Washington D.C., Emerald's P.O.V.:
"Steven you shouldn't worry about being nervous, every person is a little nervous when being made a leader." Today is Steven's coronation as General of the Crystal Earth army, so I try to ease his nerves from their worry.
"Really? Was my Mom nervous when she became a leader?
"She was Steven; in fact she was very nervous giving her speech on Homeworld when they announced her as the Homeworld Supreme General. She practically stuttered throughout the entire speech!" This elicits a smile from Steven.
Suddenly I hear on the speakers, "Now Ladies, Gentlemen, and Gems, welcome the new leader of the Crystal Earth army!"
"You better get up their Steven." I say as I rush him up the stairs. He stumbles but otherwise makes it up the stairs just fine. I clench my fists in anticipation and worry of what the masses will think of Steven, he is Human like they want, but he is also half gem.
"Don't worry, the kid will be alright." I turn to see some of my friends: Fire Quartz, Rainbow Tourmaline, and Spinel.
"Yeah, I mean the crowd is going nuts over him. Kind of reminds me of the days of the war after a prison was taken out of commission. All those cheering humans were just so happy to have hope in their lives once again." Spinel says
"Yeah, if anyone can lead this army better than a Praetor, it's obviously the next in line of Rose Quartz. He will definitely shine a new light on Homeworld" Rainbow Tourmaline explains.
"Yeah, that kid is definitely something. You can feel his fire, yet nothing is scorched around him. It's almost as if his flame is merely the air around him." Fire Quartz says.
I smile, happy that so many people are willing to bet on Steven. I mean it's not like there weren't people before, but it felt good to hear people say it, "Thanks guys, but the one you'll have to tell your compliments to is Steven" After that we all just sit down and wait for the ceremony to end.
Unbeknownst to the entirety of Earth, Homeworld lays its jaws towards it; being ever careful not to alert them to their gnashing of their troops preparing for the inevitable war. In the council hall on Homeworld the three Diamonds plot their plans of war.
"We will crush those dirty low lives into the grains of sand they are!" Yellow Diamond says, still apparently miffed at the Crystal Gems surviving the blast back at the end of the war.
"Yellow, you anger supersedes your intelligence at this moment. May I remind you as the High Diamond that this is a war council and not a petty anger over something as insignificant as a few survivors." White Diamond says with a patient but commanding tone.
"No White Diamond, you will not have to." Yellow Diamond says with contempt at having to be a subordinate to her own race of Gem.
"Excuse me but do any of you fully realize that this means that rouge, Rose Quartz, is still alive and well? I mean the whole fact that the Earth and Crystal Gems alike have joined forces can only point towards Rose's life." Blue Diamond protrudes into the conversation.
"I fully realize that Blue. That is why we are preparing the soldiers and not attacking immediately." White Diamond gives a sideways glance at Yellow Diamond, encouraging her to have an outburst. When she doesn't give any type of outburst, White Diamond waves her hand in an expression that meant to move on with the conversation.
"If Rose Quartz is still alive then how will we manage to take over Earth? Especially with that Emerald Quartz running around down there; with two full power-houses running amuck we cannot even hope to win this war. The entirety of the fact an Emerald is alive is sure to get all of our Emerald Troops running with the Crystal Gems. Then where would we be, without vengeance!" Yellow Diamond says.
"Yellow, are you insinuating that we the Diamond Authority, most powerful of all Diamonds that ever were, cannot beat these lowly creatures? Ones that you had not twelve minutes ago said you were going to destroy."
"No I would never, High Diamond; just merely suggesting we should keep tabs on all Emeralds. After all it is the most logical thing to do when one is at war with one's own kind." Yellow Diamond says her voice dripping with poison for the Emerald Clan.
White Diamond does not seem to take notice and nods her head, "Very well Yellow, we shall keep tabs on the Emerald Clan just in case we should have to slay them all."
Back On Earth, Strawberry Fields, Ocasio's P.O.V.:
"Why can't we train right now Ocasio?" for the past five hours Diopside has been begging me to train. I don't know why, he has gotten strong enough to start training with the other recruits.
