White Diamond kept her eyes glued to the screen in front of her, blocking out the pangs of panic going through her head. The amassed fleet she had aimed at Rose's new base was a combination of practically every gem the empire had left under its command as far as she could tell. With Yellow and Blue gone, she had no way to know if they found any holdouts. Regardless, she was assuaging herself that this would all go over well and Rose Quartz would be out of her hair.

She had already calculate many possible strategies she would face. Her insidious band of Crystal Gems emerging again, now flanked by an armada's worth of turncoats. Some sort of technical monstrosity cooked up by the mad-gem who concocted the device that ruined the Homeworld's defense fleet. And, though it was not one she wanted to face, perhaps Pink Diamond herself would insist on fighting.

What actually happened was a single pink blur rocketing up at impressive speed from the planet until it was only a few yards from the front of the flagship. White actually did a double take when she saw Rose Quartz herself with a disapproving glare on her face.

"Really?" she asked, almost sounding bored, "This is how you prove me wrong? Crush my peaceful little world with an army? No wonder you stay inside all the time, White. Your PR is terrible."

"Oh, shut it, you anomaly!" White shouted back, hijacking the speakers for herself, "I don't know what you did to Pink to make her follow you but I am ending this madness today! I will-!"

"-Cease this attack at once before I personally take down every last ship you've brought into my territory," Rose finished. White seemed taken aback for a moment before scoffing in disbelief.

"You? Destroy an entire fleet? By yourself… And how exactly is one gem supposed to do that?"

Rose let out a bitter chuckle at that before raising a hand, a ball of pure energy the size of her head forming. "I'm not an ordinary gem anymore, White. As much as I hate to admit it, I have you to thank for that. Now do the smart thing and turn around now before I get one step closer to ending you."

When the ships only kept advancing, Rose let out a sigh before her entire body began to glow with blinding pink power and suddenly darting away from the flagship.

(Cue Epic Theme Song: "With Me" from Sonic and the Black Knight)

Rose streaked to the right-most ship of the lot, only visible as a massive pink laser that erratically bolted and darted until it touched down on top of the hand-shaped craft and then returned to her normal body. The rebel opened her hands to reveal a buzzsaw blade as tall as she was, and soon it was spinning to cut through the hull of the ship like it was made of butter.

Once she was inside seconds later, she dropped down in front of a group of troops already running towards her. She rushed ahead to meet them, raising her arms to form a shield that perfectly fit the contour of the walls to plow them down. With hardly a thought, that same shield shrunk and contracted into a massive bubble that trapped them all.

"Let us out!" one of the guards demanded.

"Okay." Rose made a simple gripping motion with her hand, causing the bubble to glow for a moment before violently exploding. Once the smoke cleared, the guards now laid in an unconscious pile. She took a moment to assimilate their light into hers before running ahead and making her way towards the bridge, effortlessly lasering down anyone that stood in her way.

Once she reached the controls, having casually trapped all of the peridots on board in bubbles that they had no chance of breaking, she placed a hand on the nearest holo-screens before sending a pulse of power that quickly shorted out every system and plunged the ship into darkness. As the whole ship rocked from the engines suddenly dying, Rose simply flew through the glass separating the bridge from empty space and went to the next ship.

Now as she flew, fighters began to exit from the other ships to gun her down but she found them more bothersome than threatening. A single shot from her hands was enough to down them and the rare one that crashed into her simply ran into a shield she could conjure effortlessly which left the ship exploded but her unharmed.

"I hope you're watching, White…" Rose thought bitterly, breaking into the next warship, "Look at all the lives you're throwing at me and how they aren't working. They're only making me stronger, easier for me to come after you…"

Back in Rose's central command, satellites and cameras jury rigged from the other ships were showing every second of the rebel leader's conquest with everyone astounded.

"That's what you meant…" Steven mumbled, completely stupefied, "Her power really is…"

"How?!" Peridot shrieked, "No gem could… Should… Have that much energy! Her core simply can't take it!"

"Look closely," Zoisite instructed, "At the star around Rose's midsection."

"It's empty…" Lapis paled, "But… That's…"

Kunzite nodded. "Impossible for any of us, yes, but Rose has been uniquely reborn thanks to the death ray White tried using on young Steven while he was fused."

