Welcome one and all to the beginning of the end! This is where we start the road to answer that question that this fic set out to answer more than three years ago - how will such a story end? Get ready!

To most civilizations, the end of an invasion is a time for recovery and rebuilding to begin. Patches of Homeworld were thoroughly devastated by the Crystal Gems' trip to the fractured planet with buildings leveled, miles of land upended and all three of the monarchs in charge beaten harder than by any other opposing force in their history.

For this world, however, everything was in stasis for one simple the reason: The Great Diamond Authority was silent. After millennia of encouraging total obedience, the other gems had no autonomy. No ability to act on their own meant they were left hanging for one of their masters to give them some command to start putting everything back together.

Their silence, however, came from the very justified reason in that the long thought dead Pink Diamond had come back to them. Once Yellow, Blue and White were conscious again, all of them just gaped at Pink who had to gone into White's slowly self-repairing ship to contemplate just what had happened.

Minutes later, the trio found she was still there but Pink turned away from as soon as they entered.

"P-Pink…" said Blue numbly, "H-How…? W-Where have you…?"

"In a bubble," she spat, "How much time has passed?"

"Seven thousand years, roughly," Yellow answered, "But Pink… I can't…"

"Where's Rose?"

"What?!"

"Where is Rose Quartz? Is she still alive? Please tell me Earth is safe!"

"T-The Earth?!" White stuttered, "Y-Yes, it's still there, but why should you-?"

"I have to go!" Pink got up, trying to push past them to get to her own ship only for Yellow and Blue to stop her.

"Are you mad?!" Yellow said, "You just got back here!"

"Exactly! Pink, we can't tell you how much we missed you!" Blue cheered, "Now that you're here, we can make an announcement to all of Homeworld! We'll get the damage fixed and then it'll be-"

"NO! I don't want to stay here! I need to see Rose again!"

"That traitor is… dead," White told her flatly, "She's gone."

All of the fight in Pink's eyes drained out of her in an instant. She went from pushing against Yellow to falling limply to her knees.

"W-What? S-She… Did you…?"

"I honestly have no idea how, but Rose somehow procreated with an organic lifeform from that planet. The resulting process essentially involved her gemstone merging with him, a half-human named Steven Universe. How fitting. An abomination like that Rose destroyed by…"

"SHUT UP!" Pink shouted, tears rolling down her face and even leaping up White's face, "She can't be gone! I-I'll save her! She tried to save me and now I'll do it for her!"

"S-Save you?!" Blue stammered, "She tried to shatter you! Why would you want anything to do with her?!"

"Pink, please, you need to calm down!" Yellow tried, "Yes, it's been a long time, but you're here now and that-!"

"I don't care about either of you!" Pink shouted, crashing down from where she floated in White's face. She pointed a hand at both Yellow and Blue to reveal her hands where glowing with hot pink energy flickering across her hands like flames.

"Now let me out! I'll fight both of you if it means getting to see my friend!"

"FRIEND?!" White growled, "You call that cancerous mistake your ally?! Ahead of your own kind?! What, did your gem get corrupted in all that time you were locked away?"

"You can't scare me again! I won't let you control me anymore, White! She's not an enemy, you are!"

"You little-!" The grand monarch raised her hand to fire a beam only for Pink to beat her to the bunch, burning pink plasma shooting from her hands right at White's gem. Yellow and Blue both shut their eyes, not wanting to watch the beatdown that would get Pink. They were then both slack jawed when a scream came from White as she clutched her head and yelled in agony.

"What… Is this?! Where…?!" she demanded, her voice choking from the feeling of her mind being assaulted by some unseen force. All the while, Pink's hands never lowered as the stream of energy flooded into White's gem and the heat from the attack caused the air to shimmer and the ground under her feet to bubble as it slowly melted.

Only after several minutes of paying back White's "leadership" did Pink relent, the hundred-foot-plus tall gem gasping for air as her head ached like nothing else. Yellow and Blue's jaws at this point all but hit the floor.

"P-Pink? Is that really you?"

"Where did that come from? You never-?"

