Steven stared blankly, wondering which ancestor he'd cursed to have such bad luck. Before him stood an enormous yellow figure, seated elegantly on a throne that seemed made of pure light. Beside her was another gem, also yellow, observing her with a hint of confusion, trying not to make a mistake.
"My Diamond," the gem said, giving the traditional greeting Steven had seen before. "Didn't you hear her, Pearl?" the figure said in a deep, commanding voice. Judging by her color, it wasn't hard to guess who she was: Yellow Diamond herself.
"Damn it," Steven thought aloud, a hint of despair in his voice.
Yellow Diamond raised an eyebrow and turned her gaze toward where he was supposed to be, setting aside the tablet she'd been intently examining. "You really didn't hear her?" the gem repeated sternly. "No, my Diamond," her subordinate, Yellow Pearl, second in command and clearly nervous, replied quickly.
"No, my Diamond." "Do you think I've worked too hard?" the leader asked, rubbing her forehead wearily. Pearl hesitated, torn between telling the truth or lying to avoid being pulverized. Finally, she opted for the safer route.
"She really has worked hard these millennia, she hasn't rested at all, my Diamond," she said respectfully, her voice slightly trembling.
Yellow Diamond observed her for a few silent seconds, as if evaluating her words. "Perhaps she needs a break," she finally murmured.
"She really does," Steven added, knowing she couldn't see it. If she attacked him for some reason, he would simply wake up with his heart racing, so he decided to take advantage of the opportunity to have a little fun at the expense of a galactic leader.
Yellow Diamond was silent for a few moments. "What are you?" she suddenly asked, staring into space.
"I am your conscience," Steven replied from the other side, trying to stifle a laugh. The gem cautiously turned her head, but found nothing. She could only sense a strange presence around her.
Steven smiled to himself. If my calculations are correct, she thought, this power I've been training must be a branch of my connection ability, a kind of access to dreams. I can enter and interact without being noticed. Although, frankly, I don't want a leader of an intergalactic dictatorship to discover me, especially now that Peridot is about to arrive on Earth.
Yellow Diamond remained thoughtful, but both were pulled from their thoughts when Pearl received an urgent message.
"My Diamond," she announced with a bow, "Blue Diamond has just arrived on Homeworld after completing nine new conquests. She wishes to see you personally."
"Perfect," Yellow Diamond replied after a few seconds. "Bring her here. And when you arrive, I want only her inside. The Pearls will stay outside. I don't want anyone snooping around. Understood?" Her voice turned stern, and electrical sparks crackled through her hands.
"Understood, my Diamond," Pearl replied fearfully, running toward the door until she vanished.
"You've got her well under control," Steven's voice commented mockingly.
"Who are you?" Yellow Diamond asked seriously, knowing that this presence didn't belong to her court.
"Who am I?" Steven replied calmly. "I'm Universe, someone who's here by accident. Believe me, if it were up to me, I'd have already left eighty million light-years away."
Yellow Diamond remained silent.
"And what do you want?" she finally asked, calmly leaning back on her throne.
"Nothing at all," Steven replied as he sat down across from her, though the gem couldn't see him. "I just think it's interesting to be here. Even though I don't entirely like it, this empire intrigues me. Are you the greatest in the universe?" she asked with genuine curiosity.
Yellow Diamond remained silent. She noticed that the voice didn't sound like that of an enemy or an invader, but rather like someone observing with true curiosity. She recalled Blue Diamond's words about compassion and doubt, and for a moment, that unfamiliar voice seemed… too sincere.
Yellow Diamond sighed, massaging her temples wearily. "I really can't see you. Don't you want to show yourself?" she asked with a clearly fake smile, trying to maintain a false calm.
"No, thank you." "No thanks," Steven replied, a bead of sweat trickling down his temple.
Yellow Diamond maintained that expression that tried to appear friendly, though her gaze said otherwise. "Seriously, too bad. We should talk in person to do this civilly," she said in a sweet but threatening tone.
"You don't even believe that yourself," Steven thought, a huge bead of anger forming on his forehead.
Suddenly, the front doors swung open, their echo resonating throughout the hall. Both eyes turned to the new figure crossing the threshold with elegance and an imposing presence.