No one else dared to speak as they turned their eyes back to the action where one warship had the bright idea to try ramming the pinkette. Instead of fleeing, she stood as pink energy coalesced around her arm until two replicas of her arms each over fifty feet long reached out and grabbed onto the hand-ship's middle finger and started turning the entire craft end over end.

With a fierce glare, the plasma arms suddenly morphed into a colossal version of her old sword several times larger than she was and sliced the down by the wrist. As the massive metal war machine split into two, Rose sent flew in between the two holes and let loose a barrage of thin beams from her hands which smoothly curved through space to fly through each gem left stranded to poof them.

"Not a single casualty…" Bismuth murmured, hardly believing it all, "Even now, she isn't shattering a single one."

"She's adding their light to her own," Zoisite explained, "That's the source of her power. A smidgen of power from their cores go into her body."

Everyone that wasn't privy to that info looked taken aback at the sound of that, but no one had much time to think about it. It looks like White was getting antsy at Rose demolishing half of her fleet without breaking much of a sweat. All of the remaining ships, a dozen battleships and nearly a hundred flyers, were breaking formation to swarm Rose as one final onslaught.

"Done holding back, hm?" the mother hummed, "Then so am I."

Rose's whole body began to glow like a miniature sun, a violently pink aura flaring out more and more by the second. Her own hair and dress were whipped up by the storm she was creating, energy roaring to life where none had been seconds before. Down on the planet, the millions of followers watched in amazement as their protector, their savior, illuminated the sky like a living star.

Onboard the ships, everyone who could see the sight in front of them felt utterly terrified. Their scanners broke, simply overloaded to the point of spontaneous combustion. The warships were shaken by the turbulence, the crew members struggling to remain standing while the smaller fighters were torn between ejecting from their cockpits or simply flying away to parts unknown.

As for Rose, all she did was cross both of her arms with her hands touching her shoulders. She had never actually tried hitting her peak before, which had actually grown even higher thanks to a few thousand more gems adding their essence. And while most of her mind was focused on handling all of this power, there was a tiny segment itching to see just how much more there would be once everyone else on this fleet was with her.

And all the while, White Diamond kept an eye on the whole debacle and had gradually moved from shock to downright terror. She did not know it but she absolutely agreed with Peridot. And to twist the knife further, now she knew she was responsible. It was enough to make her tremble and a horrible new feeling was stewing in her gut.

Everyone that watched as a literal explosion of energy came, washing over every ship and blowing them all to shrapnel with Rose at its center. Every gem onboard was consumed, their bodies destroyed while a touch of their essence flew into the nucleus of the blast. When the light and noise died down, Rose simply flew back down to her planet and landed on top of the control tower. She soon entered the main room to find Zoisite and Kunzite passing her as they left while she headed in to see a room of dropped jaws.

"W-Whoa…" Greg stammered, "R-Rose?"

"Yes, Greg?"

"Are you okay?"

"Yes, I feel fine."

"How…? You just… And then… So many gems and…"

"That's an excellent point, Amethyst, very well put," Adamite said, moving forward from the group, "It is astounding to think letting out a wave of energy with enough tonnage to level a small country that you feel 'fine.'"

Rose just looked puzzled. "Well, it wasn't. It'd take a lot more than that to truly tire me out."

"Okay…" Cinnabar said slowly, "I like fire. I like explosions. I very much like making things go kablooie and then watching them burn. And even to me, that was extreme."

"Well, I'm sorry you feel that way. That might have been the last remnants of Homeworld's military meaning White should finally be out of tricks."

"Rose…" Pearl stepped up, looking antsy herself, "We know what you just did. We want to know how. Peridot made a very accurate statement that a gem cannot exist without a core or have that kind of energy in them. The most you told us was how White Diamond was responsible…"

"Oh, that… How do I put this…? Whenever I poof a gem, a part of my essence transfers into them. It used to be that I had to physically absorb the core but now it's to the point where it happens automatically."

The whole room stared at her, seeming completely lost while Rose just looked nonplussed as if this was all totally normal. She did, however, read the room and could tell she needed to cut through this tension.

