Chapter 13… nothing rhymes with that.
I don't own Steven Universe.
Chapter 13: Truth
Pink Diamond's face was contorted into a mixture of shock and confusion, Yellow's seemed calm but her eyes narrowed and a single hand covered her mouth.
Blue said nothing, her face calm outside of a single frown seen beneath her hood.
"No, that can't be true." Pink said slowly, taking a single step towards Blue. "You must be mistaken, or joking, right?!" Pink said a bit too quickly, her anxiety clearly showing.
Blue said nothing, her frown only deepening. Pink reached forward and grabbed her sister's shoulders. "Tell me you're wrong! Tell me!" The young Diamond pleaded, her eyes beginning to well up.
Yellow reached for her youngest sister's shoulder a placed a firm grip on it. "Pink… enough." Pink let go of Blue's shoulder and the elder Diamond addressed her sister. "Blue, take us to her."
Blue silently motioned for them to follow her. The three made their way through the hallway of White's flagship, now in Blue's command, until they finally stopped at the end of a hallway. "I had them clear out the entire room, no one is allowed inside except us." Blue informed as she reached the door, placing her hand on the door's pad.
It opened with a whoosh and the three stepped inside as the door closed behind them. It was a bright, white, round room, there were no features to speak of except in the center where, inside a suspended field of light, a sizeable white gem bobbed silently.
Pink and Yellow stepped forward to examine the gem closely. There was a slim, long, ugly crack running up one of the sides but other than that, there was no mistake.
This was their eldest sister.
Pink collapsed to her knees, a hand over her mouth as she began to sob. Yellow's fists balled up and shook, her face keeping calm aside from the narrowing of her eyes. "How?" she asked through clenched teeth, not turning to face Blue who only continued to frown.
"One of the rogue gems. She upset the tectonics of the planet and caused it to explode." Blue explained quietly as Pink continued her muffled sobs. "White tried to save the fleet… tried to save me… from its explosion, but was caught in its blast."
Yellow sighed deeply, her balled fists going limp before she reached up and rubbed her eyes with her arm. She then walked over to Pink, still on the ground. Yellow reached for her but Pink shrugged away. "Pink, let's go."
Blue spoke up. "Yellow… give her some time."
"Time?" Yellow repeated. "What time do you think we have? Those rogue gems are still out there and the longer we wait, the longer they have to prepare."
Pink turned to her sister. "But White… she's…"
SMACK
Yellow slapped her youngest sister across the face, shocking the young Diamond and even causing Blue to suddenly jolt at the action. "White's not here Pink. Get ahold of yourself." With that Yellow stormed out of the room.
Blue watched their elder sister leave as Pink slowly reached up to her cheek, feeling more of a sting from her sister's sudden and cruel action towards her than of the slap itself. The older Diamond walked slowly over to her younger sister. Pink peered up to Blue as Blue looked down sorrowfully to Pink.
"She… slapped… me…" Pink said the words slowly. "Why…?"
Blue knelt down to her sister. "We all deal with… grief… in our own ways Pink. Yellow's just… trying to adjust. She's feeling frustrated and doesn't known what to do with herself. You did nothing wrong."
Pink pulled on Blue's robes allowing her hood to fall and for Pink to see her sister's face fully. Water was welling up in her pristine sapphire eyes. "I just… I just can't…" Pink started and stopped in heaving sighs.
Blue put her arms around her sister and rocked back and forth. "Shhh… I know… I know…"
Later…
Pink and Blue entered the command bridge to see their sister at the ship's command console dolling out orders to everyone and anyone she could. She turned around to see her sisters and addressed them. "Good, you're here. I could use the help organizing our next move."
"So, what's our status?" Blue asked.
Yellow shook her head. "Better than I feared, but worse than I'd hoped." She said. "Half of our fleet's ship are little more than scrap now. I've sent for more from Homeworld but even if they get here it'll be less than half of what we lost."
"How many gems did we lose?" Pink asked.
"Most, either close to the ground or in space survived without damage, those too close to the upper atmosphere however were lost." The elder gem explained.
"How many?" Pink asked again.
Yellow sighed. "About 2,000 gems were shattered in entirety and about 4,500 more suffered cracks or chips in their gems."
"How long will it take before we're able to move?" Blue asked.
"At this rate?" Yellow asked. "We won't be able to move as an entire fleet for about three days."
Blue scowled. "That's too much time! Those rogue gems could be preparing their next attack or-!"
"You think I don't know that?!" Yellow said a bit too loudly as she pounded her fist on the command console in front of her. The elder Diamond took a deep breath. "White was right. I underestimated the enemy and it cost us…" she said slowly, sorrow evident in her voice. "…but if anyone should have paid it, it should have been me… not her."
