Chapter Text
"I know my mom did something really bad," Steven spoke aloud to himself. He was currently being held inside of a bland slightly pink cell. He had been there for hours? He couldn’t really tell. He just wanted this to be over with already.
”Whatever Homeworld has in store for me, I’m ready!” Steven spoke to the empty room, receiving no response.
"I said I'm ready?! Its me, Rose Quartz!" Steven said, getting a little tired of waiting.
”Come on! I know it's gonna be worse than this! So whatever you're gonna do, would you just do it already?” Steven said softly, wondering when he was gonna be punished for something he didn’t even do. You’d assume they’d put the infamous “Rose Quartz’s” punishment over everything else. But nope! He’d been sitting in this dingy cell for hours.
Suddenly part of the wall opened, revealing a blue gem. She had a monocle, a moon-shaped hairstyle, a square like torso, and her gem was on her chest. She was mumbling something as she walked in. Steven didn’t hear much, but he heard the words “Rose Quartz”.
"This is ridiculous! 4,000 years of loyal service to court, and this is what I get?!" As the blue gem ranted to herself, Steven sprinted towards the door she came through, hoping to get out, but unfortunately the door closed before he could reach it.
"Oh, I'm the unluckiest Zircon in the galaxy!" the gem continued. The gem then turned towards Steven as he stepped back from the door, or wall.
"Wait, are you....Rose Quartz?" the gem asked hesitantly. Steven decided to just tell the truth. It wasn't like anything he told this gem would get her to let him out. He had already turned himself in. So, Steven nodded a yes.
"Really?" the gem asked skeptically. Steven couldn't blame her. He didn't exactly look like his mom.
"It's a long story." Steven hoped this answer would be a sufficient one to keep her from asking questions. He really did not want to deal with that.
"Then I don't have time for it." the gem responded, turning away from him and back to her screens.
"Ugh! We only have this brief moment to prepare your case."
"Case?" Steven asked confused. Why would he be having a case? What kind of case? A brief case? Hm..
"Ugh, who am I kidding? This is pointless!" the Zircon's voice brought Steven out of his thoughts.
"We've all heard the rumors about the demise of Pink Diamond, but I can't believe these files! Shattered by one of her own soilders? In front of her entire entourage!" After the Zircon spoke, she quickly turned towards Steven and stared him down.
"And look at you now! That ridiculous disguise is only going to make you look more guilty!" the Zircon spoke, placing her hands on her temples.
"That's fine, because I am!" Steven spat out angrily, in response to what Blue Zircon had said. Blue Zircon stood up in a panic, and began to speak.
"Well don't say that! Especially not when you're out there!" Blue Zircon pointed to the wall, where she had come in. Steven looked quizzically at her. Out where? He decided to voice his confusion.
"Out where?! Whats going to happen!?" Blue Ziron looked at with an expression of disbelief on her face.
"What did you think was going to happen, Rose Quartz?!" Blue Zircon took an angry step forward.
"As soon as that door opens, you're going on trial!" Blue Zircon explained angrily. Once she stopped talking, the door suddenly opened. Her anger disappeared in a flash, replaced with anxiousness. Steven gulped nervously, and looked at the door. Today was not his day.
☆◇☆
Sitting on the triangle of the middle of the court room, Steven felt very nervous. He was going on trial! What would his dad think?! His only son, going on trial at 14!
The other panels around him suddenly lit up blue, yellow, and white. And then, next to him a gem appeared through a beam of light. She looked liked Blue Zircon, but yellow.
She looked smugly at Steven, then looked towards Blue Zircon, and began to speak.
"Defending a rebel? Isn't that.....treason?" she chuckled. Blue Zircon quickly reacted.
"I was assigned to this!" she burst out angrily. She indeed had been assigned to defend "Rose Quartz", she would never willingly chose this as a job.
Suddenly two more gems appeared from a beam of light. Steven recognized them! The yellow one had answered Peridot's call to Yellow Diamond, and the blue one had found Steven and Greg in the bushes. She really only found Greg though.
"All rise for the luminous Yellow Diamond!" the yellow gem said, striking a pose.
"And the lustrous Blue Diamond." the blue gem said, cursteying. Once they both finished speaking, two more gems appeared out of a beam of light!
But these weren't any gems, these were the Diamonds!
"Where is the accused?" Blue Diamond asked after looking around the room. Yellow Diamond's eyes then landed on Steven.
"Is that Rose Quartz?" she asked, visibly repulsed. "Look at this hideous form she's taken,"
Steven pulled his legs closer to his stomach, suddenly self-conscious of his looks.
"Forget the trial. We should shatter her just for looking like that!" Yellow Diamond continued speaking. Steven paled. They wouldn't really shatter him for not looking like his mom, right?
"No. I want to hear her make her case," Blue Diamond disagreed. Steven sighed in relief. He'd at least get a fair trial.
