Pink Palace
Citrine walked through the halls with Orange Pearl trailing not far behind her, the commander's eyes would occasionally glance at various statues of the late Pink Diamond, no doubt more homages made by the Pink Morganite that boasted her skill to encapture the image of her Diamond; While the silent between Citrine and her Pearl was almost palpable, the commander's thoughts however were a whirlwind.
'Those two definitely seem bereaved of their Diamond, based on their dedication to honoring her memory in their own way.' Citrine thought to herself as she crossed her arms while continuing to walk in the direction of Pink Diamond's room, a deduction on Citrine's part that had led her to the first choice of believing Spinel would go first at the very least. 'The suspicion against Blue Diamond's court is more than likely, as plenty of Blue Diamond's court were there at the time, however that doesn't leave out the possibility of my Diamond's own court, with the idea of shapeshifting up in the air…'
Citrine's facial expression then darkened at the thought of White Diamond of all Diamond Matriarch's to be a possible culprit, 'Pink Sapphire had explicitly stated that White Diamond was an objector of Pink Diamond's behavior, so I can't rule out her as a possible culprit.'
As the commander continued walking through the halls in silence, while keeping her thoughts to herself, she thumbed her chin as her thoughts delved deeper into the personal investigation of hers against the mess that was the Rose Quartz Rebellion. 'From what I have gathered so far of Pink Diamond's character profile thus far, She possessed many ideals that clashed with the Diamond Authority's traditions. …' Citrine mused in her thoughts as she was soon on approach to Pink Diamond's room, Lapis Lazuli was standing just outside the open doorway. 'Too many variables in this conspiracy.' She inwardly grimaced.
Citrine schooled her features as she approached Lapis, who was already aware of her as she gave the commander an easygoing wave, "Hey." she said as she leaned up against the wall next to the opened doorway, and thumbed in the direction of the room. "I think you better address little miss gem in there, she's starting to get a little…well, you'll see when you look inside." Lapis suggested.
Opting to continue this line of thought for another time, Citrine greeted Lapis, "Why, what's wrong?" She asked rhetorically as she walked over and stood within the doorway to see Spinel, now hunched over as she sat on the floor with her back turned towards the doorway, she had her arms wrapped around her knees as she sat with her legs up to her chest while staring out towards the balcony.
"Spinel?" Citrine softly spoke as she walked into the room, said gem ducked her head a bit before turning to glance back at the commander, to which Citrine took note of her new features that marred her face and hair, along with her outfit having changed in contrast to her original form. The gem sniffed a bit while wiping away some leftover tears on her cheeks.
"She's really gone, isn't she?" Spinel asked with a cracked tone of voice as she stared up at Citrine from her position on the floor.
Once Citrine was close enough to Spinel after walking over to her, she bent down at her knees and glanced into Spinel's depressed eyes with a conflicted look of her own, "...Spinel…" Citrine began to say, before sighing a bit.
As she weighed her options of whether she should divulge what she has been doing revolving around the incident of Pink Diamond's shattering, Citrine decided it was for the best to at least help the gem find some closure like the rest of Pink Diamond's court. "There's something you should know, about the subject matter about Pink Diamond's shattering…"
If there was one gem that could help with filling out more of a character profile of what kind of Diamond Pink Diamond was, it'd be Spinel at the very least barring the missing Pearl that accompanied Pink Diamond at her colony.
Spinel sniffled a bit more, before asking, "What about it?" she gritted out in a pained voice, glaring forward at empty space.
Choosing her word carefully, Citrine answered while gauging the gem's facial expressions. "I need your help, in the years I have been afforded this investigation I am doing in my private time, and it revolves heavily around the matter of Pink diamond and the set of events leading up to her supposed shattering." she explained to Spinel with a steady tone.
