Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

"I'm just saying, uh, if you could go somewhere for fun, where would you want to go?" asked the voice of Steven over Connie's phone.

Connie thought as she wriggled into her winter clothes, being sure to step over the tiny forms of Wally (who was cleaning) and Galatea (who was following Wally). "I mean, we already have that 'Meet The Author' event in Empire coming up in a couple weeks. Doesn't that count?"

"No, because those tickets were for your birthday," insisted Steven.

Connie smiled at the memory; it had been a good birthday and when her life allowed her to focus on matters of less-than-world-ending importance, she was increasingly excited about the upcoming Spirit Morph Saga-related event.

Connie hummed to herself, thinking. "I guess we could try and catch another Sour Cream concert. That was really fun before."

She started to wind a scarf around her neck while robonoids continued to busy themselves across the Beach House -- Mom had turned them loose so they could take an inventory in anticipation of a post-New Year cleaning.

It wasn't a tradition but Mom was hoping it'd catch on.

There was an 'ehhh' over the line, Connie's mental image of her boyfriend shrugging, not pleased but too polite to say it. "That was really, really fun, but we did that for our one-month-iversary. I want- Um, I mean-" He coughed nervously over the phone. "What's something else that'd be fun?"

Connie smiled into her phone. He's planning something, she thought, affection radiating off her. January 5th would mark their fourth month as a couple and Steven was clearly trying to arrange something to celebrate the date.

"Dear," called Mom, stepping out from the bathroom/control room. "Are you prepared to venture forth?"

Claptrap, having scaled up to the kitchen counter to inventory the items there, slipped on a napkin and would have toppled noisily to the floor if Mom hadn't saved the bot via metallokinesis.

Gingerly she lowered the robonoid to the floor, her ersatz terminal levitating up from her satchel so she could broadcast commands to the robonoids, probably telling them not to clamber up on the taller furniture. That done, she added, "It's best for the statistical analysis if we can gather our Cluster data at roughly the same time each day, dear."

Connie nodded, a small frown partially hidden behind her scarf. "Hey Steven, I've got to go. Mom and I are making another trip down to check on the Cluster." She looked over herself to make sure she had everything she'd need to bring. She was feeling rushed and therefore a little flustered. "What do I want? To have the world be less in danger."

The words had tumbled out but she couldn’t deny the truth of them, even if they weren’t helping her boyfriend any.

Mom waved at her from the warp pad while Steven seemed at a loss for words. "Sorry, gotta run. TalkToYouLaterLoveYouBye," Connie rambled out and then jogged to the warp pad as she pocketed her phone.

Mom made an odd face as Connie stepped onto the warp crystal. "What did you say to the Steven at the conclusion of your call?" she asked.

Connie blinked. "Just that I'd call him later. Why?"

Mom gave her an inscrutable look and simply shook her head. "No matter. Whenever you are ready, my-" Mom paused, looked up and down the length of the empty (robonoids excepted) Beach House, then said, "Whenever you're ready, my daughter." She grinned warmly.

Connie grinned back. "Alright, Mom."

The two vanished in a column of light.

From up in the rafters sat Lapis, the gem having been prowling around for one of Peridot's hidden packs of sour candies before mother and daughter had finished their lesson in Dot's room and gotten ready to leave. At first she'd stayed quiet on instinct, being up to no good and all. Then she'd thought up a snarky response --Ceiling Lapis is watching you conversate-- and was waiting for someone to spot her so she could deliver it.

By the end, she was eavesdropping just for the sake of eavesdropping.

"Ooh, I bet Pinkie noticed that L-bomb Connie dropped on him even if she didn't." Lapis' grin could be accurately described as 'vulpine' just then. "Also, Dot and Con-con need to stop thinking we don't know about this whole 'mom' and 'daughter' thing," muttered the ceiling gem.

The phone in her pocket chimed. Fishing it out, she saw a text message from Stevie.

* StUn - 02:30pm | Hey Lapis. Do U have a moment 2 talk? Trying 2 think of good ideas for 5th

She was about to text back a response when she spotted a glimpse of plastic behind the join of two supports up in the rafters. Cackling, the gem pounced on her tart prize.

Stepping off the passenger-friendly version of the McFly --Mom still refused to call it the 'Laki-Two Seater' name that Steven had come up with-- Mom removed the safety harnesses from herself and Connie.

"Are you and Lapis going to be free tonight?" asked Connie, already shucking off her winter clothing in the unnaturally warm quarry. If it weren't for the flight over from the barn --and the fact that you came prepared for anything when on a mission-- then she'd have skipped the winter wear entirely.

Cold weather wasn't an issue tunneling down below the Earth's mantle either.

"We planned to spend time atop the water tower together, so nothing immutable," answered Mom. "Why do you ask?"

"Everyone's getting together for the city fireworks display tonight," explained Connie as she stuffed her scarf and jacket into her pack. The two of them started to walk the short distance to the drill/freight elevator that would take them down to the Cluster.

"I see. I had thought, after the debacle that was the previous New Years transition, you and Steven would prefer to share the event without any of gemkind present." Mom's voice was level but her expression was apologetic. "When no invitation from the Universes for a gathering was forthcoming, I informed the others that we should maintain a low profile during the night of the calendar-centric festivities."

Connie shook her head. "It's not like that. I think, after the evacuation and the move back, Steven's family wanted to do something with the rest of the town this year."

"I see. Well, Lapis' and my tentative plans for the evening can be rescheduled so that we can all attend a civil gathering." Mom smiled at her as she said it.

"Oh, I didn't say it would be civil. It involves fireworks and Onion at the same event," countered Connie with a smirk.

"Very witty," complimented Mom, nudging her daughter in the side with her elbow. "I'll be sure Jasper knows to come as well. I will invite Bismuth and P2 also, but I feel like I have a more difficult time anticipating what will come next with those two." She poked a button and the door to the elevator opened.

"I know the feeling," said Garnet.

"YRG!" yelped Mom, the gem leaping nearly two feet in the air. Connie had been preparing to speak when the door opened and just stood there, mouth open, gobsmacked as Garnet leaned against the back of the elevator.

A smirk spread across her magenta features.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?!" barked Mom, all composure forgone.

Connie stepped inside, the girl giving the fusion a meek wave. Garnet gave her a relaxed wave back. Mom glared for a second longer and then followed her daughter in.

Walking calmly toward the front, Garnet pressed the button on the wall. "Same as you: checking on things." This caused the doors to close and the elevator to chug to life.

Connie looked at her mom and shrugged. It was a long ride down and back and a part of her was excited at the new addition... even if Garnet wasn't exactly what Connie would call 'talkative.'

The tension faded from Mom's shoulders. "Very well." Several pairs of metal chopsticks rose from her satchel and she used these to begin to tidy up -- there was company present after all.

The room lurched and with that they were descending.

Connie looked at Garnet as she removed her backpack and stowed it in one of the cubbies built into one wall. "Any plans for New Years?" asked the girl.

"I'll be there for the fireworks," Garnet answered.

Connie shared another look with her mom, the girl thinking for a second before asking, "Is something going to happen tonight?"

Garnet's third eye was fixed on Connie and maybe it was the girl's imagination but it looked like it was straining. Was something making Future-Vision difficult? Could something make Future-Vision difficult? That'd seem like good information to have regardless of whether you were friendly with the seer in question or not.

"We'll see," answered Garnet, her third eye closing. She took a cross-legged seat on the floor. "The path is set now; we can only wait for what comes next." She gave Connie a serene smile that reminded the girl of Sapphire.

"I'm unsure which is more unsettling," observed Mom as she busied herself over at the modest entertainment center in one corner of the elevator, slipping a DVD into the player. "That you know what is coming, or that you don't." The TV crackled as the CPH intro music started to play. "Connie and I are on season four of Camp Pining Hearts. This is the episode where Pierre and-"

Mom was shushed by Garnet... from across the room, a maroon arm stretched over and raised a finger to her lips. "It's rude to spoil the surprise for others," she said.

Last time Connie and Peridot were speechless with surprise. Now, it was from the sheer cheek on display.

Garnet's grin widened and her blue eye shot them a wink.

The atmosphere inside the Cluster's chamber wasn't human-friendly. Fortunately something about the Cluster's development was endothermic so while the air was a soup of exotic gases, the soup was warm rather than scalding hot. This was why Connie needed only a breathing mask so she could step out onto the elevator's landing and join Garnet and Mom.

Correction: to join a dumbstruck Garnet and Mom.

The Cluster wanted to talk to them.

In visits past the Cluster had been surrounded by a flickering haze of hard light features never quite forming. Now, rising up from the crystalline expanse, was a face: ghostly, translucent, indistinct, huge.

"We- I- You are seen," said a surprisingly quiet voice. It was like a titan trying to whisper.

Mom glanced at her ersatz terminal then said out the side of her mouth to Connie and Garnet, "That projection is only soft light, like a hologram. I speculate that the Cluster is trying to form as little as possible in this moment, hence the immaterial projection."

"They- I- We-" The face wavered, dimming almost to invisibility before fading back in. "There are many voices. All are learning. From her. With her. To speak. Together."

"Greetings," called Mom, her voice echoing faintly off the distant walls. "This is Peridot, a Crystal Gem and advocate for the Earth. I am joined by Connie Maheswaran, the daughter of Citrine, and Garnet." When nothing else happened for a second, Mom added, "We see and hear you."

"There are so many here," said the face and for a second the voice reminded Connie of Pink Diamond's. "They want a form. They want to be again. Some would protect the Earth. Some would follow their Diamond. Some would follow their general. Some would follow no one."

There was a flicker and then a thousand phantasmal hands rose up from the Cluster’s mass like a grasping forest.

"All want to be again," said the voice with urgency, the face dissolving as the hands reached out, a legion of hungry ghosts desperate for bodies once more.

Is this it? Is the Cluster going to form? Am I witnessing the last minutes of life on Earth?! quaked Connie, icy fear shooting through her. Eyes wide behind her mask, Connie reached out and took her mom's hand, girl and gem squeezing the other's grip in mutual assurance and fear.

Garnet had her palms together and raised to her mouth, her expression tense. She looked like someone who had bet everything on a gamble and was waiting for the ball to stop bouncing across the roulette wheel. Or perhaps having her hands together like that, the gemstone in each palm touching, was Ruby and Sapphire holding one another just a little bit closer.

Gradually the spectral hands faded away. Gradually, the face reappeared.

"Those willing to help, to protect, to listen to Earth's Diamond, are coming together."

Swaths of the crystalline landscape below flickered, a million-shard chorus of agreement. Each light might have been no brighter than a firefly, but a multitude of that size, in a cavern lined with crystal formations... the effect was breathtaking and it left Connie dazzling at the display.

"We- Me- They will resist forming, will form carefully, will wait until it is possible to be without destroying our home." The projection wavered into invisibility but the million-shard lights flashed and it reappeared, brighter than ever, features starting to form on the previously indistinct face. It was hard to see in the brilliantly-lit cavern but a gem’s face was briefly visible, simultaneously unfamiliar and vaguely reminiscent of the Diamond buried within.

The lights dimmed and Connie tried to blink away the spots in her vision. The face grew hazy and indistinct once more.

"Those who serve other Diamonds, those who care little for the Earth, those who don't want to be a single voice in millions, they must form too. They must be."

More lights danced across the Cluster. Whereas before the sparkles had been in a vast river, brilliantly shining their unity of purpose, here it was motes of light scattered across a vast landscape of shards. They were many, varied, disorganized, but so numerous as to be beyond counting.

"A compromise. A promise. Shards will be found and brought together. Fragments which want to be part of a new whole will be unified. To form again. To form anew. To live as individuals. To find their way."

"To Homeworld." // "To Earth." // "To Home." // "Away." // "Beyond." // "To my role." // "To my friends." // "To space." // "For duty." // "For love." // "For vengeance." // "For myself." // "Get away from me!" // "For silence." // "For peace." // "I miss them." // "For war." // "I just want to be whole again."

A cacophony of voices rose up, loud, clashing, too many to distinguish. It was a wall of noise that left Connie clapping her hands over her ears. The room strobed with light, discordant, disorganized. The face, a thousand voices pouring from it, lost all cohesion and dissolved.

The walls echoed with the clamor until eventually silence reigned. The disorganized sparkles settled down a few seconds later, the vast chamber still as four people (or four million) caught their metaphorical breath.

Slowly the face reformed, vague and translucent.

Garnet took a small step forward, palms together at her chest. "These unified fragments, they would be at peace. Not in agony within themselves like the forced fusions." A breath. "Right?" she asked. Her voice wavered with the question and so too did her form, a moment of anxiety so strong it was more than Garnet could contain.

"Each whole will be made of fragments that choose to be there, that want the same thing in their new form. Whether they find satisfaction in their new life is up to them, is up to the world that receives them."

"The same chance anyone gets," murmured Garnet. She offered a shallow bow of her head and stepped back.

"There are so many here. So many. It will take time. So many fragments to unite. They will wait. They will not form until they are whole. But it will take time."

The face wavered and then suddenly a brilliant rose-tinted glow blazed like a miniature sun within the Cluster, a familiar pink face glaring at them commandingly, fragmented, changed, and yet somehow more complete than before. "You WILL receive the Mended when they are ready. Convey them to the surface. Let them stay or leave. Do this or court disaster beyond reckoning!"

The glare and the glow was sustained for another second and then it faded out, the face disappearing with it.

A full minute passed with no more signs of activity.

“Wow,” said Garnet softly, voicing aloud what everyone was thinking.

"I guess that's everything they wanted to say," said Connie, her voice muffled by her breathing mask.

"I think this gives us quite a bit of, erm, strongly compelling evidence of the state of the Cluster post-Diamond integration," said Mom, wringing her small hands. "As such, we can conclude our survey early and depart. Preferably swiftly."

No one objected and they filed quickly into the elevator, the door closing. A breathable atmosphere began being pumped back in.

Garnet strode quickly across the elevator and collapsed into corner, arms and legs splayed out bonelessly. A sigh became a giggle before ending as a sob. Shaking her head, the fusion reached up with one hand and wiped under each of her eyes in turn. Voice laced with relief bordering on exhaustion, Garnet sighed, "I honestly wasn't sure that was going to work."

Mom and daughter shared a look, the latter adding, "Uh, what?"

A beat and then Connie heard beside her, "You arranged this." Mom's eyes were narrowed, her arms crossed across her chest.

Still too relieved to rise, Garnet only nodded.

Meanwhile, the atmosphere indicator light within the elevator flashed green and Connie was able to remove her breathing mask. A second later there was a shudder and the elevator began to ascend.

"Arranged..." Connie's face scrunched up in thought, mentally reviewing Garnet's behavior over the previous weeks and months. To Mom, she said, "You think she arranged for Pink Diamond to be added to the Cluster?!" A beat and Connie added, "How would that even work? We had Pink Diamond's shards, and the work was mostly done by P2. And you built the original drill to scan the Cluster." Connie rapped on the wall. "Garnet didn't even make the elevator; that was all Bismuth."

Now pacing up and down the length of the boxy elevator, Mom said, "All true, but those actions were taken by us in reaction to a succession of happenings and revelations. For example, we only learned about the true nature of the Cluster when P2 captured Steven. P2 and Amethyst had been loose on Earth, and none of our patrols managed to find them."

"Steven and the wolf came close at one point,” muttered Garnet. “It would have been too early. Lapis too."

Connie's eyes widened as she considered this new take on events.

"Then," continued Mom. "Pearl is convinced to join us under temporary truce, wherein she divulges certain key details about Rose Quartz's agenda. This, in turn, prompts me to seek out a radical and frankly desperate approach to combat the insurmountable monstrosity embedded within the planet. An approach which requires the willing cooperation of P2, a gem who has conveniently remained at large until I receive a less than subtle hint of her whereabouts just as the gem in question is desperate for any means to survive the doom of the planet she has been irrevocably stranded on."

"P2 and Amethyst also never linked up with Rose," added Garnet before a Ruby-like chuckle escaped her.

"Yes!" announced Mom in a loud deadpan, her arms flung out. "Because Rose Quartz was in hiding while her double agent of a lieutenant exploited the Crystal Gems' friendship following an ambush where she appeared to turn sides."

Mom stopped pacing and stared at Garnet. Garnet managed to drag herself up into a mostly-upright position, the fusion staring back with a lazy grin on her face. Connie, meanwhile, was having her mind blown repeatedly and was just trying not to gasp herself into unconsciousness.

"You told me your motives for meddling once,” said Mom, “but-”

"Wait, you knew this whole time?!" exclaimed Connie, who made a mental note to go insubstantial if she started to hyperventilate.

Mom shook her head, her expression softening as she looked at her daughter. "I had suspicions following the ambush at the Sanctuary. These suspicions were confirmed following Pearl's departure. However, I was willing to extend a measure of, erm, optimistic watchfulness towards Garnet in case her intentions were benevolent."

"Trust, but verify," added Garnet from the corner.

"Precisely," and Mom nodded in agreement.

Now it was Connie's turn to pace, her surprise-concussed mind whirring back up to speed. She shook her head. "But if she could do all of that, does that mean we're all her puppets? How can free will and individual agency be reconciled with an omniscient seer? Did you manipulate me and Steven at Citrine's Sanctuary? Did you manipulate my mother after the war? Before the war?!" she exclaimed, her voice having grown more than a little panicked by the end of her litany.

Garnet shook her head, that pained look returning to her third eye as she followed Connie's circuit across the room. "The world is too vast for that, the people too complex. I can steer the ship through possible futures but I can't escape the river's flow entirely. Also, there’s you."

"Me?"

"You." Garnet's third eye closed. "You cloud the future. Everything influenced by you carries that haze outward, makes the river ahead difficult to see. I have to stay clear or I lose sight entirely."

Connie let that sink in. "You've been avoiding me for, for months because I'm some kind of precognition counter?" her voice inflecting way, waaay up in disbelief at the end.

"Which is a shame because you're much more pleasant company than the others," said Garnet over a smirk.

Peridot gasped, offended, her arms akimbo. She knew she should be upset but the puzzled look beneath the furrowed brows showed that she was unsure exactly how much.

Blink. Blink-blink. "Um, thank you... I think," said Connie, deeply unsure of, well, everything just then. Then she clicked to something and asked, "But you're here now, riding in a box with me, which means..."

"Which means I'm lost in the fog with no idea what direction the ship is taking now." Garnet rose to a fully upright position, hands resting in her lap. "But I had to see for myself. The victims of the Diamonds' atrocity will have their relief," and she leaned her head back, eyes closing in repose as she said it.

"The corrupted gems?" asked Connie, confused.

"The forced fusions," corrected Mom with a weary sigh. "Those already part of the Cluster will eventually be granted a new existence as Mended. And those prototypes loose on the surface can be captured and integrated into the Cluster to receive the same escape."

“No one should suffer as they have,” said Garnet in a quiet but firm tone.

Silence and then, "And Rose?" asked Connie. "How is all of this going to work with her?"

Garnet opened two of her three eyes and stared at Connie. "We'll see."

The elevator thrummed in the background. Connie breathed, the faint filter smell of recirculated air tickling her nostrils. Reaching up to scratch the tip of her nose, the girl's shoulders relaxed slightly and she said, "Well... at least the Earth isn't going to get destroyed. That's good news."

"Very much so," agreed Mom. Her brows furrowed in thought. "We'll need to make preparations for a steady inflow of new gems once these Mended start to emerge."

Connie nodded and Garnet gave a hum of agreement.

There were more elevator noises and the whine of the air circulators.

Garnet got up and walked across the elevator, settling down in a cross-legged position in front of the television. She poked the power button on the DVD player. "I'd like to watch another," the seer’s voice having an unusually eager tone to it. "Entertainment is much more exciting when I can’t see ahead."

And suddenly I’m an oracle’s spoiler blocker, grumbled a corner of Connie, the concept of being a precognitive blind spot made much less cool when cast in that light.

The silence stretched out, then stretched out further. Mom tapped her foot, her eyes narrowed. "Okay." She padded over to the player then snatched the DVD out of Garnet's fingers -- Connie's mom considering the media center to be her sole domain.

Still a little staggered, Connie came over and collapsed into one of the beanbag chairs, letting the oh-so-familiar strains of the CPH intro music wash over her.

"Asmi should visit," said Garnet, the fusion not taking her eyes off the screen. "Later. I'd like to see them again."

"Sure," said Connie a little vacantly.

Then Mom paused the video and shushed both of them, saying, "I am willing to tolerate a protracted campaign of precognitive meddling, if only barely, given the outcome it has led to. But talking through the Season Four inter-camp competition plot arc is beyond the pale. Maintain a respectful silence or else."

The two were instantly quiet, neither needing Future-Vision to know better than to challenge Peridot on this matter.

Chapter Text

It was a long ride to the surface, the afternoon already waning toward evening when the elevator doors opened on the quarry. Connie was eager to share the news with the others. She was also anxious to get home and change into nicer clothes for tonight's fireworks display with Steven, his family, and the rest of the town.

It was funny how quickly her mind had managed to go from being worried about the destruction of the planet to instead being worried about her New Year's outfit.

It was for that reason that Connie already had her phone out when she emerged from the elevator, ready to text Steven the moment the device reconnected with the local cellular network. And it was for that reason that she saw her phone chime as collectively eighteen texts, missed calls, and voice mails appeared a second later.

From Mom's satchel came a similar noise, her own phone chiming as missed messages poured in. The phone literally flew out of the bag holding it and into her mom's hands.

"I must go," said Garnet. "You'll see me later."

The phone already to her ear and ringing, Connie only gave a distracted nod before the fusion walked around the outside of the boxy elevator and was out of sight.

"Hey Steven, what's-" // "Lapis, it's Peridot. I-" said the pair over one another.

They were cut off when a noise like a roar was broadcast in stereo over each of the phones simultaneously. “Wolf’s going to you right now!” // “GET ON THE WOLF!” said Steven and Lapis over one another.

The calls ended abruptly right after.

Before mom and daughter could do more than stare bewildered at one another, a vortex opened up probably fifty yards away and Wolf rocketed out, the howl of his warp echoing off the walls of the quarry.

Shared look of fearful disbelief ended, the two broke into a run, sprinting for the canine already loping their way. The McFly 2.0 hovered over, acting as a platform for the short technician to climb aboard Wolf's back. As Wolf howled and then sprinted for the open vortex, Connie clung to Wolf's neck, Peridot clung to Connie's middle, and the McFly flew after them as if pulled by an invisible tether.

All four disappeared into the portal a split-second later.

From the lip of the quarry, a maroon figure watched, third-eye open and straining to see through the yellow fog that had yet to clear. Only the faintest of details were visible, the merest outlines of possible futures seen. Garnet spent another twenty seconds looking before closing her third eye with a shake of her head.

She turned and began to sprint across the landscape, powerful bounds eating up the distance.

She'd see more --with two eyes or the one-- once she got closer to the temple.

It was the longest ride through the kaleidoscopic color tunnel of Wolf's that Connie had ever made. Longer even than the transit from Delmarva to her mother's archive somewhere in the Andean mountains. And just as Connie was starting to get used to the colorful chaos around her, she found herself blinking in the bright sunlight as Wolf came to a screeching halt.

It was warm. And humid. Not hot, but balmy. They were on a gem ruin of some kind, a giant stone platform that was cracked and sloping down toward the middle like a house with a terminally uneven foundation. There was a tattered mountain to one side and below she could see an expanse of forest ending in ocean.

Swaths of said forest were actively on fire. Others were soot-blackened and choked with smoke. Still other stretches of former forest were churned up and devastated like an angry giant had thrown a tantrum in their midst.

Roars, barks, and noises stranger still rose up from the savaged landscape below. Connie caught glimpses of foriegn color but mainly she saw the presence of gem monsters marked by the damage they were wrecking on the land below.

Connie tried to count them all and failed, eventually her eyes going unfocused and seeing a landscape being ripped apart.

Mom made a choked noise of disbelief beside her.

There was a flicker of green somewhere out near the water that caught Connie's eye but then she saw Lapis soaring over the forest while a giant blob of water trailed after her. The water stretched out in a long, fat line then dropped, extinguishing a swath of burning foliage. However, the water had been dropped prematurely, missing a section of conflagration because a tornado had spontaneously appeared, sweeping up Lapis, spinning her around, and then hurling the gem with missle-like speed in a random direction.

"Hooray! Connie and Peridot are here!" said Steven from just in front of Connie... which was confusing because her boyfriend was nowhere to be seen.

Whipping her head this way and that, Connie eventually spotted a figure waving at her from a mountain ledge probably fifty feet away and two hundred feet up. She could see the splash of color over one eye that meant Steven was wearing his scouter.

With a bark, Wolf vanished into another portal, the exit somewhere in the forest below to go by the sudden sounds of excited canine roughhousing. Connie, meanwhile, felt Mom grab her shoulder as the McFly 2.0 flew in for them to hop on, a trio of metal rods rising up out of her satchel and positioning themselves around the girl as magical handholds. These were a quick-and-dirty substitute for the full safety harnesses Mom preferred when things were calm.

They soared with metallokinetic urgency up to Steven's ledge.

Beside the teen was a large greenish cube which reflected light with an iridescent sheen. It was the power station from the sky arena that they sometimes used to power gemtech -- usually when Connie wasn't around to do it herself. The block was at the center of a puddle of water and its surface was beaded with moisture so Connie could guess which gem had flown it here and how.

Steven helped Mom and Connie off the McFly, pulling the latter into a brief hug. He had his armor on and his shield strapped to his arm, but there was no force field on the small, metal buckler, something Connie rectified right away.

"Thanks! I'm so glad you guys are here. Things are bananas! So I guess Jasper's alert thing went off because suddenly Miss Lapis is at my house looking for me and then- Oh, hang on." Her boyfriend tapped the side of his scouter and looked out into the distance. "Hey P2. Oh, good work. No, I don't see Miss Lapis --I think she's still dizzy from that tornado-- but I'll tell her when I spot her again."

He lowered his hand from his scouter and turned back to Peridot and Connie, the latter asking, "Steven, what's going on?"

Below there was a larger crash than usual ones filling the aural background. All heads turned and they saw Jasper appearing to ride a corrupted Quartz like a cowboy aboard a bull... if cowboys actively pummeled the bull they were atop. The distracted gem monster collided with a tree that had flames licking its upper branches, the impact hurling Jasper off and into the smouldering forest. A half-second later the warrior had lunged back into view to deliver a crash helmet blow that Connie could hear even half an island away. There was an enormous cloud of colorful smoke, the flicker of a bubble vanishing, and then the Perfect Quartz was spindashing off in search of her next opponent.

"Go Jasper!" cried Steven, hand at his scouter so that the Quartz might have actually heard the broadcast cheer. Then he turned to Connie and Peridot, expression growing serious. "Anyway, something really bad happened here which popped up on Jasper's alarm system but none of the warp pads worked because it turns out they’re all broken so we had to get here by howl-portal, well, except Miss Lapis, and there's a ton of really angry monster-people but there's also people-people on the island and P2 and Bismuth are evacuating them while punching any monster-people that show up and Miss Lapis is trying to put out the fires and Jasper is bubbling the monster-people but we really need more help!"

He was panting by the end of the hurried recounting.

Mom gave Steven a grateful look even if her expression was riddled with concern. "Thank you for that summation of events. The most urgent concern is removing the human populace to a safe distance. I will convene with Bismuth and P2-" She stepped nimbly onto the McFly. "-To ascertain the status of that effort and then formulate my larger strategy accordingly. Connie, Steven, I trust the two of you to employ your best judgement here, but I think you should attempt to help with the containment efforts below while facilitating the group’s coordination when possible. But most of all-" and she glanced about warily, "-be vigilant for ambushes. This descent into bedlam was no accident."

Steven and Connie each nodded, the latter saying, "Understood, Mom. What I don't understand is how this could have escalated so much. How is Rose awake already? Did she airdrop a hundred corrupted gems onto an inhabited island?" She looked around. "Where are we, anyway?"

Suddenly Steven drooped, his hand finding hers and offering a preemptive squeeze of comfort. Mom had hovered a few feet into the air in anticipation of departing and both her expression and her altitude fell slightly at the question. With apologetic eyes, Mom said to Connie, "This is- This was the Sanctuary. The rampaging multitude of gems were those previously in repose here." She gave Connie a solemn expression. "I'm sorry."

Connie gasped, eyes wide as she looked at her surroundings anew. The Sanctuary, with it's lotus-topped sanctum and aura of frigid calm, had always been instantly recognizable. Absent those obvious signs her brain had just relegated the whole place to 'random island with gem ruins' and moved on. But now...

Over there, she could see the base of Obsidian's statue, the stone conspicuously dark to match the gem it had been made to honor. A scattering of blue crystal was ejecta from where the warp pad had been before what looked like an avalanche had demolished it. And in the epicenter of the devastation, where the whole platform sloped inward around a spider web of cracks, a building-sized and crumbled column of stone stood. And in its place would have been...

Mother's statue is gone. Her inner sanctum is gone. This place was so peaceful. It helped so many gems for so long. It saved Mother, Lapis, and Jasper from corruption. It helped me save Jasper from a corruption relapse.

A cold chill shot through Connie, her hand crushing Steven’s.

Will I be able to cure corrupted gems without it?!

Connie tried to swallow but there was a heavy lump in her throat. For some reason her eyes were stinging.

A roar like something out of the Cretaceous period echoed across the island, startling Connie, Steven, and Mom. The latter looked like she was going to say more when she frowned, turned, and zipped away with all haste. Halfway to the town situated on the coast Mom tumbled, flung sideways as if she'd been struck by a gale-force wind. However, she kept the McFly beneath her feet the entire time, rolling with the turbulence like a surfing pro riding an intense wave. A moment later she vanished from sight, a bank of smoke from the burning woods obscuring the gem and the small town hugging the coastline.

Steven raised a hand to the side of his scouter but said nothing, allowing his girlfriend a moment longer to mourn.

Rose grinned as they fell. She even laughed, the experience thrilling.

The first few times they had experimented with this means of travel, her Pearl had tried to share in her enthusiasm, or at least feign it. These efforts had quickly given way to alarmed cries and flailing, so now Pearl was held in Rose's arms, the pale gem's face buried in Rose's form as she attempted to block out as much of their transit as possible.

As air rocketed past, the planet's terminator --the line between night and day-- sped by, a reverse sunset appearing as they fell sideways at supersonic speeds. Pearl squirmed slightly in Rose's arm; there may have been a whimper but the noise was lost in the twin roars of wind and angry Scolecite.

Her pet slowed them down as they approached their destination, the column of sideways gravity bending so that they circled overhead twice, three times, then a fourth until they had finally bled off their momentum.

Below was a tropical island, verdant greens and sapphire-blue water shining in the sunlight. Thin curls of smoke rose from the part of the island where humans were living, a few boats visible plying the water below. Mountains jutted out of the island's center and attached to the tallest peak, perhaps two-thirds of the way up, was a platform. In the center of the platform was a circular building topped with a shining yellow roof like a blooming lotus blossom.

The Sanctuary --Her counterpart to Rose's fountain-- was partially shrouded in fast-moving fog, a side-effect of the unnaturally cold air interacting with the warmer tropical climate. Figures of many different colors, some large, some small, milled about on the platform, no doubt enjoying the tranquility of another peaceful day.

Her pet started to descend but Rose reached out, tugging gently on her mane. The pillar of gravity twisted, the three of them 'falling' in a long, slow, sideways circle instead.

"No closer," called out Rose. She knew she was only partially understood -- it was her tone and body language as much as her words that 'spoke' to Scolecite. "If we go much lower we'll enter the sanctuary's aura and then we'd be disarmed."

Pearl raised her head up, twisting around so she could glimpse her surroundings. That glimpse was enough for her, though, and she quickly reburied herself in Rose's embrace.

Scolecite gave a whining mew, pleading for direction (and more healing tears, but she'd get no more of those until later).

"See that building, my pet?" Rose pointed, though there could be no mistaking her target; with the sun shining on it, the inner sanctum glowed like a yellow beacon. "It is a bad building. We hate that building," she said in a firm voice. Shouting would only confuse her pet so she let the venom in her words convey her feelings instead.

Her pet growled. There was no shortage of anger in Scolecite and it was a trivial thing for Rose to direct it. That the lotus building was the same color as her gemstone probably helped as well.

Savoring the anticipation for just a moment, Rose's mouth curled into a feral grin. "Destroy it."

The air rippled as a column of gravity orders of magnitude stronger than anything found on Earth crashed into the sanctuary. The blow was poorly aimed so it only caused the western half of the building to collapse. Several of the statues were caught in the effect, arms and heads crumbling from the gravitic hammer blow. Several corrupted gems were caught as well, but their bodies were unphased, the creatures merely confused by the sudden disturbance.

One of the sanctum walls caved in, sunlight shining directly on her statue. Stone eyes closed with a serene expression, she looked up with the unworried grace of the content, the safe, the victorious. Rose could even hear her voice.

Rose, please, stand. Come back. All will forgive you, and if they don't, I will speak with them myself. There is a war to be won and everyone needs your help. I need your help.

For a split second the Quartz felt a surge of fear, the impulse to flee far, far away --to put a world, an empire between her and that gem-- was almost overpowering.

With a snarl, Rose forced down the fear, bulled it aside with anger instead. No! You're the terrible one. Not me! You don't get to win, to have everything, and then forgive!

Rose mastered her expression, a look of steely disdain sliding into place. In the calm that she forced over herself, she realized she was making a tactical blunder. Reaching out, she pulled just hard enough on Scolecite's mane for it to sting. Her pet snarled then whimpered, saddened more by the reprimand than the token amount of pain.

"Don't destroy the platform itself. Don't harm the gems down there. They are our allies." Even if they don't realize it. She pointed to the warp pad, the blue crystal unmistakable. "Take something heavy. Destroy that crystal."

There was a crackling sound and an enormous boulder 'fell' from the mountain’s side, tumbled sideways through the air before it stopped directly over the warp pad.

Then it dropped, landing with a mighty crash, destroying the warp pad and as well as the raised warp platform itself. All of it crumbled away to tumble down the mountain slope in an avalanche of debris.

Her pet saw Rose's feral smile and crooned, happy at her pleased expression.

"Again. Bigger," commanded Rose.

The air quivered and then a section of the mountain was ripped away, more debris cascading down. A section of stone larger than a dropship 'fell' into the air above the sanctuary.

"Now," and Rose's voice was smooth as silk. "Drop it there," and she pointed at her.

The crash was perhaps the most satisfying noise Rose had ever heard.

The structure was in ruin, maybe a third of the rounded wall still standing. The statue was bowled aside, scattered in fragments across the ruined inner sanctum. The multitude of corrupted gems below, beyond ready counting, fled to the sanctuary edges. Still, the aura of calm held and so they remained, unwilling to depart their oasis.

"Again!" barked Rose. "Bigger!"

Pearl, still clinging to her form, whimpered and Rose idly stroked her scalp, lightly running a finger over the oblong gemstone in the process.

The mountain groaned and then another avalanche cascaded down its slope as a large part of the peak’s summit was wrenched free. The gravitic fields were column-shaped which was why a horizontal pillar of stone flowed into the air. Rose's pet rotated it so that it was oriented vertically and then dropped it.

The inner sanctum was obliterated, no structure, no statues, no her remaining, the column lodging deep in the platform and leaning drunkenly. The top half of the pillar broke free and collapsed into a heap of rubble.

The aura of cold vanished, the perpetual breeze driven by it dying away. Then one of the figures, a corrupted Quartz, growled. A group of Rubies snarled and barked, confused and bellicose. One voice, then ten, then a hundred and more rose up.

There were other warp pads nearby. Her Pearl had scouted them out during their long time hidden in the sanctuary’s shadow. Those would have to go too.

"Onward. Circle the island," commanded Rose.

Even with the warp pads destroyed, the Crystal Gems would come here. They would find a way. The point wasn't to stop them. No, merely to delay them, to spread them out, to keep them distracted. Rose needed time to act and this-

A wrathful multitude stormed down the mountain's side, many leaving the sanctuary grounds for the first time in millennia. Already the first trees below were being toppled, the first fires starting. Gale-force winds howled as a Jade conjured a localized tornado and sent it careening through the greenery.

-Would buy her most of the time she needed.

She spotted the next warp pad, located on the far side of the island. Her pet destroyed it with glee, crooning as she patted its flank affectionately.

More than just the Crystal Gems would be coming here, though. And then, well, it was a matter of luck. A matter of how badly things spiraled out of control. Perhaps when Rose did confront the Crystal Gems directly, there'd be one or two less to contend with.

Another warp pad was destroyed, the last in this region. Rose would have her pet make one more pass just to be sure and then they would be away, speeding for her sister's temple and the prize within.

She was hot.

The little ones fed. That kept her from growing too hot.

She was fed so she did not need to feed; the little ones were ignored. She was not too hot. She was not hungry.

She slept.

No food. Her many eyes snapped open.

The little ones had decorated. There were vines woven into elaborate braids. There were symbols painted along stones. There were patterns carefully swept into the sand and gravel.

The little ones had decorated while she slept. Several little ones were decorating now, beautifying a place already beautiful.

She consumed the little ones. They tried to flee but she found them and consumed them.

Still no food came.

She hunted. The geode island had many little ones. Some hid. Some fled. She found them all. She consumed them.

Only their decorations remained.

Still no food came.

The Soothing One had spoken to her many times. She didn't understand words but one had been repeated enough that she had seized it.

Umbra.

No food came for Umbra. No food meant no rest.

Umbra was restless. Umbra was hot. Umbra was hungry.

The Soothing One would give Umbra rest.

Flickering across the water, Umbra moved swiftly, drawn to the Soothing One.

Chapter Text

Dusk was falling but Rose and her Pearl worked efficiently by the light of their gemstones. They were gardening, though each were planting a very different kind of seed. Rose wept as she worked, her soldiers growing quickly as they were watered.

She'd spared a little of her tears for her pet: after destroying the sanctuary and then flying them halfway around the world, she'd earned her moment of relief. That was why Scolecite, looking slightly less monstrous, was lying in the sand nearby, eyes closed in a dreamless sleep. It was just as well: Rose and Pearl would be busy with what came next and her pet would get confused and anxious without Rose there to guide her.

"I am done, my Rose," said Pearl, her voice a prim whisper.

Despite being a flawless servant, it was clear to Rose that her Pearl was apprehensive being here.

Rose continued for another minute, finishing her row of planting and then smiled at Pearl, the pale gem subconsciously smiling back. "Good work." She stood, brushing the dirt from her form as the older of her soldiers pulled themselves up from their sandy beds and shambled forward. "Let's go pay a visit," she said in a wry tone.

From the cliff face, her sister's fusion looked down on them, a pair of stone hands cradled around the temple entrance that was their destination. But first, they had to get through the house that was in their way.

"Which room were the shards in again?" asked Rose. She knew, her Pearl had told her clearly days ago, but the banter helped her ignore the fear twisting in her form.

"Pink Diamond's shards are being kept in Jasper's room of the temple, my Rose," answered Pearl, the gem's steps so light as to be practically soundless.

Meanwhile, row after row of plant soldiers sprouted and trailed after them, each planted and watered personally by Rose. While she'd had many options, Rose had gone for a sentimental favorite for these soldiers: animated brambles.

Before she'd allowed her pet to rest, she'd ordered Scolecite to try and rip the front of the building free and hurl it into the bay. She knew from her Pearl that the house had been reinforced by Bismuth so she hadn't been surprised when the gravitic yank had sent patio furniture and railing flying but little else. Still, it was foolish not to at least attempt the easy solution first.

"And your communication jammer has sufficient battery life?" Another unnecessary question, but Pearl wasn't the only one struggling to appear calm here, at her sister's very doorstep.

Her Pearl had been unable to build another device to grant them warp network access. However, at Rose's direction, she'd built a machine that would prevent signals from escaping the dwelling, including alarms. It couldn't run forever, but it should last long enough for what they needed to do.

Walking lightly ahead, Pearl crouched down and examined the cylindrical hodgepodge of wires and panels. A second later she stood, offering a modest bow in her owner's direction. "The battery life is holding, my Rose. They shouldn't be alerted."

Rose paused at the bottom of the stairs, excitement and dread churning in her form. She ordered her multitude of plant soldiers to remain, then gestured for Pearl to follow. She ascended the stairs appearing calm and confident.

Through one of the windows she could see the mess made by her pet's failed attempt at breaching the house. She could also see a robonoid made of scrap parts peering at her while another, further back, hammered a red button built into the base of the kitchen divider. These were Peridot's minions and they were no doubt attempting to signal an alarm.

Rose grinned at the one staring at her. "Open up, little one," she said in a sweet voice.

The robonoid --purple, with what looked like a bowler hat balanced atop its chassis-- reached out to toggle something hidden below the lip of the window but otherwise remained where it was, glaring at her with metallic coldness.

A denial and a challenge all in one wordless act.

Rose's sweet smile didn't waver in the slightest. "Then I'll just have to let myself in," she cooed. Meanwhile, her Pearl was busy summoning planter boxes from her gemstone and arranging a line of them where the porch met the building.

Rose held the robonoid's gaze for a moment longer before she moved forward, crouching over the rightmost planter. In each, neatly and evenly arranged because her Pearl had done the work, there were five depressions. Rose wept, using her cupped hands to help direct the tears onto each of the plant clippings buried within. Within seconds thin tendrils began to emerge. The creepers, each grown from a clipping of a particularly tenacious jungle vine, sought out the wall of the house and probed for any opening, any crack, any fault in the facade.

A few minutes later the front of the home was overgrown with greenery, the material of the wall making the occasional creak or groan. To Bismuth's credit, Rose’s minions found precious few weak points. However, a vine in front of the very window Rose had been looking through earlier had had particular success. This Rose exploited by watering that plant with more tears.

The vine swelled, growing as thick around as Rose's fist. The wall made more noises of distress and Rose could make out hurried movement through the green-choked window as the robonoids within fled. A line of cracks appeared with a crackling sound, tiny green tendrils poking through in places. The line continued, running first up, then along the top of, then back down the large window. Finally, with a 'crunch' and a spray of building fragments, the window was unseated, falling free of the wall and landing to the porch with a loud crash.

Bunkers could be built to withstand a warship's bombardment. There existed containment cells that could keep titanic forces from escaping. Preventing the outside from getting in or the inside from getting out were common engineering feats... but very few fortifications were designed to resist pressure from within the walls themselves.

Several vines were growing around the unseated window. Still others were being opportunistic and extending into the house itself. Rather than climb through the opening herself, however, Rose called down to her soldiers below. "Seize the building's inside for me," she commanded, her brambles filing up the stairs, jostling one another in their eagerness.

Pearl waited patiently while Rose watched, waiting for what she was almost certain would come next. It was after her fifth bramble had climbed through the opening and was moving through the kitchen that her caution was vindicated -- great gouts of flames erupted from a seemingly innocent oven, burning the soldier to ash and igniting several others.

A minute later foam was being sprayed from the ceiling. This helped put out the spreading flames but then her soldiers began to writhe and wilt as the flame retardant herbicide went to work. Not long after, a mechanism emerged from an outlet, sending a surge of electricity through the liquid coating the floors and surfaces. Another round of flames shot out perhaps a minute later.

Rose sighed, ordering more soldiers into the fray; she could grow as many as she needed, after all. "This is why it is never wise to go first into any building Bismuth has spent even a modest amount of time working on," she observed.

Her sister may have been terrifying in her unstoppability but it took the twisted genius of a gem like Bismuth to make an assault both deadly and tedious.

Jasper stalked through the burning forest, the world reduced to a mission objective and gradations of threat. Animals sometimes ran past. They weren't a threat or an objective so Jasper ignored them save to avoid trampling any. Fire was a threat to Jasper but a small one, at least outside of the worst of the blazes; those would have to be extinguished by Lapis or left to Bismuth.

Jasper heard a noise and was instantly facing it. A pair of Carnelians were playing tug-of-war with a downed tree. Jasper advanced, stepping mindfully so she could approach without giving herself away too soon. Then she lunged forward in a spindash, crashing into and poofing the first enemy before either had even realized she was there.

Distantly, in a corner of her thoughts she kept carefully walled off during a fight, Jasper raged. She wanted to smash, to destroy, to be a whirlwind of devastation. Citrine's legacy had been insulted. Destroying the Sanctuary had been a defilement and direct challenge that Jasper longed to answer in the bluntest way possible.

Behind the rage was something else, something worse: grief. Citrine was gone, a fact which made the things and places associated with her all the more precious.

The grief was there. It was a part of Jasper so it was patient: it would be waiting for after the mission, after she’d left on a solo patrol, to emerge. Then it would challenge Jasper. Then it would need to be released or repressed.

The rage was also part of Jasper. It too would wait. Control, awareness, power, restraint: these were the facets of Jasper that reigned during missions.

Jasper grabbed the downed tree and swung it, surprising the remaining Carnelian with the reach of the attack. Two more blows and the tree broke, but she was able to leap through the ruins and deliver a finishing blow before her opponent could recover. Both were bubbled and sent away.

