Five millenia ago:

"Come on, this way!" I turn towards Blue Spinel, a unconventional warrior just as I, and pull him behind the door just as it closes.

He breathes heavily, "We lost the Umbra Praetorian, they got her." Damn, that's the fifth Gem we lost to the loyalists, a praetorian no less! My praetorian, Emerald Sageson, had, with the aid of Praetorian Coral and the Umbra Praetorian, sent a small force of ten to run a quick demolition on a particular loyalist fort. Nobody knew why this one in particular, not even the praetorians; Praetorian Emerald even said he just had a bad feeling about it.

"Well," I stand up and dust myself off before extending a hand to Spinel, "We still have a mission to complete, let's get to the reactor." He takes my hand with a smile and we continue to the reactor room. Spinel and I set to the terminal and start sifting through files so we can figure out how to start the meltdown. We find it but, we also find something extremely revolting.

"Bloodydamn," Spinel started, his eyes never leaving the image, "It's a Geo-Weapon…"

"No," I say, I squint harder at the monitor screen and find there is a figure in the Geo-Weapon. It's feminine, or as feminine as one can look while in a robe, her face was what really gave it away. I turned to Spinel, "We have to do something about this. We can't just leave it here."

He nodded, his eyes now fixated on the figure. He jabbed a thumb behind us, "There are automated defenses that are accessible in the terminal behind us, go ahead and turn them on. It'll take a bit to extract the coordinates and send this generator into meltdown."

"Sure."

He turns to me, "And one more thing."

I nod my head, "Yeah?"

He clears his throat and extends his hand towards me, "If we don't make it, it's been an honor fighting beside you, Rainbow Tourmaline."

I smile and take my comrades hand, "The honor has been all mine. I just hope the children can forgive my selfishness."

Present Day:

Emerald

'Come on, come on, just one more push and I'll win. If I fail, we all die.' I take my mighty sword and slash straight into the beast, however, I failed to notice it's poisonous magma claws and it gouges me straight through the heart. My friends all clamber upon the beast and dispatch before it can tear me limb from limb. As I begin to fade into the aether, I can hear both my wife and daughter at my side. They cry, I tell them it will be fine. That-

"C'mon greenie, we get it, your character died! Now can we please get to that sweet looking treasure chest?" Amethyst says.

Steven wags his finger, "Forts and Wyverns allows for a final scene, Uncle Emerald can do this. Just wait."

I nod my head, "Thank you Steven."

Lapis covered a yawn, "Come on Emerald, just hurry up the dramatics."

I cross my arms, "Hey, I didn't fuss when your Bard died, now did… I?" The ground started shaking violently, catching everyone off-guard and throwing us all to the floor. Pearl helped me off the ground, "I don't remember earthquakes being common in Beach City."

The screen door bangs open and in runs Peridot and Jasper. Peridot looks at us wildly, "It's the cluster, it's emerging!"

"Are you sure?" Garnet asks her. Peridot nods gravely.

"No," Pearl groans, "We're nowhere near being done with the drill."

Lapis shakes her head, "We would be if it weren't for three people who decided a game of 'who can drill better' was needed." Amethyst, Ocasio, and I begin a whistling trio, and, I have to say, we weren't that bad.

All eyes turn to us, I shake my head and wave a dismissive hand, "Never mind who drilled better, I totally did by the way, all that matters is we take down the cluster. Since I'm the only one here who can actually drill to the center of the Earth, I will take two others and we will take down the cluster."

Jade raised her hand, "I volunteer for company."

I nod my head, "Anyone els-"

"I'm coming." Ocasio stated.

Pearl shook her head, "Oh no young lady, you are staying here with us."

Quartz nodded his head, "Yes, besides it makes more sense for me to accompany the praetorian and Jade."

Ocasio grumbled something under her breath. I looked at her, "What was that?"

Quartz quickly covered her mouth and began chuckling nervously, "Heh, heh, heh. All she said is ok, I promise." Ocasio opens her jaw wide and sinks her teeth into Quartz's hand. He immediately releases her and yelps in pain.

Ocasio spits into a nearby trash bin, "Freaking groupie." she turns to me and crosses her arms, "I should be able to come, I have crystallokinesis." she emphasizes this by picking me up and placing me back down. Then she summons Star Quartz's weapons, much to everyone but Obsidian and I's astonishment, "I have the weapons of a Goddess as well, so why can't I come?"

