This is what happens when you try to update when your hyped about episodes and trying to get stuff done for work before you leave. sigh. Anyway, lots of fun with this chapter. looking forward to monday now for multiple reasons. Thanks to squish for betaing, the flavor of grammar sins this week was run on sentances. A reminder that the askbox on the blog is open for in character asks, and theres some fun announcements from various characters (ok mostly just the yellow diamond one) on the blog as well.
Hope you like the chapter! See you next week!
The last time Yellow Diamond had been to the particular station, it had been located in what was now one of Blue's star systems. Of course it had gone through many changes since then, practically nine thousand years ago. These were definitely not the circumstances she expected to return under. The carrel was largely untouched by the rest of the base, there was even a thin layer of dust on the console. But like the rest of the base, it had been cut off from Homeworld's computer system, which was intelligent, and not something most people would have thought of. Yellow had to give Red credit for that.
There was still a lot of information on the carrel's console though. Records of the area, an outgoing transmission requesting for backup when fighting, and various logs from the previous gems in charge of the station. And then, buried in the back of the data core, were notes from White, old, old notes from before they had first emerged. She almost didn't dare to open them and was saved from having to worry about it by the door to the carrel opening.
"The frick is this?" Amethyst asked, walking in unprompted. Yellow Diamond sighed and looked down at the other gem.
"It's a diamond console. Must you just barge in?"
"Yeah, was trying to figure out where you were hiding. Yelp was wondering where you were." Amethyst wandered around the cramped interior before hopping up onto a ledge next to her.
"Yelp?"
"Yellow Pearl. What are you doing in here?" Amethyst asked, she had stretched an eyeball grotesquely to look over Yellow's shoulder. Yellow Diamond batted it away.
"Nothing of consequence. Must you nickname my pearl? I doubt she approves." Yellow Diamond said.
"Eh, gotta do somethin'." Amethyst shrugged, then hesitated. Yellow frowned, what awkward question was going to press at emotions she didn't want to deal with today? "So about Jasper?"
Shards.
"Which jasper?" Yellow asked evenly. Since the Stevima incident, other than a brief synopsis about what the perfect quartz had been up to in the months preceding her bubbling, they hadn't discussed Jasper.
"Oh come on, you know which jasper!" Amethyst said, rolling her eyes. Yellow Diamond sighed.
"What about her?" She said, dismissing the screen and turning to face Amethyst directly. Six months ago, she wouldn't have bothered. She didn't even look up from her screen when dealing with Domina half the time. What was wrong with her?
"So what, you just took her post-war? The betas said they thought she had gotten shattered." Amethyst said.
"Why would we shatter a perfectly good quartz?" Yellow asked, "What part of 'resource shortage' don't you gems understand?"
"Well what else are they supposed to think when one of their family just disappears!"
"Gems don't have family."
"Yeah bullshit, I dunno what else you'd call me and Steven and Garnet and Pearl. Or heck, whatever you and Domina and Blue have got goin on." Amethyst said as she was pacing restlessly.
"What does this even matter? It's not as if she's here, or even fully functioning," Yellow Diamond said.
"It doesn't matter, they still deserve to know."
"No they-" Yellow cut herself off. "Well they know now I'm sure, and I'm positive Steven has decided that he'll be the one to return her to her proper state."
"Did she know?" Amethyst asked.
"Did she know what?"
"That her fam was still alive." Amethyst had crossed her arms.
"No, it would have distracted her from adjusting to peacetime." Yellow Diamond said. She also folded her arms and stared down Amethyst. That was enough of this conversation. Amethyst stared back at her unflinchingly.
"That's janked."
"I have no clue what that means." Yellow said flatly. Amethyst growled and threw her hands in the air.
"Do you actually care about any of them? Any of us?" She shouted. Yellow Diamond seethed, she could feel sparks dancing at her fingertips. How dare this insignificant runt speak to her this way!
"Why should I? Do you know how many gems I've seen ground to dust? How many I've shattered with my own hand? How many I have simply seen break during their normal task?" Yellow said. She slammed her hand into the chair arm and the sparks fizzled out harmlessly. "I cannot afford to care! I cannot afford to left myself wallow in grief over gems who may last no more than a millennium or two! I can't... I-" Yellow Diamond covered her face with one hand and turned in her seat, opening up the console again. "Just get out, Amethyst," She said. "Please."
She could hear the door open behind her.
"You're a coward, t's not like we don't care, you big dork." Amethyst said before the door closed and Yellow let her now damp hand drop from her face. She wiped it on the edges of her jacket and went back to work.
Domina had heard of 'The Perfect Quartz' before, a gemetically perfect jasper that emerged mid-war, ready for battle. She had seen her detailed gemetic sequence on Homeworld while Yellow tried to give her a more standard grounding in kindergarten implantation. And she had heard from Steven, Peridot, and Amethyst more about the gem's personality and actions leading up to her corruption.
"Why exactly did you bring her along, Steven?" Domina asked, that seemed to be the only applicable question at this moment.
"Well... I thought we could maybe heal her and she could meet the betas again." Steven said uncomfortably.
"Steven, we can't just let her out on the base, someone could get hurt!" Connie said, rubbing her temples with both hands.
"And you said we would wait to heal any more gems." Domina pointed out.
"Well we'll be careful!" Steven said. "You guys keep saying how we need all the help we can get."
"But she's not going to be help, Steven! She's tried to kill us, she's tried to kill you multiple times!"
