Missing Peace: Chapter 17

Homeworld:

White's ship touched down in its usual resting place in Homeworld's capital city. Some of the nearby Gems stared as it landed, but most went about their daily business. In the weeks since Steven had last been to Homeworld, the populous had become used to White moving around more often, though they did still seem surprised whenever they saw her in person.

Inside White's chamber, Steven watched the city outside from a viewscreen that hovered in front of him. Somewhere out there was Rose Quartz, the one who had started all of this. He had to find her. Maybe there was still a chance he could talk some sense into her.

No-one on the ship had been optimistic about that possibility after what she'd done to that Russian agent, but White had reminded them that she herself had shattered a lot of Gems in her time, and that if Steven had brought her around, there was hope for anyone. This had seemed to reassure the Crystal Gems a little, though Pearl had now resumed her nervous pacing.

"Ok, so how are we even gonna find this other Rose anyway?" asked Amethyst.

"Steven could put out a public message requesting a meeting, but that could just make her go to ground if she doesn't want to be found" replied Pearl, still pacing.

"Then we're going to have to do this covertly" said Garnet matter-of-factly.

"That's not going to be easy" replied Pearl again, holding her hand up to her chin thoughtfully. "We all stand out like sore thumbs here. None of us exactly look like typical Gems."

Garnet smiled. "A couple of us do."

A brief glow emanated from her position, and a second later, Ruby and Sapphire stood holding hands, in the spot where Garnet had just been.

"Ruby! Sapphire!" Steven ran happily over to them and pulled them into a hug. Once he'd released them, Sapphire explained her plan:

"Facet 31 must be recruiting new members somehow, probably by approaching members of the public. We'll do what we did that time all those Rubies came to Earth. Ruby doesn't stand out much on Homeworld, so Facet 31's recruiter probably won't be suspicious of her."

"Um… are you sure about this?" asked Pearl, looking concerned. "The baseball plan didn't exactly work well last time."

"This time" Sapphire replied, "I won't be there to distract her."

"Yeah!" said Ruby enthusiastically. "I'll be going in solo." She emphasised the word solo as if she was picturing herself as the star in some sort of spy movie.

"And, I'll be wearing one of these." In her hand she held a small listening device that Dalton had provided them with. "We'll find out what they're planning, and then: we'll beat 'em up!"

Steven raised his eyebrow at her. "Or… talk to them?" Ruby corrected herself sheepishly.

Ruby walked through the streets of Homeworld, trying to push the feelings of dread inside her to the back of her mind. She'd never been one to overthink things; usually her thought process consisted of working out what was in front of her, and whether or not she should punch it. Sapphire did the thinking.

Sapphire. It was disorienting being without her. Ruby had grown so accustomed to the future vision that being Garnet afforded her, that going back to her old self was practically like being blind. Still, she had a job to do, so she kept walking, hoping to bump into some Gems with useful information.

She got lucky pretty quickly. Out in a large plaza, crowds of Gems were wandering in every direction, going about their daily business (whatever that was now that they weren't following direct orders from the Diamonds).

A small group of Rubies were nearby, talking to what looked like an Emerald. The Emerald turned to leave, waving at the Rubies as she went, and the group continued talking excitedly to each other.

"Time to do what I do best" Ruby thought to herself. Sliding between the members of the group, she interrupted one mid-sentence. "Sooooo… hey guys… what're we talking about again?"

One of the other Rubies, with her gem positioned on her left knee, turned to Ruby and looked irritated. "Weren't you listening to what that Emerald JUST said?"

"Er, I guess I…missed it?" Ruby wasn't a great liar. But around other Rubies that didn't matter.

"Oh, okay!" said the knee Ruby, immediately cheerful again. "She was just telling us about those Facet 42 guys. They're awesome!"

"31" corrected yet another Ruby, with a gem instead of a nose.

"Yeah yeah, whatever" said the knee Ruby dismissively. "Anyway, they're gonna stop all those organics from coming to Homeworld! And if they try, they're gonna beat 'em up!" Isn't that cool?!"

"Er… yeah!" replied Ruby as convincingly as she could. "So… how do we sign up? Is there… some place we need to go?"

"Uh, duh" yet another Ruby shot back. "That Emerald invited us to a meeting later today. C'mon, we'll go together."

And with that, Ruby was swept off by the excited group. Back on-board White's ship, the rest of the team shot each other perplexed glances. They'd been watching the whole thing via Ruby's surveillance device.

"I cannot believe how easy that was" said Pearl flatly. She didn't like to discriminate, but she was still astounded by just how dumb the average Ruby was.

"Don't jinx it P" replied Amethyst, giving Pearl a concerned look.

"Getting in wasn't the hard part" Sapphire said, not even acknowledging their remarks. "The hard part will be getting the information we need out of Facet 31 members themselves, and deciding how to act on it."

Steven knew she was right. Anything this secret meeting didn't reveal, they'd have to get by questioning actual Facet 31 members, and Ruby wasn't exactly good at asking things subtly. This was gonna be a tricky one…

Emerald walked happily back to Facet 31's base of operations, absentmindedly stroking the gem on her sternum. In the aftermath of Rose Quartz's transmission, she had been conflicted. She had agreed with everything Rose had said, but felt bound by her duty to the Diamonds. The idea of a rebellion went against everything she had been created to believe.

But that had all changed in the last couple of days. After a Facet 31 member embedded in her crew had convinced her to meet Rose in person, all her doubts had been assuaged. Rose had made her see how the Diamonds had betrayed Homeworld's values, and that all that Facet 31 was doing was remaining loyal to their original orders, before the Diamonds had lost their collective minds. That wasn't treachery at all, was it?

She allowed her smile to broaden. Soon it would be time to move. Soon the Diamonds, and their Crystal Gem allies, would either see the error of their ways, or face the consequences…