So, after all the battles, revelations, and plot twists, what is today's exciting adventure? A peace conference!

When Rose returned to her base, now flying fast enough to cover the lightyears of distance between planets in about a minute, she was on top of the world. They would need several more planets to house all of her new gems now. Pink took it upon herself to arrange that, clearly satisfied to have more projects to prove her capabilities. That left the mother time to fly back to her tower and spend some time with the others.

She touched down on the top of the spire and was surprised to see Kunzite and Zoisite standing by, the latter calmly waiting for her arrival while the former was idly twirling in circles out of boredom.

"My lady," Zoisite greeted cordially, "You have arrived at a very convenient time. Steven and the other Crystal Gems have requested your presence not too long ago and are currently waiting in their quarters for you."

That caught the mother off-guard, but she simply thanked the gowned gem for passing on the message before heading down the lift to see her family. When she walked through the doors, she expected them to be scattered all over the place but found them all congregated and was off kilter again.

"Hey there, honey!" Greg waved her over, "How was your trip?"

"Fine…" she answered uncertainly, walking towards them with no one else speaking up, "So, what have you all been up to?"

"We've been wondering about a few things," Garnet told her, "And we were hoping you'd be able to clear up our questions."

"It's about your energy powers," Bismuth added, "I mean, they're awesome but… How do they work?"

"Didn't I explain this earlier? It's a transfer of sorts. A part of the light that gives a gem life enters my body whenever I disrupt their form."

"That's what we're wondering about, Rose" Connie said, before suddenly stumbling, "Er, um, or is it Ms. Universe?"

That small gaffe made the gem smile. "Rose is fine, dear. I don't want too much formality from my son's girlfriend."

That made both the young teens turn beet-red and rapidly stammer that they were not in any way dating. Many of the gems could not help but laugh at their embarrassment but Greg and Priyanka were practically in stitches and the older Mahesweran was on the floor laughing. The good mood was broken up when the door opened with Kunzite running inside with a prism in her hands.

"My apologies for disturbing you, my lady, but there's an urgent message from Pink. I didn't want to delay."

"Understood, thank you." While Kunzite left, everyone's mind was suddenly on what they were about to hear. Someone asked if they should leave but Rose assured it was fine. Before long, everyone was looking up to see Pink Diamond's disbelieving face."

"What happened?" Rose asked her.

"The other Diamonds… They…"

Rose started gritting her teeth. "Oh no, did they still not learn their lesson? I swear, I'm gonna have to blow up a planet or something before-"

"That's not it… Actually, it's the opposite. They're… Giving up."

Everyone, Rose included, froze at that. They waited for the "but" in that sentence yet Pink just looked back with the same wide eyes.

"Wait, they're surrendering?" Greg asked, "Just like that?"

"Literally the first thing I said to them," Pink said, sounding unsure herself, "But no, Yellow and Blue both agreed that they have nothing left."

Rose was about to intervene, but her friend beat her to it. "And then they invited White on to tell me the exact same thing. She wants to negotiate the terms with us formally…"

No one could believe what they were hearing. There had to be some catch, some trap hidden behind this meeting. The only issue was that they had so little to go off of that they could not possibly discern what it was. Rose only double-checked to make sure that White herself would be at this impromptu summit to be held tomorrow.

"Thank you, Pink. We'll be there."

The diamond wished her the same before signing off. As soon as the communicator was down, Rose stepped out of the room. Nobody followed after her even though they were in the middle of something and soon scattered with the shared goal of doing something to relax after that bombshell was dropped.

The hours until the meeting seemed to crawl by until the time finally came. The humans of the group had barely been able to sleep, none of them wanting to dwell on the grim possibilities. And if they reacted poorly, the throngs of supporters now behind Pink and Rose took it even worse. When the ships of the other three diamonds were coming into land, they all broke out into screaming insults and threats at them. Several of them were even begging for Rose to shoot them out of the sky before they could cause any harm.

The two rebel leaders watched the masses from the top of their hub, one clearly happier than the other.

"Looks like we ended up having a welcoming committee," Pink joked. Her humor didn't faze Rose as the other rebel kept her eyes locked on the descending ships. All three of their vessels were conjoined to form the Mega Diamond minus the legs which slowly dropped down a few miles outside of the control tower.

Back on the ground, just outside the spire, was the rest of the Crystal Gems who all watched Yellow, Blue, and White emerge from their personal crafts and got a metric ton of hatred thrown at them.

