Soon they were settled in with their drinks. Connie shared a crate with Steven. There was plenty of room for the two of them. Amethyst had the same size crate to herself and she was lying on her side, propped up on her elbow. Still, Steven had his arm thrown around Connie's shoulders so she had to lean into him and wrap an arm around his waist to be comfortable. She thought the others would stare, but all of them were lounging all over each other too.
Sadie took a long sip of her drink, wiped her mouth with the back of her hand, and sat forward.
"So, it started like this. We were all pretty standard at first. We tried to be standard. But some of us were better at it than others."
Sadie nodded at Emerald. "Emie was a starship captain. She led a fleet in Yellow Diamond's army."
Connie looked at Emerald, lounging up high, sipping whiskey and coke. She didn't look like a part of Yellow Diamond's court.
"Lars and I were typical fluorites," Sadie went on. "We worked at a place called the Big Donut."
"That place with the giant pastry on it?" Connie asked.
"Yea! Do you not know what a donut is?"
"I'm from a colony," Connie said. "Donuts never made it out there."
"Wow," Jenny cut in. "You're like, really from a colony? I've never been off New Homeworld. Not even to visit the Moon Palace."
"No one's allowed there now that Pink Diamond is in seclusion," Lars said. "But she comes out sometimes."
"Hold on, you guys," Sadie said. "We're getting ahead of ourselves!" Sadie looked at Connie. "Sorry about that. Where was I? Right. Emie was a fleet captain. Lars and I worked in food service. Jenny and Sour Cream were in training to do music for balls and stuff. Buck was training with the sapphires to work in some elite gem's service. All normal. But then there were the original Off Colors. The ones that couldn't help being themselves." Sadie grinning.
Connie leaned in to listen, despite Steven's arm tightening around her.
"Paddy was used to see the future, obviously. But she sees the present. Instead of putting her to use, they abandoned her." Sadie shook her head. "Joan and Grace were born as conjoined twins. The only ones on Homeworld. They were left behind by the other rutile quartzes, who feared them. Rodnie was replaced by her Morganite for daring to exist as herself, as a fusion. And Fluo is like Lars and I, but has six components to make her a fluorite. Flou, Paddy, Grace, Joan, and Rodnie were together on Homeworld for thousands of years before they were made into a crew by Emie and Lars."
"But how?" Connie asked.
"It was all because of Pink Diamond," Lars said. He sat forward and put his elbows on his knees. "You know the planet in the Jade System that's refusing to assimilate into gem-kind?"
"Yea," Connie said. "I'm from the Jade System. They send wounded organic gems to my home for treatment in my mother's hospital."
The room gasped. Steven leaned forward and held her with both arms. Lars nodded.
"They're only the second planet to be assimilated into gem-kind. Right after us," Lars said. "But they're not like us. They aren't like gems. They're dangerous. And since the Jade System is right on the edge of Yellow Diamond's territory, she decided to handle it."
"Rumors are," Emerald said, "that when Pink Diamond went into seclusion, Yellow Diamond wanted to do something for her, something to show there were no hard feelings. So she ordered the colonization of the planet in the Jade System, to show she could colonize a planet in Pink Diamond's way. Only she found intelligent organic life. So, she thought she would assimilate them."
"But they started fighting back," Connie guessed. "And only Pink Diamond has the power to bring gems and organic life together."
"Exactly," Lars said. "The organic life there lashed out, stole a ship, and came here."
"Here!" Connie whispered. "To New Homeworld?"
"Yes. They reached the ground but were attacked when they entered the city. The Pink Stars led the troops against them, but they fled back to their stolen ship and took hostages with them."
Sadie took Lars' hand and continued.
"The Pink Stars mounted a rescue mission. That's when Pink Diamond interfered. As the ship tried to take off, a huge pink shield appeared above it, holding it down. That gave the Pink Stars time to fuse into their ultimate form, Alexandrite. Alexandrite wrenched the door open and pulled out the hostages. But then… then the Pink Diamond shield broke! The ship lifted off! And disappeared into the sky with one hostage still on it!"
