Chapter 5, woot!


Chapter 5: Predictions

Pink Diamond looked down to her palm, eyeing the green gem as she turned it over in her hand a few time. With her other hand she rubbed her cheek where the creature had struck her. It had been the first time in memory that she had felt pain. Something so small had managed to hurt her, her a Diamond. She wasn't nearly as… well… conceited as her sisters were concerning her Diamond status. Still, she had been over three times this creature's size and it had laid her out flat with a punch to the face, an impressive feat.

She closed her palm on it and looked out to the starry abyss of space. This could be a bigger problem than they'd yet realized. If this was just was a single one of these creatures could do, what if there had been more of them? What if there were more of them out there, on other colonies? What had caused this to happen to a gem? She needed to find out and she knew just whom to talk to, but first...

"Peridot." Pink Diamond called from her seat and the little green gem responded, walking over to her leader. "Have this scanned and tell me what it says."

Peridot nodded and took the green gem from Pink's outstretched hand, walking over to a scanning table and punching a few buttons in. After a few moments the scan was finished and Peridot looked over the data. "My Diamond, this gem you have, it's been… corrupted."

"Corrupted?" Pink asked. "What do you mean? Are you saying it's broken?"

"No my Diamond, if it was broken the physical form of the gem wouldn't be able to take hold at all." Peridot corrected. "It looks like something has forcibly made its way into the very core of this gem and asserted its influence over it causing drastic changes to the physical attributes and personality of the gem. I've never seen anything like this."

"Neither have I." Pink admitted, and she really hadn't either. In the thousands of years' worth of reports and data she'd gone over she had never seen anything mention a phenomena such as this. But perhaps someone with more experience would know more. "Peridot, open a line to the White Diamond control room. There is something I wish to discuss with my sister." Peridot nodded, imputing the command in her terminal.

A floating screen popped down from the ceiling, it flashed grey and silver for a moment before a face was seen. "This is the White Diamond control room, under whose authority are you making this call?" Came a light nasally voice of a Pearl, Pink recognized it as White Diamond's usual pearl, those her outfit had changed somewhat since she'd last seen her.

"Under my own." Pink said commandingly. While she wasn't overly fond of flaunting her status and rank, it didn't mean she didn't know how.

The Pearl recognized the face and voice immediately. "Pink Diamond!" she said with a bit of a start. "I wasn't expecting you to-"

"I need to contact White Diamond immediately, connect me now." Pink ordered.

"As you command." The Pearl said obediently.

There was a few seconds of silence and the screen went a solid grey for a few moments before White Diamond appeared on screen. She looked like her usual self, entirely expressionless. "Pink Diamond, I wasn't expecting a call from you so soon. How was your trip to the colony?"

"White! Please, I need you to listen." White's countenance did not change, but her eyes slightly narrowed at the sudden demand for her attention. Pink held out the gem in view of the screen and White looked to it for a moment before Pink began to speak. "This gem… there's something very wrong with it."

"What do you mean?" White asked.

"This gem… it… it's not normal." Pink replied. White said nothing and only blinked, waiting for further elaboration. "It was transformed into some kind of creature and it attacked me and my crew."

White eyes widened a bit at this. "Something attacked you? Were you hurt?" she asked.

"I'm fine, White." She replied. "But this thing it's… I've never seen anything like it."

White Diamond paused at this before speaking again. "Do you have relevant information to send on this?" she asked. Pink Diamond nodded to Peridot who took the meaning of the gesture, sending the data they'd just compiled through the communications line. White Diamond looked down and away for a moment, looking over the data herself. "This says the gem has been-"

"-Corrupted! Yes." Peridot interjected. White gave her a small look of annoyance and the green gem who shied away under her gaze.

"What do you think this means?" Pink asked.

Her sister was silent for a moment, as if preparing herself for her next words. "Pink Diamond you will meet me back on Homeworld immediately." She ordered.

"What?" she asked. "What is this about?"

"Do as I say, and bring that gem with you." White ordered, before cutting out. Pink blinked in surprise before scowling, this was just like her sister to be so cryptic and unhelpful. But she sighed, still this was the only thing she had to go on, whatever it was White knew she didn't want to discuss it over a communications line.

"Set a course for Homeworld, Peridot. Looks like we're going back earlier than expected." Pink said and the green gem complied.


Later…


Pink Diamond found herself right outside the doors to the Diamond throne room, she'd had the rest of her crew stay behind, she had a feeling White wanted this to be a private matter. White's Pearl had only led her to the lift, leaving Pink to ascend alone. She opened the door and instead of finding White in her usual position upon her seat, she was standing in the middle of the room, her hand behind her back.

