Steven could barely watch where he was going.
After the initial excitement and fear of running into Rose Quartz had drained away, he found himself unable to stop looking at her. She was nothing like his mother, being even larger, clearly powerful at first glance, and always seeming on the verge of shouting. Her face had a sour look to it, like happiness was something she had become unfamiliar with. Walking through the forest with Steven, she kept a hand on her sword, and her eyes never stopped moving around.
"How much further?" she asked.
"Well, it's only been about one-tenth of one hour, so pretty much still six hours."
"Days are long here," she grumbled, and sank into silence.
"Sooooo," said Steven at length, "what brings you here? What's your story, Quartz?"
"Still not loving 'Quartz.'"
"Do you have another name you prefer?"
"My friends called me Ten."
"Oh. Okay. So, Ten, your story?"
"Right," she said, her eyes downcast. "My story. It's not a happy one, Steven."
"It can't be that bad. We have a friend named Lapis who was trapped in a mirror for thousands of years."
"Sounds nice," said Ten. Steven looked to see if she was joking. She wasn't smiling.
They walked in silence for a bit more. Ten seemed to be prepping herself, so Steven didn't push her any more. Finally, after nearly an hour without a word from either of them, Ten took a deep breath. "So it kind of begins with this rebellion."
"Mom's rebellion?"
"I don't know why you keep calling her your 'mom,' but so long as you still mean your Rose Quartz, then yeah, that one. It was a long time ago. I was only a few hundred years old then, working on a little planet called Ropoppan. It was lovely; thick, ashen atmosphere; temperatures in the low four hundred kelvin range; large, venomous inhabitants. It was practically paradise."
"Sounds nice," said Steven.
"It was. Well, all except for the sulfuric acid lakes. But that's beside the point. I was on Ropoppan cataloguing the local wildlife for Zircon…
Ten sped through a smoking field atop a volcanic beetle the size of a small spaceship. She whooped and hollered, clinging to its chitin carapace with one hand and pounding on its head with the other. The monstrous insect reared and screeched, trying to throw her, but she swung around its neck, pulled her arm back, and punched it straight into the monster's gaping mouth.
"Easy there, big boy," she laughed as it gagged and flailed, its tiny arms uselessly clawing at her shoulder. "I just need a little sample and then I'll let you go." She stretched her arm out and felt around inside its gut. Finding something promisingly hard among its squishy insides, she gripped and pulled. With a wail of pain from the beetle, her arm came loose and sent her tumbling on the ground with a small chunk of metal gripped tightly in her fist. The beetle screeched again and took off running in the other direction.
"Thank you!" she called after it, waving goodbye. She looked at the thing in her hand. "Gosh, what have you been eating?" She activated her communicator for sound only and called back to the research camp.
"Is that you, Rose Quartz?" came a voice at the other end. The thick atmosphere was causing a lot of static.
"Yeah, Zircon, it's me." She placed a finger in her ear to hear better. "I got a sample of the stomach contents from one of those huge beetles. Is there anything else you need me to get while I'm out here?"
"A million things," said Zircon, "but for the time being, come back to camp. It looks like there is an acid storm brewing and I don't want you out there when it hits."
"Sure thing. I'll be back shortly." She cut the feed on her communicator and pocketed the bit of metal. She didn't know what Zircon wanted with it, but it was above her privilege to know or ask questions. She was just a soldier. A smart soldier, granted, one with enough intelligence and tact to ensure her delicate research missions were carried out to Zircon's strict specifications, but a soldier nonetheless. Still, she couldn't stop herself from wondering what use the gems would have for such a deadly and dangerous planet.
The research camp was a series of small buildings shaped somewhat like pyramids with the top half cut off, tending to be wider than they were deep. They were arranged in a grid pattern with the central area cleared out for a corral. Several of the planet's other inhabitants were milling about inside, mostly docile and stupid creatures that occasionally shocked themselves against the laser fence.
"Let us out!" one of the creatures cried, standing inches from the fence and peering out at her.
She laughed. "You creatures are so adorable. I'll have to see if Zircon will let me take one of you back to Homeworld with me."
"Please, I have to get back to my children."
"Maybe later, little man. We need you for now."
He whimpered at her, but she walked past him and toward the main facility.
"Ah, good to see you in one piece," said Zircon as Ten passed through the main door. "It would be terribly inconvenient if I had send someone to pull your gem out of the belly of one of these horrid creatures."
