Chapter 6, pick up sticks!

I don't own Steven Universe.


Chapter 6: Depth

The two Diamonds looked to the small blue gem before them, then they turned to each other, exchanging looks of surprise and confusion, then back to Sapphire.

"You're sure of this?" Blue asked.

Sapphire nodded her head. "Without question my Diamond, one of those creatures will appear soon."

"Can you tell where?" Pink asked.

"I see… a dome underwater." Sapphire said, concentrating.

Blue turned to her Pearl. "Find my sister's gems and bring them to us along with squads 5R1, 4B2 and 9X1." She ordered. Pearl nodded and walked off.

Blue got from her seat and motioned for Pink and Sapphire to follow her. The walked into an adjacent hallway and found themselves now in a small command center of sorts. Blue pressed a single button on a large holographic table and an image appeared overhead, a large blue share with several indicators on its surface and beneath. It was a map of the colony.

"This is a map of Igon, and these are all the facilities that have been completed thus far." She said indicating the dots on the map.

Pink looked to it, there looked to be a little over a dozen of them currently active. For a planet this size that was less than five percent of what would be built in the future. It would take centuries, perhaps even millennia to finish, so much work lay ahead.

"She pressed a few more buttons and soon the number of lights dwindled until only four remained. "These are our underwater facilities, the only places we'd need to dome up to keep the water out." Blue explained. She then turned to Sapphire. "You can't make a more definite guess as to where?" she asked. Sapphire shook her head slowly, almost shamefully. "Useless…" Blue muttered under her breath, though Pink and Sapphire were both close enough to hear.

Just then Blue Pearl appeared in the doorway, leading a pack of gems behind her. Blue's gems lined up in neat lines, hand behind their backs as they awaited instruction. Pink's diamonds formed a gaggle, seeming rather unorganized next to Blue's. Pink sort of made a gesture to look sharp and they straightened up, trying to look as professional as they could.

"A real fighting force you got there Pink." Blue said, giving a disapproving glance to her sister's troops. Pink frowned, rubbing the back of her head sheepishly. Blue rolled her eyes and addressed her own gems. "Soldiers! There is going to be an imminent threat to our operations out here, but you will not let it happen. And why?" She barked.

"We are servants of the Diamonds, the perfect fighting force!" they barked back.

One spoke up, presumably their commander. "Name the target and it will be destroyed!" she said.

Blue smiled at this while Pink looked to her sister almost cautiously now. She had expected this sort of thing from Yellow, but Blue? It just didn't seem her style.

"There is an enemy here on Igon, you will find and eliminate them." Blue said. She indicated to one of the glowing areas. "Squad 5R1! You will investigate power facility Alpha. Squad 4B2, your assignment is the Beta power facility. 9X1 you will be at power facility Gamma. You are on the lookout for unusual gems, find and detain them as necessary."

The gems stood rigid and answered in unison. "Yes, my Diamond!"

"Then go!" Blue ordered as the gems fell quickly out the door, she then turned to her sister. "Pink have your gems investigate the kindergarten, here." She said indicating to the last glowing spot on the map. "You and I will remain here to direct them."

Pink turned to her crew. "Go back to the ships and head for that kindergarten, take as many gems from the ship as you need, I'm counting on you Flint." The grey gem gave a salute and a nod before she lead the gems out of the room and back to the ship. Blue eyed them as they ran off. "Let's see how good your gems really are, my sister."


Later…


Flint and the rest were on their way to the kindergarten, riding in silence. Amethyst spoke up. "Pink Diamond seemed… really tense."

"We're going up against an enemy we barely understand in a place we've never been to." Peridot summed up. "It's only natural she'd be so on edge about this mission."

Amethyst shrugged. "I don't know, I mean it didn't seem like she was so worried about us or the mission it felt like something else was bothering her."

"And what would that be?" Flint asked with a scoff.

"It's Blue Diamond." Pearl spoke up, the three turned to her.

"What are you talking about?" Flint asked.

"Haven't you noticed it?" Pearl asked, but didn't wait for an answer as she continued to speak. "Whenever she's around the other Diamonds, she gets stiff, uncomfortable even."

"But why?" Peridot asked.

