How It Will End

by Milo F. Waters

Steven barely escaped his trial on Homeworld. Soon after he returns, he starts discovering more new abilities. Although that might be for the best for him and the Crystal Gems because Homeworld is NOT happy with his departure...

98. Endgame Part II

For anyone who cares, I wrote the last third or so of this chapter in one go this morning. I'm somehow mentally exhausted and psyched at the same time. Yaaaaay, weekends! But enough chatter, story time!

With the first half of their plan done, Topaz kept steering the ship around Earth's atmosphere with one specific goal in mind: cause as much damage as possible. That proved quite easy with Peridot's technopathy allowing them to teleport her and anyone inside a ship by simply linking up the communication channels and then appearing somewhere inside.

This was where everyone else was coming into play with this operation. Adamite was the only exception since her earth powers weren't exactly useful on an airborne metal machine. She acted as the replacement lookout whenever Rhodonite went to infiltrate ships to fight off gems with her fencing skills.

It wasn't just the once-shy fusion getting to shine. Rutile and her gravity waves, Bismuth with her elastic fist fighting, Peridot jacking weapons and destabilizers, Greg with his suit, Priyanka with her crystal powers, Padparadscha proving a little bit too good at sneak attacks with a dagger. Even Topaz left her chair to show off her improved skills with her pugil skills and a few wrestling holds she picked up. The only exception was Fluorite but she had a firm role.

Now that Cinnabar and Lapis were occupied, the six-gem fusion was now the one pulling guard duty on top of the Beacon. Unlike those two, she stuck to simply smacking away any attacker who got too close to the ship. Considering a single kick from her was enough to send one fighter spiraling over the horizon, it proved an exceptional deterrent.

Much like Stevonnie, they knew their goal was not to wipe out the enemy. They were take down as many gems as reasonable, depriving Rose of her powers. The plan for a sudden influx of invaders or, worst case scenario, Rose herself was to retreat ASAP and regroup.

And all the while, they all thought about their comrades. Priyanka and Greg fretted over their children, Bismuth for her comrades, Adamite for her best friend and the love of her long life and so on. All of them knew they couldn't fail. They had weathered too much to let a grudge best forgotten end their future.

---

Fulgurite had no idea how long she was carried along by a giant flaming comet, only that she was carried up, up and up some more until the ocean was one massive blue expanse far below. Clouds floated beneath her and a green landmass was off to the northwest.

She didn't get much more time for sightseeing when a massive orange firebrand flew into her line of sight. Hurtling at her like a living meteor, Orange Diamond fizzled to a stop just in front of Rose's largest servant with a curious smirk.

"That suit Yellow made really is impressive handiwork, huh?" she preened, only getting a flat look in response.

"Well excuse me for trying to lighten the mood…"

"You've done enough lightening, trust me," Fulgurite groaned, "Now, are you gonna take this seriously or do I have to make you?"

Orange chuckled to herself, confusing the rebel further. She was entirely serious about this.

"Alright, I won't hold back… Just remember one thing…"

Like a switch being flipped, the diamond's body was wreathed in an inferno. The clouds around her faded, Fulgurite could feel the sheer heat through her plasma armor and the joyful glint in the diamond's eyes only got worse.

"You asked for this," she warned finally as she raised her arm, two fingers outstretched like she was firing a weapon.

(Cue Epic Theme Song: Eclipse of the Sun from Hyrule Warriors)

Without any warning, a bullet of flame bigger the size of Greg's van fired out of her digits. Fulgurite leaned to the side to dodge only to find another shot barreling into her torso. Even with the suit on, it felt like a dose of boiling magma to the chest. She winced only for more and more shots to force her to fly out of the way.

The diamond simply pivoted, never relenting as dozens upon dozens of fireballs flew from her fingers. She calmly raised her other hand and doubled the volley, forcing Fulgurite to fire back with pulse blasts. Explosions rang across the horizon, orange and white colliding in a cacophony that parted many of the clouds and yet neither colossi flinched.

The barrage stopped just as soon as it started. Fulgurite took a moment to breathe, only to get a hammer blow to the back of the head that sent her tumbling through the air. She righted herself just in time to see Orange Diamond launching a cannon of flame large enough to swallow several gem fighters.

It took using her own propulsors to jerk herself to the side fast enough. When Orange rushed in for another attack, the upside-down Fulgurite righted herself in reverse. The diamond took a mountain-shattering kick to the chin faster than she could blink.

"How does someone…" she asked, rubbing her sore jaw, "So bulky like you move that fast?"

Fulgurite shot a cocky grin. "I dunno, but at least I know you're still full of hot air."

The diamond couldn't be offended. She knew full well that both her components had skeletons in the closet but that only gave her twice the reason to prove herself. The problem was that she couldn't use her full potential up here. She didn't want to accidentally charbroil a stray human boat or a coastline.

Knowing there was only one place she could cut loose, Orange moved in again but this time wrapped her arms Fulgurite's shoulders before rocketing them both up higher and higher in the air. Soon the blue sky of Earth gave way to the starry expanse of space. Once they were surrounded by blackness and the Earth was a sprawling mostly flat shape beneath them, the diamond released her foe.

Fulgurite didn't get it. What, did the diamond want to get her butt kicked in zero-gravity. The lack of an atmosphere meant she could fly even faster. She was about to taunt that only to notice the diamond was glowing brighter by the second. A flickering aura soon became a blazing conflagration that roared out of her even though the diamond was perfectly still.

In that moment, the twelve-gem fusion realized it. The diamond didn't want to hold back. As the flames fade in an instant, Orange only looks as assured as ever.

"Still sure you don't want to back out?"

The other fighter only grinned like a madwoman, powering up her suit to its golden full-power form. Both of them collided at Mach speed, now able to travel even faster without any air stopping them. Their arms locked, trying to use brute strength to make the other buckle first. The difference was that Orange Diamond could spontaneously make herself broiling hot.

Fulgurite was forced off, her fingers smoking while the diamond reared her fists back. When she thrust them forward, two ridiculously huge columns of red-hot flame roared. Fulgurite fired back only for the flames to suddenly swerve. The diamond had one arm bent upwards at the elbow and the other bent down.

The massive rebel assumed the attack somehow missed only to find two bands of flame had stretched out from above to form shackles over her wrists. A matching set came from below to bind her ankles. Fulgurite then noticed a growing heat coming from both directions.

One pillar of fire had arced down and was racing up towards her feet. The other trailed up and was literally raining down on her. And now they both had her pinned in place.

Fulgurite's face flashed in panic before she forced all of her pulsars to go off at once, creating a brief explosion that let her escape just before the blasts collided in a fiery trainwreck… Except that when the fusion turned around, the streams were still following her.

"What?! HOW?!"

"I hold absolute control of my flames," Orange boasted, standing still as she guided the attack with a lazy outstretched hand, "What, your little toy can't do the same?"

Fulgurite turned in time to see the two thrown flames spiraling together into an even larger ray. With no way to outrun it, she had to turn and fired her central beam. She knew it risked draining the armor's power, but she doubted even she'd take an attack like that unscathed. The searing golden energy met the orange eruption in a colossal explosion that send both gems flying apart. Soon they were miles away given Rose's biggest supporter time to think.

The diamond's immense pyrokinesis posed a serious challenge. With so much versatility, brute force was not an answer. She needed to be just as crafty. She also knew an explosion huge enough to rupture a continental plate was going to get some of Rose's other gems investigating…

"That's it!" she thought with a smirk, "I'll I've gotta do is stall her until reinforcements show up!"

Maybe not the most original plan but it could still work. She was about to plan another attack only to notice dozens of lights streaking towards her. Fulgurite flew further away from the planet, guessing correctly that they would follow her. The diamond herself was nowhere in sight but that just meant the fusion would have to outlast this.

She kept swerving and curving, but the flaming missiles proved as resolute as could be. It took a few careful blasts aimed through her feet to blow up some of them but that still left dozens of others. In fact there seemed to be more of them now then ever! Fulgurite grimaced. The diamond was making new ones.

Now she had no chance but to confront this, wondering what she could do that wouldn't mean frying a small chunk of Earth.

Fulgurite's eyes rested on the Moon, remembering how Rose mentioned it was uninhabited. As the platoon of comets trailed behind her, the armored fighter charged right at the gray, cratered satellite before jerking away at the last minute. Almost all of the fireballs rushed in and crashed into the Moon's surface while the last few were blasted away.

Fulgurite dropped herself onto the Moon, the plasma around her somehow feeling stiffer than before. She wasn't sure if that was her own exhaustion or the armor losing power but she enjoyed having her feet on solid ground again. She looked around wondering where the new diamond went off to only to look up. The sun was looking incredibly bright from here. None of her components were astrologists but…

"Wait a minute…" Fulgurite turned away from the planet and saw the distant sun shining, then turning back to the earlier light and paling. There was a hundred-foot tall ball of pure fire staring her in the face.

"Oh no…"

"This is your last warning!" Orange Diamond bellowed through the vacuum, "Either you defuse and come quietly or your getting barbecued!"

"Y-You're insane!" Fulgurite shouted back, "T-That'll destroy the Moon! I thought you were fighting for the Earth!"

