping Blue Diamond? I managed to extract information from her that-"
"Emerald," Chrysoprase cut her off simply. She pointed to the center of their council chamber, where a single blue light was flashing. Upon seeing it, Emerald looked back up at her partner.
"The long distance Council summons?" she asked, "But that could only mean..."
"Yes, so let's not waste any more time!" Chrysoprase quickly moved herself so she stood completely at face with one side of the pentagon-shaped table, Emerald quickly doing the same. At once, the placed the flat of their palms against their ends of the table, gems on their bodies glowing as well. Instantly, holograms formed at the empty sections of the table, holograms of familiar faces.
"General Ruby Prime, and... Citrine? Spodumene?" Emerald said.
"Yes, an explanation would definitely be wise right now..." Ruby Prime said. Upon noticing Morganite and her gem partners, she took a more apprehensive stance, the warrior gems behind her slowly doing the same.
"Whoa, wait a minute..." Steven slowly moved between his group and Ruby Prime's "It's not at all what you think!" At this point, some of the Felucians slowly made themselves present by emerging from within their dwellings. Their presence was noted by many of the warrior gems, Ruby Prime included.
"Really?" Ruby Prime asked incredulously, "Because what this appears to be is another case of discovering gem deserters!" By now Garnet, Amethyst, and Pearl had rejoined Steven at his sides.
"Just a moment," Garnet said, "You don't know all the facts here."
"Okay, but..." Steven said, "You're not seriously about to do anything bad to them, right? I mean, neither they nor their people have done anything to you!" He suddenly remembered Citrine was there with him and turned to her, "Citrine! You're leading us, so you can tell her!"
"Ruby Prime..." Citrine hesitated, as if considering Steven's words, "Perhaps now is not the best time to take such action?"
"Um, sorry to interrupt here, but..." Amethyst cut in with a pointed finger to Malganon, "Did we suddenly forget about that?!" Everyone turned to the raging air skirmish of Crystarra ships hovering above the monster. Capital ships slowly hovered above, while tiny specks that were fighter ships zoomed all around and peppered Malganon with blaster fire. However, for every energy projectile fired upon it, there was that persistent shield that appeared everywhere that a blast would've been.
At the sight of this, Ruby Prime pinched the bridge of her nose with sigh.
"Very well... we'll deal with this right now!" she looked around at the warrior gems gathered around her, "Let's make sure those corrupted gems don't get any further than that ray-field; form a defensive line!" Slowly but surely, the gems marched out into a line just behind the ray-field and its generator. From their new angle Steven could now count at least twenty among them, all many different colors and various physical builds. Ruby Prime then looked away and placed a finger to her ear, "This is General Ruby Prime hailing the Crystarra fleet, what's your status? What's happening up there?!"
"General!" a voice said, "We're concentrating firepower, but that thing has some kind of deflector shield! Our attacks are- By Geode-!" Ruby Prime snapped her head back over to Malganon. The giant monster's shoulder crystals glowed with red lightning and it turned its head to the sky. Then with the sound of a mighty thunderclap, powerful lightning blasted from its maw at the nearest capital ship. The electricity surged at the point of impact and snaked its way along the ship's body. For a moment, Ruby Prime held hope as the ship actually held itself against the blast, "Stabilizer's failing! Maintain the- AAARRRRGGGHHH!" The sound of the gem's scream filled her ear as the ship was ultimately overcome. Lightning ripped through every part of the ship it touched until finally it could hold no longer.
The capital ship began to fall the surface, explosions across its body rocking it as it made the descent to its demise. Those on the ground watched with looks of horror on their faces.
"General?! Are you there?" Ruby Prime heard a different voice in her ear, "We saw that from here! Warship number 4 was destroyed! What do we do?!"
"They're being destroyed up there...!" Steven said, looking at Ruby Prime, "They've got to get out of there! If they don't, they'll be blown up!"
"If they leave, there'll be a risk of Malganon focusing back down here again!" Morganite countered.
"Um, I'm with Steven on this one," Amethyst chimed in, "No gem deserves 'that' to happen to them!"
"Enough already! I can't think..." Ruby Prime exclaimed. She concentrated really hard, until after much thought, "Fleet, continue to engage, but... maintain healthy distance and evasive maneuvers where ever possible. What's important is that you keep it distracted!"
"Um, y-yes General!"
"And why isn't the dreadnought firing?! Get its guns operational now! It might have a chance against such a shield..." She dropped her hand from her ear, not bothering to register whatever was said next, "Listen, those gems up there? They knew exactly what they were getting into when they came here; they know the risks, so we have to make sure their sacrifices are not in vain!" Steven looked at her then sighed.
"It just doesn't feel right..." he said to himself yet aloud, "We're trying to save gems, so gems have to be... destroyed for that to happen?"
"Steven," the boy felt Garnet's hand on his shoulder, "It's a gritty reality that no one should have to experience... But no matter what happens, nothing will happen to the four of us." Steven looked back at Pearl and Amethyst with hope-filled eyes, and they in turn smiled back at him.
"Wait a minute, you brought the dreadnought here?" Spodumene spoke up, "I remember while I was still on Crystarra that its weapons were still not calibrated!"