"Aw, you mean one of those big softies? They're just playing around out there. Nothing to be scared of."
"For you, maybe," said Zircon. She held out her hand for the metal sample and Ten handed it over, then Ten turned back toward the main hall to wait for the storm the come and go so she could get back to work.
A few of the local critters had gotten inside the gem facility, enjoying the protection from the storms and larger predators, but they were less safe from Ten, who sprinted after and caught a pair of them, stroking them gently as they wiggled against her grip in attempted escape. She hummed and sang to comfort them, but they remained terrified. Normally she would spend days this way with no complaint, but she wasn't so lucky today.
As she tickled the little creatures with her large fingers, the large view screen activated in the main hall. Displayed prominently was a Pearl, one that Ten immediately recognized as Red Diamond's snotty little assistant. Sure, she wasn't as bad as Yellow Diamond's Pearl, but given enough time she rubbed one raw with her attitude.
"Attention all colonies. This is a message from Red Diamond."
This made Ten perk up, and much of the work stopped around the camp. To contact all colonies with a message would mean something very important was about to be announced. She lifted the creatures she held up so they could see the screen better. "I wonder what she has to say," she cooed at them.
"As many of you may be aware, we have been dealing with a rebellion on Crystal System Colony Planet Earth over the last several years. We are announcing that we have decided to abandon this colony rather than continuing to fight for control of it."
"That's hardly worth making a broadcast announcement," said Zircon, the door to her lab sliding closed behind her. She walked over and stood next to Ten, looking disapprovingly down at her as she played with the planet's vermin.
"You may also be aware," the Pearl continued, "about the self-proclaimed 'leader' of this rebellion, a Rose Quartz." A picture of the Rose Quartz appeared on the screen with her Cut and Facet listed below. "This Rose Quartz has made a mockery of everything that we stand for and strive for. She is a traitor to the Gempire."
"Ugh, dirty traitor," said Ten. "She gives gems like us a bad name."
Zircon nodded. "If she knew the value of good hard work, she would have never started all this rebellion nonsense. I blame her managers on Earth."
"Given these circumstances," said the Pearl, "the Diamonds have decided that this treachery rests not with a single Rose Quarts, but with all Rose Quartzes throughout the Gempire. My Diamond declares all Rose Quartzes traitor."
"What?!" said Ten. Two instincts fought inside her, the first to reflexively ball her hands into fists, and the second the put down the critters she was holding. The latter won, the creatures scurrying off as Ten stood and approached the monitor.
"By order of the Diamonds, with blessings from Red Diamond, for whom all Rose Quartzes are made, these traitors are to be immediately shattered."
The view on the monitor panned up, and there on the screen appeared the face of Red Diamond. "So say I, Red Diamond," she said.
Then the camera panned back down to the Pearl. "That is all," she said, and the message ended.
Ten was frozen where she stood. She couldn't believe what she had just heard! It was an outrage! She had done nothing wrong. It was all that other Rose Quartz's doing, so why was she being punished for it?
She turned around defiantly, finding every gem in the hall was watching her. She became suddenly aware of how many of them there were. Her head was pounding with anger and fear.
A group of Rubies ran forward. "We'll take care of her!" they shouted, jumping into a pile. With a flash of light, their bodies melded together, and in their place stood a monstrously tall Ruby, easily towering over the naturally tall Rose Quartz. She shrunk back from the Ruby and instinctively started reaching for the gem on her stomach.
"Hold on!" shouted Zircon, holding up a hand. "Ruby, go back to your posts."
"What? B-but, Red Diamond—"
"I heard what she said, and now I'm telling you to forget it and go back to your post."
"You can't contradict Red Diamond," said Ruby angrily.
"Did she specifically say that you, Ruby, had to shatter every Rose Quartz?"
"What?" said Ruby. She looked dumbly down at Zircon, who waited impatiently for an answer. "Uh, no?"
"So you think you're so important that Red Diamond was talking directly to you?"
Ruby looked shaken. "No, no! Of course not!"
"Then know your place and get back to your posts."
Ruby looked uncertainly between Ten and Zircon. "Yes ma'am," Ruby said sullenly. She split apart into her individuals Rubies and they scurried from the hall.
One of the other scientists gems whispered to Zircon. "What are you doing? You heard Red Diamond. Blocking an order from a Diamond is not something you have the authority for."