"I know this is all very unusual and I'm sure you all have plenty of questions. I didn't mean to seem like I was disregarding anyone but… I didn't exactly have a choice in all of this."

Priyanka had to let out a laugh. "Heh, I guess nobody chooses to come back from the dead. My job would be awfully different in that case."

"To be honest, I wasn't sure what to do at first. I came to floating in space. Little by little I pieced things together but then I got picked up by Homeworld gems. I discovered this power by complete accident but once I did… I saw something I never thought I'd get. I had a second chance."

"You mean to stop the diamonds?" asked Steven.

"A chance to fix everything…" Rose stopped, audibly choking on her own words before continuing.

"Guys, I don't know how else to say it; I messed up. Frankly, I made so many screw-ups in the past that I had no conceivable way to fix. I shouldn't have kept Pink Diamond a secret. We shouldn't have tried ending the war the way we did. And I… I should have realized how lost you'd all be…"

"Rose… It's okay," Garnet tried, "You couldn't have known any of that. I couldn't have told you everything either. Nobody is perfect but you did a tremendous amount of good in your life. And it appears you still do here."

Peridot nodded and readjusted her visor. "While your methods are most certainly unorthodox and it does raise several questions for me, I concur that your intentions seem altruistic. You needn't put such a burden on yourself."

The pinkette seemed to breathe a sigh of relief, letting the others feel comfortable enough to go back to their own activities and to give Rose a moment to herself. Rose did just that, allowing her to truly feel all of the new energy almost physically buzzing within her until something else grabbed her attention.

"A message? Pink should be back soon…" She clicked on the holo-screen and smiled to see her friend.

"Let me take a guess," the diamond mused, "That massive spike in power half the galaxy just spotted was you, right?"

Rose just chuckled. "Guilty as charged. When can I expect to see you back?"

"Not long. That little light show of yours probably has everyone hyped up to join your cause."

"I'll be looking forward to seeing you all!"

Pink signed off with a cheerful wave, leaving Rose to herself again a second message came up.

"Why do I get the sinking feeling this is the bad news to go with that good news?"

Her hunch was proven right when the sickly-sweet smile of White Diamond came up.

"Oh, I'm sorry, am I intruding on something important to you?" the grand matriarch asked, "I just couldn't live with myself with performing such a faux pas."

"Can the dramatics already," Rose grumbled, "And just get on with surrendering. You've officially got nothing left to throw at me. I just eliminated every last pocket of support you have to throw at me."

A brief silence followed, ending only when a haughty guffaw came from the other end of the screen.

Rose's eye twitched. "What's so funny?"

"Oh-ho, I just couldn't help but find that little assumption of yours funny!"

"Well pardon me if I wouldn't be laughing in your situation! Now stop toying with me and just get on with it!"

"Very well…"

White leaned closed to the screen, an impish expression on her face, before whispering. "Who said I didn't have anything left?"

The mother stepped back for a moment, a heartbeat hammering in her ears. "W-What?"

"Ah, stumped again. Let me rephrase that so you can properly answer: Did I ever say I had no other plan? Yes or no?"

"B-But… You… Have no one… The other diamonds…"

"Perhaps I could create new ones. I always did partially fancy myself an artiste at new gem compositions."

"Most of your empire hates you…"

"Have you asked every individual gem that question? Or gotten the verdict from that clod Pink?"

"I…"

"Rose, you putrid little mistake. You won't stop me unless you personally eradicate every last trace of my stone. And when you try that, who knows what I'll have standing between us? Maybe it'll be a new army? A new diamond, even? Or… Something for that son of yours."

The floor under Rose cracked as her power flared up, a haunting pink light filling her eyes.

"If you ever so much as look at him…" she uttered, her voice sounding like a hundred, "I will erase you."

"Will you now? I'd like to see you try…"

The message suddenly cut off after that, Rose quickly cooling down before heading up to where Pink would be arriving shortly. If there was another surprise coming, she needed to amplify her powers even more before whatever it was could rear its head.

Blue Diamond's eyes were still glued to her ship's destroyed scanners, her mind completely unable to process what just happened. One minute she was just waiting for Pink to return to her base, then every last device meant to scan for gem energy go up in smoke. It was not until an incoming signal that got her to turn away from the smoldering wreck to face Yellow Diamond.

