The group roams about in the Beta Facility. Will they find anything within it's walls? Meanwhile, the Diamonds discuss events before making a discovery.

...

As the group entered Beta through it's double door entrance, they immediately noticed a lack of guards in the familiar area. While Alpha had a set of guards within the room, it was soon found that this facility had no guards whatsoever.

"Gems, stay on guard. Something doesn't feel right here." Garnet noted

As the group wondered about the main area of the facility, they continued to confirm that the room held no guards whatsoever. With this info, the group went to check on the door on the farthest left. Opening the entrance to the hallway, the gems readied themselves for any potential targets, only to find that there were none. Much like the main area, no guards were present. As the group strolled down the hallway to confirm the lack of anyone's presence, either by Black's forces or any captive gems, they soon found that the hallway was empty. With this, everyone moved to the corridor on the opposite side of the room. Although they once again readied themselves for a battle, it was once again found that no gems were present. With the hallway still being similar to the setup from Alpha with multiple doors on either side of the room, the group began to check each room, each of which held the same restraints that were used on Steven. Without being able to tell which room was Steven's since each room had the same restraints (something Amethyst quietly huffed over as she wouldn't have minded giving that room that same treatment as it's Alpha counterpart), the group moved back to the main area to ponder.

"I don't get it. He still has a fully functioning facility...why would he just abandon everything, but still make sure Holly Blue had extensive info on the location?" Pearl wondered.

"Beats me...anyone else still getting an ominous feeling from this place though or is that just me?" Amethyst asked

"Your not alone Amethyst. Something isn't right here." noted Garnet. "C'mon, we still have the last room to check."

As the group began to move towards the double doors leading to Black's room, the group soon found that the room became inaccessible, as did all the other doors and entrances in the facility as several walls of steel were enclosed on the facility. Any windows, doors, or openings within the structure became sealed tightly shut.

"Well, guess that explains why no guards were here...it's a trap for us." Amethyst said.

Testing the strength of the metal walls, Garnet soon found that her strike hadn't even left a dent in the metal. Seeing this, everyone tried their own form of attack with each of them receiving the same results.

"So now what?" asked Lapis.

"We keep trying. There has to be a way to break these barriers." Garnet said. With this, everyone continued attempting to break the metal that had captured them.

-Meanwhile, at Delta-

"My diamond, the trap at Beta has been set. Everyone in attendance at the facility is trapped within it's walls."

"Excellent Earl. With this, we can move towards our final assault." As Black said this, he began reaching for the communication device in his ear. "All gems, the time has come. Move to the nearest warp pad. The mission is starting. I say again, the assault on Homeworld will now commence. Once you are at the warp pad, warp to the location given by your commanding gem. I will be heading there now. Once you arrive, await my command. Steven, Red, I need you both with me now." Once the two requested individuals were present, they, along with Earl and Black Diamond, moved to the warp pad. Using the transportation, the group warped away to Homeworld.

-On Homeworld-

"I just got word from Holly Blue that she has returned to the human zoo. I suppose she was able to get the Crystal Gems to Beta facility well enough." Blue said.

"Good. At least they were able to arrive without any issues. I hope they find something useful there." White said.

"White...I've been meaning to ask. How prepared do you think we are against Black's forces?" asked Yellow.

"I cannot say for sure I'm afraid. Without knowing the current limits on my sibling's power nor the current size of his army, I cannot give you an accurate answer. I can say however that I am confident that with you two and the Crystal Gems, we should be able to stand our ground well enough...even if we are also up against our starlight."

"It's somewhat ironic isn't it?"

"What is Blue? asked Yellow

"No matter what form the pink diamond gem takes, it still ends up leaving us. We drove Pink away from us all those centuries ago and now, Steven has been torn away from us. Seems we just can't manage to keep our youngest diamond around, no matter how much we try."

