Next up is number 3! *jazz hands*
I don't own Steven Universe.
Chapter 3: Learning
Blue and Pink stepped off the lift and PD took a quick look around. She recognized it as the bridge of the ship, gems were situated at stations all along the walls, a large window was on the other side of the room looking out and in the center was a large ornately decorated blue chair.
Blue Diamond's command chair.
Blue walked over to the chair and sat down, turning around and grinning at Pink Diamond who returned the gesture with a small smile. Blue turned to look at one of the gems milling about. "You." She said pointing to one of them who immediately stopped what she was doing and saluted, awaiting her orders. "Fetch another chair for my esteemed guest."
The gem nodded and ran off into the lift, in the meantime Pink Diamond strode over to her sister, still looking around, visibly impressed. "This ship is amazing."
Blue gave a large smirk but played it off, pretending to look around feigning disinterest. "Yes, I suppose it suits me fine." She then turned to look fully at PD. "In time you'll have one just like it." She paused for a moment, her grin betraying her amusement. "Well… perhaps not as stylish."
The gem from before returned just then, followed by two quartzes who were carrying a large table. She saluted. "My Diamond, this was the best we could do that would accommodate your guest's… er… size." It was true, it may have been a large table for normal sized gems, but to Pink Diamond it looked closer to a stool.
Blue frowned. "You expect me to have my guest sit on that?!" she barked.
The gems gave panicked looks, looking to each other quickly. "I'm sorry my Diamond it-"
"It's fine." Pink cut in, earning the attention of both Blue and the gems.
Pink bent down and picked up the table with one hand, turning it over curiously before setting it underneath herself and sitting down. The table creaked for a moment before holding. PD gave a smile to the gems. "Thank you for the chair." She said kindly.
The gems looked to each other before back to her. "It-It was our pleasure." The first gem said quickly.
Blue continued to frown, looking like she wanted to say something but instead she only sighed and waved them off. "You've done your duty, go." She ordered. The gems saluted and went back to work. Blue turned to look at Pink who was sitting relatively comfortable on her stool. "Well… I suppose it'll do, we aren't going very far." She then spoke in a commanding tone to the crew around her. "Set corse for my palace."
"As you command." One of them replied before they turned around and set the coordinates and began to fly through the air. Pink watched from her seat, which she scooted next to Blue Diamond's command chair, as the cityscape of homeworld raced by. It was only a few minutes before they stopped again and Blue Diamond got from her seat, motioning for Pink Diamond to follow her.
Pink Diamond did as she and Blue entered the lift once again. "Where are we exactly?" she asked.
Blue gave a grin, not turning to speak. "We're at my palace my dear."
"Your what?"
Blue turned a little more toward Pink. "My palace. The heart of my power on Homeworld." The lift doors open and Pink and Blue strode towards the entrance of the ship. The door opened with a hiss and Pink looked up to the giant spire before her. Traces of lines and shapes and different shades of blue intertwined on it.
"It's amazing." Pink said.
"Heh, if I didn't know any better I'd say you were amazed by every little thing little sister." Blue said.
Pink blushed and rubbed the back of her head sheepishly, averting her gaze. Blue took her hand and led her inside, there were gems working just as she'd seen in in the first spire and the same murals she'd seen were here as well. "I've been meaning to ask, what are those?" she asked pointing to them.
Blue gazed up. "Those are murals my dear." She answered.
"I know that, I mean what are they about?" she asked.
"Ah… those depict the history of our society." She said. 'Let me show you." She took Pink's hand and led her to a lift and they began to ascend. She pointed towards a large mural of what vaguely looked like White Diamond, alone on plane of nothingness. "More than a hundred thousand years ago, White Diamond was created, the first of the Diamonds, the first of the gems. She found herself on Homeworld all alone, but she did not despair."
Blue then pointed to another mural, this one depicting White Diamond with her hands up, holding an orb and it shined, rays coming out of it and hitting the ground. "In time she figured out how to create more gems like herself, but they were smaller, weaker, slower. White Diamond was disappointed but not deterred, over the course of a thousand years she built a culture, a society and conquered the whole of Homeworld." She finished pointing to another mural where White Diamond stood above what looked to be lesser gems as they surrounded a large sphere, what PD assumed to be Homeworld.
