It's been a little hectic these past few weeks, but the next chapter is done! The first step towards the final stop before Homeworld!
The Crystal Gems may have been in higher spirits than ever, someone else was anything but happy. Inside her sanctum without even her personal servant to distract her, White Diamond had just learned that her planet's best defense against the Crystal Gems was one step away from falling. Even worse than that, she was the one who put Emerald in charge of the base meaning she could not blame Yellow or Blue for the loss of Beta.
And to really rub salt in the wound, Emerald had to go and get captured according to one of the witnesses of the assault. She could not even shatter the incompetent blowhard for her failure!
As miffed as she was over that, White instead focused her intellect on how to handle Steven's little army. Not only had they lost two of the stations powering the Aveturescence, two of her cretins had gained new abilities in the process. Now that walking pink cyst had a peridot that could hack anything with a touch and a lapis with an infinite water supply.
It was clear that all of these attacks were not working. Even going all to that disastrous escort mission with Jasper, the Crystal Gems not only refused to surrender but somehow became stronger for it. Time after time, she tried throwing attack after attack and each time she was defeated at best or the rebels grew in number and abilities at worst. A new stratagem was needed.
White brought up a holographic map of the entire empire. She narrowed her field of vision to show the now ruined Beta, Satellite Gamma and Homeworld itself. She could theoretically throw everything at Steven and use the anti-fusion weapon to dwindle her options, but who knows what the next mutation he would grant one of his peons? No, something more subtle was needed here.
She looked at the map and realized that the final generator for her force field was only a few parsecs away from Pink Diamond's Zoo. A smile came to her face as she remembered a message that the rebels sent her long before their quest started.
"Humans are stronger than gems, hm?" she mused to herself, "Then let's see how they'll do in the crossfire…"
The mood on the Crystal Beacon was higher than before. With fusion being possible again, Emerald now being out of their hair until further notice, and Lapis seeming more chipper and confident than ever, the gems were taking it easy for the moment. Several gems were in the central meeting room actually relaxing for a change. They ended up sitting around half of the table playing cards with a deck that Pearl had as part of her personal storage in her gem.
"Anyone know how to actually use these things?" Peridot asked, observing the nine of clubs in her hand.
"Not sure," Pearl admitted, "But I've heard a great variety of games use them that also include fish, poking the other players and summoning monsters to drain life."
"Ooh, can we play that last one?!" asked Amethyst.
"I think it's a little simpler than that," Lapis insisted, "Pretty sure I've seen people just throw these into a hat or something on my show."
Pearl obliged by pulling out a black top hat and setting it on the center of table and then handing out the rest of the cards to the four gems and the one person joining them.
"You know, I've always wondered something," Priyanka mused while tossing a card into the hat easily, "How is it that you've lived for so long and yet know so little about culture?"
"Well…" Pearl sheepishly admitted, "We've always been reclusive. As people got much better at keeping records, we shrank back more and more to avoid unnecessary attention."
"Yeah, and it's super boring!" Amethyst drawled, "That's why I started sneaking out when the others weren't looking. People are so funny!"
"Well, you are a lot to take in," Lapis noted while missing her shot. The others all chucked while Amethyst blew a raspberry at the flying gem.
"I guess we'll be spending a lot more time together then," the doctor noted, nailing another shot, "I'm not entirely sure where to go once we get back."
"Correct me if I'm wrong," Peridot asked, still looking over her card, "But you have a stable career and full control of your abilities. What's stopping you from going back your day job?"
"Well, for starters, I look about half my age. Skin treatment and hair dye can only go so far turning back time. At some point, it's more than just beauty treatments and I'll have a lot of explaining to do."
"You know, I never got that junk," Amethyst said, "About looking young forever? That sounds totally boring."
"Sometimes it is just vanity, but humans tend to get far more problems as they age. Trust me, you see enough cases of arthritis and the like and you'd want to never grow up either."
"Perhaps," Peridot said, now twirling her card, "We could develop some sort of device to regain your original appearance. Or, if you truly desire it, an antidote to your transformation."
"I actually wouldn't go that far. I won't lie, it's nice looking like this and never having so much as a headache. But besides that… I'm not sure I can just go back to work at the hospital."
"Seems dull now, doesn't it?" Pearl asked. When the mother nodded, the gem stood up and walked up to her. "I'm sure readjustment will be challenging, but we'll be open for you whenever you or Connie need something."
