Author's Note: Hello! This chapter is mostly for lore and features a really great battle in my opinion, plus a few buffs for certain characters—the dang characters deserve them! Without further ado, let's continue.
Steven was watching from the side, feeling a bit nervous. In the room were Garnet, Amethyst, and Pearl—the main Gems to him.
"What's up, Steven?" Amethyst asked, raising an eyebrow.
Steven was sitting calmly in a chair—on the outside, that is; on the inside, he was scared to death.
"Um... well... I have something to tell you guys," he finally said.
Garnet tensed up as she saw multiple futures all at once, starting to tremble. She stared fixedly at Steven, but said nothing.
"It's not really a secret of mine, but let's say I inherited it," he said, his voice now sounding raspy.
Garnet released a bit of the tension and observed Steven with a raised eyebrow. Amethyst was more confused than ever.
Steven stared intently at the three of them.
His body began to turn pink.
"That?" Amethyst said, confused. "That's nothing—"
Amethyst went silent upon seeing Steven's eyes.
Two diamonds were reflected in them.
"This is horrible, but I finally understand myself," he said as his pink form reached its full brilliance.
"It can't be..." Garnet said, opening all three of her eyes.
"My mother was Pink Diamond."
Absolute silence fell over the room.
Garnet's visor began to flicker uncontrollably. Her breathing grew irregular, as if future sight itself were shattering right before her.
"No... not this..." she muttered.
Her body trembled even harder. Too many futures colliding with one another, too many possibilities canceling each other out at the exact same time.
The light holding Garnet together abruptly burst apart.
Ruby and Sapphire fell to the floor, separated.
Ruby got up almost immediately, breathing heavily, looking around in all directions.
"What just happened?" she asked, confused. "Why...?"
Sapphire slowly sat up. Her face was pale, her eye wide open, seeing futures that no longer made sense or had any shape.
"It doesn't fit," she said softly. "None of this fits."
"Sapphire," Ruby said, stepping closer. "Look at me. We can fix this, okay?"
Sapphire looked at Steven for just a second. There was no anger in her expression, only pure fear.
"This breaks the balance," she said. "I can't stay."
She took several steps backward.
"Wait," Ruby said, raising her voice. "Don't leave like this."
But Sapphire was already moving toward the temple warp pad. She walked quickly, almost running away, without looking back.
The warp pad activated with a bright blue glow, and in an instant, Sapphire disappeared.
Ruby remained standing before the deactivated warp pad, her fists clenched, trembling.
"Great," she said, her voice broken. "Just great."
Pearl stayed completely still, her head lowered like a punished cat.
Amethyst said nothing. She just stared at Steven, not knowing whether to step closer... or pull away.
And Steven understood that, by telling the truth, he had changed something that could never be put back together so easily.
"I expected this," I said.
Ruby looked at me with a raised eyebrow.
"This? Then why did you say it?"
I just looked at her with a raised eyebrow.
"Now that you know, what do you think?"
Ruby kept observing me for a few seconds. Then she shifted her gaze toward the warp pad.
"Before..." Ruby said as she looked at it, "before, I would have left. Now... well, I know what you are and what you aren't. You're not Pink Diamond."
She kept quiet for a moment.
"Though Sapphire... well, now I think the future where Blue Diamond gets unusually attached to you is actually possible. Now we know why."
"Gets attached to me?" I said with a raised eyebrow.
"Don't even ask me," Ruby said, shrugging her shoulders. "I'm just the voice of reason... well, more or less."
Her tone turned more concerned as she looked at the dark warp pad.
"But someone broke the mood."
"What's a Pink Diamond?" Amethyst asked, more confused than ever.
...
...
Pearl took a step forward, though a sweat drop was clearly visible on her face.
Pearl took a deep breath, as if she had been waiting for this moment for thousands of years.
"A Diamond isn't just a powerful Gem," she said, though she was trembling slightly. "It's an absolute authority. They are the foundation of the Empire, the ones who decide the fate of entire worlds."
Amethyst blinked several times.
"So... like bosses?" she said.
