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"Pink Diamond has been shattered. The Crystal Gems have been defeated. The Gem War for Earth is now over."
Pink Diamond has been shattered.
Pink Diamond has been shattered.
Shattered.
Spinel started running before she even realized she broke her Diamond's command.
She grabbed onto the console, willing the message to come back, willing the message to change, but it stayed empty. She fiddled with the screen. She saw Pink do it all the time. She just had to find the right-
The screen popped up, and Spinel started looking for any information on the Gem War she could. When she read a Ruby's eye witness report of her shattering, and how a rebel Rose Quartz from her own colony did it, Spinel couldn't handle it anymore. She broke the console and the podium and started using the pieces to try to chip away at her gem. If her Diamond, her best friend, is shattered, then she might as well be too. But try as she might, she only managed to get a piece of rubble into the side of her form and dissipate.
She tried to stay in her gem. What's the point without Pink? But she could feel herself pushing out and reforming. She looked down at herself and ran her hands over her head. Her once light pink and white form was now dark pink. Her gem, previously a right side up heart, was upside down and darker than previously. Her hair was still in hearts, but they were falling down as if feeling weighed down without Pink Diamond's presence.
Spinel wandered the garden like she used to when Pink was gone, before she told her to stay put. How long has it been since Pink left? How long was I in my gem? With nobody to take care of it, the garden started to be overgrown, and some things even browned and died.
Spinel was sitting, using one arm to stretch around a tree branch and using it like a swing. She was starting to hate the garden. It was just a reminder of a person who wasn't here anymore. But she didn't have anywhere else to go.
She looked at the warp pad. Except Earth. Only Earth was destroyed, at least according to the records she read. She stood up and walked around the warp pad. What would happen if she tried to warp to Earth? Would she go to the closest warp pad to earth? Or would she just float off into space?
She stepped on the warp pad and closed her eyes. When she didnt feel anything happen she opened them again. Why didn't it work? Maybe she did it wrong. She closed her eyes again and thought really hard.
"Earth. Earth. Earth. Earth." She felt a whoosh and a floating feeling. When she opened her eyes again she was somewhere really bright.
Actually, even though the sun was bright, the valley below her was dark. It didn't seem like anything was alive here. It was a big contrast to her garden; even though everything was overgrown and some bits were brown, this place looked like all the life was sucked right out of it, with nothing left.
She hopped down and looked at the holes. Maybe this is where gems come from. She knew Kindergarten's were a thing, and she knew it took organic stuff to create gems, but she hasn't seen one since her own creation.
She poked her head in different holes and wondered what type of gems these were. Was this the batch of Rose Quartz' that went bad?
Spinel turned around and froze. A small, purple gem with short hair was staring at her, head cocked to the side.
"Hiya there." Spinel said. "Who are you?"
"Who are you?" The other gem repeated.
"Well, I'm a Spinel!" She replied.
"I'm a Spinel." The other gem said.
Spinel's eyes widened. She had never heard of another Spinel before. "Wow, well hi there Spine-'' her eyes drifted to the gem on her chest, a circle with 8 Facets. ``wait a second, you don't look much like a Spinel." She looked down at herself. "Though I guess, neither do I really…"
The purple gem glowed with a bright light and suddenly a purple version of Spinel was standing in front of her. Spinel smiled and wrapped her arms around her new friend. "I like you, Spinsey. I'm gonna keep you."
She suddenly heard a growl from behind her and turned around. Behind her, a giant monster 3 times her height was standing over her. It took a swipe at her and she took a step back, using her stretching ability to make that step 20 feet away, bringing the other gem with her. The monster growled again and set chase on them. Spinel jumped and wrapped her arms around it 3, 4, 5 times before squeezing as hard as she could and popping the monster, it's gem falling harmlessly to the ground.
Spinel picked it up, and a dark pink bubble formed around it. "Is this what they meant by 'the Crystal Gems were defeated?'" She muttered to herself. She carried the bubble and put it in a corner of the kindergarten where nothing could accidentally pop it.
The purple gem went to stand beside her. "The Crystal Gems were defeated?" She asked.
Spinel looked at her. "Yeah. They were defeated. You don't gotta worry no more."
Humans wearing poodle skirts and Letterman jackets passed by as Amethyst and Spinel sipped on their milkshakes outside. While Spinel only had a plate of fries that have barely been touched, Amethyst already ate all her fries and half her loaded burger. Before Amethyst could ask what was wrong a thundering crash had a gem monster crashing into the building. Spinel grabbed Amethyst and dove as the shorter Gem pulled her whip out.
