I follow Steven and Lars as we crash land in the dark caverns of Homeworld. At the bottom of the cavern was the abandoned surface area of Homeworld. It was partially underground (due to the above ground structures) the area received little light, and was very dark. The area was barren, covered in dirt and rock. Many tree like shapes connected the walls together closer to the ground. Pedestals protruded from the ground, and old statues of Gems and fusions could be seen scattered around. Some pedestals had text on them written in the Gem Language.
"Lars! Suha! Are you okay?" Steven asked us.
"Thanks to your bubble." Lars said and groaned. "My bones are only a little broken." and Steven chuckled.
"My bones too." He held out his hand to Lars as I got up on my own.
"I feel fine." I told him and my gem glowed against the shadows. I felt better under the abandoned section of Homeworld then I felt above. "This place hasn't changed."
"You recognize this place?" Steven asked.
"Yeah it was abandoned by the Diamonds as they expanded across the eons." I told Steven.
"I can't trust you at all! Why are were those giant ladies furious with you?!" Lars asked angrily.
"They're the Diamonds." Steven said standing up for me. "They've been after my mom for 6,000 years, and now they're after me! Suha didn't even remember everything before, not everything has come back right?" Steven asked and I nodded.
"If I had all of my memories, I would've returned back to my original form." I told Steven. "Or as your friend Lars calls us, 'giant ladies."
Steven looked at me confused and I shook my head. "Alright later. Come on, we gotta move." We got out of the broken palanquin and began to run into the dark and desolate underground of Homeworld.
"How are we supposed to get off this planet? Do you even know where you're going?" Lars asked.
"No, this is my first time here too." Steven said.
"Just follow me, there's an abandoned Kindergarten nearby." I told them. "If my theories connect, I'm sure those 'gems' are still hiding here."
"What gems?" Steven asked.
"The-" I was about to explain but there was a strange noise. Steven cupped his ears to listen for the noise again, when Lars' stomach started to grumble.
"Ughhh, sorry." Lars apologized and a small, tan and cone shaped machine came from behind them. The base consisted of a hemispherical shape with a red pattern that served as the front of the robot. Unlike the other robonoids, the Shattering Robonoid didn't have any legs, but floated around to more easily navigate and scan the environment.
"Take my hand." I said and Lars blushed.
"Wait, why would I hold your hand?" He whispered and Steven grabbed mine.
"I wasn't talking to you." I said to him. "You'll be fine. They're Shattering Robonoids." It took a second for us to turn invisible. The Shattered Robonoids continued to search through the ruins. "They can't detect and purposely destroy an object that lacks a gem, which means that organic life forms, like you Lars won't be 'seen' completely."
The Robonoid onitnued to follow Lars. "Though they can detect movement. Which means it will keep following us."
"What are we gonna do?! What's gonna happen?!" Lars asked nervously.
"We're gonna run, hide and we're gonna be okay!" steven said.
"No!" Lars said and we took cover underneath a gem structure. "You just don't get it. I hate being scared all the time! I was scared of everything except baking. Actually, I was scared of that too. I never even tried baking baklava because it looked so hard! I never had the guts to stick up for anybody. Not even me! And now I'm hiding again like a big, cowardly loser under some... space building!"
"Don't beat yourself up like that, Lars. That's what the killer robots are for." Steven told him.
"Quickly!" "Down here!" Two familiar voices said and we turned around and spotted a hand that pointed out of a hole in the ground. It beckoned them over.
"Steven? What if it's a trap?" Lars asked.
"Uh… I don't think we have a choice!" Steven said and we quickly jumped down the hole before one of the robonoids followed them. A rock covered up the whole and Steven and Lars shivered and then sighed in relief.
"Close one, huh?" lars sad.
"Ha, yeah. But, who…?" Steven asked.
"Don't worry!" A shadowy figure approached us. "You're safe now! We're not gonna hurt you."
"Thank you! Whoever… you…" Lars said and the gemstone of th figure began to flow and revealed a familiar conjoined Gems at the waist. The Rutile Twins were tall, slender, conjoined twin Gems with short maroon hair that was style dup to a point at the top and light red skin. They had one pair of legs and arms, but two torsos and heads, and they lacked noses. Their gemstones had a "Y" shape and was located on the navel, where their bodies connected. Their body shouldn't be confused with a forced fusion, because it wasn't. The gem split in two making a V shape. The Rutile Twins wore an open toed dark red and black bodysuit, which was red with black stripes on their right and black with red stripes on their left half.
Lars scremaed and the Rutile Twins flinched in response and Steven released my hand and showed himself. The Gems stared at him in a mixture of shock and confusion. "It's okay, Lars. Thank you for saving us."