"What we did to Pink is our fault in it's entirety and we all received what was coming to us because of it, but this is different Blue. Although Steven was taken from us, this is something we had no control over. Even if I had known my brother was attempting to overthrow us, no one could have guessed he would go so far as to kidnap and force his ideals into our young starlight. Something we do have control over however, is whether or not we allow this atrocity to continue, to which we will not. We can control how this all ends still and I can assure you both, by the end of this, Steven will be freed and returned to us and his friends." White said.

"White's right Blue. I will say however that I am concerned how this all is affecting Steven. We know that his organic half sustained some mental damage throughout the years, as we all saw the physical manifestation of that trauma firsthand. I don't believe the young one will be able to get out of this unscathed."

"We will cross that bridge once we reach it. If these events send our starlight into further turmoil, we will be there for him this time to help him. We may not know the specifics of the assistance he would require, but I am willing to provide my own, regardless of whatever form that may be.

"We're with you there White. For now though, we can foc-" Yellow was cut off as an amethyst came running into the room.

"My diamonds, we have a problem."

"What's wrong" asked Yellow.

"It's Black Diamond...he's on Homeworld...he's positioned himself over by the warp pad in quadrant thirty."

To confirm the gem's claim, White brought up a screen for all to see. Bringing up the area the guard was referring to, which was an abandoned kindergarten, everyone soon saw that her claim was correct as they all saw Black Diamond in attendance, alongside a pearl, a ruby, and Steven.

Closing the screen, the eldest diamond looked to the guard. "Thank you. Please return to your post, but remain ready to move. I suspect that we will need every gem soon enough here."

With the gem gone, White looked to her fellow diamonds. "Yellow, begin rallying the gems we have. I don't suspect my brother came to sight see here. If the gems can fight and hold their own well enough, I want them out there with us. Blue, find Squaridot. We'll need the Crystal Gems in attendance as well. She should be able to track where Holly took them just like she did with the Charlie Facility."

With this, the two diamonds pulled up their screens. Yellow began issuing alerts to all able gems to begin to report to that quadrant while Blue established contact with Squaridot. Thankfully for everyone though, it was soon found that the technician had a quicker way of contacting the group. As Blue instructed the gem to contact them and info them of the situation, she ended her talk with the gem. Shortly after, Yellow finished up sending out the alerts and the trio began to ponder.

"Why would Black show up in one of the old kindergartens of all places. He has gems who know of the warp near the palace, why not just ambush us and overpower us before we could even prepare?" wondered Yellow.

"It's likely my brother wants to take us down in a typical battle rather than by some cheap tactic. He'll want to show us that he can outdo all of us, me especially. He probably chose this location as it's the closest thing to a battlefield here on Homeworld. I will commend him on choosing one of our more irregular kindergartens. Unlike the one where the off colors used to reside at, this one has hills and plenty of room to work with. I'd honestly consider it similar to a field or a plain if it wasn't void of any life from our activity there."

Now getting off her throne, White motioned to the door. "We should move that way ourselves. Wouldn't want to keep our gems waiting in the wake of Black's army." With this, the group exited the throne room. As the trio made their way to the nearest warp pad, the group met up with Spinel along the way.

"Guys, what's going on? Everyone seems to be in a tizzy."

"Black Diamond's positioned himself on Homeworld near one of the old kindergartens, along with Steven and a couple others. Spinel, stay with us. We'll probably need your help with this just as much as everyone else." said Yellow.

With Spinel now joining the trio, the four of them warped away to Black Diamond's location, where the future of Homeworld would be decided.

...

So there you have it. The gems are trapped in Beta, the Diamonds are moving towards the upcoming war, and Black stands ready with his usual confidence. It won't be long until something happens on Homeworld. As for the main group, we'll check on how their progress with breaking down their steel cage is going next time.

So with this chapter, I was going to include a fight scene with a couple gems at Beta inside the facility...but seeing as how a war is coming up, I figured I'd wait on the fight scenes (especially since I'm not too big a fan of writing those out, as I've mentioned before, even though there are necessary and plot filled).

Thank you all once more for the support. Happy Taco Tuesday everyone. Come back again for 31 where we check on the Crystal Gems and begin moving towards the official beginning of the war.

Trouble by Five Finger Death Punch