Yellow Palace

The entire palace of Yellow Diamond was locked down just short a few hours ago, the whole court of the Yellow Diamond Matriarch was locked in their own private quarters; outside each door of the rooms were Yellow Diamond's own Carnelian Arbites, their top priority to keep the entire sector of the palace under lockdown and not let any upper court gem from out of their spaces.

Many Yellow upper Court gems were confused as to what was happening, as were everyone else as a matter of fact.

Inside two of the living quarters, two of the gems from the Yellow Court conversed with each other through a video call through their holopads, Yellow Morganite and Yellow Beryl.

Morganite had a concerned look on her face as she looked back at Beryl through their two way video call, "I don't think I've ever seen our Diamond that livid since-"

"Pink Diamond's shattering, yes I know." Beryl spoke back while cutting off Yellow Morganite from speaking what they already remember and know about, she herself had her own concerned look as she sat in her chair, while on the other end of the call, Morganite too was sitting in what looked like her own style of furbished decor and lounging chair.

Morganite frowned a bit on her part as she looked to the side in thought, before looking back at Beryl through the video call, "You don't think Yellow Aquamarine might've finally gone through in her attempt at Citrine's life, do you?" she asked with a wide eyed look.

Beryl clicked her teeth in annoyance at the thought, Yellow Aquamarine and a good portion of about a quarter of their Diamond's court were vocal objectors to Commander Citrine's innovative ideas, many of which have been put into practice for test runs; already there were quite a few ideas that have stayed in use while a few were put back until further notice

One of the test runs that had succeeded, to an extent, was the dissolution of segregation between the Cabochon and Faceted gems; the 'to the extent' part was there was enough evidence to support the desegregation of the two types of cut gems amongst the solder gems, but amongst the upper levels of command there was some to little pushback, but it didn't hinder the campaigns that Citrine had completed through her five hundred years after the Rose Rebellion.

Yellow Diamond and her court, at its core, had the responsibility of being the bulwark of the Diamond Empire military, and with the resource shortage that had debilitated the empire to such a degree, not many could complain when the innovative ideas helped in some form or matter to pick the empire back up from its crutches and move it steadily forward.

The only problem however was plenty of the idea that Citrine had pushed for went in the face of what the gem society was and what the Diamond Authority stood for. Perfection.

The only problem is, the Rose Rebellion marred that perfection and now they were steadily recovering from the loss of loyal gems; Era 2 gems would never match their predecessor era 1 gems, but in the eyes of Citrine and to an extent her Diamond, it all came down to successful results in these trying times.

Especially when there were 'rebellions' popping up every now and then, some were actual while others were…staged.

Finishing her thoughts on the matter, Yellow Beryl finally spoke up as she sat back while idly scratching her chin, "I wouldn't put it past her to be the root cause of our Diamond's anger." she spoke with a furrowed brow.

Morganite let out an annoyed scoff as she slipped herself into a more comfortable position on her cushioned seat, "Yeah, but what could she have done though? We're all on homeworld!"

Beryl resisted the urge to roll her eyes and settled with standing up to begin pacing around in her quarters, "Whatever it was that she might have done, if she is the guilty one that caused this mess, she had to have a collaborator, at the very least. No way she'd go down without dragging someone down with her." she surmised with a dry tone.


Blue Palace

Using the tips of her fingers to massage her head, Blue Diamond was now spending a moment's time to relax her mind from all the responsibilities she was in charge of; so many colonies of her's were in dire need of relocation of building supplies and others were well and truly done.

Blue Diamond was currently sitting in her private quarters, a lavishly decorated room with the same theme of an underwater motif going for her palace. On one side of the room was a large balcony that overlooked the capital, in the distance the other palaces were visible with White Diamond's head towering over in the midst of it all.

Opening her eyes that were once closed from her attempt at relaxing her mind, Blue diamond looked up towards the ceiling while the soft singing of a built in gem structure filled her room with a musical ambiance. She had completed so much work, and yet she was far from finished, in fact she had barely scratched the surface.

So much reorganization was needed, allocation of gems, allocation of ships, shipments of vast leftover resources left on finished on long finished colonies; Her administrator Azurite was now useless and incompetent, the trust broken from the mishandling of the responsibility thrust upon the high ranking gem.

The gems that were on completed colonies under her authority had submitted requests to move on to and volunteer to any new project underway, but with how long she had left from the public eye of her court to mourn her loss of Pink Diamond, plenty of those requests went unanswered.

And if that wasn't bad enough, it didn't take long for more than a century for nearly half of her court to mishandle the gem resources.

Why couldn't her court behave as well as Pink's court?