"That's very kind of you, but I'm afraid there's one thing you can't fix."
"You mean…" Lapis guessed, "Him?"
"Yes… At least here I don't have anything to remind me of… Doug. But once we go home, there's the house… His car… The people around town who'll tell me how sorry there are… His family that'll miss him… And his next birthday… Our anniversary… I think of him every day here but there? I don't know how I'll get by."
"Priyanka," Pearl said, "I may not have anyone exactly like Doug in my life, but that doesn't mean I can't imagine how you feel. It's a very difficult process, overcoming a loss like this. You and Connie will not go through this alone."
The mother looked around the table to see all of the gems had the same warming smile on their faces. They were the same consoling, assuring looks many of her relatives gave her and her daughter at her husband's funeral.
If someone told the doctor years ago that she would be tearfully hugging a table of multicolored, superpowered aliens on a spaceship on a mission to defeat a tyrannical batch of extraterrestrial dictators, she would have immediately called up her therapist friend for another potential client. Now, as thoroughly bizarre as her reality was, Priyanka happily embraced the gems and let out some of the grief she had been bottling up since takeoff. Once she was feeling better, she decided to teach the gems some actual card games so that they could enjoy their brief reprieve more effectively.
On another part of the ship, Bismuth had been dragged out of the engine room by Garnet and Steven with both of them feeling that the dreadlocked gem had practically been rooted there since they left Earth. The blacksmith was reluctant, but Fluorite also felt that Bismuth deserved a break and agreed to keep an eye on things while the three were off.
The two gems were quickly brought to the training chamber for Steven for an idea he had since the room was built. He had a fair amount of time dedicated to playing fighting games with one of his favorite modes being the ones where you simply knock out as many enemies as possible. Now, he could actually use the pocket dimension to make it happen in reality.
Part light training and part fun pastime, Steven and the two veteran gems were now fending off an oncoming horde of "attackers" consisting of wireframe male and female bodies with nothing but a red light in the center of their heads as the only other feature. While they did attack back, they only had the strength and reaction speed of normal humans with explicit instructions to not cause any lasting bodily harm.
Steven was practicing his weapon-switching tactics since he had used it rarely since leaving Earth with the goal to not use his shield or bubbles. Even as he had five fighters on him at once, he was greatly enjoying himself as he let his instincts take over and changed between whip, spear and gauntlets and keep his attackers at bay and then sending them flying with a well-timed hit.
While he found the activity a bit strenuous but fun, Garnet and Bismuth were having a blast as they got out every last bit of stress they had from being cooped up in the ship. The dummies they were punching posed practically no challenge to them so they were free to outdo each other in how many mooks they could launch out of sight. The contest only ended when they both finally lost count somewhere around 150 a piece and called it a draw before sitting down for a break.
Once they had the room bring up a table and chairs, they sat down with Steven trying to catch his breath. "Man… You two really know how to slug it out."
"Kid, trust me," Bismuth assured, "I knew recruits who didn't get half as far as you in training with ten times the effort. You're almost a natural."
"Thanks… It's pretty crazy to think I couldn't even go on missions a few years ago."
"It's a surprise to me too," Garnet commented, "Although I'll admit I think you could still do good with the cheeseburger backpack."
Steven chuckled at that thought. That earlier "mission" felt like a whole decade ago. He was so proud of that old novelty item that now he almost wished he had it with him. It felt like a piece of home that he could use right now.
"I'm also glad to see you so active," Garnet said to Bismuth, "You've hardly gotten out of the engine level since leaving. Peridot said she was half-tempted to make some AI computer just give you an excuse to take a break."
"Psh, like she could ever replace me! It's hard to stop Bismuth once she gets in her element, you know that."
"It's just a question of your work-life balance, that's all. Honestly, I'm surprised that you've even stayed down there when battles come up."
"Well, the upper-crusts didn't give me much of a choice the first time. They barged through the door saying they were gonna arrest me for something stupid. Then I had to try and keep the ship up while Fluorite fell apart with that anti-fusion thing…"
The two just seemed to shrug that off and got up to play round two of their game, but they both noticed Bismuth was not moving.
"You okay?" Steven asked.
"Who came up with that thing?" she asked them, "Who had the bright idea to just make a gun that splits up all fusions?"
"Don't know, and I really don't care," Garnet said, "All I know is they wouldn't want to meet me."
