"So we don't look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever."
- 2 Corinthians 4:18 - 4:19
~O~
Tears of Fire
Five Thousand Years Later
Rebellion.
White should have seen it happen.
She stood with Pink in the room of the zoo, watching as she sadly bubbled the Rose Quartz's in her care. Pink hadn't wanted to do it, but White suggested it as a means of being sure that none of the other gems of HER cut would possess the same weakness.
White gently put a hand on her shoulder and Pink sighed, covering her hand with her own. They silently left the chamber and Pink gave a fleeting look back at the bubbled gems before the doors closed behind them.
Now was the time for war.
O
"We do not want a fight between the diamonds."
"It's true. White is the most formidable of them. We don't want her stepping into the battlefield."
"But she has a weakness."
Rose listened to the discussions of her soldiers while they remained hidden in the makeshift bunker that evening. She didn't like this kind of talk. She didn't like thinking of the idea of what may come. It wasn't something she wanted; the destruction of so many gem lives as well as the deaths of humans. But she understood what was necessary in battle now.
The gem who had mentioned a weakness was a blue Turquoise, one of Blue Diamond's former guard. The gem seemed quite adept at coming up with ideas, even if Rose wasn't quite pleased with some of them. Many of them called for the worst kind of violence.
"What weakness?" Rose asked.
Turquoise smiled. "You know what that weakness is, Rose. It's Pink."
Rose thought about it before her eyes widened. "No. We can't."
Bismuth seemed eager to jump at the idea. "Rose, if we don't do something about it, this world's gonna crack like an egg! It's worse out there than it needs to be!"
"No. Another way. We won't become them!"
Turquoise smiled at her and put a hand on her shoulder. "You won't have to. I know gems of Pink Diamond's court. Many would jump at the chance."
Rose looked at each expectant face, features twisting in pain. "Do you even know what you ask?" she whispered. "Do you understand what that could do to all of us? It's not just defeating them. We're talking about destroying Pink Diamond!"
"A diamond. A diamond who would harvest this planet and destroy everything we're fighting for!" Bismuth insisted. "Rose, we've been holding them back long enough! It's time to finish it!"
Turquoise nodded her approval. "It seems we have an accord."
"Rose won't even be able to get anywhere close to Pink Diamond," another gem - a Topaz reminded them, "The rest of her gem cut had been put into storage. Anyone could see her approach."
"That's why we set up bait." Turquoise told them. "Who do you know closer to Pink Diamond than any gem? Her pearl."
O
"Your mind goes to dark places and you wonder why I keep the worst from you."
Blue frowned at White; she hadn't appreciated what she felt was a personal attack, but then again, that was White's way. Blunt and to the point. She had kept the severity of the war from her in an effort to keep them calm. She knew that Blue's emotions stirred a problem.
"We cannot continued to generate soldiers on the colony," White told her, "The only option we have left is to use the song."
Blue shook her head and her features filled with pain. "White..."
White regarded her, diamond irises narrowing. "And if we don't, we risk them trampling through Homeworld and destroying all that we've built." She turned, facing the open window of her balcony before glancing down at a Star Sapphire. "Have my agates issue the evacuation order. The gems of Homeworld have an hour to flee from the colony."
The Star Sapphire saluted once and made her way out of the room. Blue watched her go before she regarded White sadly. She shut her eyes.
Later that evening, Blue and Yellow discussed the situation and Yellow herself seemed to agree with White's plan. There was too much at stake to have it lost to the Rebellion. Blue was surprised to hear her agree with it.
"I don't want to see Homeworld fall at the Rebellion either, Blue." Yellow told her, raising an eyebrow. "Would you?"
"Of course not!" Blue said, frowning. She sighed and looked out at the great city below them. "But what of Pink? What will become of her colony once it's filled with twisted things?"
"We will find her another." Yellow assured her.
The two looked down, noticing that many of Pink Diamond's gems had been sent through the Homeworld Warp. Frowning, Yellow noticed that among them were her agates, her sapphires and even her gardeners. Every one of them of her court poured through the gate.
"That's strange," she said, "Why are Pink's gems filing through the warp?"
Blue noticed it too. She looked at Yellow. "Pink surely received word, didn't she?" she asked, "That White would use the song?"
Yellow's eyes seemed distant, her thoughts running rampant. Then, they slowly widened and she immediately bolted from the room. Blue looked after her, startled by the sudden fear in Yellow's expression. She quickly followed behind her.
Yellow made her way to the warp pad and approached one of the agates.