"Oh Pink…" Blue Diamond somberly said as she leaned up from her cushioned lounge, and ceased massaging her head to relax her arms onto her knees as she sat up on her lounge. The Blue Matriarch took a soft glance in the direction of her large balcony to see the Pink Palace in the distance. It was a miracle that her court was still able to function without her, but then again, she never got the chance to own any colonies other than the failed one that ended with disastrous results.

That meant the Pink court wasn't as large as the other courts, and wasn't as stretch thin, but it was a credit of remarkableness in Blue's eyes that the pink court didn't collapse overnight. At least Pink's court was able to function long after their diamond's shattering, Blue somberly smiled at the thought. She was sure Pink would be proud of her court that they didn't end up like hers.

With that thought out of the way for later, as it wouldn't do to allow herself into another spiraling mode of depression over Pink's shattering, Blue Diamond glanced elsewhere through the balcony as she continued to sit on her lounge. Elsewhere in the distance was the Yellow Palace, and most prominently a glaring large hole that was no doubt caused by Yellow.

Something must have happened, something dire, something very important that had to cause Yellow to allow herself to react so violently. Unlike her and Pink, Yellow was always the more mature one in hiding her true feelings and not often expressing her visible emotions on her sleeves.

Though, she supposed that is what Yellow saw her duty as, a stalwart Diamond that is the oldest, second only to White Diamond.

Blue had once asked what it was like when it was just them two before she finally emerged on her birth planet, and the best explanation she got from Yellow was that it was a slow start but after a while things started to pick up once she herself emerged to pick up the task of conquering the galaxy under the Diamond Authority.

She was still waiting on getting the call back from Yellow after she sent a message to see what had caused so much distress that would warrant the wrath of her powers, as well as leveling a good chunk of her own palace…who knows how long that would take to rebuild…a few decades at least, to a few centuries at most…

Yellow was very meticulous after all compared to her when it came to having her colonies built and organized in a certain fashion, though that's not saying much compared to White's colonies; though last she checked, White hasn't exactly went out of her way to make any more colonies under her court, which left her and Yellow to pick up the slack.

White must either be taking it harder than she was, or something else.

"My Diamond." Blue Pearl spoke softly as her pearl stood not far away beside the lounge she sat on, said pearl looked up while holding a holopad of hers while Blue Diamond glanced down over at her Pearl with an an expectant look, "Yellow Diamond is now calling back in response to your request, would you like me to patch her in through your Diamond comms?" she asked.

Blue Diamond let out a soft sigh before giving a nod and answering with a 'yes'.

Without any further need to be told otherwise, Blue Pearl walked over to the nearby low table and pressed a few buttons on the leg of it, before promptly afterwards a holoscreen popped up above the low table that was in front of Blue's cushioned lounge.

Already Blue could hear the sure tale sounds of heavy construction on the other end of the call, and that's not to say about the peeved look on Yellow's face. Lifting a brow up in curiosity, Blue sawa rare sight of Yellow having her hair a bit disheveled and a stray strand of her hair falling over down against her forehead.

Perhaps things were more troubling on Yellow's end than Blue realized, "Yellow…" she breathed out, while expressing her worry for her fellow Diamond's appearance, "Are things that really dire over there?" Blue asked.

Yellow Diamond let out an annoyed grunt as she sat in a chair of her own on her side of the call while her arms were crossed, her eyes narrowed in seething anger, "Let's just say I'm dealing with a bit of a mess on my own end." she expressed in a sneer.

Blue placed her hand against her mouth in more worry for her fellow Diamond, "Yellow, you blew out an entire good portion of your own palace, that's more than a bit of a mess!" she spoke in a slight scolding tone, "What is the cause of your distress!?" Blue asked in a pleading manner.

"Rgh…" Yellow Diamond released a growl of anger from out of her throat, before unfolding her arms to slam her fists onto the table in front of her, "Treason! And not just that, unauthorized use of a batch of new experimental gems, attempted assassination of one of my high ranking gems instigated by another, I'd shatter that gem responsible if it weren't for the fact that she still serves a purpose for weeding out other culprits behind the mess that colluded with her!" she yelled with seething fury.

As Yellow Diamond finished her diatribe, she was left breathing quite a bit hard from her yelling, before exhaling calmly and leaned back into the backrest of her chair to palm her forehead, "While I can't say things were running smoothly for the last five hundred years, never would I have thought I'd experience this sort of mess from my own court as well." she bemoaned.