"First of all, Rose told me. She said that since you all had powers like that, why didn't I? Figured it out about an hour later. I can't tell you how long I've dreamed of doing that. And yes, it is me, but I'm not the same spoiled pebble anymore." Despite being a fraction of their size, Yellow and Blue backed away from Pink. The dangerous glow in her eyes and the ambient heat she was giving off did not help their confidence.

"Now, if you must know what happened, allow me to tell you. I was struggling with the colony, desperate for any one of you to come and help me, but instead she did. Rose popped into my ship one day, planning to fight me but I didn't know it at the time. I just assumed she was some field medic with a weird fashion sense then, but it turns out she was the leader of the rebellion you all hated so much. And honestly? Now I can't blame them. What you all do to planets is just horrible."

"Pink, you-" Yellow tried to cut her off only for the smaller diamond to raise a hand up towards her elder's chest with a flat look. Neither of them knew the expression "Talk to the hand" but that was the clear message before Pink continued.

"Your methods aside, all I cared about back then was not messing up so you all would stop pressuring me. But then she came back and I told her the truth: I hated running a colony and I just wanted something different. We started seeing each other in secret, her showing me what Earth was like outside of gem quarries and mineral statistics. And that's when I learned she was supposed to be my worst enemy."

"She seemed so… Nervous when she said it. Like I was going to turn into one of you and fry her for her crimes or some slag like that." For the first time since her return, a smile like up Pink's face, "And I just laughed. I said, 'What does that matter? You're the nicest gem I've ever met!'"

A glower soon returned when she spoke up again. "Soon, she gave me the idea to actually convert the colonization into something else. And you know what? I actually enjoyed my work! I couldn't stop thinking of new ideas, new gem configurations. And I wanted… I wanted you…"

"What?" Blue murmured, "What is it?"

"I wanted you… To like them too…" she cracked, "I was so happy with what I'd done… I finally felt like I… mattered…"

"Pink… We're…"

"Stop. All you thought I was good at back then was planning parties and causing trouble. But you know what? I did make a lot of headaches and now I know why."

She then glared at White. "It was the only time you ever paid attention to me. But now? Now I don't want anything to do with you. All you are is a control freak. You have to have everything and everyone your way with no exceptions. You're not perfect, White. You never will be."

With her head pounding so much, the head of all gems had no desire to speak back but leveled a look that could punch a hole through the gradually mending wall. After getting the pain down to an annoying buzz, she said looked down at Pink and gave a clear command.

"Get out."

"NO!"

"You wouldn't!"

"I would and I will, you two!" she insisted before returning her anger to Pink, "You want to support the Crystal Gems so badly? Then go. Find that miserable Steven Universe and ask him what happened to that Rose Quartz."

White, being the tactical mastermind she was, expected many different responses. Stunned silence that would only be broken by outside interference. A complete emotional breakdown as Pink realized her mistake before begging her to reconsider. A more subdued, but still resounding emotional turnabout as she crumpled into a heap. Or even one of her old temper tantrums just like the first era.

What she did not expect was Pink turning right around on her feet, with a smile on her face, and bolt straight for her spaceship before leaving Homeworld's orbit a few minutes later.

"That… wasn't… What just happened?" she stuttered.

"YOU! IDIOT!" Blue snapped, "You just had to do it! You put your ego in front of her right when you could have finally made things right!"

"She's absolutely right!" Yellow yelled along with her, "After all this time, that's what you say to her?!"

"But… She…"

"Rose Quartz may be a menace, but it looks like she did ultimately give Pink something she needed: willpower. Tell me, oh grand architect, where was that in your grand design?"

"Yellow, I don't like your tone…"

"And we haven't liked yours for ages now," Blue retorted before turning to head out to her own ship, "I'm tired of your grandstanding too. If you won't make things right with Pink, I sure will! I'll spend every day of my life making things right with her!"

"But… The empire…"

"Oh, I'm sorry?" Yellow gasped, "You want our help? I thought we were incompetent clods who only got in the way of your amazingness? I'm done too, White. Run this whole operation yourself into the ground for all I care. I did treat Pink badly in the past and I'm not too blind to see it. Let's go, Blue."

Looking happier than ever, Blue nodded before heading to her own ship. White just knelt in the remains of her palace with the same stupefied look even as the other two diamonds flew away. It took her pearl, of all things, to get her attention.

