Missing Peace: Chapter 21

Destiny Annihilator:

Steven and the others barrelled through the seemingly endless maze of green corridors. Only White had stayed behind on her ship, as she was too big to move about aboard the Annihilator. She had, however, showed them the layout of the ship, and the group was now making quick progress towards the bridge.

The ship was in such chaos that they had been able to get past the majority of the crew unnoticed. The Facet 31 Gems were too busy trying to stop the Annihilator coming apart at the seams to notice the small group.

As they reached the command deck though, a group of Rose Quartz blocked their path. "Guess she was expecting us" said Amethyst, pulling out her Gem weapon.

The others did the same, and corridor became a battlefield. It had been designed for Gems of any size to be able to pass through, so there was enough room for the fighters to move freely, which was just as well for the smaller, more agile Crystal Gems.

The Rose Quartz were larger and stronger than even Garnet, but most had not fought in thousands of years, and the difference in experience showed, as they struggled to land a hit on the rebels.

Pearl effortlessly dodged swing after swing from her Quartz opponent. She briefly allowed her gaze to wander away from her opponent's sword, up to her face. This Rose Quartz didn't look as much like her Rose as the one leading Facet 31 did. "Good", she thought. "This will make this easier."

As the Quartz lunged, Pearl pirouetted out of the way, allowing her attacker's momentum to send it careening into the wall. Planting her feet again, she lunged forward at the dazed Quartz, burying her trident in its back, poofing it instantly.

Dusting down her jacket, she smiled to herself. "I've still got it."

Garnet was handling herself well too. Her Quartz opponent had the size and power advantage, but Garnet was using that power against her, exactly the way she had when she fought Jasper, which now seemed like so long ago.

She and the Quartz jumped at each other, each with a fist outstretched. At the last moment, Garnet unfused. Ruby and Sapphire passed around either side of the confused Quartz, and re-fused mid-air on the other side. Garnet delivered a punch to the back of the Quartz's head before she could react, poofing her. Garnet gave herself a brief hug of appreciation.

Amethyst was having a bit more trouble, though still fighting admirably. She slid deftly between the legs of her attacker, righted herself, and lashed her whip across the Rose's back. However, her attack didn't have the power behind them that Garnet's or Pearl's did, and the Rose Quartz shrugged it off. Amethyst scowled. This Quartz was nearly at Jasper's level.

Having disposed of their own opponents, Garnet and Pearl leapt in beside her, shooting her a reassuring glance. "We'll take the rest together" said Garnet.

Amidst this chaos, Steven had been focused entirely on finding Rose. He blocked attacks left and right, but just kept running, with Connie sprinting behind to keep up with him. As he had almost cleared the pack, a Rose Quartz reached for him. Amethyst's quickly grabbed it with her whip and pulled it back into the scrum.

"Keep going Steven!" she yelled over the sounds of the battle.

"We'll handle the rest!" added Garnet.

"OK!" Steven yelled back, as he turned back towards the bridge along with Connie.

After another minute of frantic sprinting, Steven and Connie made it to the bridge. It was a mess, with cables and fragments of green metal strewn on the floor, and smoke pouring from many of the consoles. In the centre of the room stood Rose, flanked by an Emerald, and several Peridots.

As Steven and Connie approached, the group of green Gems took a step towards them, before Rose raised her arm, blocking her allies. "No" she said authoritatively. "Pink Diamond is mine."

It always hurt a little to be called that, but Steven knew he shouldn't have expected anything different. Still, the Diamonds had been like this before, and he'd been able to make them see things his way. He had to at least try it here as well.

"Rose Quartz" he said pleadingly. "Please stop this! The humans aren't trying to hurt you! There's no reason for any Gems to get hurt over this!"

Rose scowled. "You expect me to believe that? After that planet warped the minds of your own court, and convinced them to rebel against our way of life? After the humans sent a spy to steal our technology?"

Steven shouted back, still begging "What the Crystal Gems are doing on Earth isn't a threat to you! They're just living their lives! And yeah, what that human did was wrong, but we're not all like that, and even he didn't deserve what you did to him!"

Rose looked ready to burst with rage. "What I did to him?! What about what your rebellion did to ME?!"

"What do you…" before Steven even finished his sentence, the realisation struck him. His mind shot back to the room he'd seen aboard the human zoo. A room filled to the brim with bubbled Rose Quartz.

"…You were bubbled because of Pink's rebellion." He said, deflated.

"We were betrayed!" continued Rose, evidently not finished. "We Rose Quartz used to be the most revered members of your royal guard." A tiny hint of pride registered in her voice as she said it, but quickly faded.

"But after you took the form of a Rose Quartz as the face of your little rebellion, we were disgraced. We Rose Quartz were treated as monsters! The other Diamonds bubbled or shattered any they could get their hands on, just to get to you! Some of us managed to hide for a few years, but all that accomplished was giving us the chance to watch as the last of our kind were rounded up…"

Steven opened his mouth to say something, but Rose carried on before he got the chance.

"And WHAT do we find when we get woken up? That your secret is out, and everything is forgiven, like your fight with the other Diamonds never happened. You just got welcomed right back, while we lost six thousand years of our lives!

And to top it all off, most of the time we spent bubbled, everyone believed that a Rose Quartz had shattered a Diamond. They didn't make any more of us. We became a myth. A scary story to tell newly emerged Gems to keep them in line. All because we were a convenient disguise for you!"

Steven was at a loss for words. He knew the Rose Quartz had been bubbled during the war, but had known that his mom had bubbled them to protect them, so that the other Diamonds wouldn't shatter any more of them. He was content enough with her motives that it had never occurred to him what it must have been like for the Rose Quartz.

Rose had her head in her hand, obviously reliving the horror she had just recounted. Steven spoke to her: "I'm so sorry for what happened to you. Pink never wanted anything bad to happen to you. She was just… bad at noticing how other people felt sometimes."

"And apparently so am I" he added in his own head.

Rose brought her hand down from her face, a fresh wave or anger burning in her eyes. This time though, she didn't shout. She spoke in a quiet, pained voice.

"Stop trying to act like you're somebody else. You are Pink. You did this. And either way, sorry isn't good enough. You can't give back what we've lost. You're six thousand years too late for that."

She reached into her gem and pulled out her sword.

"And now: you're going to pay."