"Honestly? Your mother will never allow it." I say

"You're darn right I won't." Pearl says derisively.

"Mo-o-om, ple-e-ease!" Ocasio begs.

Pearl crosses her arms, "No, let Quartz go, he seems especially wanting of a trip with your father."

Quartz nods but for some reason finds something offensive about the statement, "Hey!"

I look between my daughter and my betrothed, studying both of their expressions. Pearl looks mighty stalwart in her decision, but as I study Ocasio's face, I take notice of something that I've only ever heard about. Her eyes flicker and for a fraction of a second I can feel an immense power, power that I've felt only a few times. 'Is that what I think it was?'

'If you were talking to me, then I have no clue son.' Great, my father, the great Amoura Bundus, had no clue about what happened either. 'It's not my fault, but if you want my honest opinion, I'd say take her along with you. Who knows, she may have the ability.'

I grab Ocasio by the waist and throw her over my shoulder, "Sorry Pearl, she's coming with us."

Pearl tries to stop me like I thought she would, "Emerald, why in the world are you bringing her on this mission?"

"Ocasio, cover your ears." she does and I whisper to Pearl my plan. She doesn't like it at first, mainly because it doesn't make sense; but hey, when have my plans ever really made sense to her?

She nods her head slowly, "Ok Emerald, but if she gets…" she doesn't finish that sentence. She doesn't need to, I understand what she means, and she knows that I would never let that happen

I look to my motley crew and begin walking out of the door, one of them close behind me and the other demanding to be put down. "We'll be back soon, I promise." With that, the door closes behind me.

I rub my cheek and stare at the frame of the drill, wishing that the cluster could have waited a few more days, "Ok Ocasio, I let you down, will you behave now?" she crosses her arms but nods affirmatively, "Splendid. So here's the plan, I'm going to lower us down but I'm gonna need you, Ocasio, to help me get through molten peridotite. Jade, I'm going to need you to do that little trick of yours to help keep her energy reservoirs nice and filled." Jade whistles affirmatively.

"Ok, let's do this." Ocasio says with pump of her fist.

"Hey, that's my line… oh never mind. You two just stick close" they close the distance between us all, Ocasio to my right and Jade behind her. "Everyone ready?" I ask. I wait until both answer affirmatively before making the soil and stone below swallow us.

It takes a few hours before the heat from the rapidly approaching molten peridotite begins affecting us, "Topy, sweetheart, are you ready? I can stop if you aren't."

She swallows nervously, "I think so."

I shake my head, "I need more than that."

"I-I-I… I don't…" she trails off.

The heat begins to burn the fringes of my trench coat, "C'mon Topy, tell me if we ne-"

"She can do it." Jade says before placing her hands on the small of my daughter's back, "Trust her and me, she can do it."

I give a nod to Jade and give my daughter a reassuring smile. Ocasio looked to me and Jade and, upon seeing our expressions, closed her eyes and sighed in focus, "Alright, give me a few seconds." That was all I needed to hear, I stopped moving the earth around us and let my daughter take over. So it seemed that she was not only able to control sand like her mother and crystalline creatures like Star Quartz, but she was able to manipulate stone like I could.

Pretty soon stone changed to molten peridotite, however, I did not feel the sweltering heat as I should have. It seemed that Ocasio was focusing on cooling the peridotite and then shifting us down; impressive, she seemed to be a fast learner.

It goes without saying, but, at that moment, I had never been more proud of anything than I had been of my daughter. Jade's assistance only went to giving Ocasio proper amounts of energy, of which she had massive reserves of, so that meant that my daughter alone was responsible for such mastery over her powers.

It would be another hour or so before we had gotten through the layer, I had managed to stave off each and any of the small cluster beasts that had resided in our area. We were about to breach into the core of the planet ,where the cluster resided, so I managed to get Ocasio to stop shifting us down before we did so. "Alright, everyone prepare for the next part. We don't know how easy this is going to be or what we're going to be dealing with."

Jade and Ocasio stretched, my daughter poked me, apparently feeling recuperated in the few seconds she had stretched, "Why can't we just go now?"

"Because," I say with crossed arms, "We need all members of this team to be in shape for the next part. You and Jade will be necessary in destroying the cluster, capiche?"

Jade waved a hand dismissively, "I'm ok to go Praetorian."

