Yellow Palace
The trip back to the surface, aboard a vessel made for the soul purpose of traversing the deep chasms that were the kindergartens beneath the surface of Homeworld, was a quiet one with neither party speaking to each other; Once the ship, that was in the shape of a tapered baguette cut gem with a few extra dimensions to allow it to serve as a flying vessel, landed and everyone boarded off outside the back entrance of the Yellow Palace, Fire Opal stood at attention with her hands folded behind her back as she stared back at Citrine with her nose turned up in disgust towards the commander, who in turn stared back with her arms crossed as the two gems waited for the other to speak.
Fire opal spoke back with sneer in her tone, "Don't think Yellow Diamond will accept those eyesores so easily into your ranks, commander." she hissed out the last word as if it offended her from even leaving her mouth, "I'll see to it as well, that those bottom dwellers never see the light of day either! They belong down there, and by the grace of the Diamonds, should be worshiping the Diamonds for even letting them exist down there." she spoke with scorn in her tone towards the off colors.
Citrine, looking nonplussed towards the Fire Opal, pursed her lips flatly before speaking with a flat tone, "That is not for you to decide, Opal, and neither is it for me, it is up to Yellow Diamond." she spoke tersely at the end, before unfolded her arms to walk up Fire Opal to poke the gem into the chest, the Commander's height just slightly taller than the Fire Opal's making her look downward a bit into the eyes of the Opal's, "And rather you like it or not, I will not have unused gem resources go to waste. If they are to remain as they are unshattered, then they are better put to use in my armada than simply staying down there waiting for the inevitable."
Fire Opal stepped back a bit while slapping aside the offending finger of Citrine and pointed back at the commander with a hateful gaze, "Says you! You are what's wrong with the many changes our Diamond has been changing throughout the thousands years!" she seethed out.
Narrowing her eyes at the Opal, Citrine refrained from scoffing at the other gem, "And look where it got the Diamond Authority a thousand years ago. A thousand year war on a single planet, and all of it was wasted with a Diamond shattered, countless gem resources lost, and the aftereffects of the war are still felt today, Opal." The Commander strained out with a forceful bite. "You're not the first gem I've had this talk with, and I doubt you'll be the last!"
Fire Opal tried to find another reason to argue with the commander, and when she did, she wished she thought twice before speaking, "Well maybe Pink Diamond had it coming on that cursed planet that spawned so many traitors and off colors!" she shouted, before widening her eyes, and clamping her mouth shut in fear.
The onlookers that were the Jaspers of Fire Opal's team, all gasped with shocked faces, while behind Citrine, Lapis mouthed the word 'wow' in disbelief of the audacity the gem had, Spinel on the other hand was-
"Spinel, stay-" Citrine was about turn and command the court jester gem to stay where she was and stay calm, as she had a feeling the spinel gem was going to most likely act irrational at the disparaging words the Opal said about Pink Diamond, only for Spinel to already be in mid lunge towards the Opal Gem.
"THE FRACT YOU SAY!?" Spinel yelled in belligerent anger, while Pink Opal's gemstone that was once in her possession fell from out of her grip to clatter to the ground below.
In surprise and regret for not choosing her words wisely and letting her mouth run, Fire Opal began stumbling backwards in the process as Spinel lunged through the air towards her with the intent of mauling her.
"Spin-" In mid flight as said gem's flight path of her lunge brought her next to Commander Citrine, the commander herself had an annoyed look as she quickly reached out to grab Spinel by her right arm, and halt her.
Spinel, feeling the grip on her arm, willed her arm to stretch so that she could continue flying through the air from her lunge to assault the disrespectful Fire Opal. "I'll make you pay for saying that!" she screamed in hysterics.
As Spinel was three fourths on her way to tackle the backwards stumbling Fire Opal, Citrine went from annoyed to angry as she pulsed her gem static powers into her hand that was grasping Spinel stretched arm. The current of Citrine's static stilled the stretched arm and made it retract, allowing the commander to pull the arm in like a lasso, along with a shocked Spinel as the court jester found herself unable to stretch her arm any further.
Citrine, whipping the stretched arm around along with Spinel's entire body, slammed Spinel down into the ground with a loud boom, and cracked the surface from the amount of force Citrine applied slamming Spinel into the ground by whipping her stretched arm and self lack a lasso. "Spinel!" she barked out in an authoritative tone. "Cease at once!" she ordered while keeping a firm grip on the arm she still had of Spinel's and stomping over to the pink gem.
Spinel, with her back against the ground, glared hatefully up at Citrine, "Outta my way!" she screamed as she bounced back into her feet, and retracted her arm from being elastic, but found herself getting pulled in by Citrine as the commander continued to have a firm grip on her arm.