"Spinel! What're you-" she was cut off by Spinel wrapping her arm around her head and peeking up over the dumpster they hid behind.
From there, Spinel saw a big gem with giant pink curls and another, smaller gem. The smaller gem threw what looked like a spear at the creature and it dissipated, only the gem left. The pink gem walked up to it and made a light pink bubble before touching the top and making it disappear. They glanced around, noticing the humans staring at them, before running off again.
Once they were gone, Spinel let go of Amethyst, who immediately started asking questions.
"Who were they? Why did you hide from them? Do you know them? Why didn't they look like monsters?" Spinel was tempted to cover her mouth again, but instead she grabbed her friend's hand and took her back to the Kindergarten without saying a word.
Once back there Spinel sighed. "A long time ago, though I don't really know how long, there was a war. The rebels, they called themselves the Crystal Gems, wanted to keep Earth safe because places like these," she spread her arms wide to show off the Kindergarten, "took life from Earth, and other planets, and created gems in its place. The leader, Rose Quartz, created the Crystal Gems to protect Earth."
Amethyst looked around at the Kindergarten, her home, and felt a sickening feeling in her stomach. Life was killed for her to exist? "What were they trying to protect Earth from?"
Spinel shrugged. "Homeworld, I guess. The Diamond Authority. Rulers of Gemkind."
"They're bad?" Amethyst asked.
Spinel shrugged again. "I guess they could be bad. But not my Pink! Pink Diamond was my favorite! She was my best friend! She couldn't have known this was how gems were made."
"What happened to Pink Diamond?" She asked.
Spinel shuddered and wrapped her arms around herself. When she couldn't keep her emotions in she screamed and punched one of the walls of the Kindergarten. One of the holes around the shoulder of a gem opening cracked and fell to the ground.
"Pink was shattered." She whispered. Amethyst's eyes widened. She's poofed her fair share of times, and even Spinel had a few times, even though she was pretty sturdy. She knew gems could crack- a few gem monsters they captured had cracks in them, and they were even more unpredictable than normal. But shattered- she grimaced just thinking about it. "Were you there? During the war?"
Spinel shook her head. "I was in my garden, waiting for Pink to come home. I read about it after I learned Pink was shattered."
Amethyst hesitated. She knew about Spinel's garden, but never brought the topic up herself. "I've never seen your garden before."
Spinel sighed sadly. "It was so beautiful. You could see the stars going on for light years. We'd spend ages together, playing and laughing."
"Can I see it?" Spinel flinched, and Amethyst retracted. "We don't have to. It just sounds… lovely."
Spinel hesitated, then nodded, taking Amethyst by the hand and taking her to the warp pad.
Spinel closed her eyes. She felt the whoosh of the warp pad, followed by the serene silence of the garden. She opened her eyes and let out a breath she didn't know she'd been holding. The garden was even more overgrown and dead than the last time she saw it.
Amethyst stepped off the warp, taking in everything before her. "Spinel, it's… it's beautiful.." she started, turning around and stopping short when she saw the other gem, hugging herself, tears streaming down her face. "Hey, hey, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have asked to come here."
Spinel didn't even acknowledge her. "It's nothing without her. Everything's dead, everything's gone, there's nothing left!" She punched the warp pad, wanting to leave, but the only place she wanted to go was where the warp pad couldn't take her. Back to the past.
Amethyst glanced around and picked a small flower that's blooming. "Spinel, this isn't like Kindergarten. Life can still grow here. We can fix it up, make it pretty again. How does that sound?"
Spinel sniffed and looked up at her purple friend. "We'll… make it pretty again?"
Amethyst nodded. "Yeah! We can clear out all the dead stuff, get seeds and plants from humans, and it'll be fixed in no time!"
Spinel nodded and took the hand Amethyst reached out. Together, they made the garden pretty again.
Spinel peeked from behind the gem opening. Why was she talking with them? Spinel told her they were bad. So why was she talking with two of them out in the open? Why was she going to the warp pad with them? Why was she leaving? Where were they taking her?!
Spinel ran to the warp pad once they left, but without knowing Amethyst's location she could only guess at where they could have gone.
Amethyst left her. Didn't tell her when she'd be back. Didn't even turn around. Just like-
Spinel busied herself, going to the garden to spruce it up a bit, going back to the Kindergarten to see if Ames came back. When she heard the whoosh of the warp pad, she thought she was hearing things. Spinel turned around and saw Amethyst running towards her. Alone.