I gave her a questioning stare, "Are you sure?"

"Positive." she replies.

Great, I just wanted to rest. But if the others are ready to go then I might as well lower us down, "Ok, be prepared for anything then, because here we-"

"-Go!" Rainbow Tourmaline commanded to Blue Spinel. They both jumped opposite of each other and managed to successfully dodge the feminine figure's wicked attack, which left a scar upon the smooth wall of the core. The Cluster in which she was imprisoned in hung ominously above the three of them, the area of which she burst forth from the cluster was agape. Tourmaline could not understand why she was in the cluster in the first place, nor could Spinel. A Geo-weapon, according to the rumors, was made of nothing but clustered gems and was bigger than planets; so why was she in this particular one?

Unbeknownst to them, this was no real Gem, her name was Flint. She was a stone cold assassin; a long-forgotten project made by Black Diamond after the Clan War. Flint was made to be the first in a long line of artificially created stones that would work to support emergency services get to disaster areas, however, his elder sisters went against his wishes and made her an assassin for their personal use.

When Flint discovered she was not meant to be an assassin, which was around the time Pink Diamond was shattered, she decided to rebel against her creators. For that alone they trapped her into a Geo-Weapon for some sort of indoctrination, she would perceive any creature she came across as a Diamond and would then kill them.

"You cursed yellow fiend, I'll kill you!" she yelled at Tourmaline.

"How many times do we have to tell you, neither of us are Diamonds!" Tourmaline yells back.

Flint raised her weapon, a wicked looking double scythe, and began lowering herself into the blade,"As many times as it takes for you to die." Tourmaline and Spinel begin looking all over for her, the scythe was no longer there which meant she was teleporting to one of them.

"Tourmaline, behind you!" Spinel warns.

Tourmaline turns, he doesn't see his enemy, however, he does see the curve of what will soon become the tool that ends him. He wasn't going to be able to dodge, she was going to get him. He closed his eyes and awaited the eventual death, but when he felt not a single burst of pain, he opened them again.

The reason he had not been struck down was almost as unbelievable as the mere concept of Flint. Speaking of her, she looked at the small sword that had managed to block her weapon with disdain before turning to the person who held the sword, in her eyes White Diamond stopped her, "So, another coward dares to show herself?"

The Gem who had stopped the reaper gave a slight chuckle, "I have no clue what you mean, but I am not going to let anyone hurt my people. Speaking of," Emerald used his free hand to help Tourmaline up, "Jade, attend to him and Spinel. Then get to destroying this ball."

Rainbow Tourmaline, or Kun-gohdy, stared hard at his praetorian. He couldn't believe that Emerald was here, shouldn't he be helping end the war? Tourmaline pushed those thoughts aside, there was work to be done, "Praetorian, don't bother with the cluster ball. It, for some reason, was used to house this stone. It poses no threat since she escaped."

Emerald nodded and kicked Flint away from them, "I'm guessing it was used to somehow make her think we are all Diamonds." Tourmaline nodded affirmatively, "Are you able?"

Tourmaline rubbed his jaw and, with his free hand, summoned his hooked blade, "A little banged up, but yeah. No need to involve Jade."

Emerald smiled, "Good, because I think I'm going to need all the help I can get."

Flint rose back up and shouted angrily, "I will kill you, none of you will be left unsha-" Emerald's fist connects with her jaw, silencing the brainwashed and unruly stone. She manages to recover quickly and blocks a strike from Tourmaline's sword with the pole of her scythe. She sends her own punch at Tourmaline and sends him flying, however, Emerald catches him by his legs and lobs him back at Flint.

The tactic caught her by surprise, she wasn't able to properly defend against it and was only able to barely dodge Tourmaline's sword. The blade hooked onto the fabric of her robe and cut into it, revealing a lithe figure with a pointy gem located in it's chest beneath it. She kicks Tourmaline away before he can do anything else to harm her and then slips into her scythe before Emerald can pull off any other crazy stunts. Emerald and Tourmaline look everywhere for the stone, they ready themselves for it to come from anywhere, but they can only try and be ready for her attack.

Tourmaline was the first to fall, she came out of her pocket dimension almost instantaneously and ripped through his physical form. All Emerald could do was catch his gem after she disappeared, but even as he did she reappeared and leveled the Reaper's tool at him. He didn't notice she was there, he was looking everywhere but where she was like a fool. She didn't cut him in half like she did his friend, no she cracked the flat of her scythe against his head and sent him sprawling onto the ground below.