"Do you have it?" she asked. Pink diamond produced the gem from her person and held it out. White Diamond reached out and picked it up, inspecting it with scrutiny. "Has it reformed since you subdued it?"

"Attempts yes, but I managed to stop it from forming each time." She answered.

White nodded once in understanding and placed the gem on the ground, stepping away from it. She then pressed a few buttons on what looked like some kind of wrist-mounted interface. A shield of light came pouring down from the ceiling, surrounding the gem and putting s barrier between Pink and her sister.

It only took a scant few moments once the gem was untouched by anyone that it began to form. A bright light shown and the form took hold, the creature from the spire was now before them, on its knees as it ascertained its new environment. It looked to Pink Diamond and recognized her immediately, hissing at her. It then turned to White Diamond and hissed at her too before attempting to close the gap between them with a jump. The creature bounced harmlessly off the wall of light and landed on its back. White seemed completely unfazed by the action as she bent down to get a better look at the creature.

"Interesting." She said, cupping her chin as it continued to punch the wall of light and the floor beneath it. However unlike the ruined spire neither the wall nor the floor so much as vibrated form the force, being significantly denser than the material form the ruined spire. She then stood to full height, walking around to Pink Diamond. "And you found this on Zohost?"

"Yes."

"How long has it been… like this?" White asked.

"About four hundred years give or take." White raised an eyebrow at this and Pink elaborated. "Apparently there was a file sent on this gem's condition centuries ago and no one from Homeworld did anything about it.

"Possible I suppose." White said. "I manage most of Homeworld's activity but I do use intermediaries form time to time. Perhaps I should see to this… discrepancy in information."

"You don't seem surprised to see something like this." White was silent and Pink started to frown. "Which means you've seen something like this before."

"Something like it, yes." White replied, looking her sister in the eye. 'This is already the eleventh case I've seen."

Pink almost did a double take at that. "Did you say eleventh?"

"I did." White confirmed.

"Well where are those cases? One through ten?" she asked.

"I'll show you, but first to take care of this creature." White said turning to said monster who was scratching at the walls. She pressed a few buttons on her wrist again and the walls of light began to close in on the creature. It turned to see them closing in and fought harder than ever to escape to no avail. The creature eventually was squeezed tight, and then tighter and tighter as it screeched continually in pain before finally it poofed back to a gem. White pressed one more button and the light faded she picked up the gem and with a flick of her wrist it was suddenly inside a silvery bubble.

Pink had read up on this, it was a way to contain another gem while simultaneously keeping it form forming again. It was a technique she knew the theory of, but not the practice.

White motioned for her to follow and Pink did as they walked together back out to the lift. It began to descend and Pink wondered if they needed to warp somewhere but this though passed along with the floor of White's warp pad. They reached the first floor of the spire and did not stop.

Now this was new. Pink knew that White's spire had a basement, all spire did, but she'd never seen anyone go down before, not in a thousand years. They reached as far down as the lift would go and stepped off, now standing in front of a pair of large metallic doors. There didn't appear to be any entrance but White put her palm to it and it lit up with a white light before opening up.

Inside was a long room, tables were lined up on to their left and right, in glass cases, gems lay on the forefront tables while many other nearer to the back were barren. White and Pink walked along the long hall and White stopped in front of the nearest unoccupied case and placed the emerald inside. She then turned back to her sister.

"And there you have it, another one for the collection." She said.

"'For the collection'?" She asked incredulously. "These are gems! We've got to help them!"

"Very well. How?" White asked.

Her tone had caught Pink completely off guard. "How?"

"Yes. How?" White asked. "We can't use the conventional core gem gel that's used to repair broken gems because the core gem is not broken. This… corruption, it's on an entirely different level altogether. So I ask you, how can we fix these gems?"

"We could do research, run some tests…" Pink listed off.

"Already done, decades ago." White replied. "And we are no closer to knowing the answer now then we were before we had the first gem here."

"But what if there's some kind of material that is affecting us, something we discovered that turns gems into those things?" she asked.

"If we had discovered such a material we would have known about it for a long time now. The cases of these incidents happened lightyears apart from each other and happened decades to entire centuries apart in time. No correlation that ties them together." White explained.

"Shouldn't we warn the gem masses of this though?" Pink asked.

"Warn them of what exactly?" White asked. "That one day any one of their comrades could become some sort of abomination for no discernible reason?"