"More than that," Pearl replied. "They are creators, strategists, symbols. Each Diamond represents a concept. Blue Diamond: grief and empathy. Yellow Diamond: order and strength. White Diamond... imposed perfection."
She paused.
"Pink Diamond was different."
Steven raised his eyes slightly.
"Pink represented change," Pearl continued. "Curiosity. The ability to question a system that seemed unshakeable. That's why she was dangerous to the Empire."
"Dangerous for being good?" Amethyst asked.
"For being free," Pearl corrected. "For wanting to listen to ordinary Gems. For seeing them as individuals, not as tools."
Ruby gritted her teeth.
"So all the chaos... the war..."
"It was a consequence," Pearl said. "Pink Diamond faked her own destruction to escape a role that was suffocating her. Rose Quartz was her way of existing without chains."
Pearl looked at Steven.
"And you didn't inherit her imperial authority," she said firmly. "You inherited her decision to change—that's been obvious ever since you were born," she added with a somewhat sad smile.
Amethyst scratched her head.
"So you're like... an upgraded version?"
Steven let out a small, nervous laugh.
"That sounds weird, Amethyst, but let's say yeah—I'm an optimized version, half flesh, half light, though the light is just the gem," I said while summoning my shield and then un-summoning it.
"What you are," Pearl said, her voice softening, "is proof that a Diamond can stop being a symbol of control... and become someone real."
Silence returned to the room, but this time it wasn't heavy.
And even though Sapphire wasn't there to see it, one thing had become clear to everyone: the secret was no longer just a dangerous truth.
Shift in Perspective
A sound echoed from the warp pad while Steven was looking at the fountain alongside Pearl, who was silently staring at Rose's Tears.
"Are you sure it's here?" Pearl asked in confusion.
"Totally," I said firmly.
We both walked along the paths surrounding Rose's Tears.
The atmosphere felt heavy, loaded with memories that didn't entirely belong to me. As we walked forward, we noticed a blue Gem kneeling in front of the fountain. A large portion of the water was frozen.
"Sapphire," I said calmly.
The Gem in question looked up, her eye filled with tears.
"What do you want?" she said, dripping with venom.
...
...
"Just to tell you... or well, someone helping me with this will tell you," I said as Pearl stepped forward, making her presence known.
"You... were you Pink Diamond's Pearl?" Sapphire asked, her voice cracking.
"I was," Pearl answered. "Well... I stopped being her Pearl after she faked her own death."
Sapphire went silent.
Pearl took a deep breath before continuing. Her gaze drifted toward the fountain.
"At first," Pearl began in a low voice, "Rose was fighting strictly for the planet."
Sapphire didn't look away from her.
"Earth was different from any other world we had colonized. It grew, it changed, it resisted. Rose saw beauty in that before anyone else."
Pearl closed her eyes for a moment.
"In the beginning, her rebellion wasn't... compassionate. It was strategic. Defending the planet meant preserving something unique, something the Empire couldn't replicate."
Sapphire lightly clenched her fists.
"So... the Gems didn't matter?"
"They mattered, but they weren't the center," Pearl answered honestly. "Rose still thought like a Diamond. She saw Gems as part of the conflict, not as individuals trapped in it."
The water in the fountain vibrated slightly.
"Everything changed when she saw you," Pearl continued.
Sapphire raised her gaze.
"When she saw Garnet," Pearl added.
Sapphire's eye widened.
"Two Gems who, according to the Empire, should have never existed together. A stable, conscious, happy fusion."
Pearl smiled.
"Rose didn't understand it at first. She thought it was an anomaly. An error. But the more she watched, the more she realized that that was exactly what the Empire feared."
Sapphire swallowed hard.
"Freedom," she whispered.
"Identity," Pearl said. "Love. Choice."
Steven watched in silence, without interrupting.
"Rose realized she wasn't just fighting for a planet," Pearl said. "She was fighting for Gems who never had the right to decide who they were."
Pearl's voice trembled.
"The rogue Gems. The defective ones. The ones that didn't fulfill perfect functions. The ones that were cast aside."
