Songs of the Spheres

by GMBlackjack


049 - Roses

¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥~~ Oh! Sorry! Sorry! I forgot about you!” Monika said, appearing in front of Corona.

“What?” Corona shook her head, looking around. She was in a giant field of roses, made mostly out of the red flower rather than the thorny stalks. The sky was a brilliant blue and swirled with puffy clouds moving far faster than they should in the dead calm of the air around Corona. “How did- When did-“

“Hey, I’m sorry, all right?” Monika put a hand behind her head and smiled awkwardly. “I think I almost removed the view from you entirely.”

“I don’t even remember what happened!”

Monika shrugged. “I have no idea if that was because of me or this place. You would have ended up down here one way or another.”

“Ended up alone?”

Monika looked around. “Oh, right. You had friends… I’m sure they’re here somewhere.”

Corona took a step forward and extended a hand, prepared to give Monika a mouthful. However, she realized she had a hand in the middle of formulating a sentence. “Why am I…”

“Human? Dunno, I definitely didn’t do that.”

“What did, then?”

Monika shrugged. “I really don’t know, I’m sorry. I think it’s this place: it does weird things. My files aren’t reading correctly at all – not that that means anything to you. So, I’m going to leave to get back to my quest, and you can do yours! Hope you find what you’re looking for!”

“Monika wai-“

She vanished in a puff of pixels and glitches.

Corona clenched her fist. “Just… Great…”

She was alone on a planet completely covered in roses. She had no idea where her friends were, where the ship was, or even where the Tower was. How long had it been since the ship started crashing? Hours? Days? Weeks?

She noticed her leg was hurting. She looked down, surprised to find a large cut across it. She leaned down to see what had caused it and felt a sharp but mild pain on her other leg. She glanced over – a rose. They had small green stalks that went into the ground, and those stalks had thorns. They weren’t overly large, but they were evidently outrageously sharp.

She bit her lip – she could really use a defense spell right now. But she was never very good at casting spells while in a human form, even if she could do it… But she still had her firebending. And she was very good at that.

She punched toward the ground, incinerating the roses in front of her, burning them to ashes in an instant of power. With a careful step she walked into the burned area, delighted to find no more cuts on her legs.

What even were these roses, anyway? No rose was that sharp. No rose grew like this either, they grew in bushes, not like tulips. She tapped into her magic, managing to activate some telekinesis. She pulled on one of the roses. She yelped in surprise, pulling back her hand. She tore off her glove, staring at a red hole in her palm.

“What the heck…?” Corona shook her head. Something was off about these roses. With her gloved hand, she reached carefully for the base of one of the roses and pulled. It took a significant amount of force, but the small flower was eventually torn from the ground.

It was just an ordinary rose – except, not really. The red color was too vibrant. Too rich. Too real. If it were real, she couldn’t be.

What did that even mean? Corona was convinced the opposite wasn’t true…

She touched one of the deep petals with her ungloved hand. She felt something with her empathy. Images flooded her mind – all the roses on the planet, as one, part of something else… Something bigger.

She saw the Dark Tower, rising up to infinity in the sky. It had a single dark door at its foot, inviting and menacing at the same time. The outside seemed to spiral upward; with little balconies around it glowing with a blue light so soft Corona wasn’t sure she actually saw it. It stretched across reality, supporting the very sky with its weight. Lines spread out from the Tower in every direction…

A Beam.

Corona felt the Beam.

She pulled her hand away from the flower. She stared into the distance, taking in the whole of the roses at once.

She saw it. A fair distance to her right, all the roses were leaning over in the same direction, while everywhere else they were oriented randomly. The organized roses formed a line that led into the distance.

She knew it was the Beam of the Dark Tower. She just had to follow it, and she would find the Tower.

Corona burned her way through the field of roses, leaving a path of char in her wake. She made it to the roses of the Beam, turned the direction they were pointing, and continued her fiery journey. It was slow moving, but it wasn’t all that difficult to keep reducing the roses to cinders. She moved along the path, face forward.

A smile began to form on her face – it sure was good to burn all these things.

“Corona…”

Corona was not at all surprised that a creepy, distant voice called her name. She was half expecting it at this point. This place clearly had a weirdness quota it needed to meet, and creepy voices were sure one way to do it. Corona paid the voice no mind, continuing on her journey.

Sparky was walking alongside her. “Going to ignore me?”

Duh, conversing with the illusion is a way to madness.

“You’re going to go mad anyway,” Sparky said. “Might as well converse with a friend you haven’t seen in a long time while doing it!”

Screw that.

“That’s mean,” Sparky pouted. “You should at least engage with me, Corona. Come on, I can be a guide to the Tower!”

Already got my guide.

“There’s more to this place than just getting to the Tower,” Sparky commented. “I mean, I’m here. It’ll do stuff to you and you know it.” She paused. “Fine, ignore me then.”

Corona said nothing, simply continuing on her path of destruction. Sparky never left, but she stopped talking.

Corona was sure this went on for hours.

Why is she still here? Why won’t she just go away? The urge to throw a fireball at Sparky was rising within her.

Sparky said nothing. She just kept walking alongside Corona, staring at her.

Corona felt like she was going to snap and strangle the purple human. But she managed to keep herself at bay until she saw it – the Tower. In the extreme distance it rose up, barely thick enough for her to see at this point, but unmistakably her goal.

“Finally.”

“Walking toward your goal with destructive determination,” Sparky said, suddenly. “Remind you of something?”

Corona spoke without thinking. “That’s not how I am anymore!”

“Are you sure?” Sparky asked. “Look at yourself.”

Corona pointed a finger to the object – noticing that it was red and clawlike. She felt a pair of wings on her back, and dark power flowing through her. “No… No this is not me! This is not me!”

“It is you,” Sparky said. “It’s always been you. It’ll always be you.”

“I…” Corona fought the urge to lash out in rage. She pulled herself out of her surprise – she knew she was not evil, and her reversion to this demonic form was not reflective of what was in her. She knew that. And she could make use of that…

She had wings. No more need to burn through the roses.

She took off into the sky, flying toward the Dark Tower at high speeds. Sparky somehow floated alongside her without using any magic. “You think you can just deny yourself?”

“This isn’t me.”

“Maybe anywhere else. Here? It is you.”

“LIES!” Corona shouted, firing a bolt of dark energy at Sparky. It hit her, but nothing happened. In a fit of rage, Corona shot some energy at the ground, burning more roses.

“I don’t lie,” Sparky said. “You are changing back.”

“Not as long as I have my memories!” Corona raged, kicking Sparky into the ground, completely forgetting about her goal for a moment. “I am me!” she shouted, driving her foot into Sparky’s chest.

Sparky grinned widely and coughed. “I told you.”

“Yeah, big whoop, apparition.” Corona spat. “You were right. Now you will suffer for it…”

“BLEH HEH HEH HEH BLECK!”

Corona smirked. “Blumiere?”

Blumiere shook his head as he floated over, black energy wafting off of him. “BLECK! Blumiere is no more! I am Count Bleck!” He extended a hand to Corona. “Let us erase these worlds and move onto the next.”

Corona laughed. “I like your style!” She crushed Sparky’s chest with her foot, puncturing the lungs and forcing blood out of her mouth.

