Ok really sorry on multiple accounts. I bought a house Friday and plan on moving in this friday so this week has been, and will continue to be a whirlwind of activity. That in mind... this will probably be the only chapter you guys get this week. Regular updates will be returning! as soon as everything calms down. Now as for the chapter it was a little hard to get started and continue but it does finally introduce yet another thing that I've been waiting to introduce eagerly. I hope you all enjoy.
see you guys next week
There was something really weird about following a Pearl into her office. Like, Pink Diamond had followed Yellow's Pearl around plenty of times. Yellow Diamond was always busy and usually would rather send her pearl to deliver messages or summons or whatever than actually come talk to her. But this was definitely different.
"It shouldn't take too long to distill the information." Yellow's Pearl slid into her chair with ease, pulling up the file. Pink Diamond was a little tall to be in here, like a quartz in a pearl nursery, but she still managed to glance around without looking too awkward. The room was tastefully arranged with various knick-knacks, mostly schematics, and prototypes for technology that had been old before Pink Diamond went to earth. There were also screens with pictures that transitioned across them. Some showed Earth, the Crystal Gems, Steven, a strange orange...plant? Others were of Homeworld, of it's galaxy, of Domina and Yellow Diamond. As she watched there was definitely a primary subject, either at the forefront or lurking in the background. Blue's Pearl was definitely a favorite.
"Pink Diamond!" Yellow's Pearl said a little louder for probably the third or fourth time.
"Oh sorry," Pink Diamond shook her head and turned back to the pearl who sighed.
"I asked if there was anything you wanted to add." Yellow's Pearl asked. Pink Diamond looked over the screen and shrugged.
"No I don't think so, What part do you want me to say?" She asked, there was also something really weird about deferring to a pearl and Yellow's Pearl must have thought the same thing.
"This part," Yellow's Pearl pointed to the part of the announcement towards the end, where it asked everyone to please remain calm and alert for any instructions going forward. "They'll take information from me but they're more likely to listen to an order from you."
"I really don't want to give any orders," Pink Diamond said uncomfortably, she wasn't exactly the most intimidating of diamonds, and this whole situation was basically her fault."
"Well, it's not much of one." Yellow's Pearl said with pursed lips as she stood and started going through her drawers, pulling out a video recorder and lights, angling them with a frown that was very familiar.
"...White really didn't tell me that she was going to use Homeworld for the rose quartzes." Pink said after a long awkward moment of watching Yellow's Pearl set things up in silence. "I mean, she said that a gem that powerful would have to come from the heart of a planet, to use the highest concentration of life but I didn't..."
"I didn't even know about it until after you were shattered." Yellow's Pearl paused and hesitated. "White Diamond was... overwrought after your demise and Yellow Diamond wasn't much better, a lot of things came out then." The last part was said in a rush.
"That's hard to imagine." Pink said, granted she had seen the effect her shattering had had on everyone now but, it was one thing to see Yellow Diamond get choked up while she hugged her, and it was another to imagine White Diamond... cracking under pressure."
"Trust me, it was very unsettling to witness." Yellow's Pearl said with something close to a shudder. "Anyway, ready? Let's get this over with."
"We need to talk." Domina didn't corner Blue Diamond in her chambers like she normally did but this time had found her walking through the ruins of what had been the lower blue district. An aquamarine had been speaking with her regarding new sculptures to be put in where the old had fallen. Blue Diamond pursed her lips and turned to see Domina hovering at roughly eye level, not far from the aquamarine. Said aquamarine thoughtfully went elsewhere.
"Talk about what?" Blue Diamond asked, keeping her voice low. "The fact that you just want to abandon our planet, our home as if it were a quarry?" for probably the millionth time since Domina had said it Blue Diamond felt rage boil up within her at the mere idea... Did this piece of coal not understand how much work they had all put into building this planet up to thrive?!
Domina went pale and wavered in the air for a moment, then immediately landed. She clutched one arm and stared in front of her, barely trembling, before looking back up at Blue Diamond.
"Could... could you come down here?" Domina asked, her voice, though shaky, projected up. "It's not about that, it's about Pink." Blue Diamond hesitated then nodded and in a flash of light, lowered herself closer to the ground. Domina relaxed.
"What about Pink? What happened?" Horrible scenarios were already going through her head, no matter how illogical any of them were
"Nothing, I'm just trying to figure out what's going on. Do you honestly think she shouldn't be involved in any of this?" Domina looked up at her with an expression that was perplexed more than anything. Blue Diamond relaxed.
"Domina, she's young. Putting too much on her the last time ended in her..." Blue Diamond shook her head. "We can't make that mistake again."
