And now for one last chapter of relative peace before things REALLY get good!
After their first fused training session, Pearl and Garnet wanted to expand on the prowess of Stevonnie along with their individual skills. All in all, the buddies were happy to be spend more time with each other considering how often the Indian girl was left out of the recent skirmishes with Homeworld. It also helped to distract from how Greg was still absent with no proper explanation. Any attempt for Steven or the gems to reach him by phone went ignored and they always managed to miss him at the car wash. According to the people around town, he was actually seen all traipsing all over town with every asking of why being answered with "He wants to get in shape." Steven decided to take his father's word at face value for now, appreciating that he was trying to improve his health even as he aged.
The other Crystal Gems, meanwhile, were further motivated by the kids' determination to better themselves and sought their own forms of progress. For the original triad of Crystal Gems that also meant putting themselves to the grind along with the pupils. Garnet focused mostly on her relatively new fire and ice abilities, even getting some input from Cinnabar in order to bolster her technique. Amethyst was now a running fanatic, spending hours every day flexing her speed and improving her footing. Pearl, as the only one without any spiffy new powers, doubled down on her combat proficiency which also helped out many of the other gems.
Much like how Rhodonite wanted to be more involved in physical fighting, Topaz was also looking to expand her combat prowess given that she was more of a bodyguard than a traditional warrior. With her much bulkier physique and lack of experience, the fused captain was worried she was not cut out for traditional fighting but Pearl assured there was never a student she could not teach. Given that Topaz's weapon was essentially a weighted spear, it did not take long to adapt Pearl's style to suit her anatomy. Unlike her teacher who used quick attacks and high agility to dance around the opponent's guard, Topaz learned to use her ample power to push through defenses or literally knock them aside so they were easy pickings. After every day of hard work, the fusion rewarded herself with another episode of her new favorite series Camp Pining Hearts where she could unwind while bawling over half an hour of teenage melodrama.
Rhodonite herself, meanwhile, was also continuing to make progress while the rest of the Off-Colors continued to focus on their duties aboard the Sun Incinerator. The four-eyed fusion was now a regular attendee at Steven and Connie's training sessions with her occasionally sparring against the two to better her own skills. Pearl once offered for her to try against Stevonnie, but the fusion declined saying she was nowhere that level of skill yet. In fact, she almost looked scared by the prospect much to the kid's own surprise. Sure, their fusion was a force to be reckoned with but enough to instill fear?
That thought was brushed aside quickly in the storm of new changes that also came to the abode of the Crystal Gems considering their number had literally quadrupled in the past month. The first order of business was to further expand the temple so more of their members had proper rooms.
The first of the new additions was Bismuth, despite her repeatedly saying she already had a forge to work in and did not want them to occupy their time with something trivial. Her objections fell on deaf ears, however, as Pearl insisted it would be much more convenient if Bismuth had an in-home workshop instead of having to warp in and out of the house every time she wanted to make a new weapon. With that said, it only took a few hours for Bismuth to receive her own room. Once she walked up to the door, with her polychromatic stone added to the star on top, the door opened in a swirl of color to reveal a near-exact replica of her old forge save for being almost twice as large. The gem was so touched, she almost suffocated Pearl, Peridot and Lapis when she hugged them all out of sheer glee. The cherry on top was that her room also came with a door that connected the place with Peridot's laboratory meaning the duo could now easily meet up to work on projects together or split up to work on her own.
Topaz was genuinely surprised when she received a room of her own, but the others insisted her help in taking out Aquamarine as well as holding off Emerald's spaceship platoon deserved a more tangible reward. A new point on the star bearing two flat yellow circles was made and the door opened with a simple gold flash. The duo's room was more earthly, but given how both of them adored the varied natural landscapes of Earth compared to the technological monotony of Homeworld, it was perfect. The room was a grassy meadow with a constant tickling breeze rustling the plants and spreading the aroma of fresh flowers. Said flowers grew in patches all over the place in every color of the rainbow underneath a gorgeous blue sky with several puffy clouds lazily drifting overhead. There was a large lake with a small bar of sand lining the water on one side while the other showed a series of rolling hills that seemed to stretch endlessly. The fusion could hardly contain her tears as she simply began to frolic through the fields and get drunk on the splendid fresh air.