"I want to know what she thinks we're going to do with her, because I want to do something worse," Blue Diamond continued. Steven gulped, afraid. Oh, what did he get himself into?
"Fine! Let's just get on with it, shall we?" Yellow Diamond spoke, summoning chairs for her and Blue to sit on. After they both sat down, Yellow Zircon began her very well thought out case.
"My Diamond. My brilliant, opulent, radiant, glimmering-" Yellow Zircon began, before Yellow Diamond interrupted her.
"My Diamond will suffice, or we'll never get through this." she said in irritation. Yellow Zircon's face took on a sheepish look. She then continued her case.
"Of course, My Diamond." She saluted, and cleared her throat before continuing.
"Rose Quartz committed a crime, so unprecedented that one can't help but wonder, why? Exhibit A." Yellow Zircon snapped her fingers, and Lars appeared through a beam of light.
"Lars!" Steven immediately shouted out the moment he saw Lars. He was okay! Steven had not led him to his death!
"Steven! What's going on here?! Where are we?!" Lars began to speak, until Yellow Zircon snapped her fingers again, creating a bubble over his head, resulting in the rest of his speech being muffled.
"As we can see from this specimen, humans are loud, absolutely hideous creatures that serve no purpose whatsoever. What sort of gem would turn on her own kind for this? I'll tell you what kind, that kind," Yellow Zircon said, pointing her finger at Steven.
He grew frustrated. Humans are not hideous creatures that serve no purpose! How could she say something like that? Steven knew there'd be no way for him to get off Homeworld, but maybe Lars could?
"Just let him go! He's got nothing to do with this!" Steven begged, hoping they'd take pity on him and Lars, and send him back to Earth. Unfortunately, that did not happen.
"There it is, the passion, the fury, that caused the diabolical Rose Quartz to, shatter her own diamond!" Yellow Zircon posed dramatically at the end of her speech. Steven was beginning to see a pattern going on with yellow gems.
Yellow Diamond rolled her eyes at Yellow Zircon's statement. Blue Diamond cast her eyes downward, a look of sadness crossing her face.
"But I know what you're thinking. This thing doesn't look like a Rose Quartz." Steven scowled at being called a "thing". He was a half-human half-gem being! He should be treated as such, not as an object!
"And for that, I would like to call in a gem-identifying robonoid," Yellow Zircon continued her speech.
Blue Zircon sighed, this case was not going her way at all. Once Yellow Zircon whipped out the robonoid, and it revealed that that was indeed Rose Quartz, there wouldn't be much she could do to defend the creature.
She'd be shattered, for not completing her task. Which was to prove Rose Quartz innocent. Why did she ever think she could pull this off?
Another beam of light appeared, but instead of harboring another gem, out came a robonoid. It seemed to know what to do, as it quickly flew over towards Steven, who sat there nervously.
This was it. He was going to die by the hands of the Diamonds. He'd never see the gems again. He'd never see Connie again. He'd never see his dad again. He'd never be again to walk along the beach at night again. He'd never be able to eat fry bits again.
He was going to die.
Steven almost teared up, thinking about all the things he wouldn't be able to do ever again. But he quickly blinked the tears away, so as to not appear weak in fron of these enemy gems.
The robonoid quickly scanned his figure, and once it passed his stomach, his gem lit up underneath his shirt. The robonoid stopped scanning him, and just sat there motionless.
Steven looked towards the gem who was supposed to be defending him, and saw her clutching her screens, a look of fear in her eyes. He looked over at what she was staring at.
It was Yellow Zircon. She was staring smugly at her own screens. Opening up the results messaged to her from the robonoid, she knew she had won this case. She knew Blue Zircon knew as well.
As Yellow Zircon opened the message, she quickly read through the details about the gem, like the color and position, until she reached what she was looking for.
The gem type.
Yellow Zircon's eyes widened as she read. There was no way that this was true. The robonoid had to have been broken! But, these robonoids had been kept in tip-top shape, if the need for them ever arose, so it couldn't be broken.
But the words she was reading had to be false! There was no way that this creature was harboring the gem of---
"Well? What are the results?" Yellow Zircon was brought out of her thoughts and back into reality by her Diamond's voice. She looked up at her Diamond, and said nothing. She couldn't find the words.
What was she supposed to say?! How was she to explain that that was no Rose Quartz, but a Diamond?!
"M-My Diamond, I think you should see this," Yellow Zircon stuttered, handing her screen to her Diamond, who cocked an eyebrow, and reached out her hand to take Yellow Zircon's screen.
Yellow Diamond quickly scanned through the unimportant stuff, until she ended up at the gem-type. Like Yellow Zircon, she couldn't believe her eyes. She understood why her Zircon was so shaken up.
But this just couldn't be possible! She had seen the shards herself! They had been too real to be fake! But, then how could this be?
She knew the robonoid couldn't be broken, she oversaw that each and every robonoid was kept in the most perfect condition, no matter its purpose.
So that meant that this "Rose Quartz" was actually Pink Diamond.