Missing Peace: Chapter 49
Beach City:
It was a pleasant evening when the Sun Incinerator finally made it back to Beach City. The sound of the ship's gravity drive powering down cut across the sounds of the ocean and the seagulls as the Gem vessel settled with a soft thud onto the sand outside Steven's house. The main door slid open with a subdued hiss, and the first of the ship's passengers emerged. An entourage of security personnel was awaiting them, stood outside an armoured black limousine, which had been driven as close as possible to the beach. Dalton had called ahead when the ship had neared Earth, and as such the escort had been laid on to transport himself and Li back to the White House. He had been surprised when, shortly after the incinerator had entered Earth's orbit, Li had approached him and requested asylum in the US. While Dalton didn't exactly consider Li to be particularly trustworthy, he could guess the man's motives this time. The agent had been ordered to attempt to go behind the back of the UN on order to carry out his mission, and had even attempted to assassinate him. Li's orders had obviously come from the Chinese leadership, and it wasn't unlikely that they would seek to make him disappear, so as to be able to deny any knowledge of the event. That being the case, Dalton felt compelled to grant his request, though he would be sure to keep Li under a good deal of surveillance. The man had made an attempt on his life after all.
As Li gathered his belongings together and headed to the car, Dalton lingered a little longer on the beach, much to the nervousness of his bodyguards. He stared out at the setting sun, which was casting the entire beach in a pleasant orange glow. As he stood, grateful to be taking in Earth's air again, he heard soft footsteps behind him, and turned to see Steven wandering over to join him. "I gotta hand it to you kid" Dalton said as Steven took up a position beside him "you really pulled it out of the bag back there. I'd heard all the stories about the things you'd done before, but you still managed to surprise me." Steven looked slightly embarrassed, rubbing the back of his own head reflexively. "I guess it would be pretty surprising for someone who hasn't been involved in Gem stuff before, but this is usually how things go for me." Steven's face then took on a slightly less happy expression. "To be honest, I'm actually not sure if things turned out as well as I'd wanted this time. When we brought the Diamonds round, it seemed like everything was wrapped up, but this time, there's still an awful lot of stuff I couldn't fix."
Dalton had to concede that point. While things had gone better than even his most optimistic predictions, it had still been quite a messy fix. Rose Quartz's surrender had ended the struggle with minimal loss of life, but a man was still dead, as were a few Gems, shattered during the two space battles. The way things had ended certainly wasn't going to sate the international community's desire for retribution either. The Gems' refusal to include humanity in Rose's trial (largely because Steven had ensured that there wouldn't be a trial) was only going to rile them up more. While the Diamonds' and Crystal Gems' actions against Facet 31 had prevented a war, the crisis had left an impact all the same. Relations between Earth and Homeworld that had been shaky to begin with were now downright icy, at least from humanity's point of view. The two worlds had asked for each other's trust, and both had in some way abused that trust. He hoped at least that the knowledge that recent events had been precipitated by the actions of a Russian agent; a human, would discourage the UN from shooting their mouths off at the Diamonds. While Rose Quartz had been planning her strike since long before the Rozhenko incident, it had technically been humanity that had thrown the first stone. Either way, he knew that agonizing over the details wouldn't get him anywhere until he was actually in front of the UN council, so he instead focused on comforting the child for whom he had come to have so much respect.
"Listen, Steven" he began, kneeling down to the boy's height "nobody can be expected to fix everything; not even you. Yeah, you've had a great track record so far, but you can't keep holding yourself to that standard expecting it to last forever. Sometimes, problems slip through the cracks. That's life. You've already done more good in just a few years than most people will in a lifetime; certainly a lot more than I ever have. All you can do is focus on saving all the people you can, and do your best to make sure you don't have to do it often." Steven seemed to perk up a little at the encouragement, but there was a residual sadness in his eyes which told Dalton that no matter what he said, Steven wouldn't be able to let it go completely. This didn't surprise him of course; no-one with a conscience would be unmoved by what had happened. He just hoped that Steven wouldn't dwell on it too heavily. It wasn't right for someone that young to have so much weight on their shoulders.
"Thanks" Steven finally replied. "I'll try to remember that." Dalton grinned back at him, before glancing over to his increasingly exasperated bodyguards. "Well, I'd better head on" Dalton sighed. "They'll go crazy if I make them wait any longer, and I probably have a few fires to put out once I get back to work."
