Based on the prompt: Here's a question. Would Faded Blue be any different if some version of the mostly (entirely?) defunct "Rose is Pink Diamond" theory were true?
Authors' Note: Oh, Rose is Pink Diamond theory. I was very fond of you, back in the day. I absolutely love what we got instead, but it was fun to revisit you, nonetheless.
The background of this story was heavily inspired by the piece "Adamas" by LadyRavenEye on ao3.
Also, this story is like, super, super non-canon.
oOo
Love Like You
The dawn of a new day rose on the countryside of the place humans currently called Beach City. A dark silhouette stood outlined by the rising sun, a smaller silhouette at her side. From the other direction came another pair, soft pinks and whites.
Blue Diamond looked across at Rose Quartz.
Neither could believe the other had come.
As the two pairs approached, Blue Diamond forced to keep her face cold, impassive. Rose Quartz tried too, but didn't succeed. Her lips trembled, and her eyes were filled with a dozen emotions— fear, anger, discomfort, and above all else, hope.
The Pearl at Rose Quartz's side was merely angry. "Why are you here?"
Blue Diamond raised her eyebrows, but otherwise did not acknowledge the Pearl.
Rose Quartz's grip on her sword hilt tightened. "If you truly wish to speak to me, you will speak to her too."
Blue Diamond pressed her lips together.
Distasteful.
But she did want to speak to Rose Quartz. That was why she'd had her Pearl arrange this meeting, wasn't it?
"Very well," Blue Diamond said. "I'm here to talk."
The renegade Pearl scoffed. "And then shatter us all, I'm sure."
"Hardly," Blue Diamond said, but for once she could not discredit the Pearl's overly dramatic imagination. It was a fair assumption. She knew what her fellow Diamonds wanted done to this planet. "I have come to Earth alone, aside from my Pearl. No one else knows I am here."
Rose Quartz regarded her. "And you came here… for me?"
"I came here for Pink."
Rose Quartz's face hardened. "Pink Diamond is gone. You made that perfectly clear yourself."
Blue Diamond opened her mouth in an angry retort— only to cut herself off. No. No. She'd come here to at least try to understand. Maybe that was impossible. But she couldn't ruin this, not yet.
"I came here for Pink Diamond. To grieve for her." She closed her eyes against the burn of tears, the burn that still came strong after nearly five thousand years. "But… I stayed for someone else.. A human."
Both Rose Quartz and the Pearl blinked in surprise.
"He comforted me. Told me he understood. And… I decided to stay. He shared the planet with me, its animals, and trees, and cities, and…" Blue Diamond laid a hand on her stomach. "I think… I think I understand now. Why— why you did it."
"I… see…" said Rose Quartz, slowly.
"Well, I don't," said Pearl. She held her head up proud, holding her spear aloft, as if ready to fight at any moment. "You honestly expect us to believe that after leading a war to exterminate their species, you decided to start caring about them, just like that?"
"I don't expect you to understand," said Blue Diamond.
"Of course you don't," said the Pearl, rolling her eyes.
Blue Diamond considered her words. Maybe the Pearl did understand. After all, she'd fought for this planet. It had always been assumed to be out of loyalty for her Master, but perhaps it had gone beyond that.
Blue Diamond didn't voice her thoughts on the matter. It was irrelevant.
"This planet is… beautiful," said Blue Diamond. "The humans here— they're intelligent, and welcoming, and fascinating… And I understand now. I understand why you fought back."
"Oh Blue," Rose Quartz sighed. "You have no idea how long I wished to hear you say those words." She shook her head. "But there's still so much you don't understand.
"It wasn't just about humans. Never just about them."
"I know," said Blue Diamond, and her own voice was warbling, and she hated it. "I know. We didn't give you much choice. We attacked you, we lashed out at you—"
She could remember, with perfect clarity, that dreadful day. That deep, deep crack in Pink Diamond's gem. The pain on her face, the way her body had flickered in-and-out of existence. The tears of her Gems echoing across the entire planet, unmatched only by the tears of her fellow Diamonds, who knew what must come next.
But Pink had been young, and defiant, and she had said, I think there is another way.
It had been shocking. Shameful. Sacrilegious.
Cut me down.
Theoretically, it was possible. Some preliminary experiments had been conducted, showing that a gem's lattice structure meant that while a single cut could be deeply damaging, if you found the right way to reshape it, you could salvage it. The gem would be smaller, weaker, but fully functioning.
It wouldn't be you, Yellow had said.
But I'd be alive, Pink had argued.
Better dead than not a Diamond, White had proclaimed.
And so it had been forbidden.
But Pink had been rebellious, even then. She had found a single Gem still loyal to her, the single Pearl willing to risk the certain shattering she would've received for willingly defiling Diamond's gem.
The three remaining Diamonds had discovered this treachery. Glared down at the result. Too small, too small by far. Everything misshapen. The pentagonal cut, the bulky body, the frivolous dress, the wild hair—
They had cast her out.
Of course the new being had been angry. Of course she had turned against them. Of course she'd wanted revenge—
"It was wrong of us," Blue Diamond sobbed, in the present. "Even then— even then, I wondered and wondered if what we were doing was wrong— but the others, they told me Pink was gone, that you were nothing but an insult to her memory, that you had to be destroyed… But I missed Pink so much, I never stopped missing her, and when I found out— found out you were still alive…"
"I am," said Rose Quartz. "But Pink Diamond has been gone for a long, long time."
