Summary: We received this ask on tumblr: "A thought: Blue Diamond coming back somehow, and seeing Steven for the first time. (Because I love the idea of protective momma-Blue just holding him tight and crying tears of joy)"
So. Here ya go guys!
Just to be clear, this piece is non-canon. Oh, and if you want some spoilery warnings, you might want to scroll down to the bottom authors' note.
Maternal Instinct
Children.
When Blue Diamond learned of the idea, it had seemed like such a strange concept. Messy and inefficient, compared to the Gem method of reproduction. But the more she had learned, the more she had seen the beauty in it. The poetry, the magic. The ability to create: not just a copy, but something wholly new. Somebody who could be better…
And she also noticed how Greg's eyes lit up when he saw human children playing on the streets or in one the many parks around the city. And Blue Diamond began to feel something new, something burning inside herself as well.
Together, they had decided to have a child.
But… it hadn't worked.
There had been tears after the stillbirth. Grieving. But Greg had moved on, saying at least he still had her. He had urged Blue Diamond to move on as well.
But she had refused.
She was Blue Diamond. Even fate itself could not push its will onto her.
It had been difficult. Unbelievably so. Digging into the most elusive of magic, the most restricted of her people's technology, the things even the Diamonds avoided using, for the risk was too great. She had researched and built and labored, and she had done it.
Erased an entire timeline from existence, to create one where her child had lived.
But she had arrived only to find out that her precious child, the heir to the Diamonds, was being held captive by the murderous rebels.
She felt surprisingly calm as she was told this news. No rage or anger, just a piercing certainty.
This would not stand.
She arrived on the beach where the Crystal Gem's base was located as the new day dawned. Her Pearl was at her side, her Lapis Lazuli at her shoulder, and a wave at her back. On the sand below was Greg, staring up and up and up, uncomprehending.
"Blue! Is that— How are you— what—?!"
"I'm here, Greg. I'm real. And I'm saving our son."
He blinked at her, teary eyed, and then wrapped himself around her leg. Despite everything, Blue Diamond smiled. She let the energy from her gem surge through her, feeling herself shrinking. Once they were near-equal heights, she embraced him back, breathing in his sweet, unique scent.
However, it was but a moment, and it could not last.
"Stay here where it will be safe," she told him, but Greg refused. He wanted to be there for his son. Foolish, but Blue Diamond could feel nothing but touched at his sentimentality.
He at least promised to stand behind her. "And… Blue…" he said. "Look, I know what they did— but please... be gentle with them? As much as you can. They could have been so much worse…"
"I'll be the judge of that," said Blue Diamond, and she swept up the beach.
At the entrance of the cave, she saw him. Huddled inside a cage, kept there like an animal.
Misery swept through her. Misery and the once delayed anger.
The Rose Quartz and her stolen Pearl were the ones there, tormenting her son. They had a moment to looked surprised, fearful, before her powers hit. The wave of pure emotion struck them and their faces crumpled with tears.
They tried to fight despite it, but they were unprepared.
Blue Diamond shot one bolt of lightning, then two, then three. Rose Quartz deflected all with her shield. The Lapis Lazuli came in with a wave of water from the side, enough to throw the rebel leader off-balance. The next arc of lightning hit true, and the traitors collapsed to the ground, sobbing.
Reinforcements came out. A stunted Amethyst, and a hybrid fusion— the first hybrid fusion.
They were easily dealt with. Even if the fusion showed remarkable resilience to her lightning, there was no resisting the weight of the entire ocean. In short order, Lapis Lazuli had all of them frozen to the walls of the cave.
Blue Diamond looked at her, admiringly. She would not have thought a Lazuli could have such combat capabilities. She would be handsomely rewarded for her fine services this day. Perhaps her own Pearl even.
With the dust (and water) of battle dying down, Blue Diamond turned away from the rebels. There was the cage, its bars now cut open wide and its captive stepping slowly out.
Blue Diamond stared down at him, the young boy who looked up at her with familiar eyes. They were Greg's eyes, warm and human, but but colored as her own, bright and piercing blue. She felt her eyes well up with tears— not sadness, but happiness, the most intense happiness imaginable.
"M-Mom?" he stammered in a voice much too small for a person of his station. But that simply made her smile softly at him.
There would be much to teach him.
"Yes. Steven, it- Yes. I am Blue Diamond." Her voice dropped in volume at the last words. "Your mother."
She swept forward. He was small, so much smaller than her, even in this reduced form. She picked him up and cradled him to her chest.
The warmth he pressed into her chest was soothing.
"How…" he breathed. "How are you here?"
She brushed the hair out of his face— he flinched a little at the foreign touch. "There will be time for explanations," she said. "For now, we need to get you out of here. And I want to know everything about you. Pearl and Lazuli have told me a little, but there is so much to catch up on…"
Greg's hand touched her arm. "We'll tell you everything Blue, I promise. But right now…"
He trailed off, his gaze shifting to the captives. They were screaming and screaming, the most unpleasant of sounds.
