The Seam Stretched

The palanquin landed in the crumbling arena. The first to exit was, Blue Diamond's Pearl. She walked to the center and looked around. She didn't see any danger to her Diamond. She turned and saluted.

"My Diamond," her quiet voice floated through the air, "I see no danger here."

With that, Blue Diamond exited her palanquin. She looked around. She remembered this place. This was where she helped with the colonization. A particular memory came back. Where not only one of her Sapphire's had failed, and fused with a Ruby, but then ran and joined the rebels. She pushed that memory to the back of her mind to survey the cloud arena. She sighed.

"This would had been an excellent colony," her deep voice flowed. Normally, she would have gone to Pink's palanquin. It was the closest thing she had to a grave. But she wanted to see the few remaining buildings from Pink's attempt at colonization. She remembered how much Pink asked for a colony. Pink wanted to prove herself, Blue knew that, but a colony was difficult, and Pink was still young. Eventually they finally conceded and gave her a colony. It was supposed to be easy. The humans were primitive, resistance would had been low. But then, Rose Quartz started the rebellion, that led to Pink being shattered.

This, Rose Quartz can't hurt you. Those words haunted Blue for thousands of years. Why didn't she take the threat seriously? Why didn't she listen and let Pink leave? But now a new set of questions had plagued her.

Was it Rose that shattered her? Ever since the trial, Blue couldn't get that question out of her head. Zircon was right, Rose couldn't have gotten that close to Pink. There were armies that surrounded her. She might had been a quartz soldier, but even she needed time to fight through her entourage. Time Pink would have used to run away. But another Diamond? Blue would never had hurt Pink. Yellow might have gotten into arguments with her, but she wouldn't hurt her either. White was no where near Earth at the time. It couldn't had been them. And their search for Rose was difficult, it was as if she vanished from homeworld.

"My Diamond?" Blue looked down at Pearl, "If I may."

"Yes?"

"My Diamond shouldn't the cluster have emerged by now?" Blue then turned to look down to the planet. Pearl… was right. The cluster should have emerged by now. When she visited the palanquin, when she sent Aquamarine, they were on the deadline. By the time of the trial the Earth should had been destroyed. The cluster should not have taken that long to emerge. Did something go wrong? Was it a failure? But the Peridot said it would emerge… but then again she also called Yellow a clod.

Something rung out. A scrapping noise like someone was running. In a fit of panic, Blue grabbed a piece of broken column and threw it where she thought she heard the noise come from. The column crashed and two figures fell, rolling in front of Blue Diamond. Her eyes widened in shock. It was Rose, in her new strange form.

"Steven." Near Blue was a gem. A Sapphire? She was looking at Rose in concern. And when she raised her hand, Blue's eyes widened further. She only had one Sapphire with a gem in her right palm.

"You," Blue hissed. Sapphire looked up, he bangs covered her eye, but she knew it was in terror. Blue raised her fist, "Traitor!"

Blue brought down her fist, to crush the gem who betrayed her court.

"Sapphire," suddenly, Rose dashed forward and pushed Sapphire out of the way, but there wasn't enough time for her to move. For a brief second, she felt the warmth of her body, before smoke spilled from under her fist. The Sapphire landed on her back, but when she looked up, she was petrified in horror, trying to take in a breath.

Immediately, Blue knew there was something wrong. There was enough strength behind her fist to shatter a Sapphire, let alone a quartz. But she could feel the gem was still whole. And it felt… different. Blue took the gem into her palm. She lifted it up to her face. When she unfurled her fist, there was the cut of a Rose Quartz. Then the gem rolled to the side, on it's side the facets looked different, and it wasn't a flat gem. It wasn't a Rose Quartz. If possible, Blue's eyes widened further, confusion tore through her being as she realized what the gem was.

"Pink…"

"STEVEN!"

The Sapphire's scream was the first thing Blue heard before she felt a cold blast iced the arena over.