"Anyone else find this immensely cathartic?" Adamite asked. Several of the gems nodded or voiced their agreement.

"It does feel oddly appropriate," Pearl mused, "We spent so much time travelling to them to stop their nonsense. Now they finally have to come to us."

The only one who did not seem to find this amusing was Steven, who looked like he was trying to swallow a marble.

"Isn't this all a little much?" he asked them, "I mean, yeah, they've done a lot of bad things but…"

"Steven, try to think of it this way," Garnet offered with a hand for him to hold, "This is going to finally bring this conflict to an end. After this little bit of ugliness, we can all finally relax."

That did seem to clear the young man's mind as they all headed towards a slowly opening hangar that was large enough to accommodate the matriarchs. Pink and Rose both waited in front of the growing entrance with the latter making a platform out of her energy to carry her family above the crowd to the meeting. Once they were all inside, the massive door started to shut and lines of light cut on to illuminate the otherwise desolate room.

With their only way outside fully closed, none of them could hear the enormous crowd they all guessed were still gathered outside. The diamonds and the Rose's menagerie stared each other down with neither daring to make a word until the pink quartz spoke up.

"So, you've finally gotten some sense. How long did it take?"

"Your latest assault on our forces cost us everything we have unless there's a pocket of resistance somewhere in the outskirts," Yellow told her coldly, "You, Ms. Diplomacy, have tied our hands quite thoroughly in your pursuit of peace."

"Oh, I don't mean how long it took you to realize the obvious. I meant how long have you been doing this conquering business only to realize that all it's done is hurt? Five thousand years? Ten? More?"

"That is not the issue," Blue insisted, "We are not here to lob attacks at each other."

"Huh, there really is a first time for everything…" Amethyst joked, getting a laugh from the gems around her but leaving the other diamonds unamused.

"Would you please take this seriously?" White asked through clenched teeth.

"Aw, come on, you overgrown nightlight," Bismuth waved off, "You've had a stick up your butt since you crawled out of whatever sun made you. Can't you just put aside the evil dictator schtick for one day and not be a total pain in the neck? You might even learn what fun is!"

That got the gems laughing to the point where they could barely keep themselves standing. Rose even noted that Yellow and Blue seemed to be fighting a smile from coming on their faces and losing. It took White audibly growling to get everyone under control again.

"Let's just end this already… The three of us have prepared a formal agreement that will act as a permanent ceasefire between our respective governments."

Yellow and Blue Diamonds' pearls came out from behind their respective masters and combined the projections from their gems to form a ten-foot wide screen for them all to see. It was still written in the gem language and thus Pink had to translate the moving text for the humans of the group.

"You're offering us ten abandoned colonies to act as territory for our followers, your few remaining forces are not to initiate combat with ours unless otherwise provoked and all gems under our domain are not bound by your authority or the caste system. Did I miss anything?"

"No, but there is one clear caveat to all of this," White added, "You are not to assimilate any other Homeworld gems to your rule. Your rabble may do whatever they please but those who still follow the Great Diamond Authority are under our jurisdiction."

Garnet raised an eyebrow at this. "And what would happen if one of your own wanted to join us?"

Blue looked at the fusion like she was an idiot. "Then those gems just admitted to dissenting."

"So you shatter them, then?" Bismuth drawled, "Looks like you chumps didn't learn a thing from this whole mess."

"I'm sorry, did we ask for your input on our legal system?" Yellow asked sourly, Yellow asked sourly, "They are our subjects and therefore will live under our laws."

"You mean the very same laws that made tons of gems hate you and want to join Rose?" Cinnabar asked back, "Because let me tell you, I'd sooner get zapped by the living lightning bolt here and join her than live under laws like that!"

"And let me guess," Lapis piped up, "You're going to keep the stupid job system in place, aren't you? Do you really think a pearl being able to do something more than be fancy butlers is going to end your civilization?"

"Do not feed us your insubordination!" White snapped, "Each gem is designed specifically to fulfill a purpose in our grand machination! Having something that disorderly will just make it harder for them to perform their function!"

Pearl looked up at the towering ivory gem with the flattest look imaginable. "Yes, because I so desperately want to be objectified by a rancid excuse of a lifeform like that Morganite instead of living an actual life. Maybe you, O Brilliant One, should have thought that through before giving your creations sentience."

"Enough!" Yellow barked, "We are getting off topic! You are not going to dictate how we run our empire! You are going to agree to our terms so that we can finally part ways and never have to bear each other ever again."