"My Diamond? I've received several hundred… thousand reports from over a third of our colonies. They're scrambling, hearing about the damage left by the Crystal Gems. When will you address them?"

"I… Don't know."

"P-Pardon?"

"I… Don't…"

Her pearl decided to just leave White there, feeling uncomfortable to the nth degree at seeing her master a half-catatonic scatterbrain who would randomly look to the spots that the other three diamonds just were. She would be stuck there for over an hour.

When Steven opened his eyes, he was shocked at how cold he felt. He knew he was back on the Crystal Beacon where the temperature was kept comfortable. He was clearly in bed with his covers over him. And yet for some reason, he had to resist the urge to shiver. He was also completely unsurprised to see Pearl sitting by his bed with a book in hand.

"How long was I out?" he asked her.

"Six hours, fourteen minutes and twenty-seven seconds," she answered before closing her novel and sitting up next to him, "But who's counting, right?"

"Heh, thanks… Where's Connie?"

"She's been up and about for a while."

"Good…"

Pearl was quick to tell him all about how everyone was alright and while Stevonnie was shot down by they still didn't know what, Pink's bubble was dropped off.

"You know," the gem admitted, "There is one thing I'm regretting."

"What's that?"

"I didn't get to see the looks on their faces when they realize their entire crusade was for nothing."

"Hehe, yeah, that'd be something…" he chuckled before something in his brain clicked in place.

"Something wrong, Steven?"

"Pearl… What do we do now?"

The gem looked confused so the boy, slowly rising out of bed and shaking the sluggishness from his bones, continued as he paced.

"I mean, we're done, right? No more fighting the diamonds?"

"I'd presume so. Worried about what will happen next?"

"Not really worried but… I dunno, confused? It's just that-"

"Steven, it's okay. I get the feeling. Trust me, I'm not sure what to do either."

"Really?"

"I've been a Crystal Gem just a little longer than you, Steven," she kidded, "But it's happened before. First, we were supposed to stop Earth from being colonized. And we did it, but then we had to recover the corrupted gems. We spent ages doing that until this new fight started. And now? Now we have some time to figure that out. Honestly? I'm looking forward to it."

With that in mind, Steven felt much more relaxed and headed out of his room to find Pearl still reading. He smiled when he recognized the cover from the first Lost Boys book before moving on. He was surprised to see how sedate the ship was, half-expecting a wild party now that they had accomplished their mission after so long. Instead, everyone was doing more relaxing than he could ever remember.

On the bridge of the ship, Topaz and her crew were doing something they desperately missed – catching up on Camp Pining Hearts. While the occasional ship popped up on the radar, none of them paid them any mind. Strange as it may have felt, they all appreciated the fact that they could get through all of season three without interruption save for when they had to stop for tissues.

Bismuth was getting a crash course on how meep-morps worked from resident expert Peridot. The blacksmith extraordinaire was a bit shocked by the offer but found the opportunity to make something not made to be swung around on a battlefield to be a refreshing change. That being said, she was a tad uncomfortable working with something other than metal.

Cinnabar was merely gallivanting down the halls in no particular direction simply goofing off. She did appreciate the entire ship was flame-proof for her since she casually juggled fireballs as she went, getting quite good at multitasking in the process. Her tune changed, however, when she heard noises coming from one of the rooms.

It was Adamite and Lapis doing what had become their favorite pastime recently: making out. Ever since the waterbender of the team had surprised her lover with it after her storming Satellite Beta, the two often tried to sneak away from the others to suck face whenever possible. While they were able to pull themselves apart whenever business came up, now they had nothing to stop them from spending all their free time together.

Or at least they would if Cinnabar did not have the uncanny ability to find their latest spot and then taunt them over it.

"You think at some point your lips will start changing color? I dunno if I'd want turquoise on my face all the time!"

Lapis and Adamite both glared at her before looking at each other.

"I'll trap her in a water bubble, and you'll clobber her?"

"I do so love your mind…"

Cinnabar cackled as she darted away from the irate couple on her heels, one charging and the other flying, but hardly anyone blinked as this was far from the first time it had happened. Inside their cabin, Priyanka and Connie barely glanced outside to see what the fuss was about before returning to what they were doing before – checkers.