Finding herself trying to pull out her arm from Citrine's grip by leveraging with her feet planted against the commander's knees, Spinel next found herself yoinked up by Citrine as the commander grabbed Spinel's other arm to look into the pink gem's eyes with a firm look. "There is a precedent for this Spinel, you do not need to act that hastily!" she barked out with an authoritative tone towards the court jester gem.
Spinel on the other hand tried to squirrel her arms and hands free, "Just let me go!" she cried out with tears breaking from the corners of her eyes, "I'm not gonna let her bad mouth Pink that way!" she wailed before hatefully looking in the direction of the Fire Opal. "Just you-..." she ceased her actions and speech as she witnessed Fire Opal get carried off by the shoulders of her own Jaspers.
A screaming and struggling Fire Opal struggled against the hold the Jaspers had on her as they dragged her off to the Yellow Palace. "Who do you think you are touching, you low class quartz soldiers! Release me at once! I command it!" she screeched.
The Jaspers of course ignored the insults and commands the Fire Opal yelled, as they disappeared into the Yellow Palace with their screaming Opal Gem held prisoner between two Jaspers.
After a few tense silent seconds passed, Spinel finally calmed down a bit, before slowly looking back at Citrine as the commander continued to hold her up by her wrists. "...since when could Jaspers ignore their higher ranking gem with authority over them?" she questioned with clueless look and confusion in her tone.
With a straight forward flat look from the commander, Citrine spoke without missing a beat in her words, "I don't think it has be said that no gem is allowed to bad mouth a Diamond in such a disparaging way, much less of a diamond that is no longer with us." Citrine explained with a firm tone.
Biting her lip at having to be reminded that her delusions were not real, Spinel croaked out, "She's not gone…" she whispered out while looking downcast as her attention was now more on the ground than making any effort to look the commander in the eyes.
Noticing that Spinel was no longer active in wanting to attempt and flee to attack the Opal, Citrine questioned her, "I am gonna let you down now, Spinel, and I expect you to not run off, understood?" She spoke strictly, to which Spinel slowly nodded.
Releasing the hold on Spinel's wrists, Citrine watched as the gem landed on her feet, before Spinel crouched down to hug her knee with an arm while using her other arm and finger to doodle imaginary lines into the ground, "She has no right, talking like that…" she muttered with an angered look, but kept her end of the promise with Citrine.
"Hmm." Citrine hummed in agreement, before speaking up, "I'm also pretty sure she'll be the first gem to be shattered by Yellow Diamond in over nine hundred years. I don't see Yellow Diamond letting what she said be let go that easily…" she remarked a faraway look in her eyes as she crossed her arms while glancing off to the direction of the Yellow Palace.
The soft sound of pit pattering of Lapis's soles echoed in the air as she strolled up to stand beside Citrine, and glance a tad bit up at her face with a sideways glance, "You know, I'm surprised Yellow diamond pulled back on that sort of punishment…it almost feel kinda weird that it's been that long since a gem as been shattered."
Citrine, with a miffed attitude, glanced back at Lapis with a sideways look, "The simple argument was why bother with shattering, when we have rejuvenators?" Citrine questioned back rhetorically, before uncrossing her arms to plant them on her hips as she conversed with Lapis, "And not just that, we do not have enough Diamond essence to shatter disobedient gems left and right like its Era One."
Shaking her head, the commander lifted her arm up and snapped her finger while looking sideways at Lapis, "The moment the deed was done on Earth, things had to change, rather High Gem society likes it or not. The Diamond Empire simply can not afford to stagnate, less it rots from the inside out."
While Spinel continued to mope, Lapis spoke a bit more with Citrine, "Rot within…huh…" she blinked a few times as she digested the word, before looking directly at the commander, "Wouldn't it be too late for Blue Diamond's court though?" she asked curiously.
With a shrug, the commander replied back to Lapis with a glance, "Well, I wouldn't know much, last I heard before we headed for the Pink Palace, was that she poofed more than half of her court, with an administrator to boot. Blue Diamond was just fortunate enough that events had unfolded to the point that got her out from her grieving, and back into the public eye. Who knows how worse her court would have been if she had been grieving any longer than a thousand years."
"I suppose that is true…" Lapis mused towards the Commander's thoughts on the matter pertaining to her court she's from.
Blue Palace
Having taken their conversation into one of Blue Diamond's secluded rooms that housed several terminals, cylindrical vats that retained her Diamond essence, and various other machinery that all revolved around the process of making gems suited to her court's caste, Both Diamonds sat in the midst of it all with a raised stone table.