"It's just… Disgusting! What kind of sick mind do you need to have to dream that thing up?!"
"Bismuth, it's okay," Steven said, trying to calm her down, "It's all over and-"
"I mean, what will think of next?! Maybe they'll just make some kind of death ray! I just want to find the clod who creates these things and-"
Her ranting stopped when Garnet gave her a hard slap across the face, making Steven wince.
"You're not exactly one to talk," the fusion said.
"Yeah… I know…"
Bismuth then put her elbows on the table before placing her head between her hands. "I don't get it… Why does this keep happening?"
"What do you mean?" Steven asked.
"This anger. All a part of me wants is to find Homeworld gems and beat them senseless… For a start! I mean, the past was one thing, that was during an actual war but now? I spent the past few millennia in a bubble and I still feel it! I just…"
"Bismuth," Garnet said, "It's okay. We all know how it feels."
"Do you? I don't remember you making an instant-shatter weapon in your spare time."
Garnet actually had to admit that point and looked to Steven instead. He simply nodded and moved to help the forlorn blacksmith out of her seat.
"Come on," he urged, "I'll help you."
"Oh, is it my turn?"
"If you want to try to get over this, I'm ready to help."
Bismuth chuckled, seeing a caring yet determined face that almost made her do a double take at how much he resembled Rose. Whenever that face showed up in the old days, there was no arguing with her. She had a sneaking suspicion her son was the same way.
"Alright, lead the way. Let's get this mess in my head sorted out…" Soon the two were in Steven's cabin and both of them blacked out.
Garnet soon got the word out that Steven and Bismuth were both occupied. Fluorite took full command of the engine room while the others decided now was a good time to get back to staying serious. It did mean Pearl had to fish Lapis and Adamite out of one of the back rooms as it turned out they really liked making out.
"How long have you been in here?" she asked the two.
"A few hours…" the blue gem admitted.
"Heh, young love…" Pearl just sighed before the two followed behind her to find something more productive to do. A few minutes later, however, everyone was surprised to hear Topaz make an announcement.
"Incoming communication. Rutile, what's the location?"
"It appears to be from… Satellite Gamma?"
"That can't be good," Garnet said, having been standing out Steven's room along with Connie. She headed up to the bridge to see what was happening while the girl insisted on staying by her friend's side. When the fusion arrived on the bridge, almost everyone else on the ship was there too. With everyone anxious to see what would happen, Rutile opened the channel and soon everyone saw a very smug looking gem on the holo-screen.
"Greetings, Crystal Gems," Holly Blue Agate said, "I can see you're rapidly approaching Gamma and I can't have that."
"Let me guess," Pearl said, trying and failing to hide the smirk on her face, "The Diamonds found out about your little mess at the Zoo a few months ago?"
"Yes, and White had given me a… thorough talking-to but that's not important. What I'm here to do is give you the chance to make the right decision."
"Ugh, we get it already!" Cinnabar whined, "Here, let me finish your speech for you. 'Surrender now and we'll shatter you quickly, blah blah blah, Pink Diamond must be avenged, blah blah blah…' I'd go on, but I'm really not in the mood for this."
The agate first grimaced at this blatant disrespect, but she soon chuckled as she nodded to someone out of view. The Crystal Gems then watched as a jasper dragged in a clearly terrified man in blue vest and white loincloth with a gag over his mouth.
"Oh no…" Garnet gaped, "You wouldn't…"
"Oh, I very much would," Holly Blue said, "Since I can see a few of the rebels are a bit confused, allow me to explain. White Diamond has given you an ultimatum: surrender now and be taken into custody or we will have to execute these poor creatures."
"You're just going to start exiling innocent people?!" Peridot gasped, "Seriously?! How could they be involved in all this?!"
"You got them involved when you breached our station all for the sake of rescuing one of your own. That and turning the entire staff of the facility into traitors…"
"Wait, where are they?" Amethyst asked, "That one guard wasn't from before!"
"Ah, so you noticed. They are all currently waiting in the prison complex we have under Gamma to be tried for treason. And if you're keen to know, I've already put in a statement to the zircon manning the case about how disobedient and defective they were even before your influence."
Cinnabar then had to clamp a hand of Amethyst's face to stop the very loud and most likely adult comments she was let loose while the others were a mix between sick and enraged. "I can't believe you'd stoop to this," Adamite told the agate, "The Homeworld of old would never endanger innocent creatures out of a grudge."