The younger Diamonds exchanged looks before staring back at their sister. "Yellow, it's not your fault." Pink started solemnly.
"Then whose is it?" Yellow practically spat back at her. "I was the one who wanted to split our forces in the first place. If we'd moved as one, if I'd been there…" she trailed off. "If I had it my way, White might not have been the only one to get hurt, and I could never forgive myself if anything happened to either of you."
Pink felt herself choke up a bit and even Blue's normal serene calm was broken by their sister's words. They both knew Yellow was serious and a bit abrasive but it meant the universe to the both of them that, underneath it all, their sister cared deeply for each of them.
Yellow looked away. "It's the same reason I won't forgive myself for what happened to White."
Blue sighed. "I'll go see to the gems under me and… under White." She said before walking off.
Pink wanted to say something, anything, but the words would not come, she turned to leave but Yelow's voice caught her attention. "Pink… I'm sorry for… before…"
"It was nothing Yellow. Forget it." Pink said before she left.
Later…
Pink found herself sitting alone in the rain, deep in the forest. She felt listless, lifeless, the rain pouring on her the only feeling other than her abject sorrow. But she didn't cry, didn't do much of anything really. She'd never been much for the orders and Yellow and Blue seemed to have it well taken care of anyways, so here she was. Sitting by herself, in the rain, deep in the forest.
"My Diamond?" came a voice Pink recognized but did not turn to greet.
"Hello Pearl." She said, quietly. "Come to check up on me?"
"I heard what happened, I'm so sorry." Pearl said, stepping around the young Diamond's seated form to come into her field of view.
Pink shook her head. "You don't have anything to apologize for Pearl. It's not your fault. It's not any of our faults."
"If I may ask, what are you doing out here?"
Pink looked up to the sky. "Just enjoying the weather, I suppose. And the organics."
Pearl gave a small confused look at this. "Organics, my Diamond?"
Pink pointed to one of the trees. "Yes, I guess it's my 'power'. Yellow has her electricity, Blue has water, White had light and me? I can talk to these non-moving, non-speaking organics. Watch." With that she whipped her hand forward and then shot up. A root poked through the ground and waved at Pearl.
The pink gem was astonished. "My Diamond! That's incredible!" she said.
Pink didn't respond to Pearl's enthusiasm. "Think so?" she asked listlessly.
The skinny gem frowned, it pained her to see her Diamond this way. "I'll always be here for you, my Diamond. If you need someone to talk to."
Pink didn't respond at first but eventually a small, sad, smile grew on her lips as she gazed up into the sky. "I… never really liked Homeworld." Pearl gave a quizzical look at her Diamond for the comment but said nothing as Pink went on. "Not that there was anything wrong with it, or anything. It's just… I was there for so long and I wanted to leave… to see the cosmos. But White, she always said no, always lectured me on dangers or would show me how little I knew with her little quizzes." She turned to the ground, a stream of tears coming down. "It's only now I see how hard she tried to protect me, protect all of us. Now she's gone and I may never have the chance to tell her…" she paused as a sob started to overtake her. "…to tell her how much she meant to me."
Pearl walked nearer and embraced her Diamond's arm with a firm hug. "My Diamond, I have watched you for nearly all your life. You are strong and intelligent and kind. But if there was anyone in all the galaxy that knew that truth better than me, it was your eldest sister. She loved you dearly."
Pink fully broke down just then, leaning over Pearl and causing the smaller gem to be completely engulfed in her form as streams of tears gushed forth. Pearl patiently consoled her before Pink finally gathered herself and sat upright, her cheeks still stained with tears but a genuine smile upon her face. "Thank you Pearl, I really needed that."
The pink gem smiled. "As always my Diamond. It is a pleasure to be a service to you." She then went on. "Truthfully my Diamond, I was sent out here for a reason, Yellow Diamond sent me."
"Oh? What for?" she asked, her mood having improved enough to be curious.
"The gem you captured, her physical form has restored." She informed.
Pink rushed through the corridor to the entrance of the ship's holding cells, Pearl following close behind. She entered to see Yellow and Blue waiting there for her, their own pearls in tow. "Is it true?"
"She's in there right now, fully formed." Yellow confirmed. "She looked down to the pearls. "You two stay here with Pink Diamond's pearl."
The two of them nodded and Pearl looked up to Pink before she nodded once. "I'll be back before you know it." With that Pink and her sisters walked down the hallway all the way to the back. They'd placed her in the most secure cell they had, an open room where two quartzes watched her while Onyx sat cross-legged in the center of the room, surrounded by a field of light leaving her little room to move.