For Yellow Diamond, as they had just entered the room where Blue Diamond did her own process of selecting what gems she needed to grow, the Yellow Matriarch sat with a curious gaze at the room around her, "You really haven't been in here for quite some time…" she remarked.
"Mmh?" Blue Diamond hummed in question as she fixed her blue dress as she sat on her stone chair by brushing off herself from the dust that had collected over the many decades, "Well…" she glanced around a bit, "While I have not gotten around to updating most of my Palace, with the grief I secluded myself too…" she said while looking back at Yellow's curious gaze on her, "I have come back here every few decades to at least provide the essence needed for the advancement of our empire…" she calmly said but with a dour expression.
"That's all I could do, before drifting back to grieving for Pink…" Blue Diamond finished explaining to Yellow Diamond with a somber expression, who in turn leaned against the stone table while brushing aside the dust.
With an annoyed grunt, Yellow Diamond spoke back to Blue Diamond, "Yes, well, It's best that if you ever do decide to sequester yourself away to grieve, don't make it a thousand years." she said tersely with an angered look, with Blue giving a nod at the behest of what has happened to her court so far.
After a few moments, Yellow Diamond started the discussion between the two of them back up while channeling her energy out through her Diamond with a wave of her hand to pull out a few datapads that were bulky to the point of being as think as Yellow Diamond thumb, three datapads in all. "Now, Blue, before I initiated the attempt of creating my Citrine gem that was by all rights successful, I made sure it was a success by spending what little time I had available to calculate, research and finalize it all into a compilation to take references off from should something go awry."
With a bit of an intrigued look with a lifted brow, Blue Diamond glanced down at the tablets that showed some age but were still in working order, "How…long ago did you begin the research?" she asked.
Yellow nonchalantly brushed her hand through the air, "Around two thousand years before I actually began the attempt, and even then those were very busy years, I am sure you remember." she remarked with some bit of nostalgia.
With a bit of a somber smile, Blue Diamond chuckled warmly, "Ah yes, it was quite the few thousand years, before…Pink got her colony…" she sobered down with a frown after mentioning the eventuality that was Pink Diamond's colony and the worse event that had marred the Diamond Empire.
"Hmm…yes…" Yellow grimaced, before shoving her emotions down to continue speaking, "In any case, The spare time I had available, I spent it towards figuring out what would make a perfect quartz commander, a gem that could lead the others as well as be one of a kind that I could make a mold off from for future cuts of her kind."
With a quizzical look Blue gave Yellow, she spoke with a curious tone, "I've noticed that, in fact when I first met her, that the Citrine gem of yours has more authority than most certain Quartz soldiers are given…Yellow…why is that?" she asked with a questionable look.
Releasing an irritated breath, Yellow leaned back on her stone chair to cross her arms, "Blue, we are stretching ourselves thin as it is, and back then, before that mess on Pink's colony, I was already feeling fatigued from having to micromanage everything under my branch and court." with an annoyed scowl, Yellow Diamond continued to say, "I do not know how White does it Blue, but I can not be everywhere at once and keep every planet of mine in line."
With a measure of understanding, Blue Diamond nodded in agreement, "I suppose I can not fault you for feeling that, Yellow." she remarked, then looked off to the side in thought, before looking back at Yellow with a disapproving frown, "But I'm having a hard time believing you of all Diamonds would let off colors into the rank and file of your soldiers."
With a roll of her eyes, Yellow Diamond scoffed, "Relax Blue, like I said, that Citrine of mine was an experimental success, and she'll continue to be one with the new propositions she's submitted over the centuries." Yellow then haphazardly shrugged, "And she's been doing a good job at it too, in submitting well worded and presentable submission forms."
"Yellow." Blue spoke with a tone of warning while her brow furrowed down in disapproval, "What about White…or even me!? I have to act as the arbitrator of the law as well as follow the laws that White has set down for us to follow! I can't just ignore what I saw on that planet when I met that Citrine gem of yours!"
"I'm actually surprised you didn't do anything at all at the time when you went to that planet. I almost thought I'd have to call you up to have you cease from doing anything yet." Yellow Diamond remarked with amusement, "Were you that angry at the time?"
With a look like she was caught red handed, wide eyes and a nervous look, Blue Diamond palmed her fingers into each other, "I mean-"
"You even used Pink's Zoo as the means to transport yourself to that planet." Yellow Diamond added with some measure of amusement at Blue's wilting expression of embarrassment. "Face it Blue, you went off many protocols, and went off without thinking."
"Alright!" Blue exclaimed with her hand raised in surrender, before soothing herself back down to speaking clearly with Yellow, "But Yellow, what about White? How has she let all this go on?"