"The society grew exponentially, kindergartens were produced all over the planet and gems were made one after another. The lesser gems built monuments to White Diamond's magnificence and stove to do her every whim, such was their purpose." Blue continued point to yet another part of the mural. "But White Diamond felt desolation even with praises surrounding her. Having no peer in power, no being she could look upon in equal terms drove her to do anything she could to recreate the circumstances of her own conception. And in time…" Blue diamond whipped around and pointed to what PD recognized to be her older sister. "Yellow Diamond was finally created."
"White Diamond was overjoyed, finally a being who could match her, someone she could call 'sister'." She then motioned to another part which showed the two Diamond interlocking hands above themselves, a light glowing from the union. "The new Diamond brought forth a wave of new ideas that White had never before considered, plans of expansions and technological advances that spurred the budding Empire forward, off of Homeworld and into the stars." She then pointed to what looked like Yellow and White reaching out from homeworld and grasping spheres, which PD assumed to be planets, likely the earliest colonies.
"As their reach grew and grew so too did the types of gems that could be made, their pioneering advancing the empire by decades with each new star system that was added. And soon…" She gave that small smirk again. "A third Diamond was created." She turned to Pink as she posed to match her mural's stance. "…Blue Diamond. From then on the three sisters continued to gather planets and stars into their ever-growing culture. And that has remained unchanged for tens of thousands of years..." she gave a smile to Pink. "Until now." She extended her arms to everything around her. "Soon you too will be added to these murals, depicting the great and powerful Pink Diamond."
"Wow… that's a lot to live up to." She said.
"Of course, many things will be expected of you, as we've said." Blue replied.
"So that's our whole history?" Pink asked.
"In short, yes. There's a few odd details I left out but that is it. But if you want a full comprehensive you should ask White, though I gotta warn you when she's on a roll she can talk your ear off." Blue added, with a hint of laughter which Pink shared.
With that they finally reach the top of the spite, a room looking fairy small, the ceiling relatively low, a door just big enough for a Diamond at one end. "So, what are you going to show me now?"
"Come here." She said leading Pink towards the door and opening it. They stepped out onto a balcony, the light of Homeworld's sun was fading, dipping down over the horizon, setting the sky on fire with crimson and orange hues. In the distance Pink could see a large statue of a Diamond, holding a large crystal sphere above her head. The sun had hit it just right to where the light fractured into even more color patterns, creating a marvelous display of color before her. The figure was a striking resemblance to her sister and Pink turned to look at her as Blue put her hood down once more.
"It's beautiful." Pink said looking down at Homeworld's splendor in the amber light.
Blue continued to smile at her younger sister. "It's as I said sister, nothing is more important than beauty." She and Pink walked towards the railing and looked out upon their society. "Hard to imagine White creating all this from nothing, huh?" Pink looked out at it too and she had to agree. "But that's our real power as Diamonds, leading others to greatness."
The sun set just then, sweeping the metropolis into darkness before the light in the statue's hand began to glow. "'We are the lights in the darkness, guiding the way.'" Blue said with a chuckle, learning against the railing of the balcony, staring out to her look-alike. "It's what White would always tell me when I first got here." She said almost wistfully. "She'd always go on and on about, our duty as Diamonds, our responsibility to our society." She turned to look at Pink over her shoulder. "But now I see what she means, I mean look at all we've been able to do." She said motioning with one hand over the city scape. "Ever since I've gotten here our empire has only grown more and more. New minerals from far off planets, new types gems to be added to our society, and it's because of us that it was all possible."
"What do you mean?" Pink asked.
"What do I mean? I mean that it was because of us that this…" she said turning around to Pink fully and motioning again to the ground below. "…is all because we were here."
"What? You mean gems?"
"Diamonds!" she said almost exasperatedly. "Leaders who could direct the masses, thousands upon millions of beings acting under one purpose one rule."
"But is that what they wanted?" Pink asked.
Blue gave a surprised look. "What who wanted?"
"Those gems. Is this what they wanted for their society?" Pink asked as she stepped up to the railing and looked out as well. "We are their leaders so doesn't that mean we should do things that are better for everyone?"