Blue Diamond sobbed.
"But I never stopped missing you either," said Rose Quartz. "Even in the depths of war— even when I hated you, even when I was furious, I—"
"You were right to be furious. What we did to you was terrible," said Blue Diamond.
Rose Quartz shook her head, tears flowing silently down her face. "That's not what I'm angry about."
"It's… not?" Blue Diamond stared. "But we— we tried to have you shattered."
"I am hardly the only Gem the Diamonds have tried to shatter."
Blue Diamond backed away. "Yes, but none of them are— or were— a Diamond..."
"No. They were just Gems."
"Just… Gems…" Blue Diamond repeated, not comprehending.
"Just Gems," said the Pearl, stepping forward. "Pearls silently trailing behind masters, Bismuths toiling away all day, Rubies rushing into battle, Topazes mindlessly following orders. Just Gems, all of them, all obediently serving the Diamond Authority, and getting absolutely nothing in return."
"Nothing?" Blue Diamond cried. "We give them protection! Purpose! Life!"
The Pearl's eyes flashed. "And what if they don't want that life?"
"And what if you don't have a purpose ?" said Rose Quartz. "That was me. Nowhere to go, no place in the order. And suddenly I could see all the things Pink Diamond never could. Or never wanted to. How poorly we treat our own people— forcing them into prescribed roles, punishing them for the slightest disobedience…" She was staring at Blue Diamond, or through her. "I asked you to change. I asked all of you, again and again and again. You ignored me. You fought harder and harder. And then you destroyed the minds of every Gem on this planet."
"They—" began Blue Diamond. They don't matter.
Because they didn't. They couldn't. Every Gem had a place, every Gem a duty, and those who abandoned that duty didn't have the right to be a Gem.
But what of her?
She was a Diamond. A Diamond's duty was to lead.
She was leaving that duty behind.
Blue Diamond began to cry.
Softly at first, then harder and harder, hard enough that her whole body shook. Her gem didn't glow, her emotions didn't spill outwards; it wasn't that kind of sadness. This was a sadness that turned inward, strange and indescribable—
She was very aware of Rose Quartz and the Pearl staring at her, bewildered.
And then the Pearl's eyes sharpened.
Her spear moved quickly that Blue Diamond could hardly react, and then it was pressed against her gem, so close that it would take just one quick jab to…
Blue Diamond didn't move. She could have, of course. It would have been easy to destroy a single wayward Pearl. But she decided that just now, waiting might be a wiser course of action.
"How dare you?" the Pearl demanded. "How dare you come here, start crying? You have no right to be upset! It's your fault you lost your 'precious' Pink Diamond.
We didn't have any choice. I have lost hundreds of friends because of you! Thousands of good Gems! We did our jobs, and you killed them. We fought against you, and you killed them. We tried to negotiate, and you killed them!"
"Pearl," said Rose Quartz. Blue Diamond looked to her, and saw that while her expression was pained, she was making no move to to hold the Pearl back.
"No," the Pearl snapped. "Tell me, Blue Diamond, why shouldn't I shatter you right now?"
Blue Diamond stared at her.
The spear inched forward.
"Why?"
"B— because— you wouldn't be shattering me. Or not just me."
The Pearl's expression tightened with suspicion, Rose Quartz's with confusion, and Blue Diamond tried to find the right words. She tried, and she struggled, but all she could feel was that same sadness, that same fear— a fear unrelated to the weapon only inches away from her gem—
"R— Rose Quartz," she managed. "Were you… scared? When you became you?"
A moment of silence. "Terrified," she admitted.
"And— did it hurt?"
"More than anything I've ever experienced."
"Oh."
"But it was the best thing that could have ever happened to me."
Blue Diamond had nothing to say to that. She just let her tears try out, as she stared down at her own swollen stomach.
"Blue Diamond," said Rose Quartz, softly. "Are you cracked?"
"Does it look like I am?" Blue Diamond snapped, with a misaimed surge of anger.
"No," said Rose Quartz quietly. "I was simply wondering…"
She trailed off, and there was silence. Or as silent as it could ever be on Earth, which was always filled with soft background noises. The swish of wind; the rustle of grasses; the caw of birds in the air.
It was so beautiful. Blue wanted to be a part of it.
"I'm pregnant," she said.
There were sounds of pure disbelief from the Crystal Gems. Splutters of how that was impossible, how could that happen, it didn't make sense…
Blue Diamond let them get through it. Then she explained it all, simply and plainly.
"We can't both exist," Blue Diamond said. "I shall give the child my gemstone; I will become half of them. As to what happens next… I do not know. They will have their human father to look after them, and my Pearl, but... " She looked at Rose Quartz. "They will need guidance. On how to be a Diamond, but not. Would you…?"
Rose Quartz approached, and tentatively, reached out a hand. Blue Diamond nodded at her; felt the softness of her hand on the belly. From inside, there was a gentle kick. Rose smiled despite the tears, and said in a soft, unsteady voice, "Of course, Blue."