While Topaz was surprised, Adamite was floored by the announcement. She could understand Cinnabar getting her own space where she could be as destructive as she wanted, but what could it benefit her? The idea was first pitched by Lapis of all gems, claiming that she deserved a space for herself with all the effort she puts into helping them. With her pentagonal stone added to the door, it became a massive green slab that slid to the side to reveal her own personal cave. The ceiling was over a hundred feet high with the occasional ray of sunlight illuminating the interior. While most imagine caverns as drab or intimidating, Adamite's abode was a vibrant combination of colors as marbles of every hue wove around each other in random directions. There was even a cluster of real gemstones scattered among the floor and wall that sparkled in the sun. The cavern stretched as far as the eye could see, giving her subterranean playground where she could use her powers to her heart's content. The normally impassive earth-bender all but fainted from the gesture and gave Lapis a hug so sincere and warm it left the aquatic gem blushing long after it was over.
All that was left was Cinnabar, who took the idea of a place where she could really cut loose in stride. Once a scarlet circle was added to the shape that was only a star by name, she all but jumped through the door as it melted into slag and revealed her home. If Garnet's room was a mostly-realistic volcanic chamber, Cinnabar's room was a fiery hellscape the likes of which could never exist naturally. Literal rivers of lava lazily drifted between massive crags of black rock while ash constantly rained down from above. Flames of every color shot up from the floor while there were multiple suns poking through the immense clouds of ash and waves of smoke. While most would see this as a place of torment, it was a paradise to Cinnabar where she could turn her flames up to their highest level without any fear of collateral. She literally looked like a kid on Christmas morning after receiving her gift and was not seen for hours as she ran helter-skelter through her molten rock wonderland while shooting flames at everything in sight.
The Off-Colors were all offered their own place, but they collectively decided the Sun Incinerator was home enough for them plus they felt it was wrong to exclude Fluorite since there was still no conceivable way she could fit in the house itself. Once the living arrangements were set, the group was settling into a new lifestyle.
While the group had their free time, there was still the problem with Homeworld looking for vengeance and thus further measures were needed to ensure their safety. Topaz and the Off-Colors took daily patrols into the atmosphere to spot any incoming Homeworld spacecraft, the force-field remained up at all times, and any suspicious activity was to be reported immediately. Of course, that led to a few incidents with the gems less experienced to Earth's ways to make false claims. Adamite, in particular, made almost a dozen claims about suspicious activity in the first week whether it was thinking mussels were some espionage device or that the seagulls could be sentry drones in disguise. Every time her paranoia was found unwarranted and every time it left the gem blushing bright brown and getting a laugh out of Cinnabar. The fiery gem was often left buried up to her head more than once.
At the end of the day, however, Steven and the Crystal Gems found themselves with time for fun or merely enjoying the serenity. The boy tried showing more of them his favorite show Crying Breakfast Friends, but none of them seemed all too interested. By comparison, almost all of them got hooked to Camp Pining Hearts to the point where Steven joked that they must have some mind-controlling frequency that makes the show irresistible to aliens.
Outside of that, there was little that deviated from their new definition of ordinary. One such incident, though, happened in the middle of the night when something warped into the temple. A five-foot tall yellow cylinder that began to glow once the warp was completed, but it never got a chance to perform as the scanner around the warp pad activated at the same second.
"Foreign object detected," spoke the recorded voice of Peridot, "Returning to sender."
The cylinder was automatically recalled back to where it once came from just as Steven was awoken from the noise.
"Huh…? Wha' was that?" he asked as he walked downstairs.
"That looked like some kind of bomb to me," asked Bismuth as she was reading a book on engineering by the kitchen.
"A BOMB?!"
"Relax, bud, our scanner picked it up and sent it straight back to Homeworld. Bet the Diamonds' will get a real kick out of that!" She giggled at the potential faces they would make while a now mostly-awake Steven contemplated her words.
"Has this happened before?"
"Actually, yeah. This is like the fifth time in the past month they've tried, but they just don't seem to get it. After the third time, Peri programmed it to just return objects as long as they weren't a gem, they just get zapped until they poof. We're looking into adding an alarm so that way we'll know as soon as it happens then we can quickly bubble them so there's nothing to worry about."
"Huh, that's good to know." Before he could say much more, he yawned deeply as his body yearned for sleep.
"Go back to bed, Steven. You're never going to be in danger in this house, I promise."
"Thanks Bismuth. Night-night…" He lumbered his way back upstairs ready to return to dream land as Bismuth went back to her reading. She never knew just how many ideas humans had come up with on how to build weapons in the time she had been gone.
Blue and Yellow Diamond were both having an interesting time with White's personal involvement with defeating Rose's rebellion. While they would never dare admit it, they both found it hilarious that her sting operation ended up an even bigger failure than Aquamarine's siege. The leader of White's siege, Emerald, was now relegated to piloting guard ships around Homeworld. This is the gem equivalent of stationing someone in the worst possible branch in a corporate office as punishment, though given the scope of her failure Emerald took this over being imprisoned or shattered.
