Salutations, Literate One. TKOP hath returned to the waking world to bring you another chapter of Clash from the deepest pits of Hell, past the Mountains of Madness, a walking distance from Mordor. Today, we get more of the Homeworld Task Force, as well as the Crystal Gems. BTW, there's not enough character tags. Hope you enjoy, Review if there's something you want to say, and ON WITH THE STORY!
Disclaimer: You own nothing, TKOP.
Clash 2 – The Arrival
Hers were the captain's quarters, likely the most comfortable place on the ship. It was excessively large for a room without any important functions, greater in size than the inside of a Roaming Eye. The combination of her diminutive stature and the room being only sparsely furnished left the room feeling both larger and emptier. Her only company in the room was fleeting, rarely would other Gems enter into her quarters and it was even rarer still that her Diamond had the time to spare to speak with her through her communicator.
Somewhere in her mind, she realized that she was grateful for the location of the planning room being so that it was only accessible through her room. It was without doubt the greatest contributor to companionship in the captain's quarters.
She had been tempted to ask her Diamond for a Pearl to keep her company, but she had foreseen the outcome of such a proposal. It was not truly necessary, her Diamond would say, too large a risk factor.
She knew her Diamond was right, of course she had thought of a range of possible scenarios where it would be a hindrance to have a Pearl there. Her Diamond was not one to let a plan fail because of an unnecessary risk even if such a risk was miniscule at worst.
Her thoughts were interrupted by a single knock on the door between the captain's quarters and the hallway outside. Blue Zircon, she foresaw, was the first to arrive. So too did she foresee that they would have approximately fifteen minutes before the arrival of the Chief Engineer, and further forty-five minutes before their arrival at the Earth's only moon.
She let Blue Zircon in, dismissing the Amethyst behind the visitor with a hand gesture. Blue Zircon took a moment to look at the captain's quarters before following Star Sapphire to the planning room.
Entering the planning room, the two of them stood in silence. Star Sapphire was the one to break the silence as she moved to the far end of the large table that was place in the center of the room.
"You suspect that there is more reason than your intellect to you being chosen for this task." It was not a question for she already knew the answer. The perceptive Zircon before her was right of course. The statement was met with a look of surprise and a reluctant nod.
"Your… theory has been considered by the Diamonds. After they regained their calm, they agreed that something was off. While they all think that the idea that one of them had committed such an atrocity is beyond laughable, they do think that it deserves further thought." She took a moment's pause, not to breathe; she did not need to, but rather to let the words sink in. She continued as Blue Zircon's eyes widened in surprise.
"You have been sent here not just for the preciously stated task but additionally to investigate the possibility of the guilt of anyone other than Rose Quartz in the murder of Pink Diamond; the Diamonds want revenge, but they want it against none other than the Gem that murdered Pink Diamond." Moving her hair aside as she spoke, she made eye contact with Blue Zircon; making sure that the point was made clear to her.
Blue Zircon swallowed nervously, an otherwise idle hand now fidgeting with her cravat. She nodded, having no other choice than to accept the task, as it was given to her, not just by a higher-ranking Gem, but by the remaining entirety of the Great Diamond Authority.
-Chief Engineer Peridot-
She would have arrived earlier; she really would, had she noticed that the ship had lifted off. Fate was not so kind however, and she had been thoroughly absorbed in the nostalgia of looking through the engineering bay she had designed so many centuries ago. She had been moving towards the on-board forge when she had noticed the faint feeling of being propelled through the void of space at a speed far outpacing that of light.
She had promptly turned and left for the captain's quarters when she had realized that, her extensive knowledge of the layout of the ship resulting in her being late but not by more than a few minutes, approximately twenty overall.
Reaching the door to the captain's quarters, she lifted her hand to knock as a show of courtesy, but the door opened before she could manage to do so. Star Sapphire stood inside, giving a small nod in greeting, a bow being an excessive gesture.
They wasted no time moving from the captain's quarters towards the planning room only a single corridor away. Inside waited Blue Zircon, looking thoughtful. They seated themselves around the table that stood as the sole visual feature in the room, bar the chairs.
