~O~

Chapter Forty-Seven: Never-Ending Story

Seven Months Later

It was difficult returning to the way things were after the battle.

Pearl had changed from it as well. Without Jasper, she had become sullen and colder. She had lost much of her glow since then. She had even refused to be happy afterwards, despite everyone's best efforts to help her.

Lapis had attempted to speak to her one morning about it, but Pearl leaned against the kitchen counter, staring down at the shell that Jasper had given her.

"Pearl, look..." Lapis began. "I know it's been hard, but you can't keep doing this to yourself."

A cold scoff from the gem. "Spoken by someone who knows, I guess."

Lapis frowned at the remark. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"You think you understand anything about loss, Lapis?" Pearl's eyes brimmed again, "To watch two gems you cared so much about disappear in front of your eyes? No. You have NO IDEA what loss is. Don't speak to me about anything you think you know."

Lapis scowled at her. "You think I don't?"

Pearl barely lifted her eyes, bored already with the conversation and getting rather annoyed by Lapis' presence any longer.

"Just leave me alone."

Lapis scoffed. "Fine. But we're all trying to help you. If you don't want help, then that's on you, Pearl. Not us."

Pearl watched her leave the house. She stared down at the shell and swatted it to the floor with an angry grunt. When she realized what she'd done, she gasped and dove for it, muttering "I'm sorry, I'm sorry" under her breath.

She scooped it up into her arms and held it close, tears streaming down her cheeks.

While this was happening, Peridot, Spinel and Steven made their way through the ruins of Yellow Diamond's ship. Peridot lead the search, struggling to understand her 'sister' and her cryptic message.

"She just said a Peridot would be able to find it." Steven explained. "And I hope we do soon. Pearl's not been doing the best..."

Peridot sighed, her voice dropping a little with sympathy. "Yeah, I noticed..."

They entered the laboratory used by the other Peridot. The corruptions were still housed in their cells and recoiled as far as they could from Steven, hissing in agony. The gems watched them with horror on their faces.

"We can't leave them like this." Steven said. "We need to poof them."

Peridot nodded, features haunted. "Yeah..."

Once the gems were poofed, they continued their search. Peridot was overall impressed by the size of the laboratory.

"Amazing how a Peridot was given all of this," she said, her gem focusing on a table. "She was really important, I imagine."

Spinel seemed distracted by something on the wall. "Hey, hey, guys?" she said.

"Spinel, keep quiet, I need to concentrate." Peridot snapped, searching underneath a desk.

But Spinel seemed very interested in what was written on the wall in the Gem Language. She furrowed her brow, tilted her head and walked over to Peridot. She simply picked her up, despite Peridot's indignant protests and struggles.

"Hey! Put me down, you dim-witted dirt bomb!" she ordered.

Spinel smiled at the message in Gem. "Read this!"

Peridot sighed impatiently and looked up at the message that seemed to have been scratched on the wall by something sharp. She furrowed her brow and tilted her head curiously.

Steven was curious now by the change. "What's it say?" he asked.

Peridot read the message out loud. " 'What was meant to give life, I used to destroy. What was used to destroy, can bring back. When you know what I mean, you will find the answer. Look to where I first gave life'."

"What does that mean?" Steven asked.

Peridot seemed to be thinking for a moment. She looked at Spinel and her eyes widened. "Spinel! You're smarter than the cut of your gem!" she exclaimed.

Spinel blushed a little. "Aww, well thanks." she said. Then, she looked suspicious. "Wait, are you tricking me, right now?"

"No! Put me down. I know where it is!"

O

The two gems followed behind Peridot as she rushed down the corridors toward where she believed the cure was. She was led further into the ship's lower sectors and into an empty room. It was surrounded in murals of the Diamond Authority. Spinel and Steven looked around and Peridot eagerly made her way toward a broken statue of Pink Diamond.

"I remember this place." she said. "Before the Kindergartens, Peridots were taut to distance themselves from the gem life they made. There were no such things as mothers."

Peridot smiled brightly up at the Quartz soldier before her. Such pride in her eyes. So much adoration for the creature made by her own hands.

Pride.

Peridot still had her pride as a Certified Kindergartner. What she was, what she would always be.

One who gave life.

It seemed that her sister had corrupted her purpose as ordered by Yellow Diamond. The Authority that Peridot had once held in such esteem. But from what she witnessed, even a Diamond could lose sight of their path.

The Pink Diamond statue was searched and Peridot discovered a tablet beneath it. Curious, she switched it on and her sister's exhausted face appeared in a holographic form.

"Hello. I'm assuming this is the Rebels I speak with. Only my sister would find this."

Peridot raised an eyebrow. "Wow. She looks terrible."

Steven sighed, shaking his head.

"I know you've come for the cure. I'll tell you that I left it somewhere on Earth. Within the one place that Yellow Diamond would never find it. Why? I know if she had discovered that cure, she would never use it to help those who she deemed inferior. That is the way of the Diamond Authority; always blind to the lives they deem lesser than their own. All in an effort to keep control."