One of the only activities they enjoyed together before Steven and the gems entered their lives, now the simple board game became an ideal way to pass the time for the two ladies no matter what craziness was going on. And now that they did not have to worry about enemy soldiers barging in on them or the ship shaking from laser bombardments. Unfortunately, the subject of today's game quickly turned to something uncomfortable.

"Mom, I said I'm sorry I never told you!" Connie sighed, moving one of her black pieces on instinct, "Fusion just… Sort of happened and-"

"Connie, I'm not mad," the doctor insisted, moving a red disc to capture one of her child's, "It was just very… unexpected."

"Yeah, trust me, I was shocked the first time too since it was a complete accident! We were just dancing on the beach one day and then… There was Stevonnie."

"Hm, it almost sounds completely normal," she chuckled before realizing she just lost three pieces to her daughter, "Connie, while I'm on the subject…"

"Yes?"

"Do you love Steven?"

"WHAT?!" Connie had to clamp two crystalline hands over her mouth to stop herself from screaming loud enough to rock the Beacon. She then had to all but bite her tongue off to stop from yelling at her mother who had fallen off her seat laughing.

"That's not funny, Mom! Why would you ask something like that?!"

"Because when I was fifteen and met my first boyfriend, my mother asked me the exact same thing. Believe me, you took it better than me. I was trying to get dressed for school that day and I nearly ran out the door with my undergarments outside my jeans."

"Eesh… But Mom, come on! What am I supposed to answer to that?!"

"Honey, I can guess the answer but that doesn't mean you think the same thing."

"W-Well… I don't know. I mean, he is super nice and funny and… But it just feels weird saying it!"

"Connie, if you don't, then that's perfectly fine. I do have one other concern, though."

While relieved that the focus turned away from romance, and her burning hot cheeks, the daughter was still suspicious. "Yeah? What's that?"

"What are you going to do now?"

"You mean no more fighting, right?"

"Yes. Connie, I know you put so much time and effort into protecting Steven and the Earth but now… Now what?"

"I… I guess I'll focus back on school. I mean, it'll be weird but…"

"And what about your powers?" Priyanka asked, turning her own hand into purple crystal to make a point.

"I mean, maybe there'll be some gem monsters left out there. Maybe the Diamonds will come back for revenge, I don't know. Steven seemed like he would have a pretty hard time getting back to normal, though, so I'll know he'll need some help there."

"You think you'll help each other?"

"Yeah, that seems pretty nice… Because honestly? I don't know much either."

The doctor stood and moved to the other side of the table to hug her daughter, thankful to avoid admitting that she felt the same way. How was she supposed to go back to her mundane 9-to-5 job now that she was a few decades younger looking than her coworkers and had abilities that could only be described as superhuman?

Both of them soon moved back to their game, the simple turn by turn strategies taking their minds away from the dozens upon dozens of questions between them.

Other than them, little else happened on the Beacon as it gradually flew towards their blue home. Cinnabar got chased around the ship, the Off-Colors kept watching their show, Pearl and later Garnet got into reading. The most shocking event of the trip was seeing Greg fully take off his battle suit and walk around in his classic tank top and jeans. He, on the other hand, simply shrugged. No more fighting meant no more weapons, right?

While the chaos on Homeworld brought the might gem empire to a standstill and the Crystal Gems sped off towards a much-needed bout of relaxation, someone else was stuck in the middle. Surrounded by nothing and yet conflicted in so many ways was the last Crystal Gem anyone would have imagined.

Rose Quartz had no idea how long she had been drifting in space, but it gave her plenty of time to gather her thoughts. For the longest time she grappled with the simple fact that she was here, alone, outside of Steven. Having witnessed the entire battle against the diamonds inside Stevonnie's subconscious, she wondered just went wrong. They were doing so well, even resorting away from ending White when they had the perfect chance, and finally delivered Pink back to them.

And then pain filled her like nothing else had before. Burning agony literally tore her out of Steven's gem and, on instinct, she ran like an animal escaping a predator. Rose had been through too many battles to count and had been through her fair share of scrapes. She could practically hear Pearl fretting over the time a mission to sabotage several warships ended with her being caught in the back-blast of an explosion too fast to bring her shield up. She would not leave Rose's side for a week.

