Chapter II – Meeting
“The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting.”
Sun Tzu, The Art of War
Blue Diamond was ushered into the sterile white chambers and lead to a cream-colored bench. “Blue, thank the stars you’re here! Come here, dear, sit down. I can’t believe all you’ve been through.”
White Diamond, the leading matriarch of the Great Diamond Authority had immediately sent communications to her two fellow rulers, imploring both to travel back to Homeworld to meet with her. Despite being within different galaxies and colonies, the Diamonds knew all – they made sure to keep their eyes and ears on their subjects, making sure that everything was in order. Subjects from each court were instructed, nay encouraged, to report any deviant behavior from their fellow gems.
This routine had doubled since two gems – a rose quartz and a lowly pearl – had gone rogue and started an irritating ‘rebellion’. The Diamonds had yet to figure out how the two were able to come across sensitive information regarding gem production on Earth, but it was becoming irksome. This latest violation of their society only seemed to heighten the growing discord among those on Homeworld.
“We of course heard what happened,” that was Yellow Diamond, commander of their military forces, usually consisting of rubies and quartz soldiers. Many of…her…quartz soldiers had been converted to Yellow’s court, though there were some that were transferred to Blue and White’s courts. “These rebels go too far.”
“Agreed,” White replied, taking a seat next to Blue and patting one of her hands. “Attacking a Diamond is most unheard of, but then what can you expect from such…well, words aren’t enough to clearly describe their actions. However -” White turned to her colored counterpart and gave her arm a squeeze. “I’m sure it wasn’t just the attack that has unsettled you.”
Blue lowered the cowl on her cloak, returning White’s look. “It’s not the largest part, no,” she whispered. “I take it you heard.”
“How could you not?” Yellow questioned, pacing in front of them. “A rebel attack is one thing, but…that abomination! Who did it?”
“A ruby and my sapphire.”
“Surely not!” White exclaimed. “We hadn’t heard this, only that two of your court dared to fuse, but your sapphire and…how dare she!”
“Have they been shattered?” asked the military commander.
Blue shook her head. “Sapphire grabbed the ruby and fled,” she answered. “However, I have a team looking for both them and the rebels, with the order to break them on sight.”
“Good,” Yellow growled.
“This is concerning to me,” White sighed. “This rebellious act by Rose Quartz and that pearl are obviously causing repercussions. Why else would a ruby think she could even touch a sapphire?”
“Could it be possible the ruby was in on it?” Yellow asked, eyes narrowed.
“I’m not sure,” Blue replied. “The renegade pearl was able to take down the other two rubies, after the quartz dissipated their fusion.”
“What was she doing there?” White asked. “Your sapphire, I mean.”
“She held a vision,” Yellow answered. “She apparently foresaw the end of the rebellion, which clearly was a lie.”
White narrowed her eyes as she looked between the two. “I’m so glad you felt the need to inform me of this,” she hissed.
“As you have so often reminded us, it is our duty as Diamonds to handle our own affairs,” Blue retorted. “As it stands, Earth is currently under my direction…”
“Something I don’t remember authorizing,” the matriarch interrupted. “And how has that worked for you, so far, hmm? These rebels have been attacking kindergartens and other production facilities all over the planet and just the other day, they tried to assassinate you. And then of course, there is the fusion between a lowly, common ruby and your personal sapphire.”
The azure leader leaned closer to her cream counterpart, sneering as she did. “If you think you can do better, then by all means, sister, take the planet from me. If you dare to do so.”
White’s demeanor never changed as she met Blue’s cobalt eyes. Her face suddenly broke into a wide smile, followed by a chuckle. “There you are,” she whispered. “I was afraid we had lost you in all this…madness. No Blue, I wouldn’t dare taking the planet from you, even if Yellow challenged me for it. But we’re getting off topic. You dismissed the idea of the ruby being a part of the coup; have you considered your sapphire?”
“You think she was a part of it?”
“I don’t know, Blue,” White responded, her eyes never leaving from Blue’s face. “What do you think?”
Blue could only sigh. “I don’t know,” she whispered. “Though I’d like to think that no, she wasn’t. But Yellow is correct – information is being given to the rebels and we’ve yet to discover where the leak could be. But let’s say it was sapphire – why would she tell me about the rebels’ defeat if she was to run away to join them?”
“Is there anything these rebels do that make sense?” Yellow spat. “Isn’t it bad enough that quartz has a pearl thinking for herself? And now you’ve got a ruby fusing with a sapphire. It’s disgusting and abhorrent.”
As much as Yellow complained and railed, she did bring up something that perhaps Blue refused to even consider. “You don’t believe these were two separate incidents.”
“No, I do not.”
“And what is your evidence, Yellow?” White asked.
“I see two possibilities,” the gold leader responded, stopping her pacing to stand before the two. “The first seems rather obvious – this ruby was a plant from the rebels in order to get close to you and purposely fused with your sapphire. I can only imagine that the rebels are now in possession of her.”
“And the second?”
“The second is that your sapphire was involved,” Yellow continued, raising a hand to forestall any complaints. “I know you don’t want to hear it, but it’s something you need to consider. Your sapphire was the rebels plant and that ruby just got in the way. In that scenario, the ruby is most likely broken anyway, while in the first…I can’t imagine what tortures that sapphire is going through.
“Let’s hope they don’t manage to turn her against us.”
Another twenty years went by and Homeworld was no closer to stopping or defeating these Crystal Gems. In fact, things had only gotten worse – while the Diamonds had discovered where their leaks were and had taken steps to eradicate those who worked in their courts, that seemed to only be a rallying cry for the rebels.
