And now, after a slight hitch, I'm back!
It took far less time for the Crystal Gems to return to Earth from Homeworld than the first trip. With no opposition aside from the occasional bout of electromagnetism that led a slight diversion in their course, it almost felt too easy. That was the exact feeling the team appreciated after too many attacks to count as they touched down in the waters outside of the temple. There on the porch was Lion dutifully waiting for them to come back.
Steven wasted no time running up to his quasi-pet for a cuddle after so long apart before heading inside to simply bask in the familiar wooden walls and comfy décor. After weeks of living within sterile pink metal, the house felt truly felt like a different world.
The one who was more surprised to see their return was Mercury, still exactly where they left her in Rose's room keeping an eye on the Cluster. The only thing that changed were the dozens of stacks of books surrounding her with titles ranging from advanced quantum physics to a few manga scattered about.
"So, uh, done some light reading?" he joked. He was even more shocked to see the stone-faced alien in front of him give a small smile at that.
"In a sense, yes. I have learned so much about human culture and this world but there is one thing my studies lack: personal experience."
"Oh… You wanna go out and see the world, don't you?"
"I detect some hesitation in your voice."
"It's not that you can't, it's just…"
"You would rather I stay? Why?"
"Well… You kind of seemed like someone who needed a friend..."
"It is true that I knew little about companionship of any kind before arriving on this planet, but I quickly realized that the illogical nature of the diamonds meant that I should not pledge my loyalty to them. I've come to appreciate you letting me make a choice for myself and I have decided that I wish to broaden my knowledge with firsthand experience."
"Okay then…" He understood her logic, but still seemed a bit bummed that she would just up and leave. That changed, however, when Mercury walked up to him and knelt down to look him the eye.
"Once I have finished my observations, I will be sure to return. Please, be well until then. I am immensely glad to see you succeeded in your mission."
He bid her one last goodbye before she departed out of Rose's room and through the door to the beach house. She did acknowledge the other Crystal Gems as she left, but Mercury was gone down the beach minutes later. Her departure, however, quickly faded as the others simply took in the joy of being home after such a long, perilous trip.
The rest of the day breezed by as everyone got settled back into their homes and rooms, the Crystal Beacon being parked near the house only because it was such a familiar fixture. It would be a shame to simply park in some desert never to be seen again. Plus, it meant that now the gems could fly anywhere in the world or the cosmos as much as they wanted. Pearl in particular was eager to actually explore space again without any fear of reprisal or of being blown up in slapdash rocket.
But first on the agenda was something everyone could agree on - a party. What he did not expect, however, was for the entire town to get in on it.
All of Beach City suddenly closed down for two days as everyone who lived there and hundreds more from the surrounding towns insisted on celebrating their heroes in the most appropriate fashion. The Crystal Gems swore it was not necessary, that they were merely doing their job, but no one was dissuaded.
Steven lost count of just how many people thanked him, congratulated him or simply showered him with praise. He swore his cheeks burned from blushing so much and he eventually gave up trying to insist that he did not need any sort of reward. Granted, when the company that made Cookie Cats announced that they were officially reviving the product in his honor, he suddenly clammed up and let them go ahead.
Connie swore her entire school must have showed up or at least every person she shared classes with. She was nervous at first concerning her powers, but soon she was showing off making swords and displaying her skills on any debris. The fact that her teachers assured her that her grades would not suffer from her long absence helped as well.
Priyanka and Greg were similarly bombarded with congratulations, much of it from parents incredulous that two people could raise children that literally saved the world. Others came from their old friends astonished that they had actually been on such an adventure and returned with hardly a scratch. Their real joy, however, came from seeing their children having a blast and simply getting to be kids again.
As for the rest of the gems, they found themselves in the limelight more than any of them could have imagined. All of them could barely turn their heads without seeing someone heaping praise on them, trying to give them gifts or capturing their every word for newspapers, websites, television shows, online videos and then some. It was truly overwhelming in a sense, but it did feel nice to be so appreciated.
Only when the party wound down, with everyone simply too tired to continue, did Beach City return to normal although some other changes came up. For one, Steven ended up seeing what the Crystal Gems were saying online only to find dozens of fan sites dedicated to the team now with only a few conspiracy theorists that the protectors of Earth were actually spies or some other nonsense.
