Yellow Pearl's cold, flat eyes narrowed at the pair of Homeworld Gems. Her voice came out nasally and irritated, "Who authorized you to make this call?"
Peridot took small hesitant steps forward, sparring Twoie one final nervous glance before speaking up, "Well," she began, shifting her stance. "There were some complications on our missi—"
"That's no excuse to use the direct Diamond communication channel."
A deep commanding voice called out and silenced everyone in the vicinity. "Pearl."
Yellow Pearl straightened up, her posture becoming almost impossibly rigid. "Yes, my Diamond?"
"Why is there someone on the Diamond line?"
"I don't know," she sent Jasper and Peridot an annoyed glare. "I was just about to tell the—"
"I'll take it from here." A large yellow hand pulled the screen away from Yellow Pearl and shifted its view. Only the side of Yellow Diamond's face was visible as her focus was mainly directed at a group of monitors displaying hundreds of continuously scrolling words and images.
"My Diamond," said both Peridot and Jasper. They straightened up and formed the Diamond salute with their arms.
Peridot's eyes widened, admiration and dread briefly flashing across them. "Peridot, reporting in."
Yellow Diamond's gaze remained firmly affixed on her various screens, her fingers occasionally tapping or swiping at something with extreme precision. Twoie couldn't stop the rush of anxiety shooting up his spine at her cold and annoyed tone, "Which Peridot?"
Peridot faltered for a moment, but quickly recovered. "Facet 2-F-5-L, Cut 5-X-G. During our ongoing mission on earth Jasper and I stumbled upon somethi—"
Yellow Diamond raised her hand up in a halting motion and Peridot immediately went silent.
"This says you're behind schedule on your mission to…" An image of the earth appeared on one of her many screens. She finally turned to look at Peridot and Jasper. "How is… the Earth?"
"It's… full of… life."
Yellow Diamond's lips curled back in disgust, "Organic life…" her gaze briefly darted over to Jasper whose arms were still locked in a respectful salute. "I see you brought the Jasper I assigned you. Why aren't you calling from the ship? And why is your communicator unregistered?"
"The communication capabilities on the ship were… damaged," Peridot said.
Yellow Diamond frowned at the news, but thankfully didn't press the issue any further. "And what is the status of the Cluster?"
"The Cluster…" Peridot stiffened as she prepared to lie. Twoie caught her eye and sent her a reassuring look, urging her to continue. "... will emerge shortly. Everything will proceed as planned."
"Good," Yellow Diamond said, her frown disappearing. She turned back to her monitors and resumed her tapping. "We'll finally get some use out of that miserable planet. Thank you for your report. There'll be a ship heading to your location to take you to your next assignments."
"Wait!" Peridot exclaimed. "I wouldn't have called just to waste your time with a report."
Still facing the screens, Yellow Diamond turned one lone and annoyed eye toward Peridot. "You already have."
Peridot fumbled and hesitated. "No, I mean… The reason I called... the real reaso—
"We've found Pink Diamond," Jasper cut in, apparently tired of Peridot stammering.
Yellow Diamond's reaction was instantaneous. Her body went rigid, the grip on her armrest tightened, and the small group of screens surrounding her vanished. In the corner of the video feed Yellow Pearl could be seen subtly inching away from Yellow Diamond, her face taking on a frightened and pallid look.
Yellow Diamond slowly turned to them. A carefully constructed emotionless facade was plastered on her face, but Twoie had spent enough time around her to see the rage bubbling underneath, waiting to break free at the slightest misstep.
"Explain." Her response was only one word, but it crackled with authority, promising punishment if given an unsatisfactory answer.
Jasper stepped forward, next to Peridot who had turned into a shaking mess, and gave a small bow before continuing, "Pink Diamond has been living on earth and wasn't shattere—"
"Enough!" Yellow Diamond shouted, her armrest cracking under the strain of her crushing grip. "I have neither the time nor paticine to indulge in such baseless fantasies. Unless one of you has something of actual significance to tell me, then this discussion is over!"
"Pink Diamond wasn't shattered," Jasper repeated in what was a true display of courage. Yellow Diamond sent her a daggered look and opened her mouth to retort, but Jasper continued, "He's here with us and has requested to speak with you."
Yellow Diamond's enraged expression shifted into one of surprise before going completely blank. "Pink is…" a flash of emotion spilled out on her face before her features hardened once more. "Put her on."
That was his cue. Twoie took in a deep breath and put on a brave face. He walked until he was in view of the screen, Jasper and Peridot moving to stand behind him.
"Hey, Yellow…"
Yellow Diamond frowned, disappointment flitting across the surface of her eyes."What is the meaning of this? Why is my time being wasted on an organic?"