"You!" she bellowed, "Who gave you the order to abandon your position?"
The agate looked up at her, suddenly frightened. "We-we received it from one of her court!" she stammered.
Yellow and Blue looked at one another briefly. Suddenly, a glimmer of realization lit Yellow's face and Blue eventually seemed to understand as well. The horror that touched their gazes now made every gem watching them suddenly afraid.
"Stars, no!" Yellow shouted, surging her way through the warp.
O
Yellow and Blue Diamond hurried their way through the field, struggling to seek out Pink Diamond's palanquin among the chaos of battle. When they stopped, they found a single Ruby kneeling in the dirt and immediately, Blue took hold of her. She was crying, her eyes wide in shock.
"Speak, ruby!" Blue bellowed, panic in her voice. "Where's Pink Diamond?"
The ruby continued to cry in her hands before she pointed over her shoulder. Yellow and Blue looked up and their eyes widened in horror at the sight of a fallen Pink Diamond. She was clutching her gem, eyes wide in agony. Her palanquin had collapsed, as if it had taken a brutal hit from a gem weapon.
"Oh, Stars, no!" Blue started to sob, "Pink!"
Pink Diamond was clutching her gem and refused to let them see it as they rushed up to her. She swallowed thickly, eyes glazed over in pain.
"It's okay..." she whispered, "It went through. I didn't feel it..."
Yellow immediately scooped her up in her arms and carried her away. They had to hurry back to White Diamond. They had to...
"My-My pearl..." Pink Diamond groaned softly, eyes wandering around, "Where is she? Where is my pearl?"
Yellow Diamond glanced back at the shards that littered near Pink Diamond's palanquin. She didn't answer her. She couldn't.
"It'll be okay, Pink!" Blue cried, holding the diamond's hand.
They returned to Homeworld quickly and White Diamond had been waiting by the warp. She was clutching a bowl of water in her hand and it reflected the image of battle on Earth. When she heard the warp, she turned with the bowl.
The two gems holding Pink Diamond were at tears. They looked at her helplessly and White Diamond's features slowly smoothed out. The bowl tilted in her hands and water poured from it moments before it fell and shattered to the floor.
They rushed Pink Diamond into another room. A few of White's gems had quickly gathered to assess the damage done to Pink's gem. One of them looked up at her with pain and slowly shook her head.
Yellow Diamond could only watch, stunned as White Diamond displayed emotion she'd never seen from her before; a struggle to maintain the apathetic facade was crumbling. Blue Diamond stood on the other side of the table and sobbed softly, holding Pink Diamond's hand in hers.
"I'll...I'll need to hold your gem together..." White Diamond's voice sounded sick in the room as she struggled with shaking hands to keep Pink's gradually breaking gem together. "When we get you to-to my laboratory, you'll be fine."
Yellow Diamond clenched her teeth, struggling to keep back the tears in her eyes. "White..." she began.
White Diamond didn't seem to hear her. "You'll be all right once we get you home," she repeated, her voice shaken, "Once we get you home, you'll be all right."
Pink's eyes opened and she smiled weakly up at her. "White..."
White leaned close, cupping her cheek with one hand. "Yes, I'm here."
Pink looked down at her cracking gem, her form flickering once. She shuddered before leaning her head back. "I was... just taking a walk..." she said, breathless in her words, "I thought if I could...speak to Rose, then perhaps I could fix it."
White managed a weak smile. "I know. You believe you could fix anything."
"I see now... What became of me..." Pink mumbled. She shook her head. "It was meant to be."
White's features crumbled and tears began to trickle down her cheeks. It looked so foreign and alien on her that Yellow couldn't stop watching it.
Another flicker of Pink's form. She struggled to keep herself together and White gently caressed her cheek with one hand to soothe her.
"Are you in pain?" White asked, her voice shaken.
Pink shook her head. "I don't feel much."
An explosion of breath from White and she nodded, almost too fiercely. "Good. I'm glad."
Blue Diamond was sobbing in her hand.
"I have only you, love," Pink continued, smiling sadly, "Only you three here to comfort me. And it will end as we had begun, in light."
"Tell us who did this, Pink!" Yellow snarled out, "Tell us who did this to you so that we can bring the worst suffering imaginable to them!"
"What would that do?" Pink sighed, shaking her head sadly.
White's eyes prickled with tears. "What will become of me? No other will replace you." Her voice broke and she swallowed a small sob. "You showed me... You showed me..."