"Let me guess; every scanner you have is busted because of a colossal spike in power, right?"

"Y-Yeah… You don't think…"

"I don't think it's Rose Quartz, I know. The scanners all picked up that energy signature, but that doesn't make it any less alarming. The real question is how we're going to deal with a gem who, by all intents and purposes, should implode on herself trying to keep much energy contained to her form."

"You aren't thinking of fighting her, are you?"

"Not after that little display. Combatting a force like that single-handed would be suicide."

"I'm not talking about that! Rose and Pink Diamond are friends, Yellow! Do you honestly think assaulting her is going to endear you to Pink?"

"We can work on mending our relationships later. For now, there is a much bigger problem of a gem who not only hates us and is quickly enticing our entire race to her side but now holds enough power to snuff out a red giant star! And is aiming that power at anything that opposes her! Whose to say she won't go on the offensive and attack us?"

"That's not important right now! Pink is almost back to Rose's planet and that means we finally have a chance to say our piece and then work to regain her trust! Rose can wait!"

"Well, I think we should-"

"Blue, will you put your emotions aside just this once?! I want Pink back in my life too, but that won't matter if we don't survive this!"

"Could you both just-!"

"Yellow, this is exactly the problem! We've been prioritizing our empire over her and pushing her down! We need to give her some attention! Plus, maybe it'd make Rose less hostile!"

"You mean you want to trust that time bomb?! She's capable of vaporizing us!"

"WILL YOU BOTH BE QUIET?!" White Diamond shouted, glaring at them both from a second holo-screen on each side of Yellow and Blue's conversation.

"How did you get on our line?" Yellow immediately asked.

"Who do you think commissioned the design of the last hundred models of these things? It's a cinch to decipher the encryption."

"How come you're smart enough to do that but too thickheaded to realize we don't want to hear from you?" Blue quipped before turning her attention back to Yellow, "We were in the middle of a discussion and we can finish it without you."

"You two will argue yourselves senseless while we have much bigger problems on our hands! And if we just sit here, we'll make no progress with Pink while Rose Quartz singlehandedly usurps our entire empire!"

"And you're telling us this why?" Yellow sneered, "You've made it abundantly clear that we're just inferior versions of your magnificence."

The grand monarch paused for a long while, looking anywhere but the two people she was talking to, before muttering something as quietly as possible.

Blue and Yellow glanced at each other, confused. "What?"

Another mumble, only slightly louder. Yellow was not amused. "Either say it out loud or leave."

"I… was wrong…" White ground out, actually sounding in pain with each word, "Alright? Are you happy now? I said it! I! Was! Wrong!"

Neither of the smaller diamonds spoke for several minutes. They only stared at each other, then turned to White who was growing more unsteady by the second, and then back to each other.

"What are you two waiting for?!"

"The universe to suddenly implode," Yellow answered, sounding thoroughly terrified that she was about to disappear.

"Believe me, I feel ill just from speaking it but…" White now looked down at herself. Blue and Yellow actually paled. Neither of them had ever imagined their glorious leader could look depressed.

"I have nothing. The force I sent at Rose was nearly every sympathizer I could gather from every corner of the empire. If there are any pockets left, they'll be swiftly overwhelmed. I don't dare concoct another device since it was my backup against that fusion of Steven and the human that resurrected her. I… Need your help."

Another lapse of silence came, ending when Blue adopted a steely look that made White flinch.

"If you are serious, then you need to promise one thing."

"Yes?"

"Admit you were wrong to Pink. She needs to hear it from you."

The high queen blanched for a second before squirming. "Do I have to?"

"We won't so much as lift a touch stump to help you otherwise," Yellow insisted, "And, if I may ask, what do you need our help with?"

She put a hand to her eyes, sounding humiliated at her own answer. "Surrendering."

In the middle of this, unaware of anything brewing, were the Crystal Gems now sitting around their new abode. The sight of Rose Quartz singlehandedly decimating an enemy fleet that would have put Obsidian through her paces was enough to make them all stop and think. No one had any idea what to say at first until Steven, sitting upside down in his chair, asked a single question.

"Is this right?"

"I doubt she would have just let her new home get demolished," Pearl answered but the boy shook his head.