Sapphire closed her eyes.
"Us," she said in a low voice.
"Yes," Pearl affirmed. "From that moment on, Rose changed. The war stopped being just a territorial defense and turned into a revolution."
Pearl took another step closer to the fountain.
"She was no longer fighting just against the Empire. She was fighting against the idea that a Gem is born with an unshakeable destiny."
The silence grew heavy.
"That's why she faked her death," she continued. "Not just to escape her role as a Diamond... but to prove that even an absolute authority could disappear."
Steven was clearly playing dumb, since that "absolute authority" was more of a spoiled child, but he kept that to himself—otherwise, two Gems would kill him for telling the truth.
"They hated Steven because he told the truth," Steven thought, wiping away imaginary tears.
Shaking his head, he looked at Sapphire.
Sapphire opened her eyes, her tears falling without freezing this time.
"And she left everything behind," she said in pain. "She left us... she left Garnet."
Pearl lowered her head.
"I know. And she never stopped carrying that weight."
Steven took a step forward.
"But she also left something behind," I said gently.
Sapphire looked at me.
"She left an opportunity," I continued. "So that Gems wouldn't have to live as pieces of a system."
Sapphire observed the fountain, the ice beginning to slowly crack open.
"So... Garnet wasn't a mistake," she said.
"She never was," Pearl replied firmly. "She was the proof Rose needed to open her eyes."
The ice melted completely, tears flowing once again from the statue of Rose.
And for the first time since arriving at that place abandoned by time, Sapphire wasn't alone facing the past—though she had never been alone, she was now accompanied by a truth that, painful as it was, was no longer frozen in time.
Man, I really nailed this text, damn right.
Sapphire returned while Ruby was playing video games with Amethyst to ease her mind.
Turning her head, Ruby noticed her lover standing beside the other two and practically teleported to her side.
"Sapphireeee!" Ruby cried out, weeping.
"Rubyyyyy!" Sapphire cried as well.
The two little Gems wept together, holding onto each other tightly. Steven left them alone and took Pearl by the arm—she was on the verge of joining the crying match herself.
He sat her next to Amethyst, who just raised her eyebrows flirty-style.
Pearl looked at her sideways, tears still in her eyes, but with a soft smile she couldn't hide.
Amethyst then looked at Steven.
"So... what now? Can you make Gems, or fire nuclear attacks, or how does it work?" she asked, looking at Steven with genuine curiosity.
"I don't know," I said flatly as I grabbed the controller Ruby had been using and started playing.
"Wanna play?" I asked Pearl without taking my eyes off the screen.
"I don't know how to play," she said, seemingly emotionless.
"Should I teach you?"
"Two against one?" Pearl said with a lopsided smile as she watched Ruby and Sapphire enter the temple room, still holding hands.
"Sure," I said.
Pearl took Amethyst by the arm. Amethyst was confused for a second, but feeling that familiar tug, she understood immediately. A bright light emerged, enveloping them both and gently lifting them up.
Opal appeared, grabbing the controller with utter seriousness.
"PvP or are you scared?" I said, staring at her.
"No fear," Opal answered without hesitation.
And so both played, focused and truly competing, though Steven still had that persistent thought in the back of his mind, fully aware that he still needed to tell the truth to Lapis, Peridot, and Bismuth.
2000 Words
Steven took a deep breath. He wouldn't do it just yet. First, he needed them to understand with words.
"Pink Diamond faked her death," I finally said, my voice firm but carrying something heavier than fear.
Peridot dropped a tool.
Lapis lost control of her water for a second, though she managed to compose herself.
Bismuth didn't move.
"She wasn't shattered," I continued. "Not by Rose... because Pink Diamond and Rose Quartz were the exact same Gem."
The silence was brutal.
"That's impossible," Peridot said almost immediately. "The Peridot signatures, the logs, the war reports..."
"They were all altered," I answered. "By her."
Even though there wasn't much left of those memories, I recalled something about her going to the Moon Base to alter the reports and avoid suspicion.