"Now would be an appropriate moment to discuss any actual plans for finishing off the Crystal Gems." Star Sapphire looked as if she already had more to input but held herself back to allow the other Gems a chance to speak. She looked to Blue Zircon, not having any ideas yet herself. Blue Zircon looked reluctant but spoke her mind nonetheless.
"I propose that we start by gathering information about these Crystal Gems, it would be… unwise to rely entirely on millennia old data without anything up to date to confirm what would be assumptions at best, there's no telling what new tricks the Crystal Gems have learned since the war." Blue Zircon seemed to grow more confident as she spoke, getting more enthusiastic along the way, and for a moment, Chief Engineer Peridot could see how she would have reached a point where she would accidentally commit high treason.
"That would be the smart thing to do, for one, who knows what kind of technology they have access to. While it is unrealistic to presume they have modern Homeworld tech, they have still had millennia to prepare, and probably humans to help them, and while I do not believe in any part in the intellect of those creatures, they have shown to be remarkably resourceful, if nothing else." Chief Engineer Peridot added. Star Sapphire chose only to nod slowly, showing agreement and urging them to continue.
"Perhaps the first thing we should find out about them would be where on the planet they primarily reside. Maybe make use of some of our Red Eyes to scan the surface for any Gems. It'd even work if they destroyed one, we'd know where we sent it, and thus where they would be, AND we'd know that they had a weapon that could destroy a Red Eye." Blue Zircon looked enthusiastic now, any lack of confidence long forgotten. She had to admit, it was a good suggestion. Star Sapphire, from what could be seen of her face, looked to agree.
"This, from what I can see, is the most practical choice, and the one that leads to the least unknown factors in the long run." Star Sapphire nodded as she spoke, it was decided then.
"This course of action seems agreeable to me; it seems we have the first step of a plan now. This is going to go great, I can feel it." Both Blue Zircon and herself smiled as Chief Engineer Peridot said this, and Star Sapphire joined in with a Smirk.
-Earth-Garnet-
There was something wrong, something was coming. She didn't know what to look for in the future and because of that, she saw nothing to confirm nor dismiss the feeling that something was about to happen. Each of her visions simply ended with a looming sense of dread.
She faintly felt a sense of déjà vu; she knew that she had had this feeling before the question was when. It was not when Aquamarine had arrived; it was long before then. It was still relatively recent, not even much more than a year back. The problem, then, lied in the fact that the Crystal Gems' lives had been almost incredibly eventful throughout the last year and a half.
From Steven's first fusion to fighting Malachite, from the Cluster to Homeworld's return… Homeworld's return. That was it, the first sign of Homeworld coming back after all those centuries, the Red Eye. That was when she had last had this feeling. A massive presence in the future, imminent but wholly unexpected.
Some part of her compelled her forward, to inform the other Crystal Gems, while somewhere else in her mind, she was reluctant, wondering if not she was being too impulsive, acting on gut feeling without any actual facts. She moved forward then, assuring herself that it would be better to be wrong and ready than right and unprepared. It dawned on her then to look into the future for a Red Eye.
A massive Red Eye floated in the sky before them, not moving, but still watching.
With her suspicion confirmed, she gathered the Crystal Gems. It only took her minutes, Peridot being easy to find, still staying in the temple's bathroom, and the other Gems being no farther away than the far end of Beach City. They gathered in the temple, ready to hear what important vision had lead Garnet to gather them from their various activities.
"Another Red Eye is coming." She said no more, the other Gems were already up and moving. Each of them moved in surprise and confusion. Nobody present had expected any such thing, and she could not blame them for that, neither had she just a few minutes ago.
"I foresaw it, it'll be here soon." At this, the Gems moved in a rare display of discipline, the only exception being Peridot who instead stood stock still, looking thoughtful. This, Garnet did not miss, Peridot had far greater insight into modern day Homeworld than the rest of them, if she was thoughtful then there was probably something off.
"There shouldn't just be another Red Eye; Homeworld doesn't just send them without a reason. There must be something else besides the Red Eye." Peridot looked up as she said this. Garnet nodded, this might become problematic.
"The best thing to do would still be to destroy the Red Eye, would it not?" Pearl looked nervous as she asked this. There was too many unknowns, the only thing they knew that there was a Red Eye, and that it had arrived for a reason. She made to answer, but was interrupted.
