Two months have passed since White was poofed and The Crystal Gems had visited Obsidian. The Gem Empire was in disarray and panic was widespread. Blue and Yellow tried to maintain order, but chaos ensued. Back on Earth, Little Homeworld had recovered but was still very on edge. Most of the Gems had fought in the Rebellion and knew of The Dreadwalker, however, the warp pad link there had been cut off, so all communication with him was lost.
Still, he had provided valuable resources to the Crystal Gems. The book he had given them was all the notes he had ever acquired on the Hidden Empire. It also contained a shark of volcanic glass, the same used in the Obsidian Crest, and the notes on how to forge it. Bismuth took this and has nonstop been forging and studying the material. Pearl herself took an affinity to the Hidden Empire book, having read over it many times and adding her own annotations. Still, they did not want to believe this was true but decided it would be wise to investigate further.
Steven, however, remained on his trip. He had wanted to come back, but everyone convinced him to stay on his journey across the states. Amethyst had decided to accompany him for a couple more days.
Bach on homeworld, Blue, Yellow, and Spinel all sat around Whits Gem.
"When will she return?" Blue asks, "It's been far too long now."
"Give her time Blue," Yellow responded. "She's never regenerated."
"Awwww I just want my other playmate back!" exclaims Spinel.
"We all do," replies Blue.
They continue to sit around White Gem until slowly, it rises up and regenerates. White light radiates from the Gem as her silhouette takes form. Finally, her heels clink on the floor.
"Well then! That took longer than expected!" she says joyfully.
"Ah welcome back White," says Yellow.
"We've missed you," says Blue
"WHITE!" shouts Spinel jubilantly as she springs up and down repeatedly in front of White.
"Ah, and your new form, dashing," exclaims Yellow. Instead of her dress, White now wears a set of armor similar to Joan of Arc with a gown beneath. She also has a cape attached to the pauldron.
"Indeed, it seemed fitting, now that we can return to colonizing and expanding our empire," White says as she moves Spinel aside.
"Oh dear, did you forget something in your regeneration?" says Blue. "We don't do that anymore, Steven showed us how wrong it was."
"Oh Pink, that little rascal, I thought we've had enough playing her games." says white in her blithing voice.
Confusion strikes everyone. "Is this some kind of joke?" Yellow says.
"Yeah! I love jokes! Keep it going White this is funny!" obliviously shouts Spinel.
Blue puts out her hand, ushering down Spinel, this is no joke. "White, if you're serious, we will play no part in this."
"Hmm, that's a shame, having servants is always helpful," White states. Then, she summons her weapon, a long, ornate scepter with a spear on the end. She spins it around, slashing at Blue, poofing her. Yellow springs into action, summoning her own weapon, a claymore with a reversed hilt. She swings down at White, who easily blocks it from her scepter.
As the fight rages on, Spinel stands petrified on the floor. What side should she fight for? Does she fight or run? Where would she run to? Finally, she makes up her mind. In a stroke of courage, she bounds over to Blue's Gem, grabs it, and bolts to the halls. She dives behind a pillar trying to calm herself down. Slowly, her panting steadies. Now she's faced with a new problem, what does she do with Blue. Then she remembers bubbling, a skill Steven taught her.
"Think of where you want to send it. Try to remember everything," says the voice of Steven in her head. "Don't let anything cloud your head, make it as clear as possible."
Spinel's mind was anything but clear.
Back in the Diamonds quarters, Yellow is still locked in a duel with White.
"How could you?" Yellow calls out, "You were on the right path this whole time! Steven helped you! Changed you! We made the Empire better for everyone in it! Why would you turn on us?"
"Darling, clearly you've never been lied to," White says arrogantly. "This 'Empire' became soft, weak, I'm here to reestablish order..."
White then sweeps Yellow's legs, causing her to fall onto her back. Then she shoots a beam right into Yellow's Gem.
"And I want you to be there to see it."
Yellow's body then begins to turn white.
Behind the pillar, Spinel steadies her breathing, and she tries once more to clear her mind. She places a hand on top of the Diamond and opens it. A bubble slowly appears, but pops.