Blue Diamond felt her expression drop as she stared at Rose Quartz. The Rose Quartz, the shatterer of Pink Diamond. It would be so easy to shatter her, as she rightly deserved. Not just for the crime against her own Diamond, but daring to lay a single finger on her son.
Steven squirmed in her arms. Blue Diamond looked down at him.
"Please," he said. "Please— don't hurt them." Her eyebrows flashed upwards. "They're… they're not that bad, they were going to let me go…"
"Were they now."
"Yes," said Rose Quartz. "Blue Diamond— I do not know how you are here, but we have no quarrel with your child!"
"Liar!" hissed the Lapis Lazuli. "You attacked us! When we wanted nothing to do with you!"
Blue Diamond stared down at her child. His lips were trembling; he looked terrified. It was not an expression befitting a Diamond.
But he was not wholly a Diamond. He was part human. Humans had different perspectives on these things, human children especially. And Rose Quartz was charismatic, dangerously so. That was how she had caused such dissent to grow. Blue Diamond should not have been surprised that her corrupting influence had found a way to seep into her son's mind.
But she could not allow Steven to be poisoned any further.
Carefully, Blue Diamond placed her son on the floor, reached out and squeezed Greg's hand.
"Do not worry, my loves," she reassured them both. "We shall hold a trial, and ensure that proper justice is served."
It was impossible to have a true, proper trial without a Zircon on hand, but Blue Diamond did her best in their absence.
Rose Quartz was the leader, the instigator, and hers was held first.
"How did you do it?" Blue Diamond demanded. She had seen the Visions, of course, but she still didn't understand. How could someone turn against their own creator? How could this shallow-strata Gem destroy a Diamond? How could she have ended someone as wonderful as Pink?
Rose Quartz could not— would not— give the answers Blue Diamond wanted. She was struck with lightning, again and again and again, until she was left shaking in her restraints, crying and moaning, saying I'm sorry, I'm sorry, there was no other option.
It was a disgusting display to be sure. Even Blue Diamond had thought that Rose Quartz would have had more dignity than that.
Again and again, Blue Diamond asked for the truth. Again and again, Rose Quartz refused to give it.
She needed one last motivation. Blue Diamond picked up the gem of the traitor Pearl in her hand, held it up high.
Rose Quartz cried, "No!"
"Then tell me," demanded Blue Diamond.
"Blue," whispered Greg.
"Mom!" Steven cried, pulling on her robe. "Mom, please—!"
"I don't know what to tell you," said Rose Quartz. "I don't know—"
Blue Diamond clenched her fist.
Pearls were soft, delicate things. This one didn't break into shards. She became dust, a silvery glitter. Blue Diamond wiped it away on her robe, never taking her eyes of the traitor's leader.
Rose Quartz sobbed and sobbed, and while Blue Diamond still got no truth out of her, she got a sliver of satisfaction in knowing she'd repaid at least part of the hurt Rose Quartz had dealt her.
She could have shattered Rose Quartz too, but that would have been too good a fate.
"Lock her away," she said to Pearl, "until I think of a fitting punishment for her."
She already had an idea. Corruption. Of course, it could not be managed by her alone; but she had a second Diamond. Perhaps, in time, he could learn to sing the Song.
Next to be shattered was the Ruby.
"No, no, no," Steven said, crying in earnest now, throwing himself in front of the Ruby's gem. "Mom, you can't— her fusing was a mistake!"
"The first time, perhaps. However she choose to continue it for the next five thousand years."
Steven looked down, wiped his eye on his sleeve. "But…"
He was kind. So kind.
Too kind.
He needed things explained gently and carefully.
"It was a mistake, but an unforgivable one," she said softly. "If Sapphire's original prediction had came true, then the rebellion would have ended then and there. Instead, the very course of time was irredeemably damaged. Every Gem who was shattered or hurt in the War is on this Ruby's shoulders."
He tried to fight back when she pulled him away, but he was still not yet very strong. The fighting spirit was admirable, if misplaced.
Blue Diamond made the shattering quick, on his behalf.
Greg's face had turned a shade of green. Blue Diamond looked at him curiously. In her years on Earth, it was not a color she had ever seen on either him or any other human exhibit.
"This isn't right, Blue," he said. "What you're doing— killing these people—"
"They hurt our son, Greg."
"I know, but—"
"There are no buts. You are a human musician. Talented, yes. But you know not the requirements of leadership. These Gems must be punished for their crimes."
He shook his head. He was shaking, trembling all over. His cheeks were wet. His eyes were wide, and he was staring off at nothing.
"I never thought…" he whispered. "This… this isn't the person I fell in love with… This isn't you."
Blue Diamond reached out, and wiped his tears away.
She hated to see him like this. Hated breaking that sweet, simple picture he'd built of her in his head.
But it was sadly time for him to learn.
Next on trial was the Sapphire.
Again, Steven argued in the rebel's defense.