"Guys, have you seen this?" Connie shouted this as she practically burst through the front door. In her hand, she held a mobile phone, with the screen showing some news channel. What the news were saying was the alarming part. Plastered across the screen was a line reading; Breaking News: Giant floating eyeballs spotted worldwide. Beneath the text was pictures from all around the planet, pictures of Red Eyes.
-Connie-
The room, which had been full of movement just a moment ago, was now frozen and silent. Everyone in the house were staring at the phone in her hand, various looks of shock and surprise crossed their faces as they saw article.
"This is bad." Garnet was the one to break the silence. For just a moment, the room relapsed into quiet, and then, there was chaos.
"What do we do?" Pearl voiced what was likely on everyone's mind at that moment. Connie was as surprised as she had been when she first saw the news. It was obvious that whatever was happening was Gem-related, what it was specifically however, Connie had no idea.
"What's going on?" Amethyst looked at her when she asked this; she had no doubt assumed that Steven had already told her a story about what had happened before to cause recognition and alarm at the sight of the giant floating eyeballs.
"Like, a week or two before Steven met you, one of these things, apparently called Red Eyes, came here and almost destroyed Beach City. It's really bad that there's more of then 'cause we had to use Rose's laser cannon thing to blow it up, nothing else even scratched it." Connie got nervous at that explanation, how were they supposed to deal with around four hundred of these Red Eyes if the Gems had had to use some sort of laser cannon to at all damage one of them.
"Wait, how did it almost destroy Beach City, what weapons do these things have?" the Gems in the room stopped at her question, Peridot specifically looking thoughtful. There was silence again, hesitating, hopeful. Everyone now looked at Peridot and she, in turn, looked back.
"You said it was going to destroy Beach City… but Red Eyes don't have weapons… wait… I thought I had fixed the faulty thruster, I didn't even really notice, but looking back, it must have been getting too close to the ground." Garnet confirmed Peridot's statement with a nod.
"It wasn't meant to do that, it was just supposed to scan the area for Gems and fly off. One of the thrusters was malfunctioning, and I thought I had fixed that. These won't do anything like that, a malfunction like that is one in a few billion." Everyone looked relieved at that, no global threat to defeat, it seemed. Peridot seemed certain at least, which was somewhat reassuring.
"They are still scanning Earth for Gems, aren't they?" And with that, the stress was back. It was nice knowing they did not have to face an army of giant floating possibly city-destroying eyeballs, but it was also important to keep in mind that they were still there and some Homeworld Gem was trying to find them.
"Well, no matter what, we can't destroy one of them and leave the rest of them intact, then Homeworld would notice the absence of just that one, and even if we destroyed multiple, that'd still narrow down our location severely." Peridot made a strong point; they would need a way to hide from them instead.
"No big, we'll just chill at the Moon Base for a while, right?" Amethyst's suggestion seemed reasonable, she thought while trying not to loudly exclaim her confusion and excitement at the Crystal Gems apparently having a Moon Base.
"We shouldn't do that, I see nothing good in the future if we go there." Garnet looked serious, her face contracted into a small frown. They returned to thinking, looking simultaneously stressed and stumped. Her own face lit up, she had an idea.
"We could do that thing Lars did on Homeworld, you know, where you hide your Gems behind a human." It seemed smart enough to her, and she was suddenly even happier that Steven had told her all about what had happened on Homeworld. In the edge of her vision, she saw Peridot, who now held a glint of excitement in her eyes.
"Yes! That would work, the Red Eyes' scanners are powerful enough to scan through several feet of solid metal, but they're programmed to ignore biological creatures when they're searching for Gems to save time, genius!" Peridot sounded as excited as she looked as she proclaimed this, and soon, the other Gems looked hopeful too.
-Peridot-
"Wait, where's Steven? The Red Eye would still pick up on his Gem, wouldn't it?" Connie seemed worried, and Peridot could understand why. Steven was one of the few things left on Earth that Peridot actually cared about.
"Where we're going. It's A Wash." Garnet's answer was short and to the point as was often the case with the things she said, but more than that it was relieving. Knowing where Steven was and that it wasn't far away was comforting.