"She's older than me if you count the time she spent in pieces," Domina said flippantly. "And I had my first colony at a far younger age than her."
"That's different."
"How?" Domina asked, her voice growing in irritation. "You and Yellow both seem to be insistent that Pink's situation is so much different than mine when she was perfectly capable of working with Rose Quartz to force us to surrender!" Blue Diamond flinched, that was a fact that both herself and Yellow had been tactfully ignoring until they knew even how to handle the fact that a diamond had essentially committed treason.
"Domina it was her first colony, She didn't know what she was doing and couldn't keep control, then she wanted to absolve herself of responsibility of the whole thing!"
"So what? She obviously wants to be involved now, I'm not saying we just give her another colony but we can always use another gem to help deal with everything. She has a court she should have the responsibilities to go with it!" Domina paused. "Wait, who's been processing her court's requests?" Blue Diamond felt her face flush with embarrassment.
"Most of her court had been transferred to me in the first place and so..." She said, as much as she hated to admit it Domina probably was right on that account. Domina shook her head.
"At least it's not Yellow." She muttered. Blue Diamond snorted.
"Of Course not, Yellow does not need anymore work."
"So I've told her, not that that's stopped her from trying to take on 'just this one project'" Domina said, pitching her voice down into a relatively good approximation of Yellow's voice. Blue couldn't help her smile. Domina smiled back and for just a brief moment they were completely at ease in each others presence.
"Fine." Blue Diamond said, "But I... we can't lose her again." Domina nodded and behind her Blue Diamond saw a flicker of movement.
"I understand, and I'll promise you we can keep her sa-"
"STEVEN BOMB!" Steven floated gently from the height he had jumped from and was nearly thrown back into the air when Domina startled and summoned a gust of wind.
"Gah!" Domina shrieked before bursting into laughter. "What are you doing here?"
"Pink Pearl asked me to come help heal some gems!" Steven said leaning down to hug Domina with a grin. "Hey Blue Diamond." Blue Diamond sighed and nodded at both Steven and Domina, before retreating, waiting until she was far enough from the both of them to return to her proper height.
As she stepped into her chambers, with the intent of transferring Pinks requests to her, her screen indicated an incoming message. One from outside the empire. Blue Diamond quickly smoothed her hair, straightened her robes before flipping her hood over her head and taking a seat.
On the other side of the transmission was a humanoid creature in the vauguest of terms. It's mouth visibly full of sharp teeth, it's eyes perched upon stalks that pivoted away from other screens to focus on her. Its skin was a pale blue, with splotches of red and yellow. The Ukanth's appearances were always disquieting to Blue Diamond, and unfortunately, they were her main point of contact to the rest of the intergalactic alliance.
"Blue Diamond, you have reformed." The Ukanth said, its eyes moved closer to the screen in an attempt to get a better look. Blue Diamond did her best not to flinch.
"I have, so what do I owe the pleasure of your call... U-polin?" Blue Diamond asked, recalling the name of her latest 'handler'.
"We simply wished to inform you that the council has noticed a resurgence of Gem activity in the Crystal system and they have asked me to remind you of the boundaries that White Diamond agreed to keep to. "
"No further expansion is being done, we are simply revisiting an old colony."
"Ah, good, good." U-polin looked similar to its predecessor but lacked the desire to ask follow up questions. "I am also supposed to ask if yourself and White Diamond will be joining us as non-participants to the next council meeting."
"We will not. A representative will be sent, however." Blue Diamond said. There was a Sodalite that normally handled those meetings, She should suffice. Blue Diamond herself certainly had no interest in going and White Diamond... didn't have the option of attending.
"Yes, yes of course." U-polin waved a three-fingered clawed hand and one eye nodded. "I imagine you have much to do after a disaster of that magnitude on your home planet." Blue Diamond froze and did her best not to let the surprise show on her face.
"I do." She finally decided was the right thing to say, despite the fact that she wanted to demand answers from the smug organic on the other end of the transmission. "And if your done wasting my time, I should get back to work."
"Of course, may the stars guide you truly," U-Polin said, both eyes dipping in a slight bow. Blue Diamond pursed her lips and ended the transmission.
In a way, her worst fears were coming true. If civilizations outside of the empire knew what had just happened on Homeworld then what else did they know? Had the secret Blue Diamond had been keeping close to her gem, that White Diamond as they knew her was no longer existent, been leaked to the rest of the universe? Because as much as Blue resented White, the power she commanded was an adequate threat when they needed it.
This much was true. Blue Diamond needed to find out where the intergalactic alliance's spy was on Homeworld, quickly, before things got more out of hand than they already were.
so yeah. Aliens. who would have thought?