Glancing back to the side up at Citrine as she rested her chin on her knees as she huddled her legs to her chest while sitting on the floor, Spinel began making a look of skepticism towards the commander. "What do you mean 'supposed'? Yellow Diamond said it herself, Pink was shattered by Rose Quartz."
Citrine expressed her own emotive look of skepticism back at Spinel, "And yet, how come none of her shards were collected, or why was it so simple to shatter a Diamond in of itself from a sword of a Quartz soldier?" she posed the question to Spinel, who switched from skeptical to confused as she mulled over the idea over in her mind. "Too many inconsistencies surround Pink Diamond's shattering, especially with how a rebellion popped up on her first colony world, given the fact her personality isn't that abrasive to her gem compared to the other Diamonds." Citrine added as an afterthought.
"Spinel, if there's anything secret about Pink Diamond you can tell me, like if she had enemies amongst the other courts, or even the Diamonds…" Citrine let the question of hers hang in the air as Spinel's eyes widened in disbelief at what could be implied.
Just as Spinel was about to speak of a few traditionalist gem factions that were from the other Diamond courts, Orange Pearl's dainty footsteps could be heard rushing their way before she shouted, "My Citrine! Look out!" Orange Shouted as she rushed past Citrine and Spinel.
A 'thwip' sound echoed before a destabilizer prong was shot out from the direction of the open balcony of the room, and towards Citrine; Orange Pearl had noticed the odd movement from the edges of the open balcony, and before anything terrible could happen to her Citrine, she rushed into while mentally pulling her shield ready to be pulled out to block whatever or whoever was spying on the conversation between her Citrine and Spinel.
As Pearl slid to block the incoming projectile headed for her commander, the prong impacted into her shield before her expression turned to surprise as the prong broke through her shield and pierced through her body, leaving a hole in her hardlight torso.
With wide eyes of worry, Orange Pearl turned her head as quickly as she could to see if she saved her Citrine from getting pierced from the prong, and as her form began forming yellow circuit lines from the hole pierced through her torso, she smiled to see she was able to slow down the trajectory of the prong projectile; Citrine was able to pull out her Saber in time and block the incoming prong with the flat of her blade.
With a wince on her part as she felt her form fizzle and static from getting pierced through, Orange Pearl found herself falling to the floor while her weapons poofed before finding herself in the arms of her Citrine. "..." Pearl's eyes were wide while her cheeks glowed dark orange, "m-m-m-my Citinre!" she stuttered out, before she couldn't hold her form any longer and poofed.
Citrine
Catching the pearl gem into her palm before it clattered to the floor, the commander looked sharply to the balcony and broke out into a sprint once she caught the tail end of the unidentified would be assailants upon her person; leaning over the banister of the balcony, Citrine glanced around before looking down to see three assailants descend to the vast bottom of the palace, she narrowed her eyes before glancing over her shoulder.
"Lapi-" Citrine began to say, only to be cut off as a blur of blue ran past her and dove into the air before Lapis formed her water wings to propel herself downward.
"On it!" Lapis shouted back as she used her water wings to fly after the descending assailants.
Citrine grumbled a bit to herself, "Was going to ask you to look after-" she was cut off once more mid sentence when a blur of pink ran up and passed her.
"Raagh!" Spinel screamed in anger as she reached out and vaulted over the banister of the baloney, and stretched her arms out as she skydived down after the assailants.
Citrine glanced down at the pearl gem in her hand, before clenching it into her palm and pocketing it into her gem for storage. "Better go follow them to try and help capture at least one of the assailants." The commander griped to herself, before breaking out into a sprint towards the balcony, before vaulting over the banister and descended.
Already as she dive bombed downward, Citrine watched with her own eyes as one of the black garbed assailants that were heading steadily close to the ground, whipped out lava wings and converged them in a conical shell to pierce through the ground, thus creating a hole to the underside of homeworld.
"A yooperlite!?" Citrine said to herself through the rush of wind blowing past her from descending through the air, 'Yellow Diamond just made those…only a high ranking court member could have authorized the use of them…' She thought to herself.