Behind her, the sound of two heels approach.
"Come on Spinel, focus."
She tries again but fails.
"Spinel, darling, where'd you run off too?"
Spinel starts to panic. No, focus! She closes her eyes and thinks. The clouds dissolve, revealing a sandy beach. Behind lies a grassy hill with a hole, and behind that a lighthouse. This was the first place where Spinel felt calm, felt peace.
She opens her eyes and sees a pink bubble around the Gem. She smiles and taps the top, and it disappears.
"Oh darling where'd you send her off to?"
Spinel, panicked, turns around to see White towering over her. Behind her stands Yellow, her body completely white but her head remains yellow.
"No matter, I'll find her eventually."
"You-you're-you're not going to shatter me right?" Spinel shakily says
"Oh no, I could use someone of your... expertise."
White then shoots her with a beam of light from her Gem.
Back in the Diamond's chambers, White sits on her throne, which stands alone now, plotting her next move. Beside her stand Volleyball and Yellow, both puppets to White. She gazes down at White Pearl and says;
"Prepare the Era Four Ball, I believe a celebration is in order."
"Yes," White Pearl responds. She then walks out of the chambers.
"Why… why leave me in this state…" Yellow says, "Why not just take full control of me?"
"Oh where's the fun in that? I want you to see this Empire rise again with your own eyes." White says. Then she moves her hand, causing screens to appear. "Open a secure channel, call the Lieutenants."
One by one, the screens reveal Gems. Among them are Bluebird, Navy, and Emerald. They all salute their one, true Diamond.
"I am calling to state that Era Four is now in effect, I will begin the Transformation shortly, but I wanted to brief you on your orders. "Jasper KLI-2 and Peridot BRK-5782, assemble your units, we will begin invasions shortly, Emerald CX-390, begin to scour the stars for this 'Dreadwalker,' we need to destroy him as soon as possible. Pyrope CJL-523, go to Earth and destroy the Crystal Gems along with their little post. I will send you some units when you are ready to depart Bluebird. and Ruby RT-24, you have a... history with this new Pink, bring her to me. As for the rest of you, you will be notified of further details shortly."
"Yes my Diamond!" they all shout in unison.
"Now," White says and she stands up, "the Transformation shall begin." She touched her Gem and a brilliant flash illuminated the room.
Slowly, some Gem's begin to turn white, all of their colors drained from them. After fully changing, the infected Gems stand up and begin to march towards the Plaza of Homeworld. Panic goes through the streets. However, this event was not isolated to Homeworld itself, this plague begins to creep throughout all of the Gem Colonies. Finally, it arrives at Little Homeworld. The Gems collapse and after fully changing, stand up and go to the Warp Gates, and nothing can stop them.
Pearl and Garnet start running around frantically trying to stop whatever plague is happening.
"Garnet! What do you see?"
"I... I... I don't know, it seems like select people are changing, I can't tell if it's random or not."
"Well, what do we do?"
"...nothing, we can't stop whatever is happening, let's just try to keep the peace."
And so it went on, Gems would change periodically throughout the day and into the night. Pearl and Garnet waited patiently for the madness to stop. Then, after 1 AM, no new cases appeared.
Garnet and Pearl both sit anxiously in the beach house. Amethyst hasn't returned and they fear she was infected.
"Do you know where she last was Garnet? Was she returning today?" Pearl asks worriedly
"I believe so, but this is Amethyst we're talking about."
They sit in silence, save for a clock ticking away
Tick…
Tick…
Tick…
The seconds draw out into minutes…
Tick…
Tick…
Tick…
The minutes turn into hours…
The clock chimes at 3 AM, the Witching Hour, the Devil's Hour.
They sit in silence until suddenly, the silence is broken by a scream.
Garnet and Pearl immediately jump up and look at each other.
"What was that?" asks Pearl as she summons her staff
"Maybe a Gem was getting infected again?" Garnet responds. "I'm not sure."
Then two screams call out, but they are cut short.
They both look at each other — these aren't infections, this is an attack.