With measured haste Jasper continued to stalk through the burning forest. The rage and grief were there but ignored: they weren't relevant to the mission.

Every part of her, though, hoped for another foe soon. Violence, even restrained, mission-sanctioned violence, helped sustain that patience.

Connie stared at where her Mom had vanished, headed on the McFly toward the eastern end of the island to go help evacuate people.

People who were in danger from the army of corrupted gems loosed on the island.

Corrupted gems loosed because her mother's Sanctuary had been obliterated. Obliterated, somehow, by Rose.

It could only be Rose. Somehow Rose Quartz had woken up early and done... done... this. And she might be out there right now. Hiding, waiting, poised to strike from the shadows like the Evil One from Pearl's story.

And it was all Connie's fault. Bismuth's words echoed through Connie's mind even as her eyes stared numbly at the island aflame.

Whatever happens next, after our little break? her memory of Bismuth said. It'll all be your fault. Anything she breaks, any trouble she causes, anyone she hurts: that's going to be your fault. Because you pulled your sword at the Sanctuary and stopped me when I could have ended it. I want to be sure you know that.

She did, or she was starting to with slow-dawning horror. And contemplating it, Connie was trapped. She should do something, plan something, throw her training and magic at the problem to do what she could to undo some of the damage, however little.

But she couldn't look away. Couldn't move. It was her fault and she-

"-onnie. Connie." A gentle voice penetrated the miasma of her self-reproach. She blinked and looked the tiniest bit away, a curly-haired figure just visible in her peripheral vision.

She felt warm fingers lace through her own. "Hey you," he said simply.

Without consciously willing it, Connie felt her lungs inflate like bellows, in then out though her breathing shuddered as she ended with a nascent sob.

"Hey-" Another breath. "Hey you too," she answered, the momentum of her downward spiral momentarily arrested.

"It's a lot," said Steven even as his hand gave hers a comforting squeeze.

Connie nodded, not trusting herself to speak.

Her boyfriend watched her with understanding eyes. He was standing near but he wasn't crowding her. He hadn't tried to tell her it was okay, or that it wasn't her fault, or any other denial of the situation. He'd grounded her with his presence and agreed that the situation was bad.

And Dr. Brooks says I'd make a good therapist.

"Everyone's working to make it better," said Steven, the sun reflecting off his breastplate.

She opened her mouth to reply, to say how it was her mess they were cleaning up, but she stopped. 'Everyone's working to make it better.' Simple. True. She nodded.

"We're going to help make it better too, right?"

Even if it was all her fault --it was-- that didn't exempt her from making it better. If anything, it was the opposite. Simple. True. She licked her dry lips and nodded again.

Steven finally allowed the hint of a smile to rise to his face, a sparkle of excitement appearing in his eyes. "I'd like to make it better with you." A beat. "Together."

He raised his other hand up, holding his phone. A song was queued up and his thumb was hovering over the play button.

Was it fair of her to offload her worries and problems on Steven? What right did she have to have him comforting her on so personal a level as fusion when she was the one who had allowed this calamity to happen in the first place?

"We're destiny partners," he said. Simple. True.

He waggled both the phone and his eyebrows in cheesy invitation.

Connie laughed. It wasn't a loud laugh and her chest still felt tight and her eyes were still stinging but she couldn't deny the disarming charm of her best friend/Light Side coach/boyfriend/destiny partner.

She reached up and tapped the play button on his phone, a chipper mix of electronic notes, acoustic guitar, and drum beats playing. "Together," she agreed.

The two smiled brilliantly at one another as they started to dance, a yellow glow suffusing them soon after.

Asmi stood, smiling, content. They'd come together even before the first guitar notes played --a new record Asmi felt quite proud of-- but they let the song play for a few more bars anyway.

They really liked this song.

The scouter was still in position and, like with the doom chicken fight, Steven's half plate armor had transformed into quarter plate. The weight on their back felt odd and it wasn't until they swept their pack around that they saw that Steven's cheeseburger backpack and Connie's nondescript green pack had become a cheeseburger with extra lettuce, Connie's gear located in the additional layer.

They'd never fused with their packs on at the time so this was a new first.

"Crystal Gem time," they said, drawing their shoulders back. "Serious business," and their mouth formed a small, no-nonsense frown... for about half a second.

Chuckling, Asmi shook their head, unable to suppress their grin. It wasn't all better, it wasn't okay, there were problems and feelings to work through, but right now people needed heroics and daring-do. "Best I go daring-do it," they added with a grin.

The fusion summoned a broad force field angled down and leapt, half-running, half-sliding down the ramp. Another field appeared when they reached the end, then another, the fields behind vanishing seconds later in a snaking chain of yellow that allowed Asmi to sprint joyously down toward the action below.

"Weeehahaha!" they laughed, feeling awesome, running fast, and mentally humming the music from one of the Sonic the Hedgehog games.

Steven hadn't played much from that franchise but he'd been introduced to a lot of the music while helping Sour Cream record his first album. The teen had later sought the tracks out on Tubetube, buying or downloading several to add to his music collection.

With a jump, a flip, and a kick off a field that winked in and out of existence, Asmi reached the stone below, popping up from a tumble and sprinting across the damaged Sanctuary grounds. A flash of blue caught their eye and they tapped the side of their scouter.

"Hey Lapis-"

"Wha- Asmi? Wait, are Dot and Connie here?"

"Yeah. Miss Mommadot is helping in the town right now," they explained. "Anyway, P2 told Steven that there's Kunzite in the harbor that's making the evacuation difficult and that it won't surface long enough for her or Bismuth to poof it."

"Mayday on the waterway. Got it," said the blue gem, banking in the direction of the town. "By the way, look out because there’s a Jade flying around trying to blow people to Oz. And if you see anything pink, stab first, ask questions later."

"Copy," answered Asmi.

Reaching the lip of the sanctuary grounds Asmi felt a frission of fear but the surge of excitement was a unanimous vote of 'go for it.' Which was why the fusion reached the edge of the cliff over a staggering drop and... leapt into space.

The air sped past the fusion as they dropped, the mountain slope and smoky forest rising up to meet them. They raised their shield overhead as if they were using it like a zipline, their free hand reaching up to grab the lip of the force field-lined buckler for added support.

Then, for only the barest moment, they toggled on the inertial dampener.

For a fraction of a second the shield resisted its forward moment as if it were a horizontal rod affixed to the Earth's frame of reference. And like a gymnast on the uneven bars, Asmi swung, their 'down and forward' momentum becoming 'up and forward'. If they hadn't turned off the inertial dampener in time, that forward momentum would have wrenched their arm horribly and spun them around like a worse version of the Funland teacup ride. But since they timed it right they instead used the shield to swing on thin air and launch themselves outward.

Even holding the shield in both hands, it was a lot of strain on their arms, but it was also undeniably cool as heck and they hurtled out over the forest below. With a minute effort the arm strain was distributed throughout their body, an ache diluted almost beyond feeling.

This situation was bad, the emotional pain of what had happened to the Sanctuary was there, waiting to hit Connie like a ton of bricks, but right here, right now, they were descending one superhero swing at a time into a vital Crystal Gem mission, together: they'd be just fine.

"Woohoo!"

Chapter Text

"Don't let humans get hurt, don't shatter any corrupted gems --I was tempted to early on but now I know they're just more gems done wrong by those twisted elites-- and keep getting me material. Even if it's coprolite: I'll make it work. There's a lot of people on this island that need to get the heck off this island, and that means boats. Lots of boats," said Bismuth after she and P2 had arrived for this mission.

While P2 had (probably) saved the Earth when she had worked alongside the Crystal Gems to integrate Pink Diamond with the Cluster, this was her first field mission as a Crystal Gem ally. Even if the fleet Bismuth was constructing was currently trapped in the harbor by a corrupted Kunzite, this whole thing was an exciting and novel experience.

Though not without its frustrations.

The last time P2 had visited a new island on Earth, she and Lapis had gotten mochi. And as P2 had been tractor beaming corrugated sheet metal to Bismuth's hastily-assembled shipyard, she was already wondering what sweet treat awaited her this time.

Most of the humans had been too focused on gathering their belongings and fleeing to answer P2's questions. However, an especially helpful human had mentioned something called an 'ube roll' which P2 was quite interested to sample.

Another human had pointed to a brightly decorated building and said to look there. Unfortunately a particularly large corrupted Tourmaline had rampaged through, flattening that building along with the two buildings adjacent. P2 had paused in her material ferrying to feed the gem in question a hearty serving of superheated plasma.

It not being a Quartz, P2 didn't have to taze the gemstone with a destabilizer to keep it from swiftly reforming, but she did it anyway... for thoroughness.

Then she did it three more times.

Bismuth paused in her work, jogged over, and gave P2 a knowing look. She bubbled the gem after P2 had gotten in one final zap.

"I think you got her, Spots." Bismuth rested a hand on P2's shoulder. Looking over the rubble and noticing the bakery theme, she added, "And so you know, we usually go out for victory snacks after."

P2 glared at the gemstone for another second, then nodded. That did help, actually, the sucrose rage abating.

Bismuth had just returned to her construction efforts when P2 noticed a flash of green in the air, the gem swiveling around to orient her blaster appropriately -- there was a corrupted Jade that had made several strafing runs on the town, it's paper-like body fanned out so that it could glide by and deliver wind-based harassment. However, P2 reconfigured her limb enhancer and waved as Peridot flew in atop a metal platform charmingly called the McFly 2.0.

P2 made a note on her to-do list to learn the meaning of the device’s name and find out whether the 1.0 version could be available to her when she unlocked her own latent metallokinesis.

The humans awaiting evacuation parted as Peridot hopped down from her ride only a few feet away from P2. "Greetings. Connie and I came as soon as we returned to the surface and received the distress communications." Her gaze swept over the town. "How is the evacuation proceeding?" A pause, her mouth thinning into a worried frown. "Have there been any injuries among the locals?"

"Bismuth and I have managed to drive off or poof all of the land-based corrupted gems that have attacked," answered P2 chipperly. It was rare that she got to shoot things as part of her Diamond-mandated duties and the violence was rather fun. "There is an aerial Jade and an aquatic Kunzite that are hampering us, the latter in particular since she threatens any boat that tries to leave the harbor. If only she'd surface long enough, I could-"

"And the humans?" interrupted Peridot, concerned.

P2 paused, mentally backtracking through her report. "Ah, yes. Several humans have suffered injuries, mostly from being trampled by others while fleeing corrupted gems. Others were harmed by windows breaking from the Jade's wind blasts, the flying glass causing some lacerations. However, no humans have been shattered and there are humans who specialize in repairing damaged organics that are treating the injuries." She used her floating fingers to make an arrow pointing to an area where damaged humans were sitting or lying down while awaiting repairs from the technicians moving among them.

That seemed to take some of the tension out of Peridot, the gem nodding appreciatively. "I must commend you both for protecting the local inhabitants; the casualties could have been far worse without you all's timely intervention. And I can see the evacuation fleet is coming together well despite the aforementioned setbacks."

A terminal rose up from Peridot's satchel, the gem tapping quickly at the display. A split-second later P2's visor showed a data packet received alert. "There are surprising, significant, but generally positive updates to share from the Cluster. I've broadcast my preliminary report to you along with the raw data and footage. As soon as the situation permits it, I would very much like your assessment of- Lapis!"

Swiveling around, P2 saw the hydrokinetic flying in their direction. P2 was just about to shout and amplified greetings at the blue gem when a localized tornado appeared, hounding Lapis as she wheeled frantically to evade it.

"It's that Jade again!" shouted P2, the gem firing a quick trio of plasma shots at the aerial opponent.

Unfortunately, and in a display of aerokinesis that was as impressive as it was unpleasant, the Jade used gale-force blast of wind that deflected the projectiles: two flew harmlessly skyward but the third was directed back the way it came. Humans screamed and dove aside while P2 and Peridot dropped to the ground --the McFly 2.0 oriented itself between them and the attacker like a shield-- the plasma blast instead striking and sinking one of the barges bobbing in the harbor.

"Oops," muttered P2, instinctively hoping her supervisor wasn't around to see that.

"Hey!" roared Bismuth, belligerent as she emerged from her ad hoc shipyard. Then she sighted the Jade, noticed Peridot picking herself up off the ground, and gave an excited whoop. "Green! Yes! Just the gem I was hoping to see! Remember that attack I told you about?" Her arms shifted into long, scythe-like appendages. "I'm ready!"

Peridot grabbed one of the grips on the McFly and used it to haul herself upright, confusion giving way swiftly to recognition. She then made a punching gesture that launched Bismuth upward as if punted by White Diamond herself.

P2, scrabbling to her feet, gave an excited giggle as her head whipped around to follow her friend's trajectory.

Overhead, Lapis had pulled a great blob of water from the ocean and hurled it at the Jade. A blast of wind turned a section of the attack into an expanse of mist which the aerokinetic soared into. This proved fortunate because it meant that the corruption exited the cloud exactly in time to see a grinning Bismuth hurtling at her as if fired from a cannon.

A blast of wind attempted to divert the Bismuth missile --Bismissile! and P2 awarded herself a point for the clever wordplay-- but between Peridot's continued metallokinetic thrust and the smith's considerable mass, the grey gem collided with her target with a double scythe swipe and an audible wham!

The Bismissile continued on its ballistic trajectory, a small green cloud in its wake where once a Jade had been. The lack of a falling gemstone probably meant that Bismuth had caught it in her passage. A distant whoop from the smith, heavily distorted by the Doppler effect, was audible.

Peridot made an embarrassed cough. "I think more work is needed on the part of that maneuver associated with landings." A sigh and then she consoled herself with, "At least Bismuths are exceptionally robust."

"That was amazing!" cheered P2, the gem making an excited hop. Then she gasped and her expression brightened immensely. "If I climbed into an escape pod with working inertial dampeners then you could launch me too without risk of harm! No human-built roller coaster would compare! Ooh, let's do that when we get back from the mission!"

Peridot’s eyes lit up and she added, "We could add another margin of shock absorbency by filling the escape pod with impact fluid. That's precisely what it was designed for, after all."

"Yes! Yesyesyes!" squeed P2, pumping her limb enhancers in the air.

For some reason the humans were looking funny at them.

Their revelry was cut short when a shadow fell over them. Swiveling around, the technicians saw a blob of water rising up out of the ocean containing a writhing Kunzite. Then two enormous water hands sprang out of the surf, coming together into a clap with the trapped corruption at the epicenter.

There was a loud boom like distant thunder and a great spray of water that left the air misted with brine. The blue gem dove, tapping something that transformed into a blue bubble before vanishing a second later. Lapis then flitted over, hovering a few feet away.

The blue gem held herself proudly but there was a haunted look to her eyes.

"Nice chump-punt, Dot," quipped Lapis, her expression failing to match her tone.

Peridot frowned, clearly seeing the discrepancy. "Not how I would choose to phrase it, Laz, but I appreciate the sentiment. Thank you." A beat. "Are you-"

"Has Rose popped out of the bushes yet?" Lapis looked around warily, her expression split between worry and anger.

P2 shook her head. "There's been no sign of Rose Quartz or her Pearl."

Lapis' eyes narrowed. "Ruining a hundred or more corruptions' chill while sending us a titanic 'jank you' by stomping Citrine's Sanctuary? Rose may as well have signed her name to all this. But there's another ugly pink boot waiting to drop. She's out there, waiting to pounce."

"I did warn Connie and Steven to similar effect, so I concur that-" but once more Peridot was interrupted.

"Yeah, Asmi was the one who told me about your worm problem." Lapis' eyes scanned the distant treeline suspiciously. "I'm going to go check in on them and OJ, make sure no one's gotten thorned." A wan but genuine smile managed to reach one corner of her mouth. "After that I'm gonna go point and laugh at BM: I always thought she must be good for something and it turns out that something is 'glorified cannon ball.'" She gave a dry chuckle, the half-smile fading. "I'll bring her back so you all can keep the evacuation going."

Before either of them could reply, Lapis was gone, winging over the partially-burning forest.

Both technicians stood there, unsure how to respond. Then the moment passed and the weight of numerous expectant humans staring at them propelled them into motion.

"Right," said Peridot. "Until Bismuth returns, I will assist you in protecting and evacuating the human population." With a large gesture, one of the metal barges was guided through the harbor up to a pier. "I'll speak with the doctors so they can ready their patients for transit. Be ready to convey them as gently as possible to the barge once they are ready."

P2 nodded. "I'll transfer belongings into the hold in the meantime."

The two worked for a comparatively calm minute or two, all while the data from the Cluster report streamed across the inside of P2's visor. The mottled gem was only skimming but her smile got wider and wider as she read. The hope had been for the titanic fusion to coalesce around Pink Diamond, the matriarch imposing restraint on the colossal geoweapon. But having the Cluster self-mediate by releasing incompatible shards from itself --and as new individuals rather than imperfect reconstructions of existing individuals-- was beyond even P2's most optimistic predictions!

For the Cluster, at least. She was still holding out hope for that hug from Yellow Diamond.

This was enormous, a finding beyond ready quantification. It could mark a paradigm shift potentially as large as Peridot's melding of Era-1 and Era-2 technologies.

If perhaps a bit inattentively, P2 hovered luggage out onto the barge, all while composing the outline of a new and exciting report. This was interrupted when something anomalous appeared on the horizon.

It was a dark blur, approaching fast, but there was something about its movement that made P2 blink and shake her head. When her visor was unable to find a motion filter to compensate for the visual distortion, P2 unsummoned the eyewear and squinted, her vision spheres watering from the attempt.

"Peridot?" she called out, voice inflecting up in curiosity. "What is that?"

Her fellow Kindergartner looked over... then gave a loud gasp, a sudden force gripping P2's peripherals and flinging the mottled gem upward while Peridot leapt onto the McFly. The two ascended with gem-jarring force, rocketing to a height of more than two hundred feet in a matter of seconds.

The anomaly was traveling via frequent, short-range teleportation, a flickering movement that was as baffling as it was wondrous. It flickered across the surface of the water, then through the far end of town. That part had been hit hardest by the corrupted gems which was why the humans had been moved to this end instead. However, the few humans in the area began to act erratically following the anomaly's passage.

Limb enhancer raised, floating fingers whirling, P2 was able to fly under her own power, the magic suspending her metal peripherals falling away.

The flickering form sped into the forest. The moment it vanished into the treeline P2 was able to see that it was nearly as tall as the towering greenery. A column of rising heat marked its passage when it wasn't visible through the canopy.

The forest erupted with a cacophony of corrupted roars and shrieks as the anomaly traveled. Following its path ahead, the two technicians saw…

“Asmi! Warn Lapis! Both of you need to flee!” barked Peridot, the gem so frantic she had to pinwheel her arms and reposition the McFly so she didn’t topple into open air. “The Umbralite is inbound!”

… a dark-haired fusion talking with a concerned-looking Lapis, the two standing atop a force field suspended just above the canopy.

Asmi raised a hand to the side of their head and must have broadcast something because Peridot responded back with, “FLEE! The Umbralite-”

The words died in the gem’s mouth, however, when the anomaly --an Umbralite, whatever that was-- leapt through the canopy in its curious flickering fashion on a collision course with Asmi.

And Lapis.

For a split-second, Asmi’s gemstone flared so brilliantly it forced the distant P2 to squint against the glare. Then the force field shattered into fragments with the impact, Asmi bowled into by the Umbralite, anomaly and fusion disappearing below the canopy with a flash of yellow and a roiling wave of heat.

Lapis, meanwhile, had summoned her wings and made it perhaps ten feet up when Asmi was knocked from sight. Despite evading the impact, the gem swooned, wings stilling, her ascent transitioning into a plummet. However, before she dropped below the treeline, the gem seemed to recover, pulling up sharply and gaining height once more.

Wings outspread, fists raised, eyes featureless mirrors, Lapis screamed. "Rrraaaaaah!" It was a bellow of such raw, unthinking rage it seemed too large to be coming from so slight a figure.

The scream seemed to grow louder and louder until P2 realized with a start that the gem's roar was actually being drowned out by the ocean violently heaving, a wave swelling up from it, rising and rising, growing larger and faster with every second.

The tsunami crashed into the undeveloped southern side of the island and swept directly inland with terrible force: trees bowled aside or exploded into fragments, blasted aside, the very bedrock exposed as the wave swept ever further. It passed within a half-mile of Lapis, continuing forward with unstoppable momentum until it crashed into one face of the central mountain itself.

Stone cracked and sloughed off, a muddy series of avalanches racing the retreating water to the devastated landscape below. The noise was so loud it was palpable, and the shock wave of outrushing air was so strong it sent P2 and Peridot tumbling head over gravity connector.

A chaotic couple of seconds later, P2 managed to reorient and right herself, limb enhancer raised overhead as she coasted to a halt. The gem looked this way and that, wide-eyed with shock and a very unhappy sense of self-preservation.

The people in the town were fleeing to the barges, many of their belongings abandoned in their haste. Bismuth had used car motors, industrial equipment, and anything else she could get her hands on to equip each vessel with a crude but effective outboard motor. The first barge was already accelerating with painful slowness for the open harbor.

The island looked to have been bisected, a line of watery ruination running from southern shore to center, a river of muddy debris washing out to sea, turning tide the color of chocolate milk. A section of the central mountain was still crumbling, though with an entire island to cross, the wave had only reached fifty or so feet up. There were more shrieks and roars from the forest, but now with a different tenor: those corruptions hidden below the canopy were panicked, fleeing where previously they had been rampaging.

"Where are you, Rose?!" bellowed Lapis as she surveyed the damage from overhead. "Rrraaah! I'll find you wherever you hide!"

"This-" said Peridot as she hovered over, her voice grim, "-would be the other shoe dropping."

Another wave was already building on the horizon.

The Beach House interior was in ruins. Scorched, exploded, and withered plant matter covered virtually every surface, a few vines or errant brambles still twitching feebly. Fragments of the former fire suppression system were visible amidst the greenery, including a jagged length of pipe that was embedded horizontally through the back of the couch. Appliances were shattered where they hadn't been wrenched entirely out of their housing and hurled down to the sand below. The phone, as well as the support pillar it had been fastened to, were conspicuously missing, the fire-blackened and acid-burned remains of the pillar hinting at their fate.

Alone amidst all the destruction, clashing completely with the ruin surrounding it, standing proud and unscathed... was a coffee table made of silvery material.

The television too had weathered the onslaught with improbable resilience.

Bismuth, probably with help from Peridot if the robonoid-activation mechanism was any indication, had forced Rose's minions to fight for every square foot of entry into the home. Her Pearl had told her of defenses built into the house, no doubt kept inactive until all the Crystal Gems were called away to deal with a calamity half a world away, but even Rose had been surprised by the extent of it.

Still, delaying measures and nothing more.

Rose strode through the ruined living room, bulling debris aside when she encountered it. Pearl, in contrast, stepped lightly, carefully avoiding as much of the mess as was possible.

Rose noticed that not even Pearl's otherwise flawless composure could hide the stricken expression on her face as she entered her house. Rose actually drew a measure of comfort from that, a feeling which helped her appear calm and confident despite being only feet away from her sister's base of operation.

It had been in this very room only a few weeks prior, after all, that her niece had inflicted suffering on Rose like she'd never thought possible.

Rose stopped in front of the temple door. "Pearl?" and she held her upraised palm out to the side. "The shard."

There was a flash of white, the sound of a bubble popping, and then dainty fingers pressed something cool into Rose's hand. It was a pink shard no bigger than her thumbnail. Stealing that from the Diamond Sanctum on the Zoo station had been the culmination of centuries of patience, thousands of casual 'visits' to the bubble-filled chamber finally affording Rose the narrow window of time to swipe it and replace it with an inert but convincing fake.

Holding the gem shard up, there was a glimmer of light across its facets and then the temple door opened, first on a watery expanse dotted with partially submerged ruins, then on a workshop lit by the dim glow of aromatic lava, and finally on a Kindergarten at twilight.

The rooms may have been locked --they probably were given the countermeasures she'd faced so far-- but that didn't matter with Rose's hard-won trump.

If only it had worked for the warp network as well.

Rose rebubbled the shard and gestured it back for Pearl to store once more. It wouldn't do to bring the unbubbled shard into the temple proper: who knew what chaos would follow? She'd already warned Pearl to take extreme care not to pop any bubbled shards they found within.

With a gesture, Rose entered, Pearl only a few soundless paces behind her, the temple door remaining locked open by Diamond-tier override.

Several minutes passed in silence. Then a figure, magenta and with three eyes, walked quietly within.

Garnet surveyed the wreckage with a faintly sad expression. Her third eye opened, looked at a future still shrouded almost beyond reading, and closed once more.

There was a shore along the river of time she sought, steering the vessel of the Present onward in search of it. She was a poor captain just then, blind to all but the vaguest of details. Still, even without Future-Vision, Garnet had a strong suspicion that no one would be entering the broom closet anytime soon.

The fusion stepped inside and closed the door, crouching low, listening and waiting. Then, visible in the dim light filtering through the base of the door, Garnet saw movement in the wall beside her. A small and hidden panel located very low to the ground slid open just wide enough for a rounded figure to peer through.

Garnet raised a finger to her lips. "Shhh," she said oh-so-quietly.

The figure gave a muffled chirp of alarm and tried to slide the panel shut but was being jostled by the others crowding it from behind. With a sharp electronic rebuke, the huddled robonoids retreated back enough for the lead one to hurriedly duck out of sight.

The panel snapped shut and was followed by a click like a latch sliding into place.

Garnet, still crouched, resumed waiting, though this time there was the hint of a smile on her lips.

Chapter Text

Jasper had always been an open book to Rose. So proud. So stubborn. So desperate for someone to occupy the pedestal that she'd once placed her Diamond on.

In some regards it was a pity the Quartz had chosen Rose's sister to be her new object of devotion. Citrine had always been a little lost about what to do with her most steadfast follower once they were off the battlefield. Before the Schism, she'd gone to Rose several times about Jasper: first for advice, later to vent in private. For all her terrible competence, Rose's sister had, in some ways, been embarrassingly out of her depth.

Not that Rose would have wanted a relationship with Jasper either, but it would have been trivial for her to keep someone so painfully eager to be subordinate to her grateful in their devotion.

Jasper wasn't easy to defeat --far from it-- but she was easy to predict, and there was comfort to be had in that. Surprises were dangerous --as her niece showed with terrible regularity-- while even beings as powerful as the Diamonds could be sidestepped if they could be anticipated. It was because of this clarity of insight that Rose found herself relaxing as she and Pearl walked silently through the Quartz' room. A recreation of the Beta Kindergarten? Surrounded on all sides by the exit holes of obviously lesser gems? It was all Rose could do not to laugh when they arrived at Jasper's exit hole and saw yellow bubbles bobbing within.

Then Rose saw the books.

There was an exit hole, nearly horizontal in orientation, being used as a shelf. Roughly a dozen books were placed there and they were an anomaly. A surprise.

Surprises were dangerous.

A glance showed that Pearl was bewildered as well, the pale gem furtively looking at the shelf and then at Rose to gauge her reaction.

"Inspect the bubbles," commanded Rose. The sound of her boots on bare stone was echoed faintly by the canyon walls as she approached the shelf.

Her Pearl goggled for a moment before mastering her expression. Bowing deeply, she began beckoning the bubbles down from the flexing hole above.

Tolkien. Butcher. Cook. These were all human names. There was a large one that had no author's name: The Tale of the Hero and the Companion. Rose was transfixed, trapped, and it was all she could do not to quake or gnash her teeth.

Because there, at the end of the collection, was a large and sturdy-looking leather bound book that read in expressive yellow letters, ‘Rose Quartz.’

She wrote that.

About Rose.

"My Rose," said Pearl, her voice level but with an undertone of worry that was imperfectly hidden. "The shards aren't here."

A facet of Rose heard. It was the part of her protected behind her mask, the guise of confidence worn so long it was hardly a mask at all. The commanding, even terrifying Rose Quartz, striding across Homeworld space with sword in hand, meting out the Diamonds' own justice.

For most, that was who Rose Quartz was.

That facet, that character, would have responded promptly. Decisive action, decisive solutions. It had worked for her and for that reason Rose had made that part of her persona.

But her masks were no protection whenever her shadow loomed. Drawn with inescapable force, Rose reached out, unable to hide the tremor in her arm.

Pearl gasped, then stifled it when she saw Rose take the eponymous book off the shelf. "My Rose?" she repeated.

Rose opened her mouth but for a moment was speechless. She didn't look away from the tome. "Keep searching," she croaked out, her gaze locked on the achingly familiar, expressive yellow letters. "The shards may be hidden in another exit hole."

With a bow Rose barely noticed, her Pearl stepped quietly away.

As if Rose were puppeting her own body remotely, asleep a world away and somehow inhabiting herself as a vessel, Rose gingerly opened the book.

Humans are marvelous in their creativity; a thousand words and phrases arising as they try again and again to find the perfect one for what they mean. Watching them live and choose and try has been endlessly fascinating. And from them, I've found the name for a concept that I've felt since I emerged but had never been able to properly name:

Rose Quartz was my soul mate.

There could be no doubt who the author was because, like everything her sister had done, this hurt Rose. A tear rolled down her cheek. Pointless because her healing was powerless to close the wound that had just been reopened.

The Umbralite had tackled her Connie (or the fusion thereof) out of the air and driven Lazuli to engage in enraged terraforming. With metallokinetic force, Peridot was already starting to accelerate toward the scene of the calamity... when she was stayed by screams below.

Driven from the forest by the tsunami or incensed by the Umbralite's passage (or just continuing their original rampage), a pair of corrupted Quartzes had charged into the town. Though not directly, the pair, a Jasper and a Carnelian, were approaching the mass of humans attempting to evacuate to the barge fleet.

A part of her argued that a berserk hydrokinetic was an existential threat to every being on the island. Another part of her demanded that Connie's wellbeing be verified because all life on Earth was precious but her daughter's life was paramount.

As the corrupted Jasper bulled a truck aside --the hood open and the engine conspicuously absent-- and began to charge the crowd, Peridot swore vociferously as she swerved around and dove toward the aggressor.

"P2! Incapacitate the aggressing Carnelian! I will contend with the Jasper!" she barked as she descended.

Hitching the McFly sideways, Peridot transferred her downward momentum into a sideways swerve like she was grinding against an invisible half pipe -- Dot Matrix had once aspired to skateboard-based radicalness so Peridot found the maneuver gratifying without fully realizing why.

Orbiting over the corrupted Jasper while twenty feet up, Peridot reached out with her powers and tuuugged, the action accompanied by a similar motion of her arms.

The gutted truck rocked from side to side, its suspension groaning. The Jasper halted, turning to face this unexpected vehicular assailant. However, Peridot had somewhat underestimated the weight of the flatbed truck so rather than causing it to slam into the offending corruption, it tipped over on its side and then was dragged forward with a drawn out squeal and a shower of sparks.

Panting slightly from the exertion, Peridot consoled herself with the fact that at least she'd put a sizable obstacle in the aggressor's way.

Meanwhile and a little ways distant, P2 was flying with considerable speed in a freewheeling figure-eight pattern, giggling and unloading a flurry of plasma blasts at the Carnelian. While that could charitably be called an enthusiastic showing, it was rather lacking in combat efficacy. P2 had no compelling reason to engage in high-speed evasive maneuvers against a terrestrial melee combatant, the movement only inhibiting the accuracy of the gem's plasma blasts. That combined with the fact that Carnelians were among the more agile Quartzes meant P2 was accomplishing far less than she could have.

At least the Carnelian was thoroughly distracted, too busy dodging incoming plasma to pursue humans.

Peridot had to remind herself that this was P2's first combat mission and, if she was being honest with herself, she had engaged in similar showboating behavior when she'd been a neophyte. Before Peridot could convey any helpful advice, though, the Jasper advanced past the downed truck, shoulder checking it as it went in perhaps an instinctive display of dominance.

"Hey! You orange mega-clod!" barked Peridot while she swerved overhead. She clapped her hands then sent a spray of metallic garbage --mostly crushed aluminum cans awaiting recycling-- into her opponent's face.

The Quartz gave her a snarl and an eyeless glare then continued to stalk forward toward the evacuees. The humans were fleeing as swiftly as was possible in a large group, but several were either elderly, injured, or both so the Quartz was closing fast.

With another round of muttered invectives, Peridot initiated a divebomb directly at her foe. The gem launched herself free of her platform once she was with about ten feet of her target, gripping the straps of her satchel while the metallic tools within lowered it (and, consequently, her) safely to the pavement. The McFly, however, continued on its original trajectory, slamming into the Jasper with a not inconsequential amount of force.

That got the Quartz' attention.

The Jasper gave a roar of anger and charged Peridot. However, the McFly had by this time banked around, accelerated, and delivered another blow, this time to the side of the opponent's head.

The Quartz snarled and swiped at the projectile, sending the McFly careening off with a metallic clang! That distraction allowed Peridot to seize an uprooted fire hydrant and a manhole cover from the surrounding area, the former of which rocketed into the orange adversary with a very satisfying wham!

For a time, the Jasper was occupied trying to attack the floating items assaulting it. While the hydrant was getting increasingly crumpled, this did little to limit its effectiveness as a bludgeon. The McFly, in contrast, was made of Era-1 materials instead of mere steel and so was weathering the blows with aplomb.

Peridot, reveling at her recently unlocked powers thwarting a member of the warrior caste, gave an exultant, "Nyahahaha!"

That may have proven to be a miscalculation on Peridot's part because this reminded the Quartz of her presence, the gem ignoring the aerial harassment and sprinting towards her.

"Eep!"

Once more, Peridot employed her satchel as a means of mobility, this time sending the carrier sideways, thus yanking Peridot along and out of the charging warrior's path.

More from raw strength than actual agility, the Jasper arrested its headlong rush, tearing up the pavement as it changed course and closed with Peridot. The manhole cover flew into position, a barrier deflecting a claw swipe that hit with the kinetic force of a mid-speed vehicular collision. Another blow sent the metal disc pinwheeling up, Peridot backpedaling to maintain distance while she subconsciously reached out with her power to keep the disc from getting too far away. The Quartz' limbs were long enough it was able to make another swipe despite Peridot’s short-legged retreat, but she'd metallokinetically retrieved the McFly, the platform rotated so its rounded underside faced the Jasper, a floating shield negating the attack.

Swipe. Roar. Swipe-swipe. Bite. Roar again.

Orbiting her like the two electrons around a helium atom, the McFly and the manhole cover were there to meet every attack. When the crumpled mass of the former hydrant slammed into the Jasper like a cannonball, the Quartz was even forced on the defensive, ducking its head and retreating a few paces.

"Yes! Fear me for I am empowered with a force greater than any muscles!"

The Jasper couldn't understand her --language comprehension was beyond a corruption's reach-- but apparently her tone was sufficient to enrage it into unwittingly challenging her assertion. Rearing up, the Jasper attempted to overpower her by crushing her with a combination of mass and brute strength.

Peridot's hands outstretched above and in front of her, the McFly, manhole cover, and an object that was more scrap metal than hydrant at this point flew up and met the blow in midair.

For a second the upward force of her metal and the downward force of the Jasper were equal and thus cancelled one another out in a belligerent but no doubt very showy display of the Third Law of Motion. But the manhole cover and former hydrant were made of terrestrial materials and ultimately buckled under the strain.

Peeling away with a slow squeal of metal fatigue, a strip of steel curled away from the manhole cover as a claw punched through, ending mere inches from Peridot's face.

As the orange gem descended an inch closer, Peridot gave a loud 'hrrrr!' as she strained with every ounce of metallokinetic force she could project. This proved too much for the much-abused manhole cover, the whole thing exploding outward into fragments of shrapnel. Her barrier lost cohesion at that and the Jasper came crashing through, bowling Peridot to the ground...

...only to explode into a great cloud of colored smoke.

An orange gemstone and a jagged metal fragment clattered to the ground.

Using her satchel to hastily haul her to her feet, Peridot looked wide-eyed around her, momentarily too surprised to comprehend what had just happened. Then it clicked and a laugh of disbelief-tinged relief escaped her, the technician jogging forward to bubble and banish the gemstone without delay.

In the distance, a helicoptering P2 was bobbing up and down, always just out of reach of the hopping Carnelian and delivering a steady stream of laughing taunts.

Then a fragment of metal --roughly the size and shape of the head of a ballista bolt and launched with similar force-- pierced the side of the red Quartz. P2 landed seconds later, coughing and using her whirling fingers to disperse the scarlet cloud surrounding her.

Hovering over on her (scuffed and in places dented, but still proud) McFly, Peridot said in a didactic tone, "It is best to focus on accuracy over evasion against ground-based foes. Also, even if it can be quite diverting, poof your opponent and move on because fortunes can shift rapidly during a confrontation." She hopped down and bubbled the red gemstone with a touch.

Finally clearing away the smoke, P2 gawked at her, mouth agape and eyes wide.

It was one of the most satisfying looks Peridot had received in her nearly five centuries on Earth.

The water was fast-moving and debris-filled, but Bismuth was still able to make her way upstream. Each of her arms were shaped into the sort of blade an ice axe wanted to be when it grew up so the smith crossed the flash flooding river one forearm swing at a time.

She had to admit that her surface-to-aerokinetic missile move had worked great!... during the upward half of the trip. The part where she fell like a downed dropship and left a twenty yard furrow through the ground when she landed could definitely be improved upon.

Still, the part where she sent a bubbled Jade to the burning room and was hit by a tidal wave about thirty seconds later? She wasn't taking the blame for that one.

Crossing the island had gotten a lot trickier after that, especially since Raindrop wasn't content with just a single tsunami. But Bismuth kept at it and even managed to poof a few corrupted gems along the way.

Honestly, getting tossed around by that much pissed off water made Bismuth a little nostalgic, her and Lapis' first real 'conversation' coming to mind. That'd been back when Blue had only just joined the Rebellion, and that had been an excuse for her to get to take another crack at the smith that'd cracked her. But it had all worked out in the end, the two agreeing the war would be that much more fun with someone to watch their back... even if just to laugh when the other took a hit.

Back in the present, Bismuth had been trying to make her way back toward the human village. Without Green around to launch her, her ability to do something about whatever had Blue seeing red was effectively nil. But getting a bunch of humans off the island before it sank or something, that was a job she could do.

In the distance another wave raced across the island, ripping out trees and carving a structurally superfluous new crevasse into the mountainside. Actually, that mountain was taking a beating, with semi-regular avalanches as debris fell, accumulated in piles on ledges, then collapsed and fell further.

Jogging across the muddy bedrock, Bismuth reached a rise that had once been covered in trees but was now overlooking a stretch of water-logged former-forest. She could see a good swath of the island from here --it helped that swaths of it had been flattened-- and what she saw made her stop, a concerned frown crossing her face. Structural engineering was a gem-deep part of every Bismuth which was why she couldn't help but see that the ad hoc levee of broken trees and rubble that was holding back that river of runoff wouldn't be doing that for much longer.

She cared mainly because the slope of the island beyond meant, without a levee to hold it back, that flooding river was going to sweep right through the village.

With another moment spent studying the surrounding structures (i.e. mountain rubble and knocked over trees), Bismuth shook her head and then started to run as fast as the damp ground would allow.

This next part was probably going to suck about on par with the second half of her missile impression.

About halfway to her destination another wave came through. This was actually kind of helpful because it swept her into the side of the mountain, which was where she was headed anyway. Reaching that mountainside in a crash of rock and water was less fun, but if Bismuth hadn't been able to tank a hit like that, she'd have never survived meeting Blue. Unfortunately, the extra runoff washing down the slope and across the island meant that levee was going to collapse even sooner.

Ice axe-like arms biting into the damp rock, Bismuth moved swiftly across the cliff face she was scaling laterally. Reaching her destination, she took another glance around, spotted the best spot for the job, then transformed one hand into a pickaxe and started undermining a nearby overhang so laden with boulders it was an avalanche waiting to happen... and Bismuth wasn't going to let it wait.

The fact that the overhang was almost directly overhead? That was the part that was going to suck gravel. And it was going to start sucking that gravel in about three- two-

When the cliff collapsed, Bismuth unhooked her axe-arm from the stone and kicked off, launching herself into open air. About the first quarter of the avalanche rolled past before gravity caught up and things got awfully... rocky.

There was a hit to the chest that hurt with that special agony that meant it connected with your gemstone. However, Bismuth wasn't pulverized into a fine powder between a carpet of onrushing boulders so that was a plus.

After she bounced and rolled to a stop, face down in a puddle of mud, Bismuth laid there for a few seconds just kind of chilling, waiting to see if the pain would recede or if she'd be spending the rest of the battle waiting to reform. When she didn't turn into a cloud of gray, she levered herself up with one arm, using the other to mop mud out of her face.

Spitting and staggering to her feet, Bismuth saw that the levee had indeed collapsed and washed away but that the urgent shipment of avalanche she'd delivered had formed a bank of scree long enough to divert the river such that it ran south of the village instead of through it.

Bismuth heaved a pleased, if painful breath, proud of that one. That she had to cough up more mud when she exhaled didn't diminish that.

Looking at her stone, she saw a little divot in one corner. It stung like heck and if she didn't get some fountain water on it in the next day or two it’d probably start to crack. But it wasn't an immediate threat so she shook out her dreadlocks and started jogging for the village.

Maybe best to wait on shooting down any more Jades, she added with a grin despite the ache. After all, cracks could be healed but bragging rights like this were forever. Anyone could start an avalanche when they had geokinesis like Biggs, but it took real facets to do it by hand.

One second Miss Mommadot had been trying to warn Asmi something over the scouter and in the next the world had turned loud, bright, and hot.

Also fast.

A distant part of Asmi was aware they were falling, leaves whapping them in the face, sticks and small branches breaking beneath them as they dropped. However, extreme sadness was pouring into them from one side and extreme anger from another and even with their gemstone glowing like a second sun, it was still a lot to contend with without also worrying about little things like going splat.

To their considerable surprise --following a flickery motion and a wave of oven-like heat-- Asmi didn't 'splat' so much as 'squish'. Umbra had flickered to the ground ahead of them and either caught them or simply been in the way.

If Asmi weren't so busy drinking a double dose of bad vibes and trying not to drown, they'd have appreciated that fact more.

They half-fell, half-rolled to the forest floor. Then something big touched their forehead and the negative energy went from 'firehose' to 'Niagara Falls', their gemstone somehow becoming even brighter than it'd been before.

Asmi wavered. Steven didn't like being this sad and Connie didn't like being this angry and neither of them liked being this hot which meant they each reached for the other for support. This kept Asmi from coming apart and it also, through the weird metaphor-you-could-touch logic of fusion, meant Connie was forehead-to-forehead with Steven.

A very Steven-minded Asmi blinked their eyes, Connie being too awash in her and Steven's share of the negative energy to do more than metaphysically clutch Steven for support.

Asmi was lying on their back on the ground, a yellow-lit shadow monster filling their vision. Ignoring the aches of their battered body, Asmi scrambled back in a kind of hurried scuttle. This broke contact with Umbra, their gemstone going from 'staring into a spotlight' to merely very bright.

Umbra flickered closer. Asmi scrambled back further and thrust out a hand. "Wait! Stop!"

The towering, stygian monster stopped and blinked its many eyes at them.

Wiping the sweat from their forehead --if Wolf was like a walking heater, Umbra was a bonfire-- Asmi said, "Hey, uh, hi Umbra. I'm not really sure why you're here but can I help you later? Things are pretty hectic right now."

Asmi was about to say more when there was a huge crash and, glancing over their shoulder, they saw a giant wave hitting the mountain, water and rubble racing back down the slope.

"Pretty super hectic," amended Asmi, their voice cracking mid-sentence.

This was met with a cascade of blinks from Umbra. A beat passed and then the giant shadow monster was suddenly in front of Asmi.

Heat. Touch. The gemstone flared with brilliance.

Asmi wrenched themself away from Umbra, staggering back into a tree trunk. They shook their head. One of their sides was really complaining --Had they hit a big branch in their fall?-- and sweat was pouring down their face. "No! Hold on! Let me-"

Flicker. Touch. Heat and light.

Asmi tried to summon a force field to ward off Umbra but nothing happened. With Connie all but insensate processing the pair's bad vibes, it was just Steven driving and Steven couldn't summon fields.

The fusion slid back and away, dragging themself painfully across the bark of the tree they were almost pinned against. Once free, Asmi dropped into a stumbling run, no destination in mind, just them trying to get some breathing room from Umbra.

Flicker.

With a yelp, Asmi lunged back, performing what must have been a really cool backflip-handspring thing to escape. Whatever was going on, Umbra was being really pushy.

No force fields. Can't summon a sword and I doubt the saber- A glance showed the middle of the scabbard was bent, lending more evidence to the 'hit a big branch on the way down' theory. Bent like that, they probably wouldn't even be able to pull the blade free from the scabbard. Saber's no good. Don’t have lightning.

Another frantic, acrobatic dodge saw Asmi clear of another touch by an insistent Umbra.