The most popular of these sites, Crystapedia, genuinely impressed him with individual dossiers on each member, details of their activity dating back to some of humanity's earliest civilizations, and even various phenomena that are traces of the first gem war and their battles with the corrupted gem monsters. Steven was starting wonder who could have compiled all of this until he saw clicked under the "about us" tab and found Ronaldo's picture among the site's founders.
Steven grinned as he read that the creator of "Keep Beach City Weird" connected his various theories back to the Crystal Gems after "intensive research" and decided to contribute it to, in his own words, the heroes the planet never knew they had. The boy made absolutely sure that he would thank the older Fryman the instant he saw him again.
And from there, life settled into a surprisingly comfortable groove as a routine was set. Steven would get up earlyish in the morning, have breakfast, get bathed and dressed, and from there would either spend time in town or with the Crystal Gems. While it was nice to reconnect with everyone in time from Sadie, the Pizzas, Jamie and even Onion, simply getting to spend time with the gems without some looming threat felt almost foreign.
While there was the occasional jog around town, training was more or less over for Steven and the same soon became true with most of the gems. The only real exception was Adamite, Lapis and Cinnabar who took up their elemental battles as a pastime more than anything. The only other threat on the back of their minds was if a corrupted gem was still out there which could be easily handled given the much better numbers they had. That was only a distant possibility, however, as everyone else was far more content to begin a very welcome, and hopefully very long, era of peace.
Up in space, however, the gem empire was in absolute shambles. Nobody managed to catch sight of Pink Diamond's miraculous recovery and were all still in absolute disarray from the Crystal Gems' incursion. And with White being alone in trying to put things back together, that left no one to notice Rose Quartz's revival either. This meant that when a passing gem ship delivering some updated implanting equipment to a halfway-done colony spotted something floating outside their ship, they had no idea who they were dealing with.
What should have been the first warning sign was the like of any gem signature being picked up on the radar, but that went ignored from the fact that rose quartzes were discontinued thousands of years ago. The guards and crew of the ship were stupefied to see a genuine rose quartz alive after all this time, but also aware that she would have to be arrested and trialed. No one seemed to notice the empty spot where her gemstone was in the commotion.
Rose herself, however, just kept a smoldering glare at everything around her. She was aware of all that was happening, but just chose not to react to it. She did note much more technological the ship was or the few new gem castes but that was the only thing that caught her eye. Her mind was still more preoccupied with the same urge to confront the diamonds and watch them fall but she knew that would be suicidal at this point. She had no followers, no equipment, and no real advantage to speak of. And she was lightyears away from anyone who could help her.
That last thought, coming just before she was roughly shoved into an energy cell, brought her mind back to Steven. All that rage cleared as she wondered, and soon began to fret, about the apple of her eye. Was he okay? Was he back on Earth? Were the diamonds still looking for him?! Her baby was out there starving in the cold emptiness of space for all she knew!
Her thoughts also turned to the others and how they had all changed so much since her time. While she was still kicking herself for never seeing how painfully obvious Pearl's real affection for her was, it was nice to see her overcome that hostility towards Greg and gain some independence. Beyond that, it was also a welcome relief to see the others gradually move on from her departure and that even Greg became the mindful, loving father she knew he could be.
She even wanted to meet all of the new Crystal Gems Steven and the others managed to find, but now her thoughts shifted again. She had faced the wall to keep her stoic demeanor up while the Homeworld gems were around, but now she turned to face them only to see an agate glaring down at her through the wall of plasma keeping her inside.
"So," the gold-colored commander asked, "What exactly were you doing drifting in such an empty stretch of space? The nearest colony isn't for several hundred lightyears."
Rose's answer was just to stand there and glare back, not flinching under the agate's scrutiny.
"You should know that your mere existence is a violation of the Great Diamond Authority's will. It is improbable you survived the purges alone."
"You wouldn't believe me…" Rose said, rolling her eyes much to the agate's irritation.
"Excuse me?"