Spinel tried to let her worry overtake her anger. "Amethyst, I was so scared" that you would never come back. "Where did you go? Where did they take you? Are you hurt?" Did you like them better than me? She looked over Amethyst's form. It seemed like the same one she had when she left.
"Dude, chill, they were so rad. They took me to their base near a beach. It was of a huge multi gem lady. There were three of them, actually four, one was a fusion, did you know gems could fuse?" Amethyst rambled on about them gems. The fusion was called Garnet, and the two that took Amethyst with them were Pearl and Nephrite.
"What about Rose Quartz?" Spinel asked. Amethyst hesitated.
"I wasn't gonna mention her…'' she mumbled.
Spinel shook her head. "It's fine. You were there. You saw her. What was going on? Is she shattering all these poor creatures like she shattered Pink?"
Amethyst shook her head. "No! Inside the temple is a place called the Burning Room, and there are thousands of bubbled gems in there, even more than we have!" She gestured to their collection of bubbles, which were in a small hole they dug out of some of the exit holes.
Spinel humphed. She didn't like the idea of a shatterer not shattering other gems. She'd shatter Pink, a Diamond, but not these monsters?
Amethyst was still talking, and Spinel had to shake her own thoughts away.
"Rose’ boyfriend Greg is having a show this weekend, so do you wanna go?" Amethyst asked. Spinel shook her head.
"I don't wanna go anywhere near the Crystal Gems unless I'm putting them in a bubble." Spinel replied. She saw Amethyst's face and continued, "but, as long as you don't tell them about me, and you don't get yourself hurt, I guess I don't care if you hang out with them." Just don't like them better than me, she silently pleaded.
Ames came and went as she pleased. She never stayed with them longer than a few days, and never stayed with them longer than with Spinel. But she had a new fun story to tell every time she came back, and though part of Spinel wanted to be brave enough to meet the Crystal Gems herself, another part of her would just as rather poof them all and be done with the worry. But Amethyst liked them- she couldn't do that
.
She also came back with new information, either about humans and their culture or about who the Crystal Gems were. One day, though, Ames didn't seem very excited about the information she brought back.
"Rose and Greg are having a baby." She told Spinel.
"A baby? Gems can't be babies."
"He's gonna be human, I guess. At least that's what Rose said. But.." Amethyst trailed off.
Spinel waited for a few seconds. "But what?"
"Rose has to die, or give up her form or whatever." She blurted quickly. "The baby is gonna have her gem, but otherwise is gonna be completely human."
Spinel thought about that. A human baby with a gem. Rose's baby. Rose's gem.
Rose will be gone. Spinel thought.
But not the Crystal Gems she replied to herself.
Then she started her plan.
Spinel has had a few (hundred) different hobbies and interests over the thousands of years on Earth, so Amethyst was used to the trips to the library and the miscellaneous stuff that Spinel hoarded around, but Amethyst was never quite as interested as she was now with her new interest in humans, specifically babies. They read all the books and watched all the videos they could about babies and children.
Amethyst visited the Crystal Gems a few more times while Rose was still around, and her timing was good enough that she was even able to be there when the baby was born.
"She glowed into this big bright light, and you could see the baby floating where her gem was with the light surrounding it, and then her form poofed and there was just a baby! Greg named it Steven."
Spinel smiled. Her plan was almost ready.
Spinel grabbed the baby out of the van and Amethyst shapeshifted into a backpack, putting the Crystal Gems gemstones inside. Spinel threw her on her back and started charging into the snow.
"Greg is going to look for him." Amethyst said, which was hard cause her mouth was currently a zipper.
"Then we'll make sure to take him somewhere a human can go."
Spinel held the baby under his arms and bounced him lightly. She started humming as Amethyst fed him a blueberry. She knew babies like lullabies.
Here in the garden
We learned how to eat
Isn't that so much fun?
Here in the garden
We learned how to shit
Amethyst butted in
That wasn't quite as fun
Spinel laughed, which made Steven laugh. His gem began to glow.
Spinel pushed Steven into Amethyst's arms and backed away. "What's going on? Is Rose trying to come out? I thought you said he was human. Humans don't glow!"
Amethyst stood up and rocked the baby, giving him another blueberry. "Relax, I've seen this before. He's just happy."
Spinel walked back over and ruffled his hair. He laughed again, this time his gem did not glow. "Happy…”