The very Steven-y corner of Asmi was nearly out of ideas when they thought of one thing they could do to help even without magic. After all, Steven had had a magical (mis)adventure all his own recently and his supernatural backup had been-

"WOOOOOOLF!" shouted Asmi, leaping over a bush as their very magical game of tag continued.

There was another crash as the mountain got whacked again by a big wave. There was even a mist of salt water which stung their eyes but felt kind of nice on their hot and sweaty skin.

Umbra appeared in front of them, stealing a full two-seconds of touch before Asmi broke away. Staggering about ten feet back, they were about to turn and run when they noticed Umbra wasn't giving chase. Instead, a multitude of eyes were open in the direction of...

There was a growing howl and then a portal opened up as Wolf rocketed out. He skidded to a halt a little ways away from Umbra and Asmi.

Umbra stared at Wolf.

Wolf stared at Umbra, his fur slowly growing yellower as his body drank in the ambient shadow energy.

As if reacting to the shot at the start of a race, Umbra flicker-lunged forward at the exact same time Wolf turned and fled, running faster than Asmi had ever seen him move. He howled open a portal and dove through, the destination appearing only fifty feet away and pointed such that he would be heading directly away from Asmi.

Colossal predator and wily yellow prey vanished into the depths of the forest, the thrashing of flicker-displaced foliage marking their progress.

That Wolf didn't portal to the other end of the island, or the other end of the planet, meant that he was leading Umbra on a chase. He was buying Asmi time.

The brilliant yellow glow managed to dim as the negative energy flood slowed to a trickle. Asmi, feeling less Steven-y and more like their usual self, said, "He's the best dog ever."

With an act of will, the many scrapes and bruises (and what was very possibly a cracked rib) were distributed throughout their body, injuries transformed into a kind of omnipresent but mild ache instead. There was a crash as yet another wave struck the mountain. "Right, that. What is going on?"

Is there a corrupted Lapis Lazuli freaking out? Is this some new attack of Rose's? Did Lapis find Rose and she's going kind of overboard with the water magic?

Summoning force fields, Asmi scampered up above the treeline and saw... that there was a lot less treeline, great swaths of the island forest having been bowled aside by tsunami after tsunami.

In the direction of the town, they saw P2 flying around blasting something with her blaster, able to hear her giddy cackling over the scouter. Whatever was going on over there, Asmi figured P2 would be making less-happy noises if it was really bad.

There was the sound of an avalanche, a cliff collapsing into a carpet of boulders crashing down the mountainside. A second later this big pile of broken trees and stuff was washed away but the avalanche was just in time to stop the river from washing into the town.

That was a lucky break, thought Asmi, relieved.

Then Lapis, who had been obscured by the mountain while on the other side of the island, zipped into view. Mirrored eyes visible to the fusion below, the blue gem bellowed, “Rrraaa!” as a colossal wave rolled across the terrain, sweeping trees and rocks aside.

“That… is less lucky,” said Asmi while internally they suffered one-and-a-half panic attacks at seeing their worst-case scenario realized: Lapis rage-afflicted by Umbra exposure.

Hastily tapping the scouter over their eye, Asmi broadcast to the raging hydrokinetic, “Lapis! You got Umbra’d!” They summoned a field in the gem’s direction and hopped over to it. “Let me purge you and then you won’t-”

“Rrrooose!” roared Lapis, paying the pair no mind as she directed the tsunami to scour away more potential hiding places (a.k.a. island).

“This is… bad. This is real bad.” The words bubbled up out of Asmi in a slightly higher voice. “What Bismuth said and the Sanctuary and now Lapis and-” The fusion shuddered both physically and meta-physically as they embraced themself within and without.

They had just decided to try and find Mommadot to see if flying on the Laki-Two Seater would allow them to salvage this when there was a high-pitched whine and an orange blur burst onto the scene.

“Jasper!” they cried, field-hopping down to meet the Quartz. “Lapis won’t listen to me and she’s going on a rampage and-”

The Quartz unfolded from her spindash into a run that was only a little slower. “Force field!” she barked, jabbing a thick finger upward, bulling aside Asmi’s earlier remark.

Surprised, the fusion summoned a field twenty feet above and ahead of the two fields hanging overhead.

Jasper leapt once, easily clearing the distance to land on field number one. Then she bounded again, leaping like an orange Mario to the platform higher up.

An irrepressible corner of them thought, Wouldn’t that make her an orange Luigi then? He was the better jumper, after all, because Connie and Steven’s inner snarkers were fused too and not to be denied even when the situation was spinning out of control.

High above the treeline, suspended on a magical field of force, Jasper bellowed in a voice that echoed across the ruined island.

“Laaapis!”

It was the sort of carrying loudness Asmi associated with Sadie or her mom.

A blur of blue appeared probably fifty feet away and eighty feet up. “You!”

“Me!” answered Jasper as part of a conversation that Asmi felt they neither understood or had been invited to.

“You worthless hunk of Quartz,” roared Lapis. “If you were half as good as you claimed to be, you’d have beaten Rose back on the beach! But you got your perfect ass kicked and now she’s loose somewhere, hiding, lurking. Get out of my sight before I put you away myself!”

“You don’t scare me, Lapis,” said Jasper. It should have been in a commanding, authoritative tone but was instead delivered like a taunt.

Tapping their scouter, Asmi said worriedly, “Uh, Jasper?”

“Trust me,” the Quartz muttered out of the corner of her mouth.

“Well then that makes you dumb as well as incompetent,” answered Lapis, though for some reason she was flying closer.

“You’re scared and you’re reckless and one good hit would shatter you,” was Jasper’s shouted reply.

“Yeah? Tell that to the last continent that pissed me off,” challenged Lapis. “Talk to me like that again and you’ll be able to compare notes with it in person.” She was now only twenty or so feet away and closing fast.

Okay, so Jasper is going to goad her in close and then restrain her so I can-

“What kind of gem can’t handle her own powers?” snapped Jasper.

“Oh, and you think you would do any better?!” was Lapis’ angry retort, the gem in close enough to jab Jasper in the chest.

Aaand grab her! One-two-three grab! Any second now, Jasper! Asmi mentally shouted from about forty feet below.

“I know I would,” answered the Quartz.

“Prove it!” shouted Lapis inches from Jasper’s face.

Jasper actually did grab Lapis then and Asmi was already preparing to Mario their way up… when the grapple turned into a kind of angry tango.

There was a shared look of ferocity: from Jasper, eagerness, the gem grinning widely in challenge; from Lapis, rage, a look that said she wanted to flatten everything that annoyed her starting with Jasper herself. Then Lapis lunged forward snarling, as if she were going for Jasper’s throat. Jasper swayed with the motion, pulling Lapis in even tighter, the pair locked eyes, their gemstones flared with light, and then…

Malachite formed with a roar, half fury, half triumph, enormous wings of water springing from her back. A tsunami literally froze in place, the colossal wave transformed into ice which toppled forward and shattered with a crash like an explosion in a glass factory. The rivers of runoff that had turned the island into a double disaster rose into the air in a surreal spectacle of raw magical force, swirling around the fusion with the threat of imminent violence.

“Come and get me now, Rose!” challenged Malachite in a taunting tone that was very Lapis-like. A dozen then a hundred icy spears formed from the swirling fluid, each aimed at the ground below, all while panicked corruptions fled for the few stretches of forested cover remaining. “You can’t hide if there isn’t an island left to- Huh? What?!”

The spears of ice shifted into shackles of water, dozens snaking out to restrain the watermelon-colored colossus. Malachite roared and struggled in vain against her own creations. “What are you doing?!” she bellowed.

Then Malachite’s expression looked suddenly Jasper-like, eyes narrowing as the fusion said, “We need to talk. And this time, no rainchecks.”

The hovering manacles hauled the struggling Malachite away, first through the air and then down to the sea, the titan being dragged under while very Lapis-sounding roars of frustration and rage shook the island.

Asmi stood there, mouth agape. Finally, reaching up to adjust the scouter over their eye, Asmi said the only word that seemed to encompass what had just taken place.

“Yikes.”

Chapter Text

Her Pearl was away, scouring the faux-Kindergarten for the missing shards. And Rose stood, transfixed, a book in hand and the emotions in her form churning with terrible intensity.

Tears dappled her cheeks. There was a gemstone-deep ache, an old pain that never truly went away: the pain of absence, of Rose being half of a whole that was torn asunder.

Unable to pull away from the wonderful, terrible words in her sister's journal, Rose read... and she remembered.

Citrine paced the confines of the cave they were encamped within. It was a natural cave, not one that Biggs had formed, so it was narrow, with lots of hazards overhead and underfoot. But there were organics that dwelt within the cave, amazing things adapted to life without light, and so Rose had insisted that the rebels hiding in the vicinity be conscientious guests.

Instead they'd had Biggs form a separate, larger cave out of a nearby, featureless cliff face from which to house the rebel host. Bismuth setup her temporary forge and Zircon processed the latest intel from her informants and the others settled in to wait for orders, confident in the knowledge that their generals were busy planning out their next strike against Pink Diamond.

But in their natural cave-cum-command center, Rose and Citrine were dealing with another matter of great import.

"She's in love with me!" exclaimed Citrine, pacing. Without slowing, she craned her head to the side to avoid a stalactite.

Rose sat nearby, dress flowing out across the surrounding stone like she herself was a very soft, colorful stalagmite. She tried and failed to suppress a titter.

Citrine rounded on her sister, her distress momentarily tempered by Rose's amusement. With a wry expression, she asked, "You think this is funny?"

The pink Quartz tried for a moment to master her expression... only to giggle again, her smile widening. As her sister stared her down with mock intensity, Rose batted her eyes innocently and said, "Love is a beautiful thing and something to be celebrated."

"Uh huh," answered Citrine, her tone dry. "And when that love is unrequited? What then?"

That sombered Rose slightly. "A flower that blooms is splendid even if it wilts soon after. Beauty and tragedy can exist together."

"And when that flower is the Perfect Quartz, one of our best and most reliable soldiers?" pressed Citrine. "What happens when she wilts? I see precious little beauty there, for her or the cause."

Movement in Rose's peripheral vision drew her eye. A tiny organic, some kind of many-legged insect, was scuttling past. It tried to flee for cover further up the clave wall only to lose its grip and land on its back. Three of its eight legs were conspicuously absent, the other five flailing as it struggled to right itself. The organic probably didn't care for the drop of moisture Rose dabbed on it, but with a faint pink sparkle the legs were restored and the creature crawled swiftly away.

Smiling, Rose looked up to see her sister studying her. The yellow gem was no doubt overthinking a very simple situation as she was wont to do. As amazing as Citrine could be, as brave and brilliant and talented as she was, in other ways she was helpless.

Fortunately, she had Rose to help her up when she struggled and flailed.

"Like our little friend, Jasper has more than one thing keeping her going. Yes, she loves you-" It had been so obvious that Rose had spotted it in an instant even without her sister's special sight to guide her. "-But she is also devoted. And proud. She revels in combat and the respect of others. Ensure she has other legs to stand on and she will survive. And in time perhaps she will grow to love another instead. Or..."

Rose held Citrine's gaze for a second, waiting and struggling to keep her expression serious. However, Rose was notorious for wearing her emotions on her sleeve which meant she failed miserably, a wide grin blossoming. This alerted her sister to the verbal ambush coming.

"...Perhaps you will one day grow to love her back."

Citrine groaned, burying her face in her palm as she leaned against a force field she'd summoned.

Rose laughed, a musical sound that echoed off the walls.

Jasper was an impressive gem, a paragon, but for all her many admirers, neither general would be counted among them.

"Woe is me, forced to spend the centuries in the company of so terrible a sister," lamented Citrine after she'd recovered.

Rose smirked evilly before descending helplessly into giggles.

A minute later Citrine was looking soberly about, the gem once more returning to business. "I'll try and do that for Jasper." Her expression was lacking her usual confidence but that changed when the subject shifted to matters of war instead of love.

Retrieving a datapad from a pocket, Citrine projected a holographic map in the space between them. Citrine gestured at a topographic display of the surrounding terrain. "Anyway, Zircon is confident that the terraforming infrastructure nearby is lightly defended at best. There's a centrally-located barracks meant to protect them, which is why I was thinking we make a feint against it to..."

"That's the eighth new legion to arrive this decade," insisted Citrine. The gem paced when she was nervous or puzzled, but liked to lean forward on something --a table, a force field-- when she was certain of her argument. She was leaning forward now, looking directly at Rose. "Blue and Yellow Diamond think they can win just by burying us in soldiers and the fact is, they're right."

Rose stared at the maps spread across the table before them, her eyes unfocused, less pondering the situation and more searching her feelings for something elusive.

"They're scared," she said eventually. Her gaze traveled up, eyes focusing on her sister. "If they don't resolve this rebellion soon, White Diamond might emerge from Homeworld and they're frightened of what she might do to them. Or worse, to Pink Diamond."

"Exactly!" Citrine pushed off from the table, rounding it so she could stand across from Rose. "The Diamonds have an entire empire of resources at their disposal. It'd be impossible for us to oppose that and win. But it's their feelings for each other where they're most vulnerable. We could bubble entire legions and they'd just send for more. We could wipe out fortresses left and right and they'd bring more Bismuths to replace them. But if we strike at them personally, they'll crumble."

Rose heaved a sigh. She knew where this was going. "Citrine..." she said almost pleadingly.

Her sister shook her head. "No, listen. This is important. We can't beat Homeworld's armies. But the Diamonds could end the war with a single word. So we make them say that word."

"By shattering Pink Diamond," said Rose, arms crossed and head cradled in one hand.

There was a beat of silence, Citrine stepping close enough to rest her hand on Rose's arm. "I'll be the one to do it," she said softly. "I would never have you- You wouldn't-" She paused to find her words. "You are the Rebellion's heart and soul. But I can do this. For the Earth, for the Rebellion... For you and your beautiful vision of a better world."

Rose shook her head, ringlets spilling over her shoulders as she did. "No. As I always say, no. They shatter, not us. They are wicked, not us. We will win, not you, not me, us. Together. Don't give up hope; we'll find a better way."

"But-" started Citrine but her objection died in her throat as Rose's steely gaze met hers.

"It would be wrong."

Usually Citrine relented immediately in the face of a rebuttal like that. They never spoke of it openly but Rose knew her sister considered her the more virtuous of the two. When Rose said something was wrong, the only discussion was what to do instead. But here Citrine held Rose's gaze for several seconds, intelligent eyes studying her as she tried to think of something else to say or do, to find some rhetorical attack to breach Rose's ethical defenses.

Then Citrine's eyes fell and she nodded her head in agreement and submission. "I understand. I'll check with Zircon to see if she's had any more luck getting agents positioned in the Ziggurat. If we could seize that, we'd have a different answer to the reinforcements being shipped in."

They still didn't know how many had been lost. Usually it was a good thing when a battle ended with few rebels in need of Rose's healing, but this time it was because the casualties were entirely beyond her help.

Rose was emotionally numb and physically weary. She'd wept earlier and not for the healing tears. Now she felt hollow, like the slightest poke would cause her to crumple inward and collapse.

Citrine paced like a caged animal, her sun-colored hair in disarray. She hadn't even bothered to undo the battle damage crisscrossing her outfit.

Rose glanced at the entrance to their tent. Garnet and Jasper were standing guard, the latter flinching away when she noticed Rose's look. The proud Quartz took defeat personally -- centuries ago that had been how Citrine pried her loose from Pink Diamond, after all.

While her sister paced distractedly, Rose crossed the tent with slow steps, closing the canvas cover to afford the two of them a measure of privacy. It was good the others knew their generals grieved as they did, but the Rebellion looked to them for strength as well and right now neither of them had strength to lend.

When she turned around, she saw Citrine leaning on the table. Despite looking haggard, the earlier frenetic energy was gone, a disquieting calm having settled over the yellow gem. Citrine stared at Rose with steely resolve.

"Sister?" asked Rose, unsure what to make of this sudden transformation in her other half.

"You see it now, don't you?" There was a skeptical cast to her features. "You have to. After a disaster like today, there can be no other course."

Rose had gotten better over the millennia at having some filter between her feelings and her expression. It was an ill-fitting mask but one she was learning to wear from time to time. Despite the deep concern rising in her form, Rose kept her face blank. "And what course would that be?"

Citrine blinked as if she was looking at Rose for the first time. And from the way her eyes narrowed and the corners of her mouth curled downward, she didn't care for what she saw.

Rose didn't like that one bit.

"I mean," said Citrine with exaggerated slowness, "the way we can win the war and SAVE THE PLANET!" her voice rising to a shout which was probably heard halfway across the camp.

"Citrine!" hissed Rose. "Now is not the time-"

Her sister pushed off from the table and stalked toward her, a finger outstretched and brandished like a sword as she admonished Rose. "This has to be the time because after a defeat like this, there may very well be no other time left!"

Rose glared at the yellow finger pointed at her. How dare she? As if she thought defeat weighed only on her, as if Rose were some Ruby who needed reminding of what was at stake.

Summoning her bubble so that it swelled out and shoved her sister back, Rose glowered at Citrine, letting the barrier dissolve so that she could advance, the offensive gem on the back foot and the defensive gem attacking.

"Don't you condescend to me! I'm not the one who hasn't been listening. How many decades has it been? How many centuries since you first concocted this repugnant scheme of yours? No matter how many times I poof this argument of yours, it always reforms to torment me again. If you must shatter something, shatter this plot of yours and spare me the frustration!"

"Frustration?!" Citrine cast her arms wide. "Frustration is carrying someone to their victory while they resist you every step of the way. We're supposed to be thinking about how to overcome Homeworld but most often I find myself thinking about how to overcome you!"

Rose gasped. Then her brows crashed down in a glare and she circled around her sister, lips curled into a snarl. "Carrying me? Is that what you think?! Because I cannot tell you how many times I've had to step in after you shapeshift a foot in your mouth while addressing the troops. For someone who can literally see the feelings of others, you seem incapable of understanding them in the slightest!"

Citrine winced as if struck, Rose's awareness of her sister making it all too clear how much that barb had stung.

Not done yet, Rose said in a raised voice, "I shudder to think what you would do without me. Were you formed with no moral compass? The Rebellion under you would be a pack of savages! It's exhausting having to restrain you, to shelter not just you, not just the Rebellion, but the entire planet from what you would do in your headlong rush to victory among the ashes. I'm built to protect but I should be pointing my shield outward, not in."

Once again that stare, that look of disbelief and revulsion from Citrine that made Rose want to slap her!

"You really don't get it!” answered Citrine loudly. “There's no prize for losing proudly. The Diamonds won't be so impressed by our upstanding character that they concede the moral high ground and the Earth both. They will grind us into slivers and then turn this world into a sterile husk."

"We should be fighting the Diamonds," shouted Rose, "not each other!"

"I would be!" shouted Citrine. "If you would listen to me. Work with me. Just this once!"

The world was suddenly pink and for a second Rose couldn't understand why. She blinked, gawking at her bubble, and then at the gem beyond. Her sister was translucent, the entrance to their tent visible through her. Then Rose understood consciously what she'd instinctively known the instant she'd protected herself: Citrine had tried to attack her. Had tried to influence her.

Centuries ago her sister had come to her, fearful and trembling. She'd discovered a new use for her power and been frightened by what she'd considered doing with it. Inducing fear and panic were fine on the battlefield, but when you could induce calm? Or trust? Or affection?

Rose had been frightened too, but like a good sister she'd soothed Citrine, telling her that she was no monster. Why, she was the champion of choice, the gem who exhorted others to decide their own fate, and she would never abrogate the will of another. But ever since then, Citrine had been even more deferential to Rose's judgement.

Once Rose had thought it a strange quirk, a vein of insecurity within the strata of Citrine's confidence. Now she realized just how naive she'd been.

"I'm sorry," said the stricken Citrine. She returned to opacity. "I didn't mean to do that."

Rose, still in her bubble, shook her head, tears dotting her cheeks as she felt something foundational within her crack. "But you did. Your powers aren't instinctive like mine. You act, I react. You meant to do that. You chose to do that... To me," and her voice wavered, half-accusation, half-sob.

"I- I mean, yes, but-" Citrine was pacing again, eyes anywhere but on Rose. "I couldn't stop the Diamonds alone. If I could, I would have. Centuries ago. Because it's okay if it's me and not you. And if you agreed because of me, because of..." She faltered, gesturing at her gemstone. "Because of this, then it wouldn't be you doing something terrible. The shards wouldn't be on your hands."

By this point Citrine had stopped pacing, leaning forward on the table so she could plead more forcefully. "Ours is not a kind universe. You can grow a beautiful flower in filth, but someone first has to get their hands dirty planting it. You are that seed, your vision is that flower. Let me do this for you, Rose. For you and the Earth. Let me win, for you."

Turbulent feelings raged in Rose's form. She wanted to comfort her sister. She desperately wanted to end this so they could be in harmony again -- to be without Citrine would be like having half her gemstone missing.

But more than that was revulsion. She would be culpable if she allowed this to happen. Fire was hot, water was wet, and shattering was wrong. You couldn't change that reality with arguments, you could only delude yourself into ignoring the shame of so terrible an act. To be party to that- Rose shivered at the thought, her hands flinching back as if afraid to be tainted by it.

Another corner of her noticed how her sister spoke of winning for Rose. Not with, but for. She'd said earlier how she had to carry Rose to victory and this felt like more of the same, as though she needed to win in Rose's stead, Citrine's pathetic pink sister helpless without her.

No. She couldn't be part of this. She wouldn't let herself be dragged down to Citrine's level. She had led the Rebellion through hardship and woe without ever compromising the virtue of their cause. Others had tried to argue for harsher measures or unsavory tactics. Rose had reprimanded them, sometimes kindly, sometimes harshly. And if that hadn't been enough, she'd cast them out.

How many times had she needed to stop her sister from doing as bad or worse? Of making murder an indelible part of the Rebellion, a taint that could never be removed? No, she'd expelled gems from the Rebellion for less, treating her sister with endless forbearance. Until now, when she'd finally seen what her sister really was.

"Get out," said Rose between clenched teeth, tears streaming down her cheeks.

Citrine staggered back. "I-" Her mouth opened and after an agonizing moment stretched into two she said only, "Rose."

Rose shook her head. "Get out! I won't unsummon my bubble with you in here. Leave. Go away so that I can get out of here."

Her sister gave a dejected nod. "Okay, I'll go." She started to head for the flap when she paused. "You'll get me after, right? When you've had time to yourself?"

Rose said nothing, just sobbed and willed her terrible sister to leave while it felt like her form was being wrenched in half.

With a final uncertain look, Citrine turned, opened the flap, and left the tent, walking toward the edge of camp. Jasper looked, first at Citrine, then at Garnet. Then she walked briskly after her retreating general.

Long seconds passed and then Rose collapsed to her knees, sobbing. She tried to unsummon her bubble but she couldn't -- Rose was thinking of her sister and she might be nearby. It was the only opening she needed.

Garnet stepped inside and waited patiently.

"Victory that costs you your principles," said Rose to the trusted lieutenants assembled before her, "is victory only in name."

They were in a clearing a mile from camp.

The expressions that looked back at Rose ran the gamut from stricken to grimly determined. Several nodded their heads.

"Gather those you trust, but do so quietly," instructed Rose. "Garnet will step in when it's needed, to distract or deflect. Trust her as you would trust me. Now go."

She managed a smile that was pained but resolute. She felt sad, miserable even, but being surrounded by her rebels? She felt safe too. She could salvage this, win this. She would protect the world from the Diamonds and Citrine if she had to. She had lit the first spark of the Rebellion so long ago --Citrine had ever admitted as much-- and she would see that same Rebellion to the peace that followed victory.

She would prove she could win without Citrine if she had to.

Chapter Text

Explosions rippled across the landscape, Homeworld's aerial superiority finally brought to bear. A dozen gems were sheltered under Rose's oversized shield, including Culi who stepped out from cover the second the blastwave was past. Bow in hand, she nocked and loosed two grey arrows in rapid succession.

A trio of bombers were banking in preparation for another strafing run when the rightmost one shuddered, smoke billowing from a damaged engine. The cockpit of the leftmost one shattered. However, Homeworld had started forcing their Nephrites to fly in pairs so a few seconds later the co-pilot took over for the poofed pilot and managed to pull the bomber out of its nose dive.

With the left and right crafts peeling off to flee to base, the undamaged bomber in the middle balked, turning to follow the others in retreat.

There was a wave of cheers from the sheltered rebels, a deluge of praise for the sharpshooter in their midst. Rose smiled brilliantly and said, "Wonderfully done, Culi."

The Novaculite didn't respond at first, sharp eyes studying the skies for further threats, bow held at the ready and her expression fierce. Then Culi let the bow fall from her fingers and as it dissolved into motes, so too did her demeanor, the gem's shoulders slumping as she ducked her head to hide from the sudden attention.

"Thank you," she said meekly, her voice almost too soft to hear.

They had succeeded at their secondary objectives, Rose and her gems, but they were still waiting for the strike team to rejoin them. That they'd been waiting long enough for Homeworld to mobilize their bombers was a bad sign, but Rose forced a smile and said, "It'll take them time to assemble a new bomber trio. Our strike team should be safe to come out from hiding now and rejoin us."

It was less a prediction and more a hope fervently held, but most of her rebels looked relieved at her words.

The bombs had caused brush and grass to catch fire in various places. And less than five minutes of waiting later Culi stiffened up and pointed, all eyes turning to see a pair of dark red arms thrust skyward and rapidly approaching.

"Rrraaa!" shouted the diminutive rebel as she charged through the flames. "Make way for Ruby!"

Soot-blackened but unburnt, the short gem ran over with a quartet of gemstones held in her outstretched hands. Rose crouched to meet her and the soldier all but threw the collection of poofed gems at her once she got within a few yards.

"Nova, Amethyst, Amethyst, and Carnelian are hurt! Fixthemfixthemfixthemfixthem!" shouted Ruby, the gem frantically hammering Rose's hip as if to punch her friends better faster.

"Ruby, it's okay," said Culi, speaking softly but leading the frantic gem a few steps away. She crouched to Ruby's height and gave the gem an exaggerated wink. That seemed to calm the upset footsoldier who gave a conspicuous wink in return.

Rose looked at the grey, red, and two purple gemstones in her palms, already tearing up. Each Amethyst was cracked and all were fire-damaged, the Ruby too short to keep the stones completely out of the flames. However, no one was shattered and anything short of that, she could heal.

"What happened?" asked one of her rebels.

Ruby's calm was gone in an instant. "Walls happened! Stupid walls!" She then punched an imaginary wall, a flurry of blows with accompanying angry grunts.

When it seemed like that was the extent of her response, Culi said, "Ruby, how did walls happen?"

Ruby stopped her assault and blinked. "Huh? Oh! We were sneaking into the base like we were supposed to. But then we got spotted and there was this big wall around it and the dumb jerks on the wall were attacking us when we couldn't attack them back, especially not after Nova got poofed, and I yelled at them that they were being unfair jerks and they yelled back, 'Yeah, we know!' but then another one yelled back that we were the jerks and another laughed and called us the Crystal Jerks and since we didn't have Bismuth's explosives or Biggs we couldn't break their wall and since we didn't have Citrine we couldn't make them all run away and Amethyst got poofed protecting Amethyst and Carnelian told me to take everyone back and run and I did and she got poofed and I took her too and then things were on fire and I shouted, 'Make way for Ruby!' and then I threw their stones at Rose and Culi-"

"We already know that part!" barked one of the rebels.

The Ruby went quiet, frowning. "Yeah, but I was hoping you'd know what came next. How are we going to take over that base?"

All eyes turned to Rose.

The gem tried to reach for her mask but it was clear the others had seen the look she'd made before she'd slid it into place.

The Beryl was dragged into Rose's war room by Garnet, held fast by a maroon gauntlet.

"A spy," was all she had to say.

Rose's eyes narrowed. This would make the third such spy found out, with who knew how many more remaining hidden. Without her fearsome sister to vet the incoming recruits- But Rose squelched that thought before it could complete.

The Beryl spared a look at Rose and then hung her head low. At least this one wasn't pleading and making desperate denials like the last two.

Rose kept her calm facade, unmoving while she thought. What was the ideal to strive for in this situation? Walking closer, she said, "I know it wasn't all a lie, Beryl."

If anything, that seemed to make the spy seem more wretched, dropping further in Garnet's grip.

"We're working to make something beautiful," said Rose softly.

The dejected gem dared to raise her eyes to Rose's.

"A better world and a better life. What can the Diamonds offer you that would compare? You have friends here: Nephrite and Rutile."

Rose may not be able to peer into the insides of others, but she knew her rebels. She spoke with everyone and everyone spoke with her and it was a wonder to watch them love the Earth, love each other, and most beautiful of all, learn to love themselves.

"What would they think if they learned what you were doing?" pressed Rose.

Beryl flinched and mopped her face with her free hand.

Rose allowed a small smile to rise to her face, crouching a little as if she were going to share a secret with a friend. "How would you feel about returning to your handlers... and spying for me instead?"

Keeping her in the ranks would be foolhardy, but if Beryl claimed she was found out and escaped, she'd be well-positioned to feed intel back their way. Stars knew they could use it. And then, instead of being a traitor to Nephrite and Rutile, she'd be a hero, undertaking a brave and dangerous mission on behalf of the Rebellion.

Love was a beautiful thing and she'd seen gems moved to greater feats by the bonds of friendship.

"No." Beryl looked like she'd swallowed something disgusting, but she shook her head.

For a beat, Rose was speechless. Then, her tone growing sharp, she demanded, "Why?"

"If I go back, they'll interrogate me and then shatter me," insisted Beryl. "It's what the Agate told me before they made me spy for them. But you don't shatter. Or embed. T-Tell the others-" and her voice faltered for a second before she continued, "Tell them whatever you want, but I'd rather go in a bubble than go in one of those interrogation books."

Eyes mere slits, Rose stood, scorned and fearsome. "Citrine. Do what you have to to this one," she ordered with a hard voice.

Beryl looked up in surprise and bewilderment, scanning the room for a yellow gem that wasn't there.

Rose's words caught up with her and she rocked back as if from a blow to her gemstone. Staggering back a step, she gave Garnet a wordless plea. The fusion nodded in agreement, gauntlets that could crush boulders reaching around the light blue spy and squeezing.

The gemstone was bubbled before it hit the ground, the puff of smoke thick in the room. Rose fled the moment Garnet had stepped away.

"-seized fourteen bases and destroyed nearly all of the terraforming infrastructure within a hundred miles of the Mediterranean," reported Rutile.

There were murmurs from the other rebels present. For nearly two months all anyone was talking about was Citrine's newest recruit, a Lapis Lazuli of considerable power. As expected, Rose's sister had wasted no time capitalizing on her new strength, but this latest operation of hers was ambitious like nothing before.

Rose had a bitter taste in her mouth and she wasn't entirely sure why. Her forces weren't even based out of the same continent as Citrine's and each half of the Schism had thus far been careful not to clash with the other. They might not be a unified Rebellion anymore, but both sides agreed on who the true enemy was.

While Citrine's forces were better at taking fortified targets, Rose's forces were numerous enough to strike a dozen locations at once. Rose was the charismatic general, the smiling face of the Rebellion, and the recruits flocked to her where they only trickled to Citrine. Why they'd effectively purged Madagascar of Homeworld's presence in the space of a month.

Citrine just liberated everything within sight of the Mediterranean in a week, a corner of her observed.

The bitter taste from before grew stronger.

In addition to more recruits, Rose’s faction suffered less attrition. Both factions had access to her fountain, just as they all had access to her sanctuary, but while the fountain water was a curative, Rose’s tears were the true panacea. Also, Homeworld had generally been hesitant sending aircraft after her forces if Culi was in the area.

This Lapis Lazuli washed more than twenty bomber and fighter wings out of the sky in her last operation alone, insisted that corner from before.

With a mental headshake, Rose banished such thoughts, smiling at her rebels. She was surrounded by gems who loved and respected her and were loved and respected in kind. She was safe and this news was ultimately good.

"Thank you for sharing that, Rutile," she said sweetly. "Our goal is to keep the world safe from devastation and sterilization. To have an Earth safe for gem and organic alike. This news means our dream is that much closer to reality and I, for one, am pleased to hear it."

The others smiled or cheered, the tension in the air dispelled.

Rose licked her lips, keeping the displeasure off her face as she tried to discreetly rid herself of that terrible, bitter flavor.

The line of injured stretched across the camp and out, with more emerging from the sea in a steady trickle. They were drenched, demoralized, and sometimes disfigured, all awaiting Rose to ease their suffering and mend their damaged forms.

Building on the momentum of the Lapis-empowered Citrine faction, the two halves of the Rebellion had brokered a plan for joint action on an enormous scale. Rose had secretly been pleased because it meant that this time, when the taint of Homeworld was scoured from a subcontinent, her forces would be at the forefront.

But it had ended in a disaster of such scale, Rose's agents were still unsure of the full scope.

An entire landmass had been lost, shattered and drowned beneath the waves. There had been numberless gems --rebels of both stripes as well as the Diamonds'-- caught in the cataclysm and no one knew how many had been trapped, poofed, or shattered.

What wasn't in doubt was that countless humans and entire, thriving ecosystems of organics had perished, snuffed out in a watery extinction event.

Rose had too little time to speak more than a word or two to the wounded. There were simply too many. But she wanted to ask... Why? What had her sister been thinking? Was this an accident? It must have been. Surely she wouldn't- Not to an entire subcontinent.

Would she?

Rose herself had been near the heart of the fighting, determined to lead by example though unwilling to get too close to... her. It was only because she'd been able to leap up and float above a land that was wrenching itself apart that she was spared the worst of it.

There had been a smattering of islands, little spits of land barely breaching the waves, that she'd been able to bound across. She'd rescued as many as she could, a dozen slung over her shoulders and the stones of two dozen more thrust in her pockets before she'd reached land, a coastline where once had been only rolling hills.

At one point she'd seen her sister in the distance: the waterlogged collection of gems standing atop an expanse of force fields was unmistakable. The injured rested on the fields while the healthy dove back into the water to look for more survivors. Rose had been tempted to bound over, to unload her own awkward pile of the rescued, to heal the hurt. But then Citrine breached the water, hauling a sputtering Bismuth to the surface.

With a surge of fear and uncertainty, Rose had bound onward instead.

After a very long night and day of triage, Rose staggered into her war room. Garnet was there along with those of her lieutenants who had found their way home. The missing faces were conspicuous, each a lead weight pressing on Rose's chest.

"How bad was it?" asked Rose, too weary for niceties.

One of her gems pointed to a picture taken from orbit. Rose suppressed a gasp only because she'd been darkly prepared for this: the face of the Earth changed, a wound made to the planet that was visible from space.

"The landmass had been highly militarized by Homeworld," piped up Larimar, ever one to see the silver lining. "They lost at least sixty bases. Maybe more. Add in the soldiers garrisoning those bases, and the legions the Diamonds had pulled in from elsewhere, and we're-"

She was silenced by Moss Agate pounding the table. The gem was Rose’s no-nonsense quartermaster, one of the many that had followed Rose when the Rebellion had split. "We lost five bases of our own, and three dozen resources caches. That includes our largest stock of light cannons and the armory."

Moss Agate loomed over the other gem as she ranted, the comparatively tiny Larimar shrinking away until she was effectively hiding beneath the table.

"Are you going to forge us replacement weapons?!" barked Moss Agate, the gem receiving a fearful headshake eclipsed by the lip of the table. "I thought not," she answered with an infamous Agate sneer. "And we lost one of our hidden communication towers, which is going to make recovering from this ten times harder. And we lost-" Her voice hitched. "We lost-"

The gem wheeled on Rose, her entire expression an anguished, voiceless question.

Rose gave a sad shake of her head. "Tourmaline wasn't among the ones who have made it back yet."

That proved too much for the large Agate who bulled Rose aside in her haste to escape the room.

Eventually rising from her hiding place, Larimar piped up, "The reports from our sister faction are promising," a tenuous smile reaching her lips if not her eyes. "Most of their bases are on the other side of the planet, after all."

Rose's eyes narrowed. Citrine wouldn't... would she?

Would she?

Tap-tap-tap

Garnet rarely showed her displeasure, instead retreating into a very Sapphire-like calm. Though she tended to show a more Ruby-like enthusiasm in battle afterwards, Rose had noticed.

That the fusion was tapping her finger irritably was for her as good as a roar from any other gem.

Tap-tap-tap

Rose was in a similarly stormy temperament. It was only because she was able to mend the material afterward that she still had a chair or table at all.

"Malachite," said Garnet in a voice dripping pure disdain.

The arm of Rose's chair crackled and splintered.

That monstrosity of a fusion was an even greater cudgel for her terrible sister to swing, the universe seemingly tripping over itself to give that gem every resource, every weapon, every opportunity to advance her heinous agenda.

Rose, meanwhile...

"How many-" she started to ask.

"Forty-five," answered Garnet immediately.

Tap-tap-tap

Forty-five defections, forty-five gems who had fled Rose's cause for hers.

That was this month. It had been thirty-nine the month prior and she'd seen too many of her remaining gems engaging in furtive conversations to think that next month would be any better.

The tapping stopped. A minute later there was, "They stare."

Rose blinked, casually dropping the shower of chair fragments to the floor as she turned to look at her most trusted lieutenant. "What?" she asked.

"The others. They stare now." The pained demeanor said far more than Garnet's words did. "At me. At Lemon Jade. Even at the fusions who refuse to fight." A beat. "People are afraid they'll turn into something like..." She didn't finish the sentence but the tapping of her finger grew in speed and intensity.

Tap-tap-tap-tap

The air was oppressive within the room as the two seethed.

Yet again Rose broke a part of her chair. The jagged remains were uncomfortable enough she heaved a sigh and repaired it.

The tapping stopped once more. "We could end it."

Rose sat up, her frown growing thoughtful as she deciphered this comment. Garnet, despite being her closest confidante, was often opaque if not outright cryptic. Then Rose looked at the table and realized Garnet had been tapping on a map, that her finger was now poised on the location of Citrine's sanctuary.

The pink gem drew an involuntary breath. Garnet was unhindered by the sanctuary's aura. If Citrine and her chief supporters were there, the Schism could be ended in under an hour. Some of the Citrine-loyalists would rail about it, but the rest would realize that with Homeworld prepared to shatter them on sight, Rose was their only remaining option.

It all played out across Rose's mind in an instant and a part of her yearned for what she saw on, an ache for long-delayed victory that was almost palpable.

She would do it, said a corner of Rose. With that the fantasy slipped away and she hung her head, briefly mourning the happy moment that’d passed.

"Victory that costs you your principles is victory only in name," she intoned.

Garnet studied her for a long moment, silence reigning. Then she gave a curt nod, the tension in her shoulders relaxing slightly. Her lieutenant, it seemed, agreed with her.

Why then did she not agree with herself?

It was all going wrong. Her last mission had been a failure. A qualified failure but so many of them had been of late.

Alone in her war room, Rose brooded. She'd sent the others away under the pretext of planning their next mission.

It wouldn't be this way if it weren't for her. The Rebellion's greatest strength had always been its unity: thousands of gems had come together, drawn by Rose's vision of a better way. Homeworld was ruled by distant and callous Diamonds, their will enforced by cruel gems like the Agates.

That so many gems risked form and facet to escape such authority figures? It was an affirmation of Rose’s faith in gemkind when they flocked en masse to Rose’s banner.

Or they had. Until she had forced Rose to flee. Until she had embarked on a reckless campaign of escalation, loosing her pet monstrosity on the planet. She was tainting the concept of fusion in the process. She was making a mockery of Rose's vision even as she stole it away from Rose one defection at a time.

It wasn't right. It wasn't fair.

And worst of all, Rose knew what was waiting at the end. It was only a matter of time before her wicked sister had consolidated enough power, assembled enough loyalists, crafted enough schemes to crown the despoliation with a murder that would be heard of and condemned across galaxies.

That would be the end. No one would remember that Rose had founded the Rebellion on high-minded ideals. Nor would they care that Citrine had wrested her own cause away from her. They would see Citrine, the shatterer of a Diamond, and think her wicked. And Rose, if she was remembered at all, would be considered just as guilty as her sister... only less successful.

Citrine had already shown herself to be reckless. One need only compare maps of the world, to note the conspicuously changed coastline to know she would ruin the planet to attain her victory, no matter the cost.

Citrine had already shown herself to be twisted. Malachite should have been forbidden, not encouraged. Citrine had warped fusion, an expression of love between two gems, into a weapon most terrible and hideous to behold.

It was Rose's responsibility to minimize the damage. That had always been her role: Citrine hurt others and Rose healed them. Citrine attacked and Rose protected them, from others but also from Citrine herself. Clearly she'd made a terrible mistake giving her sister free reign: the results spoke for themself.

Rose swept out of her war room. She crossed the camp moving swiftly. The mask fit snugly now so she smiled and greeted her gems as she traveled, but within she was a seething cauldron of emotions.

Several warps and some hours later, Rose came to a place known only to her and Garnet. Unsealing a vault door, she searched until she found what she was looking for.

Gesturing the bubble down, Rose sealed the vault and, with great, soaring leaps, bounded a suitable distance away. In an anonymous stretch of wilderness, she popped the bubble... and waited.

There was a flare of light and then the light blue gem's eyes fluttered open. "I'm free?" asked Beryl, clearly not expecting this.

Then she turned and came face-to-face with Rose. "GAH!" squealed the long-bubbled spy, falling over and scrabbling backward across the grass.

With fearsome presence, Rose stalked forward, holding Beryl captive in her gaze every step of the way. When the two were only inches apart, Rose said, "I have a message."

Beryl blink, trying and failing to put more room between her and Rose by flattening herself against the ground. "A message?"

"For them. Homeworld." A beat. "For Pink Diamond."

More blinks. Then something flashed across Beryl's eyes, something venal and calculating. "If it's from you, personally?" She nodded. "They probably won't shatter me for that."

Rose helped Beryl to her feet. The two walked to the nearest warp pad. They walked, Rose spoke, and Beryl listened.

They were in a meadow high in the mountains. Once there had been tiny flowers dotting it, a place of tranquility untouched by war or terraforming. It had been before two super-Quartzes had clashed, a bitter duel for dominance that had left the ground churned, the flowers trampled, the meadow a ruin of thorns and scorched earth.

With Rose's leaked intel, Citrine's terrible advance began to falter, hidden bases uncovered and long-term plans, thwarted. Meanwhile, Rose had finally lifted the restriction on clashing with the rival rebel faction. The stakes were too high; she couldn't hold back any longer.

In reaction, Citrine had issued an ultimatum: rejoin, relent, or be removed. Rose had resisted, giving more and more of herself to resist her terrible sister's ascent.

Citrine was unstoppable. Indomitable. Rose's faction had heroes: gems of renown, conviction, and power. But whenever Citrine took the field, the only outcome Rose could manage was a fighting retreat.

She began to have nightmares about her sister stalking her, hunting her down, changing her so that Rose would never again attempt to escape.

Sometimes the nightmares didn't wait for her to be asleep.

But with relentless unstoppability, Citrine triumphed. Again. And again. Even when Rose seemed to win an engagement, it would turn out to have been a feint or part of a larger ruse. Where Citrine was concerned, all roads led to victory and only to victory.

Now there was only Rose and Garnet. All others had rejoined, relented, or been removed.

Then Citrine had personally delivered a message through Garnet. A talk, just the two of them, someplace remote but of Rose's choosing.

Rose had wanted to run away and hide but she couldn't run any more. If her life was to be a waking nightmare, better to face the nightmare and be done with it. If her sister was going to take everything of hers, better to give her all that remained so as not to prolong the inevitable.

And then, upon that alpine meadow, her terrible, wicked sister had begged Rose to return. She'd promised Rose the Rebellion, the Earth, promised that Rose could cast her out if only she'd return.

But only after they'd won. Her way, with a Diamond in pieces.

Because she didn't think that Rose could win without her.

Scabbard cast aside, Rose attacked her sister then and there, centuries of frustration and fear and torment fueling her feverish assault.

The fight had been great and terrible, had turned the pristine meadow into a ruin.

And Citrine had won, because she always did. Nothing and nobody could stop Citrine, no matter what.

Rose was kneeling, broken, defeated. Citrine's sword was at her neck and she was waiting for it to end. A part of her was longing for it to end.

"Rose, please, stand," said a voice. "Come back. All will forgive you, and if they don't, I will speak with them myself. There is a war to be won and everyone needs your help. I need your help."

Slowly, Rose Quartz stood. She stared at her sister in disbelief, a bitter taste forming in her mouth. "Even now you welcome me back?"

"Please?" was all Citrine said, expression pleading.

For a second, Rose was tempted. It wouldn't be oblivion, but it would be an end of sorts.

But then she thought of returning, of all the gems, even her own former followers, seeing her, defeated and brought to heel, another in the endless parade of Citrine's conquests.

It would be one thing if Citrine had dragged her back, forced her to return in a bubble or bodily hauled her back into the fold. Citrine would have triumphed but she would have the taint of the conqueror on her hands.