"I'm Pink Diamond," Twoie insisted. "And I can prove it." He lifted the hem of his shirt up just past his gemstone. It twinkled under the moonlight emphasizing its vibrant color—a shade of pink that was a bit too dark to belong to a regular Rose Quartz. Yellow Diamond seemed to realize this too, inching her face closer to the monitor in an attempt to get a better look.
Although his face was calm, Twoie's heart hammered against his chest as he waited for Yellow Diamond to react. The rest of his plan hinged on this one moment. How would she take the news? Would she even believe him?
Thankfully, he didn't have to wait long for an answer because a moment later Yellow Diamond's eyes widened, a single breathless word escaping her, "Pink…"
There were many advantages to sitting atop a silo. For one, it was far enough away from the barn where Lapis didn't have to interact with the Crystal Gems or her former captors, but close enough where she could easily visit Steven or Twoie is she wanted to. It also ensured that she wouldn't be bothered by the mess of noise coming from the barn, all while giving her a stunning view of the countryside.
Lapis had spent hours admiring the stars that twinkled overhead, paying special attention to the one she knew was Homeworld, and as a result had a pretty good mental map of the night sky. So when she caught sight of a small shining object that was growing exponentially in size, Lapis knew something was wrong.
It zoomed past her in a red blur and continued forward toward the vast open field. She shot up into the air, memories of her time in the war flashing before her. Hundreds of identical ships landed on the surface that day, each packed with a squadron of Ruby soldiers who immediately went on the offensive. She had been unable to evacuate. Everything devolved into chaos and she was caught in the middle of it all.
For a moment she was frozen—a prisoner of her own mind, but when no additional ships arrived, when the cries of panicked civilian gems failed to reach her ears, she broke free of her memories and headed straight for the barn. She narrowly avoided crashing into the piles of junk that were gathered inside and was nearly hit by a stray chainsaw.
"Uh, did you get a haircut or something?" one of the Crystal Gems asked her. She was an off-color Quartz, an Amethyst.
Lapis hastily smoothed out her windswept hair. "We're under attack," she announced, scanning the barn for any sign of Twoie or Steven. She had to warn them. The attention of all the Crystal Gems was now on her. "Homeworld is looking for someone. They've sent a roaming eye."
For a moment no one spoke.
"Jasper and Peridot are missing," Garnet noted.
Everybody turned to the table where Peridot had been diligently working away only to find it abandoned. Jasper was nowhere to be seen.
The room devolved into chaos.
The bright red color of the ship was easily visible against the dark night sky. Yellow Diamond had sent a squad of Rubies who had been patrolling nearby to go pick him up. They would take Twoie to a nearby colony where he would be allowed to use a warp pad to travel to Homeworld and meet up with his fellow Diamonds.
Even as the ship hovered over them, Twoie couldn't help but stare at the grass beneath his flip-flops. He would be leaving earth soon and would probably never return. If the Diamonds didn't end up shattering him then the timeline would erase him soon enough.
Suddenly, he wished he had written a letter for the others instead of leaving without warning. The gems and Steven would be worried about him, but there was no backing out now. Yellow Diamond had seen him, acknowledged his identity as Pink Diamond and if he didn't show up to their meeting then she would no doubt go and search for him.
The red ship landed a few feet away from them. Twoie turned to Peridot and Jasper. "You guys should go back to the barn," he told them. "They still need your help in stopping the cluster. I need to do this by myself."
"No," Jasper said, voice firm. "I'm going with you."
Twoie opened his mouth to argue, but a single glance at Jasper's face dried up any words of protest. Her eyes were aflame with stubborn determination and nothing he could say would change her mind. He wanted to be frustrated, upset that his plan had been steered off its original path, but instead he felt touched by her decision to stay by his side until the very end.
"I won't let you be erased," she said. Of course, Jasper must have been alarmed when she learned of his upcoming demise. She couldn't really protect him from his fate because time wasn't something you could punch or beat in a fight. Still, because of the aura of confidence Jasper exuded he could almost believe that everything would be fine.
He smiled softly at her. "Thank you, Jasper." She merely nodded and moved to stand next to him. "Peridot, you need to stay behind and work on the cluster. The others will be worried about me and you should be there to explain the situation to them."
Peridot nodded and hesitated for a moment before bringing her arms together in a salute. "Yes, my Diamond."
Twoie frowned. Ever since Yellow Diamond had accepted his claim of being Pink Diamond, Peridot had been eyeing him nervously. Her posture was rigid and her eyes emotive, fear flitting across their surface. It appeared that she finally believed his status as a Diamond.
