Back on Earth, Bismuth, Connie, Mayor Nanefua, and a General from the military were sitting in a room at Little Homeschool, planning both their attack and defense strategies against Steven for when he finally returned. They had been strategizing for almost an hour, while the rest of the citizens of Little Homeschool and a few humans worked on building defenses. Then the warp pad in the center of Little Homeschool suddenly lit up. Bismuth, Connie and the General ran outside in fear that it may be Steven warping in, but instead were greeted by the reprogramed Pearl.

“Greetings, Gems and Humans of Delmarva. My master, Lord Paragon, has sent me to inform you that he will soon be arriving back on Earth..,” Pearl announced, before she was interrupted by the General.

“Just who the fucking hell are you? You don’t look like this Steven I’ve been warned about,” the General stated.

“I wasn’t addressing you since you’re not a citizen of either Beach City or Little Homeworld. But since you’re clearly feeble-minded, I’ll identify myself. My name is Pearl. I’m Lord Paragon’s faithful servant. I handle the small things for my master, i.e. morons like you,” Pearl said.

“Listen here you bitch, give me one good reason why I shouldn’t shoot you where you stand,” asked the General, having heard enough from her and pulled out his side arm.

“Sir, I would strongly advise against that idea,” Connie stated, having notice the two cutlasses attached to Pearl’s belt.

“Why shouldn’t I, we could send this Steven or Paragon or whatever the fuck his name is a message by killing his fucking little messenger,” the General stated.

“Because the two swords that are on her belt tells me that Steven didn’t erase her knowledge of sword fighting and she was the one who taught me. Even before Steven reprogramed her, she was the one person I could never beat in a duel,” Connie explained.

“As much as I hate to admit this, you should maybe listen to that one if you want to continue living, you moronic Terran,” Pearl responded, staring at the General.

“Duly noted,” the General stated as he pointed his weapon at Pearl. But before he could fire, Pearl had went from standing on the warp pad to standing next him with both of her swords out. The General looked over at Pearl in the corner of his vision with fear then started screaming as his arm that was holding his gun started falling apart in sections. He then fell to his knees screaming as he withered in pain for a few seconds before Pearl sliced his head cleanly off.

“That finally shut that stupid Terran up,” Pearl declared as she flung the blood off of her swords and returned them to their scabbard.

“Now, before I was interrupted by that stupid fucking idiot, Lord Paragon wishes for you all to know that he will return to Earth today at 3:00 PM, at Peak Slab in the Middle Garden section of Empire City and he will have a present for you all to enjoy. He demands that the Earth media be in attendance as well, not only does he have a message for you all, but the leaders of this rock as well,” Pearl explained as she walked back towards the warp pad.

“Oh and Ms. Maheswaran, Lord Paragon is extremely displeased that you disobeyed his order, he wishes for you to know that your punishment will be more severe now,” Pearl exclaimed as she warped away. Connie was staring at the pad as she was starting to become over whelmed with grief as the Pearl she knew was truly gone like Peridot had predicted. She then felt Bismuth place her hand on her shoulder, Connie turned at hugged her tightly as her boyfriend and her teacher were both gone.

“It’s gonna be okay Connie, will figure a way to either get them back to their old self or stop them, one way or the other, but first we need to start preparing for whatever this surprise he has for us is,” Bismuth said trying to cheer Connie up, while getting her mind back on the task at hand.

“Right,” Connie said, releasing her hug from Bismuth and wiping her eyes dry.

“So, we have till 3:00 PM before Steven arrives back in Empire City,” Bismuth said as they headed back over to talk to Mayor Nanefua.

“Seems like it and I have a bad feeling about it too,” Connie said as she closed the door.

The media had all gathered around Middle Garden preparing to broadcast Paragon’s speech. Right at 3:00 PM, there was a bright flash of light as Paragon appeared before them. Back at Little Homeschool they were all gathered around the TV, watching as Paragon reappeared. Bismuth, Connie, Lapis and Peridot watched in shock as Paragon looked at the cameras, as if he was staring straight at them.

“He’s changed even more,” Connie uttered. As they continued watching Pearl then appeared to his left as a bubbled White Diamond appeared to his right.

“I’m going to announce this only once, the Earth will surrender complete control to me or face total annihilation,” Paragon stated.

“And what if we don’t,” asked a reporter. Paragon stretched an arm out behind his back, forming a bubble, no bigger than the size of a baseball and fired it towards the skyscrapers behind him. Once it traveled a mile from him, it exploded, obliterating everything within a half mile radius from it. As the pressure wave from the explosion blew past Paragon, he was still staring at the reporter that asked the question.

“G…g…go…got it,” the reporter said. Connie and the others watched in horror as Paragon had just killed thousands if not tens or maybe hundreds of thousands of people without even blinking.

“Good, now before I leave, I have a message for the Gems and Humans of Delmarva. Many of you know who this is in the bubble and many of you know who these were,” Paragon said as he held out colorless shards of Blue and Yellow. There was a loud gasp throughout Little Homeschool as Paragon showed off the shards.

“Now, many of you are wondering about my change in appearance. This is what three Diamonds look like in one body. Blue and Yellow may be gone physically but their light is now part of me. I’m a Semi-Perfect Diamond and when I siphon the light from White, I will become a Perfect Diamond, a paragon if you will,” he explained staring straight at the camera. The camera panned back as the bubble rose above his head. Then the air inside the bubble started sparking before it shocked White with electricity, who screamed out in pain as lines started to form on her body before finally poofing. Paragon then popped the bubble, allowing White’s gem to drop in his hand.

“And now it’s time for me to siphon the light from White,” Paragon gloated as White’s gem started glowing as well as his hand. This time instead of growing like he had before, his whole body began to glow as he started levitating. Once Paragon was about thirty feet off the ground, White’s Diamond was no longer glowing. Paragon then crushed the lightless gem as he floated back down towards the ground. When both his feet had touched the ground, he was still glowing but he was also singing.

“♬'P' is for the ‘precious’ looks upon your face,

'A' is for the 'annihilation' of the planet Earth,

'R' is for the 'rapture' that I will bring upon the Universe,

'A' is for the 'asses' that I am about to kick,

'G' is for just how 'grand' I am,

'O' is for my 'outrage' that I have towards you all,

'N' is for the 'nightmare' which is what you think this is,

(chuckles)

My name is Paragon, ♬” he sung as he stopped glowing. He was now the height of Pink Diamond but no longer had the physical shape of Jasper, but that of a martial artist. As Paragon looked around at the fright of all those around him, he returned his focus to the reporter that had questioned him earlier. He raised his hand and the reporter suddenly began flying towards Paragon, his had ending up around their neck.

“And I’d like to say au revoir,” Paragon stated as he snapped the reporter’s neck.

“Now, leaders of this pitiful world, you have one week to give me your answer, if I don’t hear an answer by this time next week, I’ll turn the rest of Empire City into dust and for every day you refuse to surrender another city will be reduced to dust. Tick tock, tick tock,” Paragon said as he teleported away.