Author comments~~~
I hope everyone is doing well in these strange times. I love to here from everyone, and invite comments of all kinds! Please enjoy.
The Warp was corrupted only seconds after White and Onion left the moon base behind. White could tell the Stream had been corrupted and they were headed away from Homeworld and flying to Magnetar.
With Onion riding on her shoulder, White jumped out of the Stream into the Void. Onion had the Warp Whistle under his helmet and between his lips. He blew into it, and another Stream formed around them.
"This can work!" White said to Onion with a confident grin. "Every time Magnetar grabs the Warp Stream, we jump out and make a new one. He can't control them all!"
The direction changed again. They abandoned the Stream for a new one. They repeated the dance multiple times. White knew they were inching closer to Homeworld with each attempt.
Then the newest Stream they activated didn't head for Homeworld at all. The moment it surrounded them in light White could tell it was headed for Magnetar. They jumped out and tried again, with similar results. White acknowledged this wasn't good at all. They lost their edge and were slipping closer to Magnetar with each jump.
Onion tugged at White's cape and pointed outside.
"The Void it is then," White agreed. They left the Stream, and this time, Onion didn't activate a new path for them. They remained floating; Onion clutched to White's cape so he didn't float away. "Alright, we've bought some time at least. Magnetar has control the moment we warp…" she crossed her arms and huffed a sigh.
Onion mirrored her pondering body language with his own arms crossed over his chest.
"We need to get ahead of him again." White said, though had no idea how she would accomplish the task.
A Warp activated behind them, but not from Onion's Whistle. Garnet jumped out of the Stream; the only Gem able to predict where they would be to find them in the Void. "Magnetar knows you're going to Homeworld. That's how he's tracking you," Garnet explained to White. "We need to shake it up. We Warp towards a random world, then we jump out, pick another world, then try Homeworld. Onion follow where I say. Start with planet Tartu 5." she told them.
Onion nodded and blew the Whistle. To White's delight, the Stream they jumped into wasn't pulling them off course. It seemed Garnet's future vision could stay one step ahead of Magnetar. "I thought you didn't want to help?" White asked Garnet as they jumped from Stream to Stream.
"Never said that," Garnet huffed. "I said you couldn't go to Homeworld. Until we are face to face with Magnetar, there is a chance to get onto a new path for the future."
They landed on a Warp pad, one that was familiar to White. They were outside her palace on Homeworld. They had made it, despite Magnetar's attempts to thwart them.
"White Diamond! Thank the stars!" shouted the shrill voice of President Zircon. She raced up to the group. She was more jittery then normal. "The Alloy fleet is headed this way! I've ordered a defensive perimeter around Homeworld but the outer colony ships won't make it in time to offer backup. All our attacks so far haven't worked, and the Alloys can't be shattered or bubbled. Do you think a Diamond corruption blast will work? Please tell me that's why you're here."
"how long until the Alloy Fleet arrive?" White demanded, her focus on the sky.
"Another day, so we still have some time to decide the best course of action!" Zircon said, a forced confidence gracing her face through her anxiety.
"Nah, scratch that," Garnet said. "The Alloys just hyper jumped past the defense forces. We have about 30 seconds."
Zircon made a sound akin to a deflating air tank, and White was sure her physical form would follow suit.
"Very well," White sighed. She put a safe distance between herself and the group. She flipped her cape behind herself and sneered at the shapes in the sky. The Alloy ships were coming into view. She held up both hands towards them. She felt the power pool in her palms. "I'll apologize to Steven later, but it seems a Diamond Blast is what this will take."
She had the largest ship in her sights. Though she didn't have Yellow and Blue to add more power to her attack, she was sure it would do enough damage to stop them. "I guess I'll just never get my memories of the past back," she mused to herself. It was a sacrifice she was willing to make to wipe the Alloys out of Gem Space.
"Stop!" Garnet protested with such urgency that White hesitated.
"I am trying to protect Homeworld, why the interruption?" White snapped.
"It won't work," Garnet said simply.
"A Diamond Blast won't work?" White echoed, not believing such a claim.
"It will, but not on the Alloys. The metal scales on their bodies will reflect the blast. Your attack is going to bounce off them and get thrown back at Homeworld."
That prediction brought White's arms down to her sides, "Then what exactly do you recommend?"
"We evacuate Homeworld," Garnet said.
"W-What?!" Zircon gasped.
"It's out of the question," White snapped, but hesitated as the ships became clearer in the sky. "It would be admitting defeat. We can't lose Homeworld!"
"Losing every Gem here to the Alloy's would be a true loss!" Garnet countered, "Worlds can be won back. Gem lives can't. You can't win against the Alloys, White. We need to retreat."
White's fists trembled; her gaze fixed on Alloy ships that deflected the laser attacks from the Gem defense force.
"But the Warp Pads will draw Gems to the Alloy ships," Zircon whispered.
"Not if Gem's fuse first," Garnet said with a grin. "Organic creatures and Gem's who are fused are invisible to the Alloys in the Warp Stream, but who knows how long that advantage will last. We need to hurry. That ship," Garnet pointed to the head ship as it lowered down towards the ground. The base of the ship smashed high rise buildings and spires, "has Titanium on board."
"Then I'll hold him back, while everyone escapes," White finally conceded.