"I am fighting to end the unhinged maniac you follow! Any damage we make can and will be rebuilt once Rose is safely dealt with!"

"You wouldn't, it could cause a disaster!"

Orange, her arms raised beneath the behemoth fireball she was making, smirked. "What's that? It should be even bigger?! If you insist!"

Fulgurite's words died in her throat as the miniature nova somehow grew, expanding in every direction. Even through the chill of space she could feel pure heat, her entire body breaking out in a sweat as the supersized sphere surpassed two hundred feet, three hundred, and more. No doubt several humans were wondering why a second sun was forming above their atmosphere.

"I hope you're ready, Fulgurite!" the diamond jabbed, "This is everything I have! All of my power in one place! If you can beat this, I'll stand down!"

Fulgurite felt a lump in her metaphorical stomach, knowing she had no choice but to tackle it head on. She planted her feet on the lunar ground below and brought her hands forward, mentally commanding every iota of power her suit had left to form the biggest bolt possible.

The silence of space was suddenly broken by a pair of hot-blooded howls, a towering beam of golden photons rocketing towards the newborn star. Once they touched, literal waves of power arced off into the void. The ground underneath Fulgurite cracked and splintered from the quakes but she refused to budge. She had no idea what Orange Diamond was feeling but holding such a colossal attack had to be draining.

Neither blast was gaining any ground, dark matter ignited by the luminescent ripples and the entire Moon starting to quiver from the strain.

Fulgurite's arms were roasting, her entire body screamed for rest but she couldn't yield yet. The diamonds and their tyranny had to be stopped! So Cinnabar trusted one of them enough to fuse with her? Big deal!

She had to keep upright, keep firm, never rest even for a moment. That didn't mean that her focus could be drawn to something else. She actually looked at the flaming ball of death and wondered what she was seeing. Why did it look like the flames were jumping around, moving too erratically?

Even weirder than that was how this new shape was moving down to her beam to her arms… Right before they lost all feeling.

"WHAT THE?! Why can't I move?!"

A triumphant laugh ran out. "Didn't you pay attention? You wanted all my power, and now you've got it! I have Cinnabar's flames AND Yellow Diamond's paralyzing energy!"

"N-No! I-I can't lose now!"

"You lost when Rose took control of your mind," she said, her voice gentle, "I don't blame you for any of this."

Fulgurite felt an odd feeling of peace wash over her as scarlet bolts started going across her suit. The plasma dulled from gold to its original silver before losing its luster entirely. Maybe it was her mind reasserting itself, maybe it was just relief that the fighting was over, but she barely felt the massive ball hit her or the massive explosion that made a whole new crater over a mile deep in the Moon.

Once the smoke cleared, Orange Diamond had just enough power to float herself over and count twelve undamaged gemstones tangled in a mound of separate plasma armors. She bubbled the stones one by one and breathed a sigh of relief before her body turned white. One flash later, Yellow Diamond was still huffing as a half passed out Cinnabar rested on her shoulders.

"That… was awesome…" the little pyromaniac giggled, finally out of steam. The diamond didn't say a thing but she wore an honest smile on her face as she called for her flagship to pick them both up. In the meantime, she looked up at the blue planet still above her and hoped the others were faring as well.

---

As Stevonnie trudged out of the ancient gem ship, they noticed Rose looking expectantly behind them. She quickly got confused.

"Where are they?"

"Bubbled."

Rose is flat-footed to hear just how flat the fusion's voice is. "You didn't think I'd…"

"Yes, I do. You would have absorbed them, and they don't deserve that."

The mother is plainly offended but she can't muster a response. Stevonnie spreads their legs into a stance, fists curled and ready to resume the fight. Seeing that they have nothing else to talk about, Rose responded in kind and blitzed forward with a punch to their chest. Stevonnie is flung backwards directly into the spaceship's hull, indented in the weathered metal.

They pull themselves free just in time for Rose to rush in with an energy-covered fist. Stevonnie raises both arms to form a shield as the vessel behind them is rocked backwards into its crevice.

"Well, good thing this place is empty now," the hybrid retorts before shapeshifting their leg into a blunt hammer and kicking upwards. Rose is catapulted hundreds of feet by the chin, too dazed to stop Stevonnie from striking them with a whip dozens of times. Tatters of her dress flutter to the ground as Rose regains her bearings, grabs the barbed weapon, yanks it forward and backhands a reeling Stevonnie across the face.

The fusion rights themselves before hitting the ground, then has to fly close to the grass as Rose unleashes flat waves of energy that explode like dynamite as they collide.

As dust and debris starts to little the valley, Stevonnie uses the cover to think. She hasn't been going as crazy with the energy. The other Crystal Gems had to have made a dent in Rose's followers by now. Healing Centipeetle, no, Nephrite, and her friends gave them their minds and bodies back.

Just as they were thinking back on how they'd have one heck of an adjustment, a sudden yank of their hair made them yelp.

Rose swept their legs, flinging the fusion over her shoulder face-first into the dirt before stomping them down. They flinched with every footfall on their spine,

"Oh, you want to play really dirty, huh?" they thought, "You didn't forgot I could shapeshift, did you?"

As another blow came down, a golden spine pierced through their skin and shot straight into Rose's leg. The mother recoiled in pain only for Stevonnie to suddenly leapt into a handstand and brought both feet into a double kick that smacked Rose in the head. To add insult to injury, the limbs were turned into serrated edges that sliced into her face, making her scream and shield herself from view.

She managed to heal off the damage in time to see a gilded spear thrust through her chest, then literally twisting to make her wince in pain. Rose fired lasers out of her eyes to force Stevonnie back, but they jerked the weapon's hilt up before the halberd disappeared. Stevonnie flew up to follow up only to get slammed with a plasma beam that caught them in the face.

As Rose stayed in the sky, she watched as fusion rubbed their hands across their face before a small glow appeared through their clasped fingers and Stevonnie looked unharmed.

"So only now do they willingly use their healing powers," she thought idly, "They really won't give in. I hope this doesn't carry on much longer…"

Stevonnie was quiet but they hoped the same thing. They were really glad that Dr. Maheswaran weren't going to see what they just looked like…

---

The Antarctic waters were quiet as Cobalt Diamond stood, her dazzling wings still unfurled, patiently waiting for the fleet to make the first move. It seemed her little demonstration had frightened them to the point of inaction. She did watched as more were called in, no doubt from pleas over their wavelengths that there was a grave threat that needed immediate neutralizing.

The half a dozen warships were now a full dozen, flanked by several hundred or so jets ranging from the single-gem jets to bombers designed for long range artillery fire. These rhombic purple craft drifted into view, at least thirty of them, and let loose with a barrage of missiles. Hundreds of them raced towards the diamond, none of the offenders understanding how she could still look so calm. That was enough tonnage to level a mountain.

Cobalt raised her arms outwards, the sea responding as it formed a wall several hundred feet high. With a gentle push, the water rushed forward as a mega tsunami capable of swallowing a skyscraper.

The massive flood rushed ahead, carrying and crushing hundreds of ice floes with it, meeting the missile storm head on. The two met, a wave of steam rushing for miles along with aftershocks sending the sea into chaos. The pilots could scarcely believe it. How could a bunch of water stop that?!

Cobalt, for her part, remained as serene as ever. Her feet left the ground and her hands began glow with rippling energy.

"I hope I don't keep you long," she said politely before taking off straight towards the armada.

(Cue Epic Theme Song: Silent Howling from Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night)

Despite being building-sized, Cobalt proved especially capable of rushing up to meet the bombers. She simply spread her arms as her spectral wings glowed, the motes of energy buzzing around like fish in an aquarium until her own barrage of lasers shot out to counter the dozens of rockets fired on her. The frigid air was again consumed by smoke and heat with Cobalt flying straight through, swooping above the line.

The bombers planned to turn around and launch a third strike only to realize too late that a literal wall of water was rushing up to meet them. Thousands of gems were suddenly tumbled like dice in a cup as the metal freighters were sent flying before the water still rose and changed into the shapes of colossal hands big enough to hold the football-field sized ships like toys.

As Rose's peons tried to maneuver themselves out of the diamond's aquatic grip, a few smooth moves of the diamond's arms made the situation worse. The water burst through the hull doors and breaking through the reinforced crystal "glass" of the bridge, forcing them all open and flooding the interiors. Once they were completely full, Cobalt commanded the water to rush out the entrances carrying all of the gems with them.

She watched patiently as the thousands stationed on-board the bombers plummeted into the ocean below, ignoring all of their shouts and protests. And with a slow crushing motion, they were all silenced as hundreds of barbs shot out of the water to poof them in a matter of seconds.

Cobalt waved her hand over the mass of stones, pleased to see there wasn't a single crack or blemish among them, before sending the bubbled soldiers away. A few hundred fliers rushed at her, apparently thinking that sheer quantity could overwhelm her.

They quickly learned how insane that was as Cobalt lifted a single finger to let out a mountainous ball of energy that quickly went from a jumbo jet sized ball before branching off into thousands of wire-thin lasers that sliced through hulls like they were hot butter. This time they landed on a massive liquid saucer that poofed the throng of pilots just as fast, leaving Cobalt and the onslaught of warships.

