I tell you, getting back into the swing of twice a week updates has a little bit of a learning curve, anyway I'm glad you guys enjoyed last weeks chapter I hope this one is just as good. Thank you Squish for betaing! See you guys Monday
Pink Pearl had been with Domina since her birth. Other than a few exceptions they had never been apart for more than a day or so. But now they had been apart for a little over a year which proved that contrary to Jet's statement at the beginning of all of this, they were capable of being un-fused at the hip.
That being said, Pink Pearl felt like she was missing an arm. She kept waiting for Domina to make a joke about whatever situation they were in. And the ship was entirely too quiet without her murmuring as she worked and without a faint breeze in the air.
And she was worried. Something was wrong with Domina, she knew the woman as well as she knew anyone and she could tell that there was something deeper than the grief that should have been expected. And that's why she had asked so many people to keep an eye on the diamond. Even though Yellow Pearl had said she was just being paranoid.
Which was why it was very worrying to simultaneously get messages from both Jet and Yellow Diamond with the subject line reading: 'Domina'.
"That's never a good expression to see on your face," Feldspar said. The oversized pilot was sitting cross-legged on the floor nearby, sorting through the data to send to the defense zircon for the upcoming trial. Pink Pearl had her own opinion about providing a defense to the piece of slag from Holik-9 floating above them in a bubble, but she kept them to herself. Blue was still insistent about them doing things the proper way, even if they were both 80% sure that if the Catapelite wasn't embedded in something by the end of this, Jet would make sure that her shards ended up scattered across the planet.
Pink Pearl opened Yellow Diamond's message first. It was brief because of course it was. The Diamond simply stated that 'at an emergency meeting at the test site Domina was acting particularly out of character' and that she didn't comment on it afterward when Yellow Diamond reached out to her to speak about the incident.
Jet's was a little more in-depth.
-so your diamond shows up and snapped at Moss Agate, I thought they got along. Isn't she like Domina's other caretaker or something? It was like looking at Blue Diamond in one of her worst tempers. Stars, for a moment I thought Yellow Diamond was going to dissipate her and then I'd have to have that conversation with you. And the weirdest fracking thing (pun not intended) is that after all that, after she just dramatically warps away, Moss acts like nothing happened.
Pink pursed her lips and stood up.
"What's wrong?" Feldspar asked, the gem's teasing grin gone and replaced by a look of worry.
"Nothing, nothing. I just... need to talk to someone."
Yellow Pearl had initially ignored her message from Yellow Diamond. She was gem deep in White Diamond's notes, scouring them for anything that might indicate what conversion enzyme needed to be added to the injection formula. Or what ratios the silicon base needed to have to carbon and star's knows what other materials.
Data was sparse and there had been attempts to reverse engineer the process from existing gems, especially after White Diamond had gone into her self imposed exile. Nothing had ever come of it though and it wasn't seen as a problem. After all, White Diamond was able to make the necessary adjustments for the gems of Era 2.
Eventually though, Yellow Pearl had to take a break and found a message, not just from her- from Yellow Diamond, but also from Blue. Both said essentially the same thing.
We need to move up your timeline.
"6 months!?" Pink Pearl snapped in disbelief. "You two have been arguing for 6 months and this is the first I've heard of it?" Mossy hadn't been happy to be interrupted but it was the nature of their relationship that Pink couldn't bring herself to care.
"It's not as if we tell you everything," Mossy folded her arms and covered her gem protectively. "There are some things that simply aren't any of your business." Pink rolled her eyes.
"I would say that if you and Domina are arguing to the point of worrying that two separate people messaged me about it then yes, it is my business." Moss Agate huffed and looked away from the screen.
"If my diamond really thought that the gems put in charge of designing the test kindergarten did not have the interests of the empire in mind then she needs to address it directly."
"What?" Pink was taken aback. "Why would she think that? Did something happe-"
"Of course nothing happened!" Mossy snapped as if she was offended by the very idea. "Domina has never been one for paranoia! No, she found out that all the gems on the planning committee were from Blue Diamond's court."
"...How did that happen?" Pink asked.
"We had to take whoever was left," Mossy said firmly, she looked as stubborn as always but Pink could tell that Moss Agate was tired, as tired as she had been after Vitus had died. "And at the time, the only ones that were qualified were from her court, I don't like it any more than you but, star's Pink, what were we supposed to do? Domina knew we needed to fill positions for nearly 70 percent of the fleet."