From there, the stories and memories swept through her mind. Her current experience felt all too close to when she was first brought to life in the Kindergarten on Earth. One moment she was a gem absorbing nutrients and then she plopped out of hole face first like the rest of the rose quartzes for the day. Only whereas she was nothing but confused and aimless then, now she had too much to sift through.

From day one, Rose was a troublemaker. Effectively designed to be a combat medic for the gem forces, all rose quartzes were designed to be durable, focused on defense and healing any cracked soldiers on the battlefield. And yet long before she saw any combat, Rose felt something was off. She could still remember standing in a lineup with dozens of near-identical pink-haired medics when she raised her hand to ask a question that immediately hit her mind.

"What happens when a gem gets shattered?" she asked.

"Then you leave them," the fuchsia agate in charged barked back, "You are all made for one purpose. And if you fail, you have no reason to exist. Either serve your purpose or do the diamonds and favor and donate yourself to be harvested."

Rose had to fight the urge to scream and attack her superior then and there, but she managed to rein in her impulses. Try as she might to forget, the raging fury in her never stopped and only grew as she watched other gems toil away in the Kindergarten. One day, she grew sick of the routine and snuck away only to find something new.

The barren soil gave way to some odd green plants that covered the ground. The sky seemed a brighter blue with fluffy white tufts floating above her. A glowing yellow sun illuminated it all with a beauty she never saw before. Rose then turned back to see the gray expanse that was the canyon she had lived her first few weeks in and knew then and there that it was wrong. The gorgeous landscape before her was how this planet was before and how it should always be.

She was soon caught and dragged before some committee of stooges who tried to sentence her on a more finished colony, hoping to quell her spirit. All that did was bring her into contact with the misery other gems went through. The tedious busywork they gave her was supposed to be a punishment, but all it did was reinforce her. Seeing overworked grunts, gems literally throwing themselves into the fire to fight the indigenous lifeforms, and even seeing Off-Colors get shattered on the spot. All of it made her angrier and angrier until the day she snapped.

She walked into the cache she was sentenced to work in for another few daces when she heard an amethyst boast about some deformed gem she carted in. She could not remember what kind, but she looked forward to the reward regardless.

One hour later, the supervisor of the colony had to report to Yellow Diamond herself that an insane turncoat poofed several hundred gems, stole the fastest starship they had and flew away to parts unknown. The Great Diamond Authority demanded that this renegade be brought in at all costs.

While Rose tried to get back to Earth, she learned piloting a ship was far harder than it looked and had a few misadventures in space before returning to her home planet. She ended up crashed into a beach and punching a hole in a large cliffside. This, however, ended up being the perfect hiding spot as she cleaned the place up and started working on jury-rigging her own warp pad. A few raids of critical materials later, she ended up warping to the handful of other planets she visited to bring together the few outcasts and unhappy servants who were all too eager for a chance to topple the establishment.

Those dozen or so first followers of Rose soon declared themselves as the Crystal Gems, uniting under a literal banner with the goal of turning Earth from a colony in progress to a refuge where any gem tired of the Diamonds' oppression could live in acceptance. Rose also found new motivation when she first encountered humans, then highly primitive but empathetic creatures whom she found adorable. When word came that Pink Diamond began hauling them away into some sick zoo for her amusement, Rose's flames grew even brighter as she gathered resources and allies to launch the first outright attack on the colonization efforts.

It was also not long after that she met a certain pearl, abandoned by the so-called fearless morganite general at the first sign of danger. Little did she know as her campaign truly went underway that the terrified performer she rescued that day would become her best friend, greatest confidante and another motivation to create a home for gems like her.

And from there, the Crystal Gems became the greatest menace the Gem Empire had ever seen. Day after day, her new family battled the forces of Homeworld with unbreakable resolve and unorthodox skills that threw off their attackers. The element of surprise was always her greatest weapon as she launched sneak attacks on small units, used starvation tactics to cut off vital supplies for the colonization and intimidation to scare away the invaders.