Onyx's head jerked up as the doors opened. The quartzes at the door saluted and Yellow dismissed them, leaving the three Diamonds alone with the rogue gem.
"So, finally come to see me." She said, her tone was even and unwavering, whatever she was feeling at this moment it wasn't fear.
"So, you call yourself 'Onyx' is that right?" Yellow said addressing the gem.
The grey gem smiled wide and toothy, it annoyed Yellow how the gem in front of them insulted them with her indifference at her situation. She didn't respect the Diamond name at all. She didn't even show respect to the fact that they could shatter her if they wished.
"That's my name, yes." She answered.
"What are you planning?" Blue demanded.
"'Planning'?" she repeated as if testing out the word for the first time. "Nothing in particular, just the total destruction of the Diamond authority." She rocked back and forth on her butt as she spoke. "Speaking of which… where is White Diamond? I was… expecting… to see her."
The three Diamonds all stayed silent. "What is it?" Onyx asked, a look of curiosity on her face. Suddenly the grin spread from ear to ear. "No way, you mean…? One of us got her?!" she had stopped rocking, now leaning forward with interest. She took their silence as confirmation and jumped to her feet raising her hands in the air. "HAHAHAHA! Amazing! I mean we always talked about it… but to actually do it?! HA!"
The three Diamonds all took on different looks as the gem continued her little celebration.
The youngest looked to the floor, a sorrow written upon her face. The gem before them was ecstatic at the prospect of a destroyed Diamond. She had thought herself liked well enough by her closest friends but did other gems really think of her this way? Did they really hate Diamonds so much? Hate her so much?
Blue was different. She was well accustomed to respect and admiration from the lesser gems, but this one was openly mocking them and celebrating the destruction of their eldest sister. She began to seethe with a rage that slowly began to build the longer she looked.
Yellow said nothing, her face was surprisingly calm given Onyx's gloating. She only stuck a single hand out and a shot of electricity rocketed from her palm into the light field, spreading out before quickly finding an outlet in Onyx who yelped at the sudden surge of energy.
The grey-gem stopped then, letting her facial features relax and giving an ambivalent look. "Sheesh, touchy." She said painedly, rubbing her back where the most serious damage had been done.
"Enough with the games!" Blue barked, taking a single aggressive step closer. "Tell us what we want to know!"
Yellow stuck out an arm across her sister's chest. "Blue, that's enough." She returned her attention to the rogue gem. "What's your number?"
"Don't have one." She replied smoothly.
"You must have been popped somewhere." Pink said softly, attempting to be as diplomatic as she could.
"Indeed." Blue concurred. "Though I've never even heard of an 'Onyx" type gem before."
"Neither have I." Pink added.
The grey gem crossed her arms. "You don't get it. I don't have an identification number because I don't need one. There are no others like me. I am the one and only 'Onyx', no need for a number to set me apart from anyone." She replied looking to the youngest Diamond.
"Did the rogue gems create you? Is that why they needed the primordial gel?" Yellow asked.
Onyx raised a single eyebrow at this. "Is that what you think? You still haven't realized it?"
The Diamonds exchanged confused looks with each other before looking back down to their prisoner. "Realized what?" Yellow asked, probing for more.
"I am, or should I say was White Diamond's gem." She explained. "But think about this… why would she create a gem that could shift her form into any other gem's appearance?
A slow realization came over her elder sisters, but Pink still didn't understand what the rogue gem was getting at. Onyx grinned gloatingly. "That's right. She sent me to spy on you."
Pink's eyes widened with shock. The implications of the rogue gem's words hitting her. "That's a lie!" Blue accused.
Onyx look to the middle Diamond with a straight face. "Is it now?"
"It can't be true. She'd never-" Pink started.
"Never what?" The rogue gem asked mockingly. "Never spy on you because you all trust each other?" She sighed. "I knew you were naïve but this is borderline denial."
"And why would she have you do that?" Yellow asked.
"You know why she asked me to do that." The rogue gem retorted.
The elder Diamonds both grimaced at that but Pink looked from one sister to the other with confused and hurt look. "What is she talking about?"
"Do I really have to spell this out for you?" Onyx asked skeptically. "You dear sisters here have been keeping secrets from each other and plotting against each other for some time, probably even long before I started spying on them."
Pink looked from the rogue gem to her sisters who were both looking away from her and each other. "Is… that true?"
Yellow only sighed. "We're not here to talk about us… we're here to talk about her." She said pointing a finger to the imprisoned gem.
The young Diamond's confusion quickly turned to anger. "What is she talking about? What have you two done?!"