Now that she was finally caught off guard Flint could kill her enemy, who she still thought was the grand-matriarch known as White Diamond, it was going to be grand, the leader of Homeworld shattered by one whom she took so much time to torture. She pinned him against the ground with a surprising amount of ease and raised her scythed; all Emerald could do was try to wriggle free.

Meanwhile, from the other side of the core, Ocasio watched this take place and, just like that night at the barn, she began to feel the icy grip of dread, the terrifying pangs of fear, her father was going to die. She wouldn't be able to stop Flint, not from where she stood. She was useless.

'No, you are not.' a voice said. For some reason, that voice reassured Ocasio, in fact, it bolstered her courage. It made the dread, the fear, melt away in an instant; her eyes narrowed, her fists clenched tightly, her mouth opened, and she let loose a roar of righteous indignation.

Flint and Emerald both turned upon hearing a valkyrie's cry, their gazes centered on Ocasio in fear. Emerald, upon remembering that this was his daughter, lost his fear and decided to quickly turtle up. A shell of stone curled itself above Jade and Spinel, Emerald soon tunneling himself to its safety. Flint glared hard at Ocasio, and for a moment, Ocasio could see betrayal in the poor stone's eyes. It quickly disappeared as her resolve returned and she yelled in anger.

Ocasio summoned her sword and shield, taking Flint's anger as an opportunity to strike. She blocked Flint's scythe with her shield and jabbed her sword at Flint's midsection. Flint twisted to the side and swung her scythe again, this time Ocasio parried with her sword and bashed Flint with her shield. It landed and sent the assassin reeling down to the stone below. Ocasio landed back on the ground and gave a good whistle, 'I guess all those training sessions with Dad really worked'

Flint picked herself off of the ground, more enraged than ever, "I trusted you!" Ocasio was momentarily confused by that statement. However, the task at hand returned her senses and she went into a defensive stance, goading Flint to attack her. It succeeded and the assassin flew through the air at her target, she swung her scythe and Ocasio raised her shield. However, the swing was just a distraction, Flint's fist disappeared into her blade and reappeared behind Ocasio, striking the back of her head violently. Ocasio fell forward into Flint's knee, which crunched harshly against the Gemling's jaw; the poor girl's screams of pain echoed loudly in the core.

Meanwhile, under the protective shell of stone, Emerald struggled to not aid his daughter. Every fiber in his being wanted to run out and rip the Diamond Assassin limb from limb, to tear her stone from her body and smash it into the stone over, and over, and over again. However, he knew that if he left then, if his theory was right, that he'd only be in the way. In the end, his curiosity won out, he would have to believe that Ocasio could hold her own. 'Please forgive me Ocasio… just hang in there.

Flint let loose a string of giddy laughter, she was deliriously delighted with the damage she was doing to her enemy. She giggled insanely as her foot connected with Ocasio's side, the little Gemling choked back her painful screams even as she skidded across the jagged ground. Flint hovered above Ocasio and sighed, "Out of all of them, I thought you of all Diamonds would be the most trustworthy. I thought that… that out of all of your sisters, that I had been lucky to been created by you." Ocasio sat herself up against the wall. Flint shrugged and raised her scythe, "Oh well," Flint started somberly, once again betrayal was shining in her eyes, "I guess a Diamond is a Diamond..." Ocasio stared at the scythe before her through one eye, she was going to die, the fact that time slowed down made it obvious. However, she knew her father would destroy this creature, this demon.

She stared at the scythe and slowly made her way up to her soon to be murderer's face, it was quite plain with the exception of two rather pointed ears. However, that was not the only thing that had caught Ocasio's attention, Flint's eyes, the ones that brimmed with tears and that spoke of betrayal, had also done so, or rather, it was her pupils. They were diamond shaped just like the Diamonds themselves, or so her mother had told her, and black. As she looked into those eyes she began to feel her vision flutter, her hearing started to fade in and out. As broken images of a tall, dark figure entered her mind Ocasio began to understand that these were Flint's memories.

The first few, the ones that included the dark figure, who was obviously Black Diamond, were nice. However, she began to get broken images of screaming faces, snippets of tearful goodbyes, and full blown scenes of graceful giants who would all but torture her.