"You… You turned invisible…" Rutiles said. "But… That's impossible only Bl- I mean an old Gem was able to do that… But she's been gone for so long."
"But she's right here." Steven said and pointed to where he thought I was, which he was correct. I released my invisibility and looked at them.
"It's been a while Rutiles." I told them and showed them my gemstone.
"That's. No that's impossible." Rutiles said and moved closer. "But that cut and color, it can't be mistaken, it's the only one of it's kind."
"What do you mean?" Steven asked.
"Of the Carbonado gemstones, I'm the only one with a radiant cut." I explained to him. "Though I must admit the radiant cut is rather popular amongst gems. My gemstone color is the darkest as well… with the… impurities."
"But it is nice to see you. Very nice, those are numbers are much smaller now." Rutiles explained. "The ones with you How bizarre! What are they? They certainly don't look like Gems we've ever seen before." Though it was interrupted by the sound of Robonoids overhead. "Come, this way. This way, come!" They walked forward and I followed them.
After some time Steven and Lars caught up with us. "Umm… Excuse me, but umm… Where are you taking us?"
"Somewhere… long forgotten. Where only those who don't belong… belong." They explained and I noticed they they were almost glued to my side which made me feel happy but also sad, because I didn't receive these reactions from Blue or Yellow.
"Heh, sounds like my kind of place. You don't happen to have any fast-food joints around there do you?" Lars asked.
"Gems don't need to eat." I told him and we arrived at the end of the abandoned Kindergarten. There were holes catered everything that were almost endless, going through a entryway in a wall led to another part of the Kindergarten, where the Off Colors lived. The Kindergarten was almost completely underground.
"Whoa…" Steven said.
"What is this palace?" Lars asked.
"A Kindergarten.. A really, really big one." Steven said.
"It was the first one ever created, in the beginning." I explained. "Before we even called it Era One. It was a simpler time."
"Just how old are you Suha?" Steven asked me and I smiled distantly.
"Older than you can imagine, old enough where you forgot how many eons have passed. Where time doesn't matter." I told them.
"So you really are a Dia-" Steven started to say but the Rutiles whistles loudly as they entered a tunnel through a pillar.
"We're back! Here we are! It's okay to come out!" Rutiles said.
"Oh, thank goodness! I hope you weren't followed!" Rhodonite entered the room through a tunnel.
She had a somewhat muscular build that resemble Garnet's, with pink skin and a long pointed nose that was slightly turned upward. She had wide black, afro styled hair with a mauve highlights. She had four arms, a pair of which were thick and muscular, like her Ruby half, and another pair on her waist that was thin, like her Pearl half. She wore a black and mauve jumpsuit with a diamond shaped cutout at the navel, which revealed her Ruby gem, and mauve leggings, with one leg that covered her entire right leg and the other only covered part of her left thigh. She had a black ballet flat on her right foot and a mauve boot on her left. She also wore a sheer pink shawl over the Pearl gem on her chest and had deep burgundy gloves from the elbow-down on her lower set of arms. She also possessed four eyes with the top pair wide and expressive like a Pearl's but with dark pupils like a Ruby, and the bottom pair more closed and reserved and with light-colored pupils like a Pearl.
Her outfit and hair design, looked like a mash-up of her constituent Gems' appearances rather than an even mix. "You weren't, right, I hope, you double checked!" She saw the three of us and gasped in fright. "You've been followed!"
"Rhodonite you have the same form as before." I told her and she paused.
"She even knows my name! It's the end for all of us!" She sobbed. Same old Rhodonite.
"Uh, hi." Steven said and approached her though she backed off. "Don't worry, I'm not a threat of anything."
"It's okay, Rhodonite. Relax. We brought them here." Rutiles said. "Plus we can't kick out our founder."
"Founder?" Rhodonite asked and I felt my gem glow and I lifted up my hands and all eyes watched as a black flame came from my hands. It felt almost nostalgic. "Wait! Wait! No impossible!" She looked like she wanted to cry.
"Everyone! A wondrous prediction has come before me! The twins of Rutile will bring one, no... Two... strangers to our current place of hiding! A surprise return! A visitor! Our leader has returned!" A high pitched voice said and I felt arms wrap around me. Padparadscha was a Gem with the same height and overall appearance to Sapphire. She had a peachy orange colored complexion, full lips, and shoulder length, pale peach hair, with bangs that covered her eye and a cowlick on top of her head. Her attire consisted of a white, peach, and orange floor-length ruffled gown, with a white collar, shoulder pads, and elbow-length gloves. The skirt was peach, and it had an orange upper layer with an off-white trim and was tied back into a three-notched bow. Her gemstone was located on the back of her right hand.