"Some negotiations…" muttered Priyanka, "I've heard rabid dogs more reasonable than these three."

"She does make a point," Pink added, "None of you seem keen to actually accommodate our relatively reasonable requests. Starting with the secession of territory, ten colonies is actually quite plentiful to house our current numbers. What I'd like to know is which colonies."

"They have been preselected so as to provide ample room for your followers while also not impeding future expansions efforts…"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Amethyst stopped White, "You mean you're just gonna keep sucking planets dry?!"

"Well, someone did drain a significant portion of our numbers…" The diamond cast a baleful look at Rose, "So we have no choice but to repopulate somehow."

Topaz raised her hand. "Or, you know, you could just be satisfied with what you have and NOT wipe out more innocent lives."

"That is an excellent suggestion, Captain!" Rhodonite said with a pat on her commander's back, "Wouldn't this also allow you three time and materials to restructure your society so that the gems underneath you could find something more satisfying than just being your tools?"

"Ooh, you should totally do that!" Rutile joined in, "I mean, call me biased since I was, you know, a fugitive of your old laws, no real biggie, but maybe being nice and not colossal jerks towards gems would actually sway some of Rose's gems back to you! Cuz, uh, right now? I'd rather go back to the caverns and the robonoids than join up with you. That is, of course, if you'd let an Off-Color live for the crime of being different."

The Crystal Gems gave the diamonds a good long while to ponder what sounded to them like perfectly straight thinking. None of the diamonds could do much besides open and close their mouths repeatedly or glare at them as if their eyeballs would generate a retort.

Although Pink liked seeing them squirm, she had a job to do and eventually moved the conversation along. "Okay, we'll table the issue of your eventual dissenters for now. I think we should go over the whole no-fighting principle."

"What is there to discuss?" Blue asked, "We won't both you, you don't bother us."

"You see, that would be very simple if not for your insistence on continued colonization. But, let's give an example of if a gem of ours decides that she wants to explore and ends up settling on a planet that you then decide to attack."

"Why would you just let one of your subjects wander off like that?" Yellow asked, "You just made a huge fuss over territory so why not keep them in your borders?"

"Because gems should be allowed to have their own travels," Rose told them, "We don't plan on shackling all of our people like you clearly do. And thus Pink's concern is very valid. What if you endanger one of our gems in your pointless quest to claim more land that you'll just destroy?"

"Then I suppose that unfortunate soul will just have to move…" White told her, "Because our cause is not going to be stopped by a handful of drifters looking to waste precious resources on a pleasure trip."

"Um, I'm no military strategist," Greg asked, "But isn't that gonna throw a wrench in the whole 'no-fighting' plan? Why can't you just compromise?"

"I'm sorry, did someone give you permission to speak?" White glowered, looking outright disgusted, "That pink boor might have rejected gem etiquette, but we do not let organics talk to us as if we're equals."'

"Don't talk about my dad like that!" Steven yelled, "He's got a good point!"

"And you shut your mouth, you little abomination! The only reason I'm tolerating your presence is because this will hopefully be our last encounter!"

"More like how Stevonnie could easily kick your butt halfway across the world and back…" Connie let out, getting another laugh from the group including Pink. Rose just had a smile, proud smile while looking up at White expecting some kind of answer. She did, however, have one thing to add.

"I would like to make one adjustment to the real estate we'll be acquiring."

The Diamonds all just looked at her, the picture of unamused. Rose just looked right back and said one word. "Homeworld."

"What about it?"

"I want it."

Even Pink looked over at her friend like she could not believe what was just heard but the mother just crossed her arms and looked over to see the diamond clearly fuming.

"Absolutely not!"

"You've officially lost your mind!"

"We'd sooner destroy it than let you have it!"

"Um, Rose?" asked Rhodonite, "Is that really necessary?"

"The way I see it, Homeworld has little use to you three anymore. Your palaces are all destroyed, you have no standing army since they're already in my court or just trying to survive and last I checked you only seem to have one servant a piece. And that's not even true since I only count two pearls for the three of you."

"Hey, that's a good point," Connie noted, "Where's White's Pearl?"

"She unfortunately proved too insubordinate to keep around. I was actually in the process of customizing a new one when your little message caused billions to go berserk."

While most of Rose's side looked appalled at how casually White threw away one of her own, Rose and Steven shared an especially distressed look.

A look which Garnet caught. "What's the matter?"

"White…" Rose asked, "Where did you get your last pearl?"

The monarch looked ready to answer, then seemed to suddenly freeze before somehow turning even paler than she already was. Pink could clearly see all of this and was now dreading the response.

