Missing Peace: Chapter 7

Homeworld, capital city:

Sevastien Azarov and his delegation stepped on-board the Gem transport that had been laid on to take them back to Earth. His face was the picture of calm composure as he said his goodbyes to the Gems who had managed their visit, but internally, his mind was in a state of utter chaos.

His agent hadn't met back up with them at any point during the tour, and was still conspicuously absent. Luckily, as Azarov had predicted, the Gems had taken so little notice of his security staff that none had noticed that Rozhenko was missing, but that didn't entirely solve the problem.

The agent had been notified in no uncertain terms that if he was not able to make it back by the visit's end, he would be left behind. Azarov wasn't prepared to answer the questions that would be raised by revealing his agent's existence in order to organise a search party.

As the ship lifted off from the capital city's main square, Azarov gazed out of the viewing port at the shrinking city below. Azarov hoped that, if Rozhenko was still alive, he would have the good sense to take his own life rather than be discovered by the Gems.

Beach City, Earth, 1 day later:

Steven clambered lazily out of bed and headed down to get some breakfast. Ever since the corrupted Gems had been healed, he was always excited to get up in the morning, just to see who would be in the house that day. While some of the new arrivals had gone off to various locations to live (Nephrite and her crew had started renovating their old ship for instance), many of the Gems were still staying in newly created rooms in the temple, so the house was always busy these days.

As he walked down the stairs, he saw Bismuth and Biggs sat on the sofa, surrounded by his friends and a few Crystal Gems he didn't recognise. Biggs had apparently been one of the most well-liked Crystal Gems during the war, and it was easy to see why. She was even more outgoing and sociable than Bismuth.

Since she had come back, she had received several invitations from Gems to come and live with them, as well as more than a few requests to fuse. Today though, Biggs was regaling the group with some sort of heroic war story, stopping every once in a while to laugh loudly along with Bismuth at the funny parts.

As Steven passed them and headed to the kitchen, he saw Pearl busying herself making some tea, while Garnet monitored something in the oven. The two had taken it upon themselves to teach the other Gems about eating and drinking. Amethyst had volunteered to do this, but that idea was very quickly shot down.

As he poured himself some cereal, he glanced up at the painting of Rose that still sat on the front wall. He'd found his eye being drawn to it quite a lot lately.

"Still thinking about what happened?" Garnet asked from behind him. It wasn't often she asked questions, so Steven knew better than to ignore them.

"I guess so." Steven replied. It was true that being split into the two aspects of himself back on Homeworld just a short time ago had left a lingering impact on him. He turned to face Garnet.

"Y'know back when my Gem was removed, on Homeworld? Is it weird that I'm glad it turned into me, and not Pink Diamond?"

Garnet leaned down. "Of course not Steven. It's natural to be happy to find out that no one's controlling your actions; that you were always yourself." She said as she smiled back at him.

"That's… not what I meant." Steven replied sheepishly. "I wasn't just glad it was me, I was glad it wasn't her… After everything I found out about her, I kinda…didn't wanna see her." He looked up at Garnet apologetically, feeling sure he had just said something terrible.

Garnet's smile fell, but if she was more upset than that, she wasn't showing it. She began to stroke Steven's hair reassuringly. "That's understandable; you've probably got a lot of confusing emotions around her right now" she said, "but you know you don't have to keep calling her 'Pink Diamond', right?"

"Oh, yeah." Steven replied. "She probably would have preferred to be called 'Rose'."

"I meant… you could still call her 'Mom'." Garnet said softly.

This time it was Steven's face that fell. "I think I'm gonna stick with 'Rose' for now, if that's ok with you guys." Steven said as gently as possible.

"Whatever you feel comfortable with." Garnet replied, giving Steven a final attempt at a smile as he took his breakfast up to his room. He smiled back, but neither of them was hiding the awkwardness very well.

Steven sat at the end of his bed. "Why do I have so much trouble thinking of her as 'Mom' now?" He thought silently to himself. "The other Diamonds did way worse stuff than her, and I welcomed them into the family, right?"

He flipped on the TV. He felt like he could do with a little distraction. Just as he was getting to the middle of a good 'Crying Breakfast Friends' episode though, the TV began to flicker. Within a few seconds, the signal had cut out, and was replaced by a strange symbol. It was a multifaceted quartz gem not unlike his, but in black, with two swords crossed behind it.

"Uh, Guys?" Steven piped up: "I think you'd better come and see this."

Garnet, Amethyst, and Pearl, as well as Bismuth and Biggs' crowd of Gems, came scurrying over, and crowded onto the bed behind Steven.

"Yo, what's going on?" Amethyst said with a confused look.

"It's just like when Peridot transmitted that message using the communication hub" said Pearl. "Maybe some Gem is using a long-range communicator?"

It was at that moment that the image changed again. The static logo cut out, and was replaced by moving footage. It was unclear whether it was live or pre-recorded, but that was the last thing on anyone's minds. They were all far more focused on the face of the Gem that had appeared on the screen before them.

She was lounging almost causally in a chair made out of scrap metal. She was heavily built, yet feminine in outline. Her multifaceted gem glinted on her sternum, and a huge mane of hair fell down as far as the camera would show. With a malicious smirk, she began to speak:

"Peoples of Homeworld and Earth, I come before you today with an important message, but first, allow me to introduce myself."

"My name… is Rose Quartz."