Now the diamond lifted herself hundreds of feet into the air with the ocean itself tailing behind her, following her in a single, undulating line as if it was still resonating with the currents and aquatic life within. Cobalt's serenity never faded, as if carrying megatons of water were a simple affair, her arms looking ready to accept a hug from the giant steel supercarriers.

The mega-ships all aimed their pointer lasers, ready to annihilate the target in front of them only for that oceanic tendril to rise even further and aim a giant funnel large enough to swallow them right at the fleet. Cobalt's body glowed and a rain of her kinetic power came… through her bare feet and into the water below.

They tried to follow the trail, the ships tilting their aim down into the sea, but Cobalt's motherly smile gained just a hint of a smirk as the very water glowed a radiant blue. Soon that light swirled up the thousands-feet high cyclone and released a literal rain of laser-fire from its gaping maw. With each piercing drop, a tiny explosion that left a dent in the metal. Soon the ships were crumpled and trying to change course only to either run into each other or were still caught in the miles-wide downpour.

And with each drip hitting the explosive force of a grenade, soon the ships were less soaring through the air and more warbling with a prayer that the engines wouldn't give out. But the saintly diamond watching over them seemed to cut them a break as the torrent stopped, the waterspout retreating back into the sea.

"I hope I haven't rattled you too much," she said earnestly, "All I want is to coexist, after all."

The freighters didn't raise their weapons, hobbling through the sky. Cobalt then noticed the lead one coming in closer. "Hmmm, a negotiator?"

The diamond fluttered down to meet them, only for the ship's thrusters to fire up to maximum. Before Cobalt could move away, she got a megaton punch to the face. She was about to reprimand them like an angry mother only notice the backing ships revving up their blasters.

"Oh, now you want to be underhanded?" she challenged, all that warmth gone from her voice, "You really should know better…"

She jerked her arms up above her head, the sea suddenly exploding like an all-consuming geyser to consume them all. This finally proved too much for the fliers as many were forced to crash while the few still airborne were only so thanks to sheer luck.

Cobalt, however, kept a stern gaze on the legion of dissenters as her hands spread outward as dozens of blasts launched out of her open palms and into the night. Rose's gems braced for an even worse storm only to look and see that the energy balls were just floating. Many assumed the diamond had misfired somehow only for the respective captains to notice something.

The orbs were all spaced a hundred or so feet apart above the ocean's surface with the diameter closing up into a tight circle several hundred feet up.

Cobalt Diamond had trapped them all in a literal cage of energy, all but daring anyone to fly away. And between the death glare that could put the other diamonds to shame and knowledge that she could very easily just blast them en route to escaping, they were wondering if immolation was the better option.

The scowling diamond lowered her feet onto the water before dipping them in, sinking lower and lower until everything from the neck down was under the waves.

As the titanic ships bobbed along, nobody tried to fire as Cobalt slowly rose herself out of the water. Some wondered why she didn't look any different, others pointed out how strange it was that she wasn't dripping wet.

Then one of the more observant rubies pointed out how oddly shiny Cobalt looked from this angle and soon the truth spread. The diamond had covered herself in a literal coat of water from the neck down that refracted the moonlight above. And much to their horror, it was quickly getting bigger.

Cobalt's face glared down at them all as a massive armor made of seawater formed around her. In the back of her mind, she made a note to thank Stevonnie's attack for the inspiration as her own suit grew to stand over a thousand feet with the legs still joined to the ocean. She glanced down to see the ships were now trying to take off again even with the plasma balls still hanging around them.

"A shame you Rose didn't let you keep any common sense…" she lamented before commanding the aquatic titan's arms to stretch down and pick up one of the escaping ships. It weighed practically nothing to her new limbs. With one hand on either hand, she pulled the ship apart and the battered metal came apart like papier-mache.

As the hundreds of gems suddenly fell out of the torn-open craft, Cobalt commanded a hail of water bullets to poof them on the way down. This was the difficult part as she had to mix both softer, rounded shots to feel for all of the individual cores and then use piercing rounds to land the critical shot to damage their form. She wondered if this was what White used to feel like on her day-to-day work of managing the empire.

"No wonder she was so cranky…" she thought idly before scooping up the fallen troops, bubbling the cores and sending them off before repeating the process. A few managed to take off or tried to escape her grasp but none of them made much progress. By the end of it all, Cobalt had long lost count of how many troops she sent to the temple. The exhaustion of controlling so much water was finally sinking in. But there was still the matter of all the debris left in the ocean…

She flew out the top of her suit, allowing it to splash back down to Earth, before soaring over miles of ocean she had fought in and summoning a wave to sweep up every piece of detritus left on the surface. By the end of it all, the tsunami wave eclipsed her several times over but she merely stopped it with a push of her arms and rolled it all into a massive ball several miles wide before charging it with her energy. The immense sphere glowed an electric cyan before being thrown out of the planet's atmosphere.

"There…" Cobalt huffed, "Back the way I found it… Mostly…"

She then let herself fall out of the sky and landed in the ice-cold water with an ear-shattering sploosh before defusing into Blue Diamond with an already snoring Lapis lying on her forehead.

As tired as she felt, Blue let out a chuckle before summoning her remote. She couldn't wait to tell the others about this.

---

As Rose and Stevonnie were trying punch each other into submission, each blow strong enough to dent the ground beneath their feet, the mother gem could feel something inherently wrong. Her attacks had less strength behind them, her reflexes were getting dull and she found summoning too much energy a hassle.

All of that at least made sense to her seeing how she had been fighting for over half an hour now, but when an energy ball of hers just fizzled out hallway in midair, that made her gasp… And then take a kick to the face for her trouble.

When Stevonnie saw it, they had to keep their face still. The plan was working! Rose had finally lost enough power that she was returning to normal! With her still on the ground from that attack, Stevonnie walked up to her and simply waited for her to get up.

"Oof, my head…" she groaned, needing a minute to get her bearings back. Stevonnie offered a hand up and, though she hesitated for a bit, took it.

"Having second thoughts?" they asked simply.

"I'm more impressed that you're still up and at 'em at this point. You really are something else."

They just shrugged. "Eh, I'm just doing my job. Steven wanted to be a Crystal Gem since he was a kid and Connie still needs a college to go to. All in a day's work, right?"

Rose laughed at that, all too reminded of how she felt after carrying out a mission. Looking up at Stevonnie's face she could see a new weariness to their eyes, the look of someone who shouldered a great weight. She could still feel a burning desire to fight on and stop the diamonds but it was slowly losing the appeal.

She flopped back onto the ground, being surprised when Stevonnie laid down next to her. The two looked up at the pleasant day sky. Both of them had tranquil smiles, appreciating both the surroundings and the opportunity to rest.

"I can't help but wonder how things would be different," Stevonnie mentioned, "If Steven just ended going to school like other kids."

"I never thought it'd interest him? He wanted to be a Crystal Gem for as long as I can remember."

"He never really knew anything else," they shrugged, "It was only after he met Connie that he had much of an idea that school existed. It's just idle thoughts for him, you know. Kind of like people fans wondering if their favorite character could beat somebody else in a fight."

Rose shook her head wistfully. "That sounds oddly similar to us."

"I guess. I'm more curious about what we're gonna do when this is over."

"I have no doubt that you, Connie, Greg and all the other gems will live a long, successful."

"And what about you?"

Rose blinked and sat up. "What do you mean?"

"You're still going to be around. What, did you think we would just throw you out?"

That made her thoughts stop in their tracks. She really never did think that any of the gems would want to see her again after all the stunts she's pulled. If the diamonds were going to turn over a new leaf, something that still she still couldn't quite believe, she just couldn't imagine them all coexisting.

Stevonnie placed a hand on her shoulder, snapping Rose out of her doldrums with a sympathetic stare. "Hey, you're still Steven's mother. It's never too late to actually have a relationship with him. And you know how much the others missed you…"

Rose could hardly believe it. She so desperately wanted to say yes, to see her son grow up into the wonderful young man she'd know he'd be. To rekindle her romance with Greg, maybe even finally try this thing humans called "marriage" although she still wasn't clear on the details. And she just knew Garnet, Amethyst and Pearl would all jump at the chance to have her back even just as a friend rather than a mentor.

Just as she opened her mouth to express all this, however, she was cut off by a sudden gasp of pain. She jolted up to her feet.

"Mom, are you okay?!" Stevonnie asked, knowing for a fact they didn't hurt her.

"I… Don't know…" she wheezed, suddenly finding concentrating on anything other than her head pounding. Her vision grew bleary, her mouth tasted like metal, and moving anything felt like trying to pull her limbs through molasses.

Stevonnie, however, noticed something. Rose's hands were actually becoming translucent, blinking between solid and see-through. They suddenly felt faint.

"Oh no…"

"What? What is it?!"

"Mom… I think…"

"I feel… So weak… Why is this happening?"

A pang of guilt made Stevonnie fall to their knees. "It's all our fault…"

Rose felt another jolt, like lightning striking her down, forcing her to the ground as now her feet and the dress around them seemed to fade in and out of focus. Stevonnie helped her up, grateful that she still felt solid, before admitting the entire plan. How the diamonds were out there poofing her soldiers, draining her energy. Stevonnie could see the betrayal on Rose's face when they spilled that their job was just to distract Rose long enough until she could see reason again.