"Hmm…" Blue hummed in agreement to that statement, it was unthinkable that so much corruption and backstabbing existed in their own courts, but she supposed it was on them for not seeing it. Everything was so simple back then, before the accursed Rose Quartz Rebellion, but now that Era 2 was underway…

It seemed as if everything was coming to a head, it was as if Rose Quartz was the ignition primer…

"Perhaps…" Blue began with an uncertain look on her face as she reached up to combed her fingers through her hair to calm her own nerves, "It is time we cleaned house of our entire courts, this Era 2 has been rife with conflict, and most troubling it has been the cause of high ranking gems of our courts, very rarely have I been able to discern it being the fault of a common foot soldier." she surmised with a furrowed brow of thought.

"Augh…" Yellow groaned in protest as she glared through her fingers as she slid her hand down from her head, the glare wasn't for Blue, but it was most certainly for their growing problem of rebellious gems. "The mere thought of reorganizing our entire courts is giving me conniptions." she complained. "But neither of us had the time to actually reorganize our courts properly once Era 2 had begun."

"Yellow…" Blue began to say as she ceased her action with her hair and placed her palms on her lap as she sat on her lounge, "I have so many leftover resources, and mismanaged colonies, that some overhaul is in dire need for my entire court." she closed her eyes and let out a sigh before opening them back up to look straight back at Yellow through the video call.

"I'm already short of half of my upper court, and with my Azurite part of the problem properly dealt with, I don't even know where to begin once we start cleaning our courts up." Blue explained to her fellow diamond with a look of doubt on her face.

Yellow, for her part, sat back in her chair and steepled her fingers a bit, "Well, once I get the go ahead from White for permission to lock down the entire planet, I'll see about lending you certain schematic of mine that I drew up a few thousand years ago, it might help you create a new administrator that is as competent as my Citrine gem." she said, while making a smirk at the end.

One thing about what Yellow said unsettled Blue, or maybe two things, she wasn't sure which yet. "Wait, you sent a request to White to lockdown the entire planet!?" she asked in surprise while expressing her shock.

"That, or at the very least lockdown the galaxy warp pad as well as cease any and all space ships from making their departure." Yellow replied back in a flippant manner, before sighing to herself as she sat back up straight to cross her leg over her knee and lean on her armrest with her elbow while resting her cheek against her fist. "If I'm lucky, I'll get a message back in-"

"Greetings!" White Diamond's pearl suddenly greeted the two Diamonds as the video call screens between the two Diamonds now shared the channel with said pearl, who was expressing a wide joyous smile and stock still with her ever present pose. "How have you two been? Good I hope?" the pearl intoned with her gleeful smile.

"White!?" Blue remarked as she jerked back a bit.

"Huh!?" Yellow expressed with wide eyes while jerking her head back a bit in shock.

"Good!~" White Pearl expressed a closed eyed smile, before opening her single eye back up to look at the Diamond through the call, "Yellow, you may proceed with the lockdown." She said without missing a beat.

"Wait, Whi-" Blue began to protest, before she could speak any further, the White Pearl interrupted her with a concentrated stare in her direction.

"~And Blue, It's wonderful to have you back from your little break. Be sure to catch up on all your work, your leftover court definitely needs you after all." The pearl intoned with a stiff smile, before expressing kindly "~ have a wondrous day!~" White Pearl expressed once more with a closed eye smile, before her screen disappeared from the video call.

A minute of silence had gone by between the Diamonds, neither of the two Diamonds could utter a word, as the situation that had transpired had unsettled them a bit. After another good minute had passed, Blue spoke with a hurt look.

"Is that how she saw my mourning for Pink as? A mere break?!" Blue asked with a bit of a hurt expression at how callous White was in naming her grieving over Pink as a simple 'break'.

Yellow replied back with an annoyed look, "I think what's most pressing is that she responded at all to my request, usually it takes forever to get her reply back." she remarked while brooding a bit for a number of reasons pertaining to White Diamond.

After a few moments of silence passed between the Diamonds, Blue spoke with a curious tone, "What was that one thing about earlier of a schematic by the way?"

"Hmph." Yellow made a flippant gesture, "I'll show you later once everything has settled, we can go to the colony where I drafted the gem schematics up from prying eyes." she explained with a cautious look in her eyes.

At that, Blue was even more curious as to what Yellow meant, what sort of schematics prompted Yellow to be so cautious that she needed to have them off from Homeworld.

From that point, the two Diamond Matriarch discussed a few more inconsequential matters, before bidding each other a good day and closed their calls.


White Palace

Standing, or in the wider public eyes of the white court, posing atop the throne of White Diamond, White Pearl smiled primly as she willed the holoscreen away, before she addressed the few Gems present in the throne room as she glanced down with her one eye.

All three members from the council of nine were present, White Sapphire, Forsterite and Nosean, all of them were in attendance awaiting their prompt to speak while standing before the throne in their own way.