"What we do is better for everyone." Blue replied. "You ask if this is what those lesser gems wanted, right?" she asked and Pink nodded. "Well then what does, say, a quartz want?" Pink was silent. "She'd probably tell you she wanted to fight, or go against a strong enemy or go over battle tactics. An olivine? To work on technology most likely. A bismuth? To build things. A pearl? To serve."
"Are you saying that those gems can't have any wants outside of their purpose?"
"I'm saying that thoughts outside of their purpose could cause our society to collapse." Blue explained. "Imagine what would have happened if White had let the other gems do what they wanted, our society would be divided and scattered. All this…" she motioned again out to the sprawling planet. "…would have never existed." Blue put a hand on Pink's arm and PD turned to look her sister in the face. "You need to understand Pink, we're here for a reason, they need something to work towards, and we're just facilitating that need." She chuckled. "In a way we serve them as much as they serve us." Her pervious chuckle became full on laughter. "Stars, listen to me. I sound just like White." Pink smiled uneasily at this, turning back to the metropolis. Blue then patted Pink on the shoulder. "It's alright if you don't understand, I didn't either at first. Don't worry though, you'll learn soon enough."
Pink was uneasy for a moment, that phrase kept coming up and she wasn't sure she liked the context of it. But before she could dwell on it the pearl from before came quietly through the door. Blue turned to look at her, quickly putting up her hood once again. "What is it?" she asked.
"White Diamond has requested your presence, my diamond, yours and Pink Diamond's." she said in her usual quiet voice.
Blue clasped her hands together. "Ah! Excellent! White must have finally set up the communications for the broadcast." She deduced.
"Broadcast? Of what?" Pink asked turning to look at her sister.
"Of your ascension obviously!" Blue said in a duh sort of way. "All the empire must know of your existence." Blue took her sister under the arm and walked back through the door as the demure pearl watched in silence. "No time to waste. I'll show you more of Homeworld later, but this is more important." She stepped back on the lift and they began to descend but this time stopped on another floor.
"Where are we?" Pink asked.
"This floor has my own personal warp pad on it, we'll be using that to get back to White Diamond's palace." Blue explained as another big pair of doors opened and they walked through, stepping onto the large warp pad inside and teleporting away.
The two Diamonds found themselves in a room just like the one they had just come from though this one had shades of white and silver instead of blue hues. There were once again inside White's spire, they looked down to see the pearl from before waiting on them. "My diamonds, if you please." She said before leading the way to the lift.
They stopped at the floor to the throne room and walked through the doors again, White Diamond was once again sitting in her seat, waiting in silence her hands lightly gripping on the arm rests. When they reached the center of the room the pearl dismissed herself and walked off. Pink looked around to see Yellow Diamond sitting in her throne as well, a tight-lipped and serious expression upon her features.
Blue Diamond addressed White. "I thought we'd have more time."
"I contacted communications almost as soon as you left." White replied. "All the empire will be tuning in in only a few moments." She then looked to Pink. "Be ready."
Yellow spoke up. "All eyes are on your Pink Diamond, make us proud."
Blue turned to her sister and gave a quick reassuring squeeze of her hand. "Don't worry they're gonna love you." With that she turned and walked to her own throne, sitting down in it.
White pressed a button on her throne and spoke into it. "Are we broadcasting?"
A voice called back from a speaker somewhere in the chair. "My Diamond, FTL communications are ready, awaiting your signal."
"Good, begin the broadcast." She ordered.
"As you wish." With that White punched a few buttons on the throne and a sphere came down from the ceiling, before separating off into three, each one stopping right in front of one of the thrones. Pink watched them and could hear a little whirl sound coming from them. Just then, three screens appeared, one adjacent to each of the diamonds, each showing a screen of a close up of their faces.
"Gems of the empire, hear me." WD spoke in an authoritarian tone. "This day is a day of great joy for our society. The rule of the Diamonds has been long and prosperous, under my personal care our culture evolved from the grounds of Homeworld. With the additions of Yellow Diamond and Blue Diamond, our society has only grown stronger…" Blue and Yellow straightened up at the mention of their names, but said nothing. "…however all that ends today. The rule of three is no more." Pink gave a small grin at this, she knew the gems across the cosmos must have been speechless to this news, but the best was yet to come. "For we have found a fourth. Another Diamond has been found! I give you… Pink Diamond."
