Missing Peace: Chapter 3

Dalton's head was spinning. White Diamond's explanation of the history of Homeworld was basically a laundry list of atrocity after atrocity. If what she was saying was true, her people were essentially intergalactic conquerors.

A quick glance around the table revealed that the other world leaders were feeling similarly uncomfortable, many exchanging concerned glances or mutterings. In the midst of the flurry of information though, Dalton noticed something peculiar: none of the other leaders were making use of their translators. He hadn't taken note of it before, what with all the larger concerns weighing on his mind, but now it stuck out to him. It seemed that everyone present could understand White as well as he could, despite the fact that he could swear she was speaking English. How the hell was that possible? Had the Gems put something in their brains?

Banishing the thought, Dalton did his best to stamp down the feeling of panic welling up inside him as White continued to explain Homeworld's less than savoury actions. The Diamonds had said that the purpose of this gathering was to improve relations between the two worlds, after all. Though how one could even begin to fix what apparently amounted to millennia of oppression was impossible to imagine.

Perhaps sensing that the mood of the crowd was turning, White began to look sheepish again. She blushed slightly, and began nervously biting her lip. It briefly struck Dalton that she might have looked quite attractive had she not been, well..., 25 feet tall and talking about invading planets. White fumbled her way to the end of her introduction, and turned to Steven, evidently hoping he could salvage things. The boy gave her a subtle nod, and she began trying to dig herself out of the hole she'd just put herself in.

"You've um…. all heard a lot today about what my world used to be like. B-but… things are different now. I'll um…. Just hand you back to Steven. He'll explain the rest."

Steven, happy to take some of the pressure off White, told the visiting leaders everything that had happened since Homeworld's encounter with Earth. He told them about Pink Diamond and her planned colony. He told them how she fell in love with Earth and its life. He told them about the stand she took against her family, and the war that was fought over Earth's fate. Finally, he told them about his own life, and the impact he had had on Homeworld.

His story seemed to conclude just a couple of weeks prior to the meeting. While Steven's side of the story was certainly more…optimistic that White's, Dalton still found it hard to believe. Had this boy really reformed an entire society in a matter of weeks? And if this newfound attitude from the Gem home world was so recent, was there any reason to assume it would last?

"Aaaand…that's the whole story. Any questions?" said Steven, giving a nervous smile. Dalton was about to speak, when one of the visitors sitting to his right beat him to it.

Sevastien Azarov; the Russian President, was a tall, imposing man (though obviously far from the most imposing person around the table, given the presence of the three Diamonds). In his fifties, yet still highly muscular, he was the typical strongman Dalton had come to expect to emerge as the victor in Russian elections. He didn't appear to be intimidated by the Diamonds, or, if he was, he wasn't showing it.

"You expect us to trust the words of a child? These people have admitted to countless invasions, and you expect us to allow them to place troops within striking distance of our countries based on your assurances?!" Dalton did need his translator to know what the Russian had just said, but even before he received the translated version he could tell from Azarov's tone that he wasn't convinced.

It was Yellow who spoke next; clearly disgruntled: "We would be within striking distance of your planet from the other side of the galaxy."

Azarov rose from his chair, his anger beginning to boil over. While Dalton highly doubted he was intimidating anyone, he didn't want to risk even the slightest chance of a human angering the Diamonds, and potentially causing them to turn their anger back on Earth again. He rose to speak:

"What Yellow Diamond was trying to say, Mr Azarov, is that if Homeworld intended to mount an invasion against us, they could easily do so, as they have done in the past. The fact that we are still here suggests their intentions are genuine".

Azarov calmed down slightly as his translator delivered Dalton's point to him, but seemed to not be done airing his grievances. He turned back to Steven.

"Even so, I came to this little get-together on the understanding that the humans in this city vouched for these… Gems. And now you tell us that you are actually one of them?! How are we to trust anything you say?" Azarov said in an accusatory tone.

For the first time, Steven seemed genuinely rattled. Evidently his heritage was a bit of a sore spot. Dalton was about to attempt to defuse the situation again when a voice piped up before he got the chance.

"I can vouch for them!"

Dalton looked to the source of the voice. It was a young, thinly-built West-Asian girl with neck-length hair, and large, dark eyes. As was the case with Steven earlier, Dalton had completely overlooked her in the early stages of the conference.

"My name is Connie Maheswaran. I'm one of the few humans to have visited Homeworld, and I can promise you that Steven's telling the truth. They really are trying to change!"

That seemed to make some of the leaders settle down, though others were understandably less than reassured by the words of yet another child. And so the day went on, as various world leaders shot questions back and forth with the Diamonds until the sun was setting over the ocean horizon.

As Dalton was flown home, it seemed as though some progress had been made. It had been agreed that there would be no immediate attempt to remove the Gems currently residing in Beach city (not that any human power would have been able to do so anyway), and that the Diamonds would allow Earth's leaders to visit Homeworld for themselves if they so desired. In the least, things were no longer at a boiling point.

Steven watched the many helicopters leave as he stood on the beach by the now abandoned table. He took a deep breath of sea air, trying to calm his nerves. He felt Connie put her had on his shoulder, and looked reassuringly at her, before turning his gaze up to White.

"I… think that went well?" he said in as confident a tone as he could manage, but he had a strong feeling that healing the rift between the two worlds wasn't going to be that easy…