Bismuth gritted her teeth.
"Explain it," she said. She didn't sound angry. She sounded dangerous.
I nodded.
"Pink Diamond never wanted to colonize Earth. From the beginning, she saw something different in this planet—something that didn't fit with the Empire. But she was still a Diamond. She didn't know how to rebel without destroying everything."
I walked around the barn a little, organizing my thoughts.
"So she did the only thing she knew: she created a false identity. Rose Quartz. An ordinary Gem, just another soldier. That's where the rebellion started."
Lapis stared at me without blinking.
"At first, it wasn't a clean fight," I continued. "Rose made mistakes. A lot of them. She thought simply defending the planet was enough; she didn't think about the Gems trapped in the middle. She thought like a Diamond even when claiming she wasn't one."
Bismuth exhaled heavily.
"And then?" she asked.
"Then she saw things she had never seen before," I said. "Gems that didn't fit in. Impossible fusions. Defective Gems that still felt, thought, and dreamed."
I looked at Lapis.
"She saw the pain of enslaved Gems."
I looked at Peridot.
"She saw how the Empire discarded anyone who wasn't useful."
I looked at Bismuth.
"She saw the true cost of war."
Bismuth lowered her gaze.
"But the Empire wasn't going to stop just because she wanted it to," I continued. "So Pink Diamond made the most cowardly decision... and the bravest one at the same time."
Peridot frowned.
"Faking her death?"
"Yes," I nodded. "Her 'assassination' was the breaking point. The Empire backed off. Blue and Yellow were devastated. Earth stopped being a priority."
The water around Lapis began to tremble.
"But Rose kept carrying the consequences," I said. "She never stopped feeling guilty. For the shattered Gems. For those left behind. For Bismuth."
Bismuth raised her head slowly.
"She knew...?" she asked.
"Yes," I answered bluntly. "And even then, she was afraid to tell you."
Silence returned once more.
"Rose never forgiven herself," I said in a low voice. "And when she had me..."
I placed my hand over my chest.
"It wasn't to escape. It was to change. So that someone could exist who wasn't a Diamond, but someone who could live with those mistakes and try to make things better."
Peridot was looking at me as if her entire world were reconfiguring itself.
"So you...", she muttered.
"I am what remained when Pink Diamond stopped running," I said. "I'm not her. I'm not Rose. But I carry it all."
Lapis closed her eyes.
Bismuth took a deep breath.
Nobody spoke for several seconds.
"Now you know," I said finally. "And I didn't gather you here to ask for forgiveness for what my mother did. I gathered you to know if... you still back me in this. If you don't, I'll completely understand."
The barn remained silent.
And Steven understood that, no matter what happened next, that moment could no longer be undone.
Bismuth stared intently at me.
"Let's fight," she said seriously.
...
...
...
I said nothing, but walked toward an open clearing where nothing was around—just dirt and open sky.
Lapis, who had already made up her mind, flew into the air while dragging along Peridot, who was still completely in shock.
Bismuth and I stared each other down.
Bismuth summoned blades on her hands and quickly rushed at me.
I swiftly summoned two spiked bubbles and protected myself with them.
The impact was immediate. Bismuth's blades slammed against the pink bubbles, causing them to vibrate violently, though they didn't break.
Even so, the blow shoved me back several meters, sliding across the ground.
Bismuth didn't stop.
The blades dissolved, and in an instant, her hands transformed into compact hammers. She struck the ground with both, raising a shockwave that cracked the earth right in front of me.
I leaped.
A pink panel appeared under my feet, and I propelled myself upward—then another, and another, forming an improvised staircase in midair.
Bismuth looked up without hesitation.
Her hands changed once again, now turned into grappling hooks connected to solid cables, which she fired at me. One grazed my leg.
I flipped in the air and created a smooth bubble to launch myself sideways, dodging the second hook. I landed rolling on the ground, getting right back up.
"I'm not here to hurt you," I said, my breathing heavy.
"You don't get to decide that—I do," Bismuth answered without lowering her guard.