They bolt out the door and Garnet summons her gauntlets.
"You heard that too?"
They turn around to see Lapis hovering above.
"I got a bad feeling and flew over and then I heard screaming."
"We heard it too," Pearl replies. Just then two more screams call out. They all turn over and run towards the beach, near the spot where Lapis was freed from the mirror.
As they run over, they hear the terrible sound, one that they had not heard in many, many years...
The sound of a Gem being shattered.
Sprinting even faster now, they round the corner and see the rocks on the shore. Spewn about are White Gemstones and shards of others. As they look up they see two more Gems get proofed. As they fall, a dark figure's arms stretch out and catch the Gems. Mortified, Pearl and Garnet recognize the pose.
The pose that The Dreadwalker used to shatter Gems.
Behind The Dreadwalker lies a Pyrope, missing a leg.
"White won't have mercy on you, we don't fear you." She says.
The Dreadwalker then clamps down on the two Gems, shattering them.
Now everyone is terrified, even the Pyrope. Then, the Dreadwalker draws his sword slowly, spins it around in his hand before resting the tip just above the ground.
"Shatter me, it won't stop us from fin-"
He swings the Obsidian Crest down, shattering her.
"NO!" Garnet yells. She kicks off the ground and flies towards The Dreadwalker. He turns around, summons his wings, and quickly ascends into the sky.
"I'll catch him!" Lapis says as he follows suit. She darts up into the sky but after passing cloud level, can't spot him anywhere. She patrols around for a bit, but the trail's gone cold. Defeated, she returns to the beach.
"He's escaped."
"Fine, but we need to resurrect these Gems now," Garnet states. Quickly they begin to gather up the Gem's shards, and return to the beach house and place the Gems in the bathtub. They then dump the Diamond's and Steven's fluid into the tub, but... nothing. The Gems don't return.
"Did we do something wrong?" Ask Lapis.
"No, this is what Steven told us to do, it's how he revived Jasper," Pearl responds.
They stand watching the tub, hoping something will happen, but nothing does.
"We put them back together, placed them in the tub with the healing mix, we even swirled the water around," says Pearl, "what are we missing,"
"Luck."
They all turn around to see Obsidian, hunched over on the wall. Everyone summons their weapons.
"You…" Garnet grows angrily as she tightens the grip on her gauntlets.
"Enough, I'm not here to fight you," he says.
"Then what are you here for? To gloat?"
"A little, I wanted to talk about *this* whole thing."
"You mean the Gems changing color?" Pearl asks.
"Exactly, it's not every Gem, it's a select few, why?"
"Why would we help you, a shatterer, a usurper." Garnet states
"Stop," Lapis interjects, "We need all the help we can get for this."
Garnet looks over at her, and grips even tighter, but then says; "Someone's at the door."
Everyone looks over to see Amethyst enter.
"Sup," she says.
"Oh thank goodness you're alright," Pearl exclaims.
"Why? What's the big holdup- oh it's YOU!" she calls out after seeing Obsidian. She then summons her dual spiked whips.
"Chill, I'm not going to attack you," Obsidian calmly states. "Well, unless that white creeping out of your Gem stops."
Everyone looks down to see exactly what Obsidian meant. Amethyst is infected.
"Wow creepy," she says
"Everyone get back!" Garnet says, and everyone, save for Obsidian, obliges.
The white creeps up across Amethyst's whole body, she shakes vigorously before collapsing to the floor. Then she stands up, completely white now.
Obsidian then bolts directly at her.
"WAIT!" Garnet shouts as she lunges at him. He easily avoids the grapple and pulls at Rejuvenator. He activated it, and a highly unstable gray scythe appears. Then he slashes down at Amethyst. The blade goes clean through her, and she poofs away, dropping her purple Gem down. Obsidian stands up and looks down at the unstable Rejuvenator. Then it explodes in his hand.
"What did you do?" Pearl asks.
"Ran a test," he says dusting off his hands.
"Great, how many musical numbers will it take to bring her back this time? We simply don't have the time to run your experime- what?"