"You've all lied to me…" she croaked, even her voice sounding weak, "I can't believe it, my own child…"

"Mom, I'm sorry, but we were sure you wouldn't listen unless you somehow got weaker and-!"

"I can feel it, my life ebbing away!" Rose suddenly shouted, "And you're going to let those diamonds do all of this for what?! Some hope that they'll change?"

"They HAVE changed! I keep telling you this and you just keep refusing because you don't want to accept it!"

"SHUT UP!"

Rose's fist knocked Stevonnie on their back. Even as every part of her begged her not to, Rose lifted herself into the air with her tears dropping down to the grass.

"I'll never let them win! Do you hear me, traitor?! If you'd rather side with those genocidal monsters than your own family, then you can join them in oblivion!"

"Mom, please, stop! You're only going to exhaust yourself faster!"

"I DON'T CARE!" Rose brought her hands together and let out a massive pink cannon of power, bigger than Stevonnie's whole body, with a tearful yell that was equal parts physical toil and emotional agony. Stevonnie had no choice but to use a bubble or else be vaporized. The ground around them was kicked up and turned to dust as they were propelled backwards, sent flying miles away as they struggled to keep the searing hot plasma from incinerating them.

When the light finally cleared, Stevonnie looked around and saw a snow-covered mountain range. The sky was darkening to evening although it was tough to tell between the bank of snowing clouds above.

They were in another part of the world, with Rose more deranged than ever and now at risk of fading into nothing.

"NOOOO!" they screamed, accidentally causing an avalanche down below, "Damn it, I almost had her! She was so close to giving in but nope! Now she's crazy and willing to kill herself for it!"

Stevonnie brought a hand to their face to activate their communicator. "Peridot, we need a plan B! We need to get the other diamonds together, this is an emergency!"

"Copy that, we'll rendezvous at Beach City. Yellow and Blue Diamond are currently en route but the others are occupied."

"Alright, I'll be there…"

With the line dead and nothing else to do, Stevonnie flew off of the mountain range to try and find the nearest piece of civilization that to figure out where the heck they were before flying back to Delmarva.

---

Meanwhile, on what was a picturesque coast in Europe, Violet Diamond found that the second red eye was easier to take down than the first. The problem was that bringing down two weapons of mass destruction was that tended to attract a lot of attention. A few warships decided to fly over and landed in the ocean, letting a small army of gems run onto the beach.

"Um, hey, guys?" Violet asked, "I'm pretty sure you can't park there. I'm sure if you all want to visit this lovely town, we can find you all a hotel or something and-"

She did have the self-awareness to realize that the crowd was glaring at her, drawing their weapons and shouting insults at her. A lot of yells of "traitor" and how she was some friend of Rose's…

"Okaaay, officially angry now…"

Violet brought two of her hands to her mouth and let out the shrillest whistle possible to get the crowd's attention.

"Alright, let us get one thing straight! The whole reason I'm not working with Rose anymore is because she's gone way too far in her grudge! I'd be more than happy to make things up with her as long as she's cool with my family! Because like it or not, I want the other diamonds around!"

A wave of murmurs went through the assembly but Violet just shook her head. "Then again, you're all brainwashed so you're still going to fight me no matter what, are you?"

"I mean, that is what we're here for…" an amethyst said in the front of the crowd. Violet at least appreciated the honesty before drawing one of her swords.

"Alright, fine, let's get to the part where I put my foot up you butts and then you all get a time out."

(Cue Epic Theme Song: Death Match with Torna from Xenoblade Chronicles 2)

Violet charged ahead, her blade gleaming as she cleaved through four soldiers with one swing before somersaulting through the air and landing in the ocean with a splash. She looked around and noticed she was completely surrounded. A ring of gems glared at her but none of them dared approach.

Not wanting a stalemate, the diamond revealed a second sword before stabbing them both into the surf and taunting the onlookers. She didn't need her weapons for this.

Several dozen took offense to that and waded in, heedless of how she was still several times taller than even the topazes or jaspers. And they were somehow surprised when they got tossed around like ragdolls, chucked aside like trash in midair or being thrown across the water to smack into their comrades.

"Wow, you guys seriously underestimated me…"

She then looked over and saw the first few gems she stopped reforming before giving herself a double left-handed slap to the head.

"Oh right, bubbling! Gosh, my head is not here today!" She used one of her swords as a gymnastics horse to flip back to the beach and shot out a wave of violet flaming energy, inflicting dozens of gems with paralyzing headaches and leaving them easy picking to get two-finger jabs that poofed them.

And thus, the first dozen were taken down and put with the countless others that Rose enthralled. Even with her hands empty, the remaining troops kept back like she was still twirling knives. Several dozens gem thus responded with destabilizer wands from out of their gems.

"Oh ball-docks…" Violet gulped, "That makes this a lot harder…"

Two pearls charged forward with their weapons primed, charging with battle cries onto the sand only for Pink to cartwheel between them and suddenly pirouette into a spin kick that sent them both toppling. A super strong punch to each of their torsos later, Violet was now left with two more bubbled gems AND two destabilizers held between her upper-left hand's fingers like claws.

"Now this is more like it!" she cheered, "On guard, you charlatans!"

"Take this seriously, darn it!" a jasper demanded only to get electrocuted and poofed in a single swing.

"Well, I could do that but you would all be made into a stained glass window in ten minutes and I would really like to avoid making arts and crafts out of my would-be friends so…"

She suddenly swung outward, dissipating half a dozen unsuspecting goons and bubbling them just like the others, before switching to a carefree grin.

"It's a better option, yeah?"

As much as the gems wanted to nod along, they quickly snapped out of it and tried to bum-rush the diamond. It seemed like they still operated by the old credo of "quantity beats quality" even against an opponent that just proved she could easily overwhelm them.

The rest of the battle lasted a whopping two minutes with Violet barely having to use her weapons, only reclaiming them when the last flunky was taken down. She turned around to see a grateful crowd of people applauding her victory, making her cheeks blush a royal purple.

She was about to tell them there was no need to thank her yet until a series of gasps rang out. She turned over the horizon and saw something bright, pink and brimming with power streaking over the waves. All the mirth vanished from Violet's face, warning everyone to get back to their homes immediately while she dealt with this.

By the time Rose Quartz touched down on the shore, Violet had her swords ready and was more taken by how her old friend was clearly struggling to stay on her feet.

"You three…" Rose grunted, sounding like she was fighting back tears, "I should have figured…"

"Rose, please, I don't it to come to this. We can sit down and-"

"After all of this?!" she snarled, "My own child, my family, and now even you, Pink! All of you turned your backs on me!"

"Aaaand you've clearly gone crazy… Terrific. It feels cliché for this to happen but oh well…"

Rose opened with a volley of lasers from her fingers, forcing Violet to use all four blades to deflect and slice through them. She suddenly chucked her lower pair of weapons, forcing Rose to the side only to be easy pickings for a double-overhead cleave that splintered the seabed. Rose, in a testament to her focus, simply leapt upwards through the attack and delivered a rising kick that sent the diamond stumbling backwards.

Refusing to let up, Rose used her smaller size to her advantage and began circling the much larger gem firing off potshots every few seconds. Violet had to all but juggle her weapons to block the blasts in time and still several slipped through her guard. Each piercing light felt like an arrow lodging into her body, making her wince in protest. She knew this had to stop and the best way to do that was brute force.

As Rose passed by her face, Violet suddenly chucked all of her swords into the air and gave Rose a pair of right hooks followed by an uppercut and then a backfist. Rose skittered across the sand, rubbing her pounding head and looking just in time to see Violet's weapons falling. She fired a blast at them only for the diamond to have leapt into the sky to grab them herself.

The mother redirected the attack with a swing of her arm, making the plasma curve and hit Violet square in the back. Even as it connected, the diamond refused to drop her arms and instead used her newfound momentum to prepare a four-way slash that would have left Rose in pieces if it hit.

Rather than do that, Rose summoned a pair of energy swords of her own and flew up to confront the fusion head-on, roaring in rage as she raced while Violet remained deathly quiet. Their blades met in a flurry of sparks, a shockwave ripping through the air but neither budged.

Soon the two were slowly falling back to the beach, their weapons becoming blurs around their bodies as they swung with focused ferocity. Neither of them could break through, but Violet quickly realized something. Rose's whole form was starting to look hazy, sweat dripping off her face and matting her bright pink hair.

"What's happening to you?" Violet asked.

"It's all your fault!" Rose demanded, "I'm wasting away thanks to your slaughter!"

"WHAT?!"

Unfortunately, her concern gave Rose the perfect opening. Despite her swords being several times smaller, the mother managed to catch one in a blade lock. With a mighty heave upwards, she distracted Violet long enough to lunge in and slash through her upper-right arm. The diamond screamed in pain but she threw her other weapons just so that two of her blades sailed through Rose's arms and the third impaled her torso.

The deranged rebel howled in pain, falling to the ground like a stone as Violet convulsed in pain herself. Her arm regenerated quickly enough but she was more alarmed by her best friend being run through with a sword taller than she was.

