The Quartizine Chronicles
A History of Rose Quartz and the Earth Rebellion
An Interlude Between New Friends
Rose and her Pearl stood at the edge of a hanging patio attached to a large room on the top floor of the Lunar Sea Spire, anxiously awaiting the arrival of Rose's newest ally, Sapphire, and her partner Ruby. While Pearl paced back and forth nervously behind Rose, Rose herself simply stared off into the distance, preoccupied with thoughts unknown and unknowable, even to Pearl. Pearl had already met Sapphire and Ruby once (alongside Rose), when they had first arrived, but it had been several days (Earth days were slightly shorter than days on Homeworld, Pearl had noticed), and Sapphire had yet to speak to anyone except Rose. Even then, Sapphire would not speak to Rose about anything except military matters, and that only when she and Rose were alone. Sapphire and Ruby had agreed, however, to meet with Rose and simply talk: at first this confused them (and aroused their suspicion), but Rose had thoroughly convinced them that she had no motives beyond getting to know the Senatrix now under her protection and the Gem she loves.
Pearl ceased pacing, turned, and looked at Rose. While Rose's face was turned away from her, Pearl could sense Rose's anticipation, a barely-controlled mass of excitement to rival Pearl's own.
"What worries you, My Lady?" asked Pearl. Rose giggled in response, turning to face Pearl.
"Just how do you know that I'm worried, dear Pearl?" replied Rose, "And, as always, please don't call me 'Lady.' We know each other too well for that, and you know I dislike titles."
"You were shaking with excitement. I couldn't help but notice, My La-...Rose." said Pearl, clearly exasperated at having to leave Rose's name appellation-less.
Rose began to respond to Pearl, but was immediately cut off by a loud knock at the door of the room. This first knock was followed, a few seconds later, by several others, prompting both Rose and Pearl to simultaneously run for the door. Rose, by virtue of her being almost twice Pearl's size, reached the door first, while Pearl, noticing that her mistress had reached the door before her, instead straightened herself out and prepared to greet their honored guests in her usual fashion.
Rose opened the door, revealing Sapphire (standing to Rose's left) and Ruby (standing to Rose's right): hands intertwined, eyes forward, Ruby's left hand outstretched and balled into a fist in preparation to knock again.
"Hello, Sapphire." said Rose, "You as well, Ruby."
"Greetings, Lady Rose." replied Sapphire.
"At your service, my Hegemon." said Ruby, unclasping Sapphire's hand to kneel before Rose and bowing her head.
"Ruby. Sapphire." said Rose, looking between them, "Please, there's no need for titles when speaking to me. And there's no need for kneeling either, Ruby."
Ruby nodded, stood up, and once again joined hands with Sapphire. Nearly simultaneously, they both proclaimed, "Thank you, Rose."
"I believe you've both met my Pearl?" questioned Rose.
"Indeed we have," responded Sapphire, looking over at Pearl. "Hello, 3573."
"Please, Senatrix Sapphire, call me Pearl. My true name reminds me a bit too much of the Academy of Service," said Pearl.
"And you, good Pearl, may simply call me Sapphire. Much like your mistress, I too dislike titles."
Pearl smiled and bowed, with a whispered, "Thank you." Rose, meanwhile, stepped to one side, unblocking the doorway.
"Please," said Rose, "Come in."
Ruby and Sapphire entered the room, hands still linked, and were led by Rose and Pearl to a group of enormous chairs with domed tops hovering in a circle a few feet above an open floor in the center of the room, held in suspension by an invisible force field produced by an emitter on the ceiling. Ruby and Sapphire unclasped each other's hands and sat, side-by-side, in one of these chairs, while Rose and Pearl took two of the others. There the four Gems sat for several seconds in silence, all of them clearly quite nervous. Finally, Rose broke the silence.
"I think I should start by explaining why I requested this meeting. I wanted to give both of you, as well as Pearl and myself, a chance to say anything in regards to introductions that has, as of yet, been left unsaid."
Surprisingly, it was Ruby who spoke in response.
"Thank you again, Rose. I know Sapphire's already thanked you a lot, but I can't properly express how grateful we are. Really, without you, we would probably never have found somewhere where we're free to be who we are, like we are here. I'm glad to see that the rumors about your opposition to the Authority's stance on love and fusion are true."
"Of course they are, Ruby." said Rose, "How could I oppose love? As much as the Diamonds want to deny it, love is a primal force, as natural as the laws of physics and as ancient as the suns of Procyon. And, of course, you're free to fuse as you please here."
"Really?!" exclaimed Ruby and Sapphire simultaneously. They looked away from Rose and into each other's eyes, briefly exchanging mixed looks of both relief and excitement before turning back to Rose.
"Praise the Crystal Queen!" Ruby yelled excitedly, subconsciously materializing her weapon (a gauntlet) on her right hand before thrusting it victoriously in the air.
"Pardon the outburst, Rose." said Sapphire, "But we have had to tread so lightly for so long that to be truly free is...well, indescribable. House Diamond can just try to tear us down now."
Pearl, silent up until this point, finally spoke.
"The Diamonds can't legislate conviction to a cause, or propagandize away a Gem's feelings and emotions, no matter how much they'd like to. The truth is that they fear fusions, and like all those who operate in the shadow of fear, they are doomed to wither and die in the blazing light of truth."