"Because Diopside, I'm waiting for the transport of more of the un-clustered Gems from the Moon base." I say with a stern attitude.
"But why is that so important Ocasio?" He asks angrily.
"Supposedly there was a secret room full of clustered gems; they were probably the backup clusters just in case. I don't know why but I have a hunch that one of them is someone I learned about." I say, more so thinking aloud than actually speaking that last part. After that Diopside just walks off, probably looking for some poor soul to train with. Eventually the wind starts to pick up and the droning of the floatation engines ring out, the signs that show that the troop carrier is here. As it lands on the ground I motion for the two Gems with me to help me get the boxes. As we each get one box we move back to the encampment and the troop carrier takes off. We enter camp and put the boxes down in the medical facility, ever since Peridot had started working with Earth as an engineer the un-clustering machines had become a staple of every encampment's medical facilities, and just as a fallback option the machines could double as a regeneration machine for humans and Gems alike. We opened the boxes, started lumping clusters onto the large tray of the machine twelve at a time, and pressed the button waiting for each batch of clusters to become whole Gems again. We would repeat that process over and over again, of course we couldn't get all gems to become who again on the first try, and so we just took out shards and put them into another pile until we eventually ran out of clusters. After that there were no more shards left so we put the gem onto respective beds. "All right boys, y'all can leave now. I can take it from here." I commanded; they saluted and left the tent. I looked around for the one Gem I had a hunch on, at first it was hard because there were already so many dark Gems in the facility. Eventually I found the one I was looking for, it was as black as what space looked like and was shaped like a yield sign with a reflection at the bottom. I knew I had found what I was looking for; I quickly ran out and booked it to my tent. When arriving I sat down and looked the Gem, the one Gem who stood before the rest and denounced them. The one who had lived like an outcast but was accepted after the truth came out. The Legendary Black Diamond! He is a freaking beast, with his powers over shadow he could basically never be beaten during day time or any time where someone uses light. 'I could probably pair him with Tourmaline, maybe Fire Quartz, or both!' I think to myself. I decide to revive his gem now because the normal process is to slow for my liking. Besides it would be a good gift to Obsidian; I put the Gem between my hands and slowly leak my consciousness into it. Eventually all light fades from existence and I find myself facing Star Quartz.
"Ah hello little one, are you cleansing another soul?"
"Yeah, this one is going to be Black Diamond."
Star Quartz tenses up, "I don't think you're ready my student."
"Why not, you have been training me these past years haven't you? I mean you did teach me how to go into the Psyche of Gems without the dark orb back on the Moon Base." I say with a little annoyance, 'How can she tell me how I'm not read when I've been training for such a time.'
"I can tell you that because I know when my hosts aren't ready to do certain tasks." She says with her hands on her hips wearing an angry frown.
"Hosts, how many others were there?"
"Over six hundred, Gemkind has been around for many millennia after all."
"Over six hundred other Gems like me! How many of them actually listened to you?"
"Not a single one ever listened to my warnings."
"What happened to them, did they die?"
Star Quartz gets a sullen look on her face and almost looks as if she might cry. She raises a hand and dozens of specters show up, all speaking with two voices. Almost as if these specters were two… people, "No they did not die, something much worse befell them."
"You mean they got sucked inside those minds? But I thought you said no one ever remembered them?"
"No one… but me… in fact once you leave here, you'll forget them too. It is the way of the Universe to forget them." She says, obviously depressed.
"But Star, I have to do this. At first it was just to see one of the coolest heroes, then just to give Obsidian her dad back, but now… now it is for those souls. If I can heal Black Diamond it will be a triumph for each of those twelve thousand souls, half of them my fellow hosts. Maybe I can appease them and set all of them to rest." I say with so much confidence that it surprises me.