While the rest of the assailant gems followed their leader into the hole she made, Lapis flapped her water wings to fly faster down while Spinel trailed behind; Citrine narrowed her eyes as she angled her body to create less drag and dive bombed faster, while almost passing by Spinel.
Spinel glanced at the commander, and furrowed her brows in confusion before widening in realization and followed suit of narrowing her limbs in.
Homeworld Kindergarten, Underside of Homeworld
From the ceiling above that covered the entirety of what lurked beneath the surface of homeworld, a red dot formed before expanding exponentially, until a drill-like conical set of wings pierced their way through the ceiling of the underside; the yooperlite gem unwrapped her wings and twisted her form around to face the incoming Lapis gem that had chased after her and her fellow cohorts. Her eyes narrowed as her body heated up while burning off the black garb she wore, showing her actual form of red skin and clothes that involved a crop top and a short skirt all in variations of dark orange.
While the Yooperlite's cohorts zoomed past her, the gem herself extended her lava wings to intercept the incoming lapis gem; Lapis herself glared at the gem as she extended her water wings out and clashed them against the Yooperlite's own incoming wing attack. The two separate wings impacted each other, resulting in an explosion of steam that bellowed outwards and swallowed the forms of both gems into the cover of hot mist.
As a red and blue set of glowing wings were visible within the steam, two other sets of two shadows descended through the cloud of steam, before two garbed gems emerged out of the bottom while dragging some of the cloudy steam with them from the momentum of their fall; seconds later, another set of shadowed forms descended through the foggy mess before Citrine's and Spinel's forms exited out of the bottom of the steam cloud next.
While Citrine dive bombed after the other two gems with Spinel trailing after her, her vision was filled with the sight of the massive underground kindergarten that was the various columns of rock and earth, all of which branched in every which direction while still being attach to the chasm below or the ceiling above of the massive cave system of the kindergarten.
Citrine narrowed her eyes as she was on fast approach to the other two gem assailants, before her eyes widened at the sight of what more than likely a set up lying in wait for her to have followed the gems as a fallback plan. Along the many walls of the spindly columns that existed underneath homeworld's surface, many holes made from Era 2 gems existed, many of which were occupied with gems lying in wait as well.
As one, a wave of gem leapt out from their holes and descending after the Citrine Commander, the sheer amount of them all falling after the commander was like a wave of bodies descending out from the holes and towards Citrin many of them were Era 1 Carnelian Quartz soldiers.
'Whoever sanctioned this, they'll wish I shattered them when I'm through with them!' Citrine angrily yelled within her mind as she twisted her body around and reached to pull Spinel past her, to which Spinel took the que and reached out to grab the offered hand before being slingshotted past Citrine by the commander while she herself focus on the incoming wave of Carnelian gem.
"You're only following orders…" Citrine began to softly say to herself through the rush of wind from her falling through the air, she glared at the steadily incoming horde of quartz soldiers gunning for her. The commander reached up to her gem, and from out her citrine gem she pulled out a projectile shooter of sorts, it had a wide barrel with an injector on its trigger. "That Yellow Olivine better knew what she was doing in creating this thing!" she gritted as she pulled on the trigger.
Once she pulled on the trigger, a needle injected into her finger, before pulling out a yellow circuit-like liquid; the weapon in Citrine's hands began to shake until the end of the barrel glowed bright yellow, before suddenly the weapon fired out a torrential yellow beam of yellow static shot out like a conical beam of lightning. The light emitted from the weapon's fire lit up the entire cave system for a few miles, before the light died down followed shortly after several dozens of sounds of pops echoing throughout the underside of homeworld.
Yellow Palace
Within the more private sector of the palace set up for the residential space of Yellow Diamond court for when the gems are present on homeworld to attend matters such as the centennial court review, a massive room was filled with large square yellow columns that reach the ceiling; between each column were bridges and walkways to connect the various residential private housings for the gem of the upper echelons of Yellow Diamond court to conduct their official business while they were tasked to be present on homeworld for the time being.