"I said you wouldn't believe me. You want to hear me beg and plead and scream about how sorry I am, how much I desperately seek a purpose because I only exist as sycophant to a trio of arrogant blowhards and how I'll absolutely tell you everything I know. Well guess what? No."
"D-Do you know who you're talking to?! I'm-"
"A gold agate, more than likely of slightly lower rank judging by the grade of ship you're piloting. What'd you do, not flatter Yellow enough at a party in her honor?" Rose let a small smirk show, enraging her interrogator on the other side.
"I will not tolerate that level of insubordination from an abandoned model like you! Mouth off like that one more time and you'll wind up just like the Crystal Gems!"
That made all of the amusement drop from the rebel leader's face. "What do you mean?"
"After those lunatics attacked the diamonds themselves, they've fled Homeworld. It's only a matter of time before they're hunted down and destroyed."
"No…" Rose's legs shook as her fears came back, images of her son suffering filling her head.
"Hmph, now you're being more cooperative. I suppose you aren't as dense as that Rose Quartz who led that rebellion once upon a time. I only wish Yellow could finish her off like that mutant Steven U-"
A bloodcurdling shout snapped her to attention as Rose somehow leapt through the impenetrable barrier keeping her in her cell. The agate could not hide her fear as Rose slammed her against the opposite wall hard enough to rock the entire corridor.
"Now you listen to me…" she growled, "That mutant you're talking about is my son… A son I just wanted an innocent life for. And now that you've made it impossible for me to live with him like I wanted, to have some dang peace that you drones denied my family for so long, I will not listen to you insult or badmouth him. Now you tell me where we are and how to get this ship to Earth or I'll-!"
"Hey, what's going on down there?!" a jasper shouted. Rose turned to see half a dozen orange guards all holding destabilizers crowded in the only exit to the hallway leading to the rest of the ship.
"Detain her at once!" the agate commanded, desperately trying to break free, "She's allied with the Crystal Gems!"
"I made the Crystal Gems!" Rose shouted before suddenly punching the commanding officer in the gut hard enough to poof her and leave a massive dent in the wall behind her. The jaspers were already rushing at her when she turned to face them, but the lead rebel could see their attacks coming a mile away. It was little effort to dodge their attacks and counter them all, three of the bruisers being poofed in the short order.
Actually being smart, and recognizing they were going up against someone far out of the ordinary, the remaining trio tried a different approach. Two of them took off into spin dashes along the wall and the ceiling while the third ran in behind her colleagues to catch her off guard. That might have worked had Rose not jumped just so to maneuver between the two oncoming fighters, catching the third off-guard so she could put on a burst of speed and palm the gobsmacked jasper in the face clean out of the room.
"What is this?!" one of the remaining two gasped, "We can't even touch her!"
"It's called being out of your league," Rose reminded them before summoning her shield and ramming into the last two into another wall. With them both dazed on the ground, a few clean chops were more than they could handle, and the final opponents retreated into their gemstones. With the area to herself, Rose let out a sigh of relief.
"At least I haven't gotten too rusty… Now then, just need to bubble these. Wonder if the others will notice of if I can-?"
Her thought was cut dead in its tracks when she reached down to the two jaspers sitting at the end of the hall. When she reached down to bubble one of the stones, the gem levitated a bit but no bubble formed around it. Instead it stayed floating in Rose's hand for a bit before she tried curling her fingers inward. That was when it flew into her hand.
"WHAT?!" she gasped, having no idea what was going on anymore. Being immune to the containment cells was one thing but this?! She could still feel the gem inside her form, as if her body was an ocean and it was a simple piece of flotsam. She tried again with the other jasper only for the same thing to happen.
"Okay, this is just weird!" Rose groaned, even her suspension of disbelief being gone at this point, "How do I get them out?!"
She held out her hand as she asked this. As if her body answered her, both gems exited just as seamlessly as they entered and clattered to the floor. While it was a relief to have the two stones out of her, she felt a little different afterwards. It was a vague feeling, but she somehow felt a touch livelier. Given that their did not seem to be any harm in it, she tried it again with the agate and the three jaspers in the hall.
Before she could get to the one she had launched out of the room, she noticed the stone started to glow and a very angry jasper stood up.