Huh, guess she was real after all, Corona thought dismissively. “Alright Count… I think I know where we can find some others. The Tower!”

“BLEH HEH HEH HEH BLECK!” Blumiere laughed. “They shall join us… Or perish!”

~~~

Eve, Renee, Daniel, and O’Neill had only planned on staying in the Gem Vein for a day, to meet with the Diamonds and determine everything was going smoothly for Unification. And all seemed to be well. White Diamond had even made one of her exceedingly rare appearances, and Yellow Diamond had actually made an effort not to be completely dismissive of them. The yellow behemoth of a Gem had actually laughed at one of O’Neill’s quips.

But then Blue Diamond had met the four of them, alone, out of sight of the others.

“There’s something I have to show you,” she had said ominously. “It will take most of the day to get there.”

Eve had agreed, sensing it was important.

So that was how the four of them had ended up on Blue Diamond’s personal ship. Only them, the Diamond, and the Diamond’s Pearl servant were on board. The rest was empty. Eve knew that Blue Diamond had shut off the transponder in the ship so the others wouldn’t be able to find them.

Blue Pearl looked nervous. It was somewhat difficult to tell any more than this since only her mouth could be seen, frozen in a pained grimace.

Blue Diamond herself, the towering ruler of so many Gems, looked saddened, like she almost always did every time Eve had seen her. She was well loved by the other universes for being understanding, willing to change, and more empathetic than her counterparts. However, this did little to improve the Diamond’s mood. Something much deeper within her had been broken long ago. As large and powerful though she was, she seemed frail to many who saw her personally.

Eve decided it was a good thing Diamonds were distantly revered and rarely encountered by the average Gem. It might drive disillusionment into their system to see a leader like this. As much as Eve thought the Gems were too regimented and strict, losing faith in their leaders would just drive the race to chaos.

“We’re here,” Blue Diamond said, suddenly, breaking the awkward silence that had permeated the ship for the last few hours. “Pearl, teleport us down.”

Blue Pearl nodded, pressing a few buttons and activating the teleporter the Tau’ri had installed on the ship long ago. They appeared on the surface of a planet with an oxygen atmosphere and a few trees around. A broken, pink Gem structure stood in front of him. It was a box with legs – one of their old landers.

“…What is this?” Renee asked, looking at the structure.

Blue Diamond instead gestured at the life around them, tears forming in her eyes. “This… Is our universe’s version of Earth.”

O’Neill blinked. “Wait, you had one of those and didn’t tell us?”

“There’s more than that they didn’t tell us,” Daniel said, frowning.

“You are right…” Blue Diamond sighed, looking into the distance. “This is Earth. You’re aware of how Kindergartens work, right?”

Eve nodded. “You would find a world with organic life and colonize it, sapping it of life to endow new Gems with the force needed to function. You really didn’t want to tell us that.” Eve looked in the distance. “Blue Diamond, even though we’ve never addressed it directly, we know you probably extinguished many worlds of life that had sapient peoples on it. This is horrible, and I know you know that. But you’re changing, only moving onto worlds in the multiverse the Surveys have found with life, but no people.”

“If only that were all this was…” Blue Diamond said, shaking her head. “I’m sure you’ve looked over our classified documents.”

“Some,” Eve said. “The transparency requirement of Unification was less about finding out your secrets and more about making us all one with information.”

Blue Diamond nodded. “You might have found reference to the occasional fourth Diamond. Pink Diamond.”

“Yeah,” Daniel said. “I did come across reference to her, once or twice. It seems like your world had forgotten about her though.”

“She was shattered,” Blue Diamond said. “Shattered because one of her gems, a Rose Quartz, decided she loved the life on this Earth so much that she would create a rebellion out of it. Rose’s Rebellion.”

O’Neill glanced around. “I guess that Rebellion won, then?”

“You could say that…” Blue Diamond admitted. “After Pink was…” she put a hand to her face, trying to get a hold of herself. “We… retaliated with a weapon called the Light. Every Gem on Earth that was not protected… was corrupted beyond repair. We thought it would vaporize them, but that turned out to not be the case.”

“Corrupted?” O’Neill asked. “What does…”

“I know what it is,” Renee stated. “Gems are artificial creatures for the most part, so they can be altered like a program. Introduce something powerful at a certain frequency – like light – and everything about them will be scrambled. You… essentially drove every Gem on this world insane, if I’m reading this right.”

Blue Diamond nodded. “Crimes of war would normally not be something to bring up… I knew you wouldn’t approve, but would understand.”

“Except for one detail,” Eve pointed out.

“Yes. Gems loyal to us were still on the Earth. Many of them. The Light was indiscriminate. It was essentially what you would call a genocide of our own people.” Blue Diamond turned to them. “I will ask for forgiveness and understanding. Yellow… Yellow will not. She will always think the corruption of so many Gems was just punishment for their failure to protect Pink. White…”

“…You can never know about White,” Renee finished.

“…Yes.”

Eve took in a deep breath. “I’m not just going to be able to sweep this under the rug. The other worlds already think you’re a bit too much, as a world. There’s a chance this tears your connections to the rest of us completely. But I can’t really say you should have told us before… The report on this is actually available to us, isn’t it?”

“Yes. It just wasn’t made obvious.”

“So you technically complied…” Eve shook her head. “Blue Diamond, what you’ve told us today… It needed to be told. If this had come out after Unification…”

Daniel whistled. “That would be disastrous.”

“Yes. We have to deal with this now. We-“

Something teleported in front of them. It was a Gem – but it had no face. It was a writhing, tentacled mass spiraling around a blue crystal. Everyone knew instantly they were looking at one of the monsters that was a corrupted Gem. It wasn’t that surprising. Eve prepared to blast it out of the sky before it tried anything – but something gave her pause.

“Is someone riding that thing!?” O’Neill blurted.

There was, in fact, someone riding that thing. A maroon Gem that clearly was not corrupted. She had a visor on her face, a square head of ‘hair’, and two gauntlets on her fists. She punched the Corrupted Gem into the ground, injuring it. The behemoth teleported a short distance away, but the Gem was still latched onto it with her fists. She punched one more time, forcing the beast to poof. She caught the corrupted Gem core and placed it in a bubble. “That’s one done…”

Her visor locked with Blue Diamond’s eyes. The two stared at each other in silence.

“…I remember you,” Blue Diamond said, slowly.

The Gem said nothing, just turning her head to take in all the beings around Blue Diamond, face twisting in mild confusion.

“…I apologize for ordering you to be shattered,” Blue Diamond said, finally.

“What?” the Gem said, clearly taken aback by this.

“I saw something that I could not accept, when you fused together. I… have seen that this was wrong. That so many of those things were wrong. Tell me… Garnet, I believed you called yourself? I…” She wiped her face. “The fusion really completes you, doesn’t it?”

Garnet glanced at the two separate Gems in the palms of her hands. “…Yes. It does. It does more than I think you can imagine.”

“That’s all I need to know. You… You probably don’t want to talk to me much more. Eve, this is Garnet. An illegal fusion of a Sapphire and a Ruby. She was one of Rose Quartz’s strongest warriors. She only rebelled because, when she fused, I ordered the Ruby shattered for daring to go against the order of things.” A small smile came to her face. “Imagine if this had happened in this era rather than back then… I would have just ordered her banished…”

Garnet put a hand to her head and shook it. “I never saw this coming… What’s been happening that’s changed so much?”

Eve took a breath and began to explain – explain the existence of the multiverse, how she made friends with so many, how they met the Gems. How the Gems wanted to be part of the great alliance, but the others in the alliance didn’t approve of their methods. So tradeoffs were initiated. Gems started to accept organic life as possibly having intelligence, they began to lessen their restrictive laws. Shattering gems became rare – those that didn’t fit the mold were just shipped to other universes, where they could find places in multiversal society. Worlds without sapient beings were tapped to make more Gems. How the Gems were looking to Unify with everyone.

“…And this only took ten years,” Garnet said in disbelief.

“Yeah,” Eve said. “You’ve lived on this world for a while, I assume you’ve seen how some beings move a lot faster than you Gems. Sometimes all it takes is a little pressure.”

Garnet looked over at Blue Diamond, expression unreadable. “I’m glad for what you’ve done, Eve. The lives of Gems are now more free than they ever have been.”

Eve gestured at the planet they were on. “This place, and what happened here, has thrown a wrench into that. The entire Gem Vein will be put on trial by the other worlds for this genocide. I don’t know what the result will be.”

“I’ll offer myself as a witness,” Garnet said. “You need to have a Gem who was there that isn’t a part of the Vein. Let me go tell the others what’s happened though.”

“Take your time. I expect it’ll take days for the trial to actually come together,” Eve admitted.

Garnet nodded and allowed a small smile to crawl up her lips. “Before I go, though, there’s one thing I must do.” She walked up to Daniel and Renee. The two of them were chuckling about something only the two of them understood.

Garnet put one hand on each of their shoulders. “You two are absolutely adorable.”

“W-what?” Daniel sputtered.

Renee smiled warmly. “Why, thank you!”

“Just wanted you to know that,” Garnet said before turning and walking off.

Blue Diamond sighed deeply, turning to Eve. “Eve… I ask for forgiveness now.”

“I forgive you, Blue,” Eve said. “You clearly feel remorse. I’m not sure about the others, or your society as a whole.”

Blue Diamond let a small smile come to her face. “That’s something, at least.”

