Missing Peace: Chapter 27

"Rose! Rose! Are you ok?"

Rose groaned and rubbed her head as her consciousness returned. The Ruby shouting in her ear wasn't exactly helping with her headache. She groggily got to her feet and turned to the Ruby.

"Yes, yes. I'm fine Ruby." She said that, but she wasn't sure she believed it. It had mainly been to shut Ruby up for two seconds so she could think. What had happened to her? Why didn't she remember any of the last… however many minutes it had been. The last thing she remembered was standing in a corridor and then… nothing. The next thing she knew she was coming to her senses on the floor in a completely different corridor.

She knew she hadn't passed out from exhaustion. It took a lot to tire out a Gem, and even when it happened, they didn't lose consciousness like organics did… Organics. That was it. It must have been Pink. She and her humans were doing something.

Rose remembered the stories she'd been told after being unbubbled about what White Diamond had done to Pink's old Pearl. Though said Pearl had been released from White's control before Rose was freed, she had heard it described in enough detail to get a pretty good picture of what White was capable of. Had Pink persuaded White to try and exert some control over her too? Or was Pink powerful enough to do it herself?

The thought terrified her. She leant against the wall for support for a moment, trying to force the thoughts from her mind. She needed to be focused right now. If a Diamond had taken control of her, then they had seen everything she had seen. Looking up, Rose saw the unmistakable cell door which contained her human prisoners. "If they saw that" she muttered under her breath "then they already know where we are."

She breathed raggedly for a moment, but as the Ruby watched on, concerned, that breathing warped into a twisted laugh. "Let them come" Rose though to herself. "They'll be too late anyway, and this way, I get to see the look on Pink's face as her precious colony dies."

The Ruby was starting to look unsettled. "O…kay…. Well, I'm just gonna go…do…a thing! Yeah, that's right! A thing! I'll see ya' later Rose!" She turned and scurried off down the corridor.

Rose got to her feet and stared into the humans' cell. They were huddled at the back of the room, clearly trying to stay as far from the door as possible. Rose was still surprised at herself for letting them live, but the fact that these humans had lived their whole lives practically worshipping their Gem zookeepers made them less… offensive to her than the rest of their species. This, she thought to herself, was closer to how things should be. If the rest of the humans had only had the good sense to bow down to the Gems in this manner, she wouldn't be preparing to wipe them out right now.

As she ruminated over this thought, two Amethysts walked up to her, their uniforms giving them away as members of Blue Diamond's court. The human zoo was crewed almost entirely by Amethysts, born on Earth, and subsumed into Blue Diamond's court after Pink's "shattering". As loyal followers of the Diamonds, they had been under orders to resist Facet 31 if they made any attempt to take the zoo, but Rose's superior forces had overwhelmed them.

She could have had them thrown in cells with the humans, or shattered to set an example, but that was something Rose wanted to avoid. All these Amethysts were from the Alpha Kindergarten on Earth. Rose had served with many of them in her days as part of Pink Diamond's court. She even thought that she remembered some of their faces. So, out of kinship and respect, she had allowed them to retain their freedom, on the condition that they answer to her, and on the understanding that any attempt to send word to the Diamonds would not be tolerated.

She had even allowed them to continue their old duties, including tending to the zoo's humans, albeit in cells rather than their simulated habitat. Many of Facet 31's members had been disgusted at Rose agreeing to this request. They considered the Amethysts' apparent fondness for the humans a betrayal of the old values; no better than what the Diamonds had done.

But Rose had been insistent, and made it clear that anyone who interfered with the Amethysts without due cause would have her to answer to. She had the backing of all the other Rose Quartz, who shared her camaraderie with the Amethysts, so none of the other types of Gem had dared challenge her on this issue.

And so, in keeping with their duties, the two Amethysts standing before her carried trays of food for the humans; some sort of bizarre geometric fruits that looked like a cross between something one would find on a colony world and something built on Homeworld.

"Oh, hey Rose! Come to visit the humans too?" said one of the Amethysts, more cheerily than Rose had any patience for right now.

"Er…yes. But I think I've seen everything I need to see. I'll leave you two to your work." Rose replied hastily, excusing herself from the conversation. She walked off, leaving the Amethysts to try and calm the humans down enough to get them to eat something.

Rose made a b-line for the zoo's command centre, where she knew most of her senior officers would be, coordinating the remodelling efforts. She needed to speak to them as soon as possible, to let them know what had happened. If the Diamonds were going to attempt an attack, Facet 31 needed to up the pace. Their work had to be complete before the Diamonds reached them.

Her Rose Quartz generals seemed less than thrilled at the news, as did Emerald, who still had her crew working on repairing the Destiny Annihilator. The Peridots grumbled too. They were perfectionists, who didn't exactly like being asked to rush their work. Still, the idea of being found by the Diamonds before the plan was complete was a frightening enough thought that they all sucked it up and increased their pace as much as they could.

Rose even volunteered additional Gems to help. Most of Facet 31's Gems were either Quartz soldiers, or a random jumble of other types which had joined up later, so none of them had the technical expertise of a Peridot. Luckily though, Rose still had one contingency plan. There was one way she could ensure that even if Pink or Homeworld made their move, she'd be ready for them.

Once she had a moment alone, she went over to an unoccupied console, and keyed herself into one of the private communication channels. She was about to send a message when the door next to her slid open, to reveal Sapphire standing in the doorway

"Ah, Sapphire, I was just about to-"

"Call me? Yes, I foresaw that. What do you need?" Sapphire beamed at her. She seemed happy, almost excited, to be helping. With her future vision returned to her, her fringe was now permanently brushed to the sides, leaving the Gem she had in place of an eye on show.

Rose grinned smugly. Now there was nothing Pink, the Diamonds, or anyone else could do that she couldn't see coming.