"Oh, nonsense," she replied. "Shatter every Rose Quartz? To what end? How does that serve anything? The Diamonds are just throwing a fit and they'll get over it soon enough. If we shatter Rose Quartz, we'll regret it in three days when they rescind the order and we find that now we're short on field agents."
"Even if that's the case," said another gem, "we can't just disobey on a whim. That makes us no better than the rebels. And if word gets back to Homeworld—"
A general murmuring started among the scientist gems, but Zircon motioned for silence. "I don't intend to have Rose Quartz stay. On the contrary, I think she should go back to Homeworld."
"What?" said Ten. "But they'll shatter me on sight!"
"Don't worry. Once you're on Homeworld, you'll have the sanctuary of the Crystal Citadel. If I know you Rose Quartzes, and I like to think I do, a whole mess of you will be heading to Homeworld even as we speak. You are not a stupid cut. I'm sure one of you can convince Red Diamond that you deserve to continue existing and are no traitors."
"Because we're not!" Ten shouted.
Zircon made a calming gesture with his hands. "Of course you're not. Get back to your ship right away and make for Homeworld—If you go right now, you can avoid the acid storms. And once you have everything straightened out, hurry back here. We have a lot more work that needs to be done and I can't rely on some dimwitted Ruby to do it right."
"Hi, we haven't met, but I'm Rose Quartz."
The other Rose Quartz looked her up and down. "I've already heard that one," she said, then turned and disappeared into the gathering crowd of Rose Quartzes.
"Jeez," said the first Rose Quartz. "What shattered YOUR sense of humor?"
Ten came up from behind. "Do you really think this is the time for jokes?"
The Rose Quartz shrugged. "I don't see why not. If jokes were off-limits every time something terrible happened, I'd never get to tell any."
"I really hope you're exaggerating," said Ten.
"I'm Rose Quartz, by the way," she said brightly.
"Really?" said Ten. "You're pretty dedicated to that joke, aren't you?"
The throng of Rose Quartzes grew in size over the day. Before too long, there were hundreds of Rose Quartzes. By the next they were in the thousands. The most Ten had ever seen at once was two, so this was entirely new for her. A good chunk of them preferred the generic Rose Quartz look, being tall and muscular and long straight hair down their backs, like Ten herself, but there were hundreds of variations and some that had looks wholly unique to them. Some were curly-haired, some were bald, some were shorter, some fatter, one was even terribly skinny. But they were all Rose Quartzes. It was like a gathering of sisters that had never met before.
After a few days of gathering, the number of Rose Quartzes coming to Homeworld slowed to a trickle and the group was about as large as it was going to get. Murmurings spread throughout the crowd as they started looking for some sort of leader to do all the talking when they met with Red Diamond.
Ten had been talking with the joke-y Rose Quartz since they first met and found her to be likeable and charismatic. Ten nudged her. "You should volunteer to be our leader," she said.
"Me? Oh ho ho, that's funny. I thought this wasn't the time for jokes."
"I'm serious. I'm sure our Diamond will like you."
"Oh, stop," said Rose Quartz, blushing and waving away the comment. Suddenly, she found Ten's hands on her waist and she was being lifted above the crowd.
"She volunteers!" Ten called above the hubbub.
"Oh!" cried Rose Quartz as hands started passing her along the top of the crowd before finally depositing her at the front atop a small dais. She looked out over the crowd of gathered Rose Quartzes with surprise written on her face. She gave them a nervous smile and realized they were waiting for her to say something. "Uh, I see a lot of familiar faces out there." Many of the gathered Rose Quartzes laughed. She seemed bolstered by that. "I should introduce myself. I'm Rose Quartz." More laughs. Clearly, not everyone had heard that one before. "Let's all take good care of each other."
A few of the Quartzes in the front rows moved forward and they and the new leader began conversing. After a while, the leader stepped back up on the dais and motioned for silence. "It looks like it is time to go see our Diamond. If you'll all follow me, I know the way. Try to keep things orderly, okay?" She hopped down and began marching. Slowly, the huge blob that was the thousands of Rose Quartzes started moving towards the center of the Citadel.
Red Diamond's Pearl sighed. "I can't just let anyone in without an appointment." She narrowed her eyes. "Especially traitors."
"Don't use that word," said the leader angrily. "We're good and loyal gems. I know our Diamond is busy, but if she can find the time to see us, we would be very grateful. Please."