"You are correct on that assessment, Spodumene," Peridot answered, "However, the gems assigned to that ship were hard at work and making steady progress regardless."
"Plus we needed every ship available for this!" Ruby Prime reminded, "And that dreadnought has cannons that could blast holes through the toughest minerals in this galaxy!"
"That remains to be seen," Morganite noted, "And should that fail, I assume you have some sort of secondary plan?"
"Hmmm..." Ruby Prime thought, "Citrine, Spodumene, maybe the three of us should relay this development to Emerald and Chrysoprase back on Crystarra!" The two gems in question looked at her as she raised a small object from her gold diamond-shaped pad from the front of her uniform. With one finger she tapped on its side, causing it to blink a blue light.
"You mean a councilor's quantum projection?" Citrine asked, "I... suppose we might as well." Spodumene nodded as well and the two of them moved so they stood around where Ruby Prime stood. They too removed small objects from the front of their uniforms and tapped their sides as she did. As one they placed them in their center atop the sand so they touched, then stepped back. A light blue hologram slowly took the familiar shape of a table, a five sided table with two hologram figures standing where the three of them did not.
"General Ruby Prime, and... Citrine? Spodumene? the hologram of Emerald spoke.
"So you're all present and accounted for," Chrysoprase added.
"Okay, that's pretty cool!" Amethyst admitted as she and other watched.
"Both Spodumene and Ruby Prime have reunited with us upon sector 33-Y7's planet," Citrine said, "where the situation is... hectic, to say the least."
"Have you encountered Malganon?" Emerald asked.
"We have... along with what appears to be a legion of corrupted gems as well," Citrine said. Malganon's roar could be heard in the background, causing the two holograms to tense up.
"By Geode..." Emerald said, "How can something like that be defeated?"
"I think... I have cursory knowledge on it from my... close-range experience with it," Spodumene said, earning her the attention of everyone.
"What? And you never thought to tell us this before?!" Ruby Prime said.
"I haven't exactly had time to process anything, being how I just arrived here minutes ago!" Spodumene countered, "Anyway, while Pearl and myself were on the surface of... Malganon, I found myself in close proximity to one of its crystals; perhaps one of them located at its shoulder. As I was near, I could feel massive surges of power through my limb enhancer!" The hologram faces of Emerald and Chrysoprase showed interest.
"Surges of power?" Chrysoprase said.
"And what's more..." she suddenly turned around to face Amethyst behind her, "Amethyst, would you please?" The purple gem was caught off guard by the sudden gesture, and slowly approached Spodumene's side, "Amethyst, what exactly did you say you saw before Pearl and I found you?"
"Huh?" Amethyst's face looked back and forth between the other council members. Pearl, Garnet, and Steven slowly moved so they stood directly behind them as well, "Well... I saw Diamond was there, and she... she, used that giant crystal to... she's corrupting gems!" Everyone around her bore astonished reactions, while the holographic Emerald and Chrysoprase were more more tempered.
"Corrupting gems?" Emerald said, "You mean she's directly responsible for the gem-drones?"
"This is... well it's a bit surprising..." Chrysoprase agreed.
"Well then, if what you say is true, then the plan should be obvious," Citrine announced then glanced at Spodumene, "If you claim Malganon's 'shoulder crystals' to be its actual power source, we should focus our efforts on destroying them!" Amethyst sensed by now that she was no longer needed by the group and slipped away. She saw Steven and rejoined him at his side.
"Did you really see gems get corrupted? Turned into mindless gem-drones?" he asked her.
"Yeah, I saw it, Steven," she replied with a softer tone, "I saw it happen to a gem, and... I just, I felt like- I should've done something!"
"Hey, it's okay! I'm not blaming you for anything!" the boy reassured her with a pat on her shoulder. Amethyst smiled at the gesture.
"It's just... We can't let that thing live..." she looked at Malganon with determination, "We have to take it down!"
"We will, Amethyst... we will," Steven said.
"Yes, the four of us will... wait," Garnet suddenly looked to her side and groaned.
"What?" Steven asked, until he noticed someone wasn't present with them, "Oh, not again!"
"What? What's wrong?" Amethyst asked.
"Pearl's not with us again! She did this before..." Steven said.
"Which means she might be- wait, there!" Garnet pointed off to the side. Steven and Amethyst looked to see Pearl standing before the shuttle that Peridot had piloted to their location. However, she didn't appear to be moving with rushed speed as before, she appeared to be calm as she looked over the space-craft. Thus the three of them quickly walked over to her location.
"Pearl! Hey Pearl!" Steven called out.
"Yo, P! Whatcha doing?" Amethyst added. Pearl turned around and smiled to see the three of them approaching her.
"Oh good! You're all here now!" she said, "Now then, I believe my familiarity with a Crystarra fighter can carry over into piloting one of these larger shuttles..." Her casual speech drew confused looks from the other three.
"Um, Pearl? Why are you wanting to fly this ship?" Amethyst asked, earning her a look of genuine confusion from Pearl in return.
"Yeah Pearl, are you wanting to use this ship to help out the ones up there?" Steven pointed up at the sky.
"Use the ship to-? Why would you suggest that?" Pearl asked, "We're leaving here; I plan to fly us home right now!"