These all faded and left but one single sound, a sentence and nothing more, a final confirmation to one's self, 'I never wanted any of this…'

Flint's scythe sunk deeply into the earth, chunks of physical matter fell off her blade and rolled to the stone's foot. Flint's laughter stopped, her eyes widened with confusion, her creator was no longer there, he had disappeared!

"Hey!" a yellow fist smashed against Flint's head and sent her reeling into a knee of the same hue as the fist, her ankles were then gripped tightly and Flint found herself being flung through the air straight back into the cluster of which she had broken free of. The Diamond Assassin struggled to open her eyes and looked down to see her enemy. Ocasio's form was enshrouded in a pale white aura that whipped around chaotically as if it were kin to fire, "You looking for me?"

Flint slammed her fist against the gem shards, sparkling beads of water fell to the ground, "Why," she asked in a low voice. Ocasio looked up at her enemy, the moisture gleamed surprisingly brightly against Flint's cheeks, "Why did you betray me?" burst of wind sprouted all around the core, causing Ocasio to shield her eyes. "I murdered living creatures in your names, I had no will to do otherwise." dark, wicked looking lightning arced off off Flint's shaking body. "Even when I did refuse to be a murderer, you… you allowed your sisters to torture me! I learned I was but a puppet for each of them! I was a pawn in their games of power… and when I was done… you… you, Black Diamond, decided to imprison me!"

Flint stood and floated away from her prison, her mournful gaze turned towards Ocasio. The gemling tried desperately to wrap her head around what Flint was saying. Black Diamond was a hero of the Rebellion, why would he have imprisoned Flint? Ocasio couldn't understand, only one thing came to mind, the only thing she thought to do, the only thing she could say given the circumstances, "Flint… I-I'm sorry you went through that."

Flint laughed, "Sorry? YOU'RE SORRY? You made me to help others, you were my creator, my protector." Flint's laughs turn sad and her tears flow harder, "When the time came for you to help me, to save me, you deserted me. So, can all you say is sorry?"

"No…"

"Oh, then do go on."

Ocasio desummoned her weapons and looked Flint in the eyes, "I am not Black Diamond, I am Ocasio Sagedaughter, and I am sorry that you went through what you did." Ocasio looked to the ground and lost herself in thought, living a life she thought would have been Flint's. She only made it three days in before deciding it was too much; she clenched her chest tightly and looked back at the still crying stone, "Nobody should have to go through that! I'm sorry that you had to!" Flint stared at her foe below, her tormentor, and digested her words. The tears began welling more and more, she clenched her eyes and began laughing harder. Ocasio lowered her arms dishearteningly as she realized there was no way to get through to Flint.

"Don't," The dark, malevolent storm that was Flint shot down for a final attack; Flint's fist was covered in a visible shroud of black electricity, "You dare lie to me!"

'Flint, you've suffered so much… why, why does everyone have to suffer?' Ocasio looked to the ground, her father, her mother, her aunts, everyone she knew has suffered because of the diamonds, it was disgusting. She clenched her eyes shut as determination flooded her. She took off the ground. Her fiery white aura grew ever closer until it sheathed her body and continued to until it coalesced into a ball of pure energy that conveniently fit into her palm. The two titans neared ever closer, time, ever the lazy creature it was, slowed down. Ocasio opened her eyes and stared Flint directly in hers, Flint stared back harder; unnoticed were Ocasio's eyes, the dark gold veins that webbed into marble white orbs. Unnoticed still was the slight transformation that was overtaking her: Ocasio's hair began to pale and grow a slight bit longer, her clothes also began to whiten.

'Flint, I promise,' the gemling's eyes began to well with tears again as she focused at the face of suffering; time resumed and their fists collided. Both powers tried to overtake the other, neither succeeding. Ocasio clenched her teeth and did the only thing she knew how to, she pushed harder, "I will save you!" Ocasio's promised echoed loudly, reaching both Flint's ears and hers. It made her enemy falter and instilled strength into herself, both allowing Ocasio's fiery aura to envelop Flint's attack and breath through her.

A blinding light soon ensued and the last thing Flint saw before she fell unconscious was a deathly still and small figure with long, white hair falling beside her. The bright smile showed contentedness that Flint had previously thought impossible for any to bear. The innocence behind it allowed her to fall into the inky darkness of sleep with the first smile she herself had ever dared to bear.