Chapter 9

Steven rubbed his eyes as he looked out at the stars twinkling outside his window. On any other night, he would probably have been asleep by now, but tonight he had business to attend to. He had put it off most of the day, electing instead to spend his time with Rose, who had seemed like she'd needed the company after what had happened at the arcade that morning. Now that Rose had returned to her room for the night though, he had decided not to delay any longer. Grabbing his Diamond Line communicator from his bedside table, he headed over to the temple door. The symbol of Steven's Gem emblazoned on the door glowed pink as it opened to reveal his room. Clutching his communicator in one hand, Steven collected his thoughts before stepping across the threshold.

Once the entrance had disappeared behind him, he had the room produce a simple desk and chair. He frowned slightly at the incredibly bare setup, and tapped his chin in thought for a moment. "A little more lumbar support in the chair please." The room quickly granted his request, replacing the wooden seat with a more ergonomically designed office chair. "Hmm…There's still something missing" said Steven, continuing to frown. "Oh! I know!" Moments later, when the room had, at his request, produced one of those executive office toys with the swinging balls, Steven was satisfied. He sat the Diamond line communicator on the desk in front of him as he took his seat. It was pretty convenient being able to use his Gem room at times like this, but at the same time, part of him wished he didn't have to build a private area from scratch every time he needed to talk to the Diamonds. He reflected to himself that he should probably take Bismuth up on her offer of extending the house. Adding that to his mental to-do list, he shifted his focus to the communicator in front of him. He gave the two halves a turn, and the communicator flared into life, summoning a screen in front of him.

Within moments, the faces of the Diamonds began appearing on the screen. Yellow took the longest to answer, having presumably been reluctant to pull herself away from whatever paperwork she was engrossed in at the time. Once all three were assembled though, they beamed at Steven. Even White tended to smile at the sight of him these days. "Steven! This is a nice surprise" said the monochromatic matriarch. "How are you Starlight?"

Steven grinned back at her. "I'm fine, thanks. I wish I could say that I just wanted to catch up with you three, but I'm actually calling on business today." White and Blue tensed slightly as he spoke; these days 'business' usually meant danger of some kind. Yellow meanwhile became visibly more relaxed; she tended to be more comfortable discussing business than pleasantries. Steven wasn't surprised that she was the first to speak up. "What seems to be the problem Steven?" she asked, conjuring a touchscreen with one hand. Steven had to hold back a giggle at Yellow's predictability, but he supressed it and got down to business.

"This morning Garnet and I found a roaming eye parked in the forest. It doesn't belong to the Crystal Gems, so we figured some Homeworld Gems must be visiting. We haven't been able to find any though. Do you guys know if anyone was heading for Earth recently?"

Yellow closed her eyes and pinched the bridge of her nose, before replying to Steven in as non-patronising a tone as she could manage. "Steven, do you have any idea how many Gems there are in the empire? It was difficult enough to keep track of them back in Era 2, but now that they all have the freedom to come and go as they please, it's downright impossible. Dismantling the empire is going to take time, and until the reforms are complete things are going to be a bit chaotic up here."

"I understand that" replied Steven sympathetically "and I promise I'll come out there and help you guys out with it soon. There are just a few loose ends I need to tie up on Earth first, and making sure that Beach City is safe is one of them. We don't know if the Gems who brought the ship here are peaceful or not; and even if they are, if they don't know about the situation on Earth, they might not understand why they need to stay in the city. They could leave and end up getting hurt by some frightened humans."

Yellow sighed, her expression softening. "You're right of course; it's important that your planet is safe. I'm sorry we let this slip through the cracks. I'm just not sure what we could do to help."

"Well…" Blue interjected "I suppose would could take an inventory of all our courts' roaming eyes; see if there are any unaccounted for? At least then we'd know if the ship came from Homeworld or from one of the colonies."

Yellow thought for a moment, leaning her chin on her fist. "Hmm, I suppose that would help. It might take a while, what with how short-staffed our courts are these days, but I suppose it's better than doing nothing. I'll pass on the instruction to what's left of my court."

"That's great, thanks guys" said Steven, instantly happier for having made some progress. The Diamonds were doing their best to change, but overhauling a civilisation that had stayed the same for millennia was a daunting task, so Steven wasn't surprised that they needed a little push every now and again. He was about to say his goodbyes when White spoke up again. "So, Steven… how are things going on Earth? Is everything…going well?" It was framed as an innocent question, but all four of them were acutely aware of the meaning behind it. "I'm guessing you're asking about Rose" Steven said flatly. He wasn't offended by their desire to monitor Rose's progress; after all, Rose had come very close to erasing all the progress that he and the Diamonds had worked so hard for. At the same time though, Rose was just trying to live her life now, and he wasn't exactly eager to start divulging the details of said life to people that Rose certainly wouldn't have spoken to of her own free will.