Violet ran up to her fallen friend, trying not to lose her composure as she noticed that Rose's entire form seemed to blink in and out of focus. She pulled the sword out, a remorseful plea on her tongue.

She got as far as saying "I'm sor-" before a literal explosion of power tore out of the rebel, swallowing Violet's body and forcing her to separate back into Pink, Zoisite and Kunzite. All three moaned in agony as Rose stumbled onto her feet.

"I trusted all of you," she sobbed, "I wanted you by my side throughout all of this and then you do THIS to me?!"

"We wanted to help a revolution, not a new tyranny," Zoisite bit, one hand over her gem in case Rose tried anything, "Our support stopped when you made it clear this was about your vendetta over the will of gem-kind."

"They've given you chance after chance to turn around and yet you keep rejecting us," Kunzite said, her voice tremoring, "I saw you as an idol, and I know for certain that it wasn't just me… We all looked up to you but what are we to you? A power source?!"

Rose glared through them both but couldn't muster a retort. She looked up to Pink only to find those unnatural eyes glaring back at her. Her hands radiated flaming pink energy, a silent threat that Rose had better stop now or else.

Even though it felt like lifting the Moon on her shoulders, Rose took off into the sky again as the others watched her depart. Pink was about to call her ship when she noticed a saucer approaching them from the north.

"Is everyone alright?" Topaz's voice said over their communicators.

"More or less," Zoisite answered, "But it's apparent Rose is growing more unstable by the minute."

"Stevonnie already told us. We need to rendezvous back in Beach City for a new plan. They're heading to White's last known location already."

The Beacon landed in front of them, the two sisters in arms heading inside while Pink hopped onto the roof and called her own ship to follow behind them. She had to clamp her eyes shut to stop the well of tears from seeing Rose like that. This was no time for crying. Now they had to be there for her whether Rose wanted them to or not.

---

Diamond had to give the fleet some credit. One side got hit with explosions capable of swallowing a city block and the other had glaciers pop up on impact. The armada hadn't turned around and were still focused on her.

"Perfect," she said, dismissing her duplicates until only the original remained, "I'd hate to make my debut so short."

The diamond's hands glowed with half the rainbow with purple, green and purple rippling as she took off again. "Time to claim my new domain."

(Cue Epic Theme Song: A Beautiful Song from Nier: Automata)

As she rushed towards the onslaught, twirling as she went to dodge the massive green blasts fired at her, Diamond threw her hands out to produce a prismatic wave that stopped an oncoming attack short. The rising moon was dwarfed by the sudden explosion, but Diamond rose above the shockwave with a spear longer than a train in her grasp. As she dove down towards one of the highest-flying battleships, a duplicate of herself was conjured next to her.

The two massive polearms skewered the metal with ease but that wasn't the end of the attack. Now embedded in the metal, the two Diamonds flew with their embedded weapons in hand to trifurcate the entire warship in one go. Three perfectly sliced chunks of cruiser splashed down, sending many of the gems into a panic.

Two more hands immediately fired on the Diamond duo but they merely propelled themselves to the side, swooping over the ocean before rocketing straight at the offending pair. This time they summoned a whip, each one long enough to reach across a football field. And with sixteen of them in total, it didn't take a genius to figure out what they were planning to do.

Each Diamond flew to the top of a warship, wrapping two of their whips around each finger and pulling with all their might to force the ships towards each other. Hundreds of gems threw themselves out of the bay doors and launched every escape pod as the duo leapt off just before the ships collided and were ripped apart in a massive explosion.

"Now just you all wait, you'll all get a turn…" Diamond said before erasing her clone and sending a massive wave of ice to freeze over all of the struggling gems. Once they were all encased in an iceberg the size of an ocean liner, she sent it off with a light push before looking up. Twenty-eight ships still remained, plenty for her to show her stuff with.

Three more ships off to the right tried to break off from the fleet. She didn't know if they were trying to outflank her or to escape the battle to find reinforcements but the result was the same. They caught her attention, so they'd be next.

Diamond soared off, her hands closing around a gargantuan hammer. As she swerved around the ships, having a snicker as she simply smacked away any oncoming fire, she primed herself above the middle escapee before allowing gravity to take hold. She fell at just the right angle to send her war hammer through the propulsion field that made up the back of the ship and flipped around just in time to see the entire thing plummet out of the sky. The two remaining doubled their speed but she just wagged her finger as two copies of herself materialized before she landed back first into the sea.

While her clones repeated the plan to get rid of the deserters, the original returned her focus to the rest of the fleet. She could see a million opportunities at once, White's genius intellect now mixed with combined millennia of combat experience the three (technically four) Crystal Gems to make her a true mastermind in battle. Now she had more power than she knew what to do with and the expertise to counter anything these hunks of metal could throw at her.

As she hovered back above the waves, she did feel a twinge of regret. It was White's agenda to ban fusions such as this, out of fear that they'd rock the system she made and inspire other dissidents. She could fully see Garnet's meeting, Amethyst's loathing of her defective body and Pearl's treatment under White's regime. The amused smile she wore since forming faltered, a deep contemplation running through her mind.

"I will rebuild it," she swore, "I'll craft something better, brighter, much more glorious than a monument to one ego."

With that promise still playing through her thoughts, she rushed up to meet an oncoming plasma wave head-on. Blunt, perhaps, but sometimes the simple solution works the best. She raised her right hands and let loose a blast of her own kaleidoscopic energy, the air suddenly igniting as the energies collided. The sea began to boil from the ambient heat but Diamond had to hold firm. She'd get to fixing an ecosystem when she had the free time.

For now, she was busy trying to find the frequency of her own energy. Being the creator of all gems, she knew her own and that of every specific caste had a unique frequency but that was the trick with fusions. It wasn't just an average but an amalgamation of their properties. The calculations would have taken her best programs minutes to run but thankfully the answer was already approaching her…

"And now, for the easy part…" she schmoozed, knowing just how to adapt her energy to get the result she wanted. A smirk grew on her face as the lime-colored blast bearing down on her slowly started to change to her blend of hues. Soon she could see the prismatic punch travel back down the stream and into the ship which promptly exploded under the sudden flux of power.

She did let out a breath when she saw another wave of escape pods arc down into the ocean, happy to know that the crew was smart enough to not be vaporized. She also knew that would probably head off any further bombardments so what to do now…

Before she could decide how to show off next, a flicker on the horizon caught her attention. The shade of pink was unmistakable. Diamond immediately created three more of herself, each one quickly forming a different weapon. With one armed with a massive flail, another the hammer, yet another with a bow and the original with her hands already glowing, they all flew straight at the last gem they wanted to see.

Diamond knew the fleet was tailing behind her but what could they do? Get in her way? Put something between her and the only real threat she had? No, she'd simply down them all just like the others. This would require to really focus.

Soon, she could make out a silhouette under the veil of pure pink light. Then came the hair, dress and the pure look of rage on her once pleasant face. Rose stopped in midair, a hundred feet away from the giant quartet, her anger giving away to bafflement for a moment before changing to stone cold terror.

"You… fused with them… all three… at once…"

"Yes, I did," the prime Diamond answered, staring ahead flatly. Her clones kept their hands on their weapons, ready for any ambush or power surge. None of them expected that Rose would visibly wilt, her arms falling to her sides and her eyes pointed down at the ocean. The monarchs had to strain to hear what she whispered.

"Even them… my family… all gone… I have no one…"

Her voice sounded so brittle, more fragile than any glass, that it made Diamond's lip quiver. A well of emotions bubbled up, pleas to the leader, mentor and dear friend that made up more than half of her. She wanted to reach out and tell her that those three still loved and adored her, dreamed of having her by their side…

(Cue Epic Theme Song: The Power of Jin from Xenoblade Chronicles 2)

"RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!"

Before her entire body erupted in an inferno of roseate power so bright it stung Diamond's eyes. She was like a one-person storm, the sea bowing and the clouds above ripping apart by her presence as her voice grew hoarse, tearing itself apart. Pure grief, rage, loss and despair made the titaness step back before seeing those eyes. Two eyes of pure pink somehow even more scalding than the nova around her.

"DIIIIIIE!"

A jagged bolt of energy shot out, only missing the four Diamonds as they leapt ahead seconds before. The one holding a flail sent the head hurtling towards her opponent while the hammer wielder attacked Rose's left side. She was gone before they every struck, both looking around to see where she could have gone.

The original and the archer watched in horror as Rose seemed to literally appear out of thin air just behind the hammer user, two fingers aimed like a gun. Her hand flung back and a massive bullet the size of Rose herself boomed to life, hitting the Diamond in the back and causing to vanish in a puff of smoke. The flail wielder barely had the chance to flinch before she was defeated with a single swing of Rose's arm generated a shockwave that decapitated her.

The mother looked at the remaining two, her eyes going from dead cold to overflowing fury in a microsecond as she charged forth with a deranged roar. One Diamond tried firing a light arrow only for Rose to scream like a banshee as she charged through it.

"She dispersed it with the force of her voice…" Diamond realized as she clone was defeated, a chill suddenly hitting her neck. She willed it away, pushed herself into the air and made another pair of duplicates before trying to come up with a plan.