With that the three spheres turned to Pink Diamond, each showing a different angle as Pink looked into each of the spheres, now seeing lenses of some sort. She could feel the judgement of a thousand eyes upon her but she did not waiver. She stood tall and proud.
Across the cosmos gems were tuning in to the Diamond broadcast, all stopped to marvel at the newest Diamond. Everyone knew this had changed everything.
1083 Years Later…
Nothing had changed.
Oh sure, some things had changed, just nothing recently. Pink Diamond thought this to herself as she sat cross legged on her terrace which she had built into the design of her palace. She had spent the last millennia or so getting to know her people, that is to say the other gems and her sisters.
The former had been easy to pick up, there were catalogues for every type of gem, classified by the minerals which created them. The tough quartzes, the intelligent olivines, etcetera, etcetera. She had spent decades with just about every kind now, knowing them as well as she could anything.
The later though had been somewhat more difficult. After the announcement of Pink Diamond's existence to the empire Yellow and Blue had soon said their farewells and went back to colonizing the far reaches of the cosmos. White Diamond was usually preoccupied herself with micromanaging Homeworld or sending out instructions to colonies and her sisters. Sure they stopped by from time to time, at least once in a decade, but for the most part they were off world, far away. Frankly, even when they did come to visit, their interactions were brief at best.
She had been shown some of the technological feats of their world by Blue Diamond, but Pink had learned some centuries earlier that conversations with Blue were mostly one-sided. Her azure sister mostly liked showing off, preferring to talk about her own little projects than listening to anything Pink had to say. Though she had noticed Blue would ask her opinion of something from time to time, but that was usually just an invitation to allow Blue to speak her mind more. In time though Pink had learned how to steer conversations back so there was more equal footing between them, so they could actually have conversations instead of Pink just listening to Blue for what felt like years at a time.
Yellow was the other extreme, all business and no pleasantries. Even after their initial embrace at their first meeting it seemed like Yellow preferred to take things… with some distance. When she came by it was usually to ask about Pink's progress on her studies in being a Diamond, she would respond with an estimate and then Yellow would move onto another subject concerning the welfare of the empire or how Homeworld as a whole was doing. It was as if she was doing some sort of calculations in her mind to determine the exact worth of Pink Diamond's progress, something like Pink Diamond: potential of being a successful Diamond: 2 percent increase since last visit. But it wasn't as if Yellow was ever rude or unpleasant to her, just a little cold, distant. It made her sort of sad that they weren't closer, but Blue had told her that was simply Yellow's way.
White, she had had the most interactions with, unfortunately there was little to be done there as well. See, after Pink Diamond's welcoming ceremony was over, White had grounded her to Homeworld and Homeworld only. No leaving to see the far reaches of the empire where colonies were being made or even near reaches where already made colonies went about their business. She had said it was crucial that Pink learned about being a Diamond as fast as she could and that the best way to do that was being at the heart of the empire, Homeworld. Much to her dismay this also included reading through tens of thousands of years of information, something that had preoccupied much of Pink Diamond's time and something she had grown to loath. Still, as grueling as it had been to read through all of it, she was glad she did, now having a much better picture in her mind of her people's culture. But unfortunately she had learned everything she'd ever want to know several decades earlier, she was just waiting on White's approval to leave now and that had been hard as talking to her at all.
As said White was constantly handling domestic affairs and didn't have the time to drop everything to spend time with her, as much as she'd pleaded to and as much as White Diamond had explained why that wasn't possible to her each time. Even when they finally found some time to talk, sister to sister, Pink got the feeling White didn't take her seriously. Every time they talked together and Pink pleaded to leave Homeworld White would ask her about some obscure information that White assured her she was supposed to know and when Pink inevitably failed to answer a question White would tell her she wasn't ready and send her off. Even when she did manage to get through the quiz, White had a tendency to go into tautologies about why she wouldn't allow Pink to leave, lecturing her until Pink thought she would finally just shatter from sheer boredom.
But now she was ready.
She was a diamond with legions of gems at her command now, she had been instructed on battle tactics by quartzes and technologies by olivines. She was going to leave homeworld today. That was why she was here, sitting in her serene, pink-hued terrace. She was gathering the strength to challenge White's authority, she was going to go in there and demand to go off world, to see the stars. She had been waiting years for this, she had come up with a counter to every argument a rebuttal to every lecture, yes today would be day she was off this rock. Not that Pink disliked Homeworld, just that its monotony had gotten to her. Pink smiled to herself, practically rubbing her hands together with glee.