"Calm yourself Pink, there will be time to discuss this later in private." Blue said, attempting to assuage her sister.
Onyx gave a small chuckle. "Heh heh heh. Look at the mighty Diamond Authority, so broken, so pathetic. Some leaders you are."
Blue snarled. "Shut your mouth!"
The grey gem shrugged. "Anyways after I confirmed White Diamond's suspicions she began to make… contingencies for your eventual betrayal of her."
"What kind of contingencies?" The eldest Diamond demanded.
"I haven't a clue. I got fed up with all the inter-Diamond intrigue and I left. Easy enough when you can look like anyone." Onyx said continuing her story. "I hopped from colony world to colony world, doing whatever and being whomever I wanted. That is, until I met the gem with a plan, a plan to free all gems by destroying the authority." Onyx finished. "Which brings us pretty much up to date."
"What about that monster you were with, back in the facility?" Pink asked.
"Why ask me? Blue Diamond knows all about it." The grey gem said motioning to her. "A tag-along from one of my spying incursions against her."
Pink looked to her sister. "Blue?" Her sister said nothing but then Pink turned to Onyx again. "And the corruption? What is it? How does it work?"
"The handiwork of your other sister." She replied smoothly.
This time both Blue and Pink stared at Yellow. "It can't be." Blue said slowly. Pik just stared at Yellow in a shocked silence but Yellow ignored their gazes and addressed Onyx. "What about the rest of the rogue gems?"
"They came from all over the Empire, all being fed up with your inept leadership for one reason or another. But there's never been more than a handful of us, and even now our numbers are dwindling." She answered. "We were actually waiting to strike, hoping to gather more power or more like-minded gems before we acted, but then you found out about us and well, here we are."
"You seem to be giving us all this information for away pretty easily." Yellow noted.
"Does it matter?" Onyx asked. "My history is hardly what I'd call strategically important. And you already know where we are, otherwise you'd have asked me that right away. In fact, the only thing of any real significance I've revealed is that me and my friends don't really even need to do anything to destroy the Diamond authority, you do it so well all on your own." She finished mockingly.
"Enough. It's clear we won't gain anything continuing this." Yellow said turning to the door. Blue glared at the rogue gem but quickly followed behind.
Pink looked to the gem and then to her sisters. "Are you coming?" Yellow asked.
"I'll be along in a second." Pink replied. With that the two elder Diamonds left and Pink was alone with Onyx.
"Is what you said true?" Pink asked.
"You saw how they reacted, you tell me." The grey gem replied.
Pink gave a hard look to the gem but she returned it with a disapproving glare. Pink turned to leave but the rogue gem caught her ear as she reached the door. "Some advice? Don't trust your sisters, they're not who you think they are."
The young Diamond soon found herself back in the command center as but her sisters were nowhere to be seen. She walked over to one gem and asked her where they were the gem informed her of her sisters' current location and the young Diamond walked off to meet with them.
Later in White's private room…
Pink walked in on what seemed to be Yellow and Blue in the middle of a heated argument.
"I can't believe that thing down there was yours?!" came the accusatory tone of her elder sister. "Why did you never tell us about something like that?"
"The facility where it was being kept was destroyed! I thought it had perished along with everything else!" Blue answered back in an equally heated voice.
They turned to Pink as she entered the room. "Blue… Yellow…" came Pink's voice, now soft and demure. "I think we need to talk, openly, about everything."
Both her sisters clamed up neither too eager to speak. Blue then turned her gaze to the floor. "She was right. The beast you saw from before, was a creation of mine." She began to pace around the room. "Pink you weren't around at the time but, thousands of years ago, there was a time when new gems… they weren't forming with the same quality as they had done before. Many were popped out with brittle gems or were dysfunctional in some way. So, I gathered up shards of previously shattered gems and began to do… experiments, to see if I couldn't do something with them."
Her frown deepened. "In the end though, all I made were abominations. They lacked a full consciousness and lashed out wildly. Shortly after, White approached me and asked me about them. I had no idea how she'd found out but she told me I had to stop. With little to gain in continuing my experiment I agreed. I had the facility where the gem-shard creatures were being made destroyed, and I haven't heard anything about them, until now." She stopped looking to each of her sisters. "That 'Onyx' she must have been the one to inform White, and she must have known about the facility too, managing to salvage something from it."
A vivid image of the many-limbed beast came back to Pink's head as she looked with shock to Blue. "That thing that was your doing?"