"You traitorous clod!" she bellowed, "I don't care what you are, you're finished!"
Rose readied herself only to look out of the corner of her eye and see the other gems had all reformed at the same time. She rolled her eyes and figured six on one would not be too much of a problem even in this enclosed space only for something about the others to catch her eye – none of them were ready to fight. They all just stood around taking in their surroundings or even chatting amongst themselves like nothing was wrong.
The other jasper noticed this too and it only riled her up even more. "What are you, blind?! Get her!"
"No," the golden agate replied, equally baffling her own soldier and Rose.
"Um, pardon me?" the latter asked.
"WHAT?! She's an enemy of the diamonds! Attack her! Call for backup, hurry!"
"No," the agate said again, now annoyed, "In fact, you need to stand down. There's no reason for us to fight."
"YOU! You did this to them, didn't you?!"
"I… I guess so?!" Rose stammered, a headache coming on from all the insanity going on.
"I'll make you pay for this! I'll-Hey, get off!" She tried charging despite one of the other jaspers grabbing ahold of her shoulder. When she still resisted, more of her supposed comrades started dogpiling her while the agate turned to Rose with an apologetic look on her face.
"I'm really sorry about her behavior! I understand they're normally like this but-"
"What is going on?!" Rose shouted at her, not caring that she might have been looking a gift horse in the mouth, "Why are you suddenly nice to me?! You were interrogating me a few minutes ago!"
"I'm not exactly sure myself, but when I came to I suddenly realized something – the diamonds don't deserve our loyalty. I would much rather follow a gem like you instead of a bunch of power-hungry"
"Wait, you're serious? You haven't lost your memory?"
"No, I can still remember everything which means I'm quite aware of how much time I wasted following those clods."
"I'll make you suffer for this!" the protesting jasper cried, "They'll invent a whole new form of torture for you when I tell everyone on the ship and-!"
"Permission to poof her?" the agate asked Rose. While she was befuddled to the nth degree, she nodded on the grounds that a snitch was never good to have around. Her new ally pulled out her own destabilizer and zapped the jasper once again.
"I'd suggest you do whatever you did to us to her before she wakes up again," the agate suggested. Rose complied without even thinking now, absorbing the gemstone before sending it back out seconds later. The new vitality in her grew the slightest bit and soon the sixth jasper was apologizing profusely for all the threats she made and how she was not thinking straight.
"Um, it's okay…" the rebel said before looking at the entire group of gems that apparently worked for her now, "Look, I need a few minutes to sort this out."
"Understandable," the agate said, "Shall we return to the rest of the ship?"
"Yes. The jaspers should just return to their normal patrols and you… Goldenrod?"
The agate nodded at the mention of her name. "If anyone asks, I'm an off-color amethyst who will be disposed of at the first opportunity but has no useful information."
"Very well. I'll check back in a while since we don't want to arouse too much suspicion."
And with that, the half a dozen brawlers left along with their leader like nothing was different. Rose simply walked back into her cell, the plasma barrier still not affecting her in the slightest and sat down to get some much-needed alone time. Now that there were no more distractions, Rose got to processing whatever had just happened.
One glance down at her naval made the cause of all of this obvious. She had been forcibly extracted from Steven's gem which left her without a core. This would quickly explain how she was completely unaffected by the barrier that zapped any gem that came into contact with it since their light was still bound to some physical mass. She also guessed that she would not appear on any scanner looking for gem signatures since she had no signature anymore.
The real question now was what she had done to those other gems. The whole concept of gems being absorbed into her and then being spat out with being far more open to suggestion felt wrong to her, she could not help but admit it was beyond useful. It actually gave her time to think of a plan and to dwell on this new feeling in her. She could now tell it felt very fluid much like the gems being inside of her form. In fact, if she concentrated, she could swear it was moving from where her gem used to be up through her torso, then down her arm until it was in the palm of her hand.
"What the…?" She felt the urge to push the warmth out of her hand and soon got an even bigger surprise when a ball of glowing pink energy. Rose gasped in shock as the orb levitated above her hand, following it wherever it moved. She then squeezed her fingers around and was surprised when she could grasp it. It felt pleasantly warm on her hand and oddly pliable.