"Mmh.." Yellow Diamond hummed with a sideways look, before making an annoyed expression, "I've wondered that myself, but I've always chalked it up to that canny and annoying thing she does where she somehow already knows my activities without my express need to tell her."
"...right…" Blue Diamond agreed with an uncomfortable look, before speaking once more, "But we've gotten off track!"
"Right." Yellow diamond said in agreement as she reached forward to gently shove one of the dataslates towards Blue, "Here, this is the formula that you'll be needing to start with."
Accepting the datapad to inspect the formulas, Blue Diamond used her index finger to scroll through the data before frowning a bit. "...Yellow…" she cautiously spoke as she continued to scroll, and landed right at a component that was part of making Yellow's Citrine Commander. With a slow look up and slowly lowering the dataslate down, Blue Diamond looked at Yellow Diamond with a fearful gaze, "Does…Does White know what you have done? This…this…this can not be all true!" she hush-yelled.
With a scoff, Yellow Diamond made a flippant gesture with her hand while her arms were crossed, "Blue, you're talking about what, I'm sure she knows. In fact, I'm sure she knows that I know that she knows. White has always been like that ever since I've known her!"
Cautiously looking back down at the dataslate she had put down, Blue Diamond spoke with a wide eyed look, "Yellow, I don't think we can even call that thing of yours a perfect Citrine gem! You put a part of yourself into the makings of a citrine rich planet…and by all rights, her gem is a Citrine gem, but…" she tried to find her words after finding out what percentage else was in the commander's gem.
While indeed it was ninety nine point nine nine nine percentage ratio of citrine in the gem, a tiny miniscule fraction of it contained a microscopic piece of Yellow diamond's own gem, not essence like most other gems were made.
"What would our courts think if this were made public!" Blue Diamond questioned with her continued wide eyed shocked look, "This cannot bode well at all if this were to ever get out that a Citrine Quartz commander has part of her gem a microscopic piece of you in her! The courts would split and fracture! Think of the fallout Yellow!"
With a frown, Yellow stared back at Blue, undeterred, "Blue, I believe you forget who and what we are. We are the ultimate authority. If anything, it will only help us weed out the dissenters more, paving the way for the more loyal gems to be made in our courts. It's a win-win in my eyes." she explained in a blase tone.
"...I dearly hope you are right about White, Yellow." Blue diamond spoke after thinking for a bit, and looked uncertain down at the dataslates with newfound light of what Yellow Diamond had made.
As Yellow was about to open her mouth to speak, the door to the room they were in, chimed, signaling that their pearls had something urgent for them; Both diamonds looked at each in surprise, before Yellow diamond stood up to walk over to the door to have it opened.
With an audible hiss of the door opening, Yellow Diamond looked down impatiently at the two Pearls of the respective Diamonds, "What is it Pearls, what is so urgent?" she questioned, while behind her, Blue calmly stood up and waited to see what business the pearls had in interrupting the Diamonds.
Yellow Pearl, with a shocked face, spoke with disbelief in her tone, "My Diamond." She and Blue Pearl saluted first respectfully, before Yellow Pearl continued speaking, "Planet Cadmium and its Sol system has been attacked!" she yelled.
While Blue glared in the background at the mention of an attack, Yellow looked annoyed with a sneer, "another rebellion again?" she sighed.
"No." Blue Pearl spoke calmly, surprising both Yellow diamond and Blue Diamond that it was not another rebellion, "The Planetary Garnet governess had detailed was organics from the Dagon sector."
Silence fell between the Diamonds, with Yellow Diamond looking over at Blue Diamond, "Didn't we survey the planets in that sector over ten thousand years ago?" she questioned her fellow Diamond, who nodded with a confused look, "The organics on one of those planets were primitive at best, barely anything of note other than the rich minerals the planets had available!" she tried to reason with herself of how organics could advance within the timeframe of more than ten thousand years.
After several seconds passed with silence between the Diamonds in digesting the information, Yellow Diamond scowled as she marched off, "We'll continue this discussion another time, Blue, I need to mobilize all my generals and commanders!" she hollered back as she disappeared from sight along with her pearl.
"My diamond?" Blue Pearl spoke in questioning as she politely stayed outside the room while her Diamond stood beside her stone table.
Blue Diamond looked over at her Pearl, "I'm fine Pearl, please leave, I have some matters to deal with. Have my council and all of my governors be at the ready." she orders strictly, while shuffling over to the table to pick up the dataslates to conceal into her gem. Blue Pearl saluted her Diamond before rushing off to do as ordered.