She got all of fifteen seconds before those two were destroyed, one being swiftly cut down with a sword while the other got lasered through her forehead by a pair of eye beams. Diamond looked up and saw the fleet and, while kicking herself for needing this, decided a distraction was in order.

She flew out to the armada, knowing that Rose was on her tail, and circled around the first ship as best she could. Instead of flying around, the insane mother took the shorter route and slicing right through it with a sword as big as she was.

"Okay, not the plan…" Diamond gulped, "But I can adapt. At least it'll wear down her forces…"

Their chase quickly ended up downing half the fleet. Rose tore through anything in her path, letting out shots and slashing like mad at any metal between her and her newly sworn enemy. Diamond spared a look down to see the legions of gems sent tumbling down by their own leader, all crying to be saved. She did managed to circle back and bubble most of them but it was only because of more clones that saved her from being shish-kebabbed.

Thankfully, she did notice that taking the thousands of gems away stopped Rose in her tracks. She hollered in pain before gripping her head and then the strangest thing happened. Her entire body seemed to blink out of existence like a faulty hologram. It was only for a few seconds but it was the opening she needed.

Diamond immediately summoned her full twelve copies, let her energy flow to its maximum and pointed all ninety-six hands at a still paralyzed Rose. She let loose a flood of prismatic power, overwhelming the mother in seconds. The monarch just about heard a piercing shriek before an explosion big enough to be noticed from space rang out, her own hair getting blown back. Once the light faded and the air began to settle, she spotted Rose's limp body bobbing on the water.

"Phew…" all of the Diamonds said before merging back into one. She plucked her unconscious enemy out of the drink, a pitying look in all eight eyes.

"We're so sorry it's come to this. I know you wouldn't believe it but…"

"STOOOOOP!"

Diamond looked around and quickly spotted Stevonnie rushing towards her with a look of absolute panic. They flew to a stop on top of the supreme leader's hand, looking at Rose's dripping body and barely paying attention to her.

"She should live," she tried to say only for the half-human fusion to shush her with a held-up hand. Diamond decided to not be offended by that as Rose was picked up.

"And what exactly are you planning to-?"

"If we poof any more gems, she's literally gonna fade into nothing!"

"WHAAAAT?!" Diamond roared just before being consumed by light and turning back into White Diamond with three frenzied Crystal Gems held in her hands.

"Dudes, what are we gonna do?!"

"How is this even happening?!"

"Why are you both looking at me?! I don't know what to do!"

"QUIEEEEET!" White commanded, "All of you falling to pieces is not helping!"

The three gems in her palm wisely shut up while the monarch looked to Stevonnie for an explanation. After a simple sum-up of poofing gems equals Rose loses power, White just pointed her back in the direction of Beach City while waiting for her own ship to pick the rest of them up. She just unleashed gigatons of energy, she didn't need to chance trying to fly them all to safety.

But Stevonnie didn't stick around for that. They were soaring over the Pacific and soon the rest of the states with an out-cold Rose on their back. It didn't matter that they were so spent at this point that they were wavering in the air, or that their stomach wanted to empty itself, or that spots were appearing in their vision. They needed to end this now.

After what felt like an eternity of random pastures, neighborhoods and highways, the fusion finally recognized the major highway that connected their little hamlet to the rest of Delmarva. From there it was easy to follow the asphalt back towards Beach City and then fly off to the very familiar lighthouse above the temple.

They soared overhead, taking in the scene and noticing that all of the diamonds save White had returned. They also were gathered around the door to the temple, looking down at something glittering in the afternoon sun. The superhuman quickly descended, landing just behind Pink Diamond.

"What's going on?" they asked only for the youngest queen to turn and reveal a mound of bubbled gems spilling out of the front door. She had half a dozen clumped in her arms while the others were struggling to keep them from flying away in the salty sea wind or cramming them in all of their spaceships.

"Turns out the Burning Room has an occupancy limit!" Peridot said as she flew above on a trash lid, trying to chase down several trapped soldiers floating away.

"Okay, this is not something I need today…" Stevonnie groaned, setting Rose on the ground and then suddenly feeling their feet sway under them.

"Whoa there, champ!" Bismuth stepped in, giving them something to lean on, "You kicked some serious butt today."

"Indeed, you managed to keep her occupied for the better part of an hour," Adamite commended, bringing a few bubbles into Blue's ship, "And it ensured all of our comrades were unhurt."

"Not all of them… White and…"

Greg and Priyanka, out of parental instinct, each took an arm and led Stevonnie past all of the tumult up the spiral staircase to a very cozy looking bed.

"You did great, kids," the doctor assured, "Now you all get some sleep."

"But… Mom…"

Greg moved behind them to keep shepherding them along as Priyanka took their hands. "Don't you worry about Rose anymore. We'll all make sure she's cooled down."

"Thanks, Dad…"

Stevonnie could barely keep their eyes open anymore, the parents finding it miraculous they were still fused at all. Maybe it was simply being too tired to muster even that or a refusal to be apart after going through so much, but either way they plopped face first onto the blankets and the parents quickly got them tucked in. Once they had both placed a kiss on their forehead, they headed downstairs just in time to see White Diamond's ship land.

"How did you ever adapt to all this?" the doctor asked, casually raising an arm shield herself from the clouds of sand.

"A lot of trial and error, but I managed," Greg answered, shooting a bubble containing a gem before it could be spirited away without a second glance.

Once the main three Crystal Gems and White were out, the tallest diamond quickly heaping thousands of bubbles into her ship, they began trading stories about the insane battles they waged and how their new fusions came about. Shock, amazement, and a growing sense of pride came from the earthbound gems hearing that the three fearsome titans finally stepped outside of themselves Pink leapt up to hug all three of them in turn, swearing that they would have to do this again no matter how much White insisted that it was a "temporary circumstance."

But once all the merriment died down, that left one burning question. Everyone turned to see the still sleeping Rose on the beach, looking so peaceful that it was painfully ironic. There was no glitching or erratic energy on her so it appeared that her mental state was only worsening her stability but it still raised countless questions. First and foremost, would she even let them help her?

"We've handled worse relationships," Lapis said simply. The others, namely Bismuth, the elementals, and the diamonds, all grinned a sheepish smile before turning their attention elsewhere.

"The immediate concern is Rose's troops that are still out there," Yellow offered, "We should offer a ceasefire or send some kind of message telling them that the war is over and to hand themselves in."

"Wow, taking the diplomatic option," Topaz noted, "You really are different!"

"I can still zap you, you know."

A sluggish groan snapped all attention to Rose, her eyes fluttering open as her vision was filled by Pearl, Garnet, Amethyst and Bismuth.

"Hey there, boss-lady. You feeling better?"

"No. I feel horrible…"

"Emotionally or…?"

"Both, Pearl. I feel so cold, so empty…"

"Rose, we didn't know that defeating your gems would drain you like this," assured Garnet, "But we couldn't let you stage a hostile takeover of Earth. That's the exact thing you wanted to avoid, remember?"

"I guess…"

Nobody had a response to that, hoping her head that her was just clouded. She slowly lifted herself up only to suddenly thud back down with a shriek.

"Rose, what was that?!"

She couldn't answer as a bolt of pink lightning zapped across her body, spooking an assisting Amethyst away. As more streaks of energy ripped out of her, they started firing out of her every pore like the light was desperately escaping her body like a cage. The gems backed away as Rose yelled in fear and pain, her eyes overflowing as she tried to beg for help until her lips were forced open by a ray of rogue power.

"What's happening to her?!" Greg yelled, having to hang on to Garnet as winds so strong they lifted him off his feet even in his suit.

"Her body is completely collapsing on itself!" Yellow warned, "Like a star before it explodes into a supernova, all of the energy she's stolen is going to burst out of her!"

"We need to evacuate everybody!" Pearl shouted, "Someone call the mayor! And the president!"

"But what about all the gems?!" Blue demanded, "Their all still bound to her!"

"You need… to run!" Rose grit out over the cyclone flaring around her, "Tell Steven… I'm sorry!"

Just as the group turned their backs to reach the ships, Rose's entire body became a pink beacon before an explosion that tore the ground apart ripped out and sent all but the diamonds flying in the shockwave. The beach house was turned to rubble, Obsidian's statue lost several arms and had half her face blown off and the entirety of Delmarva panicked at the sudden quake.

When the dust finally settled, a fallen Rose stood up to see her own hands becoming translucent. She saw the carnage she wreaked on her own base, her entire team. The only ones left standing were the diamonds, all of them covered in sand and rubble kicked up by the boom.

She wanted to say something, an apology to them all, before she caught sight of something else. An actual pile of gem cores lying on the sand. Suddenly her mind was filled with a single desire.

Take them. All of them.

Without even meaning to, her body turned to a living laser and streaked past an oncoming Pink Diamond to streak through the thousands of stones glittering on the ground. With each one she pierced through, she could feel her form stabilize, her power growing to new heights, her thirst for revenge rushing back.

Her mind worked overtime rationalizing all of it, how this was all a ploy those three ("No, four," she reminded herself, "Pink agreed to this whole thing") to end her. The fusions were just power plays, rubbing their dominance of her family in her face. She'd make them all pay, take Greg and Steven away from them, make them beg to have her forgiveness!