Since then, however, White was briefly back to her seclusion as she analyzed the corrupted gems stolen from Rose's headquarters and sent the results to the two of them. The disfigurement on these stones was absolutely horrifying to both of the matriarchs, but only got worse when they learned that they were the cause of it. Blue insisted that a memorial celebrating the Homeworld soldiers who lost their forms and were cursed to this existence be made which White allowed. Those that were affiliated with Homeworld in the records would have a commemorative obelisk with their full designation installed in Blue Diamond's headquarters immediately. Those found affiliated with the Crystal Gems, however, were instantly sentenced to death by incineration by the nearest sun. Even White herself felt a twinge of guilt for the loyal gems who inadvertently lost their lives fighting for their empire.
With that taken care of, both of the Diamonds were surprised when White seemed adamant about keeping one and restoring her to her original form. While they were interested by the information that this was actually a gem they recently sent to Earth, they did not see any immediate benefit of reviving her instead of letting her die with the others.
"No offense, White, but this whole idea seems so-" spoke Blue hesitantly.
"Unlike you. You've always favored pragmatism over everything else," finished Yellow causing her neutral-colored superior to nod.
"While that is usually the case, I believe this one could be a valuable asset. Take a look at her dossier once more."
"'Jasper Facet-C8D1 Cut 6X6. Noticeable example of the capabilities of the Beta Kindergarten on Earth. While the majority of the gems planted there were highly defective due to shoddy positioning and insufficient soil resources, this jasper is an ideal specimen. Investigations should be run in order to identify the source of this anomaly,'" read Yellow from the file, "Interesting."
"Wait…she's the one who originally went with that peridot to Earth so long ago!" remembered Blue.
"Exactly," affirmed White, "And once she caught sight of Rose Quartz, she immediately tried to capture her and return her to Homeworld to face her crimes. The sole reason she was unsuccessful was Rose's subordinates sabotaging the ship and forcing them crash. We lost official contact with her there, but in that intervening time she somehow fell victim to the same corruption as the gems from eons ago."
"What could have caused this?" asked Blue.
"From what I can hypothesize, the most likely cause is that this corruption is contagious via extended contact or through fusion. My research ruled out that it was not an inherent quality of that planet as I originally thought."
"Have you been able to gather anything from her in this state?" asked Yellow.
"Negative. Like the others, this corruption has reduced her to a feral quadruped able to do little more than blindly attack anything around her."
"Oh, the poor thing…" moaned Blue, almost ready to cry from that news.
"However, with the recent information that the very cause of this affliction was our final strike against Rose Quartz, I theorize we already have the capabilities to restore her."
"Really?! That's wonderful!"
"You mean, since our energies fueled the catalyst for this mutation, that same energy could be used to purify her and return her to normal?" asked Yellow.
"Precisely. All it would take is some adjustments to the frequency and our energies should work as a natural antidote."
"And once she's restored to normal?" asked Blue.
"She has quite the personal vendetta against Rose Quartz. She was one of Pink Diamond's subjects, after all."
"How soon until this plan be put into effect?" wondered Yellow.
"It won't be long, since I already have a head start on constructing the device for adjusting our energies. With that sorted, how have those explosive charges you've been sending to the Crystal Gems, Yellow?"
"They've all failed miserably. Those that were not disarmed prematurely by the rebels were returned to their destination almost as quickly as they were sent."
"What is this for, exactly?" pondered Blue.
"Testing the rebels' defenses. Each of those charges were beamed directly into the heart of Rose Quartz's headquarters and yet all of them were sent back prematurely. It seems she had the forethought to safeguard her warp pad against any incoming threats."
"I take this will tie in to that gem you wish to revive?" assumed Yellow.
"Also correct. And this time, I will be personally monitoring the entire operation so that I will know with absolute certainty if Rose is shattered."
"And…if it fails?" wondered Blue hesitantly.
"Are you suggesting that my plan has any flaws in it?"
"N-N-No, of course not, White!" interrupted Yellow, "I-It's just that… You always have some contingency plan in effect and us knowing it may allow us to provide better assistance."
White merely stared at both of them, causing the duo of lesser matriarchs to sweat profusely until their superior grinned. "Exactly what I wanted to hear. Well then, if there's nothing else, continue with your regular duties and do not make any moves against the rebels until my word is given. That will be all."
To quote one of the comments from AO3: "You get a room! And you get a room! And you get a room!" Sums it up pretty well actually! But next time, though, we'll have something much more exciting than redecorating...
Thank you all so much for reading! Please feel free to leave a review!