I am sorry about how late this chapter is. My younger brother graduated this weekend and works been kind of crazy but I have a chapter here for you now and I will (if all things go well) have one for you tomorrow. We're getting to probably one of my favorite ideas for this fic and I'm so excited to see what you guys think.
Any way, enjoy! see you tomorrow (hopefully)
"You might as well go," Pink Pearl said, though it was really all a formality at this point. They were in one of the newly repaired hangars with The Styx. Steven was leaning in the doorway, texting, no doubt letting his family back on Earth that he would be a few more days. The rescue efforts had finally come to a halt and all work was now being focused on repairing the damage the quake had done to Homeworld. Yellow Diamond had put out the call for solutions to their latest crisis. Blue was strangely preoccupied and so was Jet for that matter. Pink herself had to get back to managing projects that had fallen to the wayside while she had been gone. It was for the best if Domina was busy, and not just waiting.
"I don't even have my screen." Domina sighed, running a hand through her hair. "It's not fair to just leave you with all my work."
"Oh, I didn't say I was going to do any of it." Pink Pearl said with a smile. Domina laughed.
"That's fair." She sighed and turned to Steven. "Are you interested in a trip out to the far edge of gem known space?"
"What?" Came another voice from behind Pink Pearl. She didn't have to turn to know who it was.
In the weeks since Pink Diamond had returned to Homeworld Pink Pearl had largely dealt with her complicated feelings about the diamond by avoiding her at every opportunity, something that was pretty easy to do now that she wasn't tied to a diamond's side. But Pink Diamond had taken an interest in Domina, and Domina seemed determined to involve her in the ruling of the empire, something that Pink Pearl was reluctant to approve of.
Domina looked at her warily, then glanced at Pink Diamond and gave her an awkward smile.
"We're going out to meet with a... patrol ship?" Steven asked looking at Domina for confirmation.
"Exploratory Survey team," Domina corrected.
"Yeah, that," Steven said gesturing to Domina. "Anyway, one of the crew has a messed up memory and so Domina's going to fix it." The crew in questions was Apatite 3P7Y 1KL who had actually been a member of their section of the colonization fleet until about a year after Domina and herself left for Homeworld.
"...Like White?" Pink Diamond asked. Pink Pearl knew that she had meant it completely innocently but Domina bristled.
"Absolutely not! I would never-!"
"Nop she's trying to fix what her mom did!" Steven said, stepping in quickly. He had gotten far too good at that over the last few years. "Do you want to come with?" at that Pink Pearl finally turned around to look at he- at her form- at the gem she had been created for. Pink Diamond glanced down at her and gave her an awkward smile, then looked back at Domina who, when Pink Pearl had turned, had been looking at Steven like he had just suggested that Blue Diamond join them.
"If uh... If Domina's ok with it?" Pink Diamond asked hopefully, staring at Domina with wide eyes.
"...Pearl did you want to-"
"I have work to do here Domina." Pink Pearl said quickly. She had thought about coming along if only to see 1KL's reaction to seeing Domina fully grown. But now, she'd pass. It was almost 2 days round trip at the Styx's top speed to the farthest outpost and she would rather not spend all that time in close proximity of Pink Diamond.
"..Alright then." Domina sounded disappointed. "Sure why not?" Pink Diamond cheered and ran practically bounced on board The Styx, chattering to Steven. Pink Pearl sighed and shook her head at Domina.
"You two are too much alike I think." Pink Pearl said, finally able to articulate at least one part of what she had realized about Pink Diamond.
"I don't know about that." Domina frowned but she stepped forward and hugged her. "Does she make you uncomfortable to be around? I mean I know you were fine with me trying to include her, but..." Pink pearl sighed and extradited her arms from Dominas so she could hug back.
"I legitimately do have other things to do, do not worry about me, Domina,"
Domina snorted and finally let go. "I'll get right on that, as soon as you start not worrying about me."
There was something about being behind the controls of the Styx again. Domina had essentially built the ship in her 30's and then immediately she and Pearl had set off on what was technically an unauthorized trip into the unknown space that surrounded the empire's sphere of influence. It had been therapeutic, and something she really needed in the wake of her father's death.
Domina felt that same relief as the Styx finally left the outer quadrants and the traffic began to disperse. She looked to her right on instinct to shoot Pearl a smile before she pushed the ship into its top speed but instead it was just Pink Diamond, looking excitedly around as far as the view screen would let her.
"I've never been out this far!" Pink Diamond said. Domina snorted, despite her mild irritation.
"Oh yeah, I guess gems hadn't really reached this far last time you saw it," Steven said. Pink shook her head and turned to look at Domina.
"How much farther do we have to go?"
"Oh, we've just started," Domina said double checking the gravity engine settings before activating it and throwing the ship into high speed. Steven yelped as he was thrown back farther into his seat on one of the beds. The Styx shook violently for a few moments, then evened out.
"Is uh... Is this thing safe?" Pink Diamond asked. Domina frowned.
"It's safe enough to bring Steven along in." She activated the autopilot controls and turned in her seat. "Anyway, the gravity engines on, you are now free to move about the cabin." Steven gave her a look that confirmed Domina's suspicions that that was, in fact, some kind of Earth reference.
"Cool," Steven said digging into his food backpack as he got up.