"For the arrival of the magnificent, the most beautiful, the most sentimental, Blue Diamond in her full splendor," announced a Blue Pearl with exaggerated flair, bowing so dramatically that even the echo seemed ashamed.
The silence grew thick. Yellow Diamond and Steven stared at her with the same blank expression.
"Pearl, what did I tell you?" Yellow Diamond exclaimed, frowning.
In a matter of seconds, Yellow Pearl appeared, seemingly teleporting, picked up Blue Pearl like a sack of potatoes, and dragged her out of the room without a word. Steven couldn't help but think that this scene wasn't the first time it had happened.
After a few awkward seconds, Blue Diamond spoke in a soft, elegant voice.
"Hello, Yellow. How have you been after so many decades apart?"
Yellow Diamond rose from her throne, causing a slight tremor with the movement, and greeted her with a bow.
"You haven't been very active lately," Blue commented, raising an eyebrow, barely visible beneath her hood.
"It's not that," Yellow sighed, "I simply have someone bothering me, and I don't know how to get rid of them."
"Someone?" Blue repeated, curious. "Why don't you send one of your gems to take care of it? Speaking of which, one of my Agates has a first-generation Lapis. She might be useful."
Yellow raised an eyebrow, but then shook her head. "I appreciate the offer. I might use Lapis, but the problem isn't physical," she said more seriously. "Someone is talking to me... but I can't see them."
Blue Diamond watched her silently, as if analyzing her words with skepticism.
"So what's so strange about that?" she finally asked.
"It bothers me," Yellow replied irritably, extending her hand into the void and firing a beam of energy.
Steven barely managed to dodge it; the beam grazed his shoulder, and a bead of cold sweat trickled down his neck.
"Oh, really?" Blue said, now more alert and looking around. "And what exactly is this thing or species that's bothering you?"
"He calls himself Universe," Yellow replied with a grimace. "He says he's my conscience or something."
Blue Diamond remained silent for a few seconds. Then, her expression shifted to a mixture of surprise and mild excitement.
"Universe?" she repeated softly, almost with childlike curiosity.
Yellow immediately noticed the change in her tone and looked at her suspiciously. "Do you know him?" she asked, confused.
"Not really, but I did talk to him," Blue replied, with a slight smile that left Yellow even more intrigued.
Steven remained motionless, listening with genuine attention. If this was a dream, it was at least worth taking advantage of; perhaps he would hear something important before waking up.
"Universe," Blue Diamond said with a somewhat enthusiastic tone, as if that name brought back memories.
"Here I am," Steven replied after a few seconds.
"What are you doing with Yellow?" Blue asked, slightly confused.
Steven thought for a moment before answering. Would you believe me if I told you I came here because I dreamt about a yellow zone? He omitted mentioning the pink part of the dream, preferring not to raise unnecessary suspicions.
"Yellow zone," Yellow and Blue Diamond repeated in unison, curiously.
"Well, you can go now. I don't know what you want, but I don't feel like talking to someone invisible. So shoo," Yellow said with a wave of her hand, trying to dismiss him as if he were a nuisance.
"Oh, come on, Yellow," Blue chimed in conciliatoryly.
While the two Diamonds chatted like old friends reuniting after centuries, exchanging comments about colonies, advancements, and Gem creations, Steven just watched them with an expressionless face. He walked toward the door of the enormous hall, determined to see if he could get through.
However, before he could, the door burst open, echoing throughout the room. The Diamonds turned immediately, and Steven took a step back when he saw who dared to enter.
It was a tiny Ruby, her gaze fixed on the ground. Her trembling voice rose just high enough to be heard. "By Diamond, I can't find Jasper. They told me he was around here, but I don't see anything. Why didn't the Diamonds leave an instruction manual for this base?"
The silence that followe
Blue Diamond brought a hand to her mouth, horrified. "But Yellow," she said in a trembling voice, "don't you think breaking it was a bit of an overreaction?"
Yellow barely glanced at her. She lifted her foot from the pulverized remains and spoke with cold calm. "Clean that up," she ordered. The Pearls reacted immediately, rushing to carry out her command without looking up.