"You don't have to call me that," he gently informed her.
She immediately dropped the salute. "Yes, my Diamond." she let out a nervous chuckle. "About those times I called you a clod… I didn't mea—"
Twoie pulled her into a hug. "Goodbye, Peridot," he said. She was stiff and uncertain in his hold but didn't pull away. "I'm going to miss you." He let her go at the sound of approaching footsteps. She stared at him, an indecipherable expression on her face. "Tell everyone that… I'll be fine," he said before turning and walking over to meet the group of Rubies, Jasper following next to him.
"Wait!" Peridot called, her voice tinged with desperation. He stopped and looked over his shoulder. "I'll have the timepiece ready when you come back," she said. "Then you can go back to being an annoying clod… just make sure you come back."
He flashed her the most dazzling grin he could muster, ignoring the way his eyes stung and his throat tightened. "I'll be back before you know it."
"My Diamond," four voices greeted at once. Twoie spared Peridot one final glance before turning to face the squad of Ruby gems. It was time for him to leave.
Peridot waited until the roaming eye was nothing but a small dot in the night sky before beginning her trek back to the barn. Her pace slowed as she neared her destination and she found herself coming to a complete stop a few feet from the barn.
A warm yellow glow illuminated the inside of the wooden construct. The timepiece along with the carefully written schematics for the drill lay undisturbed on the table. Everything was exactly as she left it, but she couldn't shake the feeling that something had changed.
The increasingly frantic discussion of the Crystal Gems reminded her of duty and compelled her move forward. She would have to inform everybody of Jasper and Twoie's absence, something she suspected would end in disaster. Still, she was entrusted with this task and would fulfill it to the best of her ability. She entered the main area of the barn only to be greeted by a group of bickering gems.
"... shouldn't have trusted them!" Pearl exclaimed, slamming the end of her spear into the ground. "What are we going to tell Twoie?"
"Relax, P," Amethyst said. "We don't know for sure that it was them. Who knows, maybe they just decided to go on a midnight walk."
Spinel nodded. "If a roaming eye was sent to earth, why would it ignore a building full of gems? What else would it be looking for?"
"That is strange behavior for a roaming eye," Garnet agreed.
"I know what I saw," Lapis insisted. "It's too much of a coincidence that a roaming eye just so happens to show up at the same time Jasper and Peridot go missing. We need to go tell Twoie and Steven." she huffed, turned on her heel, and proceeded to crash right into Peridot. Lapis stumbled and nearly fell, but Peridot steadied her and managed to keep them both from tumbling onto the ground.
Pearl yanked Peridot forward and pressed the spear against her throat. Peridot stepped backwards, trying to distance herself from the deadly weapon only to walk right into Lapis who had her arms crossed. "Where's Jasper?" Pearl demanded, bringing the tip of the spear dangerously close to her face. "How did you contact Homeworld?"
"Woah, chill out, P," Amethyst said, rushing over to pull the spear back. "I'm pretty sure this is all a misunderstanding. Even if Peridot wanted to contact Homeworld, there's no way she actually could. We disabled communications on the handship, remember?"
"I saw a roaming eye," Lapis said. "And roaming eyes don't appear unless they have a reason to. They were called here."
All eyes turned to Peridot in search of an explanation. "I didn't call the roaming eye," she said. "Twoie did."
Pearl's spear pressed against her throat. "You're lying! Twoie would nev—"
"He contacted Yellow Diamond." The sheer absurdity of her statement was enough to stun the small group into silence. "Twoie is on his way to Homeworld," Peridot continued, ignoring the surprised cries of some of the gems. "The roaming eye was sent to retrieve him and Jasper. He wanted me to let you know that he would be fine."
The spear clattered onto the ground.
The roaming eye ship was full of familiar faces. Doc, Leggy, Navy, and Eyeball split their time between steering the ship and gushing over their latest passengers. Twoie was polite for the most part, answering any questions they had and respectfully accepting their praise, but his mind was preoccupied with thoughts of the Diamonds and their upcoming reunion.
Thankfully, Jasper noticed his reluctance to chat and kept the Rubies occupied by recounting some of her more action-packed stories from her time in the war. Apparently, she was a bit of a celebrity among warrior gems who viewed her as the perfect Quartz soldier from earth. Their enthusiastic chatter continued even as they arrived at their destination.
The colony was relatively small in comparison to Homeworld, but it made efficient use of its space and was densely packed with dozens of spires, arenas, and military bases. The small group of Rubies insisted on escorting them all the way to the warp pad under the excuse of guarding them, but really they were just reluctant to part ways with either of them even going as far as to offer them a tour of the colony.