Star Quartz smirks for a bit but quickly frowns once again, "That is a nice though… but you won't save them. Still, I allow you to pass into Black Diamond." When she says that everything turns white…
I open my eyes and blink the spots from them, 'I really wish she would tell me to close my eyes.' When the spots are finally gone, all I can see is darkness, 'Hey this isn't what I expected. Why am I still in the transference world?' I begin to think I am going crazy when I hear the light tapping of water. Suddenly a feeling of intense anger washes over me, then one of terrifying depression, lastly a torrent of confusion envelops me. When I say torrent I mean it actually felt like I was being swept away by a mighty river, I struggled to stay afloat in whatever counted as not being "underwater" in here. Eventually I feel how calm the "water" is under the surface, I dive under and see that while it is not clear, the "water" is clearer than the outside. I can make out little shapes here and there; my eyes look around until I see a sphere of pure darkness sucking out all the "light" of the area around it. I began to swim to it, as I got closer I realized that it was slowly pushing me farther and farther, that's when I realized that this was just like that dark orb back in the Moon Base. I eventually just pushed my mind towards the direction of the sphere and I was shot forwards. I braced myself to hit the orb and luckily I barely smacked into it, causing only minor pain, and sunk slowly inside of it. On the inside my eyes had to adjust to the serene light. It was so bright I could've sworn it was like the inside of a fire; I once again blink out dots caused by intense light and look around, hoping to see Black Diamond. Eventually I see a man with short black hair and what appeared to look like a gi that monks at monasteries in Asia would wear. I remembered the style because Mom would explain to me the intricacies of Human culture during my free period when I did something stupid. Before I can even take a breath the man looks at me, and in his eyes I don't see sadness or depression. I only see a smile and pure grey eyes that for some reason looked as full of joy as his smile.
"Hello young one, welcome to my little sphere of paradise. I'm afraid that it is my prison, and now yours." He says
"Are you Black Diamond?" I say, skipping over the whole prison statement.
His eyes grow clouded and dark, and his smile turns into a smirk, "Why yes young one, but I prefer not to use names in here. You may refer to me as Old one and that is all."
"I'm sorry but that won't roll with me. I'm here to save you from this little abomination of a home." Suddenly the man springs forwards; all I can do is hold my arms out in defense. I quickly jump back after he doesn't hit me realizing that my crystallokinesis stopped him.
"Little one, you should respect your elders." He says as he once again lunges at me, hitting me square in the jaw. I fly back and expect to hit the ground when I actually land flat against some sort of wall, when I get back up and stop the wooziness of the punch, I notice the wall that looks like extended nature, is actually just an illusion. I dodge another punch from Black Diamond and he punches the wall, making a huge crack in it. He reels back and grabs his hand and yells in pain.
"But that's the thing Black Diamond," I dodge another punch, more cracks appear, "I do respect you; I learned about you and there are only few I respect like you. One is your daughter," he is still for a second and punches towards me again but hits the wall, darkness starts flooding in, "Black Diamond I am here to help you out of this prison. Just let me help you; that is my only request."
He kneels on the ground and he grabs his head, shrieking in pain. I begin to grow horrified as shadows leak out of him one after another, each one some sort of warrior after there are seventeen monsters in front of me he starts breathing heavily and looks up towards me, his eyes changed to just pure black irises with a gray pupil, "Little one… I am sorry but I never learned your name."
"It's Ocasio, but my friends call me Topy."
He smiles for a second, "Ocasio, what a fascinating name," he stands and gets in front of me, "Your request has awoken me again, but I'm afraid that these monsters are the traps my fellow Diamond siblings set on my gem before breaking me. You worry about breaking that wall and I'll take these things down."
He looks back at me and gasps as I punch down the entire wall with one blow, "Sorry I wasn't listening. Kind of scared by these shadow monster things and all."
As I open my eyes I see Obsidian standing over me, "AHH! Obsidian what are you doing here?"
"I'm here because someone saw you inside your tent on the ground and not responding to their calls to wake you up." She hits me on top of my head, "That's for scaring me," and then she kisses me, "And that's for saving my Dad."
"What do you mean Obsidian?" I turn to my right and see Black Diamond standing over me as well, I scream of course because I didn't know he was there. "Sheesh looks like being creeps runs in the family." I say with a laugh.
"What do you mean?" They say in unison, causing me to laugh even harder. They just look at each other confused and shrug their shoulders.