~~~

Blumiere and Corona walked through the roses, oblivious to the serious lacerations they were receiving to their legs. They had been fully taken in by the world they were in. They laughed as they approached the Tower.

“I’m going to make every last one of them mine,” Corona blurted. “All of them.”

“And then, just as they think they’ll get a brave new world… Destroy everything! Reduce existence to nothing! BLEH HEH HEH HEH BLECK!”

“Nothing… Seems a bit much.”

“Does it? Does it really? Do you see yourself? Do you see us? Surely, this doesn’t deserve to exist! BLECK! None of it does!”

“Hah! Oh that’s right!” Something inside Corona cried deeply. She ignored it. “The others… What are we to do with them?”

“Some will realize the truth. Others shall be disposed of. Nothing can stand between me and my goals…” He adjusted his hat. “Just need to find where my luggage landed… Then we can do anything!”

“Heheheheh…” Corona chuckled to herself. They neared the Dark Tower, knowing the others would come as well. But then they saw a form among the roses, giving them pause.

It was Lady Rarity, beaten within an inch of her life. All eight of her legs were missing, torn off at the stumps – though it appeared like they’d been that way for years. Her horn was cracked, all four of her eyes were gouged out, and she was crying.

Corona’s stomach did a flip-flop. “Look at the pathetic little spider! Hah!” She placed a foot on Lady Rarity’s head.

“C-Corona? Is that you?” Lady Rarity blurted, panicked. “What’s… What’s going on? Where am I? Why is everything so… So sharp?”

Blumiere laughed. “BLEH HEH HEH HEH BLECK! She’s useless to us, Corona! Do away with her!”

“No… No please no,” Lady Rarity pleaded.

Corona raised her red, demonic foot. A boulder hit her in the face before she could follow through.

“WHAT THE HELL?”

Toph pointed the Master Sword at Corona. “I was wondering what flavor of mindscrew you’d gotten. Apparently it was ‘turn evil’. Blumiere, lemme guess, same thing happened to you?”

“BLEH HEH HEH HEH BLECK!”

“Right,” Toph sighed, shaking her head. She took a ready stance. “You two don’t want to do this.”

Corona lit her hands on fire. “OH BUT WE DO!” She surrounded herself in a whirlwind of fire and dark, horrendous energy.

Toph shrugged. “Guess I really do have to beat the stuffing out of you.” She used the Master Sword, halting time. The next thing Corona was aware of, her arms and legs had severe lacerations that made them virtually useless. Blood spurted from the recent wounds, and she crashed into the roses below. The thorns only cut her up more.

Blumiere pointed his cane at Toph. “Come at me, hero.”

Toph froze time again, doing the exact same thing she did to Corona – going for the arms and legs. Time resumed – and Blumiere took the damage. But he didn’t care. Something about his dark physiology made him either immune to pain or simply not suffer that much from physical cuts.

A vortex of void energy appeared behind Toph. She found herself unable to wave the Master Sword in the correct way to alter time – not to mention she was probably overtaxing it. She’d never really needed to use it more than two times in a row… She really should have found the limit of her own equipment long ago.

Toph resorted to earthbending, launching herself at Blumiere with a stomp of her foot. Blumiere raised his hand to send magic right into her, creating a small void to trap her. She pointed the Master Sword right at the small swirl of black, the holy energy dissipating the energy. The tip of the blade went into Blumiere’s hand, emerging from the back. He screeched in immense pain – as a creature of darkness, the Sword was like poison to him. He pulled back, allowing Toph to hit his face with the flat of her blade.

Dazed, he found himself unable to dodge the rush of earth she created, tossing him closer to the Tower. Toph did the same to Lady Rarity and Corona. “Just have to get you guys closer…”

Blumiere sat back up, scowling. “BLEH HEH HE-“

Toph threw a rock in his face. “You were so hammy back in the day… It must have been painful to your minions.”

Corona grabbed Toph’s neck, startling the earthbender. How had she snuck up on her?

“You forgot to cut the wings,” Corona commented. She closed down on Toph’s neck.

Toph slammed her foot into the ground. Trying to tear Corona off would only make things worse, so she launched both of them into the air. They flew through the sky, forcing Corona to use her demonic, leathery wings instead of crushing Toph’s windpipe the rest of the way.

Toph twisted her body around, and cut Corona across the chest with her blade. The flaming demoness opted to drop Toph instead of dealing with the pain. Toph landed in the roses, suffering cuts on her skin despite her armor. She paid it no mind – she was ready. She had gotten good over the years at using air currents to feel for enemies in the air. It was not as good as actually seeing through the earth, but it was enough…

Toph pulled a boulder out of the ground and threw it. It hit Corona, flattening her against its surface and driving her back into the ground.

Toph breathed hard – and threw a rock in Blumiere’s chest, just to be sure.

“You all forgot that there was a reason I’m in charge…” Toph muttered. She sheathed the Master Sword and brought the three warped companions to her with her earth bending. Corona was definitely out due to loss of blood. Bleck was still only dazed, but Toph hit him again. She found herself realizing that, if he had whatever dark magics he’d used in the past, she would not have been able to beat him. Then Lady Rarity… was just a sad sight to see.

