Homeworld is under attack. Will the Crystal Gems be able to repel the invaders?

...

As the group arrived outside the palace, they soon found it difficult to miss any part of the attack that Yellow had mentioned. Everywhere in the immediate area, gems from Black's army were going about poofing, bubbling, and sending away other gems. As the group looked around more, they saw Yellow nearby, giving orders and poofing any enemy gem that tried to approach her. Moving over to the diamond, it didn't take long for her to notice everyone's presence.

"Crystal Gems, good, your here."

"What's the status of everything Yellow?" asked Garnet

"As it stands, containing this attack is proving to be something of a challenge. Our defenses are still scattered about and with the civilian gems still running in the crossfire, our gems are finding it difficult to get the footing we need. It doesn't help that they have an agate leading them either." Yellow said as she pointed towards the main warp to showcase her claim. "However, from what I can tell, Black's forces are starting to dwindle down. By my estimate, I would say there are roughly thirty enemy gems still.

"How can we help?" Connie asked.

"Poof the enemy for starters. I could also use some assistance in coordinating our defensive line. Your friend, the Bismuth, has been trying to do just that, but without more assistance, it's not something that we're able to grasp easily."

"Then what're we waiting on? Let's get moving" Amethyst said as she began moving to the nearest enemy gem.

"Your heard them Gems. Move." commanded Garnet. With this, the group spread out and began poofing enemy gems and helping set up a perimeter.

-Meanwhile at the warp pad-

"Hmph, seems the Crystal Gems showed up. I shouldn't be surprised really. Interfering with plans and causing havoc is their specialty." said Holly. As she said this, she began to reach up to her ear. "Steven, our attack is underway. It shouldn't be long until we're done here. Be ready".

"Alright Holly, ready to move on your mark." responded the young hybrid.

Focusing her attention back on the battlefield, Holly noticed as the gems she brought were making decent enough progress in poofing gems, even with the interference of Yellow and the Crystal Gems. However, she also noticed that her forces were beginning to shrink down in size.

"It won't be long now. Soon our diamond's plan will come to fruition."

-Back in the battle-

The group had been going from gem to gem, helping those who needed it while also attempting to coordinate a defense with those who were still able. After the group quickly figured out that these gems weren't enhanced, they began making short work of them. During the skirmish, Bismuth was located doing exactly what Yellow had said. After a brief catch up on the enemy force, the battles began once again. As the enemy's numbers began to shrink, the group began to focus their attention on the most pressing gems rather than the closest ones as many civilian gems were still being caught and poofed in the crossfire of everything. After sometime however, the attacking gems forces had been reduced to that of Holly and her two guards. Noticing that they were the final three, Holly moved to send the guards out to attack the others. As the two gems engaged the group, everyone soon found that these two were unlike the other gems Black had sent, in that he enhanced these gems, something that Holly was thankful for. With the endurance boost they had been given, it should give them the advantage they need in getting more time. With Yellow taking on one of the enhanced, and the majority of the group surrounding the other, Garnet had broken away from the group to move towards Holly Blue. As the agate noticed the fusion's approach, she began to send another transmission out.

"Steven, I'm down to myself and the two enhanced. If you don't hear from me again in a few minutes, begin your mission."

"Got it"

With this, Holly brought out her electric whip and began to lash it towards the fusion. Much like their first encounter on the zoo all those years ago though, the whip didn't have much effect on Garnet as it's electricity didn't bother the fusion as badly as it would others. With this, approaching and apprehending Holly was a simple task for her. Although she wasn't poofed yet, Holly was held captive while the other two gems under her command were beginning to near their end. Although the majority of the group had managed to corner and wear down one of the two, the other one facing Yellow had proven to give her some trouble. Noticing this, Garnet attempted to give advice to the larger gem.

"Yellow, use your powers. These gems seem to have an endurance boost. It'll take sometime to wear them down with regular combat."

"Mind your own fusion. I won't rely on those abilities to crush my foes, I can handle this without them."

To showcase her point, a well placed strike had poofed the enemy gem. As the first gem was taken out, the second one found that she wouldn't be far in joining her comrade at this rate.

"Give up, you have no chance of winning of this." noted Pearl

"Ha, you think I'd just give up like that to you clods. Even if you poof me, our goal was never to win the day here." As the gem said this, she soon found herself attacked once more. Shortly thereafter, the gem found that the continued onslaught of strikes from the group that outnumbered her was too much for her body to handle. Unable to maintain it's physical form anymore, the gem poofed, leaving behind nothing more than it's stone to clatter to the ground. With both gems now poofed, bubbled, and sent away to the temple, everyone moved to join Garnet, who still had Holly captive. With the group now together, they began to question the agate.

