De Facto

Part I.

"De facto. Latin. As used in law, this phrase is used to characterize an officer, a government, a past action, or a state of affairs that must be accepted for all practical purposes, but is illegal or illegitimate...

"In this sense it is the contrary of de jure, which means rightful, legitimate, just, or constitutional."

.

"...the axles of the bubble belt...off-centered. Recalibrate them and report...labs. 2F5L-5XL, 2F5L-5XZ, you are assigned...the main boiler room."

When Zircon reformed, the first thing she noticed were the orders, dissected by a heavy, rhythmic pounding. The voice was an agate. The pounding was likely machinery. Zircon had landed on her hands and knees, the slick floors like ice on her palms and through the fabric of her pantsuit. She shook her head, sat back, and looked up.

The place was cold and sterile white. Wherever she had reformed, she had been dropped onto an open expanse of floor, close to an inactive control panel, several neat piles of equipment, and a row of barrels against a wall. Far above her was a domed crystalline ceiling, displaying the shining pink skies of Homeworld. Between her and the sky was a web. A web of glittering glass walkways, conveyor belts, and horrendous, gleaming machines...machines that, one by one, devoured gems in bubbles. Paired with the last thing she could remember — her own epiphany, Yellow Diamond's hand, and unadulterated fear — the reality was all too clear.

She was going to be harvested.

Before she could bother to get her bearings any further, she realized the agate's voice had stopped, replaced with the sound of marching metallic feet. Zircon whirled around in panic, looking for cover, finding none — save the barrels and the wall. With agility she didn't know she had, she dove behind them and shrank into the corner.

The rational part of her asked, "What am I doing?!".

The realistic part of her heard some of the marching feet get louder and convinced her to stay put.

They were peridots, that much became obvious. No other gems had such ingratiating voices.

"I'm beyond done with Shadow Agate, 5XU. If she goes on one more dramatic monologue, I WILL hack her personal files."

So there were only two. 5XU took longer to craft her response, and spoke slower. "That's insubordination."

"She won't even know it's me."

"5XI. You are the only one who would."

They were passing in front of Zircon's hiding spot now, and already, drops of sweat were dripping down her face. But the peridots just kept walking.

"It's all 5XG's fault, I'm telling you," said 5XI, after a pause. "If she hadn't been so culet-backwards, we wouldn't be stationed here. Our whole row lost our status."

"Zero minus zero is still zero."

5XI huffed but didn't respond. Their footsteps stopped, maybe a stone's throw away from Zircon. When she dared to peek out, she saw them standing at a control panel, their backs towards her. Besides their distinctive coloring and limb enhancers, they didn't look all too much like the standard peridots; one had long, straight hair that went down to her middle back; the other was pearl-thin and had shaved her hair on the sides. The long haired-one was contentedly pressing buttons that beeped; the skinny one bent over awkwardly and fiddled with her left leg enhancer.

"Ugh, the sealant broke again. My heel's falling off. Need to get these things in for maintenance."

"Please stop complaining, 5XI."

The skinny one, 5XI, complied and turned to the control panel. "Shutting off power to the conveyor belt."

The lowest conveyor belt, stretching above the clearing where Zircon had reformed earlier, ground to a stop.

"Scanning for system abnormalities," said 5XU, and turned to look up at the conveyor belt (Zircon, once again terrified, ducked back behind the barrels).

Something beeped loudly.

"One of the bubbles never made it to initial processing," said 5XU.

"Well, you heard Shadow, the axles are janked. It probably just got pushed off the side somewhere. What was the code?"

"Bubble 1-RR2."

A few button-taps later and 5XI inhaled. "Oh."

"What?"

"That's a priority bubble. Sent straight from Yellow Diamond."

"It's not in the emergency gutters?"

"Negative."

"There's nothing on the scanner feed?"

"Her gem fell out of range. I think she reformed, but it's hard to tell from this."

"I — I'm contacting Shadow."

"For once, I won't argue with that."

A chill, like a cold hand, traced up Zircon's spine. It was her bubble, she knew. Perhaps when it had strayed off the side, it was forced against something and popped, dropping her to the ground where she was now. But she realized that it, in a way, had opened the door to something worse — at least in a bubble, she wouldn't be conscious to feel herself be shattered. Quick and painless. Humane. Now, there was only fear.

Ironically, almost cruelly so, an old thought came back to her: I am the unluckiest zircon in the galaxy.

The gunshot-clacks of high heels on the floor pulled Zircon from her brief spell of doomsaying and self-pity. The agate. "What is it THIS time?" she demanded, her voice deep and resonant as a storm. The peridots' feet clicked together as they snapped to attention.

5XI spoke first. "Shadow Agate, with all due respect, I'll disclaim that it WASN'T my fault."

Shadow sounded quite unconvinced. "That'll be for me to decide. Explain."

"A priority bubble went missing. The one from Yellow Diamond, containing the treasonous zircon. Security footage shows that she may have reformed."

For a tense, icy second, Shadow didn't respond. Then her heels cracked on the floor again, and one of the peridots exclaimed, "Wh — wh — what are you — " before an awful, shrieking alarm split through the air. All machinery halted at once; the workers on the walkways broke into runs; every open door slammed shut.

Shadow Agate's voice boomed through loudspeakers, echoing around the halls of the Harvester:

"PRIORITY BUBBLE 1-RR2 HAS BEEN POPPED. A TREASONOUS BLUE ZIRCON WILL BE ATTEMPTING ESCAPE. IF YOU ENCOUNTER HER, YOU ARE TO SHATTER HER IMMEDIATELY. THESE ARE ORDERS FROM THE DIAMOND AUTHORITY. I REPEAT — "

She didn't have to repeat anything. By this point, Zircon was already feeling faint.

"YOU ARE TO SHATTER ON SIGHT. THESE ARE ORDERS FROM THE DIAMOND AUTHORITY."

Zircon sank to the ground.

.

A/N: i know what 90% of you are gonna say, some of you even before you read down this far. "where's petri dish?" unfortunately my computer bit the dust as a result of one of my brother's shady minecraft mods, and for a very long time the petri dish chapter was trapped on a hard drive with literally 16,000 other files. my computer has been fixed by now, but it's going to take a long time to find and finish that chapter as i'm very busy this week.

this fic is the lovechild of my newfound obsession with zircon + several long waits in a busy chiropractor's office. it has been written almost entirely in the notes of my iPhone, as my computer was hurled into the digital equivalent of the shadow realm.

petri dish is coming. my god, i'm trying. in the meanwhile, you get this.

thanks for your patience, and enjoy the fic!