"Let's go, I don't want to waste any time, this is a serious problem that we should take seriously." There was truth in her words but if she were to be honest with herself, she would admit that it was mostly a need to keep Steven safe that drove her to speak.
It was a short walk to It's A Wash, only so far as to the other side of the hill that the Crystal Temple was built into. Just outside the wash stood Steven and his dad, looking into the sky at the Red Eye that floated there. Their faces were painted with a mixture of shock and surprise and Steven was fumbling to get his phone.
"Steven! Your presence means we're all together, we have a plan on how we can avoid these new Red Eyes." She spoke loudly so that Steven would hear her without any problems; they were still a small distance away after all. Steven turned to look at them, his face showing concern quite clearly.
"What do we do, you guys, are we gonna blow this one up with mom's cannon too?" Steven was worried but hopeful, as he often was when facing hardship. For a moment, she thought back to when she was on Homeworld's side of this conflict, seeing Steven's apprehensive optimism and at first dismissing it as naiveté. Even when fighting him, memories with Steven seemed to tend to be happier than many of her memories without him.
"That won't work, Homeworld will know if one of them goes missing, there's not just one this time, there's hundreds, all around the world!" That did not seem to faze Steven much; he was likely remembering that they had said that they had had a plan.
"We'll use the same trick Lars did when you guys were on Homeworld, the Gems will hide behind a human so the Red Eye's scanner won't see them." Connie explained with the enthusiasm that was common of someone who was explaining a great idea they had come up with, her face twisting into a smile as she spoke.
"Wait, how would they notice if one of them went missing, you didn't notice when we blew up the first Red Eye." Steven looked at her as he spoke. It was a fair question; she would give a fair answer.
"Well, it was getting pretty old and was starting to malfunction too often for Homeworld's liking, so we decided it was a waste of resources and because of that, it'd be sent on one last mission before self-destructing via the nearest sun. We just assumed it had self-destructed, this place was the last place it had to scan, after all." She explained this while looking at the Red Eye in the sky. It was as flawless as all things Homeworld were supposed to be.
"No matter that, we should be hiding behind a human right now, that's where Greg comes into this." Greg looked at her when she said this, giving her a look she did not quite comprehend. In response, she simply shrugged.
"You guys told me I should stay out of Gem business, are you sure I should be doing this?" Greg looked nervous, and Peridot found it odd. After all, he was one of Steven's parents, the other being Rose Quartz, so how was it that he seemed almost afraid of doing anything Gem related. She managed to regain focus, not letting herself be too mentally sidetracked.
"You're our best option; I could probably manage to hide behind Connie, but the other Gems, that would be a problem. There's more you to hide behind than there is Connie." Greg sighed and nodded, she, in turn, smirked; for once again, her superior communicational skills were on display.
"Hey Peridot, how did you guys know that you should scan beach city for Gems?" Steven looked thoughtful, and she had to give it to him, it was a good question.
"We programmed the Red Eye to scan any location that we knew had had major Crystal Gem activity in the past, this place was the last it was set to scan." This seemed to answer his question, but now Connie was looking thoughtful.
"Wait, how did you then know that the Crystal Gems were here if you never got a scan of their Gems?" She seemed curious, and apart from it perhaps not being the best time, she could see why.
"Well, Lapis let it slip, accidentally might I add, that you lived in a temple, so we looked over the scans that we got from the Red Eye before it blew up, and we found your temple, and thought, that giant fusion temple is probably where they would hide." She explained, but as she did, Connie started to look concerned.
"Wouldn't these new Homeworld Gems come to the same conclusion if they just saw the temple?" This question made her pause. She thought for a moment, but could not see anything wrong with that assumption. It was Amethyst that voiced what she felt then.
"Aw, silt."
-Blue Zircon-
Their scans were coming in from all across the Earth, but so far, there was no signs of any Gems. It also seemed that the Crystal Gems either could not or just had not destroyed any of their Red Eyes, which was mildly problematic.
The last scan finished, and the Crystal Gems were nowhere to be found. It was now definitive that the Crystal Gems had some way of avoiding the scans, if not some way off-planet.