Connie frowned. "It was you, Lars."
Lars swallowed. "Yea. I wasn't… pink back then. That came later. The ship's controls were all wonky. They could only auto-set it to Homeworld. On the way, they started shooting at other Gem ships. We caught the attention of Emerald."
"Hmph," Emerald said, uncrossing and recrossing her legs. "I didn't think much of you organic gems. Or any off-colors. But I was wrong. If not for my crew, my friends, I wouldn't be here today."
She took a sip of whiskey and coke.
"I was leading a fleet for Yellow Diamond when the organics from the Jade System started cutting a path from New Homeworld to Homeworld. They would pop into warp and disappear for a while, then drop out of it and wreak havoc, before starting the cycle again. I was to chase them down. We knew the path they were taking, but not when or where they'd drop out of wrap. Finally, just once I caught up to them, but I was overconfident. They outgunned my ship. They boarded us. There was no mercy in them. These organics didn't dissipate our forms; they used improvised blunt force weapons and went right for our gems. I was the last one on the bridge, fighting with my cutlass against three of them. I knew that was it. Until… I heard a roar, like some wounded creature's last cry in battle. It was Lars, brandishing one of their weapons from their fallen, coming right at them. He fell two of them before they could react! Finally, hope! But the third knew better than to face two armed enemies at once. Instead of turning his back on me, he ran straight for me, aiming for my gem! I felt the cold metal hit my face and felt my gem crack. Everything went black. And the next thing I remember, I was on a small ship rushing towards Homeworld."
Lars was smiling and shaking his head. "I tackled the last guy, making him fall before he hit her. Her gem was cracked, but not broken."
Connie let go of a breath she didn't know she'd been holding.
"I brought her gem back to the stolen ship," Lars said. "And we headed for Homeworld where I hoped we could get some help. I was sort of freaking out because I had… killed, or at least gave serious head trauma to those guys."
Sadie nudged him. "How about some lighter stuff for a minute?" She looked at Connie. "While that was going on in space, on New Homeworld we were all freaking out about Lars being missing. Steven started hanging around with us around that time, but his mom worked for Pink Diamond until she died and he has to as well, so his whole back story is hush-hush until Pink Diamond comes out of seclusion. But you're a Pink Star, so you probably know more about that than we do."
Connie smiled and shrugged, and was pleased that her non-answer seemed to satisfy the group.
"Steven, Jenny, Buck, and Sour Cream started jamming together, and I just worked myself to exhaustion to stop thinking about Lars. Well, one day they asked me to jam with them, and I kind of became their front gem. Steven eventually dropped out of the band when he got more work to do and we started doing shows. We even got an official permit to do big venue shows. And they listed me as the front gem. Me, a fluorite."
"We literally have no idea how it happened," Jenny said. "But, we know it got the agates around here back off. Especially Kevin."
"Ugh, that agate with the fancy car?" Emie groaned. "This isn't even his patrol area. I could talk to him."
"Don't bother," Buck said. "Kevin just wanted to accidentally get to meet Pink Diamond. He only hounds us because of that. Especially since–"
"Don't tell her yet!" Sadie said. "Lars, tell the rest of the story."
"This is where we come in!" Rodnie said.
"I can't wait, oh my stars!" Grace said.
"Oh my stars, I can't wait!" Joan added.
Lars laughed. "Right. So there we were. Just me and Emie. Emie's got a cracked gem. I can't summon a gem weapon yet. We're all alone and we've crashed in the depths of Homeworld. And unfortunately, there are bands of roving, shattering robonoids everywhere down there. We're trying to find a way to the surface to find Emie help, but we find the shattering robonoids first!"
"Oh!" Paddy said. "He's going to tell them our story!" She climbed up on Rodnie's lap and sat down.