"Ok, just let me know if you run into any trouble with Homeworld that you and the Diamonds can't work out" replied Steven. He had made the offer mainly as a courtesy; as he knew that if things ever did reach that point, the Diamonds would almost certainly contact him first. Still, it was the polite thing to say. Dalton gave him a nod and began to walk away. "Oh, and President Dalton?" Steven said after him. The politician turned back to look over his shoulder. "Thanks for trusting me back there, on the zoo." Dalton smiled, and wordlessly turned back towards his car.
Once Dalton's convoy had left, Rose finally emerged from the Sun Incinerator, no longer needing to hide herself from the humans' prying eyes. Steven turned to look up at her, and, seeing her anxious expression, gave her a reassuring smile. She returned it, and the two of them watched the sun set over the ocean.
THREE DAYS LATER
UN council chamber:
Marie Bujold sat with her head in her hand, massaging her eyes with her finger and thumb. They'd been at this for hours already, and it didn't seem as though they were going to be making headway any time soon. She opened her eyes and looked up again, her gaze inevitably wandering to the visages of the three Diamonds, projected on massive screens at the far end of the chamber for the purposes of their meeting with Earth's leaders.
"Unacceptable!" President Liu shouted, getting to his feet and slapping both hands on the table in front of him. "Rose Quartz murdered a human citizen, and attempted to stage a planet-wide attack against Earth! You can't seriously be saying that you won't allow us to try her for her crimes!" Bujold watched on, content to allow Liu to lead the inquisition for her. She was still smarting from her last conversation with the Diamonds, and frankly, she didn't know how the man had the guts to keep arguing with them like this.
"That is precisely what we're saying" replied White Diamond, her initially diplomatic tone having been turned icy by the preceding hours of back-and-forth. "We've seen what your peoples' attempts at 'justice' amounted to following Rose Quartz's initial message: indiscriminate attacks against Beach City's Gems. We are not about to place Rose Quartz in the care on humanity without being certain of her safety."
Liu looked ready to start spouting smoke from his ears. "You're concerned for the safety of someone who attempted mass murder?! I suppose I shouldn't be surprised; it must feel like someone new just joined your club."
Yellow practically snarled from her monitor, and had opened her mouth to spout what would surely have been a spine-chilling retort when White cut across her, trying to salvage what little chance for diplomacy remained. "Mr President, you're half right. We Diamonds spent millennia disregarding the significance of our Gems' lives. Now that we've learnt the error of our ways, we will not do so again. The safety of any Gem, even a criminal, is of importance to us now."
"So, what then?" replied Liu, clearly not won over. "She just gets off scot-free for trying to wipe us out?" A series of murmurs could be heard throughout the chamber as various world leaders muttered to each other.
"Of course not" replied White in a conciliatory tone. "Rest assured that as soon as Homeworld's new legal system is set in stone, Rose Quartz will receive appropriate punishment." This was, of course, a lie. Steven would never allow Rose to be punished, and, seeing as the Diamonds themselves were guilty of even greater crimes, all three knew it would be hypocritical for them to pass judgement of any kind on Rose. However, it was what the humans needed to hear right now if they were ever going to calm themselves down, so White was willing to settle for a comforting lie. The comment seemed to land with a few of the humans, but others were visibly disgruntled at the nebulous promise of Rose being tried under an as-yet non-existent legal system. As more leaders got to their feet to pose their own questions, White supressed the urge to sigh. This was going to be a pain in the gem, but she and the other Diamonds would have to sit through it. Steven wanted to protect Rose, so the Diamonds were not going to budge on this issue any time soon.
Beach City:
Sapphire stood on the balcony outside Steven's house, enjoying the warm sunlight against her skin. At least this planet had one thing to offer. She had reformed the day before, and now wore a dress not too different from her Facet 31 uniform, but coloured dark blue instead of black, and lacking the organisation's logo. It didn't feel right bearing that symbol anymore. When she had awoken, the hybrid, 'Steven', had offered to allow her to stay in the human settlement known as 'Beach City' for as long as she wanted. The idea wasn't exactly appealing, but it wasn't like she had anywhere else to go. Her future was so difficult to predict since her reformation that she was almost blind, and the only other member of Facet 31 on the entire planet was the one she had the least interest in speaking to right now. Unfortunately, as she stood wallowing in her thoughts, watching Steven and his friends play some sort of archaic Earth sport out on the sand, that was the exact Gem who approached her.