"Because she's a Diamond, who doesn't act like a Diamond." Flint said voicing everyone's opinions. "She doesn't hold herself over us and look down, even though that is her right. She treats us like equals, like individuals, not just resources to be used and thrown away."

"Are you saying you didn't like it when we were under another Diamond's command?" Peridot asked.

"I'm saying that I'm a soldier, I fight, I enforce, it's what I do, it's what I was made for and I was content for hundreds of years doing that and only that." Flint replied. "Then this new Diamond shows up, shiny and new and I get put under her and I think, 'Fine, whatever, served under one commander served under them all, same job different boss'. That's what I thought anyways." She paused for a moment. "Then one day she asks for my opinion on something, I can't even remember what, and we start discussing it. She doesn't attempt to assert herself over me, she gets down on my level and wants to know what I think. And I tell her, no fighting isn't always on my mind, sometime I think about space or clouds or something."

"'Clouds or something'?" Amethyst repeated back.

Flint shot her a look. "Shut up. Anyways I talk about how I think she's a little well… strange for a Diamond. Something pretty bold to say, I know and had I said it to any other Diamond, well I'd probably be shattered on the spot. But you know what she told me?"


Flashback…


"Strange, huh?" PD asked, sensing Flint's unease at her own words.

"Well… Yeah. You're just so… easy to talk to. You don't tower over us and order us like a diamond should." Flint said.

"And what would be the point of that?" the Diamond asked. "You've all been very polite and kind to me ever since I met you, why would I not return the courtesy?"

"It's expected of us." Flint replied. "But you? You're a leader, a Diamond. You give out orders and we follow them. You don't have to answer to anyone."

Pink Diamond cupped her chin, staring off into the ceiling. "Yes, I see what you mean. I can feel it inside myself, the desire to lead others, to command them to do whatever I feel is best. And yet…" she turned back to the grey gem. "I also feel the need to care for those I'm leading, and not just on a 'ready for duty' level, but on a personal one. I'm not trying to lord over you because I don't really want to be your leader, or your Diamond, or whatever. I want to be your friend."


Present…


Flint smiled harshly her eyes almost watering up. "She treats me like I matter, just like I know she treats all of you the same way." Flint said looking to her friends, a motley crew if ever there was one. "Maybe the other Diamonds don't think that she should lower herself like that to us, maybe they make her feel ashamed that she tries to associate with lower gems. But we're going to show Blue Diamond that Pink Diamond's gems are the best for a reason. Right?" she asked.

"Right." Amethyst affirmed.

"Of course, we are." Pearl agreed.

"Is there any doubt?" Peridot asked.

Flint nodded her head. "Then let's do this."


Later…


Flint and Amethyst walked along the deep valley of the kindergarten quietly with a handful of rubies, looking up at the crevices above them, the walls were lined with injector pods but now the kindergarten was empty, deserted. Flint radioed in to Pearl and Peridot back on the ship. "Hey why is this place so empty?" she asked.

"Kindergartens take years to fully develop." Peridot explained, not for the first time but not that Flint would remember, seeing as how little she actually cared for the subject. "This place was built less than a year ago, so aside from the occasional checkups no one really needs to be there until the gems are ready to pop."

"Thought that was what I had you for." Flint replied back. Just then a few pebbles fell in front of Flint from above, and she gazed up in time to see something flee away from the edge. "Hold on I think I got something." She jumped up with a single leap and was on the ledge, she looked around but saw nothing.

"Hey! What was it?!" Amethyst called from below as she and the rubies stared up.

"Nothing!" she called back. "I thought I saw something up here!" she then turned around a corner as Amethyst and the rubies followed down below. "And I did…" she said quietly as she now stared deep into the darkness of the biggest exit hole she'd even seen. It dwarfed her in height as she look around it astonished. "Hey get up here!" she called down to Amethyst and the rubies.

"What is it?!" the purple gem asked from below.

"A big hole that's what!"

Amethyst bounded up and was soon standing beside Flint, she gave a long whistle at the behemoth before her. "Whoa, this is even bigger than the hole I came out of."

"Mine too." Flint observed as the rubies finally managed to climb up behind them and also began to marvel at the large hole in the wall.