As this all rocketed through her head, the others all got up to see a rosy ray of light darting around like made and absorbing all of the gems all over again. They tried to stop her but even Amethyst was too slow. None of the Crystal Gems could stop her and the diamonds were afraid that she would just absorb their energy.

Even as she roared into the rubble of the house, blasting away the remnants of the home Greg and the gems built for Steven, she only cared about finding any gems left inside. When that failed she tore open the temple door to Garnet's room and took all the light from the millions of gems crammed inside.

She then rushed outside, blowing down anyone who tried to stop her through sheer velocity, and disappeared over the horizon. They wondered what she was doing until they remembered the dozens of warships fully stocked with gems. She came back faster than she left, having circled the entire globe in less than a minute.

But even then she wasn't done. Rose went inside each of the diamond's ships to grab the thousands they had stowed away. Once she had cleaned out White's flagship last, she finally let her body reform. And like nothing ever happened, Rose Quartz stood before them all with that same motherly smile that was used to paint the portrait she just demolished.

"Well now, I'm feeling much better," she said cheerily, ignoring the utter terror on the crowd's face.

"You… How…"

"That's a very good question, White. We can discuss the inner workings of my being as soon as I get your shards in a nice, neat pile along with your wretched kin."

The grand monarch flinched, again feeling a painful irony that she made many a threat like that in her time before a wail cut through the air.

Everyone turned to see Peridot, holding up a rounded stone the size of her hand, stuttering in absolute horror.

"Peri, what's wrong?" Cinnabar asked, "It's a rock."

Adamite tried to use her powers to bring it over only to find it wouldn't respond. She noticed several more stones laying nearby and tried the same only for them to remain inert. "How bizarre."

"Yeah, and where'd the gems we were bubbling go?" Rutile asked, scratching the back of her left head.

"G-Guys…"

Everyone saw Padparadscha, her eye perfectly visible for a chance, and so wide open it threatened to burst.

"What is it, Pap?" Fluorite asked, placing a comforting hand on the little psychic.

"R-Rose did this… Th-Th-Those stones are…"

The beach froze, heedless of the emergency sirens ringing out from the disturbed town.

"What."

"N-No, they c-can't be…"

"It's impossible!"

"I'm gonna hurl…"

"ROSE! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?!"

"I am simply borrowing their power," she answered sagely, "Once this is over, I'll-"

"You'll what?"

The whole group turned to see Stevonnie, glaring at the ex-Crystal Gem from what used to be the porch.

"You've potentially killed the entirety of gem kind and for what? Your petty grudge?"

Rose's matronly gaze turned as cold as frozen steel, "Stay out of this. This is between-"

"You're endangering my friends. This makes it between us whether you like it or not."

Stevonnie floated over, their feet skirting past the many petrified cores, never breaking eye contact with Rose.

"You decided you weren't satisfied with only a part of every gem's power, so you drained them all dry instead. How does it feel, being the one to make your own species endangered?"

"Shut up."

"You know I'm right, don't you? There's some tiny part of your mind that knows how insane this all is but you keep forcing it down to satisfy your ego."

"Shut. Up."

"And for what? Because you messed up the first time? Two wrongs don't make a right, Rose."

"Stevonnie, get out of my way or I'll-"

"Go ahead. You just dropped a house on my head, you've casually threatened murder on someone for existing, and now you're gonna threaten infanticide. Tell me, Mother of the Year, what could you possibly do to make yourself not the villain in this scenario?"

A simple punch to the jaw sent Stevonnie spiraling back into the rubble, crashing into it with an ear-splitting crash. They managed to get back up and threw off the wreckage, but every movement was a visible struggle.

"Okay then, keep destroying the house we all built. Not like we needed a place to live or anything…"

An actual blink later, Stevonnie was halfway up the cliffside with a broken jaw and blood droplets floating above them. Before they could do anything other than think "that hurt", Rose was above them, a single chop breaking their left arm from shoulder to wrist. It also sent them hurtling into the rockface, burrowing through the hill and out the other side coated in dirt, bruises, and bleeding from multiple gouges.

Stevonnie looked back through the cavern they just made, a silhouette on the other side. They planted their feet on the slope, their good arm shifting into a golden blade, pointed right at the power-crazed alien.

They counted to three right before a sickening crunch consumed their ears. Stevonnie looked over to see their arm had been blown off, a pile of shard remaining. They followed the fading glow to Rose's finger pointing at them.

Even now, they walked forward, refusing to bow even as every inch of them was in total agony. Tears streaked down their fac with every step, thankfully running down their jawline and mending that break.

"Is that all you've got?" they dared, "Come on, I'm still not done yet!"

Another instant later, Rose had swooped in and had them pinned to the wall of the lighthouse. One hand was around their neck, feeling every breath and swallow the fusion took. The other was a shaking fist aimed right at their face.

"Why?! Why won't you let me have this?! I thought you of all people would understand!"

"I do. It won't help."

Rose's punch was inches away from their skull, punching a clean hole through the stone like it was paper.

"Then stand down! Those diamonds waged war on us, for nothing! They took out their anger with me on you and others!"

"Pot, meet kettle…"

"Take this seriously, damn it!" Rose's eyes lit up, burrowing two pinholes into the wall on either side of Stevonnie's hair. They only glared back.

"I am. I'm missing an arm, the rest of me feels like hamburger meat, I'm officially homeless now, and my entire family is gonna be wiped out at this rate."

"That's not true!"

"Is it? You've proven disturbingly good at reconstructing the situation to suit your whims. You and Pink were best friends for eons but now she's a traitor. You probably hate Garnet, Pearl and Amethyst for fusing with White so how long until they're traitors too? Zoisite and Kunzite wanted to serve you and yet you drove them away. Does that make them traitors?"

"No, no, no! As soon as the diamonds are gone, then-"

"Then the diamonds will be dead, the Crystal Gems will hate you for going berserk, the rest of gemkind will be stuck as an oversized pet rock collection and your own son will be disappointed in you."

"W-What?" Her fist lowered at that last one.

"Steven felt the same way, remember? When he went ballistic against Jasper? He wanted her dead, buried, her pieces turned to dust. So he went ape on her, beat het into submission and kept going even though she was willing to leave. Then when the other gems tried to rein him in, he attacked them. His family, his closest friends, and he treated them as badly as he treated Jasper."

"He couldn't even look at himself for days afterwards. The gems tried to cheer him up, tell him it was okay, that he was protecting Connie but it didn't help. And do you know what got him the most?"

"How disappointed you'd be in him."

"I wasn't disappointed! I understand! Sometimes you have to take that step to-!"

"You mean like Bismuth and the Breaking Point?"

A hand squeezing their windpipe cut Stevonnie off, Rose barking that that was completely different. The fusion rolled their eyes before getting angrily shoved through the watchtower, crashing out through the other side and promptly falling the few hundred feet to the beach below.

And given that there was now a huge hole in the cliff below it, gravity took over and sent the entire structure and several tones of ground beneath it down below with it. Stevonnie cratered into the coast just in time to look up, see the debris hurtling down and remember a fonder time when cat fingers were the biggest problem to worry about.

The other Crystal Gems watched in horror as Stevonnie was buried under an avalanche of dirt, grass and architecture. Adamite stepped forward to push most of the rubble off of them so they didn't suffocate, giving them all a chance to dig through and find Stevonnie lying there, unable to move anything other than their chest up and down.

The group naturally teared up seeing the youngest in their midst so thoroughly broken, only looking away to see Rose floating a few feet above them.

"I… I'm sorry…" she tried, "I just…"

"Save it."

Rose turned to see Bismuth, cracking her knuckles and casually stretching her arms several feet. She turned up with a smoldering glare. "Get out of here right now or you'll be sorry you ever met me."

Everywhere she looked there were ugly looks, weapons being drawn and the explicit message that she should amscray.

She stayed, trying to reason with anyone who would listen. "Zoisite, Kunzite…"

"Some leader you turned out to be." They both had blades aiming at her throat.

"Garnet…"

"Don't make this any harder for yourself." A fireball was in one hand and a sphere of ice in the other.

"Amethyst…"

"Oh don't give us some crap about how sad you are! I'm sad too, but you don't see me blowing up homes and beating my friends to death!" Her whip hung from her shoulders, her foot tapping like she was itching to run her over.

"Pearl…"

"A Crystal Gem fights to protect this planet to their last breath, no matter the threat. Did you forget that already?" All twelve of them had spears ready, many of them keeping one eye on the ruined Stevonnie.

"Greg, please, I love you…"

"Could've fooled me." He had both blasters trained on her naval, like he could poof her in one shot if she had a gem. Seeing his brow so furrowed and his posture so rigid made him unrecognizable to her.

She even turned to look at the diamonds, the burning rage she felt quenched when she saw the four of them standing side-by-side in a very familiar pattern. At the bottom was Pink, her hands glowing a flaming pink.

"You heard them. Beat it, and never come back."

Behind her was Yellow and Blue, the two shoulder to shoulder with equally defiant glares. One had crackling electric currents running over her.