"Nothing, they have managed to avoid detection. Someone, start checking the scans for anything unusual, or obviously rebellion-related." The Chief Engineer was giving out orders with confidence, showing her experience in a commanding role. She herself nodded at the order, she would not be the one to do it, but it made sense to show agreement with the idea.
The communications room was filled with a tense silence for a few minutes. The quiet came undone when one of the common technician Peridots gave of a sound of excitement. She looked up at the two present commanding Gems.
"I think I've got something, Red Eye no. 217 picked up a construction that is most likely of Crystal Gem make." The junior Peridot seemed excited, and that was understandable to her, competent work was what was rewarded on Homeworld, after all. Looking at the screen, she saw a massive statue, seemingly of some cross-Gem fusion, with multiple large Gems present in the design. More damning was that the statue seemed to incorporate some sort of residential building in its construction, strongly suggesting that this was the base of the Crystal Gems.
"Good work, we'll bring this data to Star Sapphire. Peridots, uh… return to your duties." She felt nervous, not as much as during the trial of Rose Quartz, but she could clearly feel how unused she was to being in a commanding role. The Peridots dutifully returned to their usual stations, meanwhile she and the Chief Engineer left for the planning room.
The ship's hallways were long, large enough for a Diamond, and they were countless. Not literally, the Chief Engineer had likely counted them all a multitude of times when she was designing the ship. The Chief Engineer beside her looked at her, and opened her mouth to speak.
"So I've given it some thought, and I believe I have arrived at a satisfying conclusion." She gave the Chief Engineer a look of confusion to signal her lacking understanding. Given what some thought? A conclusion to what exactly? She wondered. They turned right.
"Nicknames, we can't just keep on using full names, all three Gems in the command group has a name that's at least four syllables and a space. If we kept referring to each other by our respective full names, that would be unbearable in the long run. You've probably started to refer to me by something shorter in your mind already, right?" She supposed it made sense, a few seconds saved a day would eventually equate to a significant amount of time. Moreover, she had to admit, they had been aware of each other's existence for just two days, and already, she was already referring to her as "Chief Engineer", cutting out almost half the name's length.
"What alternative do you suggest?" She herself hadn't a clue; she had never been keen on nicknames, likely a result of being a borderline social outcast among the other Zircons of her Facet. The Rose Quartz case had not helped her reputation, for the last few days the most common way to refer to her had been loudly yelling "YOU!" in her general direction. The other Zircons had thought it hilarious, but who knew, they probably had a horrible sense of humor.
"Well, in that I don't quite know either of you rather well personally, yet, I can't get all that creative but I do have a few suggestions." She made a motion with her hand, signaling for the Chief Engineer to continue. They rounded a corner.
"First of all, myself; Chief. It's short and to the point, and carries the most important part of my title." She nodded, and mentally added that it also made the Chief Engineer… no, Chief, sound like a higher-ranking Gem. She would compare it to calling someone "Captain" or something akin to it. Yet it was as she said, short and descriptive enough, it was a good nickname in her opinion.
"Second, Star Sapphire can be shortened drastically to Star. Again, It is short and yet enough to identify who you are talking to." Again, she found herself nodding, agreeing with the given description and the points that it made. They took a left.
"Then, lastly, there's you, I'd call you Blue for short, seeing as it's unlikely that we'll be in the presence of Blue Diamond or her Pearl in the near future." She took a moment to think before she gave a response. To her, it was certainly better than simply being called Zircon, as it felt more like the way one would refer to a Pearl. There weren't any Gem type apart from Pearls that were commonly referred to by their type by anyone other than their Diamond. To add to this, she couldn't come up with a better alternative.
She nodded as they went around another corner, and just as soon as she did, she was on the ground. Looking up, she saw the Gem she had collided with, and internally, she groaned. It was that same Amethyst that kept showing up around her, the one with a single large curl in her hair, and a cheeky grin on her face.
-Pearl-
She was worried, which was, admittedly, not uncommon for her, however, what was luckily rare was her fears being validated. Homeworld was back, and this time, seemingly with far more resources available than when Jasper or Aquamarine had attacked.
She did not miss the war; too many good Gems had died, on both sides. The Diamonds' final blow, the Corruption, had not helped her thoughts on the war. Now that Homeworld was back again, she could not help but worry for the safety of the remaining Crystal Gems. While they clearly held advantage in a fight against an enemy that they outnumbered, fighting an enemy that had the resources to send hundreds of Red Eyes head on was not just inadvisable, it was suicidal.