Her arms transformed into a massive, compact cannon. She fired a barrage of metallic projectiles straight at me.
"What the heck is up with that nonsense?" I thought, completely bewildered.
I extended both hands and raised a wall of pink panels, one after another. The projectiles ricocheted; some exploded against the barrier, while others shot off into the sky.
But Bismuth was already sprinting.
She jumped onto the panels, using the momentum, and in midair morphed her hands into a giant mace. She brought it down with all her force.
I crossed my arms and generated a reinforced bubble just in time.
The blow slammed me into the dirt.
The bubble held, but I felt the impact throughout my entire body. The ground caved in beneath me, forming a shallow crater.
I grunted and pushed with all my strength, expanding the bubble into a burst of pink energy that sent Bismuth flying several meters back.
We both stood up almost at the same time.
Bismuth was smiling, but it wasn't a cheerful smile.
"So this is what you inherited," she said, dusting off her shoulder. "Not just useless words like hers."
"This is top-tier inheritance," I replied.
I ran toward her.
I created pink panels in front of me, jumping from one to the next, constantly changing direction. Bismuth tried to keep up, her arms morphing into spears, then saws, then shields to block my strikes.
I leaped high and, from midair, formed several small bubbles that I threw like projectiles. They weren't meant to explode—just to distract.
Bismuth sliced through them one by one, but she didn't see the panel that appeared behind her.
I dropped down from above and pushed her with a pink shield, sending her rolling across the ground.
She got right back up.
"Nice move," she admitted.
Her hands transformed into chains that she lashed out at me, wrapping around my arms and torso. She yanked hard, slamming me onto the ground.
Before she could finish me off, I unleashed an explosive burst from a bubble at my chest, shattering the chains and shoving her backward.
I stood up slowly.
"I don't want to fight you," I said, my voice firm. "But I'm not going to let you break me just because you're angry."
Bismuth was breathing heavily.
"I'm angry because you lied," she said. "Because she lied. Because everything was a lie!"
"It was an escape," I answered. "And I'm here so it doesn't happen again."
The silence lasted barely a second.
Bismuth yelled and charged once more.
This time, I didn't dodge.
I raised both arms and formed a pink dome around the two of us. Bismuth's strike crashed against the barrier from the inside, making the light vibrate.
We stared at each other, separated only by that layer of energy.
"I am not her—you need to get that through your stupid head, you bastard," I said clearly.
I pushed her back.
"But I'm not going to deny what she did either—she was a total son of a bitch, if you ask me."
Bismuth slowly lowered her hands.
The pink light vanished.
We were both left standing, tired, breathing heavily in the middle of the ruined field.
The fight was over.
Not because someone had won.
But because there was no longer any need to keep hitting each other to express what hurt.
"It shows, and that pisses me off," Bismuth said with restrained fury. "I can't even vent on anyone."
I stayed silent, sporting a chibi face, letting the wind pass between us.
"Another round?" I said with a light smile.
"I really feel like venting," Bismuth said.
She didn't answer with words. Her hands changed shape almost immediately, morphing into massive gauntlets with thick plating. The ground creaked beneath her feet as she took the first step.
I sighed.
"Alright, let's go," I said simply.
Bismuth charged without holding back this time. It wasn't a direct attack; it was a rush loaded with frustration. Every step she took left deep gouges in the dirt.
I created a pink panel in front of me and jumped right as she smashed through it with a punch, shattering it into fragments of light. I landed rolling and raised another panel to launch myself to the side.
Bismuth spun around, her arms transforming into large spinning discs that she threw like saws. They weren't meant to cut me—they were meant to force me to keep moving.
I ran.
Panel after panel appeared beneath my feet, forcing me to climb, descend, and switch direction. One of the saws grazed my shoulder, making my form vibrate, but I kept going.
"Stop running away!" Bismuth shouted.
"I'm not running away," I replied while dropping from a high panel. "It's a tactical retreat—sigma grindset, right?"
Upon landing, I formed a reinforced bubble around my body just as she crashed down on top of me with both fists turned into hammers. The impact was brutal. The field sank several inches.