"We know, Padparadscha, your prediction already happened!" Rhodonite said and quickly went over towards me and shook my hands and bowed her heads. "Oh you must forgive me! It's been an eon since we last saw you! I feel ashamed that I was unable to recognize the Gem that bravely protected us… me! Maybe I deserve to be shattered after all!"
"Rhodonite, you're forgiven, really this form looks hardly like my original." I told her. "You're not my Pearl after all."
"As kind and forgiving as often!" She said quickly.
"Let… me… see..." A giant Fusion, known as Fluorite appeared. She didn't look outwardly humanoid, but instead looked like a large caterpillar. The size of a multi-story building. Fluorite had a 6-segmented body with each segment being seafoam green, earthy grayish natural blue, dark blue, indigo purple, then purplish pink, though the colors below her head may be a boat-necked section-colored bodysuit. Each of her first two body segments had a pair of slender arms.
The first of these arm pairs had elbow-length pale periwinkle gloves. Both arms were small-handed, and blue, although the lower pair seems more muscular. The other three body segments had short, thick legs with corresponding darker-colored boots. She had a total of six gemstones: two larger gems on her forehead, three on her first body segment, and one on her second body segment. Her gemstones displayed moderately vibrant colors: earthy pink, lime-green, dark blue, light periwinkle blue, soft yellow and mixed-earthy purple, occasionally differing in coloration due to the lighting.
She had six interactive eyes, with the top two pairs being teal and the bottom pair being lavender; the bottom pair often stays closed, which created the appearance of elderly wrinkles, while the top pair often behaved as eyebrows. She had a large, bulbous nose which tapered softly up near her eyes and wavy, near shoulder-length, fluffy pale turquoise hair with a variety of intermixed styles due to her complexity with no bangs, likely due to her forehead gems. She wore a pinkish-violet, bluish-purple, and dark blue wide-striped puffy vest that has 4 round sleeve-holes for her arms, and drapes loosely over her top two body segments.
"My… my… it… is… wonderful… to… see… you… again… Though… I… do… miss… how… you… towered… over… my… height…" She said as slowly as usual.
"It's great to see you as well. It seems you've gotten bigger." I told her. "Are you up to six now?"
"Correct…" She said and Greg and Lars started to introduce themselves to the Off Colors.
"What do you mean… 'off-color'?" Steven asked.
"You know, wrong. Not… right. Flawed." Rutiles said.
" Wait… I don't see anything wrong with you guys." Steven said. Fluorite explained how they weren't seen as 'correct' by Gem society and how they came to be. "Then why are you the founder? How are you an off-color?" He asked me.
"I used the name 'Off color' as a joke, it was often my nickname, because of my color. I absorb all light, reflecting none back, and was considered 'weak' to everyone. I was considered the first defective gem. I was even called corrupted a few times." I explained to him.
"But she is very strong, difficult to cut! She has a unique composition! Even if she is different than the other Di- Gems! Entirely opaque and valuable!" Rhodonite said and I smiled lightly at her.
"I think so too!" Steven said. "Anyone who called you or any of the others defective or off colors are wrong!"
"Yes you're right. But claiming a former negative word, makes it lose some of it's power, under certain circumstances." I told him. The peace didn't last long because the sounds of the Robonoids started to become noticeable. The red light of a Robonoid's scanning beam illuminated a nearby tunnel. As the Off Colors hid themselves, Lars took up the courage to defend us. It was incredible, but also nerve wreaking. I couldn't help but feel nervous about him, fighting those flying and dangerous robots. It seemed like he had something to prove, because he didn't want any help and only wanted to protect us.
Lars rammed the rock shard right into the Robonoid's sensor and caused it to explode. He was sent flying backward in the air, his hit his head against the pillar with a cracking sound and fell onto the ground, laying motionlessly. Steven and I rushed over and I felt panic hit me.
"Lars? Lars?" I said and felt tears running down my face, for someone I hardly knew. The sound seemed to fade as I looked at Lars motionless body. Any cheers were droned out and I felt a sharp pain hit my chest. The room seemed to grow darker and colder the more I stared at him. No it seemed to turn gray, his body started to darken into a deep grey. Loss… Loss… The feeling of losing someone.. I knew it too well...
Because he reminded me of…
Steven tried to listen for Lars's heartbeat on his chest and gasped in shock, I knew he heard nothing. Steven burst into tears and the room grew silent. Steven picked up Lars and held him close. Steven began to grieve over Lars' sacrifice and tears rushed down his cheek and onto Lars' face. His body began to glow.
"Pink…" I whispered so quietly that only I could hear. It made me wonder, as they watched in shock and surprise as Lars' body turned pink and his hair turned light pink…
It made me wonder…
If I ever gave myself the time to grieve, for Pink, who I knew all along once I visited Earth… That she was Rose Quartz.
Grieve for the lost relationship that I could never receive.