Red Pearl sighed again. "I'll see what she thinks about this. Wait in the audience hall." She indicated a door behind her and left without another word.
The crowd of Rose Quartzes pushed through the door into the huge audience chamber. There was a large throne at the end where Red Diamond would sit and room enough in the hall to easily fit a group ten times their size. While there was one door in the wall they had come through, the side and back walls had doors down the entire length of the hall, dozens and dozens of doors leading off somewhere deeper in the Citadel.
Ten sidled up to their leader. "I've never seen a room this big before. What do you think they need all this space for?"
The leader shrugged. "I guess lots of empty space is impressive. I know I feel impressed."
Time passed with no sign of Red Diamond. The Rose Quartzes milled about and spoke in hushed conversations; something about the grand hall made it feel inappropriate to raise their voices too loud. Outside the doors, they would hear occasional voices and footsteps, but no one entered or knocked or showed any signs that they were aware the Rose Quartzes were still waiting within.
"This is boring," said Ten. What's taking our Diamond so long?"
"Be patient," said their leader. "She is a Diamond, after all. She must be very busy."
No sooner had she spoken then the main doors behind them were thrown open and in marched a group of Rubies and Amethysts. As the Rose Quartzes were turning to see what the commotion was, the other doors along the sides and back opened up, and more warriors began pouring in. The Rubies and Amethysts were joined by Jaspers, Agates, and Citrines. There must have been ten thousand of them alone, and they were accompanied by hundreds of giant fused Rubies and fused Agates. The Rose Quartzes were completely surrounded with no way out.
"What is the meaning of this?!" the leader of the Rose Quartzes shouted.
A Citrine stepped forward. "Red Diamond has stated that her order stands. You are traitors and you are all to be shattered. Submit quietly and there will be no trouble."
"Being shattered sounds like trouble enough," quipped the Rose Quartz leader, though it didn't sound like her heart was in the joke. "But why the order? What have we done wrong?"
Citrine laughed. "She says you Rose Quartzes are too smart for your own good, which is funny, because you're asking a lot of stupid questions."
Rose Quartz glared at her. "We came to speak with Red Diamond, and that is what we are going to do, so you'd best move out of the way and bring Red Diamond out here."
Citrine's eyes went wide. "You'd presume to tell a Diamond what to do? How dare you! If Red Diamond were here, she'd—"
The door directly behind the throne thundered open, causing everyone to turn in surprise. Over the threshold strolled Red Diamond, her Pearl at her heels.
"My Diamond!" said the Rose Quartz leader. She saluted. The other Rose Quartzes did as well, followed by the rest of the soldiers in the room. "I'm so glad you're here," she said across the great length of empty hall. "You must know that this is all a big misunderstanding. We are most certainly not traitors. We denounce the Rose Quartz of Earth one and all."
Red Diamond did not seem to notice. She walked over to her throne and sat down, grasping the arms of the chair and leaning back. "Citrine," she said.
"Yes, my Diamond?" said the Citrine leader.
"Begin."
"Yes, my Diamond."
"Begin what?" said the Rose Quartz leader. She did not have time to react as the Citrine put her hand to the gem on her chest and pulled out her massive hammer. Citrine swung it hard, connecting directly with the gem in the Rose Quartz's stomach. Rose Quartz had just enough time to look surprised, then her body began to glow. With a terrible piercing sound, she burst into mist. There was nothing left but the tinkling sound of the shards of her broken gem hitting the floor.
The Rose Quartzes gasped in horror. "Shatter them!" shouted the Citrine, and all the gems began pulling their weapons.
The Rose Quartzes tried to defend themselves as well as they could, but all they had were their shields. While they could take a lot of force, eventually the shields would crack. Rose Quartzes were being shattered.
"Fight back!" someone shouted.
"Shield wall!" shouted another, and the Rose Quartzes formed a line of shields, while those behind threw their shields as weapons. A shield whizzed through the air and struck the gem on a Ruby's throat, breaking it into pieces.
The strategy worked as well as it could with the Rose Quartzes being outnumbered ten to one. They held and they fought as hard as they could, but they didn't have any real weapons. For every gem they shattered, a Rose Quartz was shattered as well. At that rate, they had no hope. They would all be destroyed.
Ten stood in the middle of all of this carnage and found herself unable to move. Everywhere she looked there was fighting. Gems that looked just like her were being destroyed, their bodies turning to mist until the air was so thick with it that it was blinding. The powdery dust of shattered gemstones flowed into her nose and mouth. Several Rose Quartzes were trying to grab the gems of fallen friends to protect them, but she didn't see the point. They were trapped.
