Based on the prompt: What if Amethyst found pictures of BD in her pregnancy and baby pictures of Steven on the mission Rose sent her and showed them to Rose?
This one-shot is in continuity with Faded Blue proper, and is set approximately around Chapter 11: Prisoner.
Hope you enjoy!
oOo
Photo Album
Rose Quartz was pacing in her room, the clouds constantly shifting into vague indistinct shapes, when Amethyst finally arrived back.
"Did you find anything?" Rose asked, voice sharper than usual.
"Tons." Amethyst started digging into her dress, throwing an assortment of Mr. Universe's possessions onto the soft ground. A human telephone; a computer; a map of the Earth marked with various Gem locations. "Seems like he's been using this stuff to talk with BD, his Pearl, and water-lady. Figured I better snatch 'em so he can't go sneakin' behind our backs."
Rose nodded. "How did he use that in the spying?" she asked, as Amethyst pulled out a plastic bag.
"Oh, nothing. I was just hungry." In response, she pulled out a box of granola bars and started chewing on it. Through a full mouth she managed, "All thi-invesvigaching-stu'iff' hard. "
Rose Quartz sighed, picking up the phone. She turned it around in her hand. Mr. Universe had briefly shown her how it worked, but he hadn't been very clear in his instructions (and now she knew why). She poked at the screen and buttons cautiously, afraid of breaking it. Eventually it lit up, showing all manner of mysterious icons in front of a pretty background photograph of the beach. There was probably some way to access pictures, or communication history, or maybe even secret recordings, but Rose certainly had no idea how.
"Oh. And I found this," Amethyst said, cutting her investigation off by shoving a thick book into Rose's free hand.
This wasn't one of the novels Mr. Universe was fond of reading. It was larger and broader, with a thick, plain cover. It had a little lock built into its side, to keep it closed; it had been chewed off. Inside were plastic sheets which held photographs. Not the new 'digital' kind humans had become so fond of, but the ones printed directly onto paper. The first couple of pages were mostly landscape scenes: hillsides, forests, an assortment of human cities. Beyond that…
Rose's brow furrowed as she flipped through.
Pictures of Blue Diamond. Not the magnificent murals or other depictions so common on Homeworld. Casual shots, of her lying on the grass, or drawing, or covered in a flock of birds. In others, she was tiny, at least by a Diamond's standards. Only a head taller than Mr. Universe, often standing next to him, arm wrapped around his shoulder. Shape-shifted. To be small.
Picture after picture of Blue Diamond, one of Homeworld's four matriarchs (three, now), posing and smiling with a human.
"No, not those, they're boring," Amethyst said, reaching up on tippy-toes to see. She had no context to realize how important they truly were. "Go to uh, page five, that's where they get good."
Obediently, Rose flipped.
If Blue Diamond had been small before, it was nothing compared to her size in this photograph: held in the Blue Pearl's arms, reaching up at nothing, wearing nothing but a diaper. If not for the blue gemstone glittering at her chest, you would never know it was her.
"Look," Amethyst giggled. "Her arms are like sausages."
The comparison wasn't entirely inaccurate. Rose smiled, just briefly.
The photographs continued in that fashion. Pictures of a small Blue Diamond in a bathtub, at the park, eating cake, on a donkey's back. They were arranged in vaguely chronological order, though the only way to truly tell was Mr. Universe's greying hair and receding hairline. Gradually the Blue Diamond transformed until she looked nearly identical to the form she wore now.
… No. Not Blue Diamond. She- he- called himself Steven now.
Rose Quartz closed the book with a snap.
"So? What now?" asked Amethyst.
"We keep watching him, in turns. We'll see if we can figure out what Mr. Universe has been telling Blue Diamond's court through these devices. And this…" she held out the photo album, "you had better return."
"What? Don't ya need it?" Amethyst said, with confusion and slight offense.
"You did very well bringing it to me," said Rose. "But I've seen it now. We can review it at length." In response, a nearby cloud transformed into an identical copy of the book with a poof. "But… it's not harming anyone. It's private, I think. We shouldn't have it."
Amethyst raised an eyebrow, then shrugged. "If ya say so."