"You need to go too," Garnet growled. "You can't-"
"I am a Diamond!" White boomed, her voice enough to tremble the ground. Zircon fell to the ground, but Garnet remained unmoving. "I am not meant to run and hide!"
"Magnetar is on that ship too," Garnet said.
White felt her jaw lock. She peeked over at the ship as it hovered just above the ground in what used to be the royal courtyard. The fear she had been suppressing came back all at once, and it was all she could do to refrain from trembling.
"You'll be captured if you face him," Garnet said, gentler then before. "Fuse with me, and we'll Warp back to Earth with the others."
"THAT won't be necessary," White huffed, and turned from Garnet to point at Zircon. "I can get away without fusion but give the order to everyone else so they can Warp away."
"They're looking for you White, you can't escape without hiding. You won't make it back with just Onion's Warp Whistle." Garnet pointed out.
"I have never needed to fuse to solve any of my problems," White huffed. "Diamonds are different than other Gems, we can't, do that."
"Pink fused!" Garnet countered. White winced. She had hoped Garnet wouldn't have recalled that fact. "You can fuse, you are simply scared to. You don't want to be vulnerable to anyone."
White put a stop to the conversation and turned her back on Garnet without another reply, "I will draw their attention by communicating with the ship. First, I'll need a communication's scrambler from the palace, so they can't track my exact location..."
"Mhe mhe," Onion muttered, so quiet White almost didn't hear it. Onion fished into his cheeseburger backpack and pulled out a small Gem tech communication scrambler. White rose an eyebrow but accepted it from him. She would have to ask Steven how his small friend had gotten his hands on so much Gem tech, and how he fit it all in his small strangely shaped bag.
She ran for a side entrance to the palace, ignoring Garnet's distant protests. Once inside, she swiped a communication device and connected it to the scrambler. Now her location was hidden from the Alloys, but she still hesitated to open the communication link to the ship. Behind that metal haul was Magnetar, the creature she had been dreading, even despite not remembering why. No matter what she said to Garnet or the others, she already knew she couldn't fight him.
She hoped Magnetar wouldn't be on the other line as she took a deep breath and opened the com link. "This is White Diamond, matriarch of Gem Kind. I command you to stand down!"
She waited, tense against the archway she stood under as an immediate reply eluded her.
"White Diamond," came a voice through the device. She allowed herself a sigh of relief. The voice didn't belong to Magnetar. She assumed this was Titanium. "We have been searching the galaxy for you. Please relay your location and we'll-"
White spat before he could finish the thought, "Now listen here! You invade my territory, attack my Gems, and now demand my location. Why in all the stars would I give you anything?"
"We know you are missing your memories," Titanium didn't seem put off by her previous hostility, "We can help you restore what you have lost."
"And if I have decided I am better off not knowing?" she demanded.
Heavy footfall marched a floor above her. It was getting closer. Alloys were in her palace, looking for her. She hurried farther into the labyrinth of tunnels away from her pursuers. If they were chasing her, the Gems of Homeworld were ignored.
"You are not in the right mindset to make such a decision." Titanium countered.
"You Alloys have a way with words," White growled at the condescending statement. The ground rumbled and White clung to the wall to stay upright. She glared at the ceiling as debris rained down. They were either dropping small bombs or drilling through her palace to get to her. She snuck out through one of the many trap doors and passed unnoticed through a garden.
Out of the palace, a voice beckoned her. Garnet, of course. White scowled at the fusion, who must have been following her. It seemed the Alloys weren't the only ones who thought less of her abilities.
"The plan changed," Garnet whispered. "We can't get off Homeworld."
White was taken aback. Garnet had been the biggest advocate for the plan to retreat. What had happened to change her mind? White risked a glance behind her. Half of her palace was leveled, the large ship's laser cutting through the walls and rooms with ease. Though disheartening, the sight wasn't the most disturbing thing before her.
A group of Gems, fused as instructed and there for invisible in the Warp Stream, arrive at a Galaxy Warp. They stepped on to escape Homeworld. No glow came to take them away. The group panicked as a smaller Alloy ship approached to chase them down. "No," White watched each Warp Pad fail to activate for anyone, fused or not. Magnetar must have deactivated them all. Garnet was right. They were now trapped.
She pulled the Com device to her lips and hid her growing hysterics with anger. "If your forces continue to assault my Gems, I will assure you never find me, for any reason!"
"Then what are your terms of surrender?" Titanium asked.
White hesitated, the Com buzzing in her hands as she watched more Gem ships arrive to fight back. Each one of her ships were blasted out of the sky by the Alloy forces. Gems ran in all directions, being poofed by massive Alloy soldiers.
"You can't go with them, no matter what," Garnet said. The fusion had removed her glasses, her three multicolored eyes pleading.
White swallowed, never looking away from Garnet as she spoke to Titanium, "Cease your attack on Homeworld, and return the Gems you have captured. If you do that, I will go with you."
"No more games, White." Spoke the cold voice from the communicator. It wasn't Titanium's voice. Even without reliable memories of the Alloy, White recognized Magnetar's distinctive tone. "In exchange for your demands, you will give yourself over?"
"Don't." Garnet whispered.
White closed her eyes, weighing the risks, what would be lost. She straightened her shoulders and stepped out of hiding with her head held high. "I will. You have my word."