"Because she thought I was mom and that mom shattered Pink Diamond." Steven said. "We know she didn't though!"
Domina looked between the two of them then back at the suspended gem. There was the other one too, the Bismuth that wasn't corrupted.
"And you didn't tell anyone that you brought them along?" Domina asked.
"No I just..." Steven stopped and his face fell. "Oh, you know."
"She knows?" Connie asked looking between them. "About what?" Steven pulled out the other bubble and let them hang together side by side.
"I brought Bismuth too... I just thought," He said and then sighed and looked at Domina. "She shouldn't be bubbled, she should know about this, she should have a chance to see that you guys are just like everyone else." By 'You guys', Domina assumed he meant Diamonds, she had heard the story about this Bismuth.
Connie sighed and balled her hands into her forehead, covering her face.
"This... this is just too much Steven. We can't solve all of these problems at once." Connie said, she looked overwhelmed, and Domina had a feeling it wasn't just about the bubbled gems.
"Why don't we wait," Domina said evenly, "And talk to the gems about this, at least to let Blue know." Steven stared at the bubbles and sighed before gingerly collecting the bubbles and moving them back to where they had been under his bed.
"Fine." He said. Domina sighed with relief, though really, this was just another problem to put off until later.
She emerged from the ship a few hours later with a less foggy brain. She had been alone when she had woken up, though both bubbles were still where Steven had put them. Connie's sword was gone though which was... a little disturbing but Domina decided to ignore it. She probably wouldn't get into any trouble with it. Lapis was laying on top of the ship, but otherwise the hanger was empty.
"Where did all the peridots go?" Domina asked. Lapis looked over and shrugged.
"Somewhere in the base, something about some robonoids and limb enhancer diagnostics, I wasn't really paying attention that much."
"Ah." Domina said. Then after a moment's hesitation, she jumped on top of the ship next to Lapis.
"Need something?" Lapis asked.
"Not particularly. Are you alright? I don't know if you and Sodalite were close or-" Domina began, Lapis cut her off with a laugh.
"No, no we weren't." Lapis said after she finished. "We were just court gems and you know how that is."
"Not really," Domina said. "I stay away from Homeworld as much as possible."
"Oh." Lapis said. For a moment Domina thought she would have to press if she wanted any more information. "Well, court sucks." She said. "It's just flaunting and putting on airs to prove that you're better than everyone."
"I can see why you prefer Earth." Domina said.
"Yeah, now at least... before..." Domina could feel the tension fall on the blue gem instantly.
"What... what were you doing there anyway?" She asked hesitantly. There was another pause.
"A job," Lapis said finally. "I terraformed the beta kindergarten after Homeworld just had to have reinforcements." She glanced quickly at Domina but then relaxed when Domina showed no sign of anger.
"Terraforming in a warzone is dangerous." She said. They wouldn't even dare to do that these days. Lapises and others were difficult to make before the war, nearly impossible now.
"Yeah, you don't need to tell me that." Lapis said lowly. "But it was all gems on the ground. Everyone was expected to pitch in over one colony." She shook her head. "I should have never been there. I'm a civilian!"
"Just because you're not built for fighting doesn't mean you can't," Domina said with a slight smile. It instantly disappeared when she saw the stony glare on the terraformers face.
"I am not a weapon." Lapis said darkly. "I'm not something that's going to be trapped into fighting another war for someone."
"I... understand." Domina said, she was deeply aware of the fact that her body was 75% water. "And you shouldn't have too, unless you want to." Lapis nodded, then hopped off the ship.
"I will help though, Steven asked me too, but I'm here for him and Peridot, not you or Yellow Diamond." She said.
"Good." Domina said, "Steven's a better reason than us."
Sodalite's pearl wasn't used to being so noticed. Normally when she walked around a base unaccompanied, other gems assumed she was on an errand of some sort and left her alone. In the several hours since she left the hanger she had been stopped countless times by various gems, not asking what she was doing but simply wanting to introduce themselves. It was ridiculous, though... if pressed she might admit that it was nice to have people actually notice her.
When she returned to the hangar, the human had emerged carrying a quartz-sized sword. It frankly, looked ridiculous in her hands.
"Why would he even consider that was a good idea?" The human muttered to herself. "A corrupted gem? Nevermind the fact that it's-" She paused when she noticed Sodalite's pearl staring at her from the entrance. "Oh. Hey!" She said. Sodalite's pearl nodded to her. She hadn't quite decided whether the human was worth engaging with. "Uh so... Zee said there was a practice room around here somewhere. Did you see it while you were walking around?"
"It is two floors below, third door on the left." Sodalite's Pearl said. The human nodded.
"Thanks," She said with a smile before walking off. A corrupted gem? Sodalite's pearl had of course heard of the Diamond attack on Earth, but what would one of the corrupted traitors be doing here? She thought for a moment, then entered the ship and immediately ducked behind a chair as White Diamond came into view. The hybrid seemed inattentive and yawned before exiting the ship. She could hear voices outside, a conversation between Lapis Lazuli and White Diamond but eventually both left and it became apparent that they wouldn't be returning.
Despite the size of the ship, it didn't take long for her to find the two bubbles underneath a soft platform in what she had deduced were White Diamond's chambers that she was allowing the other two organics to make use of. One had a bismuth in it which would not cause the chaos that she wanted. The other though... a jasper.
That could cause some damage.
hehehe, let me know what you think