"In fact…" Amethyst began slowly. "I don't think I've seen any hole this big."

The exchanged glances before Flint quickly got on her communicator. "Peridot get down here now! We need you to look at something."

"What could you possibly want to show me?" she asked derisively.

A little while later…

"I don't even know where to start." Peridot said as she paced in front of the entrance to the hole. "There's nothing uniform about this hole at all. The scorch marks leading out are irregular, no glassing at all, the hole doesn't go straight back but curves…" she stopped butting a hand to her chin in thought. "I don't know what came out of here."

"You're a kindergarten technician!" Flint bellowed. "How could you not know?'

"I don't know what to tell you!" she shouted back. "Whatever this is, I've never seen anything even remotely like it! It's not a quartz hole, or ruby hole or even an olivine or pearl hole!" She looked inside, her voice now having a slight echo. "It's like some kind of beast just clawed its way out."

"Maybe the bigger question to ask is not what it is, but where is it now?" Amethyst said.


Meanwhile…


Blue and Pink waited for any news about the attacks as Sapphire stood nearby. Blue tore her attention away from the holographic image of the planet and down to the little blue gem. "Anything?" she asked.

"I'm sorry, my Diamond. Only the same image of the dome and some sort of creature. It's large, with six legs… orange and monstrous." She replied.

Blue turned her gaze back to the screen, then over to her sister who seemed anxious. "are you worried?" she asked. Pink turned her attention to her sister. "About your gems?"

"Why wouldn't I be?" she asked.

"Because they're expendable, replaceable. If they are shattered in doing their duty then all the more reason they should be proud to have done so in their service to us." Blue replied.

"Even if I believed that, it'd still be a waste of resources to have gems shattered over nothing." Pink defended.

"It's not nothing if they did it for us." Blue said.

"Perhaps they should be the ones to decide that." Pink shot back.

"You-" Blue was about to respond when a signal came back, one of the squads was reporting in and Blue turned her attention back to the console. "This is commander of squad 4B2, at power station beta all readings are clear." Another voice cut in. "Commander 5R1, power station alpha, all clear, detained a few suspected gems and waiting on further orders." Blue paused, waiting on the third squad to report.

Nothing.

Blue pressed a button. "Squad 9X1, report."

Silence.

"Squad 9X1, report now!" she demanded.

Still nothing.

"Blue…" Pink said softly, pointing back to the map of Igon. She looked to it and saw the facility had gone dark. Blue was silent as she stared, s scowl upon her hooded features, she then turned around and stormed out.

Pink was about to follow when her communicator beeped for her attention, she answered it. "Go ahead."

"Boss, we got problems." Flint's voice came from over the line. "Something busted out of the kindergarten down here."

"What was it?"

"Big."

"Is it still there?"

Flint looked down at the collapsed tunnel out of the dome. "I'm gonna say, 'No.'" she answered.

"The Gamma power facility just went dark."

"The whole complex?"

"Looks like it. Can you head over there?"

"Can do, boss."

Pink ended the call and went to look for her sister only to find her signing off of her own call, looking back to Pink. "I just ordered the remaining squads to converge on Gamma, any news on your end?"
"My gems found an unusual exit hole in the kindergarten, it could be related."

"Especially since I only just recently had that one made." Blue agreed. "Come on, we're going too."

Pink gave her sister a surprised look. "I didn't expect you to take a personal interest in this."

"Someone or something is causing trouble on my planet." Blue said gravely. "I'm going to find out who or what and then I'm going to show them what it means to mess with a Diamond."


Later…


Blue and Pink zoomed by on the water's surface, quickly making way as they neared their destination on a large hovering platform. The platform then stopped hovering in the air and Blue turned to look at Pink. "This is it." She said motioning below them. "The facility is below us. All we need to do is get there."

"What did you have in mind?" Pink asked.

Blue clapped her hands together once and in a flash of light, her robes were gone, now a skin-tight jumpsuit adorned her, along with a helmet that hid her eyes and let her hair run free behind her. "Like this." She said, jumping from the craft and diving gracefully into the water, her form quickly fading from view until she was gone.

Pink looked down reluctantly at the water before she sighed. Reached one foot out and allowed herself to fall, crashing into the water with a thudding splash.

