Emerald

It's been exactly one week since the Cluster's significance as a threat was eliminated, though that didn't come without cost. My daughter, Ocasio, was able to defeat the inhabitant of the cluster: the Diamond assassin, Flint. However, it has left her in conditions that most wouldn't really find suitable; even with our resident healer, Ocasio still has a bit to go before she's fully recovered.

Flint has stated her actions were not of her own and in the past seven days has made many attempts to show her sorrow and regret. While they don't go without appreciation, many still regard her coldly; she takes this in stride though. When I approached her about it she shrugged and told me that she knew it was part of the process, she did attack us after all.

But, that is currently the past, right now I sat in the living room with the last remaining Crystal Gems, a mixture of new and old. Peridot had called this meeting herself, which I, and others, found odd because she seemed to be a tad bit on the anti-social; that wasn't uncommon amongst Peridots but I try to give the benefit of the doubt to many. Lapis, however, seemed to be unaffected by the Peridot's meeting.

Anyway, Peridot called us here to discuss strategy. "What for?" Fire Opal asked.

Amber nodded in agreement, "Yeah, why do we need to worry about defenses?"

"Because," Peridot began, "When, not if, Homeworld finds out that the Cluster hasn't emerged, they will send scouts to see why. And even if we manage to stop them-"

"They'll begin to send troops." Garnet said darkly.

I played with a loose strand of fabric on my coat. "Is it me, or is the air significantly heavier now?" I asked with a pathetically weak laugh, to which Pearl answered to by striking my leg.

She shook her head, "This is serious Emerald, if Homeworld besieges Earth again we won't be able to hold out."

I rubbed my leg to stop the stinging, "I know, just trying to lighten the mood…" Pearl tossed me a sideways glance; it took a moment for me to realize why, but when I did I went straight into panic mode, "No, no, that wasn't a joke!" Pearl seemed satisfied by my answer and stopped glaring. The air did clear as everyone gave their own weak laughs, at my expense I might add.

Pearl cupped her chin, a sign she was getting into what I affectionately referred to as her outside-box-mode. "Well, we can't use the light cannons."

Tourmaline and I snapped to her direction. I was just seconds ahead of my friend, though, "Wait, what do you mean?"

She shook her head, only half-listening to me, "I mean what I say, we tried them on the ship that those three," she motioned to Lapis, Jasper, and Peridot, "came in and not even a scratch was evident."

Tourmaline groaned in frustration, "All of that work! Do you even know how hard it is to keep a constant flow of energy going? Without a generator is hard enough, but those babies could just produce the photons!" I shook my head in disbelief, how much has Homeworld advanced? Those Light Cannons were made to go through even the strongest of materials.

I looked to Pearl, "This is a joke right? You can't possibly be telling me that a weapon made by Rainbow Tourmaline and Bismuth, which was specifically tailored to take down aircraft, was ineffective against a Homeworld ship."

"I am." Pearl stated matter-of-factly. "Now, if you are done whining, I am trying to think."

Fire Opal produced a flickering flame on the tip of a finger, "Why not make an army?"

Spinel shook his head, "And how do you expect we do that?"

"Well, I've been thinking."

"No wonder I've smelt burning plastic." Amber teased.

Fire Opal took it in stride, he was used to it, "I've been thinking about that night we were reformed. I've also thought about Ocasio's whole deal, she has Crystallokinesis right?" Pearl and I nodded our heads slowly, wondering where this was going. "Well, from what I see, little Topaz over there is the reason us four, and those other three… er… two, are here is on account of her ability."

I held up a hand, "No, and that's final."

Fire Opal glared angrily at me, he hated being interrupted but I knew what he was going to ask, and I was not going to allow it, "You don't even know what-"

"You were thinking of using Ocasio to help de-cluster the abominations and reconnect them in the hopes of creating an entire army." I said.

He swallowed nervously but kept his anger, "Yeah, I was."

I crossed my arms, "You have your answer."

"With all due respect, sir, I think that keeping Earth safe is…" He trailed off, probably realizing where he was going with that.

Where that thought went, I knew exactly, and its stop did not please me. "No, please finish what you were saying."

"Emerald, don't." Pearl warned.

Fire Opal clenches his hands, "No, it's fine; keeping Earth safe is the top priority, I think it is worth more than keeping your daughter-"

Fire Opal flies backwards into the refrigerator, I lower my fist and approach him. "If you ever, and I do mean from now until the day I die, say that anything else is more important than my daughter," I grab him by the collar and I can feel the particles around me begin rapidly shifting, shortly after Fire Opal is lit ablaze. It doesn't faze me in the slightest, though it irritates me enough to slam him back into the now melting fridge, "I will shatter you. That is a promise."