Pink furrowed her brow, shaking her head and reaching up to touch White's cheek. "White Diamond, you gave me a life I never dreamed of living. A love I wanted to share with you," Pink assured her, with another tired smile, "I would have asked for nothing else."
Her form flickered and her gem began to crack down the middle. The sound echoed terribly in the room, drawing visceral reactions from the three there.
White frantically picked her up, holding her close to her chest and downright sobbing a rebuke while the other two could only watch in horror and anguish.
"No, no, no, no, no..." White Diamond moaned, the wounded sounds almost enough to buckle the walls, "No, please! No! Please!"
Pink Diamond's form flickered again and her gem began to fall apart. Despite White's sobs and rebukes, her form glitched into static before she crumbled into nothing more than dust in the diamond's hands. White stared down at the ashes in her hands, tears streaming down her cheeks. Her hands shook and she could only watch as the shards that had once been Pink Diamond fell from them.
"White...?" Yellow queried, careful.
The room was spinning.
White couldn't focus on anything else but the sharp ringing in her ears, cutting off every sound in the room. Her vision blurred, her voice choked out several small sobs.
There is nothing left. No hope. It's dead.
Yellow and Blue watched with wide, shocked eyes as White began to smash her head into the wall. Over and over again, shrieking out with anguish. They made their way over to stop her, but White eventually tired herself out, leaning against the wall with her face contorted with sorrow, tears streaming down her cheeks.
She gave several agonized wails before a tortured scream burst from her throat.
O
"She's gone."
Yellow was sitting in her chambers, watching the screens laid out in front of her. She hadn't spoken since it happened, but when Blue addressed her, she turned in her chair, eyes wide.
"What?" she exclaimed.
Blue looked at her, eyes filled. "White's gone. She's not in her tower."
Yellow clenched her fist, shaking. "Where is she?"
"I don't know, Yellow!" Blue cried, shaking her head. She ran her hands through her hair, frantic. "What do we do? What should we do?"
"Blue!" Yellow shouted, standing from her throne. "Enough! We need to find White and end this, once and for all! Do you understand?"
Blue shook and fresh tears poured from her cheeks. "Pink's gone, Yellow...!" she sobbed, shaking hands going to her face, "Pink's gone... She's gone!"
Yellow embraced her, speaking rigidly. "She will be avenged, I swear it."
Blue downright sobbed in her shoulder, clutching to her for all her worth. Yellow could do no more than comfort her as best as she was capable. She didn't let Blue see the fresh tears that poured down her cheeks.
Meanwhile, an amethyst was leading a group of Rebel gems through the forest with Turquoise behind them. She was addressing the situation regarding Pink Diamond's fall.
"It worked well," Turquoise said, smiling at the group of amethyst's behind her, "Now with Pink gone, the rest of the diamonds will be easy."
"How do you know?" a topaz asked.
"Pink was holding them together. All it takes it just one broken gear to crumble the entire machine. Now we will..."
She trailed off, frowning behind her.
A Lapis Lazuli caught her gaze; she flew around them, suddenly on guard. "What is it?" she asked. "Do you hear something?"
"Something's following us." Turquoise told them.
Immediately, the small batallion stopped, looking around at the forest. It was silent, entirely too silent. Topaz looked uneasy.
"Do you hear that?" she whispered.
"Run." Turquouise suddenly said.
"What?" the leading amethyst demanded.
"RUN!" Turquoise shouted.
The Lapis Lazuli stood no chance as White Diamond was already moving through the trees, as silent as air. She raised her fist, smashing it across her form. Immediately, she was dispelled and her gem fell uselessly to the ground.
The gems could only watch as she stalked toward them, body engulf in white fire. Her eyes practically glowed. They looked frightened; White didn't look the same as they were used to seeing. No logic there in her blank stare. Instead, there was a sense of emptiness in her narrowed, diamond irises. They were small in that sea of white, nearly pinpricks.
...Defiler...
...Debaser and defiler...
"Go!" Turquoise shouted, to a gem nearby. "Warn Rose!"
You destroyed her. You destroyed her.
Slowly, White's hand produced a large, gleaming scythe from her gem; the blade gleamed in the weak light of the moon above. The amethysts stood before her, standing between her and the fleeing gems. White continued to stare.
The amethysts fused, forming an enormous form that nearly stood level with White's height. She flexed her arms, regarded the diamond with a slightly unsettled smile.
"We didn't want to fight you. But we need to let them get to Rose before you do." she said. "Let's dance, White."