"We're done running. If you're so insistent on taking your revenge then don't expect us to bow so easily."

Her sister's eyes were as dry as a desert, globs of cerulean plasma dancing across her.

"You want to play judge, jury and executioner? Fine then. Sentence us. Prove how superior you are."

And towering above them all was White, her arms shining like comets that threatened to blind anyone. Her face was set in a scowl so fierce it could scare off the apocalypse.

"You know what the real difference between you and I is? I was honest in my intentions. Horribly misguided? Yes. Cruel beyond words? Regrettably so. But I never once lied to anyone about why I was conquering. I was abusive, toxic, and megalomaniacal but at least I was straightforward. What would you call slaughtering your pride and joy and then claiming to care for them?"

Rose tore her gaze away, accidentally looking on Stevonnie instead. One eye had been swollen shut by a stray rock. Their one arm was a useless bag of bones. Both of their legs were bent the wrong way and turning purple. The only part still moving beside their chest was one open eye, staring directly back at her. She stared back in amazement, landing in front of them.

"You still plan on fighting?"

Stevonnie let out a chuckle, followed by a wet cough and a glob of blood splattering over their torso. "I am a Crystal Gem, and I will fight for a place where we can all live in safety, in freedom, and in harmony with humanity."

"Even now, you won't give up?"

"Even if just my gem is left."

Rose then looked down at the golden stone embedded in their stomach, still undamaged even through all of the mayhem. Before she could even stop herself, a laser shot from her finger and burrowed straight through the core. Stevonnie's entire body suddenly locked up, broken limbs and internal bleeding be damned, as their one eye spasmed in its socket before their body went limp.

The others all watched, transfixed as a ball of radiant gold light exited the frozen hero's gem and flew into Rose. They all then looked to Stevonnie's entire body turn a sickly gray, completely silent and still.

They all waited for a minute. Two. Three. Nobody could process what they had just watched, or done.

"Oh my… I…"

Rose's own lips were frozen in shock before a bestial scream tore through the air. Dr. Priyanka Maheswaran's entire body was crystallized, her reflective eyes demanding murder.

"YOU MONSTER! YOU CALL YOURSELF A MOTHER?! NOW I'VE LOST MY HUSBAND AND MY DAUGHTER! I'M GOING TO TURN YOU INTO A PINCUSHION!"

"Not before I roast you down to atoms!"

"After I crush you between the biggest canyon I can find!"

"You both get in line, I'm going to shove a whirlpool down her throat!"

"You like lasers so much, you clod?! I'm gonna turn every satellite around this world into my own personal bombardment array!"

"Forget all that, just stab her in the head!"

"No, let's chase her into the sun and watch her burn!"

"I second that suggestion but only if we can cut her head off first!"

Rose looked around to see the unbridled fury of the Crystal Gems all baying like wild animals, each of them throwing ideas for how to best erase her from existence. The only exception to the whole thing was Greg, kneeling beside the fallen Stevonnie, crying his heart out and feebly begging his Schtu-ball to wake up, to not leave him alone. When he caught her eye, a blaster appeared in his hands in nanoseconds.

"Go away," he mouthed, not even wanting to waste sound on her. The now ex-mother stepped back, her hands covering her mouth as tears rolled down.

"Oh sure, now you regret it!" Pearl howled, "Could you have done that before you killed our child?!"

"You're cracked, you hear me?! Rhodonite cried, sword drawn, "I don't care if you can absorb me, I'll go down fighting!"

"Me too!"

"No more running!"

"What, got nothing to say this time?!"

Rose was now kneeling on the beach, only feet away from them all, but she wasn't doing it by choice. Something was bouncing around in her, making her feel an abominable queasiness. She could a pressure building in her throat, demanding to be let out somewhere, until it was right behind her lips and trying to barge them down.

Pink Diamond didn't give her a choice, marching up to her and slugging her across the face. "Spit it out already!"

And so she did, the same golden ball of light flying out of her mouth and into the air. The feuding died in an instant as the shining orb raced into the sky and out of sight before landing right back on Stevonnie's gem. Their whole body snapped to attention in an instant, all wounds closing as they took a single massive breath, before being consumed by the radiance.

They cheered at the resurrection but all backed away, having no idea what this could mean. They had to look away soon only for Pearl to look just in time to see a tendril of light shoot towards her.

She couldn't even muster a stutter before it reached into her gem, making the others gasp in alarm except for Pearl herself. She could feel something rooting around in her center but it wasn't invasive at all. It was a calming drought, easing all the tension in her shoulders as a single voice spoke in her mind.

"I need your help."

"Stevonnie?! What are you doing?!"

"Just relax, let me in. I'll need everything I can to win."

Baffled as she was, Pearl listened and tried to dismiss all of the nerves and errant thoughts scurrying around. Almost as soon as she did, a warm glow enveloped her before the strand left her went back to the glowing center. Soon the same thing happened to Garnet, Amethyst, Peridot, Lapis, Bismuth and the rest of the gang. One by one they all heard Stevonnie's plea, let them take a piece of their essence, and then let them out feeling none the worse.

Rose wanted to step in and stop it, especially as the rays reached out to do the same to each of the diamonds, but Greg and Dr. Maheswaran stood by her. On the left was the father with a blaster pointed at her head. On the right was the mother with a jagged mass of crystal aimed between her legs.

Once White Diamond's transfer was done, the light suddenly exploded into a blinding dome that swallowed up the entire coastline and made all of Beach City look away along with the emergency services rushing in to help with the sudden wave of accidents caused by the quake, but there was no destruction with it.

The light gently faded, revealing a newly reborn Stevonnie. All mouths were agape, none more so than Rose, as they take in a few changes. For one, their gem was no longer a solid gold. The pentagonal stone was now a kaleidoscopic blend of colors that shifted and moved with the light. The same was true with the sheen of their tanned skin, now reflecting a different color at every angle.

Second was the fact that it appeared that Stevonnie had put on several pounds of muscle, now having a warrior's physique with tones arms and legs, a six-pack of abs and a broader pair of shoulders coupled with slight curves around the hips, neck and the like that evoked femininity.

Making this even more clear was their outfit. Instead of a mishmash of Steven and Connie's clothes, they now wore a black jumpsuit much like the gem soldiers wore with a few differences. Their feet were bare, their stomach and forearms were both exposed and a bright pink jacket was now draped over their shoulders, blowing slightly in the wind.

They also seemed remarkably casual, simply resting their feet on the sand and stretching out their neck, arms and legs like they were going for a simple jog.

"Um, Stevonnie?"

"Yes, Garnet?"

"What are you going to do now?"

"Warming up."

That got everyone confused. "Warming up for what?" Greg asked.

"The fight."

"You mean with me?" Rose blurted.

"Well, yeah," they shrugged, "The deal was if I beat you then you call this off. I'm still standing sooooo…"

"Um, maybe that isn't a good idea," Lapis offered, "Not that we don't believe in you but-"

"Oh, don't worry, guys. We're going to do this somewhere nobody can get hurt."

They simply walked across the sand, up the slight hill to where the ruined house was and casually moved the rubble out of the way to reveal the temple door.

"In the temple?"

"In Rose's room. It's the one place where we can be alone."

"Stevonnie, I understand you wish to finish your prior engagement but-"

"Relax, Peri. We won't leave until one of us can't anymore."

Their cheerful glare hardened the instant she looked at her opponent. "Right, Rose?"

"I… I suppose…"

"Great!" Their smile came back just as fast, before walking back towards the others and giving everyone a hug, a pat on the back and a final bid that everything would be just fine before approaching the diamonds.

"I'm really proud of you all. You guys have really shown you can be different people, and I want you to know that after all of this, you're welcome to stay if you want."

"Thank you but we have a lot of rebuilding to do," White bowed, "But your confidence in us is much appreciated."

"Eh, whatever floats your boat."

They flew up to give a handshake, or rather shaking the finger, of each of the larger diamonds before giving Pink a hug that actually knocked the wind out of her. Their final stop was Greg and Priyanka, both parents looking completely lost as the fusion knelt down to look at them.

"Look, Mom, Dad, I know this is a lot to take in but…"

"Don't worry about it," Greg said, patting the fusion on the shoulder, "As long as you're still here, that's all that matters."

"I know you'll make me proud," the doctor added teary-eyed, "You can worry about school and the rest tomorrow. Today, you just kick that pink-haired psycho's butt."

She only just remembered Greg was standing next to her and winced. "Um, no offense?"

"Hey, you're right. Just do your best, okay, kiddo?"

Stevonnie embraced them both, a parent in each arm, before standing tall and walking over to the door where Rose was waiting. She still looked befuddled even as the door opened in a pink swirl to reveal a matching-colored void behind it. She headed in first followed by Stevonnie who gave one last look behind her to see everyone giving them a final wave.

They raised their right arm into the air, happy to have that back, before heading inside with a fire in their eyes. They were going to end this once and for all.

Only 2 chapters left! It's finally time for the battle I've been imagining for about five years now, Rose Quartz vs. a reborn Stevonnie in an all-out fight where just about anything can happen! I know I'm pumped and I hope you are too so stay tuned to FINALLY see how it will end!

Thank you all so much for reading! Feel free to leave questions or comments below!