"I... I almost did the same thing once," Blue murmured, recalling something from the past.
She remembered two Gems: a Ruby and a Sapphire who died during the Gem War. "I acted impulsively, when... Rose couldn't control her colony," she said sadly, her voice cracking slightly.
"When Rose couldn't control her colony, wasn't that right?" Yellow replied disdainfully, though her expression betrayed a faint glimmer of melancholy.
"Yes," Blue nodded, wiping away a tear, as the echo of the order still resonated through the corridors and Ruby's fragments were swept away in deathly silence.
Speaking of Rose, she said with a touch of sadness that she would try to go to Earth more often. "Why?" Yellow asked quickly, raising an eyebrow, though with some interest. "I want to clean up what little remains of her, the structure and everything." Yellow was silent for several seconds before replying. "And why don't you send other gems? I don't want them to defile what was Rose's," Blue responded quickly. "I want to do it myself."
Yellow remained silent, simply nodding. "If you can, bring the things to one of our colonies; that would be best." "Why?" Blue asked, confused. "Project Cluster is active." Blue's eyes widened in surprise. "Uh, and why didn't you tell me anything?" "I didn't want to drag you into this, you know. You've been suffering, and White just won't come out of his cave." "Well, I feel like it's a good thing," Yellow replied, sounding a little guilty.
Blue was silent for several seconds before speaking again. "How long do you think that will take?" "I don't know," Yellow replied, pulling out his tablet. "I assigned a Peridot to that. She recently activated the portals, but says they're not responding anymore. If it weren't for the photos and my memory of the area, I would have thought she was lying to me and destroyed it," Yellow said angrily. "But she says her robots are being intercepted, so she's going to make an interaction ball so she doesn't have to be there."
Blue fell silent again. "That sounds good to me, just tell me when the Cluster will be ready. I'm going to take a bath," he said as he walked out. Only Steven and Yellow remained, who, because of the current situation, didn't even remember he was there, while Steven was still in shock.
Suddenly, he felt a tug and, with a start, saw the galaxies distort and shrink to an imperceptible light. He abruptly returned to his body, practically leaping out of bed and landing on top of Lion and Pearl.
Pearl was calm, following her usual routine, watching Steven sleep, something completely normal. But out of nowhere, he jumped out of bed, and startled, all three of them fell to the floor. Lion barely looked up, and seeing his master with his eyes wide open and trembling, he quickly picked him up with a paw and tucked him into his mane to calm him down.
Steven's mind raced. What if I'm not as lucky as the original Steven? What if they destroy my gem without even removing it? What if they just shatter me as easily as they did Ruby? What if they do that to the girls? God, I can't, I can't. His face reflected deep anguish. Pearl, just waking up, looked at him with concern, with the expression of someone who's seen a ghost.
Steven collapsed into a mental breakdown and remained still for a few seconds. "Steven," Pearl asked, her voice trembling. "Are you okay?" Leon, who was closer, approached from behind, noticing that something was wrong. "Steven," Pearl repeated, confused, but then she saw Steven's eyes roll back and, without making a sound, he fell on top of Leon.
"Steven!"
End of Chapter 27.
d was terrifying.
The Pearls, who hadn't noticed her presence before because of how small she was, paled. Slowly, they turned to look at the Diamonds, who maintained an expression so serene it was more dangerous than any scream. The Pearls began to back away with trembling steps, inwardly praying for poor Ruby's soul.
Steven did the same. He took several steps back, eighty to be exact, just to be safe. He'd had enough of dodging a lightning bolt; he wasn't about to experience what it was like to be struck by one.
The Ruby looked up when she realized where she was, but she didn't have time to react. A yellow bolt, followed by a blue one, struck her in a matter of seconds. She screamed in pain before it all ended with a muffled explosion.
POOF.
The sound echoed throughout the room. Ruby's gem flew through the air, and before it could hit the ground, a gigantic foot descended from the sky, crushing it with a sharp crack.
The ensuing silence was even thicker than before. Steven was frozen, his heart pounding after witnessing something so brutal. The Pearls were pale, motionless, terror etched on their faces.