Missing Peace: Chapter 33

Rose's Saga, Part 3

Earth, 5800 years ago, five days after the Crystal Gem attack:

News of what had happened at the spire spread like wildfire in the days that followed. These 'Crystal Gems' mounted three more attacks on Gem facilities in the following days, joined by the Bismuth who had pursued them after their attack on the spire. It was unknown how they had recruited her, but all that mattered was that Homeworld hadn't been able to catch the three criminals, and Pink's court was falling into a panic as a result. Nothing like this had ever been documented on any colony world; Gems simply didn't rebel; it wasn't in their nature. Rose and her fellows were at a loss for what to do with themselves. They should be with Pink right now; making sure that she was safe, but their Diamond had been elusive since the Crystal Gems' appearance. None of her court had seen her, save for perhaps her Pearl, who was similarly hard to get hold of.

As Rose and the rest of the royal guard pottered about Pink's various facilities, a common thought played in all of their minds: who was the traitor? No facet had come forward to claim responsibility for the Crystal Gems' leader, and, being Gems of honour, it was unlikely any of the her fellow Quartzes were covering for her, so just where had this Rose Quartz come from? Their frustration at this mystery was exacerbated by the damage to their prestige that the Crystal Gems had caused. Until a few days ago, the Rose Quartz had been Pink's most trusted soldiers. Every other type of Quartz on Earth looked up to them, and followed their example. Now though, in the eyes of much of Pink's court, any one of them could be working with the rebels, and they were viewed with some suspicion as a result. Sometimes they would hear other Gems gossiping behind them; other times smaller Gems would back away when they approached, or change direction to avoid having to walk by them at all. For Gems who had derived so much pride from their status, it stung.

Unfortunately for the Rose Quartz, matters only got worse as the crisis developed. Rose was patrolling her old kindergarten; one of the few jobs she still enjoyed, as the now largely vacated installation didn't harbour large crowds of Gems to gawk at her. A few of her fellow Facet 31-ers had joined her, and they were chatting amongst themselves; trying to keep the conversation as cheerful as possible, but inevitably falling back into talking about the Crystal Gems every once in a while. As they approached the kindergarten's warp pad, planning to head elsewhere, the pad emitted a column of light, as a large group of Gems materialised in front of them.

An irritable looking Agate in a Pink Diamond uniform stood at the front of the group, flanked by multiple Amethysts and Jaspers; all of them dressed similarly. More bizarrely though, they were backed up by a group of Yellow Diamond's Topaz, and Blue Diamond's Aquamarines. Rose was somewhat surprised to see them. Had the crisis really got so bad already that two of the other Diamonds were intervening? The group of new arrivals walked over to meet Rose and her group, blocking their path. Rose glowered at them; it seemed they were looking to berate her like the rest, but she was going to give them an earful this time.

As it happened, she didn't get the chance. The Agate, as was her Gem type's nature, began speaking before anyone else could get a word in:

"You Rose Quartz are to come with us immediately, by order of Blue and Yellow Diamond."

Rose couldn't contain her shock. "What?! Why?" she blurted out.

The Agate looked offended to have even been questioned, as opposed to blindly obeyed. Clearly she was used to outranking the Quartzes she spoke to. Visibly bristling, she shot back: "You seriously can't figure that out? I knew you Quartzes were mentally deficient, but really." The Amethysts and Jaspers stood behind the Agate rolled their eyes. The Agate, completely unaware of the slight, continued: "The Rose Quartz acting as the leading figure in the rebellion is a black mark on your entire Gem type. Your presence disgraces the perfection of Pink Diamond's court. More to the point, since none of you have come forward with the identity of this traitor; none of you can be trusted. Hence, you are being removed from your positions on the court effective immediately."

Rose couldn't believe what she was hearing. She had given centuries of service to Pink Diamond's court, even struck up what could almost be called a friendship with her Diamond, and this was how she was being treated? Being removed from the court for something another Rose Quartz did? She knew that Yellow Diamond implemented harsh disciplinary methods, but Earth wasn't her jurisdiction. Why would Pink allow this? Rose's expression hardened even further, and she stepped forward to glare down at the Agate.

"I'd like to take that up with Pink Diamond myself if you don't mind" she said, in a tone that made it clear she was making a demand rather than a request. "We are her royal guard after all."