Her attempts to frighten ended up in another boon when her attacking a meeting of Blue Diamond's court on a recently erected platform island. There, her now-faithful pearl attacked a seemingly ordinary sapphire when a common ruby leapt to the rescue and accidentally creating Garnet. Yet another stroke of luck granted her a timeless ally and one of the team's best fighters. Alas, she still saw too many comrades fall for good to the diamond's tyranny either being shattered on the battlefield or captured where those maniacal queens inflicted tortures on them that she had no desire to know.

Centuries in, however, and both sides were at a stalemate. Both were too driven to concede and Homeworld was too proud of itself to send its full fury. But a falling-out with one of her most trusted soldiers led Rose to desperation. She was starting to fear that this was an endless war of attrition and that sooner or later the humans she cared for would be caught in the crossfire. That was when she concocted an audacious plot to storm Pink Diamond's fortress of a command ship to defeat the tyrant in single combat for the fate of Earth itself.

Imagine her surprise when she showed up to an unguarded vessel in the middle of a random desert with no security systems and the diamond in question more concerned with her fashion choices than the massive sword she was carrying. As humiliating as that day was, it also provided her greatest window to change the tide of the war. She could actually convince Pink to stop the fighting herself.

Unfortunately, the other diamonds were all too stubborn and cruel to see any other solution. White even stole Pink's beloved pearl away from her as punishment and that drove both of the rose-colored beings into a frenzy. That was when they made the even more audacious plan to fake Pink's death to drive away the diamonds once and for all.

And that proved to be the biggest mistake of her life.

Even now, Rose could still see the three lights piercing the heavens. Yellow and blue flanked white and drove the entire planet into a panic. Pearl and Garnet stood by her side, both trying to hide their apparent terror at the divine retribution coming to make them pay for their rebellion. And the dauntless leader of the Crystal Gems could still feel how her legs shook and how she bit her tongue to stop from crying.

One instant the beach underneath her feet was clear sand under the night sky. Then, all of her friends were gone. Only the two she had managed to shield with her power remained while the hundreds of sisters in arms she cared for and raised were no more.

A tear drifted from Rose's eye as she recalled the horror. It was a great improvement from before as the memory would send her spiraling into a complete breakdown. It was when Pearl and Garnet saw this moment of weakness that she dedicated her life to capturing the now corrupted gems and eventually cure their malady. The only boon she had for so long was when a small amethyst suddenly wandered into her life from the abandoned Prime Kindergarten. While Amethyst brought some small joy into her life, it did not fill the void left by the war.

Eventually, as humanity built itself up more and more, Rose sought a new form of companionship. She had to learn many things about human physiology the hard way with the first being their massively shorter lifespan compared to her. It was also here that she found Pearl becoming more temperamental and clingy, but she simply figured it was the stress past and present getting to her. Rose could not help but chalk it up to yet another mistake in her life.

Finally, after millennia of flings and fighting monstrosities that were once her allies, Greg came into her life. Infatuation soon deepened into love and she at last saw a new light. She remembered her pregnancy and her final days well, closing her eyes in her room before her body condensed into that of an infant Steven while her consciousness rested in her gemstone.

The fourteen years and some months she spent as Steven were some of the happiest of her life. She watched an adorable innocent baby grow and blossom into the sweetest child she could imagine and how his presence brought new life into her old team. Bad days still happened, but her son accidentally scraping his knee was a far cry from the tumultuous decades of the rebellion.

And now here she was, the greatest happiness she had in recent memory stolen from her. The memories continued to roll through her mind, but they filled by a gnawing feeling in her stomach. The diamonds were still out there. Pink was still alive and would no doubt be horrified to learn what had happened. And the three miserable excuses that destroyed so much to her and to countless others were still out there.

That same fire she had when the war started flared in her for the first time in aeons. Even amidst the chilling vacuum, her body felt like it was burning. She felt the urge to scream into the void even if no one could hear her. But she kept silent for now. She wanted her voice to be heard by those three and for them to realize that now they had made the grave error.

She would make them regret harming her family one time too many and make sure that Earth would never fear their corrupting light ever again.

I'm guessing some of you expected a whole chapter of diamond drama, but trust me they aren't done yet. We'll see them again at some point but next time, the Crystal Gems return to Earth. What will some peacetime be like for them?

Thank you all so much for reading! Feel free to leave a review with any questions you have.