Chapter Text
Pink’s Garden
Tanya
While the gems under her command was working around the clock to make repairs on the ship, Tanya was in the midst of what looked like a garden that needed some tending to; already she could see greenery and vines growing out of control, but still thriving within the sealed biosphere that she entered into through a two set of doorways that allowed her and her fellow gems that joined her to enter the garden without exposing it to the vacuum of space. One set allowed visitors to enter from the outside, while the other set allowed the vacuum of space to not affect the garden on the inside by staying closed until the entrance chamber was repressurized for gem visitors to enter on through the secondary set of doorways.
While the small contingent of gems that she took along with her split up to take stock and notes on how much was needed to restore the Garden back to its pristine condition, Tanya continued walking towards the center where she could see a galaxy warp pad with her Pearl not far behind her. Walking with a datapad in hand, and using a stylus in the other hand to write into it to make notes, Tanya’s eyes glanced back and forth to take in the sights. Orange Pearl behind her chose to speak up to comment on the state of the garden.
“I don’t understand.” Tanya’s pearl mused as she walked behind her with her hand under her chin, and the other supporting her elbow, “Why isn’t there a team of gems to look after Pink Diamond’s own garden?” she pondered.
As Tanya jotted down a few notes into her data pad, she responded without missing a beat, “Well, that's why we’re in here on command by Yellow Diamond.” she said as she halted in her steps and stood before the steps leading up to the galaxy warp pad, “To check the status of the garden and see if there are any gems that were left behind before Pink went to Earth.”
While her Pearl turned around and glanced at the bushes and the flowers on them with some bit of awe and wonderment, Tanya proceeded to walk up the stairs leading to the warp pad and took notes of its state. “Everything seems in working order.” she murmured as her eyes scanned the steps and soon the warp pad once she reached the top, “I’m not peridot, but I don’t see any abnormalities in the warp pad.” Tanya mused as she bent down to get a closer look, before something in her peripheral vision on the other side of the warp pad seemed to peek over the stairs.
Tanya’s head snapped up along with her eyes to focus on what came into her vision, only to see nothing; she raised an eyebrow when she heard some giggling, before it ceased as if whoever was doing it shut their mouth with their hands. Tanya stood up, and turned her head slightly to look down from the warp pad to see if it was pearl, ridiculous as it might me, but lo and behold she was busy jotting down into her own datapad, her attention was on the hairline fractures on the floating pink obelisks.
A finger poked Tanya’s left shoulder, prompting her to quickly turn in the direction of whoever was trying to get her attention, only to see no one beside her. ‘ What?’ Tanya thought to herself, ‘Someone poked my shoulder, I know I felt something or someone poke me.’ Tanya continued to think to herself. Another poke landed on her back, prompting Tanya to quickly whirl around as fast as she could to catch the offender, only to catch no one. ‘ What!? I know someone poked me!’ Tanya assured herself.
To prove Tanya’s sanity, a silent giggle echoed on the other side of the warp pad, prompting her to narrow her eyes in suspicion, and stormed over to get to the bottom of all the nonsense. As Tanya walked over the warp pad, and to the other side of it where there was a set of steps leading down to the other side, a pink blur whooshed up above and over Tanya. Moving as fast as she could in turning around to catch the pink blur, Tanya stumbled back in surprise when a pink gem of sorts had her face directly in front of her own. “Boo!” the pink gem giggled out as Tanya continued to stumble backwards.
As Tanya let out an undignified yelp of surprise, the pink gem let out a giggle of excitement as her arm elongated over to Tanya to catch her falling body that would have went falling down the stair by wrapping her noodle elongated arm around Tanya’s body and pulling her back into a one armed hug. “Welcome, welcome, welcome!” the Gem dramatically announced as she squished her cheek up against Tanya’s own, who gritted her teeth in annoyance and tried to push her arms out to escape the gem’s grasp, but to no avail.
“My name’s Spinel! And what’s your name, new friend!?” Spinel asked cheerfully and giggled some more as she unwound her arm off from Tanya, causing her to cartoonishly spin in place, before Spinel placed both her hands on Tanya's shoulders to stop her in place. Tanya’s eyes seemed to somehow spin around, before she brought her hands up to smack her cheeks to make sense of her situation and snap herself back to reality.
Once Tanya finally got a grasp on her situation, she breathed out a calm herself before responding to the off brand looking disney character before her, “You can simply call me Citrine, for now.“ Tanya responded as calmly as she could while fixing her hair down after being spun around in such a way.
While Spinel bounced one foot to another in childish excitement, Orange Pearl finally reached the top of the warp pad after hearing the activity and noise that was going on on top of the stairs and warp pad. “My Citrine, are you okay!?” She fretted, only to be accosted by Spinel next as the pink gem made her legs and arms into springs and back flipped over until she reached Orange Pearl and wrapped her arms around the Pearl’s torso.