But if Rose came willingly, if she smiled and stood beside her sister, then Citrine's victory would be total and absolute. It would mean Rose condoned what Citrine was doing and would do in the future.

No, she thought behind her mask. No! You're the bad one, the cruel one, the terrible one. Not me. You! You don't get to have it all! You don't get to win, win at any cost, and forgive!

At times over the long and bitter nightmare that the Schism had become, Rose had fantasized about winning. Of saving the world, not only from the Diamonds but from her crazed sister as well. And in her fantasies, she'd bubbled Citrine. In front of everyone, remorsefully but with principled determination, she'd sealed away her sister with the unspoken promise that, someday, maybe, the Quartz could be freed and allowed to learn the error of her way. It would show the world that victory belonged to the righteous, the just.

And now Citrine would take even that from her.

Rose was the forgiving one, not her!

With a snarl Rose lunged forward, her sword plunging into her sister. Citrine looked at Rose, shocked, as if unable to comprehend what had just happened. She looked down at the blade sunk into her middle.

Then she poofed.

Rose dropped to her knees, laughing and sobbing in great heaving breaths.

A bubble wouldn't suffice. Bubbles burst or could be stolen. Citrine had numberless supporters now; someone would find her and free her, no matter where Rose hid her.

Rose reached out and took her sister's stone. It was such a small thing and yet responsible for so many centuries of agony for Rose, responsible for so many terrible things done to the Earth and others.

It was so small and it would be so easy. Half a second, just closing her fist, and then... the nightmare would be over. Forever.

Slowly, as if sampling the sensation, Rose tightened her grip. The edges of the stone bit into her palm, her sister painful even in her final moments. Increment by increment, she squeezed tighter.

There was the faintest of crackles, a tiny fault line appearing in the flawless yellow stone.

She would do it, said a corner of Rose.

Rose dropped the stone like it had burned her, a scream escaping her lips.

No! I do NOT shatter. She would. Not me. I'm not like her. I will NEVER be like her!

For a time Rose only stood there, frightened and seething.

The sun emerged from behind a cloud and the light made Citrine's gemstone sparkle.

Rose gave a yelp, pure fear coursing through her form. She couldn't be here. She had to get away. She had to escape while there was still time.

Shatter Citrine and she would lose. Bubble her and she would lose. Go with her and she would lose: where Citrine was concerned, all roads led to victory and only to victory.

Rose fled, her scabbard forgotten. She fled away from the meadow, away from Garnet, and into the arms of the last person who could protect her.

She fled to Pink Diamond.

Chapter Text

When Yellow and Blue Diamond had taken control of quashing the rebellion on Earth, they'd had an opulent and highly secure palace built to house their pink sister.

Whether she wanted it or not.

It was within, under the protection (and close watch) of a division of Yellow Diamond's Topaz guards, that Rose Quartz found her Diamond.

Rose Quartz moved into the center of the room and knelt, the panic-tinged fear of the alpine meadow still clinging to her.

“My- My Diamond. She has to be stopped. I couldn’t stop her.” Her eyes rose and the look she fixed Pink Diamond with was pleading. “Citrine will ruin everything unless you defeat her.” She stood, advancing a step, which made several of the guards twitch anxiously.

“Please,” begged Rose Quartz.

A minute of silence passed. Then her Diamond answered. “It seems that you and your sister shall be my greatest lasting accomplishment. If Spinel were still here I would ask if she had written the future’s script because that is a joke of terrible perfection.”

Rose Quartz was at a loss for how to respond to that, the sword hanging limply in her grip. Then she said, “My Diamond, please, take me back, make use of me, but stop my sister before she shatters you and twists the Rebellion into a mockery of itself.”

The deposed matriarch’s eyes narrowed, but she otherwise remained statuesque. “Let me guess. Your sister has taken everything from you, everything you wanted. She’s taken it in your name all while you scream for her to stop.” She sat up slightly. “Do I have the right of it?”

The words caught in Rose’s throat, the gem only nodding in agreement.

Finally Pink Diamond rose in her seat, regal bearing returning, her expression harsh but determined. “Listen and listen well when you report this to my sister.”

Rose needed a second to realize that Pink Diamond was addressing the Topaz guards.

“I hereby receive Rose Quartz back to my court,” intoned Pink Diamond. “She is absolved of all her past misdeeds. Blame for the Rebellion is laid solely at her sister Citrine’s feet-”

Rose flinched, a corner of her wailing out in protest because 'blame' in this case also meant 'credit' and 'ownership.' Not only did her Diamond notice this, she was grinning vindictively. Still, Rose was in no position to object anymore: she'd thrown herself on Pink Diamond's mercy, be it cruel or kind.

“Furthermore, I elevate Rose Quartz to be the enforcer of my will. She acts with my authority and no other gem in my court is above her scrutiny. In this I proclaim her eternal loyalty-” the words coming out bitter, the punchline to a sardonic joke only she understood, “-to the empire of gemkind.”

A long moment passed and then Rose remembered where she was, long disused courtly courtesies rising to memory. She curtsied, head lowered. “Thank you, my Diamond.”

With that her Diamond ordered Rose to hand her sword over so that the guards would finally be willing to leave the room. She did, the Topazes filing out, closing --and locking-- the door behind them.

The two spoke briefly, her Diamond free with her darkly humorous laughter and sardonic scorn. Then she said how one of two things would happen.

If the Rebellion was crushed then Citrine would be shattered, Pink Diamond would be locked away in a tower on Homeworld until her sisters deigned to release her, and the Earth would be turned into yet another colony of no import. And Rose, Rose would live with the agony of everything she'd loved going to ruin. That thought would help Pink Diamond through her confinement: that when she eventually emerged, Rose would be there, having suffered as she had.

If the Rebellion succeeded then Pink Diamond would be shattered, the empire would stagnate, and all of Earth would celebrate Citrine's victory while Rose was scorned for a traitor and an incompetent.

Rose Quartz’ teeth were clenched at the thought.

Pink Diamond continued her terrible prophecy. “If Citrine wins then so too must you. And win more grandly, otherwise Citrine will have shown herself the superior sister, for she did it first and against all opposition. And should you win, you will show my sisters exactly how terrible a thing your loyalty can be.” Pink Diamond remained at her throne, grinning viciously as ire smouldered behind her eyes.

Floundering, Rose bowed and said, “What would you have me do, my Diamond? How can we defeat Citrine?” Terrible may be her Diamond's mercy, but if it stopped Citrine, it would be a price worth paying.

Her Diamond gave a dismissive wave, slumping atop her throne. “Do as you would, Rose: you serve my will regardless. For you see, you will never be rid of your sister, just as I will never be rid of mine. That is the terrible truth that binds you to me stronger than any oath.”

Rose looked at her Diamond, stricken, the matriarch's words chilling Rose to the core of her stone. What have I done? she quaked, fear coursing through her form.

But then she took a steadying breath and thought. Her Diamond was bitter in her confinement so she lashed out at Rose simply because she could. But her boon had been genuine: the position Rose had been elevated to was unprecedented, above even the loftiest of aristocratic gems and second only to the Diamonds themselves. Pink Diamond may be the ruler of Earth in name only, but she was still a Diamond. Unless the other Diamonds gainsaid it, Rose had just been made Pink Diamond's enforcer and given the mission, 'Do as you would.'

Rose Quartz turned to leave. She had arrived the defeated and frightened general of a rebellion that had been taken from her. She was departing the fearsome right hand of Pink Diamond herself, with all the resources and authority that afforded her. A small but fierce flicker of hope sparkled in Rose.

And after her sister had been stopped, then she would find a way to undo the damage. She'd save the Earth, strip the polluting elements from the former Rebellion, and see it reborn into something pure. It would be a glorious victory.

It would be Rose's and Rose's alone.

Rose was in the Diamond Base on the Moon. Originally all the terraforming data from Earth had been routed to the consoles in this room. Eventually this had come to include much of the intel from the war. Yellow and Blue Diamond decided the course of Homeworld's military from their war room, but the data that informed those decisions was first received and analyzed here.

Half the gems at the consoles wore pink. The rest wore blue or yellow. All of them sat straight-backed, their full attention turned to their analysis because Rose Quartz was present and a lapse or mistake would be punished harshly.

Word had spread like wildfire when it was revealed that Rose had secretly been Pink Diamond's agent since the beginning. It explained why she'd split the Rebellion and then used it against itself. It explained why her sister had been so ruthless in uprooting Rose's faction. A few had voiced their skepticism of this grand reveal but Yellow Diamond, Blue Diamond, and Pink Diamond --by way of Rose Quartz herself-- had made it clear that such rumors would be dealt with swiftly.

Though Rose had been merciful, arguing against shattering for these initial challenges to her authority. Instead, the naysayers had been allowed to demonstrate their dedication to Homeworld by fighting the rebellion directly.

From the frontlines.

Rose sat in her command chair, her infamous sword draped across her lap. An expression of calm confidence was on her face, the mask resting easily in place for her these days. She was safe. Her sister couldn't reach her, especially not here of all places. Rose’s every contribution was thwarting her sister and she was able to parlay this progress into more authority from a Blue and Yellow Diamond who were shockingly grateful to see this embarrassing conflict drawing to a close; the pair ever wary of White Diamond's distant gaze falling to Earth.

There was a flurry of activity as the next wave of intel was received, each analyst hurrying to their tasks. One of Rose's first acts had been to uncover the mechanism by which Citrine's Zircon was receiving copies of much of Homeworld's own intel. Now the data being transmitted to the lunar base was compiled from a secure location and sent in heavily encrypted batches twice an hour.

Raising her datapad and skimming the new intel herself, Rose saw that there was confirmation of both Jasper and Lapis being present for the assault on the main spaceport on Earth. Nicknamed 'Ascension', it was the primary arrival and departure point for all non-warp travel to or from the Earth's surface.

Shortly after Lapis Lazuli had turned rebel, Citrine had made a point of destroying as many launch sites and maintenance pads for Homeworld's aerial fleet as possible. This combined with Lapis' ability to down aircraft en masse had brought an end to Homeworld once-overwhelming aerial superiority. A consequence of that was more and more consolidation of existing launch sites until only a few, heavily defended locations remained.

Ascension was the largest and most important of these. Most of Homeworld's atmosphere-capable craft were docked there, including Blue and Yellow Diamonds' personal ships.

Skimming further, Rose was not at all surprised to see that the garrisons of numerous surrounding bases were being sent out: no one wanted to be the commander whose troops had remained behind when the Diamonds' own ships were scuttled by rebel soldiers. She tutted to herself knowing full well that her terrible sister would capitalize on this to strike out against targets of opportunity. She included as much in her own analysis for the Diamonds but only as a face-saving measure: by the time her recommendations were broadcast back to Earth, the chance to prevent a minor overcommitment of Homeworld forces would have passed.

Besides, the massive response was at least partially justified. It was rare to be able to force an engagement with Citrine's rebels -- they were usually there and gone too quickly for Homeworld to muster an appropriate force. But a rebel army that size wouldn't be able to fade away before suffering sizable casualties. And with Bismuth unseen for some time, striking against Jasper and Lapis was the next best thing to striking Citrine herself.

Minutes passed, several analysts completing their assigned work and now fidgeting as they waited for the next data packet from Earth.

Rose frowned as she found herself drawn to the same dozen or so reports, a spike of fear twisting in her form. Something was bothering her, something about this situation was leaving her deeply unsettled and she couldn't figure out why. She eyed the corners of the room, wary of threats. She studied the rows of analysts, looking for a hint of subterfuge among them and seeing none.

I am safe, she recited to herself, taking care to keep her mask of confidence in place. She can't reach me. I have the weight of Pink Diamond's authority to shield me and arm me against my terrible-

Rose gasped, the datapad dropping from her fingers. Most of the analysts turned to see what had happened, though several just as quickly returned to their work when they realized the noise had come from the gem in the room they least wanted to attract the attention of.

Springing to her feet, Rose leapt to a terminal manned by a Peridot wearing pink. There were noises of surprise throughout the room but she paid them no mind. The Peridot jolted in fright, floating green rods clattering to the ground. "E-Esteemed Rose-" she mumbled while fumbling a hasty salute, but Rose cut her off.

"When was the last report from the honor guard?" she barked.

The Peridot started to try and retrieve her scattered rods. These were used in conjunction with metallokinesis to act as a second set of fingers, but the gem gave up on the effort a half-second later when she took in Rose's expression. Instead, she brought up the data with her own hands, data streaming first across her visor and then appearing in the holographic display over the terminal.

"No alerts, esteemed one," narrated the Peridot with a tremor in her voice. "The palace briefly lost contact with the larger network but that is being attributed to a component failure. The system automatically switched to using the backup broadcaster and all security reports since then appear normal." She blinked, then stammered out, "B-But I am filing a maintenance request for the primary broadcaster immediately, esteemed Rose Quartz!"

It was like someone had plunged an icicle into Rose's gemstone and it was all she could do not to scream.

"Activate the Diamond Communicator," commanded the pink gem.

The other analysts in the room had given up any pretext and were openly gawking by this point.

The Peridot jolted again. "But that's- Yellow Diamond herself said that if anyone was caught using the Diamond Communicator without-"

The terminal beside them was staffed by a Rutile whose form was crisscrossed with titanium striations. Leaning over with stoic silence, Rose brought her sword down hard. The terminal was bisected, a cascade of sparks erupting out of the side, the Rutile screaming and falling out of her seat.

Before Rose could even repeat her command, the Peridot was already typing furiously, the green gem exclaiming, "Activating the Diamond Communicator."

There was an unmistakable musical chime and then Pink Diamond's throne room was visible.

Pink Diamond was conspicuously absent; in her place, over the throne's seat, hovered a yellow bubble.

The Peridot squinted. "I don't understand. What are we seeing?" A beat later she added hastily, "Esteemed Rose Quartz."

It was at that time one of the analysts realized what had happened and shrieked repeatedly, descending into hysterics. The others, however, were unable or unwilling to recognize the unthinkable, the blasphemous, the seemingly impossible.

Citrine had told her how she would do this. Had told her a hundred times, one argument after another. With a serious force attacking a vital target, Homeworld would have no choice but to respond. Meanwhile, the palace needed to be isolated. Rose's terrible sister had invented any number of clever schemes to do this and Rose had made sure the palace was hardened against all of them.

After all, so long as Pink Diamond was safe, so too was Rose. So long as Pink Diamond was intact, Citrine couldn't win.

The one analyst continued to shriek. The Peridot, still confused, only asked, "If our exalted Diamond had departed, why wasn't that included in the report packet?"

"The backup broadcaster was tampered with," said Rose in a flat voice. "It is broadcasting falsified data."

Another gem realized what she was looking at and dropped to her knees, tears streaming down her face. That seemed to clue in a few others, most of them wearing pink insignias, and the wailing grew louder.

Rose had done everything she could to anticipate her sister, wracked her gem for ideas. She'd replaced all the servants with ones that had only just arrived on Earth. She'd convinced Yellow Diamond to triple the guards. She'd even-

A sob escaped Rose. Mask or no mask, the realization was too painful to contain.

She'd even had redundant hardware for all vital infrastructure installed, including the backup broadcaster.

"You will never be rid of your sister, just as I will never be rid of mine. That is the terrible truth that binds you to me stronger than any oath."

She could hear the horrible words, the prophecy delivered by her Diamond in a mocking tone.

Citrine had won, because she always did. Nothing and nobody could stop Citrine, no matter what.

Rose would never be safe.

Everyone was being shipped back to Homeworld. No exceptions, not even for Rose.

White Diamond herself was en route to Earth.

Rose gripped her sword so tightly the metal groaned. The finely appointed room she was in was in tatters, the servant they'd assigned her long since fled. Only the window was intact, and only then because the view it afforded of the retreating Earth gave Rose something to scream at.

Maybe she'd restore the damage later but right now she could only rage at the injustice of it all.

She'd been virtuous where her sister had been wicked. She'd taken the kinder path whenever she'd been able to, where her sister had shown that no tactic was beneath her. She'd made something beautiful and her sister had turned it into something grotesque.

"Ours is not a kind world. It is ugly and messy and it can't be remade into something better without someone getting the stain of it upon them," her sister had said to her.

Her sister had been right. You had to be ugly to succeed in an ugly universe. Kindness was punished and cruelty, rewarded. Victory went to the one willing to claw it out of the muck first.

The sisters had been made as opposites, each what the other was not. Citrine had been victory incarnate, which meant Rose was...

"Rrraaah!" Rose roared, shield appearing on her arm. Dropping her sword, she gripped the shield by the base and used it to bludgeon the window like a club. The porthole was made of transparent aluminum but after a minute of screaming, Quartzine fury, the shield staved it in before the outrushing atmosphere sucked the whole frame into space.

Rendered voiceless, Rose continued to rage, retrieving her sword and hacking through the remains of the table.

Rose's behavior had been met with abject failure. Citrine's behavior had been met with resounding success. So it seemed obvious that Rose only had one option, and may the ruination of any that got in her way convince the rest that the kindly Rose of Earth was shattered as surely as her Diamond.

But...

That's what she would do, said a corner of Rose and for a moment she paused in her destruction.

She stood there, watching as parts of the furniture floated about in the microgravity, some even drifting out the window into the endless space beyond.

Rose allowed the shield on her arm to dissolve, though the sword remained firmly in her grip. No, even if Rose had been naive before, debasing herself for victory like her sister had would be a vindication of sorts for Citrine.

No, Rose had to be better even if she could no longer be good.

Hers was not a kind universe. It was ugly and messy and Rose would have to be ugly and messy herself to succeed in it. But she was better than her sister. She would have restraint. The universe may punish her for her principles but she would hold to at least one, no matter what.

By the time the ship arrived at its destination, the room had been repaired to pristine condition... save for the window. Rose had spent the trip in silence, listening only to the sound of her thoughts.

She would win. She would win in a way Citrine never could, at least one line left uncrossed. And she would win on a scale Citrine never would.

After all, her Diamond had proclaimed Rose's eternal loyalty not to her, not to the Diamond Authority, but to the empire of gemkind. And what could be more loyal an act than to improve the very empire she served?

Now she just needed to find a way to remove the three Diamonds that were ruining it.

The blue-clad Tourmaline had wailed and pleaded from the second Rose had caught her until the moment Rose had poofed and bubbled her.

When she could, Rose liked to add spectacle to her captures. Marching a shamefaced Quartz or a battered Agate across a station was much more eye-catching than escorting a bubble. But the Tourmaline had been so loudly pathetic that Rose had poofed her just to shut her up.

As Rose strode across the station toward the warp hub, gems hurrying to get out of her way, she had to admit the sniveling gem had had a point.

There was only one plausible fate for a Blue Court dissident.

Yellow Diamond considered shattering wasteful. Even the most reprehensible deviant could still be embedded to power something useful, after all. That was one of the reasons Rose had focused so heavily on rooting out dissidents in Yellow Diamond's territory.

Blue Diamond, however, had no such reservations. Gems who displeased her were shattered. Embeddings were a rarity, demotions, doubly so.

The gem Rose Quartz had bubbled would be shattered.

Rose pondered this, even going so far as to add two more waystations to her journey back to Homeworld. If anyone questioned her, she'd say it was to follow leads the Tourmaline had confessed to upon capture... despite the gem having done nothing but plead until she'd been poofed. But really it was to give Rose time to think.

It was on her way to the third warp hub, a nervous Novaculite hastily entering her destination from the control terminal, that Rose realized she was fretting unnecessarily.

During the Rebellion she'd sent gems on missions that had seen them shattered. Never for that express purpose, but it had been an inescapable risk of being a rebel. Rose had mourned, especially at first, but in time she'd learned it was the fault of Homeworld for condoning shattering in combat. The Homeworld soldiers, after all, had known they would be bubbled instead, barring the rare and tragic battlefield accident. Rose had cast out gems from her own cause for doing otherwise, so the blame for shattering was on those who demanded it.

Shattering was an inescapable risk of being a Blue Court dissident. This gem had known that, had stated that fact loudly and repeatedly until Rose had silenced her. Rose hadn't shattered her, merely poofed and bubbled her. Rose hadn't forced the gem to do anything so foolish as engage in a public act of dissension either. And what the Blue Court did with the Tourmaline after receiving the bubble was no fault of Rose's.

Despite there no longer being a Pink Diamond, the Pink Court still existed. Gems still did their appointed tasks, stations were maintained, and reports were filed. For most gems, the only tangible change was of the insignia: the pink diamond shattered just like their Diamond.

At first Rose had been surprised to discover this. She'd always suspected that, absent active oppression, gems would naturally forgo the nastier or more obviously flawed aspects of the status quo within the Diamond Authority. But the gears of the empire continued to turn on inertia alone.

It was obvious fact that gems were slow to change --though that fact was a lot less obvious if you had never been to Earth-- so the gems of the Pink Court continued doing as they had always done.

With, perhaps, more hugging and crying than you saw in the other courts.

Rose later learned that this wasn't the gem-blowing insight she'd originally taken it for. Before Pink Diamond's shattering, White Diamond emerged rarely from her ship on Homeworld. After returning from Earth, White Diamond emerged... never. But the White Court continued to operate with effectively no Diamond guidance. In practice, everyone did what they had always done and the active Diamonds were either too scared of their sequestered sister or too sentimental about their shattered sister to meddle...

...Provided Rose was there to root out the occasional incompetent or catch the occasional dissident as she traveled from one end of the empire to the other.

Rose had been tasked with carrying out Pink Diamond's will. And with no Pink Diamond there to reign her in or contradict her, she found... she could do whatever she wanted.

There were still limits, though. Her persona as the avenging Rose Quartz, her pink sword ever-unsheathed, had become established fact so she had to maintain that to keep her autonomy. Blue Diamond and Yellow Diamond could still check her just as they had with Pink Diamond herself. However, provided she came when they called, shared the occasional anecdote about their dearly departed sister, and continued to appear to root out undesirables, her authority was just another unquestioned part of the status quo.

All of this flashed through Rose's mind after she'd punched in her override code and walked in sword upraised... only to see a familiar light blue face among the circle of dissidents she'd just caught.

They were huddled around a table, a hologram showing a derelict station in orbit around a gas giant.

In a snap decision that was more impulse than calculation, Rose smiled wide, sword arm lowering. Then, in a honeyed voice, she said, "Good work, Beryl," and walked unhurriedly over to study the hologram more closely.

The station actually orbited a moon that had been strip-mined of all useful minerals. Said moon was tidally locked with a gas giant whose atmosphere was a swirling maelstrom of yellow and purple clouds, all located on the edge of Yellow Diamond’s space.

The dissidents retreated from her, then stared at Beryl with expressions ranging from confusion to imminent violence. The former spy, unmoored but with just enough guile to keep that off her face, said in a hesitant voice, "Uh, yeah... boss."

Rose's smile deepened, a hint of teeth bared before she turned from Beryl to address the group. "You are all dissidents, undesirables who your Diamonds would see embedded or shattered."

The others retreated a step further, a pair of Era-2s huddling together and clutching one another. One particularly sour-faced Obsidian, however, looked like she was ready to see Beryl in shards before she faced the same.

Rose continued, suppressing a laugh at just how easy this sort of thing was when the others were an open book to you. "And for what? Because you can see the obvious problems and refuse to turn a blind eye to them? Because you're willing to actually do something about it?" She actually had no idea what had turned this group into dissenters, but that was no obstacle here. "What’s going on is folly that none of us are willing to be party to."

A beat and then a Nephrite from among the group said in a wavering voice, "Y-You're not here to poof us and hand us over to the Agates?"

Standing nearby, Beryl herself looked like she really wanted to know the answer to that question.

"I'm the terrifying Rose Quartz. My sword claims dozens, even scores of undesirables every cycle," and she brought her sword up causing several in her audience to flinch. "Everyone knows that. Which is why no one will question it when you vanish. And no one will think that you're actually working to make a difference from an abandoned station on the edge of civilized space. For me." A beat and then, "That's why Beryl insinuated herself into this group. She helps me find right-minded gems."

She trapped Beryl with her gaze. "Isn't that right, Beryl?"

Beryl jolted, a weak smile rising to her face. "Yeah? Yeah! Exactly, boss."

In her peripheral vision, she could tell that the group wasn't completely swayed. No matter: Rose could fix that.

Never taking her eyes off of Beryl, Rose said, "But first, I need to remove the Homeworld spy from our midst. Who is it, Beryl?"

Beryl only hesitated to give a fleeting look of helplessness, the trap closing with no means of escape. "Her!" she shouted, pointing at the Obsidian and jumping back.

The Obsidian went wide-eyed for a second --"What?! I-"-- before her brows came crashing down, her mouth becoming a snarl. "Why you filthy-" Lunging for Beryl, she got in one punch before she erupted into a cloud of black smoke around Rose's sword, her gemstone clattering to the floor.

The Nephrite screamed and both of the Era-2s had fallen over in their fright. But when the smoke cleared a Sodalite stomped over and spat on the black stone. "I trusted you!" she shouted before very deliberately walking over to Rose's side.

Beryl followed her over, then came a few more stragglers. The Era-2s clambered to their gravity connectors, clomping over in their haste. By the time Rose had the Obsidian bubbled, the Nephrite had calmed down enough to jog over as well.

Addressing her new followers, Rose said, "The gems around you are your squad. Get to know them well. Once the station is ready and Beryl is convinced there are no more... loose ends, I'll bring by more members of the cause." --Just as soon as I've recruited more.-- "As you can see, security and trust are key: the Diamonds have secret agents everywhere."

The Sodalite was nodding fiercely, an intense expression on her face. The others, sparing her a glance, followed suit soon after.

"Work together. Beryl answers directly to me-" Another held gaze to the former spy just to drive the message home. "-So listen to her. There are hundreds like you out there and I'm bringing them all together." A beat and a smile. "It's going to be something beautiful."

Her Diamond's last trip before her confinement was absolute had been to visit her garden.

While that wasn't common knowledge, few secrets remained so if it was Rose asking the questions. Or she could simply fall asleep and a certain stonewalling aristocrat would spend a shift reviewing Rebellion-era warp logs.

It was such a useful power Rose had discovered.

What had been even more interesting was that the aged warp logs showed two traveling to the garden and only one returning.

When Rose had arrived on the warp pad, instinct compelled her to summon her bubble in time to intercept a pie to the face. It seemed Spinel had rigged up a slapstick greeting for when her best friend returned.

How the pie had survived the centuries, or how Spinel had made the pie in the first place, though, were mysteries that not even Rose would ever find answers to.

Bounding over, Spinel had met Rose with a cheer. After all, her best friend must have gotten things back in order on Earth if Rose Quartz of all people was back in, as she called them, ‘Pink Court jammies.’

When Rose told her of what had actually happened to their Diamond, Spinel took the news… poorly. The tantrum that had ultimately poofed Spinel had destroyed much of the once-pristine garden.

When the gem reformed, her heart-shaped gemstone was flipped and there were dark lines running from eye to cheek. An air of manic aggression hung about her as her mouth twisted into a toothy snarl.

"Citrine shattered my bestie. And Blue and Yellow Diamond-" her voice coming out in a growl, "-janked up everything she was trying to do before locking her in a box that apparently had a Citrine-shaped hole in the side!" and her hands grew four times as large just so she could clench her fists more dramatically.

"So what I wanna know-" She advanced on Rose. "What I wanna know-" and she stretched up so that she loomed over the stern-faced Quartz.

In an instant, Spinel snapped back to normal and was smiling sweetly. "-Is who gets to tape a 'Kick Me' sign on 'em before punting them into a black hole?" She extended her right hand out, her thumb stretching up to ridiculous lengths. In a razzy voice, Spinel said, "I'll thumb wrestle ya for it!"

The tip of the thumb waved at Rose while Spinel waggled her eyebrows.

Rose smiled. Then she laughed, a hearty thing like she’d heard little of since the Schism. "Leave the Diamonds to me and Citrine is all yours," she said eventually, wiping under one eye and then the other. She gestured invitingly toward the warp pad.

"DEAL!" and Spinel (literally) bounced over to the pad.

Rose followed at a more dignified pace, saying as she stepped onto the warp crystal, "I have some new friends I'd like to introduce you to."

“New friends?!” and once more, Spinel’s voice was a razzy shout. “I love new friends! We can play games and make up fun nicknames for each other and talk about how we’re going to force feed a certain yellow someone a destabilizer. Sideways. Not turned on, silly-head, because where’s the fun in-”

The two vanished in a flash of light.

It had taken time but Rose had devised a means of removing the Diamonds from her way. Inspiration had come from her honeypot, a trap for recruitment whereby gems seeking to warp to Earth wound up instead in Rose's clutches. Rose had no illusions about how terrible the Diamonds' wrath would be if they were attacked and so she chose not to give them a fight. In contrast, a Diamond stepping onto a warp pad and arriving instead on a remote asteroid adrift in interstellar space? Once the arrival pad detonated, a Diamond’s mighty wrath would be for naught because, unlike Lapis Lazulis or Scolecites, Diamonds had no innate means to travel space.

Her agents were in place awaiting only their opportunity and their signal.

It had taken time but Rose had found gems capable of restoring her shattered Diamond. The reconstructed were often confused and in pain, mere shadows of their former selves. But then, with Pink Diamond returned to fill the void left by her vacant sisters, none would gainsay her. And if, in her addled state, Pink Diamond had to rely on her trusted Rose Quartz to make certain decisions and communicate her will? No one would question that either.

She needed only to acquire the shards.

It had taken time but Rose had learned what exactly the Cluster was. Despite being a thing of horror and unparalleled destructive might, it would emerge just as desperate for guidance as any gem. Doubly so since its very form would be confusing and painful. If Rose could communicate with it, she could sway it. Soothe it. She had found gems capable of opening that communication for her, she needed only to bring them to the Cluster.

Some change could not be enticed, only imposed, and with the Cluster under her control, she would be able to do exactly that.

Rose was seated in her quarters in the Zoo station. Her new Pearl was busily tidying and beautifying the space, aflutter with happiness and literally singing Rose's praises. She had a lovely voice and even as far back as the Sand Spire during the Rebellion, Rose had found the gem alluring. Pearls, no matter how splendid, tended to be insipid once you got to know them. Her Pearl, however, was anything but.

For all her autonomy, the one thing Rose could never do was return to Earth in force. In secret, yes, but she wouldn't dare face her terrible sister unarmed. The Diamonds had forbidden any overt returns to that planet, allowing only the occasional remote-operated probe.

But the probes had all been destroyed on arrival. And now Rose had first-hand testimony that some rebels had survived the Diamonds' wrath and were stymying their Peridot's efforts to check on the Cluster's progress. She'd been able to convince the Diamonds to authorize an expedition. An armed expedition. With Rose at the helm.

Pearl crossed the room and, with a pirouette, hung a pretty ornament on the wall. Rose chuckled at the sight, Pearl gliding away with a pleased blush to her cheeks.

Studying the decoration, Rose recognized it from the Sand Spire. Pearl must have been storing that one for a very long time; likely waiting for the day she was reunited with her owner. The symbolism of hanging it here wasn't lost on Rose.

Yes, everything had finally come into place for Rose. She had what was practically a fifth court loyal to her. She had agents throughout the empire, some in very key places, ready to make her rise to dominance a swift one. And she had just been given the means to acquire the last two missing pieces to her takeover.

So why was it that Rose, rather than feeling the flush of anticipation or the glow of pride, only felt fear?

Chapter Text

Back in Jasper's room, Rose read her journal and trembled with emotion.

There were fascinating reveals. Insight into Wolf's origin and why Rose felt such a strong connection to him. Also something oh-so-enticing about a power Rose had yet to discover and how it, somehow, had to do with the trees inside Wolf's pocket dimension.

But for all of that, Rose found herself again and again returning to one passage, the words hitting her like hammer blows to the gemstone.

I failed Rose. On that distant day the Schism began and the day of our final exchange, I failed her. I am a Citrine, I am designed to triumph and yet I could not win my own sister to my side. Not only did I drive her away, she was brought to the brink of shattering, Rose Quartz . She must have fled and, incautious or too despairing to fight, she was captured by Homeworld.

According to Peridot, she is slave to the Diamonds to this day, and worse still, forced to do terrible things to survive under their bleak authority. It must be a ruse, and one that costs her in fractions of herself to maintain. Something beautiful has been tainted and lost, Connie. Such misery have I wrought on my sister, it is almost more than I can bear.

I take solace, in the Earth, in peace, in Lapis, Jasper, Peridot, and Doug living within that peace. In Victory and his antics. In the thought of you, Connie. But for me, the term fault line is apt, because it is a line that symbolizes that which is a result of my faults.

Rose had spent millennia hating Citrine, blaming her for the many dark disappointments in Rose’s life, fearing her as an inevitable and inexorable threat ever looming on the horizon.

After the war, Rose had grown harder and more willing to do what she needed to win. In contrast, her sister had grown... softer and more compassionate toward others.

That terrified Rose more than anything else she'd read or seen since coming to Earth.

Even separated across innumerable light years and a gulf of millennia, Rose had still been shackled to her sister, the two shifting in tandem with one another. Because Rose was half of a whole, locked into parity with a sister she seemed fated to never truly escape.

And now, no matter how Rose won, even when she deposed the Diamonds and used her reconstructed figurehead to steer the Empire to something better, she would know her sister had repented. She'd know that Citrine had vanished into Connie remorseful in her victory.

All roads led to victory and only to victory for Citrine. The totality of it staggered Rose and for a time she could only stand there and read those terrible words, hearing perfectly the sad voice of the sister that had written them.

For anyone else, Rose would have instinctively bubbled herself. For anyone else, Rose would have lashed out. But it was Pearl who approached.

"My Rose," said Rose's trusted servant. "The shards are not here." An apologetic bow followed.

For a split-second it was too much for Rose. She was about to collapse into tears of frustration, the journal having made her vulnerable in a way she'd not been for millennia.

Then a surge of indignation buoyed Rose, her mask snapping into place. No! She had gone too far, sacrificed too much to let her sister win like this.

Drawing herself up, Rose snapped the book shut and let it drop to the ground with a noise that was loud in the silent Kindergarten. "Follow me," she said, long strides eating up the distance as she headed for the exit and the Beach House beyond.

Her Pearl moved swiftly to keep pace.

The Beach House looked unchanged from how they'd left it. Good. After Pearl retrieved the precious Diamond shard, Rose cycled the temple until the Burning Room was visible, a thousand bubbles or more clustered around the upper boughs of the crystal heart powering the structure.

"I want you to take the remaining explosives you prepared and place them throughout this room. Your goal is to destroy the heart and pop as many bubbles as possible." A beat. "Save one charge for the warp pad in the house, though. I don't want any surprises."

Pearl said nothing, only bowing her head in wordless submission.

In the room beyond, an orange bubble appeared, followed by another. One in Bismuth's rainbow shades appeared soon after. Rose smiled at the small sign that her distraction was going as planned.

They stepped inside and Rose noticed the mural of her painted on the wall, no doubt by Jasper's hand. This brought a suspicion to Rose.

It was unlikely but then again the shards hadn't been in the obvious place in Jasper's room. Everything Rose knew about Jasper said they'd be kept somewhere secretive, secure, and sentimental. Rather than going the blunt route of simply locking them in her room, perhaps Jasper had learned a modicum of subtlety and hidden the shards in plain sight instead.

Turning back to her Pearl, she said, "There is a slim chance the shards are in here. Rig the room with explosives keyed for remote detonation. Then I want you to search for the shards. They'd be in a yellow bubble, likely near the upper strata. Search until you find them, until I send for you, or until it sounds like you're needed outside."

Pearl bowed but when she rose, her expression betrayed the merest hint of hesitation. "Needed outside?" she asked.

"The shards are somewhere. The Crystal Gems know where and I intend to draw them back. My pet and I will be ready for them but if all else fails, I'll have your explosives here as leverage to force their submission." Reaching out to Pearl's forehead, she ran a finger from stone to cheek, the pale gem shivering at her touch. "This will all be over soon, my Pearl."

Eyes closed, Pearl gave a wordless nod then bowed low once more.

"Detonate the warp pad as soon as I'm outside," she said, then turned and left. Rose strode outside, stoking the flames of her ire as much to distract from her earlier feelings as to ready herself for the conflict to come.

She disabled the jammer her Pearl had made. Despite her minions' efforts, something within that house would still be broadcasting an alert, of that Rose had no doubt.

There was a muffled explosion as the warp pad was destroyed. If the alert hadn't been sent out before, it certainly had now.

Then she walked over and roused her sleeping pet, ending the untroubled sleep she had sunken into. Scolecite gave a mewl and nuzzled Rose's hand, eager for more tears.

"Soon," she said in a musical voice. "But first, do you see that statue?" She guided her pet's gaze up to the fusion depicted in stone. "Destroy it. Don't damage the house below it, but I want that cliff scoured."

Scolecite's mewl became a growl as the air rippled overhead.

Garnet left the closet quietly, stepping carefully around the warp crystal fragments littering the already littered floor.

The future was somewhat clearer now, but mainly because there was only so much you could do emerging from a closet with no means to warp elsewhere. Clearer but far from clear. Still, Garnet saw the shore she was steering for even if she couldn't make out the details.

Pearl, who Garnet had always seen move with deliberate grace, was working with jerky, even clumsy motions, fumbling a bomb and snatching it out of the air. The pale gem shook her head and chided herself as she set it back into proper position along one wall.

Garnet noticed that Jasper's mural was conspicuously free of any such devices.

Tapping a button on the side of the bomb, Pearl turned and saw Garnet standing opposite her, a finger raised to her mouth for silence. To her credit, while Pearl gave a cry of alarm, she managed to clap her hands over her mouth and muffle most of it.

"Hello Pearl," said Garnet in a gentle voice.

Pearls hands left her mouth. This revealed a thin frown that was part confusion, part fear, and part embarrassment at what Garnet must have just seen. "Garnet," she greeted. "What are you doing here?"

"Helping," answered the fusion.

Her third eye opened for long enough for Pearl to notice it before closing once more.

"You don't want Rose to win if it means the ruination of the Crystal Gems," said Garnet. She didn't actually know Pearl as well as she'd like, not well enough to make predictions under these conditions, but some things you didn't need Future Vision to see.

Pearl started to object when Garnet said, "You don't want to see Rose ruined or shattered in defeat to the Crystal Gems either."

The pale gem's mouth snapped shut but, after a second spent looking conflicted, she nodded in agreement.

"I see a way forward," said the seer. "Rose surrenders. Willingly."

Pearl's eyes bulged a little at that. Garnet wasn't sure if it was at the unlikely thought of Rose relenting or if it was at seeing hope for a solution between two terrible extremes. Either would serve for what came next.

"That future hinges on you."

"Me?" squeaked Pearl.

Garnet nodded. "Stay here. Take your time." Once more Pearl looked like she was going to object but Garnet raised a hand and corrected herself, saying, "I spoke poorly. Rather, be thorough. You can still go to Rose when she calls for you. But not before. Everything hinges on that."

A searching look from Pearl and then she asked, "And if I do that, Rose will surrender without-" Her voice hitched. "She'll surrender and be intact?"

The seer nodded.

Another long pause, this time with Pearl staring at nothing as she looked within herself. Then perfectly held shoulders slumped and Pearl drooped. "Very well. If it means Rose and Connie make it out of this alive, I think I would be happiest-" A beat. "I think I would be least saddened if that were to pass," she amended.

Garnet could go back into hiding, waiting for when the future next needed her intervention. She should do exactly that but despite millennia of dispensing cryptic wisdom, a part of her couldn't walk away just yet. Not with what she’d glimpsed lying ahead.

"Thank you." She reached out and gently rested a hand on Pearl's shoulder, looking the pale gem in the eyes. "And for what's coming... I'm sorry."

Pearl flinched because few things were more unsettling than having a seer apologize for what's about to happen. Then a transformation came over the servile gem, the fear and anxiety falling away, replaced with a kind of centered calm. She looked almost happy, which Garnet had not foreseen.

At all.

"A Pearl should not serve two masters. It is an agonizing trap that I have been caught in for some time now. And I find, despite your frankly terrifying sympathy, that the prospect of being at the end of this impasse is a still greater relief." With that, Pearl gave Garnet a polite nod and returned to her task, humming a little tune as she worked with graceful ease.

Unsettled herself, Garnet could only blink in triplicate then silently depart the room for hiding once more.

Chapter Text

After Malachite disappeared beneath the waves, there was something strange and it took Asmi a couple of seconds to realize what it was.

It was much quieter.

There was still a bunch of scared/angry corrupted people loose on the island and they weren't exactly hushed, but even the loudest roar couldn't compete against tsunamis ripping across the island.

Then a howl pierced the air that wasn't tsunami-loud but it was trying really hard to be and Asmi's last thought before the portal opened was, Oh, right. I kinda forgot that was still happening.

Wolf came rocketing out of the portal going even faster than he usually went. His fur was eye-wateringly yellow, so brightly-hued it had traveled through neon yellow and come out the other side, the sort of color that was only properly visible to bees and art students.

Even without howl portals for herself, Umbra was hot on Wolf's heels, the stutter-sprinting coyote to Wolf's roadrunner.

"Good boy!" shouted Asmi, stepping into the line of fire as Wolf went bounding past. A brief image of a lolled out tongue was how they knew they'd been heard.

To say Umbra collided with Asmi would be inaccurate. When you moved by little hopping teleports, inertia was merely a suggestion and you arrived with as much or as little force as you wanted. So the actual contact between Umbra and Asmi was more 'insistent nudge' than 'trampled by a bull elephant'. But the wave of heat and emotion that came with Umbra hit harder than any pachyderm.

Anger. Fear. Confusion. Anger. Depression. Anger. Sadness. Panic. So much anger. All of it coursing through Asmi en route to their gemstone, a black, flame-like nimbus surrounding the stone as it neutralized the absorbed negative energy.

The first time Connie had purged Umbra, it had nearly overwhelmed her, the girl swept away in a tide of hot emotions. She'd sought solace in the memories of her friends and family and found her recollections twisted into bleak parodies. However, she'd found an anchor, a memory the emotional onslaught couldn't penetrate, and she'd used that to weather the barrage.

Asmi was one person and also two, a paradox with a smile. When Umbra had surprised them on the island, knocking them off their field and making them plummet to a physically- and emotionally-painful landing, they'd been unprepared for the double dose of negative energy they’d received. Once more Connie had been cast about in a flash flood of feelings: even with Steven's presence and that precious memory of maternal comfort, it was all she could do to keep her head above metaphorical water.

This time they were ready for what was coming. The torrent slammed into Asmi's being and was met with a lullaby as impenetrable as any Era-1 armor. However, it was protection for only half of Asmi and the deluge was double anything their components had ever experienced. For a terrifying second, the song wavered and so too did the fusion.

A frenzy of feelings passed between Asmi's components, an inner language conveying everything through a burst of shared intuitions. The wavering intensified, the tall teen turning into a silhouette of light. Then another song rose to join the first and Asmi was stable once more.

Steven had been born into a world he could only barely hear. Lullabies worked poorly for a colicky toddler who scarcely noticed them. But one sleepless night Dad had lifted little Steven up and laid the boy flat against his chest. Rocking in a rocking chair, Dad sang something, the sounds deep and resonant while he held Steven close. The notes were felt more than heard by the deaf child and the basso song was as wondrous as it was soothing.

Asmi was two people but only had one throat, so when they hummed, it was only with a single voice. But within the fusion, Peridot's lullaby and Greg's rumbly cradle song sang out, blending, harmonizing into an inviolate aural security blanket. While their gemstone glowed with lighthouse-like brilliance, Asmi stood unwavering, their components riding out the storm with flexibility, love, and trust.

The glow dimmed and Asmi reached up with one hand to wipe away a tear. Cradled in their other arm was an infant-like shadow creature, a resonant song soothing it to sleep while softly Asmi whispered the words of a lullaby.

For a moment there was only peace and the fading glow of their gemstone. Then, despite no longer being in contact with Asmi's forehead, Umbra continued to shrink. The fusion's calm ebbed away, confusion rising to their face.

Umbra's shrinking like the tricksters did. There's no Sanctuary to sustain her anymore so now she'll get smaller and smaller until she just... evaporates.

Suddenly Umbra was treated to a much less soothing experience as Asmi ran back and forth like a new parent in mid-panic.

"OhGoshOhGoshOhGosh! What do I do?! There's shadow stuff in Wolf's pocket dimension. WOOOLF!" shouted the fusion.

Then their thoughts tumbled a step further and they realized that having Umbra eat the tar-like glue that was holding the yellow-and-pink patchwork that was Wolf together... would be a very bad idea.

Wolf loped over, panting. His fur was starting to look a little less violently yellow. He met Asmi's eyes before his gaze fell to Umbra and he licked his chops.

"No! No eating Umbra!" said the still-frantic fusion.

Wolf quirked his head to the side and either Steven's Wolf-whisper skills were heightened through Asmi or hyper-yellow Wolf was extra expressive because Asmi recognized the intent well enough to answer back, "I don't care if she tried to eat you first!"

Wolf gave a disapproving snort at that but didn't offer further back-chat.