Blue nodded solemnly and then the two younger Diamonds then turned to Yellow who took a deep sigh. "It was… shortly after we'd finally been able to leave Homeworld, after we'd started making colonies. Some gems felt they could, lead themselves well enough on their own, White Diamond and I disagreed. We crushed them swiftly but we became aware that it may happen again in the future, that some may challenge our rule. White wanted to make drastic reforms, make Diamonds lesser, closer to gems so that they'd be less inclined to rebel against us. I convinced her, for the most part, to hold off, I told her that I had begun work on something that would make sure the masses would never rebel against us again." She narrowed her eyes and cast her gaze to the floor. "I had a device made that would destroy the individuality of a gem, make them entirely compliant to orders. When I thought I had it perfected, I presented it to White Diamond. She was hesitant at first, but once again I managed to convince her and demonstrated its effectiveness on a gem." Her face became increasingly grim as she recounted.
"At first, it seemed to work. The gem didn't know anything outside of following orders, she had no memory, as if she'd just been popped." Yellow shook her head. "But then she started changing… turning monstrous… corrupted. We shattered the beast and White forced me to stop all my work. But… I couldn't just let all that research go to waste so instead of throwing it away I had it sealed and it remained that way for thousands of years, until I tried again. White found out what I had been doing and confronted me again. I argued that I could do it this time, I could fix what went wrong, but she would hear none of it. She destroyed my work and forbade me from touching it again." She looked to her younger sisters. "Now, I fear that work has gotten out and I have no idea what may come of it." She finished.
To say that Pink had been surprised that the monster she'd fought had come from Blue would be an understatement. But what Yellow had just said made her stop dead in her tracks, even Blue had stopped to turn to her sister in astonishment.
"The corruption? It was you? It was your fault?" Pink asked.
Yellow said nothing only gave a single nod as Pink began to pace the room and process her two sister's admissions. "It happened long before you were around and White didn't want you, either of you, to…"
"To what? To know that our sister, a Diamond, is responsible for the creation of our only known disease?" Blue asked.
"I never meant for it to happen like that!" Yellow shouted. "I was trying to secure out Empire's dominance!"
"Ha! And you always talked about White holding us back! Keeping things from us!" Blue countered. "Could you be more hypocritical?!"
"It's not that-!"
"Enough!" Pink shouted gaining their attention then looked from one sister to the other and back again. "Is this what it means to be part of the Diamond Authority? To bicker and scheme behind each other's backs?" Both her sisters seemed shocked by the young Diamond's sudden outburst. "If this is how it is, how it really is being a leader of the gems, then I want no part of it!" With that she stormed out of the room and left the two elder Diamonds alone again.
However, when they were alone together, this time they did not shout at each other, or argue, they barely said a word as a feeling washed over them. It was one neither had felt in a very long time.
Shame.
The two remaining sisters slowly turned towards each other. Yellow's frown then turned upwards into a bittersweet smile. "She… reminds me so much of White, thousands of years ago."
Blue shook her head. "She's young, and unspeakably naïve, but there's truth in what she says. I haven't been humbled like that since the last time White scolded me."
Yellow only nodded, solemnly and with great remorse.
Blue then chuckled mirthlessly. "Yellow… what are we going to do?"
Pink had stomped out of the room and she walked down the hallway in a huff, she felt aimless but soon enough she found herself standing in front of the room where White Diamond's gem was being held. She entered it and closed the door behind her, staring in silence at the floating White gem before her.
"This is all your fault." She started, letting some of her frustration finally release, balling her fists up and stomping closer to the gem, now close enough to grab it. "All these secrets, all these lies! But not from you! No! Never from White Diamond! She knows everything! She decides who gets to know what! White Diamond knows best!" Her frustration and anger surged and she finally took a swipe at it and knocked it from the light. It bounced off the floor and slid into the wall to her left. Pink looked at it and then fell to her knees helplessly and began to heave her heavy sobs, somewhat echoing in the small room.
What were these tears for? Her frustration of being kept in the dark for so long, the lack of any real trust between her and her sisters despite the illusion of unity and equality. They were for the fact that rebellious gems who appeared to threaten their way of life had only done so with the same weapons the Diamonds themselves had devised. Not only that but the bitter fact that these gems might even be in the right, and the Diamonds may be the monsters they thought they were. But most of all, she cried because the one gem who might alleviate any of the pain Pink was now feeling was lying inert only a few feet away. So she cried, bitterly and quietly, she cried.
Meanwhile…
Spinel looked up to the sky and watched as a ship made its way through the atmosphere. It landed a few meters away from her and Zircon was soon climbing down the boarding ramp. "Do you have everything?" she asked. Zircon gave a thumbs up and Spinel nodded. "Good. They'll be coming soon and we have a lot of work to do before they get here."
Done. Please review.
