A Zircon of Blue Diamond's court has posted video evidence of something Echo thought was impossible.
Rose Quartz is alive. In a drastically different form, and currently hiding in the old Kindergartens of Homeworld, but alive. Rumours spread through the web as former rebels slowly start reconnecting, along with millions of questions: How is she still alive? Did the Diamonds really destroy the Crystal Gems? What really happened to the Earth? Who was that strange organic she was with?
So many questions, many of which Echo is asking herself. She relays all this information to the Coals, who are much better at making sense of this sort of thing than she is.
They conclude, after an hour or so of whispered discussion, that there must be some pieces missing from the puzzle. The information they have is extremely limited, and there's no way to draw a clear conclusion from it.
So Echo does some research, and finds a trail of documentation that makes her more and more intrigued by the second.
Peridot 5XG filed a robonoid malfunction report about a year ago. She filed several more reports after that, then reported potential hostiles on Earth after discovering evidence of tampering at the Galaxy Warp. After that, she submitted another slew of robonoid malfunction reports, as well as reporting the Earth Galaxy Warp to be non-functional.
Soon after that, a Lapis Lazuli arrived on Homeworld claiming to have come from Earth. She was interrogated (the actual interrogation file was missing, presumably deleted) and soon sent back to Earth, along with Peridot and Jasper; the Jasper. All three of them failed to report back to Homeworld after arriving on Earth.
A squad of Rubies was dispatched to retrieve Jasper. They submitted regular reports of their search for a few months, then vanished as well. Echo found, soon after this, an audio recording from just before the Rubies were dispatched. Apparently the Peridot had called Yellow Diamond directly, tried to defend the Earth, and called her a clod to her face. Echo winced; she was not going to have it easy if she ever came back to Homeworld.
An Aquamarine and two Topazes were sent next, presumably to obtain more humans for the Human Zoo, but they ended up returning with one human and Rose Quartz.
Echo takes several minutes to process all this information, then relays it to the Coals.
After another hour of discussion, they come to a conclusion.
"The Crystal Gems were not shattered. Either Rose Quartz alone survived, or all of them did, or maybe somewhere in between. The Peridot clearly switched sides while on Earth. As for the other gems who went missing, who knows? They could be shattered or bubbled, or maybe they switched sides too."
"But the important thing is that the Crystal Gems may be alive," Echo whispers.
She shares her findings with the network. The other rebels seem to agree with the Coals' theory; in fact, one of them claims to be in contact with the Topazes who were sent on the mission, who claim that there were at least four other Crystal Gems on Earth, though two of them were part of a fusion. Further prodding from the community grants them descriptions of these gems, two of which are immediately identified as Garnet, the first permafusion, and the Renegade Pearl. The last is an Amethyst who wasn't present in the first war so far as they can tell.
The Coals debate on this new information for a while. They then ask, "is there any indication of other gems being present?"
"Not that I'm aware of," Echo says.
"Then those are likely the only Crystal Gems left. Perhaps Rose Quartz protected them from the Diamonds' final blast with her shield."
"Maybe."
Weeks pass without any new news, but the rebels are growing restless. Then word gets out that a brand-new ship, the Sun Incinerator, has been stolen by a band of Off-Colors, led by an organic; specifically a human, the same human who was seen with Rose Quartz, though they've changed in hue since the first sighting.
These Off-Colors have no idea what they're doing, but whether they know it or not, they have the support of a quiet rebellion behind them. Security footage mysteriously vanishes, tracking programs malfunction, and some colonies they stop at are strangely devoid of guards. Echo herself does some hacking in her spare time, misleading the Emerald trying to track them down.
Sometimes she laughs at the stupidity of it all. The Diamonds seem to have forgotten just how many gems rebelled so long ago; how could they not expect something like this to happen?
In any case, while the adventures of the Off-Colors are entertaining, there is still no news of Rose Quartz. She hasn't been sighted anywhere on Homeworld despite increased robonoid sweeps and the entire rebel net keeping an eye out for her, so eventually they conclude she must have gotten off-world separately from the Off-Colors. How she might have done this, no one can figure out; no ships went missing, nor was she spotted at a warp.
"She's Rose Quartz," the Coals say. "She's the most powerful Quartz soldier in existence. Maybe she has powers we aren't aware of."