Then, Amethyst's Gem rises up and reforms, but this time, she is back to how she just was, without the infection.
"Wow ok that was weird," she says dazed.
Garnet looks at Obsidian, "How'd you do that?"
"I modified a Rejuvenator to reset a Gem's status to before any of White's powers took effect." He walks over to Amethyst and pats her on the shoulder, "also a bit of luck helps."
Then, Garnet uneasily dematerializes her gauntlets, "I don't trust you, or like you for that matter, but thanks for that."
Obsidian nods his head and turns towards the door, preparing to leave.
"We still don't know the reason why this is happening," Pearl says. "Amethyst, have you had any contact with White recently?"
"Dude I don't even know what's happening, why you talkin about the Diamonds all of a sudden?"
"Oh oblivious as always."
"Speaking of the Diamonds," Obsidian says as he stares through the door, "were you expecting a visit from Blue?"
Everyone looks perplexed, "No?" Pearl says. "Why would she be here?"
"Ask her yourself," he says pointing to a blue cloaked figure standing on the shoreline. Everyone walks over and gasps at the sight. They immediately jump down to her.
The figure stands in silence, just watching the waves crash into the shore.
"Blue… is that really you?" Pearl asks.
"It is," Blue says. She's wearing a deep blue trench coat now, with the hood up covering her face. She's also altered her size to be about as tall as Garnet. "Apologies for taking inspiration from you Obsidian, but you went incognito for millennia, so I thought this would help."
He shrugs, preferring to keep quiet out of a lack of trust. Lapis then steps in, "What are you doing here Blue? Shouldn't you be trying to fix this?"
"Oh I tried, but this is White's doing, and I have no power that can reverse whatever this is."
"Do you know what's causing this?" Garnet asks.
"I believe it stems from White's Mimicry power. Anyone who participated in having White mimic was seemingly implanted with a virus of some sort. I assume it activated depending on how recently some participated in the event."
"What about Steven?" Pearl asks, "White mimicked him, what'll happen to him?"
"He's half-human, by my estimate, he'll feel slight discomfort, but it'll dissipate. This attack doesn't seem as potent as a direct blast from her Gem."
"Shoot," Lapis says, stomping her foot, "how do we stop this? Obsidian managed to reset Amethyst with a Rejuvenator "
"Well," Blue begins, "we could try his idea of Rejuvenating the Gems, and if not..."
"We shatter them," Obsidian finally says.
Everyone turns to him, "Yes," Blue continues. "Scattering them is viable, but we can't resort to it"
"What about shattering White?" Obsidian asks.
"Possibly, but White has an army now and is probably off Homeworld at a secure location, not to mention you'd also be fighting Yellow too."
"We can't resort to shattering Gems!" Pearl calls out
Obsidian turns to her and ruthlessly says, "This isn't your petty revolution, your righteous morals of saving everyone won't help. White needs to be destroyed, along with anyone who's taken her side"
Mortified, she turns to Blue.
"We don't have much of a choice, but our priority now has to be finding White," Blue says
"First we need to get you to a safe hiding stop," Garnet says. "Amethyst and LApis, can you escort Blue to Mars? There's a secure location there from the revolution that's off all maps, you should be safe there."
"Ughh!" Amethyst groans, "I just got back and now I gotta leave, gimme a break"
"Hush."
"Wait," Obsidian says. He walks over to Blue and adjusts her hood. It now casts a shadow across her face, similar to his.
"Thank you," she responds softly before going with Amethyst and Lapis to the Warp Gate.
Obsidian turns back to Pearl and Garnet, who are starting him down.
"Where are you going now?" Pearl asks, "Off to shatter more Gems?"
"Nope," he says as he pulls out a portable Warp Pad. "Home, I got work to do."
He drops it on the sand, pulls up his hood, and activates the platform, disappearing in the beam of light.
Pearl and Garnet now stand alone on the shore.
"Well, where do we go?" Pearl asks Garnet.
"Home," she says, "we have work to do."
Pearl chuckles at the response, and they head back to the beach house to plot their next move.