As Yellow had predicted, the rebels were now using Blue’s sapphire in their midst and as bad as that was, it wasn’t nearly as reprehensible as the fact that the abomination created in the Cloud Arena now seemed a permanent fixture for the rebels. More and more gems were flocking to their side, their ridiculous ideals of self-identity and freedom a horrific bastardization of the loyalty shown by their betters.
As though a lowly ruby had anything in common with a sapphire; as though a pearl had any right to learn basic combat maneuvers. As though a quartz had any right to attack a diamond.
But these…thoughts and feelings began to permeate throughout the gems still on Earth until Homeworld forces were fighting against more fellow gems. It was embarrassing! More so when it was clear that Rose Quartz kept the pearl and the abomination as her closest lieutenants and they were the ones able to plan their attacks.
Blue threw her best sapphires at the problem, hoping they could find ways to counteract the latest tactics of Rose and her infidels, only to be thwarted by her previous sapphire’s obvious presence within the rebels. However, the rebels’ sapphire seemed to have a leg up on their own seers’ powers and the Diamonds couldn’t figure out what that thing was.
Blue’s Sapphire – the one that had defected – had been rare amongst even her other cuts, with her precognition having a narrower focus on future events. The other sapphires could obviously see, but they could only go as far as a few hours or days, where Sapphire could go even further than that. No, Sapphire had been an extremely rare case even amongst her facet and cut and now, she was working for the enemy.
This should have been not only upsetting, but troubling – it certainly was for Yellow, who seemed to be losing more and more of her own forces battling against these rebels. Lately, she had been calling for all and out war against them, and while White was trying her best to temper the commander, Blue could tell they were really just waiting for her to make a decision vote.
However…that was becoming harder and harder to do.
It wasn’t that Blue didn’t want the rebels to be punished – she did! Absolutely! – but she was starting to feel that starting a war with them would only make things worse. And Blue didn’t want to make things worse. White and Yellow tended to do that – they had completely redone the Diamond Authority symbol, removing the fourth diamond to leave only three insignias and Yellow had finally been granted the ability to outfit her soldiers with her Diamond.
She said it was so they could proudly show those gems on Earth the solidarity Homeworld had, for themselves and their Diamonds.
Blue and White knew it was so she could know exactly which gems had acted in a manner unbecoming of Homeworld and easily deal with them.
White continued on, requesting members of Blue’s court scout the far reaches of the galaxy to further their expansion. Truthfully, White didn’t care about the Earth or the gems on it; the call for war would hopefully put an end to all of this and they could easily take the planet from the rebels or destroy it. Either way suited her just fine.
But it didn’t suit Blue just fine. She couldn’t understand how the other two could just…just…forget!
It bothered Blue immensely, how the others could seemingly just forget what had happened one hundred and sixty-seven years ago. And it apparently bothered her so much, she had gathered her pearl and her ship and just left. She didn’t know where she would head until she actually got there and without even realizing it, she was kneeling in front of a familiar palanquin, near identical to hers, but pink instead of blue.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered, her voice low and directed at the ground below her. “I’m so sorry. I should have done more. We knew the rebels were causing trouble, but we never thought they would do this.” Lifting her head to gaze at the transport’s wreckage, she asked, “What would you have done, were you still here?
“Yellow wants to start a war. White, per usual, could barely lift an eyebrow to care. And I…I don’t know what I should do. How…how do I make this up to you?”
“My Diamond?”
“Yes, Pearl.”
“Forgive me, but we seem to be getting reports,” the small gem replied. “I believe the rebels are in the area.”
For a moment, Blue thought about standing her ground. Perhaps the element of surprise would catch the rebels off guard and she could put a stop to this once and for all…but as quickly as the thought came, it left in a wave of guilt. That’s what she had thought too – there was going to be a kindergarten here and she had wanted to oversee it herself. She was going to stop this petty rebellion in its tracks.
Yellow never let her live it down that two members of her own court had turned against her. She had taken that as a challenge and she was going to rub her victory in Yellow’s smug face…
“Quickly,” Blue said, standing and heading towards her ship, her pearl rushing behind her. “We can’t allow the rebels to see that I’ve been here.”
They had escaped the eye of the rebels, though Blue wasn’t exactly sure if she had escaped the eye of the fusion holding her sapphire. Surely not. But the return trip to her nearest colony did put the seeds of an idea into the diamond’s head. If White and Yellow wanted to pretend nothing happened, fine, but she would never forget.
This was a test. Yes, a test put on by her court! Why else would two of her members rebel? Blue didn’t know where the fusion fit, but a test couldn’t be the same thing over and over. In fact, this ‘test’ had taken up too much time as it was and it was clear they were failing it. Miserably. So if this whole ordeal was a test, how exactly were they supposed to pass?
The rebels. They were always going on and on about the planet, disrupting the production of kindergartens and buildings all over. Wait. That was it. Rose Quartz wanted to protect the planet and its inhabitants, its organics, its…humans.
Blue knew what she had to do.
“Navigator, we’re taking a detour,” she announced. “Change course to head to the human zoo.”
“The…the human zoo?”
“Yes,” Blue hissed, narrowing her eyes at the amethyst she had piloting her ship.
“Of course, My Diamond!” The amethyst made a hasty salute before inputting the coordinates to direct the ship to the platform known as the human zoo.
“Pearl?”
“Yes, My Diamond?”
“I need you to do a bit of research for me…”