A Beginning.
The last few weeks for everyone had been a chaotic mess. Rose started her plans on how to start another rebellion, this time having Blue on her side. Steven and Connie notified the crystal gems about what Jasper told them, about Pink Diamonds apparent return. White Diamond had been urging the colonizers and some of the quartzes to salvage the kindergartens and as many resources as possible from Earth. This didn’t go undetected by the gems, however. Amethyst warped into the temple, rushing to Pearl. “They’re cutting up the kindergarten!” She yelled. “Cutting up the kindergarten?” Steven looked over his shoulder to Amethyst, her sudden yell about the kindergarten taking his attention away from watching tv.
“Something’s happening.” Steven said to himself. Garnet warped into the temple with bubbled corruptions. “Amethyst is correct. On my mission, I came across another kindergarten. Except it was being demolished and carried away by lap and quartzes. I fear we’re about to go into something horrible.”
“Horrible?” Pearl questioned the maroon gem. Garnet turned to face Pearl, dismissing her glasses.
“A war may be on the horizon.”
— |•| —
Rose occupied herself with coming up with ideas on how to turn all gem kind against White. This wasn’t like the previous rebellion where she could fight as Rose Quartz. If White didn’t want to listen to any of the diamonds or the gems serving her, then she should be overthrown of her status. “I tried multiple times to get White to listen… I’ve tried to be reasonable!” Her dusty pink pearl stood at her side, watching Rose slowly lose it. “My diamond?” Rose turned to her pearl. “Rose. Just call me Rose.” The pearl nodded. “I will… Are you okay? You seem to be stressed. I can sing for you?”
“Please, don’t. This is the exact reason I’m doing this – you’re supposed to have the free will to do anything you want! Not sing and dance for someone on their command. You shouldn’t even belong to me. You should be free.” Rose slouched in her seat, crossing her arms. “Freedom is important, after all.”
The dusty pink pearl nodded. “I understand… Although, why would you want us to go against our sole purpose of creation?” Rose turned her head at the pearl. “Because there’s more to life than serving tyrants. Your sole purpose isn’t to serve me or anyone else.” Rose took the pearl’s hands in hers. “You can create your own destiny, on Earth. Or even here… once we overthrow White. You can create a name for yourself, to distinguish yourself from others. Like you could go by Dusty if you wanted to.” For Rose, she really didn’t want to call anyone else ‘Pearl’. Between her original pearl and Pearl, she’d rather call Pearl that name. The dusty pink pearl nodded with a slight blush. “Dusty isn’t too bad of a name. Thank you, Rose.” The pearl now known as Dusty hugged Rose. Rose happily hugged back.
Getting through to gems would have been the hardest part about this all. That’s why manipulating the status of ‘Pink Diamond’ would have played a huge role in this all. But the biggest part of it is getting gems to fight for themselves and not just because Pink Diamond said so.
“I need a way to get through to the crystal gems. White has my legs and I doubt Blue is authorized to go down there…” As she was in deep thought, Yellow Diamond entered the room. “Rose?” Rose snapped her eyes to Yellow. Astonishment was written all over her face. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry for everything, Rose. Blue was right… we made you miserable. That’s why you faked your shattering, right?”
“Partly. It was mostly to get you all to listen.” Yellow kneeled to Rose’s level. “I’m ready to listen to you, Rose. I should have listened to you eons ago. And I should have never listened to White when it came to the prison tower.” In truth, White did similar things when it came to Blue and Yellow. A cycle of generational trauma. Rose was the one to break it.
“I need time to think about whenever to forgive you or not. But for now… Thank you. Thank you for realizing how abusive you were.” Yellow nodded. “Also, Blue tells me that you’re planning to overthrow White?”
“Correct. If you’ll help us.. you can start by convincing your court to help us. Blue has already started convincing hers.”
The plan to stop White Diamond and her tyranny had just begun.