Then Asmi remembered a flower lei preserved with timeless perfection in Citrine's room and they suddenly felt very foolish.

Umbra was curled up, barely the size of an apple and shrinking rapidly when she was engulfed in yellow.

Asmi held their breath while they stared wide-eyed in the bubble. Ten seconds passed, then twenty and they gasped as it looked like Umbra wasn't getting any smaller. The tiny creature looked like she was sleeping and a corner of Asmi wondered how long it'd be before it'd be safe for her to wake up once more.

"Goodnight, Umbra," said the fusion in a gentle voice before tapping the bubble and sending it away.

Wolf watched the morsel vanish with a mote of doggy disappointment.

"When this is all over, we're making a trip to that deli in Empire and you can get anything you want," offered Asmi, going over to give Wolf vigorous flank pettings and noggin scratches.

Like that, the doggy disappointment was gone as if it had never been.

"Good boy, Wolf! You did such a good job distracting Umbra for me!" continued Asmi while Wolf had a kind of full-body shiver of canine contentment. "Who's the best wolf ever? You are! That's who!"

Wolf barked his agreement.

Another minute of canine kudos later, Asmi summoned a force field to wipe the dog fur free of their hands (the fur falling in a little cloud when the field was unsummoned a second later). They found where their cheeseburger with extra lettuce backpack had dropped in all the excitement and shouldered it into place, then started to walk in the direction of the town. Wolf padded along beside them. "We need to find the others and regroup. I hope no one else got Umbra'd."

Despite Malachite taking most of the island's flood water with her, the ground was still a sodden mess, sunlight reflecting off of countless puddles and ruined foliage.

"Hmm. I can field hop over all of that but you-"

Asmi's words died mid-sentence when the hound padded forward over a puddle, large paws never breaking the water's surface. He then turned and gave them an expression of profound smugness they wouldn't have thought possible for a non-human.

Non-gem, non-human, they amended.

Or a cat, they amended once more.

Connie and Steven had both seen Wolf go swimming before, happily doggy paddling through the surf, so this must be something he only did when he felt like it. Climbing easily up onto the waiting hound's back, Asmi flashed a pleased grin and shouted, "Go Wolf!"

Wolf, brilliantly yellow and brimming with energy, did exactly that.

A barge was towed most of the way into position via metallokinesis when a crash and a roar interrupted the action. Peridot hopped aboard the McFly 2.0, an octet of metal harpoons rising with her as she zoomed off to drive away yet another corrupted attacker.

P2 gave a wave to the departing gem. "Happy violence!" she called. Since P2's tractor beams were the superior means of conveying humans and their belongings to the barges, P2 remained on evacuation duty while Peridot kept the town safe. With a green-lit tug, P2 brought the next barge the rest of the way into position, healthy humans boarding via gangplank while damaged humans and baggage were levitated into position.

"Go get 'em, Green!" added Bismuth. "And let me know if you need another batch of harpoons!"

The smith had returned only recently, her gemstone chipped but otherwise in good cheer. As soon as she'd learned how Peridot had amazingly defeated the Quartz aggressors, she'd heartily congratulated Peridot while simultaneously forging an array of proper metallic projectiles. She did this without ever looking down, as though the smith could craft weaponry from muscle memory alone.

When the awe-inspiring combat-fusion --Malachite, she'd heard it called-- had formed, everyone had stopped to gawk or, in Peridot's case, wail in despair. But then the war machine had dragged itself away through its own powers and a wave of frightened corruptions had charged into the town and the hectic but exciting status quo of evacuation had resumed.

With that, P2 returned to her appointed tasks, though she had the Cluster report Peridot had broadcast her earlier streaming across her visor while she worked. She awarded herself a point for superior multitasking since she was putting the finishing touches on her new report all while helping save organic life and the belongings thereof.

She'd hardly dropped any of them in the bay.

Then P2 noticed something strange approaching from the water. It wasn't an eye-watering Umbralite --she still didn't know what that was-- but rather the unnatural, magical canine sprinting across the surface of the water while the equally unnatural hybrid-human fusion rode atop.

It looked like fun and instantly P2 wanted to try it herself. It was with an act of will that she resisted the urge to helicopter out and hop aboard. Well that and the clang of luggage bonking into a barge's hull.

P2 chuckled. "Sorry!" she shouted to the humans on the vessel, several of which were glowering at her. "Your primitive trinkets are probably not damaged much," she added to help put them at ease.

Depositing those, P2 then called out with an amplified voice, "Hey Bismuth!" Shouting was necessary to be heard over the noise of the ad hoc shipyard.

The armored gem looked up from her work. "Huh?"

P2 formed an arrow out of five floating fingers. "Is that expected?"

Bismuth swiveled around to look where she was pointing. Then she shook her head and answered, "Something I've learned is that if it's yellow, expectations are as good as landfill."

The mottled gem nodded as she absorbed this advice, finding it in agreement with some of her own experiences.

Wolf, meanwhile, sprinted across the water and onto land, loping to a halt a respectful distance from the visibly-nervous humans. Asmi hopped off and started to jog over...

...when Peridot flew back with speed enough it caused an audible whoosh and a gust of wind that set some of the barges in the bay rocking.

"Asmi!"

"Mommadot!"

The reunion was an excited and emotional affair that involved an enviable amount of hugging.

P2 had been curious if fusions hugged with the efficacy of two beings but Garnet had been aloof when asked and it had never come up around Asmi. Something to ask about later, or better yet, test herself sometime.

While Asmi gave a rapid-fire report on the Umbralite and Malachite, Peridot interjected with her own hastily delivered account of the evacuation efforts in an impressive display of communicating in duplex.

"I really need to make Alloy a proper suit of armor," muttered Bismuth, the smith having paused her work to walk over beside P2. Her golf bag of weapons slung over one shoulder --she'd had the good sense to remove that before her Bismissile exploit-- eyes still on the fusion, she added, "I made a solid set for Meatball but he fuses and now it's a breastplate, greaves, and boots." She shook her head at the incomplete protective coverage.

P2 was about to reply when an alert flashed across the inside of her visor. At the same time, the terminal in Peridot's satchel gave a muffled klaxon noise.

"I've just received a 'temple perimeter breach,'" // "Someone's in our home!" read P2 and wailed Peridot over one another.

Bismuth had the Breaking Point on her hand in an instant. "Green, Spots, get these humans to safety. Asmi and I can go weed pulling back at the base."

Peridot rounded on Bismuth, head shaking. "Negative. Your fleet fabrication skills are superior to my own, P2 is the more efficient logistical asset with her tractor beams, and you have both proven your mettle at accomplishing both while fending off incursions."

"'Aim first, then shoot!'" shouted P2, paraphrasing Peridot's advice while brandishing a limb enhancer in blaster mode.

Peridot favored her with a pleased smile before Bismuth brandished her own weapon in retort.

"You're not wrong, Green, but I've got this and you don't," countered Bismuth. "It's what nearly took Rose to pieces last time." She plucked the bent scabbard off Asmi's hip and chucked it over her shoulder, pulling a replacement saber and scabbard for the fusion out of her golf bag. "Go properly armed or don't go at all," she said as Asmi gingerly re-equipped themself.

The technician nodded but she looked unconvinced. "A fair point, but allow me my counterpoint." A green screwdriver hovered up out of her satchel, oriented handle-first then lightly jabbed Bismuth in the gemstone. "Literally."

Bismuth yelped, staggering back, one hand going up to cover the chipped stone.

"You are injured, a fact which Rose will notice and exploit in an instant," answered Peridot, the screwdriving wagging at the smith like an admonishing finger. "Your previous skirmish with Rose, though quite impressive, was grounded in no small part by your robustness."

Asmi was looking thoughtful for a second then said, "I've got a vial of healing tears." They swung their fused backpack around, reaching within. "Two actually since Connie and Steven's doses were shuffled together when they fused."

Peridot shook her head. "I have the third vial in my satchel as well. But the reason I haven't used it already on Bismuth's gemstone is because her chip isn't an immediate threat to her well-being, especially if she remains here doing the vital work of making a full evacuation possible. We do have a modest stock of fountain water still in storage that we can use after our victory to see Bismuth restored. These three vials, in contrast, could quite literally be the difference between life and death, victory and defeat."

"Green," said Bismuth warningly. "You know this isn't just any fight for me."

The green gem offered an understanding nod. "I'm quite aware. The other reason I'm suggesting this course of action is because of changed tactical circumstances between us. Rose wasn't aware that your weapon was capable of breaching her defenses during your initial sortie. She does now and she will fight accordingly. In contrast, I am empowered in ways Rose neither knows of nor would expect from an unaugmented Era-2."

"Hit her with the sucker punch, eh?" A long second passed, Bismuth still rubbing the sore spot on her stone. Then her shoulders slumped a little. "Alright. But as soon as the last of these squishies is on a boat, Spots and me are rushing over." She turned to Wolf. "Did you hear that? Get us there in time for the excitement and I'll make you a frisbee that'll last through the next ice age."

Wolf barked and wagged his tail in agreement.

Peridot was forced to take as many weapons as could be made to fit in her satchel after she rejected simply bringing the entire golf bag with her -- “Hovering this after me would tip my hand early.” This included one of the two destabilizers that Asmi was carrying in their pack, Connie and Steven each having left for the mission armed with one.

That done, Bismuth fixed Asmi with a steely glare. The fusion cringed under the weight of it at first, neither saying anything, but a second later straightened up and raised their chin in stoic acceptance.

P2 had no idea what was transpiring, but it was yet another data point in her theory that Earth fostered a wealth of non-verbal communication.

“If you get the chance,” said Bismuth finally, “then finish this.” She glanced briefly at the ruined Sanctuary then back to Asmi as if to emphasize some point.

There was a moment where it seemed like the fusion was wavering, their form growing indistinct for a split-second. Then it was like nothing had happened, Asmi answering, “I’ll do what’s right.”

The visor alert and terminal klaxon sounded again, prompting everyone to action. Asmi and Peridot climbed aboard Wolf, the fusion with their bulging burger-themed pack on and Peridot with the McFly 2.0 positioned similarly against her own back via invisible force. Then Wolf lunged forward, barking a portal open and vanishing through it.

“Do you think they’ll be okay?” asked P2, not quite willing to return to her task despite the urgency thereof.

Bismuth heaved a sigh, wincing at the way it aggravated the chip in her gemstone. “I sure as schist hope so,” she said, sounding uncharacteristically somber. Then the smith shook her head and, in a much more typically boisterous manner, said, “And the sooner we’re done here, the sooner we can help make sure it does. With you needing to split your time between moving humans and blasting corruptions, I say we invest in better infrastructure. Let the humans do some of the work.” One hand shifted into a long rod which she used to scratch a quick diagram of the dock area in the sand. “We build two gangplanks, each three-times as wide as what we’re using now. Maybe hammer together some carts or wheelbarrows to help it go faster.”

P2 nodded, following the thrust of the smith’s plan. “Yes. And if baggage is being loaded on the left barge, evacuees can board the right barge at the same time, then they switch. Two processes in parallel. Hmm, it might even be faster to make future barges specialized for cargo or passengers so we can-” but her thought was interrupted by a crash from the south side of the town.

Bismuth went to work while P2 flew up and over where below a trio of corrupted Rubies were running among ruined buildings, setting flammable material on fire as they did. Rather than engage in rapid evasive maneuvers, she hovered in place perhaps thirty feet up, lining up her shots. With a trio of steady lightning arcs --the plasma bursts were less effective against Rubies due to their high thermal tolerance-- all foes were swiftly dispatched.

“Wow, that is much easier!” exclaimed P2, awarding herself a point for excellence through violence --her very first!-- as she swooped down to gather the gemstones for Bismuth to bubble.

Chapter Text

They rocketed out of the portal and Wolf, rather than skidding to a stop with a spray of sand, leapt almost immediately to clear a pile of stony rubble in their path. Asmi gave a surprised, “Whoaaa!” while Mommadot clung to their pack like a frightened green koala.

Wolf landed a second later, super-barking another cluster of rubble aside and jogging to a stop, his passengers hastily disembarking. It was night but there was a bright full moon overhead so it wasn’t exactly dark.

Rocks were scattered everywhere and for a second Asmi looked up and down the surrounding sand and cliffs bewildered. Then they recognized the piece of patio furniture embedded in the sand as one that belonged to the Beach House and it clicked: that smoking, vine-choked building was the Beach House and the lack of a big, obvious statue meant the rubble was…

Asmi made a cry of alarm that was matched in intensity, if not in pitch, by a similar shriek from Peridot.

Before either of them could form a coherent response, though, they were sent flying by one of the loudest noises they’d ever heard, fusion and technician launched straight by a super-bark right into the portal opened by it.

Just before the pair were sent hurtling through a kaleidoscopic rainbow tunnel, Asmi caught a glimpse of Rose dropping down from somewhere above, sword plunging where Peridot had been like a guillotine’s fall.

“Surrender!” commanded the pink gem before the world turned into a tumble of color and movement.

Fusion and technician were ejected ignobly from the exit tunnel a few seconds later, landing in a heap and blinking in the tropical sunlight. Disentangling themselves, Asmi and Peridot clambered to their feet, the tall teen looking around and realizing they were back at the ruined Sanctuary grounds, not too far from the former site of Citrine’s statue. In the distance they could see boats in the harbor and people streaming aboard. Further out, a steady trickle of barges were motoring away, heading for safer shores.

“Rose had an ambush prepared,” said Peridot.

“And Wolf saved us from it,” added Asmi.

The vortex stood there in the air, swirling in colorful and magical display.

“Uh, I’ve never seen one of those stay open like that before,” observed the fusion. They hadn’t known Wolf could keep portals open.

Getting her heavy satchel back in position, the McFly hovering just behind her, Peridot said, “It’s our means to return.” With a steadying breath Peridot said, “Ready to reverse the tables on Rose and avenge our literally defaced home?”

Asmi nodded, tightening the straps of their cheeseburger (with extra lettuce) backpack.

The two squeezed aboard the McFly and hurtled back through the tunnel.

They tumbled out the return vortex --Wolf made riding through howl portals look so easy but it was nothing of the sort-- but Asmi flipped over as they snatched the pinwheeling Peridot out of the air and managed to land in a really cool Wolf-esque slide across the sand.

The McFly bounced and tumbled forward until it pinged off a pink shield. Rose stood there, sword at her side and shield upraised, one boot resting on Wolf’s haunch. Wolf, for his part, was lying flat, his large muzzle lowered to the sand and great paws pinned against his ears. He looked up at Asmi and Peridot with big, apologetic puppy eyes, all fight taken out of the great hound.

Asmi gasped, expression first shocked and then fierce. “What did you do to Wolf?” they demanded, both parts of the fusion angry at seeing a dog brought to abject sadness.

“I commanded him to surrender and he did,” answered Rose casually. Bringing her boot off his haunch, Rose started to saunter slowly towards them. “I told him to close that portal and attack any Crystal Gems that arrived by other means but it seems he can’t hear me.” She shook her head. “Truly my sister has been a terrible influence on him.”

Covering his ears! Asmi was about to give a cheer of, ‘Good boy!’ when they realized the futility of it. Instead they shot Wolf a smile and a thumbs up, the big hound offering the meekest of tail wags in response.

The pink gem looked Asmi up and down. “Also, I know humans have growth spurts but I doubt that’s what this is. Connie I know, but who else is that in there?”

Asmi rankled for a moment before, via wordless internal agreement, they remembered Rose was just trying to needle them. “What you need to know is I’m Asmi and all of me is really unhappy with all of you.”

Peridot, meanwhile, pulled the heaviest item from her satchel and began to advance slowly towards Rose. The weapon in question was a handaxe made of the same super-dense, super-strong Era-1 metal as the coffee table. It was scaled for a gem as large (and strong) as Bismuth or Jasper, but for Peridot, the technician was using both hands to drag it along, the axehead leaving a furrow behind her in the sand.

“Rose Quartz!” announced Peridot. “I-” She strained as she dragged the axe closer. “I challenge you to a duel!”

Rose stood there, perfectly poised like the quintessential warrior crossed with the quintessential mean girl. A single eyebrow rose slightly in a… skeptical look.

A sigh. “I was going to allow you to trade the location of Pink Diamond’s shards for your daughter’s safety --you were so reasonable about it before, after I cut you down to size-- but somehow I don’t think the lesson took.” She assumed a defensive stance. “I accept.”

A couple seconds passed as Peridot slowly dragged the axe closer.

The mean girl eyebrow rose a little higher. “Whenever you’re ready.”

Peridot continued to advance but Rose had started the encounter more than thirty feet away, a distance that seemed even longer with the green gem’s small and labored steps.

Sighing yet again, Rose gave first Asmi then Peridot a pitying ‘Are you serious?’ look, then started to walk closer. Once she was within five feet of Peridot, she drew her sword back for a decapitation strike, lunged forward and… went flying like her sword was chained to a speeding train.

Peridot, meanwhile, swung the heavy axe like an Olympic athlete competing in the hammer toss as if suddenly drawing on Jasper-like strength. A hasty shield parry deflected the blow but it was corrected mid-air by an invisible force, the axe biting deep into Rose’s calf as she rocketed past.

A bubble appeared around the gem and the sword’s flight ended, the pink Quartz landing with supernatural softness on her one uninjured leg. Already tears were welling in her eyes as she reached down and painfully yanked the axe from her form.

“Nyehehehe!” cackled Peridot as she hopped up, the McFly soaring swiftly over to land steadily beneath her. A quartet of weapons rose from her satchel, fanning out menacingly as a long-tined destabilizer floated out directly in front of her like a knight’s lance, yellow energy crackling along its length.

Meanwhile, the forlorn and beached patio table hovered up and began to dig furrows through the sand, flinging great sprays of the stuff out into the waves as what looked like rocks fell splashing into the ocean. “And don’t think I can’t detect the field of buried explosives you hid over there,” taunted Peridot as she hurtled towards Rose. “Why, I think Bismuth would even be flattered to hear you decided to mimic her-”

Whatever Peridot was going to say, however, was cut off when Rose gave a shrill whistle and pointed at the hovering lancer. A leonine roar split the night, the air around Peridot rippled, and then gem and tools were flung sideways at breakneck speeds.

“Attack, my pet!” shouted Rose, her bubbled dissolving. Tears dripped down her cheeks and onto her injured leg, the wound closing with a shimmer of pink. She shook her head. “Whatever that was, I want no part of it.”

Asmi whipped their head around --“Mommadot!” they shouted-- but they saw the gem get the McFly under her and arrest a sideways fall.

Another gravity slam washed over Peridot, the satchel of tools ripped off her and sent tumbling further down the beach but the gem herself was unharmed and able to keep her ride underneath her. “It’s okay, Asmi! I’ll contend with the Scolecite and then return to assist you! And stay away from the mined section of the bea-whoa!”

Just then a pale figure, familiar and yet different given her less monstrous features, soared passed in a column of gravitic force, Peridot and Pyra skimming over the surf as they skirmished perpendicular to the conventional definition of ‘down.’

Pyra?! Working with Rose? How? Why?! Why did she look different? Oh gosh, that’s how Rose broke the Sanctuary! And the temple statue! Mommadot is deliberately leading Pyra away because her gravity attacks would squish me like a bug!

“Hello, dear niece,” cooed Rose, advancing steadily though visibly on guard.

With a small head shake, Asmi focused on Rose, raising their replacement saber and force field-girded shield. They started to advance as well…

She destroyed Citrine’s Sanctuary. She endangered hundreds of humans and corrupted gems. She defaced the temple and broke the Beach House. She possessed Steven. She invaded my planet and threatened the Crystal Gems and- And-

... when they paused, the weapon (though not the shield) lowering slightly.

“Rose, I don’t want to fight you,” they announced, their voice a little deeper than before. “You’ll never get Pink Diamond’s shards and you’ll never get the Cluster to fight for you. Seriously, you can trust me on those. There’s nothing for you to win with this fight so let’s just not do that,” and Asmi managed an inviting (and very Steven-y) half-smile.

Rose paused, looking uncertain. “Not fight? And then what? We just wipe our hands of the whole affair and go our separate ways?”

“I mean, if you promi-” but Asmi’s form wavered for a second. Blinking and shaking their head, the fusion said in a more evenly pitched voice, “Sorry, no, I can’t just let you leave. You’d probably come back and try again but with, like, twenty handships this time. But if you surrender, the big climactic fight to the finish can all just… not happen.”

Lowering their sword further, expression earnest, they said with complete conviction, “And I promise that you won’t get shattered if you surrender, no matter what Bismuth tries to do. I mean, I’d have to poof you and put you in a bubble until everyone stops trying to kill each other, but later, I swear I’ll let you out and we can talk through it all.”

If anything that seemed to unsettle Rose more than if Asmi had threatened to grind her stone into Fruity Pebbles. "After everything I’ve done to you and your people, you would offer me safety? Simple as that?" she asked.

“Yeah,” answered Asmi with a hopeful grin. "Simple as that."

For a second Rose just stared at them. Then her eyes narrowed and her words came out dripping venom. “You really are just like her.” Then Rose lunged forward, a snarl visible through the translucent pink of her shield.

Asmi looked surprised for a heartbeat and then a battle-ready look of resolve settled on their features. Fusion and Quartz juggernaut, squared off, the distance vanishing between them, the promise of pitched combat thick in the air. Then, a split-second before the two fighters collided…

...a field of yellow appeared absorbing the blow of Rose’s charge, a webwork of cracks forming from the site of impact.

Get into a sword fight with a millennia-old, self-healing master wielding a legendary blade? A gem who had systematically cut the Crystal Gems to pieces when she’d first arrived? No, Asmi considered that a distant Plan-C at best.

As Asmi danced back, Rose smashed through the weakened field. “Did you forget about the force fields?” taunted the fusion with a grin. “I mean, there’s one on my shield and everything, so I really don’t know why you look so surprised.” They’d sheathed their saber, their right hand going back and pulling out Steven’s phone from their pack’s side pocket. “But then again, us humans-” they started.

“Rrraaa!” bellowed Rose, interrupting them and clearly not amused. She advanced swiftly and with deadly purpose. Asmi wasn’t sure what it was exactly, but something about their talk had ticked Rose all the way off.

The fusion, however, had no intention of letting the fight drag out long enough to find out.

They’d practiced this so Asmi could navigate the series of button pushes without looking. Then their scouter flashed a little icon to indicate it had established a wireless connection with a local device. Sliding the phone back in the side pocket, Asmi heard Peridot’s voice deliver a pre-recorded warning in their ear, the scouter acting like a Bluetooth earbud. It wasn’t until after Peridot’s countdown ended that they reached up and tapped the broadcast button on the side of their scouter.

Rose was only a few feet away when she and Asmi heard Onyx’s voice, the gem speaking with the kind of calm authority that reminded Asmi of one of Steven’s former school principals.

“-ntrol parameters. You will need them if you hope to-”

The pink Quartz’ eyes flashed open in confused recognition --Apparently she knew what Onyx sounded like too-- and then a wall of sound rolled out. It was like angry techno violins or singers heard through several layers of auto-tune and distortion. As soon as it blasted out, Asmi’s gemstone flared with light and Asmi heard a ringing in their scouterless left ear.

The corruption audio was playing. On loop. It did nothing to humans, induced an ear-ringing headache in Connie, and in Asmi it did the same minus the headache. But to gems, full gems, not ones that were 75% human like Asmi?

Rose dropped to her knees, bowled over by the wave of recorded Diamond vengeance.

Asmi advanced cautiously, saber ready but Rose was too agonized to even look up. They made an experimental jab at the gem but their blow was turned aside when Rose instinctively defended herself with her bubble. However, this did nothing to protect the gem from the warbling audio.

During the ambush at the Sanctuary when Rose had trapped Connie in a bubble with her, the girl had been surprised at how permeable to sound the pink barrier was. It was a fact Connie had mentioned when she and Steven had been brainstorming anti-Rose tactics one day. This particular tactic required all the other gems to be out of earshot, so they hadn’t actually expected it to come up, but here they were. That’s why in this situation, swordfighting Rose was only Plan-C and this was Plan-A.

Reaching into their cheeseburger-with-extra-lettuce backpack, Asmi pulled out Plan-B, switching the destabilizer on with a crackle of yellow energy. Then, wanting to make sure their pack stayed out of grabbing range just in case, they lobbed it gently to the sand six or seven feet away.

But then again, us humans: we're full of surprises, they thought, finishing the quip they’d started earlier and dissolving the bubble with a tap.

Chapter Text

For a time Malachite only raged and thrashed against her confinement. She was deep beneath the waves so her words, when there were words, were muffled beyond recognition. She was a monster, a submerged terror like the sort human sailors used to fear would shatter their wooden boats and cast them into the fathomless depths.

Shackles of water held tight, the crushing weight of an ocean a pittance compared to Malachite's own self-imposed trap. The colossal fusion remained and raged on.

"Blarble, blubblub ub wahggle grah woobay," said Malachite into the depths. While indecipherable, it had the cadence of actual speech and was neither shouted nor accompanied by submerged thrashing.

Silence --the strange noises of the depths excepted-- stretched out and a single hand-shaped foot tapped impatiently.

Some time passed and then there was a sense of agreement within the fusion. High above a dome of ice formed, levitating over the waves just long enough to fill with air before being drawn down with brute hydrokinetic force.

The dome, essentially a crude, magical diving bell, settled over the top two-thirds of the fusion, the watermelon-colored colossus still sitting in a pool of seawater. Water ran down her form, a river of it streaming out of her thick, white hair. Surrounded by air, the shackles of water stood out in stark relief.

Malachite spat out several large globs of seawater then in a rumbling voice said, "Well?"

Lapis' eyes were rounded, seeming large in her face. It made Lapis appear approachable, vulnerable, and even a bit childish... all facts the gadfly had exploited at various times throughout her long and storied existence. Jasper's eyes were more oval-shaped, almost catlike. They gave the gem a predatory cast to her features, something the Quartz thought appropriate though she'd never spoken the opinion aloud. Malachite's expression shifted depending on who was speaking through her, but her eye shape was the biggest tell.

"Blarble, blubblub ub wahggle grah woobay," Malachite answered herself, eyes rounded.

Her eyes became catlike and she rolled two of the four of them. "Very funny," she said dryly.

"I thought so," she replied.

Only a grunt followed. Then, after another minute of silence, the icy diving bell began to rise, the bubble of air rising with it.

"Wait!" protested a rounded-eyed Malachite. She huffed, an exasperated look accompanying it as she gave a token strain against her watery manacles.

The frozen dome's ascent paused.

"I said earlier, 'You know, I did have other plans today.'" A beat. "It's true too. In case you forgot, there was that whole 'Rose smashing the Sanctuary and unleashing a whole mess of ugly on the island' thing." Her hand-foot went back to tapping impatiently.

The dome lowered slowly back to its earlier level. There was a grunt of agreement. Then, eyes catlike, she asked, "Do you remember what happened next?"

Rounded eyes rolled in their sockets. "Of course I remember. BM and P2 were getting people off the island, you were playing full-contact patty-cake with the corruptions down in the woods, Asmi pinged me with their walkie-talkie gizmo, Bismuth got herself punted through a Jade, I squished a Kunzite, and then I was telling Asmi to look out for a pink snake in the grass when-oooh."

Malachite's shoulders slumped as much as her bonds would allow, four round eyes staring blankly ahead.

Shivering despite being unphased by the cold, Malachite said with feigned casualness, "You know what? What's the rush? We can stay here for a little while."

"You got hit by Citrine's shadow," rumbled Malachite.

There was a chuckle that was loud in the confined space and Malachite pulled at her chains. "We talk about the general casting a long shadow but who knew it was literally true? That thing had to be the size of a city bus. I mean, Citrine wasn't exactly a thin gal but come on, right?"

Malachite's eyes grew narrower and she said in a steady tone, "You were driven to rage and you began to tear apart the island."

"Hey, you know what else is interesting?" and there was a desperate cast to Malachite's rounded eyes. "Literally anything else." A foot nudged a rock stuck in the seabed. "See that rock? Let's talk about that rock. Sure, it's probably just a dumb ol' rock, but it could have fallen from space or been blasted here by some ancient volcano. And now it's being nudged by a big-ass fusion. Man, I bet you're the life of all the rock parties, little guy."

Malachite's cat eyes were unphased. "You tore off chunks of the island. You poofed or shattered gems. You made the mission-"

However, the colossal fusion interrupted herself with a cry of distressed rage. "Rrraaa! Shut up! Shut up!" She struggled mightily against her watery restraints, even thrashing hard enough her shoulder crashed into a wall of ice, splintering it and causing seawater to leak through the cracks before hydrokinetic force froze it anew.

Malachite continued to rage for several long minutes, the noise deafening in the submerged bubble.

Finally the colossus drooped, a sea-green centaur puppet with no one pulling her strings. She panted heavily but her breath failed to fog the air because, unlike humans, there was no meaningful difference between the temperature outside her form and within.

Eyes catlike, Malachite said in a gentle but insistent voice, "You have to know what you did so-"

Four eyes rounding, she snapped at herself, "So you can rub it in my face how terrible I am? How I'm reckless and can't keep a handle on my own powers?" Then, in a voice of distilled venom, she spat, "How I need to fuse with you more often?"

Minutes passed.

Once more in a rumbling tone that was almost tender, Malachite said, "-So you'd know that it was okay."

Rounded eyed, Malachite launched into a rant. "You know, I've always hated the word 'reckless.' Because when you're reckless, you wreck tons of things. Yeah, I get that they're two different words, but they should call it 'wreckful' or something instead. I mean, what kind of janked up language has-" The earlier sentence caught up with her and she paused. "Sorry, can you repeat that?"

"What you did. It was okay," stated Malachite plainly.

A quartet of blinks followed. "How do you figure? And I know I was drunk on rage juice, but that's way different from making tsunami-based redecorating 'okay.'"

"During the war, you were dangerous. To Homeworld. To the Rebellion. To Earth," graveled Malachite. The fusion's eyes went from oval to rounded and she looked like she was going to object but a head shake stopped her.

Eyes growing catlike again, she continued. "You needed restraint. I was that restraint."

Rounded eyes glowered as Malachite gave a half-hearted tug at her manacles. "Not a lot has changed, has it?"

Malachite shook her head in a very Jasper-like manner. "Everything has changed. You've changed. Connie demanded that you become a better person." A beat. "You did."

The fusion's eyes narrowed, but it was into a very Lapis-like look of skepticism. "Even if that's true --and that's a big 'if'-- you and I just did our same old song-and-dance routine. A better Lapis is still someone who needs to open up her hate and let it flow into y-" She paused.

"What?" Malachite asked herself.

"Sorry, I recognized that line from a song and now that I think about it, Down With The Sickness is pretty much Malachite's anthem," observed the fusion.

"Human music?" asked the cat-eyed fusion, receiving a nod in response. "Show it to me sometime."

Malachite looked thoughtful, even a little impressed. "Yeah, okay." A beat. "I can hum a few bars. You might even like how it starts: it's very Quartz-y, what with the grunts."

"Lapis," was Malachite's chiding response.

Rounded eyes rolled prodigiously but no further argument or deflection was made. A moment later a hand made a 'get on with it' gesture to the frosty air.

"I brought up the war because this looks the same. It isn't. Citrine's shadow got to you. The same would have happened to anyone. It doesn't undo who you've become."

Another look of Lapis-like skepticism. "The same didn't happen to you. Because you got served a tall glass of rage juice back when the Sanctuary was on the fritz, remember? And you sure as schist didn't need me to reign you in back then."

This time it was oval-eyed Malachite's turn to slump. "I did. I needed someone. It was Steven that stopped me from doing the worst thing possible."

Wide-eyed, Malachite reached up and rubbed the back of her neck. "Whoa." A beat. "What kind of terrible are we talking here?"

The silence stretched out for a long time. Lacking anything to do but wait, a round-eyed Malachite reached out and drew a smiley face in the condensation on the ice.

Then, eyes shifting, the fusion wiped away the smile and replaced it with a frown. Given the size of the finger doing the drawing, that frown was probably about as wide as Jasper was tall.

"I was enraged. Berserk," said Malachite in a sepulchral tone, as if the fusion were heading to her own funeral. "That's the fault of the malfunctioning sanctuary. But how that rage manifested? What I chose to attack? That was me."

"Didn't you try to whomp Stevie?" offered Malachite, her voice higher and consoling. "Because it was obvious to everyone with eyes that you didn't like the kid after he and Con-con started getting close."

"I thought he was the new Doug," answered Malachite, drooping.

Round eyes sympathetic, Malachite offered herself a commiserating shrug. "You weren't exactly wrong. Though I'd say we traded up this time around."

Malachite didn't agree but nor did she disagree, instead slumping forward and slowly shaking her head back and forth, long, white hair spilling over her shoulder in the process.

Finally, eyes narrowed, she said, "I didn't attack Steven. I wanted to. He was an annoyance. Unwelcome. But I attacked Connie."

It wasn't really possible for Malachite to speak softly given her size, but she tried. "Why Connie?"

Drooping lower still, hands on the knees of her front pair of legs, Malachite said, "She wasn't Citrine. And if she was gone..." but the fusion couldn't bring herself to say the final words aloud.

Once more bringing her hands up as if to warm herself, Malachite said, "-Then maybe Citrine would come back," as all four of her rounded eyes looked on with glum sympathy.

Malachite only nodded wretchedly in response. The quiet stretched out before she added, "Steven stood in the way. Protected her. I couldn't smash a human, not even him." A bitter sigh emerged. "It was against Citrine's rules."

Silence reigned.

The fusion nudged the life-of-the-party rock from before, transferring it from foot-hand to hand-hand and using a dash of water to scour the muck away. Rounded eyes studied the rock this way and that. If it was from space or a volcano, it hid its exciting origins behind a very humble facade.

"I go on a rage bender-" Malachite said, looking like she was addressing the rock but really she was addressing herself, "-and I show the world some nasty facets of me I'd rather not. But it's okay because even if war-Lapis would have done the same thing, today-Lapis needs a tall glass of rage juice to make her go back to the bad old ways of the bad old days. That’s the point you’re beating me over the head with, right?"

Malachite nodded, taking the rock from herself and gently poking at a sharp edge that had been exposed. Eyes narrow, she added, "I used to think Connie was Citrine waiting to happen again. When she didn't, I got resentful. I know better now. Wouldn't do that again. Never. Even if Citrine came back, it'd be terrible."

The sea-green fusion's eyes shifted, a warm if wan smile rising to her lips. "We all know you love Connie for Connie. Connie included.” A beat. “Plus, you're finally stepping out the general’s shadow."

The smile grew a little as the eyes narrowed. "It's a big shadow."

Shift. "Huge. It's the hips, I think. She had-" Colossal hands rose in front of her as if to encompass something broad. Then they dropped. "Though we're one to talk right now." Malachite glanced down at her own sprawling form then blinked in surprise when she noticed the water chains and shackles were all gone.

"Hey, when did that happen?"

The eyes took on a predatory cast. "While ago."

Malachite rubbed one wrist where minutes or hours ago (it was a little hard to tell), hydrokinetic restraints had bitten into the sea-green skin. The fusion heaved a sigh and said in a Lapis-like exclamation, "Fine. You win. I've grown as a person and so have you and recent events haven't changed that." She paused. "Can we go now?" She rapped gently at the side of the diving bell. "There's probably a lot of stuff going on."

"Almost," answered Malachite in a rumbly voice. "There's one last thing."

"Oh?" and Malachite perked up in curiosity.

"Us."

"Oh," and Malachite drooped a little, round eyes looking chagrined.

"No more rainchecks."

Malachite shook her head. "Big, strong, protective. I'm not a traditional gal but when someone saves my facets from a Homeworld hit squad, it makes me like 'em more." Hand rubbing the back of her neck once more, she continued, "You were hot-"

Narrow eyes crinkling, Malachite challenged, "Were?"

Round eyes rolled but she couldn't keep the begrudging smirk off her face. "Are hot," corrected Malachite. "But we really brought out the worst in each other. I wanted someone to save me from myself and you wanted, uh..."

Head bobbing, Malachite answered, "To serve and actually be wanted. I served Citrine. You wanted me."

"‘Want’ is a strong word. I-"

Malachite, looking at her own warped reflection in the ice, gave herself a look.

"Okay, I did," conceded a rounded-eyed Malachite. "But we're new people. Well, better people, or working on it. And, not to be mean about it, but Dot and I are doing really well and we've never made any explicit boundaries but I think adding orange juice to my limeade would spoil the drink."

There was quiet for a time. The song of a distant whale was audible if she really listened. "Yeah. I think so too."

Some seawater froze into a long cylinder of ice which Malachite twirled between her fingers like Lapis fiddling with a pencil. "Also, since Citrine was the one who needed Malachite for the war, doing our aggro tango feels like falling into old habits. I said earlier that you were stepping out of her shadow and I meant it." A wan smile rose to her lips. "You're here, the boss ain't anymore, and it'd be kind of neat to meet you when you aren't someone's right hand or weapon or shieldbearer or some other Middle Earth-sounding title."

Malachite wanted to scoff but refrained: she knew when she was being baited. Taking the rod, she added more ice until she was holding a sword, miniature-scale compared to Malachite but easily as large as one of her components when unfused. It looked roughly like Citrine's sword and Malachite used the flat of the blade to study her own reflection.

She frowned, something in what she saw seeming off. She hadn't felt this way before but now...

The bottom of the diving bell extended lower, the ice growing until it was flush against the seafloor. Then they lifted their front-left and rear-right legs up, freezing water underneath. Stepping back down, they lifted their other set of limbs, repeating the process until they were resting on a thick foundation of ice, their bubble of air firmly anchored to the bottom of the ocean.

With a gesture, the icy floor went from mirror-like to textured, more like pavement than a skating rink.

Malachite closed all four eyes and there was a flash of bright light as the figure shrank and shrank until it dissipated into Jasper holding Lapis in close.

Demurely and a little embarrassed, the two separated.

Then Lapis looked back to the Quartz and extended her hand in invitation. "One more for the road?" She glanced at the icy construct surrounding them. "I mean, we've gotta get back to the island somehow, so it may as well be in style."

Jasper nodded, her expression thoughtful but pleased.

The pair danced, a tango as before but one between partners rather than a choreographed competition between opponents.

Their gemstones glowed, their forms became indistinct, and then their shared silhouette grew and grew until...

Malachite smiled, one pair of eyes rounded, another pair catlike. She spent a moment studying herself, the surrounding ice once more becoming mirror-like. With a nod she saw her approval without and felt it within.

The floor liquified and then chains of water rose up... and anchored themselves against the walls of the diving bell. Malachite grabbed these chains and then made a gesture that severed the diving bell from the sea floor. The whole thing shot up like a cork, Malachite riding up with a broad smile.

When it breached the surface, the diving bell split down the middle, opening like a neatly cracked egg. Malachite sprung into the air, wings outstretched, using the upward momentum of her ascent to help her launch skyward.

She banked once, looked down at her reflection in the tropical ocean below, then soared swiftly onward back to the island and the others.

Chapter Text

But then again, us humans: we're full of surprises, they thought, finishing the quip they’d started earlier and dissolving the bubble with a tap.

They brought their hand forward for another jab and another bubble appeared around the debilitated Rose. This one was covered with two-inch-long pink spikes. "Whoa," said Asmi, momentarily surprised.

Meekly, Rose struggled to rise within but it was all the kneeling gem could do to not topple completely to the sand. If the gemstone at her navel were yellow, she'd probably have been able to fight on, but corruption was primarily an assault of the mind.

The spiky bubble dissolved under another destabilizer jab. Walking a few paces to the right, they tried to prod Rose again but the gem's arm rose just enough her shield deflected the attack, her instinctive defense functioning even if the rest of her was hammered flat by the looped Diamond song.

Unlike most hard light weapons, Rose's shield remained intact, the edges fraying slightly but otherwise weathering the destabilizing energies. Destabilizers, after all, were an assault of the body and her powers were well-equipped to combat that.

The fusion gave a thoughtful hum. It felt kind of wrong that defeating Rose had become a weird sort of chore rather than a heroic triumph. It felt wrong to each part of Asmi, if for different reasons.

Circling around to Rose's back, they took their saber awkwardly in their shield arm, the circular force field narrowed as far as it could go, then tried and stab with both destabilizer and blade. A pair of bubbles, one and then another in succession, flashed out, the first intercepting the destabilizer, the second turning aside the sword strike.

Asmi heard a small voice. Circling Rose cautiously, they saw her mouthing something, her expression screwed up in concentration and anguish.

"Make it stop," pleaded the kneeling gem as loudly as she was able.

"I'm trying," objected Asmi in a deeper voice than usual. "Just... Hang on. I'll get this done."

Asmi summoned a small, vertical force field inches away from the pink gem. They then attacked around it, the bubbles forming but unable to fully expand because of the interposing yellow obstacle. Sheathing their saber, Asmi took the destabilizer in both hands and put their full weight into it, the crackling weapon dissolving bubble after bubble, centimeter by centimeter growing closer to the defeated gem within.

Then suddenly there was a snapping sound, a 'device disconnected' icon appeared on their scouter, and the corruption audio ceased.

Rose's eyes snapped open and she drew herself up with a panicked cry, Quartzine strength bowling Asmi back. Their destabilizer removed Rose's right arm from the elbow down, but that would only slow the gem down.

Tumbling backwards, Asmi hit the sand, rolled and sprang to their feet, a destabilizer in one hand and their shield ready in the other. They were ready for a fight but they couldn't keep the look of bewilderment off their face as they looked around the beach to see what the heck had happened that'd killed the audio.

They saw a vine snaked around their cheeseburger-with-extra-lettuce backpack. It was growing out from the tear-stained sand and constricting their pack like an angry python.

They'd thought Rose was talking to them when she'd pleaded for someone to make it stop but she'd been commanding one of her plant soldiers instead.

For a second, Asmi and Rose eyed the pack and one another.

They still had Connie's phone in there, complete with corruption audio installed, and unlike Steven's it would have survived the crushing force intact.

Fusion and Quartz shot forward at the same time. However, Rose blurred into a spindash, reaching the pack first, the force of her impact sending pack as well as most of the constricting vine flying on a parabolic arc out to land with a splash in the moonlit bay and disappearing beneath the water.

In a snap decision, Asmi turned their sprint into a charge, lunging at Rose with their destabilizer.

The Quartz resummoned her shield on her newly regenerated right arm and blocked the jab. Then she twisted her upper body, her shield bashing Asmi back so that her sword swung for their opened guard.

On instinct, Asmi raised their saber to deflect only to realize it wasn't a saber but a destabilizer they were holding. The device caught the sword, the blade biting deep, and with a shower of sparks the crackling yellow energy vanished from the tines.

Asmi leapt backwards, swiftly pulling their saber free from the scabbard. Rose, however, had no intention of allowing them room to breathe, the gem advancing like a grim-faced phalanx of one. Her sword lashed out and Asmi parried, their saber coming away a few inches shorter.

Asmi parried the next attack with a force field to keep their Plan-C from being whittled down to just the guard. Their mind was mind hiccupping as they tried to think of a new Plan-B in a hurry. Acting on impulse and hurriedly sheathing their sword, they thrust their hand in their pocket and then they tossed in Rose's face a handful of the sand that'd gotten caught in the pant pocket during their tumble.

Rose fixed them with another skeptical, mean girl stare as the sand slowly slid down the surface of her bubble.

Asmi gave a nervous chuckle and shrugged their shoulders.

Using a pair of fields in Rose's way to buy them time, Asmi Mario-hopped their way higher, fields appearing and vanishing beneath them as they ascended. Off in the distance they could see Peridot and Pyra continuing their own skirmish, it looking every bit as frantic as their own.

On the one hand, that was awful because they could really use the backup just then. But on the other hand, they found it oddly comforting that they weren't the only one fighting by the seat of their pants.

There was a blur of motion and Rose soared up as if she weighed nothing, her sword ringing as it struck Asmi's shield with freight train force. Rose hit almost as hard as Jasper and it was only because of their shield's inertial dampener that they weren't sent flying.

Disabling the dampener, Asmi flung themself into space, pulling a smaller version of their earlier mid-air swing to keep distance between them and their relentless pink terminator of an opponent.

"You could have gotten a bunch of people killed when you unleashed all of those corrupted monster people," shouted Asmi, because when in doubt, try and get the villain monologuing.

"Grab her," commanded Rose as vines and brambles slithered up from the sand.

Asmi had to pull a sudden, second 'swing' to stay out of reach of a grasping plant soldier. It was a pain on the shoulder, but that, at least, they could spread around.

"And if any humans had been killed," continued Rose as she moved to intercept. Tears were streaming down her face as she spoke and while there were only so many plants or seeds for her to animate, it was still that much more Asmi would have to dodge around. "It would be because the Crystal Gems had failed in their duties. You protect humanity from corrupted gem attacks and a natural avalanche could just as easily have unleashed a similar calamity."

Asmi stumbled as much from the argument as kicking away a particularly persistent bramble. "What?! That is specious reasoning at best!" they countered, their voice rising a little higher as they spoke. "Just because a natural disaster could have accomplished the same doesn't obviate you from culpability for what you were directly responsible for."