"I… Eh, took the pearl I confiscated from Pink all that time ago and…"

"You WHAT?!"

Everyone flinched with even Rose stepping back as Pink Diamond started visibly glowing and her hands trembled. Yellow and Blue turned their attention to their taller cohort with glares of their own.

"That's where you got that damaged Pearl from?! Why even bother with a secondhand one when you could've just made one from scratch?!"

"Yellow, that's not the problem! How could you just disrespect Pink like that?! What could she have possibly done to warrant that?"

"Oh, I already know that…" Pink growled, "I had the audacity to stand up for myself and try something different with Earth. I wanted to break away from her perfect vision and so she threatened me into silence. I was also sending her false reports about the rebellion but she made the brilliant deduction that my pearl was responsible for forging them. So, she had her recalled for being defective…"

Shimmering, hot energy formed around her hands. Pink raised them both to face White as tears started falling from her eyes. "I hated myself then. I wanted to admit it was my fault but you trained me too well, White. You trained me to fear you more than anything else. Now let's see how you like it."

Everyone behind her stepped back as Pink let loose a massive stream of burning plasma that went into White's gem and quickly forced her onto her knees in a fit of screaming agony. The other two diamonds looked away while the Crystal Gems found themselves unable to look away. As the time kept dragging on, many of the rebels found themselves getting uncomfortable yet unable to watch.

"Um, Pink?!" Steven gasped, "You can stop now!"

The diamond did not respond, only focusing on the sight of her former tormentor writhing in pain as tears kept falling from her eyes. Steven looked behind her to see Rose had her own gaze locked on the sight before her with a mirthless smile on her face.

When the impromptu torture finally stopped, White could barely lift her head off of the ground or say more than wheezing grunts. No one else said a word until Pink stepped forward towards her fellow diamonds.

"Now then, what was that about how we better accept your demands? Think twice about who you step all over with those attitudes of yours. Maybe you should be the ones being ruled over…"

Pink then turned away, about to head out the doors with the others following behind, until something spoken caused everyone to stop.

"I'm sorry…"

Everyone turned to see White Diamond now back on her knees, letting tears fall from her eyes and looking genuinely ashamed. No one could believe what they were seeing or hearing, but none more so than Pink.

"What…? White, did you…?"

"Yes… Starlight… I'm sorry… I didn't even realize it at the time… But you're right."

"You guys are all seeing this, right?" Peridot whispered.

"Uh-huh…" Parroted everyone, even the other two diamonds.

"Oh, good, here I thought I was going insane."

"I did mistreat you… I did shove you aside and hurt you… And perhaps I could have operated the empire differently…"

"Could have?" Fluorite wondered.

"Okay, I should have!" White snapped, "I get it now! I'm! Not! Perfect! And in trying to be so for so long, I've driven away the only three lifeforms in the universe that I actually care about! I just wanted to spread my vision but…"

The sobbing queen then turned to see Yellow and Blue looking down at her. For the very first time, she wondered how many times they had shaken under her gaze. She now knew for a fact that Pink had felt belittled…

"I should have seen this ages ago. I can't do this all by myself. I… Need you. All three of you."

The room was silent once again. Yellow and Blue both helped their elder to her feet and each placed a comforting hand on her shoulder. All three of them then looked at Pink.

"Pink, there was a time when the four of us could have been called a family," Blue started, "And now we've seen how much we miss you, no, how much we need you."

"I had honestly forgotten how much joy you gave us," Yellow followed, "While we were trying to run the business end of the empire, you were there behind us to make our day with one of your parties or something silly that would make us forget our problems."

"And while there might have been headaches," White concluded, "You clearly wanted a bigger role. You saw a different path and even demonstrated an initiative and ingenuity I should have recognized back then…"

The Crystal Gems then watched as all three matriarchs lowered themselves on one knee and each held out a hand to Pink, the smallest diamond standing stock still. She could only move her eyes up from the three hands up to a sight she had not seen in literal ages – all three of the diamonds smiling at her.

"You… Mean it?"

"Of course, we do!"

"We can always rebuild what was destroyed!"

"And this time… We can do it together."

"You expect her to believe any of that?"

Pink whipped around to see Rose Quartz, arms crossed and glaring daggers at the other diamonds. The other Crystal Gems were all split between shocked at the surprisingly wholesome display and staring at Rose in shock.

"What do you mean?" Lapis asked her.