"I sure am! Because just when I think it is the end, that is when they show up! The Rutile Twins attacked the robonoids with a rock, while Fluo wrapped her entire body around us and protected us from the scanner. The robonoid gets confused and wanders off!"
"All right!" Connie said. "That's amazing!"
"It's… nothing… sweetie," Fluo said.
"Yea," Rodnie added. "We'd been dodging those things for ages!"
"Since we finally had a moment's peace, I leave Emie with the Off Colors and go to find a way up to the surface."
"Which was really a stupid idea," Emie muttered. "We should have stuck together. I know I was fading in and out. But he could barely fight. Joan and Grace were better able to fight than him. And better able to hide. They could have got and secretly led someone back to us! But no, Lars is an idiot. And I knew he'd get hurt. I got up, despite being injured, and led the Off Colors after him. We found him fighting a robonoid with a stick!"
"And who almost got shattered by it?" Lars asked?
"Who jumped on it and got thrown into a wall and died?!"
The room was silent. Lars smiled ruefully.
"Well… that was me."
"You… died?" Connie whispered.
"See the scar?" Lars said. "I got smashed into a wall. I… didn't feel anything. I must have hit it pretty hard."
"His gem and face were both shattered," Joan said.
"We'd never met an organic gem," Grace said. "We didn't know which one had made him stop working."
"Damn stupid organic gem," Emie said. She sniffed. "The others were taking me away. I wanted to take his shards back to his home at least but… they were pulling me away, saying another robonoid would be there soon to check on the destroyed one. But as we left, there was a howl. We peeked around a corner and a figure in a pink cloak and hood walked out of the shadows. The figure kneeled next to Lars and held him, leaning down over his face. Then I realized the figure was crying. Suddenly Lars was pink and figured gently put him down and rushed away before Lars could open his eyes. We rushed over and Lars' face and gem were healed, but he was pink. We heard a howl and then nothing."
"Pink Diamond?" Connie asked.
"Yea," Lars said. "She healed me. And I'm connected to her somehow. After that happened I was more like a natural gem, I didn't need to eat or sleep. But when I slept, things would happen. One night in the caves, I convinced everyone to take a nap, and when we woke up, Emie was healed and there was a map out of the caves and to a launch bay. When we got there, they listed us as a single crew with our own ship in the Pink Diamond fleet."
"We… even… had… orders." Fluo said.
"To track down another stolen ship in the Jade Region and capture the organics of the colony planet that stole it," Rodnie said.
"Ha! What a ride that was!" Emie said. "We really proved the cut of our gems chasing them down! Remember when my Sun Incinerator was given back to us from Yellow Diamond's fleet?"
"We were amazing!" Joan said.
"They barely saw us coming!" added Grace.
"That's how their space travel was put to an end. And at last, they assigned us to go home," Lars said.
"Our new home," Emie said with a grin.
"New Homeworld!" Paddy shouted.
"Where they landed on the beach right in the middle of our concert!" Sadie said. "We'd heard of the Off Color Leaders, the ragtag group of rebellion-fighting gems that almost single-handedly put an end to Jade System's starship fleet. But hearing Lars was out there being a space captain, and seeing him with his crew were two different things."
"Well hearing you were a galaxy famous rock star and seeing were two different things!"
"Aw. You guys are too cute together," Jenny said.
"Yea," Amethyst muttered. "Gross. Anyway, we gotta get back. Pink Star stuff and all."
A few groans went up, but Steven, Connie, and Amethyst said their goodbyes and headed out the door.
#
"You better head back to the tower and fake up something for today," Amethyst said to Steven.
"You're being pretty responsible," Steven muttered.
"Ah, well. That story just… reminded me of stuff."
"Me too," Steven said.
"You guys alright?" Connie asked.
They both sighed.
"Come Con-con. Let's go. Later Steve-O." Amethyst started meandering away, head down.
"Connie, I'll call you," Steven hugged her, tight and desperate somehow, then let go and walked away in the opposite direction as Amethyst.
With heavy steps, Connie followed Amethyst.
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