"So we're just supposed to leave them ignorant then?" Pink asked.

"In order to try and avoid undue panic in our society? Yes, we decided that was for the best."

"'We'?" Pink asked with a look of confusion which turned to anger with her realization of whom she meant. "Yellow and Blue, they already knew about this as well didn't they?"

White did even bother putting up a denial at the accusation. "Yes, they do. Who do you think brought me these gems over the years?" she asked.

Pink felt like stomping with frustration. "You three knew this thing was out there and didn't even bother telling me?!" she asked, her voice raising.

White kept serene, her expression scarcely changing. "It was not your concern."

Pink Diamond was going into a full blown conniption. "Not my concern?! I thought I was one of you, a Diamond! Why would you not tell me?!"

White sighed, extending an arm out in reference to Pink. "I've already said. It was not your concern." Before Pink could interject White held up a hand and continued. "These were isolated incidents, and even then I did not involve our sisters until they discovered these creatures for themselves, just as you have. And just like how I didn't want to create concern over nothing among our people I didn't want to concern any of you."

Pink took a breath at this, attempting to calm down. "Look, okay fine. Maybe these were 'isolated incidents', but don't you think we should try and figure something out?"

"The fact is Pink there's nothing to be done." White argued. "We've done all the research we can on these gems and there's nothing to go on." White turned to look down at the case now housing the new gem. "All we can do is contain the cases we find and move on."

Pink was silent for a moment looking down at the green gem then looking to all the rest and then back to her sister. "No. I refuse to accept that." White raised an eyebrow at this. "There's got to be something that can be done for these gems, and if there is I'm going to find out what it is."

White looked at her sister with some exasperation. Pink had always held large amounts of empathy for those around her, and in a way, White found it kind of endearing. Pink tended to be a lot less the Diamond ideal, but in a way she was an ideal all her own. She was loved by her faction and while they didn't quite revere her like they should, they were fiercely loyal. She could also tell Pink would not be swayed from her course of action, not now.

White turned back to the case and picked up the gemstone she held it out for Pink to take. "Here." She said. "Go do whatever you think is right sister. I trust your judgement."

Pink was surprised at this. She hadn't expected for White to relent so easily, but rather than question it she reached out her hand and took the gem, only for White to close her hand over top of hers. Pink looked up about to say something before White let out a slow shush. Then Pink felt energy entering her hands and suddenly she was holding the green gem suspended inside a pink orb.

"What did you-" Pink was interrupted as White put a finger to her lips.

"I just brought out an ability you didn't know you had." White said with a sly, knowing, smile, it quickly faded though. "If you're serious about this then I suppose you'll be needing all the relevant information we have." Pink nodded. "Very well, I'll have it forwarded to your ship's database."

Pink turned to leave and White spoke up one last time. "You may not find what you're looking for, Pink. You may not find anything at all."

Pink turned to look at the gems around her and then back to her sister. "White, this could be more dangerous than we could even imagine, and if we can't find the answers here on Homeworld, then they must be out there somewhere." Pink said making a gesture above herself.

"Maybe you just see these normal gems as disposable or replaceable, but I don't." Pink said. "I have to at least try." White sighed again, closing her eyes then giving a single nod. Pink was about to leave through the doors when she turned around one last time. In the future sister, I hope you can learn to trust me." With that she left and White Diamond was left alone.

White looked down, almost with sorrow at the gems she'd gathered. "Have the years really made me so callous?" she wondered out loud. There was once a time when she'd felt kinship with lesser gems, when she knew them personally… intimately even. Now she was the leader of an entire race and had to make decisions that would shape the course of their entire way of life. There was no time to let personal feeling get in the way, decisions had to be made for the good of all, even if they meant a select few would have to suffer. Neither Yellow nor Blue had held very strong kinships with their gems, not ever. From the start they held themselves above the masses, even as White did so now. But Pink, she reminded her of herself when she had only just popped from the ground so long ago. A smile graced her lips as she thought of her youngest sister, in a way she was a little envious of her sister's idealism and empathy. "Good luck, Pink Diamond."


Months later…


Pink Diamond was seated in her personal quarters of her ship, looking through the documents as Peridot and Pearl helped out. Flint and Amethyst had been less than enthusiastic about reading through reports. Pink had also decided that until they knew exactly what they were dealing with White had a point about spreading unneeded worry, which just left the three of them.

