A beam of light emerges from a warppad in the center of Stevens palace and Steven emerges, Spinel sitting on his shoulder as he strides across the floor to his throne sitting in it for the first time, The pearls coming to stand one on each side and the jaspers coming to stand in front of him, weapons appearing.
"Skinny collect any quartz from earth who want to guard my palace and Jasper go collect any loyal gems on Homeworld." He claps his hand and they all head out to complete their tasks.
"Pearls are their cameras outside of the palace?" Steven asks not waiting for an answer as he presses his hands to the controls of the throne searching for them.
"Yes Steven," They say pulling up a feed Steven sees Thousands of gems not looking out, but standing guard, staring at his palace.
"She knows that I've taken myself off the grid and wants to ensure I move through the warp system or am seen leaving the palace." he scans all of the feeds.
"I wonder what she expects my next move to be, I assume she's trying to see how I differ from my mother." he continues to watch when he sees the massive warppad at the end of his throne room lights up, yellow and blue diamond emerging,
"She treating us like Rubies now Blue!" Yellow snarls, electricity cracking the floor beneath her.
"Pearls, go to my ship and work from there, this may go south." they shuffle out as yellow and blue continue to argue.
"Spinel, I think you should go stay with the pebbles until this pans out," he says holding his hand up to his shoulder and bringing her to look him in the eye.
"You keep sending me away," she calls steven out.
"I know, Spinel but I'm trying to keep you safe. If this comes to blows you may get hurt. If I take too long after this plays out why don't you come and find me." Spinel stares at him before walking away, a broken look in her eyes.
"Calm yourself yellow, it's not the first time we have been asked to complete a task."
"She didn't ask, she commanded!"
"Are you going to fix my floor?" Steven asks lounging on his throne, vanishing the screens with a wave of his hand."
"And the gem of the hour, you need to go to White, and you need to apologize and return her Pearl."
"Her pearl, What color does she wear? Who was she made for," he asks not sitting up yet staring down his nose at the two.
"This isn't the time for your games Steven! White isn't like us, if you ignore her she will make it so you cannot!"
"Like she did to pearl? You believe that she can do this to us?" Yellow looks away and blue covers her mouth with her hand.
"...When pink would get out of hand and when she split the planet White took her over and marched her into her cell."
"Her what?" he asks dangerously, finally sitting up.
"There is a cell in this palace designed to imprison a diamond."
"Yes, for when Pink misbehaves." energy sparks from Steven, traveling from the throne and scorching the floor.
"And you don't see the issue with that?! don't understand why she found it so easy to leave?" he prods seeing Blue look away the room taking on a Blue hue as tears begin to fall from the eyes of the Diamonds.
"How often did you make her cry blue, do you even remember?" steven flares his own aura keeping hers at bay
"I remember every time I made her cry," Blue says softly her aura vanishing as she sobs collapsing to her knees.
"You're going to stop this, you may not be pink but we are diamonds! Every gem was made for a purpose from the thinnest fleck of Micah to the hardest stone, we need to set an example for our perfect empire."
"Stop lying to yourself yellow! Blue yells. I know you're hurting Just like Pink was hurting. She was right to leave us, we were awful to her don't you remember the little things she used to do for no reason well there was a reason she was trying so hard to bring us together and we drove her away. She was suffering in silence for ages, just like our gems, just like me and I know that you're suffering too!"
Giant tears hit the ground and yellow looks away. "Stop using your powers on me blue."
"I'm not," blue says surprised walking over to comfort her. fellow diamond as she cries, millions of years worth of emotion finally boiling over.
"Pink was right to leave us, This place is broken but white won't listen, she never listens." yellow admits to herself.
"The three of us will need to make her listen"
"It's not that easy Steven," Blue says.
"White isn't like us especially after losing pink. She won't admit to any flaws in our empire even if me and Blue finally admit to them it will only serve to make her angry with us."
"Then let her be angry! I'm exhausted and I've been here for a week. Yellow if it came down to it do you truly believe white could control all three of us."
"Not for long, even her powers must have limits."
"I have a plan to get White out in the open, but I need you to draw her attention for a little while."
Yellow sighs. "Ok steven, we're with you."
"Well distract white."
While yellow and blue go to distract white steven hears the warp-pad activating, the famethyst marching out.
"You're all here." steven says surprised.
"Of course we are, we want to help you." one of the amethysts says the rest agreeing. Steven smiles softly.
"Thank you." he shapeshifts into a quartz-like form.
"We need to scatter. Bring homeworlds eyes to yourself in whatever way you see fit." Steven says and they grin.
"Oh, we can do that." If Steven was a kinder man he would be worried by the looks they were sharing.