"These three are responsible for killing who-knows-how many planets and spent several millennia pushing you aside. You expect her to believe that now they can just change at a moment's notice?"

"It isn't a moment's notice!" Yellow argued, "We've spent the past few days utterly miserable and having to confront the fact that our treatment of Pink was far from ideal! Now we're ready to change that because we want her in our lives again!"

"And how long is that change going to last? You two have been White's lackies for as far as anyone can remember while your ringleader is a massive egomaniac. I give you all about a week before this little epiphany dies and you all go back to treating my best friend like garbage."

"Rose, calm down!" Pink urged, "Listen, I never even said I was going to join them! Don't overreact, okay? I was just touched to hear them finally admit they're wrong!"

"And you buy any of this?! How stupid are you?!"

"Whoa, whoa, cool it!" Greg yelped, actively getting between the two pink alien woman and trying to pusgh them apart, "Rose, honey, there's no need to get upset!"

"Greg, dear, you don't understand the other diamonds like I do. They should never be trusted. All they care about is spreading their infectious influence to every corner of the universe!"

"That isn't true!" Blue demanded, "We've said we're sorry! And we know it's going to take work to have Pink fully trust us again! If she'll give us an opportunity than we'll prove it!"

"Oh, really? White, care to tell everyone about the messages you sent me?"

The grand monarch looked thoroughly baffled as everyone looked at her. "I have no idea what you're talking about."

Rose's energy flared up as she started floating up to meet White's gaze. "You liar! You sent me a transmission just before your little invasion hit! And right after, you sent me another tempting another surprise later! So, what'll it be this time? A death trap to try and kill me and my family?! Or maybe you plan on locking Pink away forever if she takes your bogus offer to change?!"

"Excuse me, but I was too busy trying to run damage control for all of the chaos you've unleashed to taunt you and give away my plans! Now kindly get out of my face!"

Rose was about to let loose a blast of energy when a cacophony of yells caught her attention. She turned to see all of the Crystal Gems begging her to calm down.

"Rose, please, don't do anything hasty!" Garnet said, "We are here to negotiate, not start a fight!"

"Rose must restrain herself or else serious trouble will happen!" Padparadscha predicted.

"And besides that, there's an easy way to verify her story," Peridot offered, "I can just merge with your central tower's records and find the transmissions."

That last one got Rose to back down before asking the technopath to do just that. Peridot swore that she could have it done in less than a minute and quickly beamed herself into the circuits within the wall.

Well over a minute later, Peridot reappeared with a haunting look on her face.

"Um, Peri?" Bismuth tried, "What's wrong? Were the videos that bad?"

"There aren't any…" she muttered.

"I'm sorry, what?!" Rose shouted.

"I ran through your computer's entire memory bank no less than six times. There's no footage of White Diamond to be seen."

"See? I told you!" the accused insisted.

Rose, on the other hand, started to panic. "That's impossible! I know what I saw! She even sent them right before and after her attack!"

"And I'm telling you that unless White developed an entirely new brand of technology that can fool powers she has never seen in a gem before, than you are wrong!" Peridot refused to budge an inch, even as Rose stared through her. Once their eyes unlocked, Rose immediately truend to White.

"How did you do it?"

"Oh, will you drop this already?!" Yellow griped, "White is many things but capable of fabricating new technology out of thin air she isn't! Stop pointing touch stubs already!"

"Rose, come on, let it go!" Amethyst said, "I can't believe I'm gonna say this, but Peri's probably right! And if that means her royal brightness is telling the truth than she probably is!"

"You're going to side with her over me?!" the mother screeched, the floor starting to shake, "I took you in when no one else would, you little ingrate!"

"Rose, don't you dare go there!" Pearl shouted, "It isn't about taking sides, it's about the facts! For all of White's many, many flaws, the evidence points to this all being a misunderstanding!"

Rose, however, turned around to face White as she started literally glowing. "You're trying to turn my family against me?!"

"Stop it!" Pink cried, "Rose, you're taking this all way too far! Please, just calm down!"

"I'll calm down when the three of them are ASHES!" A hundred voices roared before a literal wave of energy rushed towards the three diamonds. All of them screamed in panic before a massive explosion consumed half of the hanger. When the smoke cleared, however, the rulers were shaking in fear but unharmed as a massive pink shield stood between them and the enraged Rose.

Everyone looked to see Steven in his full-gem form, glaring at his mother with his hands still raised. He only had one thing to say.

"Enough."

So... A lot has just happened. And trust me when I say even more is going to happen in the future.

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