“Don’t worry, it’s okay. I’ll get us to the Tower,” Toph said.

“Th… Thank you.”

Toph used the earth around her to move them all, continuing toward the Tower. It was close now. She swore she could hear it whispering to her, calling her closer.

Good thing she was heading there anyway or she might have turned around out of sheer spite.

The moment they were within twenty yards of the tower, everyone went back to normal. Lady Rarity regained her limbs, armor, eyes, and horn. Corona returned to her unicorn self. Blumiere stopped grinning like a maniac. Toph remained the same. Everyone still retained the injuries sustained in the fight, however.

Corona groaned. “Ugh…”

“How’s that bump on your head?” Toph asked.

“I don’t want to talk about it,” Corona muttered, shaking her head. “What did this place do to us?”

“Made us look at the worst aspects of ourselves?” Toph said, shrugging. “I’m not sure… All I had to do was kill an apparition of General Sunset. Traumatizing, yes, but at least it was over quick.” She shivered.

“I apologize,” Blumiere said, standing up. “I never thought anyone would see me like that again…” He used his dark spells to heal his own wounds.

“Hey, no hard feelings,” Toph said. “This place is messing with us.”

“It’s the Tower,” Corona said. “It’s letting out some kind of energy that’s doing this to us… as a side effect, I think.”

“And now it just stopped?” Lady Rarity said, still breathing heavily. “Why would it do that?”

“Eye of the storm principle?” Corona shrugged.

“Lovely, no explanation…”

They were able to see the base of the Dark Tower clearly now. Lieshy, Vivian, and Timpani stood there. Timpani had her and Blumiere’s belongings tied to her back. The three of them looked like they had been through hell itself, given the expressions on their faces, but besides scratches from the roses all of them were fine.

Corona took a deep breath and held her head. “I’ve lost too much blood. This Tower better take us home quickly…”

“What kind of fun did you girls have?” Toph asked the three others.

“I turned into my mother,” Vivian answered.

“I… I was dead,” was all Timpani said.

“I don’t want to talk about it,” Lieshy muttered.

Blumiere went to comfort his wife while Toph approached the huge double doors of the Dark Tower. “Welp. I’m here, and… I can’t stop looking at these doors. I don’t even have eyes. What’s with that?”

“You have eyes,” Lieshy commented half-heartedly, not able to take her own gaze off the doors either.

“I guess we just go in then,” Corona said, laying her hoof on the door. Chills went through her body. She knew she should be terrified – but she knew it was inviting them in. “…Here we go.”

She pushed the doors of the Dark Tower open and walked in.

~~~

Yellow Diamond was, to put it simply, absolutely livid.

“WHY WOULD YOU TELL THEM THAT!?” she shouted at Blue Diamond.

“They needed to know,” she responded, for once keeping her emotions under control. “Had they found out later-“

“THEY DIDN’T NEED TO FIND OUT LATER!” Yellow Diamond slammed her foot to the ground in rage. “The files we had were vague enough and nobody remembered what really happened! We could have been like this forever!”

“What, and pretend that Pink never existed? Just forget about that world? After enough time they would have found references to it in the teleportation network, in our star databases…”

“AND WE COULD HAVE JUST LET THEM THINK IT WAS A SIMPLE MISTAKE! But no, you had to go and tell them EVERYTHING! I can’t BELIEVE how… how...” She clenched her fist. “You’ve threatened our chances of Unification, Blue. We’ll be cut off from all the resources we’ve been using to build our people up! All the corruption we’ve allowed within our society will no longer be worth the gains!”

“Is it corruption?” Blue Diamond asked. “Is it really? Look out there. Gems are learning to expand their horizons. With all the new additions to the way things ar-”

“I agreed we needed to change,” Yellow Diamond cut her off. “I didn’t agree to all the changes, and you know it. We’re growing too soft. We can’t dial that switch back if we suddenly lose everything this alliance has given us.”

“Then show that willingness to change! You say you have it, but I’ve never seen anything from you! Everything is contempt, anger, and violence! We need to own up to our mistakes.”

Yellow Diamond ground her teeth. “What mistakes? We are Diamonds. There aren’t mistakes, there are just different reactions in different situations.”

“Yello-”

“And what about you? Mercy, instability, spontaneity. I cou-”

“Enough,” a third voice declared. Yellow and Blue Diamond instantly shut up and turned to gaze at the towering white form, slightly larger than even they were. The elusive, mysterious, rarely seen White Diamond glowed with a radiant light no other Gem had. “Blue is right, Yellow. We need to do this. Even if you do not personally believe, act like it for the sake of appearances.”

Yellow Diamond looked like she really wanted to argue the point, but said nothing.

“Blue, you should have consulted us before taking this action.”

Blue Diamond nodded slowly. “I am sorry.”

“Apologies do not fix things. Actions do.” White Diamond turned her back to them. “Our race is going on trial. The best thing to do is meet them on their terms.”

Blue and Yellow Diamond nodded. White Diamond said nothing further.

“…Yellow, let’s go,” Blue Diamond said. “I know some who can tell us the proper way to hold ourselves in this trial.”

“Tch,” Yellow Diamond muttered. “Feigning humility is so difficult…”

“That’s why we need help from friends.”

Yellow Diamond shook her head. “Friends… You get crazier every day.”

The two of them left, leaving White Diamond alone in the chamber.

The highest Diamond’s face was unreadable.

~~~

The doors of the Dark Tower slammed shut.

Lieshy realized she was alone in the interior. “…Toph? Corona? Blumiere?” …Well this was great. Lieshy knew they had walked in with her, but apparently once the doors shut, they had been taken away. Or separated. Or made invisible. Hard to tell really, she wasn’t Flutterfree, and likewise didn’t have the use of Lolo. Lieshy couldn’t help but feel Lolo would have been extremely helpful right about now.

The interior of the Dark Tower was, surprise surprise, dark. There was a single spiral staircase that wound around the walls, with a single door every flight or so. There were no light sources, but Lieshy found she was able to see just fine.

She also knew that most of the doors she saw on the staircase couldn’t lead to balconies on the edge of the Tower. There hadn’t been that many.

Lieshy opted not to take the stairs, instead flying up the central vault of the tower. She stopped at the first door, opening it. Inside, she saw an image of herself – a filly, talking to a group of butterflies. The filly was ‘speaking’ to the butterflies with words in highly complex double-speak, somehow getting the message across to the lesser beings. They flew to her and carried her away.

The day I got my cutie mark.

Lieshy decided it wasn’t a good idea to try to walk through the door. Who knew what kind of paradoxes that would cause. She closed the portal and flew to the next door.

This one led to a balcony. She could see the planet of flowers beyond it. She took one look and decided it was better to stay within the Tower – she got the impression that, if she left, it wouldn’t let her back in.

It had a mind, didn’t it? It felt… She didn’t know what it felt like. She ran a wing against the interior wall and tapped a hoof against the stair she was on. It was stone, but it wasn’t. It was flesh. Not a normal kind of flesh… but this Tower was made from somebody or something that had once been living. Something she knew was beyond her imagination.

She flew further up the stairs to another door. There was her world’s Twilight, recruiting her into her clique. Lieshy remembered when she had believed Twilight was the way to the top, the answer to life. That illusion had disappeared quickly.