"So how long do we have?" Pink said with the air of someone who was rephrasing a question so that it would get answered.
"About 10 hours until we dock at the resupply station then we'll pick up a different ship and rendezvous with the Survey ship," Domina said. Pink Diamond let out a little groan and Domina resisted the urge to laugh.
"I brought music by the way," Steven said pulling out a contraption that looked like a 5XG invention and plugged it into the audio emitter for the ship.
"Excellent, any...Imagine Dragons?" Domina asked trying to think of a suitable misnomer.
"Domina... It's Contemplating Griffins." Steven sighed. "How do you even know what a dragon is?!"
"Steven I've known about dragons for practically my entire life." Domina corrected leaning back into her chair, planning on taking a nap for the duration of the trip.
"Yeah, and you've known about Contemplating Griffins for the last like eleven years," Steven grumbled fiddling with his phone. "Actually Sadie Killer and the Suspects have a new album coming out soon so I brought that along. You'll probably like 'Puppet' it's a weird one." Domina caught a glance at Pink Diamond, who was padding around the ship, glancing in boxes as much as she could without actually touching anything. Mostly ignoring them.
"I do like weird."
There was only a handful of security drones that close to the mantel of Homeworld. And of course, the saboteurs had essentially avoided all of them.
Jet grumbled from her seat in the HGC workroom and slowed down the footage again, it was already at less than a frame per second but she was trying to focus in on a single moment where something fell from the support that had been cut. It wasn't a piece of debris or a gem. She jotted down the coordinates and elected to send a patrol to check the area.
The door opened and Blue walked in with Pink close behind.
"The Warp network is all back up and we are reconnected to the galaxy warp," Blue said sliding into her chair. "Any updates?" Jet shook her head.
"Nothing conclusive." She muttered, an alert appeared on her screen, an outgoing message from Blue Diamond to Spinel 5F7U 8PM. A Counterintelligence officer from what Jet remembered. Jet 1RN, the gem she had been made for, had been an archivist and Jet herself was loosely familiar with the universe that certain members in Blue Diamonds court dealt with. The fact that the Diamond was speaking with someone that dealt with that sphere, so soon after a disaster was very concerning.
Jet went to access the calls audio, only to be interrupted by another notification appearing on her screen, along with the sound of notifications appearing on the screen of the other two in the room.
Jet Facet 1N9P Cut 1RN
She almost laughed, and probably would have if it wasn't for the fact that this was so irritating and disconcerting. Why would she need a reminder of shattering that gem? The one she didn't regret.
"What in the stars.." Pink suddenly said from across the table. Jet looked up confused until she realized that Domina still had her account forwarded to Pink's. Then she glanced at Blue who had gotten a very tense look on her face.
"You're... you're getting them too?" Jet asked. She really couldn't believe that that idea hadn't crossed her mind that Blue Pearl would get these mysterious messages as well as Blue Diamond. Because well, it was Blue, She was determined and got things done obviously but that anyone would see her as a threat, or someone to be threatened was insane.
"Too?" Pink asked leaning forward. "What do you mean too, this has happened before?" Jet frowned.
"It... yes, I'm getting them too," Blue said with a sigh, then turned to Pink. "Domina hasn't told you? We've been getting these for the last ten years. Jet's taken an interest in it but nothing ever comes of the messages so we've essentially ignored it."
"You've ignored it." Pink Pearl said, her face deadpan.
"I haven't." Jet muttered, tracing the signal quickly, another dead end.
"So a good majority of the empire's leaders are being threatened and no one's doing anything about it?"
"We've been busy in case you haven't noticed," Blue said dryly.
"Does Yellow know?" Pink asked pointedly.
"...no"
"So you've been ignoring it and keeping it under wraps and who's to say that these aren't the ones behind the damage to the plate supports?"
"It's a theory I'm following." Jet said through gritted teeth. "Except no one has been listening to me this entire time."
"We have but you insist on doing this all your self!" Blue snapped. And she was angry. Despite the fact that her face had been fully visible for a decade she was not any better at concealing her emotions.
"Why would I want to involve the diamonds? Because that's all your leaving me!" She got to her feet.
"Then work with them, stars, Jet you don't have to like them, just be civil!"
"How can you say that?" Jet asked placing both hands on the table to confront Blue. "You avoid Blue Diamond at every chance, you can't even look her in the eye most of the time!"
"That's different!"
"Blue.." Pink cut in uneasily.
"Oh is it?" Jet pushed herself away from the table and headed for the door. "So glad to know you're allowed to be an exception to the rule."
"Jet that's not fair."
"Of course it's not it never is!" Jet shouted her back to the door. "It's not fair that they ran the empire into the ground, that they shattered thousands, that they treated us like dust and now we're just supposed to act like nothing ever happened!"
"Jet calm do-" Blue Pearl started.
"I am tired of being calm!" Jet interrupted.
"I can certainly understand that." Yellow Diamond's voice said from behind her. Jet paused and turned to face the Diamond who was staring at the room, and more specifically her.
"Don't you ever fracking knock?" Jet sighed.
cutting in here at the end to point out a few things, so first, the Sadie Killer and the Suspects song that Steven references is an actual fansong that me and my sister made one week and I got some fanart from Octoberheart and it's Domina in a suit and it's delightful, you can find both of them on my tumblr which is Domina-alba . tumblr. com so please check it out!