"Pearl speaks the truth, as I'm sure you both know." said Rose, "And speaking of fusion: if it's not too personal a request, I believe Pearl and I would be honored to meet the real you. The real BOTH of you."
Upon hearing this, Ruby and Sapphire turned to once again look in each other's eyes, their smiles iridescent.
"What do you say, Ruby?" asked Sapphire, "Would you care to fuse, my love?"
"Baby, I thought you'd never ask."
With that, Ruby and Sapphire got up, moved into the area in the center of the chair circle, rejoined hands, and began swaying rhythmically about the open floor. While their dancing styles could not have possibly been more different, Pearl observed, they were perfect counterpoints to one another, with Sapphire's calm, deliberate grace balancing out Ruby's frantic hyperkinesis, and Ruby's uncontrollable energy likewise lending life and feeling to Sapphire's otherwise by-the-numbers fusion dance. Soon reaching the apex of their dance, Ruby grabbed Sapphire (giggling uncontrollably by this point) by the waist and tossed her into the air. Upon catching her, both Gems' bodies turned to light and melted together, briefly forming an amorphous, constantly-shifting shape. Out from this shape shone a burst of incredibly bright light, forcing Pearl and Rose to avert their eyes: when they looked back, an unfamiliar figure stood where Ruby and Sapphire had been. About as tall as Rose (with a large, cubical hairdo, serving to make her even taller), long-limbed, broad-shouldered, powerfully built, and possessed of gorgeous, gemstone-bright red skin, the fusion was a model of both beauty and power. However, the most striking feature of this new fusion was her eyes: there were three of them, the right one the same deep red color as Ruby's skin, the left matching Sapphire's sea-blue skin tone, and the center eye (located on the fusion's forehead) colored a bright purple, the result of mixing the colors of the other two eyes together. The fusion quickly scanned her eyes from Pearl, to Rose, back to Pearl, before raising her open right hand, palm towards her hosts, and speaking.
"Greetings Rose. Pearl. My name is Garnet. It greatly pleases me to properly meet both of you at last."
Garnet's voice was both mellifluous and striking. Neither Rose nor Pearl had ever been in the presence of someone so confident, so powerful. They were speechless, wholly taken with Garnet's beauty and inherent strength. Garnet possessed a power far beyond the physical (though an imposing physical specimen she most certainly was), a power that seemed to radiate from her in invisible waves which soon overtook her hosts. Pearl realized that simply being in Garnet's presence filled her with a strength and confidence that she had previously only felt when fused with Rose, while Rose, experiencing much the same feelings as Pearl, had her earlier words completely vindicated. House Diamond may control formidable political power, but they obtained that power through force and fear, given it by the Gems they ruled over under threat of violent retribution. Garnet, meanwhile, held true strength, the kind by which Rose had always sought to temper her judgements as a ruler: a strength which came from love. And love, Rose thought, was exactly what Garnet was. But that wasn't all there was to it. Garnet was not just made of love, she physically embodied it.
Pearl was the first to overcome her speechlessness.
"Y-you're beautiful."
"Thank you, Pearl." Garnet said, "I think you're very beautiful too."
It was Rose who spoke next.
"Garnet, your eyes, they, um, I-I-I've...never seen such a perfect fusion."
"Most fusions you've seen are just a temporary way to make two or more Gems stronger and more effective in combat." said Garnet, "I am held together by Ruby and Sapphire's love for one another, and because their connection to each other is so strong, my physical form is likewise very stable."
"How long can you stay fused?" inquired Pearl, who had recovered somewhat from her initial shock.
"Ruby and Sapphire have yet to find an upper limit to how long they can sustain me. Judging from the relative lack of effort required on their parts to hold me together, they think there might not be a limit on how long I can remain fused."
Pearl questioned further.
"If it's not too personal, Garnet, how long are you planning to remain in this form?"
"Forever, if possible." Garnet replied succinctly, "But Rose already knows that. Sapphire explained her and Ruby's desire to fuse indefinitely in her letter to your mistress."
Rose, for her part, had also overcome her shock, and now looked more excited than anything. She spoke again.
"I knew Gems in love could form very stable fusions, but Garnet, you're INCREDIBLE!" exclaimed Rose, grinning widely.
"And ultra-stable fusion is far from the only thing I've got." said Garnet, "Watch this."
With this, Garnet strode up to Rose, leaned forward, and kissed Rose on the forehead. Immediately, Rose's mind was flooded with images: a Sky Arena scattered with shards of shattered Gems, an exploded warp pad, waves of Gems rushing at each other with their weapons drawn, and her sword, held aloft in victory. It took Rose a moment to realize what she was seeing.
"Precognition. You...you're psychic? But you can't be a Null, I saw Ruby's weapon."
"I am most certainly not weaponless." replied Garnet, materializing a gauntlet (much like Ruby's) on each of her hands, "But Sapphire is, so yes: a weapon and Null powers. Advantageous, no?"
"More like unprecedented." Pearl responded, "Garnet, these powers, they're...well, godlike might be a bit of an exaggeration, but I can't think of any other term which adequately describes them."
"I'm not a god, Pearl." said Garnet, a pair of large, reflective glasses suddenly appearing on the top half of her face, covering her eyes, "I am Love. And no god has power to match mine."
Garnet looked back and forth between Rose and Pearl, noting their continuing amazement. Just wait, Garnet thought, until they see what I can REALLY do.