"It would be my honor to show the luminous Pink Diamond and the fearsome Jasper some of the beautiful sights of this colony," Doc, the leader of the small squadron of Rubies, said while offering them a small bow.
"Thanks, but we really should get going," Twoie said, ignoring Doc's crestfallen expression. "I wouldn't want to keep Yellow waiting."
"Of course, how thoughtless of me," Doc said, lightly smacking her hand against her forehead. Leggy, Navy, and Eyeball followed suit and began to spout apologies.
"Our deepest apologies, my Diamond."
"We'll bring you to a warp pad right away."
"It was an honor to bask in your radiance."
Twoie offered them a weak smile and insisted that he had not been offended, but they continued to apologize and bombard him with compliments which a few of the patrolling Quartz soldiers overheard. Soon, they had a small crowd of soldier gems not so subtly following them on their journey to the warp pad. A few fingers were pointed his way and he would occasionally hear the words 'Pink Diamond' whispered amongst the group.
He ignored the amazed stares he received and pretended not to notice when a gem stopped to salute him. The whole situation was giving him flashbacks of his own years spent on Homeworld where he was waited on hand and foot and was constantly treated like royalty. It made his stomach churn, so when they finally arrived at a room with many warp pads he was relieved and immediately went to stand on the nearest one. The Rubies gave him one last salute before he was engulfed in a flash of light headed towards Homeworld.
Steven groaned into his pillow. Someone was shouting, their voice shrill and worried. He burrowed himself further into his sheets and attempted to tune it out, but it only grew louder and more incessant.
"Twoie! Please, come out!"
"Man, this is bad. Where is he?"
"I already told you, he's on his way to Hom—"
"Twoie! Are you in there? Twoie!"
Steven shot up in bed and opened his bleary eyes. All of the gems were gathered inside the beach house. They threw open any doors they could find, overturned furniture, and shouted at the top of their lungs for Twoie. He scrambled out of bed and made his way over to the group of gems.
"What's going on?" he asked, rubbing the remaining sleep from his eyes.
Pearl grabbed him by the shoulders and pulled him close. "Thank the stars you're okay!" she cried. "Have you seen Twoie?"
Steven blinked, his gaze falling on the temple door behind Pearl. "Isn't he in his room?"
The door to the temple door opened to reveal Garnet, her face grim. She gave a small shake of her head, crushing the hopeful expression that Pearl wore. Steven's heart sank at the sight. If Twoie wasn't in his room, then where was he?
Twoie frowned at his reflection. There was nothing outwardly wrong with the outfit the pebbles had made for him. It fit perfectly and was of surprising quality for something made in such a short amount of time, but it felt wrong and he had to fight against the urge to rip it off his body.
He turned away from the large ornate mirror, his frilly pink skirt moving with him, and gestured down at his outfit. "What do you think?"
Jasper eyed him for a moment before grunting and offering a shrug. She was seated on a pile of cushions that the pebbles had made into a makeshift couch, an indifferent expression on her face.
Twoie sighed. "Yeah, it's not really my style," he said, lifting up his pink slippers and watching as the white pom poms attached to them swayed in the air. "But Yellow and Blue always took me more seriously when I was dressed like this."
A multi-note chime echoed throughout Pink Diamond's old room, Yellow Diamond's chime. The pebbles scampered away to go hide in the walls, although not before getting rid of any stray tangles in his hair and making him look as presentable as possible.
Yellow Pearl stood in the doorway, her arms already in the shape of a Diamond salute. "Pink Diamond, my Diamond has requested your presence." Jasper rose from her seat and prepared to follow only for Yellow Pearl to gesture at her to stay seated. "Only Pink Diamond's presence was requested.
"Why can't Jasper come?" he asked.
Jasper narrowed her eyes and sent Yellow Pearl any icy glare, but the smaller gem remained unflinching. "My Diamond has made it clear that this was to be a private meeting."
"But what if I get ambushed on the way there?" The chances of anyone on Homeworld even looking at him the wrong way let alone attacking him were basically nonexistent, but he really didn't want to be alone with the Diamonds. "Wouldn't it be safer if I brought Jasper with me?"
"My Diamond has ensured the safety of the meeting by increasing all security measures. No harm will befall you, Pink Diamond."
"Right…" Twoie flashed Jasper a weak grin. "I guess I'll see you later. Wish me luck…"
Jasper placed her hand on top of his head, ruffling his hair somewhat in the process. "You can do this, Twoie." she gave him a big thumbs up, something she must have learned from Steven, and just like that he was on his way to Yellow Diamond.
