Missing Peace: Chapter 11

As Lapis led the way, the group quickly followed her; Dalton and Azarov doing their best to hide their faces in their coat collars. White had stayed behind at the temple, at Lapis' suggestion. They soon found out why. Arriving at the outskirts of Beach City, they quickly noticed what she had brought them there for; Steven and Dalton's hearts sinking in unison at the sight.

Standing in front of them was a wall of people, yelling angrily, and carrying signs bearing various less-than-savoury remarks about Gems. Facing the crowd was a small group of men in suits and dark glasses, forming a barricade to prevent the throng from moving forwards. Behind the men was a very short, dark-skinned woman, stood on top of a van, shouting into a megaphone:

"Attention everyone: please disperse. These Gems have done nothing to you."

"Gems?" Steven thought to himself. He moved round so he could see behind Nanefua, and was confronted with the sight of a group of uncorrupted Gems cowering on the ground. Some bore small scuff marks on their bodies. While Gems didn't get injured in the same way humans did, it was pretty clear they'd been attacked.

Steven couldn't believe what he was seeing. Had this mob actually attacked his friends? These Gems hadn't done anything. They hadn't even been on Homeworld when Rose Quartz sent her message. Who would do something like this?

Peeping in between Nanefua's guards, he looked out at the mob. He was relieved to see that he didn't recognise anyone he knew from Beach City among them. These people must have come from the neighbouring cities. The conference had made it public knowledge that a lot of Gems called this city home, so they could have found out that way. Still, he found it upsetting that any humans would do this.

Despite Nanefua's attempts to calm the crowd, things only seemed to be getting worse. A few of the Gems had steadied themselves, and now seemed more angry than scared. They had stood up between the mob and those Gems who were still on the ground, and many had summoned their weapons. Steven knew he had to step in. He didn't have a perfect solution, but he couldn't just stand there and do nothing. Pushing through the onlookers, he jumped onto the roof of a nearby shop and yelled as loudly as he could:

"Stop!"

That got peoples' attention. He had found he was able to shout quite a bit louder than he used to since recombining his human and Gem halves a few weeks prior. That, coupled with his sudden appearance on the roof, finally put all eyes on him. Now he just needed to figure out what to say.

He looked around at the faces beneath him. The mob of humans were all complete strangers, so clearly the whole "you both love me" shtick wasn't going to work this time. So, he spoke with mostly the Gems in mind:

"Please. We don't need to fight. I know what Rose Quartz did was bad, and a lot of you are scared…"

It hurt to be saying something like this again. He was talking about a different Rose Quartz this time, but it reminded him of just how many times in recent months he'd felt the need to apologise for something his mother had done.

"but this isn't going to solve anything. Nobody here was on Homeworld when… when that video was made." He couldn't bring himself to say "when that man was killed", and everyone there already knew, so he spared himself the discomfort.

"These Gems aren't out to get you just because Rose Quartz is; they're just living their lives" He said, looking imploringly at the crowd of humans. Then, turning to the Gems, he continued: "and these humans aren't evil; they're just scared. Wouldn't you be if you'd seen something like that?"

Steven was making some progress with the Gems. Some, looking a little ashamed, had started to dematerialise their weapons. He was having less luck with the humans, some of whom were now trying to shout over him again. He'd sort of expected that, since none of them knew him the way the Gems did, but he'd hoped some of them might listened. Were they really not going to settle for anything other than violence?

The shouting turned into an uproar, now turned as much against him as against the Gems. Some of the crowd were yelling:

"That's the kid who was with the giant one. He's with them!"

"I bet he's just one o' them in disguise!"

"Get your freaky alien friends off our planet!"

From the side-lines, Dalton was just about losing his cool. He'd seen a lot of protests, riots, and so on since taking office, and he'd learned to harden himself to them. But there was something about seeing this boy being ganged up on like this that summoned anger in him he just couldn't suppress.

He knew Steven was part Gem, and had somehow stared down the Diamonds and won, but the boy stood up on that roof right now looked as vulnerable and scared as any other child. "Alright," he thought to himself "time to stop sitting on the fence."

A man at the front of the mob had become the main mouthpiece for their anger, and was now spouting angry questions: "Who let these things into our country?! Why aren't they contained?! Why haven't they been sent back home?!"

"They're here, because I'm allowing them to be here!" Dalton boomed defiantly as he emerged from the crowd of onlookers, handing his coat to a dumbstruck Azarov as he walked forwards. Nanefua stood with a stunned look on her face, then, after whispering back and forth with a guard for a moment, tossed him the megaphone. He gave her an obliging nod, climbed up onto the van, and began to speak:

"Let me ask you something: What do you think this is gonna accomplish? You could drag these Gems out onto the street and take out your anger on them, but then what?

What will happen when you go home? Or go to work tomorrow? Or the next day? Are you gonna feel any safer because of what you've done here?

The Gem who means us harm isn't buying fries on a boardwalk, or hanging around an arcade; she's cowering in a bunker on Homeworld. Let me ask you: if any of these Gems meant you harm like she does, don't you think they could've done it already?"

Dalton seemed to be getting results. Good portions of the mob were looking considerably less sure of themselves. He decided he should continue:

"When William Dewey founded this city over 200 years ago, he came from far-off shores, and was almost turned away when he arrived. But he stayed, and as a result, this city and those around it are thriving communities today."

Dalton knew he was laying it on a bit thick, but he knew this stuff played well with the public at large. And judging by the amount of people now filming him on their phones, the public at large was certainly going to see it.

"These Gems; these people, want the same thing. They came here seeking a new home. What kind of people would we be if he didn't offer them a chance to make one? Humanity has spent centuries looking to the stars, dreaming of encountering new life, and now we finally have. And what are we doing? Trying to get rid of it. I ask you, in years to come, won't we be judged by how we treat that life?"

And so Dalton went on, speaking for as long as he could. He definitely repeated himself a few times, but he didn't care. The longer he could keep going, the more the situation would cool down. While only a few of the mob actually seemed to have been won over by his speech, the others were gradually filing away anyway, perhaps sensing that their opportunity to soapbox had passed.

Finally, as the sun set over the horizon, Dalton said his thank-yous and goodbyes to the now much smaller crowd, and handed the megaphone back to Nanefua. The crowd began wandering away, and Dalton looked down towards Steven, who was now huddled with his friends on the beach. The two gave each other an appreciative smile.

The coming days and weeks were going to be a struggle. If they were going to get through this, they were going to need each other.