"I don't mean about that. I meant how Mom is getting all this power… She's… Basically sucking the power out of other gems and into herself."

"Yes, that seems to the gist of it," Peridot agreed, "What I wouldn't give to study how any of it works. It completely defied every convention of gem physiology and-"

"But is this a good thing?" he asked, flipping himself upright, "I just can't get over that. Yes, she's using it to do good but… Did any of the gems ask for it? Is she going to give it back? Is it permanent?"

"Dude, I don't think it's worth obsessing over," Amethyst tried to say, "I mean, it's Rose. She knows what's best."

As pained as he looked, the young hybrid was still shaken. "This isn't like leading the three of you on missions! This is thousands, maybe even millions of gems at stake here! I get wanting to defend your home but forcing all of the enemies onto our side?"

"To be fair, almost half of us at one point or another were antagonistic towards you in particular or your cause," Adamite pointed out, "But I can see the scope is completely different. I, too, would be curious to find out at how invasive this process is. Every single gem I've seen here has been entirely complicit with her cause and has nothing but praise for her."

"Right? It's just so weird!"

Garnet walked up to Steven, placing her hands on his shoulders with a calming smile om her face. "Steven, I don't know much about all of this either. How about we find out all of this together? When Rose gets a chance, we'll all sit down and ask our questions, so we get the answers straight from her. Alright?"

That seemed to finally placate the boy as he visibly relaxed. The others all seemed to nod along with the idea since everyone was naturally curious. The only question on their mind is when this meeting would happen since Rose was quite the busy gem but the idea of getting some answers put them all at ease enough for the moment.

As Rose flew off her world and onto the rendezvous point with Pink, she was trying to clear her head. White's vague threats kept echoing through her mind especially that last remark about Steven. Her hands curled into fists at the thought of her boy getting hurt again thanks to that wench.

"He's already suffered too much…" she sighed internally, "All of them have. I need to get things right this time. I won't get a third chance to put a stop to this."

Soon, her destination came into view. While her base was just a small shipping outpost on an otherwise desolate moon, Rose was now approaching a full-fledged colony that she and Pink now had total control of. The sight of it made her feel both accomplished and forlorn. It was better under their reign but she was far too late to save what used to be a free world. She wondered just how many species of flora and fauna, along with any indigenous peoples that lived here, were wiped out and totally lost to history.

"Never again." She swore, rapidly approaching the surface. The sterile white ground shined under the two suns in the sky, one on each side of the horizon. Seeing that ground soon became impossible because of the massive crowd of gems who all started wildly cheering as she soared above them. Her heart swelled as they chanted her name and that joy only grew when she reached Pink's leg-ship standing tall over the legion of newcomers.

"So, what do you think?" the diamond asked cheekily, "Got enough gems for you?"

"Honestly, I expected a turnout like this but this is still insane to see!"

"And if you think this is impressive, there's five more groups just like this! They're all on freighters waiting in orbit!"

Rose's eyes glazed over for a moment, just trying to imagine what her abilities would be like that kind of boost. White's warnings came back to her mind but she kept that to herself. Pink was beaming with pride and her friend deserved to have a happy moment. The two exchanged a hug before Rose turned to address the mass of waiting gems.

"Today is a momentous day for all of gem-kind! For aeons now, the diamonds stagnated our society and used you as the steppingstones in their plan to wipe out all other life in the universe! They see you as mindless drones, nothing but replaceable parts in their conquest machine! Is this the life you want?"

The crowd roared a unanimous answer. "NOOOOOO!"

"Pink here told me that the so-called 'Great' Diamond Authority divided their reign into eras depending on the status of Pink here. With her return would have begun Era 3. Now, however, begins our era! An era where the cosmos will be safe from those conquerors! An era where none of you will have any strife or danger! An era where anyone can be anyone they want to be!"

The crowd grew louder and louder with each claim until they were practically deafening each other with their raucous cheers and shouts. Pink stood behind her friend in all of this, impressed at her ability to inspire. She could not help but look forward that they would now have together and got a kick at imagining how her "family" would have nothing that could touch them now.

So, that's a lot to take in, but what will happen next? Until the next chapter!

Thank you all so much for reading! Feel free to leave a review or any questions and comments.