Lieshy flew higher. The next door contained Lieshy’s assault on Equis Vitis, back in the early days. That hadn’t gone well. The door after that contained Lieshy’s journey to the demon village. Then the first multiversal meeting, where she had been accused of sabotage…

A few doors later, it was her leaving that village forever. She was glad she had, knowing what she now did about Siron.

The next balcony opened to a different world entirely. She looked down at a sea of roses, but she could easily see the end. Three moons aligned in the sky, and metallic birds flew in front of her view.

The Tower was definitely able to get her out of the Nexus. But she didn’t have a dimensional device – she couldn’t dial anywhere once she left. She decided to keep going up.

She could go through one of the doors to her past… Then stay hidden until time caught up. That would work, right? That was a great idea.

She found her younger self at one of Pinkie’s parties next. She raised her hoof to go through – but Pinkie made eye contact with her. The pony shook her head and shooed her back through the door, wordlessly. She winked at her.

Lieshy took the piece of advice and shut the door, sighing. She kept going. New balconies to new worlds, but never one she recognized. Doorways to memories, but never one of her vanishing on Castle Bleck. She passed being invited to Toph’s Group… Traveling with General Sunset…

She watched General Sunset die, through one door.

She couldn’t move for a while after that.

She continued on. The closest memory she found to her time in the Nexus was of Renee and Daniel’s wedding. She hoped they were happy.

Meeting Blumiere. Adventures in the Nexus. Walking into the doors of the Dark Tower.

The moment she opened a door that led to her staring at herself opening a door she decided to stop opening doors.

She just flew up – past dozens of flights of stairs, to the top of the Tower. She knew the actual height of the Tower would vary for whoever it allowed inside it. Did it have some correlation to her lifespan? Perhaps. Perhaps this was just how many memories the Tower deemed it needed to record, past, present, and future.

The door at the top of the staircase was much bigger than all the others. Its knob was shaped like a rose entangled around a butterfly. One word was engraved on the door.

LIESHY

Lieshy knew this door wasn’t her death. That door was probably the one right behind her. This door… This door was the one she was meant to walk through. She was sure of it.

She placed her wing on the knob and turned. The door creaked open.

She saw the other side. For a moment, she saw the mechanisms behind the Tower. Symbols everywhere, of so many kinds her mind couldn’t remember any with clarity other than the spirograph. And the clock. A grandfather clock, sitting, still, unticking.

A feeling of dread filled her heart. Without thinking, she stepped through the door.

The image on the other side changed. No longer was it the room at the top of the Tower, no longer was it the Truth…

It was a world made entirely out of donuts.

She appeared there with all of her companions. She knew instantly that none of them had actually ascended the Tower, like she had. They had just been taken here the moment they entered the doors.

Toph smiled. “I know I’m standing on a giant jelly-filled donut, and it’s going to take forever to get this out of my armor, but I’m too happy right now. Corona?”

Corona groaned. “I’m dying of blood loss, Toph…”

“Don’t care. You get to be the one to make the portal.”

Corona groaned, dragging her custom dimensional device out of her saddlebags. She activated it, creating the signature red tear in reality. Her features lit up despite her pain – it had been so long since she’d seen one of these portals.

It took a while, but the portal eventually found the correct path to Equis Vitis, resolving the connection in an instant. By luck (ka, a voice whispered in Lieshy’s head) they found themselves right in Eve’s castle, with Eve herself sitting right in front of them.

She squealed in delight. “You found a way back!”

“Yeah,” Corona coughed. “Can you bandage me up, quickly? Or something?”

Eve nodded. “Of course.” She levitated Corona through the portal and summoned gauze and bandages out of the aether, wrapping her up with a spell. “You’ll need to go in for more treatment though… I’ll teleport you to the hospit-“

Corona hugged Eve while the rest of the team came through the portal. “It’s so good to see you…”

Eve hugged her back. “It’s good to see you too, Corona. It’s… been so long.”

“How long?”

“A couple years.”

Corona sighed. “So slightly longer on this side. Okay.” She groaned. “Anyway, Eve, this is Timpani and Blumiere. They’re the reason we got stuck there in the first place.”

Timpani put a hand to her face and blushed. “Sorry! We didn’t know we were being looked for!”

“There’s no blame on you,” Eve said, shaking Timpani’s hand. “When friends want to find their loved ones, nothing can or should stop them.”

Blumiere shook Eve’s hoof. “A pleasure to finally meet you, Charter-Princess.”

“I’ve heard a bit about you from Nastasia. You sound like quite the individual, Blumiere.”

Blumiere nodded. “She is not one to exaggerate.” He bowed. “I am here to serve, Evening Sparkle. However if I may assist in this connection of universes, I will.”

Eve blinked. “Actually… I was just struggling over another neutral party to invite to a very big trial coming up. I was hitting a wall… Perhaps it is fate that you arrived here?”

“What happened?” Corona asked.

“The Gems… Their race is going on trial for crimes against their own kind. The result determines the future of Unification.” Eve gulped. “It’s… a big deal.”

“Sounds like I missed a lot,” Corona chuckled.

“We definitely did,” Toph said, taking out her own dimensional device. “I’m off to Lai for now. Have to make sure Queen Luna didn’t screw anything up while I was gone. I wouldn’t follow unless you wanted to be part of a rather boring parade in my honor. Unless they suddenly hate me again…” she shrugged, dialing Lai and walking through.

Blumiere turned to Eve. “I will most likely accept your offer to participate in this trial. I ask that I spend today revisiting old acquaintances.”

“Oh, of course! I may be the Charter, but I’m also the Princess of Friendship, I won’t keep you from seeing faces you haven’t seen in decades. Just come back here when you want to learn more, okay?”

Lord Blumiere smirked. “You are every bit as delightful as Corona led me to believe.”

Eve raised an eyebrow, clearly not sure what to think about that.

Corona stretched her limbs, dialing the Mushroom World with her device. “They should be there. Have fun you two.”

“We will!” Timpani called in her usual chipper tone.

Lieshy waved. “Rereading logs of Beaverton,” she muttered to herself as she vanished.

“…What?” Lady Rarity asked.

“Lamenting the fact that I had a story to tell and everyone’s leaving. I didn’t get transported straight to the donut world. I experienced the interior of the Dark Tower. It was an… interesting experience.”

“Huh,” Lady Rarity said. “I’m curious.”

“I’ll write it up in a report or something,” Lieshy commented. “…Eventually.”

“Oh yeah, the donut world!” Corona laughed. “We leave the universe that had us trapped and we end up in the world made of donuts Eve! Remember when Sparky and I were trying to compete with you with the devices way back when? We wondered if we’d ever find one. Well, we did! Can’t wait to tell her!”

Eve’s smile faded. “…Tell her?”

“Yeah, Sparky would be elated by this. Well, and me being back, but also the donut world.”

Eve put a wing on Corona’s shoulder and forced the unicorn to look her in the eye. “You… You didn’t get my last message, did you?”

“…We left the planet pretty quickly, yeah. …Why?” Corona got a horrendous, sickly feeling in her stomach.

“Sparky’s no longer with us, Corona. She…” Eve shook her head. “It happened over a year ago. She was fighting another Twilight, and…”

Corona blinked. “…Sparky’s dead?”