Seriously, reasoning like that would have gotten Rose eaten alive in one of the mother-daughter debates that'd happened within Peridot's room of the temple.

"Yes but why did I make the strike in the first place?" countered Rose after spindashing closer. "Because it would tie up enemy assets while I struck against a hardened location. It's a move you should be very familiar with if the others told you anything of your mother's tactics."

"But civilian casualties?" challenged Asmi, using saber, fields, shield, and acrobatics to stay ahead of the throng, all while their hair was growing steadily frizzier.

"The humans of Earth won't survive the Cluster's inevitable emergence in the first place. If it weren't for me, that would mark the extinction of the species, but at least the ones on the Zoo station I convinced Pink Diamond to construct will outlive their home planet's destruction." With a word and a gesture from Rose, a picket of plant soldiers swept out to cover one flank and advance on Asmi. "All I'm trying to do is make something of merit come from this planet-wide mess of a situation."

Asmi couldn't help but notice that they were being corralled and herded toward the section of beach Peridot had warned them was mined. They hacked aside a vine grasping for them with their shortened saber, accidentally unleashing a small amount of the electricity they were building up.

"You keep talking about circumstantial reasons why it's not directly your fault, or how quantitatively your plan is the smaller of two atrocities. There's no ethical foundation there, though, just a framework of excuses and justifications."

Rose's snarl of frustration in response was a forceful counterpoint, but not a well-formulated one.

"Citrine thought there was something special about you. She called you the most ethical person she'd ever known and she pleaded in her journal for Connie to help you escape from Homeworld's clutches." Panting for breath in a shrinking stretch of calm, Asmi looked at Rose. "What happened to you such that she'd be so completely wrong?"

"Citrine did," snarled Rose, the words emerging like an epithet.

"I always kind of hoped that there was something deeper, because Connie's mother was so hung up on you that she literally died with you as her greatest regret." Asmi shook their head. "But there's not. You're completely Homeworld's creature now."

With supernatural lightness, Rose surged forward, running over the sand like it was a textured running track. She struck out in a blur of blows, one ringing against Asmi's shield, the other hacking away a chunk of saber. Always somehow staying inside their guard, Rose continued her assault and Asmi caught the last blow with the pommel of the saber, hissing as they tossed the ruined sword aside and had to convert a slash across the back of their hand into a mounting sense of exhaustion.

Rose bowled them back, a shield bash ringing off their breastplate. “Give me the location of the shards. Now. No more running. No more tricks. No more debates," demanded Rose, her pink blade lashing out and raking across their shield. "You want justifications? I still have a sword and you don’t. I win," she countered, eyes flinty.

Rose wanted nothing from the Earth save what would further her plans for Homeworld. She was a mean bully. She had allowed Pearl to think herself enslaved when she could have liberated her instead. She had smooshed the peace of a hundred monster people for evil reasons and made Wolf sad! She had no compunctions or scruples, only self-serving justifications.

She was categorically wrong. Ethically wrong and Asmi rejected the notion as both unpalatable and totally not how these sorts of stories were supposed to go.

Asmi's gemstone flared with light and the fusion held their sword for the very first time.

Yellow and pink swords of legend clashed, locked in a climactic struggle for dominance, the unstoppable Rose eyeing the lotus-adorned saber with visible fear and uncertainty.

Accumulated electricity flowed up the yellow blade then through the pink one. Rose gave a cry of pain and staggered back a step.

"I object," countered Asmi in a voice of absolute conviction...

...and in the space of their thoughts they added, You mean, pink butt-head.

Malachite made a pass over the island, extinguishing all the fires that had flared up since she'd left and using walls of ice to barricade the human-inhabited eastern shore of the island.

With a gesture, a gentle wave swelled and rippled outward, accelerating all the retreating barges that much faster along.

Then, with a flash of light the one huge figure became two smaller ones, Jasper standing ankle-deep in the surf with Lapis in a bridal carry in her arms.

The remaining evacuating humans --there only looked to be about a third of the population left-- gave the pair a look that was just the right combination of scared, jaded, and bored that it almost felt like they were back in Beach City.

P2 came helicoptering over. "Wow!" she exclaimed landing nearby. Then she lifted her blaster and pointed it at Lapis, Jasper stepping instantly in the way and offering a fierce glare. "You're not still going to engage in emotionally unhinged, rogue terraforming are you?" she asked the eclipsed hydrokinetic.

"Put down the piece, P2," drawled Lapis. "I'm all tantrum'd out so we're good so long as Umbra’s gone." She glanced around. "She's gone, right?"

P2 lowered her blaster arm immediately and grinned. "Yes! The Connie-Steven fusion defeated it using poorly-understood magic then bubbled and banished the remnant. Or so they said." She looked thoughtful for a second before her smile returned with full force. "I could play you the footage of their report!"

Jasper waved the request away. "Where's Asmi now?" A glance. "And Peridot?"

"They received an alert that the Beach House was being assaulted, so Peridot assigned me-" and P2 puffed up with pride, "-and Bismuth the important task of completing the evacuation while Wolf warped them there using yet more poorly-understood magic." Her grin dialed up to eleven as she shout-exclaimed, "I've violently defeated eighteen corrupted gems!"

"Poofed?" asked Jasper, expression guarded.

"Yes, and bubbled by Bismuth," and she gestured to the partially-built skeleton of boat from which the sounds of construction were ringing out.

"Last question," interjected Lapis before P2 could exclaim at them any more. "What's with the portal up on the busted Sanctuary? Malachite saw it while playing firefighter."

"Ah, yes. It appeared-" and the gem paused to call up the exact time before Lapis waved her on, "-some time ago. Peridot and someone else emerged from it then dove back in. Given the distance, I wasn't able to zoom in properly to tell exactly who but I suspect Connie's fusion was the second figure."

Lapis shared a glance at Jasper. "Trap?"

"Trap," agreed the Quartz.

"Malachite?"

"Malachite."

Rose held her sword in her left hand and Asmi held theirs in their right, so shield met shield and sword met sword as the two combatants collided. Rose had the strength advantage and, when she wanted to, the mass advantage as well. However, Asmi was the more agile of the pair and their shield's inertial dampener meant strength and mass only mattered so much.

Also, Asmi had electricity. Lots of electricity and it turned out that sufficient voltage was one of the great equalizers in combat.

Who knew?

The plant soldiers were a problem but Rose had originally arranged them in broad pickets, which Asmi was able to carve their way through with ease. Magical, lightning destiny swords were up there with electricity and inertial dampeners in leveling playing fields.

And while Rose was nigh-indestructible, she was scared. Something about Asmi wielding their sword had the pink gem faltering where she had previously been relentless.

Asmi hopped up a pair of force fields and then dove towards Rose, sword outthrust, an exultant if inarticulate battle cry on their lips. Rose dove left and met the sword strike with her shield, her own blow ringing off Asmi's lotus-embossed buckler.

They'd learned that Rose's shield did block lightning, just as it seemed to block everything else. However, what Rose learned just then was that they could channel electricity through either armament. The metal shield crackled with electricity which coursed down Rose’s sword and into her form.

Rose tried to retreat and bumped into a force field. Before more could box her in, though, she pushed Asmi back with her bubble and then spindashed thirty feet away.

Asmi loosed an arc of lightning from their outstretched sword. Rose's bubble appeared with preternatural speed but it seemed that destabilizers weren't the only crackling yellow things that were good at popping bubbles, some of the shock hitting Rose despite her defenses.

It was at that time that Peridot and Pyra came flying overhead. Metal and gravity clashed, invisible forces struggling against one another. But given the heavily Dopplered 'Nyehehehehe!' they heard as the two passed, Asmi assumed Peridot was doing okay.

"One last time, Rose," declared Asmi as they stalked closer to the visibly-shaken gem. "Surrender and I promise you'll be treated fairly."

It's better than you deser- but the thought had Asmi flicker briefly. It's more than you'd give anyone else, they amended.

A pair of grasping vines were slashed apart with a mental snicker-snack sound effect added, as if theirs was the vorpal sword from Lewis Carol's Jabberwocky or an epic-level Lutes and Loot campaign. Then they fired twin bursts of lightning at Rose, the first catching on her shield but the second arcing into the metal of her sword.

The skirmishing pair flew by once more.

Asmi saw Rose reeling back and then she chucked her shield like something straight out of a Captain America comic. Asmi dodged aside, their own shield in practiced position, and was surprised when the projectile flew nowhere near them. Rose's guard exposed, Asmi hit her straight-on with as much juice as they could manage in that moment, the pink gem staggering, smoke rising from her extremities even as her tears started healing her form.

Asmi was most of the way to closing the distance with Rose when there was a nasally cry that made the fusion's blood freeze.

They whipped around and saw a green figure dropping like a stone, knocked off the McFly by a shield that was vanishing into sparkles. Then the air around her rippled and Peridot dropped like a stone on Jupiter, hitting the ground with percussive force.

"Mommadot!" cried Asmi as Pyra delivered another pair of gravitic hammer blows to the downed gem.

Then something that was actually cold as ice, or cold as the Delmarva air in December, slid into Asmi with a sensation like getting jabbed with the largest needle in the world. Stunned, Asmi looked down to see Rose's sword. There were gaps under each arm, gaps where their breastplate didn’t cover. The blade had been plunged inward and downward into… them.

Rose herself grinned as she pushed the blade deeper, eliciting a wet noise.

Several wordless emotional concepts flashed through Asmi's mind just then but they were all obliterated when pain like nothing they'd ever experienced shattered any semblance of thought.

Rose said something, maybe. Her lips were moving as she sneered, but Asmi's ears were ringing and it was really hard to breathe just then.

Then Rose recoiled, the sword left embedded and forgotten. A distant part of Asmi wondered if they'd just shocked her or something but then, as the corners of their vision started going dark, they saw Rose desperately trying shake the blood, their blood, off her hands.

Oh. She probably expected me to poof or- they thought before another failed attempt to breathe ended in pain and growing darkness.

It was then that Asmi quite literally came undone. The pink sword popped free as the figure fissioned and dropped a few feet away to the sand. The light then resolved into Connie and Steven, the teens landing boneless and painfully on the sand below.

Connie was then aware of two things. The first was that she now only had half an impalement wound, so breathing was merely torturous rather than impossible. The other was that Steven was lying face up, unconscious, his breath came out in ragged gasps.

In the distance Rose was waving her hands and freaking out but Connie had awareness for only two things just then and those were: 1) herself and 2) Steven.

Get to Steven. Transfer the injury. Go insubstantial, she thought as forcefully as she could.

Going insubstantial would stabilize her, render her injuries moot, and even make her start to slowly heal. But if she went insubstantial right now, it'd be as long as ninety seconds before she was material again. There was no guarantee that Steven would still be alive when she was tangible enough to touch her forehead to his, so her CP power had to come after the transfer, not before.

Get to Steven. Transfer the injury. Go insubstantial.

Connie thought of rising but her wracked body immediately vetoed the idea, the girl instead crawling over, teeth gritting through the worst experience of her entire life.

Get to Steven. Transfer the injury. Go insubstantial.

Dragging herself into position, she didn't so much touch her forehead to Steven's as let hers collapse onto his. Then her gemstone flared with light and Steven took a deep gasp of air, eyes snapping open and-

The pain had been bad enough as Asmi. This was the same but distilled into a more concentrated form, as if Connie weren’t big enough to contain it all. Her thoughts were obliterated and darkness took the girl.

With a crash of displaced air, Malachite arrived over the beach, filled with a rage that had nothing to do with negative energy and everything to do with the scoured cliff face where once a proud and beautiful statue had stood.

Then four eyes took in the scene below.

Peridot lying prone in a crater, still formed but unmoving. The moonlight caught the spray of green shards surrounding the badly-cracked gem just right so that they sparkled.

Connie was lying prone in a circle of red-stained sand while Steven stirred sluggishly beside her. Rose's sword lay in the sand nearby and Rose herself was only a few paces away.

Malachite gasped and fissioned with an audible pop, the component gems flung in two different directions.

"Dot!" cried Lapis, wings summoned and diving as fast as she could.

"Connie!" cried Jasper, the Quartz flipping over so that she would be ready to spring forward the second she hit sand.

Chapter Text

Steven was awake. Breathing didn't feel like the world's biggest owie anymore. It wasn't until he sat upright that he realized why both of those things were true.

"Oh my gosh, Connie!"

She was lying on her tummy and there was red in the sand around her that absolutely wasn't spilled party punch. Her face was pale and her breathing was shallow.

A corner of Steven decided now was a great time to run in circles, waving its arms and shouting. Another corner sounded like his teacher in his special Beach City class, lecturing him and Jeff about first aid techniques.

With a lurch, Steven scrabbled over to Connie and started to look for a way to stop the bleeding. You were supposed to elevate the injured part of the body and that made sense when it was a hand or foot that got hurt but seemed less helpful when it was the side of her chest.

He turned out his pockets, coins, keys, his wallet, a dog whistle, and a bunch of other things spilling out into the sand. He hunted through them for the small stuff he kept on hand for emergency care. Smelling salts? No, she needed her rest. A little travel-size bottle of headache medicine? He was pretty sure that made bleeding worse. Then he snatched up the half-dozen band-aids and the little bottle of hand sanitizer he kept in there, putting all of 'em to immediate use.

A third part of Steven sounded like Jasper and was saying-

"Steven! The healing vials!"

Yeah, she was saying that.

Then he blinked, saw Rose Quartz flying backwards in her bubble as if she'd just been punted, and saw Jasper rushing over.

"Vials!" she barked and Steven hadn't known Jasper could look scared before now.

He'd hauled Connie's head and shoulders as gently as he could into his lap, because six little band-aids were not nearly enough for a boo-boo this bad. Using the gap between her body and the sand, he wound his scarf from her injured side up to her opposite shoulder and back, a cable knit bandage in the making.

While his body was doing that in semi-panicked auto-pilot, he told the Quartz, "Asmi's backpack got crushed by a vine thingy and then Rose kicked it way out into the ocean."

Jasper's angry-scared eyes glanced over the bay and then back to Steven. "Where?" she demanded.

Steven tied the scarf tight and was holding his hand against the wound to slow the bleeding. Then he shook his head and said, "I don't know! It was a fight and we couldn't really focus on that with Rose trying-"

Jasper cut him off with a gesture. Her gaze fell to the first aid Steven had done. "Will that save her? Fix her?" There was a waver in her voice that he'd only heard once, when she'd broken down at the Sky Arena.

He shook his head. "No. She needs magic or an ambulance. I-" His own voice hitched. "She's not breathing enough. I'm pretty sure the sword hit a lung."

Jasper's head snapped up. "LAPIS!" she bellowed.

Steven started to crane around to look --he hadn't known Miss Lapis was here too-- but stopped when he realized he'd be jostling Connie doing that. From the angry frown on Jasper's face, whatever was happening across the beach wasn't going to help them here.

Sparing another worried glance at Connie, Jasper took two large steps towards the surf, apparently intent on fishing out the backpacks herself, when there was a whine and a blur of pink.

Jasper's face became a snarl, rage like you saw on the last panel before Dr. Banner turned into The Hulk flashing across her features. "NO!" she roared before vanishing with a spray of sand and a whoosh.

Shielding Connie's face from the debris with his arm, Steven watched as a big, orange spindash rocketed forward, crashing into a slightly smaller pink spindash with extreme force. A split-second later Jasper and Rose were tumbling over one another like a pair of really angry cats, Rose not able to really stab with her sword in that close but still hacking up the Quartz, all while Jasper was punching hard enough Steven felt it.

Apparently Rose felt it too because after a particularly nasty hit to her jaw, she summoned a bubble around herself. Jasper hauled back and delivered a two-armed Hulk punch which sent the bubble flying once more like Glenda the Good Witch in reverse.

Gems didn't bleed but Jasper had a number of nasty cuts on her -- though she really didn't seem to care. It was subtle but Steven could actually see some of the smaller ones starting to heal as her body did its best to be unstoppable.

Jasper glanced at herself and then seemed to dismiss it, jogging over. There was a gleam of something in her eye, something scared and manic and more unbreakable than Miss Bismuth's coffee table.

"Steven!" she barked. "Can you wake her up?"

Blink. "Um, I guess I could splash water in her face or-" He paused. "Smelling salts! There!" He pointed to the little white packet in the sand between his wallet and a couple of Funland Arcade tokens.

Jasper snatched up the smelling salts and then reached out for Connie. Gingerly, oh so gingerly and with Steven helping as best he could, she took her in her arms. Connie looked like a sleeping child compared to the large Quartz.

There was another flash of approaching pink and Jasper fixed Steven with a commanding look. "Hold Rose off."

"Huh?!"

"Just a little while." Her expression became pleading. "For Connie."

Steven's jaw clenched. "For Connie," he answered and he was surprised to find that while he was super duper scared and really didn't want to get stabbed again like last time... the thought of not protecting Connie wasn't there.

Expanding his shield out to tower shield-like proportions, he jogged a little ahead and dropped into a defensive stance. Rose was a pink blur heading straight for him. He'd trained for fights like this, sorta. He knew his shield would stop a charging Jasper. Steven took a steadying breath and was ready to toggle the inertial dampener at the last second...

...when Rose did some sort of thing where her spindash banked sideways. Given the spray of coins from his pocket earlier, it was possible she had just literally turned on a dime.

Then she was turning again, heading straight for Jasper and Connie and Steven dove sideways and he felt his fall turn all funny when he toggled the dampener and then Rose smacked into his shield and she was Rose again and not a pink Sonic ball and she was glaring at him and he was hurrying back onto his feet and for a second they were looking at each other through the yellow of his shield's force field.

Steven gave a little wave with his free hand.

Rose slammed her shield into his shield and then she feinted with a sword attack but she'd done that move to Asmi earlier and Steven recognized it so instead of turning his shield to catch the strike he shuffled left with careful footwork and was there to block Rose when she tried to hook her shield on his and spin him around.

She glowered at him. In the background Steven heard a growl of frustration from Jasper.

"You're the other half of my niece's fusion," said Rose in a 'who are you and why should I be impressed' voice Steven recognized from overhearing meetings with Marty.

"Steven," he introduced himself though he made a point not to extend his hand to shake. "Although we've kind of met already even if I don't remember it."

Rose's eyes went wide. "You were the vessel when she-"

Steven nodded. "Yeah, that was me." A beat. "Please don't do that again. Connie was upset when I woke up. She really didn't like doing what she did to make you leave."

The pink gem's look of surprise crashed down into a fierce glare. "What she did to me was agony like you cannot imagine."

He gave a little shrug and offered her an apologetic half-smile. "Connie was scared and didn't know what else to do." A beat. "I'm sorry it hurt you so much."

Rose gave him a searching stare and then loomed in closer. "Maybe I'll even the scales by inflicting the same on you. She cares enough about you to fuse with you. To take your injury as her own. What do you think of that, Steven?"

He swallowed, a block of ice somehow freezing his tummy. "I think you're really scary. And mad. And mean."

She moved to dive past him but he jumped in the way.

Rose raked her sword across his shield but Miss Peridot had once explained that the buckler reinforced the field and the field reinforced the buckler and you pretty much had to break both to break one so he wasn't worried by that.

Another searching glare through the force field from the pink gem. Then her expression softened. Actually, when she stopped looking all angry-scary-Terminator at him, she kind of reminded Steven of his mom... which was weird.

"I could heal her," she offered.

Steven said nothing but his lungs forgot how to breathe just then even though there wasn't a sword in one of them like earlier.

"I don't want her to die," said Rose softly, eyes wet with potential healing. "You don't want her to die either, do you?"

He shook his head, a different, colder kind of ice settling in his tummy. Finally sucking in some air, said, "You'd stab her."

This time it was Rose to shake her head. "I've never killed anyone. Not ever. Did you know that?"

Steven nodded. Then he shook his head. Then he nodded again. "No, but I kind of thought so."

She moved to pass him but he blocked her way.

Frowning, he said, "But you're okay letting people die. So you'd stab Jasper instead and then leave Connie in the sand."

There was another noise of frustration behind them. Then he heard a whimper and Connie coughing.

Rose took a step back, never taking her eyes off of Steven. Then she flipped her shield around like a bowl, three large tears falling down her cheek and into it. "Take it," she said, extending the shield-bowl out toward him. "Save her before it's too late for both of us."

"I-" Steven wasn't sure what to do. "I- But-" A vision of Connie in a coffin like great-grandma flashed through Steven's mind and that jolted him into action. "Okay, hurry!" He swung the tower shield aside and reached out...

...only for the pink shield to dissolve into sparkles. Rose didn't try to jump past him so much as leap up and over.

Without time to think, Steven just acted, lunging forward and pulling one of Rose's legs into a bearhug, her boot clanking against his armor. That probably wouldn't have slowed her down much since she was a super Quartz and all but Steven also toggled his inertial dampener so suddenly Rose's jump turned into a kind of floaty flail.

Behind them, Steven heard music. He was busy trying not to get kicked off by a ticked off warrior lady but a distant corner of him recognized it from the Lord of the Rings soundtrack he'd bought for Jasper as a gift and downloaded onto the phone she got to replace the one that'd broken over Harvest Festival.

"Let go!" shouted Rose. She kicked him but Steven was pretty covered with armor when he wasn't fused so it only kinda hurt. Since his shield was strapped to his arm, the field angled such that it partially covered his head and neck, Rose was having a hard time getting at him with her sword too.

Something was happening behind him that Rose really didn't seem to like. She tried to turn super heavy and drop back down but the shield resisted that too. Instead they went from being like one of those drinking bird toys when it was upright to being like when it was taking a drink, the shield allowing them to spin but not to fall.

There was a flash of light behind him and then it felt kind of warm and the ice of fear in his tummy was melting too but then Rose turned into a pink spindashing blur and Steven couldn't hold onto that and his arm got yanked kinda hard and he had to turn off his shield so he didn't get a whole lot of pink road rash to the face and he dropped to the sand just as Rose zipped ahead but then there was a hit and Rose went flying again and Steven thought Jasper had done another Hulk punch but that made him scared for Connie because being held while Jasper fought was sure to worsen the bleeding and then a glowing centaur picked him up and Steven's jaw dropped all the way to China.

There was a foe approaching but Jasper had to trust that to another. Because Connie was injured, was possibly dying, and that could not happen.

The girl looked so small and helpless in Jasper's arms, brown skin turned ashen from blood loss. It reminded her of when Connie had been littler, not even Ruby-sized. She'd found it unsettling to see so proud a gemstone in so feeble a form and so Jasper had made frequent patrols during those years. She wished-

With a growl, Jasper forced those feelings aside. There was a mission to do! Focus! she berated herself.

The healing vials weren't reachable in time, lost somewhere in the bay. Peridot's dose might still be intact but Lapis was busy skirmishing with the Scolecite and they were both messy, area-of-effect fighters. Going there would cost Jasper time Connie might not have.

Jasper had seen her general injured before. She'd even been the one to save Citrine's life once, holding back five Homeworld soldiers long enough for Garnet and Rose to arrive, the former helping her in the melee, the latter healing the crack in Citrine's stone. It was that fight which Citrine referenced when she named Jasper her new shieldbearer after the Schism.

Jasper had saved Lapis before. A Novaculite had shot out one of Lapis' wings, causing the gem to plummet while a pair of Ruby fusions rushed in to finish the job. Jasper had caught her in her arms before she hit the ground, had sheltered Lapis with her own perfect form from giant red fists. It had been the first time they'd fused.

This was everything like those times and nothing like them because Jasper had never before been as scared of failure as she was right now.

She brought out her phone. Large fingers punched too-small buttons and a bark of frustration emerged from her throat. She didn't have time for this! Shrinking her hand down, she tried again, navigating the menus to the music Steven had added to her phone. Lord of the Rings Soundtrack. Return of the King Soundtrack. Playlist and-

A somber piece of strings and vocals began to play, the scene of Samwise and Frodo on the slopes of Mount Doom leaping to Jasper's mind. Tucking the phone into the crook of her arm, Jasper nearly fumbled the small packet of smelling salts and she inwardly cursed her weakness. She crushed the packet in one hand, immediately smelling the chemicals. Carefully transferring Connie's body so that she was being supported by a single orange arm, Jasper wafted the hand with smelling salts near the girl's face.

For a second nothing happened and Jasper felt a spike of fear stab through her form. The song, meanwhile, had grown quiet. It had reached the part where Samwise was pleading with Frodo to keep going but the weight of the ring was too much, the ring-bearer collapsed into the pitiless volcanic slope.

Then Connie coughed, eyes squeezing tight with pain and then fluttering open. Eyes dim, she stared up at Jasper questioningly.

"You're hurt, kiddo," rumbled Jasper, voice thick with poorly-suppressed emotion. "I can help you but we would need to fuse." Jasper hesitated just a second. "Okay?"

Connie took a series of shallow breaths. She looked like she tried to say something but her face scrunched up in agony before the words could form. Eyes squeezed shut, she gave Jasper a curt nod.

Jasper swayed Connie in her arms, unknowingly imitating an action she'd seen Peridot do back when the girl had been newly-emerged and tiny. The music, meanwhile, swelled, choral voices rising.

"I can't carry it for you," said Jasper in a hushed tone, reciting Samwise's line. "But I can carry you."

It was Jasper's favorite scene of the movie, as Samwise hauled Frodo up and carried him to the end of their quest. It always brought her within inches of tearing up and here she didn't bother holding back.

Jasper's gemstone glowed. Connie's lit up, a faint, flickering light but Jasper's shone all the brighter to compensate. Then there was light as their forms grew indistinct and...

Jasper had been stabbed many times, had been blasted, slashed, crushed, and immolated and had endured it all with Quartzine perfection. Connie was a Quartz too no matter what her form was made of. Together, they were beyond trifles like sword wounds or blood loss. They were an unstoppable juggernaut of justice. An inexhaustible bulwark to the innocent and an inescapable foe to the wicked. They were the promise of the setting sun that, though the night may be dark, dawn would triumph again.

...a large body like a Clydesdale formed, bands of yellow highlighting the brown flank while bands of brown highlighted yellow hair. Yellow-Orange energy crackled across them, radiating warmth and light and an aura to bolster the spirit against evil.

Overhead, the city's fireworks display started, bursts of color lighting up the night.

Boon companion Steven had held the line but now foul malefactor Rose Quartz was striking, pink blade poised like a serpent's fang. With a booming laugh, they reached up, twin gemstones glowing as they drew forth their own weapon, a sword with which a tireless crusader could strike fear in the hearts of evildoers everywhere. It was immense, a radiant zweihänder with orange parrying hooks mid-blade and orange cross-guard.

With a mighty swing, they forced the pink fiend to slink into her bubble lest she be smote by their righteous blade. The blow instead launched the woesome foe into the distance with a resounding 'WHAM!'

Trotting forward, they helped Steven to his feet, smiling at him with fond affection. "Are you okay, my boy?" asked Sunset Aura Quartz in a booming voice.

"Are you okay, my boy?" asked the glowing centaur. Her voice was warm (and a little loud) and it had a 'let's go adventuring!' quality to it Steven associated with Captain America speeches or All Might.

He opened his mouth to speak, found it was already open but was having a hard time with words, closed his mouth, swallowed, then got out, "Uh huh." Then he saw the gemstone at the centaur's chest and he jolted. "Connie?! You're okay?!"

A broad smile and a wave of heat like being under a toasty electric blanket greeted Steven. "Never better," she boasted, transferring the biggest sword he'd ever seen to one hand so she could pat him affectionately on the armored shoulder. "Fine work holding back Rose Quartz. We're- I'm proud of you."

Fireworks were going off overhead but they were also exploding in Steven. He felt his cheeks ache at the smile that garnered, bone-deep relief at Connie being okay mixing with the a growing feeling of confidence that seemed to follow this fusion like a bubble. "Thanks! I'm just glad it all worked out Miss, uh-"

With a wink and a bicep flex, the fusion said, "Sunset Aura Quartz. Now take heart, boon companion, because the cavalry has arrived!" Raising a hand to her mouth, she shouted in challenge, "And I will suffer no evil ere the coming dawn!" her giant, glowing sword pointed directly at Rose Quartz.

Rose, meanwhile, was standing in the center of a growing number of plant soldiers. She gave Sunset a long look then said in a dry voice, "I can see why my sister never wanted to fuse with you, Jasper. You look twice as foolish as you sound."

One glowing boot pawed the sand, the giant sword moving into a two-handed grip. "Let's see your sword match your wits, cur." Then they were moving, the thunder of their charge echoing off the cliffs as they churned sand in a glowing, four-legged avalanche of justice.

With a jolt, Steven tapped his scouter, shouting, "Sunset! The explosives!" just before the device went dark, unpowered once Connie's aura went out of range.

"Have no fear for mine is the path of righteousness and none shall bar it!"

With a flash and a broad swipe of her sword, a yellow-orange glow hung around the fusion's legs and feet like a force field made of colored mist. When she stepped on the first mine, the explosion was channeled sharply to Sunset's left and right, the centaur neither hurt nor tripped.

It reminded him of Connie's description of how Tiger's Eye's deflection power had worked.

The mines exploded like a lit chain of fire crackers and it was hard to see through all the explosions and glowing, but Steven was pretty sure Rose didn't look happy about this. The fireworks display continued in the sky above, accompaniment to the light show going on in front of him.

The plant soldiers were next, tangling brambles and grasping vines attempting to ensnare the centaur. These Sunset simply trampled, the plants as able to stop her as they would be able to stop a speeding tank. Several were uprooted and continued to cling to the fusion but then that yellow-orange glow swept around Sunset's body, shaking all the passengers loose.

"Woo!" shouted Steven.

Drawing back, Sunset made a massive swing with her massive sword just as she was charging into Rose. Rose leapt to the side at the last second, her shield catching the blow of the enormous sword with a sound like a gong being hit with a cannonball. Her own sword lashed out, carving a line along the fusion's flank but it was Rose, not Sunset, who landed with a stagger.

Sunset merely laughed, seemingly amused by the injury rather than bothered. It was hard for Steven to see at this distance but it did look like the sword cut was growing smaller by the moment. "Do you feel that, foe? It is the weight of your misdeeds weighing on your heart. It is the long-overdue balancing of the scales of justice."

Rose rounded on Sunset and said in a voice like an angry cat, "You influence those around you! That's disgusting!"

Turning didn't seem to be easy for Sunset since she needed to make such a wide turn to get pointed in the other direction. It was kind of like watching Dad get the bus circled around. But while she was doing that, she called out in her lady version of a Johnny Bravo voice, "The noble are emboldened while the black-hearted know only dismay. Quake before your undoing, fiend!"

"I think not," answered Rose as the night lit up brighter than before, another round of fireworks going off and casting crazy shadows across the ground.

With her target in front of her once more, Sunset charged. Rose spindashed away, the centaur in hot pursuit. Sunset did something with her sword that made a flash of light so bright it left Steven covering his eyes and blinking away spots. It seemed to similarly trip up Rose, the gem stumbling out of her spindash only to have her bubble cleaved through by the Goliath of swords. It was only her shield growing to ten-times normal size that Rose wasn't poofed outright, though she was mashed into the sand when Sunset trampled across the oversized shield, Rose pinned beneath.

That probably hurt a lot.

"Sic semper tyrannis, you sick-tempered tyrant," challenged Sunset as she started to come around for another charge.

Rose shook off the scare aura a moment later, climbing out of the Quartz-shaped hole she'd been squashed into and looking really unhappy.

Speaking as someone with lots of thick, curly hair, Steven winced at the sheer amount of work and shampoo it'd take to get that much sand out of the pink invader's locks.

But Rose instead did a super-jump up and over, landing on the porch of the beaten up Beach House. "Pearl!" she called.

A second later Pearl came hurrying out from inside. She looked... kind of calm, actually, which Steven thought was a little weird. "I'm here, my Rose."

"Listen not to that blackguard," bellowed Sunset below. "She is unworthy of your allegiance."

"Fuse with me," commanded Rose.

That broke Pearl's calm right in half. "What?!" she exclaimed.

Rose rounded on Pearl. "Fuse with me. How long did they keep you trapped in that miserable book? How long did you cry out for release only to be dismissed and ignored? Take those feelings and use them. Fuse with me and we'll take what we came here for."

"I- I-" stammered Pearl, her gaze trapped in Rose's.

"Just do it," barked Rose. "That's an order from your owner."

"Pearl, nooo!" shouted Steven.

Pearl hung her head low, shoulders drooping, but she extended her hand to Rose. The large gem grabbed it and pulled Pearl in close while smiling evilly down at Steven and Sunset. A twirl, a dip, and then there was a pink and white glow as two figures became one.

The Beach City fireworks display reached its finale, great explosions of orange and yellow, blue and green, pink and white lighting up the night.

Standing next to Sunset was like getting ready to go outside after being bundled up in comfy winter clothes right after drinking a warm mug of cocoa. You were ready for it, eager even. But seeing what Rose and Pearl made, even with Sunset nearby, Steven staggered back a step. "Whoa..."

Sunset Aura Quartz, eyes upward, swished her glowing tail in agitation. "Spoken truly," she said in agreement.

Then Hiddenite floated over, a blue-green bubble bobbing along behind her. “This is quite the pro-fusion profusion. Fortunately Hiddenite got the invite as well.” She looked up at the porch and, jabbing three of her four thumbs towards the patio, added, “Though giving Rose a ‘plus one’ was party planning at its poorest.”

Chapter Text

"Dot!" cried Lapis, wings summoned and diving as fast as she could.

Pyra had skipped her bowl of Fugly-Os that morning because she looked less monstrous than usual. This was a mystery Lapis pondered not at all, a fist of water backhanding the Scolecite away before being gravity-blasted into mist.

Lapis landed next to her semi-shattered sweetie. "Dot. Dot!" She rolled the face-down gem over and recoiled when she saw just how bad the cracking was. There was a point just off of center where a spider web of cracks were fanning out --probably where the hit that cracked her landed-- but there was a really nasty, jagged line running left-to-right across her gemstone that had Lapis scared stiff. That... Dot didn't have a lot of time. Chucking another watery sucker punch at Pyra to keep her distracted, Lapis said, "Hey P-Ditty. Don't know if you noticed but you got a little scratch there." She glanced around then back to Dot. "Weren't you carrying some Rose tears because we could really use them right now?"

She'd had nightmares like this and it was freaking her out holding one of those in her arms.

Dot looked up at her, visor gone and form flickering. Peridot's didn't poof easily but even then the green gal probably had to be fighting to hang on with a crack that bad.

"49 73 20 43 6F 6E 6E 69 65 20 6F 6B 61 79 3F," Dot said. Her voice inflected up at the end so Lapis assumed that had been a question, but the words, if you could call them that, had been a tumble of numbers and letters like getting chatted up by a modem. Some of the scattered metal tools in the area trembled but none floated up to point or play charades.

As another water fist turned into mist, Lapis had to resist the urge to shake Peridot in her fearful frustration. "I don't speak computer, Dot. And Rose has been sobbing all over this beach so I can't just feel where the healing water is."

"4C 6F 6F 6B 20 75 6E 64 65 72 20 74 68 61 74 20 72 75 62 62 6C 65 20 6F 76 65 72 20 74 68 65 72 65 2E," answered Peridot in her cracked code cant. She tried to point but her form flickered and her arm fell back to the sand. That crack was really bad.

Before Lapis could ask further questions, though, her long hair got whipped back as the world from her waist up turned sideways. For a split-second she'd been about to grab Peri and skedaddle but then her mind posed the math problem 'crack plus fly-fighting equals' and the answer wasn't pretty. Instead, Lapis dropped Dot as gently as she could and allowed herself to be turned into the world's largest skipping stone, flung across the ocean's surface in rippling air.

A part of Lapis really wanted to chuck a couple of great lakes-worth of wet at Pyra so she could hurry up and end this fight. But given she and OJ had spent more than a day straight failing to poof Captain Chimera over there, doing that probably wouldn't work anyway.

Plus there was the part where it'd turn Dot into green confetti so she nixed that plan hard.

Wings out and flying against the sideways gravity, Lapis hurried back, trying to swat Pyra with three different hydo-hits at the same time just to get her out of the way for a second. With Dot damaged, that meant Pyra had just added her third Crystal Gem to her cracked-a-gem punch card, and Lapis' form was twisting with worry that the shattered card would get one too if she wasn't fast enough.

"Dot!" shouted Lapis as she made a flyby, evading a ripple of air and trying to keep the injured gem out of the line of fire. "Where's the- Gah!"

Fortunately, Lapis treating a cliff face as a landing pad distracted Ugly down there enough for a water punch to punt her down the beach. Kicking off from the rocks, Lapis winged down once more.

Peri had her face scrunched up in a look of intense concentration. Speaking slowly, she said, "DE FA CE D," a breath and more looking like she was doing math in her head, "FA CA DE."

Lapis blinked. DEFACED FACADE? "It's under the temple's face?!"

A smile and then Peridot added, "AC ED BA BE."

Lapis' cheeks blushed at the praise, not caring how dopy she probably looked just then. "Be right back, P-pod!" she shouted, winging away.

The air around Lapis rippled as a loud, leonine roar washed over her. Sideways became down and it was hard for Lapis to keep her wings on, especially when parts of the beach decided to tag along for the drop. However, a rocky chunk of cheek, eye, and smile were part of the party and as Lapis struggled to swerve around Selenite's mug she saw a leather satchel tumble out from underneath.

"Gotcha!" she shouted, followed shortly by, "Ow! Owowow!" as she navigated a sideways avalanche, lunging for the brown bag. She pulled out of her dive a half-second before she did another cliff face face-plant, Selenite's stony expression crashing right where the satchel would have been.

Lapis tried getting back to Peridot but Pyra kept gravity hammering her the wrong way. Then Lapis realized she was being really frickin' stupid and gave herself a really hard mental kick in the tush.

"Hey! Ugly!" she shouted, struggling to stay aloft while her wings were being ripped back at extreme g-force. Lapis dove out of the effect and dropped the satchel before getting caught in it again and flung back. Fortunately, the bag landed in the outstretched water hand she'd summoned below, this turning into a nice and gentle wave that washed it over to her green sweetie.

Bobbing and weaving as parts of the beach and temple were flung up at her, Lapis shouted down, "Dot! I don't think we'll be able to take Miss Mega-Downer down there on our own." A spray of gravel nearly blinded her as she struggled to keep her wings. "OJ and I had to go Malachite to do it last time. But if we fuse it up then maybe-" She winced as something a lot larger than gravel smacked into her midsection, the wind she didn't need knocked out of her as she flapped hard to get away.

Limbs trembling, Dot hauled opened her satchel and rummaged through. She pulled a pink vial out and struggled with hands that were flickering in and out of existence to get the top off. "DE ED AC CE DE D!" she shouted as she half-poured, half-spilled the contents across her hair and face.

There was a sparkle of light as Lapis flew high and the dove low, lashing out with water fists at the pale monster literally trying to upend her world. Skimming just over the sand, Lapis snatched Peridot up in her arms. "'Aced babe', huh? I liked that," she said, grinning like a loon, her form feeling light with relief as she peppered Peridot's stone with little kisses.

"Remind me- Whoa!" shouted Peridot as Lapis pulled up in a tight spiral, the ripple in the air hot on her heels. "Remind me to teach you ASCII hexadecimal in the future against the possibility of this happening again," answered Peri, offering Lapis an appreciative peck after.

"Hard-" Barrel roll sideways while a chunk of cliff zipped by. "Hard pass. You'll just have to never get cracked ever again," and if a relief-drunk Lapis could have dodged debris with Peridot in her arms for the rest of the night, she'd have been okay with that. But, putting her game face back on, Lapis said, "I know you're usually the lead, but I think this time I'm gonna have to be the one to dip you!"

Dot, bless her nerdy green stone, had swiped Lapis' phone from her pocket and queued up their song. The two dodged and weaved to Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen, Peridot's hand on Lapis' shoulder and the two staring into one another's eyes in the moments between aerial evasions.

Then fireworks started going off and Lapis dropped like a stalled out airplane. The two pulled into a reckless and toe-curling kiss, there was a flash of light, and then...

Hiddenite hovered up above the beach, a pool of water wafting into position and elongating into a full-length mirror. The fusion examined her new look with a hum of approval. "Grace, strength, and appealing apparel aplenty, all with a soupçon of coquettishness." Examining her two corruption-marked arms, she extended them like a dancer, twirling about. "Add a little peppering of lessons learned to accompany-" then she ended in a flex, "-the battle-won bravado. Oh, bravo. This will do-"

The air rippled and Hiddenite found her mirror ripped away. The fusion herself, however, remained unmoved.

Pursing her lips, she rotated in place to examine her audience. "I think you'll find-"

The ripple in the air intensified until the stone of the cliff caught in the effect buckled and cracked, compressing into sandstone from raw, gravitic force.

"-That Hiddenite is the center of her own orbit," continued the fusion as if nothing had happened, "and that a lovely levitating lady like herself will be more moved by applause."

She waited in case the uncouth corruption decided to put its hands and equivalents together. What she got instead was a roar and a reversal of the previous column of force.

With a yawn and languid ease, Hiddenite wafted left, up, then lounged sideways, deftly avoiding the 'falling' debris. She gave Pyra a three-eyed wink and a saucy wave with one of her hands.

Pyra, in response, made two columns of gravity spear out, meeting with Hiddenite in the middle. Sand, statue rubble, and anything else not attached to bedrock was flung at the fusion. However, water and metal flew over faster, becoming a protective shell within which Hiddenite lounged in repose, waiting out the assault.

The ripples in the air ceased and several tons of material dropped to the ground with a mighty whoosh and crash.

The clam shell opened and Hiddenite levitated up, two hands over her chest, two at her waist like a four-armed (and clothed) version of Botticelli's The Birth of Venus.

"Hiddenite is a lover, not a fighter," and on invisible stairs, she stepped daintily down to the sand below. "A conduit through which beauty and talent flow," and bits of metal and water angled themselves to direct the light of the overhead fireworks to shine on her like sporadic spotlights.

Pyra lashed her tail in agitation and roared once more.

All four of Hiddenite's eyes narrowed as she stared down her unpleasant partner for this particular dance. "However, you came startlingly close to cancelling Hiddenite's future performances, lowering the curtains for good. Why, you would be removing something beautiful from the world, no, the universe. The show must go on and so you must go down!"

Pyra had once fought Lapis to a standstill and maimed Peridot's tech before forcing the gem to flee. She'd cracked each of them. Both were frustrated and both were a little fearful. But this was a performance (of a sort) and Hiddenite had no place for stage fright nor any other kind.

With a saucy cha-cha, Hiddenite sashayed over. Pyra roared her fury --"Rrraaah!"-- and swiped out with large, leonine claws. A swish of Hiddenite's hips kept the fusion out of harm's way and then she summoned a blob of water to her palm. Facing away like a demur suitor, she shoved the sphere into Pyra's maw -- "Rrraaaa-URP!"

The corruption clawed at the orb, which morphed into a watery muzzle and tightened over her mouth.

"Now maybe you'll think again before you heckle Hiddenite," chided the fusion, two arms crossed over her star, two index fingers wagging at the Scolecite.

The air rippled with intensity, the water muzzle being ripped away. Then Pyra lunged like the striking half-serpent she was. Hiddenite hovered hastily up, rising like a cork while Pyra hurtled underneath.

"~Yoohoo~" called the fusion playfully, a watery handkerchief coalescing in one hand as she waved it toward the petulant patron. Then there was a ripple followed by a roar of something other than a lion. Hiddenite swiveled around just in time to see a horizontal column of seawater, wide-around as a freight train, hurtling toward her with similar force.

Hiddenite zipped forward with rather unseemly haste but this was very much a train she wanted to miss. From the Beach House interior a certain over-engineered coffee table came rocketing over. Mere feet from the cliff face she was being driven towards, the frisky fusion hopped atop the ad hoc surf board, arcing up the column of water and then riding along the top of it like a seasoned surfer, all while the column of water blasted away stone like the world's largest power washer.

Two arms out, two arms to flash the 'surf's up' sign, Hiddenite coasted to the end of the column and landed with aplomb, spiking her board into the sand and taking a small bow.

Pyra, having launched herself skyward, snarled as a ripple of intense, downward gravity hammered the area around Hiddenite.

The fusion tsked and shook her head. "Dawling," she said with a ritzy accent, "your act has oomph and gravitas aplenty but you simply can't keep doing the same routine over and over and expect the same reaction from your audience. Diversify. Maybe work in a little song and dance number." She started to do a Fred Astaire routine, a metal pipe of unknown provenance serving as her cane... when there was a CRACK! overhead.

Having eroded away the base of the cliff, Pyra's downward gravity slam had just dropped the metaphorical house on Hiddenite. "Touché," she stammered out in the split-second before several tons of rubble collapsed on top of her.

For several long seconds nothing stirred save for settling rocks and the sporadic crackle-bang of the fireworks overhead. Then a section of stone crumbled away, a certain nigh-unbreakable coffee table rising up like the periscope of a submarine, Hiddenite peering out through the gap.

