The Start of New Beginnings.
As the weeks flew by, Blue and Rose were working on plans on how to stop White from destroying Earth while keeping their cover. Amid this, the Crystal Gems were doing everything they could think of to heal Steven's gem. As time went on, Steven's energy started draining. It was like his cracked gem was using his energy to keep himself stable. Due to this discovery, Steven couldn't go on any missions until they figured out how to fix his gem. “What are we gonna do? Do you see anything about Steven's gem getting repaired, Garnet?” Pearl asked, pacing around the kitchen of the temple. Garnet attempted to use her future vision to try and figure out a way to solve the problem, but to no avail. “I don't. In all my visions, nothing works.” Garnet stared at the ground; her expression seemed blank.
Amethyst sighed, playing with the slice of pizza she'd gotten from Fish Stew Pizza. “What happens if we can't fix Steven's gem?” Pearl stopped pacing to look at Amethyst. She tried to stay hopeful, unlike Amethyst who was pessimistic. “Amethyst, of course we'll be able to fix his gem. We fixed everything that went wrong-” “Pearl, you don't know if we'll be able to fix this! And we didn't fix everything. We may not even be able to fix this, and who knows what will happen to Steven!” She slammed her fists down on the table. “We can't always fix everything! Maybe this was destined to happen. Or we should've just never have gone up against Homeworld!” Amethyst burrowed her eyes, staring at Pearl. “Would you rather us get shattered instead then?! We would have to go up against Homeworld eventually; we couldn't just keep running forever!”
Garnet shushed them, gesturing to Steven's bed. Which he was currently in, awake, looking at them. “.. What's going on?” Pearl sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose. “Nothing, Steven- we're just... worried, is all.” Amethyst shrugged. “Would you be real with him, for just one second, Pearl? We don't even know if we can fix your gem, Steven. Pearl and Garnet may lie to you and tell you that everything will be alright- but it won't be! You can't even heal yourself, for one. And there was still that weird orb thing-” Garnet had a moment of realization. “The sphere. It may host all of Steven's abilities, which is why he's unable to heal himself.” Steven, at this point, was both conflicted and confused. From waking up to Pearl and Amethyst bickering for the first time in a while, from Amethyst rambling on about something, to Garnet mentioning the sphere that came out of his gem.
“...Whaaa..?” He blinked at the trio. “The sphere that hit White in the face could have your powers in it, hence why you can't heal. Are you able to summon your shield?” Steven thought for a moment, they never actually tested if he had all his powers still or not. Besides the healing spit. The male would summon his shield- almost. The shield started bouncing all over the place afterwards, like how he struggled with his shield when he was first learning how to control his powers. The only difference was that it was glitching in and out of existence. Amethyst summoned her whip and hit the shield out the window. “I don't think we should test the bubble.” The gems looked out the window and looked at each other next. “Oops.” Steven chuckled nervously, only getting a small laugh from the other gems and a head pat from Garnet. It was the first time they had laughed together since his gem cracked.
— |•| —
At Homeworld, Rose and Blue were experimenting with different solutions on how to successfully create gems without draining planets of their life. They sat in front of a table that projected a planet. Upon giving the projection a dose of a serum that would go into the injectors, the planet would react as if it were real. The injectors also changed to be a bit more environmentally friendly, Rose would aim an eyedropper above the planet projection and squeeze a drop of a light blue colored serum onto the projection. The reaction was gems and a slight increase of Plantage. “I think we finally came up with a new way of creating life.” Rose looked towards Blue, who was smiling at her pearl. Blue Pearl had been drawing the whole time they were figuring the situation out. “I’m glad, Rose. It felt like it took a century to achieve a breakthrough.” Rose wrote down all the ingredients she used for the serum and smiled brightly.
A chime came from the doorway before Yellow Diamond walked in with a shell floating in her hands. “Pink, we were unable to locate the pearl you had before you started your little... Game.” Yellow had a judgmental tone of voice. If she was being honest, Yellow was happy to have Pink back. However, she judged her for leaving Homeworld so easily. For being able to leave them all behind and lie for them for 6,000 years on where she had been. To fake something so serious all for the sake of her own accord. Yellow truly didn’t understand it. “White has granted me permission to give you a new Pearl... Don’t break her like you did with your first one... and I’m assuming the second one as well.” Yellow activated the shell, placing it on the ground. The shell opened to reveal a dusky pink pearl with a darker colored pink leotard and see through flared pants. The pearl did a diamond salute with a smile. “At your service, my Diamond.” Rose stared at the pearl. A mindless slave whose only purpose was to serve a tyrant – it sickened her. That’s when she hatched a plan; a destructive plan.
“Ah- uh, Thank you, Yellow.” She awkwardly smiled at Yellow before turning her attention to her new... Pearl. “Come along now...” Rose gestured for the Pearl to follow her to Blue Diamond and Blue Pearl. “Yellow gave you a pearl? That’s unexpected. Seeing as much trouble as you caused... White may be testing you.” Rose frowned. Knowing White, her reason for giving Pink a colony and a pearl unexpectedly couldn’t be explained. White Diamond did so many things without giving as much as an explanation to anyone, not even the other diamonds. “Blue... I think this was my breaking point.” Blues face turned to worry as Pink stared at the ground with a blank expression. “A Pearl is told to serve whoever they’re given to as soon as they’re created, and they’re just expected to mindlessly listen to them. They’re being treated as if they’re slaves... It’s not right.” Blue sighed, knowing that Rose was right. “You’re right. But if we complain to White about it-” Rose stared at Blue, she shook her head before staring at the dusky pearl. “White won’t listen to us. That was the whole point of my rebellion, She didn’t listen then either... But if we figure out how to turn all of Homeworld against her..” Rose looked back at Blue with a smirk on her face.
“White would have no choice but to listen.”