Characters created by: Rebecca Sugar

Chapter 4: Peridot Is Crying

[*]

In The Desert

Yellow Diamond was sitting on her huge makeshift throne, laughing. She took a bubbled Gem and handed it to Labradorite.

"Take this one to the Beta Kindergarten."

"Yes, My Diamond."

Labradorite ran to the warp and warped away. Yellow Diamond erupted in laughter.

"This is gold! All that bubbling for nothing! Now they'll have their hands full! A nice distraction!"

She turned to Peridot, who was in a Gem cell, an anti Gem forcefield around her.

"Ah, yes. I haven't forgotten about you."

Yellow Diamond rose from her throne.

"I must say that your efforts to destroy me far exceeded my expectations for a Peridot. But still, you came up short. You will pay for your crimes against Homeworld."

Peridot broke down in tears. Falling to her knees, she pleaded.

"Please! Don't kill me!"

"Oh, I won't kill you… Yet…"

Yellow Diamond walked up to Peridot's cell and crouched down.

"I want you to see the imminent downfall of this planet that you so care about before I even consider shattering you. As it is now apparent that the Cluster has failed, I shall call upon the Harvester to convert this planet into another fully operational Gem colony."

Peridot looked up at Yellow Diamond.

"What?! No! You can't! The Harvester! No!"

She ran to the forcefield and touched it with her hands, both glitching for a second. She was knocked back. As her hands changed back to normal, she covered her eyes with them in sob.

"Yes." said Yellow Diamond, "You will watch Earth be stripped of its resources within the comforts of my personal ship."

Then, the warp pad activated, and Labradorite stepped from it.

"The deed has been done, My Diamond."

Yellow Diamond smiled.

"Good. That was the last one. Now, we must head to the Gem Communication Hub, so we can send a clear message back to Homeworld. Come, my Gems."

Yellow Diamond walked up to the warp pad and warped away. The other Gems opened Peridot's cell and grabbed her.

"Let me go!" said Peridot, struggling to break free of the Gems' grip, "Stop! Please!"

Then, Labradorite kicked Peridot in the stomach.

"Shut up, you pathetic creature!"

As they continued on to the warp, Peridot began sobbing. Labradorite was becoming increasingly annoyed.

"Stop crying!"

Peridot lowered her sobbing. They all stepped onto the warp pad and warped away.

They now found themselves in the Galaxy Warp, Yellow Diamond standing before them.

"Now, if my memory is correct, the warp to the Communication Hub is this one."

She pointed to their left. Yellow Diamond stepped onto the warp and warped away, the Gems following. They stepped onto the warp and went off.

They indeed found themselves at the Communication Hub. They saw Yellow Diamond standing before the Communication Hub. But… The Hub was destroyed.

"Hmm. Broken." said Yellow Diamond, "But, an easy fix. Amazing that simplicity can work just as good as the more exclusive things."

She grabbed some columns and put them in their correct positions. A few more.

In just a few seconds, she had rebuilt the whole Communication Hub.

"Ah. Perfect. Fast and simple."

In the center of the Communication Hub was a platform. Labradorite tapped the platform and a holographic screen appeared, showing the Milky Way Galaxy, with a red dot in pointing to their location in it, and the entire Local Group of galaxies. She tapped the biggest galaxy on the screen, and the screen zoomed in on it. She tapped on a small dot around the middle bottom of the galaxy. The screen zoomed in on a solar system. She tapped a large dot on the solar system, zooming in on that. After tapping a few other things, the Communication Hub glowed, and a beam was shooting up into the sky. Labradorite turned to Yellow Diamond.

"It's all yours, My Diamond."

Yellow Diamond smiled and stepped forward.

"Hello? Blue, White. Can you hear me? Can you see me? This is Yellow Diamond."

Then, another holographic screen appeared, and it was White Diamond.

"Yellow? What is it?"

"I am currently broadcasting from the Earth Communication Hub."

"The Earth Communication Hub? Why?"

"My army has been decimated. It's just me, a few of my high command, and a traitor."

Then, another screen appeared, and it was Blue Diamond.

"Yellow?"

"Yes, it's me. Look, I am in trouble. Blue, you still have the Harvester?"

"Yes."

"Blue, I need you to send the Harvester, a medium fleet of your galactic attack ships, and my personal ship. When your fleet reaches Earth, I want the Harvester to begin drilling into the Earth's core, so we can begin the colonization process."