The ship was being piloted away from one of the reported colonies, the last one to check, while Pearl and Peridot were discussing how to correlate any sort of pattern between the cases, Pink herself was long in thought, they'd spent their time recently going from planet to planet to personally access the cases. Unfortunately there was little variation in the stories, one day a gem would show up acting unusual or complaining about some sort of pain and then transform. It also didn't help that even the most recent case happened close to a century and a half ago and the closet cases were still over twenty years apart. So the trail to follow, if there was any, wasn't exactly hot.

Peridot looked exhausted. "This isn't getting us anywhere!" she said, laying a data pad on the table she and Pearl were sharing.

Pearl looked to her with a frown. "There's got to be something that connects these all together, we just need to find it."

"Augh! I'm telling you there's nothing!" she cried. "No time correlation, no area correlation, it's all so random!" she whined. "Without a pattern there's no way to predict where it might happen next!"

The word seemed to break through Pink's line of thought. "Predict…" Pink said slowly. Her eyes then shot open. "Predict!" she announced causing Pearl and Peridot to slightly jump at their leader's sudden outburst. "That's it guys!" she said, a smile on her face. "We're going to predict what'll happen next!"

Pearl and Peridot exchanged confused glances. Pearl spoke up. "My Diamond, I don't think we understand what you're saying."

"What do you mean?" Pink asked. "All we need to do is predict what's going to happen."

"But we can't not with this data." Peridot replied.

"Exactly so we need someone who can predict things without any data." Pink walked out of the room towards the bridge and Pearl and Peridot followed close behind, still somewhat confused.

"Set a course for Igon." Pink ordered as she got onto the bridge, the gem at the helm did as she was instructed and punched in the coordinates. Pink took her seat, a look of confidence about her as Peridot and Pearl caught up with her.

Pearl had no idea where this "Igon" was but Peridot did, it was from recent star maps, a colony in the making. "My Diamond, why are we going there?"

"Because that's where Blue Diamond is." Pink informed.

Pearl and Peridot exchanged glances before Pearl spoke up, looking up to their commander. "Forgive me, my Diamond, but how can Blue Diamond help us with this?"

"She can't." Pink replied, the confused look upon their faces grew even more so before Pink spoke again, looking at them with a confident smile. "But she does have someone who can. Go and open communications with Igon."

Peridot did as she was told and within minutes a call was being sent out to the proto-colony. A screen descended and suspended itself in the air in front of Pink Diamond. Blue's Pearl appeared before her. "This is the Diamond line on Igon, who is calling?" she asked in her soft demure voice.

"This is Pink Diamond, connect me to Blue Diamond."

"As you command, please hold." She replied.

The screen went grey for a moment before Blue Diamond's hooded visage appeared on screen. "Pink Diamond, my dear sister it's been too long.!" Blue's voice cut in.

"Blue, look there's something important I need to discuss with you, in person." Pink said.

"Is that so?" Blue replied. "Very well, I know you wouldn't try and waste my time, my Pearl will give you the coordinates to my current location and you can meet me here to discuss this."

"See you soon, Pink Diamond out." With that the screen went black and floated back into the ceiling.


Later…


As they approached the new planet Pink noticed Igon was nearly entirely covered in a blue liquid, islands formed here and there but for the most part the planet was nearly all blue. Pink recognized this substance, it was water. As they drew closer to the coordinates a large rounded structure came into view, the only thing above the sea level for as far as the eye could see.

They landed in front of the structure and the bordering ramp dropped. Pink and her usual crew got off and looked around. The sea was the only other thing besides the landing pad and structure. Flint walked over to the edge and looked down to the water below. "So this is water huh?" she said aloud.

"That's correct." Peridot said, coming up behind her. "Dihydrogen monoxide in its liquid state."

"Guys we can gawk later, Pink's on a mission." Amethyst said, calling them over as the five of them journeyed inside.

Pink strode up to the gate, guarded, as typical, by two quartzes. They straightened up immediately in her presence and allowed her through. Just inside the gate Blue's Pearl was waiting inside. "Follow me." She said.

The inside was colorful, but a bit cramped as they made their way up a several sets of stairs in the round building. Blue's Pearl stopped in front of two Diamond-insignia imbued double doors and opened them. Inside, facing away from them was a balcony and two tall decorated chairs. The sounds of battle could be heard somewhere below them as the pearl led them forward to her master.

"Very good!" Blue called out form her seat and Pink looked down to see what her sister was watching. Inside were a couple quartz gems as well as a currently fused ruby. They were swinging their weapons at one another fiercely trying to gain advantage over one another. A few dozen gems seemed to be seated around the arena in stands above it, though still lower than where they were. Blue noticed the intrusion and greeted her sister with a smile. "Pink Diamond, so nice to see you." Blue diamond greeted, not getting from her seat.