While some had little to no personal touches placed within or outside of them, the gems that occupied the residential living spaces were no less comfortable in using the gifted space to occupy their time for the stay on Homeworld.
Within one of the private housing spaces, a Hessonite was pacing in front of her desk with her arms crossed; the gem paused in her pacing as she uncrossed her arms to pull out a holopad to check the time and for any new messages. "Tch, I'll be ruined if this does succeed!" She grumbled to herself as her facial expressions were of worry, before calming herself as she schooled her features.
Hessonite was part of the traditionalist faction regarding how gem society would move forward, and in her opinion, a certain Commander had been changing gem society, at least amongst her Diamond's court, toward what most have called Era 2's reformation; The traditionalist wanted gem society to slowly move on from the devastation that was the Rose Quartz rebellion, but the Citrine's commander's methods of moving society forward was too drastic.
She didn't understand why Yellow Diamond lent her ear to that insufferable Citrine Commander many times over, just because she survived the blasted rebel war doesn't mean she is worthy to be lent so much leeway of the suggestions she's given. Hessonite glowered at the empty wall of her office while palming her hips as she tapped her foot in impatience, "It's inconceivable that my Diamond would listen to such a young gem as that commander!"
Hessonite then smirked as she checked the time once more on her holopad, "My forces are probably cleaning up her shards, no way she'd be capable of fighting off such a large force all alone." she presumed to herself.
At the next moment, her doorway dinged of a visitor, prompting Hessonite to reach over to her desk and push a button on it. "Come in!" she hollered out, already expecting a certain visitor to come in that she was expecting.
The doors of her office room opened with a soft hiss, and in the doorway stood Yellow Aquamarine; standing at the full height of an average pearl, Yellow Aquamarine walz in with her arms crossed with an expectant look on her face.
"Ma'am." Hessonite briefly bowed to her superior, before standing back up to face her as the gem walked up to her, before stopping short a few feet away.
Yellow Aquamarine glanced around the room a bit, before looking back at Hessonite, " 'as de deed been done?" she asked in an off accent.
Hessonite's breath hitched a bit, before she nervously smiled at her superior, "I have my entire troops of Carnelians involved, along with the Yooperlite's you provided me, so it shouldn't be too long until the Citrine gem is in shards." the gem general explained.
"Hm." Yellow Aquamarine scoffed as she began pacing around the hessonite with her arms still crossed, all the while her eyes focused forward, "joehst be aware, if dis idea o' yoo's goes sideways, you are to oehndergo memahry wipe, you oehnderstand dis, cahrrect?" she questioned Hessonite with her thick accent slurring some of her words.
Hessonite blinked as she thought of something, before turning to face the gem with a confused look on her face, "But what about your yooperlites? Surely they'd have memories of you giving them orders as well, correct?"
Yellow Aquamarine smirked back at Hessonite, as she paced around the desk with the room, and sat within Hessonite's own chair as if she owned the room herself, "ahh selly yooehng 'essahnite, you wahrry abooeht yooehrself. I already 'ave a plan in mind for de pahssibility o' me yooperlites being captured." she explained with a smug and dark look. "And besides, it's always good to 'ave someone else do your dirty work for you.
Hessonite began to sweat a bit at what possible idea the Yellow Aquamarine had in mind for the yooperlites she gave her to use against the Citrine Commander along with her own Carnelian soldiers. "You…you didn't!"
Yellow Aquamarine smirked a smug expression as she leaned back in her seat while inspecting her nails, "ahh dahn't be so naive, 'essahnite, it's all fahr de sake o' gem society afterall."
Hessonite let out a shuddering breath, before calming herself down, "May the moon goddess guide their souls…" She winced while clenching her eyes.
