Stars and Diamonds

Chapter 68: Look How Far We've Come

The new cycle hadn't even begun when White Diamond had begun to put into effect orders for the day, laying out expectations and, while their youngest still rested, communicated with the other three her desires for the day. She had planned too meticulously to allow even a single thing to go wrong.

Today, their youngest would join them in name, rank, and title as one of the Great Diamond Authority. A day White Diamond felt her patience and perseverance with the young gem had finally paid off.

"Pearl," White called, her voice carrying across the room, flitting downward to her awaiting servant.

"My Diamond?" The tiny gem responded immediately.

"I believe it's time we begin preparations. Go and retrieve Orange's gift." She ordered, her voice taking on an almost giddy note as she added, "Oh, it'll be such a surprise for her!"

Pearl hesitated, if only for a moment before she bowed, "Yes, my Diamond. Shall I bring it back here, or-"

"The square will do nicely. Wouldn't want her to see it ahead of time and ruin the surprise."

Pearl bowed her head once more, using her pursed lips as she an attempt to reign in her emotions before finally forcing her expression to become neutral, "Of course, my Diamond. I will leave at once."

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Pink stared at the screen, her eyes were brimming with tears that she refused to allow to fall, though her lip quivered and her hands clenched so tightly, if she could bleed like the Humans, she knew her nails biting into her palms would have caused it.

Her chest hurt, and she hated that it did. She was not very surprised, though still angry that it happened anyway, that she was only now being fully informed of the trial against one of her former gems. She wasn't familiar with who it was, and even though there were vague annotations that she worked as one of the many scientist that had been helping create the not-so-little-anymore being that was her daughter, had, in fact, been the one trying to end her life.

But even worse, no one had deemed it necessary to tell her to her face (vid call or otherwise) that not only had she been sentenced to be harvested, a sentence that had been executed that very morning, but ordered by the youngest diamond herself.

A part of Pink, a part she vehemently wished didn't exist, was glad that the gem was dealt with. She knew, knew, she was a horrid gem, not only for how she had tried to slowly and painfully kill another, but even worse because that was her daughter that had been the one being tortured.

And then the other part of her, the one who had come to genuinely love her subjects, and their special and uniqueness that got paved over by their empire and their rules and expectations, hated that that was what was chosen to happen to her. She knew she deserved it, and yet harvesting of all things was so horrible, so despicable, and it had been the option her Zirconia had chosen.

Her daughter was correct, and yet absolutely wrong, when she had claimed she wasn't a fool. She knew her daughter had absorbed her fellow Diamond's teaching, so eager to please and to learn, so ready and willing to be whatever she could be, because it was better than being nothing, and didn't she just know that all too well? She also knew, perhaps even before she had returned to Homeworld to be with her daughter in what she had considered her greatest time of need, that Zirconia loved her home.

No, perhaps that wasn't quite right either. Orange Diamond loved Homeworld, it's rules and her soon to be claimed title. But Zirconia loved its gem, her friends that she gushed about and Pearl, her former Pearl, who her daughter had grown so attached too, it almost felt right that after what had happened it would be her own daughter that mended the hurt and heartbreak she had left with her former friend all those millennia ago.