"And the Homeworld of that age had four diamonds to guide it. You can thank your leader for that if have a problem with it. Speaking of which, where is this Steven Universe?"
"He's occupied," Garnet told her, "And we need time to confer over this decision."
"Very well. We will allow your vessel to dock nearby. Once we spot you, we'll send an escort to lead you inside. And remember, if you try anything at all to escape or cause havoc, and that includes having that one gem hacking our systems like she did with Alpha, we have the rest of the organics stashed away somewhere whom I can call with a personal communicator on a private channel to start putting them out of their misery. That will be all."
As soon as the screen turned off, the assembled gems briefly devolved into chaos with shouting, cursing and many arguments emerging over what to do. The more impatient ones of the group wanted to plan a surprise attack while the others insisted they could not risk the captive humans no matter what.
"QUIET!" Garnet shouted, putting an end to the shouting match before standing in front of the group and reminding everyone that she was in charge. "We do not have time for this! This just became a major problem. We need a proper plan and to operate very carefully. It's one thing to risk ourselves but its another thing to have innocent lives involved."
"The big question is how we're supposed to save them," Greg asked, "She never said where they were held."
"And she's clearly learned about my abilities so there's that," Peridot moped, "But I could still contribute. I wouldn't put it past Homeworld to try and sabotage our ship while you're all escorted in."
"So there's one thing we need," the fusion agreed, "You can stay in the ship's circuitry and stop any potential saboteurs. That also means keeping Steven and Bismuth safe since they might not be awake again for a while."
"But isn't Holly Blue going to want him?" Lapis asked, "She's clearly looking for payback."
"True… We might not have a choice and she'd force us to bring them along. We can tell them the truth that they'll be incapacitated but they'll either have them dragged along or they'll rip the ship up finding them."
"What if we only brought Steven?" Adamite offered, "No offense to Bismuth, but she's just 'another cog in the machine' to Homeworld. Steven has always been their priority."
"Then I'll keep her room locked and prevent any clods from messing with the controls!" the techie said.
"Not a bad idea," Garnet mused, "But that might not be enough. We need someone to-"
"Me," Greg immediately said, raising his hand, "I'll keep Bismuth safe."
"Greg, are you sure about this?" Pearl asked.
"Hey, I'm just a stupid human, right? They don't care about me. Besides, they'll just confiscate my suit as soon as I walk in and then I'd be stuck."
"I can work with that," Peridot amended, "He can just stay in Steven's cabin with the door locked and only move to attack if the gems manage to break through."
"Alright, but what about being captured?" Pearl said, "I remember the holding cells Homeworld uses. Once we're locked in with those energy doors, we're trapped."
"What about me and Connie?" Priyanka asked, "Aren't humans not affected by them? Steven could get out since he was half-organic, right?"
"True, but if they're holding the people from the Human Zoo, they've probably got some form of prison for non-gems," Garnet added.
"Man, this stinks!" Amethyst grumbled, "So what do we do, just hope Steven and Bismuth wake up and save us?!"
"Even so, they'd just trigger Holly Blue to start offing heads," Topaz wondered.
"Jeez, this is complicated!" Rutile moaned, "How are we supposed to do this?"
"We don't have a choice," Garnet told them, "Because we're already here."
The ship touched down outside of Satellite Gamma. It was the only fully mobile generator for the Aveturescence as it was stationed on a massive meteorite almost a hundred miles around. The gems even managed to set up an artificial gravity bubble around the rock so that it could move with a command into a central computer. The station itself actually looked very modest from the surface with only a few visible metallic buildings.
"Most of the base is subterranean?" Pearl asked Peridot. When the smaller gem nodded right before glitching herself into the ship's mainframe, the long-time just shook her head. Even thousands of years later, she hated how fate sometimes felt like throwing in a little something extra to make life more interesting. Before long, they landed on the rocky surface of the meteor, they stepped out to immediately find a squad of gems waiting for them.
"Where is Steven Universe?" the onyx in charge asked. With no other option, Priyanka and Greg both went back to find Connie and tell her about the plan and also get Steven out of his room. Connie and her mother soon returned with Stevven being lugged between them.
"What's wrong with him?" the head gem asked.
"It's called sleep," Dr. Mahesweran lied, "Humans like us need several hours every day to function. He's very tired."