The sensation of water was new to Pink Diamond. It felt heavier and she could feel her every movement being slowed by the water's viscosity. Then she began to sink and felt a twinge of fear as darkness began to envelop her, the light of the surface fading away until she was in total darkness.

She heard what sounded like laughing from far away and suddenly a light shown from next to her. She turned to see her sister's gem glowing, making a light for them to see. Pink tried to speak but her words became bubble as soon as they left her mouth, floating pointlessly to the top. Blue smiled before making some sort of swirling gesture with her hands and suddenly Pink felt the water around her being pushed away. Suddenly she was standing inside a large bubble with her sister.

"That was very elegantly done, sister." Blue teased to Pink who was shaking off some of the water still clinging to her body.

"Thanks." Pink looked around for a moment. "Is this your doing?" she asked.

"That's right." Blue said. "Liquids and I, well, we have a good relationship." She then turned to leave. "Come, we floated a little off course, we need to head this way."

Pink and Blue walked and the former looked down as she felt the ground beneath her give way with every step. "Is this… sand?"

"It is." Blue confirmed, not breaking her pace. "Millions upon millions of metric tons of sand, all coming from stones being eroded away with time."

"I wonder if that's what happens with all gems eventually. Stick around long enough and eventually you'll be broken down and blown away." Pink observed.

"Perhaps for the lesser gems." Blue commented. "But not for us, not for Diamonds."

"How can you be sure?"

"Because the eldest of us still exists."

"Yes." "But for how long?"


They cleared a ridge and the Gamma facility was in view and it looked wrecked. No light shown from the widowed dome and all seemed quiet. As they neared they saw that one of the dome's entrances was smashed in, like something had forced its way in from outside. As they walked towards it they got a better look, the metal didn't break in pieces, it looked like it had all been done in one fell swoop, as if some great force knocked it down with ease.

"That's not a good sign." Pink observed as they stepped passed the ruined door to access the inside. The inner door looked mostly intact, though tightly sealed. Whatever had made its way past the outer door had also been quick enough to slip by the open inner door before it had been sealed.

Blue accessed a panel and put in an override code, the doors opened and water rushed in, but with a flick of Blue's wrist the water rushed right back out and she and Pink stepped inside, the door sealing itself behind them.

If the outside had looked bad the inside had looked even worse. Water seemed to be leaking from everywhere, some in small spurts others in little streams. The rounded halls to their left appeared mostly intact. However, to the right it looked like something that had been far too large for the halls had forced its way down them, expanding them and crushing them all at once. Shards of slain gems lay here and there, most too small and too scattered to even find all their pieces.

But worst of all, it was quiet, eerily quiet. If something major had malfunctioned like this alarms should have sounded yet only silence met them.

"What did this?" Pink asked, gazing in disbelief at all around her.

"I intend to find out." She said as she started walking down the smashed hallway. "This way leads to the one of hanger bays. We need to see if any of the squads made it here yet."

Blue looked up and around at the damage that had been done to her facility as they walked, Pink meanwhile kept her eyes on the floor watching as they passed by shard after shard. "Someone's going to answer for this." Blue seethed before stopping in front of another door and accessing it.

They walked into the hanger and beheld a few ships, though not the ones they'd seen, most likely already here before the attack. Blue pointed to several on the far side. "There, those are the ships my squads came on."

As they approached them Pink felt unease as if she was being watched, she turned to look behind her, but nothing was there, she shook her head. She needed to calm down, panicking wasn't going to help anybody.

Blue approached the ship and called out to them. "Is there anyone there? Squads! Answer me!"

There was only silence.

"If you are there answer me now!" she demanded.

The far ship's boarding ramp lowered and several rubies and an Agate with long flowing hair stepped down. They were huddled in a group, seeming greatly frightened, a far cry from the former professional selves Pink had seen earlier.

"You. Report. Now." Blue demanded. The agate broke off from the rubies and did her best to seem respectful and professional to the Diamond before her. "Commander of 5-5R1, m-my Diamond." She stuttered.

"What happened here? Where is the rest of your squad and where is 4B2 and 9X1?" she asked.

"O-outside, my Diamond, in the hall." Agate responded back.