"I'm sure she did." Pink sighed. "You know how she gets though."
"Yes, and usually her sentimentality is appreciated." Mossy murmured, rubbing her temples. "It always has been. But she cannot let it make her snub or dismiss entire members of her court who have honestly done nothing wrong. It's not fair to them and to be honest I expect better from her."
"Hand me that," Forest said. Jet frowned and looked at the selection of tools next to her.
"Hand you what?"
"The molecular bond dampener, far right, with the pink handle." Forest didn't even pull her head out of the generator, she just pointed in her general direction. Jet handed it to her with a sigh.
"Are you even listening?"
"Yes, yes, sorry but someone has to fix this, the last tremor damaged its feeder conduit and now if it doesn't get fixed we're going to have a problem," Forest said, her voice already winding up for a rant. Jet frowned
"Yes I understand that but why are you fixing it?" Jet asked. Forest yanked her head out of the generator and glared at her with the opposite eye.
"Keep talking, sabotage, letters, whatever."
"You can't doubt that there's a possible link!"
"Oh I don't," Forest returned the focus of her attention to the generator. "I just doubt that Blue Diamond's involved."
"Well..." Jet sighed. Blue Diamond being her primary suspect of being behind the destruction of the test kindergarten was theoretically valid, even though it would be rather difficult for the diamond to coordinate any gems to carry out the action with the number of eyes on her. But if Jet pursued the idea of Blue Diamond being behind the kindergarten attack and those stars cursed messages... that's when it all fell apart. "What do you think?"
"I think you need more information," Forest said. "And maybe some help that isn't just venting to me, have you talked to Blue about this? Or Domina?"
"Blue's busy." Jet said immediately. "And I'm not getting Domina involved."
Domina was on the Styx when Pink Pearl called her. She was in the middle of reconnecting wires but managed to answer her communicator by bumping it with her elbow.
"Hello." She said without more than a brief smile in Pearl's direction. "Sorry, I'm in the middle of something. What's going on?"
"I talked to Mossy," Pearl said and instantly Domina felt her face go hot. Which was ridiculous, she didn't even have blood to blush with.
"Oh did you?" Domina asked.
"Yes, Her and Zee both actually." Pearl continued casually. Domina relaxed. She was still kicking herself for how she had reacted at the test kindergarten, but if Pearl had talked to Zee then it wasn't about that.
"Really? How is Zee?"
"She's fine, NY sent you a file on some upgrades she wants to do for Earth's warp network if it's ok with 5XG" Pearl said. Domina finished connecting the wire and closed the inertial dampeners casing. "And she mentioned you haven't been out to the fleet recently." Domina froze.
"Oh. That's true." Domina said. The last time she had been was actually a year ago, shortly before Pearl had left. And after that argument with Mossy- Moss Agate, the one that had lead to her having to get a new communicator, Domina wasn't in a rush to go back. "I've been busy."
Pink looked skeptical. "That's never stopped you before."
"It hasn't." Domina wavered slightly. "It just..." She sighed and rubbed her gem. "It doesn't... It's not home anymore." She said finally. Pink blinked several times, which really reflected how Domina felt about the matter. The fleet had always been home to her, the one place where she felt like she belonged, more than even Earth. But now it was full of unfamiliar people. Unfamiliar people, and shadows of gems that had been lost in Blue's rebellion. Every time she went there, all that she could focus on was everyone that wasn't there. All the beryls that had been stuffy and formal but still introduced her to Homeworld music and taught her gem history, the nephrites that let her fly the scout ships a little higher than was strictly regulation, the rubies that would play tag with her, even if they got a little confused on the rules. They were all gone. And Domina couldn't help but feel like it was her fault.
"Domina!" Pearl repeated for what had to be the 5th time by her tone of voice.
"Yes? Sorry, my mind was somewhere else." Domina apologized.
"I just was wondering if everything was alright. Have you slept this week?"
"Yes, Pearl, I can take care of myself." Domina didn't mention the nightmares or the gemaches, that was nothing for her to worry about.
"Hm, well I'll believe it when I see proof," Pearl said, only half teasing.
"I can!" Domina insisted, then smiled. "Besides, you'll be back in a month, I'll survive until then."