"Thus it is that in war the victorious strategist only seeks battle after the victory has been won, whereas he who is destined to defeat first fights and afterwards looks for victory." The quote was not her own, it was one of her rare human friends that had said it, around 25 centuries before. Pearl rarely interacted with humanity, and often, when she did, it was only with small groups of people or individuals that she in some way admired or respected.
While the Red Eye had seemed not to notice their presence, she was absolutely certain that it had managed to scan the giant temple in front of it. On one hand, at least Homeworld only knew of their reported numbers, however, on the other hand, they now knew where the base of the Crystal Gems was without having to rely on an informant.
Tensions were high in the temple, they had tried their best to outsmart what seemed to be the greatest threat to them since the war, and yet, they had missed a single, crucial detail that had led to them most likely being discovered. This was, to them, not a favorable situation to be in, they could deal with individual threats without too much trouble, but something like this was far more problematic.
The Crystal Gems had never been much for open combat during the war; they had mastered guerilla warfare in order to overcome a force that was so much larger than their own. Then, for every Gem that had joined the rebellion, Homeworld had a platoon. They had stayed in hiding, striking swiftly and disappearing without a trace. Homeworld's generals had millennia of experience in warfare, however, that experience was from large battles and honorable duels, with no clue how to counteract an enemy that was not there until it was favorable for them.
In recent centuries, long after they had last had to fight an enemy that outnumbered them thousands to one, they had begun to fight more directly against the corrupted Gems. The idea had been that they could fight the corrupted Gems faster if they did it openly, not waiting for the perfect conditions, but rather, simply an opportunity to strike. The odds had been so strongly in their favor for the last few centuries, they had not needed subtlety, now however, it seemed to be necessary again; they could not fight an army in single combat.
"So, what are we gonna do?" Amethyst's question brought her from her thoughts, and back into the present. Mentally, she thanked Amethyst, there was a time for reflection on the past, however, in that moment, there was something far more urgent to tend to.
"They'll send Gems next." Garnet added to the tension every few minutes, precognition was a gift, yes, but it certainly was not used to comfort them. Knowing what was about to happen was often a major benefit, and it had both solved and avoided a large amount of problems back during the war. The only real downside was that the visions Garnet got were never as clear as what a Sapphire could see, and that it was a longer process to do so, being an almost passive ability to Sapphires.
"Well, I suggest we gather what we know so far." Her proposal was met with nods from all the Gems in the room, Connie too. Peridot was looking quite nervous, even more so than when they had first seen the Ruby squad. Steven seemed thoughtful, he wanted to help but he most likely was not imagining much he could add. Even Amethyst seemed to be affected by the dread looming in the air.
"We know that they have a massive supply of Red Eyes, and probably other resources too. We know that they are going to send Gems next. We know that they most likely know where we live. What we don't know is who they're sending, how many Gems there are or even who's leading them." The mood was downtrodden; there was hardly any good news when it came to these new adversaries.
"Hey, we know that they didn't read my report to the Diamonds, the one where we found out where the Crystal Gems live, so logically then, their leader isn't one of the Diamonds, just a subordinate." It wasn't quite good news, but it was positive, and she felt her spirits be raised a smidge.
"There will be someone we'll recognize." Garnet cut in as she returned to the present from another vision. She felt conflicted about that statement, on one hand, she knew many foes that she had fought during the war that she'd be more than happy to never again face, on the other hand, she had known gems that, last she'd heard, were still on Homeworld, and who she hoped she'd be able to persuade to their side of the war.
"We don't know when they're coming, so I suggest that we get ready to hide and observe. We can't fight Homeworld without knowing what we're dealing with again." This got another round of nods, nobody was enthusiastic about letting Homeworld come without meeting them with a fight, but they could see reason, it was better to find out what they were dealing with first. Last time they thought they knew what Homeworld was capable of, Garnet had been poofed, Steven was abducted, and both Opal's greatbow and the Qartzine Trio had been completely ineffective.
"Watch out Homeworld, this time, we'll be ready!"