“Why hello new friend!” Spinel cheered some more as she held Orange Pearl up against her cheek to cheek within her noodly arm wrapped around the pearl. “If you haven’t already heard, I’m Spinel, and you look like a Pearl…and Orange…Orange you glad to meet your new buddy Spinel?” the pink gem ran her mouth a mile a minute in overeager excitement, Spinel proceeded to giggle at her own play on word joke.
Orange Pearl struggled to get out of the pink gem’s grasp, “Unhand me, right this minute!” she declared with an upset look on her face.
Spinel chortled as she released Orange Pearl from her grasp, and sprung from her spot over to a spot between the two gems; as Spinel stood at her spot while also bouncing up and down at her knees with her hands clasp into fists and against her hips, she twisted her body around and leaned backwards to look at Tanya upside down with a twisted torso. “So.” she began to say with a perky attitude. “What brings you two here?” Spinel asked, before unwinding her body below her body, while her head stayed in place.
As Spinel bounced off from her feet and stood beside Tanya with pep in her body and continued to animatedly dance in place with her hips swaying and knees bending as Tanya spoke up with incredulity written all over her face, “I am here on orders of my Yellow Diamond.” She responded with a measured tone as her eyes went up and down in tracking Spinel’s body as the pink gem seemed to barely contain herself from standing in one spot.
“Ooh, Then what was all that fighting earlier?” Spinel asked as she bounced off from her feet and performed a handstand and kicked her feet back and forth in the air with her head craned cartoonishly up to look fully up at Tanya.
Orange Pearl, who was getting tired of the pink gem’s shenanigans, stormed over and poked at Spinel, “listen here you-” She began to say, only for Spinel to stretch her hand up while still performing a handstand with only one hand, and slapped Orange Pearl in the face. “TAG!” she screamed deeply with excitement, before backflipping in place and ran in the air until she zoomed off out of sight down the stairs.
“Why you!” Pearl shrieked as she went running down the stairs to find the Pink gem.
Tanya rubbed her own face with her palm, “What have I gotten myself into?” she asked herself.
“Gee. Beats me.” Spinel dramatically said from above Tanya’s head as a pair of legs were draped around her neck and collar, as Spinel sat on her shoulders and leaned against her head while resting her arms atop her head. Spinel proceeded to stretch her neck and dangle her head upside down across from Tanya’s own face. “So, what game do you wanna play?” she asked with a cheeky smile, with hope in her eyes as her gem eyes shined in childish wonder, her lips spread wide into a cheeky grin while doing so.
Tanya’s eyes widened during the whole process with shock and surprise, before she let out an annoyed growl and began trying to pry Spinel off of her. “Get off! I’m not here to entertain some childish gem that’s been left neglected for centuries!” Tanya began to say, while clenching her teeth and squinting her eyes in frustration to get the pink gem off her shoulders and neck, not noticing Spinel momentary dower expression.
“But If you want someone to play with.” Tanya continued to struggle with prying Spinel off of her shoulders, only for Spinel to snap back into place onto her shoulders. “I have some gems from Pink Diamond’s court that share your attitude somewhat.” She tried to bargain with Spinel.
“Yippee!” Spinel cheered as she bounced off from Tanya’s shoulders, causing her to stumble in place from the displacement of the gem from her shoulders, before catching herself and stood back in place to watch as Spinel landed back down in front of her and bounced at her knees with her hands on them as she looked up at Tanya with an excited look. “Who is it? Tell me…tell me tellmetellme!” Spinel urged Tanya with excited fervor.
“Let me guess.” Spinel began to ask suddenly as she looked up at Tanya’s pensive face, “You brought Pink Sapphire…wait no.” she furrowed her brow, “She’s boring, no wait. You have Labradorite!” she gasped with wide eyes, “Wait, don’t tell me, Pink lent you the Gems she created on her new colony she always wanted!”
At that tidbit of information, Tanya blinked at Spinel’s questions, “Er…something like that.” she began to say, “I have some Amethysts, a Carnelian, and two Jaspers that belong to her…I can tell you that much…” Tanya wasn’t sure how to break the news that Spinel’s Diamond was supposedly shattered, a fact she’s still in the process of investigating whether it actually happened or not.
“Some new best friends!” Spinel cheered as she bounced with her knees in place while swinging her arms and fist side to side in excitement as she looked up at Tanya with a cheerful grin, “Some new best friends, some new best friends, some new best friends!” Spinel chanted with the last bit more boisterously and giggled a bit as she turned her legs into springs and bounced away, before catching herself onto the top of one of the pink floating obelisks beside the pathway that led up to the warp pad.