Rapping on the silvery metal's underside with two green fists, she said, "This furniture is as endearing as it is enduring. Hiddenite really must send Bismuth a fruit basket for making it. I hear she's fond of cherry bombs and pineapple grenades."

The table rose higher still, Hiddenite rising with it like she was riding an elevator. With a ripple, Pyra slammed bodily into the fusion like she'd been fired from a cannon, fusion and corruption crashing into the shallow depression remaining from the former overhang.

The silvery coffee table, forgotten, landed with a bang. Rolling down the slope of rubble, it then miraculously landed on all four legs in the sand, unscathed and gleaming in the moonlight.

"Ow! You oaf! Accosting one such as Hiddenite is- Ow!"

With a clap of displaced air, Hiddenite rocketed out of the melee, all sense of decorum forgotten. Her outfit was scuffed in places and her water glasses were askew. With shocked features, she was just starting to take in her disarray when the air rippled and Pyra was in hot pursuit once more, the corruption determined to finish the fight up close and personal.

An aerial chase of impossible speed and maneuverability followed, figures going from still to hundreds of miles an hour in the span of a second, turning in an instant in all three dimensions afforded to a pair of levitating fighters. In fact, they were going so fast at least one of them was leaving a watery contrail in her wake.

'Hiddenite: Performing Live at the Temple' slowly took form in cursive sky writing overhead, the words brought into colorful relief whenever a firework lit up the night.

The chase continued: across a distant swath of beach, over Lighthouse Park --the eponymous lighthouse missing, having been torn down rather than be rebuilt during the town's reconstruction-- then down the cliff and past the wrecked and overgrown Beach House. Debris trailed in their wake, a glittering comet trail of levitated metal that was growing longer by the moment. Then Hiddenite stopped in an instant a few feet above the sand, Pyra moving so quickly she overshot and had to use a rotating column of gravity to slingshot back around.

A giant watery hand rose up. Unlike Lapis' work, this was no crude facsimile but rather a photo-realistic depiction of Jasper's left hand, even down to the stripes (made using whirls of sand) and corruption marks (bits of seaweed).

Pyra obliterated it with a gravitic hammerblow... and slammed into a second hand, this one made of a hodgepodge of metal objects, this one roughly shaped like Bismuth's right hand.

The hand reached for Pyra, large enough to encircle her. A ripple in the air caused a portion of it to fly back but metal was more robust than water and it didn't so much fly apart as merely fan out. When a metal finger started to tighten around the grey gem, the ripple shifted, flinging several metallic digits back. The portion of the hand previously hurled away snapped back into place, the trap closing smaller.

Hiddenite wafted over, the fusion already looking more composed, as if she'd touched up her appearance mid-flight... which she had. "Overwhelming force is more Malachite's forte. Hiddenite is flexible-" and she did a midair cartwheel to accentuate the point, "-and always gives her audience what they want. You miss your blocky boudoir, the brick-by-brick building of your sobriquet."

Another ripple flung material out but the rest closed in even tighter, a metal, hand-like straightjacket forming around the corrupted gem.

"Well, call this fusion 'The Bangles' because Hiddenite can talk the talk and walk the walk... like an Egyptian." With a great metal-on-metal rasp, the confining hand shifted until it became a four-sided pyramid with Pyra trapped in the middle.

"Thank you-" Hiddenite bowed and the metal fragments reoriented, a hundred blades suddenly pointed toward the pyramid's center. "-And goodnight." The pyramid contracted and there was an explosion of grey smoke.

Then the metal fell away save for two rods banging out on what had once been a patio table 'Shave and a Haircut'. Hiddenite wafted over and tapped the grey gemstone in the sand, a pair of her hands making the two claps for 'Two bits.'

A blue-green bubble wafted up over.

Hiddenite hovered over to where Wolf was crouched in surrender, the portal still open where he'd left it. She gave him a gentle three-armed scratch and a pat on the noggin before joining the others down the beach.

The Beach City fireworks display reached its finale, great explosions of orange and yellow, blue and green, pink and white lighting up the night.

Steven was looking fetching in his armor, very knight chic, the beau staring up at the Beach House patio. Beside him a newcomer towered: two arms, four legs, a centaur galore with a flair for flares and sword that wouldn't quit.

And above, Rose and Pearl gave the world a taste of a very unpleasant rainbow.

Chapter Text

Steven jolted, a day full of surprises becoming even fuller and surprising-er.

"Hiddenite!" he exclaimed, giving as enthusiastic a hug to the tall fusion as he could without bonking them with his armor... It hadn't been an official part of his training, but Steven had taken the time to learn how to hug while in armor.

"Well met, friend," boomed Sunset Aura Quartz with a smile that was literally radiant.

Hiddenite was about to answer back when there was a hiss from the porch. The super-sad-scary fusion of Rose and Miss Pearl glowered down at them, the hiss coming from her stomach(?) mouth.

Angling herself back with her hover powers, Hiddenite gave an unamused look at the fusion on the porch. "Hiddenite doesn't think we've been formally introduced... A fact for which she's grateful. But still, it's rude not to ask. So, you are?" and from somewhere a light shined on the fusion above.

Steven glanced around until he saw a hovering, heavy-duty flashlight shining through a lense of water, floating metal shutters surrounding it like a magically MacGyver'd spotlight.

"Pearl and I are Rainbow Quartz," and it was weird hearing Rose Quartz' voice out of someone who looked so different. The fusion was skinny to an unhealthy degree, her hair was long and messy, and her clothes were in tatters. Plus, she was kind of spider-like with the way her hands and feet were arranged, like something out of one of Sadie's scary monster movies.

Hiddenite gave a judgemental sniff. "Hiddenite would hate to see the prism you crawled out from."

"You're more Shelob than Quartz says I!" challenged Sunset Aura Quartz, referencing the spider monster from one of the Lord of the Rings books -- Steven couldn't remember which.

"Can-" Steven swallowed, his mouth a little dry as he considered the fusion above. "Can Miss Pearl hear us too? Is she okay in there?"

The stomach mouth drooled and hissed as Rainbow Quartz transferred the pink sword into her glowing gemstone. Given that Miss Pearl's gemstone was on her forehead, it being above that tummy mouth must mean this fusion was like Rose riding on Pearl's shoulders or something.

"She does as she is bid. Now, enough banter," said Rainbow Quartz in her Rose voice, one arm making a cutting motion. "Give me the shards now or I will make you regret every minute you delay me."

"We will never surrender to the likes of you, ogre!" answered Sunset, sword thrust defiantly skyward.

Hiddenite looked casually amused, one set of arms akimbo, the other two crossed. "What she bellowed," and she gestured with one of her mottled arms towards Sunset.

And just like that, Rainbow Quartz leapt down from the patio.

Hiddenite floated back, mostly to give Sunset room to swing that big sword of hers. The spotlight tracked Rainbow Quartz the entire way down.

Sunset bellowed, the aura of warm bravery coming off of her feeling especially warm and bravery-y as she did. Her sword, wreathed with light, swung out, cutting in half the broken patio piece Rainbow was riding down on, but Rainbow hopped with weird spider grace up and over, landing on Sunset's horse back.

The mouth chomped down on Sunset's shoulder and claws raked across her sides. Steven shouted in surprise but then the coffee table hovered over from somewhere and swung itself at Rainbow like a baseball bat.

That Hiddenite had a water 'ballcap' on backwards and shouted, "Swing batter-batter!" seemed related.

The table managed to catch Rainbow, but the hit didn't really whack her as launch her as if she weighed as much as a baseball, sending the spidery fusion flying down the beach.

Ballcap still in place, Hiddenite brought the coffee table in closer, one hand raised as if to shield her eyes from the glare of the sun. "That rainbow had more arch to it than expected. Perhaps Hiddenite doesn't know her own streng- Yowch!"

The table that Rainbow had touched/been hit by was glowing pink, one leg jabbing forward to hit Hiddenite in the side like an angry furniture-version of Pinocchio.

Hovering the animated table minion away, Hiddenite rubbed her sore spot and said, "Et tu, Brutable?" With metalbending powers, the table was sent flying away, skipping across the water until finally sinking out of sight somewhere in the bay. "Hiddenite must protect her features. After all, this is the face that has launched a thousand shipping charts."

Sunset gripped her sword so tightly Steven could hear it creak. "Woe betide any who try such sorcery upon my blade!"

"Actually," purred Hiddenite, hovering over. "I think you could use someone watching your back. We wouldn't want Rainbow taking you for another ride."

This caused Steven's eyes to widen in surprise when he saw both fusions suddenly looking his way. "Me?" he asked.

Sunset smiled widely. "Ha! An excellent idea!" She reached out for Steven's hand. "To me, my boy, and we will show that foe our true mettle!"

Taking the offered arm, Steven was hauled up into place. It was his first time on a horse (sort of) and it was kind of weird but also kind of really awesome.

Hiddenite seemed pleased by what she saw, hovering sideways as she helped Steven get situated. "A catch on a cataphract," she cooed. "Plus, there's a certain poetry to you and Connie riding into the Sunset together," and two of Hiddenite's eyes winked.

Sunset rounded on her foe, movement catching the group's eye. Off in the distance Rainbow Quartz was gesturing while sand rose up to form lumpy bodies, some the size of a basketball, others as large as Steven. These were suffused with a pink glow and 'eyes' of some kind of sparkling rock appeared, narrowing with otherwise featureless expressions of anger. The big ones had big, thick arms of sand while the little ones had four long, narrow legs ending with claws made of that same sparkling rock.

"Fight!" ordered Rainbow with Rose's voice. As a bunch of sand golems started approaching, Rainbow leaned forward, sand spiraling up into Pearl's glowing gemstone while the tummy mouth made a sucking sound.

"I'll charge her," rumbled Sunset. "Hiddenite, be prepared to strike when she flees like the viper she is."

"I'll keep you protected and see if I can talk Miss Pearl out of what she's doing," added Steven, toggling his scouter for broadcast. After all, back over Fourth of July and the last New Year's Eve, Jasper had sort of scolded Hiddenite into splitting by talking to Miss Peridot and Miss Lapis, respectively. Maybe, if he could reach her, Steven could help make the fighting stop earlier, before someone got seriously hurt.

Without realizing it, his hand went to his side. Before someone got seriously hurt again, he amended.

"Hiddenite taking flight!" she said with an amused tone.

And with that Sunset launched forward, the thunder of their charge echoing off the cliffs, while Hiddenite soared just above.

"Pearl!" said Steven, holding on tightly to Sunset with his legs and free hand. "You're in there and I don't think you want to be doing this. You're fighting Connie and you love Connie and Connie loves you back. We promised Rose earlier that if she surrendered and stopped fighting that we'd make sure no one got killed. And, I mean, I still really want to do that. Help me and Connie and this doesn't have to have a super sad ending."

He received a hiss in answer and he hoped that was fusion-Pearl-speak for 'I'm thinking about it.'

They reached the first of the sand golems, a big one barring their path while two little ones ran to either side. With a great swing of her glowing sword, Sunset cut the creature in half and then charged through the remains. However, the sword made a crunching sound and Steven saw sparkling, jagged stones inside the middle like a bunch of arrow heads or something. While Sunset seemed pretty unbothered by getting scratched up, he figured she had to have just gotten a bunch of cuts all along her horse-tummy charging through.

The little golems, meanwhile, leapt up, slashing with claws of the same shiny crystal. Steven caught the one attacking Sunset's left side with his shield, smacking it away so that it hit the ground hard and crumpled. That glowy fog forcefield was covering Sunset's right side and protected the centaur from harm, though it didn't break the golem like Steven's shield had.

More golems attacked but Sunset was simply too big and fast to stop. At one point a small golem tried to climb up Sunset's tail but Steven swiveled around and smashed it into rainbow quartz crystals and sand with an armored boot kick.

Rather than meet Sunset head on, Rainbow Quartz leapt aside at the last second as Rose laughed mockingly. Two sand golems that had stayed hidden as lumps of sand reached up and grabbed Sunset's front legs, causing the centaur to crash forward with a cry of, "Fiend!"

Steven was sent flying too but he got his shield up and toggled the dampener, causing him to spin end-over-end a couple of times and then dangle in the air instead of joining Sunset in a one-centaur high-speed crash.

However, a pair of fists, one made of lots of little metal bits, another made of water, slammed down, one catching Rainbow Quartz as she was flung into the cliff face. "It's a Beauty and the Beast brawl," sang out Lapis and Peridot's fusion as she soared after her. "You have two more limbs than Hiddenite so she thought to bring an extra pair to make it sporting."

Rather than going splat into the cliff, Rainbow landed on her feet (and two of her hands), sticking to the wall without problem. She scuttled up the cliff face, something sandy emerging from Pearl's gemstone as she did.

Steven, however, had to stop paying attention to that so he could drop down and start fighting off sand golems. Sunset had toppled pretty hard and she was still struggling to get all four feet beneath her.

Bash. Block. Shuffle back. Stomp on a small golem. The big ones hit really hard and the only reason Steven wasn't been tossed around was because of the tech in his shield. The little ones' crystal claws couldn't cut through his armor, but one of them did scurry up his side and get tangled up in his hair trying to scratch his face and that was pretty bad too. A quick force field swipe knocked off his passenger but, like his earlier wince of sympathy for the trampled Rose Quartz, Steven knew he'd be a long time getting all the sand out of his hair later.

Finally, as Steven was holding his rectangular field sideways to keep three golems at bay, a glowing sword lashed out and decapitated one then cleaved through into the second, crystal-like insides spilling out across the sand.

"The wicked shall e'er fear the righteous but the righteous shall know only courage!" bellowed Sunset Aura Quartz, who seemed to have only one volume: heroic proclamation.

The two of them went to work fighting the remaining golems.

Then there was a cry and Steven whipped his head around, a golem pounding ineffectively against his shield. Rainbow had somehow formed a long spear made of crystal and was using it to stab at Hiddenite while hanging like a spider against the cliff face. Hiddenite had taken to using a long stretch of metal like a fencing rapier, a Musketeers-esque hat of water on her head, but Rainbow had managed to animate the hovering fusion's blade which had whipped around to attack her. That had been opening enough for Rainbow to add a jab with her spear to the mix, driving the fusion back.

The 'rapier' went flying just like the table had and for a second Steven had to worry just how many angry animated objects there were waiting at the bottom of the bay. He'd need to be sure to warn Yellowtail the next time the fisherman trawled the area.

"Bring the malefactor low and I will dispatch her!" shouted Sunset.

"Yes," answered Hiddenite, who had somehow made a bandage look chic. "You may take center stage while Hiddenite keeps the crowds in control."

A sheet of water swept out from the bay like an oversized magic carpet, hurtling up then over then down when it reached the cliff. It didn't hurt Rainbow any but the fusion quickly found her perch slippery, the fusion slip-sliding down to the sand below.

She landed on some of the sharp crystal shards that had fallen below, probably from when she made her scary-looking spear. The fusion hissed in pain, Rose mouth and tummy mouth both.

"Oft evil will shall evil mar," taunted Sunset, hauling Steven onto her back once more. The fusion charged, leaving the remaining golems behind.

More golems began to rise in front of Rainbow, minions Steven really hoped Hiddenite would be able to deal with.

There was a piercing sound of a whistle being blown and for a second all eyes --fusion, human, and golem-- were turned toward Hiddenite. "Attention shambling shoppers. Parched? Got grit on your tongue? Well fret not because Hiddenite will quench your thirst for violence with these fetching foot soldiers." From the ocean rose lifelike versions of the Crystal Gems made entirely of water. Lapis, Jasper, Peridot, Bismuth, even watery versions of Connie and Steven. These water clones charged forward and the mass of golems pivoted to meet them. "It looks like someone sent in the marines!" finished Hiddenite with a chortle as she made a soaring loop in the air above.

"Pearl!" called Steven through his scouter. "I know you care about Rose but what she's having you do isn't right. It's not something you make someone do. Fusion is like a relationship you can see. And the way you and Rose look together, it's... I don't think your relationship is healthy. At all. Maybe Rose loves you back, but you need respect too and I don't think she respects you. Like Bismuth said, you're this great, amazing, smart person but right now you're just a tool to Rose. You don't even have a face, Pearl. Or a voice. That's terrible!"

It was hard to tell but the answering hiss had an uncertain quality to it. But Steven had too little time to contemplate such matters because suddenly Rainbow was spear-fighting against Sunset and Steven had to block stabs to his friend/ride as well as to himself.

A spear strike right to the lotus decorating his shield unseated Steven --he was trying not to turn on his shield's dampener when Sunset was moving around-- and while he and Sunset tried to keep him in the saddle, Rainbow lunged out, plunging the spear into Sunset's side. With a crack, the point of the crystal broke off, Rose laughing as she danced back.

With a grunt of pain, Sunset made her sword flash with light, momentarily dazzling Rainbow and Steven both. The centaur then bulled forward, catching Rainbow across two of her legs and the trunk of her body. The fusion cried out and the voice of pain was Pearl's, not Rose's.

Sunset faltered, breaking off her assault. Steven, meanwhile, was trying to get a good grip on the spearhead and pull it out, Sunset's super-Quartz physique unable to heal the wound with that still in there.

With a glow and a burst of sand, another crystal spear thrust out, Rainbow smirking evilly as she snatched it up and jammed that into Sunset's torso.

"Afraid to hurt Pearl?" taunted Rainbow.

Sunset lashed out, breaking the spear off at the haft but unable to catch the agile Rainbow Quartz. "It is a low creature that hides behind the anguish of another."

In the distance, the water clones and sand golem fight was in full swing. That several of the watery Crystal Gems were fawning over the mighty Lapis and Peridot clones seemed to Steven like artistic license at work.

Steven worked the spearhead free. Sunset parried another attack, but now Rainbow was fighting with two spears at the same time, leaning back on her four legs so that all four hands were free to dual wield. Another spear of crystal was stabbed into Sunset.

With a grunt of pain, Sunset bulled her way forward, heedless of the injuries she was accumulating. Steven was doing his best to block but Rainbow was lightning fast and mainly aiming for Sunset's front, which was out of his reach. Then, letting her giant sword drop and dissolve into motes, Sunset grabbed the rival fusion and pulled her in for a mighty bearhug.

"You are a coward and I will suffer your tyranny no more! Unhand fair Pearl this instant or I will wrest her from you myself even though it cost me dearly."

The melee continued for several frantic seconds, Steven shielding Sunset from claws and bites, all while pleading with Pearl to stop. Rainbow wavered and Sunset wavered, there was a sound of Sunset heaving mightily and...

...both fusions split apart, Rose and Pearl being flung back while Jasper and Connie toppled to the ground.

In an instant Connie was see-through, the spearhead lodged in her falling to the sand. In the distance, Rose summoned her bubble at the same moment. Steven, meanwhile, helped Jasper get the last crystal out of her, warrior and ghost mending from the fight in their own ways.

Pearl was crumpled to her knees, sobbing and trembling inside the bubble she shared with Rose. Rose was sobbing too, but it was to wash away her and Pearl's injuries.

The remaining sand golems crumpled, leaving shiny, jagged crystals glittering across the moonlit beach.

"Well, Hiddenite supposes she can cast the tie-breaking vote." A wall of water and metal rose up in her wake, threatening to wash into Rose like a stabby tidal wave. "She declares the Crystal Gems the winner of the fight... and herself winner of the best dressed award."

Then, as the wave was surging forward, the metal jutting outward and the water transforming into spears and swords, a maroon figure landed in front of Rose.

"No," said Garnet, the wave parting down the middle to avoid bowling her over.

Rose gave a cry of excitement. "Yes! Garnet, while they're weakened, attack! We'll finish this together."

"No," was Garnet's stoic response. She stepped calmly aside, unsummoning her gauntlets. "You need to talk-" and she gestured to the swirling portal...

...from which a helicoptering P2 came rocketing out. Dragged behind her, suspended in a green tractor beam, was Bismuth, technician and smith making a dizzy exit from the howl portal because Wolf made it look easy going through but apparently it wasn't.

"-with her," and Garnet pointed at P2.

Scrambling to her gravity connectors, P2 helped Bismuth upright while several of her floating fingers started sweeping sand off her form. She turned and gave the others a chipper wave. "Hello! The humans have all been evacuated." She spotted Rose Quartz, "Oh good, you're here. As my supervisor, I have a number of very crucial reports to share with you concerning the nature of the Cluster and Pink Diamond's shards."

Rose looked warily from Garnet to P2 to the others.

Bismuth, getting her bearings, had her Breaking Point unhooked and in hand a moment later. However, before she could do battle with Rose, Garnet jogged over. With a wave, Hiddenite was beckoned down too, joining the huddle while lounging on her side.

Connie, still see-through, looked at Steven and signed him a question. Steven shrugged and signed back that he didn't have any better idea of what was going on.

The pair couldn't hug or even hold hands while she was like this but Steven tried to compensate for that by emphatically signing his relief that she was going to be okay. Honestly, if it weren't for the whole 'Rose is still here and might try and fight them again' thing, Steven would have collapsed into the sand and just laid there until his feelings managed to settle down a little.

"Are you doing okay?" he asked Jasper after finishing his exchange with Connie.

The Quartz never took her eyes off of Rose, but there was an air of... wonder about her, as if she was looking inward as much as she was looking outward. Maybe fusing with Connie had really meant something special to Jasper.

"I'm fine. Mending," she grunted. A beat later, though, she reached out and clapped Steven on the armored shoulder. No further words were exchanged but Steven smiled with pride at the implicit praise.

In the distance there was a flash of light and then Hiddenite became Miss Lapis and Miss Peridot. Bismuth looked thoughtful, staring out first at Rose, then to the horizon. Then she gave a begrudging nod and holstered her weapon. "Alright, G-Squad. We'll try it your way. For now."

Garnet inclined her head appreciatively, gave Miss Lapis and Miss Peridot a thumbs up for some reason, then jogged a little ways away from the others.

With a nudge to the mottled technician, Bismuth said, "Go ahead and say your piece, Spots."

P2's grin blossomed into a full smile which she pointed at Rose Quartz. "I am pleased to say that my mission to quicken the Cluster's emergence and reassemble the shattered Pink Diamond has been a complete success!"

Rose looked skeptically at the rest of the Crystal Gems, then at P2. "Peridot, how can this-"

"P2," corrected P2.

"Pardon?" asked Rose, drawing herself up taller.

Steven, meanwhile, was signing all of this for Connie's benefit while he watched.

"I have adopted a new moniker here on Earth. P2! Isn't that fantastic?"

"Peridot," answered Rose, sounding like someone's very strict boss. "That is the behavior of a renegade or a deviant. Surely you don't think Yellow Diamond would approve of your new... nickname."

That seemed to catch P2, the gem's bright smile dimming slightly. "No, she would find it irregular, to be sure." She brightened back up. "However, I have been given special dispensation to do so by Pink Diamond herself as it is all part of my service to the betterment of the Diamond Authority, I-"

She was interrupted by Rose. "Pink Diamond said that?” she asked, disbelieving. “You reassembled her. On Earth, and she told you you could have a nickname."

P2's expression lit up. "Exactly!"

Pearl, meanwhile, had gone through an assortment of handkerchiefs and was no longer sobbing openly though she was still crouched behind Rose and clutching herself.

"I think it would be most expeditious if you merely allowed P2 to conclude her report summary," offered Miss Peridot, the gem standing beside Lapis with one arm wrapped around the blue gem's waist.

Rose didn't explicitly agree but her sustained silence was good enough.

P2 sucked in a deep lungful of air and then launched back into it. "The Crystal Gems held the majority of Pink Diamond's shards and they reached out to me to assist them in reconstructing the shattered matriarch."

Rose was about to interrupt but thought better of it, P2 continuing.

"This was for the purpose of convincing her to bond with the waking Cluster as a means of keeping the geo-weapon from emerging to calamitous effect. Pink Diamond agreed but first tasked me with a mission of the utmost importance." P2 was practically radiant, bouncing on her gravity connectors. "I am to facilitate Rebel-Homeworld communication so that my Diamond may be informed of certain key discoveries which your Diamond deemed absolutely vital to the long-term welfare of the entire empire."

At this Rose visibly paled but P2 barreled on.

"Furthermore, the Cluster has indeed formed with Pink Diamond as the nucleus around which its identity has coalesced. Earlier today Peridot, Connie, and Garnet-"

Rose snapped an accusing glare at the fusion, who returned the stare impassively.

"-returned from a visit with the Cluster to confirm that not only is it going to spare the Earth by delaying its emergence, but it is reassembling shattered gems into a previously unknown form dubbed 'Mended' which should allow them to live again as cogent beings absent the trauma and discomfort of those reassembled through conventional means."

Dripping with understatement, and in a slightly strangled voice, Rose asked, "Is that all?"

P2 shook her head. "No! Also, Peridot has, in partnership with Bismuth, discovered a means of melding Era-1 substances to Era-2 technology in a manner which I am convinced will bring about a material revolution throughout the whole of gem-inhabited space. An Era-3 that is superior to both that preceded it," and this time Miss Peridot was preening just as much as P2.

Rose was just about to open her mouth when P2 jolted, adding, "Oh, I nearly forgot! Connie also discovered a means of reversing corruption in afflicted gems. My Quartz escort is currently abroad with one Biggs Jasper, the formerly-corrupted gem being a friend of hers."

"WHAT?!" cried Rose. She snapped her head over so she could stare at Connie.

Connie, after looking to Steven for context, gave a sheepish nod and a thumbs up. Signing back to Steven, he said on her behalf, "She says it's true, though it's not easy."

Pearl, meanwhile, had uncurled a little from herself and was peering past Rose to look at Connie. The pale gem still looked pretty miserable, but there was a glimmer of something bright where it hadn't been before.

For a long time no one said anything else, though P2 did that thing where she was too excited to stand still so she made little hops from foot to foot.

Rose shook her head. "No. You are ruining something far greater and more important than you realize," her words delivered with charismatic oomph.

"Oh?" answered P2, surprised. "Please, tell me more."

"I too have been given a mission of the utmost importance by Pink Diamond," and Rose, when she wasn't being all scary and trying to kill you, was a really impressive speaker. Steven kind of wondered if, when this was all over and everyone lived happily ever after, if maybe Rose would want to read stories for children or maybe get into voice acting.

"I was tasked with improving the empire as Pink Diamond would have wanted it improved. And this mission on this planet is the last piece I need to enact that grand task. Thousands of years of preparation hinge on this and what you have done threatens to jeopardize all of it."

P2's eyes were wide as cupcakes. "I have?"

Rose nodded somberly. "I have, in secret, built up a power base within the Diamond Authority, thousands of gems who are ready to act on my orders."

Bismuth's laugh cut through the air. "You made yourself a rebellion. On Homeworld?!"

Rose stared at the smith in silence for several seconds. She didn't agree, but then she didn't disagree either. Turning back to P2, she said, "White Diamond has long ago stepped away from rulership, sequestering herself in her ship. And the fact is, Blue and Yellow Diamond are eager to do the same."

Steven signed that to Connie and Connie signed back, "[That last one's a lie.]"

Rose continued, P2 watching her with rapt attention. "With Pink Diamond reconstructed, they will be able to retire like they long to. Then my network of cross-court reformists will see Pink Diamond's improvements brought to every corner of the empire."

P2's mouth hung open. Then she blinked and asked, "And the Cluster? How does it factor into this plan?"

Rose shook her head as if she were about to impart a sad truth to P2. "Gems are reluctant to change. It doesn't come easily to our kind. With three of the Diamonds removed from public view and far-reaching reforms sweeping the empire, Yellow Diamond rightly feared that portions of the empire would ignore the reforms or even go into open rebellion. The Cluster is a threat that would keep the short-sighted and unruly elements of the empire calm until the transition was complete and they could see the benefits for themselves. After all," purred Rose Quartz, "why else would the flawless and logical Yellow Diamond create the Cluster in the first place? Do you think she's so petulant that she'd do it out of spite, just to see the Earth destroyed?" and Rose and P2 shared a hearty laugh at the idea.

"[Lots of stretching the truth and that last one was a complete lie,]" observed Connie, the girl able to watch Rose's mindscape while she talked.

Steven tapped his scouter and was about to say something when Miss Garnet caught his attention. She closed all but her third eye then gave a subtle shake of her head: whatever Steven was about to say would do something bad to the future. He offered a tiny nod back and swallowed his words.

P2 spread her limb enhancers wide. "Wow! That is unbelievable!"

Someone, Steven wasn't sure who, muttered something under their breath at that.

"I knew you were an exemplary servant of the Diamonds," continued P2, "but I had no idea how far your dedication went. I- You- Wow!"

Rose smiled in return, still in her bubble. "You have no idea how pleased I am to hear that from you."

P2's grin was brilliant in return. "Which is why you must be so relieved at all the details of my report!" Her expression grew, not so much less happy as more serious. Happy-serious. "I understand Pink Diamond being melded with the Cluster complicates my Diamond's plans, but with patience your Diamond should have divested herself of all unaffiliated shards and then she can emerge safely from the Earth to lead Homeworld herself! And you'd have to be out of your gem to question the orders of a Cluster-sized Diamond gestalt."

Once more P2 laughed heartily. This time, however, Rose did not laugh with her. At all.

P2 continued. "It's exactly the victory you were hoping for, but better in every way! Not only do you not have to shatter the Crystal Gems but shattered gems will find new life again! The reforms can be coupled with Peridot's Era-3 enhancements. The Earth can stay saved like Citrine left it!" P2 jolted. "Stars! Was she in on this plan as well? Oh my Diamond, I had thought her merely a fearfully competent insurgent. I had no idea she was a genius reformist too. Did Pink Diamond give her a secret mission first or you? Or did she brief you both at the same time? Oh! I have so many questions!"

This brought choking noises from several of the people listening... including Rose.

Rose drew her shoulders back and locked eyes with P2. "Peridot," she said.

"P-" but the mottled technician was silenced with a gesture.

"As your supervisor on this mission, as chosen by Yellow Diamond herself, I order you to remove Pink Diamond's shards from the Cluster."

Jasper's hands clenched into fists and Bismuth had undone the latch on her Breaking Point. Everyone else was waiting with their breath held.

P2 looked confused, as if Rose Quartz had just asked her to walk back to Homeworld on foot. "No?" she said tentatively at first. "No," she repeated a bit more certainly this time. Then she had an 'ahah' expression and snapped a crisp, Diamond salute, saying confidently, "Absolutely not, esteemed Rose Quartz!"

She smiled as if waiting for Rose to compliment her on a job well done.

"Perhaps you misheard me," snarled Rose, the gem seeming to loom in a way that left Steven quaking as though he'd just been caught by Mom snooping around for his birthday presents. "In my capacity as Pink Diamond's right hand and the sole enforcer of her will, you will do so or you’ll be branded a traitor and dragged back to your Diamond in disgrace."

Another confused look from P2. "But- A Diamond, your Diamond, ordered me to do this."

"What do you know of Pink Diamond's wishes?" snapped Rose.

P2's brows furrowed and it was the angriest Steven had ever seen her without there also being an empty box of pastries nearby. "Apparently more than you, you... CLOD!"

Then Rose made a face that was simultaneously shocked, appalled, and enraged. In a (very) different context, it would have even been funny.

Bismuth and Jasper both took a step closer when Garnet spoke up. "This fighting ends here, Rose, because there is nothing left to fight about. The Earth is saved and Homeworld will benefit too. In time. That is more than enough for everyone. It's over. The Earth won." She took a step forward, expression open. "Come back," she said softly, pleadingly.

The seconds stretched out and Rose, hands clenched into fists, stood there practically vibrating with the storm of feelings going through her.

Connie stopped being see-through and staggered over to Steven. There was a hiss of pain from her, her injuries not fully healed, but all she had to do was hum two bars of their song for him to take her in his arms and the pair to fuse into Asmi. The injuries were spread out like chocolate stirred into milk and Asmi breathed a sigh of relief, happy to be again and ready in case something bad happened.

Rose's shoulders slumped, the bubble around her dissolving. She looked sad but most of all she looked tired. "I surrender," she said in a voice so quiet only Asmi heard it over their scouter. Before the fusion could repeat it, she said more loudly, "I surrender!"

For the second time that day Garnet slumped with relief, another uncertain passage made across time's turbulent river.

Chapter Text

She'd lost. She'd lost utterly and completely.

Rose stood there somehow numb and hyper-sensitive at the same time.

If Peridot- If P2 had been telling the truth, and the guileless gem couldn't tell a lie to Rose to save her facets, then there would be no reclaiming Pink Diamond's shards anyway. She was inside the Cluster, she was part of the Cluster, so what hope did Rose or anyone else have of prying those fragments free now? Even if, by some miracle, the Galaxy Warp was repaired and her experts brought over, Rose would not be able to inveigle a Diamond-infused Cluster.

Without her Diamond, the Cluster would simply be a scaled up version of Scolecite, someone Rose could bend to her will. But with her Diamond, there could be no success by strength or by deviousness.

With a single stroke, all of Rose's plans had come undone.

But that wasn't all. No, her loss wouldn't be complete if she was allowed even a shred of ambition left. Because the rebel Peridot had made some kind of amazing technological breakthrough on top of her niece finding a way to cure corruption. A part of her had been tempted to snark back, 'And will you bring the shattered back while you're at it?' but they'd done that too. She's literally thought to say that and then had her own thoughts flung in her face, such was the totality of her defeat.

Where Rose had been a fool was to think she'd ever had a chance. She'd forgotten the bitterest, most hard-learned lesson of all: where Citrine was concerned, all roads led to victory and only to victory.

Several of the Crystal Gems were wary but several others were cheering at her declaration of submission. Garnet --She'd known her lieutenant was treacherous, but she'd thought her treacherous to the Crystal Gems, not her. Another layer of shame to her defeat-- was slumped over in relief, the future she'd sought having come to pass. And here was P2 approaching her, all smiles.

Rose had to struggle to pay attention, making sure she'd heard the technician right. "You want... a hug?" asked the Quartz.

P2 smiled even wider, head nodding in earnest excitement.

With no dignity to preserve, Rose heaved a great sigh and gave a wordless nod in agreement. The mottled gem dove right into her arms, hugging with gusto.

Her limb enhancers dug into Rose's sides.

As Rose hugged back, a thought that was half-memory, half-epiphany came to her. At the alpine meadow, holding Citrine's stone in her hand. On the evacuation ship in her ruined bearth, realizing just how ugly you had to be to succeed in this universe. And yet...

Her sister had relented after the war. She'd tried to grow a beautiful garden in the ruins of the war and she'd succeeded. Here, now, Earth was on the path to survive and possibly even thrive. Pink Diamond, or whatever the gestalt that emerged from the planet's mantle, would scarcely want to see this sphere torn asunder. Nor would Pink Diamond’s sisters consent to seeing the planet devastated if it housed the soon-to-wake new form of their dearly departed Pink. Why, it'd be like she poofed and simply needed a few millennia to reform.

P2 stepped clear of the hug and stood beside Rose, an arm draped casually over the Quartz' shoulder despite the height difference making that awkward. She was beaming with satisfaction.

Yes, something beautiful could be made to grow even when you committed the unthinkable. Citrine had won by leaving no line uncrossed. Rose, meanwhile, had dared to have even the tiniest of scruples and the universe had made her pay dearly for her hubris.

Rose smiled at P2, her hand resting on the gem's shoulder, thumb and forefinger to either side of her neck. Gingerly, she removed P2's arm from across her shoulder, guiding it down and smiling benevolently at the others.

Garnet jolted upright, a cry rising to her lips.

Rose's smile dropped like the mask it had been. In her right hand she tore and in her left hand... she squeezed.

Victory went to the one willing to claw it out of the muck first. She'd hesitated to shatter Citrine and paid for it. After triumphing at the beach in her duels with Lapis, Jasper, Peridot, and Bismuth, after knocking her niece unconscious, she could have ended it all then and there with five shard-filled bubbles. Even going the principled route, she'd still ended up with blood on her hands, the memory haunting her as the phantom fluid seemed to burn where it had once touched her.

P2 was reduced to empty tech and a smattering of green-and-brown fragments, her form dissolving into motes. Peridot made a retching sound as if violently ill. Garnet was only staring, shocked and horrified. Her niece’s fusion screamed. Bismuth and Jasper were already charging her but Rose only laughed, her bubble and shield appearing to meet them.

Because she had one card left to play.

The Earth was a lost cause and there would be nothing left for her to gain here. But if she destroyed the Crystal Gems and got back to Homeworld first, she could make this work. The Diamonds would hear what Rose told them, how the rebel remnants had committed the greatest act of sacrilege imaginable: binding Pink Diamond's shards to the Cluster itself.

Enraged, they would descend on the Earth and see it blasted into ruin. When the Cluster emerged, they would see a mockery of their sister. Even the merest reminder of Pink Diamond’s shattering brought guilt-borne rage to the Diamonds, so seeing her as part of some grisly creation of their own making would see them lash out, destroying the Cluster as well.

Then they might truly retire from rule as White Diamond had. And if they didn't, Rose already had a plan to remove them herself. The quarter of Pink Diamond bubbled in the Zoo station would have to be sufficient for Rose's figurehead. And then Rose would reign, would triumph, firm in the knowledge that you could do the unthinkable, crawl through the muck to snatch up victory and still emerge... smelling of roses.

A split-second before Jasper collided and Bismuth tore through Rose's bubble with that horrid weapon of hers, Rose made the bubble swell and burst, driving the two back.

"Hear me!" she shouted. "My Pearl has laced your crystal heart with explosives. With a single command, it will detonate, turning your temple into a husk and unleashing a horde of corrupted gems that would make my attack at the Sanctuary seem trite in comparison. This entire town and all the humans within it will be utterly destroyed. Millions more will perish in the hours to come and I wouldn't be surprised if this entire coastline was rendered uninhabitable."

Bismuth, radiating fury like she'd seldom seen before, took a step closer. Ah, she must have grown fond of that obnoxious technician.

"Do you see it, Garnet?" barked Rose.

All eyes turned to the fusion who's form wavered as she nodded, stricken. "I see it," she answered in an unsteady voice.

"Then know that this is no lie, no ruse, but a threat, plain and simple." Glaring down Bismuth, she snapped. "One more step and I will shatter far more than an Era-2 Peridot."

Bismuth stood there, trembling with fury... but she did not advance.

In a satisfied voice, Rose said, "Pearl, the detonator."

She could hear her servant stand and the light of her gemstone briefly cast shadows across the moonlit beach.

Smiling wide and savoring the sweet taste of it, Rose said, "I wi-"

Every corner of Asmi was screaming: in horror, in shock, in surprise… in relief.

Rose looked down at the sword sticking out of her chest. She didn't look hurt but rather, confused. She started to reach for the blade when she heard a sob escape Pearl that seemed too large for the slight gem to contain.

Rose caught a glimpse of Pearl and then whatever was holding the gem together came undone, the unstoppable pink Quartz erupted into a cloud of smoke.

A deceptively small gemstone tumbled to the sand.

Rose protected herself on instinct, thought Asmi, the part of them not running screaming in circles was trying to puzzle this through. So for her not to block she had to consider Pearl totally safe, someone she could trust so completely-

For a second there was only the sound of Pearl's sobbing, the gem no doubt thinking the same.

Then Bismuth gave an almighty roar, Breaking Point brandished, and she lunged forward...

...into the force field Asmi had summoned.

"Rrraaah!" she bellowed and for a fraction of a second Asmi was afraid she'd been Umbra-whammied too.

Bismuth lunged forward, not at Rose's gemstone or at the force field but at Asmi. "No!" she roared. "You don't get to stop this! Not this time! Not after what she did!"

Asmi sprung back, summoned a force field to kick off of, and leapt over the charging smith to land on the sand near the pink gemstone and the inconsolate Pearl. "Bismuth, wait-" but Asmi was cut off.

"How can you stand there and dare to protect her?" she roared, angry tears wet on her cheeks. She turned to the others. "None of you will stand for this, will you? Asmi can't block us all."

The returning silence --Pearl's sobs notwithstanding-- was deafening.

Looking even greener than normal, Peridot mopped her face with a small hand, her glasses unsummoned. "In this moment there is no being I loathe more than Rose Quartz. And yet, my daughter seldom acts without compelling reason. Nor is the Steven foolish. Before we rush their fusion en masse, I would like to hear why-" and her voice wavered as she took in the sight of the green shards sprinkling the sand. "-Why they would do this."

Lapis opened her mouth as if to say something and then closed it, offering the smith a helpless shrug. Garnet was struggling to remain together and Jasper may as well have been carved from stone.

"Spit it out," said Bismuth with a snarl to Asmi, the Breaking Point gleaming with terrible promise in the moonlight.

Moving slowly, as if to not spook a wild animal, Asmi tapped Rose's gem, engulfing it in a yellow bubble. They left it there, hovering just above the sand, only making sure Rose wouldn't reform. Then they stood, hands raised at their sides in a consolatory manner.

"Rose Quartz is defeated. Shattering her won't bring P2 back. We-"

Bismuth gnashed her teeth in anger. "If you allow that gem to remain intact, you're as good as spitting on P2's shards before they're even bubbled. What Rose did was unforgivable. Unforgivable! Actions have consequences and this is the consequence for Rose's. Stars! That gem earned herself a shattering ages ago. If there were any justice in this universe, I'd be able to take her to pieces a thousand times over rather than just the once."

Asmi shook their head, expression mournful but resolute. "Rose is a living, thinking be-" The words died in Asmi's throat. They blinked and tried again. "All life is precious and it is always-" The fusion's form rippled as if in warning. Patting themself down, Asmi gave a nervous chuckle and then said, "Rose deserves our-" and the fusion split with an audible 'pop!'

Steven sat there in the sand looking confused. Connie was only off-balance for a second, the girl rising quickly to her feet. Steven looked up at her uncomprehendingly but she offered him only an apologetic frown before addressing the others.

"Rose was a despicable person. If she had any redeeming qualities, I think time and disappointment scoured them away long ago. I don't think Rose deserves our mercy," and she paused, frowning at the sharp inhalation of breath by her Destiny Partner behind her. "I don't think she deserves anything."

Bismuth, tears still streaming down her cheeks, smiled gratefully and took a step forward. She shook her head, voice thick with emotion. "You had me worried, Alloy." She brought her free hand up to wipe heavily under one eye and then the other. "You really did. But I was right about you. When I spoke about fault, you actually listened."

Connie took a step back, Rose's bubble floating after her, and in a sad voice she said to Bismuth, "You can't shatter her, Bismuth." A beat. "I won't let you."

The smith just stood there, dumbfounded.

Connie shook her head, her voice still sad. "Shattering Rose wouldn't necessarily be wrong... but it would be stupid."

Steven made a choking noise of disbelief. Pearl, who was watching everything wide-eyed and with her hands over her mouth, made a choking noise of relief.

"Healing the corrupted requires Rose tears. We have maybe two doses left if the vials in my and Steven's backpack survived." Connie was about to continue when she was interrupted, not by Bismuth, but by Lapis.

"Girlie, if you think Rose is going to do community service or something, you're dead wrong." She gave a wan smile. "If she learned crying was what we wanted, she'd turn into the kind of stoic that would make a Garnet-Jasper fusion look flamboyant just to spite us."

"I know," answered Connie, "but maybe we can make a device to embed her in, like a souped up version of the fountain. Or-"

Pearl made another choking noise, more like Steven's, and Connie stopped that line of conjecture entirely.

"Sorry, the healing tears were just the first example that came to mind, but that's not my entire point," pressed the girl. "The larger point is, right here, right now, standing on this beach, we're all angry, and heartbroken, and exhausted. If there is some brilliant scientific or diplomatic or- or even ethical argument for taking Rose out of the bubble, we're not going to think of it now."

Connie reached up and ran a hand through her frazzled hair, organizing it as she organized her thoughts. "Rose is defeated. She can't hurt anyone any more and I think shattering her in anger would sully this victory-" She shook her head, catching a glimpse of Pearl and P2’s shards in her peripheral vision. "-No, would sully this sacrifice. Any good that could come of it would be shattered too."

She turned to Steven, her expression sad. "I'm not good like you are. Not instinctively. If there is some future where we let Rose out so she can be rehabilitated, I'm not seeing it. But that doesn't mean it, or something like it doesn't exist." She rounded on the others. "Unless we shatter Rose. Then all we're left with... are shards."

Bismuth paced like a caged animal, shaking her head at every word. "No. Bubbles burst. What if Homeworld sneaks someone down here? What if one of Rose's conspiracy friends pays us a visit? Heck, what if one of those mended was pink as they come and thought she had to spring her general from jail? If you plucked Jasper out of the war and dropped her here today, she would do it if Citrine were in that bubble!"

Jasper stood unmoved before, slowly, she lowered her head in mute agreement.

Connie paced like she was in a formal debate with her mom. "True, but you're overlooking the larger, more fundamental point. We won. And if we can't find somewhere safe and secure to keep Rose bubbled then we're the incompetent ones."

"Oh yeah?" challenged Bismuth, her eyes narrowed. "Are you a builder now? Build me something, Alloy. Impress me."