"Emerald." I hear Pearl say. I look back to see what she needed, but I soon found my vision jarred and my now stinging cheek resting upon the hardwood floor; from the sounds that follow I can tell Pearl has also smacked Fire Opal onto the floor. "Now," she starts, "If you can stop bickering you may stand." we both stand. "Good, now hug and apologize."

"But I didn't do anything!" Fire Opal exclaimed.

I shook my head, "I'm defending our daughter, why am I-" Pearl raised a hand, and that was all it took for me and Fire Opal to make up. I took my seat again and sat quietly; however, I did not submit so easily, my angry gaze never left Fire Opal.

Pearl began to speak, it was to the group but it seemed a tad bit more directed at me, "While I agree with Fire Opal, I must also agree with Emerald. Ocasio's health is also a factor we will take into account." I resisted the urge to stick my tongue out at Fire Opal, Pearl would've smacked me so it would have only been worth half the victory.

Lapis rotated her head in a circle to relieve the stress she, like all of us, was feeling. She sighed and looked to the left, "I have an idea. But it might include Ocasio for a small bit."

I sagged my shoulders, I guess if it was Lapis making the idea then it would be at least a little bit safer than Fire Opal, "Ok, let's hear it." Fire Opal began objecting but one look from Pearl and I was enough to silence him.

"Ok, so she has crystallokinesis. That much we know, now we also will need an army, that much is known as well." she gets many questioning looks, to which she answers them by waving a hand at Peridot and Pearl, "I think we should just make a machine that can restructure clusters, though since we don't know the exact science behind how those six were reformed we will have to assume her power does play some part in it and go from there."

All eyes turned to me, even Pearl's, once again, I find myself as the isolated power. I know that nobody will follow through with this plan if I say no; that, in itself, is annoying but nothing compared to the fact that if I agree to it most will go about it with a little too much enthusiasm.

Their eyes still bore into me half an hour later, even as the risks and benefits of such a plan are weighed equally. If this all turns sham then it may harm Ocasio further, but if all goes as planned, we may yet be able to stand against the certainly assured return of our mother planet and the tyrannical matriarchs who have constricted it's glory and molded it to their own purposes. After a final bit of debate, I turn to one of my dearest friends for advice, "Garnet, I need the possibilities. Realistic, no sugarcoating."

Garnet nodded and I could physically see a swift blade of light flash across her visor as she used future vision. After two seconds she pressed her lips to my forehead and, for a fraction of a second, I could see the terrifying infinity that was the universe, each and every choice that a path would take and how that made nigh infinite other paths to be treaded. However, after that fraction, only three remained.

The first showed a glimmer of hope, Ocasio was able to restructure the clustered Gems though her own strength and grit.

The second was disastrous, she tried to restructure them all by herself but something went wrong, her gem began to crack apart… I opened my eyes for a moment to get the image out of my head then closed them again before the next path was revealed.

The third was the bridge between the first and second, realistic yet still somewhat optimistic. She was able to power the machine, however, it required the use of some sort of steely looking crystal.

I opened my eyes once for the second time in the span of three seconds, a second for every path. Pearl clasped my shoulder, "So, what is your answer?"

I pinched the bridge of my nose, still trying to delete the image of Ocasio being ripped apart by her own power. Finally, considering that Garnet chose the three possibilities that were the most likely to occur, I gave my answer, though it was more of a statement, "We'll just have to hope for the first and last path." There were no cheers, only solemn nods for my cryptic words. Everyone understood the meaning behind them, however. Ocasio could die from this, but there was a glimmer of hope too, there were two possible outcomes where Ocasio is fine, to say the least.

Peridot took out the electronic tablet that Steven had given her as a housewarming gift, "Ok, so that also means that Lazuli's plan may work. We will need to get started on the required components right away, however, I need a basic framework to even begin that. Namely, a power source, any ideas?"

I thought back to the realistic path, "Well, I remember seeing the machine in one of the good paths, it seemed to harness Ocasio's crystallokinesis and use it to restructure the gems."

Peridot nodded, "That narrows it down to about seventeen hundred different synthetic power cores, more details please?" I told her it's steely gray color and she gave me a look that seemed to question whether or not I was joking. When I questioned her on it she just shook her head, "You just narrowed the margin down to one type and five separate crystals. Three of those are used to power the palanquins of the remaining Diamonds, one is no longer functional since the beginning of the Crystal Rebellion and, I've been told, is on Blue Diamond's personal light cruiser, the final one is…"

It took the room a couple of seconds to realize there was still one that Peridot had yet to reveal the location of. We all turned to her, Amethyst surprisingly being our voice, "Well Peri, where is that last one?"