As Spinel wrapped her legs around the obelisks she caught herself onto, she wrapped one of her arms on it as well and used her other arm to hold her hand over her eyes as she scanned the entire garden from high up. “Pink always creates the best playmate gems, I wonder if Pink Morganite still helps Pink in managing her court.” she offhandedly spoke as her eyes caught sight of various amethyst gems.
Tanya’s thoughts zeroed in on the name Pink Morganite. “I’m sorry, Pink Morganite?” she asked as she walked over and hollered up to Spinel, who stretched her arm that was around the obelisk to allow her to behind her body backways and look at Tanya upside down.
“Yeah!” Spinel began to say with a wide brimming smile, “Pink Morganite, she and Pink always play tea parties, on top of helping Pink with her court.”
As Tanya brought her arm up to place her hand on her chin in thought, Orange Pearl came bumbling out of the bushes with an exasperated look. ‘I don’t recall a Pink Morganite being on Earth.’ Tanya thought to herself with her brow furrowed in thought.
Orange Pearl looked up with a frustrated look at Spinel, who unwrapped herself from the obelisk and leapt off of it to tackle Pearl to the ground with an excited laugh; dust was kicked up from Spinel tackling pearl to the ground, and once it all settled, Tanya looked down with a eyebrow raised as Spinel stood over her Pearl’s downed form. “Boop!” Spinel said as she booped Orange Pearl’s nose.
As Orange Pearl sighed and picked herself up from out under Spinel, she brushed herself off and glowered at the cartoonish silly pink gem. “Really now, can you go one minute without being all over the place?” she questioned Spinel.
Spinel clicked her tongue at Pearl, “boo!” she gave Orange Pearl a thumbs down and waved her off with a bored look. “Pink’s Pearl was more fun than you, before White took her.” she commented.
The tidbit of information aside about White diamond taking Pink diamond’s pearl, Tanya made her way down from the warp pad, and over to the two gems with her hands on her hips. “Spinel.” she spoke up as she approached the animatedly silly pink gem, “How long have you been here by the way?” Tanya began to question her, to which Spinel turned towards her and shrugged offhandedly.
“Wouldn’t know, a thousand years or more?” Spinel remarked with a frown, before bringing a smile back to her face; stretching her leg and foot to place it beside Tanya’s own, Spinel then snapped herself instantly beside her the next moment as she clasped her hands together as she gave Tanya a gleeful look. “But enough about me , what about you? I’m sure Pink’s told you all about me!” she inquired, prompting Orange Pearl to rub the back of her head uncomfortably, while Tanya coughed into her fist.
“I’m afraid Pink was too busy managing her new colony.” Tanya tried to dash Spinel’s hopes painlessly, “There was a lot that happened during her time on her colony…” she explained to the pink gem as she stepped back a bit from Spinel and her tendency to invade someone else’s personal space. “And I rarely got the opportunity to interact with her when I was stationed there.”
Spinel smiled as she rolled her eyes with her arms up in a shrug, “Yeah, fair. You definitely don’t look like the type of gem to be in her court, you look more like Yellow’s sort of gem." She mused as she rubbed her chin in mock thought, and brought the hand up she was rubbing her chin with to her eye and cartoonishly pulled her eyeball out and enlarged it to make it look like a telescope and use it to look at Tanya closer. “Yeah, definitely Yellow Diamond’s cut of gem.” she remarked while enunciating ‘definitely’ with a dramatic tone.
While Tanya couldn’t help but squawk inwardly in her mind of how far Spinel could manipulate her body to that of a cartoonish stretchy body, outwardly she gave Spinel a twitching smile. “You…sure to know your gems.” she commented.
Spinel made a flippant gesture with a dramatic bow, “I’m a Spinal, and not just that, I used to play with Pink and her Court a lot, until she wanted to play a stand still game, and left me here to wait until she came back.” she preened, before standing back up, and placing her hands on her hips as she talked with Tanya, “By the way, How is Pink these days?” she asked while tilting her head in curiosity, “It’s been too long since I’ve seen her.”
While in the background, Orange Pearl could be seen fidgeting in place with an uncomfortable look on her face, Tanya on the other hand gave Spinel a somber look. “I think it’s best if a Diamond breaks the news to you.” she responded with a cautious look on her face.
Spinel gave Tanya a quizzical look on her face, as she tilted her head the other way. “What news?” she asked, before squinting her eyes at Tanya, “Did something happen to Pink?” Spinel then shrugged, “I mean, what’s the worst that happened? White put her into solitary confinement again?” the pink gem continued to ask from Tanya.