"She's a Sapphire," he said. "She's— really rare, right? And valuable? It would be… wasteful, shattering her. There has to be some sort of— sentence she can serve, orsomething."
So practical. So able to find logical arguments to support his desires. Blue flooded with pride.
White would like him, she was sure. It would be good, when the two could finally meet.
"Very well," Blue Diamond said. She turned to the Sapphire, who stood before her. Her hands were bound, but that hardly seemed to matter. She had trapped herself, frozen in ice so thick that she couldn't move, even if she tried. "Sapphire, you betrayed me and your people. Nonetheless, you served me loyally for centuries. As such, I am willing to give you one more chance. Pledge yourself to me, and you may rejoin my Court."
The Sapphire's voice was as cold as the ice that encased her. "Never."
"Please," Steven begged of her. "I'm trying to help you— just accept it—"
"What's the point, without Ruby?" she whispered, her voice beginning to break. "Without Pearl, or Rose…"
Even though the Sapphire rejected redemption, Blue Diamond still granted her the kindness every proper Gem yearned for, a chance to be useful. She asked Pearl to find something that could be used to see.
Pearl paused in consideration; after a moment she said, "Yes, my Diamond."
She vanished into the Palanquin. A few moments later, she reappeared with a human device. Taking it, Blue Diamond turned it over in her hands. Binoculars. A simple system of lenses used to view objects from long distances. Greg had given it to her for birdwatching.
It would do.
It took a tricky bit of inticrate handwork, a little bit of research into the files stored on her ship. But her Pearl was competent, and had delicate fingers. It didn't take too long to fuse the Sapphire's gemstone into the binoculars's carapace. Blue Diamond held the device up to her eyes and stared through. The view it showed was altered: the same landscape, but the lighting changed from day to night. A few fireflies buzzed in the darkness.
Smiling, she held it out to Steven, who took it with trembling hands.
"It provides short-range future vision," Blue Diamond said. "It won't be nearly as sophisticated or long-term as an autonomous Sapphire would be, but it will be reliable. It is yours, Steven. Use it well."
It was her first gift to her child. Just the thought left her feeling warm, deep in her core. Belatedly, she realized that she may have skipped some protocols— didn't humans like wrapping presents in shiny paper and bows?
Oh well. There would be many more gifts in the future. She'd do it better next time.
When it came to the Amethyst, Steven flat out refused to let it continue.
He stood between her and his mother, fists curled. Light spilled out from beneath his shirt. His skin crackled with lightning. Blue Diamond could feel his sadness, furious and fierce, and was touched by it.
He said the Amethyst was innocent. That she had never fought in the War. That she'd emerged late, and had only joined the Crystal Gems because she had known nothing else. The story fit the Quartz's small stature, and the sobbed explanations she gave underneath the lightning's influence.
"We are Diamonds, Steven. Our judgement is swift and precise. But... so is our mercy. This Amethyst was as much a prisoner of the rebels as you were. Despite her defect, she will make a fine soldier for your Court."
Steven felt like he was in a daze. Twelve hours ago, he'd been about to go free. Now his Mom was alive, and other Gems were captured or dead in his place, and he felt like he was going to vomit.
His mother— Blue Diamond— had pushed Amethyst towards him. Ordered her to salute. She had refused.
"No," she said. "I hate you, I hate both of you, I'll never—"
The lightning struck.
"You do not talk that way to your Diamond," Mom's voice rang out, sharp and painful. "It is time for you to learn the true way of things. You are a Quartz soldier, and a defective one at that. Your place is one of loyalty and pure obedience. Do you understand?"
It took a few more strikes, but eventually, Amethyst nodded. Mutely, she got to her feet. Saluted. She did not look Steven in the eye.
Mom said Amethyst couldn't stayed clothed like that. That it was unfitting. That she needed to wear a blue diamond symbol, in declaration of her new loyalty.
She gave Steven a knife, and told him to disintegrate her form.
Steven took the blade. He stared at Amethyst. The Gem that helped held him captive. Who'd laughed at him from behind bars. Who'd taught him how to shape-shift. Who'd kept him from falling off the Cloud Arena. Who liked to eat pizza boxes.
Steven closed his eyes. He couldn't do it.
"Oh dear," he heard his Mom sigh. "Well, never mind that for now. Pearl, take care of this."
Steven opened his eyes and looked up as he felt Pearl draw close. Her hair had been pushed back, and he caught her gaze. For a moment, she looked as if she wanted to nothing more than to run over to him and give him a hug.
But the moment passed and she gave Mom a salute.
"Yes, my Diamond."
And like that, it was done. Amethyst didn't have time to scream. Steven picked up her gemstone from the grass.
"Thank the stars that's over with," Mom said. She reached out and ruffled Steven's hair. "I imagine you're hungry after all of that. Let us go into the Palanquin and get some food. I assume it's stocked with provisions for you. What kind of meals do you like, Steven? I know your father's partial to pizza, perhaps we can get that…"
oOo
Warnings for: character death, canon typical violence, torture, mind manipulation, grief, and slavery