Peridot squirmed on her seat, as if she wanted to say something but couldn't. It was starting to tick me off, she herself has been so adamant about starting an army to defend against Homeworld yet will refrain from disclosing certain bits of information. I began to stand up, "Alright you little green tw-"

I find my path barred by the last person I would have expected to do so, her shoulders were squared and her face was directed to the floor, making her short, well-kept hair hanging over hair face like a purple shawl. "Emerald sir, do not condemn Peridot for following protocol."

I squinted my eyes, "What do you mean by that Obsidian? What protocol?"

Black Opal stood to comfort their charge but Obsidian sighed, "I'm fine." she turned her gaze on me and in her eyes I could see an emotion that had never been there before: grief, "Peridot is incapable of revealing its location because of my father."

"Father?" I say.

She nodded, "I was birthed in a kindergarten like most Gems and was given to the court I corresponded to, however, my Diamond… my father, took special interest in me and decided to raise me as his own." wait, that would mean, "Black Diamond, my father, had experimented with the effects of corruption. He had originally stumbled upon corruption by accident and so he had immediately decided to try to find a way to prevent it."

'Lots of help he did with that.' I think to myself. I waved a hand, "Ok, so where is this going?"

Obsidian nodded and steeled her gaze, "What I'm saying is that there is a facility here that houses the power core needed." Her tone grew regretful as she continued, "Though… you may not like what you find there. The reason for that is the very same reason all Peridots, and any non-aristocratic caste gems are incapable of speaking openly about the facility, a failsafe if you will."

Quartz asks what we're all thinking, his cautious sneer very apparent, "Why do you say such a thing?"

"Because… that is where the Final Melody began."

All eyes turned to me for the… I've actually lost count; the point is, everyone once again looked to me for the ok. This time, I understood perfectly why. The Final Melody is as intertwined with my clan as it is with the Diamonds. My clan, despite it's prowess in combat and a wide lack of scholars, was actually very artistic. Grand tapestries of the past and the heroes within it delved on every wall of every home, but that is not all (or so I remember hearing); the Emerald clan, every Emerald, was both the voice and the herald of our people. Our songs all spoke of the triumph, of the virtues of being Gems, however, one song in particular, spoke solely of Gemkind's beginning.

The hardships, the sorrows, the grief of our earliest days were all sung of, however, there was not only saddened lyrics, spoken within were many tales of triumph and virtuous Gems. It had also spoken of an unbreakable duty; it connected every gem who had heard it with every other Gem in existence, it was our Song of Souls. However… it had lost it's meaning the same moment my Clan forgot itself… a day I have yet to pinpoint. It could have happened at any point between the Clan Wars to the earliest days of the Crystal Rebellion.

I had spoken of it only to my inner circle, the Song of Souls I mean, I had spoken of it's legend. Little did I know that the Final Melody had actually become a real thing. So yes, since the Diamonds had used the Final Melody, I alone, unless there are other Emeralds who had survived the war, am able to claim responsibility for the Final Melody. In that sense, there was only one answer I was allowed to give. "We will need a six Gem team, the others need to work on getting the details ironed out during the away team's absence." more solemn nods.

"Uhm… Emerald sir?" I turn back to Obsidian, "I wish to accompany you on the mission."

Even as I hear the sincerity and the apologetic tone of her voice, I still cannot help but be angry, "As if you had a choice, you have to bring us there."

She nodded her head, "Right sir."

"Everybody know their role?" I ask to my team, crisp salutes are my answer. I had chosen my team according to the coordinates given by Obsidian. It was Jupiter's most volcanic moon, Io, also the home kindergarten to Fire Opal. So that was two members immediately, of course Flint comprised the third. Quartz had immediately volunteered to take up the fifth on the team. We all huddle around Flint since she was going to have to teleport us to the coordinates; and since Io, according to Pearl and Fire Opal, has a very rich composition consisting of iron, I decided that Coral would be our sixth member. I gave her a questioning look, "Are you sure you can manage this?"

"Yes, Ser Emerald, I am able to teleport anywhere within a solar system."

'Well, that is rather convenient.' Dad said.

I ignore my father and look to Pearl, "We will be back as soon as possible with that power core."

She nodded, "We'll make sure that the machine is built upon your return." nothing else could be said as darkness enveloped us all. I kept my eyes closed to stave off the nausea that I find accompanies this type of travel, hoping to Star Quartz we reach Io soon.