"My Diamond!" shouted one of the Rose Quartzes, reaching towards the matriarch on her throne. "Why?"
Red Diamond watched implacably. She looked mildly angry, but mostly she seemed bored, as if she wanted all of this to just be over already. The Rose Quartz who called to her had her gem shattered by a Jasper's helmet, but Red Diamond didn't seem to notice or care.
"We need to get out of here!" another Rose Quartz shouted.
"How?"
"We move as one! Push this shield wall towards the main door. That is where their lines are thinnest. Go! Now!"
The circle of shields began moving. Those that got in their way were pushed by the shields, trampled, shattered, or all three. All the while, Rose Quartzes at the rear were holding off the unending swarm of gems. Their progress was slow, but steady and deliberate. To Ten's surprise, they were soon near the door, and then they were passing through. After the last Rose Quartz was through, several of those in the back grabbed the door and pulled it closed. "Go!" they shouted, their arms holding the door where they could. "We'll stall them. Get out of here!"
The rest of the Rose Quartzes ran. Many saluted before they went. It was only a matter of time before the other gems went around through the side entrances and the Rose Quartzes holding the door would be surrounded and shattered. They knew that, but they held it anyway.
With no need for a shield wall, the remaining Rose Quartzes began running at full speed toward the spaceport where they had all landed. They needed to get to their ships and escape. Most of the guards on Homeworld seemed to be at the Citadel, but there were still plenty between the Rose Quartzes and freedom.
When they finally made it to the spaceport, a shout of rage went up from those in front. When Ten entered, she saw Pyropes, the engineers of the spaceport, pulling apart their ships. Of the thousands of ships there, most were scrap now as hundreds of Pyropes put their skills to use dismantling everything like a swarm of nanites.
"Shatter them!" someone shouted in rage, and hundreds of Rose Quartzes surged forward. The Pyropes, not fighters by any measure, turned to flee, but dozens of them were caught by the Rose Quartzes and stomped to dust.
Even as they were still handling the Pyropes, the gem guards charged into the spaceport from behind. The Rose Quartzes scrambled for the ships, dozens in each, just trying to get off the planet. Ten and nearly twenty others got in one ship.
"Get this thing started," one of them said.
Ten hammered at the ignition, but nothing happened. "We've no power! They must have removed the core."
"No! What do we do?"
"We have to get to another ship."
"Through that?" She pointed to the huge host of gems.
"We've got no choice."
"Don't worry, I'll keep you safe," said one. She wasn't talking to anyone in the ship, but rather to the half dozen gems she had cradled in her arms.
"Go!"
It was a mad dash. They bashed and punched and kicked their way through the crowd, taking hits from all sides. It only took a minute to get from one ship to the next, but it felt so much longer to Ten. When they were all inside, they sealed the door. Ten looked around the ship. Including herself, there were only twelve Rose Quartzes left. She didn't see the one that was holding all the gems.
The engine of the ship revved to life as one of the Rose Quartzes powered it on. "Thank the stars!" she said. "We wouldn't survive running to another ship. Let's get out of here."
Gems were swarming the outside of the ship, banging on the hull and trying to hold it down, but the ship lifted off easily and shot upwards, far behind many of the other ships that had already taken off. A few more ships were following behind, but Ten's ship was among the last.
"Are we safe?" said one of the Rose Quartzes. She seemed as shaken as Ten was.
"Almost," said the pilot. "We're pulling out of the gravity well now, and then it's…" she trailed off as she looked through the viewfinder.
"Oh no," whimpered Ten. Ahead was a massive armada of ships. They were getting into position to blockade the Rose Quartz ships coming out of the main Homeworld spaceport. Already Rose Quartz ships were trying to run the blockade, but a barrage of missiles and lasers was destroying most of them.
But not all. As more Rose Quartz ships made it to the blockade, some began slipping through. Soon, a full dozen were on the other side of the blockade. The blockade ships turned to give chase, breaking formation and opening even more places for ships to get through. Bracing herself, Ten watched the massive blockade ships draw nearer and nearer. And then they were past, and the blockade grew smaller behind them. The pilot took a hard left around the planet, trying to put it between them and the blockade, then flew straight out into space.
They watched for signs of pursuit, but none came.
They were free.