Now far more curious, Rose grabbed it with her other hand and it remained solid. She even tried grabbing onto one end of the sphere and pulling with the pink energy stretching like taffy. Pretty soon Rose was chuckling in amusement as the energy showed it could be bent and shaped to any way she wanted it to. It could even broken apart into hundreds of pieces and then be brought back together.
The more shocking discovery, however, was that the new energy was tangible to anything as she got it stuck on the walls of the cell before recalling back to her with little more than a thought. It could also flow back into her body and, most surprisingly of all, it could also explode.
Unfortunately for Rose, she found this out while bouncing the energy as a ball against the opposite wall meaning the damaged one of the power conduits and an alarm was set off. One of the jaspers she fixed was the first to run in.
"Are you alright? What was that?!"
"Um, something… unusual. How bad is it?"
"Something bad. It's getting the attention of the nearest satellite since it damaged the tracker transmission. We'll have other gems here soon!"
"Hmm… How many gems are on this ship?"
"Well, we're a standard cargo vessel so seventy? Eighty, maybe?"
"Alright then… Keep out of my way."
"What?! You're going to try and take over the ship?!"
"Not quite… I'll just talk it out."
Figuring out what she meant, the jasper went off to find the others who had seen Rose's light and spread the news to get out of the way. The rebel herself proceeded to walk down one of the corridors just as two rubies were running down to whomever summoned them. They stopped in their tracks when they saw Rose and immediately started asking questions about who she was or where she was going. Her answer was to shape the energy now in her into two knives about as big as a typical ruby's weapon before chucking them into the grunts and then willing them to explode.
The contained blasts thankfully missed their gemstones but quickly poofed them with a good chunk of their forms getting blown up. Grateful that their stones were unharmed, Rose absorbed them both and released them seconds later. Rose smiled at feeling the energy within her grow brighter and stronger as the pair of rubies were reformed as much more relaxed types who simply let Rose on her way.
The rest of the ship had no idea what hit it as Rose walked through, slowly getting more and more confident as she strolled through poofing every gem she came across. With every gem she defeated and then cleansed (as she was beginning to see it), the energy within her grew giving her even more to work with. Coupled with its limitless versatility and Rose was soon making entire weapons out of plasma, blasts that exploded in gems' faces to distract them or simply piercing through their cores as lasers without leaving any damage.
By the time the entire ship was cleaned ten minutes later, Rose felt unbelievable. Now she could create a ball of plasma bigger than her head and shape into dozens of smaller bullets or create walls as tall as she was. With this new feeling in mind, she strode onto the bridge where the last few gems untouched by her were being watched over by Goldenrod Agate and a handful of jaspers.
As soon as she entered, the enemy gems all hurled insults at her but all Rose could do was look outside at the expanse of stars in front of her. Somewhere out there were her two goals and, as much as she never wanted this to happen, she figured this could be a blessing in disguise.
"Goldenrod, how far is the nearest satellite?"
"Twenty minutes away. We've managed to keep them from sending a repair vessel."
"Very well. Send a message saying that the damage to that conduit is worse than we anticipated and that a repair squad will be needed after all."
"You monster!" one of the trapped peridots cried, "You're just going to brainwash them all! Is this how you got your rebellion started the first time?!"
"No…" Rose answered honestly, looking down at the green gem, "It was much more gradual. I really am sorry it's come to this, but I won't fail again."
The pinkette sent out a beam that pierced through the peridot's chest and poofed her instantly before repeating the process with the last few holdouts. A few minutes later, all of the gems aboard the ordinary Homeworld vessel now pledged their allegiance to Rose Quartz and simply continued on course to their original destination.
And as they moved, Rose wondered what her son, her love and all of the other gems were doing. She hoped that they would all be safe and sound once she got back to Earth. On the other hand, she also grew curious about what the other diamonds were doing. She hoped the best for Pink, but a brief sneer came to her face when she pictured the reactions the other three would have for her return.
So with Steven back on Earth and Rose in space, that only leaves one place to go. Next time, all of the diamonds! See you then!
Thank you all so much for reading! Feel free to leave any questions or comments below.