Another hand through her hair and then Connie gestured to a nearby section of the cliff. "We could make a vault five stories high out of the hardest metal that exists! We can fill it with every laser and trap you and Mom can think of. We can have it go for a mile underground, with lakes of acid and moats of superheated plasma."

Bismuth's mouth opened in a snarl, ready, even eager to object, when Connie cut her off.

"And then, at the very end, we have pedestal over which floats this bubble with a completely non-magical rose quartz gemstone cut to match exactly and any time anyone gets within 100 feet of that pedestal the entire room fills with destabilizer fields. Then we get an automatic alert sent out telling one of Mom's robonoids to go sweep up the spy that tried to free Rose." Connie whirled on the others, delivering her final line. "And the actual bubble is in a mid-size safety deposit box in the fourth-largest bank in a suburb outside of Tokepa," the girl panting slightly at the end.

A laugh escaped Lapis, the gem seemingly surprised when it emerged. Mom followed suit a second later and even Garnet, still not steady enough to rise to her feet, chuckled and said to Bismuth, "You have to admit, it is a little funny."

"Your bubble stayed hidden for a long time," said Jasper, her voice level but her expression had just the faintest hint of apology at the harsh truth.

The moment passed and Bismuth stood there, jaw set, eyes first on Connie, then on the bubble, and finally on the shards littering the sand. The hand of the arm holding the Breaking point curled into a fist, the other shifting into a serrated axe head.

She shook her head. "Then I'm out."

"Huh?" asked Lapis.

Bismuth looked up, meeting Lapis' eyes. "I'm out. I'm not a part of this rebellion anymore. You want to bubble Rose until you have some bright idea, fine. I can't stop you. And, yeah, you're smart enough maybe it won't end horribly. But that's not what I stand for. There are tyrants in this universe that need to be ended, monsters you put down in such a way they never get back up again." She gestured to Pearl. "How many more gems like her are there out there? Owned? Trapped? Who never had someone give them a sword? The Diamonds built that power structure and I aim to bring it down on their heads."

"What are you proposing?" asked Mom, the fingers of one hand laced through Lapis'.

"Rose had a secret rebellion, right?" Bismuth looked to Connie.

Momentarily thrown, Connie blinked and thought back to an eternity/a couple of minutes ago. "Yeah. She was stretching the truth in places and outright lying in others, but the part where she pretty much said she had a secret coup waiting to happen was honest." A beat. "That I could tell, anyway," she hedged.

Bismuth smiled. "So there you go. Rose had this whole rebellion just waiting to go. So I wrap up here, get myself a ship together, then head over and see if those gals are open to a change in management. Some'll walk, sure, but when I explain to the rest that they get one of these-" and she waggled her Breaking Point, "-as a signing bonus, I bet more than a few will be ready for some serious Bismuth."

At that, Connie wavered on her feet. She wasn't tired exactly. Between Asmi and the rush that had been Sunset Aura Quartz and going insubstantial for a little while and then being Asmi again, Connie was more alert and awake than she would otherwise be. But intellectually? Emotionally? She was tapped out and running on fumes.

"I- Can we, uh, save all of that for tomorrow?" she asked.

Mom was immediate in coming to Connie's rescue. "Yes, I am hard-pressed to think of a more taxing day than this one has been. Connie and Steven need to retire and rest." Her gaze went to the shards in the sand. "And mourn. Plus," and she spared a sickened glance at the overgrown Beach House, "we have a great deal of cleaning up ahead of us."

"Don't forget the scariest game of bomb defuser you're ever gonna play, Dot," added Lapis.

Mom's eyes went wide. "Empty sky! I'd nearly forgotten about the munitions in the burning room!"

A soft voice that had yet to speak answered, "I believe I can assist in that. The rest of the cleanup as well." A beat, and then Pearl angled her chin down demurely. "If you'll have me, I mean."

"Of course we'll have you!" answered Connie at nearly a yell at the same moment Jasper said in a gruff but forceful voice, "You can help."

Several looked at Bismuth. "I'm fine with it. Welcome aboard, White."

Pearl flinched but nodded her head, forlorn. Then she said to Connie, “Also, I have a considerable stockpile of healing tears stored which I will turn over to you, to help you in your efforts at healing corruption.”

Connie’s eyes were wide as they could get. “How many vials are we talking about?” she asked with fearful hope.

Pearl gave her a wan smile. “Many hundreds, at least. Rose gave many actual vials before the start of this mission, but then, while she was hidden in my gemstone…” and she trailed off as Connie’s gaze drifted into the middle distance.

"You were really brave," said Steven, patting the pale gem on the elbow. It was one of the first things he'd said since Asmi had split. Apparently, whatever his thoughts on Rose --Or me, Connie thought with a spike of anxiety-- comforting Pearl was uncontroversially good.

"Thank you," Pearl said in a soft voice. "I could hear you, by the way. While Rose and I were-" The sentence ended with a shudder. "It was a comfort even if I wasn't brave enough to act then."

"No, you did great," insisted Steven.

"Oh please," objected Pearl. "I was scared beyond measure and I'm sure my swordplay was atrocious."

"I could teach you!" exclaimed Connie. "I mean, if I can learn then you could too." A glance revealed Jasper standing nearby. "And Jasper would help too, wouldn't you Jasper?"

Jasper inclined her head. "Happy to."

"Oh really, I was just swinging this around," insisted Pearl. "But your offer is a kind one. Thank you." A beat. "All of you."

Surrounded by supportive faces, Pearl was led toward her new home.

As the others moved down the beach --and Alloy entered Wolf's bubble space to do whatever she did to remove Pink's influence from the hound-- Bismuth and Garnet were huddled over, carefully going over a stretch of beach together.

"I didn't foresee that-" started the fusion but she was cut off with a wave.

Bismuth's thoughts were a storm just then so she didn't trust herself to speak. If she tried to, she might end up doing it with her fists. Instead she shrugged and sifted another green shard out of the sand.

She had plans, had a future to build. But all that had to wait because right now? She had a friend to bubble.

Connie's phone was ringing. This was inconsiderate since she hadn't gotten enough sleep. She wasn't aware of how many hours she'd actually slept, but whatever the number was, it was too small.

Inconsiderate phone. QED.

Groggily she hauled herself upright on the sofa bed she was sleeping on in Steven's house. If you went up the stairs, the big, open space between the bedrooms, Steven's bathroom, and Mr. Universe's Mellow Room was where the big, cushy couches and the media center were for family movie nights. This was also where guests slept when they didn't want to stay in the bus.

The phone stopped ringing and went to voicemail... then it started ringing again.

Blinking some of the sleep out of her eyes, Connie held the inconsiderate device up to her ear and said, "Hello?" in a bleary voice.

"Connie?"

More blinking and then Connie answered back, "Jeff?"

He'd had Connie's phone number for months now but she couldn't actually remember the last time he called her. Normally he texted her or told something to Steven knowing it'd make its way to her.

Across the room, Steven poked his head out of his room and shot Connie a questioning look.

"[Jeff,]" she signed back with a sleepy shrug.

"Hey," answered the teen, sounding a little uncertain of himself. "So, sorry for waking you up or whatever but have you seen what's on TV?"

More blinking. "No," Connie finally answered back. "Being asleep and all."

"Oh, right," and Connie heard a weak chuckle over the phone.

"Anyway, um, what channel?" asked the girl, groping around the adjacent couch to find the TV remote.

"Uh... any of them. All of them. It doesn't matter," answered Jeff. "It's been like this all morning."

Something more biting than nebulous worry managed to penetrate the haze of Connie's sleepy indignance. Fumbling with the controls, she managed to turn the TV on and toggle it off of the DVD input.

P2 was staring at her.

"-is Peridot Facet-2B2Y Cut-5XG-" A grin. "-Or P2 as I've come to call myself, transmitting on all frequencies from abandoned Crystal system colony planet Earth, to Yellow Diamond." A crisp Diamond salute was followed with a cheerful wave. "Hello, my Diamond! My mission has been an unqualified success but with a number of real surprises along the way! I have been able to reconstruct Pink Diamond from her shards kept here on Earth with the help of the remaining Crystal Gem rebels. And Pink Diamond tasked me with bringing you and the other Diamonds into communication with the rebels of Earth, making it clear that doing so was of the utmost importance. Originally I coopted the colony's Communication Hub as a means of leverage against betrayal by the Crystal Gems. However, with those fears put to rest, I reprogrammed that mechanism to instead broadcast this message in the event that I am ever rendered incapable of carrying this mission to completion."

Connie could hear an echo of the broadcast over the phone, Jeff apparently having turned on his TV as well. Connie clicked to another channel and, sure enough, it was P2 in exactly the same point in the message.

"Appended to this broadcast is a heavily compressed data packet with all the reports I was able to file before my termination, as well as dozens of hours of recorded footage of the events of significance I have witnessed. I am certain you will find this highly interesting and I hope you and the other Diamonds are able to make a swift transit to Earth so that talks may proceed as Pink Diamond ordained. Also, it has been an honor to serve you and the rest of the Diamond Authority and my largest regret is that I will not be able to see this vital mission to its Diamond-ordained completion... Though the likely incomplete status of my pastry list would come to a close second."

Another Diamond salute followed. "P2 signing out, with accompanying data packet to follow." P2 glanced down like she was about to press a button on something when she paused and looked back up at Connie. "Oh, and if you are able, I highly recommend the sprinkle-covered, glazed cake donut of the Big Donut in Beach City, Delmarva. But order it from Sadie Miller since wheat distribution is part of her namesake and because she's much nicer than Lars." There was a final wave then P2 looked down and the TV devolved into a burst of intense static.

"It goes on like that for another ten minutes," said Jeff. "I guess it's actually a zip file of alien shaky cam footage or something but it looks like static on TV. Then it repeats all over."

Connie felt herself go numb as the implications of this sunk in. She wasn't sure, but if this message really could reach Homeworld then-

"Hey Jeff, I gotta let you go," droned Connie.

"Yeah. Good luck. We're all rooting for you." There was a pause, as though the teen were staring at his hijacked television. "Really rooting for you," he added.

Connie hung up as Steven came over and kissed the back of her head, pulling her in close. She leaned into his warmth and took a steadying breath. Then she dialed her Mom.

It rang twice. "Hello? Connie?!"

In the background, she could hear the same static as was playing on Steven's TV. Blinking, the girl remembered that pretty much the only furniture to survive Rose's invasion of the Beach House was the coffee table (after Lapis had hauled it out of the sea) and the TV Mom and Bismuth had rebuilt to be nigh-indestructible.

"I take it you guys saw the broadcast too," drawled the girl.

In the background she could also hear Bismuth laughing uproariously.

Chapter Text

For two days, Connie stayed with Steven and his family. Dad had made it clear his foldout couch was hers for the claiming. Priyanka even discreetly pulled Connie aside and said that she could stay with her in Crossroads for a while if she wanted to get some distance from Beach City.

And while both offers were tempting, P2's message meant there might not be much time before Homeworld arrived. Again.

Everyone was busy, Connie included.

So Connie stayed with Steven, each of the Destiny Partners leaning on one another for support, all while Mr. and Mrs. Universe did their best to help the teens as well. That this involved plenty of hearty meals went without saying: good food (and lots of it) was part of how the Universe family coped.

Bismuth and Pearl were tireless in getting the ruined Beach House cleaned up and rebuilt. The robonoids had hidden away somewhere during Rose's rampage and, after they were coaxed from hiding by Mom, were a big help as well.

Tik-Tok had spent the assault inside Mom's room, but with a big chunk of the front of the house missing, the giant robonoid was free to move about and used as an ambulatory bulldozer, clearing out debris.

Lapis and Mom spent a lot of time going to and from orbit, the doom cannons getting a frenzy of last-minute attention.

Connie hadn't been the one to tell Amethyst the news. In fact, finding her and Biggs out in the trackless Manikota wilderness would have been nearly impossible without Garnet pointing out their three most likely locations. Bismuth had volunteered to break the news: she came back hours later with bits of broken wood and rocks in her hair saying that Amethyst was 'working through things in her own way'.

Jasper spent most of her time on the island, tracking down and bubbling each and every corrupted gem that had been driven out of the Sanctuary grounds by Rose and Pyra.

Garnet was... elsewhere. After helping narrow down Amethyst's location, she'd jogged away toward the nearest warp pad without another word. When Connie asked Mom about it late January 2nd, Peridot had studied the warp logs and found a record of one Ruby and one Sapphire warping to Rose's fountain simultaneously --all of Garnet's warp log entries looked like that, she elaborated-- followed by a series of warps across the globe, seemingly at random, by Ruby. That did explain why they'd found footprint-shaped scorch marks in the stone around the quarry warp pad.

On January 3rd, all the work stopped and almost everyone returned to the Beach House: the gems had rejected the suggestion of holding a funeral for P2 but all had agreed to the idea of a wake.

Nearly every horizontal surface in the kitchen was laden with sweets: candy, ice cream, mochi, and a riot of baked goods. Lars had even dropped off a long, purple, log-shaped thing called an ube roll. Connie didn't know what to make of it, but for some reason seeing it prompted Bismuth to pull the lanky ginger into a crushing hug of gratitude.

Pearl and Steven had made a big collage of photos showing the mottled gem. In some she was almost hidden in a cloud of holograms; in others she was working with Mom or Bismuth; she was eating sweets in a lot of them; and in almost every single one... she was smiling.

At first it was a somber affair. No one really knew what to do until Steven stood up and shared a story about P2.

Apparently P2 had asked him once for a list of his favorite places to watch the sun rise and set and he'd managed to think of five for each. For the next two mornings and one evening, Steven had joined P2 in trying his recommendations out. Things had come up to prevent them from making it through the rest of the list together but it had still been, he said, really special to get to be there with someone who found everything so new and exciting.

He'd sat back down to a reception of tears, grins, and a tight hug from Connie.

After that the others had joined in, sharing stories and feelings and consuming no small number of pastries as the day waxed on. It was an emotional affair for all.

Bismuth had told Biggs about the wake when she'd broken the news to Amethyst. Neither Biggs nor Amethyst showed up, the former Quartz Pack alpha presumably staying behind to help Amethyst process her grief.

Garnet didn't show up until nearly dusk. "I'm sorry," was all she said before turning and marching back out the way she came.

At the very end, Mom had taken P2's surviving peripherals (two gravity connectors and the limb enhancer not crushed by Rose) and placed them prominently on a shelf beside the printed and framed selfie P2 had taken of herself beside Pink Diamond. She declared that they’d be kept as a memorial of the gem ‘as they were more precious as mementos than as parts.’

Everyone decided that was a good high note to end the evening on. Donuts in hand, everyone toasted P2's memory.

Lapis and Bismuth made a point to polish off Pearl and Jasper's uneaten donuts after.

Connie was sitting at her dad's dinner table trying not to fidget while Priyanka gently prodded her with an eyeliner pencil. Letting the doctor apply her makeup before a date was quickly becoming a tradition between them, something Connie was in no hurry to change considering what she'd seen in the mirror after her own attempts to do it herself.

"A good guiding principle is that less is more," advised Pri.

Connie was about to nod to signal she was listening but she caught herself in time, holding still and giving a hum of agreement instead.

Dad had been working from his desk earlier but he usually found an excuse to be elsewhere while Connie was getting ready for a date. Whether he felt like he was intruding on something distaff or had some fatherly aversion to her romance-adjacent activities, Dad didn't volunteer why and Connie didn't pry.

Priyanka continued her advice as she worked, done with Connie's left eye and moving on to the right. "It's generally more tasteful and far more economical: cosmetics worth wearing aren't cheap. Also, at your age you'll want to be mindful of irritating your skin. Too much foundation and you might suffer more frequent acne."

Another 'mhm' as Connie tried not to think about an itch on the side of her nose. Instead she wondered for the nth time that morning what Steven had planned. It was January 5th and four months ago Connie and Steven had started dating. Honestly, she hadn't even been sure they'd do anything given recent events. However, Steven had said he'd like to if Connie was okay with it too and she'd agreed after a minute's thought.

After all, reeling from Rose's defeat or not, fancy food, the promise of dessert, and a handsomely-dressed Steven could only be an improvement on Connie's evening.

Priyanka had Connie close her eyes and, with gentle fingers, moved Connie's head side to side, examining her work. With a pleased noise, Priyanka put away her eyeliner pencil and reached for her makeup kit.

Connie opened her eyes to see the doctor with a wistful smile.

Noticing her questioning stare, Pri gave a small shake of her head and said, "I was reminded of something that happened when I was about your age. We'd been invited to a party at the home of a prominent family so nice dress was expected. An aunt of mine had artistic aspirations and so she insisted on doing the henna designs for my cousin and me."

"Henna?" asked Connie, interested in the anecdote and still trying really hard not to touch her face.

"It's the name of a dye and the act of using that dye for body art," explained Pri, smiling at Connie. "The custom varies by region but where I grew up young women would get henna'd across their fingers, hands, arms, and feet. The designs are usually fairly abstract and geometric, only my aunt decided my cousin and I were her canvas and so we would each have half of a larger picture on us."

Connie, fascinated and grinning at the promise of (someone else’s) embarrassing story, asked, "What was it a picture of?"

Giving a self-deprecating smile in answer, Priyanka leaned in as if sharing a secret with the girl. "A stylized portrait of the host. It was... ambitious," she said, voice thick with understated criticism and Connie giggled at the visual image it conjured. "I will say it made quite the impression at the party, but not the kind my aunt had hoped. My cousin and I were horribly embarrassed, as you can imagine, and the two of us made a point never to stand too close to one another until after the design had faded away."

Another giggle from Connie, the girl reaching up and catching herself centimeters from scratching an itch on her face. Lowering her arm to the table, she looked at it and asked, "Do you think henna would look good on me?" A beat. "Done correctly, I mean," she added hastily.

Priyanka was smiling another wistful smile, eyes half-lidded and looking a little like Mom did when Connie had a particularly good answer following a lecture.

"I think if it was done professionally than you'd-"

The response was interrupted when Connie's phone rang from where it was charging by the entryway. The girl had only barely gotten up from the table when there was a blur of motion outside the apartment and then Lapis all but burst into the room.

"Hey Con-con. Sorry to interrupt but we need you at the Beach House toot suite," said the blue gem as cold air blew into the room. A beat later she nodded her head in acknowledgement toward Priyanka. "Doc."

"Hello Lapis," answered Priyanka, the wistful expression from earlier evaporating in an instant.

Connie's phone continued to ring until Lapis snatched it up and said, "I'm already here, Dot. I'll have girlie home in under two minutes or your delivery is free."

Taking her phone from Lapis, Connie pocketed it and snatched up her pack, no questions needed or asked though the butterflies in her stomach were being replaced with pre-mission jitters instead.

Priyanka, however, looked from gem to girl and back, arms crossing against both the cold and the circumstances. "What's happening?"

Lapis was helping Connie slide on her jacket when she said, "Huh? Oh. P2 sent a collect call to Yellow Diamond about half a week ago and a fleet of ships just warped into the system to answer the phone."

Girl and gem were winging across town less than thirty seconds later. Like burnt out pixels in the sky, there were dots visible in the clear blue day: warships holding position in the upper atmosphere.

Connie counted at least ten during the frenetic flight to the Beach House.

Garnet was waiting for the others atop Lighthouse Park. They didn't bring a battery of light cannons nor did anyone else fuse: with that much overkill hovering overhead, words would be the only opening volley that might turn back the invasion.

Besides, Pearl was waiting on the other side of the bay (carried there by Wolf) with every cannon they could scrounge, the whole emplacement hidden behind a holographic veil. If it came to a fight then the situation was probably already unsalvageable, but they still wanted to have a sucker punch ready just in case.

Steven had been retrieved via Wolf (before the hound had left with Pearl) and Connie couldn't help but notice the small touches that indicated he'd been getting ready for their date as well: a creased collar peeked out from the neck of his armor, his hair was more styled than usual, and his shoes were the fancy kind that were black and shiny. As Connie was going into a tense negotiation with elaborately-braided hair and wearing eyeliner, she was similarly overdressed.

Dressed to kill, her inner snarker added before the rest of her ruled it a joke in bad taste and booed it off the metaphorical stage.

The two teens twined fingers.

"You look nice," said her boyfriend. He gave her a smile that was earnest but she couldn't help but see the worry in his eyes.

She leaned into his presence despite how chilly his armor was. "You too. You're my gallant knight," and she nuzzled his neck, focusing on that instead of the existential-levels of fear twisting in her gut.

"And you're my daring warrior-princess," answered Steven, nuzzling back and then kissing the top of her head.

Connie closed her eyes and tried to shut out everything else, to just let this be her world. She breathed in the floral scent of Steven's shampoo and for a moment... it was okay.

Then the moment passed and she was back to waiting for Homeworld to pay them a visit.

She had still been getting her makeup done when it happened, but the Homeworld commander in charge of the fleet had hailed them. An Emerald, apparently, and every inch the sneering, gloating villain Connie had been raised to expect from her rebel caregivers and her library of young adult literature. The commander had given them a time and place for the negotiation, tossed in a couple of dismissive barbs at Mom's expense and then dropped the hail.

Looking over the others, Connie couldn’t help but fret. Bismuth had her breaking point on her hip and Connie was a little worried the gem might escalate things; the wake had helped, but it was clear Bismuth still harbored bubbling resentment over P2. However, it was Mom who was the most agitated, her words drawing worried looks from several of the others, the McFly hovering after the pacing gem.

"P2 broadcasts a message of peaceful cooperation to Homeworld. This is in conjunction with not only hours of footage depicting our benign intentions but petabytes of corroborating data.”

Connie turned and buried her face in Steven’s curly mane, breathing in the scent and feeling the trapped warmth, trying and failing to recapture that moment of peace.

Meanwhile, Mom had paused in her pacing, silent for a moment… then burst out with, “And this is how the Diamonds respond?! I could see this from Blue and White Diamond, certainly, but I expected better of Yellow Diamond."

Connie emerged from her bushy-haired hiding place to see her mom shaking a small fist at the heavens. "Ten warships is neither a proportionate or logical response!" the gem shouted skyward.

"She's coming," said Garnet and all eyes turned skyward. A couple seconds later a single ship --too small to be picked out among the warships looming in the upper atmosphere-- descended into view. It was yellow, with an angular, almost geometric shape to its fuselage. The nose ended with a long point and the wings were comparatively short, extending out from the body at ninety degree angles.

Connie thought the whole thing looked kind of like something she'd find at the bottom of a Happy Meal but apparently others found it more impressive, Bismuth giving a long, low whistle of appreciation.

"Hey Blue?" said the smith, eyes still turned upward. "If we don't all end up lining a crater, you want to help me steal that ship?"

"I dunno," hedged Lapis in a sardonic tone. "I already had your going-away present picked out. But I 'spose a spaceship is more on-theme than a Diamond-sized whoopie cushion. Alright, but you better look surprised when a pallet-sized Amazon box shows up in a week."

"Deal," answered the rainbow-haired gem with a grin.

At least someone's having fun, thought Connie, squeezing Steven's hand in her own.

With a thrum and a whoosh, the yellow craft landed at the summit of the hill, Steven sheltering the two of them from the accompanying rush of wind with his upraised shield.

A ramp extended out from below the overlong nose and a single, green gem strode confidently down. She had a dark-green, rectangular gemstone where her right eye would be, an angular tiara-esque adornment across her brow, and large, spiky green hair. Between her blocky shoulder pads, square wrist cuffs, and thigh-high, heeled boots, she landed somewhere between 'overly-aggressive female CEO' and 'Sailor Moon villain' in Connie's estimation.

Not one but two Yellow Diamond insignias decorated the gem's outfit and it was only Lapis' hand on Mom's shoulder that kept the technician from launching into another angry rant.

Jasper took a step forward, the gem towering over the Homeworld gem opposite her. "Why have-" was as far as she got before she was interrupted.

"Quiet, you colonial filth," snapped Emerald. "Your better stands before you so you should speak only when spoken to. Now, kneel before me and I may be convinced to be lenient in deciding your fate."

A long moment stretched out, no one moving a muscle save for several clenching their fists.

The moment (and looming threat of violence) ended when Steven unlaced his fingers from Connie's and gave a little wave. Then he offered the gem a shallow bow and a smile. "Hi. So I think maybe we all got off on the wrong foot. But I'm sure you've got a lot of questions after getting P2's message. And we've got questions about your, uh, escorts-" and his eyes drifted up to the warships visible overhead. "-So why don't we all have a nice talk instead? Oh! We could introduce ourselves too. Hi, I'm Steven!"

Emerald gave Steven a skeptical look for a second before the gem scoffed and rolled her eyes. Or rather, rolled her eye.

"I do not speak with noisy landscape." She turned and pointedly addressed the gems in the group rather than Steven or Connie. "Now, you will direct me to Pink Diamond so that she can be returned to the side of her fellow Diamonds. And then you will all submit yourself as prisoners, where you will be taken to Homeworld to stand trial before a Diamond tribunal."

Bismuth undid the latch on her Breaking Point's holster, hand hovering over the weapon. "That's some tough talk from someone standing less than thirty feet from the 'colonial filth.' Do you want this trial bad enough you're willing to show up in a baggie labeled 'evidence?'"

Emerald laughed and it was exactly the sort of cartoon villain laugh Connie had inwardly expected it to be. Then she pointed her finger like a gun out over the ocean and said, "Fire."

The square-shaped cuff on her hand glimmered and then a beam of light speared down from one of the warships overhead, sending a great geyser of water and steam shooting out where the bombardment struck.

"My Diamond told me to damage this planet no more than necessary in your retrieval." She smiled, fang-like teeth bared. "So, please, attack me, rebel so that I can tell my Diamond it was necessary to melt this continent to slag." With a proprietary, even affectionate air, she gestured toward her ship. "Besides, my Sun Incinerator could use another field trial: it so seldom gets to fire on live targets."

Mom, scowling, said in an accusing tone, "You didn't read P2's data cache, did you?"

Emerald blinked (winked?) and some of the bravado leaked out of her. "I had my staff read it and summarize it for me." Recovering, she raised her head imperiously. "I'm a very important, very busy gem."

Garnet summoned her gauntlets, enlarged them, and braced them against the ground for some reason.

"Then you need to replace your staff with a cluebat, Emmy," snarked Lapis, "because you're a few whacks short on the details. The Diamond you're looking for is-"

The gem's words were cut off when an earthquake shook the hill. Connie summoned a small force field which she and Steven held onto to keep from losing their footing. Mom hopped on the McFly, Lapis hovered up, and Jasper rode out the tremors like the perfect Quartz she was. Garnet used her oversized gauntlets like a platform to ride out the shaking. Bismuth and Emerald, however, toppled to the ground.

The trembling grew worse. Connie and Steven retreated atop a horizontal force field a few inches off the ground, there was a sound of car alarms going off in Beach City, and then there was a loud crash off in the distance. Outside of town there was a plume of dust and what looked like a bunch of rocks being flung outward.

Connie was so surprised it took her a second to realize it was all coming from the quarry outside of town, which meant-

A figure, a giant, rose up from the distant quarry. First were crystals that must have each been the size of the lighthouse that no longer stood in the eponymous park. These formed a crown of sorts, under which pinkish-purple hair could be seen in bobbed tails. A face rose into view and Connie was taken aback: it was one the Cluster had used briefly during its talk with Mom, Garnet, and her days ago, the one that was simultaneously unfamiliar and yet vaguely reminiscent of Pink Diamond's.

Lines of gold colored a face like river deltas across a landscape... and considering the size, that simile may have been to-scale. Up and up the figure ascended, four arms and a chest rising into view, then a torso scaled with many-colored crystals... almost snake-like in appearance.

Editor’s Note: The background/time of day in the model is not reflective of what's happening in the chapter.

"The Diamond you're looking for has grown a bit since you last saw her," drawled Lapis. "I hope you brought a big ship."

The many-faceted titan of crystal rose and rose, already taller than the tallest skyscraper in Empire, dwarfing anything built by mankind. Up and up she went, going from Godzilla-big to mountain-big in Connie’s gobsmacked estimation.

"A really big ship," amended Lapis in awe.

Garnet shrunk her gauntlets down, then walked over and helped Bismuth upright.

"Did you know this would transpire?" hissed Mom, attention torn between the snake-bodied colossus and the blue gem.

"Oh heck no," answered Lapis. "I guess a couple of the bajillion shards in the Cluster have good dramatic timing. Hiddenite would approve."

Mom looked about to object when she paused and said, "You're right, she would."

On and on the serpent body continued, seemingly without end, and then the enormous figure loomed closer. Rather than ripping through the earth like some monstrous serpent of legend or pulverizing everything between the quarry and Lighthouse Park, the being held herself above the ground like someone bowing or doing the most epic core workout in the history of the universe.

A face larger than the very hill they were all standing on loomed closer, her expression one of titanic displeasure. She was so huge she actually blotted out the morning sun when she rotated around and viewed them from the east, plunging them all into shadow.

"W-W-" Emerald scrambled to her feet. "What is that?!" she screeched.

"I am Terra."

The Cluster, no, Terra must have been whispering when she spoke because her words were merely loud instead of earthshaking. Her voice was rich, a chorus of thousands united and blended together into a single commanding tone.

From afar Connie had noticed lines of gold crisscrossing the being's skin. But seen up close, she could actually tell that those had simply been the largest veins: innumerable smaller ones covered Terra's skin in an endless array, as if each individual shard were outlined. These tiny streams flowed together like tributaries until they joined the largest in estuaries of gold.

Managing to find a modicum of composure, Emerald held herself upright, though the imposing stance looked comical given that the gem was craning her head up to take in the part of Terra’s face that was visible above the cliff. "I am Emerald, appointed by Yellow Diamond herself to take a grand fleet to Earth and retrieve Pink Diamond." She struck a dramatic pose --She was such a Sailor Moon villain-- all ten fingers fanned out. "And I will not be denied!"

In the distance ten beams of light speared down, boiling swaths of ocean and causing great geysers of steam to shoot into the sky.

"Back down, abomination, or the next barrage will be- Eep!"

The gem's monologue was cut short when a flicker of pink energy, a sphere about as big as a volleyball, appeared and then popped with a sound like a burst tire. Emerald was flung back, toppling end over end until landing in a heap, as though Terra had lightly flicked the officious gem in the chest. Though given the size of even Terra's pinky finger, the globe of energy was almost certainly the lighter touch.

"I am the misdeeds of your Diamonds made manifest, an abomination in origin but not of self," and the air shook even as Terra was essentially delivering a whispered response through clenched teeth. "I am the guardian of this planet and will suffer no trespass against it. If the Diamonds would meet with Pink Diamond, they may come here and speak with me themselves."

"Pink Diamond? More like Plaid Diamond," murmured Bismuth, referring to the mélange of colors comprising Terra's skin when she was seen up close.

Emerald jabbed out with one hand, a square cuff starting to glimmer when another burst of pink flattened her. Then the shadow over Lighthouse Park fell away, Connie and Steven blinking in the sudden sunlight.

"As for this fleet-" and Terra swept out with two of her four hands. The sky above became tinged pink as if rose-colored dusk were falling before it was even noon.

Emerald's cuffs shimmered and a tinny voice could be heard. "Grand Emerald," exclaimed the voice, notes of panic clearly audible despite the gem sounding like she was being heard through a distant speakerphone. "The crystal heart of our warship has just shut down!"

"I don't care!" answered Emerald. "Fire! Fire! Fire!" she ordered.

"We can't!" A beat. "Grand Emerald," added the gem, presumably an officer aboard one of the warships. "We only have auxiliary power. We're only barely matching the planet's gravitational pull; we'd fall out of the sky before we could charge even a single shot."

"What about our reserve fleet?!" wailed the Homeworld admiral. She'd held the cuff up to her mouth when she shouted that and the answering voice came out too quiet to hear, the device apparently lowering the volume the closer it was to Emerald's ears. But after a panicked yet indecipherable susurrus came from the cuff, Emerald answered, "What do you mean they're pinned down behind Neptune?" Another message from the cuff was followed by, "Anti-asteroid cannons?!"

Before the conversation could continue, Terra interrupted, and when the kaiju-sized goddess of shards spoke, you listened. "We have been merciful so far but your impudence annoys us," the colossal fusion slipping into the second-person for some reason. "See why no invasion of Earth will be tolerated-"

With a gesture, there was an explosion of pink. It was so high up that it was only a brighter spot of color in an already colorful sky. But with the warship silhouettes there to judge the scale, it must have been enormous. No warships were consumed in the blast but from the screaming and tinny klaxons audible over Emerald's cuff, just the shockwave had been enough to rattle the entire armada.

Then Terra pointed out over the ocean. A detonation of pink erupted like a distant atomic bomb. It was like the explosions Pink Diamond had made after reforming in the quarry, but scaled up to mind-boggling proportions. The blast emerged in the same area as the warship bombardment from early and dwarfed all ten beams by itself. A second later and a gale-force wind howled through, Connie and Steven once more clinging to a force field for stability.

"-And why no invasion of Earth will succeed." The air thrummed as the voice of an angry titan filled the silence that followed.

The sky of pink faded but the shadow of Terra once more loomed over the hill. "Now go. Terra is done with you and so too is her patience for further folly," boomed the colossus in the third-person, her voice sounding less like a chorus and more like a mob.

Emerald scrambled forward on all fours then half-loped, half-sprung to her feet, sprinting up the ramp of her ship. If she had a villainous cliché like, 'You haven't seen the last of me!' she made sure to keep it to herself until the ramp had closed and no one could hear her.

The ship was gaining altitude --banking hard to give Terra a wide berth-- when Connie, blinking, looked to the others as if to ask, 'That just happened... right?'

Mom and Jasper met her stare and Garnet offered a small thumbs up despite never taking her eyes off of the towering figure of Terra. And Lapis and Bismuth... Lapis and Bismuth...

"Where's Lapis and Bismuth?"

Mom looked around then facepalmed. Jasper, with a hint of a smirk, said, "Snuck off during the explosions."

Garnet turned and jogged about fifty feet downhill.

Mom used her terminal to conjure a hologram of the doom cannons. Connie couldn't read even half of the gem glyphs streaming past but she guessed based on the icons visible that Mom had just disabled the guns, presumably so Emerald's warships could beat a hasty retreat... which was exactly what they were doing, the ten dots overhead turning into a blur of eye-watering motion and then vanishing entirely.

The sky overhead was clear, the unstoppable armada sent running. Connie could hardly believe it.

Then Terra sagged, a colossal groan escaping her.

With a yelp, Mom leapt onto the McFly and hurtled past. Invisible force grabbed Steven by his armor and Connie by the metal objects in her backpack, both teens being dragged clear. Jasper rocketed away, emerging from her spindash near Garnet.

The enormous fusion rested a single elbow on the hilltop, the impact causing a spray of soil and the sound of rocks crumbling down the cliffs below. She wouldn't have crushed anyone even if they hadn't fled, but it'd certainly have been too close for comfort.

Toggling his scouter, Steven said, "Terra? Are you okay? Did you, like, wear yourself out with all those 'splosions?"

For a minute the titan did nothing save clutch herself. Then, slowly, she rose carefully back into the air. "Terra has the power of a Diamond many times over. She used only a fraction of her might. But so many within her are loyal to the Diamonds. Others have no interest in defending the Earth. Acting as she did has made her... disparate. Scattered,” her voice growing even more discordant as she spoke. “She must return to her hollow and shed this form so that she may pull herself back together. But she will return when needed. That is her promise... to the Earth and to herself."

"Thanks for saving, um, everything," called up Connie.

Terra gave a weary smile. She looked like she was about to retreat back down the quarry tunnel when Mom zipped by, flying up to the titan's face and waving her hands. "Wait! There is one last matter!"

Squinting so she could focus on the small, green figure in front of her, Terra waited for Mom to elaborate.

"P2, the Peridot tasked by you- er, by Pink Diamond. She was- She was shattered by Rose before the Quartz' campaign of terror was stopped. Can she be restored?" and Mom's voice wavered a little. "Can she return as one of these Mended you mentioned?"

Terra looked thoughtful for a second, her features and her voice becoming very reminiscent of Pink Diamond's in that moment. "Bring her shards to Terra. Integrate them. She- We- I will enable her shards to choose whether they return and how."

Mom sagged with relief. "Thank you," she called out, already drifting back toward the hilltop, taking care not to land in the giant elbow-made depression in the ground.

Without another word, Terra rose, towering over the quarry, drawing herself back down into the earth. The descent seemed slow only because of how Connie's mind refused to recognize the sheer scale of the distant fusion retreating below ground.

Once Terra was out of sight, Garnet smiled. Then she frowned. Then she sighed. Apparently she was also grappling with her own issues of unity. She gave the group a curt nod and then jogged away.

"This is not at all how I expected this encounter to conclude, but I will hardly gainsay it," said Mom, pulling Connie into a hug and then bidding Steven and Jasper goodbye. "I'm going to retreat to my workshop to reacquaint myself with P2's reports on shard manipulation," and with that she rode the McFly over and down the cliff, disappearing from sight.

Jasper stood there, then gestured skyward. "Waiting." Then, as if sensing something, the warrior jogged a little ways away, giving Connie and Steven some space. Once she was far enough away, she pulled out her phone and started to punch too-small buttons with large fingers. Probably to let Pearl know they were in the clear.

Steven switched off his shield and detached the buckler. Then he twined his fingers through Connie's, the two letting recent events wash over them. Together.

"You got your wish," he said a couple minutes later.

The two of them were sitting on a force field because it was warmer than sitting on the ground, each Destiny Partner leaning into the other for warmth, support, and closeness.

Connie blinked, lifting her head up from where it was resting against his shoulder. "Huh?" she asked, too thrown to inwardly critique her bland banter.

Steven pivoted a little so he could better face her, a calm smile on his face. "On New Year's Eve? When I was asking you what you wanted for our four-monthiversary, you said you wanted the world to be in less danger." Then he gestured in the direction of the quarry and raised an eyebrow.

She remembered now: he'd been fishing for date ideas. And Connie, frustrated with another trip down to check on the Cluster and another day with the threat of Rose looming vaguely but menacingly overhead, had said she wanted things to be better. Or that's what she'd meant, even if the phrasing had been different.

"I... Hadn't thought of that," she slowly conceded.

"I mean," started her boyfriend, "Homeworld will come back again sooner or later, but they'll have to come to talk because they can't just show up with a bunch of ships and win."

"I doubt they're going to like what they hear," observed Connie, curling in on herself a little and only partially from the cold.

Steven scooted closer, draping his arm over her, which she clutched to herself gratefully. Kissing the top of her head, he said, "No. But maybe they'll start listening after a while. Maybe having a problem they can't order away or blow up will make them think about things they don't like to think about. Like being better people."

"Maybe," hedged Connie. She didn't quite share his optimistic outlook but that was okay. Honestly, just the fact that, for once, there was someone else who could save the world if it got in trouble was a huge relief.

Well, Terra probably wouldn't show up for, like, corrupted gems stomping around Beach City or an old piece of gemtech malfunctioning. Those smaller issues would have to be taken care of by the Crystal Gems, but that was the sort of adventuring she enjoyed the most anyway.

And if someday she or Steven or Mom or Lapis or Jasper had to step up and be representatives for Earth, to meet diplomatically with members of Homeworld, that'd probably be okay too. Especially if they all got a break first.

Connie drew in a deep breath and let it out slowly, feeling a tension she hadn't known she was carrying fall away as she did. She breathed in and out again, just savoring the feeling of the reduced weight on her shoulders.

Tugging Steven closer, she nuzzled under his chin, a pleased hum on her lips. "But you're right," she said with a smile. "This is better... And for the record, I don't expect an interstellar détente for every monthiversary."

Steven chuckled, nuzzling against the crown of her head, the vibrations of his chest felt as much as they were heard even despite the armor he was wearing. Besides, she liked how he looked in armor even if it made him a little less cuddly.

Another couple of minutes passed. Then Steven shifted in position a little and took a breath.

"There was something else you said." A beat. "Back when we talked on New Year's."

"Really?" She tried but Connie was coming up short imaging what it could be.

She felt Steven bring the arm draped over her up a little so he could grip her shoulder, pulling her in tightly against him. "You said you loved me. Before you hung up."

I did? Connie nearly exclaimed but stopped herself. Had she? She didn't remember exactly but did that matter? Did she actually feel that way about Steven?

She queried her feelings and the answer that came back was a glowing, undeniable affirmative.

"You also said it in our texts before the, uh, before Rose showed up on the handship," added Steven.

Connie felt herself go cold at that. The two of them had reconciled over her facing the invasion without him... and him tracking down P2 and Amethyst without her, but it was still something she didn't like to bring up.

She felt another kiss to her head and she relaxed a little. Steven snuggled her closer and, his voice heard through both his chest and the air, he said, "I love you too. I never actually said it back because it always happened when things were busy, or hectic, or scary, or... complicated. But I do. A lot. And whatever happens next, it'll be okay because we have each other."

Connie, feeling much warmer and kind of fluttery inside, straightened up, Steven unlooping his arm around her so the two of them could look at one another.

"Well, before anything else happens that's busy or hectic or scary or complicated, I love you, Steven. A lot."

The pair kissed, first a peck and then full on the lips. Then, because she'd long since forgotten about the force field they were sitting on, the pair dropped a couple inches to the grass below. They giggled, Connie leaning in to kiss him again.

A minute later and the pair were sitting on the grass, leaning in close, just looking at the world together.

"~The odds are against us, this won't be easy~" said Connie, the song Steven had once invented rising to her lips.

She could hear him smile, then he sang back, "~But we're not going to do it alone~"

"~We are the Crystal Gems~" she sang softly.

"~We'll always save the day~" he answered.

Then, together, they sang in quiet harmony, "~That's why the people of this world believe in. Jasper, Lapis, and Peridot~"

"~and Connie!~" // "~and Steven!~" exclaimed Steven and Connie over one another.

A beat, and then, said in a hurry at the same time, each grinning at the other: "~and Wolf~" // "~and Garnet~" // "~and Bismuth~" // "~Pearl~" // "~Terra~" // "~the robonoids~" // "~Amethyst~" // "~Biggs~"

Chapter Text

A beat, and then, said in a hurry at the same time, each grinning at the other: "~and Wolf~" // "~and Garnet~" // "~and Bismuth~" // "~Pearl~" // "~Terra~" // "~the robonoids~" // "~Amethyst~" // "~Biggs~"

The pair descended into giggles... until they caught sight of motion in the sky, the point resolving into a swiftly descending Sun Incinerator. Climbing to their feet, Connie and Steven gave the craft some room, Steven strapping the buckler back to his arm while Connie summoned a field onto it.

Jasper jogged over, standing nearby.

With a thrum and a whoosh, the yellow craft landed, the front opening as the ramp lowered.

For a second nothing happened and Connie worried that Homeworld's retreat might have not been as complete as she'd hoped. Would Terra be able to return if they were attacked again so soon? Did they need some kind of Bat-Signal for the colossal fusion? She'd known to come up before but that'd happened after Emerald's first warning shot; maybe Homeworld could come back if it just did so quietly enough it didn't wake up the resting guardian below the Earth’s mantle.

Then there was a familiar laugh and Bismuth jogged down the ramp, grinning widely. "Guess who just got herself a ride to Homeworld?" she exclaimed.

Lapis winged down and out from the ramp, landing nearby to shove the smith playfully. "Don’t go packing your bags yet, BM. You still owe me that flight to South Sudan: Dot and I have a date planned later and now I'm gonna take her out in style."

"Yeah, yeah. Keep your facets on, Blue," Bismuth chided happily.

"Emerald?" asked Jasper, not bothering to keep the small grin off her face.

"It was the funniest thing," explained Bismuth. "All of her crew suffered a case of spontaneous bubbling-"

"-And then Emmy herself got washed into an escape pod and launched into space," finished Lapis. "A pipe must have burst or something."

Steven glanced skyward, a look of worry crossing his face.

Reading his concern, Lapis said, "Don't worry, Pinky. This was before all the warships vamoosed. One of them picked her up while we were still figuring out what all the buttons on the bridge did."

"Homeworld's not gonna like that," graveled Jasper, her grin not dimming in the slightest.

"No they're not," exclaimed Bismuth, giddily unrepentant. "But I figure once I get up there and manage to track down Rose’s band of rebels, they'll have a lot more to be upset about instead."

Lapis waved at the pair of teens. “Come on you two cutie pies! Check out the interior on this thing! Also, where did we park Pearl again? I figure we can go pick her and Wolfy up, then all go out for pizza.”

Jasper and Bismuth had already made their way onboard, but the ramp didn’t rise until Connie and Steven ascended it, hand-in-hand, smiling at one another.

“You think we could take this through a drive-thru?” continued Lapis. “I’ve always wanted to fly through one but you do it with wings and they just stare at you funny. Oh man, wait until Murray hears I pirated a spaceship. He’s going to be grinning so wide! And-”

The ramp snapped shut, cutting off Lapis’ excited stream-of-consciousness commentary. The ship hovered up a minute later, blasting off.