Kunzite waited nervously outside the doors to Yellow Diamond's control room. She had been here thousands of times before, as her role as a strategist required it. Reporting directly to Yellow Diamond was her purpose, as it was her purpose to devise new strategies that could lead them to victory on the battlefield. But hers was a precarious position, as any failure of her strategy reflected directly back onto her. She had known far too many other Kunzites who had been shattered for their incompetence; she hoped today would not be the day she followed in their footsteps.
Today was different, because she was planning to propose something incredibly risky, an idea which would either secure her place as a top strategist or have her shattered. So it was understandable how she hid her hands in the folds of her skirt as she stepped through the doorway to face her Diamond.
"My Diamond," she greeted, just like every time. She bowed and brought her arms across her chest in a salute.
"4F1," Yellow Diamond said, not looking up from her screen. "I trust you have something new for me today?"
"Yes, My Diamond," she said, hurriedly straightening. She cleared her throat. "I have a proposal concerning theā¦" she paused, wondering whether to refer to it as a rebellion or a war. "...situation on Earth."
"So does every other Kunzite I've seen in the last ten cycles. Go on," Yellow Diamond sighed.
"Well, you see," Kunzite relaxed a bit as she settled in to the script she had mentally written beforehand. "These rebels have been a nuisance for several centuries now, and while most of their power has been attributed to their leader, Rose Quartz, there is another strategy of theirs which is certainly no secret. I am, of course, referring to their practice of mixed-gem fusion."
Kunzite paused for a brief moment to gauge her Diamond's reaction. Yellow Diamond was staring at her screen, completely frozen. Kunzite took this as a sign to continue.
"I believe that, in a controlled environment, Homeworld could use this same practice to our advantage. Obviously certain combinations would be disastrous, but I believe we could safely allow, say, fusion between different types of Quartzes. If trials are successful, we could use these fusions to infiltrate the Crystal Gem camp, and take them out from the inside. More generally, they could be used to-"
"I've heard enough," Yellow Diamond said suddenly, her voice echoing in the large chamber. Kunzite snapped her mouth shut, standing rigidly at attention. This was what she had feared.
"Pearl," Yellow Diamond said calmly, "Lock the doors."
"Yes, my diamond," the Pearl said quietly, tapping a few buttons on a screen. There was no sound to accompany the magnetic locks activating, but that didn't stop Kunzite from feeling utterly and completely trapped.
"Allow me to explain to you why this idea would backfire," Yellow Diamond said. She stood up, deliberately putting her foot down just beside Kunzite. She looked down at the small gem, who was shaking uncontrollably at this point, and let out a sigh of pity.
"If we allow cross-gem fusion on the battlefield, there will be no stopping its spread," she said. "Let's say we allow fusion between quartzes, as you suggested. What happens when some of them get a bit too close? What happens when they are no longer as loyal to their battalions? Chaos, that's what. Even if we somehow maintained order there, soon enough gems will be saying we should allow other gem types to fuse, and once the idea gets in their heads that this is acceptable there will be no stopping them. Could you imagine that? Gems fusing left and right, abandoning their purpose to become a monstrosity? It simply cannot be allowed."
Yellow Diamond sat down on the floor and carelessly picked up Kunzite, holding her only a few meters from her face.
"And you know what else? Could you imagine what would happen if too many of them decided to fuse together? Could you imagine what sort of abomination that would create? No, we cannot allow it, and I will be honest with you since you won't be living much longer anyway. I know these fusions are powerful, and I know they would be immensely useful on the battlefield. But what happens when one of these abominations gets too powerful, and turns against us? Here's a little secret for you: Diamonds aren't invulnerable. We may be hard, but we're also brittle. Get enough gems together, and you could shatter one of us. All of us, even. That is why I cannot allow this to happen."
Yellow Diamond set Kunzite down on the ground. Kunzite knew what she just heard would never leave this room, and neither would she.
Yellow Diamond's boot stomped her form, shattering her into countless shards of dust.
"What a waste," Yellow Diamond mused. "I'll have to make the next batch a bit dumber. That was the third one this week."
Her Pearl quietly moved in to sweep up the shards and send them off to be Harvested. As she pulled a small vacuum from her gem, she turned off the audio recorder on her screen and sent the recording to Blue Diamond's pearl. If all went well, the rebellion could make use of it.
A/N: Slight AU here. I wrote this after realising that a powerful enough fusion, like Obsidian, could probably take down one of the Diamonds (although Obsidian is a bad example 'cause she includes Pink Diamond's gem), and then realized that the Diamonds were probably fully aware of this and banned cross-gem fusion because of it. Now I kind of want to write an AU where Fluorite just walks up to White Diamond, screams at her a bit, and then shatters her.
Keep reading, keep writing, and above all, keep dreaming!