Eve was taken aback by Corona’s directness. “Y-yes.”

Corona couldn’t process this piece of information. “…Huh.” Was all she could manage.

Then she passed out, the combination of emotional overload and physical injuries getting to her.

~~~

Days passed.

Corona found herself standing in front of Sparky’s grave. Her injuries had been completely healed, but the marks of the roses just wouldn’t go away.

She didn’t care about that right now.

She just stared at the headstone, tears in her eyes.

Her human friends were behind her. Applejack, Pinkie, Fluttershy, Rarity, Sugarcoat, and Trixie. None of them said anything. They merely stood there.

They knew why she had called them there. She had just wanted people who knew Sparky to be around.

Corona kneeled down and held out a hoof. She created a flower made of fire, burning bright in the evening light. She set it down in front of the headstone. Corona took a breath. “I’m sorry I pushed you away.”

She couldn’t take it anymore. She let out a wail, screaming at everything and nothing at the same time. She had seen Sparky in the field of roses not but a few days ago – what if she had talked to the apparition? Would she have gotten closure? What if she had at least refrained from killing her, freezing the image of Sparky spewing blood into her mind? The last memory Corona had of her?

She lit her horn, releasing all the energy she could into the sky. A fiery pillar of light split the clouds apart, tearing the sky asunder with the sudden presence of intense heat.

Corona’s heart ached with so many emotions they couldn’t even be categorized. She was pretty sure there was guilt in there somewhere, horror, devastation… fear? Fear of what? There was relief – relief from releasing so much energy. But that relief drove her back to guilt. Was there a feeling of happiness from close friends? Of confusion? Of shame?

She didn’t know. She couldn’t know…

Fluttershy pulled her into a hug. Corona knew it was the best thing she could do right now, but it didn’t help any. The hugs didn’t help. The tears didn’t help. Nothing helped.

All she could do was wallow. There was nothing to be done… Not anymore.

She was vaguely aware of her friends leading her away. She didn’t fight it. She was essentially delirious. She wasn’t fully aware of her actions again until Fluttershy placed a plate of home-cooked food in front of her. “Corona, can you eat?”

Corona looked up at Fluttershy and smiled for the first time in a while. “…Yeah. I see… We’re at your house.” Corona levitated a steamed carrot to her mouth. It seemed… flavorless.

“Yeah, we’re all here,” Fluttershy said, gesturing around the living room. Nobody was as bad as Corona, but there wasn’t a dry face in the house. There wasn’t much conversation either.

Corona nodded. “…Thank you all.”

“You don’t need to mention it,” Sugarcoat said.

“I do. I’m also sorry for being away so long.”

“You really don’t need to mention that. Don’t apologize for things that aren’t your fault.”

“Sugarcoat!” Rarity hissed at her.

Corona shook her head at Rarity. “Sometimes… you just need that friend who’s blunt. Even in times like this. Sugarcoat, never stop being you.”

Sugarcoat smiled ever so slightly. “Thanks. I try.”

Trixie jumped up. “Can Trixie still be herself!?”

“If the unicorn Trixie doesn’t find a way to defame you for taking her title.”

“I’ll take that as a yes!”

Corona let out the slightest of chuckles. She put another bite into her mouth. “…What are you all doing these days?”

Fluttershy smiled. “I run the zoo, now.”

“I have taken over Renee’s stores,” Rarity declared. “Rarity for You is under my jurisdiction. Wonderful having an already established line, I must say.”

“Parties,” Pinkie said. “All the parties. When I’m not taking the place of pony Pinkie. Which happens less often now. Or does it!?

Applejack smirked. “Ah’m workin’ for Eve still. One of her all purpose teams.”

Sugarcoat looked up. “I run data analysis for AddTech. It’s boring. But rewarding.”

Trixie grinned. “TRIXIE has become a great STAGE MAGICIAN!”

“You’re just riding off of unicorn Trixie,” Sugarcoat deadpanned. “Your skill for magic isn’t even that impressive.”

“How many of you can actually use magic, hrm?” Trixie blurted. “That’s right, Corona.”

Applejack, Fluttershy, and Rarity lifted up their necklaces and raised an eyebrow each.

“…You know what I mean.”

Corona was really smiling now. “I’ve missed so much. But… Somehow, I don’t feel bad about that. I’m just proud of you all.”

“We’re proud of you too, dear,” Rarity said, smiling back at her.

Corona felt worse than she had ever felt in her life.

But for the first time since she’d heard about Sparky, she had hope that things would actually end up okay.

~~~

More days passed.

The trial had come.

Eve had chartered one of the Hub’s large auditoriums for the occasion. It was known affectionately as the Reverb Hall, and it had seen many events take place in its walls, ranging from treaty negotiations to concerts and even occasional parties. This was not the first time it would be used for a judicial proceeding, but it was certainly the largest case it had ever considered.

It was possibly the largest case of all time in any of the universes.

The doors were closed to the public, but there were so many leaders and diplomats invested in the results that the thousands of seats were full. Gems, ponies, humans, and a handful of other races dotted the seats. Expressions ranged from nervous to excited to mildly curious. The stage had two opposing tables on it, one for offense and one for defense. There was no place for a judge, but a set of ten seats arranged for the individuals who would serve as the judge and jury for this special case. One individual from each of the eight worlds, and two neutral parties. Everyone had already arrived, but none were in their seats. Most of the people in the prosecution, defense, and jury all knew each other in one way or another. Yellow Diamond was notably the only one not socializing in any way.

White Diamond, as was her custom, was not going to make an appearance. It was rumored that she’d never left her home universe in all these years.

Renee smirked at Daniel. “It’s almost time, Mister Jackson.”

Daniel nodded and let out a sigh. “Yes it is, Miss Renee. Please promise you won’t be mad at me, regardless of what I say.”

“Daniel, I can be professional,” Renee declared, tossing her mane. “Don’t you worry. I can separate my feelings about this case from my feelings about you. Easily. And you can do the same, don’t go doubting yourself.”

Daniel nodded. “We have a job to do.”

Renee reared up and kissed Daniel on the cheek. “That we do, love. We should probably do last minute preparation rather than talk with each other, though.”

Daniel nodded, scratching her behind the ear. The two went to opposite ends of the stage – Daniel to prosecution, Renee to defense. Renee’s table was eventually populated by Yellow Diamond, Blue Diamond, and the Emerald most members of the multiverse were familiar with.

Daniel’s side contained only Garnet, but what he lacked in allies he made up for in documentation. Dozens of old books lined his desk. Daniel had clearly come prepared with all the information.

The Judge seats began to fill up. Evening, a Sapphire, Iroh, Jotaro, Cosmo, O’Neill, Senator Taper from Earth Vitis, and Toph representing Lai’s interests. Blumiere and the Grand Secretariat of the Sparkle Census filled the neutral party seats.

The hall gradually fell silent. Eve waited for her clock to strike two o’clock in local Hub time. Then she cleared her throat. “Today’s case is The Alliance versus The Gem Vein. The Alliance accuses The Gem Vein of committing genocidal crimes against their own race on Gem Vein Earth in the conclusion of the event known as Rose’s Rebellion. Defense, how do you plead?”