Rose emerged from the house, and upon noticing Sapphire on the balcony, came and leant on the railing beside her. "Hey Sapphire…Steven told me you'd reformed." Sapphire said nothing, and continued to look forwards at the beach. The Crystal Gems' Pearl had noticed the two of them, and looked on with an unidentifiable expression, but fortunately all the rest of Steven's friend were too enraptured by their game to notice the pair. Rose twiddles her fingers awkwardly, before attempting to continue. "Sapphire, I-"
"Rose, let's not do this now" Sapphire said flatly, unable to hide the edge in her voice. Before Rose had a chance to form any sort of reply, Sapphire jogged down the steps, and headed off towards the city. Rose let out a heavy sigh and stood, dejected, staring down at her own feet. She barely noticed when Pearl sidled up to her. "That didn't look like it went well" Pearl said in a sympathetic tone. Pearl wasn't sure why she had been compelled to come and check on their guest, or indeed, why she hadn't done the more logical thing and run after Sapphire to make sure the small blue Gem hadn't caused a scene. She hoped that she was doing this for selfless reasons; rather than because Facet 31's former leader bore such an uncanny resemblance to her own Rose. "Are you…ok?"
Rose didn't feel like replying to such a ridiculous question, when the answer was so obviously "no", so she remained silent. In the absence of a reply, Pearl spoke again. "Y'know… I think I know what you're going through." Rose gave Pearl an unamused look. "Really?" she replied incredulously. "You poofed the person you cared about the most in the universe?"
"No…Well, yes." Replied Pearl, reflecting briefly on the fact that she might be the only one with a stranger history with Pink than Rose had. "But what I mean is, I know what it's like to have to win back someone's trust." Part of Rose wanted to snap at the Crystal Gem for daring to assume she understood her pain, but she instead found herself wanting to say something else to her. "Is she…is she ever going to speak to me again?" Rose asked, tears welling up in her eyes. Pearl's gaze wandered from Rose's for a moment. Her eyes scanned the beach, until they settled for the tiniest moment on the Garnet, who was enthusiastically engaging in a beach volleyball game with the others. Pearl knew from then on what she had to say, and turned back to Rose.
"It's…difficult to say, but you two were very close. I doubt she'll be able to push you away forever. Sooner or later, I think she'll come to you, and when that happens, you'll have to show her that things are different."
"How?" asked Rose imploringly. "How do I make it up to her?" Pearl hardened her expression ever so slightly, but still managed to give off an aura of compassion. "It's not about making it up to her." At Rose's confused expression, Pearl realised she would need to give more details. She sighed, and shared a story that, until that moment, no-one but Garnet, Amethyst, and Steven had known about. "A while back, I…did something inappropriate to Garnet. I tricked her into fusing with me when she wouldn't have done so otherwise. When she found out, she was furious. I didn't know if she would ever speak to me again." Rose was a little shocked to hear that one of Pink's bleeding-heart rebels was capable of such an act, but she was more interested in where the story went. "And?" she asked. "What did you do to fix things?"
"Well…" Pearl continued "I found out very quickly that no amount of apologies or favours or acts of heroism were going to patch it up. The only thing that helped things get better between us was for me to show her that I understood that what I'd done was wrong, and that I was making an effort to be better. That was when she started to trust me again. I think that if you can show Sapphire that you're genuinely trying to be a better person than you were before, she'll understand. That is, if she's anything like Garnet" Pearl added, covering her bases in case her advice was wrong.
For the first time since Sapphire had reformed, Rose smiled. She had never expected to be taking advice from a Pearl, much less a rebel one. "Thanks" she said. "Pink was lucky to have you, y'know that?" Pearl looked back at her with a playful smirk. "So I've been told." The two were pulled out of their conversation when Steven shouted to get their attention. He had obviously noticed Pearl's absence. "Hey you two!" he said, beaming. "Come over here and join us! You'd love Beach volleyball Rose! You get to hit things!" Rose looked anxious, hesitating at the invitation. It was still surreal to her that Steven was willing to have her around at all after that she'd done, much less interact with her. Her alertness returned when Pearl patted her on the back. "Come on, let's go join the game. Steven is the kind of person whose trust you don't have to earn. He just gives it to you from the very start."
Rose might once have considered such a stance to be naïve, but now, she couldn't help but smile at such unconditional acceptance. As she jogged out onto the beach, Steven welcomed her with an enthusiastic smile, and she felt freer than she had in thousands of years. What lay ahead wasn't always going to be easy, but here, in this moment, she had found her missing peace.
Author's Notes: Aaaand star wipe! (OK, not technically, since I'm doing an epilogue chapter next time, but you can effectively consider this chapter the end of the main
story). Hope you've enjoyed it. I'll see you in the next and final chapter!