Just then she heard the woosh of the doors opening behind her and didn't even turn around to look. "Pearl? Is that you?"
"Yes, my Diamond." Answered Pearl who worked her way around so that she was in Pink's line of sight. She wore a flamingo pink bodysuit with an open diamond-shaped keyhole neckline, a short, blush pink, sheer skirt. Her pearl gemstone just below her neckline. Her hair was a rose pink, chin-length pixie cut that had a fringe covering her forehead, strands stuck out here and there but nothing too untidily.
This Pearl was her oldest companion. White had had her made within a month of Pink's arrival on Homeworld. The first of many, White had told her, which was true, after Pink had gotten down the basic facts of Homeworld White had assigned more and more gems under her command, some as teachers others as assistants, to teach her about leadership White had said. But even after all these years she felt a connection with Pearl that she didn't quite have with her other followers. They were close, perhaps even closer than Pink felt to her actual sisters. She had been as much a teacher and a guide to Pink as White had ever been, perhaps even more considering Pearl's undivided attention to her.
"Just checking up on me?" Pink asked somewhat amused.
"Your safety and well-being is my number one concern, my Diamond." Pearl replied with a smile. PD really did like this gem, she was polite and courteous, like all Pearls were, but the tone in which she spoke was not of a servant but of a friend, something Pink had far more of a desire for anyways.
"I think today is the day, Pearl." Pink said, reaching up toward the skies with an open hand then grasping it shut as if catching something above her. "We're going to go into space and nothing is gonna stop us."
"Nothing except White Diamond, my Diamond." Pearl replied.
Pink Diamond pouted for a moment before waving it off. "Ah… just you watch, I'm going to go in there today and White Diamond will have no choice but to let me leave." With this she stood to her full height. "You coming?"
"Always, my Diamond." Pearl said as she followed her master inside. They stepped on the center lift and made their way to the warp floor, getting off and lift and on to the pad before teleporting away to White Diamond's spire.
They appeared in White Diamond's warp pad room and made their way to the lift, getting on and making their way to the throne room. PD and Pearl stepped up to the doors to the throne room, now adorned with Pink Diamond's diamond among the others and it opened. PD and Pearl stepped inside making their way to the center of the room where White Diamond sat in her own throne, interfaces in front of her as she went about her day, how typical Pink thought.
"White Diamond, we need to talk." Pink said, White ignored it and continued her work. She looked down to Pearl who simply shrugged in return. "I said 'we need to talk'!" she said a little louder, still no response.
Pink Diamond sighed before walking over to her own throne and sitting down, Pearl standing by her side. White dismissed the interfaces and looked over to Pink Diamond as if seeing her for the first time. "As dear sister, what can I do for you?" she asked.
"I have a request to make." Pink said sternly.
"Oh?" White asked bemusedly.
"White Diamond, sister, I think it's time that I was able to leave Homeworld, to go to other colonies."
White was silent for a moment before answering. "Yes, I think you're right, it's about time you went off."
"White Diamond please, I-" Pink started before White's words registered in her mind. "Wait, did you say 'yes'?"
"I did. You've spent enough time here Pink Diamond, it's time you saw the rest of our empire." White replied. She noticed Pink looking a bit put out. "Is something the matter?"
"No it's just… I had this whole speech ready and now…" she trailed off and White gave a smile.
"You have my permission to leave, take however many gems you'd like with you and leave on your personal ship. I'll have coordinates sent over momentarily for one of our colonies." White said, stepping down from her throne as Pink did the same, Pearl stayed back, keeping a respectful distance as the two Diamonds met in the middle. White put a hand on her shoulder. "Go out there and show the stars what it means to be a Diamond." Pink Diamond almost with tears in her eyes embraced White in a way she hadn't in years. White Diamond gave an oof at the force but returned the embrace kindly.
Pink then let go, holding her sister's hands. "Thank you, thank you so much…" she said.
"Be safe sister." White said as a farewell before returning to her throne and Pink left through the throne room doors, followed closely by Pearl, eager for the cosmos to know her name.
Boom. Another one types the dust. Reviews are welcome and wanted, like really wanted, thanks for reading.