"You're telling me something wiped out two squads and the dozens of other gems here?" she asked.

Agate only nodded.

Blue walked over to her and picked up the quartz by the scruff of her jumpsuit. "What did this? Tell me!"

Pink walked over and put a hand on Blue's shoulder, the latter relaxing her grip and allowing the Agate to fall to the floor in a heap. She then walked off, turning her back to her gems. Pink watched her sister walk some distance before she leaned down and put a hand on her shoulder.

Agate looked up and Pink smiled reassuringly to her. "Please, what happened?"

Agate closed her eyes, taking a deep breath. "We got here and tried to find the other squad but we went out to the halls and…" she stopped taking breath before continuing. "So we tried to find what did it and then we saw this… this… thing." She shook her head as if trying to rid herself of the memory of its image. "So strong, so fast. Before we had even known what was happening half my squad was gone. We retreated here, sealed the doors… and then you came."

"Where did this creature go?" Pink asked.

"I don't know, after we sealed it outside we thought it would bust in for sure but then… it just went away." She replied. "We didn't know why or care why, we were just glad it was gone."

"But where is it now?"

A roar echoed form the hallways and the rubies and Agate flinched.

"Coming back." She said with dread.


Meanwhile…


Pearl and Peridot continued to look at the hole in the ground before them. "What made this?"

"I don't know and I don't wanna find out either." Peridot replied.

"Was it really wise for us to stay behind while Amethyst and Flint go off to fight whatever this is?" Pearl asked.

"They'll be fine, they're quartzes. What we should do is try and find out how this creature came about, let's go back to the wall hole."

"Is there anything else you can tall from it?" Pearl asked.

"Not much honestly." Peridot admitted. "I've been trained to look for flaws and signs with exit holes like this but it's like I've said I never seen anything burst out like this." She looked around its entrance, it's like some sort of amalgamation of gem just shot out of the wall, not a pearl or quartz or olivine, just some kind of freak.

Peridot went into the hole again, using her gem to make a light as she looked around when she suddenly noticed something on the floor. She touched it, it was a white viscous liquid she had seen something like this, but where? She took out a small petri dish to hold the liquid in, maybe she could have it analyzed to see what it was when they had the proper equipment. "Hey Pearl, I found something in here!" she called out.

There was no answer.

Pearl looked out towards the light and saw nothing. "Hey Pearl! I said I found something!" she called out once more.

Only silence.

"Pearl?" Peridot asked quietly as she stepped out from the cave and looked to see Pearl was being squeezed around the neck by some cloaked figure about her size. "PEARL!" she called out before readying her plasma rifle. The figure tossed Pearl away and she bounced off the far side of the kindergarten wall, falling to the ground.

Peridot shot a few times before she dived after Pearl and the cloaked figure watched her before turning away from the cliff's edge.

Peridot caught Pearl and landed on her feet before laying Pearl down carefully.

Peridot heard an explosion from above and quickly got back up to see the damage that had been done. The hole in the wall had been collapsed completely and the figure responsible was making its way up to the top of the wall.

Peridot went after it as quick as she could, trying to fire at the same time. But with all the shaking and moving a good shot was hard to make.

The figure shot back and dodged Peridot's clumsy shots before it reached the top and bounded over. Peridot hurried after it and watched as it began a full-on sprint for the exit, it was already halfway there by the time Peridot reached the top.

Instead of chasing after it, the green gem knelt down on one knee, taking her time and she lined up her sights on her plasma rifle. She took a deep breath, counted to three and then…

BLAM

The shot whizzed through the air and hit the figure square in the back, it stumbled over and fell on its face as Peridot gave a look of satisfaction.

She approached the downed figure cautiously. She didn't know what tricks it might be planning as she kept her rifle trained on it. When she was only a few feet away something sounded though the air, what was it? It was like the sound of… sparks?

She saw her blast leave a smoldering blast in the figure' back and then used one foot to turn it over. Peridot almost dropped her gun in surprise as she laid eyes on the cloaked figure.

"What in space is this?"


BOOM. Six done, please review. Also, try to leave more than a few words okay? Maybe a question or something or a full statement of how you feel about the work and the way it's going so far. Thanks.