"Blue." Pink greeted curtly.

Blue Diamond motioned to the seat next to her and Pink took the invitation to sit down. Once she had Blue turned back to her own Pearl. "Escort these lesser gems to the stands, Pearl."

"As you wish." She replied, motioning for them to follow her. Pearl looked to Pink for a moment but Pink nodded her head and Pearl did the same in understanding.

"So, what is this?" Pink asked her sister, once they were alone.

"A little something Yellow came up with long before you and I were ever around." Blue replied. "It's an arena where gems can fight."

"Why?" Pink asked.

"For their own amusement? For mine?" Blue asked back. "I can't really say for the lesser gems, but I have been thoroughly entertained by this concept, and it's a great way to kill time. There's so much exhilaration that comes from battle."

"I know, it's something I've experienced firsthand." Pink said as she held out the bubbled green gem.

Blue glanced at it and then turned her attention to her sister. "What's this?"

"A corrupted gem." Pink replied. Blue frowned at this. "So you knew as well." Pink said.

"Found out about these have we?" she asked.

"I have." Pink replied not wishing to bring up the issues again she moved on. "What I want to know now is where are they coming from, when is the next one going to appear."

Blue took her meaning. "But you already know that the data gathered conventionally is useless, so you've come for an alternate form of information." She gave a sly smile. "You want to know the future."

"Do you still have the gem who can see it?" Pink asked almost anxiously as she leaned forward.

"I do." Blue replied. "She's here in fact and I'll let you borrow her, if you do something for me."

"What?"

"You need to agree first." Blue said.

"Fine, whatever the favor is I'll do it." Pink said quickly.

Blue smile grew wider and she pressed a button on her chair, an intercom of some sorts. "Pearl, bring Sapphire here, I require her services."

"Yes, my Diamond." Came the reply.

A few minutes passed as Pink gazed down to the arena, seemingly lost in thought before the sound of the door behind them opening caught her attention. The Pearl walked in but was accompanied by a gem a little less than half her height. The gem had blue skin and pale blue, wavy hair with bangs that covered the top half of her face with prominent lips. She wore a floor-length gown with white, rounded, puffy sleeves, a navy top, and a blue frilly skirt and a blue pinafore over the top of the dress. She also wore white elbow-length evening gloves. Pink spotted her gemstone in the palm of her right hand.

"Pink Diamond, may I introduce, Sapphire. Sapphire, my sister, your superior, Pink Diamond." Blue introduced.

The little blue gem did not salute her, instead she held the sides of her dress and seamed to kneel for a moment, bowing her head. "It is an honor to make your acquaintance, my Diamond." She said politely.

"And a pleasure to make yours." Pink replied. "I am told you can see the future."

"I can, my Diamond." Sapphire confirmed.

Pink Diamond leaned down with the green bubbled gem, earning a disapproving look from Blue Diamond but who said nothing. "What do you see in this gem's future?"

Sapphire peered down at it. "I see…" she paused as if coming up with the words for what she was about to say. "…a creature, unlike anything I've ever seen." She turned to look up at Pink Diamond. "What is this?" she asked.

"It's something I want you to see for me." Pink told her. "I need you to look in future and tell me if you when you next see a creature like this appearing."

"Is there somewhere specific you wish for me to look?" she asked.

"Anywhere, anywhere in our empire." Pink replied.

Sapphire seemed apprehensive now, speaking slowly. "With respect my Diamond, I don't know if I can stretch my power that far, that thinly. It would be a daunting task."

"Are you refusing my sister's order?" Blue asked her.

"No, my Diamond." Sapphire replied obediently. "I am simply saying that the results may be… less than what you are hoping for."

"Please Sapphire, I need you to try." Pink said pleadingly, Blue gave her sister a disapproving look at the beseeching behavior but Pink ignored it and gave her attention to Sapphire.

"I will try my best." Sapphire promised, with that she was quiet for a few moments, seeming to stare off into the void of space. "I don't see…" she started to say before she went rigid. "I see something."

"What is it?" Pink asked, even Blue now seemed interested in the news as she sat forward a little.

"A monster… big… appearing… soon."

"Soon? How soon?"

"Very."

"Where? In this quadrant?"

Sapphire then looked to Pink Diamond, frowning and seeming shook up now.

"On this planet."


Done. Now as fast as I'm popping these out, you guys could meet me halfway and leave some reviews.