“Guilty,” Renee declared. Yellow Diamond frowned in disgust as the word left Renee’s lips, but she didn’t object.

“Very well,” Eve declared, clearing her throat. “The Guilt or Innocence of the Gem Vein is no longer the purpose of this trial. It was not expected to be. The purpose of this trial is to determine the status of the Gem Vein within the Alliance and as part of the Unification. Both the prosecution and defense have prepared opening statements and have witnesses for us to consider. After both have completed their main statements, the trial will become a dialogue between us judges, the defense, and the prosecution. Everyone needs to keep in mind that this is not a criminal trial, nor is it going to follow the judicial proceedings of any one world. Defense? Your statement is first.”

Renee cleared her throat. “Thank you, Charter. It is true that the Gem Vein certainly corrupted thousands of their own kind to end the war on Earth. My clients do not attempt to shy away from that fact, and it should be known that the only reason this event in Gem Vein history was uncovered was because Blue Diamond explicitly showed it to the rest of the multiverse in the name of honesty and transparency. My clients deeply regret the actions they took on Gem Vein Earth.”

Both Blue and Yellow Diamond nodded in confirmation.

Renee continued. “It should be made abundantly clear that Rose’s Rebellion in question happened five thousand years ago, so any individuals who were a part of the attack will have changed drastically from all that time. I submit as evidence Gem documents on Blue Diamond’s behavior prior to the Rebellion and shortly before the Gem Vein was made aware of the multiverse. The behavior is drastically different, indicative of a changed outlook on life. This change only increased after the multiverse came into the equation.

“Furthermore, the Gems had been fighting a war against a Rebellious section of their own society. Death is a very common part of war. The ‘act of genocide’ the Diamonds unleashed on Gem Vein Earth did not kill many Gems, merely corrupt their forms. This happened in a time where the Diamonds were stricken by grief from the loss of their beloved Pink Diamond, they acted out of strong emotion without much consideration. Had they been in the habit of corrupting entire worlds, they would not have fought the war directly for so long. It was a last resort attack that affected many on both sides – both of the enemy, and of their own people.

“One of the primary complaints is that the Diamonds didn’t care about their own Gems on the surface of the world. To answer that, I call the Emerald sitting next to me to stand. Tell them, Emerald.”

Emerald nodded. “I was on Earth the day of the Corrupting Light. Those of us with channels open received orders to retreat and leave Earth. Naturally, we were not told why, so as to not tip off Rose’s army. Not all of us got the messages, and some who did refused to back down from the fight. But many thousands of our army made it off of Earth before the corrupting light covered the entire world. We were not left to rot and die, we were told to leave. But it was war, and they could not take the chance that any part of Rose’s army would be left. Given the existence of that fusion with the defense, it seems even giving us that warning may have been too much.”

“Thank you,” Renee said. “As you can all see, this was not a true genocide. This was a tactical military decision made eons ago – a decision the Gems regret completely.” She gestured to Blue Diamond to stand.

Blue Diamond rose. “When we heard that Pink had been shattered…” She paused, but managed to keep her composure. “We demanded that something be done, that those who were responsible pay for what they’d done. What we should have done was just admit defeat and pull out of Earth. Without Pink, there was little reason left to do anything to Earth. But we didn’t – we were angry. It was wrong and rash, but I hope you can understand why we did the way we did.”

Renee gestured to Yellow Diamond. She stood tall and spoke with authority. “I concur with Blue Diamond. What was done was a mistake. It is not one that can be rectified directly, but we seek to make it right through other means.” She sat back down.

Renee breathed easier. She was convincing. That’s something. “As is evident, this is a sore spot in Gem Vein history that need not restrict their relationships with other universes in the present. The multiverse has taught them the value of organic life and adaptability. We, as an alliance, do not hold their past acts of organic destruction or conformism against them, why should we oust them for this one action made in a fit of emotion so long ago?” Renee smiled and sat down. “I rest my case for now, Charter.”

Eve turned to Daniel and Garnet. “Prosecution, give us your statements.”

Daniel stood up and cleared his throat. “Of course, Charter. While technically most of what the defense has said is true, they have left out many key details. The most devastating of which is the other war crimes committed during Rose’s Rebellion.” He adjusted his suit collar. “There are two particularly atrocious acts, both of which came from the same source. There are labs on Gem Vein Earth devoted to one purpose – experimentation on Gems themselves. This normally would not be much cause for concern. After all, Gems are largely artificial beings who are made rather than born. The process of creating Gems is more science than biology, and of course needs experimentation to move forward. What happened on those labs was not that. Gems were shattered, but not allowed to die. They were preserved and forcibly fused together in horrendous experiments that created mutant Gem beings that had no idea what they were or where they belonged. This fate was significantly worse than corruption, for at least a corrupted Gem has a single mind within it, not many fragments of a mind. Corrupted Gems can move and live at least like animals. The fused fragments don’t even have that.

“It only gets worse. During the last days of Rose’s Rebellion, these Gem shards were used to create a superweapon known as the Cluster. An uncountable number of these shards were embedded within the crust of the Earth, fused together to create a single Gem of incomprehensible size. It was left in the crust long after the war ended, because the Diamond Authority knew that the minds within the Cluster would eventually construct a body for themselves. The formation of that body would destroy the entire Earth in an instant.” Gasps could be heard from the crowd. “Luckily the Cluster is confirmed to be dormant indefinitely, posing no further risk to Earth. However, this changes nothing. The Diamond Authority did not actually admit defeat in their corrupting rage. While they did not kill all their gems, they left them to die.

“No attempts have been made by the Diamond Authority to reclaim corrupted Gems. They were satisfied to just let the Cluster kill them all.”

Renee knew the retort she had for that one. The Diamond Authority did eventually go to check on the Cluster to find it already deactivated. They had the intent to keep it from forming. It was a weak piece of information, but it was something.

“I ask you all to remember that Gems think on a much slower timescale than most of us biological creatures. To them, five thousand years is more comparable to fifty, or even five in the case of the truly ancient ones such as the Diamonds themselves. Rose’s Rebellion is a recent memory in the minds of the Diamonds, as can be seen with Blue Diamond’s continued emotional difficulty in discussing the event. Furthermore, I suggest that the Diamond Authority does not regret its decision, and in particular that Yellow Diamond is merely feigning regret.”

Yellow Diamond stood up, ready to yell something at Daniel, but Renee managed to calm her down before she said anything.

Daniel had been disoriented slightly by Yellow Diamond’s fierce expression. “…The Diamond Authority has made no active attempts to change their society, or even consider change, in almost the entire history we have on file – at least until the discovery of the multiverse. But this change was artificial. It was brought on by political pressure, so it cannot be considered reflective of their true intentions. To illustrate what the Diamond Authority is really like to those who defy it, I have with me one of the few uncorrupted members of Rose’s Rebellion, a Gem named Garnet.” Daniel gestured for Garnet to stand.