"Oh, Yellow, could you please take a few humans with you back to Homeworld?" said Blue Diamond, "Maybe 20 or 30? The human population in the zoo is decreasing."

"*Sigh*. Yes…"

"Thank you, Yellow. Thank you so much. I'll send them over."

"Thank you. I'll send you the coordinates for where you are to pick us up."

Yellow Diamond tapped on the screen a few times.

"Alright. I'll rally my fleet now." said Blue.

"Thank you." said Yellow Diamond.

Blue Diamond's screen disappeared.

"I'll see if I can send a small fleet of my galactic navy to you as well."

"Thank you, White."

White Diamond's screen disappeared. Yellow Diamond turned to the others.

"Let's get back to our base."

Yellow Diamond and the Gems walked over to the warp and warped away.

Meanwhile In The Ruins Of Empire City…

The Crystal Gems, along with President Eisenstein and his staff, walked over to the Presidential helicopter. Lapis was holding Peridot's Limb Enhancers, tears rolling down her face.

When they walked up to the helicopter, a soldier peeked out and saluted.

"Mr. President, you better take a look at this." he said as he saluted.

The crew went into the helicopter. Inside, the soldier was sitting in one of the seats with a laptop. The crew crowded around the soldier as he was typing.

"Look at this." said the soldier.

He pulled up a recording on the screen. It was Yellow Diamond, her entire upper body seen, and staring at them. Nearly every one of them gasped.

"Is that… Yellow Diamond?" asked President Eisenstein.

Garnet answered.

"Yes…"

Pearl spoke in disbelief.

"I thought she'd be dead. I would have thought the sheer destruction of a nuclear weapon would have at least burned her Gem to a crisp."

"Unless she escaped before it went off." said Garnet.

They all stopped talking and looked at Yellow Diamond, who began speaking, as if talking to them, only she spoke of things they never asked.

"Hello? Blue, White. Can you hear me? Can you see me? This is Yellow Diamond."

No answer was heard, but Yellow Diamond still spoke.

"I am currently broadcasting from the Earth Communication Hub... My army has been decimated. It's just me, a few of my high command, and a traitor…"

"She must be talking about Peridot." said Lapis.

Yellow Diamond continued.

"Yes, it's me. Look, I am in trouble. Blue, you still have the Harvester?"

"The Harvester? What's that?" said Eisenstein.

"I don't know, but I don't like it." said Pearl.

"Blue, I need you to send the Harvester, a medium fleet of your galactic attack ships, and my personal ship. When your fleet reaches Earth, I want the Harvester to begin drilling into the Earth's core, so we can begin the colonization process."

Pearl gasped.

"She wants to drill into the Earth's core?!"

"Just like back in the rebellion." said Garnet.

"Oh my God…" said President Eisenstein in disbelief.

The Maheswarans looked to each other in fear, then back to the others.

"Thank you. I'll send you the coordinates for where you are to pick us up… Thank you… Thank you, White."

The message ended, then looped back to the beginning. The soldier closed his laptop. The crew immediately began thinking of a plan.

"We must stop that fleet from successfully reaching Earth." said Pearl.

"And rescue Peridot!" said Lapis.

"But how are we gonna be able to get up there?" said President Eisenstein.

Lapis remembered.

"The Gem crafts!"

They all looked to her.

"If we can take all the Gem fighter crafts we acquired, we can fly them in a swarm towards the fleet. There may be some fighting involved, but I think we can do it!"

"Yeah!" said Steven, "That could work!"

"But how will we be able to rebuild them, assuming the ones we now possess are all damaged, in- When will the fleet even arrive?"

"It only took, if I remember, two days after… meeting Peridot for her and Jasper to arrive to Earth with Lapis."

"Yes, but that was just one ship." said Pearl, "We're talking a whole fleet of massive intergalactic attack ships and some "Harvester", which we don't even know what it is. It could take them several days, or, since Homeword is very powerful, maybe just two days as well. We don't really know…"

"We can get the best builders to help rebuild, along with the instructions Peridot left us!" said Lapis.

"So I guess it's back to Area 51." said Eisenstein.

The others nodded. Eisenstein turned to the pilot.

"Pilot, back to the airport."

The helicopter started and flew off.