A tired sigh before she continued.

"Travel to Pink Diamond's court. I delivered the code necessary for you to cure the Rebel gems. But, I have one request. If you do so, use it on Jasper first. Use it for the first Quartz I ever gave life to. Just remember also that I have only successfully cured one gem. Do not hope it will succeed."

The gems observed one another, frowning.

"I don't know what I'm doing anymore. My plan is to make certain that Jasper returns in hopes that this nightmare will finally be over." A bitter scoff. "But it won't. White Diamond got what she wanted. She was willing to sacrifice one of her own in an effort to advance her research. What that is, I can't say for sure. But be warned. It's not over. It'll NEVER be over."

The image cut out, leaving the gems in the darkness once again.

Spinel made a face. "Well, that's not good." she said.

O

Their trek led them back to Pink Diamond's court.

The hollow, empty place sent shivered down Spinel's form, so Steven held her hand to comfort her a little. She smiled down at him.

"How did she have time to send the one cure to corruptions back here?" Peridot wondered.

They searched the court and Peridot discovered an odd hand-print on the floor near Pink Diamond's throne. Curious, she noticed that it had the symbol of her gem make cut into it. She placed her hand into it and immediately, a small slot opened up, revealing a metal disk.

"Peridot?" Steven said, from behind a pillar. "Did you find anything?"

"I did. Come here."

The two wandered over to her, studying the disk.

"What is it?" Steven asked.

Peridot looked confused. "It's...a song."

Upon returning to the temple, the gems were waiting together while Pearl held Jasper's bubbled gem close in her hands.

"Pearl. Are you sure?" Garnet asked her. "We don't know if this'll work."

Pearl bit her lip, nodding. "We have to try."

She set the bubbled gem down and Peridot tapped the disk.

Immediately, a bizarre sound filled the air, like a scratching of razors. Everyone shielded their ears from the noise and Amethyst gave a wail.

"WHAT IS THAT NOISE?" she shrieked.

"I don't like it!" Spinel cried, grabbing her ears and running off. "It makes my gem itch!"

"IT'S A DEATH SONG!" Peridot wailed, writhing on the floor alongside Lapis. "MY SISTER CREATED A DEATH SONG AND WE FELL FOR IT!"

Pearl looked down, noticing that Jasper's gem burst from the bubble and began to glow. All she could do was watch as it twisted with light, forming spikes. She was worried this wouldn't work. That such a noise would do nothing but stir violence from her.

Jasper's limbs formed. Her hair and legs. She reformed in perfect shape with her back to everyone. She was oddly silent and Pearl didn't think. She simply ran into her arms and embraced her.

"Oh, Stars!" she cried, crying again. "Jasper! It worked!"

No one saw that Jasper's face was still caught in a feral transformation; her eyes were still pools of black and her teeth were still long and sharp. Slowly, she put her arm around Pearl, staring distantly.

"Pearl?" Steven quietly asked. "Is she...?"

Jasper's mouth opened and she gave a loud, rattling hiss, moving to bite the gem in her arm.

O

"Chaos."

White Diamond did not react to the sight of chaos below her from her balcony. She could only witness it with that constant calm.

Blue Diamond stepped inside the room, observing her. "You wanted this." she said, her voice soft, but dripping with accusation.

"Chaos? Don't misunderstand me, my sister. This was not my desire, though it was foreseen." White Diamond told her, turning toward her throne. "Yellow Diamond had drifted from her required path. Her desire for vengeance was not a logical course of action for a Diamond. My gift to her was a test. A test that she greatly failed."

Blue Diamond's lips pulled back in a frown.

"Her emotions weakened her," White Diamond explained, stepping toward a large tarp that bore the image of her likeness. "Her drive for conquest failed her. The battle she has led has allowed me to understand how dangerous the matters of emotion are. For our race to prosper, weakness must be purged. Those who cannot follow the Order MUST. BE. PURGED. If by their own hand or mine."

"I am not weak." Blue Diamond told her.

White Diamond turned to her, reaching one hand toward the tarp. "No. You are not weak."

You are not weak.

Because you are not driven by emotion.

Order are things that must thrive.

In this chaos, the strong will rise.

And in this chaos, so will I.

"Let them show their true loyalty," White Diamond continued, "And let me judge them for their worth."

She pulled the tarp aside, revealing an enormous dragon-like familiar that consisted of bone-white spikes and silver scales.

It roared loudly, expelling a white fire through its set of massive jaws.

Blue Diamond watched the sight of White Diamond's enormous familiar.

Even she shuddered.

A Diamond who feared nothing.

The rift was there. It had been made.

There was no changing that.

The End

O

Note - For all of you who supported this fic, thank you from the bottom of my heart.

I am working on the sequel as we speak.