Garnet nodded, standing tall. “I am Garnet. I am a fusion of two Gems of different types, a Sapphire and a Ruby.” To demonstrate, she split into two, separate gems that had been in each of her hands forming a small red and blue body. The two waved, then rejoined together to become Garnet once again. “This fusion, this is who I am. And for becoming that fusion, part of me was sentenced to be shattered by Blue Diamond for breaking the structured order. Even after all the sanctions posed by your multiverse, they still do not allow mixed fusions. The punishment may be banishment instead of shattering, but make no mistake, banishment to what may be considered a better life is still rejection. For those of you who think all of that is in the past, that the Gems have changed over the last few years, I can say that is not the case. The few of us left on Earth have had to fight against many Homeworld Gems. They attacked us, kidnapped some of us, and have a zoo filled with human beings.”

Blue Diamond put a hand to her face. Renee couldn’t help but feel proud of her husband for finding that bit of information and telling Garnet to use it.

Garnet continued. “And on a more personal note, I encourage the rejection of the Diamond Authority and the Gem Vein from Unification. My race is not one that changes easily, and they are very proud. I can guarantee they do not see you as equals. They may no longer see you as fuel to power their own creation, but I assure you, they will never see you as with them. Even Rose Quartz, the leader of our rebellion, was not fighting because she saw humans as equals. She was fighting because she thought nature was beautiful and needed to be protected. It took her and the rest of us many, many years of living on Earth to finally understand what humans meant, that humans were just like us. It took us centuries of living among them to understand that, and we were the Gems fighting for them. What do you think that means for the Gems that wanted to extinguish them?”

Garnet sat down, letting the question linger. Daniel stood up after a few seconds. “I hope it is evident that the Gems are not worthy to be in our Unified Multiversal Alliance. Their change is false, their ways are militaristic and violent, and they do not truly regret what they have done. It will only bring about disaster for the Unified Worlds were they to be added to it.” He sat down. “I rest my case for now, Charter.”

Eve took in a breath. “Then let us move to the next phase…”

~~~

Corona had gotten a recorded message from Sombra nearly as soon as she’d returned.

...She been avoiding opening it.

But she was sitting here, on a couch, doing nothing. Lethargic…

Her emotions screamed at her not to press play, but she did anyway.

“Hey, amiga! Long time no see!” Sombra’s voice filled her ears - and her face appeared on the interior of her sunglasses. “So, a lot’s happened while you’ve been away. So, here’s a list of things you missed! So, we… We uh…” She sighed, displaying the ‘list of things’ on screen for a moment. “Just save that image and look at it later. Who says hello to an old friend with ‘here’s what you missed’? Silly, silly Sombra.”

She leaned back in her chair. “I should be welcoming you! We should be celebrating! If I wasn’t a wanted criminal I’d be there myself, in person, taking you out for drinks. ...Yes, I have gotten up to some trouble while you’ve been away. Poking at the big mystery - found someone named Monika that gave some big clues, I think - and it’s a great…”

Sombra sighed. “...I missed you, okay? I didn’t have anyone to talk to and I didn’t know how much I missed having someone to talk to. I didn’t have anyone to watch my back, tell me if I was going a bit too far... I… Oi caramba, look at me, breaking down a little here.”

“You know what, screw it, I’m just sending this, no retakes. Welcome back, Corona. Call me sometime. Or I’ll call you, you know how it is.” The message ended.

Corona allowed herself to smile.

She hadn’t changed at all.

~~~

The trial lasted well into the night, but eventually the judges left to confer. They returned about half an hour later, having made a decision.

All ten took their seats. Some looked worried, while others confident.

Eve looked from Renee and the Diamonds, to Daniel and Garnet. “A decision has been made. Do we bar the Gems from Unification? The decision was no, seven to three.”

The Gems in the audience sighed in relief.

“Another question was asked. Do we punish the Gems for what they’ve done, or do nothing?” Eve looked around. “The vote was tied five to five, so the Gem Vein Representative, Sapphire, had her vote dropped. This means there will be punishments.”

The Gems sucked in air sharply, no longer relieved.

“The exact nature of the punishment was what we discussed for the majority of the deliberation time.” Eve fixed the Diamonds with a steely glare. “If you do not accept these terms, you will be barred from Unification.”

Blue and Yellow Diamond nodded.

“You are to devote a significant portion of your scientific research to finding a cure for corrupted gems,” Eve declared. “We will assist you in that in any way we can. You are to give all members of Rose’s Rebellion full amnesty for the crimes they have committed as part of the Rebellion. You are to make official contact with the humans of Gem Vein Earth, offering them the opportunity to become part of the multiversal alliance as part of the Gem Vein. This does not mean you have to adapt them to your society, as that would likely be impossible, but you are to treat them as a nation under your care. Perhaps not as equals, but as a child at the very least.”

Blue and Yellow Diamond nodded. Yellow Diamond looked displeased, but not that displeased.

“I’m not done,” Eve declared. “Those are just the requirements relating to Gem Vein Earth. There are a few others. First of all, you are to create a department to find any alien races on worlds you may have subjugated that have survived what you’ve done. You are to offer them rehabilitation. I understand this will be difficult, and again we will help with it, but most of the resources will come from you.”

Eve paused, narrowing her eyes.

“There is one final requirement. All Gem experimentation labs are to be supervised by a scientist from another universe.”

Yellow Diamond slammed her fists on the table. “You can’t do that! That’s private! We even agreed it was private when we declassified everything!”

“We’ve changed our mind,” Eve declared. I didn’t vote for this, I voted for allowing differing-Gem fusions, but this is the big one we decided to go for. “Does this mean you refuse the terms?”

“YES! We’ll be better without you!” Yellow Diamond blurted.

“No, we accept the terms,” Blue Diamond stated.

Eve blinked. She was about to call for deliberation, but then a call came through a device at Renee’s table.

Renee blinked. “…White Diamond accepts the terms.”

“Are you certain?” Eve asked.

Yellow and Blue Diamond looked at the device. The two of them nodded. Yellow Diamond clearly wasn’t happy about this.

Eve smiled. “With that, I declare this trial over!” She summoned a little hammer and hit it against a table.

Chaos erupted as everyone started talking at once. It wasn’t an angry chaos, but a tense one. Everyone either felt like a bullet had just been dodged or they had just been shot by a bullet.

In this commotion, Eve found Garnet. “Sorry,” Eve said. “I tried to get you what you wanted.”

Garnet nodded. “I understand. It… matters a lot to me, but even I can see why you chose to watch the experiments. Crimes against Gem-kind are important. After all, multi-gem fusions will just get banished and get to live their lives… Without their old friends. Or stability.” She sighed.

“I’m sure it will happen eventually,” Eve said. “Good news is there’s a loophole. We got you complete amnesty. They can’t touch you.”

Garnet smiled. “Heh. Thanks.”

“You can be the activist that changes them, you know. If you want.”

“I might just try to live a simple life,” Garnet shrugged. “Not sure yet. The future is unclear. I do know one thing I need to do though. Excuse me.”

Garnet walked right up to Blue Diamond and cleared her throat. Blue Diamond looked down at her with her sad eyes.

“I accept your apology,” Garnet said, holding out a hand.

A smile came to Blue Diamond’s face. “…Thank you, Garnet.” She shook Garnet’s hand. “I hope to see more of you.”

“I think you will.”

And the trial began to die down. The sanctions went in place, and the Gems adjusted to the drastic changes.

Unification was only a matter of time. The eight worlds… They were ready.

After the Vein Trial, there were no more major obstacles.

The next big moment would be when it was finalized.