Later
Guarding the doorway to the communications room was the short stack Carnelian and Amethyst 8xG, not too long ago their Citrine Commander returned from Pink’s garden with a Pink Spinel no less and went into the communications room; muffled talking could be heard on the other end of the doors, but the calm atmosphere would soon be interrupted by a loud yell of sorrow, followed by loud cry and a sharp ‘no’ wailed out.
Both Carnelian and Amethyst 8xG blinked in surprise as they looked at each other in puzzlement, not sure what to do but stand watch and guard; they still had unbubbled gems onboard for interrogation in the briggs, so security was more tight than usual. The Pink Spinel that went in with their commander must be the one crying, as the voice didn’t match either Citrine’s pearl or their commander’s…and it certainly wouldn’t be Yellow Diamond on the other end of the call that their Citrine was calling up to break the news to the spinel after giving her report on what the status of Pink’s garden was.
Both gems on guard duty jumped in shock when a large fist indent punched itself into the doors and walls of the communications room from the inside, followed by incessant crying and a yell of ‘pin her down’ from their Citrine commander. Carnelian and Amethyst 8xG jerked a bit as some scuffling could be heard on the other end, followed by more screaming, crying and fighting. ‘ Raaaggghh!’ Spinel was heard screaming her head off in sorrow, followed by a loud electrifying sound; before long a poof was heard, and if that wasn’t enough, the doors to the communications room finally fell down from being hit so hard.
Carnelian and Amethyst 8xG looked at each other as they heard their Citrine make a sigh while Yellow Diamond on the other end of the call spoke up. “That was almost as bad as Blue’s emotional outburst when she heard Pink was shattered.” Yellow Diamond spoke softly.
As both gems leaned and peaked into the room where Citrine, Orange Pearl and Yellow Diamond within a two way video screen call could be seen, the entire room looked like a wrecked mess; Right as Yellow Diamond’s eyes drift back up from the Spinel Gem lying on the floor to her Citrine Gem commander, both Gem’s retreated from sight and listened in on the conversation.
“Well now…Now that’s out of the way, I want you to head to planet Albus 01.” Yellow Diamond commanded, “I know I commanded you to come to homeworld once your ship was repaired, but there’s been a change in plans.”
“My Diamond?” Citrine said cautiously, “That’s-”
“I know. But there’s a revolt of gems, gems that White is planning on tossing aside for new gems.” Yellow responded to Citrine’s questioning tone. “Factory reset them or not, I don’t care, I want those gems.”
“My Diamond, pardon my question, but what if White’s local guard on the planet try to stop me?” Citrine questioned her Diamond.
“This is off the record, and tell your Gem guards outside to not speak a word of this.” Yellow Commanded, prompting Carnelian and Amethyst to make sounds of surprise.
“Carnelian, Amethyst, did you hear that?” Citrine’s voice bellowed out from within the room, prompting both gems to step into sight and snap a diamond salute with expressions of nervousness.
“My Citrine!” The gems chorused, and followed it up with “My Diamond!”
Citrine could be seen glancing their way, while she held Spinel’s gem in one and her other was on her hip, “Good.” she commented, before facing her Diamond. Orange Pearl on the other hand could be seen off to the side doing her best to pick up the mess in the room that Spinel made in her temper tantrum.
“Now.” Yellow Diamond began to say, she could be seen standing on the other side of the two way video call with her arms crossed. “Let this be stricken from the record, I want you to use my full authority given to you to quell this revolt and steal each and every gem on the list that White is tossing aside.” The Yellow Matriarch explained with a dark and pleased look, “Don’t let White’s quartz gems on that planet tell you what to do, you are acting on my authority, if they try to stop you, you are to act within the full extent of my authority and take them out.”
Citrine fidgeted in place a bit, before asking, “And…White Diamond?” she inquired.
Yellow allowed a delighted smile to grace her lips, “you let me worry about her, your priority is to acquire all those gems that are revolting on her planet.” she told Citrine with a pleased look.
“My Diamond.” Citrine saluted with Spinel’s gem still in her grip, before Yellow Diamond ceased the call, leaving the room silent for a bit. Citrine spun in place and glanced at the two gems in the room other than her and Orange Pearl. “I doubt I need to explain myself what you need to do, right?” prompting both gems to look at each other, before looking back at their Citrine commander. They nodded.
“Good. call in a cleaning crew and have this place cleaned up.” Citrine grimaced as she glanced around before waltzing out with Spinel’s gem still within her grasp. “Come on Pearl, I need to head to the bridge and have the Nephrite’s plot a course for Albus 01.”
As Citrine and her Pearl exited the room, both Carnelian and Amethyst 8xG glanced around the room to get a better look of the place. Carnelian let out a low whistle, “I didn’t know Spinels could be so violent and strong.” she commented.
“You and I both.” The Amethyst Gem commented as they exited the room to get a cleaning team for the room.