Things start to die down, until one day word gets out that Yellow and Blue Diamond are going to Earth in person. The rebels gossip and speculate, but no one can figure out exactly what's going on. It's been too long for them to be going after the rest of the Crystal Gems, or for them to suspect Rose Quartz made it back to Earth. Even the best of hackers can't get past Yellow Diamond's encryptions(and Blue Diamond has no files on the matter whatsoever), no matter how hard they try.
But her Pearl, left behind on Homeworld, can.
The Cluster. A huge amalgam of gem shards, designed to incubate within the Earth and eventually destroy it for good. It was supposed to emerge almost a year ago. The fact that it hasn't, along with the recent activity on Earth, is enough to send the Diamond out to the forgotten colony in person.
The rebels eagerly await news of what happens next.
Echo wonders whether they really are on the brink of a new rebellion.
An official announcement pops up on every screen in the Empire a few days later: Pink Diamond has returned, after a long exile on the planet Earth. It takes the Coals minutes (plus Echo's research time) to figure out exactly what's going on.
"Rose Quartz was Pink Diamond all along. She must have faked her own shattering. It's the only explanation."
The other three (four?) Crystal Gems are seen disembarking from Pink Diamond's leg ship less than a day later, along with another human. Echo obsesses over the brief clips of footage, wondering what it all means.
A few days later, Pink Diamond throws a ball. The footage of the event goes viral on the Rebel net.
Now is the time, all the rebels say. The Crystal Gems are back. They're taking a stand. Now, we strike.
Once again, operations in the factory cease. The doors are barricaded, but no one tries to break through them. All of Homeworld is in a panic over Pink Diamond's shameless fusion, and it seems that the Diamonds have higher priorities than a loss in injector production. Within a day all the colonies who went on strike the first time (and then some) are non-functioning once again.
Halfway through the second day of the strike, Echo slips out through the back door and has the Coals barricade it behind her. She wanders the streets of Homeworld, pretending to be on an important errand. In reality, she's searching for someone⦠someones.
As she walks, she has her screen open, with a symbol that not many will recognise. It's not easily identifiable; you have to look close to even see it. The multiple windows on her screen make a five-pointed star.
In forgotten places, she finds rebels. Off-colors hiding in alleyways, the components of fusions carefully walking hand in hand. She approaches each of them, offering them safety, a place to be free; for now, at least.
When she returns to the factory, she doesn't barricade the back door. Over the course of the next few hours, gems trickle into the factory, where inside these walls they are free from Homeworld's expectations, from the burden of the Diamonds' rule. The door is left open, just in case; a trail is carefully laid in the rebel net, leading any and all outcasts to the factory.
Within these walls, they are free.
A battle rages outside the walls; the Crystal Gems vs the Diamonds. The rebel net explodes with footage, discussion, and general excitement. The battle seems to end after a while, but no one can really tell who won. The Crystal Gems made it into White Diamond's head, and didn't come back out.
After a few hours, they finally have the answer. After six thousand years of war, the Crystal Gems finally won.
Echo pulls out her little tablet and finds her journal. She adds to it everything that's happened since she last updated a day ago, and publishes the entire thing on the rebel net.
Finally, the barricades are taken down. Off-colors and fusions and thousands of Coals stream into the streets of Homeworld, laughing and singing their way to the capitol.
The strike is over
The war is done
The battle's over
The war is won
All the outcasts
All the gems
All the rebels
Sing with them,
Welcome to Era Three
Let us live in peace
All the fusions in plain sight
All off-colors shining bright
Together we will stand
In a glorious free land
We made it to Era Three
Finally we have peace
Echo sings along with them, wishing she could tell herself five thousand years ago that everything would work out alright.
A/N: Well folks, my brain refused to shut up, so I wrote Part 3. Are you happy now, plot gremlins? Are you happy now?!
I actually wrote this on the same night as Part 2, but I figured I should give you all some time to digest Part 2 before posting this. Hope you don't mind! This is definitely the end of Strike, thank god.
What's that, plot gremlin? You think I should rewrite the entire thing from the perspective of Echo's journal? I don't have time for that! I'm already working on a fan comic, starting a Youtube channel, writing a novel, and I have school! Not to mention the million other WIPs sitting around in my drive that I have yet to finish. Unless the fandom starts screaming at me to write this it is NOT going to happen.
Sorry about that. Reviews are appreciated as always!
Keep reading, keep writing, and above all, keep dreaming!
