Missing Peace: Chapter 20

Diamond Fleet, a few moments earlier:

Yellow Diamond sat in the command chair of her arm ship. It was taking heavy fire from Facet 31's fleet, but it was nothing it couldn't handle.

Following Steven and his friends' battle with the Diamond mech, she had had her arm fully repaired. It had been a hell of a job, after that bizarre fusion had sliced the thing in half, but the ship was now at full power again, and was making quick work of the Facet 31 ships.

The crew was minimal, as she controlled the ship's movement and weaponry herself, but there was still a skeleton crew on board to monitor the ship's systems, and to relay her tactical information. She turned to one of the yellow Jades manning a console to her left.

"Bring the Destiny Annihilator onscreen. If we can disable it, Facet 31 will be crippled."

"Yes my Diamond", replied the Jade courteously. After Homeworld's reformation, the Gems were no longer obligated to address the Diamonds in this manner, but much of Yellow's old court had continued to do so. Whether this was out of pre-programmed reverence towards her, or just because they found her intimidating, Yellow didn't know, and she tried not to think about it too often.

The image of the Destiny Annihilator appeared on the main viewer, its four gun arms blasting away at nearby roaming eyes.

"Excellent" said Yellow, allowing herself a small grin. Lifting her arm, she pointed her ship's index finger at the Annihilator, and prepared to fire.

Then it went dark.

Yellow looked around the bridge in confusion. All the systems were starting to shut off. After a few seconds, her eyes fell on the Jade she had given the order to before, who was now very conspicuously not managing the viewscreen controls, but was instead typing frantically into various interfaces.

"Explain!" yelled Yellow, trying to avoid cracking the arm of her chair as she gripped it.

"She's initiated a shutdown of the gravity core!" yelled a Peridot monitoring the ship's systems at another console.

The Jade was instantly surrounded by Topaz Guards. Yellow didn't skimp on security anywhere, least of all on her own ship.

The Jade was unintimidated though. She had done what she came to do. She looked up at Yellow with a smirk. "I'm afraid you won't be going anywhere… my Diamond." She delivered the title in a smug, mocking tone.

In a movement almost too quick for the Gems in the room to perceive, Yellow swung her arm out, grabbed the Jade in her fist, and poofed her effortlessly. She knew Steven wouldn't have approved, but right now she didn't care, though she had to admit it didn't actually solve the problem.

"How soon can we get moving again?!" Yellow asked, trying to keep her voice as controlled as possible, but not managing very well.

"The entire core's in automatic shutdown. We won't be able to restart the systems for some time!" the Peridot replied.

"Damn it" Yellow muttered under her breath. On the viewscreen, she could see that the other ships in her and Blue's fleet were having similar issues. Some were dead in space, while others were spinning out of control or giving off worrying explosions. The reality of the situation dawned on her.

"They had agents embedded on every one of our ships…" This time she didn't even bother keeping the thought under her breath.

Present:

While the saucer they were on was no longer under fire, Steven, Connie, and Garnet took the opportunity to get to one of the saucer's escape pods, and were soon back aboard White's ship. But the battle wasn't going well. Only about a third of the Diamonds' fleet was still firing on the Facet 31 ships. All the others had been disabled.

"If we don't do something soon, they're going to leave the system!" exclaimed Pearl.

"What makes you so sure that's their plan? Won't they stay and try to finish us off while they're winning?" asked Connie.

"They're not stupid" replied Pearl. "They know that even if they beat this fleet, there are dozens more getting ready to deploy on Homeworld. They wouldn't stand a chance attempting a coup. They must be trying to go somewhere else."

"But where would they-" The revelation hit Steven like a wave. Both times he'd seen Rose speak; there was one dominating thing about her personality: her hatred of humans.

"I think they're going after Earth" he said, unable to hide the fear in his voice.

A silence hung in the room for a few moments, before Steven cleared his head. "We have to get to Rose Quartz" he said earnestly.

"Do we even know what ship she's on?" asked Amethyst.

They all looked out at the battle, and watched as the Destiny Annihilator shrugged off the attacks of the Diamonds' roaming eyes.

Connie gave a concerned look, and replied: "If I were her, I know which one I'd be on."

"How on Earth are we going to get on board?" asked Pearl. "This one doesn't exactly have convenient hole blown in it."

"Then we'll make one" replied White, looking a lot more determined than she had been. Maybe it was just the anger over what was happening, maybe it was her desire to keep Steven safe, but whatever the reason, her earlier nervousness had evaporated. "Steven, everyone: hold on to something."

On the bridge of the Destiny Annihilator, Rose watched White's ship intently. It was still moving under its own power, and successfully fending off her ships. It seemed none of her agents had been able to sneak aboard.

As she watched the battle, something caught her eye about White's ship. It was subtle enough that she didn't notice at first, but after a few seconds it became terrifyingly apparent. The ship was getting closer. Quickly.

"Rose!" shouted her right hand Quartz, manning a tactical station "White Diamond's ship is on a collision course!"

Rose stood in shock for a fraction of a second, before gathering herself and issuing a panicked command. "Hard to port!"

The Destiny Annihilator listed sharply to the left, but it wasn't enough. Seconds later, the head of White's ship ploughed into their side, linking the two ships together, and sending a hail of crumpled green and white metal flying off into space.

"Report!" Rose barked.

"Gravity drive is still online. Weapons and shields are down" replied the other Rose Quartz. "We'll have to get repair teams down to- Rose! Intruders detected near the collision site!"

Rose grimaced for a moment, but that grimace quickly shifted into a smirk when she realised who these intruders must be.

Pink Diamond and her allies were coming to her. At least this way she'd have the chance send Pink a message she'd never forget…

Author's Notes: Wow, 20 chapters already. Thanks so much to everyone who's stuck with the story so far. Feedback, as always, is appreciated.
I'll see you guys in the next chapter!