"Fine. I will personally take custody of him. The rest of you will be taken to join the fellow traitors. Do not resist arrest or we will reprimand the captive organics in your stead."
With that grim reminder, the group was escorted out with even Fluorite slithering out of the engine room and the rest all being shepherded into the silverish buildings that dug dozens of feet into the floating stone. The group all immediately thanked that the captain of his brigade really was more occupied with Steven slung over her shoulder instead of doing a head count.
Back on Homeworld, Blue Diamond was going about her business when she suddenly had a realization. She had yet to check the cameras in Pink Diamond's Zoo. After hearing about Holly Blue's unfortunate run-in with the Crystal Gems and how Steven Universe himself broke into the place, she had insisted on a security system for the place to make sure no other problems broke out. It also became a nicer part of her routine in between handling all legal matters and municipal decisions for the empire.
She had her pearl bring up the feed for her personal holo-screen, expecting to see the organic beings Pink cherished going about their little routine. Instead, the screen showed an empty habitat. She swiped the screen to change views to another part of the bio-dome but still nothing. She went through every single screen twice before she started to think something was seriously wrong. Even the hallways and quarters for the staff were barren.
"Pearl?" she called, her servant immediately saluting, "Run a diagnostic on the Zoo footage feed."
"Yes, My Diamond." The demure servant did as told, but found that the system was working perfectly.
"That can't be… What else could be the explanation?" Blue thought aloud, "It might be a more complex issue. I could send for peridots, but I should double-check first. Pearl, call Holly Blue."
The servant followed the order and pulled out Blue's personal communicator but found no response from the other line.
"What?!" the monarch said, "That's preposterous! The only reason she would abandon her post would be if she was reassigned to another mission. Pearl, check all recent mission logs and cross reference Holly Blue Facet-5RL3 Cut-4XS."
One quick search on her servant's part later and it turns out that Holly Blue was in fact transferred to Satellite Gamma nearby on a special mission from White Diamond herself. Blue Diamond balked at that idea, about to ask her pearl to check something else, but the pieces began to come together in her head. All of the specimens in the zoo and the guards watching them vanish, the warden of the building is suddenly repositioned to the nearby base that was now Steven's most likely target, all on White's orders with no warning.
"Oh no… Pearl, please contact White Diamond for me."
While clearly nervous, the gem did as asked and soon Blue was face-to-face with her one superior.
"Blue, you look very troubled," White remarked, "Having some difficulties with your job?"
"No, it's that I've noticed the whole Human Zoo has been deserted. And you apparently reassigned the agate in charge to Gamma and-"
"Oh, don't mind that. It's a very vital assignment to capture Steven Universe and the Crystal Gems."
"I can picture that, but my question is what you could be using the organics for. I-I don't mean to question your strategy but-"
"Then don't," White cut her off, "And rest easy that everything is being taken care of. I know you hold a great deal of sentiment for that relic, but it is a temporary issue. Once Steven is shattered, you'll be able to find a new stock of humans to replace them."
"But that isn't the point! Those humans have been raised in captivity their whole lives! I can't just grab more and-"
"Blue, I think you shouldn't get ahead of yourself. You wouldn't possibly consider interrupting a mission this big for your trifling emotions about Pink, would you?"
"N… No, White. I won't."
"Excellent. Otherwise I might just have to demolish the zoo. I know how much you care about it… That will be all!"
White signed off leaving the fifty-foot monarch shaking in her throne. Part of it was the barely veiled threat from the head of gem society, but also in fury. Blue always knew she felt the strongest about Pink's passing but she could never have imagined how quickly White would discard the last real memorial to her memory all for a mission. Adding to that was the promise she made to herself months ago. She swore that she would be the one to shatter Steven Universe and avenge Pink. If White thought she was taking that away from her…
"My Diamond?" Blue Pearl asked, watching as her master quickly moved out of the throne room, "Where are you going?"
"None of your business. And do not tell anyone, Pearl."
"But-"
"That's an order, Pearl!"
Having no choice but to obey, the servant clasped her hands in front of her mouth and moved back to her master's quarters while Blue sped towards the hangar for her personal ship. She failed Pink once already, she swore she would not lose the chance to end her killer and lose the one thing she had to remember the fallen diamond by.
How do you get bigger than a fleet of spaceships attacking you? Have a Diamond show up, of course! There's a lot going on now so be sure to stay tuned!
Thank you all so much for reading! Feel free to leave a review!