The Agate was unfazed. "Not any more you're not. You Rose Quartz are a mark of shame on this colony, and you will be relieved of duty whether you like it or not. Now, you can come back to Homeworld and be bubbled until this mess is resolved, or, if you force us, you can be shattered here and now. The choice is yours."

Rose's rage bubbled over. She was not going to take this lying down. She was going to get some answers from Pink, and she didn't care how many Quartzes, Agates, or Gems of any other kind she had to go through to do it. Smirking slightly at the Gems before her, she summoned her sword. The Agate took a step back. Whether this was out of fear or simply out of shock at being disobeyed wasn't clear. Some of the other Rose Quartz looked equally surprised; many couldn't even fathom the thought of raising a weapon against their own court. But Rose didn't care. She would do this on her own if she had to. She couldn't just surrender now, not without answers; not while the traitor was still out there sullying her good name.

The Amethysts and Jaspers looked less than eager to fight her, but the Gems from the other Diamonds' courts had no such inhibitions. The Topaz and Aquamarines drew their weapons. Reassured by her comrades' aggression, Pink's Agate regained her composure, and glared at Rose as she gave the order:

"Take them."

Homeworld, 5750 years ago:

Sapphire walked through the streets of Homeworld's capital, trying to ignore the whispers of the Gems around her as she passed them. She wasn't surprised that they were gossiping; anyone would be after the news Homeworld had recently received. A group of diplomatic Gems, sent by Blue Diamond to investigate the disruption to the colonisation of Earth, had been attacked by Rose Quartz and her Crystal Gems. During the resulting conflict, a Ruby and Sapphire belonging to Blue Diamond had fused, creating some sort of bizarre, hitherto unheard-of hybrid fusion. Blue Diamond had seen it with her own eyes, and had ordered that the abomination be shattered, but the Ruby and Sapphire had escaped, and the fusion had since been sighted fighting alongside the Crystal Gems at the sites of several skirmishes with the Diamonds' courts.

The news had shaken Homeworld to its core, and, much like what had happened to the Rose Quartz Gems when the rebellion began, the actions of this fusion were resulting in blowback for Rubies and Sapphires across the empire. They hadn't been purged from their Diamonds' courts like the Rose Quartz had been; the Rubies were far too numerous, and the Sapphires far too valuable, for the Diamonds to consider this option. The impact instead had come from the stigma which their fellow Gems now held against them.

The Rubies hadn't been particularly bothered by the change in attitudes towards them; indeed, most were too absent-minded to even notice. The Sapphires though, did notice, and had been doing their best to hide the shame they felt at what the fusion had done to their reputation. There seemed to be a pervading attitude on Homeworld, at least among Gems who weren't particularly intelligent, that Sapphires were all prone to this type of fusion; that they were all just waiting for a burlier Gem to come along and satisfy their desire.

Sapphire didn't need an eye to see that this same belief was exactly what the Gems around her were gossiping about at this moment. As she walked, she caught snippets of their whispered conversations: "Look, there's another Sapphire." "Careful, don't get too close, she might try to fuse with you." "Looks like a right fuser that one." "Yeah, I bet she's gagging for it."

Sapphire clenched her fist, trying not to rise to their remarks. She wanted more than anything to turn around and make them all eat their words, but that would have been suicide on a variety of levels. Firstly, a Sapphire trying to take on a Quartz or a Topaz was a foregone conclusion to begin with. Secondly, with her Gem placed where her eye should have been, she was rendered completely blind the moment she intervened with the natural flow of events; a Sapphire was only as useful as their future vision after all, so she would have even less of a chance than one of her fellows. And thirdly, acting out would only jeopardise her position on Blue Diamond's court, and she couldn't bear to bring further shame on her fellow Sapphires by doing such a thing.

So, she swallowed her anger, stamped out the small patch of ice that had formed at her feet, and kept walking. The eyes of the gems around her followed her as she left, but she refrained from reacting to them, walking as fast as she could without looking like she was trying to move quickly; she wasn't going to give them the satisfaction of seeing her run away. As she walked with her head down, she thought the same thing to herself thing over and over again:

"One day this will pass. One day, things will be different."