"Yes" admitted White. "How is Rose Quartz… coming along? Has she been giving you any trouble?" Steven pressed down the brief pang of irritation he felt at White's remark. The Diamonds talked about Rose as though she were a problem child that needed supervision; exactly how they had talked about Pink. He quelled his anger with the knowledge that they were probably only asking out of concern for his safety, and that of what was left of the empire. "She's doing fine" Steven replied. "She's still doing some soul searching, but she seems happy."

"Oh, that's good to hear" said White, but Steven could tell from her tone that she wasn't particularly interested in Rose's wellbeing. It wasn't the same cold, smiling apathy that she had displayed when he had first met her; this was different. She spoke now with a straight face, and a wary tone that told him her disinterest likely meant that something else was bothering her; something she felt content to leave unsaid. Steven however had no such contentment; whether the problem was about Rose, or just something personal to the Diamonds, they would all be better off with it out in the open. "What's going on White?" asked Steven with the tone of a disapproving parent. "I can tell when you're not telling me everything."

White looked sheepish for a moment, turning slightly pink and twiddling her hands nervously. Noticing her fellow Diamond's anxiousness, Yellow jumped in. "We're simply concerned about what's going to happen with Rose Quartz going forward. You can't really think that keeping her on Earth indefinitely is sustainable." Steven raised an eyebrow in confusion. "Why not? I've done that with a bunch of other Gems, and some of them are people who tried to destroy the Earth too."

"We understand that Steven" interjected Blue, trying not to sound dismissive, "but don't you think the situation is different now? The Humans know all about the Gems on Earth, and they know about what Rose did too. Keeping her around for too long risks setting off another incident."

"Well, so what?" said Steven, now letting his irritation show slightly. "I'm not gonna tell her that she can't live on this planet just because of how other people might react! She deserves to be able to choose for herself."

"That may be so" said Yellow, once again interjecting herself into the conversation before Blue could become upset by Steven's admonishment, "but just be sure to let her know that, if she does decide to return to Homeworld, she won't be imprisoned, or harmed in any way." Steven was unable to disguise his surprise upon hearing that. As much as he believed that the Diamonds had changed, he had still assumed that, had Rose tried to return to Homeworld, the Diamonds would at least restrict her movement. Era 2 may have been over, but Yellow's penchant for intensive security had survived into Era 3, and this allowance was a rare concession. "Really? You guys are ok with that?" he asked. "Don't misunderstand" Yellow responded, "this isn't exactly my preferred strategy, but the empire isn't as strong as it used to be. If we are to survive in the long term, we need to start extending the… what was that Human saying again?"

"The olive branch, Yellow" Blue volunteered with a smile.

"Ah, yes. That. Anyway, we hope that, provided Rose Quartz has changed as much as you've said, we can be on good terms with her again. Facet 31 may have been disbanded, but many of its former members still idolise her a great deal. As such, she still holds a great deal of influence over more Gems than she realises, and we'd prefer that we weren't on their bad side."

Steven wasn't at all surprised that the Diamonds' desire to make amends came more from a place of political convenience than any desire to make friends; he was acutely aware of whom he was speaking to, but he did find himself impressed that they were able to take even this small step. The Diamonds had ruled an entire galactic empire, so it stood to reason that they were good at seeing the big picture. Their grief over Pink had got in the way of that for the last few thousand years, but with that wound at least partially healed, he could now see first-hand the intelligent, tactical minds that had built said empire. "Ok. I'm glad to hear that. I'll be sure to let her know" he replied with renewed optimism.

"Thank you Steven. That means a lot" White said with a smile. "We'd best be getting back to work, but we'll talk to you again soon."

"Ok, bye guys! Let me know if you find anything out!" said Steven as he moved to close the call. "We love you!" Blue piped up, grinning and waving as she and the other Diamonds disappeared from the screen.

On the Diamonds' end of the call, Steven's face had disappeared from his quarter of the screen, leaving the three rulers of Homeworld still connected on the Diamond line. "I do so enjoy talking to him" said Blue, still bearing a residual smile from the call. "He's so much like Pink, but so surprising at the same time." Yellow gave a simple "mhmm" in confirmation. She had to admit, she did enjoy these talks, even if they usually consisted of Steven imposing his morality on their decisions. "Do you think we did the right thing?" asked White suddenly, "Not mentioning our true reasons for wanting Rose back here I mean?"

Yellow sighed, and stared into the screen to look her fellow Diamonds in the eye. "You know he wouldn't have approved. Steven is an incredible individual, but his moral compass is completely unshakeable. If Gemkind is going to make it through Era 3, we're going to need to do things that he might not always agree with. With that being the case, it's sometimes necessary to keep him out of the loop. If you're feeling bad about it, console yourself with the fact that we're doing this to keep our Gems safe." White looked slightly mollified, but still wore a nervous expression. Blue looked much the same. Both nodded in agreement though, before saying their goodbyes and closing the call. Once the whole screen had gone dark, Yellow turned to look out of her window at the city beneath her, and swore that this time; she would keep her Gems safe.