White Sapphire, like any other Sapphire, stood patiently with her hands folded in front of her. Forsterite stood to the left of the Sapphire as she occasionally looked into her holo-wrist brace, before standing back at attention. Nosean as usual held an air of nobility about her as she stood ramrod straight while clasping her hands behind her back and head held high.

White Pearl directed her lone eye at Nosean and spoke with the voice of White diamond, "Is something troubling you, Nosean? I can already feel you have the most reservation about what I allowed Yellow Diamond to enact."

Nosean released a small breath as she gathered her thoughts, before making them known to her Diamond, which only made White Pearl chortle a bit. "I don't be so worried, my little white general.~" she replied to the thoughts of her Nosean gem, and made a very wide expressive smile,

"Yellow Knows what she's allowed to do and what not, she is afterall the eldest of the three and the more responsible, she has demonstrated it enough for more than fourteen thousand years afteral~" White Pearl continued to explained on her decision to give Yellow the green light of what she asked for, "Afterall…" the pearl then spoke with her eyes squinted and brimming smiling, "It's not everyday homeworld gets to experience a world wide lockdown, in fact…"

White pearl widened her eyes and looked up in thought, "I do believe this is in fact the first time homeworld has experienced a lockdown…YES!" she exclaimed excitement, "This is just what homeworld needs, a good exercise in authority and who better than my most busy Diamond!?" she remarked with a smile as she looked back down at her three gems of the council she made up.

It was so amusing to see how other gems thought they had any sort of reach beyond their stations, and when you give them an inch, they run a whole mile with it!

White Diamond peered down at her gems through White Pearl, and glanced directly at White Sapphire, "You may speak, you see something, don't you?" she asked with an eager smile, "Go on, say what's bothering your vision~!" she urged with a wide eyed look.

White Sapphire lifted her arms up and tapped her index fingers against each other, "While I was on my way back from visiting the central ball palace, I was very nearly able to cross paths with that Citrine gem of Yellow Diamond…I was able to see her from afar, but when I tried too…"

White Pearl cut the Sapphire off but letting out a melodic laughter, "Oh, I know, and don't you worry your little head and your future vision about that Citrine gem~" the pearl said with a placating expression of glee, "It's best if certain things about that gem are left unsaid until the appropriate time is ready!" she warned with a narrow eyed look down at the sapphire with a pleasant smile.

White Sapphire gently bowed, "As you say, my glimmering Diamond…" she softly spoke back.

White Pearl then turned her one eye to Forsterite, "Afterall, I'm sure you've already gathered up the data about her, yes!?~" she pried from the third gem of the group.

With all the attention on her, Forsterite stood on her toes in excitement, "OH yes, I don't know how, but Yellow Diamond seemed to have put more effort in the making of that gem than she did on her prior two custom gems, if I didn't know any better, I would say she gathered what she learned from before."

Shifting her arm up to display the three gems in question through a hologram, Beryl, morganite and Citrine were soon displayed, forsterite continued to speak with an intrigued tone, "Her methods of incubating an excellent specimen of a gem is remarkable! While there's a certain difference between them all going by classification and-"

"Forsterite, just get to the point." Nosean spoke up with a flat look while looking from the side at her.

"Oh…I did it again…didn't I?" Forsterite remarked with an embarrassed look on her face, before looking up at White Pearl, only to see a pleased expression regardless of her ramblings or interruption by Nosean. Coughing in her fist, Forsterite retracted her arm while dissipating the hologram away and stood straight,

"What I mean to say at the end of my conclusion, Yellow Diamond had made a leap between making her morganite and the new Citrine commander. She isn't wholly a Citrine gem, as something very small, very microscopic that my sensors weren't able to glean from it." Forsterite explained with a look of uncertainty.

"Is she possibly an imperfection of a citrine gem?" Nosean asked with a side eyed look directed at Forsterite, to which said gem replied back to.

"Oh, stars no, haha, not in the slightest, it's almost as if Yellow diamond-" Forsterite spoke while cupping her chin in thought, only to be cut off by White Pearl

"Enough." the white pearl said simply in a soft tone, while directing her attention to her gem analyzer, "You can forward me the details later, it's best that kind of information does not leave this room." she explained with her eyes narrowed in on the forsterite gem.

Nosean stepped forward with a cautious look about her, "Well, if we are speaking of Citrine at all…what should we do about it if she runs into those off-colors beneath the surface? That commander seems to have a penchant for collecting off colors."

At the mention of the off colors, White Pearl made a closed eye smile, "Pink loves surrounding herself with failures, and look how that turned out for her, off playing with her little failures on her planet" Gone was no mention of the use of present tense, but neither of the three gems spoke on it for a glaring reason.

White pearl then slightly opened her eye into a squint with an eager smile, "Let's see how Yellow Diamond's adorable little Citrine gem plays with those failures down there."