"Holly Blue Agate...how exactly did Black recruit you into his ranks? Weren't you still charged with overseeing the human zoo?" Yellow asked.

"My apologies Yellow Diamond, but I'm under no obligation to tell you lot anything that could bring turmoil to my diamond."

"And just exactly where would we find 'your diamond' so that we can get that sort of obligation" asked Pearl.

"Hmph, you lot can continue asking as you want. I won't betray my diamond. Besides, even if I said anything, it doesn't quite matter really. After all, you've all already lost. You just don't know it yet."

Noticing that the leader gem wasn't going to crack under this pressure as she said began rabbling on aimlessly, Yellow began to get annoyed and had shifted her attention to the group. "This is going nowhere. We can confirm that the gem returns to normal after being poofed right? And that they still have their memories of everything?"

With a confirmation from the group, Yellow moved towards Holly. With a quick, small spark of electricity, she poofed the gem.

"Then we'll just ask her again once she reforms. It'll be sometime before she comes back however. Agates always take forever to reform ironically. You'd think a gem made for leadership would prioritize a quick return."

"Well, until she reforms, let's start fixing the place up." Amethyst said as she noted the mess the main area was currently in. After the gems did a quick look around to ensure that no enemy gems were left behind, they found a couple and had poofed, bubbled, and sent them to the temple to allow Black's ability to wear off.

"I think that's all of them guys." noted Connie.

"Good, then let's move back to the throne room. While we wait for Holly's return, we can try to figure out how many gems are missing and just what the exact objective of this raid was." said Garnet. "We can also give Blue and White an update and hope they have a plan in mind.

As the group began to move back to the palace, Garnet stopped Pearl and Bismuth. "Sorry guys, but could you two stay behind and help the other gems? We'll need to get a headcount of how many gems were taken. We'll also need to reestablish the defense, especially now that we're missing some gems."

"Sure Garnet, you can count on us." said Bismuth.

As the fusion began to rejoin the group moving to the palace, Bismuth and Pearl began to move about the area.

"Alright, if you want to Bismuth, could you take up building the defense again? You know some of these gems better than I do and they'll be more likely to listen to you anyway."

"No problem Pearl. Besides, getting headcounts and organizing is your specialty. Wouldn't want to do us harm by having me muck that up right?"

Gaining a chuckle out of the thin gem, the two were about to split up when Pearl spoke up again. "What do you think Holly meant when she said 'we've already lost'?"

"I don't know. Could be her just trying to bring our spirits down, make us paranoid. You know Holly afterall...she did like to talk big."

"Yeah, she did. Well, I hope your right." Pearl said, wanting to believe that what Bismuth had said would be the truth of it all, though she had her fears still.

With this, the two split up and began their tasks. Meanwhile however, unbeknownst to them and the rest of the group, Steven, who hadn't heard anything from Holly in a few moments, caught on to her defeat. With this, he and the two gems he recruited for this mission, which were a couple of rubies, moved to the warp pad and moved out to their destination. After a few moments of warping, the trio soon found themselves standing within the mangled mess at the beach house. Noticing the lack of anyone in the home, something that Steven was grateful for, he stepped off the pad.

"Alright, let's get to work. I'd guess we don't have long, so the quicker we get this done, the better it is for us."

...

Seems Steven's busy. Think he stopped by to help clean up the mess Peridot made? Be awfully nice if he would clear out the clutter in any of the home's rooms wouldn't it :)

This chapter killed me...this was one of the few I can actually say I didn't want to write as much as the others. I didn't want to make a big deal out of the fights here as they were similar to that of the Little Homeworld invasion from earlier, but there were also a couple points I needed to still add in (like Yellow lack of power use or how she seen the trouble of enhanced gems firsthand), but otherwise, I didn't have many points I wanted to add in. Initially, I had this chapter sitting rather short, something I'm trying to avoid. Ended up having to rewrite it a couple times and add in a few points of dialogue to increase it, something that I am now grateful for doing as it adds more context to the story IMO. My rambling aside, glad to have it done and that the plot still progressed in the direction I'm aiming for. Now then, come back next time to see the aftermath of the attack and where we go from here.

Thanks for the continued support guys. I hope everyone's week is going alright. Hope everyone stays safe out there. See you all in número veintiseis (26 for those who don't do spanish well in which case...sorry.)

Seek & Destroy by Metallica