The bubble held.
So did I.
I expanded the bubble suddenly, throwing her back. Bismuth rolled across the ground and stood right back up, panting, but smiling with a crooked grin.
"Now that," she said. "That's better."
Her arms transformed into compact launchers that fired a hail of metallic projectiles—enough to crush anyone.
I raised a wall of pink panels, but this time I didn't stay still. I sprinted along the wall, jumping between panels as the projectiles bounced off and tore up the ground behind me.
I leaped high and, from midair, generated several small bubbles that fell around Bismuth.
They didn't explode.
They trapped her inside.
Bismuth stopped for a second, looking at them.
"Seriously?" she said.
Her arms turned into pickaxes, and she broke through the bubbles one by one, pushing through the pink remnants as if walking through fog.
By the time she broke out, I was already right in front of her.
We clashed.
Her fist against my shield.
The impact shoved us both backward.
This time I didn't retreat fully. I planted my feet and pushed. Bismuth did the same. The ground cracked between us.
"It's not fair," she said through gritted teeth. "She messed everything up... and you're out here fixing things."
"Someone had to do it," I answered, maintaining a serious chibi face.
Bismuth yelled and spun, using the momentum to throw me into the air. I flew several meters and landed on my back, rolling until I came to a stop.
Before I could get up, a shadow covered me.
I looked up.
Bismuth had jumped high, her arms turned into a giant, solid mass, ready to crush down.
I didn't dodge.
I extended both hands and raised a full pink dome around myself.
The blow landed.
The dome held, but the shockwave expanded across the field, kicking up dust and causing everything around us to vibrate.
Inside the dome, I was breathing with a bit of difficulty—mostly because I was using my creativity for this fight. This fight was meant to be a place where I could expand my powers little by little, though I had planned another fight, but that's beside the point.
Outside, Bismuth slammed her hands against the barrier, pushing furiously.
"Hit me!" she yelled. "Do something!"
The dome vanished.
Bismuth lost her balance for a second, and I took advantage of it. Not to attack, but to surround her with pink panels that sprouted from the ground, forming a closed circle.
A boundary.
Bismuth hit one of the panels. Then another. Then another. Each blow was heavy, but she wasn't trying to break them quickly anymore—she was trying to exhaust herself.
I just stood there, watching her.
"It's okay to be angry," I said calmly. "It's not okay to destroy yourself over it."
Bismuth stopped. Her arms returned to normal.
She was breathing heavily.
"What do you know?" she said, her voice shaking. "You weren't there."
I nodded.
"No," I replied. "But I'm here now—or what, can't you see me?"
Silence fell over the field.
Bismuth took a step back, then another. She dropped to the ground, sitting down and resting her elbows on her knees.
"I just needed to hit something," she muttered.
I walked over and sat in front of her.
"That's what second rounds are for," I said with a tired smile.
Bismuth let out a brief, almost involuntary chuckle.
"You didn't win," she said.
"Neither did you," I replied with a smug smile.
We sat there, breathing, as the field slowly settled back into calm.
The fight had lasted long enough.
Not to win.
But to let go of what hurt.
"They're done," Lapis finally said, descending after hours of watching them fight.
"I'm not done with that son of a son of a bitch," Bismuth said with contained fury.
"Hey, don't insult my mother either, you massive piece of shit," I replied, also with fury.
Lapis had a sweat drop on her face, taking in the scene.
"Alright, that's enough," she said as they walked off to the side.
"Fine," I said, wiping a bit of sweat off. I hadn't used my pink form—I wanted to test my base form, like in Dragon Ball, I thought with a smile.
"Whatever," Bismuth said as she walked up and slapped my back hard a few times.
"Let's go, Steven. Pink Diamond can suck it," she added with a wink.
I just smiled as I walked toward the warp pad, thinking about what I could do for the upcoming arrival.
Author's Note: HELLO! This part was mostly so Steven could start using more creativity with his powers. The next episode will be absolute fire, so stay tuned, guys!
End of Chapter 76.